In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished; this is a real threat we face.
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Site: Mises InstituteWilliam Nordhaus coined the term “Political Business Cycle” a half-century ago. The idea was that government authorities, particularly the central bank, would manipulate the economy to correspond with election cycles, a practice that continues to this day.
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Site: Mises InstituteAmtrak is always on the verge of reviving intercity rail traffic in the US, or at least that is what politicians want us to believe. The truth is that the case for defunding Amtrak has never been stronger.
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Site: Zero HedgeFederal Judge In San Francisco Halts All Large-Scale Firings By The Trump AdministrationTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 12:50
Many of us have been waiting for the arguments on May 15th before the Supreme Court in the birthright citizenship case to see if the justices will put long-needed limits on district courts issuing national injunctions. Critics object that Democratic groups are going to blue states in open forum-shopping to secure such injunctions from favorable judges — a record number of injunctions for an Administration that only just passed its 100th day mark. Those complaints are likely to only increase after the new order by District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco. It is arguably the most expansive yet in its scope and assertion of judicial power.
At the request of unions and other groups, Judge Illston (a Clinton appointee) imposed a temporary restraining order (TRO) for 14 days to stop the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale layoffs and program closures across two dozen agencies.
For those calling for district courts to be restrained, Judge Illston’s TRO (which often leads to a preliminary injunction) will seem like another court ruling with total abandon.
Trump is carrying out his pledge to dramatically downsize the government, including targeting waste and unnecessary or superfluous programs. One can certainly disagree with that judgment. The unions and Democrats opposed the pledge during the campaign.
However, after the public elected him, the question is whether a single district judge has the ability to stop a president from implementing such policies.
Unions insist that Congress set up a specific process for the federal government to reorganize itself and that that process is not being followed.
Specifically, Illston is arguing that the process includes consultation with Congress. The law, 5 U.S.C. § 903 states in part:
(a)Whenever the President, after investigation, finds that changes in the organization of agencies are necessary to carry out any policy set forth in section 901(a) of this title, he shall prepare a reorganization plan specifying the reorganizations he finds are necessary. Any plan may provide for—
(1) the transfer of the whole or a part of an agency, or of the whole or a part of the functions thereof, to the jurisdiction and control of another agency;
(2) the abolition of all or a part of the functions of an agency, except that no enforcement function or statutory program shall be abolished by the plan;
(3) the consolidation or coordination of the whole or a part of an agency, or of the whole or a part of the functions thereof, with the whole or a part of another agency or the functions thereof;
(4) the consolidation or coordination of part of an agency or the functions thereof with another part of the same agency or the functions thereof;
(5) the authorization of an officer to delegate any of his functions; or
(6) the abolition of the whole or a part of an agency which agency or part does not have, or on the taking effect of the reorganization plan will not have, any functions.
The President shall transmit the plan (bearing an identification number) to the Congress together with a declaration that, with respect to each reorganization included in the plan, he has found that the reorganization is necessary to carry out any policy set forth in section 901(a) of this title.
The law has always occupied a gray area since a president has the authority under Article II to run the executive branch and remove individuals. Judge Illston recognizes that inherent authority as a “prerogative of presidents to pursue new policy priorities and to imprint their stamp on the federal government. But to make large-scale overhauls of federal agencies, any president must enlist the help of his coequal branch and partner, the Congress.”
The lawsuit was filed last week, and the court issued its order not long after arguments.
Judge Illston did acknowledge that two courts of appeal recently rendered decisions against jurisdiction in such cases in Widakuswara v. Lake, No. 25- 5144, 2025 WL 1288817 (D.C. Cir. May 3, 2025) and Maryland v. U.S. Dep’t of Agriculture, No. 25- 1248, 2025 WL 1073657 (4th Cir. Apr. 9, 2025). The court notes that those decisions are not binding on a San Francisco district court and rejects their value as “persuasive authority.” Judge Illston declared that “Tthe [sic] Fourth Circuit offers no reasoning for its conclusion that the district court lacked jurisdiction, and this Court finds the dissenting opinion in that case more robust and more persuasive. ” It similarly embraced the dissent in the D.C. Circuit case.
Danielle Leonard, a lawyer representing the challengers, told the court that Trump is destroying the government, insisting, “It’s an ouroboros: the snake eating its tail.”
For critics, it may look more like Article III devouring Article II. The order will only heighten the pressures leading into the May 15th arguments in Washington. It will also increase pressure on Congress to move forward with legislation designed to rein in district courts in the use of national or universal injunctions.
Here is the order: AFGE v. Trump
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Site: The Orthosphere
“Someone has written The Pope is a Traitor in tar on the green pillar box. A typical Irish town.”
Evelyn Waugh, “Bella Fleace Gave a Party (1932)*
Samuel Johnson said that the human mind is characterized by “anfractuosities,” a word he elsewhere defined as “winding, mazy, full of turnings and winding passages.” Johnson gave as an instance an unwillingness to sit for one’s portrait, a countercurrent to natural vanity that some men and women felt in his day. A man of less patience (and smaller vocabulary) might have spoken of perversities, since the anfractuosities of the human mind are as often vexatious as droll.
The capacity for personal friendship with a political enemy is an anfractuosity in the mind of many a man. He will in public matters strain to foil and frustrate the designs of this political enemy, while he is privately fond of that same man’s company and anxious for that same man’s well-being. We confess this anfractuosity when we say of some public figure whom we loath, that it would no doubt be very jolly to have with that same man “a beer.”
We see a similar anfractuosity in a capacity to hate an institution or collective while enjoying at the same time perfect amity with individual officers of that institution or individual members of that collective. The “mazy” mind of man can quite easily hate the Chinese, for instance, while at the same time loving some particular Chinamen. A man confesses this anfractuosity when he tries to soften his political censure of a group with the claim (often dubious) that “some of his best friends” hale from that same censured party.
These anfractuosities permit what Carl Schmitt calls the distinction between a private and a public enemy, inimicus and hostus in the Latin. The difference is that my private enemy aims to harm—perhaps destroy—my person, whereas my public enemy seeks to harm—perhaps destroy my “way of life.” It is this difference between public and private enemies that Thomas Jefferson perhaps deliberately obscured when he famously wrote,
“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”†
The man who picks my pocket or breaks my leg is most certainly a private enemy, but he may have attacked my person without the slightest intention of injuring my “way of life.” The man who vociferously attacks the metaphysical foundation of my “way of life” is, on the other hand, my public enemy whom, unopposed, will shatter and destroy my world.
In the idiom St. Paul, he will shatter and destroy that in which “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Paul was, of course, speaking of man’s ultimate context; but we are no less certainly the “offspring” of our people, our time, and our place. And the enemy of that local context is our hostus just as certainly as Satan is the hostus of the God. And the scriptural injunctions to love our enemies do not apply to such public enemies. As Schmitt explained:
“The often quoted ‘Love your enemies’ (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27) reads ‘diligite inimicos vestros,’ and not ‘diligite hostes vestros.’ No mention is made of the political enemy. Never in the thousand-year struggle between Christians and Moslems did it occur to a Christian to surrender rather than defend Europe out of love toward the Saracens or Turks.”†
This is true even in cases when the Saracen was such that it might have been jolly to share with him a beer.
* * * * *
Political hatred comports with personal affection in the mazy mind of men, and this anfractuosity undoubtedly serves us well. There would be civil war if I felt bound to pick the pockets and break the legs of my public enemies. And there would be another sort of chaos if I indulged my public enemies with the longsuffering forbearance and forgiveness of Christian love. It is our personal cheeks that we ought to turn for a second slap. It is not the cheek of that in which “we live, and move, and have our being.”
As I said earlier, political hatred for an institution or collective may comport with perfect amity with individual officers of that institution or individual members of that collective. This is expressed in my epigraph from Evelyn Waugh. There are and no doubt always have been Catholics who love their local and personal Catholicism but hate “the Church.” This is because they perceive “the Church” as hostile to their local and personal Catholic “way of life.”
The irate Irishman who painted that angry slogan on that green pillar box in the town of Ballingar believed that the Pope was a traitor to that.
A similar anfractuosity is today evident in those Americans who love their local and personal America but hate “America” (although few will yet call their public enemy by that name). This is again because they perceive “America” as hostile to their local and personal American “way of life.” In their mazy minds “America” is labeled “the government,” the “deep state,” the “cloud people,” or “the elite;” but all of these locutions are means to describe (and disguise) their love-hate relationship with the land for which their fathers died.
* * * * *
George Bernard Shaw wrote an interesting description of mazy-minded political hatred in the Preface to his play, John Bull’s Other Island (1904). Shaw begins by explaining the “concurrence of human kindness with political rancor” in the relations between the Irish and their priests:
“Just reconsider the Home Rule question in the light of that very English characteristic of the Irish people, their political hatred of priests. Do not be distracted by the shriek of indignant denial from the Catholic papers and from those who have witnessed the charming relations between the Irish peasantry and their spiritual fathers. I am perfectly aware that the Irish love their priests as devotedly as the French loved them before the Revolution or as the Italians loved them before they imprisoned the Pope in the Vatican. They love their landlords too: many an Irish gentleman has found in his nurse a foster-mother more interested in him than his actual mother. They love the English, as every Englishman who travels in Ireland can. testify. Please do not suppose that I speak satirically: the world is full of authentic examples of the concurrence of human kindliness with political rancor. Slaves and schoolboys often love their masters; Napoleon and his soldiers made desperate efforts to save from drowning the Russian soldiers under whom they had broken the ice with their cannon; even the relations between nonconformist peasants and country parsons in England are not invariably unkindly; in the southern States of America planters are often traditionally fond of negroes and kind to them, with substantial returns in humble affection; soldiers and sailors often admire and cheer their officers sincerely and heartily; nowhere is actual personal intercourse found compatible for long with the intolerable friction of hatred and malice.”†††
Just so. Apart from zealots (whom Mommsen tells us were also known as “men of the knife”), no one can long conduct personal life on strictly political lines. Personal intercourse quickly discovers amiable and attractive personalities on the other side of the barricade (and repellant personalities at one’s elbow); but this does not remove or even palliate political hostility and only scoundrels and simpletons maintain that they do. As Shaw goes on to say:
“But people who persist in pleading these amiabilities as political factors must be summarily bundled out of the room when questions of State are to be discussed.. Just as an Irishman may have English friends whom he may prefer to any Irishman of his acquaintance, and be kind, hospitable, and serviceable in his intercourse with Englishmen, whilst being perfectly prepared to make the Shannon run red with English blood if Irish freedom could be obtained at that price; so an Irish Catholic may like his priest as a man and revere him as a confessor and spiritual pastor whilst being implacably determined to seize the first opportunity of throwing off his yoke. This is political hatred: the only hatred that civilization allows to be mortal hatred.”†††
*) Evelyn Waugh, Tactical Exercise (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1936), p. 15.
