- Watch: Russian Jets In Another "Unsafe" Intercept Of US Spy Plane Near Syrian Airbase
Watch: Russian Jets In Another “Unsafe” Intercept Of US Spy Plane Near Syrian Airbase
Tyler Durden
Thu, 05/28/2020 – 02:45For the third time in a couple of months American and Russian aircraft entered a close, dangerous encounter over the Mediterranean near Russia’s Hmeimim Airbase in western Syria.
The Tuesday incident reportedly involved two Russian Su-35 jets which intercepted a US Navy reconnaissance aircraft over the eastern Mediterranean. The Pentagon blasted their actions as “unsafe”,”unprofessional” and “irresponsible”.
“For the third time in two months, Russian pilots flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner while intercepting a US Navy P-8A Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft,” the Navy said of the provocative aerial encounter, which like prior recent intercepts was caught on video.
Via US Sixth Fleet The US statement underscored the danger in “the Russian pilots taking close station on each wing of the P-8A simultaneously, restricting the P-8A’s ability to safely maneuver.”
Indeed photographs and video show that each Su-35 fighter just behind each wing of the airliner-size US recon plane. The Russian jets accompanied the aircraft for about 65 minutes, according to the statement.
It appears the Russian Air Force has drawn a ‘red line’ in not tolerating flights near its Hmeimim Airbase in western Syria.
Recall too that a mere two weeks ago the top US special envoy to region, James Jeffrey, openly declared “his job” was to make Syria a “quagmire” for the Russians.
Via US Sixth Fleet His comments came on May 12 during a video conference hosted by the neocon Hudson Institute:
Asked why the American public should tolerate US involvement in Syria, Special Envoy James Jeffrey points out the small US footprint in the fight against ISIS. “This isn’t Afghanistan. This isn’t Vietnam. This isn’t a quagmire. My job is to make it a quagmire for the Russians.”
No doubt, the Kremlin took note, putting their military even more on edge and on alert, suspicious of any level of US reconnaissance along Syria’s coastline.
Though the Syrian war has largely slipped from the headlines, the question of jihadi-control over Idlib province is still festering, and likely the Americans are closely monitoring Syrian Army and Russian moves on the area.
- Support For China Falls Dramatically In European, Indian Polls
Support For China Falls Dramatically In European, Indian Polls
Tyler Durden
Thu, 05/28/2020 – 02:00Authored by Lawrence Kadish via The Gatestone Institute,
A soon to be released international survey finds that when the COVID-19 virus finally burns itself out its biggest victim may be the very country that launched the pandemic – China.
Bluster, bullying, and propaganda launched by China’s leadership to subdue international criticism of their handling of COVID-19 is only stoking the anger among nations as diverse as the U.K., Germany and India, according to data revealed during a comprehensive poll conducted by the firm McLaughlin & Associates.
They may not embrace the White House on any given issue but when it comes to China, a large and significant number of those polled in this global COVID-19 survey would now support economic sanctions, confronting China’s strategy to achieve global dominance by controlling worldwide access to technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and more.
What can only be described as a diplomatic earthquake is the emerging political fault line along China’s southern border with India.
The McLaughlin poll found that a majority of voters in the world’s largest democracy, some 54%, believe China hid key COVID-19 details, resulting in more damage by the pandemic, and 78% believe China knowingly kept data from the international community.
And it gets worse for Beijing. As many as 85% of Indian voters believe China should be held accountable with 88% approving of an investigation of not just China but the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding what did they know and when did they know it.
More than three time zones away, in Germany, a significant majority, 69% of voters polled, say China has not been open or honest about COVID-19, and more than a third say there is little doubt China hid key details regarding its origins or spread. In the U.K. seven out of 10 voters, or 68%, say China kept data about the virus from the world.
In Germany, 61% of the voters believe China should be held accountable while in the U.K., 81% of those voters polled said the Chinese government should be held accountable with 20% of those United Kingdom respondents suggesting one response should be lawsuits by families impacted by COVID-19.
Some 26% proposed diplomatic actions, and 38% believe economic actions would be the best response.
When asked whether they would support changes in diplomatic and economic relations with China if it was revealed that that regime withheld information, more than half of the Germans polled, 54%, said yes.
A stunning 80% said their nation needs to end its dependence on China and 71% believe Germany should withdraw manufacturing investments. In the UK 74% of the respondents were prepared to change their relationship with China following COVID-19.
The only good news for a China intent on diminishing America’s role as a 21st century superpower is that a majority of those surveyed abroad believe China’s COVID-19 induced economic tremor has impacted America’s global leadership, a goal the Chinese dare not accomplish through military means, no matter how many additional nuclear weapons they seek to place in their growing arsenal.
That response reflects a tacit acknowledgment that China’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak, whether deliberate or otherwise, has allowed it to win a public perception battle without firing a shot.
It also reveals what the White House already knows; this is a defining moment for China, its relationship with the United States, and those nations the Chinese intend to place under their economic thumb.
This poll will compel Beijing to consider a stark truth. Their offer of billions in health aid to those nations suffering from COVID-19, coupled with an extensive media/diplomatic blitz that threatens those brave enough to question their actions, is a complete failure.
In fact, the global survey documents a rising awareness of the existential threat from a China that has not only infected the world but seeks to hold the keys to the medical and economic remedies our world needs.
We will recover from COVID-19. Our nation has withstood far worse.
What America needs now is to hear these overseas voices of outrage over China’s treachery and respond with the bipartisan political will to confront the real danger: a regime that will use the chaos of COVID-19 to acclerate their strategy of dominating the 21st century as the world’s sole superpower.
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The full poll results for the Kadish article on our European and Indian polls are found here.
- Your "Immunity Passport" Future Begins To Materialize As Airlines Call For Digital ID Tracking
Your “Immunity Passport” Future Begins To Materialize As Airlines Call For Digital ID Tracking
Tyler Durden
Thu, 05/28/2020 – 00:05Authored by Derrick Broze via The Last American Vagabond blog,
The world’s largest airline trade group has called for immunity passports, thermal screening, masks, and physical distancing to be a part of the industry’s strategy for returning to “normal” operations.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 299 airlines, recently issued their publication, Biosecurity for Air Transport A Roadmap for Restarting Aviation, which outlines their strategy to open up air travel as governments begin to lift travel restrictions.
Under a section titled, “The passenger experience” and “Temporary biosecurity measures,” the IATA describes their vision of post-COVID-19 flights. The organization calls for contact tracing, a controversial method of tracking the civilian population to track the spread of COVID-19.
“We foresee the need to collect more detailed passenger contact information which can be used for tracing purposes,” the report states. “Where possible, the data should be collected in electronic form, and in advance of the passenger arriving at the airport including through eVisa and electronic travel authorization platforms.”
Interestingly, this call for pre-boarding check-in using “electronic travel authorization platforms” coincides with the recent announcement of the Covi-Pass and the Health Pass from Clear, both of which call for a digital ID system using biometrics and storing travel, health, and identification data.
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s CEO, told Arabian Industry that “a layered approach” combining multiple measures which are “globally implemented and mutually recognized by governments” are “the way forward for biosecurity.”
The IATA also calls for temperature screening at entry points to airport terminals. They envision the airline experience involving physical distancing of 3-6 feet throughout the airport. The group believes changes to the airport buildings to allow for physical distancing may be necessary. The IATA also recommended “face coverings” for passengers and protective equipment for airline and airport staff.
Although the organization acknowledged that there is not currently a fast reliable test for COVID-19, they believe that once an effective test is developed it could be applied on entry to the terminal. They call for this measure to be “incorporated into the passenger process as soon as an effective test, validated by the medical community, has been developed.”
On the topic of immunity passports — an idea discussed by Anthony Fauci, the World Health Organization, and Bill Gates — the IATA states that “immunity passports could play an important role in further facilitating the restart of air travel.” The organization believes that if a person is shown to have recovered from COVID-19 and developed immunity they will not need protective measures. Once medical evidence supports the possibility of immunity to COVID-19, IATA believes “it is essential that a recognized global standard be introduced, and that corresponding documents be made available electronically.”
Finally, the IATA believes a “general move towards greater use of touchless technology and biometrics should also be pursued.” Biometrics would include facial recognition, retina scanning, and/or thumbprints.
This vision painted by the IATA is one where those who choose to fly are faced with invasive security measures, surveillance, biometric tracking, immunity passports, temperature screenings, and generally, less human contact due to physical distancing and less communication with actual people. Of course, this push towards a digital ID which contains an individual’s personal identifying information, health records, and other personal data is part of an agenda which predates COVID-19. The “powers that wish they were” are taking every opportunity to expand their technocratic control grid and the panic caused by COVID-19 allows them to accelerate their plans at a rate not seen since the days after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The only thing stopping the roll out of this Technocratic State is the people of the world coming together, informing those who are in the dark, and unplugging from this control grid.
- 'Not A Global Police Force': Pentagon To Brief Trump On Afghan Exit Before Election Timetable
‘Not A Global Police Force’: Pentagon To Brief Trump On Afghan Exit Before Election Timetable
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 23:45Multiple reports now indicate President Trump wants to pull all American troops out of Afghanistan by the November election, following a shaky historic ceasefire and truce deal with the Taliban, lately showing signs of actually holding, given a key prisoner swap successfully taking effect in the past days considered integral to the agreement.
Trump tweeted on the matter Wednesday morning, again invoking what made his foreign policy attractive on the 2016 campaign trail of rejecting the neocon idea of being the ‘globe’s police force’ – instead putting America first.
“We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan. After 19 years, it is time for them to police their own Country,” the president said on Twitter.
We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan. After 19 years, it is time for them to police their own Country. Bring our soldiers back home but closely watch what is going on and strike with a thunder like never before, if necessary!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
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Given his prior promises to his base and to the country, if Trump is to actually deliver on what past administrations have failed at (a final exit from the Afghan quagmire), it could give him a huge boost ahead of November.
