Category: zerohedge

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

As extreme leftists within the Democratic party formally reintroduced their radical ‘green new deal’ Tuesday, Senator Rand Paul warned that the vast spending plan seeks to overturn the voter economy, do away with free market capitalism, and even create armies of youths dedicated to implementing socialist policy.

Appearing on Fox News, Paul warned that the far left “definitely think that money grows on trees, and I guess that’s part of the green plan.”

While the plan has been touted as a $172 Billion spend, Paul note that “if you add all of it up from the infrastructure bill, it’s actually about $500 billion.”

“There’s $174 billion for weatherising houses, which never gets to energy efficiency, to meet the cost. There’s about $100 billion for electric cars,” Paul also noted.

“There’s $10 billion for some kind of army of climate change people, some kind of climate corps youth which I think has connotations in our history of these sort of government informed youths out there marching for things that the government tells them to do,” the Senator further warned.

The Civilian Climate Corps Act, introduced along with the new deal Tuesday says that a civilian army should exist “to mobilize the next generation of conservation and resilience workers and maximize the creation of accessible training opportunities and good jobs.”

“I think all of it is horrendous but the biggest problem is the financial drain on the future of our country by spending so much money we don’t have,” Paul urged.

Countering the argument made by the likes of Bernie Sanders that the deal will create millions of jobs, Paul emphasised that “building pyramids could create jobs, it’s really should the government be deciding where we use our dollars and where they’re spent and where the jobs are created, or should the market place?”

The Senator continued, “In the market place we vote. So when I go to Walmart or Kroger, I vote on what needs to be produced by buying something. So what is produced and where the jobs are created are what I like to eat or what I like to buy at Walmart, that is the consumer driven capitalist way where we vote in the economy. When government does it, it means I don’t get to vote as a consumer, Bernie Sanders gets to decide it.”

Paul also noted that when it comes to policy that actually has an effect on the carbon footprint, Democrats are opposed.

“One industrial decision has accounted for more reduction in carbon than any other decision in the history of this movement, and that’s fracking,” Paul noted.

“And so they are against the one thing that has reduced the carbon footprint, as we’ve converted to natural gas,” he added.

The plan, being pushed by the likes of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) calls for transitioning to a 100 percent carbon free-economy, as well as meeting 100 percent of power demand from zero-emission energy sources like wind and solar.

Critics have warned that it will collapse an already stretched economy while handing government total control over all aspects of society.

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The reality of the Biden administration’s ‘soak the rich’ plan is finally hitting markets as the details of his new capital gains tax plan are hitting…

As Bloomberg reports, President Joe Biden will propose almost doubling the capital gains tax rate for wealthy individuals to 39.6%, which, coupled with an existing surtax on investment income, means that federal tax rates for investors could be as high as 43.4%, according to people familiar with the proposal.

The plan would boost the capital gains rate to 39.6% for those earning $1 million or more, an increase from the current base rate of 20%, the people said on the condition of anonymity because the plan is not yet public.

A 3.8% tax on investment income that funds Obamacare would be kept in place, pushing the tax rate on returns on financial assets higher than the top rate on wage and salary income, they said.

The proposal could reverse a long-standing provision of the tax code that taxes returns on investment lower than on labor. Biden campaigned on equalizing the capital gains and income tax rates for wealthy individuals, saying it’s unfair that many of them pay lower rates than middle-class workers.

For $1 million earners in high-tax states, rates on capital gains could be above 50%.

For New Yorkers, the combined state and federal capital gains rate could be as high as 52.22%. For Californians, it could be 56.7%.

And investors know the implications…

We warned a month ago this was coming…

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

It’s all so pathetic, isn’t it? The only way left to get ahead in America is to leverage up the riskiest gambles.

It’s painfully obvious that the only way left to get ahead in America is crazy-risky speculation, but nobody seems to even notice this stark and stunning reality. Why are people piling into crazy-risky bets on speculative vehicles like Gamestop and Dogecoin? The obvious answer is because others have reaped a decade or two of wages in a few weeks, and skimming a couple hundred thousand dollars in a few weeks or months is the only way an average wage earner is going to be able to buy a house, fund a retirement account, afford to have a family, etc.

