- The 5 Global Powers That Vie To Crush Each Other And Their Subjects
The 5 Global Powers That Vie To Crush Each Other And Their Subjects
Authored by Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
In the 1930s, the world had three powers that aspired to dominate the world: the communists of the Soviet Union under Stalin, who sought a worldwide proletariat revolution that redistributed wealth to the masses; the Nazis of Germany under Hitler, who sought to establish a global top-down fascist regime; and the United States under FDR, who sought to spread free-market capitalism throughout the world.
Although these three powers competed for global dominance with each other, they nonetheless sought alliances of convenience when it served their interests. Stalin tried to form an alliance with the West to counter Hitler’s rise, and when rebuffed he entered into a non-aggression pact with Hitler. Later, the capitalist West and communist Russia allied against fascist Germany.
Today, the world has five globalist elites with worldwide aspirations—communist China and Islamists have joined refashioned successors of the three of the 1930s. As in the 1930s, the elites form alliances and cooperate in numerous areas, often to crush opposition from their own subjects.
Global network concept. (metamorworks/Shutterstock) Today’s Socialists
The fall of the Soviet Union didn’t extinguish Karl Marx’s aspiration to abolish private property and the family in favor of the egalitarian economic model: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!” Its most visual proponents today are found in the U.S. Democratic Party’s progressive wing, championed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Democratic Socialists of America.
Today’s socialists, hueing to cultural Marxism and identity politics, have won over academia, much of the government bureaucracy, and much of the press. They’re anti-family, anti-capitalists who want workers to control and governments to own public utilities and other major industries. Their success in transforming the U.S. culture to intersectionality, gender fluidity, and identity politics can be seen in numerous public opinion polls, such as a recent Harvard Harris poll of attitudes among the coming generation: 79 percent of 18 to 24-year-olds support the “ideology that white people are oppressors and nonwhite people and people of certain groups have been oppressed and as a result should be favored today at universities and for employment.”
Today’s Fascists
The fascist economic model was a hybrid form of capitalism, with a competitive free market at the shop-keeper level and government-supported cartels and oligopolies in major industries—Nazi Germany had 2,100 cartel agreements alone, most famously involving giants such as I.G. Farben in chemicals, Siemens and AEG in electricals, and Krupp in armaments.
This concentration of industry, which placed big business at the commanding heights of the fascist economy, was also favored by U.S. industrialists. In 1931, General Electric president Gerard Swope, with the endorsement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called for the compulsory cartelization of all major American corporations into federally controlled trade associations for each industry. General Motors president William Knudsen, after meeting Goering, talked of Germany as “the miracle of the 20th century.”
Today, proponents of a fascist-style economy, or corporatism, are organized under the mantle of the World Economic Forum, which is funded by 1,000 member corporations—typically multinationals with sales of $5 billion or more—and sympathetic governments. It seeks a new model of governance called “Stakeholder Capitalism” that would reduce the influence of the electorate in favor of a Great Reset plan called Global Redesign in which a coalition of multinational corporations in league with governments have an outsized role in managing the world economy. Elected officials would work with corporations and fund them to deliver desirable outcomes without being the ultimate decision-makers.
Under the paternalistic power structure that it touts, the mandate of corporations would be broadened to include corporate social responsibility, rather than being narrowly limited to earning profits for shareholders. Property would be controlled by managerial elites. The slogan, “You’ll own nothing and be happy,” crystallizes the WEF’s sentiment. Leaders of the WEF include Bill Gates, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, and the heads of Big Pharma and Big Tech, all of whom have demonstrated their ability to set public policy that rewards their organizations.
American Foreign Policy Hawks
After John F. Kennedy’s debacle in Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, and Lyndon B. Johnson’s unpopular war in Vietnam, the peace movement in the United States pushed the Democratic Party to shun its traditional use of military force to counter the spread of communism and promote democracy abroad. In reaction, hawkish liberal Democrats and traditional Republicans found common cause in advocating for a strong interventionist military. Known as neo-conservatives, they intervened through the CIA, the U.S. military, and NATO to counter anti-Americanism throughout the world. The muscular presence of today’s foreign policy hawks can be seen in Ukraine, the Middle East, and East Asia.
Although neocons became known primarily for their stance on foreign policy—Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” encapsulates their ideology—they were best described as establishment centrists who first came together in opposition to the counterculture of the left, which included hippies, peaceniks, and radical social programs such as LBJ’s Great Society. Opposition to Donald Trump within the Republican Party was largely led by the foreign policy hawks, who objected to his brash style as well as his ambivalence toward NATO and his intention to withdraw U.S. troops from overseas bases.
Islamists
During World War II, Muslim Turkey was allied with Nazi Germany, as were Arabs under the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who in 1941 met Hitler in Germany and attempted to form an Arab Legion allied with the Axis powers. Muslim countries, energized by the revival of Arab nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism, were focused on regional aspirations during World War II.
The last half of the 20th century saw jihadism evolve from a regional to a global phenomenon, initially due to the Soviet Union, which in the 1960s invented American “imperial Zionism” and sponsored Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization to counter the West in the Middle East. The 1970s saw the overthrow of the Shah of Iran by Khomeini’s Iranian Revolution, the 1980s the Beirut bombings and the defeat of the Russians in Afghanistan, and the 1990s the first attack on the World Trade Center and the beginning of large-scale immigration of Muslims into the United States. The Jihadist goal of global domination became clear and credible to the West after the attacks by al-Qaida on Sept. 11, 2001.
Communist China
Over the millennia, China was a regional power, often at war with its immediate neighbors in Russia and Asia, and often inward-looking. At the start of the 21st century, China began its dominance on a global scale with its membership in the World Trade Organization, which created an industrial giant that de-industrialized much of the West. As China’s prowess increased, it infiltrated Western economies by acquiring Western corporations, by populating and funding universities, and by influencing the election of government officials in other countries.
The new China with global ambitions became especially evident with Xi Jinping’s 2013 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which involves some 150 countries accounting for two-thirds of the world’s population, and China’s expressed desire to become the world’s largest economy by 2049, the 100th anniversary of Mao’s founding of the People’s Republic of China.
China is no longer viewed as a benign giant. French President Emmanuel Macron warned that BRI could make partner countries “vassal states,” and many in the United States now view China as America’s number one military and geopolitical threat.
Strange-bedfellow Cooperation
The five globalist groups are ideologically incompatible, each seeking the ultimate defeat of the other four. Within the United States, each has a degree of influence through lobbying and public relations activities, but none has the clout to unilaterally impose its will over a skeptical electorate. In response, globalists ally in strange-bedfellow groupings to bend policy to meet their objectives.
For example, the de facto open-immigration policy promoted by the progressive wing of today’s U.S. socialists is hugely unpopular with the American public as well as America’s foreign-policy elite because it threatens national security, increases crime, and undermines the country’s social fabric. Yet open immigration persists because it serves the interests of various globalist elites.
Big business corporatists benefit because the large numbers of immigrants flooding the labor markets lower their labor costs. Islamists benefit because open immigration permits the infiltration of terrorists as well as large numbers of Muslims who can influence domestic politics through protests. Communist China benefits because open immigration enables espionage—according to the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, a majority of the illegal Chinese immigrants are men of military age with ties to the Chinese Communist Party and its military.
Likewise, climate policies harm the general public but benefit most of the global elites, albeit for different reasons. Socialists and fascists/corporatists, who each have their own brand of world government, promote climate policies because they lend themselves to global criteria for the regulation of industry and human behavior. Communist China, as the chief supplier of renewable energy equipment, benefits economically. Islamists also benefit economically as Western countries curb their own production and lose market share to the Muslim fossil-fuel exporting countries that fund the Islamists. And almost everyone favors climate policies for their virtue-signalling merit.
Likewise, critical race theory harms the general public but benefits the socialists, for whom it is a raison d’etre; the Islamists, by validating the accusation of Islamophobia; and communist China, by allowing it to point to U.S. moral failings whenever China is accused of violating the human rights of its own ethnic minorities.
Because radical social innovations in the West—whether gender fluidity or Black Lives Matter or critical race theories—undermine the West’s cohesion, all the enemies of the West support their infiltration into Western society. That, and a distaste for a citizenry exercising individual freedoms, sums up what the five globalist elites have in common.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 23:50 - Russia Releases $9M In Frozen N.Korean Assets, Alleged To Be Helping Kim Skirt UN Sanctions
Russia Releases $9M In Frozen N.Korean Assets, Alleged To Be Helping Kim Skirt UN Sanctions
Russia-North Korea ties have continued to deepen amid the backdrop of the Ukraine war and corresponding US-led sanctions. Already it’s believed Pyongyang has provided Russia with huge shipments of missies and ammunition, especially artillery, likely shipped by train.
The New York Times reports Tuesday that the Russian government has released $9 million in frozen North Korean assets, following Kim Jong-Un’s delivering on arms for Moscow. While the Russian bank which cleared the release hasn’t been named, it’s believed to be $9 million out of a total $30 million which was frozen.
Russian media/AFP The move is likely part of broader efforts to implement Pyongyang’s ultimate ‘wish list’ of lasting methods and banking ties to skirt UN sanctions, imposed over past banned nuclear weapons testing.
The NY Times writes, “In addition, a North Korean front company recently opened an account at another Russian bank, the intelligence officials say, evidence that Moscow may be helping Pyongyang get around U.N. sanctions that prohibit most banks from doing business with North Korea.”
North Korea has for years been almost completely isolated from the international banking system, and has been lashing out of late in response to increased US military drills on the peninsula, conducting missile tests on a near weekly basis.
“The new bank account is held in South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed independent state in the Caucasus region that has close connections with Russia, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters,” the Times continues.
