Zero Hedge

"This Is A Power Grab": Our Perilous, Magnificent, Perilous Future

"This Is A Power Grab": Our Perilous, Magnificent, Perilous Future

Authored by Edward Ring via American Greatness,

The establishment narrative in the United States is pathologically negative, with its centerpiece being the climate “crisis.” A generation of America’s youth has been indoctrinated to believe the planet’s ecosystems are on the brink of catastrophic collapse, bringing with it chaos and doom. As if that weren’t enough, Americans are perpetually inundated with panic over disease, racism, gender bigotry, capitalist oppression, and the terrifying rise of white supremacist Nazis. And all of this, every bit of it, is overstated hyperbole, if not complete bunk.

The hidden agenda behind all this doom and panic isn’t really hidden anymore. This is a power grab. A venal consensus among America’s wealthiest elites to further centralize their own power and control. The dynamics of this are well understood by anyone who has already had their Red Pill moment. The over-the-top and coordinated media attacks on Trump, commencing in 2015 and escalating every year, opened the eyes of millions. Additional millions awakened during the COVID lockdown, as everything from school curricula to mainstream public health advice was often revealed to be indifferent, if not destructive, to the interests of normal Americans. Now questioning everything, the momentum of America’s electorate today is in the direction of sanity.

For this reason, we may hope that as the narrative is debunked, the agenda will dissipate as well. Maybe we won’t have another lockdown. Maybe “15-minute cities” won’t turn into high-tech prisons. Maybe rural America and a decentralized farm economy will not only survive but recover their vitality. Maybe we will have school choice, and maybe anonymous cash will survive. Maybe we won’t destroy our energy independence; maybe we won’t end up eating bugs instead of beef. Losing our freedom and prosperity is not inevitable.

But to improve chances for a fundamental realignment of the American electorate—a virtuous cascade of landslide elections—there is a weapon available to Americans fighting the elitist takeover of our institutions that isn’t being wielded nearly enough. Optimism in every permutation imaginable. Joy, anticipation, and unshakable confidence in the future. There are powerful, data-driven counterarguments, based on genuine scientific skepticism, that refute the entire pathologically negative establishment narrative, and those counterarguments must be heard. They must be heard without reservations and without respite. They are the fuel of persuasion. They are contagious. They are transformative.

The world is not in the midst of a climate crisis. There is nothing happening with climate and weather in the world that cannot be addressed through normal investments and adaptation. America is the most inclusive, welcoming nation in the history of civilization. Capitalism, when competition is preserved and monopolies are contained, is the most uplifting economic model ever conceived. Despite the tragic reality of ongoing conflict and hardship around the world, overall there has never been less poverty, disease, and war than today.

To believe that the future may just be more wonderful than we could ever imagine is not fantasy; it is an informed and realistic perspective. And it completely disarms the manipulative narrative of fear. No, we aren’t all in terrible danger, and therefore, no, we don’t have to give up our prosperity and our freedom.

Uncertainty and Peril, Boundless Possibilities

If growing resistance to the doom narrative promulgated by America’s elites may undermine that narrative, destroying it entirely requires an alternative vision. And to do this requires not only the emotions of persuasion—optimism, joy, anticipation, and confidence—but also an embrace of the innovative spirit that has been hijacked by doomers. Technology is not our enemy; its threat is found in the motivations of the people who wield it. The freedom-loving optimist must be willing to wade into the weeds of technology policy. In those weeds, our destiny and our future are going to be decided.

Because the climate “crisis” is the foundational premise upon which America’s elites are systematically implementing a technology-driven police state characterized by perpetual monitoring and rationing of virtually all activity—our food, water, transportation, homes, and businesses—it is there we may focus on critical technology decisions and tradeoffs that are being decided right now.

For example, how renewable energy is sourced and delivered can vary greatly depending on whether it is centralized or decentralized. In California, the state legislature has recently reduced financial incentives for residential rooftop photovoltaics. But that action does not eliminate subsidies; it only means that California’s beleaguered taxpayers and ratepayers will transfer even more billions to giant centralized wind farms and utility-scale photovoltaic installations. Nor is this about practicality. Decentralized photovoltaic systems generate power where it is consumed, reducing the need for massive investment in new high-voltage transmission lines to deliver electricity from remote renewable energy generation sites onto the grid.

Similarly, California’s state legislature forces taxpayers and ratepayers to subsidize utility scale battery farms to buffer and store the intermittent power generated by solar and wind farms. But by adding vehicle-to-grid technology to California’s privately owned EVs, if only 10 percent of California’s automobiles were EVs (a realistic niche), they would be capable of storing over 30 gigawatt-hours of electricity per day. They could be driven to work, charged from the grid during the day when surplus solar power is currently wasted, then plugged in at night to collect surplus wind energy and power residences without relying on grid electricity.

These choices aren’t meant to suggest that renewables can replace coal, oil, gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric power. They can’t, and they shouldn’t. But if renewables are to remain one part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy, then how they are implemented matters a great deal. The choice to decentralize solar, wind, and battery assets into the hands of millions of private small property owners can potentially save billions in subsidies while also distributing ownership.

Another example of how new technology can be channeled in extremely productive ways, or not, concerns food production. We’ve all heard the nightmare scenarios whereby mass food production may transition to protein based on bug tissue or “cultivated meat.” But there are other innovations that ought to have universal appeal. Indoor agriculture, where food is grown in a controlled indoor environment, offers an opportunity to avoid use of pesticides and herbicides. High-value crops, including tomatoes and most other vegetables, can be grown indoors, creating what may be an opportunity for small, decentralized indoor farmers to compete with agribusiness.

