- NATO Head Denies Alliance Is Party To Ukraine War Despite Military Aid
NATO Head Denies Alliance Is Party To Ukraine War Despite Military Aid
NATO member states have not yet decided on the structure of future assistance to Ukraine, but they have started planning for it, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday at the end of the first day of the meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
At the meeting, ministers discussed how to put assistance to Ukraine on a firmer and more permanent footing in the future.
“All Allies agree on the need to support Ukraine in this critical moment.There is a unity of purpose,” said Stoltenberg.
He stressed that “The people of Ukraine continue to defend their country with skill and bravery” and that “the Ukrainians are not running out of courage, they are running out of ammunition.”
He added that “We need to step up now to ensure our support is built to last.”
The Norwegian leader of NATO said details of the initiative would emerge in the coming weeks.
“We are now in the process of developing a more robust and enduring, institutionalised framework for support to Ukraine, that our support is less dependent on voluntary short term offers and more on long term NATO commitments,” said the secretary general.
He expressed the hope that now that allies have begun to discuss planning, a decision on the final form of assistance could be taken at the NATO summit in Washington in July.
Stoltenberg said that taking responsibility for aid to Ukraine would not make NATO a party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“NATO is and will remain a defensive Alliance. And NATO is, and will remain, not a party to the conflict in Ukraine. We need to remember what this is. This is war or aggression by Russia invading another country, violating international law. And then Ukraine has the right, according to international law, to defend itself,” he said.
He also pointed out that Russia is receiving support for its war of aggression from China, North Korea, and Iran.
“As authoritarian powers increasingly align, it is important that like-minded nations around the world stand together. To defend a global order ruled by law, not by force,” Stoltenberg added.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 02:00 - The Government Wants To Play God. What Does That Mean For Our Freedoms?
The Government Wants To Play God. What Does That Mean For Our Freedoms?
Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
The government wants to play god.
It wants the power to decide who lives or dies and whose rights are worthy of protection.
Abortion may still be front and center in the power struggle between the Left and the Right over who has the right to decide—the government or the individual—when it comes to bodily autonomy, the right to privacy, sexual freedom, the rights of the unborn, and property interests in one’s body, but there’s so much more at play.
In the 50-plus years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, the government has come to believe that it not only has the power to determine who is deserving of constitutional rights in the eyes of the law but it also has the authority to deny those rights to an American citizen.
This is how the abortion debate has played into the police state’s hands: by laying the groundwork for discussions about who else may or may not be deserving of rights.
Despite the Supreme Court having overturned its earlier rulings recognizing abortion as a constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment, the government continues to play fast and loose with the lives of the citizenry all along the spectrum of life.
Take a good, hard look at the many ways in which Americans are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
American families who have their dogs shot, their homes trashed and their children terrorized or, worse, killed by errant SWAT team raids in the middle of the night are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Disabled individuals who are being strip searched, handcuffed, arrested and “diagnosed” by police as dangerous or mentally unstable merely because they stutter and walk unevenly are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
School-aged children as young as 4-years-old who are leg shackled, handcuffed and strip searched for violating school zero tolerance policies by chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun and playing an imaginary game of cops and robbers, or engaging in childish behavior such as crying or jumping are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Unarmed citizens who are tasered or shot by police for daring to hesitate, stutter, move a muscle, flee or disagree in any way with a police order are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Likewise, Americans—young and old alike—who are shot by police because they pointed a garden hose at a police officer, reached for their registration in their glove box, relied upon a cane to steady themselves, or were seen playing with air rifles or BB guns are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Female motorists who are unlucky enough to be pulled over for a questionable traffic infraction only to be subjected by police to cavity searches by the side of the road are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Male pedestrians and motorists alike who are being subjected to roadside strip searches and rectal probes by police based largely on the color of their skin are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
American citizens subjected to government surveillance whereby their phone calls are being listened in on, their mail and text messages read, their movements tracked and their transactions monitored are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Homeowners who are being fined and arrested for raising chickens in their backyard, allowing the grass in their front yards to grow too long, and holding Bible studies in their homes are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Decorated military veterans who are being arrested for criticizing the government on social media such as Facebook are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Homeless individuals who are being harassed, arrested and run out of towns by laws that criminalize homelessness are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Individuals whose DNA has been forcibly collected and entered into federal and state law enforcement databases whether or not they have been convicted of any crime are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Drivers whose license plates are being scanned, uploaded to a police database and used to map their movements, whether or not they are suspected of any crime, are being denied their rights under the Constitution. The same goes for drivers who are being ticketed for running afoul of red light cameras without any real opportunity to defend themselves against such a charge are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Protesters and activists who are being labeled domestic terrorists and extremists and accused of hate crimes for speaking freely are being denied their rights under the Constitution. Likewise, American citizens who being targeted for assassination by drone strikes abroad without having been charged, tried and convicted of treason are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
Hard-working Americans whose bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash are seized by police (operating according to asset forfeiture schemes that provide profit incentives for highway robbery) are being denied their rights under the Constitution.
So, what is the common denominator here?
These are all American citizens—endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, rights that no person or government can take away from them, among these the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—and they are all being oppressed in one way or another by a government that has grown drunk on power, money and its own authority.
If the government—be it the President, Congress, the courts or any federal, state or local agent or agency—can decide that any person has no rights, then that person becomes less than a citizen, less than human, less than deserving of respect, dignity, civility and bodily integrity. He or she becomes an “it,” a faceless number that can be tallied and tracked, a quantifiable mass of cells that can be discarded without conscience, an expendable cost that can be written off without a second thought, or an animal that can be bought, sold, branded, chained, caged, bred, neutered and euthanized at will.
It’s a slippery slope that justifies all manner of violations in the name of national security, the interest of the state and the so-called greater good.
Yet those who founded this country believed that what we conceive of as our rights were given to us by God—we are created equal, according to the nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence—and that government cannot create, nor can it extinguish our God-given rights. To do so would be to anoint the government with god-like powers and elevate it above the citizenry.
Unfortunately, we have been dancing with this particular devil for quite some time now.
If we continue to wait for the government to restore our freedoms, respect our rights, rein in its abuses and restrain its agents from riding roughshod over our lives, our liberty and our happiness, then we will be waiting forever.
The highly politicized tug-of-war over abortion will not resolve the problem of a culture that values life based on a sliding scale. Nor will it help us navigate the moral, ethical and scientific minefields that await us as technology and humanity move ever closer to a point of singularity.
Humanity is being propelled at warp speed into a whole new frontier when it comes to privacy, bodily autonomy, and what it means to be a human being. As such, we haven’t even begun to wrap our heads around how present-day legal debates over bodily autonomy, privacy, vaccine mandates, the death penalty, and abortion play into future discussions about singularity, artificial intelligence, cloning, and the privacy rights of the individual in the face of increasingly invasive, intrusive and unavoidable government technologies.
Yet here is what I know.
Life is an inalienable right.
By allowing the government to decide who or what is deserving of rights, it shifts the entire discussion from one in which we are “endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights” (that of life, liberty property and the pursuit of happiness) to one in which only those favored by the government get to enjoy such rights.
If all people are created equal, then all lives should be equally worthy of protection.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 23:40 - Pfizer's Own Study Confirms Paxlovid Sucks
Pfizer’s Own Study Confirms Paxlovid Sucks
A Pfizer-funded, peer-reviewed paper authored by Pfizer scientists reveals that the company’s antiviral COVID medication Paxlovid completely sucks, confirming what everyone’s known since it came out.
In a randomized phase 2-3 trial of the drug conducted between Aug. 25, 2021 through July 25, 2022, 654 out of 1,296 patients were dosed with at least one 300mg dose of Paxlovid + 100mg of protease inhibitor ritonavir vs. a placebo group. The results showed that the median time until COVID-19 symptoms ended through day 28 was 12 days in the treatment group vs. 13 days in the placebo group.
According to the authors, the result of the drug, which is also known as nirmatrelvir, “was not significant.”
“Similar results were observed in the high-risk subgroup (i.e., participants who had been vaccinated and had at least one risk factor for severe illness) and in the standard-risk subgroup (i.e., those who had no risk factors for severe illness and had never been vaccinated or had not been vaccinated within the previous 12 months),” the authors added.
And while 0.8% of the Paxlovid group suffered ‘hospitalization or death’ vs. 1.6% of placebo recipients, the authors also concluded that it was not statistically significant, however placebo recipients had longer average hospital stays and were more likely to be admitted to intensive care units.
According to the authors, “the usefulness of nirmatrelvir–ritonavir in patients who are not at high risk for severe COVID-19 has not been established.“
The trial included adults who had tested positive for COVID-19 and shown at least one symptom, had previously received the COVID-19 vaccine, and had at least one risk factor – such as being a cigarette smoker.