Moscow is still expected to move cautiously and not be too brazen over how it helps North Korea given it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. On this point, the NYT report observes:
For Russia, the financial transactions may be more palatable than supplying military expertise and nuclear and other technology.
Even though the two countries “could be friends with benefits now,” said Soo Kim, a former C.I.A. analyst on North Korea, their trust is not so great that Russia would “give away its valued secrets.”
Back in September, Kim Jong Un met with President Vladimir Putin in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, and even toured weapons and satellite facilities.
Kim had issued statements at the time signaling enthusiastic backing for Russia’s resistance to NATO in the context of the war in Ukriane. “We are confident that the Russian army and people will win a great victory in the just fight to punish evil groups who pursue hegemony, expansion, and ambition,” Kim had said.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 23:30 - Controlled Instability
Controlled Instability
Authored by Robert Gore via StraightLineLogic.com,
Would-be rulers embrace a moronic oxymoron…
The Houthis stymie 12 percent of the world’s shipping. Israel has bitten off more than it can chew and is desperately trying to maneuver the U.S. into a broader Middle Eastern engagement and years of pointless war. In Europe, farmers and truckers are protesting and blocking roads over climate change measures and other grievances. In the U.S., a governor ignores a Supreme Court decision and receives support from 25 fellow governors.
At the recently concluded confab at Davos, the world’s would-be rulers conferred on how they would rule the world. How quaint. They’re going to rule a world that’s spinning out of their, or anybody else’s, control. A Russian politician, Konstantin Dolgov, coined a phrase for the oxymoronic pipe dream that prevails in Washington, Davos, Brussels, and Tel Aviv:
“The Americans need controlled instability to realize their own plans.” Dolgov noted:
“But this instability has long been out of Washington’s control.”
Controlled instability is a futile hope from a bygone age. The instability that manifests daily is anything but controlled.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and his fellow governors’ defiance marks an emerging phase: instability and conflict among actors within the political system. It may be posturing, but it still amounts to a middle finger from the governors to the federal government and its once revered Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court has been rubber-stamping expansion of the federal government’s power since the Constitution was ratified. The most egregious recent examples were National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012) and King v. Burwell (2015), the decisions that upheld Obamacare. Nobody protested against the program that hastened the destruction of American health care. Nine years after Burwell, anti-government rage is kindling fires in the U.S. and all over the world. Control is losing; instability is winning, and the game is still in the early innings.
The control freaks cling to their empire and wars. Empire is untenable, but the U.S. military is being deployed into another Middle Eastern quagmire. The Middle East is particularly unsuited for U.S. imperial ventures. The sum total of Western knowledge of the region is a nanoparticle compared to the Everest of its ignorance.
The Middle East is tribal; the concept of a nation with a national government is a foreign import. Tribal rivalries date back to Old Testament times and have always undermined the best laid plans of emperors, kings, sultans, sheiks, satraps, and other poobahs. The Islamic religion has been the one quasi-unifying force, but it is split and both the Sunni and Shia denominations are splintered into various sects.
The secret Sykes-Picot treaty of 1916 between Britain and France, with assent from the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy, drew lines on the map of the Ottoman Empire (allied with the losers in World War I), specified European spheres of influence, and created so-called nations to be dominated by the European victors.
It was hubristic folly, matched by the Balfour Declaration one year later. In a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish Community, the British government declared its endorsement of a “national home for the Jewish people” in what would become, in 1922, the British Mandate for Palestine and Transjordan. At that time, Jews were only a single-digit percentage of Palestine’s population.
Outsiders, especially those bent on domination, have never fared particularly well in the Middle East. It’s tough enough for insiders bent on domination. Outsiders can generally find compliant satraps whose ostensible loyalty is secured through bribery and extortion, but the average Mohammad deeply resents his overlords and resists them in his own way. No wonder then, that Sykes-Picot and the Balfour Declaration proved to be recipes for disaster.
The U.S. threw it and the UN’s weight behind the Zionist project in 1948, when Palestine became Israel and Jews began displacing Palestinian Arabs, an ongoing process that has accelerated since the October 7 Hamas massacre. Pre-October 7 controlled instability in Gaza has given way to all-out war, ostensibly against Hamas insurgents, but the death toll among Palestinian civilians is approaching 30,000.
The U.S. has long considered Israel its forward base in the Middle East. That imperial projection is now under attack on multiple fronts. Anyone who claims to know how the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and various other insurgent groups in Iraq and Syria—collectively known as the Axis of Resistance—are structured, coordinate with each other, or interact with Iran is lying. However, they are making war on the U.S.-Israel alliance, gradually ratcheting up the pressure, and last week the U.S. lost its first three soldiers since October 7.
The alliance will lose because it can’t win. The only way an outside power can “win” in the Middle East is to stay out. Occupation is the concomitant of empire, but now the costs of invasion and occupation dwarf the costs of insurgency. It’s no sure thing that the Israelis will be able to expel the Palestinians, their ultimate aim. Even if the do, it will only lead to greater instability over a wider area. The Axis of Resistance is opening new fronts almost daily across the Middle East. The U.S. empire and Israel have neither the military and financial staying power nor the regional support necessary for a lengthy war.
At Israel’s behest, demented warmongers are urging an alliance attack on Iran, which would exponentially compound its difficulties. An attack would probably bring in Russia and perhaps China. The alliance’s only option would be to take it nuclear, which could lead to humanity’s extinction. That’s apparently what the warmongers have been looking for all these years.
The West’s rulers and string pullers regard their internal opposition as so many Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, and Iranians. That characterization is more apt than they realize, particularly in the well-armed U.S. Anything those “extremists” can do in the Middle East can be done by what the Biden administration reckons are tens of millions of “domestic extremists” in the U.S. And what the Middle Eastern extremists are in the process of doing is defeating the U.S. government and its allies.
While much of the Western citizenry remains supine and susceptible to state propaganda and narratives, the ranks of the aware and engaged, fed by the alternative media hydra, keep expanding. Even the Corruptocracy and its media mouthpieces are starting to realize that fundamental change is afoot. At Davos, there were begrudging admissions (and lamentations) that the media no longer controls the narrative and dim recognition that nobody trusts it. Invitees even subjected themselves to Argentinian president Javier Milei’s and Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts’ excoriations.
What the Davos set doesn’t get is that for the next few centuries, change will messily burble up from the bottom, not be neatly imposed from the top. That’s actually the way it’s been for centuries, but the top has gotten all the press. Politics, governments and war are newsworthy, innovation and progress are not. The perpetual war of the former on the latter never gets mentioned at all. Regardless, the top will go on proposing; the bottom will go on disposing.
The transition in global affairs is hailed as multipolarity, but multipolarity proponents show little recognition that it’s not just the American empire and its confederates in the crosshairs, but all governments. Those coming together in the various not-the-West arrangements are still governments, and are just as tyrannical and corrupt as Western governments, in many cases more so.
Multipolarity will proceed full steam ahead, but it won’t stop until there are 8 billion plus poles, call it multi-multipolarity. The age of the state and ostensible control is giving way to the age of the individual and instability. That doesn’t mean that order won’t eventually emerge, but it will be order based on individual sovereignty, cooperation, and voluntarily exchange, or as friend of SLL Leif Smith calls it—freeorder—“Order spontaneously emergent from the imaginations and actions of free people.”
Recognition can come from anywhere. Governments may offer concessions to the new reality, their wiser functionaries realizing that limits on their power are better than no power at all. Argentina’s Milei could turn out to be in the vanguard of a much larger trend. Governments will never abolish themselves, but any moves towards freedom and away from control will be beneficial.
In the interim, instability will reign, and we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 23:10 - Biden Admin Classifies Martha's Vineyard And Other Elite Enclaves 'Low-Income' To Push EV Charger Subsidies
Biden Admin Classifies Martha’s Vineyard And Other Elite Enclaves ‘Low-Income’ To Push EV Charger Subsidies
Some of the wealthiest liberal enclaves in the country are being classified by the Biden administration as “low-income” in order to qualify for an electric vehicle (EV) charger subsidy program contained within the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Daily Caller reports.
The locales includes Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, as well as Montauk and Fishers Island in New York. Yes, the same Martha’s Vineyard that freaked out over a few migrants on their hallowed soil.
The administration’s EV charger tax credit program — made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill — is specifically designed to route subsidies to “low-income” or “non-urban” areas of the country. The “low-income” emphasis for eligibility aligns in spirit with the Biden administration’s wider pursuit of so-called “environmental justice,” which is effectively the combination of social justice ideology and green policy.
Numerous elite hangouts and locales — including Montauk and Fishers Island in New York, and parts of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts — are among the areas that the administration has classified as “low-income” and eligible for receipt of EV charger subsidies, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) interactive eligibility map.
The nationwide charging network is a central plank of the Biden administration’s EV agenda. While plenty of charging stations are located in wealthy areas (where people can afford EVs), the IRA was supposed to blunt the costs of charger construction in non-urban, less wealthy areas of the country that would be less likely to implement them on their own.
“This tax credit provides up to 30% off the cost of the charger to individuals and businesses in low-income communities and non-urban areas, making it more affordable to install EV charging infrastructure and increasing access to EV charging in underserved communities,” the White House boasted on Jan. 19.
In order to meet the definition of “low-income,” a given area must have a poverty rate of 20% or more, or, if the median family income is below 80% of the median family income in the wider metropolitan area, or if a given Census tract isn’t attached to any specific metro, according to section 45D(e) of IRS code, the Caller reports.
But the latter definition for a “low-income” area has enabled many areas, according to the report.
For example, nearly half of the landmass of Nantucket Island, one of the ritziest summer vacation destinations favored by New England’s elite, is eligible for EV charger subsidies, according to the DOE’s interactive eligibility map.
