Month: July 2024

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“The Democrats are self-immolating on the altar of their own tenuous relationship with common decency.”

– Tom Luongo

“Life imitates art,” Oscar Wilde was fond of saying.

And so, all of a sudden on Sunday, the USA became an episode of Veep, after President “Joe Biden” had that fateful sit-down with God he’d hinted at a week or so ago:

God: Yeah, it’s me again. What I told you ‘bout dis ‘lection bidness?

“JB”: (cough cough) I gotta finish the job. (cough cough.)

God: Job, my ass. You ain’t done nuttin’ but eat ice cream cones, spend money dat don’t exist, and sniff up every chile come near you.

“JB”: No, you don’t understand! I’m defending democracy.

God: Oh yeah? Since when my will subject to some pissant caucus? In my mansion dey’s many doors, and this one is da exit, son. What I say, go. And when I say, ‘go,’ dat mean you git yo’self gone! I done wrote the letter and you signin’ on da dotted line right now.

“JB”: What if I won’t?

God: I’ma have to smite yo’ ass.

“JB”: Well, since you put it that way. . . but, say, do you happen to also have that pardon document we talked about. . .?

And so it went in the study at Rehoboth Beach Sunday afternoon. And all of a sudden, Veep Kamala Harris is elevated to be the putative nominee of the Party of Chaos going into the August convention. Most of the other talked-about replacements instantly endorsed her — Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Pete Buttigieg, et al. — as a convocation of mullahs might bless a goat about to be sacrificed. Kamala issued a stirring war cry: “Together, we will fight. And together, we will win.” Yawn. . . .

It was all pretend, of course, or, shall we say, a continuation of the pretend that is the core operating principle of the party. Everything it does is fake. Case in point, the marvelous statement by HRC (a.k.a. She-Whose-Turn-it-Ever-Is or Rodan the Flying Reptile), who put out this smarmy gem:

President Biden has capped his extraordinary career of service with a Presidency that has lifted America out of an unprecedented pandemic, created millions of new jobs, rebuilt a battered economy, strengthened our democracy, and restored our standing in the world. By any measure, he has advanced our founders’ charge to build a more perfect union and his own stated goal of restoring the soul of our nation.”

“Joe Biden” did all that?

Hillary, you see is buttering up the cloacal vent of the party so that she can wriggle up there and eat its brain, like one of those parasitical wasp larvae that get into a caterpillar.

She’s supporting Kamala until it becomes opportune not too, which is to say when the Deep State blob gets the heebie-jeebies about failing to steal the election, losing its positions of power and perqs, and very possibly facing prosecution for serious crimes. Of course, the weekend developments suggest that “Joe Biden” will have to vacate his position as Commander-in-Chief altogether. It’s too self-evident to even rehearse the particulars. It’s only a matter of when, and that probably hinges on his negotiated severance package — basically something that keeps his various  family members out of prison. Kamala will then rise to the Oval, ha ha ha.

In this moment of maximum uncertainty, then, the Party of Chaos will pretend to go along with Ms. Harris for a week or two, allowing the first woman president of-color many chances to utter world-scaring inanities and fall into cackling fits so as to demonstrate she can’t possibly be taken seriously.  

Suddenly you will see the long knives come out slicing and dicing Kamala like a daikon radish on the hibachi table, and anyone else besides HRC who dares to step up will get the same treatment.  

Notice that Mr. Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hakim, and Chuck (Nine-Ways-From-Sunday) Schumer haven’t chimed in for Kamala. They will, by God, get their convention free-for-all, though every bit of it will be scrupulously managed by the Big Dawgs. And out of that pandemonium will fly the indomitable Hillary, screeching, “Caw caw, abortion! Caw caw, Russia!” Could it work? No way.

In a truly fair election, Hillary would be run over by the Trump-Vance convoy and left a bit of smoldering roadkill, drawing flies, a sad end to all that coruscating ambition.

Not to change the subject too abrubtly, but here goes. . . have you caught that little convo on YouTube between George Gammon and Robert Barnes on the Trump assassination attempt?

Woo-wee, this one will rock your weltanschauung.

