Avert your eyes! My Sunday morning look at incompetency, corruption and policy failures:

• ‘Water is more valuable than oil’: the corporation cashing in on America’s drought: In an unprecedented deal, a private company purchased land in a tiny Arizona town – and sold its water rights to a suburb 200 miles away. Local residents fear the agreement has ‘opened Pandora’s box.’ (The Guardian)

• Why don’t rich people eat anymore? Extreme dieting is the latest way for the mega-rich to signal their wealth and status. (Dazed)

• What the Upper-Middle-Class Left Doesn’t Get About Inflation: Liberal politicians and economists don’t seem to recognize the everyday harms of rising costs. (The Atlantic) see also Why Better Times (and Big Raises) Haven’t Cured the Inflation Hangover: Frustrated by higher prices, many Pennsylvanians with fresh pay raises and solid finances report a sense of insecurity lingering from the pandemic. (New York Times)

• A brief, weird history of brainwashing: L. Ron Hubbard, Operation Midnight Climax, and stochastic terrorism—the race for mind control changed America forever. (MIT Technology Review)

• Time is a Thief. Time is slippery. Don’t waste yours. With most things in life, eventually, there will be a ‘last time’–we just often don’t know when it will be. Sometimes, we don’t realize it until after the fact. As my children grow, the “last times” are coming at me with a hastening speed. In light of this, I feel intensity in my need to savor and be present. (Finding Joy)

• The Southern Gap: In the American South, an oligarchy of planters enriched itself through slavery. Pervasive underdevelopment is their legacy. (Aeon)

• Banned in the USA: Narrating the Crisis: This report provides data, alongside a comprehensive narrative of the censorship crisis affecting public schools. It shows the nuance of the current moment and damage that occurs when stories—compassionate, reflective, educational, and entertaining—are restricted or removed on the basis of fear, intimidation, or bigotry. (Pen America)

• Interview with a 70-Year-Old Sober Person: Jerry Stahl “I have come to realize that everybody on the planet is recovering from something. And deserves our compassion. It’s pretty much the human condition. All our secrets are the same.” (The Small Bow)

• Global heating pushes coral reefs towards worst planet-wide mass bleaching on record: The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% a week, scientists say. (The Guardian) see also Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘most severe’ coral bleaching on record as footage shows damage 18 metres down: Marine researcher ‘devastated’ by widespread event that is affecting coral species usually resistant to bleaching. (The Guardian)

• Verified pro-Nazi X accounts flourish under Elon Musk: An NBC News review identified 150 verified “Premium” accounts that have posted or amplified pro-Nazi content. (NBC News)

Be sure to check out our Masters in Business next week with Ashish Shah, Co-Head and CIO of Public Investing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management: He joined GS as a partner in 2018, and previously served as global co-head and CIO of Fixed Income + Liquidity Solutions. His group manages $2.3 trillion in client assets.

Hawks Fly Higher For Longer Than Doves

Source: Yardeni Research

 

