Trouble With The Ghislaine Maxwell Case?

Trouble With The Ghislaine Maxwell Case?

Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

On Tuesday, a motion was unsealed in the Ghislaine Maxwell case that give us serious concerns about the government’s case against Maxwell.

I’ll make this brief. The unsealed motion had to do with Maxwell’s recently rejected motion for release on bail. It had been sealed because it references documents that are still under seal. You can read the full motion for release on bail here.

I won’t go through the whole motion – only the parts that stand out.

First, Maxwell makes the accusation that “the government concedes it cannot establish that either Ms. Maxwell or Epstein ever caused, or sought to cause, Accuser-3 to travel while she was a minor or that she was underage when she allegedly engaged in sex acts with Epstein.”

In support of this claim, Maxwell’s lawyers cite to the still-sealed filing by the government.

Maxwell’s attorneys explain that this matters because victim’s “allegations cannot support the conspiracies charged in the Indictment, leaving the government with only two witnesses to prove the charges against Ms. Maxwell.”

Second, Maxwell alleges that the government “produced documents indicating that government prosecutors misled a federal judge to obtain evidence against Ms. Maxwell.”

This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York get into trouble. Recently, they were found to have failed to disclose evidence against a criminal defendant and then lying about their failure to disclose the evidence.

One Final Note

The Court has not yet unsealed the government motion that Maxwell’s lawyers reference in their latest filing. We’ll be posting that document in full once it is released to the public.

 

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 18:20

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

Daily Briefing: Priced for Perfection: Has the Reflation Trade Gone Too Far?

Daily Briefing: Priced for Perfection: Has the Reflation Trade Gone Too Far?

Real Vision managing editor Ed Harrison welcomes to the Daily Briefing Amanda Agati, chief investment strategist of PNC Financial Services Group, and Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex. Agati shares her view on U.S. equity valuations, noting that stocks might have run too far, too fast amid reflation optimism, and Chandler argues that market performance will ultimately hinge on liquidity conditions, making the long-term case for why the dollar could be approaching the end of its bull cycle as twin deficits weigh it down. Agati also highlights that there is much opportunity in both the debt and equity of emerging markets, noting serious composition changes with the various indices. Lastly, Agati and Chandler share their views on bonds and credit.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 16:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3dc5Da9 Tyler Durden

Jeep Debuts All-Electric Wrangler Concept That Is “Stealthy, Quiet, And Quick” 

Jeep Debuts All-Electric Wrangler Concept That Is “Stealthy, Quiet, And Quick” 

Jeep fans got a surprise this week, with the company debuting a new all-electric Wrangler called “Magneto.” The car’s design is based on the 2020 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon but is only a “concept” at the moment. 

Jeep said, “Wrangler Magneto concept is a fully capable BEV that is stealthy, quiet, quick, and an unmistakable rock-climbing force.” The electric motor offers 273 pound-feet of torque and 285 horsepower. All that instant torque via its 800-volt system across four battery packs could be a gamechanger for offroad Jeep enthusiasts. 

Jeep’s parent company Fiat Chrysler (now called Stellantis), has been behind the curve in releasing electric vehicles. GMC’s Hummer EV and Rivian’s R1T pickup truck are set to be available in the near term.

Morgan Stanely told clients earlier this month that Tesla saw its share of the electric vehicle market shrink from 81% in February ’20 to 69% in February ’21. Mainly because Americans were more fascinated by the Ford Mustang Mach-E than Model 3 or S. Ford is also testing the all-electric F-150 that could be released as early as 2H22. 

This all suggests that Tesla is set to continue to lose market share as some of America’s most popular vehicles, such as the F-150, Hummer, Mustang, Wrangler, have been electrified and are already selling or are still in concept with testing underway and near-term release.

When it comes to brands, Americans tend to gravitate to ones they trust, such as Ford, Chevy, GMC, Dodge, Jeep, etc… 

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 18:00

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

Federal Agency Investigating Biden’s Order To Stop Border Wall Construction

Federal Agency Investigating Biden’s Order To Stop Border Wall Construction

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

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) confirmed reports it is investigating President Joe Biden’s move in January to freeze construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Washington on March 15, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Former President Donald Trump, who made border wall construction a key 2016 campaign promise, started building the wall amid legal battles and fights with Congress. On his first day in office, Biden used his executive authority to stop building the wall even after Congress approved $1.4 billion for the measure as part of a $900 billion stimulus package bill to offset losses incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic in December.

Politico first reported that GAO would now launch an inquiry into whether the Biden administration had violated any laws by freezing construction, which would contravene the Constitution’s law that allows Congress alone to allocate funds.

A spokesperson for the watchdog agency confirmed the report, telling The Epoch Times on Wednesday, “Yes, we received a congressional request for a legal opinion on the matter and we have accepted that request.” The exact nature of the GAO investigation was not disclosed.

Some senators, who spoke to Politico, noted that Biden was a member of the Senate for decades and should know the rules.

“He was in the Congress a long time,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told the political news website. “He knows it’s the Congress’s job to authorize how the money is spent and the president’s job to spend it efficiently.”

The president suspended construction on his first day in office, on Jan. 20, and also rescinded several other Trump-era immigration rules. Biden termed the border wall wasteful spending.

