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When It Comes To Economic Suffering, Some Parts Of The US Are Feeling It Far More Than Others

When It Comes To Economic Suffering, Some Parts Of The US Are Feeling It Far More Than Others

Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/27/2020 – 17:04

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

2020 has been a very tough year for the U.S. as a whole, but some portions of the country have been hit much harder than others.  For example, if you live in a rural area that hasn’t seen any civil unrest and that hasn’t been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, the way that you are living your life now may seem nearly unchanged from the way you were living your life in 2019. 

But if you live in an urban area that has experienced endless protests and rioting and that has seen COVID-19 sweep through local neighborhoods like wildfire, your life in 2020 may look radically different from the way it looked in 2019.

Unfortunately, conditions in our largest cities are not likely to improve dramatically any time soon.

But many people that live in rural communities are feeling pretty good about things right now.  Even though more than 52 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits over the last 18 weeks, the official unemployment rate in many rural counties is still in the single digits.

I know that may be difficult to believe, but that is what the numbers tell us.

Sadly, in many of our largest cities it is a completely different story.  New York City was one of the early epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, and many of us will never forget watching video footage of the looting that took place in the heart of Manhattan earlier this year.  As a result of all of this chaos, the unemployment rate in the state as a whole is nearly twice the national average…

New York’s unemployment rate rose to 20.4% last month, according to state-level data issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that detailed figures for some large metro areas. That’s up from 18.3% in May and 15% in April.

We see a very similar story when we look at the city of Los Angeles.

Thanks to COVID-19 and endless civil unrest, the official unemployment rate in the city is hovering near 20 percent…

Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. city, has seen a similar level of joblessness.

Its unemployment rate recovered slightly in June but remains startlingly high — at 19.5%, versus 20.6% in May, according to data published Friday by California’s Employment Development Department.

Unfortunately, it appears that the COVID-19 pandemic and the violence in our major cities are both going to be with us for the foreseeable future.

Some people think that the civil unrest will disappear if Joe Biden wins in November, but I do not believe that is the case.  Nearly all of the major cities where the violence is happening are controlled by radical Democrats, and those radical Democrats have been completely unable to control the riots.  To the protesters, Republicans and Democrats are both two sides of the same coin and are both responsible for the injustices in our society, and they are not going to give up on their goals just because a moderate Democrat like Joe Biden wins the election.

At this point, millions upon millions of Americans are sticking closer to home these days because of COVID-19 and all the unrest, and this has been particularly devastating for the leisure and hospitality industries…

The unemployment rate in the leisure and hospitality industries, including restaurants, soared from 5.7% in February to 39.3% in April, and in June was still at an unprecedented 28.9%. By comparison, the overall unemployment rate is 11.1%, and no other industry comes close to restaurants’ level.

The restaurant industry employed nearly 9.2 million people in June, almost 3 million more than in April but still 25% below where it was in February. Anecdotally, though, restaurant workers—even those who’ve spent decades in the industry—say they’re looking to get out. The line of work that had been stable, geographically flexible, reliable and largely safe for generations is no more, they say.

As I discussed the other day, we have already lost thousands upon thousands of small and independent restaurants, and this “restaurant apocalypse” is only going to get worse with each passing month.

Moving forward, some cities may never be the same again.  In Las Vegas, the official unemployment rate recently hit 29 percent, and everyone agrees that tourism will never recover until the pandemic ends.

If this pandemic stretches on for several years, many of those unemployed workers will be forced to abandon the city entirely in order to find work elsewhere.

Sadly, competition for the few good jobs that are available will become increasingly fierce, and this will result in millions of Americans falling out of the middle class.

And we are starting to see some numbers that indicate that this process is already moving along very quickly.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, “24 million Americans say they have little to no chance of being able to pay next month’s rent”.

Just think about that.

We never saw anything like this during the last recession, and the Census Bureau says that things are particular dire for Black and Hispanic renters…

This month, nearly 28% of Black renters say they haven’t paid last month’s rent, and about 46% say they have slight or no confidence they’ll be able to pay next month’s rent, according to figures from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Hispanic renters face similar economic strain: 22% say they missed last month’s rent and 46% fear they won’t make rent next month.

Those numbers are simply eye-popping.  As people increasingly get behind on their bills, the cries for more direct government assistance will become deafening, and it appears that Republicans and Democrats in Congress both want to pass yet another stimulus bill.

Of course that will mean borrowing and spending more gigantic piles of money that we do not currently have, but at this point most Americans do not seem to care that we are literally completely destroying our financial future.

For such a long time, I warned that the next economic downturn would be worse than the last recession, and that has turned out to be precisely correct.

And what we are experiencing right now will pale in comparison to what is eventually coming.

But for most people, the only thing that seems to matter is what is happening here and now.

And at this moment we are seeing tremendous economic suffering in major cities all over the nation, and in an election year very few of our politicians want to be the “bad guy” that says that we can’t hand out “free money” to everyone.