**) James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, three vols. (London: J. M. Dent, 1901), vol. 3, p. 96.
***) Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political, trans. George Schwab (1932; Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 27.
†) Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (London: J. Stockdale, 1787), p. 265.
††) Schmitt, Concept of the Political, p. 29.
†††) George Bernard Shaw, John Bull’s Other Island: In Four Acts (London: Constable and Co., 1921), pp. xxi-xxii. -
Site: Rorate CaeliThe Jubilee Pilgrimage of the Institute of Christ the King had a celebratory Traditional Mass in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major this week.In the video below (tip: Una Voce Sevilla, Spain), that lighted spot in the background is the recently opened tomb of Francis, which was put in the place of a magnificent early 17th-century baroque wall ands doorway, decorated with the most New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: Zero HedgeWestern Allies Pressure Russia To Accept 30-Day Ceasefire Starting MondayTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 12:15
Pressure is mounting on Moscow to take it's offerings of short, three-day ceasefires (there have been two thus far) to the next level, by accepting terms for a 30-day ceasefire that would begin as early as Monday.
The so-called 'coalition of the willing' - including Britain, France, Germany and Poland on Saturday called on Russia accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. Currently, Putin's unliterally proposed 72-hour Victory Day ceasefire is partially holding - or at least has resulting in Ukraine halting sending drones onto Russian territory.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated on X "Ukraine and all allies are ready for a full unconditional ceasefire on land, air, and at sea for at least 30 days starting already on Monday."
Via BBC
"If Russia agrees and effective monitoring is ensured, a durable ceasefire and confidence-building measures can pave the way to peace negotiations," he added. This is meant to basically extend the weekend 3-day ceasefire by a month.
The Trump administration has been pressing for faster results from Moscow. President Trump characterized an earlier Wednesday phone call with Zelensky as positive, after which the US leader called for "ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire."
And Macron and Trump then spoke Thursday, after which the French leader said had a "strong" conversation for a "unconditional 30-day ceasefire, as did our British and Nordic partners earlier this morning."
Trump has offered as an incentive the easing of anti-Russia sanctions, but Moscow's refusal to go along could result in the opposite, per Axios:
- They [European leaders] stressed to Trump that if Putin refuses the 30-day ceasefire, European countries will impose new sanctions on Russia, the sources said.
- "Trump seemed satisfied to see Ukraine embracing the ceasefire and accepting direct negotiations with Russia," one source said.
- The second source said Trump was glad to hear they all back his proposal. "We're waiting for Russia's move now," the source said.
But Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously warned that Washington may abandon efforts to mediate an end to the three-plus-year-long war if Russia and Ukraine fail to make a peace agreement.
“I think they’re closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years but it’s still not there,” Rubio said in an interview with NBC News on April 27.
A comprehensive (air, land, sea, infrastructure) cease fire for 30 days will start the process for ending the largest and longest war in Europe since World War II. As @POTUS has repeatedly said, stop the killing-now. https://t.co/OC49YEFP4P
— Keith Kellogg (@generalkellogg) May 10, 2025Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X that "We share a common view: an immediate, full, and unconditional ceasefire is needed for at least 30 days," and that they "waiting for Russia's response" - in reference to the European leaders Starmer, Zelensky, Macron, Tusk, and Merz - who are visiting Kiev on Saturday.
"Once the ceasefire begins, there will be the best moment for diplomacy," he said. "Ukraine is ready for meetings and negotiations in any format."
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Site: southern orders
Just saw this, not sure if real or not!
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Site: southern orders
You can see a YouTube video of the black car that Pope Leo used this morning and he is chauffeured by sitting in the back seat rather than the front seat! View the video HERE!
As I reported this morning, Pope Leo met with all the Cardinals that are still in Rome and praised them and sees them as his closest collaborators. I would say that is another shift in papal attitudes and desires!
And then we have this!
This is copied from the Italian Newspaper, I’ll Messaggero along with the photo!
A Shift in Papal Symbols
Pope Leo XIV's choice of a black Volkswagen over a Fiat 500L marks a potential shift in papal symbolism and style.
A small detail that could mark a significant change: the day after the May 8 election, to return to his residence, Pope Leo XIV used a black Volkswagen instead of Bergoglio's 500L. No symbolic gesture of continuity with the modest style of his predecessor's cars. Could this be a step towards returning to Ratzinger's limousine? Other elements of rupture with Bergoglio. Appearing in St. Peter's Square, Prevost wore vestments never worn by Pope Francis. Also, the 'ferula', the pastoral staff with which Leo XIV officiated his first mass as Pope, is the one used by Benedict XVI; Francis preferred another, less precious, made of wood with silver decorations. Pope Francis had made simplicity and humility his distinctive trait, often choosing to move in a simple Italian car rather than in armored or representative cars. That gesture impressed not only the faithful but also world leaders. The Fiat 500 – white, with license plate SCV 1 – had become a symbolic element. The black Volkswagen – a Passat model, according to rumors – used by Prevost to return to his residence immediately after the election has been seen by many observers as a signal of discontinuity. A more formal, more austere vehicle, perhaps more in line with a return to a more institutional vision of the pontificate. Some speak of a possible return to the armored Mercedes M-Class used by Benedict XVI or to the limousine. For now, no official confirmation from the Vatican. But images of the black Volkswagen are already fueling curiosity and interpretations. -
Site: AsiaNews.itThe PIME missionary studied at CTU with Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. He remembers a quiet, practical man, able to listen, the American PIME priest told AsiaNews. His election is a sign of hope for the American Church. The new pope spoke of peace, he is a missionary, he 'could give hope to the Catholic Church in the United States.'
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Site: Zero HedgeIt's Donald Trump's Economy NowTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 11:40
Authored by William Galston via RealClearPolitics,
When the Commerce Department released a report on April 30 showing that the economy had shrunk during the first quarter of 2025 – the first such decline since 2022 – President Donald Trump was quick to respond. “This is Biden,” he said, adding that “You could even say that the next quarter is sort of Biden [too].” Later that day, he told a group of corporate executives that “This is Biden’s economy.” He capped his day by posting on Truth Social that “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s.”
By the end of the week, the president had refined his message. When asked about responsibility for the economy during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, he stated that “The good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy.”
But do the American people agree with President Trump? According to recent public opinion surveys, the answer is No. Specifically:
Gallup asked a random sample of Americans, “Who do you think is more responsible for the current state of the U.S. economy?” Forty-six percent said Trump (up from 43% in March), compared to 27% for Biden, while 21% said that they were equally responsible. Although Democrats and Republicans mostly responded along party lines, independents assigned principal responsibility to Trump rather than Biden by a margin of 43% to 24%.
A Morning Consult survey released on May 6 underscored the rapid shift of economic responsibility from Biden to Trump. “A slim majority of voters (53%) say current economic conditions are mostly the result of Trump’s policies, up from 46% in March and 39% in February, when voters were more willing to give the current president the benefit of the doubt,” the authors of the survey wrote.
Two recent surveys allow us to see how different groups view the question of Trump’s responsibility for the economy. The NPR/PBS News/Marist poll asked a sample of Americans whether current economic conditions are “mostly something President Trump inherited” or “mostly a result of President Trump’s own policies.” 39% chose the former statement, compared to 60% who selected the latter. Among key groups that moved toward Trump in the 2024 election, sentiments among Independents were divided 39-61; among young adults ages 18-29, 34-66; among Hispanics, 32-68. Not surprisingly, a strong majority of Americans-56%--disapproved of his handling of the economy, compared to 40% who approved. Among swing groups, his approval rating was even lower, hovering around one-third of the respondents.
This brings us to the Economist/YouGov survey released May 6. The poll asked simply, Which president “is more responsible for the state of the economy”? Fifty-one percent of Americans, and 55% of registered voters, chose Trump, compared to 28% and 31%, respectively, for Biden. Only 23% of moderate voters, 22% of independents and Hispanics, and 19% of young adults thought that Biden was more responsible than Trump for the economy.
This survey went on to test other key claims Trump made in response to the GDP report. For example, 75% of registered voters hold him “very” or “somewhat” responsible for the stock market. When asked for their response to the president’s assertion that this is Biden’s stock market, not his, 24% of registered voters agreed with him, but more than twice as many – fully 57% – disagreed.
In sum, the president is blaming his predecessor for the condition of the economy, but the American people aren’t buying it. One possible explanation for their rapid transfer of responsibility from the previous to the current president is that Trump is a victim of his own success. His unrivalled ability to command the public’s attention with vivid statements and bold action has highlighted his key economic measures, especially his imposition of record tariffs on friend and foe alike. He has drawn such a sharp line with his predecessor’s policies that it is hard for most people to understand how Biden’s influence on the economy could be continuing.
For better or worse, it’s now Donald Trump’s economy. If it performs poorly, he and his party will pay the price.
William A. Galston holds the Ezra Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a senior fellow. A former policy advisor to President Clinton and presidential candidates, Galston is an expert on domestic policy, political campaigns, and elections. His current research focuses on designing a new social contract and the implications of political polarization.
