Today’s News 26th June 2023

• Ban On Encouraging Illegal Immigration Not Unconstitutional: Supreme Court
  Ban On Encouraging Illegal Immigration Not Unconstitutional: Supreme Court

  Authored by Zachary Steiber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A U.S. law that bars encouraging illegal immigration for advantage or gain is lawful, the Supreme Court ruled on June 23.

  “After concluding that this statute criminalizes immigration advocacy and other protected speech, the Ninth Circuit held it unconstitutionally overbroad under the First Amendment. That was error,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, wrote for the majority.

  “Properly interpreted, this provision forbids only the intentional solicitation or facilitation of certain unlawful acts,” she added.

  

  The law in question prohibits encouraging or inducing illegal immigration for “commercial advantage or private financial gain.”

  The case was brought to the nation’s highest court by the government.

  A man named Helaman Hansen was convicted in 2017 by a jury in California of violating the law as well as committing wire fraud. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

  According to evidence disclosed during the trial, Hansen from 2012 to 2016 sold memberships to a “migration program” that falsely promised people they could become U.S. citizens.

  “A central feature of the program was the fraudulent claim that immigrant adults could achieve U.S. citizenship by being legally adopted by an American citizen and completing a list of additional tasks,” U.S. prosecutors said previously.

  Not one of the approximately 500 people who paid Hansen as much as $10,000 became a citizen. Federal authorities had told Hansen as early as 2012 that aliens adopted after turning 16 could not obtain citizenship.

  Hansen’s lawyers argued that the law infringes on rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment so much that it should not apply to anyone.

  A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2022, agreed, vacating the convictions for inducement.

  “It is clear that subsection (iv) covers a substantial amount of protected speech. Many commonplace statements and actions could be construed as encouraging or inducing an undocumented immigrant to come to or reside in the United States. For example, the plain language of subsection (iv) covers knowingly telling an undocumented immigrant ‘I encourage you to reside in the United States,’” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Ronald Gould, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the majority.

  U.S. Circuit Court Judge Daniel Collins, a Trump appointee, joined in the ruling while U.S. Circuit Court Judge Patrick Bumatay, another Trump appointee, dissented.

  The appeals court refused to rehear the case, resulting in the government asking the Supreme Court to overrule the lower court.

  The appeals court ruling ruled wrongly, authorities said, pointing to how it did not identify a single instance in history when the law has been applied to speech protected by the Constitution. Previous rulings have found that speech “used as an integral part of conduct in violation of a valid criminal statute” is not constitutionally protected.

  A majority of the Supreme Court agreed with the government.

  “To the extent that clause (iv) reaches any speech, it stretches no further than speech integral to unlawful conduct,” Barrett wrote.

  She was joined in the 7–2 ruling by Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 23:30

• Gloom Grips China Markets As Stimulus Trade Fades
  Gloom Grips China Markets As Stimulus Trade Fades

  By John Cheng, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategist

  Losses in Chinese assets are mounting again as Beijing’s modest stimulus disheartens investors.

  The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Hong Kong-listed Chinese firms slumped more than 6% last week to cap its steepest drop since March. The CSI 300 Index of mainland shares fell 2.5% through Wednesday before markets closed for holidays. The yuan also tumbled to the weakest since November, with analysts bracing for more declines.

  There’s little reason for mainland traders to be optimistic when markets reopen on Monday. China’s travel spending during the dragon boat festival holiday fell short of pre-Covid levels, underscoring the slowdown in consumption. Preliminary estimates from the Passenger Car Association showed over the weekend that passenger vehicle sales for June are expected to drop 5.9% year-on-year.

  

  Gloom is setting in after authorities refrained from adding major policy support even as the economy has lost momentum. Beijing is making it clear that any easing will be targeted and measured, bidding farewell to the days of massive stimulus that drove leveraged buying and inflated asset prices — a distortion that the nation’s leaders are determined not to repeat.

  “This is an expectation mismatch in my opinion,” said Zhikai Chen, head of Asian and global emerging-market equities at BNP Paribas Asset Management. “It is a very awkward situation where positioning is light, valuation is undemanding yet sentiment is very bearish.”

  

  To be sure, China has been rolling out measures to stimulate its economy, including a series of reductions in interest rates and extended tax breaks for consumers buying clean cars. Market reactions have been muted as traders are skeptical whether these steps will reinvigorate an economy weighed down by record debt levels, slowing global demand, and weak confidence among businesses and consumers rattled by years of unpredictable policy shifts.

  An analysis by Morgan Stanley’s quantitative team shows active long-only managers have remained net sellers of China’s growth and tech stocks in May and June. Meanwhile, hedge funds have been adding bearish bets as outstanding short positions by the cohort jumped 32% in June, they found.

  

  “It is telling that the market has been unable to put up a sustained rally year-to-date despite policy easing,” said Eli Lee, head of investment strategy at Bank of Singapore Ltd. “The incremental easing approach taken by policymakers, as they remain determined to curtail the long-term rise of leverage in the economy, may not move the needle.”

  That’s not to say bulls are giving up. Goldman Sachs’ strategists including Kinger Lau said in a June 19 note that a tactical trading window for Chinese stocks is “open once again” given inexpensive valuations. They recommended buying policy-easing beneficiaries, as well as artificial intelligence themes and state-owned companies. The MSCI China Index is trading at 10.1 times forward earnings, below the five-year average of around 12.1.

  “There’s a lot of negativity but I think a lot of it is built into the price already,” Ken Peng, head of Asia Pacific investment strategy at Citi Global Wealth Investments, said in a press briefing last week. “The prospect of better growth in the second half is there, but it’s coming at a much more gradual pace.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 23:06

• These Cities Offer The Best Work-Life Balance In The World
  These Cities Offer The Best Work-Life Balance In The World

  While some careers can be relatively stress-free, maintaining a healthy work-life balance can seem impossible for many.

  The easy access to technology, blurred boundaries around work and personal time, and fear of job loss push many to work overtime, and fail to use vacation time or sick leave.

  However, in some cities across the world, the situation is very different. In top-ranked locales, companies offer working professionals an opportunity to maintain a work-life balance through good healthcare, ample vacation time, and so on.

  In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes and Bhabna Bannerjee use the Forbes Advisor 2023 ranking to highlight the top cities in the world that encourage work-life balance. The ranking compares data from 128 cities to form the Work-Life Balance Score, which is marked on a scale of 100. The higher the score, the better work–life balance workers in a city have. We’ve covered the top 25 in the graphic below.

  

  Europe Tops the Chart

  Twenty of the 25 cities with the best work-life balance fall in Europe. The diverse range of cultures and lifestyles in these cities offers its residents a balance between work and personal life.

  The top city on this list, with a work-life balance score of 70.5/100, is Copenhagen, Denmark. The city’s high standard of living, low unemployment rate, 52-week-long parental leave, and focus on sustainability and green spaces all contribute to the city’s top score. It also helps that the Danish lifestyle focuses on taking time for self-care and relaxation.

  Healthy lifestyles along with generous vacation and parental leave policies also placed the European cities of Helsinki, Stockholm, and Oslo in the top five in this list. In fact, the average employee work week in these cities falls below 30 hours. The proportion of remote jobs in Helsinki, Finland is over 50%.

  Many companies in Europe prioritize employee well-being, which has led to the emergence of a wellness culture. This culture includes practices such as remote work and mental health support.

  Balancing Work and Life in Oceania

  Although Europe dominates the top 25 list, some cities in Oceania also boast of healthy work-life balance scores.

  Ranked 5th on the list of cities with the best work-life balance, workers in Auckland, New Zealand, have a 26.3-hour work week on average and a year’s worth of parental leave.

  Meanwhile, the cities of Brisbane (53.3), Melbourne (53.1), and Sydney (51.4) in Australia follow an average work week of 32.4 hours to 38 hours. The sunny weather in these cities also positively influences their scores.

  For Some, Safety is Key

  UAE’s capital city is the only Asian city to make it to this top 25 list, and this is despite its high property prices and relatively low number of vacation days available to workers. On the flip side, the city is safe, sunny, and boasts a high quality of life.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 23:00

• A Catastrophic Implosion… Of The Rule Of Law
  A Catastrophic Implosion… Of The Rule Of Law

  Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

  Instead of proper rule of law we are living with that Orwellian alternative, Our Rule of Law – an arbitrary enforcement of the laws and use of the coercive power of the state…

  Like some other commentators, I have in recent years several times quoted a famous exchange from Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Recent developments in the Biden family money laundering scheme, the implosion of a boutique underwater expedition to the Titanic, and a possible coup in Russia prompt me to wheel it out once again.

  “‘How did you go bankrupt?’ Bill asked. ‘Two ways,’ Mike said. ‘Gradually, then suddenly.’”

  

  It fits the long-running drama over Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell, I think.