Pfizer had previously announced that they were halting enrollment in the trial over “a very low rate of hospitalization or death observed in the standard-risk patient population.”
Paxlovid was previously found not to reduce the risk of long COVID either.
As the Epoch Times notes, Dr. Vinay Prasad, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the research, said on social media platform X that the trial showed Paxlovid “doesn’t work in vaccinated people.”
“It was embarrassing to watch the administration and many ID doctors recommend this without any credible data,” he continued – criticizing the government for spending upwards of $12 billion for Paxlovid “without much trial data.”
A previous Pfizer trial, which was run to assess Paxlovid’s efficacy and safety among the unvaccinated, found that Paxlovid shortened the time to sustained symptoms alleviation and reduced the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. The trial enrolled people with COVID-19, with symptoms, and who had a risk factor for progression to severe disease or were 60 years of age or older.
Based on the results from that trial, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2023 authorized the drug for both unvaccinated and vaccinated adults with mild to moderate COVID-19 who were deemed at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19. -Epoch Times
“The benefit observed among unvaccinated high-risk persons does not extend to those at lower risk for severe COVID-19,” wrote Drs. Rajesh Gandhi and Martin Hirsch in an editorial about the new paper. That said, they also concluded that “it still appears reasonable to recommend the drug to older people and people with substantial underlying conditions.”
What?
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 23:20 - Tuberculosis Cases Reported In Chicago’s Immigrant Shelters
Tuberculosis Cases Reported In Chicago’s Immigrant Shelters
Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Illegal immigrants board a bus as they arrived on a plane from San Antonio at Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Ill., on Jan. 1, 2024. (WTVO NewsNation via AP) Chicago’s Health Department has confirmed a few cases of tuberculosis among illegal immigrants who recently arrived in the city. However, officials say there is no cause for concern for the broader population as they believe the disease is contained.
Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious disease caused by a bacteria that generally attacks the lungs and, in some cases, other body parts. Symptoms can include chest pain, fatigue, chills, and coughing up blood. If not treated, TB can be fatal.
Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) officials confirmed in a media statement a “small number” of tuberculosis cases at city-run immigrant shelters but did not state which shelters or how many people are affected.
According to a spokesperson, there is no cause for concern at this time because the disease has been contained, and the affected illegal immigrants are being treated.
“We will continue to offer treatment to individuals as necessary and take the proper precautions to eliminate spread, but we do not consider this a matter presenting a substantial threat to the public,” the spokesperson said.
“To date, CDPH has not confirmed any reports of TB that resulted from exposure to new arrivals in Chicago.”
The CDPH claims an estimated 10 to 20 percent of people from Central and South America have a latent TB infection, which is asymptomatic and general not transmissible to others, but does result in a positive test. According to the CDPH, even those with active cases will likely recover if they receive treatment.
“For those who do have active cases of TB disease, CDPH assigns a nurse case manager to each individual and performs a contact tracing investigation,” the spokesperson said.
“TB is curable with antibiotics and is not particularly infectious, typically requiring several hours or more of prolonged close contact between individuals to spread, but CDPH continues to take cases seriously in order to keep it contained.”
The CDPH says in an average year, it expects to see between 100 to 150 tuberculosis cases in Chicago residents.
Alderman Calls for Immunization Standards for Asylum Seekers
Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez said the infections were a wake-up call for the city, and that citizens should start putting pressure on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to implement American immunization standards for all asylum seekers. Chicago was also recently hit with a registered measles cases, which was reportedly the first case identified in a Chicagoan since 2019.
In an April 3 post on X, Mr. Lopez said “performative politics and hurt feelings” have led to a delayed response to an “obvious looming disaster.”
“Anyone who demanded action to protect our residents was called racist, xenophobic, and anti-immigrant by fringe politicians. And now, here we are: measles, now tuberculosis both confirmed in Chicago,” he said.
“Shame on every mouthpiece that worked so hard to keep this secret. I don’t expect apologies or an enlightened response from the performative deniers: those folks have never let facts get in the way of their narrative,” he said.
According to a March 28 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cases of tuberculosis have jumped to their highest level in a decade. In 2023, tuberculosis case counts jumped by 1,295 from the prior year to 9,615, the agency said. This represents an increase of 16 percent and is the highest level since 2013.
The United States has one of the lowest rates of tuberculosis in the world, the CDC said. However, the uptick in cases means capacity should be strengthened in public health programs to carry out “critical disease control and prevention strategies.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 23:00 - 'Cocoa Could Double From Here' – Oil-Bull Andurand Gets Greedy On Chocolate
‘Cocoa Could Double From Here’ – Oil-Bull Andurand Gets Greedy On Chocolate
Oil trader Pierre Andurand suffered record losses last year in the commodities world, though the money manager has so far crushed it on the cocoa trade.
Bloomberg reports Andurand opened a “small, long position” in cocoa futures in early March. Since then, prices have soared as much as 73%. People familiar with the trade did not specify where the famed oil trader opened the position or whether he’d taken profits.
Futures in New York have jumped as high as $10,300 a ton in recent weeks, surging from the $6,000 level in early March.
Andurand emailed Bloomberg that cocoa prices “could break $20,000 later this year.” Hyperfinlating cocoa prices are caused by drought and disease, which are ravaging the world’s largest cocoa farms in West Africa.
Andurand said his analysts forecast cocoa bean production globally to be down at least 18% on the year, compared to most analysts’ expectations of 10-11%.
“This means that we will finish the year with the lowest stocks-to-grinding ratio ever, and potentially run out of inventories late in the year,” he warned.
Per Bloomberg:
The firm sees that ratio — which measures stockpiles relative to annual demand — will end the 2023-24 season around 16% in a base-case scenario. That would push the indicator below the previous record low set in the mid-1970s, when prices hit $5,000 a ton — equivalent to about $26,000 when adjusted for inflation, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Any higher cocoa prices and chocolate makers, like the US Hershey Company, will see demand destruction. Soaring cocoa prices are already weighing on the company’s stock.
This once-in-a-generation cocoa crisis will likely result in higher prices. Have the folks at r/WallStreetBets figured out about this trade?
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 22:40 - Maybe The Academic Bubble Is Finally Popping
Maybe The Academic Bubble Is Finally Popping
Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
(Emily Karakis/Unsplash.com) Commentary
Academia has fallen on hard times, most signified by the disgrace of Harvard. When high-paid, high-status professors are revealed as plagiarists, and then kept on with high six-figure salaries anyway, and when others are fired for opposing inhumane COVID-19 controls, one has to wonder.
Such places have only their intellectual integrity; when that falls, what are they left with other than their $51 billion endowment?
Let’s just use Harvard as a proxy for universities generally. How are they faring these days? Is the generation that is now in a position to decide to attend them—rather than develop an actual skill in a trade—and choose to give up four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars really going to take the bait?
It appears that this is seriously in doubt. The last of the last generation born in the 20th century, so-called Generation Z, has entered college and faces the decision to continue on the path or take a different route. It so happens that skills-based trades are paying huge salaries right now. That’s because there is a massive shortage of people who know how to do stuff.
This happens when you have fifty years in which millions have been trained to be one or another form of “intellectual” (or “mind worker”) even as the market for such “skills” has long been saturated.
Plus the job is awful in any case, contrary to what had long been promised. Most members of the professional managerial class of highly educated desk sitters are wholly miserable people. Most of their lives are spent following orders and fitting into the bureaucracy, with little or no creativity, much less adventure. All you get is a fancy title and some social status within some circles, and even that is changing.
As for academic jobs, truly, do you know a happy and wholly content professor or university administrator? I’ve personally never known any professional more willing to kvetch about his or her job, telling tales of amazing intrigue, perfidy, and backstabbery. One always wants to ask, “Why don’t you leave?” but we know the truth. There is nowhere to go. Academic jobs are hard to come by and extremely difficult to convert from one institution to another.
Such people have no other skills.
It’s about time that young people realize that there are other ways to pursue a career. We might finally have reached the point at which people are going their own way rather than following the prescribed path for the illusion of upward social mobility.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports:
“Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing to leave the college path. Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work. Growing skepticism about the return on a college education, the cost of which has soared in recent decades, is adding to their shine.
“Enrollment in vocational training programs is surging as overall enrollment in community colleges and four-year institutions has fallen. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16 percent last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. The ranks of students studying construction trades rose 23 percent during that time, while those in programs covering HVAC and vehicle maintenance and repair increased 7 percent.”
