Today’s News 29th April 2024

• Who's In Favor Of A Potential TikTok Ban?
  Who’s In Favor Of A Potential TikTok Ban?

  As part of a larger national security and foreign aid package, President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law legislation that forces TikTok parent ByteDance to divest the U.S. arm of its popular social media platform within 270 days or be banned from operating in the United States. The “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” seeks to cut any ties between TikTok, its current parent company and the Chinese government, which allegedly abuses the platform to “surveil and influence the American public” in a way that poses a threat to national security.

  As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, compared to an earlier standalone bill that had passed the House in March but then failed to gain traction in the Senate, the newly passed bill extends the time given to ByteDance from 180 to 270 days, with the possibility of a 90-day extension if the president finds that significant progress towards a “qualified divesture” has been made. This means that TikTok’s Chinese owner now has until after the U.S. presidential election to find a suitable buyer, turning the question of whether or not TikTok should be divested or banned into a potential election issue.

  Sure enough, former president Donald Trump told young voters to remember that “crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” when they vote in November, omitting the fact that he tried to ban TikTok himself during his time in office.

  And while Trump was right in his view that young Americans would be more likely to oppose legislation against TikTok, he ignored the fact that the vast majority of Republican voters is in favor of a potential ban. According to a recent YouGov/The Economist survey, two thirds of Republicans strongly or somewhat approve the forced divesture/potential ban of TikTok versus just 20 percent who oppose such legislation. Democratic voters are almost evenly split on the issue, with 40 percent of respondents in favor of legislative action against TikTok and its parent company.

  Looking at different age groups, the trend is clear: the younger the respondents the more likely they are to oppose a potential TikTok ban, which is easily explained by the fact that young people are much more likely to be TikTok users.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  So what happens next?

  If ByteDance fails to find a suitable buyer within the given timeframe, it would be unlawful for app stores and web hosting companies to distribute the app in the United States.

  Finding a buyer will be hard though, as any company with an interest and deep-enough pockets to acquire a platform of TikTok’s stature will almost certainly face intense scrutiny from the FTC for antitrust reasons.

  It’s also unlikely that ByteDance will go down without a fight.

  “Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in a video posted on Wednesday, claiming that the ultimate goal of the legislation is to ban TikTok, not sell it.

  “We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts,” he said, addressing the platform’s 170 million U.S. users directly.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 04/29/2024 – 02:45

• Ukraine's Top Five Challenges Are Unsolvable
  Ukraine’s Top Five Challenges Are Unsolvable

  Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

  It’s beginning to dawn on most Westerners that the US’ long-delayed aid to Ukraine isn’t all that it was hyped up to be and will only at most temporarily slow down the pace of Russia’s increasingly rapid advances. The conflict’s tempo has gradually intensified as Russia exploited Ukraine’s disastrous counteroffensive to regain the military-strategic initiative. Ukraine’s problems are immense and multifaceted, but they’re all connected one way or another to the five following factors:

  

  1. Russia’s Military-Industrial Complex Continues Outproducing NATO’s

  Russia won the “race of logistics”/“war of attrition” with NATO long ago and that’s why it continued gaining ground over the past 18 months. The sanctions failed to bankrupt the Kremlin, required resources for production remain readily available, and sabotage had no impact on the assembly lines. Not only has NATO been unable to stop Russia’s military-industrial complex, but it couldn’t ramp up its own during this time either, thus creating an unbridgeable gap that weakens Ukraine more by the week.

  2. Ukraine Is Struggling To Replenish Its Depleted Military Ranks

  NATO’s loss in the abovementioned military-industrial competition with Russia, the consequent failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, and Russia’s subsequent on-the-ground gains combined to scare Ukrainian men away from joining the armed forces and helping to replenish their depleted ranks. Without enough soldiers, Ukraine can’t confidently hold off Russia’s advances, thus risking an impending collapse along the front. At the end of the day, it’s just a numbers game, and Ukraine’s continue trending downward.

  3. Less Equipment & Troops Mean More Difficulty Building New Defenses

  The pace with which Russia has recently gained ground in Donbass is stressing Ukraine’s existing defensive lines like never before, thus compelling it to build newer ones further behind the front lines. Although Zelensky demanded this be done late last year, little progress has been made due to the lack of equipment and troops for holding off the Russian advance while simultaneously accomplishing this task. The breakthrough that the Ukrainian Intelligence Committee warned about is now more likely than ever.

  4. Political Instability Is Still A Damocles’ Sword Hanging Over Ukraine

  The Committee also warned in their same message from February that political unrest might explode next month around the time that Zelensky’s term expires on 21 May. They of course claimed that Russia would be behind it, which he also preconditioned his partners to falsely believe late last year, but this would actually be a genuine response to growing problems. Authoritarianism, corruption, forcible conscription, serious economic troubles, and the lack of a realistic endgame all enrage Ukrainians.

  5. Ukraine Continues Thinking That It Knows Better Than The US

  The Washington Post’s two–part post-mortem report on last summer’s failed counteroffensive revealed that one of the reasons why it flopped was because Ukraine refused to listen to the US’ advice. This problem is attributable to Zelensky and most recently took the form of him ordering his forces to attack Russian energy infrastructure in defiance of the US at the expense of more tactically significant targets. It’s actually the US’ own fault, though, since their media convinced him that he was a “god among men”.

  *  *  *

  These unsolvable challenges have converged to create a full-fledged crisis for Ukraine that Commander-in-Chief Syrsky is unable to resolve, which is why he candidly informed Ukraine’s partners that “the difficult operational and strategic situation…has a tendency to get worse.” Unless Ukraine agrees to demilitarize the regions still under its control east of the Dnieper and turn them into a buffer zone, the front might collapse by summertime, which could either lead to capitulation or a NATO intervention.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 04/29/2024 – 02:00

• US Space Force General Says China's Military Developing Space Assets At "Breathtaking Speed"
  US Space Force General Says China’s Military Developing Space Assets At “Breathtaking Speed”

  Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,

  Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, recently warned about China’s “breathtakingly fast” development of space military capabilities, following his trips to South Korea and Japan.

  “We are seriously focused at U.S. Space Command on our pacing challenge, which is the People’s Republic of China,” Gen. Whiting told reporters during a call from Japan on April 24.

  “The People’s Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space, and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities,” he added.

  “They’re also using space to make their terrestrial forces—their army, their navy, their marine corps, their air force—more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging.”

  Gen. Whiting was on his first Indo-Pacific trip after becoming the head of U.S. Space Command in January, succeeding Army Gen. James Dickinson. During his trip, he met with top military leaders from South Korea and Japan, including Adm. Kim Myung-Soo, chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara.

  

  One particular concern was the number of Chinese satellites in orbit, Gen. Whiting said.

  “Over the last six years, they have tripled the number of intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance satellites on orbit, and they have used their space capabilities to improve the lethality, the precision, and the range of their terrestrial forces,” he said.

  “And so that obviously is a cause for concern and something that we are watching a very, very closely.”

  China’s satellite fleet stood at 359 systems as of January, according to his prepared remarks for a hearing of the Senate Armed Service Committee in February. He also noted that Beijing is developing hypersonic glide vehicles along with other advanced space weaponry to “overcome U.S. traditional missile warning and ballistic missile defense systems.”

  China’s ambitions with regard to the Moon are also among Space Command’s concerns.

  “We’ve seen the announcements of China’s ambitions to go to the Moon. And those appear to be exploratory and scientific on the surface, but the Chinese aren’t very transparent with what they do in space,” he said.

  “And so we hope there’s not a military component to that, but we would certainly welcome more transparency.”

  A U.S. military report published in January warned that China and Russia are putting up dual-use satellites in space while hiding their military applications. One example is a Chinese satellite equipped with a giant robotic arm, which could be used to grapple other satellites in the future.

  China is aiming to put its astronauts on the moon by 2030. Pakistan, South Africa, Belarus, and Nicaragua are among a group of nations that have signed up for a planned moon base led by China and Russia. The moon project is officially known as the International Lunar Research Station.

  Gen. Whiting said he visited Japan’s Space Operations Group and emphasized the importance of the two nations working together in space.

  “Their focus on space domain awareness along with ours to keep track of those threats in space that we see—and many of those are emanating from China—has put an impetus on us developing improved space domain awareness capability,” he said.

  Japan is working to bring on board a deep-space radar, Gen. Whiting said, adding that the radar will benefit both nations once it archives initial operational capability.

  “We expect that will provide both of our countries an enhanced understanding of what China is doing in space,” he said.

  Japan and the United States are also partners in launching new satellites that will be used to conduct space domain awareness missions, according to Gen. Whiting.

  In November last year, the United States, Japan, and South Korea agreed on a mechanism to share missile warning data to better track North Korea’s missile launches. The mechanism went into effect in December.

  “We need to continue the excellent work in the trilateral agreement between the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan to share missile warning information so that that all three countries fully understand anytime North Korea launches a missile where that missile is headed, and we can provide warning to our national leadership, to our military forces, and to our populations,” Gen. Whiting said.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 04/29/2024 – 00:05

• Relentless Chinese Bond Rally Hints at Yuan Challenge Ahead
  Relentless Chinese Bond Rally Hints at Yuan Challenge Ahead

  By Charlie Zhu and Helen Sun, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and strategists

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. China’s bond rally seems unstoppable amid a shortage of quality assets for investments. From government bonds to corporate debentures, traders keep hunting for yields in all maturities.

