Feb 07

Today’s News 7th February 2022

  • Ex-CIA Officer Asks: What Happens When America Experiences Real War With A Superpower?
    Ex-CIA Officer Asks: What Happens When America Experiences Real War With A Superpower?

    Authored by Michael G. Merhige via The Libertarian Institute,

    During my first years as a young CIA officer in Vietnam from 1965-67, I went to school (so to speak) and received the real education of my life. I learned about my government, its politicians, and military leaders. I learned about the lies, the high explosive and chemical bombings, our superior fire power, villages bombed and burned, the payoffs we made to our ranking Vietnamese allies and the reasons for our losing the war.

    The enemy fought to unite their country and expel foreign domination. The US fought because of corrupt leadership and our losses were a mere fraction being fought on the enemy’s turf with our superior fire power, money and material support. They fought for a cause. We fought for no justifiable reason. They won. We did not.

    AP image: Napalm strike near US troops on patrol in South Vietnam, 1966.

    Remember the body bags displayed on the tarmacs of our returning dead from Vietnam? Not like the lack of media coverage today given the damage we inflict. Remember the disapproving reception of our returning soldiers? Now we celebrate them as heroes and wounded patriots.

    Here, at home, we have not experienced wars employing mass-destruction weapons. Maybe one day will we receive an education about the consequences of wars as a nation. Surely, we learned nothing from Vietnam as it never happened here.

    Our commitment to the two-decade, multi-country invasions in the Middle East have shown our cowardliness to the world if not to ourselves. Our hypocrisy is stunning. No draft, no engagement (almost no KIA’s each year). Far more troop suicides than battle deaths while displacing, killing and maiming thousands of innocent civilian lives year after year. For whom and what? And, yes, a media in full march step with these disgraceful invasions and occupations.

    Remember the uproar about Vietnam? Burned draft cards, asylum in Canada, draft dodgers, street demonstrations and sit-ins galore. And why not these now? The unending, shameful action by our government is making sure the public is not paying a price in people. No draft, very limited engagement with the enemy and an approving media. What more can our government and Pentagon ask for? We will keep dropping bombs and feeding others money and weapons to assist with the killing and displacing of innocent populations for us.

    But are these wars really for us? Certainly not.  Remember George W. Bush, and his failing presidency, who was made a hero the morning after 9/11 with his WMD declaration that fooled no one but Americans? Not a sound from the citizenry. Would we try the pitiful WMD routine on China or Russia? They have the ability to hit back.

    The national celebration that greeted George H.W. Bush in death is a far cry from his presidency. It was not until after 9/11 that George W. Bush obeyed the lobbies’ demands to destroy Iraq that his father was resurrected and the son was hailed as our glorious leader. Remember his welcoming carrier landing which turned out to be a dud?

    These wars that we persist with are not only cowardly, they demonstrate our lack of respect for other nations, their people and our national conscience. Notably, they demonstrate our being a failed nation not capable of controlling or directing its own interests. We will go down in history as that most powerful, but most surrogate nation ever. Stunningly shameful with the blood of others staining our once proud national emblem.

    While we busy ourselves with “enemies” that we and “friendly” others have invented, we have become oblivious to the enemy within. The one taking us down.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 02/07/2022 – 00:00

  • The Cost Of Space Flight Before And After SpaceX
    The Cost Of Space Flight Before And After SpaceX

    On December 21, 2021, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a cargo capsule to deliver supplies and Christmas gifts to astronauts in the International Space Station.

    Just eight minutes after liftoff, the rocket’s first stage returned to Earth, landing on one of SpaceX’s drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean. This marked the company’s 100th successful landing.

    Like other companies such as Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, and Ball Aerospace, SpaceX is designing and building innovative spacecraft that are speeding up space delivery by making it more routine and affordable. But how much does it cost to launch a cargo rocket into space, and how has this cost changed over the years?

    In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Carmen Ang take a look at the cost per kilogram for space launches across the globe since 1960, based on data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    The Space Race

    The 20th-century was marked by competition between two Cold War adversaries, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States, to achieve superior spaceflight capability.

    The space race led to great technological advances, but these innovations came at a high cost. For instance, during the 1960s NASA spent $28 billion to land astronauts on the moon, a cost today equating to about $288 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars.

    In the last two decades, space startup companies have demonstrated they can compete against heavyweight aerospace contractors as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Today, a SpaceX rocket launching can be 97% cheaper than a Russian Soyuz ride cost in the ’60s.

    The key to increasing cost efficiency?

    SpaceX rocket boosters usually return to Earth in good enough condition that they’re able to be refurbished, which saves money and helps the company undercut competitors’ prices.

    Space Tourism

    Although competition has brought prices down for cargo flights, human space transportation is still pricey.

    During the last 60 years, roughly 600 people have flown into space, and the vast majority of them have been government astronauts.

    For a suborbital trip on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and Blue Origin’s New Shepard, seats typically cost $250,000 to $500,000. Flights beyond that to actual orbit—a much higher altitude—are far more expensive, fetching more than $50 million per seat.

    The Future of Space Flight

    In a SpaceX press briefing, SpaceX Director Benji Reed said, “We want to make life multi-planetary, and that means putting millions of people in space.”

    This may still seem like a stretch for most people. But, given the decreasing cost of space flights over the last two decades, perhaps the sky won’t be the limit in the near future.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 23:30

  • The Revolution Has Come For Joe Rogan
    The Revolution Has Come For Joe Rogan

    Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary (emphasis ours),

    The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in the late summer of 2021, shortly after the Americans withdrew, tired and weary and broke after nearly 20 years of fighting. They seized was control of the country in the broad and particular sense: setting up command in the presidential palace in Kabul and targeting the individuals who criticized the new government. By December 2021, regular Afghans and the members of the Afghan press who had expressed critical views of their new rulers had “been subjected to months of intimidation and fear.”

    The Biden Administration has adopted these same tactics, calling for their critics to be silenced by the Administration’s corporate and media allies. After 20 years of trying to export Western values to Afghanistan, they ended up importing Taliban-style repression to the United States. And it only cost us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives.

    Now, the Regime and its comrades target Joe Rogan, an inquisitive comedian with a podcast. He is accused of spreading “misinformation” by those that illegally spy on their citizens and lies without remorse. In reality, this isn’t about misinformation. It’s that Rogan’s crimes are those of words and thought. The prosecutors have become the prophet of the god they have created, searching to eradicate those guilty of the sin of blasphemy. The Taliban would be proud.

    We can be certain that the Regime is not concerned with the truth. Have you seen them struggle to explain the “evidence” that Russia was planning a false-flag in Ukraine to justify an invasion?

    Or, consider how the COVID-19 misinformation originated from the U.S. government and its bureaucratic arms. In early 2020, Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins were both presented with arguments that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered. Instead of investigating this issue, they saw to it that this theory was killed off. Despite – or perhaps because of – these lies, Fauci and Collins remain dear sons of the Regime. Reminders that “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others. (The Christians of the Left – such as David French – even go so far as to say that you have a “spiritual problem” if you don’t trust Fauci and Collins. Both the left and the right make their idols.)

    They killed the truth before. Who is to say they’re not trying to do that with Rogan?

    Those are the easy observations.

    Then we get to the deeper and more consequential truths that are manipulated and deformed and remade for political purposes. Patterns emerge – and maybe they’re repeating. The institution of marriage, and the definition of marriage, is subjected to social – meaning political – evolution. Mothers are redefined as “birthing people.” Words are even disappeared by the U.S. government for threat that they are stigmatizing, dare someone have a negative opinion of an ex-convict or prisoner.

    To put it more bluntly, the people who believe men can give birth are now in charge of what is true. The only authority they have is political power. Such power isn’t necessarily authoritative, but it gives them the strength to set definitions and enforce the rules, to declare guilt and issue punishment. Conflicts of interest be damned. Power over language is power over the people: “the primary purpose of language – which is to describe reality – is replaced by the rival purpose of asserting power over it.”1

    In their eyes, this public lynching is justified because these are revolutionary times and removing Rogan is a revolutionary act. There is no forgiveness because they seek destruction, not restoration.

    There is some limitation to their enforcement power, those means by which they achieve their ends, necessitating the Biden Administration in July 2021 to order social media companies to ban those who disagree with the official line of thinking. The U.S. government went so far as to flag the objectionable content itself, helping corporate America snuff out inconvenient voices. Supposedly devout Christian Francis Collins has been silent on the government’s campaign to punish dissent, having been part of the cover-up. As Collins uses his faith to promote COVID-19 vaccines, perhaps he needs a reminder that Christianity does not give the civil government jurisdiction over your thoughts or words. Or a refresher of the evils of abortion.

    Anyway, the censorship encouraged by the Biden Administration was effective – to an extent.

    Alex Berenson was banned from Twitter in August 2021 for correctly labeling the COVID-19 vaccines as “therapeutics.” Dr. Robert Malone, “who has been credited with inventing the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 immunizations,” was also been banned from Twitter. These suspensions came after Fauci and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and other members of the Biden Administration called for stronger measures to stop the spread of misinformation.