Plus, come on, how cool is it to be a welder? That’s amazing. Same with being an electrician, a plumber, a cook, a builder, or just about anything else where you use your hands. These days, the money is great to accompany the adventure. Actually doing things seems to be gaining traction.
For the fourth year, “median annual pay for new construction hires has eclipsed earnings for new hires in both the professional services and information sectors—such as accountants or IT maintenance workers,” the WSJ reports.
Apparently, a major factor here driving this is the pandemic lockdowns in the following sense. Lots of kids saw their parents working from home for two years during this time. Seeing them sit at the dining room table and stare at screens all day, and then interact with colleagues only through more apps and platforms, and then finding out that this is precisely what they do at work all the time, kind of drained away the romance.
Who wants to do that? Let’s just say not everyone.
Plus, it is not unknown to white males that they are not exactly in high demand in a professional workplace beset by diversity, equity, and inclusion preferences for anyone but them. No one wants to be in a profession in which you are discriminated against—and denounced and shamed relentlessly—based on factors you cannot change, such as biology.
Why not get into a field that cares nothing about your sex and race and instead judges you by your skills and character? That seems far more appealing.
The WSJ further reports: “In a survey of high school and college-age people by software company Jobber last year, 75 percent said they would be interested in vocational schools offering paid, on-the-job training. The rise of generative AI is changing the career calculus for some young people. The majority of respondents Jobber surveyed said they thought blue-collar jobs offered better job security than white-collar ones, given the growth of AI.
“Nearly 80 percent of respondents in Jobber’s survey said their parents wanted them to go to college. Professions dominated by college-educated workers generally earn more over time. Professional and business services workers, for example, make a median $78,500 compared with $69,200 in construction, according to ADP.”
The point about parents is interesting. I’ve been predicting for decades that the college bubble would pop. But it hasn’t. The reason is parents. They want the best possible path forward for kids. They might not know for sure that a college degree will guarantee a good life, but surely it can help. Plus a degree is something they “can always fall back on.”
You know the line and the intuition. It’s a Boomer-born attitude that comes from the postwar experience with the GI Bill. An entire generation was led to believe that putting newly returned soldiers into college formed the basis of postwar prosperity and put millions into the middle class.
As a result, we’ve had generations of parents who have strongly recommended college to their kids. And they have been willing to pay the big bucks to make it possible, even once it became impossible to “work your way through college.” Parents just kept paying. And then the student loan market fired up to pick up the slack from what the parents could not afford. This saddled at least two generations with six-figure debts as they started their careers.
This entire calculation is a massive error.
What it forgets is that giving up four years between the ages of 18 and 22 sitting at a desk rather than gaining valuable career experience is a massive opportunity cost that comes at the prime of life. Indeed, it sets you back. Then if you end up in a lucrative profession, you still have to take vocational training in the form of professional certifications—the start of your actual education about which no one prepared you.
That’s the major cost of college: what you otherwise would be doing during those four years that you did not do. By comparison even with the dollar expense associated with tuition and books, that’s a huge cost. The ensuing debt, meanwhile, is an egregious way to start off a life.
What exactly would pop this bubble? It would take a generation of kids who decide to defy their own parents’ wishes and pursue a genuine skill rather than waste time memorizing what professors tell them and spitting it back on tests. Is that happening finally? It seems so. Apparently, it was the lockdowns that broke the spell. Kids look at their parents’ boring lives and have decided that they want to do something more interesting.
Good. This college stuff has been the rage since the end of World War II. Despite its persistence, it makes no sense. Before World War II, the pattern for men was to develop skills as a teen, finish one’s education with high school, and start being an adult. For women, it was the same, contrary to myth. They were typically fully employed until marriage and starting a family and then left the workplace to raise a family.
There were outliers, of course, but the pattern generally held, and it worked. As for college and intellectual pursuits, they grew up with civilization itself, but higher education was for a subset of the population that felt the call toward what we used to call the “life of the mind.” It makes no sense to universalize that calling by force.
There are other ways to have a good life besides being able to hang a degree on the wall. Indeed, that piece of paper might not amount to much at all, and come at too high a price.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 22:20 - California Bill Mandating "Pregnancy Dignity" For "Birthing Persons" Passes Health Committee
California Bill Mandating “Pregnancy Dignity” For “Birthing Persons” Passes Health Committee
Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,
Some advocates for women’s rights are speaking out against a bill passed April 2 by the California Assembly’s Health Committee due to language in the measure that calls women “birthing persons.”
At issue is Assembly Bill 2319—introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Wilson and sponsored by California Attorney General Rob Bonta—which says the Legislature recognizes “all birthing people, including nonbinary persons and persons of transgender experience.” The bill additionally mandates “implicit bias training” for existing medical professionals by June 1, 2025, and within six months for those opening new practices.
A prior bill, Assembly 241 passed in 2019, also mandated such training, but an investigation by the state’s attorney general’s office found many medical providers were not following the law.
Proponents argued the new bill is necessary to reduce black maternal and infant deaths—citing statistics that show significantly higher mortality rates for black women during birth compared to white women.
While acknowledging that mortality rates during birth for black women are a legitimate concern, opposition witnesses took exception to the language regarding transgender and non-binary individuals.
“They really pushed in the hearing that it was to fight the black maternal mortality rate,” Sophia Lorey, key opposition witness and outreach director for the California Family Council, told The Epoch Times after the hearing.
“That is a portion of the bill, but they chose not to address that they call women ‘birthing people’ and that it’s also focused on non-binary people and transgender people, so that’s what we pushed in opposition.”
She argued during the hearing that the bill is “force-feeding medical lunacy.”
“We focused on the fact that only women can give birth, and it’s illogical to say anything different, and it’s not implicit bias to believe that only women can give birth,” Ms. Lorey said.
Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, chair of the health committee and wife of Mr. Bonta, the state’s attorney general, concluded the hearing by declaring that transgender men and non-binary people can give birth, a comment opponents rejected.
“They ended the committee hearing with the chair making sure that we all knew that men can give birth,” Ms. Lorey said.
Such is not the first occasion key issues of a measure are either ignored or side-stepped during committee hearings.
Senate Bill 59, currently under consideration by the Legislature, which would put menstrual products in men’s restrooms, was handled in a similar fashion during hearings last year.
“We see this happen in multiple bills,” Ms. Lorey said.
“During hearings, they chose not to refer to that part of the bill at all, and they only talked about free menstrual products in women’s restrooms.”
California State Assemblywoman Lori Wilson speaks to the state Assembly Judiciary Committee in Sacramento, Calif., on March 21, 2023. (California State Assembly/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
She said the approach is deceptive and misleads the public, but given the controversial nature of the topic, she expects the trend to continue.
“This isn’t the first time they’ve done this, and it’s not going to be the last,” Ms. Lorey said. “They just tend to mention the parts of bills that make them seem like great bills, and we have to come out and let people know what the bills are really going to do.”
The section of the health code described in AB 2319 contains a $75,000 fine for a first offense if medical providers fail to comply with the implicit bias training, and subsequent instances are subject to fines of $125,000.
Opponents argued that fining medical providers for not supporting transgender agendas is unacceptable and disregards the science of sexual dimorphism in the human species.
“[Providers are fined] for simply not agreeing with their ideology that men can give birth, that’s what they’re trying to force,” Ms. Lorey said.
Another opposition witness said the choice to couch the transgender language in a bill meant to improve healthcare for black women is manipulative.
“This is how the Democrats do it,” Erin Friday, a California-based attorney and parent advocate, told The Epoch Times after the hearing.
“They have a good aspect of a bill which is designed to ensure that black women get the maternal care that they need, but then they throw in a dose of transgenderism.”
The method is a political tactic, she said.
“They do this routinely in so many bills, and they change the language,” Ms. Friday said.
“And if you don’t go along with the language, they easily call you a racist.”
Erin Friday at the California state capital building in Sacramento, Calif., on Aug. 28, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Arguing that women’s rights are jeopardized by the term “birthing persons,” she said the bill is “creating a new religion of transgenderism” and that women across the state are endangered by the measure.
“It was absolutely galling to hear them call women ‘birthing people,’” Ms. Friday said. “They’re erasing women because now we’re ‘birthing people.’”
One committee member said he was voting for the bill to protect black people, saying that he was confused by those opposing it.
“We have to protect all African Americans no matter what, and I’m not really understanding what the opposition is,” Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer said before voting in favor.
After clearing the health committee, the bill will next be heard by the Assembly’s Appropriations Committee on a date yet to be determined.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 21:40 - "Nuclear Should Be Part Of The Future," PG&E CEO Says
“Nuclear Should Be Part Of The Future,” PG&E CEO Says
On Wednesday, Patti Poppe, the chief executive officer of Pacific Gas & Electric, told a Stanford University forum that nuclear power should continue to be part of the state’s power generation mix as efforts to decarbonize the grid move forward.
