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From Bird Flu To Climate Snakes

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 22:20
From Bird Flu To Climate Snakes

Authored by Breeauna Sagdal via The Brownstone Institute,

Seasoned veterinarians and livestock producers alike have been scratching their heads trying to understand the media’s response to the avian flu.

Headlines across every major news outlet warn of humans becoming infected with the “deadly” bird flu after one reported case of pink-eye in a human. 

The entire narrative is predicated upon a long-disputed claim that Covid-19 was the result of a zoonotic jump—the famed Wuhan bat wet-market theory. 

While the source of Covid is hotly contested within the scientific community, the policy vehicle at the center of this dialectic began years prior to Sars-CoV-2 and is quite resolute in force and effect. 

In 2016, the Gates Foundation donated to the World Health Organization to create the OneHealth Initiative. Since 2020, the CDC has adopted and implemented the OneHealth Initiative to build a “collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach—working at the local, regional, national, and global levels—with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between people, animals, plants, and their shared environment.”

In the aftermath of Covid-19, the OneHealth Initiative began taking shape, due largely in part to millions of tax dollars appropriated through ARP (American Rescue Plan) funding. 

Through its APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Investigation System) the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) was given $300 million in 2021 to begin implementing “a risk-based, comprehensive, integrated disease monitoring and surveillance system domestically…to build additional capacity for zoonotic disease surveillance and prevention,” globally. 

“The One Health concept recognizes that the health of people, animals, and the environment are all linked,” said USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt. 

According to the USDA’s press release, the Biden-Harris administration’s OneHealth approach will also help to ensure “new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices,” by “making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America.” 

In other words, the federal government is using regulatory enforcement to intervene in the marketplace, in addition to subsidizing corporations with tax dollars to direct a planned economic outcome—ending meat consumption. 

Climate-Smart Commodities – Planning the Economy through Subsidized Intervention

Under the recently announced Climate-Smart Commodities program, the USDA has appropriated $3.1 billion in tax subsidies to one hundred and forty-one new private Climate-Smart projects, ranging from carbon sequestration to Climate-Smart meat and forestry practices.

Private investors such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos – who just committed $1 billion to the development of lab cultured meat-like molds, and meat grown in petri dishes, to

Ballpark, formerly known for its hot dogs but is now harvesting python meat, is rushing to cash in on this new industry, and the OneHealth/USDA certification program. 

Culling The Herd – Regulatory Intervention in the Marketplace 

Meanwhile, the last vestiges of America’s food freedom and decentralized food sources are quietly being targeted by the full force of the federal government. 

The once voluntary APHIS System is poised to become the mandatory APHIS-15, which among many other changes, “the system will be renamed Animal Health, Disease, and Pest Surveillance and Management System, USDA/APHIS-15. This system is used by APHIS to collect, manage, and evaluate animal health data for disease and pest control and surveillance programs.”

Among those “many changes” that APHIS-15 is undergoing, one should be of particular interest to the public—the removal of all references to the voluntary* Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program. 

“Updating the authority for maintenance of the system to remove reference to the Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program.” 

In addition to removing references to the once-voluntary herd culling program, the USDA is also implementing mandatory RFID ear tags in cattle and bison.

According to the USDA/APHIS-15, expanded authority places disease tracing in their jurisdiction and the radio frequency ear tags are necessary for the “rapid and accurate recordkeeping for this volume of animals and movement,” which they say “is not achievable without electronic systems.”

The notice clearly spells out that RFID tags “may be read without restraint as the animal goes past an electronic reader.” 

“Once the reader scans the tag, the electronically collected tag number can be rapidly and accurately transmitted from the reader to a connected electronic database.”

However, industry leaders and lawmakers alike have said the database will be used to track vaccination history and movement, and that this data may be used to impact the market rate of cattle and bison at the time of processing. 

Centralized Control of Processing/Production via Public-Private Partnership Agreements

In addition to the vast new authority of the USDA funded through the OneHealth Initiative, and the ARP, the EPA has also created its own unique set of regulatory burdens upon the entire meat industry. 

On March 25, 2024, the EPA finalized a new set of Clean Water Act rule changes to limit nitrogen and phosphorus “pollutants” in downstream water treatment facilities from processing facilities. While the EPA’s interpretation of authority and jurisdiction over wastewater is concerning long-term, the broader context of consolidated processing under four multinational meat-packing companies is of much greater concern for the immediate future. 

With few exceptions, in the United States it is illegal to sell meat without a USDA certification. Currently, the only way to access USDA certification is through a USDA-certified processing facility. 

According to the EPA, the new rules will impact up to 845 processing facilities nationwide, unless facilities drastically limit the amount of meat they process each year. 

With processing capabilities being the number one barrier to market for livestock producers, and billions of dollars in grants being awarded to Climate-Smart food substitutes, the amount of government intervention into the marketplace becomes very clear. 

The Rise of Authoritarianism and Economic Fascism – Control the Supply

The United States, once a consumer-demand free market society, is currently witnessing the use of government force, and intervention tactics to steer and manipulate the marketplace. Similar to 1930’s Italy, this is being achieved by the state within the state, through the use of selectionism, protectionism, and economic planning between public-private partnership agreements. 

The long-term and unavoidable problem with economic fascism is that it leads to authoritarian and centralized control, from which escape is impossible. 

As each industry becomes centralized and consolidated under the few, consumer choice simultaneously disappears. As choice disappears, so does the ability of the individual to meet their specific and unique needs. 

Eventually, the individual no longer serves a role outside of its usefulness to the state—the final exhale before the last python squeeze. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 16:20
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

NHTSA Probes Tesla Autopilot Again After 20 Crashes Since Update Remedy

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 21:45
NHTSA Probes Tesla Autopilot Again After 20 Crashes Since Update Remedy

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Tesla's Autopilot (again) to determine if the over-the-air update to the automated driving system was enough to keep drivers on the road. 

The new probe comes after the NHTSA closed a multi-year investigation into Autopilot. The prior report found evidence that "Tesla's weak driver engagement system was not appropriate for Autopilot's permissive operating capabilities," which resulted in a "critical safety gap."

On Friday, NHTSA said the original Autopilot investigation was opened to see if "Tesla's Autopilot contained a defect that created an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety," adding that it discovered similar findings with Tesla's voluntary recall (Recall 23V838). 

The initial investigation found at least 13 crashes involving one or more fatalities, many more involving severe injuries, in which "foreseeable driver misuse played an apparent role," NHTSA said. 

The new investigation covers two million Model Y, X, S, 3, and Cybertruck vehicles equipped with Autopilot produced between 2012 and 2024. 

The federal agency is concerned about whether the company's remedy was enough, partly because 20 crashes have occurred since the over-the-air software update earlier this year. 

One ZH reader reached out to us about Autopilot, explaining that the automated driving system has become increasingly aggressive in making sure the operator is paying attention since the update. The individual told us he was suspended from using Autopilot earlier this week for what he says were 'minor' distractions while driving, adding that the warning system is getting more strict by the update. 

During a call with investors earlier this week, Elon Musk said, "I actually do not think that there will be significant regulatory barriers, provided there is conclusive data that the autonomous car is safer than a human-driven car," adding that those who doubt Tesla's ability to "solve" autonomy shouldn't invest in the company. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has weaponized federal agencies against Musk's companies, such as SpaceX and Tesla. This is mainly over Musk's 'free speech' platform, "X," which the Biden administration despised because it has been unable to suppress the First Amendment on the platform through the censorship-industrial complex. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 15:45
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

DOJ Continues To Refuse Handing Over Audio Recording Of Special Counsel's Interview With Biden

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 21:10
DOJ Continues To Refuse Handing Over Audio Recording Of Special Counsel's Interview With Biden

Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice (DOJ) stands its ground on its refusal to surrender the audio recording of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden to the House Oversight Committee.

Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.), chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight Accountability committees, warned Attorney General Merrick Garland that he would hold him in contempt of Congress unless he handed over the recording of Mr. Hur’s interview stemming from a probe into President Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified information.

In the letter, signed on April 25, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte told Mr. Jordan and Mr. Comer that despite the committees’ threats of contempt proceedings, the DOJ has adequately responded and sees no reason to give the audio to the committees.

“We have repeatedly invited the Committees to identify how these audio recordings from law enforcement files would serve the purposes for which you say you want them,” the letter stated.

“We have also repeatedly urged the Committees to avoid unnecessary conflict and to respect the public interest in the Department’s ability to conduct effective investigations by protecting sensitive law enforcement files.”

Mr. Uriarte said the DOJ has already complied with the committees’ request by providing Mr. Hur’s report and testimony in addition to transcripts of the interview.

“This is consistent with our strong record of cooperation this Congress,” Mr. Uriarte said.

The committees have failed to articulate “a legitimate congressional need” for the audio recordings, which Mr. Uriarte said the DOJ is withholding to protect “the confidentiality of law enforcement files.”

“The Department will continue to cooperate reasonably and appropriately, but we will not risk the long-term integrity of our law enforcement work,” Mr. Uriarte said.

Mr. Uriarte elaborated on Mr. Jordan’s and Mr. Comer’s request for the audio recording by questioning the necessity.

Among the committees’ expressed concerns as reviewed by Mr. Uriarte are whether President Biden is linked to “troublesome foreign payments,” whether he “retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involved in his family’s foreign business dealings,” and whether the DOJ has acted impartially by avoiding prosecuting President Biden while targeting former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Uriarte said there’s no evidence found in the transcripts that suggests discussions of these issues will be revealed in the audio recording.

‘Severely Chilling’

“You have offered no explanation of how these specific files would provide any information pertinent to the Committees’ stated purposes,” Mr. Uriarte said. “And even if they did have pertinent information, you have not explained how that information isn’t already available from the transcripts we produced as an extraordinary accommodation to the Committees.”

Mr. Uriarte classified the audio as “sensitive law enforcement information” that, if made public, would send a message “to the public that the Department cannot be trusted to keep law enforcement files confidential.”

“It would be severely chilling if the decision to cooperate with a law enforcement investigation required individuals to submit themselves to public inquest by politicians, particularly because congressional investigations are not subject to the same standards and checks as the Department’s,” he said. “Indeed, the Committees have frequently objected to even the suggestion that your investigative powers are subject to any requirement to justify your requests according to objective standards or limit your demands to avoid harming other values and interests.”

Mr. Uriarte added that the threat of contempt proceedings is “unjustifiable” considering the DOJ’s past cooperation with the committees’ investigations.

“We urge the Committees to deescalate and to work with the Department in the same mode of cooperation and respect that we have shown Congress for over a year,” he said. “Furthermore, the Department is eager to make good use of the remaining time in this Congress, such as by working together with the Committees on legislative priorities that can make real, tangible progress for the American people.”

The committees issued the first subpoenas on Feb. 27 requesting notes, audio files, video, and transcripts related to Mr. Hur’s investigation.

The DOJ responded by providing transcripts, but no recordings.

After his probe into President Biden’s handling of classified documents spanning his over four decades in politics, Mr. Hur said in February that President Biden would not be charged and that a jury would probably not convict him partially due to his cognitive decline.

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” Mr. Hur wrote.

‘With Respect to National Security’

In an April 16 testimony before the House Appropriations Committee on the DOJ’s 2025 budget request, Mr. Garland echoed Mr. Uriarte, stating that the reasons for not giving the audio was due to “privileges with respect to national security.”

When asked about Mr. Hur’s observations of President Biden being an “elderly man with a poor memory,” Mr. Garland said he has “complete confidence” in the president based on his own observations.

“I have watched him expertly guide meetings of staff and Cabinet members on issues of foreign affairs and military strategy and policy in this incredibly complex world in which we now face, and in which he has been decisive—decisive in instructions to the staff, and decisive in making the decisions necessary to protect the country,” Mr. Garland said.

The Epoch Times has contacted the subcommittees for comment.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 15:10
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

White House Uses "Walkers" To Conceal Biden's Old-Man Shuffle

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 20:35
White House Uses "Walkers" To Conceal Biden's Old-Man Shuffle

With the presidential election still more than six months away, President Biden's handlers are under increasing pressure to divert Americans' eyes from his obvious and accelerating mental and physical decline. 

Where his deteriorating mental abilities are concerned, we've already seen them using tactics like drastically minimizing his spontaneous interactions with reporters and excessively stage-managing his rare press conferences -- down to furnishing him with answers to questions submitted in advance. 

A Biden cheat sheet tells him which reporters to call on and what exactly they will ask him 

Now comes news that Team Biden's latest stage-management innovation is focused on obscuring his frailty: Uncomfortable with the way Biden looks as he unsteadily shuffles across the White House lawn, one or more staffers now walk at his side, helping to prevent close scrutiny of his gait. 

Biden formerly walked to and from Marine One solo, but here he's flanked by six staffers (New York Post via AFP and Getty Images)

Biden advisors have told Axios they're uneasy about how he looks when walking and shuffling by himself, particularly across the White House lawn. The outlet analyzed video of Biden's navigation to Marine One helicopters and pegged when the new hide-the-invalid routine started:

  • In March, Biden's five walks shuffles to Marine One were by himself or family members only
  • After April 16, nine of his 10 treacherous traverses of the lawn had him obscured by accompanying staffers or legislators

Can't Make It Up: The President of the United States has been assigned “walkers.”

You heard that right. The man that has access to nuke codes now requires aides to escort him across a lawn.

These handlers now walk between Biden and the pool cameras, "to draw less attention to… pic.twitter.com/RO81Dvufb6

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) April 26, 2024

In addition to acting as visual screeners, the aides might also be beneficial in grabbing him if he starts falling to the ground. Biden's advisors and doctors have had him embrace other tools and techniques to minimize physical disasters like his falls on the Air Force One stairs...

...and this wipeout at last spring's Air Force Academy graduation: 

The extra measures include wearing black sneakers instead of business shoes, and now walking up a shorter set of stairs to board Air Force One.  The mental side of the ledger is constantly being filled with new debit entries. The latest came this week, when -- not for the first time -- Biden read his stage directions off the teleprompter. In a Wednesday speech to North America's Building Trades Unions, he weakly delivered a line meant to draw applause, then read the word "PAUSE" off the prompter:  

NOW - Biden: "Four more years. Pause." pic.twitter.com/PW1HBgaCVu

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) April 24, 2024

As we detailed Friday, Biden's latest approval rating is the worst for any president at this point in a term in 70 years. Just 38.7% of Americans approve of his performance, according to Gallup. A February poll found 76% of Americans have moderate or major concerns about Biden's mental and physical fitness to advance to a second term. 

Another Biden cheat sheet tells the man who controls nuclear weapons "YOU enter the Roosevelt room and say hello"..."YOU take YOUR seat"

One thing's for sure: Biden's handlers are in for an agonizingly tense time as the remaining 191 days until the Nov. 5 general election slowly grind away.  