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Site: Henrymakow.com
Please send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.comWere it not for oil imports from Canada, the US would have a trade surplus with Canada.The US buys $100 billion in oil from Canada, refines it and sells it for three times as much. Now Canada is expected to buy more US goods to compensate for that??The trade war with Canada only makes sense as a gambit to break up Canada. This is why Trump sabotaged the Conservative campaign.As for China. I just bought a four-piece patio set (two chairs, love seat and table) for $130 US!The Chinese make high quality cheap products and sell them for worthless US dollars. Why would Trump destroy such an arrangement unless he is repatriating the supply chain in event of war?-------------------Paul Craig Roberts --Satan's attack on Western morality has been led by Jews.Roberts--"The Christian Zionists are well pleased. We are doing God's will protecting Israel, they say. In fact, we are enabling Satan's Chosen People whose extraordinary immorality resulted in God kicking the Israelis out of the Middle East and dispersing them among the world, stateless.In the midst of Netanyahu's extermination of Palestine, Netanyahu was invited to address a joint session of the US House and Senate and received 53 standing ovations. The American Congress could not refrain from pouring its consent on genocide.Some countries in past times, such as Spain, recognized the exploitative practices of Jews and kicked them out. In Eastern European countries and in Russia the exploitative practices of Satan's Chosen People against the indigenous populations resulted in pogroms against Jews, of which Jews only give one side, their propagandistic side.Satan's attack on Western morality has been led by Jews. They gave us pornography. They gave us the absence of Christian symbols in public spaces. They gave us the March Through the Institutions, which succeeded in destroying the self-belief of Western gentiles. And now they are bringing us to World War III.It is extraordinary how 10 million Israelis rule the world."Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal-
Don't forget. Israel is blackmailing Trump, if that is even necessay.Will Donald Trump recognize a Palestinian state?A Gulf diplomatic source, who declined to be named or disclose his position, told The Media Line that 'President Donald Trump will issue a declaration regarding the State of Palestine and American recognition of it, and that there will be the establishment of a Palestinian state without the presence of Hamas.'-$120k forgivable loans to non-white home buyers in WA StateIn a blatant display of unconstitutional "equity" in action, Washington state is giving $120k 0% interest forgivable loans to non-white homebuyers.Gov. Bob Ferguson (D) signed into law earlier this week the Second Substitute House Bill 1696, expanding the Covenant Homeownership Program, which was launched in 2024."This is great," an excited Gov. Ferguson said at a news conference, thankingstate Rep. Jamila Taylor (D) for her "leadership" in getting the measure passed.-
Jaguar fires woke ad agency-IN FEB 2023, SEYMOUR HERSH SAID THAT THE US NAVY TOOK OUT NORD-STREAM WITH HELP FROM NORWAY; HE CITED A SOURCE "WITH DIRECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE OPERATIONAL PLANNING"The Biden Regime ordered the operation to be coordinated by the Central Lack-Of-Intelligence Agency (CIA). US agents placed C4 explosives on the pipeline, and then a Norwegian surveillance plane dropped a sonar buoy, which triggered the C4 explosives:
If the IDF did this to Israelis, think what they will do to youWHY THE ANTICHRIST STATE OF ISRAEL CREATED HAMAS: This article explains why the Antichrist State of Israel created Hamas and still funds it:In March 2019, at a meeting of the ZioFascist LIKUD PARTY, Netanyahu said: "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy-to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank".Some of Netanyahu's colleagues also confirmed that Netanyahu wanted to bribe Hamas so that it would have to lose (its Zionist funding) and would thus be reluctant to attack Israel.Mossad whistleblower Victor Ostrovsky explained why Mossad supports Hamas: "Supporting the radical elements of Muslim fundamentalism sat well with the Mossad's general plan for the region. An Arab world run by fundamentalists would not be a party to any negotiations with the West, thus leaving Israel again as the only democratic, rational country in the region. And if the Mossad could arrange for the Hamas (Palestinian fundamentalists) to take over the Palestinian streets from the PLO, then the picture would be complete".In an Aug 2014 interview on Israeli TV i24News, Avi Primor (former Israeli ambassador to Germany) emphasized that Hamas had been created by Israel: "It was the Israeli Regime, it was us who created Hamas, in order to create a counterweight to [Yasser Arafat's] Fatah at the time. And we thought it would be a religious organization that would quarrel with Fatah, we could not foresee what would become of it, but it is our creation, these are the facts".In a May 2019 interview with Israeli news website Ynet, retired Israeli Major General Gershon Hacohen, a conservative associate of Benjamin Netanyahu, made the following statement: "The truth must be told, Netanyahu's strategy is to prevent the two-state option and that is why he made Hamas his closest partner. In the visible dimension Hamas is an enemy, in the hidden dimension it is an ally".
Two popes demonstrate satanic thumb on knuckle handshakeTRUMP DOES NOT CONTRADICT WHEN CALLED "THE FIRST JEWISH PRESIDENT OF THE USA":KEN O'KEEFE EXPLAINS THE ZIONIST ATTACKS OF 11 SEP 2001 (FOR DUMMIES):KLASSEN: The COVID crisis can't be over until we know what lockdowns cost us'Five years on, no government cares to trace the cost of lockdowns.'https://www.westernstandard.news/opinion/klassen-the-covid-crisis-cant-be-over-until-we-know-what-lockdowns-cost-us/64644----Hamdi Mig-- "Pray for us. The occupation is launching a ground operation in the place where we live. We are now surrounded and there is shooting and targeting everywhere around us. I don't know if we will be able to get out of the place alive or not! Pray for me to get out alive."-
Assassination attempt as phoney as a $3 billTrump doing his best not to looks like Netanyahu's play thingIsraeli Army Radio reports that President Trump has decided to 'cut contact' with Netanyahu, stating that Netanyahu and his associates act 'arrogant' and try to push around the PresidentIs the "rift" between Satanyahu and Donald a charade?-Doctor: For the first time in my career, I've seen 8, 9, and 10-year-olds with colon cancer...According to Dr. Soon-Shiong, what we're seeing might not just be a coincidence or statistical fluke--this could be the beginning of a global epidemic of turbo cancers, and Big Pharma is doing everything it can to shut him up. -
Site: Zero HedgeDiddy Trial Drama: Star Witness Vanishes Ahead Of Explosive TestimonyTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 11:05
The high-profile sex trafficking case against Sean "Diddy" Combs has taken a stunning turn; one of the prosecution’s key witnesses has mysteriously gone missing just days before opening statements are set to begin.
Federal prosecutors told a Manhattan judge this week that they’ve been unable to reach "Victim 3," a central figure expected to deliver bombshell testimony against the hip-hop mogul.
The missing woman, who does not reside in New York, had planned to testify without using a pseudonym and was prepared to detail “very personal and explosive” abuse she allegedly endured at the hands of Combs, according to the Daily Mail.
Maurene Comey - daughter of former FBI Director James Comey and a member of the prosecution team - informed U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian that efforts (or 'efforts') to contact the woman and her lawyer have so far failed.
Prosecutors admitted that if they can’t locate her soon, Victim 3 may not take the stand at all.
Combs’ defense attorney, Teny Geragos, demanded clarity by week’s end, pressing the court for a final decision on whether the witness will be called to testify.
Two other accusers, identified as Victim 2 and Victim 4, have been cleared to testify under pseudonyms during the upcoming trial.
Combs, 55, faces a mountain of federal charges alleging he ran his businesses like a criminal empire — orchestrating a slew of serious crimes including kidnapping, arson, bribery, and sex trafficking.
Prosecutors say the Bad Boy Records founder used his star power and deep pockets to trap young women in nightmarish abuse, including so-called “Freak Offs” — drug-fueled orgies where women were allegedly coerced into sex acts with male sex workers as Combs recorded the encounters.
If convicted on all counts, Combs could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Sources say the hip-hop mogul turned down a plea deal from prosecutors last week.
Jury selection for the blockbuster trial is ongoing, with both sides expected to finalize which jurors they’ll strike from the pool by Friday.
Stay tuned...
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Site: Zero HedgePresident Trump's Stake In Europe's Mauling Of AppleTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 10:30
Authored by Robert Bork, Jr, via American Greatness,
The European Commission’s half-a-billion-euro fine slapped on Apple—and a €200 million fine on Meta—is a reminder that protectionism is a global trend, not just an element of the Trump agenda. Worse than the magnitudes of these fines is the message that they send: the European Union is determined to enforce its Digital Markets Act (DMA) to outlaw the basic business models that made Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon America’s most innovative companies.
They are now explicitly targeted by this law as digital “gatekeepers” in need of wholesale restructuring.
At home, the Trump administration’s antitrust regulators continue complaints left over from the previous administration against these same companies. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Department of Justice Antitrust Chief Gail Slater are perhaps expressing the current administration’s residual desire to punish big tech companies for their past censorship of conservatives. The massive fine imposed on Apple by the EU should put antitrust in a new context for the administration. If Europe wins, the American tech sector will be broken.
If this sounds hyperbolic, consider what the DMA actually does. Apple has invested more than $100 billion in the last five years to produce products that are seamlessly and safely linked, providing levels of security and privacy valued by consumers worldwide. Central to Apple’s success is the willingness of developers to create new apps with powerful capabilities for Apple customers. But Apple enforces conditions on developers. They are granted a degree of access to Apple systems, but not so much that they can steal Apple’s proprietary algorithms or—most importantly for antitrust—access and exploit user data.
For example, when developers create apps that rely on sound, Apple requires them to ask users for their permission before accessing their microphones. If developers want to record audio, they also must get explicit permission. Similar guardrails are in place for apps used for banking, gaming, and a variety of content and services. Developers can access Apple’s Touch ID, but they cannot access data in the Secure Enclave inside the iPhone. Apple is like a bank that will allow access to a safe deposit box but won’t allow rifling through other people’s boxes.
Taken literally, the law’s demand for “interoperability” with developers and competitors would force Apple to expose consumers’ most sensitive data. The EU mandate would allow access to consumers’ communications over iMessage—whether 6-digit codes texted by banks, Wi-Fi passwords, or personal communications. Also at risk is data on AirPlay, CarPlay, and Siri. Every message, email, phone call, image, and calendar will be potentially exposed to myriad developers, sure to be exploited and likely to be resold on the international market. Thus, Europe, in the name of protecting consumers, will force the exposure of users’ data, commoditizing it in the name of interoperability. It is a virtual certainty that some buyers will be cut-outs for China. As the FBI has warned, China “uses elaborate shell games” and overweight voting rights to control companies without tipping off its real ownership.
Why is Europe doing this? It seems to be out of a mixture of progressive thinking and anti-Americanism. The largest seller of smartphones in Europe is Samsung, with 37 percent of the market. Add to that China’s Xiaomi market share, and the two Asian giants have a combined 53 percent share of the European smartphone market. And yet it is Apple’s 22 percent share that somehow defines it as a “gatekeeper” in need of radical restructuring. These latest fines for violating the DMA are eye-popping, but they continue an anti-American trend that has resulted in roughly $8 billion in fines imposed on another top American innovator, Google, over the past decade.
Europeans might be forgiven for feeling whipsawed. The DMA and its companion Digital Services Act were drafted with the active encouragement of the Biden Administration and former FTC Chair Lina Khan, who was in constant dialogue with European regulators. But the attitude in America is now hardening. In a letter to EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan wrote that the provisions of the Digital Markets Act “stifle innovation, disincentivize research and development, and hand vast amounts of highly valuable proprietary data to companies and adversarial nations.”
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, chair of the House antitrust subcommittee, noted that the fine “is a tax on U.S. companies operating in the EU. Any trade deal with the EU or its member countries must address the unfair targeting of our most successful companies.”
Will President Trump let this happen? Or will he rise to the occasion to defend America’s most competitive companies? As President Trump engages the European Union in trade negotiations, he should seize this opportunity to stand up for American investors, innovators, and more than 5 million U.S. tech workers.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogFrom a priest…. QUAERITUR: I need an advice. I would like to say the Holy Mass on Tuesday in Vetus Ordo and I would like to use the texts from the Our Lady of Fatima feast (optional commemoration in Novus … Read More →
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Site: AsiaNews.itThe archbishop emeritus of Bombay (Mumbai), representative of Asia on Pope Francis's Council of Cardinals, wrote to AsiaNews about the new pope. 'He brings hopes, expectations, understanding, openness and a missionary thrust,' the cardinal writes. Leo is a pastor 'shaped by Saint Augustine the 'Doctor of Grace' when he says the Church must illuminate the 'dark nights of this world'.
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Site: Steyn OnlinePeople claimed they'd been watching a recent Netflix film based on a novel by Robert Harris to learn about how papal conclaves work. (Even more troubling was a rumour that cardinals in Rome had been watching it.) It would have been the most obvious choice for this week's film, but the "shock twist" ending is well known and I'd rather write about another, much older film, about another papal conclave, made back before movies about the Catholic Church were more basically sympathetic...