He made similar comments the day prior, on Tuesday. “We’re there 19 years and, yeah, I think that’s enough… We can always go back if we want to,” he told a White House news conference. “We want to bring our soldiers back home,” he emphasized.
“We are not meant to be a police force, we’re meant to be a fighting force,” Trump said.
During the press conference he was asked whether the Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 26 would be a suitable target. Trump responded: “No. I have no target. But as soon as (is) reasonable. Over a period of time but as soon as reasonable.”
AFP/Getty images But The New York Times reports Trump could be eyeing an earlier, ambitious withdrawal date of at least before November 3rd, election day:
Senior military officials are set to brief President Trump in the coming days on options for pulling all American troops out of Afghanistan, with one possible timeline for withdrawing forces before the presidential election, according to officials with knowledge of the plans.
The proposal for a complete withdrawal by November reflects an understanding among military commanders that such a timeline may be Mr. Trump’s preferred option because it may help bolster his campaign.
But they plan to propose, and to advocate, a slower withdrawal schedule, officials said.
But of course, like with similar ‘timetables’ drawn up before, it will be much easier said than done, given the generals are already reportedly pushing the idea that a ‘quick’ exit would doom the shaky truce between the US, Taliban, and Afghan national government in Kabul.
Very likely, the same discussion could be happening once we reach the full twenty year anniversary of America’s longest — and frankly largely ‘forgotten’ war.
- Flores: 7 Ways The DNC Will Use Contact-Tracers For Biden's Campaign To Oust Trump
Flores: 7 Ways The DNC Will Use Contact-Tracers For Biden’s Campaign To Oust Trump
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 23:25Authored by Joaquin Flores via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
The Democrat Party’s GOTV (Get Out the Vote) program relies on labor unions and the NGO sector. Those who organized these directly as this writer has, or those who have been on the receiving end of it, will understand how this zeal, backed by the force of law under the auspices of Contact Tracers/Compliance Officers, will change the electoral outcome.
Contact Tracers are Compliance Officers Backed by Police and Operating under Governor’s Orders
Contact Tracers are based on public sector workers in the area of public health, or NGO’s that rely on funding from DNC backed philanthropy and state budgets. They all rely on their relationship to the DNC to exist.
Among the first NGO’s to receive grants to carry out Contact Tracing work is PIH – Partners In Health. This group, funded by the Clinton Foundation, worked in Rwanda and Haiti. Chelsea Clinton sits on the governing board, and other prominent backers and allies include Rahm Emanuel, Epstein, and Gates.
An investigative report by Raul Diego for Mint Press gives a comprehensive outline of just how Contact Tracers as a type of Compliance Officers from PIH, will work. From his journalism, we see components of the program and how they are meant to dovetail as part of the coming 2020 electoral strategy.
Clinton tweeted in mid-May, urging other governors in the country to follow California governor Newsom’s order for mail-in ballots.
I hope other governors around the country follow @GavinNewsom’s lead. No voter should be forced to choose between their safety and exercising their civic duty this fall. https://t.co/kNkSQ5quw8
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 8, 2020
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Contact tracers as part of the NGO Industrial Complex, as a private-charter variation of the public sector, only less accountable, will become a new layer of society invested in preserving their work by voting to maintain their budget.
Because Contact Tracers can enter the homes and because some voting polls may also be closed, we can see where Contact Tracers will ‘assist’ voters in their homes with their mail-in ballots. We can predict that in Democrat voting households there will be a disproportionate increase in ballots that actually wind up being counted.
While there has been focus on HR 6666 that adds financing for Contact Tracers, there are ways these can be financed (as they already are) anyway. The ‘bailouts’ at the end of March included massive provisions for the NGO sector dealing in areas of civil society ranging from immigration to public education and healthcare.
These were the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
At-home methods of electronic voting and mail-in that do away with exit-poll cross-checks, is the preferred general strategy the Democrat Party will use to steal the election.
Polls showing Biden ahead should be discounted prima facie, as these are the polls before that intentionally projected Hillary Clinton despite unpublished polls used by the campaigns to the contrary. Both campaigns had a clear understanding that Trump had a very strong chance of winning on that decisive night. This is why ‘insurance policies’ were openly discussed by team Clinton as the election approached.
The fake polls will be used to show that Biden had a strong chance of winning all along. That’s pertinent to the strategy to oust Trump by way of coup tactics.
The strategy to remove Trump is designed to work as follows:
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Suppress voter turnout by Party identification. To limit voter turn-out by precinct based on party affiliation, and to increase voter turnout in other areas. The inclusion of Contact Tracers and the ‘Compliance Officer-like’ powers they will be granted in short-time for the election, will be among the game-changers.
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Cancelling In-Person voting. Towards 1., for Contact Tracers to ‘quarantine’ likely Trump voters not as individual households but by ‘infected precinct’. The presence of the Covid-19 ‘disease’ in a precinct, will be determined by Contact Tracers’ data (from both apps and human agents). The governor will be able to declare that elections should be online, by mail, or using greatly limited polls. These Contact Tracers will be able to use ‘voluntary’ apps to narrow down alleged infection rates by block, neighborhood, precinct/county. That these apps aren’t ‘voluntary’ however is explained in this report.
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Contact Tracers to Police In-Person Polls. To have Contact Tracers work as Compliance Officers under the governor’s instructions at polls, which will slow-down voting and suppress the vote, close polls early or limit exit polling in line with social distancing norms. As was done in the Democrat primaries, counter-intuitive decisions were made to close down polls to ‘limit exposure’. This had the effect of forcing would-be voters to travel greater distances, if they were still motivated, only to find long-lines. Some of these polls closed before those in line were able to vote. Those who maintained their right to vote, because they had been in line on time, were either told that due to the pandemic they did not have that right, or given provisional ballots – which are counted mostly just in the instance of a re-count.
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Contact Tracers blur line between work and campaign visits. To have Contact Tracers work as GOTV ‘volunteers’ on off-hours and weekends, both on telephone and in person in door-knock efforts for the Biden campaign. Critical here is that in areas where movement is limited, Contact Tracers as essential workers will not have to abide by such limitations. Or, in their capacity as Contract Tracers, they will also leave election literature at locations they visit. This may seem illegal, but this is what NGO and union employees do regularly. This strategy simply increases the size of the army and having the advantage of the freedom of movement in what will prove to be a highly unusual election.
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To give Republican households a health and safety visit on Election Day. To have Contact Tracers focus on Republican homes, and bog the family down on election day with a health and safety check which could also involve the terrifying visit by CPS and the possibility of a mandatory Covid-19 test and possibly children being removed from an infectious environment.
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Weaponize the second wave of Coronavirus. To make sure that overall there is a ‘second wave’ of Coronavirus that is treated similarly as the ‘first wave’ which we have only now begun to emerge from. A Digital Trends article from April 11th depicts a Bill Gates ‘super-worried’ about a second wave of coronavirus’.
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Governors declare State of Emergency. This can be done in such a way that, using Contact Tracers’ data, can decide which targeted parts of a state – by county – to shut down. Expect that universities, and colleges will be shut down. Bernie Sanders and the Squad will use their popularity among college students to promote an alternate reality. We will have many youth mobilized to work both in social media and as campaign workers. From this fertile soil of youth, we will find many new Contact Tracer job openings created as we approach November. This May 11th article shows that universities have already started offering Contact Tracing courses.
We can therefore expect the strategy to take shape by state this way – by comparing the Electoral College map of 2016…
to the breakdown of Dem and Rep governors by state in 2020.
The Center for Politics affirms the following points to consider:
“Following the 2019 elections, Republicans retain a narrow 26-24 edge in governorships.”
We should be looking at the governorships by state because of the authority they have in establishing the rules when there is a state of emergency.
The governors declare states of emergency. In addition, they claim other powers as well which have not been challenged yet in federal courts.
The precedent for cancelling primary elections or changing how general elections will be done ( e-voting from home or mail-in) – was already seen for New York and California respectively.
Those who may be thinking that states are opening up and that this is not a subject in play come November, have not understood the meaning of Dr. Fauci and Bill Gates that the coronavirus will return again this coming Fall.
As we have mentioned, the tracing apps that will make voter suppression through Contact Tracers using the coronavirus pretext more easy to pull-off are nominally voluntary, but does that mean citizens will really have a choice?
Voluntary Tracing May Not be Voluntary
People generally interact not with government who indeed may not ‘mandate’ the use of such an app, but rather revolve in dealings with private businesses.
What is voluntary for you will also voluntary for businesses to mandate for customers and employees to enter the premises. Most employees are at-will, and businesses have the right to refuse service to anyone.
This is already in effect the Jacinda Ardern dictatorship of New Zealand. NZ is proving to be an effective test ground which most closely mirrors the Wuhan protocols of covid-19 containment through Contact Tracing and movement suppression, except that unlike China, this is never-ending.
Unless there is tremendous pushback from Trump and his activist base, we should assume moving forward that by November 2020 when most U.S. citizens will have a Contact Tracing app on their smart phone, the election will be stolen. There are 251 million smart phone owners in the U.S.
What’s also voluntary? That your smart phone comes with an OS, and the OS makers (Android, iOS) can voluntarily place a contact tracer in the next update.
The Philosophical Problem
Whether one wants one side to win or the other isn’t as much a question of who behaves most fairly, but on what outcomes we wish to see. For those who want to see a Bourbonesque ‘restorationist’ move to Clinton-Bush-Obama-era ‘norms’, they will go for Biden. For those who see in Trump a type of Napoleonic ‘revolutionist’ against the Ancien Regime who contained and corralled the Jacobinist forces of Occupy into a new type of system, their option is clear.
