Dec 02

Today’s News 2nd December 2021

  • Large UK Supermarket Chains Refuse To Police "Divisive" Face-Mask Mandates
    Large UK Supermarket Chains Refuse To Police “Divisive” Face-Mask Mandates

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

    Two large supermarket chains in the UK have refused to make their staff police mandatory face mask rules, with one boss asserting that the issue is too “divisive.”

    New face mask rules were imposed in England from today, meaning people who use public transport, enter shops and innumerable other venues have to wear a compulsory face covering.

    England dropped mandatory face mask rules back in July, but they remained in place in neighboring countries like Scotland, where official data shows infection rates remained the same or higher.

    According to Oxford Professor Jim Naismith, re-imposing face mask rules is “unlikely to have much of an impact” on the spread of the Omicron variant.

    Wary of how contentious the issue has become, Iceland and Co-op, two large supermarket chains in the UK, have publicly said they will tell staff not to enforce such rules.

    Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, said the company would instead be concentrating its efforts on the “long-term recovering of the high street.”

    “We fully support the reintroduction of compulsory face masks in shops, however, we won’t be asking our store colleagues to police it,” said Walker.

    Co-op’s Paul Gerrard went further, telling GMB, “”What we won’t do is we won’t refuse to serve people who aren’t wearing a mask and we won’t refuse entry to the shop to people who aren’t wearing a mask.”

    “I won’t be asking my store colleagues to police those who refuse to adhere to the rules because I know that, bizarrely, this is a divisive issue, and I think my store colleagues have got enough to deal with in the run-up to Christmas,” he added.

    The British Retail Consortium said that it was the responsibility of the police to enforce the rules, adding: “Customers are asked to respect the rules and be considerate to their fellow shoppers and to hard-working shop staff.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 12/02/2021 – 02:00

  • The Usual Suspects Are Trying To Foment A Crisis With Russia
    The Usual Suspects Are Trying To Foment A Crisis With Russia

    Authored by Ted Galen Carpenter via Antiwar.com,

    Once again, the United States and some of its security clients in Eastern Europe are doing their utmost to create a crisis atmosphere with respect to Russia. A key player in that effort is the government of Ukraine. As Ukrainian officials did in April 2021, they are again highlighting allegedly suspicious Russian troop movements near the border between the two countries in late October and early November. Ukrainian leaders contend that such maneuvers might well be the prelude to a military offensive.

    Kiev’s propaganda offensive escalated dramatically on November 20 when Brig. General Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s director of defense intelligence, asserted in interview with Military Times that Moscow already had plans in place to launch an invasion by the end of January 2022. He was not talking about a modest border incursion in support of pro-Russia separatists who control portions of Ukraine’s Donbas region either. The attack he was predicting, Budanov insisted, would likely involve airstrikes, artillery and armor attacks followed by airborne assaults in the east, amphibious assaults in Odessa and Mariupul and even an incursion of Ukraine through neighboring Belarus in the north.

    Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky soon made Budanov’s prediction look mild by comparison. He warned that Moscow not only intended to seize large swaths of Ukraine’s territory, but that the Kremlin had plans in place to stage a coup to overthrow his government. Zelensky was quite specific about the timetable; the coup was to occur during the week of November 28-December 4.

    It would be bad enough if such efforts to generate a crisis were simply a unilateral campaign by a government determined to whip-up nationalist emotions to revive its flagging fortunes. But as it did in April, Joe Biden’s administration seems ready to give full credence and backing to the stance of its Ukrainian client toward Russia. In an April 2 telephone call to Zelensky, Biden “affirmed the United States’ unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression in the Donbas and Crimea.”

    Washington’s knee-jerk support for Kiev is equally evident with respect to the latest developments. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried told reporters in a telephone briefing on November 26 that “all options are on the table” in how to respond to Russia’s “large and unusual” troop buildup near Ukraine’s border. Her statement is the typical diplomatic blather for emphasizing that Washington would even consider using military force on behalf of Ukraine – although the United States has no formal security obligations whatever toward that country. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg likewise insisted that the Alliance “stands with Ukraine” in its confrontation with Russia.

    Such blank check assurances are likely to encourage the most irresponsible, revanchist sentiments in Ukraine and increase the likelihood of a catastrophic showdown. Typically, though, establishment news media outlets in the United States busily try to spin the crisis as the latest evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin, “surrounded by hardliners,” is the one seeking a confrontation with the United States and NATO. Kiev and Washington, implicitly, are entirely innocent parties.

    The record indicates otherwise. The Biden administration and its NATO allies seem to be going out of their way to engage in highly provocative actions in Russia’s immediate neighborhood. And those moves are not confined to the mounting diplomatic and military support for Kiev, including weapons sales, and now perhaps even the dispatch of U.S. military “advisers” (i.e. disguised Special Forces personnel), although that aspect is the centerpiece.

    The Pentagon is waging a multifaceted campaign of provocations, especially in and around the Black Sea. The US air and naval presence there has surged markedly in the past year or so, including a new deployment in November over Moscow’s strenuous and increasingly pointed protests. Washington and its NATO allies also have conducted several “exercises” (i.e., war games) in that body of water. The ever-helpful Ukrainian government now calls for a “constant” NATO military presence in the Black Sea.

    Such measures may not be the worst of the provocations that the United States and its partners have committed. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused US bombers of rehearsing a nuclear strike on Russia from two different directions earlier in November and complained that the planes had come within 20 km (12.4 miles) of the Russian border. Highlighting the notorious tone-deaf behavior of US officials, the Pentagon brushed off the complaint with the bland statement that “These missions were announced publicly at the time, and closely planned with (Strategic Command), (European Command), allies and partners to ensure maximum training and integration opportunities.” More objective observers might respond that conducting such maneuvers that close to the borders of another nuclear-armed great power, especially during an already tense environment, was reckless.

    However, there is no indication that Western foreign policy elites have the slightest intention to dilute the hyper-aggressive policy toward Russia, despite the Kremlin’s warnings that the United States and its allies are taking Moscow’s security red lines far too lightly. Hawkish types act as though previous US and NATO actions have been entirely defensive and conciliatory, despite massive evidence to the contrary. They cling to the benign motives mantra, even as they advocate escalating the confrontation through such steps as coercing Moscow’s client Belarus.

    Former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s latest article is a textbook example of such thinking. Bolton charges that Russia not only intends to dominate Ukraine and Belarus, it plans to re-establish unchallenged control over the entire “near abroad.” In other words, Putin’s goal is to reconstitute the Soviet empire in all but name. US and NATO actions are, of course, a purely defensive response to such plans for egregious aggression and territorial aggrandizement.

    “The Kremlin’s wider perspective,” Bolton charges, “is exemplified by its increases in Black Sea naval drills, and rising complaints about the US Navy’s “provocative” presence there. Black Sea dominance would threaten not only Ukraine but also Georgia, intimidate NATO members Bulgaria and Romania, and induce angst in Erdogan’s increasingly erratic Turkey.”

    According to Bolton, Moscow’s determination to regard the Black Sea as an essential part of Russia’s security zone is definitive evidence of aggressive intent, but Washington’s repeated willingness to send its air and naval forces 6,000 miles from home to conduct war games in that same body of water is not in any way provocative or aggressive.

    Bolton’s willful blindness is typical of how most of the US foreign policy community views relations with Russia. Such arrogance is producing a crisis with Moscow on multiple fronts, and the Putin government seems less and less willing to continue backing down. A potentially catastrophic military confrontation is still avoidable, but new thinking on the part of US and Western policymakers is imperative. Unfortunately, there are very few signs that such new thinking is on the horizon.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 23:50

  • Biden's Asia Czar Says China To Likely End Trade War "On Australia's Terms"
    Biden’s Asia Czar Says China To Likely End Trade War “On Australia’s Terms”

    More than 18 months after China kicked off its campaign of economic coercion against Canberra targeting a range of key commodities including barley, wine, coal timber and lobsters – Australia has yet to be brought “to its knees” as officials in Beijing had been hoping for. 

    Though without doubt devastating for many Australian farmers and others in industries directly impacted by the $17bn China trade row, the data ultimately shows it’s been Canberra’s allies like the US picking up much of the slack.