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Site: LES FEMMES - THE TRUTH
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Site: Zero HedgeChipotle Will Try Expanding To Mexico, Where Taco Bell Once Failed MiserablyTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 09:55
Chipotle Mexican Grill announced plans this week to enter the crowded Mexican market, partnering with local firm Alsea—which operates brands like Starbucks, Domino’s, and Burger King—to open restaurants by early 2026, a new report from FastCompany says.
But the question then arises whether fast food Mexican can cut it in the land of tacos and burritos...
FastCompany explored the idea that Americanized versions of local cuisines have struggled abroad. Domino’s failed to win over Italians, and Taco Bell’s two attempts to conquer Mexico flopped.
In fact, Taco Bell's 1992 debut collapsed within two years, as crispy tacos were “an anomaly” and had to be rebranded as “tacostadas.”
As one critic put it, it was like “bringing ice to Antarctica.” Taco Bell tried again in 2007, emphasizing convenience over authenticity. “Foolish gringos,” a Monterrey food writer commented, and the brand withdrew once more.
Chipotle hasn’t directly addressed these failures but promises its offerings “will resonate with guests in Mexico,” according to chief business development officer Nate Lawton.
“The country’s familiarity with our ingredients and affinity for fresh food make it an attractive growth market for our company.” Alsea CEO Armando Torrado added that his company brings “vast knowledge of the Mexican consumer.”
Still, some experts question Chipotle’s authenticity, noting its burritos prioritize heft over variety. Its current bestseller—a honey chicken burrito—seems designed more for American tastes.
Yet Taco Bell now has over 8,000 global locations, including hundreds in Central and South America, proving success is still possible. And with global trade rules in flux and about half its avocados sourced from tariff-vulnerable Mexico, Chipotle’s push to diversify its customer base makes strategic sense.
Whether Mexican consumers will embrace its burritos remains to be seen, the report concludes.
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Site: southern orders
Let’s face it, with Pope Francis’ papacy, especially after the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on December 31, 2022, a great pall had been thrown upon Catholics who embraced Pope Benedicts exciting papacy.But even before Benedict’s death, and without the courtesy of informing him first about it, Pope Francis issued his cruel and completely unnecessary TC. We know that this wounded Pope Benedict as SP was one of the centerpieces of his papacy to bring about inner healing in the Church. With TC, Pope Francis reopened old wounds and more pain that were well on the way to healing.
But now with Pope Leo XIV, I sense that faithful, orthodox traditional Catholics, are recovering the excitement that Pope Benedict engendered in them.
Am I wrong?
I don’t think so and if there is any adjustment or refining of TC but within the context of a refinement of SP, where there will be more freedom to celebrate the TLM and the other sacraments traditionally, there will be great jubilation as there was in St. Peter’s Square with the election of Pope Leo XIV when he came forward to the loggia of St. Peter’s in full papal regalia!
While I dislike some of the heterodoxy of Lifesite News, especially the comments of schismatic Catholics on it and lifting up clearly deranged so-called traditional Catholics, like Archbishop Vigano, I like this commentary which illustrates what I just wrote. Press title:
New Pope Leo XIV – hints of hope and THE sign to watch out for
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Site: southern ordersLET US HOPE THAT UNDER POPE LEO XIV, VATICAN NEWS’ EDITORIALIZING AND POPESPLAINING COMES TO AN END!
Under the current regime running Vatican News and its website, there has been a development by its editors of providing editorials on the pope and what he says.
Do those who work for the pope have to write editorials about him at Vatican News. I find it very, very odd.
The pope can and does speak for himself. Those who work for him should not have the power to editorialize about him on the pope’s official news and communication sites!
Just my most humble commentary and editorial!
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Site: AsiaNews.itOne million jobs are at risk if the 44 per cent tariff is imposed after the 90-day pause. The apparel industry is one of the most vulnerable. According to experts, the tariffs will lead to a 20 per cent drop in exports to the US, with an annual loss of about US$ 300 million.
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Site: southern orders
I am watching Fox and Friends Weekend this Saturday morning, May 10th. They just had a great and fun interview with Pope Leo’s older brother. He said he watched the election of his brother on Fox!
Then, Fox and Friends had a clip of children at a Catholic elementary school going wild when they learn the new pope is American and they begin chanting the MAGA chant USA! USA! USA! You can’t make this stuff up!
Then, Fox and Friends host, Rachel Compos-Duffy, said that one of the greatest things that divides American Catholics was Pope Francis’ cruel suppression of the TLM in this country and elsewhere. But she reported that Pope Leo XIV prior to becoming pope, during the time that Summorum Pontificum was in force celebrated the TLM. She said, in the most synodal way, that Pope Leo XIV needs to heal the hurt and confusion that Pope Francis caused to those who embraced the letter and the law of Summorum Pontificum!
She also made the point that his first Mass as pope was in Latin. But even Pope Francis did that at his first Mass with Cardinals. And Pope Francis, not consistency or with any logic, did celebrate various papal Masses at the Vatican in Latin. Some in the media don’t understand that the new Mass can still be celebrated in Latin with local decisions about that.
What Fr. Z says about the TLM teaching us priests about who we are is true and I know this from experience and that the Modern Missal has a tendency to water this down.
But then Fr. Z reported the following:
There are lots of rumors going around that Papa Prevost has celebrated the TLM. Some say this forcefully. I would like to think so, especially because I think that EVERY priest should know how to say it! The TLM teaches priests about who they are. Over time the gains are great and the knock on effects are significant.
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Site: Zero HedgeIndia And Pakistan Agree To US-Mediated "Full & Immediate Ceasefire"Tyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 08:40
India and Pakistan, both nuclear-armed nations, appeared to be spiraling toward broader conflict on Saturday, setting the stage for another day of scary headlines that could trigger World War III. But just moments ago, President Trump announced on Truth Social that India and Pakistan have "agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE."
"After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE," Trump said.
The president continued, "Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Trump's announcement is a surprise, but it comes after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio began back-and-forth diplomacy to end the weeks-long confrontation between India and Pakistan.
The Guardian provided more color on Rubio's diplomatic mission:
Rubio has been engaged in back-and-forth diplomacy between the two countries in recent days, calling for de-escalation as India and Pakistan have been engaged in daily clashes since Wednesday.
The US's top diplomat "continued to urge both parties to find ways to de-escalate and offered US assistance in starting constructive talks to avoid future conflicts," state department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement on Saturday.
About 25 minutes after Trump's Truth Social post, Rubio wrote on X:
Over the past 48 hours, @VP Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik.
I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site.
We commend Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship in choosing the path of peace.
Over the past 48 hours, @VP Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit…
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 10, 2025Earlier, G7 foreign ministers issued a joint statement calling for "immediate de-escalation" between the two countries.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his counterparts in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US urged "maximum restraint from both" countries. They cautioned that "further military escalation poses a serious threat to regional stability."
"We call for immediate de-escalation and encourage both countries to engage in direct dialogue towards a peaceful outcome," said the G7 foreign ministers.
X user Matt Van Swol wrote: "How many hats can Marco Rubio wear and still deliver incredible results???? This is absolutely amazing."
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Site: southern orders
Pope Leo XIV to Cardinals: Church must respond to digital revolutionIn his first address to the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo XIV invokes the legacy of both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIII, saying that he wants the Church to "respond to a new industrial revolution and to the development of artificial intelligence."
Leo XIV, a (pontifical) name that illustrates an entire program.
It is Pope Prevost himself who explains the “main reason” for this choice in his first meeting with the cardinals - all the cardinals of the Sacred College, not just those who elected him in the Conclave - received this morning behind closed doors in the Synod Hall. And that is the clear reference to Leo XIII who, at the end of the 19th century, with the historic encyclical Rerum Novarum “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution”. Today the Church offers everyone its heritage of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and the developments of artificial intelligence, which bring new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and work
In the wake of the Council and with the legacy of Francis
Therefore, a bridge between past and present is this decision of Leo XIII who, looking to the future, in his speech (preceded by a prayer in Latin) illustrates to the cardinals the guidelines of the pontificate just begun: "Truth, justice, peace and fraternity", "principles of the Gospel that have always animated and inspired the life and work of the family of God".
All this in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, to which the Pope asks his closest collaborators for "full adhesion", collecting the strong legacy of Pope Francis who of that historic assembly "recalled and masterfully updated the contents in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium".
Of the first apostolic exhortation, the roadmap of Bergoglio’s pontificate, Pope Leo XIV underlines some fundamental instances: “the return to the primacy of Christ in the proclamation”, first of all, then “the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to the sensus fidei, especially in its most proper and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; loving care for the least and the discarded; courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities”.
The support of the cardinals
On this journey, the newly elected Pope asks to be accompanied by his brother cardinals, so as to support him “in accepting a yoke clearly far superior to my strength, as to that of anyone”.
Your presence reminds me that the Lord, who entrusted me with this mission, does not leave me alone in carrying its responsibility. I know first of all that I can always count on his help, the help of the Lord, and, by his Grace and Providence, on your closeness and that of so many brothers and sisters throughout the world who believe in God, love the Church and support the Vicar of Christ with prayer and good works. Pope Leo’s gratitude to the cardinals is strong, starting with the dean of the College of Cardinals, Giovanni Battista Re, who – he says – “deserves applause, at least one if not more”. His “wisdom”, he adds, “the fruit of a long life and many years of faithful service to the Apostolic See, has helped us greatly in this time”. Thanks also to the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, Kevin Joseph Farrell, for “the precious and demanding role” carried out during the time of the Sede Vacante and thanks to the cardinals who, for health reasons, “were unable to be present and with you I join them in communion of affection and prayer”. But the Pope addresses his deepest gratitude to his predecessor Francis, whose passing, he says, is to be experienced as “an Easter event”. In this perspective, Leo XIV encourages, “we entrust to the merciful Father and God of all consolation the soul of the deceased Pontiff and the future of the Church”.
"Light Breeze"
The Pope also recalls Francis's "style of full dedication in service and sober essentiality in life, of abandonment to God in the time of the mission and of serene trust in the moment of the return to the House of the Father".
Let us gather this precious legacy and resume the journey, animated by the same hope that comes from faith
"God - adds the Bishop of Rome - loves to communicate himself, more than in the roar of thunder and earthquake, in the whisper of a light breeze or, as some translate, in a subtle voice of silence". It is up to the Pope and the cardinals to become "docile listeners of his voice and faithful ministers of his plans of salvation", so as to "educate and accompany all the holy People of God entrusted to us".
The hope of Paul VI
To conclude his speech, he quoted another Pontiff from the past, Saint Paul VI. Leo XIV makes his own the words of Montini that in 1963, he placed at the beginning of his ministry, and he relaunches a particular wish to the cardinals:
May it pass over the whole world like a great flame of faith and love that lights up all men of good will, illuminates the paths of mutual collaboration, and draws upon humanity, again and again, the abundance of divine complacency, the very strength of God, without whose help, nothing is valid, nothing is holy
After the speech, the meeting with the cardinals continues with a "second part" of sharing "to be able to hear - says the Pope - what advice, suggestions, proposals, very concrete things, which were already spoken about a little in the days before the Conclave".