We must End Quarantine, not create ‘Jobs’ in ‘Contact Tracing’
The grass-roots Republican efforts, tacitly endorsed by the Trump campaign, to mobilize against the quarantine, are a step in the right direction. In Michigan we saw an armed ‘militia’/open-carry grouping backed by over four thousand citizens who converged on the state capitol. In Wisconsin it resulted in mass protests and such pressure that the Supreme Court in that state was forced to reign in the caprice of an autocrat governor. In California we saw a mass mobilization of thousands demanding access to the beach, and more.
These moves for citizens to push against quarantine are popular and also radical. It is odd that the progressive left, some thinking themselves ‘revolutionaries’, only defer to the institutional power of the billionaire class like Bill Gates, and institutions like the WHO and the CDC. They ignore the tools available within their own Marxian analysis, that regulatory capture by big pharma, and sinister elites with misanthropist capital-accumulating platforms, should render these institutions illegitimate.
So here we find the amazing part – that those who wanted to restore the greatness of America are the revolutionists, and those who utilize the naiveté and rage of the revolutionary left are restorationists.
This coming election will be the most unusual in American history, and if the above outlined problems are not addressed, could result in a chain of extra-legal, extra-parliamentary grass-roots violence.
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- Virus Masks Wash Ashore After Vessel Loses 40 Containers In Rough Seas
Virus Masks Wash Ashore After Vessel Loses 40 Containers In Rough Seas
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 23:05The APL England, a large container ship, lost 40 shipping containers in rough seas off the east coast of Australia over the weekend, reported the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA).
The Singapore-flagged container ship was about 45 miles east of Sydney when the vessel experienced a “temporary loss of propulsion” on Sunday morning. Lifeless in heavy seas, the vessel was rocked by monster waves that caused container stacks to topple over and fall overboard.
Incident map
In addition to the 40 containers, 74 were “damaged and collapsed on the deck of the ship, while a further six containers are reported to be protruding from the starboard side and three containers from the port side of the ship,” AMSA said in a Facebook post.
Up close container damage on APL England via AMSA Aerial footage of the ship on Monday
The incident forced the vessel to turn around and anchor off Brisbane in Byron Bay as AMSA surveyed the damage.
“Our team of surveyors conducted a seaworthiness inspection to establish the structural and operational condition of the ship. The outcome of this inspection will help inform if, and how, the ship might be brought safely into the Port of Brisbane.
“It appears that the affected stacks contained a wide range of goods like household appliances, building materials and medical supplies.
AMSA survey pictures of APL England damage “We have also received a report of some medical supplies (for example, face masks) washing up between Magenta Beach and The Entrance. If you see debris which could be linked to the incident, please pass this information on to NSW Maritime,” AMSA said Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, AMSA said, “our surveyors conducted an inspection” and found the vessel to be “fit.” It determined to bring the vessel into port on midday Tuesday.
“We are currently investigating the ship on two fronts. It’s compliance with both Australian and international maritime safety standards, and also whether the ship has breached any Australian environmental protection regulations or standards,” AMSA wrote.
AMSA also said if people “discover any suspected debris or shipping containers” along the New South Wales coastline, that they should contact authorities.
AMSA General Manager of Operations Allan Schwartz said reports are already coming in that medical supplies, such as face masks, are washing up “between Magenta Beach and The Entrance.” It appears some of the containers were packed with critical medical supplies to combat COVID-19.
- These FBI Docs Put Barack Obama In The Middle Of The 'Obamagate' Narrative
These FBI Docs Put Barack Obama In The Middle Of The ‘Obamagate’ Narrative
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 22:45Authored by John Solomon via JustTheNews.com,
Agents fretted sharing Flynn intel with departing Obama White House would become fodder for ‘partisan axes to grind.’
Just 17 days before President Trump took office in January 2017, then-FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok texted bureau lawyer Lisa Page, his mistress, to express concern about sharing sensitive Russia probe evidence with the departing Obama White House.
Strzok had just engaged in a conversation with his boss, then-FBI Assistant Director William Priestap, about evidence from the investigation of incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, codenamed Crossfire Razor, or “CR” for short.
The evidence in question were so-called “tech cuts” from intercepted conversations between Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to the texts and interviews with officials familiar with the conversations.
Strzok related Priestap’s concerns about the potential the evidence would be politically weaponized if outgoing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper shared the intercept cuts with the White House and President Obama, a well-known Flynn critic.
“He, like us, is concerned with over sharing,” Strzok texted Page on Jan. 3, 2017, relating his conversation with Priestap.
“Doesn’t want Clapper giving CR cuts to WH. All political, just shows our hand and potentially makes enemies.”
Page seemed less concerned, knowing that the FBI was set in three days to release its initial assessment of Russian interference in the U.S. election.
“Yeah, but keep in mind we were going to put that in the doc on Friday, with potentially larger distribution than just the DNI,” Page texted back.
Strzok responded, “The question is should we, particularly to the entirety of the lame duck usic [U.S Intelligence Community] with partisan axes to grind.”
That same day Strzok and Page also discussed in text messages a drama involving one of the Presidential Daily Briefings for Obama.
“Did you follow the drama of the PDB last week?” Strzok asked.
“Yup. Don’t know how it ended though,” Page responded.
“They didn’t include any of it, and Bill [Priestap] didn’t want to dissent,” Strzok added.
“Wow, Bill should make sure [Deputy Director] Andy [McCabe] knows about that since he was consulted numerous times about whether to include the reporting,” Page suggested.
You can see the text messages recovered from Strzok’s phone here.
The text messages, which were never released to the public by the FBI but were provided to this reporter in September 2018, have taken on much more significance to both federal and congressional investigators in recent weeks as the Justice Department has requested that Flynn’s conviction be thrown out and his charges of lying to the FBI about Kislyak dismissed.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen of Missouri (special prosecutor for DOJ), the FBI inspection division, three Senate committees and House Republicans are all investigating the handling of Flynn’s case and whether any crimes were committed or political influence exerted.
The investigators are trying to determine whether Obama’s well-known disdain for Flynn, a career military intelligence officer, influenced the decision by the FBI leadership to reject its own agent’s recommendation to shut down a probe of Flynn in January 2017 and instead pursue an interview where agents might catch him in a lie.
They also want to know whether the conversation about the PDB involved Flynn and “reporting” the FBI had gathered by early January 2017 showing the incoming national security adviser was neither a counterintelligence nor a criminal threat.
“The evidence connecting President Obama to the Flynn operation is getting stronger,” one investigator with direct knowledge told me.
“The bureau knew it did not have evidence to justify that Flynn was either a criminal or counterintelligence threat and should have shut the case down. But the perception that Obama and his team would not be happy with that outcome may have driven the FBI to keep the probe open without justification and to pivot to an interview that left some agents worried involved entrapment or a perjury trap.”
The investigator said more interviews will need to be done to determine exactly what role Obama’s perception of Flynn played in the FBI’s decision making.
Recently declassified evidence show a total of 39 outgoing Obama administration officials sought to unmask Flynn’s name in intelligence interviews between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration Day 2017, signaling a keen interest in Flynn’s overseas calls.
Former Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray said Friday that the Flynn matter was at the very least a “political scandal of the highest order” and could involve criminal charges if evidence emerges that officials lied or withheld documents to cover up what happened.
“I imagine there are people who are in the know who may well have knowingly withheld information from the court and from defense counsel in connection with the Michael Flynn prosecution,” Ray told Fox News.
“If it turns out that that can be proved, then there are going to be referrals and potential false statements, and/or perjury prosecutions to hold those, particularly those in positions of authority, accountable,” he added.
Investigators have created the following timeline of key events through documents produced piecemeal by the FBI over two years:
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April 2014: Flynn is forced out as the chief of DIA by Obama after clashing with the administration over the Syrian civil war, the rise of ISIS, and other policies. The Obama administration blames his management style for the departure.
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July 31, 2016: FBI opens Crossfire Hurricane probe into possible ties between Trump campaign and Russia, focused on Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos. Flynn is not an initial target of that probe.
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Aug. 15, 2016: Strzok and Page engage in their infamous text exchange about having an insurance policy just in case Trump should be elected. “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” one text reads.
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Aug. 16, 2016: FBI opens a sub-case under the Crossfire Hurricane umbrella codenamed Crossfire Razor focused on whether Flynn was wittingly or unwittingly engaged in inappropriate Russian contact.
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Aug. 17, 2016: FBI and DNI provide Trump and Flynn first briefing after winning the nomination, including on Russia. FBI slips in an agent posing as an assistant for the briefing to secretly get a read on Flynn for the new investigation, according to the Justice Department inspector general report on Russia case. “SSA 1 told us that the briefing provided him ‘the opportunity to gain assessment and possibly some level of familiarity with [Flynn]. So, should we get to the point where we need to do a subject interview … would have that to fall back on,’” the IG report said.
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Sept, 2, 2016: While preparing a talking points memo for Obama ahead of a conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin involving Russian election interference, Page texts Strzok that Obama wants to be read-in on everything the FBI is doing on the Russia collusion case. “POTUS wants to know everything we’re doing,” Page texted.
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Sept. 5, 2016: During an international summit in China, Obama meets face-to-face with Putin and tells him to “cut it out” with election meddling.
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Nov. 10, 2016: Two days after Trump won the election, the president-elect meets with Obama at the White House and the outgoing president encourages the incoming president not to hire Flynn as an adviser.
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Jan. 3, 2017: Strzok and Page engage in the text messages about Obama’s daily briefing and the concerns about giving the Flynn intercept cuts to the White House.
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Jan. 4, 2017: Lead agent in Flynn Crossfire Razor probe prepares closing memo recommending the case be shut down for lack of derogatory evidence. Strzok texts agent asking him to stop the closing memo because the “7th floor” leadership of the FBI is now involved.
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Jan. 5, 2017: Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates attends Russia briefing with Obama at the White House and is stunned to learn Obama already knows about the Flynn-Kislyak intercept. Then-FBI Director James Comey claims Clapper told the president, but Clapper has denied telling Obama.