Here it is in a nutshell:

The attempted rub-out at Butler, PA, (Mr. Barnes theorizes) was a NeverTrumper / blob / neo-con joint operation that was supposed to work as follows: Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo, Deep Staters both, are on the outs with a GOP solidifying around Mr. Trump. Before the Milwaukee GOP Convention opens, they are chatting-up delegates in preparation for a kind of coup. The Butler, PA, op is timed before any nomination can occur. It’s (obviously) intended to eliminate the former president for once and for all and make sure there’s no veep candidate to step into his shoes. The blob then blames the Trump assassination on Iran, instantly conjuring up a fresh new war to distract the nation. The GOP Convention nominates war goddess Nikki for president and Pompeo for veep. The DC war party carries on in triumph. Fait accompli.

Notice, Mr. Barnes says, that CNN and other news networks that usually avoid broadcasting Trump rallies, are actually covering the Butler, PA, event live. They want all of America to see Donald Trump’s head explode like a Crenshaw melon on TV — sending the message: this is what happens to anyone who challenges the blob. Many other observers and investigators unconnected with the government are busy looking into the site forensics, lines of fire, shot acoustics, the strange facts around the alleged “shooter” (possibly patsy) Thomas Matthew Crooks, the stupendous failures of the Secret Service. A picture is resolving.

The old Sicilian adage goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. Surely, Mr. Trump knows a thing or two about what really went down July 17.

His adversaries know he knows, and he knows they know he knows.

Notice Mr. Trump is not jumping up and down going woo-woo-woo over all this. Rather, he’s sitting tight and calmly and holding his cards close to his chest. He will eventually be coming to settle accounts. So, you must suppose they’ll try again. Or figure out a way to postpone the election indefinitely. Nothing is beneath these fiends. Strangely — a lot of people have noticed — it seems that God is on our side. Stand by and keep your hats on.

*  *  *

Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

President Biden’s removal from the ticket for the 2024 election sent Kamala Harris odds of winning in November soaring (but we note she remains below the pre-debate levels that Biden had reached)…

Source: Bloomberg

In response, US Equities are bullishly trading “DC gridlock”, as Nomura’s Charlie McElligott suggests the downstream Democrat elections odds in House races are being perceived as having greatly improved their win probabilities post the party coup removal of Biden…

All the majors were higher today led by Small Caps and Mega-Cap tech. The Dow lagged, but ended green…

…while so-called “Trump trades” like cyclical–type sectors come under some modest pressure (Energy and Materials as S&P’s worst perf sectors)…

Source: Bloomberg

Mega-Cap tech and China ADRs (rate-cut) also ripped (in trump-trade-unwind-style)…

Source: Bloomberg

However, any ‘Trump trade” unwind is NOT evident in bond-land…

Source: Bloomberg

…with the curve bear-steepening (as we would expect because Trump’s “fiscal overstim / deregulation” bearish outcomes for Bonds are more problematic for the long-end of the curve)…

Source: Bloomberg

Which suggests, perhaps the equity gains are due to other issues…

As McElligott points out, another catalyst within this stocks rally resumption is the opportunity provided by last week’s predictable “Vol reset” after having overshot “too low” in prior weeks…

Arguably, we are seeing some relative election stability forming (we seemingly now have our candidates, fake democracy be damned) which, as already mentioned, looks increasingly “gridlock” / split outcome for DC which markets thrive in…

We had the “Vol reset” last week with implieds squeezed to relative highs, Skew at multi-month highs, VVIX at multi-month highs…which then provides quite a “Short Vol / Short Skew / Short Correlation” opportunity for the post Op-Ex snapback rally to gain further legs, even despite all the boogeyman of the Vol bottoming / bullish VIX seasonality into August which was a further contributor to last week’s de-risking movement…

Source: Bloomberg

While VIX is lower, very short-dated vol is elevated as the distribution of market outcomes broadened-out as evidenced by the demand for Tails, especially as the shock turn of political dramas coincided with increasingly “Correlation 1” de-risking experienced at the peak of last week’s Equities trade, with Longs and Shorts both going lower in unison at one point, with Nets being absolutely SLASHED in a monster de-grossing

Source: Bloomberg

 And all of these “calming” inputs most critically are occurring into the “meat” of Earnings season kicking-off with big Tech releases concentrated over the next two weeks, which, as McElligott notes, means we tend to see a large “Dispersion” effect, as Correlation goes lower (Earnings “winners and losers” going in opposite directions) and contributing to further Vol decline…while too, the “mechanical” overwriting and systematic “Vega supply” has not changed either, as the assets keep doing their thing…

Source: Nomura

The Nasdaq/Russell 2000 pair found support in its nine-month range and bounced today…

Source: Bloomberg

Goldman’s trading desk notes that overall activity levels are down very modestly from their recent averages, but the floor tilts -10% better for sale (that ranks 95th %-ile), driven exclusively by LOs

• LOs are -33% better for sale taking profits in every sector, ex Comm Svcs (+10% better to buy there).  Selling is most pronounced in Tech, HCare, Fins & Energy.  The overall supply skew in Energy, Fins and HCare rank in the 94th-96th %-iles.

