- COVID & The Noble Lie
COVID & The Noble Lie
Authored by Brian Maher via DailyReckoning.com,
“Unethical”… “dystopian”… “totalitarian”…
These are the words of the British government’s primary scientific advisory bunch — the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour, by title.
These scientific advisors presently droop their heads in shame. For these are the very words they employ to describe their own conduct.
They concede: Last March their wicked counsel encouraged government officials to wildly inflate the true viral threat.
Only a pitiless torturing of facts — argued these men and women of science — could terrify the public into locking themselves in, locking themselves up, locking themselves down.
The London Telegraph:
In March [2020] the Government was very worried about compliance and they thought people wouldn’t want to be locked down. There were discussions about fear being needed to encourage compliance, and decisions were made about how to ramp up the fear.
Fear came ladling out by the ton.
Millions and millions would perish in agonies scarcely describable, they howled. The hospitals would overflow into the streets, they screeched.
Only the near-cessation of all public life could cage the menace.
The halfway men, the men counseling a measured response… were drummed out of court.
“Using Fear Smacks of Totalitarianism”
Group psychologist Gavin Morgan, confessing his atrocities:
Clearly, using fear as a means of control is not ethical. Using fear smacks of totalitarianism. It’s not an ethical stance for any modern government. By nature I am an optimistic person, but all this has given me a more pessimistic view of people.
A pity, it is, that this fellow is not a Daily Reckoning reader.
We would have squeezed the optimism from him long ago… and pumped in an implacable pessimism.
It would have spared him an awful letting-down, a massacre of his innocent delusions.
Here another (unnamed) scientific advisor enters the confession booth:
The way we have used fear is dystopian. The use of fear has definitely been ethically questionable. It’s been like a weird experiment. Ultimately, it backfired because people became too scared.
Another member was “stunned by the weaponisation of behavioural psychology.”
Yet another head-shrinker likens his witchcraft to mind control:
“You could call psychology ‘mind control.’ That’s what we do…”
Might we suggest another term for what they do? Might that term be… ‘propaganda?’
Propaganda
Let us consult Mr. Webster and his famous thesaurus. He defines propaganda this way:
Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view… ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause.
We will assume the Telegraph’s reporting in this instance is authentic. If true… has not the British government… purposefully broadcast propaganda?
We are compelled to conclude it has.
And since the United States government let out similar shrieks, can we conclude it too has broadcast propaganda — and for identical reasons?
‘Maybe it did,’ you argue. ‘But the government needed to exaggerate the threat, else too few people would take it seriously. More people would have died. They did what they needed to do.’
That is, you give a wink and nod towards what Plato labeled “the noble lie.”
It may be a lie, you allow. But it is a lie conscripted in the service of a higher good.
Perhaps your argument has juice in it. But is not a noble lie… nonetheless a lie?
And should democratic governments lie to We the People, however nobly?
As well heave the civics books into the hell box.
Noble Lies
The men gathered at Philadelphia in 1787 lacked authorization to draft a Constitution.
Their mandate was to sand down the rougher edges of the Articles of Confederation, to rub on some polish, to give a slight renovation.
They instead dynamited the thing to bits and pieces. The public was denied all knowledge of their mischiefs, denied all voice in the outcome.
It represented — in essence — a coup, a treason against the United States.
Yet it glows in history as the Miracle at Philadelphia. We label the plotters “Founding Fathers.”
And they mounted Olympus rather than the gallows.
The Good Guys Don’t Always Sport White Hats
Mr. Lincoln was no more determined to banish slavery than a bought policeman is determined to banish the narcotics trade.
He would look away from Southern evil so long as he could count his tariffs at the ports of Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans.
What does the noble lie mistell us?
That Old Abe was monomaniacal against the scourge of chattel slavery… and that “every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.”
Here is another noble lie:
The Kaiser’s soldaten bayoneted Belgian babies during the First World War.
In August 1914, the British scissored the undersea German communications cables running west to American shores.
All trans-Atlantic flows would therefore issue from the British Foreign Office… the same British Foreign Office that sweated mightily to enlist the United States in its cause.
Hence the dreaded Hun’s skewering of poor Belgian infants and similar atrocities.
Come now to Dec. 8, 1941…
Dastardly, Yes. But Unprovoked?
Roosevelt — Franklin Delano — raged against Japan’s dastardly and unprovoked attack the morning prior.
Yet was it entirely unprovoked?
In July 1941, the United States government froze all Japanese assets in its possession.
In August 1941, the United States government embargoed oil and gasoline exports to Japan.
Over 80% of Japan’s supply shipped in from the United States.
Officials knew well that Japan might take a desperate armed lunge in response.
These men believed war was all but assured. But it was critical that Japan deliver the initial blow… to incense the American public.
United States War Secretary Henry Stimson, on the wrecks of Pearl Harbor:
“My first feeling was of relief … that a crisis had come in a way which would unite all our people.”
Picking Fights With Germans
Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy had also been initiating jousts against German U-boats along the Atlantic convoy routes.
Was the United States a neutral power prior to December 1941? And did razzing German U-boats constitute a breach of this neutrality?
Many historians will tell you Mr. Roosevelt was attempting to lure the Germans into another Lusitania trap.
But Herr Hitler saw the worm wriggling upon Roosevelt’s hook.
He ordered his men to avoid all tangles with vessels flying the neutral flag of the United States.
He laced into any U-boat man who gobbled the American bait — even in strictest defense.
Not Defending Japan or Germany
Let it go immediately into the record:
We do not throw in with the Japanese Empire… or with the Austrian corporal’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
In our residence, Victory in Europe Day and Victory Over Japan Day are events of high revelry. They are third only to Independence Day and Flag Day.
Once, under the heavy instigation of liquor, we even hung Herr Hitler in effigy — and set his mannequin aflame.
We additionally made a voodoo doll of Tojo… and gave his ghost a frightful jabbing.
We merely wish to illustrate that truth is war’s first battlefield fatality.
The lie may or may not be noble. But a lie it often is.
Examples multiply and multiply.
The Noble Lie of Climate Alarmism
The noble lie lives yet… as the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour demonstrates.
In recent years, the noble lie has also covered the planet itself — climate change.
Alarmists insist we perch perilously upon the devil’s shovel.
If man continues coughing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Earth will catch a raging fever.
Thus the world no longer confronts “climate change.” It confronts a “climate crisis.”
The noble lie writes the warrant for the mass merchandising of alarm. Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider:
On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method… On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. To do that we need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, means getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.
There, in a walnut shell, you have the noble lie.
Crying Wolf
The noble liars have yelled wolf so often, so loudly, they have cashed in their credibility. Here is the danger:
One day the wolf may truly snarl at the door. An authentic plague or environmental cataclysm may menace us.
But they have already squandered their credit.
They will shout wolf and shout wolf and shout wolf again… telling a noble truth…
Only this time… no one will heed them.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 23:40 - China Reveals "God Of War" Stealth Bomber
China Reveals “God Of War” Stealth Bomber
It’s been common knowledge the US-China relationship could be described as one that is in a “Cold War.” The great power competition between the two, as China (the rising power) and the US (the status quo), are engaged in a titanic power struggle.
The battleground for global supremacy will come down to economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power, which China is quickly gaining on the US.
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rapid military modernization effort has beefed up its force with advanced technology, such as fifth-generation fighter jets, drones, and hypersonic weapons. Last October, he said China would never allow its sovereignty, security, and interests to be undermined.
The latest sign China continues to advance at full speed is the revelation of a new 5000-mile range stealth bomber capable of striking US military assets in the Pacific.
The latest edition of Chinese Modern Weaponry magazine revealed new computer-generated images of the country’s next-generation Xian H-20 strategic bomber.
The futuristic stealth bomber was first revealed in 2018 and has a flying wing design similar to the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit built in the late 1990s. The main feature of the H-20 is the intercontinental range and the ability to carry nuclear weapons to strike Guam and other key military bases in the Pacific.
Modern Weaponry describes the aircraft as “the god of war in the sky.” Though in development for several years, actual images of the bomber have yet to be leaked into the press.
Jon Grevatt, an Asia-Pacific defense analyst at security intelligence firm Janes, told South China Morning Post that when “the aircraft becomes operational, it has the potential to be a game-changer.”
“That means that the advantage of that plane is that it could attack like a strategic bomber does, hitting targets at a great distance, perhaps in the second island chain and beyond,” Grevatt said. The second island chain poses a threat to US interests in Asia-Pacific.
If and whenever the H-20 is deployed, it would likely have air-launch hypersonic weapons that would extend the strike range of the aircraft – one that would frighten Washington. China has dubbed one of its hypersonic missiles the “Guam killer.”
In 2018, China gave everyone a sneak peek of the H-20 at the end of this clip.
While America’s military try’s to decide
The ‘Kitten heel’ or the ‘Stiletto heel’
China’s getting ready to unveil it’s ‘stolen technology’
The Xian H-20 strategic bomber
China- ‘God of war in the sky’
America- We choose the ‘Kitten heel’
👠🇺🇸👠 pic.twitter.com/0WSfms0VNU
— 🇭ip~ (@TruthInBytes) May 25, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This Cold War could be a zero-sum game, and China wants it all.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 23:20 - Is Ivermectin The New Penicillin?
