Today’s News 27th April 2023

• Surprising Surge Of Young Americans Turn To Religion
  Surprising Surge Of Young Americans Turn To Religion

  The story of religious trends in America has been one of increasing disaffiliation among younger generations. But a new study reveals an unexpected resurgence of faith among youngsters in a post-Covid era. 

  Some young adults had an awakening during Covid as the entire world crumbled around them. They were in search of a higher power to get through the government-forced lockdowns and controlled demolition of the economy, as well as watching loved ones and friends contract Covid-19 that some federal government agencies believe leaked from a Chinese lab.

  As reported by the Wall Street Journal, a new study commissioned by Springtide Research Institute found about one-third of 18-to-25-year-olds believe in a higher power, up from one-quarter in 2021. The findings were based on polling data from December. 

  

  Church leaders and young adults attribute the increase in faith to believing in a higher power during the Covid crisis: 

  For many young people, the pandemic was the first crisis they faced. It affected everyone to some degree, from the loss of family and friends to uncertainty about jobs and daily life. In many ways, it aged young Americans and they are now turning to the same comfort previous generations have turned to during tragedies for healing and comfort. –WSJ 

  Rev. Darryl Roberts, the pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., said the pandemic, job loss, inflation, and increasing economic worries had left many young people feeling vulnerable and are turning to God for protection. 

  “We are seeing an openness to transcendence among young people that we haven’t seen for some time,” said Abigail Visco Rusert, associate dean at Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church.

  In Los Angeles, rabbi Nicole Guzik said more young adults are attending Friday night services at the synagogue than ever before. She said:

   “I think this demographic has a need to connect socially and spiritually.” 

  For many youngsters, the pandemic was the first crisis they’ve ever faced while in the workforce and without support from their parents. 

  Believing in God “gives you a reason for living and some hope,” said Becca Bell, an 18-year-old college student from Peosta, Iowa. 

  Could the years of rising religious disaffiliation among Americans have finally hit a plateau? 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 23:40

• Environmental 'Bootleggers And Baptists' Fleeced Pennsylvania Consumers
  Environmental ‘Bootleggers And Baptists’ Fleeced Pennsylvania Consumers

  Authored by Gordon Tomb via RealClear Wire,

  The “Bootleggers and Baptists” of Pennsylvania’s energy markets cost consumers and taxpayers billions while undermining the state’s economy and power grid.  

  

  Bruce Yandle, an economist, coined the unlikely pairing to describe the whys of “protective regulatory cocoons” based on the prohibition of Sunday alcohol sales. The Baptists, write Yandle with coauthor Adam Smith, “enable accommodating politicians to say the action is the ‘right’ thing to do,” and the Bootleggers “laugh all the way to the bank.” 

  In Pennsylvania today, two different—but equally unlikely—allies are coming together to advance energy regulation.  

  Our Baptists are the environmentalists insisting that solar and wind replace coal and gas to avert a climate catastrophe. The Bootleggers include “green” technologies and utilities lobbying for taxpayer subsidies and government mandates to up their profits. 

  These two groups have successfully advanced regulations like the state’s Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (AEPS). AEPS requires a percentage of electric sales to come from solar, wind, and other sources that don’t include generating plants powered by fossil and nuclear fuels.  

  They’re also pushing for Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an annual carbon tax approaching $1 billion—which would likely subsidize the Bootleggers’ capital projects.   

  Their clout comes from the billions that fund “green” projects, lobbyists, and political campaigns. The top 25 nonprofit organizations aligned against the fossil fuel industry reported 2021 revenue of $4.5 billion, four times the amount held by the top groups supporting hydrocarbon use, according to energy writer Robert Bryce. 

  As for government handouts, the federal Inflation Reduction Act alone provides $10 billion in “green” tax credits, some for projects at closed coal facilities. Presumably, enterprises shuttered by the favored policies of Baptists and Bootleggers could be enticed by tax incentives into bootlegging themselves. 

  But AEPS and RGGI, along with “green” tax credits, don’t live up to the promises of environmentalists. 

  After more than a decade of AEPS charging billions of dollars to consumers to encourage the use of wind and solar, the two technologies account for less than two percent of Pennsylvania’s electric generation. And in states that have already implemented RGGI, the carbon tax has had no measurable effect on global temperatures. In fact, Pennsylvania’s increased use of natural gas for power generation reduced emissions of CO₂ by a larger percentage than the declines in RGGI states between 2007 and 2019.  

  Furthermore, these regulations have contributed to the early closure of coal-fired power plants, the disinvestment of natural gas development, the weakening of power-grid reliability, and job losses in the conventional energy industry. 

  Government subsidies give wind and solar operators an unfair advantage—allowing them to submit bids as low as zero dollars into the power-grid market and making it impossible for other plants to compete. 

  And although lawsuits have delayed RGGI’s implementation, its threat led to the announced closing of the Homer City Generation Plant, Pennsylvania’s largest coal-fired facility. The shutdown would be the most recent of many in the past few years. 

  Testifying last year in a state Senate hearing, boilermaker Sean Steffee said Pennsylvania building trades had constructed $14 billion in new gas-fired power plants in the decade prior to RGGI’s introduction in 2019. “We have not built one since and, under the RGGI tax, it is highly unlikely we will build another in Pennsylvania,” he said. 

  Already in 2023, the construction of a $1 billion gas-fired plant in Clinton County was cancelled after eight years of planning. Despite natural gas being one of the cleanest fuels, environmental groups challenged the project’s air-quality permit. 

  Power grid operators have flagged early retirements of coal plants as a threat to system reliability. The Power PA Jobs Alliance repeatedly warns of higher electricity prices and severe job losses if RGGI moves forward. 

  It’s thanks to the alliance of environmentalist groups and promoters of “green technology” that reliable electricity sources are being replaced by expensive, intermittent ones—even as energy prices increase and jobs are destroyed.  

  Yandle and Smith explain the moral hazard: “Lobbying for pork often pays a whole lot better than struggling to bring new and better products to market—at least in the short term. Put another way, political incentives cause Bootleggers and Baptists to become anti-capitalists, participating in … ‘crony capitalism.’” 

  Indeed, environmentalist Baptists remain forgiving of green energy subsidies to business while Bootleggers just keep laughing.

  Gordon Tomb is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania-based free-market think tank. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 23:20

• YouTuber Guilty For Selling 'Metal Cards' That DoJ Says Are "Machine Gun Conversion Devices" 
  YouTuber Guilty For Selling ‘Metal Cards’ That DoJ Says Are “Machine Gun Conversion Devices” 

  A Wisconsin gun dealer whose YouTube channel has 180,000 subscribers was convicted of “conspiring to transfer unregistered machine gun conversion devices” that were nothing more than metal bottle openers etched with patterns called “lightning links” that, when milled, can convert a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle into an automatic machine gun. 

  Gun dealer Matthew Hoover, who operated the CRS Firearms channel, was found “guilty of conspiring to transfer unregistered machine gun conversion devices that they referred to as “Auto Key Cards,”” the Department of Justice wrote in a press release. He was convicted of four counts of transferring unregistered machine gun conversion devices and faces 45 years in jail. 

  Also facing severe jail time is Kristopher Justinboyer Ervin. The DoJ said he was convicted “of seven counts of transferring unregistered machine gun conversion devices, three counts of possessing unregistered machine gun conversion devices, and one count of structuring cash transactions to avoid currency transaction reporting requirements.”

  Ervin faces a maximum penalty of 110 years in federal prison. Sentencing for the two is scheduled for July 31. 

  Hoover and Ervin sold lightning links, etched into metal cards, which he referred to as “Auto Key Cards,” from around $40 for one version to more than $180. Hoover touted the cards on his YouTube channel. 

  

  In one video, he said: 

  Auto Key Cards “are awesome because they’re stupid cheap.

   “You could drop it in your rifle or, you know, if you’re actually gonna do this legally, this is just a bottle opener. 

  “What this is, is a novelty.

  “So if someone sees it, they’re like, ‘hey, what is this?’ You explain to them that because laws are so ridiculous and so out of control, if I were to cut on these lines, I would become a felon. How ridiculous is that? It’s just a conversation starter.”

  The DoJ said it took ATF agents about “40 minutes” to remove the pieces from the metal card via a Dremel rotary tool. 

  Last Thursday, defense attorneys for the men argued the firearms law doesn’t cover their clients because it doesn’t restrict items that could ‘potentially’ be made into conversion devices. 

  “As long as you do not cut it out … you have not broken the law,” Ervin’s lawyer, Alex King, told juries. 

  Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor told jurors before they began deliberating:

  “Where is the line? That’s really a question you all will have to face.” 

  Meanwhile, firearm expert Brandon Herrera made the point, “If selling a template is treated like selling a machine gun itself — then how is distributing a 3D printing file any different issue?” 

  Here’s more from Herrera:

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 23:00

• Amazon Workers In California Agree To Join Teamsters
  Amazon Workers In California Agree To Join Teamsters

  By Mark Solomon of FreightWaves,

  Eighty-four employees at Amazon.com Inc.’s Palmdale, California, location have agreed to organize their union–DAX8–with Teamsters Local 396, a move that marks the first time that Amazon workers have affiliated with the Teamsters.

