Mar 04

Today’s News 4th March 2022

  • America Defeats Germany For The Third Time In A Century: The MIC, BARE, & OGAM Conquer NATO
    America Defeats Germany For The Third Time In A Century: The MIC, BARE, & OGAM Conquer NATO

    Authored by Michael Hudson via Yves Smith’s Naked Capitalism blog,

    My old boss Herman Kahn, with whom I worked at the Hudson Institute in the 1970s, had a set speech that he would give at public meetings. He said that back in high school in Los Angeles, his teachers would say what most liberals were saying in the 1940s and 50s: “Wars never solved anything.” It was as if they never changed anything – and therefore shouldn’t be fought.

    Herman disagreed, and made lists of all sorts of things that wars had solved, in world history or at least changed. He was right, and of course that is the aim of both sides in today’s New Cold War confrontation in Ukraine.

    The question to ask is what today’s New Cold War is trying to change or “solve.” To answer this question, it helps to ask who initiates the war. There always are two sides – the attacker and the attacked. The attacker intends certain consequences, and the attacked looks for unintended consequences. In this case, both sides have their dueling sets of intended consequences and special interests.

    The active military force since 1991 has been the United States. Rejecting mutual disarmament of the Warsaw Pact countries and NATO, there was no “peace dividend.” Instead, the U.S. policy by the Clinton administration to wage a new military expansion via NATO has paid a 30-year dividend in the form of shifting the foreign policy of Western Europe and other American allies out of their domestic political sphere into their own “national security” blob (the word for special rentier interests that must not be named). NATO has become Europe’s foreign-policy-making body, even to the point of dominating domestic economic interests.

    The recent prodding of Russia by expanding Ukrainian anti-Russian ethnic violence by Ukraine’s neo-Nazi post-2014 Maiden regime aims at forcing a showdown. It comes in response to the fear by U.S. interests that they are losing their economic and political hold on their NATO allies and other Dollar Area satellites as these countries have seen their major opportunities for gain to lie in increasing trade and investment with China and Russia.

    To understand just what U.S. aims are threatened, it is necessary to understand U.S. politics and “the blob,” that is, the government central planning that cannot be explained by looking at ostensibly democratic politics. This is not the politics of U.S. senators and representatives represent their congressional voting districts or states.

    America’s Three Oligarchies in Control of U.S. Foreign Policy

    It is more realistic to view U.S. economic and foreign policy in terms of the military-industrial complex, the oil and gas (and mining) complex, and the banking and real estate complex than in terms of political policy of Republicans and Democrats. The key senators and congressional representatives do not represent their states and districts as much as the industrial interests of their major political campaign contributors. A Venn diagram would show that in today’s post-Citizens United world, U.S. politicians represent their campaign contributors, not voters. And these contributors fall basically into three main blocs.

    Three main oligarchic groups that have bought control of the Senate and Congress to put their own policy makers in the State Department and Defense Department.

    First is the Military-Industrial Complex (MIC) – companies such as Raytheon, Boeing and other arms manufacturers, have broadly diversified their factories and employment in nearly every state, and especially in the Congressional districts where key Congressional committee heads are elected. Their economic base is monopoly rent, obtained above all from its arms sales to NATO, to Near Eastern oil exporters and to other countries with a balance-of-payments surplus. Stocks for these companies soared immediately upon news of the Russian attack, leading a two-day stock-market surge as investors recognized that war in a world of cost-plus “Pentagon capitalism” (as Seymour Melman described it) provided a national security umbrella. Senators and Congressional representatives from California and Washington traditionally have represented the MIC, along with the Solid pro-military South. The past week’s military escalation promises soaring arms sales to NATO and other U.S. allies. Germany quickly agreed to raise is arms spending to 2% of GDP.

    The second major oligarchic bloc is the rent-extracting oil and gas sector, joined by mining (OGAM) riding America’s special tax favoritism granted to companies emptying natural resources out of the ground and putting them into the atmosphere. Like banking and real estate, the aim of this OGAM sector is to maximize the price of its energy and raw materials so as to maximize its natural-resource rent. Monopolizing the Dollar Area’s oil market and isolating it from Russian oil and gas has been a major U.S. priority for over a year now, as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline threatened to link the Western European and Russian economies together.

    If oil, gas and mining operations are not situated in every voting district, at least their investors are. Senators from Texas and other Western oil-producing and mining states are the leading lobbyists, and the State Department has a heavy oil-sector influence providing a national-security umbrella for its special tax breaks. The ancillary political aim is to ignore and reject environmental drives to replace oil, gas and coal with alternative sources of energy. The Biden administration accordingly has backed the expansion of offshore drilling, supported the Canadian pipeline to the world’s dirtiest petroleum source in the Athabasca tar sands, and celebrated the revival of U.S. fracking.

    The foreign-policy extension is to prevent foreign countries not leaving control of their oil, gas and mining to U.S. OGAM companies from competing in world markets with U.S. suppliers. Isolating Russia (and Iran) from western markets will reduce the supply of oil and gas, pushing prices and corporate profits up accordingly.

    The third major oligarchic group is the symbiotic Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector is the counterpart to Europe ‘s old post-feudal landed aristocracy living by land rents. With most housing in today’s world having become owner-occupied (with sharply rising rates of absentee ownership rising since 2008 and the wave of Obama evictions, to be sure), land rent is paid largely to the banking sector. About 80 percent of U.S. and British bank loans are to the real estate sector, inflating land prices to create capital gains – which are effectively tax-exempt for absentee owners.

    This Wall Street-centered banking and real estate bloc is even more broadly based on a district-by-district basis than MIC. Its New York senator from Wall Street, Chuck Schumer, heads the Senate, long supported by Delaware’s former Senator from the credit-card industry Joe Biden, and Connecticut’s senators from the insurance sector centered in that state.  Domestically, the aim of this sector is to maximize land rent and the “capital’ gains resulting from rising land rent. Internationally, the FIRE sector’s aim is to privatize foreign economies, above all to secure the privilege of credit creation in U.S. hands, so as to turn government infrastructure and public utilities into rent-seeking monopolies to providing basic services at maximum prices (health care, education, transportation, communications and information technology) instead of at subsidized prices to voters.

    Wall Street always has been closely aligned with the oil and gas industry, back to the days of Standard Oil. These are the three rentier sectors that dominate today’s post-industrial finance capitalism. Their mutual fortunes have soared as MIC and OGAM stocks have increased. And moves to exclude Russia from the Western financial system (and partially now from SWIFT), coupled with the adverse effects of isolating European economies from Russian energy, promise to spur an inflow into dollarized financial securities

    It is more helpful to view U.S. economic and foreign policy in terms of the military-industrial complex, the oil and gas (and mining) complex, and the banking and real estate complex than in terms of political policy of Republicans and Democrats. The key senators and congressional representatives do not represent their states and districts as much as the industrial interests of their major political campaign contributors. That is why neither manufacturing nor agriculture play the dominant role in U.S. foreign policy. The convergence of policy aims of America’s three rentiergroups overwhelms that of labor and even of industrial capital. That convergence is the defining characteristic of today’s post-industrial finance capitalism. It is basically a reversion to economic rent-seeking, which is independent of the politics of labor and capital.

    The dynamic that needs to be traced today is why this oligarchic blob has found its interest in prodding Russia into what Putin evidently viewed as a do-or-die stance to resist the increasingly violent attacks on Ukraine’s eastern Russian-speaking provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

    The Rentier “Blob’s” Expected Consequences of the New Cold War

    As President Biden explained, the current military escalation (“Prodding the Bear”) is not really about Ukraine. Biden promised at the outset that no U.S. troops would be involved. But he has been demanding for over a year that Germany prevent the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from supplying its industry and housing with low-priced gas and turn to the much higher-priced U.S. suppliers.

    U.S. officials first tried to stop construction of the pipeline from being completed. Firms aiding in its construction were sanctioned, but finally Russia itself completed the pipeline construction. U.S. pressure then turned on the traditionally pliant German politicians, claiming that Germany and the rest of Europe faced a National Security threat of Russia turning off the gas, presumably to extract some political or economic concessions. No such demands could be thought up, and so were left obscure and blob-like.

    Germany refused to authorize Nord Stream 2 from officially going into operation, and a major aim of today’s New Cold War is to monopolize the market for U.S. shipments of liquified natural gas (LNG). Already under Donald Trump’s administration, Angela Merkel was bullied into promising to spend $1 billion building new port facilities for U.S. tanker ships to unload natural gas for German use. The Democratic election victory in November 2020, followed by Ms. Merkel’s retirement from Germany’s political scene, led to cancellation of this port investment, leaving Germany really without much alternative to importing Russian gas to heat its homes, power its electric utilities, and to provide raw material for its fertilizer industry and hence maintenance of its farm productivity.

    So the most pressing U.S. strategic aim of NATO confrontation with Russia is soaring oil and gas prices. In addition to creating profits and stock-market gains for U.S. companies, higher energy prices will take much of the steam out of the German economy.

    Higher gasoline, heating and other energy prices also will hurt U.S. consumers and leave less  in family budgets for spending on domestic goods and services. This could squeeze marginalized homeowners and investors, leading to concentration of absentee ownership of housing and commercial property in the United States, along with buyouts of distressed real estate owners faced with soaring heating and energy costs in other countries. But that is deemed collateral damage to the post-industrial blob.

    Food prices also will rise, headed by wheat. (Russia and Ukraine account for 25 percent of world wheat exports.) This will squeeze many near Eastern and Global South food-deficit countries, worsening their balance of payments and threatening foreign debt defaults.