Is Ivermectin The New Penicillin?
Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug placed the same radioactive category as Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for the treatment of COVID-19, has reemerged as a promising treatment in the battle to extinguish the pandemic.
New York Times best-selling author Michael Capuzzo has called it the “drug that cracked Covid,” writing that there are “hundreds of thousands, actually millions, of people around the world, from Uttar Pradesh in India to Peru to Brazil, who are living and not dying.”
Doctors in India are big fans.
To that end Dr. Justus R. Hope, MD asks in The Desert Review: Is Ivermectin the new Penicillin?
Uttarakhand; As Far Away from Delhi as it Gets * * *
As those Indian States using Ivermectin continue to diverge in cases and deaths from those states that forbid it, the natural experiment illustrates the power of Ivermectin decisively.
Cases in Delhi, where Ivermectin was begun on April 20, dropped from 28,395 to just 2,260 on May 22. This represents an astounding 92% drop. Likewise, cases in Uttar Pradesh have dropped from 37,944 on April 24 to 5,964 on May 22 – a decline of 84%.
Delhi and Uttar Pradesh followed the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) guidance published April 20, 2021, which called for dosing of .2 mg per kg of Ivermectin per body weight for three days. This amounts to 15 mg per day for a 150-pound person or 18 mg per day for a 200-pound individual.
The other three Indian states that adopted it are all down as well. Goa is down from 4,195 to 1,647, Uttarakhand is down from 9,624 to 2,903, and Karnataka is down from 50,112 to 31,183. Goa adopted a pre-emptive policy of mass Ivermectin prevention for the entire adult population over age 18 at a dose of 12 mg daily for five days.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu announced on May 14 they were outlawing Ivermectin in favor of the politically correct Remdesivir. As a result, Tamil Nadu’s cases are up in the same time frame from April 20 to May 22 – 10,986 to 35,873 – more than a tripling.
Although Big Pharma and Big Media have scrambled to try, they cannot explain away this natural experiment. As I predicted May 12, they would first argue “the lockdowns worked.” The problem with this is that Tamil Nadu has been on strict lockdown for weeks as their cases have done nothing but climb. So the lockdown did not work.
Their next argument was that “there has been a shift from the highly populated urban areas like Delhi and Mumbai” to the hinterlands, like Tamil Nadu. The big problem is that the adjacent state, Karnataka is just as rural, and its cases are dropping on Ivermectin.
Uttar Pradesh is near the Himalayas and out in the far non-urbanized north where cases are down 84% with Ivermectin. Uttarakhand is even more rural and located in the Himalayas next to Nepal. Its infections are down 70% with Ivermectin.
Their final argument lacked any proof. It was essentially an attempt to smear Ivermectin through association with another drug. It attempted to link Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) with Ivermectin unfairly. While HCQ has become a punchline by the media, scientists like Dr. George Fareed know it is effective against COVID-19 – especially in the early stages.
Dr. Fareed and his associate, Dr. Brian Tyson, have treated some 6,000 patients with nearly 100% success using a combination of HCQ, Ivermectin, Fluvoxamine, and various nutraceuticals, including zinc Vitamin D.
Unfortunately, none of this has made it through the censorship of the mainstream media, and the public has not heard about the 200 plus studies that reflect HCQ’s effectiveness against COVID-19. The fact remains that HCQ has an undeserved negative connotation due to its connection with Trump, which is unfortunately used to tarnish other life-saving repurposed drugs, like Ivermectin. For example, in the recent Forbes article, journalist Ray uses the title, “Is Ivermectin the New Hydroxychloroquine?“
Ray does not make a single substantive argument against Ivermectin; instead, he attempts to defame, debase or degrade it by repeating baseless accusations. For example, Ray cited Merck’s recommendation against Ivermectin as evidence of ineffectiveness, while Merck used no evidence to support their claim. In addition, he cited the FDA’s recommendation against Ivermectin, yet the FDA admits they have not reviewed the data on which to base this conclusion: “The FDA has not reviewed data to support the use of Ivermectin in COVID-19 patients to treat or prevent COVID-19…”
As we all know, Merck was involved in the development of a competing drug and had 356 million reasons to throw its own cheap, unprofitable Ivermectin under the bus. Furthermore, the US government was likewise involved in a significant financial conflict of interest with Merck.
The story of Ivermectin is more similar to that of Penicillin. Penicillin has saved almost 200 million lives. In addition, three men shared a Nobel Prize in 1945 for its discovery.
Ivermectin’s discoverers won the 2015 Noble Prize in Medicine, and it has proven to be a life-saving drug in parasitic disease, especially in Africa. Over the past four decades, Ivermectin has saved millions from parasites like strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis – river blindness.
It has already saved tens of thousands from COVID-19 in India in those few locations that use it. It crashed Mexico’s, Slovakia’s, and Zimbabwe’s cases. I remain more convinced than ever that Ivermectin will bring an end to this Pandemic as the word gets out and more people share the book, Ivermectin for the World. A more fitting title to the Forbes piece might be, “Is Ivermectin the New Penicillin?”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 23:00 - Texas Passes Bill Requiring Sports Teams To Play National Anthem
Texas Passes Bill Requiring Sports Teams To Play National Anthem
Lawmakers in Texas passed a bill on Tuesday which will penalize professional sports teams that don’t play the national anthem before games, according to Fox News.
The bill, dubbed the “Star Spangled Banner Protection Act,” would require written contracts between government entities and pro sports teams in which they would agree to play the national anthem. Failure to do so could result in the loss of state or local subsidies, or the loss of state contracts in the future.
“Texans are tired of sports teams that pander, insulting our national anthem and the men and women who died fighting for our flag,” said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a staunch advocate for the bill according to Fox News.
“The passage of SB 4 will ensure Texans can count on hearing the Star Spangled Banner at major sports events throughout the state that are played in venues that taxpayers support. We must always remember that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
The bill was passed by the Texas House of Representatives in a 110-34 vote. It previously passed the Texas Senate with bipartisan support in April, with Gov. Greg Abbott expected to sign it into law.
To nobody’s surprise, Democrats criticized the bill, arguing that it constitutes government overreach and violates First Amendment protections. Apparently now they care about free speech.
“Once again, we’re carrying legislation that is openly and aggressively unconstitutional,” said Rep. Gene Wu (D), according to the Houston Chronicle.
The Mavericks drew criticism from local lawmakers last February after the team stopped playing the national anthem at the direction of owner Mark Cuban. The NBA later affirmed a league rule requiring teams to play the anthem before home games.
Cuban told ESPN the decision to stop playing the anthem came after consultations with both NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the local community.
“In listening to the community, there were quite a few people who voiced their concerns, really their fears that the national anthem did not fully represent them, that their voices were not being heard,” said Cuban at the time.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 22:40 - Buchanan: Does Our Diversity Portend Disintegration?
Buchanan: Does Our Diversity Portend Disintegration?
After nine people were shot to death by a public transit worker, who then killed himself in San Jose, the latest mass murder in America, California Governor Gavin Newsom spoke for many on the eve of this Memorial Day weekend.
“What the hell is going on in the United States of America? What the hell is wrong with us?”
Good question.
Indeed, it seems that the country is coming apart.
In May, Congress, to address a spate of criminal assaults on Asian Americans, enacted a new hate crimes law to protect them.
May also witnessed a rash of assaults on Jewish Americans to show the attackers’ hatred of Israel and support for the Palestinians in the Gaza war.
The terms “racist” and “racism” are now commonplace accusations in political discourse and a public square where whites are expected to ritually denounce the “white privilege” into which they were born.
In the year since the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter “Defund the Police!” campaign, the shootings and killings of cops and citizens in our great cities have skyrocketed.
In March, and again in April, 167,000 immigrants were caught crossing our southern border illegally. The invaders are now coming not only from Central and South America but also from Africa, the Islamic world and the largest and most populous continent, Asia. And their destiny may be to replace us.
For as the endless invasion proceeds, native-born Americans have ceased to reproduce themselves. Not since the birth dearth of the Great Depression and WWII, when the Silent Generation was born, has the U.S. population experienced such a birth decline as today.
At the same time, a war of all against all in America seems to raise the question, to which recitation of the cliche — “Our diversity is our greatest strength” — no longer seems an adequate response:
Is there no limit to the racial, religious, ideological, political, cultural and ethnic diversity the nation can accommodate before it splinters into its component parts?
In professions of religious belief, atheists, agnostics and secularists have become our largest “congregation,” followed by Catholics and Protestants, both of which are in numerical decline.
Diversity of faiths leads to irreconcilable, clashing opinions about morality on the most divisive social issues of our era: abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, etc.
Racial diversity, too, is bringing back problems unseen since the 1960s.
America was almost 90% white in 1960, but that figure is down to 60% and falling. In 25 years, we will all belong to racial minorities.
