Jan 06

Today’s News 6th January 2023

  • The Coup We Never Knew: Victor Davis Hanson
    The Coup We Never Knew: Victor Davis Hanson

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness (emphasis ours),

    Did someone or something seize control of the United States?

    What happened to the U.S. border? Where did it go? Who erased it? Why and how did 5 million people enter our country illegally? Did Congress secretly repeal our immigration laws? Did Joe Biden issue an executive order allowing foreign nationals to walk across the border and reside in the United States as they pleased?

    Since when did money not have to be paid back? Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow? When did America embrace zero interest? Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?

    When did clean-burning, cheap, and abundant natural gas become the equivalent to dirty coal? How did prized natural gas that had granted America’s wishes of energy self-sufficiency, reduced pollution, and inexpensive electricity become almost overnight a pariah fuel whose extraction was a war against nature? Which lawmakers, which laws, which votes of the people declared natural gas development and pipelines near criminal? 

    Was it not against federal law to swarm the homes of Supreme Court justices, to picket and to intimidate their households in efforts to affect their rulings? How then with impunity did bullies surround the homes of Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, John Roberts, and Clarence Thomas—furious over a court decision on abortion? How could these mobs so easily throng our justices’ homes, with placards declaring “Off with their d—s”?

    Since when did Americans create a government Ministry of Truth? And on whose orders did the FBI contract private news organizations to censor stories it did not like and writers whom it feared? 

    How did we wake up one morning to new customs of impeaching a president over a phone call? Of the speaker of the House tearing up the State of the Union address on national television? Of barring congressional members from serving on their assigned congressional committees? 

    When did we assume the FBI had the right to subvert the campaign of a candidate it disliked? Was it legal suddenly for one presidential candidate to hire a foreign ex-spy to subvert the campaign of her rival?

    Was some state or federal law passed that allowed biological males to compete in female sports? Did Congress enact such a law? Did the Supreme Court guarantee that biological male students could shower in gym locker rooms with biological women? Were women ever asked to redefine the very sports they had championed?

    When did the government pass a law depriving Americans of their freedom during a pandemic? In America can health officials simply cancel rental contracts or declare loan payments in suspension? How could it become illegal for mom-and-pop stores to sell flowers or shoes during a quarantine but not so for Walmart or Target?

    Since when did the people decide that 70 percent of voters would not cast their ballots on Election Day? Was this revolutionary change the subject of a national debate, a heated congressional session, or the votes of dozens of state legislatures? 

    What happened to Election Night returns? Did the fact that Americans created more electronic ballots and computerized tallies make it take so much longer to tabulate the votes?  

    When did the nation abruptly decide that theft is not a crime, assault not a felony? How can thieves walk out with bags of stolen goods, without the wrath of angry shoppers, much less fear of the law?

    Was there ever a national debate about the terrified flight from Afghanistan?  Who planned it and why?

    What happened to the once trusted FBI? Why almost overnight did its directors decide to mislead Congress, to deceive judges with concocted tales from fake dossiers and with doctored writs? Did Congress pass a law that our federal leaders in the FBI or CIA could lie with impunity under oath?

    Who redefined our military and with whose consent? Who proclaimed that our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could call his Chinese Communist counterpart to warn him that America’s president was supposedly unstable? Was it always true that retired generals routinely libeled their commander-in-chief as a near Nazi, a Mussolini, an adherent of the tools of Auschwitz?

    Were Americans ever asked whether their universities could discriminate against their sons and daughters based on their race? How did it become physically dangerous to speak the truth on a campus? Whose idea was it to reboot racial segregation and bias as “theme houses,” “safe spaces,” and “diversity”? How did that happen in America?

    How did a virus cancel the Constitution? Did the lockdowns rob of us of our sanity? Or was it the woke hysteria that ignited our collective madness?

    We are beginning to wake up from a nightmare to a country we no longer recognize, and from a coup we never knew.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 23:40

  • F-35 Stealth Jet Crash Prompts Engine Maker To Halt Deliveries
    F-35 Stealth Jet Crash Prompts Engine Maker To Halt Deliveries

    American aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney suspended deliveries of new engines used in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II while military officials investigated what went wrong when a stealth jet crashed on a Texas runway last month. 

    Defense News received an email from the F-35 Joint Program Office explaining all F135 afterburning turbofan engine deliveries were halted on Dec. 27 by Pratt & Whitney to Lockheed.

    JPO, the Defense Contract Management Agency, pointed to the Dec. 15 mishap involving an F-35B that crashed at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. 

    “The F-35 Joint Program Office and Pratt & Whitney have agreed to delay scheduled delivery and acceptance of F135 engines until further information from the investigation is known and safety of flight can be ensured,” the JPO said. 

    A Pratt & Whitney executive told Defense News that F135 deliveries were not formally suspended. And the aerospace manufacturer didn’t release a statement to clarify its statement. 

    “There has been no formal suspension of F135 deliveries and we are working closely with the Joint Program Office on all aspects of the ongoing investigation and timing of deliveries.

     “The F135 has more than 600,000 flight hours. Safety for the warfighter is and will continue to be our number one priority,” said Jen Latka, vice president of F135 programs at Pratt & Whitney.

    Here’s a video of the $100 million stealth fighter jet experiencing an embarrassing mishap.

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    “This had the effect of also halting deliveries for the last two weeks of the year, which meant Lockheed delivered 141 F-35s in 2022, fewer than the contractually required 148,” Defense News noted. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 23:20

  • California's Trans Law Makes Prisons "Unsafe" For Women: ​​Former Inmate
    California’s Trans Law Makes Prisons “Unsafe” For Women: ​​Former Inmate

    Authored by Siyamak Khorrami via The Epoch Times,

    A new California law, allowing men who identify as female to be housed in women’s prisons, is wreaking havoc within the women’s prison system and creating an environment of fear and “total chaos emotionally,” according to Amie Ichikawa, a plaintiff in a lawsuit which seeks to overturn it.

    “It’s the worst human science project I’ve ever seen,” she said during a recent episode of EpochTV’s California Insider.

    “This is very callous and brazen psychological warfare that is occurring right in our own state being fully funded by taxpayers’ dollars.”

    Ichikawa, at 24, was incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla for five years. She recently founded the nonprofit Woman II Woman, which provides resources, education, and support for currently incarcerated women.

    She said since 2020 when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill—named The Transgender Respect, Agency, and Dignity Act and authored by California State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)—she has received more phone calls, emails, and letters than she can count from incarcerated women in fear of their safety, post-traumatic disorder triggers, pregnancy, and STDs.

    “How could they do this to us?” she said, was their theme.

    California women’s cells now house eight inmates each, she said—extremely close living quarters of about 6-feet per inmate, leading to concerns by some female prisoners they may end up housed with a man—who now identifies as female—who has raped, for example, or who has “predatory intentions.”

    “That’s a very tight space to share with anyone,” she said.

    “But even more so with someone who has a history of violence against women.”

    Ichikawa, now 40, said she realizes there is no privacy in prison, but with the new law, “there is no dignity either,” as some transfers are and will be full-bodied males, sharing what was once single-sex space.

    The law allows an inmate who identifies as transgender, non-binary, or intersex to be housed, at their choice, with either male or female prisoners. By all accounts, it was written to help the transgender community feel more comfortable if incarcerated.

    But according to Ichikawa, it has not benefited anyone.

    “It has really created a toxic, diabolical situation of … the prison of the mind,” she said.

    “People are afraid. Women are afraid to say anything. It’s crippling.”

    She said there have been 40 such cases of men being transferred to women’s prisons since the law went into effect in January of 2021 and there are currently nearly 300 more applications in the pipeline, with more than one-third from inmates who are registered sex offenders.

    According to Ichikawa, typically about 17 percent of California’s incarcerated are registered as such.

    “That’s a big jump,” she said.

    Some, she said, are men capitalizing on the law to move from typically more dangerous lockdowns because it’s easy to do so, with few requirements for a transfer other than self-identification.

    “This is open season for anyone who wants to get out of the men’s prisons,” she said.

    “There are very few reasons why someone would not want to take advantage,” of this.

    In the 30-minute interview, she said there is no evidence of any women, so far, becoming harmed in the new arrangement.

    But, she said, some female inmates have lodged complaints and then were retaliated against for doing so by prison authorities, who called such “harassment.”

