- We Can't Ban Our Way To A Better World
We Can’t Ban Our Way To A Better World
Authored by Charles Krblich via The Brownstone Institute,
Il nous faut de l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace!
(We need audacity, more audacity, always audacity!)
Georges Jacques Danton
Just a short time ago, on a Saturday, before a flake of snow glistened in the air on the following Sunday, an imminent weather emergency caused New York Governor Kathy Hochul to “ban travel” and postpone the Steelers-Bills super Wild Card game until the following Monday.
Certainly, severe weather is a legitimate reason to cancel or postpone events, and to stridently warn against travel during white-out conditions in a blizzard, but a travel ban?
Banning isn’t limited to travel during white-out conditions in blizzards though.
It is truly a bipartisan pastime.
Ban gas stoves; Ban gas-powered generators; Ban books; Ban misinformation; Ban fake news; Ban gender affirming care; Ban parents from being notified of gender transitions; Ban abortions; Ban the banning of abortions; Ban gasoline powered cars and trucks; Ban the unvaccinated; Ban the unmasked; Ban DEI; Ban gas boilers; Ban coal; Ban nuclear; Ban high-capacity magazines; Ban guns; Ban incandescent lightbulbs…
Those bans are just to fix all of society’s important problems, but there are presumably less important things that need banning as well. What would really help is banning honors classes to produce equity, banning youth tackle football, and even banning sledding! In Canada!
If we pass just a few more laws that ban the things we don’t like and banish the people who support them, utopia will arrive and thou-shalt-not do anything.
Maybe you agree with some of these bans and maybe you disagree with others. Certainly if you have any political leanings at all, some of these bans will find your enthusiastic support and others your passionate fury. The most difficult position to hold is that none of these things should be banned, and people should largely be free to do as they please. That position infuriates everyone!
Yet it is clear beyond any doubt that bans simply don’t work. I was a child during the “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign. Drugs were banned, and yet always available. Chicago has banned guns for years and yet has incredibly high gun violence. We banned smiles, playgrounds, and normal personal interaction for years in order to ban Covid and we still catch Covid.
Ironically, it is the rebels who pay no attention to the bans that are often celebrated by history. This is true both in real life and in fictional epics familiar to everyone.
In real life, the Russian Samizdat reproduced, often by hand, great works of literature like Doctor Zhivago and The Gulag Archipelago. Much of their work was producing political texts and personal statements – editorials – that often criticized the Soviet Government and offered alternative solutions to the government’s handling of events. The members of the Samizdat faced severe punishment involving torture and death if they were caught, and we celebrate their courage today.
Fictionally, we celebrate the scrappy rebels in the Star Wars franchise, we root for Neo to win back humanity’s freedom from the scourge of the machines in the Matrix franchise, and we feel the passion and duty of Atticus Finch as he does the unthinkable in his society and defends a black man accused of raping a white woman because it’s the right thing to do.
There are so many more examples, but what is important is that in each example there are laws – either written or unwritten – that are being broken in service of true liberalism. In the Samizdat example, there are often steep personal costs paid, but the delusions of the Soviet state eventually faded and the members of the Samizdat became celebrated heroes rather than vicious criminals spreading misinformation.
In each of the stories there is inevitably a society, culture, or villain that is unbearably cruel and filled with hypocrisy and judgment. Whereas the villain wants complete control, abject anarchy, or the banishment of all non-conformers, the heroes always have the strength to follow their own conscience.
Isn’t this the world we live in? Both sides see themselves as the heroes resisting the unbearable cruelty and hypocrisy of the other. To quote Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
They don’t believe in science/progress and are very often misogynistic and racist. It’s a very small group of people, but that doesn’t shy away from the fact that they take up some space.
This leads us, as a leader and as a country, to make a choice: Do we tolerate these people?
What are the means and methods for not tolerating someone? Banishment is, of course, one of them, and thus bank accounts were frozen, disabled grandmothers assaulted, and rebel ringleaders jailed. The state does not need Gulags if on one hand they can approve of some riots but use unapproved protests to turn off your ability to bank, transact, work, and live with the flip of a switch.
The last few years have taught us how fast a person can be turned into swine and banished without remorse.
This moral dilemma is highlighted in one of the allegedly “banned” books. “Banned” because it has racist language, yet still freely available in every book store and on Amazon, there is a character who is a strict disciplinarian who often chastises the main character for his recklessness. She is on a mission to ban his audacity and wildness. She desires to “civilize” him.
That is ultimately what banning is trying to bring about: one’s idea of proper civilization.
Yet civilization thrives in the cracks and margins, in the collective behavior of individuals striving to live the lives they desire despite their circumstances. The Samizdat copied the great literature because it was worthwhile, and in our “banned” book, our main character discovers his friend has been betrayed and will be returned to slavery if our character stands by idly.
So Huck Finn, who values his own sense of freedom more than anything, does what we all should do in the face of the “civilizers:” drop our pretenses and say, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”
In doing so, he follows his gut instincts and makes one of the most important moral decisions of his life. Maybe, if we follow that example, we wouldn’t be so concerned with fixing society by banning things like sledding, and would in turn find the lost joy that lives in untamed audacity and recklessness.
* * *
Republished from the author’s Substack
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 23:20 - Mapping The Median Age In Each US State
Mapping The Median Age In Each US State
In 2022, the median age for the United States as a whole was 39 years, but the median age by state has a lot more variance.
Some states have more work or school available for younger workforces and families. Others have better work or retirement support for older populations, or are struggling to attract families.
Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley maps the median age of each U.S. state using the latest 2022 data available from the U.S. Census Bureau as compiled by StatsAmerica.
Ranking The Oldest U.S. States by Median Age
Overall, Maine had the highest median age by state in 2022 at 45 years old. That puts it on the higher end and in line with countries like Italy and Greece.
Here are all states and Washington D.C. ordered from the oldest to youngest by median age:
Rank State Median Age (2022) 1 Maine 45 2 New Hampshire 43 3 Vermont 43 4 West Virginia 43 5 Florida 43 6 Delaware 42 7 Connecticut 41 7 Pennsylvania 41 9 Hawaii 41 10 Rhode Island 41 11 Wisconsin 40 12 New Jersey 40 12 Oregon 40 12 South Carolina 40 15 Michigan 40 15 Montana 40 17 Massachusetts 40 18 New York 40 19 Ohio 40 20 Maryland 40 21 Alabama 39 21 Kentucky 39 23 Illinois 39 23 Missouri 39 23 North Carolina 39 23 Wyoming 39 27 Tennessee 39 28 New Mexico 39 28 Virginia 39 30 Minnesota 39 30 Nevada 39 32 Iowa 39 33 Arizona 39 34 Arkansas 39 35 Mississippi 39 36 Washington 38 37 Indiana 38 38 Louisiana 38 39 South Dakota 38 40 California 38 41 Colorado 38 42 Georgia 38 42 Kansas 38 44 Idaho 37 44 Nebraska 37 46 Oklahoma 37 47 Alaska 36 47 North Dakota 36 49 Texas 36 50 District of Columbia (D.C.) 35 51 Utah 32 Overall we can see that Northeast states have the highest median ages, along with West Virginia and Florida.
On the flip side, Utah (32 years) and Washington D.C. (35 years) were the youngest American states or jurisdictions by median age. Utah’s is closer in line to the global average, which was 31 years of age in 2020 according to UN estimates.
Zooming in, most states see significant differences at the county level, with cities, colleges, and natural resource sites generally lowering the median age in a county.
For example, the energy industry attracted a significant number of younger workers to North Dakota, Texas, and Alaska. Meanwhile, the rapid growth of retirement communities in Florida’s Sumter County gives it the nation’s highest median age at 68 years old.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 22:45 - The Longest General Election: Gingrich
The Longest General Election: Gingrich
Authored by Newt Gingrich via RealClear Wire,
We are now living through the longest general election campaign in history.
With President Donald Trump’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire – and his massive lead for the Republican presidential nomination in national polls – the Republican nomination was decided on Jan. 23.
No one has ever tried to have a national conversation for 286 days before an election.
The only president to lose re-election and then come back and win was Grover Cleveland, who won in 1884, lost in 1888, and then won again in 1892. However, in that era campaigning was relatively short and episodic. There was no television, radio, or social media.
Now, we have a country with a high capacity for boredom (there is a reason virtually all the top-rated television shows are NFL football games, and that various fake reality shows can be found all over the place).
Furthermore, the news media is desperate to fill the air 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. The news producers, editors, and reporters were hoping for a long nomination fight to give them lots to cover. They are now in a state of shock – and even more desperate to find some news hook that will draw in viewers and readers.
There will be constant pressure to find something negative with which to attack and undermine the Trump campaign in particular – and Republicans in general.
In the short run, Congress will get more coverage than it normally would during primary season. However, most Americans do not follow congressional activities. While important, most debates on the floor of Congress are not terribly exciting.
A long campaign is also a significant challenge for the Biden administration. Joe Biden’s people would have loved to watch the Republicans tear each other apart for months (and catalogued every candidates’ opposition research on Trump).
In the ideal Biden world, all political coverage for the next six months would be negative – and about Republicans.
Instead, the 2024 political drama will be about President Trump dominating the landscape and leading a political movement unlike anything we have seen in modern times.
A vigorous series of Trump rallies will be an amazing contrast with the passiveness, slow, meager Biden campaign effort. You aren’t going to be seeing 20,000-plus excited Biden supporters relishing a 90-minute speech by their candidate. The rhythm and pattern of the two campaigns is going to be a case study in asymmetry.
The biggest advantage President Trump has is the ability to campaign in states where he can grow the party and strengthen candidates for governor, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House.
The second great advantage of being finished with the nomination campaign is Trump and his team will now have time to develop positive issues and themes throughout the country.
The American left and President Biden would like to make this election about the recent past – and especially Jan. 6. They want to create Trump into a fantasy demon who poses an existential threat to the survival of American freedom. (Note, as the left is actively trying to arrest and strike from ballots its political opponent, it is also claiming democracy will die if he wins the election.)
For their leftwing fanatic base, that image is real, powerful, and emotionally fulfilling. For the rest of the country, it is dwarfed by the realities of Biden’s practical failures on virtually every front – and the degree to which most of the country rejects the radical left’s values and actions.
President Trump and the Republicans have a simple model to follow that will create a trap in which to capture the Biden record. Essentially, it’s a sandwich.
For the bottom piece of bread, they can refer back to the achievements from Trump’s first term. As a former president, Trump is in a unique position to describe what he has done and what he will do. His administration grew the economy. It made America energy independent while lowering the price of gasoline, natural gas, and heating oil. The Trump administration kept inflation under control. It controlled the border. It supported law enforcement and fought crime. It stopped terrorism and exercised effective power in the world. It rebuilt and strengthening NATO and negotiated with foreign governments on trade and other issues with great effectiveness.
The middle of the sandwich contrasts Trump’s achievements with Biden’s failures. Virtually, every public opinion poll shows that most Americans think Trump’s past policies worked better for them than Biden’s current policies.
For the top slice of bread, Trump and Republicans can project forward and describe a future of extraordinary opportunities that will strengthen America. They can talk about increasing Americans’ standard of living, and stopping illegal immigration, drugs, and crime. They can describe a dramatically better education system. They can talk about a renewed and reformed military that can protect America, help our allies, and deter our opponents. They can outline breakthroughs in space, health outcomes, and artificial intelligence that will improve Americans’ lives.
