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  1. Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
    0 sec ago
    S Paul loved his fellow Jews, his 'kinsmen' and believed "the gifts and call of God are irrevocable". He believed that at the End, those among them who had rejected Christ would be brought in to the chosen people. He believed that they were like olive branches which had been cut off so that the Gentiles, wild olive branches, could be grafted in. But, when the fulness of the Gentiles had entered Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com3
  2. Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
    0 sec ago
    Lex orandi lex credendi. I have been examining the Two Covenant Dogma: the fashionable error that God's First Covenant, with the Jews, is still fully and salvifically valid, so that the call to saving faith in Christ Jesus is not made to them. The 'New' Covenant, it is claimed, is now only for Gentiles. I want to draw attention at this point to the witness of the post-Conciliar Magisterium of theFr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com13
  3. Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
    0 sec ago
    We have seen that the Two Covenant Theory, the idea that Jewry alone is guaranteed Salvation without any need to convert to Christ, is repugnant to Scripture, to the Fathers, even to the post-Conciliar liturgy of the Catholic Church. It is also subversive of the basic grammar of the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. Throughout  two millennia, in Scripture, in Liturgy, in her Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com7
  4. Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
    0 sec ago
    The sort of people who would violently reject the points I am making are the sort of people who would not be impressed by the the Council of Florence. So I am going to confine myself to the Magisterium from the time of Pius XII ... since it is increasingly coming to be realised that the continuum of processes which we associate with the Conciliar and post-Conciliar period was already in operationFr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com0
  5. Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
    0 sec ago
    In 1980, addressing a Jewish gathering in Germany, B John Paul II said (I extract this from a long sentence): " ... dialogue; that is, the meeting between the people of the Old Covenant (never revoked by God, cf Romans 11:29) and that of the New Covenant, is at the same time ..." In 2013, Pope Francis, in the course of his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, also referred to the Old Fr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com10
  6. Site: Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment
    0 sec ago
    Since the Council, an idea has been spreading that Judaism is not superseded by the New Covenant of Jesus Christ; that Jews still have available to them the Covenant of the old Law, by which they can be saved. It is therefore unnecessary for them to turn to Christ; unnecessary for anybody to convert them to faith in Christ. Indeed, attempting to do so is an act of aggression not dissimilar to theFr John Hunwickehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17766211573399409633noreply@blogger.com11
  7. Site: Henrymakow.com
    0 sec ago
    gates-coupon.jpeg
    During a trip to Hong Kong, the billionaire duo decided to grab lunch at McDonald's. To Gates' amusement, when Buffett offered to pay, he pulled out a handful of coupons.
     


    Warren Buffett is a billionaire. He gets his meaning from making or saving a dime. Most of the super-rich suffer from spiritual poverty.




    Whether we are poor or rich, money holds us prisoner. The rich feel poor because of GREED. No matter how much they have, their identity ("feeling good, important, secure") was forged by a society dedicated to making and spending more money. 



    Money is supposed to free us from material concerns. Paradoxically it does the opposite. We become its prisoners.





    "Enough is a little more than one has."    Samuel Butler


    Updated from May 4, 2022 and Oct. 6 2023
    by Henry Makow PhD

     
    Few people take a rational approach to money. 

    This would involve calculating how much money they need in relation to how much money they have, and how much money they make.

    Rather, people tend to focus on their last 2%. Did their "net worth" increase or derease on a given day?

    Depending on their tax bracket, this may involve their last $100, $1000, $10,000, $10 million or $10 billion. They ignore their big bank balance or stock portfolio. They always feel poor. 

    Money is supposed to free us from material concerns. Paradoxically it does the opposite. We become its prisoners.

    We are satanically possessed. This means we identify with money rather than our Divine soul. We are money rather than God's personal representative on earth. The more money we have, the bigger and better we feel. These values are inculcated by our satanist-controlled mass media.

    I am addressing the roughly 50% of my readers who, according to my Gab poll, have enough or more money than they need. I don't fault the other 50% who don't have enough or are broke for feeling oppressed.

    henry-david-thoreau-wealth.jpg


    Paradoxically the rich suffer from a spiritual impoverishment.

    The more they identify with their money, the smaller they are. The more money they have, the smaller they are.

    In the case of the Illuminati bankers, this inner poverty is toxic. They are a cancer that threatens to destroy mankind.

    They want to "absorb" (their word) all the world's wealth leaving nothing to support humanity. They want it all!

    We're indoctrinated to seek money. Within limits, money is a great motivator and measure.

    I know someone who doesn't have to work. He works because he has nothing else to do, and it makes him feel productive and rewarded.

    Another friend is independently wealthy from investments. He retired a couple of years ago but is returning to his old profession out of sheer boredom.

    PERSONAL

    I am as satanically possessed as anyone. I have had a lifelong struggle with greed. At age 74, I am just starting to master this demon.

    Recently I did the calculation above and realized that I have more money than I'll ever spend.

    My spending habits were formed during eight years as a graduate student living on roughly $10,000 per year. I really don't need or care about material things.

    Paradoxically, this lack of concern for money did NOT stop me from developing a gambling addiction. When I didn't have much money, I didn't care about it. When I sold Scruples to Hasbro in 1986, I became a money manager and thought my game smarts would extend to the stock market. MISTAKE.

    Scruples had been a labor of love. I did it because It was a workshop on everyday morality.

    After my windfall, I became satanically possessed (i.e. GREED.)  If someone asked how I was, I said, "I'll ask my broker."  

    We have to be on guard constantly because the voice in our head often is the devil!

    Then another voice arises from our soul and says, "Cool it, you greedy moron."


    You gamble with money you'll never spend. More or Less. What is the point? You don't even know your balance.

    We have a Mexican cleaning woman who supports an extended family. I have never met a woman whose smile exudes such warmth.

    Surely, these human qualities represent our true riches.

    Money is the lowest common denominator. People today are consumed by money. They are charmless. 

    YouTube is packed full of "how I got rich" stories.

    While the world descends into Communist tyranny or faces a nuclear catastrophe,  they act like money will save them.

    For people who have enough, freedom lies in eschewing money. Just not caring about it.

    Can you do that?

  8. Site: Steyn Online
    0 sec ago
    The Gospel according to Mel...
  9. Site: Real Investment Advice
    36 min 22 sec ago
    Author: Lance Roberts

    One of the most interesting conundrums is the surging wealth gap in America. Despite two of the largest bull markets in history since 1980, most Americans struggle with making ends meet and are unprepared for retirement. Such a reality starkly differs from the belief that rising asset prices benefit the masses.

    For example, in a recent St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank analysis, total household wealth was $139.1 trillion, covering 131 million families. Of that total wealth, 74% was owned by just 13.2 million families, or roughly 10% of the population.

    Wealth Distribution

    Notably, this measure of wealth includes the equity of the family’s home. While home equity is essential, it is not readily spendable without taking on debt to extract the value. Therefore, Americans’ “liquid wealth” is far more unequally distributed. However, such is hard to fathom given the endless parade of media and social media influencers extolling the virtues of “building wealth through investing.”

    Interestingly, that survey came after the Government injected nearly $5 trillion into the economy, a massive surge in deficit spending, and the Fed’s $120 billion monthly injections doubled asset prices from the March 2020 lows. Unsurprisingly, in February, Fidelity published its latest analysis showing the number of retirement accounts with balances of more than $1 million surged toward a record. To wit:

    The number of seven-figure 401(k) accounts at Fidelity Investments jumped 20% in 2023’s final quarter to 422,000, marking a sharp recovery from the previous quarter’s 7.7% drop.

    Gains in the stock market helped swell retirement balances last year as the S&P 500 advanced 24% following 2022’s 19% decline. The impressive run was powered in large part by the so-called “Magnificent 7” stocks that now make up roughly 30% of the market-cap weighted S&P 500 Index. The only time when the ranks of 401(k) millionaires at Fidelity was higher was in 2021’s fourth quarter, when there were 442,000 such accounts. Elsewhere, the number of seven-figure IRAs is at a record 391,600 accounts.” – Bloomberg

    Fidelity 401k retirement plans

    However, that data obfuscates the stark wealth gap below the surface. While the “number of retirement millionaires” made headlines, an essential piece of the analysis was overlooked. Those 422,000 accounts comprised only a tiny fraction of Fidelity’s 27.2 million retirement accounts. How small of a fraction? About 1.6%. That number aligns with America’s Top 1% of equity ownership.

    Breakdown of current equity ownership

    But indeed, after two booming bull markets since 1980, most Americans would be well saved for retirement. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

    Average retirement savings

    So, what went wrong?

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    The 50% Problem

    The advice to build wealth is quite simplistic. Investment money into the financial market consistently over long periods. That’s it.

    Again, considering that most Americans alive today participated in either one or both of the most significant secular bull markets in history, the lack of wealth is quite appalling. If individuals had invested $1000 in 1980 into the S&P 500 index and added just $100 per month, they would have roughly $1.4 million in retirement savings today.

    Dollar cost average into S&P 500 market

    However, if it is so simple, why do most Americans have little or no savings?

    “One in 4 Americans have no retirement savings and those who are saving aren’t saving enough. Those that are [saving], on average, what they have saved will afford them like $1,000 a month of actual cash while they’re in retirement.”Price-Waterhouse Retirement In America.

    The report found that the median retirement account balance for 55-to-64-year-olds is $120,000. Dividing over 15 years would generate a modest monthly distribution of less than $1,000. The bigger problem is the large percentage of individuals with no retirement savings.

    Chart showing "Percent of Americans With No Retirement Savings."

    There are two primary reasons individuals do not save and invest for retirement. While psychological reasons account for 50% of the problem, such as buying high and selling low, the other 50% comes down to a lack of capital to invest.

    3 reasons for not investing

    We have previously written about the various psychological pitfalls investors make in destroying their investment capital. However, for many, it is a problem of being unable or unwilling to save money.

    1. Lack of knowledge about budgeting and saving. (15%)
    2. The cost of living exceeds income. (70%)
    3. Bad previous investing experience (bear market). (15%)

    If you ask anyone who doesn’t save money, you will likely get one of those three answers. It is hard to “save and invest” when there simply isn’t enough income.

    However, this is where the disconnect between the economic data and the “average American” is exposed.

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    Not Enough Income

    Most mainstream analysis utilizes “averages” to discuss the economy’s health. For example, disposable incomes (DPI), personal savings rates, and debt-to-income ratios suggest that the average American family is flush with cash with little debt. However, most of these calculations, like DPI (income minus taxes), are generalizations due to the variability of household income and individual tax rates.

    More importantly, the measure becomes skewed by the top 20% of income earners, notably the top 5%. The chart below shows those in the top 20% saw substantially larger median wage growth versus the bottom 80%. (Note: all data used below is from the Census Bureau and the IRS.). The cost of raising a family of four continues to increase with inflation, so the bottom 80% are forced to live paycheck-to-paycheck, primarily leaving no money for retirement savings.

    Reasons why Americans can't save money

    Furthermore, disposable and discretionary incomes are two very different animals.

    Discretionary income is the remainder of disposable income after paying for all mandatory spending like rent, food, utilities, health care premiums, insurance, etc. For the bottom 80% of income earners, the cost of living outstrips most of those individuals’ incomes. Debt must make up the difference.

    DPI of bottom 80% vs debt

    In other words, given the bulk of the wage gains are in the upper 20%, any data that reports an “average” of the information skews the results higher. This is why there is a vast difference between the debt service levels (per household) between the bottom 80% and the top 20%.

    Debt service ratio bottom 80%

    Yes, saving money and investing it into the financial markets is tough when you must go further into debt every month to make ends meet.

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    The Wealth Gap And The Road To Serfdom

    The rise and fall of stock prices has little to do with the average American’s participation in the domestic economy. Interest rates and inflation are entirely different matters. Since interest rates affect “payments,” and inflation increases the “costs of living,” changes negatively impact consumption, housing, and investment.

    Therefore, while the stock market surges to all-time highs, the wealth gap leaves increasing numbers of Americans behind. For the average American, it isn’t a choice of not wanting to participate; they simply can’t.

    Inflation adjusted household equity ownership

    The reality is that middle-class America continues to shrink as the wealth gap increases. The rich can invest, save, and use little debt to sustain living standards. People experiencing poverty rely on debt, making long-term prosperity an impossible goal.

    Furthermore, as the peasants demand “more free stuff” from the Government, such requires more debt and higher taxes. Those demands divert more capital away from productive investment, leading to slower economic growth. As growth slows, businesses shift to the lowest labor costs, or automation, to lower income growth for domestic workers. Such leads to more demands from “free stuff” from the Government, and the cycle intensifies, pushing more of the middle class downward.

    The share of annual incomes between the bottom 80% and the top 5% is evidence of that wealth transfer from the middle class.

    Share on income by bracket

    The “road to serfdom” is paved with good intentions. After decades of piling on increasing debt levels to generate economic growth, the damage to economic growth is becoming more visible. Economic growth trends are already falling short of previous long-term growth trends.

    GDP new New normal

    Of course, this analysis also underscores why bitter economic sentiment persists even as the bull market registers all-time highs. It is hard to be excited about a booming stock market when you don’t participate much, if at all.

    For 80% of Americans, the end game of too much debt, an aging demographic, and the push for “socialistic policies” is the continued extraction of wealth from the “middle class” to the “rich.”

    Of course, we don’t have to look much further than Japan to see how this eventually works out. They don’t have a middle class, either.

    The post Wealth Gap And The Road To Serfdom appeared first on RIA.

  10. Site: Mises Institute
    40 min 50 sec ago
    Author: Ryan McMaken
    In modern times, squatter's rights have little use beyond grinding an ideological axe or redistributing property to favored interest groups. It is time to end squatter's rights altogether.
  11. Site: AsiaNews.it
    55 min 50 sec ago
    Today's news: dozens dead in an Israeli raid near Damascus, while the Netanyahu government risks a crisis over the recruitment of the ultra-Orthodox; One of those arrested for the Krokus Hall massacre in Moscow attended the Fatikh mosque in Istanbul;Bangkok wants to legalise casinos;A Filipino in Pampanga gets himself crucified for the thirty-fifth time on Good Friday.
  12. Site: Craig Murray
    1 hour 2 min ago
    Author: craig

    The latest judgment by the High Court In the Assange case achieved completely the objectives Of the UK and US states. Above all, Julian remains in the hell which is Belmarsh maximum security prison. He is now safely there alone and incommunicado, from the authorities’ point of view, for at least several more months.

    Importantly, the United States has managed to keep him detained without securing his actual appearance in Washington . it is crucial to grasp that the CIA, who are very much controlling the process, do not actually want him to appear there until after their attempt to secure the re-election of Genocide Joe. No matter what your opinion of Donald Trump, there is no doubt the CIA conspired against him during his entire Presidency, beginning with the fake Russiagate scandal and ending with their cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story. They do not want Trump back.

    Biden is politically in deep trouble. Biden’s lifelong political support for Israel has been unwavering to the point of fanaticism. In the process he has collected millions of dollars from the Zionist lobby. That always seemed a source of political strength n the United States, not of weakness .

    The current genocide in Gaza has changed all those calculations . the sheer evil and viciousness of the Israeli state, the open and undisguised enthusiasm for racist massacre, has achieved the seemingly impossible task of turning much American public opinion against Israel .

    That is particularly true among key elements of the Democratic base. Young people and ethnic minorities have been shocked that the party they have supported is backing and supplying genocide. The mainstream media have lost control of the narrative, when the truth is so widely available on mobile phones, to the point that the MSM have actually been forced to change course and occasionally tell truths about Israel. That also was unthinkable a few months ago.

    Precisely the same groups who are outraged by Biden’s support for genocide are going to be alienated by the attack On a journalist and publisher for revealing true facts about war crimes. Assange is not currently a major public issue in the United States, because he is not currently in the United States. Were he to arrive there in chains the media coverage would be massive and the issue unavoidable in the presidential election campaign.

    The extradition proceeding has therefore had to be managed in such a way as to keep Assange locked in a living hell the whole time, without actually achieving the extradition until after the presidential election in November. As the years of hearings have rolled by this has become increasingly difficult for the British state to finesse on behalf of their American masters .

    In this respect, and only in this respect, Dame Victoria Sharp and Lord Justice Johnson have done brilliantly in their judgment .

    Senior British judges do not have to be told what to do. They are closely integrated into a small political establishment that is socially interlinked, defined by membership of institutions, and highly subject to groupthink.

    Dame Victoria Sharp’s brother Richard arranged an £800,000 personal loan for then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and subsequently became chairman of the BBC despite a complete lack of relevant experience. Lord Justice Johnson as a lawyer represented the intelligence services and the Ministry of Defence .

    They did not have to be told what to do in this case explicitly , although it was very plain that they entered the two day hearing process knowing nothing except a briefing they had been given that the crux of the case was the revelation of names of US informants in the Wikileaks material .

    The potential danger of an appeal, the granting of which would achieve the United States’ objective of putting the actual extradition back beyond the election date, was that it would allow the airing in public of a great catalogue of war crimes and other illegal activity which had been exposed by Wikileaks .

    Sharp and Johnson have obviated this danger by adjourning the decision with the possibility of granting an appeal, but only on extremely limited grounds. Those grounds would explicitly gag the defence from ever mentioning again in court inconvenient facts, such as United States war crimes such as murder, torture and extraordinary rendition, and such as the plans by the United States to kidnap or assassinate Julian Assange.

    All of those things are precluded by this judgment From ever being raised again in the extradition hearings. The politically damaging aspect of the case in terms of the Manning revelations and CIA behaviour has been cauterised in the UK .

    There has been some confusion because the judgment stated that three grounds of possible appeal were open. But in fact this was really only two. The judgment states that freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention is adequately covered by the First Amendment protections of the US Constitution. Therefore this point can only be argued by the defence against extradition if the First Amendment will not be applied in the case.

    The second ground of appeal which they stated may be allowed was discrimination by nationality, in that the prosecution has stated that as a foreign citizen who committed the alleged acts whilst outside of the United States, Julian may not have the protection of the First Amendment or indeed of any of the rights enshrined in the US Constitution

    So the first two grounds are in fact identical. Sharp and Johnson ruled that both would fall if an assurance Were received from the government of the United States that Julian Would not be denied a First Amendment defence on grounds of nationality.