    Yet Joe Rogan thrived, in large part because he provided an alternative platform to the voices that were being suppressed. The public yearned for this information and it was delivered through his podcast. It’s reported that Rogan has an estimated 11 million listeners per episode. It’s also estimated that his interviews with Dr. Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough brought in millions more.

    In response, the Biden White House demanded Spotify do more to censor the discussions of Rogan and his guests. At the same time, the liberal mob – encouraged by their leadership – aimed at Rogan, hurling disgusting and false allegations of “racism.” CNN, eager to shift the focus off the network’s own problems, is asking Spotify to give Rogan the proverbial death sentence:

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

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

    This is the same network that lied about Rogan’s use of Ivermectin, calling it “horse dewormer.” It is the same network that ran an altered video of Rogan, making him seem sicker with COVID-19 than he really was.

    No surprise that it’s CNN’s Brian Stelter leading the way against Rogan. How do I describe Stelter? (For starters, I do so with pleasure.) He is a humorless fat man. A dedicated media believer pretending to be a media reporter. He is as dumb as he sounds and as arrogant as he looks. He oozes the sadism of a hall monitor and the false confidence of an impostor. He is Kim Jong-un without the hair or the country or the charisma.

    Prior to Rogan, Stelter’s favorite targets were enemies of the Regime: Tucker Carlson and Fox News. For being a “media reporter,” he typically has a curious focus to target one journalist and one network. CNN tolerates this well enough, excusing Stelter’s poor ratings because he attacks the network’s adversaries and defends the network without question.

    Put Stelter on the offense against critics and he’ll call a Jihad against “right wing” media from his CNN studio. He’s the zealot that will behead you for drawing a cartoon of the wrong left-wing figure (whether it’s Joe Biden or Don Lemon) – and then blame you for inciting violence on “Reliable Sources” the next day. He will demand the unvaccinated be treated as second-class citizens, relegated to the margins of society until they comply with his favored health policies, just as he continues on his own adventure of finding out what comes after “morbid obesity.”

    And in the presence of his preferred State power, masochist Stelter emerges to flatter and grovel. When he had the chance to interview Biden’s press secretary, he lobbed the softball of his dreams: “What does the press get wrong when covering Biden’s agenda?”

    But back to Rogan.

    One could say that Rogan is under attack for speaking truth to power. But that’s not quite true. As Christopher Hitchens observed, that cliché is looking in the wrong direction because power already knows the truth. More importantly, Rogan – and his guests – speak truth to the powerless. That’s what they’re scared of. And that’s why we see these campaigns against Tucker and Rogan and anyone else who dare tell dangerous truths.

    To put it another way, President Biden and his corporate allies, and their mob of supporters, seek to obliterate the relationship between the writer and the reader, the speaker and the listener.

    Thus, this is about more than Joe Rogan. It is about you and it is about me. It is about gatekeeping and limiting what we can watch and read and hear. And they achieve that end through the destruction of Rogan the individual.2

    *  *  *

    1. Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands.
    2. “Human individuals are the most important of those real things, the obstacles that all revolutionary systems must overcome, and which all ideologies must destroy.” Roger Scruton, Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands.

    Subscribe to The Reactionary

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 23:00

  • China Fixes Yuan At Weakest On Record Relative To Expectations
    China Fixes Yuan At Weakest On Record Relative To Expectations

    China has returned from its week-long holiday. While it is no secret that Beijing is easing (ever more aggressively, prompting fund managers to allocate capital to China at a time when the country is increasingly viewed as non-grata by both the left and right) to stabilize its slumping economy, just as the rest of the world is tightening, moments ago the PBOC underscored its commitment to keeping the yuan on a downward slope when it fixed the yuan at 6.3580. Compared to expectations of 6.3328, this was the weakest fixing on record!

    The weak fixing comes less than two weeks after the yuan hit a near four-year-high against the dollar on Jan. 26 while an index tracking yuan’s value against a basket of currencies (the CFETS RMB basket ) is flirting with the highest level since late 2015.

    It follows two months after the PBOC’s previous record low fixing vs expectations which was set on December 9 of 2021, and according to Bloomberg, “signaled a limit to its tolerance for the yuan’s recent advance by setting its reference rate at a weaker-than-expected level” and when Malayan Banking Berhad said that “the weaker-than-expected fix is a reminder to markets that the currency is being watched and the central bank wants to prevent appreciation bets from snowballing.”

    Despite China’s ongoing weakness and the PBOC’s recent pivot toward easing, in the past year the yuan has been supported by strong inflows given China’s robust exports and foreign investment in onshore bonds. The currency was more recently aided by bets that Beijing’s monetary stimulus will sustain the nation’s growth and that the new Covid variant will have limited impact on the global recovery.

    That said, the unexpectedly weak fixing comes at a time when the increasingly hawkish Fed and ECB should take some appreciation pressure off the yuan: as Bloomberg’s Ye Xie noted earlier today, the trade-weighted yuan fell 0.9% last week, the most since July 2020. And while the yuan is still supported by a lofty trade surplus, but the interest-rate differential is becoming less supportive. Additionally, surging crude oil is another negative for China, a major energy importer.

    All that suggests that there’s limited upside for the yuan, a conclusion reinforced by Guan Tao, global chief economist at BOC International and a former official at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), who said that the Chinese government could take further measures if needed to keep the yuan stable, potentially putting downward pressure on the currency.

    Among the measures mentioned by Guan, he said that policymakers could increase yuan’s flexibility, expand capital outflows, or control capital inflows to rein in the yuan, which could deviate from economic fundamentals in the short term.

    Writing in an article published in the Shanghai Securities News on Monday, Guan noted that the yuan also faces downward pressure from several market factors, including further strengthening of the dollar index, the shrinking spread between U.S. and Chinese yields, and the narrowing difference in the growth between the two economies.

    The former regulator, who previously headed SAFE’s balance of payments department, said that the yuan is already losing some momentum, citing shrinking trading volumes in the interbank forex market.

    Whether it was driven by the sign of force against a strong yuan, or just because they are catching up to the upward move in risk assets observed in the past week, Chinese shares soared on their return from a week-long holiday, with sentiment boosted by Friday’s jump in Hong-Kong listed names and easing concerns about regulatory headwinds for the nation’s battered tech sector.

    China’s CSI 300 Index jumped as much as 2.4% before paring its advance to 1.2% as of 10:42 a.m. in Shanghai. Even so, at this level the benchmark is on track for its best post-Lunar New Year holiday performance since 2019. The Shanghai Composite Index also rose.

    It could prove challenging for Chinese stocks to maintain their upward bias: traders returning from their long break are having to contend with challenges ranging from weak local manufacturing and housing data to an expanding camp of hawkish foreign central banks. Economic trends during the festive period – typically a boon for spending and travel – have been disappointing, even with the Winter Olympics.

    “Fewer red packets of “lucky money” appear to have been exchanged in the WeChat groups, the box office on the first day of the new year plunged, and lending stats for January among the biggest lenders were disappointing,” Hao Hong, chief strategist at Bocom International, wrote in a note.

    According to Bloomberg, domestic tourism revenue fell around 4% from a year earlier, while virus flare-ups and pollution curbs during the games are weighing on consumer and industrial activity. Movie ticket sales for the first four days of the break were down 23% from a year earlier to 3.5 billion yuan ($550 million), according to Maoyan data.

    The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index slid 0.9% in Hong Kong after adding nearly 3% on Friday in its first session post the break.

    One final point: if all else fails and the yuan keeps rising contrary to the wishes of the PBOC and politburo, how long until the market starts whispering that dreaded phrase “devaluation”?

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 22:30

  • Xi-Putin Olympics Summit Is Explicitly – And Primarily – Anti-US
    Xi-Putin Olympics Summit Is Explicitly – And Primarily – Anti-US

    Authored by Dominick Sansome via The Epoch Times,

    The Feb. 4 meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin proceeded with the expected proclamations of “mutual trust” and “the spirit of friendship.”

    According to the Kremlin, there were a total of 16 agreements across various spheres of cooperation reached during the meeting. These included economic trade, technology, and energy relations.

    Coinciding with the opening day of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, part of the purpose of the high-level meeting was undoubtedly appearance based. Putin additionally wrote an article for Chinese Communist Party (CCP) outlet Xinhua in which he celebrated the growing relationship between Moscow and Beijing.

    “Our countries play an important stabilizing role in today’s challenging international environment, promoting greater democracy in the system of international relations to make it more equitable and inclusive,” stated Putin. The Russian president went on to explain that one of the primary means for accomplishing this goal is through support for the United Nations Charter.

    A joint statement put out by the two countries following the Putin-Xi summit in Beijing went further. It stated that Moscow and Beijing seek to “to protect the United Nations-driven international architecture and the international law-based world order, seek genuine multipolarity with the United Nations and its Security Council playing a central and coordinating role.”

    Members of the U.N. Security Council gather for a meeting at the United Nations in New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images)

    These statements together place emphasis on the fact that Putin continues to see the U.N. as the primary body through which Russia is able to uphold its international influence. Citing the importance of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC), on which Russia and China both permanently sit, Putin reinforces the primacy of the “democratization of international relations.”