Sign up for our reads-only mailing list here.

~~~

Still on book leave . . .  but I am past the midway point and making good progress!

 

The post 10 Sunday Reads appeared first on The Big Picture.

Israel Fostered The Rise Of Hamas To Preclude A Two-State Solution

In Wednesday's ZeroHedge debate on Israel, Iran and Palestine, Dave Smith emphasized a little-known fact about the Gaza conflict -- that Israel "cynically, intentionally funded and propped up" Hamas "so they wouldn't face external pressure to give the Palestinians their freedom." Via Brian McGlinchey at Stark Realities, here's a deeper look at the history Smith was referring to.  

In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas…In fighting Hamas, Israel is not only fighting for its own people, it is fighting for every country that stands against barbarism.”

Those sentiments are quite different from ones Netanyahu privately shared in 2019.

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told Likud Party legislators, according to Haaretz, Israel's longest-running newspaper. Doing so would help prevent the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) from ruling Gaza and giving Palestinians a relatively moderate, unified voice at the negotiating table. “This is part of our strategy -- to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Members of the Hamas al-Qassam Brigade at an event marking the anniversary of Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza (EPA-EFE/Mohammed Saber via Euractiv)

Israel’s reckless exploitation of Hamas is as old as the group itself. Indeed, decades before Netanyahu’s closed-door candor, the Israeli government pushed Hamas into its initial prominence, with direct and indirect financial support.

Throughout the 1970s, Israel’s nemesis was the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In stark contrast to Hamas -- which emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood -- the PLO was a secular, leftist organization, led by Yasser Arafat, who headed the PLO’s Fatah faction.

As a former senior CIA official told UPI’s Richard Sale in 2001, Israel’s initial boosting of Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative."

Islamist groups began rising in prominence in Gaza in the wake of the 1967 War, as they undertook educational, cultural, social and infrastructure initiatives to make life better for Palestinian refugees there.

When it first registered with Israeli authorities in 1978, Hamas was led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a half-blind, wheelchair-bound Muslim cleric who launched schools and clinics throughout Gaza. Israel backed his efforts, and also approved the founding of the Islamic University of Gaza…which would become an extremist hub deemed worthy of Israeli bombs.

Israeli Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who was governor of Gaza and in frequent touch with Yassin, told the Wall Street Journal that he fully grasped Yassin’s ultimate aims -- to replace Israel with an Islamic state -- and the dangers of the Hamas ideology. However, at the time, Israel prioritized undermining the PLO-leading Fatah.

Israel cooperated with early Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin -- but killed him in 2004 with a rocket fired from a helicopter gunship as he was wheeled to prayer in Gaza City (BBC)

In the wake of Iran’s 1979 revolution that saw a secular, US-backed regime replaced with an Islamic republic, Hamas and other Islamists grew more popular, ambitious -- and violent. Regardless, Israel’s financial backing continued, a US intelligence source told UPI in 2001, saying the support now had an additional rationale -- to gain intelligence and identify the most dangerous of Hamas members.

However, another US government official highlighted a far more sinister Israeli aim: to obliterate the chance for progress in resolving the Israel-Palestinian conflict. “The thinking on the part of some of the right-wing Israeli establishment was that Hamas and the other groups, if they gained control, would refuse to have anything to do with the peace process and would torpedo any agreements put in place," the official said.

That would enable Israel to continue paying lip service to a two-state solution while disingenuously bemoaning its lack of a “partner for peace” on the Palestinian side. In the mean time, Israel would continue changing “facts on the ground” by demolishing Palestinian homes, authorizing more West Bank Israeli settlements and precluding the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israeli settlements have seemingly eliminated the possibility of a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank (graphic via Vox)

In 2015, Bazalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionist Party and now Israel’s finance minister said, “On the international playing field, in this game of the delegitimization…the PA is a liability and Hamas is an asset. It’s a terrorist organization. Nobody will recognize it, nobody will give it status at the [International Criminal Court] and nobody will let them push resolutions at the UN.”

“In the eyes of the Israeli right, the real threat to Israel is not Hamas’ violence and terrorism -- the danger is a peace agreement…and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” wrote Meron Rapoport at Tel Aviv-based +972 Magazine.

Note that Hamas isn’t the only extremist group the Israeli right has shown a soft spot for. Under an earlier Netanyahu government, Israel gave medical assistance to wounded al-Qaeda members and sent them back to fight the secular, Iran-aligned government in Syria…where their group would abduct, torture and murder civilians too. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy said Israel’s aid was acceptable because “Al Qaeda, to the best of my recollection, has not attacked Israel.”

Before Oct. 7, referring to Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah during a deposition for one of the corruption cases against him, Netanyahu said something that showcased the Israeli right's overconfidence in its ability to manage extremists on its borders:  

“We have neighbors who are bitter enemies…It’s impossible to reach an agreement with them…Everyone knows this, but we control the height of the flames.”

Stark Realities undermines official narratives, demolishes conventional wisdom and exposes fundamental myths across the political spectrum. Read more and subscribe at starkrealities.substack.com 

* * *

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 23:40

Charter School Founders Accused Of Massive Fraud

Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Prosecutors are accusing three men of bilking Oklahoma out of millions of dollars in public school funds through a charter school plan that one of the defendants told a state district court prioritized income.

Former owners of Epic Youth Services Ben Harris (L) and David Chaney (R) enter the District Court of Oklahoma County in Oklahoma City with Mr. Chaney's lawyer, Gary Wood (C) on March 28, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

Lawyers from the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office began outlining their case during preliminary hearings March 25–March 29 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, in Oklahoma City.

Their case is based on an investigation by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) and an investigative audit report released by the State Auditor and Inspector’s office on Oct. 1, 2020.

However, a lawyer for one of the defendants says his client is a legitimate businessman who has become the victim of incompetent state officials running a politically motivated investigation.

David Lee Chaney and Benjamin Scott Harris each face prison time and possibly millions in restitution if convicted of 15 criminal charges for their alleged scheme to defraud the state through Epic Charter Schools.

Joshua Brock, former chief financial officer, has agreed to plead guilty and testify for the state in exchange for 15 years of probation with restitution to be determined.

Slouched in the witness stand of Special Judge Jason Glidewell’s courtroom in the Oklahoma County District Court in Oklahoma City, Mr. Brock testified in a low monotone. He wore the tired, disinterested expression of a man who wants his case to end.

The Cushing native was friends with Mr. Harris and had a background in accounting and business finance. He said that around 2009, Mr. Harris began talking with him about charter schools. Mr. Brock also liked the idea of a public school run like a private school.

“I believe in the concept,” Mr. Brock testified.

In Oklahoma, charter schools are publicly funded and open to any student. A board oversees them and may not charge tuition. Charter schools must comply with open records and open meeting laws.

However, they are exempt from such requirements as collective bargaining and credentialing. Students can be taught online, in brick-and-mortar locations, or a combination of both. Parents and teachers have broad latitude in curriculum, hours, and other aspects of a child’s education.

The Oklahoma Department of Education website states that charter schools receive, “Flexibility in exchange for accountability.”

During a 2011 meeting in an Oklahoma City restaurant, Mr. Brock agreed to be the CFO for EYS and Indoor Air Quality Services (IAQS), a business Messrs. Harris and Chaney operated.

In those early days, IAQS paid Mr. Brock. Later, EYS would contract with Mr. Brock’s company, JAB Consulting.

According to a special investigative audit report released by Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd in October 2020, the trio raked in at least $125 million of the $458 million in government funds disbursed to the school from 2015 to 2020.

Of that, $45.9 million was paid to Epic Youth Services, a for-profit management company the men set up to handle school affairs.

According to the report, EYS had no employees and was controlled entirely by Messrs. Harris, Chaney, and Brock.

EYS, and therefore the three men, controlled a “Student Learning Fund,” through which $79.3 million in public funds flowed, the report stated.

Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) Special Agent Mark Drummond testified that there may be even more. He said his investigation had found more than 100 accounts that might contain Epic Charter School money.

During preliminary hearings the week of March 25–March 29, 2024, Mr. Brock said EYS had few if any employees and one main objective.

“To minimize costs and maximize profit.”

(Left) Benjamin Harris; (Right) David Chaney each face 15 charges of alleged fraud committed while affiliated with Epic Charter Schools in Oklahoma. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

Ms. Byrd confirmed that some law enforcement agencies are still investigating Epic Charter Schools, though she wouldn’t specify which ones.

She said she is holding on to a second audit report so as not to interfere.

“The second report is pending in the event that it may be needed,” she told The Epoch Times.

According to court records, Mr. Harris founded the non-profit Community Strategies Inc. (CSI) in 2005.

He and Mr. Chaney reportedly set up the for-profit Epic Youth Services (EYS) as the management company for the non-profit Epic Charter Schools. CSI, doing business as Epic Charter Schools, began operating in December 2010.

According to the audit report, funding from the State Department of Education and the federal government went to Epic’s sponsors, who kept 3 percent of sponsorship fees. The remaining 97 percent went to the charter schools through CSI.

The report states that the schools sent 10 percent of the total revenue, including the fees kept by the sponsors, to EYS and money to the Student Learning Fund, which EYS controlled.

Epic Charter’s first sponsor was Graham Public School in Ofuskee County, Oklahoma. Mr. Brock said the small K–12 school was struggling financially and was glad for the cash infusion.

In 2018, Epic split into Epic One-on-One, the online school, and Epic Blended.

Epic Blended is a virtual school that also provides work centers where students can use computers with internet access and receive other types of classroom support.

Rose State College now sponsors Epic Blended, and the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board sponsors Epic One-on-One, an online charter school.

On paper, EYS’s purpose was to handle Epic Charter School’s administrative work and manage its finances. Mr. Brock said that, in reality, EYS had a single purpose.

Joshua Brock (L), talks with his attorney Chris Box (R) in the Oklahoma County courthouse in Oklahoma City on March 29, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

“The object was to minimize costs, maximize profit,” Mr. Brock testified on March 28.

Mr. Brock said it was the practice to ensure that all invoices added up to the total 10 percent management fee outlined in EYS’s contract. Early on, that was not difficult, as the invoices listed the fee amount.

However, in 2019, HB1395 became the law in Oklahoma. The new law mandated the Oklahoma Cost Accounting System (OCAS), which requires invoices to be itemized using OCAS codes.

Mr. Brock said that rather than lose money by accurately itemizing, he wrote computer code that automatically divided the fee among the same 14 OCAS codes each month.

So, regardless of how much funding Epic received or what EYS’s actual expenses were, the system would produce invoices totaling 10 percent of the revenue received every month.

Jeanice Wynn said she noticed the questionable invoices soon after she started work at Epic.

She was hired as Deputy Superintendent of Finance in 2021, shortly after the audit report was released. She testified that she took the job with some trepidation.

Epic had already been in the news due to a conflict with the Oklahoma Department of Education.

Disputes over enrollment, attendance requirements, and other issues had prompted then-Gov. Mary Fallin requested OSBI to look into the fledgling charter school in 2013.

While Epic prevailed in most of those disputes, rumors continued to fly.

Ms. Wynn testified that she believed her job had been created in response to the audit report. She said some things, like those oddly uniform invoices, caught her attention almost immediately.

She said the same 14 OCAS codes were used each month, and they always added up to 10 percent of Epic’s total revenue from the state.

According to Ms. Wynn, that is unusual at best.