    The other ground on which an appeal may be allowed to go forward is the lack of an assurance from the United States that, following additional charges, Julian may not become subject to the death penalty.

    I shall go on to analyse what happens now and the chances of success on any of these allowed appeal points, but I wish first to revisit the points which have not been allowed and which are now barred from ever being raised in these proceedings again .

    The most spectacular argument in the judgment, and one which I trust will become notorious in British legal history, refers to the application to bring in new evidence regarding the US authorities’ illegal spying on Julian and plotting to kidnap or assassinate him .

    There are any number of things in this case over five years which are so perverse that they have to be witnessed to be believed, but none has risen to this height and it would be a struggle for anybody to come up with anything in British legal history more brazen than this.

    Judge Johnson and Judge Sharp accept that there is evidence to the required standard that the US authorities did plot to kidnap and consider assassinating Julian Assange: but they reason at para 210 that as extradition is now going to be granted there is no longer any need for the United States to kidnap or assassinate Julian Assange and therefore the argument falls.

    It does not seem to occur to them that a willingness to consider extrajudicial violent action against Julian Assange amounts to a degree of persecution which obviously reflects on his chances of a fair trial and treatment in the United States. it is simply astonishing, but the evidence of the US plot to destroy Julian Assange, including evidence from the ongoing criminal investigation in Spain into the private security company involved, will never again be allowed to be mentioned in Julian’s case against extradition .

    Similarly, we are at the end of the line for arguing that the treaty under which Julian is being extradited forbids extradition for political offence. The judgment confirms boldly that treaty obligations entered into by the United Kingdom are not binding in domestic law and confer no individual rights .

    Of over 150 extradition treaties entered into by the United Kingdom, all but two ban extradition for political offences. The judgment is absolutely clear that those clauses are redundant in every single one of those treaties.

    Every dictatorship on Earth can now come after political dissidents in the UK and they will not have the protection of those clauses against political extradition in the treaties. That is absolutely plain on the face of this ruling .

    The judgment also specifically rejects the idea that the UK court has to consider rights under the European Convention of Human Rights in considering an extradition application. They state that in the United States, as in other Category 2 countries in terms of the Extradition Act 2003, those rights can be presumed to be protected at trial by the legislation of the country seeking extradition.

    That argument abdicating responsibility for application of the ECHR is one that is not likely to be accepted if this case ever gets to Strasbourg (but see below on the possibility of that happening).

    By refusing to hear the freedom of expression argument, the court is ruling out listening to the war crimes exposed by the material published and hearing that the publication of state level crime is protected speech. That entire argument is now blocked off in future hearings and there will be no more mention of US war crimes.

    The judges accept, hook line and sinker, the tendentious argument that Julian is not being charged with the publication of all of the material but only with those documents within the material which reveal the name of US informants and sources. As I reported at the time, this was plainly the one “fact” with which the judges had been briefed before the hearing.

    That it is a legitimate exercise to remove entirely from consideration the context of the totality of what was revealed in terms of state crimes, and to cherry pick a tiny portion of the release, is by no means clear: but their approach is in any event fatally flawed by a complete non sequitur.

    At para 45 they argue that none of the material revealing criminal behaviour by the United States is being charged, only material Which reveals names. Their argument depends upon an assumption that the material revealing names of informants or sources does not also also reveal any criminal behaviour by the United States. That assumption is completely and demonstrably false.

    Let us now turn to the grounds on which a right to appeal is provisionally allowed, but may be cancelled in the event of sufficient diplomatic assurances being received from the United States.

    To start with the death penalty , which has understandably drawn the most headlines. It astonishes me, as this argument has been in play now for several months, that the United States has not provided the simple assurance against imposition of the death penalty which is absolutely bog standard in many extradition proceedings.

    There is no controversy about it and it is really quick and easy to do. it is a template: you just fill in the details and whiz off the diplomatic note. It takes 5 minutes.

    I do not believe the Biden administration is failing to provide the assurance against the death penalty because they wish to execute Julian Assange. They do not need to execute him. They can entomb him in a tiny concrete cell, living a totally solitary existence in a living hell. Arguably, he is more value alive that way as a terrible warning to other journalists, rather than an executed martyr.

    I view the failure so far to produce a guarantee against the death penalty as the clearest evidence that the Biden administration is trying simply to kick this back past the election. By not providing the assurance, already they have achieved a delay of another few weeks which they have been given to provide the assurance, and then further time until the hearing on 20 May to discuss whether assurances produced have been adequate. Not giving the death penalty assurance is simply a stalling tactic, and I am sure they will go right up to the deadline given by the court and then provide it.

    The second assurance requested by the court is actually much more interesting. They have requested an assurance that Julian Assange will be able to plead a First Amendment defence on freedom of expression and will not be prevented from doing so on the grounds of his Australian nationality.

    The problem which the United States faces is that it is the federal judge who will decide whether or not Julian is entitled to plead that his freedom of speech is protected by the First Amendment. Neither the Department of Justice nor the State Department can bind the judge by an assurance .

    The problem was flagged up By the US prosecutor in this case who stated that it is open to the prosecution to argue that as a foreign national, operating abroad as Julian did, does not have First Amendment rights. It is extremely important To understand why this was said .

    The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are deemed not to have any constitutional rights, despite being under the power of the US authorities, because they were non US citizens acting abroad.

    A key US Supreme Court judgment in the case of USAID versus Open Society stated unequivocally that non US Citizens acting abroad do not have First Amendment protection. At first sight that decision appears to have little relevance. It concerns foreign charities in receipt of US aid funds which, as a condition of aid, were not allowed to say anything against sex work. They attempted to claim this was in breach of First Amendment rights but the Supreme Court ruled that as foreigners acting abroad they did not have any such rights.

    While that may appear of limited relevance, referring to NGOs not individuals, there is a paragraph in the Open Society judgment which states as a rationale that were First Amendment rights to be granted to those NGOS they would also have to be granted to foreigners with whom the US military and intelligence services were in contact – ie the Guantanamo problem.

    This paragraph of the Supreme Court ruling appears inescapable in the Assange case:

    Julian was a foreign national operating abroad when the Wikileaks material was published. So I do not see how the United States can simply give an assurance on this point and indeed it seems to me very likely that Julian would indeed be denied First Amendment rights at trial in the United States.

    The sensible solution would of course be that as a non US citizen publishing material outside the United States, Julian should not be subject to US jurisdiction at all. But that will not be adopted .

    So I anticipate the United States will produce an assurance which tries to fudge this. They will probably give an assurance that the prosecutor will not attempt to argue that Julian has no First Amendment rights. But that cannot prevent the judge from ruling that he does not, especially as there is a Supreme Court judgement to rely on.

    In May when we come to the hearing on the permitted points of appeal, it is vital to understand that there will be two parts to the argument. The first part will be to consider whether the assurances received by diplomatic note from the United States are sufficient for the grounds of appeal to fall completely.

    However if it is decided that the assurances from the United States are insufficient, that does not automatically mean that the appeal succeeds. It just means that the appeal is heard. The court will then decide whether the death penalty or nationality discrimination points are strong enough to stop the extradition.

    The absence of the death penalty assurance should end the extradition process. But the hearing would see the prosecution argue that it is not necessary as there are no capital charges currently and none are likely to be added. The judges could go with this given the undisguised bias towards the United States throughout.

    The state will again kick in with its iron resolve to crush Julian. I don’t think that the United States will be able, for the reasons I have given, to provide assurances on the nationality and First Amendment rights, but I think the court will nontheless order extradition.

    The United States will argue that it is a free country with a fair trial system and independent judges and that Julian will be allowed to make the argument in court that he should have First Amendment rights. The UK court should accept that the US judge will come to a fair decision which protects all human rights considerations. They will say that it is perfectly reasonable and normal for states to treat citizens and foreign nationals abroad in different ways in different contexts, including consular protection.

    A justice system which is capable of ruling that a person should be handed over to his attempted kidnapper, because then the kidnapper does not have to kidnap him, and ruling that the clauses of the very treaty under which somebody is being extradited do not apply, is capable of accepting that the ability to argue in court for a First Amendment defence is sufficient, even if that defence is likely to be denied.

    There is however plenty of meat in those questions that would allow another adjourned hearing, another long delay for a judgment and plenty of leeway to get past the November election for Genocide Joe.

    The British establishment continues to move inexorably towards ordering Julian’s extradition at the time of its choosing. Once extradition is ordered Julian in theory has an opportunity to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights .

    The European Court of Human Rights can delay the extradition until it hears the case by a section 39 order. But there are two flaws : firstly the extradition may be carried out immediately upon the court judgement before a section 39 order can be obtained, which would take at least 48 hours . Secondly the Rwanda Safety Act has provision, though specifically in the Rwanda context, for the government to ignore section 39 orders from the ECHR.

    it cannot be ruled out that the British government would simply extradite Julian even In face of an ECHR hearing . That would be popular with the Conservative base, and given Starmer’s extremely extensive and dubious role in the Assange saga while Director of Public Prosecutions, I certainly do not put it past him either. It is worth noting that there have been several occasions in recent years when the Home Office has deported people despite British court orders putting a stay on the deportation. There has never been any consequence other than a verbal wrap on the knuckles for the Secretary of State from the court.

    So the struggle goes on. It is a fight for freedom of speech, it is a fight for freedom of the press and above all it is a fight for the right of you and me to know the crimes that our governments commit, in our name and with our money.

    I am ever more struck by the fact that in fighting for Julian I am fighting exactly the same power structures and adversaries who are behind the genocide in Gaza.

    I need to close with an appeal. Please do not stop reading . You will recall that I recently addressed the UN Human Rights Committe on Julian’s case and in doing so had the opportunity to state a few hard truths about the war crimes of the United States .

    My opportunity to do so was organised by the Swiss NGO Justice For All international, who submitted a shadow report (open link and click on red icon) by their lawyers to the UN 7 year Periodic Review of the UK’s human rights record. Justice for all also carried out a great deal of lobbying activity in connection with this to get me onto that stage and into meetings with key officials.

    I had agreed a fee to pay Justice for All For this legal and lobbying activity in the expectation that it would be met From the substantial funds held by the bodies comprising the Julian Assange campaign.

    Unfortunately the Assange campaign has refused to meet the bill and I have been left holding it.

    I have been told that I failed to follow correct procedures to apply for the spending. I am frankly in shock and a form of grief, because I thought we were friends working for a common cause, in my own case for free. I am reminded of the brilliant perception of Eric Hoffer: “Every great cause begins as a movement and becomes a business”.

    I am left with this bill I cannot pay for the work at the UN. Justice for All could not have been nicer about the situation, but if you could contribute to this Justice for All crowdfunder, I should be very grateful.
    ————————————————

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    The post The Assange Hearing Permission Appeal Judgment: Mad and Bad. appeared first on Craig Murray.

  13. Site: Zero Hedge
    1 hour 55 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Watch: Russian Su-35 Jet Reportedly Shot Down Over Crimea

    A Russian military fighter jet has crashed into the Black Sea near Sevastopol, Crimea on Thursday, the region's Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev has confirmed.

    The announcement came after several social media videos surfaced showing what appears to be a Russian Su-35 aircraft falling from the sky in a large fireball. Many observers are speculating that the advanced Russian aircraft was shot down.

    ⚡️Russian Su-35 jet shot down over Sevastopol, Crimea pic.twitter.com/sGOXZ7SlZ5

    — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) March 28, 2024

    Russian Telegram channels are also widely reporting the Su-35 crash. However, so far Crimean officials are merely ambiguously describing that it "crashed" and have not verified a shoot-down.

    "A military plane crashed into the sea…No civilian objects were hurt. The pilot ejected… his life is not in danger," the governor posted to Telegram.

    While it would be unusual for a Russian fighter to be intercepted by Ukrainian weapons over Crimea - given Sevastopol is so far from the battlefield - there is a possibility Ukraine might be behind the intercept.

    Several videos from multiple angles have emerged showing the jet falling rapidly while on fire...

    More video of a fighter jet crashing over Sevostopol

    According to Ukrainian media, it could be a Russian Su-35 4th generation fighter jet. According to unconfirmed information, the military plane could allegedly have been shot down by Russian air defense systems. pic.twitter.com/blylMZ996y

    — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 28, 2024

    Throughout the war Crimea has come under frequent Ukraine attack, including with drones and medium to long-range missiles.

    There are reports that earlier on Thursday local authorities in Sevastopol suspended maritime traffic, likely due to threat of new drone attacks. But some analysts have claimed it was a friendly fire incident - that the fighter may have been engaged by Russia's own anti-air defenses.

    Russian Air Force twin-engine Sukhoi Su-35 Flanker, via Shutterstock

    Each Russian Su-35 jet costs an estimated $85 million. Russia has lost several aircraft throughout the conflict, including at least two or three large military transport planes.

    Tyler Durden Fri, 03/29/2024 - 03:45
  14. Site: Zero Hedge
    2 hours 40 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    India Won't Let Germany, The US, Nor Anyone Else Meddle In Its Internal Affairs

    Via Andrew Korybko's Substack,

    The emerging information warfare narrative being pushed by the West via Germany and the US right now is that India’s upcoming elections might be flawed.

    India’s External Affairs Ministry summoned the US’ Acting Deputy Chief of Mission for a 40-minute meeting after State Department meddled in their country’s internal affairs by stating that “We encourage a fair, transparent, and timely legal process for Chief Minister Kejriwal.” The Chief Minister of Delhi was arrested over corruption claims last week ahead of India’s upcoming six-week-long elections, after which the Germany became the first to involve itself in this issue via a statement from its Foreign Ministry.

    Its remarks were along the lines of the ones that America later made, thus leading to the External Affairs Ministry summoning its Deputy Chief of Mission for a tongue lashing. The fact that the US still issued the statement that it did despite knowing what India’s reaction would be can be interpreted as a political provocation aimed at meddling in its affairs. The emerging information warfare narrative being pushed by the West via Germany and the US right now is that India’s upcoming elections might be flawed.

    Kejriwal is known as a vocal critic of the ruling BJP so some have speculated that the case against him is politically motivated and a means of intimidating the opposition ahead of the upcoming elections. There’s no basis to that claim but it nevertheless served as the pretext for those two countries to meddle in India’s affairs through their similar statements implying that he might not receive a fair trial. The larger context in which the US is involving itself in this affair concerns its newly troubled ties with India.

    The preceding hyperlinked analyses touch upon the Justice Department’s charges against an unnamed Indian official in late November who’s accused of conspiring to assassinate a Delhi-designated terrorist-separatist with dual American citizenship on US soil last summer. The Anglosphere teamed up against India on this issue but it wasn’t until Monday that a non-Western country, notably China, chimed in to offer its input on this case.

    Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian was asked about it by a journalist from Dragon TV, to which he responded that “We hope relevant countries will earnestly observe international law and the basic norms governing international relations.” While his reaction might seem perfunctory to many, it was interpreted by some in India as meddling, with a few also claiming that it confirms previously speculated ties between China and Delhi-designated terrorist-separatist Sikhs.

    The optics of Germany, the US, and even China commenting on India’s internal affairs, the first two of whom did so about the Kejriwal case without being prompted and while the third shared their thoughts about the terrorist-separatist one in response to a question, is that foreign pressure is being ramped up ahead of the upcoming six-week-long elections that’ll run from 19 April-1 June. Accordingly, India couldn’t let German and US meddling go on with impunity, especially since they’re fellow democracies.

    They know better than to involve themselves in India’s internal affairs yet still did so anyhow with the intent of discrediting its electoral process, which is driven by their dislike of Prime Minister Modi’s conservative-nationalist domestic policies and his truly multipolar foreign policy. Under his leadership, India has partnered with the liberal-globalist West like never before, but it won’t compromise on its sovereignty. That’s a problem for this bloc, however, hence why it wants to pressure him on any grounds.

    Looking forward, India isn’t expected to escalate the situation by involving itself in Germany or the US’ internal affairs, though patriotic members of its society – including those in the media and think tanks – might become more critical of those two and the West in general in response to their meddling. Under no circumstances will India let anyone interfere with its domestic processes, let alone discredit its electoral ones by innuendo, so hopefully the West learns this lesson and ceases its troubling behavior.

    Tyler Durden Fri, 03/29/2024 - 03:00
  15. Site: Taylor Marshall
    4 hours 50 min ago
    Author: Daniel K

    Taylor and His Children Talk Holy Week and Easter

    Get the 2024 Traditional Catholic Wall Calendar here: https://store.taylormarshall.com/prod…

    Get Dr. Taylor Marshall’s new book on St Nicholas here: https://amzn.to/4ahcxaF

    Watch this new podcast episode by clicking here:

    If the audio player does not show up in your email or browser, please click here to listen.

    The post 1072: Taylor and His Daughters Talk Holy Week and Easter [Podcast] appeared first on Taylor Marshall.

  16. Site: The Catholic Thing
    5 hours 36 min ago
    Author: Karen Popp

    I see his blood upon the rose
    And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
    His body gleams amid eternal snows,
    His tears fall from the skies.

    I see his face in every flower;
    The thunder and the singing of the birds
    Are but his voice – and carven by his power
    Rocks are his written words.

    All pathways by his feet are worn,
    His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
    His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
    His cross is every tree.

    The post I See His Blood Upon the Rose appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

  17. Site: The Catholic Thing
    5 hours 37 min ago
    Author: Karen Popp

    Austria, France, and Italy have all issued warnings of potential terrorist threats to Europe by ISIS following the group’s Moscow concert hall attack that killed 139 people. The French government increased the country’s security alert to its highest level, which means more soldiers will be put on standby and ready to patrol sensitive sites, including schools. Says Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, “During the Easter holidays you will need to be very careful. We will always do the utmost to ensure the safety of citizens and tourists.”
     

    The post European governments issue Easter terror warnings appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

  18. Site: The Catholic Thing
    5 hours 37 min ago
    Author: Karen Popp

    Arguably, the Enlightenment gave precedence to the abstract, and withdrew it from the concrete. That vicious assault on the human soul, known as “liberal education,” is the dry wharks of that heritage. God is effaced, we can no longer be in His image. Our race is reduced to animals — to roadkill in the passage of time.
     