    Under the veneer of international stability and world peace, this latter point is what is truly of critical importance for actors such as Putin and Xi. The U.N. ensures that Russia has just as much power as the United States or its Western allies, especially considering its crucial veto on the Security Council. By allying with fellow UNSC member China, the two hold significant sway in influencing international decision-making.

    Given Moscow’s current tensions with NATO over Ukraine, it makes sense that Putin would be highlighting the importance of the U.N. A constant refrain from the Kremlin regarding NATO expansion is that no country’s security should be enhanced in a manner that reduces the relative security of a third country. By referring back to the U.N., Putin claims to be relying on a neutral multilateral organization in which every country has equal standing—this, rather than Western-led institutions such as NATO.

    Xi and the CCP also gain advantage from promoting this line of thinking. Besides also seeking the type of multipolarity that is referred to in these Russia-China joint statements, the international attention of the Olympics presents a favorable opportunity for the CCP to reference that it is not the United States or NATO that unilaterally set international policy.

    It is reported that only about 25 countries have sent official diplomatic delegations to the Beijing Olympics. The United States and most of its Western developed allies have chosen to diplomatically boycott the Games over human rights concerns with the CCP’s internal governance of China. Placing the meeting with Putin on the opening day of the Games ensures that the spotlight cannot be ignored: the China-Russia bilateral relationship is secure and constantly growing. The continued reference to the U.N. and the Security Council additionally remind the West that the two nuclear-armed powers hold just as much institutional legitimacy as the United States and its allies.

    Xi called on both countries “to maintain close high-level exchanges, give strong support to each other in safeguarding sovereignty, security and development interests.” This includes “deepening back-to-back strategic coordination and upholding international equity and justice.”

    Reading between the lines of the frequent calls for international democracy and equality from two of the world’s most authoritarian regimes reveals the true message: We support one another in the right to conduct our domestic policies as we see fit, independent from the judgment of the United States or other democratic nations.

    That does not mean that Beijing has irrevocably committed itself to Moscow. Even up until the Feb. 4 meeting, Xi withheld making any definite comment one way or the other regarding the escalating situation in Ukraine. This changed at the opening day of the summit. Following the meeting between Xi and Putin, the two countries released a joint statement on “international relations entering a new era and the global sustainable development.”

    A convoy of Russian armored vehicles moves along a highway in Crimea, on Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo)

    Notably, this included a joint call to halt further NATO enlargement and for the alliance to “abandon its ideologized cold war approaches.” Moscow also reaffirmed its support of Beijing’s stance regarding Taiwan, and both countries voiced their opposition to the AUKUS security alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

    This is an important development as, again, Beijing has recently held off from committing itself on the Ukraine issue. The opening up of the Games and the absence of Western delegations may have emphasized the heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing. Putin is the most prominent guest at the Games.

    As stated by Xi: “We are working together to promote a truly multilateral world. Efforts to uphold the real democratic spirit are a reliable foundation for rallying the world towards overcoming crises and protecting equality.”

    A “multilateral world” is essential for Russia and China to uphold the legitimacy of their own internal systems. As the U.S.-led order continues to try and isolate the two regimes and cast international condemnation on them for their foreign and domestic policy choices, the strength of the Sino-Russian bilateral relationship is increasingly important to withstanding Western pressures.

    Xi apparently calculated that the advantage of publicly aligning himself closer to Moscow at this period of heightened international tensions outweighed any potential negative cost.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 22:00

  • 'Black Mirror-Like' Robo-Dogs Patrol US Border, Searching For Illegals
    ‘Black Mirror-Like’ Robo-Dogs Patrol US Border, Searching For Illegals

    President Biden’s southern border crisis isn’t going away anytime soon as Republicans stress the need to beef up border security amid a flood of illegals crossing into the US. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently adopted quadrupedal machines to patrol the border’s harsh landscape, extreme temperatures, and dangerous obstacles to search for illegals. 

    DHS’ research and development team, the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T), released a statement on Tuesday specifying the use of Ghost Robotics’ robot dog ‘Ghost Vision 60’ by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on the southern border to test new surveillance methods. The robot dog’s appearance is eerily similar to the rover dogs in the popular dystopian Netflix series “Black Mirror.” 

    “The southern border can be an inhospitable place for man and beast, and that is exactly why a machine may excel there,” said S&T program manager, Brenda Long. “This S&T-led initiative focuses on Automated Ground Surveillance Vehicles, or what we call ‘AGSVs.’ Essentially, the AGSV program is all about…robot dogs.” 

    Ghost Vision 60 is a mid-sized high-endurance, agile, and durable all-weather ground drone that can navigate autonomously or be controlled manually on the border. The robot can be equipped with numerous payloads, including thermal and night vision cameras. 

    The 100-pound robot dog could one day become mechanical reinforcements for border agents who are currently overwhelmed by a flood of illegal activity (thanks to Biden). The robots can traverse areas where border agents would generally stay clear for safety reasons. 

    “Just like anywhere else, you have your standard criminal behavior, but along the border you can also have human smuggling, drug smuggling, as well as smuggling of other contraband—including firearms or even potentially, WMD.

    “These activities can be conducted by anyone from just a lone individual, all the way up to transnational criminal organizations, terrorists or hostile governments—and everything in between,” explained Agent Brett Becker of the CBP Innovation Team (INVNT).

    Testing of the robots comes as illegal border crossings hit record highs, detention centers overflow, and cartels incite chaos along the border. Republicans have called the border a “crisis” while the Biden administration downplays the ongoing mess. 

    Where are most of the illegals coming from?

    Which states are heavily impacted by the border crisis?

    One of Biden’s job-approval ratings has tanked to record lows, partially due to the administration’s poor handling of the border. Republicans have called for increased border security, and states like Texas have taken border security into their own hands instead of the federal government. 

    Increasing news stories about the “border crisis” resulted in slumping approval ratings for the president. The border is just one of many factors that have led to falling poll numbers (inflation is another). 

    Will robo-dogs be the solution to stop illegal border crossings? Absolutely not, but it shows the federal government is willing to test new technologies to automate security. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 21:30

  • Bridgewater Touts Chinese Assets As PBOC Diverges
    Bridgewater Touts Chinese Assets As PBOC Diverges

    By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and analyst

    Three things we learned last week:

    1. There was a new wave of bond-market carnage. When mainland Chinese investors return from the Lunar New Year holiday, they will be greeted by what was a renewed selloff in the global fixed-income market. The European Central Bank became the latest to turn hawkish, opening the door for rate hikes this year. The pivot trigged some dramatic bond moves. Both German and Japanese five-year yields climbed above zero on Friday for the first time in years. In the U.S., a stronger-than-expected jobs report Friday prompted traders to boost bets on a 50bp rate increase in March.

    In contrast, China’s policy makers are firmly in easing mode, thanks to tamed inflation. In its 2022 outlook published last week, Bridgewater Associates touted Chinese assets, while sounding the alarm about risky assets in developed markets. “Chinese assets remain attractive relative to cash,” because bond yields still have room to fall, inflation remains relatively low, and policy makers face pressure to ease, the outlook said. “The differences in conditions versus the West” create “a high likelihood of continued diversification,” it said.

    2. Global growth is moderating. Major central banks are tightening through a soft patch in global growth. It isn’t exactly a friendly environment for risky assets. The Global PMI manufacturing index declined to 53 in January, the lowest since October 2020. While that’s still a respectable number, and the waning of omicron infections may brighten the outlook, the tightening financial conditions nonetheless add to market volatility. The chart below plots the change in the manufacturing index and the S&P 500, when real yields rose more than 40 bps a month, as they did in January. It shows markets had more difficulty digesting higher yields when growth slowed than when the economy picked up.  In China, data is expected to show on Monday that the service sector barely grew in January.

    3. A hawkish Fed and ECB take some appreciation pressure off the yuan. The trade-weighted yuan fell 0.9% last week, the most since July 2020. The yuan is still supported by a lofty trade surplus, but the interest-rate differential is becoming less supportive. Surging crude oil is another negative for China, a major energy importer. All that suggests that there’s limited upside for the yuan, a result that Beijing may be happy about.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 21:00

  • "A Disaster In Plain Sight" – Why San Francisco Is Doing Nothing To Curb Brutal Fentanyl Crisis
    “A Disaster In Plain Sight” – Why San Francisco Is Doing Nothing To Curb Brutal Fentanyl Crisis

    The San Francisco Chronicle just published a lengthy multimedia report about the most devastating public-health crisis currently afflicting the city. And no, it’s not COVID-19. It’s the rash of super-potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl that are causing a surge in deaths among the city’s vast homeless community, as well as among others.

    Nearly 3/4ths of the thousands of drug overdoses that have been reported in the City by the Bay have involved fentanyl; for the last two years, Fentanyl has been killing far more people in San Francisco than COVID. It’s not even close, really.

    In San Francisco, roughly 1,310 people died from drug overdoses in 2020 and 2021. That’s more than double the roughly 710 people who have died from the virus in the city since the start of the pandemic.