It isn’t possible to predict what innovations are coming, much less prescribe in advance the strategies that will be necessary to mitigate the ones that are awful and promote the ones that are awesome. This is why, for example, mandating a massive transition to EVs and “net-zero” risks draining hundreds of billions out of the economy, on the backs of working families, when in a few years a solid-state battery or a breakthrough in solar concentrator technology will render these massive investments in today’s EV and photovoltaic technology completely obsolete. California’s current policies, ironically, betray a lack of faith in the power of innovation.

It isn’t a huge stretch to move from not only believing that civilization isn’t already doomed to also believing we can develop and manage new technology in ways that are almost all going to be good for humanity. And the danger only gets worse—much worse—if we withdraw from the fight.

Human progress has always fitfully advanced, with setbacks along the way that at times lasted for centuries. That doesn’t have to be our fate in this era. We may cure disease, eliminate hunger and poverty, negotiate peace, explore space, extend life, deliver inexhaustible energy and abundant water, nurture wilderness and wildlife, and preserve a decentralized economy where wealth and ownership are broadly distributed among a population in which the vast majority of people enjoy middle-class lifestyles. Things may actually just get better and better. It is possible. It is a choice.

We must find this vision, embrace it, negotiate its particulars, and fight for it. Or it will be defined for us by people who have demonstrated no wish to share the wondrous products of innovation that are just around the corner.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 16:20

Stocks & The Dollar Gain On 'Good' News; Bitcoin, Bullion, & Black Gold Sink

Stocks & The Dollar Gain On 'Good' News; Bitcoin, Bullion, & Black Gold Sink

Philly Fed beat, jobless claims beat, PMIs beat... but with soaring prices, Leading Indicators beat, and existing home sales beat... all good news...

Source: Bloomberg

That good news reduced expectations for rate-cuts in 2024...

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks extended yesterday's gains on the good news... but Nasdaq was hit during the day on the heels of the AAPL news...

AAPL was clubbed like a baby seal on the regulatory crackdown...

Treasuries were mixed with the short-end lagging after yesterday's outperformance, (2Y +4bps, 30Y -1bps) with only the long-end still higher in yield on the week...

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar rebounded, retracing almost all of yesterday's losses...

Source: Bloomberg

Another net outflow (3rd in a row) from BTC ETFs yesterday...

Source: Bloomberg

...and the crypto-currency was sold today...

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices dipped for a second day - despite bond yields higher and growth being positive...

Source: Bloomberg

Gold retraced much of yesterday's spike gains...

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, which comes first: Nasdaq 17,000 or 10Y 4.0%...

Source: Bloomberg

...before or after the election?

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 16:00

The Path To Victory For Trump

The Path To Victory For Trump

Authored by Josh Hammer via American Greatness,

Following this week’s primaries, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have both attained enough delegates to be their respective parties’ presidential nominees this fall. Barring some sort of unforeseen event—a debilitating hospitalization, an ultra-expedited criminal prosecution, or a convention floor revolt—we will thus get a rematch of the 2020 presidential election.

For the many Americans who are neither Trump enthusiasts nor card-carrying Democratic partisans, this choice at the ballot box may be less than fully enticing. But for those patriots who still love this country, warts and all, and in spite of our ruinous current trajectory and decadence, it is imperative that Trump secures a second presidential term. It really is that simple.

You may admire Trump’s willingness to challenge conventional orthodoxies and his instinctual nationalism, or maybe you think he is an unprincipled politician and an obnoxious boor, to boot. Perhaps you believe Trump is now being persecuted by a weaponized prosecutorial apparatus, or you might have deep qualms about voting for someone found guilty of a crime by a jury of his peers.

But whatever it is you think about the polarizing 45th president of the United States, it doesn’t really matter. The reality is that the Democratic Party in its fetid current form is wholly unfit to govern the local assisted living facility—to say nothing of the greatest country in the world. And whoever once said American elections don’t present a binary choice is a moron; that is precisely what they do.

Patriots of all stripes must therefore band together to get Trump across the finish line this November. Trump can certainly make that task easier (or harder) based on how he runs his campaign this year. Here is what he should do.

Since Trump is the first former president to run for a non-consecutive additional term since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, his campaign is somewhat anomalous. Most challengers to an incumbent president seeking reelection can only talk about what they will do once they are in office and how that agenda differs from the incumbent’s record. But Trump already served a full term; he has a record. What’s more, that term was just a few years ago; most voters remember it well.

The key to Trump’s reelection this fall, then, is to make the straightforward case that his term was demonstrably better for the median American citizen than Biden’s term has been.

On the economy, Biden has presided over the worst inflation in four decades, declining real wages, a formal recession, and a historic supply chain crisis. Trump, by contrast, oversaw a generally flourishing pre-COVID economy: the stock market soared, inflation was generally subdued, America became a net exporter of oil and natural gas for the first time ever, and the Black unemployment rate even reached the lowest it has been since that statistic was first measured.

On the border, Biden has presided over the worst crisis in American history: Endless streams of unknown illegal aliens have flooded over, leading to a massive strain on municipalities’ resources, skyrocketing violent crime, depressed wages for working-class Americans, and the mass importation of terrorism-implicating “special interest aliens.” Trump, by contrast, may not have finished construction of the border wall, but illegal immigration was orders of magnitude lower than it is today due in no small part to the prudent measures he implemented, such as Remain in Mexico.

On the world stage, Vladimir Putin did not march into Ukraine under Trump (indeed, it is curious that Putin invaded Crimea during the Obama presidency in 2014 and then waited patiently until the next Democratic president to invade again), and under Trump, Hamas did not infiltrate Israel and kill the most Jews in a single day since the defeat of Nazi Germany. Iran was on the brink of economic catastrophe by the end of Trump’s term due to his administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign; under Biden, the Islamic Republic has been “maximally emboldened” to sow the seeds of jihad all over the Middle East. For all the talk of Trump’s “chaos,” there was not a single major war abroad during his presidency.