  

  Drivers and dispatchers won what is known as “neutrality and voluntary union recognition” to join the local after negotiations with Teamsters Joint Council 42, the Teamsters said Monday in a statement.

  The agreement, which will be voted on by the members in the coming weeks, includes immediate pay increases, substantial hourly raises in the fall, provisions that hold Amazon accountable on health and safety standards, a grievance procedure and other benefits, the union said. 

  Full details of the agreement will be available upon ratification by the membership, the union said. Amazon was not immediately available for comment.

  Amazon workers marched on the company in Palmdale on Monday to respect their right to organize and to work with their delivery service provider (DSP), Battle Tested Strategies, to honor the terms of the agreement, the Teamsters said. DSPs oversee Amazon delivery workers.

  Other efforts by Amazon workers to unionize have not gone through the Teamsters, although the union has a division dedicated to organizing Amazon workers.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 22:40

• "The Smell Of Intimidation": Taiwanese Writer Reported Missing In China Has Been Detained In National Security Crime Investigation
  “The Smell Of Intimidation”: Taiwanese Writer Reported Missing In China Has Been Detained In National Security Crime Investigation

  Less than a month after a WSJ reporter was detained in Russia due to alleged spying, on Wednesday Chinese authorities whipped out an identical playbook and said that a Taiwanese publisher reported missing while visiting Shanghai was under investigation for suspected national security crimes, AFP reported.

  Li Yanhe, the editor-in-chief of Gusa Publishing, is “under investigation by national security organs on suspicion of engaging in activities endangering national security,” Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a press conference. “The relevant parties will protect (Li’s) legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law,” she said.

  

  Activists and Taiwan-based journalists had raised the alarm on Li’s disappearance, with dissident Chinese poet Bei Ling writing in a Facebook post last week that Li was believed to have been “secretly detained” in Shanghai while on a visit to see family last month.

  Li’s Gusa Books has published books on history and politics critical of China’s ruling Communist Party, including a history of alleged Chinese oppression in the western region of Xinjiang and a title on Beijing’s global propaganda efforts.

  China’s broadly-worded national security law forbids any engagement in “separatist activities” and “subversion”, among other actions deemed threatening to the state.

  Chinese authorities had previously jailed Taiwanese democracy activist Lee Ming-che for five years on a national security conviction before his release last year.

  In 2015, five Hong Kong booksellers offering gossip-filled tomes about China’s leaders vanished — including one from Thailand — before resurfacing in mainland custody making “confessions”.

  Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen — who regards the island as an independent nation and not part of “one China” — including by arresting several Taiwanese nationals.

  Beijing’s confirmation of Li’s detention comes a day after Chinese authorities formally pressed secession charges against Taiwanese activist Yang Chih-yuan, leader of a minor political party advocating for the island’s formal independence.

  Chiu Tai-san, head of the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan’s top policy-making body on China, warned on Wednesday of “long-arm jurisdiction” by Beijing.

  “There is the smell of intimidation in this and it’s a show of suppression by them,” Chiu said at a parliament session, adding that Taiwanese authorities were “offering necessary assistance” to Li and Yang’s families. Local media also quoted Chiu as saying that Li’s mother, sister and wife have been “warned” by Chinese authorities, without elaborating.

  China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory and has vowed to seize it one day, by force if necessary.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 22:20

• Clean Vs. Dirty: A Way To Understand Everything
  Clean Vs. Dirty: A Way To Understand Everything

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

  The other day, I listened to as much National Public Radio as I could stand and one point stood out to me. The experience was anodyne. The topics were nothing that mattered. It felt like a gentle ooze of news that always came to the proper conclusion at the end of the well-produced bit. 

  

  By proper, I hope you know what I mean. It confirmed the listeners’ biases. And everyone knows who they are: wealthy, mostly white professionals in urban centers with high-end salaries to match their educational credentials. Probably 90 percent Biden voters last time and next time, not because he is a great president but rather because he inherits the anti-deplorable mantle of his predecessor nominee. 

  NPR was raising money on that particular day, which they do despite the taxpayer subsidies. If you give money, you can get an NPR umbrella or be given a bit of nature trail to adopt or perhaps acquire a coffee mug for your desk to proclaim your loyalties to your co-workers or just reinforce your opinions while eating your breakfast of Whole Foods granola and soy milk. 

  The experience happened even as I’m reading, with great joy, Fear of a Microbial Planet by Steve Templeton.

  The book is about the ubiquity of germs, trillions of them everywhere. They can be a threat but they are mostly our friends. 

  Exposure, his thesis goes, is the path to health.

  Without it we will die. And yet, over the last three years, avoiding exposure has been the main goal of policy and culture throughout the world. “Stop the spread” or “Slow the spread” or “Socially distance” or “Stay home, stay safe” have been entrenched as slogans to govern our lives. 

  The phrases still have gravitas. It has been a maniacal fixation on a single pathogen to the exclusion of trillions of others that are truly everywhere in us and around us. It is like going back before the invention of the microscope when we didn’t know that every surface of everything is covered in creepy crawling things. We further indulge the completely unscientific fantasy that by doing some hopping-around dance to avoid others, plus covering our face and getting a shot, would keep us forever clean, meaning free of the bad pathogen.

  Dr. Templeton’s view is that this is a potential disaster for human health. And he explains the point with great erudition and examples from all of history. He picks up on the extraordinarily keen insight of Dr. Sunetra Gupta, who has traced longer life expectancy in the 20th century to more exposure to a greater heterogeneity of pathogens as a result of transportation and migration. We don’t just need to learn to live with Covid. We need to live with them all and orient social and political organization around the reality of their ubiquity. 

  Now, what precisely is the connection between NPR’s sanitized “news” and the thesis of the Templeton book? It suddenly dawned on me. It is possible to understand nearly everything going on today – the Covid response, the political tribalism, the censorship, the failure of the major media to talk about anything that matters, the cultural and class divides, even migration trends – as a grand effort by those people who perceive themselves to be clean to stay away from people they regard as dirty. 

  And not just people but ideas and thoughts too.

  This goes way beyond some reemergence of Puritanism, though this is a species. The desire for purification extends to the whole of the physical and intellectual world. It’s the reason for the cancellations, the purges, the demographic upheavals, the loss of liberties, and the threat to democratic norms. It covers everything. 

  Let me see if I can persuade you. 

  The attacks on Elon Musk’s curbing of censorship on Twitter have been relentless. One might suppose that once he revealed that Twitter was operating as a censor for the Deep State, there would be outrage and a renewed celebration of free speech. The opposite has happened. As Musk opened the place up more and more, and non-conventional opinions started gaining traction, we saw panic ensue. 

  Sure enough, now we see all the usual suspects quitting the platform in a huff. More likely, individuals at these organizations are creating fake accounts so they can keep up with the news. Otherwise, they preserve their fan accounts on Zuckerberg and Gates’s platforms.

  Why might they be doing this? They do not want their organizations to inhabit (or be seen to inhabit) the same space with dirty opinions that they don’t like. They believe their own platforms will do their best to avoid being infected by them. They would rather hide out in their country-club social spaces in which everyone is woke and everyone knows what to say and what not to say. At least the algorithms are skewed in their favor. 

  The line they use is that they want to be around those who are “house trained” but consider what that means.

  They don’t want pet waste on their carpet, thus comparing ideas with which they disagree with a nasty pathogen. They are seeking to stay clean. 

  In this case and in every case, they are glad for the government to operate as the clean-up crew. It’s dirty ideas and people who hold them they oppose.

  They don’t want to have friends who articulate them or live in communities where such people live. 

  They put out yard signs as signals to neighbors about where they stand.

  The issue in its particulars doesn’t matter (BLM, Support Ukraine, Water Is Life [huh?]). All that matters is the signaling system: Team Clean instead of Team Dirty. We all know what those slogans are and what they really mean and for whom they are displayed. 

  The coronavirus panic played right into this. Stay home and get the dirty people to bring you groceries, leaving them on the doorstep to air out before you pick them up. If there is a pathogen on the loose, better that they get it than us. To be sure, the people on the front line are heroes so long as we can cheer them from our windows. 

  This is why when it came to the vaccine, the nurses had to get them too despite having natural immunity. Vaccines were seen as an extra bar of soap to make sure that the dirty people whom we might encounter are extra free of the bad germ itself. Everyone had to get them. Those who refused, what can they say? At least we know who they are. 

  The virus too was a metaphor for an infected country, a land soiled by a bad president. Of course there was an outbreak. That’s why we had to lock down and wreck everything including our kids’ education. Anything to rid the country of the pestilence of Trump. And can we really be surprised that it was South Dakota that never locked down? It’s a dirty red state and they do dirty things like ride motorcycles, shoot animals with guns, and raise cows. 

  For the clean people, it was hardly a surprise that Georgia, Florida, and Texas opened first, since they were already intellectually infected by right-wing thought. And they were also places where vaccine uptake was low. 

  In the fall of 2021, the New York Times proved that red states that Trump won had lower vaccination rates: they are hopelessly blechy already. Look at the sheer number of evangelical churches, and AM radio stations, in those places where icky people gather to sing stupid songs about God. 

  The clean vs. dirty symbolism explains the whole of the vaccine push and even the mandates, since getting the shot was nothing but a gesture of tribal loyalties. This is why it didn’t matter when it turned out that the vaccine protected neither against infection nor spread. Who cares, since the vaccine does what it is supposed to do: separating us from them?