Greeting from Cardinal Re
Before the Pope, it was Cardinal Re who took the floor and addressed a greeting, in which he immediately recalled "the enthusiasm with which the world welcomed his election as Successor of Peter". “The whole world rejoiced, but we also rejoiced, and I appreciated the joy in Peru, which said: Nuestro Papa, nuestro Papa!”, said the dean. And, on behalf of all the cardinals, he assured the Pontiff of closeness, fidelity, and the desire to collaborate: “Collaborate so that the Church may be an ark of salvation and also a lighthouse in the darkness of the night,” especially in a historical moment in which “the world is gripped by so many wars that do not want to end, unfortunately, despite the deaths and destruction.”
READ THE ENGLISH VERSION OF RERUM NOVARUM HERE!
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Site: Zero HedgeThe AfD's Views On Nationality Actually Aren't Extremist At AllTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 08:10
Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,
They’ve been shared by the vast majority of humanity throughout history in their own contexts...
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency designated the AfD, just topped a recent poll as the country’s most popular party, as “extremist” before withdrawing it pending litigation. This label would legitimize surveillance of them and can set the pretext for banning them. Vice President JD Vance condemned this earlier move as equivalent to building a new Berlin Wall while Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Germany to reverse its decision and also end its “dangerous open border immigration policies”.
Lost amidst a lot of the debate over this controversial decision is the basis upon which it was made: “The party's prevailing understanding of the people based on ethnicity and descent is incompatible with the free democratic basic order.”
The AfD believes that ethnic Germans have a special connection to their country due to their shared culture and experiences, which non-ethnic German citizens lack, especially those from civilizationally dissimilar societies across the Global South who only recently arrived there.
These views actually aren’t extremist at all since they’ve been shared by the vast majority of humanity throughout history in their own contexts. In fact, they’re still popular in non-Western societies, the same places from which most of Germany’s non-ethnic-German population originates. From Africa to West Asia and the Indo-Pacific, most of these countries believe that original inhabitants have a special connection to their country, which can take several generations for newcomers’ descendants to share.
It’s only the radical liberal-globalist ideology espoused by the Western elites that denies this special connection or pretends that it’s always shared by all newcomers once they step onto foreign soil. To be clear, acknowledging this special connection doesn’t imply that members of non-titular nationalities who obtain another country’s citizenship don’t deserve any rights, rather it’s meant as a safeguard of the titular nationality’s socio-cultural rights. It’s here where the Russian example is instructive.
One of the constitutional amendments that entered into force after 2020’s referendum stipulates that “The state language of the Russian Federation throughout its territory is the Russian language as the language of the state-forming people, part of the multinational union of equal peoples of the Russian Federation.” It reaffirmed the equality of all Russian citizens while emphasizing the role that ethnic Russians and their language have historically played in forming their cosmopolitan civilization-state.
Separately, legislation was passed mandating that foreigners pass tests on Russian language, history, and legal basics in order to obtain long-term permission to reside in Russia, let alone citizenship. This is meant to mitigate the socio-cultural threat posed by those who refuse to assimilate and integrate, which Patriarch Kirill drew attention to on three occasions in 2023 and 2024 here, here, and here. He and Putin, however, also united in condemning ethno-religious hate speech after the Crocus terrorist attack.
What the Russian example shows is that a titular nationality’s special connection to their country can be recognized without doing so at the expense of other nationalities. The same goes for having policies for ensuring that migrants assimilate and integrate. None of this is “extremist”; it’s respectful, pragmatic, and sensible, which is why the AfD wants the same in Germany. These views on nationality are the historical norm for humanity, not the exception, which makes the liberal-globalists the real extremists.
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Site: Rorate CaeliThank you very much, Your Eminence. Before taking our seats, let us begin with a prayer, asking the Lord to continue to accompany this College, and above all the entire Church with this spirit, with enthusiasm, but also with deep faith. Let us pray together in Latin.Pater noster… Ave Maria…In the first part of this meeting, there will be a short talk with some reflections that I would like to New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: Zero HedgeWar Is A Growing Concern Across EuropeTyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 07:35
VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, is celebrated on May 8 each year to mark the formal end of World War II in Europe.
On this day in 1945, Allied forces accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, bringing nearly six years of brutal conflict in Europe to a close. The day is commemorated to honor the courage and sacrifice of those who fought and died during the war, and to celebrate the return of peace to the continent.
Today, on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, that peace suddenly seems fragile, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crumbling transatlantic alliance have rattled Europe’s long-lasting sense of security.
As Statista's Felix Richter reports, with the United States under Donald Trump no longer seen as a reliable partner and Putin’s Russia posing an unpredictable threat, concerns about possible military conflicts have risen across Europe.
According to Ipsos’ monthly What Worries the World report, more and more Europeans fear the prospect of war, naming it among the top three concerns their country is currently facing. As our chart shows, those concerns are particularly widespread in Poland, which is not a surprise given its border with Ukraine and proximity to the war that has been raging on for more than three years now.
You will find more infographics at Statista
But growing concern about military conflicts isn’t limited to Eastern Europe, with the Netherlands, Germany and France also seeing significant increases in the share of respondents who picked war as a top 3 concern.
Looking beyond Europe, fears of war are less widespread in other parts of the world, with an average of 12 percent of respondents naming it a top concern across 29 countries.
Interestingly, armed conflict is not a major concern for people in South America, with less than five percent of respondents in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Peru naming war as a top concern.
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Site: AsiaNews.itIn Bangladesh, thousands of people are calling for the Awami League to be banned. For the first time since he took power, General Min Aung Hlaing met Chinese President Xi Jinping. In Japan, laws to counter isolation have not yet taken effect. Kazakh students who protested in favour of Palestine have had their student visas cancelled.
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Site: Novus Motus LiturgicusThe Dominican Order celebrates quite a few of its own Saints within a very short period in late April and early May. On the traditional calendar, St Agnes of Montepulciano is kept on April 20th, Peter Martyr on the 29th, Catherine of Siena on the 30th, Pope Pius V on May 5th, and St Antoninus of Florence on the 10th. In the post-Conciliar Rite, Peter Martyr has been moved to June 4th, the day ofGregory DiPippohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13295638279418781125noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: Zero HedgeKilling Democracy To Save 'Democracy'Tyler Durden Sat, 05/10/2025 - 07:00
Authored by Kurt Schlichter,
Britain started arresting people for tweeting unapproved things, and France decided to arrest its leading opposition politician, so what happened in Germany was not a surprise. After all, Germans are the best at fascism.
There, the establishment parties used the internal security apparatus to formally designate the AfD, which is an upstart populist party with a plurality of voter support, particularly by the young and by the eastern Germans, an extremist organization. This basically means it’s open season for the heirs to the Gestapo and Stasi; banning it completely is the next step. Already, AfD supporters are being fired from civil service jobs. I guess with Germans, the only thing that changes is the uniform. Actually, that goes for all Europeans. They paid lip service to the idea of normal people having a say in their own governance but never believed in it. It was all a lie and a scam, but the mask is coming off. The ruling class is offering Europeans the choice between capitulation and rebellion.
Now, let’s not get too uppity here in America because our own garbage establishment would love to do the same thing. Its obstacles are that it’s so dumb and that Americans are not yet a nation of low-T femboys; we also pack heat. Our ruling class tried to frame Donald Trump after trying to bankrupt him, and when that didn’t work out, one establishment-friendly guy tried to murder him. The other guy who tried to murder him might be establishment-friendly, but we don’t know anything about him for some reason. The point is we have a Boomer generation ruling class that is desperately seeking to cling to power and is willing to do anything to keep it. Anything. This is a matter of life and death, and they’re willing to take lives and deal death to keep their power. As they keep losing, which they will – none of this is happening because they are intrinsically strong or competent – they will go further and further. More oppression. More tyranny. More bloodshed. It’s all worth it to them. Their power is all that matters.
This isn’t going to work out well. History teaches us what happens when you suppress the voice of people expressing legitimate grievances and boy, are people’s grievances ever legitimate. Economic dislocation. Anarcho-tyranny. A sanctioned invasion by Third World barbarians who rob, rape, and murder our citizens. Normal people have legit gripes, and they will be heard. It’s just a matter of what sound they make – voices or explosions.
Now, of course, this phenomenon isn’t just limited to these countries. We’ve seen similar antics in Brazil, Israel, Romania, and elsewhere. The entrenched establishment parties have no answer to the critiques of their gross incompetence, corruption, and arrogance, yet they are determined to hang onto power at all costs. Free speech and democratic norms – they don’t matter. Why, the situation is so extreme, the peril so perilous, that these concepts must give way. We must protect democracy by utterly destroying democracy. But of course, these people never actually believed in free speech or democracy or any of that stuff. They only believed in their own power. They dress themselves in the skin suits of the institutions they invaded, infested, and obliterated. We’re supposed to respect them because they were once respectable, but the problem for the establishment, the insurmountable challenge it faces, is that we normal people are neither blind nor stupid. We can see what’s happening, especially now that the regime media monopoly has been broken.
Of course, they tried to handle that, too. Remember “misinformation?” Oddly enough, the Venn diagram of “misinformation” and “Things the ruling class doesn’t want people to say or hear” is a single circle. Go back in time to 20 years ago and try to imagine somebody explaining to you that the government set up a specific organization to force media companies to suppress the points of view of the opposition. Sure, the regime media has always been left, but the idea of the U.S. government running an unapologetic censorship operation would’ve been insane. They would’ve summoned big dudes with butterfly nets to haul away anyone predicting that. And yet it was true. It happened. Our government did that, and other Western governments are even more open about it. The Germans are actively proud of their speech suppression, proving once and for all that Morgenthau was right.
This can’t continue forever. It’s not going to continue forever. This status quo is unsustainable. Our elite has failed. The ruling class is trash, and everybody knows it. However, alone among the countries around the globe, it’s only America that seems to be able to beat the largely Boomer-driven reactionary response. Canada famously just reelected the same people who destroyed their country over the last 10 years. That was Trump’s fault, of course – Canadians apparently have no agency. The Australians did something similar. France and Germany both had an establishment coalition made up of parties that should be at each other’s throats instead unite to stop the populists from being heard. Le Pen is headed to jail and AfD is likely to be banned. In Romania, the EU regime just canceled the election. And again, this is all going to be cheered on by regime media lackeys as necessary for the protection of democracy, “democracy” meaning their perpetual stranglehold on power.
So, how is it going to play out? Well, the Boomers of the West are either going to give up power like a normal generation would, or they are going to have power stripped from them. What’s not going to happen is that normal people around the world are going to shrug their shoulders and submit to serfdom. The right thing to do would be self-sacrifice and voluntary retirement, but of course, when have you ever seen the Boomers do anything that benefited anybody but the Boomers?
