Alberta Archives - The Automatic Earth

France has FREE health care, paid parental leave, paid family leave, FREE child care, FREE preschool, 5 weeks paid vacation, a 35 hour work week, generous unemployment and housing benefits, and heavily subsidized higher education.

Everything the left says they want AND THEY'RE… pic.twitter.com/SKq4KQtOtT
— Rob Schneider 🇺🇸 (@RobSchneider) October 19, 2026

‼️JUST IN: Macron presented evidence of Russian involvement in the protests in France. pic.twitter.com/rrhoNM8pon
— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) October 19, 2026

A lot is now being explained

The BBC has betrayed the British public

Shame on them ! https://t.co/AOJwOvN1mD
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) October 20, 2026

KABOOM: Trump says he is set to release how NATO working with the deep state started the Ukraine-Russia proxy war.

TRUMP SAYS HE WILL RELEASE DETAILS ON HOW THE UKRAINE WAR REALLY STARTED ONCE HE ENDS IT

REPORTER: “You want Zelensky out. Have you forgotten that President Putin… https://t.co/el5fZ0EEsx pic.twitter.com/vxCWufHh7J
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) October 19, 2026

Europeans,

Seeing what is going on in France, I have just one question:

Do you get it now?

This isn’t going to get better on its own. Sign the @SaveEuropeAct pic.twitter.com/CRru7a8MLh
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) October 18, 2026

But Europe put all its money on the little man.

That money has little value left.

Because Trump wants peace, and Europe wants a war that is only feasible with Trump’s support..

“The Ukrainian leader could have ended Kiev’s conflict with Moscow “a long time ago,” the US president has said..”

• Time For Someone Other Than Zelensky To Speak For Ukraine – Trump (RT)

It is high time Ukraine found itself a new representative to negotiate peace with Russia, US President Donald Trump has said, adding that Vladimir Zelensky “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” He also stated that he was ready to discuss a resolution to the conflict with Russia and China.

The statement comes amid a deepening rift between Trump and Zelensky over the Ukrainian military’s continued targeting of Russian refineries at a time when the American president has struck a deal with Moscow aimed at reining in skyrocketing global energy prices through Russian diesel exports. “Zelensky’s a man that should have this war settled a long time ago,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked about the Ukrainian leader’s criticism of his deal with President Vladimir Putin.
“Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trump said. “To be honest, I think it’s time for someone else to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine. Maybe it’s time for Zelensky to get someone else to negotiate.” The agreement between Trump and Putin, reached earlier this month, involved the US easing restrictions on Moscow’s diesel exports and waiving the “bone-crushing” sanctions, including 500% tariffs on imports from Russia and 100% tariffs on major buyers of Russian oil and gas, in exchange for Moscow supplying diesel to the global market and potentially to the US as well.
Kiev has continued to target Russian oil infrastructure despite repeated requests by Trump to curb the attacks, which he blames for surging global energy prices. On Monday, the US president reiterated that Kiev was acting ungratefully towards America. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine, they’ve given nothing to us… We’ve given hundreds of billions of dollars,” he said.
When asked if he would be ready to negotiate a settlement of the Ukraine conflict with Moscow and Beijing, without Zelensky present, Trump said he just wanted the conflict to end and would do “anything I can do to end the war, whether somebody is there or not.” Earlier on Monday, the Kremlin said that Putin, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could potentially meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.
Trump’s remarks on Monday follow a series of similar statements he has made in recent days. Over the weekend, the American president accused Zelensky of being unwilling to ever end the conflict. “He doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump stated at the time.
On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also suggested that Zelensky has “no desire” to reach a settlement because his government would collapse if Ukraine signed a deal acceptable to both the US and Russia. Moscow has long accused Ukraine’s Western backers, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, of sabotaging the 2022 peace talks in Istanbul. Russia has also identified the stance of Ukraine’s European backers as one of the key obstacles to resolving the conflict.

Witkoff laid out Trump’s vision for them. They did not like it.

Witkoff travels, Kushner hooks up via video.

Presser without Witkoff is interesting: it’s only for political leaders..

Norway and Finland are not important countries, not much voice, sorry.

• Suddenly Zelenskyy Thanks USA: All Early Warning Systems Working Great (CTH)

This is a very interesting public presser from Ukraine President Zelenskyy, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and a subdued Finnish President Alexander Stubb. This press event follows President Trump Emissary Steve Witkoff meeting with Zelenskyy, Stoere and Stubb. Steve Witkoff leaves Norway and is going to St Petersburg to meet with Russian Federation Vladimir Putin tomorrow.

When asked why Witkoff was not present {10:00}, the host PM Jonas Stoere says, “this is a press conference among political leaders,” and then quickly moves on. Both Stoere and Stubb are very subdued from their prior public statements that put themselves in opposition to the U.S. Trump administration and now suddenly reverse and say it is important for them to remain engaged with the USA effort and for all EU nations to support discussions with Russia.
Following Stubb {@13:00} Zelenskyy notes that Witkoff traveling to meet with Putin tomorrow is very important, and he is very happy that “early warning systems” are working and “it’s great.” Zelenskyy repeated referenced the call with Secretary Marco Rubio in outlining a shift in tone that is suddenly very appreciative of the USA support. A very curious shift. WATCH:

As previously noted, there is an early plan for China (Xi), Russia (Putin) and the USA (Trump) to meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit next month in China. Little man Zelenskyy clarifies his prior comments about a trilateral meeting by saying that his comments were directed to a possible U.S, Russia, Ukraine trilateral meeting and not the APEC sideline.
At 16:00 Peter Baker (NYT) obviously notes the tone change visible in this presser and asks about what is going on? Baker was taken aback when Zelenskyy, Stubb and Stoere affirm the positive and constructive meeting with Steve Witkoff, and “there is nothing to gain” by looking at things said yesterday, said Stoere.
Finland President Stubb joins with very complimentary statements of Steve Witkoff affirming his belief this meeting has clarified a lot of issues that now lead toward peace. “Today was a big success” Stubb emphasized as the press conference concludes.
It sounds to me like Secretary Rubio used his linguistic battle skills to pin Zelenskyy on the issue of stirring up trouble and that set up Steve Witkoff for a solid meeting without the political drama and narrative constructs of recent weeks.
The trio of Zelenskyy, Stoere and Stubb looked considerably smaller in this presser perhaps realizing their miniscule stature in the grand scheme of geopolitical affairs. It will be very interesting to see how the U.S. media react to this shifted tone from today – particularly as it relates to the New York Times and Peter Baker’s narrative engineering effort.

“Following 45 Minute Call with Zelenskyy, Secretary Marco Rubio Notes Ukraine Officials are Lying and Manipulative Which He Told Zelenskyy Openly”

• Rubio Notes Ukraine Officials are Lying and Manipulative (CTH)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio answers questions from media while visiting India. The major focus of the questions to Rubio surrounded Ukraine and the conflicting stories from Zelenskyy.

Secretary Rubio noted he had just completed a 45-minute phone call with Zelenskyy where Rubio talked to the Ukraine President about his continued promotion of false reports to media about U.S. support and assistance. As noted, Rubio emphasized nothing substantive has changed in the U.S. support profile with Ukraine and President Trump has not modified any security arrangement at all. Zelenskyy is just making stuff up.
Rubio noted that Ukraine is targeting U.S. commercial shipping in the Black Sea and that has to stop. That was part of the phone call. Additionally, Rubio emphasized how Ukraine officials are just “making stuff up” for some reason, that can best be considered a Ukraine political operation against the Trump White House. WATCH:

Where and how did they get a photo that makes Zel almost look of normal height?

• Zelensky Lobbies US Senators To Pressure Trump – Axios (RT)

Zelensky meets with US lawmakers on Capitol Hill, July 28, 2026

Vladimir Zelensky has appealed to a bipartisan group of US senators to pressure President Donald Trump into lifting alleged restrictions on American military assistance and intelligence sharing, Axios reported on Monday.
During a virtual meeting with lawmakers led by Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Democrat Richard Blumenthal on Monday, Zelensky complained about alleged disruptions to weapons deliveries, satellite communications and early warnings of Russian missile attacks, according to a transcript obtained by Axios from Ukrainian officials.

The Ukrainian leader suggested that Washington had deliberately “slowed down support” to force Kiev into accepting a negotiated settlement with Moscow.
The lobbying effort comes as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Kiev’s refusal to halt attacks on Russian oil refineries, which the American president has blamed for worsening a global diesel shortage and driving up fuel prices for US consumers.
The dispute escalated earlier this month after Trump struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports and increase supplies to the global market. Kiev publicly condemned the agreement, accusing Washington of making concessions to Moscow behind Ukraine’s back.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner reportedly reminded Ukrainian negotiators during talks in Miami that Washington was supplying Kiev with weapons and intelligence and that Ukraine should not pursue attacks that hurt American consumers. Ukrainian officials interpreted the remarks as a threat to suspend that assistance unless the refinery strikes stopped.
Washington has denied issuing any such ultimatum. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected claims that Washington deliberately restricted intelligence sharing or Starlink access. The Pentagon has likewise denied changing its intelligence-sharing policy.
Yet Zelensky continued to challenge the administration, telling senators that SpaceX’s Starlink and the US military’s Starshield satellite systems remained partially restricted and that Ukraine had missed US early warnings about Russian ballistic missile attacks on three occasions over the past week.
He also accused Secretary of War Pete Hegseth of holding up Patriot interceptor missiles and AIM-9X missiles that NATO countries had already purchased for Kiev. The Washington Post separately reported that the Pentagon had yet to authorize certain transfers of Patriot missiles from third countries.
Following the meeting, Blumenthal pledged further congressional action, saying bipartisan support for Kiev remained “clear and unequivocal.”
Trump, meanwhile, lashed out at Zelensky on Monday, accusing him of obstructing efforts to end the conflict and suggesting that someone else should negotiate on Ukraine’s behalf.
“Zelensky doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Trump told reporters. “Maybe it’s time for Zelensky to get someone else to negotiate… We’ve given a lot to Ukraine, they’ve given nothing to us.”

“The Ukrainian leader, whose term expired two years ago, wants to run again despite promising that he would only serve one term..”

• Zelensky Says He Wants To Run For President Again (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said he wants to run for president again if an election is held before the conflict with Russia ends. His five-year term expired two years ago, prompting Moscow to question his legitimacy, while US President Donald Trump has called for him to be replaced. Zelensky has refused to call a new election since his term expired in May 2024, citing martial law, which was imposed after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. During his 2019 election campaign, he promised to only serve one term.

Speaking to NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Zelensky said he would seek another term if an election is held while the fighting continues. “If it will be during the war – of course. It’s my responsibility, because I have to defend my country from the very beginning to end of this war,” he stated. Zelensky once again demanded a ceasefire of at least 60 days to prepare for the election, claiming that the country needs time to amend its laws and put election infrastructure in place.
Moscow has rejected the demand. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Kiev could use an election as a pretext to secure a 60-day ceasefire to “regroup,” recover its military losses, and resume the fighting. He added, however, that Russia is prepared to suspend strikes on election day.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that Zelensky’s presidential powers should have passed to the parliament after his mandate expired, and questioned whether he can sign binding peace agreements. He called Zelensky’s refusal to hold elections a “strategic mistake.”
Zelensky’s ambitions also face opposition at home. A survey in September by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology found that 53% of respondents believe he should only serve one presidential term, up from 46% in December 2025.
Trump has stepped up pressure on Zelensky, accusing him of prolonging the conflict while receiving billions in Western assistance. Earlier this month, he called for a new president, arguing that Zelensky has repeatedly rejected opportunities to end the fighting.
“I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal,” Trump told reporters.
He also blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for the worsening global diesel crisis and rising prices which hurt American farmers, accusing Zelensky of creating “problems for the world” despite his repeated demands to stop the attacks.
In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said Zelensky “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” arguing that he could have secured a better deal with Russia two years ago. He added that Ukraine is “in shambles,” describing its male population as “low, wounded, and/or dead.”

“At the end of every anti-Trump voice, is an alignment with Ukraine. At this point it’s impossible to ignore. Once you see it you can never unsee it.”

• Zelenskyy Calls Rubio as Witkoff Travels to Meet Him in Norway (CTH)

Many Americans wonder why Ukraine is a central issue in the USA midterm election. To those voices I would remind them that all aligned individuals and organizations who support the premise of Ukraine are core adversaries to the America-First doctrine. At the end of every anti-Trump voice, is an alignment with Ukraine. At this point it’s impossible to ignore. Once you see it you can never unsee it.

There is a very specific way that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly describes contacts with the U.S. administration when he is unable to manipulate the narrative within the conversation. What follows below is an example of that. Note the difference in Zelenskyy’s tone.

The reality of dealing with a person skilled in diplomatic clarity (Rubio) is unnerving to those who are skilled at diplomatic political theater (Zelenskyy); their tone retreats, because the conversation is no longer swirling around pretense. Zelenskyy, feeling empowered due to the anti-Trump elements that support him, speaks in a passive-aggressive tone and a disrespectful manner when generally talking about the Trump administration.
Zelenskyy’s prism is very narrow, self-centered, combative and bitter when he anticipates not getting his demands met. The most common reference for this expressed mindset is a teenage daughter who wantdaughter’ss something indulgent, but her Mom/Dad is not willing to give in to the demands and expectations. The daughter’s sympathetic friends are codependent enablers.
In the latest development, Zelenskyy is traveling to Oslo, Norway, where he will be surrounded by his codependents as he meets yet again with President Trump’s Emissary Steve Witkoff. Why Norway? Why does Zelenskyy need to be surrounded by EU enablers when discussing terms and conditions? The media always pretends not to notice this pattern.
In Norway Zelenskyy will be supported by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb. I would remind readers that it was Norwegian PM Stoere who previously claimed Russia had attacked Zelenskyy’s airplane in Moldova with a drone strike – that nonsense was entirely made up yet spread by EU media quickly.

Meanwhile Finland (bordering Northern Russia) has recently been supporting 1,000+ drone flights from Ukraine that crossed Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on the way to strike St Petersburg, Russia. Now, reasonable people will notice that’s a long route for small drones over EU-NATO countries to avoid Russian anti-drone defenses.
Such a reasonably minded person will also note that’s a very long distance for drone propulsion (fuel) to last, and that reasonable person will likely then realize the 1,000+ drones that targeted St Petersburg didn’t originate in Ukraine at all.
The most likely scenario was the 1,000+ drones were launched by Ukraine operatives from inside NATO countries including Estonia – which happens to be the home country of Kaja Kallas the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.
CTH will also emphasize the timing here. Presumably, if you accept the NATO narrative, the 1,000+ drones took off from western Ukraine, flew north through Poland, crossed Lithuania (a few crashed there) and then Latvia, and finally turned east toward St Petersburg from Estonia at the very end; again, presumably, to avoid Russian air defenses.
This complicated 1,000+ drone operation happened at exactly the same time Zelenskyy was creating a very specific narrative about being allowed to use Starshield for these types of targeting operations.
Stand back and look at this construct. Zelenskyy’s NATO friends (Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Norway, etc., continue to provoke a counterattack by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. EU-NATO is openly arming, supporting and now assisting in launching direct attacks against a nuclear-armed superpower.
Ultimately this is why the lying liar who lies, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, must constantly be surrounded by his EU defenders as he meets with President Trump’s Emissary for peace, Steve Witkoff. If Zelenskyy stands alone in the discussion he runs the risk of exposing EU-NATO fraud, manipulation and ultimately control by his EU-NATO handlers.
This twisted network of schemes and conniving interests is why Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs Norway to protect him from direct inquisition by Witkoff. Standing on the truth doesn’t need support or even a memory. Standing on a mountain of lies requires lots of help to remain stable.
OSLO, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will fly to Oslo to meet US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday, trying to repair ties with Washington that have deteriorated sharply over the past two weeks as President Donald Trump has increasingly courted Moscow.
Trump, who has waived sanctions on Russia in what he says is an effort to lower US fuel prices, has repeatedly rebuked Zelenskiy. Kyiv says Washington has lately failed to provide early warning notification of Russian missile launches, and has throttled SpaceX satellite links that guide Ukrainian drones.
On Monday, Trump said “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine” and “Zelenskiy is not helping matters much”. He called on Kyiv to find “somebody else to negotiate”.
Zelenskiy said he had spoken with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on issues including ballistic missile interceptors, early warning of Russian missile attacks and “the situation with Starlink/Starshield, which needs to be restored”, referring to the SpaceX satellite system.
[…] Western European countries consider defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion to be an existential issue for the continent’s security and have strongly backed Zelenskiy, seeking to head off a deeper rupture between Washington and Kyiv.
The United States under Trump has already largely stopped providing weapons to Ukraine, but allows European countries to buy them on Kyiv’s behalf and provides intelligence and technology that Europe can’t match.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said the goal of hosting Tuesday’s meetings was “to steer the diplomatic efforts onto a more constructive path”.
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb said he would attend meetings with Zelenskiy and Stoere to discuss “Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine and the overall security situation in Europe.”

Trump is very right: “The people that came in do not love France or these other countries under attack. They don’t love the people. They don’t love the art. They don’t love the architecture of the buildings. They don’t love anything that surrounds them.”

• Rubio Warned About Left-Wing Terrorism. Now It’s Burning Down France (ETM)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about left-wing terrorism threatening Western Civilization. Now, Europe is seeing what these groups are capable of.

“Antifa militants and their comrades travel from across Europe and to the Americas to participate in each other’s attacks, to funnel propaganda and training, materials, and target information through shared encrypted channels—moving through underground networks of safe houses, and finance and sustain their operations through transnational funds,” Rubio warned in July.
On Monday, the Louvre in Paris had to be shut down due to protesters barricading the entrances. This followed a weekend of violent riots that caused damage to government buildings and thousands of businesses and led to nearly 2,400 arrests across France. Almost 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were injured during the violence on Saturday, and at least 3,000 businesses were damaged or looted over the weekend. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu blamed far-left groups for causing “profound unrest in the country in the run-up to the presidential election,” Reuters reported.
“The violence unfolding in France underscores the threat Secretary Rubio warned about at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism: political violence and extremist networks pose a growing threat to public safety and stability,” a State Department official told the Daily Signal on Tuesday. “Governments must take seriously the consequences of failing to secure their borders and enforce their immigration laws, particularly when it comes to identifying and addressing security threats.”
In November 2025, the State Department designated four European far-left groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. These include Antifa Ost, the Informal Anarchist Federation/International Revolutionary Front, Armed Proletarian Justice, and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense. When the riots began, they were led by students protesting the conditions in schools. They have broadened into a wider revolt against the cost of living, dissatisfaction with the government, and cuts to public spending.
President Donald Trump said the violence in France will spread to America if Republicans lose the upcoming midterm election. “If you want to see what is at stake in this election, just look at what’s happening in France, a once great nation that is being conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists who hate Christianity and they hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself,” he said Monday at a rally in Kansas. Trump has said that the unrest is an “immigration problem.”
“They’re losing Europe. That’s never happening to the United States of America,” he said. “The people that came in do not love France or these other countries under attack. They don’t love the people. They don’t love the art. They don’t love the architecture of the buildings. They don’t love anything that surrounds them.” Vice President JD Vance said Monday he warned French President Emmanuel Macron to close the borders to prevent the current unrest, but Macron didn’t listen.
“I told him a long time ago, you’re making a big mistake in France. You’re letting everybody from the world come in. The whole world was coming in, and you know, as you know, Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon, and that wasn’t the deal,” he told reporters during his travels to North Carolina for a campaign rally. “That wasn’t the deal. I told Emmanuel, you should close up your borders, and let’s see. I’ve known him for probably eight or nine years. I told him as soon as I met him. I said, ‘You’re making a big mistake.’ We closed our borders. He didn’t.”

“A king doesn’t stand for midterms. A king doesn’t watch courts block his executive orders week after week, or answer to a Congress that can defund him, or leave office on a date fixed in the Constitution.”