The Vineyard Haven area of Martha’s Vineyard, another destination frequented by New England’s upper crust, is also eligible as a “low-income” area, according to the DOE’s map. For context, many of the homes in the covered area are valued at well over $1 million, with several properties valued between about $2 million and $5 million. Former President Barack Obama also owns a massive $11.7 million estate on the island.
Large pockets of Cape Cod, another pricey locale, are also eligible for “low income” EV subsidies. This includes Hyannis, the longtime home base of the Kennedy political dynasty, and Great Island, which features numerous multi-million dollar properties. -Daily Caller
Other wealthy areas which can take advantage of this loophole include a three block zone in New York City’s Upper East Side, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (a few miles from Joe Biden’s ‘office’), and Fishers Island, New York – enclave known as a hangout for dynastic families such as the Rockefellers, Roosevelts and DuPonts.
Large swaths of San Francisco deemed “low-income” also qualify, along with areas of Beverly Hills.
Not exactly as advertised, is it?
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 22:50 - On The Rising Danger Of Democratic 'Lawfare'
On The Rising Danger Of Democratic ‘Lawfare’
Authored by Alex Berenson via ‘Unreported Truths’ substack,
The New York state fraud case against Donald Trump is absurd; and the White House now openly tells its operatives to defy Congressional subpoenas. Democrats seem blind to the risks they’re running.
Even dictatorships have judges.
Which doesn’t mean they have justice.
Democrats appear ever-more enamored with “lawfare” — a term that hardly existed before Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 — as they try to keep Trump from returning to the White House.
Left-wing politicians, prosecutors, and lawyers may be sincere when they say they believe Trump is an existential threat to democracy who must be stopped by any means necessary.
But they would be wise not to become what they fear.
The Democratic effort to twist the legal system has accelerated in the last few months.
Trump and his most ardent supporters now face an unrelenting flow of civil and criminal cases, some of which at best stretch legal theories to their limits. But judges in blue cities and states have been notably reluctant to push back on them.
Meanwhile, as I wrote yesterday, the Biden White House has now openly encouraged its operatives to defy Congressional subpoenas by promising them carte blanche to do so – even as the Justice Department tries to jail Trump’s advisors for similar moves.
The issue stretches far beyond the four flagship criminal cases and 91 charges that Trump faces. In those, at least, he has the protections that criminal law gives defendants, and the financial resources to use them.
The Associated Press estimated that Trump has spent $77 million in the last two years defending himself. Even bigger expenses lie ahead as his criminal trials approach.
Some of Trump’s biggest supporters are not so lucky. In Washington, D.C., prosecutions over the Jan. 6 protests and riot are increasingly unhinged. Even the New York Times admitted last month they have now caught many people who “did little more than walk into — and then out of — the Capitol.”
In Colorado, the former general counsel of the Democratic Party has led an effort to use language meant for Confederate secessionists to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot.
And in New York, the reality that Trump cannot count on anything like impartial hearings from neutral judges has been clear for months. Not coincidentally, the actions that have damaged Trump the most were both brought in Manhattan, where Trump is widely hated and Joe Biden won 87 percent of the vote in 2020.
Most stunningly, Trump faces up to $370 million in fines and the loss of his businesses for a civil “fraud” case brought by the state of New York in which he took out loans – then fully repaid them.
Even the Associated Press questioned the ruling, writing that Trump’s companies were:
the only big business found that was threatened with a shutdown [under the New York law used against Trump] without a showing of obvious victims and major losses.
Some legal experts worry if the New York judge goes ahead with such a penalty in a final ruling expected within the next couple of weeks, it could make it easier for courts to wipe out companies in the future.
Then there are the two “defamation” lawsuits from E. Jean Carroll, a woman who was completely unknown until she accused Trump in print of raping her. (Carroll’s suits might more accurately be called “famation” cases.)
Manhattan juries have already decided against Trump in those suits and awarded Carroll almost $90 million. Trump certainly used nasty language to defend himself against Carroll’s claims, but it is unclear how exactly he could have denied them without incurring a jury’s wrath.
* * *
Back in Washington, the Biden Administration is now extending its (literal) contempt of the law to Congress, as I wrote yesterday:
URGENT: Ex-White House advisor Andy Slavitt is refusing to comply with a subpoena over questions about how he tried to censor me and others in 2021
ALEX BERENSON· FEB 4
That the White House has told two of its former operatives – Andy Slavitt and Rob Flaherty, the deputy campaign manager of Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign – to ignore a lawful Congressional subpoena is ugly enough.
But the fact that it has done so while prosecuting two of Trump’s advisors for refusing similar testimony is far worse.
Of course, none of this has stopped me and James Lawrence from suing the White House for its censorship efforts in Berenson v Biden.
I remain a believer in the court system – and very optimistic that federal Judge Jessica G.L. Clarke will see the merits of our case. After all, Judge William Alsup – a Clinton appointee – took our arguments in Berenson v Twitter seriously and rejected Twitter’s motion to dismiss the suit.
But the overall picture is ugly.
Sure, Democrats are winning tactical victories and costing Trump money. But they’re not considering how these efforts to use the courts look, not just to Trump partisans but anyone who thinks elections should be decided by voters, not judges or juries.
And Trump’s criminal prosecutions haven’t even gotten to trial yet.
* * *
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 22:30 - New Report Reveals Federal Gov't "Funds Domestic Censorship Superweapons" Against Taxpayers
New Report Reveals Federal Gov’t “Funds Domestic Censorship Superweapons” Against Taxpayers
A new report reveals more details about how the Biden administration is plowing millions of dollars of taxpayer funds into woke universities and private firms to fund the “Censorship Industrial Complex.”
During the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government hearing on Tuesday morning, Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) reporter Katelynn Richardson detailed how the federal government used taxpayer dollars to fund numerous projects that censored anyone with a non-government-approved view.
“The effort fits within the broader trend of the federal government’s increasing involvement in online censorship, from the Center for Disease Control flagging posts during COVID-19 to the FBI working with social media companies to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story,” Richardson said.
According to a November Foundation for Freedom Online report, the National Science Foundation (NSF) spent $38.8 million on “misinformation” funding efforts since Biden took office in 2021. However, the DCNF found that NSF spent a lot more to target so-called misinformation.
“The NSF swears it does not engage in censorship and that it does not partner directly with social media platforms,” Richardson said, adding, “But taxpayer dollars spent on projects that do are still troubling, as were the agency’s responses to straightforward questions about its programs.”
Ahead of the hearing, the Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report titled “The Weaponization Of The National Science Foundation: How NSF Is Funding The Development Of Automated Tools To Censor Online Speech “At Scale” And Trying To Cover Up.”
🚨 #BREAKING: New Report Details How the National Science Foundation is Funding AI Tools to Censor and Indoctrinate Americans Online
Read here: https://t.co/vYBygxvA51
— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization) February 6, 2024
“This interim report details the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) funding of AI-powered censorship and propaganda tools and its repeated efforts to hide its actions and avoid political and media scrutiny,” the report said.
The report continued: “In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams. The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop artificial intelligence (AI)- powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.”
“But NSF’s taxpayer funding for this potential automated censorship is only half of the story. The Committee and the Select Subcommittee have also obtained, via document requests and subpoenas, nonpublic emails and other documents that reveal a years-long, intentional effort by NSF to hide its role in funding these censorship and propaganda tools from media and political scrutiny,” the report said.
It added: “NSF went so far as to develop a media strategy that considered blacklisting certain American media outlets because they were scrutinizing NSF’s funding of censorship and propaganda tools.”
The report said the federal government’s funding of the censorship industrial complex “violates the First Amendment.”
The Committee and Subcommittee uncovered “serious violations of the First Amendment throughout the Executive Branch,” including:
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The Biden White House directly coercing large social media companies, such as Facebook, to censor true information, memes, and satire, eventually leading Facebook to change its content moderation policies,
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Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership (EIP)—created at the request of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—working with the federal government to flag thousands of links and submit recommendations directly to large social media platforms to censor Americans’ online speech in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. election; and
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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) harassing Elon Musk’s Twitter (now X) because of Musk’s commitment to free speech, even going so far as to target certain journalists by name
In a separate report, Michael Benz, a former Trump admin State Department official whose work has been cited in congressional hearings, posted on X his findings that the “Biden Admin is funding next-generation censorship technologies with millions of dollars in cash infusions to start-up AI censorship projects.”
Benz’s report is titled “The National Science Foundation’s “Convergence Accelerator Track F” Is Funding Domestic Censorship Superweapons.”
The Biden Admin is funding next-generation censorship technologies with millions of dollars in cash infusions to start-up AI censorship projects.
Their targets are Covid critics and political conservatives. Full report here: https://t.co/glmLDE1V5O
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) January 30, 2023
Benz said, “*Extremely* proud to have broken this whole scandal open with a series of original reports 18 months ago, followed by nonstop public speaking, in-depth reporting & private briefings on this subject.”
*Extremely* proud to have broken this whole scandal open with a series of original reports 18 months ago, followed by nonstop public speaking, in-depth reporting & private briefings on this subject.
Next step: DEFUND the Weapons Of Mass Deletion. https://t.co/ASPKdNpfWf pic.twitter.com/ja0rT37aGn
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 6, 2024
“Next step: DEFUND the Weapons Of Mass Deletion,” he said.
Also, the report showed how NSF program manager Michael Pozmantier sent a message to universities and firms about the need to hide online videos that showcased their AI censorship tools.
“The government is not the arbiter of truth. Our Founders understood this, which is why we have a First Amendment,” Richardson said earlier today, adding, “They understood the danger of the government telling people what they should believe and targeting opinions that cut against the official narrative. Pursuing information control by funding outside organizations is no less a threat to free speech and freedom of the press than a tyrannical government.”