So our currency will continue to be rapidly devalued, our debt levels will continue to explode, and we shall get to see where this relentless march toward socialism takes us.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2CUd1IP Tyler Durden

Notre Dame Withdraws From Hosting First Presidential Debate; “Could Be Conducted Online”

Notre Dame Withdraws From Hosting First Presidential Debate; “Could Be Conducted Online”

Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/27/2020 – 16:42

The University of Notre Dame has withdrawn from hosting the first Trump-Biden debate scheduled for September 29, citing advice from the St. Joseph County deputy health director, and the “diminished educational value” of hosting the event.

In a unanimous decision by the Executive Committee of the University’s Board of Trustees, University President John Jenkins – who sits on the Commission on Presidential Debates – says he made “this difficult decision because the necessary health precautions would have greatly diminished the educational value of hosting the debate on our campus.”

Jenkins added that “the inevitable reduction in student attendance in the debate hall, volunteer opportunities and ancillary educational events undermined the primary benefit of hosting — to provide our students with a meaningful opportunity to engage in the American political process.”

Instead, the debate will move to Sampson Pavilion at the Health Education Campus (HEC) in Cleveland, Ohio on the same date, September 29.

According to HEC President Barbara Snyder, “Samson Pavilion provides a particularly apt setting for this first debate” (in case Biden’s brain needs a reboot?), adding “It takes place soon after the start of the nation’s first full school year under the constraints and risks of the pandemic, and focuses specifically on health care.“

That said, Snyder mentioned in an email to faculty, staff and students that “pandemic developments could require that the debate be conducted online,” adding that “It is no one’s preference, of course, but as we have seen firsthand, much can change in nine weeks.“

Read the full letter below:

The change in venue – and acknowledgement that it could become a virtual debate is sure to stoke concerns that Biden’s ‘handlers’ are trying anything and everything to avoid having the cognitively challenged former VP face off against Trump in person.

As Robert Bridge of The Strategic Culture Foundation wrote last week:

Democrats are determined to ax a series of scheduled debates between the apparent Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, and the Republican incumbent, Donald Trump. If they succeed, this would be the crowning achievement of the radical left.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/39AaBLi Tyler Durden

The Libertarian Party Mourns Garrett Foster, Activist Killed at a Black Lives Matter Protest

Garrett Foster

Garrett Foster, a libertarian activist, was killed on Saturday while attending a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest in Austin. While the events surrounding his death are still being investigated, libertarians who recognize the importance of being involved in the anti-police brutality protests have expressed their sadness for his loss, and are reminding others that libertarians have both an opportunity and a duty to participate in the current debate on American policing. 

Foster attended a BLM protest with his fiancée, Whitney Mitchell. The pair met when they were teenagers and moved to Austin a few years ago. Foster was lauded by his family and several others for the care he provided for Mitchell, a quadruple amputee. Foster and Mitchell were actively involved in local BLM protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

There is some dispute between the Austin Police Department (APD) and numerous witnesses over details in the official story, Intelligencer reports.

On Saturday, Foster was exercising his right to open-carry an AK-47 rifle, as allowed by Texas state law, and marching alongside fellow protesters. Just before 10 p.m., the protesters crossed the intersection of Fourth Street and Congress Avenue. That’s when a driver, who remains unidentified by the APD, aggressively accelerated his car towards the crowd of protesters. The protesters, including Foster, who was pushing Mitchell through the intersection, approached the vehicle in an attempt to get the driver to stop.

Both witnesses on the scene and the APD confirm that the driver fatally shot Foster from the vehicle and that Foster did not discharge his weapon during the encounter. Another member of the crowd returned fire. The APD says both shooters had licenses to carry.

The fact in dispute is whether Foster pointed his weapon at the driver. Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said on Sunday that the driver maintained Foster had aimed his gun towards him, leading him to shoot. Several witnesses say the opposite is true. They maintain that Foster’s rifle was pointed downward. The APD has asked for video and pictures from the scene.

While Foster’s loved ones grieve, libertarians also honor Foster’s life and his commitment to principle. Foster was very vocal about his support for Libertarian Party presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen and vice-presidential candidate Spike Cohen.

Cohen tells Reason that he was “honored” to have someone like Foster in the movement and that Foster will be “greatly missed” by his loved ones and those in the Libertarian Party.

“Garrett Foster understood that libertarianism was about speaking on behalf of those who are the most acutely affected by the abuses perpetrated by an overly aggressive and unaccountable government,” Cohen says.

Cohen notes that libertarians “can stand back and allow this movement to be co-opted by authoritarians who push for even worse policies or,” like Foster, “we can take our natural place within this movement, which is largely espousing and advocating for policies that we’ve been advocating for since we were founded in 1971.”