  • After pushing the yield on 30-year sovereign debt to the lowest since 2005, investors flocked to the notes issued by local government financing vehicles, once deemed as the riskiest instrument in Asia. That helped to drive LGFV companies’ borrowing costs to record lows.

  • In light of a decline in mortgage loans, long-term sovereign bonds become a good alternative for banks as long-term assets and provides support to the bond rally until the trend changes, said Becky Liu, head of Greater China macro strategy at Standard Chartered Plc.

  • As the central bank warned the market again about the potential risks in long-term bonds and pointed to signs of stabilizing economic growth, funds rotated out of the back-end of the curve. The yield on two-year sovereign notes slid to the lowest level since mid-2020. That widened its gap with US Treasury to about 317 basis points, the biggest ever.

  

  2. Market speculation about a devaluation of the yuan emerged. To investors onshore, this is an unlikely scenario given the authorities’ emphasis on maintaining stability, but some offshore traders see signs that the pressure is building.

  • In addition to the record interest rate gap, China’s stockpiling of commodities including gold and copper has prompted conjecture that policymakers may weaken the yuan in a one-off move.

  • The central bank has been using the daily reference rate to limit the depreciation of the yuan, effectively making it one of the best-performing emerging-market currencies this month. However, the steady fixing kept the spot exchange rate remain close to the 2% daily limit on the weaker side, spurring concerns over the sustainability of the strategy.

  

  3. The US decision on TikTok may bring headwinds to stabilizing relations between Beijing and Washington. President Joe Biden has signed a bill forcing TikTok to find a new owner within a year or face a ban. The move, designed to cut off China’s access to the video app used by 170 million Americans, raised concerns that US firms with large exposure to China’s market, including Apple Inc. and Tesla Inc., may be retaliation targets.

  • While China’s response was rather restrained compared with last year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned his US counterpart Antony Blinken Friday that “negative factors” were rising between the world’s biggest economies.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 23:40

• 'FX Vigilantes' Strike – Yen Suddenly Crashes To April 1990 Lows Against The Dollar
  ‘FX Vigilantes’ Strike – Yen Suddenly Crashes To April 1990 Lows Against The Dollar

  The yen crashed in early Asia trading, tumbling to match is exact lows from April 1990 in what is being blamed on a ‘fat finger’ trade or multiple barrier-option trades being triggered, by sources that have literally no idea.

  The plunge extended Friday’s big drop which followed BoJ Governor Ueda’s apparent lack of interest in doing anything about the yen’s decline, claiming it had ‘no impact’ on the currency’s inflation picture.

  “Currency rates is not a target of monetary policy to directly control,” he said.

  “But currency volatility could be an important factor in impacting the economy and prices. If the impact on underlying inflation becomes too big to ignore, it may be a reason to adjust monetary policy.”

  In fact, policymakers have repeatedly warned that depreciation won’t be tolerated if it goes too far too fast.

  Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki reiterated after the BoJ meeting that the government will respond appropriately to foreign exchange moves.

  Potential triggers for interventions are public holidays in Japan on Monday and Friday next week, which bring the risk of volatility amid thin trading.

  “Should the yen fall further from here, like after the BOJ decision in September 2022, the possibility of intervention will increase,” said Hirofumi Suzuki, chief currency strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

  “It is not the level but it’s the speed that will trigger the action.”

  Well currency volatility is what he has now…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The sudden drop pushed USDJPY perfectly to its April 1990 highs to the tick…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The currency pain was all focused in the Japanese market as EUR and GBP strengthened against the USD…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Perhaps even more notably, the yen puked relative to the Chinese yuan, hitting 22 for the first time since 1992 and putting further pressure on Beijing to potentially do something…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The question is, of course, what will Japan’s MoF/BoJ do now – if anything as their recent excuses about ‘velocity’ or some such spin are now out of the window after a 6-handle standalone surge in their currency in a few short days (when the rest of the world’s currencies are not).

  “Authorities may say they don’t target levels per se, but they do pay close attention to the trend and the rate of change and current levels suggest they have to act soon or risk facing a credibility crisis,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone Group Ltd.

  “The FX market is almost taking them on like the bond vigilantes of old.”

  Specifically as SocGen’s FX strategist Kit Juckes noted on Friday, the yen’s decline is becoming disorderly, which points to a final, potentially sharp, decline before it finds a floor.

  However, as we detailed last week, the problem with intervention is that once the genie is out of the bottle… it’s hard to put it back in.

  In other words, the onus should be on the BOJ to step in with a much more hawkish move than the market expects.

  As Viraj Patel from Vanda Research goes on to note that “we’re at a stage where MoF/BoJ have no choice but to intervene. The best way would be for BoJ to hike 25bps this week. It’s not about the macro anymore (BoJ should’ve normalized policy faster last year).”

  Instead, what is going on is that Japan’s disastrous handling of its currency has evolved into a game between speculators and officials: Specs are short yen for good fundamental reasons (carry). At this stage, a “surprise” hike to send a signal to markets that they are concerned about ongoing FX weakness (and don’t test us) would be less costly to the economy vs. a further devaluation in the yen. It also adds an additional level of uncertainty to the BoJ/MoF reaction function – which speculators (long carry trades) don’t like.

  Meanwhile, FX intervention – which unfortunately looks to be the MoF/BoJ’s preferred route based on recent history – is not even a short-term fix anymore. USD/JPY dips would be quickly bought into based on recent market chatter. A hike goes a bit further towards solving the root cause of yen weakness – even it’s only a marginally better option.

  

  However, not everyone is convinced intervention is imminent.

  In a note late last week, Deutsche Bank says the currency’s decline is warranted and finally marks the day where the market realizes that Japan is following a policy of benign neglect for the yen.

  We have long argued that FX intervention is not credible and the toning down of verbal jawboning from the finance minister overnight is on balance a positive from a credibility perspective. The possibility of intervention can’t be ruled out if the market turns disorderly, but it is also notable that Governor Ueda played down the importance of the yen in his press conference today as well as signalling no urgency to hike rates. We would frame the ongoing yen collapse around the following points.

  1. Yen weakness is simply not that bad for Japan. The tourism sector is booming, profit margins on the Nikkei are soaring and exporter competitiveness is increasing. True, the cost of imported items is going up. But growth is fine, the government is helping offset some of the cost via subsidies and core inflation is not accelerating. Most importantly, the Japanese are huge foreign asset owners via Japan’s positive net international investment position. Yen weakness therefore leads to huge capital gains on foreign bonds and equities, most easily summarized in the observation that the government pension fund (GPIF) has roughly made more profits over the last two years than the last twenty years combined.

  2. There simply isn’t an inflation problem. Japan’s core CPI is around 2% and has been decelerating in recent months. The Tokyo CPI overnight was 1.7% excluding one-off effects. To be sure, inflation may well accelerate again helped by FX weakness and high wage growth. But the starting point of inflation is entirely different to the post-COVID hiking cycles of the Fed and ECB. By extension, the inflation pain is far less and the urgency to hike far less too. No where is this more obvious than the fact that Japanese consumer confidence are close to their cycle highs.

  3. Negative real rates are great. There is a huge attraction to running negative real rates for the consolidated government balance sheet. As we demonstrated last year, it creates fiscal space via a $20 trillion carry trade while also generating asset gains for Japan’s wealthy voting base. This encourages the persistent domestic capital outflows we have been highlighting as a key driver of yen weakness over the last year and that have pushed Japan’s broad basic balance to being one of the weakest in the world. It is not speculators that are weakening the yen but the Japanese themselves.

  The bottom line, Deutscxhe concludes, is that for the JPY to turn stronger the Japanese need to unwind their carry trade. But for this to make sense the Bank of Japan needs to engineer an expedited hiking cycle similar to the post-COVID experiences of other central banks. Time will tell if the BoJ is moving too slow and generating a policy mistake. A shift in BoJ inflation forecasts to well above 2% over their forecast horizon would be the clearest signal of a shift in reaction function. But this isn’t happening now.

  The Japanese are enjoying the ride.

  Finally, it goes without saying that the only true circuit-breaker for yen weakness is lower US yields/weak US macro, which is unlikely until the election if, as so many now speculate, there has been a directive by the Biden admin to make the economy look as good as possible ahead of the elections, even if that means manipulating the data to a grotesque degree.

  One added complexity for MoF/BoJ is that their two options for tackling yen weakness indirectly adds upward pressure to global rates/yields. They’re caught between a rock and a hard place… and speculators know (enjoy) this.

  And finally there is China: the longer BOJ/MoF does nothing to curb the collapse of the yen, a move which is seen a pumping up the country’s exporting base at the expense of other mercantilist nations such as China, the higher the probability Beijing will retaliate against Tokyo by devaluing its own currency. At which point all hell will break loose.