    The city’s fentanyl death toll would be higher if it wasn’t for narcan, the antidote now used more than 500 times a month to yank people back from the brink of death.

    Source: Chronicle

    Overdose deaths happen all over the city, but by far the biggest concentrations are found within a few square blocks on Tenderloin and South of Market, a part of the city that has long plagued law enforcement.

    A large percentage of the older addicts are blacks who have been living on the city’s streets for years, if not decades. What’s more, the scourge of fentanyl has transformed the Tenderloin into an open-air drug market.

    Source: Chronicle

    Despite budgeting more than $70M for resources for the indigent last year alone, the city of San Francisco has barely managed to make any kind of positive difference in the lives of the city’s homeless. Overdose prevention programs in the last fiscal year alone have accomplished little. And police have been stymied by the progressive DA’s insistence that city cops not arrest peopl

    ity leaders have not created a clear, urgent and cohesive plan to intervene despite budgeting $71.4 million for treatment and overdose prevention programs in the last fiscal year alone Since then, however, the problem has only gotten worse.

    While drugs were once smuggled into San Francisco via complex networks of criminals, nowadays, the biggest drug carriers in the city are DHL and USPS.

    But the illicit fentanyl now killing people in San Francisco is cooked up in labs — often in China and Mexico — and trafficked via delivery services like UPS and DHL. Doses bound for the city are sometimes mixed with other drugs or fillers, packaged in foil and sold for $20 to $40 a gram.

    Amazingly, the city’s leadership has so far failed to treat the fentanyl crisis with anywhere near the same gravitas as the COVID pandemic.

    Despite the death toll, San Francisco leaders have not treated the fentanyl crisis as the all-hands emergency that many residents and advocates recognize.

    The Department of Public Health says that typically, people can access treatment as soon as they’re ready. But some of those seeking help, as well as social workers assigned to them, say they commonly wait days, and sometimes weeks, for a bed that meets their needs.

    Meanwhile, San Francisco has so far failed to cut the flow of the drug into the Tenderloin and South of Market, where the city has concentrated services and housing for vulnerable people, including those experiencing addiction. Drug dealers operate on the streets with abandon.

    One of the most surprising details from the report is a depiction of an interaction between an SFPD officer and a homeless addict sleeping in a doorway.

    As police walk through the Tenderloin, Sgt. Heather Fegan approaches a woman slumped in a doorway.

    “It’s San Francisco police, honey,” Fegan says. Another officer gently taps the woman’s shoulder, rousing her awake. “We’re just making sure you’re all right,” the officer says. “You’re not in trouble or anything.”

    It seems the only thing officers are empowered to do when dealing with SF’s population of homeless drug addicts is revive them with Narcan when they overdose. On particularly bad days, police in the Tenderloin revive up to 10 or a dozen people, sometimes returning to the same individual just hours later.

    Still, police usually don’t make arrests when they find people dying from an overdose, nor do they investigate to try and ascertain where the drugs came from.

     

    Who’s decision was this? Well, unsurprisingly, the Chronicle lays the blame at the feet of Chesa Boudin, the San Francisco DA facing a recall election because of his notoriously soft on crime (critics call them ‘pro-criminal’) policies.

    There’s also Mayor London Breed, who has apparently ordered police to “get tough” on crime – at least, that’s what she’s telling the public. On the street, it doesn’t seem like much has changed.

    Mayor London Breed’s new get-tough public stance is consistent with her longtime views, but still marks a shift from programs she spent much of the last year championing, which aim to reduce police interactions with people in need of mental health care and addiction treatment.

    “It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city…come to an end,” the mayor said, adding that San Francisco should be “less tolerant of all the bulls—.”

    Somehow, progressive do-gooders like Boudin and Breed have embraced the idea that the ‘broken windows’-style tactics used in the 1980s to clean up NYC simply aren’t effective. Progressives have taken another view: that the welfare of criminals and drug addicts should be prioritized above all else.

    One common saying is “kilos, not crumbs”.

    Police Chief Bill Scott and District Attorney Chesa Boudin agree, though, that the city cannot focus on arresting and prosecuting users or lower-level drug dealers, some of whom are supporting their own addictions. Boudin, who faces a recall election this year fueled by critics who say his policies are too lenient, says it’s not effective to prosecute quality-of-life crimes, including street drug use, and favors seizing “kilos, not crumbs” of narcotics.

    As priorities have shifted, the city police force presented about 40% fewer drug-related arrests to the D.A.’s office in 2021 than in 2019, according to data obtained by The Chronicle. But the cases that police still bring are more serious — and Boudin is more frequently filing charges. Even so, Boudin acknowledges that the Tenderloin “has not gotten better.”

    “We need it to be easier for people to get help than it is to get high,” he said.

    The problem with this ‘treatment first’ narrative is that drug addiction treatment in the US is notoriously expensive. It involves rehabs, medication, outpatient therapy. It’s a lot. And most of the time, it doesn’t work. For more thoughts on why treatment often isn’t enough, click here.

    But at least Big Pharmaceutical companies are lining their pockets while progressive politicians are building a new indomitable political machine,

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 20:30

  • Teacher Made White Elementary School Children Apologize To Black Kids For Their Skin Color
    Teacher Made White Elementary School Children Apologize To Black Kids For Their Skin Color

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

    A 5th grade teacher working in the North Penn School District made white elementary school children apologize to black kids for their skin color, according to irate parents.

    The sensational claim was made during a school board meeting by the mother of a child who attends AM Kulp Elementary School.

    “I actually pulled my daughter out of AM Kulp because of the 5th grade teacher who lined those students up, from whitest to darkest,” she said.

    “(The teacher) made them turn around and made the white ones apologize to the black ones – now do not tell me that did not happen in this district,” the mother added.

    “You need to put an end to this. Kids do not see color and you are segregating them and you are separating them. This is not OK. Do something or get out of those damn chairs!” she concluded.

    The mother’s complaint was bolstered by a further claim by another individual at the meeting who described how the same teacher forced children to take part in a ‘privilege walk’ multiple times.

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    “This board has repeatedly denied an activity that has taken place at AM Kulp Elementary…it happened in the courtyard…not once but four times,” said the speaker.

    “A teacher…lined the students up on the wall, asked them to step forward if their parents were married, step forward if their parents were college educated, step forward if they own a cellphone or an iPhone, step forward if their skin color resembled a band aid, step forward if they had an in-ground pool.”

    Explaining that multiple different parents had told him that this had happened, the speaker also related how the teacher in question “also added at one point when she asked about a band aid with a mini-megaphone, the teacher told the student to get back on the wall because her parents were from India.”

    The speaker finished by accusing the school board of falsely denying that such events were taking place.

    North Penn School District appears to be riddled with activist teachers intent on indoctrinating children.

    Last month, we highlighted an image that went viral showing a North Penn teacher forcibly taping a mask to a child’s face.

    Parents across the country have come under attack by both the media and the government for their vocal opposition to Critical Race Theory being taught in American schools.

    In September last year, the National Association of School Boards (NASB) sent a letter to the Biden administration claiming parents were engaging in domestic terrorism by fighting against CRT and mask mandates.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland subsequently announced the DOJ and FBI would establish a task force aimed at probing a “disturbing spike” in threats against school officials.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 20:00

  • Goldman: For The First Time In 2022, We See Massive Net Inflows Into Stocks This Week
    Goldman: For The First Time In 2022, We See Massive Net Inflows Into Stocks This Week

    One week ago, when the turmoiling market was on edge over even the smallest tremor following a record-ugly start to the year for risk assets, and emini liquidity hit the lowest level since the March 2020 crash meaning even a modest buy or sell program could move spoos by dozens of points…

    … Goldman’s flow trader Scott Rubner pointed out something which changed the facade of market risk dynamics overnight: a record number of index puts had been purchased by institutional investors who were hedging further downside en masse, in effect putting an end to the liquidation panic.

    That, coupled with a near record negative dealer gamma…

    … which could only go up as risk bounce and shorts were squeezed, and several other reasons why the furious selloff was exhausting itself, helped explain why stock managed to stage a remarkable rebound – at least until Facebook’s meta-hearse implosion – and yet the S&P still closed well in the green last week.

    So now that the bulk of earnings season has passed, and despite some high profile tech misses – most notably Facebook – is it safe to say that markets have finally stabilized? For the answer we go to Rubner’s weekly tactical flow of funds note, which recaps where investors are putting their money to work in 2022. What is most notable this time, is that according to Rubner, while we are still not “all clear” after week 5, for the first time in 2022, net demand is set to exceed net supply this coming week. Meanwhile, all eyes remain on key-technical levels…

    Here are the biggest highlights from Rubner’s latest Flow of Funds note (as usual, the full note is available to professional subscribers):

    1. Global Equities logged a massive +$106B worth of inflows YTD. Annualizing ~$1.2 Trillion. January 2022 Equity inflows logged the second best start to the year on record with $84.2 Billion worth of inflows. And yet, Rubner notes that this time there is a twist: the biggest theme in the market place, this new money is going into Rest-of-World Equities, not US. This, as the Goldman trader notes, is new.