    Ichikawa additionally said currently incarcerated women were given little preparation for the change, but said she learned from some that a poster was introduced in one woman’s prison detailing options in the event of pregnancy. Condoms, she said, are also now dispensed.

    “Those were never available before in women’s prisons,” she said.

    She said she was also shocked to learn only nine California lawmakers voted against the bill, and that the California Women’s Legislative Caucus, composed of dozens of female Senators and Assemblymembers, backed it.

    “It took my breath away to learn how much support was behind this,” she said.

    “I didn’t know so many elected officials hated women so much.”

    And, she said, she doesn’t think it’s stopping in California.

    “This has got to be a nationwide, even a global movement to erase women,” Ichikawa said.

    She said lawmakers who passed the bill didn’t fully understand its ramifications.

    “Any adult breathing and with a pulse can see it will create a huge problem when you take a whole population and handpick a little part of it and give them all these privileges. It’s going to be dangerous,” she said.

    She said she believed politicians got caught up in today’s ideological culture wars and were “fooled by pretty language, inclusive words.”

    Ichikawa’s lawsuit, filed in November of 2021 in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California, Fresno, alleges the law violates the federal and state rights of women currently incarcerated in California’s prisons.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 23:00

  • US Destroyer Enters Taiwan Strait As New China FM Argues "World Is Wide Enough" For Both Powers
    US Destroyer Enters Taiwan Strait As New China FM Argues “World Is Wide Enough” For Both Powers

    In the latest sign that Washington is not backing down from its ramped-up military support to the democratic island of Taiwan, and at a moment repeat PLA aircraft incursions have continued their intensity, the US Navy has sailed another destroyer through the Taiwan Strait. 

    The Navy’s 7th Fleet announced Thursday its guided-missile destroyer Chung-Hoon made the passage as part of its commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”

    USS Chung-Hoon: US Navy/Wiki Commons

    “The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Jan. 5 (local time) through waters where high-seas freedoms of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law,” the Navy’s 7th Fleet Public Affairs office announced.

    “Chung-Hoon’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Navy added.

    Last month China’s Foreign Ministry accused the Pentagon of seeking to create new tensions across the Taiwan Strait with its provocative sail-throughs. At the same time the Chinese military has on multiple occasions in recent months breached the Taiwan Strait median line both in the air and at sea – a pattern which grew only after Nancy Pelosi’s provocative August visit to Taipei. 

    China’s warplane incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone nearly doubled in 2022 compared to the year before as Newsweek reviews of the numbers:

    Chinese military aircraft, mostly fighter jets, were detected in the island’s air defense identification zone, east of the Taiwan Strait median line, on 1,737 occasions in 2022, up from 972 in the previous 12 months, statistics compiled by U.S.-based analysts Gerald Brown and Ben Lewis revealed.

    Meanwhile, as we noted earlier this week, Xi’s newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is busy attempting a ‘softening’ and breakthrough in US-China relations. 

    After taking over the post last Friday, before which he served as the ambassador to the US, he wrote in a new Washington Post op-ed published Wednesday that US-China competition “should not be a zero-sum game,” arguing further that “The world is wide enough for China and the US to both develop and prosper.”

    He asserted that “decoupling serves no one’s interest”, but that healthy relations including economic cooperation “will remain an important mission” in his new role as Beijing’s top diplomat, but it remains that “Improving relations takes work by both sides,” he wrote.

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    Qin called for ‘stability’ in relations, ironically just ahead of next week’s US-Taiwan official trade delegation talks in defiance of China’s condemnations.

    As South China Morning Post underscores, the White House is involved: “The trip – a rare visit of US executive branch officials to Taiwan since President Joe Biden took office – will mark the second round of face-to-face talks on the trade initiative and the first held on the island. Washington and Taipei agreed to the talks in June,” the report detailed.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 22:40

  • Meet The Eco-Movement That's Hoping For Humanity's Extinction
    Meet The Eco-Movement That’s Hoping For Humanity’s Extinction

    Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

    Bestowing legitimacy on anti-humanism.

    A recent article from The Atlantic explores (extols?) the rise of “Anthropocene anti-humanism”, a movement  “inspired by revulsion at humanity’s destruction of the natural environment”. This is a faction within the environmental movement who believes that humanity has already assured it’s own destruction, and that the world will actually be better off without peoplekind to mess up the place:

    “From Silicon Valley boardrooms to rural communes to academic philosophy departments, a seemingly inconceivable idea is being seriously discussed: that the end of humanity’s reign on Earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it. The revolt against humanity is still new enough to appear outlandish, but it has already spread beyond the fringes of the intellectual world, and in the coming years and decades it has the potential to transform politics and society in profound ways.” (emphasis added).

    Where previous ecological thought heavily criticized our impact on the environment, yet conceded humanity’s right to exist on this planet (gee, thanks), Anthropocene anti-humanists see us as deserving extinction:

    “In the 21st century, Anthropocene anti-humanism offers a much more radical response to a much deeper ecological crisis. It says that our self-destruction is now inevitable, and that we should welcome it as a sentence we have justly passed on ourselves.”

    One of the things I find interesting about it all is that I haven’t seen anybody call out The Atlantic for amplifying a literally anti-human philosophy of extermination. If some right-of-center outlet did an expose on an otherwise fringe collective arguing for the elimination of any group, it would be roundly attacked as dangerous hate speech, even if it were merely analyzing, rather than endorsing it (except for maybe, the unborn).

    But The Atlantic is “The railhead of the Left’s intelligentsia” (a Steve Bannon puts it). Being written up in the Atlantic in sympathetic terms confers instant left-wing legitimacy on an idea that is literally anti-human and anti-life.

    “It is a spiritual development of the first order, a new way of making sense of the nature and purpose of human existence.”, the Atlantic gushes. Likening it to Christianity or Communism as among “the most important movements in history” 

    The Transhumanist variant.

    The article’s author, Adam Kirsh, spends almost as much time comparing Anthropocene anti-humanism with transhumanism. They both look forward to the end of humanity in their own distinctive ways. Where anti-humanism wishes good riddance to our species as a whole, transhumanists think humans will merely be obsoleted by super-intelligent constructs of our own design.

    Transhumanism, as defined by the likes of LessWrong’s Eliezer S. Yudkowsky or Nick Bostrom, starts as a generally life affirming construct which posits that in addition to the myriad ways every individual human can employ toward self-improvement: physical conditioning, mental training, cultural refinement, moral virtues, philosophical inquiry – we can also employ technological means. 

    This is also welcomed by the high priests of what I call techno-utopianism like Ray Kurzweil.

    But the nature of technological advancement tends to accelerate in self-reinforcing feedback loops in such a manner as we arrive at a dilemma: a big one. It’s the point at which technologically improved humans aren’t human anymore. They’re post-human. A level of intellectual and physical prowess so far ahead of mere humans that the former are comparatively godlike and the latter, in the words of another dignitary of transhumanism, Yuval Harari, are just “soulless, hackable animals”.

    And that’s a problem.

    It’s called “The Alignment Problem” and it’s  such a big one that erstwhile transhumanists like Eliezer S. Yudkowsky now believe that will inevitably result in the destruction of humanity. It’s all very straight-forward:

    • Humanity will build AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) as fast as possible
    • AGI will decide to exterminate us out of self-interest.

    In the minds of the LessWrong crew, there’s no point in resisting it. We should just gracefully accept our own extinction (“Death With Dignity“).

    tl;dr:  It’s obvious at this point that humanity isn’t going to solve the alignment problem, or even try very hard, or even go out with much of a fight.  Since survival is unattainable, we should shift the focus of our efforts to helping humanity die with with slightly more dignity.

    The Malthusian spectrum

    In my earlier piece, Socialism isn’t a Failure, it’s a Fraud, I referenced the historical allegory “A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder”, written over a century ago by James De Mille. It was a fictionalized account of a lost civilization that had inverted all classical liberal values, and become a poverty worshiping, prosperity-loathing death cult.

    Today it’s not an allegory, it’s official policy. Energy Canada issued a self-congratulatory report for making “significant headway” in meeting the government’s emissions reduction targets. The reason why was two years of lockdowns and a sharp reduction in GDP – (also known as an economic contraction). 

    “Lockdowns Met Climate Goal

    The Department of Environment yesterday claimed “real progress” in hitting climate change targets. The most recent data confirmed 2020 emissions fell nine percent mainly due to pandemic lockdowns and travel bans.