• No Kings: The Only One Telling The Truth Wore a Clown Suit (Eric Florack)

I won’t say where, but I ran across yet another gaggle of “No Kings” idiots lining the shoulder of a major highway. What made the whole thing comical was the guy in the clown suit, about a half mile back, carrying a sign that read “Caution: Stupid People Ahead.” I tell you, it made my morning.

Here’s the thing. That clown was the most honest participant in the whole production. He knew he was wearing a costume. He owned it. The folks up the road with the hand-lettered signs decidedly did not.
I’ve watched these gatherings of useful idiots roll across the country for well over a year now. I’ve even written about it a time or two. Yesterday marked round four. Indivisible, MoveOn, and the 50501 Movement kicked this off on Donald Trump’s birthday in June 2025, then returned in October, again in March, and again this weekend. And this time the organizers decided to drop the pretense. According to coverage of the planning, they billed the October 17 events as nonpartisan voter-participation activities rather than protests.
Nonpartisan? Yeah, right. About two weeks before a midterm. Organized by MoveOn. Yeah, I don’t think so. A movement built from the ground up to oppose one Republican president, run by groups that exist to elect Democrats, now wants you to believe its Saturday highway rallies serve civic hygiene. That’s not a protest anymore. That’s a get-out-the-vote operation wearing a protest costume, and it fits about as well as the clown’s polka dots.
Then there’s the name itself: “No Kings.” Organizers say the country doesn’t belong to kings, dictators, or tyrants. Fine. I agree. So does every conservative I know, and so did the Founders, who handled the actual king business in 1776. But a king doesn’t face voters. A king doesn’t stand for midterms. A king doesn’t watch courts block his executive orders week after week, or answer to a Congress that can defund him, or leave office on a date fixed in the Constitution. This president does all of those things.
The people on that highway shoulder know this, or at least the ones running the show do. Even if you’re dressed in a turnip suit like a contestant on The Price Is Right, you can’t simultaneously claim we live under a monarch and organize a voter drive to throw out his party in November. Pick one. Either the elections mean something, in which case “No Kings” is hysteria, or they don’t, in which case why bother with the voter drive?
They won’t pick, because the slogan was never about kings. It’s about branding. Somebody in a consulting shop figured out that “No Kings” tests better than “We lost in 2024 and we’re still having a tantrum” and that a nice patriotic-sounding phrase gives cover to people who otherwise spend their time explaining why the Constitution is outdated.
I think what we’re seeing here is evidence that the left has already taken its shot. It is desperately trying to be relevant in a world that not only doesn’t see any relevance in its cause, but sees it in a negative light. Even the leftist fishwrappers have started to admit that the Democrats are not doing so well, after all. But these protesters act as if they know none of it. They keep going on with this nonsense because it’s all they have left. They keep the chants going because that’s the only arrow still in the quiver.
The organizers love to brag about numbers. After last October’s round, they claimed that more than 7 million people showed up at 2,700-plus events, and boasted that the turnout dwarfed both of Trump’s inaugurations combined. Maybe. Crowd counts from the people selling the crowd deserve the same skepticism you’d give a used-car lot’s “best prices in town” banner. But grant them the number. Seven million people standing on curbs and highway shoulders in a nation of 340 million is still a rounding error. And it still loses to the 77 million who walked into a voting booth and made the choice the No Kings crowd keeps trying to relitigate on Saturdays.
Now, that clown suit guy? I’ll give him credit. He didn’t block anybody. He didn’t claim to save democracy. He walked a half mile back from the main event, held up a sign, and warned the rest of us about what lay ahead. Public service, plain and simple. The No Kings people spent their Saturday telling America it lives under a tyrant. The clown spent his time telling America the truth.
I know which one I’d vote for.

“.. the recent raid on Omar‘s home was specifically related to her and her father‘s citizenship status..”

• No Record of Ilhan Omar’s Father’s U.S. Naturalization? (Catherine Salgado)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) herself previously stated that she received her American citizenship through her father, whom she said became a naturalized citizen while she was still a legal minor. But a Trump administration investigation indicates that her father might never have obtained naturalization officially, making her citizenship likewise suspect.

While this report about Omar’s father has been circulating for a while, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik and former candidate AJ Kern, who ran against Omar, claim to have obtained official letters from the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) revealing no record of naturalization papers for Omar‘s father. USCIS has not yet confirmed this fact publicly, and the investigation into Omar and her family remains ongoing.

OMG

Letters from the USCIS and DHS appear to verify that citizenship records for Ilhan Omar's father DO NOT EXIST.

No record of his naturalization exists.

Ilhan Omar claimed citizenship through her father. If no record exists, how can she be a U.S. citizen? https://t.co/vKYq8rNQoF pic.twitter.com/pFjyLgUXUZ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 19, 2026

The New York Post reported last week that the recent raid on Omar‘s home was specifically related to her and her father‘s citizenship status. At the same time, the Post acknowledged that Kern had requested information about Nur Omar Mohamed — originally Nur Said Elmi Mohamed — which is how Kern claims she ended up with the letters.
Incidentally, Nur Said Elmi allegedly participated in genocide in Somaliland before coming to America. The family was not “refugees” so much as foreign war criminals seeking shelter here from the consequences of their crimes.

This is a Facebook post by her father, Col. Nur Said Elmi (who participated in the Isaaq Genocide). Many of his family and friends refer to him as Nur Said—the real family name, not “Omar”—and as “Commandante” or “Colonel.”

So her full name is Ilhan Nur Said Elmi.
Same as her… pic.twitter.com/QkZTjScj5q
— REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND (@RepOfSomaliland) March 19, 2026

Even if Omar’s citizenship were legitimate, there is evidence that she lied so she could run for Congress. Article III Project founder Mike Davis explained that Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires American citizenship of at least seven years before being eligible to serve in the House of Representatives. The Trump administration is investigating the possibility that Omar requested a change in her birth year so that she could claim she was a minor who received citizenship from her father, when in fact she was already 18 at that time.
So she not only tampered with records of her age, but she might have also done so on the false premise that her dad was, in fact, a U.S. citizen. Multiple members of Omar’s family are also under scrutiny for potential immigration or USAID fraud. Talk about an illustration of exactly why immigration from fundamentalist Muslim nations, especially chain migration of entire families, is such a disaster for America.

This is about her American husband, not about the brother she allegedly married.

• Did Ilhan Omar’s Husband Sell Empty Barrels of Wine? (Catherine Salgado)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and her family seem to have abandoned their life as murderous warlords in Somalia only to become professional fraudsters in America.

Omar’s husband, Tim Mynett — the one to whom she is currently married, not her brother, whom she pretended to marry for immigration fraud purposes — used to run a winery. Because, you know, she’s a super devout Muslim and all that. The winery abruptly closed earlier this year amid official scrutiny. Turns out part of the problem might’ve been that Omar’s husband was selling investors empty barrels of wine. It’s absolutely incredible how these people seem incapable of running a business or holding a job that is not a front for crime.

#BREAKING: Ilhan Omar's former winery sold completely empty barrels of wine, Rep. Comer says.
— Insider Wire (@InsiderWire) October 19, 2026

In fact, Not the Bee sums up all the latest allegations against Omar very succinctly:
So if all the reports are true, Ilhan Omar
lied about her age to make it seem like she naturalized through her father, who apparently she lied about being a citizen in the first place, then used her illegitimate citizenship to marry her brother so that he could inherit her fake…
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) October 20, 2026

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), House Oversight Committee chairman, made the revelation about the empty wine barrels during an interview Monday on Fox News. “From our initial investigation of Omar and her financial disclosure form, there are multiple fronts where you could get a search warrant issued,” he said. The Trump administration recently raided Omar’s D.C. home.

Comer continued, “Not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form.” He added, “That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud. They were apparently selling investors barrels of wine to be aged, but there was nothing in the barrels.”
This would explain why the winery suddenly shut down. Omar and Mynett made a killing off a business that either didn’t have anything to sell or didn’t have as much to sell as it claimed, and then they just shuttered the business and cut their losses, expecting no consequences.

HOLY CRAP

Ilhan Omar and her husband's winery was SHUT DOWN for FRAUD after they reportedly sold EMPTY WINE BARRELS pic.twitter.com/jUJCtA9yWi
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 19, 2026

Comer also referred to Omar’s numerous connections to the Somali fraud network in Minnesota, including through earmarking taxpayer money for an alleged substance abuse clinic that was actually a fraud scam run out of a restaurant. Omar’s sister Sahra Noor likewise seems to be connected both to the $250 million “Feeding Our Future” scam and a USAID fraud scheme. It’s all in the family.

When all else fails, you can always blame the Supreme Court.

• Senator Says Biden et al Too Chicken To Pack The Court (Turley)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has added schoolyard taunts to his call to pack the Supreme Court with an instant liberal majority. Last week, Whitehouse denounced former President Joe Biden and other Democrats for being “too chicken” to pack the Court and, in the view of many of us, destroy the institution that has been critical to the success of this Republic for 250 years.

The Lever’s David Sirota, a former speechwriter and adviser to Bernie Sanders, set the table for Whitehouse by asking him about how the public can join the resistance to the Court, which is “enabling an anti-democratic project.” With that, Whitehouse was off to the chicken races:
“Well, I think it starts with truth telling and I think the chief executive of the United States has the proverbial bully, the bulliest of all pulpits, and should be prepared to make the argument about what has gone wrong with the courts. The Biden administration was highly reluctant to do that. They completely chickened out. Biden set up that lame committee commission on the Supreme Court and then squelched both Judge Gertner and Professor Tribe when they wanted to describe some of the actual problems at the court so that they couldn’t even get that into the report.”
He then added: “The Biden people didn’t want to go there. They were completely chicken about all that. They wanted no part of that. And it — really wasn’t until the very end, in his last speech after he and Harris had both lost that Biden seemed to have at least somewhat awakened to the fact that the Supreme Court had a real integrity problem.”
The one thing upon which we agree is that the Biden commission was a sham. At the time, I wrote a piece entitled “Is Biden’s Supreme Court Commission Packed to Fail?” I wrote about how the Administration assembled an array of far-left faculty to debate radical changes to the Court. It was breathlessly followed by the press and many on the left as figures like Tribe denounced the Court as fundamentally broken. Of course, few of these voices, including Tribe, held those views when the Court ruled their way with a liberal majority.
The commission appeased the rising radical left in the Democratic Party in a classic Washington death-by-commission strategy. They produced a report that few read and then went back to their respective faculties as happy social warriors.
It is also not surprising that Whitehouse would single out Laurence Tribe, who has attacked conservatives in vulgar terms (as well as other professors like myself). This has included religious attacks and false statements that required public corrections. He has also called for Trump and others to be charged with an endless array of crimes from attempted murder to treason.
Whitehouse was an early champion of the partisan court-packing scheme. His obsession with the plan is telling. Whitehouse has actively spread the false narrative that the justices are, to use Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s description, partisan “hacks.” (Chemerinsky was also a member of the ill-considered commission).
It is a narrative that is entirely unconnected to reality. As I discussed in a recent column, the Court continues not only to rule against this president in major cases but also to rule unanimously or nearly unanimously in the vast majority of cases.
The portrayal of the voting pattern of conservatives as raw politics is an old saw on Capitol Hill. In the confirmation hearing for Kavanaugh, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse raised this issue, asking, “When is a pattern evidence of bias?” Whitehouse noted a voting pattern by the five conservative justices who “go raiding off together.” Whitehouse denounced how the “Roberts Five” of “Republican appointees” join in such decisions and “no Democratic appointee joins them.” He simply ignored the “Ginsburg Four” on the other side of most of those opinions. Those liberal justices are not ideologues because they are treated as manifestly right.
The false narrative is part of a concerted effort by Democratic politicians to condition voters into accepting court packing. Professors and pundits are now demanding that court-packing be an actual litmus test for Democratic candidates.
The reason is a sad statement about the state of American politics. Presented with the prospect of guaranteeing power for years by rejecting our constitutional values and traditions, politicians like Whitehouse are choosing power.
James Carville wants Democrats to hide this intended move from the public (which continues to oppose court packing). Carville told Democratic candidates: “If the Democrats win the presidency and both houses of Congress, I think on day one, they should expand the Supreme Court to 13. F—k it. Eat our dust. Don’t run on it. Don’t talk about it. Just do it.”
Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder has put packing the Supreme Court front and center, explaining, “[We’re] talking about the acquisition and the use of power if there is a Democratic trifecta in 2028.” It is the Nike School of Constitutional Law. Democratic leaders are pledging to “just do it” to appease the mob.
Years ago, Harvard professor Michael Klarman laid out a radical agenda to change the system to guarantee Republicans “will never win another election.” However, he warned that “the Supreme Court could strike down everything I just described.” Therefore, the court must be packed in advance to make these changes possible.
Notably, the far left is now turning on those establishment politicians who are not showing commitment to this agenda, even when they are mouthing the same rhetoric. It is the historic problem with pandering to the left. These demands create an insatiable appetite for radical change, and figures like Whitehouse will continue to fuel the rage against those, even in his own party, who show any hesitation or qualms at this moment.
Whitehouse is right that many in the Democratic Party do not “want to go” where he wants to lead them. After 250 years of the most successful Republic in history, Sheldon Whitehouse wants others to join him in a fevered demolition project. If you even pump the brakes, you are chicken in Sheldon Whitehouse’s mad rush for the constitutional cliff.

“.. a feeling by European ethnics that they are losing their own countries and suffering lower living standards and higher crime rates because their governments do not represent them.”

• The French Protests Are Being Misunderstood (Paul Craig Roberts)

The French protests that are spreading over Europe are not receiving proper attention. The explanation that students all over France, with the disturbances spreading into Italy and Belgium, are burning down historic buildings and looting businesses because they are dissatisfied with the conditions of their school buildings is not a convincing narrative.

Some suspect the violence is connected with the immigrant-invaders, and it is, but it is a different connection than suspected. My take on the events is that the uprising, which seems to be what it is, is the result of many years of frustration and disappointments suffered by European ethnicities because of their rulers’ disregard of them..nEuropean and British governments have spent their energies on matters that negatively impact their populations.
Matters such as globalism which serves a few corporations and international bureaucracies at the expense of people; such matters as complying with Washington’s sanctions against Russia which has destroyed business relationships between Europe and Russia, the values of companies, and, as a result of Washington-imposed sanctions on Russia and Russia’s business partners, high energy prices in Europe and hundreds of thousands of labor force reductions in the German auto industry; matters such as no thought for the employment of European ethnic youth, especially those with university educations, a problem magnified by the permitted influx of millions of invaders, the presence of whom further jammed employment markets, drained Europeans of funds to support children, thus the low birth rate and ongoing replacement of Europeans, and, more importantly, a feeling by European ethnics that they are losing their own countries and suffering lower living standards and higher crime rates because their governments do not represent them.
This is what I meant when I said that the rebellion is connected to immigrant-invaders. It is the French themselves who are rebelling whatever the participation of the immigrant-invaders.
The failure of European and British democracy to represent European and British peoples is demonstrated by the extraordinary low approval rates all European and British governments have. If polls are believable French President Macron is supported by 10% of the French people. This is not a democracy. It is a dictatorship but without the power.
My conclusion is that Europe and America are in crisis and that the political beneficiaries of ruling positions in government are trying to hold their own governments and the EU together by emphasizing “the Russian threat.”
American unity is also at risk. People elsewhere in the world think of Americans as rich, but they are not. A rich person is a person who has disposable income–income that is not committed to debt payments such as home mortgages, credit card debt, car and truck payments, monthly utility (electric and fuel oil) bills, and transportation costs. In America such people are limited to the few top percentage points in the income and wealth distribution. The rest are suffering as several New York Times reports have recently emphasized.
The insouciance of “democratically elected governments” to their own citizens, and to the politicians’ own survival, is illustrated by US President Donald Trump’s refusal of Iran’s offer on a silver platter to provide him with a reelected Republican Congress in the midterm elections by opening the Strait and permitting the resumption of oil flows if Trump will call off the war and accept Iran’s right to control its own waterways.
Donald Trump and his regime, like the regime of George W. Bush and so many others, is so aligned with Israel and the Israel Lobby that the President cannot put the interests of the American people and his own interest before Israel’s interest. In keeping with Trump’s and America’s subservience to Israel, Trump declined Iran’s offer to rescue him.
Every ethic European country is having the interests of Israel and the interests of immigrant-invaders jammed down their throats. And there is nothing they can do about it but rebel and roll out the guillotines, the opening stage of which we might be seeing in France. A cold dark winter without energy will further radicalize Europeans.

Alberta won’t seceed; Québec might. one day.

• The USA Dodges a Bullet – Alberta Independence Votee Fails by 3:1 Ratio (CTH)

Voters in Alberta, Canada rejected an independence referendum to become independent. As the results are announced approximately 76% of Albertans voted to remain a province within Canada, with 23% voting for independence.

While we have sincere respect for those who sought to get free of the Canadian madness, it is ultimately a good outcome for the USA. A successful exit would have likely begun a process to merge with the USA as a 51st state. Obviously adding another million+ progressive voices to the USA landscape would have been detrimental.
CANADA – Voters in Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta have rejected a proposal to begin a process toward independence, results showed early Tuesday, delivering a victory for Prime Minister Mark Carney and supporters of Canadian unity amid President Trump’s trade war and annexation threats.
The vote was not a direct referendum on independence but would have set oil-rich Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada. With more than 1 million votes counted, about 76% supported remaining in Canada, compared with 23% who backed beginning a process that could lead to separation. (read more)
There is already an existing process for sane Canadians to exit the ‘mass formation psychosis’ that is worsening their condition. Canadians can apply for legal immigration to the United States.

https://twitter.com/jezscacuzz/status/2076502486077387176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2076502486077387176%7Ctwgr%5E8cfd82772dcf59d6de95dfa7972dfdee815eddbe%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F20%2Fthe-usa-dodges-a-bullet-alberta-independence-referendum-fails-by-31-ratio%2F

“The immortal jellyfish can beat ageing. It could inspire treatments for diseases of old age..

“Adult cells become ‘undifferentiated’ and become something else that is needed to form the polyp..”

• The Immortal Jellyfish Can Beat Ageing (BBC)

The immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii)

The immortal jellyfish is capable of winding back its lifecycle to become young again. Scientists are unlocking its cellular secrets to find ways human cells could rejuvenate too.

The tiny translucent jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii is surprisingly hard to kill. The marine biologist Maria Miglietta of Texas A&M University at Galveston has cut them, boiled them, starved them, overloaded their tanks with salt or plopped them in fresh water – but the nifty creatures seem to cheat death every time.
Under duress, they stop in their tracks and fall to the bottom of their tank. Then something astonishing happens: the animals transform into balls of cells that bear no resemblance to the tentacled umbrella shape of adult jellyfish, known as the medusa. Within one to three days, a structure called a polyp – an early jellyfish life stage – buds off from this ball of cells and then grows into a colony, which will eventually sprout new medusae.
“From one jellyfish that doesn’t die, then you get this colony that can form hundreds more,” Miglietta says. And each one of these new jellyfish can, in principle, rejuvenate the same way – exhibiting a seemingly endless capacity to wind back to the clock to youth.
Miglietta and other scientists are now studying the genetic and molecular processes that make Turritopsis dohrnii’s death-defying feat possible. By unlocking these secrets, scientists eventually hope to explore whether they can trigger similar kinds of processes in humans. The goal is not to turn elderly people back into babies, Benjamin Button-style – an idea that’s firmly in the realms of science fiction – but to coax cells and tissues into more youthful states to heal wounds and treat age-related maladies.
It’s comforting to think that nature has found a solution to one of the main problems of humans: ageing and death – Maria Miglietta
“The holy grail of this kind of thing, I think, would be regenerative biology: trying to reverse ageing-related degeneration or degradation,” says Michael Koldobskiy, a pediatric oncologist and physician-scientist at Johns Hopkins. “We’re a long way away from harnessing that for human benefit, but I think understanding these organisms that evolved these processes millions of years ago could potentially really pay off.”

