CHICAGO PASTOR OFFERS APOLOGY FOR THE WAY HE CONDUCTED SAME-SEX BLESSING
You may remember this story from a couple weeks ago: A priest in Chicago last month blessed a same-sex couple,
Oil prices decline today as the last few day's rollercoaster continued after a hotter than expected PPI print, leaving WTI near nine-week lows.
Crude has been on a downward path since April, with the geopolitical risk premium from tensions in the Middle East largely evaporating. Refinery run cuts and narrowing timespreads have signaled a slightly softer market. Yet prices remain elevated for the year as OPEC and its allies restrict flows.
However, an OPEC report published Tuesday showed that OPEC+ members making extra output cuts pumped 568,000 barrels a day above their agreed limit last month. The alliance is widely expected to extend curbs at a meeting June 1.
API
Crude -3.1mm (-1.1mm exp)
Cushing -601k
Gasoline -1.27mm (unch exp)
Distillates +349k (+300k exp)
API reported a bigger than expected crude draw (and stockpiles at the Cushing hub also declined). Products saw gasoline stocks drop while distillates built...
Source: Bloomberg
WTI was hovering just above $78 - around two month lows - ahead of the API print and rallied on the data...
"(The) focus is turning to the US CPI release on Wednesday which will be a make-or-break release for the Fed and guide its next policy move," Saxo Bank noted.
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,
Joe Biden’s personal approval rating is at historic lows; almost all his policies do not poll fifty percent. He is behind Trump in almost all the swing states. And now he lies serially even to sympathetic interviewers. In short, finally Biden has been exposed for what he always was and represented.
Senator and Vice President Joe Biden was always sort of a buffoon. He is by nature a grandstander who handsomely profited from his office while posing as good ole Joe from Scranton.
He is a blowhard meddler, one who proverbially has been “wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades (Robert Gates),” from dissenting on the Bin Laden raid to his trisection of Iraq scheme.
He is a fabulist who believes that the more animated he misleads and slurs (“semi-fascists” “fat”, “lying dog-faced pony soldier”, “chumps”, “dregs of society”, etc), the more likely he is to get away with it. He is a confessed plagiarist. And he has also invented much of his biography, from would be star, college-scholarship athlete and brilliant law student to semi-truck driver and jailed civil rights activist. His uncle, we are instructed, was eaten by cannibals. Joe assures us that he was the first in his family to go to college.
And he is a racist with a repertory of racial taunts and smears unrivaled among modern politicians (“junkie”, “boy”, “you ain’t black”, “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”, “put y’all back in chains”, the Corn Pop and golden-leg hairs sagas, the “racial jungle” memes, the strange brag about Delaware as a “slave state” (e.g., "You don't know my state. My state was a slave state. My state is a border state.”), and his encomia for the old Democratic racists of the Senate from former Klansman Robert Byrd (Biden’s self-described “mentor” and “guide”) to segregationist James Eastland (“never called me boy”).
Biden has always had a mean streak that explains why for years he lied about the tragic, fatal auto accident of his first wife and child, using it to libel the truck driver, who was neither drunk nor culpable but smeared publicly for years by Biden as intoxicated and guilty. For years he ignored the pleas of the trucker’s family to please stop libeling an innocent driver.
Biden just told his greatest whopper that inflation was at 9 percent (actually 1.4 percent) when he took office and yet soon spiked to 9 percent due to his reckless deficit spending and money printing spree.
But recently Biden has reached a nadir and even the Left is resigned to him as a mere construct. After bragging after October 7 that his support for Israel was rock-solid he is now cutting off military aid as it attempts finally to end the Hamas murderous threat—a reversion to old Joe Biden who in his long past has previously threatened to cut off Israel while boasting later that anyone who did so was reprehensible. (Leveraging congressional mandated aid for political advantage is precisely the (false) allegation of politicking that the Democrats demagogued to impeach Trump—to the then cheers of Biden himself).
But his sell out of Israel is but a small tessera in his election pandering mosaic. He will again begin drawing down the strategic petroleum reserve to lower gas prices during the campaign. He has badgered Ukraine not to hit Russian oil facilities. He has illegally forgiven billions in student loan aid to regain the elite youth vote. And as the campaign season begins, so too Biden suddenly poses as a border enforcer—after letting in nearly 10-million illegal aliens.
Biden has always put the agendas of his own and his family above the national interest. We witnessed that when he bragged that he fired the Ukrainian prosecutor looking into his son’s Burisma skullduggery. The Biden consortium is corrupt and was enriched with over $25 million through foreign interests’ assurance that Senator and Vice President Joe Biden would deliver on their quid pro quo investments in him.
Any other major politician who habitually invaded the private space of women and preteens to blow on their hair, gobble their necks, squeeze and hug far too long, and be accused of sexual assault would have long since been cancelled by the left.
Add the old disturbing narrative of a naked Vice President Joe Biden exiting his pool in front of female secret service agents, the showering with his pre-teen daughter, the Frank Biden and Hunter naked selfies, and there seems something eerie among the Biden family.
Despite fierce denials, the entire lawfare scheme directed at Trump originated with the White House. Biden was always said to have been exasperated with Merrick Garland for not hastily enough going after Trump.
The misadventurous Georgia prosecutor Nathan Wade met with and was tutored by the White House counsel’s office. One of the top Biden DOJ prosecutors was dispatched to rescue the bungling Alvin Bragg farce.
Jack Smith, appointed by the Biden DOJ to go after Biden’s 2024 presidential rival, timed his indictments to coincide with the campaign season, even as Smith’s office mishandled classified files taken at Mar-a-Lago to bolster its prosecution—and then lied about it.
Hard-won American deterrence was destroyed by the humiliation in Afghanistan and the lies surrounding the disaster, the Chinese balloon flight and the misinformation about it, the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and on the Red Sea, and the accompanying disinformation from the White House.
Such recklessness abroad is the bookend to the home front where massive borrowing, the destruction of the border, crippling inflation, spiraling crime, and the epidemic of “progressive” anti-Semitism on campuses have made American almost unrecognizable.
Again, at the heart of this Biden catastrophe is the Faustian bargain of 2020 when unelectable leftist candidates dropped out in unison to use a fumbling Biden as their more presentable veneer. So he was foisted upon the nation to serve as “moderate” cover to advance a radical, veritable Obama third-term. In that sense, his duties were ceremonial—as the hard-left channeled through him the most radical agenda in U.S. history, and found his debility and dementia advantageous—the country be damned.
If Biden makes it to and through the convention, he and his record remain indefensible. And so expect his campaign largely to be waged through lawfare against Trump, and massive infusions of leftist cash to ensure record mail-in and early voting. In the campaign Biden will become an afterthought, a ghost, vapor, as his party seeks to construct the entire election one of leftwing, blue-city prosecutors, judges, and juries versus serial defendant Trump.
But will Nemesis first catch up to Biden’s long record of hubris and dishonesty?
The West has long been obsessed with China. In the 19th century, the Middle Kingdom was dominated and debauched by Western trading companies, backed by Western militaries, pushing drugs into China. Remember the Opium Wars? Those uppity Chinese had the effrontery to destroy the British India Company’s opium and try to eradicate addiction. That was China’s century of humiliation.
Now the shoe is on the other foot. China has roared past the collective West in so many metrics. The global industrial base has shifted to Asia. Deadly fentanyl coming into the United States used to flow from China, but now they make the stuff in Mexico and ship it north.
For years, the Chinese economy has been significantly larger than that of the US in the benchmark that counts: purchasing power parity. That is the “measure of the price of specific goods… to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries’ currencies.”
Conventional wisdom is that as China rises, the US fades. On the surface, that seems to be the case: the US wallows in debt and endless wars while China makes friends through the Belt and Road Initiative, BRICS and other mechanisms.
But not so fast. Remember that old saw, “demography is destiny”? The future belongs to those who show up, and by every projection, there will be a lot fewer Chinese around in the coming decades.
America’s pre-eminent imperial mouthpiece, Foreign Affairs, just posted Nicholas Eberstadt’s thought-provoking “East Asia’s Coming Population Collapse: And How It Will Reshape World Politics”. Has Mr Eberstadt derailed the mythos of long-term Asian dominance?
As of 2023, Japan[’s]… childbearing levels are over 40 percent below the replacement rate. China’s childbearing levels are almost 50 percent below the replacement rate; if that trend continues, each rising Chinese generation will be barely half as large as the one before it. Much the same is true for Taiwan.
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South Korea’s 2023 birth level was an amazing 65 percent below the replacement rate — the lowest ever for a national population in peacetime. If it does not change, in two generations South Korea will have just 12 women of childbearing age for every 100 in the country today.
East Asia… is set to shrink by two percent between 2020 and 2035. Between 2035 and 2050, it will contract by another six percent — and thereafter by another seven percent for each successive decade (if current trends hold).
If projections hold, China’s working-age population will be more than 20 percent smaller in 2050 than in 2020. Japan’s and Taiwan’s will be about 30 percent smaller, and South Korea will be over 35 percent smaller.
Grim. The Asians know it. Eberstadt says that East Asia “is set on a course of decline that extends as far as the demographer’s eye can see.” Sadly, he is correct.
Though his field is obstetrics and gynecology, one of the most astute sinologists around is University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Yi Fuxian. Prof. Yi is as pro-Chinese as they come, but not a fan of China’s government. His book Big Country with an Empty Nest warns about China’s impending demographic implosion.
LifeNews Note: Louis T. March has a background in government, business, and philanthropy. A former talk show host, author, and public speaker, he is a dedicated student of history and genealogy. Louis lives with his family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. This column originally appeared at MercatorNet.
The post China’s Massive Underpopulation Crisis: China’s Birth Rates are 50% Below Replacement Rate appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Hot PPI initially spooked markets (yields and dollar up, stocks down) but that faded fast (on lower revisions) - but the stag-flation trend continues this week...
Source: Bloomberg
Powell did briefly spook stocks around 1030ET with the following comment:
"it's a possibility - but I dont think it will be the case - that the next action we take will be a rate hike... most likely we will stay the course...."
Between that comment (basically jawboning away any rate hikes) and the CPI-related components within PPI actually looking positive (well actually not positive and thus implying CPI may come softer), we actually saw rate-cut expectations rise today. 2024 now pricing in almost two cuts and 2025 now pricing in just over three cuts...
Source: Bloomberg
Goldman's John Flood noted that trading volumes finally tracking higher +31% vs the 20dma, with ETF’s capturing 25% of the overall tape.
Floor skews +106bps better to buy with HFs +100bps better to buy (squeezes in consumer discretionary + ETF buying driving this) while LOs -300bps better for sale (selling tech + industrials), but overall flows here feel muted.
Another big day for the 'meme stocks'...
Source: Bloomberg
...with AMC and SunPower (among others) joining GameStop
Source: Bloomberg
All of which means that 'indicative' hedge funds were clubbed like a baby seal for the second straight day - down a stunning 15% at the lows of the day...
And that meant several crowded longs (ABDE, V, SHOP) were hit as the squeeze in shorts forced de-grossing overall...
Source: Bloomberg
Small Caps were the winners today (and Dow was the laggard) but all the majors ended higher on the day. The Nasdaq closed at a record high...
The basket of MAG7 stocks broke out to new record highs today...
Source: Bloomberg
Treasury yields kneejerked higher on the PPI print then swiftly reversed to all end lower on the day by 3-4bps...
Source: Bloomberg
The dollar drifted back to the week's lows - after a brief spike higher on PPI...
Source: Bloomberg
The dollar's loss was gold's gain...
Source: Bloomberg
Bitcoin erased yesterday's gains which erased Friday's losses...
Source: Bloomberg
The roller-coaster in crude prices continues - today was back down again, with WTI finding support at $78...
Source: Bloomberg
Copper closed at a record high today...
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, spot the odd one out - Nasdaq at record highs while US macro data at its weakest in two years...
Source: Bloomberg
Financial Conditions are as easy as they've been in years...and Fed Funds are at 23 year highs...
Source: Bloomberg
...will you be the greater fool?
It looks as though Elon Musk may have slightly overshot the mark with cost cutting at Tesla.
The company, which saw layoffs number in the tens of thousands so far this year, is now hiring back some of the 500 workers from its Supercharger team it let go, according to Autoblog/Bloomberg.
Max de Zegher, the director of charging for North America, has returned to his role, according the report. This move follows the termination of Rebecca Tinucci, the senior director, and most of the charging team by Elon Musk last month.
The electric vehicle industry was shaken by Musk's abrupt dissolution of the charging team, as Tesla’s Superchargers have been considered one of the company's most strategic assets.
Since the introduction of its first Superchargers in September 2012, Tesla has expanded its network to include over 6,200 stations and 57,000 connectors globally. The extent of rehiring laid-off workers remains unclear, and both Musk and de Zegher have not commented on the matter.
As we have written about extensively, over the past year, Tesla has successfully persuaded competitors to adopt its charging plugs as a standard and has formed partnerships with major global manufacturers to allow access to its charging network.
Musk committed last week to invest more than $500 million this year to expand Tesla's charging network. Prior to this commitment, he had indicated a plan to slow down the addition of new chargers, focusing instead on the maintenance and efficiency of existing sites.
On May 10, the @TeslaCharging account on X — a social media platform owned by Musk — posted a message expressing gratitude to charging site hosts and suppliers for their patience during the company’s restructuring. De Zegher echoed this sentiment by reposting the message.
As Bloomberg notes, this isn't the first time Musk has "overdone it" with layoffs. In 2019, he reversed a decision to close most of Tesla's retail stores and move sales online after facing resistance from landlords, subsequently raising vehicle prices. A similar reversal occurred at Twitter in late 2022 when, after laying off about half of the workforce, Musk asked dozens of employees to return.
Recall, Tesla announced in April it was cutting over 10% of its 140,000-strong global workforce to prepare for a new phase of growth, according to CNBC.
Details on the layoffs were sparse, but in a company memo, Elon Musk said the move was part of a strategic shift towards robotaxi development, stepping away from plans for a more affordable electric vehicle.
The myth of the “safe” abortion procedure has been debunked again – not once, or even twice, but three times at the notorious late-term abortion clinic Cherry Hill Women’s Center (CHWC) in New Jersey. Thanks to pro-lifers and prayer warriors who stood outside as eyewitnesses, Operation Rescue received information about three ambulances seen at this clinic between early March and April.
When trying to secure 911 records through the New Jersey Open Public Records Act (OPRA) to report about these emergencies, Operation Rescue received audio clips from the City of Cherry Hill. As in the past, the audio files only contained fragments of the public record emergency calls, instead of the complete records. Nevertheless, the essence of the issues can still be heard.