Are we Americans still united in our love of country? Do we still take pride in what we have done for our own people and what America has done for the world in the 400 years since Jamestown?
Hardly. Part of the nation buys into the academic and intellectual elites’ version of history, tracing America’s birth as a nation to the arrival of the first slave ship in Virginia in 1619.
We not only disagree about our history; some actually hate our history.
That hate can be seen in the statues and monuments destroyed, not just of Confederate military heroes but of the European explorers who discovered America, the Founding Fathers who created the nation, and the leaders, from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt, who built the America we became.
Yet, tens of millions from all over the world still see coming to America as the realization of a life’s dream.
Some look at Western civilization as 500 years of colonialism, imperialism, genocide, slavery and segregation — practiced against people of color. This is the source of the West’s wealth and power, it is said, and that wealth and power should be redistributed to the descendants of the victims of Western rapacity.
For many, equality of opportunity is no longer enough.
We must make restitution, deliver reparations and guarantee a future where an equality of rewards replaces an equality of rights.
Meritocracy must yield to equity.
Elite high schools, such as Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, Stuyvesant in New York and Lowell in San Francisco, must abandon their emphasis on grades, tests and exams to gain admissions and prove progress.
And these schools must be remade to mirror the racial and ethnic composition of the communities where they reside.
And a new cancel culture has taken root in America.
Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, a CNN commentator, was fired for suggesting that Native American institutions and culture played no significant role in the foundation and formation of the American Republic.
“We birthed a nation from nothing. I mean, there was nothing here. I mean, yes, we have Native Americans,” Santorum said, adding: “There isn’t much Native American culture in American culture.”
Impolitic though this rendition was, was it wholly false?
Something is seriously wrong with a country that professes to be great but whose elite cannot abide the mildest of heresies to its established truth.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 22:20 - Microsoft President Warns 2024 Will Look Like Orwell's '1984' If We Don't Stop AI Police State
Microsoft President Warns 2024 Will Look Like Orwell’s ‘1984’ If We Don’t Stop AI Police State
George Orwell’s dystopian vision written in his book “Nineteen Eighty-Four” could become a reality by 2024 as artificial intelligence technology becomes the all-seeing eye, a top Microsoft executive warned Thursday.
Microsoft President Brad Smith told BBC’s Panorama George Orwell’s 1984 “could come to pass in 2024” if government regulation doesn’t protect the public against intrusive artificial intelligence surveillance.
“I’m constantly reminded of George Orwell’s lessons in his book ‘1984.’ You know the fundamental story … was about a government who could see everything that everyone did and hear everything that everyone said all the time,” Smith said on BBC while chatting about China’s use of artificial intelligence to monitor its citizens.
“Well, that didn’t come to pass in 1984, but if we’re not careful, that could come to pass in 2024,” Smith continued.
“If we don’t enact the laws that will protect the public in the future, we are going to find the technology racing ahead, and it’s going to be very difficult to catch up.”
He warned that Orwell’s view of a government spying on its citizens around the clock is already a reality in some parts of the world.
Artificial intelligence-led totalitarianism, such as in China, has wiped away the freedoms of its citizens and transformed them into obedient members of the state. A social credit score keeps citizens in check.
To prevent such a dystopia in the West, lawmakers need to act now, explained Smith.
In 2019, the billionaire investor Peter Thiel insisted that artificial intelligence was “literally communist.”
He said artificial intelligence concentrates power to monitor citizens. These surveillance tools know more about a person than they know about themselves.
Artificial intelligence is a crucial tool for governments to adopt an Orwellian state of surveillance and control.
But can we trust lawmakers and “Big Tech” who want to consolidate power to prevent such a dystopia?
It’s hard to say, considering politicians have only one objective: stay in power.
Suppose we can’t trust politicians to protect our freedoms and interests; instead, they side with mega-corporations. In that case, we must raise our understanding of privacy shields that protect us from artificial intelligence spying on us.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 22:00 - Biden Rebuffs Russia's Attempts To Restore Open Skies Treaty
Biden Rebuffs Russia’s Attempts To Restore Open Skies Treaty
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The Biden administration has informed Russia that the US will not rejoin the Open Skies Treaty, an arms control agreement that allows unarmed surveillance flights over participating countries. “Thursday’s decision means only one major arms control treaty between the nuclear powers — the New START treaty — remains in place,” Associated Press observes.
The Trump administration withdrew from the treaty last year. Russia had been attempting to salvage it, but the Biden administration’s decision appears to be the final nail in the coffin for Open Skies.
Image: USAF Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman informed Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov of the US decision late this week.
As a candidate, President Biden slammed the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the treaty. In May 2020, Biden released a statement that said a US withdrawal from Open Skies would “exacerbate growing tensions between the West and Russia, and increase the risks of miscalculation and conflict.”
In one of his first major foreign policy moves, President Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the two leaders agreed to extend New START, the last nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia. Biden vowed to work on more arms control agreements with Russia, but so far, he has failed to do so.
Biden and Putin are scheduled to meet in Geneva on June 16th amid heightened tensions. US-Russia relations are at their lowest point since the end of the Cold War, thanks to hostile US policies. Since coming into office, Biden has slapped sanctions on Russia, expelled Russian diplomats, and supported Ukraine during a tense stand-off with Moscow.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 21:40 - The First American City To Authorize "Reparations" Is Already Regretting It
The First American City To Authorize “Reparations” Is Already Regretting It
Evanston, Illinois made headlines earlier this year by becoming the first city in the US to authorize “reparations” in the form of payments to compensate Black Americans for abuses done to family members. The Chicago suburb’ City Council voted back in March to distribute $400K to eligible black households, with each qualifying family receiving up to $25K for homeownership and or improvement grants, as well as mortgage assistance.
But while proponents on the left praised the move as unprecedented, it turns out that those who designed the proposal were careful to ensure the word “reparations” was nowhere near it. In fact, a lengthy Bloomberg piece telling the story of how the proposal came to be shows that its backers were simply hoping to put new revenue from cannabis legalization to use righting historical wrongs in Evanston.
For starters, only 16 people will initially be eligible for the money (only $400K was approved and it will be doled out in increments of $25K). And what’s more, instead of receiving cash payments, the money must go directly to a bank or a contractor to prevent the recipient from incurring a state or federal tax penalty.
In essence, this shows the futility of making ‘reparations’ a reality via a series of local or municipal movements: there are myriad boundaries at the federal level that make it unrealistic.
Right now, the money can only be used to help qualified Black residents buy homes, fix them up, or stay in them. Right now, the priority is the grants go to any Black resident of Evanston from 1919 to 1969, the year after the federal government passed the Fair Housing Act, then any of their direct descendants, then anyone who moved to the city after that and can show that they’ve faced discrimination.
Even supporters of reparations said they were underwhelmed.
“We want cash payments. I want reparations like any Black person” And the big question: How much? They decided on grants of $25,000—not a lot of money in Evanston, where the average home sells for many multiples of that. The $400,000 covers just 16 people to start with. That’s a tough number, another reality check. There are other restrictions: The residents won’t get the cash directly. The city says that would likely require them to pay state and federal taxes on it. Instead, the money will go to the financial institution providing a new mortgage or holding an existing one or to the closing agent handling a down payment. It could go to a contractor making repairs on the recipient’s home or to Cook County to pay property taxes.
At a virtual town meeting held on March 22, Black residents lined up to explain why they supported the program, but didn’t support calling it “reparations”.
At the March 22 City Council meeting, held virtually, so many people had something to say that the mayor limited them to a minute each. The first speakers were the Duke professor Darity and Kirsten Mullen, co-authors of the 2020 book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century. Darity said the program would do little about the equity gap in housing. Mullen challenged the premise. “There are some admirable efforts by municipalities to atone for their own race-based policies,” Mullen said. “However, it is unfortunate when those acts of atonement are confused with reparations.” Cannon said that because she now rents an apartment and at age 73 doesn’t want to take on a mortgage, she wouldn’t benefit, even though she’d qualify. “We want cash payments,” she said. “I want reparations like any Black person.” Kevin Brown, another founder of the Facebook group, said: “The city of Evanston should not willingly mislead our country. … We support the housing program, but we don’t support calling it reparations.”
Now that the program has blown up and become national news, it turns out, everybody in the community has something negative to say about it.
Brown says it wasn’t until earlier this year that some people realized the city was going ahead with reparations. There had been regular public meetings, opportunities to comment, but they’d almost all occurred while the city was locked down, people were struggling, and no one was socializing much. Then there’s the $10 million. It had seemed a smart idea to use the marijuana sales tax to pay for reparations. It’s such a convenient, tidy model that other communities might copy it. That’s the problem, Brown says. “I kind of call it reparations on the cheap. There’s no pain involved. I think it would be a different dynamic if reparations became an element of the city budget—of the core city budget—and the city government was saying, ‘We’re going to allocate a hundred million dollars over this period of time to fund the reparations budget.’ ” The city’s annual budget, for reference, is about $300 million. “This is just not costing anyone anything. So they’re OK.” Percy Berger, 72, a former banker and private equity investor and the owner of a home in Evanston’s Lake Shore Historical District, calls the $10 million inconsequential, arbitrary. A national reparations program would have to calculate African Americans’ economic losses: The lost wages from almost a century of forced labor after America’s independence; or the loss of land, the 40 acres and the mule promised to those formerly enslaved after emancipation. Plus interest. But how, Berger wants to know, were the losses calculated in Evanston? “No one looked at it systematically,” he says. “And if they did and came up with that number it would be even more insulting.”