  For a while, the clean ruling classes in New York and Boston even sealed off their cities to dirty people by forbidding them from going to movies, libraries, restaurants, bars, and museums. What a blessed world it became for the sanitized among us that they could navigate their favorite institutions in absence of the untouchables! This was to them how life should be. 

  No need to elaborate on the wild fashion for sanitizer and plexiglass. The meaning of those are obvious. Everyone needs to douse themselves as a precaution, especially when others are watching. And as customers we don’t want to be anywhere near the face of the merchant class. And for two years and more, every surface needed spraying with disinfectant after any human contact.

  Then there is the sudden fetishistic longing for “contactless” menus, checkouts, and everything else in this corrupt and sinful world. Somehow it has become an ideal never to touch anything or anybody, as if we long to be followers of the Prophet Mani and evolve into Pure People of the Spirit. After all, only dirty people would pick up a menu or handle cash, because god only knows whom else has held it.

  Remember the jars for clean vs. dirty pens at the hotel check in that still requires signatures? No need to elaborate on that one. It’s all part of the ethos of the untouchables, or the Dalit or Harijan in the old caste system. To inhabit a “contactless” world recreates the same thing under a different label.

  Reflect on the masking practices for a moment. Why is it ok to take off your mask when seated but the server had to wear one when standing? Because the seated are already proving their cleanliness because they are paying customers and being served and hence well-to-do. It’s the servers who have to work for a living who are in doubt. And then if you got up to go to the restroom, of course you had to mask up because you might accidentally have a brush with a cook, cleaner, or server. 

  When the inflation started, one might have supposed that the people who shop at Whole Foods would have shifted en masse to Aldi or WalMart. But this prediction misunderstands the whole point of shopping at Whole Foods for a certain class. The point is that we don’t want to be around dirty people who buy dirty food. No need for the clean to buy in bulk to alleviate the inflation squeeze. Rather, the higher cost of groceries is worth it to stay apart from soiled, unvaccinated patrons, otherwise we could get infected. 

  Plus, to have the resources to spend 50 percent more on clean food bought by other clean people works to give off the all-important signal. All the better that the owner of Whole Foods was a huge supporter of lockdowns as a way to beat the competition. 

  Notice the way we talk about energy too: clean vs. dirty. Oil and gas, with their fumes and methods of processing, are contrary to the ethos of highly sanitized people. Electric cars make less noise so they are surely better, never mind that coal is also a fossil fuel and that batteries are a massive environmental hazard in disposal and even use more energy overall. Facts don’t matter. Only symbolism and clean-class identity carry the day. 

  To be sure, it’s not always obvious who is and who isn’t clean enough for social interaction. That’s why we need constant surveillance of ideas since views on matters like religion, politics, and even issues like trans rights are proxies to demarcate the difference between us and them. Surveillance makes the invisible visible and that enables the construction of whole systems to punish the unclean and reward the cleanly compliant. 

  All of this came to light with the pandemic of course since having a virus on the loose perfectly illustrates the core point that Anthony Fauci made in his August 2020 article in Cell. The emergence of migration thousands of years ago, and the building of cities over hundreds of years, mixed up the populations too much and created terrible epidemics of cholera and malaria. The solution was obvious to him: get rid of sports events, crowded urban conditions, pet ownership (blech), and mass population movements. Lockdowns were just the first step toward “rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence.”

  We’ve all been startled that there hasn’t been more of a shift in mainstream media coverage despite the obvious failure of conventional “Covid science,” the revelations of endless scandals of the Bidens and pharma, and even the plummeting profits of major media venues.

  Even when BuzzFeed News goes belly up, places like CNN, the New York Times, and Vanity Fair continue on their merry way as if nothing were happening. 

  The reason is simple. The clean people are convinced they are right. They have no doubt about it. And they simply will not soil themselves with bogus ideas like objective journalism or unbiased coverage of actual news. That would be the equivalent of wallowing in mud, wrecking all that they have worked for their whole lives and the whole agenda of their profession, which is to purge their institutions of infectious ideological disease. 

  This is also why the basics of cell biology that previous generations learned in the 9th grade seemed lost on these people. The idea that you would allow yourself to be exposed to germs in order to protect against more severe outcomes strikes at the very heart of their manichean worldview. The point is to stay away, not mix it up. Their germophobia applies not only to the microbial kingdom but to society and the world of ideas as well. The notion of sanitization is a worldview that admits not natural immunity via infection, since that would only mean that you have the bad thing inside of you.

  The science be damned. It was long ago trumped by the cultural predisposition to live in a germ-free world: purged curricula, purged cultures, and purged politics. Of course the spread needed to be slowed and stopped. Of course the curve needed to be flattened. Of course there should be social distancing instead of random milling around. The elites need to minimize exposure to everything in a time when the masses are so obviously unwashed. 

  When the Great Barrington Declaration proposed focused protection based on age, while letting everyone else go about life as normal, that was nothing but a scandal. Anyone can and will get old, whereas they wanted class distinctions based on social and political rank in order to more closely approximate clean and unclean, which is their real ideal. 

  This is also, by the way, why protests against racism in the summer of 2020 got a pass: people gathering for the right cause are more likely to be among the ideologically clean. And today, this demarcation is all around us, both physically and intellectually. Salmon: farmed is dirty and wild is clean, so it is far more expensive. And with work: from home is clean, while going into the office is dirty. 

  What can we make of all of this? Dr. Templeton in his book tells the fascinating story of two cities in Finland, one on the poor Soviet side and one on the Western side. After the end of the Cold War, researchers were able to compare health between the two cities, one dirty and one clean. 

  Although the two populations shared a similar ancestry and climate, there were some stark differences. The border between these two regions marks one of the steepest gradients in standard of living in the world, even steeper than the border between the United States and Mexico. Finland had become modernized as other countries in Europe after World War II, while isolated Karelia had remained impoverished under communism and stuck in the 1940s (and arguably wasn’t in the 1940s during the 1940s). 

  The researchers in the Karelia Allergy Study noticed some striking differences in the data they collected and analyzed. In Finnish Karelia, asthma and allergies were over four times more prevalent compared to Russian Karelia. Positive skin prick tests, which measure rapid swelling and allergic inflammation in response to common allergens injected under the skin, were also much higher in Finnish people. 

  Differences in children were even more striking, with a 5.5-fold increase in asthma and eczema diagnoses in Finland, and a 14-fold increase in hay fever. Russian children with allergies, as well as their mothers, also had much lower soluble IgE levels, indicating a significant decrease in the antibody isotype that rapidly induces allergic inflammation.

  Autoimmune diseases like type-1 diabetes were also 5-6 times higher in the Finnish population when compared to their Russian neighbors. Not surprisingly, the microbial environments of people living in Russian Karelia were markedly different from that of Finnish Karelia. Russian Karelians drank untreated and unfiltered water that exposed their guts to orders of magnitude more microbes than their Finnish counterparts. Household dust samples from both locations revealed that Russian house dust contained more Firmicutes and Actinobacteria species with a coincident 20-fold increase in the gram-positive cell wall component muramic acid and a 7-fold increase in animal-associated bacterial species. In contrast, Gram-negative species, mainly Proteobacteria, were predominant in Finnish household dust. 

  Clearly the Russians lived in a much more diverse and abundant microbial ecosystem than the Finns, and these environmental differences were associated with decreased allergies and asthma.

  So the dirty people were healthier people in particular ways. Fascinating, right? It’s only the beginning of what you will discover in this book. If I were to summarize, Templeton proves that there is no such thing as clean in the way that term is popularly understood, and every attempt to bring it about carries with it grave risks to human health. A naive immune system is a killer. This thesis could also be a metaphor concerning the attempts to clean up the public mind too: the more we censor, the more stupid we become. The more we cancel, the less fully human and safe are our lives. 

  The clean vs. dirty distinction was once an indicator of class, perhaps a desiderata of germaphobic pathology, even a harmless eccentricity. But in 2020, the obsession became extreme, an aesthetic priority that overrode all morality and truth. It then became a fundamental threat to liberty, self-government, and human rights.Today this demarcation has invaded the whole of our lives, and it threatens to create a horrifying caste system consisting of those who enjoy rights and privileges vs those who do not and serve (at a distance) the elites. 

  We need to see it clearly in order to stop it from happening. Freedom is rooted in an ethical presumption of equal rights, a cultural respect for the dignity of all human persons, a political deference to government by the people, and an economic experience of class mobility and meritocracy. Replacing those presumptions with a simplified, crude, aesthetic, and unscientific lurch into a neo-feudalism not only takes us back to pre-modern times; it overthrows basic postulates of what we call civilization itself. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 22:00

• Juan Guaido, Once Seen By 50 Countries As Venezuelan "President", Lands In US Seeking Refuge
  Juan Guaido, Once Seen By 50 Countries As Venezuelan “President”, Lands In US Seeking Refuge

  Starting last November the Biden administration began easing oil sanctions on Venezuela and restarted negotiations with the government of President Nicolás Maduro, also as part of mediation efforts to establish peace with the US-backed opposition.

  The US had also been scrambling to free up oil and energy resources amid the Ukraine war and sanctions efforts against Russia. This was against the backdrop of the Venezuela regime change efforts of the prior Trump years, when opposition leader Juan Guaido had for years been dubbed by Washington as ‘Interim President’. 

