Henri Rousseau The Flamingoes 1907
OTAN
Why is Western media ignoring the anti-NATO protests happening today in Paris, France?
« Sortons vite de l'OTAN! »
Thousands of people chanting "Let's get out of NATO quickly!" pic.twitter.com/j2WleN6O3w
— sarah (@sahouraxo) March 18, 2023
If we wanted to get screwed by the goverment we would have elected Brad Pitt
Big guy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1637086038756671488
DNA RNA
https://twitter.com/i/status/1637133867319451649
RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1637153858819375106
Dowd
Edward Dowd – worrisome pic.twitter.com/KKD9YRw3gU
— Jung (@betterworld_24) March 18, 2023
The US appears at serious risk of becoming ungovernable: “protest, take our nation back!”. But they can’t beat Trump any other way.
• Donald Trump Says He Will Be Arrested Tuesday (NYP)
Former President Donald Trump said he expects to be arrested Tuesday in Manhattan — and urged his followers to protest his looming indictment. “THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!,” he thundered in an all caps missive to his followers on Truth Social Saturday morning. He slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office as “CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL” in his post. Trump again insisted he had committed no crime, and reminded his followers that Bragg’s campaign had been heavily financed by liberal billionaire George Soros.
Bragg’s looming charges are said to focus on Trump’s payments of hush money to Stormy Daniels, an adult star who claimed she had an affair with Trump in 2016 and received $130,000 in hush money payments from the billionaire to keep her quiet during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has denied the alleged infidelity. An attorney for Daniels said Wednesday his client had met with Manhattan prosecutors, and that she was prepared to testify in any trial as a witness. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer, pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal campaign finance law violations stemming from the payment and was sentenced to three years in prison.
“2024 is the final battle. If you put me back in the White House, the reign of the corrupt Washington establishment will be over.”
Are you paying attention yet?
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) March 18, 2023
“The predicted indictment of the former president [..] would be the first of its kind in US history..”
• Arrest Would Deliver Trump 2024 Election In ‘Landslide’ – Elon Musk (RT)
If former US President Donald Trump is arrested next week, he will win the 2024 election in a “landslide victory,” Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday in response to a Fox News clip discussing the possibility of the former president being “handcuffed” and processed through the New York City court system. “If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory,” Musk said in the tweet, a reply to a similar – though less emphatic – prediction from Canadian lawyer @thevivafrei. The opinion that this scenario might propel the former reality TV star back into the White House is not an uncommon one, and appears to be shared by Trump himself. He alerted his followers to his impending arrest on Truth Social on Saturday, urging them to “protest, take our nation back!”
His post highlights that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is discussing security for such an eventuality, perhaps suggesting that the authorities may be wary of the response of Trump’s followers. The predicted indictment of the former president on what are expected to be campaign finance violation charges would be the first of its kind in US history. Even former President Richard Nixon was not prosecuted after he resigned from office following the Watergate scandal. Trump’s lawyer has accused prosecutor Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, of having “weaponized” the legal system, leveraging a misdemeanor charge that federal prosecutors did not deem worthy of prosecution into a felony. If he is found guilty before November 2024, it could potentially keep him from the White House.
When the FBI staged a nighttime raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida estate last summer, the New York Times expressed concern that the agency’s heavy-handed tactics would galvanize the former president’s base, with the resulting electoral turmoil not only allowing Republicans to seize control of Congress, but handing Trump the 2024 nomination on a silver platter. While Republicans did take back the House of Representatives, the midterms fell short of the partisan rout expected by many on the right, with the Senate remaining in Democratic hands. Although incumbent President Joe Biden’s approval rating hovers near record lows, even among those in his own party, most polls pitting him against Trump have Biden leading by a handful of points. An arrest could easily push Trump over the top, according to Musk and many others.
Elon Hunter
.@elonmusk comments on the two-tier justice system that ignores the 459 documented crimes found in Hunter Biden's laptop.