    Russian raw-materials exports may be blocked by the currency and SWIFT sanctions. This threatens to cause breaks in supply chains for key materials, including cobalt, palladium, nickel, aluminum (made largely from electricity). If China decides to see itself as the next nation being threatened and joins Russia in a common protest against the U.S. trade and financial warfare, the Western economies are in for a serious shock.

    The long-term dream of U.S. New Cold Warriors is to break up Russia, or at least to restore its managerial kleptocracy seeking to cash in their privatizations in Western stock markets.

    OGAM still dreams of buying majority control of Yukos and Gazprom.

    Wall Street would love to recreate a Russian stock market boom.

    Russia’s Intentions to Benefit from America’s Unintended Consequences

    What does Russia want? Most immediately, to remove the neo-Nazi anti-Russian core that the Maidan massacre and coup put in place in 2014. Ukraine is to be neutralized, which to Putin means basically pro-Russian, dominated by Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea. The aim is to prevent Ukraine from becoming a staging ground of anti-Russian moves a la Chechnya and Georgia.

    Putin’s longer-term aim is to pry Europe away from NATO and U.S. dominance – and in the process, create a new multipolar world order. The aim is to dissolve NATO altogether, and then to promote the broad disarmament and denuclearization policies that Russia has been pushing for. Not only will this cut back foreign purchases of U.S. arms, but it may end up leading to sanctions against future U.S. military adventurism.

    Now that it is obvious that (1) NATO’s purpose is aggression, not defense, and (2) there is no further territory for it to conquer from the remains of the old Soviet Union, what does Europe get out of continued membership? It is obvious (despite the many claims otherwise) that Russia has no desire to or interest in again invading Europe. It has no upside – as it had nothing to gain by fighting Ukraine, except to roll back the NATO-backed attacks on Novorossiya.

    Will European nationalist leaders (the left are largely pro-US) ask why their countries should pay for U.S. arms that only put them in danger, pay higher for U.S. LNG and energy, pay more for grain and Russian-produced raw materials, all while losing the option of making export sales and profits on peaceful investment in Russia – and perhaps losing China as well?

    The U.S. confiscation of Russian monetary reserves, following that of Afghanistan’s reserves (and England’s seizure of Venezuela’s gold stocks held there) threaten every country’s adherence to the Dollar Standard, and hence the dollar’s role as the vehicle for foreign-exchange savings by the world’s central banks, mutual holdings of each other’s currencies.

    On a more long-term level, Russia is likely to join China in forming an alternative to the U.S.-dominated IMF and World Bank. Putin’s announcement that he wants to arrest the Ukrainian Nazis to hold a war crimes trial seems likely to imply an alternative to the Hague court. Only a new international court could try war criminals extending from Ukraine’s neo-Nazi leadership all the way up to U.S. officials responsible for crimes against humanity as defined by the Nuremberg laws.

    Did the American Blob Actually Think Through the Consequences of NATO’s Provocation?

    It is almost black humor to look at U.S. attempts to convince China that it should join the United States in denouncing Russia’s moves into Ukraine. The most enormous unintended consequence of U.S. foreign policy has been to drive Russia and China together, along with Iran, Central Asia and countries along the Belt and Road initiative.

    Russia dreamed of creating a new world order, but it was U.S. adventurism that has driven the world into an entirely new order – one that looks to be dominated by China as the default winner now that the European economy is essentially torn apart and America is left with what it has grabbed from Russia and Afghanistan, but without the ability to gain future support.

    And everything that I have written above may already be obsolete as Russia and the U.S. have gone on atomic alert.

    With such talk I’m brought back to my discussions with Herman Kahn 50 years ago. He became quite unpopular for writing Thinking about the Unthinkable, meaning atomic war. As he was parodied in Dr. Strangelove, he did indeed say that there would indeed be survivors. But he added that for himself, he hoped to be right under the atom bomb, because it was not a world in which he wanted to survive.

    *  *  *

    Michael Hudson is a research professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kansas City, and a research associate at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. His latest book is “and forgive them their debts”: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 03/04/2022 – 02:00

  • Reality Check: A "No-Fly-Zone" Over Ukraine Means WW3
    Reality Check: A “No-Fly-Zone” Over Ukraine Means WW3

    Via Off-Guardian.org,

    Western pundits and journalists are all in a flutter over Ukraine.

    They think it’s terribly exciting, and want to be seen to be tough and decisive. Their internal monologues probably feature the word “Churchillian” quite a lot.

    Naturally, that means a lot of them are saying some really stupid things.

    This includes widespread calls for a NATO-imposed “No-Fly Zone” over Ukrainian airspace. This proposal is all over the media, even coming out of the porcine mouth of Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the UK’s Labour party:

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

    A dip through the #NoFlyZone hashtag on Twitter will introduce you to hundreds and hundreds of people, many of them probably NATO shill accounts, all ramping of the calls for a no-fly zone.

    It will also demonstrate that huge numbers of these people have no idea what a “no-fly zone” actually is or how it works.

    We encountered this same issue in Syria a few years ago. After the Russians entered the war at the invitation of Bashar al Assad, Western journalists got all jingoistic and started calling for no-fly zones. We had to explain how they worked back then, too.

    As we recently of our editors summarised on Twitter…

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

    A no-fly zone is not a magic dome of cosy protection put in place with a snap of the fingers and enforced without a shot being fired.

    A no-fly zone is a declaration of war. It does NOT save lives. That’s a lie to trick stupid people into calling for escalation.

    A no-fly zone will require NATO to shoot down any Russian aircraft that enter the airspace.

    It will lead to inevitable retaliation from the Russians who will shoot down NATO aircraft & attack NATO anti-aircraft batteries. Thousands more will die immediately.

    And since Russia already has its nuclear weapons on high alert any imposition of a no-fly zone Ukraine has a very high chance of immediate escalation to nuclear war.

    And no, that would NOT be an exchange of tactical battlefield nukes. It would be strategic ICBMs.

    Thousands of kilotons of nuclear weapons unleashed on every major city in the Northern hemisphere from San Diego to Moscow.

    The war would suddenly be a mushroom cloud in YOUR backyard.

    This is why even the Pentagon won’t contemplate a no-fly zone Ukraine. It’s global suicide.

    No-fly zones do not save lives, they are not designed to. They are designed to escalate.

    To all the people out there happily sharing the #NoFlyZoneinUkraineNow hashtag: If you really want to save lives get educated about what’s actually going on in Ukraine. Stop being a manipulated war-puppet spewing hashtags you don’t understand.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 23:40

  • These Are All The Companies That Have Cut Ties With Russia
    These Are All The Companies That Have Cut Ties With Russia

    An ever-expanding list of public companies, including Apple, Exxon, GM, and Nike, are proudly announcing they are cutting ties to Russia as its invasion of Ukraine brings condemnation and sanctions.

    But while all this sounds very ‘politically-correct’ and ‘shared-sacrifice’-y, Bloomberg reports that if every U.S. tech firm followed Apple and disconnected from Russia, it would reduce revenue by only 1%-2% in a worst-case scenario, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. So far, the lost business looks like it won’t have a major impact on profits (or stock prices), especially with China being by far Russia’s largest trading partner.

    Infographic: Russia's Most Important Import Partners | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In fact, for some, like Exxon, cutting ties with Russia can spark a ‘virtue-signaling’ ESG boost with minimal impact to the company’s actual business, and as Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan remarks in a very frank opinion piece, consumer brands halting sales in Russia “smells of opportunism” to some, with transportation constrained, limited access to international payments systems, and a sinking ruble:

    “While that sounds like an appropriate response to Moscow’s brutality, it also smells of opportunism…

    …it’s hard not to wonder whether companies were taking a principled stand only once it was no longer feasible to do business in the country“

    Of course soaring oil and other commodities cost will strike at profits as expenses rise and consumers have less to spend. But, as Axios details, in the seven days since Putin’s invasion began, the following companies have unleashed their anti-Russia PR campaigns:

    • Boeing suspended major operations in Moscow, as well as maintenance and technical support for Russian airlines.

    • Airbus is halting supply of parts and services to Russian airlines.

    • Shell will sever ties with Russian gas giant Gazprom and end its roughly $1 billion financing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

    • BP is exiting its nearly 20% stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, and faces a potential financial hit of as much as $25 billion.

    • Exxon Mobil says it will exit Russia oil and gas operations valued at more than $4 billion and cease new investment.

    • GM, which sells only about 3,000 cars a year in Russia, says it will suspend exporting vehicles.

    • Ford suspended operations.

    • BMW stopped shipments and will stop production in Russia.

    • Daimler Truck Holdings said it would no longer send supply components to its Russian joint-venture partner.

    • Volvo Cars, owned by Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Geely, halted sales and shipments.

    • Renault ceased operations and production at two assembly plants because it can’t get parts.

    • VW paused delivery of Audis already in Russia so it can adjust car prices to reflect the decline in value of the ruble.

    • Harley-Davidson suspended shipments to Russia.

    • Adidas suspended its partnership with the Russian Football Union.

    • Nike ceased online sales because it can’t guarantee delivery.

    • FedEx and UPS suspended shipments.

    • Yoox Net-A-Porter Group and Farfetch, luxury e-commerce platforms, are suspending deliveries in Russia.

    • Apple has paused product sales and limited services (including Apple Pay), on top of ceasing exports to Russia and restricting features in Apple Maps in Ukraine to safeguard civilian safety.

    • Dell stopped selling products.