    President Joe Biden’s top Asia adviser Kurt Campbell is now predicting eventual defeat for China, telling the Sydney-based Lowly Institute that he expects Beijing to waive the white flag and restore the trade relationship with Australia, and on Canberra’s terms.

    Image: AP

    The past months have seen Australia-China relations reach their lowest point in history, given the already soaring tensions went to boiling point after Canberra on Sept.15 unveiled the ‘AUKUS’ nuclear submarine technology sharing deal with the US and Britain. Thus economic warfare unleashed alarming words among state officials threatening future literal war.

    Campbell, who is point man on everything Indo-Pacific for the National Security Council, told the think tank in his statements, “I fully believe that over time, that China will re-engage with Australia. But it will, I believe, re-engage on Australian terms.”

    “I think China’s preference would have been to break Australia,” he underscored. “To drive Australia to its knees… I don’t believe that’s going to be the way it’s going to play out.”

    “I believe that China will engage because it is in its own interest to have a good relationship with Australia,” he concluded. He suggested that likely China, as Australia’s largest trade and export partner – had never expected Canberra to weather the storm this long…

    Mr Campbell said that China respected “strength” and that Australia’s resolve in the face of the economic sanctions would strengthen its hand when dealing with the Chinese government.

    Months ago outside observers began expressing surprise over Australia’s economy standing up better than expected in the face of China’s coercion. 

    Biden’s ‘Asia Czar’ Kurt Campbell

    Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg has lately emphasized a theme that despite Beijing “willing to use its economic weight as a source of political pressure” it remains that his country’s economy has shown “great resilience to date”.

    We noted starting in October that there are signs China is beginning to fold – for example reluctantly unloading Australian coal amid its recent power crunch despite its unofficial import ban.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 23:30

  • Miller: Fauci The Omnipotent
    Miller: Fauci The Omnipotent

    Authored by Stephen L. Miller via The Spectator World (emphasis ours),

    What does Anthony Fauci have to do with a starship? The good doctor’s staggering claims and admissions during his Sunday interview with Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan recall a classic scene from Star Trek V: The Undiscovered Country. The crew of the Enterprise are taken to a mysterious realm to face a being claiming to be an all-powerful god. To question the being would be to question God himself. The being, of course, turns out not to be a god or the God, but rather an alien entity, trapped and trying to escape.

    Anthony Fauci is interviewed by Margaret Brennan (CBS)

    Now, Dr. Fauci seems to be borrowing from the alien’s playbook.

    When Fauci was asked recently about Senator Ted Cruz recommending prosecutorial action against him to the attorney general, he grew incensed and defensive, even throwing in a reference to the Capitol riot on January 6 for some reason. It was a nakedly partisan attack, the kind you might expect from our politicians and bureaucrats, but not the nation’s bedside doctor, who should be led by the Hippocratic Oath and not Jim Acosta.

    Then came a broad swipe at anyone who dared to question the omnipotent Anthony Fauci, despite his many, many backtracks over the last two years. Fauci decreed that to question him, his decisions or his motives, is to question the very foundations of science itself.

    When Brennan referenced Fauci’s testimony to Congress, he responded, “I’m just going to do my job. I’m going to be saving lives and they are going to be lying.” He continued, “If they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci. It’s easy to criticize. But they are really criticizing science. Because I represent science and that’s dangerous.”

    Tony Fauci has apparently anointed himself the Science, or at least the ambassador speaking on behalf of Science. This is the second time he has made such a declaration. “Attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science,” he told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press in June.

    This is where most criticism of Fauci misses the mark. Breathless tweets from anonymous accounts depict him as a war criminal, worse than Hitler. Senators threaten him with jail time over misleading testimony to Congress. But when Fauci declares himself a representative of Science, it’s a statement of his religious devotion. He’s not referring to the science of, say, the human manipulation of viruses that can lead to a global pandemic, research Fauci once said he believed was worth the risk. Or to the science that has possibly led to eleven million deaths worldwide and altered the lives of every citizen of every industrialized nation on the planet.

    Fauci believes himself to be a force for good, no matter how many people or puppies have to die to achieve that good. He does not believe in the laws of Congress or man, which is why when pressed, even by Brennan in that same interview, about the origins of this virus and why it seems engineered differently than other SARS viruses, he retreats once again and pushes a wet market theory that not even the Chinese government is willing to stand by anymore.

    Fauci does not consider himself to be accountable to us, or to Congress. He is accountable only to Science. He’s not going to be prosecuted. He’s not going to prison, no matter how many Twitter users crow about it. He will, however, be judged by science, real science, when this is all over. And the real science shows that eleven million people and counting have died so far.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 23:10

  • New Zealand Deploys Military To Restore Peace In Crisis-Stricken Solomon Islands
    New Zealand Deploys Military To Restore Peace In Crisis-Stricken Solomon Islands

    New Zealand’s government announced Wednesday it would deploy military personnel to the crisis-stricken Solomon Islands after a mob burnt down buildings and looted shops, according to Reuters. 

    New Zealand joins similar deployments by Australia, Fiji, and Papua New Guinea to restore peace following anti-government rioting. Protesters demand Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare step down over foreign diplomatic ties with China. 

    New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden said 15 military and police personnel would be deployed on Thursday, followed by a much larger group of 50 over the weekend. She said security forces would work with Solomons police as part of the Australia-led mission to restore peace. 

    “We are deeply concerned by the recent civil unrest and rioting in Honiara, and following yesterday’s request of the Solomon Islands Government, we have moved quickly to provide urgent assistance to help restore sustained peace and security,” Ardern said in the statement.

    Last week, more than 1,000 rioters gathered in Honiara, the capital, and unleashed havoc on government buildings and targeted Chinese-owned shops. Protesters were angered about Sogavare’s move to switch diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China two years ago. He said the demonstrations were “influenced and encouraged by other powers” (we wonder who that could be…). 

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    The Solomon Islands appears to become a geopolitical battleground between China and the US.

    “Geopolitical maneuvering was a trigger but it isn’t the whole picture,” Anna Powles, a senior lecturer at Massey University in New Zealand, told Financial Times. 

    “The dynamics underpinning the riots are a complex web of longstanding local grievances over the lack of economic development, corruption, and the capturing of elites. These dynamics have intersected over the past three years with the geopolitical competition,” Powles said. 

    Locals are also angered by the increase of businesses owned by ethnic Chinese that has driven economic inequality.

    “There was some feeling against the Chinese businesses that are involved in the financing of domestic politics, but this is not new,” said Leliana Firisua, a Honiara resident influential in the Malaitan community. “This resentment will continue if they do not stop doing it.”

    Firisua warned: “This unrest will not stop unless what the people are demanding is achieved. And that is change.”

    So the temporary Australia-led peacekeeping mission might turn into a much more extended stay as local anger against the Chinese may not abate anytime soon. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 22:50

  • LA To Enforce Homeless Encampment Bans In Parks, Near Elementary School In District 12
    LA To Enforce Homeless Encampment Bans In Parks, Near Elementary School In District 12

    Authored by Micaela Ricaforte via The Epoch Times,

    The Los Angeles City Council passed a motion Nov. 30 to enforce the ban on homeless encampments in seven locations of District 12 amid the city’s growing homeless population.

    An ordinance passed earlier this year banned homeless encampments in the public right-of-way; however, a city council vote is required before the ban can be enforced.

    Introduced by Councilman John Lee of District 12 and seconded by District 15’s Councilman Joe Buscaino, the motion was passed 10–2, with dissent from Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Mike Bonin.

    The motion prohibits “sitting, lying, sleeping, or storing, using, maintaining, or placing personal property” within 500 feet of the parks on Chatsworth Street, Rinaldi Street, Vanowen Street, Reseda Boulevard, and Nordhoff Street—as well as Chatsworth Branch Library and Dearborn Elementary Charter Academy in District 12.

    Buscaino’s own motions to enforce the ban in his district’s 161 locations—more than 100 of which are schools and daycare centers, and dozens are parks and libraries—will be voted on Dec. 1.

    Some Angelenos expressed their opposition to the ban, criticizing Buscaino and Lee’s handling of homelessness.

    “This is a really, really cruel way of enforcing encampment [bans],” Olga Lexell, a resident in the South Robertson neighborhood, commented during the council meeting.

