Mar 05

Today’s News 5th March 2023

  • San Francisco 'Opens The Door' To Supervised Drug Consumption Sites
    San Francisco ‘Opens The Door’ To Supervised Drug Consumption Sites

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,

    Supervised drug consumption sites may be coming to San Francisco despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of legislation with a similar plan by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) last year and widespread opposition to the idea.

    The San Francisco County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on Feb. 28 to allow nonprofit groups to run supervised injection sites with private funding. Because ordinances require two readings, the supervisors will cast their final vote on March 7.

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced the proposal last month to abolish “a recently identified permitting barrier” to proceed with an overdose prevention plan – while the City awaits federal guidance on whether or not it can legally fund such programs with taxpayer dollars, the mayor said in a statement.

    The legislation “opens the door for non-profits to operate drug overdose prevention sites in San Francisco,” according to the press release.

    San Francisco city hall in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 23, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    The drug crisis in San Francisco has killed nearly 2,000 people since 2020, and the city’s infamous Tenderloin district is known to be a hotspot for illicit drug deals.

    “This legislation is part of our work to bring down the number of fatal overdoses and tackle the challenges driven by fentanyl head on,” Breed said.

    “We will continue to work with our non-profits partners who are trying to open overdose prevention sites, fully implement our health strategies to help those struggling with addiction in our streets, and work with law enforcement to close the open-air drug markets.”

    Ronen said San Francisco needs overdose prevention sites to save lives and “solutions to open-air drug use and chaotic conditions on the streets.”

    ‘Negative Impacts’

    Jacqui Berlinn, co-founder of Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths, whose son is addicted to fentanyl, said she opposes the creation of so-called safe injection sites.

    Berlinn told the Epoch Times via text message on March 2 that the supervisors haven’t done their due diligence to research and visit safe injection sites in New York City and Vancouver to see “the negative impacts” they’ve have had on surrounding communities.

    “It’s also important to talk to community members, as well as those with substance use disorders and the people who love them,” she said.

    “Governor Newsom understood this when he vetoed Senate Bill 57 last year. The [San Francisco Board of Supervisors] incorrectly believes they know better even after witnessing the abject failure of the Linkage Center in [the Tenderloin district].”

    The Tenderloin Center for the homeless in San Francisco. (Courtesy of the City of San Francisco)

    The Tenderloin Linkage Center, which provides services to the homeless, last year dropped the word “linkage” from its name after very few people were linked to drug recovery services and other programs connected with the site.

    Wiener’s Senate Bill 57 would have permitted the creation of overdose prevention programs, including safe injection sites, where addicts could use illegal drugs at supervised facilities in Oakland and cities in Los Angeles and San Francisco counties.

    “The unlimited number of safe injection sites that this bill would authorize—facilities which would authorize well into the later part of this decade—could induce a world of unintended consequences,” Newsom said in his veto message on Aug. 22.

    While “it is possible that these sites would help improve the safety and health of our urban areas,” the chance they could fail and make California’s drug problem worse “is not a risk we can take,” Newsom said in his veto message in September.

    Homeless people gather near drug dealers in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 22, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Newsom said at the time he would be open to discussion with local officials to come back to the table with a proposal for a “truly limited pilot program” and “comprehensive plans for siting, operations, community partnerships, and fiscal sustainability that demonstrate how these programs will be run safely and effectively.”

    City Takes Matter ‘Into Its Own Hands’

    Wiener issued a statement on Aug. 22 saying the veto was “tragic.”

    “With two successive Governors vetoing this bill, it’s crystal clear the State isn’t going to step up. San Francisco needs to take matters into its own hands & open up safe consumption sites to save lives,” Wiener wrote on Twitter.

    But, Berlinn disagrees.

    “The leaders of the city need to prioritize treatment and recovery before implementing sites like these that only perpetuate the open-air drug markets,” she said.

    “San Francisco can’t even keep the area in front of methadone clinics clear of drug dealers and users. My own son has to walk through this toxic environment every day that he goes to the clinic for his treatment. He is actively trying to get well and free from his addiction, but the city isn’t able to keep the route to these clinics safe.”

    Members of Mothers Against Drug Deaths hold a chain of posters in front of the Tenderloin Linkage Center in San Francisco on Feb. 5, 2022. (Cynthia Cai/The Epoch Times)

    Recently, Berlinn helped form a new group called North America Recovers, a nonpartisan coalition of more than 20 American and Canadian community leaders, parents of the homeless, and recovering addicts seeking federal, state, and local actions that “support addiction recovery—not addiction enablement,” including untreated mental illness and homelessness.

    Federal and state laws currently prohibit supervised injection sites from using government funds to operate. San Francisco’s 2020 ordinance would allow them, but only with state approval which the city has—so far—failed to achieve.

    In 2021, New York established a privately funded overdose prevention site which allows addicts to bring illegal drugs such as fentanyl and heroin and use them under the supervision of trained staff. They also provide counseling.

    “The opioid epidemic continues to take an immense toll on our City and claim the lives of far too many San Franciscans,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement. “To save lives, I continue to support a non-profit moving forward with New York City’s model of overdose prevention centers. Repealing this ordinance is one step towards that goal.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 23:30

  • The Global Internet Kill Switch
    The Global Internet Kill Switch

    The global number of internet shutdowns has been rising again for the second year in a row.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, a newly released report by Access Now puts the number of internet shutdowns in 2022 at 187. Just under half – 84 – happened in India…

    Infographic: The Global Internet Kill Switch | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In the year of 2020, the number of internet shutdowns dipped.

    Many government use internet shutdowns in connection with curbing protests and dissent and the pandemic likely caused fewer of these events to happen as stay-at-home orders were issued and limits on gatherings were imposed.

    The highest number of internet shutdowns since reporting started in 2016 was reached in 2019 at 213. The same year also saw the highest figure of internet shutdowns in India – 121. Despite the country consistently registering the most internet shutdowns since the inception of the survey, 2022 saw India’s share in total global internet shutdowns decrease to the lowest point in years. Simultaneously, the total number of countries which employ internet shutdowns has risen, surpassing the 2019 number again as of 2021.

    Shutdowns in India clustered in Kashmir in 2022, but also in Rajasthan, where they have been used during protests (and preemptively when protests were expected), but also during exams in recent months. Both regions have seen violence often tied to tension between Hindus and Muslims, in Kashmir also in connection with the Muslim-led independence movement.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 23:00

  • The Attack Of The Subversive Elites
    The Attack Of The Subversive Elites

    Authored by Michael Rectenwald via The Mises Institute,

    It is tempting, as Naomi Wolf has done recently, to ascribe the breakdown of Western civilization to the debasing of “Judeo-Christian” ethics and the reemergence of malignant supernatural forces. Witnessing the many assaults on the infrastructure and social order of the United States of late, I wouldn’t rule out metaphysical causality either. But to blame the pagan gods, or, in specifically Christian terms, to blame Satan, and not his legions, is to take comfort in an obscured perspective on the current global arrangement. To lay culpability strictly on gaseous, unknowable forces is to let the global elite off the hook.

    As I write in The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty, the Western world is in the grips and under the control of “subversive elites.” With inordinate power and influence, these people aren’t naturally superior but have as their object the undermining of Western civilization.