  But, one way or another, as Goldman noted, it’s crunch time for USDJPY.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 23:15

• Stablecoin Volumes Are Tracking A Record $15 Trillion On Ethereum Alone
  Stablecoin Volumes Are Tracking A Record $15 Trillion On Ethereum Alone

  By Marcel Kasumovich, Deputy CIO of Coinbase Asset Management

  Crypto sparked a renaissance in real-time payments. Sleepy you say? Time for a wake-up call – payment solutions are at the cutting edge of crypto’s integration into the mainstream, and it has plenty of competition.

  “You’re probably used to crypto transactions, expecting me to bring out another guest for an eight-minute commentary while we wait for confirmation. But that’s old crypto. Are you ready for the new crypto world? Watch very closely…don’t blink…and that’s it,” John Collison exclaimed while illustrating a transaction on crypto rails with Stripe, a leading payment network that he co-founded. It was a seamless user experience, unlike the company’s initial foray into bitcoin in 2014.

  Both PayPal and Stripe are now harnessing the power of stablecoins into their familiar user interfaces. This strategic move effortlessly brings users onto the blockchain – point, click, and it’s done. It’s the new trend, too. Traditional companies are bringing users onchain. There’s the crypto we see in noisy headlines and those working quietly to monetize the technology, like PayPal and Stripe. And they combine for a staggering 62% share of online payment software processing.

  Digital payments may not seem like the exciting promise of the future. Yet, they are at the cutting edge. Digital payments are taking a rising share of a rapidly growing market as the world moves away from cash. Global payments are measured in the hundreds of trillions, and the digital payment market has risen from a modest $10 billion in 2017 to a projected $200 billion in 2030. We all live it, and the bulk of the transactions are small value, a coffee here, a donut there.

  The process is so seamless that we seldom pause to consider how it actually works. Poorly, as it happens. Users expect to be able to pay whenever it’s convenient. Settling your restaurant bill, you don’t care that it’s outside of banking hours. You just want a simple form of payment – and that’s not cash. During the time between you tapping your card and accounts being settled, a middleman provides credit to make sure it all clears. And it’s expensive at 2.3% of transaction value.

  One man’s profit margin is another’s invitation to disrupt. The typical narrative of disruption involves a wildly successful company losing its innovation edge, and missing market inflection points. Polaroid made the first instant camera in 1948 and dominated markets from floppy disks to film. Revenue peaked in 1991 and the company was unable to pivot to the new digital era, declaring bankruptcy ten years later. Learning from such histories, companies are now more adaptive.

  We see this clearly in payments. Efficiency is precisely what brought PayPal and Stripe back to crypto. Transaction speeds have improved exponentially, now clocking at milliseconds, and costs have plunged to fractions of a cent. It helps that crypto tech fails fast – revealing resilience and weakness quickly. For instance, the resilience of USDC is now supporting its entry into the mainstream while Bored Apes Yacht Club weakness persists, down 90% off previous cycle highs.

  Why now? Why not! Stablecoins are demonstrating their prowess as payment tools. Transaction volumes are tracking new highs this month, running at ~$15 trillion annualized on Ethereum alone (Figure 1). The efficiency gain is clear – instant and final settlements mean that your late-night coffee and donut purchases bypass the need for credit intermediaries. The middleman is dead, although living vibrantly through tools like Stripe that deliver users a familiar experience.

  

  Users don’t care that it’s crypto. They want a great experience. Businesses don’t care, either. They are optimizing operating efficiency for profit. As crypto matures, so too does its value proposition. Crypto is the protagonist of real time payments and like any great innovation, it fosters competition. What’s unique with payments is that the competition comes from both private and government organizations, with regulatory stagnation working in favor of both.

  Look beyond regions traditionally seen as leaders in innovation. The United States remains a beacon of creative talent behind innovation. But users are moving slowly, lagging in fintech adoption. After all, US users are accustomed to fees, don’t mind the service, and paying for points on expensive intermediation is a pastime. Real-time settlement systems adopted, like FedNow, are for business applications, not for consumers. It’s new players like India at the cutting edge.

  The Unified Payment Interface (UPI), India’s real-time payment solution, was developed by the central bank in 2016. It integrates peer-to-peer real-time payments, directly competing with crypto technologies. Last year, UPI integrated 522 commercial banks covering 300 million active users and 117 billion transactions. Different from developed regions, intermediaries were not disrupted as these are largely new users. Cash was disrupted at the expense of the central bank.

  Payments stand at the cutting edge of crypto’s future. User experience is paramount. Integrating into the regulatory mainstream will accelerate users onchain, just as service providers did for the internet. Crypto unlocked the real-time settlement innovation, but will face competition. It is a world that argues for being chain-agnostic. The data between Ethereum, Bitcoin and UPI will integrate to the highest of standards and security. That’s the road to making onchain the new online.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 22:40

• Justice Thomas Raises Scrutiny On Special Counsel Jack Smith's Appointment In Trump Hearing
  Justice Thomas Raises Scrutiny On Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Appointment In Trump Hearing

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked former President Donald Trump’s lawyers about whether they challenged special counsel Jack Smith’s authority to bring charges against the president.

  

  On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case about President Trump being immune from prosecution for official acts carried out during his presidency. During the hearing, Justice Thomas asked John Sauer, the attorney who represented Trump in court, “Did you, in this litigation, challenge the appointment of special counsel?” Mr. Smith was appointed to the case by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

  Mr. Sauer said that Trump attorneys have not raised such concerns “directly” in the current case at the Supreme Court. However, “it points to a very important issue here, because one of [the prosecution’s] arguments is, of course, that we should have this presumption of regularity,” Sauer stated.

  “That runs into the reality that we have here an extraordinary prosecutorial power being exercised by someone who was never nominated by the president or confirmed by the Senate at any time. … We hadn’t raised it yet in this case when this case went up on appeal.”

  Mr. Sauer said he agrees with the “analysis provided by Attorney General [Edwin] Meese and Attorney General [Michael B.] Mukasey,” referring to the amicus brief the two former attorneys general submitted to the Supreme Court on March 19.

  In it, the two attorneys general noted that irrespective of what one thinks about the immunity issue, Mr. Smith “does not have authority to conduct the underlying prosecution.”

  “Those actions can be taken only by persons properly appointed as federal officers to properly created federal offices. Smith wields tremendous power, and effectively answers to no one,” they wrote.

  “However, neither Smith nor the position of special counsel under which he purportedly acts meets those criteria. And that is a serious problem for the rule of law, whatever one may think of the conduct at issue in Smith’s prosecution.”

  Attorney General Garland appointed Mr. Smith as Special Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) citing several statutes.

  However, none of these statutes even “remotely authorized the appointment by the Attorney General of a private citizen or government employee to receive extraordinary criminal law enforcement power under the title of Special Counsel.”

  The two attorneys general added there are times when the appointment of a special counsel would be appropriate and that the U.S. Constitution allows for such appointments.

  However, “the Attorney General cannot appoint someone never confirmed by the Senate, as a substitute United States Attorney under the title ‘special counsel,’” they added.

  “Smith’s appointment was thus unlawful, as are all actions flowing from it, including his prosecution of former President Trump.”

  The Case Against Trump

  The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing President Trump’s immunity case as part of Mr. Smith’s indictment of the former president alleging an attempt to subvert the transfer of presidential power following the 2020 election. President Trump is charged with four criminal counts in the case.

  President Trump had requested the lower courts to back his claims of presidential immunity as the actions were undertaken while he was serving as president.

  After the lower courts refused to grant the request, the 45th president appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending that his actions as president are covered by presidential immunity.

  The Supreme Court agreed to consider the following question—“Whether and, if so, to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”

  In court, Mr. Sauer warned the justices against giving a judgment that undermines presidential immunity, noting that an American president would no longer be able to carry out his job properly if he was unsure whether his actions would trigger prosecution years after leaving office.

  “The implications of the court’s decision here extend far beyond the facts of this case,” he said. “For 234 years of American history, no president was ever prosecuted for his official acts. The framers of our Constitution viewed an energetic executive as essential to securing liberty.”

  “If a president can be charged, put on trial, and imprisoned for his most controversial decisions as soon as he leaves office, that looming threat will distort the president’s decision-making precisely when bold and fearless action is most needed.”

  Moreover, a lack of presidential immunity will denote that every president becomes a potential candidate for extortion by political rivals while still in office, Mr. Sauer added.

  “Prosecuting the president for his official acts is an innovation with no foothold in history or tradition, and is incompatible with our constitutional structure,” he said.

  The Supreme Court Justices appeared skeptical about President Trump’s claims that he has the right to absolute immunity for his actions as president. However, the justices also appeared to be open to accepting that presidents have some level of immunity.

  The court could decide to remand the case back to the Washington district court, with instructions for differentiating between official and private acts of a president so that additional fact-finding proceedings can be done.

  Such a move would delay the former president’s trial in Washington and potentially proceedings related to three other cases as well. This gives President Trump a strategic win as he attempts to hold off cases until after the elections.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 22:10

• "What Is The Sound Of One Hand Clapping" Asks BOJ Head Ueda As The Yen Collapses
  “What Is The Sound Of One Hand Clapping” Asks BOJ Head Ueda As The Yen Collapses

  By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

  “What is the sound of one hand clapping,” asked Kazuo Ueda, sitting alone in seiza. The dollar had just crossed above 158 to the yen, a level not seen in 34-years, back when he joined the University of Tokyo as professor of economics.

