The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life."
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Site: Zero Hedge"Let's Debunk The Myth That Mass-Migration Brings An Economic Benefit", Says Former UK Immigration MinisterTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 02:00
Authored by Thomas Brooke via ReMix News,
The notion that mass immigration brings a net economic benefit to a developed nation is a myth that needs to be debunked, a former U.K. government minister who resigned over the spiraling numbers arriving in Britain has claimed.
In an interview with the Conservative Home website, Robert Jenrick, the Conservative MP who stepped down from his role as immigration minister in the Home Office last year, called the government’s post-Brexit immigration policy a “complete disaster” and a “betrayal to voters” who for decades have elected parties promising to cut the number of new arrivals into Britain.
“The numbers are just so large that it has a proportionally much greater impact on everyone’s lives. This cuts to the housing crisis, why we have such low productivity, and why we have concerns about community cohesion and integration,” he told the site.
Net migration is at record levels in Britain since the U.K. left the European Union, peaking in the year to December 2022 at 745,000. It subsequently fell to 672,000 in the year to June 2023, but after leaving the European Union Single Market, this is a paradox that Jenrick finds difficult to accept.
“For years, politicians made promises to cut legal migration they knew they couldn’t keep because ultimately the UK was beholden to the EU’s freedom of movement.
“The great reform was the Conservative Party delivering Brexit, which finally took back control of the levers of migration. But the decisions made in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote were a betrayal to voters — they created a system that was even more liberal than the one before by lowering the salary threshold, creating a graduate route and an unregulated social care visa,” he said.
“Frankly, these decisions were two fingers up to the public, and in public policy terms they’ve been a complete disaster.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made “stopping the boats” a key pledge throughout his tenure in Downing Street — a nod to the illegal immigration crisis on England’s southern shores as thousands of undocumented migrants are transported across the English Channel from mainland Europe where they claim asylum and use human rights laws to avoid deportation.
However, despite attempts to combat this issue through the flagship Rwanda policy — a plan to deport migrants to the African nation for offshore processing — Jenrick believes that this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tackling immigration.
“To me, legal migration has always been the more important issue,” he explained.
“I’m 42, and for my entire adult life, if not longer, political parties of all persuasions have stood at elections saying they’re going to bring down the level of legal migration.
“All alighted on this challenge, said they were going to take action, and all ultimately failed.”
The Conservative MP challenged the view that mass immigration has a net economic benefit on a developed country like Britain, highlighting that just 15 percent of non-EU migrants who came to the country last year arrived with work visas.
“So, the overwhelming majority of people were students, dependants, or were those coming as refugees.”
The figure is actually slightly higher than 15 percent. In the year to June 2023, 968,000 non-EU migrants arrived in Britain, of which just 169,000 were the main applicants on a work visa, amounting to 17.5 percent.
“One can make arguments for and against each of those categories, but they’re not people who are demonstrably making an economic contribution to this country.”
He warned the economic model that Britain has adopted when it comes to immigration isn’t working.
“If importing hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to the UK was a route to prosperity, the U.K. would be one of the richest countries in the world,” he said, adding that Britain has been in a recession in terms of GDP per capita for almost the last two years.
“I care about the prosperity of our own citizens, not the overall size of the economy.”
The former immigration minister accused businesses in Britain of becoming “hooked on the drug of imported foreign labor” and said the government had done too little to “boost training for young people in our country” to take on jobs in key sectors like construction.
He urged the government to adopt a “highly selective” immigration policy that enables it to choose the types of people that will make an economic contribution to Britain, noting that there is no longer the bogeyman of the European Union to fall back on as a reason why immigration figures should remain as high as they are now.
“What we need is radically reduced, highly-selective, high-skilled, and high-productivity migration,” Jenrick added, suggesting that an annual cap could “serve as a democratic lock” on Britain’s immigration policy and ensure that promises to the electorate to bring down the numbers are met.
Several studies support Jenrick’s observation that mass immigration is an economic drag on developed nations.
In November 2021, a Danish Ministry of Finance report revealed that the net cost of immigration from non-Western countries, after tax contributions had been deducted, amounted to €4.2 billion in 2018.
Similarly, a study from the University of Amsterdam published in December last year revealed the net cost to the Dutch public sector for decades of mass immigration between 1995 and 2019 was €400 billion, averaging €17 billion a year.
The research categorized the types of migrants arriving in the Netherlands during that time by nationality, revealing that those arriving from other EU and European countries had a net positive contribution to the Dutch economy, while those coming from countries such as Turkey and Morocco had cost the Dutch taxpayer the most with a net negative contribution of €200,000 and €260,000, respectively.
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Site: Voltaire NetworkWhile the mullahs' rhetoric is clearly anti-Israeli, relations between the two countries are far more complex than one might think. There are in fact two opposing groups in Iran, one intent on doing business by all means with the rest of the world, while the other aims to liberate peoples from colonization. The former has never stopped doing business with Israel, while the latter fights against it, just as it fights against the imperialism of the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Site: RT - News
The pathogen has been detected in 33 cattle herds in eight states, officials say
Particles of bird flu have been found in samples of consumer milk in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday, revealing the extent of an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
The virus has previously been detected in raw milk, the agency wrote, adding that while “pasteurization is likely to inactivate the virus,” the process is not expected to fully remove the presence of viral particles.
The FDA national survey further discovered traces of bird flu in “milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves.”
“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the agency claimed, insisting that if the testing process finds “genetic material” from the virus, this “does not mean that the sample contains an intact, infectious pathogen.”
While the FDA insists there is no real concern about the safety of pasteurized dairy products, other agencies said produce from sick cows should not be on the shelves. “Only milk from healthy animals is authorized for distribution into interstate commerce for human consumption,” the National Milk Producers Federation wrote on its website.
Read more
EU state reports ‘highly pathogenic’ bird flu outbreak
Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revealed that bird flu had been found in 33 herds of dairy cows in eight states as of Monday.
Although Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been circulating for more than 20 years, its spread to bovine livestock is causing alarm, the Washington Post wrote on Tuesday.
The concern “is that it’s showing up in a lot more samples, meaning the infection is more widespread in dairy herds than we thought,” a US public health official told the paper on the condition of anonymity.
Both the USDA and the FDA have urged consumers to avoid drinking raw milk as the situation evolves. Further results are expected in the coming days and weeks, authorities said.
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Site: RT - News
The pathogen has been detected in 33 cattle herds in eight states, officials say
Particles of bird flu have been found in samples of consumer milk in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Tuesday, revealing the extent of an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
The virus has previously been detected in raw milk, the agency wrote, adding that while “pasteurization is likely to inactivate the virus,” the process is not expected to fully remove the presence of viral particles.
The FDA national survey further discovered traces of bird flu in “milk from affected animals, in the processing system, and on the shelves.”
“To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe,” the agency claimed, insisting that if the testing process finds “genetic material” from the virus, this “does not mean that the sample contains an intact, infectious pathogen.”
While the FDA insists there is no real concern about the safety of pasteurized dairy products, other agencies said produce from sick cows should not be on the shelves. “Only milk from healthy animals is authorized for distribution into interstate commerce for human consumption,” the National Milk Producers Federation wrote on its website.
Read more
EU state reports ‘highly pathogenic’ bird flu outbreak
Meanwhile, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has revealed that bird flu had been found in 33 herds of dairy cows in eight states as of Monday.
Although Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza has been circulating for more than 20 years, its spread to bovine livestock is causing alarm, the Washington Post wrote on Tuesday.
The concern “is that it’s showing up in a lot more samples, meaning the infection is more widespread in dairy herds than we thought,” a US public health official told the paper on the condition of anonymity.
Both the USDA and the FDA have urged consumers to avoid drinking raw milk as the situation evolves. Further results are expected in the coming days and weeks, authorities said.
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Site: The Unz ReviewAntisemitism used to mean “someone who doesn’t like Jews,” but nowadays it means “someone that Jews don’t like for some reason or another.” The deliberate trick here is to make you think there is something wrong not with the Jewish baby killers, liars, or scum who are doing bad things but with the person noticing...
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Site: The Unz ReviewThe good news is the United States is calling for diplomacy in the Middle East. The bad news it is because it was bested by Yemen’s rebel Houthis. U.S. Special Envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, bowed to the obvious and admitted, “We favor a diplomatic solution, we know there is no military solution.” Lenderking was...
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Site: The Unz ReviewPreviously: NYU: Students Set Up Camp to Support Palestine, Get Arrested These Student Protests Against Israel are the Most Important Political Movement of Our Lifetime NYU followed Columbia and did a mass arrest of anti-Israel protesters. This was the stupidest possible think they could have done. When you arrest and crack down on a protest...
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Site: The Unz ReviewI found the following article (below) of interest, so I am passing it on. It symbolizes for me, in iconic fashion, another major reason that the millennia-old inherited society around us is collapsing, to be replaced by a monstruous, dystopian Gulag, a counter-reality where our tried-and-true verities are unceremoniously dumped onto the ash heap of...
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Site: Zero HedgeA $250 Million War Game And Its Shocking OutcomeTyler Durden Wed, 04/24/2024 - 00:05
Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,
At a cost of $250 million, Millennium Challenge 2002 was the largest and most expensive war game in Pentagon history.
With over 13,500 participants, the US government took over two years to design it.
The exercise pitted Iran against the US military. Washington intended to show how the US military could defeat Iran with ease.
Paul Van Riper, a three-star general and 41-year veteran of the Marine Corps, led Iranian forces in the war game. His mission was to take on the full force of the US military, led by an aircraft carrier battle group and a large amphibious landing force in the Persian Gulf.
The results shocked everyone…
Van Riper waited for the US Navy to pass through the shallow and narrow Strait of Hormuz, which made them sitting ducks for Iran’s unconventional and asymmetric warfare techniques.
The idea is to level the playing field against a superior enemy with swarms of explosive-laden suicide speedboats, low-flying planes carrying anti-ship missiles, naval mines, and land-based anti-ship ballistic missiles, among other low-cost but highly effective measures.
In minutes, Van Riper emerged victorious over his superior opponent and sank all 19 ships. Had it been real life, 20,000 US sailors and marines would have died.
Millennium Challenge 2002 was a complete disaster for the Pentagon, which had spent a quarter of a billion dollars to set up the extensive war game. It produced the exact opposite outcome they wanted.
So what did the Pentagon do with these humbling results?
Like a child playing a video game, they hit the reset button. They then rigged and scripted the game so that the US was guaranteed to win.
After realizing the integrity of the war game had been compromised, a disgusted Van Riper walked out mid-game. He then said:
“Nothing was learned from this. And a culture not willing to think hard and test itself does not augur well for the future.”
The main lesson of Millennium Challenge 2002 is that aircraft carriers—the biggest and most expensive ships ever built—wouldn’t last a single day in combat against even a regional power like Iran. Russia and China would have an even easier time dispatching them. They are overpriced toys.
That means the US has wasted untold trillions on military hardware that could prove to be worthless in a serious conflict.
Nonetheless, the US government still parades aircraft carriers around the world from time to time to try to intimidate its enemies.
However, it’s a flawed strategy prone to catastrophic results if someone calls their bluff.
While Millennium Challenge 2002 occurred more than 20 years ago, it is of paramount importance today.
Iran has substantially improved its asymmetric and unconventional warfare capabilities. It’s doubtful the US military would fare much better today than 20 years ago.
In short, war with Iran today could be even more disastrous than the Millennium Challenge 2002 simulation.
Unfortunately, war with Iran is an increasingly probable outcome as tensions in the Middle East are at their highest point in generations and are trending higher.
Previously, I lived in Beirut, Lebanon, for several years while working for an investment bank. The experience was effectively an advanced training course in Middle East geopolitics. Today, it helps me see the big picture in the region… and unfortunately, it isn’t pretty.
I think the next big war in the Middle East is coming soon and could be the biggest one ever. It will focus on Iran.
The market doesn’t appreciate how close we are to a big war and the implications of it.
But this distortion in the market is a blessing. It’s handing us a golden opportunity.
First and foremost, I think there’s a huge opportunity to profit in the oil market right now.
I’m certainly not cheering for war. I despise war, which is the health of the State.
Regardless, a big war is highly likely, with significant investment implications that would be foolish to ignore.
In short, we are only one escalation away from potentially the biggest oil shock in history as the Middle East is on the verge of the largest regional war in generations.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to blindside you, your family, or your portfolio.
Quite the contrary.
That’s precisely why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare. It’s called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Click here to download the PDF now.