  But “president” Guaido had no power whatsoever at any time within the socialist country, but still Washington got many dozens of its allies onboard the political fiction. At one point the American government boasted that 50 countries officially supported Guaido as leader.

  

  The idea was that he could muster enough support in the street, peeling off military units in the process, in order to mount a successful coup. The closest this scenario came to being realized was in April 2019, but it was not actually “close” at all – but instead was an embarrassment to the US and the opposition. There were other bizarre coup attempt moments to follow, with suspected US fingerprints on them.

  But times have definitely changed: Maduro is more in charge than ever, given recognition by Biden admin officials and negotiators, and Juan Guaido has fled, having landed in Miami on Tuesday to seek “refuge” in the United States.

  The Washington Post reports that he literally had to walk across the border into Colombia before departing to the US: 

  The 39-year-old engineer, who was at one time recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader, had entered Colombia “on foot.” Colombian President Gustavo Petro was hosting an international summit in Bogotá on Tuesday aimed at jump-starting a dialogue between Venezuela’s government and its adversaries.

  Guaidó made it to Bogotá but was “expelled” from the country.

  Guaido then complained in a social media video that “The persecution of the dictatorship, unfortunately, spread to Colombia today” – but which Colombian officials denied. They only said he entered the country “irregularly”.

  WaPo further details that “He arrived in Miami on a commercial flight Tuesday morning, alone and toting a backpack.” Further, “He told reporters he feared for his wife and two children, who he said had been threatened and were in danger.”

  ÚLTIMA HORA | Guaidó llegó a Miami tras expulsión ordenada por gobierno de Petro: Sus primeras declaraciones a su llegada a EEUU (Fotos y videos). https://t.co/YJuApMSaSb pic.twitter.com/Pbc1T1xCm3

  — AlbertoRodNews (@AlbertoRodNews) April 25, 2023

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  Guaido reportedly entered the US on a tourist visa and is considering whether or not to apply for asylum. An asylum entry could result in his never again being allowed to step foot inside Venezuela for as long as Maduro remains in power.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 21:40

• Undercover Investigation Reveals Pro-Trans Doctors 'Cashing In' On Lifelong Patients
  Undercover Investigation Reveals Pro-Trans Doctors ‘Cashing In’ On Lifelong Patients

  In their third installment of a series exposing medical practices in the transgender treatment community, a post-O’Keefe Project Veritas reveals how the industry functions, and turns patients into transgender cash-cows that pay them for years.

  “In the beginning, it’s a lot of doctor visits. But, you know, after a while, you space it out. It’s like, every six to twelve months? Which yeah, is being a patient. But that doesn’t seem so bad,” said Dr. John Steever, discussing how young individuals are subjected to prolonged gender transitions.

  “For a female going to male, if they would continue — you’d have to continuously take testosterone pretty — well, for the rest of their life,” said Dr. Matthew Warnken, a pharmacist in Austin, Texas, echoing Steever’s comments.

  Another doctor featured in the segment, Matthew Pabis out of New York, thinks there’s a connection between autism and people who want to change genders.

  “It was a person on the spectrum as well, 21-years-old. At the time, he was coming here for mental health, and he came down here and he just sat down, and I’m like, ‘What are you here for?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, I saw you do transgender.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘Well I think I need to get my penis cut off,’” he said. “I was like, ‘You know, transitioning is not easy.’ It doesn’t happen like this. You have to inject yourself with hormones. You have to take pills. You have to do bloodwork. You know, if he makes it then let’s do it, and he’s getting his vagina next week, in one year!“

  More via Project Veritas:

  Nora Scott, a licensed social worker at Dell Children’s Medical Center, corroborated Dr. Pabis’ statements.

  “I can say from here as well, there’s a lot of folks at our clinic who are on the autism spectrum … [There is] a heavy amount of crossover between folks who are somewhere on the spectrum and also somewhere on the LGBTQIA spectrum,” she said.

  Caila Hoopes, who is a nurse at the Phoenix Children’s Medical Group in Arizona, discreetly explained to a Veritas journalist how their facility handles parental consent when it comes to transitioning minors:

  Caila Hoopes, Nurse, Phoenix Children’s Medical Group [Phoenix, AZ]: True hormone therapy there is, like, long-term possible side effects of like — it is life changing and is difficult to come back from. It also requires parents to be onboard.

  Veritas Journalist: Really? You–

  Hoopes: So, here are my words. You have to — we have to have one parent’s consent. If we know that there’s another parent who’s not on board, we can’t start hormone therapy.

  Veritas Journalist: Oh okay, yeah.

  Hoopes: Is that fair?

  According to de-transition advocate, Parisha Mosley, “I was under the impression that I was going to take a cure and be healed, and I didn’t understand as a mentally ill child that I was signing up for lifelong medicalization. I didn’t conceptualize the idea that I was going to be injecting this [medication] every two weeks, forever.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 21:00

• Tucker Reappears In 8PM Time Slot, But Not With Fox — Which Just Suffered "Catastrophic" Ratings Crash
  Tucker Reappears In 8PM Time Slot, But Not With Fox — Which Just Suffered “Catastrophic” Ratings Crash

  After Tucker Carlson’s surprise split from Fox News, the #1 rated cable news host in history re-emerged from his home office on Wednesday to offer a stunning 8PM monologue covering his thoughts on the media landscape, and his future.

  According to Carlson, one of the things one notices when one takes a little ‘time off’ is “how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing.

  “In five years we won’t even remember that we had them… and yet, at the same time, the undeniably big topics – the ones that will define our future – get virtually no discussion at all. War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources. When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues?“

  “Debates like that are not permitted in American media,” Carlson continued, adding “Both political parties, and their donors, have reached consensus on what benefits them – and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it.

  “Suddenly the United States looks like a one-party state,” Carlson said.

  Watch:

  Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023

  Carlson doesn’t think this will last, however, noting that while the above is a “depressing realization,” he doesn’t think this is permanent.

  “Our current orthodoxies won’t last. They’re brain-dead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anyone’s life is improved by them. This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue, and so it won’t.

  The people in charge know this, that’s why they’re hysterical and aggressive. They’re afraid. They’ve given up persuasion – they’re resorting to force. But it won’t work. When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink – and they become weaker. That’s the iron-law of the universe; true things prevail.”

  Tucker rhetorically asked “Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places left, but there are some – and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.“

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFox News, meanwhile, suffered a ‘catastrophic drop in viewers’ following Carlson’s ouster for still-unknown reasons, according to The Federalist‘s Sean Davis.

  Fox News suffered a catastrophic drop in viewers after ousting Tucker Carlson.

  In the 8pm slot alone yesterday, Fox lost nearly 50% of total viewers and nearly 70% of viewers in demo compared to last Tuesday.

  Demo ratings were down across the board, impacting all shows:

  The… https://t.co/1ZbAhET359 pic.twitter.com/HYH4BrGnOW

  — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 27, 2023

  This is devastating…

  1st pic is last Tuesday’s Top 50 cable TV shows

  2nd pic is last night

  They are ranked by 18-49 (age) viewers

  Tucker was #6 in 18-49. Other Fox News primetime Top 30

  This week? Fox News 8pm hour ISN’T IN THE TOP 50

  Neither was Hannity at 9pm

  Fox News is hemorrhaging viewers pic.twitter.com/WBX4j1tLBn

  — The Woke Antidote Podcast (@TheWokeAntidote) April 27, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 20:33

• Vermont School District To Remove Terms "Male" And "Female" From Sex Ed Curriculum
  Vermont School District To Remove Terms “Male” And “Female” From Sex Ed Curriculum

  When did it become acceptable for publicly funded schools to teach baseless ideology instead of biological facts?  Gender identity concepts are becoming pervasive within the American educational system without any input from parents, and in some cases even state officials are unaware of the changes to curriculum until they are already implemented. 

  It takes a vast coordinated effort among teachers unions and district leaders in order to sneak a subversive political belief system into the wider educational language of most public institutions.  Only recently are parents and representatives starting to observe the behavior of educators and intervene when they step out of line.  The injection of gender fluid terminology happened at a blitzkrieg pace, and the public is racing to catch up.

  A recent example of this has been discovered in Vermont, where the Essex Westford school district has been criticized for attempting to re-engineer sex education for students into an exercise in gender politics and equity cultism.

  5th grade children will be taught about puberty and human reproduction, but words like “boy,” “girl,” and “male and female” will be removed from the curriculum language.  Instead, classes will use terms like “person who produces sperm” and “person who produces eggs.”  The following memo from the Essex Westford district to parents outlines the new mandates:

  

  The original page on the school district website appears to have been removed.  Essex Westford has been caught in the past using embedded leftist messaging within otherwise standard lessons.  For example, last year the same district received complaints from parents over a study program on the US Constitution which was somehow twisted into a discussion on “trans youth issues” and included scenarios in which characters applauded the greatness of communism.   

  

  A key principle of identity politics is not just to undermine historical perspective, but to undermine common language. The strategy is to deconstruct the definitions of words and to introduce new words with loaded and open ended interpretations.  This is the way in which Marxist movements traditionally try to manipulate public discussion – By controlling the way in which we talk about the problems in front of us so they can dictate our conclusions. 