“Like every nation, the United States has a right and a duty to secure its borders and protect its people against threats. But building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” Biden said in his order. “It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.”

A caterpillar parks between fences at a reinforced section of the U.S.-Mexico border fencing in eastern Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Jan. 20, 2021. (Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images)

The president’s order further stipulated that “no more American taxpayer dollars” should be “diverted to construct a border wall,” adding the federal government would conduct “a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct a southern border wall.”

Meanwhile, more than 60 Republican House lawmakers and four GOP senators wrote to GAO on Tuesday.

“We are writing to be added as co-requesters of a March 17, 2021 letter, signed by 40 United States Senators, requesting the Government Accountability Office’s legal opinion on the actions of the Biden Administration to suspend border wall construction and to order a freeze of funds provided by Congress for that purpose, which we believe violated the Impoundment Control Act,” the lawmakers said in a letter to the GAO.

Republicans have seized on Biden’s immigration orders, including the president’s support of a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, and said the orders are responsible for the surge along the U.S.-Mexico border. White House officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have said Trump left Biden a broken immigration system and they’re working to fix it.

The border crisis “is the result of President Trump’s dismantlement of the safe and orderly immigration processes that were built over many, many years by presidents of both parties,” Mayorkas said in a TV interview Sunday.

But Trump, in a rare interview this week with Fox News, said Biden is actively working to “destroy” the United States with his orders.

You can’t take millions of people, they’ll have millions of people before this mess is over,” Trump said. “We want people to come in, but they have to be able to help our country. They have to come in through merit and they have to come in legally,” the former commander-in-chief remarked.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 17:40

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

Fauci “Needs To Put Up Or Shut Up”, ‘America’s Doctor’ Dismantled In Scathing Op-Ed

Fauci “Needs To Put Up Or Shut Up”, ‘America’s Doctor’ Dismantled In Scathing Op-Ed

Doubts about the omnipotent oracular-ness of “America’s Doctor” are starting to spread… and not just among the extreme-right-nazi-anti-vaxx-COVID-deniers (that constitute anyone who ever raises any doubts about any aspect of Biden/Fauci’s public health policy).

The coronavirus pandemic has been a great tragedy, there can be no doubt about that. But, as Scott Atlas recently noted, it has also exposed profound issues in America that now threaten the very principles of freedom and order that we Americans often take for granted.

First, I have been shocked at the enormous power of the government, to unilaterally decree, to simply close businesses and schools by edict, restrict personal movement, mandate behavior, and eliminate our most basic freedoms, without any end and little accountability.

Second, I remain surprised at the acceptance by the American people of draconian rules, restrictions, and unprecedented mandates, even those that are arbitrary, destructive, and wholly unscientific.

This crisis has also exposed what we all have known existed, but we have tolerated for years: the overt bias of the media, the lack of diverse viewpoints on campuses, the absence of neutrality in big tech controlling social media, and now more visibly than ever, the intrusion of politics into science. Ultimately, the freedom to seek and state the truth is at risk here in the United States.

Questions about virus transmission, mask effectiveness, lockdown cost/benefits, school safety, child vaccinations, and most recently immigrant infections have all left the American people questioning their own sanity as Fauci flips and flops and shifts goalposts at will.

And, as Mike Shedlock reports, Dr. Anthony Fauci took questions from US Senators in Congress a few days ago. He was successful at not answering much of anything.

At a hearing this week, Sen. Roger Marshall questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on COVID-19 spreading due to the surge of migrants at the border.

Dr. Fauci is very skilled at ducking questions. 

My favorite clip is toward the end of the video. 

Marshall: Dr. Fauci, are you comfortable with what we are doing on the border from an ID standpoint?

Dr. Fauci: The reason I have to hedge on that is that I am not really very deeply familiar with the details of what’s going on at the border.

Marshall: Whose job is it to know that?

Nothing seems to scare the establishment more than a return to ‘normal’. And by ‘normal’, we mean a return to an environment outside of the tyrannical control of career politicians and bureaucrats who have got a taste for this ‘being king’ stuff and know that anyone who questions their edicts will be ‘canceled’ by their Covidian cultists.

But, in February, Johns Hopkins professor, Dr. Marty Makary, dared to pen an Op-ed in the WSJ saying that we will have herd immunity by April.

And as we previously noted, some awkward ‘facts’ and ‘science’ on that herd immunity were recently been dropped by none other than FundStrat’s Tom Lee.

“…cumulatively and slowly, the US is seeing more states reach that combined level of vaccinations + infections approach what is seen as herd immunity.”

Source

So far, South Dakota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Arizona, Oklahoma, Utah, and Tennessee are the nearest.

Lee’s “math” – which we also know is racist – appears to fit with Makary’s arguments for why the recent plunge in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is not policy-related (no matter how much the politicians and their media lackeys push that narrative):

 “…the consistent and rapid decline in daily cases since Jan. 8 can be explained only by natural immunity. Behavior didn’t suddenly improve over the holidays; Americans traveled more over Christmas than they had since March. Vaccines also don’t explain the steep decline in January. Vaccination rates were low and they take weeks to kick in.”

Experts should level with the public about the good news…” exclaimed Makary, and this data on imminent herd immunity puts more pressure on Fauci and Biden to come clean… despite their variant-fearmongering and “no return to normal until Christmas or beyond” predictions.