The implications of NSF’s funding of automated censorship tools weaponized against the American people are not entirely shocking since we have covered in great length the censorship industrial complex:
-
Dismantle The Censorship-Industrial Complex: The Westminster Declaration
-
Whistleblower Docs Expose Key Tactics Of The Censorship Industrial Complex: Matt Taibbi
-
The Censorship Industrial Complex Exposes The Kleptocracy’s True Intentions
-
The Censorship Industrial Complex Is The Revolt Of The Elites
The government’s efforts to suppress diverse viewpoints and inhibit critical debate are eroding the foundational principles of democratic societies.
However, the good news: the matrix is glitching.
WSJ Editor-in-Chief Admits ‘We No Longer Own the News’
“During a WEF discussion at Davos entitled ‘Defending Truth,’ Wall St. Journal EIC Emma Tucker lamented this loss of control over ‘the facts,’” @zerohedge reported.
She said:
“I think there’s a very specific challenge for… pic.twitter.com/AhPr8cLWYo
— Vigilant News (@VigilantNews) January 29, 2024
Progressive elites and neocons are terrified that people can actually think for themselves.
* * *
Here’s the full report titled “The Weaponization Of The National Science Foundation: How NSF Is Funding The Development Of Automated Tools To Censor Online Speech “At Scale” And Trying To Cover Up.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 22:10 -
- Moderna Scientists Warn mRNA Vaccines Carry Toxicity Risks
Moderna Scientists Warn mRNA Vaccines Carry Toxicity Risks
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The technology used in Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine carries toxicity risks, scientists with the company said in a new paper.
The Moderna campus in Norwood, Mass. on Dec. 2, 2020. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images) “A major challenge now is how to efficiently de-risk potential toxicities associated with mRNA technology,” the scientists wrote in the paper, which was published by Nature Reviews Drug Discovery on Jan. 23.
The Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 shots use modified messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology. The mRNA is delivered by lipid nanoparticles (LNP).
The toxicity risks include “lipid nanoparticle structural components, production methods, route of administration and proteins produced from complexed mRNAs,” the authors of the paper said.
Authors of the paper include Eric Jacquinet and Dimitrios Bitounis, Moderna employees, and Maximillian Rogers, who was working at Moderna when the paper was being done.
Moderna didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The mRNA vaccines have multiple known side effects, including heart inflammation and severe allergic shock. Those may stem from hypersensitivity reactions, which can be elicited by “any LNP-mRNA component” but are most likely triggered by PEGlyated lipid nanoparticles, which is “the most potentially reactogenic component,” the scientists said.
Polyethylene glycol, or PEG, an ingredient in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, is known to cause allergic reactions. Outside scientists are divided over the mechanism behind the heart inflammation, while Pfizer has posited that the LNPs are behind the issue.
The new paper drew from prior publications and other data. The authors didn’t carry out any new experiments.
Some of the papers cited included those that have found mRNA and the spike protein delivered by Moderna’s shot in various parts of human beings weeks or months after vaccination, despite health officials claiming when the vaccines were rolled out that such materials would exit the body within days.
The scientists said that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is “safe and effective” and hailed the development of an updated shot as “demonstrat[ing] the rapid timeline for modifications with mRNA technology in the clinic.” Due to the “transient nature of mRNA,” though, “repeat administration may be necessary,” they said.
The scientists added later that reducing risks of toxicities with mRNA-based vaccines and drugs is necessary but “complicated.” That can be accomplished through a multi-pronged approach that includes advanced testing in laboratories and adjusts preclinical, animal trials to better account for “differences in human and animal physiology.”
Moderna and other companies are currently testing a number of new mRNA products, including influenza vaccines and cancer treatments.
“Thanks to the mRNA platform we built, we have an exciting pipeline, with up to 15 launches in the next five years,” Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, told investors in the company’s most recent earnings call.
The paper’s corresponding author, Mansoor Amiji of Northeastern University’s Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Engineering, referred a request for comment to Mr. Bitounis, who didn’t provide any answers.
Dr. Malone Reacts
Dr. Robert Malone, who helped invent the mRNA technology, said the paper downplayed the range of risks that have been linked to the mRNA-based vaccines and may be part of a limited hangout, or a propaganda technique.
That technique, a form of misdirection, involves people offering some information to obscure or prevent the discovery of other information.
“My most generous interpretation of the overall intent of the article is that this article summarizes and represents information concerning risks and toxicities of this platform technology which Moderna wishes to have disclosed in a manner which puts the firm, its activities and the underlying platform technology in the best possible light,” Dr. Malone, who wasn’t involved with the paper, wrote in his review.
“A less generous interpretation of intent is that this article represents a subtle form of propaganda strategy commonly referred to as a limited hangout.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 21:10 - Biden Barely Loses To Trump, Beats Haley, In Hypothetical Matchup
Biden Barely Loses To Trump, Beats Haley, In Hypothetical Matchup
A new survey from YouGov reveals that President Joe Biden would lose in a hypothetical matchup against former President Donald Trump, but would beat Nikki Haley, if the election were held today.
The survey of 12,000 US adults released Feb. 2 found that 45% of respondents preferred Trump, vs. 44% for Biden. If it’s Biden vs. Haley, however, the president wins 39% to 38%.
In a separate (but similar) question, respondents were asked who they think will win regardless of their personal preference. This resulted in an 11-point margin for Trump (47% to 36%), while a Biden-Haley matchup would yield a 38-32 victory for Biden.
The poll also found that Americans feel more favorably towards Trump than Haley, and more view him as a strong leader. In fact, there isn’t a single issue in which Haley polled better than Trump.
As the Epoch Times notes further, for President Trump, the YouGov poll’s results will surely be welcome—though not unexpected—news. On his Truth Social platform, the former president has touted several polls showing his continued dominance in not only the Republican primary but also the general presidential race.
One such poll, released on Jan. 31 by Morning Consult, indicated that President Trump currently leads President Biden in all seven swing states, and in most cases, it’s not close.
In North Carolina—the only swing state President Biden lost in 2020—President Trump holds a commanding 10-point lead, besting his successor 49-39 percent. Meanwhile, in both Georgia and Nevada, his advantage is a slightly smaller, though still significant, 8 percent. In Michigan and Wisconsin, the former president has a 5 percent lead, while in Arizona and Pennsylvania, his edge is just 3 points.
If those numbers hold steady and the rest of the country votes as it did in 2020, President Trump would win in November with 312 Electoral College votes.
Of course, he would first need to secure the Republican presidential nomination. The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows that he has now expanded his support to include roughly 73 percent of Republican voters. Ms. Haley is hovering at around 19 percent.Still, the former ambassador to the U.N. is determined to keep up the fight. Opting to forgo the Nevada caucus, she is instead betting it all on her home state of South Carolina. But she faces an uphill climb there as well, down 27 points to President Trump. Brushing off the polls, Ms. Haley told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she was going to work her way to a Palmetto State victory.
“We’re going to do it the same way we did in New Hampshire,” she said on Feb. 2. “We moved 25 points in New Hampshire the last three weeks before the election. We’re at that same point here. We’re going to be anywhere and everywhere, all over South Carolina.”
The candidate added that she intends to remind South Carolina voters of her conservative record as governor “and then show them that we could do that same thing as president.”
But even among those who support the former governor, hope for an upset appears to be fading.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be great,” Charleston resident Kelly Wade, who plans to vote for Ms. Haley, told USA Today. “I feel like if there’s a state she could win, it would be our state, but I just think the people who are diehard for Trump, they’re going to carry him all the way to the end.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 20:50 - Ronna Out: RNC Chairwoman Plans To Step Down After Presiding Over 'Party Of Losers'
Ronna Out: RNC Chairwoman Plans To Step Down After Presiding Over ‘Party Of Losers’
After years of criticism and a public spat with Vivek Ramaswamy, who said Republicans under her watch have become a “party of losers,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is stepping down.
According to the NY Times, which required four journalists, McDaniel has told former President Donald Trump that she’ll quit shortly after the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24, according to two people familiar with the plans (ah yes, ‘people familiar’).
In her place, Trump is expected to promote Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party – after which an election will take place.
McDaniel, the longest-serving chair since the 19th century, came under fire in January of 2023 after Republicans had terrible results going back to 2018.
“We’ve had three substandard election cycles in a row: ‘18, ’20, and ’22,” Florida Governor DeSantis told TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk in an interview. “Given the political environment of a very unpopular president in Biden, huge majorities of the people think the country is going in the wrong direction—that is an environment that’s tailor-made to make big gains in the House and the Senate and in state houses all across the country, and yet that didn’t happen.”
McDaniel also took barbs from attorney and GOP committee member Harmeet Dhillon, McDaniel’s primary challenger in the Jan. 2023 election for chair, telling Fox News: “But you know, at the end of the day, like I said, this isn’t school. You don’t get a gold star forever. You don’t get to stay in your job forever. If you continuously under perform what you promised your clients, they don’t hire you the next time around.”
In November, after the GOP lost several races that should have been layups, more people called for Ronna’s head.
“What, exactly, does Ronna McDaniel do, besides lose?” asked former Trump administration official Monica Crowley on X. “The only thing she SHOULD do is RESIGN. Effective immediately.”
What, exactly, does Ronna McDaniel do, besides lose?
The only thing she SHOULD do is RESIGN.
Effective immediately.
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) November 8, 2023
“FIRE RINO RONNA MCDANIEL NOW!” tweeted Florida congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini, an Army veteran, adding “Ronna McDaniel will go down as the worst RNC Chair in history.”
FIRE RINO RONNA MCDANIEL NOW!
— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) November 8, 2023
🚨 Steve Bannon and John Solomon are calling for Ronna Romney McDaniel to resign after the GOP’s performance in elections last night
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 8, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
McDaniel has also come under fire for picking NBC to host a November GOP debate – during which former 2024 presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy suggested she come up on stage and quit during said debate, as the GOP has become a “party of losers” under her watch.