•140 business crimes
•191 sex crimes
•128 drug crimeshttps://t.co/tF4Qbq8JjH pic.twitter.com/lnZras7yqj— kanekoa.substack.com (@KanekoaTheGreat) March 18, 2023
“..high on ratings, but short on the law..”
• Get Ready For Manhattan DA’s Made-for-TV Trump Prosecution (Turley)
“The moment that we are waiting for, we made it to the finale together” — those familiar words from “America’s Got Talent” — could well be the opening line for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg next week, when he is expected to unveil an indictment of former President Trump. With Trump’s reported announcement that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday, it would be a fitting curtain raiser for a case that has developed more like a television production than a criminal prosecution. Indeed, this indictment was repeatedly rejected only to be brought back by popular demand. Trump faces serious legal threats in the ongoing Mar-a-Lago investigation. But the New York case would be easily dismissed outside of a jurisdiction like New York, where Bragg can count on highly motivated judges and jurors.
Although it may be politically popular, the case is legally pathetic. Bragg is struggling to twist state laws to effectively prosecute a federal case long ago rejected by the Justice Department against Trump over his payment of “hush money” to former stripper Stormy Daniels. In 2018 (yes, that is how long this theory has been around), I wrote how difficult such a federal case would be under existing election laws. Now, six years later, the same theory may be shoehorned into a state claim. It is extremely difficult to show that paying money to cover up an embarrassing affair was done for election purposes as opposed to an array of obvious other reasons, from protecting a celebrity’s reputation to preserving a marriage. That was demonstrated by the failed federal prosecution of former presidential candidate John Edwards on a much stronger charge of using campaign funds to cover up an affair.
In this case, Trump reportedly paid Daniels $130,000 in the fall of 2016 to cut off or at least reduce any public scandal. The Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office had no love lost for Trump, pursuing him and his associates in myriad investigations, but it ultimately rejected a prosecution based on the election law violations. It was not alone: The Federal Election Commission (FEC) chair also expressed doubts about the theory. Prosecutors working under Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., also reportedly rejected the viability of using a New York law to effectively charge a federal offense.
“..Bragg upgraded the charges from a misdemeanor class, which stands in sharp contrast to the prosecutor’s history of reducing charges in the majority of his cases..”
• George Soros A Major Force Behind Trump’s Prosecution and Imminent Arrest (TP)
President Donald Trump reacted to the news of his imminent arrest in New York by pointing out that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office’s “leader is funded by George Soros.” Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, whom Donald Trump is referring to in his post, was elected in November 2021 with indirect backing from left-wing billionaire George Soros, who gave $1 million to the Color of Change PAC, which spent it to elect Bragg. The Color of Change PAC is a radical activist group that describes itself as “the nation’s largest online racial justice organization.” [..] Now, Bragg has an opportunity to become infamous in U.S. history for charging former President Donald Trump. The Soros connection was brought up by popular tweeter Catturd, who provoked a response from Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Bragg is allegedly preparing to indict the GOP presidential candidate “for alleged hush money payments Trump made as a presidential candidate in 2016” to pornstar Stormy Daniels, as Fox News reported. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has come to the defense of Donald Trump amid reports of a potential indictment by the Manhattan D.A. “Here we go again — an outrageous abuse of power by a radical DA who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump,” McCarthy said on Twitter. The House Speaker said, “I’m directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to bring felony charges against Trump next week related to payments made in 2016 to settle rumors of an extramarital affair. Bragg upgraded the charges from a misdemeanor class, which stands in sharp contrast to the prosecutor’s history of reducing charges in the majority of his cases.