But of course, this reality may never be allowed in the national narrative, as Makary previously concluded:

“Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine. But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth. As we encourage everyone to get a vaccine, we also need to reopen schools and society to limit the damage of closures and prolonged isolation. Contingency planning for an open economy by April can deliver hope to those in despair and to those who have made large personal sacrifices.

But, it appears he has ignored those suggestions as overnight, Marty Makary threw some more shade at Fauci over his herd immunity ignorance in another Wall Street Journal op-ed, saying that herd immunity in America is close, despite Fauci’s denial.

He begins by taking direct aim at Fauci’s “science”…

“Anthony Fauci has been saying that the country needs to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population to reach herd immunity from Covid-19. But he inexplicably ignores natural immunity. If you account for previous infections, herd immunity is likely close at hand.

Undercounting or removing the many Americans with natural immunity from any tally of herd immunity is a scientific error of omission. When people wonder why President Biden talks about limiting Fourth of July gatherings, it’s because his most prominent medical adviser has dismissed the contribution of natural immunity, artificially extending the timeline.”

Makary goes to note that after a year of millions of Covid-19 cases in the U.S., it’s clear that reinfections are rare.

“Natural immunity is real and shouldn’t be ignored.”

Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has toed the line, joining Dr. Fauci in playing down natural immunity.

Dr. Fauci has said that we don’t have good data on natural immunity. That is largely because his own National Institutes of Health has done little to answer this and other important clinical questions.

The NIH and CDC, which together receive more than $40 billion a year from taxpayers, should have focused on answering the most basic Covid-19 clinical questions that affect Americans.

Makary concludes with some common sense, that seems wholly lacking from the conversation currently:

“If we say we’re going to follow the science, then we need to be willing to consider all the data.”

But hey, just “obey’ and Fauci and Biden will let you know what freedoms will be re-gifted back to you soon…

Finally, we give Senator Rand Paul the last word, who after grilling Fauci in recent hearings, took his fight the “America’s doctor” to Fox News this week. As SaraACarter.com’s Annaliese Levy reports, Paul spoke with host Neil Cavuto to talk about his recent exchanges with Dr. Fauci regarding forcing people to wear face masks after they have received the coronavirus vaccine.

“If the government is going to tell you can’t go anywhere unless you’re wearing a mask, they should tell you why and they should present the evidence,” Paul said.

Paul is asking the government to provide evidence that those who have been infected with the coronavirus or those that have been vaccinated are still transmitting the disease.

Paul went on to describe Fauci’s approach to masks as “emotionalism and fear-mongering.”

“Dr. Fauci needs to put up or shut up,” Paul told Cavuto.

“He needs to show us the scientific evidence that it’s a problem after you’ve been vaccinated or after you’ve already got the disease naturally.”

Paul explained that if Fauci presented evidence proving that vaccinations or prior infection were not effective against new virus variants, he would reassess his stance on masks.

“But so far all he’s telling me is his opinion,” Paul said.

“Really their opinion is, look, they had another one of these vaccine doctors on television, he was like, ‘Oh, it’s about civility.’ Civility is not science. For goodness sakes, show us some evidence to back up these mandates.

Cavuto asked Paul if he has continued to follow the mask mandate after receiving the vaccination.

“We do what we’re forced to do to live in Dr. Fauci’s world,” Paul said.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 17:20

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2OZAJK5 Tyler Durden

Playing US Politics: Saudi Arabia Targets Middle America

Playing US Politics: Saudi Arabia Targets Middle America

Authored by Dr. James M. Dorsey via SouthFront.org,

Amid Washington chatter about the future of US-Saudi relations, the kingdom has launched an unprecedented public diplomacy campaign to marshal business and grassroots support beyond the Beltway to counter anti-Saudi sentiment in the Biden administration and Congress.

To do so, the Saudi embassy in Washington has hired a lobbying and public relations firm headquartered in the American heartland rather than the capital. Iowa-based Larson Shannahan Slifka Group (LS2 Group) was contracted for US$126,500 a month to reach out to local media,  business and women’s groups, and world affairs councils in far-flung states. “We are real people who tackle real issues,” LS2 Group says on its website.

Embassy spokesman Fahad Nazar told USA Today in an email that “we recognize that Americans outside Washington are interested in developments in Saudi Arabia and many, including the business community, academic institutions and various civil society groups, are keen on maintaining long-standing relations with the kingdom or cultivating new ones.”

Prince Abdul Rahman Bin Musai’d Al Saud, a grandson of the kingdom’s founder, King Abdulaziz, businessman and former head of one of Saudi Arabia’s foremost soccer clubs, framed US interests, particularly regarding human rights, in far blunter terms.

Saudi Arabia “carries significant economic weight and it influences the region. The world cannot do without Saudi moderation. Because of its economy, its moderation, and its cooperation in the war on terror… the truth is that you need us more than we need you,” Prince Abdul Rahman said.

To boost the Saudi public diplomacy effort, the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRIS) in Riyadh this month armed LS2 Group with a 32-page report, entitled ‘The US-Saudi Economic Relationship: More than Arms and Oil,’ that highlights the kingdom’s investments in the US, commercial dealings, gifts to universities, and purchase of US Treasury securities.