“That doesn’t happen,” she said.

In addition, some of the codes seemed questionable. For example, invoices for the online school included food service.

When asked how much EYS paid to provide food for Epic’s online students, Mr. Brock answered succinctly.

“Not much, zero,” he said.

But, thanks to those invoices, by the time the Epic Charter School Board ended its management agreement with EYS on May 21, 2021, Mr. Harris had made $24.8 million, Mr. Chaney brought in $23 million, and Mr. Brock had received $8.7 million, Brenda Holt, director of the Investigative Audit Division of the State Auditor and Inspector’s office testified.

The Student Learning Fund is marketed as an account for each student to spend up to $1,000 for computers, books, musical instruments and lessons, extracurricular activities, tutoring, and similar education-related purchases.

For each Learning Fund purchase, EYS assessed an $85 service fee.

Ms. Wynn was tasked with addressing the auditors’ concerns over the fund. But, she only had access to money under Epic’s Tax ID number.

EYS controlled the Student Learning Fund, which auditors claimed was public money managed by Epic workers who were state employees.

“I expected [the Learning Fund personnel] to be on the payroll for EYS,” she told the court. (Mr. Brock) was approving (the EYS invoices), then receiving the payment [from Epic],” she said.

The auditors noted this as well.

“As the EYS CFO, Brock appears to be responsible for the submission of EYS’ invoices ... for both the management fees and the Student Learning Fund.

“As the One-on-One and Blended CFO, he oversees the payment of the same invoices. There is no system of checks and balances in place between the related entities,” the audit report reads.

Ms. Holt also testified about how credit cards were used in the Epic Charter School Student Learning Fund. She found the arrangement to be unusual.

“I had never seen that before,” she said.

Oklahoma City lawyer Joe White (L) leaves a District Court of Oklahoma County courtroom with Ben Harris (C) and co-counsel Kate White (R) on March 25, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

The Student Learning Fund had two credit cards. A Visa card that was issued to the fund. Each Visa bore the name of the employee authorized to use it. The other was an American Express card issued to IAQS.

Ms. Holt said she learned that IAQS stood for Indoor Air Quality Services, the business owned by Mr. Chaney, who had initially been paid Mr. Brock for his services.

Ms. Holt said Epic Charter School employees made purchases using credit cards. EYS invoiced the purchases, and Epic Charter Schools paid those invoices with Learning Fund money.

She said auditors found approximately $817,000 worth of alleged personal purchases made with that card.

Of this, $748,000 appears to have been spent on purchases by Mr. Chaney and his wife.

The remaining $69,000 in personal purchases was split between two Learning Fund employees.

Ms. Holt said the charges included Southwest Airlines, Stub Hub, Men’s Wearhouse, Starbucks, and political donations, including two $2,700 donations to former Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister, who ran against Gov. Kevin Stitt in 2022.

Ms. Holt said she found that Mr. Chaney repaid $446,000 of those purchases, which left $327,000 for the Learning Fund to cover.

Court records also indicate that Mr. Brock allegedly received more than $1 million in illegal overpayments on a Visa card issued to him and used by the Student Learning Fund.

Ms. Holt said that a claim in the Oct. 21 audit report that EYS lawyers tried to prevent auditors from seeing any of the Learning Fund records was true.

According to the investigative report, auditors didn’t get a clear picture of the Student Learning Fund until they were able to access information OSBI had obtained in its investigation.

“[The State Auditor and Inspector] respects the privacy of private companies but is adamant that the stewardship and management of $79.3 million in state appropriated funds designated for student education should be transparent and the records be made available for audit,” the report reads.

Defense lawyers contend that EYS was a private business, so any money paid to it, including state monies meant for the Student Learning Fund, was private money no longer subject to government oversight.

David Chaney (2nd L) and Ben Harris (3rd L) sit at the defense table with Harris's lawyers Joe White (2nd R) and Kate White (L) on March 28, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

Joe White, of Oklahoma City, represents Mr. Harris. Mr. White is tall and speaks with a country drawl and self-deprecating manner that belies a man ready to exploit any perceived chink in his opponent’s argument.

In court, he aggressively argued that the Student Learning Fund was money EYS earned, comparing it to a state employee’s paycheck.

“Once you get paid, the state doesn’t get to audit your personal bank account, does it?” he asked Ms. Holt.

According to Ms. Holt, the figures in the audit report are relatively conservative. She said it’s her office’s policy to give the audited parties the benefit of the doubt.

“We always try to err on the side of grace and not overstate any of the numbers,” she told the court.

The auditors claim that the Student Learning Fund was used to benefit more than Oklahoma students and the owners of EYS.

Ms. Wynn testified that in 2018, Mr. Harris told the board that Epic Charter Schools Oklahoma had opened Community Strategies—CA, LLC (CS-CA). CS-CA is the non-profit management company for Next Generation, Inc., doing business as Epic Charter Schools California.

“He informed those present that money had flowed to Epic California. There was discussion at that time about that money being paid back,” Ms. Wynn said.

In response to Mr. White’s question, she said she had seen no evidence that the money had been repaid.

According to the audit report, this resulted in the illegal use of Oklahoma tax money and employees to benefit California taxpayers.

Assistant Attorneys General McKenzie McMahon (L) and Colleen Galaviz (R), leaving a District Court of Oklahoma County courtroom on March 25, 2024. (Michael Clements/The Epoch Times)

Salesha Wilken is a former investigative reporter. She has worked for the State Auditor and Inspector’s office for the past nine years. She testified to finding evidence that EYS transferred Student Learning Fund money to Community Strategies California to “support expansion of EYS.”

She said it appeared the money was used to help the California operation meet payroll. California Strategies was also used to funnel money to the Panola Public Schools in Oklahoma when that district had a cash shortfall, she said.

According to the audit report, Epic One-on-One employees racked up $242,654.42 in labor between 2017 and 2020 working for CS-CA in California and Panola Public Schools in Oklahoma. Panola Public Schools was not part of Epic at that time.

The report states that none of this money was repaid until auditors began asking questions in 2020.

Auditors also found that $203,000 was transferred directly from the student Learning Fund into an Epic-California bank account at one point.

They have found no evidence that money was ever repaid, the report states.

“It shows that those funds were not being used for the students but were being used to enrich EYS,” Ms. Wilken testified. “EYS is the steward of those funds.”

Defense attorneys denied that any public money was misused.

They said the Student Learning Fund was an account owned by EYS, a private company. They contend that the money in the fund belongs to EYS to be used at EYS’s discretion.

“Private companies can dictate the rules concerning their private funds,” Mr. Chaney’s lawyer, Gary Wood, said.

The resolution to that question will determine more than the legal status of a bank account. When the EYS management contract ended in May 2021, there was approximately $5 million in the Student Learning Fund, which prosecutors say EYS was supposed to return to Epic Charter Schools. Instead, they say, the money was invested in several treasury bill accounts.

That money is now the subject of a lawsuit.

When Epic Charter Schools began operation in 2010, CSI’s board oversaw the work. Soon after, most of the CSI board members resigned and were replaced by Robert Stem, Peter Regan, Doug Scott, and Travis Burkett, the court file states.

EYS Attended Board Meetings

“[The board members] were largely acquaintances of Mr. Harris and or Mr. Chaney,” Mr. Brock testified. Investigators and former board member Douglas Scott said at least one of the defendants was present at most board meetings. However, they differ about the sway they held over the board.

“[Harris and Chaney’s] actions and behaviors were indicative of individuals with great influence over the school and the board.

“The board consistently voted unanimously during meetings, rarely questioning the recommendations given or actions taken by Chaney, Harris, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brock,” the court file reads.

Douglas Scott is an attorney from Tulsa who served on the board from 2010 to 2021. He has known Mr. Chaney since they were both boys. But he denied that he or Mr. Harris unduly influenced the board.

“They attended the meetings,” Mr. Scott testified. “They had a broad range of duties.”

Mr. White said the implication that the board was manipulated ignores their commitment to the charter school.

He said board members were volunteers who helped build the largest public school in Oklahoma, which at its height had an enrollment of 60,000 students.

“And the enrollment kept going up, up, and up, didn’t it?” he asked Mr. Scott.

Mr. Scott agreed, saying that he spent a significant amount of time and resources working on behalf of the schools.

Jimmy Harmon, an assistant attorney general prosecuting the case, told the court that auditors found that board members did benefit from their association with Epic Charter Schools.

He said that former board member Robert Stem’s lobbying firm, Capitol Gains, was awarded a contract from Epic the same day he resigned from the board.

According to Mr. Brock, the lobbying deal netted Capitol Gains $520,000.

Mr. Harmon said Mr. Scott’s brother benefitted as well.

“His brother Greg received tens of thousands of dollars for computer work,” Mr. Harmon said.

Mr. White disputes the audit report’s findings.

He pointed out that Mr. Harris was arrested just five days before Ms. Byrd won her party’s nomination for state auditor and inspector. He doesn’t believe that’s a coincidence.

Ms. Byrd dismisses that contention as grasping at straws.

She says the investigations and audits began long before the 2020 elections and that she doesn’t need any high-profile cases to boost her campaign in an election she said she won by 70 points.

“I just can’t even believe that that’s a good defense,” she said.

Each man is charged with one count of racketeering, six counts of embezzlement, two counts of using a computer system or computer network to execute a scheme to defraud, two counts of presenting false claims to the state, and one count each of acquiring unlawful proceeds, acquiring unlawful proceeds in excess of $50,000, obtaining money by false pretenses, and money laundering.

Preliminary hearings are set to resume in May; no trial date has been set.

Epic Charter Schools and Epic Charter School California are still in operation with a new board and are no longer affiliated with Messrs. Brock, Chaney, or Harris.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 23:05

From Fringe To Mainstream: The Rise Of The BJP In India

Voters in India are getting set to head to the polls in what has been dubbed the world’s biggest election.

Nearly 1 billion people are eligible to vote and to determine whether 73-year-old Narendra Modi, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will rule the nation for a third consecutive term.

The elections kicked off yesterday (Friday) and will be carried out in seven phases due to the sheer size of the country, ending June 4.

As Statista's Anna Fleck shows in the following chart, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance alliance won 303 out of 550 parliamentary seats in India’s Lok Sabha general elections in 2019 and 282 out of 543 parliamentary seats five years before. In this year’s elections, the NDC is projected to win as many as 399 seats.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Opposition parties have banded together, led by the Indian National Congress party (INC), to form a 26-member alliance, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in an attempt to stop this from happening.

Critics decry the BJP as Hindu nationalists and fear that India will become further divided, accusing the incumbent government of having enabled the persecution of minorities, particularly Muslims, under their rule. Supporters meanwhile praise Modi for securing India’s place as a major global economic power.

The rise of the BJP as India’s majority party was an unlikely one.

Its predecessor, the right-wing Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) party, gained only marginal support and joined the Janata Party (People’s Party), which won the 1977 elections as a catch-all union opposing the declaration of a state of emergency in the country.

After the Janata Party dissolved in 1980, the party was recreated as the BJP and started from the bottom again, gaining followers emphasizing Hindu national pride and hardline politics.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 22:30

Calif. Dems Tout Ties To Criminal Leniency Group

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

The mayors of California's three biggest cities have rankled some progressive activists in recent months by joining a wave of fellow Democrats renouncing once popular initiatives to defund the police, reduce sentencing, and undertake other criminal justice reforms amid deep concerns over public safety. 

Facing a public backlash over rampant thefts and an epidemic of fentanyl deaths related to drug trafficking, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in recent months have joined the GOP fight to dismantle Proposition 47. That law, approved by voters in 2014, recategorized thefts below $950 from felonies to misdemeanors, and many critics blame it for the spate of smash-and-grab robberies at department and convenience stores across California. 