Libertarian National Committee Chair Joe Bishop-Henchman tells Reason, “Garrett joined the [Libertarian Party] in 2017, and while I never got to meet him, his enthusiasm for a better world and the Jorgensen/Cohen campaign was evident. Libertarians across the country are mourning his loss.”

Bishop-Henchman adds that libertarians are “joining efforts” to work towards criminal justice and policing reforms, “which have been consistent positions of ours for decades.”

“We bow our head at the passing of Libertarian Garrett Foster,” the Libertarian National Party tweeted on Sunday.

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Injunction in Libel Case Against the Spamhaus Project

From today’s decision by Joseph F. Bataillon in DatabaseUSA.com LLC v. Spamhaus Project:

Earlier, the Court entered a default judgment … against defendant The Spamhaus Project (Spamhaus) and in favor of DatabaseUSA. The Court found the allegations of DatabaseUSA’s complaint, deemed admitted by Spamhaus’s default, properly established the elements of its claims and satisfied the standards for entry of a default judgment against Spamhaus for defamation and tortious interference with a business relationship….

DatabaseUSA now seeks damages in the nominal amount of one dollar, as well as injunctive relief. It contends its damages are difficult to ascertain and also argues that it will suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction. DatabaseUSA proposes that the Court enter an injunction ordering defendant Spamhaus to:

  1. Publish a statement on the blocklist website that com LLC was wrongfully included on the blocklist from May 2017 until the date of this order;
  2. include in its published statement a reference to this action by name and case number; and
  3. remove DatabaseUSA from the blocklist going forward, or provide DatabaseUSA with an explanation for why DatabaseUSA is on the blocklist and an explanation for how DatabaseUSA can be removed from the …

Traditionally, American courts have abided by the rule that “equity will not enjoin a libel” because “damages provide an adequate remedy at law … and to enjoin defamation is to effect an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.” Sid Dillon Chevrolet, Inc. v. Sullivan (Neb. 1997). However, there is an exception to the general rule where there has been a prior adjudication of falsity.

See Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm’n on Hum. Rels. (1973) (stating the Supreme Court “has never held that all injunctions are impermissible” and noting that “[t]he special vice of a prior restraint is that communication will be suppressed … before an adequate determination that it is unprotected by the First Amendment”); Auburn Police Union v. Carpenter (1st Cir. 1993) (stating “a judicial injunction that prohibits speech prior to a determination that the speech is unprotected … constitutes a prior restraint” (emphasis added)); Sid Dillon Chevrolet (“Absent a prior adversarial determination that the complained of publication is false or a misleading representation of fact, equity will not issue to enjoin a libel or slander, unless such libel or slander is published (1) in violation of a trust or contract or (2) in aid of another tort or unlawful act, or injunctive relief is essential for the preservation of a property right.” (emphasis added)). A restraint via an injunction is permissible if the speech has “been adjudicated to be libelous and therefore not to be protected under the First Amendment.” Nolan v. Campbell (Neb. Ct. App. 2004); see also TM v. MZ (Mich. Ct. App. 2018); Hill v. Petrotech Res. Corp. (Ky. 2010); Balboa Island Village Inn, Inc. v. Lemen (Cal. 2007); San Antonio Comm. Hosp. v. S. Cal. Dist. Council of Carpenters (9th Cir. 1997); Lothschuetz v. Carpenter (6th Cir. 1990); Advanced Training Sys., Inc. v. Caswell Equip. Co., Inc. (Minn. 1984); Organovo Holdings, Inc. v. Dimitrov (Del. Ch. 2017) (all holding that a trial court may enjoin a defendant from making defamatory statements after there has been a determination that the speech is, in fact, false).

Once the speech is found to be false, the question becomes whether the injunction is sufficiently narrow to survive strict scrutiny. In order for an injunction to pass constitutional muster, the suppression must be limited to the precise statements already found libelous. Nolan; see also Advanced Training Sys. v. Caswell Equip. Co. (Minn. 1984) (“We therefore hold that the injunction below, limited as it is to material found either libelous or disparaging after a full jury trial, is not unconstitutional and may stand.”); O’Brien v. Univ. Cmty. Tenants Union, Inc. (Ohio 1975) (“Once speech has judicially been found libelous, if all the requirements for injunctive relief are met, an injunction for restraint of continued publication of that same speech may be proper.”).

Further, a determination that statements were false and defamatory may be based upon an adjudication that results from the entry of a default judgment. See Loden v. Schmidt (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015); see also Lothschuetz (reversing district court’s denial of injunctive relief as an unwarranted restraint on freedom of speech and granting a narrow injunction limited to the statements that had been found, on default, to be false and libelous); Baker v. Kuritzky (D. Mass. 2015) (enjoining specific statements that had been found, by virtue of the default, to be libelous). Also, injunctive relief is a common and non-controversial remedy for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. Organovo Holdings, (recognizing that a request for equitable remedies for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage can provide the requisite basis for equitable jurisdiction that can justify a related injunction against future speech)….