Since taking office last year, DA Bragg has downgraded approximately 52 percent of all cases brought before his office. Many of these cases involved reducing felony charges to misdemeanors. Under Bragg’s predecessor, less than 40 percent of cases were downgraded. The expected Trump arrests would come after a failed Russia collusion investigation, two dead-end impeachments, a Special Counsel investigation into Trump’s “classified documents” that appears to be neutered by Biden’s worse classified documents scandal, and a January 6 investigation that has led to no substantive evidence that Donald Trump called for an “insurrection.” This is apparently the ‘hail Mary’ play the corrupt Democratic Party is calling for to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
“..Clinton was given a $113,000 fine, Trump is looking at the possibility of handcuffs, for the same charges..”
• Hillary Clinton Quietly Settled Campaign Finance Violation Last Year (PM)
In 2022, Hillary Clinton was fined by the Federal Election Commission after an investigation showed that she and the DNC “misreported payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to obscure the spending,” the AP reported last year. The lawfirm was Perkins Coie, which hired research firm Fusion GPS, which then fabricated evidence, compiled in the Steele Dossier, which was later used by Congress to impeach Donald Trump. The Clinton campaign classed these expenses paid to Perkins Coie for opposition research as “legal services,” and for that misrepresentation, Clinton was made to pay a fine of $113,000. Donald Trump is facing potential felony indictment over recording payments made to his attorney, which were then paid out to porn-star Stormy Daniels in alleged hush money, as legal fees.
Clinton was given a $113,000 fine, Trump is looking at the possibility of handcuffs, for the same charges—mischaracterizing payments to lawyers as legal fees when those lawyers were passing on the money for another purpose. Only Trump sought to keep quiet a relationship he did not want made public, while Clinton and her campaign paid for the creation of false information that was then used in an attempt to unseat the president from the White House. New York City DA Alvin Bragg, who invited Trump to testify before a grand jury, which is an indication of a forthcoming indictment, is elevating the misdemeanor charge of false reporting to a felony by seeking to prove that Trump intended to commit a second crime, likely election fraud. Clinton paid for the creation of a false dossier with the intent to spread that literal disinformation to the public and thereby influence the electorate against Trump. For this, she was issued a fine.
“By intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie and failing to publicly disclose the true purpose of those payments,” the campaign and DNC “were able to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election,” the initial complaint said, per the AP. Clinton and the DNC said the payments were legal fees, but settled for the fines anyway. Clinton paid a civil penalty fine of $8,000, while the DNC paid the remaining $105,000. Depsite lenghty attempts by the FBI to corroborate the reports, the Steele Dossier “has been largely discredited since its publication, with core aspects of the material exposed as unsupported and unproven rumors.”
”..In 2013, Obama’s 2008 campaign was fined one of the largest fines in presidential campaign history with a $375,000 fine..”
• Obama, Hillary Settled Nearly $500,000 In Campaign Finance Fines (DCE)
Both former President Barack Obama and two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were fined a collective total of $488,000 for campaign finance violations and didn’t face indictment or arrest unlike 45th President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump. In 2013, Obama’s 2008 campaign was fined one of the largest fines in presidential campaign history with a $375,000 fine from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for campaign reporting violations. In 2022, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) settled an FEC investigation into whether they violated campaign finance laws by paying a $113,000 Steele dossier fine.
Despite adult film “star” Stormy Daniels being ordered to pay Trump $300,000 for losing a defamation case against him, Far-left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is attempting to bring charges against Trump over a $130,000 payment made by his former lawyer and now convicted liar, Michael Cohen, to Daniels. This will likely backfire for the far-left Manhattan DA and result in skyrocketing fundraising and poll numbers for Trump. In August, when the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) conducted a raid on Mar-A-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Florida, contributions to Trump’s political action committee skyrocketed over one million dollars in two days.
[..] As Trump continues to crush all potential Republican and Democrat challengers in polls for the 2024 presidential election, it’s no coincidence the Department of Justice (DOJ), far-left courts, the radical left, and more are and have targeted President Trump for the past six years and have only exonerated him time after time.
“Executive Order Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government.”