Well, it’s theoretically possible that we avoid chaos and convulsion, but every day it looks less and less likely that we will be able to. We’re facing greedy, stupid, and narcissistic people whose poor judgment has brought us to this place and whose poor judgment will tip us over the edge.
The big question is where the conflagration ignites. Is it going to start in Europe? Maybe the great revolt begins in some Third World country. Trump already represents a revolt in the United States; if he fails, the guy who comes next won’t be so nice. But the backlash is going to start somewhere. What can’t go on won’t go on, and this will not go on.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogFrom a reader… QUAERITUR: I’ve been in a conundrum after confession today. The priest, a very holy yet elderly one was the confessor. At the words of absolution he said “and I absolve you in the name of etc…” and … Read More →
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Site: southern orders
Am I the only one to see the irony in the election of the American Pope Leo XIV?Let me explain. Pope Francis named the majority of cardinals who participated in the Conclave. He named men who were men no one had ever heard of and who came from places no one had ever heard of.
Pope Francis reached to the peripheries to bring them to the center.
What has to be a surprise for Pope Francis, wherever his soul is, is that his cardinals elected a pope who came not from the peripheries but from the center of the universe, the good ole USA!
Am I the only one who sees the splendid irony in this?
Now for my thoughts on Pope Leo XIV:
I like him, I like him, I like him!
The video I posted of him at the Augustinian parish in Illinois, Saint Jude Church, gave me many insights into this pope.
He is articulate and speaks with precision even when responding of the cuff in a lengthy way to questions he is asked. There is no scratching of one’s head wondering about what he just said.
He is clear and concise and he is also diplomatic.
I think he has the good sense not to cancel Pope Francis like Pope Francis canceled Pope Benedict. He will refine what Pope Francis wanted to do just has Pope Leo has refined the look of the papacy by embracing French cuffs, cuff links, Mozzetta and splendid papal stole.
Pope Leo XIV has refined tastes and that is very clear already. And he is going to refine the messiness of Pope Francis’ papacy, especially as it concerns synodality, and make it Catholic and palatable. Pope Leo will clarify the faith and morals of the Church, who can be ordained and who can’t. I hope he will remind the Church that we are not to laicize the clergy and clericalize the laity, which Pope Francis seem to do in contradiction to what the previous two papacies insisted should not happen.
Pope Leo is not going to insult any previous pope to include Pope Francis. He isn’t going to insult the cardinals of the Curia as Pope Francis did, especially at his Christmas talks to them. He isn’t going to insult young priests and seminarians and call them little monsters.
Pope Leo knows he is a deacon, priest, bishop and now pope. He knows he isn’t a psychologist. He isn’t going to insult traditionalists by calling them mentally ill. He will clarify for traditionalists and non traditionalists what is orthodox in Catholicism and what isn’t! Praise God for that!!!!
Keep in mind, Robert Prevost earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics. As a priest, he earned a doctorate in Canon Law.
This tells me he likes precision, logic and law and order. I suspect he wants due process in the Church and transparency.
If Pope Leo had followed Pope Benedict, there would have been no canceling of Benedict or, for that matter, St. John Paul II.
He would have refined Summorum Pontificum not canceled it. He would not have micromanaged bishops and parishes. Think of Cardinal Roche who told parish priests not to advertise the TLM in their bulletins. Can you imagine that? I doubt Pope Leo would allow something like that which is so ridiculous.
I hope Pope Leo revisits Summorum Pontificum and refines it. I hope he refines the Modern Missal and makes the order of Mass and its ceremonies more like the TLM even in the vernacular.
I hope he ramps up the Church’s service to the poor, which is more than material poverty, it is spiritual, moral and doctrinal poverty too.
I hope he will insist upon law and order when it comes to migration and calls out those countries and their dictators who make life so miserable for their citizens that they have to flee their countries of origin to find a better life somewhere else. When it comes to migration, no country has to accept “todas, todas, todas!” There are legal limits and a country has a right to expel those who enter illegally and commit further crimes of illegality once in the country they live but are not citizens.
I hope he is a realist about climate change, be it man made or acts of God. We must be good stewards of creation and enviromentalists. But like our human bodies, there is a point of dying and death. It happens to us, whether we cause it or we fall victim to the time limits of our life on earth. Our good earth is the same. It will come to an end one day. We must look beyond climate change and the end of the world to the salvation of souls freed from the fires of hell by Jesus Christ alone after this earthly life ends and the earth itself ends.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogFrom a reader… QUAERITUR: Long-time listener, first-time caller, as it were. I’ve followed your blog for years, and it has been a great source of knowledge and spiritual wisdom for me. I went to confession today in a cathedral. As … Read More →
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogFrom a reader… QUAERITUR: In Confession recently, a visiting priest went off script during the absolution and concluded with “I do absolve you in the name of the Father…” Do you think this is valid? I trust in God’s mercy … Read More →
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Site: Rorate CaeliRoberto de MatteiRome, May 10, 2025The white smoke rose as a surprise from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel at 6:08 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, as the twilight illuminated the Bernini colonnade. An hour later, St. Peter's Square and Via della Conciliazione were packed with more than a hundred thousand people, while nearly a billion were connected through the media. The crowd, as had happened New Catholichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04118576661605931910noreply@blogger.com
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Site: AsiaNews.itRobert Prevost has never had direct relations with Moscow, but the name he chose evokes very important relations in the history of relations between East and West in the ancient and modern Church, from Leo the Great to Leo XIII, the pope of Rerum Novarum, who was inspired by the great Russian author Vladimir Solovyov.
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Site: Fr. Z's BlogFrom a reader… QUAERITUR: Are security cameras allowed inside the confessional? I went to confession to a Novus Ordo parish and when I was done saying my sins something prompted me to look up and when I did, I saw … Read More →
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Site: Real Investment Advice
Inside This Week's Bull Bear Report
- Negative Earnings Revision Shows Sharp Decline
- How We Are Trading It
- Research Report - Employment Data Confirms Economy Is Slowing
- YouTube - Before The Bell
- Market Statistics
- Stock Screens
- Portfolio Trades This Week
The Fed Holds Rates Steady
Last week, we discussed that while the market improved sharply, the underlying economic data continues to decline steadily. However, given that the data was not recessionary, the market rallied and took out some key resistance levels. To wit:
"This past week, two reports confirmed the economy is slowing. First, there was the weak GDP report, which showed growth of roughly one percent, after discounting the impact of the trade deficit. Secondly, while the employment number was higher than expected, job growth also slowed. However, those reports should have tempered market enthusiasm as they reduced hopes for Fed rate cuts. However, the market pushed higher as investors raced to jump back into "risk assets" as the market cleared initial resistance at the 20-DMA and reversed all of the 'Liberation Day" losses.'"
The market paused its advance before the Fed meeting on Wednesday, which was remarkably uneventful. The Fed held rates steady as expected and did not provide much guidance regarding its forecast for future rate cuts. However, on Thursday, the Trump administration discussed its first "trade deal" with the UK. Notably, the US has a trade surplus with the UK, making negotiating a trade deal easier. Nonetheless, announcing a long-awaited agreement gave the market hope that more deals eventually will follow. Unfortunately, other trade deals with actual "trade deficit" countries may be tougher and take much longer to negotiate.
Technically, the market is beginning to repair much of the damage from the "Liberation Day" tariff announcements. However, on Thursday, we made the case that we are still tracing out the 2022 market analogy. As shown in the weekly chart below, in 2022, the market sold off and triggered a weekly moving-average crossover in early March. Immediately following that selloff, the market rallied back to those longer-term moving averages and briefly broke above. That "bear market rally," sucked investors back into the market, just to "rug pull" from beneath them. Such is how correctional markets work.
You will notice that the recent selloff has also triggered that same moving average crossover, and immediately coincided with a reflexive rally. The market has broken above the first moving average, challenging the second as investors and the media are increasingly bullish on stocks. Will the market "rug pull" on investors once again? I don't know. However, as stated, if we are in a more protracted market correction, the risk is elevated, and we could see another retracement to support before this correction is complete.
Reasons The Correction Could Be Over, Or Not
It is always difficult to say whether this is a "bear market" rally while you are in the midst of it. In hindsight, these things are easy to identify, and investors have plenty of reasons to play the "could've should've" game. However, some valid arguments exist about why the recent correction was just that, and may now be over.
- Q1 earnings were above average, which is boosting investor confidence, particularly in the "Mag 7" and related AI stories.
- Investor sentiment is improving from extremely low levels and is not overly bullish.
- Treasury yields are coming down, along with inflationary pressures.
- Uncertainty around tariffs, the main driver of the correction, is rapidly becoming less of a threat.
- Recession risks have fallen sharply with the latest economic data.
- Market valuations have corrected somewhat in recent weeks.
Of course, there are reasons for concern that should also not be dismissed.
- Economic data and consumer confidence are getting weaker.
- Political policy uncertainty remains elevated.
- Despite the recent rally, the market still suffers significant technical damage.
- Investors were not prepared for the recent magnitude of the correction, providing potentially significant sellers wanting to get out. (Trapped longs)
- Monetary policy uncertainty remains elevated.
- Valuations, while reduced, remain well elevated from the long-term median and average.
With balanced risks, investors will likely benefit by remaining cautious and managing risk exposures until a more bullish path is exposed.
Notably, the issue of valuations is essential to consider. Valuations are a function of earnings, and this week's subject focuses on S&P Global's recent slashing of earnings estimates for the S&P 500 Index.
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Wall Street Versus S&P Global
It has been an interesting few weeks for the markets and the economy. In early April, the market declined over the threat of tariffs and expectations that such would spark higher inflation rates and potentially push the economy into a recession. Such a backdrop would suggest that corporate earnings would come under attack, and the negative earnings revisions would be expected. Such is what we saw globally as negative earnings revisions from Wall Street analysts spiked higher.
However, we noticed an oddity by S&P Global, the purveyor of the S&P 500 Index, as we wrote on May 3rd:
"While the first quarter earnings season has been okay, earnings over the next few quarters will likely be revised lower. So far, earnings estimates for the S&P 500 index (by S&P Global) remain extremely optimistic. In the last two months, S&P Global has raised its estimates for 2026 GAAP earnings (reported) from $289/share to $292/share. As we have discussed previously, these estimates are exceedingly deviated from the long-term growth trend of earnings."
That optimism was stunning, particularly when economic growth rates are slowing. To ensure you understand the importance of that statement, reviewing the historical correlation between economic growth and earnings is crucial.
What Drives Earnings Growth
Historically, GDP growth has closely correlated with corporate earnings growth. Data from the Federal Reserve shows that, since 1948, a 1% increase in real GDP growth has translated to roughly a 6% increase in S&P 500 earnings on average. This relationship underscores why GDP is a cornerstone for assessing earnings trends. We can also see this visually.
