- World War III Is Now Inevitable – Here's Why It Can't Be Avoided
World War III Is Now Inevitable – Here’s Why It Can’t Be Avoided
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,
If you’re getting the feeling like the globalists are really pushing hard for WWIII these days, you’re not alone.
In the past few months there has been multiple instances of European and US officials hinting at the possibility of a new military draft, the EU has talked openly about boots on the ground in Ukraine, NATO officials have stated unequivocally that they WILL NOT accept a loss in Ukraine to the Russians and the Kremlin has warned once again that nuclear weapons are on the table if western troops enter the war. The US government has recently asserted that Ukraine will be joining NATO, a red line in the sand for Russia.
Then there’s Israel and Gaza. I warned months ago in my article ‘It’s A Trap! The Wave Of Repercussions As The Middle East Fights “The Last War”’ that the war in Gaza would expand into a multi-front conflict that would probably include Iran. I also warned that it would be to Israel’s benefit if Iran entered the war because this would force the US to become directly involved. To be sure, Iran has already been engaging in proxy attacks on Israel through Lebanon, but Israel’s attack on the Iranian “embassy” or diplomatic station in Syria basically ensures that Iran will now directly commit to strikes on Israeli targets.
In other words, much like WWI, the situation is being escalated by the political elites despite the fact that the general public in the west is increasingly opposed to participating in the conflict. The globalists want to send us to war whether we like it or not. Every decision they have made so far makes peaceful resolution impossible.
One saving grace that is perhaps new in the entire history of geopolitics is that the public is far more awake and aware of the fact that it’s not necessarily their “duty” to blindly go fight when their government calls on them to do so. Social media has also given a platform for people to widely voice their concerns about war, whereas in the past objectors felt isolated.
Obviously, some of this is based purely on fear – A large percentage of Gen Z is unequipped mentally or physically to go to war, which is why more than 70% of potential military recruits today are rejected before they even get to boot camp. These are many of the same young people who post Ukrainian flags to their social media profiles and jump headfirst into anti-Russian rhetoric, but now that they are faced with the possibility of having to sacrifice themselves for Ukraine they are angry and terrified.
However, there is also a large contingent of capable (and mostly conservative) men with the background and the aptitude for combat that still want nothing to do with Ukraine. The reason is simple: They believe that far-left western governments and globalists want to use them as cannon fodder to get rid of them. Once they are used up in war, there will be no one left to oppose the leftist takeover at home.
For most of us in America, Ukraine is irrelevant and we grow tired of wars in the Middle East. Whether left or right, we have no interest in fighting for them. But that’s not going to matter much, at least in terms of preventing a global war.
European Fear Mongering
War with Russia will depend more on European involvement than US involvement. While the US has been the largest provider of armaments to Ukraine by far, the ultimate goal I believe is to integrate European troops into the Ukrainian front, which would be an automatic declaration of global war.
The basis for mobilization of troops from Europe is “domino theory” propaganda. We’ve heard some of it here in America but nowhere near the same level as the EU populace. Governments assert that Russia’s goal is to clear Ukraine as a pathway to invade the rest of Europe. This is the same claim used as justification for the US war in Vietnam: “If we let one country fall to the enemy, all the surrounding countries will fall also.”
Both Ukrainian and NATO leadership suggests that war must continue in Ukraine in order to contain it. There has been no serious discussion of diplomacy, which is utterly bizarre considering the stakes involved. A peace proposal should have been broached the moment the war kicked off and there should have been ongoing efforts to come to an agreement. Instead, even limited peace talks have been thwarted before they truly begin.
A military draft in Europe is far more likely to succeed, given the socialist nature of the population and the fact that only a tiny percentage of civilians are armed to defend themselves. Even with a public protest movement I have little doubt EU governments will be able to secure a large enough force to send into Ukraine and escalate the war.
According to the evidence, it’s clear that some NATO troops have already been deployed to Ukraine and have been there for some time. As I’ve noted in past articles, the strategies used during the first Ukrainian counter-attack were far too advanced for Ukrainian troops and leadership to pull off without help. Anti-armor tactics in particular were very familiar; similar in execution to tactics used by US and British special forces. Not surprisingly, as soon as foreign mercenary recruit rates dropped off, Ukraine’s momentum fizzled.
The Russians are likely well aware of this situation, but as long as smaller groups of soldiers can be sent under the guise of mercenary forces, there’s not much they can do about it. It’s the open deployment of NATO battalions that is cause for greater worry.
There is zero basis for the domino narrative. Not once has Russia indicated since the start of the conflict that they intend to invade the EU. In fact, Putin has long stated that the war in Ukraine is about protecting the separatists of the Donbas region from Ukrainian reprisal, and about the continued escalation of NATO armament.
My suspicions about Putin’s connections to the globalists aside, if we look at the war from a basic cost/benefit analysis there is really nothing for Russia to gain by threatening Europe.
Then there’s the problem of logistics. If Russia is supposedly struggling in Ukraine, how could they have the means to fight on an expanded front against the combined military might of Europe and the US? The only end result would be nuclear war, which both sides would lose. But if you look at the situation objectively, there is a group of people out there that have a lot to gain…
Attacks On Russian Interior Accelerate
Smaller attacks on Russian supplies as well as civilians have been escalating in the past month. The terror attack in Moscow (which US intel blames on ISIS) resulted in the deaths of at least 130 people and drone attacks are threatening oil depots along with other resources. In the grand scheme of the war these attacks are inconsequential, but they will undoubtedly lead to extensive bombardment of Ukrainian cities and the further disablement of Ukrainian infrastructure. Power, water and other utilities will be destroyed and a resource crisis will ensue.
Compared to the US invasion of Iraq, Russia has managed to keep civilian casualties in Ukraine very low. But, each new attack on Russian soil instigates a larger Russian retaliation. And maybe this is the goal – To get the Russians to crater a larger Ukrainian population center thereby giving NATO an excuse to send troops to the region.
Iran And The Oil Imperative
In the Middle East the primary driver for international involvement is oil. We all know this. But oil access is not the end goal to the war in Gaza, just a mechanism for getting the US involved.
I’ll reiterate here that I don’t care which side started the fight or how far back the conflict supposedly goes in history. This is irrelevant. What I do know is that Hamas started this particular war by killing civilians in Israel and you should not start a war unless you’re willing to accept the consequences. That said, I do find it suspicious that Israel’s defensive measures were so useless that they were completely unaware of the Hamas incursion until it was too late.
In any case the conflagration is guaranteed to bring in other larger military elements. Iran is going to enter the fray now, there’s no way around it. This might happen first in the form of economic warfare, and the Strait of Hormuz is the most likely target. Shutting down 30% of the world’s oil traffic would be disastrous for the west. So, America’s entry is thus also guaranteed.
The Inflation Factor, US Elections And How Globalists Benefit
Joe Biden has been struggling for the past three years to manipulate oil prices down by dumping strategic reserves on the market. By artificially keeping oil prices down he keeps energy prices down, and by keeping energy prices down he reduces the growth of CPI.
The Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil depots have helped to spike gas prices in the past month exactly because Russian oil is still being purchased by western countries through back channels. You can’t just cut off one of the largest energy suppliers in the world without huge effects on prices at the pump. And these attacks are revealing how sensitive the oil market is to the slightest threat to supply.
Any major conflict in the Middle East will seal the deal and gas prices will explode. Inflation is not just going to be the death knell of Biden’s presidency (assuming presidential elections still matter), it’s going to be the death knell of the leftists and globalists overall UNLESS they can delay a larger economic calamity until they have a scapegoat, or, until they can start a massive war.
That scapegoat will either be Trump and conservatives, or, Russia and the BRICS (or both). If Trump replaces Biden in 2025 then a crash will be fast and assured and it will be blamed on conservative movements. If Biden stays in a crash will be slower but will still hit hard after it can be blamed on the widening wars.
Then there’s the scenario of globalists securing a war BEFORE elections take place. Perhaps with the intention of preventing or delaying the vote. Perhaps with the intention of creating enough chaos that the vote can be rigged, or giving the impression that it was rigged, triggering civil unrest. Perhaps with the intention of declaring martial law.