     

     

    The post Concrete appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

  19. Site: The Catholic Thing
    5 hours 37 min ago
    Author: Karen Popp

    On Tuesday, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, who has lent his name in the past to several products, added a new item to the list: a $60 Bible. Mr. Trump posted a video on his social media platform in which he encouraged his supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible,” named after the ballad by the country singer Lee Greenwood, which Mr. Trump plays as he takes the stage at his rallies.

     

     

    The post Donald Trump: Bible salesman appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

  20. Site: The Catholic Thing
    5 hours 37 min ago
    Author: Karen Popp

    Easter faith and the optic on reality it creates suggests that the burden of proof lies with those who imagine that everything from the Eagle Nebula to the mysterious workings of human cognition and human altruism is just accidental.
     

     

    The post Easter, creation, and holiness appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

  21. Site: The Catholic Thing
    5 hours 39 min ago
    Author: Michael Pakaluk

    St. Joseph at the Foot of the Cross

    Michael Pakaluk

    In graveyards you have seen ensembles of statues representing the Crucifixion, with Mary standing at the foot of the Cross on one side, and St. John on the other. And many paintings represent the same scene. It seems intended by the Spirit that we contemplate the Crucifixion in this way.

    Now, we know that Mary in that scene is undergoing a kind of passive or vicarious crucifixion, in which we too are invited to share. She is as if God’s instrument for viewing the Crucifixion.

    We know, too, that St. John represents the keenness and quickness of holy purity in attaining to the Lord, his innocence as if a mirror of the innocence of the Lamb. St. John also stands for you and me, because when Our Lord gave his mother to St. John (“Woman, behold your son,” John 19:26), we know that Jesus was giving her not simply to him but also to all of us.

    The Lamentation of Christ by Simon Marmion, ca. 1473 [The MET, New York]

    Therefore, although everyone had fled – and this is how Divine Providence works – Our Lord in His deepest suffering was not without succor, not without His friends. We abandoned Him: we might justly have been, from that time forth, excluded. But in His mercy, He so arranges the scene of His suffering and death that we are there nonetheless – in such a way that it remains in our power, with the greatest naturalness, to return there, and be there, to contemplate his Passion, simply whenever we wish. We now enjoy the great gift: of belonging there.

    But if Mary is there with Him at the foot of the Cross, and really, the whole Church in her person and in the person of St. John, then, is St. Joseph not also there? I mean, not merely as one of us, but rather as the one whom “God made as if the father of the King and steward of the whole household.”

    It seems incredible that he would not be there. Two figures are traditionally placed at the foot of the Cross in the ensemble: one a man and the other a woman. One might squint one’s eyes and imagine, vaguely and generally, that a husband and wife were looking on and encouraging their son, as if in a contest. Yet the father is missing: he has passed. Is that man there, who indeed is a “son,” also some kind of stand-in for him?

    Do not get me wrong: I do not think that St. Joseph was at that time in Heaven. Therefore, he could not have been at the foot of the Cross in the way a saint can be present to us in a particular place, by way of apparition or even by distinct communication.

    I agree, rather, with what seems to be the sententia communis among saints and doctors: They held that, although St. Joseph, like Mary, is now body and soul in Heaven, nevertheless, he did not attain this honor through as great a privilege as Mary’s. His body was not assumed into Heaven at the point of his passing. Nor did he attain to Heaven, like Enoch or Elijah, prior to the saving Passion, by the retrospective application of the merit of that great act of salvation.

    Rather, I believe (as is the common opinion) that St. Joseph was one of those holy men who rose from their graves after the Passion. (Matthew 23:52) His body and soul went to Heaven, but only after the Passion.

    That he was assumed afterwards into Heaven would explain why there is no grave nor any relics of St. Joseph, and not even any legends of relics. He was in “the Hades of the righteous,” a kind of limbo, awaiting liberation at the time of the Passion.  (Indeed, we can personalize Our Lord’s “descent into Hell” and regard it as including the intimate goal of rescuing his foster father.)

    St. Joseph, then, could not have been present at the foot of the Cross in the manner of a saint. But there is something else – call it “intentional presence.” Readers who have lost a child or a spouse will know exactly what I am talking about. What is left is like a hole in the heart, which is actually never filled, and which we never want to be filled. (The absence is not incompatible, indeed, with happiness, but in the midst of happiness it remains as a testament to love – like the wounds of a martyr.)

    People out of sentimentalism confuse “intentional presence” with supernatural life in Heaven. They feel that, if they still dwell on a deceased loved one, then that loved one must be in Heaven and present to them in the manner of a saint. Mustn’t their love have a living object, to whom they are as present, as this person is to them?

    But this is a false inference. Only God’s love makes it so that a person enjoys beatitude. (Matthew 22:32) The presence of a loved one to living persons, in intention, is rather meant to lead them, in faith, to pray for that person’s soul.

    My point is that the many, immediate “canonizations” we see of loved ones at funerals – or the claims of victorious athletes that “Dad was watching and cheering me on” – these, although not well-grounded, are testimonies to the reality and power of what I am calling the “intentional presence” of a deceased loved one.

    But we can set it down, as a rule of Christian inference, that if something belongs to human nature, then it belongs more intensely and to a higher degree to Mary and to Our Lord in His human nature.  The bond that Mary had to Joseph was greater, not less, than what a devoted Christian wife has to her husband.  The human bond that Jesus had to Joseph was greater, not less, than what any devoted son has to a beloved father.  Joseph’s intentional presence to them, the hole left in their hearts, would have been far greater than what we experience.

    He had to have been there, then, one might say, in his absence not in his presence.  He was there because they loved him and never ceased missing him. And just as mothers see one brother in another, or a son in a father, or a father in a son, when Jesus gave St. John to Mary, he invited her also to see St. Joseph in him, standing beside her, at the foot of the Cross.  And if we go to Joseph, we can see him there too.

     

    Good Friday Stigmata

    Fr. Raymond J. de Souza

    Good Friday in St. Peter’s Basilica always has a Franciscan dimension.

    The homily is not given by the Holy Father, but by the preacher to the papal household, by custom the only one permitted to preach to the pope. The office dates to the Counter Reformation (1555), when it was thought necessary to have someone to inspire (harangue?) the Roman Curia to personal and ecclesial reform. Since 1753, the office has been entrusted exclusively to Capuchin friars.

    The current papal preacher, Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, will deliver his 45th Good Friday sermon this year. His first was in 1980, upon his appointment by St. John Paul II. Reappointed by both Benedict XVI and Francis, he will turn 90 this year. In 2020, Francis made him a Cardinal (non-voting and not a bishop) in honor of his exemplary service. A collection of his Good Friday sermons was issued recently by Word on Fire, The Power of the Cross: Good Friday Sermons from the Papal Preacher.

    The Franciscans are marking a series of octocentenaries in these years: 800 years since the approval of the Rule (1223), the first nativity scene at Greccio (1223), the stigmata of St. Francis (1224), and the death of il Poverello (1226). The stigmata are a fitting subject for meditation on Good Friday. St. Francis received the stigmata near the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th), which is to Good Friday what Corpus Christi is to Holy Thursday. From now until then, more attention will be paid to the significance of the stigmata.

    St. Francis is held to be the first to receive the stigmata, physical wounds – painful and sometimes bleeding – of the Crucifixion of Jesus. There have been dozens of stigmatists since, the large majority of them female mystics. The two most famous are Francis and Padre Pio.

    Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto, c.1297-1299 [Louvre, Paris]

    The word comes from St. Paul, “I bear on my body the marks (stigmata) of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17). Other translations use “brand marks,” suggestive of a cattle brand. The sacred wounds of Christ are our Christian brand.

    Over the centuries there has been speculation about whether Paul the Apostle had the stigmata. Paul writes elsewhere of filling up “in my flesh” (Colossians 1:24) sufferings, but traditionally neither verse has been interpreted to mean the physical stigmata.

    The Collect from the Franciscan Mass for the Feast of the Stigmata (September 17th) explains the spiritual meaning of the painful gift given to St. Francis:

    Lord Jesus Christ, who reproduced in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, the sacred marks of your own sufferings, so that in a world grown cold our hearts might be filled with burning love of you, graciously enable us by his merits and prayers to bear the cross without faltering and to bring forth worthy fruits of penitence.

    Why did Providence appoint St. Francis to receive the stigmata first? Perhaps it was his literalism; he began by repairing the fabric of the church of San Damiano when he heard the Lord speak to him: “Repair my church.” It would seem right that Francis would then imitate Christ Crucified in a physical way. Perhaps the reference to the “fruits of penitence” captures the reason, for Francis undertook formidable penances.

    Cardinal Cantalamessa explained the importance of penance to Francis in his 1983 Good Friday sermon. How long has Cantalamessa been preaching? That year he referred to the 800th anniversary of Francis’ birth. In two years, will be the 800th of his death!

    “On November 11, 1215, Pope Innocent III opened the Fourth Lateran Council,” preached Cantalamessa. “The pope insisted above all on the moral reform of the Church, and especially the reform of the clergy, a theme close to his heart. In fact, Innocent, as old as he was, said that he wanted to go throughout the entire Church – like the man clothed in linen with a writing case at his side of whom Ezekiel spoke – to mark the penitential Tau on the foreheads of those who, like him, sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in the Church and in the world.”

    The prophet Ezekiel spoke of going “throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” (Ezekiel 9:4) Innocent spoke of this “mark” as a “Tau,” the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet written in Greek (Τ), to look like a Cross.

    Cantalamessa notes the tradition that Francis of Assisi himself was in the Lateran Basilica that day, listening to Innocent.

    “Whether the tradition is historical or not, it is certain that Francis knew the pope’s ardent desire and made it his own,” Cantalamessa continues. “From that day on, his preaching about penance and conversion intensified. He began to mark the sign of the Tau on the foreheads of those who were sincerely converted to Christ. The Tau, the prophetic sign of Christs cross, became Francis’s seal with which he signed his letters and marked the doors of his friars’ cells.”

    The biographical picture of Cardinal Cantalamessa on his website shows him in a chasuble marked by the Tau.

    So devoted was Francis to the sign of the Cross (Tau), that St. Bonaventure would write, “He was given the mission from heaven to call men to sign and groan and shave their heads and put on sackcloth and ashes and imprint the sign of the Tau, the penitential cross, on the foreheads of all those that sigh and groan.” (Legenda Maior, 2)

    The Sign of the Cross – the sign of Good Friday – is the most Catholic of all gestures. We trace the shape of the Latin “t” rather than the Tau, but the meaning is the same. And if the Christian is to be a sign of the Cross, does not Francis, that most literal-minded of saints, lead the way? He did not trace the sign of the Cross upon himself, but rather God traced the actual wounds of the Cross upon his flesh.

    The Christian vocation to be “another Christ” was lived to such an extent by Francis that the very term alter Christus was applied to him early on. The stigmata were a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality witnessed by many.

    We live in an age of “brands” for products, celebrities, politicians. There are two great brands in the world – the bitten Apple and the Cross, the Fall and the Redemption. Christians put the latter in their churches, offices, schools, homes. Francis had it inscribed in his body.

    We adore Thee O Christ and we praise Thee;
    Because by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

    You may also enjoy:

    St. Joseph: Food for Thought Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas

    The Empty Tomb or No Tomb? John M. Grondelski

     

    The post St. Joseph, St. Francis, and the Cross appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

  22. Site: AntiWar.com
    5 hours 39 min ago
    Author: Jonathan Cook

    The interminable and abhorrent saga of Julian Assange’s incarceration for the crime of journalism continues. And once again, the headline news is a lie, one designed both to buy our passivity and to buy more time for the British and US establishments to keep the Wikileaks founder permanently disappeared from view. The Guardian – which … Continue reading "Assange’s ‘Reprieve’ Is Another Lie, Hiding the Real Goal of Keeping Him Endlessly Locked Up"

    The post Assange’s ‘Reprieve’ Is Another Lie, Hiding the Real Goal of Keeping Him Endlessly Locked Up appeared first on Antiwar.com.

  23. Site: AntiWar.com
    5 hours 40 min ago
    Author: Julia Gledhill

    It’s true that no nuclear weapon has been used (except in tests) since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to end World War II. And yes, we now know that, were there to be a nuclear confrontation on this planet (think: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 without the … Continue reading "Failure as the Pentagon’s Ultimate Success Story"

    The post Failure as the Pentagon’s Ultimate Success Story appeared first on Antiwar.com.

  24. Site: AntiWar.com
    5 hours 40 min ago
    Author: Sheldon Richman

    This is America, last I checked. Surely, the government would not force the sale of a social-media company or ban its app from the Google and Apple stores. Would it? Well, yes, it would,  could (perhaps), and might. A bill in Congress, backed by the government’s nominal chief executive, could become law. The House of … Continue reading "Leave TikTok Alone"

    The post Leave TikTok Alone appeared first on Antiwar.com.

  25. Site: Zero Hedge
    5 hours 55 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    What's Wrong With America's 'Elites'?

    Authored by Laura Hollis via The Epoch Times,

    It is becoming increasingly clear that some of America’s most serious problems can be traced back to our colleges and universities - or at least the ones educating the country’s most powerful people.

    The Vietnam War era aside, it has traditionally been uncommon for events at universities to make national headlines. Absent something extraordinary, like a president giving a commencement address, a dramatic scientific breakthrough or the award of a prominent international prize to faculty, headlines with university names in them have tended to relate more to national championships in sports.

    Not anymore.

    Over the past few years, news items about events on college campuses have come to dominate headlines. The subjects are some of the country’s most fabled institutions. And the stories are often negative, if not outright shocking.

    Last December, the congressional testimony of three university presidents—Claudine Gay from Harvard University, Elizabeth Magill from the University of Pennsylvania, and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology—set off a firestorm. Under questioning by Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) about anti-Semitic speech and conduct on their campuses, the three women dodged and deflected, unwilling to state definitively that calls for the genocide of Jews violated university policies and codes of conduct.

    The response was swift. Within days, Magill resigned. Gay survived the initial maelstrom, but the bad publicity prompted critics to start digging through her professional past, and she resigned less than a month later, following accusations of plagiarism in her research publications. Some of the nation’s largest donors to these universities—many of them Jewish—began announcing that they would cease or pull back donations totaling in the tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars.

    The chaos on campuses has only increased since, with pro-Palestine protests and marches at dozens of colleges and universities, and horrific rhetoric bumping up against speech codes and demands for free speech. Across the country, Jewish students describe themselves as “living in a climate of hatred and fear” amid dramatic increases in anti-Semitic conduct, threats, slurs, and actual violence.

    This week, Stanford University sophomore Theo Baker published “The War at Stanford” in The Atlantic, in which he describes how the Israel-Hamas war has affected his campus. One Arab American graduate student told Baker that he thinks President Joe Biden “should be killed” and that Hamas should rule America. Pro-Palestine protesters set up sit-in “camps” for months and shouted for the destruction of Israel, chanting, “We don’t want no two-state; we want all of ’48!” Guest speakers brought in to facilitate campus discussion of the complex issues have been shouted down. Stanford employees have been threatened (“We know where you live!”), the interim president’s home has been vandalized, and his effigy was carried around campus covered in fake blood. The administration, Baker says, seems paralyzed, indecisive and defeated.

    This isn’t an isolated incident at Stanford, and the Israel-Hamas war hasn’t caused it. Last March—months before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel—Stanford Law School students shut down a talk being given by federal judge Kyle Duncan, shouting at him every time he attempted to speak or engage the audience, screaming epithets and holding up signs with vulgar accusations and calls for violence against Duncan’s daughters.

    Similar behavior has been displayed at other schools, having nothing to do with claims of colonialism in the Middle East.

    Swimmer and activist Riley Gaines was cornered and forced to hide in a classroom at San Francisco State University last year, prevented from giving her talk about limiting participation in women’s sports to biological women.

    In 2017, author Charles Murray’s scheduled talk at Middlebury College was interrupted by a mob that later physically attacked him and his faculty host Allison Stanger. Stanger’s hair was pulled so hard by a protester that she suffered a concussion.

    The poisonous rhetoric, intolerance, and violence is just the tip of the iceberg.

    In an interview with The Daily Signal podcast host Rob Bluey last week, national pollster Scott Rasmussen described what he called “the most terrifying poll result I’ve ever seen.” A recent Rasmussen poll asked Americans “to suppose there was an election and it was close but your candidate lost. And if their campaign team knew they could win by cheating and not get caught, would you want them to do so?”

    According to Rasmussen, only 7 percent of American voters overall said they’d rather cheat to win. But among the group that he calls “the elite,” that number jumped to 35 percent. Among the “politically obsessed elite” (those who “talk politics daily”), it was a staggering 69 percent!

    So who are these “elite”?

    Rasmussen explains that they are the top 1 percent of the population. They make more than $150,000 a year. They live in densely populated urban areas. They have not only college but postgraduate degrees. And large numbers of them “went to one of 12 elite schools.”

    He doesn’t name them, but we can hazard a pretty good guess which schools they are.

    “The reason I bring that up,” he continues, “is about half the policy positions in government, half the corporate board positions in America, are held by people who went to one of these dozen schools.” And, he says, they also shape “the mainstream media narrative.”

    Not only does this group think it’s acceptable to cheat to win an election, but 70 percent believe there is too much individual freedom in the United States, and an equal number trusts the government—which, of course, they control. “They really believe,” Rasmussen says, “that if they could just make the decisions and get us out of the way, we would be a lot better off.”

    What’s going on at our most prestigious and exclusive universities? How have they produced generations of amoral, condescending authoritarians? And how do we put a stop to it?

    Those are questions Americans need answers to.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 23:45
  26. Site: Real Jew News
    6 hours 13 min ago
    Author: Brother Nathanael

    Saving Time With Brother Nathanael
    March 28 2024

    ___________________________________
    More Vids!
    +BN Vids Archive! HERE!
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    Support The Brother Nathanael Foundation!
    Br Nathanael Fnd Is Tax Exempt/EIN 27-2983459

    Secure Donation Form

    Or Send Your Contribution To:
    The Brother Nathanael Foundation, POB 547, Priest River, ID 83856
    E-mail: brothernathanaelfoundation([at])yahoo[dot]com
    Scroll Down For Comments

  27. Site: Zero Hedge
    6 hours 20 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    In Historic Reversal, US To Restart A Shut Down Nuclear Power Plant For The First Time Ever

    Is the long awaited - and overdue - restart of the American nuclear age finally here?