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Site: The Catholic Thing
The Catholic faith and traditions of the Habsburg monarchies helped them enjoy mostly stable marriages and large, happy families that were crucial in governing their kingdoms for more than eight centuries. In his new book, Eduard Habsburg, Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See, discusses the principles he believes all people can learn from the Habsburgs in this troubled age when marriage and the family are especially under attack. The post ‘The Habsburg Way’: Lessons for Today, From Openness to Life to How to Die Well appeared first on The Catholic Thing.
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Site: The Catholic Thing
Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman’s Auschwitz prisoner tattoo is still visible to this day, serving as a “never again” reminder as her Jewish grandchildren face a modern wave of antisemitism. “It’s like a cancer. If you don’t stop it early, it metastasizes. It’s going to kill the body. It’s killing our country.” She says that when she came to the U.S., it was “like I came to the Promised Land, and it was just a fabulous experience. And here it is today. I am shocked, I am pained, I’m scared. I’m scared both for America, I’m scared for the Jews, and it’s very painful for our young people.”
The post Auschwitz survivor: antisemitism is a ‘cancer’ spreading across America appeared first on The Catholic Thing.
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Site: The Catholic Thing
Florida will be voting in November on the Limiting Government Interference with Abortion Amendment, which would change the Florida Constitution to include a provision reading: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health care provider.” Will Florida turn the tide on pro-life defeats in nearly every other state?
The post Will Florida become the first state to defeat an abortion amendment? appeared first on The Catholic Thing.
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Site: The Catholic Thing
Jesus, when I see you held by your Mother,
Leaving her arms
Trying, trembling, your first steps
On our sad earth,
Before you I’d like to unpetal a rose
In its freshness
So that your little foot might rest ever so softly
On a flower!….This unpetalled rose is the faithful image,
Divine Child,
Of the heart that wants to sacrifice itself for you unreservedly
at each moment.
Lord, on your altars more than one new rose
Likes to shine.
It gives itself to you…..but I dream of something else:
To be unpetalled!….”The rose in its splendor can adorn your feast,
Lovable Child,
But the unpetalled rose is just flung out
To blow away.
An unpetalled rose gives itself unaffectedly
To be no more.
Like it, with joy I abandon myself to you,
Little Jesus.One walks on rose petals with no regrets,
And this debris
Is a simple ornament that one disposes of artlessly,
That I’ve understood.
Jesus, for your love I’ve squandered my life,
My future.
In the eyes of men, a rose forever withered,
I must die!…For you, I must die, Child, Beauty Supreme,
What a blessed fate!
In being unpetalled, I want to prove to you that I love you,
O my Treasure!…
Under your baby steps, I want to live here below
With mystery,
And I’d like to soften once more on Calvary
Your last steps!….The post An Unpetalled Rose appeared first on The Catholic Thing.
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Site: The Catholic Thing
When Rev. Earl K. Fernandes was ordained as bishop of Columbus in 2022, he observed that there were more bishops ordained than priests that year in the diocese since there were no priestly ordinations and just 17 seminarians. But Columbus had 16 men enter the seminary last year and has 12 applications for next year. The diocese had a total of 37 seminarians and five priestly ordinations this year, as well as three men ordained to the transitional diaconate.The post Ordinations on the rise in Columbus, OH appeared first on The Catholic Thing.
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Site: The Catholic Thing
As we get older, the temptation to be dissatisfied with our lives can grow. A fear of aging, along with memories of past failures and mistakes, can obscure the good in the world around us. A culture of consumption, distractions, and anesthetics, which is what we’ve created, feeds on that restlessness and profits from the anxiety that so often animates our desires. In the process, it steals something uniquely human from us. It reduces us to a bundle of material appetites. And it resents anything transcendent because questions about meaning threaten the machinery of wanting and possessing more.
This is one of the reasons why beauty – real beauty – can seem so diminished in our daily lives. Real beauty draws us up and out of ourselves; it connects us to realities that can’t be commodified. It re-sacralizes the world, even if only for a moment. And in doing that, it indicts the vulgarity, cynicism, and disorder that constitute so much of contemporary life.
But we’re better than our base appetites. We deserve something more than commercialized, materialist junk. And the reason why is simple: As the philosopher Roger Scruton wrote in his book The Face of God, “the [human] face shines in the world of objects with a light that is not of this world – the light of subjectivity.”
Today’s social sciences tend to reduce individuals to data points and the human experience to patterns of behavior. And of course it’s true that we humans are animated carbon, just like every other animal. We have instincts and we reproduce more or less like every other animal. But we’re not like any other animal. We’re uniquely conscious of both our individuality and our mortality. Which explains both our fear of loneliness and our need for meaning. We’re the only species that buries and reveres its dead. It’s in our nature to want more than this life can give; to sense that something more and higher might be possible.
Again, in The Face of God, Scruton wrote:
Take away religion, [take away] philosophy, take away the higher aims of art, and you deprive ordinary people of the ways they can represent their apartness. Human nature, once something to live up to, becomes something to live down to instead. Biological reductionism nurtures this “living down,” which is why people so readily fall for it. It makes cynicism respectable and degeneracy chic. It abolishes our kind, and with it, our kindness.
Beauty, in contrast, is an affirmation of our shared human dignity. It reminds us of the goodness of life in an age of transgressive narcissism and repudiation of the past. This is why, in the Catholic tradition, hostility to high culture; to excellence and precision in the life of the mind; and more recently and narrowly to the traditional Latin Mass, can seem so strange.
Face of God (detail from “Creation of the Sun and Moon”) by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, c. 1510 [Sistine Chapel, Vatican]
I grew up with the old form of the Mass. I have no desire to go back to it. It could often be mechanical and uninspiring, and the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council were overdue and necessary. When done well, they produce a form of worship that’s both reverent and profound.
But what the old Mass did have, when a priest celebrated it with humility and conviction, was a tactile beauty that appealed to all the senses, especially sight, sound, and smell. And in doing that, it communicated, vividly, the mystery of an invisible reality — a God radically holy, a God radically “other than” us, but at the same time intimate, loving, and incarnate in our humanity.
People leave the Catholic Church and the wider Christian community today for many different reasons. But one of those reasons is the unconvincing, bourgeois mediocrity that can be too common in our worship – which then infects the whole atmosphere of Christian life.
My point is simply this: Ugliness kills the spirit and explains the impulse for desecration that infects so much of modern “art.” Ugliness dumbs down the imagination, softens the brain, and hardens the heart. People of faith have a hunger for beauty and mystery and belonging to a story; the story of a living, believing community, ongoing and true across cultures and time. And they’re too often not getting that in their local churches.
In his book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction, Scruton wrote that:
Our need for beauty is not something that we could lack and still be fulfilled as people. It is a need arising from our metaphysical condition, as free individuals seeking our place in a shared and public world. We can wander through this world, alienated, resentful, full of suspicion and distrust. Or we can find our home here, coming to rest in harmony with others and with ourselves. The experience of beauty guides us along this second path: It tells us that we are at home in the world, that the world is already ordered in our perception as a place fit for the lives of beings like us. But beings like us. . .become at home in the world only by acknowledging our “fallen” condition. . . .Hence the experience of beauty also points us beyond this world to a “kingdom of ends” in which our immortal longings and our desire for perfection are finally answered.
This is why a hunger for beauty and the religious frame of mind are so closely related and so vital for human flourishing. They both flow from a humble sense of human imperfection while reaching for the transcendent. For better or worse, it’s also why so many young families seek out the beauty and mystery of the old Latin Mass.
We need beauty to ennoble our imagination, to guide our scientific intuitions, and to poke through the blather and venom of “wokeness.” We need it to see reality clearly. We need beauty because it keeps us human. Beauty tells us that despite our sins and failures, Creation is good. And behind it is a Creator who loves us.
Roger Vernon Scruton by Francesco Guidicini , 2011 [National Portrait Gallery, London]
The post The Face of God appeared first on The Catholic Thing.
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Site: The Unz ReviewThe Western military security complex has orchestrated a “Russian threat” for the purpose of keeping profits rolling into the coffers of armaments manufacturers and their marketing teams. It has reached such absurd levels as tiny Estonia’s finance minister proposing a “security tax” so that Estonia can protect itself from Russia. And this absurdity is taken...
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Site: AntiWar.com
The North American peace movement is contesting ongoing US wars in Ukraine and Palestine and preparations for war with China. Out of the fog of these wars, a clear anti-imperialist focus is emerging. Giving peace a chance has never been more plainly understood as opposition to what Martin Luther King, Jr., referred to as “the … Continue reading "The North American Peace Movement at an Inflection Point"
The post The North American Peace Movement at an Inflection Point appeared first on Antiwar.com.
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Site: AntiWar.com
The clusterf*ck in the US House of Representatives this past weekend is surely the final straw. The dreadful grip of the UniParty on national security policy has finally produced sheer madness in a single package. To wit: $95 billion of foreign aid boondoggles that do not benefit America’s homeland security in the slightest. An extension … Continue reading "The UniParty’s Day of Infamy"
The post The UniParty’s Day of Infamy appeared first on Antiwar.com.
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Site: The Unz ReviewI have several times reported the same. Nixon was removed because he was making arms limitation agreements with the Soviets and opening to China. This was normalizing the enemy that the military/security complex needed for its budget and power. It was for the same reason that President Kennedy was assassinated by the military/security complex. The...
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Site: AntiWar.com
One, erratic and often unhinged, blew up the U.S.-Iran accord that was the landmark foreign policy achievement of President Obama’s second term. He then ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general visiting Iraq, dramatically raising tensions in the region. The other is a traditional advocate of American exceptionalism, a supporter of the U.S.-Iran agreement … Continue reading "Handling – and Mishandling – the Iran Nuclear Program"
The post Handling – and Mishandling – the Iran Nuclear Program appeared first on Antiwar.com.
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Site: The Unz ReviewThis is surprising to absolutely no one. One wonders however, after this kind of event, how the Blinken Administration is going to continue to claim that Israel is not violating “human rights.” I guess he’ll just say that they’re investigating it, and then never follow up. Binding people’s hands, stripping them naked, executing them, and...
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Site: The Unz ReviewThe absence of integrity in the US Department of Justice (sic) is one of the many unremarked threats to American freedom. Recently unsealed documents that the DOJ gangster special counsel Jack Smith tried to keep secret reveal that the Biden White House colluded with the National Archives, FBI and apparently the New York Times to...
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Site: The Unz ReviewChristopher Rufo has been unveiling the anti-white statements of Katherine Maher, the new head of NPR. An editor resigned after he wrote about left-wing bias at taxpayer-funded NPR. The new anti-white head will keeps her job despite her views, and NPR boots a dissident. Institutional control is secure. People make fun of scholars from a...
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Site: The Unz ReviewThis is the introduction by James Kirkpatrick to the book Esoteric Trumpism, by Constantin von Hoffmeister [Tweet him] available from Arktos Press, reprinted by permission. More than degeneracy, more than decline, the current epoch looked fated to be an Age of Exhaustion. The great danger is not that intellectuals and politicians have given in to...
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Site: Zero HedgeChinese FX Outflows Soar, Priming The Next Bitcoin SurgeTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 23:25
Last October, when we pointed out that China's FX outflows had just hit a whopping $75BN - the single biggest monthly outflow since the 2015 currency devaluation - we concluded that the "unfavorable interest rate spread between China and the US will "likely imply persistent depreciation and outflow pressures in coming months", or in other words, September's biggest FX outflow in years is just the beginning, and very soon - in addition to geopolitics and central banks - the world will also be freaking out about the capital flight out of China... not to mention where all those billions in Chinese savings are going and which digital currency the Chinese are using to launder said outflows."
We wrote that on October 20 when Bitcoin was trading just under $30,000, a level it had been for much of 2023. And, just as we correctly predicted at the time...
Clockwork: every time China FX outflows surge, bitcoin erupts.
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 24, 2023
From last Friday: China Capital Flight Panic Eruptshttps://t.co/j0eWLnbFMq... following this surge in Chinese FX outflows, bitcoin - traditionally China's preferred means to circumvent Beijing's great capital firewall since gold is, how should one put it, a bit more obvious when crossing borders - promptly exploded more than 100% higher in the next 4 months.
And while conventional wisdom is that this surge in the price of the digital currency was largely due to the January launch of Bitcoin ETFs, what many missed was a Reuters story in January which confirmed our thesis from back in 2015, according to which much more than ETFs, and much more than rapidly shifting sentiment or frankly any day-to-day newsflow, it is China's massive wall of inert capital that has been the biggest driver of bitcoin moves, and never more so than during periods of FX and capital outflows which usually precede some form of capital controls.
We bring all this up because six months after our first correct prediction that China's spike in FX outflows would send bitcoin surging, it's time to do it again.