  If biological rules no longer apply to identity, then identity becomes arbitrary and “relative.”  Leftist activists often use the phrase “my truth” or “our truth” to argue a particular issue, instead of saying “the truth.”  This is quite deliberate.  The goal is to implant the notion that there is no objective truth and that all issues are subject to pure subjective interpretation.  If facts and evidence don’t matter, then lies become the most powerful tool for enacting change in society.  This is the very basis of the trans movement and identity politics. 

  Children are being indoctrinated to deny biological reality, and it’s happening right now in school districts across the nation.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 20:20

• House Resolution Would Seek Ukrainian Victory As Official Policy
  House Resolution Would Seek Ukrainian Victory As Official Policy

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) is planning to introduce a resolution in the House that would declare it is US policy to seek a Ukrainian victory against Russia, which includes returning all Russian-controlled territory to Kyiv, including Crimea.

  According to Yahoo News, the resolution “affirms that it is the policy of the United States to see Ukraine victorious against the invasion and restored to its internationally recognized 1991 borders.”

  

  The resolution will be co-sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and will need to make it through the House Foreign Affairs Committee before being put to the floor for a full House vote. The committee is chaired by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who has been calling on President Biden to arm Ukraine with longer-range weapons that can launch strikes on Crimea.

  The news comes after leaks allegedly released by Airman Jack Teixeira revealed the Biden administration doesn’t think Ukraine can regain territory in its expected counteroffensive. The Pentagon has also told Congress that it’s unlikely Ukraine will be able to retake Crimea.

  Despite the US assessments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top aides maintain peace talks can’t happen until Russia is expelled from Crimea and the territory it captured since launching last year’s invasion.

  Making it official US policy to support these goals would guarantee a prolonged conflict and would risk an escalation that could lead to a direct NATO-Russia clash.

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously acknowledged a Ukrainian attempt to retake Crimea would cross a “red line” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

  A congressional staffer who supports the resolution told Yahoo that the bill “demonstrates the wide support in Congress for Ukrainian victory. We all need to move beyond ‘as long as it takes’ and embrace ‘Ukrainian victory’ as our rallying cry in order for Ukraine to win the war this year.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 20:00

• San Francisco Target Places Entire Aisles Behind Security Glass Amid Shoplifting Crisis 
  San Francisco Target Places Entire Aisles Behind Security Glass Amid Shoplifting Crisis 

  A viral TikTok video shows a Target store in San Francisco, with at least one entire aisle of products behind security glass amid years of failed social justice reforms that have sparked a shoplifting crisis. 

  Footage of the store’s interior posted to TikTok last week showed at least one aisle of cosmetics and toiletries under lock and key. The New York Post reported the store’s “entire inventory is on lockdown.” The store is located on Folsom Street near the city’s Mission District, an area known for lawlessness.

  This is what Target in San Francisco looks like pic.twitter.com/7mVnnbO8cK

  — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) April 21, 2023

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  In a statement to Fox News, a Target spokesperson said:

  “Like other retailers, organized retail crime is a concern across our business. We’re taking proactive measures to keep our teams and guests safe while deterring and preventing theft.

  “These mitigation efforts include hiring additional security guards, adding third-party guard services at select locations, and using new technologies and tools to protect merchandise from being stolen.”

  The spokesperson continued:

  “We are working with legislators, law enforcement, and retail industry partners to support public policy that would help achieve our goals of creating a safe environment in our stores and keeping our doors open in communities across the country.”

  It comes as no surprise that Target has a history of contributing millions to “national social justice initiatives.” Some of these progressive initiatives, aimed at reforming policies in predominantly liberal urban areas, have had unintended consequences. For instance, the easing of theft rules in California led to a surge in shoplifting. 

  Target may be hesitant to shutter its stores in San Francisco due to its commitment to progressive values. However, other retailers have had enough and have fled the metro area. Just last week, Whole Foods closed its flagship store in the downtown district due to “high theft” and hostile visitors.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 19:40

• House Passes Debt Limit Bill, Setting Stage For Showdown
  House Passes Debt Limit Bill, Setting Stage For Showdown

  Update (1935ET): In response to today’s passing of the House GOP debt ceiling solution, the White House issued a statement claiming that the bill “cuts veterans’ health care, education, Meals on Wheels, and public safety, takes away health care from millions of Americans, and sends manufacturing jobs overseas while they fight to extend the Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest and profitable corporations.”

  More:

  President Biden will never force middle class and working families to bear the burden of tax cuts for the wealthiest, as this bill does.  The President has made clear this bill has no chance of becoming law.
   
  In our history, we have never defaulted on our debt or failed to pay our bills.  Congressional Republicans must act immediately and without conditions to avoid default and ensure that the full faith and credit of the United States is not put at risk.  That is their job. Economists have warned that default could spark a dangerous financial crisis, lead to a recession costing millions of Americans their jobs, endanger hard-working Americans’ retirement savings, and increase long-term federal borrowing costs, adding to deficits and debt.  We are not a deadbeat nation. As President Reagan said: “The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations.  It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility — two things that set us apart in much of the world.” We pay our bills. Congressional Republicans must do that again now and act to avoid default.

  How long have they had that statement ready to go?

  *  *  *

  Update (1850ET): House Republicans on Wednesday narrowly passed their bill to raise the debt ceiling, while cutting spending and dismantling several items in President Biden’s domestic agenda. 

  

  The bill passed by a narrow margin of 217-to-215, with Democrats voting along party lines and four Republicans voting against it (Reps. Matt Gaetz (CA), Andy Biggs (AZ), Ken Buck (CO) and Tim Burchett (TN).

  The legislation would raise the debt ceiling by a year in exchange for freezing spending at 2022 levels for a decade, which would mark a 14% cut, and roll back several aspects of Biden’s landmark health, climate and tax law.

  That said, the bill is DOA – given that even if it somehow made it through the Democrat-controlled Senate, President Biden has vowed to veto it.

  This means we’re headed for a showdown, as without action by Congress to raise the borrowing limit, the US Government faces a potentially catastrophic default within the next few months.

  The successful vote came after a late-night negotiation among Republicans, ending in Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreeing to jettison a provision which would roll back tax credits that the Biden administration implemented for ethanol.

  *  *  *

  Update (1026ET): Following a GOP closed-party meeting, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says he’s confident that Republicans have enough votes to pass the debt limit bill in a floor vote today.

  Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), however, dismissed the bill as the “Default On America” (DOA) Act – which of course is true since it will never make it through the Democrat-controlled Senate, much less past President Biden’s desk, in its current form.

  *  *  *

  As House Republicans’ $4.8 trillion debt-limit package hangs in the balance, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his top lieutenants made several concessions in order to secure enough votes to pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act.

  

  The changes, aimed at winning over holdout Midwestern Republicans who threatened to sink the bill, were the result of a marathon House Rules Committee meeting that stretched into early Wednesday morning, and include an amendment which softens a provision repealing several biofuel tax credits, according to Punchbowl News.

  2) After signaling he was resistent to changes of the bill, McCarthy altered provisions to ethanol tax credits to please midwestern Republicans. Especially the Iowa delegation.

  — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 26, 2023

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  McCarthy can only lose four Republican votes and pass the measure, which he hopes will kick off negotiations with President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders.

  The House GOP leadership, which promised regular order and a floor open to amendments, made just one amendment in order: a tweak to the Limit, Save and Grow Act that, among other things, puts in place new work requirements for 2024 instead of 2025. Party leaders had previously said that change was unworkable.

  More importantly, McCarthy’s leadership team eliminated the repeal of three biofuel tax credits. For the remaining two — created by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act — the GOP said they didn’t apply to taxpayers who made investment decisions based on the credits. -Punchbowl News

  Meanwhile, McCarthy’s drafted amendment pulls funding from the Inflation Reduction Act for green building construction, DoE loan guarantees, deferred maintenance for national parks, air pollution for states and municipalities, as well as a neighborhood access and equity grant program.

  More on the cuts:

  4) Fox was told overnight by one senior Republican source that McCarthy was “trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.”

  It remains to be seen if he has.

  — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 26, 2023

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  We’ll know more after today’s 9am closed-party meeting, however as of late Tuesday night there were several holdouts remaining, including GOP Reps. Tim Burchett (TN) and Matt Gaetz (FL) as staunch No’s, Scott Perry (PA), Andy Biggs (AZ) as ‘non-committal’ and ‘skeptical,’ and Reps. Matt Rosendale (MT), Eli Crane (AZ) and Nancy Mace (SC) – the latter of whom told reporters she’s “still a no.”

  “I’m a hard no,” Tim Burchett told us. Biggs signals he’s a NO. So does Gaetz. Nancy Mace told me: “I’m still a no.” Iowa members mum.
  McCarthy can’t lose more than four Rs on debt limit package

  — Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 25, 2023

  Going deeper (via Punchbowl News): 

  Gripes from conservatives are nothing new for McCarthy. Remember January? Republican hardliners are known to get everything they want and still bellyache. CBO says this proposal cuts spending by $4.8 trillion over the next decade — which is exactly what conservatives want. But they’re still balking.

  The Iowans, generally team players in the House GOP, have been the most difficult pocket to mollify. Party leaders underestimated the mettle of the four-person Iowa delegation and their unwillingness to roll back Democratic-passed tax breaks for the ethanol industry.