    In a move which may force the lunatic greens to storm the White House, on Wednesday the federal government announced that it would provide a $1.5 billion loan to restart a nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan. NJ-based Holtec International acquired the 800-megawatt Palisades plant in 2022 with plans to dismantle it, but with support from the state of Michigan and the Biden administration, the emphasis has shifted to restarting the nuclear power plant by late 2025 instead. 

    What is remarkable is not that the US is throwing some money at a nuclear power plant - since the US sells $1 trillion in debt every 100 days, it may as well go full "Brewster's Millions" (or rather "Trillions") and spend it all asap; it is that this would be the first nuclear power plant to be reopened in the US, setting a precedent as atomic energy makes a triumphal comeback. Sure, it still faces hurdles, including inspections, testing and the blessing of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but those are just formalities: watch as new NPPs start springing up across the country next.

    “Nuclear power is our single largest source of carbon-free electricity, directly supporting 100,000 jobs across the country and hundreds of thousands more indirectly,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, who in turn is repeating what nuclear advocates have been saying for decades. Restarting this particular plant will protect 600 union jobs and 1,100 throughout the community.

    The Palisades plant is along Lake Michigan, a two-hour drive from Chicago. A Michigan utility, CMS Energy, owned it from 1971 until the plant was sold to Louisiana-based utility Entergy in 2007. It was shut down in 2022.

    Holtec said it has long-term commitments so far from two electric cooperatives to buy power from the plant.

    “The repowering of Palisades will restore safe, around-the-clock generation to hundreds of thousands of households, businesses and manufacturers,” said Kris Singh, Holtec president and chief executive.

    Critics, of course, have emerged. A coalition of "greens" opposed to restarting what it derisively calls a “zombie reactor” has requested a hearing at the NRC.

    Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said it will take four to five months to finalize the financial deal with the government.

    “It is a loan we have to pay back,” he said, explaining that unlike US taxpayer funds embezzled by Ukraine's corrupt leaders and the US Military-Industrial Complex, this particular loan will be tracked and eventually repaid.

    Nuclear energy is in the spotlight. Thirty-four countries, including the U.S., last week pledged to use it to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. In California, regulators in December said the Diablo Canyon plant could operate through 2030 instead of 2025 to guard against blackouts as the state shifts toward renewable power sources. Owner Pacific Gas & Electric said federal aid helped it repay a state loan.

    “There is more enthusiasm toward nuclear power — in Congress, in the industry and also internationally,” said Najmedin Meshkati, an engineering professor at the University of Southern California who has inspected nuclear plants around the world.

    There is another reason why nuclear energy is suddenly back in vogue: with projections for electricity demand over the next five years doubling from just a year ago -  due to a building frenzy of AI data centers, federally subsidized manufacturing plants, and the government-driven electric-vehicle transition -  the US has no choice but to go full-on nuclear, despite the howls of outrage from green activists and progressive voters.

    Still, restarting a plant is not easy.

    “It puts the onus and burden on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Holtec to double down on efforts to make sure this plant is safe enough and all the safety measures are intact,” Meshkati said of Palisades.

    Meanwhile, keep an eye on uranium stocks and more importantly, on the price of uranium itself: as the nuclear renaissance begins in earnest, the world will need lots of uranium, and the supply chains will need years to catch up to demand, which means that what has already been one of the best performing commodities in recent years is set to rise that much higher.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 23:20
  28. Site: Zero Hedge
    6 hours 45 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Israel May Cut Off Palestinian Banks From Global Banking System Next Week

    Via Middle East Eye

    Palestinian banks could be cut off from the Israeli banking system starting next week following a decision by Israel’s finance minister to cease dealings between the two financial institutions, according to a report on Thursday by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has two days to convene a cabinet meeting to discuss reversing plans by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to isolate Palestinian banks from both the Israeli and international banking systems.

    Bank of Palestine ATM, via Associated Press

    The Palestinian economy is based on the Israeli currency, the shekel, making it reliant on ties to Israel and its financial dealings with the rest of the world must go through the Bank of Israel and Israeli banks.

    Earlier this month, the hardline minister Smotrich threatened to paralyze the Palestinian Authority's economy in response to the United States imposing sanctions on four West Bank extremist settlers accused of violence against Palestinians. 

    Israeli banks have heeded the sanctions despite calls by Smotrich not to comply. Two Israeli banks, Israel Discount Bank and Bank Hapoalim, currently maintain the connections of Palestinian banks with the banking system in Israel and globally

    To protect them from lawsuits involving the Palestinian Authority for "transferring funds to terror groups", the Israeli government has been issuing a waiver of protection for the two banks on an annual basis, signed by the finance minister. 

    Smotrich is now refusing to renew the arrangement, which has been in place for years.  Without this protection, the PA will be stripped of immunity and the Israeli banks will be exposed to lawsuits and are expected to cut ties with Palestinian banks.

    The consequences of isolating the PA from the financial world and Israel’s economy would significantly paralyze the Palestinian economy. 

    Any Israeli company that has business relations with the PA will no longer be able to deposit Palestinian cheques or receive payments from Palestinian banks, according to Haaretz.  Even Palestinian workers, who must only receive their wages in a bank deposit according to a 2022 agreement between Palestinian and Israeli authorities, will not be able to continue receiving wages in Israel, unless they are made in cash.

    Other areas that would be affected by Smotrich’s move include Palestinian export and import operations, which go through Israeli ports, and Palestinian tax funds, which are collected by Israel.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 22:55
  29. Site: Novus Motus Liturgicus
    7 hours 10 min ago
    Compared to other ancient liturgies, the Roman Rite is unusual in treating the Mass of Maundy Thursday as a feast of the Lord, vesting the clergy in white, and saying the Gloria in excelsis and the Creed. It is far more unusual in not reading one of the Synoptic accounts of the Lord’s Supper as the Gospel, but rather John 13, 1-15, the washing of the disciples’ feet. In the Ambrosian Rite, for Gregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0
  30. Site: Zero Hedge
    7 hours 35 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    US Breaks Oil Price Ceiling Of $79 In Latest SPR Purchase

    By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

    The latest crude oil purchase that the Department of Energy made as part of refill plans for the strategic petroleum reserve cost an average of over $81 per barrel, exceeding the $79 ceiling set by the federal government.

    Per an Argus report, the DoE declined to comment on why it had bought the oil despite the higher price hinting at more news to come later today.

    Back in 2022, to arrest an inexorable climb in retail fuel prices, the White House announced a release of 180 million barrels of crude oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. Critics warned the move would have a limited effect on prices but compromise the energy security of the country by reducing the level of crude in the SPR.

    The final amount of oil released from the SPR ended up exceeding 180 million barrels with the DoE pledging to replenish the reserve in a timely fashion but only when prices were favorable. The SPR is currently close to a 40-year low as a result of the massive release.

    The replenishing effort has been going on slowly, with three million barrels bought there and another three bought here as the very news of a planned purchase led to an uptick in prices.

    WTI is $73 now https://t.co/lqzYBr9S9Q

    — Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) November 16, 2023

    This forced the department to update the price range, at which it would be buying, raising the top end from $72 per barrel last year to $79 per barrel. Yet oil prices have been on a climb recently and WTI broke the $80-yer-barrel threshold earlier this month.

    As of March 22, the SPR stood at 363 million barrels of crude, Argus reported, citing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm as saying that it should be back to normal by the end of the year. This, however, will not be a result of the replenishment effort but of the cancellation of 140 million barrels in previously planned SPR sales for the period to 2031.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 22:05
  31. Site: Zero Hedge
    8 hours 50 sec ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    If Americans Just Ate Healthy & Exercised, Then Politicians Wouldn't Be Clamoring About $1,000 Weight Loss Drugs "Bankrupting" Medicare

    If the food-industrial complex had not flooded the nation's food supply with junk, if the government actively encouraged healthy lifestyles, and if efforts to address the obesity crisis didn't rely solely on 'miracle weight loss drugs' pushed by the pharmaceutical industry, then maybe - just maybe - politicians wouldn't be clamoring on Capitol Hill, or the elderly (somewhat senile) president in the White House, about out-of-control drug prices.

    But since common sense has vanished in America and folks have given up on Peloton bikes for $1,000 monthly injections of "Wegovy," the blockbuster weight loss treatment (also a diabetes drug called "Ozempic") from Novo Nordisk, then socialists, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), wouldn't be reviving the discussion about high drug prices. 

    "Today, a new Yale study found that Ozempic costs less than $5 a month to manufacture. And yet, Novo Nordisk charges Americans nearly $1,000 a month for this drug, while the same exact product can be purchased for just $155 a month in Canada and just $59 in Germany," Sanders said in a statement.

    Sanders cited the study "Estimated Sustainable Cost-Based Prices for Diabetes Medicines," conducted by researchers at Yale University, King's College Hospital in London, and the nonprofit Doctors Without Borders. It was published in the journal JAMA Network Open on Wednesday. 

    In the study, researchers found Novo could produce the blockbuster drug for 89 cents to $4.73 per month, as opposed to the monthly retail price of about $1,349 for Wegovy, a semaglutide injection. 

    "As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), I am calling on Novo Nordisk to lower the list price of Ozempic — and the related drug Wegovy — in America to no more than what they charge for this drug in Canada," Sander said. 

    He added: "The American people are sick and tired of paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits."

    Sanders warned: "This outrageously high price has the potential to bankrupt Medicare, the American people and our entire health care system.

    There is no rational reason, other than greed, for Novo Nordisk to charge Americans nearly $1,000 a month for Ozempic when it costs less than $5 to manufacture it and can be purchased in Germany for just $59. Novo must substantially reduce the price of Ozempic in the US now. pic.twitter.com/rdyF5MCQbX

    — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 27, 2024

    Analysts have forecasted that the market for weight-loss drugs could reach at least $100 billion a year by the end of the decade, with the production of Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro. And a decent chunk of the weight loss drugs will likely be covered by Medicare. 

    "The profit margin is immense" on weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Melissa Barber, a public health economist at Yale and the study's lead author, told Bloomberg. She added, "There should be a conversation in policy about what is a fair price."

    Rounding back to the intro of this note, Americans should eat better and exercise. Then, we don't have to rely on the pharmaceutical-industrial complex. What's odd is the government does not promote 'common sense' healthy lifestyles. Why is that? Are their donors pharma companies?

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 21:40
  32. Site: Novus Ordo Watch
    8 hours 17 min ago
    Author: admin

    False pope again preaches mercy without repentance…

    Francis to Women Prisoners: Christ Forgave Judas!

    While professional Novus Ordo apologists like Jimmy Akin and Steve Kellmeyer try to persuade people that one can ‘hope’ for Judas Iscariot’s salvation, the Argentinian apostate Jorge Bergoglio — otherwise known as ‘Pope Francis’ — has already moved beyond that idea and has now indicated that Judas was in fact forgiven by Jesus Christ.

    He made this claim during a mini homily he gave during the ‘Mass of the Lord’s Supper’ (video here) at the Women’s Prison in Rebibbia, Italy. As the Vatican has not yet released an official English translation, we will use DeepL to translate directly from the Italian:

    At this moment of the supper, two episodes attract our attention.

    READ MORE
  33. Site: Novus Ordo Wire – Novus Ordo Watch
    8 hours 17 min ago
    Author: admin

    False pope again preaches mercy without repentance…

    Francis to Women Prisoners: Christ Forgave Judas!

    While professional Novus Ordo apologists like Jimmy Akin and Steve Kellmeyer try to persuade people that one can ‘hope’ for Judas Iscariot’s salvation, the Argentinian apostate Jorge Bergoglio — otherwise known as ‘Pope Francis’ — has already moved beyond that idea and has now indicated that Judas was in fact forgiven by Jesus Christ.

    He made this claim during a mini homily he gave during the ‘Mass of the Lord’s Supper’ (video here) at the Women’s Prison in Rebibbia, Italy. As the Vatican has not yet released an official English translation, we will use DeepL to translate directly from the Italian:

    At this moment of the supper, two episodes attract our attention.

    READ MORE
  34. Site: Zero Hedge
    8 hours 25 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Creating "Good" AGI That Won't Kill Us All: Crypto's Artificial Superintelligence Alliance

    Authored by Andrew Fenton via CoinTelegraph.com,

    SingularityNET and the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance aim to wrest control of AGI away from Big Tech...

    After a year of increasingly dire warnings about the imminent demise of humanity at the hands of superintelligent artificial intelligence (AI), Magazine is in Panama at the Beneficial AGI Conference to hear the other side of the story.

    Attendees include an eclectic mix of transhumanists, crypto folk, sci-fi authors including David Brin, futurists and academics.  

    We’re at the conference run by SingularityNET, a key member of the proposed new Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, to find out what happens if everything goes right with creating artificial general intelligence (AGI) — human-level, artificial general intelligence.

    But how do we bring about that future, rather than the scenario in which Skynet goes rogue and kills us all?

    One of the best insights into why those questions are so important comes from futurist Jose Luis Cordeiro, author of The Death of Death, who believes humanity will cure all diseases and aging thanks to AGI.

    He tells Magazine of some sage wisdom that Arthur C. Clarke, the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, once told him.  

    He said: ‘We have to be positive about the future because the images of the future — of what’s possible — begin with our minds. If we think we will self-destroy, most likely we will. But if we think that we will survive, [that] we will move into a better world [then we] will work toward that and we will achieve it.’ So it begins in our minds.”

    Janet Adams, CEO of SingularityNET, warms the conference up with some yoga. (Fenton)

    Beneficial AGI: The quest for artificial general intelligence 

    Humans are hardwired to focus more on the existential threats from AGI than on the benefits.

    Evolutionary speaking, it’s better that our species worries nine times too often that the wind rustling in the bushes could be a tiger than it is to be blithely unconcerned about the rustling and get eaten by a tiger on the 10th occurrence.

    Even the doomers don’t put a high percentage chance of AGI killing us all, with a survey of almost 3000 AI researchers suggesting the chance of an extremely bad outcome ranges from around 5% to 10%. So while that’s worryingly high, the odds are still in our favor.

    Opening the conference, SingularityNET founder and the “Father of AGI,” Dr. Ben Goertzel, paid tribute to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s concept of defensive accelerationism. That’s the midpoint between the effective accelerationism techno-optimists and their “move fast and break things” ethos, and the decelerationists, who want to slow down or halt the galloping pace of AI development.

    Goertzel believes that deceleration is impossible but concedes there’s a small chance things could go horribly wrong with AGI. So he’s in favor of pursuing AGI while being mindful of the potential dangers. Like many in the AI/crypto field, he believes the solution is open-sourcing the technology and decentralizing the hardware and governance. 

    Dr Ben Goertzel on keyboards with his surprisingly good robot-fronted band. (Fenton)

    What is the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance?

    This week SingularityNET announced it has teamed up with the decentralized multi-agent platform FetchAI — founded by DeepMind veteran Humayun Sheikh — and the data exchange platform Ocean Protocol to form the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI).

    It will be the largest open-sourced independent player in AI research and development and has proposed merging SingularityNET, FetchAI and Ocean Protocol’s existing tokens into a new one called ASI. It would have a fully diluted market cap of around $7.5 billion — subject to approval votes over the next two weeks. The three platforms would continue to operate as separate entities under the guidance of Goertzel, with Sheikh as chair.

    According to the Alliance, the aim is to “create a powerful compelling alternative to Big Tech’s control over AI development, use and monetization” by creating decentralized AI infrastructure at scale and accelerating investment into blockchain-based AGI.

    What are the benefits of AGI?

    Probably the most obvious beneficial impact is AGI’s potential to analyze huge swathes of data to help solve many of our most difficult scientific, environmental, social and medical issues.

    We’ve already seen some amazing medical breakthroughs, with MIT researchers using AI models to evaluate tens of thousands of potential chemical compounds and discovered the first new class of antibiotics in 60 years, one that’s effective against the hitherto drug-resistant MRSA bacteria. It’s the sort of scaling up of research that’s almost impossible for humans to achieve.

    And that’s all before we get to the immortality and mind-uploading stuff that the transhumanists get very excited about but which weirds most people out.  

    This ability to analyze great swathes of data also suggests the technology will be able to give early warnings of pandemics, natural disasters and environmental issues. AI and AGI also have the potential to free humans from drudgery and repetitive work, from coding to customer service help desks.

    While this will cause a massive upheaval to the workforce, the invention of washing machines and Amazon’s online businesses had big impacts on particular occupations. The hope is that a bunch of new jobs will be created instead.

    Economic professor Robin Hanson says this has happened over the past two decades, even though people were very concerned at the turn of the century that automation would replace workers.  

    Hanson’s study of the data on how automation impacted wages and employment across various industries between 1999 and 2019 found that despite big changes, most people still had jobs and were paid pretty much the same.

    “On average, there wasn’t a net effect on wages or jobs in automation of U.S. jobs from 1999 to 2018,” he says.

    SingularityNET CEO Janet Adams and Sergey Shalyapin, the platform’s chief technology officer. (Fenton)

    AGI could make better decisions than we can: SingularityNET CEO Janet Adams

    Janet Adams, the optimistic CEO of SingularityNET, explains that AGI has the potential to be “extraordinarily positive for all humanity.”

    “I see a future in which our future AGIs are making decisions which are more ethical than the decisions which humans make. And they can do that because they don’t have emotions or jealousy or greed or hidden agendas,” she says.

    Adams points out that 25,000 people die every day from hunger, even as people in rich countries throw away mountains of food. It’s a problem that could be solved by “intelligent allocation of resources across the planet,” she says. 

    But Adams warns AGI needs to be trained on data sets reflecting the entire world’s population and not just the top 1% so that when they make decisions, “they won’t make them just for the benefit of the powerful few, they will make them for the benefit of the broader civilization, broader humanity.”

    AI safety and ethics: Addressing the concerns

    Anyone who watched the early utopian dreams of a decentralized internet crumble into a corporate ad-filled landscape of addictive design and engagement farming may have doubts this rosy future is possible.

    Building high-end AI requires a mountain of computing and other resources that are currently out of reach of all but a handful of the usual suspects: Nvidia, Google, Meta and Microsoft. So the default assumption is that one of these tech giants will end up controlling AGI.