    Lexell went on to criticize the council’s lack of outreach in the communities that would be impacted by the ban.

    “It’s been shocking, as somebody with experience working with the unhoused population, to see people on the city council with zero experience in social services or in working with these groups, who don’t even come out to the park, who don’t even know what outreach looks like, advocating for these punitive measures that do nothing but displace people and disconnect people from their case workers,” Lexell said.

    Lou Caravella, president of Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, told The Epoch Times in an email that anything besides affordable housing construction was “just for show.”

    “The only solution to homelessness is building affordable housing,” Caravella said.

    “Sweeps of homeless encampments are temporary and almost entirely cosmetic. We must build low-income housing and end the cycle of pay-for-play that rewards LA City Council for gifting permits to donor-developers for overpriced housing.”

    Some residents in support of the enforcement said the bans are about protecting public spaces and single-family homes.

    Speaking only as an individual resident in Northridge, Glenn Bailey, who is also the president of the city’s East Neighborhood Council, said three of the locations listed on Lee’s motion fell into his neighborhood council district’s boundaries.

    “These three locations are surrounded on three or more sides by single-family residences or townhomes and condos,” Bailey told The Epoch Times.

    “The prohibition of encampments in the public right-of-way adjoining these public facilities is especially appropriate.”

    This comes amid a growing homeless population in the city.

    Though the 2021 data is not yet available, Los Angeles city has more than 41,000 homeless people in 2020—a 16.1 percent increase from 2019—according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

    Earlier this month, Buscaino, who is also running for mayor, introduced a citywide motion that would ban homeless people from camping in public spaces if enough shelter is available and has been offered. If passed, the measure would be placed on the upcoming 2022 ballot.

    However, the council voted 11–2 on Nov. 23 to send the measure to the council’s Homelessness and Poverty Committee, where the fate of the measure will be decided in the next several months.

    Michael Trujillo, a spokesperson for Buscaino’s campaign, said Nov. 23 they plan to collect signatures for the measure starting in January.

    Buscaino criticized the council’s move to send the measure to the committee.

    “Here’s what I’m hearing,” Buscaino said Nov. 23. “Process, process, vetting, let’s send this to committee. Let’s get a report back in 90 days. Let’s create a task force while people are dying in our streets.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 22:30

  • 88% Of Black Marylanders Support Governor's Plan To 'Re-Fund The Police'  
    88% Of Black Marylanders Support Governor’s Plan To ‘Re-Fund The Police’  

    Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan recently announced a $150 million proposal to “re-fund the police” despite state Democrats denouncing the move as “divisive” and “misguided.” But who cares what Democrats think, and let’s focus on the people of Baltimore City who may experience one of the most murderous years on record. We want to hear what they think about the governor’s proposal. 

    According to internal polling obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, an astonishing 88% of black voters support Hogan’s plan to increase police funding. The poll was conducted by an outside group with relations to Hogan, showing 64% of black voters “strongly support” the governor’s plan to re-fund state and local police agencies,” while 24% “somewhat support.” Across racial lines, 89% and 74% of white and Hispanic voters support it, respectively

    Efforts by Democrats to defund the police and demoralize officers have backfired. The movement began after the Ferguson and Baltimore Riots, and ever since, the city has experienced some of the most violent crimes on record. 

    Currently, there is no law and order on the streets of Baltimore. Hogan said it’s the worst possible time to reduce police funding because it would undermine public safety. He advocated for more investing and beefing up budgets to restore the peace in the metro area.  

    However, across party lines, Democrat politicians slammed the governor’s plan, calling it “misguided” and the wrong measure to make communities safer. 

    Hogan pointed specifically to Baltimore and said, “people are being shot nearly every single day” in the city, “and we all have an obligation to do something about it right now.” He said, “I want those families and all of the victims of this violence to know that we will not stop pursuing those criminals who are terrorizing our community.”

    The defund movement may be popular with some wealthy (white) elites, activists on the extreme left. Still, there’s the silent majority of black folks who oppose defunding the police, according to a recent Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris Poll. 

    Most of all, Americans want police, prosecutors, and judges to uphold the law because the law is the law, which makes a society civil. Progressive cities that attempt to dismantle or undermine the law and policing cause more harm than good with surging violent crime to show forth. 

    This past summer, in Oakland, California, black families stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the police against Antifa’s “defund the police” chaos. 

    Ordinary people across America, no matter their race, desire law-and-order, and with that comes prosperity.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 22:10

  • This $1.6 Trillion Market Could Cease To Exist Soon
    This $1.6 Trillion Market Could Cease To Exist Soon

    By Bloomberg Markets Live commentators Ye Xie and Amy Li

    By now, it’s clear that Beijing is greatly discouraging, if not completely forbidding, listings of Chinese tech companies in the U.S. What’s unclear is what Beijing will do with existing Chinese ADRs, an overwhelming majority of which used variable-interest entities to circumvent Chinese laws to get listed.

    Even if Beijing doesn’t demand the likes of Alibaba and Baidu dismantle their VIEs immediately, the authorities have signaled that Hong Kong, instead of New York, is now the preferred capital market for China Inc. Over time, the $1.6 trillion ADR market may become a footnote in history books.

    Bloomberg reported that China plans to ban companies from listing overseas through VIEs. But companies using such structures would still be allowed to pursue IPOs in Hong Kong, subject to regulatory approval. The China Securities Regulatory Commission quickly denied the report, without giving details.

    The controversial VIE structure, designed to bypass Chinese restrictions on foreign investment in sensitive sectors including the internet industry, has been used by most Chinese ADRs for decades. It allows a Chinese firm to transfer profits to an offshore entity, whose shares foreign investors can own. There’s always been an argument over why the best companies should be allowed to skirt Chinese laws and enrich foreigners, while depriving local investors opportunities to benefit from the crown jewels of the economy. As Paul Gillis, professor at Peking University, put it bluntly: “The VIE has always made a mockery of rule of law in China.”

    Washington is also increasing security over VIEs, deeming they lack transparency and legal protection for investors. In other words, both sides would be happy to do away with VIEs.

    But with billions of dollars at stake, outlawing the VIEs and demanding an immediate delisting would cause massive disruption and damage China’s reputation. Listing VIEs in Hong Kong may be still allowed, suggesting “we shouldn’t worry about the big hammer dropping on existing VIEs, as that would contradict Beijing’s stance re VIE listing in the HK,” noted Jason Hsu, chief investment officer of Rayliant Global Advisors.

    What could happen is that the existing VIEs get “grandfathered,” but ADRs are encouraged to pursue dual-listings in Hong Kong.  “Perhaps over time, as most of the liquidity shifts toward the HK venue, with the U.S. listing taking on a diminished role, the concern would become a non-concern,” said Hsu.

    The fate of VIEs isn’t the only concern for Chinese ADRs. Under a law (HFCA) passed under the Trump administration in December, Chinese companies may face delisting if they refuse to hand over financial information to American regulators, a demand that Beijing has refused so far. “Unless something unexpected happens, the Chinese ADR market should be eliminated within three years because of HFCA,” said Jesse Fried, professor at Harvard Law School. “Even absent the HFCA, China might have prevented companies from listing in the U.S. to build up its own markets and have greater control over the companies. But the U.S. government seems to be doing China’s work for it.”

    With all this going on, trading activity in most Chinese ADRs has greatly diminished since the tightening of regulations during the summer. The average daily trading volume for Didi, for example, has declined to 31 million shares since July, from 288 million in June when it was listed. In aggregate, the trading volume of Chinese ADRs has declined 44% since July, from the first half of the year.

    This may be where we are going.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 21:50

  • Stunning Images Reveal Downtown San Francisco Is Boarded Up Amid Mass Looting 
    Stunning Images Reveal Downtown San Francisco Is Boarded Up Amid Mass Looting 

    San Francisco is spiraling out of control amid a massive wave of “smash-and-grab” gangs targeting retail stores. Progressives have transformed the metro area into a liberal hell-hole of surging violent crime. Retail thefts have dramatically increased due to the recent passage of ‘Proposition 47,’ which lowers the penalty for theft. 

    By now, readers are well familiar with nearly two dozen Walgreens stores in San Francisco that have closed up shop due to the high rate of thefts (read: here & here).