A 19th-Century image depicts T. dohrnii, before the extraordinary nature of its lifecycle was discovered (Credit: Alamy)

Turritopsis dohrnii’s regenerative talents were first reported in 1992 by an Italian scientist who was keeping the animals in the lab and forgot to feed them over a weekend. Expecting to find them dead when he returned, “instead he found new polyps in the container”, Miglietta says.
Soon, the biologist Stefano Piraino of Italy’s University of Salento started to take an interest in what made this feat of rejuvenation possible. As embryos develop, so-called stem cells multiply and morph into the nerve cells, muscle cells and various other cell types that make up the body. Usually, they’re stuck in that particular cell type until they age and die. But Piraino discovered that, during the immortal jellyfish’s rejuvenation, certain tissues in the medusa undergo a “transdifferentiation” process where they revert back to a stem cell-type state and then specialise into other cell types.
“Adult cells become ‘undifferentiated’ and become something else that is needed to form the polyp,” says Miglietta, who used to work in Piraino’s lab.
Turritopsis dohrnii’s ability to rejuvenate earned it the nickname “immortal jellyfish”. It is – as far as scientists know – unique in the animal kingdom. While some lizards, worms and amphibians can regrow lost or injured body parts, none come close to reverting adult bodies back into babies. Turritopsis dohrnii is a remarkable demonstration that ageing and mortality is not always a biological inevitability (though scientists can’t rule out that it doesn’t eventually die naturally).

UNBELIEVABLE: Roughly 60,000 fewer Americans A YEAR died of drug overdoses because Trump closed the border.

It's an astounding accomplishment. https://t.co/eXBQLrpbQJ
— Tara Servatius (@TaraServatius) October 20, 2026

John Pilger, a man of immense intelligence & honestly wrote this in 2014.

A factual article, its contents never acknowledged today.

"Ukraine has been turned into a CIA theme park. In Orwellian style, propaganda in the west has inverted this to Moscow." pic.twitter.com/2UsvlpXFMt
— Daniel Lambert (@dlLambo) October 19, 2026

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/2112285409694851303?s=20

SpaceX at $20T to $50T is Ron Baron's call, and he says Elon thinks that's way low.

Starlink alone could be worth about $14T to $15T within 10 years by his math, and data centers in space could become several times bigger than Starlink.

Elon has gone further: unless there's a… pic.twitter.com/9NrJLRMt2e
— Herbert Ong (@herbertong) October 19, 2026

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

Debt Rattle Victory Day 2025

May 092025

May 9, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: Alberta, Casey Means, ceasefire, Fico, Flynn, honor, Nazi defeat, Putin, RFK jr, unconditional, Vance, Victory Day, Von der Leyen, Vucic, WWII, Xi Jinping 54 Responses »

Samuel Peploe Paris-plage 1907

• Berlin Bans Soviet Flags On 80th Anniversary Of Nazi Defeat (RT)

• Vance Outlines Changed US Strategy On Ukraine (RT)

• Trump Calls For ‘Unconditional Ceasefire’ In Ukraine (RT)

• Ukraine Ready For Immediate Ceasefire – Zelensky (RT)

• Ukraine’s Debt Doubles In Three Years – Finance Minister (RT)

• Russia and China Will Never Forget WWII Victims – Putin (RT)

• Russia-China Ties Most Important Stabilizing Factor – Putin (Sp.)

• The West Is Dismantling The Foundations of 1945 (Lukyanov)

• Von der Leyen Has No Business Telling Vucic And Fico Where They Can Go (Borges)

• Kennedy Defends Casey Means’ Nomination For Surgeon General Amid Backlash (JTN)

• Some of Hegseth’s Passwords Exposed in Cyberattacks, Shown on Internet (Sp.)

• Western Canada Puts the Rest of Canada on Notice (David Solway)

• Trump’s Ultimate Troll Move Would Send DC Leftists Into Meltdown (Margolis)

• How Pollsters Rig the Numbers Against Trump (Victor Davis Hanson)

• Trump Urges GOP To Raise Taxes On The Wealthy To Fund Economic Agenda (ZH)

• Trump’s Unprecedented Trade Deal With Britain (Victoria Taft)

https://twitter.com/volcaholic1/status/1920423950691061934

Leo

Interestingly, Pope Leo XIII was the last to use this name nearly 150 years ago after today's election of Leo XIV, and was the earliest-born person ever captured on film.

He was born in 1810 and filmed in 1896.pic.twitter.com/E4u6NbSj6i

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) May 8, 2025

https://twitter.com/RussiaIsntEnemy/status/1920170584094486686

This was probably one of the most emotional scenes of the first Victory Day parades. Veterans of the Red Army, having just survived four years of war, dumped their war trophies; Nazi flags and swastikas; at the foot of Lenin’s Mausoleum, as if to say to each other, 'We did it,… pic.twitter.com/oEDE5o57Yd

— WW2 The Eastern Front (@ShoahUkraine) May 8, 2025

https://twitter.com/simpatico771/status/1920377564096254257

Casey Means

Strong words from Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr.’s former running mate. pic.twitter.com/V4u3E4Y48K

— ZeeeMediaOfficial (@zeee_media) May 8, 2025

https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/1920293145537098043

Patel

REP DEAN: "When can I expect the FBI at my door?"

KASH PATEL: "You know who was targeted by a weaponized FBI? Me. You should read the book."

DEAN: "Should we worry more about your memory or your veracity?"

PATEL: "Your lack of candor. Your accusing me of perjury. Tell the… pic.twitter.com/mLc60p1uNS

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) May 7, 2025

Alex

Tucker Carlson Sounds Alarm on Global Free Speech Crackdown: Is the U.S. Next?

Tucker Carlson warns that the erosion of free speech is accelerating worldwide, with countries like Brazil, the UK, Germany, Canada, and Australia descending into authoritarian control. “The first… pic.twitter.com/XFggjppV1u

— Camus (@newstart_2024) May 8, 2025

This is the absolute stupidity that Trump's cabinet has to deal with.

This NY Democrat can barely speak English, has to be fed questions to ask by her staffer, and tries to imply that she deserves to know critical tariff negotiation details.

Bessent couldn't help but to laugh. pic.twitter.com/trKZ2pV5pw

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) May 7, 2025

Deadly symbolic.

“..degrading to human dignity..” indeed.

• Berlin Bans Soviet Flags On 80th Anniversary Of Nazi Defeat (RT)

A Berlin court has upheld a ban on displaying Soviet flags and symbols at World War II memorials during the city’s events marking the defeat of Nazi Germany, citing concerns over public peace and the Ukraine conflict. Moscow, has decried the “degrading” and “discriminatory” prohibition. Earlier this week, Berlin police issued a ban on the demonstration of numerous Soviet-linked symbols during the May 8-9 events in the capital, including singing Soviet songs in public. An unidentified local association filed an appeal against the ban, arguing that it unfairly restricted freedom of assembly for their planned commemoration at a Soviet Memorial in Treptow. Berlin’s Administrative Court ruled on Wednesday that the police prohibition, which applies to Soviet flags, the Victory Banner, St. George’s ribbons, historical military uniforms, and even wartime songs, stands.

The symbols, according to the court, could be “interpreted as an expression of sympathy for the [Russian] war effort” against Ukraine and “endanger public peace”. The Russian embassy in Berlin strongly criticized the ban, saying it violated the rights of descendants of Soviet soldiers and concerned residents to honor the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism. Up to 27 million Soviet citizens died in their efforts to defeat Nazism. “We deem the ban unjustified, discriminatory, and degrading to human dignity and view it as clear manifestations of historical revisionism and political opportunism,” the embassy statement read.

”We are convinced that on these significant days, everyone… should have the opportunity, regardless of the current political context, to honor the memory and pay tribute to the fallen Red Army soldiers and victims of Nazism in accordance with established long-standing traditions. Any attempts to prevent this deserve condemnation. We urgently demand that the relevant decision be repealed,” it stressed. In 2023, Berlin police prohibited both Russian and Soviet flags during Victory Day commemorations, and in 2024 authorities outlawed Russian and Soviet symbols, including the red Victory Banner and the letters “Z” and “V,” associated with the Russian campaign against Ukraine. In both cases, some people defied the ban by wearing Soviet military attire and displaying the prohibited flags.

I’m still not sure that Vance did his homework. He says here: “We’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire..” But whose obsession is that? We know it’s not Russia’s, it took them all of 5 seconds to say Njet. So it’s probably just US and Ukraine. But since Russia must be part of any deal here, that is useless to think about, let alone obsess.

Russia doesn’t want that 30-day ceasefire because all sorts of things must be agreed first. ‘Demilitarization’ is a big one. But while Vance obsesses over the 30 days, Trump signs a minerals deal that promises Ukraine more weaponry.

“Certainly, the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction to it was you’re asking for too much..” We don’t know the exact offer, but we do know that when Russia says ”no preconditions”, they mean the status of Crimea is not a (pre)condition, it is a fact. Sort of like ‘Demilitarization’. And Putin doesn’t care what Zelensky or Trump or Vance think. Some things are open to negotiation, others are not.

• Vance Outlines Changed US Strategy On Ukraine (RT)

Washington wants to move away from the “obsession” with a 30-day ceasefire proposed by Ukraine, US Vice President J.D. Vance has said. The US is more interested in shaping a durable peace agreement with Moscow, he told a Munich Leaders Meeting on Wednesday. Ukraine had floated a one-month ceasefire as a counter to Russia’s 72-hour truce proposal to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. However, Moscow has rejected Kiev’s plan, arguing that Ukrainian troops, which have been on the backfoot for months, would use it to regroup and strengthen their military posture. Vance stressed that the US remains interested in a “long-term settlement” of the conflict rather than a short-term one.

“We’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire and more on the what would the long-term settlement look like? And we’ve tried to consistently advance the ball,” the vice president said. Vance also noted that the US has deemed Moscow’s initial negotiation proposals as excessive. “Certainly, the first peace offer that the Russians put on the table, our reaction to it was you’re asking for too much,” he said. “But this is how negotiations unfold.” Vance added that US President Donald Trump is prepared to abandon negotiations if there is no progress, urging Moscow and Kiev to engage in diplomacy. “We would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another.” Russia has repeatedly said it is open to talks with Kiev but noted that Ukraine has low credibility, especially when it comes to honoring ceasefire commitments.

Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused Ukraine of sabotaging earlier efforts on this front, including a US-brokered 30-day moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure and a Moscow-backed Easter truce. In light of this, she noted that Russia would view Ukraine’s conduct during the 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire, which went into effect on Thursday, as a test of good faith. Moscow earlier described the initiative as a humanitarian gesture and a move to pave the way for direct peace talks with Ukraine without preconditions. Meanwhile, Trump appeared to support the three-day ceasefire, noting that it “doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot, if you know where we started from.”

Vance: "Which regime in the world has civil nuclear power and enrichment without having a nuclear weapon? The answer is – no one."

Germany, Netherlands, Brazil and Japan all have civil nuclear power and the ability to enrich uranium. None have nuclear weapons. pic.twitter.com/2g5YiuZmjT

— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) May 7, 2025

As long as he doesn’t confuse facts with conditions, no problem.

• Trump Calls For ‘Unconditional Ceasefire’ In Ukraine (RT)

US President Donald Trump expressed hope that Moscow and Kiev would soon agree on a month-long truce following his Thursday call with Vladimir Zelensky, amid a 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire that was unilaterally declared by Russia Starting at midnight on Thursday, Russian forces ceased hostilities and remained at previously occupied positions, only providing a “tit-for-tat reaction” to violations by Ukraine, according to the Defense Ministry in Moscow. Ukrainian troops reportedly carried out at least 488 attacks and attempted two incursions into Russia’s Kursk Region, according to the ministry. Zelensky, who had previously dismissed the Russian peace initiative as “manipulation” while Kiev intensified drone strikes on Russian territory, held a phone call with Trump later in the day.

After the call, he claimed that “Ukraine is ready for a complete ceasefire today, right from this moment,” but insisted that the truce should last for at least 30 days. “Talks with Russia/Ukraine continue,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social after the call. The US calls for, ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. Hopefully, an acceptable ceasefire will be observed, and both countries will be held accountable for respecting the sanctity of these direct negotiations. Trump warned that if a ceasefire is reached but “is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions.” Moscow has repeatedly stated its readiness to begin negotiations with Ukraine without any preconditions. In March, it agreed to a US-brokered 30-day partial ceasefire focused on halting strikes on energy infrastructure. However, according to the Russian military, Kiev violated the truce on numerous occasions.

When announcing the ceasefire last week, President Vladimir Putin described it as a humanitarian gesture to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany – and one that could also serve as a catalyst for “the start of direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” While calling for a longer “unconditional ceasefire” on Thursday, Trump stressed that the truce “must ultimately build toward a Peace Agreement,” reiterating his commitment to secure a “lasting” peace between Russia and Ukraine. “It can all be done very quickly, and I will be available on a moment’s notice if my services are needed,” he added.

Just not on Russia’s conditions. Who won that war again?

• Ukraine Ready For Immediate Ceasefire – Zelensky (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has announced that Kiev is ready for a “complete ceasefire” without any preconditions. A truce could be implemented “from this very minute,” he stated in a message published on his official Telegram channel following talks with US President Donald Trump on Thursday. According to Zelensky, the discussions focused on ways to “bring a real and lasting ceasefire closer,” as well as the “situation on the front lines” and ongoing “diplomatic efforts.” He maintained that the truce should last for at least 30 days, claiming it would “create many opportunities for diplomacy.” “Ukraine is ready for a complete ceasefire today, right from this moment,” he said, adding that it should include “no missile strikes, drone attacks, or hundreds of assaults along the frontline.”

He called on Russia to give an “adequate” response to the offer and to “demonstrate their willingness to end the war.” Zelensky also urged Washington to support this initiative. His statement came amid a 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire unilaterally declared by Russia. President Vladimir Putin announced the truce last week, describing it as a humanitarian gesture to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany that could also serve as a catalyst for “the start of direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” Zelensky dismissed the Russian initiative at the time as “a manipulation,” while Kiev intensified drone strikes on Russian territory ahead of the ceasefire’s scheduled start. On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian forces had launched nearly 500 attacks since the ceasefire took effect.

The Russian military also repelled two attempted cross-border incursions by Ukrainian troops during the truce, according to data from the ministry. Kiev has repeatedly demanded an immediate 30-day ceasefire over the past few months. Moscow has opposed the initiative, arguing that Ukraine would use the time to regroup its troops and restock weapons inventories. Russia recently said that it is ready for direct talks with Ukraine “without preconditions,” and has advocated for a permanent resolution to the conflict that addresses the root causes. In March, it agreed to a US-brokered 30-day partial ceasefire focused on halting strikes on energy infrastructure. However, according to the Russian military, Kiev violated the truce on numerous occasions.

“..we are talking about the fact that in the next 30 years… we will not pay these debts..”

• Ukraine’s Debt Doubles In Three Years – Finance Minister (RT)

Ukraine will be unable to repay its foreign creditors in the next 30 years, with public debt nearing 100% of GDP, Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko said on Thursday. He added, however, that Kiev intends to continue borrowing. Since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, Ukraine has received billions in military, financial, and humanitarian aid and loans from the US, the EU and other donors. Kiev’s mounting state debt, which is approaching 7.1 trillion hryvnas ($171 billion), has raised concerns about the country’s fiscal stability and its capacity to meet future obligations. According to Marchenko, before 2022, Ukraine’s debt-to-GDP ratio “was quite safe” at 55%, however, the country is now approaching 100%. The minister downplayed the situation, stating that the public debt was “not a problem” as the funds that Kiev received from foreign creditors came on preferential terms.

“That is, we are talking about the fact that in the next 30 years… we will not pay these debts,” Marchenko said. “In any scenario… we need additional sources of funding…we will not be able to hold the situation together on our own, whether there is war… or peace,” he added. The minister went on to suggest that Kiev’s western backers could decide to service Ukraine’s external debts from their own budgets. For the time being, interest generated by Russian central bank assets frozen in the West due to sanctions has been used to service Kiev’s debt. In April, Japan agreed to issue a loan of about $3 billion, to be repaid from Moscow’s money. Also last month, Ukraine received the third tranche of €1 billion from the EU, secured by proceeds from the frozen funds.

Russia has vehemently opposed the move, labeling it “theft” and threatening retaliation. The US, Ukraine’s largest donor, has moved to recoup its financial aid to Ukraine by signing a natural resources deal with Kiev. The agreement grants the US preferential access to Ukrainian mineral resources without providing security guarantees. The deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has commented that the US essentially “forced the Kiev regime to pay for American aid,” with “the national wealth of a vanishing country.” Ukraine also faces a potential default on nearly $600 million in payments due in May for GDP-linked securities. Negotiations with hedge funds for restructuring the debt have so far been unsuccessful.

“..a “no limits” partnership where there are “no forbidden zones.”

• Russia and China Will Never Forget WWII Victims – Putin (RT)

Moscow and Beijing remain staunch defenders of the historic truth and remember the countless people their countries lost during World War II, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said during talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. Xi is among the more than two dozen world leaders who are expected to attend the events in Moscow commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. The Chinese president is also poised to hold negotiations with Russian officials. During a meeting on Thursday, Putin thanked his “dear friend” Xi for the visit and for joining him in celebrating a “sacred holiday for Russia.” “The sacrifices that both our nations made should never be forgotten. The Soviet Union gave 27 million lives, laid them on the altar of the Fatherland and on the altar of Victory.

And 37 million lives were lost in China’s war for its freedom and independence. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, this victory was achieved,” he said. Putin highlighted the significance of the triumph over fascism, adding that Russia and China “defend historical truth and the memory of the war and fight against current manifestations of neo-Nazism and militarism.” The Russian leader also thanked Xi for inviting him to his country’s celebrations of its victory over Imperial Japan in WWII. “I will be glad to come back to friendly China on an official visit,” he said.

In echoing remarks, Xi emphasized shared historical memory and the strategic alignment between Beijing and Moscow. “The Chinese and Russian peoples, at the cost of heavy losses, achieved a great victory” and made an “indelible historic contribution to global peace and the progress of humanity,” he noted.Russia and China have long enjoyed close ties, with the two countries describing their relations as a “no limits” partnership where there are “no forbidden zones.” Beijing has also consistently refused to support Western sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.

Hard to beat.

• Russia-China Ties Most Important Stabilizing Factor – Putin (Sp.)

Ties between Russia and China are the most important stabilizing factor in the international arena, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “In the context of a difficult geopolitical situation and global uncertainty, the Russian-Chinese foreign policy nexus is the most important stabilizing factor in the international arena,” Putin said at the expanded-format talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin. The cooperation of the two nations will continue to develop for the benefit of the Chinese and Russian peoples, he added. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the conclusion of agreements on the promotion and mutual protection of investments between Russia and China.

“Today we will sign updated intergovernmental agreements on the promotion and mutual protection of investments, which, I am sure, will have a positive impact on the formation of a more favorable business environment and will give a serious impetus to the development of our economic cooperation,” Putin said. Russia has become the world’s top importer of Chinese cars, the president said, adding that Russia is also ready to expand the range of Russian agricultural products to China. “For our part, we intend to continue to create comfortable conditions for the activities of companies from China in Russia,” the president said. Additionally, Putin said that Russia and China intend to further modernize the transport infrastructure. Putin also proposed to review in detail practical aspects of China-Russia cooperation.

“Mr. Xi Jinping, dear friend, distinguished colleagues, today at the expanded talks with the participation of delegations, we will review in detail the practical aspects of our cooperation in various areas. Traditionally, the chairmen of the five intergovernmental commissions from both sides will report on the work of the five intergovernmental commissions, and our foreign ministers will discuss cooperation in the global arena,” Putin said at the beginning of the expanded talks. The Russian leader also said that he and Xi Jinping held an in-depth, meaningful exchange of views and outlined plans for future work during the narrow-format talks earlier in the day. “The governments of our countries are working effectively. Systematic measures are being taken that will increase the level of financial and technical independence of our cooperation,” Putin added.

“This isn’t about nostalgia – it’s about remembering what was at stake and why that memory mattered. Without a renewed commitment to these principles, no amount of military hardware or technical measures will ensure lasting global stability.”