• HFs are basically paired buy vs. sell.  Demand is balanced across Comm Svcs, REITs, Energy & Mats, while supply is balanced across Fins, Cons Disc & Macro Products.  ETF turnover at 34% of tape vs 29% ytd avg tells you fast money hedges moving around more actively today.

Away from bonds and stocks, it was relatively quiet.

Gold drifted modestly lower, erasing the post-CPI gains…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar went sideways….

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin chopped around between $67k and $68k, holding on to Friday’s gains (another example of NOT unwinding the Trump trade)…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil actually extended its trend lower though with WTI back below $80…

Source: Bloomberg

Yields were higher on the day – quite uniformly rising into and across the European close…

Source: Bloomberg

As, rather notably, rate-cut expectations continue to slide lower (with all 2025 dovish gains post-CPI erased)…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, the ‘bad news is good news’ trade appears to in opposite land for now as ‘good economic news has recently been bad news for stocks’…

Source: Bloomberg

Will some certainty about the 2024 election reassert the old trend?

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

Russia and Cuba have discussed the idea of building an oil refinery in Cuba with the help of Russian companies, the deputy speaker of the Russian parliament was quoted as saying.

During a visit of Russian lawmakers to Cuba in recent days, the idea of a refinery construction has been discussed, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted deputy speaker Alexander Babakov as saying.

“The biggest Russian state companies could be working here,” the lawmaker said.  

“Cuba has crude oil: it is logical not to import oil products but to produce them here,” TASS quoted Babakov as saying.

Russia and Cuba have held close ties since the 1950s when the Latin American country and the Soviet Union expanded ties as fellow communist states.

Cuba’s key crude oil supplier is nearby Venezuela.

However, shipments have dropped in recent years, also due to Venezuela’s crumbling oil industry and the U.S. sanctions against Cuba’s staunch ally, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.

The crumbling Venezuelan oil industry means that less fuel oil from the country sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves is reaching Cuban shores to power the old power plants on the island.

Cuba’s power generation is heavily dependent on oil products – according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Cuba’s energy supply mainly comes from oil products, which account for more than 80 percent of power generation.

Mass protests erupted in Cuba in 2021, due to the crisis in Venezuela and its oil industry.

Early this year, Cuba, which has seen chronic shortages of gasoline and other fuels, said fuel prices would jump by 500% from February 1, 2024.

The Cuban government can no longer manage a massive subsidy campaign that puts subsidized prices on nearly all essential goods and services.

Cuba has also imported some Russian crude since 2022. Then there was a year-long hiatus, before some Russian oil arrived in Cuba in March this year.

The final chapter of the electric vehicle price war ignited by Tesla’s Elon Musk could hinge on the outcome of the November elections, especially if former President Trump wins.

Trump has expressed no issues with EVs and recently stated, “I will end the Electric Vehicle Mandate on Day One — thereby saving the US auto industry from complete obliteration, and saving US customers thousands of dollars per car.” 

Translation: The former president states that all federal EV subsidies will end if he wins in November. 

But why would Musk support a complete reversal in the federal government’s policy on EV subsidies if Tesla relied so heavily on the EV credits to stoke demand? Unless Tesla is at the point where it no longer needs the taxpayer-funded gravy train. 

Last week, X user Whole Mars Catalog wrote on X:

“Tesla doesn’t need subsidies. The other unprofitable EV makers do. We are giving $7,500 to people who buy GAS cars with a small battery. We are capping the price of EVs, hurting the profitability of the industry. If the EV tax credit dies I won’t shed a tear for it.”

Musk responded: “Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla. Also, remove subsidies from all industries!” 

Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla.