“Nuclear should be part of the future,” Poppe said, noting that the state’s only nuclear power plant – Diablo Canyon – could be granted a license extension through the 2030s by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“I expect there will be conversations, as the five-year window comes nearer and nearer, that maybe we should extend that further,” Poppe said, adding, “I think that would be a good policy, to utilize a safe, high-performing asset for the state.”
Bloomberg explained that California has moved “aggressively to transition to renewable power, but its heavy dependence on solar plants leaves it vulnerable to outages on hot summer evenings after the sun goes down.”
Electricity peak demand and energy growth rates are soaring in the Golden State (and the US as a whole) partly due to electrification trends and electric vehicles.
On Wednesday, we penned a note titled “The Next AI Trade,” underlining how AI data centers and industrial facilities will strain the US power grid.
For the states that have abandoned nuclear and fossil-fuel power in favor of unreliable wind and solar, well, there will be a historic shift back to nuclear power, as this is the only way to decarbonize grids with reliable and cheap energy.
In December, regulators said the Diablo Canyon plant, owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, could operate through 2030 instead of 2025 to prevent rolling blackouts as the state shifts toward renewable power sources.
We suspect the long-awaited – and overdue – restart of America’s nuclear renaissance is finally materializing.
Last month, the federal government announced that it would provide a $1.5 billion loan to restart a nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan.
What is notable is not that the US is throwing some money at the nuclear power plant industry – since Washington sells $1 trillion in debt every 100 days, it may as well go full “Brewster’s Millions” (or rather “Trillions”) and spend it all asap; it is that this would be the first nuclear power plant to be reopened in the US, setting a precedent as atomic energy makes a triumphal comeback.
“There is more enthusiasm toward nuclear power — in Congress, in the industry and also internationally,” said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California who has inspected nuclear plants around the world.
Nuclear energy is in the spotlight. Thirty-four countries, including the US, pledged to use it last month to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
America’s nuclear renaissance is here.
In December 2020, we told readers, “Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze?”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 21:20 - The Single Wisest Thing You Can Do With Your Money
The Single Wisest Thing You Can Do With Your Money
Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,
There’s a great deal more to becoming rich than buying the right investments and hoping for the best. The most important element in your strategy to win the battle for investment survival is your own psychology. You’ve heard that your attitude helps your health and your golf score; it’ll also improve your earning power.
It’s not enough to liquidate your past financial mistakes. It’s more important to liquidate counterproductive attitudes, approaches, and methods of dealing with problems. The results that someone gets in life are an indication of how sound his approach toward life is. A sound philosophy of life gives good results. People with chaotic, unproductive, unhappy lives usually don’t have anyone to blame but themselves. They rarely have a strategy for living and thus have no foundation on which to build a strategy for investing.
There’s plenty of good advice available on the subject. Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, Ben Franklin’s autobiography, Norman Vincent Peale’s Power of Positive Thinking, Frank Bettger’s How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling, and Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics are all helpful.
One of the important things about the Greater Depression is that it will give you a chance to put your philosophy of life to the test. Almost anyone can get by in good times, but the years to come will separate the real winners from losers. Many will taste the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat firsthand; they won’t need the vicarious pleasure of Saturday afternoon TV sports to experience life.
There is, of course, no guarantee that just because you’ve developed a workable strategy that you won’t still be a casualty in the battle for financial survival. There is such a thing as plain bad luck. But, as Damon Runyon said, the bread may not always go to the wise, nor the race to the swift, nor the battle to the strong—but that’s the way to bet.
Tilt the odds in your favor by developing pro-survival attitudes, and the law of large numbers will take care of the rest.
There are, of course, an almost infinite number of valid attitudes. Anything that works for you is as good as anything that works for me. But since the next step in the strategy (consolidation) deals with gathering physical goods, I don’t want to leave any false impressions.
You may be able to salt away ten bags of silver, a thousand Krugerrands, and enough food to open a restaurant chain, but that’s not nearly as important as knowing how to get them all back again if you should lose them for any reason.
That’s one thing no one can ever take away from you, and you can never lose: your attitude towards life.
Scrooge McDuck had the right attitude.
One of the most formative stories I’ve ever read was an Uncle Scrooge comic written in 1953 by Carl Barks at Walt Disney Studios.
It finds Scrooge McDuck at play in his binful of money, diving and wallowing in it, doing what he likes best. As he leaves his bin to go out for his daily routine, it turns out that his nephew, Donald Duck, has decided to play a prank on him by putting a fake newspaper on the park bench with the headline “Coins and Banknotes Now Worthless!…Congress Make Fish the New Money of the Land.”
Scrooge sees it and is stunned. All his cash is worthless. He plops against a tree thinking that he hasn’t even one little minnow with which to buy a crust of bread. By the next frame of the comic book, however, the courageous old duck has picked himself up and is ready to get back in the race, saying, “Well, there’s no cause crying over bad luck. I’ll get a job and start life all over again.”
Soon we find him down at the waterfront talking to a fisherman. He offers to paint the man’s boat for a sackful of fish. Scrooge earns his fish and takes them to a clothing store where business is bad. He trades the fish for a raincoat. Back at the waterfront, he trades the raincoat to another fisherman for two sacks of fish.
Since the fish are getting heavy to carry around, Scrooge trades the two bags to a farmer for an old horse, then trades the horse for ten sacks of fish.
By the end of the day, Scrooge has a mountain of fish: three cubic acres’ worth. As much of the new money as he had of the old. He looks at the cold, clammy fish and asks himself…how to count the new money? By the pound or by the inch? How to keep it? And how to spend it before it goes bad?
Sorrowfully he realizes that fish isn’t as nice to play with as his old money. Fish don’t feel good and they smell bad.
All of the sudden, he doesn’t want to be rich anymore. He hires a trucking fleet to take the mountain of fish to Donald, who always wanted to be rich. Donald’s house is buried under dead fish.
Donald’s joke backfired, but Scrooge proved his point: You can start from scratch if you have the right attitude and come out ahead if you play your cards right.
Scrooge didn’t have a fish to his name when he had to start over, a lot less than you’ll have if you liquidate all your unneeded possessions. They’re costing you money, and tying you down. Transform the junk you’ve accumulated into cash, which you can redeploy the way Scrooge McDuck might.
The next step in your plan is to start earning to add to your grubstake—that is, create more money. It was key to Scrooge’s second fortune, and it’s key to yours.
But it’s necessary to have the skills necessary to provide goods and services to others. Scrooge made his fish fortune by his skills at business, but there are thousands of others.
Gaining Skills
One of the most important parts of taking control of your life as a step to prospering in the years to come is to educate yourself and gain skills. That means a lot more than just logging eight years in high school and college. Going to college is one thing, but learning to make money is something else. Most people today appear to believe going to college is necessary for getting ahead. It’s not. It may actually be a hindrance.
A lot of people seem to think that simply going to college will bestow an education. In reality, all most people get is a diploma, which is very different. Eric Hoffer, the San Francisco longshoreman who never completed high school but has written such profound books as The True Believer, is an outstanding example of the difference between going to college and getting an education.
Practical, marketable skills are often better acquired in trade schools, through self-teaching efforts, and through experience working from the bottom up in a field. A lot of teachers who finished first in their class couldn’t run a successful hot dog stand and are hardly in a position to help their students learn survival skills.
It would be a tragic mistake to devote all your resources to accumulating gold, hoarding commodities, devising clever tax schemes, and speculating, to the neglect of much more basic intangibles. The government may negate a lot of your efforts through its inflation, taxes, and regulations. And even if you overcome them, market risk—a bad judgement, an unexpected development, a failed brokerage house—can wipe you out. As can fraud, theft, a fire, or a war.
And in the environment coming up, all of those things and many others like them could be greater dangers than they have been in the past. The only thing that’s permanently secure is what you carry in your head: your attitude, your knowledge, your skills.
Who knows what skills may be required in the years to come? What you’re doing now, be it teaching school, practicing law, laying brick, or selling insurance, may be in low demand. But preparing French cuisine, fixing autos, keeping books, or offering financial counsel may be in high demand. Or perhaps the other way around.
The single wisest thing you can do with your money is not buy gold. It’s to take courses and acquire knowledge in other fields, as unrelated to what you are now doing as possible. Anything related to science, and particularly, technology would seem especially suitable. Computer science, medicine, mechanics, agriculture, and electronics are all going to remain in demand.