In these clips, the 911 dispatcher could be heard asking the EMS team for an ambulance to be sent to the abortion facility. In other instances, the caller from CHWC can be heard asking for an ambulance before being transferred to the EMS team.
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First Emergency, ‘Bleeding:’
On March 6, 2024, the Cherry Hill Dispatcher can be heard asking for an ambulance for a 35-year-old “pregnant woman” reported to be bleeding. The circumstances are somewhat vague, but it is clear this was a case of a second trimester abortion. This procedure is usually performed in two sessions and involves more risks than procedures performed during the first trimester, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine.
Among the risks of second trimester abortions, hemorrhage and blood clots are two of the most frequent. Operation Rescue is constantly reporting about this kind of emergency.
What remains unknown is whether the procedure was finalized and whether the baby survived, since the dispatcher mentions that the patient is “pregnant.”
Second Emergency, Signs of ‘Early Sepsis:’
Two weeks after the first botched abortion, on March 22, 2024, another emergency was reported at CHWC. In this instance a 23-year-old woman was reported to have apparent signs of “early sepsis” with typical symptoms like fever and a fast heartbeat.
Sepsis is a life-threatening bodily response to an infection, caused by bacteria in most cases. This response can cause damage to vital organs.
A septic abortions can result from the use of non-sterile surgical equipment and abortion techniques, according to Merck Manuals, the medical reference books published by Merck Co. since 1899. Sepsis is more frequent when this type of procedure is performed by untrained physicians, but it can also happen when an abortion is incomplete and the woman becomes infected after dilation due to an open cervical OS (the cervix in the lower part of the uterus that connects the uterus to the vagina).
Because an infection usually progresses to sepsis in 12 to 24 hours, it is uncertain if the woman was at the abortion facility for the second day of her late-term abortion appointment. In any case, the emergency was real and not to be handled carelessly. Whether the woman survived afterwards or passed away is unknown.
Third Emergency, Yet Another Case of ‘Bleeding:’
Almost a month later, on April 17, 2024, CHWC struck again. A caller from the clinic asked the 911 dispatcher for an ambulance, this time for another case of ‘bleeding.’ In fact, the clinic staff can be heard saying something that sounds like “post mortal” or “post mortem” bleeding – something that does not make sense at all and makes one wonder if she knows what she is talking about.
In this audio fragment, there are less details than in the other emergencies, so it is not possible to know what caused the bleeding, whether this was the result of a uterine perforation, another botched late-term abortion, retained fetal body pieces, or something else.
Nonetheless, due to the close proximity in time and the similarities among the emergencies, questions arise regarding the expertise and experience of the “physician” – a.k.a abortionist. Is he or she licensed? Are they training someone new? Does he or she utilize sterile instruments or follow medical protocol? Do they even know how to perform late-term abortions?
“The Abortion Cartel does not care about women, or women’s rights, let alone healthcare,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “They care about the money – blood money.
“Abortionists are in the business of death and will do whatever they have to do to increase their profits.” “They don’t care if they use old equipment, non-sterile or reused tools, or if the ‘doctor’ on staff is actually someone qualified. We will continue to unmask this grisly cartel and show the reality of this dreadful business.”
LifeNews Note: Ricardo Pinedo writes for Operation Rescue.
The post Abortion Clinic Injures Three Women in Two Months in Botched Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,
A new report reveals that over half of the population of illegal aliens that have come into the United States under Joe Biden’s watch are unemployed, thus creating an even greater strain on the country.
As reported by Breitbart, the report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released on Monday revealed that only 46% of illegals who came to the U.S. “in 2022 or later” were employed at the start of 2024.
“Immigration clearly adds workers to the country, but it just as clearly adds non-workers who need to be supported by the labor of others,” said CIS researchers Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler in the report.
“This was the case in the past, it is true today, and it will surely be the case for immigrants who arrive in the future. Those who simply see immigration as a source of labor need to understand it is also a source of school children, retirees, and many other non-workers.”
The numbers in CIS’s report appear to debunk one of the most common arguments used by advocates of mass migration and open borders, who claim that illegals must be brought into the country to fill jobs that American citizens will not do.
Furthermore, CIS reported that the population of illegals in the U.S. has risen by at least 6.6 million since Joe Biden first took power in January of 2021. As of March of this year, there are over 51.6 million foreign-born illegals in the country, an increase of approximately 5.1 million since 2022. This accounts for at least 15.6% of the entire population of the United States.
“Many advocates for the unauthorized argue they should be given work permits so they can support themselves while they await a court date,” the report noted.
“Of course, others worry that this would only incentivize more illegal immigration. In 2024, a larger share of new arrivals were unauthorized relative to prior years due to the ongoing border crisis.”
CIS previously released a study debunking the Biden Administration’s attempts at claiming that it has overseen job growth in recent years, as many of the new jobs created were filled by illegals rather than American citizens; the number of employed Americans has actually decreased under Biden’s watch, falling even below pre-COVID levels.
After a weekend of the strongest solar storms to rock the planet in years, producing aurora across Europe, the United States, and as far as New Zealand, there is news the sun just burped its largest solar flare of Solar Cycle 25, according to space weather website Solarham.
"The largest solar flare of the current solar cycle 25, and largest since 2017 was just observed around deparing AR 3664 off the west limb. The X8.7 event peaked at 16:51 UTC (May 14) causing a strong R3 level radio blackout directly over North America," Solarham wrote.
Solarham continued: "A filament located in the northeast quadrant erupted earlier today and produced a light bulb shaped CME. So far the blast appears to be headed mostly north of the Sun-Earth line. A further update will be provided whenever necessary."
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center wrote this solar flare was the largest of the cycle cycle (and the 17th most intense solar flare ever recorded). They said the flare was a "behemoth X8.7-class flare let loose from the very infamous parting Active Region 3664. It is the most intense flare seen since 2017."
The largest solar flare of the current solar cycle (and the 17th most intense solar flare ever recorded!) occurred momentarily ago as a behemoth X8.7-class flare let loose from the very infamous parting Active Region 3664. It is the most intense flare seen since 2017. #spacewx pic.twitter.com/WBp5DvQooB
— Space Weather Watch (@spacewxwatch) May 14, 2024SWPC highlighted some good news: the solar flare was not directly facing Earth.
No, and that’s the interesting thing—it may have been even more intense if it wasn’t partially eclipsed. Storms launched from this region aren’t very likely to get Earth but the radiational / X-ray piece still is
— Space Weather Watch (@spacewxwatch) May 14, 2024One X user responded to SWPC:
"If this happened when this group was earth-facing, during all the other craziness, this could have been remarkably bad."
If this happened when this group was earth facing, during all the other craziness, this could have been remarkably bad
— Michael Puscar (@michaelapuscar) May 14, 2024About one year ago, solar physicist Alex James at the University of College London warned that the sun's increase in solar activity was a sign that the solar maximum could arrive much sooner than anticipated.
All this evidence suggests that Solar Cycle 25 is "going to peak earlier, and it's going to peak higher than expected," James said.
Here is a graph of Solar Cycle 25.
In 2016, the federal government became increasingly serious about potential grid-down events produced by solar storms with an executive order signed by the Obama Administration titled "Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events."
While the nation's power grid, SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation, and other communication networks involving space-based transmission all survived the weekend solar blast, some disruptions were reported, including GPS and short-wave radio.
Sigh...
Joe Biden supports abortions up to birth. He’s supported it countless times, he’s said repeatedly he doesn’t support any limits on abortion and his own policies promote abortions without limits throughout pregnant.
Yet when asked about recent comments from independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supporting “full-term abortions,” Biden’s spokeswoman gave a double answer.
She claimed Biden doesn’t support such abortions, and then admitted he does.
“No, the president doesn’t support full-term abortions, as he’s made clear many times. He thinks Roe got it right,” said Lauren Hitt, a senior spokesperson for the campaign.
Roe allowed full-term abortions unless states prohibited abortions after viability. Which means Biden supports full-term abortions. Because if states didn’t take actions to stop abortions post-viability, babies could be killed in abortions up to birth.
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Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of the pro-life group SBA List, says Biden supporting Roe means Biden supports abortions up to birth.
“Roe had wide open exceptions allowing late term abortion on healthy babies as Biden and his team know full well. And pro-abortion studies show that’s the norm for late term,” she said on X (Twitter).
And before the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs decision overturning Roe, several states dropped all limits on abortions – thus allowing full-term abortions under Roe. And Biden fully supports that.
Moreover, several states have voted for abortions up to birth in the two years following Dobbs. Biden has not condemned a single state for passing such measures. Not once has Biden condemned any pro-abortion state and said abortions up to birth should be limited.
So while Biden’s campaign can lie to the media and claim he opposes full-term abortions, the reality is Biden supports abortions up to birth. And he hides behind the Roe comments because he knows that a very, very small percentage of Americans supports full-term abortions like he and Kennedy.
The post Joe Biden’s Campaign Confirms He Supports Abortions Up to Birth appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Last week, Peter appeared on This Week in Mining with Jay Martin. Jay and Peter discuss the state of the economy, the government’s assault on sound money, and why the mining sector constitutes a good investment.
Early on in the interview, Peter lays out the dilemma the Federal Reserve will face in the near future:
“Inflation is going to get much stronger as the economy weakens and enters recession... Then the Fed has to choose, and it’s going to be at the point where it’s damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. But it’s going to have to make a choice, a very unpopular choice. Does it fight inflation, which means much higher rates than the rates we have now (the rates we have now are not high enough)?
Does the Fed hike rates even though there’s a recession and even though the hikes will make this recession worse and potentially cause a massive financial crisis?
...Or will the Fed ignore the inflation problem and try to rescue the economy by creating more inflation?”
As the government continues to grow and encroach on individual liberty, Peter explains what would happen if gold is ever outlawed, as it was in the 1930s:
“There always will be a market. If it’s illegal, then there’s a black market. People sell all kinds of drugs in this country, and they’re not legal. But there are plenty of buyers. It just means the market is underground, and of course, even if it’s illegal in America, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be illegal in every country, so there will be plenty of legal gold markets. If they ever make it illegal to own gold, the one thing you want to own is gold. They’re not going to make it illegal because nobody wants it and the price is really low, right? They’re going to make it illegal because everybody is buying gold and it’s really expensive.”
They also discuss central bank digital currencies, the latest fad in authoritarianism:
“The more power you give to the government to interfere with the economy, the worse the economy is going to be, because you don’t want the government to interfere at all. The smaller the government, the better. But central bank digital currencies are just a way to make government a lot bigger and a lot more powerful and a lot more intrusive and a lot more oppressive, and so I don’t want it! Actually, ideally, I don’t want the government involved in money at all. I think it should just be created by the private sector.”
It’s important that citizens recognize the true cause of inflation:
“People don’t realize that the government is the source of inflation. And Wall Street and academia helped fool the public by talking about inflation as if it were rising prices. And they talk about ‘food price inflation,’ ‘healthcare inflation,’ ‘housing inflation,’ right? All this stuff is designed to push the blame for inflation onto the farmer, onto businesses, onto labor unions. All inflation has only one source, and that’s government.”
Both Jay and Peter see opportunity in the mining sector, especially if gold stays on its current trajectory:
“If all of a sudden a lot of gold that is unprofitable to mine at, let’s say even $2300 an ounce, when gold is $5000, $10000, wherever it’s going to be, even though the costs of mining will have gone up, they’re not going to go up anywhere near that proportion. So I think [gold] reserves that may be valued at zero are going to be worth billions of dollars on the books of these companies. So I think that’s a huge call option that’s free in these gold mining stocks.”
Royalty companies like Franco-Nevada offer investors additional protection from rising costs in the mining sector at the expense of reduced exposure to the price of gold:
“Look at the leader, Franco-Nevada. I mean look at where Franco-Nevada was 10 years ago, and look at where it’s at today. It’s a huge gain! But then look at Barrick and Newmont and all these other stocks— they’re lower than they were 10 years ago. Why? Because they got killed by rising costs. But Franco-Nevada didn’t have to deal with the costs. They just got the benefit of the rising price.”
Listeners interested in the mining sector will especially enjoy this interview, so make sure to watch the entire program at VRIC Media.
By Ahmed Bin Sulayem
Since its establishment in 2005, the Dubai Commodities Clearing Corporation (DCCC) has been the central counterparty for clearing and settlement services to the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX). Emerging as the largest clearing house in the MENA region by volume, DCCC is now poised to play a far more multinational role in line with the transition of economic power from west to east, while providing a broader range of products and services.
Why the DCCC?
As a wholly owned subsidiary of DGCX, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, DCCC’s success may have started out of functionality, but has since expanded to provide a streamlined mechanism for its members with numerous competitive advantages. Outside of providing guaranteed settlement and reduced counterparty risk, DCCC also offers the advantages of transacting and clearing business within the UAE, thus benefiting from a strong and safe business and regulatory environment. For greater transparency and predictability, DCCC also operates a simplified fee structure that applies to all clearing members, including identical margins regardless of commercial or non-commercial status. Overlapping across Asian, European and U.S. trading hours, DCCC’s robust regulation, under the Securities & Commodities Authority (SCA), recognition by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the Bank of England, and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and membership of CCP Global have further minimised systemic risk, while enhancing efficiency for its clients. Providing clearing and settlement services for derivative contracts across four asset classes, namely base and precious metals, hydrocarbons, currencies, and equities, DCCC’s consistent investment in state-of-the-art risk management systems, such as ActiveRisk, have enhanced its regulatory compliance in line with the Principles for Financial Markets Infrastructure (PFMI) and technical standards under European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR). As a result, DCCC has achieved several notable milestones since its launch, including clearing 175,690,385 contracts between 2005 – 2023, while becoming one of the most prominent offshore exchanges for INR Futures and the first Shari’ah-compliant spot gold contract exchange. By working with a list of approved clearing banks, DCCC trades an extensive list of currency pairs that require physical delivery on all open positions, with most currencies being settled in USDs. As an additional transparency measure, delivery of the Shari’ah Spot Gold contract takes place through DMCC’s Tradeflow, a dedicated online platform for registering ownership of commodities and their subsequent transfers.
A Change In Economic Supply and Demand
As the world’s reserve currency for almost eighty years, DCCC’s historic default for settling contracts in U.S. dollars has always made sense. As a functional currency in most economies, even heavily sanctioned ones such as Russia, the U.S. dollar remains a stalwart for trade and commerce, however, in recent years its influence has waned through a culmination of geopolitical and geostrategic shifts, particularly in the currency and oil & gas markets.