“We should be locking up criminals, not laundry detergent,” Gloria, who refers to himself as a progressive Democrat, declared in his state-of-the-city address in January. 

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for adding hundreds of police officers to the city’s rolls and boosting their pay. 

But Democratic incumbents and candidates in several of the most competitive U.S. House of Representatives races across California – the outcome of which will play a critical role in determining control of the chamber in the next Congress – are either swimming against the tough-on-crime tide or trying to avoid alienating a key ally. 

These Democrats have been touting their close ties to a progressive lobbying powerhouse that helped usher in some of the most controversial changes to criminal justice laws across the state in recent years. 

Equality California began as a Sacramento-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group 20 years ago but has since become a major player on several issues, including its self-proclaimed priority of transforming the Golden State’s criminal justice system. The influential organization, which rakes in millions from Hollywood celebrities and business interests and received a state grant windfall last year, has been instrumental in promoting a reform agenda that many prominent California Democrats are now trying to reverse. 

The group campaigned aggressively to eliminate cash bail for many types of crimes, legalize prostitution, shorten probation periods for misdemeanors and some felonies, and end qualified immunity for police, making it easier for victims of alleged excessive force and other police misconduct to sue officers. The push to lift legal protections for police failed on the federal level but largely succeeded in California when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a Senate bill into law in the fall of 2021. 

In 2022, the group’s PAC also contributed $5,000 to embattled Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, the original author of Proposition 47. Gascon survived a close recall effort in 2022, just two months after San Francisco voters ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin in a blow to the national movement toward more lenient prosecution given the city’s status as one of the nation’s most liberal enclaves. 

In the middle of the riots after the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Equality California was one of several organizations that called for donations to groups on the “frontlines” of the protests, including the Minnesota Freedom Fund. That fund eventually received $35 million in donations during the tumultuous summer of 2020 and used the money to bail out dozens of defendants, including those accused of murder, violent felonies, and sex crimes. 

Like Equality California, the Minnesota Freedom Fund aggressively pushed for defunding the police and ending cash bail for all individuals accused of crimes. 

Under the “issues” section on its website, Equality California lists “criminal justice reform” first among all the issues it works on, including education, faith and religion, gun safety, hate crimes and safety, health care and HIV issues. 

“LGBTQ+ people face disproportionate rates of arrest, conviction, incarceration, and recidivism compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers,” the website asserts in explaining why the group prioritizes reducing criminal penalties and is pushing for more leniency in other aspects of criminal justice law. 

Seven Democrats in the most competitive House races have touted their Equality California endorsements on social media. They include Adam Gray, Josh Harder, Joe Kerr, David Min, Will Rollins, Rudy Salas, and George Whitesides.

Whitesides (pictured at top), a former aerospace executive challenging GOP Rep. Mike Garcia in a key House battleground north of Los Angeles, has the closest ties to Equality California. He and his wife donated an undisclosed amount to the group in both 2020 and 2021. 

Those donations qualified the Whitesides as Equality California’s “regional influencers” for 2020 and 2021. It’s a title the couple shared with the hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, record executive David Geffen’s foundation, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and her husband, as well as Rep. Sara Jacobs (the granddaughter of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs), and Tom Sandoval, a cast member of the TV reality series “Vanderpump Rules.” (The 2020 and 2021 annual reports do not list an amount associated with the “regional influencers” tier, but the group’s 2019 annual reports notes that a such a designation is earned for contributions of $10,000 to $19,999.)

Whitesides’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment about whether he backs Equality California’s criminal justice priorities. 

In February, Will Rollins, a former federal prosecutor challenging veteran GOP Rep. Ken Calvert in a district stretching from Riverside to Palm Springs, touted his Equality California endorsement on X.com, along with a photo of himself dining with the group’s board of directors. 

“It was great joining @eqca board members of their board of directors lunch,” Rollins tweeted. “I am proud to be endorsed by Equality California in my race for Congress. When I get to D.C., I am going to fight to advance LGBTQ+ rights for all Americans. Together, we will win.” 

The Calvert-Rollins race is a closely fought rematch, with crime taking center stage. Rollins has touted his role as a prosecutor and has criticized Calvert for voting in favor of the First Step Act, President Trump’s signature justice reform package, which released more than 2,200 federal inmates in 2019. The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress before the pandemic-era crime spikes while the criminal justice reform agenda was gaining Republican and Democratic support. Media outlets have since reported that it released more than 100 violent criminals and sex offenders. 

In a local newspaper op-ed, Calvert tried to lump Rollins into the same camp as Gascon and Boudin, calling him “the worst kind of liberal prosecutor” who “routinely cuts soft plea deals with perps and wants to reduce sentences for criminals wreaking havoc on our streets.” Last month, Calvert’s campaign also cut a television ad calling Rollins “extreme” and noting that he “even supports reducing sentences for violent criminals including drug traffickers while California fentanyl deaths skyrocket.” 

Rollins has denied the accusations about supporting cash bail and lighter sentences for violent criminals and drug traffickers, asserting that he had a 99% conviction rate and helped put “murders, terrorists, MS-13 and Sinaloa cartel members in prison.” He was less forthright about cash bail, noting that defendants that pose a danger to society or are a flight risk should be detained before trial, but Rollins didn’t indicate whether he supports ending cash bail in other circumstances. 

The results of the Calvert-Rollins face-off in 2022 were so close that the Democratic hopeful was attending a new member orientation in Washington when new alerts came across his phone that he had lost to Calvert, the dean of the California delegation. 

David Min, a Democratic state senator running against GOP attorney and former state legislator Scott Baugh in a tight race for the Orange County seat vacated by Rep. Katie Porter, was the only Democrat to respond to RCP’s inquiry about the Equality California’s endorsement, and whether he backs the group’s criminal justice agenda.  

Concerns about public safety have been making headlines in the country in recent weeks as the traditionally more conservative area strives to discourage criminal elements from nearby Los Angeles from becoming active there. Last month, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced a novel public safety campaign aimed at deterring thieves with a message plastered on billboards and bus ads: “Crime doesn’t pay in Orange County.” 

“If you steal, we prosecute,” the signs sternly warn. 

Min, who was arrested last year for drunk driving in a taxpayer-funded car, still managed to outmaneuver fellow Democrat Joanna Weiss in the primary and secure the endorsement of Porter and the California Democratic Party. 

Min campaign spokesman Orrin Evans forwarded the lawmaker’s endorsements from the state’s largest police union, the Peace Officers Research Association of California, or PORAC, and the California Fraternal Order of Police. Evans also touted Min’s record of supporting police budget priorities, including successful requests he made for $2 million for a “real-time crime center” to help police track crime quickly and $1 million for new electric police cruisers. 

“Sen. Min has always ensured that law enforcement and first responders have the tools they need to keep Southern California’s families safe and secure,” Roger Hilton, president of the state Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement along with the endorsement. 

In contrast, Baugh has the backing of Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes and several House Republican leaders. In an interview with RCP, the former GOP leader of the state assembly cited a strong tough-on-crime record dating back to the 1990s. Barnes and local District Attorney Todd Spitzer also voted for Baugh to become the chairman of a local gang reduction and intervention program. 

Baugh, who previously served as county GOP chairman, countered that Min has supported some of the same sweeping criminal justice reforms as Equality California during his time in Sacramento. Min voted in favor of a 2021 bill eliminating cash bail and another measure in 2022 to automatically seal many felons’ criminal records, including domestic violence convictions. 

“Min’s hiding behind the PORAC labor endorsement to run from his progressive policies, including support for no-cash bail,” Baugh said in the interview. “This is the type of cowardly behavior we don’t need in Congress.” 

Equality California also keeps track of state and federal lawmakers’ legislative records on key priorities and issues an annual scorecard. In 2022, the score included votes on several bills, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which, if passed, would have eliminated qualified immunity for police. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it also would have cost local departments hundreds of millions of dollars in training and equipment just when several major cities across the country had slashed funding for police. 

While Congress was considering the measure, the Fraternal Order of Police argued that ending qualified immunity was “anti-police” and would drastically reduce the number of candidates choosing to become police officers. 

Over the past several years, police departments across the country, including in San Francisco and Los Angeles, have faced severe staffing shortages as they struggle to recruit and retain officers. At the height of the defund the police movement, California lost 2,100 police officers (with full arrest powers) and roughly 1,100 civilian staff, diminishing the number of patrol officers to 1991 levels. 

In 2021 Equality California scored votes on a handful of bills, including the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and a measure that would have allowed adults who entered the U.S. as undocumented children to become lawful permanent residents and citizens. That year (and in 2022), Reps. Mike Levin, who is facing a rematch from GOP challenger Matt Gunderson, and Harder, who is in a tight contest against Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln, earned 100% ratings from Equality California. 

As state legislators, Gray, Min, and Salas received a 100% rating on the group’s 2022 scorecard, with Min maintaining his perfect rating from 2021. 

With so many leading California Democrats backtracking on criminal justice reforms, Republicans plan to hammer their opponents who remain undecided about repealing Proposition 47 and other more lenient laws as soft on crime and weak on the border. Despite polls showing voters deeply concerned about illegal immigration and President Biden’s open border policies, California Democrats have continued to support broad amnesty for illegal immigrants and the state’s controversial sanctuary state law, both of which Equality California strongly backs. 

In the state, border issues may divide some heavily Latino districts, but Republicans have a greater chance for traction when it comes to crime. Americans’ worries about what they describe as the nation’s crime problems are at a recent high, with 63% characterizing public safety concerns as either extremely or very serious in a November Gallup survey. That’s up from 54% when Gallup last polled voters on the issue and the highest level the polling company has recorded in recent years. The prior high of 60% was recorded in the initial 2000 polling, as well as in 2010 and 2016. 

It's hard to predict whether support for specific criminal justice reforms, such as eliminating cash bail, will hold sway with voters. But with Breed, who is in a tough reelection fight for mayor, and other Democrats pivoting away from the reform movement, it will be easier to focus voters on the issue. 

While there is little comprehensive research about the impact of eliminating cash bail on crime, a study by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office in Northern California early last year found that individuals released on cash-free or low-cost bail were much more likely to re-offend than those who pasted bail. They were also far more likely to commit new violent offenses. 

The study used a random sample of 100 people arrested during the county’s zero-bail policy, which was in effect from April 2020 through May 2021. It compared those results to 100 people who were arrested and posted bail in 2018 and 2019. The study found that people released were arrested for new crimes at an average rate 70% higher than those who posted bail, committed felonies 90% more often, and committed misdemeanors 123% more often. 

Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 21:55

Contracts Between US Universities, China Total More Than $2 Billion: Investigation

By Micaiah Bilger of The College Fix

Report comes amid concerns about CCP’s influence, human rights violations...

American universities have entered more than $2.3 billion in contracts with China in the past decade amid on-going concerns about the influence of its communist government on U.S. higher education, a new investigation found.