    Goertzel, a long-haired hippy who plays in a surprisingly good band fronted by a robot, wants to challenge that assumption. 

    Goertzel points out that the default assumption used to be that companies like IBM would win the computing industry and Yahoo would win search.

    A tattered copy of The Prometheus Project. (Source: Internet Archive)

    “The reason these things change is because people were concretely fighting to change it in each instance,” he says. “Instead, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the Google guys came along.”

    The founder of SingularityNET, he’s been thinking about the Singularity (a theoretical moment when technological development increases exponentially) since the early 1970s when he read an early book on the subject called The Prometheus Project

    He’s been working on AGI for much of the time since then, popularizing the term AGI and launching the OpenCog AI framework in 2008.

    Adams says Goertzel is a key reason SingularityNET has a credible shot.

    “We are the biggest not-for-profit, crypto-funded AI science and research team on the planet,” Adams says, noting their competitors have been focused on “narrow AIs” like ChatGPT and are only now shifting their strategy to AGI.

    “They’re years behind us,” she says. “We have three decades of research with Dr. Ben Goertzel in neural symbolic methods.”

    But she adds that opening up the platform to any and all developers around the world and rewarding them for their contribution will give it the edge even over the mega-corporations who currently dominate the space.

    “Because we have a powerful vision and a powerful commitment to building the most advanced, most intelligent AGI in a democratic way, it’s hard to imagine that Big Tech or any other player could come in and compete, particularly when you’re up against open source.”

    “[We will] see a potentially huge influx of people developing on the SingularityNET marketplace and the continued escalation of pace toward AGI. There’s a good chance it will be us.”

    HyperCycle CEO Toufi Saliba (Fenton)

    Decentralized AI: Opening the door to open source development 

    The Prometheus Project proposed that AI was such an earth-shattering development that everyone in the world should get a democratic vote on its development.

    So when blockchain emerged, it seemed like implementing decentralized infrastructure and token-based governance for AI was the next most practical alternative.

    HyperCycle CEO Toufi Saliba tells Magazine this mitigates the threat of a centralized company or authoritarian country gaining immense power from developing AGI first, which would be “the worst thing that ever happened to humanity.”

    It’s not the only potential solution to the problem. Meta chief AI scientist Yan Le Cun is a big proponent of open-sourcing AI models and letting a thousand flowers bloom, while X owner Elon Musk recently open-sourced the model for Grok.

    But blockchain is arguably a big step up. SingularityNET aims to network the technology around the world, with different components controlled by different communities, thereby spreading the risk of any single company, group or government controlling the AGI.

    “So you could use these infrastructures to implement decentralized deep neural networks, you could use them to implement a huge logic engine, you can use them to implement an artificial life approach where you have a simulated ecosystem and a bunch of little artificial animals interacting and trying to evolve toward intelligence,” explains Goertzel.

    I want to foster creative contributions from everywhere, and it may be some, you know, 12-year-old genius from Tajikistan comes up with a new artificial life innovation that provides a breakthrough to AGI.”

    It’s possible the fate of the world may rest in this man’s hands. (Fenton)

    What is HyperCycle? What is OpenCog Hyperon?

    HyperCycle is a ledgerless blockchain that’s fast enough to allow AI components to communicate, coordinate and transact to finality in under 300 milliseconds. The idea is to give AIs a way to call on the resources of other AIs, paid for via microtransactions.

    For now, the fledgling network is being used for small-scale applications, like an AI app calling on another AI service to help complete a task. But in time, as the network scales, it’s theoretically possible that AGI might be an emergent property of the various AI components working together in a sort of distributed brain. 

    “So, in that approach, the entire world has a much higher chance to get to AGI as a single entity,” Saliba says.

    Goertzel didn’t develop HyperCycle for that reason — he just needed something miles faster than existing blockchains to enable AIs to work together.  

    The project he’s most excited about is OpenCog Hyperon, which launches in alpha this month. It “combines together deep neural nets, logic engines, evolutionary learning and other AI paradigms in the same software framework, for updating the same extremely decentralized Knowledge Graph.”

    The idea is to throw open the doors to anyone who wants to work on it in the hope they can improve the METTA AGI programming language so it can scale up massively. “We will have the complete toolset for building the baby AGI,” he says. “To get something I would want to call it baby AGI we will need that million times speed up of the METTA interpreter,” he says.

    “My own best guess is that Opencog Hyperon may be the system to make the [AGI] breakthrough.”

    AI governance: The role of voting systems 

    Of course, decentralization does not ensure things will go right with AGI. As Goertzel points out, the government of Somalia was decentralized very widely in the 1990s under a bunch of warlords and militias, but it would have been preferable at the time to live under the centralized government of Finland.

    Furthermore, token-based governance is a long way from being fit for prime time. In projects like Uniswap and Maker, large holders like a16z and the core team have so many tokens it’s almost not worth anyone else voting. Many other decentralized autonomous organizations are wracked by politics and infighting.

    The surging price of crypto/AI projects has attracted a bunch of token speculators. Are these really the people we want to put in control of AGI?

    Goertzel argues that while blockchain projects are currently primarily attractive to people interested in making money, that will change as the use case evolves. 

    “If we roll out the world’s smartest AI on decentralized networks, you will get a lot of other people involved who are not primarily oriented toward financial speculation. And then it’ll be a different culture.”

    But if the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance does achieve AGI, wouldn’t its tokens be ludicrously expensive and out of reach of those primarily interested in beneficial AGI?

    As Goertzel has told Magazine previously, our chances of controlling AGI after a certain point are slim. (Fenton)

    Goetzel suggests that perhaps a weighted voting system that prioritizes those who have contributed to the project may be required:

    “I think for guiding the mind of the AGI, we want to roll out a fairly sophisticated, decentralized reputation system and have something closer to one person, one vote, but where people who have some track record of contributing to the AI network and making some sense, get a higher weighting.”

     

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 21:15
  35. Site: Zero Hedge
    8 hours 50 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Chinese Ex-Trade Minister Who Backed Trump Warns US That 'Dismantling' Global Trade Is Blowing Back On Ordinary Americans

    President Joe Biden in late February said "unprecedented action" is being taken in response to an emerging scenario where "China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security." He said at the time, "China is determined to dominate the future of the auto market, including by using unfair practice."

    This is but one leading example of what Beijing has complained about as being hardline moves of Washington targeting Chinese goods and thus eroding the very free trade system it once led the world in establishing. This week China's former vice minister of foreign trade, Long Yongtuwho once expressed hope that Trump would get reelected as he's "easy to read"reflected on the past few years of changes since the Trump administration.

    He spoke of Washington-driven efforts which are resulting in rising protectionism and supply chain decoupling at an event ahead of the opening of the Boao Forum for Asia. His talk emphasized that ultimately Washington's anti-China trajectory is hurting ordinary Americans as Chinese companies scramble to buy up land in Mexico as a necessary alternative to being able to do business directly in the US. 

    Long Yongtu, former Chinese vice minister for trade, via Xinhua

    "These Chinese companies could have continued to make goods in China for America at reasonable prices, but now they have to bear the extra costs of migrating to Mexico, and US consumers are grappling with more expensive goods," Long explained, citing a seven-fold increase in Chinese investors purchasing land in Mexican industrial parks going back to 2019.

    "It is the globalized economic and trade systems that are at stake, they were built by the US and the West after World War II, but now the US is dismantling the system," he continued.

    The 81-year old Long, it must be remembered, served as China's lead negotiator during its 15-year talks to join the World Trade Organization over twenty years ago, which happened in 2001. During his fresh comments, Long said, "The WTO has been marginalized, and I think the most urgent task today is how countries can work together to strengthen the function of the WTO and carry out some necessary reforms."

    A flurry of both US and international reports over the past couple years have amply demonstrated and documented the trend, replete with stories like the following in Economic Times:

    Bill Chan had never set foot anywhere in Mexico, let alone the lonely stretch of desert in the north of the country where he abruptly decided to build a $300 million factory. But that seemed a trifling detail amid the pressure to adapt to a swiftly changing global economy.

    It was January 2022, and Chan’s company, Man Wah Furniture Manufacturing, was confronting grave challenges in moving sofas from its factories in China to customers in the United States. Shipping prices were skyrocketing. Washington and Beijing were locked in a fierce trade war.

    Man Wah, one of China’s largest furniture companies, was eager to make its products on the North American side of the Pacific. “Our main market is the United States,” said Chan, CEO of Man Wah’s Mexico subsidiary. “We don’t want to lose that market.”

    That same objective explains why scores of major Chinese companies are investing aggressively in Mexico, taking advantage of an expansive North American trade deal. Tracing a path forged by Japanese and South Korean companies, Chinese firms are establishing factories that allow them to label their goods “Made in Mexico,” then trucking their products into the United States duty-free.

    There are not just economic but potential geopolitical ramifications of the trend. If China is sweeping up vast property in Mexico for production, it raises questions over the extent to which in some cases Chinese government-affiliated companies could be 'on America's doorstep' in greater numbers. This would have serious ramifications in any future hot conflict scenario, for example in a new Taiwan crisis.

    China's development creates opportunities for the rest of the world rather than poses threats, said Long Yongtu, former chief of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) in south China's Hainan Province on Wednesday.https://t.co/OjBZ6XJgc5 pic.twitter.com/m3kGU1rZ55

    — CCTV+ (@CCTV_Plus) March 28, 2024

    Long in his Tuesday comments at the Boao Forum urged that "ordinary Americans should be better informed on the manifold benefits of free trade, and that discussions should return to the realm of common sense and the proven and objective laws of economics and trade." He also declared that China's global reach represents "opportunity" and should not be seen in the West as a "threat" - a common refrain of Beijing.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 20:50
  36. Site: Zero Hedge
    9 hours 15 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    On The Brink Of A Dramatic Change: The Digitalization Of Money

    Authored by Efrat Fenigson via Bitcoin Magazine,

    The current state of Central Bank Digital Currency Projects globally summarized by Efrat Enigson, independent journalist and host of the "You're The Voice" podcast...

    “What underpins a world order is always the financial system.

    We are on the brink of a dramatic change where we are about to, and I'll say this boldly, abandon the traditional system of money and accounting and introduce a new one. And the new one is what we call blockchain.

    It means digital. It means having an almost perfect record of every single transaction that happens in the economy, which will give us far greater clarity over what's going on. It also raises huge dangers in terms of the balance of power between states and citizens. In my opinion, we're going to need a digital constitution of human rights if we're going to have digital money.

    Most people think that digital money is crypto and private, but what I see are superpowers introducing digital currency. The Chinese were the first. The US is on the brink of moving in the same direction. The Europeans have committed to that as well.”

    This revolutionary speech about a new financial system, was delivered at the World Government Summit in March 2022 in Dubai, by Philippa "Pippa" Malmgren, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Chatham House; her father, Harald Malmgren served as a senior advisor to US Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and others. She’s a technology entrepreneur and economist, who served as Special Assistant to President George W. Bush, for Economic Policy on the National Economic Council and is a former member of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets and Corporate Governance.

    Her words about the transition to a new world order that requires a new financial structure correspond well with the words of French President Emmanuel Macron in June 2023 at the Global Finance Summit in Paris: "The world needs a public financial shock to fight global warming, and the current system is not suitable for dealing with the world's challenges." The president of Brazil, Lula da Silva, also called for "a clean slate" and said the Bretton Woods organizations (World Bank, International Monetary Fund) do not serve their goals nor respond to society's needs.

    The Summit for a New Global Financing Pact. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/PR

    “THE NEW BRETTON WOODS MOMENT”

    “A new international monetary system is taking shape, some call it the new Bretton Woods moment that needs to be seized to create a new global financial governance,” says the investigative journalist Whitney Webb in a recent sitdown interview, where she mention that according to Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England & Bank of Canada and the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance, the three pillars of the new multi-polar world are Digital IDs, CBDCs and ESG, through a global carbon market. All world governments are pushing this agenda, that in order for it to succeed, all monetary systems and supporting systems must become digital and rely on digital data.
    A good example of this was revealed at an event of the Central Bank of Israel with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) – which I attended – in September 2023 in Tel Aviv, where the “Genesis Project” was presented. As part of this project, "green" bonds are issued, based on carbon quotas in the CBDC infrastructure. This is how the climate agenda is linked to financial markets.

    “DEBT SERFDOM”

    “Stablecoins could be the way in which the US is further globalizing the dollar, spreading its adoption directly to the world’s general public in order to continue increasing its debt and encourage uptake and usage of the dollar”, says Mark Goodwin, Editor in Chief of Bitcoin Magazine, in this interview with Whitney Webb. He suggests that the politician’s outcry of de-dollarization and the weakening of the dollar are a distraction from perpetuating the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
    “While CBDCs are what people are becoming fearful and aware of, it may just be the red herring, and the real strategy of the US dollar's survival is highly regulated stablecoins (such as Tether), which can easily be programmable, even more than CBDCs, as well as seized, regulated and controlled indirectly by governments. 100 billion dollars in treasuries were already purchased by Tether, its subsidiaries and owners. Tether is positioned alongside the top 20 nation states buying debt from the US, with around one tenth of China or Japan that have a trillion dollars debt to the US”.

    Whitney Webb & Mark Goodwin. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC9dJYqDZ9c

    This theory, together with the words of Mark Carney, Pippa Malmgren, Emmanuel Macron & Lula Da Silva, join the calls of global leaders and heads of states, pointing to the replacement of the monetary and financial world order, to introduce a new monetary system. Many experts say that we are reaching the end of the current fiat monetary system experiment, which is destined to collapse. Since world leaders are aware of this, they prefer to engineer a controlled demolition, to maintain control and steer the course, and enter the new era with power firmly within their grasp.

    CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY SYSTEM (CBDC)

    Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), tie the financial freedom of citizens to the government and the banking establishment. The central bank issues its centralized digital currencies, and essentially creates a new monetary system, "fiat on steroids", a system that takes everything that is bad in the fiat system, and adds more of it; surveillance, control, censorship, and enforcement capabilities. A modern prison? Indeed, the CBDC is the ultimate prototype of a prison without physical chains. By connecting CBDCs to digital identity cards, and to government systems such as universal basic income, social credits and more, we get the ultimate control apparatus. This apparatus will dictate to citizens what they’re allowed to purchase, what the permitted quotas are while limiting consumption according to rules and use cases, at programmed times, places and cadences. The system is able to determine the use of a geographic radius (geo-fencing), and to determine expiration dates on the money. Each remote controlled digital wallet can also be switched on and off by its operators. More than 130 countries are in the initial stages of piloting CBDC systems, of which 36 countries are in advanced pilots, and 3 countries have already launched systems (Nigeria, Jamaica and the Bahamas).

    WILL RIPPLE (XRP) BE THE CHOSEN PLATFORM FOR CBDC?

    Ripple, a digital payment network and transaction protocol that owns the cryptocurrency XRP, is considered one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, and is strategically positioning itself at the heart of government financial innovation, aiming to be the cornerstone of future CBDCs.

    The company is in talks with about twenty governments around the world to develop their CBDCs using Ripple's technology. In May 2023, Ripple launched a dedicated CBDC platform to assist central banks, governments and financial institutions around the world in issuing CBDCs and stablecoins. To date, Ripple has partnered with six governments for CBDC pilot projects: Georgia, ColombiaMontenegro, Hong Kong, Bhutan and the Republic of Palau.

    The National Bank of Georgia, for example, has chosen Ripple as its technology partner for its CBDC pilot last year, citing Ripple's technical expertise and team capabilities. Its interest in CBDCs is in leveraging modern technologies, such as the programmability aspect of CBDCs, aiming to create a platform with smart contract and programmable token capabilities to stimulate innovation in the financial sector.

    In the case of Bhutan, Ripple’s technology was chosen in 2021 for the country’s CBDC project to enable advanced cross-border payments, and assist in “financial inclusion” - in line with Bhutan’s mission to increase financial inclusion in Bhutan to 85% by 2023.

    In 2022, Ripple reached the final stage of the G20 Techsprint CBDC Hackathon, hosted by Indonesia and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), and in August 2023, the Republic of Palau launched a USD-backed digital currency, developed by Ripple.

    Promoting its platform as an infrastructure for a CBDC, Ripple advocates for government regulation of cryptocurrencies, and tries to position itself as the preferred solution for CBDC projects. Its claim to fame of being the ideal CBDC partner for governments is the combination of speed, efficiency, a sustainable and "green" blockchain network that uses little energy (compared to the Bitcoin network), and interoperability - the ability to communicate and work with CBDC solutions in other countries on the Ripple infrastructure. The company warns that there is a risk for CBDC adoption by the public, caused mainly by a lack of market education, and it encourages the programming and expiration dates capabilities, which are perceived by most of the public as particularly Orwellian features of CBDCs.

    Ripple encourages the abolition of cash (and a move to a cashless society), and unsurprisingly, it promotes the climate agenda; The company's website presents its commitment to a clean, prosperous and secure low-carbon future, with a plan to reach carbon net-zero by 2030.

    Apparently, in line with Ripple’s expansion strategy vis-a-vis governments, the company makes sure to recruit employees who came from central and commercial banks. One of the company's top executives is Andrew Whitworth, policy director at Ripple, who previously worked at the Bank of England. At the same time as his role in Ripple, Whitworth also serves as a Director of the "Digital Pound Foundation", an organization that has declared itself the authority on the Digital Pound; it advises and influences the government's decisions regarding CBDC projects and deployments. Clearly an inside connection such as this might give Ripple an advantage in shaping digital currency policies to fit their platform and solutions. Does this hint a conflict of interests, or at least an unfair play?

    Another avenue through which institutional influence and implicit control over Ripple could manifest is via a legal battle with the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) concerning the XRP cryptocurrency. Engaging in such legal disputes inevitably positions Ripple in a scenario where maintaining a positive relationship with institutions becomes crucial. Consequently, it's no surprise that Ripple prioritizes governments, central banks, and financial institutions as its primary target audience in its market strategy.

    Photo: Lord XRP Twitter account

    INTERESTING DEVELOPMENTS IN CBDC

    China spent a couple of years rolling out relatively failed CBDC projects without widespread adoption, while injecting 30 million yuan as free money to encourage user adoption. Transactions using the digital yuan hit 1.8 trillion yuan (US$249 billion) in June 2023.