According to Meera Chandan, Co-Head of the Global FX Strategy research team at J.P. Morgan, “Overall dollar usage has declined, but it remains within long-run ranges and its share remains elevated compared to other currencies. The dollar’s transactional dominance remains top-of-class despite secular declines in U.S. trade shares. On the other hand, de-dollarization is evident in FX reserves, where the dollar’s share has declined to a record low of 58%.”
Twilight of the Petrodollar
Where oil & gas is concerned, J.P. Morgan’s Head of Global Commodities Strategy, Natasha Kaneva commented, “The U.S. dollar, one of the key drivers of global oil prices, appears to be losing its once powerful influence.” Highlighting how oil & gas has continued to follow the path of least resistance, Kaneva went on to say, “Crucially, Russian oil is now either sold in the local currencies of the buyers or in the currencies of countries that Russia perceives as friendly.” Supporting Kaneva’s position, a J.P Morgan de-dollarisation report went on to say, “Major Russian commodity producers have started issuing bonds in yuan. In September 2022, state-owned oil company Rosneft made a public offering of 10 billion yuan in bonds, followed by a second tranche of 15 billion yuan in March 2023.”
As a movement that is by no means limited to Russia, other countries appear to be following suit. As illustrated in the same report: “Some Indian refiners have begun paying for Russian oil purchased via Dubai-based traders in dirhams, while others are considering doing so in yuan. Saudi Arabia is reportedly exploring the acceptance of payments in other currencies.”
While some may identify de-dollarisation as a recurrent, post-war theme, there is growing sentiment that the carrot of seizing some measure of inflationary control and the stick of sanctions means a complete incentivisation for nations to follow through for an alternative. Not only are there widespread concerns about the United States’ reckless domestic policies on printing money, but its treatment of Russia as a cautionary tale of the sort of disruption less resource-rich, dollar dependent nations could face. As highlighted by Thomas Fazi, the freezing of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves, “violated an almost sacred principle: the neutrality of international reserves”. Even more indicatively, many countries didn’t follow suit in applying sanctions, but instead “quietly started strengthening their ties with Russia and China in an effort to reduce their dependence on the dollar-centric system”. Good examples include Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina, which since July 2023, have been paying for imports and exports using Chinese renminbi, or Indian Oil’s rupee payment for a million barrels from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in the same month.
Return of the Gold Rush
As a further indicator of global sentiment, the en masse gold rush of the world’s central banks, particularly in the face of a strong dollar and falling inflation expectations, would suggest many macroeconomies believe now is a good time to hedge. Led by China, which has been stockpiling gold for 17 consecutive months, other nations including Singapore and Poland have also been buying in large quantities, propelling the price to USD 2,430 per ounce, with many gold bugs anticipating highs beyond USD 3,000 before the next business cycle shift. Amid the global uncertainty, those buying gold are also cautious about where it should be kept. Again, driven by the U.S.-led sanctions against Russia, “an increasing number of countries are repatriating gold reserves as protection against the sort of sanctions imposed by the West on Russia”, according to an Invesco survey of central bank and sovereign wealth funds published in July last year. As a result, the survey showed a “substantial share” of central banks were concerned by the precedent that had been set with 68 per cent of respondents stating they will be keeping their reserves at home, compared to 50 per cent in 2020.
A Centralised, Trustworthy, Apolitical Ecosystem
With the global economies in a state of transition, the UAE has emerged as a centralised destination for people and businesses. Whether through companies establishing trading hubs, or HNWIs hedging their assets and or liabilities in a transparent jurisdiction, the UAE has achieved a state of global neutrality, while offering considerable advantages for its residents and investors. As illustrated by H.E Abdulla bin Touq, the UAE’s Minister of Economy, "The UAE has established itself as a leading global financial hub that offers all enablers for success for the business sector, investors, and start-ups from around the world. This was made possible by a resilient economic legislative ecosystem, a competitive, attractive, and stable business environment and the further development of infrastructure to be among the best globally." Commenting on the back of the announcement that UAE business licenses linked to creative activities alone had reached 932,000 registrations by the end of H1 2023, similar figures were echoed throughout the UAE’s free zone communities. DMCC achieved record growth with 2,692 new companies joining its community, accounting for 11 per cent of Dubai’s total FDI inflows in 2023, while DCCC cleared a total value of more than USD 115bn.
A Catalyst for Change
As a result, DCCC finds itself in the unique position of being the only regional institution that can transparently handle the clearing and settlement services for bullion, oil & gas, and currency pairs, while retaining the ability to create new products in line with both local and international demand. A great example of this being the recent launch of the GCC’s first Shari’ah compliant Silver Spot Contract. With many different global banks and brokerage houses already listed as clients, DCCC’s highly regulated environment also means significant advantages and or opportunities for its members, specifically across the asset classes mentioned. Most importantly, however, DCCC has no restrictions when it comes to creating any number or types of product for any market, providing the necessary localised permissions are granted. As a result, it offers a significant advantage over its peers when it comes to creating versatile, market-led products that may fall into high demand in the short to mid-term.
For gold, DCCC not only provides the clearing and settlements services, but by extension a secure and accessible destination in which to keep it. Home to the MENA region’s largest vault and several of the world’s largest refiners, DMCC also works closely with logistical operators such as Brinks and Transguard, while Dubai’s two international airports mean fast and direct access either for import or export purposes. Supported by its Tradeflow system, Dubai is already home to 25 per cent of the world’s gold trade, while the volume of gold contracts cleared through DCCC exceeded USD 4.97bn in 2023.
For currencies, as mentioned, DCCC has zero restrictions in creating new currency products, meaning its ability to launch new pairings, with the express permission of each sovereign state and the necessary, regulatory approvals. This could further extend to provide investment opportunities for either gold-backed currencies in the future or even a basket of currencies made of the BRICS+ nations, which could be priced in accordance with GDP.
For oil & gas, as already illustrated through India’s accelerating CEPA-based relationship with the UAE, DCCC is also ready for countries to purchase hydrocarbon products to be settled in their domestic currencies, thereby cutting transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions.
A Business-First Environment
While much of the world has continued towards greater uncertainty, the UAE has worked on creating greater security through a highly regulated, safe, and secure destination that upholds the traditional requirements of transparent business under the rule of international law. Since departing FATF’s grey list earlier this year, business has continued to surge, while its international ranking for safety and trustworthiness continues to rise. This includes its recognition as one of the most trusted countries in the world according to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report.
With 2024 tipped not just as an election year, but “perhaps the election year” according to Time, the fact that 64 nations, plus the European Union all head to the polls will indisputably lead to greater volatility. This, coupled with the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, has already resulted in more countries and institutional investors seeking not just a place to weather the storm but prepare for what lies ahead. In this capacity, DCCC and its parent companies represent one of the last safe harbours that are prepared for business-as-usual, no matter the outcome.
In December 2022, Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), a pro-life bill that aimed to make the workplace more accessible to pregnant women by requiring employers to provide accommodations to pregnant workers under The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This bill was implemented at the end of June 2023.However, the Biden administration is manipulating the bill’s language to require that employers provide accommodations for abortion.
The PWFA requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations to a worker’s known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, unless the accommodation will cause the employer an undue hardship.” However, the bill does not define what is considered a “reasonable accommodation,” or what is considered a “related medical condition.”
Although the measure was meant to help and support pregnant women, Biden officials are manipulating it to promote abortion.
As a result, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a new rule last week that would warp and twist the federal law to impose pro-abortion regulations on virtually every employer in the country, even those whose religious beliefs dictate that life begins at conception.
Now, two attorneys general have filed a new lawsuit to stop Biden’s new rule and its radical abortion agenda.
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Attorneys General Lynn Fitch (Mississippi) and Liz Murrill (Louisiana) filed suit yesterday challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) attempt to hijack the protections of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to promote the Biden Administration’s effort to impose a national abortion regime.
“The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was a bipartisan effort to help women in the workplace while they are pregnant and following childbirth,” said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. “But the Biden Administration is threatening to derail commonsense measures, like adequate seating, bathroom and water breaks, and relaxed dress codes, by reading into the law required accommodations for elective abortion, even where that overrides the will of the people or the religious liberty of the employer. This Administration will stop at nothing to undo the Dobbs decision, which gave the people back their power over abortion policymaking, and to impose a national abortion regime.”
“The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was originally a bipartisan law passed by Congress to support mothers. This new action by the EEOC is another example of bureaucrats rewriting acts of Congress to their own liking, and it’s unconstitutional. We will continue to challenge this administration’s overreach and protect pregnant women,” said Attorney General Liz Murrill.
In their suit, the Attorneys General explain how the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act fills a gap between the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires employers to offer affirmative accommodations to workers experiencing qualifying disabilities; and the Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides unpaid extended leave for a serious health condition, such as pregnancy or childbirth, for qualified employees.
The new law was supported by a broad coalition of organizations, including pro-life groups like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which stated that the law would advance its “goal of ensuring that no woman ever feels forced to choose between her future and the life of her child while protecting the conscience rights and religious freedoms of employers.” During debate on the law, Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) specifically rejected the position the EEOC has embraced in this rule when he stated, “under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the [EEOC] could not – could not – issue any regulation that requires abortion leave, nor does the act permit the EEOC to require employers to provide abortions in violation of State law.”
The complaint, which can be read here, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
The post Attorneys General File Lawsuit Against New Biden Rule Forcing Employers to Fund Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Cocoa futures in New York crashed for the second time in just days as liquidity evaporated, and a new weather forecast points to improved weather conditions for top producers of the bean in West Africa.
The most active cocoa contract in New York plunged 19% on Monday, recovering some losses on Tuesday, up about 5%. This followed the cocoa crash on May 1 of 18%.
Cocoa prices are retracing at the 61.8% Fibo level from this year's record surge from $4,000 a ton to $12,000. The rollercoaster price action continues to propel 60-day historical volatility higher.
Bloomberg said the driver in the latest cocoa crash was due to a weather forecast of increased "rainfall boosting the outlook for crops" and "low open interest in cocoa markets."
Donald Keeney, senior meteorologist at Maxar Technologies, said rains "should improve conditions quite a bit" across Ghana, the world's second-biggest grower, and Indonesia. He said the top producer, Ivory Coast, will also receive rainfall, adding that more precipitation is needed to reverse arid conditions across the world's top-producing cocoa farms.
More from Bloomberg:
A lack of moisture in top West African cocoa producers has weighed on supply in a market already hit by aging trees and disease. Prices saw a 9% recovery last week, with money managers boosting their net-bullish bets to a three-week high. Still, some expect that a record price set in mid-April will mark the peak of the historic rally.
Producers in Ivory Coast are worried that thunderstorms may pluck off the few flowers on trees and hamper plant growth. The mid-crop harvest is small in southeast Ivory coast compared with last year. Rains are making it difficult to transport beans to Ivorian cities, while smuggling is still taking place across the border to take advantage of better prices. In Cameroon, bean theft is an increasing problem. That's prompting farmers to dry beans for a shorter period, which may impact quality. In southeast Nigeria, the rains have ensured that the soil is getting its moisture back. In the southwest, trees are yet to respond to the rains. The delay in flowering is the result of the use of the wrong anti-fungal chemicals by farmers in previous years, one grower in Ondo state said.
Days ago, Rabobank analyst Paul Joules said cocoa prices have likely peaked:
"A combination of weakening global demand and production responses, particularly from countries without a fixed farmgate price, will help alleviate the pronounced uncertainty baked into current futures pricing," Joules said.
Still, "it's likely that inflated cocoa prices will stick around for the next few years," he noted, adding prices are unlikely to return to "normal" levels quickly but have passed their peak.
Remember what Bloomberg's Javier Blas warned about last month:
Liquidity in cocoa markets is quickly evaporating.
The number of outstanding contracts (open interest) in New York and London combined has tumbled 40% since mid-January. NY open interest is at a 12-year low.#cocoa #chocflation
Meanwhile, commodity trader Pierre Andurand stands by his $20,000 price target for later this year.
For the past nine months, our client Lauren Handy has been languishing in jail awaiting her formal sentencing hearing…
Lauren was put on trial by the Biden Department of Justice in August 2023 and convicted of violating the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act.
The Biden DOJ tacked on charges of engaging in a felony “Conspiracy Against Rights” to make sure she would face a potential sentence of up to 11 years… All for courageously and peaceably standing her ground to protect life.
A federal jury in heavily pro-abortion Washington, D.C. found her guilty. What’s more, she was wrongly branded “violent felon,” and the DOJ unjustly locked her up immediately after she was convicted.
Today, after months of waiting, we stood alongside Lauren in federal court for her formal sentencing hearing…
There’s no way to sugarcoat this: Lauren was just sentenced to a brutal 57 months in federal prison!
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This is a grave miscarriage of justice. This is all because Lauren and her co-defendants participated in a rescue at notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo’s Washington, D.C. facility…
Lauren was utterly peaceable in her civil disobedience that day. She believed, with good reason, that babies were being born alive and left to die inside Santangelo’s abortion mill. She had to take a stand—her conscience could not let her ignore the plight of her preborn brothers and sisters inside Santangelo’s facility.
Here’s what Lauren said this morning:
“Yes, this time has been challenging but I refuse to be jaded. Why? Because life goes on… even in jail. So I might as well continue to love and cry and scream and dance. That is joy. The feeling of being fully alive without shame. Which is something no court can take from me. So today, I am at peace with myself and my future.”
For her peaceful protest, the Biden DOJ came after her with the entire weight and might of the United States government. Even convicted drug dealers get better treatment than peaceful pro-lifers like Lauren…
We cannot let Lauren languish in prison for the next four years. Our fight for Lauren’s freedom is far from over. Here at Thomas More Society, we are putting together a hard-hitting appeal for Lauren and her co-defendants—to challenge their unjust convictions.
Now that Lauren has been formally sentenced, we have the green light to continue forward with our massive appeal to attack this terrible injustice.
Our appeal will go even further and attack the root of the problem: The Biden DOJ’s weaponization of the FACE Act. We believe the FACE Act is unconstitutional and that Lauren’s convictions must be overturned. And we’re going to court to fight for it to be ruled unconstitutional.
This fight is critical to protecting pro-life advocates nationwide against a weaponized DOJ that seeks to scare our pro-lifers into hiding. Thank you for all that you do. Please keep Lauren in your prayers as we continue this battle for her freedom.
LifeNews Note: Tom Brejcha is the President & Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society.