    2. January 2022 Equity inflows logged the 6th largest monthly inflows of all-time

    3. February is historically the 3rd largest month for inflows and 2nd largest in 1H. Investors are rotating now.

    4. ROW board room demand exceeds USA board room demand. European equities logged +$4.818B worth of inflows this week. This is the largest weekly inflow since May 10th, 2017 (+$6.059B) – post ECB (out of bonds). But it is Emerging Market Equities that have been the 2022 Allocation winner, with back to back to back to back inflows.

    5. YTD scoreboard: For context in USD terms: Brazil #2 (+11.89%), Colombia #3 (+10.58%), Peru #6 (+9.06%), and Chile #9 (+7.46%) vs. SPX -6.06%, significantly benefits from these non-USD inflows, and have broadly not seen inflows during this cycle.

    6. Value/EM/ROW/Cyclical 2022 board room allocations have room to expand in the context of what happened in January 2021 (lasted until March Quarter-end). i.e., when investors rotate in a big way, it lasts for a few weeks.

    7. Inflows into Equities is a “2021 new thing”. The cumulative 10-year inflows into stocks before 2021 was zero. Bonds have seen 3x more inflows than equities and Cash has seen 2x more inflows than equities over the past decade. Rubner writes that “I am watching this chart, as I am watching yields this morning.”

    8. Bond “outflows” are not very common. There is just too much money sitting in bonds for RIA/PWM allocations if yields continue to move higher. But now outflows are rolling.

    Rubner says that he has become popular among credit pods who are tracking “passive credit outflows”. -$1.5 Trillion of negative yielding bonds went “non-negative” on Thursday, the largest 1 day on record. Negative yielding bonds are now below $5 Trillion, the lowest level in over five years years (and down from a record $18 Trillion).

    9. Investment Grade Bonds and High Yield Bonds drove the outflows from bonds this week. Watch further widening in CDX HY. We like HYG and LQD put spreads. This is also new.

     

    Key flow highlights aside, and looking at Mark-to-Market post Payrolls, Rubner writes that in his view, “we have not met the conditions to go from “Red Light” to “Green Light” this week, but I think we are certainly in yellow and improving ” as conditions are in place move back from systematic to subjective and markets will move more freely. The Goldman trader hopes “to clear the last end of this systematic checklist in week 6. All eyes, on 4438, the 200-day moving average, which needs to hold after the weekend.”

    Another potential bullish inflection point: Systematic Selling fades after next week, after a lot of selling

    10. Systematic Supply. Similar to Nomura, Goldman estimates that systematic strategies sold -$74.1B over the past week and -$111.9B over the past one month. That is a lot with multiple indices currently short: But more importantly, systematic supply faded by EOD Friday and assuming a flat tape, there is +$30B of equity demand over the next 1 month. This is important because the up vs down scenarios become balanced vs. skewed to the sell side. The bottom line: CTA’s are now net short. This becomes more balanced going forward and subject to new market moves.

    And while the CTA picture is increasingly favorable, liquidity is also improving, but still remains challenged.

    11. Liquidity. Top book liquidity in ES1 (E-mini futures) is currently $5M. The ranks in the 3rd percentile on a 10-yr rank (so zeroth percentile). There have been 6 instances in the last 10 years that top book liquidity on the S&P 500, most liquid future in the world, were this low. (This is pre-March fwiw). I find it really hard to monitor price discovery during the overnight session given lunar holiday next week. This could be really choppy.

    As noted above, dealer Gamma is getting longer and rebuilding:

    12. Dealer Gamma. S&P 500 dealer gamma is now flat (from short). The current dealer gamma position ranks in the 8th percentile on a 3-year rank. The long dealer gamma position, which stocks have enjoyed as a market buffer for so long, is no longer present. Hedging activity has been exacerbated by those dealers hedging customer delta with demand for puts. The market could move freely both to the upside and downside, but this has mattered given the low liquidity provided by futures hedging (mostly end of day).

    Just as notable, the institutional demand for index hedges – which was the highlight of last week’s note – has dropped by 56% since last Monday.

    13. Put Buying. We have been averaging $1 Trillion worth of puts per day. Largest on record. There has been several days this week where put notional set records. Monday for example $2.2 Trillion notional traded in US options market, with 64% puts ($1.4 Trillion) further adding LP hedges and taking the street further short gamma.

    Another notable reversal, the passive Market on Close Impact has started to improve – we have had 4 days of large MOC imbalances to buy after weeks of massive MOC for sale imbalances.

    14. Equity Passive flow redemptions and MOC Impact. As a reminder, recently Rubner notes that every day, he watches MOC imbalances get posted at 3:50pm NY time, “and it feels like a new day. There are 2,670 ETF’s that trade in the US. Passive redemptions are starting to happen. SPY has seen the largest outflows YTD (-$21.8B), followed by QQQ (-$7.98B), followed by IVV (-$1.8B) outside of bonds. Inflows are still happening broadly, but these redemptions will have the largest impact. “A reminder, if you ask me for money, I sell.” 23.66 cents of every $1 of SPY sold is from the top 5 stocks. I cannot predict the outcome here, but $1.226 Trillion of capital has gone into passive funds in the last 66 weeks.”

    15. Sentiment. Everyone says sentiment is negative but not panic-y, well how negative? Since 1987, the AAII Bull vs. Bear has been below .45 (it is currently .44). This has only happened 51 times out of 1,799 readings or 2.8% of times. This is rare and has historically been a contrarian indicator with positive hit rates 1m (79%), 3m (81%), and 6m (82%) with high absolute returns. That said, household allocations to equities has risen, so stabilizing sentiment to reduce passive outflows will be key to watch.

    16. Retail. This, as Rubner notes, has always been his swing factor. After what felt like margin/deleveraging all week from retail, this changed by the end of the week. On Wednesday, FOMC day, I have retail as a MASSIVE buyer. >$22.6B worth of retail buy demand, which ranks in the 98% percentile on a 1 year basis. This follows big sell days. The retail buy demand in tech of $9B was the largest on record, and 100% percentile.

    17. Money Market Funds, “cash on the sidelines”. This money has been raised, and potentially looking for a home (“down 5%”). This week saw some minor money market inflows.

    Last but perhaps most important, corporates – i.e., stock buybacks – are now coming out of the blackout window in a big way next week.

    18. Buybacks. Corporate blackout window ends substantially next week, led by tech stocks, with 65% of the S&P 500 market cap coming out of the earnings blackout by Monday, and Goldman’s trading desk estimates >$5.5B worth of daily demand during the open window which closes back on March 14th.

    The full Goldman note is available to professional subs.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 19:30

  • More Potential Buyers Emerge For Peloton
    More Potential Buyers Emerge For Peloton

    (Update: 7:00pm ET, Feb 6): Shortly after the WSJ reported that Peloton was drawing acquisition interest from “multiple suitors including Amazon”, on Saturday the FT added Nike to the list of companies that are “separately evaluating bids for Peloton” as part of what we have dubbed a flurry of distressed M&A defining the current market selloff…

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    … after the company with the iPad superglued to the front of an exercise bike came under fire from an activist investor who has urged the board of the maker of connected fitness bikes and treadmills to sack its chief executive and explore a sale.

    Nothing is imminent, with the FT noting that both Amazon and Nike have not held any direct talks with Peloton and the considerations are preliminary, citing “people briefed on the matter” who added that the decision to look at Peloton was opportunistic given its market value collapsed from nearly $50bn 12 months ago to less than $8bn this week. Of course, those people may just be long who have seen their holdings wiped out in recent weeks.

    Of course, the lower the PTON price drops, the more likely it is that other strategic (or even financial) buyers will emerge, “potentially including Apple and large private equity buyers.”

    Sure enough, in a weekend note from Wedbush, the bank writes that Apple may emerge as the eventual buyer as “acquiring PTON would be a major strategic coup and catalyze the company’s aggressive fitness initiatives.”  The note adds that AAPL may be forced into this deal if “AMZN, NKE, or potentially DIS aggressively go after Peloton in a defensive blocking .. move.”

    Of course, any deal would be hard to get done without the backing from John Foley, Peloton’s co-founder, and other insiders due to the company’s dual-class shareholder structure, which gives them veto power on all big decisions.

    That said, now that acquisition interest is a clear and present danger, expect the shorts to cover as the last thing they can afford is be underwater on what had previously been a profitable position after an unexpected takeover bid sends the stock soaring. On Friday, PTON price jumped 30% in after-hours trading after The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon was considering a bid for the company.”

    * * *

    After a week of utter chaos in the US equity markets, with unprecedented intraday swings in market caps of the largest companies in history, The Wall Street Journal decided that 1710ET was the perfect time to drop a report, sourcing ‘a person familiar with the matter’ that beleaguered bike-maker Peloton is drawing interest from multiple potential suitors including Amazon.

    As WSJ reports, according to people familiar with the matter, Amazon has been speaking to advisers about a potential deal.

    And in what can only be assumed is an effort to promote a bidding war for this cash-burning cow, the ‘people familiar with the matter’ also said that other potential suitors are circling (but that no deal is imminent and there may not be one at all).