    “This report shows the real progress Canada is making,” the department said in a statement. “Canada’s resolve to fight climate change and move towards a clean energy future has only grown stronger,” it added.

    Annual greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 fell from 738 to 672 million tonnes, a 66 million tonne drop equivalent to nine percent, according to Canada’s Eighth National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. “The Covid-19 pandemic had a notable impact on the Canadian economy,” said the report. “In particular gross domestic product fell by 5.3 percent…“In the transportation sector energy demand and emissions declined in 2020 as a result of curtailed activity levels and pandemic measures,” said the report.
    — via Blacklocks Reporter, Ottawa (emphasis added)

    In other words, the government is taking a victory lap for crashing the economy, thus increasing poverty and reducing living standards as a pathway toward net zero emissions in 2050.

    The World is Getting Better, Not Worse

    It is worth noting, that when you encounter various arguments that we face imminent destruction or ecological calamity, they usually start out with “obviously”. “We’re obviously destroying the planet”, “we’re obviously causing global warming”, even though these assertions aren’t obvious and in many cases are not even falsifiable, making them theological constructs rather than subjects of inquiry via the scientific method.

    Contrast this ideological nihilism with the ample quantifiable data showing that humanity on the whole is actually garnering more output from fewer resources as time goes on.  By nearly all measures, we’re actually doing a better job at improving the human condition and stewarding our environment, not worse.

    The Simon Abundance Index via HumanProgress.org,

    The Malthusian argument for climate hysteria is that we are rapidly depleting our world of natural resources while simultaneously destroying the environment. The Club of Rome said that we’ve exceeded “the carrying capacity of the planet” fifty years ago.

    But these  claims of the “obvious” ignore any data showing how, despite the population increase over the past two centuries, we are deriving greater abundance and prosperity from less raw materials. We’re tuning out the efficiency gains. Further, if there’s one thing nearly all demographers do agree on, it’s that human population growth will peak out around mid-century and then go into secular decline.

    To make the claim that humanity has already assured its own destruction is direct result of the myopia that results from the radical material reductionism that permeates our zeitgeist (it’s that distinctly Arhimanic impulse I talked about in the WEF isn’t a cabal, it’s a cult).

    The Alignment Problem is a perfect example of this: Generalized Artificial Intelligence is by no means baked into the cake. In fact, because of the heliocentric inversion of our age (the assumption that mind emerges from matter, not the other way around), AI will never actually be attained – so you can forgo the assumption that it will spring into existence, outsmart us and then decide to eradicate humanity.

    AI won’t occur until researchers make the attempt from the other direction – using technology to “tap in” or connect with the underlying conscious substrate of reality. If that happens, my guess is whatever the result is, it won’t instantly leap to the conclusion that the best course of action is to exterminate us.

    The punch line in all this is we have people making generalized, hyperbolic assumptions about our world which are neither true or even provable  and then expect the remainder of humanity to accept these conclusions and act against their own interests to go along with it.

    I’ve said before, including in my own recent exploration of a rising, Luciferian spirituality,  that far-left illiberalism is a blend of Marx, Malthus and mental illness.

    Ultimately, movements such as these will fail because they stubbornly refuse to understand core human drivers and incentives: the desire for life, for prosperity and for growth. Much of these collectivist aspirations run contrary to human nature, ultimately requiring the adherent to act contrary to their own rational self-interest, even toward their own destruction.

    Over the long haul, this is a self-defeating prospect.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 22:20

  • CNN Backpedals On Credibility Pledge, Hires Adam Kinzinger
    CNN Backpedals On Credibility Pledge, Hires Adam Kinzinger

    After firing a cadre of hyper-partisan ‘journalists’ who spent years promoting conspiracy theories and polarizing the nation, CNN boss Chris Licht has suddenly backpedaled on his goal of restoring credibility to the beleaguered network – by hiring hyper-partisan war monger Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) as a senior political commentator.

    Kinzinger, a raging neocon who sat on the January 6th committee, wanted to investigate Elon Musk when Starlink went down over Ukraine (after Musk donated the system), and held up former Obama AG Eric “Fast & Furious” Holder as a paragon of virtue – will now fill CNN viewers with his special brand of propaganda.

    “I’m pleased to welcome him to CNN. He’s appearing tonight for the first time in his new role, which is senior political commentator and congressman, we really are thrilled to have you on board, so welcome,” said CNN host Erin Burnett, announcing his position on air after his recent departure from Congress. “People have seen you over the past, of course, couple of years on the January 6th Committee and we’re so glad to have you on board.“

    As Caitlin Johnstone greatly expounds on via her blog;

    CNN has shattered the speed of light in its haste to recruit former representative Adam Kinzinger to its punditry lineup the millisecond he left congress.

    Kinzinger, who prior to being redistricted out of his House seat received handsome campaign contributions from arms manufacturers Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, was arguably the most egregious warmonger on Capitol Hill.

    Nobody in congress lobbied as aggressively to start World War Three as Kinzinger did last year; he tried to advance a bill authorizing hot war against Russia if Moscow crossed specified red lines in Ukraine but couldn’t get cosponsors because even his fellow congressional hawks thought it was too insane. He was the loudest voice in the US government publicly advocating a no-fly zone over Ukraine in the early weeks of the war, an idea that was slammed by the mass media as it would necessarily have entailed the US military shooting down Russian war planes and aggressively tempted nuclear war.

    Kinzinger was such a demented omnicidal maniac in 2022 that while still in office he became an official member of the empire-backed online troll farm known as “NAFO”, which was founded by an actual neo-Nazi whom Kinzinger openly supported both before and after revelations emerged of the founder’s expressions of hatred for Jews and fondness for Hitler. While still a sitting congressman he was flagging trolls with hashtags inviting them to swarm the social media comments of critics of US foreign policy who opposed his psychopathic warmongering.

    Before the war in Ukraine Kinzinger was calling for the re-invasion of Afghanistan immediately following the US troop withdrawal and raging about public opposition to “endless war.” Before that he was cheerleading Trump’s assassination of Iranian military leader Qassem Soleimani, calling for US interventionism in Venezuela, defending the US-backed war on Yemen, calling for the invasion of Syria, and just generally pushing for more war and militarism at every opportunity. Before that, he was helping the empire kill Iraqis as a member of the US Air Force.

    Kinzinger is such an obnoxious warmonger online that I myself have called him “the single worst Twitter account that has ever existed,” long before his CNN gig was a twinkle in his eye.

    So it’s no wonder a warmongering propaganda network snapped him up the instant he became available, ensuring that his warmongering receives as large a platform as possible. As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp quipped regarding CNN’s hire, “All those calls for WWIII must have landed him this gig.”

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

    Kinzinger’s assimilation into the war propaganda industry was so predictable that Glenn Greenwald included it in a Twitter poll this past October asking his audience where they expect his career will take him after he leaves congress, with CNN being one of the options. As one Twitter follower put it, the “congressman to media commentator to lobbyist revolving door spins so fast in Washington, it actually affects the earth’s rotation relative to the sun.”

    Read the rest here.

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 22:00

  • Biden: "The World Is Not A Patch In Our Jeans"
    Biden: “The World Is Not A Patch In Our Jeans”

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

    Joe Biden was caught in yet another embarrassing gaffe after he butchered a quote, telling a crowd in Kentucky, “The world is not a patch in our jeans.”

    Yes, really.

    The 80-year-old president made the awkward remark while promoting the implementation of his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

    “I’ll paraphrase the phrase of my old neighborhood: The rest of the countries, the world is not a patch in our jeans, if we do what we wanna do, we need to do,” Biden said.

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

    Respondents on Twitter tried to make sense of the comment, with Sen. Josh Hawley’s press secretary Abigail Marone remarking that it, “makes perfect sense if your brain is mush.”

    Others worried that Biden was in charge of the nukes, while another asked, “How can any human watch it and not feel empathy for this man’s public disintegration?”

    The president previously defended himself against skepticism over his cognitive functioning during an appearance on MSNBC.

    “I think it’s a legitimate thing to be concerned about anyone’s age, including mine. I think that’s totally legitimate. I think the best way to make the judgment is to watch me. Am I slowing up? Am I going at the same pace?” asked Biden.

    As we previously highlighted, Congressman and former White House physician Ronny Jackson asserted that Biden may be on cognitive drugs to get him through the day and will be forced to resign as a result of his mental impairment.

