Month: September 2022

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) said that the FBI ignored eyewitness testimony regarding President Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s dealings with a Chinese conglomerate about a month before the 2020 election.

The former Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman told the New York Post that “suppression and censoring of his testimony and Hunter’s influence peddling impacted the 2020 election” far worse than anything China or Russia could have achieved.

About a month before the November 2020 election, a former associate of Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinksi, told media outlets that Joe Biden was involved with his son’s and brother Jim Biden’s dealings with CEFC, a Chinese Communist Party-linked energy conglomerate. Bobulinksi confirmed the authenticity of emails sourced from the younger Biden’s laptop hard drive that referred to Joe Biden as “the big guy” due to a 10 percent cut in the new corporate organization.

“Unfortunately, Tony Bobulinski’s first-hand eyewitness testimony regarding President Biden’s knowledge of Hunter Biden’s compromising web of foreign financial entanglements, especially with the Chinese, was not only ignored by the media, but also by the FBI,” Johnson said this week, referring to the 2020 claims.

The Epoch Times reached out to the FBI for comment.

Senate Report

Johnson along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has long investigated Hunter Biden, published a lengthy report on the Bidens’ business dealings in September 2020 (pdf), which raised questions about the younger Biden’s reportedly lucrative position at Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings while his father was vice president and took a leading role in handling the Obama administration’s relations with Ukraine.

The senator’s comment came in response to reports alleging that former FBI special agent Timothy Thibault, who departed the bureau last month, hid intelligence that was provided by Bobulinski.

Thibault was named several times by Grassley and Johnson in letters to the FBI and claimed the former agent displayed an animus toward former President Donald Trump. Whistleblowers from within the bureau told Grassley that the FBI had obtained information in 2020 about “criminal financial and related activity” on behalf of Hunter Biden, according to one of the senator’s letters (pdf), dated July 25, which was then allegedly suppressed by Thibault.

Over the weekend, in Morgan Stanley’s Sunday Start note, the bank’s in-house permabear Mike Wilson, previewed the topic of his weekly fire and brimstone sermon, which ironically was fire and ice, part 2, and his justification for why stocks are going far lower: his view that “this this time the decline in stocks will come mostly via lower earnings (and a higher equity risk premium) rather than higher rates” adding that the bank’s leading earnings models are all flashing red for the S&P 500, “and we have high confidence that the decline in NTM S&P 500 EPS forecasts is far from over.”

Well, judging by today’s aggressive ERP expansion which saw all asset slump, Wilson was right again (and as usual miles ahead of the consensus). But just so Wall Street is up to speed with his latest worldview, Wilson spends much of his latest weekly note laying out his new concept, writing that while “fire and Ice” – Wilson’s framework which defined much of the past year –  has proven to be an effective way to describe the first half of this year – as Fed tightening in response to historically high inflation, the Fire, has weighed heavily on valuations for all asset markets while growth has also disappointed…the Ice – he writes that “part 2 will turn out to be more Icy than Fiery as slowing growth becomes the bigger concern for stocks, rather than inflation and the Fed.“

Here are some more details on how Wilson sees the transition from part 1 to part 2 of “fire and ice”:

At the risk of stating the obvious, 2022 has been a challenging year for stock investors of all stripes. The Russell 3000 is down approximately 18% (total return) year to date (YTD): and while Russell 3000 Growth has underperformed significantly (-24%), it’s been no picnic for value investors either (-11%). Clearly, the relative value trade of value over growth has worked well this year, but we note it’s mostly been due to Energy’s outperformance combined with defensive cohorts, rather than cyclicals like Financials. In fact, only 2 sectors, Energy and Utilities, are up in absolute terms this year while just 24% of all stocks in the Russell 3000 are in positive territory. To put that into context, in 2008, 48% of Russell 3000 stocks were up on the year as we entered the month of September. Suffice it to say, this year has been historically bad for stocks in terms of both price and breadth, but that is not a sufficient reason to be bullish. We think that poor breadth is indicative of more challenges to come on the growth side of the equation, which we address in our note today. While some have recently argued the breadth thrust off the June lows is a sign of better times ahead, we firmly disagree as our top down earnings work does not support such a conclusion. Meanwhile, that breadth thrust is losing altitude quickly and looks vulnerable to taking out the 50-day moving average, something it did not do off the March 2020 lows. Let the debate begin.

Of course, as bad as it’s been for stocks, it’s been even worse for bonds on a risk-adjusted basis: 20-year Treasury bonds are down 24% YTD and the Barclay’s Agg. Index is off by 11%.

Finally, commodities have been a mixed bag, too, with most commodities down on the year despite heightened inflationary concerns. To wit, the CRB RIND index, which measures the spot prices of a wide range of commodities, is down 7% YTD. Cash, on the other hand, is no longer trash, especially if one has taken advantage of the higher front-end rates. Interestingly, most of the damage for bonds was front end loaded as the Fed made its pivot clear in January.

Wilson next reminds readers that he turned more positive on bonds versus stocks back in April, and while since then bonds have outperformed modestly, he argues that they now appear poised to see further outperformance technically and fundamentally if the second half brings more concern about growth rather than inflation as we expect. Outside the US, the picture is even clearer with bonds having outperformed stocks since June of 2021 with the global economy in far worse shape than the US.

Next, Wilson extends on what he wrote over the weekend, and notes that while the June low for stocks and bonds was dramatic, he has been consistently in the camp that it wasn’t “THE low” for the S&P 500 in this bear market, but having said that, Wilson is more confident it was the low for long-term Treasuries for this cyclical bear market in view of the Fed’s aggressive action that has yet to fully play out in the real economy (well, maybe not, with 10Y yields soaring as we type this and threatening to break above the YTD highs). The MS strategist concedes that it may also have been the low for the average stock, given how poor the breadth was at that time, and the magnitude of the decline in certain stocks. His more pessimistic view on the S&P 500 index, meanwhile, is based on analysis that indicates all of the 30% de-rating in the forward S&P 500 P/E that occurred from December to June was due to higher rates: “we know this because the equity risk premium (ERP) was flat during this period. Meanwhile, forward NTM EPS estimates for the S&P 500 have come down by only ~1.5% and P/Es are now ~8% higher. With rates now ~30bp below the June highs, the ERP has fallen once again, to just ~285bp. This makes little sense, particularly given the significant slowdown in earnings we think is still to come.”