• Watchdog Group Launches Investigation Into Biden’s ‘Woke Army’ (ET)
The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is launching an investigation into a recent executive order the group called an “unprecedented scheme” they believe violates the democratic process. In a press release, FGA said they are “sounding the alarm” on the “‘woke army’ being assembled inside the federal government,” through Executive Order 14091 (EO), titled “Executive Order Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government.” FGA announced that their investigation will include filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests targeting the 23 agencies addressed in the Equity EO, including the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, Labor, Transportation, Social Security, Education, and Health and Human Services.
The group will share the information they gather with Congress, the states, and the American people, according to their press release. FGA asserted that the plan (pdf) was developed by a left-wing activist group, and said it was “designed to circumvent the normal, democratic process and instead force their ideology onto Americans.” Tarren Bragdon, FGA President and CEO said of the executive order, “These equity teams are a Trojan horse planted in the heart of every federal agency to fundamentally change decision-making across the bureaucracy. Their goal is to continuously and permanently embed Left-wing ideology into every agency action.
“We cannot allow this new ‘woke army’ to force un-American philosophy into all corners of our federal government. They will degrade our nation’s capabilities and effectiveness, while undermining our liberty and security.” “We’ve seen the economic devastation over the first two years of the Biden presidency. If radical ideology is ingrained into every policy and regulatory decision at all agencies, the impact on the American people and economy will be widespread, devastating, and impossible to reverse,” Bragdon added. Bragdon referenced part of Section 2 of the order, which outlines the requirement that agency heads across the administration ensure they place an “Agency Equity Team” within their agencies to “coordinate the implementation of equity initiatives,” in order to deliver “equitable outcomes” to the American people.
And Crimea.
• Putin Makes Surprise Visit To Donbass, Mariupol (RT)
Following his surprise visit to Crimea on Saturday, President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced “working trip” to Mariupol, an Azov Sea port city which was liberated by Russian forces last spring amid the military operation in Ukraine, and joined Russia as part of the Donetsk People’s Republic following a referendum in September. Putin arrived in Mariupol by helicopter, accompanied by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, multiple news agencies including TASS and RIA Novosti reported on Sunday morning, citing the Kremlin’s press service. The president visited several districts of the city to inspect the progress of restoration efforts, including the construction of “new residential districts, social and educational facilities, housing and communal services infrastructure, medical institutions.” He also toured the “coastline in the area of the yacht club, theater,” as well as other “memorable places” in the city.
Putin also got behind the wheels of a car and drove through the streets of Mariupol to inspect the facilities, while taking time to speak with residents. On Saturday, Putin was in Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula’s reunification with Russia. Mariupol was liberated by Russian forces last spring amid the military operation in Ukraine. It has become one of the symbols of Russia’s military campaign, and victory in this city has arguably been the main triumph so far. In September, the Donetsk People’s Republic, which includes Mariupol, along with the Lugansk People’s Republic, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, officially joined the Russian Federation after holding referendums. Crimea overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in a referendum after the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014.
“Maxims were used by British colonial forces in Africa and by Imperial Russian forces in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905..”
• Ukrainian Troops Use 19th-Century Arms To Defend Bakhmut – The Telegraph (RT)
Ukrainian forces defending the Donbass town of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut, are relying on Victorian-era Maxim guns, the Telegraph reported on Friday. Despite receiving tens of billions of dollars worth of US and NATO aid, Kiev is reportedly struggling with shortages of arms and ammunition. “I have seen Maxim machine guns in stationary positions many times,” a Ukrainian soldier told the British newspaper. “Despite their age, it is a rather formidable weapon. The main thing is not to forget to add some water.” Invented by Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884, the Maxim gun was the first fully automatic machine gun in the world. Firing a still-respectable 600 rounds per minute, the gun relies on a heavy water jacket around its barrel to prevent overheating. Sitting on iron wheels and weighing around 30 kilos before adding water or ammunition belts, it takes a crew of four people to operate.