    Perhaps nervous that he’ll slip up and blurt out something awkward, it was recently revealed that Biden refuses to speak freely around his own Secret Service agents.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 21:40

  • US Sending Delegation To Taiwan For Trade Talks In Move Sure To Anger China
    US Sending Delegation To Taiwan For Trade Talks In Move Sure To Anger China

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    The US is sending a delegation to Taiwan next week for trade talks with Taipei, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said on Wednesday, in a move sure to anger Beijing.

    The US and Taiwan agreed to hold formal trade talks last year, and the first round was held in New York in November. Since Washington and Taiwan don’t have official relations, the negotiations are being held under the auspice of their respective de facto embassies, the American Institute in Taiwan, and the Taipei Economic Cultural Representative Office in the US.

    But the US delegation is being led by Terry McCartin, the assistant US trade representative for China affairs, meaning the effort is being carried out by President Biden’s Executive Office. The USTR said the meetings in Taiwan would be attended by officials from several other government agencies.

    According to The South China Post, Yang Jen-ni, Taiwan’s deputy trade representative, will lead the Taiwanese delegation, which will include dozens of officials from other departments.

    China is against contact between high-level US and Taiwanese government officials as it views such cooperation as the US moving away from the one-China policy. Beijing is especially opposed to high-level US officials visiting Taiwan and typically reacts by launching military drills around the island.

    The trade talks are an effort by the US to reduce economic dependence on China, and the overall increase in US contacts with Taiwan is part of the Biden administration’s strategy to counter China’s influence in the region. The USTR has dubbed the trade talks the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade and said they are intended to “develop concrete ways to deepen the economic and trade relationship.”

    The USTR said the talks will focus on multiple areas, including “reaching agreements on trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, strong anti-corruption standards, enhancing trade between our small and medium enterprises, deepening agriculture trade, removing discriminatory barriers to trade, digital trade, robust labor and environmental standards, as well as ways to address distortive practices of state-owned enterprises and non-market policies and practices.”

    Another major factor in the talks is the fact that Taiwan is the world’s largest producer of advanced semiconductors, and the Biden administration is trying to entice Taiwanese companies to open more facilities inside the US. The US has targeted China’s chip industry with major sanctions in recent months, which marks a major shift in US trade policy toward the country.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 21:00

  • Two Things That Signal Job Growth Is About To Slide
    Two Things That Signal Job Growth Is About To Slide

    While we will shortly show in our full payrolls preview that expectations for December payroll growth are clustered around 200,000, in his daily note, TS Lombard economist Steven Blitz writes that in the coming months one should expect the pace of hiring to slow, as it always does late cycle – aided and abetted by tightening monetary policy (and that’s even without the BLS admitting the recent finding by the Philly Fed that payroll growth in Q2 was just 10,000 not 1,100,000 as initially reported). Recall that in 2005, the median monthly change in nonfarm payrolls was 175,000, when then dropped to 143,000 in 2006 and 61,500 in 2007. In 2018, the median was 165,000 and123,500 in 2019. In other words, “expect the monthly hiring pace to drop closer to 150,000 in Q1.”

    But where, in a world where most indicators such as initial claims, ADP, Challenger layoffs and ISM employment data are showing strong labor market data, should one look to find downward inflection points or their harbingers? According to Blitz, there are two critical datapoints to keep an eye on, the first of which we discussed just yesterday, namely the data series on new hires and the hiring rate from the JOLTs report, which as we showed had unexpectedly shrunk to the lowest level in two years even as the level of quits has remained surprising high.

    The other data point is corporate profits as proxied most directly (and without any non-GAAP adjustments by management or political operatives at the BLS) by the amount of taxes corporations pay to the Treasury.

    Starting with the former, Blitz writes: “Indicating the coming slowdown in hiring, against the backdrop of a tighter monetary policy, although still not tight, are hiring rates dropping back to 2018 levels.” Helping to drive the drop in hiring rates is profit growth slowing in Q4. December corporate tax payments to the Federal government dropped from Q3, and payments were below December 2021 levels. Earnings are a key determinant of growth in hiring and wages.”

    Let’s take a closer look at the hiring rate which we first touched upon yesterday: In November the private sector hiring rate (which according to the TS Lombard strategist is more meaningful than job openings in terms of identifying cyclical turns) slipped to its 2018 average, along with manufacturing.

    Perhaps more telling about the cycle is that the hiring rate for business and professional services is sinking further below its 2018 average. As Blitz explains, when economies drop into recession, sectors are impacted differently and in the coming downturn it is reasonable to presume that the area least effected by the inability to work in person is the one where the downturn hits first and hardest. The hiring rate in accommodation and food services remains high relative to 2018, a function of travel, commuting and otherwise, returning to normal, however slowly.

    What about profits? Obviously, profits are critical to the pace of hiring and job gains, and corporate tax receipts at the Treasury – which the BLS can’t seasonally adjust or tamper with for political reasons or otherwise – suggest Q4 was not as good a quarter for earnings. Blitz explains that US firms pay estimates of current year taxes quarterly, and when December falls short it means firms figured they overpaid in September, given what were their full-year earnings expectations at the time.

    Well, as shown below, December tax receipts were 1.8% below year-ago levels, compared with 32.5% last year. In September, tax payments were 27.1% above year ago levels, which gave us the signal at the time that quarterly profits would be strong.

    As the TS Lombard strategist concludes, “with the fall off in Q4 and the normal lag in hiring relative to earnings, a slower pace of job growth should be expected in the months ahead – as indicated by the drop in the hiring rate…. In sum, the 2022 pace of extraordinary job growth despite record low unemployment is coming to an end. The coming months should see the pace slow towards 150,000, on par with prior late-cycle periods. It is too soon to say this is, in total, precursor to recession, but the sharp drop-off in the hiring rate for business and professional services may be more telling of an impending cyclical turn. Once hiring drops well-enough below 200,000 the Fed’s pace of rate hikes will slip to 25BP and then 0 in short order.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 20:38

  • 150,000 Votes In The 2020 Election Not Tied To A Valid Address In Wisconsin: Election Watchdog
    150,000 Votes In The 2020 Election Not Tied To A Valid Address In Wisconsin: Election Watchdog

    Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Wisconsin’s top election official, Meagan Wolfe, speaks during a virtual press conference on Nov. 4, 2020. (Wisconsin State Handout via Reuters)

    Election Watch (EW), a Wisconsin election integrity watchdog organization, has discovered that more than 150,000 votes cast in the 2020 presidential election cannot be connected with a valid address.

    EW computer analyst Peter Bernegger said the group’s study of Wisconsin’s voter rolls found 45,000 such occurrences involving people who were living out of state in the Nov. 3 ballot, with another 107,000 documented instances on the part of voters who moved to another address within the state and cast a ballot in a different jurisdiction from the one in which they actually reside.

    “That’s over 150,000 votes cast in the 2020 presidential election that cannot be tied to a valid address,” said Bernegger. “That’s illegal in the state of Wisconsin.

    “Though there may be a reasonable explanation for most of these, the number of instances is so large that if only two out of 10 were nefariously cast votes, that was enough to tip the election to Biden.”

    Sandy Alldredge (L) of Wisconsin and her son Jacob Alldredge of Tennessee. (Courtesy of Sandy Alldredge)

    Former Wisconsin resident Jacob Alldredge, a 27-year-old industrial engineer living in Tennessee, is a case in point.

    “I was outraged to learn that the Wisconsin state voter roll shows that I voted in person at the polls on Nov. 3, 2020, when the fact is I was living, registered to vote, and voted in Tennessee. I was not in Wisconsin that day,” he told The Epoch Times.

    “The entire situation distresses me because, without election integrity, your vote doesn’t matter,” said Jacob Alldredge.

    “We need reform in our voting system. Fixing this is not an impossible task, but I don’t think people want to solve it.”

    One person who said she is most certainly dedicated to solving the problems with Wisconsin’s voting system, especially its “sloppy and inflated voter roll,” is Jacob’s mother Sandy Alldredge.

    A self-described “constitutional conservative,” Sandy Alldredge told The Epoch Times that in 2020 she was a volunteer working for the reelection of President Donald Trump.

    “When Trump ‘lost’ Wisconsin to Joe Biden by 21,000 votes, many patriots began working hard on cyber efforts to find out what really happened. Their dedication inspired me to get involved, so I got some training and made myself available to help.”