And so, with the Fed dashing hopes for a dovish pivot (at least until futures tumble another 10%), Wilson thinks that asset markets may be entering fire and ice part two. In contrast with part one, this time the MS strategist contends that the decline in stocks should come mostly via a higher ERP and lower earnings rather than higher rates.

Meanwhile, the bank’s earnings models are all flashing red for the S&P 500, and Wilson is highly confident that the decline in NTM S&P 500 EPS forecasts is far from over. In short, Wilson writes that “part two will be more icy than fiery, the opposite of 1H22. That’s not to say rates don’t matter – they do – and we expect bonds to perform better than stocks in this icier scenario.”

What about the timing on Wilson’s “icy” forecast? Well, as the weather turns appropriately chilly this fall, so should growth – he writes – which could weigh mightily on stocks given the paltry ERP investors are getting paid to take this risk.

And just to confirm his renewed bearish fervor, today Wilson revised his S&P 500 EPS estimates lower, and writes that “while we took our first cut to these numbers in our mid-year outlook, we waited to do the larger downward revision until now in order to better time the actual fall in bottom-up estimates, which drive stock prices. Our experience – i.e., prior mistakes – has taught us that it always takes longer for these cuts to play out than it should given the typical corporate optimism about the future.”

So what are Wilson’s new S&P ESP forecasts following today’s downward revisions which point to continued and increasingly significant EPS growth downside well into 2023? Here is the answer:

• cut the 2022 base case EPS estimate to $220 from $225 (down 2%),
• 2023 base case estimate cut to $212 from $236 (down 10%),
• 2024 base case estimate cut to $226 from $237 (down 5%).

The ’22/’23/’24 base case estimates are now 3%/13%/14% below consensus, respectively, and more notably, in Morgan Stanley’s base case, 2023 now marks a modest earnings contraction (-3% year-over-year growth), although Morgan Stanley is still terrified to make a recession its base case scenario (that would scare off too many clients).

The logic here is that nominal top line growth slows, but remains positive (mid-single-digit territory), while margins contract materially (1-1.5% margin compression) driven by sticky cost pressures, particularly on the labor side. The bank’s 2023 bear case EPS is  modestly lower to $190 from $195 – a case which continues to assume an economic recession (consistent with views published in our mid-year outlook), and implies an 11% year-over-year EPS growth contraction. The ’23 bull case EPS forecast also comes down to $234 from $245. In this scenario, nominal top line is slightly better and margin pressure is less significant.

Yet while the bank slashes its EPS forecasts, its price targets set in June do not change, and EPS downside is offset by modest upside in P/E multiple expectations (ye olde goalseeking trick). The good news is that the bank’s new price and multiple expectations
are point in time, June 2023 estimates. By then, Wilson notes, equities will be processing the growth path into 2024 (a  reacceleration), not the decelerating growth path into 2023 that’s in the rear view. As such, Wilson’s call for price downside as a result of declining EPS into mid-2023 – the basis of this note, and a high conviction view – is very much a tactical view (next 3 months). To further reinforce this point, the strategist notes that the market multiple typically troughs when EPS is only a third of the way through its decline (i.e., price front-runs EPS declines).

Putting it all together, Wilson’s base case tactical view remains that fair value price for the S&P 500 is ~3,400, and while he expects that price level to be reached before year end, stocks will then work back toward 3,900 by mid next year (actually they will be much higher as the QE needed to monetize all the energy stimmies will long have been in play by then). As previously noted, Wilson thinks tactical fair value in his bear case (an economic recession) is 3,000, which implies an overshoot to the downside of his June ’23 bear case price target in advance of that date.

* * *

Wilson’s bottom line: the next several quarters will end up containing some of the most significant downward revisions to forward EPS forecasts seen in the past several cycles. As for valuation, the Morgan Stanley strategist thinks very little of these revisions have actually been discounted, as evidenced by the still depressed ERP component of the S&P 500 P/E ratio. While that view could be challenged as a subjective one, Wilson is confident that his ERP model suggests it is at least 100bps too low today and probably even more since the US is headed toward a recession (our bear case). That said, the strategist certainly appreciates that “this debate is what makes a market and have no illusion markets can trade more richly than they should for long periods of time.” On that note, he thinks the increased size of QT that is expected to begin this month could play a significant role in changing the market’s view of fair value for the ERP.

Full Mike Wilson report available to pro subscribers.

Via The Epoch Times,

Have you ever experienced the sudden feeling of somehow being exactly where you’ve been before, doing exactly what you swear you’ve already done? It could be while rearranging your living room, having a conversation, or simply sitting alone doing nothing.

If so, you’re not alone.

This feeling of familiarity is, of course, known as déjà vu (a French term meaning “already seen”) and it’s reported to occur on an occasional basis in 60 to 80 percent of people. It’s an experience that’s almost always fleeting and it occurs at random.

So what is responsible for these feelings of familiarity?

Despite coverage in popular culture, experiences of déjà vu are poorly understood in scientific terms. Déjà vu occurs briefly, without warning, and has no physical manifestations other than the announcement: “I just had déjà vu!”

Many researchers propose that the phenomenon is a memory-based experience and assume the memory centers of the brain are responsible for it.

Memory Systems

The medial temporal lobes are vital for the retention of long-term memories of events and facts. Certain regions of the medial temporal lobes are important in the detection of familiarity, or recognition, as opposed to the detailed recollection of specific events.

It has been proposed that familiarity detection depends on rhinal cortex function, whereas detailed recollection is linked to the hippocampus.

The randomness of déjà vu experiences in healthy individuals makes it difficult to study it in an empirical manner. Any such research is reliant on self-reporting from the people involved.

Glitches in the Matrix

A subset of epilepsy patients consistently experience déjà vu at the onset of a seizure—that is, when seizures begin in the medial temporal lobe. This has given researchers a more experimentally controlled way of studying déjà vu.