    They can be found in such globalist “Round Table” organizations as the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House), the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg Group, the Club of Rome, and the World Economic Forum (WEF); in their main international intergovernmental counterpart, the United Nations (UN); and in the monetary organizations that fund the globalist regime, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. All these organizations have had as their objective the undermining of nation states, the destruction of the free market, and the control of the world economic system by a globalist elite. These objectives are now being conducted under the rubric of “stakeholder capitalism,” with the WEF running interference for and coordinating the “public-private partnerships” that are ushering in stakeholder capitalism, supposedly to combat “climate change.”

    In the economic sphere, stakeholder capitalism is a cartel scheme that benefits the compliant and destroys the noncompliant. And the economics of stakeholder capitalism spill into a governance and geopoliti­cal model: states and favored corporations in “pub­lic-private partnerships” in control of governance. The configuration yields a corporate-state hybrid largely unaccountable to the constituents of national governments. As Kurt Nimmo writes:

    According to the Transnational Institute in the Netherlands, this “initiative” proposes a transition away from intergovernmental decision-making towards a system of multi-stakeholder governance. In other words, by stealth, they are marginalising a recognised model where we vote in governments who then negotiate treaties which are then ratified by our elected representatives with a model where a self-selected group of “stakeholders” make decisions on our behalf. (emphasis added)

    The cozy relationship between multinational corporations and governments has even aroused the scorn of a few leftist academics. Some note that the UN-WEF partnership and the governance model of the WEF represent at least the privatization of the UN’s Agenda 2030, with the WEF bringing corporate partners, money, and supposed expertise on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4-IR) to the table. And the WEF’s governance model extends well beyond the UN, affecting the constitution and behavior of governments worldwide. This usurpation has led political scientist Ivan Wecke to call the WEF’s governmental redesign of the world system “a corporate takeover of global governance.”

    This is true, but the WEF model also represents the governmentalization of private industry. Un­der Schwab’s stakeholder capitalism and the mul­tistakeholder governance model, governance is not only increasingly privatized, but also and more im­portantly, corporations are deputized as major addi­tions to governments and intergovernmental bodies. The state is thereby extended, enhanced, and aug­mented by the addition of enormous corporate as­sets. These include funding directed at “sustainable development” to the exclusion of the noncompliant as well as the use of Big Data, artificial intelligence, and 5G to monitor and control citizens.

    But first the conditions for global government must be established and these conditions include the breakdown of national sovereignty, the abrogation of natural rights, and the reduction of the standard of living of the vast majority.

    “Affluence,” writes Sean Fleming for the WEF, “is the biggest threat to our world. . . . True sustainability will only be achieved through drastic lifestyle changes.”

    Thus, these elites are not only subversive but also destructive. It is difficult to conclude that the many recent assaults on the infrastructure of the US are anything but part of a coordinated campaign to destroy productive capacities and terrorize the population. Consider the use of vaccine mandates to choke supply chains, the multiple train derailments and chemical bombs, the undetonated bombs on railroad tracks, the mysterious explosions at metals plants and oil facilities, the “coincidental” fires at food processing facilities and chicken egg farms, the hazardous materials explosions in public transportation facilities, the shutdown of a major baby formula production lab, etc.

    Consider these in connection with the operations of cultural, social, and political demoralization—the covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates, the quasi-endorsed Black Lives Matter–Antifa riots, the election legerdemain, the January 6 show trials, the unfettered immigration, the foisting of the transgender movement and critical race theory on elementary school students, the differential treatment of crime along political lines (with the apparent rewarding of criminals carrying out subversive acts and the imprisonment of those who merely protest the regime)—and the effect is a politicized anarcho-tyranny unleashed on the populace. Do not all these phenomena have the common effect of producing social and economic insecurity and learned helplessness, while cowing any political opposition into submission?

    Yet it is essentially impossible to prove that a coordinated campaign by subversive elites is afoot. As internal Twitter documents made available to the public in December reveal, one of the most powerful communications and ideological apparatuses on earth had gone to great lengths to snuff out and filter the visibility of any story that might provide a window into the coordination of the new world order.

    If, however, as Pareto suggested, a governing elite is inevitable, then, as Jeff Deist has argued, we are certainly under the wrong elites. Whether a circulation of elites can be completed in time to save the world economic system from ruin and the majority from destitution and veritable slavery is a question of no little urgency.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 22:30

  • These Are The Most (And Least) Expensive Cities To Live In
    These Are The Most (And Least) Expensive Cities To Live In

    There are many benefits to living in an iconic city like New York or Singapore, but the amenities and exclusivity can come at a high cost.

    As Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop details below, cities become “expensive” due to a variety of factors such as high demand for housing, a concentration of high-paying businesses and industries, and a high standard of living. Additionally, factors such as taxes, transportation costs, and availability of goods and services can also contribute to the overall cost of living in global cities.

    The infographic above uses data from EIU to rank the world most and least expensive cities to live in. To make the list, the EIU examines 400+ prices for over 200 products and services in 172 cities, surveying a variety of businesses to track price fluctuations over the last year.

    Inflation + Strong Currency = Expensive Cities

    If you live in a city where many residents find it challenging to put a roof over their heads, food on their plates, and make ends meet, you live in an expensive city.

    But if this inflation is compounded with a strong national currency, you may live in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

    Singapore and New York City tied for the first rank amongst the world’s most expensive cities in 2022, pushing Israel’s Tel Aviv from the first place in 2021 to the third place in 2022. Both these cities had high inflation and a strong currency. Surprisingly, this is the Big Apple’s first time atop the ranking.

    The city with one of the most expensive real estate markets worldwide, Hong Kong ranked fourth in this list, followed by Los Angeles, which moved up from its ninth rank in 2021.

    Poor Economies = Cheaper Cities

    Asia continues to dominate the list of the world’s least expensive cities, followed by parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Though affordability sounds good at face value, sitting at the bottom of the ranking isn’t necessarily a coveted position.

    While the cost of living in some of the cities in these nations is low, it comes at the price of a weak currency, poor economy, and, in many cases, political and economic turmoil.

    The decade-long conflict in Syria weakened the Syrian pound, led to a spiraling inflation and fuel shortages, and further collapsed its economy. It’s no surprise that its capital city of Damascus has maintained its position as the world’s cheapest city.

    Tripoli and Tehran, the capitals of Libya and Iran, respectively, follow next on this list, reflecting their weakened economies.

    Meanwhile, seven cities in Asia with the common denominator of high-income inequality and low wages dominate the list of the world’s cheapest cities. These include three Indian cities, Tashkent in Uzbekistan, Almaty in Kazakhstan, Pakistan’s most populous city of Karachi, and Sri Lankan capital–Colombo.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 22:00

  • Trump Promises "Quantum Leap" For A New America
    Trump Promises “Quantum Leap” For A New America

    Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

    Former President Donald Trump has revealed his dream for a new America ahead of the 2024 presidential race, promising to bring back the country’s boldness “in a very big way” and heralding a “quantum leap” in living standards.

    “Past generations of Americans pursued big dreams and daring projects that once seemed absolutely impossible. They pushed across an unsettled continent and built new cities in the wild frontier. They transformed American life with the interstate highway system, magnificent it was, and they launched a vast network of satellites into orbit all around the earth. But today, our country has lost its boldness. Under my leadership, we will get it back in a very big way,” Trump said in a video address released Friday.

    “If you look at just three years ago, what we were doing was unthinkable. How good it was, how great it was for our country. Our objective will be a quantum leap in the American standard of living. That’s what will happen.”

    Pointing out that a third of the American landmass is owned by the federal government, Trump noted that just a “very small portion of that land” amounting to “one-half of one percent” can be used to hold a contest to “charter up to 10 new cities and award them to the best proposals for development.”