The post Joe Biden Putting Peaceful Pro-Life Americans in Prison is a Horrible Travesty of Justice appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Did The Dulles Brothers Seal Our Fate?
Paul Craig Roberts
The “Soviet Threat” which became Washington’s foreign policy mindset was a self-serving creation of Allen and Foster Dulles. The threat posed by their creation and its recreation by the US neoconservatives await us unaddressed.
Some years ago I reviewed Stephen Kinzer’s book, The Brothers, an extraordinary account of two men long serving at the top of the US government, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA Director Allen Dulles. Both were appointed to office by President Eisenhower. Allen Dulles was the Director of the CIA, and John Foster Dulles was the Secretary of State. The two men became in effect the government of the United States. No one dared stand against them.
Both men used their power in service of their powerful laws firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, the dominant firm in the world. Both are examples of the privatization of government to serve private interests. Any foreign government who got in the way of their firm’s interest, they plotted to overthrow and did.
To justify their use of the US government in service to the clients of their law firm, the brothers invented the “communist threat of world subversion” and inaugurated the Cold War. The brothers came up with six monsters to destroy.
The first was the first democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, certainly no communist. Mossadegh’s offense was that he nationalized Iranian oil, thus angering the British government. He also angered the brothers. Sullivan & Cromwell’s client, the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corp, was the financial agent for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company on whose board Allen sat. The nationalization of Iranian oil also disrupted Foster’s activities in behalf of Chase Manhatten Bank.
And more followed. Allen Dulles had negotiated for Sullivan & Cromwell’s client, Overseas Consultants Inc, an Iranian development plan from which the law firm and its client expected to earn massive profits together with an ideal base for John Foster Dulles to project American influence throughout Iran and the Middle East. But the Iranian legislature supported Mossadegh and vetoed the project.
Thus Mossadegh’s fate was sealed.
He was easily overthrown. A narrative was created and opinion manipulated. Allen Dulles formed an overthrow team that paid US tax dollars to street thugs to attack the government, as the US did in the “Maidan revolution” in Ukraine. Foster Dulles created a propaganda campaign against Mossadegh presenting him as a weak leader about to be overthrown by Soviet agents. The story fed to President Eisenhower, Congress, and media was that Iran was in danger of being lost to expansionist communism.
It worked. This success of the brothers’ ability to easily manipulate the US government, parts of the Iranian population, and the insouciant American public gave us Iran’s enmity and the Cold War, which in its resurrected state after Reagan buried it threatens to bury us.
The brothers’ next target was Guatemala’s first democratically elected government. Guatemala, long ruled by Sullivan & Cromwell’s client, United Fruit Company, decided with its free election to take Guatemala’s rule out of the United Fruit Company’s hands. The new president, Jacobo Arbenz, nationalized fallow land held by United Fruit in order to put the resources in service to the country.
This sealed Arbenz’s doom.
Arbenz said he was concerned with Guatemala, not with international ideological rivalries. His statement gave Foster Dulles the opportunity to create a new threat to America–“creeping neutralism”–later defined by George W. Bush as “you are with us or against us.”
Being against us, Arbenz was quickly turned into a communist by the brothers and the American media the brothers easily controlled. Arbenz, a nationalist leader, was turned into a communist whose beach-head into the Americas would seal our doom. Eisenhower, Congress and the media bought the official narrative hook, line, and sinker.
Allen created a fake “liberation army” and a fake radio station to report non-existent advances in Guatemala’s liberation against the alleged communist regime of Arbenz. Allen used US planes to bomb Guatemala military bases to make the armed rebellion look real.
But it wasn’t working. Poor illiterate Guatemalans were not as insouciant as Americans. So the brothers got American Cardinal Francis Spellman, the most prominent Catholic prelate in the US, to issue a pastoral letter designed to portray a nationalist leader as a communist. Priests read Spellman’s letter to their congregations, and the newspapers carried it throughout the country. As Kinzer says, it is “a masterpiece of propaganda, steeped in the vocabulary of faith, fear, and patriotism.” Here is an opening paragraph:
“At this moment, we once again raise our voice to alert Catholics that the worst atheistic doctrine of all time–anti-Christian Communism–is continuing its brazen advance in our country, masquerading as a movement of social reform for the needy classes.”
The brothers having successfully destroyed Guatemalans belief in their protector against foreign interests, replaced the elected president they had successfully demonized with their man.
What Kinzer shows is that the long, expensive Cold War, both in terms of US money and US civil liberties, was the creation of two holders of powerful US government offices used in defense of their law firm’s clients.
The brothers set the pattern for the future. It has been eons since any US government policy served any public interest. What public interest is served by open borders, creating enemies out of Russia and China, demonizing white people, teaching white school children that they are racist, weaponizing law, offshoring high productivity jobs, creating endless money and financial bubbles? You can add to the list.
President Reagan succeeded in ending the Cold War despite the opposition of the CIA and the powerful military/security complex and the senators and representatives dependent on the military/security’s complex’s campaign donations. But the neoconservative dominated Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Biden regimes resurrected the Cold War.
Putin and Xi have been slow to understand the situation that they face. In their deluded thinking they believe they can negotiate a solution with the west or simply out wait the West. They simply do not understand that just as their national existence is an existential issue, for Washington its hegemony is an existential issue.
As both the Russian and Chinese leaders are incapable of comprehending the reality that confronts them, the chance of avoiding a Third World War with nuclear weapons is not high.
So, we have Kinzer’s account of a Secretary of State who used the fear of communism that he implanted as a cover for serving the interest of his law firm’s clients, and a CIA director who used his office also in defense of his law firm’s interests but also in his interests in exciting activities such as overthrowing governments.
These two men using government to serve their interests created the Cold War that almost brought our end in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
President John F. Kennedy fired Allen Dulles for trying to sandbag him into supporting the CIA’s Bay of Pigs invasion. It was probably Allen Dulles who plotted the assassination of President Kennedy, and it was Allen who was appointed to the Warren Commission to cover up Kennedy’s assassination.
The Vietnamese nationalist Ho Chi Minh was the next on the list to be turned into a communist threat. Brandishing the “domino theory,” the brothers led us into the Vietnam war. The brothers extraordinary manipulative powers were again demonstrated, but they failed to dislodge Ho and experienced the bitterness of defeat.
Their next plot was against President Sukarno of Indonesia, and it also ended in a mess.
The next was the prime minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Again it was the Soviet threat narrative and a Soviet bridgehead in Africa. The CIA had Lumumba murdered in Katanga. Next was the long plot against Castro, elements of which were exposed by the Church Committee hearings in the 1970s.
The brothers were behind much more mischief. Allen created a 14,000 Tibetan army that was crushed by China. Tens of thousands of Tibetans were killed, and the Delai Lama had to flee Tibet. Allen declared his operation a success. It had baited the Chinese into repression and produced propagand value.
The CIA had a hand in the Hungarian Revolution crushed by the Soviets. Frank Wisner, the CIA’s man who instigated the Hungarian uprising, never recovered from his realization that Washington never intended any help for the Hungarians.
What began as the removal of obstacles to their law firm’s clients ended in an anti-communist crusade in which the brothers became believers of their own propaganda. Today the revival of this propaganda again positions Washington at sword’s point with Russia and China. Anti-Russian propaganda is so much a part of Washington’s consciousness that it appears to be embedded there continuing to cause foreign policy mistakes and overthrows of countries. Washington’s overthrow of Ukraine has led to an ever-widening war, the consequences of which remain to be seen. The legacy of the brothers might well be nuclear Armageddon.
The official narrative is that the brothers protected us from the Soviet threat. Others see it differently. Diego Rivera’s mural has John Foster Dulles in the center wearing a flak jacket and cruelly grinning. Allen Dulles is sneering with a satchel of dollars hanging from his waist. Eisenhower’s face decorates a bomb. Dead Guatemalan children lie at their feet.
Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,
We’re back in a “bad news is good news” regime for stocks, where weak economic data prompts higher prices. That’s typically a supportive backdrop for equities, but investors should be alert for when stocks fail to rally on good news as this signals the economy is potentially in or about to be in a recession, with the stock market poised to see its worst returns.
“Bad news sells best. ’Cause good news is no news,” says Kirk Douglas’s journalist in Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole. But bad news isn’t just a boon for newspapers; stocks also frequently rally on news that intuitively should see them selling off.
Blame central banks for this perverse state of affairs, with their implicit backstop for markets.
Stocks have recently been rallying on the back of weaker economic data points, such as payrolls and the ISM.
But the “bad news is good news” shorthand used by the market needs a more rigorous foundation.
First, define exactly that we mean by statements like “bad news is good news”;
second, define the different regimes based on our definition;
and third, look at how the market has performed through the regimes.
Claude Shannon - the father of information theory which forms the basis of modern communication - invented the idea that information is surprise. The utility in information comes not from what is expected, but what is unexpected. That’s typically how markets behave with economic data, reacting not to the information itself, but by how much it surprises to the upside or downside.
Economic surprise indexes capture the number of surprises on a cumulative basis. When they are positive, economic data is on net beating expectations, and vice-versa when they are negative. Therefore we can define four regimes based on how stocks are changing in relation to economic surprises:
Good news is good news (stocks and eco surprises rising together)
Bad news is good news (stocks rise when eco surprises fall)
Good news is bad news (stocks fall when eco surprises rise)
Bad news is bad news (stocks fall when eco surprises fall)
I have used the Bloomberg surprise indexes, which are separated out by economic type, such as survey data and labor data. I took the median of these indexes, excepting those that have a negative relationship with the S&P over the whole sample period (we would expect a positive relationship overall, e.g. positive surprises causing the market to rally).
The chart above shows the S&P color-coded for the different regimes. As we can see, the market not long ago went back into a bad news is good news regime. Most of the S&P’s advance since October 2022 has either been in that regime, or the good news is good news regime. These two are typically dominant when the market is in a strong bullish trend – no wonder when stocks go up on good or bad news!
There’s no significant difference if we restrict the sample to the post-GFC period when Federal Reserve support for markets became more explicit, with the percentage of the time when bad news was good for stocks only rising marginally to 26% from 23%.
The market rallying on any news is what you would expect to see more often, given that the market generally rises over time. But if there were no Fed it’s a strong bet that stocks would rise less of the time overall as they would not be as insulated from bad news.
This is all quite interesting, but what does it tell us about stock performance? The table below shows the one, three, six and 12-month average forward returns of the S&P when in each regime, along with the whole-sample average returns for the same time periods.
We can see when stocks are rallying on good or bad news (top two rows in table), forward returns on all time horizons are above average. Thus the current regime is historically consistent with the S&P returning a little above its average over the coming months.
When stocks are selling off on bad news, that’s not great for forward returns, but when stocks can’t even rally when the news is good is when investors need to be most wary (bottom row in table).
It is in this regime that stocks consistently come in below average, performing poorly over the next one, three, six and 12 months.
By what avenue does disappointing data cause stock prices to rise? One way is bad data triggering a flight-to-safety bid in bonds, or a lowering in Fed rate expectations, and the resulting lower yields boosting stock prices. We find that this “bad news is good news” regime is more likely when the stock-bond correlation is positive (on a rolling one-year basis) versus when it is negative.
But that’s not the only way. Positioning can mean stocks can rally as investors sell the rumor of weaker-than-expected data, and then buy the fact when the data comes in.
Nonetheless, in the current environment there are more days when stocks and bonds are positively correlated versus when they are not, increasing the likelihood the bad news is good news dynamic can persist for now.
That will help stocks as they face potential headwinds from an economy that may soon begin to look more recessionary. Unsurprisingly, during recessions even good news is bad for stocks, and it’s best to be out of the market altogether.
There is a 50% increased risk of a first time psychiatric treatment in the year following a first abortion, according to a newly published reanalysis of Danish medical records. The elevated risk was highest (87% increased risk) for personality and behavioral disorders.
This study corrects the methodological errors of a previous analysis which reported that there were no differences in psychiatric treatment rates before and after a first abortion, according to the study’s author, David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute.
The previous study revealed the rate of first time mental health treatments was much higher after an abortion than after a live birth. But when the authors looked at the rates of first time psychiatric treatments during the nine months prior to an abortion, they found they were already higher for the group of women who would soon be seeking abortion. Moreover, the authors reported that the rates of treatment during one, two, and three month periods after the abortion, while higher, were not statistically different than the rate reported in the nine months preceding abortion.
Based on these findings, the authors of the original study offered two conclusions. First, the women who are most likely to have abortions are more likely to have preexisting mental health problems compared to women who carry to term. Second, the higher rates of mental health problems observed after abortion are entirely explained by preexisting tendencies toward more mental health problems.
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But Reardon, the author of over thirty studies examining abortions impact on women’s mental health, believed that the Danish study was an outlier. It had numerous methodological limitations and was contradicted by several larger and better designed studies. He was especially concerned by the authors’ focus on only one, two, and three month time periods.
“Research shows that the psychological effects of abortion are often delayed,” Reardon said, “and often don’t appear until the anniversary date of the abortion or even later, after a woman’s coping mechanisms begin to be overwhelmed by persistent grief, guilt, or other abortion related stressors.”
Among a long list of methodological problems identified in the study, Reardon noted that the authors had utilized a cumulative count of psychiatric contacts in the nine months prior to an abortion, they had failed to examine the cumulative counts in the nine months and the year following an abortion. Instead, by choosing to examine one month, two month, and three month periods their analysis introduced more statistical error, otherwise known as broader confidence intervals. That made it more likely that any differences before and after the abortion would be missed due to the smaller number of cases examined.
But when Reardon reanalyzed the data to examine the cumulative rates of mental health disorders over identical periods of time, nine months before and nine months after the abortion, the differences were statistically significant. Abortion was linked to higher rates of mental illness among the same group of women studied by the original Danish research team. The differences became even greater when examined over twelve months, indicating that the cumulative mental health effects of abortion increase over time.
Reardon believes that the negative mental health effects of abortion were deliberately concealed in the prior study precisely to provide “evidence” contradicting the growing body of research linking abortion to mental health problems.
“Many population control and abortion advocates are ideologically and politically motivated to deny the studies showing that many women suffer from unwanted and unsafe abortions,” said Reardon. “Misleading research findings are not uncommon.”
Reardon’s reanalysis was originally submitted to The New England Journal of Medicine, which published the original and widely publicized Danish analysis. But Reardon’s reanalysis was immediately rejected without peer review.
“One would think that medical journals would welcome critical reviews and reanalyses that help to improve and clarify the medical record,” Reardon said, “but when it comes to abortion, most journals are afraid to publish anything that challenges the myth that abortion is anything but always beneficial to every woman in every circumstance.”