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 14:35
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

US Should Adopt UK's 'Rwanda Plan' To Address Illegal Immigration

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 20:00
US Should Adopt UK's 'Rwanda Plan' To Address Illegal Immigration

Authored by Simon Hankinson via The Epoch Times,

After nearly two years of legal and political challenges, Britain’s parliament has finally passed a law confirming that Rwanda is a safe place to send people who arrive in the UK illegally by sea. This is a major policy win for the Conservative government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and a victory for common sense. Britain, like the United States and Europe, is experiencing mass illegal migration in the guise of asylum claims. The British devised the Rwanda plan in response, but the U.S. already has successful equivalents that can be resurrected when there is a will to once again control America’s borders.

Like those coming to the United States by land, most people illegally arriving in Britain by boat are economic migrants. Britain’s asylum system has been swamped by growing demand, and backlogs for processing cases stretch into years.

In 2018, only 300 people arrived illegally in the UK by small boat from France across the English Channel. In 2022, it was more than 45,000. And in August 2023, the UK received its 100,000th illegal boat-borne immigrant, one of 700 who arrived each day. Nearly all of the 100,000 are still in Britain, joined by ever-increasing numbers.

From Jan. 1 to April 21 this year, 6,265 small boats arrived in the UK carrying illegal immigrants, with the largest numbers being from Afghanistan and Vietnam.

Having left the European Union, the British are unable to return asylum-seekers to the first safe country in the EU under what are called the Dublin Regulations. By mid-2023, 96 percent of asylum-seekers who arrived in 2021 had not received final decisions in their cases, and around 50,000 were being housed in hotels, costing the United Kingdom the equivalent of more than $8.8 million U.S. a day. The limitless liability of illegal immigration to the UK is an important electoral issue for Conservative Party voters.

Sound familiar?

In August 2023, Sunak’s government passed an Illegal Migration Act that barred people who entered illegally by sea from applying for asylum. The act requires British officials to return inadmissible aliens—without appeal—back to their birth country, if possible, or if not, to a safe third country.

To implement the act, Britain needed a safe third country to house putative asylum-seekers pending case processing. Britain does not have any developing-country neighbors, so they struck a deal with Rwanda in 2022 in which that Central African country would be compensated to take up to 1,000 putative asylum applicants over five years.

Anyone sent to Rwanda could opt at any time to return to their home country or to be resettled in Rwanda as refugees, but they could not return to Britain. The British government fought a series of legal challenges to its policy, but passage of the new law should clear the way for removal flights to Rwanda within weeks from now.

Sunak says he means business. “The only way to stop the boats is to eliminate the incentive to come, by making it clear that if you are here illegally, you will not be able to stay,” he said at a press conference. “We are ready. The plans are in place.”

The government has also set aside judges and courts on standby to handle the inevitable legal challenges.

The Rwanda plan is Britain’s attempt to regain control over its borders and national sovereignty.

The goal is to cut off the possibility of asylum from boat arrivals, thus both destroying the business model of maritime smugglers and saving lives. This past week, five people died when over 100 illegal migrants attempted to cross the English Channel in an overcrowded boat.

The Rwanda plan has many opponents. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees argues that if the UK is successful, it will set a “worrying precedent for dismantling asylum-related obligations that other countries, including in Europe, may be tempted to follow …” Perhaps so, but the alternative is to cede control over immigration to foreign actors in perpetuity.

The British hope to emulate the success of Australia, which in 2001, started turning back boats carrying illegal migrants. The idea was to give “no advantage” to asylum applicants arriving illegally by boat over those arriving by air.

Australia set up detention and asylum processing centers on the island nation of Nauru, and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Eventually, Australia adopted a strict rule that no asylum-seeker arriving by boat and processed offshore would ever be resettled in Australia. The policy faced considerable political opposition but was highly effective in reducing demand.

The message was quickly understood by would-be boat migrants and migrant traffickers across Southeast Asia. “Arrival numbers went off a cliff once the Australians started to deport ... because ‘news spreads like wildfire among refugees,’” wrote Matthew Paris in the Spectator.

When a later Australian government closed the Manus and Nauru centers, illegal migration soared again. In 2012, more than 600 people drowned when boats carrying illegal migrants capsized. In response, Australia reopened the offshore centers and resumed sending back all illegal aliens who arrived or attempted to arrive in Australia by sea.

As before, the putative asylum applicants remained in the offshore centers for the entire time, pending the adjudication of their cases. The offshoring policy and an unbending Australian government destroyed the market for maritime migrant smugglers. For example, in 2014, only a single boat carrying migrants made it to Australia.

At its peak in 2014, Nauru’s camp had 1,233 asylum applicants living there. By June 2023, only three remained. Though the boat-borne illegal migration virtually stopped, a credible ability to restart offshore processing is vital to Australia maintaining its current control over seaborne illegal immigration. Therefore, Australia is paying the equivalent of $288,000 U.S. a year to Nauru to keep the detention/processing option open in reserve.

The United States does not have the advantage of being an island. But as recently as the Trump administration, we had Safe Third Country agreements in place with Central American countries and the Migrant Protection Protocols with Mexico. Under these agreements, any asylum applicant coming to the U.S. and first passing through a third safe country to get here would be sent back to that country if he or she had not applied for asylum in that country. For example, all those who crossed illegally into the U.S. from Mexico were returned there pending their case adjudication.

The United States needs to use all the economic and diplomatic leverage at our disposal to revive those agreements. Meanwhile, similar to the UK and Australia, we should prohibit asylum applications from those illegally crossing between ports of entry to discourage frivolous and fraudulent asylum claims.

*  *  *

Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 14:00
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

Sierra Nevada Awarded DoD Contract To Build Next-Gen 'Doomsday Plane'

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 19:25
Sierra Nevada Awarded DoD Contract To Build Next-Gen 'Doomsday Plane'

Aerospace and defense company Sierra Nevada Corporation won the $13 billion Pentagon contract to develop a successor to the "Doomsday Plane" that serves as a mobile command post in the event of nuclear war. 

The current 1970s-era Boeing E-4B "Nightwatch" serves as the National Airborne Operations Center and is a key component of the National Military Command System for the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

However, the fleet of E-4B Nightwatch, which can withstand nuclear blasts and electromagnetic effects, is aging and needs to be replaced. 

That's where Sierra Nevada comes in with the new Survivable Airborne Operations Center project, which will replace the E-4B Nightwatch by 2036. 

"In case of national emergency or destruction of ground command and control centers, the aircraft provides a highly survivable command, control, and communications center to direct US forces, execute emergency war orders, and coordinate actions by civil authorities," explained an E-4B Nightwatch fact sheet produced by the US Air Force. 

In December, Reuters sources said Boeing - the incumbent manufacturer of the E-4B Nightwatch, could not agree with the Air Force on data rights and contract terms for the replacement plane. 

Currently, the Air Force operates four E-4B Nightwatch planes, with at least one on full alert at all times. 

Given Boeing's string of problems at its commercial jet unit, it's probably best that Sierra Nevada was awarded the project for one of the nation's most important aircraft. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 13:25
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

'The most important Holy Communion...'

Bonfire of the Vanities - Fr. Martin Fox - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 19:03

Today*, and for the next four Sundays, till May 12,  

our family of parishes is doing something that may seem just for a few, 

but is actually important to all of us as a spiritual family. 


You and I are welcoming many of our children; to begin sharing in the Most Holy Eucharist. 

Let’s be clear why this is so important – starting with the not-so-important aspects. 

It’s nice that it’s a pretty day and we get to wear special clothes; 

we have parents and grandparents here, and there probably will be a party and presents. 

But we all know these are not the main thing. 

We can celebrate a birthday in the same way, but this is so much more important than a birthday. 


Why? Because Jesus came into the world to give himself to you. To me. 

He did so, first in baptism. He does so in each of the sacraments. 

But notice: marriage usually happens once. Confirmation certainly happens only one time. 