One wouldn't know if, however, if one merely looked at the official Chinese FX reserve data published by the PBOC, here nothing sticks out. In fact, at $3.246 trillion, reported Chinese reserves are now near the highest level in past four years, and monthly flows are very much stable as shown in the chart below.
The problem, of course, is that as we have explained previously China's officially reported reserves are woefully (and perhaps purposefully) inaccurate of the bigger picture.
Instead if one uses our preferred gauge of FX flows, one which looks at i) onshore outright spot transactions; ii) freshly entered and canceled forward transactions, and iii) the SAFE dataset on “cross-border RMB flows, we find that China's net outflows were $39bn in March, up from $11bn in February and the fastest pace of outflows since the September spike in FX outflows which we duly noted half a year ago.
How did we get this number? The portfolio investment channel showed net outflows in March. The Stock Connect channel showed net outflows of US$8bn vs. US$5bn inflows in February, and inflows to the bond market slowed in March (US$6bn, vs. US$11bn in February)...
... primarily on record net selling of central government bonds.
Finally, the current account channel showed also net outflows in March, mainly as services trade related outflows picked up.
At the time when FX outflows were re-acclererating, the broad USD strengthened further in March, and USD/CNY spot drifted higher, as one would expect when there is capital flight... Oh, and Bitcoin hit a record high above $70K.
And while Chinese policymakers are still keen on maintaining FX stability - the countercyclical factors in the daily CNY fixing remained deeply negative and front-end CNH liquidity tightened notably in recent weeks - the reality is that with China desperate to boost its exports at a time when its great mercantilist competitor, Japan, has hammered the yen to the lowest level in 3 decades, it is only a matter of time before the currency devaluation advocates win, as they did in 2015.
We hope that we don't have to remind readers that the first big trigger for bitcoin's unprecedented eruption higher starting in 2015 was - you guessed it - China's August 2015 FX devaluation.
So don't be surprised if in the next 6 months Bitcoin doubles again, and the move has nothing to do with ETF inflows, the halving, or frankly anything else taking place in the US... and instead is entirely driven by China's massive wall of money which at last check was almost 3x bigger than the US.
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Site: Zero HedgeBiden Admin To Pay $139 Million To Victims For FBI Failures In Sex Abuse InvestigationTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 23:05
By Tom Ozimek of The Epoch Times
The Biden administration has agreed to pay over $138 million to victims of convicted sex abuser Larry Nassar while acknowledging the FBI’s failures to properly investigate warnings that the sports physician was exploiting his position to molest young girls under the guise of treatment.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said in an April 23 statement that it had settled 139 civil claims arising from allegations of sexual abuse committed by Mr. Nassar, who was earlier found guilty of having abused hundreds of victims under the pretext of performing medical treatments.
The settlements—which total $138.7 million—resolve administrative claims made against the DOJ alleging that the FBI failed to carry out an adequate investigation into Mr. Nassar’s actions.
Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual assault charges, stands in court during his sentencing hearing in the Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Michigan, U.S., Feb. 5, 2018. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)
A DOJ watchdog found in July 2021 that parts of the FBI’s response to allegations against Mr. Nassar, as well as the agency’s investigation into his actions, were inadequate.
The “FBI failed to conduct an adequate investigation of Nassar’s conduct,” Acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.
“For decades, Lawrence Nassar abused his position, betraying the trust of those under his care and medical supervision while skirting accountability,” he continued.
“These allegations should have been taken seriously from the outset. While these settlements won’t undo the harm Nassar inflicted, our hope is that they will help give the victims of his crimes some of the critical support they need to continue healing,” Mr. Mizer added.
The $138.7 million will be distributed to the claimants.
There have been other settlements involving Mr. Nassar, who was the U.S. women’s gymnastics team doctor.
In total, settlements concerning the convicted sex abuser have totaled nearly $1 billion, including Michigan State University agreeing to pay $500 million to over 300 women and girls whom he assaulted."Institutional Betrayal"
After allegations of Mr. Nassar’s abuse were first reported to the FBI Indianapolis Field Office by the president of USA Gymnastics in 2015, local field agents failed to respond “with the utmost seriousness and urgency that the allegations deserved and required,” the 2021 report by the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found.Further, the report found that two FBI officials lied during their interviews to cover up or minimize their errors. One of the agents also made a false statement to the media in 2017 and 2018 about how his office handled the Nassar case.
That agent also violated the FBI’s conflict of interest policy by discussing a possible job with the U.S. Olympic Committee while he was involved with the Nassar investigation.
The watchdog noted the seriousness of the former agents lying during the investigation into their conduct in the years after the events but said there wasn’t enough to bring a federal criminal case.
The Justice Department has acknowledged that it failed to step in. For more than a year, FBI agents in Indianapolis and Los Angeles had knowledge of allegations against him but apparently took no action, an internal investigation found.
FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke to survivors of Mr. Nassar’s abuse at a Senate hearing in 2021, expressing contrition for the agency’s failures. The assault survivors include decorated Olympians Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and McKayla Maroney.
“I’m sorry that so many different people let you down, over and over again,” Mr. Wray said. “And I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed.”
After a search, investigators said in 2016 that they had found images of child sex abuse and followed up with federal charges against Mr. Nassar.
Continue reading at the Epoch Times
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Site: Zero Hedge"That's Concerning": US Indo-Pacific Commander Warns China Becoming More Aggressive As Economic Recovery "Failing"Tyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 22:45
One of the biggest questions of our time is whether China and the United States can escape Thucydides's Trap. It seems that, in the short term, the US will likely avoid direct conflict with China, but in the long term, there will be a slow march toward conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
On Tuesday, Admiral John Aquilino, the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), told reporters in Tokyo that China has become increasingly aggressive across Asia.
"We all need to understand that it's moving very fast," Aquilino said, as quoted by Bloomberg.
He said, "The buildup of military power despite a bad economy, the increased narrative of all things inside the 10-dash line are Chinese sovereign territory, then the actions that are going toward enforcement."
After serving three years as the head of INDOPACOM, Aquilino will step down. He oversees 380,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, guardians, Coast Guardsmen, and Department of Defense civilians.
He warned about rising tensions near the Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippines has held the line since World War II. A recent incident of Chinese vessels using water cannons to block Philippine military vessels has been an ominous sign for some military observers.
Aquilino also spoke about China's economy, indicating the world's second-largest economy "has drastically been reduced" because of a "real-estate market crash."
"You go ask any economist if the Chinese are going to deliver 5.3% growth, and they will tell you, 'No way,'" Aquilino said.
Aquilino also called North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime "disgusting" for spending large sums of money on the military while a food shortage ripples through the country.
Aquilino's comment comes days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to China. He is expected to convey Washington's "deep concerns" about Beijing's support for Russia's defense industrial base.
"We're prepared to take steps when we believe necessary against firms that ... severely undermine security in both Ukraine and Europe," Blinken told reporters ahead of Wednesday's trip.
David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, commented on Aquilino's remarks by stating:
"Admiral Aquilino has been a forward-thinking, leaning, and acting US Combatant Commander in the Indo-Pacific. But the facts on the ground and sea have been allowed to strategically favor Communist China which has fortified coral reefs and atolls across the South China Sea and fan its naval forces across the region from the seas surrounding Japan to Taiwan to the Philippines and Vietnam.
"China's relentless expansionism has been largely unopposed. Beijing cannot be allowed to continue its expansionist wave. It's time for the US, Japan, and Australia to link up and provide active protection to the Philippines and start to begin freedom of navigation missions to Taiwan. Incoming Commander Admiral Sam Paparo will have a lot on his plate."
Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and soaring turmoil in the Middle East, including Israel and Iran, with risks of conflicts flaring up in the Indo-Pacific region, are all confirmations that a multipolar world has emerged.
That said, we have noted that defense spending worldwide has surged, pushing the defense industry into a bull market:
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World Stumbles Into "More Dangerous Decade" As Defense Spending Soars, Says Military Think Tank
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Germany Reportedly Goes On Military Spending Spree To Hit NATO Spending Minimums For First Time
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Lockheed Martin Wins $17BN Interceptor Contract To Protect US Homeland
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German Tank Builder Says "New Decade Of Security Policy Begins" As Defense Bull Market Roars
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SAAB CEO Says Rising War Risk Drives Defense Spending; Missile Stocks In Bull Market
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Global Military Spending Hits All-Time High Of $2.4 Trillion
There's a bull market in global defense stocks.
The multipolar world will only bring more chaos and destruction.
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Site: Zero HedgeAre The Mass Pro-Palestine Protests On College Campuses Just One Big Virtue Signal?Tyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 22:25
Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,
As a general rule, rebels without a cause will eventually latch onto the nearest cause of opportunity. It really doesn't matter what it is, for activists with ample time on their hands and plenty of trust fund money these protests fill the void and make them feel like they have meaning.
Such is the case with the political left and their infatuation with Gaza (or any movement rooted in Islam). It's been noted by many commentators that the relationship between Islamic fundamentalists and the far-left is a bizarre one. After all, almost every element of Sharia Law is completely antithetical to the proclaimed values of progressives including equal rights for women, equal rights for gays and the leftist penchant for atheism. All of these beliefs might get a person executed in a host of Muslim governed countries, but for some reason the leftist mob wants in on the Islamic bandwagon.
Whatever your opinion is on the war or the governments involved it's clear that it has nothing to do with woke activists in the western world. The war is simply a vehicle which they hope they can hijack and attach their own agendas to. Primarily, progressives view Israel as a symbol of western "colonialism" and in their minds anything colonial must be destroyed. Their concerns for Palestinians are peripheral, if their concerns exist at all. This is about visibility and a chance to create chaos.
If you believe in "karma" then you might suggest that the Israelis have been setting themselves up for this reaction for a long time. Israeli tied propaganda organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have been fomenting leftist insanity for decades and defending every aspect of the social justice religion. They helped create a golem that they can't control and now it's turning on them.
Of course, it's not the Israeli government that's suffering any real consequences; rather, it's conservatives abroad as well as Jewish students attending western universities. After many years of the ADL crying wolf (racism and antisemitism) over secret Nazis that didn't really exist, now they finally have something legitimate to complain about.
Woke protesters marched out in tandem within multiple universities across the US in a relatively well coordinated disruption action. New York University, Columbia, Yale and Berkeley were all involved but much of the media focus was on NYU and Columbia. Activists linked arms and allegedly blocked Jewish students from entering campus facilities. The atmosphere has become so volatile that Jewish religious leaders are calling on students to leave such institutions for their own safety.
The NYPD has responded with a blitz on the protests. Encampments have been torn down and mass arrests have ensued. Police could not immediately share how many people had been arrested or issued with summonses because the situation was ongoing. Faculty members were among those arrested, an NYPD spokesperson told CNN.
NYPD have torn down the encampments and made mass arrests at Columbia. pic.twitter.com/TRR68DU2ry
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) April 23, 2024These developments have some interesting implications for the US going forward. In particular, polls show that Joe Biden is gradually losing favor among young voters because of his continued military and monetary support of Israel. His most rabid base is turning on him, which means the November election is looking better and better for Donald Trump.
That said, there is the continuing problem of fabricated rationales. Just as the death of George Floyd was shamelessly exploited by the left and Democrats as a radicalization moment, Gaza is also being used erroneously as a foil for increasingly aggressive mobilizations of people that, frankly, just want a reason to burn stuff. It's likely that as the conflict continues to escalate western countries will see larger and more violent protests in major cities.
Does anyone in the Middle East care what a bunch of college kids in the US have to say about Gaza? No, why would they? Can the US government influence the developing war for the better? Maybe, but they aren't going to. But stopping the war is not necessarily the goal of US based activists.
Donald Trump has loudly voiced his own political support for Israel on a number of occasions so a change in White House leadership probably won't lead to the economic or strategic isolation of Israel. Unless the war ends soon, which is improbable now that Iran is involved, we may be seeing nationwide protests and riots yet again. Different excuse, same results.
* * *
The views expressed above do not necessarily represent those of ZeroHedge.
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Site: Zero HedgeThese Are The Worst States To Be A Gun Owner In 2024Tyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 22:05
Does your state support your 2nd Amendment rights or make it exceedingly difficult to keep and bear arms?
Ammo.com has ranked the worst states to be a gun owner below...
How?
By analyzing each state’s current laws, upcoming laws, concealed carry guidelines, self-defense statutes, and 2A-centric taxes in order to identify the worst states for gun owners in 2024.
Report Highlights
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Hawaii is the #1 worst state for gun owners due to strict purchasing and carry laws, as well as defying the Supreme Court on the individual’s right to carry.
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California is the #2 worst state for gun owners due to its permit-to-purchase and reciprocity laws.
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New York, Illinois, and New Jersey take the #3, #4, and #5 spot in our list of worst states for gun ownership due to strict purchasing and carrying requirements.