Obviously, this is where the globalists benefit; either by preventing conservatives from taking power or by embroiling conservatives in a global calamity that they eventually get blamed for. Keep in mind that any conservative/independent opposition to the globalist establishment can now be accused of “Russian collusion.”
What’s the value of this? Well, it’s an age-old strategy for demonizing freedom fighters – If they are seen by the public as fellow citizens fighting for their rights, then they might be treated as heroes. But, if they’re painted as foreign assests and terrorists seeking to destabilize society, then the public sees them as villains. It’s just another advantage that explains why globalists seem so intent on creating a world war.
I believe that the reason the establishment is pressing so hard for WWIII is partly because of the upcoming elections and also because their covid agenda failed. Covid lockdowns and the vaccine passport system were their big play to create a permanent authoritarian environment with the ability to crush conservative groups that refused to submit. And no matter how you slice it they didn’t get what they wanted. World war is the natural Plan B.
It’s important to understand that every crisis created by globalists is meant to destroy the freedom minded. The true target is not Russia or Iran; they are peripheral. These events are designed to create an environment conducive to tyranny, they act as cover for engineered economic collapse, and they act as cover for the REAL war against those people that still defend liberty.
You could say that WWIII has already started, at least in economic terms. I also highly doubt that the end game for the globalists is a worldwide nuclear exchange; why spend decades building a massive control grid only to vaporize it all in seconds? I do think the danger of kinetic warfare is skyrocketing and that US and European citizens will be directly affected. It will take a sizable resistance movement to change the path we are being forced to follow, and things will get much worse before they get better.
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 23:40 - Solar Eclipses To Hit Major US Metros Within The Century
Solar Eclipses To Hit Major US Metros Within The Century
In case you hadn’t heard, a solar eclipse is happening in the United States on Monday.
The moon will fully obscure the sun in a band that crosses Mexico, 15 states and a small part of Eastern Canada including Montreal and Toronto. The biggest metro that falls within the area for this solar eclipse is Dallas, where the event will begin at 12.23 p.m. but might be hampered by bad weather forecast for the day. The eclipse area will then move across Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, upstate New York and parts of New England. In 2017, a solar eclipse had been visible in a small band between Oregon and South Carolina, passing over Kansas City, St. Louis, Nashville and Charleston.
According to reports, accommodation across the band has been booked solid for the upcoming Monday as many people are willing to travel to experience the event that for many happens only once in a lifetime.
However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, within this century, full solar eclipses will pass over more major U.S. metros.
You will find more infographics at Statista
After solar eclipses that will be visible in Northern Alaska in 2033 as well as Montana and North Dakota in 2044, the next major eclipse in the United States is coming up in 2045, hitting the Miami metro and other major Florida cities as well as Northern California, most of Colorado, Oklahoma City and once again, Arkansas.
In 2078 and 2079, dual eclipses will first hit New Orleans and Atlanta (while missing Houston by several hours) and then New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago will have to wait until 2099 for an eclipse that also hits Minneapolis and Detroit and passes by very close to the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. This makes the current century much more active for solar eclipses in the United States than the past one, which saw most events only skirt the lower 48. Eclipses passed through the Northwest in 1945 and 1979, the Great Lakes in 1925 and 1954, New York in 1925 and New England on three more occasion. In 1970, Northern Florida and the Atlantic Coast of Georgia and the Carolinas experienced another solar eclipse.
Finally, beyond this century, in 2106, a solar eclipse is passing near Los Angeles, only closely missing Santa Barbara while also passing by Salt Lake City and, once more, Minneapolis. This means that in the next roughly 100 years, the only U.S. metros with more than 5 million inhabitants as of 2023 that will not be in the path of a full solar eclipse or at least close to one will be Phoenix, Ariz.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 23:20 - Extremism On The Ballot
Extremism On The Ballot
Authored by Peachy Keenan via AmericanMind.org,
The 2024 election is between a dangerous madman and Donald Trump…
I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful day with family and friends on the holiest day of America’s liturgical year, the Transgender Day of Visibility. I had never heard of this blessed Federal holiday until a few days ago, but my kids loved it. We had a visit from the Easter Drag Bunny and it/they filled the kids’ baskets with all kinds of treats. Puberty blockers, dilators, lipstick for the boys, packers for the girls. She/They is risen—and you will bow down and worship Her/Them!
Of course, Joe Biden’s Easter sacrilege was only the latest travesty that proves what you and I already know, which is that the 2024 presidential election is a contest between common-sense centrism and dangerously radical extremism.
One candidate is a classical liberal whose positions are squarely in the middle of the political spectrum. On nearly every issue, his views are anodyne, conventional, mainstream—positions that were the norm, nationwide, in every state, on both sides of the aisle, within recent memory (not including a few fringe strongholds in Berkeley and the West Village).
His opponent, however, is a dangerous radical extremist; a divisive, fanatical agent of chaos who holds frightening positions that threaten to destroy America.
To preserve what’s left of Our Sacred Democracy, the extremist must be stopped.
Grand Unified Replacement Theory
The radicals we are up against are so deranged that they are embracing and even leaning into the Replacement Theory they once vilified and dismissed as fake. You will recall that “replacement theory” was a taboo conspiracy only racists and bigots believed in until about 15 minutes ago. But the extremists running the country recently decided that akshally, “replacement” is the perfect strategy to finish off what’s left of what you and the country formerly known as “America.”
Replacement means you don’t need to worry about convincing Congress to pass new laws or give speeches or waste time governing. To get your way, just replace everyone.
But the extremists in charge are not going to stop after replacing you with “newcomers.” They’re replacing everything not nailed down.
Easter just got replaced with a demonic child abuse cult festival.
Jews are getting erased, literally chased out of cities, harassed out of college, and replaced with ululating Hamas enthusiasts.
Your grandchildren got replaced with fur babies.
Formerly great universities have been replaced with plagiarizing paperclip factories.
Your borders have been replaced with Welcome Centers.
Your retirement has been replaced with twenty more years of work to pay for safe injection sites for your kids and free gender affirmation surgeries for the world.
As Elon Musk likes to point out on X, Americans are just four percent of the Earth’s population. Soon, they’ll be just four percent of their own country.
This is, in President Biden’s own words, going according to plan. “Just like we drew it up,” he tweeted ominously.
The No-Brainer Election
An explosion in robberies and violent crime. Two dangerous new foreign wars. Forced conversion therapy on normal people to make them believe children can change their sex. Rampant hate crimes and open, gleeful discrimination against people who are not “of color.”
Who is the extremist again?
The dangerous tyrant seeking re-election has the full support of our bloodthirsty elites, a warmongering foreign policy establishment, virulently antisemitic academia, and the entire mainstream media apparatus. Sometimes it’s hard to even fathom what we are facing, but then you remember that they had the nerve to arrest and sentence a young man to prison for… wait for it… sharing a funny Hillary Clinton meme. That actually happened in real life.
The humble moderate whom these frightening cretins hope to defeat this fall faces expropriation of his property to satisfy hundreds of millions of dollars in absurd fines, plus hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees to fight regime lawfare on a Hiroshima scale. The threat of prison looms. His support comes not from wealthy celebrities, titans of industry, or the tech billionaires. It comes from the peasants. The rabble. A ragtag coalition of nobodies, the working class, the powerless middle class, and a few anonymous dissidents forced to post samizdat from undisclosed locations to avoid the eye of Sauron.
The radical extremist we face wants to empty our treasury so he can continue to launder hundreds of billions of our dollars through the most corrupt nation in Europe, which for decades was the world’s number one producer of child pornography, among other evils.
He’s flirting with nuclear war, and even committed an illegal act of war by detonating an enormous oil pipeline that helped heat all of Europe. His military bosses are blackmailing brave American military families: if they don’t cough up the cash for Ukraine, he’ll send their enlisted kids to die in a hole in Siberia. Thanks to him, 13 Marines were blown up in Afghanistan, but if you’re a grieving parent who protests, he has you handcuffed and dragged to prison, as he did to one dad who dared to protest at the State of the Union.
This extremist lunatic is also doing whatever he can to trigger another Middle East quagmire that inevitably will put boots on the ground in all the old stomping grounds. He wears Catholicism like a skinsuit, blaspheming the rosary around his wrist as he excoriates actual people of faith who want to protect the unborn. He screams for abortion through 40 weeks, for any reason.