Epileptic seizures are evoked by alterations in electrical activity in neurons within focal regions of the brain. This dysfunctional neuronal activity can spread across the whole brain like the shock waves generated from an earthquake. The brain regions in which this electrical activation can occur include the medial temporal lobes.

Electrical disturbance of this neural system generates an aura (a warning of sorts) of déjà vu prior to the epileptic event.

By measuring neuronal discharges in the brains of these patients, scientists have been able to identify the regions of the brain where déjà vu signals begin.

It has been found that déjà vu is more readily induced in epilepsy patients through electrical stimulation of the rhinal cortices as opposed to the hippocampus. These observations led to the speculation that déjà vu is caused by a dysfunctional electrical discharge in the brain.

These neuronal discharges can occur in a non-pathological manner in people without epilepsy. An example of this is a hyponogogic jerk, the involuntary twitch that can occur just as you are falling asleep.

It has been proposed that déjà vu could be triggered by a similar neurological discharge, resulting in a strange sense of familiarity.

Some researchers argue that the type of déjà vu experienced by temporal lobe epilepsy patients is different from typical déjà vu.

The déjà vu experienced prior to an epileptic seizure may be enduring, rather than fleeting—as it is for those who don’t have epileptic seizures. In people without epilepsy, the vivid recognition combined with the knowledge that the environment is truly novel intrinsically underpins the experience of déjà vu.

Mismatches and Short Circuits

Déjà vu in healthy participants is reported as a memory error, which may expose the nature of the memory system. Some researchers speculate that déjà vu occurs due to a discrepancy in memory systems leading to the inappropriate generation of a detailed memory from a new sensory experience.

That is, information bypasses short-term memory and instead reaches long-term memory.

This implies déjà vu is evoked by a mismatch between the sensory input and memory-recalling output. This explains why a new experience can feel familiar, but not as tangible as a fully recalled memory.

Other theories suggest activation of the rhinal neural system, involved in the detection of familiarity, occurs without activation of the recollection system within the hippocampus. This leads to the feeling of recognition without specific details.

Related to this theory, it was proposed that déjà vu is a reaction of the brain’s memory systems to a familiar experience. This experience is known to be novel, but has many recognizable elements, albeit in a slightly different setting. An example? Being in a bar or restaurant in a foreign country that has the same layout as one you go to regularly at home.

Even more theories exist regarding the cause of déjà vu. These span from the paranormal—past lives, alien abduction, and precognitive dreams—to memories formed from experiences that are not first-hand (such as scenes in movies).

So far, there is no simple explanation as to why déjà vu occurs, but advances in neuroimaging techniques may aid our understanding of memory and the tricks our minds seem to play on us.

A Kansas school district has agreed to pay a settlement of $95,000 in a civil lawsuit brought by a teacher who was suspended for refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a self-declared trans student (a female demanding to be referred to as “he/him”).

Pamela Ricard, a math teacher at Fort Riley Middle School, says she was pressured by school officials to placate a trans student in her class by using preferred pronouns.  When Ricard asked for a religious exemption to the rule she was allegedly denied.  Ricard also claimed that the school district forced teachers to lie to parents about students and their trans status, and even asked teachers to not use student trans names during parent/teacher conferences in order to avoid revealing any sensitive information.    

Ricard received a three day suspension after referring to the trans student as “Miss,” and for using the student’s legal enrolled name.  She was warned that any further “misgendering” would lead to more disciplinary actions.  

It is important to note that there are no laws in the state of Kansas requiring that anyone use transgender pronouns, and that these rules were being unilaterally enforced by school district officials.  The Fort Riley School District was cornered into settlement when a federal court ruled in May that Pamela Ricard had a religious right to refuse censorship and to refuse to submit to pronoun requirements.  They also ruled that teachers cannot be pressured to keep secrets from the parents of trans students.

The Kansas incident is only one of thousands of exposed events that prove the existence of a concerted widespread social justice agenda within the American school system.  Though the political left has consistently claimed that such an agenda does not exist and that parent accusations are nothing more than “conspiracy theory,” the evidence is undeniable.  

The exposure of transgender indoctrination and policy enforcement in schools led to a national firestorm over Florida’s anti-grooming bill, which leftists called the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”  The bill, now passed into law, prevents teachers from engaging in sexualized discussions or sexualized propaganda lessons with young children, and also demands that teachers share their lesson plans with parents.  Teachers that violate the law can be fired.

Multiple states across the country have had to formulate similar pieces of legislation as a means to stop intersectional ideology from being injected into school curriculum.  Florida alone found that at least 44% of school textbooks the state reviewed contained multiple instances of social justice propaganda including Critical Race Theory propaganda.  Interestingly, the majority of the propaganda was discovered in books for children K-5. 

Desantis provided multiple examples of leftist and CRT propaganda implanted in school texts, but to this day leftists claim no examples were given and that CRT is “not real.” 

Twitter group ‘Libs Of TikTok’ famously showcased hundreds of video, made mostly by teachers, in which they openly admit to indoctrinating students with LGBT and CRT propaganda in their classrooms.  The group has faced multiple suspensions from various social media platforms, and has been accused of “hateful conduct” simply for reposting the videos to their own account.  

The trans movement is a movement to control and to dictate speech while pretending it is a movement for civil rights.  No one has a right to compel another person by force or coercion to use their preferred pronouns.  The entire situation can be bewildering because of the multiple tentacles the extreme left employs in their culture war, but there are some rules that can help to clear the fog and confusion.

The first rule which makes it possible to understand and predict the actions of the social justice left:  They ALWAYS lie.

The second rule is:  They always double down on the lies.

The third rule is:  They always gaslight when they are caught lying.

The fourth rule is:  Believe what you see right in front of your eyes, not what they say that you should see.      

The Kansas settlement for Pamela Ricard reveals yet another piece of the hidden puzzle that is woke ideology within public schools.  It is an indoctrination process that has been ongoing for years and only recently have parents started to notice and become involved.  