References
Reardon DC. A Reanalysis of Mental Disorders Risk Following First-Trimester Abortions in Denmark. Issues Law Med 2024;39:66–75.
Reardon DC, Longbons T. Effects of Pressure to Abort on Women’s Emotional Responses and Mental Health. Cureus. 2023 Jan 31;15(1):e34456
The post New Study Shows Abortion Linked to More Mental Health Disorders for Women appeared first on LifeNews.com.
Israeli tanks have been seen plunging deeper into the southern Gaza city of Rafah amid reports that some 500,000 people have fled amid the escalating ground offensive.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have initially focused their operation on the eastern section of the city, having seized a key roadway that essentially cuts Rafah in half. "The tanks advanced this morning west of Salahuddin Road into the Brzail and Jneina neighborhoods. They are in the streets inside the built-up area and there are clashes," one resident told Reuters via a messaging app. Regional media also reports that "Video on social media showed one tank on George Street in Al-Jneina neighborhood."
Via APThe Guardian also writes Tuesday that "Officials estimate that as many as 500,000 people have fled Rafah since being told to evacuate by the Israel Defense Forces before their first attacks around and in the city a week ago."
A Monday night CNN report indicated that the Biden administration believes that Israel has now amassed enough ground forces on the edge of Rafah to conduct a full-scale invasion of the city in the next days. However, the report says "senior US officials are currently unsure if it has made a final decision to carry out such a move in direct defiance of President Joe Biden, two senior administration officials told CNN."
The White House criticism that not enough has been done to evacuate civilians to safety has persisted. "One of the officials also warned that Israel has not come anywhere close to making adequate preparations – including building infrastructure related to food, hygiene and shelter – ahead of potentially evacuating more than one million Gazans are who currently reside in Rafah," the report continues.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan has clarified in a fresh statement that "The president was clear that he would not supply certain offensive weapons for such an operation were to occur." He underscored in a Monday briefing, "It has not yet occurred."
The words came after a dire prediction by Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the near-future fight if Israel goes 'all in' on Rafah. "Israel’s on the trajectory, potentially, to inherit an insurgency with many armed Hamas left, or, if it leaves, a vacuum filled by chaos, filled by anarchy and probably refilled by Hamas," he said Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press." Already the IDF has been forced to return to wage battle in some parts of northern Gaza after Hamas reappeared there, though these regions had already been pacified earlier in the conflict.
But on the whole the US now assesses Hamas capabilities have been "significantly degraded". State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said days ago, "You have seen their ability to launch the kind of attacks that they did on October 7 significantly degraded, if not completely eliminated."
"They couldn’t launch an attack of that scale today," Miller claimed. "Their weapons production factories underground have been eliminated. Most of their battalion leadership in the north and in central Gaza has been eliminated. So Israel has achieved a great number of its military objectives."
The US CENTCOM commander has been on the ground coordinating with IDF leadership, despite President Biden signaling to the public and angry progressives he's getting tough on Israel...
This weekend, the Commander of @CENTCOM , General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, arrived in Israel as the official guest of the Chief of the General Staff, LTG Herzi Halevi.
The commanders held an operational situational assessment and discussed operational developments including the… pic.twitter.com/fSH69QxV9i
Meanwhile the IDF is still in control of Rafah crossing, and Middle East Eye has cited aid officials who've estimated that southern Gaza has less than a week's worth of food left:
Displaced Palestinians in central and southern Gaza have less than a week's worth of food left, after Israel seized the Rafah border crossing last week.
On 6 May, the Israeli military took "operational control" of the Palestinian side of the crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt, essentially cutting off aid into the coastal enclave.
Since then, just six trucks of food have entered Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing with Israel, Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa), told Middle East Eye.
The "very minimum" number of trucks needed is 500 per day, carrying a "combination of fuel, aid supplies and commercial supplies", Touma said. Within the same time frame, 157,000 litres of fuel has come into Gaza. Touma said that 300,000 litres was needed every day.
With so little coming in, food supplies are dwindling and prices soaring. As a "full-blown famine" devastates northern Gaza, sources in central and southern Gaza described a "miserable" situation that could turn into a "real crisis" in a matter of days.
Relentless IDF bombing of Gaza's south has continued, also amid stepped up Hamas operations attacking IDF convoys and positions:
After relentlessly bombing Rafah, Israeli tanks & bulldozers are moving in.
Now, 1.5 million refugees — who were made homeless by Israel/USA — will be forced to move further south towards the border with Egypt.
Ethnic cleansing and genocide in a systematic way in real time… pic.twitter.com/XK5EPikLwa
One Palestinian journalist and eyewitness additionally described, "We could be seeing a new famine in the displacement areas. Displaced people are very worried about the lack of supplies. A major crisis, too, is related to the lack of water fit for drinking."
And another eyewitness was cited as listing out that "A few vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and garlic, and a few legumes, such as lentils, beans and fava beans are all that's left."
By Shaun Walker
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, arrived in Kyiv on Tuesday morning on his first visit to Ukraine since a major US aid package was passed last month, as Ukrainian forces struggle to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks. Blinken, who arrived by train from Poland in an unannounced visit, met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, shortly after arriving.
“We know this is a challenging time. But we also know that in the near term the assistance is now on the way, some of it has already arrived and more of it will be arriving,” Blinken said. “And that’s going to make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield.”
Zelenskiy described the US aid as crucial, and thanked Blinken, but also said Ukraine desperately needed two more air defence systems to protect the second city of Kharkiv, which has been hit repeatedly by Russian strikes in recent weeks.
Addressing Blinken in English, Zelenskiy said air defence supplies were “the biggest deficit for us”, with Russia conducting long-range aerial attacks since March that have pounded electricity facilities and caused blackouts.
“Really we need today two Patriots for Kharkiv, for Kharkiv region because there the people are under attack. Civilians, warriors, everybody they are under Russian missiles.”
Blinken’s visit, his fourth to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, comes at a difficult time for Kyiv…
Authored by Terri Wu via The Epoch Times,
The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will impose a 100 percent tariff—quadrupling the current 25 percent—on electric vehicles imported from China in 2024. In addition to EVs, the White House has significantly increased tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum products, lithium-ion batteries, and solar cells.
“China’s using the same playbook it has before to power its own growth at the expense of others by continuing to invest despite excess Chinese capacity and flooding global markets with exports that are underpriced due to unfair practices,” Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters at a call ahead of the announcement.
“China’s simply too big to play by its own rules.”
She added that the tariff increases are consistent with President Joe Biden’s China policy of “responsibly managing competition with China.” “We are working with our partners around the world to address our shared concerns about China’s unfair practices,” Ms. Brainard said.
The administration will make further adjustments to these tariffs as it obtains feedback from the private sector, consumers, allies, and China, according to a senior administration official on the call.
EVs have been a strategic priority for both the United States and China.
For the White House, EVs are a centerpiece of its climate-related initiatives—achieving half of new car sales as EVs by 2030—and “Made in America” policy to boost the country’s auto manufacturing industry, a vital sector of the American economy.
After setting EVs as one of its priority industries a decade ago, the Chinese Communist Party doubled down at its annual plenary meeting concluded in March, calling EVs one of the “new productive forces.” Instead of changing its economy from investment-led to consumption-led, Beijing seems to be poised to export its way out of its current economic slump.
BYD electric cars for export waiting to be loaded onto a ship at a port in Yantai, in eastern China's Shandong Province, on April 18, 2024. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Heavy subsidies have driven China’s EV industry into overcapacity. Their prices are cheap, too.
China handed out $29 billion in EV subsidies between 2009 and 2022. Although the subsidies officially ended before 2023, other programs without “EV” in their names effectively continue the incentives. For example, Chinese media reported BYD snatching a third, or $1 billion, of the 2024 emission reduction subsidies from the Ministry of Finance.
As a result of 15-year-long subsidies, cheap Chinese cars have posed an “extinction-level” challenge to America’s auto industry, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, an advocacy group representing unionized steelworkers and other companies in the auto supply chain.
Driven by subsidies, China’s cheap EVs are also in excess.
Based on local government plans for the five years between 2021 and 2025, the China Center for Information Industry Development (CCID), an institution under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, expects Chinese EV production capacity to reach 36 million in 2025.
With 15 million Chinese EV sales forecast for 2025, excess Chinese EVs will reach 20 million next year.
China knew about the overcapacity problem and had planned a way out. In a December 2022 report, CCID mapped out exporting cars to the European market. However, it also recommended building factories in Latin America to take advantage of the local incentives there to further expand China’s global EV market share.
In March, BYD, a Chinese EV maker, introduced the BYD Seagull, a mini EV hatchback. The starting price is 69,800 yuan in China, or about $9,650. In Mexico, the price is 358,800 pesos, or about $20,990. It’s still much cheaper than the cheapest EV—about $30,000—in the United States. The average EV price in the United States is about $54,000.
Nazak Nikakhtar, former assistant secretary for Industry and Analysis at the Department of Commerce during the Trump administration, said that more would be needed to curb China’s overcapacity problem.
“The dynamic with the Chinese EVs is that they’re not coming directly into the United States. They’re flooding global markets,” Ms. Nikakhtar told The Epoch Times.
Currently, Chinese-brand EVs are not sold in the U.S. market. The Volvo brands owned by Geely, a Chinese company, had a market share of 2 percent in 2023. However, American brands lost a 15 percent home market share in the past three years, according to Kelly Blue Book, a vehicle valuation and automotive research company. The lost share was taken up by German and South Korean brands, and Swedish brands owned by Chinese.
U.S. Electric Vehicle Brand's Domestic Market Share
Chart: The Epoch Times Source: Cox Automotive (Kelly Blue Book)
Who Gained from American EV Brand's Lost Share at Home?
Chart: The Epoch Times Source: Cox Automotive (Kelly Blue Book)
“It’s the classic—China distorts all the other markets, and then they export their stuff into the United States in those import surges,” Ms. Nikakhtar said, adding that Washington needs to negotiate with Europeans, South Koreans, and Japanese to implement volume limits on their exports to the United States.
Last October, the European Commission began its anti-subsidy investigation on Chinese EVs to find ways to protect EV makers in the European Union.
During her trip to China last month, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen discussed the overcapacity issue, especially in green-energy sectors. She announced new dialogues with China’s Ministry of Finance and said the United States would “underscore the need for a shift in policy by China” in those talks.
Since then, Chinese media outlets have made coordinated attacks on U.S. concern over China’s excessive production capacities, calling it “protectionism.”
The Biden administration has levied new tariffs on Chinese port cranes and certain medical products. It will also triple tariffs on Chinese lithium-ion batteries, steel, and aluminum products to 25 percent this year and double the tariff on Chinese semiconductors to 50 percent by next year. The decision comes weeks after the White House called for tripling Chinese steel and aluminum tariffs.
These tariffs, initially put in place by the Trump administration in 2020, are up for review after four years, according to the “phase one” trade agreement between the United States and China. These “Section 301 tariffs” were imposed according to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorized U.S. presidents to impose tariffs to counter international trade violations.
In a press call, a senior administration official said that upon review, the Office of the United States Trade Representative recommended no tariff reduction because “China has not eliminated many of the forced technology transfer policies and practices, and instead has even become more aggressive in some of those actions, including through cyber intrusions and cyber theft that harm American workers and businesses.”
In addition to commercial considerations, President Biden has also expressed national security concerns over Chinese cars. In February, he asked the Department of Commerce to investigate whether Chinese vehicles pose data or infrastructure risks to the United States.
Ms. Brainard at the National Economic Council highlighted the benefit of increased tariffs in two battleground states—Michigan and Pennsylvania—but a senior White House official said that the decision had nothing to do with election-related considerations. According to White House senior officials on the press call, because the tariff decisions were a follow-up on the Section 301 review, the Biden administration has not considered an outright ban on Chinese EVs.
The officials assured that these tariff increases will not affect inflation as they are “a very targeted set of tariffs on specific sectors.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made another trip to Ukraine, appearing in Kiev alongside Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, and the US top diplomat vowed that some of the US aid from Biden's recently approved $60 billion for Ukraine is "now on the way".
But Zelensky immediately pivoted to begging for Patriot missiles amid Russia's new Karkhiv assault, saying that "of course we are very thankful for this to Americans, to American people" but that "We need, really we need today two Patriots for Kharkiv, for Kharkiv region because people there are under attack, civilians and warriors, everybody there is under Russian missiles." As we noted earlier of this perhaps awkward moment...
Ukraine has entered the "where is the money, Lebowski" phase https://t.co/llv6KOmUGb
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 14, 2024Blinken did not say that Patriots are on the way, instead he simply offered: "We know this is a challenging time"... words which are unlikely to be of much comfort to Zelensky.
And even while there's near universal consensus that Ukraine frontlines are crumbling especially in the north, Blinken claimed that the new military aid from Washington will "make a real difference against the ongoing Russian aggression on the battlefield."
Blinken while in Kiev described that he is discussing "battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery."
It marks his fourth unannounced trip to the war-ravaged country since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022. But this particular trip is set amid more sober, bleaker Western media reports regarding Ukraine's chances on the battlefield.
Late last month, the Pentagon said it was seeking to "rush" patriot missiles to Ukraine, amid an intensified Russian air campaign which has especially targeted Ukraine's energy and power infrastructure, and which has left swathes of the country in darkness.
European countries have also been scrambling to rush Patriots to Ukraine, with Spain and Germany being the latest to donate.
Greece has also been under pressure to 'do more' with EU leaders recently lecturing Athens while claiming it doesn't really need its own Patriots for self-defense at this moment. Greece has still ruled it out, likely with an eye on the Turkey threat in its own backyard.
Meanwhile cross-border attacks among both sides have been ongoing, with massive Ukrainian shelling of Russia's Belgorod city on the border having resulted in 16 Russian civilians killed after an apartment building was struck and collapsed.
The moment of the projectile's impact and the collapse of the entrance of the building in Belgorod. pic.twitter.com/T5STi3wUl7
— Russian Market (@runews) May 12, 2024Some reports have also said it was a Ukrainian missile, with sections of the building having collapsed upon projectile impact, and after as emergency services were on the scene.
Authored by Alfredo Ortiz via RealClearPolicy,
The specter of stagflation has returned. On April 25th, The Bureau of Economic Analysis announced that GDP only grew by 1.6% in the first quarter of this year, well below expectations.