Look at the reality of wage stagnation: I made $12 an hour in 1986, and I wasn’t some highly paid techno-guru or Wall Street shill. $12 an hour was an OK wage in 1986 but it wasn’t fantastic. Now 35 years later, $12 is still an OK wage. A lot of people make less than $12/hour.

But what happened to the cost of healthcare, housing, childcare and everything else required to have a family in those 35 years? These costs have exploded higher. It was already a stretch to buy a house in 1986 making $12/hour, but now–are you joking? Depending on the region, the cost of a modest house has tripled or gone up five-fold or even ten-fold in the past 35 years.

As for getting ahead by starting your own business–that’s another bitter joke. In 1986 I was able to provide our single employees decent healthcare insurance for $50 each and those with families for about $150 per month. Our employees did not pay a dime for this coverage. We (the employers) paid all the healthcare insurance costs as well as workers compensation, liability insurance and unemployment insurance (federal and state).

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the consumer price index (CPI) has risen such that what $1 bought in 1986 now costs $2.40. Try buying real healthcare insurance for an employee today for $50 X 2.4 = $120 per month. The CPI is a pathetic joke when it comes to housing, childcare, healthcare, higher education and all the other big-ticket expenses of having a family.

All the expenses of operating a business have soared even as liability exposure, compliance costs and junk fees have skyrocketed. And by definition, you’re “rich,” even if you’re losing money, because you’re a business owner, so there’s a tax target on your back as state and local governments jack up junk fees, penalties, fines and taxes on everything that isn’t already overtaxed.

As for getting a graduate degree to place yourself above the competition–credential inflation is even worse than price inflation. There are 100 other equally credentialed candidates for every high-paying slot, and if you (foolishly) accept the big-bucks job, your life outside of work is over. You are essentially a well-compensated indentured servant of your Corporate America masters.

And now that you’re “rich,” you’re also a Tax Donkey, paying between 40% and 50% of your earnings in taxes. The billionaires and their corporations pay little or nothing, as they’ve got the tax dodges (philanthro-capitalist foundations, offshore tax gimmicks, subsidies enacted by cheaply-bought politicians, etc.), but you, indentured servant of Corporate America–you’re “rich” and should pay more.

So please work harder and make even more income, and if you’re lucky we’ll let you keep a slice of the higher earnings. But maybe not, because, well, you’re “rich.” You don’t own anything and can barely afford a family, but you’re “rich” in terms of earnings, and that’s what counts.

And so the last best hope for the non-elite workforce without the privileges of a wealthy well-connected family is to play the riskiest tables in the Federal Reserve’s casino, maxing out margin (borrowing money against one’s stock portfolio) and buying options, which expire worthless if the bet goes south.

Because the reality of American life is the ways to get ahead are down to: 

1) choose wealthy parents

2) win the lottery

3) follow the FIRE path (financial independence, retire early) which requires a high-paying job and super-low expenses,

4) join a friend’s software start-up that gets bought by Microsoft, Google, Apple or Facebook for mega-millions, or

5) gamble and win at the Fed casino’s riskiest tables.

Take a look at three charts: margin debt (all-time high – above), M2 money supply (all-time high – below), and money velocity (all-time low – below). The Fed creates trillions of dollars out of thin air which flows into speculative asset bubbles, punters with no other realistic options to get ahead max out their margin accounts to boost their bets at the riskiest tables and meanwhile, back in the real economy, stagnation reins supreme: stagnant wages, stagnant family / household formation, stagnant business formation and the velocity of money is in a free-fall to dead money.

It’s all so pathetic, isn’t it? The only way left to get ahead in America is to leverage up the riskiest gambles at the riskiest tables, betting that everyone will be a winner at the Fed’s rigged tables–but you have to play to win.

