Ohio House Speaker Arrested In $60M Bribery Scheme Which Added New Fee To Every Electricity Bill In State Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 23:05
A massive corruption scandal being described as the “largest bribery, money-laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio” — to the tune of $60 million, has just rocked the Buckeye state.
On Tuesday the Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder along with four others were arrested for being allegedly part of a scheme to pass legislation for a billion dollar bailout of two failed Ohio nuclear plants which were on the brink of permanent closure. Householder is widely looked upon as Ohio’s third most powerful and influential lawmaker.
Federal agents raided his farm Tuesday morning and made the arrest. The AP has described the top Ohio lawmaker as a “driving force” behind the uphill battle to controversially bail out the state’s two nuclear power plants at a significant expense to taxpayers.
Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, via AP
Householder’s adviser Jeffrey Longstreth was also arrested, as well as lobbyist Neil Clark, and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matthew Borges and Juan Cespedes of Columbus-based consulting firm The Oxley Group.
It appears a classic pay-to-play scandal, but in this case so vast that it is sure to enrage every single Ohioan that pays an electricity bill, considering, according to Axios that—
“Householder was one of the driving forces behind the nuclear plants’ financial rescue, which added a new fee to every electricity bill in the state and directed over $150 million a year through 2026 to the plants near Cleveland and Toledo.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called on Householder to resign immediately given the enormity of the charges against him. The linchpin in the government’s case against the five is incriminating statements made during a sting while meeting with undercover agents.
An 80-page criminal complain involving a large-scale FBI investigation details the schemers were engaged in an enterprise which shuffled millions into Householder’s pockets to assist in his bid to secure his position as Ohio House speaker.
In turn he helped push through “House Bill 6, a billion-dollar bailout that saved two failed, Ohio nuclear power plants from closing,” according to the criminal filing.
Tens of millions were funneled via the “dark money enterprise” over a total of at least three years, from March 2017 to March 2020.
Given that much money and the significant length of time, it’s clear it must have involved many more players; indeed, the FBI says more arrests are coming as part of the probe.
The reality is this: Ohioans will not see this as somehow “remote” – given that not only through state taxes, but especially through the “added fee” to each electricity bill as a result of House Bill 6’s passage, they’ll be on the hook for this for years to come.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32GDvZ1 Tyler Durden
Tom DeMark Sees The S&P Hitting 3,486 Before The Rally Ends Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 22:45
In a world where fundamentals no longer matter to the market, there is still some hope that at least the voodoo that is “chart analysis” perhaps works. If so, the best source of forecasting the future by looking at the past is the man who an icon among technicians: Tom DeMark. And with good reason: while it could certainly could have been a lucky guess, in March, DeMark whose D-Wave strategy is a favorite of such trading legends as Steve Cohen, predicted that a market bottom was forming on the day the S&P 500 ended a 34% plunge (although his projection for the index to drop below 2,100 was off, as the bottom – so far – was 2,191.86, and his call for an 11% rally followed by a range trading proved too conservative).
So what does DeMark think will happen next? According to Bloomberg, the famous technician sees the rally accelerating from here, and according to his D-Wave forecast the S&P will climb to 3,486 – a new all time high – in the next few weeks as the rally that has gripped the tech sector spills over to the broader market. As a reminder, since the end of Q1, all of the market upside has been thanks to just 10 mega-cap stocks. The other 490 stocks in the S&P500 have gone nowhere as shown in the chart below.
DeMark’s target is 7% higher from the current levels and would be 100 points above the all-time high reached in February.
“The catch-up will be fast,” DeMark told Bloomberg, adding that “it’s going to catch people off guard”, although one look at the overnight moves, DeMark should probably have been talking about gold and silver which are exploding at this moment.
As Bloomberg notes, the prediction was based on DeMark’s “countdown” study that involves comparing a security’s closing price to its highest or lowest levels two days earlier. Cycles of “exhaustion” develop when a pattern continues 13 times. The S&P 500 just produced its sixth count Monday and the Nasdaq 100 was on count 12.
Looking at the recent surge in stocks, DeMark notes that while Monday’s advance was led by tech darlings, Tuesday resumed a recent trend in which investors seek out laggards, a process of widening market participation that to DeMark usually coincides with the final phase of a rally. Last week, in a rare inversion of the trend observed since the March 23 low, the Nasdaq 100 fell for the first time in three weeks while the S&P 500 advanced, bolstered by industrial and commodity shares.
DeMark was less optimistic on the Nasdaq which has soared 19% YTD and is hitting daily record highs: “The Nasdaq is going to struggle,” DeMark said. “It may wait for the S&P 500 to record its high” before a meaningful selloff.