Interestingly, though, in the case of Fort Riley, it was apparently school district officials that were threatening teachers in order to make them comply with the agenda, rather than specific teachers trying to slip their propaganda under the radar.  This shows that leftist teachers grooming children is not the only concern – We must also watch out for School board members and other officials using their power to frighten non-woke teachers into silence.    

A majority of Americans, 56.8% think Biden’s declaration of war on Trump voters was a “dangerous escalation in rhetoric” which was “designed to incite conflict amongst Americans,” according to a new poll by the Trafalgar group.

Perhaps even more telling is that 71% of Democrats said Biden’s speech – in which he said “MAGA forces” pose a “clear and present danger” to Democracy – thought it was simply “acceptable campaign messaging that is to be expected in an election year.”

What should worry Democrats is that 62% of independent voters agreed with 89.1% of Republicans who said the speech was a “dangerous escalation.”

This, from the president who campaigned on uniting America against hatred. 

Conservatives on social media were appalled at the speech.

I work hard, garden, cook, bake, spin, knit weave and throw pots. I’ve been married 33 years and have two grown kids. I’ve owned businesses and pay taxes.

I am a threat to the very soul of this nation.

— Rani, Last of The Red Hot Boomers (@ShadesOfRani) September 4, 2022

pic.twitter.com/qAVpdrNHzd

— Joshua Hamm (@Joshua_R_Hamm) September 2, 2022

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

Over the weekend, Dr. Richard Ebright of Rutgers University laid out what I can only describe as a damning chronology of circumstantial evidence supporting the case for Covid-19 emerging from a lab in Wuhan, instead of via natural origins.

Dr. Richard Ebright is the Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University and Laboratory Director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology. Ebright received an A.B. summa cum laude in biology from Harvard University in 1981 and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University in 1987. You can find more on Dr. Ebright’s resume here and can follow him on Twitter here.

I had previously interviewed Dr. Richard Ebright back in September 2021, where he said that Dr. Anthony Fauci had lied “knowingly, willfully and brazenly” about gain-of-function research. In my opinion, Ebright has been someone who has concerned himself with the facts from day one when commenting about Covid. He isn’t an anti-vaxxer (he called vaccines the “only way to end the pandemic” in 2021) and is hardly a conspiracy theorist.

Upon reviewing the thread laid out by Ebright, Justin B. Kinney, an Associate Professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Princeton PhD commented that the thread was “much more compelling” than the evidence recently published by Worobey et al. and Pekar et al. in Science,” referring to a July 2022 study that concluded the virus came from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market (and was riddled, in my opinion, with conflicts of interest and ties to the CDC and WHO).

“This evidence is not dispositive, but were the lab leak hypothesis incorrect, it would represent a staggering set of coincidences,” Kinney wrote on Monday.

Ebright’s chronology, which can be found in its entirety here, lays out the following.

A “Pandemic caused by a bat SARS-like coronavirus emerged in Wuhan – a city 1,000 miles from nearest wild bats with SARS-like coronaviruses, but that contains labs conducting world’s largest research program on bat SARS-like coronaviruses.”

He then noted that in 2015 to 2017 “scientists and science-policy specialists expressed concern that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was conducting and contemplating research that posed an unacceptable risk of lab accident and pandemic.”

“In 2017-2018, [The Wuhan Institute of Virology] constructed a novel chimeric SARS-like coronavirus that was able to infect and replicate in human airway cells and that had 10,000x enhanced viral growth and 4x enhanced lethality in mice engineered to display human receptors on cells,” he writes, citing two sources (here and here).

Then he points out how an NIH grant proposal focused on novel spike genes with higher binding affinities:

“In 2018, in an NIH grant proposal, [The Wuhan Institute of Virology] and collaborators proposed to construct more novel chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses, targeting chimeras that replace natural spike gene with novel spike genes encoding spikes that have higher binding affinities to human cells.”.

He also noted a DARPA grant proposal from 2018 to construct bat SARS-like coronaviruses:

“Also in 2018, in a DARPA grant proposal, WIV and collaborators proposed to construct novel “consensus” bat SARS-like coronaviruses, and to insert furin cleavage site (FCS) sequences at the spike gene S1-S2 border of bat SARS-like coronaviruses.”

From 2017 to 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology was then constructing and characterizing viruses at a biosafety level that was “patently inadequate”, he says:

“In 2017-2019, WIV constructed and characterized novel SARS-like coronaviruses at biosafety level 2, a biosafety level patently inadequate for work with enhanced potential pandemic pathogens and patently inadequate to contain a virus having transmission properties of SARS-CoV-2”

And then, all of a sudden, Covid pops up – with the same characteristics referenced in both grants, Ebright notes:

“In 2019 a novel SARS-like coronavirus having a spike with high binding affinity for human cells, and having an FCS at the spike S1-S2 border – a virus having the properties set forth in the 2018 WIV NIH and DARPA grant proposals – emerges on the doorstep of WIV.”

Common sense dictates that the most reasonable explanation is that the virus came from the lab, though natural origins can’t be ruled out, he says: “SARS-CoV-2 is the only one of more than 100 known SARS-like coronaviruses that contains an FCS. This is a feature that does not rule out a natural origin, but that is more easily explained by a lab origin. Especially since insertion of FCS had been explicitly proposed in 2018.”

“The FCS of SARS-CoV-2 has codon usage unusual for bat SARS-related coronaviruses and has an 8-of-8 amino-acid-sequence identity to the FCS of human ENaCa. These are features that do not rule out a natural origin, but that are more – much more – easily explained by a lab origin,” he says.

“In 2020-present, WIV and its funders/collaborators at EcoHealth Alliance have withheld information, misrepresented facts, and obstructed investigation…even though, if not connected to origin, they most easily could clear their name though cooperation with investigation,” he concludes.

If you have the means to support my work and want to become a subscriber, you can use this link for 50% off.

 

President Biden’s ambitious emissions-reduction goals that encourage investment in green energy to drive the country away from fossil fuels will be conducted in a series of executive actions, according to Houston Chronicle. This comes weeks after Congress approved $370 billion in clean energy funding that will pave the way for the US to slash emissions by half in eight years. 