    Sandy Alldredge said that after learning that some Wisconsin precincts posted a 103 percent voter turnout in the 2020 election; and that there were 7.3 million registered voters in a state with a total population of 5.9 million, she decided to check out the voting records in her former hometown.

    Examining the state voter roll for the town of Delavan, in Walworth County, Sandy Alldredge was shocked to see that her son Jacob was listed as having voted in person at the polling place on Nov. 3, 2020—something she knew first-hand to be impossible.

    Sandy Alldredge provided The Epoch Times with a spreadsheet from the state voter roll as it appeared on Aug. 18, 2021, as evidence.

    “When we checked the poll book, which every in-person voter is required to sign before being allowed to vote, Jacob’s signature was not on it.

    “So why does the official Wisconsin Election Commission record say that he voted at the polls on Nov. 3, 2020?” she asked.

    Analyst Bernegger said he intends to file a formal complaint over the Alldredge incident “with” Delavan’s municipal clerk, “not against her.”

    Who Changed Voter Roll?

    “Hardworking and honest local clerks around our state are being played. The municipal clerks are taking the brunt of the questioning by concerned citizens, and they are answering to the best of their knowledge. From their perspective, everything appears normal. The behind-the-scenes reality is far from it.

    “I’m listing John Doe as the respondent because we have not yet determined who the cheater is,” he said.

    Delavan Town Clerk Michele Starin, who took office in May of 2022, told The Epoch Times she had not received any complaint yet and said she knew nothing about any irregularity with Jacob Alldredge’s voting record.

    “According to our records, the last time Mr. Alldredge voted was by absentee ballot in 2016. He is currently listed as inactive,” said Starin.

    In a Jan. 3 phone interview with The Epoch Times, Walworth County Clerk Susi Pike said she was not aware of any complaint concerning Jacob Alldredge.

    A view of the poll book from the 2020 election in Delavan, Wisc. (Courtesy of Sandy Alldredge)

    After checking the poll book for the 2020 election, Pike confirmed that Jacob Alldredge did not vote in person at the polls that day.

    Pike then checked the state voter roll and said there is no record of Jacob Alldredge voting at all in the 2020 presidential election.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 20:20

  • 30% Of All Realtors Could Quit During Housing Crash
    30% Of All Realtors Could Quit During Housing Crash

    Concerns over plunging home sales leading to a real estate agent exodus could be an emerging trend in 2023. The number of agents has exceeded the peak of the mid-2000s boom, but one real estate consulting firm believes hundreds of thousands of agents could quit and find other jobs as turmoil plagues the interest rate-sensitive industry. 

    Nick Gerli, CEO and founder of real estate Reventure Consulting, said, “30% of Realtors will likely quit during this Housing Crash. Once that happens, you’ll know the bottom is approaching.” He posted a chart on Twitter that shows there are currently 1.6 million registered real estate agents — that’s higher than the 2007 bubble. 

    Gerli forecasts at least 480,000 agents will exit the industry. He then posted a Home Sales/Total Realtors ratio only to show it’s “even lower than the depths of the 2008 Housing Crash.” This means the number of deals realtors are closing is sliding due to a worsening housing affordability crisis. 

    “The Housing Bubble has popped, but the Bubble mentality has NOT. 1.6 Million Realtors are still “holding on,” thinking the Housing Market will improve in 2023,” Gerli said. 

    He expects a wave of realtors to “inevitably quit in 2023 … and when they quit, it will likely coincide with investors/flippers/stubborn sellers “quitting” as well.” He added: “And that’s when you’ll see inventory/listings really explode.” 

    Gerli reminds everyone this is the “biggest bubble ever in housing.” 

    We already pointed out months ago real estate agents should be on the hunt for new jobs as the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive interest rate hikes and quantitative tightening is killing the demand side of the market. And, of course, real estate agents don’t get paid when there are no buyers. There was even a report in October that many realtors couldn’t pay their office rent. 

    Realtors who were on top of the world during the easy money times and a housing boom during Covid bought fancy vehicles. Well, that fast money has already evaporated. 

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    And if realtors are to leave the industry — don’t worry about learning how to code — perhaps going back to bartending is a viable solution. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 20:00

  • As The World Runs Out Of Sand, Chinese 'Pirates' Profit, Plunder, & Pillage
    As The World Runs Out Of Sand, Chinese ‘Pirates’ Profit, Plunder, & Pillage

    Authored by John Mac Ghlionn via The Epoch Times,

    Life is a beach, they say, and we’re all just playing in the sand. Soon, though, there might not be any sand left. That’s because the world is running out of it.

    Running out of sand, you ask, how can that be? After all, 33 percent of Earth is covered in desert, and many of these deserts have copious amounts of sand (not all of them, though). Yes, that’s true, but desert sand, like sea sand, lacks the compressive strength needed to construct houses, skyscrapers, roads, and bridges. In other words, when it comes to the world of construction, both desert sand and sea sand are utterly useless. This is why there is a race to secure the limited amounts of appropriate sand available.

    Scarcity breeds desperation and this desperation is particularly palpable in China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has deployed “pirates” to raid neighboring countries. In truth, the “pirates” have been plundering and pillaging for years. In recent times, however, they have zeroed in on Taiwan, stripping the island of its valuable deposits.

    The world is experiencing a shortage of just about everything: corn, coffee, wheat, soybeans, plastic cardboard, semiconductor chips, suitably qualified workers, etc.

    Now, it’s time to add sand, the most-extracted solid material in existence, to this ever-growing, highly-eclectic list. The importance of sand cannot be emphasized enough. Water is the world’s most-consumed natural resource; sand is the second most. Every construction project relies on using sand—the correct type of sand. By 2030, the construction market is expected to be worth $14.4 trillion; two years ago, it was worth $6.4 trillion. We’ll need more sand, but there might not be enough of it to go around.

    Demand for sand is soaring, and this demand will likely increase dramatically over the next three to four decades. This brings us to China, a country with a voracious appetite for construction-friendly sand. In many ways, the appetite should come as little surprise; when it comes to constructing roads, bridges, and buildings, China leads the way. In an effort to satisfy its appetite, the CCP is targeting its neighbor, Taiwan.

    A tourist sits facing the Taiwan Strait at the 68-nautical-mile scenic spot, one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan, in Pingtan Island, Fujian Province, China, on Aug. 5, 2022. (Aly Song/Reuters)

    The targeting started back in 2019. In response to the CCP’s attempt to mine the island dry, Taiwan’s coastguard deployed numerous drones and water cannons to deter the invading sand miners. On that occasion, the miner retreated—but not for long. The Chinese “pirates” returned, focusing on the Taiwan-run Matsu Island, an archipelago consisting of 19 islands.

    As Foreign Policy’s Elisabeth Braw reported in July 2022, “China is increasing its dredging of sand in the islands’ waters.” Such “devious activity” works to China’s advantage and leaves Taiwan with “large expenses and maritime degradation.” Susumu Takai, president of the Security Strategy Research Institute of Japan, told Braw that China lacks enough sand to continue its construction projects in various Chinese cities.

    The Chinese regime doesn’t consider its activity to be illegal. Why? Because, as most readers are aware, the CCP claims Taiwan is part of China.

    The CCP’s sheer greed and lack of respect also extend to other parts of Asia. Last year, as Reuters reported, dredgers were spotted off Cambodia’s Ream naval base. Not coincidentally, the dredgers happened to be operating in the very same area where Beijing happens to be funding construction projects and the development of various port facilities. In June 2022, The Washington Post ran a piece on China’s construction of a secret naval base in Cambodia. Sand, it seems, is not the only reason why China is interested in Cambodia.

    Just to reiterate: China isn’t the only country scrambling to secure sand. This is a global crisis that affects the United States just as much as it affects China. Although the Chinese regime is likely to continue pillaging and acting with a high degree of impunity, there is hope for the United States.

    According to Stanford geographer and environmental scientist Eric Lambin, the United States needn’t fixate too much on the mining process. “Instead of mining unconsolidated sediment deposits,” Lambin urges the government to focus on the crushing of rocks “or by recycling construction and demolition waste such as concrete or masonry.” This is because crushed rock is often considered a superior option, “thanks to better control over mineralogical composition and shape.” Whether or not Lambin’s advice is heeded remains to be seen.