“…there is a cancer in the Republican establishment… Since Ronna McDaniel took over as chairwoman of the RNC in 2017 we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022, no red wave, that never came.”
And then the haymaker…
“We got trounced last night in 2023 and I think that we have to have accountability in our party,” he went on.
“For that matter, Ronna if you want to come up on stage tonight. You want to look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you resign… I will turn over my time to you.”
Vivek Ramaswamy: “We’ve become a party of losers.”#debatten pic.twitter.com/GUeD2r5Dr5
— The Watcher 🌎 (@TheWatcherDaily) November 9, 2023
It took four months, but here we are.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 20:30 - Seattle Restaurant Has Been Broken Into 5 Times In Past 6 Months
Seattle Restaurant Has Been Broken Into 5 Times In Past 6 Months
Even before Biden took over the White House thanks to millions of mailed-in harvested ballots dropping in at 3am in the morning, Seattle had emerged as one socialist America’s liberal meccas. Here are the consequences.
According to Seattle’s King5 news, Sandia, a Mexican restaurant in the city’s Laurelhurst neighborhood, has been broken into no less than 5 times in the past 6 months, costing the business $10,000.
“As of today, now we have been broken into five times,” said Nathan Yeager, the owner.
In the surveillance video provided to KING 5, you can see criminals break the front door with a crowbar, climb over the counter, steal money from the till, and then sneak around while looking in every door for something to take.
“People are just breaking in our windows blatantly, stealing nothing. I mean, they’re really getting away with nothing,” Yeager said.
Recently, someone broke in and took their elevator key box, which costs around $2,000 to repair and install.
Yeager said they are now out $10,000 for the repeat break-ins.
On Thursday night, someone smashed through the window facing the Burke Gilman Trail and took alcohol. They left behind broken glass everywhere.
“That was that $900 to replace the window for one bottle of alcohol,” Yeager said. Yeager feels at a loss for what to do about the crime. He feels “heartbroken, sad and defeated.”
Owning seven businesses in Seattle, Yeager had strong feelings about the brazen crime.
“I don’t think I’ll open another business in Seattle. I think that Seattle has failed small businesses,” he said.
The City of Seattle does have a “storefront repair fund,” and according to their latest update, funds are still available. They have updated the eligibility requirements for the $2,000 grants to include more small businesses and now nonprofit organizations.
Yeager has seen an incredible show of support from his customers after posting about the crime on the business’ Instagram. He hopes sharing his experience will lead to change.
“We just can’t keep writing these checks every day, you know, but we have to, you know, like, I have to fix this window. I have to fix this door,” Yeager said. “We’ve got to solve this problem somehow and figure this out.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 20:10 - House Fails To Impeach Mayorkas After Four Republicans Join Democrats
House Fails To Impeach Mayorkas After Four Republicans Join Democrats
House lawmakers on Tuesday failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, under whose tenure more than 10 million illegal immigrants have entered the US – doubling the existing population.
Three Republicans voted with House Democrats – while a fourth, Blake Moore (R-UT) flipped his “Aye” to a “No” in order to preserve the ability to bring ‘Motions to Reconsider’ (which can only be brought by someone who voted ‘no’).
The open-border Republicans who voted against impeachment are:
- Ken Buck (CO)
- Tom McClintonck (CA)
- Mike Gallagher (WI)
In a Monday op-ed in The Hill, Buck said that while Mayorkas may be incompetent, his behavior wasn’t impeachable, and that doing so would set a bad precedent.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) The vote to impeach Mayorkas was held as a bipartisan effort in the Senate to send $60 billion to Ukraine and lock in 1.5 million illegal migrants per year unraveled.
In the articles of impeachment, Mayorkas was accused of demonstrating a “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” and “breaching the public trust,” which Democrats suggested was nothing more than disagreements over policy or performance failings, but not impeachable crimes.
The border has become a central concern of Congress and the White House, as arrests hit records in recent months. Border Patrol agents in December set a monthly record of nearly 250,000 arrests of migrants caught crossing the border illegally, up 31% from November, with daily arrests sometimes topping 10,000. An additional 50,000 migrants entered the country in December at legal border crossings to seek asylum.
Democrats said the effort to impeach Mayorkas amounted to political theater at the start of a heated presidential-election campaign in which immigration is expected to be a top issue for voters. –WSJ
According to Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), Mayorkas “is the very type of public official the Framers feared—someone who would cast aside the laws passed by a co-equal branch of government, replacing those with his own preferences.”
On Monday, the White House said that impeaching Mayorkas “would be an unprecedented and unconstitutional act of political retribution that would do nothing to solve the challenges our nation faces in securing the border,” and suggested that he’s been a great DHS secretary.
If the House had succeeded in impeaching Mayorkas, he would have been the second cabinet secretary in US history to be impeached.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 19:50 - New York Community Bancorp Cut To 'Junk' By Moody's: 33% Of Deposits Uninsured
New York Community Bancorp Cut To ‘Junk’ By Moody’s: 33% Of Deposits Uninsured
Having seen the share price collapse to its lowest since 1997, following the regional lender’s reporting of a surprising (and large) loss for Q4 and slashing its dividend (to 5c vs 17c exp), ratings agency Moody’s has cut all long-term and some short-term ratings of New York Community Bancorp to ‘junk’ (Ba2 from Baa3).
NYCB is extending losses to a $3 handle after the downgrade…
While we heard all day about how NYCB was an idiosyncratic issue, Moody’s warns that this is anything but, generalizing to the multi-family CRE space being a problem:
NYCB is highly concentrated in rent regulated multi-family properties, a segment which has historically performed well for them. However, this cycle may be different.
While vacancy rates are low for this CRE segment, properties may face different challenges this cycle due to higher interest expense when refinanced and already higher maintenance costs due to inflationary pressures.
These higher costs may prove more challenging for owners of rent regulated properties to pass along through rent increases to tenants.
Beyond rent-regulated, the bank has a significant concentration of low fixed-rate multifamily loans. This type of loan portfolio faces refinancing risk.
As a reminder,:
Once a $3 trillion asset class, offices now are “probably worth $1.8 trillion,” said Barry Sternlicht, chief executive officer of Starwood Capital Group.
“There’s $1.2 trillion of losses spread somewhere, and nobody knows exactly where it all is.”
Additionally, Moody’s warns this could end badly:
“The company’s elevated use of market funding may limit the bank’s financial flexibility in the current environment.”
Moody’s also points out that, as of Dec 31st, 33% of NYCB’s deposits were uninsured, and “could face significant funding and liquidity pressure if there is a loss of depositor confidence.”
The total amount of public bonds & loans outstanding affected by this downgrade is $1.14 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
* * *
RATINGS RATIONALE
[ZH: emphasis ours]
Today’s rating action reflects multi-faceted financial, risk-management and governance challenges facing NYCB.
In terms of financial strategy, the bank is seeking to build its capital but just took an unanticipated loss on commercial real estate (CRE) which is a significant concentration for the bank.
The downgrade reflects Moody’s views that NYCB faces high governance risks from its transition with regards to the leadership of its second and third lines of defense, the risk and audit functions of the bank, at a pivotal time. In Moody’s view, control functions with strong knowledge of a bank’s risks are key to a bank’s credit strength.
NYCB’s core historical commercial real estate lending, significant and unanticipated loss on its New York office and multifamily property could create potential confidence sensitivity.
The company’s elevated use of market funding may limit the bank’s financial flexibility in the current environment.
NYCB is highly concentrated in rent regulated multi-family properties, a segment which has historically performed well for them. However, this cycle may be different. While vacancy rates are low for this CRE segment, properties may face different challenges this cycle due to higher interest expense when refinanced and already higher maintenance costs due to inflationary pressures. These higher costs may prove more challenging for owners of rent regulated properties to pass along through rent increases to tenants. Beyond rent-regulated, the bank has a significant concentration of low fixed-rate multifamily loans. This type of loan portfolio faces refinancing risk.
For the year, provision for credit losses rose 526% to $833 million from $133 million in 2022. Allowance for credit losses stands at $992 million as of 31 December 2023 which equates to 1.17% of total loans, or 1.26% when excluding loans with government guarantees and warehouse loans. Reserve for office loans is approximately 8% while reserves for multifamily is approximately 0.82%.
Moody’s views NYCB’s funding and liquidity as a relative weakness when compared to peers due to its relatively high dependence on market-sensitive wholesale funding and a smaller pool of liquid assets when compared with peers. NYCB’s loan-to-deposit ratio was 104% as of 31 December 2023, also higher than most peers. Market funding increased 49% during the fourth quarter to $20.3 billion, in part to fund an increase in the bank’s liquidity buffer as the bank prepares for Regulation YY compliance. Market funds as a percentage of tangible banking assets (TBA) rose to 18.8% as of 31 December 2023 from 12.9% in the prior quarter and 23.6% at the end of 2022. Liquid banking assets as a percentage of TBA rose to 18.2% as of 31 December 2023 from 14.5% in the prior quarter and 12.9% at the end of 2022.
NYCB’s share of uninsured deposits was 33% as of 31 December 2023.
The bank could face significant funding and liquidity pressure if there is a loss of depositor confidence.
NYCB relies heavily on wholesale funding from the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York.
NYCB’s capitalization, as measured by its common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio, fell to 9.1% as of 31 December 2023 from 9.59% the prior quarter and 9.06% as of 31 December 2022. The decline in capital resulted from a $252 million net loss in the fourth quarter driven by a $552 million provision for credit losses. NYCB is targeting a 10% CET1 ratio by the end of 2024 and has cut its dividend to 5 cents a quarter from 17 cents to assist with capital generation.