Over the next year, the Biden administration will announce a series of federal policies to accelerate emission reductions for power plants and vehicles, the two most significant drivers of oil and natural gas demand. 

“These administrative actions are absolutely essential for the US to get to the science-based target of a 50% reduction by 2030,” said Matthew Davis, legislative director at the League of Conservation Voters. “They’re separate from the Inflation Reduction Act, but they’re also amplifying it,” he said. 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to say in a speech in Detroit on Thursday that Biden’s emissions-reduction goals following recent climate legislation “will put us well on our way toward a future where we depend on the wind, sun, and other clean sources for our energy … and rid ourselves from our current dependence on fossil fuels and the whims of autocrats like Putin.” 

Yellen’s speech represents the clear objective of the administration: to rid the US of fossil fuels. Executive orders are the only way to accelerate a rapid expansion of electric vehicle sales and clean energy on the grid. 

Oil and gas industry lobbyists sound the alarm over the administration’s quick transition to a green new world that will drive US energy prices through the roof. 

“Policymakers must know that a swift transition comes at a cost to the American consumer,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy at the American Petroleum Institute. “The burden falls upon them to put in place a regulatory structure that provides for stable energy markets,” he said. 

Under the guise of extreme weather, such as heatwaves and droughts, President Biden has called for an expedited shift towards a green power grid: 

“As President, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger,” Biden said. “And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger.”

Despite Biden’s attempt to lower gas prices at the pump ahead of the midterm elections in November — the administration is still doing everything to crush the fossil fuel industry. 

For example, EPA Administrator Michael Reagan has moved quickly to introduce a new rule, with a first draft expected in the spring of 2023, that would require limiting power plants’ carbon emissions — making it very expensive for coal and natural gas-fired generators to operate. 

“The regulations they would be pursuing would make it even less economical for utilities to open new fossil fuel power plants,” Davis said.

Such a new rule could create challenges for 37% of the nation’s power grid that relies on natural gas generation. 

More unreliable electricity from wind and solar while decommissioning natural gas and other fossil fuel plants is a horrible idea. Just look at the California’s grid as progressives have tried to greenify it, though during heatwaves, request all customers not to charge their electric vehicles. 

Since renewables are not living up to the promises pitched by the administration, perhaps the only energy source of low-carbon, scalable, reliable, and affordable electricity is nuclear. If California wants to ban all new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035, it will need a reliable grid to handle the millions of new EVs. 

Every American should be concerned if the Biden administration succeeds in implementing a slew of executive orders to transform grids across the country to look like California. 

Remember, Californians are dealing with threats of blackouts, can’t charge EVs during high-demand days, and paying some of the most expensive power prices in years. 

Maybe the green future is not as much about saving the planet but instead about money and politics. 

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The US military said on Monday that two US B-52 bombers flew a mission over the Middle East, a move that came amid heightened tensions in the region and while the US is holding EU-mediated nuclear deal negotiations with Iran. The bombers departed from the Royal Air Force base in Fairford, England for the mission which took place Sunday.

The US military didn’t mention Iran in a statement on the mission, but the US frequently dispatches bombers to the region during nuclear negotiations or amid soaring tensions with Iran.

“Threats to the U.S. and our partners will not go unanswered,” Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the top U.S. Air Force officer over the region, said in a statement. “Missions like this… showcase our ability to combine forces to deter and, if necessary, defeat our adversaries.”

The statement said that the bombers flew over the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Red Sea and were joined by warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait before leaving the Middle East.

According to the Israeli military, the US bombers were escorted by three Israeli F-16s while they flew through Israeli airspace toward the Persian Gulf. 

“The flight was held as part of close cooperation with the US military, which represents a significant element in ensuring the security of the State of Israel’s airspace and the Middle East,” the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement.

The flight came as Israel is pressing the US to establish a credible military threat against Iran to get Tehran to make concessions in the nuclear deal negotiations. Israel is strongly opposed to a revival of the deal, known as the JCPOA, and has stepped up pressure to influence the Biden administration on the issue.

Israel frequently carries out covert attacks inside Iran and has been threatening to launch more overt operations against the Islamic Republic.

According to the US ambassador to Israel, President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in a phone call last week that the US wouldn’t “tie Israel’s hands” to prevent it from attacking Iran.

The grooming continues.  Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin took a stand against school districts on recent news that teachers in Fairfax County were required to complete a training program ahead of the 2022-2023 school year that says parental consent is not required for transgender students who want to “socially” transition within the school system. “Social transitioning” includes going by a preferred name and preferred pronouns that align with someone’s “gender identity.”

The training program, “Supporting Gender Expansive and Transgender Youth,” was assigned on July 22nd for teachers in all grade levels at Fairfax County Public Schools, including preschool, according to the Washington Examiner.

Aspects of the training include keeping gender transition information secret from parents, how to address children by their preferred pronouns, allowing transgendered students to use their preferred bathrooms and locker rooms and mix with students of the opposite sex in those environments, and pressuring classmates to conform to transgender pronouns and names.  

The FCPS training program was assigned a month after the district’s school board approved an expansion to its student code of conduct that further detailed penalties for students who “deadnamed” or “misgendered” transgender students. That policy, approved at a June school board meeting, allows administrators to discipline students who violate the policy under Title IX.

The ability of school districts to discipline students who misgender or so-called “deadname” transgender classmates has been a topic of notable controversy after a Wisconsin school district opened investigations into three middle school students under Title IX for using a transgender student’s biological pronouns. The district later dropped the investigations after widespread backlash (Using the “wrong pronouns” is not sexual harassment). 

The Fairfax district training program also included several slides on “Equity at the Center.” These slides told teachers they must “create student centered experiences” and “affirm and sustain gender identity, gender expression, and racial, linguistic, ability, and cultural identities.”