  The operating theory inside leadership ranks was that Iowa Reps. Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Randy Feenstra were team players, so they’d kowtow to McCarthy when he asked. But the Hawkeye State Republicans, led by Hinson, didn’t back down under pressure from the leadership. In fact, the leadership backed down.

  Remember: Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is 89 years old. Hinson is 39, Nunn is 43, and Feenstra is 54. All of these House Republicans may be looking at the Senate as a viable next step.

  McCarthy and other senior Republicans remain confident that they’ll pass the measure by week’s end. They note today will be the first time in weeks that House GOP lawmakers will all be in the same room.

  “I think we’re doing well. I think we’re doing fine,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer Tuesday night. “It just depends on when the speaker decides he’s ready to go.”

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 19:35

• A Grand Alliance To Overcome The Elite Betrayal Of America
  A Grand Alliance To Overcome The Elite Betrayal Of America

  Authored by Edward Ring via AmGreatness.com,

  The sooner we join together to save our civilization, the easier the path…

  

  For the first time in history, the ruling class of a powerful nation has abandoned its fellow citizens. What is happening in America today is more than a return to feudalism, although the new economic model into which we’re being herded is correctly compared to feudalism. The reality is actually much worse: America’s elites view ordinary citizens as no longer necessary. Because of globalism, they are replaceable. Because of automation, they are superfluous. Because of environmentalism, they are unsustainable.

  These factors explain what is otherwise inexplicable: Constitutional conservatives and Christians, and the values they profess, are now stigmatized by establishment institutions as often, if not more often, than they are praised. Nationalism and religious faith empower individuals and communities to resist a ruling class that has abandoned them. That makes them a threat. They recognize that the ideology of America’s ruling elites is itself leading to disaster. They recognize that America’s elites have decided the nation’s middle class is disposable, and this is the real reason they are pushing an agenda of woke degeneracy and extreme environmentalism, designed to lower birthrates and reduce standards of living.

  It’s hard to imagine how America’s elites could get things more wrong. Their transhuman and transnational vision is provoking a clash of civilizations at the same time as they are destroying the human foundation of their own civilization. Nations where nationalism or religion remains the prevailing ideology are not about to emasculate their populations and eviscerate their energy sectors.

  If America’s elites attempt to impose this agenda worldwide, the world will fight back.. Do they intend to win this clash with robots? Because if they reduce America to a geriatric, poverty-stricken nation, ruled by a handful of billionaires, robots are all they’re going to have left at the rate we’re going.

  The Grand Alliance

  The elites who have betrayed their own people are not invincible. America’s historical legacy has built a cultural unity and resiliency that should not be underestimated.

  While America’s tradition of assimilation is under attack by an elite-driven obsession with multiculturalism, it remains the robust product of more than 200 years as a successful melting pot. Moreover, America’s Bill of Rights offers protection to people still fighting for the values of faith, family, and freedom—values that are not as easily undermined as they are in other Western nations with less explicit constitutional safeguards.

  Winston Churchill titled the third volume of his World War II memoirs The Grand Alliance. It described an alliance against a threat more obvious and imminent than the one we face today, uniting partners more intrinsically opposed than those who need to join together today. Instead of Western democracies uniting with Communist Russia to fight the fascist dictatorships, we have merely to unite a critical mass of Americans who want to save their nation from an elite that has declared war on their way of life and their future.

  This isn’t as hard as it seems for two reasons.

  • First, because most Americans don’t want to live in a degenerate culture. They don’t want to live in a culture that has devolved to cater to society’s lowest, most abnormal, deviant, hedonistic, psychotic, sociopathic, dishonest, crooked, lazy, defiant, bizarre, militant cohorts of individuals, regardless of the fact they’ve become politically organized and demand equality of outcome in every imaginable context. Most Americans understand the inherent necessity and benefits of nuclear families, hard work, and immutable standards for achievement and recognition. There is a deep, latent unity among Americans. It needs only a few sparks to immolate the thin film of oil on the surface.

  • Second, what is the nature of this oil that smothers America’s ocean of common sense and unity? It is a fractious coalition of fanatics and lunatics, relatively small in number, who harbor an innate antipathy toward each other that is only held in check by rivers of money flowing to them from globalist billionaires, opportunistic corporations, environmentalist pressure groups, and government unions. Their resources are money and anger. They win elections because all that money, and all that anger, is used to brainwash voters into thinking that tolerating decadence and chaos is compassion, people who oppose extreme tolerance are bigots, and recognizing the indispensability of fossil fuel is, somehow, “fascist.” The brainwashing, in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence, is wearing thin.

  The only thing normal Americans have to do in order to bring America’s swing voters back to the side of common sense is to promote an attractive vision. It is not enough to just explain how bad things have gotten. To begin that process they may start, they must start, by bringing the secular and religious wings of the common sense coalition together.

  In his 2017 book, The Strange Death of Europe, British journalist Douglas Murray suggests those forces still extant in Western societies and still resisting the derangements of our time—the secular and the religious—put aside their differences and unite to save Western civilization.

  Finding a new synthesis of Western culture capable of addressing the questions of the 21st century may be a topic of active debate in think tanks. Still, to date, it hasn’t filtered down to retail politics. On the street, politicians trying to overcome woke insanity have limited themselves, at most, to rolling back the insanity. They have not expressed a new vision for America that unites religious and secular conservatives.

  This is regrettable, but it also presents a tremendous opportunity.

  If religious and secular conservatives reached a consensus, the political agenda they would share would necessarily have attenuated the most extreme positions held by either side, which in turn would attract millions of independent voters. Although it would still be declared extremist by elites who would now see their plans endangered as never before, in reality, it would form a new political center. It would be an irresistible force.

  Vivek Ramaswamy, who at the very least is the second most interesting Republican candidate currently running for U.S. president, has made a centerpiece of his campaign answering the question of what it means to be an American. His positions are unequivocal. For example, there need to be clear limits to what we tolerate as normal. The prerequisites for prosperity include clean fossil fuel, and that is nonnegotiable. Meritocracy is the only equitable way to deliver equal opportunity to everyone. Freedom in America, as embodied in the Bill of Rights, must be defended. These are unifying issues because they reject the establishment’s manipulative narrative of anger, resentment, fear, and perpetual crisis, and instead, envision a future of growth and greatness.  

  Consider the wondrous possibilities a healthy political coalition could express to an electorate desperate for hope. Imagine a political platform centered on deregulation and infrastructure investments to deliver abundant and affordable energy, the foundation of all prosperity. Imagine a foreign policy oriented to helping all nations achieve these gains, instead of being limited to “renewables” that condemn them to poverty, famine, tyranny, and war.

  Optimism is contagious. Imagine a strong and united America beginning to harvest the resources of the moon and the asteroids. Imagine a culture that celebrates beauty and talent again. Imagine a generation of youth inspired to work hard so they can play a meaningful part in the brilliant unfolding story of a proud nation in a peaceful world. Imagine good things happening from now on, not out of naïveté, but as the product of practical investment and steadfast resolve.

  The sooner we join together to save our civilization, the easier the path.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 19:20

• "Attack On Canadian Economy:" Vancouver Grain Export Terminal Hit With Strike
  “Attack On Canadian Economy:” Vancouver Grain Export Terminal Hit With Strike

  A labor action by Canadian public sector workers threatens grain exports at a key terminal in Vancouver. The Wheat Growers Association calls the strike “an attack” on the Canadian economy and calls for “immediate action.” 

  According to a news release by Wheat Growers, “striking federal workers had intentionally targeted” the Cascadia Terminal in Vancouver, which indicates grain exports can’t be exported, and farmers don’t get paid if the grain isn’t sold. 

   “A strike is one thing, but to intentionally target a port that is critical to the lives of grain farmers and to the entire Canadian economy is the height of reckless irresponsibility,” Wheat Growers president, Gunter Jochum, said about the labor action.

  Jochum continued, “It’s time for the federal government to intervene. The Wheat Growers are calling on the federal government to immediately amend the Canada Grain Act to authorize third-party weighing and inspection of vessels leaving Canadian waters. Let’s get the grain moving and protect our sector.”

  The strike could exacerbate the strain on global grain supplies, which the conflict in Ukraine has already impacted. 

  

  Global News said the strike at Cascadia Terminal involved at least 100 workers belonging to the Public Service Alliance of Canada. 

  “How long will be (at the terminal)? We’ll be there for as long as we need to be, or we won’t. I think our tactics are going to be changing every day,” said Jamey Mills, PSAC’s regional executive director.  

  Last week Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan and Keystone Agricultural Producers of Manitoba warned the labor action might disrupt shipments and sourcing of temporary workers into Canada ahead of the planting season. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 19:00

• Tucker Speaks In First Public Comments Since Split From Fox; Fans Plan To Boycott
  Tucker Speaks In First Public Comments Since Split From Fox; Fans Plan To Boycott

  Tucker Carlson has issued his first public comments since his ouster from Fox News for unknown reasons.

  Appearing outside his Florida home with his wife, Carlson told the daily mail: “Retirement is going great so far,” adding “I haven’t eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years.”

  

  When asked about the future, Carlson said: “Appetizers plus entree,” before driving away on his golf cart.