Or lose, but nobody mentions that. All you’ll hear in the Fed’s casino is the Fed has our back, until the entire casino collapses in a putrid heap of fraud, corruption, greed, systemic risk and hubris.

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The NYT has just published the first “official” leak detailing the outline of President Biden’s “American Family Plan”, the second part of his administration’s signature “Build Back Better” proposal (the first part, entitled the “American Jobs Plan”, was unveiled during a live press briefing in Pittsburgh earlier this month).

The second phase of Biden’s sweeping “Green New Deal”-inspired program centers on what administration officials call “human infrastructure”.

Should it pass in its current form, it would entail spending hundreds of billions of dollars on universal pre-kindergarten, expanded subsidies for child care, a national paid leave program for workers and free community college tuition for all.

While the overhaul will raise taxes on investors and millionaires via a proposal for a top marginal income tax rate at 39.6% (up from 37%, the level it was reduced to under Trump) a controversial increase in capital gains tax for individuals earning more than $1 million per year (raising the rate to 39.6% from 20%) was also included as part of the package described by the NYT.

Of course, any change in capital gains rates could have potentially profound implications for financial markets: if the new rate taxes effect next year, there could be serious selling pressure on stocks before year-end 2021 as investors seek to lock in gains at the lower rate.

What’s more, the plan in its current form will also propose eliminating a provision of the tax code that reduces taxes for wealthy heirs who sell assets they inherit, like art or property, that have risen in value. As he discussed during the rollout of pt. 1, the package would also raise revenue by increasing enforcement at the IRS to bring in more money from wealthy Americans who evade taxes. All provisions under discussion would keep the tax rate on individuals earning $400k per year or less steady, in keeping with a promise made during the campaign. During his briefing in Pittsburgh, Biden said he would remain open to all revenue suggestions, so long as they don’t violate this one rule.

Other tax provisions regarding the estate tax and capping dedications on the wealthy are also in play. While rich Democrats demand that Biden find a way to remove the cap on SALT deductions that was included in President Trump’s landmark tax cuts, the NYT reports that the plan would extend through 2025 an expanded tax credit for parents (essentially a monthly payment from the government for most families) that was created on a temporary basis by the $1.9 trillion economic aid package signed into law last month.

Some Democrats have pushed Biden to make that tax credit permanent, arguing that it would dramatically reduce child poverty. Those pushing Mr. Biden include Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, along with Representatives Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Suzan DelBene of Washington and Ritchie Torres of New York. Conservatives worry that expanding the child tax credit would incentivize poor mothers to have more children out of wedlock.

The family plan will also include some type of extension for an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, which was included in the earlier aid package on a one-year basis.

“Expansion of the child tax credit is the most significant policy to come out of Washington in generations, and Congress has an historic opportunity to provide a lifeline to the middle class and to cut child poverty in half on a permanent basis,” the lawmakers said this week in a joint statement. “No recovery will be complete unless our tax code provides a sustained pathway to economic prosperity for working families and children.”

Previous iterations of Biden’s “human infrastructure plan” circulated inside the White House called for raising revenues by enacting measures to reduce the cost of prescription drugs purchased by the federal government via medicare and medicaid, but these measures have been set aside for now; they might make an appearance later in a plan to expand Medicare that’s still in its incipient stages.

All told with tax credits and spending, the plan is expected to cost $1.5 trillion. When combined with the $2.25 trillion “American Jobs Plan”, the total cost of the overhaul is slated at just below $4 trillion.

By Michael Every of Rabobank

Narratives in the raw

Yesterday’s big speech from Russian President Vladimir Putin was mostly focused on domestic issues. Apparently his economy is clearly not in a good state – which makes one wonder who has been running the place for nearly 20 years. Yet there was a very blunt comment about Russia’s “dire” demographic outlook – and an equally blunt warning that while Russia did not want to burn bridges with other countries, it would set its own red lines, and those that crossed them would hugely regret it. A few years ago that kind of bellicose rhetoric would have been front-page news. In the present environment it hardly makes the news at all – even if the underlying risk of Russia-Ukraine conflict, and its potential market impact, are tail risks that won’t go away until the huge Russian army on the Ukrainian border does.