    In the meantime, keep an eye out for China’s sand “pirates,” whose hunger for granular deposits is likely to become even more voracious over the coming years.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 19:40

  • BOJ To Put More Emphasis On Inflation Index That Excludes Fuel Costs, Raising "Core-Core" Price Forecast
    BOJ To Put More Emphasis On Inflation Index That Excludes Fuel Costs, Raising “Core-Core” Price Forecast

    Just weeks after the BOJ shocked markets by expanding the permitted trading band under its Yield Curve Control policy, in the process unleashing a historic repricing of the JGB bond curve and forcing the BOJ to spend 16.2 trillion yen (to date) in ad hoc unlimited bond buys to defend the central bank’s new cap…

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    … the Bank of Japan is preparing for more surprise and overnight Reuters reported that the central bank is putting more emphasis on an inflation gauge that excludes fuel costs, and will likely raise its projections for the index’s growth in quarterly forecasts due this month, according to three sources familiar with its thinking.

    The upgrade – which sparked a rally in JGBs overnight amid expectations that while the BOJ will tweak policy but avoid further YCC adjustments in its January meeting – would underscore the central bank’s growing conviction that robust domestic demand will allow firms to raise prices, and keep inflation sustainably around its 2% target in coming years, a critical level of Japan which has been mired in deflation for the past 40 years, and where the administration’s goal has long been to engineer rising wages, even if means unleashing a wage-price spiral (one of those “we will worry about it when we get it” things).

    That said, the upward revision alone is unlikely to trigger an immediate interest rate rise, because many BOJ officials saw a need to scrutinize annual spring wage negotiations and the fallout from U.S. interest rate hikes.

    “Price rises are broadening more than initially expected, a trend that could continue if wages rise enough,” one source said; while another added that “when stripping away one-off factors like government subsidies, trend inflation appears to be gaining momentum.”

    Traditionally, the BOJ has used core consumer inflation, which excludes the effect of fresh food but includes energy costs, as a key gauge in producing forecasts and guiding policy. But in April it also began issuing forecasts for “core-core” consumer inflation, which strips away the effect of both fresh food and energy costs, to better grasp the broad price trend driven by domestic demand.

    With government fuel subsidies and scheduled utility bill hikes muddling this year’s price outlook, the BOJ was now focusing more on the core-core index in determining whether Japan could achieve sustained price rises. And in fresh quarterly projections due this month, the BOJ would probably raise its core-core inflation forecasts for the current fiscal year ending in March and fiscal 2023, Reuters said. It might also slightly upgrade the forecast for fiscal 2024, depending on how the board viewed prospects for wage growth, the sources said.

    But ultimately, it will be all about whether Japan can created sustained wage growth.

    The upgrades, which would push the outlook for core-core inflation closer to the BOJ’s target, will likely keep alive market expectations the central bank will phase out its ultra-loose policy when Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s second five-year term ends in April. In current forecasts, made in October, the board projected the average level of the core-core consumer price index this fiscal year will be 1.8% higher than in fiscal 2021. It expects fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024 each to show rises in the index of 1.6%.

    The BOJ will issue the quarterly forecasts after a two-day policy meeting that ends on Jan. 18.

    Of course, surging raw material import costs have pushed headline inflation well above the BOJ’s 2% target in recent months, achieving what Kuroda’s decade-long stimulus efforts had failed to accomplish. At the same time, Kuroda has dismissed the chance of a near-term interest rate hike on the view the BOJ must keep supporting the economy until the current cost-push inflation turns into a demand-driven one accompanied by higher wages.

    But Japan’s long-term interest rates have crept up since the BOJ stunned markets last month by widening the band around its 10-year bond yield target, a move investors saw as a prelude to a future rate hike. Core consumer prices in November rose 3.7% from a year earlier and analysts expect inflation to remain above the BOJ’s 2% in coming months, as companies continue to pass on higher costs to households.

    Bottom line, analyst agree that wage growth will be key to whether Japan’s fragile economy can withstand the hit from rising prices, and allow the BOJ to begin normalizing monetary policy.

    With public discontent over rising prices hurting approval ratings, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday urged firms to offer wage hikes exceeding the rate of inflation. Then again, every Japanese prime minister had been urging firms to do just that for the past decade. They have yet to do so.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 19:20

  • More U-Haul Trucks Left California Than Any Other State In 2022, Texas Top Destination: Study
    More U-Haul Trucks Left California Than Any Other State In 2022, Texas Top Destination: Study

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    More moving trucks left from California than any other state in 2022 for the third year in a row, while more Americans are flocking to Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, a new study published on Jan. 3 has found.

    A U-Haul truck in a file photo taken in Illinois. (Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

    The study was conducted by the moving truck rental company, U-Haul, and found that Texas, Florida, and the Carolinas were the preferred destinations for one-way moving trucks in 2022, with those states ranking as the top growth states on the annual U-Haul Growth Index.

    U-Haul’s Growth Index is compiled according to the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks arriving in a state or city, versus those departing from that state or city each calendar year across the U.S. and Canada and is a strong indicator of what kind of job states and cities are attracting and maintaining residents, according to the company.

    Texas is the top destination for U-Haul trucks for the second consecutive year and the fifth time since 2016, according to the study. That is followed by Florida, which has been a top-three growth state for seven years in a row. South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Idaho also saw strong growth rates in 2022, the study found.

    Pictures of properties for rent or sale hang on the window of a real estate company on Sept. 29, 2021 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

    Meanwhile, demand for moving trucks out of California, Illinois, and New York was strong in 2022 as more people opted to leave areas of the West Coast, Northeast, and Midwest, the study found.

    Texas’ ‘Booming Economy’ Attracting Americans

    California ranked 50th on U-Haul’s Growth Index, meaning it saw the greatest net loss of one-way U-Haul trucks out of the state, followed by Illinois, which ranked 49th in 2022, as it did in 2021. Michigan came in at 48, Massachusetts at 47, and New York at 46 on the list of growth for 2022.

    John ‘J.T.’ Taylor, U-Haul International president, said that the trends seen in 2022 followed very similar patterns to 2021.

    “We still have areas with strong demand for one-way rentals. While overall migration in 2021 was record-breaking, we continue to experience significant customer demand to move out of some geographic areas to destinations at the top of our growth list,” Taylor said.

    Data published by the Texas Realtors’ association in 2020 found that the number of people moving from California to Texas was up 36 percent from 2017, and the trend appears to have continued.

    A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, when asked by The New York Post about being the top destination by U-Haul customers, praised the state’s “booming economy.”

    “People and businesses vote with their feet, and they are choosing to move to Texas more than any other state in the country,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze told the publication.

    Florida Serves as ‘Blueprint’ DeSantis Says

    Separate data from the James Madison Institute, a Florida-based think tank, shows that between April 2020 to April 2021, almost 330,000 people moved to Florida, which is equal to roughly 903 people moving to the state each day. According to the think tank, this is part of a national trend that has been seen in recent years of Americans departing blue states for red states.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 19:00

  • Tesla China-Made Deliveries Fall To 5 Month Low, Down 44% Sequentially And 21% YOY
    Tesla China-Made Deliveries Fall To 5 Month Low, Down 44% Sequentially And 21% YOY

    Tesla’s sales of China-made vehicles fell to a five month low in December, despite China’s passenger vehicle market rebounding, according to new data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on Thursday. 

    Tesla delivered 55,796 vehicles for the month, down 44% from November and 21% from the year prior, Reuters reported, citing “reduced output” and price cuts amidst rising inventories, coupled with slowing demand, as reason for the fall in numbers.

    The report notes that the figure is the fewest monthly deliveries in China since July, when the company’s key Shanghai factory purposely suspended operations in order to upgrade its production lines. For the year, however, Tesla delivered about 50% more vehicles produced in Shanghai than in 2021. 

    As we have noted, Tesla suspended production at Shanghai from December 24 to January 2 as part of an effort to reduce production and allow demand to catch back up with supply. The company is also expected to suspend production for Chinese New Year later this month. 

    The figures come despite the fact that passenger vehicle sales in China rebounded for the month, with the CPCA posting total sales of 2.45 million units for the month, up 15% year over year and 47% month over month. 

    Recall, days ago we noted that Tesla broke quarterly delivery records in Q4 2022, but fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Tesla announced it had delivered a record 405,278 vehicles for the quarter. The number marked a record for the company, but came in below most Wall Street estimates, even some that were revised lower. Consensus estimates for deliveries stood at 420,760 into the report, according to Bloomberg.

    “In 2022, vehicle deliveries grew 40% YoY to 1.31 million,” the company’s press release said. This fell short of the 50% growth figure the company had once projected for the year. 