Ideally, each layer would get roughly equal time and focus. Biden will be painfully trapped between Trump’s success in the past – and his promise of a better future.
With the nominating race over – and 286 days to campaign – no Republican has ever had the potential to grow such a startling majority. If Trump cheerfully contrasts his past success with Biden’s failure – and focuses on a positive future, he could attract people who have never talked with or joined Republicans.
This is going to be an extraordinary campaign.
For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 22:10 - George Carlin's Estate Sues Over AI-Generated 'Comedy Special': A New Frontier In Copyright Wars
George Carlin’s Estate Sues Over AI-Generated ‘Comedy Special’: A New Frontier In Copyright Wars
In what appears to be a groundbreaking clash between the legacy of artistic creation and the exponential growth of AI, the estate of comedy legend George Carlin has launched a legal salvo against the creators of an AI-generated ‘comedy special’ that mimics the late comedian’s iconic voice and style.
George Carlin on stage in 1992. The lawsuit, filed in California Federal Court, accuses the makers of “George Carlin: I’m glad I’m dead,” a video uploaded by the Dudesy channel on YouTube, of committing an egregious act of copyright infringement and a violation of Carlin’s right to publicity.
The hour-long video showcases a series of AI-generated images while an uncannily similar voice to the comedian delves into familiar territories of religion and politics, and even Carlin’s own death. This legal battle underscores the emerging complexities surrounding AI in creative industries, a contentious issue that was one of the catalysts behind a significant writers’ strike in Hollywood last year, primarily over the studios’ adoption of AI for scriptwriting.
AI has resurrected George Carlin to make us laugh once more.
And it’s terrifying. pic.twitter.com/I4TlMT6KYd— Vanessa Harris (@technologypoet) January 12, 2024
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“Defendants’ AI-generated ‘George Carlin Special’ is not a creative work. It is a piece of computer-generated clickbait which detracts from the value of Carlin’s comedic works and harms his reputation,” reads the complaint. “It is a casual theft of a great American artist’s work.”
The Dudesy YouTube channel, operated by comedian Will Sasso and writer Chad Kultgen, is at the heart of this controversy. Both, along with several unnamed individuals involved in crafting the video and developing the AI technology, find themselves listed as defendants. In response to the uproar, Sasso, on a podcast, stressed that the AI rendition was far from a replacement of the real comedic genius.
“I learned that AI cannot replace Geroge Carlin and therefore AI cannot replace me and my pal Chad,” said Sasso. “It is interesting how heated people get about it.”
Kultgen, in the same episode, touched upon the essence of the controversy: unlike previous AI experiments that merely mimicked Carlin’s voice, this creation ventured into reproducing an hour-long standup routine, effectively claiming the capability to replicate the art form itself.
“The other ones, it was just ‘look, we can kind of mimic his voice.’ This isn’t just mimicking that, it’s taking the art form itself, an hour-long of standup comedy, and saying ‘I can do the art form as well.”
Kelly Carlin, the daughter of George Carlin, expressed her disdain and disappointment in a poignant statement.
“”I understand and share the desire for more George Carlin. I, too, want more time with my father. But it is ridiculous to proclaim he has been ‘resurrected’ with AI,” she said, adding “The ‘George Carlin’ in that video is not the beautiful human who defined his generation and raised me with love. It is a poorly-executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fanbase.”
The estate’s attorney, Josh Schiller, paints a grim picture of the potential future with AI, warning of it becoming a tool for bad-faith actors to supplant creative expression, exploit existing works, and profiteer at the expense of genuine creators.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 21:35 - DEI Priorities Interfere With FBI Hiring, Undercut National Security, Report Claims
DEI Priorities Interfere With FBI Hiring, Undercut National Security, Report Claims
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A recently disclosed report by an alliance of retired and active duty FBI agents and analysts claims a concerning decline in FBI recruitment standards due to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) priorities, posing a potential threat to national security.
FBI Director Christopher Wray looks over notes as he arrives for a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 10, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) The report, handed over to the House Judiciary Committee, alleges that these DEI requirements have compromised standards in areas such as physical fitness, drug use, financial and personal integrity, mental health, and work experience.
The alliance, which includes senior former executives and agents from counterintelligence and counterterrorism branches, alleges that the FBI’s recruitment focus has shifted from selecting the “best and brightest” to emphasizing candidates based on race, gender, and sexual orientation.
The report cites instances of new agents failing to meet even relaxed fitness standards, displaying literacy issues requiring remedial English lessons, showing reluctance to work overtime, and even having serious disabilities or mental health concerns.
The authors, who indicated in the report they chose to remain anonymous owing to fear of reprisal, express concern that the current trajectory of FBI special agent recruitment, primarily driven by DEI measures, may significantly impede homeland security efforts.
The report suggests a series of corrective actions, including performing a 90-day audit of FBI recruitment practices, legislation to strengthen the oath of office for FBI special agents, and congressional testimony by FBI Director Christopher Wray to address potential concealment of deficiencies or misinformation by subordinates.
“These findings are alarming, require immediate action, and corrective measures must begin without delay,” the report’s authors wrote.
An FBI spokesperson strongly refuted claims that their standards in selection and hiring have been compromised.
“The FBI continues to maintain the very highest standards in selection and hiring,“ the spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. ”Any notion that standards have been lowered is both inaccurate and an affront to the talented and patriotic men and women who dedicate their lives to serving others.”
“Random and anonymous allegations devoid of any supporting data or other evidence cannot change the facts: the FBI continues to recruit the best and brightest candidates from all walks of life, and year over year only a small percentage of applicants ultimately make it through our difficult process to become a special agent,” the spokesperson continued, adding that “the suggestion that we are lowering standards to increase diversity is both offensive and not true.”
Neither the the House Oversight Committee nor the Judiciary Committee replied to a request for comment. However, a spokesperson for House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan told the New York Post—which broke the story—that the committee has received the report and is reviewing it.
The House Judiciary Committee account on X shared the New York Post’s story, which cites the spokesperson, giving further confirmation that the committee is looking into the matter.
‘Bread Crumbs’
The report’s authors note that the sources and sub-sources on which the findings are based are either currently employed by the FBI or are retired.
All have been given code names such as SIERRA 51, said to be a 20-plus year veteran of the FBI, which a sub-source (identified as ROMEO PAPA 14) has known for 10 years and knows them to be “honest and trustworthy” with a “great, unblemished” reputation at the agency.
Many of the sources and sub-sources had direct access to and firsthand knowledge of the information they provided, according to the report’s authors.
The current and former agents and analysts say that an increasing number of lower-quality candidates, which one source described as “bread crumbs” because they were rejected from other law enforcement agencies, have been submitting applications to become FBI agents.
“And the FBI is selecting these candidates to become FBI Special Agents because they satisfy the FBI’s priority to meet Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mandates,” they wrote.
These “bread crumbs” candidates are being selected instead of more qualified candidates based on DEI priorities.
Not only that but assessors who are responsible for evaluating candidates for agents are also themselves being selected based on DEI criteria rather than competence.
Even worse, when some FBI Special Agent applicant coordinators at the agency’s field offices tried to intervene to block the applications of unqualified candidates, they were reportedly overruled by headquarters.
In one case described in the report, SIERRA 72 disqualified a black female candidate for being more than 50 pounds overweight and unable to pass the agency’s physical requirement test. The candidate even reportedly told the evaluating agent that she “hates working out and was never active.” But despite the agent’s attempt to disqualify the candidate, headquarters reportedly ordered them to continue with the application process.
The current and former agents and analysts say that the DEI policies affecting the FBI’s hiring practices mean that the “law enforcement and intelligence capabilities of the FBI are degrading.”
The FBI spokesperson pushed back on these claims in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“Our agents continue to meet the highest standards of personal and professional conduct and rigorous physical fitness requirements,” the spokesperson said, while providing some recruitment statistics that suggest hiring practices have, at least in some regards, remained constant.
“The average age of new agents has remained steady at about 31 years old, which means they bring a wealth of experience and well-developed skills to the Bureau,” the spokesperson said.
“The number of agents with prior military and law enforcement experience has remained steady at around 20-30 percent of each new class, while the number of new agents with advanced degrees has swelled to nearly 40 percent of each new agent class,” the spokesperson added.
‘Liberal and Racial Bias’
Despite Mr. Wray’s previous claims of soaring recruitment numbers, the report contends that Special Agent hiring has, in fact, decreased, while retirements have increased.
One of the authors who spoke to the New York Post attributed this decline to a diminished public trust in the FBI following controversies during the Trump era, attracting recruits more interested in being “agents of social change” than in protecting the country.
A source cited in the report (SIERRA 23) notes that not only is today’s FBI “concerned more about diversity over competence,” the agency has also been infected with a liberal and racial bias.
“SIERRA 23 believes that if you are conservative and/or white male or female, the FBI will treat you harshly for the same offense committed by a minority, gay, or transsexual employee,” the report states.
FBI field agents who want to investigate “self-generated cases” often face hurdles in the form of being forced to pursue “politically driven cases such as January 6th and anti-abortion protestors,” per the source.
SIERRA 23 also said that FBI headquarters seems to be driving more investigations than field offices, which are “investigating legitimate crimes and threats impacting its regions.”
Another source, SIERRA 17, said that the reason the FBI is lowering its standards “to attract a larger pool of candidates with more politically ‘left of center’ views” and these candidates are only employable thanks to reduced standards in terms of physical, academic, or professional accomplishment.
The FBI is the latest federal entity to face criticism for DEI priorities in hiring.
‘Woke Warfighters’
Last year, the Department of Defense (DoD) sparked criticism for a program that pushed diversity in the military as a “strategic imperative.”
“Diversity is a strategic imperative critical to mission readiness and accomplishment. We were on site for the 2023 inaugural @DoD_ODEI Summit as DEIA experts led forums to advance the DEIA and DoD mission—because our people matter,” the DoD said in a post on X on Feb. 18, 2023. (ODEI refers to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, while DEIA refers to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.)
The DoD’s promotion of DEI attracted criticism, both online and off.
“Your strategic imperative is defending the United States,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied to the DoD post.
Some lawmakers also shared critical takes.
“As Chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, ensuring our military is focused on lethality and readiness, NOT wokeness and DEI, is my top priority,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said in a post on X replying to the DoD’s message.
Congressional Republicans flagged the Pentagon’s DEI push as a major vulnerability. A GOP report from November 2022 called “Woke Warfighters” blamed the Biden administration for “weakening warfighters through a sustained assault fuelled by woke virtue signaling.”
The report cited a number of DEI measures in the military, including critical race theory (CRT) being taught at military academies or plans to implement DEI into the training curriculum for U.S. Special Forces.
“The only goal of our Special Forces should be effectiveness,” the report states. “Every other consideration must be subordinate to and in service of that end.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 21:00 - 24 GOP Legislators In Pennsylvania Challenge Biden Over Voter Registration Executive Order
24 GOP Legislators In Pennsylvania Challenge Biden Over Voter Registration Executive Order
Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A group of 24 Republican legislators in Pennsylvania have filed a federal complaint against President Joe Biden, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of State, saying they have usurped the authority of the legislature by changing voter registration and election rules.