He sends his shock troops to arrest pro-life protestors and slanders parents as “domestic extremists.”
He’s so extreme he thinks young children can choose to change their genders with irreversible experimental surgeries that have catastrophic rates of failure. He wants parents who don’t allow schools to secretly change a child’s gender behind their backs to lose control of their children and go to prison.
He’s so radical that he thinks it’s funny when you can’t afford groceries, and wonders why you don’t buy the “other Raisin Bran” in order to save a dollar. He mocks you when he declares “Let them eat more chips,” as he pledges to increase the number of Doritos in each shrinkflated bag.
Worst of all, this crazed extremist thinks it’s good to dissolve the nation’s borders, permanently and eternally. He wants to pack the country with the excess population of Central and South America, as well as Africa and Asia, to boost congressional reapportionment numbers and make America blue forever. Any kids that get raped or murdered are not his problem. The tree of extremism must be watered by the blood of America’s daughters like Laken Riley.
Our only hope, my fellow centrists, is to throw our entire weight behind the common-sense moderate running against Joe Biden. All he wants is to return the country to the way it was within recent memory (!): a blessed land that enjoyed low illegal immigration, low crime, low prices, low inflation, low mortgage interest rates, and high patriotism and, imagine—optimism.
Our demands are simple. We want a leader who will make the country a place where normal citizens can go about their lives in peace, enjoy a bit of prosperity, not have to worry about politics constantly, and not get pushed in front of a train waiting for the subway on the way to work.
A poll says most of the electorate is “unhappy” with their choice of candidates and wishes it wasn’t a Trump-Biden rematch.
Get over it and get on board. You don’t have any other option.
The Regime’s iron grip on power can only be broken by finally calling them what they are: domestic extremists inflicting acts of terror, violence, and child abuse on innocent citizens. Their hegemony can only be broken by regular, reasonable people in the middle—in other words, you, me, and Donald Trump—exorcising them from power and driving them back into the fetid swamps from whence they came.
The current Regime represents an existential threat to our lives and liberty. They are no longer a political party; they are a violent hate group, and the group they hate is us.
Only God himself can show them mercy, and I doubt he will when the time comes.
Vote for the centrist if you want to live!
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 23:00 - AI Demand For Data Centers Is "Absurd" As The Next Trade Unfolds
AI Demand For Data Centers Is “Absurd” As The Next Trade Unfolds
We presented the trade idea that a surge in artificial intelligence demand is sparking the need for significant upgrades to the nation’s decades-old power grid as new data warehouses come online. Several of the nation’s power grids face increasing power brownout/blackout risks during high-demand periods. This overview we provided premium subscribers was published in a Wednesday note titled “The Next AI Trade.”
Cloud-computing startup CoreWeave’s co-founder and chief strategy officer, Brian Venturo expands more on this. He spoke on Thursday at the Bloomberg Intelligence Summit on generative AI in New York.
He said the world is “grossly” underestimating how much AI demand will expand the need for data centers across North America and the world.
Venturo said the cloud computing provider has seen an “absurd” amount of data center requests over the last several quarters. He noted that some companies are asking to reserve entire campuses for themselves.
“There are going to be some things that this industry is going to have to work through,” Venturo said, adding, “What worries me” is that there’s not enough infrastructure to handle the demand.
He stressed, “It’s a sprint. It’s a sprint that requires all the capital in the world” to build new data centers and revamp old ones and upgrade the existing infrastructure to supply the electricity needs of data centers. This urgency highlights the need for swift action by smart grid companies and utilities that can rapidly build out the grid for the digital age.
“You have to build new transmission lines,” Venturo said, adding, “You have to do new substation builds. There are just a lot of physical blockers here that are hard to overcome in the short-term.”
Reverting to our “The Next AI Trade” note, we emphasized to premium subs the potential for significant investment opportunities with companies that have high exposure to infrastructure, electrification, power grid, and energy.
The companies, such as the ones in Goldman’s “Power Up America” basket (Bloomberg ticker GSENEPOW), will be some of the winners over the coming years.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 22:40 - Mike Gallagher, You Left Us Behind
Mike Gallagher, You Left Us Behind
Authored by Citizen Soldier via RealClear Politics,
Mike Gallagher – former Marine intelligence officer, fresh face of 2016, young idealist with enough honors to fill a trophy case – is quitting his congressional seat April 19.
The high school valedictorian, Princeton undergrad, and Georgetown PhD was elected to the House of Representatives before his thirty-third birthday. His intellect and eloquence made him a leader in the Republican caucus, someone capable of wielding not just votes but ideas to influence policy.
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy acknowledged Gallagher’s status among his colleagues in January 2023 when McCarthy picked him to chair the newly formed House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Gallagher was a fervent advocate for strengthening our China policy, and his ideas and passion drove the agenda of the 24-member committee.
Back home in Wisconsin’s eighth congressional district, voters resoundingly endorsed Gallagher. He garnered 63 percent of the vote in 2016, 64 percent in 2018 and 2020, and a whopping 72 percent in 2022.
We’ll never know how far he might have gone; how bright his star might have shone.
It’s unclear why Gallagher, a generational talent, is abandoning his seat halfway through his term. To spend more time with his family? Or, perhaps more cynically, to work for defense tech giant Palantir? Gallagher hasn’t said, but whatever his answer, he’s lowered the bar – as a veteran and a congressman.
Gallagher promised to work for Green Bay, Oshkosh, and the country, and the voters believed him. While the media fixates on whether Gallagher “betrayed the party,” the truth is he betrayed the American people. Gallagher happily displayed his service medals on campaign commercials, and proudly wore his USMC polo shirt while meeting the voters. I once attended a meeting where Gallagher sipped hot tea from a green canteen cup – odd but touching, like watching a young lieutenant showing the troops he’s all in.
Ultimately, though, Gallagher was like many others on the political stage; more actor than genuine article. Just another young, ambitious person playing the role of veteran, for as long as it served his self-interest.
I wish him well, but wonder if the decision, for him, won’t age well.
Beneath the T-shirts and slogans, the medals and canteen cups, are the principles Gallagher learned in Quantico, and followed while serving in Iraq. The warrior ethos is ingrained in everyone who wears the uniform. Put the mission first. Never quit. And most importantly, never leave a Marine behind.
You fooled us, Mike, but did you fool yourself?
Citizen Soldier believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 22:20 - Which OECD Countries Allow Donations To Political Parties?
Which OECD Countries Allow Donations To Political Parties?
Less than half of OECD countries ban anonymous donations for political financing, according to data published in the Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook 2024 released by the OECD.
The report argues that this leaves these countries “exposed to undue influence.”
The following chart, from Statista’s Anna Fleck, shows which countries have enforced regulations on the complete ban of financial contributions from anonymous donations, publicly owned enterprises and foreign states and foreign enterprises.
You will find more infographics at Statista
According to the report, the problem with foreign donations is that they can “unduly influence candidates and political parties and lead to overrepresentation of foreign actors’ interests in public institutions rather than the domestic public interest.”
For this reason, the OECD recommends the transparency and traceability of funds.
Meanwhile, donations from publicly owned enterprises or state-owned enterprises can “blur the line between public and private and distort governance framework agreements between state-owned enterprises and the state”, including the “improper diversion of public funds” and risk of the idea that donations are given in exchange for “political allegiance”. Anonymous donations run the risk of the aforementioned donors circumnavigating rules.
As the chart above shows, bans on contributions to political parties from foreign states or enterprises are common for most OECD countries.
Only Greece, Australia, Denmark and Sweden do not have this rule. Meanwhile, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark and Sweden stand out for not having a ban on funding from publicly owned enterprises.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 22:00 - Liberals Trying To Force Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor To Retire
Liberals Trying To Force Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor To Retire
Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Liberals are mounting a pressure campaign to force liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire from the bench so President Joe Biden, who faces a tough reelection fight in November, can appoint a younger liberal successor before the election.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor poses for a photo next to a bronze bust of herself after it was unveiled at the Bronx Terminal Market in New York, on Sept. 8, 2022. (Bebeto Matthews/Pool via REUTERS) Democrats fear that the 6–3 conservative majority on the nation’s highest court could become a 7–2 conservative majority if President Donald Trump wins the election in November and she dies during his second term of office.