    “In other words, we’ll actually build new cities in our country again. These Freedom Cities will reopen the frontier, reignite American imagination, and give hundreds of thousands of young people and other people, all hard-working families, a new shot at home ownership and in fact the American dream.”

    Transportation, Manufacturing

    A “big opportunity” that Trump cites in the video is in the transportation sector. In the United States and China, numerous companies are “racing” to develop vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

    In the last century, it was the United States that led the automotive revolution. “I want to ensure that America, not China, leads the revolution in air mobility. These breakthroughs can transform commerce, bring a giant infusion of wealth into rural America, and connect families in our country in new ways,” Trump said.

    An American company engaged in vertical takeoff vehicle development is California-based Wisk. Last January, Wisk announced that it had secured $450 million in funding from Boeing.

    In August, San Jose-based Archer Aviation received a $10 million deposit from United Airlines for an order of 100 electric takeoff and landing air taxis.

    Trump also proposed a “strategic national manufacturing initiative” that will turn “forgotten communities into hives of industry.” This will ensure that these communities produce goods that the United States will no longer have to import from China. The initiative is going to be “very, very successful.”

    The American manufacturing sector is currently struggling through various challenges like inflation, talent scarcity, supply chain problems, and economic uncertainty.

    “Manufacturers continue to grapple with talent challenges that may limit the industry’s growth momentum. Moreover, supply-chain issues, including sourcing bottlenecks, global logistics backlogs, cost pressures, and cyberattacks, will likely remain critical challenges in 2023,” Deloitte said in its 2023 manufacturing outlook report.

    Lowering Costs, Other Initiatives

    Trump also promised to introduce a “major initiative” to lower the cost of living, especially focusing on reducing the cost of a new car and the cost of building single-family homes.

    Annual inflation has remained above 6 percent every single month since October 2021. New vehicle inflation has remained above 5 percent every month since June 2021.

    The median sales price of homes in the country hit $467,000 in the fourth quarter, up 10. 4 percent from the same period a year back. The United States is estimated to be facing a shortage of 3.8 million to 5 million homes.

    Trump also intends to ask Congress to support “baby bonuses” for young parents, a move he hopes will trigger a “baby boom.”

    He promised to carry out a “great modernization and beautification campaign” in 50 states that will get rid of ugly buildings, refurbish public spaces and parks, ensure a pristine environment, make cities and towns more livable, and build “towering monuments to our true American heroes.”

    “Very importantly, I will also make sure all of these new places are safe. We love and cherish our police. They will do the job the way they have to,” Trump said.

    “It is time to start talking about greatness for our country again. I will dramatically increase living standards and build a future that brings our country together through excitement, opportunity, and success.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 21:30

  • WHO Urges Countries To Reveal Intel On COVID Origins After FBI Director's Statements
    WHO Urges Countries To Reveal Intel On COVID Origins After FBI Director’s Statements

    Following the dramatic narrative shift on Covid origins by US authorities, the World Health Organization is asking any governments with intelligence on the virus’ origins to come forward and present their information. 

    “If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it’s essential for that information to be shared with WHO and the international scientific community,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday, coming quickly on the heels of FBI Director Christopher Wray saying this week that the source of the pandemic was “most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan”.

    Via Reuters

    The WHO chief said further, “Not so as to apportion blame but to advance our understanding of how this pandemic started, so we can prevent, prepare for and respond to future epidemics and pandemics.”

    “WHO continues to call for [China] to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. To that effect, I have written to, and spoken with, high-level Chinese leaders on multiple occasions, as recently as just a few weeks ago.”

    Tedros also stressed, and not for the first time, that “Until then, all hypotheses on the origins of the virus remain on the table.”

    Though of course, it’s highly doubtful that Beijing will be feeling any real pressure as a result of this very much belated statement. It’s important to recall how he spent the early months of the pandemic publicly kowtowing to China.

    The WHO came under heavy fire early into the pandemic for praising China’s “transparent” response to the pandemic, repeating misinformation from Beijing related to human-to-human transmission, and bowing to pressure from Chinese President Xi Jinping not to declare the Covid-19 outbreak an emergency.

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

    Yet, while initially promoting the natural origin theory, Tedros and the WHO have reportedly become far more ‘open’ to the lab leak theory as time has passed.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 21:00

  • Snowed-In And Terrified: Trapped California Mountain Residents Plea For Help
    Snowed-In And Terrified: Trapped California Mountain Residents Plea For Help

    Authored by Jamie Joseph via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The historic storm that swept through California over the last week—prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency March 1—has passed.

    A vehicle is partially covered in snow, in the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernardino County near Los Angeles County, in Mount Baldy, Calif., on Feb. 24, 2023. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    But for residents living in San Bernardino Mountain communities, the nightmare has only just begun, as many remain snowed in rationing food, medications, water, and heat.

    “I can’t even walk 50 feet because it’s up to my shoulders,” Lake Arrowhead resident Becky Gardner told The Epoch Times.

    A collage of screenshots taken on March 3, 2023 of Lake Arrowhead resident Becky Gardner’s backyard before and after a major storm swept across Southern California. (Courtesy of Becky Gardner)

    Gardner said she panicked when she saw pictures on social media of some locals spending hours digging out snow from on-top gas meters to prevent gas leaks. Melting snow, experts say, can block a vent on a meter’s regulator disrupting gas pressure which could lead to a fire or explosion.

    The San Bernardino County Fire Department advised residents to do so if they can get to their meters safely, according to a March 2 post on Twitter.

    Gardner said she is concerned for her elderly neighbors, who have also been stuck inside for over a week. With uncertainty of when roads will be cleared, she said she is preparing to save her last logs of wood for her fireplace.

    Like Gardner, anxiety and frustration have been mounting for some residents who remain trapped.

    “It’s been about 10 days,” Lake Arrowhead resident Casey McLelland told The Epoch Times.

    McLelland said the family has lived in the area since the 1970s and they say they’ve never seen anything like this.

    “This is truly, truly one of a kind,” she said.

    Some residents contemplate blowing through roadblocks (ZH: Screenshot)

    She said her 90-year-old grandmother, who lives across town by herself, is out of medication for her arthritis and has been without heat since last night.

    She said she is losing hope and has lost track of time.

    “If you have a life or death emergency right now, more than likely you’re going to die,” she said. “I’m not trying to be dire or dramatic, but that’s kind of where it’s at this moment, because even if a fire department gets the call, they can’t get to you,” she said.

    According to the National Weather Service, Lake Arrowhead received more than 8 feet of snow over the last week. Normally, the region accumulates around 13 feet of snow each year.

    Since the most recent storm, San Bernardino County crews have been working to clear roads as fast as possible and deliver much-needed essentials to desperately trapped residents and visitors.

    “They’re all doing the same mission,” San Bernardino Cal Fire spokesperson Allison Hester Lee Told The Epoch Times.

    According to Lee, crews are prioritizing locations to clear first based on callers who are without food or water, or have a life-threatening emergency.

    Nearby Twin Peaks was hit the hardest. According to county officials, they received nearly 800 calls for help during the storm and now in its aftermath—the most for the entire San Bernardino mountain region.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 20:30

  • Residents Told To Shelter In Place After Norfolk Southern Freight Train Derails In Ohio
    Residents Told To Shelter In Place After Norfolk Southern Freight Train Derails In Ohio

    Another Norfolk Southern freight train has derailed in Ohio. 