Higher up the news-flow today is a massive explosion in central Israel; suggestions this was a missile attack; and against Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona. Unconfirmed video suggests this was either intercepted by missile defenses, or hit another target. With Israeli jets striking Syria, this suggests it was an Iranian proxy to mirror the recent Israeli sabotage effort against Natanz. Israeli defense policy is based on the principle of massive deterrence – so the scale of reprisals remains to be seen, and if they in turn lead to escalation. Also recall Prime Minister Netanyahu may have only days left in office: the only way for him to rally the opposition around him as PM would be a true national emergency.

As such, while this could be just another in a long line of tit-for-tat in this region, even QE-addled markets may see this as a tail-risk off. It potentially underlines again how the Suez Canal, even if not directly involved, could again be closed in some geopolitical scenarios, straining supply-chains further; and it may be a knee-jerk positive for energy prices.

The ‘irony’ is that this comes as representatives in Vienna re-heating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal claim “real progress”: which critics claim means the decision has been made to overlook Iran enriching uranium to a 60% level; evidence Tehran secretly broke the terms of the deal before the US walked away; the sunset clauses that mean this is a can-kicking exercise; and Iran’s ballistic missile programme and sponsorship of terrorism.

Yet Reuters now reports a senior US State Department official as saying “Important disagreements between the US and Iran persist…with the negotiations still far from conclusion and the outcome uncertain,” and that “The main differences between Washington and Tehran are over what sanctions the US would need to remove and what steps Iran would need to take to resume its obligations to curb its nuclear program.”

Which seems to say that nothing much substantive has been agreed at all – unless this is all for show. Logically, if the Iran deal collapses there is no end-point but Iranian submission, which won’t happen; or the use of force, which nobody wants. Yet if the deal is re-struck, sanctions are lifted, and Iranian oil can flow, Iran will have lots more to spend on Russian arms. Perhaps this lead to regional peace: and perhaps it does the complete opposite. Life is complicated in a simple narratives aren’t.

If you think geopolitical tensions end there, you are wrong. An explosion at a Pakistani hotel that hosts the Chinese ambassador has also killed four. It’s unclear who was responsible. Note the China-India-Pakistan triangle, which saw recent violent clashes, where borders are still unresolved, and where China is now reportedly planning a mega-dam that would control the flow of water into India, is arguably only out of the headlines for tactical, not strategic reasons.

And speaking of tactics and strategy, in Canada, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou has won a three-month delay to her US extradition hearing; and the Australian federal government has used new powers to tear up four agreements signed by Victoria, including one with Iran, one with Syria, and two related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. “This is another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China,” was the official response. Will Aussie exporters see further Chinese measures in response?  

Meanwhile, as we have daggers drawn in the Middle East, bombs in Pakistan, sabres being rattled between Russia and Ukraine, and continued global recognition of growing tensions over Taiwan, today will see 40 world leaders attend President Biden’s on-line climate summit, where all will no doubt make pledges to fight the climate crisis – rather than each-other.

As Politico, not known for its anti-White House views, notes: Why Biden’s Climate Summit Is Overhyped: And who’s going to hold China accountable for its climate pledges, and how precisely? I will quote just one paragraph from the article:

“[US President] Biden is expected to announce a commitment to cut US emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030. This will be greeted by huzzahs from elite opinion-makers, but this commitment, and this entire effort, is misbegotten. A key theory driving it is that if the US cuts its emissions, everyone else around the world will as well, preserving the Earth as we know it. But even well-intentioned countries are liable to miss, or to manipulate, their climate targets, whatever they say. And not all countries are well-intentioned.”