The 2024 presidential campaign is going to get ugly. Democrats have barely commenced the advertising onslaught that is to come, wherein they will depict Trump as a Mafia-like thug and shamelessly compare Jan. 6, 2021, to 9/11. Trump’s best chance this fall is to ignore the noise and prove, contrary to the smear campaigns, that he is the superior candidate in terms of competence, stability, and sanity. He has the record to prove it.

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 13:45

Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse Owner Darden Warns Lower Income Customers Are Pulling Back 

Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse Owner Darden Warns Lower Income Customers Are Pulling Back 

Darden Restaurants, a top full-service US restaurant group with 1,914 locations across 50 states under its eight brands—Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar's, Yard House, Ruth's Chris, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze, and Eddie V's—warned on Thursday that lower-income customers are pulling back on spending. 

"Transactions from incomes below $75,000 were much lower than last year, and at every brand, transactions fell from incomes below $50,000. Similar to Q2, this shift was most pronounced in our Fine Dining segment," Chief Executive Officer Rick Cardenas told investors on an earnings call.

However, Cardenas pointed out, "But specifically, your question for the third quarter, transactions from households with incomes above $150,000 were higher than last year."

Consumer behavior shifts are materializing for the restaurant group and serve as a health check proxy for consumers. 

Bloomberg provided a snapshot of Darden's earnings that were underwhelming and offered a negative outlook: 

The Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse owner's sales missed analysts expectations, attributing the results to unfavorable winter weather in January that cut traffic by 1%, and lower sales in February which "exposed consumer weakness," the company's Chief Financial Officer Raj Vennam added on the call, specifically highlighting softness in Texas and California. 

Additionally, Darden cut its 2024 same-store sales growth outlook, and forecast next quarter's same-store sales growth of only -0.5% to 1%. The company's shares dropped as much as 6.9% in early New York trading, the most since May 2022.

Cardenas' disappointing comments about low-tier customers came one week after Dollar Tree said the average ticket size for customers declined last quarter.

A pinched low- and middle-income consumer comes as no surprise given elevated credit-card balances and rising delinquencies, as well as depleted personal savings. Furthermore, negative real wage growth has been a disaster for the working poor in the era of failed Bidenomics.  

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 13:25

The Virality Project’s Censorship Agenda

The Virality Project’s Censorship Agenda

Authored by Andrew Lowenthal via the Brownstone Institute,

In November 2023 Alex Gutentag and I reported on the Virality Project’s internal content-flagging system, as released by the US House Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

Initiated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and led by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), the Virality Project sought to censor those who questioned government Covid-19 policies. The Virality Project primarily focused on so-called “anti-vaccine” “misinformation;” however, my Twitter Files investigations with Matt Taibbi revealed this included “true stories of vaccine side effects.”

A further review of the content flagged by the Virality Project demonstrates how they pushed social media platforms to censor such “true stories.” This was often done incompetently and without even a cursory investigation of the original sources. In one instance, the Virality Project reporters told platforms that reports of a child injured in a vaccine trial were “false” due to the timing; citing the dates of a Moderna trial when in fact the child had been in a Pfizer trial.

Trigger-happy researchers-turned-activists at the Virality Project went further, alerting their Big Tech partners (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok) of protests, jokes, and general dissent.

Led by former CIA fellow Renee DiResta, the Virality Project functioned as an intermediary for government censorship. Ties between the US government and the academic research center were extremely close. DHS had “fellows” embedded at the Stanford Internet Observatory, while SIO had interns embedded at CISA, and former DHS staff contributed to the Virality Project’s final report.

The Virality Project also had contact with the White House and the Office of the Surgeon General, described the CDC as a “partner” in its design documents, and the California Department of Public Health had a login to access the Jira content flagging system, as did CISA personnel.

Kris Krebs and Alex Stamos – former directors of CISA and SIO, respectively – became business partners soon after leaving their positions.

Norwood v. Harrison established that the government “may not induce, encourage or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.” Stamos knew this too and put it simply; the government “lacked the legal authorisation” and so they built a consortium to “fill the gap of the things the government could not do themselves.”

Judicial precedents regarding “joint participation” and “pervasive entwinement” between public and private entities make clear that the government cannot outsource to third parties like the Virality Project actions that would be illegal for the government itself to do.

The Virality Project had several unnamed partners that appear in the content-flagging system, including billion-dollar military contractor MITRE and a communications consultancy linked to the Democratic Party, Hattaway. Founder Doug Hattaway was an “advisor and spokesperson for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and provided strategic counsel to the Obama White House and the Democratic leadership of the US House and Senate.” Like the Virality Project, Hattaway worked with the Rockefeller Foundation during the pandemic on issues of disinformation.

The Virality Project does not declare any relationship with MITRE or Hattaway despite providing them access to their Jira system.

The Virality Project was partly funded by the Omidyar Network, which provided $400,000 to VP partner and Pentagon consultant Graphika. Much of the Virality Project’s funding however is unknown and is also not declared on their website.

This and much more have led five plaintiffs, including Harvard and Stanford professors, to accuse the US government of violations of the First Amendment with the Virality Project as one of the key proxies. On March 18, their case will be heard by the US Supreme Court.

The Virality Project and Murthy v. Missouri

The Murthy vs Missouri plaintiffs allege that, “CISA launched a colossal mass surveillance and mass-censorship project calling itself the “Election Integrity Partnership” (and later, the “Virality Project”). The Election Integrity Project (EIP) “monitored 859 million posts on Twitter alone.” 

The Virality Project used the same Jira system as EIP for flagging content and included the same core public partners: SIO, the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, and Graphika, with the addition of NYU and the congressionally chartered National Conference on Citizenship.