The report noted that US$24 billion in US exports to Saudi Arabia in 2019, $3.1 billion of which were arms sales, supported 165,000 jobs in the United States. US companies were working on Saudi projects worth $700 billion. The report said the kingdom held $134.4 billion in US Treasury securities and $12.8 billion in US stocks at the end of 2020 while US investment in Saudi Arabia in 2019 totaled $10.8 billion. It touted future investment opportunities in sectors such as entertainment where US companies have a competitive advantage.

In reaching out to the American heartland, Saudi Arabia hopes to garner empathy among segments of society that are less focused on foreign policy and/or the intricacies of the Middle East than politicians in Washington and the chattering classes on both coasts of the United States.

US President Joe Biden criticized Saudi Arabia during his election campaign in stark terms, calling the kingdom a “pariah.” Mr. Biden, since coming to office has halted the sale of offensive arms to Saudi Arabia that could be deployed in the six-year-old war in Yemen, released an intelligence report that pointed fingers at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and said he would “recalibrate” relations with the Gulf state.

The Saudi public diplomacy campaign comes as Mr. Biden is under pressure from liberals and left-wing Democrats to sanction Prince Mohammed for the Khashoggi killing, define what he means by offensive arms sales, and potentially maneuver to prevent the crown prince from becoming king.

Prominent among the speakers LS2 Group rolls out is Saudi Arabia’s glamorous ambassador to the United States, Princess Reema bint Bandar, the kingdom’s first ever woman foreign envoy, a great granddaughter of its founder, and the US-raised daughter of Prince Bandar bin Sultan who was ambassador in Washington for 22 years.

Long active in the promotion of women’s sport, Princess Reema hopes to convince her interlocutors that Saudi Arabia as a pivotal global player is an asset to the United States that has embarked on far-reaching economic and social liberalization, including the institutionalization of women’s rights.

It is a message that is designed to put the kingdom’s best foot forward and distract from the kingdom’s abominable human rights record symbolized by the Khashoggi killing and the Yemen war.

Houthi rebels this week cold-shouldered a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire that would partially lift the kingdom’s blockade of the war-ravaged country.

If successful, the public diplomacy strategy could lead to grassroots organizations in Congressmen’s districts leaning on their political representatives in Washington to adopt more lenient attitudes towards the kingdom.

It would be a message that is aligned with positions adopted by the Israel lobby, various American Jewish organizations, and other pressure groups supportive of Saudi Arabia.

Going by Philadelphia World Affairs Council president Lauren Swartz and Alaska World Affairs Council president and CEO Lise Falskow, whose members are business leaders, students, educators, and other local residents interested in foreign affairs, the strategy is paying off.

There was a huge message of change and progress. That is … not much reported in the newspapers here… (Princess Reema) had all her data points about Saudi Arabia’s impact, opportunity and connections to Pennsylvania” that include links to the state’s energy industry, Ms. Swartz said after the ambassador addressed her group on Zoom.

“Being an oil country and Alaska being an oil state, it’s interesting to hear their perspective on gas and world markets and living in the neighborhood they do – and her being a woman,” Ms. Falskow added.

10-page glossy booklet produced by the LS2 Group in advance of Princess Reema’s appearances emphasized the kingdom’s “great progress in the area of women and sports.”

Replete with pictures of women athletes, some with headscarves, some without, the publication highlights their achievements as well as significant policy changes and incorporation of women in sports management as part of Prince Mohammed’s reforms.

The public diplomacy strategy counts on Middle America being less tuned into other aspects of the crown prince’s rule.

This would likely include this week’s sentencing of Nassima Al-Sada, a prominent Shiite women’s rights activist, to five years in prison, two of which will be suspended, according to a allegedly Qatari-backed, London-based new outlet. The suspension means that Ms. Sada, one of 12 women campaigners who were arrested in 2018, could be released at the end of June.

The LS2 Group-arranged engagements outside of Washington contrast starkly with high-brow webinars hosted by Washington thinktanks in which a revolving number of former administration officials, scholars and analysts debate what US policy towards Saudi Arabia should be. They usually split down the middle on whether the United States can afford to be tough on Saudi Arabia and Prince Mohammed on issues such as human rights.

Even so, if public opinion polls in recent years are anything to go by, Saudi public diplomacy faces significant challenges. Gallup concluded last year that 65 percent of Americans viewed Saudi Arabia unfavorably as opposed to 34 percent favorably, a trend that was also evident in surveys by Business Insider and YouGov.

Recognizing the hurdles, Princess Reema appears to be following her instincts by focusing on a “comprehensive partnership” with business, culture, and education.

With US activists taking credit for mounting pressure that led to Congressional censoring of US support for the war in Yemen and Mr. Biden’s suspension of arms sales, Princess Reema appears to hope that Middle America will be her secret weapon.

In other words, Middle America may be the latest battlefield, but ultimately Washington politics will determine the kingdom’s image in the West and the future of US-Saudi relations.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 17:00

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/39f6HZI Tyler Durden

“F**king Weirdos”: Southwest Pilot Caught On Hot Mic In Expletive-Filled Rant About Bay Area

“F**king Weirdos”: Southwest Pilot Caught On Hot Mic In Expletive-Filled Rant About Bay Area

A Southwest Airlines pilot is in hot water after he was heard delivering an expletive-filled rant about residents of the Bay Area, according to travel site One Mile at a Time.