    Given the total lack of liquidity in markets – especially so at 1710ET on a Friday – PTON shares exploded over 30% higher in after-hours trading, erasing the losses triggered by a report in January from CNBC that the company faces layoffs and production halts.

    Interesting that this ‘source’ would appear shortly after reports that an activist shareholder is calling for the CEO to be fired and the company to be sold.

    Color us skeptical… how long until the AMZN denial….

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 19:10

  • "This Is A Nationwide Insurrection" – Ottawa Mayor Declares 'State Of Emergency' Amid Trucker Convoy 'Occupation'
    “This Is A Nationwide Insurrection” – Ottawa Mayor Declares ‘State Of Emergency’ Amid Trucker Convoy ‘Occupation’

    Protesters continued to gather and demonstrate against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions in Canada’s capital on Feb. 6, marking the one week anniversary of the so-called “occupation.”

    “We are on day eight of this occupation. Our city is under siege. What we’re seeing is bigger than just a City of Ottawa problem. This is a nationwide insurrection. This is madness. We need a concrete plan to put an end to this,” said the chair of the board, Ottawa City Council member Diane Deans, at the beginning of the nearly two-hour-long virtual discussion.

    Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly agreed with her portrayal of the situation, saying that local law enforcement was “never intended to deal with a city under siege,” and decried the lack of resources – and legal authority – to disperse the protest.

    At one point, Deans wondered whether the city had legal grounds to declare an unlawful assembly and then a riot, in order to conduct mass arrests, instead of pursuing “one criminal charge at a time.”

    “There are so many people out there engaged in a broader act of… mayhem, that we need to be able to bring it all under control,” she said.

    “We can’t allow this kind of terrorism in our community to continue this way.”

    Yes, in accordance with the narrative laid down from Trudeau’s twitter feed, the establishment is now calling protesting truckers – terrorists!

    And as a result of all that hysteria, The Epoch Times reports that Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has declared a state of emergency due to the trucker protest that continues in the city’s downtown core.

    In a brief statement, the city said the decision reflects the “serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government. ”

    “It also provides greater flexibility within the municipal administration to enable the City of Ottawa to manage business continuity for essential services for its residents and enables a more flexible procurement process, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders,” the city said in its statement.

    Protest organizers say their demonstration is peaceful… apart from this terrible, awful, horrific, terroristic attack on a good, honest, local citizen who was just trying to cross the road…

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    The protest started as a demonstration by truckers against the federal government’s requirement for cross-border truck drivers to be vaccinated, but has since evolved into a large movement joined by people from across Canada to oppose different COVID-19 mandates and restrictions. Vehicle convoys came to Ottawa on Jan. 29, and many have stayed in the city, with trucks and other vehicles parked by Parliament Hill. Many protesters say they will remain until the mandates are lifted.

    Trucks are parked in downtown Ottawa as demonstrators continue to protest COVID-19 mandates and restrictions on Feb. 2, 2022. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

    Sounds of honking horns can be heard throughout the day in the Parliament Hill area, which residents are complaining about.

    Protest organizer Benjamin Dichter says people who are unhappy about the honking should be contacting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and ask him to lift COVID-19 mandates.

    “To anybody who is annoyed, we apologize. Please call Justin Trudeau, his office, and get these mandates lifted, and we’re out of here,” Dichter said at a press conference in Ottawa on Feb. 6.

    Trudeau has refused to meet with the protesters.

    Tom Quiggin, who is helping the organizers with “protective intelligence,” said many people across Canada have lost their jobs, homes, and businesses as a result of COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, and they have grievances too, which is why they are protesting in the nation’s capital.

    “Let’s remember most of Ottawa is government, huge number of civil servants here. They haven’t missed a paycheque. They’ve got pay raises, some of them have got back pay, most of them are working from home. Some of them who can’t work from home are just doing nothing and still getting paid,” Quiggin said at the press conference.

    “So yes, it’s unfortunate that they feel bad about the horns, yes, it’s unfortunate they feel bad about the disruption, but the rest of the country is hurting.”

    Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who quit the force because of its vaccine mandate and is now helping the protest organizers, said his children don’t want to play hockey anymore because of the position his family has taken on vaccine issues, as they feel “isolated and alienated.”

    “The people dealing with the honking, they’re not the only ones that are dealing with the impact of all these mandates,” Bulford said at the press conference.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 18:52

  • Visualizing The State Of Global Debt, By Country
    Visualizing The State Of Global Debt, By Country

    Since COVID-19 started its spread around the world in 2020, the global economy has been put to the test with supply chain disruptions, price volatility for commodities, challenges in the job market, and declining income from tourism. The World Bank has estimated that almost 97 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic.

    In order to help with this difficult situation, global governments have had to increase their expenditures to deal with higher healthcare costs, unemployment, food insecurity, and to help businesses to survive. Countries have taken on new debt to provide financial support for these measures, which, as Visual Capitalist’s Rail Amoros details below, has resulted in the highest global debt levels in half a century.

    To analyze the extent of global debt, we’ve compiled debt-to-GDP data by country from the most recent World Economic Outlook report by the IMF.

    Debt-to-GDP ratio by Country: The Top 10 Most Indebted Nations

    The debt-to-GDP ratio is a simple metric that compares a country’s public debt to its economic output. By comparing how much a country owes and how much it produces in a year, economists can measure a country’s theoretical ability to pay off its debt.

    Let’s take a look at the top 10 countries in terms of debt-to-GDP:

    Source: World Economic Outlook Report (October 2021 Edition)

    Japan, Sudan, and Greece top the list with debt-to-GDP ratios well above 200%, followed by Eritrea (175%), Cape Verde (160%), and Italy (154%).

    Japan’s debt level won’t come as a surprise to most. In 2010, it became the first country to reach a debt-to-GDP ratio 200%, and it now sits at 257%. In order to finance new debt, the Japanese government issues bonds which get bought up primarily by the Bank of Japan.

    By the end of 2020, the Bank of Japan owned 45% of government debt outstanding.

    What is the main risk of a high debt-to-GDP ratio?

    A rapid increase in government debt is a major cause for concern. Generally, the higher a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is, the higher chance that country could default on its debt, therefore creating a financial panic in the markets.

    The World Bank published a study showing that countries that maintained a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 77% for prolonged periods of time experienced economic slowdowns.

    COVID-19 has worsened a debt crisis that has been brewing since the 2008 global recession. A report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shows that at least 100 countries will have to reduce expenditures on health, education, and social protection. Also, 30 countries in the developing world have high levels of debt distress, meaning they’re experiencing great difficulties in servicing their debt.

    This crisis is hitting poor and middle-income countries harder than rich countries. Wealthier countries are borrowing to launch fiscal stimulus packages while low and middle income countries cannot afford such measures, potentially resulting in wider global inequality.

    The IMF Warns of Interest Rates

    Global debt reached $226 trillion by the end of 2020, seeing the biggest one-year increase since World War II.

    Borrowing by governments accounted for slightly over half of the $28 trillion increase, bringing global public debt ratio to a record of 99% of GDP. As interest rates rise, IMF officials warn that higher interest rates will diminish the impact of fiscal spending, and cause debt sustainability concerns to intensify. “The risks will be magnified if global interest rates rise faster than expected and growth falters,” the officials wrote.

    “A significant tightening of financial conditions would heighten the pressure on the most highly indebted governments, households, and firms. If the public and private sectors are forced to deleverage simultaneously, growth prospects will suffer.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 18:30

  • Morgan Stanley: "It Begins"
    Morgan Stanley: “It Begins”

    By Andrew Sheets of Morgan Stanley, Chief Cross-Asset Strategist for Morgan Stanley

    If you’re a fan of American football, this year’s playoffs were some of the best in the sport’s history. The last six contests were all decided by the narrowest of margins, often at the last second. It was a good reminder that you need to stay until the end.

    I mention this because between lunchtime on Wednesday January 24 and this past Wednesday, there was a distinct feeling of ‘we made it’. Yes, inflation has surprised to the upside. Yes, key data were weak. Yes, central banks are pivoting more hawkishly. Yes, yields are rising. Yet, thanks to good earnings and fund inflows, global equities are only down 3%. Well done.

    It’s tempting to think that this is the end of the story: the test arrived early this year,and the markets passed. But the reality is likely to be more complicated. This is just the start of the game. A record amount of stimulus is about to be withdrawn from the global economy. It begins.

    Part of the withdrawal will come through monetary policy. That shift has two parts: reversing the lowest policy rates in history, and reversing the largest central bank bond purchases in history. You know, simple stuff. From May 2022 to May 2023, Morgan Stanley economists expect G4 central bank balance sheets to shrink by US$2 trillion, four times the largest 12-month decline ever, from 2018-19.

    If that isn’t enough, central banks need to engineer this policy withdrawal while unemployment is historically low and inflation is historically high. One often hears that central banks provide markets with a backstop, or ‘put’,given their desire to avoid tighter financial conditions. But central banks now have to balance this concern against their core mandates. And regarding financial conditions, isn’t tightening them kind of the point?

    Still, maybe January gave markets a look at these challenges – the weak growth, the high inflation, the hawkish pivots. And after some (very)volatile contemplation, didn’t they pass?