  

  “What is the sound of one hand clapping,” asked Ueda, letting the question drift gently across his mind. It is one of the great Zen koans, a question without answer, a tool to help us achieve satori, awakening.

  After its utter destruction in the war, Japan had become an economic wonder. By 1989 its Nikkei 225 equity index had surged to 38,915, the yen followed, and the governor’s palace was estimated to be worth as much as California.

  “What is the sound of one hand clapping,” asked Ueda, desperate to tap into the power of being fully present, but unable to calm his mind. From that wild 1989 market peak, it all came crashing down. Had policy makers and politicians allowed a short depression, the nation would have experienced something profoundly different from its lost deflationary decades.

  “What would have happened,” asked Ueda, instantly angry his attention had drifted from the koan. It had been one year since he became Bank of Japan Governor. He had restored simplicity to policy, returning interest rates to positive from negative, letting go of yield curve control. He accomplished this without compromising government finances, which are so vulnerable after decades of the stunningly large deficit spending required to maintain economic and social stability, that even a modest interest rate rise would prove catastrophic.

  “What is the sound of one hand clapping,” whispered Ueda.

  In his year at the helm, the Nikkei 225 had surged to finally reclaim the 1989 highs, driven in part by the collapsing yen, which showed no signs of stabilizing in the absence of material interest rate hikes. And this, of course, risks devastating Japan’s government finances.

  “What is the sound of one hand clapping.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 21:00

• Joe Biden's Brother Embroiled In High-Ranking Qatari Scheme To "Provide Wealth Of Introductions" Through "My Family": Politico
  Joe Biden’s Brother Embroiled In High-Ranking Qatari Scheme To “Provide Wealth Of Introductions” Through “My Family”: Politico

  Qatar has had a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. While we knew about the EU’s ‘Qatargate,’ investments with the Kushner family, and of course Sen. Bob Menendez advancing Qatar’s interests, Politico reports that the Biden family’s ties to Qatar “would constitute some of the closest known financial links between a relative of President Joe Biden and a foreign government,” if courtroom testimony about Jim Biden’s foreign fundraising efforts is substantiated.

  

  In June 2017, Qatar’s neighbors – led by Saudi Arabia, banded together and cut diplomatic ties with the country, citing its alleged support for terrorism. As a result, the country was thrown into a sustained crisis.

  To dig themselves out, Qatari rulers began showering well-connected Westerners with gifts and financial benefits, according to Politico, “sometimes in the form of investment funding.”

  Around this time, Jim Biden was trying to raise $30 million for embattled hospital chain Americore – teaming up with Florida businessman Amer Rustom, CEO of the Platinum Group, who boasted of his ties to officials in the Middle East, as well as fund manager Michael Lewitt. Together, the three sought investment funding from various Middle Eastern sources for Americore and other ventures – “which came to focus largely on Qatar,” according to a former Americore executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.

  According to public records obtained by the outlet, Jim Biden leveraged ties to his older brother and “sought workarounds to restrictions on international money movements,” including one discussion about trying to move money across a Middle Eastern border in the form of gold bars that may or may not have happened.

  “My family could provide a wealth of introductions and business opportunities at the highest levels that I believe would be worthy of the interest of His Excellency,” Jim Biden and Rustom wrote in a draft letter to an official at the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. “On behalf of the Biden family, I welcome your interest here,” the draft continues.

  Transactions related to the efforts are central to a recently-settled fraud case brought by the SEC, and are under fresh scrutiny as part of a federal criminal investigation in South Florida.

  Jim Biden suggested to congressional investigators in February that his fundraising efforts stalled for lack of viable projects to back. But the previously unreported testimony by fund manager Michael Lewitt about the ownership of the two companies — the Platinum Group USA and Obermeyer Engineering Consulting — indicates that Jim Biden forged closer ties to Qatar’s government than previously understood. -Politico

  In February of this year, Jim Biden told impeachment inquiry investigators that roughly $600,000 in payments from Americore were for his role in arranging a series of bridge loans – of which $200,000 was transferred to Joe Biden in March 2018 for what the White House claims is a repayment of an unrelated loan between brothers.

  In a March 10, 2018 draft presentation emailed from Jim Biden’s wife, Sara Biden, to a Platinum Group executive, Julie Lander, Americore touted Jim as “Brother and Campaign Finance Chair of former Vice President Joe Biden.”

  One month later, Lander emailed Jim Biden about the fundraising efforts – referencing an apparent meeting with a high-ranking Qatari official.

  

  “I am following up from the meeting we had with the Minister,” wrote Lander. “Your approach with him was flawless. He requested more information on Americore.”

  In the previously unreported email, Lander suggested a potential request of $200 million and asked Jim Biden to provide more information on the potential benefits to Qatar of an investment deal.

  Lander’s email came five days after a large delegation of Qatari officials and business leaders visited Miami. It is not clear which minister Lander, who did not respond to requests for comments, was referring to. -Politico

  “Snags”

  Despite Lander’s upbeat email to Jim Biden, fundraising efforts hit a ‘series of snags,’ according to Politico‘s anonymous former Americore source, who said that they were facing restrictions on moving investment funds across borders, and that the former executive “recalled discussion at one point of trying to move money across a Middle Eastern border in the form of gold bars, but said they were not aware of any action taken on the idea.”

  In order to solve their problem, Jim Biden explored working with payment processing company “Billerfy,” described as an “open network for global payments,” for which Jim Biden could be their “chief global banking emissary” – until Americore’s outside counsel, Christopher Anderson, shot it down. 

  With progress in Qatar slowing in mid-May of 2018 during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, tensions grew between Jim Biden and his comrades – with Jim Biden venting to Americore CEO Grant White in a May 17 email that he had “agreed to go to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China (at my own expense).”

  A week later, Jim Biden complained to Rustom over the unsecured funds – writing that “The $30 million was committed to over two months ago and we made moves predicated on that available line of credit,” adding “Things have happened in the interim that are completely understandable, but the fact remains that the $5 million at this point in time is critical in order to get by for the big picture.”

  Then in late June, Lewitt emailed Jim Biden and White about trying to move money from Dubai to Qatar, referencing an unspecified “blockage” that was hindering the process.

  “Amer would like me to join Jim for the presentation to the Finance Minister in Doha so as soon as we have the date I will plan my travel,” the email concluded.

  The former Americore executive said that Jim Biden and Lewitt traveled to Qatar in mid-2018 as part of the fundraising efforts, but it is not clear whether any meeting between Jim Biden and Qatar’s then-finance minister, Ali Sharif Al Emadi, took place.

  Al Emadi left his post in 2021 after Qatar’s attorney general ordered him arrested on suspicion of corruption. In January, Reuters reported that he was convicted on charges that included laundering more than $5 billion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. -Politico

  Efforts to secure funding continued into August of 2018, as Jim Biden continued to work with Lewitt and Rustom to secure financing from the Qatar Investment Authority for other health care ventures, according to filings in a since-settled federal court case in Tennessee in which the three were named as co-defendants.

  As they continued to work together, Jim Biden’s financial ties to Lewitt deepened – with Lewitt’s investment fund, Third Friday, paying Jim Biden’s company, Lion Hall Groujp, $225,000 over the course of 2019. While Biden testified that this was a forgiven loan, Lewitt disputed it – telling Politico that Jim Biden’s debt was assumed by an unnamed third party.

  At the end of the day, Qatar and everyone else balked at the deal.

  “We weren’t able to show the financial bona fides of any one particular project,” said Jim Biden during his impeachment inquiry interview. “We got pretty far down the road on several hotel complexes, but they never came to fruition.”

  Meanwhile, in 2022, investors in Third Friday sued Lewitt, accusing him of embezzlement through Americore to Jim Biden and others. Lewitt has denied wrongdoing in the ongoing case, while Jim Biden has not been named a defendant.

  Lastly, the partners are now locked in a bitter legal dispute. During the course of Americore’s bankruptcy litigation, documents produced by Lewitt included an agreement between his fund and a Delaware company, Obermeyer Engineering Consulting – which calls for Obermeyer to purchase Third Friday’s loans to Americore, along with a 35% stake in the hospital chain, for $30 million.

  The agreement includes a signature from Azzam Rustom as Obermeyer’s “authorized signatory,” which Amer Rustom – Obermayer’s ‘manager,’ contested – saying it the signature was faked.

  Lewitt said during testimony that Amer Rustom ‘verbally authorized’ him to fake his signature on the disputed documents.

  Towards the end of the hearing Lewitt was asked why, if the agreements he produced were valid, the Rustoms were contesting them.

  Lewitt testified that the Rustoms owned both Obermeyer and the Platinum Group with “members of the Qatari government.” He speculated that the brothers had not cleared the agreements with the Qatari officials, whom he did not name. “I don’t think they expected these to become public,” he testified, “and I think they were trying to cover themselves.” -Politico

  According to the judge in the case, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” adding “and this is a black haze right now.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 20:25

• A Chipotle Double Steak Bowl Is Now $39 In California
  A Chipotle Double Steak Bowl Is Now $39 In California

  By Mish Shedlock of MishTalk

  Food away from home has risen at least 0.3 percent for 34 out of the last 36 months

  

  Sticker Shock in California

  Higher state minimum wage went into effect April 1; chains say burritos and burgers are getting more expensive in response.