    • Ericsson is suspending deliveries to Russia.

    • Walt Disney is pausing film debuts in Russia. Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universal say they won’t release films in the country.

    So with companies falling over themselves to signal their anti-Putin virtue, we give Bloomberg’s Tim Culpan the last word:

    “So if we want to measure business executives’ true character, watch what they do in authoritarian countries during times of peace and abundant revenue. We need not wait for the violence to start and the money flow to stop.”

    Harsh, but fair, in the current ‘hold your nose’ over Beijing’s human rights abuses environment… and will all the same companies pull out of China when/if it invades Taiwan?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 23:20

  • "We're Now Living Out Minority Report" – ATF Unofficially Declares Solvent Traps To Be Suppressors
    “We’re Now Living Out Minority Report” – ATF Unofficially Declares Solvent Traps To Be Suppressors

    Submitted by The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN).,

    The ATF seems to have made a change related to the legal building of homemade suppressors and it has the potential to turn millions of gun owners into felons overnight.

    Earlier this year, we reported on a situation involving everyone’s favorite government agency, the ATF, and a company called Diversified Machine.

    What happened was that the ATF raided Diversified Machine because the ATF determined that Diversified Machine was manufacturing what the ATF felt constituted a suppressor and selling them to individuals. ATF also felt obligated to seize their website. 

    Here’s the problem, though, Diversified Machine doesn’t sell suppressors. They sell items known as “Solvent Traps.”  

    Solvent Traps are devices that can be used when cleaning firearms to catch the cleaning solution if poured down the barrel. The Solvent Trap helps prevent mess, and if in the field can help prevent harmful chemicals from being dumped into the environment. 

    The ATF felt that because Diversified Machine’s solvent trap had a dimpled end to it, it could be more easily drilled out and turned into a suppressor. Therefore, the ATF considered it to be a suppressor. Most solvent traps are not sold with dimpled ends.

    With proper machining and tools, Solvent Traps can be manufactured into suppressors. That does not mean that they by themselves are suppressors. Communities have popped up online, namely on Facebook and Reddit, dedicated to a process called “form 1 suppressor building” these communities of individuals build their own suppressors legally by filing a Form 1 with the ATF declaring their intent to do so and submitting themselves to the process established for items regulated by the National Firearms Act.

    Before the ATF raided Diversified Machine, there was no guidance from the ATF on solvent traps; they were completely legal to own. Regardless, in Jan. 2022, the ATF sent out a letter to many of those who had purchased these solvent traps accusing them of attempting to acquire suppressor parts.

    Now it’s being reported by the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition or FRAC that the ATF is mass denying those who want to build a homemade suppressor giving them this message:

    Here’s the important takeaway: “The part from which you intend to make a silencer already meets the NFA’s definition of a silencer. The part was not registered nor transferred in compliance with the NFA.” This is followed by: “NFA Division notes that it is unlawful for you to possess a silencer made or transferred in violation of the NFA.”

    This is a shocking admission and might seem like an error for many. But if you look across the many forums on the internet, you’ll see hundreds of people reporting the same thing. Some of those people do not even have solvent traps!

    Take a look at what people are saying across the internet:

    There have been rumors that the ATF is planning to announce new rules related to solvent traps and suppressor home builds. Including proposing a rule change to make the hollow tube itself a silencer. This change would completely outlaw solvent traps and put companies selling them out of business.

    But the consequences of that are far more reaching.

    Suppose the suppressor applications are being denied because the ATF considers the metal tubing of the solvent trap to be a suppressor. What is stopping them from considering any piece of metal tubing to be a suppressor? It wouldn’t be out of the question. In 2020 a Youtuber going by the name TruckMaster was visited by Homeland Security for buying diesel fuel filters.  

    While writing this article, QuietBore, a company that sells Solvent Trap kits, published their guidance from the ATF on Facebook (in a now-deleted post). From the looks of it, the ATF has changed their opinion on solvent traps and now considers them to be suppressors. The ATF also now seems to be considering a 6″ section of metal tubing to be a suppressor based on nothing more than “intention to create/manufacture/make a silencer”. Read the ATF’s guidance for yourself here:

    Finding this answer vague, the folks at Quietbore asked for more clarification. Here was the ATF response:

    Starting to sound familiar? The ATF has a pattern of changing definitions at a whim. They did something similar recently when they declared all Rare Breed FRT-15 triggers to be machine guns.

    Up until this admission from the ATF, solvent traps were completely legal as well. 

    Unfortunately, as with the Rare Breed situation, this change has the potential to cause many people to become felons overnight! If you are a gun owner and have a 6″ section of metal pipe in your house for a child’s science project or for any other reason the ATF may just declare that piece of metal to be a silencer! That is an extremely dangerous precedent to set.

    This overreach probably will not come as a shock to long-time gun owners. ATF is currently moving to regulate anything that “could be made into a firearm” through their new rule on redefining what constitutes a frame or receiver. It was only a matter of time until suppressors received the same treatment.

    Steph from TMGN Breaks Down How This May Affect You:

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 23:00

  • Former Top Democrat In Illinois Charged With Public Corruption
    Former Top Democrat In Illinois Charged With Public Corruption

    And just like that, another powerful Democrat from the state of Illinois has been indicted on federal charges.

    Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has been indicted on racketeering charges stemming from Madigan’s alleged attempts to solicit bribes for himself and his friends, CBS News reports.

    The 22-count indictment includes charges including racketeering conspiracy, along with counts of using interstate facilities in aid of bribery, wire fraud and attempted extortion. All charges stem from alleged abuses of his official position supposedly committed by Madigan.

    The investigation was overseen by US Attorney John Lausch, who announced Wednesday that a federal grand jury had returned the indictment. Lausch’s description of Madigan’s wrong-doing included phrases like “no show jobs” that were once features of American mafia prosecutions of a bygone era. One of the businesses that were allegedly solicited for bribes was Commonwealth Edison, the largest utility in Illinois and the sole electricity provider in Chicago.

    “Madigan and McClain unlawfully requested that various companies with interest in state legislation, including utility company Commonwealth Edison, paid Madigan’s associates as a reward for their loyalty to Madigan; at times in return for performing little to no legitimate work for those businesses,” Lausch said. “The indictment also accuses Madigan of engaging in multiple schemes to secure business for his law firm, including work from parties with business before the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago.”

    “Unfortunately, this type of criminal conduct drastically undermines the public’s confidence in our government,” Lausch said continued. “Simply put, it’s not a good thing.”

    Madigan’s attorneys issued the following statement, where he vehemently rejected the allegations.

    “I was never involved in any criminal activity. The government is attempting to criminalize a routine constituent service: job recommendations. That is not illegal, and these other charges are equally unfounded.

    “Throughout my 50 years as a public servant, I worked to address the needs of my constituents, always keeping in mind the high standards required and the trust the public placed in me.”

    “I adamantly deny these accusations and look back proudly on my time as an elected official, serving the people of Illinois.”

    The longtime Illinois powerbroker, nicknamed “the Velvet Hammer” for his insistence on strict party discipline, was previously the longest-serving state House speaker in modern US history. During his tenure in office, a procession of Illinois politicians – including three governors – have faced federal charges. But given his reputation as a savvy operator, few ever expected Madigan to face prosecution.

    The longtime speaker only resigned his state rep seat in February 2021, as the prosecutors drew closer following a deferred prosecution agreement involving ComEd for the bribery scheme. Madigan also resigned his seat as chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party around then.

    As Lausch, the US attorney who brought the case against Madigan, told CBS, Illinois has a “very stubborn” public corruption problem.

    “We have a very stubborn public corruption problem here in Illinois. Rooting out and prosecuting public corruption has been and will always be a top priority of this office,” Lausch said.

    Fortunately for Illinoisans, their current governor, JB Pritzker, is already a billionaire, and thus would seemingly have little use for bribes.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 22:40

  • Major Banks Doubt Chinese Potential GDP Goal Is Reachable
    Major Banks Doubt Chinese Potential GDP Goal Is Reachable

    By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live Reporter and Analyst

    Beijing is widely expected to set the growth target this year at 5%-5.5% when top officials lay out their economic policies at the National People’s Congress starting this weekend. A number of high-profile economists at Goldman Sachs, Nomura and Bank of America are skeptical that such a target is attainable. It underscores the challenges Beijing is facing with significant constraints from its housing and Covid policies.

    In retrospect, many investors underestimated the significance when Beijing set its 2021 GDP target at a low level (“above 6%”) earlier last year. It turned out that Beijing planned to take advantage of the relatively strong post-Covid recovery to unleash a range of far-reaching and economically costly reforms, from regulatory crackdowns in tech industries to housing deleveraging. China managed to grow 8.1% last year. But by Q4, growth decelerated to an annualized 4%, well below the potential GDP that officials estimate to be about 5%-5.7%. The MSCI China Index lost 23% in 2022 and defaults by developers soared.

    The priority for this year has shifted back to stabilizing the economy. Based on the growth targets released by provinces earlier, most economists expect the GDP goal this year to be set between 5% and 5.5%. The consensus in a Bloomberg survey is for a growth rate of 5.2% this year.

    But a number of prominent investment banks think reaching 5% will be challenging. Nomura kept its growth estimate at 4.3%, the lowest in the Bloomberg survey. Forecasts from Goldman (4.5%), Citigroup (4.7%), Barclays (4.7%) and Bank of America (4.8%) are all at the low end of the spectrum.