Pressure on profitability could challenge NYCB’s internal capital generation plans. Management expects net interest margin (NIM) to be between 2.4% and 2.5% in 2024 as the company repositions into lower-yielding liquid assets to prepare for Regulation YY compliance. NIM was 2.99% in 2023 compared to 2.35% in 2022. Further provisions for credit losses, rising compliance costs, and higher funding costs could also negatively impact earnings. The bank’s transition to a Category IV bank entails meaningful investments in its risk management and compliance that will also weigh on profitability.
Reflecting Moody’s views of the high governance risks NYCB faces, Moody’s introduced a one-notch negative qualitative adjustment to Flagstar Bank, NA’s BCA and changed NYCB’s governance issuer profile score to G-4 from G-2 and NYCB’s ESG credit impact score to CIS-4 from CIS-2 to reflect the negative impact this risk has on NYCB’s ratings.
This should not come as a huge surprise, as we detailed earlier, Small banks are proper fucked without The Fed’s (soon to be killed) BTFP bailout facility (red line)…
Source: Bloomberg
…and one can’t help but notice the burgeoning balance sheet of the big banks – willing to scoop up small banks with the FDIC’s help?
Don’t believe us? Here’s Jay Powell on Sunday:
“We looked at the larger banks’ balance sheets, and it appears to be a manageable problem. There’s some smaller and regional banks that have concentrated exposures in these areas that are challenged.
…
There will be expected losses.
It’s a sizable problem… it doesn’t appear to have the makings of the kind of crisis things that we’ve seen sometimes in the past.
I don’t think there’s much risk of a repeat of 2008. I also think, you know, we need to be careful about making proclamations about the.. future.
…
There will be certainly be some banks that have to be closed or merged out of, out of existence because of this. That’ll be smaller banks, I suspect, for the most part.
You know, these are losses. It’s a secular change in the use of downtown real estate. And the result will be losses for the owners and for the lenders, but it should be manageable.”
Do you feel lucky, punk? Picking the right regional bank that will be bought before it’s closed under FDIC?
Canary meat coalmine.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 19:30 - Kristi Noem: "Somebody's Running The White House. I Don't Believe It's Joe Biden"
Kristi Noem: “Somebody’s Running The White House. I Don’t Believe It’s Joe Biden”
Authored by Aaron Pan via The Epoch Times,
South Dakota governor Kristi Noem said President Joe Biden is not running the White House, but someone else is governing the country as she raised concerns over the border crisis that is “an extreme remaking of America.”
During an interview on Fox News on Feb. 4, when asked by host Maria Bartiromo why President Biden is providing free housing and health care to illegal immigrants, Ms. Noem said,
“He’s weak. Somebody’s running the White House. I don’t believe it’s Joe Biden. He’s never been this extreme. This is an extreme remaking of America.”
“It is a socialist-communist agenda. I think that they’ve so infiltrated the Democrat party that it’s no longer the Democrat Party of 20 years ago; it’s now a socialist party that does not want a strong America,” she added.
Ms. Noem is one of over a dozen GOP governors who have visited Texas to show their support for Gov. Greg Abbott in his fight with the Biden administration over the influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border in Eagle Pass.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) estimated throughout the 2023 fiscal year, 2.4 million people illegally crossed the border, up from 2.3 million the previous year. In contrast, between Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2020, before President Biden took office, there were only 458,000 encounters with illegal immigrants by border patrol agents.
In the interview, South Dakota’s governor criticized the Biden administration for the border crisis. “We see the president undermining our country by allowing this invasion at the southern border, and it’s destabilizing our country,” she said.
For weeks, the Biden administration has clashed with Mr. Abbott after the National Guard took control of the 47-acre Shelby Park area in Eagle Pass, Texas, to stop the flood of illegal border crossings.
The Texas National Guard has been accused of denying Border Patrol agents access to the park, leading to multiple legal battles. The Texas state government has cited its constitutional right to exercise its authority to protect the borders.
Ms. Noem has previously sent South Dakota National Guard troops three times to support Texas border control efforts. Last month, she indicated that she would continue to deploy her state’s troops to the border.
Ms. Noem’s border visit comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that the federal government could remove razor wire and other barriers the Texas state government had placed along the border with Mexico to deter illegal crossings.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Mr. Abbott has ordered even more razor wire barriers to be installed. Numerous Republican political leaders, in turn, have voiced their support for the Texas governor’s efforts. Ms. Noem was one of 25 Republican governors who signed a letter voicing support for the Texas governor after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
In the interview with host Maria Bartiromo, she explained, “The reason that the federal government went after Texas was because they’d actually figured out a way to put up the razor wire that was impenetrable that people could not get through. They said even those able-bodied military-aged men could not get through the barrier at that point. And it was so effective that that’s when the federal government came after Texas to take it down.”
The South Dakota governor accused Democrats and President Biden of abusing their power by seeking to federalize the National Guard. She stated that she would defend her authority and even warned of a potential war.
“Democrats have been encouraging this president. They’ve been encouraging President Biden to come after our state’s rights. They’ve been talking about federalizing our National Guard, which would be the first time in American history that we would have a president that would pay soldiers to stand down, to actually not protect America,” she noted.
“If he’s willing to do that and to take away my authority as governor, as commander in chief of those National Guard, boy, we do have a war on our hands,” she warned.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 19:10 - Dismal NBC Approval Poll Shows Biden's Chances Of Reelection Plummeting
Dismal NBC Approval Poll Shows Biden’s Chances Of Reelection Plummeting
Did Joe Biden really have the numbers in 2023 to beat Donald Trump as some surveys indicated? If he did, he certainly doesn’t have them in 2024. The polls are increasingly ugly for Democrats – public approval for the Biden Administration has hit the lowest levels in modern presidential history next to Jimmy Carter (a man who also mismanaged a stagflationary crisis). Even the corporate media has been forced to acknowledge that things don’t look so good for “the big guy.”
NBC has released its latest survey, which indicates a growing lead for Donald Trump in the general election (Trump 47% vs Biden 42%), but Trump also has a dramatic edge over Biden in most public issue categories. On the economy, 55% of respondents preferred Trump vs 33% for Biden. On border security, 57% wanted Trump and only 22% thought Biden would do a better job. In dealing with crime, 48% would vote Trump vs. 32% for Biden. And, when asked which candidate was more competent and mentally capable, 48% said Trump vs 32% for Biden.
A smaller percentage of people in each category chose the option of “not sure.”
NBC polling continues to observe an accelerating decline for Joe Biden in terms of public perception on a host of top concerns. This seems to mirror his overall low approval rating which just dropped again to 37%.
Democrats have taken to social media recently to demand answers, racking their brains trying to figure out why Biden’s brand is sinking faster than Bud Light.
Extremely low voter turnout for the Democratic Primaries (only 4% of Democrats were interested this year) is not necessarily an indication of how many Dems will show up at the ballot box (or mail box) in November. However, the stagflationary crisis, the draconian covid lockdowns, unnecessary tensions with Russia and the border crisis that Biden created by erasing numerous Trump era measures have left the American public with a sour taste in their mouths.
People are less inclined to forget government trespasses than political think tanks seem to realize. They’re definitely not going to overlook 30%-plus higher prices on most goods and services since 2020. One must truly struggle to think of a single positive result of Biden’s last three years. Even the low unemployment rate is mired in the suspicious creative math used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the public just isn’t buying it.
One could argue that the election of 2024 isn’t about which candidate is loved; it’s about which candidate is less hated or mistrusted. Under these conditions, Trump clearly wins. Others would point out that ongoing national and global instability might disrupt the elections or throw them into disarray (as we witnessed when the covid pandemic struck in the middle of election season 2020 and mail-in ballots became a mainstay).
If this is the case, the Biden Administration would be a primary beneficiary. As it turns out, the long running propaganda campaign to demonize conservatives may have had the opposite effect to what Democrats intended. Biden might need more than another overnight miracle in November to keep his seat in the Oval Office.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 18:50 - MS-13 Gang Members, Al-Qaeda Terrorist Found Living Illegally In US
MS-13 Gang Members, Al-Qaeda Terrorist Found Living Illegally In US
Authored by Alice Giordano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Members of the notorious MS-13 gang, as well as several terrorists, including one linked to al-Qaeda and another to Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s largest criminal organization, have recently been arrested by immigration officials in U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and Chicago.
Kayla Hamilton, pictured with her mother Tammy Nobles, was allegedly raped and murdered by a 16-year-old illegal immigrant, later identified as an MS-13 gang member. He was housed with Kayla in a government-run foster home. (Courtesy of Tammy Nobles) According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records, they were all living in the United States illegally and were released by detention centers under the Biden administration despite previous convictions for violent crimes, including murder.
The latest arrest occurred just last week, involving an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador who had been convicted in 2023 of being an accessory after the fact in a first-degree murder case and was sentenced to five years in prison.
According to Darius Reeves, acting field director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Baltimore, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge suspended most of his sentence, ignored an immigration detainer issued against the Salvadoran national, and instead ordered his release into the general public.
“This unlawfully present Salvadoran gang member’s presence in the United States represents a threat to the safety and security of our residents,” Mr. Reeves stated. “Not only is he a validated member of a notorious criminal enterprise, but he also aided other criminals in the commission of a murder. ERO Baltimore will continue to apprehend and remove such criminal elements from our Maryland communities.”
An ICE spokesman told The Epoch Times that the name of the 30-year-old MS-13 gang member, who initially entered the United States illegally near Falfurrias, Texas, is being withheld pending a removal order, as mandated by federal law.
Two days after the MS-13 gang member’s arrest, Patrick Lechleitner, President Biden’s acting ICE director, admitted that last year, a Somali terrorist from the Islamic military group al-Shabaab was accidentally released after being found living illegally in the United States. He had been freely roaming until his re-arrest on Jan. 20 in Minneapolis.