Maxims were used by British colonial forces in Africa and by Imperial Russian forces in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. It was already considered obsolete by the First World War, with British forces using the lighter Vickers machine gun in its stead. Sitting in Ukrainian armories since the country was a part of the Russian Empire, Maxims have been used on the frontline in Donbass since last year. While Ukrainian troops told the Telegraph that the Maxim is “a fairly effective weapon in capable hands,”some of Kiev’s servicemen have complained that they haven’t received newer gear. “The Russians have artillery, armored vehicles, and their forces are five to six times greater than ours,” a sergeant near Severodonetsk told Radio France Internationale last July.
“We only had machine guns and RPGs from 1986. A Degtyarov machine gun from 1943. And the Maxim machine gun from 1933.” The US alone has sent Ukraine more than $37 billion worth of weapons and ammunition since Russia’s military operation began last February. With Western stockpiles dwindling, however, American advisers are instructing Ukrainian forces to conserve their ammoif they hope to mount a counteroffensive this spring. Western military officials have also advised Zelensky against hanging on to Artyomovsk, which is nearly encircled by Russian forces at present. Kiev keeps casualty figures under wraps, but US officials believe that “upwards of 100,000 Ukrainian forces” have died since last February, with “many of these losses” taking place in the city, according to a Politico report earlier this week.
Although US officials have written off Artyomovsk as strategically insignificant, it is a vital logistics hub for the Ukrainian military. Control of the town would clear a path for Russian forces to push on towards Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, which sit along the last in a series of fortified lines built by Ukraine since the onset of its conflict with the Donetsk People’s Republic in 2014.
“..Zakharova described Denmark’s refusal as a “fraud” and a “total scam.”
• Russia Responds To Denmark’s Nord Stream Probe Refusal (RT)
Denmark has never been interested in finding the real culprits behind the explosions that destroyed Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines last September, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has claimed. She noted that Copenhagen had dragged its feet on granting permission for the second leg of the gas conduit and is refusing to cooperate with Moscow now that it has been sabotaged. In a statement released on Saturday, Zakharova suggested that Copenhagen’s long-standing aversion to the Nord Stream project is due to American influence. “Copenhagen, which so ferociously defends US interests in Europe, was in the first place not interested in conducting an investigation that could shed light on” those behind the sabotage, the Russian official wrote.
She pointed out that Denmark has yet to respond in a meaningful way to any of the numerous requests Russian authorities have made about the investigation into the blasts, including one by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin last year. Zakharova also reminded Danish officials that Moscow is the owner of the destroyed gas pipelines. According to the statement, “despite Denmark’s refusal [to participate] in a joint investigation into the sabotage,” Russia will continue to insist on being “given answers to the questions posed earlier.” Zakharova went on to warn that Moscow would not let Copenhagen “sweep the issue under the rug,” adding that only an open international probe that includes Russia would be able to establish the facts and present them in an objective manner.
Appearing on Russia’s Russia 1 TV channel on Thursday, Zakharova described Denmark’s refusal as a “fraud” and a “total scam.” Earlier that day, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen ruled out the possibility of Moscow participating in the probe, explaining to journalists that “Denmark, Sweden and Germany all have rule of law and one can have confidence in our investigations.” Russia has accused the three countries of obstruction and asked the UN to initiate an impartial international investigation. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were built under the Baltic Sea to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany and onward to Western Europe. Both conduits were ruptured and made inoperable by explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
“We would have a full reserve system, unfortunately one that is not backed by gold, but it would be a huge step in the right direction.”
• The Perfect Solution to the Banking Crisis Is to Make a Truly Safe Bank (Mish)
How many times do we have to go down the duration mismatch road with fractional reserve lending and nearly $9 trillion of Fed QE to prove the current banking doesn’t work? Once again, systemic risk morphed into economic stress, bank failures, and then a bailout of the banking system, not just Silicon Valley Bank. If you think only depositors got bailed out, you are mistaken. The Fed put a system backstop on $600 billion in bond losses. And although bank executives will lose their jobs, they cashed out tens of millions of dollars in stock options along the way. Specifically, we need a bank that puts 100% of its assets in overnight treasuries and makes zero loans. The bank would not need any loan officers or many operational personnel for obvious reasons.