The Virality Project had extensive contact not only with CISA but also with the White House and the Surgeon General. White House representatives sent direct censorship requests to Twitter including, “Hey folks – Wanted to flag the below tweet and am wondering if we can get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP.” And the more threatening:

 “Are you guys fucking serious? I want an answer on what happened here and I want it today.”

Flaherty also conveyed that his communications came with the backing of the very top echelons of the administration: “This is a concern that is shared at the highest (and I mean highest) levels of the WH.”

The Virality Project hosted a launch with the US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as part of the Surgeon General’s campaign against “misinformation.” In the presentation, Renee DiResta also introduced Matt Masterson, former senior adviser at DHS, and now a “non-resident policy fellow” at SIO.

Murthy ends the presentation by telling Renee, “I just want to say thank you to you, for everything you have done, for being such a great partner.”

At that same time the White House, OSG, and others were on the warpath, claiming social media platforms were “killing people” for allowing so-called “misinformation” to circulate.

With access to the White House, the Surgeon General, CDC, DHS, and CISA, along with top-level relationships with almost every major Western social media platform, the Virality Project was a key, if not the key, coordinating node for Covid-related censorship on the Internet. 

The Content-Flagging System

When the Virality Project said it considered, “true stories of vaccine side effects” to be “misinformation,” it wasn’t joking, and it flagged content to its Big Tech partners accordingly. 

Perhaps the most egregious was that of Maddie de Garay. Maddie and her siblings were enrolled in the Pfizer vaccine trial at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She was later unblinded and confirmed as being in the vaccine and not the placebo group. 

Within 24 hours of her second shot in January 2021, Maddie developed a host of symptoms, including “severe abdominal pain, painful electric shocks on her spine and neck, swollen extremities, ice cold hands, and feet, chest pain, tachycardia, pins and needles in her feet that eventually led to the loss of feeling from her waist down.” To this day Maddie continues to suffer from a lack of feeling in her lower legs, difficulty eating, poor eyesight, and fatigue among other persisting symptoms.

Virality Project staff logged a Jira ticket titled “Maddie’s Story: False claim that 12-year-old was hospitalized due to vaccine trial” and provided extensive documentation of offending “engagement” on social media, including the micro-policing of content citing Maddie’s story with just two likes and two shares.

Much doubt has been cast on the veracity of Maddie’s injuries. Maddie’s mother, Stephanie de Garay, provided me with several doctor’s letters that confirm the link, including that of the emergency room doctor who discharged her on her initial visit. Their diagnosis was “Adverse effect of the vaccine.” Stephanie de Garay also testified under oath in front of the US Congress in November of 2023 regarding her daughter’s experience.

Most egregiously, the idea that the story was “false”rested on the claim that Maddie was in a Moderna trial. But she was in a Pfizer trial, as stated in the posts the Virality Project collected and linked to in the very same ticket.

“Dear Platform Partners,” the reporter writes as they bring the posts to the attention of Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Medium, Pinterest, and the aforementioned Hattaway Communications:

…very likely false due to issues in timing. The Moderna trial in children [began on March 16], when the participants received their first doses. However, the video claims that Maddie has an MRI scheduled for 03/16, and that these symptoms have been occurring for 1.5 months. Thus, Maddie would have had to have received the second dose of the vaccine during/before February, which is at least a month before the Moderna trials began.

“Ack – thanks for raising!” replies a platform representative. 

Not only are our self-appointed censorship overlords micro-managers, they are often incompetent. 

The posts were flagged “General: Anti-Vaccination” despite the de Garays volunteering their three children for the vaccine trial.

Some content flagged in the report remained up, and others were taken down. A video of Stephanie de Garay’s testimony was removed from Twitter. Whether or not this was specifically taken down due to the Virality Project report cannot be ascertained, but their intent was clear.

In another instance, the Virality Project wanted people circulating a mainstream media report censored:

“Platforms, this unconfirmed story of a healthy youth athlete who was hospitalized after being vaccinated continues to be used by anti-vaccine activists to spread misinformation about vaccines.”

“ack, thanks” responded a platform representative. 

Even a report by an ABC news affiliate, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the United States, fell into the category of “General: anti-vaccination” and “Misleading Headline.”

The main link provided, to a YouTube video, was removed. 

The Jira system was set up to track the actions the Big Tech partners took, as illustrated below:

The content was flagged to get platforms to take action.

“Hello Google team – sending this over as our analysts noticed that a google ad on a politico article this morning was peddling the antivax claims from the medical racism video you were monitoring. Is this against your policies?”

“Thanks for flagging – ack and sending for review.”

“Thanks for the heads up – we’re on it”

“Thanks for sharing! Our team is now tracking this.”

And follow-ups from the Virality Project team:

“Were the ads supposed to have been taken down? Just flagging for you, I just checked now and I’m still seeing another medical racism ad.”

Platforms were apologetic when they didn’t get to Virality Project’s flags quickly enough:

“With apologies for the delayed response (was in meetings) – we took action earlier in the afternoon, thanks again for the flags.”

This of course built on the Election Integrity Partnership’s more flagrant “recommendations,” which included

“We recommend that you all flag as false, or remove the posts below.”

“Hi Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter…we recommend it be removed from your platforms.”

And many more.

The Virality Project was a strategic intermediary between the US government and major social media platforms. As Murthy v. Missouri shows, in many cases the government dispensed even with their chosen intermediary and directly demanded censorship.

With their vast resources, why did Google, Facebook, and Twitter even need an external consortium to flag “misinformation?” The answer of course is they didn’t, the government did. Much like SIO Director Alex Stamos so helpfully reminded us, First Amendment jurisprudence states that the government “may not induce, encourage or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.”

The First Amendment protects false speech. There is a cost to false claims, but the cost of censoring true claims is much higher. The alternative is a society where the truth is suppressed and powerful actors become even more unaccountable. The government cannot be made an arbiter of what is true.