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Jan. 5–23, 2017: FBI prepares to conduct an interview of Flynn. The discussions lead Priestap, the assistant director, to openly question in his handwritten notes whether the bureau was “playing games” and trying to get Flynn to lie so “we can prosecute him or get him fired.”
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Jan. 24, 2017: FBI conducts interview with Flynn.
Investigators are trying to determine whether Obama asked for the Flynn intercept or it was offered to him and by whom. They also want to know how many times Comey and Obama talked about Flynn in December 2016 and January 2017.
“We need to determine what motivated the FBI on Jan. 4, 2017 to overrule its own agent who believed Flynn was innocent and the probe should be closed,” one investigator said.
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- NIH Director: Can't Rule Out COVID-19 'Isolated And Studied' In Wuhan Lab
NIH Director: Can’t Rule Out COVID-19 ‘Isolated And Studied’ In Wuhan Lab
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 22:25The Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can be added to the growing chorus of rational voices who are open to the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 could have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) – where scientists infamous for creating hybrid bat coronaviruses that can infect humans swear they have nothing to do with the current outbreak.
NIH Director Francis Collins NIH Director Francis Collins says that while he believes coronavirus was “absolutely not” genetically engineered, he cannot rule out the possibility that it escaped from the Wuhan lab.
“Whether [the coronavirus] could have been in some way isolated and studied in this laboratory in Wuhan, we have no way of knowing,” Collins told Politico on Wednesday. “Nature created this virus, and has proven once again to be the most effective bioterrorist,” he added.
In April, WIV vice director Zhiming Yuan told Chinese state broadcaster CGTN, “there is no way this virus came from us,” according to NBC News. “We have a strict regulatory regime and code of conduct of research, so we are confident.”
Did the Beijing laboratory which had two SARS escape incidents follow the same ‘regulatory regime’ we wonder?
President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both repeatedly claimed that the virus may have emerged from the WIV, while the so-called ‘five eyes’ intelligence agencies (US, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada) are investigating the origins of the virus – and in particular are “looking closely at the work of a senior scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Peng Zhou,” as part of a joint international investigation into the origins of COVID-19, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed weeks ago that the US government is participating in the investigation, though there is no reason to believe the virus was manmade or genetically altered.
Collins refused to comment on his agency’s recent — and controversial — decision to pull funding from researchers studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people. In late April the NIH told the EcoHealth Alliance, whose collaborators included scientists at the Wuhan virology lab, that its project did not “align with the program goals and agency priorities.”
Prominent scientific societies and 77 Nobel laureates have asked the administration to investigate why the nonprofit group’s grant was terminated, alleging that the decision was made for political, rather than scientific, reasons. The NIH awards grants using a merit-based system in which researchers evaluate the work of their peers, and ending a grant early is unusual. –Politico
Zero Hedge exposed Zhou’s involvement in bat research in January, along with studies by his colleague, “bat woman” Shi Zhengli. As we reported in February, Shi co-authored a controversial 2015 paper which described the creation of a new virus by combining a coronavirus found in Chinese horseshoe bats with another that causes human-like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in mice. This research sparked a huge debate at the time over whether engineering lab variants of viruses with possible pandemic potential is worth the risks.
Nature.com responded with concern, penning a 2015 rebuke , that reinforce suspicions that bat coronaviruses capable of directly infecting humans (rather than first needing to evolve in an intermediate animal host) may be more common than previously thought.
Collins says he “seriously hopes” that if China develops a COVID-19 vaccine before the United States, that tensions between the two nations “wouldn’t be a dominant factor” in whether the US would have access to the treatment.
That’s assuming, of course, that a vaccine arrives.
- Reopening Isn't About Haircuts, It's About Relieving Human Suffering
Reopening Isn’t About Haircuts, It’s About Relieving Human Suffering
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 22:05Authored by Randy Hicks via InsideSources.com,
Georgia recently began the long process of reopening its economy in the wake of what it is hoped will be the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beginning in late April, certain categories of businesses were allowed to open in Georgia, including restaurants and barber shops. The encouraging news is that infection rates have not spiked and, instead, are flattening and even declining.
Many are concerned that we’re moving too early, too fast — and that safety will take a back seat. That worry is understandable. The toll of the virus in suffering and loss of life is indescribable, as thousands of families are affected in ways they will never forget.
On the other side, many are clamoring for even quicker action to get people back to work.
In truth, both sides have it right. Our first priority should be health. Clearly, that trumps all. But a key aspect of health is not just avoiding a virus, but the full spectrum of human well-being and flourishing. And to achieve that, we can’t afford to remain on lockdown much longer.
We clearly know the economic devastation wrought by the virus: About half of low-income households have reported job or wage loss due to the coronavirus. These job losses could be felt for years as families struggle to get back on their feet — or are never able to at all, plunging them into poverty.
The toll is real. I’m thinking of young moms like Jessica (not her real name to protect her identity), who had been living in her car with her small child as a result of work cutbacks and being evicted. Stories like this one are countless.
But what about the toll on mental health and general well-being? The picture is beginning to emerge, and it’s not pretty. In fact, we are facing a public mental health crisis.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that more than half of U.S. adults (56 percent) report that worry related to the coronavirus outbreak has caused them stress-induced symptoms like insomnia, poor appetite or overeating, or frequent headaches or stomach aches.
That’s only the beginning. We have also seen the effects of social isolation in a 1,000 percent increase in calls to distress hotlines in April alone.
Rates of substance abuse and suicide will doubtless skyrocket. One analysis predicts that if the United States reaches Depression-era level unemployment rates, we could see 18,000 additional suicides and additional overdose deaths of 22,000.
The Well Being Trust recently released a report estimating the pandemic could lead to 75,000 additional “deaths of despair” from drug and alcohol abuse and suicide.
During this lockdown, people are missing the ingredients that make for a flourishing life: community, relationships, purpose and belonging. And the truth is that, for many Americans, a major way they experience these benefits is through a job. It’s where we find community, socialize and discover a sense of meaning.
A job is about so much more than just a paycheck.
We know that human beings function best when they are involved with meaningful work. Until this point, the dialogue on reopening has largely focused on “essential” vs. “non-essential” jobs.
But every job is essential for the person who holds it. And not just from a financial standpoint: It’s one key gateway to what makes life meaningful for many of us.
Protecting public health and getting people back into their jobs and communities are not mutually exclusive priorities. We can, and must, do both. We can be sensitive to loss of life and human suffering during this pandemic.
But we also must acknowledge the pain of those whose means of surviving economically has been shattered.
- Satellite Images Confirm Rapid Chinese Military Expansion On Disputed Indian Border
Satellite Images Confirm Rapid Chinese Military Expansion On Disputed Indian Border
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 21:45A new report in the Asia-based online tech journal Insider Paper cites open source satellite images to confirm the latest widespread reporting on the major Chinese PLA troop build-up underway along disputed Sino-Indian border regions.
The report cites the following via a reputable open-source satellite imagery analyst:
According to a few satellite images published by a local Indian news publication, the Chinese troops have commenced the expansion of its airbase, 200 km from Pangong Lake, in Ladakh. The images, also showing Ngari Gunsa airport in Tibet, originated from open-source intelligence expert @detresfa_, an analyst with ShadowBreak Intl.
“The first image shows how the territory originally looked. However, the second image clearly shows massive construction activity going on in the territory.”
According to the report, this suggests a significant and rapid Chinese military build-up in the past months along the contested border region amid what Indian media has widely reported since this weekend to be PLA forces digging into fortified positions.
Importantly, the strategic base is a mere 200km away from Pangong lake, where recent skirmishes between Chinese and Indian border patrols took place on May 5th-6th.
The Insider Paper report continues, based on satellite analysis: “The expansion has included something that looks more like a secondary tarmac to combat aircraft or taxi-track. Also, the third image shows a line-up of four fighter jets. They are either J-11 or J-16 fighters of the Chinese PLA Air Force.”
The high altitude airport in Tibet, among the highest in the world, is a dual-use military and civil airport which appears to have undergone major expansion during the same period of increased border skirmishes with Indian troops.
The major Indian broadcast station NDTV also republished the satellite photos:
@detresfa_ with this incredible image of Chinese J-11/J-16s at the high altitude Ngari Gunsa airport. On @ndtv, an exclusive report with satellite images of rapid Chinese air base construction at Ngari in April and May this year, including a possible second runway. https://t.co/1cmUHY43so
— Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) May 26, 2020
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Over the past weekend Indian media began reporting that thousands of PLA troops have now moved into Ladakh’s disputed Galwan river area, and at multiple locations in eastern Ladakh.
Sporadic but fierce clashes have occurred going back to the 1960’s along the shared but pretty much completely unmarked 2,100 mile border, which often involves literal fist-fights among opposing troops and border patrol guards.
The satellite images appear to confirm Chinese troop movements along and inside of the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh:
Images via @planetlabs @sbreakintl help spot the #China PLA camp near the #Hotsprings Sector few Kms behind the LAC (Here china contests the LAC), approximately 11Kms North West of the #India base at Gogra, this unit size is the largest seen till now with adequate vehicle tracks pic.twitter.com/9eywCqD1Bk
— d-atis☠️ (@detresfa_) May 26, 2020
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And The Guardian also said on Wednesday: “Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation (PLA) troops are reported to have moved into sensitive areas along the eastern Ladokh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery in what India considers to be its territory.”
The escalating crisis has grabbed the White House’s attention, with President Trump issuing a surprise tweet early Wednesday which said: “We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute.”
China expands airbase near Ladakh, including placing advanced fighter jets on tarmac.
It’s a fast escalating situation that FP recently noted could explode into major conflict between two nuclear armed powers.