Continuing defamatory conduct has been held to irreparably injure plaintiffs. Also, “[l]oss of intangible assets such as reputation and goodwill can constitute irreparable injury.” … DatabaseUSA has demonstrated an irreparable injury. It has shown damage to its reputation, a loss of customers, and loss of potential revenue as a result of Spamhaus’s defamation and tortious interference. Spamhaus’s continued wrongful listing of DatabaseUSA as a spammer has a potentially to greatly impact DatabaseUSA’s business. DatabaseUSA has shown that its generally good business reputation that was damaged by Spamhaus’s tortious conduct and the loss associated with damage to its brand or goodwill is difficult to quantify. The inability to calculate DatabaseUSA’s future loss with reasonable precision makes legal remedies inadequate in this case….

In contrast, the burden on Spamhaus in complying with the terms of the narrowly drawn injunction appears slight. Spamhaus did not appear or respond to Database’s allegations in this case. The effort required to post a notice in the nature of a retraction on its website is negligible. The Court finds the negligible harm inflicted on Spamhaus by a narrowly drawn injunction is outweighed by the potential harm to DatabaseUSA in denying the injunction. The public’s interest is furthered by allowing vindication of tortious conduct.

 

The Court also finds that entry of a narrowly drawn injunction in this case will not implicate constitutional concerns. This is a case involving commercial speech, which is afforded less deference under the First Amendment. Because there has been an adjudication, by virtue of the default judgment, of the falsity of the challenged statements, the constitutional problems associated with a prior restraint are not present. Enjoining Spamhaus’s continuing course of repetitive defamatory conduct does not affect an improper and unconstitutional prior restraint on protected speech.

DatabaseUSA’s proposed injunction passes constitutional muster in part. Its proposed injunction is directed only at the speech that has been adjudicated to be false—the 2017 inclusion of DatabaseUSA on the spammer list. It is properly limited to prohibiting Spamhaus from repeating statements that have been determined to be defamatory. Accordingly, the Court will adopt the plaintiff’s proposal to the extent it is directed at Spamhaus’s past conduct…

Nonetheless, an injunction on future speech must be no more broad than necessary to remedy the wrongful conduct alleged in the complaint. In its complaint, DatabaseUSA challenged its inclusion on a domain block list represented to contain only the domain names of entities “that send emails including phishing, fraud, ‘419,’ malware, or viruses” despite the fact that Database “has never partaken in any of [those] prohibited actions,” without providing “any reason or justification for placing Database on the blocklist.” The conduct addressed in this action is Spamhaus’s wrongful listing of DatabaseUSA.com on its DBL without justification. Going forward, the Court will tailor the injunction as precisely as possible to the needs of the case and the injunction will be aimed only at the conduct that has been found objectionable.

A blanket injunction ordering the defendant not to include DatabaseUSA.com on the DBL in the future would be overly broad and could prohibit speech that is not defamatory. The Court will not enjoin all future listing of DatabaseUSA.com on the DBL but will require Spamhaus to provide a rationale for the listing to DatabaseUSA. Spamhaus is not prevented from including DatabaseUSA.com on its list if it furnishes legitimate reasons for doing so.

Continue reading “Injunction in Libel Case Against the Spamhaus Project”

Injunction in Libel Case Against the Spamhaus Project

From today’s decision by Joseph F. Bataillon in DatabaseUSA.com LLC v. Spamhaus Project:

Earlier, the Court entered a default judgment … against defendant The Spamhaus Project (Spamhaus) and in favor of DatabaseUSA. The Court found the allegations of DatabaseUSA’s complaint, deemed admitted by Spamhaus’s default, properly established the elements of its claims and satisfied the standards for entry of a default judgment against Spamhaus for defamation and tortious interference with a business relationship….

DatabaseUSA now seeks damages in the nominal amount of one dollar, as well as injunctive relief. It contends its damages are difficult to ascertain and also argues that it will suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction. DatabaseUSA proposes that the Court enter an injunction ordering defendant Spamhaus to:

  1. Publish a statement on the blocklist website that com LLC was wrongfully included on the blocklist from May 2017 until the date of this order;
  2. include in its published statement a reference to this action by name and case number; and
  3. remove DatabaseUSA from the blocklist going forward, or provide DatabaseUSA with an explanation for why DatabaseUSA is on the blocklist and an explanation for how DatabaseUSA can be removed from the …

Traditionally, American courts have abided by the rule that “equity will not enjoin a libel” because “damages provide an adequate remedy at law … and to enjoin defamation is to effect an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.” Sid Dillon Chevrolet, Inc. v. Sullivan (Neb. 1997). However, there is an exception to the general rule where there has been a prior adjudication of falsity.

See Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm’n on Hum. Rels. (1973) (stating the Supreme Court “has never held that all injunctions are impermissible” and noting that “[t]he special vice of a prior restraint is that communication will be suppressed … before an adequate determination that it is unprotected by the First Amendment”); Auburn Police Union v. Carpenter (1st Cir. 1993) (stating “a judicial injunction that prohibits speech prior to a determination that the speech is unprotected … constitutes a prior restraint” (emphasis added)); Sid Dillon Chevrolet (“Absent a prior adversarial determination that the complained of publication is false or a misleading representation of fact, equity will not issue to enjoin a libel or slander, unless such libel or slander is published (1) in violation of a trust or contract or (2) in aid of another tort or unlawful act, or injunctive relief is essential for the preservation of a property right.” (emphasis added)). A restraint via an injunction is permissible if the speech has “been adjudicated to be libelous and therefore not to be protected under the First Amendment.” Nolan v. Campbell (Neb. Ct. App. 2004); see also TM v. MZ (Mich. Ct. App. 2018); Hill v. Petrotech Res. Corp. (Ky. 2010); Balboa Island Village Inn, Inc. v. Lemen (Cal. 2007); San Antonio Comm. Hosp. v. S. Cal. Dist. Council of Carpenters (9th Cir. 1997); Lothschuetz v. Carpenter (6th Cir. 1990); Advanced Training Sys., Inc. v. Caswell Equip. Co., Inc. (Minn. 1984); Organovo Holdings, Inc. v. Dimitrov (Del. Ch. 2017) (all holding that a trial court may enjoin a defendant from making defamatory statements after there has been a determination that the speech is, in fact, false).

Once the speech is found to be false, the question becomes whether the injunction is sufficiently narrow to survive strict scrutiny. In order for an injunction to pass constitutional muster, the suppression must be limited to the precise statements already found libelous. Nolan; see also Advanced Training Sys. v. Caswell Equip. Co. (Minn. 1984) (“We therefore hold that the injunction below, limited as it is to material found either libelous or disparaging after a full jury trial, is not unconstitutional and may stand.”); O’Brien v. Univ. Cmty. Tenants Union, Inc. (Ohio 1975) (“Once speech has judicially been found libelous, if all the requirements for injunctive relief are met, an injunction for restraint of continued publication of that same speech may be proper.”).

Further, a determination that statements were false and defamatory may be based upon an adjudication that results from the entry of a default judgment. See Loden v. Schmidt (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015); see also Lothschuetz (reversing district court’s denial of injunctive relief as an unwarranted restraint on freedom of speech and granting a narrow injunction limited to the statements that had been found, on default, to be false and libelous); Baker v. Kuritzky (D. Mass. 2015) (enjoining specific statements that had been found, by virtue of the default, to be libelous). Also, injunctive relief is a common and non-controversial remedy for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. Organovo Holdings, (recognizing that a request for equitable remedies for tortious interference with prospective economic advantage can provide the requisite basis for equitable jurisdiction that can justify a related injunction against future speech)….

Continuing defamatory conduct has been held to irreparably injure plaintiffs. Also, “[l]oss of intangible assets such as reputation and goodwill can constitute irreparable injury.” … DatabaseUSA has demonstrated an irreparable injury. It has shown damage to its reputation, a loss of customers, and loss of potential revenue as a result of Spamhaus’s defamation and tortious interference. Spamhaus’s continued wrongful listing of DatabaseUSA as a spammer has a potentially to greatly impact DatabaseUSA’s business. DatabaseUSA has shown that its generally good business reputation that was damaged by Spamhaus’s tortious conduct and the loss associated with damage to its brand or goodwill is difficult to quantify. The inability to calculate DatabaseUSA’s future loss with reasonable precision makes legal remedies inadequate in this case….

In contrast, the burden on Spamhaus in complying with the terms of the narrowly drawn injunction appears slight. Spamhaus did not appear or respond to Database’s allegations in this case. The effort required to post a notice in the nature of a retraction on its website is negligible. The Court finds the negligible harm inflicted on Spamhaus by a narrowly drawn injunction is outweighed by the potential harm to DatabaseUSA in denying the injunction. The public’s interest is furthered by allowing vindication of tortious conduct.

 

The Court also finds that entry of a narrowly drawn injunction in this case will not implicate constitutional concerns. This is a case involving commercial speech, which is afforded less deference under the First Amendment. Because there has been an adjudication, by virtue of the default judgment, of the falsity of the challenged statements, the constitutional problems associated with a prior restraint are not present. Enjoining Spamhaus’s continuing course of repetitive defamatory conduct does not affect an improper and unconstitutional prior restraint on protected speech.