    We think it’s simply too early to tell. While rates have risen, our strategists think they rise further. While markets have priced in ‘more hawkish’ central banks, they still expect these hiking cycles to end at historically low levels. For example, the Fed is priced to stop raising rates in 2023,at 1.8%. It’s a similar level for the BoE.

    Other factors suggest plenty of twists and turns,and soon. 1Q22sees the greatest risk to our growth estimates, the highest readings for inflation,and the greatest concentration of geopolitical risk.2Q22 could feel very different, with our economists forecasting a growth rebound in the US and China, alongside an inflation decline. And then 2H22 sees a record central bank balance sheet decline begin in earnest. There is a lot of time on the game clock.

    For investors, the scale of what lies ahead means we think they should keep overall exposure light. We remain cautious towards duration and IG-rated spread product, believing that both have outsized sensitivity to these policy shifts, with more uncertainty around where ‘fair value’ is without central bank largesse.

    Other areas of the market look more promising. While the ECB was surprisingly hawkish this week, that’s probably a good thing for the euro, European banks, and even European equities overall. European stocks have tended to do better when the euro has been rising, perhaps because such environments tend to reflect more relative economic strength and ‘normalcy’. Valuations also matter; despite low rates and QE, stocks in Europe and the UK trade at lower valuations than they did five years ago.

    That valuation argument applies elsewhere. Stocks in Japan, Brazil and Korea also trade at similar or lower valuations versus five years ago, suggesting less risk as QE reverses. Most currencies have depreciated against the dollar,a reason why our FX strategists recently upgraded EM FX to neutral. And in commodities, we think that strong fundamentals in energy can help to outweigh this liquidity reversal. We continue to like oil over gold (via 1-year forwards).

    January was eventful.February has been, too. While the issues facing the market this year are clear, their impact and timing are uncertain and will continue to play out as the year unfolds. This is the start of a historic policy reversal,not the end. There is a lot of game left to play. Good luck. Enjoy your Sunday.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 18:00

  • Russia Might Invade Ukraine "As Soon As Tomorrow": White House
    Russia Might Invade Ukraine “As Soon As Tomorrow”: White House

    Here we go again… just days after the White House was forced to awkwardly walk back its prior assessment that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “imminent” – Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said while making the rounds on Sunday news shows that the invasion will come “any day now” – or even as soon as “tomorrow”.

    “Fox News Sunday” host Martha MacCallum asked Sullivan about the White House’s assessment of Russia’s troop build-up, to which he began in response: “Well, what I can tell you Martha is that we are in the window. Any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine or it could be a couple of weeks from now or Russia could choose to take the diplomatic path instead.”

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    “The key thing is that the United States needs to be and is prepared for any of those contingencies in lockstep with our allies and partners,” Sullivan continued. He further explained that the US had already informed allies of the near-term possibility of war breaking out. 

    “If war breaks out it will come at an enormous human cost to Ukraine, but we believe that based on our preparations and our response, it will come at a strategic cost to Russia as well,” he said. 

    Elsewhere on Sunday, while speaking to ABC’s This Week, Sullivan got even more alarmist in his predictions. He started by repeating that President Vladimir Putin “has put himself in a position with military deployments to be able to act aggressively against Ukraine at any time now.” And that’s when he said there could be an invasion “tomorrow”…

    “We believe that there is a very distinct possibility that Vladimir Putin will order an attack on Ukraine,” Sullivan said. “It could take a number of different forms. It could happen as soon as tomorrow or it could take some weeks yet.”

    The Kremlin rejected the fresh statements and media reports from this weekend predicting Russia will invade soon as “madness and scaremongering.”

    It was only last Wednesday that the White House walked back its prior consistent assertions that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was “imminent”. 

    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had explained at the time: “I used it once. I think others have used that once, and we stopped using it because I think it sent a message that we weren’t intending to send, which was that we knew that President Putin had made a decision.”

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    “I would say the vast majority of times I’ve talked about it, I’ve said he could invade ‘at any time,’” she added, trying to obfuscate her own unambiguous prior messaging.

    Sullivan’s latest words on the Sunday shows suggests the White House still can’t get its own messaging straight. And certainly it’s not on board with its own allies like Ukraine, which has lately said the situation is not as dire as the US is painting it. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 17:30

  • Driver Pay-Hikes Continue To Roll In
    Driver Pay-Hikes Continue To Roll In

    By Todd Maiden of FreightWaves

    High demand and a lack of qualified drivers has pushed truckload carriers to raise pay substantially over the past year and a half. Wage increases have helped fleets maintain size through the pandemic, but few have been able to grow organically. Following a round of large pay increases in 2021, it appears the industry will continue to push pay rates higher to address a labor shortfall.

    Two more fleets announced pay hikes this week.

    Kaukauna, Wisconsin-based Midwest Carriers announced a 9% pay increase for over-the-road drivers. The pay bump takes average annual pay to a range of $86,395 to $92,250. Average annual pay for the top half of the company’s over-the-road drivers increased to $97,550.

    “As a driver-focused trucking company, we know that taking care of our drivers is job number one,” said President Eric Van Handel.

    “This increase is our way of showing how much we value their hard work and dedication.”

    The company also announced a 9% reduction in health insurance premiums for 2022.

    Midwest Carriers operates a fleet of 166 trucks and 455 trailers, hauling temperature-controlled and dry freight.

    TFI International affiliate CFI announced Wednesday it increased driver pay in its truckload and temperature-controlled units by two cents per mile. Drivers will also be eligible for incentive bonuses tied to safety, productivity and years of service.

    The Joplin-Missouri-based company said it plans to take delivery of 770 new Kenworth tractors and 250 new trailers in 2022, moving its average tractor age to less than 2 years. It also plans to invest $3.75 million in additional fleet upgrades during the year to attract drivers to the company.

    “We continue to invest in our people with modern, fuel-efficient equipment, including options and accessories most in demand by professional drivers supporting safe operations and driver comfort,” said CFI President Greg Orr.

    CFI employs nearly 3,000 drivers for its fleet of more than 3,900 tractors and 10,000 trailers. The company also utilizes capacity from an owner-operator network of 700.

    “We recognize our professional drivers as the ‘captain of their ship’ who pick up and deliver on time and safely, as promised to our customers,” Orr said. “As such, we are implementing driver pay increases that align pay across our services with an attractive compensation package.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 17:00

  • Rogan Apologizes For Using Racial Slur As Spotify Removes 113 'JRE' Episodes With No Explanation
    Rogan Apologizes For Using Racial Slur As Spotify Removes 113 ‘JRE’ Episodes With No Explanation

    Update (1230ET): Amid all this ‘tempest in a teapot’, one person has some clarifying thoughts for all those @lizzie363 offers this suggestion to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek:

    Take back control.

    Tell employees on Monday: “we can get rid of Rogan by Friday, but with Rogan goes 50% of our workforce.”

    “Go back to your divisions and decide among yourselves who is getting dismissed and who is staying.”

    “I want the names by Thursday.”

    Will Ek have the cohones to stand up to the mob?

    *  *  *

    Update (1030ET): While the tsunami of piler-on’rs grows – because what is more virtuous that signaling your disdain for someone that dares to think for themselves – there is also a gathering storm of support for Rogan and what his podcast stands for…

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    Unfortunately for both Spotify and Joe Rogan, the controversy surrounding ‘the Joe Rogan Experience’ isn’t over yet. In fact, it looks like it’s metastasizing, now that one of the artists who pulled her music from the platform in recent days has managed to ‘change the conversation’ to the “problematic” use of ‘the n-word’ in some episodes of the show.

    So far, Spotify has removed at least 113 episodes, according to a running count by JRE Missing, a website dedicated to monitoring how many episodes of the show are no longer available on the service.  Some of the episodes were removed months ago, but the biggest purge has taken place since Friday. The show has been exclusively available on Spotify for about a year.

    At the same time, Rogan has published another frank apology video, this one in response to a super clip shared by grammy-winning soul musician India Arie of him saying ‘the n-word’. Rogan said he’s “making this video to talk about the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

    Rogan clarified that he hasn’t said the word at all ‘in years’, before explaining that when the word would come up in discussion, that he would say the full word instead of saying ‘the n-word’, and that, given this context, the audience would be understanding.

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

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    He went on to explain that he has since changed his mind, and now agrees that a white person shouldn’t say the word at all, even in context.

    It’s not clear how many of the episodes removed by Spotify actually feature Rogan saying the word, or one of his guests (which, depending on the race of the guest, might be deemed acceptable by some). The show is nearing its 1,775 episode, and has been running since 2009.

    Neither Rogan nor Spotify has released a statement nor given an explanation for why any of the episodes have been removed, according to the New York Times.

    Both the NYT and other news outlets like Engadget have reported that the company’s reasoning for removing the episodes is unclear.

    Rogan ended his statement by saying he hopes this instance is a “teachable moment” to others and offering his “sincerest deepest apologies.”

    Spotify’s new content guidelines prohibit “dangerous” content that “advocates or glorifies serious physical harm towards an individual or group”. But nowhere does it specifically mention ‘the n-word’ or any other racial slurs (although it does prohibit content that “glorifies” breaking the law – but isn’t that what 99% of hip hop music is?)