  Both Fox and Carlson have been mum over the split – however some are speculating that a lawsuit filed by a former producer, Abby Grossberg (who never actually interacted with Carlson) may be one of the reasons. Another rumor is that Rupert Murdoch’s ex-fiancee said Carlson was a “messenger from God” at a dinner, which freaked out old Rupert.

  Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was “a messenger from God.” Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch’s Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. “Rupert just sat there and stared,” the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex’s favorite show. -Vanity Fair

  Carlson’s fans, meanwhile, plan to boycott Fox News and Fox Nation streaming service following the split.

  Via the Epoch Times;

  Carlson’s Fox Nation program had hosted numerous celebrity guests, including Tesla CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk, actor Russell Brand, “Shark Tank” host Kevin O’Leary, and champion boxer Mike Tyson.

  At least one Twitter user said Carlson’s show was the only reason they subscribed to Fox Nation and that without him, she had decided to end her subscription. “I canceled my @foxnation subscription tonight. I only watched Tucker’s show. They will not get another penny. Delete them, too. @FoxNews.”

  Scott Morefield, a writer for the conservative Townhall.com also wrote: “I just cancelled my Fox Nation subscription with the note: ‘No Tucker Carlson, no Fox Nation subscription. Goodbye.’ Who is doing the same?” Morefield’s tweet prompted numerous others to reply saying they had done the same.

  “Me renewal date was 4/27, so this was a convenient time to cancel. I had previously signed up for a 2 year subscription,” one person wrote.

  As people announced they were ending their subscriptions, they shared screenshots and videos to prove they had indeed parted ways with the subscription service.

  One user shared a screenshot in which she explicitly stated she was leaving the subscription service over Carlson’s departure from the network. On her screenshot, she had selected a box indicating her reason for unsubscribing, “Fox Nation doesn’t include my favorite Fox News personalities” followed by an additional comment, “As far I am concerned Fox is dead. Without Tucker Carlson you are just another [expletive] propaganda [mainstream media] outlet.”

  Another Twitter user indicated Fox News’ other programs would not be enough to keep them interested in the network or its streaming service. “Just canceled my subscription to Fox Nation and promptly turned the channel. Only 3 shows interest me – The Five, Jesse Watters and Gutfled! And I can miss these without a problem. I never missed Tucker. What a loss.”

  It’s unclear how many subscribers Fox Nation has lost in the day since announcing Carlson’s departure from the broader Fox.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 18:44

• Where Did All The Biden Illegal Immigrants Go? Hard-Up Sanctuary Cities Are Only Part Of The Answer
  Where Did All The Biden Illegal Immigrants Go? Hard-Up Sanctuary Cities Are Only Part Of The Answer

  Authored by James Varney via RealClear Wire,

  In New York City, if the newcomers aren’t put up at the luxury cruise terminal that served the QE2, they could get $700-a-night midtown hotel accommodations with iconic Manhattan views. In Chicago, they found themselves whisked to suburban lodgings. In Denver, officials refer to them discreetly as “guests” and you needn’t bother inquiring about their inns or addresses.  

  

  The people enjoying these free digs aren’t privacy-conscious jet-setters, but the secrecy surrounding them might be comparable: They’re some of the millions of migrants who have illegally crossed into the U.S. since the Biden administration relaxed most border controls. 

  No one knows exactly how many people have poured across the southwestern U.S. border since President Biden took office, or where they’ve gone since. The official number of encounters by Customs and Border Patrol stands at 5.2 million people, logged over the last two full federal fiscal years and fiscal 2023 through March. But that number is imprecise because it includes repeat encounters with the same people and omits the many who slipped into the country unnoticed by border agents.  

  Under President Biden, the U.S. smashed past the 200,000 monthly encounters mark for the first time in July 2021 and it has repeatedly topped that record in the months since. By comparison, in fiscal 2020, which ended a month before Biden’s defeat of President Trump, the U.S. averaged 38,174 monthly encounters at the border, according to CBP figures.  

  Because of an official lack of transparency, all those people and the circumstances by which they have arrived and remained have made it hard to take stock of the historic influx. Through midnight flights and buses from the border to far-flung locales, the administration has made it difficult to identify where the migrants are now living and receiving services. Also unclear are the costs associated with the arrivals.  

  But flares have been sent up – especially over immigrant sanctuary cities like New York, Denver and Chicago, which have long promised to house migrants. While those cities are providing housing and other services for a small fraction of the recent migrants, the costs are significant for these budget-strapped metropolises.

  Denver plans to spend $20 million in the first six months of this year to provide housing to migrants. Officials say this works out to between $800 and $1,000 per week per person.   

  In January the state of Illinois turned down Chicago’s request for more funds, saying it had already spent close to $120 million on its “asylum seeker emergency response” – or roughly $33,000 per migrant.  

  New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asked for more than $500 million in federal aid, while pegging the city’s spending at between $2 billion and $3 billion.     

  Other data points of the opaque costs of Biden-era illegal immigration include Massachusetts’ estimate that it will need $28 million to launch a program to provide driver’s licenses to undocumented residents. The state is seeking a share of the omnibus spending bill passed by Democrats in December 2022 when they controlled both houses of Congress, which included $800 million for cities grappling with the influx.  

  These numbers are incomplete in part because it is hard to separate the added cost of recent migrants from costs for the millions of undocumented immigrants who were in the country before the recent surge.   

  A March study by the conservative Federation for American Immigration Reform estimates that, after accounting for taxes paid by undocumented migrants, they cost taxpayers over $150 billion per year – a 30% increase since 2017.  

  Yet FAIR acknowledges the problem of fixing costs has become more difficult, given the record-breaking numbers of illegal crossers in the past two and a half years and efforts by some government agencies to mask their spending.  

  “We often had to grapple with a paucity of easily accessible official data,” the report notes. “Many state and federal entities do not publish detailed data that they collect, making it difficult to reliably separate illegal aliens from citizens of lawful immigrants. We have also encountered cases where the current administration has revoked or restricted documents published by previous administrations in order to reduce the visibility of data which shines a negative light on their immigration policy agenda.”  

  Those totals also involve far more than simple food and board. To arrive at its staggering sum, FAIR includes estimates of the costs in education, health care and law enforcement.  

  “The irony is not only are these sanctuary jurisdictions turning to Washington with their hands out, but that they still refuse to join with governors like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis in demanding that the federal government take decisive steps to stanch the influx of new migrants,” FAIR spokesman Ira Mehlman told RealClearInvestigations, referring to the Republican chief executives of Texas and Florida, respectively. “The obvious hypocrisy of declaring yourself a sanctuary jurisdiction while complaining about the costs and burdens associated with it are undeniable.”   

  Groups that favor more relaxed border security measures, such as the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights and the American Immigration Council, did not respond to RCI’s request for comment; the liberal Brookings Institution declined to comment. 

  Cities housing many migrants have a hard time estimating costs. New York Mayor Adams has asked for more than $500 million in federal aid, while pegging the city’s spending one time at $2 billion and another time at $3 billion. Those are the sorts of bills New York has racked up putting what they call “asylum seekers” or “migrants” in hotels.  

  And Adams, whose requests sometimes include the claim “we are all in this together,” wants to spend even more. This month, he floated the idea of paying college tuition for illegal immigrants if they attend New York state schools outside the city.  

  Using Adams’ own number of some 40,000 illegal immigrants that New York City has foot the bills for, it means taxpayers are spending roughly $150,000 per person to host new arrivals. In March, City Hall scaled back its count of the number of its immigrants to 12,700, which meant the taxpayers’ were spending nearly $5 million a day to take care of them, according to a New York Post analysis.  

  The Office of the New York City Public Advocate, which helps immigrants navigate the benefits available to them, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Adams declined to address questions about spending, pointing instead to various links the city maintains for immigrants and noting the city has expanded a New York County Supreme Court decision in 1981 regarding shelter for homeless people to cover immigrants.    

  Whatever the current official number of illegal immigrants New York is dealing with it is but a fraction of those that have poured into various Texas communities along the border.   

  Officials at El Paso’s City Hall, one of the ground zeroes in the illegal immigration crush, did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment on its spending. But Gov. Abbott said his Operation Lone Star, launched in March 2021, has “allocated more than $4 billion to do the federal government’s job and secure the border,” Abbott’s spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said.    

  It was Abbott who began busing illegal immigrants to some of the sanctuary cities that declare themselves so welcoming, such as New York, Denver and Chicago.  

  “Texas began busing migrants to sanctuary cities last April to provide relief to our overrun and overwhelmed border communities,” Mahaleris said. “Mayors Adams, [Muriel] Bowser and [Lori] Lightfoot were all too happy to tout their sanctuary city statuses until Texas bused over 16,900 migrants, collectively, to their self-declared sanctuary. Instead of complaining about dealing with a fraction of the border crisis Texas communities see every day, these hypocrites should call on President Biden to take immediate action to secure the border – something the president continues failing to do.”  

  Lightfoot, departing as mayor of Chicago after her defeat in February, first turned to Illinois for millions to help the Windy City cope with its several thousand illegal immigrants Texas provided. In January, however, the state turned her down, saying it had already spent close to $120 million on its “asylum seeker emergency response.”   