    The skepticism stems from questions about how much China can stimulate the economy, without significant changes to its restrictions on housing and Covid policies. “We expect Beijing to set this year’s GDP growth target at ‘around 5.5%,’ which, in our view, is too high to realistically achieve,” wrote Nomura’s economist Lu Ting and colleagues.

    There seems to be a softening tone on both policy fronts recently. Dow Jones reported officials are exploring ways to exit from the zero-Covid policy. Guo Shuqing, the chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission who last year warned that the real-estate bubble is the biggest “gray rhino,” suggested this week that he doesn’t want adjustments in the housing sector to be “too drastic.”

    But under the mantra that housing is not for speculation, it’s hard for China to drastically spur home demand. And any potential change in the Covid policy later this year may come too late to help growth in 2022.

    China rarely misses its GDP target. Justin Yifu Lin, a former chief economist at the World Bank, said last month that keeping a relative high speed of growth in the foreseeable future is a political task and that allowing China to grow slower than the U.S. (the Fed forecasts GDP this year at 4%) may affect confidence. How to get there, tough, is the question.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 22:31

  • Couple Who Live In Self-Built 'Clay' Home Haven’t Had To Pay Any Bills For Over 10 Years
    Couple Who Live In Self-Built ‘Clay’ Home Haven’t Had To Pay Any Bills For Over 10 Years

    Authored by SWNS via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A family who lives in an impressive off-grid self-built “clay” home have paid no bills for over a decade—saving them about US$55,000 (CA$70,000) a year.

    Misty Murph’Arien, 36, and her husband, Bryce, 46, have become homesteaders—self-sufficiency experts—since moving into a remote Canadian forest 15 years ago.

    The couple, who have daughters, Sage, 7, and Aurora, 5, are almost entirely self-sufficient, cooking their meals on a wood stove, getting their food from a vegetable farm and a range of animals, their electricity from solar panels, and their water from a well.

    The ‘cob home’ in winter. (SWNS)

    The couple met while working as chefs in Hamilton, but quickly realized they weren’t suited to living in the big city.

    Misty, from Dundalk, Ontario, said: “From the moment we met, we instantly knew we wanted to live an alternative lifestyle.”

    After visiting Bryce’s grandmother’s cob cottage in rural Durham for 54 weekends in a row, they eventually moved there in 2006, falling in love with the rural lifestyle.

    “Bryce’s grandmother’s cottage was so peaceful and we were constantly disappointed when we had to leave and go back to the city,” Misty said. “I’ve always suffered with intense migraines but when we moved to the countryside they started to become less and less frequent.

    “Six months after moving they’d stopped completely and I’m convinced it was the noise and the city environment which had been the cause of my discomfort.”

    Misty Murph’Ariens and her husband, Bryce. (SWNS)

    For the first three years, they spent time learning how to lead the homestead lifestyle, before going out on their own and buying a piece of farmland in the local area in 2009 for CA$37,500 (approx. US$30,000).

    “Rural living immediately made sense to us, and the idea of being completely self-sufficient was really appealing,” Misty recalled.

    The couple spent weeks cleaning up the land, which was covered with trash and abandoned materials. They then took four months to build their “cob” home—a natural material made of clay, sand, and straw—for just CA$10,000 (approx. US$8,000).

    Every summer since the move, the family has expanded and improved their home. Misty homeschools their daughters and teaches them a traditional syllabus with the addition of key primal skills, animal care, and building techniques.

    Aurora and Sage are at the north side of the house. (SWNS)

    In order to make their earnings, Misty and Bryce run a small catering business in the local community. They get around by cycling, walking, or traveling on horseback, as they don’t have a car.

    Bryce claims the reason their family is financially stable despite their lack of consistent income is their low-cost, self-sufficient lifestyle.

    “We’ve worked out over the years that our annual living costs amount to approximately CA$15,000—and that’s with raising two kids,” he said. “We try to be as self-sufficient as possible, farming and harvesting all the food we eat.”

    Bryce transporting wood. (SWNS)

    Most of their food comes from their own cows, chickens, and ducks, as well as a vegetable patch. The couple grows all the traditional orchard fruits and produces a variety of nuts and vegetables, which they harvest on a weekly basis.

    They do get the occasional shopping delivery to the nearest road but state that it is only for a very select range of essential items.

    Norweigan fjord horses in the forest. (SWNS)

    “I think the difference with our lifestyle is not so much what we do, but why we do it,” Bryce said. “Of course, we do have to acquire money, but the focus of our day is finding the most sustainable and fulfilling way to live.”

    According to Bryce, most people spend the majority of their time working to afford the necessities of life. However, he and his family, he says, spend their time working to acquire these necessities directly.

    “Granted its not a life for everyone, but it works for us, and, as a family, we’ve never been happier,” Bryce said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 22:20

  • How A "Rogue" Juror In The Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Could Vacate Her Guilty Verdict
    How A “Rogue” Juror In The Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Could Vacate Her Guilty Verdict

    A “rogue” juror at the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, who reportedly spoke about his own childhood sexual abuse during deliberations for the trial, will now have to undergo a hearing to try and determine whether or not Maxwell’s conviction should be overturned.

    The juror, who is begin referred to by his first and middle name, Scotty David, plans on pleading the fifth at the hearing, Bloomberg reported this week. 

    Lawyer for the juror, Todd Spodek, told the judge this week that his client would “invoke his constitutional right against to self-incrimination to not answer questions at the March 8 hearing in Manhattan federal court,” Bloomberg wrote.

    Meanwhile, Maxwell’s lawyers are using the juror as a potential linchpin to try and get a new trial. They are pointing to comments David gave, post-verdict, to the press where he admitted to bringing up his own sexual abuse experiences to sway the jury to convict Maxwell. 

    Lawyers argued that David should have disclosed the abuse during the voir dire process. During jury selection, David filled out a questionnaire where he answered “no”, under penalty of perjury, to a question about whether or not he, or anyone close to him, had been an abuse victim. 

    David told reporters that he “flew through” the questionnaire. Prosecutors have said a new trial isn’t necessary because David may have “simply made a mistake” and because he “answered truthfully when asked about other topics that might have resulted in his dismissal”. 

    Federal prosecutors will attempt to ask the judge to compel David to answer questions under oath, the report says. 

    David works as an executive assistant at Carlyle Group. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 22:00

  • Putin: Crazy Like A Fox
    Putin: Crazy Like A Fox

    Authored by Scott Ritter via Consortium News,

    As the Russian invasion of Ukraine goes on, the world wonders what the reason was behind such a precipitous act. The pro-Ukraine crowd has put forth a narrative constructed around the self-supporting themes of irrationality on the part of a Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his post-Cold War fantasies of resurrecting the former Soviet Union.

    This narrative ignores that, far from acting on a whim, the Russian president is working from a playbook that he initiated as far back as 2007, when he addressed the Munich Security Conference and warned the assembled leadership of Europe of the need for a new security framework to replace existing unitary system currently in place, built as it was around a trans-Atlantic alliance (NATO) led by the United States.

    Vladimir Putin with Russia’s long-serving minister of defense, Army General Sergey Shoygu, in 2013. Wikimedia Commons

    Moreover, far from seeking the reconstitution of the former Soviet Union, Putin is simply pursuing a post-Cold War system which protects the interests and security of the Russian people, including those who, through no fault of their own, found themselves residing outside the borders of Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    In this age of politicized narrative shaping, which conforms to the demands of domestic political imperatives as opposed to geopolitical reality, fact-based logic is not in vogue. For decades now, the Russian leadership has been confronting a difficult phenomenon where Western democracies, struggling to deal with serious fractures derived from their own internal weakness, produce political leadership lacking in continuity of focus and purpose in foreign and national security relations.

    Consistent Leadership

    Whereas Russia has had the luxury of having consistent leadership for the past two decades, and can look to another decade or more of the same, Western leadership is transient in nature. One need only reflect on the fact that Putin has, in his time in office, dealt with five U.S. presidents who, because of the alternating nature of the political parties occupying the White House, have produced policies of an inconsistent and contradictory nature.

    The White House is held hostage to the political constraints imposed by the reality of domestic partisan politics. “It’s the economy, stupid” resonates far more than any fact-based discussion about the relevance of post-Cold War NATO. What passes for a national discussion on the important issues of foreign and national security are, more often than not, reduced to pithy phrases. The complexities of a balanced dialogue are replaced by a good-versus-evil simplicity more readily digested by an electorate where potholes and tax rates matter more than geopolitics.

    Rather than try to explain to the American people the historical roots of Putin’s concerns with an expanding NATO membership, or the impracticalities associated with any theoretical reconstitution of the former Soviet Union, the U.S. political elite instead define Putin as an autocratic dictator (he is not) possessing grandiose dreams of a Russian-led global empire (no such dreams exist).

    It is impossible to reason with a political counterpart whose policy formulations need to conform with ignorance-based narratives. Russia, confronted with the reality that neither the U.S. nor NATO were willing to engage in a responsible discussion about the need for a European security framework which transcended the inherent instability of an expansive NATO seeking to encroach directly on Russia’s borders, took measures to change the framework in which such discussions would take place.

    Russia had been seeking to create a neutral buffer between it and NATO through agreements which would preclude NATO membership for Ukraine and distance NATO combat power from its borders by insisting the alliance’s military-technical capabilities be withdrawn behind NATO’s boundaries as they existed in 1997. The U.S. and NATO rejected the very premise of such a dialogue.

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine must be evaluated within this context. By invading Ukraine, Russia is creating a new geopolitical reality which revolves around the creation of a buffer of allied Slavic states (Belarus and Ukraine) that abuts NATO in a manner like the Cold War-era frontier represented by the border separating East and West Germany.