• The West Is Dismantling The Foundations of 1945 (Lukyanov)

Eighty years is a long time. Over such a span, the world changes almost beyond recognition, and events that once felt close fade into legend. Yet while history may become distant, its imprint remains. The Second World War created a political order that shaped global affairs for decades – an order many assumed was permanent. But today, the world is shifting rapidly and irreversibly. The events of the first half of the 20th century are no less significant, but their role in contemporary politics is no longer the same. The war’s outcome, culminating in the defeat of Nazism, defined the modern world order. In many ways, it was seen as a near-perfect struggle: a battle against an unquestionably aggressive and criminal regime that forced nations with deep-seated ideological differences to set aside their disputes.

The Allied powers – divided by political systems and long-standing mistrust – found themselves united by necessity. None of them entered this alliance out of pure goodwill; pre-war diplomacy was focused on self-preservation and maneuvering to deflect the worst consequences elsewhere. Yet when the existential threat became clear, those ideological rifts were temporarily bridged. It was precisely because of this that the post-war order proved so resilient. This framework weathered the storms of the Cold War and even lingered into the early 21st century, despite major shifts in the global balance of power. What helped hold it together was a shared moral and ideological narrative: the war was seen as a fight against absolute evil, a rare moment when the divisions between the Allies seemed secondary to their common cause. This consensus – centered around the defeat of Nazism and symbolized by milestones like the Nuremberg Trials – gave moral legitimacy to the post-war order.

But in the 21st century, that shared narrative has started to fray. As it weakens, so too does the stability of the world order it helped create. One key reason lies in Europe’s own internal transformations. In the post-Cold War era, Eastern European countries – long vocal about their dual suffering under both Nazi and Soviet regimes – have pushed a revisionist interpretation of the war. These nations increasingly define themselves as victims of “two totalitarianisms,” seeking to place the Soviet Union alongside Nazi Germany as a perpetrator of wartime crimes. This framing undermines the established consensus, which had placed the Holocaust at the moral center of the conflict and recognized European nations’ own complicity in allowing it to happen.

The growing influence of Eastern European perspectives has had a ripple effect. It has allowed Western Europe to quietly dilute its own wartime guilt, redistributing blame and reshaping collective memory. The result? An erosion of the political and moral foundations established in 1945. Ironically, this revisionism – while often framed as a push for greater historical “balance” – weakens the very liberal world order that Western powers claim to uphold. After all, institutions like the United Nations, a pillar of that order, were built on the moral and legal framework forged by the Allies’ victory. The Soviet Union’s enormous wartime contribution, and its political weight, were integral to this architecture. As the consensus around these truths crumbles, so too do the norms and structures that arose from them.

A second, subtler factor has also contributed to the unraveling. Over eight decades, the global political map has been redrawn. The end of colonialism brought dozens of new states into existence, and today’s United Nations has nearly double the membership it did at its founding. While the Second World War undeniably affected nearly every corner of humanity, many of the soldiers from the so-called Global South fought under the banners of their colonial rulers. For them, the war’s meaning was often less about defeating fascism and more about the contradictions of fighting for freedom abroad while being denied it at home.

This perspective reshapes historical memory. For example, movements seeking independence from Britain or France sometimes viewed the Axis powers not as allies, but as leverage points – symbols of the cracks in the colonial system. Thus, while the war remains significant globally, its interpretation varies. In Asia, Africa, and parts of Latin America, the milestones of the 20th century look different from those commonly accepted in the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike Europe, these regions aren’t pushing outright historical revisionism, but their priorities and narratives diverge from the Euro-Atlantic view. None of this erases the war’s importance. The Second World War remains a foundational event in international politics.

The decades of relative peace that followed were built on a clear understanding: such devastation must never be repeated. A combination of legal norms, diplomatic frameworks, and nuclear deterrence worked to uphold that principle. The Cold War, while dangerous, was defined by its avoidance of direct superpower conflict. Its success in averting World War III was no small achievement. But today, that post-war toolkit is in crisis. The institutions and agreements that once guaranteed stability are fraying. To prevent a complete breakdown, we must look back to the ideological and moral consensus that once united the world’s major powers. This isn’t about nostalgia – it’s about remembering what was at stake and why that memory mattered. Without a renewed commitment to these principles, no amount of military hardware or technical measures will ensure lasting global stability.

“..that day when Nigel Farage, in the European Parliament, looked then Commission President Herman van Rompuy in the eye and asked him: “Who the hell do you think you are?”

• Von der Leyen Has No Business Telling Vucic And Fico Where They Can Go (Borges)

Come May 9th, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico will stride into Moscow’s Red Square for the Victory Day parade, marking 80 years since the defeat of Hitler’s Germany and of the final destruction of the odious creed of Nazism. Their decision, a bold assertion of sovereign prerogative, has drawn the EU’s wrath. Threats of sanctions, diplomatic ostracism, and new obstacles for Serbia’s future membership of the Union have predictably followed; as always, the EU mandarinate has no qualms about showing just how hostile to national democracy it is. The episode really brings to mind that day when Nigel Farage, in the European Parliament, looked then Commission President Herman van Rompuy in the eye and asked him: “Who the hell do you think you are?”

The EU’s reaction to Vucic and Fico’s sovereign decision is a study in arrogance. Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy czar, warned that attending Moscow’s parade would carry “consequences”, threatening to stall Serbia’s EU membership and scolding Slovakia, a member state, for daring to chart its own course. Estonian diplomat Jonatan Vseviov called the event a “test of alignment,” as if sovereign nations must genuflect to Brussels’ edicts or face punishment. This is not partnership; it is diktat. The EU, which in 2022 urged members to boycott Russian-hosted events, now brandishes that stance as a whip. Fico, defiant, declared that “No one dictates my travel,” while Vucic stressed that he would “proudly represent Serbia” in the event. Their resolve is a rebuke to a bloc that persistently—and intolerably—mistakes coercion for unity.

Brussels’ threats only bolster the argument for Vucic and Fico’s presence. You don’t need to be a Russophile to remember that, whatever their faults and despite the crimes of the post-1945 division of Europe, the Russians were ultimately on the good side of World War Two. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact notwithstanding, they did storm the Berlin Reichstag. It is morally repugnant that, 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz and so many other death camps, Brussels is trying to prevent European leaders from paying their fair tribute to the more than 20 million Russians who, alongside millions of British, Commonwealth, and American servicemen, fought and fell in the battle against Nazism. For Serbia and Slovakia, attending is an act of historical gratitude to those who saved both nations from genocidal occupation, not a statement on contemporary geopolitics. The EU’s attempt to paint participation as a betrayal ignores this context, weaponising history to enforce conformity. It is also an act of arrogance wholly out of touch with the spirit of the times, even more absurd at a time when the Russian and American presidents are sharing envoys in an effort to return peace to a much bloodied Ukraine.

The EU’s conduct reveals its true face: that of a prison of nations, stifling the autonomy of members and aspirants alike. Slovakia, despite its EU membership, is lectured to as if foreign policy were Brussels’ domain, not the inalienable right of the Slovak people. Serbia, a candidate for over a decade, faces ultimatums to abandon its independent stance, with accession talks hostage to compliance. This is no union of equals but a bureaucratic empire, demanding ideological lockstep over sovereignty. The bloc’s pressure on Serbia mirrors its treatment of Hungary’s Viktor Orban, whose pragmatic diplomacy has been studiously vilified by the Commission’s propaganda machine. The EU’s “solidarity” is a sham, a one-way demand that silences dissent and belittles smaller states’ histories, preferences, and aspirations. Indeed, after this, why would Serbia want to join at all? Why would anyone?

It is no different for the other European nations still exposed to Brussels’ whims. Consider the consequences if Fico had not stood his ground. What nation worthy of the name could accept the institutionalisation of the principle that it is not their national, elected representatives, but a class of foreign, unelected imperial functionaries, who is to decide on our foreign policy, where our leaders go or don’t, or how to vote at the United Nations Security Council? Could anyone accept an EU in which, say, Meloni is bullied for daring to visit Washington against the desires of Mrs. Kallas? What believer in national sovereignty could accept that Mr. Orbán, for instance, is prevented from flying to Israel—or from inviting the Israeli Prime Minister to Budapest—simply because of the EU mandarinate’s known hostility for that country?

Fico
https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1920344805902856593
https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1920434001728164184

Not everyone agrees.

• Kennedy Defends Casey Means’ Nomination For Surgeon General Amid Backlash (JTN)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday defended Casey Means’ nomination for surgeon general on social media, after the nomination faced serious backlash. President Donald Trump nominated Means for the post after withdrawing Janette Nesheiwat’s nomination over allegations she inflated her credentials by claiming she had a degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, when she actually graduated from a medical school in the Caribbean instead and did her residency in Arkansas. Means has largely been criticized over her reputation as a “wellness influencer” and her lack of experience in public health administration. Means graduated from Stanford medical school, but dropped out of her surgical residency as a head and neck surgeon in her fifth year to practice functional medicine instead.

Kennedy claimed that the backlash over Means’ nomination “reveal[s] just how far off course our healthcare conversations have veered,” and that she was the perfect replacement because she left the traditional medical system, not in spite of it. “Casey has excelled in every endeavor she has undertaken,” Kennedy wrote on X. “She had the courage to leave traditional medicine because she realized her patients weren’t getting better. The attacks that Casey is unqualified because she left the medical system completely miss the point of what we are trying to accomplish with [Make America Healthy Again]. “Her leadership has inspired many doctors to reform the system and forge a new path away from sick care, which fills corporate coffers, and toward health care, which enriches all of us,” he added.

Kennedy also applauded Means’ background as a “stand out” at Stanford, her achievement of creating a business and writing a New York Times best-selling book, which he credits as helping to inspire his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. “This ability of Casey’s to inspire Americans to rethink our healthcare system is also an existential threat to the status quo interests, which profit from sickness,” he said. “Every day, I wake up emboldened to drive change because I know the support of MAHA moms has my back. Casey has played an integral role in galvanizing these moms. “Casey will help me ensure American children will be less medicated and better-fed — and significantly healthier — during the next four years. She will be the best Surgeon General in American history,” he concluded. Means will still need to be confirmed by the United States Senate.

Latypova

"Calley and Casey Means come from a family [that's as] Deep State as Deep State gets… their father is a Knight of Malta…"

"We call the [MAHA] strategy ABV—Anything But Vaccines."

Retired pharma R&D executive Sasha Latypova (@sasha_latypova) describes for Victor-Hugo Vaca… https://t.co/Rx5uA1yykl pic.twitter.com/IMr55dqgE5

— Sense Receptor (@SenseReceptor) May 7, 2025

This is Dr. Casey Means, an absolute MAHA warrior and President Trump’s new nominee for Surgeon General of the United States:

“Health is getting destroyed in the United States, which we don't really talk about, because it's not profitable to heal in this country. It's… pic.twitter.com/CPqVtt9smr

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 7, 2025

Here is President Trump’s new Surgeon General of the United States nominee, Dr. Casey Means, exposing the health industry and woke medical schools for six minutes straight.

It’s safe to say she is the perfect pick: pic.twitter.com/JuBKvjrfpC

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 7, 2025

it’s piling up. What’s behind that?

• Some of Hegseth’s Passwords Exposed in Cyberattacks, Shown on Internet (Sp.)

A number of passwords that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth used to register for various websites have been compromised in cyberattacks and are available online, the New York Times reported. The report said this raises new questions about Hegseth’s use of personal devices to share military information. According to the report, the US secretary of defense probably did not use the exposed passwords for sensitive accounts, but did use at least one password multiple times for personal email accounts. It said at least one of the passwords was a simple combination of letters followed by numbers, possibly representing initials and a date. The same password was exposed in two separate personal email account breaches in 2017 and 2018.

According to cybersecurity experts, as Hegseth’s phone number is easily found online, it could be a potential target for hackers and foreign intelligence agencies. On March 24, Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic editor-in-chief, revealed in an article that he was accidentally added by then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to a private chat on the Signal app regarding impending strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. According to Goldberg, the chat included senior officials such as Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Goldberg presented screenshots of the correspondence, in which the Pentagon chief, several hours before the start of the operation, reports on the types of aircraft and targets, which, according to the journalist, could threaten servicemen if leaked.

“..a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession—a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.”

• Western Canada Puts the Rest of Canada on Notice (David Solway)

Though diehard loyalists will disagree, it is now time for Western Canada, in particular Alberta, to get its revolutionary act together. There is no longer any doubt that Canada is a broken, dysfunctional country, a disjointed collection of ten semi-independent provinces and three sparsely populated northern territories, superposed upon a chasm-wide divide between the East-Central “Laurentian” elite of bankers, Crown corporations, government agencies, media Jacobins and powerful political families on one side and the agricultural and energy-producing, partially rural-based, Texan-like, hardworking and self-reliant prairie West on the other. The West was never fully integrated into the Confederation as an equal partner, being consistently exploited by the Upper Canadian Anglo-Presbyterians, Québécois grandees, and their descendants who still rule the upper tier of Canadian politics.

In his 1954 book “Social Credit and Federal Power in Canada,” political scientist James Mallory described the Prairie additions to the nation as “provinces in the Roman sense.” The Prairie provinces were regions dominated by the administrative center in the East to whom they owed fealty and paid tribute. Similarly, in his recent C2C essay on Alberta’s future, University of Calgary professor Barry Cooper explains: “Ottawa acted as a new Rome on the Rideau.” The Western provinces “existed to strengthen and benefit Laurentian Canada by analogy with Roman Italy, and to enrich its leading citizens.” It is appropriate in this connection to recall the policy recommendations of Clifford Sifton, a cabinet member in Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberal government from 1896 to 1905.

As J.W. Dafoe writes in his biography, “CLIFFORD SIFTON in Relation to HIS TIMES,” Sifton was responsible for immigration to the Prairie, what he called the Last Best West, and defended the “stalwart peasants in sheep-skin coats” who were turning some of the most difficult areas of the West into productive farms. Yet he plainly had a change of heart, unless his real intentions were covert. In a speech to Parliament, quoted by the Alberta Prosperity Project, Sifton said: “We desire, and all Canadian Patriots desire, that the great trade of the prairies shall go to enrich our people to the East, to build up our factories and our places of work.” The fact is not in dispute. In the immortal words of the late, Liberal “rainmaker” Keith Davey, “Screw the West. We’ll take the rest,”—which makes neither economic nor practical sense.

In any event, Alberta and the Prairie West, Canada’s food and energy breadbasket, have gotten a raw deal from the central establishment since their inception as part of the Dominion. Tensions are now about to reach a boiling point. No demon that was ever foaled is or was as perilous for Canadian unity as Mark Carney, except perhaps for Pierre Elliott Trudeau, whose 1980 National Energy Program (NEP), as noted, critically depressed Alberta’s economy. Carney is demonstrably bad news for the prairie West, and the spirit of independence is now circulating in Alberta and Saskatchewan. As Preston Manning, one of Canada’s most influential public figures and a force for good, wrote, “Voters, particularly in central and Atlantic Canada, need to recognize that a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession—a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it.” Unfortunately, it’s rather too late now. The people have misspoken.

Carney’s plans are well known, as touched on above: caps on oil and gas emissions, a phased-in fossil fuel ban, a hidden tax on heavy industry, no more pipelines (Bill C-69), increased investment in failed renewables, a continued Tanker Ban, and more. He makes this clear in his 500-page globalist manual for national destruction, “Values.” A meme making the rounds these days has to do with Justin Trudeau rhetorically asking the country: “Miss me now?” Of course, Trudeau was merely Carney’s stooge, a wavy-haired soyboy the country took to its bosom. His non-telegenic master is now in full control, his aura as a cosmopolitan banker proving irresistible to the average Canadian voter. As things now stand, and as they have stood since the incorporation of Alberta and Saskatchewan into the Confederation in 1905, the federal state will persist in feeding parasitically off the West while paradoxically hampering the very infrastructure that supports it.

Let’s bring back Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. He knows a thing or two.

• Trump’s Ultimate Troll Move Would Send DC Leftists Into Meltdown (Margolis)

Last week, I wrote about how Trump’s pick of Mike Waltz for UN ambassador was the ultimate trolling of the left. I even suggested that Trump could up the ante by nominating Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to replace Waltz. Flynn, a seasoned intel veteran, was one of the earliest and most high-profile victims of the Democrats’ Russia hoax. Whether Trump goes that route remains to be seen, but it would be a power play.And it looks like Flynn is on board. During an interview on “The Benny Show,” with Benny Johnson, Flynn declared he’s prepared to return to the role of national security advisor under President Trump—if called upon. Flynn, who briefly held the post at the start of Trump’s first term before being railroaded by the Deep State, left little doubt about his willingness to serve again.

“I am ready to serve,” Flynn said, referencing a post he made on social media that stirred speculation about his return. “The first question—yes. The second question—no,” he added, confirming that while he hasn’t been contacted yet by Trump directly, his hat is firmly in the ring. “I’ve been watching everything, listening, and observing intensely,” Flynn explained. “We are in a place where we cannot afford to have, as Trump likes to say, unforced errors. We cannot afford to drop a glass ball right now.” Flynn emphasized that despite not being in government anymore, he has never stopped serving the country. “I’m serving now, Benny. I serve in just a different way… I’ve been engaging people in government. I’m still out doing stuff,” he said. “That’s my message to every American: How are you serving this country?”

With his extensive military and intelligence background, Flynn made clear he hasn’t retreated from public life. “I didn’t go off into the sunset and go, ‘Woe is me,’” he said. “I know we have great leaders out there… There are a lot of people who have reached out to me to help get their name put forward for some position in the government, and I’ve done that.” Flynn also didn’t mince words about the fear he believes his return would generate among entrenched bureaucrats and the media. “Yeah, is there a group of people in the Deep State that fear me? You’re dam* right they do. They fear me for a good reason,” he said. “The mainstream media—they would blow a gasket.”

When asked directly if he had any breaking news to share, Flynn reiterated his commitment to rejoin the fight: “I would say to you, Benny, that I am ready. I am ready to come out of that glass, that is for sure.” Flynn noted that while President Trump is already doing “wonderful things,” the ideological battle in America is far from over. “We are still in a massive, massive ideological war going on in this country,” he warned. “There aren’t going to be any friendlies if we get to another election and we lose the majority in the House of Representatives—never mind the next presidential election.”

Flynn
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1920196536555782325

“..they were deliberately not counting people who surveyed that they were Trump voters in 2024. That was half the country.”

• How Pollsters Rig the Numbers Against Trump (Victor Davis Hanson)

We’ve touched on polls before, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite as egregious in pollsters’ bias as recently when they apparently or supposedly or purportedly surveyed the first 100 days of President Donald Trump and the public reaction. Almost immediately headlines blared, “Worst First 100 Days in History.” “Trump Drops From 52 to 42.”Everybody was confounded because the economic news was pretty good. Job growth was just spectacular. Over 170,000 jobs. Inflation was down. Energy prices were down. Corporate profits were up. There was a movement on the trade question. Ukraine still—there was no bad news except the controversy and chaos of a counterrevolution. So, what were the pollsters trying to tell us? Or were they trying to manipulate us? And I think it’s the latter.

Larry Kudlow, for example, the Fox, former Fox Business—I think he still is at Fox. He pointed out that when he examined The New York Times and The Washington Post polls, they were deliberately not counting people who surveyed that they were Trump voters in 2024. That was half the country. They were only polling about a third. Think of that. A third of the people that said they voted for Trump they polled. Not half. So, of course, their results were going to be disputed or suspect. But here’s another thing. There were analyses after each of the 2016, the 2020, and the 2024 elections about the accuracy of polls, post facto, of the election. And we learned that they were way off in 2016. They said they had learned their lessons. They were way off in 2020. They said they learned their lesson. And they were way off in 2024.