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North Carolina, Maine, and Ohio fall into spots #25, #24, and #23 due to new restrictive legislation with some relaxed carry laws.
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Some states rank lower than others due to excessive infringements, additional taxes, and the current Governor’s 2A statements.
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State and local laws defining Stand Your Ground vs. Duty to Retreat vary and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Jump to a state: AL | AK | AZ | AR | CA | CO | CT | DE | FL | GA | HI | ID | IL | IN | IA | KS | KY | LA | ME | MD | MA | MI | MN | MS | MO | MT | NE | NV | NH | NJ | NM | NY | NC | ND | OH | OK | OR | PA | RI | SC | SD | TN | TX | UT | VT | VA | WA | WV | WI | WY
Read the full report on the worst states to be a gun owner in 2024 at Ammo.com.
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Site: The Remnant Newspaper
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Site: Novus Ordo Watch
When blasphemy and heresy meet sodomy…
Queer in Trier: ‘Bishop’ Ackermann Presides Over Ecumenical Rainbow Service for Aberrosexuals
In the Vatican II Sect, the Modernist layman Stephan Ackermann has been playing ‘Catholic bishop’ of Trier, Germany, since 2009. It was then that ‘Pope’ Benedict XVI appointed him to succeed ‘Bishop’ (now ‘Cardinal’) Reinhard Marx, who had been promoted to become ‘Archbishop’ of Munich and Freising.
Every year the Tier diocese celebrates the so-called Heilig-Rock-Tage. It is a 10-day church festival centered on the relic of the Holy Tunic (Heiliger Rock) of Jesus Christ. This year, the festival took place from Apr.… READ MORE
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Site: Novus Ordo Wire – Novus Ordo Watch
When blasphemy and heresy meet sodomy…
Queer in Trier: ‘Bishop’ Ackermann Presides Over Ecumenical Rainbow Service for Aberrosexuals
In the Vatican II Sect, the Modernist layman Stephan Ackermann has been playing ‘Catholic bishop’ of Trier, Germany, since 2009. It was then that ‘Pope’ Benedict XVI appointed him to succeed ‘Bishop’ (now ‘Cardinal’) Reinhard Marx, who had been promoted to become ‘Archbishop’ of Munich and Freising.
Every year the Tier diocese celebrates the so-called Heilig-Rock-Tage. It is a 10-day church festival centered on the relic of the Holy Tunic (Heiliger Rock) of Jesus Christ. This year, the festival took place from Apr.… READ MORE
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Site: RT - News
Mitch McConnell has accused the journalist of “demonizing” Kiev
The top-ranking Republican in the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, has claimed Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin convinced too many “rank-and-file Republicans” that spending billions of taxpayer dollars on arming Kiev against Moscow was harming Americans and wrecking the economy.
As a new multibillion-dollar US aid package to Ukraine was clearing the last procedural hurdles on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader McConnell attempted to pin the blame for months of delays on former Fox News anchor Carlson and former President Donald Trump.
“I think the demonization of Ukraine began by Tucker Carlson, who in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin,” McConnell told a press briefing.
“He convinced a lot of rank-and-file Republicans that maybe this was a mistake,” he added, arguing that Trump’s “mixed views” on Ukraine aid further fueled confusion over the official narrative in Washington.
“And then our nominee for president didn’t seem to want us to do anything at all,” McConnell claimed. “That took months to work our way through it.”
Read more
Ukraine conflict weakening US – Tucker Carlson
Carlson recorded a lengthy interview with Putin in February, a first by a Western reporter since the conflict with Ukraine began. The pair discussed the ongoing hostilities and Moscow’s standoff with NATO.
The exchange went viral globally, garnering over 200 million views on X (formerly Twitter) alone, yet critics accused Carlson of not being confrontational enough with the Russian leader. The American journalist argued that most Western media outlets lie to their audiences, mainly by omission, and that the point of his interview was “to have more information brought to the West so people could make their own decisions.”
“I reject the whole premise of the war in Ukraine from the American perspective,” Carlson said in February, looking back at his conversation with Putin. “There’s a war going on that is wrecking the US economy in a way and at a scale that people do not understand.”
Read more
Pentagon threatening Americans over Ukraine – Tucker Carlson
US President Joe Biden requested additional cash for Ukraine last October after burning through $113 billion in previously approved spending bills. However, the request had been stalled until this week due to opposition from Republican lawmakers, who argued that Biden was merely prolonging Kiev’s conflict with Russia while offering no clear strategy for victory or a peace agreement. Most Republicans voted against the aid bill on Saturday, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) overrode his own party by enabling a vote and pushing it through with unanimous Democrat support.
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Site: Real Jew News
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Site: Public Discourse
The name Francis X. Maier may not be well-known outside the inside circles of ecclesiastical life because he has worked diligently but effectively behind the scenes. He served for twenty-three years as senior aide to Archbishop Charles Chaput in the Archdiocese of Denver and then in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Before that, he served for fifteen years as editor-in-chief of the National Catholic Register newsweekly, and earlier as a screenwriter and story analyst based in Los Angeles. He is currently a senior fellow in Catholic Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.
Maier has written an excellent book, True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, just released by Ignatius Press, that should rightfully make his name better known. In this concise and readable book, Maier summarizes the frank and in-depth interviews that he conducted with 103 bishops, clergy, religious, and lay men and women from various backgrounds over a seventeen-month period, from December 2020 through May 2022. While the persons interviewed do not hesitate to point out the shortcomings that they see in the life of the Church as well as her strengths, they do so out of love for the Church and a fervent desire to fix the flaws of the human failings of its leaders and members.
In his introduction to the book, Archbishop Chaput writes:
At heart, the Church is a “she”, not an “it”: the Bride of Christ; a mother of tenderness and the teacher of truth. And even in an age that derides her and dismisses the need for a God; even in an age when her weakness is often brutally obvious, the Church is younger, stronger, and more beautiful than her enemies have the capacity to understand or see.
Then Archbishop Chaput added a personal note about Maier. He wrote:
In Denver, in the early days of our collaboration, I sometimes stopped by Fran’s office at the end of the day to think out loud or exchange ideas. I asked him once why he worked for the Church when he could do something else that paid more. He looked at me quizzically, and then said, “Because I love her.”
In Chapter One of the book, Maier then explains why he loves the Church:
I love the Church because she is my home, my extended family, the mother who takes us back whatever our failures and mistakes. I love her for the grandeur of the art, music, law, architecture, and literature she has inspired. I love her for the brilliance of her intellectual legacy, which has no parallel in human experience. I love her for the good that remains in the civilization she shaped. I love her for her patience and mercy. I love her because she treasures and refuses to abandon the weak. I love her above all because what she teaches is salvific and true. There has never been a Christianity without the Church. She’s essential to the Christian life. The Church preceded the Gospels, not the other way around. And the Christian faith has never been merely a personal relationship with God, as important as that is. It has always been, beginning in the Upper Room, an assembly of believers, an ekklesia—a Church. I love the Church despite the sins of her leaders and her people, including my own.
The various chapters of the book consist of asking different audiences why they love the Church and what they would do to correct any perceived shortcomings in the leadership or life of the Church. While two chapters are interviews of priests, deacons, and bishops (not including me), the vast majority of people interviewed are lay Christian faithful, including a diocesan finance officer, the president of an investment advisory firm, university professors, theologians, legal scholars, business people, social scientists, journalists, immigrants, philanthropists, leaders of lay apostolates, husbands, wives, homeschooling mothers, and non-Catholic Christians. He asks them questions like:
Do you love the Church? If so, why, and what do you love about her?
What are your impressions of the Church, and have they changed over the years?
What are the biggest mistakes a diocese or parish typically makes?
What do you see as the major problems in the Church right now?
What issues, particularly in the United States, need to be addressed for a renewal of the Church to take place?
When you look for practical sources of hope right now, what are they?
Since so many people offer their opinions in this book, it is not surprising that they do not all agree, nor do all share the same advice. But that is one of the attractive qualities of this book, in that the reader will hear a variety of voices, some of whom they may identify with and others with whom they may not. A key indicator of what readers might expect in these answers is the number of times the following words appear in this book: Church–732, God–152, Jesus–70, faith–255, hope–63, and love–116.
The title of the book comes from the 1981 film True Confessions, based on the crime novel of the same name by John Gregory Dunne. As Maier explains in the final chapter, True Confessions is
not a happy portrait of the Church, her people, or her clergy. . . . The heart of both the novel and the film is the fractious relationship between two Catholic brothers: Des and Tom Spellacy. Des, played in the film by Robert De Niro, is a rising young monsignor, chancellor of the archdiocese, right hand to the cardinal, and on the fast track to be a bishop. Tom (Robert Duvall, in one of his finest roles) is an LAPD detective; the “black sheep” son of their Irish Catholic family. Cynical toward life in general and the Church in particular, Tom Spellacy is the lens through which the story unfolds. Tom is a complicated soul: resentful of his brother’s perceived goodness, calloused by the meanness of the streets, but also protective of his brother’s reputation. Des Spellacy is no less complex: smart, shrewd, ambitious, and (when necessary) ruthless—and also keenly aware of his own sin of pride, masked by a veneer of priestly piety. Onto Tom’s police plate drops the case of the murdered young woman. Where it leads provides the rest of the drama.
His point is that
alongside the great good that can be achieved through Christian engagement in public leadership, great harm can be done to the Church and her mission when her people and her clergy confuse material success with service to the Gospel. A comfortable Church, a colluding Church, a publicly esteemed Church can very easily become a dead Church. And when faith is merely skin deep, it’s worth remembering that societies sooner or later shed their dead skin.
To prevent this disintegration of the Church’s vitality, Maier proposes nothing less than the call to sainthood: “We moderns tend to think that the era of the saints is over. But we’re wrong. It’s always the era of the saints.” This imperative of personal sanctity is not confined to clergy or consecrated religious, but extends to each and every person: “The task of any ‘new reformation,’ any purifying re-formation of Church and world, begins with each believer.”
In the end, a good book leaves the reader hungry for more, and that is how I felt when I reached its end. We hear directly from Maier only in the preface and chapters one and eleven, while the rest of the chapters are a blend of interview responses with Maier’s brief commentary. Those interviews provide a helpful cross-section of views on the strengths of the Church and suggestions for addressing the weaknesses of ecclesial life. But I found myself wanting to hear more from Maier himself because he obviously has a lot of wisdom to share.
For example, I took solace as a bishop in these words:
Bishops in the Church tend to get blamed for everything. And sometimes they earn it. But bishops didn’t invent the birth control pill. They didn’t create the sexual anarchy that flowed from it. Bishops didn’t invent the transistor, or the microchip, or the cell phone, or video games, or gay dating apps, or the internet cocoon of pornography that’s destroyed millions of families and vocations. And bishops don’t have a magic wand to cancel out the massively negative influence of popular culture on their people.
Maier also has sound advice for everyone else in the Church when he says that we are
harvesting the effects of a century of Catholic assimilation and naïve optimism about the compatibility of Catholic teaching and American culture. I’ve always believed in our potential as Catholic Christians to be a leaven in American life. It just hasn’t worked out that way. Of course, that can change. But it requires leaders, and their people, who think in terms of the long haul and commit to missionary witness as their first priority in thought and deed.
Maier’s love for the Church comes through in this book and is why others who love the Church will want to read it. Perhaps we can hope for a sequel in which we will get to hear more of Maier in his own words.
Image by sidneydealmeida and licensed via Adobe Stock.
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Site: Zero HedgeWave Goodbye To Another Set Of Freedoms With The New Digital IDTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 19:45
Authored by Graham Young via The Epoch Times,
“Papers please” used to be the ostinato of totalitarian systems, at least in the movies.
With the passing of the government’s Digital ID bills, Australians will have to become used to the digital equivalent - so what does that say about present-day Australia?
A few things have surprised me over the last few years, not the least the way the famous Aussie spirit of insubordination has been subsumed into a goody-two-shoes compliance with whatever capricious orders the authorities made.
I can’t imagine our forebears accepting lockdowns and forced vaccinations, and I certainly couldn’t see them accepting an identity card linking not just government accounts but private sector ones as well.
While the first proposition is an assertion based on a gut feeling, the second is very much based on fact.
Remember the Australia Card?
In 1984, the Hawke Labor government introduced the Australia Card, and for the next three years, the government and opposition parties tussled over it to the extent that it triggered a double-dissolution election in 1987.
Objections didn’t just come from the federal Opposition either.
Queensland Labor Senator George Georges resigned from the governing party in 1986 over the issue, and in the lower house, Labor backbencher Lewis Kent said:
“Nothing can be more un-Australian than the need to provide one’s identity on the call of an official, be it a policeman or a bureaucrat. It would be more appropriate for the proposed card to be called a Hitlercard or Stalin-card.”