“Since 1947, earnings per share have grown at 7.7% annually, while the economy expanded by 6.40% annually. That close relationship in growth rates should be logical, particularly given the significant role that consumer spending has in the GDP equation.” – Market Forecasts Are Very Bullish
A better way to visualize this data is to look at the correlation between the annual change in earnings growth and inflation-adjusted GDP. There are periods when earnings deviate from underlying economic activity. However, those periods are due to pre- or post-recession earnings fluctuations. Currently, economic and earnings growth are very close to the long-term correlation.
However, that assumes that GDP continues growing at roughly 2% annually. If economic growth deteriorates, as expected, then maintaining corporate earnings at projected levels becomes more difficult. As discussed in yesterday's #Macroview, there is no evidence that the economy is slipping into a recession. However, if you want to know if an economic decline will evolve into a recession, there is one key factor to consider: consumer spending.
"Consumer spending comprises nearly 70% of the GDP calculation, and everything else, from business investment to imports and exports, is a function of the consumer’s “demand.” In other words, if the consumer is slowing down or contracting spending, businesses will not “invest” in expansion projects, increasing employment, or buying more products for resale. That relationship is shown in the chart below, which compares PCE to jobs and private investment."
What should be evident is that the economic data is starting to weigh on corporate earnings growth.
S&P's Negative Earnings Revision Catchup
In other words, as the economy slows, consumer demand falls. The chart below shows real GDP compared to the annual rate of change in GAAP-reported earnings. Notice the correlation.
Given the slowdown in economic growth rates, it is unsurprising that, as of May 1st, S&P Global finally acquiesced and revised earnings estimates lower. However, this wasn't a mild earnings revision but a slashing of estimates from their April 15th expectation of $292/share in 2026 to just $274. Furthermore, full-year 2025 reported earnings estimates were cut by nearly $20/share from $258/share to just $238/share.
While this is S&P Global's first negative earnings revision for the S&P 500 index, it likely won't be the last. The current linear growth trend for S&P 500 earnings is around $220/share in 2026. As shown in the chart below, earnings growth tends to revert to the long-term trend. You should notice in the chart below that since 1936, earnings haven't stayed at the top of the long-term growth trend channel for long. Historically, either economic recessions or some event reverses earnings from the peak to the trough of the channel regularly. The current exponential growth trend for earnings is $195/share.
The chart below better visualizes that deviation from the long-term growth trend. (The chart includes the latest negative earnings revision.)
In other words, despite S&P Global's earnings revision, estimates remain overly optimistic despite slower economic growth. However, such is the problem that investors regularly face with analysts' forecasts.
The Historical Problem Of Analyst Market Forecasts
Here is the critical question for investors: “If the market is priced based on future earnings expectations, then how reliable are those estimates?” The chart below is from Yardeni Research and shows the evolution of earnings forecasts over time. You will notice that analysts’ initial forecasts were wrong in almost every case.
This tendency to overshoot earnings growth has been attributed to several factors:
- Delayed Reaction to Macroeconomic Signals: Analysts have tended to underestimate the lag effect of monetary tightening on corporate profits. Additionally, initial forecasts are often based on historical growth patterns but do not always reflect sudden economic or policy changes.
- Corporate Optimism: Companies often guide higher during earnings calls, buoying analyst expectations. Furthermore, as the actual economic environment proves more difficult, earnings usually fail to meet these expectations, resulting in post-reporting season disappointments.
- Investment Banking Needs: Wall Street is in the business of selling products. Therefore, increased estimates lower forward valuations, improving investor appetites, particularly for high-growth companies. A previous study showed that the accuracy and timeliness of earnings forecasts are the LEAST important for analysts. (Read: The Truth About Wall Street Analysis)
In other words, if you bought stocks at the beginning of virtually every analyst’s annual forecast, based on the assumption that earnings would grow, you overpaid for investments virtually every given year. However, in most cases, you make money anyway, so why worry about it?
The reason to worry is that over-estimation eventually leads to mean-reverting events, like now.
Valuations Remain An Issue
The biggest single problem with Wall Street today and in the past is the consistent disregard for the possibilities of unexpected, random events. In a 2010 study by the McKinsey Group, they found that analysts have been persistently overly optimistic for 25 years. During the 25-year time frame, Wall Street analysts pegged earnings growth at 10-12% a year when, in reality, earnings grew at 6%, which, as we have discussed in the past, is the economy’s growth rate. This is why using forward earnings estimates as a valuation metric is so incredibly flawed—the estimates are always overly optimistic.
Here is a good example. Q1 estimates started at $226/share. However, by the time Q1 earnings reports were nearing completion, earnings were closer to $217/share. Therefore, if you were buying stocks based on future earnings expectations of $226/share, you overpaid for the value you received.
Now, earnings into 2026 are being revised sharply lower, so valuation risk remains elevated. Valuations recently declined as the "P" fell, but the "E" remained stable. Now the "P" is rising as the "E" declines, increasing the valuation issue for investors.
As stated above, the market will face many headwinds in 2025. However, three key factors must exist to sustain historically high earnings growth and record corporate profitability.
- Economic growth must remain more robust than the average 20-year growth rate. (Low probability)
- Wage and labor growth must reverse (weaken) to sustain historically elevated profit margins.(Low probability)
- Both interest rates and inflation need to decline to support consumer spending. (Challenging but possible)
While analysts are optimistic about economic and earnings growth in 2025, the potential risks to those forecasts and further downward earnings revisions may pose challenges.
We suggest remaining somewhat cautious with risk-taking.
How We Are Trading It
We continue to manage our portfolios in a manner that allows us to participate in the market increase but still hedge against underlying risk. As such, we suggest rebalancing risk as necessary and adjusting portfolio holdings to provide some hedge against a sudden pickup in volatility. While the number of stocks trading above their 50 and 200-DMAs is rising, indicating more substantial breadth and participation in the market, it also serves as a warning. As shown, previous higher levels of participation also coincide with market peaks and short-term corrections.
The trick to navigating markets is not trying to “time” the market to buy or sell the exact bottom or top. That is impossible. Successful long-term management is understanding when “enough is enough” and being willing to take profits and protect your gains. That is our situation for many stocks after the robust rally from the recent lows. With markets within a corrective process and trading below long-term moving averages, the opportunity to rebalance risk and reduce portfolio volatility is available. However, many investors will opt to "hope" for further gains, but will sell at lower levels if the correction continues.
That advice remains relevant this week as we head further into May, which wraps up the seasonally strong period of the year. A pickup in volatility, some surprises, and disappointments will be the nature of the market as economic and tariff-related news rules the headlines. The trick will be to navigate the outcome without making emotionally driven decisions.
Continue to follow the rules and stick to your discipline. (Read our article on “What Is Risk” for a complete list of rules)
Have a great weekend.
(Note: The allocation below contains a 5% short S&P 500 position in the ETF allocation.)
Feel free to reach out if you want to navigate these uncertain waters with expert guidance. Our team specializes in helping clients make informed decisions in today’s volatile markets.
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Bull Bear Report Market Statistics & Screens
SimpleVisor Top & Bottom Performers By Sector
S&P 500 Weekly Tear Sheet
Relative Performance Analysis
As noted last week, the market support was held this past week, even though markets tried to correct somewhat. However, buyers kept stepping in, particularly corporations with the open buyback window, which kept the market from correcting much of its short-term overbought condition. Other than Staples, GBonds, and Healthcare, everything else remains overbought. As such, we could see some rotation into those oversold market areas (more defensive) as the recent rally pauses.
Technical Composite
The technical overbought/sold gauge comprises several price indicators (R.S.I., Williams %R, etc.), measured using “weekly” closing price data. Readings above “80” are considered overbought, and below “20” are oversold. The market peaks when those readings are 80 or above, suggesting prudent profit-taking and risk management. The best buying opportunities exist when those readings are 20 or below.
The current reading is 48.55 out of a possible 100.
Portfolio Positioning “Fear / Greed” Gauge
The “Fear/Greed” gauge is how individual and professional investors are “positioning” themselves in the market based on their equity exposure. From a contrarian position, the higher the allocation to equities, the more likely the market is closer to a correction than not. The gauge uses weekly closing data.
NOTE: The Fear/Greed Index measures risk from 0 to 100. It is a rarity that it reaches levels above 90.
The current reading is 66.56 out of a possible 100.
Relative Sector Analysis
Most Oversold Sector Analysis
Sector Model Analysis & Risk Ranges
How To Read This Table
- The table compares the relative performance of each sector and market to the S&P 500 index.
- “MA XVER” (Moving Average Crossover) is determined by the short-term weekly moving average crossing positively or negatively with the long-term weekly moving average.
- The risk range is a function of the month-end closing price and the “beta” of the sector or market. (Ranges reset on the 1st of each month)
- The table shows the price deviation above and below the weekly moving averages.
As noted last week, given that most markets and sectors are trading with "bearish" crossovers, the correction process has likely not ended, so remain cautious. Historically, when most markets and sectors are trading bearish, the correction process is more entrenched and lasts longer than normal market pullbacks. While the market rally "paused" this past week, I suspect we could continue to see more turbulence in the week ahead.
Weekly SimpleVisor Stock Screens
We provide three stock screens each week from SimpleVisor.
This week, we are searching for the Top 20:
- Relative Strength Stocks
- Momentum Stocks
- Technical Strength W/ Dividends
(Click Images To Enlarge)
RSI Screen
Momentum Screen
Technically Strong With Dividends
SimpleVisor Portfolio Changes
We post all of our portfolio changes as they occur at SimpleVisor:
No Changes This Week
Lance Roberts, C.I.O., RIA Advisors
The post Earnings Revision Shows Sharp Decline appeared first on RIA.
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Site: Crisis Magazine
I begin with the following proposition. It is one which, among committed Christians certainly, may be taken as a given, as axiomatic. Not a statement of fact, mind you, as in the sum of two plus two will always be four. It is instead a statement of value, the certainty of which is hardly a function of arithmetic. It depends rather on revelation, as in Divine Revelation, the truth of which derives…
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Site: Catholic ConclaveFor nearly 45 years, essayist Marco Tosatti has chronicled the highlights and shadows of the Vatican. Based in Rome, he was, until 2008, the Vatican commentator for the national daily La Stampa. With an enlightened and critical eye on the challenges facing the Catholic Church of tomorrow, he highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the new Pope Leo XIV, elected this Thursday afternoon.What do Catholic Conclavehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06227218883606585321noreply@blogger.com0
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Site: The Remnant Newspaper - Remnant ArticlesAlthough some Catholics have already voiced concerns with the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, we can at least recognize that there were several other cardinals receiving serious consideration who have been far more ostentatious in their anti-Catholicism. Time will tell whether Leo XIV will accelerate or reverse the evils plaguing the Church, but in these early days we can at least hope and pray that he will cooperate with God’s grace. For now, one of the most charitable and useful responses to his election is to recall the holy wisdom from Pope Leo XIII, which we…
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Site: Mises InstituteMark Thornton digs into the gold-silver ratio—its wild swings, its history, and what it might mean for investors and the world at large.