- JPMorgan Finds Bitcoin Trades At "Intrinstic Value" As Goldman Throws Up All Over Cryptocurrency
JPMorgan Finds Bitcoin Trades At “Intrinstic Value” As Goldman Throws Up All Over Cryptocurrency
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 21:25So much changes in just over two years. Back in late 2017 and early 2018, Goldman Sachs emerged as one of the most fervent adopters of bitcoin (perhaps because it presented at least some opportunity to trade vol in a market where the VIX was single digits), and even hired a head cryptocurrency trader . Then the cryptocurrency market crashed and despite fits and starts, has failed to recover its December 2017 highs.
Fast forward to today when Goldman prompted howls of outrage among the bitcoin faithful when the bank released a multi-strategy report that took some pot shots at crypto, saying among other things, that “we do not recommend Bitcoin on a strategic or tactical basis for clients’ investment portfolios even though its volatility might lend itself to momentum oriented traders.” The report also took the completely unoriginal track to compare Bitcoin’s rise, if not so much fall, to the Tulip mania of the 1600s in the Netherlands, although one look at the chart below suggest that such comparisons are woefully inaccurate with most bitcoin bulls laughing at repeated rumors of bitcoin’s demise.
Goldman also issued several rebuttals against the merits frequently cited by crypto fans that aim to hold up the superiority of the digital tokens. As Bloomberg notes, Goldman said that cryptocurrencies are not an asset class, they do not generate cash flow or earnings and do not provide consistent diversification benefits, nor is there evidence they are an inflation hedge.
Of course none of that is news to anyone by now, with bitcoin increasingly seen as a limit-supply store of value and an alternative to fiat in a world where the money supply is exploding. Just ask Paul Tudor Jones, who last month said he’s buying Bitcoin as a hedge against the inflation he sees emerging from the Fed’s money-printing, even telling clients that bitcoin reminds him of “the role gold played in the 1970s”.
Preempting Goldman, PTJ, who said “I am not a hard-money nor a crypto nut”, also laid out the various key verticals that set aside bitcoin, including Purchasing Power; Trustworthiness, Liquidity and Portability (his full note is below), and compared the total value of various financial assets showing just how significant the growth potential for bitcoin was in a world of wider adoption.
All of this left one of the world’s greatest traders to conclude that, contrary to Goldman’s conclusion, “at the end of the day, the best profit-maximizing strategy is to own the fastest horse. Just own the best performer and not get wed to an intellectual side that might leave you weeping in the performance dust because you thought you were smarter than the market. If I am forced to forecast, my bet is it will be Bitcoin.”
Finally, let’s not forget, it is Goldman…
who would’ve thought pic.twitter.com/LDLRE1O3cT
— Mark Constantine (@vexmark) May 27, 2020
Goldman, and its catastrophic predictive track record aside – especially since the bank dumped most of its iconic prop traders and decided to become a subprime lender and issuers of credit cards- aside, we found a far more interesting take in the latest Flows and Liquidity report from JPM’s Nick Panigirtzoglou who analyzed something far more valuable to both fans and enemies of bitcoin: its intrinsic value.
As the JPM strategist writes, “ahead of the halving of the bitcoin block reward from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25, we updated our intrinsic value framework for bitcoin and used it to infer that markets effectively priced in a 25% decline in the amount spent on energy per day assuming market participants are rational and prices forward looking. How have things developed in the time since the halving event?”
To answer that question, the derivative strategist recapped his model for estimating this “intrinsic value.” The approach taken to estimate a quantifiable intrinsic value for Bitcoin was to effectively treat it as a commodity and base it on the marginal cost of production. Mining cryptocurrencies consumes electricity, which results in a real-world cost incurred in nominal currency terms. In principle, a market price above that cost should induce miners to increase resources to mine coins, bringing the cost of mining higher until the marginal cost approaches the market price, while a price below that cost should induce higher cost producers to exit the market lowering the overall cost until it again approaches the marginal cost. The methodology was adopted by Hayes (2018), which first estimates the daily cost of production as a function of the computational power employed, cost of electricity, and energy efficiency of hardware. It then divides the daily cost of production by the expected number of bitcoins produced daily, estimated as a function of the block reward, hashing power employed and difficulty, to get a marginal cost of production per Bitcoin.
Long-story short, the market price and JPM’s updated estimate of the intrinsic value of Bitcoin are shown in the chart below..
… while the ratio of actual to intrinsic price is in the following chart.
Given the halving of the bitcoin rewards that took place on May 11th, the intrinsic value estimate effectively doubled. Ahead of the halving event, JPM argued that, assuming market participants are rational and that the price is forward looking, the actual price trading 25% below what the intrinsic price would be after the event suggested markets effectively implying a significant decline in mining activity.
How have things developed since the halving? As the next chart shows, there has been a more than 20% decline in the hash rate on the bitcoin network since the halving event, similar to the one in magnitude that occurred during the nearly 50% collapse in bitcoin prices from late Feb to mid-March.
Moreover, the decline appears to have taken place against a backdrop of an improvement in average efficiency of mining hardware, as energy consumption per GH/s has declined by more than 15% from the day before the halving event according to estimates from Digiconomist, which would be consistent the idea that miners with less efficient rigs and/or in higher cost locations would in the short term bear the brunt of the decline in mining activity.
As JPM concludes, “the net effect of the two has been that the gap between our intrinsic value estimate and the market price has now effectively closed.” In other words, a price of $9-10K is right around there bitcoin should be trading, something which the Goldman report failed to mention.
Intrinsic value of bitcoin aside, JPM looked at how institutions are positioned vis-a-vis the crytpocurrency. JPM found that the collapse in the market value of bitcoin in early March also saw a contraction in open interest of both bitcoin futures and options, which initially was slow to recover. However, in the run-up to the halving event, the open interest of both options and futures increased sharply, with option open interest in particular making new highs.
Moreover, futures open interest appears to have recovered faster for CME contracts than crypto exchanges, which saw a steep increase in open interest not just in dollar terms (partly due to the rise in prices since the March lows) but also increasing to 70% above its previous peak in bitcoin terms.
And the CME bitcoin options contracts launched in January this year, where aggregate open interest after an initially encouraging start had largely remained below $20mn, rose from around $13mn at the start of the May to around $170mn in recent days.
This suggests that, all else equal, the institutional adoption of bitcoin is starting to ramp up aggressively, just as Paul Tudor Jones predicted it would.
For those eager to read the PTJ report, it’s attached below.
- SoftBank's Vision Fund Considers Slashing 10% Of Workforce
SoftBank’s Vision Fund Considers Slashing 10% Of Workforce
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 21:05We recently noted that SoftBank Group’s international arm slashed 10% of its employees in early May as it reported more substantial losses in 1Q20 than it had anticipated, mainly due to WeWork, though its investments in Vision Fund.
It now appears SoftBank’s $100 billion Vision Fund is considering an employee reduction program that could slash upwards of 10% of the entire fund’s workforce, according to Bloomberg sources.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, also the founder of Vision Fund, has had a string of bad investments since the WeWork implosion in 2019. The outbreak of the coronavirus essentially sealed WeWork’s fate after a string of blowups among other SoftBank and Vision Fund portfolio companies.
Masayoshi Son Vision Fund has 500 employees, with many based in London, San Francisco, and Tokyo. The cuts are expected to be on all levels, one source said. The fund manages 80 portfolio companies, but due to the downturn in the global economy, 15 of the fund’s startups could go bankrupt.
The fund has liquidated some of its holdings, halving its stake in dog walking startup Wag Labs last year. Son has said he’ll sell $42 billion in assets to finance stock buybacks and reduce debt loads. Bloomberg notes Softbank is selling shares of its Alibaba Group Holding and is trying to negotiate a deal to sell its $20 billion T-Mobile US stake.
In a matter of months, Son, once heralded as the greatest momentum investor, has turned out to be “the greater fool” — as his collapsing credibility fell as quick as WeWork’s valuation.
Soon investors will be calling cycle tops the “WeWork Omen.”
- Rickards: The Coin-Toss Election
Rickards: The Coin-Toss Election
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 20:45Authored by James Rickards via The Daily Reckoning,
The political climate is fragile and feverish, with the nation amid a crisis that is both fast-changing and unparalleled in living memory.
The biggest change in my election forecast is that Trump’s chances of reelection in November have plunged from 74% (the pre-COVID forecast) to 50% as of today.
This does not mean Trump will lose; he could very well win. But it will be a very close election.
Deciding the outcome between Trump and Biden as of now is basically a coin toss. Many factors, some foreseeable and some unforeseen, could tip the balance.
Trump’s strengths are that he is an excellent campaigner, has enormous amounts of money for the campaign and seems to have unlimited stores of energy. He also has the power of incumbency, which usually propels a sitting president to a second term.
Trump’s weaknesses are the depth of the New Depression and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amost no one blames Trump for the outbreak, but many found his response belated and overly optimistic in the initial stages. He did some things right (the China travel ban), but many responses were bungled (defective testing kits, shortages of masks and protective clothing, shortages of ventilators).
In stages, these mistakes were overcome. Masks and protective clothing were mass-produced. Ventilators were surged to those locations that most needed them. New hospital beds were made available through Navy hospital ships and temporary hospitals built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Testing kits gradually became available, although there is still a severe shortage.
Instead of taking credit in a measured way for these positive developments, Trump wasted time in petty disputes with corrupt journalists. Those fights might be OK in the normal political arena, but there’s nothing normal about a pandemic. Trump didn’t seem to know the difference and alienated even his supporters in the process with his pontificating and sideshow antics.
These Trump deficiencies (despite many positive accomplishments) began to show up in the polls.
Large employment losses in states that Trump must carry, especially Pennsylvania, will not help Trump’s chances in November. On the other hand, if Trump can reopen the economy and recover some of these losses, he may benefit from a positive trend even if net losses remain.
What about Joe Biden?
Biden may have pulled even with Trump in the election horse race, but he’s not a sure thing by any means. Before Biden can even turn to the campaign against Trump, he must still try to obtain unity in his own party.