    West Germany joined NATO in 1955, which led to the formation of the rival Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. Via Wikimedia Commons

    Russia has, by redeploying the 1st Guards Tank Army onto the territory of Belarus, militarized this buffer, creating the conditions for the kind of standoff that existed during the Cold War. The U.S. and NATO will have to adjust to this new reality, spending billions to resurrect a military capability that has atrophied since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Here’s the punchline — the likelihood that Europe balks at a resumption of the Cold War is high. And when it does, Russia will be able to exchange the withdrawal of its forces from Belarus and Ukraine in return for its demands regarding NATO’s return to the 1997 boundaries.

    Vladimir Putin may, in fact, be crazy — crazy like a fox.

    * * *

    Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 21:40

  • China's Military Strategists Watching Russian Invasion Closely With Eye On Taiwan
    China’s Military Strategists Watching Russian Invasion Closely With Eye On Taiwan

    Amid speculation in some Western policy circles that China could move on Taiwan ‘at any moment’ given currently the world has its total focus on the Ukraine war, the prospects for some kind of surprise rapid invasion of the democratic island wasn’t helped by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit this week. 

    Pompeo was there in the capacity of a “private citizen” – the White House had previously stressed – also while separately an official US defense delegation visited. But Pompeo’s words likely spoke louder in terms of evoking the ire of Beijing, given he provocatively stated that Taiwan is a “great nation” on his visit. Beijing promptly responded by calling him “despicable”. 

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    He said when he arrived at the Taipei airport on Wednesday: “It is wonderful to be here. I’ve been looking forward to coming to visit with the people of Taiwan for a very long time,” according to Reuters.

    “I’m so much looking forward to my trip to meet with business people, people from government, people all across your great nation,” he added. It goes without saying that such talk is a bright red line for Beijing – though it should also be noted that Pompeo is already under official Chinese sanction.

    Since last Thursday’s Putin-ordered invasion of Ukraine which shocked the West, there’ve been a number of high profile op-eds in major US news outlets comparing the Ukraine and Taiwan situations. Taiwan’s own media asked the same question…

    “Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow?” some headlines in Taiwanese media asked on Friday.

    Naturally this led to Beijing firmly addressing the issue, underscoring that “Taiwan is not Ukraine” – given that in China’s eyes the Taiwan question has nothing to do with sovereignty given it never had it in the first place (again, speaking strictly from Beijing’s perspective). To review, Chinese officials were scathing in batting down any comparisons:

    China’s Foreign Ministry has said that Taiwan is “not Ukraine” and has always been a part of China, following Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s call to bolster vigilance in the face of the territorial crisis in Eastern Europe.

    The comments come after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson cited the risk for Taiwan in a warning about the damaging global consequences if the West failed to live up to its vows to support Ukrainian independence in the face of threats from Russia.

    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dismissed any link between the issues of Ukraine and Taiwan.

    “Taiwan is not Ukraine,” she said.

    “Taiwan has always been an inalienable part of China. This is an indisputable legal and historical fact.”

    But without doubt, policy and military strategists in Beijing are following events in Ukraine very closely, as fresh analysis featured in The Wall Street Journal lays out:

    Russia’s initial struggles in its invasion of Ukraine have offered a vivid illustration to China’s leaders of the military challenges if they tried to seize control of Taiwan through force.

    The most prominent is the possibility of fierce resistance from local people defending their homes and sovereignty from any invasion.

    A US naval war college professor and retired military officer, Bernard Cole, offered this insight in the report: “The chief surprise for Russia, which may well be the chief lesson that China takes, is the willingness of the Ukrainian people to fight it out.”

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    But as WSJ underscores, China’s military has recently made rapid advances over years of President Xi’s military modernization initiative: “China would start any invasion with one advantage compared with Russia: an even bigger and better-equipped military. China has around one million ground troops, the largest navy in the world and a military budget more than three times as large as Russia and around 13 times the size of Taiwan’s budget.”

    The White House at the start of this week sought to assure the public and the world that if it came down to it, the US military is capable of fighting on two major fronts: President Biden’s top Asia official on the National Security Council said Monday that the US can still focus on increasing its “engagement” in the Asia Pacific to counter China. Let’s hope that humanity never sees this day where the US is facing off with two nuclear-armed enemies.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 21:00

  • Russia Halts Rocket Engine Supply To US As ISS Partnership Threatened
    Russia Halts Rocket Engine Supply To US As ISS Partnership Threatened

    Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos halted deliveries of rocket engines to the US following a series of devastating financial sanctions by the US, according to Russian state-owned news agency TASS.

    “Today, we have made a decision to halt the deliveries of rocket engines produced by NPO Energomash to the United States. Let me remind you that these deliveries had been quite intensive somewhere since the mid-1990s,” Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV on Thursday. 

    United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, uses Russian RD-180 engines to power Atlas V launch vehicle’s main propulsion systems. ULA has been developing a new rocket called Vulcan, which would use American-made engines. Those engines, called BE-4s, are being developed by Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and are almost ready for testing. ULA CEO Tory Bruno told The Verge, “the very first Vulcan flight, slated to take place this year.” 

    Northrop Grumman Corp. also uses Russian engines on its Antares rocket to lift a spacecraft packed with cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

    Rogozin said Russia had delivered 122 of the RD-180 engines to the US since the 1990s, and about 98 have been used. He said Russia would no longer service the remaining 24 engines, adding that plans to supply the US with an “additional 12 RD-181 engines in 2022-2024” can no longer be fulfilled. 

    Days ago, Rogozin threatened the ISS partnership, which has been intact for two decades. He said if Russia abandons the 500-ton space station, it will tumble out of low Earth orbit in an “uncontrolled de-orbit.” Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk tweeted that if the Russians pull out of the ISS, his company, SpaceX, would save the station.  

    In 2014, lawmakers passed a measure requiring US companies to phase out the Russian-made rocket engines for US ones by the early 2020s. NASA has a few options, but perhaps the most promising and proven has been SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, equipped with Raptor engines (all US hardware), that can send both people and cargo to the ISS. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 20:40

  • Germany Sends 2,700 Anti-Aircraft Missiles To Ukraine Despite Moscow's Warning
    Germany Sends 2,700 Anti-Aircraft Missiles To Ukraine Despite Moscow’s Warning

    Germany on Thursday confirmed that it’s ramping up military aid to beleaguered Ukraine, after days ago reversing its long-standing policy of neutrality which banned any country from shipping German arms into conflict zones. Now after one week of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, Berlin is sending an additional 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to Kiev.

    It comes after an initial arms shipment already arrived, upon the request of the Ukrainian government. Given that also on Thursday the White House confirmed that it’s sharing “real-time intelligence” with Ukraine’s military – all of this suggests the NATO allies are slowly getting sucked in more directly amid Ukraine’s efforts to defend its territory.

    The Strela goes all the way back to the Cold War, via WeaponsSystems.net

    It should be noted of course that obviously NATO has been supporting Ukraine on a military and intelligence level for a long, long time at this point, which the Kremlin has cited as one of the reasons for the extreme action now being taken. 

    The Wall Street Journal details in a fresh report that what’s essentially Germany’s version of the more well-known US Stinger system is called the Strela:

    The shoulder-fired weapons, known as Strela, can be used against helicopters and airplanes and will be transported to Ukraine within days. The Soviet-made rockets belonged to the armed forces of the former East Germany and are among the most widespread weapons of that type in the world. They were mothballed years ago and are now stored by the environment ministry.

    The initial German weapons shipment earlier this week included 1,000 anti-tank missiles, and additionally 500 American Stingers. Berlin’s complete 180-turn on the issue also allowed Baltic states like Estonia to begin shipping in German-made weapons.

    This poses a huge problem for those in the West not wishing for direct Russia-NATO confrontation. Moscow this week warned that if its forces come under fire by foreign-supplied weapons, then those external countries behind the shipments will “bear the responsibility.” 

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    But many reports suggest this is already happening, particularly given Ukraine has long had an abundance of US Javelin anti-tank missiles. By some estimates, Ukraine’s military has already used literally hundreds of Javelins against the invading Russian army.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 20:00

  • Fire At Ukrainian Nuke Plant Contained; Lindsey Graham Calls For Putin Assassination
    Fire At Ukrainian Nuke Plant Contained; Lindsey Graham Calls For Putin Assassination

    Update (1850ET): President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the Russian attack at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in a fire which broke out in a training building outside the plant’s perimeter, according to Reuters.

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    Biden and Zelensky ‘urged Russia to cease its military activities in the area and allow firefighters and emergency responders to access the site,’ according to a readout of their call.

    And now, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is calling for Putin’s assassination.

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    According to Ukrainian authorities, the plant is now secured.

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    *  *  *

    Update (1745ET): The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says it’s aware of reports of shelling at the nuclear power plant and is in contact with Ukrainian authorities about the situation, after Ukrainian officials told AP that they had detected elevated levels of radiation at the plant.

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    Online radiation monitors near the plant can be found here.

    Meanwhile, President Biden and Ukrainian President Zelensky are reportedly speaking (or have spoken), according to NBC News‘ Peter Alexander.

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    *  *  *

    Update (1658ET): Unit 1 of the Zaporizhzhia power plant has been hit, according to the plant’s Facebook page (via Bloomberg).