And why are they way off? Because liberal pollsters—and that’s the majority of people who do these surveys—believe that if they create artificial leads for their Democratic candidates, it creates greater fundraising and momentum. Kind of the herd mentality. “Oh, Trump is down by six. I don’t wanna vote for him. Then he won’t win.” That’s the type of thing that they want to create. I’ll give you one example. The most egregious. The most egregious of all these polls was the NPR/PBS/Marist poll. They have Donald Trump just very unpopular after 100 days. Very unpopular. This is the now-defunded Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that umbrella organization from which this poll was funded and conducted.

Do we remember that poll? It was the one poll that came out the night before the 2024 election. They said that then-Vice President Kamala Harris would win by four points. And they said it was beyond the margin of error. And one of the pollsters said, “It’s her race to lose.” She lost by a point and a half. They were five and a half points. Did they apologize? No. Here they are again. And David Plouffe, one of the directors of the Harris campaign, just recently came out and said, “Well, we had all these inside polls we never disclosed. But not one of them—not one of them—had Harris ever ahead of Trump.” Inside polls don’t lie because you pay somebody to tell you the truth. Nothing will get you fired and lose income quicker than to lie about a poll so that your candidate will be happy and rely on your false information. People don’t pay for that kind of stuff.

So, in other words, they knew the whole time—the Harris campaign—that 15 of those 20 polls, 19 polls that all had Harris winning the election, they were all false. Of course, they never said anything. And so, here’s my point. If you look at the polls that were the most accurate—Mark Penn was very accurate. He’s a Democratic pollster. But especially, the Rasmussen poll and the Insider Advantage and the Trafalgar poll. They joined together and they had a 100-day survey. Rasmussen—each day of the 100-day period that he’s issued a poll. And guess what? They have Trump ahead by anywhere from two to three points after 100 days. And they were the most accurate.

And yet, what do these news outlets say that Trump—it’s a disaster. That he’s polling—no. He’s polling very well. Things are going very well. The pollsters that indicate that people support him are the only pollsters that have any reputation after this decade-long polling disaster in which their prejudices, their biases, and their hatred of Donald Trump affected their results. And they were effectively in league with the Democratic candidate to create momentum rather than to adhere to a spirit of professionalism and honor.

According to some, Trump and Musk run a government for billionaires.

• Trump Urges GOP To Raise Taxes On The Wealthy To Fund Economic Agenda (ZH)

President Donald Trump is urging Republican lawmakers to raise taxes on some of the wealthiest Americans as part of his sweeping new economic package – a move that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says he’s ‘in favor’ of doing. According to individuals familiar with the discussions, Trump is pushing for the creation of a new 39.6 percent tax bracket for individuals earning at least $2.5 million annually or couples making $5 million. The current top rate stands at 37 percent. If enacted, the measure would restore the top marginal rate to its pre-2017 level, effectively rolling back a key piece of President Trump’s own first-term tax cuts. According to Bloomberg, Trump made his case in a phone call Wednesday with House Speaker Mike Johnson, where he also reiterated support for ending the carried interest tax break – a longstanding benefit claimed by private equity and venture capital managers, one source said.

Representative Jason Smith, the Missouri Republican who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, is expected to meet with President Trump on Friday. A congressional aide said Smith plans to assure the president that the forthcoming tax bill ‘will deliver on the president’s priorities,’ according to the aide. While the proposal’s full contours remain under negotiation, it is not yet clear whether it would include an expansion of the existing small business income exemption under the individual tax code. The push to raise the top rate comes as House Republicans face mounting fiscal pressure in drafting what President Trump has labeled the “one big beautiful bill” — a multi-trillion-dollar package aimed at extending the 2017 tax cuts while enacting a range of new promises, including eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay.

To finance the plan, GOP leaders have struggled to find consensus on cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicaid, prompting President Trump to float alternatives. Despite concerns that taxing high earners could harm Republicans politically or drive wealth abroad, President Trump has increasingly suggested such a move might be necessary. Raising taxes goes against long-standing Republican orthodoxy. Trump’s willingness to propose a tax hike for millionaires demonstrates how much he has remade the GOP in his own populist image. Top Republicans have balked at other proposals that would raise levies on affluent households. -Bloomberg “Anytime the president asks for something, we will consider it,” said Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, a member of the House tax-writing committee. He confirmed that both the new top rate and carried interest repeal are “under discussion” but emphasized that “there is no agreement yet.”

In the Senate, the reaction has been more measured. Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that he’s “not excited” about the tax hike but acknowledged that “there are a number of people in both the House and the Senate who are.” “If the president weighs in in favor of it,” Crapo added, “then that’s going to be a big factor that we have to take into consideration.” As Republicans weigh how to advance President Trump’s second-term tax ambitions, the question of who pays — and how much — is shaping up to be a defining test of the president’s enduring sway over the party’s economic direction.

US carmakers are complaining about conditions for the “first 100,000 U.K. made cars coming to America”. As for US beef, let RFK tell us what’s in it.

• Trump’s Unprecedented Trade Deal With Britain (Victoria Taft)

The first of the cascade of trade and tariff deals expected under the new Trump administration was announced in the Oval Office on Thursday. The “unprecedented” deal was the first time in decades that American producers will have freer and “streamlined customs” access to the U.K. markets. The announcement allows the sale of U.S. beef into the U.K. for the first time in decades and ensures an increase in the purchase of Boeing commercial jetliners. Flanked by Vice President J.D. Vance and on a conference call with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Donald Trump announced an agreement “worth billions of dollars” with the U.K. that reconfigures tariff prices on goods, expands the market for American farmers and ranchers, and added a phalanx of Boeing jetliners to that nation’s commercial fleet. The Trump White House called it “a breakthrough” and “a good deal.”

The “unprecedented” deal not only includes U.S. tariffs but also a reduction in tariffs by the U.K. The deal introduces a reset of the baseline framework for trade, which will create a $5 billion in exports opportunities for American farmers, ranchers, and other producers can sell into the U.K. That includes beef. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said that the beef deal with “exponentially” increase the amount of beef that ranchers sell. The U.K. has effectively cut off U.S. beef supply for nearly 40 years due to added hormones and completely cut off U.S.-produced beef 20 years ago due to BSE or mad cow disease concerns. In another win for farmers, Rollins announced that ethanol tariffs were brought to zero percent from an initial 19% announced. In a statement, the president said, “The U.K. will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminated against American products.”

Remarkably, the two countries also announced the creation of a “trading zone” between them. The initial deal also raises about $6 billion in revenue from the 10% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on U.K. imported products and creates a supply chain between the two countries for pharmaceuticals and plane parts. Trump initially announced a 25% tariff on many British products, and under this deal he reduced some of those to 10%, including adjustments to tariffs on steel and aluminum. He also reduced tariffs from 25% to 10% on the first 100,000 U.K. made cars coming to America. Some of America’s most beloved luxury cars come from the U.K., including Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Rover, McLaren, Bentley, Lotus, MG, and Jaguar. In addition to opening markets for American farmers and ranchers, Trump announced an increase in the number of jetliners that would be purchased by British companies, without naming them.

British airlines already had 18 Boeing planes on order before the announced deal. The new deal alludes to a $10 billion order, but doesn’t specify which U.K. airlines would be taking delivery. Simple Flying reports that “there are only two UK airlines that could be in the running for placing such a big Boeing order.” “In October 2023, frequent flyer site Head For Points wrote that IAG, the parent company of British Airways, Iberia, and others, had been in contact with both Airbus and Boeing about further wide-body purchases to replace its older Boeing 777s,” the publication reported. It should be noted that the U.K. companies previously had a stake in Airbus, which is the rival to Boeing’s commercial business, but divested from the airline in 2006. Airbus is owned by several other European countries. Trump noted that the announcement of the deal on Thursday fell on the 80th anniversary of Victory Day for World War II.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has recently said that Trump has done an extraordinary job of creating leverage where there was none before. “President Trump creates what I would call strategic uncertainty in the negotiations,” he told Fox Business. “Nobody’s better at creating this leverage than President Trump,” he said. There’s no one better “at giving himself maximum leverage.” The United States has had near-zero tariffs with the United Kingdom before Trump came along, and now Britain has opened up its markets to American farmers, ranchers, and airplanes more than ever before. As Trump put it Thursday at the announcement in the Oval Office, “It can’t be understated… how important this deal is and what this means to American farmers and ranchers.”

Shavo
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1920341642009096680

«The natural world is the greatest source of excitement, of visual beauty, of intellectual interest. The greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living».

Happy birthday to Sir David Attenborough, legendary broadcaster and naturalist. pic.twitter.com/2LGqDCREyP

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Mama bear

Mama bear and… Wait for it.pic.twitter.com/iECtoY8ORP

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Underground

BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Major New Revelations Concerning The Deep State's Construction Of $21 Trillion Of Secret Underground Cities REVEALED

Dark Journalist Daniel Liszt Breaks Important Intel On FEMA’s Role In Continuity Of Government Operations & The Covert Testing Of Advanced… pic.twitter.com/sKqnmEOMyU

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) May 7, 2025

Shocking stats: autism spectrum disorders up 2,094% since 1990, chronic fatigue syndrome 11,027%, and bipolar in youth 10,833%! What’s driving these massive increases in the last 30 years? pic.twitter.com/BQ5IUD11ig

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https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1920159970655391818

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Debt Rattle November 19 2020

Nov 192020

November 19, 2020 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:43 am Finance Tagged with: Alberta, Biden, Covid19, facemasks, global debt, Great Barrington, mortgage debt, student debt, Yemen 41 Responses »

Paul Klee Ghost of a Genius 1922

• Expert Says Alberta Politicians “Playing Medicine” (WSO)

• 50,000 Doctors And Scientists Sign Global Anti-lockdown Proclamation (JTN)

• Danish Study Finds Face Masks Provide Limited Protection To Wearer (R.)

• UNICEF: Schools Are Not ‘Main Drivers’ Of Covid Among Kids (Pol.)

• Wisconsin, Like MI, GA, PA and VA, Caught Doing the ‘Drop and Roll’ (GP)

• Wayne County Election Board Republicans Rescind Votes Certifying Results (JTN)

• Durham Probe Moving ‘Full Steam Ahead’ After Election Day (Fox)

• IIF Shocked To Forecast Global Debt Hitting $360 Trillion In Ten Years (ZH)

• Americans’ Mortgage Debt Soars To A Record $10 Trillion (CNN)

• Biden Wants To Help Pay Some Student Loans

• Bipartisan Resolution to End War in Yemen (Antiwar)

Greenwald Threat to democracy

What is actually “the single biggest threat to our democracy” is not, as Obama claims, the internet — that’s one of the key safeguards — but rather the attempt to *control* the internet by institutions of authority, including parties, the national security state and their allies: https://t.co/s4vXy90xml

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 17, 2020

Greenwald press freedom

None of what the press whined about regarding Trump — mean tweets about Chuck Todd and Acosta, etc. — were actual threats to press freedom. Obama's Espionage Act use was way worse.

The one actual Trump-era threat to press freedom: they ignored because he's not in their clique: https://t.co/F7t3lPDUNM

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 18, 2020

You can’t claim to be listening to “the science” and ignore people like him.

• Expert Says Alberta Politicians “Playing Medicine” (WSO)

A top Edmonton doctor in virology says Albertans “are being led down the garden path” by government health officials in their efforts to stop the COVID-19 virus. Dr. Roger Hodkinson says the virus is no worse than a “bad flu.” Hodkinson is the CEO of Western Medical Assessments, and has been the company’s medical director for over 20 years. He received his general medical degrees from Cambridge University in the U.K., and then became a Royal College certified pathologist in Canada (FRCPC) following a residency in Vancouver. He also taught at the University of Alberta and runs MutantDx, a molecular diagnostics company in North Carolina.

“What I am going to say is lay language and blunt,” Hodkinson said during an Edmonton City Council Community and Public Services Committee meeting, audio of which is currently making the rounds on YouTube. “There is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the media and politicians. It’s outrageous. This is the greatest hoax every perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. “There is absolutely nothing to be done to contain this virus other than protecting your more vulnerable people. It should be thought of as nothing more than a bad flu season. “This is not Ebola. It’s not SARS. It’s politics playing medicine. And that’s a very dangerous game.”

“Masks are utterly useless. There is no evidence based on their effectiveness whatsoever. Seeing these people walking around like lemmings obeying without any knowledge…putting the masks on.” Hodkinson said social distancing is also “useless” because the virus can travel up to 30 m before landing. He said positive tests, which do not accurately reflect whether you have the virus, are driving “public hysteria,” adding testing should stop unless you show up at a hospital with respiratory problems. He called for residents of long term care homes to be given daily doses of Vitamin D which can help battle the virus.

Hodkinson said the risk of death from COVID-19 to Albertans under 65 is 1 in 300,000. He also blamed businesses closures for a spate of suicides and other social problems. “It’s just another bad flu, and you have to get your minds around that. You’re being led down the garden path by the chief medical officer of health (Dr. Deena Hinshaw) in this province.,” he said. “I am absolutely outraged that it has reached this level.”

City of Edmonton council meeting

Nor should you ignore these 50,000

Great Barrington Declaration

• 50,000 Doctors And Scientists Sign Global Anti-lockdown Proclamation (JTN)

Six weeks after it was first published, the Great Barrington Declaration — an international pronouncement meant to shine light on what it calls the “damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies” — has garnered nearly 700,000 signatures from scientists, academics, doctors and citizens worldwide, with more signatories being added each day as a fresh spate of lockdowns continues across Europe and parts of the United States. Regional and nationwide lockdowns have been an international feature of the COVID-19 pandemic since almost the start of the year. At the outset of the pandemic, China instituted a severe lockdown of the Hubei province where the disease first originated. Global health officials were initially skeptical of the Chinese lockdown, which went against many major established pandemic guidelines.

As the virus spread west into Europe and the United States, however, many heads of state began instituting their own lockdowns, with major countries such as Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom instituting broad stay-at-home orders, business shutdowns, school closures and other unprecedented policies in order to prevent a modeled catastrophic death toll. In the United States, President Trump declined to impose a national lockdown, but throughout March and April governors and local leaders across the country issued their own shutdown orders, some of them lasting for months at a time. The ongoing fall spike of positive COVID-19 tests, meanwhile, has been followed by governors reimposing some of those measures after they were loosened over the summer.

Many public health officials, scientists, epidemiologists and other experts have been broadly supportive of these measures, with many arguing that they are necessary to avoid huge death rates, overwhelmed medical systems and destabilized societies. Yet the Great Barrington Declaration has, in the relatively brief period since its Oct. 4 publication, managed to snag several dozen thousand signatures from experts in those fields and others who believe the lockdowns are causing, in the words of the declaration, “irreparable damage.” “Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health,” the document states. “The results … include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health — leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.”

Boris Kotchoubey, a medical psychology professor at the Universiy of Tubingen who has affixed his signature to the proclamation, told Just the News: “I signed the Declaration … because I share the views formulated in it.” “Anti-Corona measures in all countries that I know (mostly, West Europe) are non-directed, imprecise and, therefore, yield more damage than the disease itself,” he said. “Actually, we know more or less where the infection is spread,” he continued. “(1) big events like high level sport events, rock concerts etc.; (2) loud parties; (3) activities in closed rooms, particularly with screams or songs (worship); (4) public transportation, particularly in big cities; (5) last but not least invasion of the infection in retirement homes.

Rodney Sturdivant, another signatory and the director of Baylor University’s Statistical Consulting Center, echoed those criticisms of lockdown policies. Epidemiological research “does not reflect what has been reported and cited as justifying many policy decisions,” he told Just the News. He described the Declaration as “a call to return to public health practice supported by data and science.” “An important public health principle is to not ignore the totality of public health with fixation on a single aspect,” he said. “The consequences of doing so is catastrophic. We are already seeing the impacts: mental health issues, missed cancer treatments, missed immunizations, hunger, drug overdose, domestic abuse, incredible harm to children … the list is tragically long and preventable.”

Come again?! “The study could not rule out that face masks do not provide any protection.”

• Danish Study Finds Face Masks Provide Limited Protection To Wearer (R.)

A Danish study released on Wednesday found face masks provide the wearer with only limited protection against COVID-19 infection, but said this should not be used to argue against their widespread use to prevent people infecting others. In the study, which was carried out in April and May when Danish authorities did not recommend wearing face masks, 6,024 adults were divided into two groups, one wearing face masks and one control group. After one month, 1.8% of the people wearing masks had been infected, while 2.1% of the people in the control group had tested positive, Copenhagen University Hospital said in a press release. “The study does not confirm the expected halving of the risk of infection for people wearing face masks,” it said.

“The results could indicate a more moderate degree of protection of 15-20%, however, the study could not rule out that face masks do not provide any protection.” The findings are consistent with previous research. Health experts have long said a mask provides only limited protection for the person wearing it, but can dramatically reduce the risk to others if the wearer is infected, even when showing no symptoms. Preventing the spread to others is known as source control. The study’s findings “should not be used to conclude that a recommendation for everyone to wear masks in the community would not be effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 infections, because the trial did not test the role of masks in source control of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the authors wrote.

“The future of an entire generation is at risk.”

• UNICEF: Schools Are Not ‘Main Drivers’ Of Covid Among Kids (Pol.)

Data from 191 countries shows no consistent link between reopening schools and increased rates of coronavirus infection, UNICEF reported in an analysis Thursday. In releasing its first comprehensive assessment of the pandemic’s effects on children, the United Nations agency said “there is strong evidence that, with basic safety measures in place, the net benefits of keeping schools open outweigh the costs of closing them.” “Schools are not a main driver of community transmission, and children are more likely to get the virus outside of school settings,” UNICEF said.

The numbers: As of November, 572 million students — about 33 percent of all students — are being affected by 30 nationwide school closures, the report found. At their peak, school closures affected almost 90 percent of students around the world. Kids accounted for one in nine reported Covid-19 infections worldwide, the report found. “While children can get sick and can spread the disease, this is just the tip of the pandemic iceberg,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. “Disruptions to key services and soaring poverty rates pose the biggest threat to children. The longer the crisis persists, the deeper its impact on children’s education, health, nutrition and well-being. The future of an entire generation is at risk.”

Impossible patterns.

• Wisconsin, Like MI, GA, PA and VA, Caught Doing the ‘Drop and Roll’ (GP)

We’ve reported on multiple incidents of ‘glitches’ that people observed related to the 2020 Presidential Election. These incidents seem odd and so we sought out and found a data set from the 2020 Presidential election. A group of IT patriots analyzed a data set of election vote data and found millions of votes in the election that were either lost or transferred from President Trump to Joe Biden. We reported this and our post was retweeted by the President. Then in Pennsylvania we identified a strange pattern in vote percentages between President Trump’s Election Day votes and his mail-in votes that was basically impossible and suggested fraud. Then we reported on a pattern from a few select counties in Michigan that were consistent but made no sense other than to indicate fraud.

Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai using his approach identified 138,000 votes transferred from Trump to Biden in his study. Then we used the same analysis used by Dr. Shiva on a data set from Milwaukee and found more votes transferred from President Trump to Biden. This was enough to change the Wisconsin election to President Trump. We then re-performed Dr. Shiva’s work on one Michigan County he reviewed and materially agreed with Dr. Shiva’s result. Next we reported on another unusual pattern in vote reporting in Virginia and Pennsylvania where after large entries were made which provided a lead for Joe Biden late in the election process, nearly all subsequent entries after that period of time had the exact same unusual ratio in Trump to Biden votes.

Then we found the same ‘Drop and Roll’ pattern, which is virtually impossible, in Georgia and Michigan. Tonight we can report we found the same impossible pattern in Wisconsin that we saw in MI, PA, GA and VA. Just like the other states we reviewed, in Wisconsin President Trump was up in the Presidential Election all Election Day and night. When most Americans went to bed the President was way up and they expected another Trump win, but when they woke up in the morning after the election they quickly notices something had happened. We reported the next day what it was. President Trump was ahead all night and then suddenly early in the morning over 100,000 votes were dumped for Biden.

Then once Biden took the lead after data dumps nearly every single entry was at the same ratio of Trump to Biden votes. Again, it is completely INCONCEIVABLE mathematically and statistically that after the switch in the lead to Biden, batches of votes would have exactly the same distribution to both candidates.