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 16:44

  • "We Don't See That Very Often" – Credit Market Cracks Could Spark Doom-Loop With Stocks
    “We Don’t See That Very Often” – Credit Market Cracks Could Spark Doom-Loop With Stocks

    As the old adage goes (for those who have been trading for more than the last 12 years of central bank fantasy-land enablement, “Credit anticipates, equities confirm.”

    Credit and equities decoupled in Q3 2014 when The Fed (under Yellen) issued policy normalization plans…

    Credit and equities decoupled in Q4 2017 when The Fed (under Yellen) embarked on balance sheet normalization…

    And now, since The Fed began to talk about normalization and accelerated that with the Powell Pivot, credit and equity markets have decoupled dramatically once again…

    The issue at hand, however, is that this time is ‘different’…

    Which means it will not be as easy to slow-down the taper, fold on normalization, temper the tantrum as it was in 2015 and 2018.

    Perhaps it is that realization that credit is “anticipating” (and equity is yet to “confirm”)

    As The FT reports, Viktor Hjort, global head of credit strategy at BNP Paribas. said he believes the credit cycle has turned, meaning that the positive economic backdrop will no longer benefit corporate bond investors.

    “The market is a lot more nervous than it was at the start of the year,” warned Hjort, as investors rush into derivative markets to hedge their credit portfolios…

    “It signals that more people are cutting risk and adding hedges,” said Calvin Vinitwatanakhun, a strategist at Citi.

    In another sign of bearishness, funds that buy US high-yield bonds have suffered outflows for four straight weeks, taking year-to-date withdrawals close to $11bn.

    And finally, perhaps the most notable litmus test of the market, The FT reports that Ion Analytic pulled a bond deal from the market in January citing volatile market conditions, according to people familiar with the deal, highlighting the sense of nervousness in the market.

    “We don’t see that very often,” said one credit investor who had been briefed on the deal.

    “It’s a sign the money sloshing around looking for things to buy is low.”

    All of which sets up the rather ominous potential for a doom-loop of cross-asset-class-driven vicious selling as credit’s current signal impels the marginal stock holder to sell (in an increasingly illiquid stock market), which, given the record amounts of corporate debt, will lead to an accelerating sell-off in credit as spreads adjust for equity (asset) values that are considerably lower than the Fed-Balance-Sheet-inflated state of nirvana for which they are still currently priced.

    And once credit starts to accelerate lower in price (higher in spread), it can get ugly fast on the other end of the balance sheet…

    Which would only stop – as it did on a dime in 2020 – if The Fed stepped back in and put the world’s risk-takers back on its shoulders (but remember the inflation mandate?).

    And bear in mind that if credit is correctly anticipating an increase in equity volatility (to a VIX of around 40 currently), we are talking about the S&P dropping to around 4,100.

    There is, however, a potential silver lining.. or throttle on this potential waterfall.

    As JPMorgan’s Marko Kolanovic recently noted, the short interest on the two biggest credit ETFs, HYG and LQD, has been elevated since last March…

    Which, while providing some cushion for the current collapse, may be just enough ammunition for a short-squeeze (dead-cat bounce) to save the day.

    However, before traders get their hopes up, remember the wise words of Nomura’s Charlie McElligott who warns that there is an overhead “lid” on Equities, where the Fed is effectively shorting Calls / upside because anytime US Equities rally higher substantially higher, US FCI eases… and that’s exactly when we have to anticipate them to “up” their “hawkish” messaging.

    The Powell Put is dead… and credit knows it.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 16:30

  • CNN's Collapse Is Now Complete
    CNN’s Collapse Is Now Complete

    By Joe Concha

    It all began 42 years ago — Ted Turner’s creation of a 24/7 news network that would exist on something called cable TV. Few believed it could succeed. 

    And, for its first decade, CNN largely chugged along but wasn’t seen as a game-changer or ​a true competitor to big broadcast news entities based in New York in the form of CBS, NBC and ABC. That all changed when war broke out between the United States and Iraq in 1991.  

    On the night war exploded over Baghdad, CNN was the only news organization that was able to broadcast from the city under siege as the U.S. onslaught began, all courtesy of the CNN team’s ability to convince the Iraqi government to grant them a line out of the city to broadcast​, one that the competition could not secure.

    “How CNN Won the War” was the glowing headline from the Washington Post on a story that perfectly chronicled the events that led to CNN officially becoming a major player. And off it went. 

    Until 2002, CNN was ​No. 1 in the cable news race. But competition that hadn’t existed before ended its dominance forever, primarily in the form of Fox News and, to a lesser extent, MSNBC. Despite the ratings results, CNN continued to carry itself as a credible, facts-first network of integrity that leaned heavily on solid reporting with a sprinkling of opinion and infotainment mixed in via programs such as “Larry King Live” and “Crossfire.”  

    In 2013, the network hired former NBC Universal president Jeff Zucker to take the reins as ratings continued to be below average at best. This gave Zucker a mandate to radically change the network from its journalistic roots of more than three decades — the months-long wall-to-wall coverage of a missing Malaysian airliner being an early example.

    But two years later, the move to insert heavy doses of partisan opinion into its news reports only accelerated when Donald Trump – a Zucker hire at NBC for “The Apprentice” – jumped in to the 2016 presidential race. At first, CNN bear-hugged Trump’s every move. (Hillary Clinton’s giving a speech somewhere? Screw it. Let’s show an empty Trump podium with chyrons stating “Trump to speak soon” instead.) The real estate mogul’s 17 Republican challengers never had a shot; Trump blotted out the sun in terms of media coverage ​on his way to winning the nomination.

    At that point, Zucker and CNN began to worry. Because while it was a ratings boon for the network to make Trump the centerpiece, there was growing concern that the guy could actually beat Hillary and become the nation’s 45th president. So Zucker unleashed the hounds, but it was too late. Trump would go on to shock the world in November 2016.

    Undeterred, CNN decided there would be no honeymoon period for the new president. Talk ​about Russian collusion handing Trump the White House began even before the inauguration. And after the nonstop Trump-bashing, Harvard University concluded that CNN led the way, along with Zucker’s former home of NBC, in giving Trump 93 percent negative coverage in his first 100 days. 

    For the next four years, CNN served as the leading media resistance to Trump, throwing objectivity out the window. And after Joe Biden got elected, the network cheered the new president as it had throughout the entire campaign while still making Trump a prime centerpiece for over-the-top negative coverage despite ​his being out of office.   

    But as much as CNN tried to resurrect its lead character – who was banned from social media and largely off the grid for the year – his absence ​clearly showed the network was a one-trick partisan pony. Ratings fell 90 percent overall when comparing Jan​uary 2021 to Jan​uary 2022. That’s hard to do. 

    Which brings us to the events of this week: Zucker released a statement saying he had to resign because of a consensual affair with a female executive named Allison Gollust. WarnerMedia apparently has a rule against this, so Zucker – instead of a slap on the wrist for a benign offense – simply had to go abruptly. 

    Nobody believed this excuse. Turns out they may have had plenty of reason to be skeptical.  

    Per several reports, Zucker and Gollust allegedly advised then Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) – the older brother of then-​CNN anchor Chris Cuomo – on what to say during his COVID-19 daily briefings in the spring of 2020. They also reportedly told Cuomo how to respond to and how to criticize then-President Trump, to make it more compelling TV. (Gollust is a former communications director for Andrew Cuomo.) 

    Let’s unpack all of this: 

    In the spring of 2020, the country was in a horrific place. Businesses shut completely; people were scared. There were no COVID therapeutics, no vaccines. Hospitals ​were overwhelmed, thousands were dying ​each day. If ​ever there was a time for news organizations to educate and inform the public, this was it. 

    Instead, Zucker apparently believed it was the perfect time to exploit the situation for political gain and to help the network’s ratings.

    Andrew Cuomo benefitted from briefings that made him​ appear to be the adult in the room ​regarding COVID and Trump ​appear to be the villain. ​Cuomo got a $5.1 million book deal as a result.

    Chris Cuomo and Zucker/Gollust/CNN benefitted from marathon interviews with ​Cuomo’s governor/brother, which didn’t touch the governor’s alleged nursing home scandal. Ratings soared.

    So, was Zucker’s departure ​simply about a consensual relationship with a co-worker? One might be forgiven for questioning that.

    Moving forward, what’s next for CNN when the company falls under the Discovery Channel umbrella later this year? Let’s hear from its soon-to-be largest shareholder, John Malone of Liberty Media. 

    “I would like to see CNN evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with, and actually have journalists, which would be unique and refreshing,” Malone said in an interview that recently aired on CNBC. 

    The collapse of CNN is now complete: Nine-out-of-ten viewers, gone. Its top-rated anchor, ​Chris Cuomo, gone. Its network president, gone. Its integrity in shambles.  

    ​Oh, and new management coming in that is signaling big-time changes … changes that may bring CNN back to the proud network it once was before Jeff Zucker destroyed it. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 02/06/2022 – 16:00

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