In the TV series Star Trek, the supremely knowledgeable Mr. Spock bailed the crew out as often as anyone. It’s hard to imagine him unemployed, for that reason. More knowledge can only increase your understanding of the way the world works now, and if it stops working the way it presently does, you’ll be able to continue. It will then no longer be the end of the world if you lose your present job.
And a lot of people will.
* * *
Most people have no idea what really happens when an economy collapses, let alone how to prepare… How will you protect yourself during the next crisis? Legendary speculator Doug Casey’s latest report will show you exactly how. Click here to get it now.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 21:00 - Great, Now Band-Aids Pose Cancer Risk Thanks To 'Forever Chemicals'
Great, Now Band-Aids Pose Cancer Risk Thanks To ‘Forever Chemicals’
Major medical bandages, including from brands Band-Aid and Curad, were found to contain dangerous levels of ‘forever chemicals’ linked to cancer, according to a new report.
The chemical, fluorine, was found in over two-dozen different bandages, the Daily Mail reports.
PFAS chemicals are sometimes used to make adhesives, and investigators believe they are products of the normal manufacturing process. Fluorine, which is also used to make rocket fuel, can lead to skin burns and eye damage, but it is most dangerous when inhaled.
Dr Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and former head of the National Toxicology Program who co-led the lab testing, said the fact that risky chemicals come in direct contact with open wounds was ‘troubling’.
Once in the bloodstream, PFAS can embed themselves in healthy tissues, where they can begin to damage the immune system, liver, kidneys and other organs.
Out of 40 bandages from 18 brands tested by an EPA-certified lab, researchers found detectable levels of fluorine in 26 of them. The testing, funded by consumer watchdog blog Mamavation and Environmental Health News, looked for PFAS chemicals in the absorbent pads and adhesive flaps of bandages sold at major retailers, including Rite Aid, Walmart, CVS and other places.
Fluorine levels above 100 parts per million were found in Band-Aid, Care Science, Curad, CVS Health, Equate, First Honey, Rite Aid brand, Solimo (Amazon brand), and Up & Up (Target) branded bandages.
“Because bandages are placed upon open wounds, it’s troubling to learn that they may be also exposing children and adults to PFAS,” said Dr. Birnbaum. “It’s obvious from the data that PFAS are not needed for wound care, so it’s important that the industry remove their presence to protect the public from PFAS and opt instead for PFAS-free materials.”
PFAS substances contain bonds between carbon and fluorine atoms, creating one very resilient chemical that can remain in the environment for years or even decades.
The chemicals are everywhere, most commonly in water and stain-repellent products, as well as nonstick cookware.
Teflon, the kitchen staple nonstick coating is made with a fluorocarbon called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). -Daily Mail
According to a report by the CDC, PFAS have been found in the blood of 97% of Americans. They’re also found in menstruation products.
In January of 2023, underwear manufacturer Thinx agreed to settle a class action lawsuit over ‘forever chemicals’ found in the crotch of their underwear for $4 million.
The Daily Mail has provided a list of bandages containing PFAS:
How lovely.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 20:40 - Federal Judge Rules Millions Of NRA Members Exempt From ATF Pistol Brace Rule
Federal Judge Rules Millions Of NRA Members Exempt From ATF Pistol Brace Rule
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (Emphasis ours),
A federal judge has blocked the ATF from enforcing its pistol brace rule for millions of members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the appeals process plays out.
Justin Barrett, owner of Barrett Outdoors in Durant, Oklahoma, displays an AK pistol with a pistol stabilizing brace. On the counter next to him is a similar brace for an AR15 pistol. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times) It came after the NRA filed a lawsuit against the ATF, or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arguing that the agency’s rule to reclassify the brace-equipped pistols as short-barreled rifles is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay sided with the gun rights group, arguing that the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals already concluded that the ATF pistol-brace rule “fails the logical outgrowth test and violates” the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and is “unlawful” under the act.
“The court, therefore, sees no reason why it should not consider this argument and APA claim in ruling on Plaintiff’s Motion,” the judge added. “To not do so would be exalt form over substance, particularly since the Fifth Circuit has already determined that this claim has a substantial likelihood of succeeding on the merits.”
The judge agreed with the NRA’s arguments that its members would be substantially harmed by the ATF rule, which was finalized in January 2023.
“Compliance with the Final Rule is not discretionary, and the NRA’s members face severe penalties for their failure to comply with the Final Rule,” Judge Lindsay wrote in the ruling last week. “Accordingly, both of the final requirements for injunctive relief are satisfied because the threatened injury to the NRA’s members outweighs the threatened harm to the Defendants, and enforcement of the Final Rule under the circumstances will not disserve the public interest.”
Pistol braces were first marketed in 2012 as a way of attaching a pistol to the shooter’s forearm, stabilizing it and making it easier to use for disabled people. However, many users found that the braces could also be placed against the shoulder, like the stock on a rifle.
The disputed ATF rule classifies some guns equipped with pistol braces as short-barrel rifles, based on several factors including their size and weight and the manufacturers’ marketing materials. Short-barrel rifles are subject to special registration, longer waiting periods for purchase, and higher taxes because officials have claimed they are potentially more dangerous than handguns.
“While firearms equipped with ‘stabilizing braces’ or other rearward attachments may be submitted to ATF for a new classification determination, a majority of the existing firearms equipped with a ‘stabilizing brace’ are likely to be classified as ‘rifles’ because they are configured for shoulder fire based on the factors described in this rule,” the ATF rule says.
Because the brace-equipped firearms will have a barrel fewer than 16 inches in length, they are “likely to be classified as short-barreled rifles” that are subject to the enhanced federal regulation, it adds.
In a 2–1 ruling last year, the Fifth Circuit found that the ATF finalized the rule without giving the public a meaningful chance to comment on it. That made it invalid under the federal Administrative Procedure Act, the panel found.
The court at the time did not immediately block enforcement of the rule, instead sending the case back to a lower court judge who found that it violated the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
“[T]he Court finds that the Government Defendants’ implementation and enforcement of the Final Rule substantially threatens to inflict irreparable constitutional harm upon the [Firearms Policy Coalition] members,” Judge Reed O’Connor wrote last year. “Absent injunctive relief, the Final Rule will impair and threaten to deprive them of their fundamental right to keep and bear commonly used arms as a means of achieving the inherently lawful ends of self-defense.”
Other than NRA members, the previous Fifth Circuit ruling allowed members of the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation, and Gun Owners of America to not face ATF enforcement regarding the braces.
In a news release last week, the NRA, which has millions of members nationwide, said that Judge Lindsay’s order represents a big win for its members. It noted that members of the group who need to use a pistol brace will be shielded from potential ATF enforcement.
“This is a major victory for the NRA, its members, and all who believe in Second Amendment freedom,” NRA President Charles Cotton said in the release. “From day one, we vowed to fight back against President Biden and his rogue regulators—and to defeat this unlawful measure.”
Under the rule, if a person is caught using a pistol brace that has not been registered, the weapon can be seized by federal officials and the owner could face a fine of $10,000 or prison time of up to 10 years, according to the ATF. The agency says gun owners must either remove the brace from the pistol, register it as a short-barreled rifle, remove the barrel and attach a longer one, forfeit the firearm at a local ATF office, or destroy it.
The ATF or the Department of Justice have not yet issued a response to the ruling.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 20:20 - New England Hospitals Stop Reporting Newborns With Drugs In System Because It "Disproportionately Affects Black Individuals"
New England Hospitals Stop Reporting Newborns With Drugs In System Because It “Disproportionately Affects Black Individuals”
A New England hospital system has stopped automatically filing state welfare reports when a baby is born with drugs in its system, because it “disproportionately affects black individuals.”
Put another way, the Mass General Brigham Hospital system is disproportionately failing to protect black babies from their addict parents, in what they claim is a move to address “racial and ethnic inequities” present in healthcare.
Instead of automatically reporting suspected abuse or neglect to the state based solely on whether a newborn tests positive for drugs, hospitals will now require written consent from said drug-addicts in order to conduct a test on the expectant mother or infant, in most cases, 10 Boston reports.
What’s more, the testing would only be ordered if the results could change a doctor’s medical approach to their care, Boston.com adds.
Mass General Brigham said babies born with “substance exposure” alone will no longer be immediately reported to state welfare agencies unless there are other concerns the baby is abused or neglected. People can be treated with methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, which can be prescribed during pregnancy.
The hospital said studies show that Black pregnant people are more likely to be drug tested and reported to welfare agencies than white pregnant people. -Boston.com
Perhaps that’s a function of the demographics of drug use?
The new policy, announced on Tuesday, will apply to locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including obstetrics and gynecology wards at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, and Salem Hospital.
The change will be implemented later this month.