According to the National Counterterrorism Center, al-Shabaab has killed more U.S. citizens than any other al-Qaeda affiliate. It reportedly has between 7,000 and 10,000 members, according to the federal agency. The group lists its main targets as U.S. military forces and is known to attack civilian targets such as hotels, shopping malls, universities, and busy intersections.
Members of other foreign terrorist organizations have also been discovered living illegally in the United States recently. Last month, a man from Bangladesh, convicted of attempting to provide material support to an unnamed foreign terrorist organization, was deported. He had been found living in the United States illegally more than eight years ago.
According to ICE records, Rakin Islam Chowdhury was granted temporary permission to remain in the United States on June 5, 2015. This authorization expired on Dec. 4, 2015.
Recent reports from Chicago have highlighted the presence of dangerous illegal immigrants in the United States, where law enforcement has allegedly discovered a cell operated by Tren de Aragua. This gang, known in English as the Aragua Train, is considered the largest criminal organization in Venezuela and is primarily engaged in sex trafficking.
Telemundo Chicago Investiga wrote in a Jan. 22, 2024, article that it had obtained communications between Willow Springs, Illinois, police chief Garry McCarthy and the Cook County Sheriff’s Department in Los Angeles, California, showing growing concerns about gang operations in their communities.
Neither Mr. McCarthy nor the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department responded to multiple inquiries from The Epoch Times. A Telemundo report featured an email sent by the Cook County Sheriff.
“I wanted to give you a heads-up about a new threat developing among the newly arriving immigrant community,” the email stated. “There is a gang from Venezuela known as Tren de Aragua. This gang has strong human trafficking operations in Latin America and is likely engaged in sex and labor trafficking in the United States. Multiple agencies have confirmed their presence in the United States.”
The email includes a redacted source that claims to have “information that the gang is here in Chicago.”
Video still shows a group of illegal immigrants attacking two NYPD officers outside a shelter in New York, on Jan. 27, 2024. (New York Police Department) In another report, Mr. McCarthy told Telemundo that law enforcement is having a hard time identifying gang members as they cross the border because Venezuela does not share criminal records with the United States.
“We do not have data on them because I am sure that if it is Venezuela, it does not share it with the United States. So you can’t connect dots when we don’t have points,” Mr. McCarthy told Telemundo.
In September, Interpol put out a red notice to law enforcement worldwide to be on the lookout for Tren de Aragua boss Héctor Guerrero Flores after he escaped from a prison in Venezuela.
On Monday, Borderreport.com quoted former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ammon Blair as saying Venezuela has become a “significant concern along the US-Mexico border.”
An ICE spokesman told The Epoch Times that the agency has encountered members of the Venezuelan gang, but did not yet have anything that could be released. Telemundo reported that Border Patrol confirmed that at least 38 members have been arrested around the United States in the past year and that all of their points of entry were in El Paso, Texas.
Several other members of MS-13, short for Mara Salvatrucha, have also appeared on ICE’s radar after crossing the Texas border.
More than 1,000 illegal immigrants wait in line near a U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico, in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Dec. 18, 2023. (John Moore/Getty Images) In 2022, another MS-13 member who entered the United States illegally through Texas under the Biden administration’s open border policy, allegedly raped and killed Kayla Hamilton just days before she turned 20.
According to an investigation into Kayla’s murder by the Committee on the Judiciary and the Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, the then 16-year-old gang member was housed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the same foster home where Kayla was living. Kayla was autistic, but trying to transition to a life of independence.
The Republican-led committee concluded its investigation with a report blaming Kayla’s murder on the “Biden administration’s radical open-borders policies.”
The report highlighted that, in addition to an already lengthy criminal history, the Salvadoran minor had MS-13-specific tattoos, which should have alerted border officials to his affiliation and led to him being flagged for deportation.
Kayla’s mother Tammy Nobles has filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against both HHS and the Department of Homeland Security.
In a press release announcing the suit, Ms. Noble’s attorney Brian Claypool, claims that another illegal immigrant was placed in charge of housing Kayla and her alleged murderer in the same home and that the MS-13 gang member was released to his custody.
“We’re bringing this lawsuit because we’re tired of being held hostage in our own country. We’re tired of DHS playing Russian roulette with our lives,” Mr. Claypool said in a Facebook post.
According to the judiciary committee’s investigation, the MS-13 gang member was originally apprehended at the Texas border on March 23, 2022, and referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The ORR is a program run by the HHS’s administration for children and families and helps minor children who are not from the United States become what it calls “integrated members of American society.”
The recent reports of terrorists and gang members coming into the United States at the Texas border come amidst a recent Supreme Court ruling that Texas could not block the passage of illegal immigrants into the United States.
Kayla Hamilton was raped and murdered just a few days shy of her 20th birthday. (Courtesy of Tammy Nobles) Texas is refusing to recognize the order, which has created a standoff between Texas law enforcement and federal border agents.
The report also comes amidst a controversial Senate bipartisan bill that seeks to allow up to 4,000 daily crossings by migrants before a cap is considered.
“Only a fool, or a radical left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous border bill,” former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 18:30 - 'Major Differences From Trump Case': WaPo Front-Runs DoJ Decision Not To Charge Biden Over Mishandled Classified Docs
‘Major Differences From Trump Case’: WaPo Front-Runs DoJ Decision Not To Charge Biden Over Mishandled Classified Docs
Who could have seen this coming?
The Washington Post reports that the Biden Justice Department does not plan to pursue criminal charges against President Biden for his mishandling of classified documents.
The DoJ is reportedly preparing to release a special counsel report in coming days that will be critical of President Biden and his aides for mishandling classified documents in Biden’s private home and former office and this WaPo report appears to be the mainstream media foaming the runway as this report crash-lands at the feet of a Republican Congress. WaPo writes:
“While the facts of the Biden case appear to have major differences from the Trump case, Hur’s conclusions are likely to face intense scrutiny from Republicans in Congress.”
The lack of charges was initially leaked in November, and prompted outrage:
They’re trying to throw Trump in prison over classified documents that he DID have the authority to declassify but Biden won’t even get a slap on wrist for mishandling + keeping classified docs he kept as a VP/Senator when he wasn’t able to declassify them. Political prosecution! https://t.co/8UElp4aGx0
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 16, 2023
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Joe Biden’s DOJ investigated Joe Biden and found that Joe Biden had done nothing wrong by taking classified material and storing it in his office and garage floor. https://t.co/6VsDxDw3gO
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 16, 2023
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And so, with the actual report’s imminent release, WaPo felt the need to spend a few thousand more words to provide talking points to the base on why it’s different for Biden… except they really didn’t – aside from to claim that Trump ‘intentionally misled or delayed’ his response on the classified docs (that as president he was allowed to declassify), while they appear to claim – by explaining each of the various locations where Biden’s classified documents were discovered, that is was merely a mistake by a bumbling old fart and his aides
About 10 documents from Biden’s time as vice president were found Nov. 2, 2022, when lawyers for Biden were cleaning out his private office at the Washington-based Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank Biden started with the University of Pennsylvania after his tenure as vice president.
The attorney, Pat Moore, found the documents in a small closet and called White House lawyers, who contacted the National Archives and Records Administration, the federal agency responsible for storing and preserving presidential records.
…
In December 2022, legal representatives for Biden searched his home in Wilmington, Del., and found a “small number” of records with classified markings in the garage, the White House has said.
Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del., also was searched, but no classified material was found there, the White House has said.
In January, lawyers found another potential record with classified markings at the Wilmington residence, in a room adjacent to the garage.
Biden’s personal attorneys arranged for the Justice Department to take possession of the material.
Biden aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation, have said they believe the documents unintentionally ended up at Biden’s home and office because of sloppy staff work.
Later in the WaPo report, the cover is provided very transparently: “the Trump investigation seems significantly different from the Biden investigation.
“…more importantly, federal prosecutors came to suspect Trump was deliberately misleading them and hiding some highly sensitive papers even after he received a grand jury subpoena demanding their return.
Showing willful intent to mishandle national security secrets is often a key factor in charging decisions involving classified papers…
Trump is accused of deliberately trying to mislead investigators as they demanded the government documents back.
He is scheduled to stand trial on those charges in Fort Pierce, Fla., in May,…”
Finally, we are reminded of Trump Special Counsel Jack Smith’s comments in his press conference announcing the criminal charges against Trump last year:
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone….Nothing more, nothing less.”
Indeed.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 18:10 - "You Americans, You're Fascinated By Power"
“You Americans, You’re Fascinated By Power”
Authored by John J. Waters via RealClear Wire,
In most places around the country, the point of acquiring power is to do something with it.
Your state’s legislators pass a corporate tax cut to attract new business. Or, your mayor deploys city funds to repair streets damaged by winter’s snow and ice, paving the way for a smooth commute.
But D.C. is different.
More than other places, in D.C., the best use of power is not to discharge it toward solving some real or concrete problem that exists in the world, but to use power to create even more power. Whether that’s a better committee assignment, a bigger office, deeper donor pool, or a bigger professional network, there’s an urgency to spend what you have in furtherance of your ambition for more, to apply all of one’s tools in a strategy that (swiftly) generates more and greater power.
It’s a unique environment, and one in which military historian Eliot Cohen has thrived for more than 30 years. He’s advised presidents, cabinet secretaries, generals and diplomats. “In government and out,” writes David Petraeus, “Eliot Cohen has consistently been one of the shrewdest observers of the exercise of power.” In his new book The Hollow Crown, Cohen finds in Shakespeare the characters and stories that illustrate what he has learned about the ebb and flow of power in the real world, and it’s on this theme that we pick up our conversation. I talked with the author about military leadership, Coriolanus, and the Henry plays in part one of our conversation, which you can find here. Now, on to part two …
What is the state of “power” in 2024?
Power is more diffuse today than in previous periods of history.