  That response came last September when Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an “emergency disaster proclamation.” His proclamation and the words of other state leaders presented a schizophrenic picture in which they portray Illinois as a “welcoming beacon of hope” and complain they weren’t given “official advance warning.”  

  Most of the money Illinois spent – more than $61.5 million, or roughly $31,000 per immigrant – went to contracts with organizations or staff “who provided on site case management and other services at multiple locations.”  

  Illinois dropped another $8 million on “interim housing,” nearly $4 million on “health screenings for asylum seekers, and more than $29 million on “hotel, transportation and housing costs,” according to their breakdown.  

  Nowhere did Pritzker or Lightfoot question the wisdom of the Biden administration ‘s border policies, and there was no indication they understood the burdens that had been put on border cities and states. Instead, the unmistakable message was that if illegal immigrants were going to be sent where the “welcoming beacon” shone, other people should pay for it.  

  “They can say all that is for free, but now they’re finding out they can’t have a welfare society and an open border,” said Lora Ries, the director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

  Denver held a budget “transparency and equity” meeting earlier this month at which Chief Financial Officer Margaret Danuser said the city will have spent between $17 million and $20 million on housing and other services for between 5,000 and 6,000 illegal immigrants between Dec. 2022 and this June. The city hoped to get federal taxpayers to reimburse it for $2.8 million, and a Colorado state fund for another $3.5 million.  

  Those figures show Denver spent about the same as Chicago at roughly $33,000 per immigrant, costs that are still far below New York City’s.  

  “None of these sanctuary mayors or governors have ever asked for a secure border. It was always just, ‘Feds, give us money!’” said Ries. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 18:40

• Erdogan Cancels Public Rallies After Live TV 'Health Scare', Blasts "Baseless" Rumors
  Erdogan Cancels Public Rallies After Live TV ‘Health Scare’, Blasts “Baseless” Rumors

  Throughout Wednesday social media rumors swirled concerning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “health scare” the evening prior. 

  He fell ill during a live TV broadcast, which his office later described as the result of a ‘serious stomach cold’. Erdogan’s office then canceled two days of political rallies, just ahead of the major presidential and parliamentary elections set for May 14.

  President of Turkey #Erdogan seems have gotten faint or ill during the live broadcast, the interview with Ülke TV was interrupted with the words “oh my god “
  🔽 pic.twitter.com/tdGHmO6wb2

  — Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) April 26, 2023

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

  But by Wednesday afternoon mainly English language social media accounts were claiming he had been hospitalized by a heart attack. Some rumors went so far as to say he was “poisoned”. 

  Meanwhile, Turkish official sources and media were largely silent on the speculations over his health, even as unsourced reports began to surface that his family had been summoned to the hospital, suggesting the worst.

  But the unfounded claims got a further boost when Chinese state English-language media amplified the rumors…

  Chinese state TV is running fake news about Erdogan’s health. One wonders, why? pic.twitter.com/TTDpPz2Xj8

  — Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) April 26, 2023

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

  Erdogan’s office tweeted out the following to the Turkish president’s official account:

  “Today, I will be resting at home on the advice of our doctors,” Erdoğan tweeted, adding his condition was a “minor inconvenience due to (his) busy work.”

  But wild speculation persisted, also based on Russian media reports that President Putin had been rushed to his office at the Kremlin due to some kind of major development…

  ⚡️Putin rushed to the Kremlin around 10 minutes ago.

  Rumour has it it’s related to Erdogan’s health; I doubt that though. pic.twitter.com/0jKd4x0xOi

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 26, 2023

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

  Yet still there was no observable market reaction, or in the TRY. 

  But it appears that the Chinese state media tweet triggered Turkish government officials to respond, with a statement from the Turkish presidency’s office blasting the “baseless claims” regarding his health:

  We categorically reject such baseless claims regarding President @RTErdogan’s health.

  The President will attend tomorrow’s nuclear power plant opening via videoconference.

  No amount of disinformation can dispute the fact that the Turkish people stand with their leader and… pic.twitter.com/SSr3KaWXlS

  — Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) April 26, 2023

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

  Could the rumors have been started by his political opponents, in order to paint him as weak and in fragile health? Again, much of this originated from English-language social media…

  This is Erdogan speaking live minutes AFTER the stomach episode on Tuesday night, explaining that he got tired by intense campaign work and got cold.

  So there is no mystery pic.twitter.com/3afanqZ03z

  — Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) April 26, 2023

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

  Or perhaps it was just another social media wild goose chase originating with a handful of fringe sources.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 18:20

• Western Alliance's CFO Blames 'Puts' For Crashing His Stock… Here's Why That's Doubtful
  Western Alliance’s CFO Blames ‘Puts’ For Crashing His Stock… Here’s Why That’s Doubtful

  Via SpotGamma,

  The link between options flow and the underlying shares is based on the concept that options dealers and market makers buy and sell shares of underlying stock to hedge option positions. These hedging requirements are generally measured through Delta (the number of shares required to hedge an option from the directional move of the underlying) and Gamma (the rate of change of Delta).

  The impact of options trading on underlying equities is now well-accepted, following both the GameStop (GME) and AMC Theaters (AMC) saga of 2021, and the recent 0DTE flow affecting major US indices such as the S&P 500.

  While there are now many documented cases of option flow driving stock prices, we also see examples where options activity is incorrectly blamed as a scapegoat for equity moves.

  Case in point, last week the WSJ published an article titled: “Did Options Trading Fuel a 47% Plunge in Western Alliance Stock? The CFO Thinks So“. Let’s investigate:

  The Setup

  Western Alliance shares lost almost half their value in a single session last month. The bank’s CFO says options traders are partly to blame.

  The shares dropped 47% to $26.12 on March 13, down from around $49 the prior session. Dale Gibbons, the bank’s chief financial officer, says a burst of put options trading—alongside thin activity in the pre-market session—was in part behind the move.

  In the prior session, on March 10, options activity tied to the bank skyrocketed after almost no trading for most of the year, Cboe Global Markets data show. Mr. Gibbons says the aggressive trading, especially in bearish put options, helped drive the shares lower.

  A snippet of what he said about put options trading on the bank’s earnings call this week is worth a read:

  “To me, that’s somebody that had an agenda and then on Monday morning, before the market opens at 5 AM New York Time, they were in the pre-market session selling and nobody trades pre-market, so it’s pretty easy to move the stock price around and push it down, down, down.”

  -WSJ

  Bank Weakness Ahead of Move

  Several days before the March 13th WAL crash, Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB, teal) was closed by the FDIC. These events placed heavy pressure on all regional banks as shown by the KRE price line (orange), leading to a -25% decline in that regional bank ETF. In sympathy, WAL stock dropped 50% the week of 3/8, which was before the stock fell another 50% on Monday, March 13th.

  

  Options Volumes Reflected Bullish Support

  Looking at basic volume metrics below, we can see that the options volume started to increase the week of March 6th, with a spike in options volume on March 13th. On the 13th call volume (blue) exceeded put volume (orange), as the stock opened at $12, and closed at $26.

  

  Further, the stock traded higher in the following days. Since equity options don’t start trading until 9:30AM ET, it’s unlikely that options volume could have driven the opening low on the 13th.

  Open Interest Confirms Limited Hedging Requirements

  Is it possible that hedging flows from existing options positions were a major driver?

  For that we first turn to open interest, and you can see that both put and call open interest are quite low until after the 3/13 stock lows. Low open interest implies less options related hedging is required.

  

  Further, the call open interest exceeds put open interest as the stock hits those major 3/13 lows. The implication with this is that traders appeared to be looking to place more net long bets on the stock.

  Gamma Analysis Aligns with Volume and Open Interest Assessments

  To get an understanding of the possible hedging impact of options hedging flows, we looked at the maximum amount of stock volume that could be tied to WAL options. To do this, we convert the notional value of WAL options Gamma into equivalent shares for both puts and calls. As you can see there is a spike in Gamma-related volume the week of 3/8, but then Gamma goes to nearly zero, which signals a small options hedging impact on the underlying stock.

  

  This reduction in Gamma is likely due to the fact that when the stock declined to lows <=$25, most of the WAL put options went deep in the money, and calls went out of the money. These positions require little to no additional hedging.

  Stock Volumes Increased to Diminish Hedging Requirements

  Adding to this, over the week of 3/8 WAL stock volume surged, as shown in gray. This suggests that the relative impact of WAL options hedging was additionally reduced, because options hedges would be a lower share of relative volume.

  To depict this we’ve plotted the maximum possible shares required to hedge both puts (blue) and calls (orange). We’d note here that in all likelihood the related hedging pressure would be in actuality lower, as a portion of put and call positions likely offset each other, requiring less hedging.

  

  Another way to see this impact is to look at the maximum possible hedging flow tied to open options positions on March 13th. This shows that the requirement is less than 10% of the stocks total average daily volume, at best.

  

  Additionally the major spike in options volume appeared as the stock opened on 3/13 and, if anything, helped to rally the stock off of opening lows of $12.

  Conclusion: Options Did Not Drive the Stock Lower

  This data all serves to imply that put options were NOT a driver of the stock lows as suggested by the Western Alliance CFO.

  *  *  *

  Subscribe here to access SpotGamma’s Founder’s Notes – Expert commentary packed with proprietary key levels, major support and resistance targets, and market analysis.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 04/26/2023 – 18:00

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