Yet we also see Italy’s PM Draghi is talking about a EUR220bn reworking of the Italian economy in a plan which is apparently 200 pages long with 500 charts – so more than two charts per page, which means not much text (luckily, many buzzwords are short). 40% of the funds will go to the poorer south: where, Bloomberg notes, “growth challenges have confounded every government since the country was unified in the mid-19th century.” There will be six overall “missions” with 16 categories of expenditure, including greening Italy’s historic buildings, high-speed rail, and lots of other things now classified as “infrastructure”. Let’s see if that is enough for Super Mario to finally jump-start Italy.

In short, we have the optimism of Build Back Better alongside what may be the pessimism of the rawest of realpolitik – but whoever said that there can only ever be one narrative at a time? Wouldn’t that make trading as easy as central banks have been trying –and still failing–to? Or, more cynically, aren’t both actually part of the same meta-narrative – of systemic failure, and the various possible responses to it?

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The House Democrats, with the support of President Joe Biden, have just voted (perfectly along party lines) to approve the establishment of the “State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” as our 51st state today.

I had testified and written about D.C. statehood for decades and, as noted in a recent column, I believe that the best interests of both the country and the district residents is found in retrocession, not statehood.

As noted earlier, there has been comparatively little debate of the bill in the House, where perfunctory hearings rushed it to the floor.

What was missing by design in the House was any acknowledgment, let alone consideration, of alternatives to creating the first Vatican-like city-state in the country. Most importantly, there was no discussion of what district citizens could gain from an alternative to statehood — retrocession.

The tragedy is that we have never had a full and honest debate of the options for securing full representational rights for district residents.

There is little interest in having such a national discussion or submitting this question to the voters in the form of a constitutional amendment. Polls show a majority of Americans still oppose D.C. statehood as they have for decades despite both well-funded campaigns and overwhelming support in the media.  There has always however been a pathway to full representational status through retrocession. However, the Democratic leadership again cut off consideration of that and other options in another “take or leave it” legislative construct. There are also opposing views on whether a constitutional amendment is warranted and, of course, the preference of some to continue the original intent of the Framers in the creating of “federal city” that is not controlled by any state.

The bill is not likely to succeed in the Senate and we will lose another year without a full and civil discussion of these options. Instead, it will fail and deepen our divisions while supporting calls for killing the filibuster rule.  The politics remains the same as does the status of the district.

Authored by Rick Rozoff via AntiWar.com,

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who recently donned combat gear to join his government’s troops on the battle line with the Donbass, on Wednesday addressed the nation in a televised address in which he conjured up the specter of Russian troops on his nation’s eastern border. He asked and answered a number of rhetorical questions, among them: “Do Ukraine and its international partners demand that troops be withdrawn from our borders? Yes.” The international partners in question are the US and its NATO allies and partners.

The keynote of his address was this: “Does Ukraine want a war? No. Is it ready for it? Yes. Will Ukraine stop fighting for peace through diplomacy? Never. Will Ukraine defend itself if it needs to? Always.”

The utility of such phrasing is that the statement can be interpreted differently according to where the stress is laid. And a threat of war can be couched within a seeming pledge of peace. His “international partners” can portray his comments as reflecting a desperate plea for peace while confronted with the threat of war. That is, Zelensky projects himself simultaneously as a peace-loving statesman and a resolute (if reluctant) warrior.

The message was addressed to three capitals in particular. Moscow, Washington and Brussels.

On Wednesday Zelensky also signed into law a bill passed three weeks ago by the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, called On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Improvement of Certain Issues of Military Duty and Military Record Keeping.

Meanwhile on Thursday a Russian troop draw down is being widely reported…

Russia orders some troops back to their base, after weeks of tension over build-up of forces near Ukraine border https://t.co/dZZqpk2k1i

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 22, 2021

A press release on the signing was posted on the president’s website, which states:

“This document improves the requirements for manning the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations with reservists (military-trained persons with combat experience) in a special period without announcing mobilization. This will make it possible to quickly equip the military units of all the defense forces of the state with reservists, which will significantly increase their combat capability during a military aggression, as well as rapidly increase the combat potential of the defense forces and allow timely response to sudden threats to national security.”