Governor Youngkin noted that:

“At the heart of all of these topics is parents and what I’m continually surprised by is really the approach that would push parents out of any decision that’s material in their child’s life and to write a regulation for a school that says don’t tell parents is just wrong…”

The growing opposition to schools and teachers involving themselves in the sexual lives of students has caused a reactionary response among political leftists.  Their arguments vary from denying that there is any LGBT or trans indoctrination agenda in schools, to defending such an agenda as “civil rights.”  Initially, complete denial was the primary policy, but too many incidences have been exposed to the public and to parents and so the narrative is changing.  

There is indeed a threat of this kind of behavior from school officials and teachers leading to abuse, because it rationalizes sexual conversations with students in the name of false civil rights arguments.  Where sexualized discussions between teachers and students would lead to disciplinary action or possible prosecution if the teacher is straight, the social justice community is actually making it justifiable and protected if the teacher is gay or trans.

That said, the issue is not limited to sexual interactions.  There is also the problem of ideological indoctrination of children into the leftist fold, which is more likely the intended goal.  With no legitimate science to back the notion of “gender fluidity” other than an extremely small number of people with a disorder called “gender dysphoria,” the debate over how much society should accommodate people who claim to be transgender is in question. 

Public schools and the leftists that run them have decided to enforce trans indoctrination of children as well as teachers without parental consent.  They are sidestepping the debate and brainwashing children before they have a chance to make up their own minds.  This includes punishment for non-conformity. The trans rights argument is a typical backwards ploy often used by social justice activists – “Your freedom of speech is a threat to my freedom from harm.”  

Of course, no one has the right to compel other people to speak how they want or to use the pronouns and language they prefer.  Speech does not cause harm.  Also, no one has the right to be free from emotional distress.  That is up to the individual to deal with in their own way; it’s not the job of society to make sure you feel comfortable and happy 24/7.  

There is no place for teachers or school officials in the personal lives of students.  There is no reason for teachers or school officials to share their own personal lives with students.  There is no place for gender identity politics in the classroom, and no place for sexualized discussions between school employees and children. It’s not something that needs compromise.  These are hard fast rules and luckily there are some state governors that are finally taking notice.  

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

‘Whatever you say, say nothing.’ – Old Irish Phrase

“God made the Catholics, but the Armalite made them equal.” ― Patrick Radden Keefe

It has become clear to me, since the installation of dementia patient Biden as the illegitimate figurehead president by his globalist Deep State handlers, their agenda is to tear down our modern civilization and replace it with a totalitarian techno-gulag where you will be electronically monitored, disarmed, own nothing, be judged by social credit score, live in fear, and be happy – or else.

I’ve been pondering in which direction this Fourth Turning will flow, while observing the words and actions of our pedophile president and the other World Economic Forum puppets like Trudeau, Macron, and a myriad of other EU lackeys. I intellectually understand all Fourth Turnings reach their climax after immense bloodshed, climactic battles which could have gone either way, and in some cases saw citizens slaughtering fellow citizens. But I have tried to avoid thinking about the reality of what is likely to happen over the next five to ten years, as this Crisis turns from rhetoric and debate to violence and death. Keyboard warriors will yield to real warriors.

After reading Patrick Radden Keefe’s – Say Nothing – a fascinating tale of the brutal violence which lasted for three decades from the 1960’s through the 1990’s in Northern Ireland, I’ve come to the realization of what civil war might look like here in America. In reality, the conflict in Ireland between the Catholics and Protestants dated back centuries.

“In 1689, Protestant forces loyal to William of Orange, the new king, had managed to hold the city against a siege by a Catholic army loyal to James II.” ― Patrick Radden Keefe

The vitriolic discord and purposeful fracturing of our shared societal values, which have bound this nation since its inception, has situated the country in an 1860 moment, a veritable powder keg with a lit fuse. The country has been gravely splintered for at least two decades, but the fissure has expanded at an accelerated velocity since the unanticipated election of Donald Trump in 2016. The rule of law no longer exists.

A four-year coup against Trump, with Clinton, Obama, DOJ, CIA, FBI, Congress, Judiciary, legacy media, and social media titans as co-conspirators, has now devolved into an Orwellian police state, with the Constitution trashed and government tyranny reaching unthinkable heights. The third world totalitarian tactics being used by Biden’s handlers to destroy the opposition party and its leader is being cheered on by the left and their media mouthpieces. Biden’s diabolically dark, hateful speech, with satanic blood red background, on the sacred ground where our Founding Fathers declared our independence from a tyrannical despot, appears to be the spark which will ignite real violence in the coming years.

The simmering hatred between the left and right has been rising towards a boiling point since the 2016 election. Everything Biden and his Obama handlers have done since his installation as president in the rigged 2020 election has been designed to sow discord, create chaos, and tear apart the fabric of this country. Authoritarian despots always accuse the opposition of crimes they themselves are guilty of having committed.

When you control the levers of power and the propaganda machine known as the media, you can literally flaunt the laws of the land and persecute those who disagree or fail to comply with your dictates. Elevating a protest by a few goofballs who were lured into the Capital by undercover FBI plants (Ray Epps) as an armed insurrection (with no arms), has been a pitiful display of partisanship and failed to accomplish the task of having Trump charged with a crime. This after two failed impeachment attempts based on actual crimes committed by the Biden crime family.

With the approach of the November midterms, Covid fear being replaced by vaxx injury outrage, inflation raging at 17% (the way it was measured in 1980), a recession in progress, layoffs beginning to ramp up, stock market falling, Russia sanctions only hurting the American and European working class, and Biden’s approval rating at 38%, the globalist Deep State invisible government have decided it’s time for some civil chaos to further their New World Order agenda.

It all began with pitting those who chose to let their immune systems do their jobs and/or using safe effective cheap treatments like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, zinc/quercetin, and vitamin D, against Fauci, Biden and their Big Pharma benefactors forcing an untested, dangerous, experimental gene therapy into the bodies of every human on the planet. They lied about its effectiveness, spike protein remaining confined in arms, safety, immunity power, and length of efficacy.

They colluded with Twitter, Facebook, and Google to censor and suppress the truth about the vaccines, doctors with contrary opinions, and the safe effective alternatives. All done to enrich Big Pharma, who paid off politicians, doctors, hospitals, and a plethora of apparatchiks willing to sell their souls and sacrifice lives for the almighty buck.