I’ve been ordained a deacon, and a priest, but I probably won’t be a bishop (and I don’t want to be)! 

We can and should come frequently to confession. 

We can receive the anointing many times, but that’s a bittersweet thought, isn’t it?


The Eucharist is meant for us to receive most often; even daily.

Boys and girls, I know you’ve been practicing for this.

I want to invite everyone to focus, not on the peripherals,

But on how reverent and focused our first communicants are.


This is an opportunity to contemplate how each of us receive Jesus.


Do you or I accept the Eucharist as the greatest gift of all,

Or more like how we might accept a can of pop or a napkin?


This is a valuable, delicate glass bowl.

If this were worth, say, $1,000, and I placed it in your hands,

How would you respond? You get the point.


What you’re being given – in your hands or on your tongue – 

is not worth $1000, but a gift of infinite value.


So, one reason First Communion Masses are so important 

is that every year, you and I have a chance to reflect 

on whether we have become too casual. I include myself in this.


Here’s another thing to notice in our first communicants.


Children, I know you and your parents and teachers 

have worked with you to understand what you can about the Eucharist.


You know that what is ordinary bread and wine, 

before it comes to the altar, truly becomes Jesus: 

his true Body and Blood.

It is Jesus himself who does this, through the priest, at the altar.


I would not be surprised to learn you can even explain this pretty well.

And the day will come, as it does for each of us, 

to be ready to tell others, in our words, what we believe and why.

This is valuable, but not the key thing.

What matters more is not how we explain, but how we show our faith.

The faith in your heart shines in your eyes and your actions.

The rest of us, witnessing that, are challenged to imitate your example.


I am challenged to recall 

the first time I offered Holy Mass, on May 25, 2003. 

There have been many thousands of Masses since.

If you are nervous or overwhelmed today, so was I that day!

But you remind me, today, that I need to return, in a sense, 

to that mindset of awe and wonder that can sometimes be lost.


Every one of us needs that.


Let me add this. As important as our first communion is, 

it is not our most important communion.


May I suggest that our most important communion is our FINAL one.

Many times I have brought the Holy Eucharist 

to someone at the hospital or at home, and as I did so, 

I saw that weary child of God close his or her eyes for the last time.


It is because that person wanted Jesus so much, 

That I can say with confidence

That the next time they saw was Jesus – in heaven!


You and I can never know when that last communion will happen.

So, we keep coming, week after week.

He will strengthen that hunger and that love!

One day it will be you, full of years, closing your eyes to this world, 

and receiving the fullest communion with Jesus forever!


This is just the first step. Thank you for letting us share your journey.

* I.e., last Saturday, April 20.
Categories: All, Clergy

Central Banks Are Wrong about Rate Cuts

Mises Institute - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 19:00
Central Bank's control of interest rates cripples economic growth. Yet central banks will not give up power because it is central to financing huge government deficits.

The Teams Are Set For World War III

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 18:50
The Teams Are Set For World War III

Authored by Toby Rogers via The Brownstone Institute,

I’ve seen some crazy things over the last few years but this is off-the-charts insane.

Last week, Michael E. Mann spoke at the EcoHeath Alliance: Green Planet One Health Benefit 2024. Just to recap who each of these players are: 

  • Michael E. Mann is the creator of the “hockey stick graph” that has driven the global warming debate for the last 25 years. 

  • EcoHealth Alliance is the CIA cutout led by Peter Daszak that launders money from the NIH to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to create gain-of-function viruses (including SARS-CoV-2 which killed over 7 million people). 

  • “One Health” is the pretext the World Health Organization (WHO) is using to drive the Pandemic Treaty that will vastly expand the powers of the WHO and create economic incentives for every nation on earth to develop new gain-of-function viruses.

So a leader in the global warming movement spoke at an event to raise money for the organization that just murdered 7 million people and the campaign that intends to launch new pandemics in perpetuity to enrich the biowarfare industrial complex. 

And then just for good measure, Peter Hotez reposted all of this information on Twitter, I imagine in solidarity with all of the exciting genociding going on. 

Mann’s appearance at this event is emblematic of a disturbing shift that has been years in the making. Serious and thoughtful people in the environmental movement tried to address industrial and military pollution for decades. Now their cause has been co-opted by Big Tech and other corporate actors with malevolent intentions — and the rest of the environmental movement has gone along with this, apparently without objection. So we are witnessing a convergence between the global warming movement, the biowarfare industrial complex, and the WHO pandemic treaty grifters. 

I wish it wasn’t true but here we are. 

Before I go any further I need to make one thing clear: the notion that pandemics are driven by global warming is complete and total bullsh*t. The evidence is overwhelming that pandemics are created by the biowarfare industrial complex including the 13,000 psychopaths who work at over 400 US bioweapons labs (as described in great detail in The Wuhan Cover-Up). 

Unfortunately “global warming” has become a cover for the proliferation of the biowarfare industrial economy

Mann’s appearance at an event to raise money for people who are clearly guilty of genocide (and planning more carnage) made me realize that this really is World War III. They are straight-up telling us who they are and what they intend to do. 

The different sides in this war are not nation-states.

Instead, Team Tyranny is a bunch of different business interests pushing what has become a giant multi-trillion dollar grift.

And Team Freedom is ordinary people throughout the world just trying to return to the classical economic and political liberalism that drove human progress from 1776 until 2020. 

Here’s how I see the battle lines being drawn: 

TEAM TYRANNY 

Their base: Elites, billionaires, the ruling class, the biowarfare industrial complex, intelligence agencies, and bougie technocrats.

Institutions they control: WEF, WHO, UN, BMGF, World Bank, IMF, most universities, the mainstream media, and liberal governments throughout the developed world.

Economic philosophy: The billionaires should control all wealth on earth. The peasants should only be allowed to exist to serve the billionaires, grow food, and fix the machines when necessary. Robots and Artificial Intelligence will soon be able to replace most of the peasants. 

Political philosophy: Centralized control of everything. Elites know best. The 90% should shut up, pay their taxes, take their vaccines, develop chronic disease, and die. High tech global totalitarianism is the best form of government. Billionaires are God.

Philosophy of medicine: Allopathic. Cut, poison, burn, kill. Corporations create all knowledge. Bodies are machines. Transhumanism is ideal. The billionaires will soon live forever in the digital cloud. 

Their currency: For now, inflationary Federal Reserve policies. Soon, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that will put the peasants in their place once and for all. 

Policy vehicles to advance their agenda: One Health; WHO Pandemic Treaty; social credit scores; climate scores; vaccine mandates/passports; lockdowns and quarantine camps; elimination of small farms and livestock; corporate control of all food, land, water, transportation, and the weather; corporate control of social movements; and 15-minute cities for the peasants. 

Military strategy: Gain-of-function viruses, propaganda, and vaccines.

TEAM FREEDOM

Our base: The medical freedom movement, Constitutionalists, small “l” libertarians, independent farmers, natural meat and milk producers, pirate parties, natural healers, homeopaths, chiropractors, integrative and functional medicine doctors, and osteopaths.

Aligned institutions: CHD, ICAN, Brownstone Institute, NVIC, SFHF, the RFK, Jr. campaign, the Republican party at the county level…

Economic philosophy: Small “c” capitalism. Competition. Entrepreneurship. 

Political philosophy: Classical liberalism. The people, using their own ingenuity, will generally figure out the best way to do things. Decentralize everything including the internet. If the elites would just leave us alone the world would be a much more peaceful, creative, and prosperous place. Human freedom leads to human flourishing. 

Philosophy of medicine: Nature is infinite in its wisdom. Listen to the body. Systems have the ability to heal and regenerate. 