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    *  *  *
    Risk assets are sharply lower, with futures and euro tumbling, offset by a flight to safety which has sent Treasuries, the dollar, yen and gold soaring, after reports that Russia has started shelling Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Europe’s largest, which accounts for one quarter of Ukraine’s power generation, and which has caught fire.

    “There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe,” AP reports Andriy Tuz as saying Reuters reporter Phil Stewart confirmed the report in a tweet, citing local town mayor. 

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    The Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba  has confirms Zaporizhzhia fire, saying “If it blows up, it will be 10 times larger than Chornobyl! Russians must IMMEDIATELY cease the fire, allow firefighters, establish a security zone!.”

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    Futures as noted have plunged almost 80 points on the news. Nasdaq is now down 3% on the day…

    … and 10Y yields have tumbled 15bps, back below 1.70%

    Gold spiked back above $1950…

    And WTI is back above $112…

    Wheat Futures are instantly limit up at $1209 (up from $750 just over a week ago)…

    Rate-hike odds have tumbled…

    It seems clear from the market’s reaction that few have heard UBS veteran floor broker Art Cashin’s story. Barry Ritholtz retells the story in 2015 that…

    Over dinner not too long ago, Cashin related the story of something that happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

    Everyone was on edge as the U.S. and Soviet Union approached the brink. One day, word began to spread that Russia had launched its nukes, which would arrive in 11 minutes. A trooper to the end, Cashin ran around the exchange floor trying to sell short, but was unable to do so. The 11 minutes passed, but nuclear annihilation never came. Soon after, Cashin reported to his boss. He told him what occurred, and was told that in the future, upon learning of the end of the world, the proper trade is to go long, not short.

    He asked his boss, Why go long if the world is ending?

    “It never does end,” his boss told him, and even if it does, “who are you going to settle the trade with?”

    For now, as Bloomberg notes, traders are understandably skittish of any news, which suggests a worsening of the situation on the ground. Until there are more details which provide clarity, a defensive posture will prevail across markets.

    Live feed from the NPP is below:

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 19:42

  • Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Goes Into Liver Cells And Is Converted To DNA: Study
    Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Goes Into Liver Cells And Is Converted To DNA: Study

    Authored by Meiling Lee via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The messenger RNA (mRNA) from Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is able to enter human liver cells and is converted into DNA, according to Swedish researchers at Lund University.

    A nurse prepares the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Southfield, Mich., on Nov. 5, 2021. (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

    The researchers found that when the mRNA vaccine enters the human liver cells, it triggers the cell’s DNA, which is inside the nucleus, to increase the production of the LINE-1 gene expression to make mRNA.

    The mRNA then leaves the nucleus and enters the cell’s cytoplasm, where it translates into LINE-1 protein. A segment of the protein called the open reading frame-1, or ORF-1, then goes back into the nucleus, where it attaches to the vaccine’s mRNA and reverse transcribes into spike DNA.

    Reverse transcription is when DNA is made from RNA, whereas the normal transcription process involves a portion of the DNA serving as a template to make an mRNA molecule inside the nucleus.

    “In this study we present evidence that COVID-19 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 is able to enter the human liver cell line Huh7 in vitro,” the researchers wrote in the study, published in Current Issues of Molecular Biology. “BNT162b2 mRNA is reverse transcribed intracellularly into DNA as fast as 6 [hours] after BNT162b2 exposure.”

    BNT162b2 is another name for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine that is marketed under the brand name Comirnaty.

    The whole process occurred rapidly within six hours. The vaccine’s mRNA converting into DNA and being found inside the cell’s nucleus is something that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said would not happen.

    “The genetic material delivered by mRNA vaccines never enters the nucleus of your cells,” the CDC said on its web page titled “Myths and Facts about COVID-19 Vaccines.”

    This is the first time that researchers have shown in vitro or inside a petri dish how an mRNA vaccine is converted into DNA on a human liver cell line, and is what health experts and fact-checkers said for over a year couldn’t occur.

    The CDC says that the “COVID-19 vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way,” claiming that all of the ingredients in both mRNA and viral vector COVID-19 vaccines (administered in the United States) are discarded from the body once antibodies are produced. These vaccines deliver genetic material that instructs cells to begin making spike proteins found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 to produce an immune response.

    Pfizer didn’t comment on the findings of the Swedish study and said only that its mRNA vaccine does not alter the human genome.

    “Our COVID-19 vaccine does not alter the DNA sequence of a human cell,” a Pfizer spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email. “It only presents the body with the instructions to build immunity.”

    More than 215 million or 64.9 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated as of Feb. 28, with 94 million having received a booster dose.

    Autoimmune Disorders

    The Swedish study also found spike proteins expressed on the surface of the liver cells that researchers say may be targeted by the immune system and possibly cause autoimmune hepatitis, as “there [have] been case reports on individuals who developed autoimmune hepatitis after BNT162b2 vaccination.”

    The authors of the first reported case of a healthy 35-year-old female who developed autoimmune hepatitis a week after her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine said that there is a possibility that “spike-directed antibodies induced by vaccination may also trigger autoimmune conditions in predisposed individuals” as it has been shown that “severe cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection are characterized by an autoinflammatory dysregulation that contributes to tissue damage,” which the virus’s spike protein appears to be responsible for.

    Spike proteins may circulate in the body after an infection or injection with a COVID-19 vaccine. It was assumed that the vaccine’s spike protein would remain mostly at the injection site and last up to several weeks like other proteins produced in the body. But studies are showing that is not the case.

    The Japanese regulatory agency’s biodistribution study (pdf) of the Pfizer vaccine showed that some of the mRNAs moved from the injection site and through the bloodstream, and were found in various organs such as the liver, spleen, adrenal glands, and ovaries of rats 48 hours following injection.

    In a different study, the spike proteins made in the body after receiving a Pfizer COVID-19 shot have been found on tiny membrane vesicles called exosomes—that mediate cell-to-cell communication by transferring genetic materials to other cells—for at least four months after the second vaccine dose.

    The persistence of the spike protein in the body “raises the prospect of sustained inflammation within and damage to organs which express the spike protein,” according to experts at Doctors for COVID Ethics, an organization consisting of physicians and scientists “seeking to uphold medical ethics, patient safety, and human rights in response to COVID-19.”

    “As long as the spike protein can be detected on cell-derived membrane vesicles, the immune system will be attacking the cells that release these vesicles,” they said.

    Dr. Peter McCullough, an internist, cardiologist, and epidemiologist, wrote on Twitter that the Swedish study’s findings have “enormous implications of permanent chromosomal change and long-term constitutive spike synthesis driving the pathogenesis of a whole new genre of chronic disease.”

    Whether the findings of the study will occur in living organisms or if the DNA converted from the vaccine’s mRNA will integrate with the cell’s genome is unknown. The authors said more investigations are needed, including in whole living organisms such as animals, to better understand the potential effects of the mRNA vaccine.

    “At this stage, we do not know if DNA reverse transcribed from BNT162b2 is integrated into the cell genome. Further studies are needed to demonstrate the effect of BNT162b2 on genomic integrity, including whole genome sequencing of cells exposed to BNT162b2, as well as tissues from human subjects who received BNT162b2 vaccination,” the authors said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 19:40

  • Russian Firms Rush To Open Accounts At Chinese Banks
    Russian Firms Rush To Open Accounts At Chinese Banks

    As US and European sanctions make life increasingly difficult for Russian businesses, one Chinese bank claims it has seen a surge in requests from Russian firms trying to open new bank accounts, according to an anonymous source quoted by Reuters.

    It’s the latest example of a phenomenon first described by Credit Suisse’s Zoltan Poszar, who warned during a recent interview with Bloomberg that sanctions against Russia- along with the ban of most Russian banks from SWIFT –  could lead to greater reliance on the Chinese yuan by Russian companies. As we said, China’s yuan, which presently accounts for just 2.7% of world reserves, is one option for anxious reserve managers in Moscow or elsewhere.

    “Over the past few days, 200-300 companies have approached us, wanting to open new accounts,” the person, who works at the Moscow branch of a Chinese state bank and has direct knowledge of its operations, told Reuters.

    The source added that most of the firms looking to open an account with their bank do a lot of business with China.

    He declined to be named or have his bank identified as he is not authorized to speak with media.

    It was not clear how widespread Russian demand for new accounts at Chinese banks was, but the banker source told Reuters many of the companies seeking new accounts do business with China and that he expected yuan transactions by such firms to increase.

    Still, it’s a sign that Russian Central Bank will likely need to keep more reserves denominated in the Chinese yuan.

    China has repeatedly voiced opposition to the sanctions, calling them ineffective and insisting it will maintain normal economic and trade exchanges with Russia.

    A number of Chinese state banks operate in Moscow, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank. Although none of these banks agreed to speak with Reuters.

    Another Chinese businessman with strong ties to Russia had this to say: “It’s pretty simple logic. If you cannot use U.S. dollars, or euros, and US and Europe stop selling you many products, you have no other options but to turn to China. The trend is inevitable.”

    And as Reuters concludes: he willingness of emerging market giants such as China to sustain business relations with Moscow is indicative of a “deep rift over what the western press has described  as Europe’s biggest crisis since WWII.

    Ultimately, this trend promises to chip away at the dollar’s dominance in global trade. 

    That’s not to say that the devaluing of the ruble hasn’t created problems: many Chinese firms are trying to delay delivery to avoid potential losses on their ruble holdings.

    “Companies will be switching to yuan-rouble business but in any case things will become two, three or four times more expensive for Russians because the exchange rate between the yuan and rouble is also changing,” said Konstantin Popov, a Russian entrepreneur in Shanghai.