Recorded March 12 by the San Jose International Airport’s traffic control scanner and archived online at Live ATC, the pilot says “Fuck this place, goddamn liberal fucks.”

Fucking weirdos, probably driving around in fucking Hyundais, fucking roads and shit that go slow as fuck,” he continues, adding “You don’t have balls unless you’re fucking rolling coal man, goddamnit.”

Listen:


 
Airport spokesperson Demetria Machado told SFGate.com: “This communication is very unprofessional, and I have forwarded the communication to the [Federal Aviation Administration].”
 
FAA spoesman Ian Gregor, meanwhile, said that “FAA regulations prohibit airline pilots from talking about subjects that are unrelated to safely conducting their flight while taxiing and while flying below 10,000 feet altitude,” adding “The FAA is investigating communications that an airline pilot made while taxiing at Mineta San Jose International Airport last week.”
 
Southwest, meanwhile, told SFGate that they are “fully addressing the situation internally.”
 
“Our corporate Culture is built on a tenet of treating others with concern and dignity and the comments are inconsistent with the professional behavior and overall respect that we require from our Employees,” a spokesman said in a statement, adding “This situation was an isolated incident involving a single Employee and not representative of the nearly 60,000 hardworking, respectful People of Southwest Airlines.”

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 16:40

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2QE2U1w Tyler Durden

Fed To Lift Bank Buyback, Dividend Limits At End June

Fed To Lift Bank Buyback, Dividend Limits At End June

Having taken away the punchbowl two weeks ago by removing the SLR exemption, The Fed has offered banks a little more groul by announcing – as has been expected – that the limits on bank dividends and buybacks will be lifted at the end of June.

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced that the temporary and additional restrictions on bank holding company dividends and share repurchases currently in place will end for most firms after June 30, after completion of the current round of stress tests. Firms with capital levels above those required by the stress test will no longer be subject to the additional restrictions as of that date. Firms with capital levels below those required by the stress test will remain subject to the restrictions.

“The banking system continues to be a source of strength and returning to our normal framework after this year’s stress test will preserve that strength,” Vice Chair for Supervision Randal K. Quarles said.

After two rounds of stress tests last year, the Board found that large banks had strong capital levels, which provide a cushion against losses. However, due to economic uncertainty from the COVID event, the Board put temporary and additional restrictions on capital distributions. Those restrictions limit bank dividends and share repurchases to an amount based on income over the past year.

Normally, a large bank’s capital distributions are restricted principally by the Board’s stress capital buffer, or SCB, framework. The SCB sets a capital target for each bank based on its individual stress test results, which requires the bank to hold at least enough capital to survive a severe recession. If a firm does not meet that target, automatic restrictions are imposed.

If a bank remains above all of its minimum risk-based capital requirements in this year’s stress test, the additional restrictions will end after June 30 and it will be subject to the SCB’s normal restrictions.

However, a bank that falls below any of its minimum risk-based requirements in the stress test will remain subject to the additional restrictions for three extra months, through September 30. If the firm remains below the capital required by the stress test at that time, the framework of the regular SCB regime will impose even stricter distribution limitations.

For a bank that is not subject to the stress test this year and on a two-year cycle, the additional restrictions will end after June 30 and its SCB requirements based on the June 2020 stress test will remain in place.

The Board’s stress tests help ensure that large banks can support the economy during economic downturns. The tests evaluate the resilience of large banks by estimating their losses, revenue and capital levels under hypothetical scenarios over nine future quarters. Results for this year’s test will be released by July 1.

Some of the bank stocks popped a little after hours, but not much, which makes sense since they have rallied so hard and are back at all-time record highs…

Source: Bloomberg

Banks are less likely to be buying back their stock at multiples of book and at record high prices.

What will Elizabeth Warren say!?

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 16:39

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/39fli77 Tyler Durden

Who’s Shaking The Jar, Part 1: The Weaponization Of A Contagion

Who’s Shaking The Jar, Part 1: The Weaponization Of A Contagion

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. White. Pro Mask vs. Anti-Mask. Vax vs. Anti-vax. Rich vs. poor. Man vs. woman. Cop vs. citizen. The real question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar… and why?” – Shera Starr

A few weeks ago, I saw the above quote in Jeff Thomas’ article Learning from Ants, and it has been reverberating in my mind ever since. It is a perfect analogy for what has been happening in this country for years, with the jar lately being shaken at a rate faster than a Biden vote count increase at 3:00 am in a swing state. Everyone in this country, and the world, is at each other’s throats. Who is shaking the jar? Why are they shaking the jar? Why do they want us fighting each other?

If they keep us focused on fighting each other, they believe we will not notice their reprehensible criminality, as they manipulate the masses through psychological engineering and the employment of propaganda techniques to push their desired narrative. If you ask someone – who is shaking the jar? – they will likely answer based on the standard left vs right, liberal vs conservative, white vs black paradigm which has been created by those benefiting from conflict. It is always a safe bet to follow the money when trying to identify the culprits.

The elevated intensity of manipulation by those pulling the strings of societal discontent reveals much about their level of desperation in creating more chaos, because the awakening of more to the truth, endangers their wealth, power, and control. They have turned the shaking power up to eleven in the last year, as an implosion of the Ponzi financial system was looming as we entered 2020, and the Deep State oligarchs needed cover to implement a massive injection of liquidity into the veins of Wall Street bankers, the medical industrial complex, and mega-corporations like Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target.