And with COVID-19 stretching state and local budgets, some are arguing that maybe that money could have been better spent. The community still has another $9 million-plus in weed tax revenue to spend – but it’s unlikely it will go to a continuation of this program.
This is an argument about what’s possible and what’s necessary and how far America will go. It’s happening in Evanston, and it will happen elsewhere. “Black folk have to raise their voices and say what reparations are,” Rue Simmons says. Some of the pushback she expected; some of it, she says, is personal and political. There will be plenty more discussion in Evanston about the remaining $9.6 million. The council’s resolution states it should be spent not only on housing but also on economic development and educational initiatives. Everyone hopes the $10 million is just a start and that 10 years won’t be the end.
It’s just a reminder that those hoping to fight against economic inequality have many other, better options than whatever Evanston is doing.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 21:20 - Judge Postpones Georgia Election Audit After County Hires Criminal Defense Attorneys, Files Motion To Dismiss
Judge Postpones Georgia Election Audit After County Hires Criminal Defense Attorneys, Files Motion To Dismiss
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,
A judge in Georgia told parties in an election integrity case on May 27 that a previously scheduled meeting at a ballot storage warehouse was canceled after officials filed a flurry of motions in the case.
Media crews film while election workers process absentee ballots at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on Nov. 2, 2020. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Henry County Superior Court Judge Brian Amero said a May 28 meeting was no longer taking place because of motions filed by Fulton County, the county’s Board of Registration and Elections, and the county’s clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, a spokesperson for the court confirmed to The Epoch Times.
Amero said the motions must be heard before the plaintiffs can gain access to the absentee ballots. He proposed a June 21 hearing, but the order scheduling the hearing hasn’t yet been filed.
“It seems like a desperation move. The silver lining is that we now have more time to perfect the changes we had to make in our inspection plan,” Garland Favorito, the lead petitioner, told The Epoch Times via email.
County officials argued that the complaint filed by voters should be dismissed because the petitioners failed to serve, or even attempt to serve, the county. They also said Fulton County doesn’t have final control over elections, that petitioners aren’t entitled to declaratory judgment, and that petitioners haven’t complied with election contest requirements.
Amero heard in a hearing last week that petitioners weren’t able to properly examine ballot images they’ve received because of their low resolution—200 dots per inch (DPI). Amero granted the petitioners’ request to unseal the mailed ballots and said they could go to where they were stored in order to observe county workers create higher resolution images of the ballots.
Amero mentioned during the hearing that no parties had filed a motion to dismiss, allowing petitioners to obtain some discovery.
During the hearing, lawyers for the county urged the judge not to grant access to the ballots.
Before the latest update in the case, some officials had supported the ballot examination.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, opposed letting petitioners get access to the ballots, but said he supported Amero’s ruling.
“From day one, I have encouraged Georgians with concerns about the election in their counties to pursue those claims through legal avenues. Fulton County has a long standing history of election mismanagement that has understandably weakened voters’ faith in its system. Allowing this audit provides another layer of transparency and citizen engagement,” he told The Epoch Times in an email.
However, Democrat Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts criticized the attempt to examine the ballots.
“It is outrageous that Fulton County continues to be a target of those who cannot accept the results from last year’s election,” he told news outlets in a statement.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 21:00 - US Embassies Worldwide Are Flying BLM Flags This Week
US Embassies Worldwide Are Flying BLM Flags This Week
US embassies and consulates across the globe this week flew Black Lives Matter (BLM) flags after being authorized and encouraged to do so for the first time ever in a memo by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. It’s now expected to be a regular practice, particularly in instances of race-related events or memorials.
Just ahead of the May 25 one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death, a State Department memo was sent to all diplomatic staff worldwide saying that it “supports the use of the term ‘Black Lives Matter’ in messaging content”. It further encouraged speeches and commemorative events related to diplomatic engagements on the anniversary “and beyond”. Subsequently on Tuesday BLM flags were photographed flying at various US diplomatic compounds across the globe, stretching from east Asia to Greece to Spain and Latin America.
Blinken said in a Tuesday video commemorating the Floyd anniversary that America can only be “credible force for human rights around the world” if it faces “the realities of racism and hatred here at home.”
It’s a reversal of a State Dept. crackdown last year on embassies abroad flying politically charged banners of non-government and partisan organizations, also sparking intense controversy given it’s widely acknowledged BLM is so much more than a mere racial justice organization, and also given the summer’s violent riots and looting in which sections of US cities burned and police were attacked. As The Washington Examiner recalls of BLM leadership’s own words…
Black Lives Matter Global Network has been a lightning rod for many conservatives since one co-founder of the group described the leadership team as “trained Marxists” organizing based on those principles.
US Embassy in Athens this week, via AFP Note that the BLM banner was actually placed over the official United States seal in order to cover it…
Before, with US seal displayed over entrance. After…
And given BLM is also widely recognized as being undergirded by an entire ‘package’ of far left ideologies, the US government flying its flag is tantamount to adopting distinct symbols of a radical political party and movement (even as it would be a violation of the Constitution and the law should embassies promote either the Republican or Democratic parties on a similarly official basis).
We raise this banner in honor of George Floyd, murdered one year ago today, in solidarity with people around the globe seeking a world without racial discrimination and a future with equal opportunity for all. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/cVIkfH5Yra
— U.S. Embassy Athens (@USEmbassyAthens) May 25, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
On this note of “ideology” – the memo further calls for “building coalitions of like-minded nations” in order “fight against systemic racism and discrimination, to include swift and meaningful responses to human rights abuses and violations of racial, ethnic, and other underserved and mainstream racial equity issues throughout the multilateral system.”
Here’s more from Washington Examiner:
“We actually do have an ideological frame,” BLMGN [or Black Lives Matter Global Network] co-founder Patrisse Cullors said in 2015. “We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories.”
Among these ideologies includes “defunding the police” – among many others.
US Embassy Cambodia this week Commenting on this, Republican Congressman from Arizona Andy Biggs this week ripped the new State Dept. authorization as a huge and brazen step away from the kind of political neutrality that embassies are supposed to represent: “BLM burned down cities and caused billions in property damage. They are the antithesis of American values and do not belong on any of our embassies,” he stated on Twitter.
Displaying a private NGO’s flag like the BLM logo on US embassies is unprecedented.
It violates the Hatch Act, endorses one NGO over another and undermines American security by endorsing calls for defunding the police.
Don’t be outraged later when other presidents do it too.
— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 26, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
And veteran diplomat and former Acting Director of National Intelligence under the Trump administration Richard Grenell also blasted embassies for flying the banner, saying, “Displaying a private NGO’s flag like the BLM logo on US embassies is unprecedented. It violates the Hatch Act, endorses one NGO over another and undermines American security by endorsing calls for defunding the police.“
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 20:40 - Oregon Is Proof That Leftist Politics Ultimately Lead To Tyranny And Decay
Oregon Is Proof That Leftist Politics Ultimately Lead To Tyranny And Decay
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,
What kind of abysmal social and economic conditions would make at least five separate counties of US voters want to flee a state to join the borders of another state? Well, all it takes is a cult of insane Marxists running the entire state into the ground from the safety of their metropolitan communes while demanding that people submit their undying fealty to the draconian medical mandates of an elitist minority. Yeah, things have to get pretty bad to inspire so many people into leaving and taking half the state with them.
Welcome to Oregon…
I used to live right across the state border from Portland, Oregon through the 1990s, and while the place was always considered a bit of a haven for washout hippies, reject grunge bands and limp-wristed wine sipping progressives, there wasn’t enough of them to take the place over completely and the city was still relatively clean and well kept and peaceful. You rarely heard of crime, poverty or unrest; those were problems reserved for places like California.
I can’t recall any moment during that time when people said they felt “unsafe” in Portland, or when they were desperate to leave Oregon for greener pastures. It used to be a decent place to build a life. A lot has changed since then.
As the political left and the Democratic Party has become increasingly militant in its regressive ideology and collectivist underpinnings the states these people control have become increasingly dismal financial and constitutional failures. Perhaps it was always there under the skin, but in the past few years the cancer has grown terminal. I really have no interest in ever going back to Oregon and no one I know has any interest in visiting the place either. When I research the local news, this is what consistently pops up:
Portland is now a homeless tent city with walls of garbage in the streets and riots on a regular basis. The city has reported a 2000% rise in homicides, specifically after taking measures to defund local police precincts. Oregon also has a total debt of around $43 billion, which is dramatically higher than red state neighbors like Idaho and Montana. Data for 2020 to 2021 poverty and homeless rates have not been released yet, partially because cities like Portland sought to stall the federally mandated count back in January. I would not be surprised if the numbers have had an epic spike in the past year; the only question will be, is it because of covid, or is it just because of the bumbling of the lefties?