Our currency: Cash, gold, crypto, and barter. (I don’t love crypto but lots of smart people in our movement do.) 

Policy ideas: Exit the WHO. Boycott WEF companies. Repeal the Bayh-Dole Act, NCVIA Act, Patriot Act, and PREP Act. Add medical freedom to the Constitution. Prosecute the Faucistas at Nuremberg 2.0. Overhaul the NIH, FDA, CDC, EPA, USDA, FCC, DoD, and intelligence agencies. Make all publicly-funded scientific data available to the public. Ban insider trading by Congress. Support and protect organic food, farms, and farmers’ markets. Break up monopolies. Cut the size of the federal government in half (or more). 

Our preferred tools to create change: Ideas, love for humanity, logic and reason, common sense, art and music, and popular uprising. 

What would you add, subtract, or change in each of these lists? 

*  *  *

Republished from the author’s Substack

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 12:50
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

April 27- Universities Between Communist Rock and Zionist Hard Place.

Henrymakow.com - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 18:27
kraft.pngPlease send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.com

After decades of turning students into Communists, universities face defunding by Zionist donors

Students say they will disrupt campuses until colleges cut financial ties with Israel. 
How are Zio-Nazis going to win WW3 when a huge segment of the population is opposed to it?

Bipartisan bill would create 'antisemitism monitors' at colleges --Pro-Israel House Democrat and Republican plan to introduce legislation creating federally sanctioned "antisemitism monitors" for select college campuses | 26 April 2024 |  This is the first bill introduced in Congress as a direct response to the pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked Columbia University and other colleges in recent days. Reps. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) are introducing the College Oversight and Legal Updates Mandating Bias Investigations and Accountability Act -- or COLUMBIA Act. The bill would allow the Department of Education to send a "third-party antisemitism monitor" to any college that receives federal funding -- and to revoke that funding for colleges that don't comply. The monitor, paid for by the school, would be charged with releasing a public, quarterly report evaluating "the progress that a college or university has made toward combating antisemitism."
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/26/antisemitism-monitor-colleges-columbia-israel
.
These are the teams picked for third Masonic Jewish world war. Zio Nazis vs Communists. 
-----
Excess Deaths In Japan Hit 115,000 Following 3rd COVID Shot; New Study Explains Why
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/excess-deaths-japan-hit-115000-following-3rd-covid-shot-new-study-explains-why
--
Andrew Tate can go to trial, court rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVHgkDMqdp0

Reader JR writes---"While Andrew puts out a number of agreeable positions, my understanding of his Romanian webcam services is one that makes him a pimp. I have seen him talk about taking women on dates, who have hopes of an actual relationship, only to be bedded by Tate, as a first step towards his webcams. Like a pimp, he uses this relationship and begins pressuring them into performing using psychological techniques."--

RFK Jr.: This Is What I Believe In


RFK Jr. -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTKL_B27JL8

People are sick of the uniparty. If the election is fair, RFK Jr. could win.

--
Russ Winter--The Postmodernist Cargo Cult Creates Carte Blanche for the Kakistocracy
https://www.winterwatch.net/2024/04/the-postmodernist-cargo-cult-creates-carte-blanche-for-the-kakistocracy/
Postmodernism is a political ideology that developed in the late 20th century. It's characterized by subjectivism and relativism and deconstructs Enlightenment concepts of reason, objectivity and merit. The root idea is that "everything is a social construct." Thus, it asks, how can one identify and qualify merit.
-
individualism-collectivism.png https://snippits-and-slappits.blogspot.com/2024/

Bank Failures Begin Again: Philly's Republic First Seized By FDIC

The FDIC just seized the troubled Philadelphia bank, Republic First Bancorp and and struck an agreement for the lender's deposits and the majority of its assets to be bought by Fulton Bank.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/bank-failures-begin-again-phillys-republic-first-seized-fdic
--
RFK Jr tells EWTN: Politicization of the CIA, FBI, Secret Service under Biden is 'very troubling'Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an interview with Raymond Arroyo that he is the only presidential candidate who has ever been denied Secret Service protection upon request. He also confirmed his support for abortion.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/rfk-jr-tells-ewtn-politicization-of-the-cia-fbi-secret-service-under-biden-is-very-troubling/?

"The liberal media are sanctioning and condoning the politicization of the CIA, the FBI, the IRS, and now the Secret Service by President Biden," Kennedy told Arroyo. "I think it's very, very troubling for our Republic that these agencies are now being turned into political instruments by the president in power.
-
Communists don't believe in your private property.

Democrat Arizona governor vetoes bill that would have made it easier for homeowners to remove squatters

Another official, State Sen. Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson), described her personal experience finding a squatter occupying a home when she showed it to a client while she was working as a realtor.

"It was a terrifying threat to my safety, the safety of my clients, as well as to the homeowners," she said. "When I called the police, I was told there was not much they could do. It's a shame Gov. Katie Hobbs has vetoed yet another piece of commonsense bipartisan legislation."
The veto-happy governor has vetoed 52 bills so far during this legislative session following a record-breaking 143 vetoes last year.

--

Categories: All, Conspiracies, History

Tesla Attorneys Target Shareholder Trying To Stop Moving Musk's Pay Fight To Texas

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 18:15
Tesla Attorneys Target Shareholder Trying To Stop Moving Musk's Pay Fight To Texas

Richard Tornetta, who was at the center of Tesla shareholders' claim that Elon Musk was taking an excessive pay package, is now at the center of claims that Tesla should not be reincorporating to Texas to approve Musk's voided pay plan. 

But Tesla is firing back at Tornetta. John Reed, one of Tesla’s attorneys, said in a Delaware Chancery Court filing this week that Tornetta "is raising false alarms", according to Bloomberg

Musk has considered relocating Tesla's headquarters from Delaware to Texas after a judge revoked his substantial pay package due to conflicts among directors and inadequate disclosure of plan details.

In response, Tornetta is urging the judge to prevent Musk from addressing the pay dispute outside of Delaware. Despite this, no legal actions are currently threatened or pending in Texas, and Musk has not obstructed the issuance of a final judgment in the case, according to Reed's letter to the judge.

McCormick's decision on retaining the dispute in Delaware remains uncertain and could affect the case's outcome. If Tesla relocates to Texas and adjusts Musk's compensation there, it might trigger a new legal battle under Texas law.

A hearing is scheduled for July 8 to address Tornetta's lawyers' request for attorney fees and finalize the case. They aim to secure a ruling on their injunction plea before Tesla's June 13 annual meeting, where a critical proxy vote will occur, Bloomberg writes

Reed, in a letter, suggests that Tornetta's legal moves could sway Tesla shareholders' decisions on relocating to Texas and reinstating Musk's record-breaking compensation package. He advises McCormick against publicly addressing Tornetta's injunction request to prevent influencing shareholder votes unfairly.

Tornetta's legal team fears that a Texas move could enable Musk and Tesla's directors to obstruct the judge's decision on Musk's pay. They also seek an escrow account creation for 29 million Tesla shares, valued at around $5 billion, as payment. 

Recall, Tornetta's lawyers asked for $6 billion worth of legal fees for their services. "The lawyers who did nothing but damage Tesla want $6 billion. Criminal," Elon Musk fired back last month. 

The reasoning for the excessive fee rests on the fact that the victory to void Musk's pay plan results in 266 million shares being returned to the company. 

On January 31, we wrote that the compensation case, which was launched by Tornetta, argued that Tesla's board lacked independence in crafting Musk's pay, a view the judge supported.

Delaware Chancery Court Chief Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick cited inadequate disclosures and board conflicts of interest in her ruling. Musk, whose wealth largely comes from Tesla, the top auto company globally, has seen stock options from this plan vest as performance goals were met, though he hasn't exercised them yet.