Pennsylvania’s Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pa., in January 2023. (Beth Brelje/The Epoch Times) The legislators say the Elections Clause and the Electors Clause of the U.S. Constitution give state legislators the sole constitutional right to determine the manner of elections, and there is no role for the president, governor, or other executive officials, such as the secretary of state, to create, rewrite, or disregard the laws established by the legislature. The group alleges they have been unconstitutionally excluded from the law-making process regulating federal elections for president and Congress.
The plaintiffs are Pennsylvania state Reps. Dawn Keefer, Timothy Bonner, Barry Jozwiak, Barbara Gleim, Joseph Hamm, Wendy Fink, Robert Kauffman, Stephanie Borowicz, Donald (Bud) Cook, Paul Michael Jones, Joseph D’Orsie, Charity Krupa, Leslie Rossi, David Zimmerman, Robert Leadbeter, Dan Moul, Thomas Jones, David Maloney, Timothy Twardzik, David Rowe, Joanne Stehr, Aaron Bernstine, Kathy Rapp, and state Sen. Cris Dush.
Their complaint in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania asks a judge to declare three actions unconstitutional: a voter registration executive order made by President Biden; a voter registration action by Mr. Shapiro, and some Department of State directives. They also request that the judge issue an order prohibiting the president, governor, or state executives from making future changes to the elections process in Pennsylvania without following the legislative process.
Biden’s Executive Order
The legislature alone must provide elections regulations, including those relating to the registration of voters, the court papers say.
In 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order 14019 for “promoting access to voting,” requiring all federal agencies to develop a plan to increase voter registration and participation.
In response, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced in 2022 that federal health centers across the nation now have the discretion to participate in activities—including voter registration—that are outside the scope of the health center program project.
“Such voter registration activities may include making available voter registration materials to patients, encouraging patients to register to vote, assisting patients with completing registration forms, sending completed forms to the election authorities, providing voter registration materials in waiting rooms, and allowing private, non-partisan organizations to conduct on-site voter registration,” the HHS website says.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development instructed more than 3,000 public housing authorities managing some 1.2 million public housing units across the country to run voter registration drives in those units.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to universities, directing them to use Federal Work Study funds “to support voter registration activities.” The letter said: “If a student is employed directly by a post-secondary institution, the institution may compensate a student for [Federal Work Study] employment involving voter registration activities that take place on or off-campus.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued letters to state agencies administering the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women’s Infants and Children’s (WIC) low-income food program, instructing them to carry out voter registration activities with federal funds.
The legislators say voter registration drives are not a government function.
“Typically, private parties—including plaintiffs, campaigns, political parties, and organizations—conduct voter registration drives as acknowledged and regulated by federal campaign finance laws,” the court papers say. “Federal campaign finance laws apply to private parties’ voter registration activities. Voter registration drives … are a federally recognized private function, not a government function.”
President Biden’s executive order also directed federal agencies to use taxpayer money to choose “approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises.”
The Pennsylvania state legislators have, through legislative acts, passed a law that prohibits the influence of third-party entities in elections. The executive order contradicts Pennsylvania state election laws, court papers say.
Shapiro’s Automatic Voter Registration
In September 2023, Mr. Shapiro announced in a press release that he was changing voter registration laws by enacting automatic voter registration. According to the press release, anyone eligible to vote is automatically registered to vote when they get their driver’s license.
Pennsylvania lawmakers have tried several times, using the legislative process, to implement automatic voter registration in Pennsylvania. Every attempt has failed. At the time Mr. Shapiro announced this change, there was another bill pending in the legislature to enact automatic voter registration. Lawmakers in the court filing say Shapiro’s action was not legally authorized by any state law.
“Governor Shapiro’s edict instituting automatic voter registration in Pennsylvania is inconsistent with existing Pennsylvania law,” the court filing says. “Governor Shapiro does not have the unilateral power to oversee and participate in making legislative decisions regarding the times, places, and manner of Presidential and Congressional elections, including the registration of electors in Pennsylvania.”
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of State (DOS) called that claim “groundless,” and told The Epoch Times in an email that state law grants the Secretaries of the Commonwealth and Transportation broad authority to determine the form of Pennsylvania’s combined driver’s license and voter registration form. The changes to the voter registration process through the Department of Transportation in September have resulted in a 44 percent increase in new voter registrations over the same time period two years ago, and are “consistent with both the National Voter Registration Act and Pennsylvania law,” the DOS said.
Department of State Directives
The Pennsylvania Department of State has issued numerous directives that contradict laws established by the legislators, according to court papers, including a 2018 directive concerning Help America Vote Act (HAVA) matching drivers’ licenses or Social Security numbers for voter registration applications. This guidance instructs Pennsylvania counties to register applicants even if an applicant provides invalid identification.
State legislators say they passed a law regarding verification of information on voter registration applications, but directives issued through the Department of State contradict state election laws.
This created confusion in counties as local officials had two sets of directions—one from the Legislature and one from the Department of State.
The DOS told The Epoch Times the HAVA-Matching Directive issued in 2018, is also “fully consistent with applicable law and remains active.”
“If permitted to stand, similar directives can occur again in the future,” court papers say.
The Epoch Times asked the governor’s office for comment for this story.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 19:50 - Lyin' Biden: Speaker Johnson Debunks 'Need' To Pass Ukraine-Israel Funds Before Securing Border
Lyin’ Biden: Speaker Johnson Debunks ‘Need’ To Pass Ukraine-Israel Funds Before Securing Border
House Speaker Mike Johnson has dispelled President Joe Biden’s absolute lie that Congress needs to act to pass a $110 billion aid package which would include money for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan – a bill, mind you, that would still allow as many as 150,000 illegal crossings per month, or 1.8 million per year, before any of the proposed border shutdown authorities would be triggered.
“President Biden falsely claimed yesterday he needs Congress to pass a new law to allow him to close the southern border, but he knows that is untrue,” said Johnson.
“As I explained to him in a letter late last year, and have specifically reiterated to him on multiple occasions since, he can and must take executive action immediately to reverse the catastrophe he has created.“
He doesn’t need this bill to do that. https://t.co/Gzir4pWrUu
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 27, 2024
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Recall that Biden signed three executive orders on day one of his presidency which reversed significant border protections put into place by former President Trump, and made it clear to migrants worldwide that the door was now open.
President Trump, meanwhile, is circling on this like a shark – telling a crowd on Saturday in Las Vegas “When I’m President, instead of trying to send Texas a restraining order, I will send them REINFORCEMENTS!”
President Trump: “When I’m President, instead of trying to send Texas a restraining order, I will send them REINFORCEMENTS!” pic.twitter.com/6qSmLkBGaW
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) January 27, 2024
David Sacks breaks things down perfectly (via X):
WHAT’S REALLY HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON
Neocons had a problem. The big Spring-Summer Counteroffensive, which was supposed to kick the Russians out of Ukraine, was a miserable failure. Even TIME Magazine was reporting that Zelensky is delusional, the Ukrainians are running out of soldiers, and Ukrainian officials are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.
House Republicans, fearing their base, began to have cold feet about throwing more money down this bottomless pit. So Biden and the Neocons came up with a plan: package Ukraine aid with border security. Each side would get want it wants.
But Senate RINOs couldn’t help themselves — they turned the border security provisions into an amnesty bill.
Meanwhile Biden picked a fight with Texas over what little remains of our border security, reminding Republicans that he can’t be trusted to faithfully execute the law. So now the deal has fallen apart.
So what is the Administration to do? There’s only ever one answer for that: blame Trump. Supposedly he is responsible for Ukraine losing the war AND the southern border being overrun. In reality, Biden and his handlers have nobody to blame but themselves for both policies.
Shakespeare put it best: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.”
DeSantis lays out the problem with the amnesty bill…
DESANTIS: BIDEN BORDER DEAL WOULD CODIFY 1.8M ILLEGAL MIGRANTS ENTERING THE COUNTRY ANNUALLY pic.twitter.com/KH6Szahp7m
— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) January 27, 2024
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Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 19:15 - IRS Targets Sports Teams As Agency Boosts Enforcement Against Wealthy Tax Filers
IRS Targets Sports Teams As Agency Boosts Enforcement Against Wealthy Tax Filers
Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will intensify its scrutiny of the sports industry’s reporting of tax losses, as part of its reported crackdown on wealthy taxpayers.
The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, on Jan. 4, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) On Jan. 16, the IRS announced the “Sports Industry Losses campaign” which is “designed to identify partnerships within the sports industry that report significant tax losses and determine if the income and deductions driving the losses are reported in compliance” with the agency’s code. The IRS provided no further information in the announcement.
The agency’s focus on the industry could be the result of lucrative tax benefits that come with owning teams. Existing rules allow teams to write off intangible assets like TV rights and player contracts over several years. This accounting adjustment can enable team owners to report losses on their operations every year.
If the ownership is structured as a partnership, then the losses can be used to offset the individual tax dues of the wealthy owners.
A wealthy individual who has a multi-million dollar tax bill and offsets it with losses from owning a sports team “would draw the attention” of the IRS, Eric Nemeth, Varnum LLP partner, told Bloomberg. The IRS can even use the campaign to boost its image, he said.
“Frankly, it could be good politics, too. ‘Look what we’re doing. We’re really examining the ultra-rich here,’” Mr. Nemeth said. “And don’t rule out the possibility that the IRS uses this information, provides information to Congress, and Congress possibly writes some statutes to address certain areas, too.”
Mark J. Weinstein, a tax expert and partner at Hogan Lovells, said that the way a potential owner buys a team also comes with tax benefits.
For instance, “if the purchase is financed with other people’s money (i.e., debt), then, subject to certain limitations on the deductibility of interest, the tax advantages to the team owners (and investors) is even greater.”
He isn’t convinced that the tax write-off rules for the sports industry “is being gamed,” pointing out that it was Congress that implemented the system and put in place many of these benefits.
“You buy goodwill, you get to amortize the cost over say 15 years, and if the end result is a loss; so be it … This is the law. If the IRS wants to change it, they need an act of Congress,” he wrote in a note.
The new IRS campaign targeting sports industry partnerships follows months of increased scrutiny of such entities by the agency.
On Sept. 20, the IRS announced it would establish a new division to target “pass-through” entities in a bid to hold America’s wealthiest tax filers “accountable.”
A pass-through entity is a business that does not pay tax on its revenues. Instead, its income is passed on to owners of the business, who then file taxes based on their individual tax rates. At the time, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said that pass-throughs are used by some partnerships to “intentionally shield income to avoid paying the taxes they owe.”
General partnerships, sole proprietorships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited liability companies, and S Corporations are all considered to be pass-through business entities.
Sports Team Tax Benefits
A 2021 report by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica detailed the prevalence of tax-saving strategies implemented in the sports industry.
ProPublica reviewed tax data from dozens of owners across four of the biggest professional sports leagues in the United States. They found that these owners frequently reported team incomes significantly lower than their real-world earnings.
Records reviewed by the nonprofit showed that Steve Ballmer, the former CEO of Microsoft, paid only $78 million in taxes from his $656 million in earnings for 2018. This was an effective income tax rate of only 12 percent.
Such a tax rate is made possible because Mr. Ballmer owns the NBA team, the Los Angeles Clippers. The U.S. tax code allows individuals who purchase businesses to deduct almost the entire cost of the purchase from their income in the following years.