The weaponization of a contagious, but highly non-lethal to anyone under 80 years old, flu became the perfect camouflage of fear to bailout the teetering financial system and creating turmoil, chaos, and distrust among the populace. The non-stop fear mongering was purposely ramped to keep the public distracted while the national wealth pillaging operation proceeded at a breakneck pace behind the scenes. $600 for you and $10 trillion for them.

The monstrous effort to polarize the country by the psychopaths in suits pulling the strings of societal disgruntlement has the ultimate purpose of subjugation and dominion over every aspect of our lives. They no longer feel the need to conceal their treachery, as they openly proclaim their Great Reset, where you will own nothing and be happy – living in a 200 sq ft shipping container, eating synthetic meat, drinking Gates endorsed reprocessed piss, snacking on bugs, and praying their windmill and solar power works on calm cloudy days as a frigid winter storm front arrives.

None of this is an accident. It is not occurring naturally. This is the result of a designed blueprint to control and rule the world by a relatively small cadre of billionaire oligarch globalists, Big Tech despots, bought off politicians, the banking cabal fronted by their puppets at the Federal Reserve, surveillance state operatives, military industrial complex parasites, captured corporate media, mega-corporations, and mid-level government apparatchiks sucking on the teat of the Deep State.

These people are the real government who had been pulling the strings behind the curtain, but now feel emboldened to openly execute their plans, after observing how easily the masses could be manipulated and controlled through fear during this conveniently engineered pandemic. Decades of dumbing down the populace through government run public school indoctrination disguised as education, has produced millions of non-critical thinking barely sentient consumers who have their beliefs fashioned, choices formed, and opinions dictated by manipulative men operating in the shadows.

Those pulling the strings understand the psychological processes, societal relationships, and technology driven social media addictions of the masses. They know how to sell a narrative based upon the emotions, feelings, fears and biases of the masses. With so few capable of critical thinking and seeing through their deceptive manipulation of the story-line, complete control over mainstream and social media gives those pulling the strings tremendous power over the direction of society.

And if they can keep the majority at each other’s throats, distracted by trivialities, minutia, false narratives, and unable to decipher the truth, they can keep us subjugated and constrained while they pilfer and pillage the wealth of the nation. It is a despicably audacious plan but is working to perfection. But, as always with humans, their hubris and myopia have convinced themselves they are infallible and immune to defeat. Their greed and arrogance will ultimately lead to their downfall.

Glenn Greenwald recently called out the faux journalists working in the corporate media complex for their shamefully pathetic attempt to twist the truth into the false narrative required by their Deep State puppet masters. They are nothing but highly paid whores doing tricks at the behest of their oligarch pimps.

“If you think the real power centers in the US are the Proud Boys, 4Chan & Boogaloos rather than the CIA, FBI, NSA, Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and spend most of your time battling the former while serving the latter as stenographers, your journalism is definitionally shit.” – Glenn Greenwald

Real journalists like Greenwald and Tucker Carlson are not afraid to confront those shaking the societal jar. That is why there is a concerted effort by those shaking the jar to try and destroy Substack, where Greenwald writes, after The Intercept began to censor his articles, and to force Fox to cancel Carlson by pressuring advertisers to boycott his show. This Cancel Culture tactic is being employed by those in control to crush dissent and free speech, so their narrative can dominate the airwaves and social media platforms, drowning out the truth.

There is a war for the soul of America underway and only one side is fighting – the globalist cabal along with their billionaire backers (Gates, Soros, Bloomberg), Big Tech tyrants, Big Media, Big Pharma, and Big Corporations. They have positioned their troops as attorney generals, governors, mayors, and legislators; in universities; in K-12 classrooms; in the media; on Wall Street; at the Fed; and in the Swamp of D.C. They now have a senile useful idiot in the White House, with a compliant cackling diversity hire waiting in the wings to become their new stooge.

The technique of using propaganda to manipulate the opinions of the masses, put forth by Edward Bernays almost one hundred years ago, has been enhanced and perfected by the deceitful and traitorous psychopaths operating as the shadow government, as they purposely construct false narratives and bogeymen, so they can expand their supremacy, dominion, and fortunes. It has always been this way, as human nature never changes, but the level and intensity has been ratcheted up to a degree never seen before in human history.

Technological advances have allowed these evil men to reinforce their narrative, while suppressing the truth tellers, and brainwashing the masses to do as they are told. Over the last five to ten years, they have convinced a vast swath of the population to believe utter nonsense, cower in their basements on command, and buy into false narratives and fake news that a sixth-grade level IQ should be able to see through. I have never lived through the final days of an empire, but this must be how it feels.

Those shaking the jar understand the mental processes of the ants because the indoctrination curriculum instilled in their brains by government controlled public schools through sub-mediocre, union worshiping, social justice warrior teachers has been designed to make them obedient, non-thinking, susceptible to psychological manipulation consumers.