But it’s not just the economic decline that’s the issue in Oregon, it’s also the rampant suppression of individual rights through medical tyranny, along with the special government treatment of Marxist extremist groups like Antifa and BLM.
Thousands of businesses have closed in the state because of pointless lockdowns which did NOTHING to stop the natural spread of Covid, and the businesses that tried to defy the mandates in order to survive were harassed or threatened with fines by state health officials and OSHA. At the same time, local politicians have barely lifted a finger to stop leftist civil unrest. Some people say they are too weak to take action, but their meekness is more likely a show of support, a virtue signal. They want the riots to continue, at least to a certain extent.
That said, nothing tops the announcement this past week by the Oregon Health Authority, which has just issued a rule that businesses must now demand proof of vaccination before a customer may enter. If they do not have proof, they must be forced to wear a mask or they must be made to leave. This is the first time I have heard of a state actually codifying vaccine passports into their enforcement mandates, but I’m sure other blue states will follow Oregon’s lead in the near future.
Keep in mind that these rules are a threat to Oregon businesses as much as they are a threat to the regular public. As one bureaucrat from the Oregon Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration argued:
“We expect employers to comply, whichever route they take–allowing the vaccination exemption or sticking with current requirements….We will take and investigate complaints alleging employers aren’t requiring face coverings, for example, or checking vaccination status.”
Don’t forget that this guy is not a law maker, he’s a nobody. He was never elected. Most of these mandates across the country have not yet been debated by a legislature or voted on by citizens. None of the mandates are real law, they are simply Color of Law controls enforced unilaterally outside of the constitution. This is unacceptable.
As those of us in the liberty media have been warning since the beginning of the pandemic hype, the end game was always going to be vaccine passports; it was always about control of the citizenry, it was never about saving lives. We told people that vaccine passports were coming and the media called us crazy. Now Oregon is proving us right. Of course, Oregon is not the only blue state setting the standard for tyranny. Most leftist dominated states are pushing similar measures.
For example, Illinois officials have said they will not enforce vaccine passports, while at the exact same time admitting they are considering vaccine passports. Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lightfoot, a racist who has demanded segregation of white journalists from black journalists in her press interactions, is also using her influence to encourage segregation of vaccinated people from unvaccinated people in local restaurants.
In Virginia, Gov. Northham has stated that vaccine passports are on the table. Most counties in the state are predominantly conservative, but it is run once again from metropolitan areas that are saturated with leftists. This has led many counties to seek nullification of state government controls (including Red Flag gun laws). On top of that, numerous counties of Virginia are considering leaving the state to join West Virginia, just as multiple counties in Eastern Oregon are trying to join with Idaho.
In Blue States across the nation incremental totalitarianism is being implemented, but Oregon is clearly leading the charge in my opinion.
Many states are claiming that they will not enforce vaccine passports while subversively supporting corporations that do the enforcing of the passports for them (by the way, no company has the right to demand access to your private medical history before allowing you to enter their establishment). But this is all a farce – Eventually all leftist governments are going to demand vaccine passports as a rule. Oregon simply leap-frogged ahead of everyone else and went straight to the Orwellian end game.
So, of course we have to ask an obvious medical question here first:
If the experimental mRNA vaccines actually work, then why do we need vaccine passports at all?
The people who are vaccinated would be protected, and the people who are not vaccinated would be taking a “risk”, as is their right. The unvaccinated are no threat whatsoever to the vaccinated if the vaccines do what Big Pharma claims they do.
Of course, being unvaccinated is not much of a risk considering the death rate of Covid is only 0.26% outside of nursing homes according to independent medical studies. And for those that claim “mutations” are a concern, viruses mutate with or without mass vaccination. Just as there are seasonal strains of the flu, there will now be seasonal strains of covid. That’s the beauty of it for those in power; there will have to be new vaccinations every year, and you will have to renew your vaccine passport every year. The controls will NEVER end.
If you want to see what our future will be in America if we allow this totalitarian march to continue just take a look at Australia. Regional lockdowns of millions of people are now a regular occurrence there despite the proliferation of vaccines within the country. All it takes is a handful of covid positive tests and the government has all the excuse it needs to erase people’s rights.
In my recent article ‘Vaccine Virtue Signaling And The Cult Of Woke’, I outlined in detail why it makes little sense to become a guinea pig for an experimental “vaccine” (which is really a form of gene therapy) when 99.7% of people will survive the virus without difficulty. On top of that, why submit to a vaccine today that will probably be declared useless next year anyway?
The future implications of vaccine passports and economic decline are disturbing, but this is the inevitable result when leftists and collectivists are allowed to gather political and social power. As I have noted many times this year, leftists are the ONLY subset of the population seeking and supporting government dominion over American lives. Not only that, but they have consistently partnered with global corporations that they supposedly despise in order to leverage more power.
They are the only people supporting mass censorship, mob intimidation of those with different political views, mass violence against innocent people and businesses, they supported government lockdowns and extensive violations of the Bill of Rights, and now they are supporting vaccine passports which would destroy all personal liberty in this country for all time.
Am I falling into a “left/right” paradigm trap here? Are things just as bad in conservative red states? Why not take a look at a red state like my home of Montana? In Montana, the state government has passed multiple laws and set multiple precedents which now protect the public against covid restrictions. These include:
Court orders which prevent local health departments from forcing businesses to require that customers wear masks. (5 businesses took a stand in Flathead County and the courts sided with them).
The Montana Legislature has passed a law banning employers from requiring that their employees get vaccinated in order to keep their jobs.
A law has been passed which prevents any establishment including schools, colleges and medical facilities from demanding proof of vaccination before offering services. Vaccine passports will not be allowed in Montana.
A law has been passed which protects businesses from lawsuits related to covid if a business does not enforce mandates. A similar law is being forwarded which also protects government buildings and healthcare facilities.
Executive orders by Governor Gianforte are being established which stop city governments from enforcing mandates while the state government has lifted them.
Montana has also passed legislation which prevents any new federal gun law from being enforced in the state.
Montana has seen a rush of people relocating to the state and seeking to escape the suffocating restrictions. I have spoken with many of the people that have moved to my area and most of them are conservatives that can no longer tolerate the path of Marxism that their original states are following.
As it stands right now, Montana is one of the MOST free states in the US. Many other red states are considering or have already passed similar measures to protect the rights of their citizens. So, who are the real fascists? Who are the real power mongers? Leftists or conservatives?
The fact of the matter is, the left/right paradigm is a reality. The political elites at the top of the pyramid have no loyalties to either side, but regular people at the bottom of the pyramid are indelibly separated. The proof is in the actions of blue states vs red states.
Perhaps there are many Democrats out there who do not necessarily agree with the cultism of social justice warriors. Maybe they don’t support the unhinged thirst for vicarious control that vaccine virtue signalers display. But if they don’t support it they are not saying much about it out loud. This is indeed about sides, and “moderation” at this point is a joke. One side is supported by real science, the other side is ignoring the science for the convenience of their ideology. One side is clearly right, and the other side is clearly wrong.
Conservatives want to be left alone, and leftists want to dictate the lives of others. Conservatives are for freedom, and leftists are not. There is no debating this any longer. The question is, which side are you on?
* * *
If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch. Learn more about it HERE.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 20:20 - Daily Caller Sues Racist Chicago Mayor For Blacklisting White Journalists
Daily Caller Sues Racist Chicago Mayor For Blacklisting White Journalists
The Daily Caller News Foundation and one of its reporters, Thomas Catenacci, is suing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) over her decision to only grant interviews to ‘black or brown journalists.’
The lawsuit, filed by Daily Caller and Judicial Watch in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges that Lightfoot’s denial violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights, as well as Catenacci’s right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
“It’s absurd that an elected official believes she can discriminate on the basis of race,” said DCNF Editor-in-Chief Ethan Barton. “Mayor Lightfoot’s decision is clearly blocking press freedom through racial discrimination.”
Earlier this month Lightfoot announced that she would grant one-on-one interviews “only to black or brown journalists.”
More via the Daily Caller:
Catenacci sought to interview Lightfoot about a variety of topics regarding COVID-19 and the city’s efforts to vaccinate its population.
“On May 20, 2021, Plaintiff Catenacci requested, by email, a one-on-one interview with Mayor Lightfoot,” the DCNF lawsuit said. “Plaintiff Catenacci sent a follow-up email on May 21, 2021. He also sent a third email on May 24, 2021.”
“As of the date of this Complaint, Mayor Lightfoot’s office has not responded to Plaintiff Catenacci’s request nor has Mayor Lightfoot agreed to an interview with Plaintiff Catenacci,” the suit continues.
Lightfoot denied Catenacci’s request by “failing to respond in a timely manner,” the lawsuit said, noting that “on information and belief,” Lightfoot is aware that Catenacci is “not a journalist of color.”