    Shen said Russian demand for Chinese goods will nevertheless grow in the long term. “The key is to solve trade settlement issues” in the face of sanctions, he said.

    Still, it’s expected that Russian demand for Chinese products will only grow from here. Russia’s central bank has already hiked its benchmark interest rate to 20% to try and protect the ruble, which hit a record low of 106 to the dollar yesterday.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 19:20

  • Digital Brownshirts And Their Masters
    Digital Brownshirts And Their Masters

    Authored by David Souto Alcalde and Thomas Harrington via Thee Brownstone Institute,

    We are under siege. A nihilistic fanaticism is running free among us thanks to the emergence of a journalistic “ethos” that establishes an almost complete equivalence between the “truth” and those utterances that support the strategic goals of the great economic and digital powers of our time.

    A few months ago Facebook censored an article in the British Medical Journal that highlighted serious irregularities in Pfizer’s clinical vaccine trials. Then two weeks ago, fact-checkers from the Spanish websites Newtral and Maldita burst into the public square to accuse professor of Pharmacology, renowned expert in drug safety, and ex-WHO adviser, Joan Ramón Laporte of foisting lies and disinformation onto the Spanish populace. This, in reaction to Laporte’s testimony before a Spanish parliamentary commission investigating the country’s vaccination effort.

    Despite his towering credentials, his intervention was quickly tarred as problematic by the media and subsequently banned by YouTube. The crime of this new Galileo Galilei? Alerting the assembled parliamentarians to the existence of grave procedural irregularities in the trials for the vaccines, and questioning the wisdom of a health strategy that aims to inject every Spanish child over the age of six with a new, poorly tested, and largely ineffective medication.

    This incident reveals that the fact-checkers will attack anyone who does not accept the truth as dictated by the great economic and government centers of the world. This is not the usual official media obfuscation to which we’ve become accustomed over the years, but rather a brazen McCarthyist intimidation device, designed to frighten citizens into submission by appealing to their lowest and most ignoble instincts, an approach lain bare in Maldita’s smug and Manichaean slogan: “Join and support us in our battle against lies.”

    Under this harsh binary logic, an internationally famous scientist like Laporte is not even given the opportunity to be judged wrong or misguided in good faith. Rather, he is immediately accused of being a willful and dangerous liar who must be immediately banished from public view.

    Fact-checkers as destroyers of science and the public sphere.

    Nowadays the word “fascist” is used so profligately that it has lost most of its meaning. But if we are really serious about describing the operational logic of fact-checking entities like Maldita and Newtral we must recur precisely to that term, adding the prefix “neo” to avoid confusion with the original version of this totalitarian sensibility.

    Whereas the original model of fascism sought to enforce social conformity through physical intimidation, the new variant seeks to do so by aggressively enforcing the “acceptable” (to big power, of course) parameters of both scientific discourse and the idea of the public sphere, a direct product, like science, of the Enlightenment. Their objective is to liquidate these flawed but essential spaces of debate in all but name, and thus deprive us of two of the only remaining vehicles we have for defending ourselves against the abuses meted out by the liberal state and its corporate and military allies.

    The fact-checking industry was born as a consequence of fake news, that great invented crisis whose sole objective was to provide a pretext for enhancing elite control over any democratic impulse that might arise in response to the sudden and often harsh imposition of neoliberalism and digital technologies in our lives. 

    But what initially began as a pathetic, overreaching and classist attempt to prevent the unwashed from even considering, say, that people in Hillary Clinton’s entourage might have prostituted minors in a pizza-house basement, quickly morphed, during the Covid era, into something much more sinister and consequential.

    It is now the menacing cudgel of an ever-growing exercise in illegitimate corporate and state power, a weapon that allows elites to effectively disappear world-renowned experts like Laporte who dare to put the interests of society ahead of the economic interests and control agendas of Big Pharma and Big Tech.

    These Digital Brownshirts are just the most visible and forward-leaning elements of a much broader effort to install the logic of the algorithm—a providential and vertically-imposed concept of truth that vitiates traditional fact-finding and admits neither human intelligence nor scientific debate—as a cornerstone of our human interactions and cognitive processes. Under this paradigm, a linear relationship between power and truth is presented as wholly and completely natural.

    When analyzed in this light we could say that while the libels launched against Laporte by Maldita and Newtral are not strictly-speaking algorithmic in origin, they are profoundly algorithmic in spirit in that they are designed, like Neil Ferguson’s well-publicized if completely errant epidemiological models, to radically preempt the search for truth over time through empirical observation and informed debate.

    The methods these fact-checkers use to dictate what is to be presented to the public as “true” operate under few, if any known, procedural standards. Rather, in forming their “arguments” it seems they simply cherry-pick the opinions of an expert or two who is known to be on board with the particular “algorithmic” project of social change or social mobilization. 

    This, regardless of the at times massive gap between the slim credentials and in-field experience of the project-compliant experts (not to mention the fact-checking journalists) and the demonstrated international skill and renown of the objects of their efforts in cognitive cleansing like Laporte, or earlier on in the Covid crisis, Michael Levitt and John Ioannidis.

    In short, these fact-checking processes follow neither the basic principles of journalistic ethics—which requires that one enter into a given question without any unduly strong presuppositions—or the necessary back and forth of the scientific method, which insures, or is at least designed to insure, that dissident opinions be considered in the process of establishing operative, if still always provisional, notions of truth.

    The only recognizable “strength” the new fact-checkers have—and here we see perhaps the clearest link to the thugs that were strategically deployed by Mussolini and Hitler— is their backing from the very highest levels of social and economic power.

    The seriousness of the current situation lies in the way the fact-checkers have—before the often dumbfounded acquiescence of much of the academy itself—successfully arrogated to themselves the right, for all practical purposes, to smash the day-to-day freedom and epistemic authority of scientists, as well as the processes designed to insulate intellectual inquiry from the undue impingements of concentrated power, or to put it more simply, from the possibility that an oligarchy-sponsored mediocrity, or pack of mediocrities, can summarily cancel the widely institutionally recognized wisdom of a Joan Ramon Laporte.

    The authoritarianism of the fact-checkers not only cripples science but effectively annuls the very idea of the public sphere by naturalizing the idea that the robust, and at times, conflictual exchange of ideas is in some way perverse. Is it any wonder that observing a world like this, many of our students, who should at their age be bursting with a desire for healthy conflicts in the service of growth, have confessed to us both in private how scared they are to express themselves freely and openly in class?

    If the largely anonymous fact-checkers are the shock troops of this campaign to override both epistemological rigor and the idea of the public sphere, the media-anointed “science-explainers” are its field generals.

    There is, of course nothing wrong with seeking to make often arcane fields of knowledge accessible to the general public. Indeed when done well by a real scientist like Carl Sagan it is a high art.

    The problem comes, as is so often the case today, when the popularizer lacks a grasp of the fundamental debates in the field, and from there, the ability to confidently wade into them as a participant. Painfully aware that he or she is in over his head, they will do what most people unable to compete on their own merits in the field to which they have been assigned tend to do: seek the protection in the arms of power.

    This produces a perverse reality, in which the people ostensibly tasked with introducing the public to the complexity of both science and public policy, end up shielding them from an acquaintance with either. And knowing their continued prominence depends on pleasing the powers who have elevated them to the spotlight and who are seeking to destroy existing epistemologies of knowledge in order to facilitate the imposition of their algorithmic logic, they take delight in mocking those few highly accomplished people who have decided not to relinquish their principles in the face of the constant propaganda onslaught.

    A good example of this practice of hooliganism in Spain is Rocio Vidal, who works for La Sexta, the country’s most-watched TV network. From a swivel chair in her home office, she ridicules anyone, from the singer and actor Miguel Bosé to the head of Allergic Diseases at Ourense Hospital in Galicia who questions the official dogma of the unprecedented virulence of Covid, and the self-evident wonders of the vaccines. The specific crime of the doctor from Galicia? Stating that the not fully tested Covid mRNA vaccines are, in fact, not fully tested and thus are by definition experimental.

    What these medical influencers are doing, no doubt with the full knowledge, approval and perhaps even training of the great financial, governmental and pharmaceutical powers is to effect—under the rubric of the freedom of the press—a rapid sorpasso of the institutions that, with all their faults, have long guaranteed a more or less reliable structure for adjudication of competing claims of scientific truth. Unaccustomed to the aggressiveness, relentlessness and speed of these attacks, most doctors have, sadly, reacted like the proverbial deer in the headlights to them, hoping against hope that this plague of intellectual vandalism will somehow, someway be brought to an end. But it would appear that no such relief is in the offing.

    Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of this inquisitorial logic and praxis in the long run is that it tries to make citizens believe that there is no relationship between science and politics, and that politics—the art of dissent—is a dangerous practice that must be eschewed by every conscientious citizen.

    The fact-checkers as the great landowners of the new virtual world.

    We must face the fact that the news verification agencies are part of the global control framework set in motion by those who claim for themselves the right to be the owners of all our time and and all of our actions. Behind information verification software services like Newsguard, we find fervent defenders of illegal spying on citizens like former CIA and NSA chief and congressional perjurer Michael Hayden, and US army assassination team leader Stanley McChrystal.

    The International Fact-Checking Network to which the aforementioned Spanish fact-check agencies Maldita and Newtral belong is financed in part by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and a major player in, among many other shady oligarchic pursuits, the NATO-linked Allegiance for Securing Democracy.