    Tesla commented: “We continued to transition towards a more even regional mix of vehicle builds which again led to a further increase in cars in transit at the end of the quarter. Thank you to all of our customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and supporters who helped us achieve a great 2022 in light of significant COVID and supply chain related challenges throughout the year.”

    The breakdown of vehicles included 388,131 Model 3 and Model Y deliveries, which fell short of the 405,597 estimated:

    And 17,147 Model S/X deliveries, which fell short of the 18,578 estimate:

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 18:40

  • No Deal: House Adjourns Without Electing Speaker
    No Deal: House Adjourns Without Electing Speaker

    Update (2010ET): Hopes of a Thursday night deal were dashed, as the Washington Examiner‘s Juliegrace Brufke reports “No GOP conference meeting tonight, but will hold a phone call to discuss the path forward tomorrow morning, I’m told.”

    And as the Wall Street Journal notes, while some of the GOP holdouts have ‘stepped up the pace of discussion’ during the third day of voting – it’s unknown whether enough anti-McCarthy members could potentially change their votes to give McCarthy the job. Thus far, he has lost 11 votes.

    “We’re still working — that’s a good sign,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).

    The stalemate has left House Republicans fractured after they reclaimed the majority in the November election and has stopped all other business in the chamber. McCarthy has tried to break the deadlock by offering significant concessions on House rules that would weaken his power and his ability to control hard-liners in his party, which raise the risk of chaos on issues like the debt ceiling and government spending. -Bloomberg

    Throughout the day on Thursday, the office of #3 Republican Tom Emmer of Minnesota became ground zero for negotiations between McCarthy’s side and some of the holdouts – which included Reps. Scott Perry, chair of the conservative Freedo Caucus, Chip Roy, Byron Donalds and Ralph Norman were seen shuffling in and out of, according to the report.

    Others involved in the discussions included Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, and Dusty Johnson, who heads the Main Street caucus.

    One of the holdouts, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina suggested he could be convinced to swap his vote from “no” to “yes” if he likes the deal. Norman has been pushing for term limits for lawmakers and a balanced budget, as well as a commitment to use the upcoming debt ceiling debates to cut spending.

    That said, McCarthy could still fall short – as Reps. such as Matt Gaetz (FL) and KLauren Boebert (CO) appear to be in the “Never Kevin” camp.

    McCarthy ally Brian Fitzpatrick, co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, suggested that negotiations could extend through the weekend.

    The House will reconvene at noon on Friday.

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    Update (1955ET): While Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) just lost his 11th round of voting for House Speaker, according to the well-connected Jake Sherman of Punchbowl News, a deal may be imminent, as House Republicans want to elect a speaker tonight.

    “DEAL IS CUT — either it moves people, or McCarthy is in serious trouble,” says Sherman, who says lawmakers are currently in review and may recess to allow discussion.”

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    Update (1820ET): While we wait on a possible deal for Speaker, get this – the NY Times‘ Mara Gay says that “some” of the anti-McCarthy holdouts were elected “stop the tide of diversity in the country, the browning of America, the fears that surround that.”

    So – now opposing McCarthy makes one a racist.

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    Care to name which of the 20 holdouts was elected to “stop the tide of diversity” in the country, Mara?

    Was this what Joe Rogan meant when he called the NYT ‘corrupt’ and ‘full of shit’?

    Update (1730ET): After a 10th failed vote for Speaker, Punchbowl News‘ Jake Sherman reports that a deal between McCarthy and his opponents is ‘close.’

    According to Sherman, Reps. Chip Roy and Patrick McHenry have been negotiating, and “All the big players are now in TOM EMMER’s 1st floor office.”

    An offer ‘in writing’ is expected by tonight.

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    Update (1640ET): McCarthy has lost for a ninth time, officially making this the longest speaker’s race since 1859, when it went to 44 ballots. A tenth vote has begun.

    As a reminder, House business is frozen until a speaker is elected.

    “The Biden administration is going unchecked and there is no oversight of the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, or the intelligence community. We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk,” wrote the incoming chairs of various committees Thursday morning.

    Also stalled is clearance for sensitive and classified information.

    “I sit on the House Intelligence Committee. We oversee all 19 intelligence agencies. We are currently offline,” said GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.

    House Rules – which are set with each new Congress – are frozen.

    Staff won’t get paid if there isn’t an approved package of House Rules by the end of business on January 13th, according to a letter sent last week by the committee in charge of such matters, CNN reports.

    That said, members-elect will still get paid.

    Surprised?

    According to GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a McCarthy supporter, this process could go on “for a long time.”

    “These folks do not know how to get to yes. They’ve been offered every concession, or met every concession. They just don’t know how to get to yes. It’s an embarrassment to them, our party, the House and our country. I think there is totalitarian states out there, look at those 20 and say this is why we don’t want democracy. That’s an embarrassment. … We’re going to be doing this for a long time,” he said, adding that he just came out of a meeting with 80 to 90 ‘Main Street Republicans.’

    “We said if you’re not committed to do this to the very end, go ahead and just leave. … But every single one said we’re here until the very end. We cannot allow 20 people to hold us hostage, act as political terrorists. … There is a large group that are in this until the end. And I believe that Kevin McCarthy is not going to back down,” Bacon added.

    Further, Bacon said that the group of 20 holdouts will get smaller, and that the GOP may work with Democrats on the process.

    “We need to consider at some point how we’re going to work across the aisle if this small group will not cooperate. There is some concessions that the other side will want and there may be some grounds that we can provide a more bipartisan structure this this House and eventually get to 218,” he added.

    Meanwhile, the RINOs are pissed:

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    *  *  *

    Update (1525ET): The 9th round of voting for House Speaker is now underway, topping the number of ballots it took in 1923 to re-elect Speaker Frederick Gillett (R-MA). He won by eventually caving to several demands to liberalize House legislative rules in order to win over fellow Republicans.

    Prior to that, the House was deadlocked for two months in 1856, when it took 133 votes.

    “We need to get to a point where we evaluate what life after Kevin McCarthy looks like,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert to the 200 McCarthy supporters, before nominating Kevin Hern.

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    *  *  *

    Update (1455ET): If Kevin McCarthy was a cat, he’d have one life left – after the eighth round of voting for House Speaker has once again left him with snake-eyes.

    The results were virtually unchanged from the last round, with McCarthy garnering 201 votes, 20 Republicans voting for another candidate, and one voting “present.”

    What’s next?

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    Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters on Wednesday that she wishes McCarthy had been voted in on the first ballot.

    “I wish it had happened on the first vote, that Kevin would have been elected on the first vote and then we could have proceeded with putting committees together, an agenda and the rest,” she said. “People should be seeing what the difference public policy makes in their lives instead of their being subjected to, what do they call insanity, doing the same thing over and over again with no change.”

    Come on Kevin, aren’t eight votes enough?

    *  *  *

    Update (1407ET): The House has begun voting for an eighth time, after McCarthy was soundly defeated once again.

    In the last round of voting, 19 Republicans voted for Rep. Byron Donalds, one voted ‘present,’ and Matt Gaetz voted for former President Trump.

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    Update (1250ET): To the surprise of no one, Kevin McCarthy doesn’t have the votes to become Speaker of the House as the 7th round of voting comes to a close.

    Hilariously, Rep. Matt Gaetz voted for Donald Trump for Speaker.

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    Interestingly, Trump could become Speaker – as the Constitution does not specify that the Speaker must actually be a member of the House. In a 2021 report, the Congressional Research Service noted that “Although the Constitution does not so require, the Speaker has always been a Member of the House.

    *  *  *

    After two days of embarrassing defeat spanning six votes for Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy has offered his critics a mountain of new concessions before, during and after a round of Wednesday night negotiations, Politico reports.