“Racial discrimination has no place in America, especially in the halls of government,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Mayor Lightfoot’s admitted policy of race-based discrimination is flagrantly illegal and immoral. Simply put, we’re asking the court to find Mayor Lightfoot’s racist abuse unlawful.”
According to Catenacci, “Preventing journalists from doing our jobs in such a blatantly discriminatory way is wrong and does a disservice to our readers who come from all backgrounds. Every journalist and every person who consumes the news should be concerned by Mayor Lightfoot’s actions.”
Lightfoot’s policy set off a firestorm of protest from local Chicago reporters, with one Chicago Tribune journalist of color canceling a scheduled interview with the mayor in protest.
“I am a Latino reporter @chicagotribune whose interview request was granted for today,” tweeted the Tribune’s City Hall reporter, Gregory Pratt, adding “However, I asked the mayor’s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled. Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them.”
I am a Latino reporter @chicagotribune whose interview request was granted for today. However, I asked the mayor’s office to lift its condition on others and when they said no, we respectfully canceled. Politicians don’t get to choose who covers them. https://t.co/YMW8M8ZgJm
— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) May 19, 2021
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 20:00 - And Now Prices Are Really Soaring: May Rent Jump Is Biggest On Record
And Now Prices Are Really Soaring: May Rent Jump Is Biggest On Record
With BofA predicting that the US is facing a period of “transitory hyperinflation” as a result of soaring commodity prices in everything from metals to food…
The @UNFAO global food price index rose for an 11th month in April to a seven year high at 120.9, representing a y-o-y jump of 30.7%. Food #inflation has not risen this fast since 2011 with all sectors rising led by sugar and oils – #agriculture #grains pic.twitter.com/V78egWukzI
— Ole S Hansen (@Ole_S_Hansen) May 6, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
…. and beyond, in what increasingly more warn is a stagflationary burst right out of the 1970s playbook…
… it makes sense that home prices are also surging thanks to trillions in stimmy checks, near-record low mortgage rates and an exodus away from cities, and as we noted two weeks ago that’s precisely what they are doing, with Redfin reporting an 18% jump in median home sale prices to an all time high…
… as a record 58% of all houses sell within two weeks of listing, of which 45% sell for more than their listing price, also a record.
Amid this dismal “transitorily hyperinflationary” landscape, where those whose incomes aren’t similarly hyperinflating find themselves at risk of being unable to afford a roof above their head, there was one ray of hope: renting, with rent prices tumbling in recent months and according to the BLS’ monthly CPI metric, rent inflation had just dropped to the lowest in a decade, just below 2.0% annually…
… which due to the way the CPI basket is weighted acted as a key anchor on overall CPI rates, and served to distort the broader inflationary picture. In short, the Fed would look at the relatively tame core CPI which was only tame thanks to “tumbling” rents and would conclude that there is nothing to worry about.
Only, as we first discussed three weeks ago, it now appears that not only was the government misrepresenting the actual data in hopes of extracting as much stimulus from the Biden regime by pretending inflation is low and “contained”, but that rents are in fact soaring once again.
As we reported at the start of May, American Homes 4 Rent, which owns 54,000 houses, increased rents 11% on vacant properties in April, the company reported in a statement:
… Continued to experience record demand with a Same-Home portfolio Average Occupied Days Percentage of 97.3% in the first quarter of 2021, while achieving 10.0% rental rate growth on new leases, which accelerated further in April to an Average Occupied Days Percentage in the high 97% range while achieving over 11% rental rate growth on new leases.
Invitation Homes, the largest landlord in the industry, also boosted rents by similar amount, an executive said on a recent conference call. Or, as Bloomberg puts it, record occupancy rates are emboldening single-family landlords to hike rents aggressively, testing the limits of booming demand for suburban rentals.
While soaring housing costs had put homeownership out of reach for most Americans, rents had been relatively tame for much of 2020. But in recent months, rents have also soared as vaccines fuel optimism about a rebound from the pandemic, and a reversal in the city-to-suburbs exodus. The increases, as Bloomberg so eloquently puts it, “may add to concerns about inflation pressures.”
“Companies are trying to figure out how hard they can push before they start losing people,” said Jeffrey Langbaum, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “And they seem to be of the opinion they can push as far as they want.”
Fast forward to today when we have definitive proof that the companies were right.
According to the June Apartment List National Rent Report, the national rent index increased by 2.3% from April to May, the largest single month increase ever recorded in AL estimates, which begin in January 2017. It was also the third straight month in which that record has been broken, following a 2.0 percent increase last month and a 1.4 percent increase in March.
In March, prices rebounded to their pre-pandemic levels. This month, we hit a new milestone — our national index is now above the level where we project it would have been if the pandemic-related price declines of 2020 had never occurred at all.
After this recent spike, year-over-year rent growth now stands at 5.4% nationally, and prices are now above the level where rents would have been if the pandemic-related price declines of 2020 had never occurred at all.
In the chart above, AL plots the national median rent from 2018 to present. The data for 2018 and 2019 depicts the smooth seasonality of a typical year, in which prices peak during the summer busy season and then dip slightly in the winter off-season. Overall, prices increased by 2.9 percent in 2018 and 2.1 percent in 2019. 2020 represents a clear break from this trend, with rents declining in the early months of the pandemic during what is normally peak-season. The dashed line in the chart represents a projection of how rents would have changed over the past year in the absence of the pandemic. This projection is based on an average of the growth rates that we observed in 2018 and 2019. Actual rent growth had been trailing this projection since the start of the pandemic, but this month’s record setting growth has now put actual rents ahead of the projection. Year-over-year rent growth now stands at 5.4 percent, another record.
To be sure, there is significant regional variation in rent trends, and prices in a number of markets are still well below pre-pandemic levels. That said, even in these markets, prices are rebounding rapidly. San Francisco headlines throughout the pandemic for the staggering 26.6 percent drop in rents from March 2020 through January 2021, but since January, San Francisco rents have increased by 13.4 percent. Although rents in San Francisco are still 16.8 percent below pre-pandemic levels, the market has clearly turned a corner, and the best deals appear to be behind us.
San Francisco aside, there is a similar trend across the rest of the country where rents had been falling fastest. Nine of the ten cities with the sharpest year-over-year rent declines have now experienced positive rent growth for four consecutive months. Four of these cities — San Jose, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Minneapolis — have seen rents increasing for five consecutive months. The following chart shows month-over-month rent growth from 2018 to present for six of the cities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic:
As AL notes, in each of the six cities shown, the fastest single-month rent increase has taken place in 2021. Rents are still below pre-COVID levels in each of these cities, but they’re quickly catching up. Nowhere is the trend stronger than in Boston, where prices have increased by an average of 3.4 percent per month in 2021 – if that pace continues, Boston rents will surpass March 2020 levels by mid-summer.
But if prices are rebounding sharply in traditional coastal markets, the market is nothing short of frenzied across another group of mid-sized markets. The pandemic and remote work spurred demand for the space and affordability that these cities offered, and in response, rent prices grew even as the surrounding economy struggled. But while rent declines in expensive markets have reversed course, the cities where rents have been growing fastest are continuing to boom. For the clearest example, no further than Boise, ID where the average rent has soared by 31% in the past year!
As ApartmentList notes, Boise, ID is leading the list, where rents grew by a staggering 6.6% over just the past month. This is the fastest month-over-month growth rate among the nation’s 100 largest cities, and Boise also continues to rank #1 for fastest year-over-year growth, which now stands at 30.8 percent. All of the 10 cities where rents have grown fastest since the start of the pandemic continued to see increases this month.
Many of these markets had been heating up prior to the pandemic. For example, from January 2017 to January 2020, rents in Mesa, AZ increased by 25.5 percent, the fastest growth in the nation over that period. Fresno ranked third for fastest rent growth from 2017 to 2020, while Chandler, AZ ranked sixth. Eight of the ten cities with the biggest pandemic booms were in the top 20 for pre-pandemic growth from 2017 to 2020. The pandemic did not necessarily start a new trend in these markets, so much as accelerate an existing one. This stands in contrast to what has happened in the expensive markets discussed above, for which the rent declines of the past year were a complete aberration. Given this longer-term context, as well as the continued upward trajectory in rent trends, it seems that Boise and cities like it have yet to hit their peaks.
As the Apartment List concludes, the pandemic created some truly “transitory” softness in the rental market last year, and in response, 2021 has seen some of the fastest rent growth we have on record in our data. Nationally, rents have now surpassed the level where they would have been if rent growth had not been disrupted by the pandemic. In markets like San Francisco where rents had been falling fastest, prices have turned a corner and are now rebounding. At the same time, booming markets like Boise continue to see prices climb. More broadly, rental inventory across the nation remains tight, and as vaccine distribution continues to gain momentum, we may be seeing even higher prices as a result of released pent up demand from renters who had been delaying moves due to the pandemic. Whereas last year’s peak moving season was halted by the pandemic, this year’s seasonal spike appears to be making up for lost time.