  Miranda Devine broke news of that scandal in the New York Post in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. It languished in the doldrums of official nonrecognition for years as the regime went into overdrive to keep people, especially voters, from paying any attention to it. 

  Gradually, however, the truth leaked out. First, the authenticity of the laptop was acknowledged. Turns out it was not “Russian disinformation,” as those 51 intelligence experts insisted. Nope, it belonged to Hunter all right. At first, the public was titillated by all the sex-drugs-and-rock-n-roll that pervaded that digital trove. Gradually, very gradually, however, the publicly important stuff—the money angle with news of foreign payments apparently to dear-old-dad from various foreigners—began leaking out. 

  Then suddenly, just this last week, the House Ways and Means Committee began dropping bombs.

  Material from an IRS whistleblower—no, two IRS whistleblowers—got fed into the mix and we got such Hunter Biden classics as this WhatsApp message from July 2017 addressed to Henry Zhao, a member of the Chinese Communist Party and, wouldn’t you know it, a business partner of Hunter’s: 

  I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment [the commitment being millions of the crispest] made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight, And, Z, fi [sic] get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.

  I enjoyed reading that over the morning coffee while gazing at the accompanying photograph of Hunter all got up in black tie for a big to-do at the White House the other day. That was right after he, miraculously, managed to wangle the plea bargain of the century. He failed to report millions in income, yet the prosecutor agreed to reduce felony charges to misdemeanors and, essentially, to forget about the fact that Hunter lied on his application for a firearm, a felony. Nice work, Hunter!

  There are some people who insist that we are still in the he-said she-said phase of this drama. It’s happened before. 

  Remember, years ago, when FBI lovebirds Lisa Page and Peter Strzok had their little back and forth a few days after the Trump-Russia hoax got started? Page cooed to Strzok: “Trump should go f himself.” Strzok responded, “F Trump.” Two days later, Page texted, “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok replied, “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.” “We” being not just Peter and Lisa but also the FBI. Somehow, that got diluted and interpreted out of relevance, though, and the fact that the premier police power of the country interfered in a presidential election got swept under the proverbial rug.

  It might happen this time, too. We have credible allegations galore, not only of Hunter’s lawbreaking, but his father’s. According to the whistleblower testimony that the House Ways and Means Committee just released, the Justice Department tipped off Hunter Biden about a plan to search his storage unit, thus allowing him to clean it out before the feds arrived. The Justice Department also declined to execute a search warrant of Joe Biden’s guest house when Hunter was living there. They hid allegations about foreign bribery from the IRS lawyers overseeing an investigation of Hunter’s finances and lost or “slow walked” other aspects of the government’s investigation into his tangled affairs for some five years.

  Preferential treatment? Assuredly not! At least not according to our American Gothic Attorney General Merrick Garland. After this latest spate of revelations dropped into the news cycle and seemed to be getting traction, even in the legacy media, Garland held a press conference in which he said, in essence, if you criticize the Justice Department you are betraying “democracy.” 

  It was an extraordinary performance. But here we are. Nancy Pelosi and others kept going on about Our Democracy™ when what they meant was “our oligarchy.” More recently, Joe Biden has been nattering on about “our children,” as if children belonged to the government. Now we have the attorney general of the United States insisting that the Justice Department dispenses justice impartially even though grandmothers with cancer who happened to traipse through the Capitol on January 6 are tossed into jail while Hunter Biden skates. The two-tier deployment of justice in this country is patent for all to see, but what are you going to believe, your lying eyes or the pronunciamentos of this gray-on-gray bureaucrat from hell? 

  Yes, Nancy Pelosi was happy to substitute Our Democracy™ for democracy plain and simple. Now we have Merrick Garland attempting the same thing with the rule of law. That went out with the advent of predawn raids by the FBI on opponents of the regime. Instead we are living with that Orwellian alternative Our Rule of Law™, which is to say their arbitrary enforcement of the laws and use of the coercive power of the state. 

  The end, as Hemingway’s character observed, came gradually at first. We’ve moved on now to the “suddenly” part. It’s not, I fancy, unlike what happened aboard that swank, if ultimately unseaworthy submersible, the part described in headlines everywhere as a “catastrophic implosion.” Descent by PlayStation was gradual until, suddenly, it wasn’t.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 22:30

• China Back's Argentina's Falklands Claim, Urges End To Hegemonism And "Colonial Thinking"
  China Back’s Argentina’s Falklands Claim, Urges End To Hegemonism And “Colonial Thinking”

  Around the time the senile vegetable reading from the White House teleprompter was calling China’s Xi Jinping a democrat, destroying all the goodwill his Secretary of State did just days earlier during his visit go Beijing – and throwing Blinken under the bus in the process – a Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Geng Shuang, backed Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands and called on countries to abandon “colonial thinking”, and warning of its serious implications for the international order.

  

  Geng, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the comments on Tuesday to a special committee on decolonisation, which adopted a resolution calling on Britain and Argentina to resume negotiations over the islands, also known as the Malvinas.

  “The issue of the Malvinas Islands is a historical legacy of colonialism. Although the colonial era has passed, hegemonism and power politics that are in line with colonial thinking still exist today,” he said, quoted by the SCMP.

  Geng said this way of thinking has a “serious impact” on international relations and order and “seriously damages” the sovereignty, security and development interests of the countries involved.

  “The international community must remain highly vigilant and resolutely resist this,” he said.

  Argentina maintains that the islands – about 600km (370 miles) from its coastline in the South Atlantic – were illegally taken by Britain, which argues that it has territorial claims dating back to 1765.

  The centuries-old dispute flared into a two-month war between the two countries in 1982, after an attempt by Buenos Aires to take the territory prompted Britain to dispatch a naval taskforce to regain the islands. The issue was revived again this past March, when Argentina walked away from a 2016 cooperation agreement – covering issues such as energy, shipping and fishing, but not sovereignty – and demanded a return to negotiations over the islands.

  British foreign secretary James Cleverly said firmly that the islands are British territory, pointing out on Twitter that the islanders “have chosen to remain a self-governing UK overseas territory” similar to what Russia did with residents in Crimea in the Donbass but the western media was less enthused back then.

  A 2013 referendum on the islands resulted in a 99.8 per cent vote to remain British, again – similar to Crimea referendum outcome.

  Argentina’s secretary of Malvinas affairs Guillermo Carmona flagged last year that the South American country intended to “take advantage” of the geopolitical climate – including the war in Ukraine – to bolster international support for its claim. In an interview with Reuters in August, Carmona said the world had “seldom spoken so much about the territorial integrity of countries as it has since Russia invaded Ukraine in February”.

  “This has shown up the double standard of some Western powers such as Britain that apply one criteria in Europe and another in South America,” he said.

  At the UN committee meeting on Tuesday, Geng said Beijing “firmly supported” Argentina’s claim over the disputed territory and advocated for the settlement of disputes through peaceful negotiations.

  “We urge the UK … to avoid measures that may aggravate tension and confrontation, and at the same time actively respond to Argentina’s request to resume dialogue and negotiations,” he said.

  While Geng’s remarks focused on the Falkland Islands, they echoed the Chinese foreign ministry’s long-standing argument that the US and other Western nations are trying to maintain their own dominance when they push back against China’s military presence in the South China Sea.

  The resource-rich waterway is the subject of competing claims by China and a number of countries in the region which have increasingly aired their concerns over Chinese actions and military build-up in the disputed areas. In February, the ministry published a 4,000-word article condemning US hegemony and listing the ways in which Washington has “abused its dominance” politically, militarily and economically.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 22:00

• San Francisco's Homeless
  San Francisco’s Homeless

  Authored by David Parker via The Epoch Times,

  Living on the streets is a crime. A violation of law.

  To force citizens to react, or worse, not react to the plight of their fellow man, and pretend not to notice, ultimately may force everyone to leave. This includes those born and raised in San Francisco, and this author.

  It’s not okay for people to live on the streets. Earlier generations of American homeless had some integrity. Hobos during the Great Depression had the courtesy to live on the outskirts of town. There’s the solution: the outskirts of town. Abandoned housing, abandoned factories, abandoned military bases.

  

  Build new housing for the homeless? Completely wrong.

  In a market economy, housing is built for those willing to pay. Pre-pandemic, a small unit might have cost $140,000, but today that unit costs $420,000. Out of the question. Build 6,000 units in San Francisco, and immediately an additional 6,000 applicants will show up.

  As a song goes, “If you’re going to San Fran-cis-co, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.” Flowers or not, no one has the right to walk around dirty and diseased. Young and old will get sick, even die, from touching park benches or picking up something from the sidewalk—which is why, when working with the homeless, mental health workers are instructed to always wear disposable gloves.

  What about the effect on children forced to observe drug addicts with needles stuck in their open-skinned arms?

  Still, beware of collective solutions, what progressives and fascists always offer: “Round ’em up,” or “Give ’em all a home.”