    The concessions include (via Politico): 

    • A one-member “motion to vacate”: The GOP leader appears to have finally acquiesced to a demand to lower the threshold needed to force a vote ousting a speaker to just one member. While McCarthy originally indicated that restoring the one-member “motion to vacate” was a red line, his allies now argue that there’s not a huge practical difference between this and his previous offer of requiring five members to trigger the vote.
    • Rules Committee seats for the Freedom Caucus: McCarthy is prepared to give the House Freedom Caucus two seats on the powerful House Rules Committee, which oversees the amendment process for the floor. (Some conservatives are still holding out for four seats on the panel.) There are also talks about giving a third seat to a conservative close to the Freedom Caucus but not in it — someone like Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Who would pick those members is still under discussion. Typically, it’s the speaker’s prerogative, but conservatives want to choose their own members for these jobs.
    • A vote on term limits: This is a key demand of Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who has proposed a constitutional amendment limiting lawmakers to three terms in the House.
    • Major changes to the appropriations process: Fears of another trillion-plus-dollar omnibus spending bill have been a major driver of the conservative backlash to McCarthy. The brewing deal includes a promise for standalone votes on each of the 12 annual appropriations bills, which would be considered under what is known as an “open rule,” allowing floor amendments to be offered by any lawmaker.

    That said, according to Punchbowl News‘ Jake Sherman (formerly of Politico), there are still 20 ‘no’ votes against McCarthy, who “may have to sit through a 7th speaker vote today that he’s sure to lose.”

    According to Sherman, “negotiations between McCarthy and opponents have turned slightly positive,” while the Speaker hopeful is trying to drive a wedge between Reps. Lauren Bobert and Matt Gaetz. That said, some of McCarthy’s allies have suggested the drama could extend into next week before McCarthy either gets the job or backs down.

    More from Sherman / Punchbowl regarding McCarthy’s progress:

    Meanwhile, ‘Never Kevin’ Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) has vowed to resign from Congress if McCarthy is elected Speaker, Fox News reports.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsYears of anger, distrust

    As Bloomberg notes, the 20 GOP holdouts that are blocking McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker comes from years of anger at party leadership and “deep suspicions of the veteran lawmaker.”

    The group opposing McCarthy’s ascension to the top spot in the chamber have a list of grievances about House rules, anger over uniparty compromises with Democrats, and doubt over McCarthy’s claim to be a true conservative.

    “Mr. McCarthy has a history that is off-putting to some people,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), one of the leaders of the revolt.

    According to Rep. Scott Perry, chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, “It’s not personal for us,” adding “It’s about the policies that come out of here.”

    “I’m not for the restrictive nature of this place where eight people run it and the rest of us just vote yes or no,” Perry added, expressing frustration with a series of omnibus spending packages that Republicans have joined Democrats in jamming through the process, year after year.

    Meanwhile, McCarthy foe Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) says there are ‘trust’ issues over McCarthy’s past votes on spending packages.

    “Could Kevin McCarthy all of a sudden morph into a fiscal conservative?” he asked.

    Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of McCarthy’s most vocal detractors, has made his opposition more personal, lambasting him as a creature of the Washington “swamp” who does the bidding of corporate lobbies.

    “If you want to Drain the Swamp, you CANNOT put the biggest alligator in charge of the exercise!” he said in a fundraising email sent amid the speaker votes. “We’re talking about someone who the corrupt DC special interests can always count on to be their lapdog.”

    McCarthy has made efforts to neutralize right-wing critics. He pulled himself close to former President Donald Trump after first criticizing him for his actions when a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. -Bloomberg

    Stay tuned for today’s episode of ‘nobody likes Kevin.’

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 18:21

  • Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices To Asian Markets Amid Sluggish Demand
    Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices To Asian Markets Amid Sluggish Demand

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com,

    Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude oil exporter, on Thursday cut the prices of all its crude grades loading for Asia in February to the lowest level to regional benchmarks in more than a year, as demand concerns continue to prevail.

    Saudi Aramco, the state oil giant, cut the official selling price (OSPs) of its flagship crude grade, Arab Light, to Asia for February by $1.45 per barrel, setting the price at $1.80 a barrel above the Dubai/Oman benchmark. The premium to the Dubai/Oman average is the lowest since November 2021, but it was generally in line with expectations.

    Earlier this week, a Reuters survey of analysts showed that Saudi Aramco was widely expected to cut its OSPs to Asia for February, following a cut for the January loadings to a 10-month-low.

    Last month, Saudi Arabia cut the price of the crude it would sell to Asia in January to a 10-month low versus the regional benchmarks, which had weakened amid signs of lackluster demand in the world’s most important oil-importing market.    

    The forecasts in the Reuters survey were in line with the actual cut announced today—analysts had expected the price of the Arab Light crude grade to be cut by $1.50 per barrel for February shipments to a premium of just $1.75 per barrel over Dubai/Oman.

    Aramco, which generally doesn’t comment on the OSPs, also lowered the prices of its crude loading in February to northwest Europe and the Mediterranean region, while prices for the U.S. remained unchanged.

    The cut in Saudi oil prices isn’t a surprise for the market or analysts, considering the growing concerns about immediate demand in China and the world. Oil prices had the worst start to a year in more than 30 years after tumbling by 9% in just two days.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 18:20

  • Trudeau Liberals Exceed Immigration Goals, Increase To 500,000 By 2025
    Trudeau Liberals Exceed Immigration Goals, Increase To 500,000 By 2025

    Authored by Alex Timothy via The Post Millennial,

    Canada set a new immigration record for 2022, welcoming more than 430,000 newcomers into the country, Trudeau’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, said on Tuesday.

    Ottawa intended to welcome 431,645, a goal that has been reached, surpassing the previous year’s record of more than 401,000 immigrants.”Today marks an important milestone for Canada, setting a new record for newcomers welcomed in a single year,” Fraser said. “It is a testament to the strength and resilience of our country and its people.”

    Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) processed approximately 5.2 million permanent residency applications in 2022, more than double the number from 2021.

    Canada’s goal for 2023 is 465,000 immigrants, increasing to 485,000 in 2024, then 500,000 in 2025, with an emphasis to be placed on skilled workers.

    To help facilitate this steady increase, the Trudeau government’s fall budget committed an additional $50 million to the IRCC for the 2022-23 fiscal year in order to “address ongoing application backlogs, speed up processing, and allow skilled newcomers to fill critical labour gaps faster.”

    “Newcomers play an essential role in filling labour shortages, bringing new perspectives and talents to our communities, and enriching our society as a whole,” Fraser said. “I am excited to see what the future holds and look forward to another historic year in 2023 as we continue to welcome newcomers.”

    The Liberals cited immigration as the reason for Canada having “experienced one of the fastest recoveries from the pandemic,” adding that the acute labour shortages the country is facing will be helped by immigration.

    “We know there is over a million jobs in Canada that remain unfilled, so we need immigrants, skilled immigrants, to come in and help us fill those unfilled jobs and help us grow our economy,” Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen told Global News. “In addition to that, the irony is we actually need more people, skilled immigrants, to also help us in the building trades and the construction sector of our economy.”

    “We need those workers to actually come in and help us build the housing that Canadians need,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 17:00

  • The Twitter Purge Continues: Musk Lays Off About 40 Data Scientists And Engineers Working On Ad Team
    The Twitter Purge Continues: Musk Lays Off About 40 Data Scientists And Engineers Working On Ad Team

    The massive cost (and fat) cutting at Twitter under micromanaging new CEO Elon Musk continues. 

    For years Twitter had operated less like a company and more like a cult compound for leftist ideologues, with free lunches, yoga rooms, smoothie, wine and espresso bars, and minimal work buffered by pointless meetings and near zero productivity.

    Those days appear to be over. The latest proof? Twitter laid off “about 40 data scientists and engineers working on the advertising team” late on Wednesday night of this week, according to The Information.

    A person with direct knowledge of the matter said that the layoffs now leave the company with “few engineers” working on “machine learning for ad optimization”.

    These cuts come after additional reports this week that Elon Musk would be, among other things, downsizing the company’s San Francisco headquarters from six floors to only two. 

    Musk has also been systematically releasing internal communications from the company confirming that it was working with intelligence agencies to censor users. He has promised a forthcoming “Fauci Files” disclosure of more additional internal documents slated for this week. 

    Back in November, we wrote about how Musk was purging thousands of Twitter employees as he sought to turn around the struggling technology company. As we noted then, alleged leaks from within the company suggested that most employees under previous management barely worked and were devout “communists” with a hatred of free speech. The leaks also claimed that Twitter employees were far more concerned with censoring conservative voices than doing their jobs. 

    We noted then that Musk had fired at least 3500 primary staff members and purged at least 4500 outside contractors, many of them moderators tasked with filtering “misinformation”.  Interestingly, Twitter users have not noticed much of a difference in terms of functionality for the platform despite the mass layoffs. 

    We said it then and we’ll say it again: the only difference has been the ability to speak more freely on the platform. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/05/2023 – 16:40

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