DatabaseUSA’s proposed injunction passes constitutional muster in part. Its proposed injunction is directed only at the speech that has been adjudicated to be false—the 2017 inclusion of DatabaseUSA on the spammer list. It is properly limited to prohibiting Spamhaus from repeating statements that have been determined to be defamatory. Accordingly, the Court will adopt the plaintiff’s proposal to the extent it is directed at Spamhaus’s past conduct…

Nonetheless, an injunction on future speech must be no more broad than necessary to remedy the wrongful conduct alleged in the complaint. In its complaint, DatabaseUSA challenged its inclusion on a domain block list represented to contain only the domain names of entities “that send emails including phishing, fraud, ‘419,’ malware, or viruses” despite the fact that Database “has never partaken in any of [those] prohibited actions,” without providing “any reason or justification for placing Database on the blocklist.” The conduct addressed in this action is Spamhaus’s wrongful listing of DatabaseUSA.com on its DBL without justification. Going forward, the Court will tailor the injunction as precisely as possible to the needs of the case and the injunction will be aimed only at the conduct that has been found objectionable.

A blanket injunction ordering the defendant not to include DatabaseUSA.com on the DBL in the future would be overly broad and could prohibit speech that is not defamatory. The Court will not enjoin all future listing of DatabaseUSA.com on the DBL but will require Spamhaus to provide a rationale for the listing to DatabaseUSA. Spamhaus is not prevented from including DatabaseUSA.com on its list if it furnishes legitimate reasons for doing so.

Continue reading “Injunction in Libel Case Against the Spamhaus Project”

National Guardsman Contradicts Trump Administration’s Account of Use of Force Against Protesters

trump-bible

A National Guard officer will testify Tuesday at a congressional hearing that the June 1 clearing of protesters outside the White House was “an unnecessary escalation of the use of force” and “deeply disturbing to me, and to fellow National Guardsmen.”

“From my observation, those demonstrators—our fellow American citizens—were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights,” Adam DeMarco, a major in the D.C. National Guard, will tell the House Natural Resources Committee, according to his prepared remarks. “Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.”

DeMarco’s testimony directly contradicts several of the Trump administration’s shifting explanations for what happened on June 1, when law enforcement violently dispersed a crowd of protesters in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House. After police cleared the crowds, President Donald Trump conducted a photo shoot of himself holding a Bible outside St. John’s Church.

DeMarco and other National Guardsmen were deployed outside the White House on June 1, along with U.S. Park Police, Secret Service, and other federal law enforcement. A 7 p.m. curfew was in place in D.C. that evening.

DeMarco testifies that around 6 p.m., Attorney General William Barr and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived.

“As the senior National Guard officer on the scene at the time, I gave General Milley a quick briefing on our mission and the current situation,” DeMarco writes. “General Milley told me to ensure that National Guard personnel remained calm, adding that we were there to respect the demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.” (Milley has since apologized for appearing in Lafayette Square. “I should not have been there,” he said. “My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created the perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”)

At around 6:20 p.m., DeMarco continues, verbal warnings were given to the crowd to leave. But from where he was standing, about 20 yards away from the line of protesters, the warnings “were barely audible and I saw no indication that the demonstrators were cognizant of the warnings to disperse.”

Law enforcement rushed the crowd at around 6:30 p.m. Videos showed law enforcement assaulting an Australian TV crew. Media and other observers also reported being tear gassed.

The Trump administration says that protesters were throwing items at law enforcement, which DeMarco testifies he did not see. Park Police also emphatically denied they fired tear gas, claiming that officers instead fired smoke canisters and pepper balls, the latter of which are also a chemical irritant. But DeMarco says that tear gas was indeed used.

“The Park Police liaison officer told me that the explosions were ‘stage smoke,’ and that no tear gas was being deployed against the demonstrators,” he writes. “But I could feel irritation in my eyes and nose, and based on my previous exposure to tear gas in my training at West Point and later in my Army training, I recognized that irritation as effects consistent with CS or ‘tear gas.’ And later that evening, I found spent tear gas cannisters on the street nearby.”

The Trump reelection campaign demanded media outlets issue a correction about any tear gas reporting. “Every news organization which reported the tear gas lie should immediately correct or retract its erroneous reporting,” Tim Murtaugh, campaign communications director, said in a statement.

As Reason‘s Elizabeth Nolan-Brown pointed out at the time, whether tear gas was used is rather incidental to the larger issue of the government attacking protesters so the president can do a silly photo op. But the distraction served its primary purpose for the White House and conservative media: to muddy the waters enough that average news consumers might shrug their shoulders and ignore the whole thing.

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Why Does It Feel Like We’re In “Life During Wartime”?

Why Does It Feel Like We’re In “Life During Wartime”?

Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/27/2020 – 16:24

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

The laughably hopeless hope is that by propping up the corpses, the populace will discern some faint flicker of life in the decaying carcasses and return to their free-spending ways.

Call it cultural synchronicity, but it increasingly feels like we’re living in the 1979 Talking Heads song Life During Wartime, which was anchored by the lyric “This Ain’t No Party, This Ain’t No Disco, This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around.” Indeed.

It also feels like Life During Wartime because the propaganda is so blatant and intense: we’re winning the war on Covid-19, and our wars on everything else, too, of course, as war is the favored metaphor and favored policy at the end of the Empire.