  In San Francisco, it’s Housing First.

  No, the solution must be individual: “Keep moving.” Out of sight, out of mind. Escort them to a shelter on the outskirts. If they come back, escort them again, but this time fence them in.

  Should they get social services? Of course, but it’s too late. People are homeless as the result of a series of bad decisions. Coupled with mental illness and drug addiction, they have problems that are way too complicated. They’re dying. Force them into mental health facilities? Sure, if society agrees and is willing to pay. Think Amsterdam and Vienna.

  What The New York Times prints is a crime. Every edition includes full-page color photographs of slums in Africa, India, or the United States (plus every refugee camp around the globe). Every morning, readers are bombarded, exhausted, with human misery that they can do nothing about. Unacceptable. Stop subscribing to a business, a newspaper, that sells a product to its captive readers by appealing to emotion: “All the News Unfit to Print.”

  Progressivism is a crime. Progressives’ every thought is like The New York Times: a full-page photo of the problems of the world. Their every anxiety is relieved by a government program. Except, Americans aren’t a poor depressed people. A self-selected responsible citizenry, Americans themselves fled slums precisely because they felt a duty to make a better life for themselves and their children. They don’t want to be reminded.

  Progressives should reread “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Tocqueville (1835). Rather than hate, you’ll feel proud of America. De Tocqueville (as interpreted by this author) starts: “America, get rid of slavery; you’re out of your mind; you are about to become the greatest nation on Earth. Sitting in log cabins in the backwoods of Kentucky, reading the newspaper, discussing world affairs, Americans are the most independent and responsible citizens in the world. Nothing like that exists in Europe.”

  Americans know that no one can do for others those things they must do for themselves, like get up in the morning.

  In other words, before 1933, Americans would never have asked the government for a handout—which is why it was so wrong in 1964 for President Lyndon Baines Johnson to declare War on Poverty, that it was unconscionable for a nation as wealthy as the United States to have a poverty rate of 15 percent. Because it’s not something government can cure.

  For 60 years, on average, for all the expenditure, the needle didn’t move. Poverty is still 15 percent. Total cost: $23 trillion, three times the cost of all wars America has ever fought.

  Worse, the war today is paid for by borrowing. Except that today, interest on the federal debt absorbs two thirds of the nation’s tax revenue. After paying the military, there is nothing left for Social Security, Medicare, or the Affordable Care Act.

  In A.D. 476, Rome, Western civilization, fell because there was no money to pay Rome’s military to stop the Huns. All tax revenue serviced interest on the debt. America is not going to fall, but government payments will soon be cut. That is how Greece solved its Eurozone crisis. Social Security payments were cut in half. Half!

  Societies have rules. Progressives feel they don’t have to live by them. Precisely why progressive cities are weak on law enforcement. That is the unconscious attraction to living in a “progressive” city, and it is why civic leaders—Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, for example—were able to declare, “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up,” his justification for Brown v. Board of Education.

  It’s why progressive cities are magnets for gun-slinging police: Lax law enforcement also means lax monitoring of police departments. Think of Minneapolis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York.

  The laxness, which allows people to live on the sidewalks, also allows mugging and robbery. The consequence: Residents are chased away and do not come back. A progressive’s fear of enforcing the law, of passing judgment, is destroying the nation’s cities.

  San Francisco progressives are the perfect example. Rather than eliminating the problem, they think in terms of harm reduction: provide clean needles, supervise dope injections, decriminalize drug use. San Francisco’s Housing First gives life support but doesn’t give people back their lives. Stop it!

  These people are disaffiliated from their family and friends, despiritualized from the family of man (and Earth), isolated, and disconnected. Giving cash to the mentally ill and drug addicted is not sound psychiatry. Give them a home? Yeah, where the buffalo roam.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 21:30

• The Race To Regulate AI
  The Race To Regulate AI

  Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the start of a series of lawmaker briefings on AI, focusing on

  1. the state of AI today,

  2. where AI is headed, and

  3. national security implications.

  Other governments – including the EU and China – are also beginning to craft their own unique approach to AI regulation: which is understandable, after all Goldman recently forecast that up to 300 million jobs – one-fourth of current work tasks – are at risk as more companies adopt AI to boost profit margins, leading to mass layoffs among high-paying workers.

  

  While regulatory efforts are still nascent and vary across geographies, once implemented, regulation will determine the development trajectory and importantly could mitigate some of the risk from the most disruptive AI use cases; in doing so it could also substantially shrink the potential demand for AI services and adversely impact the upside “use case” which currently is the next market bubble, and is effectively unlimited.

  That said, Morgan Stanley strategist Ariana Salvator writes in a recent note (available to pro subscribers) that there is currently no consensus for how governments around the world should engage with AI “and perhaps most importantly how they should balance  fostering innovation with protecting users’ safety and privacy.” As a result, Morgan Stanley continues to watch this space carefully, “as  incremental newsflow on AI regulation might signal where markets may be ahead of themselves.”

  In that vein, the bank highlights two key things investors need to know when it comes to AI regulation:

  1. The global regulatory path forward is uneven and uncertain. The European Union currently leads the United States in terms of regulatory efforts, as the EU Parliament has approved its draft AI Act, which seeks to sort AI use cases into a risk management framework and apply different levels of government oversight on the basis of risk level. In the US, thus far federal agencies have issued guidelines and pursued individual enforcement actions. Congress remains in learning mode, although a handful of senators have expressed their interest in clamping down on certain areas of the technology, like making sure Section 230 liability protections do not apply. Hence, governments are far away from aligning their regulatory approaches as AI continues to develop across borders.

  2. Government regulation – if implemented as proposed – can possibly mitigate some of the most severe risks associated with AI. MS thinks of government regulation as a filter that effectively screens out some of the most draconian scenarios imagined when it comes to new technology. For example, the EU AI Act as proposed implements a risk-management approach that applies stricter government oversight to certain AI uses cases while simply banning others that fall into the “unacceptable” risk category, like real-time biometric screening or predictive policing systems. As a result, regulation as proposed now could play an important role in determining which of the most disruptive use cases will actually come to fruition vs. those that will be sidelined as governments get involved. Investors, accordingly, should note these limitations when contemplating AI disruption across markets.

  Much more in the Morgan Stanley AI Guidebook available to pro subscribers in the usual place.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 21:00

• BRICS Backlash: Huge Growth In China's Aircraft Industry Is Flying Under The Radar
  BRICS Backlash: Huge Growth In China’s Aircraft Industry Is Flying Under The Radar

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Let’s discuss Lyn Alden’s thought provoking Tweets on China’s aircraft industry.

  Under the Radar

  Around the margins, a Chinese-made plane starts reducing import needs, especially if they start reducing its foreign part composition too.

  The next phase, once more mature, would be to export it throughout BRICS+ countries.

  — Lyn Alden (@LynAldenContact) June 17, 2023

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

  Lyn’s Tweet got me thinking about US exports in general. 

  United States Top 10 Exports

  1. [Petroleum Products] Mineral fuels including oil: US$378.6 billion (18.4% of total exports)

  2. Machinery including computers: $229.6 billion (11.1%)

  3. Electrical machinery, equipment: $197.7 billion (9.6%)

  4. Vehicles: $134.9 billion (6.5%)

  5. Aircraft, spacecraft: $102.8 billion (5%)

  6. Optical, technical, medical apparatus: $99.1 billion (4.8%)

  7. Gems, precious metals: $92.5 billion (4.5%)

  8. Pharmaceuticals: $83.5 billion (4%)

  9. Plastics, plastic articles: $83.3 billion (4%)

  10. Organic chemicals: $51.1 billion (2.5%)

  The above list represents 2022, from United States Top 10 Exports

  Biden Policy Impact

  • Biden energy policies would kill #1, and curtail # 9 and #10. 

  • Bidens restrictions on sensitive machinery and chips will reduce #2, #3, #5, and #6 exports to China and Russia.

  China itself seeks to curtail #4 and #5. What remains are gems, precious metals, and pharmaceuticals.

  I am surprised grain exports are not in the top 10. But as Biden has riled China on a number of fronts, it has increasingly turned to Brazil. 

  That’s just a shift though. The US will just export elsewhere, but perhaps it creates some friction losses.

  Airbus widens its lead over Boeing in China 

  Meanwhile, please note Boeing’s China Orders Dry Up on US Tensions in Boost for Airbus

  Boeing missed out on a 40-plane deal in September, following an even bigger hit in July, when China ordered nearly 300 Airbus aircraft worth about $37 billion at sticker prices. The misses reinforce how simmering US-Sino political tensions continue to complicate the dealmaking landscape for Boeing, which is also still waiting for its 737 Max to fly again in China.

  Boeing, which hasn’t signed a major plane deal with China since 2017, took the unusual step of issuing a statement after the July Airbus order was announced. 

  The above article is from October 2022. Here’s an article from April of 2023.