They point out that President Trump was able to replace liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died of pancreatic cancer complications on Sept. 18, 2020, at 87, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 election.
Justice Ginsburg refused to step down despite her fragile health.
Justice Barrett’s appointment, they say, helped supply the votes on the Court needed to overturn abortion rights precedent Roe v. Wade by a 5–4 vote in June 2022.
The ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization found there was no right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution and returned the regulation of abortion to the states, which Roe had taken away.
Justice Sotomayor, 69, is reportedly in good health, but activists have seized on the fact that she has had Type I diabetes since she was 7 years old and that she has had some health scares.
They note that she is the only Supreme Court justice to have traveled with a medic and remarked she was “tired” during a talk in January at UC Berkeley Law School.
In January 2018, she was reportedly treated at her home for low blood sugar by paramedics but was able to report for work afterward.
Left-wing activists seem emboldened because they successfully pressured liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, now 85, to retire in June 2022, which allowed President Biden to replace him with liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, now 53.
In an April 3 broadcast on NBC News, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), said Justice Sotomayor should consider stepping down soon.
“Justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the Court looks and thinks like America,” the senator said.
“We should learn a lesson, you know? And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be—that the old saying, ‘graveyards are full of indispensable people,’ ourselves in this body included.”
Before that, left-wing commentator Mehdi Hasan published a column in The Guardian (UK) saying it pained him to argue that Justice Sotomayor should make way for a younger successor who can serve for decades on the Court because she is a good standard bearer for the progressive cause.
He described Justice Sotomayor as “the greatest liberal to sit on the Supreme Court in my adult lifetime.”
Mr. Hasan added that she is “the first Latina to hold the position of justice, [and] she has blazed a relentlessly progressive trail on the highest bench in the land.”
“Whether it was her lone dissent in a North Carolina voting rights case in 2016 (“the Court’s conclusion … is a fiction”); her ingenious referencing of Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin, and WEB DuBois in another 2016 dissent over unreasonable searches and seizures.
“Her withering observation at the Dobbs oral argument in 2021: (Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts?’), Sotomayor has stood head and shoulders above both her liberal and conservative colleagues on the bench for the past 15 years.”
Although Justice Ginsburg had already survived two cancer diagnoses, she refused to retire even though liberal voices urged her to do so, Mr. Hasan wrote.
On her deathbed in 2020, she said her “most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed,” yet President Trump “nominated Amy Coney Barrett as RBG’s replacement just eight days after her death, and Senate Republicans confirmed Barrett to RBG’s vacant seat just eight days before election day.”
With President Biden now trailing President Trump in polls in several swing states and Democrats “in danger of losing their razor-thin majority in the Senate, are we really prepared for history to repeat itself?”
Justice Sotomayor could “easily” survive a second Trump term and continue serving until 2029, “but why take that risk? Why not retire now?” he wrote.
Molly Coleman, executive director of the People’s Parity Project, also wants Justice Sotomayor to resign.
“This isn’t personal. This isn’t about one individual justice. It’s nothing to do with what an incredible legal talent Justice Sotomayor is. It’s about what’s in the best interests of the country moving forward,” she told NBC News.
The Biden administration is neutral on the issue so far.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates said: “President Biden believes that decisions to retire from the Supreme Court should be made by the justices themselves and no one else.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Justice Sotomayor for comment but had not received a reply as of press time.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 21:40 - These Are The Countries With The Highest Corporate Tax Rates
These Are The Countries With The Highest Corporate Tax Rates
In 1980, the global average corporate tax rate stood at 40.2% – a level notably higher than today…
Over the last several decades, corporate tax rates have declined across every region, with the average now falling at 23.5% as of 2023. As tax rates have sunk lower, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others have called for a global minimum corporate tax to prevent multinationals from sheltering profits in tax havens.
But on the other hand, some argue that lower corporate rates allow corporations to report more income and boost real business activities.
The graphic below, from Pranav Gavali, via Visual Capitalist, shows the countries with the highest corporate tax rates since 1980.
What are the Top 10 Countries by Corporate Tax Rates?
Below, we show how countries with the highest corporate taxes have changed over the last four decades, based on data from the Tax Foundation:
As the above table shows, countries clustered in Africa and South America have the top rates globally.
Argentina, with a corporate tax rate of 35%, hiked up rates from 25% in 2022 as the country was mired in a deepening economic crisis. The country has also been a key supporter of a global minimum tax, suggesting it should be raised as high as 25%.
Malta, the only European nation on the list, also has one of the highest rates. Yet its tax system is complex: local businesses pay a 35% rate on profits, but international firms can pay as low as 5% in Malta with an additional 10% tax paid in their originating country.
By contrast, we can see that in 1980, countries including India, China and the United Kingdom had corporate tax rates above 50%. Since then, China underwent a series of economic reforms that included key tax reductions that helped drive the growth of its private sector.
In the United Kingdom, tax rates were 52% four decades ago and now fall at 25%. The U.S. tells a similar story, with corporate rates standing at 46% in 1980—more than double the rates seen today. Major corporate tax cuts were seen during Reagan’s presidency during the 1980s, when rates were cut to 35%, and later in 2017 when they were further reduced to 21% under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 21:20 - Nebraska State Senator Switching From Democrat To Republican Over Abortion
Nebraska State Senator Switching From Democrat To Republican Over Abortion
Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Nebraska state Sen. Mike McDonnell has announced that he’s switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, citing his Christian faith and views on abortion.
Ballots for the primary elections are arranged by party affiliation at the Lancaster County Election Committee offices in Lincoln, Neb., on April 14, 2020. (Nati Harnik/AP Photo) Mr. McDonnell made the announcement in an April 3 statement to local media outlets, citing the Democratic Party’s opposition to his pro-life stance.
“When I ran for reelection in 2020, I was pro-life,” he said, adding that he’s Catholic and recalling that in 2016, he ran as a pro-life candidate for Nebraska’s fifth legislative district.
“I have asked the Democratic Party to respect my religious-based pro-life position. Instead, over the last year, they have decided to punish me for being pro-life.”
Mr. McDonnell said that, because he opposes abortion, Douglas County Democrats voted not to seat him as a delegate and not share party resources, while the state Democratic Party voted to censure him for his pro-life views.
“Being a Christian member of the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life is more important to me than being a registered Democrat,” he said, adding that he was switching to the GOP effective immediately.
The Nebraska Democratic Party issued a statement in response to Mr. McDonnell’s party change, expressing “respect” for his work with the party while denying that the censure vote had anything to do with his pro-life views.
“The Nebraska Democratic Party will continue to stand up for reproductive freedom and the human rights of the LGBTQ community,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in the statement.
“Our decision to censure Sen. McDonnell was never about him being a pro-life Catholic. Our decision was based on our party reaffirming our core values to protect women’s ability to make health decisions and to keep politicians out of our personal health decisions.”
Ms. Kleeb said that she and her Nebraska Democrat colleagues “respect the ongoing work of Senator McDonnell on behalf of unions and his commitment to protect a fair electoral vote system” in the state.
Mr. McDonnell’s party affiliation switch could signal that Nebraska may be headed for a major change as Republican leaders have expressed support for a move to a winner-take-all system for allocating the state’s Electoral College votes.
Change to Winner-Take-All?
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, showed a willingness on April 2 to back legislation that would potentially prevent President Joe Biden from getting one of the state’s electoral votes. He did this by endorsing a statewide “winner-takes-all” system that is likely to boost former President Donald Trump.
Unlike every other U.S. state, only Nebraska and Maine assign Electoral College votes by district. A congressional district that centers around Omaha, the largest city in the state, has sometimes gone in favor of Democratic presidential candidates, including in 2020.
However, if the state switched to a more standard system, Nebraska’s three electoral votes would likely all go to President Trump as the former president easily won the GOP-dominated state by wide margins in both 2016 and 2020.
In January, legislators introduced a bill to use the standard, winner-take-all system. In a social media post on April 2, Mr. Pillen endorsed the initiative.
“It would bring Nebraska into line with 48 of our fellow states, better reflect the founders’ intent, and ensure our state speaks with one unified voice in presidential elections,” Mr. Pillen wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I call upon fellow Republicans in the Legislature to pass this bill to my desk so I can sign it into law.”