There would be no need for FDIC guarantees because there would be zero risk of a run and zero risk of losses. We can still keep the FDIC term in place, but realistically it would not be needed. In essence, we would create a 100% reserve bank. Such a bank might pay one percentage point less than the Fed ‘s overnight rate for safekeeping. If the overnight rate fell below 1 percent, the bank would charge a fee for safekeeping. The bank could also do term deposits at a slight discount to corresponding treasury yields. Depositors would be required to hold assets to term. To prevent runs on existing banks right, we would let every bank participate in this offering. Customers would have a chance to place their deposits into safekeeping accounts at existing banks.
To make loans, I propose banks would have to attract investment money instead of lending money into existence. They would do so by offering higher than market interest rates on term deposits, but those deposits would not be guaranteed. As an added benefit, this setup would end fractional reserve lending. We would have a full reserve system, unfortunately one that is not backed by gold, but it would be a huge step in the right direction. The immediate economic reaction would likely be contractionary, but that seems to be what the Fed wants now anyway to rein in inflation. Alternatively, perhaps we could phase these ideas in over a 10-year period to mitigate risk.
“..these calculations suggest that recent declines in bank asset values very significantly increased the fragility of the US banking system to uninsured depositor runs..”
• Nearly 200 US banks At Risk Of Repeating SVB Collapse – Study (RT)
Nearly 200 American banks face similar risks to those that led to the implosion and bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), according to a paper posted this week to the Social Science Research Network. SVB, a major US lender focused on the tech and startup sectors, was shut down by regulators last week after massive deposit outflows. In the study, four economists from prominent US universities estimated how much market value the assets held by US banks have lost due to recent interest rate hikes. “From March 07, 2022, to March 6, 2023, the federal funds rate rose sharply from 0.08% to 4.57%, and this increase was accompanied by quantitative tightening. As a result, long-dated assets similar to those held on bank balance sheets experienced significant value declines during the same period,” they wrote.
Although higher interest rates can benefit banks by allowing them to lend at a higher rate, many US banks have parked a significant portion of their excess cash in US Treasuries. This was done when interest rates were at near-zero levels. The value of these bonds has now greatly decreased due to the rate hikes – investors can now simply purchase newly issued bonds that offer a higher interest rate. The decline in the banks’ portfolios is unrealized, meaning the value of the securities has declined but the loss is still only ‘on paper’. The problem arises when customers request their deposits back and banks are forced to sell their securities – at a significant loss – in order to pay depositors back. In extreme cases, this can lead to a bank becoming insolvent, or as happened with Silicon Valley Bank, the loss of confidence can trigger a bank run.
The report’s authors looked into how the amount of US lenders’ funding that comes from uninsured deposits: the greater the share, the more susceptible a bank is to a run. For instance, at SVB, where 92.5% of deposits were uninsured, the deposit outflow caused the bank to collapse in a span of only two days. The authors of the study calculated that 186 American banks do not have enough assets to pay all customers if even half of uninsured depositors decide to withdraw their money. “Our calculations suggest these banks are certainly at a potential risk of a run, absent other government intervention or recapitalization… Overall, these calculations suggest that recent declines in bank asset values very significantly increased the fragility of the US banking system to uninsured depositor runs,” the economists concluded, noting that the number of banks at risk could be “significantly” larger if “uninsured deposit withdrawals cause even small fire sales.”
SVB’s failure sent ripples across the entire US banking industry and caused the closure of another lender, Signature Bank. Many other financial institutions have seen their stocks plunge, with the six largest Wall Street banks losing around $165 billion in market capitalization, or some 13% of their combined value. Earlier this week, the ratings agency Moody’s downgraded its outlook for the US banking system from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’, citing the “rapidly deteriorating operating environment.”