  Airbus Widens its Lead Over Boeing in China With Plans for Second Finishing Line.

  Airbus announced plans Thursday for a second final-assembly line in China, the latest sign that it has a lock on the key aviation market over rival Boeing.

  The announcement came as part of a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to China. The signing of the agreement by Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury was witnessed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and by Macron.

  It will add another line to the final-assembly facility that Airbus opened in Tianjin, China, in 2008, which has put the final touches on 600 A320 aircraft to date.

  Airbus (EADSF) operates four assembly sites around the world but it forecasts that China’s air traffic in particular will grow 5.3% annually over the next 20 years, significantly faster than the world average of 3.6%.

  This will lead to a demand for 8,420 passenger and freighter aircraft between now and 2041, representing more than 20% of the world’s total demand for new aircraft, Airbus predicts.

  By 2041, if not much earlier, I side with Lyn Alden on aircraft. 

  However, I don’t expect the BRICs idea will ever amount to much, quickly, if ever.

  What About the BRICs?

  Almost 20 countries have applied to join BRICS-Russia’s🇷🇺 Deputy Foreign Minister

  The list of applicants include:

  Saudi Arabia🇸🇦
  UAE🇦🇪
  Egypt🇪🇬
  Algeria🇩🇿
  Bahrain🇧🇭
  Indonesia🇮🇩
  Argentina🇦🇷
  Mexico🇲🇽
  Nigeria🇳🇬
  Bangladesh🇧🇩
  Venezuela🇻🇪
  Iran🇮🇷
  Kazakhstan🇰🇿
  Turkey🇹🇷
  Syria🇸🇾… pic.twitter.com/ilpG1aEDBK

  — Going Underground (@GUnderground_TV) June 16, 2023

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

  Weaponizing the US Dollar

  It’s easy to understand the BRIC backlash. What Does China Do With a Dollar That’s No Longer Risk Free? Buy Gold?

  That’s the question I asked in 2022 and there is still no clear answer. 

  Michael Pettis commented “As you know, the hard part of reducing the US dollar component of your reserves is figuring out what the alternative should be, and with such high and growing reserves (once you include the indirect reserves at the state-owned banks) that is a very difficult question to resolve.“

  Talk is cheap and there is plenty of talk. I see it every day on Twitter.

  But Brazil, Russia, India, China and whatever countries have nothing in common. The Yuan does not float, and there is no grounds for any trust in any common currency.

  The idea of a gold-backed yuan is laughable. China has capital controls and imprisons anyone who speaks out against its policies, hardly the foundation of a currency that inspires trust.

  Brazil’s President Calls for End to US Dollar Trade Dominance, So What?

  On April 1, I commented Brazil’s President Calls for End to US Dollar Trade Dominance, So What?

  Dollar Weaponization Expands – FDIC Message to Foreign Depositors Is Don’t Trust the US

  On May 13, I noted Dollar Weaponization Expands – FDIC Message to Foreign Depositors Is Don’t Trust the US

  There is increasing reason to mistrust the dollar. But why anyone should trust a Russia-China sponsored currency.

  There is no trust anywhere. If Russia or China offered a gold backed BRIC would you buy that or would you just buy gold?

  Trade is Not Between Countries

  Importantly, trade is between individuals, not countries. 

  A Brazilian exporter to China needs the Brazilian Real or US dollars not a BRIC. 

  The Brazilian government can call for the end of dollar dominance but so what? What is the incentive for a Brazilian soybean exporter to use a BRIC?

  Weaponing the dollar was a huge mistake. But the path to when and how that matters is unclear. Why trust any fiat currency?

  In Two Years, China More Than Doubles the US on Car Exports, Catches Germany

  Meanwhile, please note In Two Years, China More Than Doubles the US on Car Exports, Catches Germany

  Expect the same for aircraft. It’s only a matter of time.

  *  *  *

  Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 20:30

• 'Urban Doom Loop' Hits Midwest
  ‘Urban Doom Loop’ Hits Midwest

  The ongoing economic impacts of ‘work from home’ policies implemented during the pandemic aren’t just affecting major coastal cities like San Francisco and New York.

  

  Last year, NYU economist Arpit Gupta used the phrase “urban doom loop” to describe a decline of foot traffic in central business districts, which “adversely affects the urban core in a variety of ways,” including lowering municipal revenues, and making it more challenging to provide public goods and services without increasing taxes.

  Now, as Insider‘s Eliza Relman writes, the ‘Urban Doom Loop’ has hit the heartland, as Midwestern states are facing a crisis of their own; struggling to attract workers, residents, and visitors to their downtowns – a problem which predates the Covid-19 pandemic.

  According to economists and urban planners, Midwestern cities need to make major changes in order to boost quality of life in their downtowns, instead of just being a place where people are forced to go to work.

  

  “What I really think it comes down to in these places is that there’s nothing special about any of the downtowns in any of these cities that would be attractive to new residents,” said Ball State University economist, Michael Hicks. “The cities just don’t have the fundamental amenities that would attract people.”

  A good way to gauge just how much trouble Midwestern cities are in is to take a look at how many people their downtowns are actually attracting. Standing in the middle of the city square and counting people can be a bit tough though, so researchers at the University of Toronto have been analyzing anonymized cellphone data for the past few years to track the number of people physically present in central business districts each day. The granular, individual-level data provides a fuller picture of downtown vitality — both before and after the pandemic — than other measures such as office vacancy rates and mass-transit ridership. The conclusion the study draws for the heartland is bleak. Five of the bottom 10 cities in the tracker’s most recent data, which measured the period from December 2022 to March 2023, were in the Midwest: St. Louis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cleveland, and Kansas City, Missouri. Nine of the 13 Midwestern cities tracked in the study were in the bottom half of the rankings. -Insider

  Other measures of central business district health are looking dire as well for these cities. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey recently said he expects his city’s downtown workforce will max out at around 75% of its pre-pandemic numbers, while a recent study revealed that 21.2 million square feet of commercial office space is currently sitting vacant.

  

  Salesforce announced in April that it would be giving up 25% of its office space in the Indianapolis Salesforce Tower, the state’s tallest building.

  In terms of migration, the Midwest has also struggled to attract new residents and hold onto its existing residents – marking a net decline of over 400,000 people between April 2020 and July 2022.

  If these cities fall into the “urban doom loop,’ things could get even worse, as commercial property taxes make up a significant portion of many city budgets. It therefore makes sense that as office vacancies rise, the decreased tax revenue could force lawmakers to curtail city services or make cuts to key programs. This decline in quality of life and services in turn causes people to leave in a ‘self-reinforcing exodus.’

  “The writing on the wall is not great,” said University of Toronto director of the School of Cities, Karen Chapple, who authored the downtown recover study.

  According to Hicks, the Ball State economist, “For the second half of the 20th century, most Midwestern cities really focused on bending over backwards to accommodate businesses,” adding “They bulldozed neighborhoods, they did eminent domain for all kinds of highways to get the products moved from factory to customer more quickly. And they neglected the fundamentals that people have liked about cities for 3,000 years, which is you can meet with people, you can walk to a place to eat, it’s safe.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 20:00

• TikTok Admits Storing Some US User Data In China: Senators
  TikTok Admits Storing Some US User Data In China: Senators

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  TikTok has admitted to storing some U.S. user data on China-based servers, which differs from its CEO’s previous testimony to Congress that “American data stored on American soil.”

  The Chinese video-sharing platform confirmed this in a letter dated June 16 made in response to questions raised by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn) to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

  The senators had accused TikTok of making misleading claims to Congress regarding its storage of U.S. user data, citing a Forbes report that TikTok stored financial information—such as social security numbers and tax IDs—of U.S. content creators on Chinese servers.

  In response, TikTok said that its previous testimony specifically pertained to the protected user data collected within the app and was not related to content creators’ data, which it said falls into two different categories.

  “The Forbes reporter conflated two categories of data, and we stand by the statements made by our company executives to Congress,” it stated. “We are asked about, and our testimony focused on, the protected user data collected in the app—not creator data.”

  The company clarified that there are “limited exceptions to the definition of protected data.”

  These exceptions include “public data, business metrics, interoperability data, and certain creator data, if a creator voluntarily signs up for a commercial program to be supported by TikTok in reaching new audiences and monetizing content.”

  “TikTok believes that the Forbes article cited in your letter was referencing certain creator data such as signed contracts and related documents for U.S. creators who enter into a commercial relationship with TikTok—information that is collected outside of the standard app experience,” it stated.

  Regarding the potential sharing of U.S. user data stored in China with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime under China’s National Intelligence Law, TikTok said that it had not been asked by the CCP to provide such data.

  TikTok said it has not been asked for U.S. user data by the Chinese regime, adding that TikTok has not provided such data to the regime, nor would TikTok do so the company said.