    Recently, significant progress has been made: the two main payment services and applications in China - WeChat and Alipay - which have a traffic of about 3-4 trillion dollars per year, integrated the Chinese CBDC service into their applications. The central bank regulator made it clear that digital yuan isn’t meant to compete with the two payments giants. Rather, it’s supposed to play a complementary role.

    Elon Musk, who owns, among other things, the Twitter/X platform, has stated that he wants to make the platform an "everything app" like the Chinese WeChat, including payment management. Will X also follow the Chinese route and integrate the CBDC solution into it, or will it try to become a CBDC infrastructure itself with the help of Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, the Dogecoin?

    The CBDC pilot in Nigeria didn't exactly take off either, after the citizens took to the streets to protest the abolition of cash in the country, and resented the introduction of an unneeded digital solution, while demanding the return of cash. After a long and painful protest, the cash was returned alongside the new digital currency, which was not canceled and became part of reality. Furthermore, a new stablecoin is in preparation in Sandbox mode in Nigeria. The cNGN is a Naira stablecoin which some claim has more potential than the e-Naira to be widely adopted. “The stablecoin will be more broadly interoperable than the CBDC, which is only available in the central bank’s wallet. At launch, the central bank’s wallet usability was weak, although it is now quite good”, said Bolu Abiodun, a reporter at Techpoint Africa.

    Source

    The UK saw a strong public backlash to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last year, with more than 50,000 responses sent to the Bank of England following a public hearing on the Digital Pound, aka the UK's national CBDC.

    GERMANY - AWARENESS OF "EXCESSIVE SURVEILLANCE"

    In Germany, the technical guidelines document for a digital currency of a central bank was published in January 2024. Below are several quotes from the document, reflecting the tyrannical nature of the new currency, and the awareness of the central bank for trust issues it can create:

    • Programmability is the institution’s authority to dedicate your money for certain uses, and to prohibit the use of your wallet when it is "outside the permitted scope".
       
    • "The central bank can revoke CBDC notes, e. g. as an instrument of monetary control. Revocation of CBDC notes is performed by an authorized entity, the revocation authority, controlled and operated by the central bank." This sounds like a technique to confiscate and apply a shelf life to money.
       
    • "Payments permitted under certain restrictions.. if the central bank sees fit to impose them" - the document lists restrictions that can be applied to wallets, depending on the amount of personal information that will be provided. For example, the amount of money in the wallet, the number of payments per day, the amount of money per transaction or per day.
       
    • The good news: The German central bank is aware of the possibility of public opposition to a surveillance system: "Many of these design choices are general decisions on the trade-off between excessive surveillance and legitimate monitoring functions for AML and KYC purposes in conjunction with measures for mitigating fraud and misconduct. These decisions are extremely sensitive in nature and can strongly influence the level of trust that users place into the CBDC”.

    ISRAEL - THE DIGITAL SHEKEL WILL BE DISTRIBUTED THROUGH COMMERCIAL BANKS

    Israel takes an extensive and active part in various CBDC pilots, such as the Sela project, Eden, Icebreaker and more, which I have reported on extensively in the past. The Deputy Governor of the Bank of Israel announced that in December 2024 a technical design document for the Digital Shekel will be published, and its implementation will then begin in partnership with the private sector.

    The Bank of Israel's latest document from last week covers the proposed architecture of the Digital Shekel. Here are some interesting points from the document:

    • The distribution of the Digital Shekel will be two-tiered: instead of direct contact between consumers and the central bank for funding and defunding, an indirect method similar to the distribution of cash today will be used. The banks will purchase digital shekels from the central bank in large quantities and transfer them to customers upon wallet charging.

    • The system will be able to apply and enforce limits, for example limits on the balance that users are allowed to hold in the Digital Shekel.

    • The system will support the possibility of applying interest on the Digital Shekel.

    • Users will be able to access the Digital Shekel through several payment providers, including credit cards, Google/Apple Pay, wearables, payment apps and more.

    • Unlike most retail CBDC solutions, Israel's model allows users to open a wallet with a payment service provider (PSP) and connect to multiple third-party banks to fund and defund balances.

    Another interesting development in Israel is the announcement of a plan to launch a new stablecoin pegged to the shekel, called BILS, by the exchange platform, Bits Of Gold. Crypto Jungle website reports that the Israeli Capital Market Authority approved the pilot, according to the draft principles published by the Central Bank of Israel. Interesting to note that the company providing the infrastructure for the issuance and custody of the currency is the Israeli technology giant "FireBlocks", which took part in the "Eden" pilot project of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange for the issuance of digital bonds, built to adapt in the future to a potential CBDC infrastructure.

    NO INTERNET? DON'T WORRY, GOVERNMENTS WILL TAKE CARE OF CONNECTIVITY ANYWAY

    A number of CBDC pilots, like in India, the European Union and more, focus on the adoption of the system by everyone, even amongst people without internet access. The washed-up name "financial inclusion" implies that the system will not skip anyone, not even citizens without Internet connectivity in remote areas, or without reception. In India for example, there are 683 million people living without an internet connection and largely outside the control of the state. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to bring these remote areas into a new surveillance network through various technological means. A successful launch of CBDC in India also corresponds with the government's overarching goal of reducing cash usage and improving financial monitoring.

    THAILAND - FREE MONEY FOR THE MASSES

    In September 2023, the Thai government announced that any Thai citizen over the age of 16 who chooses to participate in the CBDC pilot, will receive free CBDC worth $280 (10,000 baht) - quite a lot of money in Thai terms. This digital money will be loaded into the digital wallet application and will be available for use within 6 months, and within a radius of 4 km from the residence of the registered citizens. The pilot targets low-income citizens as a first stage, and later expands to entrepreneurs and small business operators - provided they are registered in the tax system. In Thailand many citizens are not registered in the government systems and not everyone has a bank account. It seems that air-dropping "free money" is another tactic to lure citizens into government systems, with the bait of “free” controlled government money. But is there such a thing as “free lunch”?

    THE EUROPEAN UNION - A POSITIVE MARKETING CAMPAIGN IN HIGH GEAR

    The European Union launched a marketing campaign to promote the digital euro about six months ago, to start educating the European public about a reality where that they will be obliged to use a supervised digital euro, led by Christine Lagarde, who was previously convicted of crimes and was promoted to serve as the governor of the European Central Bank, the ECB.

    The Digital Euro new marketing campaign. Source: Christine Lagarde’s Twitter account

    At the same time, a charade is going on in the European Union Parliament where the dangers of CBDCs are being discussed, only thanks to the public awareness and discourse, while Lagarde rushes forward and kicks off the marketing campaign to instill in the public the following messages: the digital euro is easy, safe, fast and reliable. Not a word about its Orwellian capabilities to track, program, limit and condition activity through expiration dates, geo-fencing, and remote on and off switching.

    Another ECB campaign video for the Digital Euro

    THE DIGITAL EURO WILL NOT BE ANONYMOUS

    In a discussion at the European Union Council in 2023, Lagarde emphasizes a point: the digital euro will not be anonymous. Privacy will exist in the system, but not anonymity. Let’s break this up in a different way: for the banks, the key to surveillance and control is identification. The bank must know who the citizen is and verify their identity, in order to exercise law enforcement or regulations, through technological restrictions. Lagarde's claim that the technology will allow privacy but not anonymity is unfounded: apparently the central bank considers itself and the financial service providers some kind of God, since in front of them the citizen will be identified, and therefore it is not clear what kind of privacy can exist, without anonymity.

    Source: Christine Lagarde’s Twitter account

    In a presentation from March 2024, the ECB presents a timetable for the Digital Euro. In November 2025, the development and implementation phase will begin, with the completion of the "democratic" legislative process.

    The timing of the launch of the Digital Euro corresponds well with the European Union's initiative to issue digital identity cards to all EU residents between now and 2030, to enable the necessary government identification and tracking of its citizens. Identical initiatives are enacted and promoted in many other countries around the world at the same time. Where I live, in Israel, ID cards and passports have been mandatory and digital for many years, and also biometric since 2013 - therefore there is no need to start the marketing campaign for the Digital Shekel yet, as the digital infrastructure exists hence the first step of digitalization is already done.

    The timetable of the Digital Euro by the ECB

    This phase of the project is the "preparation phase", the ECB reveals, in which they are preparing for the launch phase of the Digital Euro. Of course, we are reassured that no final decision has yet been made regarding the launch of the CBDC, and this will only happen with the approval of the "Government Council" after the completion of the democratic legislative process of the European Union. Therefore, in parallel with the democratic debate for or against the Digital Euro, the development of the technology will continue, in order to be prepared for the launch.

    Central bank governors such as Lagarde and Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron insist that the CBDC is digital cash, and also insist that physical cash will not be abolished. It is possible that these central bankers feel the need to make a U-turn from the incriminating speech of the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Augustin Carstens, who caused a public outcry when he stated in 2020 that the CBDC technology, unlike cash, will allow monitoring of financial transactions and will be a means of enforcement by the establishment:

    “The key difference with the CBDC is the central bank will have absolute control of the rules and regulations that will determine the use of that

    expression (money) of central bank liability, and also we will have the technology to enforce that.”

    Agustín Carstens - BIS General Manager

    THE FUTURE: CENTRALIZED AND CONTROLLED, OR FREE, DECENTRALIZED AND SECURE?

    Ayn Rand, author and philosopher, said that "We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality." Are we taking giant steps towards a new monetary reality, where the fiat currencies we know become fiat on steroids, aka CBDCs? Or into the reality of "stable" and closely regulated cryptocurrencies, tethered to fiat? Either way, the feeling is that the establishment is doing everything to preserve the debt economy, and its inherent modern slavery. The only way to break these fiat-matrix boundaries is to opt out and enter into a new system, which seems to run in a parallel reality, the Bitcoin system. On the Bitcoin standard, under self-custody, no third party has the ability to confiscate, program or take over private assets. Not even the government or the state. Bitcoin uses a lot of energy for its mining, but this proof-of-work mechanism makes the blockchain network extremely secure and the Bitcoin currency very valuable. Bitcoin is "safe money", which is out of reach for the establishment. Unlike most other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is a digital currency without intermediaries or third parties (peer-to-peer) in a decentralized and secure network, which allows everyone to be their own bank, instead of relying on banks and external parties. With a fixed and known supply, it represents the most powerful digital asset on the market as a store of value and as a unit of account, and in the future will also be used as a medium of exchange.

    In my recent interview with the media and finance expert, and one of the most famous Bitcoiners, Max Keiser, he compared the CBDC to a parasitic and centralized cancer: "If you were to look at the amount of energy that Bitcoin uses and the rate at which it's increasing, you would say good is triumphing over evil. So this gives me a lot of hope. And I don't think centralization in anything works at all, except cancer. Cancer is the only thing that seems to work to be overly centralized and parasitic. That's the cancer model, but I think we're gonna win against the cancer of CBDCs.” 

    Follow Efrat's work here

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 20:25
  37. Site: Public Discourse
    9 hours 40 min ago
    Author: R.J. Snell

    Giving in to anger is less shameful than giving in to appetites, Aristotle suggests, in part because “anger seems to listen to argument” but “to mishear it, as do hasty servants who run out before they have heard the whole of what one says, and then muddle the order.” Anger, it turns out, can be the most nearly rational of the passions, because we ought to have a spirited response in the face of injustice, wrongdoing, or unfair insult. Reason “informs us that we have been insulted or slighted” and it is often good and right to resist or object, but anger, “reasoning as it were,” “boils up” by “reason of the warmth and hastiness of its nature,” and so mishears what reason proposes. Anger is closer to reason than are the appetites but misapprehends what reason and virtue command. 

    As we know all too well, the mood and tone of our society is angry, unreasonably angry, boiling over in anger. 

    Whatever the reasons, our condition is well described by the following set of terms: anxiety, anger, sadness, spite, rage, and contempt, among others, all of which seem true of vast segments of American society without respect for political views or demographics. The kids aren’t well—they’re really not doing well—but neither are many of the adults, who also are really not doing well. Blame it on lockdowns, blame it on the media, on the smartphone, social media, loneliness, family breakdown, student loans—blame it on all of the above and more. People seem brittle, humorless, on a hair-trigger, and ready to blame, deride, criticize, and condemn. (I tend to place much of this on a loss of hope and its replacement with politics.) Like many, I’ve come to dread the new norm of social gatherings and idle party conversation, namely, reciting a litany of complaints against political opponents, religious leaders, and media figures, to name just a few. Our “manners,” such as they are, wink and approvingly nod at stridency, anger, and contempt. 

    I share the sense that much is wrong, that no one is in charge, that things are falling apart, that the adults are not in charge, that the elites are incompetent and self-serving, that religion is not functioning well, and more. The temptation to frustration, despair, exasperation, and an anger I’d like to describe as “righteous” is not unknown to me. 

    Still, during the season when Christians celebrate Easter, it’s worth reflecting on what anger, contempt, and sadness do to us, and finding another, better way, a way that recognizes reality in all its grim aspects, eschewing pollyannish unseriousness while refusing to lose itself in rage. Sorrow is a better way. 

    Contempt is a vile thing, suggesting that others have not only acted badly but are worthless in themselves, outside the community of value, not deserving of respect, no longer bearers of the image of God. Contempt views the other as contemptible, of course, but it does so only at cost to ourselves, rendering us contemptuous. We judge the other against the standard of ourselves, what we would do, who we are, the high opinion we have of ourselves, and find the other person wanting, beneath us, unequal. It is, I think, impossible to find the other contemptible without being guilty of too high a view of our own dignity, wisdom, and worth. There too, but for the grace of God, go I—isn’t that the old saying?—and a wise saying at that.  

    Despair has abandoned hope, rejecting not only the possibility of human action and intelligence but also the reality and possibility of grace, conversion, and divine action. In despair we judge providence as inferior and incompetent, and we set ourselves and our judgments as lord and master. 

    Spite reveals not only dislike and disgust but ill will, hostility, a malignant desire to wound and injure. Spite cannot coexist with charity, civility, or decency. It wishes harm, and it is wrong always and everywhere to intend harm to another. 

    Sadness means more than a temporary emotion but a disposition or state of character, thus a vice. In its most virulent form, sadness was understood as a capital sin, an unwillingness to accept and rejoice in divine things because one was sad at the cost of loss of self, or the weight of conversion, or the offering of divine friendship. Sadness estranges us from God and from others; it’s not worth the effort, and it would be far better to simply be satisfied with ourselves and our lot, as when the rich young ruler departs sadly at the teachings of Jesus (Mt. 10:22) or when Cain is “downcast” when his offering is found wanting (Gen. 4:5). In a more subtle form, sadness gives in to frustration, refuses to rejoice in the many favors and good things we enjoy, and dwells instead on what is absent, missing, muddled, or imperfect. Sadness gives up its hope in God, its anticipation that providence can bring good out of evil, and renders us joyless, morose, and hard of heart. Our sadness cannot but infect others, robbing them of their own sense of willingness and the necessity of trying yet again; it thus results in vice in both ourselves and our neighbors.  

    Sorrow, properly understood, prompts us to self-examination, to patience with others, and to good action.

     

    Sorrow, properly understood, prompts us to self-examination, to patience with others, and to good action. No accident that mourning is a beatitude and not a vice (Lk. 6:21). Some authors describe the sorrow of love in a helpful way. When I offend a stranger on the interstate my contrition is shallow, brief, and not a motive force to change myself; if, however, I were to offend those I most love my contrition is intense, long-lasting, and prompts examination, new effort, and moral conversion. I must do better; I must be better. The more I love the other, the greater the sorrow I have at wronging them, and the more I am moved to action. In an analogous way, when it is not I but the one I love who does wrong—a beloved friend, a child, a spouse—my sorrow is greater but my condemnation is less. I do not ignore or overlook the wrong, but it grieves me for them since I know they too suffer and are wounded by their act. This is, I think, following Alice von Hildebrand, not really them, or not them as they could be if they became what they could and should be. My honest recognition of the wrong done is heightened, not diminished, as, too, my patience, empathy, and willingness to join with them as they repent and develop. The stranger who wrongs me on the interstate? I merely hope they recede in my mirror. But my sorrow at the wrongs done by my friend prompts me to pray, to call, to intervene, to join them in their efforts. 

    Easter is not a time of sorrow but of joy. Good Friday, however, is a day of sorrow. Whether you keep Good Friday or not, whether this religious observance is your own or not, I suggest the practice of sorrow is redemptive. In sorrow we become more attuned to the incompetence, stupidity, injustice, and evil in our world—honestly, forthrightly, unsparingly—but we do not lose ourselves in malice, anger, rage, or gossip. In sorrow we become more attuned to the humanity of the person who is incompetent, stupid, unjust, or evil, and to their own fragility, dependence, and status as free and responsible. Perhaps they need correction, or instruction, or punishment, but they remain always a person, and we correct, instruct, or punish because they are persons, not despite or in spite of their status. In sorrow we are prompted to recognize our own shortcomings, ignorance, stupidity, and sin, and to repent, convert, repay, make amends, change our lives. In sorrow we are moved to grieve the acts of others and to make reparations on their behalf, to assist those they have harmed, to join in the suffering of those who have been wronged and those who have wronged—but to act rather than to chatter, complain, or self-indulgently rage from our position of vanity and self-satisfied anger.  

    It’s a good day for sorrow, a habit sustaining our decency, humanity, patience, and courage for all the other days yet to come. All days bring their challenges, and there is much in our day to bemoan and condemn. Fair enough, but to have the courage and steadfastness needed to continue on, day in and day out, our sorrow serves us well.  

    Far better, at least, than the alternatives, which are ruinous.  

    Image by JavierArtPhotography licensed via Adobe Stock.

  38. Site: Bonfire of the Vanities - Fr. Martin Fox
    9 hours 40 min ago

     A few years ago, I made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,

    And I walked the real, original Way of the Cross 

    through the streets of Jerusalem.

    I was able to be at the place of the Last Supper, 

    and the Garden of Gethsemane and Golgotha, and the empty tomb.


    I was with other priests, and we had Mass – at Calvary! Right there!

    We had Mass at the empty tomb: 

    the very stone on which Jesus lay was our altar.


    Now, because it is God’s work and not merely a human work,

    the Mass is the Mass is the Mass, wherever and whenever.

    Every Mass brings us to Calvary – every single one.