These contracts included agricultural research regarding orange crops, trainings for airline pilots, and medical trials for a tumor treatment drug developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical company, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The investigation uncovered approximately 2,900 contracts from 2012 and 2024 between Chinese businesses and about 200 U.S. public colleges and universities in all 50 states.

Some involved specialized training, such as $37 million in contracts between Chinese airlines and the University of North Dakota to train and license pilots.

Another $1.8 million in contracts with China’s Institute of Navel Orange at Gannan Normal University and the University of Florida involved researching tree genetics and diseases affecting citrus fruit, according to the investigation.

But others were less specific.

For example, “all three of China’s major government-owned oil companies have funded contracts for $100,000 or more at the University of Texas at Austin, which the school describes only as ‘research activity,’” the investigation found.

The report continued:

Some of the biggest-value China contracts feature franchise-type arrangements for overseas satellite campuses. New York University, which the Education Department database shows has been the largest single recipient of Chinese funding, reported two contracts totaling over $46.5 million for 2021 alone for its Shanghai branch.

The Juilliard School has disclosed over $133 million in such funding over more than a decade for its Tianjin Juilliard School near Beijing, appointed with some 120 Steinway pianos.

These partnerships have U.S. politicians, academics, and students concerned. The Chinese Communist Party has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, from free speech censorship to forced labor and torture to genocide of the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority population.

According to the report:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies warn that China’s state has encouraged theft of technological secrets at universities, spread pro-Beijing propaganda, stifled campus debate and harassed students.

Beijing dismisses such characterizations. Its officials say ethnic Chinese students and professors have been unfairly targeted in the U.S., including on American campuses, and urged the U.S. to be mindful of its reputation for academic freedom. The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to detailed questions about the university contracts.

American defense officials raised similar concerns about China and artificial intelligence technology in a 2021 report by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.

“China’s domestic use of AI is a chilling precedent for anyone around the world who cherishes individual liberty,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, the Athenai Institute, a bipartisan student-led organization, is urging U.S. universities to divest from Chinese government-controlled entities, The College Fix reported this month.

Lawmakers also have been taking action. In 2023, for example, Florida enacted a law restricting public universities and colleges “from accepting grants from or participating in partnerships or agreements” with China and other foreign countries “of concern.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 20:45

Securities Analyst Jobs In China Are "Permanently" Disappearing

The days of million dollar analyst jobs in the securities industry in China look to be all but gone.

That was the topic of a new Bloomberg article last week which detailed exactly how the industry is "retrenching after years of expansion". Bloomberg's description of the industry's cutbacks is based on discussions with about 20 analysts and former analysts, who chose to remain anonymous or only use their first names.

These reductions are occurring amidst a prolonged market downturn that has lowered trading commissions and increased regulatory restrictions on research publications. It marks a significant shift from previous years when brokerages were actively recruiting and offering substantial salaries to top analysts.

Several senior analysts at Shanghai's state-owned Guotai Junan Securities resigned following pay cuts and stricter performance requirements, the article points out.

Another Shenzhen-based brokerage cut 40% of its analyst staff and reduced their 2023 bonuses by over 50%. Additional cost-cutting measures at other firms include decreased meal and travel budgets.

Sun Jianbo, a former chief strategist at China Galaxy Securities Co. who now runs China Vision Capital, told Bloomberg: “Now with the trading fees cut, the bubble in the research circle will also burst.”

“There’s no other way around. The only thing that matters now is to stay employed. So my approach is to grab a job first and see what comes next," said one 28 year old energy analyst named Anna. 

She said her team was cut down from 7 analysts to 2. 

Chinese brokerages have traditionally assessed their research analysts based on the trading commissions—referred to as "soft dollars" or paidian—they generate from clients, rather than the accuracy of their forecasts, Bloomberg writes.

This approach spurred the aggressive expansion of research teams and high salaries for analysts. According to China Vision Capital, the number of sell-side analysts in China has surged by almost 70% over the last decade, now exceeding 4,800.

Major firms like China International Capital and Citic Securities employ over 300 and nearly 200 analysts, respectively. Top-performing analysts, particularly winners of popular research contests like New Fortune, could earn up to 10 million yuan annually.

According to Brook Zhang of Bo Le Associates, analysts with ten years of experience might earn a basic salary of about 800,000 yuan, while those with five years can earn around 500,000 yuan, with bonuses ranging from three to 24 months of pay depending on market conditions.

However, the landscape is shifting due to recent regulatory changes reducing trading fees and discouraging the use of commissions for research payments. Additionally, investor interest in China's stock market has waned after three years of losses, diminishing demand for equity research.

This, along with a downturn in sectors like proprietary trading and investment banking and new restrictions on stock market practices, is driving brokerages to significantly cut costs.

“I think these cuts reflect a structural change in the securities business and are hence permanent,” concluded Chen Zhiwu, a professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong. You can read Bloomberg's full report here. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 20:10

Amid Budget Shortfall, San Francisco Reexamines Tax Burden On Big Businesses

Authored by Brian Back via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Facing mounting budget woes this election year, as spending far outpaces revenues, the City of San Francisco is scrambling to reform its infamously large and complex tax burden on business.

Several San Francisco companies have been mired in tax disputes with the city. Above, a view of downtown on Feb. 6, 2019. (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

San Francisco’s five largest employers now account for nearly a quarter of the city’s total business tax revenue, according to an April 14 report in the San Francisco Examiner. If any were to relocate outside of the city, such would leave San Francisco—currently facing an $800 million budget deficit—vulnerable.

As such, Mayor London Breed and city officials are currently negotiating with business and labor leaders to devise tax reform measures for the November ballot that could simplify its tax code and even out the load on top businesses, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

In particular, city officials say they would like to see changes that would not incentivize businesses to move jobs out of San Francisco, since the city’s largest employers are required to pay a disproportionate amount of business taxes.

But shifting the tax burden elsewhere, such as increasing the city’s already large sales tax, could hurt a retail sector that has been decimated by a flurry of closures in recent years, analysts say.

City Controller Greg Wagner has said the complexity and number of new taxes passed by voters in recent years combined with a poor economy have increased tax disputes between the city and large businesses, according to Alyssa Sewlal, a spokesperson for his office.

Such disputes include a legal demand from General Motors for more than $121 million in tax refunds, as well as tens of millions of dollars in refund claims, and settlements and lawsuits on behalf of companies who say they were overtaxed such as Deloitte, Gap, WeWork, AppLovin, Chime Financial, and Block—formerly Square—since 2020, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

At the same time, the mayor’s office has been trying to direct more attention toward helping tourist-reliant businesses including hotels, restaurants, and arts and entertainment groups, including launching new small business grants and laying out plans to revitalize its downtown. Several such businesses have denounced the city’s street conditions, crime, costly permitting, and escalated taxes.

Factors such as a struggling office market aided by the rise of remote work, retail and commercial vacancies, poor recovery from the pandemic, and lagging tourism have played a role in revenues not keeping up with city spending that has increased significantly over the past decade.

Currently at $14.6 billion, San Francisco’s budget rivals most major U.S. cities. Because it is forecast to escalate by more than $1 billion over the next five years, the city will be on track to post a deficit surpassing $1 billion by 2027 barring major changes, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

City employee salaries, pension benefits, and health care costs are projected to increase by about $500 million within the upcoming four fiscal years, according to Ms. Breed’s office.

The mayor, who is up for re-election in November, told city departments in December they will be required to cut their budgets by about 10 percent in the upcoming fiscal year, and that they must also consider an additional 5 percent in cuts as a “contingency reduction.”

The city’s next budget, which goes into effect July 1, is scheduled to go before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for a vote June 1.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 19:35

"First Real Image" Of Chinese Supersonic Drone Attached To Bomber  

Aviation observers have spotted a supersonic unmanned aerial vehicle under the fuselage of a People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) bomber, Defense Blog reports. The new drone can conduct strategic aerial reconnaissance across southeast Asia.

Images of the WZ-8 reconnaissance drone attached to a Xian H-6 bomber surfaced on social media platform X last week. The rare sighting reminds us that PLAAF, the third largest air force in the world, is quickly modernizing its aircraft fleet to include drones as tensions with the US over Taiwan remain high.  

Maybe this is the first real image of a WZ-8 under a H-6MW.

(Image via @種花家de小姐姐 from Weibo) pic.twitter.com/XctC1mMjka

— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) April 19, 2024

First revealed to the public in 2019, WZ-8 provides pre-strike targeting information and/or post-strike assessments. The drone can also conduct strategic aerial reconnaissance across southeast Asia, including Taiwan and South Korea. 

In a separate Defense Blog report, citing classified papers obtained by The Washington Post, a fleet of WZ-8 drones are stationed in newly built hangars in the Lu'an airbase in eastern China. This base allows the supersonic drones to be easily deployed to Taiwan and South Korea for intelligence-gathering missions while flying at an altitude of 30 kilometers - untouchable to some of the world's most advanced air defense systems. 

As the world's AI superpowers, China and the US, gear up for potential drone wars in the Indo-Pacific region, the rapid advancement of swarm technology will be critical for winning the next major conflict, along with hypersonic weapons. The deployment of these technologies comes as war rages on in Eastern Europe and flares up in the Middle East. Banker Jamie Dimon recently warned the world faces "risks that eclipse anything since World War II." 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 19:00

Lord Of The Lies: A Pediatrician's Take On The Latest Child Gender-Transition Research

Authored by J. Edward Les, MD, via The Epoch Times,

Last week’s release of the Cass Review brought to memory the old jingle: “Liar, liar, pants on fire; your nose is longer than a telephone wire.” Commissioned four years ago to probe the practices of the Tavistock gender clinic in Britain, the report methodically assembles a damning indictment of the flimsy evidence used to “transition” children.

Its author, retired pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass, is polite and professional, but she pulls no punches in exposing the false foundation upon which the entire edifice of “gender-affirming care” is built.

Drawing extensively on a series of systematic literature reviews and in-depth interviews with doctors, parents, and patients, she writes:

“The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress… for the majority of young people, a medical pathway may not be the best way to achieve this.”

Even social transitioning alone, she concludes, risks grave psychological harm for children.

And social transitioning is often a prelude to puberty blockers. Dr. Cass skewers the oft-cited narrative that blockers are harmless and reversible, pointing to evidence of permanent negative effects on bone density and neuropsychiatric functioning.

The report advises a U-turn from the “gender-affirming” construct of drugs and surgery toward a model of careful psychological counselling. Critically, this is the very “watchful waiting” approach that got Canadian psychologist Dr. Kenneth Zucker fired more than eight years ago as head of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Dr. Cass delivers a scathing indictment of the shaky evidence for guidelines used by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, The American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Endocrine Society; and she exposes their repeated practice of using non-evidence-based guidelines to justify other non-evidence-based guidelines.