Ready for war in fact.

The country’s Defense Minister, Andriy Taran, said the act also will augment the professionalization of the nation’s armed forces, a key NATO demand for countries aspiring to membership of the military bloc. He also said that part of that process is increasing the percentage of military-age citizens “contracting” with the military. He further explained the intent of the act in saying, “We count on increasing the efficiency of recruiting military units in a special period by recruiting reservists, motivated, trained soldiers with combat experience.”

Most significantly, he added the bill had been amended so that reservists would be trained to meet NATO standards, stating that among other aspects of it “the military registration system has been brought into line with the principles and approaches of NATO member states….”

Russia’s Defense Ministry and state media share video footage of military drills on the coast of annexed Crimea. Fighter jets, battleships, beach landings, and more. pic.twitter.com/XmJtgE228r

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 22, 2021

On the same day the Ukrainian press reported that after the nation’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Colonel-General Ruslan Khomchak, paid a two-day visit to Britain to meet with his counterpart, Chief of the Defence Staff of Great Britain, General Sir Nick Carter, Britain pledged to expand its Operation ORBITAL mission which has already trained over 20,000 Ukrainian service members for war against the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass.

And Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba reported that he had a phone conversation with Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which the latter said he expected a vote today on the Ukraine Security Partnership Act to increase military assistance to the country, “which includes the supply of lethal weapons.“

It looks like the Indonesian Navy submarine that disappeared yesterday during routine naval exercises has fallen too deep to retrieve, meaning the 53 crewmembers onboard are likely doomed – if they’re not dead already.

Authorities said oxygen in the submarine would run out by early Saturday.

“Hopefully we can rescue them before the oxygen has run out” at 3 a.m. on Saturday, Indonesia’s navy chief of staff, Adm. Yudo Margono, told reporters.

He said rescuers found an unidentified object with high magnetism in the area and that officials hope it’s the submarine.

The diesel-powered KRI Nanggala 402 was participating in a training exercise Wednesday when it missed a scheduled reporting call. Officials reported an oil slick and the smell of diesel fuel near the starting position of its last dive, about 96 kilometers (60 miles) north of the resort island of Bali, though there’s no evidence conclusively linking this to the sub, many took it as a disturbing sign that something went wrong.

As of Thursday morning, the navy fears the worst: the expectation is that the submarine sank to a depth of 600-700 meters (2,000-2,300 feet), much deeper than its collapse depth estimated at 200 meters (656 feet). The estimate is from a firm that refitted the vessel in 2009-2012. Experts said the water pressure could cause the submarine to collapse in on itself, instantly killing everybody on board, if it dives too deep.

Ahn Guk-hyeon, an official from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, said the submarine would collapse if it goes deeper than around 200 meters because of pressure. He said his company upgraded much of the Indonesian submarine’s internal structures and systems but it lacks latest information about the vessel.

Frank Owen, secretary of the Submarine Institute of Australia, also said the submarine could be at too great a depth for a rescue team to operate.

“Most rescue systems are really only rated to about 600 meters (1,969 feet),” he said. “They can go deeper than that because they will have a safety margin built into the design, but the pumps and other systems that are associated with that may not have the capacity to operate. So they can survive at that depth, but not necessarily operate.”

And unfortunately for the crew, the missing sub was never retrofitted with a rescue system, which means an underwater rescue would be virtually impossible.

Owen, a former submariner who developed an Australian submarine rescue system, said the Indonesian vessel was not fitted with a rescue seat around an escape hatch designed for underwater rescues. He said a rescue submarine would make a waterproof connection to a disabled submarine with a so-called skirt fitted over the recue seat so that the hatch can be opened without the disabled submarine filling with water. Owen said the submarine could be recovered from 500 meters (1,640 feet) without any damage but couldn’t say if it would have imploded at 700 meters (2,297 feet).