As a group, elites don’t have the same voice as they once did because the number of elites has expanded, so you don’t have groups that have a high level of authority. For example, you once had senior clerics in this country who had a profound moral voice. I grew up in Boston and I’m Jewish but if Cardinal Richard Cushing said something, then people would really pay attention. Presidents of the great university played a role in our national debate that they do not play right now. Because power has gotten very diffuse, it’s sometimes in the hands of people who are irresponsible. Look at Congress. Our committee chairs are not powerful anymore. The Speaker of the House once was powerful. We’ve watched several of them get defenestrated. The elites lost their moral authority and there is no coherent leadership group rising in its place.
What concerns you about the state of politics in our country?
I am concerned that power is being separated from character. What one hears in Washington, DC is that someone is “smart.” That’s the least important thing to have in a leader. It’s very easy to rent smart or hire smart people—it’s much harder to find people with good judgment and good character. I don’t think we’re living in a world that cares about honesty, loyalty, consistency, willingness to sacrifice or give of themselves. And, on the judgment side, do our leaders have an ability to understand enough what is happening to decide what ought to be done? The absence of that quality is how you get into trouble. I make reference in the book to George Washington, who was far from being the smartest but had the strongest character and best judgment. As a counter-example, Richard II was a brilliant talker … and he’s the last guy on earth you want running something.
But Machiavelli separated politics from ethics some 500 years ago, and so I wonder if this phenomenon you observe of an absence of character in politics is really that new at all …
Yes, but first, we don’t have to accept that Machiavelli was necessarily right! Also, Machiavelli had his own conception of virtue, or virtú, that is very different from ours, but still involved some qualities of character that we don’t have much of.
What is Shakespeare’s first lesson on power?
I take away from Shakespeare that all power is dangerous. It’s dangerous when you inherit it because you may not be suited to its exercise. I mention Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt, how that plan for succession at General Electric didn’t work out despite all of Welch’s great processes for identifying high performing executives, something he devoted himself to for some 20 years. Acquiring power by manipulation means you’re dealing people at the top who are very slippery. Go to the Federalist Papers. The genius of the American Constitution is that ambition will counter ambition—it’s not set up for a constant flow of brilliant statesmen. I was just in Israel with a delegation of national security people and was in a discussion with an old friend, and this person was saying all we need are honest judges and good people in charge. I disagree. You simply cannot count on those people always being there …
Michael Ledeen said the best government is a good czar. The worst government is a bad czar. There are more bad czars than good czars, so democracy becomes a very good alternative.
Yes, sooner or later, you’re going to end up with bad people in those positions and the system must carry on anyway. I had a professor who was a refugee from Europe during World War II. She said there are two reasons to study political science: either you’re fascinated by power or you’re afraid of power. “You Americans, you’re fascinated by it. I’m afraid of it.”
Shakespeare filled his plays with Machiavellian archetypes, people like Lady Macbeth and Iago who ultimately fail to control the outcomes of their schemes for power. What did Shakespeare think of Machiavelli?
He certainly knew about him, because Richard III, before he becomes king, makes reference to him. But his picture of human beings is far more subtle and nuanced than Machiavelli’s. Lady Macbeth, for example, is consumed with guilt and eventually goes mad; Iago arranges the ruin of Othello for no particular purpose, because he can never replace him. These are not Machiavellian characters like, for example, Cesare Borgia.
You note that Machiavelli believed there’s more “virtú” in a Republic because you have so many people striving. We’re in an election year. Politicians across the country will scheme, deceive and strive in hopes of acquiring power. We should see this “virtú” in abundance. What do you suppose Machiavelli would think about our politics in 2024?
I suspect that he would think that we are a pretty pathetic lot. A lot of politicians whine, a lot of them are cowardly, a lot fear their own followers. Whatever that is, it’s not virtú.
Let’s end with a few brief questions.
Okay.
Which Shakespeare play has become too popular?
Macbeth. Macbeth and Richard III are my favorites but, if there’s someone you don’t like, then you say they’re like Macbeth or Richard. Both are wonderful plays but they are overdone.
Which Shakespeare play should be more popular?
The Henry VI plays should be read much more widely, all three of the Henry VI plays. There is no strong king or strong leadership. There’s a bunch of squabbling courtiers and politicians. Some people are villainous, others are naïve and both come to bad ends. You have demagogues interested in turning things upside down but don’t have an idea of what they want to accomplish. It’s something worth thinking about.
Finally, who is your favorite character from Shakespeare?
Prospero. He’s a flawed human being. He was oblivious as to how he was overthrown. In the first parts of The Tempest, he could be cruel. He has a short fuse and could be arbitrary and is tempted to be vengeful, but at the end he makes a decision to renounce his power. He becomes human because he can walk away from power without illusions. He knows he’s coming to the end but he can relinquish it. He uses power well but also knows he’s got to give it up if he wants to be a normal human being, and that’s a very rare thing.
John J. Waters is the author of the postwar novel River City One (Simon and Schuster), and a former deputy assistant secretary of homeland security.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 17:50 - Israel Demands Lebanon Remove Hezbollah 20 Miles From Border, Beirut Refuses
Israel Demands Lebanon Remove Hezbollah 20 Miles From Border, Beirut Refuses
Israel’s military has issued a new assessment which estimates it has launched attacks on some 3,000 Hezbollah sites in Lebanon in Syria since war started after Oct.7. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says that while Israel is nothing seeking a bigger war in Lebanon, it is “certainly ready” and that the defense forces (IDF) are ready to “attack immediately if provoked.”
Hezbollah has been hitting back on a daily basis too, with villages and communities on both sides of the border being impacted, and in some cases resulting in civilian casualties. When Israel hits targets in Syria, it tends to describe these as “Iran-linked”, which often means Hezbollah.
Israel now says that time is running out for diplomacy as the two sides spiral toward bigger war. “Israel has said, though, that it’s prepared to open another front with a military attack on southern Lebanon if Hezbollah doesn’t move back to about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the border, as per the terms of a long-standing United Nations resolution,” according to Bloomberg.
AFP via Getty Images We reported in December that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has estimated that over 80,000 Israeli citizens are still displaced from their homes, after border regions had to be evacuated en masse as a result of Hezbollah attacks since Oct.7.
At the time it was reported that “The Israelis are anticipating within the next six weeks to two months that if the diplomatic track isn’t working, they’re going to have to opt for some kind of military solution.” Israeli leaders have been reiterating this message this week.
“Israel will act militarily to return the evacuated citizens to their homes” if Hezbollah doesn’t comply with the demand for a buffer zone, according to Monday statements of Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
Israel is further demanding that the Lebanese government take action, but this has already been rejected in a fresh Tuesday statement:
Lebanese caretaker Foreign Minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, voiced on February 6 the nation’s rejection of recent Israeli and international demands seeking to push Lebanese resistance group, Hezbollah, north of the Litani River, saying Beirut will not accept ‘partial solutions’ to resolving the cross-border conflict.
“Western countries demand the retreat of Hezbollah for about eight to ten kilometers north of Litani,” Bou Habib said in an interview with Nida al-Watan. “This is a formula that Lebanon rejects. [Beirut] will not accept ‘partial solutions’ that do not bring the desired peace and do not secure stability but will lead to the renewal of the war again and again.”
But in reality even if the Lebanese government wanted to try and force Hezbollah away from the southern border it would not be able to do so. The Lebanese Army has long had a very limited arsenal, and really no air force to speak of, due to sanctions and limitations imposed by Washington.
Hezbollah is widely considered to be stronger than even the Lebanese state’s army, and a weak army is largely the legacy of the prior two-decade long Lebanese civil war. But if Israel and Hezbollah enter a full, uncontrollable war, the entirety of Lebanon is likely to be impacted and bombed by Israeli warplanes, as happened to some degree in the 2006 war.
Meanwhile, there appears to be a rare positive development on Tuesday, per Newsquawk: “US and four European allies hope to announce in the next few weeks a series of commitments made by Israel and Hezbollah to diffuse tensions and restore calm to the Israel-Lebanon border, according to two Israeli officials and a source cited by Axios.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 17:30 - Trump Calls For "Immediate Debates" Against Biden
Trump Calls For “Immediate Debates” Against Biden
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
Donald Trump has called for debates between himself and Joe Biden to be held as soon as possible, “for the good of the country.”
Appearing on Dan Bongino’s podcast, Trump made the call, urging that more Americans need to be made aware that Biden “can’t do anything.”
“He can’t talk. He can’t do anything. He’s ruining our country and I don’t think he’s going to run,” Trump stated.
He continued, “I don’t know if it’s donors or otherwise. It might be his family. It might be something. I don’t think he’s going to run.”
“I’d like to call for immediate debates. I’d like to debate him now because we should debate. We should debate for the good of the country,” Trump further declared, adding “I am officially going to do that.
Trump also repeated an earlier offer to take Biden’s interview spot at the Super Bowl, proclaiming “We’ll get very good ratings.”
Trump calls for “immediate debates” against Biden, declaring “”He can’t talk. He can’t do anything. He’s ruining our country.” Report here: https://t.co/3z3cpdEzJU pic.twitter.com/i8Yvnniftg
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) February 6, 2024
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Trump made the Super Bowl offer after it emerged that Biden would not be partaking in the usual pregame interview with the President for the second year running.
“Crooked Joe Biden has just announced that he will not be doing the big Super Bowl interview. A great decision, he can’t put two sentences together. I WOULD BE HAPPY TO REPLACE HIM – would be ‘RATINGS GOLD!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
It’s no surprise that Biden is sitting it out as he can barely string two sentences together.
On Sunday he declared that when he took office he met “Mitterrand from Germany.”
Mitterrand was a former French President who died 28 years ago in 1996.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Tue, 02/06/2024 – 17:10
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