    Lately, organized crime gangs have been targeting ultra-luxury retailers, such as Louis Vuitton stores. There was also an eighty-person flash mob that looted a Nordstrom in the Bay Area last week. 

    As a result of all the looting and failed progressive leadership doing nothing about the smash-and-grab crimes, retailers have taken things into their own hands by boarding up windows and doors. 

    Ahead of Christmas, here’s what the liberal utopia of downtown San Francisco looks like:

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    Twitter user Michelle Tandler who captured photos of downtown said, “I have no words right now to convey the shock and disappointment I feel towards our local government. My hands are trembling I am so angry at our leaders. This is their doing.”

    Boarded windows > broken windows.

    This is what happens when the criminal justice system doesn’t work.

    San Francisco has become lawless and residents and businesses are going into self-protection mode.

    The stats are fictitious. Nobody reports. People are hunkering down.

    We are all over the news.

    A shiny example of what a progressive-run city looks like.

    I believe our government is more akin to a regime than a body of public servants. San Franciscans — this is our doing. It’s up to us to reverse the trend.

    It’s only a matter of time before progressive California lawmakers come under fire and are booted out of office for their failed policies. For civil society to work, law and order need to be restored. 

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 21:30

  • US Troop Pullout Date Of Dec.31 Nears, But Iraqis Are Skeptical
    US Troop Pullout Date Of Dec.31 Nears, But Iraqis Are Skeptical

    Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

    Recent reports on the deal to withdraw US combat forces from Iraq suggest that the process is just 15 days away. The hope is that they would be completed before the December 31 deadline, as Iraq’s military assures.

    That’s what the Iraqis want, but informed by the last 17+ years of US occupation, most are very skeptical. They’ve a right to be, too, as the Pentagon has already said troops will remain in Iraq beyond December 31.

    Getty Images

    “US combat troops stationed in Iraq are scheduled to leave the country in 15 days, the Iraqi army’s spokesman said on Thursday,” The National wrote based on military statements late last week.

    “Baghdad and Washington announced in July that the full withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq would be completed by the end of this year,” the report indicated. “Training and advising missions, however, would continue.”

    Over the past few years the US coalition presence has continued under the guise of fighting ISIS, despite the Islamic State having long been dismantled and driven underground. The majority of the some 2,500 or more US troops there have been continued training Iraq’s army.

    Analysts say there will be no real withdrawal in December, but rather the US will just change the name of the mission and try to spin it as something else. Effectively, Iraq will see a withdrawal only on paper.

    Some fear that if the US doesn’t withdraw according to the timetable, pro-Iran Iraqi militias could launch attacks…

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    Past times when the US did this, they went to substantial effort to spin this as keeping promises. This time around, it seems they’re leaving it up to Iraq’s military to manage the narrative.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 21:10

  • Aussie Police Arrest Teen 'Fugitives' Who Escaped From COVID Internment Camp
    Aussie Police Arrest Teen ‘Fugitives’ Who Escaped From COVID Internment Camp

    Three teenagers who escaped a Northern Australian Covid internment camp were arrested by police, who say they don’t believe they came into contact with members of the nearby community and “the health risk to the community was very low,” adding “But there is absolutely no excuse for the actions of these three this morning.”

    Police check cars near the Howard Springs quarantine facility in Darwin’s rural area. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)

    According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the three teens from the Binjari community near Katherine, aged 15, 16 and 17, tested negative for the virus yesterday. They had been confined to quarantine for being ‘close contacts of positive cases,’ only to scale a fence and escape at 4:30 am Wednesday morning.

    NT Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker said officers found the trio on the edge of Palmerston and arrested them after a chase on foot.

    He said the young people are still being interviewed but “early indications” were they had not had any contact with members of the public.

    The facility is housing people affected by the  Katherine region COVID-19 outbreak as well as returned travellers from repatriation flights, including a man who tested positive for the Omicron variant on Monday.

    Each of the teens faces a fine of up to $5,024. According to Chalker, they will beef up CCTV coverage at the facility, and that they would discuss making more contact with lonely residents whose isolation ‘may have been a trigger’ for the escape.

    “I also want to point to the overwhelming compliance that we’ve had, given several hundred people have been placed into the Centre of National Resilience linked to the clusters from Robinson River, Katherine, Binjari and Rockhole,” he said.

    Police officers in masks searched vehicles around the facility. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)

    Their escape set off a police manhunt, which included highway checkpoints.

    This is what happens when you let tyrants run Bartertown…

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 20:50

  • As US Retailers Struggle Against Smash-And-Grab Flash Mobs, Liberals Blame "White Supremacy"
    As US Retailers Struggle Against Smash-And-Grab Flash Mobs, Liberals Blame “White Supremacy”

    Authored by Robert Bridge via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

    Americans are facing a new type of crime wave that got its start in the mad liberal laboratory, where the utopian notion that going soft on criminals is going terribly awry. While threatening the traditional brick and mortar shopping experience with extinction, and making communities a living hell, the left needs to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.

    Apparently unwilling to wait for Black Friday discounts, roaming gangs of young men are descending on retail outlets and pharmacies in flash mobs, clearing out the store shelves in a matter of seconds as clerks look on helplessly.

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    In one pre-Thanksgiving raid, about 90 individuals stormed a Nordstrom outlet in Walnut Creek, situated in the San Francisco Bay Area. Members of the masked mob pepper-sprayed one employee, and assaulted another with a knife before making off with an estimated $100,000 in merchandise. Many of the looters made their getaway in some 25 vehicles parked out front.

    Disturbingly, as this sort of mayhem unfolds in major cities across the country, liberals seem more preoccupied with determining how to define the criminal acts.

    Lorenzo Boyd, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice & Community Policing at the University of New Haven, and a retired veteran police officer, is just one academic who seems more obsessed with semantics than digging to the root of the problem.

    “Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something,” Boyd remarked in an interview with ABC7 news channel.

    “We tend not to use that term for other people when they do the exact same thing.”

    And by “other people” it is abundantly clear who Boyd is referencing.

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    Martin Reynolds, Co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education, invited listeners to compare the current wave of flash mob thefts to the fallout from Hurricane Katrina, when many marginalized New Orleans residents, the majority of them Black, were labeled looters for stealing from local businesses.

    “This seems like it’s an organized smash and grab robbery,” Reynold said, speaking about the current phenomenon of flash mobs.

    “This doesn’t seem like looting. We’re thinking of scenarios where first responders are completely overwhelmed. And folks, often may be on their own,” he said.

    While both academics do make some valid points, there is a risk of liberals getting trapped in a game of semantics that eventually leads to social disaster. More on that in a moment. At the same time, the radical progressives wish to ignore the fact that the primary reason for these crimes happening at all is because they went soft on crime.

    Back in 2014, the Democrats in California passed ballot initiative Proposition 47, which legislates that theft of less than $950 in merchandise is considered to be a nonviolent misdemeanor. In other words, such cases are rarely prosecuted. The repercussions of such stupidity should not have been hard to predict.

    Prop. 47 led to a rise in the larceny theft rate of about 135 per 100,000 residents, an increase of close to 9 percent compared to the 2014 rate, according to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California. Police Chief David Swing, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, responded, saying that the PPIC’s conclusions “are consistent with what police chiefs across the state have seen since 2014.”

    But for store owners in California and elsewhere, there is no need for special reports. The damage from the shortsighted legislation is abundantly clear.

    “Theft in Walgreens’ San Francisco stores is four times the average for stores elsewhere in the country, and the chain spends 35 times more on security guards in the city than elsewhere,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle, discussing just one of the myriad casualties of Prop 47.

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    Compounded with the problem of a legal system that is increasing willing to let criminals walk, a confab of writers, agitators and academics are more inclined to see the ‘poetic justice’ of young marauders clearing out stores in coordinated flash mobs.

    Last year, during the street protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death, a Chicago Black Lives Matter organizer called looting in the Windy City “reparation” for past crimes committed against Black people.

    “I don’t care if somebody decides to loot a Gucci’s or a Macy’s or a Nike because that makes sure that that person eats,” Ariel Atkins screamed at a rally outside the South Loop police station.

    “That’s a reparation,” Atkins said.

    “Anything they want to take, take it because these businesses have insurance.”

    But even before George Floyd had become a household name, self-described agitator Vickie Osterweil had penned a book entitled, ‘In Defense of Looting,’ provided an apology for the act of looting before it was cool.