The judge wrote earlier this year: “In the final analysis, Musk launched a self-driving process, recalibrating the speed and direction along the way as he saw fit. The process arrived at an unfair price. And through this litigation, the plaintiff requests a recall.”

“The most striking omission from the process is the absence of any evidence of adversarial negotiations between the Board and Musk concerning the size of the grant,” she said in her ruling.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 12:15
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

Nearly Half Of Those Arrested At UT-Austin Pro-Palestinian Protest Had No Links To School

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 17:40
Nearly Half Of Those Arrested At UT-Austin Pro-Palestinian Protest Had No Links To School

Authored by Jana J Pruet via The Epoch Times,

Nearly half of the pro-Palestinian protesters arrested earlier this week at The University of Texas at Austin were not affiliated with the university.

Law enforcement officials arrested 57 protesters during Wednesday’s event organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee after participants refused to disperse despite demands from authorities and the university. Of those arrested, 26 were neither students nor faculty of the university, according to officials at UT-Austin.

Hundreds of students walked out of class Wednesday in support of Palestinians in Gaza in the midst of the Israel-Hamas war. The war broke out after Palestinian terror group Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which left 1,200 Israelis dead. Hamas is believed to still be holding 129 hostages from Israel.

The organizers wrote on Instagram that they aimed to follow “in the footsteps of our comrades at Columbia SJP, Rutgers-New Brunswick, Yale, and countless others,” with SJP referring to Students for Justice in Palestine.

The anti-Israel student group demanded that the university “divest from death.”

“Consistent with this broader movement that is impacting so many, problematic aspects of the planned protest were modeled after a national organization’s protest playbook,” UT–Austin President Jay Hartzell said in a campuswide message Thursday evening.

“And notably, 26 of the 55 individuals arrested yesterday had no UT affiliation.”

Local news outlet KTBC-TV reported that one of its photojournalists was among those arrested during the clash between police and protesters. He was booked into the Travis County jail on a criminal trespassing charge.

By Thursday evening, all of those arrested had been released. The Travis County prosecutor said it had dropped all criminal trespassing charges, citing “deficiencies” in charging documents. Criminal trespassing is considered a misdemeanor in the state of Texas.

According to the Texas Tribune, the Texas Department of Public Safety has opened a criminal investigation into the arrest of the photojournalist.

The UT–Austin chapter of the American Association of University of Professors denounced Mr. Hartzell for allowing authorities to be deployed on campus during the class walkout.

“We, faculty of UT Austin, condemn President Jay Hartzell and our administrative leaders’ decision to invite city police as well as state troopers from across the state—on horses, motorcycles, and bicycles, in riot gear and armed with batons, pepper spray, tear gas and guns to our campus today in response to a planned peaceful event by our students,” read the statement posted on X on Wednesday night.

Policy Violation

Ahead of Wednesday’s demonstration, university officials warned the organizers that the event violated school policy and would not be allowed to take place in an effort to prevent the “pattern” that has occurred across the nation in recent weeks, leading to hundreds of arrests.

“The University’s decision to not allow yesterday’s event to go as planned was made because we had credible indications that the event’s organizers, whether national or local, were trying to follow the pattern we see elsewhere, using the apparatus of free speech and expression to severely disrupt a campus for a long period,” Mr. Hartzell continued.

Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) is a student organization with chapters at colleges and universities across the country.

The group’s website states that it is “dedicated to telling the story of the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination on the university campus and in the wider Austin community. We work to promote education, discourse, activism, and awareness of the Palestinian story through lectures by academics and political activists, movie screenings, and events and displays on the UT West Mall.”

The UT–Austin group, which holds biweekly meetings on campus, states under Article 1 of its bylaws that it will comply with school policies.

“This organization is a recognized student organization at The University of Texas at Austin and shall comply with all campus policies as set forth in the ​Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities and Information on Students’ Rights and Responsibilities,” it says.

UT Suspends Organization

The university suspended the student group from campus after another walkout on Thursday, which was organized in part by the faculty group that condemned the university for enforcing its rules.

Police were present during Thursday’s peaceful event.

“Students and faculty affirmed their commitment to continue struggling for the liberation of Palestine, to demand their university divest, and demand the resignation of President Jay Hartzell for greenlighting the militarized brutality enforced on students,” PSC wrote on Instagram.

PSC has held more than a dozen pro-Palestinian events since October.

“I’m thankful we live in a country where free expression is a fiercely protected Constitutional right,” Mr. Hartzell said in his campuswide message on Thursday.

“I’m grateful that our campus has seen 13 pro-Palestinian events take place during the past several months largely without incident—plus another one today. I am grateful that everyone is safe after yesterday, we continue to hold in-person classes, and that today’s events followed our long-standing campus standards for allowed demonstrations.”

Brian Davis, a spokesperson for the university, confirmed on Friday that the student group had been suspended from campus in the wake of this week’s events. The length of the suspension is not immediately clear. Mr. Davis said that the Dean of Students office would make that determination.

It is unknown whether any students have been reprimanded for the events that occurred earlier this week. That information is protected by federal privacy laws.

“I encourage us all to continue to communicate and work together, and to help our students finish this school year in positive, safe and celebratory ways,” Mr. Hartzell said.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 11:40
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

Moscow and 'de-Westernisation': Russia's uncertain future in 'turning' to the East

AsiaNews.it - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 17:17
Because of the war in Ukraine, the country is drifting into an era of denial and distancing from the "enemy", to assert spiritual, moral, political, and economic "orthodoxy". Today, new "global models" are being imposed, which are not easily digestible, not only in Russia or the East, but also in Europe and in English-speaking countries. The persona of the president now overlaps with that of the tsars of the past.
Categories: All, Asia, News

Another Russian Oil Refinery Hit By Ukrainian Kamikaze Drones

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 17:05
Another Russian Oil Refinery Hit By Ukrainian Kamikaze Drones

Ukrainian military planners have been ramping up Kamikaze drone strikes against the Russian energy industrial complex this week, including an overnight attack damaging an oil refinery as Western sanctions fail to crush Putin's oil-rich economy that funds the "special military operation" in Ukraine. This comes despite the US publicly telling the Ukrainians to stop attacking Russian refineries for fear Brent crude prices could spike and worsen the inflation storm in the US ahead of the presidential elections in the fall. 

Bloomberg reports an oil refinery in the Sloviansk-on-Kuban region was hit by a swarm of Ukranian suicide drones on Saturday morning. 

State-run news agency Tass said the refinery strike caused damage and a fire, partially suspending operations at the crude processing facility.  

"The work of the (Slavyansk) plant has been partially suspended. Exactly 10 UAVs (drones) flew directly into the plant, there was a strong fire. There may be hidden damage," Eduard Trudnev, the security director at Slavyansk ECO Group, which operates the plant, was cited as saying by TASS.

On Telegram, Roman Siniagovskyi, a local government official in Slavyansk, said drones struck a distillation tower and storage tank. 

Ukraine continues to successfully attack Russian oil refineries. It is confirmed that Ukrainian drones hit Sloviansk Eko oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai. The distillation column has been damaged. pic.twitter.com/fFEqbqTfrz

— Giorgi Revishvili (@revishvilig) April 27, 2024

Russia's defense ministry said 66 drones were intercepted over the Krasnodar region, located in the southern part of the country. 

Earlier this week, Ukraine began ramping up drone attacks on Russian refineries after the Biden administration signed a new military aid package worth billions of dollars. 

Ukraine's strategy in the war has shifted to attacking Moscow's oil revenues by precision-guided strikes on the country's energy infrastructure. So far, drone strikes have knocked out about 10% of Russia's oil refinery capacity. This comes as Western sanctions fail to crush Putin's oil-rich economy funding war efforts. 