The ceaseless propaganda is that “a vaccine is right around the corner.” The inconvenient reality is that Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine: Well-timed stock bets have generated big profits for senior executives and board members at companies developing vaccines and treatments.

In other words, wartime profiteering isn’t just allowed, it’s encouraged–yet another sign that we’re in the final decay/collapse phase of Imperial Pretensions.

It’s easy to mix up the propaganda and the counter-propaganda, because they’re both so extreme. There is no middle ground, only pre-packaged positions which dictate which “data” is cherry-picked to support the political partisanship that’s being defended.

Is Data Our New False Religion? (June 23, 2020)

In a world of thousands of unread papers published in hundreds of scientific journals no one even reads and a corrupt culture of “science for sale,” there’s a veritable orchard to cherry-pick.

“Robert Horton, editor in chief of The Lancet, one of the most respected professional peer reviewed publications in the world dealing with biomedical research had this to say in an editorial published by The Lancet in April of 2015:”

“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness.”

source: What is medicine’s 5 sigma?

“And this, published in 2009, by Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, another world leading publication in medical research:”

“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.”

Skeptical of medical science reports? (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Metaphorically speaking, the civilian populace believes “we’re winning” until the bombs start dropping on their homes. For some reason, this doesn’t feel like “winning.”

The V-shaped recovery is the propaganda war the status quo must win, for this is the narrative battle for the hearts and minds of the populace. The fear here is that should the populace lose confidence in The V-shaped recovery, they might reduce their borrowing and spending and increase their saving, dooming an economy that depends entirely on marginal spending funded by debt to keep from imploding.

As the chart of the rising wedge model of breakdown below illustrates, when big-ticket costs ratchet higher like clockwork–rent, property taxes, childcare, higher education, debt, healthcare, etc.– while income stagnates for the bottom 90%, any drop in spending, no matter how modest, breaks the system because any reduction in spending reduces tax revenues, corporate profits and debt payments below the critical threshold.

This is why the Federal Reserve is so keen on bailing out bankrupt-in-all-but-name corporations and banks: The laughably hopeless hope is that by propping up the corpses, the populace will discern some faint flicker of life in the decaying carcasses and return to their free-spending ways.

This is also why “stimulus” is being scattered from helicopters: the hope is that by substituting borrowed trillions for earned trillions, people will substitute magical thinking for clear-eyed recognition that the era of “growth” has transitioned into the era of DeGrowth, a state of affairs that signals the demise of all the bloated, sclerotic institutions operated to benefit insiders and Corporate America’s cartels and monopolies: the most protected bastions of the era, colleges and hospitals, are going broke and closing.

As Marx noted, “everything solid melts into air” when it’s no longer financially viable. Helicopter “stimulus” just creates a temporary illusion of solidity.

And then there’s the immense profitability of Big Tech pushing propaganda, partisanship, anger and indignation: If you’re not terrified about Facebook, you haven’t been paying attention.

The foundations are collapsing, but by all means, please keep your eye on the decaying corpses: didn’t an eyelid flicker in that one? I could swear that one moved its foot…

This is “life in wartime,” where the battles are waged in narratives, confidence and magical thinking.

Forget the V, W or L Recovery: Focus on N-P-B (June 29, 2020)

The Fed’s Casino Is In Flames, But Please Continue Gambling (June 18, 2020)

Our Wile E. Coyote Economy: Nothing But Financial Engineering (June 12, 2020)

Unstoppable: The Greatest Depression and the Reverse Wealth Effect (June 10, 2020)

*  *  *

My recent books:

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)

(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).

*  *  *

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3eZ285G Tyler Durden

Dollarpocalypse Sends Gold, Silver, & Crypto Soaring

Dollarpocalypse Sends Gold, Silver, & Crypto Soaring

Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/27/2020 – 16:01

Things just “escalated quickly” in dollar-land as the greenback was clubbed like a baby seal to its lowest level since Sept 2018 today…

Source: Bloomberg

Breaking a key up-trendline…

Source: Bloomberg

Creating the so-called “death cross”…

Source: Bloomberg

“I love the smell of burning dollars in the morning…”

And as the dollar collapsed, gold soared…

Source: Bloomberg

As GLD holders soar…

To new all-time record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

Spot Gold is back to its most overbought levels of the last couple of years (neither previous time saw a notable decline, more of a sideways move)…

Source: Bloomberg

And Silver soared-erer…

Source: Bloomberg

Helped by RHers piling in (SLV is the 21st most propular stock on Robinhood today)

To its highest since August 2013…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin was also bid back up near $11,000…

Source: Bloomberg

The highest level for the crypto since Sept 2019…

Source: Bloomberg

And Ethereum is surging even more…

Source: Bloomberg

Spiking to its highest sine June 2019…

Source: Bloomberg

Stocks were also higher on stimulus hopes (but note the massive outperformance of big tech as The Dow lagged)… Stocks were sinking into the European close then took off as soon as it closed…

Nasdaq has been up 7 of the last 8 Mondays.