In this inverted world, the role of academia and civil society isn’t to harness the internet to better pick up safety signals related to corporate products, it is to shield corporations from public scrutiny. In times gone by such ethical violations would see institutions shut down, but the Stanford Internet Observatory and their consortium partners continue with hardly a dent.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty is a Murthy v. Missouri plaintiff and was the Director of the Medical Ethics Program at the University of California Irvine before he was fired for challenging the university’s vaccine mandate. Asked for his reaction to this censorship he responded: 

While causation in medicine is sometimes difficult to establish, and different evaluating physicians may reach divergent conclusions about a particular case, the Virality Project’s censors (who lacked even basic medical expertise) arrogated to themselves the authority to make veracity judgments about particular medical cases–even overriding the judgments of evaluating physicians. Such censorship is completely antithetical to medical and scientific progress, which relies upon free inquiry and open, public debate.

Much of what the Virality Project flagged was plausible; however, their internet hall monitors, who likely lacked even first aid certificates, deemed themselves arbiters of the truth, and coupled their arrogance with a complimentary laziness and incompetence.

The veracity of the content was of course always irrelevant to the Virality Project, given they considered “true stories” to be “misinformation.”

All told the DHS, CISA, the White House, the Surgeon General, a DNC-aligned communications agency, military contractors, academics, NGOs, and more combined to suppress the stories of real people, including children, who were plausibly injured by the vaccine. They sought to hide it not because it might be false, but precisely because it might be true.

Republished from the author’s Substack

Andrew Lowenthal is a Brownstone Institute fellow and co-founder and former executive director of EngageMedia, an Asia-Pacific digital rights, open and secure technology, and documentary non-profit, and a former fellow of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and MIT’s Open Documentary Lab.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 13:05

Drone Video Reveals Massive NYC Migrant Tent City, Kept Under Wraps By Democrats & Media

Drone Video Reveals Massive NYC Migrant Tent City, Kept Under Wraps By Democrats & Media

Democrats in New York City and their allies in leftist corporate media are keeping a massive migrant shelter hidden from the public, located at a previously operational airfield in southern Brooklyn. This comes as the metro area has been flooded with upwards of 175,000 illegals in just a few short years. 

According to a recent AFP News report, large white tents full of Central and South Americans, Africans, Chinese, and Russians are packed like cattle on one of the runways at Floyd Bennett Field. It's hard to say how many migrants are in the tent city, but some figures put it at nearly 2,000. 

Corporate media has largely ignored this sprawling tent city of illegals. Only a handful of articles have been published about it over the last three months. 

Forget legacy media outlets whose journalists are bought and sold by mega-corporations and heavily influenced by Washisngton's censorship-industrial complex because citizen journalists have revealed new footage of the migrant tent city. 

X user Henry Facey's drone video of the tent city has been reposted by many on the free speech platform and has since gone viral. 

A separate investigation by Facey shows another tent city in the metro area. 

Elon Musk posted a quick two-minute video detailing the end goals of the migrant invasion facilitated by the White House, non-governmental organizations, and mega-corporations

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 12:45

Green Wave In Reverse, Biden Rolls Back EV Mandates, But Not Enough

Green Wave In Reverse, Biden Rolls Back EV Mandates, But Not Enough

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Under EPA rules, EVs will need to be 30-40% of the market by 2030, down from the proposed 60%. And it now costs more per mile to fuel an electric F-150 than a gasoline powered truck.

More Time to Hit Nonsensical Targets

The Biden administration had no choice given a consumer and auto manufacturer revolt against EVs.

Today, the Wall Street Journal reports Biden’s EPA Gives Automakers More Leeway to Phase Out Gas-Engine Cars

The Biden administration enacted the strictest-ever rules for tailpipe emissions but also handed the auto industry a significant concession by giving them more time to comply, a recognition that the transition to electric cars will take longer than hoped.

To hit the targets for model-year 2030, for example, an estimated 31% to 44% of new light-vehicle sales would need to be electric, rather than the 60% mark originally proposed.

Thousands of U.S. dealers signed letters to Biden in an organized campaign to get the administration to back off the emissions targets, saying there wasn’t enough consumer interest to support such a big swing to EVs.

On Wednesday, the dealer group said the slower implementation of the rules is helpful but the targets are still too aggressive. “This is unelected Washington bureaucrats dictating what kind of vehicles Americans can buy,” the group said.

Biden’s EV Mandate Blows Its Cover

Also consider Biden’s EV Mandate Blows Its Cover

Auto makers lauded the Administration for “moderating the pace of EV adoption” in “the next few (very critical) years of the EV transition” while calling its targets “still a stretch.” The Administration has taken auto companies hostage, threatening to cause financial carnage across the industry with its EV mandate. CEOs are grateful for the delay in execution.

EVs made up less than 8% of new auto sales last year, and more than half were Teslas. They accounted for less than 4% of General Motors and Ford sales. Foreign luxury auto makers such as BMW (12.5%), Mercedes (11.4%) and Porsche (10%) will have an easier time meeting the Biden mandates because their affluent customers can more easily afford EVs.

In the Zero Chance Category

Most popular gas-powered pickups emit about 430 grams of CO2 per mile. Under EPA’s final rule, trucks will have to average 184 g/mile in 2027, 128 g/mile in 2030 and 90 g/mile by 2032. Ergo, the companies will effectively have to produce one to two electric trucks for every gas-powered one in 2027. The ratio will be closer to four to one by 2032.

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In the Irony of the Day Category

A new Panasonic EV battery plant in Kansas that will receive billions of dollars in subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act is forcing a local utility to keep open a coal plant that was scheduled to close. Congratulations, Mr. President, for increasing coal production.