“Wayne County MI election board Republicans rescind votes to certify, file affidavits that their families were threatened..”

• Wayne County Election Board Republicans Rescind Votes Certifying Results (JTN)

In an extraordinary turnabout that foreshadows possible legal action, the two GOP members of Wayne County’s election board signed affidavits Wednesday night alleging they were bullied and misled into approving election results in Michigan’s largest metropolis and do not believe the votes should be certified until serious irregularities in Detroit votes are resolved. The statements by Wayne County Board of Canvassers Chairwoman Monica Palmer and fellow GOP member William C. Hartmann rescinding their votes from a day earlier threw into question anew whether Michigan’s presidential vote currently favoring Democrat Joe Biden will be certified. They also signaled a possible legal confrontation ahead. “I voted not to certify, and I still believe this vote should not be certified,” Hartmann said in his affidavits. “Until these questions are addressed, I remain opposed to certification of the Wayne County results.”

Added Palmer in her affidavit: “I rescind my prior vote to certify Wayne County elections.” Both GOP board members said their concerns included discrepancies in nearly three quarters of Detroit’s precinct poll books where ballots are supposed to be matched to qualified voters. “The Wayne County election had serious process flaws which deserve investigation. I continue to ask for information to assure Wayne County voters that these elections were conducted fairly and accurately. Despite repeated requests I have not received the requisite information and believe an additional 10 days of canvas by the State Board of canvassers will help provide the information necessary,” Palmer explained.

But we can’t see it.

• Durham Probe Moving ‘Full Steam Ahead’ After Election Day (Fox)

U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe remains “full steam ahead,” a source familiar with his progress told Fox News, despite concerns from Republicans and allies of President Trump that the probe has been dormant following Election Day. “Durham remains full steam ahead,” the source familiar with the investigation told Fox News. Another source told Fox News that his investigation “is definitely still happening,” despite radio silence coming from the U.S. attorney from Connecticut. Durham’s investigation has produced one criminal charge so far, against former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was accused of altering an email related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide.

That prosecution, though, did not allege a broader conspiracy within the FBI, and the conduct it involved had largely been laid out in a Justice Department inspector general report from last December. After the Clinesmith charge, Durham’s team went silent. Two sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News over the summer that Durham was not finished with several lines of investigation, which he believed were “critical.” One source told Fox News Durham had been “feeling more pressure to get this done and wrapped up” over the summer, but said that Durham “does not want this to be viewed political,” and would likely “punt it to after the election,” which he ultimately did.

We stopped counting long ago.

• IIF Shocked To Forecast Global Debt Hitting $360 Trillion In Ten Years (ZH)

The latest quarterly report from the IIF which among other things, has the unpleasant task of calculating total global debt (which consists of Household, Non-financial corporates, General government and Financial debt), was published today and it’s a whopper because it shows, in no uncertain terms, a world that is careening toward either the spectacular deflationary supernoava of a debt collapse, or a hyperinflationary explosion that will need to sweep away hundreds of trillions in debt in the next few years.

Here are the findings:
• Global debt has surged by over $15 trillion since 2019, hitting a new record of over $272 trillion in Q3 2020.
• As the fiscal response to the pandemic continues, the IIF expects global debt to hit $277 trillion (365% of GDP) by end-2020
• Debt outside the financial sector on track to hit $210 trillion (274% of GDP) this year—up from $194 trillion (240%) in 2019
• Emerging market debt (ex-financials) is fast approaching 210% of GDP—up from 185% in 2019 and 140% a decade ago
• Sharply declining revenues have made debt service much more onerous for EM governments—despite low borrowing costs
• Some $7 trillion of emerging market bonds and syndicated loans come due through end-2021, 15% of that in U.S. dollars

And things get really batshit insane after that, but more on that in a moment. First, here the details: According to IIF calculations, global debt is on track to exceed $277 trillion in 2020: Spurred by a sharp rise in government and corporate borrowing as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, the global debt load increased by $15 trillion in the first three quarters of 2020 and now stands above $272 trillion. Much if not all of that increase was monetized by central banks who have now activated the disaster contingency plan known as helicopter money. And with little sign of a slowdown in debt issuance, the IIF estimate that global debt will smash through records to hit $277 trillion by the end of the year.

Let’s just cancel it.

• Americans’ Mortgage Debt Soars To A Record $10 Trillion (CNN)

Low interest rates have helped fuel a boom in the US housing market: Last quarter Americans’ mortgage debt climbed to a record high of nearly $10 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday. Homebuyers are leveraging the near-constant new lows in rates. At the beginning of this month mortgage rates fell to a record low — the 12th record low in 2020. So it’s no surprise that Americans are out buying houses. Between July and September, mortgage debt increased by $85 billion to a total of $9.86 trillion, a record high, according to the report. Mortgages are the largest contributor to household debt in the United States. The New York Fed’s report was full of records or near-records.

For example, when combining new home loans as well as refinancings, the value of new mortgages was even higher at $1.05 trillion. That’s the second-highest volume on record, rivaled only by the refinancing boom of 2003, according to the report. And though mortgage debt is now much higher than it was during the housing boom ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, it’s notable that the share of borrowers with credit scores above 760 points is far higher than it has been in the past. It’s not just home loans that boomed. A rush to buy cars also propped up auto loans and leases, which climbed to the highest level on record: $1.36 trillion.

Meanwhile, rates of loan delinquencies fell in the third quarter, helped by the forbearance programs created by the CARES Act that allowed for deferral of payments, as well as deferrals offered by lenders. Student loan delinquencies, for example, dropped to 4.4% in the third quarter, down from 9.3% in the second quarter. However, the government’s forbearance programs are due to sunset at year-end, leaving people benefiting from those pandemic policies in limbo. Only 132,000 consumers had a bankruptcy notation on their credit reports between July and September, a new historical low, the NY Fed said.

“They say student debt cancellation is, in that sense, regressive, because it’s a form of economic aid targeted to people who are already at an advantage.”

• Biden Wants To Help Pay Some Student Loans

President-elect Joe Biden has affirmed his support for erasing some student debt “immediately.” Student debt forgiveness was a major campaign plank of some of his more progressive rivals for the Democratic nomination, but it remains controversial even among some Democrats. In answer to a question at a Monday press conference, Biden repeated his support for a provision passed as part of the HEROES Act, which the Democratic-controlled House updated on Oct. 1. The provision calls for the federal government to pay off up to $10,000 in private, nonfederal student loans for “economically distressed” borrowers. Biden specifically highlighted “people … having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent,” and said the debt relief “should be done immediately.”

Senate Democrats are pushing for much more debt relief. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer co-authored a resolution in September with Sen. Elizabeth Warren calling for the next president to cancel up to $50,000 of outstanding federal student loans per borrower. According to data from the College Board, that would mean erasing all debt for more than three-quarters of borrowers. The senators cited an opinion from attorneys at a Harvard legal clinic who argue that the power to cancel federal student loan debt rests with the president and his or her education secretary, since it’s the Education Department that actually originates these loans. That means it can be done regardless of who controls the Senate without passing any new laws. It can be done — but should it be done? Some economists argue canceling student debt will boost the economy, freeing up younger people to start businesses, buy homes and even start families.

Warren, in her presidential campaign proposal, cited arguments that debt forgiveness would reduce the racial wealth gap, reverse rural brain drain and allow more people to complete their educations. Activist groups such as the Debt Collective go further, arguing that student debt is wrong in principle. “We must return education to the status of a public good,” the organization says on its website. Critics point out that people with college degrees usually earn more money than those who don’t have them. They say student debt cancellation is, in that sense, regressive, because it’s a form of economic aid targeted to people who are already at an advantage. Some commentators also see a partisan slant to debt forgiveness. That’s because white voters without a college degree are far more likely to vote Republican. And then there’s the moral hazard argument — that debt cancellation would tempt people to take out more student loans and act irresponsibly in the future.

Bring them home. All of them.

• Bipartisan Resolution to End War in Yemen (Antiwar)

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) is expected to introduce a resolution in the House on Thursday that calls for an end to US involvement in the war in Yemen. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) is expected to co-sponsor the legislation, making the bill a bipartisan rebuke to the war, similar to a resolution President Trump vetoed in 2019. In a draft of the bill obtained by Antiwar.com, the legislation invokes the 1973 War Powers Resolution and calls for the president “to remove United States Armed Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Republic of Yemen.” Since 2015, the US has supported Saudi Arabia and its allies in a war against Yemen’s Houthis. While US troops are not fighting on the ground against the Houthis, the support the US military gives the coalition is covered under the War Powers Resolution.

Section 8(c) of the War Powers Resolution defines the introduction of US Armed Forces to include “the assignment of members of such armed forces to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany the regular or irregular military forces of any foreign country or government when such military forces are engaged, or there exists an imminent threat that such forces will become engaged, in hostilities.” The bill says that the “activities that the United States has conducted in support of the Saudi-led coalition fall within” the above definition. US support for the coalition includes things like training, providing spare parts for airplanes, logistical assistance, and intelligence sharing. Experts agree, if the US cuts off support for the coalition, the war in Yemen would quickly come to an end.

While President Trump vetoed previous efforts the end the war in Yemen, including bills banning arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the incoming administration could support the measure. Joe Biden has said that his administration will end support for the Saudi’s war in Yemen.

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Debt Rattle July 19 2016

Jul 192016

July 19, 2016 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:56 am Finance Tagged with: Alberta, Brexit, decentralization, Glass-Steagall, oil, police state, poor, recession, rendition 1 Response »

Russell Lee Tracy, California. Gasoline filling station 1942

• Republican Platform Calls For Return Of Glass-Steagall (MW)

• Calpers Targets 7.5% Investment Return, Earns Just 0.6% In Latest FY (BBG)

• Oil Prices Fall On Oversupply Concerns Despite Output Cuts (R.)

• Alberta Is In The Midst Of Its Worst Recession On Record (BBG)

• China’s Local Debt Problem Goes Global (BBG)

• Middle-Income Families In UK Resemble The Poor Of Years Past (G.)

• Brexit Could Cut London House Prices By 30-50%: SocGen (G.)

• New Zealand to Rein in Housing Boom (BBG)

• ‘NZ First-Home Buyers Should Benefit From Central Bank Proposal’ (Stuff)

• Greek Pensioners Protest Cuts At Top Constitutional Court (Kath.)

• There Will Be No Second American Revolution (Whitehead)

• Britain’s Part In Torture And Rendition Is Still Kept Hidden (Conv.)

• Hans-Hermann Hoppe: “Put Your Hope In Radical Decentralization” (Mises Inst.)

“Opponents of the return of Glass-Steagall were swift to react. “Glass-Steagall is dumb politics and dumb economics…”

• Republican Platform Calls For Return Of Glass-Steagall (MW)

Republicans and Democrats are both bending over backwards to show that they are not beholden to Wall Street. The Republican Party platform, released late Monday, calls for the return of Glass-Steagall restrictions on banks. Paul Manafort, campaign manager for presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, told reporters earlier Monday the language would be included. “We believe that the Obama-Clinton years have passed legislation that has been favorable to the big banks, which is one of the reasons why you see all the Wall Street money going to [Hillary Clinton],” Manafort said.

Glass-Steagall was a Depression-era measure restricting commercial banks from the investment-banking business. The measure was repealed in 1999. Some critics contend that loosening of the banking rules played a role in the subsequent financial crisis. Manafort’s comments suggest Republicans hope to use the issue against Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee. The measure was a major point of contention between Bernie Sanders and Clinton in the Democratic primary. The Democratic platform also includes language calling for a modern version of Glass-Steagall. Party platforms have no teeth. But having Glass-Steagall in both platforms suggests Congress will likely consider the issue next year.

Opponents of the return of Glass-Steagall were swift to react. “Glass-Steagall is dumb politics and dumb economics … returning to Glass-Steagall would be destructive and unworkable,” said Tony Fratto, managing partner in Washington at Hamilton Place Strategies, a lobbying firm that represents large banks. Brian Gardner, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said the market may be underestimating the likelihood of a forced breakup of big banks. “There is an unappreciated risk that Glass-Steagall might be reimposed in 2017 or 2018, especially if Congress seriously looks at changes to the Dodd-Frank Act. We think this is the case regardless of who wins the presidential election,” he said in a note to clients.

And Calpers is not some outlier.

• Calpers Targets 7.5% Investment Return, Earns Just 0.6% In Latest FY (BBG)

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, earned a return of 0.6% on its investments last fiscal year, trailing its long-term target as holdings in stocks and forestland lost money. The pension’s public equity portfolio lost 3.4% in the year through June 30 and forestland assets declined 9.6%, Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos said Monday. Fixed-income holdings rose 9.3% and infrastructure investments gained 9%. “The longer-term returns of the fund – the three-, five-, 10-, 15- and 20-year total returns of the fund – are now below the assumed rate of 7.5% for the fund,” Eliopoulos said. “That’s a significant policy issue for us.”

The system must average at least 7.5% a year to match its assumed rate of return or turn to taxpayers to make up the difference. Calpers’s annualized returns were 6.9% for the last three years, 5.1% for the last 10 years and 7% over 20 years, according to a presentation to the board. It is among U.S. pensions under pressure to boost investment returns as funding shortfalls increase amid an aging population and low interest rates. In fiscal 2015, Calpers earned 2.4%. The pension lost a quarter of its value in 2009. Two years later, it earned a record 20.7% only to see the gain drop to 1% one year later. Since the recession, the fund has sought to better gauge its risks from market volatility.

One day even Reuters will have to admit that demand is way down…

• Oil Prices Fall On Oversupply Concerns Despite Output Cuts (R.)

Oil prices eased on Tuesday as concerns over a crude and refined fuel glut outweighed an expected cut in U.S. shale production and a probable further draw in U.S. crude inventories. Crude prices fell more than 1% in the previous session after worries about potential supply disruptions stemming from an attempted coup in Turkey proved unfounded. “Prices are a bit softer in the Asian trading period – traders and investors are torn which way prices are going to break. It’s a knife edge between optimism and pessimism,” said Ben Le Brun, market analyst at Sydney’s OptionsExpress. The market is waiting for U.S. crude stocks data on Tuesday and Wednesday to help give direction to prices, he said.

Brent crude slipped 11 cents to $46.85 a barrel as of 0657 GMT after finishing the previous session down 65 cents, or 1.4%. U.S. crude, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), fell 11 cents to $45.13 a barrel after settling 71 cents, or about 1.6%, lower in the previous session. Fuel inventories in the United States, Europe and Asia are brimming despite this being the peak summer driving season, leading traders to store diesel on tankers at sea amid wilting demand growth. With landed oil product storage nearly full as well, there is little support for any sustained recovery in crude prices even as output tapers. U.S. shale oil production is expected to fall in August for a tenth straight month, by 99,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.55 million bpd, according to a U.S. drilling productivity report on Monday.

And here’s the result of the demand collapse:

• Alberta Is In The Midst Of Its Worst Recession On Record (BBG)

Alberta, the home of Canada’s oil sands, is going through its worst downturn in activity on record as a prolonged period of low oil prices and the wildfires earlier this year buffet the provincial economy. According to Toronto-Dominion Bank’s economics team, the cumulative annual%age contraction in real output projected for 2015 to 2016 exceeds even the financial crisis, as well as the last supply-side driven crash in oil prices in the mid-1980s, in magnitude. While the recent episode seems poised to be the worst single recession on record, the two recessions in the 1980s mean that stretch is still likely to be regarded as the most challeng≠ing period in the post-war period in Alberta, says a TD team led by Deputy Chief Economist Derek Burelton.

However, TD s team notes that labor market indicators point to a more mild downturn. Periods of boom followed by bust are no strangers to an econ≠omy that is tied to the vagaries of the global oil market, write the economists. The current recession is expected to yield a cumulative annual decline in real GDP of around 6.5%, which is more than twice that of the average of past downturns. While economic activity appeared to be picking up earlier this year, the wildfires that wreaked havoc in the region and disrupted oil operations threw a wrench in the province s nascent comeback story. The economists note that the softness in the Canadian dollar and low interest rates helped Alberta s economy escape an even worse fate.

Buying into the last stages of a bubble.

• China’s Local Debt Problem Goes Global (BBG)

A very local problem in China is being exported at an alarming rate.Debt from special-purpose vehicles linked to municipal and provincial governments — leverage that central authorities are trying (unsuccessfully) to extinguish — is becoming more common in overseas markets. What’s worse, lately it’s been the weakest cities and provinces panhandling to international investors.Since June, as many as six local government financing vehicles have sold dollar bonds, bringing the total issued by such entities to at least $4 billion this year, just shy of the record $4.1 billion logged in all of 2015. Three offerings were scored below investment grade by Fitch, whereas prior to 2016, only one junk security of its kind had surfaced internationally.

Investors should ask why these localities are going abroad when all their revenue is onshore. Could it be that they’re having a harder time raising funds domestically?That wasn’t always the case.After a 1994 law banned regional authorities from issuing bonds directly, LGFVs were set up in their thousands in China to fund infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. Beijing lost track of how big the liabilities were and deployed about 50,000 auditors across the country in 2014. That crackdown culminated in authorities’ decision last year to open the municipal debt spigots and use funds raised that way to repay local governments’ off-balance-sheet debt. As a result, provincial and municipal governments issued an unprecedented 3.8 trillion yuan ($567 billion) directly last year, and may sell as much as 5 trillion yuan this year.

In case people still don’t get where Brexit came from.

• Middle-Income Families In UK Resemble The Poor Of Years Past (G.)

Plunging levels of homeownership and an increased reliance on state benefits to top up salaries have meant that Britain’s middle-income families increasingly look like the poor households of the past, according to one of the UK’s leading thinktanks. A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed that the old link between worklessness and child poverty had been broken, with record levels of employment leading to a drop in the number of poor children living in homes where no adult works. However, the study found that by 2014-15, two-thirds of children classified as living below the poverty line had at least one parent who was working. If Theresa May wanted to take forward David Cameron’s “life chances” strategy, the IFS said, the prime minister needed to focus on lifting the incomes of working households.

“In key respects, middle-income families with children now more closely resemble poor families than in the past,” the IFS said. “Half are now renters rather than owner-occupiers and, while poorer families have become less reliant on benefits as employment has risen, middle-income households with children now get 30% of their income from benefits and tax credits, up from 22% 20 years ago.” The report divided the population into five groups according to income and found that for the middle 20% of children, half were living in an owner-occupied house, down from 69% two decades ago. It also found that mothers’ earnings were increasingly important for households with children. More than 25% of the incomes of middle-income households came from mothers in 2014-15, up from less than 20% in 1996, while this figure doubled from 7% to 15% for the poorest group over the 20-year period.

“We see a classic housing bubble in London and Brexit as the trigger for the correction..”

• Brexit Could Cut London House Prices By 30-50%: SocGen (G.)

London property prices could fall by more than 30% in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the EU and may halve in the most expensive parts of the city, according to analysts at the French bank Société Générale. Brexit may be the trigger to end London’s seven-year house-price boom as companies move employees out of the UK, forcing sales of high-end properties, the company’s real estate analyst Marc Mozzi said in a note to clients. Commercial property has been at the centre of post-Brexit fears as investors have tried to get their money out of property funds, but residential real estate could be hit harder, Société Générale said. “While in recent stress tests the major UK banks were assessed with declines of about 30% in commercial real estate prices, we fear that London residential could experience an even more severe downturn,” it said.

Prices are already falling on properties previously valued at £1m or more, and may have further to go, particularly in the priciest parts of town. London’s highly paid investment bankers and hedge fund managers congregate in boroughs such as Hammersmith and Fulham as well as Kensington and Westminster. Société Générale added: “We see a classic housing bubble in London and Brexit as the trigger for the correction … Given the current ratio of prices to incomes in London, a price correction of even 40-50% in the most expensive London boroughs does not seem impossible.” London property prices have more than doubled since they began to recover from the financial crisis in 2009. Last month, the average London house price was £472,000 – 12 times average London earnings compared with a long-term average of six times, Société Générale said.

Too late. Way.