Bernie Sanders withdrew from the race, which essentially guaranteed the nomination for Biden. But will the “Bernie Bros” actually turn out on Election Day? Key components of the Democratic base might not be motivated to vote.
The left wants a Biden administration ban on anyone who has worked on or near Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry, the health insurance sector and the lobbying world, to name a few.
In short, the price that Bernie Sanders’ supporters are demanding from Biden may well make Biden unelectable in key swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
If Biden does not embrace the socialist agenda, his lost support from the Sanders movement may make him unelectable for other reasons. Biden is between a rock and a hard place, and the Bernie Bros intend to keep him there in order to pursue their goals.
One way for Biden to appease the Bernie Sanders movement without going all-in on the progressive agenda is to choose a progressive running mate. In the eyes of progressives, the right running mate will be able to “keep an eye” on Biden and pursue the Bernie agenda inside the White House even if the specifics are not shouted from the rooftops.
Here’s a summary of the struggle going on inside the Biden camp regarding a VP choice as reported by Tal Axelrod for The Hill on April 19, in an article titled “Progressives Look for Concession From Biden With Running Mate”:
“Joe Biden absolutely has to pick a progressive champion as his VP pick. He has to unify the party, and that’s the key,” Charles Chamberlain, head of Democracy for America, told The Hill. “What we saw during the primary is… that we have two major factions of this party, the corporate wing, more establishment Democrats, and there is [the] progressive, ascendant left. And he absolutely has to choose from that progressive left to unify the party.”
Biden could pick from a number of progressive women to serve as his VP. Among the most prominent contenders who have been floated are [Elizabeth] Warren and Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and state House minority leader.
Both have openly expressed interest in the role, with Abrams saying she would be an “excellent” running mate for Biden and Warren confirming that she would accept an offer to be his No. 2.
Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator, has also been mentioned as a leading candidate.
There are others, but these three have gotten the most attention.
But there’s no free lunch for Biden. The choice of Stacey Abrams for vice president would undoubtedly rally progressive and minority voters to turn out for Biden. That’s critical. But it helps Biden in places he is highly likely to win anyway such as California and New York.
Abrams’ ultra-leftist views and strident persona would drive away many moderates in critical swing states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania and possibly tip those states to Trump.
What we have today is a too-close-to-call election and six long months to go before Election Day.
Trump is aided by a solid base and a well-organized campaign strategy. Biden is aided by an electoral vote head start in big states like California and New York and a friendly media that will not criticize his many shortcomings.
The Democrats may hold a “digital” convention and keep Biden under wraps as much as possible until the October debates (where his cognitive decline may be difficult to disguise).
Republicans want to get the economy open for business and show some growth in the aftermath of a second-quarter collapse.
But there is one potential development that could move the odds in Trump’s favor…
Remember the “Russia collusion” accusations against Trump? The accusation was that he colluded with Russians to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Trump campaign aides and early appointees such as Gen. Michael Flynn, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos and others were all said to be in on the conspiracy to “steal the election.”
There was only one problem with these claims. None of them were true. Multiple congressional investigations all reached the conclusion that there was no merit to the claims. The two-year, $30 million Mueller investigation found no evidence of Russian collusion by Trump or his team.
Multiple internal reviews and inspector general reports not only found no collusion, but also revealed extensive wrongdoing by the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community when it came to false representations, doctored reports, illegal surveillance of American citizens and other egregious abuse of constitutional rights.
Well, a day of reckoning may be coming soon. U.S. attorney John Durham has been conducting a multiyear investigation of his own at the request of the U.S. attorney general, William Barr. This investigation targets the wrongdoers in the Obama administration Justice Department, intelligence community and diplomatic corps.
High-profile subjects of inquiry include former FBI head James Comey, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power and many other former high-ranking officials.
Guess what? Joe Biden has been listed as someone who requested and was privy to these reports, which raises serious questions.
The Durham investigation is criminal, so a wave of indictments and prosecutions may be coming soon. The exact timing is uncertain, but mid-July seems a likely date for announcement of the results of the investigation and any indictments.
Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he doesn’t expect criminal charges to be filed against Biden (or Obama). But Biden’s involvement in the Russiagate scandal could have implications for the election. We’ll see.
Investors have their hands full today dealing with the Wuhan virus, the new depression and an unsteady stock market. Now you can add legal fireworks to the list of things that may disrupt markets.
- Here Is The Best Advance Indicator If A Second Wave Of Coronavirus Is Coming
Here Is The Best Advance Indicator If A Second Wave Of Coronavirus Is Coming
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 20:44As public health officials and investors search for reliable leading indicators for the ‘second wave’ of infections that Dr. Fauci and the WHO insist is right around the corner, one team of researchers has determined that the answers might be found under the ground…
To wit, a team of researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Conn. published a paper earlier this month on their studies of SARS-CoV-2 concentrations in the sewage in the Greater New Haven area. In the abstract of their report, the team determined that “when adjusted for the time lag, the virus RNA concentrations were highly correlated with the COVID-19 epidemiological curve (R2 =0.99) and local hospital admissions (R2 =0.99). SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations were a seven-day leading indicator ahead of compiled COVID-19 testing data and led local hospital admissions data by three days.”
The search for a reliable leading indicator is critical for developing an effective policy response, since the most closely watched data (reports on the number of newly diagnosed cases) is a lagging indicator, since tests typically aren’t run on an individual until symptoms of the virus have already started to appear.
Scientists have already proven that SARS-CoV-2 RNA is present in the human waste of COVID-19 patients. That then seeps into the wastewater in a given community’s collection system. An analysis of RNA concentrations in waste can, according to the researchers, “provide information on the prevalence and dynamics of infection for entire populations.”
By analyzing wastewater from a sewage plant that serves a four-municipality area (pop ~200,000 residents), the researchers applied several data processing techniques to smooth the data and allow for fair comparisons between the sewage data and data collected by the local hospital system in New Haven.
Like many other scientific specialties, the field of wastewater epidemiology existed before the pandemic. But the global outbreak has allowed scientists to expand on these methods in real time in the hope that it can help predict outbreaks before they overwhelm hospital systems.
New Haven COVID-19 epidemic suggest that these data may provide useful epidemiological insights (Figure 1C). SARS-CoV-2 RNA sludge concentrations were quantitatively compared with data that are commonly used to track the community progression of COVID-19 including hospital admissions (Figure 2A,B) and COVID-19 compiled testing data for the four municipalities (New Haven, East Haven, Hamden, and Woodbridge, CT) served by the ESWPAF (Figure 2C). All three measures traced the initial wave of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the New Haven metropolitan area. Applying Locally Weighted Scatterplot Smoothing (LOWESS) to the data and rescaling enables comparison (Figure 2A,B). The virus RNA time course peaked 3 days earlier than hospital admissions (April 9 versus April 12) and a cross correlation analysis revealed a correlation coefficient (R=0.996) between smoothed RNA and hospital data when the latter was shifted 3 days forward.
The team found that the “peak” level of virus RNA arrived 3 days before hospitals reported their ‘peak’ number of patients.
“Normally when I tell people I work with poo, they’re not super-interested,” Stephanie Loeb, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, told NPR. But “there’s really a lot of information in our waste.”
Read the full study below:
2020.05.19.20105999v1.full by Zerohedge on Scribd
- Elon Musk And Grimes Change Their Newborn's Name From "X Æ A-12" To "X Æ A-Xii"
Elon Musk And Grimes Change Their Newborn’s Name From “X Æ A-12” To “X Æ A-Xii”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 20:25For those of you wondering whether or not Elon Musk and his baby mama Grimes would come to their senses about the name they chose for their new child, “X Æ A-12”, we have both good news and bad news.
The good news is that they’ve decided to change the child’s name.
The bad news is that they’re changing it from “X Æ A-12” to “X Æ A-Xii”. That should prevent the child from a lifetime of being bullied and help them lead a totally normal life now, right?
Grimes made the announcement on her Instagram on Sunday, giving no explanation for the change other than:
“Roman numerals. Looks better tbh”.
If you say so, Grimes.
Prior to that, Grimes, in trying to explain the name of her child had “explained that Æ was her ‘elven spelling’ of AI (for artificial intelligence) and “X” stood for ‘the unknown variable’,” according to The Guardian.
“It’s just X, like the letter X. Then AI. Like how you said the letter A then I,” Grimes tried to explain on Instagram last week, foreshadowing a conversation her child is likely going to be forced to have every single day for their entire life.
“I mean it’s just X, the letter X. And then the Æ is, like, pronounced ‘Ash’… and then A-12. A-12 is my contribution,” an emasculated Musk tried explaining to podcast host Joe Rogan earlier in May.
This means that Musk’s “contribution” of “A-12” has now officially been usurped by Grimes’ change.
Musk had actually complimented Grimes on her name choice for the child on Rogan’s podcast: “First of all, my partner is the one that, actually, mostly, came up with the name. Yeah, she’s great at names.”
The internet mostly disagreed:
Grimes: “Oops we messed up the baby’s name”
Us: “Yeah we noticed, his name must be AJ or s-“
Grimes: “It’s ‘X Æ A-Xii,’ not ‘X Æ A-12’”
Us: pic.twitter.com/oPOiKBVtVw
— IyK (@immustarded) May 25, 2020
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Elon Musk’s son in 10 years: My name is X Æ A-Xii, but you can call me Ash.