A Note About Running Costs

Fueling up a Ford F-Series truck now costs about $17 per 100 miles on average compared to $17.75 for an F-150 Lightning with mostly home-charging and $26.39 with mostly commercial chargers.

California Electricity Prices

Inquiring minds may be wondering what’s happening to electricity bills in California.

I can help.

Please consider Recent PG&E Bill With Rate Hike Shocks Customers

Sticker shock for some PG&E customers. Even for people who knew the utility was raising rates this year, January bills more than doubled for some.

Rate increases for PG&E customers have piled up in the last year and another could be coming in March. Even some customers doing the math say their bills just don’t add up.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a rate increase of 13 percent this month and is considering another 7.2 percent hike for March. If approved, PG&E Customers will pay about $48 more a month. TURN is pushing for new legislation that will cap future rate increases.

This year’s rate hikes aren’t the only frustrations TURN has. They say last year the CPUC approved enough rate hikes to increase customer’s bills by 33%

Absurd Proposals by Progressives to Fix a Problem Caused by Progressives

As one might have expected, economic illiterates think a rate cap is the solution.

The only solution is to not cram EVs down everyone’s throat when infrastructure is not remotely in place.

History of PG&E Rate Hikes
  • In January of 2023, PG&E raised rates by 8.9%.

  • This was preceded by an 8% increase for electricity prices and an 11% increase for gas prices in 2019, and an 8% increase in electricity prices in 2022.

  • Overall, PG&E has increased its rates an average of 5.7%-6% year over year for the past 11 years.

  • In January of 2023, PG&E announced that customers’ bills could go up as much as 32%, in contrast to the 24% they initially expected.

The above points are from Why is My PG&E Bill So High in 2024 and What Can I Do About It? That link is an infomercial for solar systems but I appreciate the history.

PG&E has other issues like fires and maintenance.

Throw California’s 100% EVs by 2035 into the mix. Who will be able to afford to charge their car? Turn on their air conditioner?

Things That Won’t Happen
  • Companies will have to produce one to two electric trucks for every gas-powered one in 2027 to meet EPA goals. No chance.

  • Companies will have to produce four electric trucks for every gas-powered one by 2032 to meet EPA goals. No chance.

  • 100% EVs by 2035. No Chance

  • 75% EVs by 2035. No Chance

Factor in what happens if Trump wins the election. All such goals will be thrown out the window.

If Trump wins, the next chance to force products down people’s throats that they don’t want will be 2028.

In the EU, expect a real shocker in the European Parliament elections in June. I will comment on that shortly. But here’s a hit: It won’t be Green.

EVs Emit More Particulates

Let’s discuss particulates from tires. They are another reason to be skeptical of the clean energy claims for EVs.

On March 3, I noted EVs Emit More Particulates, One of the Most Dangerous Pollutants

The lie of the day is a joint effort from the EPA and the state of California. Both are using rigged tests to get rid of gasoline powered vehicles.

The EPA used rigged tests to make EVs look better when in fact they are much worse.

Here’s the kicker: EVs will burn through tires 20-50% faster and “60% of rubber used in the tire industry is synthetic rubber, produced from petroleum-derived hydrocarbons.”

Biden Promotes Climate Change at the Expense of More Global Poverty

Please note Biden Promotes Climate Change at the Expense of More Global Poverty

The mad rush to deal with climate change, even if it works (it won’t), has a nasty tradeoff (more global poverty).

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 12:25

Elizabeth Warren Urges SEC To Investigate Tesla's Board, Potential Conflicts Between Musk-Led Companies

Elizabeth Warren Urges SEC To Investigate Tesla's Board, Potential Conflicts Between Musk-Led Companies

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is adding Tesla's Board of Directors to her very, very, very long list of corporations, mergers, acquisitions, billionaires, cryptocurrencies and other people, places or things  she is constantly crowing about to have 'investigated' or generally interfered with.

Today it was revealed that Warren is now seeking to find out whether or not Tesla has violated Board Independence regulations and whether or not there have been conflicts of interest between Tesla and Elon Musk's private companies, according to a Wall Street Journal exclusive

Warren sent a letter this week to the Securities and Exchange commission calling for an investigation, the report says. 

“New evidence has emerged in recent months that deepen my concerns that Tesla’s Board lacks independence from Mr. Musk, who uses his control over the Board for his personal benefits, rather than in the best interest of Tesla’s shareholders,” she wrote, according to WSJ

“Despite the growing concerns posed by Mr. Musk’s conflicting roles at Tesla and his private companies, the Board appears to have taken no action to address these risks or protect its shareholders,” the letter continues. 

Warren has reiterated her concerns to the SEC more than once, the Journal notes, this time referencing another Wall Street Journal report on the intimate ties between Elon Musk and Tesla's board.

The report also highlighted that Tesla compensates its directors largely through stock options, leading to significant financial gains for many board members, some of whom have also invested in Musk's other ventures.

The recent allegations of drug use among board members were noted, though Musk, tested regularly at SpaceX, has reportedly never failed a drug test, WSJ writes. 

Just days ago during Musk's unceremonious interview with failed journalist Don Lemon, Musk admitted to using ketamine under medical guidance for depression but denied misuse of the drug.

“I can’t really get wasted because I can’t get my work done,” Musk told Lemon. “From a standpoint of Wall Street, what matters is execution.”

Warren also criticized Tesla's advertising on Musk's platform, X, and expressed unease over Musk's aim to hold a significant stake in Tesla for it to lead in AI and robotics, questioning the transparency and independence within Tesla's governance.

Musk responded to the news on X by astutely noting "Senator Karen's main economic & tax advisor is SBF's [Sam Bankman-Fried's] Dad."

"I suspect some of this is coming from him," Musk wrote. 

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 12:05

Did You Spot The Gorilla In The Fed's Meeting Room?