UNREAL. The Mass General Brigham Hospital system will no longer report babies who are born with d*rugs in their system to child welfare because it “disproportionately affects Black people.”
Reporting child neglect is now racist. pic.twitter.com/JWUG1f50mW
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 3, 2024
According to Mass General Brigham’s Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder Sarah Wakeman, the new policy is “based on sound science.”
“Our new perinatal testing and reporting policy is the latest step in our efforts to address longstanding inequities in substance use disorder care and to provide compassionate, evidence-based support to families, while addressing substance use disorder as a treatable health condition,” she said.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 20:00 - Ethereum Layer 2s To Hit $1 Trillion Market Cap By 2023; VanEck
Ethereum Layer 2s To Hit $1 Trillion Market Cap By 2023; VanEck
Authored by Jesse Coghlan via CoinTelegraph.com,
Ethereum’s layer 2 scaling networks will hit a $1 trillion market capitalization in six years and will be made up of thousands of use case-specific chains, according to analysts from investment manager VanEck.
Layer-2 blockchains are set to capitalize on Ethereum’s “primary challenge” — its “limited capacity to process, store, and compute data,” VanEck’s senior digital assets investment analyst Patrick Bush and digital assets research head Matthew Sigel said in an April 3 report.
Busha and Sigel reached their $1 trillion market cap prediction by estimating Ethereum would take up 60% of the market share across all public blockchains and then estimating the volume of assets within the Ethereum ecosystem.
There are currently 46 Ethereum L2s with $39 billion total value locked, the largest being Arbirtum with $18 billion, according to L2BEAT.
“Ethereum’s dominance in smart contracts faces a critical hurdle: scalability,” the analysts wrote.
“While the network offers unparalleled security and decentralization, transaction fees and processing times soar when usage intensifies.”
Ethereum’s development is now focused on bettering its ability to process its layer-2’s transaction data, they said — evident in its recent Dencun update which helped to lower L2 transaction fees through the specialized data-saving feature, “Blobs.”
Data publishing costs per L2 network to Ethereum in terms of Ether (ETH). Source: VanEck
The analysts said there was future potential for “substantially more” revenues to be generated on L2s over the base Ethereum network.
“We expect L2 revenues to exceed Ethereum’s because Ethereum cannot match the transaction throughput or user experience of L2s.”
The “cutthroat competition,” however, left Bush and Sigel “generally bearish” on the long-term value for a majority of L2-related tokens.
They noted the top seven Ethereum L2 tokens already have a $40 billion fully diluted valuation and “many strong projects” launching over the next 18 months will swell that to $100 billion.
“It seems a bridge too far for the crypto market to absorb even limited amounts of that supply without massive discounts,” they added.
The analysts forecasted a “future of thousands of use-case-specific” L2s with just “a few major players” part of the general-purpose L2 market.
These thousands of use-specific networks would be “segmented by sector, application, or function” with some chains built for a specific purpose, like a decentralized social media-specific L2 with accompanying apps.
The handful of general-purpose chains will be due to the network effect — where those blockchains become more valuable because there are more users, the analysts said.
“It is also clear that most roll-ups will eventually move towards the zero-knowledge framework (ZKU) due to its many advantages,” they added.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:40 - China Weaponizes Gallium Flows To West As US Miner Reveals New Discovery In Montana
China Weaponizes Gallium Flows To West As US Miner Reveals New Discovery In Montana
China dominates the global production of the rare earth metal gallium, a critical component in semiconductor manufacturing and advanced weapon systems used by the United States.
Since China restricted gallium and germanium flows to the US last summer – seen as a tit-for-tat response to the worsening US-China trade war – prices of the metal have doubled (around $575 a kilogram delivered to Rotterdam), according to Bloomberg, citing new data from commodity firm Fastmarkets.
Source: Bloomberg European government data shows China refines 94% of the world’s gallium, making the West entirely reliant on Chinese supply. Higher prices mean higher production costs for semiconductors, from radar systems to smartphone screens.
China’s throttling of rare earth minerals supplies is a national security threat and could easily be weaponized against US defense and aerospace companies.
Here’s a breakdown of rare earth metals used in US defense weapons.
Source: Bloomberg More importantly, Beijing’s motive to limit gallium supplies could revolve around the US supplying Taiwan weapons, like Patriot missile launchers whose targeting systems heavily rely on semiconductors made with gallium.
With China only shipping out 2,760 kilograms of gallium in the first two months of 2024, down from 8,865 kilograms a year earlier, the US must secure new supplies.
There is good news, or at least the start of it.
US Critical Materials announced in recent weeks that it discovered a “strategically significant” deposit of high-grade gallium on its 6,700 acres of claims in southwest Montana.
Website Mining.com said the Pentagon is preparing to dish out first-time contracts to US or Canadian companies to recover gallium in North America.
In December 2023, US Critical Materials signed an agreement with Idaho National Laboratories to develop high-tech rare earth processing methods.
The US must build out its domestic supply chain of mining and refining rare earth minerals to break the addiction from China. This move is crucial to prevent China from potentially disrupting supplies to US defense manufacturers and jeopardizing national security.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:20 - Blinken Bombshell: "Ukraine Will Become A Member Of NATO"
Blinken Bombshell: “Ukraine Will Become A Member Of NATO”
Update(1600ET): Secretary of State Antony Blinken just dropped an ultra-provocative bombshell statement which is sure rile Moscow further. He told reporters Thursday in Brussels, where foreign ministers are meeting to prepare for the alliance’s annual meeting in July: “Ukraine will become a member of NATO. Our purpose at the summit is to help build a bridge to that membership.”
The meeting will mark the 75th anniversary that the alliance was established. Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is meanwhile trying to get all 32 members to commit to long-term military funding for Ukraine, to the tune of $100 billion over a five-year period. He’s hoping for final agreement to be reached at the July meeting, current holdouts like Hungary notwithstanding.
Blinken says that Ukraine will be joining NATO. Under Article 5, this means that an attack on Ukraine will be considered an attack on the United States. If you want World War 3, vote Biden in November. pic.twitter.com/kv0fyv5zdf
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) April 4, 2024
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As The Hill has noted, “NATO allies agreed at the 2023 summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, that Ukraine can join NATO when certain conditions are met, but sparked criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Baltic allies for failing to set concrete goals and a timeline for Kyiv to join the alliance.”
For the Kremlin these are fighting words. At a moment Ukraine forces are fairing badly on the battlefield, Blinken has just needlessly poured more fuel on the fire, which follows on the heels President Macron raising the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, an initial solid response out of Rep. Lee…
BREAKING: Sen. Mike Lee says if Ukraine joins NATO, the US needs to leave.
“NATO can have Ukraine.
Or the U.S.
But not both.”
— Leading Report (@LeadingReport) April 4, 2024
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* * *
NATO members have agreed to begin planning military support for Ukraine on a long-terms basis, in but the latest indicator assuring both escalation with Russia and that the war will drag on for possibly years more to come.
On Wednesday NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced that allies have “agreed to move forward with planning for a greater NATO role in coordinating security assistance and training.” But it will still be an uphill battle to get some of the ‘outlier’ members on board.
Via AFP He also said that Ukraine’s government and military still has “urgent needs” and that “any delay in providing support has consequences on the battlefield as we speak.”
“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on the voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multiyear pledges,” Stoltenberg said. “The reason why we do this is the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine. It is serious … We see how Russia is pushing, and we see how they try to win this war by just waiting us out.”
Stoltenberg’s words come the day after he unveiled a $100 billion, five-year fund for Ukraine which he subsequently pitched to alliance foreign ministers as they met Wednesday.
It is meant to both close the gap after Biden’s proposed $60 billion has been stymied by Republicans in US Congress, and in future expectation of a possible Trump victory after November.
Stoltenberg said a final decision on the $100 billion fund would be made at a July summit of NATO member state leaders; however, the big hurdle will be achieving the required consensus among the 32 members,
Hungary has already announced its “opposition to increasing NATO’s coordination role in arms deliveries and training Ukrainian forces, refusing to participate in planning, operations, or funding,” according to a foreign ministry statement.
🛑FM Péter Szijjártó announced Hungary’s opposition to increasing @NATO‘s coordination role in arms deliveries and training Ukrainian forces, refusing to participate in planning, operations, or funding. This stance was outlined during a press briefing at the NATO foreign… pic.twitter.com/bOhcPDYv9E
— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) April 3, 2024
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Thus Brussels is in for yet another fight with its wayward Hungarian member state led by Viktor Orban, who has time and again vowed to reject any measure which could pave a path of escalation to WW3 with Russia.