And there you have it: that said, if DeMark is indicative of the other trends that dominate this bizarro, insane “market” the best trade here may be to fade everything the famed technician is recommending and just go long the Nasdaq while shorting everything else. After all, that’s the trade that has become synonymous with central bank takeover of capital markets, and there is nothing that suggests this creeping Sovietization of “markets” will ever end.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3jukmzi Tyler Durden
Reminiscent of its desire to cancel all uncomfortable discussion on college campuses across the nation, the 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.
The Democratic strategy for getting Joe Biden into the White House without ever emerging from his basement bunker is a stroke of evil genius. Here’s how it works: With the unconditional support of the mainstream media, the left has promoted the narrative, constructed on the back of arguably biased opinion polls (here, here and here, for example), that the heir apparent for the Democratic presidential nomination enjoys an insurmountable lead over Trump.
This allows the Biden camp to argue that it would be more reasonable for their 77-year-old candidate to outright snub the debates, which have been a formal part of the U.S. election process since the 1960 epic showdown between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Only in the current PC climate, when cancel culture has hijacked rational thought, is it possible to imagine a scenario when the public might be denied the right to weigh the results of a formal clash of ideas between two veteran statesmen, one of whom will go on to lead a nation of over 300 million souls.
And then there is the manipulation of Covid-19 to make the case that Trump has proven himself to be unfit to hold office due to his handling of the outbreak. Such one-sided articles have become standard fare around the country, as the media never stops reminding the public that the number of Covid cases is on the rise. What the media almost never mentions, however, is that death rates from the virus have been steadily falling – over 75 percent – since its peak in April. Instead, they cynically declare that the positive results are being “weaponized by the right to claim a hollow victory in the face of shameless failure.”
So what is it? A “hollow victory” or a “shameless failure”? It certainly can’t be both. While the victory against Covid, however temporary, might be seen as “hollow” to the Liberal camp, a victory is still a victory, and should be duly reported as such. But of course nobody should anticipate such candor in a major election season.
The next step in the Democratic seek-and-destroy campaign is to portray the ‘Orange man’ as unhinged to the point of not being capable of admitting defeat in the event he should lose in November. In other words, Trump might respond in the same way that the Democrats responded to Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, i.e. not very sportsmanlike. Or, alternatively, the Biden-Trump showdown will never be resolved because the Republican base will become so demoralized by the poll numbers that Trump will simply toss in the proverbial towel before Election Day. That preposterous, unimaginable notion was posited by none other than Fox News, which is considered to be the last major media company not overtly hostile to Trump.
BREAKING— (thread)GOP operatives are for the first time raising the possibility that @realDonaldTrump could drop out of the race if his poll numbers don’t rebound. Over the weekend I spoke to a sample of major players; one described Trumps current psyche as “fragile.” I’m
This sort of warped rationale is the same type that led New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to argue that Biden should not debate Trump until, first, the U.S. president releases his tax returns, and, second, a “real-time fact-checking team” can correct any “misleading statements, phony numbers or outright lies” that either candidate may tell. Perhaps that government ‘ministry of truth’ will operate in much the same manner that Twitter’s internal watchdog monitors user comments. Should the question of mail-in ballots, for example, come up in the debates, we can predict with near certainty how the line judges will call the shot.
Speaking of mail-in ballots, the Covid-19 pandemic has proven to be yet another blessing without disguise to the Biden campaign (in addition to Russiagate, impeachment and race riots), in that it provides a compelling reason to keep Biden locked in his basement and out of the spotlight, where his gaffe-prone media appearances put to task his suspiciously high poll numbers. It also offers the possibility for states to organize mail-in ballots, which, despite whatever Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey believes, are severely open to the risk of manipulation.
Finally, the Cultural Marxists, formally known as the Democratic Party, by exaggerating the full extent of the coronavirus, are able to affect Trump’s ability for attracting massive crowds at his political rallies – a charm Biden has never possessed – thus dampening overall enthusiasm for his message.
All in all, the Cultural Marxists enjoy an array of methods for continuing with their cancel tactics, to the point of possibly cancelling Trump’s ability to prove once and for all Biden’s cognitive abilities, as well as his own presidential qualities. It is an even the American people deserve to witness, yet one that may fall the wayside of cancel culture’s traveling circus.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump are scheduled to have three debates, the first on Sept. 29 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., Oct. 15 in Miami, and a final debate on Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. The vice presidential debate is scheduled for Oct. 7 at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2OMWf0A Tyler Durden
“Bodies Everywhere”: 14 Shot In Chicago Funeral Home During Memorial For Shooting Victimg Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 22:10
While US progressive leaders and the mainstream media hypocritically decided many years ago to avert their eyes from the constant deadly violence in the liberal bastion of Chicago, pretending instead that the daily murders in this “gun free” mecca don’t really happen…
… tonight’s events are just too gruesome to be ignore: as CBS Chicago reports, no less than14 people have been shot and wounded near a funeral home in the Auburn Gresham community. Ironically, the funeral was a memorial service for a homicide victim.