  ‘Misleading Public Relations Campaign’

  However, the senators maintained their stance and said that TikTok’s response showed that its executives had repeatedly provided misleading information to Congress regarding the storage of U.S. user data.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 19:30

• 'Disgusted' New Zealand Surgeons Now Required To Consider Ethnicity Of Patients
  ‘Disgusted’ New Zealand Surgeons Now Required To Consider Ethnicity Of Patients

  Surgeons in Auckland, New Zealand are ‘disgusted’ over a new policy rolled out in February which requires them to address “historical disparities in healthcare access” for Māori and Pacific Island communities, which will be factored into a new ranking system that determines priority for surgical procedures.

  

  According to leaked documents obtained by the NZ Herald, the new initative, implemented by Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand, uses an “Equity Adjustor Score” algorithm to assign priority based on clinical urgency, waitlist duration, geographic location, ethnicity and level of deprivation.

  Patients of Māori and Pasifika backgrounds receive higher rankings, while European New Zealanders and other ethnicities are downranked.

  Several surgeons spoke with the Herald, one of whom said he was “disgusted” by the new system.

  “It’s ethically challenging to treat anyone based on race, it’s their medical condition that must establish the urgency of the treatment,” said the surgeon, adding “There’s no place for elitism in medicine and the medical fraternity in this country is disturbed by these developments.”

  A document on the equity adjustor which was leaked to Newstalk ZB shows two Māori patients, both aged 62 and who have been waiting more than a year, ranked above others on the list. A 36-year-old Middle Eastern patient who has been waiting almost two years has a much lower priority ranking.

  An email by Te Whatu Ora business support manager Daniel Hayes in April said: “Hi team, Heads up. This is going to be the new criteria for outsourcing your patients going forward. Just putting this on your radar now so that you can begin to line up patients accordingly. Over 200 days for Māori and Pacific patients. Over 250 days for all other patients.” -NZ Herald

  Health Minister Ayesha Verrall defended the move, pointing to a Government-commissioned, independent review of the health system conducted in 2018, which found that the system produced unequal outcomes, particularly for populations deemed vulnerable.

  

  “The reformed health system seeks to address inequities for Māori and Pacific people who historically have a lower life expectancy and poor health outcomes,” she said.

  Sir Collin Tukuitonga, a leading expert in Pasifika health, echoed Verrall’s comments, saying Māori and Pasifika patients could be moved to the front of the line due to historical inequalities.

  

  “Māori and Pacific people tend to linger on the referral list… and inevitably, I think people will say that there’s also an institutional bias, possibly a racism that doesn’t put them where they need to be in order to get the surgery,” he said, adding “The referral pathways are not that straightforward.“

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 19:00

• This Period Of De-Globalization Is Temporary: 'Global Money' Is Coming
  This Period Of De-Globalization Is Temporary: ‘Global Money’ Is Coming

  Authored by Kane McGukin via BombThrower.com,

  Where are we headed? It’s hard to say, but there’s one thing for sure. It’s a future that looks a lot different than the past we’ve known.

  

  This is one of the foundations Ray Dalio discusses from time to time. People and societies tend to get accustomed to how things are. They get carried away with the good and the bad and expect them to continue into infinity which is exactly when we get change. The moment everyone is positioning for the current mood to continue, it switches. He further discusses some of the ramifications of this in his piece paradigm shifts.

  Since roughly the early 1900s we’ve experienced globalization. Slowly bringing people and countries together and connecting them, even amidst the wars and protectionist periods. We globalized people in the early 1900s but after the wars (WWI & II), it was commonplace for people to travel internationally but for business to mainly remain localized. It wasn’t until the 1980s and 90s that businesses really started globalizing; once the digital infrastructure had been built out. For the period in between I can only imagine it felt a bit like de-globalization, much like we hear tossed around today. And in some regards, it’s true. We are seeing people begin to localize again. Lockdowns forced individuals to stay put. Supply chains broke and countries began to reconsider outsourcing everything. They all began to hunker down and bring work back within their borders to create protections and avoid obvious weaknesses.

  However, I believe this period of de-globalization is temporary. It is just so we can add a third leg to the stool, global money.

  While we think we’ve seen globalization, we have not. We’ve only seen globalization of people & business.

  After this round of battles 👉#Bitcoin vs. Banks = Users vs. Cloud Platforms = Subreddit’s vs. Reddit, etc.

  We’ll see true globalization of people, business, data & money.

  — BitKane (@kanemcgukin) June 22, 2023

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

  It’s so we can figure out how to work in a world where people, business, and money are global. It’s a period where we can figure out new rulesets that are needed to run a world with a need for much more liquidity, new financial assets and networks like Bitcoin which all run on the internet. Much like the 1940s I assume consortiums are meeting in secret to rewrite and set new rules. Bretton Woods 2.0 type meetings, where parties on hand define how capital will flow and which countries will be operators of this new world.

  For the first time in history people, business and money will all be truly global in nature. They will move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction with ease. Flow like water with little standing in any of their ways. The signs are there.

  The Battle For the Future

  It’s not just Bitcoin battling banks for power over the financial network. It’s users battling cloud platforms. Pulling out to operate their own nodes and messaging protocols. Subreddits are turning on Reddit. All over broken non-global money. Additionally, many other points of centralization are seemingly breaking down. Both online and offline, in our physical and digital worlds. Why? Because we’ve reached that point.

  Years ago, we were approaching the top. Things were rosy and the perception was the party would continue on. Things could only get better. We were on top of the world and no one could fathom it not getting better. Just as Ray has pointed out, that’s when things change. That’s when paradigm shifts happen. When they are least expected. When the next decade(s) is drastically different than the previous. Diabolically different.

  In retail, it was the rise of handcrafted. A move from the big box retailer to the small family business or non-chain restaurant. And now, almost a decade later, the movement is prevalent everywhere. Devs are creating messaging protocols to give freedoms back to the end user vs. corporate organizations. Nodes are holding files, managing money and data flows. People are taking a stand. Little by little we are seeking control and ownership of the things that are rightfully ours but have been stored and profited off of by unrightful owners; rent seekers.

  A paradigm shift is and has been upon us. One that will feel like de-globalization until this mess around money is solved. And then we’ll move back to globalization which likely will look similar to when commercial planes and ships carried people across oceans in mass. Or, when the internet allowed business plans, agreements and factories to ship products globally.

  It will create a new world. A more connected world. A more global world that offers more opportunities.

  *  *  *

  Subscribe to the Bombthrower mailing list to get these posts as they come out, and follow Kane McGukin via his Substack and Twitter.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 18:30

• CDC Director Concerned About 'Breakthrough' Cases Weeks After COVID Vaccine Rollout: Email
  CDC Director Concerned About ‘Breakthrough’ Cases Weeks After COVID Vaccine Rollout: Email

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and several other top officials knew in early 2021 that vaccinated people were becoming infected with COVID-19, according to an email obtained by The Epoch Times.

  

  CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told colleagues in the Jan. 30, 2021, missive that she had spoken with Dr. Francis Collins that morning “and one of the issues we discussed was that of vaccine breakthroughs.”

  “Breakthrough” refers to vaccinated people becoming infected.

  “This is clearly and [sic] important area of study and was specifically called out this week here,” Walensky added, providing a link to an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

  In the editorial, immunologist John Moore and vaccine inventor Dr. Paul Offit said that there was a “growing threat” of COVID-19 variants emerging that would “escape” the protection bestowed by COVID-19 vaccines, which had been authorized in December 2020.

  Early testing, they noted, found that antibodies conferred by Moderna’s vaccine were less active against one of the new variants that had emerged.

  Moore and Offit called for testing of vaccinated people who were hospitalized with COVID-19, the creation of a national sequencing program to quickly identify new variants, and the development of a repository of samples taken from vaccinated people.

  Walensky said she’d discussed the matter a few weeks prior with Dr. Nancy Messonnier, another top CDC official. “I understand that [redacted],” Walensky wrote to Messonnier and three other CDC employees.

  “Should we discuss? What is the best next step forward?” she added.

  Collins, at the time the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was discussing the matter with Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the chief architects of the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Walensky.

  The email was included in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Requests for records from around the same time seeking what top U.S. officials were saying about breakthrough cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are pending.

  Walensky did not respond to a request for comment that also asked for an unredacted version of the email. Collins did not return an inquiry. Fauci could not be reached. The CDC said it was looking into when it first became aware of breakthrough cases.

  

  Later Statements

  Walensky a few months after the email went onto MSNBC and claimed that data from the CDC and clinical trials “suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus” and “don’t get sick.”

  The CDC has been unable to provide citations supporting the claim. No vaccine is 100 percent effective, experts have told The Epoch Times. There were infections in both the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials among the vaccinated, though the efficacy of the shots against symptomatic infection from seven days after dose two was estimated to be north of 90 percent. There were also severe cases in the trials among the vaccinated, including some not counted by Pfizer.