But Stoltenberg is already seeking to calm Budapest’s fears and bring it on board. “What we are discussing is not a NATO combat presence in Ukraine. We are discussing how we can coordinate and deliver support from outside Ukraine to Ukraine as NATO allies do,” Stoltenberg said. “And now when we initiate planning, I’m certain we can also address the concerns that Hungary has raised and find a way where we can have consensus.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:15 - FedEx, UPS Adding Delivery Fees In Parts Of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago
FedEx, UPS Adding Delivery Fees In Parts Of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago
By Max Garland of Supply Chain Dive
- FedEx and UPS will add surcharges for deliveries in 82 ZIP codes this month, many of which cover parts of major urban areas, according to updates from both companies.
- The delivery area surcharge, or DAS, for the new ZIP codes will take effect on April 8 for UPS and April 15 for FedEx. The additions will impact areas in Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
- The DAS ranges between $3.95 and $5.85 for FedEx and UPS, but that can climb higher in areas with ZIP codes categorized as “extended” or “remote.” The surcharge amount is influenced by the package being shipped via ground or air transportation and if it’s a commercial or residential delivery.
New ZIP codes UPS and FedEx will add a Delivery Area Surcharge in
FedEx and UPS already have a DAS in place in numerous ZIP codes across the country, but the additions will particularly sting shippers, given the dense urban areas they cover. The 82 ZIP codes impact almost 1% of the U.S. population, according to Mingshu Bates, Chief Analytics Officer at AFS Logistics.
The emphasis on urban ZIP codes is especially apparent in California’s Bay Area, with both carriers adding a DAS to ZIP codes in the heart of San Francisco.
The additional ZIP codes could help the carriers cover added expenses for serving densely populated areas, like tolls to cross bridges or tunnels. However, the delivery giants could also be using the surcharges to bolster their bottom lines in a soft demand environment, according to Shippingwise Managing Director Nicholas Fanelli.
“These surcharges are huge profit centers for carriers,” he said. “It’s not surprising when volume is down that they’re trying to find new opportunities to increase profits and increase margins.”
UPS said in an emailed statement to Supply Chain Dive that the company regularly reviews its DAS to balance evolving market dynamics with meeting customer needs. Similarly, FedEx evaluates and updates its ZIP code list “to reflect market and cost factors,” it said in a statement.
The timing of the additions, outside of FedEx and UPS’ annual rate and surcharge adjustments, complicates shippers’ ability to mitigate the impact of the fees, said Micheal McDonagh, AFS Logistics’ president of parcel.
“For a shipper, it’s not just affecting the shipments — it’s affecting the outlook and health of the financial statements,” McDonagh said. “You have not prepared for an off-cycle increase.”
However, shippers do have options to minimize the surcharge’s impact, according to Fanelli. This includes consolidating packages destined for the same address into one shipment or incentivizing customers to pick up packages at less-expensive commercial destinations. The surcharge price can also be reduced in contract negotiations.
“It’s definitely something that can be heavily discounted, especially if you have high density and high volume,” Fanelli said.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 19:00 - Dear Mr. President: A Vanilla Bean Shortage Could Be Nearing
Dear Mr. President: A Vanilla Bean Shortage Could Be Nearing
Dear Mr. President, the leading global supplier of vanilla has been battered by a cyclone, potentially leading to a shortage of vanilla ice cream.
Bloomberg reports Madagascar’s vanilla-growing farmland has been battered by Cyclone Gamane, resulting in flooded fields and high winds that stripped vanilla pods from their vines.
Georges Geeraerts, president of the Indian Ocean island’s union of vanilla exporters, told the media outlet that this year’s vanilla harvest could be halved.
“On a bad year, production is about 1,500 tons compared with a range of 2,000 to 2,500 tons,” Geeraerts said.
He noted, “A conservative estimate, ahead of more detailed analysis from the growing region, means that the output for the current harvest could be as low as 1,000 tons.”
What did you say?
And it’s not just vanilla lovers who could soon face higher prices due to tightening supplies. On the West Coast of Africa, especially across the Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, drought and disease have been major catalysts for lower production, which has sent prices through the roof.
In recent weeks, cocoa futures in New York jumped over the $10,000 per ton mark—the highest on record. Prices have subsided to around $9,500 and are expected to trade at these high levels amid tightening supplies.
What’s the plan, Mr. President?
Does the US have strategic vanilla and cocoa bean reserves?
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 18:40 - Israel Warns Iran Of Massive Regional War If Directly Attacked
Israel Warns Iran Of Massive Regional War If Directly Attacked
Update(1831ET): With Israel’s embassies around the world on a heightened state of alert, and extra IDF reservists called up, and home and weekend leave for all combat troops having been abruptly canceled Thursday, the Israeli population is anxiously awaiting a response – with some reports saying residents are already seeking the safety of bomb shelters.
Tehran has vowed that vengeance is coming soon for the Monday Israeli airstrike on its embassy in Damascus. Most pundits believe this will take the form of ballistic missiles raining down on Israeli cities. But Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly vowing that if the Islamic Republic launches missiles from its soil it will ensure “a strong response” from Israel.
Israeli officials have told Axios late in the day that such an act would “take the current conflict to another level” — which most certainly would involve a direct Israel-Iran war and thus the eruption of a broader regional conflict. Axios adds the following observations:
- Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Gaza have attacked Israel but there hasn’t been an attack from Iranian soil.
- A direct Iranian strike on Israel would be unprecedented and could lead to a regional war in the Middle East.
Netanyahu informed his security cabinet Thursday that Israel’s forces have already been engaged with Iran “both directly and via its proxies, and therefore Israel is operating against Iran and its proxies, both defensively and offensively.”
A statement issued by the prime minister’s office laid out: “We will know how to defend ourselves and will operate according to the basic principle of whoever is harming or planning to harm us — we will harm him.” The White House has meanwhile issued a statement shortly after Biden and Netanyahu discussed the Gaza crisis, saying “President Biden made clear that the United States strongly supports Israel in the face of those [Iranian] threats.”
There have meanwhile been unverified reports to emerge saying that the CIA has warned Israel to expect an attack from Iran within the next 48 hours, which has also been picked up in Israeli press.
F-16 jets over Tel Aviv, IDF image * * *
At this point Israel’s ties with key Gulf countries like the UAE are near breaking point, after only a few short years ago diplomatic normalization was hailed through Trump’s Abraham accords. But international and Israeli press reports are confirming the UAE has announced it is halting all coordination on humanitarian aid with Israel.
Further, as Israeli media reports: “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced a suspension of diplomatic coordination with Israel in the wake of the death of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Gaza.” Simultaneously, Israel is busy putting its embassies across the world on high security alert due to the “heightened Iranian response threat” in wake of Monday’s Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus. All of this served to send Brent soaring in the last two hours, with Brent spiking above $90 for the first time since October….
… and sending stocks tumbling to session lows.
With Iran vowing that its retaliation is coming at any moment, Israel’s military is scrambling for readiness, with the latest measure being to pause all home leave for all combat troops.
“The IDF is at war and the issue of the deployment of forces is constantly reviewed as needed,” the Israeli military said.
President Biden is meanwhile is said to be “pissed” with PM Netanyahu over the killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza, though Israel acknowledged that it was a “grave mistake”.
#BREAKING: Israel raises alert level at embassies worldwide to maximum, evacuates missions in several countries, and relocates representatives to secure locations due to heightened Iranian response threat, according to Hebrew media reports. pic.twitter.com/IZGOxl34Ok
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) April 4, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
So far this sounds like more mere empty words of “concern” – a talking point that’s been on repeat from the White House even as its Gaza policy continues slowly fracturing the Democratic base – but Biden is said to have pressed Bibi for “an immediate ceasefire”.
The call readout further said ceasefire is needed to “protect innocent civilians” in Gaza and improve the humanitarian situation. Axios writes that Biden gave his Israeli counterpart an “ultimatum” as the US president “emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 18:31 - House Freedom Caucus Members Earmarked Nearly $1 Billion From Taxpayers
House Freedom Caucus Members Earmarked Nearly $1 Billion From Taxpayers
By Adam Andrzejeski of OpenTheBooks
The House Freedom Caucus was founded in 2015. Self-styled fiscal conservatives promoted themselves as a bulwark against establishment spending that would bankrupt the nation.
It turns out that many are better at breaking their promises than stopping spending.
In these hyper-partisan times, we discovered 22 of the 49 Freedom Caucus members standing shoulder-to-shoulder with The Squad, whose earmarking we reported last week.
Nearly half the Caucus members are cross-dressing as fiscal conservatives – making 210 earmark requests for pet projects in their districts. Even House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA), erstwhile Freedom Caucus member, earmarked $60 million last year and $7 million in 2024.
Bulwark against profligacy? More like Fortress Spend.