When Biden and his handlers decided to scapegoat and vilify those who chose to not become guinea pigs in the unwarranted vaccine war against a relatively non-lethal flu (unless you were 85 years old and/or extremely obese), knowing his national vaccine mandate was un-Constitutional and unenforceable, those with critical thinking skills could see the budding authoritarianism from Biden, along with the other WEF acolytes like Trudeau, Macron, and Boris Johnson.

Biden’s willingness to have people fired, ostracized, and destroyed for exercising bodily autonomy regarding a vaccine that didn’t prevent you from getting it, spreading it, being hospitalized, or dying was a flashing warning light of what was going to happen in the last month. The lockdowns, destruction of small businesses while promoting big business, forced masking as a mark of obedience and compliance, and utter disregard for the education of our children, were all part of this Great Reset scheme to remake the world in the vision of Gates, Schwab, Soros, and the rest of the Davos billionaire satanic cult.

These acts of vengeance against those with differing political, economic, and social viewpoints have intensified over the last several months as a sense of impending doom has shrouded the totalitarian, communist, woke, incompetent Biden administration, with the looming loss of both the House and Senate leading to gridlock, increasing conflict, and more desperate executive orders from the senile pedophile.

The ramping up of grooming children at drag queen shows and encouraging children towards irreversible mutilation of their bodies in the name of gender choice is beyond evil and can only be explained as further attempt to destroy our society as part of the Great Reset agenda. The FBI raid on Biden’s chief political adversary and likely opponent in 2024 over some documents requested by the National Archives is a red herring in the never-ending coup against Trump and a last-ditch attempt to keep him from running in 2024.

During his first term Trump made the drastic mistake of not purging the DOJ, FBI, CIA, and State Department of his enemies. He hired swamp creatures and neo-cons into his cabinet whose sole purpose was to thwart whatever he tried to do. And his biggest blunder was believing Fauci, Birx, and the rest of the Covid cultists in locking down the country, schools, and businesses, while cheering on and promoting the Big Pharma jabs which have killed and injured more people than they supposedly saved.

His continued support for these never-ending shots from hell is mind bogglingly idiotic and should make anyone question his ability to succeed in a second term. Is he better than Dementia Joe, the Kneepads Kackler, or any of the other left-wing loons on the Democrat bench? Yes. But is that good enough with an economic collapse, civil war, and global war just over the horizon? The skies are darkening, and the direst days of this Fourth Turning are almost upon us.

I know the degradation of the intellectual, moral, and critical thinking skills of the American populace due to decades in government indoctrination centers known as public schools along with relentless propaganda and misinformation spewed from our boob tubes and now “smart” phones has reached critical mass, with little hope for a reversal until a full-out societal collapse. Well, that is where we are headed, because that is the course set in motion by those we trusted to lead this country. What ails this country, and the world is too much debt, too much corruption, too much materialism, too many lies, too much propaganda, too much delusion, too much stupidity, too much evil, and absolutely no solutions put forth which are capable of saving us from the course we chose decades ago.

We are hurtling towards an abyss and there is no way of voting ourselves out of it. The uniparty agrees on 90% of the issues and pass trillions in spending bills while jointly supporting never ending wars and unaccountable central bankers who print fiat to infinity. Political parties have failed the people and rooting for our team is still used to keep us divided and unaware of how badly we have been screwed over by these politician puppets doing the bidding of the globalist billionaire cabal who really run the show.

This all set the stage for Biden’s Satanic Verses speech this past week. The Trojan Horse president didn’t write that hateful war declaration against half the country. He didn’t choose the location of Independence Hall. He didn’t ask for the blood red and dark palette as his background. He didn’t station marines in the background as a symbol of war. He didn’t remember what he read off the teleprompter the next day.

He and his left-wing apparatchiks can try to walk back his declaration of war, but his satanic hate manifesto will forever be burned into the minds of the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump and the millions more who voted for Biden, thinking his unifier drivel during his basement campaign was truthful. Biden’s handlers purposefully designed this speech to ignite civil chaos.

It was a dog whistle to the left-wing BLM, ANTIFA and other violent hate groups that it is open season on Trump and his supporters. Declaring them extremists and an imminent threat to the country, Biden dehumanized anyone who does not support his authoritarian regime. We have already seen the attempted assassination of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh and harassment and threats of violence against other justices.

There has been a concerted effort by the left (and possibly operatives within the government) to have Steve Bannon and Marjorie Taylor Greene assassinated by the police through technologically advanced swatting calls. Next, we will have any home flying a Trump or MAGA flag burned to the ground by Biden’s army of woke thugs. Biden’s managers and his diversity hire spokesbimbos continue to fan the flames of violence. They are attempting to goad Trump supporters into acts of violence so they can declare an emergency and either cancel the November elections or institute mail-in voting once again to steal them as they did in 2020.

Despite Biden’s repulsive war-mongering rhetoric, and threats to use F-15s against those who don’t bow down to his demands, it is highly unlikely Trump supporters will take the bait and initiate violence against the government or their Soros funded left wing lackey militias. The average hard-working American, getting destroyed by Biden’s policies, is content to watch Democrat controlled shithole cities go up in flames as lawlessness reigns, mass murder occurs on daily basis, and businesses flee to safer confines.

They are told by the GOP portion of the uniparty to vote republican in November and save the country. Of course, the RINOs in control of the republican party don’t have the guts or desire to change anything. If they were to take Congress, they would not impeach Biden, investigate Hunter, prosecute Fauci, or stop the DOJ and FBI from conducting their ongoing vendetta against Trump.

Biden and the left have already declared war. They will do whatever it takes to win. It’s already clear the Constitution, election laws, and First Amendment are meaningless in their thirst for power, control, and wealth. As of now only the Second Amendment keeps them from forcefully putting us in re-education camps. It’s only the 400 million legally owned guns (give or take a few) keeping Biden and his totalitarian hordes at bay.

Biden’s speech was an act of desperation, as his handlers seeing their Great Reset agenda going awry, are trying to initiate another engineered “Covid-like” national emergency they can utilize to subdue dissent. The next two months may decide the future course of history in this country. They appear to be laying the groundwork for a false flag of immense proportions.