  The trials were not designed to measure efficacy against transmission and did not provide evidence of such efficacy, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

  “The paper that Walensky discussed with Francis Collins explicitly worried about the possibility of ‘breakthrough’ infections caused by variants. It even addressed a variant circulating outside the U.S. that the authors could not say was causing breakthrough cases in January 2021,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford University, told The Epoch Times in an email.

  “Given that uncertainty, the CDC director should never have endorsed the idea that the COVID vaccines could be used to stop COVID disease spread without definitive proof that they did—proof that she never had. And she should never have endorsed vaccine mandates for a non-sterilizing vaccine,” he added.

  Fauci and other top officials had, in 2020 before the email, backed harsh measures during the Trump administration to try to curb the spread of COVID-19, including the forced closure of businesses and schools.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 18:00

• Here's What Officially Caused Deadliest Barn Fire Involving Cattle In Texas History
  Here’s What Officially Caused Deadliest Barn Fire Involving Cattle In Texas History

  Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The official report on the deadliest barn fire involving cattle in Texas history, and in the last decade, has deemed it an accident.

  

  While the 25-page report from the Texas State Fire Marshal said no foul play was involved in the record-setting fire in the state’s panhandle, questions about the cause linger.

  The April 10 blaze at the South Fork Dairy in Demmitt, Texas, killed almost 18,000 dairy cows and critically injured one employee, who later recovered, according to the Castro County Sheriff’s Office.

  South Fork Dairy was one of the largest dairy farms in the country, located about 75 miles northwest of Lubbock.

  

  The fire marshal report obtained through an open record request said the cause of the inferno that created a large black plume of smoke high over the Texas prairie was caused by an engine fire in a manure vacuum truck.

  The fire was so hot that metal beams were warped in places. From the structure’s exterior, investigators found dead cattle “three to four deep.”

  The fire was mentioned on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” before Fox News canceled this popular news host. Carlson began reporting on a slate of fires at food processing plants and livestock deaths by fire in 2022 and suggested the events might be connected as part of a conspiracy to damage the nation’s food supply.

  Fires have killed many thousands of chickens and cattle across America, prompting widespread concerns about food security.

  “It looks like terrorism,” Carlson said on his show after the massive fire at the South Fork Dairy. “Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. But maybe someone should explain how it isn’t.”

  

  Not Eco-Terrorism

  Several weeks later, the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office called the dairy blaze accidental. But the official report noted something unusual.

  A second Mensch manure vacuum truck—the same make and model as the one used inside the barn at the time of the fire—had previously burned due to an engine fire.

  The investigation report noted that the second truck was parked outside the east side of the barn near a generator, where it had remained undisturbed since its engine caught fire.

  Local news reports cited a Texas State Fire Marshal’s news release saying that a third vacuum truck fire had occurred at another dairy. The statement gave no further detail.

  The agency’s news release stressed that no foul play was indicated, and the incident was not a “terroristic attack, or any type of event caused to interrupt the milk supply.”

  

  Yet the vacuum trucks have no history of malfunctioning, according to a written statement from Mensch Manufacturing in Hastings, Michigan, to The Epoch Times.

  “No one has identified any issue with the machine, and we are unaware of any issue with the machine that would have caused a fire,” the statement reads. “In our nearly four decades of operation, we have had no claims about defective equipment that led to a fire.”

  Deadliest Barn Fire for Cattle

  The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), which keeps records of barn fires and farm animal deaths, ranked the South Fork Dairy fire the deadliest for cattle since the agency began tracking barn fires in 2013.

  Livestock deaths from fires have been increasing, a recent AWI study shows. From 2018-2021, 539 fires killed nearly 3 million animals, researchers found.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 17:30

• Left-Wing Donors Behind ProPublica Funds Attacks On Conservative Supreme Court Justices
  Left-Wing Donors Behind ProPublica Funds Attacks On Conservative Supreme Court Justices

  Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A nonprofit news outlet, ProPublica, which has been launching personal attacks on two conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices, is being funded by the same left-wing organization that has been actively pushing for their removal.

  

  ProPublica has written multiple stories about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ alleged ethics violations while receiving donations from the same groups that are actively campaigning for the justice to resign or be removed from the Court, according to tax documents reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation on June 20.

  The Sandler Foundation is the left-wing nonprofit accused of pouring millions into multiple groups attacking Thomas’ character, as well as supporting the attacks on his colleague, Justice Samuel Alito, as part of a wider effort to marginalize conservatives on the Supreme Court.

  The organization founded ProPublica in 2007 and has given the outlet $40 million since 2010 to keep it afloat.

  That same organization has been funding dark-money groups, which have been seeking to oust Thomas from the Court for years to replace him with a leftist.

  ProPublica Caught Participating in a Conspiracy to Remove Justice Thomas

  ProPublica has published several investigations over the past few months into Thomas’ relationship with an old friend, the conservative billionaire real estate developer Harlan Crow, which the publication called inappropriate.

  The paper wrote about several expensive trips Thomas took with Crow, the developer’s purchase of the home of the justice’s mother, and paying for the private school tuition of Thomas’ grandnephew.

  The stories have often included quotes from activists belonging to the various groups that took millions from The Sandler Foundation, reported the Daily Caller.

  Several of ProPublica’s top donors were exposed as being major financial supporters of the left-wing groups attacking Thomas, such as those calling for an ethics investigation into his private life, based on the series of articles over his finances.

  The Sandler Foundation was also behind the launch and/or funding of other left-wing groups, like The Center for American Progress, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and Sierra Club, according to its website.

  “It is no coincidence that several organizations smearing Justice Thomas are funded generously by many of the same donors,” Parker Thayer, an investigator at Capital Research Center, told the Daily Caller.

  “The ‘pop-up’ public pressure campaign, where just a few donors pay dozens of ‘grassroots’ activist groups to give the appearance of broad public support for a particular issue, has long been a favored tactic of the Left’s wealthy special interests,” Thayer added.

  The Sandler Foundation has also given more than $7.5 million to the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) since 2015 and more than $6 million to the American Constitution Society (ACS) since 2010, according to tax forms acquired by The Daily Caller.

  Both organizations have called on Biden’s Justice Department to investigate Thomas for allegedly violating judicial ethics rules, despite not requiring disclosures for most family members, such as great-nephews.

  Other tax forms show that the left-wing nonprofit gave millions of dollars to The New Venture Fund since 2019 and is part of a network of left-wing nonprofits managed by Arabella Advisors, which was founded by Eric Kessler, a former member of the Clinton Global Initiative.

  The Sandler Foundation also gave a $500,000 grant to the New Venture Fund for Demand Justice, a radical group that calls for aggressive tactics against conservative judicial nominees.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 16:30

• From Merck To Microsoft: These Are The Companies That BlackRock 'Controls' The Most Of
  From Merck To Microsoft: These Are The Companies That BlackRock ‘Controls’ The Most Of

  A week after an employee of the world’s largest asset management company, BlackRock, described how the company attempts to stay out of the media spotlight while buying politicians and profiting off of war (according to undercover footage obtained by the O’Keefe Media Group), we thought it worth a look at just what companies does the 34-year-old company have the most control of.

  As a reminder, in footage secretly recorded by undercover journalists in New York, a BlackRock recruiter named Serge Varlay explains how the investment company is able to “run the world.”

  “They [BlackRock] don’t want to be in the news. They don’t want people to talk about them. They don’t want to be anywhere on the radar,” Varlay said.

  Varlay told a OMG journalist in the footage that BlackRock manages $20 trillion worldwide (it’s actually around $9 trillion). “It’s incomprehensible numbers,” he said.

  “You can take this big f***ton of money and buy people, I work for a company called Black Rock… It’s not who is the president it’s who is controlling the wallet of the president.

  You could buy your candidates. First, there is the senators these guys are f***in cheap. Got 10 grand you can buy a senator. I’ll give you 500k right now. It doesn’t matter who wins, they’re in my pocket.”

  – Serge Varlay

  BREAKING: @BlackRock Recruiter Who “Decides People’s Fate” Spills Info on Company’s World Impact

  “It’s not who the president is- it’s who’s controlling the wallet of the president”

  “You got $10K? You can buy a senator”

  “War is real f***ing good for business” #BlackRockExposed pic.twitter.com/DZIy1DuZKF

  — James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) June 20, 2023

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

  Given this status, BlackRock’s equity portfolio may provide useful insights to investors. To learn more, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu and Rosey Eason visualized the firm’s top 25 equity holdings as of Q1 2023. At that time, these 25 positions were worth over $1 trillion, and they represented about 30% of BlackRock’s overall equity portfolio.

  

  Top 25 Data

  The following table shows the data we used to create this infographic. These figures come from BlackRock’s latest 13F filing, which was released on May 12.

  ℹ️ The 13F is a mandatory, quarterly report that is filed by institutional investment managers with over $100 million in AUM.