• New Zealand to Rein in Housing Boom (BBG)

New Zealand’s central bank is moving to quell the country’s housing boom by restricting the amount of money property investors can borrow, paving the way for another cut in interest rates. The Reserve Bank will require investors across New Zealand to have a deposit of at least 40%, it said in a statement Tuesday in Wellington. The new rule, which tightens an existing requirement that investors in Auckland have at least a 30% deposit, will be introduced Sept. 1, the RBNZ said. New Zealand’s dollar fell as markets bet Governor Graeme Wheeler will now be free to respond to persistently weak inflation by cutting the official cash rate to a record-low 2% on Aug. 11.

He has been reticent to lower borrowing costs for fear of stoking housing demand. The proposed new lending rules remove the distinction between Auckland and the rest of the country, Wheeler said in the statement. Since November, the RBNZ has required most investors buying Auckland properties to have a 30% deposit, but that has prompted many to look at opportunities in other centers. In the North Island city of Hamilton, house prices rocketed 29% in the year through June. [..] “A sharp correction in house prices is a key risk to the financial system, and there are clear signs that this risk is increasing across the country,” Wheeler said. “A severe fall in house prices could have major implications for the functioning of the banking system and cause long-lasting damage to households and the broader economy.”

New Zealand politics as a whole built this bubble. And now comes the time to blame each other for it. It will take a long time for the country to live this down.

• ‘NZ First-Home Buyers Should Benefit From Central Bank Proposal’ (Stuff)

The Reserve Bank made the “right decision” to impose new lending rules on property investors, says Prime Minister John Key. Proposed restrictions announced on Tuesday would require banks to lend only a small fraction of their loans to investors with less than a 40% deposit. Key said “in theory” the restrictions would help first-home buyers get into the market by making it more difficult and “less economic” for investors to buy a property. “What the Reserve Bank’s trying to do here is not be forced to increase interest rates, while at the same time trying to take a little bit of steam out of the housing market,” he said. “It’s got a fine line to walk here and I think it’s walking it about right.”

The Labour Party accused National of being “stuck in denial mode” over the housing crisis, but Key said it was up to everyone – central government, the Reserve Bank and councils – to stem the rate of increase in house prices. Key said the new rules would not lead to a drop in house values. “I don’t think anyone’s really arguing that house prices should dramatically fall, other than probably (economist) Arthur Grimes and Don Brash, and that’s not a view supported by the Government.” Labour and the Greens both supported the bank’s proposal. Labour’s finance spokesperson Grant Robertson said it was “the right thing to do” as nearly half of property purchases in Auckland were made by speculators and there were signs of house price increases spreading to other regions.

However, Robertson said the bank was openly calling on the Government to “step up and fix the crisis”. “Labour’s plan to fix the housing crisis includes banning offshore speculators from buying residential properties, an extension of the bright line test to five years and consulting on ending the practice of negative gearing,” he said. “It is clear that the only way to bring stability to the housing market and give first home buyers a fair go is to change the government.” [..] NZ First leader Winston Peters did not think the lending rules would have much of an effect on the housing market. “Given the way house financing is constructed from offshore, foreign investors will carry on as usual whilst New Zealand investors will simply have to stump up a greater deposit. “Accordingly, for a short time longer the house price bubble will just get greater before the inevitable crash.”

Futile. The EU has willed it. But devastating too.

• Greek Pensioners Protest Cuts At Top Constitutional Court (Kath.)

The new law on social security brings fresh cuts to new pensions that could reach up to €722 per month, generating more concern among citizens who are close to retirement. The law introduced by Labor Minister Giorgos Katrougalos provides for adjustments to pensions that have not yet been issued of between €11.38 and €722.09, prompting a group known as the Single Network of Pensions to oppose it at the Council of State, the country’s top constitutional court. The pensioners argue that the law introduces cuts that violate the constitution.

Redefining ‘police state’.

• There Will Be No Second American Revolution (Whitehead)

America is a ticking time bomb. All that remains to be seen is who – or what – will set fire to the fuse. We are poised at what seems to be the pinnacle of a manufactured breakdown, with police shooting unarmed citizens, snipers shooting police, global and domestic violence rising, and a political showdown between two presidential candidates equally matched in unpopularity. The preparations for the Republican and Democratic national conventions taking place in Cleveland and Philadelphia—augmented by a $50 million federal security grant for each city—provide a foretaste of how the government plans to deal with any individual or group that steps out of line: they will be censored, silenced, spied on, caged, intimidated, interrogated, investigated, recorded, tracked, labeled, held at gunpoint, detained, restrained, arrested, tried and found guilty.

For instance, anticipating civil unrest and mass demonstrations in connection with the Republican Party convention, Cleveland officials set up makeshift prisons, extra courtrooms to handle protesters, and shut down a local university in order to house 1,700 riot police and their weapons. The city’s courts are preparing to process up to 1,000 people a day. Additionally, the FBI has also been conducting “interviews” with activists in advance of the conventions to discourage them from engaging in protests. Make no mistake, the government is ready for a civil uprising. Indeed, the government has been preparing for this moment for years. A 2008 Army War College report revealed that “widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.”

The 44-page report goes on to warn that potential causes for such civil unrest could include another terrorist attack, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters.” Subsequent reports by the Department of Homeland Security to identify, monitor and label right-wing and left-wing activists and military veterans as extremists (a.k.a. terrorists) have manifested into full-fledged pre-crime surveillance programs. Almost a decade later, after locking down the nation and spending billions to fight terrorism, the DHS has concluded that the greater threat is not ISIS but domestic right-wing extremism.

Meanwhile, the government has been amassing an arsenal of military weapons for use domestically and equipping and training their “troops” for war. Even government agencies with largely administrative functions such as the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Smithsonian have been acquiring body armor, riot helmets and shields, cannon launchers and police firearms and ammunition.

Are there perhaps more important discussions to be had than who’s to blame for Brexit?

• Britain’s Part In Torture And Rendition Is Still Kept Hidden (Conv.)

Even as the Chilcot Report lays bare the sad story of the UK’s decision to join in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a veil is still drawn over another dark aspect of Britain’s partnership with George W Bush’s administration. For years now, the British state has barely acknowledged its alleged deep involvement in the abuse of terror suspects, and there has been very little in the way of justice for the victims of torture and “rendition” – the practice of abducting suspects without due legal process and transferring them to other countries or territories for interrogation. Nonetheless, my colleague Ruth Blakeley and I have found that this involvement was direct, deep and longstanding. Moreover, most official channels have been closed to keep the extent of the UK’s co-operation from coming to light.

An aborted judge-led inquiry into British involvement in prisoner mistreatment uncovered more than 200 separate allegations of abuse, at least 40 of which were significant enough to warrant detailed investigation. Some of these cases have led to civil action against the British government in the UK courts, others have led to police investigations and criminal inquiry. In response, however, the government has maintained its innocence in every individual case while simultaneously working to block the release of relevant information. There have been attempts to withhold publication of key documents in open court, such as those which demonstrate that British intelligence knew about the torture of prisoners by the CIA before participating directly in their interrogation.

Where British courts have refused to accept government attempts to hold hearings in camera, the government has offered substantial payouts without any admission of liability. Indeed, the 2013 Justice and Security Act, which introduced so-called “closed material procedures” into the main civil courts, gave the state the legal ability to keep details of British involvement in torture out of the public record.

One of my ‘pet’ themes. Not sure Hoppe understands this is an economic phenomenon, in that centralization depends one-on-one on a growing economy. He seems to think it’s political.

• Hans-Hermann Hoppe: “Put Your Hope In Radical Decentralization” (Mises Inst.)

Can one say, then, that the politicians running the EU are even worse than the politicians running national affairs? No, and yes. On the one hand, all democratic politicians, with almost no exception, are morally uninhibited demagogues. One of my German books is titled The Competition of Crooks, which captures what democracy and democratic party politics are really all about. There is in this regard little if any difference between the political elites of Berlin, Paris, Rome, etc., and those running the show in Brussels. In fact, the EU elites are typically political has-beens, with the same mentality as their domestic counterparts, on the lookout for the super-lavish salaries, benefits, and pensions doled out by the EU. On the other hand, the EU elites are worse than their political cronies at home, of course, in that their decisions and rulings always affect a far larger number of people.

What do you predict, then, will be the future of the EU? The EU and the ECB are a moral and economic monstrosity, in violation of natural law and the laws of economics. You cannot continuously punish productivity and success and reward idleness and failure without bringing about the disaster. The EU will slide from one economic crisis to the next and ultimately break apart. The Brexit, that we have just experienced, is only the first step in this inevitable process of devolution and political decentralization.

Is there anything that an ordinary citizen can do in this situation? For one, instead of swallowing the high-sounding blabber of politicians about “freedom,” “prosperity,” “social justice,” etc., people must learn to recognize the EU for what it really is: a gang of power-lusty crooks empowering and enriching themselves at other, productive people’s expense. And secondly, people must develop a clear vision of the alternative to the present morass: not a European Super-State or even a federation of nation States, but the vision of a Europe made up of thousands of Liechtensteins and Swiss cantons, united through free trade, and in competition with one another in the attempt of offering the most attractive conditions for productive people to stay or move.

Can you give a comparative assessment of the USA and the situation in Europe? The difference between the situation in the US and Western Europe is much smaller than is generally surmised on either side of the Atlantic. For one, the developments in Europe since the end of World War II have been closely watched, steered and manipulated, whether through threats or bribes, by the political elites in Washington DC. In fact, Europe has essentially become a dependency, a satellite or vassal of the US. This is indicated on the one hand by the fact that US troops are stationed all across Europe, by now all the way right up to the Russian border. And on the other hand, this is indicated by the steady pilgrimage, performed more regularly and dutifully than any Muslim’s pilgrimage to Mecca, of the European political elites and their intellectual bodyguards to Washington DC, in order to receive their masters’ blessings.

Especially the German political elite, whose guilt complex has meanwhile assumed the status of some sort of mental illness, stands out in this regard by its cowardice, submissiveness, and servility. As for US domestic affairs, both Europeans and Americans have it typically wrong. Europeans still frequently view the US as the “land of the free,” of rugged individualism, and of unhampered capitalism. Whereas Americans, insofar as they know or claim to know anything about the world outside the US at all, frequently view Europe as a place of unhinged socialism and collectivism, entirely alien to their own “American way.” In fact, there exists no principal difference between the so-called “democratic capitalism” of the US and Europe’s “democratic socialism.”

Debt Rattle April 27 2016

Apr 272016

April 27, 2016 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:16 am Finance Tagged with: Alberta, Apple, China, debt, earnings, Exxon, Greece, IMF, lions, refugees, zombies 1 Response »

G. G. Bain Navy dirigible, Long Island 1915

• Apple Just Wiped Out $40 Billion In Value (BI)

• Rotten Apple: Stock Plunges 8% On Earnings, Revenue Miss (CNBC)

• Apple China Sales Drop 26% (CNBC)

• Alarm Over Corporate America’s Debt And Stalled Earnings (Authers)

• Weak US Factory, Consumer Confidence Data Cloud Growth Outlook (R.)

• Once Bustling Trade Ports in Asia and Europe Lose Steam (WSJ)

• Exxon Mobil Downgrade Leaves Just Two AAA-Rated Companies In The US (MW)

• China Ratings Downgrade Wave Seen as Next Driver of Bond Slump (BBG)

• China’s Commodity Frenzy Spurs New Crackdown From Exchanges (BBG)

• Eurogroup Meeting Cancelled, Tsipras To Ask For Special EU Summit (Kath.)

• Greece Faces New IMF Curve Ball to Unlock Aid (BBG)

• Moody’s Downgrades Canadian Province Of Alberta On Rising Debt (R.)

• From Germany To The US, Authorities Want Access To Panama Papers (DW)

• ‘Largest Ever Airlift’ Flies 33 Circus Lions To Africa Sanctuary (AP)

• How Less Stuff Could Make Us Happier – And Fix Stagnation (G.)

• Europe’s Failure On Refugees Echoes The Moral Collapse Of The 1930s (G.)

A lot of people and funds are long Apple, and own sizable chunks of it.

• Apple Just Wiped Out $40 Billion In Value (BI)

Apple’s disappointing earnings report on Tuesday sent the stock down more than 7% in after-hours trading. That’s a lot for any company, but particularly dramatic for Apple, which is the most valuable in the world. Before the market closed today, Apple’s market cap was $578 billion. That means a 7% drop erases more than $40 billion worth of value. But the bad news doesn’t end there. Shares of some of Apple’s suppliers are also down, with Bloomberg reporting that Cirrus Logic has lost more than 8%. By way of comparison, Alphabet’s market cap is around $485 billion. How long until it passes the leader?

Peak Apple is now in the rearview mirror.

• Rotten Apple: Stock Plunges 8% On Earnings, Revenue Miss (CNBC)

Apple reported quarterly earnings and revenue that missed analysts’ estimates on Tuesday, and its guidance for the current quarter also fell shy of expectations. The tech giant said it saw fiscal second-quarter earnings of $1.90 per diluted share on $50.56 billion in revenue. Wall Street expected Apple to report earnings of about $2 a share on $51.97 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. That revenue figure was a roughly 13% decline against $58.01 billion in the comparable year-ago period — representing the first year-over-year quarterly sales drop since 2003. Shares in the company fell more than 8% in after-hours trading, erasing more than $46 billion in market cap.

That after-hours loss is greater than the market cap of 391 of the S&P 500 companies. Importantly, the company announced a 10% dividend increase and a $50 billion increase to its capital return program. Under that new plan, Apple expects to spend a total of $250 billion of cash by the end of March 2018, it said. On the dividend, Apple said its board had declared a dividend of $.57 per share, payable on May 12, 2016 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 9. A key reason for the declining revenue was Apple’s year-over-year decrease in iPhone sales. Despite this, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC Tuesday that the company is in “the early innings of the iPhone.”

In fact, Apple beat Wall Street’s estimates on iPhone shipments, reporting 51.19 million for the quarter. Analysts had expected 50.3 million, according to StreetAccount. Still, that iPhone unit count was a 16% decline from the 61.17 million shipped during the same period last year. For his part, however, Cook described the iPhone business as “healthy and strong” on the call. In fact, Cook said the company added more switchers from Android and other platforms in the first half of the year than in any other six month period ever.

Tim Cook is spinning. Reality says the next great gadget is long overdue; the iPhone is a Jobs idea, the iWatch a failure, and what has Apple done for you lately?

• Apple China Sales Drop 26% (CNBC)

Apple’s sales in China tumbled in the second quarter after currency headwinds hurt Hong Kong sales, the company said in Tuesday’s earnings. “The vast majority of the weakness sits in Hong Kong,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts in an earnings call. “The Hong Kong dollar being pegged to the U.S. dollar, and therefore it carries the burden of strength of U.S. dollar. And that has driven tourism, trade and international shopping down significantly compared to what it was in the year ago.” The company reported quarterly earnings and revenue that missed analysts’ expectations, with revenue declining year-over-year in every region. But China saw the biggest share of declines: Greater China sales, once the tech giant’s fastest growing market, fell to $12.49 billion in the second quarter, the company said, a 26% year-over-year decline.

Excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan, mainland China saw sales decline 11% on a reported basis, and 7% on a constant currency basis, Cook said. But people need to look under the numbers, Cook said, as LTE adoption increases and more Apple stores open in the region. “When I look at the larger picture, I think China is not weak as is talked about,” Cook said. “I see China as … a lot more stable than what I think is the common view of it. We remain really optimistic about China.” Chief financial officer Luca Maestri said the business in China was “better than the numbers might suggest.” “We had significant inventory channel reductions and currency weakness which affected our reported revenue,” Maestri said in an earnings call.

“Keep in mind that we were up against an extremely difficult year-ago compare when our mainland China revenue grew 81%. We remain very optimistic about the China market over the long-term, and we are committed to investing there for the long run.” But speaking in January, Cook warned that the company had seen “some signs of economic softness” in the Greater China region. That business segment, which includes mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, is a key area of growth for the U.S. tech giant, but Cook acknowledged in January that it had been something of a “turbulent environment.” China has seen its pace of economic expansion slowing in recent quarters, and its stock markets have taken investors on a roller coaster ride during that time.

Buybacks are fizzling out. They’re too expensive an option to continue propping up shares.

• Alarm Over Corporate America’s Debt And Stalled Earnings (Authers)

Corporate America is swimming in cash. There is no great news about this, and no great mystery about where it came from. Seven years of historically low interest rates will prompt companies to borrow. A new development, however, is that investors are starting to ask in more detail what companies are doing with their cash. And they are starting to revolt against signs of over-leverage. That over-leverage has grown most blatant in the last year, as earnings growth has petered out and, in many cases, turned negative. This has made the sharp increases in corporate debt in the post-crisis era look far harder to sustain. Perhaps the most alarming illustration of the problem compares annual changes in net debt with the annual change in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, which is a decent approximation for the operating cash flow from which they can expect to repay that debt. As the chart shows, debt has grown at almost 30% over the past year; the cash flow to pay it has fallen slightly.

According to Andrew Lapthorne of Société Générale, the reality is that “US corporates appear to be spending way too much (over 35% more than their gross operating cash flow, the biggest deficit in over 20 years of data) and are using debt issuance to make up the difference”. The decline in earnings and cash flows in the past year has accentuated the problem, and brought it to the top of investors’ consciousness. A further issue is the uses to which the debt has been put. As pointed out many times in the post-crisis years, it has generally not gone into capital expenditures, which might arguably be expected to boost the economy. It has instead been deployed to pay dividends, or to buy back stock — or to buy other companies. Shifts in these uses of cash are now affecting markets.

Cash-funded mergers and acquisitions are at a record. In the four quarters to the end of last September, according to Ned Davis Research, S&P 500 companies spent $376bn on acquisitions, 43% above the prior high in 2007, ahead of the credit crisis. Buyback activity remains intense. According to S&P Dow Jones, for each of the seven quarters up to the third quarter of last year, between 20% and 23% of S&P 500 companies bought back enough shares to reduce their total shares outstanding at a rate of 4% per year. In the last quarter of 2015, 25.8% of companies did so.

“First-quarter GDP growth estimates are as low as a 0.3% rate.”

• Weak US Factory, Consumer Confidence Data Cloud Growth Outlook (R.)

Orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods rebounded far less than expected in March as demand for automobiles, computers and electrical goods slumped, suggesting the downturn in the factory sector was far from over. Tuesday’s report from the Commerce Department also implied that business spending and economic growth were weak in the first quarter. Prospects for the second quarter darkened after another report showed an ebb in consumer confidence in April. The data came as Federal Reserve officials started a two-day policy meeting. The U.S. central bank is expected to leave its benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged on Wednesday. The Fed raised rates in December for the first time in nearly a decade.

“These disappointing reports will likely add to the caution at the Fed. Given the weak performance in these two key segments of the economy, we expect the rebound in growth momentum in the second quarter to be quite weak,” said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York. The Commerce Department said orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to aircraft meant to last three years or more, increased 0.8% last month after declining 3.1% in February. Non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, were unchanged after a downwardly revised 2.7% decrease in the prior month. These so-called core capital goods orders were previously reported to have decreased 2.5% in February.

Economists had forecast durable goods orders advancing 1.8% last month and core capital goods increasing 0.8%. Shipments of core capital goods – used to calculate equipment spending in the gross domestic product report – rose 0.3% after slumping 1.8% in February. Manufacturing, which accounts for 12% of the U.S. economy, is struggling with the lingering effects of the dollar’s past surge and sluggish overseas demand. [..] The durable goods report added to recent reports on retail sales, trade and industrial production in suggesting economic growth slowed further in the first quarter. The economy grew at an anemic 1.4% annualized rate in the fourth quarter. First-quarter GDP growth estimates are as low as a 0.3% rate. The government will publish its advance first-quarter GDP growth estimate on Thursday.

It’ll take a long time for people to acknowledge that globalization, centralization, global trade, are declining and are in essence over, since they are shrinking. And shrinkage=death in our system.