    Beginning by explaining that the word comes from the Hindi, lút, which means “goods” or “spoils,” Osterweil (who wrote the book under the name ‘Willie Osterweil,’ apparently at a different stage in life) goes on to argue that the idea of property in the United States is “derived through whiteness and through Black oppression, through the history of slavery and settler domination of the country.”

    Funny how many of the oppressed and downtrodden of the world are willing to be consoled by Gucci bags, Samsung televisions and Nike tennis shoes. But I digress.

    Osterweil goes off on a massively contradictory spiel, somehow equating the theft of property with liberation from the “White man’s world.”

    “Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police; it gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected,” she says. “And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be. And I think that’s a part of it that doesn’t really get talked about — that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory.

    How looting and stealing could help a person “imagine a world that could be” it is difficult to imagine, but the left must do better than merely coddling and apologizing for the criminals in their midst. More than just midterms are at stake.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 20:30

  • Fierce Taliban vs. Iran Clashes Break Out On Afghan Border
    Fierce Taliban vs. Iran Clashes Break Out On Afghan Border

    Fierce clashes erupted Wednesday between the Taliban and Iranian forces along Afghanistan’s western border, Reuters reports based on local eyewitness accounts. Battlefield videos have also begun emerging showing gunfights on the border in the Nimruz region in the country’s southwest.

    The Afghan side is claiming that Iranian border patrols crossed into Afghan territory, resulting in an armed confrontation and firefight. “Amaj News based in Kabul also quoted local sources as saying that Iranian forces used heavy weapons and the Taliban dispatched armored American Humvees to confront Iran’s border troops,” regional news source Iran International observed.

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    In addition to the American Humvees, ironically enough, it’s also likely that US weapons and ammunition were used by the Taliban militants, given the hardline Islamist group had last August captured many millions of dollars worth of US equipment as the Pentagon rapidly withdrew from the country.

    Hours following the intense clash, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency called it a “border misunderstanding” while denying reports that Taliban fighters had captured an Iranian outpost. Some unverified videos circulating in regional social media have claimed a small Iranian border base was captured and ransacked by the Taliban.

    Local Afghan news sources are additionally claiming some Iranian soldiers were captured. If true it would prove hugely embarrassing for the Islamic Republic…

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    “The clashes ended and Iran is discussing the dispute over the border with the Taliban,” Tasnim reported, however, there’s little that’s been confirmed – and likely there could be further firefights that break out.

    There are also unconfirmed reports from the ground that the Taliban took on casualties.

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    Beginning in July the Taliban started capturing increasingly important border crossings with Iran as the US withdrawal was initiated.

    The Taliban advance so near the border had placed Iran’s border forces on high alert, which included deployments of elite IRGC units in some places. At the time the IRGC said it would crackdown on any possible drug smuggling or any unauthorized breaches of Iran’s border. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 20:10

  • Dying COVID-19 Patient Recovers After Court Orders Hospital To Administer Ivermectin
    Dying COVID-19 Patient Recovers After Court Orders Hospital To Administer Ivermectin

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

    An elderly COVID-19 patient has recovered after a court order allowed him to be treated with ivermectin, despite objections from the hospital in which he was staying, according to the family’s attorney

    After an Illinois hospital insisted on administering expensive remdesivir to the patient and the treatment failed, his life was saved after a court ordered that an outside medical doctor be allowed to use the inexpensive ivermectin to treat him, over the hospital’s strenuous objections.

    Ivermectin tablets have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat humans with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. Some topical forms of ivermectin have been approved to treat external parasites such as head lice and for skin conditions such as rosacea. The drug is also approved for use on animals.

    Remdesivir has been given emergency use authorization by the FDA for treating certain categories of human patients that have been hospitalized with COVID-19. But the use of ivermectin to treat humans suffering from COVID-19 has become controversial because the FDA hasn’t approved its so-called off-label use to treat the disease, which is caused by the CCP virus also known as SARS-CoV-2.

    Critics have long accused the FDA of dragging its heels and being dangerously over-cautious and indifferent to human suffering in its approach to regulating pharmaceuticals, a criticism that led to then-President Donald Trump signing the Right to Try Act in May 2018. The law, according to the FDA, “is another way for patients who have been diagnosed with life-threatening diseases or conditions who have tried all approved treatment options and who are unable to participate in a clinical trial to access certain unapproved treatments.”

    Medical doctors are free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19, even though the FDA claims that its off-label use could be harmful in some circumstances.

    Clinical human trials of the drug for use against COVID-19 are currently in progress, according to the agency.

    The drug “most definitely” saved the elderly patient’s life “because his condition changed right immediately after he took ivermectin,” attorney for the family, Kirstin M. Erickson of Chicago-based Mauck and Baker, told The Epoch Times.

    Sun Ng, 71, who was visiting the United States from Hong Kong to celebrate his granddaughter’s first birthday, became ill with COVID-19 and within days was close to death. He was hospitalized on Oct. 14 at Edward Hospital, in Naperville, Illinois, a part of the Edward-Elmhurst Health system. His condition worsened dramatically and he was intubated and placed on a ventilator a few days later.

    Ng’s only child, Man Kwan Ng, who holds a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering, did her own research and decided that her father should take ivermectin, which some medical doctors believe is effective against COVID-19, despite the FDA’s guidance to the contrary.

    But against the daughter’s wishes, the hospital refused to administer ivermectin and denied access to a physician willing to administer it.

    The daughter went to court on her father’s behalf and on Nov. 1, Judge Paul M. Fullerton of the Circuit Court of DuPage County granted a temporary restraining order requiring the hospital to allow ivermectin to be given to the patient. The hospital refused to comply with the court order.

    At a subsequent court hearing on Nov. 5, Fullerton said one physician who testified described Sun Ng as “basically on his death bed,” with a mere 10 to 15 percent chance of survival. Ivermectin can have minor side effects such as dizziness, itchy skin, and diarrhea at the dosage suggested for Ng, but the “risks of these side effects are so minimal that Mr. Ng’s current situation outweighs that risk by one-hundredfold,” Fullerton said.

    The judge issued a preliminary injunction that day directing the hospital to “immediately allow … temporary emergency privileges” to Ng’s physician, Dr. Alan Bain, “solely to administer Ivermectin to this patient.”

    The hospital resisted the order on Nov. 6 and 7, denying Bain access to his patient. The hospital claimed that it couldn’t let Bain in because he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID-19 and that its chief medical officer wasn’t available to “proctor” Bain administering ivermectin.

    The daughter’s attorneys filed an emergency report with the court on Nov. 8 and Fullerton heard from both sides. The judge admonished the hospital and restated that it must allow Bain inside over a period of 15 days to do his job. When the hospital filed a motion to stay the order, Fullerton denied it, again directing the facility to comply.

    The ivermectin appears to have worked, and Sun Ng has recovered from COVID-19. He was discharged by the hospital on Nov. 27.

    “My father’s recovery is amazing,” his daughter, Man Kwan Ng, said in a statement.

    “My father is a tough man. He was working so hard to survive, and of course, with God’s holding hands. He weaned off oxygen about three days after moving out of the ICU. He started oral feeding before hospital discharge. He returned home without carrying a bottle of oxygen and a feeding tube installed to his stomach. He can now stand with a walker at the bedside and practice stepping. After being sedated for a month on a ventilator in ICU, his performance is beyond our expectations. Praise the Lord.”

    Attorney Erickson said the “happy” end result here provides “hope for the nation.”

    “We get calls from all over the place,” she told The Epoch Times.

    “People that want to sue hospitals after someone’s passed, they wanted to get the medicine and couldn’t. Obviously, that’s a different, difficult case because a medical malpractice case is very difficult.”

    People just want to do what’s best for their family members and “find ivermectin themselves” and have it on hand “and use it when someone starts to develop symptoms,” Erickson said.

    She said her legal team and client were “really thankful” that Ng recovered and “we salute” Judge Fullerton, Dr. Bain, and others, as well as the hospital for abiding by the court order in the end.

    For more information on ivermectin and how to obtain it, Erickson said people should visit the website of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance at Covid19CriticalCare.com.

    Keith Hartenberger, system director for public relations for Edward-Elmhurst Health, declined to comment.