“All we saw was just bodies laying everywhere,” witness Arnita Gerder told NBC Chicago. “Shot up everywhere, all over. Legs, stomach, back, all over the place. We thought it was a war out here.”
At least 60 shell casings were located at the scene of the shooting.
The shooting took place at 79th & Carpenter streets while a funeral service was taking place. “There was some kind of planned ambush outside the funeral home, where a memorial service was going on for a homicide victim,” the report said.
BREAKING NOW: Up to 16 people shot near 79th and Carpenter. @Chicago_Police on scene. Sources tell me some victims walked into hospitals others taken by ambulances and officers even took some victims to hospitals. @cbschicagopic.twitter.com/MNm1h5GeXI
Officials had previously said that 9 people were transported to hospitals from the scene. The fire department confirmed 2 additional victims were found blocks away, near 63rd Street, getting themselves to the hospital. One woman was reportedly “shot multiple times”.
People at the scene said that they were inside the funeral home when the shooting started – some were covered in blood after the incident.
CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar spoke to a woman who was part of the funeral and had blood on her jeans; she did not know whose blood it was.
Multiple people shot at 79th/Carpenter
Spoke with people here who said they were inside a funeral home when the shots started.
Spoke to a woman who had blood on her jeans. She didnt know whose blood it was.
De Mar is told some victims walked into hospitals, and officers even took some victims to hospitals.
One person of interest was being interviewed Tuesday night.
Some law enforcement personnel in military fatigues were also seen according to CBS 2.
Crime statistics indicated there were 13 murders last month in the area, compared with just three in June 2019. There were five murders in the area just last week. For the broader Chicago area, earlier today CPD revealed the following YTD crime stats:
417 murders in 2020 vs. 275 in 2019.
1654 shootings in 2020 vs. 1125 in 2019.
6 murder victims were ages 1-4 in ‘20.
Guns are illegal in Chicago.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/39maR0r Tyler Durden
Yale Epidemiologist: Hydroxychloroquine Could Save 100,000 Lives If Widely Deployed Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 21:45
Yale epidemiology professor Dr. Harvey Risch told Fox News‘s “Ingraham Angle” that he thinks hydroxychloroquine could save 75,000 to 100,000 lives if widely used to treat COVID-19, and that it’s unfortunate that a “propaganda war” has been waged on the commonly prescribed drug which is not based on “medical facts.”
“There are many doctors that I’ve gotten hostile remarks about saying that all the evidence is bad for it and, in fact, that is not true at all,” Risch said on Monday, adding that he believes the drug should be used as a prophylactic for front-line healthcare workers, as has been done in India.
Researchers at the Henry Ford Health System in Southeast Michigan have found that early administration of hydroxychloroquine makes hospitalized patients substantially less likely to die.
The study, published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, determined that hydroxychloroquine provided a “66 percent hazard ratio reduction,” and hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin a 71 percent reduction, compared with neither treatment.
In-hospital mortality was 18.1 percent overall; 13.5 percent with just hydroxychloroquine, 22.4 percent with azithromycin alone, and 26.4 percent with neither drug. “Prospective trials are needed” for further review, the researchers note, even as they concluded: “In this multi-hospital assessment, when controlling for COVID-19 risk factors, treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with reduction in COVID-19 associated mortality.” –Fox News
“All the evidence is actually good for it when it is used in outpatient uses. Nevertheless, the only people who actually say that are a whole pile of doctors who are on the front lines treating those patients across the country and they are the ones who are at risk being forced not to do it,” Risch added, arguing that the MSM refuses to cover the benefits of the drug, and is actively silencing those trying to address the efficacy of HCQ.
Imagine how many people have died thanks to the media’s ‘propaganda war.’
“Our results do differ from some other studies,” said Dr. Marcus Zervos, head of the Henry Ford Health System’s infectious diseases unit. “What we think was important in ours … is that patients were treated early. For hydroxychloroquine to have a benefit, it needs to begin before the patients begin to suffer some of the severe immune reactions that patients can have with COVID.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3ePe3Tx Tyler Durden
Twitter has decided the latest threat to society are QAnon followers – with the social media giant banning 7,000 accounts and limiting the reach of 150,000 more in a widespread crackdown against people who believe President Trump is part of a plan to take down the Deep State.
According to NBC News, the 7,000 QAnon account bans were in response to “breaking its rules on targeted harassment,” while the 150,000 other accounts will no longer appear in ‘recommended follows,’ nor will any of their content be included in ‘trends’ and search.
We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension — something we’ve seen more of in recent weeks.
NBC News‘ Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny point to the recent harassment of “TV personality and author Chrissy Teigen,” who deleted 60,000 tweets after her history of sexualizing children, frequent pizza references, and an unsupported rumor that she flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘lolita express’ resulted in QAnon followers and others suggesting she’s a pedophile.