  The Wall Street Journal reports California Fast-Food Chains Are Now Serving Sticker Shock

  Since September, when California moved to require large fast-food chains to bump up their minimum hourly pay to $20 in April, fast-food and fast-casual restaurants in California have increased prices by 10% overall, outpacing all other states, the firm found in an analysis of thousands of restaurants across 70 large chains.

  Prices at Chick-fil-A, Domino’s, McDonald’s (MCD) Burger King (BKC), Pizza Hut (YUM), Jack in the Box (JACK ) and other fast-food chains have increased since September, the firm found. Chipotle (CMG) said in an investor call Wednesday that prices at its nearly 500 California restaurants climbed 6% to 7% during the first week of April compared with last year, playing out across its menu.

  “The state isn’t making it easy,” Chipotle Chief Executive Brian Niccol said in an interview.

  In Los Angeles on a recent April afternoon, Seth Amitin, a 39-year-old therapist, said his usual $16 meal that he picks up weekly at the Chick-fil-A in Hollywood, Calif., now costs $20. The price for a spicy chicken sandwich at that location had gone up to $7.09 from $6.29, or 13%, since mid-February, according to research by Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. Chick-fil-A’s prices increased 10.6% on average in California during that time period, Gordon Haskett found.

  California restaurants already had some of the highest fast-food prices in the country, according to market-research firm Revenue Management Solutions. Every month since October, California fast-food and fast-casual restaurants have raised prices across a greater percentage of their menus compared with restaurants in the rest of the country, Datassential found. 

  When I was in California for the Nuggets game on Thursday, we stopped at Chipotle. The same double steak bowl I get for $17 in Nevada is now $39 in California. The new minimum wage law is insane. Not even the rich will be able to afford to eat out anymore. Thank you Gavin Newsom!

  — Mike Alfred (@mikealfred) April 28, 2024

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

  Auto and Home, Insurance & Maintenance Costs Soaring and People Are Angry

  Insurance, repairs, and maintenance costs are up for both homes and autos.

  

  On April 19, I noted Auto and Home, Insurance & Maintenance Costs Soaring and People Are Angry

  Some homeowners are skipping home insurance. What’s going on and who is to blame?

  Growth in Spending Exceeds Growth in Income for Most of the Last 10 Months

  A deeper dive into personal income and outlays for March shows significant signs of consumer stress to maintain standards of living.

  

  For discussion, please see Growth in Spending Exceeds Growth in Income for Most of the Last 10 Months

  Would you believe …

  

  On April 20, I noted Truflation Claims Inflation is 2.06 Percent

  Would you believe believe year-over year inflation is barely over two percent? That’s the Truflation claim as of April 17, 2024.

  Some otherwise bright people on Twitter whom I follow actually believe that Trufltion nonsense. Click on the above link for details.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 19:50

• New Bombshell Evidence Emerges: Was Trump Set Up In Classified Docs Saga?
  New Bombshell Evidence Emerges: Was Trump Set Up In Classified Docs Saga?

  Authored by Matt Margolis via PJMedia.com,

  This week in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of new documents that Jack Smith fought to keep hidden. And you’ll soon find out why. Among the documents unsealed were extensive exhibits, motions, and other filings shedding light on the intricate web of communication between the Biden White House and the National Archives and Records Administration in the lead-up to Trump’s indictment.

  

  Investigative journalist Julie Kelly found something interesting in the documents that could change everything.

  The first things is testimony from an FBI agent who testified that the General Services Association (GSA) had been in possession of Trump’s boxes in Virginia before ordering Trump’s team to come get them.

  WELL WELL WELL I am pretty sure we never heard this part of the “classified documents/box” story!

  More from unredacted motions in FLA–this is from an unsealed transcript of witness interview.

  FBI agent says GSA was holding large quantity of Trump’s boxes in VA and then ordered… pic.twitter.com/0i4tGdWZ9A

  — Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) April 27, 2024

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

  “So an entire pallet full of boxes that had been held by GSA somewhere outside of DC is dumped at Mar-a-Lago,” Kelly notes. “Apparently these are the boxes that ended up containing papers with ‘classified markings.'”

  “I will double check indictment but I don’t recall this event in the timeline,” she added.

  So, it appears that the Biden administration may have been responsible for shipping classified information to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. This development is significant because Trump has previously blamed the GSA for packing the boxes that contained the classified documents, only to later accuse Trump of essentially stealing them and using that as pretext for sending the  FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022.

  “It was a set-up from the get-go,” remarked Tom Fitton, the founder of Judicial Watch.

  Meanwhile, Joe Biden had classified information that he was never entitled to have stored in boxes in his garage for years, but was not charged. Biden blamed staffers for packing the classified information. 

  While this may not prove the Biden administration set up Trump in the classified documents case, considering the way the Biden administration has abused the legal system against Trump, no one can confidently say they wouldn’t.

  Even so, it still raises other legitimate questions.

  For example, if the GSA had been in possession of the boxes, why wasn’t a review of the materials conducted before they instructed Trump’s team to get them?

  When it comes to classified information, they wouldn’t have expected Trump and his staff to be responsible for ensuring that classified documents weren’t among the records.

  Perhaps they did review the contents of the boxes and knew classified documents were contained in them before they told Trump’s people to come get them.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 19:15

• Is 10% The New 1%
  Is 10% The New 1%

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  I’ve been thinking a lot about one of the first lessons I was taught as a junior trader. We were warned that when something happens, say a piece of economic data comes out, and the market doesn’t respond as you expected, to cut positions and be very careful. It is a sign that “something” is wrong in how you are thinking.

  On Friday, Treasuries rallied strongly on data that didn’t seem that great for rates. But the reality is (or so I believe) that Thursday’s sell-off was overdone, the “whisper” number was much worse than what came out, there are no longer term Treasury auctions, and the month-end index “extension” is usually good for bonds. So that doesn’t bother me much. What bothers me is that we had:

  • NVDA, a $2.2 trillion market cap company, drop 10% last Friday.

  • TSLA, a $500 billion market cap company, rise 10% on Wednesday.

  • META, a $1.1 trillion market cap company, drop 10% on Thursday.

  • GOOG, a $2.1 trillion market cap company, rise 10% on Friday.

  Four “megacap” companies moved around 10% (or more) in a day!

  

  I understand small cap companies do that. I understand that periodically something happens that is highly unusual – M&A, a scientific breakthrough, FDA approval, fraud, or something so unusual (but so profound) that a well-followed company gaps by that much. This was “just” earnings. Maybe I’m being overly dramatic? Maybe I haven’t adjusted my thought process to how large companies really are (probably part of the issue)? In any case it feels completely strange (even unnatural) for such large companies to move so much in a single session (let alone seeing it occur 4 times in 6 days)!

  I am willing to believe that this is just my perception, and maybe it is more common than I perceive, but it is so different than how I’ve been thinking, that I have to respect it. As a “macro” strategist, I think about broad indices. Normally that is quite “macro,” but when some of the largest components of these indices (and associated ETFs) move so much more than I tend to think they can, then I need to question if it is still macro.

  I can hear my first boss telling me that it is time to cut, sit back with less risk on the table, and think about what is going on. Maybe it is nothing. Maybe it is the new norm? Maybe 10% is the new 1%? Maybe moves close to 10% have always happened with market leaders and I just failed to notice that? I find it hard to believe, but knowing the T-Report audience, someone will likely send me a chart showing how common it is and that I need to “get over it.”

  But I don’t think in terms of megacaps moving like that. To me, it reduces the macro, and is highly relevant as we have some other megacaps reporting this week. Should I assume 10% in either direction is a valid range? MSFT, for example, followed a more “normal” pattern. Some wild swings post-earnings in the after-market and pre-market. Stops getting triggered. Options at play. Digesting the first headlines, reading the details, listening to the call. All things that have conditioned me to see reasonably large moves in after-hours sometimes continuing into the next day of trading, typically ending with a meaningful change, but not a 10% change – especially for megacaps.

  If this T-Report sounds like a broken record fixating on something that maybe isn’t important, I apologize, but it is bothering me a lot.

  China

  For the past 3 months, the CSI 300 (one measure of Chinese stocks) is up 8.5% versus 3.5% for the S&P 500 and 2% for the Nasdaq Composite.

  One could look at this and say that:

  • The Chinese economy has turned the corner, helping stocks.

  • If China is doing better, it should help the global economy and sales into China, which should be good for all markets.

  I remain firmly in the camp that:

  • Investors were too pessimistic on the Chinese market and positioning was too underweight or short. The unwind of structured notes sold to retail (that had leverage) was happening, but that has slowed.

  • It hasn’t taken much on the economic side to help the stock market (and there are some direct intervention techniques being used to help the stock market, without doing much for the economy). Less about the market.

  • Some of this is also linked to the performance of Chinese companies. Some are selling more products (Huawei phones in China, for example).

  Since I think:

  • The reasons for the Chinese market rise have little to do with the economy (and I have recommended to clients to cut exposure here to FXI/KWEB).

  • The Threat of Made By China 2025 is real, so any rebound in China is not going to benefit global companies as much as it would have in prior years.