Not all lies are equal.

White lies are the (mostly) harmless sort we tell to spare someone’s feelings. Black lies are the malicious untruths told to gain unfair advantage or to cause harm to others.

But the “lord of the lies” is the “blue” lie: the sort of falsehood we tell each other and ourselves—often unknowingly—on behalf of our tribes.

Such as in William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies,” when a group of boys convinces themselves, without evidence, that there’s a beast in the forest—a delusion that turns deadly for Simon and Piggy.

In my view, blue lies underpin the gospel of “gender-affirming care,” which has led thousands of otherwise erudite medical professionals to discard the truth of the gender binary in favour of blatant interference with normal pediatric physiology.

It’s important to emphasize that blue lies typically aren’t told with intent to mislead, or from a place of malevolence; their proponents genuinely believe they are on the side of truth.

Combatting blue lies, therefore, is extraordinarily difficult. But not impossible.

Two strategies are key:

First, we need powerful insiders - not just members of the tribe, but prominent figures within it to awake to their errors and begin to speak up.

Such as when Finnish physician Riittakerttu Kaltiala, one of the architects of Finland’s youth gender transition program, stepped up last October to say:

“Gender transition has gotten out of hand. When medical professionals start saying they have one answer that applies everywhere, or that they have a cure for all life’s pains, that should be a warning to all of us that something has gone very wrong.”

Unfortunately, a common response to the Cass Review by gender-fluidity adherents has been to double down. Take Dr. Kristopher Wells, Canada Research Chair for the Public Understanding of Sexual & Gender Minority Youth:

“The flawed UK Cass Report was issued today and is exactly what was expected from a country that is virulently anti-trans,” he said on social media.

His is the sort of reaction that Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle, writing about the horrors of frontal lobotomies, describes as “The Oedipus Trap”: a situation where “it can be so psychologically devastating to discover you’ve made a mistake… that you will do everything in your power to avoid recognizing it.”

Per Walter Scott: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!”

Therefore, a second strategy - expertly employed by Dr. Cass - is crucial: the careful and patient exhibition of evidence, without hyperbole and without rancour.

The Cass Review exposes a tangled web indeed.

For her efforts, and for her courage, Hilary Cass deserves our deepest thanks.

*  *  *

Dr. J. Edward Les, MD, is a pediatrician in Calgary and a senior fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 18:25

Shipping Industry Pleads With UN For "Enhanced Military Presence" As Maritime Choke-Point Chaos Spreads

Exactly one week ago, Iranian commandos seized a container ship affiliated with Israel as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz. This action sparked new fears of another maritime chokepoint becoming disrupted as the crisis in the Middle East escalated. It also prompted a plea by the international shipping industry to the United Nations, urging an increase in military patrols along key shipping routes. 

First reported by the maritime news website gGaptain, an open letter co-signed by 16 maritime industry associations and social partners, calls for urgent assistance and reminds countries about their responsibilities under international law.  

"However, the incident this weekend, when the vessel MSC Aries was seized by Iranian forces at 06.37 UTC – 50 nautical miles north-east of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates on Saturday 13 April, has once again highlighted the intolerable situation where shipping has become a target. This is unacceptable," the signatories of the letter stated. 

"Given the continually evolving and severe threat profile within the area, we call on you for enhanced coordinated military presence, missions and patrols in the region, to protect our seafarers against any further possible aggression," they said, adding, "The industry associations ask that all member states be formally reminded of their responsibilities under international law. And we ask that all efforts possible are brought to bear to release the seafarers and protect the safe transit of ships." 

After the MSC Aries seizure in the Strait of Hormuz, we published a note titled "Heading For Supply Shock? Four Maritime Chokepoints Flash Red As Escalating Conflict Looms," outlining the maritime chokepoints, including the Suez Canal, Bab-El Mandeb Strait, and Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of all global trade flows, that are experiencing increased conflict. 

In a recent note, MUFG provided a global snapshot of the world's maritime chokepoints. 

The team at ING Global Markets Research warned last week, "Global shipping routes are already heavily impacted from the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden because of ongoing geopolitical strife. If the Strait of Hormuz is in any way disrupted, the impact on oil and global trade could be huge." 

Disruptions along critical maritime chokepoints in the Middle East are a direct result of the failed foreign policy decisions pushed by the Biden administration and former President Obama. Furthermore, the inability of Western militaries to secure the southern Red Sea through Operation Prosperity Guardian is a sign of weakness as the world fractures into a multipolar state of chaos. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 17:50

St. Louis University Hosts Dylan Mulvaney, Denies College Republicans Request For Event With Former NCAA Swimmer A Day Later

By Adam Sabes of Campus Reform

St. Louis University plans to host transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to speak on campus next week and denied College Republicans’ request to host an event with a former NCAA swimmer a day later.

The event will be hosted by the St. Louis University Great Issues Committee on Monday, which is part of the school’s Student Activities Board, according to the St. Louis Post.

Mulvaney gained attention in April 2023 after a paid partnership with Bud Light, sparking heavy criticism from conservatives.

According to the report, St. Louis University College Republicans President Alexandra Leung said that administrators at the institution denied their request to host Paula Scanlan, a women’s sports activist.

Despite the event occurring a day after Mulvaney’s speech, the university said that its security couldn’t accommodate the event.

“Mulvaney’s comments have been deemed disrespectful and derogatory towards women and to SLU’s central mission,” said Leung.

While Leung says that Mulvaney’s message is at odds with the university’s catholic teachings, her College Republicans chapter has no plans to protest the event.

While St. Louis University didn’t disclose how much the speech costs, in Summer 2023, there was an honorarium of $40,000 for organizations interested in hosting Mulvaney for an event, according to YAF.

Just a few months prior, the University of Pittsburgh’s Rainbow Alliance secured $26,250 from its student government to host Mulvaney.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 17:15

Project Much? Hillary Clinton Claims Trump Wants To 'Kill, Imprison His Opposition'

Hillary Clinton, who once suggested murdering Julian Assange and whose party is trying to imprison their chief political rival, suggested that Donald Trump wants to murder and imprison his political opponents.

Appearing on a podcast with Marc Elias, the Democrat super-lawyer who laid the legal groundwork for vote-by-mail in 2020 & was involved in the "Steele Dossier" purchase, Clinton suggested that "Putin does what [Trump] would like to do. Kill his opposition."

[Maybe they just committed suicide like Vince Foster and all those other associates?]

According to Hillary, who helped France murder Gaddafi (after he wanted a mere 5 billion euros / year to stop illegals from flooding into Europe), Trump "really" wants to "imprison his opposition, drive journalists into exile, rule without any check or balance."

"We have to be very conscious of how he sees the world because in that world, he only sees strong men leaders. He sees Putin. He sees Xi. He sees Kim Jong Un in North Korea," the failed presidential candidate continued. "Those are the people he is modelling himself after and we’ve been down this road in our, you know, world history. We sure don’t want to go down that again."

According to Hillary, if Trump "ever gets back near the White House again, it will be like having a dictator. I don’t say that lightly. Go back and read Project 2025. They’re going to fire everybody. The person in the government who knows about the next pandemic? Get rid of him."

Project much?

Watch (h/t Modernity.news):

Hillary Clinton claims that Trump wants to murder his political opponents and become a dictator like Kim Jong Un in North Korea. Report: https://t.co/AeDFUkcCvw pic.twitter.com/jk24sUk0Lm

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) April 20, 2024

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 16:40

What Are Mises' Six Lessons?

Authored by Jonathan Newman via The Mises Institute,

Ludwig von Mises’s Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow has become quite popular recently. The Mises Book Store has sold out of its physical copies, and the PDF, which is available online for free, has seen over 50,000 downloads in the past few days.

This surge in interest in Mises’s ideas was started by UFC fighter Renato Moicano, who declared in a short post-fight victory speech, “I love America, I love the Constitution...I want to carry...guns. I love private property. Let me tell you something. If you care about your...country, read Ludwig von Mises and the six lessons of the Austrian economic school.”

The “six lessons” he is referring to is Mises’s book, Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow, which was republished by our friends in Brazil under the title “As Seis Lições” (“The Six Lessons”).

If you are interested in what Mises has to say in this book, which is a transcription of lectures he gave in Argentina in 1959, here’s a brief preview, which I hope inspires you to read the short book in full. As a side note, if you are an undergraduate student who is interested in these ideas, the Mises Institute’s next Mises Book Club is on this text (pure coincidence!).

Lecture One: Capitalism

Mises begins his first lecture with an overview of the development of capitalism out of feudalism. Businesses began “mass production to satisfy the needs of the masses” instead of focusing on producing luxury goods for the elite. These big businesses succeeded because they served the needs of a larger group of people, and their success wholly depended on their ability to give this mass of consumers what they wanted.

Despite the amazing and undeniable increases in standards of living, even for a growing population, capitalism had its detractors, including Karl Marx, who gave capitalism its name. Mises says that while Marx hated capitalism and that Marx dubbed it thusly as an attack on the system, the name is a good one 

because it describes clearly the source of the great social improvements brought about by capitalism. Those improvements are the result of capital accumulation; they are based on the fact that people as a rule, do not consume everything they have produced, that they save—and invest—a part of it.

Prosperity is the result of providing for the future—more precisely it is the result of setting aside consumption today by saving and investing resources in production. Mises says that this principle explains why some countries are more prosperous than others. When it comes to economic growth, “there are no miracles.” There is only “the application of the principles of the free market economy, of the methods of capitalism.”

Lecture Two: Socialism

In the second lecture, Mises takes a closer look at Marx’s proposed system: socialism. Economic freedom means that people can choose their own careers and use their resources to accomplish their own ends. Economic freedom is the basis for all other freedoms. For example, when the government seizes whole industries, like that of the printing press, it determines what will be published and what won’t and the “freedom of the press disappears.”

Mises acknowledges that there is no such thing as “perfect freedom” in a metaphysical sense. We must obey the laws of nature, especially if we intend to use and transform nature according to our ends. And even economic freedom means that there is a fundamental interdependence among individuals: “Freedom in society means that a man depends as much on other people as other people depend upon him.” This is also true for big businesses and the entrepreneurs who lead them. The true “bosses” in the market economy are not those who shout orders to the workers, but the consumers.

Socialists despise the idea of consumer sovereignty because it means allowing mistakes. In their mind, the state should play the paternalistic role of deciding what is good for everyone. Thus Mises sees no difference between socialism and a system of slavery: “The slave must do what his superior orders him to do, but the free citizen—and this is what freedom means—is in a position to choose his own way of life.” In capitalism, this freedom makes it possible for people to be born into poverty but then achieve great success as they provide for their fellow man. This kind of social mobility is impossible under systems like feudalism and socialism.

Mises ends this lecture with a short explanation of the economic calculation critique of socialism. When the private ownership of the means of production is prohibited, then economic calculation is made impossible. Without market prices for factors, we cannot economize production and provide for the needs of the masses, no matter who oversees the socialist planning board. The result is mass deprivation and chaos.

Lecture Three: Interventionism

Interventionism describes a situation in which the government “wants to interfere with market phenomena.” Each intervention involves an abrogation of the consumer sovereignty Mises had explained in the two previous lectures.