His comment was backed by President Trump on social media, describing the governor’s endorsement of the measure as “very smart.”
“Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, a very smart and popular Governor, who has done some really great things, came out today with a very strong letter in support of returning Nebraska’s Electoral Votes to a Winner-Take-All System,” President Trump wrote on Tuesday.
“Most Nebraskans have wanted to go back to this system for a very long time, because it’s what 48 other States do—It’s what the Founders intended, and it’s right for Nebraska,” he continued. “Thank you Governor for your bold leadership. Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing. Nebraskans, respectfully ask your Senators to support this Great Bill!”
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Nebraska’s Omaha-based congressional district, giving him one electoral vote. President Trump carried the state with nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Some analysts have said on social media that if the Nebraska bill is signed into law, it would pose a problem for President Biden because he wouldn’t have a clear path to 270 votes to win the presidency.
Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 21:00 - Lab-Grown Meat Isn't For Everyone
Lab-Grown Meat Isn’t For Everyone
Would you eat laboratory-grown meat?
This question, as Statista’s Anna Fleck reports was posed recently to respondents of their Consumer Insights survey, seems to divide opinions.
Laboratory-grown meat, also known as cultivated or cultured meat, is produced from animal cells, often taken by biopsy. These are then placed in a “nutrient bath” in order to develop meat outside the animal. In theory, cultured meat could offer an option to those concerned about animal welfare, or the meat industry’s impact on our planet, as its production requires neither the breeding nor the slaughter of living animals.
However, as Fleck shows in the infographic below, the idea of eating laboratory-grown meat is still not that convincing to a majority of people.
You will find more infographics at Statista
While one in five people surveyed in India said they would be willing to try this new type of food, only 9 percent of respondents in France said the same.
In the United States, which is one of only two countries where this meat is currently marketed (alongside Singapore), 16 percent of respondents said they were open to the idea of eating it.
It is unlikely though that cellular meat will soon find its way onto European plates, as no authorization application has yet been filed for the bloc’s market.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 20:40 - Judge Dismisses DeSantis From Lawsuit Over Illegal Immigrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard
Judge Dismisses DeSantis From Lawsuit Over Illegal Immigrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard
Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A federal judge on Monday dismissed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants who were transported to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, on chartered flights in 2022.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to supporters after finding out the 2024 Iowa caucuses results at the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 15, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) In a 77-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs said that there were “insufficient facts” presented in the lawsuit to exercise jurisdiction over Mr. DeSantis and other staff members.
“On the present record, the court cannot ascertain what actions were undertaken by whom and therefore cannot determine which, if any, of the individual defendants transacted business or caused injury here, leaving it no choice but to find that, at least on this record, personal jurisdiction has not been established,” the judge stated.
However, Judge Burroughs stated that the illegal immigrants could still proceed with their suit against Vertol, the Florida-based company that was paid $1.5 million to transport illegal immigrants to the island.
The court found that the facts of the case “taken together, support an inference that Vertol and the other Defendants specifically targeted Plaintiffs because they were Latinx immigrants.”
Judge Burroughs also said that Vertol and the other defendants “were not legitimately enforcing any immigration laws” when transporting the illegal immigrants.
“Instead, as alleged, they exploited [Plaintiffs] in a scheme to boost the national profile of Defendant DeSantis and manipulate them for political ends. Moreover, Plaintiffs’ images were captured and sent to national news media,” the judge said.
“Unlike ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents legitimately enforcing the country’s immigration laws … the Court sees no legitimate purpose for rounding up highly vulnerable individuals on false pretenses and publicly injecting them into a divisive national debate,” she added.
The judge stated that “treating vulnerable individuals like Plaintiffs in this way, as alleged and accepted as true for purposes of the motion to dismiss … is nothing short of extreme, outrageous, uncivilized, intolerable, and stunning.”
Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) in Boston filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit in 2022 against Mr. DeSantis, Secretary of Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, the State of Florida, and their “accomplices, challenging the fraudulent and discriminatory scheme to transport nearly 50 vulnerable immigrants, including women and children, from San Antonio, Texas to Martha’s Vineyard without shelter or resources in place.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a class of affected illegal immigrants, including those stranded in Martha’s Vineyard, and Alianza Americas, a network of organizations supporting illegal immigrants across the United States, according to a statement.
The illegal immigrants, many of whom were Venezuelans, were allegedly told if they were willing to board planes to other states, they would receive social services.
Lawsuit Will Continue
LCR has hailed the ruling as “a major victory” for the affected illegal immigrants.
It said that the ruling “sends a crucial message: private companies can—and will—be held accountable for helping rogue state actors violate the rights of vulnerable immigrants through illegal and fraudulent schemes.”
“All other defendants have been dismissed, but only for now. The dismissal is ‘without prejudice,’ meaning that the claims may be reasserted and reinstated,” the organization said in a statement.
“To be clear: the Martha’s Vineyard migrants will not stop here,” it added.
LCR said that they would continue to pursue their claims in federal court against all defendants, “including by seeking jurisdictional discovery to prove the viability of the claims against the dismissed parties.”
Darlene McCormick Sanchez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 20:20 - Beer Beats Wine In Regular Consumption
Beer Beats Wine In Regular Consumption
Alcohol has long been portrayed as a “social lubricant”, an effect possibly explained by the alcohol myopia theory. It suggests that intoxication can result in “hyperfocus directed to emotional situations when they are sufficiently relevant to grab attention, or a reduced attentional focus to emotional events in the presence of a relevant demanding task”, according to a 2010 paper on the topic by a group of researchers from Spain and Brazil.
On the other hand, alcohol is a drug that negatively affects psychological and physical health. As the World Health Organization postulated in a news briefing from January 2023 “alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco.”
However, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, the ambivalent picture of alcohol consumption doesn’t stop many people from drinking regularly.
The chart based on Statista’s Consumer Insights shows that beer is the most frequently consumed alcoholic beverage in almost every market surveyed.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Only in Switzerland, South Africa and Sweden is wine more popular than lagers, pilsners, ales and other types of beer, with between 26 and 42 percent of respondents regularly consuming the beverage created from fermented grapes.
In Latin American and Southern European countries like Mexico, Spain or Italy, beer is the more popular choice, being consumed regularly by between 45 and 53 percent of respondents.
Regarding the overall beverage consumed regularly by the highest share of survey participants, coffee comes out on top in 15 of the 20 countries analyzed, reaching respondent shares of 80 percent in Brazil or 78 percent in Poland.
In China (51 percent), the United States (61 percent) and Italy (75 percent), bottled water ranks highest, while 69 percent of Indians surveyed regularly drink tea and 72 percent of respondents in South Africa consume juice on a regular basis.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 20:00 - Japan To Embark On An Era Of "Mass Foreign Immigration"
Japan To Embark On An Era Of “Mass Foreign Immigration”
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,
Japan appears to be transitioning from a homogenous society to embrace ‘diversity and inclusivity’ by ushering in “an era of mass foreign immigration.”
It’s set to be a massive change for a country that was still up until recently 97.5% ethnic Japanese, according to the CIA World Factbook.
A Bloomberg report details how rapidly declining native birth rates, an aging society and a chronic labor shortage is fueling the importation of millions of foreigners who “are changing the face of Japan.”
The number of foreign workers in Japan has now exceeded 2 million, a 12.4% increase on 2022. The East Asian country needs at least 647,000 working-age immigrants per year to meet its 11 million worker shortage by 2040.
“Japan is entering an era of mass foreign immigration,” said Junji Ikeda, president of Saikaikyo, a Hiroshima-based agency that sources and supervises foreign workers. “Incremental adjustments will not suffice,” he added.
Under one program alone, 820,000 migrants will be admitted to work in the transportation and logistics sectors, a doubling of the previously agreed number, in order “to make efforts to realize an inclusive society,” according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.
While the process is being implemented under ‘skilled worker visas’, the actual roles migrants will fill include taxi drivers, bus drivers and factory workers.
Japan to admit 820,000 foreigners in transportation, logistics sectors; eases current regulations – https://t.co/Lj5j8IwKQj pic.twitter.com/1sWFCswLu5
— Nairametrics (@Nairametrics) April 1, 2024
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The service industry will also be increasingly filled with foreign migrants, who will subsequently be allowed to bring their families to stay in Japan indefinitely.