Consumer spending on goods actually declined in the quarter as ordinary Americans are financially tapped out. The report also showed inflation remains stubbornly high, continuing a recent trend of resurgent inflation running about twice the Federal Reserve's target rate.
American small businesses are the biggest victims of the stagflationary economy, which is being weighed down by big government policies. This was the most important storyline coming out of this Month’s National Small Business Week.
President Biden is claiming a small business "boom" under his administration. The reality is entrepreneurs grapple with a triple threat: a decelerating economy, soaring inflation, and escalating credit expenses due to his bad policies.
American consumers have a record $1.2 trillion of credit card debt. They are experiencing declining real wages and face a cost-of-living crisis. They can't afford to keep up their discretionary spending, which small businesses rely on to survive and thrive.
It now costs the average American family $12,000 more to enjoy the same living standards as before President Biden took office.
Since Biden's inauguration, wholesale costs for small businesses have risen by 20%. To maintain their slim profit margins, entrepreneurs are forced to raise prices, alienating loyal customers and reducing demand. Commentators and the media don't understand that there's only so much customers are willing to pay for nonessential goods and services.
To contend with outrageous inflation, the Fed raised interest rates to a 22-year high. High credit costs have dried up access to capital, making it impossible or prohibitively expensive for small businesses to expand or even continue operating.
The Fed was supposed to start cutting interest rates soon, but as I predicted, given resurgent inflation, they have no other choice but to maintain today's elevated levels, continuing the credit crunch.
Given these headwinds, it's no surprise that Job Creators Network's national poll of small businesses finds two-thirds of respondents say the current economic climate may force them to close their doors. Most businesses say the price hikes they are facing are more than the official inflation numbers suggest. One-third say elevated neighborhood crime is reducing their earnings. Small businesses are whimpering, not booming.
Coverage of National Small Business Week was no surprise – the mainstream media refuses to admit that big government policies are why small businesses are suffering. Consider the reckless spending fueling inflation's fire. The annual deficit is on track to surpass $2 trillion this year, and the nation adds another $1 trillion to the national debt every three months. This money printing is rapidly devaluing the value of the dollar, hurting small businesses and consumers.
The Biden administration is also in the midst of a regulatory onslaught that's hitting small businesses hard. It recently issued rules expanding overtime pay, banning noncompete contracts, mandating electric vehicle use, and regulating internet access. According to the American Action Forum, the Biden administration has issued more than $1 trillion of regulations – 30 times more than under President Trump.
Biden's biggest threat to small businesses is still to come. He recently promised that if he's reelected, he will dramatically raise taxes on small businesses by letting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire in 2025 as scheduled. That means small businesses would face a 20% tax hike, the end of bonus depreciation, and higher tax brackets on their earnings. This massive tax hike would throw today's stagflationary economy into recession.
Here's the real message of National Small Business Week: Biden and Democrats are waging a war on small businesses that won't end until they've been voted out of office.
Alfredo Ortiz is CEO of Job Creators Network, author of "The Real Race Revolutionaries," and co-host of the Main Street Matters podcast.
From the Deacon’s Bench:
You may remember this story from a couple weeks ago: A priest in Chicago last month blessed a same-sex couple,
Thanks to Joe Biden’s politicized Justice Department, a pro-life advocate will spend the next five years in a federal prison for protesting abortion.
If Lauren Handy was an environmental activist or a leftist supporting Hamas, her sit-in at an abortion business would have earned her a misdemeanor charge and maybe a small fine. But because she is a pro-life advocate protesting abortion, the Biden administration used the FACE Act to prosecute her for supposedly blocking access to abortion.
Even though the law, which abrogates the free speech rights of pro-life Americans, has rarely been used, the Biden administration pushed for putting several pro-life advocates in prison for over a decade for protesting abortion. Biden officials misused the law to push for the highest penalties, reserved for violent and criminal behavior, to prosecute peaceful pro-life Americans who merely exercised their free speech rights.
Today, Biden got what he wished for as Handy has been sentenced to 57 months in federal prison and three years probation under the FACE Act for peaceful civil disobedience.
Handy, a Catholic, is a well-known pro-life voice on the political left. She was the primary organizer and leader of the peaceful protest sponsored by Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising that led to the ongoing court cases.
In a statement before the ruling, Handy shed some perspective on being jailed for her pro-life activism.
“It has been close to 9 months since I was abruptly ripped from my community. This has led me to think long and hard on what to say about my sentencing today in federal court. Some drafts were angry and righteous while most were just a tearstained longing for my loved ones back home. Yes, this time has been challenging but I refuse to be jaded. Why? Because life goes on… even in jail. So I might as well continue to love and cry and scream and dance. That is joy. The feeling of being fully alive without shame. Which is something no court can take from me. So today, I am at peace with myself and my future. I will go into court with my head held high and my heart open.”
PAAU condmned the ruling today, telling LifeNews that Handy has been wrongly sentenced to 4 years & 9 months in federal prison for an act of peaceful civil disobedience to prevent federal crimes such as partial birth abortion and infanticide.
REACH PRO-LIFE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE! Advertise with LifeNews to reach hundreds of thousands of pro-life readers every week. Contact us today.
Caroline Smith, Executive Director of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising said, “The abortion industry wants to scare, intimidate, fear-monger, and isolate us. But what they don’t know is we have a radical hope that goes beyond the concrete walls of both prisons and abortuaries. I believe the oppression that the DOJ is expressing right now will absolutely backfire on them in the near future. Oppression always backfires, especially when your motivation is blood money. Abortion is murder, and fetuses are people, and nothing will stop Rescue.”
PAAU Founder Terrisa Bukovinac said “Today the Biden Administration and Merrick Garland’s DOJ have reached a new level of tyranny. There is no other social justice movement in our nation who’s activists are subject to years in federal prison for nonviolent resistance. This blatant viewpoint discrimination has incalculable consequences for babies, their parents, those who defend them, and for peaceful activists across movements worldwide. I continue to stand by Lauren and the other 8 defendants who risked their freedoms to stand in defense of the least of us.”
A total of 10 pro-life advocate face the federal criminal charges after they were arrested and indicted for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) in 2020 at the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, DC. That’s a late-term abortion facility suspected of breaking federal law by performing partial birth abortions and illegally allowing babies born aluive after failed abortions to die.
The defendants – often called “rescuers” by fellow members of the pro-life movement – partook in a 2020 peaceful protest against a notorious Washington, D.C. abortuary that performed late-term abortions.
Last year, all nine were found guilty of violating the controversial Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. They each face a sentence of up to 11 years in federal prison. The FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) Act prohibits individuals from attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere (by use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction) with anyone obtaining or performing an abortion.
The indictment in the case says that on Oct. 22, 2020, 10 individuals “conspired with one another and with others known and unknown to obstruct access” to the Washington Surgi-Clinic in Washington, D.C.
“It was the purpose of the conspiracy to create a blockade to stop the clinic from providing and patients from obtaining reproductive health services,” the indictment alleges. The indictment says the defendants used “deception” to gain access to the clinic, used “force” to enter, and barricaded themselves inside with “ropes and chains.”
A video of the rescue shows the pro-life advocates praying and singing inside the abortion facility and refusing to leave so abortions could end the lives of unborn children.
Stephen Crampton, senior counsel for the nonprofit legal firm Thomas More Society, says the cases are clearly political persecution.
“They waited a year and a half to file this action,” Crampton said. “If indeed this was some sort of dire offense and the defendants ought to be incarcerated, why in the world, does the government wait a year and a half to file the charges?”
“The climate activists were out there [in D.C.] gluing their hands to the streets, shutting down traffic and everything, you think there’s any chance the feds are going to prosecute those people or try to put them in prison for 11 years?” he asked.
He also told Fox News that finding a fair jury was practically impossible considering that D.C. is the “most pro-abortion city in America.”
The pro-lifers on trial conducted a rescue at the Washington Surgi-Clinic operated by the notorious late-term abortionist Cesare Santangelo who was busted by a LiveAction undercover investigator for admitting that he would not help a child with life-saving efforts if he or she survived a late-term abortion. He emphatically stated that a nearby hospital’s efforts to save the life of a child he was trying to abort was “the stupidest thing they could have done.”
Lauren Handy and Herb Geraghty cited those videos as the reason for the rescue and protest at the abortion business because of the concern babies might be left to die. They chained themselves to the entrace of the abortion center in an attempt to stop abortions.
A pro-life advocate says the charges are wrong because the protests were non-violent.
Caroline Taylor Smith, executive director of PAAU told LifeNews, “This overreaching of power and authority by Biden’s DOJ is egregious and must be stopped. Nonviolent prolife actions should not be a federal crime, and peaceful people with a desire to save lives should not be jailed for over a decade. Some of these Rescuers could be facing death by incarceration. We must repeal the FACE Act now!”
Jonathan Darnel, one of the four pro-life Americans Biden is targeting in this second trial, plead not guilty to the charges.
“I am definitely not guilty of the charges leveled against me, which is rather ironic that I should find myself in this position,” Darnel told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Nevertheless, if a jury finds me guilty of FACE even erroneously, it would be an honor because the kids are worthy of protection.”
Senior Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotely a Clinton nominee, is presiding over the hearings, which are slated to take place at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia just a few blocks from the U.S. Supreme Court. John Hinshaw and Will Goodman also face sentencing today. The sentencings will continue on Wednesday, May 15, with Herb (born Rosemary) Geraghty at 9:00 a.m., Jonathan Darnel at 11:00 a.m., Jean Marshall at 1:30 p.m., and Joan Andrews Bell at 3:00 p.m. On Friday, May 17, the judge is scheduled to sentence Heather Idoni at 9:30 a.m.
Kollar-Kotely was also originally going to sentence the final defendant, Paulette Harlow, on Friday. However, Harlow’s sentencing was postponed until two weeks later on Friday, May 31, at 1:30 p.m.
Last year, former President Donald Trump promised to support “political prisoners” if he’s elected president. During the Family Research Council’s “Pray, Vote, Stand Summit” in Washington, D.C., Trump vowed to get innocent Americans out of jail for standing up for their beliefs while criminals run rampant.
“I am announcing that the moment I win the election, I will appoint a special task force to rapidly review the cases of every political prisoner who has been unjustly persecuted by the Biden administration,” Trump said.
Trump referenced the convictions of pro-life advocates who now face as many as 11 years in prison for rescuing babies from abortions at a late-term abortion business in Washington D.C.
“If we stand together in this fight, we’re going to defeat Crooked Joe Biden; if he runs — will he make it to the starting gate?” Trump said.
The post Biden Gets Pro-Life Advocate Lauren Handy Thrown in Prison for 57 Months for Protesting Abortion appeared first on LifeNews.com.
By Michael Every of Rabobank
Ideally, I would have written this on May 4th not 14th, but I am going to talk Star Wars.
I was a fan in 1977, kept the flame alive when only battered VHS cassettes of the original trilogy existed, and was delighted to get prequels. Until the opening crawl announced, “The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute.” I recall thinking, “This is my job - boring!” But the prequels were better than the sequels and all the TV shows I don’t watch. Indeed, the prequels’ clunky theme of democracy crumbling into autocracy, dispute over trade routes, then war, seems even more prescient than my 2016 ‘Thin Ice’ report, which underlined how the 21st century could echo the 20th, and our more detailed fragmented ‘World in 2030’ report in 2020.
In just the last week: the IMF warned the world risks splitting into walled-off FX/trade blocs; The Economist stated “The liberal international order is slowly coming apart,” with “a worrying number of triggers that could set off a descent into anarchy”; Germany flagged conscription for all 18-year olds and spending over 3% of GDP on defence; China introduced military training for all High School students; Biden raised tariffs on Chinese EVs to 102.5%, and Trump said he would make it 200%, with tariffs on used cooking oil likely next; Bloomberg warned “The US, China, Russia are in a spiral towards war”; the manager of the Hong Kong trade office in London was arrested for spying; and, as some underline Russia has shifted to a full war economy that incentivises the martial, my prediction that markets will serve national security going forwards came true in Putin firing his defence minister to appoint an economist to the role instead.
Moreover, former US Trade Representative and potential Trump Treasury Secretary Lighthizer (or Lightsabre, having been advised by the Obi-Wan Kenobi of Godley balance sheets, Michael Pettis) argued the US --and all countries save those with natural advantages-- should, over time, run balanced trade where they export only in order to import rather than to accumulate trade surpluses. He believes, correctly, that comparative advantage is movable via industrial policy and FDI, which Ricardo assumed could never happen in his free trade theory.
Lighthizer/sabre says tariffs are not the best single way to achieve this; a weaker dollar to do so would require interfering with the Fed to slash rates, which he’s not enthusiastic about – though Trump may be; and the bluntest method --a certificate of export needed to purchase an import-- is incompatible with a free economy; so that leaves capital controls and/or hefty taxation on capital inflows into US assets to prevent foreign parties parking dollars earned from trade there. Logically, if you remove the capital account inflow, the current account outflow (i.e., the trade deficit) also disappears.
Such an outcome is a proton torpedo down the global-trade-and-market Death Star’s exhaust shaft. If the US runs balanced trade, the flow of dollars to the offshore Eurodollar system grinds to a halt. Those tens of trillions of debts will need to be serviced with the 7-ish trillion of dollar FX reserves, or new *offshore* credit, or Fed swap-lines, granting it new Force powers. FX would swing wildly (as some already call dollar strength vs. EM “sinister”). Global supply chains would be up-ended from the Light to the Dark side. Current practices in financial markets would naturally blow up. And all of this is advocated by a former USTR --a role selling more free trade to the world until 2016-- because it’s the only logical way for the US exit a global system that is weakening it in many fundamental regards, even if a few prosper mightily from it.
Padmé Amidala bewails in one of the Star Wars prequels, “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause,” and there is a lot of that happening too. But so far neoliberal market liberty dies to thunderous snores. The vast majority working in markets are paying no attention to this global backdrop at all. Which brings me back to Star Wars again in a different sense.
There is an 18-year movie-time chronological gap between the last Star Wars prequel and the first Star Wars from 1977. In that short timeframe, everyone in the galaxy who’d witnessed Jedis running round performing miracles for much of their lives forgot what lightsabres and Jedi were. That much is clear from Han Solo’s dismissive comments about the Force to Luke Skywalker in Episode IV. I had always thought that was just bad scriptwriting.
However, perhaps everyone in Star Wars knew what a Jedi was, but didn’t want to lose their jobs: likewise, the systemic risks to markets in our global backdrop are not fit for polite conversation among central banks and their watchers. These aren’t the droids (or trades) you are looking for. Move along.