  I have to caution against betting on global stocks because of what we are seeing in China.

  Geopolitics

  The pressure from global leaders calling on Israel to be cautious is mounting.

  Iran, assuming they had hoped for a modicum of success with their 300+ missile and drone strike, is unlikely to do anything while they figure out why their attack was such a failure. See my base case in Should I Stay or Should I Go.

  It would be a surprise if a geopolitical event caused problems for the markets this week, but then that is often the case. It is interesting that last weekend’s question of “Should I Stay or Should I Go” is as relevant as before, with some new factors added to the mix.

  Bottom Line

  Rates.

  I am most comfortable with my view on rates.

  • We will get some “soft” data and Powell won’t be hawkish enough to convince the market that we are only going to get 1 cut (basically what is currently priced in). I do not see how we get to 0 and think that we could see the case for 2 to 3 (what the dots had, depending on whether you use median or average). Buy 2s at 5% (or 4.98% as the case may be).

  • While I expect fears of the deficit, supply, etc. to push us higher at some point, I like owning 10s above 4.6% and think that 4.45% is a reasonable near-term target. As mentioned earlier, there are a number of factors that could take us there as early as this week.

  Equities

  Since I’m bullish on Treasuries, should I in theory be bullish on equities? Maybe, but that correlation has been weak to nonexistent of late. We’ve addressed this in Changing Times Impacting Signals and Correlations and Rorschach Test. I’m hesitant to be bearish stocks, but bullish on Treasuries. More importantly, I’m reluctant to be too committed in any direction until I can make better sense of these large, single day moves for megacaps. When something is bothering me and I should have a better idea of what is going on (but I don’t), then it is prudent to be cautious.

  So, I will remain bearish on equities and expect us to break the lows set on April 19th. It briefly looked like that was possible as recently as Thursday morning, but it seems less realistic now as the S&P gained 2.7% and the Nasdaq rallied 4.2%. I just cannot be too aggressive on this because I could easily see some additional 10% moves, which I’ve never really accounted for. Those moves could go in either direction.

  The one thing that does make some sense about 10% moves is that if we really are on the cusp of a viable revolution in technology, the entire market seems cheap. But, if the cost/benefit ratio is not great right now (less than revolutionary improvements at rapidly rising prices), then we could move down rapidly. So maybe 10% moves, even in megacaps, is normal when we are at an inflection point in technology and potential valuations? That is plausible, though I’m not sure how to incorporate that into my framework, other than moving more and more into options to express long and short bets.

  Credit.

  Yawn. Not a lot of room to tighten. Can widen a bit more, but primarily as a function of stocks going down than any obvious change in fundamentals. With supply likely slowing, relative to cash earmarked for new issues, I’m biased to be mildly bullish credit spreads, even while moderately bearish equities.

  May the stocks you own all go up 10% every day. I don’t completely understand it, but cannot ignore it, and might as well hope people benefit!

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 18:05

• The Struggle For The Soul Of The GOP
  The Struggle For The Soul Of The GOP

  Authored by Kevin Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  The Republican establishment doesn’t know it yet, but last weekend was a watershed moment for their party.

  

  On April 20, House Republican leadership facilitated passage of a foreign-aid package that sends roughly $60 billion to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel and Gaza, $8 billion to Taiwan, and exactly zero dollars to the southern border. The bill has since passed the Democrat-led Senate and was signed by President Joe Biden.

  The vote will be remembered for the choice Republican leadership made to brazenly reject its own voters in favor of the “uniparty” in Washington, DC.

  In a move that can only be described as “McConnell-esque,” House Republican leadership teamed up with Democrats to overrule the position of their own conference, their voters, and the will of the American people. Democrats on the House Rules Committee made an unprecedented move by crossing the party line and overruling Republican opposition in committee, signaling an end to the typically Democrat versus Republican battle and the beginning of the conservative versus “uniparty” war.

  The disconnect between the Swamp and small-town America could not be more profound. How can a political party be so tone-deaf to the plight of the everyday American suffering under inflation, crime, and societal rot? How can a Republican-led House prioritize the borders of another country over our own border, even as American citizens are killed by illegal immigrants? How can so-called fiscally responsible Republicans sign off on what is now $174 billion in direct Ukraine aid with a national debt of $34 trillion, more than $250,000 for every American household? And how can House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had pledged repeatedly that no foreign-aid legislation would advance without first securing the border, so quickly be steamrolled by the Establishment?

  In their desire to send billions of dollars to a conflict that our commander-in-chief has still, to this day, offered no plan for winning, the GOP’s leadership not only spurned their party’s own supporters but overlooked an opportunity to appeal to independent Americans frustrated by both political parties.

  According to recent polling that The Heritage Foundation conducted with RMG Research, an overwhelming three out of four swing voters opposed sending any additional aid to Ukraine without also allocating funds for our own border. A majority (56 percent) of swing voters in key battleground states thought that the $113 billion the United States had already committed to Ukraine was too much.

  The entire Heritage enterprise fought for over a year and half on this issue. Heritage Action engaged our millions of grassroots members to voice their concerns to their representatives. Scholars at The Heritage Foundation presented a national security alternative package that included limited military aid to Ukraine but made border security the central focus. In an unprecedented move, we even issued a “key vote” on our legislative scorecard against Speaker Johnson’s convoluted rule, which was a gimmick that lowered the threshold to a simple majority (not a supermajority under suspension) and provided political cover for members to vote against individual pieces without jeopardizing the package.

  Powerful interests were aligned against us, however, and we lost on the day. Though we lost this battle, all signs indicate that we are winning the war for the soul of the GOP. A majority (112) of Republicans voted against Ukraine aid on April 20. Younger and newer members are particularly fed up with leadership’s conciliatory approach and manipulative tactics that have led us to this point. The average age of the Senate Republicans who voted “nay” is 59, while the average age of those who voted “yea” is 66. The average “nay” vote has been in office since just 2016, while the average “yea” vote has been in Washington since 2010. The same dynamic was true with the recent $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill.

  This generational shift can be ignored by the “uniparty,” but it’s not going away. Newer, younger representatives want a choice, not an echo, and increasingly they’re adopting a populist form of conservatism that champions “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” above all else. In other words, they want a GOP that puts America first, something a government in any healthy republic would do. They want a GOP that acknowledges the reality that America is a nation in decline but is not yet too late to save.

  As Ronald Reagan said in his 1980 address accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention, “For those who have abandoned hope, we’ll restore hope and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again!”

  And that brings us to the importance of this year’s election.

  In 2016, despite staunch opposition from the GOP leadership, Donald Trump rejected the Washington consensus and initiated a generational realignment in American politics. If the conservative movement leans into the politics and policies President Trump made successful, the American people will again have the opportunity this fall to accelerate a new consensus in Washington, DC. This is why I remain optimistic about the future of our great nation.

  The GOP establishment’s actions this past week portend the end of the GOP establishment, not its survival. Conservatives will win the soul of the GOP and with it the hearts of the American people.

  Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 17:30

• Putin Did Not Order Alexei Navalny's Death, US Intelligence Finds
  Putin Did Not Order Alexei Navalny’s Death, US Intelligence Finds

  In a surprising turn, The Wall Street Journal has issued a new weekend report saying that US intelligence agencies do not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin planned or ordered the death of opposition activist and politician Alexei Navalny.

  “U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Putin likely didn’t order Navalny to be killed at the notoriously brutal prison camp in February, people familiar with the matter said, a finding that deepens the mystery about the circumstances of his death,” writes the Journal.

  

  “The assessment doesn’t dispute Putin’s culpability for Navalny’s death, but rather finds he probably didn’t order it at that moment,” WSJ continues. “The finding is broadly accepted within the intelligence community and shared by several agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the State Department’s intelligence unit, the people said.”

  And yet it must be recalled that Western officials and media pundits alike had immediately upon reports of the 47-year old Navalny’s death rushed to declare that he had been ‘assassinated’ by Russian authorities upon Putin’s order.

  This led to a new wave of US-led sanctions on Russia, and even disrupted momentum toward a hoped-for prisoner swap between Moscow and Kiev at the time.

  President Biden had asserted in a statement issued on the very day of his Feb.16 death that “Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death” and that it was “proof of Putin’s Brutality” – but ultimately that the ‘democratic future’ Navalny believed in was worth “dying for” – according to the president’s words at the time.

  Russian prison authorities had officially listed his demise as from “sudden death syndrome,” which is how natural causes such as heart attacks are typically described.

  Navalny’s team is not happy with the fresh WSJ report which is being seen as essentially an exoneration of Putin:

  In a statement to the Journal, Leonid Volkov, a longtime Navalny ally, rejected the U.S. intelligence assessment and said those who assert that Putin wasn’t aware of Navalny’s death “clearly do not understand anything about how modern day Russia runs.”

  “The idea of Putin being not informed and not approving killing Navalny is ridiculous,” he said.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Below, journalist and geopolitical commentator Aaron Maté explains that despite news of Navalny’s life and death having driven world headlines, he was still largely an unknown within broader Russian politics and society especially on a national level [emphasis ZH].

  * * *

  Navalny was a marginal opposition figure who polled at around 2%. Putin didn’t fear him; it served Putin to have him seen in the West as his main opposition.