    “The Clark County Emergency Management Agency is asking residents within 1,000 feet of a train derailment at Ohio 41 near the Prime Ohio Business Park to shelter-in-place out of an abundance of caution,” the county wrote in a Facebook post. 

    The post continued, “We ask that all residents in need of travel to Ohio 41 find alternate routes. Local and state officials are on scene, including the Springfield Fire Rescue Division and the Springfield Police Department.” 

    The Ohio State Highway Patrol reported 20 railcars of a 212-car Norfolk Southern freight train derailed while traveling southbound in Springfield.

    A video shows the moment the freight train derailed. 

    A drone video reveals a variety of railcars, such as boxcars, hopper wagons, and what appear to be tanker cars, were involved in the derailment. 

    Local media reported that a hazmat crew had arrived at the incident area. 

    Clean-up operations by Norfolk Southern crews are expected soon. 

    Saturday’s train derailment occurred one month after the train crash in East Palestine. 

    … and this aged well. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 20:15

  • Another FBI Whistleblower Says He Was Forced To Inflate Domestic Terrorism Numbers
    Another FBI Whistleblower Says He Was Forced To Inflate Domestic Terrorism Numbers

    Another FBI whistleblower has stepped forward to tell the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Federal Government that the agency had him boost domestic terrorism figures by dividing cases into multiple subdivisions.

    FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle from the Kansas City field office told Congressional investigators that the agency had him divide a single domestic terrorism case into “four different cases,” so that the FBI could go to Congress and say “look at all the domestic terrorism we’ve investigated,” Fox News reports.

    “Where, really, I was working on one case,” O’Boyle continued. “But, the FBI can then say, well, he actually had four, and so we need you to give us more money because look at how big of a threat all this domestic terrorism is.“

    He also said that the FBI created a specific threat tag for pro-lifers “THREATSCOTUS2022” amid the leak of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center – as opposed to the raging pro-abortionists nationwide.

    According to O’Boyle, the threat tag was shifted and “began focusing on pro-life adherence.”

    “When this threat tag came out, it was like, why are you focusing on pro-life people?” he said in an interview reviewed by Fox News. “It’s pro-choice people who are the ones protesting or otherwise threatening violence in front of Supreme Court justices’ houses.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 20:00

  • States Can Break Through Pharma's Liability Shield
    States Can Break Through Pharma’s Liability Shield

    Via The Brownstone Institute,

    Legislators in Arkansas have a simple question before them: if pharmaceutical executives deliberately withhold knowledge of a product’s adverse effects, should they be criminally liable if patients suffer serious harm from the product?

    The federal government effectively sold the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial to the largest lobbying force in the country. 

    A primary purpose of the Seventh Amendment was to prevent powerful forces from warping the legal system to protect themselves. The convergence of the pharmaceutical industry and our federal government, outlined in the previous article, sacrificed this constitutional right for a corporate liability shield. 

    Now, it is largely up to state legislatures to restore citizens’ rights against the state-subsidized pharmaceutical companies that rake in billions from their Covid products.

    In Arkansas, Senate Bill 8 would make it criminal for pharmaceutical executives to knowingly hide, conceal, or withhold information regarding a medical product’s adverse effects if the product results in death or serious injury. 

    The Arkansas GOP can enact this legislation without making concessions. Republicans outnumber Democrats 82 to 18 in the State House of Representatives and 29 to 6 in the State Senate. 

    Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for a “new generation of Republican leadership” in her response to the 2023 State of the Union. She boasted that she had “repealed COVID orders and said never again to authoritarian mandates and shutdowns.”

    Mandates have been lucrative for Big Pharma. Covid products accounted for more than half of Pfizer’s record $100 billion in revenue in 2022. These companies received the benefit of taxpayer funding without the risk of legal liability.. 

    Now, Governor Sanders can have her state lead by example by demanding accountability for harm, misdeeds, and deception from our country’s most powerful corporate forces.

    Overcoming Big Pharma’s P.R. Campaigns

    The pharmaceutical industry has dedicated billions of dollars to marketing and lobbying to combat its history of unjustment enrichment, fraud, and criminal pleas. 

    The largest companies dedicate more spending to brand management than to researching and developing drugs. In 2020, Pfizer spent $12 billion on sales and marketing and $9 billion on R&D. That year, Johnson & Johnson devoted $22 billion to sales and marketing and $12 billion to R&D. 

    Additionally, Big Pharma remains the largest lobbying force in the country. From 2020 to 2022, the pharmaceutical and health products industry spent $1 billion on lobbying; this was more than the combined spending of the oil, gas, alcohol, gambling, farming, and defense industries in that time period. 

    The industry’s information initiatives extend to medical journals. Companies conduct research, write reports, and pay doctors to list themselves as the authors to enhance their reports’ credibility in a system known as “medical ghost-writing.” As of 2017, half of the editors of American medical journals receive payments from drug companies. 

    Despite billions of dollars in annual investments to control the information surrounding the industry, Americans still overwhelmingly distrust Big Pharma. Now, Arkansas Republicans must choose whether to side with pharmaceutical executives or their constituents. 

    Both parties campaign against the excesses of the industry – President Biden bemoans domestic drug prices while Republicans announce their opposition to mandates. But the GOP has yet to deliver on its rhetoric despite state-level opportunities to curb the excesses of Big Pharma and impose liability.

    Media outlets, with the exception of Daniel Horowitz of The Blaze, have largely ignored state and local initiatives. 

    North Dakota and West Virginia are considering bills that would prevent state agencies from requiring vaccines “unless the manufacturer of the medical product is liable for any death or serious injury caused by the medical product.” In Kansas, HB 2007 proposes prohibiting the state from requiring school children to receive Covid vaccines.

    These are sensible reforms with popular appeal, particularly in conservative states. Executives shouldn’t profit while withholding information about dangerous side effects of their products; companies shouldn’t enjoy government-mandated windfalls without the risk of liability; children shouldn’t be required to receive vaccines that don’t work for a virus that doesn’t harm them. Yet, these initiatives have stalled despite Republican supermajorities in state legislatures.

    While our news media focuses on federal squabbles, state and local initiatives often have a more direct impact on our daily freedoms. State and local edicts stripped Americans of their right to travel, shut down schools, and arrested dissidents. Going forward, they will likely determine individuals’ rights to resist the federal-corporate partnership that protects Big Pharma. 

    These state initiatives cut both ways.

    The Tennessee State Senate recently passed SB 11, which makes protections against COVID mandates and lockdowns permanent. Meanwhile, New York Assembly Bill 8378 aims to require Covid vaccines for all students, guaranteeing a steady demand of clients for pharmaceutical companies. 

    State officials across the nation can help usher in the “new generation of Republican leadership” that Governor Sanders described. They can fight against the federal government’s insulation of Big Pharma, affirm their commitment to the justice of the Seventh Amendment, and champion the rights of their citizens against the widely distrusted, highly profitable industry. 

    If they don’t, they risk repeating the familiar trend of Republican leadership: shilling for corporate interests while ignoring the will of their voters.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 19:30

  • US Issues Ultra-Rare Rebuke Of Israeli Top Minister: "Repugnant & Disgusting"
    US Issues Ultra-Rare Rebuke Of Israeli Top Minister: “Repugnant & Disgusting”

    The Biden administration this week issued a very rare rebuke directed at close US ally Israel, which receives billions in foreign aid annually, following controversial remarks by far-right Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich.