Aslak Berg, Research Fellow at the Centre for European Reform, recently told Euronews:

"Since Russian import capacity for refined oil products is limited in the short run, since they're set up to export, it's actually a fairly clever way of causing disruption in the Russian market with limited impact globally." 

Berg continued, 

"The Ukrainians have been hitting refineries, not Russian crude oil production or export facilities. This causes problems for Russia's domestic market for refined products, but for the rest of the world, a decline in Russia's exports of products will be compensated for by increased exports of crude oil." 

Meanwhile, Biden's top officials have pleaded with Kyiv to stop attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure because of the fears that turmoil in crude markets would send pump prices in the US higher ahead of the presidential elections in November.

UBS Global Wealth Management Giovanni Staunovo said that if the Ukrainian drone attacks are limited to Russian oil refineries, then this won't cause great disruptions in the global market. 

However, it could only be a matter of time before Ukranians start attacking Russia's energy-exporting capabilities. If that's the case, expect an even higher war risk premium to be baked into Brent crude prices. 

The Biden administration has a colossal mess on their hands as stagflation emerges. And don't forget about the mess in the Middle East. 

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 11:05
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

American Spring?

Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 17:02

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”–The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified Dec., 15, 1791.

An open assault on the First Amendment is occurring across America, as college students who are peacefully exercising their Constitutional right to freedom of speech, challenging government policies, are being arrested in droves.

The self-appointed Congressional Overseers of Higher Education, who hauled politically naïve university presidents into their star chambers and publicly castigated the savants for not admonishing their students to be sufficiently sympathetic to genocide, essentially demanded loyalty, not to America, but to the deadly agenda of a country not our own. 

Leading government officials have expressed dismay at the furor which has erupted on campuses and have encouraged the use of repressive tactics. 

What is happening on campuses?  Did the students not get the message? – –   Obey!

Obey, or there will be no graduation. Obey! Or you cannot be valedictorian. Obey! Or be suspended, expelled, even denied employment opportunities. Obey! Or you will be marked for life as a troublemaker, a disrupter. Obey! If you want to get ahead in society.  Obey!  Don’t make demands. Don’t even ask questions. Obey! You are students.  Your lot is to listen, and Obey.

The relative quiescence on campuses in the past few decades has been misread as students being interested in their inner world and not the outer world.  Social media had become a soporific and a grand distraction. Campuses were generally the last places expected to ignite political movements.

Oh, how dangerously wrong America’s leaders are about the energy that issues  spontaneously on campuses, demanding an end to mass violence sanctioned and financed by our government.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, campuses were the flash points from which the Vietnam-era anti-war movement grew. I remember student rallies at Cleveland State University (CSU).  Then, instead of threatening students with arrest, CSU President Harold Enarson created a space for them to gather, spoke to students, encouraged peaceful protest and, as a result, Cleveland State University, still in its infancy, was a catalyst for social and political change. 

The protests focused public attention on the Vietnam War. The  political became personal.  President Lyndon Baines Johnson became the target.

“LBJ, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today,” was a chant heard on campuses and on streets where masses gathered to demand an end to the war. 

The protests drove Johnson from the presidency.  He announced on March 31, 1968:

I have concluded that I should not permit the presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year….Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

Then came Kent State University, and four dead in Ohio on May 4, 1970.

Years later, as chairman of a congressional oversight subcommittee, I quietly probed the Kent State shootings and learned (as had others before me) that a suspected FBI asset on campus, taking pictures of protestors, found himself suddenly surrounded by students who believed him to be an informant, and he drew a gun.    

He may have fired shots in the air which were mistaken as an attack on the Ohio National Guard,  (which unfortunately had been ordered to campus by the Governor), and the Guard returned fire, setting off a national tragedy. 

Unfortunately, the FBI did not cooperate with my request for a further search of records to determine the precise role of its informant and my term in Congress came to a close.  Who fired the first shot?  Was it someone acting as an agent of the government?   

Government at all levels must tread lightly in using force against peaceful protestors who are exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech. 

Agencies and counter-parties to the debate over U.S. foreign policy must avoid sending informants, or worse, agents provocateurs into a campus fray. 

One only needs to be aware of the execrable COINTELPRO gambit of US intelligence agencies which infiltrated, disrupted and derailed protests and causes which challenged the status quo, during the Vietnam era.

 We should view campus protests as one of the few healthy signs in a nation where government spying, support for a genocidal war, abandonment of Constitutional liberties and media complicity has constructed not only an alternate politics, but an alternate reality.

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It was their final, most essential command,” wrote George Orwell in 1984.

College students are not rejecting the evidence of their eyes and ears.  Thirty-Four thousand dead Palestinians, most of them women and children.  The students know the horrific violence going on thousands of miles away, and they know their government is licensing it.  They are demanding the war cease.  

They are standing on more than two centuries of citizen action challenging the government. Those who misuse their authority to suppress legitimate dissent are undermining foundational Constitutional freedoms, the Freedom of Speech and the Right to Protest. The First Amendment is the cornerstone of the American Republic.

Reprinted with permission from The Kucinich Report.

Subscribe and support here.

Categories: All, Political

Students Go After the Hypocrites

Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 16:43

New York – I was kicked out of New York’s prestigious Collegiate private school many moons ago for “revolutionary and disruptive activities.”

Thank goodness my wise parents sent me to the International School of Geneva, Switzerland where I thrived.

The underground French fascist group, “la Main Rouge” repeatedly threatened to kill me for organizing student demonstrations against France’s colonial war in Algeria. But I survived.

Being a life-long rebel and hell-raiser, I am naturally sympathetic to today’s pro-Palestinian student protests that are now sweeping American and European campuses.

Students may be poor and too emotional, but they are often filled with repulsions at the sight of mass killing, political brutality, and murderous hatred such as we see today in the prison camp of Gaza. They have yet to learn the sordid truth about how money can buy indulgences from killing civilians and other war crimes.

Just ask Joe Biden, and British PM Rishi Sunak. They are continuing to arm and finance Israel’s mass killing and starvation in Gaza for the sake of huge cash donations as elections loom, and the support of ardently pro-Israel voters who are marching to the drum of Israel’s far right-wing government. The US and British media have been whitewashing the genocide in Gaza and twisting their reporting to justify mass killing of civilians. The New York Times has earned opprobrium by ordering its staff to slant the news it misreports. This once great newspaper has ruined its reputation. It reminds of the great Mark Twain’s famous bon mot, “If you don’t read the news you are uninformed. If you do, you are misinformed.”

Let’s be frank. President Joe Biden, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and their pal Egypt’s despot Abdel el-Sisi are directly responsible for the deaths of 14,000 Palestinian children, almost 35,000 Palestinian civilians seriously wounded, some 2 million Palestinians now homeless, growing starvation and disease across Gaza used by Israel as a refuse dump for unwanted Arabs. The Biden administration is providing over $14.1 billion in arms to Israel, including the deadly 2,000lb bombs used to crush entire civilian apartment buildings and hospitals, plus tank shells fired at residential targets. All in clear violation of US arms export laws written by Congress.

Why is Biden the key player in such mass destruction? Why is his UN delegation vetoing resolutions to stop Israeli laying waste to Gaza? It’s election time coming up. And because the Democrats get the lion’s share of their finances from pro-Israel sources.

Big money talks. Human rights walk. The US Congress, a sorry collection of used car salesmen, has been bought and sold. What a disgrace for the USA. The oil Arabs could also have bought Congress but they were too busy squabbling with one another.