    There is nothing politically neutral about these people. Nor has any of them ever shown a great predilection or support for disinterested intellectual inquiry. What all three have shown in abundance is an abiding delight in marshaling power for the present US-led global order and the exercise of often brutally administered schemes of control over others.

    The prime objective of fact-checkers—as recognized, for example, by Newtral on its website—is to use algorithms to harvest and manage citizen information, and in this way, usher in a new era in which the minds of individuals will be so seamlessly “pre-directed” to “positive” and “benevolent” ends and behaviors (as so defined by the members of the enlightened classes) that politics in all its forms will come to be seen as superfluous.

    This explains why, between them, Google and Facebook currently employ 40,000 “verifiers” who exercise an invisible censorship aimed at swaying our perceptions of the world in ways deemed to be “constructive” by the controllers of those firms and those with whom they have forged political and business alliances.

    These efforts lie at the core of the post-humanist gospel as preached by people like Klaus Schwab and Ray Kurzweil. Their clear message to us about the coming world is that while you might be born free, your destiny and the design of your being—and what we used to call its unique sensibilities— will be firmly entrusted to others. Like who? Like the aforementioned gentlemen and their friends who, of course, have much more far-seeing minds than your own.

    But if there is one thing that the Digital Brownshirts fear more than the Wicked Witch of the West fears water, it is real politics. Thus far, these informational terrorists have been able to exploit our natural indulgence of the value of free speech for their own ends. Let’s be clear. These censors are, in effect, engaging in mass consumer fraud. And if it is illegal to sell horse meat as beef, and refined sugar as a nutritional supplement, then it should also be illegal for hired guns to arrogate to themselves the right to define truth and destroy long-standing deliberative processes and institutions.

    Sadly, however, we cannot wait for our deeply compromised political classes to take the lead on this necessary criminal prosecution. Rather we, as informed citizens, must take the lead in denouncing these vandals and the powers that have cynically unleashed them upon our shared scientific and civic spaces. 

    In this process, we must help our ever more present-minded citizens, enslaved to the idea—so useful to the elites— that the world is fundamentally entropic, that these nihilists did not just appear on their TV screens by accident, but rather that they were placed there to do someone else’s dirty work, and that our survival as free people depends on the tenacity with which we hunt down those “someone elses” and subject them to one of the more fundamental types political action: popular justice.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 19:00

  • Ukraine To Issue NFT Collection To Fund Armed Forces; Pussy Riot Raises $6.6 Million With Flag Pic
    Ukraine To Issue NFT Collection To Fund Armed Forces; Pussy Riot Raises $6.6 Million With Flag Pic

    Ukraine has abandoned plans to reward crypto donors with an ‘AirDrop’ – a term used to describe a free transfer of a digital asset – and will instead issue its own collection of NFTs in order to fund its war with Russia, according to Ukraine’s vice-prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

    Adidas ‘bored ape’ NFT

    “we will announce NFTs to support Ukrainian Armed Forces soon. We DO NOT HAVE any plans to issue any fungible tokens,” he said in a Thursday tweet.

    Ukraine’s embrace of digital assets as a way to fund its armed forces comes after it raised approximately $200 million in “war bonds,” according to the Financial Times.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe use of cryptocurrencies has soared in Ukraine over the past several weeks, with Bitcoin trading at a 6% premium on Binance’s Ukrainian Hryvina (UAH) market. So far, $42.9mm has been donated to the Ukrainian government, according to data provider Elliptic.

    NFTs are collectible digital tokens that are fixed on the blockchain and cannot be replicated (though one can always take a screenshot and possess a non-blockchain version). Last year, sales of digital assets surged – bringing the global market to $40bn.

    illustration via coinquora.com

    It is unclear what these NFTs will consist of or whether they will be transferred for free or sold in an auction, for additional fundraising.

    Ukraine has already disbursed $14mn of the cryptocurrency to invest in the conflict, Michael Chobanian, president of Ukraine’s Blockchain Association and a central figure in the fundraising effort, told CoinDesk TV on Tuesday.

    Uniswap, a decentralised cryptocurrency exchange, has also allowed listed tokens on its site to be swapped into ethereum and donated to Ukraine in a single transaction.

    An NFT of a pixelated smoking man wearing a blue bandanna and sunglasses from a popular collection called CrptoPunks, worth around $200,000, was also sent to Ukraine’s crypto wallet this week. -FT

    Meanwhile Russian activist musical group Pussy Riot has raised $6.6 million selling an NFT of the Ukrainian flag to donors through a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) backed by the band.

    Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood donated $5.8 million to the Ukrainian government via Polkadot, while another DAO backed by Solana and the Ukraine government has raised around $1.4 million to “go directly to aiding Ukrainians on the ground,” according to FT.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 18:40

  • Nuclear Negotiators Announce Being "Very Close" To Final Iran Deal
    Nuclear Negotiators Announce Being “Very Close” To Final Iran Deal

    At a moment that the Biden administration is coming under severe scrutiny over why it hasn’t targeted or blocked Russian oil imports with sanctions – Thursday witnessed significant rumblings that world powers negotiating with Iran are on the cusp of a restored nuclear deal. 

    One top EU foreign policy official confirmed that the Vienna process is now in the “final stages” but still cautioned “we are definitely not there yet” while an early evening CNN report cited a State Department official who said negotiators are “inching forward” toward reaching a deal. 

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

    “While there has been significant progress and we are close to a possible deal, a number of very difficult issues remain unresolved,” the official told CNN.

    A huge part of the “pressure” on the US side to wrap up the deal is now tied into the Ukraine and what’s looking to soon be continually soaring energy and gas prices. The White House last month revealed it was in a full-court press to talk to Asian, African and Middle East companies about urgently getting ‘alternative’ supplies to Europe, also as the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline has been halted.

    Though the latest Biden admin statements have urged caution (the US has been negotiating indirectly via European mediation) European negotiators on Thursday issued highly optimistic statements:

    “We are very close to an agreement,” chief British negotiator Stephanie Al-Qaq said on Twitter. “Now we have to take a few final steps.”

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

    Among the hurdles that remains, notes The Wall Street Journal Thursday evening, includes terror designations put in place under the Trump administration: 

    U.S. and Iranian officials cautioned there was at least one big issue that still needed solving: Iran has been pushing for more sanctions relief if the nuclear deal is restored. In particular, it wants the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be taken off Washington’s most significant terror sanctions list, the Foreign Terrorist Organization.

    Image source: IAEA

    Meanwhile, Iran hawks in Congress as well as Saudi Arabia have weighed in voicing concern over a “weak deal” that’s being rushed…

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

    Earlier in the day…

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

    Followed by these earlier headlines that may indeed suggest negotiators are still merely “inching” toward a completed deal…

    • IRAN CONTINUES TO BREACH MANY KEY LIMITS SET BY 2015 NUCLEAR DEAL, INCLUDING URANIUM ENRICHMENT LEVEL AND ENRICHED URANIUM STOCK -QUARTERLY U.N. ATOMIC WATCHDOG REPORT
    • IRAN RAISES STOCK OF HIGHLY-ENRICHED URANIUM BY 83%: IAEA
    • IRAN HAS CONTINUED RESTRICTING IAEA ACCESS TO DATA

    Another key issue is the question of “guarantees” that a future US administration would stick by a restored JCPOA. Republicans have by and large promised they would torpedo any potential deal should they take back the White House. Israel too has long lobbied especially the Republican side of the aisle to do just that. This is hugely concerning for Iran.

    “Nobody can say the deal is done until all the outstanding remaining issues are resolved,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh also weighed in. “Extra efforts needed,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 18:20

  • Rosneft CEO's $120 Million Super-Yacht Seized At French Port After "Preparing For Urgent Departure" 
    Rosneft CEO’s $120 Million Super-Yacht Seized At French Port After “Preparing For Urgent Departure” 

    Not all Russian oligarchs have escaped Europe with their assets, as the Biden administration made it very clear earlier this week they will “seize the yachts, luxury apartments, and private jets” of Russian billionaires. 

    We asked the question on Wednesday: “Are Russian Oligarchs Fleeing By Sea To Indian Ocean As Biden Aims To Seize Billions?” 

    The answer appears to be ‘yes.’ Come to find out, not all Russian oligarchs made it out. France announced it impounded the superyacht belonging to Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin. The move comes as part of continued EU sanctions against Russia, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire disclosed this week. 

    The yacht is called the Amore Vero (true love), and it was “confiscated overnight in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat,” Bloomberg reported on Thursday morning. The report says that the port is located near Marseille, on the French Cote d’Azur.

    Bloomberg wrote that when it was confiscated, the yacht was “preparing an urgent departure.” 

    The French Finance Ministry said: “At the moment the inspection was carried out, the boat was readying to weigh anchor urgently, without having finished the planned work.” 

    Le Maire said this week on Twitter: “Thanks to French customs for enforcing the EU sanctions against people close to Russia’s leaders.”

    French Budget Minister Oliver Dussopt clarified that the yacht was “prevented from leaving” but that the asset hadn’t been frozen, the report clarified. It was initially planned to stay at the port until April 1, after arriving in early January. 

    We pointed out some of the biggest Russian-owned luxury yachts are sailing around the Indian Ocean. 

    President Biden warned in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night that the U.S. and Europe would “seize” the assets of Russian billionaires.

    “Tonight, I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who built billions off this violent regime — no more,” Biden said. “We’re coming for your ill-begotten gains.”

    The movement of Russian oligarchs worldwide after the Ukrainian invasion comes as western sanctions are complicating things for Russia and the elite class. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 03/03/2022 – 18:00

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