    State Department spokesman Ned Price called statements by Smotrich “irresponsible, repugnant and disgusting” in what was probably the most strongly worded condemnation directed at a top Israeli minister in recent history.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Economy Minister Nir Barkat. AFP/Getty Images

    Smotrich earlier in the week called on Israelis to “wipe out” the Palestinian village of Hawara, a West Bank town which recently saw a wave of settler violence which left at least one Palestinian dead and injured over 100 others, amid a scene of torched homes and cars.

    Price emphasized this week that the Biden administration condemns Smotrich’s comments and considers them as an “incitement to violence”. He then said the US calls on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to publicly disavow Smotrich’s comments and to urge the opposite, for the sake of peace.

    According to The Times of Israel:

    US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s call to “wipe out” the Palestinian town of Huwara were “irresponsible, repugnant and disgusting.”

    “Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amounts to incitement to violence,” he says after being asked about the senior minister’s comments during a press briefing.

    “We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments,” Price adds.

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    The publication underscored that the rare US-Israeli sharp disagreement “came days after a terrorist shot dead two Israeli brothers who were driving through Huwara, which was followed by many settlers rampaging through the Nablus-area town in what led to the death of one Palestinian, some 300 injured — four of whom seriously — and dozens of vehicles and buildings torched.”

    All of this has threatened to fray US-Israel relations, as Al Monitor reports:

    An unnamed National Security Council spokesperson told the American press on Thursday that no meetings were planned for next week between Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and any American officials, not even officials in the US Treasury department.

    Smotrich is scheduled to arrive in Washington for the annual event of Israel Bonds organization, taking place on March 12-14.

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    Palestinian officials have condemned what they called a “pogrom” – and tit for tat revenge attacks have continued, with the situation continuing to be at boiling point, particularly in the Nablus Governate region of the Palestinian Authority West Bank.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 19:00

  • Discover Credit Cards Will Track Gun Purchases From April
    Discover Credit Cards Will Track Gun Purchases From April

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Credit card provider Discover Financial Services will soon allow its network to track purchases made using payment cards at gun stores—triggering criticism that such activity leads to targeting gun owners.

    A pile of credit and debit cards in a file photo dated July 18, 2018. (Andrew Matthews/PA)

    In September, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) had launched a Merchant Category Code (MCC) for gun retailers. ISO is the organization responsible for classification of merchant categories used by payment cards. Discover told Reuters that it plans to implement the code beginning April. “We remain focused on continuing to protect and support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy of cardholders,” the company said.

    Discover’s decision has attracted strong criticism online. “This is a MASSIVE problem Congress needs to address, IMMEDIATELY!” Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in a March 3 tweet.

    “Discover Card will begin tracking firearm purchases starting next month. There are more than 50 million Discover cards in use right now. They are coming for your guns little by little,” Congressman Troy E. Nehls (R-Texas) said in a March 3 tweet.

    “It’s called a Social Credit System. I have been warning ppl this is coming. This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said radio host Doll Arntzen.

    Social Credit System is a national credit rating system used by Beijing that ranks and blacklists people in China based on criteria approved by the communist regime.

    “American citizens should be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights without fear of being tracked or discrimination against. We’re solving this in West Virginia with the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act. Congress needs to follow our lead,” said Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) in a tweet.

    Intrusive Action

    In a Feb. 27 post, the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) “lobbying” arm Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) pointed out that Discover’s statement to Reuters did not provide an explanation as to how the company will determine which purchases are suspicious enough to warrant reporting.

    Discover also did not reveal whether customers will be provided with any information in case their purchases have triggered an alert.

    “Use of the MCC can only inform a credit card company that a certain amount of money was spent at what is considered a firearm retailer. It cannot be used to track what was actually bought, much less determine why the purchase was made,” the post said.

    “Thus, the program inherently poses a risk to consumers of needlessly intrusive and harassing consequences for completely lawful and innocent conduct.”

    Tagging Gun Purchases, Legislation

    A Discover company spokesperson told Reuters that other payment network firms have also decided to impose the new MCC code in April, without naming the firms. “We were following the industry for consistent implementation,” the spokesperson said.

    Back in September, Mastercard, Visa, and American Express also announced that they will be assigning category codes for sales that take place at gun stores and on gun-related purchases from stores dealing in sporting goods.

    Discover is a minor player in the U.S. credit and debit card industry, only accounting for 2 percent of the $9.56 trillion in purchases made through the payment methods last year. Visa had a 61 percent share, followed by Mastercard with 26 percent, and American Express with 11 percent.

    Meanwhile, states are taking action to counter payment firms’ moves to track gun purchases. On Jan. 12, West Virginia introduced the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act which bars financial institutions from disclosing financial records “in a manner that singles out or discriminates against any person based on activity protected by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

    The bill warned that the new MCC code for gun purchases will pave the way for “unprecedented surveillance” of individuals who abide by Second Amendment activity as well as “unprecedented information sharing” between the

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 18:30

  • All Portland Walmart Stores To "Permanently Close" Amid Theft Wave
    All Portland Walmart Stores To “Permanently Close” Amid Theft Wave

    In order to address the issue of shoplifting and retail theft, the final two Walmart stores in the city of Portland will shutter their doors in late March. 

    FOX 12 Oregon reported that the Walmart locations at 1123 North Hayden Meadows Drive and 4200 Southeast 82nd Avenue at the Eastport Plaza would close on Mar. 24. 

    “The decision to close these stores was made after a careful review of their overall performance. We consider many factors, including current and projected financial performance, location, population, customer needs, and the proximity of other nearby stores when making these difficult decisions. After we decide to move forward, our focus is on our associates and their transition, which is the case here,” a spokesperson with Walmart told the local media outlet.

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    The announced closures come amid a wave of violent crime across the Portland metro area, which includes retail thefts, armed robberies, and homicides. The city has also seen a surge of violent protests from ANTIFA and BLM groups. 

    Oregon Live reported that in 2022, Portland set a new record for homicides with 101 cases, surpassing the previous year’s record of 92. Meanwhile, a National Retail Federation report revealed that retailers experienced an average surge of 26.5% in organized retail crime (ORC) incidents in 2021 compared to the previous year.

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    Data from the Portland Police Bureau indicated that between January 2022 and January 2023, the city witnessed more than 6,000 burglary incidents. Additionally, the data revealed over 27,000 larceny offenses.

    The epic failure of progressive city leadership pushing a failed ‘woke agenda’ has resulted in lawlessness in some parts of the metro area. Companies are losing money as thefts soar, and a breaking point has been reached. An exodus of businesses will only hurt low-income residents who need the pricing power at discount stores.

    Recall a similar exodus with other retailers is happening in other progressive cities across the US, such as San Francisco.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 18:00

  • Biden Walks Away From Question About Holding China Accountable For COVID Origin
    Biden Walks Away From Question About Holding China Accountable For COVID Origin

    Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Days after FBI Director Christopher Wray said the origin of the COVID pandemic is “most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” President Joe Biden abruptly walked away from the White House press corps when asked about whether he intends to hold China accountable.

    President Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he departs the White House in Washington, on March 3, 2023. Biden is scheduled to travel to his home in Wilmington, Delaware today. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

    On March 3, the president approached the waiting press corps on his way from the White House residence to Marine One.

    As he came within earshot, a reporter asked him, “On COVID origin, will you hold China accountable?”

    At the question, Biden “put both hands up in a shrug, seeming annoyed, and then turned and walked away toward Marine One,” according to a White House pool report.

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    The president’s apparent reluctance to speak about the issue came after the recent revelation that the Department of Energy, which oversees 17 U.S. laboratories, believes as early as 2021 that COVID-19 most likely emerged from a lab leak.