BlackRock denies being involved.
• UBS Seeks $6 Billion Government Backstop In Credit Suisse Takeover (ZH)
As negotiations drag on late on Saturday night local time, Bloomberg reports that liabilities at the Credit Suisse investment bank are proving to be a key sticking point in the takeover talks (“UBS is worried about the balance sheet risk associated with the investment bank, which has suffered a string of losses and scandals in recent years”), with Reuters adding that UBS is asking the Swiss government to cover about $6 billion in costs if it were to buy Credit Suisse. The $6 billion in guarantees “would cover the cost of winding down parts of Credit Suisse and potential litigation charges.” There are other snags: one sources cautioned that the talks to resolve the crisis of confidence in Credit Suisse are encountering significant obstacles, and 10,000 jobs may have to be cut if the two banks combine.
Meanwhile, with UBS facing pressure from the Swiss authorities to carry out a takeover of its local rival as soon as possible to get the crisis under control, the FT reported that Switzerland is preparing to use emergency measures to fast-track the deal, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the situation. The banking sector’s fundamentals are stronger and the global systemic linkages are weaker than during the 2008 global financial crisis, Goldman analyst Lotfi Karoui wrote in a late Friday note to clients. That limits the risk of a “potential vicious circle of counterparty credit losses,” Karoui said. “However, a more forceful policy response is likely needed to bring some stability,” Karoui said. The bank said the lack of clarity on Credit Suisse’s future will pressure the broader European banking sector.
A senior official at China’s central bank said on Saturday that high interest rates in the major developed economies could continue to cause problems for the financial system. Elsewhere, there were multiple reports of interest for Credit Suisse from other rivals. Bloomberg reported that Deutsche Bank was looking at the possibility of buying some of its assets, while U.S. financial giant BlackRock denied a report that it was participating in a rival bid for the bank.
” We ask them to pay higher taxes, while cutting public services..”
• Britons Facing ‘Disastrous Decade’ – Report (RT)
Real wages in the UK will not return to their 2008 level until 2026 despite an easing of inflation, the Resolution Foundation, an independent think tank, reported this week in its analysis of the new budget. According to the report, the country is on track for a “disastrous decade” of stagnant incomes and high taxes, with cuts to public services. The publication highlighted that real wages fell at an annual rate of 3.9% in January, noting that the bigger picture for wages is “one of long-term pay stagnation.” The decrease in household disposable incomes this year and next are the worst in a century, the think tank stressed. “Britain’s economy remains stuck in a deep funk – with people supported into work but getting poorer, and paying more tax but seeing public services cut,”it wrote.
The UK is forecast to have gone through “the biggest energy and inflation shock since the 1970s, while avoiding a recession, with unemployment peaking at just 4.4%,” Resolution Foundation added. According to the study, taxes as a share of GDP are expected to hit 37.7% by the end of the forecast period, representing a 70-year-high and a 4.7% increase since 2019-2020.
The freeze on income tax thresholds since 2022-23 means that typical households will be worse off by £1,110 ($1,337) by 2027-28 when the freeze ends, it noted. Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, stated that “Jeremy Hunt’s first budget was a much bigger affair than many expected, combining improvements to the dire economic and fiscal outlook with a significant policy package aimed at boosting longer-term growth in general, and the size of the workforce in particular. “But stepping back, the UK’s underlying challenges remain largely unchanged. We are investing too little and growing too slowly. Our citizens’ living standards are stagnant. We ask them to pay higher taxes, while cutting public services,” he concluded.
GMOs and vaccines.