Or, maybe people forgot because nobody in Star Wars reads. People in the movies look at screens, but you never see a book except the Jedi Scrolls, of which even Yoda says, “page-turners, they are not.” The Star Wars universe is thus post-literate, which would explain why a population sending real-time holograms across the galaxy are unable to remember something important that happened very recently. Today, financial markets are also full of screens, but rarely books. They have all information possible, but nobody can remember classical economics, or what happened last month, let alone 18 years ago. Where was Fed Funds in 2006? What was happening in markets? What did the Republic look like? Were there disputes over the taxation of trade routes? Were Jedi strolling around? “Who knows? I’m buying all the things!”
Indeed, GameStop looks like it’s going to happen again, for those who can’t recall how it ended last time; “May the Market Forces be with you” – until you are manipulated by a hidden Sith somewhere. Moreover, the Aussie budget yesterday had much lower government inflation forecasts than the RBA’s Statement on Monetary Policy just before it - so, ‘rate cuts are coming!’ again. Of course, this political Jedi mind trick suggests we are about to get more subsidies for consumers to artificially depress some elements of CPI while actually juicing the economy: as always on fighting inflation, it is “Do, or do not. There is no try.”
To conclude, a long time ago on a trading floor far, far away I was asked for my simplest forecast for our future: I said in the best case, Star Trek --united mankind working together-- and in the worst case, Star Wars. And here we are.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” to put it mildly. So do the IMF, The Economist, some at Bloomberg, the German defence minister, and Xi Jinping.
Gordon Friesen
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Gordon Friesen
President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Previous articles by Gordon Friesen:
Tuberous sclerosis complex. Most people have never heard of this rare medical condition.
Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), also known as tuberous sclerosis, is a rare genetic disease that causes non-cancerous (benign) tumors to grow in the brain and several areas of the body, including the spinal cord, nerves, eyes, lung, heart, kidneys, and skin.
The excess cells form noncancerous tumors, which can form anywhere in your body. The severity of this condition often depends on tumor locations. Mild or moderate cases are often manageable with medication or other treatments.
After Elizabeth Brown’s son, Beckett, was diagnosed with the condition, and knowing the medical challenges he faces, when Elizabth and her husband found out they were having another baby, their doctor did what so many doctors have when a baby has a potential disability or medical condition: suggested abortion. Surely they didn’t want another baby with the same medical diagnosis, so killing the baby must be the right answer?
Wrong.
“The geneticist sat me down; my stepmother-in-law was with me. The geneticist said, ‘So I just wanted to know what options you were thinking if this baby has TSC. A lot of the other couples, when they find out their child may have a genetic condition like Down syndrome or TSC or some other condition they can’t medically help, sometimes they consider terminating the pregnancy.’ I said, ‘Absolutely not. I have a baby with TSC at home and he’s absolutely perfect. I can’t believe you would ask me that,’” said Elizabeth.
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The geneticist said it was an internal policy to ask, meaning the medical establishment or hospital system requires that doctors talk to parents about aborting their baby after they receive a diagnosis or even if there is the possibility of a diagnosis.
Elizabeth told the doctor never to ask that question again. When she returned to the MFM for an ultrasound at 20 weeks, the doctor asked if she had received her blood test results yet, and when Elizabeth said that she hadn’t, the doctor began to talk about how “complex” TSC is and asked if she had “thought about any options.”
“I said, ‘Are you talking about me killing my baby?’ And he said, ‘Yes, terminating the pregnancy.’ I said, ‘You mean killing my baby. My husband and my son are perfect and have TSC.’ I was so shocked and saddened.”
This story is another reminder that we have to train doctors and medical professionals to value life.
LifeNews Note: Photo couresty of Elizabeth Brown via LiveAction.
The post Couple Refuses Doctor’s Suggestion to Have Abortion Just Because Their Son Had a Rare Diagnosis appeared first on LifeNews.com.
The couple’s foundation could face fines or a suspension from the registry
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could face fines and see their charity foundation suspended after it was found “delinquent” by US authorities, it was reported on Tuesday.
A notice sent by California’s Department of Justice on May 3 said the Archewell foundation is “listed as delinquent” for “failing to submit required annual report(s) and/or renewal fees.”
According to US authorities, state records show that the foundation’s last renewal was in May 2023 and that it has officially been marked delinquent, meaning the charity cannot raise money.
“An organization that is listed as delinquent is not in good standing and is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required, including soliciting or disbursing charitable funds,” the letter from California’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers warned. The foundation’s registration may be “suspended or revoked,” the document added.
The couple insisted all the charity documents were filed on time, but that the required check was lost in the mail and has since been resubmitted, the BBC reported, citing a source close to Archewell.
“A new check has been mailed and we anticipate that this will be quickly resolved and reflected in records within seven business days,” the source noted.
Read more MMA star Khabib has accounts blocked over $3 million tax debt – mediaNews of the filing came as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent three days in Nigeria, where they were seen visiting schools, playing sports, and announcing an expansion of charitable partnerships.
The Archewell Foundation charity was established by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, and was named in honor of their son Archie, now aged five. It has backed projects ranging from helping Afghan women in the US to tackling misinformation.
Other funded projects included $200,000 for a “gender justice” project in Washington, $125,000 for a civil-rights charity, and $100,000 for a project promoting responsible use of technology, the BBC said, citing Archewell’s financial filings.
The couple launched the charity in 2020 after they stepped down from their duties as senior members of the royal family and left London for Los Angeles.
The foundation says its mission is to “show up, do good,” adding: “We meet the moment by showing up, taking action and using our unparalleled spotlight to uplift and unite communities – local and global – through acts of service and compassion.”
The couple’s foundation could face fines or a suspension from the registry
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could face fines and see their charity foundation suspended after it was found “delinquent” by US authorities, it was reported on Tuesday.
A notice sent by California’s Department of Justice on May 3 said the Archewell foundation is “listed as delinquent” for “failing to submit required annual report(s) and/or renewal fees.”
According to US authorities, state records show that the foundation’s last renewal was in May 2023 and that it has officially been marked delinquent, meaning the charity cannot raise money.
“An organization that is listed as delinquent is not in good standing and is prohibited from engaging in conduct for which registration is required, including soliciting or disbursing charitable funds,” the letter from California’s Registry of Charities and Fundraisers warned. The foundation’s registration may be “suspended or revoked,” the document added.
The couple insisted all the charity documents were filed on time, but that the required check was lost in the mail and has since been resubmitted, the BBC reported, citing a source close to Archewell.
“A new check has been mailed and we anticipate that this will be quickly resolved and reflected in records within seven business days,” the source noted.
Read more MMA star Khabib has accounts blocked over $3 million tax debt – mediaNews of the filing came as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent three days in Nigeria, where they were seen visiting schools, playing sports, and announcing an expansion of charitable partnerships.
The Archewell Foundation charity was established by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, and was named in honor of their son Archie, now aged five. It has backed projects ranging from helping Afghan women in the US to tackling misinformation.
Other funded projects included $200,000 for a “gender justice” project in Washington, $125,000 for a civil-rights charity, and $100,000 for a project promoting responsible use of technology, the BBC said, citing Archewell’s financial filings.
The couple launched the charity in 2020 after they stepped down from their duties as senior members of the royal family and left London for Los Angeles.
The foundation says its mission is to “show up, do good,” adding: “We meet the moment by showing up, taking action and using our unparalleled spotlight to uplift and unite communities – local and global – through acts of service and compassion.”
Below is my column in the New York Post on the first day of the examination of Michael Cohen. He is expected to start his cross examination today. How bad will it be? After lying to Congress, courts, banks, and most everyone else, it will be bad. Years ago, Cohen threatened a journalist and told him “what I’m going to do to you is going to be f—ing disgusting.” Well, that bad. On cross examination, Cohen faces a reckoning of biblical proportions.
Michael Cohen apparently wants a reality show but, if his testimony Monday is any indication, reality is about to sink in for not just Cohen but the prosecutors and the court.
In stoking interest in his own appearance, the former Trump counsel promised the public that they should be “prepared to be surprised.”
Thus far, however, Cohen has offered nothing new and, more importantly, nothing to make the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Just before he took the stand, the New York Post revealed that Cohen has been peddling a reality show called “The Fixer,” including working with Colin Whelan, who helped create “Joe Exotic: Tigers, Lies and Cover-Up.” Whelan appears interested to stay within that genre.
The Cohen pitch came with a cheesy promo video where he promised viewers, “I am your fixer.”
His first post-Trump client, Bragg, may have to disagree.
Cohen had only one advantage for Bragg: His notoriously flexible morals and ethics, which allows him to say most anything to support his sponsors.
With the prosecution’s case almost over, Bragg needed Cohen to clearly state that Trump intentionally committed fraud to conceal some still poorly defined crime.
The problem is that Cohen only confirmed that Trump knew he was going to pay for the nondisclosure agreement and that it would be buried before the election. None of that is unlawful.
On his reality show promo, Cohen tells viewers that he is now there to fix their problems because “the little guy doesn’t usually have access to people with my particular set of skills.”
Those skills seem to have escaped all of the witnesses who were compelled to work with him.
Witnesses detailed how Cohen was ridiculed as someone “prone to exaggeration” and unprofessional.
Former Trump associate Hope Hicks said that Cohen was constantly trying to insinuate himself into the campaign and that he “used to like to call himself Mister Fix It, but it was only because he first broke it.”
Cohen only succeeded in confirming that he put together this payment and advised Trump to go forward with it.
He assured him that it would effectively kill the story before the election.
None of that is illegal. The “Fix it man” assured Trump that he fixed it and now wants Trump to go to jail for following that advice.
In the course of that representation, Cohen also admitted to taping his client without his knowledge, a breathtaking breach of trust and confidentiality.
This is the man who, according to Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Keith Davidson, expected to be Trump’s Attorney General.
Davidson said that Cohen was “depressed and despondent” and “I thought he was going to kill himself” when he realized that he would not be made a cabinet member.
Cohen contradicted Davidson and insisted that he only wanted to be Trump’s personal lawyer.
He also admitted that he was unaware that the publisher of National Enquirer, David Pecker, had long killed negative stories about Trump and other celebrities for decades.
Cohen has yet to fix the problem for Bragg.
More importantly, he has added to the problem for Judge Juan Merchan. Many of us have ridiculed this case as devoid of any criminal act.
Indeed, Merchan has allowed the prosecutors to proceed without clearly stating what crime was being concealed.
It is not even clear why paying one’s lawyer a lump sum for his services and costs (including the NDA payment) was not a “legal expense” or how it was supposed to be entered on a business ledger.
Absent a sudden epiphany in his final testimony on Tuesday, Merchan should rule in favor of a directed verdict — that is, throwing the case out before it goes to a jury. If he instead sends this farcical case to the jury, it is Merchan, not Cohen, who may have a better claim to a reality show as the ultimate “Fixer.”
A London court has charged three people with assisting an unnamed foreign intelligence service
Officials in Hong Kong and China have strongly denied claims of spying in Britain after a London court charged three men with assisting a foreign intelligence service on Monday.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee condemned the charges and called for the British authorities to provide full information about the arrests.
“Any attempt to make unwarranted allegations against the Hong Kong government is unacceptable,” Lee said at a regular press briefing, as quoted by Bloomberg.
Lee also appealed for fair treatment for one of the suspects who works for Hong Kong’s trade outpost in London.
The defendant, Bill Yuen Chung-biu, is the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London. The other suspects are Peter Wai, a dual British and Chinese national, who is a UK Border Force officer, and Matthew Trickett, a private investigator and former Royal Marine commando.
Read more UK MPs blame China for MOD data breach – mediaThe men were charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service between December 2023 and May 2024 by “agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception” in Britain, Reuters reported, citing the charges brought in court. The suspects face a maximum possible sentence of 14 years for each charge.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China and a former British colony. The Chinese embassy in the UK also issued a statement on Monday condemning what it described as the “UK’s malicious fabrication and unwarranted accusation” against Hong Kong.
“The UK has staged a series of accusations against China, including those on ‘China spies’ and cyber-attacks,” the statement said, insisting the accusations are “groundless and slanderous.” China has also urged the UK to “stop spreading the so-call[ed] ‘China threat theory’ and end “political manipulation” against the country.
Read more Germans arrested on suspicion of spying for ChinaLast month, two British men were charged with spying for China and breaching the Official Secrets Act. According to police, Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher, “obtained, collected, recorded, published, or communicated” information that was determined to either be, or potentially be, “directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy.”
US President Joe Biden’s administration has also repeatedly accused China of state-backed hacking and cybercrime. The Five Eyes intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and US previously accused Beijing of intellectual property theft and of using artificial intelligence for hacking and spying against the nations in the group.
Hong Kong operates 14 economic and trade offices around the world. Their aim is to advance the city’s economic interests and promote foreign investment in Hong Kong.
Squeezed in between today's (hotter than expected) PPI and tomorrow's CPI, Fed Chair Jay Powell will join The ECB's Dutch Central Banker Klaus Knot at the annual general meeting of the Foreign Bankers' Association.
After PPI - and a wave of higher prices across various indicators - will Powell admit that he can now see the 'flation'?
...and if not, will he explain why he is so desperate to start cutting rates (before November?)...
Watch Powell speak live here (due to start at 10amET)... (FBA has blocked playback on all other sites except YouTube, so no embed: click on the image to link to the YouTube stream)...
Poland itself does not yet have the full system, President Andrzej Duda has said
Poland cannot give Ukraine any US-made Patriot missile systems because it does not have the full system for its own defense, Polish President Andrzej Duda reiterated on Tuesday. Kiev has been asking its Western backers to provide more long-range air defense systems to repel Russian strikes.
Poland has only just started receiving the first elements of the Patriot surface-to-air batteries that it ordered from the US seven years ago, Duda told Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Warsaw is currently in the process of building its own defense shield, part of which will be formed by the Patriot, he added.
“It’s difficult to say right now if we could be providing Patriot systems to Ukraine because, as a matter of fact, we still do not have the system in Poland, we do not have it complete to provide for our own defense,” Duda stated.
Ukraine earlier received several Patriot launchers, each of which costs more than $1 billion, from the US, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Financial Times reported in April that Kiev was lobbying Poland, Spain and Romania for batteries to be donated.
Read more US promises new Ukraine weapons will be game changer – mediaBoth Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated last month that Poland didn’t have any Patriot missile systems available to donate to Ukraine.
Germany and Spain recently agreed to send additional batteries to Kiev. Greece ruled out a donation, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said some members of his government were against the idea of sharing such weapons.