The reasoning is that since the purchase is composed of assets like buildings, equipment, and such, the value degrades over time, and the price paid to buy the assets should be counted as an expense.
Mr. Ballmer spent almost $2 billion to buy the Los Angeles Clippers.
Some have criticized the rules, pointing out that several assets of sports teams, like player contracts and TV deals, are likely to increase in value over time rather than degrade. There is little risk that a popular sport would suddenly stop being popular and thus make massive losses on TV deals or player contracts.
As the IRS has been infused with billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), its stringent actions against partnerships are intensifying. The agency has indicated its intention to use part of these funds to boost enforcement measures against large businesses.
A July 2023 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that the IRS only audited 54 large partnerships in 2019, which was just 0.26 percent of the 20,052 such entities in operation that year.
Since 2007, the IRS’ audit rate for large partnerships has declined, a trend the agency attributes to “resource constraints,” according to the report. This was noted in the context of the recent funding infusion received by the agency from the IRA.
“As part of its audit selection process, IRS uses statistical models to help review partnership returns for potential noncompliance, but the models were developed without using representative samples of returns and with untested assumptions,” the report said.
“Additionally, IRS has not developed a plan to incorporate feedback from audit results into the models. Addressing these modeling issues could improve IRS’s ability to better identify and audit noncompliant partnerships.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 18:40 - Fani Comes Under Immense Pressure As 22 Articles Of Impeachment Filed For "Malfeasance, Oppression, And Tyrannical Partiality"
Fani Comes Under Immense Pressure As 22 Articles Of Impeachment Filed For “Malfeasance, Oppression, And Tyrannical Partiality”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may find herself out of a job, after a Georgia lawmaker filed a resolution Friday to impeach her for various acts of “malfeasance, tyrannical partiality, and oppression,” after allegations emerged that the Special Prosecutor she hired to go after Donald Trump turned out to be her lover, who she paid almost $700,000 – before he dropped thousands of dollars to take her on lavish vacations.
“Fani Willis has a laundry list of potential conflicts that make her unworthy and unfit to be the District Attorney in Fulton Count,” said state Rep. Charlice Byrd (R) in a Jan. 26 statement accompanying the introduction of H.R. 872, a resolution to vote on impeachment charges against Willis.
With freedom on the line, bold action is necessary. It’s time for the legislature to do its constitutional duty and hold corrupt Fulton DA Fani WIllis accountable, which is why I have introduced H.R. 872, articles of impeachment against Fani WIllis. Read my full statement below: pic.twitter.com/o4xqP4ZdTX
— Rep. Charlice Byrd (@charlice_byrd) January 26, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWillis brought a 2020 election interference case against former President Trump and over a dozen co-defendants under Georgia laws intended to fight organized crime. In particular, Trump asked Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ‘find’ votes for him. The context, however, was that Trump was commenting on all the votes ‘found’ for Biden in the middle of the night, so ‘find’ Trump votes in the same vein.
Byrd’s 10-page resolution lays out the case against Willis, accusing her of violating her oath of office which states that “Any public officer who willfully and intentionally violates the terms of his oath as prescribed by law shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.”
The impeachment resolution comes on the same day that the Georgia State Senate voted to establish a committee that will investigate various allegations of misconduct against Ms. Willis, ranging from accusations of prosecutorial misconduct to questions about the use of public funds and allegations of an unprofessional relationship with the lead prosecutor in the case.
Ms. Willis’ office did not respond to a request for comment on the impeachment resolution by press time. –Epoch Times
More via the Epoch Times:
Articles of Impeachment
The impeachment resolution accuses Ms. Willis of having committed “acts of malfeasance, tyrannical partiality, and oppression” in the “wrongful” indictment of President Trump and his 18 co-defendants (now down to 14 since four have pleaded guilty).
The resolution calls Ms. Willis’ indictment “the severest case of gross abuse of discretion” while alleging that the Fulton County DA “grossly violated” her oath of office, in which she swore to be impartial.
Ms. Byrd’s impeachment resolution also accuses Ms. Willis of engaging in an “inappropriate” and “unethical” relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade while alleging that she profited from the relationship.
There are a total of 22 articles of impeachment in the resolution, each an alleged violation of Georgia Code 16-10-1.
Nineteen of the impeachment charges are allegations that Ms. Willis’ prosecution of President Trump and the 18 other co-defendants under Georgia’s organized crime laws was done for the purpose of advancing her political career and so “grossly violates” her oath of office.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta on Aug. 14, 2023; Fulton County District Attorney Special Prosecutor Nathan Wade at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, on Oct. 20, 2023. (Joe Raedle; Alyssa Pointer/Getty Images) While the resolution doesn’t go into detail about the allegedly political nature of the prosecution, similar claims have been made by House investigators.
The remaining three articles of impeachment are for allegedly perpetrating “prosecutorial vindictiveness” in withholding material evidence from the jury, allegedly falsely claiming she was “not the holder of any unaccounted for public money due the state” while owing late fees stemming from her candidacy for office; and of swearing in her oath of office to take “only my lawful compensation” while allegedly profiting from her relationship with Mr. Wade.
Ms. Willis was first accused of having an “improper” romantic relationship with Mr. Wade and of benefiting from it financially in a motion filed on Jan. 8 by an attorney representing Michael Roman, one of the co-defendants in the Georgia case.
The Allegations
Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney, accused Ms. Willis in a 100-plus page filing of being in an “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Mr. Wade and of “profiting significantly” from the relationship at the expense of taxpayers.
Ms. Merchant also accused Ms. Willis of using funds meant for clearing a pandemic-era backlog of cases in Fulton County to pay Mr. Wade a large sum of money.
Documents show Mr. Wade has been paid at a rate of $250 per hour for his involvement in the case, or around $650,000 in total.
Mr. Wade, who has been asked to provide evidence as part of a House Judiciary Committee inquiry into Ms. Willis’ conduct, is playing a leading role in the election interference case against the former president and the co-defendants.
Prosecutors have not yet filed a response to Ms. Merchant’s motion, although they have said they intend to.
The Fulton County Audit Committee has asked Ms. Willis to address the allegations in Ms. Merchant’s filing. Bob Ellis, the Fulton County Commissioner, called on Ms. Willis in a Jan. 21 letter to provide explanations, including regarding special prosecutor payment and expensing by Feb. 2.
Also, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee indicated on Jan. 12 that a hearing on Ms. Merchant’s motion would be scheduled after the court has received a response from Fulton County prosecutors, with the earliest likely being in mid-February.
Ms. Merchant’s filing argued that Ms. Willis’s’ alleged misconduct was grounds for the dismissal of charges against Mr. Roman and the dismissal of Ms. Willis and her team.
President Trump has also made similar demands, saying that both Ms. Willis and the case have been “totally compromised” and the case against him should be dismissed.
The Georgia Senate resolution that passed in a Jan. 26 floor vote establishes a committee to investigate the various misconduct allegations against Ms. Willis.
Despite having wide-ranging powers to carry out the investigation, the panel will not have the ability to impose sanctions on Ms. Willis.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 18:05 - A Ukrainian Model's Crowning As 'Miss Japan' Shows The Spread Of Liberal-Globalism In Asia
A Ukrainian Model’s Crowning As ‘Miss Japan’ Shows The Spread Of Liberal-Globalism In Asia
Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,
From the perspective of Japan’s historically conservative-nationalist society, ethnic ancestry – not citizenship, language, or culture – is the crucial prerequisite for truly being considered Japanese, thus disqualifying ethnic Ukrainian Karolina Shiino in their mind and making her crowning an insult to all ethnic Japanese women.
Asia and especially Japan are considered to be bastions of conservative-nationalism but the crowning of a Ukrainian model as “Miss Japan” last week shows that liberal–globalism has spread there too. What’s meant by these terms in this context is the contrast between traditional and so-called “progressive” notions of identity whereby the former relate to ancestry while the latter is malleable. It’s important to elaborate on these concepts in order to avoid any malicious misinterpretation of them.
Anyone can migrate anywhere so long as they do so legally, after which they can receive citizenship and pass it on to their descendants, who’ll ideally assimilate and integrate into the host country’s society. As for 26-year-old Ukrainian-born Karolina Shiino, she’s lived in the country since she was five following her mother’s marriage to a Japanese man. Karolina speaks fluent Japanese and became a naturalized citizen in 2022, which is why she identifies as Japanese instead of Ukrainian. In her words:
“I wanted to be recognized as a Japanese person. After all, we live in an era of diversity — where diversity is needed. There are many people like me who are worried about the gap between their appearance and (who they are). I kept being told that I’m not Japanese, but I am absolutely Japanese, so I entered Miss Japan genuinely believing in myself. I was really happy to be recognized like this.”
Just because she identifies as Japanese and is legally considered as such doesn’t mean that she’s recognized that way by society, however, which is why her crowning as “Miss Japan” reignited a fierce debate about identity according to the BBC. This historically ethno-religiously homogenous country began opening its borders in recent years following its drastic population decline, and foreign-born residents are now almost 2.5% of the total, with most being Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean.
While this statistic might appear miniscule to most observers, Karolina’s crowning as “Miss Japan” brought this gradual demographic shift into the open after the judges declared her the “Foremost Beauty of All Japanese Women”, which offended many ethnic Japanese. From their perspective, ancestry – not citizenship, language, or culture – is the crucial prerequisite for truly being considered Japanese, thus disqualifying Karolina in their mind and making her victory an insult to all ethnic Japanese women.
Liberal-globalists condemn this conservative-nationalist viewpoint as “bigoted, racist, and xenophobic”, but societies have the right to identify however they want, as well as acknowledge or withhold this from others based on widely agreed-upon criteria no matter how subjective they might seem. The context within Karolina was just crowned “Miss Japan” concerns Tokyo’s indirect arming of Ukraine with air defense systems via the US and its newfound embrace of immigration, thus suggesting political motives.
The first-mentioned are self-explanatory while the second requires a bit more explanation since readers might not be aware of this policy. Here’s what Bloomberg reported over the summer:
“The number of foreigners rose 11% from a year earlier to comprise 2.4% of the total population, or just under 3 million people…It often goes unremarked that the number of workers from overseas has more than doubled in the last decade alone, while the broader foreign community (including students and families) has risen 50%. Based on population projections, conversation has already been shifting to a future where foreigners will make up more than 10% of people in the country 50 years from now.”
What they omit is that the foreign-born population will likely have their own children at some point, thus leading to the non-ethnic Japanese population reaching much more than 10% in less than 50 years’ time.
The Western liberal-globalist (“progressive”) elite and their “fellow travelers” in Japan want to reshape this historically conservative-nationalist (traditional) society’s attitudes towards foreigners in order to facilitate this demographic shift. To that end, they’re leveraging their allies in civil society and the permanent bureaucracy, which explains why Karolina’s crowning as “Miss Japan” was arguably a form of politically driven “shock therapy” aimed at forcing ethnic Japanese to accept this emerging trend.
The veneration of one’s ancestors is an extremely important part of Japanese culture, which Ukrainian-born Karolina is unable to participate in due to her not being ethnically Japanese, nor do her ancestors share the same historical experience as her formal compatriots. Being a Japanese citizen, speaking Japanese, and participating in the outward expressions of its contemporary culture aren’t sufficient for her to be deemed Japanese by most of its people no matter how much she wishes otherwise.