• Once Bustling Trade Ports in Asia and Europe Lose Steam (WSJ)

At a logistics park bordering Shanghai’s port last month, the only goods stored in a three-story warehouse were high-end jeans, T-shirts and jackets imported from the U.K. and Hong Kong, most of which had sat there for nearly two years. Business at the 108,000-square-foot floor warehouse dwindled at the end of 2015 after several Chinese wine importers pulled out, said Yang Ying, the warehouse keeper, leaving lots of empty space. The final blow came after a merchant turned away a shipment in December at the dock. “The client told the ship hands, just take the wine back to France,” Ms. Yang said. “Nobody wants it.” Pain is increasing among the world’s biggest ports—from Shanghai to Hamburg—amid weaker growth in global trade and a calamitous end to a global commodities boom.

Overall trade rose just 2.8% in 2015, according to the World Trade Organization, the fourth consecutive year below 3% growth and historically weak compared with global economic expansion. The ancient business of ship-borne trade has been whipsawed, first by a boom that demanded more and bigger vessels, and more recently by an abrupt slowing. That turnabout has roiled the container-shipping industry, which transports more than 95% of the world’s goods, from clothes and shoes to car parts, electronic and handbags. It has set off a frenzy of consolidation and costs cutting across the world’s fleets. Ashore, it is also slamming ports and port operators, the linchpin to global commerce. Nowhere is the carnage more painful than along the Europe-Asia trade route, measuring roughly 28,000 miles round trip.

A cooling Chinese economy and a high-profile crackdown by Beijing on corruption has damped demand for everything from commodities like iron ore to designer scarves and shoes. Meanwhile, Europe’s still sputtering recovery from the global economic crisis is hitting the flow of goods in the other direction. On Friday, the Hong Kong Marine Department reported throughput for its port in the first quarter was off 11% from the first three months of last year. Throughput for all of 2015 also dropped 11%. “It is the first time you see people in shipping being really scared,” said Basil Karatzas, of New York-based Karatzas Marine Advisors and Co.

Things are not well.

• Exxon Mobil Downgrade Leaves Just Two AAA-Rated Companies In The US (MW)

In a sign of deteriorating credit quality, Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday stripped oil giant Exxon Mobil of its pristine AAA rating, leaving just two U.S. non-financial companies with what is the highest possible rating on their debt. Microsoft and consumer goods giant Johnson & Johnson are now the only companies to enjoy an AAA rating, the strongest possible vote of confidence in their financial strength and discipline in meeting all of their debt obligations. As recently as 2008, there were six AAA-rated companies, but General Electric, Pfizer and Automatic Data Processing have been downgraded since then. “This shows that the corporate market is not immune from secular industry changes and deep cyclical troughs that materially impact the immediate-term credit outlook,” said Brian Gibbons at research firm CreditSights.

S&P cut Exxon’s rating by two notches to AA-plus, and said the outlook is stable, meaning it does not expect to adjust the rating in the near term. The rating agency had placed the rating on CreditWatch negative on Feb. 2, in the light of the lengthy slump in oil prices. “We believe Exxon Mobil’s credit measures will be weak for our expectations for a ‘AAA’ rating due, in part, to low commodity prices, high reinvestment requirements, and large dividend payments,” the agency wrote in a statement. Exxon has more than doubled its debt load in recent years, as it spends generously on major projects, said S&P. But the oil giant has also been rewarding its shareholders with dividend payments and share buybacks “that substantially exceeded internally generated cash flow.”

Exxon is likely to benefit from near-term production gains as some of those projects are completed, but maintaining production and replacing reserves will require more spending. “We believe the company may return cash to shareholders rather than building cash or reducing debt, limiting improvement in our projected credit measures when commodity prices improve,” said S&P. Gibbons said the two-notch downgrade is harsh, given Exxon’s status as the best-of-breed oil and gas company in the world, the strength of its balance sheet and earnings diversity through upstream and downstream businesses. “Its global reach positions it much better than any other energy peer, but it too is not immune to the depths of the cycle,” he said.

Zombie nation.

• China Ratings Downgrade Wave Seen as Next Driver of Bond Slump (BBG)

China’s slumping onshore bond market is braced for rating cuts, as companies report weaker earnings and prepare for unprecedented debt maturities. China Securities and HFT Investment Management predict downgrades will surge as a slumping economy makes financial reports due by April 30 a gloomy read. Companies in China must repay 547 billion yuan ($86 billion) of onshore notes in May, the most in any month ever, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Investors are avoiding risky debt, with the yield premium on three-year AA- rated local bonds, considered junk in China, widening 43 basis points in April, the most since 2014. “An explosion of credit risks is spreading,” said He Qian at HFT Investment Management. “The risks are spreading from privately held companies to state-owned companies, from overcapacity industries to all other industries.”

At least seven companies missed bond payment this year, up from only two in the same period of 2015 as Premier Li Keqiang tries to rid industries with overcapacity of zombie producers. Onshore agencies have cut 33 issuer ratings, almost double the 17 for the first four months of 2015, according to China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co. There have been 34 upgrades versus 37% a year ago. “We will see a wave of rating downgrades in the middle of this year,” said Wei Zhen at Bosera Asset Management. She oversees the Bosera Anfeng 18-Month Interval Bond Fund, whose 17% return in the past year was the best among fixed-income funds tracked by research firm Howbuy. “The rising credit risks may lead to a further correction in the corporate bond market.” Chinese investors have complained onshore ratings don’t fully reflect issuers’ credit risks.

More than 50% of Chinese locally-rated AAA bonds issued by listed firms may have default risk consistent with what Bloomberg’s quantitative, independent default-risk model deems below-investment-grade companies. Shi Yuxin at HuaAn Fund Management said in a report on April 18 that China’s “inflated” ratings will be under pressure to have “substantial” downgrades in 2016 as local governments cut their support for troubled companies. About 14.9% of listed Chinese companies have forecast losses for 2015, compared with 12.7% in 2014, according to data compiled by China International Capital Corp. Ministry of Finance data released on Tuesday showed that profit at state-owned companies slid 13.8% in the first quarter from a year earlier. Investors are fleeing the bond market. The market value of assets held by 718 onshore bond funds dropped last week, accounting for 95.6% of all the fixed-income funds tracked by Shanghai-based research firm Howbuy.

Beijing has lost the narrative.

• China’s Commodity Frenzy Spurs New Crackdown From Exchanges (BBG)

China’s commodity exchanges stepped up efforts to curb speculation in trading in everything from steel to iron ore and coking coal after prices soared amid a credit-fueled binge. Futures slumped on Wednesday. Bourses in Dalian, Shanghai and Zhengzhou have announced further measures, including higher fees and a reduction in night hours, adding to a raft of moves this month that have made it more expensive for investors to trade. Goldman Sachs said this week it was concerned about the surge in speculative trading in iron ore, adding daily volumes were so large that they sometimes exceed annual imports. Ore prices have surged 34% this year in Dalian, while steel reinforcement bar is up 39% in Shanghai.

Morgan Stanley said the spike in speculative trading had stunned global markets, citing a jump in activity for eggs, garlic and cotton as well as iron ore and steel. The explosive growth in trading has stoked concerns that the frenzy was triggered by a credit-fueled surge in liquidity echoing the stock market bubble in 2015 and is destined for a similar bust, according to Zheng Ge at CEFC Wanda Futures. China’s investors have been honing in on raw materials amid signs of a pickup in demand after policy makers talked up growth, added stimulus and the property market rebounded. Among the latest changes, the Dalian exchange raised trading fees for iron ore, coking coal and coke, while Shanghai said it would increase margin requirements for steel reinforcement bar and hot-rolled coil, and shorten trading hours.

The Zhengzhou exchange raised trading charges and margin requirements for some commodities. Iron ore futures plunged 4.1% on Wednesday, extending their decline in the past four days to 8.9%. Steel reinforcement bar lost 3.2% and coking coal slid 4.6% as prices responded to the exchange moves. “We’re trying to clampdown firmly on the trend of excessive speculation in some commodity trading,” the Dalian bourse said in a statement. “We’ll be highly vigilant and adopt further measures if necessary.”

Does SYRIZA have any fight left? If not, Europe is going to walk all over it.

• Eurogroup Meeting Cancelled, Tsipras To Ask For Special EU Summit (Kath.)

Greece and its lenders were unable on Tuesday to reach an agreement on how to line up €3.6 billion in contingent austerity measures, leading to plans for an extra meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Thursday being dropped. A spokesman for Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem confirmed on Tuesday night that there would be no meeting this week to rubber-stamp an agreement between Athens and the institutions and conclude the first review of the third Greek bailout program. “More time needed,” tweeted Michel Reijns. “Meeting of first review, contingency package and debt at later stage,” he added, without suggesting when eurozone finance ministers might meet to discuss Greece.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is expected to call European Council President Donald Tusk today to ask for an extraordinary EU leaders’ summit to discuss the Greek program as the SYRIZA leader feels that Athens has met its bailout commitments and that the lenders’ side is standing in the way of an agreement. Greek government sources said earlier that the details of an initial €5.4 billion package of tax hikes and pension cuts had been finalized. However, the standby measures, which total 2% of GDP, proved to be a stumbling block. Athens proposed that the government should commit to adopting corrective measures if fiscal targets are missed but that these interventions should only be specified after Greece’s fiscal data has been ratified by Eurostat.

This proposal is thought to have been rejected by the IMF and some eurozone member-states, which want Greece to legislate specific measures now and have them on standby in case they are needed. Sources said that Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos spoke with some of his eurozone counterparts on Tuesday in order to explain the situation to them. The Greek government believes that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble showed understanding for Greece’s position and appeared to support the Greek proposal for a permanent mechanism to reduce spending when the adjustment program is not on track. Athens is adamant that the IMF’s insistence on specific standby measures being legislated now was the only factor that prevented Greece and the institutions reaching an agreement on Tuesday.

This battle is about contingency plans, not even actual ones, but what-ifs.

• Greece Faces New IMF Curve Ball to Unlock Aid (BBG)

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has promised voters he’ll reject even one euro cent more of budget austerity than is needed under the country’s bailout. Greece’s international creditors say the program’s requirements may include €3.5 billion in extra fiscal tightening he hadn’t bargained for. The demand by the euro area and the IMF is a potential bombshell for the government, raising the threat of renewed instability in Greece. Tsipras rode to power in January 2015 railing against austerity and nearly steered Greece out of the euro before flip-flopping last summer to secure the nation’s third bailout in six years. Since then the Greek economy has slipped back into recession, unemployment has stayed stubbornly high at around 25% and public support for the euro has weakened.

Just like last year, Tsipras needs financial aid to avoid defaulting on payments to the ECB that come due in three months time. The prime minister’s current dilemma stems from a disagreement between the euro area and the IMF. While the European creditors say the government in Athens has committed to enough austerity to reach the targeted budget surplus before interest payments of 3.5% of gross domestic product in 2018, the IMF projects current Greek measures will produce an excess of just 1.5%. With Germany insisting on continued IMF involvement in the Greek aid program, the conflicting forecasts have led the creditors as a whole to call for “contingency measures” equal to 2% of GDP. These would kick in should the government in Athens stray off its budgetary course as the IMF projects.

So Tsipras and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos face the delicate task of drawing up measures that can satisfy the creditors without breaking apart their coalition with the nationalist Independent Greeks. That balancing act would be a challenge for any Greek government, let alone one with an anti-austerity base, a deep dislike of the Washington-based IMF and a three-seat majority in parliament.

The fastest growing economy in North America for years. Gone.

• Moody’s Downgrades Canadian Province Of Alberta On Rising Debt (R.)

Moody’s Investors Service stripped Alberta of its Aaa credit rating on Monday, becoming the latest ratings agency to downgrade the Canadian province after the oil price shock pushed its finances deep into the red. Citing its worsening fiscal position and resulting rapid rise in debt, Moody’s downgraded the province’s long-term rating to Aa1 from Aaa and maintained a negative outlook. The downgrade “reflects the province’s growing and unconstrained debt burden, extended timeframe back to balance, weakened liquidity, and risks surrounding the success of the province’s medium-term fiscal plan,” Moody’s Assistant Vice President Adam Hardi said in a statement. Earlier this month, Dominion Bond Rating Service also downgraded the province after the provincial government forecast a budget deficit of C$10.4 billion ($8.21 billion) this fiscal year.

Standard & Poor’s stripped Alberta of its AAA credit rating in December. Alberta’s left-leaning NDP government expects the once-booming province to be C$57.6 billion in debt by 2019, while Finance Minister Joe Ceci said Alberta could run deficits until 2024. Ceci described the latest downgrade as a “disappointment” and reiterated the government’s commitment to maintaining funding for public services and infrastructure spending in a bid to spur growth. The province is home to Canada’s vast oil sands and is the No. 1 exporter of crude to the United States but the government expects oil and gas revenues this year to be almost 90% lower than 2014. Earlier this month the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers said capital investment in the industry has dropped C$50 billion in two years and more than 100,000 oil and gas workers have been laid off.

In order to pre-empt ‘authorities’, what the journalists should do is reach out to Wikileaks and find a means to release the data after redacting them in a way that prevents people from getting hurt. The ICIJ does not seem to have that ability. They will come to regret that, because pressure will rise.

• From Germany To The US, Authorities Want Access To Panama Papers (DW)

Germany’s federal states on Friday called for increased measures against tax havens and for media outlets to allow prosecutors to examine the contents of a cache of 11.5 million documents known as the “Panama Papers,” which had been leaked to the press. “If the data sets from the ‘Panama Papers’ are not made accessible, then we cannot draw any consequences,” said Lower Saxony’s Finance Minister Peter-Jürgen Schneider, Reuters news agency reported. However, the Munich-based newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung’s (SZ) investigative unit on Tuesday said it would not hand over the cache nor would it publish the leak online, despite calls to do so by government officials and representatives of the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks.

“As journalists, we have to protect our source: we can’t guarantee that there is no way for someone to find out who the source is with the data. That’s why we can’t make the data public,” the team said during an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit, which included journalist Bastian Obermayer, who was first contacted by the anonymous source. “You don’t harm the privacy of people, who are not in the public eye. Blacking out private data is a task that would require a lifetime of work – we have eleven million documents,” the unit added. In a letter to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) obtained by British newspaper The Guardian this week, US attorney for Manhattan Preet Bharara said the Justice Department “has opened a criminal investigation regarding matters to which the Panama Papers are relevant.”

“The office would greatly appreciate an opportunity to speak as soon as possible with any ICIJ employee or representative involved in the Panama Papers project in order to discuss this matter further,” Bharara said. ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle said on Thursday that the organization would not release unpublished data to the Justice Department or other government entities, although it welcomed the “US Attorney’s Office reviewing all of the information from the Panama Papers.” “ICIJ does not intend to play a role in that investigation. Our focus is journalism … ICIJ, and its parent organization, the Center for Public Integrity, are media organizations shielded by the First Amendment and other legal protections from becoming an arm of law enforcement,” Ryle said in a statement.

Thank you.

• ‘Largest Ever Airlift’ Flies 33 Circus Lions To Africa Sanctuary (AP)

Thirty-three lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia are being flown back to their homeland to live out the rest of their lives in a private sanctuary in South Africa. The largest ever airlift of lions will take place on Friday and has been organised and paid for by Animal Defenders International. The Los Angeles-based group has for years worked with lawmakers in the two South American countries to ban the use of wild animals in circuses, where they often are held in appalling conditions. The lions suffered in captivity: some were declawed, one lost an eye and many were recovered with broken or rotting teeth.

The group said the first group of nine lions would be collected in the capital, Bogota, on a McDonnell Douglas cargo plane, which would pick up 24 more in Lima before heading to Johannesburg. From there they would be transported by land to their new home at the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in Limpopo province, where they would enjoy large natural enclosures. “It will be hugely satisfying to see these lions walking into the African bush,” said Tom Phillips, ADI’s vice-president, as he inspected the cages that will be used to transport the lions. “It might be one of the finest rescues I’ve ever seen; it’s never happened before taking lions from circuses in South America all the way to Africa,” he added. “It’s like a fairytale.”

Or, more likely, we’ll bash each other’s heads in. Bit too dreamy for me.

• How Less Stuff Could Make Us Happier – And Fix Stagnation (G.)

Has western society reached “peak stuff”? If reports that once-insatiable shoppers are starting to cut back are true, what are the consequences for the old economic theory that more consumption equals greater happiness? That is a question a Bank of England blogger has posed, with interesting and upbeat conclusions. Writing on Bank Underground, a blog where Bank of England staff can challenge prevailing orthodoxies, Dan Nixon wondered if rather than shopping our way to satisfaction, a Buddhism-inspired trend of mindfulness has taught us that less is more. Inspired by its message to appreciate the moment, perhaps we can achieve greater happiness by seeking to simplify our desires, rather than satisfy them, wrote Nixon, who works in the Bank’s stakeholder communications and strategy division.

The result of less consumption but greater wellbeing could be “especially important for debates around secular stagnation and ecological sustainability”, he says. In other words, if secular stagnation is nigh and there is a permanent downward shift in the potential growth rates of advanced economies, increased attention will naturally turn to alternative ways to increase wellbeing. “‘Less is more’ ideas could form one part of the solution,” said Nixon. There are also interesting implications in the field of environmental economics, given human wellbeing and ecological sustainability are often assumed to be in conflict. “The neat thing about the less is more critique is that it achieves less consumption without constraining people’s decisions,” said the Bank blogger.

The repeated Black Friday sales frenzies that have spilled across the Atlantic from the US to the UK and the continuing fortunes of big online retailers such as Amazon may feel at odds with all the less is more talk. But the rise of mindfulness, in media coverage, schools and workplaces – including at the Bank of England – has coincided with signs that shopping may be losing its appeal as our national pastime. Ikea, purveyor of flatpacks and tealights, recently claimed the appetite of western consumers for home furnishings had reached its peak. The Swedish furniture giant’s UK crammed car parks and long hotdog queues may suggest otherwise but Ikea’s head of sustainability, Steve Howard, has spoken of “peak curtains”.

His views were followed weeks later by official figures showing the amount of “stuff” used in the UK – including food, fuel, metals and building materials – had fallen dramatically since 2001. The Office for National Statistics data revealed that on average people used 15 tonnes of material in 2001 compared with just over 10 tonnes in 2013.

Fully in line with what I’ve often said. In a situation like this, you have to put people first, not politics, or you will create mayhem. This is a certainty. It’s too late already for Europe. The goodwill and moral high ground wasted over the past 18 months will take 100 years to regain, if ever.

• Europe’s Failure On Refugees Echoes The Moral Collapse Of The 1930s (G.)

In 1938, representatives from 32 western states gathered in the pretty resort town of Evian, southern France. Evian is now famous for its water, but back then, the delegates had something else on their minds. They were there to discuss whether to admit a growing number of Jewish refugees, fleeing persecution in Germany and Austria. After several days of negotiations, most countries, including Britain, decided to do nothing. On Monday, I was reminded of the Evian conference when British MPs voted against welcoming just 600 child refugees a year over the next half-decade. The two moments are not exactly comparable. History doesn’t necessarily repeat itself. But it does echo, and it does remind us of the consequences of ethical failure. Looking back at their inaction at Evian, delegates could claim they were unaware of what was to come.

In 2016, we no longer have that excuse. Nevertheless, both in Britain and across Europe and America, we currently seem keen to forget the lessons of the past. In Britain, many of those MPs who voted against admitting a few thousand refugees are also campaigning to unravel a mechanism – the EU – that was created, at least in part, to heal the divisions that tore apart the continent during the first and second world wars. Across Europe, leaders recently ripped up the 1951 refugee convention – a landmark document partly inspired by the failures of people such as the Evian delegates – in order to justify deporting Syrians back to Turkey, a country where most can’t work legally, despite recent legislative changes; where some have allegedly been deported back to Syria; and still more have been shot at the border.

Emboldened by this, the Italian and German governments have since joined David Cameron in calling for refugees to be sent back to Libya, a war zone where – in a startling display of cognitive dissonance – some of the same governments are also mulling a military intervention. Where many migrants work in conditions tantamount to slavery. Where three separate governments are vying for control. And where Isis runs part of the coastline.