While her strange tweets were real, evidence that she flew on Epstein’s infamous pedo plane appears to have been fabricated. While several articles have been written about QAnon followers harassing Teigen over the Epstein connection, somehow they glossed over her tweets about children.
This type of harassment campaign is known as “swarming” or “brigading,” and Twitter said those swarms will no longer be allowed on the platform. Twitter will ban users who threaten users during QAnon-related swarms, and limit the reach and search visibility of those who participate in them.
A Twitter spokesperson said this sort of anti-harassment policy could apply to other groups that are primarily motivated by targeted harassment in the future. –NBC News
So, given the recent media attention we’re guessing Teigen’s ‘targeted harassment’ is what prompted Twitter’s QAnon crackdown – a move which might backfire and make people more inclined to follow the movement, according to journalist Paul Joseph Watson.
QAnon is bullshit, but by banning it, this will only make people inclined to believe in it believe in it more.
Q and the ever-growing worldwide movement it’s inspired have been the objects of fascination, mockery and hatred, but of surprisingly little serious analysis.
Q first appeared in October 2017 on an anonymous online forum called 4Chan, posting messages that implied top-clearance knowledge of upcoming events. More than 3,000 messages later, Q has created a disturbing, multi-faceted portrait of a global crime syndicate that operates with impunity. Q’s followers in the QAnon community faithfully analyze every detail of Q’s drops, which are compiled here and here.
The mainstream media has published hundreds of articles attacking Q as an insanerightwingconspiracy, particularly after President Trump seemed to publicly confirm his connection to it. At a North Carolina rally in 2019, Trump made a point of drawing attention to a baby wearing a onesie with a big Q.
In recent weeks, the tempo of Trump’s spotlighting of Q has accelerated, with the President retweeting Q followers twenty times in one day. Trump has featured Q fans in his ads and deployed one of Q’s signature phrases (“These people are sick”) at his rallies. The President’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has also retweeted Q followers.
Q has noted that the media never asks Trump the obvious question: What do you think of Q? To Q followers, the reason they don’t ask is obvious. They’re afraid of the answer.
In the meantime, Q’s influence continues to spread. Protestors in Hong Kong, Iran, and France have held up Q signs and chanted Q quotes. Q’s revelations are uniting people all over the world who want freedom.
If you’re unfamiliar with Q or only know it through the media’s attacks, I’d like to provide a brief introduction to this extraordinary phenomenon. I’ve followed Q since the first drop, and I’ve grown increasingly impressed by the accuracy, breadth and depth of Q’s messages. Q followers were prepared long in advance for the easing of hostilities with North Korea, the deflation of the mullahs of Iran, and the discovery of Ukraine as a hotbed of corruption for American politicians. They knew a great deal about Jeffrey Epstein’s activities before the public did and anticipate even more shocking revelations to come. As Q likes to say, “Future proves past.” As Q’s predictions come true, they lend retroactive credibility to the entire enterprise.
Q’s followers believe that Q is a military intelligence operation, the first of its kind, whose goal is to provide the public with secret information. Many Q followers think the Q team was founded by Admiral Michael Rogers, the former Director of the National Security Agency and former Commander of US Cyber Command. Some suspect that Dan Scavino, White House Director of Social Media, is part of the team, because the high quality of Q’s writing has the luster of a communications expert.
Q is a new weapon in the game of information warfare, bypassing a hostile media and corrupt government to communicate directly with the public. Think of Q as a companion to Trump’s twitter. Whereas Trump communicates bluntly and directly, Q is cryptic, sly and subtle, offering only clues that beg for context and connection.
Here’s the way it works: Q posts messages (also known as “drops” or “crumbs”) on an anonymous online forum, which are discussed, analyzed, and critiqued by the board’s inhabitants. (The forum has changed a few times after massive online attacks.) Hundreds of social media accounts then spread Q’s latest posting to worldwide followers who share their research, analysis, and interpretations of Q’s latest information.
I’ve compiled a list of Q’s most famous catch phrases and tried to put them into context.
The Great Awakening: We’re living in a unique time in which ordinary citizens around the world are collaborating to understand and expose the corrupt system that rules us. The system thrives on deception, and the overwhelming task of The Great Awakening is to penetrate its lies and reveal the truth.
The first phase of The Great Awakening is heightened awareness of the Deep State – the interlocking governmental entities that operate outside the law to expand their own power. Elections and popular opinion don’t impact the ability of the Deep State to enforce its agenda.
The second phase of The Great Awakening investigates the Deep State’s alliance with other powerful sectors: the media, Hollywood, charities and non-profits, public schools and universities, religious organizations, medical, scientific and financial institutions, and multinational corporations. This phase can be painful, as you discover that “those you trust the most” (in Q’s phrase) are deceiving you. Beloved celebrities, religious leaders, doctors, educators, innovators, and do-gooders are all in on the hoax.