    President Joe Biden reacts to questions from journalists moments before departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on March 3, 2023, as he travels to Wilmington, Delaware. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

    The conclusion, reached with “low confidence,” was made in an updated classified intelligence report to the White House and key congressional members in 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.

    The FBI had previously arrived at the same conclusion earlier in 2021 with “moderate confidence.”

    Wray confirmed in a Fox News appearance earlier this week that his agency still holds that view.

    “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 17:30

  • Prof Demands 'Black Bereavement' Leave After Killing Of Any Black Person
    Prof Demands ‘Black Bereavement’ Leave After Killing Of Any Black Person

    For the latest evidence that woke academia is dragging Western society into madness, we present Southern Illinois University Edwardsville professor Angel Jones, who argues that black university professors and staff should be allowed bereavement leave whenever any black person is victimized…anywhere.  

    Angel Jones discusses her book, Street Scholar (Chloe Wolfe via The Alestle)

    Writing at Times Higher Education, Jones accuses American colleges and universities of disregarding Black faculty and staff’s mental and emotional well-being in the aftermath of “societal events” involving a black person. Contrasting against the “bare minimum” response that’s offered to black students, Jones asks: 

    “Where is the acknowledgment of our pain? Where are our counselling services? Where is our grace for missed meetings and deadlines while we mourn?“

    Underscoring the broad range of qualifying events, Jones spotlights the example of Tyre Nichols, the black man savagely beaten to death in January by…five other black men with Memphis police badges.  

    Jones, whose work is “grounded in Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Feminism,” ridicules the notion that, as a black woman, she would be “expected to return to ‘business as usual’ on Monday after seeing a member of my community murdered on Friday.” The SIU-E campus is more than 300 miles from Memphis, and Jones gives no indication of any personal relationship with Nichols. 

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    In a fleeting moment of clarity, Jones recognizes that “some may have thought I was joking when I mentioned Black bereavement leave, but I wasn’t.“

    As for how much of a free pass black faculty and staff should receive after a black person is victimized anywhere within range of the internet, Jones calls for “flexibility”: 

    “Some may need a day off while others may just need to be able to work from home. Some may need a small extension on a deadline while others may need to have something removed from their plate completely.”

    Jones university biography reads something like the profile pages of woke-parody Twitter accounts:

    • Expertise: “racial microaggressions, Racial Battle Fatigue, and gendered-racism”

    • Research focus: “The impact of racism on the mental health of Black students at historically White institutions”

    • Recent study: “How Black graduate women respond to and cope with gendered-racial microaggression”

    • Next study: “Exploring the experiences of Afro-Latina students with Racial Battle Fatigue”

    • Pronouns: “she/her/ella”

    Jones and critical race scholars like her all across Western academia foster black fragility and interracial tension…but, hey, it’s a living, and one that’s divorced from rational market forces.  

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 17:00

  • "Fu*king Amateur Hour": Democrats Livid At Biden Over DC Crime Bill Flip-Flop
    “Fu*king Amateur Hour”: Democrats Livid At Biden Over DC Crime Bill Flip-Flop

    House Democrats are livid that President Biden is going to nix a Washington DC crime bill that would reduce the penalties for violent crimes such as carjackings and robberies.

    The bill, which was unanimously passed by the District of Columbia City Council in January, was vetoed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser.

    The Council then overrode Bowser by a 12-1 vote, but because DC isn’t a state, this type of legislation must instead be approved by Congress – and then signed by the President, before it can become law.

    Last month the GOP-controlled House threw a wrench in the Democrats’ plans, voting 250-173 for a Republican-sponsored resolution to overturn the DC crime bill. All but 31 Democrats voted for it, meaning most Democrats wanted to reduce the penalties for violent crimes in DC.

    Licking their wounds from this expected loss, House Democrats then expected the Biden administration to veto the resolution overturning the original crime bill – which Democratic leadership told lawmakers Biden would do. The White House even issued a Statement of Administration Policy which opposed the resolution and backed the DC City Council.

    But on Thursday, Biden announced that he would sign the resolution to block the DC bill – thus maintaining the status quo when it comes to penalizing crime in DC.

    And Democrats are livid…

    “The White House fucked this up royally,” one House Democrat told The Hill via text message.

    “So a lot of us who are allies voted no in order to support what the White House wanted. And now we are being hung out to dry, the lawmaker continued. “FUCKING AMATEUR HOUR. HEADS SHOULD ROLL OVER AT THE WHITE HOUSE OVER THIS.”

    The House Democrat told The Hill that several other lawmakers were “EXTREMELY pissed” about the situation.

    Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the No. 3 House Democrat, issued a rare rebuke of the White House during a Punchbowl News event at the caucus’s retreat in Baltimore, saying that Biden’s move was “disappointing.”

    “It’s disappointing for me and anybody who believes in home rule, honestly. I’m a former mayor of a city of 70,000 and I wouldn’t want the federal government coming in and telling me what city ordinances to pass. … So I think it’s disappointing in that context,” Aguilar said.  

    “I voted against it, but I understand and respect the president’s position here,” Aguilar, the former mayor of Redlands, Calif., continued. “We’ll see, the Senate has to pass that, and I know that they’ve said they have the votes but all of those things have to happen. But it’s disappointing for those of us who believe in home rule.” -The Hill

    “Home Rule” refers to allowing DC to make its own laws.

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    One House Democrat aide texted that the Democratic caucus is “a little shocked” by the White House’s decision.

    White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday that “One thing that the president believes in is making sure that the streets in America and communities across the country are safe, that includes in D.C. That does not change,” adding “When it comes to what this proposal brings forth, which is really lowering penalties for car-jacking, he doesn’t believe that’s going to keep our communities safe.”

    Jean-Pierre also pointed out that the DC crime reforms reduce maximum sentences “for offenses like murders and other homicides, armed-home invasion, burglaries, armed carjackings … armed robberies, unlawful gun and some sexual assault offenses.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 16:00

  • The Case For A National Sales Tax
    The Case For A National Sales Tax

    Authored by Brian McGlinchey via Stark Realities

    Sometime during this 117th U.S. Congress, the long-proposed “Fair Tax” will likely receive its first-ever floor vote in the House. A national sales tax, it would replace not only personal and corporate income taxes, but Social Security, Medicare, estate and gift taxes too.

    Though every tax scheme has its pitfalls and moral failings, the net impact of a switch from the income tax to a sales tax could be positive for the citizenry and the economy. While entrenched interests and the opportunity for misleading political attacks on Fair Tax proponents make its adoption in the near-term a long shot, it’s a concept worth keeping on the country’s collective back burner.

    Fair Tax Basics

    HR25, the “Fair Tax Act of 2023,” advances a national sales tax “on the use or consumption in the United States of taxable property or services in lieu of the current income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes.” The Internal Revenue Service would be sent into history’s dustbin, while a much smaller federal tax bureaucracy would administer the sales tax.

    The federal tax rate would be a whopping 30%. The bill and many FairTax advocates describe it a 23% “tax-inclusive” rate, which means they arrive at by expressing the tax as a percent of the total outlay — including the tax itself.

    While there’s actually some financial logic to that methodology when comparing it to income taxes, Fair Tax proponents should abandon the practice. Everyday Americans are fully accustomed to state and local sales taxes being expressed as a percent of the purchase price, and will never grasp the arcane reasoning that leads to 23%. They should emphasize the fact that paychecks would have no more federal income tax or payroll tax deductions and make the case for the 30% rate.