Poland has already donated $4 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, including more than 300 battle tanks and Soviet-designed MiG 29 fighter jets, Duda said on Tuesday.
Poland is modernizing its armed forces, and it must replace what it donated to Ukraine, he added. Warsaw spends 4% of its GDP on defense, which is higher than NATO´s 2.5% target.
The Polish leader reiterated the claim that if Russia is allowed to win in Ukraine, it will keep attacking, and may target other neighboring countries. The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – have increasingly voiced fears that they could be next. That would be “a huge threat to the whole world,” Duda said.
READ MORE: Anti-Russia campaign money stolen in NATO state – media
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed such claims, insisting it has no intention of attacking any NATO country. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that the idea that Moscow will attack some other country such as Poland, or the Baltic States was “complete nonsense” and “drivel.”
Moscow cited NATO’s expansion in Europe and its increasing presence in Ukraine as one of the key triggers of the current conflict.
Poland itself does not yet have the full system, President Andrzej Duda has said
Poland cannot give Ukraine any US-made Patriot missile systems because it does not have the full system for its own defense, Polish President Andrzej Duda reiterated on Tuesday. Kiev has been asking its Western backers to provide more long-range air defense systems to repel Russian strikes.
Poland has only just started receiving the first elements of the Patriot surface-to-air batteries that it ordered from the US seven years ago, Duda told Bloomberg at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha. Warsaw is currently in the process of building its own defense shield, part of which will be formed by the Patriot, he added.
“It’s difficult to say right now if we could be providing Patriot systems to Ukraine because, as a matter of fact, we still do not have the system in Poland, we do not have it complete to provide for our own defense,” Duda stated.
Ukraine earlier received several Patriot launchers, each of which costs more than $1 billion, from the US, Germany, and the Netherlands. The Financial Times reported in April that Kiev was lobbying Poland, Spain and Romania for batteries to be donated.
Read more US promises new Ukraine weapons will be game changer – mediaBoth Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated last month that Poland didn’t have any Patriot missile systems available to donate to Ukraine.
Germany and Spain recently agreed to send additional batteries to Kiev. Greece ruled out a donation, and Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said some members of his government were against the idea of sharing such weapons.
Poland has already donated $4 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, including more than 300 battle tanks and Soviet-designed MiG 29 fighter jets, Duda said on Tuesday.
Poland is modernizing its armed forces, and it must replace what it donated to Ukraine, he added. Warsaw spends 4% of its GDP on defense, which is higher than NATO´s 2.5% target.
The Polish leader reiterated the claim that if Russia is allowed to win in Ukraine, it will keep attacking, and may target other neighboring countries. The Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – have increasingly voiced fears that they could be next. That would be “a huge threat to the whole world,” Duda said.
READ MORE: Anti-Russia campaign money stolen in NATO state – media
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed such claims, insisting it has no intention of attacking any NATO country. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that the idea that Moscow will attack some other country such as Poland, or the Baltic States was “complete nonsense” and “drivel.”
Moscow cited NATO’s expansion in Europe and its increasing presence in Ukraine as one of the key triggers of the current conflict.
Abortion supporters nationwide make contradictory statements daily. Usually, it sounds something like this:
Life is valuable – except in the womb.
It’s ok to kill a preborn child up until nine months, but when it’s born, then it can’t be killed.
It’s a baby when they want it to be – otherwise, it’s a “fetus.”
It’s more startling and concerning when trained medical professionals not only accept contradictory statements such as these but go directly against the oaths they vowed to take. The heart of the Hippocratic Oath is to “abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.”
Or, a similar phrase stated by Thomas Inman, says more descriptively, “Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient.”
Some medical personnel threw away their morals, along with dignity for all patients – born and preborn. Illinois’ biggest pro-abortion lobbying group, “Personal PAC,” held a fundraiser in downtown Chicago in Dearborn for “Doctors for Choice.” Students for Life of America (SFLA) mobilized alongside the Pro-Life Action League of Illinois to protest the event and showcase to the community the horror of abortion.
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With Illinois being one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation, this pro-abortion PAC needs public disapproval, not more funding. They have already wreaked havoc on life, having funded the Reproductive Health Act, which made abortion legal through nine months, and helped repeal the Parental Notification Act, which allows abortionists to perform abortions on minors without parental consent or notice. Not to mention, women from neighboring states travel through Illinois borders to obtain an abortion. With more funding, this PAC could do even more damage in Illinois.
“Chicagoans deserve to know what is happening in their city and how lives are legally being ended through abortion in their city and state,” stated Shawna Weber, SFLA’s upper Midwest regional coordinator. “Continued funding for abortions in this state is devastating news for everyone. When the abortionists get more money, they use it to end more lives and wreak more havoc on the pro-life movement in the state.”
“As a young pro-life activist, it is essential that we disrupt the corrupt abortion industry that does not care about women but wants to kill children,” says Sarah Carter, a recent graduate and an SFLA alumni at Wheaton College. “Healthcare is supposed to heal, not kill.”
We exposed Chicagoans to the messaging about what was happening inside Dearborn – death and destruction from doctors who are supposed to protect. While we received both positive and negative feedback, overall, we were able to mobilize with other pro-lifers on such a crucial issue for the state.
“Doctors for Choice” is an oxymoron. Women in Chicago, neighboring states, and nationwide deserve doctors who inform and take their oath to protect life seriously.
LifeNews Note: Jordan Estabrook graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and serves the Pro-Life Generation as a press specialist and online editor. She writes for the Students for Life blog.
The post Pro-Life Advocates Protest Event for Pro-Abortion “Doctors” appeared first on LifeNews.com.
A US Army officer has resigned from his post at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to protest Washington's "nearly unqualified support for the government of Israel" -- support that's facilitated "the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians." Mann describes himself as a "descendent of European Jews" who was raised to be "particularly unforgiving" where "responsibility for ethnic cleansing" is concerned.
When Major Harrison Mann left DIA in April, he sent a two-page letter to a group of his colleagues there, saying he felt they were owed an explanation for his "relatively abrupt departure." On Monday, Mann shared the letter with the public, via a post to his LinkedIn page.
Army Major Harrison Mann condemned "unqualified" US government support of the State of Israel (LinkedIn)His post targets others in government who are feeling morally conflicted by performing duties that support the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) rampage in Gaza. The apparent catalyst for going public now: the start of IDF attacks on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge after being forced to evacuate other areas of the 25-mile-long strip.
"I cannot justify staying silent any longer...It is clear that this week, some of you will still be asked to provide support -- directly or indirectly -- to the Israeli military as it conducts operations into Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza...I am sharing [my letter] now in the hope that you too will discover you are not alone, you are not voiceless, and you are not powerless.
In the April letter explaining his departure, Mann describes how his growing misgivings grew as the IDF's retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel continued, with US government help:
"Each of us signed up to serve knowing we might have to support policies that we weren't fully convinced of. Our defense institutions couldn't function otherwise. However, at some point it became difficult to justify the outcomes of this particular policy. At some point -- whatever the justification -- you're either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you're not."
A malnourished 6-year-old being treated at a field hospital in Rafah, Gaza (via Human Rights Watch)In April, UNICEF said one in three Gaza children under two years old are acutely malnourished. When Israel began retaliating after Oct. 7, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared, "I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly."
Mann described how imagery emanating from Gaza made him feel increasingly guilty about the DIA's role in "directly execut[ing] policy" that supported the IDF-inflicted mass misery:
"The nearly unqualified support for the government of Israel...has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians...The past months have presented us with the most horrific and heartbreaking images imaginable -- sometimes playing on the news in our own spaces -- and I have been unable to ignore connection between those images and my duties here. This has caused me incredible shame and guilt."
The IDF has unleashed mass destruction of civilian infrastructure, as seen here in the vicinity of Al-Shifa hospital (France24)The William & Mary graduate said he'd hoped for a quick end to the war. As it continued, he tried to rationalize his continued service to the DIA and, by extension, the IDF:
I told myself my individual contribution was minimal, and that if I didn't do my job, someone else would, so why cause a stir for nothing? I told myself I don't make policy and it's not my place to question it. Above all, I was afraid. Afraid of violating our professional norms. Afraid of disappointing officers I respect. Afraid you would feel betrayed.
Mann said his resignation was ultimately sparked by "moral injury" -- a term that Syracuse University's Moral Injury Project defines as "damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct." Moral injury is considered to be one factor contributing to the high rate of suicide observed in military veterans.
Mann also explained how his upbringing affected his moral calculus:
"As the descendant of European Jews, I was raised in a particularly unforgiving moral environment when it came to the topic of bearing responsibility for ethnic cleansing — my grandfather refused to ever purchase products manufactured in Germany — where the paramount importance of ‘never again’ and the inadequacy of ‘just following orders’ were oft repeated.
I am haunted by the knowledge that I have failed those principles. But I also have hope that my grandfather would afford me some grace; that he would still be proud of me for stepping away from this war, however belatedly."
In addition to objecting to Israel's mass harm to civilians, Mann noted that "[America's] unconditional support also encourages reckless escalation that risks wider war.” Mann was originally commissioned as an infantry officer and later became a foreign area officer focused on the Middle East. Along the way, he earned a master of public administration degree from the Harvard Kennedy School.
The Red Crescent said six Palestinians were killed when the IDF bombed this ambulance in January; Israel denied responsibility (ABC Australia)Mann's resignation-in-protest strikes us as much better and more effective choice than the one made by Air Force Airman Aaron Bushnell, who fatally self-immolated at the Israeli embassy in Washington. In another high-profile resignation, the State Department's Josh Paul in October quit his job in a role that supported arms transfers to Israel. Speaking at Amherst, he cited the lack of consideration for the consequences: “[There was] no interest in debating: Are the weapons that we are providing going to be used appropriately? … Should we be having conversations with the government of Israel about what they're doing?”
According to the latest estimates reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 34,000 Palestinians have died since Oct. 7. Of the identified dead, 32% are children and 20% are women. In April, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson collaborated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to push through another $14.3 billion in aid to the State of Israel.
Mann said that after distributing his letter to his DIA colleagues in April, he received "an unexpected outpouring of support." As his protest now reaches a far larger audience, some may say this Army officer should have just kept following orders and serving as a cog in the empire's machine, keeping his concerns about America's unqualified support of Israel to himself. Safe to say that George Washington would think otherwise.
Franciscan University of Steubenville on Saturday celebrated its 76th commencement exercises, sending out nearly 900 students who heard Catholic U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito urge them to “go out boldly,” but also warn that the freedoms of speech and religion are seriously endangered in our current culture.
In his commencement address, Alito told the graduating class – which broke a record for the largest in the school’s history for a fourth consecutive year – to leave Franciscan ready to “engage the world,” while still acknowledging that it’s “rough out there,” and “probably rougher … now that it has been for quite some time.”
Franciscan University President Fr. Dave Pivonka, TOR ’89, introduced Alito, who received an honorary doctorate in Christian ethics “for his decades of exemplary public service and tireless efforts to protect and uphold justice and the rule of law.”
Pivonka first cited the associate justice’s majority opinion in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), which upheld religious freedom. A lengthy standing ovation for Alito erupted next when Pivonka cited his majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), which held the United States Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.
During his address, the Supreme Court justice focused primarily on the Constitution, referring to it as “the source that has formed the backbone of my work as a judge for the past 30 years.”
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“I believe that our Constitution could not have endured, and could not have provided the framework for our country’s growth, if it did not rest on a deep understanding of human nature and human behavior,” he said.
He highlighted some of the lessons “the Constitution teaches us” – lessons that apply to everyday life. The first of these, he noted, is “the need to be rigorous and disciplined in identifying the things that are most fundamental.”
“A striking feature of our Constitution is its brevity … our Constitution is brief because it focuses on the things that are essential,” the associate justice observed:
It sets out the structure of the government, it protects basic rights and then it leaves just about everything else to be decided by the American people acting through their elected representatives …The framers’ strategy, a disciplined identification of what is fundamental has served our country well. And this same strategy is a good one to implement in our personal lives … we can make the effort to keep in mind what is fundamental and permanent in our lives. And that is absolutely critical. Because the things that call out most loudly for our attention on a daily basis are not necessarily the things that matter most in the end.
Another lesson taught by the Constitution, Alito said, “is that it guards against improvident change.”
“The constitution is exceedingly hard to change,” he explained:
An amendment must be approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress and it must be ratified by three-quarters of the states. And because the amendment process is so difficult, our Constitution has been amended only 27 times this date, despite the fact that more than 10,000 proposed amendments have been considered in Congress.
Alito elaborated that the framers “deliberately” made the process of amending the Constitution strenuous because of their “understanding of the nature of the fundamental rights that are protected by the Constitution.”
He continued:
I’m sure we all remember the famous words of the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” and “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” That short and famous statement speaks volumes and one of the most important things it says is that there are certain moral principles that are true and immutable. These principles of right and wrong are not relative or circumstantial. They are not of our making, and it is not within our power to change them.
Alito added that the Constitution’s framers anticipated there would be times “when rulers and people would become restive” and when “the principles of constitutional liberty would be imperiled unless established by irreparable law.”
“[U]nder all circumstances, this same fundamental idea that there are certain principles that we cannot compromise without paying a fearsome price applies to our personal lives,” he said. During such times, “if we have fixed and clear principles, principles that are written in bold letters on our hearts, we may be able to find our way through. If we don’t, we can easily go astray.”
Alito observed that “troubled waters” are currently “slamming against some of our most fundamental principles.” But he pointed out another lesson to be drawn from the Constitution: a “respect for reason and civil discourse.”
He spoke to the graduates about the challenges that lie ahead as they leave school:
Support for freedom of speech is declining, dangerously, especially where it should find broadest and widest acceptance. In a book called “The Idea of a University,” St. John Henry Newman saw the university as a place for reasoned debate. Today, very few colleges live up to that ideal. This place is one of the few that does, and you are very fortunate to have had that experience. Religious liberty is also threatened. When you venture out into the world, you may find yourself in a job or community or social setting where you will be pressured to endorse ideas you don’t believe or to abandon core beliefs. It will be up to you to stand firm.
“In the same way, your challenge during troubled times will be to distinguish between dedication to principles that never change, and mere nostalgia for the past,” he told the graduates. “In order to engage our society and try to make it a better place – that is essential. And that requires judgment and prudence.”
“That isn’t easy,” Alito concluded. “But what you have learned, and the habits of mind that your education has inculcated, should help you to meet that challenge. Our society needs you to do just that.”
LifeNews Note: Susan Berry writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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