The same goes for her 3 million or so fellow foreigners in the country, not to mention their descendants, but the support that they receive from liberal-globalists at home and abroad could lead to them exerting disproportionate influence in reshaping local attitudes with time as their numbers continue to grow. The goal is to erode the traditional concept of identity and ultimately replace it with a “progressive” version whereby official designations and media endorsements take precedence over ethno-ancestral ties.
The model that they plan to apply is a copy-and-paste of the one that they’ve already successfully imposed in America and Western Europe where the liberal-globalist socio-political elite apply maximum pressure on the historically conservative-nationalist masses to accept their new definition of identity. Some still resist, but the fear of being smeared as a “bigot, racist, and/or xenophobe” coerces most to passively accept this politically driven trend, which is also now being imposed in Poland too.
That country has a similar ethno-ancestral concept of identity as Japan does despite the centuries of ethno-religious diversity under the erstwhile Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth where Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, Protestant Germans, and Orthodox Belarusians and Ukrainians lived under the same state. By contrast, Japan never had any such diversity in its history except for its foreign conquests in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, which makes it a much tougher nut for the liberal-globalists to crack in this case.
Karolina’s crowning as “Miss Japan” was meant to be a milestone in their plot to artificially manufacture a “progressive” notion of identity in this historically conservative-nationalist society, which’ll inevitably be followed by other examples of politically driven “shock therapy”. Average Japanese can’t do much to stop this either since their elite are beholden to the US’ liberal-globalists, who’ll force them to promote the imposition of this concept onto their compatriots in exchange for continued military support.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 17:30 - Bitcoin Slide Driven By Bankrupt FTX Liquidating, Shorting Billions
Bitcoin Slide Driven By Bankrupt FTX Liquidating, Shorting Billions
Earlier this week we reported that the primary reason why bitcoin has been sliding ever since the arrival of bitcoin ETFs on Jan 10 – an event that had been lauded as very bullish for the crypto space but instead promptly sparked a bear market…
… has been the relentless liquidation of residual bitcoins by the bankrupt FTX estate which has been aggressively building up cash – and selling bitcoin into every market meltup – to maximize recoveries for stakeholders.
Specifically, as CoinDesk reported first, whereas legacy bitcoin vehicle GBTC had seen aggressive outflows at the time when the pack of new ETFs were pulling in new cash to convert into bitcoin, a large chunk of the exodus from GBTC was FTX’s bankruptcy estate dumping 22 million shares, or about $1 billion of the $2.5 billion in GBTC outflows through Jan 22. And, as we pointed out, it also meant that instead of the GBTC outflows being recycled and netted off, a large portion of them was FTX liquidations – a one-off event, and not a systemic pressure on the underlying crypto asset, contrary to what some bears had said.
Well, today we got confirmation that it was indeed the bankrupt FTX (or rather Mike Novogratz’ Galaxy which was picked last summer as advisor on managing the estate’s holdings) that was responsible for much of the selling in crypto in the past two weeks. According to Bloomberg, FTX is “unloading cryptoassets and hoarding cash as bankruptcy advisers look for a way to repay customers whose accounts have been frozen since the platform collapsed in 2022.”
The fraud-tainted crypto firm’s four largest affiliates — including FTX Trading Ltd. and Alameda Research LLC — together nearly doubled the group’s cash pile to $4.4 billion at the end of 2023 from about $2.3 billion in late October, according to Chapter 11 monthly operating reports. The company’s total cash is likely higher including the rest of its affiliates.
As shown in the chart below, FTX was furiously dumping assets during the crypto meltup that started in October and which sent the price of the digital currency from $27 in October to $45K by the end of 2023 .
Indeed, FTX said in a court filing last month that FTX raised $1.8 billion through Dec. 8 by selling off some of the firm’s digital assets. Of course, we also now know that FTX had continued raising cash by liquidating about $1 billion in GBTC-tied assets.
But wait, there’s more: as we showed on Jan 23, all the major downward moves in bitcoin in the past week had been due to liquidations in perpetual bitcoin futures, and had little to do with sales of ETFs or underlying tokens.
All the major BTC moves have been due to futures liquidations pic.twitter.com/I3umtqRmbS
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 23, 2024
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We can now also blame FTX for those sudden, jerky bitcoin futures liquidations because as Bloomberg adds, “FTX also said it’s conducting Bitcoin derivative trades to hedge exposure to the coin and generate additional yield on its digital holdings.” Translation: FTX (via Galaxy or otherwise) has been shorting bitcoin to “hedge” its substantial exposure and minimize risk to stakeholders.
To be sure, stakeholders in the bankrupt FTX are delighted with the results: customer claims worth more than $1 million traded at around 73 cents on the dollar as of Friday, almost double from around 38 cents on the dollar in October, according to investment firm and bankruptcy claims broker Cherokee Acquisition.
The flipside are all those investors in bitcoin, whether spot, ETFs or futures, who expected the rally into the ETF launch to continue. Instead they were rugged by the relentless FTX selling.
The good news for bitcoin bulls is that FTX has almost nothing left to liquidate (not that its customers will even benefit: as a reminder, dozens of FTX customers are challenging a company proposal that would peg the value of their digital assets at the time the company filed bankruptcy, meaning they’d miss-out on a yearlong Bitcoin rally and rebound for other tokens.) FTX also doesn’t expect customers will be fully repaid, which means that almost all of the “cashing out” has been concluded.
The question therefore is if not FTX customers, then just who is benefiting from the FTX liquidations of legacy crypto assets and its aggressive shorting of bitcoin futures. And, continuing down that train of thought, what will happen to FTX if one or more aggressive market players decided to squeeze whoever is pulling the FTX strings and has built up a major bitcoin short.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 16:55 - 9 Factors Driving Energy Markets In 2024
9 Factors Driving Energy Markets In 2024
Authored by Rystad Energy via OilPrice.com,
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Political changes in over 70 countries will impact oil markets and renewable energy policies.
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Natural gas and hydrogen will play key roles in the ongoing energy transition and meeting global energy needs.
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Renewable energy growth will continue with solar and wind power leading the charge, despite challenges in offshore wind and coal power sectors.
Hot off the heels of another tumultuous and eventful year for the global energy landscape, 2024 is already continuing the trend of disruptions, headwinds and opportunities. Last year ended with a momentous agreement at COP28 to cut global methane emissions, a significant contributor to emissions worldwide.
The coming year will be another rollercoaster ride for the industry, posing important questions about whether the net-zero targets outlined in the Paris Agreement can be achieved. Elections, supply chain issues and the maturation of nascent industries are all on the cards.
Last year was a pivotal one for the energy world. Renewable energy capacity expanded rapidly, keeping up with global power demand growth for the first time. Solar PV needed to grow by 220 gigawatts (GW) in 2023 to track the 1.6 DG scenario for global warming. The latest figures now indicate that it could end up at above 400 GW. And there is now supply chain visibility for an annual delivery of 1,500 GW. Global coal demand most likely peaked in 2023, and clean energy technologies are now more affordable than fossil fuel alternatives in most parts of the world. Fossil fuels will, however, remain an important component of the energy mix for the next decades. Countries like Denmark, Finland and Portugal are close to achieving zero carbon power sectors, successfully dealing with the intermittency challenge of renewables. Still, there are also setbacks in renewable deployment, like the cost inflation seen in offshore wind, and governments will need to step up stimulation to get these sectors back on track. This year could see more inflection points in the energy transition, with impacts felt well into the latter half of the decade
Jarand Rystad, CEO
Rystad Energy advises governments, organizations and companies in every corner of the energy landscape, so we are well placed to illuminate the trends that will shape the industry in 2024.
1. Geopolitics to shape the oil market more than ever
It is often said that oil is the most political of all commodities. This year, about 4.2 billion people will face political change with general elections in more than 70 countries. The outcome of these will have a significant impact on national politics and geopolitical developments and, inevitably, on the oil markets. The future of the US’ support for Ukraine, EU’s climate policy ambitions, tensions in the South China Sea, trade frictions between China and the West, and the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East all threaten to upset the market drastically.
Jorge Leon, Senior Vice President, Oil Market Research
2. Natural Gas to help secure energy needs and support the energy transition
Gas will continue its effort to solve the energy trilemma (security, affordability, and sustainability) in 2024. Global gas production is expected to grow by 3% or 130 billion cubic meters (Bcm) in 2024. Investments in greenfield LNG projects are set to slow down this year compared to 2023 but remain at a robust level to support global LNG demand, reaching 500 million tonnes by 2027. Gas will play an enabling role in the energy transition, especially in the power sector. It will be relied upon on a global scale for the foreseeable future, including in Europe.
Xi Nan, Senior Vice President, Gas and LNG Market Research
3. M&A trend moves into the supply chain
The consolidation trend that has gripped the upstream oil and gas industry lately will cross over into the supply chain in 2024. As interest rates stabilize, or even fall, elevated cash flows will encourage suppliers to explore strategic acquisition opportunities to grow capacity inorganically. This will be true for the oilfield services and clean energy markets, where organic capacity expansion may not be the most efficient option, given the peak activity in O&G in 2024 and excess capacity within low-carbon sectors..
Audun Martinsen, Head of Supply Chain Research
4. Hydrogen projects take off in 2024
Activity in the clean hydrogen sector is surging globally, fueled by maturing policies in Europe and the US, in addition to early commercial-scale projects in the Middle East, Australia and Africa. However, 2024 promises more than just momentum – it’s a year of clarity. Several key feasibility studies will be completed, revealing promising new use cases for hydrogen consumption. In the US, expect both a surge in clean hydrogen project approvals (FIDs) and potential cancellations, thanks to the long-awaited 45V tax credit regulations from the Inland Revenue Service (IRS). In 2024, a series of global auctions and grants will unfold, providing essential insights into key aspects of the emerging clean hydrogen sector. These events will shed light on pricing dynamics, technological advancements and the eventual victors and contenders in this transformative landscape.
Artem Abramov, Head of Clean Tech Research
5. Muted US shale growth helps OPEC
Oil prices are expected to stay elevated in the near term, but evolving strategies in the US shale sector mean output is not growing as quickly as in previous years. Investments in the shale patch are not expected to grow in 2024, keeping activity and output relatively flat, and enabling OPEC to effectively regulate the market. As a result, extended periods of high oil prices could be in store.
Espen Erlingsen, Head of Upstream Research
6. Renewable growth doubling down
This year is expected to be another record breaker for the solar and wind markets, adding more than 510 GW of solar PV and wind capacity globally. The resulting new generation from these sources – more than 900 terawatt-hours – will be enough to cover most of the growth in demand, helping limit the need for fossil-fueled power generation. Although capacity will continue to grow, governments need to put in place the right incentives for renewable energy projects to ensure the momentum continues.
Carlos Torres Diaz, Head of Renewables & Power Research
7. Potential for an OPEC+ type group in refined products markets, notably in China
China’s downstream oil sector has revamped its strategy with a bullish move in shifting from quarterly to annual crude import quotas and broadening product export allowances for independent refiners. This is a signal for higher flexibility and autonomy in China refining, both state owned and independent players to keep markets guessing of their next moves, potentially injecting volatility into crude procurement and product exports. This points to an expectation where run rates are set to climb near 15 million barrels per day (bpd), staying elevated throughout the year and peaking at 16 million bpd by September. Notably, the combined refinery capacity of China, the Middle East and Russia, totaling around 38 million bpd, has surpassed that of North America and Europe. The rise of a supply management framework in the refined products market, resembling OPEC+, could be an emerging trend to look out for in the year ahead.