As a result, while the government won the 1987 election, and had the numbers to push the card through, instead, it withdrew the card when a technicality was found that could have affected its operation. One senses this was a relief.
Individual Freedom Chipped Away, One Law at a Time
Yet, apart from a few senators this time there has been little outcry in response to the Albanese government’s Digital ID, although the Liberal-National Opposition did vote against it.
A form of this ID was recommended by the Murray Inquiry into the Financial System in 2014, but the committee was careful to avoid recommending a full-blown government-issued identity card because of the Australia Card debacle.
The then-Liberal-National government acted on these recommendations, but its version of the bill was to facilitate private organisations to issue their own digital identity cards, rather than the government.
Why has the government now decided to make the card a government-issued one, when the recommendation and the draft legislation was for a competitive system?
At one level one might say it is symptomatic of this Labor government that it wants to control everything and is suspicious of both private enterprise and competition.
At another level, it has been gnawing away at the independence of the citizenry, particularly the independence of thought, so maybe there is a long-term agenda of control here.
Two pieces of draft legislation, and one draft regulation, exemplify this tendency—the proposed draft Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023, the Online Safety (Relevant Electronic Services—Class 1A and Class 1B Material) Industry Standard 2024, as well as the Religious Discrimination Bill.
The combination of these is to restrict what citizens can say, teach, and whom they associate with, depending on what is approved by the government, or worse, regulators.
Recent Tragedies Reveal How Eager Authorities Are to ‘Protect’ Us
Almost as though to prove the dangers of these proposed laws, the Commonwealth “censor” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant just days ago ordered Meta and X to remove videos showing footage from the stabbing incidents at Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre, and the Christ the Good Shepherd church at Wakely.
I’ve seen this footage, as have many other Australians, and suffice it to say, were I the eSafety commissioner, they would still be up.
When it comes to horror, the footage I have seen from Gaza and Ukraine, and reproduced in the pages and on the websites of the major news sites, is more horrific than any of this footage.
And where is the justification for censoring the information that individuals can now access for themselves?
For a moment there, we all became citizen journalists, able to view events and make our own decisions, and now the government is trying to take our accreditation away from us.
Indeed, some of these clips are uplifting as they show acts of heroism as men throw themselves between attackers and victims, or tend to the wounded.
Ms. Grant only has powers over commercial entities, so I can still, for the moment, show the videos on my blog.
But should we all have a unique identifier, known to the government and cross-referenced to every other activity that we are involved in, who knows what petty bureaucrat will hold my free will in their hands? And what else might the government interfere with?
Voluntary? Not Really
In Canada, a country that shares our democratic norms, we saw the Trudeau government bar protestors, and any supporters who donated money to their cause, from using their bank accounts.
Imagine what an interlinking record could allow them to have done.
Is it too far-fetched to think that could happen in Australia?
The government says these concerns are absurd.
The digital ID card is “voluntary” and will only link records to the person, not link them together, and records will be encrypted. It also claims that it will protect against cyber-attacks.
The voluntary aspect is laughable.
You may be able to access your Centrelink welfare benefits without it, but you will need to physically go down to the Centrelink office, even if you live in Oodnadatta—a remote outback town in South Australia—and if the office is in Perth, Western Australia.
And if you are a company director, you will need one, full-stop, because of the now-mandatory “director IDs” introduced by the Morrison government in 2021.
If “voluntary” doesn’t mean voluntary for all people and all activities, then it doesn’t mean voluntary at all.
Believe It or Not, the Slippery Slope Is Real
So why are we acquiescing to this scheme?
Perhaps it is because we’ve become too compliant—that the irreverent generation were the original immigrants and their sons and daughters, and now we are onto third, fourth, fifth generations and more, the spirit of adventure that brought people here has dissipated.
Or maybe it’s the case that the frog has been swimming in digital waters that have gradually risen in temperature.
First, we allowed social media companies to monetise us in return for the free use of their platforms, and then we allowed them to cross-reference our online activities to create profiles to then be used for other unrelated sites.
And how is that working out? They abuse their power.
We know that, come election time, they will be putting their thumbs on our scales and showing us material that they deem suitable, rather than allowing us to make our own decisions.
We also know that they work hand-in-glove with unscrupulous administrations to sell us lies like “safe and effective” and to suppress embarrassing facts, such as the high probability that viruses escape from laboratories more regularly than from pangolins in a market (particularly when the market didn’t have any pangolins for sale).
I don’t believe that governments are any more trustworthy than social media, especially if they are staffed with Bruce Lehrmanns and Brittany Higgins’s.
Democracy is meant to be government by the people, for the people. And Google’s motto was “Don’t be evil.”
But one seems to be converging on government by anyone but the people, and the other seems to have dropped the motto, maybe ashamed of their hypocrisy.
Either way, human institutions seem inexorably to head towards dissolution, so the less they know about you and can link together, the better.
So I’ll probably pass on my Digital ID.
Whoops, I’m a company director. Looks like they are closing in on me already.
Looks like I’ve already learned the true, government-approved, meaning of “voluntary.”
* * *
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
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Site: Ron Paul Institute - Featured Articles
In the United States House of Representatives, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) was known for his progressive views, while Ron Paul (R-TX) was known for his libertarian views. There were many times when the two representatives disagreed about American policy and legislation. But, there was also much overlap in their views in regard to United States foreign policy and liberty in America.
In this area of overlap, the two men worked together many times in the House, advocating for the US seeking peace abroad and protecting liberty at home. This collaboration has continued since both men left the House in 2013, with Dennis Kucinich serving as an Advisory Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity that Paul founded soon thereafter.
Interviewed last week by Glenn Greenwald at System Update, Kucinich addressed a possibility he had floated back in 2007 when on the presidential campaign trail. Greenwald queried Kucinich about Kucinich, then participating in the Democratic presidential primary, having offered Paul, who at the same time was seeking the Republican presidential nomination, as someone Kucinich would consider asking to join his ticket as his choice for vice president. Responding to Greenwald, Kucinich spoke of how he “worked closely together” with Paul, who Kucinich referred to as “a straight shooter” and “a good man” and with whom Kucinich “saw a point of coalition on the issues that related to war and the folly of the United States going into one war after another.” “When I mentioned Ron Paul as a possible running mate in 2007, despite the fact that I gave some of my colleagues then the vapors, I felt it was really important to be able to show that my view is not dichotomized; I don’t think in terms of polarity,” Kucinich further stated.
What an interesting campaign that would have been. As Paul likes to say, “Freedom brings people together.” A joint campaign of Paul and Kucinich, focused on the areas where they agree could have helped break down the artificial dichotomy and polarity in American politics that Kucinich critiques. Instead of the example that we keep seeing in Washington, DC of the exercise of “bipartisan compromise” almost always leading to intervention abroad and the diminishing of liberty in America, Kucinich and Paul could have demonstrated how principled cross-parties and cross-ideologies action can advance peace and liberty. And, taking the hypothetical a step further, consider the effort the two men could have undertaken together from the White House to roll back the US government’s many foreign interventionist and liberty suppressing activities.
In their separate campaigns, Kucinich and Paul did much work educating and inspiring people in regard to matters of peace and liberty. Those efforts continue today to yield fruit. But, what if they had combined forces instead? A Kucinich/Paul — or Paul/Kucinich — ticket is an interesting alternative history to ponder.
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Site: Zero HedgeNext Ukraine Package 'Larger Than Normal' As Biden Tells Zelensky Aid Coming "Quickly"Tyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 19:25
US officials have been quoted in Politico as saying the Biden White House is preparing a "larger than normal" weapons package for Ukraine to be sent quickly once Biden signs the bill into law authorizing $61 billion in spending, following the historic weekend House vote, which was far and away the biggest hurdle.
The officials described the new "significantly larger" tranche as including Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Humvees, M113 armored personnel carriers, and missiles - which will be ready to roll out the door. Also expected included in the package will be older Humvees and M113 armored personnel carriers. Two admin officials have told Reuters that the first single new package is expected to be valued at $1 billion.
ATACMS missile, via US Army
The White House said in a readout of Biden's Monday call with Zelensky wherein the latter thanked the US for the new assistance: "President Biden shared that his administration will quickly provide significant new security assistance packages to meet Ukraine’s urgent battlefield and air defense needs as soon as the Senate passes the national security supplemental and he signs it into law."
Interestingly (and alarmingly, given the cross-border escalation with Russia soon to follow), Zelensky touted that the new bill also included provisions for Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) with a range of about 190 miles. "In the agreement on ATACMS for Ukraine, all the details are in place," Zelensky said. "Thank you, Mr. President, thank you Congress, thank you America."
The $61 billion marked for Ukraine, among a broader final package totaling $95 billion (the rest for Israel and Taiwan), is now set for a vote in the Senate on Tuesday. "The task before us is urgent. It is once again the Senate’s turn to make history," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell stated while previewing the vote.
Biden told Zelensky that he could expect the military assistance to arrive "quickly" - at a moment Ukrainian cities and especially energy and communications infrastructure are getting pounded. One question that remains is how much of the $61 billion is going straight to major US defense contractors, as they work speedily to prepare more military hardware to be shipped out the door.
Meanwhile, the southern port city of Odesa was pummeled overnight, and there are reports of Russian drones having been fired on the capital of Kiev as well:
At least nine people have been injured after an overnight Russian air strike on the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said. "As a result of Russian terror, residential buildings were damaged, and there was a fire," Ukraine’s state emergency services said on Telegram.
The day prior, stunning video emerged from Kharkiv showing a large TV tower being taken out during a Russian attack...
Russia just struck the TV tower in Kharkiv, messing with Ukrainian digital signal. It's their scorched-earth tactic in action, déjà vu from spring 2022 pic.twitter.com/rwGOHyaEg2
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) April 22, 2024AFP reported that an "AFP journalist in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, saw the red-and-white spire of the 240-meter structure toppled after local officials reported a barrage by Russian forces."
The New York Times has recently observed that "War in eastern Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of people, reduced cities to ruins and displaced millions of people. It has also all but destroyed the factories and plants that were for years an important driver of Ukraine’s economy."
As for what's expected to be rushed US aid the moment Biden signs the new package into law, there are reports saying the staging has already taken place in central and eastern Europe...
According to CNN, most of the American aid to Ukraine, which still needs Senate approval, has already been pre-positioned in warehouses in Germany and Poland. This advance placement will shorten the delivery time to Ukraine.
— X news (@runews) April 23, 2024
Among the first items to be supplied will be… pic.twitter.com/1PXWI0N4ML -
Site: RT - News
The Pentagon could send $1 billion in new aid to Kiev as soon as the US president authorizes a drawdown
The Pentagon is reportedly ready to send up to $1 billion worth of weapons to Ukraine, once the long-delayed legislation to fund Kiev’s war effort against Moscow is signed by US President Joe Biden.
The $95 billion foreign aid package, including $61 billion for Ukraine, was approved by a 79-18 Senate vote on Tuesday evening, after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to end a filibuster and advance the measure.
“I will sign this bill into law and address the American people as soon as it reaches my desk tomorrow so we can begin sending weapons and equipment to Ukraine this week,” Biden said in a statement after the vote.
The new aid package will include air defense munitions and large amounts of artillery rounds, as well as armored vehicles and other weapons, several US officials told AP on Tuesday. According to the unnamed sources, some of the items on the list will be shipped “within days,” but others could take longer to deliver.
Read more
New US aid package will just kill more Ukrainians – Kremlin
The Pentagon has neither confirmed nor denied the report of a new package ready to be shipped, but press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told journalists on Tuesday that the US military is “doing everything we can to be poised to respond quickly.”
“I think it’s a good assumption to expect that it’ll include air defense capabilities as well as artillery, ammunition,” Ryder said. “I will say again, that this security assistance package will be based on Ukraine’s most urgent needs.”
Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky in a phone call on Monday that weapons shipments will begin rapidly after the bill reaches the Oval Office for his signature. While the White House offered few details on the call, the Ukrainian leader claimed that Kiev will receive longer-range ATACMS missiles.
Read more
Ukraine has lost almost half a million troops – Moscow
The multibillion-dollar US aid package was requested by the White House months ago but was only passed by the House of Representatives on Saturday, after Speaker Mike Johnson agreed to a vote.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu noted on Tuesday that American military assistance is intended to “prevent the collapse” of Ukrainian forces, but predicted that the money will not significantly impact the situation on the battlefield, since “most of the funding will go to US military production.”