Earmarking is a practice that gives individual members with clout in their caucus a ticket to goodies for the folks back home – funding pet projects that otherwise aren’t passing muster despite the seemingly infinite number of federal programs.
Incredibly, members of the conservative Freedom Caucus, the progressive Squad, and the uni-party establishment are an alliance that wasted a stunning $32 billion on earmarks since 2023.
“There is no left or right only up or down.” – Ronald Reagan
House Freedom Caucus members captured $957 million for their own districts using 210 earmarks scattered throughout the omnibus bills in 2023 and 2024. Download the line-by-line database here.
Every dime of these bipartisan earmarks drains the U.S. Treasury from the left and the right.
Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com, an organization I founded and lead, searched out their earmarks and added up the tab.
COMPARISON VS. THE SQUAD
Recently, our auditors quantified the earmarks doled out by the eight members of The Squad, an aggressive group of democratic socialists, who earmarked $224 million on 215 pet projects since 2023. This year, it was $13.9 million for the average Squad member and $111.4 million in total.
In 2024, the individual hauls for the 22 Freedom Caucus members dwarf those of the Squad. These “freedom fighters” earmarked an average of $23.1 million each for a grand total of $508.9 million.
Those Freedom Caucus earmarks cost taxpayers $4.6 million each — more than double the member average for the rest of Congress.
With every dime borrowed against our $34 trillion national debt, this is a moral outrage.
FREEDOM CAUCUS LEADERSHIP
In January 2022, the Caucus laid out four principles for “restoring the people’s voice in Congress.” The fourth principle was to “institute a ban on earmarks.” Laudable!
Over the last two years, none in Caucus leadership except Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO) took earmarks. Boebert jumped on the earmark train in the last round of 2024 spending bills by successfully requesting $20 million.
The Caucus is led by Rep. Bob Good (VA) with Chip Roy (TX) as the policy chair. Rep. Warren Davison (OH) is the Caucus whip and Boebert the communications chair. Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) was formerly in leadership and didn’t take earmarks.
Included in our numbers are former members of the Caucus and earmarkers Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), who earmarked $9.4 million, and Rep. Randy Weber (TX), whose haul was an incredible $432 million since 2023 (see our analysis of Weber below).
Weber was just booted out of the Caucus last month for missing too many meetings, but NOT for his rampant spending!
The Caucus booted Greene for allegedly talking badly about her colleagues last summer.
Both members are included in this investigation because all their earmarks met the summer 2023 submission deadline before they were ousted from the Caucus.
THE GOOD LIST
A simple majority of the Caucus rejected earmarks – against all institutional force – and stuck to their principles and promises. These 27 members are highlighted below and should be thanked by every taxpayer for the courage of their convictions.
If the House Freedom Caucus has a future, these members will lead the way forward.
VOTING NO – BUT 22 TOOK THE DOUGH
Caucus leadership opposed both of this year’s omnibus bills, urging lawmakers to vote “No” because the legislation was “loaded with hundreds of pages of earmarks,” many of which came from… their own members.
The 22 Caucus members earmarked a stunning $510 million in the 2024 bills. Last year, (only) eight members earmarked $448 million.
Rapidly, more and more of the rank-and-file members of the Freedom Caucus are embracing pork-barrel spending through earmarks.
Download the full database here – The Freedom Caucus Member Earmarks 2023 & 2024.
NOTE: On March 6 for the first six bills, Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Max Miller voted “Yes.” Rep. Ronny Jackson abstained. Everyone else voted “No.” https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/202464?Page=5
On March 22 for the next six bills, Speaker Mike Johnson and Rep. Max Miller voted “Yes.” Rep. Troy Nehls abstained. Everyone else voted “No.” https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2024102
PET PROJECTS
Here is just a sample of the projects funded by members of the House Freedom Caucus:
- $190,000 to test electric and magnetic shark repellent. Rep. Greg Steube (FL)
- $500,000 for an elevator at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. Recently, Republicans banned earmarks into museums, however, this one snuck through. Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA)
- $505,000 for equipment at Roanoke College includes a synthetic cadaver (fake corpse) for medical students. Can’t they buy their own cadavers? Rep. Morgan Griffith (VA)
- $1.75 million for the Rural Mental Health Coalition at Texas A&M – a totally local project to brainstorm mental health solutions – No actual mental health care is funded. Rep. Keith Self (TX)
- $2.5 million for a Coastal Conservation Hub where Floridians can “find answers to their coastal restoration questions.” Rep. Bill Posey (FL)
- $5 million for a Naples, Florida sewer-to-septic project phrase II. Phase I was funded locally. Gov. DeSantis vetoed $1.1 million in state money earmarked for phase II. Now, Phase II is funded by federal taxpayers for $5 million — thanks to Rep. Byron Donalds (FL).
- $20 million for an upgrade of Baltimore Ave in Ocean City, Maryland. Construction began with a $20 million estimated cost but was delayed because new estimates showed an actual cost of $40 million. So, Andy Harris (MD) earmarked the $20 million difference. You’re paying for it.
Two members even earmarked money for their alma maters:
- Rep. Clay Higgins (LA) earmarked $3.3 million to Louisiana State for their STEAM Innovation Center (Science, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture and Math). LSU has over $1 billion in their endowment. Maybe they’ll name the building after him?
- Rep. Ronny Jackson (TX) secured $2.1 million for the West Texas A&M University Foundation for an education training facility. The Congressman’s son is a sophomore there.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earmarks
Certain members of the Freedom Caucus argue that the federal bureaucracy is dysfunctional, so they need to hand-pick hundreds of millions of dollars into worthy earmark projects – located in their own districts.
Forty-percent of the overall earmark dollars from Caucus members went into infrastructure projects at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, mostly in Texas and Louisiana: $397.3 million on 12 earmarks.
Rather than working to reform the Corps project backlog, the members are using the irregular earmark process to fund their own picks. For example, on a bi-partisan basis, Congress passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2022 – none of these U.S. Army Corps project amounts were included.
So, when members, like Rep. Weber, say they need earmark power for critical infrastructure projects, remember that argument opens the door for The Squad to earmark their $224 million haul. And every dime is borrowed against the national debt and green-lit though an irregular process.
Last September, Weber posted on social media that “We MUST cut the woke & weaponized spending of the federal gov & we should be reining in the out-of-control spending.” His earmarks contribute to Congressional overspending.
The problem even extends to new Speaker Mike Johnson (LA) with his $68 million in earmarks for the Army and Air Force Reserve; or Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL) with $50 million for the Navy and Air Force advanced helicopter projects.
The U.S. military already secured a record $825 billion in this year’s spending package. If these projects are so important, why isn’t the military itself prioritizing these projects within a $825 billion budget? Why aren’t they funded on merit?
Rather than working hard for reforms at the Pentagon or at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the members and now leaders just participate in the legal corruption of the system.
(Remember, financial practices at the Pentagon are so poor that the agency can’t even account for half of its assets.)
ACTION
It’s time to close the cookie jar and force Congress to do their jobs – oversight, reform and appropriation. There’s no dessert when the national debt is set to cross $35 trillion and the bottom is falling out.
Tens of thousands of regular people have signed our petition calling for a public up or down vote in the U.S. House on earmarks. It’s an election year and the American people deserve to know who is in and who is out on earmarks – the currency of corruption in Congress.
BACKGROUND
Earmarks were banned for 10 years by a bipartisan group led by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn and then-President Barack Obama. Three years ago, House Republicans took a secret vote and joined then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats to bring earmarks back.
In 2024, the two omnibus spending bills contained 8,052 earmarks worth $15.7 billion. In 2023, the packages were stuffed with 7,510 earmarks for $16 billion.
Unfortunately, House Republicans have gone hog-wild for earmarks despite the national debt pushing $35 trillion. (Last summer, at one point in the U.S. House, the top 63 earmarkers on the FY2024 spending bills were Republicans.)
Members of Congress must disclose earmarks online, on 435 of their own Congressional websites. This makes oversight difficult.
However, our auditors at OpenTheBooks convert the public information into easy-to-use Excel databases. Then, we follow the money.
METHODOLOGY
Membership in the House Freedom Caucus is secret. Some members self-disclose and others receive campaign funding through the Caucus’ political action committee (PAC).
Just to test this secrecy, we reached out to Caucus communications staff and they confirmed:
“We don’t publish or share our membership and never have. Thanks”
When we asked, why? Here was the response:
“Just the way we have always operated”
However, in January 2023, the Pew Research Center quantified 49 members and allies of the Caucus with solid research methodologies. So, that’s the list we used for our investigation which spans 2023 and 2024.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 04/04/2024 – 18:20
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