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Site: The Unz ReviewHere’s what the media is not telling you: Iran persuaded the Houthis to agree to a ceasefire with Trump in order to build momentum for this weekend's nuclear talks in Oman. Two Iranian officials indicated that Tehran encouraged the Houthis to stop targeting U.S. assets, aligning with Iran’s interest in de-escalating tensions to advance nuclear...
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Site: The Unz ReviewLOGO DAEDALUS: Well, I just wanted to say thank you. First off, your books have been extremely important to me. I’ve done, I think, some good work in helping to popularize them on Twitter or X, I guess we’re calling it these days. But when I first found your work, I was really coming from...
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Site: The Unz ReviewRumble link Bitchute link False Flag Weekly News link The whole notion of terrorism really ought to be retired. Invented to describe state violence at the time of the French Revolution, the term now oscillates nonsensically between two definitions: 1) Political violence against civilians, and 2) The behavior of people we really don’t like. But...
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Site: The Unz ReviewThe present populist era is rife with all manner of odd realignments. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt recently faced sharp criticism from its ex-director Abraham Foxman over his initial plan to speak at the Israeli Diaspora Ministry’s International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem. For Foxman, the current ADL chief’s decision to share the stage...
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Site: The Unz ReviewIn the study of politics, two schools of thought converge: the school of stability and the school of change. The former emphasizes dominant political ideas that shape weak or strong leaders, while the latter highlights the role of a charismatic and strong political figure who drives social changes. In reality, these forces interact to shape...
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Site: Zero HedgeAmerica HumbledTyler Durden Fri, 05/09/2025 - 23:25
Authored by Arthur Schaper via American Greatness,
The United States, the American people, Donald Trump, and even myself: we have all been humbled over the last four years—or the last sixteen years … or even thirty years.
And we needed it.
More than thirty years ago, following the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States emerged as the leader of the pack in a once-bipolar world. The Soviet Union collapsed, socialism sloughed off, free enterprise became commonplace as the solution to all our problems, and the liberal democratic process was winning. “It is the End of History,” Francis Fukuyama (arrogantly, short-sightedly) prophesied.
Of course, history didn’t stop, and we had lessons to learn.
Some suggest that this fantasy of global liberalism came crashing down on September 11, 2001. Let’s not forget February 26th, 1993, when Islamic terrorists attempted to topple the World Trade Center by detonating the foundation of one tower to crash into the other.
Islamic terror replaced the adversarial communist regimes as our enemies. America was complacent, prosperous, and secure in its secular liberalism. Instead of remembering what made the West the best—the Gospel, our Judeo-Christian heritage, Biblical truth, our reliance on a Living Savior instead of humanist self-reliance—we got self-righteous and self-satisfied. “We beat the Russians! We are the only player on the world stage!”
Thus, it seemed that there was nothing left to fight but ourselves.
But that was never the case. Marxism’s vision of a stateless world dominated by class conflict never emerged, but Pan-Americanism would never work, either. An America-defined globalism not only offended other nations, but it also undermined the American citizen and the American experiment.
With an obsessive focus on free trade, cheap labor, and making money while ignoring national identity—borders, language, culture, faith, family, and freedom—Americans witnessed the wonders of the American dream turn into an elite fantasy that only the rich and politically connected could enjoy.
We got arrogant, then fearful and angry; we stopped believing in what really made America great. We forgot who we are. We needed to be humbled.
And what is humility? A biblical definition is apropos, I think:
“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)
American exceptionalism is a real thing. We the People of the United States should be proud of our heritage. That recognition does not justify American supremacism, however. Nor does it mean our safety, security, or sovereignty depends on what other countries do and believe.
The United States embraced some humiliating defeats not just on September 11, 2001, but in the waning year of the George W. Bush administration, when risky financing and overextended loans inflated housing prices and unleashed the Great Recession.
Instead of taking stock of where we were wrong, we went with a false messiah, Barack Obama, who chimed, “We are the change we have been waiting for.” But we were the ones who caused our own downfall. How could we make changes if we did not change?
From this self-righteous refusal to own our failures came the Occupy Movement, Black Lives Matter, and the re-radicalization of race. Obama long harbored bitter disgust for the United States, and he seduced the American public. Under the Obama Administration, humility was minimized and disparaged, for sure. One of the most repeated words in the 44th president’s speeches was “I.” It was all about him, and to hell with America.
And the country was humbled for the worse. Obama called us all racist and insisted that we needed the government to run our healthcare. He exhorted us to flood our country with “undocumented immigrants” so that we could pay back for all the wrongs that American imperialism had caused. America fell into decline.
Then came Trump, and with him the mantra “Make America Great Again.”
He talked about God restoring America’s previous glory. But was that something he could do himself? Not at all. In too many ways, his first term had some of the hallmarks of amateur hour. He surrounded himself with bad advisors, went with tired ideas, and didn’t transform the Art of the Deal into the Art of Governing.
Election 2020, with COVID, George Floyd, massive spending, and a frustrating Congress, did not help matters. Americans still had not learned their lesson.
We need God. We need biblical truth. We need to restore our Judeo-Christian heritage, our Anglo-American legal traditions, and our revolutionary legacy.
America’s further humbling came under bumbling Joe Biden. Defined by Biden-Harris’ arrogant incompetence, suffused with dementia and DEI, America became weaker, worn out, and adrift, all while witnessing the left’s culmination of all their wishes. Obama got his third term.
Then Trump ran again. He faced challenges from the right because he hadn’t gotten the job done. Perhaps those challenges shaped his second-term determination. Then came a would-be assassin’s bullet, which changed the course of history in our favor.
Trump has acknowledged, “God saved my life.” And why? “To Make America Great Again.”
His second inaugural speech was all business, with a clear reliance on where his—and our—power comes from: God.
Trump is a different man, acting like the president I wanted in 2016, whom I had anticipated DeSantis would be.
Like Homer’s eponymous hero, Trump is a man of many turns, and he’s turning out real results. Ulysses has come home. He has finished off all the suitors, he has his wife Penelope, and the gods are smiling at him. He learned his lesson. He gets it.
President Trump 2.0 has accomplished much of what we had expected in 2017, and more. Trump now knows his limits, and he knows what he can—and must—do. That is true humility.
If his supercharged successes continue, it makes all the disappointments, frustrations, and confusions of the previous six years worth the aggravation.
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Site: Zero HedgeMost US States Return To Population GrowthTyler Durden Fri, 05/09/2025 - 23:00
According to the latest data released by the Census Bureau, most U.S. states have returned to population growth in 2024.
While in 2023, eight states were shrinking, this was down to just three last year.
Notably, Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports that three economically successful states - California, Illinois and New York - returned to growth, as did Hawaii, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Louisiana.
This is despite the fact that New York and Illinois had started to see their populations decline under the old Census since 2016 and 2014, respectively, while California experienced a stagnating number of inhabitants in 2019 and started losing population in 2020 as the pandemic disrupted regular migration patterns and caused 19 states to shrink at the height of the trend in 2022.
You will find more infographics at Statista
One analysis from New York concludes that changes in border enforcement under the Biden administration caused the swings for the city, which is a hub for immigrants from all over the world.
In fact, shrinking U.S. states typically experience domestic out-migration and positive international in-migration, with the latter often having to outweigh the former in order to create growth. In the case of New York and Chicago, domestic out-migration that boomed in the Covid era softened over time, aiding in this process.
The Census also said that it had revised its methodology to better capture all immigrants, including humanitarian ones like refugees from Venezuela or Ukraine. For the latter, Illinois is traditionally a popular destination.
West Virginia was the only state that shrunk in 2023 and 2024, while in the last year, Mississippi and Vermont also started to lose population.
Americans resettling because of high cost of living do play a role in domestic outmigration, but changes in immigration into the U.S. have also had a big part in the state's ongoing population decline as immigrants increasingly diversify their destinations in the U.S., favoring - like domestic migrants - the Sun Belt states, but also smaller cities.
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Site: Zero HedgeWhere The Money Went: USG Funding To Counter-Mis/Disinformation InitiativesTyler Durden Fri, 05/09/2025 - 22:35
Authored by Andrew Lowenthal via The Brownstone Institute,
Last week, my non-profit liber-net unveiled a new database of US government awards to mis-dis-and-malinformation (MDM) and other content control initiatives. A previous Network Affects post broke down where that money came from. This one details where the money went, specifically the countries, regions, topics, and activities, and the top organisations that took home the cash.
The below graphs are based on 867 awards made between 2016-2024, out of nearly 1,100 that we reviewed from 2010 to the present day. You can review our process and methodology here. You can see all the graphs from the last post, this post, and a few more here.
When it comes to MDM funding, the vast majority of the awards went to US-based initiatives. The graph below includes a contract totaling nearly $1 billion to military contractor Peraton, but even without it, US recipients received around $318 million, dwarfing the next country, Kazakhstan, at $20 million. Out of the nearly $1.5 billion spent across the 867 awards, around $187 million left the US from a roughly $6.7 trillion annual federal budget.
The “US taxpayers are wasting money on foreigners” narrative isn’t the story here, at least not in the mis/disinformation space.
When you zoom out, it looks like this:
That said, when you look at the data by unique awards (individual grants and contracts made), American organisations are still the main recipients, though it isn’t quite as skewed – US organisations received 220 of the 867 awards made.
Looking at unique awards is important in part because of the internal government resources and focus it represents. Giving out money costs money, whether it is $1,000 or $1,000,000.
Below, we’ve broken the individual awards down by region. After the US, Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states are the main focus areas, mostly as a counter to Russian influence.
Here are the unique awards on a map:
Another interesting view is which countries the “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardees” awards went to. These are awards where the organisation is not explicitly named (this can be for security justifications or a host of unknown reasons), though in some cases it is easy to deduce what the organisation is (e.g., through the awardee address that is sometimes referenced in the USAspending record).
This is how the Misc. awards break down by country outside the US:
You can view the Misc. awards in our searchable database.
What topics did the money go to? The below outlines our analysis of the major themes. Note that while this is a pie chart, we’ve tagged individual awards with more than one topic as they were frequently combined, such as vaccine “misinformation” in minority communities.
This is how it breaks down among the top eight funders:
We have also classified the awards by the types of activities they entailed, such as conferences, research, or technology development. These were often a little harder to classify, but the general outline is still useful in understanding what “counter-misinformation” work looks like in practice.
Lastly, who got most of the money?
The two visualisations below detail the top 30 awardees by dollar amount and by the number of individual awards. The $80 million award to the CDC Foundation is a kind of internal transfer the CDC gave to a technically external (but heavily linked) 501(c)(3).
And the unique awards which reveal some more familiar names and close government relationships. The number of awards doesn’t correlate too tightly with the overall funding received.
You can find explore and find more in the database. Enjoy!
Republished from the author’s Substack
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