    “We’re not able to comment due to patient privacy guidelines,” he told The Epoch Times by email.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 19:50

  • Cook County Blows Past 1,000 Homicides This Year In First Since 1994
    Cook County Blows Past 1,000 Homicides This Year In First Since 1994

    The greater Chicago-area Cook County has this week surpassed a grim record – for the first time in almost three decades seeing more than 1,000 homicides in one year. With still a month to go until the close of 2021 the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office put out figures on Tuesday showing 1,009 total homicides.

    The last time the county – which is the most populous within the state of Illinois encompassing the Chicagoland area and Evanston city – saw 1,000 homicides in a one-year period was in 1994, when there were 1,141 killings.

    Image via Townhall

    According to local CBS-2, “Chicago alone has had 777 homicides so far this year, according to the medical examiner’s office. That’s more than the total number of homicides reported by Chicago Police all of last year, when CPD reported 769 homicides.”

    Further, the medical examiner’s office records show that “the vast majority of homicide victims have been Black, with 81% of the victims identified as African American. Latinos accounted for about 15% of the county’s homicide victims.”

    The vast majority of these deaths are by gun violence. But strangely enough, Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot who has lately been at war with her own police department over the vaccination status disclosure mandate, has tried to shift blame for the soaring violent crime gripping the city’s streets onto (what else?) the coronavirus pandemic…

    “There’s no question that the COVID-related impact on the public safety system in Chicago, in New York, in L.A., D.C. and other cities across the country is real. And what we’ve got to continue to do is make sure that we’re demanding of our courts and our prosecutors that they hold violent people accountable and keep them off our streets,” the mayor told MSNBC last month.

    Most recently, Thanksgiving weekend saw over 40 people shot, including five killed, which means Cook County could possibly be headed toward an all-time high of shootings before 2021 is out. 

    One report after the bloody holiday weekend described Chicago as “a war zone” while featuring footage of someone firing a machine gun:

    This it the terrifying moment machine gun shooting erupted on the streets of Chicago in a bloody Thanksgiving weekend of gun violence. 

    …Footage posted online shows a man, who does not appear to have a gun, running through the streets of Chicago as machine gun fire erupts nearby.  

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    It’s certainly not the first time in recent months that fully automatic gunfire has erupted on Chicago streets.

    As one previously widely viewed social media video from last summer showed, gunfights have on occasion broken out in broad daylight…

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    Meanwhile, the city of Chicago and Mayor Lightfoot’s hugely controversial vaccine status disclosure mandate for police officers remains at a tense stalemate.

    Just under a month ago an Illinois judge handed the police union a major victory, ruling that an arbitrator must examine the policy before the city can implement it based on prior union agreements and rules with the city. The vaccine mandate order remains blocked for the time being. Many observers and Chicagoans themselves have expressed alarm that if patrol officers were ever actually removed from the streets for failure to comply with the pandemic-related mandates, the chaotic violence would spiral out of control even beyond already existing levels.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 19:30

  • France Deploys Military Police To Caribbean Islands Amid Unrest Over Vaccine Mandate
    France Deploys Military Police To Caribbean Islands Amid Unrest Over Vaccine Mandate

    Authored by Isabel van Brugen via The Epoch Times,

    The French government has deployed military police to the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe amid intensifying protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other pandemic related restrictions.

    Following several weeks of unrest and violent protests over COVID-19 measures—including a vaccine mandate for health care workers—police reinforcements were sent to the French Caribbean territories on Tuesday.

    Compulsory vaccinations for health workers, a measure already introduced on the French mainland, had fuelled resentment among the islands’ population.

    Sebastien Lecornu, the minister for France’s overseas territories, said 70 gendarmes had arrived in Martinique earlier in the day, in addition to two squadrons that were deployed from metropolitan France unannounced, to help clear road blocks.

    French Overseas Minister Sebastien Lecornu speaks as he attends a press conference during his official visit in Fort-de-France on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, on Nov. 30, 2021. (Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images)

    “Social dialogue is not possible without a sound basis and that sound basis is the re-establishment of freedoms … and our capacity to re-establish order,” Lecornu told a press conference in Martinique after meeting its leaders and trade unions.

    In Guadeloupe, home to some 400,000 residents, 70 police reinforcements were sent on Tuesday along with 10 extra SWAT team members to help shore up security, Lecornu said.

    Protestors hold flags of the ‘Confederation Generale du Travail de la Guadeloupe’ CGTG Trade union as they demonstrate against compulsory vaccination in front of the sub-prefecture of Pointe-a-Pitre, in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, on Nov. 29, 2021. (Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images)

    There is a historic mistrust of the government’s handling of health crises in Guadeloupe after many people were systematically exposed to toxic pesticides used in banana plantations in the 1970s. Protesters have insisted they should be allowed to make their own choices about health treatment.

    Protests have continued although Paris last week said it would postpone a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public sector workers amid the widespread protests.

    The vaccine mandate and other COVID-19 restrictions fanned long-standing grievances over living standards and the relationship between France’s Caribbean islands and Paris.

    French President Emmanuel Macron has described the ongoing unrest as an “explosive” situation.

    French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on Aug. 27, 2021. (Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

    More than three dozen protesters have been detained over the past week in Guadeloupe, while numerous reports have emerged of looting and individuals erecting street barricades to slow traffic.

    The situation remains “very difficult” in Guadeloupe, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France Inter radio on Tuesday. “There are still scenes of extreme violence with police forces being shot at with real ammunition,” he added.

    Last week, journalists from French television, news and photo agencies were attacked, media group Altice said in a statement.

    In Martinique, an island of 375,000 some protesters reportedly shot at police officers and firefighters, according to Agence France-Presse. Local authorities said one police officer was seriously injured and needed surgery.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 19:10

  • JPM's Kolanovic Suggests Omicron Could Be Positive For Risk And "End The Covid Pandemic"
    JPM’s Kolanovic Suggests Omicron Could Be Positive For Risk And “End The Covid Pandemic”

    Two days ago, amid one of the biggest market routs since March 2020 and following the worst Black Red Friday for markets in history sparked by the panic and chaos over the brand new Omicron variant, we asked a simple, contrarian question: “Will The Omicron Virus Turn Out To Actually Be Bullish For Stocks“

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    Specifically, we quoted the South African doctors who first discovered the variant – so they should know – who said over the weekend that not only is Omicron much more transmissable Omicron variant “extremely mild” but also “far less stable” than Delta or previous variants due to its numerous, 30+ spike-protein mutations, which got us thinking: “one could make the point that while Omicron could soon become the dominant strain due to its higher R-nought (or pace of transmission), that could be a blessing in disguise as it pushes out the much more dangerous (and more stable) delta strain.”

    A few hours later, none other than Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman apparently read this take because shortly after he tweeted what we said, namely that “while it is too early to have definitive data, early reported data suggest that the Omicron virus causes ‘mild to moderate’ symptoms (less severity) and is more transmissible. If this turns out to be true, this is bullish not bearish for markets.”

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    Others quickly caught on to this view, including not just hedge fund managers but also respected physicians, in this case the top Russian scientist Anatoly Altshtein, a virologist at the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which pioneered Russia’s Sputnik V jab, and who also echoed what we said, namely that  “we already see Omicron has many mutations, more than Delta. More than thirty in a single gene of its spike protein. This is too many, and it means the virus has an unstable genome. As a rule, this sort of infectious agent becomes less dangerous, because evolutionarily, an overwhelming number of mutations leads to a weakening of the virus’s ability to cause disease.”

    According to the professor, if this rule holds true, then Omicron would be fatal in only a small fraction of cases, and would become like other common seasonal infections.

    “We shouldn’t be afraid that the Omicron variant is spreading widely,” said Professor Altshtein, “but that it could turn out to be the most pathogenic variant, making infection worse.”

    The latest facts confirm this take: as we learned today (much to the chagrin of bulls), the first Omicron case was detected in San Francisco in a traveler who returned from South Africa on Nov 22. Yet while the variant clearly appears to be highly transmissable, what the media ignored to note is that the individual – who was fully vaccinated – had only mild symptoms that are improving.

    Hardly the extinction level event that the starved for clicks mainstream media is trying to make it out to be.