  The Russian gov’t meanwhile has just barred anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin. A Russian court has also issued a draconian prison sentence to anti-war sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky. We don’t hear about people like Nadezhdin and Kagarlitsky in the West nearly as much for one reason: unlike Navalny, they don’t collaborate with Western governments.

  Navalny worked with NATO intel cutout Bellingcat and went through the “Yale World Fellow” program, a regime change training ground. For this reason, we also don’t hear that Navalny was an unrepentant xenophobe who compared Muslim immigrants to cockroaches and rotten teeth. 

  His death is a tragedy. He was undoubtedly mistreated. But because he served US interests, US state media will make him into someone he was not. And just compare their fawning coverage to their silence on, or even support for, the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange. Or their complete silence on the mistreatment and death of US citizen Gonzalo Lira in Ukrainian custody — universally ignored in US media.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 17:12

• NY Home Depot Hires Guards And Dogs To Combat Aggressive Parking Lot Migrants
  NY Home Depot Hires Guards And Dogs To Combat Aggressive Parking Lot Migrants

  A Home Depot in New York has hired armed security guards and K-9 units to protect shoppers from aggressive migrants and thieves in the parking lots, the NY Post reports.

  

  According to City COuncilwoman Kristy Marmorato, “Everybody is well aware of the culture here at Home Depot, that we have day laborers just trying to make an honest living, and they just started to feel like it just started to become a little more aggressive.”

  “Where people are walking from the store with stuff in their cart, individuals were coming up to them and literally taking stuff out of their carts to help them and they just felt very concerned, very unsafe.“

  Two men wearing MSA Security caps and bulletproof vests with a German shepherd in tow patrolled the Home Depot in New Rochelle on Tuesday.

  “It’s more about omnipresence,” one guard said, explaining that the company was contracted a few weeks ago. “It’s not like we let them go bite anyone or anything.”

  The guard said the store hired them for a number of reasons.

  “It’s not just because of [migrants], but because of a myriad of other things too, like people breaking into cars, that kind of stuff,” he said.  -NY Post

  A reporter for the Post observed at least 30 male migrants hovering near the doors of the Throggs Neck, Bronx location – with several day laborers aggressively confronting shoppers, trying to sell them fake Apple Airpods or trying to earn unsolicited tips for lifting items from shopping carts into cars. 

  “You come out and you’re a woman by yourself, they literally leech onto your wagon, and you’re like, ‘No, I don’t need any help,'” said one employee. “And when they’re following you to your car, it’s unnerving.”

  The employee said that a female supervisor saw one of the men washing his dick and balls with a water bottle in the lot, and that several women have called Home Depot customer service to complain of being robbed by migrants.

  “I came to work one day and there had to be 100 guys out here,” she told the Post. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!'”

  A regular customer at the store, who asked to be identified only as Cheryl, said she and her husband had a frightening encounter last month.

  A man “practically runs over and he goes to point like, ‘Can I take the stuff,’ and my husband said, ‘No, thank you,’” she recalled, noting that they only had a couple of boxes and a paint scraper.

  “He’s still keeps following, like on top of us,” she said. “I said, ‘No, thank you.’” 

  When her husband turned around to open the car door, the man “put his hand” on one of the boxes in their cart. “My husband said, ‘Don’t touch anything.’”

  But the man didn’t stop. -NY Post

  “It’s come to the point where they’re invading personal space, touching people’s belongings, just harassing,” said Home Depot customer service employee, LaurieAnn Masciocco. “I get it, you’re trying to make a buck. But when it becomes aggressive and harassing, there’s a major issue.“

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 16:55

• NY Judge Claims '2nd Amendment Doesn't Exist In Her Courtroom' In Case Against Gunsmith
  NY Judge Claims ‘2nd Amendment Doesn’t Exist In Her Courtroom’ In Case Against Gunsmith

  Dexter Taylor, a software engineer and resident of Brooklyn, NY, took on gunsmithing as a hobby during the Covid-19 lockdowns.  He was already familiar with machining and found himself fascinated by the project, so he set out to learn the skills needed.  Taylor researched ATF rules regarding the building of firearms and wanted to follow them carefully.  Sadly, however, the state of New York has its own laws which leftist governments believe supersede federal law and the Constitution.  

  Because Taylor was apparently not officially licensed as a gunsmith in NY, authorities decided to raid his home and arrest him for possession of gun parts (including 80% lowers) which are legal federally but require a smithing certificate in the state (a legal gray area which is being contested).  Taylor was easy to find because he purchased all the parts with his own credit cards thinking he was protected under ATF rules.

  ATF rules state that the building of guns for personal use including 80% lowers and related parts is legal as long as the person does not build those weapons to sell.     

  Taylor’s lawyer, Vinoo Varghese, noted that the case is a difficult one in New York, hinting at the leftist bias within NY courtrooms when it comes to the 2nd Amendment.  In fact, Varghese suggested that when Judge Abena Darkeh took over the case she was oddly hostile towards the defense.  He mentions that she interrupted his opening statements multiple times, claiming that he could not use 2nd Amendment arguments in her courtroom:

  “She told us, ‘Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.'”

  Of course, the 2nd Amendment and the Bill of Rights surpasses the authority of the State of New York and the courtroom of Judge Abena Darkeh.  New York progressives might like to think their state is a separate country from the US with its own rules, but it’s not.  It’s clear that this is a situation in which an activist judge is seeking to make an example out of a law abiding citizen with no previous criminal record.  The goal is to send a message that blue states are going to fabricate their own rules when it comes to gun rights regardless of constitutional precedent. 

  Varghese hints in a recent interview that the Judge is married to the “biggest fundraiser” for the Brooklyn DA, which may present a conflict of interest.  Also, Joe Biden has made the issue of “Ghost Guns” a primary target for his administration the past few years.  To date, the use of ghost guns in criminal acts in the US is statistically negligible.  It’s simply not a problem that needs the attention of the White House. 

  NEW: Brooklyn man convicted over his gunsmithing hobby after the judge says that the 2nd Amendment ‘doesn’t exist in this courtroom’

  ‘Do not bring the Second Amendment into this courtroom. It doesn’t exist here. So you can’t argue Second Amendment. This is New York.’ – Judge… pic.twitter.com/cgfPO4ANnm

  — Unlimited L’s (@unlimited_ls) April 23, 2024

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  The defense also asserted that the Judge pressured the jury to come back with a guilty verdict, which they did, convicting Taylor of a list of offenses including: 

  Second-degree criminal possession of a loaded weapon, four counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, five counts of criminal possession of a firearm, second-degree criminal possession of five or more firearms, unlawful possession of pistol ammunition, violation of certificate of registration, prohibition on unfinished frames or receivers.  Two lesser charges, including third-degree criminal possession of three or more firearms and third-degree possession of a weapon, were not voted on.

  Keep in mind that in the vast majority of states in the US all of these charges sound ridiculous.  Possession of a loaded weapon?  Unlawful possession of pistol ammunition?  What?

  Taylor now faces 10-18 years in prison and he awaits sentencing in Rikers Island, one of the worst prisons in the country.  The case is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court, where a number of gun cases involving 80% lowers are awaiting decision.  New York’s habit of punishing good people while letting criminals go free is becoming an epidemic, and it’s likely a primary reason why the state is now suffering a net loss of hundreds of thousands of residents every year.     

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 15:45

• "Explain To Me Why We Don't Have The Right To Exist?" – Eva Vlaardingerbroek Warns Whites Against Massive Demographic Changes In Their Native Countries
  “Explain To Me Why We Don’t Have The Right To Exist?” – Eva Vlaardingerbroek Warns Whites Against Massive Demographic Changes In Their Native Countries

  By John Cody of RMXNews.com

  In an exclusive interview with Remix News, Dutch political commentator and lawyer Eva Vlaardingerbroek warns Europeans that they must take a stand against rapid demographic change or become a minority in their native countries.

  

  You’ve spoken a lot about White rights and the White replacement. But of course this kind of opens you up to these accusations of racism. So, how do conservatives deal with this Catch-22 of not wanting to be replaced in their native countries, but also not wanting to be attacked with this term?

  You can’t. That’s the thing, you can’t. So you have to pick a side. Of course, you’re going to be attacked if you say, “Hey, this continent, Europe, has been predominantly White for the entirety of its history, and now suddenly within one generation, a few bureaucrats have decided against the will of the people that we should suddenly be a minority. Why do we agree with that, or why do we allow that to happen?” If you say that, you are going to be attacked.

  But the only other option then you have is saying nothing and have it happen, so the choice is yours, and I’ve made my choice. I think there are many ways in which you can defend yourself, of course, against this ridiculous attack, so I’m sure that they’re going say about me that I’m a terrible racist again. No, that’s not true. I don’t think that any race is superior to another. I just think that mine is also not inferior to that of others.

  🚨 EXC: “The choice is yours and I’ve made mine!”@EvaVlaar tells Remix News she has accepted she will be attacked by the establishment for calling out attempts to make indigenous White Europeans a minority on their own continent.#CPACHungary2024 pic.twitter.com/faAE298zv3

  — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 26, 2024

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  So, I don’t have to be pointed at as the root of all evil, as the Neo-Marxist critical race theory does. I don’t have to become a minority in my own country, as Joe Biden said would be “a good thing,” would be “our strength.” No, why actually? Who was the racist here? Explain to me why we don’t have the right to exist, why we’re not allowed to be a majority in the continent, in the countries that we have been a majority in since forever? Explain it to me. Turn the question around.