The government wants to interfere in order to force businessmen to conduct their affairs in a different way than they would have chosen if they had obeyed only the consumers. Thus, all the measures of interventionism by the government are directed toward restricting the supremacy of consumers.

Mises gives an example of a price ceiling on milk. While those who enact such an intervention may intend to make milk more affordable for poorer families, there are many unintended consequences: increased demand, decreased supply, non-price rationing in the form of long queues at shops that sell milk, and, importantly, grounds for the government to intervene in new ways now that their initial intervention has not achieved its intended purpose. So, in Mises’s example, he traces through the new interventions, like government rationing, price controls for cattle food, price controls for luxury goods, and so on until the government has intervened in virtually every part of the economy, i.e., socialism.

After providing some historical examples of this process, Mises gives the big picture. Interventionism, as a “middle-of-the-road policy,” is actually a road toward totalitarianism.

Lecture Four: Inflation

There can be no secret way to the solution of the financial problems of a government; if it needs money, it has to obtain the money by taxing its citizens (or, under special conditions, by borrowing it from people who have the money). But many governments, we can even say most governments, think there is another method for getting the needed money; simply to print it.

If the government taxes citizens to build a new hospital, then the citizens are forced to reduce their spending and the government “replaces” their spending with its own. If, however, the government uses newly printed money to finance the construction of the hospital, then there is no replacement of spending, but an addition, and “prices will tend to go up.”

Mises, per usual, explodes the idea of a “price level” that rises and falls, as if all prices change simultaneously and proportionally. Instead, prices rise “step by step.” The first receivers of new money increase their demands for goods, which provides new income to those who sell those goods. Those sellers may now increase their demands for goods. This explains the process by which some prices and some people’s incomes increase before others. The result is a “price revolution,” in which prices and incomes rise in a stepwise fashion, starting with the origin of the new money. In this way, new money alters the distribution of incomes and the arrangement of real resources throughout the economy, creating “winners” and “losers.”

The gold standard offers a strict check against the inflationist tendencies of governments. In such a system, the government cannot create new units of money to finance its spending, so it must resort to taxation, which is notably unpopular. Fiat inflation, however, is subtle and its effects are complex and delayed, which makes it especially attractive to governments that can wield it.

In this lecture Mises also executes a thorough smackdown of Keynes and Keynesianism, but I’ll leave that for readers to enjoy.

Lecture Five: Foreign Investment

Mises returns to a principle he introduced in the first lecture, that economic growth stems from capital accumulation. The differences in standards of living between countries is not attributable to technology, the qualities of the workers, or the skills of the entrepreneurs, but to the availability of capital.

One way that capital may be accumulated within a country is through foreign investment. The British, for example, provided much of the capital that was required to develop the rail system in the United States and in Europe. This provided mutual benefit for both the British and the countries on the receiving end of this investment. The British earned profits through their ownership of the rail systems and the receiving countries, even with a temporary “unfavorable” balance of trade, obtained the benefits of the rail system including expanded productivity which, over time, allowed them to purchase stock in the rail companies from the British. 

Foreign investment allows the capital accumulation in one country to speed up the development of other countries, all without a one-sided sacrifice on the part of the country providing the investment. Wars (especially world wars), protectionism, and domestic taxation destroy this mutually beneficial process. When countries impose tariffs or expropriate the capital that belongs to foreign investors, they “prevent or to slow down the accumulation of domestic capital and to put obstacles in the way of foreign capital.”

Lecture Six: Politics and Ideas

The classical liberal ideas of the philosophers of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries helped create the constrained governments and economic freedom that led to the explosion of economic growth Mises discussed in the first lecture. But the emergence of minority “pressure groups,” what we would call “special interest groups” today, directed politicians away from classical liberal ideals and toward interventionism. The groups that would benefit from various interventions lobby the government to grant them favors like monopoly privileges, taxes on competition (including tariffs), and subsidies. And, as we have seen, this interventionist spiral tends toward socialism and totalitarianism. The “resurgence of the warlike spirit” in the twentieth century brought about world wars and exacerbated the totalitarian trends even in the once exemplary nations.

The concomitant rise in government expenditures made fiat money and inflation too tempting. The wars and special projects advocated by the pressure groups were expensive, and so budget constraints were discarded in favor of debasement.

This, Mises says, explains the downfall of civilization. He points to the Roman Empire as an example: 

What had taken place? What was the problem? What was it that caused the disintegration of an empire which, in every regard, had attained the highest civilization ever achieved before the eighteenth century? The truth is that what destroyed this ancient civilization was something similar, almost identical to the dangers that threaten our civilization today: on the one hand it was interventionism, and on the other hand, inflation.

Mises finds hope in the fact that the detractors of economic freedom, like Marx and Keynes, do not represent the masses or even a majority. Marx, for example, “was not a man from the proletariat. He was the son of a lawyer. … He was supported by his friend Friedrich Engels, who—being a manufacturer—was the worst type of ‘bourgeois,’ according to socialist ideas. In the language of Marxism, he was an exploiter.”

This implies that the fate of civilization depends on a battle of ideas, and Mises thought that good ideas would win: 

I consider it as a very good sign that, while fifty years ago, practically nobody in the world had the courage to say anything in favor of a free economy, we have now, at least in some of the advanced countries of the world, institutions that are centers for the propagation of a free economy.

May we continue Mises’s project and fulfill his hope. What the world needs is “Menos Marx, Mais Mises.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 16:05

Elon Musk Says Tesla Will Fix "Incorrectly Low" Severance Packages For Laid Off Employees

Elon Musk stated last week that the severance packages given to some ex-Tesla Inc. employees during the company's largest workforce reduction were incorrectly too low. 

Tesla announced on Monday that it is cutting over 10% of its 140,000-strong global workforce to prepare for a new phase of growth, according to CNBC.

Details on the layoffs were sparse, but in a company memo, Elon Musk said the move was part of a strategic shift towards robotaxi development, stepping away from plans for a more affordable electric vehicle.

Musk wrote in an email last week: “As we reorganize Tesla it has come to my attention that some severance packages are incorrectly low. My apologies for this mistake. It is being corrected immediately.”

Nico Murillo, a former production supervisor, told Bloomberg: “Tried to badge in, and the security guard took my badge and told me I was laid off. Sat in my car in disbelief.”

As we've noted, Tesla missed its Q1 delivery guidance and, so far in 2024, its stock has been decimated. For Q1 2024, Tesla produced over 433,000 vehicles and delivered 387,000. It marks the first annual Q1 delivery decline for the automaker since 2020. 

Tesla's exact delivery number for the quarter was 386,810 vehicles, far below Bloomberg estimates of 449.080.

Tesla submitted a proxy statement for its June 13 shareholder meeting this week, requesting shareholders to approve relocating the company's state of incorporation to Texas and to ratify CEO Elon Musk's 2018 pay package, which was recently rescinded by a Delaware judge.

In the statement, Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm supports the move to Texas, noting that the company has been headquartered there since December 2021., per Yahoo. 

“2024 is the year that Tesla should move home to Texas. We are asking for your vote to approve Tesla’s move from Delaware, our current state of incorporation, to a new legal home in Texas. Texas is already our business home, and we are committed to it,”  Denholm said. 

“In 2018, we asked for unbelievable growth and accomplishments. Elon delivered: Tesla’s stockholders have benefited from unprecedented growth under Elon’s leadership and Tesla has met every single one of the 2018 CEO pay package’s targets,” she continued. 

Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush added: “On the comp package which was already approved by shareholders at the time in 2018, this has been an area of contention among some investors but we would expect the 2018 package will be reapproved and the Delaware court ruling would be moot in essence as Tesla will now be moving to Texas.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 15:30

Not 'The Onion': New Guinea Academics Say Cannibals Would Be Offended By Biden's Tale Of Uncle Being Eaten

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Academics from Papua New Guinea say that the actual cannibals who live there would be extremely offended by Joe Biden’s made up story of his uncle being eaten by them during World War Two because they “wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky.”

As we highlighted earlier this week, Biden twice told the completely made up story as a way of attacking Donald Trump.

In reality his uncle wasn’t a reconnaissance pilot, wasn’t shot down over Papua New Guinea and definitely wasn’t eaten by cannibals.

It didn’t prevent the White House Press Secretary from calling doing her best to avoid admitting it was all lies, and calling it a “very proud” moment for Biden, before repeating the lie about Trump calling dead US veterans ‘losers’.

Press Secretary does her best to avoid admitting that Biden’s story about his uncle being shot down and eaten by cannibals was total made up horse shit. Then repeats the lie that Trump called fallen veterans ‘losers’pic.twitter.com/Kl9sv4sDMf

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) April 18, 2024

The story gets more ridiculous, however.

The Guardian now reports that outraged Papua New Guinea academics have blasted Biden’s tale as “unacceptable” and “very offensive.”

‘Lost for words’: Joe Biden’s tale about cannibals bemuses Papua New Guinea residents https://t.co/bYFg7KAgg5

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) April 19, 2024

Michael Kabuni, a political science lecturer at the University of Papua New Guinea, explained that cannibalism was historically practiced by some communities only in very specific contexts, such as after the death of a revered community member.

Kabuni noted that the native people only ever engaged in cannibalism as a sign of respect and that locals “wouldn’t just eat any white men that fell from the sky.”

“Taking it out of context, and implying that your [uncle] jumps out of the plane and somehow we think it’s a good meal is unacceptable,” Kabuni urged.

Allan Bird, governor of Papua New Guinea’s province of East Sepik, said he found Biden’s story “hilarious” and was “lost for words.”

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 14:55

House Passes $95 Billion Aid Package For Ukraine, Israel And Taiwan - But Not US Border

The House on Saturday passed a set of foreign aid bills that would send $61 billion to Ukraine, $26 billion to Israel, and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific region.

In total, the foreign assistance package totals $95 billion - which only passed after Speaker Mike Johnson cut a deal with Democrats in order to force it through by a vote of 311 to 112.

The Senate is expected to pass the package, which was negotiated in conjunction with the White House, marking a victory against conservative lawmakers who insisted on protecting the US border before sending money abroad to protect those of other countries.

“We cannot be afraid of our shadows. We must be strong. We have to do what’s right,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said.

Democrats and some Republicans waved Ukrainian flags during the vote, a rare moment of bipartisanship in a bitterly and narrowly divided House.

“Traditional House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson have risen to the occasion,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said. “We have a responsibility to push back against authoritarianism.” -Bloomberg

Earlier in the day, the House passed an $8 billion aid package aimed at countering Chinese aggression towards Taiwan, as well as a bill that would force Chinese-controlled ByteDance Ltd to divest from TikTok or face a US ban. The bill also allows for the confiscation of Russian dollar assets in order to help fund more assistance to Ukraine.

Speaker Johnson made it essentially impossible to vote for any of the bills before the House today without assisting in the effort to send $60 billion to Ukraine and up to $9 billion to Hamas.

He also made it impossible to condition any of those things on U.S. border security.

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) April 20, 2024

Breaking down the Ukraine aid - of the $61 billion, $13 billion will replenish US stockpiles of weapons, and $14 billion will go towards US defense systems for Ukraine. $7 billion will go toward US military operations in the region. We assume the remainder will go directly to Ukrainian oligarchs.