Mukesh Sahdev, Head of Downstream
8. Offshore wind not out of the woods yet, but long-term outlook is robust
In 2023, challenges like inflation, interest rates and supply chain issues led to project setbacks and renegotiations in offshore wind. While the year ahead may not bring a drastic shift, a change can be noted with authorities supporting long-term goals with improved terms in auctions and industry-specific inflation adjustments. At the same time, the soaring inflation experienced in recent years is flattening out, removing the need for further interest hikes and rising capital costs for developers and suppliers. Despite market uncertainty, 2023 saw a record year for FIDs for over 12 GW of offshore wind projects globally (excluding China), suggesting healthy activity levels in the coming years. Furthermore, governments are expected to uphold commitments moving forward, with increased auction volumes, realistic pricing, a focus on faster permitting, and emphasis on supply chain efficiency—all adding to the momentum that’s needed to maintain the energy transition journey.
Alexander Flotre, Vice President & Head of Offshore wind
9. Coal generation to start decline in 2024 as Asian growth slows
Global coal-fired power generation will decline in 2024, thanks in part to the evolving Asian power grids. We predict coal generation in the power sector will fall by 33.7 terawatt-hours (TWh), a 0.3% annual decline, as Asia starts hitting the brakes on new coal power projects. The modelled fall is small but significant as 2023 represents the high water mark for global coal power. China, India and Indonesia remain the top coal consumers for now, but the tide is turning. Surging new renewable energy capacity installations and aging coal plants will soon tip the scales clearly in favor of fossil-free alternatives and a falling share for coal in the power mix will only gather pace.
Steve Hulton, Head of Global Coal Industry Research
To dive deeper into our research and analysis on the energy transition, register now for our upcoming webinar “Rystad Talks Energy“.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 16:20 -
- Biden's Real Oil-For-Fake Democracy Plan Ruined After Venezuela Blocks Opposition Leader's Presidential Run
Biden’s Real Oil-For-Fake Democracy Plan Ruined After Venezuela Blocks Opposition Leader’s Presidential Run
And another foreign policy faux pas…
The Biden administration says it is currently reviewing its sanctions policy on Maduro’s Venezuela, after the country’s top court blocked opposition leader María Corina Machado from becoming a presidential candidate. Her formal candidacy was initially banned for backing US sanctions against Caracas and for alleged corruption.
“The United States is currently reviewing our Venezuela sanctions policy, based on this development and the recent political targeting of democratic opposition candidates and civil society,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a fresh Saturday statement in response to the development.
It was only in October that the White House initiated most extensive rollback of Trump-era sanctions on Caracas, after a series of visits of high-level US officials to meet with counterparts in Caracas. The engagement came to fruition against the backdrop of the Ukraine war, which sent the US abroad in search of alternative energy resources.
Via AP Biden’s easing of the sanctions was supposed to be based on President Nicolás Maduro agreeing to significant democratic reform and an even playing field in the 2024 election.
But as the Associated Press reviews, “Machado won a presidential primary held in October by the faction of the opposition backed by the U.S. She secured more than 90% of the vote despite the Venezuelan government announcing a 15-year ban on her running for office just days after she formally entered the race in June.”
Clearly given that Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice has just upheld the ban on Friday, the Biden administration request didn’t sink in, and its sanctions-easing gambit appears to have backfired.
Meanwhile, there are signs that Maduro ahead of the presidential election, expected for the latter half of 2024, has launched a new crackdown while accusing alleged conspirators against the government.
As is typical in Maduro’s socialist Latin American country, the circumstances are highly bizarre:
Venezuelan authorities have arrested 32 civilians and soldiers after a months-long investigation into their alleged part in a US-backed “conspiracy” to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro, the prosecutor’s office said Monday.
All suspects have “confessed and revealed information about the plans,” Attorney General Tarek William Saab told reporters in Caracas. He said they had been accused of treason and “convicted” for their crimes.
In addition 11 other arrest warrants were issued, but most of these are reportedly in exile. Interestingly, Caracas authorities say they’ve known about the conspiracy for months, but they didn’t want to derail the high-level talks with the US which appears to be ushering in some kind of slow rapprochement.
#FromTheSouth News Bits | President Nicolas Maduro denounced the CIA and the DEA for preparing acts of destabilization from Colombia against Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/ZzLysVBYGX
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) January 19, 2024
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Here are the cast of external agencies now being blamed:
Padrino told the same press conference that an operation that started last year to uncover details of the alleged conspiracy was kept secret as it coincided with “talks” between Maduro and the United States that resulted in a prisoner swap.
He blamed the plot on the “far right,” as the Maduro government usually refers to the opposition, with “support” of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
And to be expected, opposition candidate Machado is also being accused and has been linked to the conspiracy by police and intelligence. The Maduro government even says it has a video proving it. Machado has dismissed all of this as part of Maduro’s “surreal and delirious plots.” Without doubt the coming weeks and months are going to be interesting, and especially the reaction of the Biden White House – whether it backtracks are pursues further diplomatic “openings” with Maduro.
And now the Biden admin hypocrisy will be exposed for all to see as he is stuck between a rock of supporting an authoritarian dictator hell-bent on destroying democracy and a hard-place of rising oil prices (if sanctions are reinstated 200-300k less barrels of supply) and rising gasoline prices and that’s not an election winner.
Bond investors know that elections always trump ethics and have mostly held onto their bets that the sanctions will remain suspended.
Government notes due in 2027 were quoted late Friday at 21.4 cents, according to indicative pricing compiled by Bloomberg, 2 cents lower than their high earlier this month but still far above the 10-cent range where they traded before the Barbados agreement.
It will be interesting to see how Biden spins the support of democracy-defying dictators overseas (Ukraine first and now Venezuela) while demagoguing the apparent democracy-destroying opposition doimestically.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 15:45 - More Senate Republicans Embrace Trump As He Marches Toward GOP Nomination
More Senate Republicans Embrace Trump As He Marches Toward GOP Nomination
Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Former President Donald Trump continues to pick up endorsements from Capitol Hill as it appears increasingly likely that he will clinch the Republican nomination for president.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) became one of the latest GOP lawmakers to back President Trump on Jan. 24 following his historic victory in New Hampshire.
“Competition makes us all better, so I let the primary play out, but this thing’s over,” Mr. Kennedy wrote in an X post.
“It’s going to be Pres. Trump versus Pres. Biden: A choice between hope and more hurt. It’s not even close. I choose hope. I am endorsing Pres. Trump and look forward to working with him.”
After winning in Iowa by a historic 30-point margin, President Trump went on to set records in New Hampshire as well. Not only did he receive the most votes of any presidential candidate ever in the history of the first-in-the-nation primary, but he is also now the first non-incumbent candidate to win in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
Mr. Kennedy’s endorsement followed those of Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who backed the 45th president almost immediately after the New Hampshire race was called. The move brings President Trump’s total Senate endorsements up to 30.
It also appears to be part of a more recent trend among Republican senators to coalesce—in some cases reluctantly—behind President Trump and shift the focus to November. But with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley still in the race, that might take longer than they’d like.
Although Ms. Haley will not take part in the GOP’s Nevada caucus on Feb. 8, she has pledged to continue her fight in her home state of South Carolina, where she is targeting a come-from-behind victory.
But even for the former governor, a Palmetto State upset would be no easy feat. There, a 30-point chasm currently separates Ms. Haley from first place, per the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Further, a host of prominent Republican leaders in the state have already backed President Trump.
Yet while the former U.N. ambassador denies that the writing is on the wall for her campaign, in the Senate, Republicans seem more ready to accept what has long appeared inevitable.
“He’s going to be the nominee. Voters have made their minds up,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told NTD News on Jan. 24. “So, I think this is the time to unite—Republicans need to unite. I understand the different candidates who ran have differences, sure. But hey, this is the time to unite and beat Joe Biden.”
‘Time to Unite’
Mr. Hawley, who endorsed President Trump in December, acknowledged that the move to rally around the presumptive nominee has been sluggish in the Senate, particularly among GOP leadership.
It’s no secret that the chamber’s minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has a strained relationship with the former president. And those who remain loyal to Mr. McConnell have been among the slowest to get behind President Trump.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, has not endorsed President Trump but has said he would support the party’s eventual nominee.
“Voters are breaking heavily in [Trump’s] favor. He’s in a commanding position, and I’ve said all along I’ll support the nominee,” he told reporters on Jan. 24. “So, if he’s the nominee, I’ll do what I can to help the team win the presidency and the Senate and put an end to the Biden/Schumer agenda.”
Mr. Thune had previously endorsed Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) in his presidential bid. Mr. Scott has since dropped out of the race and joined President Trump on the campaign trail.
Meanwhile, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a leadership counselor to Mr. McConnell, said he won’t endorse during the primary process but will support the Republican nominee.
And Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has flat-out rejected the idea of endorsing President Trump.
Ms. Collins was one of the seven Republican Senators who voted to convict the 45th president on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection just before he left office. When asked if she could see herself supporting President Trump even as the nominee, she replied: “I do not at this point.”
Instead, she said she was glad to see that Ms. Haley was still in the race and hoped that she would prevail in securing the nomination.
But one Senate leader who has embraced President Trump is Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the chairman of the Senate GOP conference and the chamber’s third-ranked Republican.
During a Jan. 9 appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” Mr. Barrasso endorsed the former president as the candidate who could get the country “back on track.”
“The country was much better off under President Donald Trump. And Joe Biden continues to fail America.”
McConnell Stays Silent
Mr. McConnell himself has remained mum on the primary race. When asked about it on Jan. 23, he told reporters, “I’ve essentially stayed out of it. And when I change my mind about that, I’ll let you know.”
He also dodged a subsequent question on whether he thought he should mend his relationship with President Trump, stating that he had “no news to make” on that, and that he and others would be watching the New Hampshire primary “with great interest.”
But Mr. Hawley said on Jan. 24 that discord between the top Senate Republican and a Republican president—should President Trump be elected—would be bad for the GOP.
“You can’t have a Republican leader in the Senate who doesn’t want to work with the president of his own party who’s come into office,” he said.
The senator added that he would not support Mr. McConnell in the party’s next leadership election, regardless of who is elected president.
“I think we need new leadership for a range of reasons. And I think that’s been on full display in recent months,” he said, holding that Mr. McConnell has ignored the will of Republican voters on more than just the presidential primary race.
“In my state, you’ve got people who’ve been exposed to the government’s nuclear radioactive waste for 50 years running,” he said. “The position of the leader of my own party in the Senate is they should get nothing, they deserve to have nothing, but we have unlimited sums of money for Ukraine and other foreign interests in which he is personally interested. I just think that’s an extraordinary position for any member of the Senate to take.”
Jackson Richman contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 15:10 - Rand Paul: It's Time The US Stopped Being "The Sugar Daddy Of The Entire World"
Rand Paul: It’s Time The US Stopped Being “The Sugar Daddy Of The Entire World”
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
GOP Senator Rand Paul has called for the United States to stop paying for everything on the globe at the expense of its own people, asking “When did we become the sugar daddy of the world?”