“The American authorities cynically state that Ukrainians will be dying in the fight with Russia for their interests,” Shoigu stated. Officials in both Washington and Kiev have argued that paying Ukraine to fight Russia is preferable to the US having to fight Moscow directly.
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Site: non veni pacem
Judicial Watch has the receipts… and yes, the vaxx was being developed right along with the weapon. Turns out neither worked very well, but I’ll bet they do better next time. -nvp
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 5 pages of records from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that show an April 2020 email exchange with several officials in the bureau’s Newark Field Office referring to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) grant to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China as including “gain-of-function research” which “would leave no signature of purposeful human manipulation.”
Judicial Watch obtained the records in response to a May 17, 2023, FOIA request for: emails and text messages of the Newark Field Office, including to Special Agent David A. Miller, containing the terms “gain of function,” “GoF,” “R01A|110964,” and/or “EcoHealth.” Judicial Watch sent the FOIA request to follow up on uncovering the FBI Newark Field Office’s investigation of the Fauci agency’s gain-of-function grants after the Covid-19 pandemic began.
On April 23, 2020, an email exchange with the subject “Follow up call” takes place between several unnamed Newark Field Office FBI officials. A person whose name is redacted writes:
Details of the current NIAID [Fauci’s National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases] grant for WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] bat coronavirus surveillance and WIV bat coronavirus gain-of-function research are available at: https://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=9819304&icde=49645421&ddparam=&ddvalue=&ddsub=&cr=1&csb=default&cs=ASC&pball= [summary of NIH grant to EcoHealth Alliance for Project 2R01AI110964-06]. The key activity for bat coronavirus surveillance is ‘Aim 1 … We will sequence receptor binding domains (spike proteins) to identify viruses with the highest potential for spillover which we will include in our experimental investigations. (Aim 3).’
The key activity for bat coronavirus gain of function is “Aim 3 … We will use S protein sequence data, infectious clone technology, in vitro and in vivo infection experiments and analysis of receptor binding to test the hypothesis that 0/0 divergence thresholds in S protein sequences predict spillover potential.” Translated into lay language, this equates to: “In Aim 3, we will use de novo synthesis to construct novel viruses encoding different spike proteins in an otherwise-constant genomic context, and we will test the ability of the resulting novel viruses to infect human cells in culture and to infect laboratory animals. We hypothesize that there is a direct correlation between the receptor binding affinity of the spike protein and the abilities to infect human cells in culture and to infect laboratory animals. We will test this hypothesis by asking whether novel viruses encoding spike proteins with the highest receptor-binding affinity have the highest abilities to infect human cells in culture and to infect laboratory animals.”
The reason I am writing is that the experimental strategy proposed in Aim 3 (“infectious clone technology”), if performed using commercial or in-house gene synthesis to prepare the infectious clones, *** would leave no signatures of purposeful human manipulation***.
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Site: Zero HedgeCannabis Use Greatest Among Lower-Income And Less EducatedTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 19:05
By Dan Witters of Gallup
Nine percent of U.S. adults report that they use cannabis regularly, defined as at least 10 days of consumption per month.
Regular usage differs by education and income, with the highest rates seen among those with a high school education or less (13%) and those living in households earning less than $24,000 per year (16%). These consumption levels are about three times the rates found among those with postgraduate work or degrees (5%) and those living in households earning $180,000 or more annually (5%).
This analysis is part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The results are based on a web survey of 6,386 U.S. adults, conducted Nov. 30-Dec. 8, 2023, as part of the Gallup Panel, a probability-based, non-opt-in panel encompassing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. To measure cannabis use, Gallup asked: “Keeping in mind that this is confidential, how many days in the last month have you used cannabis products (such as smoking marijuana, vaping liquid THC, or consuming baked goods or gummies) to alter your mood and help you relax?”
About one in five adults (19%) report using cannabis products at least once in the prior month, including 23% of those with a high school degree or less and 28% of those in households earning under $24,000 per year.
Regular Cannabis Use Diminishes With Age, Slightly Higher Among Men
In addition to education and income, other factors are associated with greater use of cannabis. Adults younger than 50, for example, are twice as likely as those aged 65 and older to be regular cannabis users (12% vs. 6%, respectively). Men (11%) are marginally more likely than women (8%) to be regular consumers, while little difference is found among White, Black and Hispanic adults.
Cannabis Use Highest in East North Central and New England Areas
Reports of regular cannabis use vary across the U.S. Census divisions. The highest rates of use (11%) are found in the Middle Atlantic (New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) and East North Central divisions (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio). The lowest usage rates (7%) are reported in the East South Central (Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama) and the West North Central (North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri) divisions. These differences are statistically meaningful.
These results generally align with political identity, with residents of politically red states having somewhat lower regular usage rates than politically blue states. While regular use is reported by 10% of Democrats and independents, it drops to 6% among Republicans.
When sorted into states that have legalized marijuana versus those that have kept it illegal, however, little differences in usage exist:
- In states that have legalized marijuana: average of 2.9 days of cannabis consumption per month per person, with 9.7% regular users
- In states that have not legalized marijuana: average of 2.5 days of cannabis consumption per month per person, with 8.6% regular users
Implications
In the U.S., cannabis is fully legal in 18 states and legal for medicinal purposes in 12 states. Another eight states have decriminalized marijuana, while it is fully illegal in 12 others. Legalization for recreational use was passed initially by voters in Colorado and Washington in 2012, with the commercial sale of marijuana to the general public available in both states in 2014. Nationally, 70% of adults now favor the legalization of marijuana for recreational use, an all-time high across over 50 years of measurement and up from 25% as recently as 1995. The narrow gap in cannabis consumption among residents of states where it remains illegal compared with those in states where it is legal suggests that its criminalization does little to curtail its use among American adults.
Dovetailing with broadening legalization, the percentage of U.S. adults who report that they smoke marijuana has more than doubled in the past decade, climbing from 7% in 2013 to 17% in 2023. During that same period, the percentage reporting that they have tried it at least once has climbed from 38% to 50%. (It is worth noting that respondents may have also become more comfortable admitting to its use as its legality has widened.)
How users consume cannabis has also evolved in recent years. For example, CDC BRFSS data show that among those who had consumed cannabis by any means in the prior 30 days, the proportion who primarily chose vaping to do so increased from 9.9% to 14.9% between 2017 and 2019 alone -- and has likely increased since that time, particularly among young adults.
Marijuana use can be addictive, with one study1 estimating that about three in 10 users form marijuana use disorder and a different study2 estimating that about 10% of cannabis users will become addicted. The use of marijuana during adolescence or young adulthood can affect how the brain builds connections for functions like attention and memory. Its use has also been linked to depression, anxiety and suicide. That cannabis use skews toward younger, less educated and lower-income individuals is consistent with previously existing research across an array of different substances and supports the need for early detection and intervention for at-risk individuals.
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Site: Zero HedgeHezbollah Launches Deepest Attack Into Israel Since War's Start, On PassoverTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 18:45
Hezbollah on Tuesday conducted its deepest strikes into Israeli territory since the start of the war, launching drones at Israeli military bases on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Acre.
Israel's military said none of its facilities were hit, and videos circulating online appear to show Israeli anti-air systems intercepting at least one drone which was flying low over the Mediterranean, just off the coast where Acre is located.
The IDF subsequently confirmed it intercepted two "areal targets" off Israel's northern coast. Thus far in the conflict, Hezbollah's daily rocket and drone attacks have tended to stay within within a few kilometers inside Israel.
However, Tuesday's attack seems to be sending a message that escalation could be imminent:
A security source told Arab News that the attack was "a sensitive targeting." The area struck is more than 15 km from the border with Lebanon.
"This targeting took place in broad daylight while the Israelis were celebrating the Jewish Passover," the source said.
Hezbollah said it launched the drones "in response to Israeli aggression against the Lebanese town of Aadloun and the assassination of a (Hezbollah) cadre there."
While the IDF denied that there were any direct hits on military bases, Lebanese source Al-Mayadeen reported that the headquarters of the army's Golani Brigade was struck with drones.
The below video shows an IDF intercept of a Hezbollah drone...
Another angle shows Israeli air defenses downing Hezbollah explosive-laden drones off the coast of Acre this morning. https://t.co/Km1MZNKQE6 pic.twitter.com/fbLfKo8QoZ
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 23, 2024This was based on a Hezbollah statement claiming that the air attack "targeted the headquarters of the Golani Brigade and the headquarters of Egoz Unit 621 in the Sharaga barracks, north of the occupied city of Akka (Acre), and the drones hit their targets accurately."
Last week a major war between Iran and Israel was narrowly avoided after each side launched 'limited' strikes against the other. But tensions remain high and it could be that Iran's proxies, such as Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis, could be set to escalate, especially as the IDF has Rafah set in its sites.
Interestingly, a fresh report in The New York Times says that Israeli leaders had actually planned a much bigger attack on Iran, but ditched the larger strike option at the last minute due to White House diplomatic intervention:
Israel reportedly abandoned plans for a much more extensive counterstrike on the Islamic Republic after concerted diplomatic pressure from the United States and other foreign allies and because the brunt of an Iranian assault on Israel soil had been thwarted, according to three senior Israeli officials:
Israeli leaders originally discussed bombarding several military targets across Iran last week, including near Tehran, the Iranian capital, in retaliation for the Iranian strike on April 13, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive discussions.
Such a broad and damaging attack would have been far harder for Iran to overlook, increasing the chances of a forceful Iranian counterattack that could have brought the Middle East to the brink of a major regional conflict.
In the end — after President Biden, along with the British and German foreign ministers, urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent a wider war — Israel opted for a more limited strike on Friday that avoided significant damage, diminishing the likelihood of an escalation, at least for now.
Another angle showing a drone intercepted near Acre:
Footage purportedly shows two suspected drones being downed by air defenses off the coast of Acre a short while ago. pic.twitter.com/10iIjCn9wZ
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 23, 2024According to a note via Rabobank, Mohamed El-Erian underlines a markets/NatSec disconnect over Mid-East events. Markets say “de-escalation”, because the oil price has gone down. National security figures worry; and those saying recent attacks were telegraphed might note reports of White House panic when Iran launched missiles, and Israel planning a larger military strike at first. We have calm now, but neither side will pass on the opportunity to weaken the other; the enmity is not over.
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Site: LifeNews
Today Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL), the state’s oldest and largest pro-life organization, launched a 7-figure TV and digital ad buy in a campaign to defeat the proposed so-called “Equal Rights Amendment” that would enshrine unlimited abortion in the Minnesota Constitution. MCCL’s efforts also include print, radio, and social media advertising. MCCL will hold a press conference on Thursday morning about the amendment and the campaign to defeat it.
“MCCL is going to make Minnesotans very aware of what some groups and lawmakers are trying to do,” said MCCL Co-Executive Director Cathy Blaeser. “This proposed amendment is just too extreme for our state. Abortion-up-to-birth isn’t a Minnesota value, whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice. Minnesotans are compassionate. We want to protect women and babies.”
MCCL first TV and digital ad, titled “Way Out There,” begins airing today. It features a conversation between two women about Minnesota’s current abortion policy and the effort to pass a constitutional amendment—and then calls on viewers to contact their legislators. A second MCCL ad is expected in early May.
Click here to sign up for pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com
Minnesota law already allows abortion without limits, but the version of the ERA proposed by groups like Gender Justice and ERA Minnesota would enshrine it into the Constitution and prevent future lawmakers from enacting even commonsense abortion policies. The proposal also excludes language safeguarding conscience and religious rights, removing protection for “creed” that was included in a previous version.
Lawmakers in Maine and New Hampshire have recently rejected similar sweeping abortion amendments.
The post Minnesota Pro-Life Group Launches Campaign Against Amendment for Abortions Up to Birth appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: LifeNews
Adam Fadel is a licensed clinical therapist and, after many years of practice, he’s concluded what we know to be true: abortion trauma is real. The founder of the Charlotte clinic “The Corner: Institute for Transformation” explained what he had learned about the trauma that so often goes undiagnosed in a column written for The Fayetteville Observer.
He writes, “As state lawmakers consider the issue of abortion, they need to keep people like Sarah [a pseudonym] in mind — women who aren’t shouting their abortion, but instead are silently grieving.”
In one powerful paragraph Fadel explains
But traumas associated with abortion aren’t ended by the procedure. In fact, many of them begin there. A study conducted by Support After Abortion found that 34% of women suffer “adverse impacts” like anger, shame and regret from medication abortions. Most of these women said they had nobody to talk to afterwards, and had no idea where to go to understand and address their complicated grief. [Underlining added.]
This study results contrast sharply with the endlessly lauded “Turnaway Study.” Fadel explains, “The Turnaway Study is regularly cited by major media outlets as a rebuttal against the idea that abortion harms mothers who terminate their pregnancies.”