So, while the high and mighty averted their gaze to massacres and famine in Gaza, it was left up to students around the globe to raise their voice in anger over the crimes there. My alma mater, Georgetown Foreign Service, raised a chorus of protests. So too Columbia University and UCLA, Sciences Po in Paris, in fact just about everywhere except Germany, whose people are still paying Israel for World War II.

Big money donors, who made billions off our rigged financial system, are trying to silence protests over Israel’s wanton cruelty. Israelis are right to be furious over the killing of an estimated 1,139 Israeli civilians and soldiers. But killing tens of thousands of innocent Arabs was wildly out of proportion and clearly criminal.

America, Britain and Canada have disgraced themselves – all for the sake of money. The Gaza massacre has revealed the US to be a deeply corrupt society. University students at least helped save America’s honor. They are doing the right thing. Alas, they do not yet have a Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young band to turn their protests into electrifying music. Meanwhile, Palestinian children continue to starve or die of disease while Israel ruins its name and paid-for politicians spout lies.

Reprinted with permission from EricMargolis.com.

Categories: All, Political

If 10-Year Yields Surpass 5%, Say Hello To QE (And Massive Inflation)

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 16:30
If 10-Year Yields Surpass 5%, Say Hello To QE (And Massive Inflation)

Via SchiffGold.com,

The wizards at the Fed and US Treasury have been forced to acknowledge that their “transitory,” inflation is, in fact, quite “sticky.” And with the inflation elephant now acknowledged by the circus of high finance, Treasury yields keep inching up, recently reaching 4.7% — the highest since November. The Fed is stuck: It needs to raise interest rates to tame inflation and make Treasuries more attractive. But the Fed can’t afford higher rates, with an already-untenable cost to service the existing debt and loan-dependent industries teetering on the brink.

Once the 10-year Treasury yield goes above 5%, the bond market enters especially dangerous territory, endangering industries like the automotive market and commercial real estate that depend heavily on debt.

With no good options, the Fed will be forced to print money one way or another to stimulate borrowing, turning an inflationary creek of their own making into a raging river of dollar destruction.

The only way the Fed can possibly tame inflation is with interest rates so high that everything collapses. Jamie Dimon himself sees 8% interest rates being needed to tame America’s Fed-fueled inflation beast — but with an economy addicted to a low cost of borrowing, this would make loans unaffordable for entire sectors of the economy that can’t do without.

A serious implosion in commercial real estate would certainly bleed into the banking sector, beginning a chain reaction. Meanwhile, with no chance of the US reigning in spending and getting its fiscal house in order, interest on the US debt can already only be paid with even more borrowed money.

That doesn’t even take into account the over-indebted masses with their breaking-down cars, mortgages on homes that need repairs, and credit cards they use to fund basic expenses. Neither the most loan-dependent industries nor the average American can handle the rising cost of goods, materials, and energy. But they can’t handle 8% interest rates either. This is giving the Fed a mission impossible — raising rates to the levels they need to actually tame inflation or allowing inflation to run amok with fresh money printing to keep borrowing artificially affordable will both result in disastrous outcomes for the economy.

The COVID M1 Hockey Stick (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)

The truth is, out-of-control spending and lingering COVID stimulus mean that inflation isn’t going away just because of some small rate hikes, as Peter Schiff has repeatedly pointed out, and as Dimon wrote in his recent shareholder letter:

“Huge fiscal spending, the trillions needed each year for the green economy, the remilitarization of the world, and the restructuring of global trade—all are inflationary.”

So while 2024’s rate cuts may get delayed, the Fed knows it might be able to kick the bond market bomb down the road by printing money. And the central bank will do whatever it has to in order to prevent a short-term implosion — even if it means destroying the dollar in the longer term. This is especially true now, as the Fed doesn’t want to anger the incumbent during an election year, giving it further impetus to make the economy look as rosy as possible, at least until the start of the next presidential cycle. That means rate cuts or full-blown QE to prevent a bond market collapse, and worrying about hyperinflation later.

Without gold to preserve your purchasing power, you might be about to see what happens to your money when the Fed is forced to fire up the money printers while inflationary pressures are already itching to explode in a way not seen in years. And if the Fed holds strong and refuses to cut rates this year, or even raises them anywhere near the levels they need to avoid killing the dollar, hold onto your hats — and your gold — and try not to get caught under one of the falling dominos.

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 10:30
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

What Do You Got? The Wild One, The Loveless and the Biker Movie

Steyn Online - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 16:00
On the fourth of July weekend in 1947, a group of bikers rode into a small California town and, depending on who you believe, either had a great party or went on an orgy of destruction. This single incident – now famous as the Hollister Invasion or the
Categories: All, Journalists, Non-Catholic

Enter the American Detective Force...

Steyn Online - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 16:00
Our latest Tale for Our Time charges on: The Secret Adversary, Agatha Christie's first Tommy & Tuppence caper, set against the turbulent politics of the world after the Great War. Thank you for all your kind comments about this latest serialisation. Leo,
Categories: All, Journalists, Non-Catholic

Florida Developer Seeks $100 Million For Penthouse Atop 66 Story Building In Brickell Key

Zero Hedge - Sat, 04/27/2024 - 15:55
Florida Developer Seeks $100 Million For Penthouse Atop 66 Story Building In Brickell Key

It looks as though the flight to Florida, specifically Miami, by Wall Street firms and New Yorkers during the height of Covid is starting to pay dividends for the state.

And if commercial real estate is dead, someone forgot to tell Swire Properties Inc., who is reportedly seeking $100 million to develop a penthouse atop a 66-story tower on Brickell Key island in Florida. 

The building is already home to the The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, but the penthouse - capable of being split into two units, according to Bloomberg - is being marketed as its "crown jewel". 

Swire President Henry Bott told Bloomberg: “The center of gravity in Miami has shifted to Brickell. We’re already seeing a strong response from domestic US buyers.”

Swire's ability to attract buyers to an area primarily frequented by joggers and dog walkers will determine the success of the sale, the report says. As of now, the highest-priced property ever sold on Brickell Key was a $7.8 million condominium in 2021.

Bloomberg writes that Swire is investing over $1 billion in constructing two upscale towers, branded with Mandarin Oriental, on the island's final available plot. One tower features a lavish 23,000-square-foot duplex, complete with its own infinity pool and private elevator lobby. Units at this project start at around $4.9 million, with occupancy expected by 2029.

The second tower will host a Mandarin Oriental hotel, set to become the brand's flagship in North America, replacing the existing hotel built in 2000. Swire has been developing much of the island since acquiring nearly 34 acres in the late 1970s.

Brickell, Miami's financial district, has seen a surge in activity, attracting Wall Street firms like Citadel and JPMorgan Chase, along with affluent professionals from New York and Chicago. Developers in Miami are targeting these wealthy newcomers with luxury condos, rivaling prices in Manhattan or California.

For instance, Ritz-Carlton condos in South Beach include a penthouse listed at $125 million, while the Shore Club Private Collection nearby has a penthouse with a private rooftop pool under contract for over $120 million. Fisher Island, another elite neighborhood, has seen penthouses sold for a total exceeding $150 million.

Competing directly with Swire's Brickell project is a hotel-branded condo in Coconut Grove, the Four Seasons residential tower, attracting affluent buyers, especially from the finance sector. Developer Nadim Ashi reports strong interest, with over 30% of units already under contract and closings expected by late 2026. He estimates the combined penthouses could fetch up to $120 million.

Ugo Colombo, chief executive officer of CMC Group, concluded: “Miami used to be a dark hole at night. The city’s evolved so much and Covid gave it its last push to become a luxury hub.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 04/27/2024 - 09:55
Categories: All, Non-Catholic, Political

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