The third phase of The Great Awakening is perhaps the most painful of all. The people who rule us are not merely amoral creatures who view us as collateral damage in their drive for money and power. It’s scarier than that. The potentates we serve are actively trying to harm us. That’s their goal. We’re under coordinated attack.
Dark To Light: Q tells us that what our rulers fear the most is exposure. Bringing their crimes out of protected darkness into the light of public scrutiny destroys their power to deceive. And as their power fades, the darkness of our divided, violent world will yield to the light of freedom, cooperation, and peace.
Where We Go One We Go All (WWG1WGA): Q’s most famous phrase expresses the worldwide egalitarian nature of the movement. Every country is suffering from the system’s oppression, and the whole world will benefit from a rebirth of freedom. In this unique movement, anonymous citizens work in collaboration with the highest-ranking military leaders and the president, and everyone’s contributions are valued. When commenters on the board have thanked Q for his service, Q has replied that no one is above and no one is below. “We work for you.”
These people are sick. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of The Great Awakening is coming to terms with the depravity of our rulers, whom Q has called The Cult. Jeffrey Epstein’s story has helped to awaken people to some of the elite’s crimes. The mysterious temple on Epstein’s island hints at possible future revelations that are frightening in their scope. Q followers believe that The Cult engages in ritual practices that enshrine the shedding of blood and which prey on the innocence of children. The sickness in their souls thrives on brutality, war, and terror. These disclosures will be tough for the public to take.
Trust the plan. The presumed military leaders who created Q and who protected Trump throughout the election and presidency have created a precise path to victory. Despite the seeming chaos of daily events, a steady progression of victories is taking place. The plan includes offensive maneuvers against the Cult’s financial power, legal standing, human supply chains, and military capacity. And, of crucial importance, the plan attacks the Cult’s ability to control the narrative that shapes what the public believes. In this high-stakes game of information warfare, Q plays a vital role by empowering ordinary citizens (like me) to spread the truth.
They want you divided. The hatred that’s growing between races, classes, age groups, religions, and political parties is purposely fomented by the Cult. The more we’re divided and focused on attacking each other, the weaker we become. Q urges us to stay together and to fight the Cult, not each other.
They think you’re sheep. The Cult believes, as Q says, “you’ll follow the stars” – the celebrities in media, Hollywood, and academia who tell you, in coordinated fashion, what you’re supposed to think. Their contempt for you makes them confident they can control you and ensure your surrender to any agenda. Q, on the other hand, offers only clues and can only be understood by high-grade critical thinking, spurred by constant crowd-sourced criticism and reassessment. The essence of the Q movement is to think for yourself.
Bigger than you can imagine. Expand your thinking. Q encourages us to reevaluate everything we think we know. The Cult may date back to ancient times, and through its powerful families, it might have manipulated historical events in ways that we haven’t suspected. The Cult may also possess advanced technology and medical cures that have not been released to the public. One aspect that may be “bigger than you can imagine” is the unfathomable scale of theft from our national coffers, as funds for foreign aid and wars wind up in the Cult’s pockets.
Track resignations. Beneath the surface, a broad and deep cleansing of corrupt players is taking place. Q asked us to track resignations to understand the scope of activity. (Here’s a website that took him up on his request: www.resignation.info) Resignations, retirements, and unexpected deaths from major players in politics, media, charities, and corporations all point to possible deals being made quietly without the public fanfare of arrests. For me, a notable resignation is Eric Schmidt’s abrupt exit from Google, which received little media attention. Schmidt resigned on December 21st, 2017, the same day that President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency related to “serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world.” Further context for Schmidt’s resignation may be inferred from this photo of him in North Korea, apparently in an advisory role. Standing next to him is Bill Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico, the state in which Epstein had a secret ranch. Richardson has been accused by one of Epstein’s victims.
Their need for symbols will be their downfall. The Cult uses certain symbols over and over again, which may serve some ritualistic need, but makes them vulnerable to detection. Q followers are familiar with Y-shaped horns that mimic those of the goat deity Baphomet, owls, pyramids, one eye encased within a pyramid, red shoes, bandaged fingers, and other repeating symbols, including the mysterious black eye that afflicts so many famous people. The Q Army also knows the coded pedophile symbols listed by the FBI. When Q drew attention to the design of Epstein’s temple, alert Q followers noticed how similar it is to the set design of a famous talk show. And the red ring on the hand of dead terrorist Qassam Soleimani prompted Q followers to compile images of similar rings on the hands of powerful people. An excellent source for understanding how these symbols are incorporated into pop culture targeting the young through music videos, TV shows and movies can be found at vigilantcitizen.com.