    Nevertheless, when you and I come to this evening, 

    if we realize what we’re doing, there is something electric about it.


    All of Lent has been a journey to this moment. 

    We have prayed, fasted and shared our blessings with others, 

    so that we, like the Apostles, 

    can prepare to celebrate the Passover with the Lord.


    The Passover, remember, was first celebrated in Egypt.

    God’s People were slaves; and on the night of the Passover, 

    God executed judgment against Egypt, and Israel left in haste.


    To understand fully the Sacrifice of the Mass, 

    it helps to recall what happens when God brings his People to Mt. Sinai.


    There, God not only gives Moses the Ten Commandments, 

    He also explains the details of how they are to worship:  

    how the place of worship is to be arranged, 

    how the altar is to be constructed, and the sacrifices offered.

    After all this, Moses leads the elders of Israel up Sinai, 

    to ratify the covenant. And the Scripture says, 

    “They saw God, and they ate and drank” the sacrifice.

    Think about that in relation to the Last Supper – and the Mass:

    “They saw God and they ate and drank.”


    Did you ever wonder why the altar is traditionally elevated?

    As at Sinai, we go up to meet God.


    In a few minutes, I will go up to this altar, and on your behalf,

    I will address the God of Sinai, our Father.

    When we sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” 

    we are joining the heavenly hosts adoring Almighty God!

    The same angels who gazed on Calvary with amazement.


    When some of us were kids, there was a TV show, 

    “You are there,” and it took you back to some moment in the past.

    But this is way beyond any TV show.

    Brothers and sisters, we are there!

    At Calvary, at the Tomb, and also, in heaven – all at once.


    The priest then says, “Graciously accept this oblation” –

     what is an oblation? 


    An oblation is an offering of food and wine, from the people to God.

    It stands for you. You, and your prayers, works, joys and sufferings, 

    go to the altar in that bread and wine.


    The priest extends his hands like this. 

    That is meant to suggest a dove – that is, the Holy Spirit.

    In the Old Testament, God’s Fire would come down upon the sacrifice. 

    On the Day of Pentecost, God’s Fire came down upon the Church.


    In the Mass, it is the Holy Spirit that makes our offerings

    “become for us the Body and Blood of [the] beloved Son, Jesus Christ.”


    If you wonder why the priest sometimes faces the same way as the people; or, otherwise, seems to be focused upward, or toward the altar, it is because these words, at this point, are addressed to the Father.


    On Thursday evening, that first Mass begins with the Apostles.

    The next day, on the Cross, Jesus the true Priest

    offers his Body and Blood to the Father. 

    His Body is broken; his blood is poured out.


    At the Last Supper, Jesus’ disciples would not have been surprised 

    had the Lord pointed to the body of the lamb – on the table – 

    to talk about covenant and sacrifice.


    But what the Lord did was take in hand, not the flesh of the lamb,

    But rather, the bread and the wine, and said:

    This is my Body, given for you, this is my Blood, 

    of the new and eternal covenant – eat and drink!

    This was new. No one had ever done that before.


    Then on Calvary, on the Cross, he completes the Passover.

    He takes a last sip of wine, offered on a sponge and says, “

    It is finished.”


    And after the Resurrection, he showed himself alive,

    that’s when the Apostles understood; and our Holy Mass is the result.

    We do this sacrifice, as he commanded, in memory of Him.


    Notice the priest lifts up the Body, and then the Blood.

    While this allows you to adore the Lord, that is not the primary reason.

    Rather, the Body and Blood are lifted up to the Father.

    This is a Sacrifice: Christ offered himself to the Father.

    The priest offers Christ – and us, with Him – to the Father.


    The separation of body and blood recalls his death.

    When the priest later puts a part of the Sacred Host into the chalice,

    That signifies Christ’s Body and Blood being “together” – 

    pointing to his Resurrection.


    There’s one more detail worth reflecting on.

    When this happens, the priest sings, “Mystery of Faith.”

    The origin of this part of the prayer is unclear, but – 

    It’s kind of like a big, flashing sign that says,

    “This, this – right here, this! This is the moment!

    This is the mystery; this is pulsing heart of the whole thing!”


    After this the priest begs the Father 

    to accept this “pure victim, this holy victim.”

    Of course the Father will accept this Sacrifice; 

    and yet this summarizes the whole drama of salvation.


    Without Jesus, none of us can be saved. 

    Everything in the Old Testament led to this.

    This moment – I mean, tonight; and I mean, the Mass; 

    and, the moment when Jesus once offered himself;

    all of that is made present for us here at this Mass –


    This moment is the pivot point of all history.

    There are so many people who long to be here, but cannot.

    How sad that many Christians, many Catholics, are oblivious to this.


    Tonight, we are there: in Jerusalem; at the Cross.

    The Blood of the Lamb protects us. 

    The flesh of the Lamb is our salvation.


  39. Site: Zero Hedge
    9 hours 40 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Putin Threatens To Attack Western Air Bases Hosting Ukrainian F-16s

    This week Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Torzhok air base in Tver Region which hosts the 344th Training Center for Russian combat pilots. Some or many of these aviators who will likely go on to fly missions in Ukraine.

    In an address to the pilots, Putin referenced accusations frequently voiced by Western leaders that he intends to expand the war in Ukraine by attacking NATO and other European countries. He called the claim "utter nonsense" but went on to issue a warning about US-made F16 fighters jets.

    Describing that US "satellites" in Eastern Europe (for example, Poland) have no reason to be afraid, he said, "The claims that we are going to attack Europe after Ukraine – it is utter nonsense and intimidation of their own population just to beat the money out of them."

    Via BBC/Russian MoD

    European countries have indeed been seeking to ramp up their defense sectors and spending, especially following two years of arming Ukraine which has largely depleted domestic stockpiles.

    A translation in Politico quoted Putin as further saying "...the possibility of an attack on some other countries, on Poland, the Baltic states, the Czechs are scared. It's just nonsense," and that Russia has "no aggressive intentions toward these states."

    The Russian president further reiterated in the talk that the special military operation in Ukraine was launched out of the necessity of "protecting our people on our historical territories." Referring to the NATO alliance, he said: "They came right up to our borders… Did we go across the ocean to the borders of the United States? No, they are approaching us, and they have come very close," according to a Russian media translation.

    Putin also took the opportunity to address international reports that Kiev will soon be given its first batch of F-16 fighter jets. According to his words as summarized in EuroNews:

    At the same meeting, he warned Ukraine’s Western allies against providing air bases in their countries from where the F-16s could launch sorties against the Kremlin's forces, saying those bases would be a "legitimate target."

    The F-16s require a high standard of runways and reinforced hangars to protect them when they are on the ground.

    Military analysts have said the arrival of potentially dozens of F-16s won’t be a game-changer, though Ukrainian officials have welcomed them as an opportunity to hit back at Russia's air dominance. Putin insisted the F-16s "won’t change the situation on the battlefield."

    That's when he vowed before the pilots and trainees, "We will destroy their warplanes just as we destroy their tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers." Significantly, he upped the ante with this threat, given he made clear that even bases in Western countries could be targeted if Ukraine flies sorties from them.

    At the military training center in Torzhok, Tver Region, March 27. Pool via Sputnik

    State-run RT has also sought to emphasize this in relaying Putin's words in the following:

    F-16s flown by Ukrainian pilots but based in third countries will nevertheless be legitimate targets for Russia, Putin added.

    "Of course, if they are used from airfields of third countries, they become a legitimate target for us, wherever they are located," he said.

    Beginning last summer the Kremlin began highlighting that F-16 fighter jets are capable of carrying tactical nukes which are in select NATO countries' possession. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for example at that time explained, "Moscow can’t ignore the nuclear capability of US-designed F-16 fighter jets that may be supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers. He went so far as to say that it will be seen as a threat from the West "in the nuclear domain."

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 20:00
  40. Site: The Eponymous Flower
    9 hours 41 min ago
  41. Site: Zero Hedge
    10 hours 50 sec ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    The Road To A New McCarthyism

    Authored by Bert Olivier via The Brownstone Institute,

    I wonder how many people have recoiled with horror at what happened in the House of Representatives recently. I am referring to the decision, effectively, to ban the social media platform, TikTok, in the United States (to ‘protect Americans from foreign adversaries’), because it supposedly affords the Chinese government the opportunity to ‘spy’ on Americans and manipulate their thinking. 

    Well, one thing is sure – judging by the margin by which this motion was adopted by the House, and the quality of some of the opinions aired on the topic (that I have listened to), there was precious little thinking going on around the room, with some notable exceptions (352 votes for, 65 against), such as Representative Thomas Massie (R) of Kentucky. What thinking there was – such as the excellent argument put forward by Massie – was not sufficient to sway the rest of the delegates in the direction of common sense. 

    So what was this non-debate about TikTok all about? Most readers would probably already know about it, but it bears repeating, lest the intricacies of the hidden assumptions escape one’s attention. In sum, as mentioned earlier, it comes down to the claim that China is using TikTok to spy on American citizens, and in addition to influence their thinking and behaviour. This, despite the glaring fact that – as Clayton and Natali Morris argue in the first video linked above – the US spies on its own citizens with impunity, not to mention that it also conducts espionage on China. 

    The two investigative reporters of Redacted further highlight the remarkable speed with which the US Congress has addressed the putatively urgent issue concerning TikTok, while allowing the arguably far more urgent matter of thousands of illegal immigrants streaming across the American border to continue unabated. The further irony is, of course – also stressed by the Morris duo – that these illegal immigrants include a far more salient ‘Chinese threat;’ namely, the large numbers of young, ‘military age’ Chinese men. And yet, the border issue is clearly not seen in the same light of urgency as TikTok!

    Should the US Senate confirm the House’s vote to ban this short video app (application) – which is likely – thousands, if not millions of Americans who depend on it for their livelihood, would be left high and dry. This does not seem to have bothered the members of the House either. 

    But most egregiously, it is either lost on the members of the House, or they wittingly connive at the fact that this Act will endow the American President – Joe Biden, at present – with tremendous powers to control anything deemed to be under the influence of so-called ‘foreign adversaries,’ real or imagined. ‘Anything’ here includes not only comparable apps, but internet platforms and websites too. So, if X (formerly Twitter) is regarded by the incumbent of the presidency, for whatever reason, as posing a threat to US citizens in terms of influence or ‘manipulation’ by ‘foreign adversaries,’ it could be banned. It is redundant to emphasise the dictatorial potential of such a situation, but we’ll get to it later, anyway. 

    In Thomas Massie’s speech to the House he makes a telling distinction: while other speakers described TikTok as a Chinese ‘Trojan horse,’ he perspicaciously turns this metaphor back on the bill itself, insisting that it is itself the real Trojan horse. On March 12 he warned that anyone who thought it was not a Trojan horse would have to explain why there is a very telling exclusion in it, namely (quoting from the bill):

    The term ‘covered company’ does not include an entity that operates a website, desktop application, mobile application, or augmented or immersive technology application whose primary purpose is to allow users to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.

    This exclusion hides more than it shows Why? Because the exclusion pertains to ‘entities’ that are innocuous from a political point of view. But what about platforms like Rumble, X, or BitChute which, unlike YouTube and Facebook, are not censored, and therefore include many items to which the current regime (being part of the neo-fascist cabal) is hugely allergic? In other words, once signed into law, this Trojan horse bill could attack Americans from inside the walls of Troy, as it were, at the whim of the head honcho in the White House. And one need not add that, in the hands of its present occupant it would be a weapon of mass despotism. 

    Ironically, Senator Rand Paul’s insights concerning the House decision bring to light the unacknowledged lies and cover-ups lurking behind the ostensibly ‘open’ debate preceding the voting. He did not waste any time commenting (in the first video linked above) that:

    Reactionaries who want to ban TikTok claim the data can’t be secured because the ‘algorithm’ is in China. 

     Not true.

    The truth is the algorithm runs in the US in Oracle cloud with their review of the code. (NOT in China.)

     Maybe we should examine the facts before committing violations of the 1st and 5th Amendments. 

     They want to ban TikTok because it’s ‘owned by China.’

     Not true.

     60% of the company is owned by US and international investors.

     20% is owned by the company founders. 

     20% is owned by company employees, including over 7,000 Americans.

     The CEO of TikTok is from Singapore, not China.

     So ask yourself why they keep repeating this lie to scare you?

    In characteristically courageous fashion, Rand Paul did not hesitate to expose the lies that were bandied about in the House, neatly repudiating them by providing the true state of affairs in each case. But he did not stop there. This was followed by:

    My statement on the House TikTok ban.

    The passage of the House TikTok ban is not just a misguided overreach; it’s a draconian measure that stifles free expression, tramples constitutional rights, and disrupts the economic pursuits of millions of Americans. 

    With an iron fist, Congress dictated an unrealistic and narrow path for divestment, effectively banning TikTok and ignoring its substantial investments in data security.

    This act is not securing our nation – it’s a disturbing gift of unprecedented authority to President Biden and the Surveillance State that threatens the very core of American digital innovation and free expression.

    Joe Biden must be overjoyed, licking his lips at the thought of having been gifted with the dubious means to silence his critics and opponents at will, at the cost of Americans and people in the rest of the world being informed through available sources of their choice. It would amount to a situation hardly distinguishable from one where the state owns all the media – in other words, an unadulterated dictatorship. That is, unless it is stopped at the Senate level, which is unlikely. 

    One wonders whether the outcome of Murthy vs. Missouri, before the Supreme Court today (March 18), dealing as it does with the troubling issue of censorship (and therefore with the implications and purview of the First Amendment), would have a noticeable retrospective effect on the TikTok ban, which – at bottom – relates to the same question. 

    What is astonishing about all of this is the apparent ease and rapidity with which the bill passed through the House, as Clayton Morris points out in the first video, linked above, highlighting the contrasting lack of interest in actively tackling the undeniable problem of unchecked ingress of illegal immigrants at American borders (referred to earlier). In a country which has always boasted about having the First Amendment, or rather, what it stands for – freedom of speech – which implies guaranteeing the continued existence of those sources of information which make freedom of expression possible, one might have expected the results of the vote to have been the other way around. 

    As it stands, is it far-fetched to read in these results the degree to which the collective mindset in the US has already morphed into one that is, incomprehensible as it may seem, receptive to despotic rule? I think not. The neo-fascist technocrats, who must surely have regarded the United States as the biggest hurdle to cross in their quest for world domination, must be writhing with uncontrollable convulsions of glee at present. After all, they are witnessing the crumbling of this erstwhile ‘bastion of freedom,’ which their puppet in the White House and his minions have set in motion with relative ease, it would seem. 

    A situation such as the one briefly sketched above as a distinct possibility, would eerily resemble what was the case in the early 1950s in the United States, which went by the name of the ‘Red Scare.’ The Eisenhower Library (online) provides this useful sketch of this lamentable episode in American history:

    Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was a little-known junior senator from Wisconsin until February 1950 when he claimed to possess a list of 205 card-carrying Communists employed in the US Department of State. From that moment Senator McCarthy became a tireless crusader against Communism in the early 1950s, a period that has been commonly referred to as the ‘Red Scare.’ As chairman of the Senate Permanent Investigation Subcommittee, Senator McCarthy conducted hearings on communist subversion in America and investigated alleged communist infiltration of the Armed Forces. His subsequent exile from politics coincided with a conversion of his name into a modern English noun ‘McCarthyism,’ or adjective, ‘McCarthy tactics,’ when describing similar witch hunts in recent American history. [The American Heritage Dictionary gives the definition of McCarthyism as: 1. The political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence; and 2. The use of methods of investigation and accusation regarded as unfair, in order to suppress opposition. Senator McCarthy was censured by the US Senate on December 2, 1954 and died May 2, 1957.]

    Several things strike one in this excerpt, the first of which is the phrase ‘witch hunts,’ with its disquieting connotations of persecuting people on the basis of flimsy, but ‘useful’ evidence of supposed malpractice of some kind – such as having a black cat, metaphorically speaking, equivalents of which could include ‘misinformation,’ disinformation,’ and even (God forbid) ‘malinformation,’ all of which have been thoroughly tainted, from a mainstream perspective, with connotations of proverbial witchcraft. The TikTok ban would allow members of the Biden Inquisition to scream ‘Witch!’ at anything which does not gel with the official narrative, such as the items found on X, Children’s Health Defense, or BitChute, to mention only some likely candidates.

    Then there is the related American Heritage Dictionary’s illuminating description, quoted in the excerpt above, which links McCarthyism explicitly with the ‘political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence’ as well as with ‘the use of methods of investigation and accusation regarded as unfair, in order to suppress opposition.’ To anyone with a modicum of comprehension of what is at stake, this would appear to be uncannily apposite. Given its track record, could anyone expect of the Biden administration any ‘regard to (contrary) evidence’ where accusations of disinformation are concerned? Or the employment of ‘methods of investigation’ that are fair? Give me a break! 

    To sum up by using a currently popular term, Biden and his DOJ would ‘weaponise’ the TikTok ban to the hilt, to the detriment of the citizens of the US as well as American democracy. And make no mistake: democracy may never recover from what threatens to become nothing less than McCarthyism on steroids. While one has access to the means for resisting this conspicuous act of usurping the constitutionally ‘guaranteed’ rights and freedoms of the American people, one must avail oneself of these – before they disappear.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 19:40
  42. Site: Zero Hedge
    10 hours 20 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Flip-Flopping Trump Impeachment Witness Registers As Ukraine Foreign Agent, Claims Allegiance "Still 100% To The United States"

    Former US Ambassador to the EU, Gordon Sondland, who testified for the Democrats against Donald Trump during the former president's impeachment, has registered as a foreign agent on behalf of Ukraine and the European Union, the Daily Caller reports.

    Sondland initially testified in Trump's impeachment inquiry that there was no quid pro quo when President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens while withholding US military aid (unbeknownst to Zelensky at the time).

    Trump insists he told Sondland “I want no quid pro quo” with Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/NhyhfI77tk

    — TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) November 20, 2019

    Sondland later flipped his story, claiming that he told a top Ukrainian official that a meeting with President Trump may be contingent upon its new administration committing to investigations Trump wanted regarding the Biden family and other matters, according to the New York Times.

    And now, he's a registered agent for Ukraine.