    Opponents are quick to decry sales taxes’ lack of progressiveness. Setting aside the question of whether it’s actually just for governments to confiscate a higher proportion of money from those who earn or spend more of it, the proposed Fair Tax does include a “prebate” — money sent to every household that effectively negates federal sales tax for spending up to the poverty level.

    For 2023, it would be about $6,900 a year for a family of four. It should be noted that the least prosperous Americans currently receive money through the income tax system, via “refundable” credits. If Congress wants to replace that largesse, it will have to create new entitlements.

    Ridding America of The Income Tax’s Worst Traits

    A federal sales tax would addresses the worst evils of the income tax, which include:

    Complexity. Even for the financially astute, the income tax code is mind-numbing. Congress and the IRS create a wickedly complex maze, and then — with threats of penalties and jail time — put the burden of navigating it on people and businesses.

    Wasted time and money. Americans spent an estimated 6.5 billion hours and more than $200 billion to comply with IRS filing and reporting requirements in 2022. While tax preparation fees and effort are top-of-mind, the income tax is a weed that drains time, money and energy throughout our economy — from all the record-keeping required by financial institutions, to the legions of lawyers and financial advisors straining to find loopholes for corporate and individual clients.

    Intrusiveness. The income tax requires individuals and businesses to disclose an enormous amount of information — and to be prepared to share much more if the IRS comes knocking. With a sales tax, the government doesn’t need to know about your choice of charities, your marital status, how many nights you slept in your vacation home, how much alimony you paid, which investments you sold and how much you paid for them.

    A magnet drawing money into politics. A sales tax would certainly invite corporate lobbying and political contributions aimed at exempting certain goods and services from the tax, but the scale of that effort would be a fraction of what’s goes on vis-a-vis the income tax.

    Tax-free criminals and illegal residents. Sales taxes reach those whose income is derived from illegal commerce or otherwise hidden from the government, from drug dealers and illegal immigrants to “under-the-counter” employees. Regardless of its origin, when money is spent, it’s taxed.

    No tax system achieves 100% compliance and each one invites evasion, but it seems safe to say sales taxes outperform income taxes on those fronts.

    Hiding the cost of federal government. That cost is obscured by the tax code’s complexity, and Americans’ obliviousness to the fact that businesses’ taxes and tax-compliance costs are largely passed on to them in the prices they pay. With a sales tax, the cost of government is printed on every receipt.

    Seeking to collect about the same amount of total tax as the array of taxes it would replace, the Fair Tax would be set at 30%. For people used to state and local taxes of say, 4 to 8%, that’s a jarring figure — and that sticker shock is one of the best aspects of a national sales tax: forcing people to directly confront the cost of our enormous federal government and its sprawling military empire.

    The rate would initially be set at 30%, but politicians would certainly run on promises to cut it. That, in turn, might make politicians more amenable to actually reducing the growth rate of the federal budget.

    On the downside, politicians may seek to exempt certain classes of individuals from the sales tax.

    Resetting Americans’ Understanding of Social Security, Medicare

    The income tax isn’t the only problematic tax that the Fair Tax would abolish. For example, doing away with Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes would go a long way toward curing Americans of the false belief that Social Security taxes are “contributions” that fund individual “accounts.”

    Rather, these programs that are hurtling toward insolvency would be seen for what they are: entitlement programs that redistribute money among Americans. Viewing them in their true light would help foster support for changes that will prevent their ballooning costs from turning into a higher sales tax rate at the register.

    Tax-Code Profiteers Will Resist

    Any effort to bring about major change must confront the tyranny of the status quo, as those who benefit from the current arrangement rise to preserve it.

    Enactment of the Fair Tax would, overnight, render obsolete a great many American businesses and professions. Intuit — the maker of TurboTax — already has a history of lobbying against efforts to make federal income-tax filing simpler and free.

    Income tax repeal doesn’t just threaten tax preparation outfits, accountants and tax lawyers. For just one example, consider that repeal of the income tax means no more investment taxes — rendering 401(k) custodians irrelevant too.

    There’s a huge political headwind as well: An incumbent’s vote for the Fair Tax is a huge gift to any challenger. As has been already demonstrated, challengers will run alarming ads proclaiming the incumbent supported a new, 30% sales tax, conveniently neglecting to disclose that the tax would replace all the other federal taxes, allowing Americans to keep every penny of their employment and investment income.

    Buyer Beware

    Even among the most impassioned opponents of the income tax, you’ll find strong resistance to a national sales tax, over fear we’ll end up with the current array of taxes and a new federal sales tax too.

    The Fair Tax Act would do away with the income, payroll, estate and gift taxes and the IRS, but with no guarantee against their return. It’s therefore essential that adoption of a federal sales tax be accompanied by simultaneous repeal of the 16th Amendment, which cursed the country with the federal income tax in 1913.

    Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more, comment and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com

    Stark Realities with Brian McGlinchey: Invigoratingly unorthodox perspectives for intellectually honest readers 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 15:30

  • Rep. Greene To Zelensky: "Leave Your Hands Off Of Our Sons & Daughters"
    Rep. Greene To Zelensky: “Leave Your Hands Off Of Our Sons & Daughters”

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has lashed out at recent controversial remarks of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during her Friday speech before the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

    She addressed the Ukrainian leader by name, telling him to keep his “hands off of our sons and daughters” over the Russian invasion in Ukraine, after last month he had issued an appeal to the American public in which he chastised and berated those either unsupportive or on the fence about continuing massive defense aid.

    Zelensky had uttered the words in a late February press conference when asked by a reporter about growing ‘Ukraine fatigue’ among the US public. He began his response by saying, “If they do not change their opinion…they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position they are enjoying in the world.”

    He then quickly pivoted to saying that if Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, it will expand the invasion to other European nations. The Russian army will “enter the Baltic states, NATO member states,” Zelensky claimed, before saying, “then the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the way as we are sending their [sic] sons and daughters to war.”

    Rep. Greene in her Friday speech blasted Zelensky’s claim in the following: 

    Greene on Friday told the CPAC crowd that she was still “committed to saying no money to Ukraine, and that country needs to find peace, not war.”  

    “And while I will look at a camera and directly tell Zelensky, you’d better leave your hands off of our sons and daughters because they’re not dying over there,” she continued. 

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    While MTG’s scathing criticism is predictably being greeted with outrage among staunch Kiev supporters, who will likely argue that the White House has ruled out sending American troops to fight in Ukraine, the ‘mission creep’ on display of the last many months has become obvious.

    Among many examples, Pentagon ‘advisers’ and weapons trackers have been sent into Ukraine, and more recently tanks and longer-range rockets have been approved, with F-16 jets now entering the Washington debate. But a small group of GOP outliers in Congress – especially MTG and Matt Gaetz – have lately pushed to halt the unaccountable billions flowing into Kiev’s coffers, regardless of how unpopular that position remains in D.C.

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    Reps Greene and Gaetz’s stances are rare also given the vast majority of Congressional leaders treat Zelensky with rock star status, which was on display when he received long, enthusiastic standing ovations during his in-person speech before Congress last December. 

    As for MTG’s words at CPAC, the crowd appeared to be on her side, given they loudly cheered her rebuke of Biden’s Ukraine policy, while also at one point booing Zelensky’s name.

    Watch her full speech below…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 15:00

  • India: The Next Front In The War On The BRICS
    India: The Next Front In The War On The BRICS

    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    There is far more to the current multi-modal geopolitical war than just what’s happening in Ukraine. This conflict has led to a myriad of downstream effects and moves which are just as important as what the encirclement of Bakhmut means.