Nothing can stop what is coming. Nothing. Now comes the pain. The headlines on any given day may sound discouraging for those who want justice to prevail. But these setbacks are temporary, as a juggernaut of justice heads our way. As Q likes to say: We have it all. Massive amounts of irrefutable evidence await the criminals who try to evade their reckoning in court. For those who worry about Trump’s ability to overcome impeachment, election fraud, and assassination attempts, Q assures us: Patriots in control. And no legal tricks can help the criminals escape the ultimate judgment of public disgust. Q promises us that the day is coming when they can’t walk down the street.
You are the news now. The “fake news” decried by President Trump is losing credibility and audience by the day. Q has exposed the 4 A.M. drops that provide the daily talking points to media personnel, so they can all parrot the same propaganda. Q has also named various journalists whom he says take bribes. The media is concentrated within six powerful companies; on the other hand, the Q army is vast, voluntary, and anonymous. Q assures us that our efforts to disseminate the truth through social media and conversations with family and friends are having a huge impact. We are the news now.
We know what happens in the end. God wins. Many times, Q has asked us to pray. He’s quoted the famous Biblical lines of Ephesians 6:12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We’re living through monumental times. It’s comforting that Q believes that if we work together, God wins.
The current interest rate cycle began in August of 2019 when the Fed cut rates from a cycle high of 2.4% to 2.1%. The Fed was then fighting the “repo-crisis” in which the Fed was incapable of setting interest rates…and gasp…free-market based interest rates were the result. And, shocker, they were not “lower for longer”. So, just thought put interest rate cycles in perspective and detail why I anticipate this will be the longest and lowest interest rate cycle with likely zero recovery of those rate cuts.
To begin, the chart below shows interest rate cycles from 1981 through 2020 (and likely through 2040)…and note they grow progressively longer, starting and ending lower, and with less interest rate recovery. Based on this pattern and the macro’s driving this, this current cycle is likely to be decades at zero (or more likely moving to NIRP) with no rate hikes.
To gauge the changing dynamics of the interest rate cycles, the chart below details the DEPTH of the cut (the percentage from starting rate to cycle low rate), the DURATION (the number of months from initial rate cut to initial rate cut of the next cycle), and the RECOVERY (how much rates are hiked in the hiking phase from the cycle low rate). Again, the depth of cuts moves progressively greater (essentially 100% for last two cycles), duration stretching from less than a year to over a decade, and recovery moving from outright rate hikes to less than 50% recovery of previous cuts. Again, this the current cycle, we already have 100% cuts and I anticipate something on the order of twenty years of zero rates meaning zero recovery.
To put this into perspective, below I show the change per interest rate cycle in full time employees, working age population (15 to 64 year-olds), and federal debt. Obviously, the cycles are of differing years, but still note the symmetry in the inverse relationships of rising interest rates/minimal debt during periods of high working age population growth…and falling rates to allow reliance on debt during minimal working age population growth. In just eleven months of the current interest rate cycle, federal debt has already risen by $4.4 trillion (more than any entire cycle prior to ’07) while working age population is declining (not due to Covid-19 but decades of negative fertility coupled with fast declining immigration since 2008, essentially hitting zero in 2020). The ZIRP policy coupled with minimal working age population growth (resulting in minimal to no jobs growth over this cycle) will mean a blow-out of federal debt unlike anything nations outside of Zimbabwe or Venezuela have ever seen.
To quantify the situation, the chart below shows the parabolic rise in the growth in federal debt per the net growth per full time employee. I anticipate this current period will see something like a ten fold increase in the growth of federal debt per full time job net gained as debt soars and the US struggles to simply re-employ those who have lost their positions.
Usually I’d wrap it up by showing the change per interest rate cycle…but it’s late and you don’t pay me enuf to get that kind of service…so, below are the changes per presidential term since Reagan took office in January of 1981 (under Trump, I assume by inauguration day, January 2021 federal debt will be sitting at $28.2 T, GDP of $20.6 T, Fed BS of $7.8 T). And I assume all three of the trend arrows below will be continuing their path regardless a Trump or Biden victory.
Invest accordingly.
Bonus Chart – Demographic driven interest rates incenting ever more debt / asset inflation, supported by unlimited Federal Reserve balance sheet expansion.
Regardless Trump or Biden, MMT and basic universal income are here to stay…unless somebody notices we’re broke, the markets are a farce, the dollar is garbage, and debt in a depopulationary/deflationary/depressionary world is toxic!?!
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/32LoeWL Tyler Durden
US Blacklists 11 Chinese Firms For Uighur Forced Labor, DNA & Human Hair Collection Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 20:45
Washington has its sights set on China’s long-rumored ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority Uighur population amid the continued Trump administration sanctions pile on.
Early this week the US Commerce Department added eleven Chinese companies to its economic black list, citing human rights violations in the Uighur-dominant region of western Xinjiang.