Also, remove subsidies from all industries!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 16, 2024

In 2023, Tesla accounted for 55% of total US EV sales. As the dominant player in the market, Adam Jonas at Morgan Stanley noted earlier this year that consolidation was coming to weaker EV rivals of Tesla. 

Musk’s key to winning the EV price war appears to hinge on supporting Trump, whose position on cutting EV subsidies would only crush the competition, whether small EV startups or legacy OEMs. This means Tesla will easily defend its market share and remain dominant.  

In recent weeks, it has only become evident that Musk and Trump have held discussions behind the scenes. After all, Musk endorsed Trump following the attempted assassination of the former president last week by committing $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super PAC. 

Last month, Trump told the audience at a rally that Musk is “great” and “brilliant guy.” He even said, “I’m a big fan of electric cars.” 

“I like him, and I think a lot of people are going to want to buy electric cars but…if you want to buy a different type of car you have to have a choice—some people need to go far,” Trump said. 

Donald Trump last night on EVs and Elon Musk: “I’m a big fan of electric cars. I’m a big fan of Elon Musk. I like Elon. And I think a lot of people are going to want to buy electric cars, but if you want to buy a different type of car you have to have a choice.” pic.twitter.com/WDXoXhAEON

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) June 7, 2024

Musk’s strategy to win the EV price war: Build the largest EV business with taxpayer dollars, popularize EVs, allow other startups and OEMs to enter the market, and then support politicians who want to end EV subsidies, crushing the competition and leaving Tesla reigning supreme.

Well you can add this to a list of reasons Democrats just can’t seem to stomach Elon Musk any more.

The U.S. subsidiary of Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD and its top executive, Stella Li, have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates and organizations over the past decade.

A review of federal and state political spending records by the Daily Caller News Foundation reveals these contributions.

They found that between 2020 and 2023, BYD and Stella Li contributed over $40,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Additionally, they have invested more than $30,000 into organizations supporting President Joe Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign.

BYD, the world’s largest EV producer, was recently banned by Congress from selling batteries to the Pentagon due to security concerns, according to Bloomberg News.

The report says that between 2018 and 2023, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom received about $60,000 from Li and BYD USA. Newsom faced criticism for awarding BYD a $1 billion no-bid contract for protective equipment during the pandemic and later test-drove a BYD vehicle in China in 2023.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa received over $10,000 from Li for his unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial campaign, while the California Democratic Party got about $19,000 from Li and BYD USA between 2018 and 2020.

In 2015 and 2016, BYD USA and its executives donated over $11,000 to Michael Antonovich, former Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who often supported BYD-friendly initiatives.

Additionally, BYD USA contributed $25,000 in 2018 to Californians For Safe, Reliable Infrastructure, a group opposing Proposition 6, which aimed to repeal a gas tax.

In 2017 and 2018, BYD USA and Stella Li donated over $19,000 to Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de Leon. De Leon, then President pro Tempore of the California Senate, praised BYD at a 2017 ribbon-cutting for its Lancaster manufacturing facility, emphasizing the company’s role in job creation.

BYD is one of the world’s largest EV manufacturers and direct competition to U.S. based Tesla.

It focuses its Americas subsidiary on electric trucks, forklifts, and buses. The company is exploring entry into the U.S. EV market via Mexico and may benefit from the EPA’s new tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles.

BYD has expanded globally under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a $1 trillion effort to build infrastructure and increase China’s economic influence, potentially challenging U.S. geopolitical influence.

The company is frequently highlighted on the Chinese government’s “Belt and Road Portal” website.

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw as the Democratic Party’s nominee solved an immediate problem for his party. Biden has plummeted in the polls as the vast majority of voters concluded that he is too diminished by age to serve another term. Yet, it has now created several new problems, including the obvious problem of a president who is viewed as incapable of running for an office that he continues to hold.

The Democratic Party essentially created its own political version of the 25th Amendment in forcing Biden off the ticket. This decision was about as voluntary as leaving a building by way of a window on the 46th floor. That is particularly the case when you are thrown out of the window by your closest friends.

The unseemly image of succession by defenestration will soon be whitewashed by a media that will praise Biden after weeks of declaring him incompetent and enfeebled.

That, however, leaves the lingering question after the fall. How can Biden remain in office when he is incapable of running for the office?

Biden is notably vague about the reason for his withdrawal after maintaining for days that he will be the party’s nominee. He simply says that it is in the best interests of the country.