Nasdaq surged back up to a somewhat key level (right before its massive squeeze higher last week)…

As FANG Stocks continued their rebound off Friday’s opening gap down…

Source: Bloomberg

TSLA took off in Ludicrous mode once again – erasing Friday’s losses…

The decoupling between Nasdaq and insider sentiment is dramatic to say the least…

Banks were mostly dumped today )GS outperformed)…

Source: Bloomberg

This could be a problem for China…

Source: Bloomberg

As the dollar was dumped today, so were bonds…

Source: Bloomberg

With 10Y yield pushing back above 60bps (up only 2bps though)_…

Source: Bloomberg

All cryptos are up since Friday…

Source: Bloomberg

The gold/silver ratio is tumbling as silver plays catch up (its lowest sicne Aug 2018)…

Source: Bloomberg

But the ratio has a long way to go (silver outperformance) to catch down to its historical average…

Big roundtrip in oil prices today as stimulus bill hopes picked up, bouncing off $40…

 

Finally, is Trump’s tumbling approval rating signaling more pain for the dollar to come?

Source: Bloomberg

And is the resurgence in global negative-yielding debt signaling more fun ahead for Bitcoin (and gold)?

Source: Bloomberg

As the collapse of real yields lifts precious metals…

Source: Bloomberg

Is the second wave over?

Source: Bloomberg

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/302qC9O Tyler Durden

Casino And Sports Betting Companies Dumped After Virus Outbreak Postpones MLB Games

Casino And Sports Betting Companies Dumped After Virus Outbreak Postpones MLB Games

Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/27/2020 – 15:55

A reality check is playing out for daytraders who panic bought casino and sports betting stocks during the pandemic, betting on a V-shaped recovery, have come to find out on Monday that these stocks are quickly sinking on COVID-19 concerns. 

Shares of MGM Resorts are down 6.2%, Las Vegas Sands Corp -2.1%, Wynn Resorts Ltd -4.2%, and Boyd Gaming Corp -3.5%. 

MGM

LVS

WYNN

BYD

Sports betting companies were slammed lower after a COVID-19 outbreak led Major League Baseball to postpone two games.

Draftkings Inc plunged 7.5% on the news. Penn National Gaming Inc was down -7%, as the company attempts to unveil a sports betting app ahead of the NFL and college football season. 

DKNG

PENN

During the pandemic, there were no sports games, sports betting companies like DraftKings and Penn relied heavily on alternatives. DraftKings allowed users to bet on Russian table tennis and virtual video games, while Penn’s Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy pumped penny stocks. 

If more MLB games are postponed, and the reemergence of the virus worsens, this could be incredibly bad for Robinhood traders who went all-in on some of these stocks, hoping the economy would roar back to life. 

However, the economic rebound is reversing, and Robinhood daytraders, who instead of sports betting, panic bought stocks, went all-in on DraftKings. 

Last month, we noted DraftKings’ insiders dumped $596 million worth of the stock into Robinhood panic buying. 

And it gets worse, Robinhood folks also panic bought Portnoy’s PENN. 

Investors are selling casino and sports betting companies as many misread the shape of the recovery, hoping for a “V,” evidence is coming out now that it’s more of a dead cat bounce as the recovery reverses. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/30Q00YN Tyler Durden

Fed Releases POMO Schedule For Next Two Weeks: Will Buy $9BN In Treasuries And MBS Daily

Fed Releases POMO Schedule For Next Two Weeks: Will Buy $9BN In Treasuries And MBS Daily

Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/27/2020 – 15:46

Now that the Fed’s release of POMO is more of a periodic affair than every Friday, moments ago the NY Fed published its latest POMO schedule for both Treasurys and MBS for the next two weeks, covering the period July 28 – August 12.

In line with the recent Fed disclosure that the central bank will purchase about $80 billion in Treasurys monthly, the latest schedule shows an average daily purchase of about $4.5 billion, or $40.2 billion spread over 9 days, identical to the previous two week POMO schedule. For MBS the average daily is nearly identical, at fractionally higher, at $4.7 billion daily, or $51BN spread over 11 days. In total, the Fed will continue to purchase roughly $9 billion in Treasurys and MBS almost every day for the next two weeks.

Here is the latest summary of Treasury POMOS. Of note: the biggest POMO will take place tomorrow and Friday, July 28 and 31, when the Fed will monetize $12.825BN and $8.825BN worth of US debt.

The Agency MBS can be found at the following link.

The visual summary of all TSY/MBS POMO since the start of QE Unlimited on March 13 is shown below. Since then, a total of $2.9 trillion in TSY and MBS have been purchased by the Fed in the open market.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2X0EL5C Tyler Durden