Specifically the ban on US companies doing business with the eleven Chinese firms arises from allegations they are using Chinese Muslims in forced labor situations.
[THREAD] Chinese companies are using Uighur labor to make P.P.E. as the Covid19 pandemic drives up demand. We spent months investigating how the supply chain is connected with a highly controversial labor program. We even traced some masks to the U.S.
The announcement of the new economic blacklist followed a weekend New York Times report which detailed Uighurs being used as essentially slave labor to make Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Times report detailed that “several Chinese companies are using Uighur labor from a contentious government program to produce P.P.E. during the pandemic.”
Some of the equipment even made it to the United States, as well as other buyers around the globe.
Recent Reuters photo of what China’s government calls a “vocational skills education center” in Dabancheng in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, via FOX/Reuters.
In addition to widespread allegations of forced labor, in some instanced Uighurs are being allegedly used as unwilling human subjects in genetic research, as Reuters reports:
Among them are numerous textile companies and two firms the government said were conducting genetic analyses used to further the repression of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.
It was the third group of companies and institutions in China added to the U.S. blacklist, after two rounds in which the Trump administration cited 37 entities it said were involved in China’s repression in Xinjiang.
“Beijing actively promotes the reprehensible practice of forced labor and abusive DNA collection and analysis schemes to repress its citizens,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
In another ghastly example, one company is said to be mass collecting human hair from Uighur prisoners to use in wig products:
Also on the banned roster is Hetian Haolin Hair Accessories Co. On May 1, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it was halting imports of the company’s hair products, citing evidence of forced labor.
On July 1, CBP seized in Newark a shipment of almost 13 tons of hair products worth over $800,000 with human hair that it said originated in Xinjiang.
China’s foreign ministry rejected the allegations and urged the US to “correct its mistakes” alongside similar calls to the UK, which is increasingly lockstep in waging a pressure campaign against Beijing.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2ZPe9q4 Tyler Durden
Smithsonian Institution Explains That ‘Rationality’ & ‘Hard Work’ Are Racist Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 20:25
Submitted by Frederick Hess and RJ Martin, via Real Clear
In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and subsequent protests over police brutality, interest in “anti-racist” education has exploded among educators and advocates. The case that educators should seek to combat racism seems self-evident. What’s less clear is how the admirable cause of “anti-racism” is fueling, in some corners, the inclination to denounce universal virtues and useful skills as the product of “white culture.”
Witness last week’s contretemps at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum, which bills itself as “the only national museum devoted exclusively” to educating the public on these topics, recently debuted the online guide “Talking about Race.” The guide included a chart cataloguing the “aspects and assumptions” of “white culture” that “have been normalized over time and are now considered standard practices in the United States.”
What are these sinister aspects of “white culture,” you ask? Well, according to the Smithsonian, values like “hard work,” “self-reliance,” “be[ing] polite,” and timeliness are all a product of the “white dominant culture.” Indeed, it turns out that conventional grammar, Christianity, the notion that “intent counts” in courts of law, and the scientific method and its emphasis on “objective, rational linear thinking” are all proprietary to “white culture.”
There are several things that might be said about all this. But the place to start may be by observing just how insidious it is to teach black children to reject intellectual and personal traits that promote personal and civic success — in the U.S. or anywhere else. After all, in what land are students well-served when they’re encouraged not to work hard, make decisions, think rationally, or be polite and on time? Among the extraordinarily accomplished people honored by the museum, those such as Frederick Douglass; Harriet Tubman; Jackie Robinson; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Toni Morrison; John Lewis; Oprah Winfrey; Michael Jordan; Condoleezza Rice; and Barack Obama might be surprised to learn that hard work and rational thinking are somehow alien to black culture.
A 2020 National Association of Colleges and Employers poll found that four in five employers expected job applicants to exhibit a strong work ethic, the ability to work in a team, and analytical thinking skills. If one asks parents — of any race — what values they want their kids to learn, more than four out of five will similarly name concepts like “hard work,” “being well-mannered,” and “being responsible.” In fact, black parents are one to three percent more likely than white parents to think traits like “hard work,” “being well-mannered,” and “persistence” are “important to teach children.”
This all makes obvious sense. These are the traits that make for good neighbors and colleagues, and support strong communities. Perhaps we’ve blinkered vision, but we’re still looking for the culture, anywhere, where parents say that they’d like their children to slack off, be rude, and shirk responsibility.
After an online outcry, the Smithsonian removed the chart on Thursday night — but not with any denunciation of the chart’s content, only the bland understatement that the chart turned out to “not contribute to the productive discussion” they had wished for. Of course, the lack of “productive discussion” shouldn’t have surprised, given the shoddy scholarship it reflected. The original chart contained a single footnote linking to a one-page PDF asserting, sans evidence, that traits such as “hard work,” “self-reliance,” and politeness “are common characteristics of most U.S. White people most of the time.”