    So fast forward to today when none other than JPMorgan’s head quant Marko Kolanovic – whose long running growth-to-value thesis just suffered a spectacular meltdown in recent days, also paraphrased what we said, and in a note whose title is oddly familiar, namely “What if “Nu” variant Omicron ends up positive for risk?“…

    … reaches the same conclusion as us for the same two reasons: Omicron is i) more transmissable and ii) less severe, which means it will eventually crowd out the Delta and other dangerous variants, and could in fact “accelerate the end of the pandemic.”

    Before we get to the punchline, a quick detour into how Kolanovic explains the violent stock rout observed in the past 4 days, which he attributes to two main sources of confusion: government responses and tranmissibility assessments, to wit:

    What was the timeline and how did the market react on the Omicron variant? Despite Omicron being around for several weeks, a media blitz happened on Thanksgiving evening, one of the lowest points of market liquidity for the whole year, prompting a crash in various  assets sensitive to global growth and recovery such as Oil. A second blow to markets was delivered shortly after, also in the middle of night in the U.S. (Monday midnight), with the Moderna story (here) that was later largely invalidated by reports from Pfizer, Oxford, the WHO, and the Israeli Health Ministry (here, here, here). Many clients have told us they are not worried about Omicron itself, but the reaction of governments. For example, currently flights are restricted from several African countries that don’t have Omicron, while on the other hand, flights are not restricted from European countries that have cases, and similar apparent inconsistencies.

    Another source of confusion comes from assessments of Omicron’s transmissibility. Broadly circulated claims that the new variant is 500 times more infectious than Delta (here) seem implausible. For instance, assume that R0 for Delta is 4, so Omicron would have an R0 of 2,000, meaning one infected person should result in 2,000 new infections? This is highly unlikely when on average an individual has 16 daily contacts (here), and, by that math, the whole world would have been already infected in less than a week (i.e., 3 cycles would result in 20003 = 8Bn infections). This figure came from extrapolating transmissibility from relative spread of Delta and Omicron, but not accounting for the fact that Delta is being spread in significant part via breakthrough infections in a significantly immune population (e.g., via vaccines or recovery). In simple terms, when older variants are spreading via breakthrough infections, new variants will always appear to be significantly more transmissible than older ones. This was explained in work by Gabriela Gomes (e.g., see here).

    Which brings us to Kolanovic’s punchline which, for what it’s worth, is identical to ours:

    While it is likely that Omicron is more transmissible, early reports suggest it may also be less deadly – which would fit into the pattern of virus evolution observed historically. Should these trends be confirmed in the coming weeks, could the Omicron variant ultimately prove to be a positive for risk markets, in the sense that it could accelerate the end of the pandemic?

    If a less severe and more transmissible virus quickly crowds out more severe variants, could the Omicron variant be a catalyst to transform a deadly pandemic into something more similar to seasonal flu? That development would fit with historical patterns (duration and number of waves) of previous respiratory virus pandemics, especially given the broad availability of vaccines and new therapeutics that are expected to work on all known variants (Pfizer, Merck).

    Of course, it goes without saying that Kolanovic’s perpetual optimism is dictated by a simple overarching philosophy: he needs to always find a bullish spin in every situation, especially when JPM clients are surely calling him every hour and asking why the growth-to-value rotation he has been pitching so aggressively for the past year just imploded. The Croat admits as much:

    If the market were to anticipate that [positive Omicron] scenario – Omicron could be a catalyst for steepening (not flattening) the yield curve, rotation from growth to value, selloff in COVID and lockdown beneficiaries and rally in reopening themes. Also, if that scenario were to happen, instead of skipping two letters and naming it Omicron, the WHO could have skipped all the way to Omega. As such, we view the recent selloff in these segments as an opportunity to buy the dip in cyclicals, commodities and reopening themes, and to position for higher bond yields and steepening.

    The bolded sentence doesn’t surprise us: unlike the Marko Koalnovic of old who skeptically, rationally and diligently analyzed every possible outcome with a focus on the downside, ever since his promotions the head JPM quant has just one function – to spin every possible scenario into a positive one (which with the help of the Fed’s $8+ trillion balance sheet wasn’t all that difficult). As such, his attempts to spin Omicron as a positive event is hardly a shock. That said, for the very same reasons which we discussed first days ago, this is one time when Marko may actually be right and the next few days will reveal if that’s the case.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 18:50

  • Satyajit Das Exposes Fintech's "Flim-Flam" Innovation Games
    Satyajit Das Exposes Fintech’s “Flim-Flam” Innovation Games

    Authored by Satyajit Das via NakedCapitalism.com,

    Investment in fin-tech (the untidy agglomeration of finance and technology) has reached a record $91.5 billion, double that of 2020. In the last quarter, there were over 40 fintech unicorns (start-ups valued at over $1 billion). The sector now attracts around 20% of all venture capital. But its looks remarkably like a repeat of the late 1990s, when investors made ill-fated bets on online finance. 

    Fintech consists of traditional banking products conveniently packaged up and delivered via an Internet platform or App. Examples include payments (online payment firms like Square or Stripe); lending (supply chain finance (the late Greensill Capital); peer-to-peer lending; buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) or point-of-sale (POS) financing, such as Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna); and deposit taking (online banking start-ups).

    Investors include armoured cash carrier chasing venture capitalists and asset managers, armed with other people’s money. The usual suspects are augmented by financial institutions fearful of digital threats to their businesses. Then, there are former senior bank executives eager to displace their former employers, find profitable homes for their large paydays and continue ‘God’s work’.

    The Fintech recipe is simple:

    …take a function,

    …digitise it,

    …toss in a little jargon – ‘financial engineering’, ‘technological disruption’.

    …season generously with mystique;

    …add some high profile spruikers or fawning media endorsements.

    …Stir and then serve.

    The rules of the game are straightforward.

    First, disguise the true function. Exploiting disclosure loopholes,supply chain finance helps businesses treat borrowings as accounts payable on the balance sheet rather than debt, improving liquidity and reducing leverage.  Unfortunately, it leaves investors and creditors bearing bigger losses when the business finally collapse, as happened with Spain’s Abengoa in 2015, Carillion in 2018and NMC Health in 2020. BNPL is nothing more than unsecured personal finance.

    Second, mask the true economics. For example, in supply chain financing and BNPL, the seller of goods or services receives the sales price less a discount immediately from the financier who is paid back in deferred instalments by the buyer. A 4% discount, a typical BNPL charge to the seller, paid back over two-months translates into usurious funding costs of over 26% per annum. It helps to obscure how the cost is borne. In the case of BNPL, the retailer not the purchaser appears to bear the financing cost -the discount. But if they want to maintain margins, business must put up overall prices, penalising cash buyers who effectively subsidise BNPL users.

    Third, find an attractive demographic. Supply chain finance and peer-to-peer lending targets weaker borrowers. BNPL is aimed at younger, less financially literate clientele, attuned to a world of free everything. Appeals to ‘democratising capital’ can’t hurt.

    Fourth, find a lightly regulated lacunae of finance. Pressure to embrace innovation and facilitate the flow of credit has led to the concept of a ‘regulatory sandbox’, where fintech firms can test ‘innovative’ concepts without stringent rules. For example, specialist supply chain financiers and BNPL firms effectively lend money without being subject to the rules applicable to regulated banks.

    Fifth, increase risk to boost profitability, such as making risky loans, or ignore earnings altogether – few fintech’s are actually profitable. BNPL does not make money or lacks a clear pathway to profitability, onceinterchange, network fees, issuer processing fee, credit losses and funding are considered.

    Sixth, ensure that the real risks remain unknown unknown. Supply chain finance is short term and inappropriate for funding long-term assets, such as plant and equipment, as GFG Alliance (Greensill’s most prominent customer) discovered. A highly concentrated loan portfoliowith large exposures to a few clients is not generally recommended ‘best practice’ banking. It is irregular for financial institutions to entertain large transactions with related parties. In Greensill’s case, it appears to have extended substantial credit to shareholders. It also allegedly funded non-existent future or expected receivables. 

    Fintech lenders frequently undertake soft credit checks and minimal authentication. Former FSA chief Lord Adair Turner argued that the losses which will emerge from peer-to-peer lending will make the worst bankers look like lending geniuses.