The Democratic establishment has two equally unappealing options.

• First, it could argue that Biden was withdrawing out of recognition that he is no longer politically viable. But that makes a mockery out of the democratic process. Millions of people went through the primary elections to select him as their nominee. Now he would be set aside and replaced by a vote of the party establishment like a shift in the Russian politburo.

• Second, it could admit that Biden was, as stated for weeks in the media and by figures like Special Counsel Robert Hur, greatly diminished both mentally and physically. However, that makes this withdrawal an admission that could trigger a fight under the 25th Amendment.

The development could create a new constitutional controversy. The 25th Amendment was written with largely physical disabilities in mind. If a president is comatose, the incapacity is obvious and Section 4 allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to sign a declaration to Congress that a president is incapable of holding office.

However, Harris is eager to avoid the image of Brutus in the dispatching of the president. To support such a declaration would risk Biden proclaiming “Et tu, Kamala?” to the nation. The key to succession by defenestration is not to be seen as the hand that pushes the president out the window. Politics follows the same rules as the mafia for capo di tutti i capi: Kill a don, never be a don. While sometimes honored in the breach in the mob, it is hardly an auspicious path for a politician.

There is, however, another intriguing possibility.

Section 4 provides that a president’s fitness can be put before Congress when the “Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or such other body as Congress may by law provide.”

Previously Democrats have cited that language to suggest that they could create their own body to force former President Donald Trump out of office. Indeed, Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-Md.) sponsored legislation called the Oversight Commission on Presidential Capacity Act to create a commission empowered to examine a president to Congress on the president’s capacity. It would circumvent the necessity of getting Harris to be the primary hand that dispatched a president.

The question is whether Congress will now make this decision to warrant an investigation or even a Raskin-like bill.

This is different than President Lyndon Johnson’s decision on March 31, 1968, that “I shall not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”

That was before any primaries.

In this case, Biden won a primary in which the Democratic Party obstructed anyone who would challenge him and barred any debate.

Millions voted for him, and tens of millions of dollars were contributed to his campaign.

He is now withdrawing weeks before accepting the nomination. That unprecedented decision alone would warrant a House investigation into Biden’s continuing capacity to serve in an office that he no longer believes he can run to occupy after January 2025.

Before this decision, a special counsel cited President Biden’s diminished faculties as a reason not to indict him for unlawfully retaining and handling classified material.

Now, the president is effectively saying that, in addition to being allegedly too diminished to be prosecuted, he is too diminished to run for the office that he currently holds.

The question is whether Biden has ended the fight to retain his nomination only to trigger a fight to retain his office.

New satellite images show the massive extent of the Saturday airstrikes by Israel on the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in Yemen. Teams are fighting the large blazes for the third day, after the port was essentially leveled. 

Regional reports say firefighters have made little progress, and that the blaze could soon reach food storage facilities, which would be devastating given much of the Yemeni population has for years faced an acute hunger crisis and relies heavily on external aid.

The Israeli Air Force launched the unprecedented operation in response to a prior deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv launched from Yemen. From Israel’s perspective, the drone strike which hit near foreign embassies was the last straw after months of hostile actions from the Houthis.

According to AFP analysis based on Maxar satellite imagery from Monday:

An analysis of satellite imagery by the Dutch peace organization PAX showed at least 33 destroyed oil storage tankers, said Wim Zwijnenburg, a project leader with the group.

“We expect (to find) more damage, as not all storage tanks are visible because of heavy smoke” from the fire and burning fuel, Zwijnenburg told AFP.

At least six were killed from the weekend attack, and over 80 injured. The Yemen Petroleum Company – which runs the destroyed fuel depot, says the six deceased were its employees.

Satellite images released by Maxar Technologies show the damage to the Port of Hodeidah in Yemen following Israel’s attack. pic.twitter.com/bJVLd2HFoS

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 21, 2024

The fuel depot is run by the Yemen Petroleum Company, which said late Sunday that the six people killed in the strike were its employees.

Port official Nasr Al-Nusairi was quoted in regional media on Sunday as saying, “We are working around the clock to receive all ships and there is no concern about the supply chain and supplies of food, medicine, and oil derivatives.”

This after some humanitarian groups sounded the alarm that vital supplies could be blocked due to the emergency situation. “Hodeidah port is a vital lifeline for delivering humanitarian aid to Yemen,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) told AFP. “Any impact on this infrastructure jeopardizes the entry of essential goods and hampers aid efforts.”