The controllers know which buttons to push to keep the masses at each other’s throats: Democrat vs. Republican; liberals vs. conservatives; black vs. white; male vs. female; gay vs. straight; young vs. old; rich vs. poor; capitalists vs. socialists; white collar vs. blue collar; essential vs. non-essential; police vs. citizens; military vs. civilian and numerous variations on these categories of warring factions. Below is only a partial list of false narratives, fake news and outright lies over the last several years used by the powers that be to keep the ants fighting each other:

  • The Russiagate conspiracy created by the Obama and Hillary acolytes, in conspiracy with the leaders of the FBI, CIA, and DOJ to take down a duly elected president was a coup built upon nothing but lies, fomented and spread by the seditious corporate media. If the country were ruled by honest, forthright, law abiding people, Obama, Hillary, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and dozens of underlings would be in prison for this plot to unseat Trump.

  • The Mueller investigation cost the American taxpayer tens of millions; produced thousands of hours of fake news reports by CNN, MSNBC, the NYT and the rest of the left-wing media; ruined the lives and reputations of dozens; distracted Trump from governing for two years; and resulted in absolutely zero proof of any wrongdoing or collusion with the Russians. The entire episode was created to distract from Hillary’s emails, the murder of Seth Rich for providing the info to Julian Assange, and the filthy dealings of the Clinton Foundation.

  • The lies about kids in cages and children being torn from the arms of their loving parents at the border, with photo shoots of AOC crying in an empty parking lot, was nothing but tripe. The “cage” pictures were taken during the Obama administration. It seems those cages are being used again, with Biden inviting millions to cross our unprotected border, but now the narrative is one humanity and caring. The hypocrisy of these feckless idiots knows no bounds.

  • The “fine people” hoax regarding the Charlottesville protests and clashes in 2017 had been used by the Democrats and their media mouthpieces for three years to make it appear Trump supported white supremacy. It was a complete and utter lie, and they knew it. Of course, the full airing of his real comments was played during the latest impeachment hoax, clearly vindicating Trump. But liberals still latch onto this false narrative like an infant with a bottle. The infantilization of the masses appears to be working, as they cry at every perceived micro-aggression.

  • George Soros and his Open Society organization is intent on destroying all societal norms and community standards which have bound us together for generations. His desire is to destroy the family unit and replace it with the state. He openly funds anything and anyone who will further this agenda. He encourages things like Drag Queen Story Hour at public libraries where purveyors of pedophilia freaks teach five-year-olds how to twerk and attempt to legitimize their mental illness as normal. This brain washing of children is child abuse. Soros has spent tens of millions to get sociopath District Attorneys elected in Democrat run urban shitholes, whose sole purpose is to encourage crime, not prosecute murderers and thieves, and allow havoc and chaos to engulf their cities. Mission accomplished, as murder rates have skyrocketed in every Democrat run urban paradise in America – and the killing is not being committed by white supremacists. Soros is tearing down our society so it can be built back in his dystopian communist vision of the future.

  • The entire Jeffrey Epstein episode is another false narrative created by the jar shakers because they were the perverts, pedophiles, and deviants who Epstein was blackmailing with secret videotapes and whatever took place on his private island. Clinton, Gates, Dershowitz, Prince Andrew, John Roberts and dozens more sociopaths were all implicated. Everyone knows Epstein did not kill himself. He was murdered by those at the top to shield themselves from revelations of their perversions and crimes. When you control the narrative, you can get away with anything. Maxwell will not talk. She knows her fate if she does.

  • The faked chemical weapons attack in Syria, blamed on the Assad regime, was completely fabricated and staged. It resulted in president Trump launching a missile attack against the Syrian government. Everything reported by the corporate media over the last decade has been built upon lies. Obama created ISIS, with the support of McCain and the neo-cons, to overthrow the regime of Assad. They did such a bang-up job turning Libya from the richest country in Africa to a 3rd world ungovernable hellhole, they wanted to accomplish the same in Syria. It was only after Putin’s military began obliterating ISIS, the U.S. was shamed and reluctantly joined, and then took full credit for their defeat.

  • Blaming Russia for everything bad that happens in our country, run by incompetent corrupt boobs, has become the go to lie by Democrats and their media lapdogs at CNN, Washington Post, NYT and MSNBC. They were accused of hacking into our electrical grid in 2016, with the entire story debunked in days. The Washington Post claimed 200 websites had been infiltrated by the Russians, accusing Ron Paul and Tulsi Gabbard of being Russian assets. The laughability of these claims by Hillary’s army did not stop useful idiots from believing. The Russians were accused of using sonic and microwave weapons to cause brain damage to U.S. personnel in the US embassy in Cuba. It was determined the sounds were male crickets during mating season. The bullshit continues to this day, as Biden has accused Putin of interfering in the 2020 election and calling him a killer. Maybe the Russians interfered to get Biden elected, knowing he is a dementia racked bumbling fool.

  • The first ridiculous impeachment of Trump was based on a phone call with the Ukraine president regarding the actual corruption and payoffs to Hunter Biden and the Biden crime family to influence U.S. policy in the Ukraine. The U.S. had already funded and aided in the coup against the democratically elected president and encouraged the civil war that followed. The real crimes were committed by Hunter selling influence and the Big Guy having the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Hunter fired. Ironically, two key figures in the impeachment hearings Eric “the farter” Swalwell and Diane ‘the crypt keeper” Feinstein had much bigger skeletons in their closets – sleeping with a Chinese spy and employing a Chinese spy for almost twenty years as her driver.