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According to the study, women who were able to have an abortion were compared to women who were turned away — thus the name. It “found that just 5% of women regret their abortions.”
Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, NRLC’s Director of Education & Research, has demolished the study in multiple stories written for NRL News Today. As he pointed out in the conclusion to his five-part critique of the “Turnaway” study,
“Within a week after their ‘denial,’ even before the baby was actually born, 35% of those women were no longer willing to say that having the abortion would have been the right decision. After the birth, we know that 86% were living with the baby; 59% perceived their relationships as good or very good; and nearly half (48%) had full-time jobs.”
But even if we grant, for purposes of argument, that “only” 5% of women regret their abortions, it’s “a huge number,” Fadel writes. “Guttmacher estimates that 23.7% of women have abortions, which using the Turnaway Study’s numbers means that nearly two million women regret their abortion. Leaving these women to suffer in silence is a disservice to them, their families, and their communities.”
Sarah “was also hesitant to approach me because like most women who want to seek healing after abortion, she preferred anonymity out of fear of rejection and judgment.” Fadel concludes
Sarah deserved better than to suffer years of silent regret and shame. I was grateful to be able to help her learn how to address the traumas she had endured, and to heal. As abortion continues to be debated across the state, therapists, lawmakers, abortion advocates, and abortion opponents must put aside differences and make people like Sarah a priority.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
The post Women Who Regret Their Abortions are Suffering Years of Regret and Shame appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeCOVID-19 Vaccine Emails: Here’s What The CDC Hid Behind RedactionsTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 18:25
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hid how a woman who suffered chest pain and other symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination received a shot because of a mandate at work, newly obtained documents show.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 25, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)
The agency also redacted how multiple children were diagnosed with Kawasaki Disease after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the documents.
The Epoch Times obtained more than 1,400 pages of emails from the CDC concerning its Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) project, which analyzes post-vaccination problems reported by health care providers. The tranche included numerous redactions.
While redactions are allowed under the Freedom of Information Act, there were signs that too much information was being hidden.
The Epoch Times appealed some of the redactions.
The CDC agreed to remove some of them, revealing what the agency initially shielded.
In one email, a provider reports a 30-year-old woman who suffered chest pain and leg twitching following COVID-19 vaccination. The original copy of the email stated in part that she “got vaccine due to [redacted].”
In the updated copy, the CDC removed the redaction, showing that the woman received a vaccine because of a mandate at work.
Several other portions of the emails that are now unredacted show the CDC hid how multiple children, including a 2-year-old, were said to have suffered from a serious inflammatory illness called Kawasaki Disease shortly after receiving a shot.
One girl suffered inflammation around the eyes, swollen lips, high fever, and a rash, and “was admitted last week with Kawasaki,” one of the girl’s parents wrote on Dec. 5, 2021, the new documents show. She received a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine two weeks prior.
Dr. Matthew Oster is a cardiologist who works for the CDC.
“The biggest question, of course, here, is whether this was truly [redacted] or whether this was [redacted] related to the vaccine,” Dr. Oster wrote after hearing about the case.
The cleaner copy of the email showed that the redactions covered “KD,” or Kawasaki Disease, and “MIS-C,” or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
“We do now have a small number of cases like this one,” Dr. Oster said.
An email obtained by The Epoch Times shows a health care provider reporting symptoms in a woman after COVID-19 vaccination. The reason she received a vaccine was hidden by the CDC. (The Epoch Times)
A cleaner copy of the same email, obtained after a successful appeal of the redactions, showed that the woman received a vaccine because of a mandate at work. (The Epoch Times)
The CDC has portrayed MIS-C as only being caused by COVID-19, but studies have found that there were MIS-C cases before the COVID-19 pandemic and that some people suffered the syndrome after vaccination without evidence of COVID-19. The CDC says on its website that the agency is “investigating reports of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which may present with Kawasaki disease-like features.”
Another email originally hid the age of a male child and what his doctor suspected he suffered after receipt of a second dose of Moderna’s vaccine.
The boy was 2 years old, the newly obtained documents show, when he was admitted with what a pediatric infectious disease doctor suspected was “atypical Kawasaki Disease.” The documents show that the doctor also considered MIS-C as a diagnosis in light of how the boy’s sister tested positive for COVID-19 on the same day the boy started showing symptoms of fever, although multiple COVID-19 tests on the boy returned negative.
The doctor said he had a “low suspicion” for a COVID-19 vaccine reaction but still submitted a report to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which the CDC helps run.
Kawasaki Disease was detected as a safety signal for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines among children aged 5 to 11 when the CDC first ran an analysis on VAERS data in 2022, according to files previously obtained by The Epoch Times. The analysis did not include children younger than 5. Kawasaki disease after COVID-19 vaccination has been reported in the literature, although a study on patients with a history of the disease who contracted COVID-19 or were vaccinated uncovered no signs of problems.
An internal CDC message, now fully unredacted, showed that an official described there being “another CISA ‘inquiry’ about a child with atypical Kawasaki Disease.” Another official said the reports were “very rare” while a third said the normal CDC processes were sufficient to monitor for the disease post-vaccination “unless there’s a specific ask or data need.”
An email obtained by The Epoch Times shows a healthcare provider reporting symptoms in a child following receipt of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. The original copy included redactions. (The Epoch Times)
A cleaner copy of the same email, with some redactions removed, shows the child in question was just 2 years old. (The Epoch Times)
Other removed redactions show that:
- A person reporting symptoms after COVID-19 vaccination was reporting that the symptoms included Coxsackievirus and that he himself was the patient. The provider wrote, “I ... don’t know whether to fear another vax more or less than the risk of infection.”
- A patient who was reported as suffering heart inflammation after a third Pfizer dose, and came back with the inflammation one year later, was 17 and a male.
- The CISA expert who said the woman who suffered chest pain could get additional vaccine doses was Dr. Oster. Previously disclosed emails showed the program repeatedly said people with post-vaccination symptoms should receive more doses.
- A patient with “intense malaise” and other symptoms about six months after a Pfizer shot had an elevated heart rate, per a portable electrocardiogram, and sinus tachycardia per a cardiology consultation.
Words and phrases that were redacted originally, but not any longer, include “your daughter”, “hospitalist”, “the parents”, “cardiac workup”, “a physician”, “I believe”, “patient was started on a course of Prednisone”, and “does not drink, smoke, or use any drugs.”
Every single email chain for which redactions were protested was returned with at least some redactions cleared.
The original version claimed that the redactions were appropriate under exceptions outlined in the Freedom of Information Act, including an exception that protects “personnel and medical files and similar files” if their disclosure “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
A CDC official told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency, after receiving the appeal, conducted a “careful review” and removed some of the redactions. The official did not explain why the CDC wrongly redacted so much information.
The CDC “has provided modified records for the pages listed in your appeal,” an official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC’s parent agency, told The Epoch Times in an email. Appeals of CDC Freedom of Information Act requests are lodged with the department.
Fits Pattern
Any person can request information through the Freedom of Infection Act (FOIA), and agencies across the government typically redact portions of responsive documents or withhold them entirely. Agencies “often use FOIA exemptions improperly, withholding records simply because they may reveal problems at the agency or just ‘paint the agency in a bad light,’” Melissa Wasser, a lawyer at the Project On Government Oversight, told senators in 2022. People “consistently receive large swaths of arbitrarily redacted information,” she added.
When presented with signs that information was improperly redacted or withheld, people primarily have two options: lodge an appeal or sue.
Both methods have worked to extract information from the CDC during the pandemic.
An Epoch Times appeal in another case, for example, returned a copy that removed significant redactions that were applied to an internal email describing what Pfizer and Moderna told them about studies that were being done regarding heart inflammation and COVID-19 vaccines.
The unredacted information showed that Moderna had not tested samples from vaccine recipients for subclinical myocarditis because it was waiting for a “specific cardiac biomarker [to] be identified.” An outside study from Switzerland later found signs of subclinical heart inflammation in about one out of 35 people.
The CDC acknowledged that the information had been wrongly redacted. It reasoned that the information “cannot be considered confidential” because it was shared before and “is readily available to the public,” although some of the details had never been made public previously.
Among other lawsuits, meanwhile, one led to the release by the CDC of answers from its V-safe surveillance survey while a second prompted the disclosure of what participants wrote in free-text fields after the CDC left off adverse events of special interest from the survey. Some of the data had never before been described publicly, while other information from the system had only been outlined in CDC-authored studies and presentations.
-
Site: LifeNews
Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new rule on Monday cracking down on prosecutors’ ability to obtain abortion records.
The rule strengthens a 1996 privacy law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), by providing protections for those seeking an abortion, as well as those who perform the procedure, according to a HHS press release. The new provision takes aim at the various red states that have imposed abortion restrictions since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Many Americans are scared their private medical information will be being shared, misused, and disclosed without permission,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “This has a chilling effect on women visiting a doctor, picking up a prescription from a pharmacy, or taking other necessary actions to support their health.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration is providing stronger protections to people seeking lawful reproductive health care regardless of whether the care is in their home state or if they must cross state lines to get it. With reproductive health under attack by some lawmakers, these protections are more important than ever,” Becerra added.
The Biden administration first announced its plans in April 2023 to help protect women who are traveling out of state for an abortion from investigation. HIPAA had allowed for the disclosure of some health information to law enforcement officials.
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! To help us fight Joe Biden’s abortion agenda, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!
Melanie Fontes Rainer, director of the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, said that following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, health care providers have voiced concerns over whether the records of their patients who travel to see them will be requested.
“Patients and providers are scared, and it impedes their ability to get and to provide accurate information and access safe and legal health care,” Fontes Rainer said in a statement. “Today’s rule prohibits the use of protected health information for seeking or providing lawful reproductive health care and helps maintain and improve patient-provider trust that will lead to improved health outcomes and protect patient privacy.”
The rule follows an Arizona Supreme Court decision allowing an 1864 law to take effect that prohibits abortion in all cases except for when the life of the mother is at risk. Abortion will likely be on the ballot in the battleground state this fall, potentially joining Florida, New York and Maryland.
LifeNews Note: Mary Lou Masters writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.
The post Biden Issues New Rule to Shield Abortionists Who Kill Babies in Illegal Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
-
Site: Zero HedgeThere Is So Much For The Market To "Pass"/"Over" Right NowTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 17:45
By Michael Every of Rabobank
"Pass"/"Over"
There is so much for markets to try to pass over right over: and they are certainly doing so.
Niall Ferguson warns us again about an escalating global Cold War 2 using Tolkien as an analogy – real Tolkien, not the insult that was The Rings of Power season 1. Markets gave that talk of a bifurcating, antagonistic, inflationary world a pass - like everyone did with The Rings of Power.
The Financial Times admits a new CRINK (China - Russia - Iran - North Korea) “axis” at war with the West and its allies on two fronts already; markets are apparently over that revelation, and its implications, despite continuous ‘surprises’ like the TikTok divestment/ban law now likely to pass in the US appearing one after the other.
SIPRI says defence spending is $2.4 trillion globally, a new nominal high. Yet that buys far less than a few years ago and is set to soar further if we are to get back to the percentage of GDP that defence took up during the Cold War, which many agree we have to: where will those trillions come from? But markets pass over that question, it seems; SIPRI is an acronym too far for those interested in monetary wonkery.
The Polish president says he’s happy to host US nuclear weapons, if needed; Russia says it will respond in kind, if necessary. Nothing to see here and ‘get over it’ for markets, apparently.
Mohamed El-Erian underlines a markets/NatSec disconnect over Mid-East events. Markets say “de-escalation”, because the oil price has gone down. National security figures worry; and those saying recent attacks were telegraphed might note reports of White House panic when Iran launched missiles, and Israel planning a larger military strike at first. We have calm now, but neither side will pass on the opportunity to weaken the other; the enmity is not over.
Ukraine keeps attacking Russian refineries; and Russia is attacking Ukraine’s grains. As Carlos Mera points out, wheat was just up 4% as the market suddenly noticed the war isn’t over. Indeed, the looming $61bn US military aid package will see fighting escalate.
There are proposals for the EU to finally sanction Russian LNG, which it is still apparently OK to buy vs. piped gas: but let’s see how that moral stance holds up against the need to fight a war as painlessly as possible for the EU economy.
Copper needed for both green *and khaki* transitions is just shy of $10,000 (+14.8% year-to-date); aluminium, also need for both, is +12.8% y-t-d; cocoa, needed to not think about expensive transitions, is around the same price (+183.4% y-t-d); coffee, for those who don’t drink cocoa, is +35.5% y-t-d. And yet markets are focused on the over / under of when we get rate cuts.