At this point, it looks like the missing Indonesian sub and its crew will suffer the same fate as a missing Argentine submarine that disappeared a few years back. Its wreckage wasn’t located until a year later, long after its crew had been condemned to a watery fate after the vessel “imploded”.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

The ‘George Floyd Autonomous Zone’ in Minneapolis has issued a list of ‘rules for white people’ that they have to abide by in order to enter the area.

The zone has popped up around the area that Floyd died and has come to resemble something akin to a religious cult encampment.

Apparently, baptisms, miracles and other spiritual events can be witnessed on a regular basis.

Alexa define “cult” pic.twitter.com/JtIjpbN99a

— Benjamin Loughnane (@Loknayn) April 21, 2021

However, entering the area as a white person comes with potential risks if you make the mistake of behaving in a “problematic” manner.

All visitors are asked to wear face masks and act with “humility,” but a lengthier list of rules for white people explains how they will be treated differently.

The rule sign to the George Floyd autonomous zone in Minneapolis has additional rules for white people. Since forming, the area has seen increased violence, criminal activity, drug abuse & even a murder. https://t.co/uifR9Y1GWn

— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) April 22, 2021

Whites are asked to “decenter yourself,” which is a euphemism for a mandate to behave like second class citizens and keep quiet.

“Be mindful of whether your volume, pace and movements are supporting or undermining your efforts to decenter yourself,” states the advisory.

The patronizing tone continues with a demand to “contribute to the energy of the space, rather than drain it.”

The rules also state that white people should seriously consider whether taking photos is appropriate and to seek consent from anyone they photograph, despite the whole area being public.

The rules also encourage whites to intervene if they “witness white folks doing problematic things,” which presumably includes doing anything other than engaging in slavish worship for the 21st century deity that is George Floyd.

Black Lives Matter groups routinely issue demands of white people for their events, some of which enforce outright segregation.

As we highlighted last week, a group of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis were caught on camera telling a white liberal ally, “You’re white! You don’t belong!” before demanding that he leave the area.

Following the conviction of Derek Chauvin, BLM mobs also descended on diners in New York while telling white restaurant owners to “get the f**k out” of the city.”

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It’s long been a Turkish ‘red line’ for which all the country’s recent modern leaders have reacted fiercely at the mere suggestion, and which only thirty countries in the world officially acknowledge. It’s being widely reported that President Joe Biden is preparing to declare the formal US recognition of the Armenian genocide, which was the mass systematic killing of over one million Armenians in Asia Minor from 1915-1917 at the end of the Ottoman Empire. Hundreds of thousands of Greek and Assyrian Christians were also slaughtered in the name of achieving ‘Turkification’. 

According to CNN on Thursday, “Two people familiar with the decision said the President was expected to make the declaration as part of an official statement on Remembrance Day, which falls on Saturday. Both said it was possible he would change his mind before then, and issue a statement merely recognizing the event without describing it as genocide.”

Congressional leaders as well as Armenian-Americans have for decades lobbied for greater recognition of the event which was carried out by the Young Turk government during the World War I period. However, the term itself has for years been banned in Turkey’s parliament and results in swift crackdowns and legal measures for any journalist wishing to write about it within the country. 

Turkey’s longtime pressure campaign has worked in many Western countries. For example, the Trump administration had blocked a 2019 bipartisan Congressional effort to pass legislation recognizing the Armenian genocide.

Thus Biden’s recognition will mark a major break from all predecessors, who didn’t want to rile relations with the powerful NATO ally. 

According to to further details from the Associated Press, “The anticipated move — something Biden had pledged to do as a candidate — could further complicate an already tense relationship with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Administration officials had not informed Turkey as of Wednesday, and Biden could still change his mind, according to one official.”

Biden’s USAID Administrator Nominee Samantha Power weighed in on Wednesday…

Telling the truth, and standing up to bullies and genocide deniers, will be of enormous consequence. 1/3https://t.co/8lxJaxfIR7

— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) April 22, 2021

Amid rumblings the administration is poised to pull the trigger on the controversial recognition, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu early in the week warned of already soured relations, “If the United States wants our relations to get worse, it’s up to them.”