  • The second, more ridiculous, impeachment of Trump was such a shitshow, John Roberts refused to participate in the farce. This travesty of justice was conducted to send a message to all Trump supporters they will be painted with the brush of insurrectionists and white supremacists. The absurd charade was conducted after Trump was already out of office. Swalwell and his parade of woke jokes doctored evidence, lied and exaggerated the claims against Trump, and were ultimately eviscerated and embarrassed by Trump’s defense team on national TV. But they convinced their faithful intellectually deficient dupes Trump had provoked an armed insurrection, no matter the verdict.

  • The false narrative of the January 6th “armed insurrection” is blatantly false and continues to be flogged by the dutifully deceptive defecators on the payroll of CNN and MSNBC. There is only one requirement for an armed insurrection. Somebody must be armed. Not one firearm was used by any of the selfie taking boobs wandering around the Capitol. I guess someone could have been gored by the buffalo dude. The fake news about a Capitol cop beaten to death with a fire extinguisher was peddled for months by CNN and MSNBC. It was 100% fake news. He died of a stroke a day after the protest. The only person killed was an unarmed female who posed no threat to anyone. They still have not revealed the name of the cop that executed her. The presence of ANTIFA plants, paid by CNN, instigating the crowd, has been memory-holed by the malleable media.

  • The “armed insurrection” by “white supremacists” false narrative has been exploited by the hateful shrew Pelosi to turn D.C. into an armed fortress with national guard members pretending to protect the Capital from imminent attack by the Trump militia armies. The FBI does their part by fear mongering about non-existent right wing domestic terrorists, while Democrat run cities continue to be terrorized and burned by real ANTIFA and BLM terrorists, with Federal buildings under armed attack and set on fire. The diversity hire Defense Secretary is busy purging white Trump supporters from the ranks, while encouraging the feminization of his forces, to the delight of Russia and China. Pelosi and Schumer will never tear down those walls. They know their far-left agenda will ultimately result in chaos and revolution. They want to extinguish our exiting civilization, so they can “build back better” as a globalist utopia where the few, like Gates, Soros and Schwab, rule over the many, and you will own nothing and be happy – or else.

  • The false narrative they have been beating to death since the election is the Qanon conspiracy of a vast array of right-wing domestic terrorists planning a takeover of the government. They were blamed for the January 6th non-insurrection and are being used as the excuse to keep 12-foot walls around the Capitol. This entire storyline is laughable, except brainless twits in the corporate media flog it to benefit Pelosi and her parade of congressional dimwits as they intentionally mislead the public about the real threats in this country. If 5% of Trump voters had ever heard of Qanon, I would be shocked. If .00001% of the public believed the fairy tales spun on 4Chan or 8Chan or whatever Chan, then I would be flabbergasted. In retrospect, it is evident this was a Psy-Op conducted by the surveillance state to lure people into a trap of hope, and now is being used to paint all Trump supporters as crazy white supremacists, intent on overthrowing the government. Mission accomplished by the jar shakers.

In Part 2 of this article, I will detail the extraordinary efforts by those in power to cover-up the ultimately fatal levels of debt endangering the American Empire, by creating trillions more in debt, and pondering what happens next on our road to perdition.

*  *  *

The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation. 

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 16:20

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/31k4PKQ Tyler Durden

Stocks Dump’n’Pump; Dollar Gains Amid Bitcoin, Bond Pain

Stocks Dump’n’Pump; Dollar Gains Amid Bitcoin, Bond Pain

Thanks to yet another big short-squeeze that began shortly ahead of the EU close. This was the biggest short-squeeze since late January.

Source: Bloomberg

Small Caps went from down over 1.5% ahead of the EU close to up over 2.5%. Nasdaq ended lower as late day selling pressure hit…

Before today, the last six days have seen the market has dropped in the last hour.

S&P and Dow are back to unch on the week, Nasdaq remains red and Small Caps still down over 4.3%.

Value outperformed Growth today but both ripped off the EU close…

Source: Bloomberg

Many of the major indices found support at key technical levels.

The S&P broke its 50DMA and ripped back above it…

Nasdaq found support off its 100DMA…

GME exploded higher today, up a shocking 50% plus and erasing all of yesterday’s losses…

The VIX term structure remains unusually steep…

A really ugly 7Y auction today (with a huge tail) sent yields spiking higher…

Source: Bloomberg

…and that was after an early flash crash – in prices – for the ultra bond futs contract…

Source: Bloomberg

…but by the close the curve was very mixed with the short-end lower (2Y -1bps) and long-end up over 3bps…

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar continued to surge from the post-FOMC plunge lows, now back near early March highs…

Source: Bloomberg

The Polish Zloty fell to its weakest against the Euro since early 2009…

Source: Bloomberg

Bitcoin plunged back near $50k today…

Source: Bloomberg

Precious metals were flat today despite dollar gains as crude and copper pushed lower…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil erased all of yesterday’s supposed Suez blockage spike with WTI back below $58…

Silver saw a big tumble intraday and ripped back around the same time as the ultra bond flash crashed…

Gold and the Ultra bond both fell at exactly the same time…

Finally we note that the massive divergence between bond and stock performance this quarter will likely mean some notable rebalance flows in the next few trading days, as we have detailed previously.

Source: Bloomberg

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/25/2021 – 16:00

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