Everyone else: pic.twitter.com/w5IyhYSunV— Naila_Li (@Justntk22) May 25, 2020
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Whenever I see “X Æ A-Xii,” my brain reacts like this: pic.twitter.com/dDkqz7oVN6
— Ellis Mitchell (@ellismitchell18) May 25, 2020
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X Æ A-Xii when he finds out his name used to be X Æ A-12pic.twitter.com/ATIbLCCuJw
— harman. (@christainbaIe) May 25, 2020
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the baby’s name was X Æ A-12 and now its X Æ A-Xii??? pic.twitter.com/K9DndCQmlo
— the birthday bitch (@LucidlyJess) May 25, 2020
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Grimes and Elon Musk changing their baby’s name from X Æ A-12 to X Æ A – xxii 😩 pic.twitter.com/OVZq1AA4j1
— Anshul ☠️ (@theanshulc27) May 26, 2020
- NSA's Social Network Mapping is More Vast, Omnipresent, & Horrifying Than Snowden Revealed
NSA’s Social Network Mapping is More Vast, Omnipresent, & Horrifying Than Snowden Revealed
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 20:05Authored by Jake Anderson via TheMindUnleashed.com,
Most people know by now about the surveillance abuses perpetrated by the NSA earlier this century, but a new book about Edward Snowden suggests that the metadata collection programs introduced to us through previous whistleblowers and disclosures are part of a “live, ever-updating social graph of the US” that is ongoing and far vaster than we previously imagined.
The revelations come from journalist Barton Gellman, who described the content of his new book Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State for Wired. The article, entitled “Inside the NSA’s Secret Tool for Mapping Your Social Network,” catalogs Gellman’s attempts to reveal more details about the programs Snowden first disclosed to the world.
What he found shocked him and, he says, represents an ongoing existential threat to American citizens.
Gellman says that originally he wanted to understand more about the logistics of the NSA phone records. The Snowden archive hints at but does not explain the details of the agency’s project pipelines.
The main thoroughfare of data collection, Stellarwind, was a domestic surveillance program launched by Vice President Dick Cheney only weeks after 9/11. He mandated that all operatives and subordinates conceal the program from FISA Court judges and Congress, stamping it with the most covert of government classifications, ECI, “exceptionally controlled information.”
Stellarwind facilitated Mainway, the NSA’s prized social network mapping tool which conscripted telephone data companies like AT&T and Verizon into secretive–and financially lucrative–data collection contracts negotiated by Special Source Operations.
But even this was just the tip of the iceberg.
The Mainway program codified two important but (until now) obfuscated surveillance and data mining objectives: contact chaining and precomputation.
Contact Chaining
While the NSA long maintained that their surveillance programs merely stored untraced metadata that could help investigate the activities of known terrorist operatives, we now know that the agency was actively leveraging and exploiting the data to build an almost mind-bogglingly complex, next-generation social graph. As described by Gellman, this tool combined the concepts of “six degrees of separation” (or six degrees of Kevin Bacon, if you prefer) and a pre-COVID19 model of contact tracing.
Termed contact chaining and first deployed during the manhunt and investigation of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a new suite of software tools used the NSA’s intercepted communications (read, our personal information), including voice, video, email and chat text, attachments, pager messages, etc. to build a cutting-edge form of data analysis that can algorithmically parse data records to illustrate indirect relationships between any and all intelligence assets (read, us).
According to Gellman, Mainway turned into “the queen of metadata, foreign and domestic, designed to find patterns that content did not reveal…[and] identify, track, store, manipulate and update relationships” to create a global graph, an integrated graphical map, representing the “movements and communications” of virtually everyone on Earth.
Named “the Big Awesome Graph,” or “the BAG” for short, this tool was the principal data harvesting tool in the umbrella directive of “Large Access Exploitation.” It “mapped the call records as “nodes” and “edges” on a grid so large that the human mind, unaided, could not encompass it.”
Precomputation
The NSA’s Mainway program sought to use its newly and somewhat hastily assembled software to continuously contact chain profiles on all global citizens. The FBI commandeered over a billion new records each day from the telephone companies and the NSA ingested that info to “get a head start on everyone.”
Termed precomputation, the idea was and is to create a “constant, complex…7×24…live, ever-updating social graph,” called Graph-in-Memory, of every US citizen and a large number of non-citizens and international citizens.
Gellerman writes:
“All kinds of secrets – social, medical, political, professional – were precomputed, 24/7…a database that was preconfigured to map anyone’s life at the touch of a button.”
He maintains that only 22 top officials had the authority to order a so-called contact chain. However, the dangers of such power abound.
In its post-911 sprint to “to dominate the global communications infrastructure,” the NSA opened a veritable Pandora’s box, whereby “governments at all levels [may use] the power of the state most heavy-handedly, sometimes illegally, to monitor communities disadvantaged by poverty, race, religion, ethnicity, and immigration status.”
Gellman observes that “nearly anyone in the developed world can be linked to at least one fact in a computer database that an adversary could use for blackmail, discrimination, harassment, or financial or identity theft.”
“The latent power of new inventions,” Gellman writes, “no matter how repellent at first, does not lie forever dormant in government armories.”
In other words, if you’re worried about contact tracing in the age of Covid-19, worry no more: that ship has long sailed.
- George Floyd Protests Spread: 1000s Block LA Freeway, Minneapolis Ablaze Amid Looting
George Floyd Protests Spread: 1000s Block LA Freeway, Minneapolis Ablaze Amid Looting
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 20:03Update (2225ET): Tear gas is flowing in Minneapolis as night 2 of the George Floyd protests begin:
Autozone fire by 3rd Precinct growing fast. People giving wide latitude now for safety pic.twitter.com/zAlb96hu3d
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) May 28, 2020
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Standoff between protesters and police continues in Minneapolis with St Paul Police dept moving in to assist.#GeorgeFloyd#icantbreathepic.twitter.com/WPDxlvwGuL
— ~Marietta (@_MariettaDavis) May 28, 2020
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Our Minneapolis #GeorgeFloyd protest stream is back up, now with increased quality. We will stay live for you, networks permitting:https://t.co/4DTgvFtAzQ
— Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) May 28, 2020
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* * *
Update (22:00ET): The protests that started yesterday in Minneapolis over the death of George Floyd, and escalated today including the looting of at least one Target store, have sparked a violent anti-police protest in LA with thousands blocking the 101 Freeway and attacking cop cars.
BREAKING NEWS: Black Lives Matter protestors attacking police cars on 101 freeway in LA during #GeorgeFloyd protest @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/iMYnFU2mO6
— Liz Habib (@LizHabib) May 28, 2020
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— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 28, 2020
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Downtown LA — 101 freeway pic.twitter.com/9t849F3USF
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 28, 2020
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And not only are they refusing to obey Governor Newsom’s social distancing rules, hardly anyone is wearing a mask!
* * *
Update (20:00 ET): Social unrest continues to worsen on Wednesday evening as protesters smash the windows of a local Target and have now started to loot the store.
FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul’s Karen Scullin is documenting the breaking story:
Target is being looted pic.twitter.com/GCGteCG8gV
— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) May 27, 2020
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— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) May 27, 2020
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Target is getting cleaned out pic.twitter.com/0OGSHY132k
— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) May 27, 2020
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This is awful out here. No police. Looting continues pic.twitter.com/087TpNWhPV
— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) May 27, 2020
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Video emerges of inside the Target
Video showing inside a @Target in #Minneapolis as looters tear through the store. Riots are taking place in response to the killing of #GeorgeFloyd. Looting and stealing in the name of such a terrific event doesn’t make it ok. Your just a thief who wants to steal. pic.twitter.com/bbBAlgZgd3
— Disclosure Tv (@DisclosureTv_) May 28, 2020
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WCCO CBS Minnesota posts a “raw video” showing scenes outside of the Target
RAW VIDEO: Dozens of people loot the Target store near Minneapolis Police’s 3rd Precinct building in the midst of the #GeorgeFloyd protest. (WARNING: Contains strong language). The other protest at the scene of Floyd’s death remains peaceful. Read More: https://t.co/W5GdKvLI7g pic.twitter.com/9Pjt6oWLzI
— WCCO – CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) May 28, 2020
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Watch Live: Protests continue in South Minneapolis in response to the death of George Floyd
Live at riot in Minneapolis Minnesota
Here’s another live feed of the chaos
The situation is quickly deteriorating in Minneapolis — as the next big threat, as we highlighted earlier today, is that unrest could spread to other cities, such as Baltimore…
* * *
Update (11:55 ET): Former vice president Joe Biden has been vocal about the death of George Floyd in the last 24-hours. Videos had surfaced on the internet of Floyd pinned to the ground by police officers shortly before he died on Monday.
Here’s the video of the incident
“I CAN’T BREATHE”: Video shows George Floyd, a black man that police say was a possible “forgery” suspect, pleading with Minneapolis cops for air as they press a knee into his neck. Floyd loses consciousness and later dies.
Click here for the full video: https://t.co/gD3hBFhbgL pic.twitter.com/h5SabBHR7M
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 26, 2020
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On Tuesday night, during the protests in Minneapolis, Biden tweeted: “George Floyd deserved better and his family deserves justice. His life mattered. I’m grateful for the swift action in Minneapolis to fire the officers involved — they must be held responsible for their egregious actions. The FBI should conduct a thorough investigation.”
Biden was heard on a virtual meeting with Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf Wednesday morning, where he addressed the death of George Floyd.
Axios provides a breakdown of what was said (Biden referenced the 2014 death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died after a New York police officer used an illegal chokehold on him during an arrest):
- “Watching his life be taken in the same manner, echoing nearly the same words as Eric Garner more than five years ago — “I can’t breathe” — is a tragic reminder that this was not an isolated incident, but part of an ingrained systemic cycle that exists in this country,” Biden said.
- “It cuts at the very heart of our sacred belief that all Americans are equal in rights and in dignity.”
- “And it sends a very clear message to the black community and black lives that are under threat every day.”
Here’s Biden speaking
Joe Biden: “George Floyd’s life mattered. It mattered as much as mine, it matters as much as anyone’s in this country.” Biden says his death “was part of an ingrained systemic cycle of injustice that still exists in this country.” pic.twitter.com/LXZmsQrNhB
— The American Independent (@AmerIndependent) May 27, 2020
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* * *
High unemployment, crashed economy, and now social unrest rears its ugly head as America descends into chaos ahead of the summer months.