    Sondland filed a registration statement with the U.S. Department of Justice, declaring himself a foreign agent of Ukraine and the E.U. in order to legally represent their interests in the country, according to a document obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

    Sondland’s registration is required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a 1938 law that governs how foreign governments and other entities may lobby U.S. officials. FARA registration is required regardless of U.S. citizenship and must occur before an individual begins lobbying.

    See the registration below:

    During his time in the Trump administration, Sondland personally dealt with various high-ranking Ukrainians, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine has been trying to lobby members of Congress and executive branch officials to support its war with Russia.

    Sondland Responds

    In a statement to the Daily Caller, Sondland said "This term ‘Foreign Agent.’ It sounds very sinister because that’s the way the FARA laws are written. You’re designated as a foreign agent. I’m not an agent of anyone. I haven’t been asked by Ukraine or the E.U. to represent them. I’m simply having conversations that everyone has all the time with members of Congress and with members of governments of other countries to try and bridge and divide," adding "The problem is the FARA laws require this registration and you become known as a ‘foreign agent,’ and that’s very different than someone who is hired by the E.U. or hired by Ukraine and paid to do a certain job on their behalf. I am not doing either."

    "My allegiance is still 100% to the United States, not to the European Union. Unfortunately, I can’t have these conversations without registering," he continued.

    He also pushed back on the 'flip-flop' criticisms, telling the Caller: "I relayed facts that occurred in 2019, some of which had the effect of having a negative…showing President Trump in a negative light and some showing President Trump in a positive light, but I had no agenda to testify against or for President Trump in 2019."

    Except, that's not quite what happened.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 19:20
  43. Site: Zero Hedge
    10 hours 40 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    The Human Tragedy In Haiti

    Authored by Callista L. Gingrich via RealClear Politics,

    Since late February, gang violence in Haiti has surged, overwhelming government and security forces and plunging the nation into further turmoil. The United Nations estimates that armed gangs now control 80 percent of the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

    The recent wave of violence in the Caribbean nation’s ongoing gang wars erupted as multiple armed groups banded together, pledging to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who came to power after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 and announced postponing Haiti’s elections again last year.

    Citing ongoing gang violence as one of the reasons for staving off elections, Henry flew to Kenya in February to press for the deployment of a U.N-backed police force to support the Haitian National Police in fighting the gangs. The armed groups responded by launching a series of coordinated attacks in Port-au-Prince and preventing Henry’s return to Haiti.

    In the weeks that followed, gangs ravaged two prisons releasing more than 4,000 inmates into the country; destroyed power substations; attacked airports, police stations, and neighborhoods; and took control of major ports and water facilities.

    More than 15,000 people have fled their homes in recent weeks. According to an anonymous woman who spoke with CBS News, “People go inside your house, killing, raping, all those things, burning your house.”

    Americans have been urged to leave the country. Nearly 1,000 have filled out crisis intake forms asking for help or assistance to escape the turmoil. At the time of this writing, hundreds of Americans have not been able to evacuate.

    During a briefing on March 12, the U.S. State Department announced that in addition to pledging a total contribution of $300 million, the United States helped to broker a deal that will form “a new presidential council that will select a new interim prime minister and pave the pathway for elections, as well as the deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission.” Once the transitional council is established, Kenya will deploy the police force and Henry will step aside.

    Despite this development, the situation on the ground for the people of Haiti remains desperate. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said during a press briefing on Monday, “It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world.”

    Tragically, fear and suffering from gang violence in Haiti is not new – but is a daily reality for many Haitians.

    There are an estimated 200 gangs operating in Haiti, and approximately 95 operate near Port-au-Prince. In 2023, more than 8,400 people were reported killed, injured, or kidnapped, more than two times the amount as the previous year. Further, compared to 2022, rape cases skyrocketed by 49 percent from January to August 2023.

    Bringing violence to neighborhoods, gangs demand so-called protection money from residents, and when they can’t pay, threaten impoverished civilians. Twenty-eight-year-old Annie, who fled Port-au-Prince with her family two years ago, told the BBC, “I saw so many awful things I never thought I would see. We were afraid for our lives.”

    She added, “We are living with death on a daily basis.”

    In addition to gang violence, chronic political instability, natural disasters, foreign intervention, and debt have crippled Haiti’s economy, fueled violence, and hindered development.

    Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and more than half of the population lives below the World Bank’s poverty line. In a population of 11.7 million people, approximately 5.5 million Haitians require humanitarian assistance, more than 4 million people are affected by food insecurity, and 19,000 are experiencing famine. 

    "I wake up in the morning and if we have sugar in the house, we make sugar water and put a bit of salt in it, just to drink it and stop the pain of hunger," Kerby, a Haitian who fled Port-au-Prince due to gang threats, recently told the BBC.

    Amid the recent developments, it is unclear what the governance of Haiti will look like and how it will impact the future of the Caribbean nation.

    As gang violence and chaos continue to wreak havoc, the international community must work to bring peace and stability to Haiti.

    For more commentary form Callista Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com.

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 19:00
  44. Site: LifeNews
    10 hours 43 min ago
    Author: SPUC

    A patient who received assisted suicide drugs last year in the US state of Oregon took 137 hours to die, nearly six days, an annual report has stated, while also revealing that many people choose death because they cannot afford healthcare.

    Assisted suicide in Oregon leaped by 21% in 2023, according to a state report detailing the 367 Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) deaths that year. Health authorities attribute the rise to patients now coming from outside of Oregon to die.

    Nearly 3,000 people have died through assisted suicide since Oregon legalised the procedure in 1997.

    Of the people who died from assisted suicide in Oregon in 2023, 92% cited loss of autonomy as a reason, as well as a less enjoyable life (88%) and loss of dignity (64%).

    43% also stated that they did not want to be a burden on loved ones, and 8% said they wanted to die because of the cost of their medical expenses.

    Please follow LifeNews.com on Gab for the latest pro-life news and info, free from social media censorship.

    The findings align closely with Oregon’s previous report, which showed that nearly half of assisted suicides in 2022 were because the person perceived themselves to be a “burden”, as reported by SPUC.

    SPUC comment

    A SPUC spokesperson said: “Many vulnerable people think they have no option but to choose assisted suicide when they are abandoned by society or are made to feel that way.

    “It’s also clear that most assisted suicides are not related to pain but to other challenges, and most worryingly, a societal pressure to choose death as many health systems find it easier and cheaper to kill problem patients rather than treat them.

    “Around the world, cancer sufferers, the elderly, the disabled and even the mentally ill, are being abandoned to the thought that they might be better off dead. At a time when the UK is considering its own assisted suicide legislation, we must not allow that to happen here.”

    LifeNews Note: Courtesy of SPUC. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is a leading pro-life organization in the United Kingdom.

    The post Oregon Residents are Killing Themselves in Assisted Suicides Because They Can’t Afford Health Care appeared first on LifeNews.com.

  45. Site: LifeNews
    10 hours 49 min ago
    Author: SPUC

    MEPs are set to debate adding abortion to its Charter of Fundamental Rights following a proposal by French President Emmanuel Macron.

    After France made abortion a constitutional right last month, President Macron proposed again that the EU should do the same. Members of the European Parliament will now debate the issue in April.

    Macron and EU politicians have previously called for abortion to be enshrined as a right, especially in the wake of the reversal of Roe v. Wade. In July 2022, a majority of MEPs declared that abortion should be added to the Charter, as reported by SPUC.

    However, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has warned MEPs that the Charter cannot be amended to make abortion a right since matters of health are supposed to be left to nations to decide.

    The ECLJ added that “no European or international human rights treaty or system establishes abortion as a right”, while “the right to life is protected in various treaties, and there is even international protection for children before birth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child”.

    Follow LifeNews on the MeWe social media network for the latest pro-life news free from Facebook’s censorship!

    Considerable European pressure has been placed on pro-life nations like Malta and Poland in recent years to introduce pro-abortion laws, including a Council of Europe diktat demanding that Malta legalise abortion and outlaw conscientious objection.

    SPUC comment

    A SPUC spokesperson said: “A pro-abortion, undemocratic wave is sweeping across Europe right now as European elites once again threaten the fundamental right to life of unborn children.

    “The way this is taking place, cancelling the human rights of the most vulnerable group in society, the unborn, in the name of ‘rights’ is a gross and shameless perversion of truth and justice, and it shows just how far pro-abortion ideologues will go to impose their will on the European population.

    “But as the EU charter states, Everyone has the right to life… MEPs have a duty to uphold that right without exception.”

    LifeNews Note: Courtesy of SPUC. The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children is a leading pro-life organization in the United Kingdom.

    The post EU Considers a Right to Kill Babies in Abortions in Its Charter of Fundamental Rights appeared first on LifeNews.com.

  46. Site: Zero Hedge
    11 hours 50 sec ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Moody's Warns Bridge Collapse Is "Credit Negative" For Baltimore As Economic Shock Emerges 

    Instead of the woke Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott utilizing his precious time by going on corporate media's leftists Joy Reid's MSNBC show and asserting that white conservatives "should be afraid" of the consequences of calling him the 'DEI Mayor,' perhaps the unseasoned youngster who over-promised about fixing imploding Baltimore City (after fifty years of a Democratic-controlled City Hall) should realize the local economy is on the cusp of meltdown and potential negative credit risk event following the bridge collapse and resulting paralyzed port. 

    The Port of Baltimore is a significant economic driver for the city of Baltimore and the state of Maryland, and an extended closure will spread like cancer through the local economy as snarled supply chains will result in job losses, lower warehouse activity, and tax revenue loss for the government. 

    "I would say the Port of Baltimore is the leading economic driver for the region in Baltimore," Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group Inc., told FreightWaves

    Basu said, "One could argue that the leading driver is Johns Hopkins. It's a difficult comparison, because you're talking about two very different fields of endeavor. But the Baltimore region has been one of the nation's underperformers in recent years. In the Baltimore region, we have had to clawback the jobs lost early during the pandemic."

    Cargo to the paralyzed Port of Baltimore will be diverted to other US East Coast ports. Scott Cowan, president of the International Longshoremen's Association Baltimore local chapter, warned that thousands of port jobs could soon vanish. 

    Source: Bloomberg 

    On Thursday morning, Moody's published a note that said a prolonged closure of the port would ripple through the local economy and could spark negative credit risk events for the city and state:  

    The bridge collapse threatens to disrupt aspects of the State of Maryland (Aaa stable) and City of Baltimore (Aa2 stable) economies. The suspension of shipping traffic to the Port of Baltimore will likely divert cargo to other East Coast ports, which may affect jobs and tax revenue. The accident also has the potential to hurt the transportation and warehousing sector, though that accounts for a small share of state GDP.

    More from Moody's about the credit fallout that could soon hit Baltimore: 

    In recent years, the state and Baltimore County (Aaa stable) have provided incentives and worked with developers to facilitate the redevelopment of Sparrows Point, a more than 3,000-acre contaminated industrial site once home to a Bethlehem Steel plant. Over the last nine years, Sparrows Point has seen almost $2 billion of private investment resulting in the development of 14 million square feet of warehousing and distribution facilities. With the Key Bridge providing the only direct access route between Sparrows Point and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, further development at Sparrows Point could be delayed.

    There is no timetable for how long salvage crews will take to remove the massive bridge blocking the harbor's only entry and exit. Some figures are six weeks, while others are several months. Shippers diverting operations to other East Coast ports will also hit warehousing and trucking businesses in the area. 

    We have described to readers for years that Baltimore has been trending down. It's only in a downward trend when a shock forms that the real troubles begin materializing. And that shock started this week. Sorry, Scott. It's not a race thing like you describe on MSNBC—you're just an inexperienced leader. The persistent crime chaos and failed progressive policies are evidence of this. It's time for new leadership. 

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 18:40
  47. Site: 4Christum
    11 hours 9 min ago

     

    ‘Francis is playing the role of Judas by sacrificing the traditional truths that the Church received from Jesus,’ Father Jesusmary Missigbètò writes. Read More at LifeSiteNews



    Cardinal Müller calls Pope Francis’ homosexual ‘blessings’ an attack on marriage











  48. Site: 4Christum
    11 hours 12 min ago

     Cardinal Müller condemned the killing of the unborn as ‘infanticide’ and likened it to the ‘Nazi times,’ stressing how previous popes and bishops ‘had no fear to excommunicate’ for grave crimes. Read More at LifeSiteNews









  49. Site: Zero Hedge
    11 hours 20 min ago
    Author: Tyler Durden
    Bahrain Opposition Activist Arrested For Criticizing McLaren Ownership

    Via Middle East Eye

    A leading opposition activist has been arrested and detained in Bahrain for criticizing on social media the island kingdom’s ownership of the sportscar brand, McLaren.

    Ebrahim Sharif was arrested by Bahraini authorities on Monday morning over social media posts critical of Bahrain’s decision to take full ownership of the McLaren Group, which is involved in Formula One, other motorsports and the manufacture of luxury supercars. 

    The former secretary general of the National Democratic Action Society (Wa’ad), Bahrain’s largest leftist political party, Sharif was arrested and detained for three social media posts he wrote in the wake of the McLaren ownership news. 

    Last Friday, Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, which was already McLaren’s biggest shareholder, having first invested in 2007, took over full ownership of the troubled British company, which has been experiencing heavy financial losses.

    Abdulla bin Khalifa al-Khalifa, CEO of Mumtalakat and a member of Bahrain’s ruling royal family, welcomed the deal, heralding "the next phase of the company’s trajectory of growing its leadership position in the luxury super car and motorsports industries."

    Sharif was interviewed by police on Monday following a summons and subsequently referred to Bahrain’s public prosecution, which ordered that he be kept in detention for seven days pending an investigation over "social media posts that allegedly incite hatred against the regime," according to Sharif’s lawyer and family.

    If officially charged, the opposition activist could be imprisoned under Article 165 of the Bahrain Penal Code, which states that "A prison sentence shall be passed against any person who expressly incites others to develop hatred or hostility towards the system of government." Farida Ghulam, Sharif’s wife, confirmed his arrest and the reasons for his detention in a social media post. 

    Middle East Eye asked McLaren if it condoned the arrest and detention of an activist for criticizing its ownership. The company has not yet responded.

    In the first of his contentious social media posts, on March 23 Sharif quoted Karl Marx’s line about history repeating itself first as tragedy, and then as farce. He referenced Bahrain’s prior purchase of Gulf Air, before writing: "With McLaren, we have moved from tragedy to farce. We have completed another cycle of owning failed companies with bottomless losses."

    McLaren recorded a pre-tax loss of $349m in the first nine months of 2023

    The next day, Sharif contrasted Bahrain’s housing projects budget for 2023 (approximately $239m, according to official documentation displayed in the tweet) with the $564m put into McLaren by the sovereign wealth fund. 

    "التاريخ يعيد نفسه مرتين، المرة الأولى كمأساة والثانية كمهزلة"
    (كارل ماركس)

    عندما تملكت البحرين كامل أسهم شركة طيران الخليج (بعد شراء حصتي ابوظبي وقطر) تضاعفت خسائرنا والمبالغ التي نحتاج لضخها سنويا لمنع افلاسها.

    مع #مكلارين انتقلنا من المأساة الى المهزلة. لقد أكملنا دورة أخرى… pic.twitter.com/S8dKmiT3m5

    — Ebrahim Sharif (@ebrahimsharif) March 23, 2024

    In a follow-up post, Sharif wrote that "Denial is an official policy, and the narrative of ‘a happy people’ is promoted by superficial media outlets." And further:

    "Do we believe what officials repeat and find resonance in complicit media, or do we believe what our eyes see, our ears hear, and our feelings sense about citizens living in miserable poverty, chronic unemployment, marginalization, class disparities, and housing waiting lists that extend until the end of their days?

    What the state spent on McLaren Racing last year is multiples of what it spent on housing projects. Do people die... in their overcrowded homes because you prioritize your hobbies and games over the interests of the poor?"

    It was after this last post that Sharif was summoned for an interview by Bahraini police. Commenting on the charges, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, advocacy director at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (Bird), said: “These accusations are absurd. No one should be arrested for freely expressing their views or questioning how the government is spending public funds. McLaren’s leadership must speak out on his arrest or else their brand will be stained by Bahrain’s abuses.”

    In 2004, Bahrain hosted its inaugural Grand Prix – the first one to take place in the Middle East. While the 20th anniversary of this event was celebrated at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix earlier this month, activists told MEE it marked "20 years of sportswashing"

    BREAKING: Leading opposition activist Ebrahim Sharif was arrested this morning over social media posts critical of the Bahraini government, including criticising Bahrain’s ownership of McLaren.

    The public prosecution ordered 7 day detention pending investigation on allegations… pic.twitter.com/N5LgiGf2ms

    — Sayed Ahmed AlWadaei (@SAlwadaei) March 25, 2024

    The deal to take F1 to Bahrain was struck by the motorsport’s then-supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, and the island kingdom’s crown prince, Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa. 

    Over the 20 years it has hosted the Grand Prix, Bahrain has looked to control this publicity, with political protests broken up so as not to disturb the spectacle around the motorsport, and activists harassed, detained and jailed for speaking out.

    "The Grand Prix helps them, it helps them do this," Moosa Satrawi, a Bahraini activist who told MEE he had been detained, abused and tortured for protesting unemployment in the island kingdom, said of Bahrain’s clampdown on human rights.  

    Tyler Durden Thu, 03/28/2024 - 18:20
  50. Site: The Eponymous Flower
    11 hours 24 min ago




    Edit: Saint John’s Abbey’s Preparatory School has scaled back the use of religious for instruction over the last twenty years. Instead, they’ve hired a Bosnian groomer, Martina Talic, who is suspiciously and scandalously close to a male student. Concerned fellow students and faculty made a statement to the unreliable Stearns County Sheriff.

    According to Behind the Pine Curtain, the report by the witnesses differs from Sterns County.

    Talic was engaging in predatory behavior with the male student.


    “At one point in time, Talic said [redacted] is her “bodyguard” for the day. While [redacted] was sitting on one of the chairs, Talic was sitting on the arm rest nd was constantly touching him.”

     



    On the right with the cleavage 


    “Throughout their investigation, they spoke with three adults and four students, who had the same general complaints and views. They all said Talic and [redacted] were constantly by each other and constantly touching each other.” – Stearns County Sheriff Case #24011260



     AMDG

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