  Rank	Name	Sector	Value of Holdings (USD billions)
  1	Apple	Information Technology	$171
  2	Microsoft	Information Technology	$155
  3	Amazon	Consumer Discretionary	$63
  4	Nvidia	Information Technology	$51
  5	Google (Class A)	Communications	$44
  6	Google (Class C)	Communications	$38
  7	Tesla	Consumer Discretionary	$37
  8	UnitedHealth Group	Health Care	$35
  9	Meta	Communications	$32
  10	Berkshire Hathaway (Class B)	Finance	$32
  11	Johnson & Johnson	Health Care	$31
  12	Exxon Mobil	Energy	$30
  13	iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	ETF	$29
  14	Visa	Finance	$28
  15	JPMorgan Chase & Co	Finance	$25
  16	Procter & Gamble Co	Consumer Staples	$24
  17	Mastercard	Finance	$24
  18	Home Depot	Consumer Discretionary	$23
  19	Eli Lilly And Co	Health Care	$23
  20	Merck & Co	Health Care	$22
  21	AbbVie	Health Care	$22
  22	Chevron	Energy	$22
  23	PepsiCo	Consumer Staples	$20
  24	Coca-Cola Co	Consumer Staples	$19
  25	Broadcom	Information Technology	$19

  As expected, BlackRock’s top equity holdings include America’s most established tech companies: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

  BlackRock also has large positions in Nvidia and Broadcom, which happen to be America’s two largest semiconductor companies. Given Nvidia’s incredible YTD performance (198% as of June 19th), this position has likely grown even bigger.

  Altogether, tech stocks make up 39% of this top 25 list. The next biggest sector would be healthcare, at 13% of the total value.

  Ownership Stakes

  How much of a controlling stake does BlackRock have in these companies? We answer this question in the following table, which again uses Q1 2023 data.

  Name	% Ownership	Quarter 1st Owned
  Merck & Co	8.24%	Q3 2007
  UnitedHealth Group	8.02%	Q4 2008
  Berkshire Hathaway (Class B)	7.98%	Q3 2007
  PepsiCo	7.96%	Q3 2007
  AbbVie	7.86%	Q1 2013
  Home Depot	7.60%	Q3 2007
  Nvidia	7.44%	Q3 2007
  Microsoft	7.22%	Q3 2007
  Coca-Cola Co	7.20%	Q3 2007
  Broadcom	7.16%	Q3 2009
  Google (Class A)	7.09%	Q3 2007
  Chevron	7.02%	Q3 2007
  Eli Lilly And Co	6.90%	Q3 2007
  Mastercard	6.89%	Q3 2007
  Procter & Gamble Co	6.86%	Q3 2007
  Exxon Mobil	6.83%	Q3 2007
  JPMorgan Chase & Co	6.59%	Q3 2007
  Visa	6.55%	Q2 2008
  Apple	6.54%	Q3 2007
  Johnson & Johnson	6.46%	Q3 2007
  Google (Class C)	6.13%	Q2 2014
  Amazon	5.93%	Q4 2008
  Tesla	5.70%	Q3 2010
  Meta	5.69%	Q2 2012

  When it comes to shareholder voting, BlackRock has historically voted on behalf of its clients to “advance their long-term economic interests.” Given its massive size, some people believe that BlackRock has too much influence on major corporations.

  In 2021, it was reported that BlackRock would begin allowing some institutional clients to cast their own votes at shareholder meetings.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 16:00

• Turley: Who Is Lying – Merrick Garland Or The Whistleblowers?
  Turley: Who Is Lying – Merrick Garland Or The Whistleblowers?

  Authored by Jonathan Turley, op-ed via The Hill,

  “I’m not the deciding official.”

  Those five words, allegedly from Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, shocked IRS and FBI investigators in a meeting on October 22, 2022. This is because, in refusing to appoint a special counsel, Attorney Garland Merrick Garland had repeatedly assured the public and Congress that Weiss had total authority over his investigation.

  

  IRS supervisory agent Gary A. Shapley Jr. told Congress he was so dismayed by Weiss’s statement and other admissions that he memorialized them in a communication to other team members.

  Shapley and another whistleblower detail what they describe as a pattern of interference with their investigation of Hunter Biden, including the denial of searches, lines of questioning, and even attempted indictments. 

  The only thing abundantly clear is that someone is lying. Either these whistleblowers are lying to Congress, or these Justice Department officials (including Garland) are lying. 

  The response from both Hunter Biden’s counsel and the attorney general himself only deepened the concerns.

  Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, responded to a shocking Whatsapp message that the president’s son had allegedly sent to a Chinese official with foreign intelligence contacts who was funneling millions to him.

  “I am sitting here with my father,” the younger Biden wrote, “and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

  President Biden has repeatedly told the public that he had no knowledge or involvement in his son’s dealings. He maintained the denial despite audiotapes of him referring to business dealings, photos and meetings with his son’s business associates, as well as an eyewitness account of an in-person meeting.

  Clark did not deny that the above-quoted message had been sent. He only said that it was “illegal” to release the text (he did not explain why) and then added that “[a]ny verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family.”

  

  Most of us expected a simple denial. Yet, after five years, Hunter has never even denied that the laptop was his. His team has continued with the same non-denial denials.

  The transcript also details how investigators wanted to confirm the authenticity of the Whatsapp message through the company. The Justice Department reportedly shut down that effort.

  If Hunter Biden was evasive, Garland was irate. He denounced the allegations as “an attack on an institution that is essential to American democracy, and essential to the safety of the American people.”

  

  The statement bordered on delusion. Polls show that a majority of the public now views the Justice Department as politically compromised and even engaged in election interference. The level of trust in the department under Garland is now lower than it was under his predecessor, Bill Barr. 

  These questions are not an attack on the institution, but on what some are doing with it. Garland’s reaction is akin to doctors responding to malpractice lawsuits as attacks on medicine itself.

  As in the past, Garland continued to insist that the public must trust him and his department, because “You’ve all heard me say many times that we make our cases based on the facts and the law.”  Once again, he reminded citizens that “these are not just words. These are what we live by.” 

  For those us who once supported Garland’s nomination as Attorney General, it was another maddening moment. Garland has done little to change the view of his department or to address  the political bias that has plagued it and the FBI for years. That record has resulted in blistering reports from the Inspector General and most recently Special Counsel John Durham. 

  Garland does have a motto. Yet, as these allegations pile up it is becoming more and more of a meaningless mantra.

  The attorney general has a growing problem. For years, many of us have criticized him for his inexplicable refusal to appoint a Special Counsel on the Biden influence peddling scandal. Indeed, I have written over a dozen columns on why such an appointment seemed unavoidable, given the references to the president under various code names as a possible recipient of money and other benefits from foreign deals.

  Even after a respected FBI source detailed allegations of a bribery scheme involving Ukrainian figures, Garland still refused to make the appointment. Such an appointment would not only expose Joe Biden to high-risk interviews, but would also allow the Special Counsel to issue a report on influence peddling by his family.

  Garland was willing to appoint a Special Counsel to look into classified records found in Biden’s various offices, yet he continues to bar an appointment on major corruption allegations implicating the president.

  It was impossible to investigate these matters without tripping over the president and other family members. The whistleblowers detailed repeated occasions in which they were told to back off.

  Even the narrow tax issues addressed in Hunter’s recent plea bargain relate to those broader issues, given the source of these funds. Influence peddling may be lawful, but it is also corrupt. Indeed, it is the favorite form of corruption in Washington and a virtual family legacy of the Bidens. 

  It is the concealment of the corruption that often results in crimes, from false statements to tax evasion to unlawful financial transactions to unlawful work as an unregistered foreign agent.

  The whistleblowers allege that the Justice Department consistently cut them off in seeking searches or answers related to President Biden. However, the line that stood out the most was this: “U.S. Attorney Weiss stated that he subsequently asked for special counsel authority from Main DOJ at that time and was denied that authority.”

  If true, that means that Garland was not just hearing from experts and members of Congress calling for an appointment, but that Weiss himself also saw the need for such an appointment. Moreover, the report indicates that others in the investigation believed that there was a need to create such separation from the Justice Department in light of what they viewed as the special treatment given the president’s son.

  These accounts could explain why the Justice Department took five years to secure a guilty plea to two misdemeanors that could have been established in the first month of the investigation.

  It would explain why there is no evidence of serious investigation into the influence peddling or a charge under FARA.

  It would explain why Hunter’s lawyer cannot recall ever being asked about the laptop.

  It would explain why the problem is not the Justice Department’s motto, but the man who is tasked with fulfilling it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 15:30

• US Intelligence Knew Of Wagner Plot Days In Advance, Briefed Congress
  US Intelligence Knew Of Wagner Plot Days In Advance, Briefed Congress

  US intelligence officials knew well in advance that Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning to mount an armed rebellion against the Russian military’s top commanders.