The Israel bill, which passed by a vote of 366 to 58, includes $4 billion for missile defense.

Notably absent was so much as a dime for the US border...

"Nothing is done to secure our border or reduce our debt," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), whose outrage was shared with Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona, who say they're ready to boot Johnson from his Speakership.

"Ukraine is not even a member of NATO," Greene continued.

Who would have known!

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 14:18

At the Calculated Risk Real Estate Newsletter this week:

• Single Family Starts Up 22% Year-over-year in March; Multi-Family Starts Down Sharply

• NAR: Existing-Home Sales Decreased to 4.19 million SAAR in March

• NMHC: "Apartment Market Continues to Loosen"

• 4th Look at Local Housing Markets in March; California Home Sales Down 4.4% YoY in March

• Lawler: Early Read on Existing Home Sales in March

• 3rd Look at Local Housing Markets in March

This is usually published 4 to 6 times a week and provides more in-depth analysis of the housing market.

NPR Scandal Should Kill Taxpayer-Funded Broadcasting

Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClearPolitics,

“I don't want any yes-men around me,” said Sam Goldwyn, the Hollywood producer famed for his movies and malapropisms. “I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their job.” The brass at National Public Radio must have heard Sam, but they add a slight amendment. We want only “yes-men” (they/them) and will boot anyone who dares to dissent.

Lest there be any doubt, NPR just proved it by suspending, without pay, the staffer who exposed the pervasive problems there. He dared to write publicly that that National Public Radio was uniformly ideological, deeply committed to its strident left-wing views, and determined to exclude any alternatives. For saying that out loud, they cut off Uri Berliner’s paycheck for five days. It’s their way of saying, “Thank you for your feedback.” Q.E.D.

Berliner, disgusted by NPR’s response, resigned Wednesday with a fiery statement: “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged.” Who could?

There are really two problems here, not one, and they go well beyond one journalist’s resignation. The first is political bias, which is a problem at all “elite” networks and newspapers, where “hard news” is heavily slanted. The second is that some of these outlets, notably NPR, PBS (the Public Broadcasting System) and their local affiliates, receive taxpayer funding.

Let’s take political bias first. It was once a cardinal rule of journalism that partisan or ideological viewpoints should be confined to editorials and opinion columns. The goal was to keep editorial views out of hard-news reporting, as much as possible. To do it, the editorial staff constantly fought with the business team, who wanted coverage to favor their advertisers.

Those days are long gone and so is even the ideal of unbiased coverage. We have returned to an earlier era when American newspapers were closely affiliated with political parties and local political machines and covered the news to favor them. Today’s newsrooms have revived that stance. They are as ideologically driven as a gender-studies class at Smith College. If you depart from that ideology, you are out, like Bari Weiss at the New York Times.

Because newsrooms now have so few dissenting voices, reporters and editors live inside the bubble and hardly notice their surroundings. If they do, they are determined to preserve that insularity.

The fragmentation of today’s media landscape encourages these strong, partisan stances. Newspapers, magazines, cable networks, and podcasts know the market is finely sliced. They have strong incentives to choose a narrow slice for themselves and appeal to it by confirming their audience’s bias, not challenging it. That’s as true for right-wing talk radio as it is for left-wing public radio.

Just as elite attitudes have moved further left, so have elite publications and broadcasts. Since the Democratic Party has trod that same path, even as Republicans have become more nationalist and populist, the bias in elite newsrooms has naturally moved further left. That includes outlets like NPR and PBS. Their audience drives EVs, not Ford F-150s.

What makes this bias a policy issue is that NPR, PBS, and their local outlets receive taxpayer money. They shouldn’t. It was justifiable for educational programming. It cannot be justified for news or entertainment.

Public funding for news programming is fundamentally wrong in a democracy when there are so many other ways to receive news and information. The problem is compounded when taxpayer money pays for coverage is partisan and biased. That’s not an issue for MSNBC or the New York Times. They are private businesses. They can do whatever they damn well please. Not so for NPR, PBS, and their local affiliates. They do receive taxpayer money.

When NPR faced criticism this week, it shot back with deceptive statistics, claiming less than 1% of its money is from the government. That’s three-card-monte accounting.

To understand why, we need to look at how Washington disburses taxpayer money for public TV and radio, some $500 million in the next fiscal year. That money doesn’t go directly to NPR. (Hence, the 1% claim.) They get it indirectly. First, the federal outlay goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private entity, as mandated in a 1967 law. The CPB sends nearly all that money to local public radio and TV stations as “community grants.” The stations then use part of that money to buy syndicated programs like NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.”

NPR last financial statement showed that about one-third of its revenue came from local stations’ purchasing NPR programs. A significant chunk of the money to make those purchases came from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To hide that source of taxpayer funding for NPR was its three-card-monte trick.

The larger problem here is not the deception or partisan bias, bad as they are. It’s not the scale of public funding, either. The fundamental problem is that taxpayers should not be underwriting any domestic news organizations, for any amount. Reporting should be completely independent of city, state, and federal government so journalists can report political issues without fear or favor.

Government-funded broadcasting to foreign audiences is different. American taxpayers have legitimate reasons to fund the Voice of America and other channels, primarily to get honest news past the dictators’ censors. But the VOA is prohibited, by law, from broadcasting within the United States or creating programs for U.S. audiences. That’s entirely proper. The same logic should apply to news and news-interview programs from NPR and PBS and their local affiliates.

What about “educational TV”? There were good reasons for a publicly funded network devoted to that mission in the 1950s and 1960s. There were only three major networks and, of course, a genuine need for educational content. That non-political service lasted from 1954 until 1970. It was succeeded by the Public Broadcasting Service, which quickly dropped any mention of “educational.” Member stations of the old National Educational Television were folded into PBS. Their schedules now include a mix of entertainment, educational programs, news, and news interviews.

National Public Radio, by contrast, has never included much educational content. For years, it has been simply a left-wing alternative to right-wing talk radio. That would be fine only if all the funding were private. It’s not.

The evidence shows that the best educational TV, such as “Sesame Street,” does help children learn. So there are good reasons to continue underwriting such programs. Ideally, they should be provided free to anyone who wishes to broadcast them, post them on the web, or use them in class.

But there is no reason for federal, state, or city governments to own any broadcast channel, other than to broadcast public meetings and hearings. For everything else, including educational programs, there are countless channels on cable TV and YouTube.

A good example of what the government can properly fund are the wonderful videos about scientific discoveries, presented in accessible language by Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln. The lab is funded by the government, and Dr. Lincoln conveys its work to the public by posting brief lectures on the web. He is doing what “educational TV” did in the 1950s. In the 2020s, programs like Dr. Lincoln’s can be posted online for the public to use, free. We don’t need public TV or radio to do it, and we don’t need their publicly funded podcasts.

If private institutions want to publish their own educational videos, either free or for sale, the world is open to them. Let “the Great Courses” do that by selling them online. Let “Prager University” do it. Let MIT broadcast its science courses. Let a million podcasts bloom. Privately.

If the federal government wishes to fund genuinely educational content, fine. It’s also fine to provide public services like weather information, which taxpayers already fund. But if the federal government, cities, or states wish to fund news and news interview programs, that’s not fine. Let private entities do it. Exclusively.

What should be done with existing public broadcasting frequencies on radio and television? Put them up for auction and put the money into the public treasury. If civic groups or philanthropies buy them, fine. If commercial enterprises buy them, that’s fine, too. The Department of Education can still fund education programs and make the content available to anyone who wishes to use it or broadcast on their channels. $500 million should buy a lot of new content each year.

What the government should not fund, produce, or broadcast are news or news-interview programs. The issue is not just political bias. The issue is that the heavy hand of government should not control any broadcast news within the U.S. Let the president, Cabinet secretaries, senators, and representatives hold press conferences. Let the White House, Pentagon, or State Department hold briefings. That’s more than enough to get their message out.

They don’t need to fund broadcast networks. That would be true even if their journalists and presentations were fair-minded. They aren’t, and that’s one more reason to end this public funding. But it is not the main reason. The main reason is that it is simply wrong for the government, with its deep pockets and coercive power, to control any broadcast network. Not in a free country.

Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security. He can be reached at charles.lipson@gmail.com.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 14:00

Israeli Security Chief Slams 'Lame' Attack On Iran, Deepening Division Among War Leaders

Days ago, The Wall Street Journal featured a headline that underscored Israel's war leaders don't trust one another. This comes as they are dealing simultaneously with the operation in Gaza, repelling Hezbollah daily drone and missile attacks in the north, and of course the new tit-for-tat crisis with Iran.

"Long-simmering grudges and arguments over how best to fight Hamas have soured relations between Israel’s wartime decision makers—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the former head of the Israeli military, Benny Gantz," the publication wrote. "The three men are at odds over the biggest decisions they need to make: how to launch a decisive military push, free Israel’s hostages and govern the postwar strip."

Via EPA

Israel's former national security adviser Giora Eiland said "The lack of trust between these three people is so clear and so significant." But the deep mistrust goes beyond the three wartime leaders and deeper into the governing coalition and national security cabinet as well.

The infighting is now on display even more in the wake of Israel's retaliatory attack on Iran which took place in the early morning Friday hours. While there's consensus that Israel aimed for a 'limited' attack, CNN and others have analyzed satellite images near Isfahan which ultimately show "no extensive damage on an Iranian airbase believed to be the main target."

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has thrown fresh fuel to the fire, mocking Netanyahu's decision-making by calling it "lame". Ben Gvir had previously wanted Israel to "go berserk" in retaliation.

His words have once again resulted in intense controversy and infighting:

Ben Gvir, who leads the ultranationalist Jewish Power party, made a one-word post on X following the Israeli attack. Written in Hebrew, the Telegraph explained that the post used a “slang word that literally translates as ‘scarecrow’ but also means ‘lame.’” Reuters translated the word to “feeble.”

The post highlighted a public rift within the government in Tel Aviv. Ben Gvir is considered on the extreme end of Israel’s political spectrum and is popular among the right-wing settler movement. He lives in a West Bank settlement and has called for the resettlement of Gaza by Israelis.

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid subsequently blasted Ben Gvir over the comment, saying: "Never before has a minister in the security cabinet done such heavy damage to the country’s security, its image and its international status."

"In an unforgivable one-word tweet, Ben Gvir managed to mock and shame Israel from Tehran to Washington. Any other prime minister would have thrown him out of the cabinet this morning," he added.

Meanwhile, PM Netanyahu continues to face mounting calls for his removal, especially from hostage victims' families who have been leading large protests. They are outraged that he has not prioritized getting the hostages back.

WSJ wrote further that "Gantz, the general who led Israel’s last major war against Hamas a decade ago, has previously expressed a desire to oust Netanyahu as prime minister." The defense chief had "called earlier this month for early elections in September after tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the prime minister’s handling of the war—a sign that Gantz’s base has grown frustrated with his role in a Netanyahu-led government."

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/20/2024 - 13:25