Three Germans were just arrested for allegedly working for China (not the last three Chancellors!); markets pass that news off as BAU now.
The EU needs to forge strategic autonomy partly via remilitarisation says Mario Draghi (something we flagged in December): that could impact every aspect of the EU economy and markets. “Hard pass,” say markets who are only interested in when we get that first rate cut.
Yanis Varoufakis (‘A European War Union?’) also screams ‘PASS!’ in arguing “the main difference of opinion between pro-EU political forces concerned whether Europe’s continental consolidation ought to proceed by Hamiltonian means (debt mutualization precipitating the emergence of a proper federation) or in the original intergovernmental way (gradual market integration)” - but now it’s to be “unproductive” war. Yet Hamilton’s economic strategy was to build a US navy, and: “So vital were supplies to national security that Hamilton did not rule out government-owned arms factories. The godfather of American industrial policy realized that market forces, while they could bring many benefits, could not be relied upon for all of the country’s needs. Knowing that international trade was vital to the early republic, Hamilton advocated for a strong navy to protect American shipping when writing: “The want of a Navy to protect our external commerce, as long as it shall Continue, must render it a peculiarly precarious reliance, for the supply of essential articles, and must serve to strengthen prodigiously the arguments in favour of manufactures.””
Relatedly, the shortlist for Trump’s National Security Advisor is down to Grenell and Colby. In either case, that’s ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’ on steroids; and an immediate shift in US arms away from Europe towards Asia. That smells like over a trillion in new annual western defence spending could come to pass, even if markets don’t have the nose for it.
Meanwhile, Columbia University sees either 1938 or 1968 style scenes, showing political polarization and volatility are domestic as well as international, and the two are linked.
All of this would have been enough for one Global Daily, but I was inspired by John Authors’ Passover-themed article yesterday to ask just one, not four questions: why is this global market cycle unlike all other global market cycles?
Let’s answer Seder style, to four different children: the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask:
- The wise child asks: "What are the testimonies, statues, and laws of global market cycles laid down by history and different disciplinary approaches?” You can talk to them about long-run cycles, peace and war phases, and huge fiscal deficits centrality in all of this.
- The wicked child asks: "What does this all mean to you?" Because they are too busy shilling ridiculously large Fed cut forecasts, and/or low bond yields, and/or high equities.
- The simple child asks: "What does this mean?” To which a simple summary is: “Free markets brought us out from the bondage of authoritarianism and war; and then led us back there."
- The child who does not know how to ask is to be told adults need to ask difficult questions about this cycle "because of what markets did for us in the West when they were free to be efficient *and* boost Western national security".
You can opt to let all this pass over you if you want. But don’t be surprised if you then look rather ‘unleavened’ compared to others who are prepared to ask, and honestly answer, difficult questions about our very troubling, far-from-BAU backdrop.
-
Site: Zero HedgeThere Is So Much For The Market To "Pass"/"Over" Right NowTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 17:45
By Michael Every of Rabobank
"Pass"/"Over"
There is so much for markets to try to pass over right over: and they are certainly doing so.
Niall Ferguson warns us again about an escalating global Cold War 2 using Tolkien as an analogy – real Tolkien, not the insult that was The Rings of Power season 1. Markets gave that talk of a bifurcating, antagonistic, inflationary world a pass - like everyone did with The Rings of Power.
The Financial Times admits a new CRINK (China - Russia - Iran - North Korea) “axis” at war with the West and its allies on two fronts already; markets are apparently over that revelation, and its implications, despite continuous ‘surprises’ like the TikTok divestment/ban law now likely to pass in the US appearing one after the other.
SIPRI says defence spending is $2.4 trillion globally, a new nominal high. Yet that buys far less than a few years ago and is set to soar further if we are to get back to the percentage of GDP that defence took up during the Cold War, which many agree we have to: where will those trillions come from? But markets pass over that question, it seems; SIPRI is an acronym too far for those interested in monetary wonkery.
The Polish president says he’s happy to host US nuclear weapons, if needed; Russia says it will respond in kind, if necessary. Nothing to see here and ‘get over it’ for markets, apparently.
Mohamed El-Erian underlines a markets/NatSec disconnect over Mid-East events. Markets say “de-escalation”, because the oil price has gone down. National security figures worry; and those saying recent attacks were telegraphed might note reports of White House panic when Iran launched missiles, and Israel planning a larger military strike at first. We have calm now, but neither side will pass on the opportunity to weaken the other; the enmity is not over.
Ukraine keeps attacking Russian refineries; and Russia is attacking Ukraine’s grains. As Carlos Mera points out, wheat was just up 4% as the market suddenly noticed the war isn’t over. Indeed, the looming $61bn US military aid package will see fighting escalate.
There are proposals for the EU to finally sanction Russian LNG, which it is still apparently OK to buy vs. piped gas: but let’s see how that moral stance holds up against the need to fight a war as painlessly as possible for the EU economy.
Copper needed for both green *and khaki* transitions is just shy of $10,000 (+14.8% year-to-date); aluminium, also need for both, is +12.8% y-t-d; cocoa, needed to not think about expensive transitions, is around the same price (+183.4% y-t-d); coffee, for those who don’t drink cocoa, is +35.5% y-t-d. And yet markets are focused on the over / under of when we get rate cuts.
Three Germans were just arrested for allegedly working for China (not the last three Chancellors!); markets pass that news off as BAU now.
The EU needs to forge strategic autonomy partly via remilitarisation says Mario Draghi (something we flagged in December): that could impact every aspect of the EU economy and markets. “Hard pass,” say markets who are only interested in when we get that first rate cut.
Yanis Varoufakis (‘A European War Union?’) also screams ‘PASS!’ in arguing “the main difference of opinion between pro-EU political forces concerned whether Europe’s continental consolidation ought to proceed by Hamiltonian means (debt mutualization precipitating the emergence of a proper federation) or in the original intergovernmental way (gradual market integration)” - but now it’s to be “unproductive” war. Yet Hamilton’s economic strategy was to build a US navy, and: “So vital were supplies to national security that Hamilton did not rule out government-owned arms factories. The godfather of American industrial policy realized that market forces, while they could bring many benefits, could not be relied upon for all of the country’s needs. Knowing that international trade was vital to the early republic, Hamilton advocated for a strong navy to protect American shipping when writing: “The want of a Navy to protect our external commerce, as long as it shall Continue, must render it a peculiarly precarious reliance, for the supply of essential articles, and must serve to strengthen prodigiously the arguments in favour of manufactures.””
Relatedly, the shortlist for Trump’s National Security Advisor is down to Grenell and Colby. In either case, that’s ‘Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum’ on steroids; and an immediate shift in US arms away from Europe towards Asia. That smells like over a trillion in new annual western defence spending could come to pass, even if markets don’t have the nose for it.
Meanwhile, Columbia University sees either 1938 or 1968 style scenes, showing political polarization and volatility are domestic as well as international, and the two are linked.
All of this would have been enough for one Global Daily, but I was inspired by John Authors’ Passover-themed article yesterday to ask just one, not four questions: why is this global market cycle unlike all other global market cycles?
Let’s answer Seder style, to four different children: the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask:
- The wise child asks: "What are the testimonies, statues, and laws of global market cycles laid down by history and different disciplinary approaches?” You can talk to them about long-run cycles, peace and war phases, and huge fiscal deficits centrality in all of this.
- The wicked child asks: "What does this all mean to you?" Because they are too busy shilling ridiculously large Fed cut forecasts, and/or low bond yields, and/or high equities.
- The simple child asks: "What does this mean?” To which a simple summary is: “Free markets brought us out from the bondage of authoritarianism and war; and then led us back there."
- The child who does not know how to ask is to be told adults need to ask difficult questions about this cycle "because of what markets did for us in the West when they were free to be efficient *and* boost Western national security".
You can opt to let all this pass over you if you want. But don’t be surprised if you then look rather ‘unleavened’ compared to others who are prepared to ask, and honestly answer, difficult questions about our very troubling, far-from-BAU backdrop.
-
Site: LifeNews
Joe Biden took his presidential campaign to Florida today and promoted abortions – because apparently killing one million babies a year in abortions is not enough.
He told the handful of pro-abortion voters gathered for the small event that they should hold Donald trump accountable for overturning Roe so states could set their own policies on protecting babies from abortions.
“Donald Trump is worried voters are going to hold him accountable for the cruelty and chaos he’s created,” Biden said. “The bad news for Trump is that we are going to hold him accountable. He should be held accountable.”
Biden also urged those in attendance to support a statewide amendment that would legalize abortions up to birth.
However, polling data in the Sunshine State shows voters support Trump over Biden.
A Florida Atlantic University PolCom Lab/Mainstreet Research poll released last week found Trump leading Biden by 10 points, while an Emerson College poll earlier this month had Trump leading by 15.
SUPPORT LIFENEWS! To help us fight Joe Biden’s abortion agenda, please help LifeNews.com with a donation!
Students for Life of America told LifeNews that Biden has little to campaign on other than promoting more abortions. And it chided him for keeping the details of the event low key to avoid pro-life advocates protesting the event.
“As always, with the Biden-Harris Administration, they will talk a big game of their love for abortion, while keeping event details secret,” said Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins.
“Florida’s importance as a swing state explains in part the get-out-the-vote effort radical abortion extremists are engaging with a ballot initiative that would strip away legal protections for a baby with the universal sign of life – a heartbeat – to open the door to intentional abortion through a pregnancy. With a strong pro-life presence in Florida, SFLAction will rally and feature our brand-new video billboard truck to send Biden a special message,” she said.
“Biden may hide his location from us, but he can’t hide plans for abortion from the young voter generation, and he must answer for the abortion pollution ignored by his FDA’s negligently reduced standards for distributing the deadly drugs,” stated Hawkins. “Nine in 10 Gen Z and Gen Y voters reject the No Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills pushed by the Biden Administration. The youth vote is waking up.”
The post Joe Biden Campaigns in Florida for More Abortions appeared first on LifeNews.com.
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Site: Zero HedgeJan 6 Committee Chair Offers Bill To End Secret Service Protection For Convicted FelonsTyler Durden Tue, 04/23/2024 - 17:25
In a move aimed at Donald Trump, House Democrats have introduced a bill that would remove Secret Service protection for any former executive sentenced to prison for a federal or state felony.
The bill comes from Democratic Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, who, in a fitting Deep State overlap, is not only the former Jan. 6 committee chairman but also the ranking member of the Homeland Security committee. Introduced Friday, HR 8081 has 8 cosponsors so far -- all Democrats.
These days, nearly every bill comes with a goofy, forced acronym, and this one's no exception. Thompson has titled it the “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson is working to pave the path for Trump prison time (Getty Images via The Hill)
The measure seeks to address an admittedly huge conundrum that would arise in the event Trump gets jail time for any of the various politically-motivated prosecutions he's facing around the country: How would Secret Service agents operate inside a prison?
If Thompson's bill became law, they simply wouldn't. That would make possible Democrats' fever dreams of Prisoner Trump getting shivved in a prison shower, and negate their dread that a judge might choose to sentence Trump to house arrest out of mere practicality.
As Homeland Security committee Democrats wrote in a fact sheet describing the bill:
“This bill would remove the potential for conflicting lines of authority within prisons and allow judges to weigh the sentencing of individuals without having to factor in the logistical concerns of convicts with Secret Service protection."
Trump is currently facing four prosecutions:
- The scandal-plagued Georgia election interference case led by DA Fanni Willis, who was having an affair with one of her prosecutors
- A federal election interference case
- Federal charges of mishandling classified documents
- The underway New York hush money trial, which centers on alleged falsification of business records regarding payments to compensate porn actress Stormy Daniels for keeping quiet about her alleged affair with Trump
“It is regrettable that it has come to this, but this previously unthought-of scenario could become our reality,” said Thompson -- as if he and his comrades don't want that reality more than anything on Earth.
Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual assault charges, stands in court during his sentencing hearing in the Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Michigan, U.S., Feb. 5, 2018. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)
ATACMS missile, via US Army
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 25, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)
An email obtained by The Epoch Times shows a health care provider reporting symptoms in a woman after COVID-19 vaccination. The reason she received a vaccine was hidden by the CDC. (The Epoch Times)
A cleaner copy of the same email, obtained after a successful appeal of the redactions, showed that the woman received a vaccine because of a mandate at work. (The Epoch Times)
An email obtained by The Epoch Times shows a healthcare provider reporting symptoms in a child following receipt of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. The original copy included redactions. (The Epoch Times)
A cleaner copy of the same email, with some redactions removed, shows the child in question was just 2 years old. (The Epoch Times)
Rep. Bennie Thompson is working to pave the path for Trump prison time (Getty Images via 
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