The Economist reports that a “glimpse at Japan’s future” looks like convenience stores being staffed overwhelmingly by migrants, highlighting “the importance of immigration.”
The news outlet cites one such 7-Eleven store in central Tokyo where “all the staff are Burmese.”
For a glimpse at Japan’s future, look at its convenience stores https://t.co/FGAlQ2Qsnq
— Shehzad Younis شہزاد یونس (@shehzadyounis) April 4, 2024
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“Gearoid Reidy in an article for the Japan Times estimates that the number of overseas workers has more than doubled in the last decade, while the broader foreign community, which includes children and students, has risen by 50 per cent,” reports the Spectator.
“Reidy envisages a time when more than 10 per cent of Japan’s population will be foreign born, putting the famously homogenous, exclusive, nation on a par with the UK, U.S and France.”
Is Japan finally embracing immigration? https://t.co/pwvnqobPB3
— Takashi Shogimen 将基面貴巳 (@TakashiShogimen) January 8, 2024
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Good luck with that.
At the end of last year, the government announced that crime had risen for the first time in 20 years, a situation native Japanese people might become more familiar with in the coming years.
A BBC News report about Japan’s previous refusal to adopt mass migration highlighted how the country was “stuck in the past,” with that past being characterized as “a peaceful, prosperous country with the longest life expectancy in the world, the lowest murder rate, little political conflict.”
Japan was the future but it’s stuck in the past https://t.co/xwsnvGjWki
— Joe Moran (@mjoran) April 28, 2023
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Apparently, affordable property prices, “refusing immigration and maintaining the patriarchy,” and the fact that “Japan still feels like Japan, and not a reproduction of America,” is being “stuck in the past.”
However, while importing large numbers of workers, Japan does still seem to be keen to limit foreign nationals claiming to be asylum seekers.
A new system starting in June will give the government the power to deport foreigners who have had their asylum claims rejected multiple times.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 19:40 - "This Is Mind-Blowing Bad": Officials Investigate Brazen $30M Easter Heist In LA
“This Is Mind-Blowing Bad”: Officials Investigate Brazen $30M Easter Heist In LA
Authorities in San Fernando Valley, California are investigating a $30 million cash heist at a money storage facility on Easter Sunday.
“This is mind-blowingly bad,” said one Garda employee, KTLA5 reports. “You would never suspect it, $30 million in the Valley — gone.”
The March 31st heist is among the largest in LA history.
According to the LA Times, the thieves entered the building through the roof, tripping no alarms – and there was no obvious sign of break-in on the vault itelf. Officials weren’t even aware of the heist until the safe was opened Monday.
The thieves also cut a hole in the side off the building, which was later covered with plywood and has now been repaired, KTLA5 reports.
Hole in the side of the GardaWorld facility on Roxford Street in Sylmar (screenshot via KTLA5) Both the LAPD and FBI have yet to comment on how the crew got away unnoticed.
One law enforcement official with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau who is not on this case told KTLA that money storage facilities like GardaWorld in Sylmar have multiple layers of security and other fortified systems, including alarms and motion sensors. -KTLA
So duh, clearly an inside job.
According to retired FBI Special-Agent-in-Charge of the LA field office Robert Clark, investigators “will try to determine who had access to the facility, who was aware of the schedule and knew that the money would be in the facility and [for] how long, the security around the facility and how much time they would be able to have to gain access and be able to move such a large amount of money.”
Clark thinks there’s a good chance the crew well get caught.
“I think the likelihood is very high because you don’t move that kind of money very quickly,” he said. “It’s not like you’re grabbing a couple of checks and running out the door. To be able to liquidate [it] would be very difficult. You’ll have to have a team of individuals that do it.“
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 19:20 - Behind EV Push, A Wealth Transfer From Red To Blue Regions
Behind EV Push, A Wealth Transfer From Red To Blue Regions
Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
President Joe Biden’s new EV mandates will likely prove to be a sizable wealth transfer from rural red regions of America to urban blue sections, and to wealthy Democrats who reside in them, according to reports.
On March 20, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its tailpipe emissions rules for the auto industry starting in 2027.
(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock) These rules are the strictest in history and will effectively force carmakers to have one-third of new car sales be plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) by 2027 and more than two-thirds by 2032.
This represents a dramatic increase from current EV sales, which were about 8 percent of the new car market in 2023.
Climate activists cheered the EPA’s move, with the Environmental Defense Fund calling it “a day to celebrate American achievement.”
But critics say that the measures will be particularly punitive for huge segments of the U.S. population who don’t want, can’t use, or can’t afford EVs. If carmakers go along with President Biden’s plan to shift their fleets to EVs, the cost of remaining gas-fired cars and trucks will likely escalate as demand dwarfs supply.
“This isn’t industrial policy,” Robert Bryce, author and energy analyst, told The Epoch Times. “In reality it’s a type of class warfare that will prevent low- and middle-income consumers from being able to afford new cars.”
And as many traditional car buyers struggle, the federal subsidies and incentives continue to flow, to the benefit of EV buyers.
According to an October 2023 report by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as much as $48,000 of the cost of the average EV sold in the United States is paid, not by the owner, but in the form of “socialized costs” that are spread out among taxpayers and electricity consumers over a 10-year period.
These socialized costs come in the form of taxes, government subsidies, fuel economy credits paid by gas carmakers to EV manufacturers, and higher electricity bills as consumers absorb the capital costs required to expand the power grid and install new charging stations.
The report states that “the average model year 2021 EV would cost $48,698 more to own over a 10-year period without $22 billion in government favors given to EV manufacturers and owners.”
These dollars, which do not take into account the additional dollars that gas-car owners will likely pay for their vehicles as manufacturers are forced to make fewer of them, amount to a government-mandated wealth transfer to affluent EV owners, paid by those who often cannot afford to buy EVs.
The new EPA mandate is “aimed at accommodating a very narrow segment of the auto-buying public: wealthy, white Democrats who live in a handful of liberal communities,” Mr. Bryce said. “EV ownership is largely defined by class, ideology, and geography.”
Attendees examine Tesla electric cars during an expo in Washington on July 23, 2023. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images) In a February analysis of EV buyers, Mr. Bryce reported that 57 percent of them earn more than $100,000 annually, 75 percent are male, and 87 percent are white. In addition, EV buyers are overwhelmingly Democrats, with 71 percent of Republicans stating in a Gallup poll that they would not consider owning an electric vehicle.
A 2023 University of California Energy Institute report found “a strong and enduring correlation between political ideology and U.S. EV adoption.”
Looking at county-level data on new vehicle registrations between 2012 and 2022, the report stated that 50 percent of all new EVs were sold into the top 10 percent of most-Democrat counties, with 70 percent going to the top 25 percent most-Democrat counties, and 90 percent going to the top 50 percent most-Democrat counties.
Twenty counties bought 40 percent of all EVs sold in this period, the report states, and “most of these counties are urban, high-income, and in Democratic states.”
One-third of EV Buyers Live in California
Data from the Department of Energy supports this view. As of year-end 2022, California had 903,600 registered EVs in the state, or 37 percent of all EVs owned nationwide.
The next largest number of EV owners were in Florida, Texas, and Washington state, with 168,000, 149,000, and 104,100 EVs respectively, followed by New Jersey, New York, Georgia, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
The states on this list are home to large cities and suburbs, which are the target market for EVs. This contrasts sharply with rural states like Wyoming and North Dakota, where 800 and 600 EV owners reside, respectively.
According to a report by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, “if you count all the EVs in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, Montana, and Idaho, they account for less than one percent of the total U.S. sales.”
A Rivian truck recharges at a charging station during a snowstorm in Truckee, Calif., on March 3, 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) Of the top 10 states in terms of EV per capita ownership, seven are “deep blue states,” the report notes.
“By contrast, the 10 states with the smallest market penetration for EVs were all red states,” Unleash Prosperity states.
“Ironically, Joe Biden is the worst thing that ever happened to this industry. EVs have become ‘Biden cars.’”
The Biden administration is not alone in attempting to force Americans to switch to electric cars. A number of blue states including California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington are on track to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035, according to non profit group Coltura, which advocates for the switch from gasoline to electric cars.