Speaking with Fox Business on yet another upcoming funding bill for Ukraine, Paul noted “there’s going to be $11 billion dollars worth of ‘humanitarian assistance,’ some of that goes to Ukraine, but some of it is going to Gaza. It’s not clear exactly how much is going to the Palestinians, but it is sort of bizarre that we fund both sides of every war.”
ICYMI this morning I asked an important question on @MorningsMaria: When did we become the sugar daddy of the world? 🤔https://t.co/8dBePCSjeV
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 25, 2024
He continued, “They’re going to expect us to clean up, repair Ukraine when it is done being destroyed. The same with Gaza. Gaza is being destroyed but who is going to pay for it? They expect to us pay for it. I don’t want a penny going to Hamas or any of these people.”
“I have great sympathy for those living in Gaza and the mess they are in, and I wish it would stop. But I don’t think we should always have to pay for everything,” Paul urged.
The Senator added, “It is a history of both parties, really, frankly over decades, funding both sides of every war. Once war is over, we say we will pay to clean it up. No. It is a problem. It is sort of the opposite of the philosophy of some from the liberty wing of the party.”
“We don’t need to have 1,500 troops in Niger, Africa, or troops in Somalia. We frankly don’t need like 800 troops spread out throughout Syria, where they are basically just targets for different terrorists,” Paul continued, noting “These are the discussions we should have, but still the majority of Republicans and Democrats want troops everywhere, our hands in everything.”
“We also don’t have money for it anymore because we are running a $1.5 trillion deficit, we borrowed a trillion dollars just in the last three months. It is out of control and some of it has to do with foreign expenditures. We gotta think about what is going on at home,” Paul further warned.
Watch:
Rand Paul: “It is a history of both parties, really, frankly over decades, funding both sides of every war. When did we become the sugar daddy of the world? It is a problem.” Report here https://t.co/u8dpZqKyL8 pic.twitter.com/Dztmv53nwc
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) January 26, 2024
Paul’s latest comments come after he told Tucker Carlson “Half of my Republican caucus is, as we speak, ready to sell out, and they’re ready to sell out fake border reform in exchange for what they really want, which is to send more of your tax dollars to Ukraine.”
* * *
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 14:00 - British Oil Tanker On Fire For Several Hours After Houthi Attack, Dramatic Photos Show
British Oil Tanker On Fire For Several Hours After Houthi Attack, Dramatic Photos Show
Update(0153ET): The Indian Navy led by the INS Visakhapatnam was among the first rescue team to respond to the stricken Marlin Luanda after it was hit by a missile fired by the Houthis. It was reportedly on fire for a lengthy amount of time, by some accounts over six hours, before the blaze was extinguished by the Indian Navy.
Images published by the Indian Navy (below) show smoke and flame billowing at the height of day. According to more details via BBC:
A tanker with links to the UK was on fire for several hours in the Gulf of Aden after being hit by a missile fired by the Houthis.
The Iran-backed movement, based in Yemen, said it targeted the Marlin Luanda on Friday in response to “American-British aggression”.
The US and UK have launched air strikes on Houthi targets in response to attacks on ships in the Red Sea region French, Indian and US naval ships provided assistance to the vessel.
Some day time images of the Marlin Luanda, aligns with the photo we shared last night of the deck on fire, confirming its authenticity in my opinion. pic.twitter.com/641ZDCIdxL
— Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) January 27, 2024
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UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has condemned the attack as “intolerable and illegal.”
“It is our duty to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and we remain as committed to that cause as ever,” he said in a statement on X.
Source: Indian Navy * * *
The British fuel tanker operated on behalf of trading giant Trafigura, was on fire after it was struck by a missile as it transited the Red Sea, in the most significant attack yet by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on an oil-carrying vessel.
Yemen’s Houthis said on Friday their naval forces carried out an operation targeting “the British oil tanker Marlin Luanda” in the Gulf of Aden causing a fire to break out. They used “a number of appropriate naval missiles, the strike was direct,” the Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement.
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“Firefighting equipment on board is being deployed to suppress and control the fire caused in one cargo tank on the starboard side,” a Trafigura spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain in contact with the vessel and are monitoring the situation carefully. Military ships in the region are underway to provide assistance.”
The area in question and the southern Red Sea have been the center of multiple attacks on ships by Houthi militants in recent weeks. Since mid-November, the Houthis have launched near daily attacks on vessels transiting the waterway, in an act of solidarity with Palestinians amid the war between Israel and the militant group Hamas. The conflict has rerouted trade flows as some shippers avoid the key waterway.
The tanker, headed toward Singapore, was carrying naphtha, which is used to produce gasoline and plastics. Ironically, the naphtha was of Russian origin, Trafigura said.
“The vessel is carrying Russian-origin naphtha purchased below price cap in line with G7 sanctions,” a spokesperson said, however some have voiced questions about how a venerated Swiss merchant procured the Russian commodity.
Pretty much all origins naphtha is trading below the price cap, but, why would Trafi load from 3 different dark fleet tankers doing STS in Kalamata (GR)? Is more efficient to direct load in Novorossyks… that is if you are legit
— Oil Bandit 🛢️ (@OilCfd) January 26, 2024
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The attack, the most serious yet since Houthi militants effectively took control of transit in the Red Sea, will raise fresh questions about whether oil tankers will continue to transit the Red Sea. Since joint US and UK airstrikes on the Houthis earlier this month, tanker traffic in the region has declined, but some vessels have continued to pass through, including those hauling oil from Russia and toward China. Other key oil exporters like Saudi Arabia said this week that they were planning to continue using the route.
As Bloomberg correctly, if unironically, points out, the latest attack suggests that the US and its allies haven’t sufficiently degraded the Houthis’ military capabilities two weeks after launching the first of several airstrikes on the group’s missiles, radars and other assets across Yemen. Of course, it also means that the Biden-spearheaded operation “Prosperity Guardian” which was meant to secure passage of ships in the Red Sea is now literally up in flames.
Last weekend, US Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said military actions to deter the Houthis and other groups backed by Iran would take time.
“Deterrence is not a light switch,” Finer told ABC, trying to explain why nobody takes the US seriously any more. “We are taking out these stockpiles so they will not be able to conduct so many attacks over time. That will take time to play out.”
In its update on the incident, the UK Navy advised ships to transit with caution and said authorities are responding.
Earlier Friday, missiles exploded near a Panama-flagged, India-affiliated ship carrying barrels from Russia, according to Ambrey. Although a Houthi spokesman told the Russian newspaper Izvestia last week that Russian and Chinese ships sailing through the Red Sea would be safe, Friday’s attack was the third in the vicinity of a vessel that had previously called on a Russian port.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 13:53 - Trump Says Texas Rightly Invoked 'Invasion' Clause Over Biden's Open Border
Trump Says Texas Rightly Invoked ‘Invasion’ Clause Over Biden’s Open Border
Former President Trump chimed in on the unfolding border situation in Texas between state officials and the federal Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), saying that President Biden is “unbelievable” for what he’s done.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, left, listens as Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump, right, speaks to Texas state troopers and guardsmen during a Thanksgiving meal at the South Texas International Airport, Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023, in Edinburg, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) “Joe Biden has surrendered our border and is aiding and abetting a massive invasion of millions of illegal migrants into the United States,” Trump said in a Thursday post to Truth Social.
“Instead of fighting to protect our country from this onslaught, Biden is, unbelievably, fighting to tie the hands of Governor [Greg] Abbott and the state of Texas so that the invasion continues unchecked.
“In the face of this national security, public safety, and public health catastrophe, Texas has rightly invoked the invasion clause of the Constitution and must be given full support to repel the invasion,” Trump continued.
The comments come as the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard are engaged in a high-profile conflict with the Biden administration over the use of razor wire along the Rio Grande river separating Texas and Mexico.
Last week, the US Supreme Court allowed the Biden administration to remove the razor wire while a court case plays out – however Texas has remained defiant, and instead deployed more razor wire at the border.
As the Epoch Times notes, some legal experts have pointed out that the Supreme Court decision doesn’t actually prohibit Texas from installing more razor wire – it just allows federal officials to cut it.
Rallying around Abbott
In a Jan. 24 letter, Abbott accused Biden of having “broken the compact between the United States and the states” regarding immigration policy, which has increased demands for the federalization of the National Guard.
Mr. Abbott issued the letter, maintaining his position that illegal immigration is an “invasion” of Texas.
He further stated that he had used “Texas’ constitutional authority to defend and protect itself,” stating that this authority “is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.”
The letter asserted that President Biden had “violated his oath” and “instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants.” It also stated that the impact of federal policy “is to illegally allow their en masse parole into the United States.”
“Under President Biden’s lawless border policies, more than 6 million illegal immigrants have crossed our southern border in just three years.
“That is more than the population of 33 different states in this country. This illegal refusal to protect the states has inflicted unprecedented harm on the people all across the United States.” –Epoch Times
What’s more, a coalition of 25 Republican governors have signed a letter in support of the Texas resistance.
Here is the joint letter with 25 governors supporting the Texas Border Resistance against our rogue federal government.
Republican Governors Association link: https://t.co/CPfSLrzGEA pic.twitter.com/w2PDWYjpZd
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 25, 2024
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Meanwhile, Ten retired FBI officials and experts in counterintelligence sent a letter to Congressional leaders warning that the Biden administration’s policies have facilitated a “soft invasion” of military-age men into the United States from terror-linked areas of the world.
This sobering letter from former FBI, Homeland Security, and other law enforcement officials describes the chilling reality of why @POTUS’s open border is a clear and present danger to America. pic.twitter.com/JrlM6vKjVq
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) January 25, 2024
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Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 13:25 - The Slow Death Of America's Unions
The Slow Death Of America’s Unions
Authored by Sam Bourgi via CreditNews.com,
Unionization in America has reached its lowest level in recorded history.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), only 10% of American workers—14.4 million people—were part of a union in 2023. Union members increased by 139,000 last year, but their percentage of the total workforce declined slightly.
By comparison, 20.1% of Americans were part of a union in 1983.
Per BLS data, unions are heavily concentrated in the public sector.
Roughly one in three (32.5%) government employees were unionized in 2023, compared to a meager 6% of private-sector workers.
A deeper dive into the data reveals that private-sector unions have declined in lockstep with manufacturing employment.
Over the past four decades, the share of Americans employed in manufacturing—where unionization is among the highest—has cratered from around 22% to the current rate of 10%.
During that period, the percentage of manufacturing workers who were part of a union fell from around 32% to the current rate of roughly 8%.
“While domestic manufacturing drove union membership in the mid-20th century, the U.S. now has far fewer manufacturing jobs than in decades past, both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of overall employment,” according to Diane Katz, a public policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation.
While experts disagree on whether union membership is desirable, there’s a clear link between membership and wages.
Unionized workers earn more—but there’s a catch
According to BLS data, union members earned an average weekly wage of $1,263 in 2023, while non-union workers earned just $1,090.
Unionized workers earn more because of collective bargaining—a process whereby union reps negotiate contracts on behalf of their members.
When unions don’t get what they want, they often go on strike.