Not surprisingly given this foundation, the Smithsonian’s chart was rife with dubious claims and questionable assumptions. The idea that Christianity belongs to white culture could come as a surprise to the 72 percent of black Americans who identify as Christian, especially when only 65 percent of white Americans do so. The idea that timeliness and objectivity are the province of white culture would probably come as a surprise to air traffic controllers or cardiovascular surgeons in Cambodia and Cameroon, as it turns out that these traits are crucial to their professional competence and success — whatever the practitioner’s race or culture.
While it might be tempting to laugh off the Smithsonian’s chart as political correctness run amok, that would be a mistake. The troubling conviction that admirable, useful, universal values like hard work and politeness are somehow the product of “white supremacy” has been gaining increasing currency in education circles. Just this month, the influential KIPP charter network announced it was abolishing its motto “Work Hard. Be Nice.” as part of its push to “dismantle systemic racism.” As educators rush to act upon the admirable impulse captured by “anti-racism,” the lesson is that they need to be extraordinarily deliberate about what that means in practice.
When all is said and done, in 2020, the Smithsonian’s caretakers chose to tell our children that values like hard work and rationality are part of the “white” inheritance—and don’t come naturally to those raised in other cultures. If this demeaning caricature was offered up by drawling good ol’ boys defending Jim Crow in some grainy newsreel footage, we’d spot it for the unapologetic racism that it is. The question of the hour, though, is what we call it when educators offer it up in the name of “anti-racism.”
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3jCEkYW Tyler Durden
Silver Accelerates As Asia Opens, Surges To 7 Year Highs Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/21/2020 – 20:19
After two strong days, silver is not stopping its charge as futures smash above $22 for the first time since October 2013…
Source: Bloomberg
Up over 90% from its March 2020 lows…
Source: Bloomberg
As Peter Schiff notes, silver’s current run follows on the heels of its best quarter since 2010.
Safe-haven demand is driving silver prices higher, along with supply concerns. There are also expectations of increasing industrial demand, particularly in the solar energy sector. Even if the global economy is slow to recover, silver may get a boost from government stimulus as various programs funnel money into “green energy” projects.
“Silver-intensive areas such as 5G and solar technology could well benefit from any fiscal impulse,” BMO analysts said in a research note cited by Bloomberg.
“More than $50 billion of green stimulus has been approved by governments thus far this year, over which roughly three-quarters has been in Europe. But perhaps more impactful has been the recent Biden campaign Clean Energy plan, most notably a zero-carbon power grid by 2035 which would see new wind and solar capacity built to displace thermal generation.”
While silver is much more sensitive to industrial demand than gold, at its core, silver is a monetary metal and it tends to track with gold over time. The white metal should continue to benefit from the inflationary pressure of government money-printing and stimulus programs. A Morgan Stanley note quoted by Bloomberg said, “Silver will continue to be pulled higher by the strong gold price and supportive financial conditions.”
Some believe this is already a huge amount, but as the second graph shows, the Fed’s balance sheet as a % of GDP is notably lower than the ECB and BoJ’s. If they were aligned, the Fed balance sheet would now be around $11tn and $25tn, respectively.With
DB’s Matt Luzzetti expecting that US debt to GDP will be above 100% in 2020 and near 140% by 2030 from just shy of 80% at the start of this year, it seems inconceivable to me that the Fed and other central bank balance sheets will do anything other than explode over the next decade and perhaps beyond.
Historically, silver tends to outperform gold in a gold bull market, and we’re seeing that dynamic play out in the midst of gold’s current run up. The yellow metal is fast-approaching its all-time high in dollars. But silver futures have climbed more than 40% since the end of the first quarter, surpassing the 14% gain for gold futures during that same period.
Silver coin and bar sales have also helped drive investment demand for silver. Retail bullion coin sales jumped by an estimated 60% year-on-year. Strong demand led to shortages of many silver bullion products, resulting in extended delivery time and higher premiums.
Meanwhile, silver mine output was already trending downward and it has been further squeezed by mine shutdowns due to COVID-19. Analysts at the Silver Institute say they expect mine supply to continue its four-year slide this year. Even with most mines back online, the institute projects a 7% decline in mine output in 2020. Global mine production fell by 1.3% in 2019.
The gold-to-silver plunged to 81x tonight, breaking its recent multi-year uptrend…
…but that is still high by historical standards…
That tells us silver remains undervalued compared to gold. In the modern era, the silver-gold ratio has historically been around 50 to 60-1. At some point, the ratio will likely return closer to its historical norm. Given the economic dynamics, it seems far more likely silver will climb to close the gap rather than the price of gold dropping.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3eX1jKN Tyler Durden