The lack of interest in EVs among red states isn’t merely a political issue, however. There are practical reasons why people are unwilling to spend thousands of dollars more on electric cars. According to a November 2023 AAA survey, the primary reasons for people not to buy electric cars are a lack of charging stations, limited range, and time to charge the battery.
A recent Rasmussen poll found that 65 percent of Americans surveyed don’t think they’re likely to make an EV their next automobile purchase.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 19:00 - US Intelligence Is 'Convinced' Major Iranian Response Against Israel Imminent
US Intelligence Is ‘Convinced’ Major Iranian Response Against Israel Imminent
US intelligence is ‘convinced’ that Iran is readying a retaliation response against Israel for the Monday attack on the Iranian embassy complex in Syria, US officials have told CBS News, and that an attack could be imminent.
The officials say that the US “has picked up intelligence that Iran is planning a retaliatory attack that would include a swarm of Shaheed loitering drones and cruise missiles. Officials say the timing and target are unknown, but a proportional response to the Damascus attack would be to hit an Israeli diplomatic facility.”
As for possible timing they believe it will come between now and the end of Ramadan next week. Israel has already issued firm warnings that any direct attack from Iranian soil will be met with a “stronger” response, taking the conflict to the next level.
AFP CBS reports further that “A public funeral was held in Tehran on Friday for the seven IRGC members killed in the suspected Israeli strike in Damascus, including two generals.”
One hawkish analyst from the Middle East Institute, Jason Brodsky, has noted on Friday:
There are reports Iran’s regime may be eyeing hitting an Israel diplomatic compound in a third country via drones & missiles. Israel maintains embassies in Bahrain; UAE; Jordan; Egypt; Azerbaijan; & Turkey. I would keep an eye on Jordan.
This is a scenario that Iranian and regional leaders might deem ‘proportionate’. The idea of a sovereign state intentionally attacking another country’s embassy or consulate was pretty much unheard of prior to Israel’s Monday attack.
Israel, however, has tried claim to the international community – which by and large condemned attacking embassies – that what was actually destroyed was a military building used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
A handful of publications and pundits have pointed out that the Israeli attack, which killed eleven and took out a top IRGC Quds general, is in fact a declaration of war.
For example, Hamidreza Azizi of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, immediately sought to underscore that the strikes which flattened a consulate next to the main embassy building “is viewed by some in Iran as a declaration of war by Israel against Iran.”
Israel heading into ‘unprecedented war,’ former IDF official says
The people who lead us today are acting in an unrealistic and irrational way and bring risk and disaster to the countryhttps://t.co/ZhggPmvDrI
— Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) April 4, 2024
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He wrote further that “It represents a shift from previous engagements, directly hitting Iranian soil represented by its consulate in Syria—as opposed to targeting IRGC officers in Syrian sites.”
Currently, Israel is bracing for an inevitable response, and is reportedly calling up extra reserve forces. Hezbollah could also open up a bigger war front:
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said on Friday that Iran would inevitably retaliate after a strike — widely blamed on Israel — destroyed its consulate in Damascus this week, killing two generals.
“Be certain that Iran’s response to the targeting of its Damascus consulate is inevitable,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day — an annual day of pro-Palestinian rallies held by Iran and its allies.At least so far, the daily tit-for-tat fighting along Israel’s northern border has remained contained, but perhaps just barely. Israeli leaders have warned that all of Lebanon could be bombed back to the ‘stone age’ if Hezbollah starts a full war.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 18:40 - Supreme Court Faces 'High Stakes' Decisions On Trump-Related Cases
Supreme Court Faces ‘High Stakes’ Decisions On Trump-Related Cases
Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
President Joe Biden issued a rare primetime threat to the Supreme Court during his State of the Union address on March 7, warning the justices that they could cause political backlash for their 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“With all due respect, justices, women are not without electoral or political power,” President Biden said.
(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images) In doing so, the president amplified that mounting pressure on the Supreme Court, a pressure that seems to build each week as the election nears and the queue of cases related to former President Donald Trump gets longer.
The justices are taking up two major appeals related to President Trump, who is the presumptive GOP nominee and is leading President Biden in polling matchups, including in crucial battleground states.
President Trump’s former advisors are also facing multiple charges, raising the prospect that some may request the high court’s intervention, as former White House advisor Peter Navarro did on March 15. The court’s denial made Mr. Navarro the first Trump White House adviser to end up in prison.
“This is certainly a blockbuster year for the court,” Heritage Foundation Vice President John Malcolm told The Epoch Times.
“Several of the justices, most notably the Chief Justice, have been concerned about the public’s perception of the court’s ‘legitimacy,’ so it will be interesting to see how the justices respond, especially in an important election year.”
‘High Stakes’
The combination of several Trump-related cases, the potential for landmark changes to legal precedent, the vigorous calls for reform, and the coming elections have made 2024 a year of high impact decisions for the court.
One decision has already impacted the course of the 2024 presidential campaign.
In March, the justices rejected an effort that could have resulted in millions of President Trump’s supporters not having their preferred candidate on the ballot. During oral argument, Justice Amy Coney Barrett referenced the “very high stakes” surrounding the case, which has been described as the court’s most influential election-related matter since Bush v. Gore.
Its landmark opinion in Trump v. Anderson foreclosed the possibility that states like Colorado could, under their existing authority, remove federal candidates from ballots.
The Supreme Court in Washington on March 22, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) The majority opinion, however, has been criticized for lacking clarity around how Congress should act. The decision emphasized the role of Congress in enforcing the 14th Amendment, while the three liberal justices and Justice Barrett favored a more limited approach that overruled state authority over federal candidates for office.
President Trump’s immunity appeal, scheduled for oral argument on April 25, could impact his Florida documents case and hush money trial, wherein he has requested a delay pending the Supreme Court’s decision on his D.C. immunity claims.
The stinging criticism that followed the court’s unanimous opinion in Trump v. Anderson indicates no matter how united the justices are, they will continue to face heavy scrutiny—especially when it comes to President Trump.
President Trump’s appeal, like Mr. Navarro’s, questions the separation of powers as well as the authority of the legislative and judiciary branches in challenging the executive.
In Trump v. Anderson, the court avoided wading into the specifics of President Trump’s alleged wrongdoing on Jan. 6 and will likely try to do the same with his immunity appeal. But their decisions in two other cases might impact the indictment in President Trump’s federal election case.
A challenge brought by Jan. 6 defendants against the DOJ’s use of an Enron-era obstruction charge in prosecutions will be heard before the high court on April 16.
In the federal election case, two of those charges were brought against President Trump. If the court rules in the defendants’ favor, as some legal experts predict, that could lessen the burden for President Trump in D.C. while also provoking scrutiny of the justices’ approach to Jan. 6.
The court’s decision in the presidential immunity appeal could similarly either upend or affirm the prosecution—likely sparking backlash from either side depending on the outcome.
Beyond Trump
Besides President Trump’s cases, the court is considering several major cases in administrative law—including potentially overturning the decades-old Chevron doctrine that gives deference to agencies in construing vague language in statutes. A reversal would significantly roll back the power of the administrative state.
Former President Donald Trump talks to the press outside the courtroom at the New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Oct. 2, 2023. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images) In February, it considered whether the Justice Department legally restricted bump stocks. The case, Garland v. Cargill, was the second of three major gun-related cases announced for the term. Two—Cargill and Rahimi v. United States—could alter who owns guns and how they operate them. The third, NRA v. Vullo, could make it easier or more difficult for governments to pressure organizations like those promoting gun rights.
The justices also heard arguments over the constitutionality of two sweeping social media laws from Texas and Florida that, combined with similar cases this term, could dramatically change the landscape of online expression.
In striking those laws, the justices could prevent future state legislation aimed at how social media platforms moderate users’ content and the transparency they provide for censoring certain posts. If laws succeed, social media platforms could see a patchwork of rules for moderating users’ content across the United States and enjoy less discretion in how they do so.
“These are cases that touch upon separation of powers and important constitutional rights, in addition to involving ‘hot button’ issues that will have a major impact on the law now and in the future,” Mr. Malcolm told The Epoch Times.
Court’s Image
With such contentious issues before the court, it seems inevitable that the justices’ decisions will upset large swaths of the American public. The justices could also be weighing how the way they phrase rulings will impact public opinion during such a high-stakes year.