Summary: surging rents – the “missing piece” from both the CPI and PCE baskets – are back with a vengeance, and the result is that no matter which official inflation metric one uses, we are about to see some truly epic numbers in the coming weeks.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 19:44 - Federal Government Gives Employers Green Light To "Incentivize" Workers To Get Vaccinated
Federal Government Gives Employers Green Light To “Incentivize” Workers To Get Vaccinated
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has just quietly given American companies the green light to to do whatever it takes to “incentivize” American workers to accept the coronavirus vaccine.
As vaccinations continue to slow, and states beef up incentives including lotteries and cash prizes to any adults who agree to get vaccinated who haven’t already, the EEOC has just issued some long-awaited guidance on how far companies can go in pushing workers to be vaccinated. Some companies, including Delta Air Lines, have said they won’t hire anyone who hasn’t already been vaccinated.
Earlier today, EEOC posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including answers to FAQs concerning vaccinations in the employment context. https://t.co/wUWNs6bG3L
— Sara Clark (@saracravenclark) May 28, 2021
The updated guidelines say employers may offer incentives for employees to provide documentation showing they have been vaccinated since requesting this proof “is not a disability-related inquiry” or an “unlawful request” under federal anti-discrimination laws. What’s more, companies who choose to offer the vaccine on-site, or who incentivize employees to get vaccinated elsewhere, can’t offer perks or punishments substantial enough to be “coercive”.
The questions, which were by far the most important pieces of the new guidance, were tucked away at the bottom of the update, making the changes an easy thing for reporters to miss before a long holiday weekend.
K.16. Under the ADA, may an employer offer an incentive to employees to voluntarily provide documentation or other confirmation that they received a vaccination on their own from a pharmacy, public health department, or other health care provider in the community? (5/28/21)
Yes. Requesting documentation or other confirmation showing that an employee received a COVID-19 vaccination in the community is not a disability-related inquiry covered by the ADA. Therefore, an employer may offer an incentive to employees to voluntarily provide documentation or other confirmation of a vaccination received in the community. As noted elsewhere, the employer is required to keep vaccination information confidential pursuant to the ADA.
K.17. Under the ADA, may an employer offer an incentive to employees for voluntarily receiving a vaccination administered by the employer or its agent? (5/28/21)
Yes, if any incentive (which includes both rewards and penalties) is not so substantial as to be coercive. Because vaccinations require employees to answer pre-vaccination disability-related screening questions, a very large incentive could make employees feel pressured to disclose protected medical information. As explained in K.16., however, this incentive limitation does not apply if an employer offers an incentive to employees to voluntarily provide documentation or other confirmation that they received a COVID-19 vaccination on their own from a third-party provider that is not their employer or an agent of their employer.
Employers including Dollar General, Aldi and Instacart have already moved to reward their employees for receiving the Covid-19 vaccine by offering paid time off and cash stipends. And in April, President Joe Biden called on every employer to offer paid time off for workers to recover from potential vaccine side effects.
Will this be the last of the federal government’s pre-MDW Friday news dump? We shall see…
Not to be shown up by the EEOC’s Friday News dump, OSHA will surely release its long-awaited emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 the weekend before the Fourth of July.
— Meg Spicer, Esq. (@Spicer_Meg) May 28, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
But it’s extremely likely that some critics of the new rules might emerge after the three day weekend.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 19:40 - "Next Level Dystopian Sh*t": Amazon Rolls Out Portable Panic Booth For Warehouse Employees To Collect Themselves
“Next Level Dystopian Sh*t”: Amazon Rolls Out Portable Panic Booth For Warehouse Employees To Collect Themselves
After years of reports of Amazon warehouse employees being forced to urinate in bottles, forego medical care, and work through injuries – causing hundreds to launch petitions and revolt, the online retail giant has come up with a solution…
…a special sensory deprivation booth that allows stressed out employees to collect themselves before heading back out to the floor.
Known simply as the “ZenBooth,” the new apparatus, according to a video released by the company on Wednesday, is an “interactive kiosk where you can navigate through a library of mental health and mindful practices to recharge that internal battery.” –daily dot
Amazon’s Leila Brown used her background in sports medicine and her passion in alternative therapies to create a space where our employees could focus on their mental well-being. https://t.co/bvk2bw9Lke pic.twitter.com/cEQhsTH0Od
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) May 26, 2021
The “ZenBooth” is part of Amazon’s WorkingWell program, which allows employees to “recharge and reenergize” with a series of “physical and mental activities, wellness exercises, and healthy eating support.”
The panic booth features a small fan, some plants, and a library of meditation videos. Hopefully it features a toilet too.
(Did we mention most COVID-19 transmission occurs via aerosolized particles hanging in the air, particularly in poorly ventilated spaces?)
As the daily dot notes, the announcement received lots of pushback from Twitter users.
“why not just improve working conditions?” said one user.
“Or you could pay your employees well, not treat them like garbage, and accept unionization,” added another.
“This is some next level dystopian shit. Maybe just pay people more and let them have bathroom breaks,” read yet another tweet.
This is some next level dystopian shit. Maybe just pay people more and let them have bathroom breaks
— katie 🕰 👍 (@Ah_occ_o) May 27, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
— Jeremy, #1 Ethan Winters Fan (@Jorrpen) May 27, 2021
At least this is a step up from their now-abandoned, patented ‘worker cages.’
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 19:20 - Trump-Era 1776 Commission Opposes Funding For "Teaching Of Racial Discrimination" In Schools
Trump-Era 1776 Commission Opposes Funding For “Teaching Of Racial Discrimination” In Schools
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,
A Trump-era commission tasked with combating “false narratives about the American Founding” has urged the Biden administration to drop its proposal to fund history and civics programs that promote critical race theory or related curricula “under the misleading name of ‘anti-racism.’”
Former President Donald Trump holds an executive order he signed at the White House in Washington on June 26, 2020 to establish a 20-person Advisory 1776 Commission under the Department of Education to promote “patriotic education.” The commission was terminated by President Joe Biden on Jan. 20, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
The so-called “1776 Commission,” established in the final months of the Trump presidency before being formally dissolved by President Joe Biden upon taking office, has continued its work in a non-government capacity. The group met on Monday at Hillsdale College’s campus in Washington to discuss civic education curricula, issuing a statement critical of the Biden administration’s proposed rule to issue grants to classroom educational projects that give prominence to so-called “antiracist” ideas such as the controversial “1619 Project.”
“We are concerned that the U.S. Department of Education’s Proposed Rule defining priorities for the American History and Civics Education programs, whether as Critical Race Theory or under the misleading name of ‘anti- racism,’ actually encourages and seeks to direct federal funds to the teaching of racial discrimination in America’s elementary and secondary school systems,” the group wrote.
“This Proposed Rule should be withdrawn, and individual states should oppose any such race-based pedagogy as part of their curricula, especially if that curricula is imposed by the federal government,” it added.
In the proposed rule, released on April 19, the Education Department outlined new priority criteria for a $5.3 million American History and Civics Education grant, as well as exemplary materials for K-12 educators to use. Specifically, the department cited the “1619 Project,” and critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi’s “antiracist idea” as leading examples of the kind of content it wants to use taxpayer dollars to promote in history and civics classrooms across the country.
The Biden administration’s proposal, which was open for public comment until May 19, praises “growing acknowledgement of the importance of including, in the teaching and learning of our country’s history, both the consequences of slavery, and the significant contributions of Black Americans to our society,” but makes clear that such an “acknowledgement” would be “reflected […] in the New York Times’ landmark ‘1619 Project’” and in Kendi’s “antiracist” ideas. The proposal cites Kendi, noting that “antiracist ideas argue that racist policies are the cause of racial inequities,” which is essentially the highly contentious argument that differences in outcomes among different racial groups can be reduced to a single variable—racist policies.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks from the South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington on May 12, 2021. (Oliver Contreras/Sipa USA)
The “1619 Project,” inaugurated with a special issue of The New York Times Magazine, attempts to cast the Atlantic slave trade as the dominant factor in the founding of America instead of ideals such as individual liberty and natural rights. The initiative has been widely panned by historians and political scientists, with some critics calling it a bid to rewrite U.S. history through a left-wing lens.
The 1776 Commission meeting was hosted by Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, who said in a statement: “History is complete and cannot be changed. These controversies about history can only be resolved by looking at the facts. To help the young know this history is the work of the commission, and its importance has not diminished since inauguration day.”
Matthew Spalding, the 1776 Commission’s executive director, told the Washington Examiner in an interview ahead of the group’s meeting that the commission does not want to whitewash the nation’s history of racism, but rather seeks to emphasize racial equality as America’s foundational principles, as enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, namely that “all men are created equal.”
“When we start going about dividing people by groups, by social identities, and especially by identities that deal with race, and we’re starting to make those kinds of divisions, all Americans should get very nervous,” Spalding told the outlet.
“It’s a departure away from the historic grounding of civil rights in America, which is that we all are equal.”