    For years the wildcard in the BRICS Alliance has been India. India’s rivalry with China as well as its complicated relationships with both Russia and the West have always served as wedge issues to drive the alliance apart.

    During the Trump years the “I” in BRICS, India, was slowly working its way under Prime Minister Narendra Modi back into the West’s orbit. It led to me thinking that that “I” had been replaced by Iran, especially pre-COVID-19.

    Today with the ascendence of Lula to the presidency in Brazil, the BRICS have, for now, lost the “B” in their alliance. So, with all of the talk about the BRICS coming into their own as a global economic and political force the situation is far from settled because the West and Davos are simply not going to let this just happen without a fight.

    The relationship between Russia and China is dominating the headlines with major US officials making significant threats to China, in particular, about supporting Russia. These threats are, of course, very real, coming from people like Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

    At the same time, they are also not overtures to real negotiations. Making demands that only promise the abeyance of the stick with no carrot is not an opening offer, it’s a closing offer. So, while Yellen travels to Kiev to pledge Zelenskyy unlimited support of US taxpayer funds while the “Biden” administration dithers over how to deal with the situation in E. Palastine, Ohio, tells us where the priorities of our leadership is.

    Winning the geopolitical war must take precedence over everything else, even if there is no real ‘country’ left after the war is over.

    There is a saying by Sun Tsu making the rounds today in social media that is wholly appropriate here:

    “An evil enemy will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.” – Sun Tzu

    This describes the actions of Yellen, Blinken and their fellow travelers in Europe perfectly. Now, I know this is not news to anyone who’s read my work for the past few years. You know I view them as vandals, not incompetents, but it’s important to keep this in mind at every step in this march towards global conflict.

    Because this is the way most of the BRICS nations and their growing list of sympathizers also view the situation. Russia has made this very clear. Vladimir Putin, his Foreign Minster Sergei Lavrov, and former Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, have all expressed this.

    The longer this conflict goes on the more adamant about these points they become. The same can be said for China and its leadership.

    China says less than the Russians do, but does more with who they choose to talk to and when. Foreign Minister Wang Xi’s recent visits to Moscow and Tehran further cemented a triangular foundation of support. These visits were contemporaneous to the convocation of warmongers in Munich two weeks ago. That was not an accident.

    Neither was Premier Xi’s visit to Riyadh and the major Arab summits where he made sincere overtures to welcome them into the forming pan-Asian economic sphere. Don’t think for a second these events don’t have knock-on effects and reverberate in national capitols all over the world.

    We’ve seen a spate of major announcements further underscore just how far along the entire BRICS project, with or without Brazil, is.

    This brings me back to India as the wildcard. Modi’s journey from a guy with one foot on two islands (East v. West) to planting his feet firmly with the East has been an interesting and vital one.

    If we’ve learned nothing else over the past year of war in Ukraine it is that most of the world is unphased by threats by the US by the countries I’ve just discussed. Iran clearly doesn’t care. China understands that if Russia falls militarily, China is next. Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC+ understand who their future trade partners really are.

    This is why India is now in the crosshairs of Davos. They are the last major power in the region left to stymie Asian integration.

    Reports circulated the same weekend as the Munich Security Conference that none other than George Soros was behind the attacks on PM Modi through a report from Hindenberg Research. They targeted one of Modi’s big financial supporters, Guatam Adani William Engdahl covered this in detail.

    In January Hindenburg targeted an Indian billionaire, Gautam Adani, head of the Adani Group and at the time reportedly the richest man in Asia. Adani also happens to be the major financial backer of Modi. Adani’s fortune has multiplied hugely since Modi became Prime Minister, often on ventures tied to Modi’s economic agenda.

    Since the January 24 Hindenburg report alleging improper use of offshore tax havens and stock manipulation, Adani Group companies have lost over $120 billion in market value. Adani Group is the second largest conglomerate in India. Opposition parties have made a point that Modi is tied to Adani. Both are long-term friends from Gujarat in the same part of India.

    But Engdahl doesn’t stop there. He very smartly ties this to George Soros’ speech at Munich, you know, the one he skipped this year’s WEF conference in Davos to give. Soros called out Modi directly saying his days were numbered and he’s no ‘democrat.’

    Soros is beyond being coy about these things anymore. He’s telling you what he’s doing.

    RT ran a similar story, much more focused on Soros and the Indian Foreign Minister’s response to him the same day as Engdahl’s article:

    Soros said during the Munich Security Conference on Thursday that fraud allegations against the multinational conglomerate, headed by the PM’s long-time associate Gautam Adani, would “significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government… I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India.”

    Those comments didn’t go unnoticed in New Delhi, with Jaishankar firing back on Saturday at the 92-year-old billionaire and neo-liberal political activist. The foreign minister described Soros as “old, rich, opinionated and dangerous” because he’s willing to invest his money in “shaping narratives.”

    “People like him think an election is good if the person they want to see wins and, if the election throws up a different outcome, then they will say it is a flawed democracy,” he added.

    For another take on the same subject I recommend you read Andrew Korybko’s piece from the same day on this subject, digging up the building propaganda campaign against Modi starting with the NY Times, passing next through the BBC documentary and ending with Soros’ Munich speech.

    The need to cleave India from the BRICS is now acute. The war in Ukraine is reaching the next phase as Russia forces what’s left of the Ukrainian army from Bakhmut clearing the way for Russia to establish logistical dominion in the center of the Donbass.

    Because of this there is an even greater sense of urgency within Davos to upgrade not just Ukraine but also pick a new fight with China. The clock is ticking down on the old financial system. The end of LIBOR is nigh.

    The bodies are piling up in the Fed’s war on leverage as high as the ones on the battlefield in the Donbass. Malign actors like Soros may still they have the ability to avoid these things but, in the end, they are fronting strength while privately they are freaking out.

    Moreover, global opinion of the West’s potency as seen through the lens of Russian potency has shifted in a way that make the decisions of Asia’s leadership that much easier.

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

    These results are themselves revelatory of the biases within the populations polled, especially in the heavily propagandized West. But those from both Turkey and India are eye-popping and confirm my long-held belief that once someone finally stood up to the US and Europe and survived it would radically change the psychology of the geopolitical game board.

    One only need to look at how brazen Davos’ moves are, how heavily they are flooding the zone with headlines, emerging crises, and easily-debunked lies to see what’s really going on.

    In light of that it should be noted just how ineffectual Davos’ moves against Modi and India have been. The recent regional elections in three important Indian provinces left the clear impression that Modi’s influence over electoral politics is still very much intact.

    Modi has made it a point to engage the northeastern provinces, normally ignored by Indian politics, to entrench his hold on power in India. This is clearly his counter-move to anything the West would attempt to throw at him.

    I’m no expert on Indian politics, but from the commentary I’ve seen, this opens up the possibility of Modi gaining a super-majority in next year’s elections. Regardless of whether that is true or not, what we know now is that the next year will be a minefield as Davos throws its weight around to topple another government it does not control.

    The question I leave you with is will this be another Hungary, where polls had Viktor Orban in a tight race with Davos’ Anyone-But-Orban coalition only to see Orban cruise to his biggest victory ever, or will it Brazil, where the campaign against Bolsonaro was just strong enough to remove him from power.

    Game on, George.

    *  *  *

    Join my Patreon if you you don’t want to be another front in Davos’ war.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 03/04/2023 – 14:30

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