Did You Spot The Gorilla In The Fed's Meeting Room?

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

Monetary policy remains exceptionally loose given one of the fastest rate-hiking cycles seen. Pressure is likely to remain on rate expectations to move higher as the Federal Reserve reluctantly eases back on its December pivot, with the fed funds and SOFR futures curves continuing to steepen.

A famous experiment asks volunteers to watch a video of a basketball game and count the passes. Half way through, a gorilla strolls through the action. Almost no-one spots it, so focused they are on the game. As we count the dots and parse the language at this week’s Fed meeting, it’s easy miss the fact that policy overall remains very loose despite over 500 bps of rate hikes. The gorilla has gone by largely unnoticed.

The Fed held rates steady at 5.5% as expected and continued to project three rate cuts this year. But standing back and looking at the totality of monetary policy in this cycle, we can see that - far from conditions tightening - we have instead seen one of the biggest loosening of them in decades.

The chart below shows the Effective Fed Rate: the policy rate, plus its expected change over the next year, plus the one-year change in Goldman Sachs’ Financial Conditions Index, which is calibrated to convert the move in stocks, equity volatility, credit spreads and so on to an equivalent change in the Fed’s rate.

As we can see, in the three prior rate-hiking cycles the Effective Rate tightened; this time the rate has loosened, by more than it has done in at least 30 years.

It is against this backdrop the Fed’s pivot in December is even more inexplicable. By then it had become clear that a US recession was not imminent. Yet Jay Powell did not push back on the over six cuts that were priced in for 2024.

Since then inflation and growth data have come in better than expected. Still, though, the Fed may cut rates even if there is a smidge of an opening to do so. That would likely prove to be a mistake.

Typically the Effective Rate starts falling before the Fed makes its first cut and continues to fall after. This time around, the Effective Rate’s fall is already considerably steeper than normal – even before a cut is made. The Fed may end up spiking the punch bowl with more booze when the party is already quite tipsy.

The gorilla can be spotted in a number of different ways. Inflation has fallen, but it has done so largely despite the actions of the central bank, not because of them.

The San Francisco Fed splits core PCE inflation into a cyclical and an acyclical component. Cyclical inflation is made up of the PCE sub-components most sensitive to Fed interest rates, and acyclical is compiled from what’s left over, i.e. inflation that’s more influenced by non-Fed factors.

While acyclical inflation has fallen all the way back to its pre-pandemic average, cyclical PCE remains at its 40-year highs. The Wizard of the Fed has been pulling the rate-hiking levers, but they have done little to directly quell inflation.

It’s even worse if we account for borrowing costs. Mortgage costs were taken out of CPI in 1983 and car repayments in 1998. In a recent NBER paper by Larry Summers et al, the authors reconstruct CPI to take account of housing borrowing costs.

Inflation on this measure not only peaked much higher than it did in the 1970s, it is still running at 8%. Again, the question lingering in the air is: … and the Fed is considering cutting rates?

Source: NBER Working Paper 32163

(The main point of the paper is that the reason consumer sentiment indices have been depressed despite falling inflation is that they do include the impact of higher borrowing costs.)

If monetary policy was operating in the way expected, we would expect to see more slack in the economy. Yet this has signally failed to happen. The index of spare labor capacity – composed of the unemployment rate and productivity - has fallen only marginally, and remains stuck at 50-year highs.

Other measures of slack, including capacity utilization and job openings as a percentage of the unemployed are still near highs or remain historically very elevated. Under this backdrop, a Fed cut looks distinctly unwise.

Why did we not see a bigger rise in unemployment or drop in job openings despite the steep rate-hiking cycle? In short, massive government deficits allowed job hoarding.

The Kalecki-Levy equation illustrates the link between corporate profits and private and foreign-sector savings. Simply put, the more the household or government sectors dissave, i.e. spend, the higher are profit margins.

In this cycle, it has been the government’s dissaving that has allowed the corporate sector in aggregate to grow profits and - capitalizing on monopolization and on the unique economic disruption seen in the wake of the pandemic - expand profit margins.

It’s for the same reason that EPS growth has bounced back. (Buybacks also play a part here, but they too tend to happen when companies’ profits are growing, which is much easier when the government is spending like a drunken sailor.) As the chart below shows, there is a strong relationship between EPS and job openings, with EPS growth recently turning back up.

With such little movement on slack, no wonder the fall in inflation was due to factors outside of the Fed’s direct influence, most notably China’s glacial recovery. But that leaves markets in an increasingly precarious spot.

Inflation likely lulled the Fed into a false in of security when it performed its policy pirouette in December. But as was clear then and is clear now, this CPI movie isn’t over yet. Furthermore, any recession the Fed may have been wanting to circumvent continues to look off the cards for the next 3-6 months.

Yet the bank may still cut rates, on limited pretext, so confident they sounded last year that they would. That will inflame stock and other asset-bubble risks even more, at a time when we already have bitcoin making new highs and a dog “wif” a hat buying ad space on the Las Vegas Sphere.

Gorillas playing basketball is a very odd thing; the Fed cutting rates before the last quarter of this year would be even odder. Before then, though, markets are likely to try to re-impose some sobriety by reducing or eliminating the number of rate cuts priced in.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 11:55

The "Perversity" Of Michael Cohen: Federal Judge Denounces Former Trump 'Fixer' As A Serial Perjurer

The "Perversity" Of Michael Cohen: Federal Judge Denounces Former Trump 'Fixer' As A Serial Perjurer

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

Michael Cohen was back in court this week and it did not go well.  The former fixer for Donald Trump was in court seeking a reduction in his federal sentence and to answer for his use of Google’s AI chatbot to submit arguments with fake case authority. However, things went off the rails when his counsel cited his prior testimony as evidence of his rehabilitation.