  Congressional leaders were even briefed days prior to Saturday’s events, after US intelligence reportedly observed the mercenary firm mustering forces and amassing weapons in preparation for possibly making a move against the defense ministry. 

  

  Describing the Congressional briefings, The New York Times reported late Saturday that “U.S. spy agencies had indications days earlier that Mr. Prigozhin was planning something and worked to refine that material into a finished assessment, officials said.”

  “The information shows that the United States was aware of impending events in Russia, similar to how intelligence agencies had warned in late 2021 that Vladimir V. Putin was planning to invade Ukraine.”

  But unlike in the case of those prior invasion warnings of February 2022, the US administration stayed silent ahead of the dramatic Wagner events, likely hoping that it would create destabilization in the Russian state, and negatively impact military operations in Ukraine. So far, there’s been little evidence to suggest the whole short-lived mutiny by Wagner led to significant Ukrainian gains along the frontlines.

  The Times explains the rationale of its intel sources as follows: 

  U.S. officials felt that if they said anything, Mr. Putin could accuse them of orchestrating a coup. And they clearly had little interest in helping Mr. Putin avoid a major, embarrassing fracturing of his support.

  While it is not clear exactly when the United States first learned of the plot, intelligence officials conducted briefings on Wednesday with administration and defense officials. On Thursday, as additional confirmation of the plot came in, intelligence officials informed a narrow group of congressional leaders, according to officials familiar with the briefings who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

  Whenever a show is over, claim to deserve a place in the credits. https://t.co/gNcN6HPMN8

  — Moon of Alabama (@MoonofA) June 25, 2023

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

  While over the past months Prigozhin has made his personal hatred for Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and top general Valery Gerasimov well known, the intelligence that Washington supposedly had seems very specific and appears to have accurately predicted events, a mere few days before they unfolded.

  While the Kremlin has thus far refrained from blaming the tumultuous events on US or NATO countries, it has indirectly hinted and warned that the West could exploit the situation.

  “The attempted armed mutiny in our country has aroused strong disapproval in Russian society, which firmly supports President Vladimir Putin,” a Foreign Ministry statement said Saturday. “We warn the Western countries against the slightest attempts to use the internal situation in Russia for achieving their Russophobic aims. Such attempts are futile and evoke no support either in Russia or among soberly-minded political forces abroad.”

  But soon after, Secretary of State Blinken did just that, in Sunday news shows pushing the talking point that the Wagner mutiny exposed “real cracks” in Putin’s government:

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said the short-lived rebellion from Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin “shows real cracks” within Russia as it wages its war on Ukraine. 

  “Prigozhin himself, in this entire incident, has raised profound questions about the very premises for Russian aggression against Ukraine in the first place, saying that Ukraine or NATO did not pose a threat to Russia, which is part of Putin’s narrative. And it was a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. So this raises profound questions. It shows real cracks,” Blinken said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

  Russian MFA released a rather peculiar statement right as the Wagner hysteria was coming to a close.

  Russia called out US-led/sponsored wars, and brought up past failed CIA black ops such as the Bay of Pigs.

  Are the Russian government hinting they just foiled another CIA stunt? https://t.co/rmlSf2Dou7

  — Clandestine (@WarClandestine) June 24, 2023

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

  A beefed up military presence in major cities and in the south of Russia has remained throughout the weekend. Moscow’s iconic Red Square has stayed closed throughout Sunday, with extra security measures still in place. 

  Sky News and others have meanwhile commented on Putin not being willing to forgive “betrayal”:

  Dmitry Kiselyov, in his Russian state TV programme, has claimed the swift resolution of the Wagner Group’s mutiny shows Russia is a united nation. Part of his show has been tweeted by Francis Scarr from BBC Monitoring. Mr Kiselyov also played an archive clip of Vladimir Putin saying he is able to forgive many things, but not “betrayal”.

  There is considerable speculation about how Mr Putin will react to the mutiny. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said it could take weeks or months to play out.

  On Saturday in Putin’s televised remarks to the nation which addressed the crisis as it was unfolding, the Russian president called the mutineers’ actions “a knife in the back of our people.”

  They knew it all the time of course. After seeing 12 hours of propaganda insinuating the FSB was defecting, Putin was flying away, in a bunker. Moscow was about to be taken. Multiple helicopters taken out. Yeah. Terrible psy-op. Cost $6.2 billion

  — Rambling Infantryman (@Veteran4Amer1ca) June 25, 2023

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

  Meanwhile, with Prigozhin headed into ‘exile’ in neighboring Belarus as part of the Lukashenko-mediated ceasefire deal, speculation still abounds over the confusing situation, and several dominant theories have emerged.

  What’s clear is that President Putin took the matter very seriously. “Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he keeps the situation of the special operation under control around the clock,” a statement in TASS said. The president “has been staying up quite late lately,” the statement said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 15:00

• MSM Betrays Biden Regime, Savages Spox's Over Corruption Bombshells
  MSM Betrays Biden Regime, Savages Spox’s Over Corruption Bombshells

  With revelations that Joe Biden’s DOJ buried evidence of son Hunter tax crimes, and that Hunter demanded a CCP-linked associate wire funds while he was “sitting here with my father,” things have started looking very bad for the Bidens, very quickly.

  

  With the exception of the NY Times‘ Nicholas Kristof, who unhinged his jaw to pen a full-throated defense of ‘poor drug-addict Hunter’ (who’s totally not an international FARA-violating bag-man for his family’s influence-peddling operation, allegedly), mainstream journalists went to town on both White House spox Karine Jean-Pierre and Pentagon spox John Kirby during Friday’s press briefing.

  First, Kirby refused to answer questions before storming away from the podium.

  “I’m not going to comment further on this,” said Kirby, after he was asked if a WhatsApp message from Hunter which appears to demand payment from a Chinese businessman contradicted Joe Biden’s earlier claims that he and Hunter never discussed Hunter’s business dealings.

  Chaos ensues in the White House briefing room after @JamesRosenTV asks Biden spokesman John Kirby about the explosive whistleblower allegations in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation.

  Kirby refuses to comment and walks out of the room. pic.twitter.com/YTXU8saNLi

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 23, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAfter Kirby ducked out, Jean-Pierre attempted damage control, only to be bombarded with repeat questions.

  “I’m just not going to get into family discussion,” she said, when asked why Hunter attended a White House state dinner with Indian officials and AG Merrick Garland on Thursday night.

  The press doubled down, with one reporter asking; “Kirby wouldn’t answer James’ question. Are you going to answer the question? It’s not an unreasonable question to ask if the president was involved, as this message seems to suggest, in some sort of coercive conversation for a business dealing by his son. If he wasn’t, maybe you should tell us?”

  To which KJP repeatedly deflected, getting defensive at one point.

  “It’s not up to you how I answer the question,” she snarked at one dissatisfied journalist.

  Here is 3 minutes and 35 seconds of Karine Jean-Pierre refusing to answer any questions about Hunter Biden.

  “As it relates to anything related to Hunter Biden, I am just not going to respond to it from here.” pic.twitter.com/o1Zs34MDu4

  — Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 23, 2023

  Et tu NBC and CNN?

  NBC’s Monica Alba says Karine Jean-Pierre’s refusal to comment on explosive IRS whistleblower allegations “creates more questions than answers” in the Biden corruption scandal.

  Chuck Todd agrees: “Sure does.” pic.twitter.com/2Xc9LtN8oC

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 23, 2023

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

  Even CNN is now going for President Biden on the Hunter Biden whistleblower criminal allegation leaks

  Looks like the below options 1 & 2 have now been initiated:pic.twitter.com/keJPcKT1Ti https://t.co/Qhf96K09GI

  — أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) June 24, 2023

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

  More via the Daily Wire;

  Chairman Smith released whistleblower testimonies on Thursday from IRS agents who allege that the Justice Department has interfered in the investigation into Hunter and is suppressing evidence of the first son’s misdeeds. In part of the testimony from IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, the IRS agent claimed that investigators uncovered a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message that Hunter sent to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management.

  “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter wrote to Zhao, according to Shapley’s testimony.

  Hunter’s attorney did not deny the authenticity of the WhatsApp message in a statement to Fox News, though he did suggest that it was misleading or could be fake.

  “Biased and politically-motivated, selective leaks have plagued this matter for years. They are not only irresponsible, they are illegal. A close examination of the document released publicly yesterday by a very biased individual raises serious questions over whether it is what he claims it to be. It is dangerously misleading to make any conclusions or inferences based on this document,” said Hunter’s attorney, Chris Clark. “The DOJ investigation covered a period which was a time of turmoil and addiction for my client.”

  “Any verifiable words or actions of my client in the midst of a horrible addiction are solely his own and have no connection to anyone in his family,” Clark added.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 06/25/2023 – 14:44

Digest powered by RSS Digest