As Creditnews reported, the United Auto Workers union went on strike last fall, bringing car production in Detroit to a standstill. The labor disruption lasted six weeks and ended with the union getting a 25% wage increase for its members.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, labor unions increase workers’ bargaining power and contribute to better financial outcomes. An absence of unions has “led to wage suppression and the deterioration of labor’s share of income,” according to a November 2020 report.
However, some experts believe unions are a double-edged sword because they monopolize the supply of labor.
“Unions function as labor cartels, restricting the number of workers in a company or industry to drive up the remaining workers’ wages,” wrote James Sherk, research fellow of labor economics at the Heritage Foundation.
“Over time, unions destroy jobs in the companies they organize,” he said, adding that “unions decrease the number of jobs available in the economy.”
A changing workforce
It’s not surprising that unionization declined as the composition of the U.S. workforce changed.
Today, roughly four out of five Americans work in the services sector, where unionization is weakest. As Katz noted, union membership is lowest in sales, computer and math occupations, and food services—“all jobs related to the dominant service economy and tech sector.”
While high-skilled workers can get by without unions because they command higher wages, this isn’t necessarily the case for lesser-skilled employees. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, unions have been shown to boost the wages of lesser-skilled workers.
This perception isn’t lost on Americans, who increasingly view unions in a positive light.
According to a Gallup poll, 71% of Americans approve of labor unions, mostly because of better pay and benefits. That’s the highest approval rating since 1965.
The positive outlook comes despite 84% of respondents indicating they’re not currently part of a union.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 12:50 - Mask-Wearing German Judge Acquits CJ Hopkins In 'Nazi-Promoting Tweets' Case
Mask-Wearing German Judge Acquits CJ Hopkins In ‘Nazi-Promoting Tweets’ Case
Six months after renowned American author and satirist CJ Hopkins was first charged (and found guilty and sentenced) for daring to dissent against the state’s increasing authoritarianism (by tweeting an image of a mask with a swastika image shining through), he finally had his day in (German) court…
…and, in his own words “it went pretty well.”
We have followed this grotesque ‘legal’ drama closely over the months, as Hopkins exposed “Thought-Crimes As The Road To Totaliarianism“, discussed the “Continued Criminlization of Dissent“, and warned Americans that “The 1st Amendment Won’t Save You.“
“I don’t mean to imply that fighting this global crackdown on dissent in the courts is futile. On the contrary, it’s one of the only strategies we have, and I will certainly be doing that vigorously here in Germany…
I’m just trying to dissuade my fellow Americans from feeling immune or… well, superior, on account of the US 1st Amendment and misconceptions about Germany and Europe.”
And fight he did – with, ironically, a mask-wearing judge begrudgingly acquitting him this week of the charge of “disseminating the emblems of a National Socialist organisation.”
“I was acquitted. Technically, it isn’t all over, because the prosecutor has a week to appeal the decision, but, given the circumstances, I doubt he will. He made a total fool of himself in front of a large audience yesterday. I can’t imagine that he will want to do that again.”
As Aya Velazquez reported, in her reasons for the judgement, the judge stated that the “acquittal counteracts your (Mr Hopkins) statements that you live here in a totalitarian state”.
She sensed “a certain arrogance in his statement”, along the lines of “only he would have understood it, everyone else is stupid sheep”.
The others may have been convinced by scientists. After all, it was a completely new situation. The “subjective feeling that you see the new Nazi Germany emerging… you may already have something totalitarian about you.”
She herself was the granddaughter of Nazi victims, so he didn’t need to put on airs here.
In her opinion, Hopkins’ statements were – she said verbatim – “ideological drivel”, but that was “not punishable by law”.
You can read Aya’s full detailed breakdown of the court appearance here.
We look forward to CJ’s full report on his substack of how it all went down, but for now we congratulate him on beating this highly-politicized show-trial and scoring what is becoming less and less frequent – a win for free-speech against the state.
Until that report, here is Hopkins’ fantastic closing statement – we can only imagine the looks on the judge’s and prosecutor’s faces as Hopkins unleashed his acerbic wit on their version of reality. (emphasis ours)
CJ Hopkins Court Statement, Berlin District Court, January 23, 2024
My name is CJ Hopkins. I am an American playwright, author, and political satirist. My plays have been produced and received critical acclaim internationally. My political satire and commentary is read by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. 20 years ago, I left my own country because of the fascistic atmosphere that had taken hold of the USA at that time, the time of the US invasion of Iraq, a war of aggression based on my government’s lies. I emigrated to Germany and made a new life here in Berlin, because I believed that Germany, given its history, would be the last place on earth to ever have anything to do with any form of totalitarianism again.
The gods have a strange sense of humor. This past week, thousands of people have been out in the streets all over Germany protesting against fascism, chanting “never again is now.” Many of these people spent the past three years, 2020 to 2023, unquestioningly obeying orders, parroting official propaganda, and demonizing anyone who dared to question the government’s unconstitutional and authoritarian actions during the so-called Covid pandemic. Many of these same people, those who support Palestinian rights, are now shocked that the new form of totalitarianism they helped usher into existence is being turned against them. And here I am, in criminal court in Berlin, accused of disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda in two Tweets about mask mandates. The German authorities have had my speech censored on the Internet, and have damaged my reputation and income as an author. One of my books has been banned by Amazon in Germany. All this because I criticized the German authorities, because I mocked one of their decrees, because I pointed out one of their lies.
This turn of events would be absurdly comical if it were not so infuriating. I cannot adequately express how insulting it is to be forced to sit here and affirm my opposition to fascism. For over thirty years, I have written and spoken out against fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism etc. Anyone can do an Internet search, find my books, read the reviews of my plays, read my essays, and discover who I am and what my political views are in two or three minutes. And yet I am accused by the German authorities of disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda. I am accused of doing this because I posted two Tweets challenging the official Covid narrative and comparing the new, nascent form of totalitarianism it has brought into being — i.e., the so-called “New Normal” — to Nazi Germany.
Let me be very clear. In those two Tweets, and in my essays throughout 2020 to 2022, and in my current essays, I have indeed compared the rise of this new form of totalitarianism to the rise of the best-known 20th-Century form of totalitarianism, i.e., Nazi Germany. I have made this comparison, and analysed the similiarities and differences between these two forms of totalitarianism, over and over again. And I will continue to do so. I will continue to analyze and attempt to explain this new, emerging form of totalitarianism, and to oppose it, and warn my readers about it.
The two Tweets at issue here feature a swastika covered by one of the medical masks that everyone was forced to wear in public during 2020 to 2022. That is the cover art of my book. The message conveyed by this artwork is clear. In Nazi Germany, the swastika was the symbol of conformity to the official ideology. During 2020 to 2022, the masks functioned as the symbol of conformity to a new official ideology. That was their purpose. Their purpose was to enforce people’s compliance with government decrees and conformity to the official Covid-pandemic narrative, most of which has now been proven to have been propaganda and lies.
Mask mandates do not work against airborne viruses. This had been understood and acknowledged by medical experts for decades prior to the Spring of 2020. It has now been proven to everyone and acknowledged by medical experts again. The science of mask mandates did not suddenly change in March of 2020 and change back again in 2023. The official narrative changed. The official ideology changed. The official “reality” changed. Karl Lauterbach was absolutely correct when he said, “The masks always send out a signal.” They signal they sent out from 2020 to 2022 was, “I conform. I do not ask questions. I obey orders.”
That is not how democratic societies function. That is how totalitarian systems function.
Not every form of totalitarianism is the same, but they share common hallmarks. Forcing people to display symbols of conformity to official ideology is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Declaring a “state of emergency” and revoking constitutional rights for no justifiable reason is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Banning protests against government decrees is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Inundating the public with lies and propaganda designed to terrify people into mindless obedience is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Segregating societies is a hallmark of totalitarian systems. Censoring dissent is a hallmark of totalitarianism. Stripping people of their jobs because they refuse to conform to official ideology is a hallmark of totalitarianism. Fomenting mass hatred of a “scapegoat” class of people is a classic hallmark of totalitarianism. Demonizing critics of the official ideology is a hallmark of totalitarianism. Instrumentalizing the law to punish dissidents and make examples of critics of the authorities is a hallmark of totalitarian systems.
I have documented the emergence of all of these hallmarks of totalitarianism in societies throughout the West, including but not limited to Germany, since March of 2020. I will continue to do so. I will continue to warn readers about this new, emerging form of totalitarianism and attempt to understand it, and oppose it. I will compare this new form of totalitarianism to earlier forms of totalitarianism, and specifically to Nazi Germany, whenever it is appropriate and contributes to our understanding of current events. That is my job as a political satirist and commentator, and as an author, and my responsibility as a human being.
The German authorities can punish me for doing that. You have the power to do that. You can make an example of me. You can fine me. You can imprison me. You can ban my books. You can censor my content on the Internet, which you have done. You can defame me, and damage my income and reputation as an author, as you have done. You can demonize me as a “conspiracy theorist,” as an “anti-vaxxer,” a “Covid denier,” an “idiot,” and an “extremist,” which you have done. You can haul me into criminal court and make me sit here, in Germany, in front of my wife, who is Jewish, and deny that I am an anti-Semite who wants to relativize the Holocaust. You have the power to do all these things.
However, I hope that you will at least have the integrity to call this what it is, and not hide behind false accusations that I am somehow supporting the Nazis by comparing the rise of a new form of totalitarianism to the rise of an earlier totalitarian system, one that took hold of and ultimately destroyed this country in the 20th Century, and murdered millions in the process, because too few Germans had the courage to stand up and oppose it when it first began. I hope that you will at least have the integrity to not pretend that you actually believe I am disseminating pro-Nazi propaganda, when you know very well that is not what I am doing.
No one with any integrity believes that is what I am doing. No one with any integrity believes that is what my Tweets in 2022 were doing. Every journalist that has covered my case, everyone in this courtroom, understands what this prosecution is actually about. It has nothing to do with punishing people who actually disseminate pro-Nazi propaganda. It is about punishing dissent, and making an example of dissidents in order to intimidate others into silence.
That is not how democratic nations function. That is how totalitarian systems function.
What I hope even more is that this court will put an end to this prosecution, and apply the law fairly, and not allow it to be used as a pretext to punish people like me who criticize government dictates, people who expose the lies of government officials, people who refuse to deny facts, who refuse to perform asburd rituals of obedience on command, who refuse to unquestioningly follow orders.
Because the issue here is much larger and much more important than my little “Tweet” case.
We are, once again, at a crossroads. Not just here in Germany, but throughout the West. People went a little crazy, a little fascist, during the so-called Covid pandemic. And now, here we are. There are two roads ahead. We have to choose … you, me, all of us. One road leads back to the rule of law, to democratic principles. The other road leads to authoritarianism, to societies where authorities rule by decree, and force, and twist the law into anything they want, and dictate what is and isn’t reality, and abuse their power to silence anyone who disagrees with them.
That is the road to totalitarianism. We have been down that road before. Please, let’s not do it again.
After Hopkins’ closing statement, there was clapping from the packed courtroom, which the judge acknowledged with the visibly displeased warning that she would “send everyone out” if such expressions of opinion did not cease.
At the end of the hearing, the judge left the courtroom wearing an FFP2 mask…
If that doesn’t sum it all up perfectly, we don’t know what does…
Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/27/2024 – 12:15
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