By Patrick McDonald of CampusReform

Scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education has been increasing for months, with more opponents finding what they see as radical or harmful aspects of the ideology. 

The latest example is a recently uncovered Duke University School of Medicine DEI plan that states that concepts such as “individualism” and “timeliness” can be a part of what the school describes as “white supremacy culture.”  

The 2021 report, “Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine,” was uncovered at a time of increasing scrutiny into DEI in higher education. 

The University of North Carolina, for example, is currently being required to give an account of how its different campuses are enforcing a Board of Governors directive to cut down DEI programs. Moreover, multiple other states, such as Utah and Alabama, have recently passed anti-DEI legislation. 

“White supremacy culture is the idea (ideology) that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions,” the Duke report explains, before providing specific instances of what can supposedly contribute to so-called “white supremacy culture.”

“In the workplace, white supremacy culture explicitly and implicitly privileges whiteness and discriminates against non-Western and non-white professionalism standards related to dress code, speech, work style, and timeliness,” the report continues. “Some identifiable characteristics of this culture includes [sic] perfectionism, belief that there’s only one right way, power hoarding, individualism, sense of urgency and defensiveness.”

“Duke Medical’s DEI plan says ‘timeliness’ is white supremacist,” Steve McGuire, Paul & Karen Levy Fellow in Campus Freedom at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, posted to X on Tuesday. “The same plan identifies a lack of timely responses to discrimination complaints as a top concern among constituents.”

Additionally, the report lists five goals for “Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion” in what the school terms a “strategic plan framework.”

The university’s DEI goals include: “Enhance racial diversity and equity, inclusion and respect for all of our constituents,” “Catalyze anti-racist practice through education of our current and future workforce,” and “Establish our School as a transformative leader in anti-racism and social justice education and research.”

The medical school’s report also contains a section about Critical Race Theory.

“Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a theoretical framework and movement that examines how the appearance of race and racism is expressed across the dominant culture,” the paper states. “CRT scholars note that the social construction of race and racism is a regular component of American society; it is embedded in structures such as law, culture, and economics, which supports the interests of white people.”

Campus Reform has contacted Duke University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

We reported earlier that the Ukrainian side seemed to react positively to former President Donald Trump’s phone call with President Zelensky on Friday, as the Republican nominee for president conveyed that upon taking the White House his priority will be to explore achieving peace with Russia.

Trump wrote in the call aftermath that “I, as your next President of the United States, will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families.” He added that “Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity.”

But some influential Ukrainian officials are already warning Zelensky against too hastily taking to the negotiating table. Zelensky has in the past consistently rejected the idea of sitting down with Moscow, and has openly stated he intends to refuse so long as Putin is leader of Russia.

But amid ongoing devastating troop losses, lack of artillery ammunition compared to much better-armed Russian forces, and a general war fatigue setting in, Zelensky could eventually welcome the kind of opening toward peace that a potential Trump presidency provides.

Kyiv’s mayor said on Sunday that Zelensky risks “political suicide” should he pursue a peace deal which ends in Ukraine ceding territory to Russia. 

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Sunday:

“How can we explain to the country that we need to give up pieces of our territory that cost the lives of thousands of our fighting heroes? Whatever move he makes, our president risks political suicide.”

He admitted that the coming few months will be “very difficult” for Zelensky, and that the Ukrainian populace will want a say in the country’s fate. So the scenario of holding a referendum on the question of a deal with Moscow would be likely at some future point.

“I don’t think he can reach such painful and important agreements on his own without popular legitimization,” Klitschko said of the question of territorial concessions. He said this could be a “way out” for Zelensky, as well as the creation of a national unity government.

Zelensky has stayed in power, extending a term which would have ended this past spring, through martial law, and Mayor Klitschko expressed that it’s anything but clear whether Zelensky is willing to give up power in order to achieve peace.

But, Klitschko explained, the reality is that the situation on the ground is “more and more complicated” given success depends on the constant delivery of foreign aid, and ultimately “It would be a nightmare if we had to fight for another two years.”

Among those factions within Ukraine likely to take revenge on Zelensky if he ever opted for a path of peace and negotiation includes Azov Brigade and others among hardline, neo-Nazi linked political coalitions such as Right Sector.