The apparent suicidal actions being taken by European leaders regarding Russian gas and Putin shutting the Nordsteam 1 pipeline until the West revokes their sanctions will either lead to surrender by the EU and splintering of their subservient submission to the American Empire or actual conflict between NATO and Russia, with China and India supporting Russia.

We already know it is just a matter of time until the U.S. financial markets break under the strain of reality, with stocks, bonds and real estate all poised to fall by at least 50% over the coming years.

Has the globalist cabal concluded their dementia ridden sucker is expendable and will engineer another JFK moment, with an assassination attributed to some Trump dupes? The FBI already engineered the fake Whitmer kidnapping plot. Taking out their useful idiot Biden to further their agenda wouldn’t give these vile Deep State operatives a second thought. Combining a global conflict, with a financial implosion, and a false flag event blamed on Trump would be the perfect storm to cancel the November elections and lockdown the country once again.

All signs point toward something big about to ignite the powder keg and propel this Fourth Turning to a new level of violent upheaval. Here is where Patrick Radden Keefe’s documentation of the violence, retribution, hatred, and resolve of “civilized” Irishmen during the battle for Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles, from the 1960’s through the 1990’s until an uneasy accord was reached in 1998, offers a glimpse into what a civil war might look like in America.

A key point is when the definition of humanity in the minds of those at war stops at the border of their tribe. The enemy is not considered human; therefore, it is not murder when you kill them or blow them up. The ethical justification for killing “innocents” becomes easier when your enemy is not considered human. Biden has already set in motion that anyone who voted for or supports Trump is a dangerous sub-human, providing the justification for his side, including his government police thugs and woke military, to treat us as the enemy.

During The Troubles, the Irish Republican Army planted car bombs in London and in Northern Ireland business districts, killing and maiming whoever happened to be in the vicinity. They blew up Lord Mountbatten on his boat. They attempted to blow up the Queen in Scotland in 1981. They came very close to assassinating Margaret Thatcher at the Brighton Hotel in 1984, killing five and injuring dozens. British soldiers were lured into traps and executed.

Over the three decades of The Troubles there were 3,500 deaths, with more than half being civilians. Factions within the IRA killed each other. There were undercover agents and double agents for each side. If you said something while under British interrogation, you were likely to be disappeared into the Irish bogs. It was a violent and ruthless conflict with no rules and no mercy. The British committed as many atrocities as their Irish opponents. Legality and rule of law was paid no heed. As Keefe documented, the conflict began as a dispute between the unionists and loyalists and grew into a vicious civil war of neighborhoods versus neighborhoods.

“We beat them with stones at first, and they had guns. Our people had to go and get guns. Wouldn’t they have been right stupid people to stand there? Our people got shotguns at first and then got better weapons. And then the British, who were supposed to protect us, came in and raided our homes. What way could you fight? So you went down and you blew them up.” ― Patrick Radden Keefe

The political and religious hatreds had been brewing for centuries in Ireland. The level of vitriol and hate in the U.S. has really only reared its ugly head over the last two decades, with a notable hastening since Obama’s election in 2008. He proceeded to divide America through his communist agenda and blatant efforts to create racial and gender rifts, while still kowtowing to the Wall Street and globalist cabal which placed him in power.

The ascendancy of Trump to the throne drove the left mad, as burning, and looting cities over the perceived fake race issues enflamed by Obama was cheered on by the left-wing media and politicians. Violence has been promoted and condoned by the left. The question is, what will it take to provoke a violent response by the right, who happen to own most of the firearms in this country. What will it take to turn Twitter warriors into armed warriors? Keefe laid out thoughts about Irish Americans during The Troubles which addresses real war versus verbal war.

“Indeed, it could occasionally seem that support for the armed struggle was more fervent in Boston or Chicago than it was in Belfast or Derry. The romantic idyll of a revolutionary movement is easier to sustain when there is no danger that one’s own family members might get blown to pieces on a trip to the grocery store. Some people in Ireland looked askance at the “plastic Paddies” who urged bloody war in Ulster from the safe distance of America.” ― Patrick Radden Keefe

Most of those on the right are hardworking, law abiding, family-oriented individuals who are slow to anger and do not react violently to incoherent left-wing rhetoric, verbal threats, or even being called dangerous extremists. When they or their families are threatened with violence, all bets are off. The left can allow their cities to burn and the inhabitants to shoot each other over drugs, but once the threat of violence reaches the countryside and suburbs, where a considerable number of awakened critical thinking citizens are armed, Biden and his cronies will get their civil war.

The extremist MAGA minions will not shoot first, but once alerted to the threat from what passes for our government and their BLM/ANTIFA terrorist arm, they will be poised to fight back. If this powder keg ignites, it will make the three decades of violence in Northern Ireland look like a walk in the park.

Those who live their lives with a linear mindset, brainwashed by public school indoctrination, distracted by their myriad of electronic gadgets, and trapped on the hamster wheel of trying to accumulate more material goods while going further in debt, are unprepared for the coming level of violent upheaval about to be unleashed upon this nation. No one with a conscience and morality is rooting for a civil war, but our figurehead president has already declared war, with the shooting yet to commence.

It feels much like the ambiguous period between Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861. We are waiting for the event and/or act which will initiate the vicious phase of this Fourth Turning. We know it will happen, but we don’t know when, where or who will pull the trigger.

“Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

Our civilized society is about to turn into a barbarous hellscape, unrecognizable from the comfort and safety we have grown accustomed to since the last Fourth Turning. The cycles of history spin from highs to lows, with death and destruction always entering the picture at some point. Human nature never changes; therefore, we are condemned to repeat the errors of the past while creating new errors along the way. That feeling of doom you should be experiencing at this point in history is well founded. Prepping for the coming storms is a worthwhile expenditure of your time but making sure you tribe up with like minded armed individuals will be your best bet to survive. You have been declared an enemy of the state. That is all the incentive you should need to do whatever is necessary to win this coming war. Remember – Whatever You Say, Say Nothing.

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