  A lot of right-wing parties here are willing to talk about illegal immigration, but unwilling to address legal immigration. Some conservative parties even promote legal immigration. What do you think about this development?

  Well, the problem is of course that if you have tons of illegal immigration, and then you slap the label “legal” on it, then nothing changes. So that’s something that we’ve seen in the past few years that illegal immigration has been made legal in a way, so it’s been made really easy for certain people to come to Europe and also not so easy for others to go through the regular system. I think this problem exists in America to a certain degree as well, that it’s quite hard to immigrate legally to the United States, but illegally it’s not so difficult across the Mexican border.

  So, if you look at the problem of immigration, I think you have to look also at demographic change. That’s why I took this dance today on stage. We have to look at the reality rather than the term that they put on immigration. Do we agree with what’s happening here, with what is happening with this rapid change in our demographic makeup? If the answer is no, then something needs to change. It’s as simple as that.

  🇳🇱‼️ @EvaVlaar: “If we don’t start to fight for our continent, the time in which we live will go down in history as the time Western nations didn’t need to be invaded to be conquered. Our corrupt elite invited the invaders in!” #CPACHungary2024 pic.twitter.com/DmtQcXbFoU

  — Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 26, 2024

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  You converted to Catholicism approximately a year ago. How has your Catholicism influenced your politics, if at all?

  It has influenced my politics in the sense that my faith has become such a huge part of my life, that even more so than before, I feel like it would be completely disingenuous and wrong for me to exclude my faith from my political messaging. So, as it has such a massive influence on me as a person, I think it’s noticeable to people that I let it seep through a lot more in my speeches and in my discourse than maybe I did before. So, it just inspires my ideas and my ability to go on stage. I pray to God before I go on stage, that is something that I didn’t use to do a few years ago, but it immediately calms me just asking God for guidance and help, you know, to give me the strength to do his will on stage.

  What do you think about the fact that most Northern European right-wing parties are shying away from religious messages in their party platform? The AfD, Sweden, Democrats, a lot of Dutch parties keep it in the background, perhaps because people are leaving the church, and many young people are leaving the church. So, how do conservatives reach young people in Northern Europe while maintaining their convictions?

  I think it’s a big mistake to leave religion and to leave the Christian faith out of your political messaging, especially if you want to reach the youth. I think that we’ve been brainwashed to believe that if we preach the Gospel, if we call upon our Lord during our speeches, if we speak proudly and openly about the fact that we’re Christians, that we’re then going to scare away the youth. I think the opposite is actually true.

  I think there is a moral vacuum that’s either going to be filled with climate insanity or woke nonsense or some other subversive left-wing ideology, or it’s going to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So, you have two choices, and I think that people are looking for truth. People are looking for answers and the best gift that you can give someone is to point them in the direction of the truth rather than to dance around it and sugarcoat it, which I think is what we’ve been doing in Northwestern Europe for a long time and look where it got us.

  Continue reading on RMXnews.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 15:44

• Watch: Biden Lectures Press To Get Behind His Campaign
  Watch: Biden Lectures Press To Get Behind His Campaign

  Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

  In an incredible moment at the annual White House correspondent’s Dinner Saturday, Joe Biden lectured reporters, telling them they need to “rise up” and get behind his campaign, insinuating that if they don’t there will no longer be a free press in America.

  

  Biden addressed the press, stating that “the most urgent question of our time is whether democracy is still the sacred cause of America. That is the question the American people must answer this year and you, the free press, play a critical role in making sure the American people have the information they need to make an informed decision.”

  Biden again calls on journalists to defend democracy (i.e. crush Republicans):

  “Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments, and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics and focusing on what’s actually at stake. I… pic.twitter.com/bdGSSCTgUr

  — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 28, 2024

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  First of all, Biden appears to be saying that he is ‘Democracy’ and if people do not vote for him that is somehow undemocratic.

  Secondly, he is telling the press that they are capable of swaying public opinion in his favour, which is completely undemocratic.

  He isn’t asking the press to report facts neutrally and let the people decide, as evidenced by his next sentence, which was replete with the usual disinformation about Donald Trump.

  “The defeated former President has made no secret of his attack on our democracy. He said he wants to be a dictator on day one and so much more. He tells supporters he is the revenge and retribution. When in God’s name ever heard of another president say something like that? And he promised a bloodbath when he loses again,” Biden asserted.

  While claiming he is not asking the press to “take sides,” he did exactly that.

  “We have to take this seriously. Eight years ago, it could have been written off as just Trump talk but no longer, not after January 6. I’m sincerely not asking you to take sides, but asking a rise up to the seriousness of the moment,” Biden persisted.

  “Move past the horse race numbers and the gotcha moments, and the distractions, the sideshows that have come to dominate and sensationalize our politics and focusing on what’s actually at stake,” he continued, adding “I think in your hearts, you know what’s at stake.”

  “The stakes couldn’t be higher every single one of us has roles to play — a serious role, to play in making sure democracy endures, American democracy. I have my role, but with all due respect, so do you,” he lectured reporters.

  He then had the gall to instruct reporters to provide “credible information,” rather than “disinformation,” while toasting the “free press.”

  “In the age of disinformation, credible information that people can trust is more important than ever and that makes you, and I mean this with the bottom of my heart, makes you more important than ever. So tonight, I’d like to make a toast — to a free press, to an informed citizenry, to an American where freedom and democracy endure. God bless America,” Biden concluded.

  A “free press” but I’m gonna tell you what to write about and what not to.

  — Chrissy (@Chrissys067) April 28, 2024

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  So he’s saying don’t write anything about me, just go after Trump.

  — linda thompson (@lthomps54) April 28, 2024

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  It’s a campaign rally. These are his constituents.

  — Janice (@jannyfayray) April 28, 2024

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  In other words, take sides 🙄

  — Jeff Trent (@JLTrent86) April 28, 2024

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  This all comes in a week when Biden has managed to ignite a war with The New York Times.

  The Times is annoyed with Biden’s complete disinterest in providing interviews or access for reporters, while his administration is angry that the Times isn’t falling into line as a propaganda arm against Trump.

  Biden ‘joked’ about it, Saturday. It’s funny because it’s true.

  In other words, take sides 🙄

  — Jeff Trent (@JLTrent86) April 28, 2024

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  *  *  *

  Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 15:10

• Watch: Arizona State Fraternity Students Tear Down Pro-Palestine Encampment And Boot Out Activists
  Watch: Arizona State Fraternity Students Tear Down Pro-Palestine Encampment And Boot Out Activists

  After years of leftist activists disrupting the speech of groups and individuals they disagree with and threatening people with “cancellation” for having the “wrong” opinions, it’s hard to find sympathy for them when they finally get a taste of their own medicine.  Woke protesters have recently sought to bring back the old Seattle CHAZ model of taking over public property and declaring it their own territory; in this case the territory is college campuses around the US. 

  The problem of western progressives hijacking causes in order to insert their own agendas has been noted by many in the independent media.  While some people may be approaching the Gaza protests in good faith, there are many others who are not.

  Apologists might argue that the goal of a protest is to “disrupt” but there are still laws in place that activists must follow.  These include laws that make it illegal to obstruct other citizens from using public property, public roads and public buildings (the insane actions of anti-oil protesters come to mind).  Regardless of how you might feel about the Israel/Hamas conflict, the reality is that it has nothing to do with students trying to go to classes at universities across the country, and stopping them from doing so violates their rights.  

  This is something that the Gaza protesters seem to have forgotten; their cause is not the only important matter at hand.  If they are merely speaking their minds and engaging in fair discourse then they have every right.  Once they start taking over colleges and acting as if they own the place, then there’s going to be a problem.  It has also been reported that more than half of these activists are not even members of the colleges in question.   

  

  Various states have handled the matter differently.  Texas Governor Greg Abbot received criticism for what some argued were heavy handed tactics when removing protesters from campuses after declaring a no-tolerance policy for “antisemitism.”  Many conservative commentators suggested that even though they don’t like the activists involved, antisemitism is not a valid reason to remove them.  

  In other states police have been mostly de-fanged and can do very little even when protesters block other students from attending classes.  However, they may have found a way around this.  At Arizona State University fraternity members stepped in and tore down protester encampments while police stayed out of their way.

  Early this morning police at ASU, with help from fraternity members, tore down the pro-Hamas encampment.

  An extremist watching whined because she wasn’t being allowed to continue to break the law.

  Imagine the embarrassment of being this girl’s parents.pic.twitter.com/CU4IwuuCYb

  — Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 27, 2024

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIn other words, this is not a case of police interfering with protester activities, this is members of the student body cleaning up their own campus. 

  One has to wonder why campuses are being targeted over a war on the other side of the world that does not directly involve them in any way?  If funding of Israel is the issue, then why aren’t these protestors on the front lawn of the Biden White House?  It only makes sense if the goal is to exploit the Gaza issue in order to get visibility for other agendas.   

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 04/28/2024 – 14:35

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