University of Michigan Law Professor Barbara McQuade previously told The Epoch Times she imagined that with Trump v. Anderson, Justice Roberts felt pressure to “maintain the credibility of the Court as an independent and apolitical institution.”
She said “a 9–0 decision would provide the country with far more confidence than would a 6–3 decision.”
Justice Barrett emphasized the importance of unanimity and language while appearing to offer a glimpse into the justices’ concerns. Her concurring opinion in Trump v. Anderson seemed to criticize her colleagues for lacking restraint in their opinion. She had joined the liberal justices in favoring a more limited approach but didn’t sign onto their concurrence, which had some strong words for the majority.
“In my judgment, this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency,” she wrote. “The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up. For present purposes, our differences are far less important than our unanimity: All nine Justices agree on the outcome of this case. That is the message Americans should take home.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 18:20 - Canoo CEO's Private Jet Expenses Were Double The Company's Revenue For 2023
Canoo CEO’s Private Jet Expenses Were Double The Company’s Revenue For 2023
As we’ve been writing over the last year, saturation and competitive pricing are starting to prompt chaos and disorder in the EV space.
EV startup Canoo is the latest to face scrutiny, after it was revealed that CEO Tony Aquila’s private jet expenses totaled $1.7 million, twice the company’s revenue for 2023.
Despite reporting a loss of $302 million last year, Canoo paid for Aquila’s lavish travel, which included either first-class airfare or use of his private jet. Aquila, who also chairs the company, owns about 14% of Canoo. In 2022, Canoo spent $1.3 million on his air travel, according to a new report from Electrek.
The company, which has yet to turn a profit, generated just $886,000 in revenue in 2023.
Canoo is focused on scaling up production of its commercial vehicles and avoiding the fate of other struggling EV startups. While it faces challenges, such as the recent need for a 1-for-23 reverse stock split to prevent delisting, Canoo received a boost with a contract from the United States Postal Service for six delivery vans.
But, amidst a sea of competition and first movers like Tesla, BYD and legacy automakers, companies like Canoo and the near-bankrupt Fisker are struggling. Ergo, the company CEO’s spending on private jets raises concerns about how the company manages its finances, particularly given its recent stock drop of up to 38% after reporting losses.
Reuters was first to report the massive cost/revenue divergence.
Canoo responded with a statement: “Had Reuters called Canoo for comment we would have told them that we raised $324 million in 2022, and $288 million in 2023 and we are currently in discussions with several entities and individuals about investing in the company this year.”
“We would have also told them that we have begun manufacturing, expect to step up our manufacturing effort this year, and have a backlog of orders. And, that we are not in the consumer market, we are in the commercial market,” the company added.
We wrote late last year that all of the Tesla-wannabe EV companies were running out of cash.
The report noted that at least 18 EV and battery startups, including high-profile names like Nikola and Fisker, face the risk of depleting their cash reserves by the end of 2024. These companies, once known for their ambitious goals to revolutionize the industry with electric trucks and SUVs, have struggled with increasing costs and manufacturing challenges.
Names like Lordstown Motors, Proterra, and Electric Last Mile Solutions have already declared bankruptcy, the report notes. Romeo Power, a battery manufacturer, and Volta, a charging company, were sold for much less than their initial public valuations. The remaining firms are reportedly focusing on cost reduction and have secured additional funding.
Gavin Baker, chief investment officer at Atreides Management, told WSJ: “It was by far the most insane bubble I have ever seen.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 18:00 - Behind Election Rhetoric, Democrats Utilize Little Known Strategy To Win 2024
Behind Election Rhetoric, Democrats Utilize Little Known Strategy To Win 2024
Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The upcoming election will likely be less about changing voters’ minds and more about rousing the faithful and getting them to the polls.
(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Stock Photo) America’s students, who according to an analysis by Tufts University helped elect Biden in key swing states in 2020, could prove to be pivotal in this regard, both as targets and as foot soldiers in the party’s get-out-the-vote drives.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit currently moving through Wisconsin courts appears to provide a case study for how these campaigns translate into election wins for the Democratic Party.
In February, Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted that the government is paying college students to register voters.
“We have been doing work to promote voter participation for students. And, for example we … now allow students to get paid through Federal Work Study to register people and to be nonpartisan poll workers,” she said.
Ms. Harris said the Biden administration has been able “to charge federal agencies with doing the work that they rightly can do to inform the American people of their right to vote.”
Paying students to canvass is the latest component of an initiative originated under former President Barack Obama to increase student voting. Initially this was carried out in conjunction with private nonprofit organizations such as Civic Nation.
Founded with the support of President Obama, his wife, and Joe Biden in 2015, and led by former Obama staffers, Civic Nation now boasts a partnership with 1,700 colleges and universities and a reported budget of more than $16 million in 2020.
Its stated goal is “fighting for gender equity, social justice, and more,” and it leads the “All In Campus Democracy Challenge” that engages with university administrators to get them to sign up student voters.
All In runs school get-out-the-vote competitions in all 50 states. According to its website, it has partnered with 994 institutions and signed up more than 10 million students. As part of the “challenge,” schools agree to share student voting data.
Civic Nation receives much of its funding from a network of progressive charitable funds managed by Arabella Advisors, which oversees a network of nonprofit vehicles that finance left-wing political campaigns.
Under the Biden administration, however, the student get-out-the-vote campaign is now being run with federal funds, spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Education.
Fayetteville State University student NAACP chapter president Ty Hamer (R) leads a call as students walk to vote in Fayetteville, N.C., on March 3, 2020. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images) Executive Order Backed by Federal Funds
President Biden’s Executive Order 14019 compels all government agencies to take part in a nationwide effort to register voters and includes a program by the Department of Education (DOE) that pressures educational institutions to demonstrate that they have signed up students to vote.
Following the issuance of EO14019, the DOE sent schools a “Dear Colleague Letter” to “remind institutions of higher education of the federal requirements regarding voting that are tied to participation in federal student aid programs.”
The letter, according to the DOE, also clarifies when Federal Work Study dollars can be used “for nonpartisan civic engagement work.”
According to a 2022 report by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), “youth ages 18–29 are the only age group in which a strong majority supported Democrats.”
Up until 2002, the youth vote was evenly split between the two parties, the report stated, but since that time young people have shifted sharply in favor Democrats by what is now a 28-point margin. The get-out-the-vote campaigns do not target all young voters equally, however. Instead, they focus their efforts on the most reliable Democrat voters—those who attend college.
Students walk past a polling site at the University of Pittsburgh during the midterm election, in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) A 2020 survey by Pew Research found that the single largest voter gap in favor of Democrats was white college-educated women, of whom 62 percent voted Democrat versus 34 percent who voted Republican. Conversely, non-college white men favored the Republican Party by a margin of 32 points, with 62 percent for Republicans and 30 percent for Democrats.
“Democrats increasingly dominate in party identification among white college graduates,” the report states. “Republicans increasingly dominate in party affiliation among white non-college voters.”
Students Vote Like Their Teachers
A 2020 report by the National Association of Scholars found that Democrat-registered professors outnumbered Republican-registered professors by a ratio of 10-to-1, a gap that has widened from 4.5-to-1 in 1999.
“Research since World War II has consistently found overwhelmingly left-oriented political attitudes and ideological self-identification among college and university faculty,” the Association states. “It has also found overwhelming support for the Democratic Party.”
The other factor that makes the college vote so attractive to Democrats is the location of college students in key swing states, where a few thousand votes can deliver a win in a tight election. For this reason it may not be coincidental that the youth turnout rate has been much higher in swing states than non-swing states.
The CIRCLE report found that among the highest states for youth voter turnout were Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Nevada, and Georgia. In Michigan and Pennsylvania, for example, 36.5 percent and 31.7 percent of residents under the age of 29 voted in 2022.
This contrasts sharply with neighboring non swing states such as West Virginia (14.2 percent), Delaware (18.7 percent), New Jersey (20.6 percent), Ohio (21.6 percent), Connecticut (21.4 percent), New York (20.7 percent), and Massachusetts (18.5 percent). Oregon, a reliable blue state, bucked this trend with 35.5 percent youth turnout.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/05/2024 – 17:40
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