    Seventh, solicit investors paranoid about digital disruption whose phones are generally smarter than they are. The reasons for mental dysfunction don’t matter but look for: search for high returns and growth, befuddlement about rapidly changing technology, wealth and confidence gained from previous successes or shame at missing out on a ‘ten-bagger’ (10 times increase on investment), faith in unending state underwriting of asset prices and, of course, TINA (there is no alternative).

    Branding as ‘fin-tech’ beguiles investors, allowing new businesses to attract capital at high valuations. Greensill’s genius was to persuade everyone that it had changed the business of traditional, staid, low margin, short-term secured lending against invoices and accounts receivable into something revolutionary. Softbank reportedly invested US$1.5 billion in Greensill, now presumably lost.

    Eighth, raise a lot of cash and spend it to build market share. Improving banking technology is passé. Most fintech systems consist of an app or user interface sitting on top of clunky, antiquated systems, held together by duct tape. The focus is accelerating customer acquisition which businesses with a wider array of products might be able to monetise.

    The hope is to find this buyer before you run out cash.

    The thing is that fintech could lower banking costs (the cost of transferring funds across borders is punitive) and provide basic, low cost financial services to a large part of the world lacking such access. Some emerging market fintechs do provide genuinely valuable mobile phone banking, micro-loans and simple trade finance for low income individuals and small businesses are. Unfortunately, they are the minority.

    There are other issues. The growth of these businesses promotes a burgeoning shadow banking system whose problems can leach into financial markets, requiring tax-payer funded bailouts.  Greensill resulted in the failure of three small banks and investor losses of around US$3 billion. Exempting proper controls and compliance with regulations designed to maintain financial stability in the name of invention, a willingness to ‘break things’ and ‘fix them later’ is patently dangerous.

    Worryingly for investors, the Fintech model may have peaked. For example, the Reserve Bank of Australia, in a decision likely to be adopted globally, will allow merchants to pass on the costs of BNPL services to customers. With surveys showing that most users would not use the service if there is a cost, a more even competitive field of play and increased competition from banks and credit card providers, Fintech’s future is dimming.

    The world needs real innovation but John Kenneth Galbraith was sceptical about the financial variety, seeing them as merely variants on old designs, novel only in the brief and defective memory of the financial world. Fintech illustrates how, given time, everything old is new again and everything new turns out to be a re-run.

    *  *  *

    Das is a well-recognized derivatives expert who wrote one of the discipline’s important early textbooks as well as popular works, notably Traders, Guns and Money and Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk. His latest books include A Banquet of Consequences – Reloaded (March 2021) and Fortune’s Fool: Australia’s Choices (forthcoming March 2022)

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 18:30

  • South Africa Sees Cases Double As White House Extends Federal Mask Mandate
    South Africa Sees Cases Double As White House Extends Federal Mask Mandate

    Update (1800ET): Now that the first case of the omicron variant has been confirmed in the US (even though Dr. Anthony Fauci insists that all of the case’s close contacts have been identified and tested, and that there’s no sign of additional cases – at least not right now), the Biden Administration has decided to extend a federal mask mandate through mid-March.

    The mandate requires travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses, and at airports and train stations.

    President Biden is expected to share his plans for imposing tighter travel restrictions on foreigners on Thursday. The CDC is reportedly already collecting names to give to local authorities so that their viral status can presumably be tracked.

    * * *

    As European countries from Germany, to Austria to the Netherlands tighten lockdown measures amid a surge in COVID cases (while deaths remain slightly elevated but more subdued), the continent’s unelected bureaucrat in chief, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, asked during a speech on Wednesday that EU members consider adopting a vaccine mandate. All members should “think about” imposing mandates of their own in a coordinated fashion that’s in keeping with the Continent’s new approach.

    Source: Reuters

    Speaking during a news conference, the European Commission chief suggested that member states need mandates to help prevent the spread of cases and a further spike in infections due to the emergence of new variants, such as the omicron strain.

    “I think it is understandable and appropriate to lead this discussion now, how we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European Union,” von der Leyen stated, adding that fighting the pandemic requires a “common approach” across the bloc.

    Meanwhile, a former president of EU member Ireland published an editorial in Politico Europe Wednesday slamming the WTO’s refusal to approve sharing of intellectual property that would allow emerging countries to produce their own vaccines.

    Epidemiologists warned us time and again that allowing the virus to spread around the world is a recipe for new mutations to develop and that they will indiscriminately harm us all. This waiver, which has now dominated WTO talks for over a year, is a necessary global solution to end the pandemic. Yet one powerful voice at the WTO has continued to undermine this effort — and that must change.

    Isn’t it interesting how world leaders talk about vaccine mandates, while simultaneously ensuring that emerging countries will need to purchase their jabs from American pharmaceutical giants? But let’s put a pin in that.

    South Africa has seen the number of new COVID cases doubled between Wednesday and Tuesday, according to official data released by the same people who issued the first warnings about the omicron variant.

    What’s more, a top South African health official said the omicron variant would likely still be susceptible to the T-cell response caused by both natural and vaccine-induced causes. But that hasn’t stopped the country from seeing a surge in infections and reinfections, which has been particularly notable among the older population, officials said.

    Back in Europe, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed new nationwide restrictions on people who haven’t been vaccinated.

    Coincidentally, the WHO said earlier that indications are that most omicron cases will be mild, not severe. Of course, that’s true of delta and all the other strains as well. The organization later said that the world is still “in the midst” of the pandemic.

    But the point is – as even some of South Africa’s top virology experts discussed earlier this week and over the weekend – that even if omicron does break through natural and vaccine-induced protections, infections will likely be mild in nearly all of these patients, and the body’s T-cell response will leave most people protected.

    Confirmed cases of the omicron variant remained fewer than 300 (closer to 250 still by midday) while omicron cases were confirmed for the first time in South Korea (which has already imposed travel restrictions on southern African states), Saudi Arabia and Norway. More cases were found in new locations in the UK, Switzerland, Nigeria, Brazil and elsewhere.

    No cases have been confirmed in the US, but several have been identified in Canada.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Here are some other important stories regarding COVID and the omicron variant:

    • Poland reported 29K new COVID cases, the highest in almost eight months, and 570 fatalities, on Wednesday. More alarming: the Health Ministry said 25% of the deaths were among vaccinated patients, mostly elderly people with comorbidities. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the nation to get boosters ahead of Christmas. The country has imposed new restrictions on travelers but hasn’t confirmed a single case of omicron.
    • WHO members voted to start drafting an international agreement to help avoid future pandemics as more cases amid the spread of the omicron variant. The WHO’s members approved a proposal Wednesday that set a deadline of 2024 to try to implement such a measure. They didn’t resolve the biggest disagreement, however: whether the accord should be a legally binding treaty.
    • OECD chief economist Laurence Boone says it would cost $50 billion to vaccinate the world, a sum that pales in comparison to the $10 trillion G-20 countries have spent mitigating the impact of the pandemic. Too bad the US-controlled WTO won’t share the recipe with the emerging world.
    • The EU is preparing to recommend that member states review their travel rules daily. They should pursue a “coordinated approach” and be prepared to impose new controls if necessary.
    • Finally, Israel’s coronavirus czar Salman Zarka said the country should look at mandatory vaccination now that the omicron variant has emerged. “Mandatory vaccination needs to be considered, whether through legislation or otherwise, especially given the fact that not only is the pandemic here, but I fear it will get worse,” Zarka said on 103FM radio. He said he changed his mind following the appearance of omicron, which has been identified in several Israelis.
    • The US is preparing to impose new travel restrictions while the CDC plans to tighten COVID screening and testing at airports around the country by requiring international travelers to have a negative COVID test result from the past 24 hours.
    • WHO adds that vaccine makers shouldn’t rush to rework their vaccines because they’re not sure whether new vaccines are necessary.
    • Austrian lawmakers extended a nationwide lockdown for a second 10-day period to suppress the latest wave of coronavirus infections before the Christmas holiday period.

    Nigeria, meanwhile, has detected a case of omicron from October, the latest piece of evidence to suggest that the variant has likely already spread around the world. The Netherlands says it has found a case of omicron from two weeks ago. Before this, the earliest known sample of the variant was collected on Nov. 9 in South Africa.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/01/2021 – 18:25

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