U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman called the argument “perverse” and noted that Cohen is clearly a serial perjurer and cited the need for continued “deterrence.” That is hardly a promising review before Cohen appears as the star witness for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in the prosecution of former president Donald Trump.

If lying were an art form, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen would be its Rembrandt.

Throughout his career, the disbarred lawyer has found powerful clients who valued his reputation for supporting any side that offered the biggest payback.

For full disclosure, I have been a critic of Cohen for years, including columns when he was still representing Trump.

Cohen has been repeatedly accused of perjury.

For example, after Cohen turned on Trump, he went from being a pariah to a hero for many Democrats. Yet, he continued the same pattern. When he was called before the House to testify against Trump soon after his plea agreement with the Justice Department, Cohen was again accused of perjury:

The House Oversight Committee chairman, Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland, began his questioning by noting that he told him that he had better testify truthfully this time or be nailed to the cross.

“Didn’t I tell you that?” Cummings asked. “Yes, you did, more than once,” Cohen replied.

Then Cohen went forward and claimed he had cared nothing about jobs or pardons from Donald Trump. However, a number of news organizations reported that Cohen was upset after lobbying for the White House counsel, chief of staff, or other jobs in the administration.

Despite a multitude of such sources, Cohen has insisted, “I was extremely proud to be the personal attorney for the president of the United States of America. I did not want to go to the White House. I was offered jobs.”

There is little ambiguity here. Either multiple witnesses lied or Cohen once again lied to Congress.

Then Cohen stated, “I have never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from President Trump.”

That also directly contradicts multiple sources who say his lawyer pressed the White House for a pardon, and that Cohen unsuccessfully sought a presidential pardon after FBI raids on his office and residences last year.

(Roughly a month later, he decided to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.).

Even after being stripped of his bar license and sentenced to three years in prison, Cohen continued the pattern. In 2019, Cohen failed to appear to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, citing the inability to travel due to a medical surgery. However, he was seen partying before the hearing date with five friends with no apparent problems.

Even in jail, Cohen was accused of lying to a court in violation of an order for early release due to medical problems.

He was ordered back into custody after being spotted at a high-end restaurant.

After Cohen admitted to various criminal acts in federal court to secure his plea agreement, he then declared that he lied. In his 2018 guilty plea before U.S. District Judge William Henry Pauley III, Cohen admitted to this conduct under oath.

Cohen was later asked by Trump counsel:

“Did you lie to Judge Pauley when you said that you were guilty of the counts that you said under oath that you were guilty of? Did you lie to Judge Pauley?”

Cohen matter-of-factly responded:

“yes.” 

He was then again asked:

“So you lied when you said that you evaded taxes to a judge under oath; is that correct?”

He again responded:

“yes.”

Despite just admitting to a federal crime of perjury, the Justice Department and specifically the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office declined to prosecute.

Cohen was useful again and had found powerful allies who valued his curious skill set of being able to say anything at any time to help his patrons.

One judge, however, had had enough. In his court order, U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman stated:

“It gives rise to two possibilities: one, Cohen committed perjury when he pleaded guilty before Judge Pauley or, two, Cohen committed perjury in his October 2023 testimony. Either way, it is perverse to cite the testimony, as Schwartz did, as evidence of Cohen’s ‘commitment to upholding the law.’”

He went on to criticize Cohen’s other lawyer, E. Danya Perry, in trying to excuse his perjury:

These efforts to turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse fall flat. Cohen’s testimony was not, as Perry contends, a ‘clumsy’ or ‘poorly worded’ attempt to argue that… the government abused its prosecutorial discretion in charging those crimes. To the contrary, he unambiguously testified that he ‘didn’t’ commit tax evasion and that he ‘lied’ to Judge Pauley when he said that he had…Moreover, when given multiple opportunities to retreat from or clarify that testimony later, he stuck to his guns.”

He added that

“Specifically, Cohen repeatedly and unambiguously testified at the state court trial that he was not guilty of tax evasion and that he had lied under oath to Judge Pauley when he pleaded guilty to those crimes…This testimony is more troubling than the statements that Cohen had previously made in his book and on television — statements that the Court had specifically cited in denying Cohen’s third motion for early termination of supervised release… because it was given under oath…Either way, it is perverse to cite the testimony, as Schwartz did, as evidence of Cohen’s ‘commitment to upholding the law.'”

Indeed, that is the unique perversity of Michael Cohen. He has continued to game the system and play the media to his own advantage. Even admitting perjury on the stand did not produce a criminal charge. He has found new allies who need his unique ability to support their cause without the burden of accuracy or veracity.

What will be truly amazing is to see Bragg call Cohen to the stand in light of this record. Bragg’s weak criminal case will turn in great part on a serial liar and disbarred lawyer. Defense counsel need only read from past transcripts to establish a self-impeaching record of contradictions and lies. For Bragg to present Cohen as credible is incredible, particularly given this latest finding in 2024 by a federal judge. It is hard to present a witness as a redemptive sinner when he does not have a single redemptive moment to show a jury.

None of this may matter to a New York jury. Cohen learned long ago that you need to know your audience. No one looks to Michael Cohen for the truth. They look to him to say what needs to be said to rationalize a result. What is most perverse about Michael Cohen is the continued perverse need for Michael Cohen.

N.B.: Cohen responded to a tweet yesterday where I incorrectly referenced Judge Pauley rather than Judge Furman. I later deleted the tweet. Cohen however objected “Wrong you idiot (@JonathanTurley). Judge Pauley didn’t make the statement, Judge Jesse Furman did.” Indeed, you are right Michael, I did confuse the two names on X. It was Judge Furman who called you a perjurer. Of course, I have long admitted to being a serial offender of “Twitter” typos. That is bad but it is not quite as bad as being accused of being a serial perjurer.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/21/2024 - 11:45

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