• Massie Asks A Reasonable Question (Denninger)
Pertaining to GMOs and what we’ve learned about genetically engineering viruses. Should the results of the genetically engineered virus give us concern about genetically modifying seeds/food? The clear answer is yes, for the following reasons: Everyone involved lied about the SARS-CoV2 origins. Ecohealth got caught lying quite early on when DRASTIC was exposed; DARPA turned down their requested program to engineer and test modified coronaviruses in Chinese caves, and among the slams in that refusal was the fact that the population of the nation in question were effectively not being asked for their consent. That Ecohealth arrogated to itself the right to test a genetically-modified organism on someone else’s soil without the informed consent of the people residing there was sufficient grounds to destroy the organization and jail every single person involved. DARPA has no authority to do that, but our DOJ does and didn’t.
The deception did not stop there; Fauci claimed that NIH wasn’t actually funding said research when it was, and we now know he was lying. He didn’t go to jail for that either, did he? That the virus was clearly engineered was known very early on because it contained a patented sequence and, in addition, had another sequence in it that never occurs in nature. The latter is routinely used by virus labs for this exact reason; if you put a virus through some process (e.g. through a cell line) and that sequence comes out the other end you know what you did worked because it can’t occur naturally. That this was present in SARS-CoV2 was known within weeks of its alleged “arrival” in the US. Everyone involved lied about when Covid was first “out” in the population. This was known too.
When it first arrived in Washington State and NY, along with the outbreak in Italy, we knew that the strain in NY was not the same as the one on the west coast; it was instead essentially the same as that in Italy. We also knew at that point from the mutational rate it had to be in the wild no later than roughly the end of September of 2019. I posted on this at the time and we later proved this was correct because analysis of blood donated during the first week of December of 2019 detected antibodies specific to SARS-CoV2 which, at the time (there were no jabs of course) could have only occurred if the person who donated the blood had become previously infected and survived There were plenty of additional lies but those are enough. GMOs are typically engineered so as to provide resistance to herbicides.
Round-up ready seeds, for example, are GMO’d so the plants are not killed by glyphosate where a non-GMO plant is. This allows glyphosate (“RoundUp”) to be used as a pre-emergent and post-emergent weed killer in fields without destroying the crop, and that in turn increases crop yields. However this also means that the seeds then are patented and, because a farmer cannot completely control exactly where everything he puts on a crop ends up it effectively forces all the other farmers around him to buy the same Round-up resistant seeds or risk their crop’s damage or destruction from drift of the spray. I will note that 15 USC Chapter 1 states that it is a criminal felony to attempt to restrain trade or engage in a monopoly practice where market power is implicated.
Effectively forcing the next farmer over to buy your GMO seeds lest his crop be damaged or destroyed when the spraying occurs is pretty-much the description of such felonious conduct, yet it goes on every single day and not one person has gone to prison for it. That right there is enough reason for me to be “concerned”, but what adds to that concern is that there have been repeated claims that these herbicides in particular are “safe.” Are they? We don’t know. The EPA says “no” to cancer risks in particular but on the other hand there are many lawsuits over exposure to it and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Bayer/Monsanto has entered into an $11 billion dollar settlement. Clearly they were concerned they might lose; nobody tosses that sort of money around otherwise.
Jon Stewart Summers
Danger! Workers are doing too well! Call the Fed to shut that down! A conversation with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. Watch the full interview in our latest episode, now streaming on @appletvplus. pic.twitter.com/B6GtO0QLnw
— The Problem With Jon Stewart (@TheProblem) March 17, 2023
This silver statue featuring Goddess of Beauty, Yang’asha, worshipped by the Miao people in SW China’s Guizhou, is 88 meters high. Yang’asha is the symbol of fighting for true love in Miao culture.
This silver statue featuring Goddess of Beauty, Yang'asha, worshipped by the Miao people in SW China's Guizhou, is 88 meters high. Yang'asha is the symbol of fighting for true love in Miao culture.
[source: https://t.co/C1YEt79tNW]pic.twitter.com/ENg8blE6Pl
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) March 18, 2023
This fifty-foot sculpture was unveiled recently in South Dakota. It’s called ‘Dignity’ and was done by artist Dale Lamphere to honor the women of the Sioux Nation.
Genius cat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1637044120031211521
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