Across social media, pictures and videos coming from the streets of Minneapolis on Tuesday evening are absolutely stunning. Protests broke out following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody a day earlier.
This reminds us of the 2014 Ferguson Riots and 2015 Baltimore Riots, in both incidents, the trigger for unrest was a young black man killed while in police custody. Unlike 2014/15, the economy has now plunged into a depression and tens of millions of people are unemployed, as some have to resort to food banks because they’ve fallen into instant poverty, which all suggests tensions are already running high as warmer weather entices people to step outside. With no work, why not riot?
Shown below, police fired rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades at protesters. The initial demonstrations started peacefully than quickly got out of hand. Some hurled blunt objects at law enforcement while damaging police cars.
The early hours of the protest were peaceful, hundreds, and maybe even more than a thousand people, were seen marching across 38th Street. Some carried signs that read “Justice for George Floyd,” “I can’t breathe,” and “Black Lives Matter.”
The long parade of protesters continues along 38th St (it’s been about half hour of a steady stream of protesters past one intersection) carrying signs saying “Justice for George Floyd,” “I can’t breathe” and “Black Lives Matter.” Follow @ChaoStrib for more. pic.twitter.com/hsc3t7WvDM
— Jessie Van Berkel (@jessvanb) May 26, 2020
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The size of the demonstration quickly increased in the late evening.
(Video taken at 5:45pm but wouldn’t upload due to service issues).
Sound of motorcycles revving sends crowd at George Floyd protest running, many confused or scared by what’s happening. Motorcyclists actually there in support of protest/march.@WCCO pic.twitter.com/yXJpKQqMS5
— Jeff Wagner (@Jeff_Wagner4) May 26, 2020
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(Video taken at 4:30pm but wouldn’t send due to service issues)
Crowd at the protest for George Floyd extends well down each block as people try to be socially distant. @WCCO pic.twitter.com/ptgHEX4bGm
— Jeff Wagner (@Jeff_Wagner4) May 26, 2020
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Protests and riots in Minneapolis, America, Following the death of George Floyd in police custody #streetnews pic.twitter.com/X1QRyh4fUS
— Music/StreetNews (@ScarcityStudios) May 27, 2020
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CNN’s Omar Jimenez tweeted: “You could say there’s a bit of a crowd gathering in Minneapolis.”
And then all hell broke out when protesters attacked Minneapolis 3rd Police Precinct.
RAW VIDEO: Protesters inside Minneapolis Police’s 3rd Precinct parking lot smashing squad cars, before officers show up and fire flash grenades inside to get them to disperse. WARNING: This video contains violence and strong language. READ MORE: https://t.co/HZTamsXTCN pic.twitter.com/Cktz07ftSg
— WCCO – CBS Minnesota (@WCCO) May 27, 2020
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#BREAKING MORE VIDEO : Police are using chemical-tear gas and stun grenades as major protests continue in #Minneapolis in response to the killing of George Floyd.#GeorgeFloyd #NoJusticeNoPeace pic.twitter.com/ZHZlIPvVNo
— FRUM NEWS REPORT (@FrumNewsReport) May 27, 2020
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Protesters destroying police cars
Protest in Minneapolis for justice George Floyd.#JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #BlackLivesMatter#AllLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/WAiRu3gEKh
— Mohammad javad omidali (@JavadOmidali) May 27, 2020
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Protests in Minneapolis turn violent after the in-custody police death of George Floyd
pic.twitter.com/WOKq4QD6sd— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 27, 2020
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More footage from Minneapolis. 🤷🏾♂️ #ICantBreathe #BlackLivesMatter #GeorgeFloyd pic.twitter.com/8uRbMyHFjf
— Lt. Lucky 👑 (@LtLucky) May 27, 2020
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“It’s real ugly. The police have to understand that this is the climate they have created,” a protester told WCCO-TV.
#BREAKING MORE VIDEO : Police are using chemical-tear gas and stun grenades as major protests continue in #Minneapolis in response to the killing of George Floyd.#GeorgeFloyd #NoJusticeNoPeace pic.twitter.com/ZHZlIPvVNo
— FRUM NEWS REPORT (@FrumNewsReport) May 27, 2020
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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, tweeted: “Shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at unarmed protesters when there are children present should never be tolerated. Ever. What is happening tonight in our city is shameful. Police need to exercise restraint, and our community needs space to heal.”
Shooting rubber bullets and tear gas at unarmed protesters when there are children present should never be tolerated. Ever.
What is happening tonight in our city is shameful.
Police need to exercise restraint, and our community needs space to heal. https://t.co/vwAIV7t5WJ
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 27, 2020
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In late March, we described how “social bomb” could flare-up in the Western world, and even reported that President Trump signed an executive order that allows for the call-up of up to a million troops. Why so many soldiers? Well, we’re not entirely sure, it could be due to threats of social unrest that are usually seen in economic downturns.
Now here’s a big risk: If unrest spreads to other cities, like Baltimore, where tensions against police are already high, then it appears the Trump administration has a major problem on their hands ahead of the election.
- What Could Come Next Regarding Hong Kong: Here Is The Nuclear Option
What Could Come Next Regarding Hong Kong: Here Is The Nuclear Option
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 19:56Authored by Ye Xie, macro commentator for Bloomberg
Wednesday’s trading further proves that economic re-opening trumps rising tensions between the U.S. and China. The new battleground between the two superpowers over Hong Kong is a regional, rather than global, risk.
The U.S. markets shrugged off the Trump administration’s threat to revoke Hong Kong’s special trading status Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising more than 2%.
Value stocks and small caps continued to outperform, pointing to optimism toward an economic recovery.
In comparison, the $1.1 billion iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF fell 1.4% in the U.S., while the Hong Kong dollar weakened in the forward market. But it’s a more muted reaction compared with the ETF’s 5% loss Friday when news broke that China was set to pass a national security law governing Hong Kong, suggesting the U.S.’s response was largely expected.
The offshore yuan briefly matched a record low before settling down at 7.18 per dollar. Implied volatility remains fairly muted, signaling that investors are convinced there’s limited room for large depreciation as the PBOC stands to contain the fallout.
Are markets too complacent? Maybe. But the experience last year suggests that the only thing that matters for global markets is trade and tariff-related risk. As long as the two countries refrain from slapping more tariffs on each other, things such as America’s human rights bill supporting Hong Kong and blocking Huawei’s market access are irrelevant in deciding how strong the global economy will be.
What could come next regarding Hong Kong?
The U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992 allows the city to be exempt from Trump’s punitive tariffs on China and grants it access to sensitive technologies. In theory, the administration could revoke the previlege on both fronts.
But as a first step, the U.S. may come out with “a lot of tough talk and financial sanctions and visa restrictions on Chinese officials who probably weren’t dumb enough to keep funds in the U.S.,” said David Loevinger, a former China specialist at the U.S. Treasury who’s now an analyst at TCW Group.
“They will hold back some of the bigger guns like tariffs, export controls and investment restrictions until they see what the new law looks like and how it’s implemented.”
The nuclear option would be “block Chinese banks from the U.S. dollar clearing system,” which is unlikely at this stage, according to Enodo Economics.
Hong Kong assets will struggle amid uncertainties about the enactment of the national security law, and events including the Legislative Council elections in September. At the same time, stock valuation is inexpensive, suggesting room for large declines is limited.
- Trump Offers To "Mediate" India & China's "Raging Border Dispute" Amid Military Build-Up
Trump Offers To “Mediate” India & China’s “Raging Border Dispute” Amid Military Build-Up
Tyler Durden
Wed, 05/27/2020 – 19:45No doubt a huge surprise for both Beijing and New Delhi, locked in an escalating border dispute which in the past days has witnessed a troop build-up in multiple disputed border regions, given the historic difficulty of competing claims along the world’s longest unmarked border, President Trump on Wednesday morning offered to “mediate or arbitrate” between the two Asian powers.
He tweeted he is “ready, willing and able” to ease the tensions which are fast being militarized in a situation that FP recently noted could explode into major conflict between two nuclear armed powers.
“We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute,” Trump said in the early morning tweet.
We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2020
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The surprise offer, more than likely to be rejected considering Washington’s own boiling tensions with Beijing over a host of issues – the latest including Hong Kong – comes on the heels of a top American diplomat for South Asia making provocative remarks siding with India on the contested border issue.
Outgoing State Department official Alice Wells made the provocative statements a week ago at an Atlantic Council event, saying, “There’s a method here to Chinese operations and it is that constant aggression, the constant attempt to shift the norms, to shift what is the status quo.”
Wells added: “That has to be resisted whether it’s in the South China Sea… or whether it’s in India’s own backyard.”
Trump’s offer also comes after a new White House report laying out a broad strategy on China, accused Beijing of “provocative and coercive military and paramilitary activities” in the region, including Sino-Indian border areas.
Indian army lorry previously near Pangong Lake in Ladakh, via AP. Sporadic but fierce clashes have occurred going back to the 1960’s along the shared 2,100 mile border, which often involves literal fist-fights among opposing troops and border patrol guards.
“Thousands of Chinese People’s Liberation (PLA) troops are reported to have moved into sensitive areas along the eastern Ladokh border, setting up tents and stationing vehicles and heavy machinery in what India considers to be its territory,” The Guardian reports Wednesday.
Over the past weekend Indian media began reporting that thousands of PLA troops have now moved into Ladakh’s disputed Galwan river area.
Via Quora Some Indian media reports have suggested multiple thousands, while a new Business Standard India report goes so far as to claim up to 10,000 Chinese soldiers are now inside India occupying the Galwan Valley while digging into fortified positions.
Regardless, the intensifying border dispute is serious enough to have caught Trump’s attention, meaning a broader conflict or even war could be on the horizon.
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