“Current arguments about identity politics and critical race theory that … present themselves as merely responding to perceptions of their current assessment of American society, but do so by introducing as their principle that we should look at people based on the color of their skin, strikes us as a fundamental denial of the idea that all men are created equal,” Spalding said.
“And that’s a problem for politics. That’s a problem intellectually and historically.”
The commission’s meeting comes as Republicans across the nation are trying to prevent the teaching of critical race theory and related ideas in the nation’s classrooms.
Proponents of critical race theory have argued that it’s needed to demonstrate what they say is “pervasive systemic racism” and to facilitate rooting it out.
Critics have noted critical race theory’s roots in Marxism, arguing that the concept advocates for the destruction of institutions, such as the Western justice system, free-market economy, and orthodox religions, demanding that they be replaced with institutions compliant with the critical race theory ideology.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 19:00 - Japan Extends State Of Emergency As Support For Canceling Olympics Rises
Japan Extends State Of Emergency As Support For Canceling Olympics Rises
As demands to cancel the Tokyo Olympics intensify, Japan on Friday extended a state of emergency in Tokyo and eight other prefectures until June 20 as hospitals struggle to handle a rise in COVID-sickened patients.
The state of emergency had previously been slated to end on May 31, but strains on the medical system are still too intense for Japanese officials to be entirely comfortable with the current situation. Japan has seen a record number of COVID patients in critical condition in recent days, even as the number of new infections has slowed. This has prompted worries about infectious new COVID “variants” spreading in the country with the start of the Olympics just a few weeks away.
“In Osaka and Tokyo, the flow of people is starting to creep up, and there are concerns that infections will rise,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who also heads the country’s coronavirus countermeasures, said at the start of a meeting with experts.
The experts later approved the government proposal and PM Yoshihide Suga officially announced the extensions.
Japanese officials, Olympics organizers and the IOC have said the Games would go ahead withstrict virus-prevention measures. IOC’s senior official John Coates, who is overseeing the runup to the Games, said last week the Games were on whether or not the host city, Tokyo, is under a state of emergency at the time. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said at a regular press conference on Friday that another delay in the Olympics would be “difficult.”
The Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee President Seiko Hashimoto told a news conference Friday that she had received pledges from India and five other countries to vaccinate all their Olympic athletes and delegates as a measure against a new variant that has emerged in India.
IOC President Thomas Bach has said 80% of the 10,500 athletes expected in Japan would be vaccinated and on Thursday urged Olympians to get their shots if they could. Delegates must also be tested before and after arrival.
International spectators will not be allowed for the Games but some 90K people including athletes and their delegations will be coming. No decision has been made yet on domestic fans and Tokyo 2020’s Hashimoto said the situation regarding the state of emergency would need to be taken into account.
But in a worrying sign for Japanese authorities, polls show a majority of Japanese want the Games either cancelled or postponed again, and even SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, one of the country’s most visible business leaders, has spoken out in favor of delaying the Olympics.
Japan’s latest emergency steps, unlike stricter measures in many countries, have focused mainly on asking eateries that serve alcohol to close and those that don’t to shut down by 2000ET.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 18:40 - Senate Unanimously Approves Amendment Banning Chinese Gain-Of-Function Research
Senate Unanimously Approves Amendment Banning Chinese Gain-Of-Function Research
Following Friday’s bombshell revelation that Dr. Anthony Fauci has supported ‘gain of function’ research, even arguing that the “risks” (which include a worldwide pandemic caused by a potential lab accident) were outweighed by the potential benefits to humanity, it’s worth revisiting a vote that quietly took place earlier this week in the Senate.
Sen. Paul has been arguing with Dr. Fauci about the merits of the research and whether they’re outweighed by the risks of deadly lab leaks for weeks now. He memorably took the good doctor to task during a hearing of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hectoring over his prior support for gain of function research in China, to which Dr. Fauci insisted that was not the case.
Now, reporting by the Australian, which brought to light an obscure 2012 paper written by the doctor, has proven the doctor’s comments to be disingenuous.
Here’s what we wrote about that earlier.
“In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?” Fauci wrote in the American Society for Microbiology in 2012, adding “Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario – however remote – should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?”
“Scientists working in this field might say – as indeed I have said – that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks,” Fauci continued. “It is more likely that a pandemic would occur in nature, and the need to stay ahead of such a threat is a primary reason for performing an experiment that might appear to be risky.”
In the paper, Dr Fauci also writes: “Within the research community, many have expressed concern that important research progress could come to a halt just because of the fear that someone, somewhere, might attempt to replicate these experiments sloppily. This is a valid concern.”
Coincidentally, the mainstream was silent when just days ago, Sen. Paul proposed an amendment that would ban the use of federal money to support ‘gain of function’ research in China, an effort that hasn’t garnered widespread support in the Democrat-dominated body for obvious reasons. But despite this, the amendment received unanimous support, and was attached to the bill.
“We may not know whether this rose out of a Wuhan lab, but I think gain-of-function research – where we take a deadly virus, sometimes much more deadly than COVID, and then we increase its transmissibility to mammals – is wrong. In 2014, NIH stopped all of this research. I’m using the same definition to say any gain-of-function research should not be funded in China with U.S. taxpayer dollars, and I recommend a yes vote.”
But with President Biden now giving the government 90 days to release something conclusive about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, some believe public interest in this type of research is about to surge. And in a sign of just how much public opinion has shifted so far, a group of supporters gathered cheered when Rand’s amendment was passed unanimously.
Speaking on the Senate floor Tuesday, Paul delivered a brief speech, pointing out that the NHS had banned this type of research in 2014.
SENATE: The Senate chamber erupts into cheers after an amendment proposed by @RandPaul that bans US funding of gain-of-function research in China is passed by unanimous voice vote pic.twitter.com/8fQ6hAWpuW
— Forbes (@Forbes) May 25, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The amendment, Senate Amendment 2003, was appended to the Endless Frontier Act which bans Fauci’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other U.S. agencies from funding any gain-of-function research in China.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 18:20 - China Warns Australia's Military Is "Weak", Will Be "First Hit" In Any War With Western Alliance
China Warns Australia’s Military Is “Weak”, Will Be “First Hit” In Any War With Western Alliance
Following now completed joint war games held by the US, Japan, France and Australia in the East China Sea off the southwest coast of Japan earlier this month, China has lashed out particularly at its large regional neighbor Australia, calling its military “weak” and “insignificant” at a moment the two are locked in a severe trade and diplomatic tit-for-tat dispute.
Beijing voiced specific threats and warnings via its state-run English language mouthpiece Global Times, which recently wrote, “Australia’s military is too weak to be a worthy opponent of China, and if it dares to interfere in a military conflict for example in the Taiwan Straits, its forces will be among the first to be hit.”
ARC 21 exercise off the coast of Kagoshima, Japan in mid-May. Image: US Marine Corps “Australia must not think it can hide from China if it provokes,” the report continued with its threats. “Australia is within range of China’s conventional warhead-equipped DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile.”
Exercise Jeanne d’Arc 21 – or ARC21, as the Western alliance called it, also featured rare amphibious assault landing drills, which is seen as aimed at challenging China’s expansive claims over regional island-chains and contested reef areas on which it’s built up military installations.
Here’s more from the GT column’s response…
The ongoing joint exercises by Japanese, US, French and Australian troops, claimed to “serve as a deterrent to China,” is only symbolic and of little military significance, as the drill was put together by participants that have different agenda or are too weak, experts said on Wednesday, while slamming Japan’s outdated mindset of rallying alliances for confrontation.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doesn’t even need to make pointed responses to the joint drill since it’s insignificant militarily.
Japan was also focus of China’s media attacks over the exercise as it was warned not to let its historic “militarism come back to life”.
Sobering assessment by @MOFA_Taiwan foreign minister that China is “preparing for war.” To be clear though, Beijing has never stopped preparing for war since 1949. Recent surge in military activities & possibility of domestic upheaval causes for concern. https://t.co/RvUXxSHm6s
— Russell Hsiao (@lcrhsiao) May 26, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Also at a sensitive moment its hosting the summer Olympics is in question, the article called for Tokyo not to get distracted from the more pressing pandemic and health crisis in its midst:
Despite its severe domestic COVID-19 situation, Japan remains stubborn in hooking in “like-minded” countries for joint military exercises, which is an outdated Cold War mindset and will only build divisions and confrontation, Zhang Junshe, a senior research fellow at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
As an invading country defeated in World War II, why is Japan holding offensive exercises like this? Zhang asked. “Japan should learn from history and not let militarism come back to life.”
All of this comes as the United States also this week announced it will send its only Asia-Pacific carrier presence to Mideast waters in order to assist with the Afghanistan withdrawal this summer – a move which Republican Congressional hawks lamented as leaving the US exposed in a “priority theater”.
Rabobank noted on the USS Ronald Reagan’s impending departure from waters off Japan that “For the first time in a long time, the US has no aircraft carrier in the Pacific. The symbolism is clear: and it leaves some wondering what might happen if push comes to shove.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/28/2021 – 18:00
Digest powered by RSS Digest
Saving...
