RIP William R. Allen (1924-2021)

William R. Allen, my multiple-times UCLA econ professor when I was in college between 1989 and 1993, author of The Midnight Economist, and co-author of Alchian & Allen’s University Economics, died recently. I had him at UCLA for Econ 2 (Macroeconomics), Econ 107 (History of Economic Thought), and an independent study project. (I believe Eugene also took a class from him when he was in college.)

Here’s Donald Boudreaux discussing the Alchian & Allen textbook:

Among the ten greatest books ever written in economics is University Economics. First published in 1972, this textbook that is co-authored by Armen A. Alchian and William R. Allen is a marvel. If you read it and grasp even no more than one-third of its lessons you will gain keener insights into economic forces at work than are had by some Nobel laureates in economics. If you grasp most of the lessons of this book, you will possess economic insight that is rivaled by very few people indeed.

And here’s Peter Boettke:

Allen was a force in the great UCLA tradition of economic education that challenged the Keynesian hegemony in the 1960s-1970s.  His retrospective on UCLA is one of my favorite and most informative retrospectives on the trials and tribulations of maintaining greatness over time in an academic setting.

Somehow, I managed to get through an economics degree at UCLA without having taken classes from the old great ones—Alchian, Demsetz, Hirshleifer, etc. I didn’t even know who they were until way after I graduated; I chose professors strictly by who fit into my schedule; and I thought “Theory of the Firm”, “Industrial Organization”, and “Public Finance” (all topics that I ended up specializing in when I was in grad school) were dull topics for business-school types! Someone should have counseled me otherwise at some point.

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Tesla Tells Employees To “Liquidate” Model S, X Inventory Hours After NHTSA Recall

Tesla Tells Employees To “Liquidate” Model S, X Inventory Hours After NHTSA Recall

On January 14, we wrote an article explaining that the NHTSA had asked Tesla to recall about 158,000 Model S and Model X units that could potentially suffer from failing display consoles. When a display console in a Tesla fails, drivers can experience “loss of audible and visual touchscreen features, such as infotainment, navigation, and web browsing and loss of rear camera image display when in reverse gear,” the regulator said at the time.

Then, something interesting happened. About 24 hours later, on January 15, pro-Tesla blog electrek put out an article noting that Tesla was telling its employees to “liquidate” their Model S and Model X inventory by the end of the month – which is about 2 weeks away.

The blog had “learned from sources familiar with the matter” that the company was telling employees “to sell all Model S and Model X inventory in stores across all markets.”

The goal, the report said, is for Tesla to have “absolutely no Model S or Model X in inventory by the end of the month.” The blog speculates that the inventory liquidation could be due to an upcoming refresh. Meanwhile, the Semi and the Roadster we were promised years ago have still not hit the road. 

“The move is unusual at the beginning of a new quarter and it intensifies rumors of a design refresh,” the blog says. More unusual than the move was its timing, we first thought. 

Recall, we wrote about the forced recall last week, when the NHTSA told Tesla that: “The lack of a functioning windshield defogging and defrosting system may decrease the driver’s visibility in inclement weather, increasing the risk of a crash. If Tesla decides not to conduct the requested recall, it must provide ODI with a full explanation of its decision, including any additional analysis of the problem beyond Tesla’s past presentations.”

The agency also said Tesla’s over-the-air fixes for the problem weren’t enough. “[T]hese updates are procedurally and substantively insufficient,” the NHTSA concluded.

Tesla had reportedly “balked” at moving forward with the recall, according to NBC, who said: “Experts say the letter means that Tesla has resisted doing a recall that NHTSA feels is necessary.”

And so now, the game plan goes from balking at the recall, to getting all of the affected models out of showrooms and into the hands of customers? Sounds like par for the course for Tesla. 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/16/2021 – 16:45

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

RIP William R. Allen (1924-2021)

William R. Allen, my multiple-times UCLA econ professor when I was in college between 1989 and 1993, author of The Midnight Economist, and co-author of Alchian & Allen’s University Economics, died recently. I had him at UCLA for Econ 2 (Macroeconomics), Econ 107 (History of Economic Thought), and an independent study project. (I believe Eugene also took a class from him when he was in college.)

Here’s Donald Boudreaux discussing the Alchian & Allen textbook:

Among the ten greatest books ever written in economics is University Economics. First published in 1972, this textbook that is co-authored by Armen A. Alchian and William R. Allen is a marvel. If you read it and grasp even no more than one-third of its lessons you will gain keener insights into economic forces at work than are had by some Nobel laureates in economics. If you grasp most of the lessons of this book, you will possess economic insight that is rivaled by very few people indeed.

And here’s Peter Boettke:

Allen was a force in the great UCLA tradition of economic education that challenged the Keynesian hegemony in the 1960s-1970s.  His retrospective on UCLA is one of my favorite and most informative retrospectives on the trials and tribulations of maintaining greatness over time in an academic setting.

Somehow, I managed to get through an economics degree at UCLA without having taken classes from the old great ones—Alchian, Demsetz, Hirshleifer, etc. I didn’t even know who they were until way after I graduated; I chose professors strictly by who fit into my schedule; and I thought “Theory of the Firm”, “Industrial Organization”, and “Public Finance” (all topics that I ended up specializing in when I was in grad school) were dull topics for business-school types! Someone should have counseled me otherwise at some point.

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State Department Has Evidence Supporting COVID Lab Escape Theory, Questions Credibility Of ‘Batwoman’ Shi Zhengli

State Department Has Evidence Supporting COVID Lab Escape Theory, Questions Credibility Of ‘Batwoman’ Shi Zhengli

Nearly a year to the day that ZeroHedge raised suspicions over the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak – and were called ‘conspiracy theorists’ for it – the US State Department just revealed that they have new information suggesting it could have emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

In a Friday statement, the state department announced that while they haven’t determined whether the COVID-19 pandemic “began through contact with infected animals or was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” the US government “has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.

“This raises questions about the credibility of WIV senior researcher Shi Zhengli’s public claim that there was “zero infection” among the WIV’s staff and students of SARS-CoV-2 or SARS-related viruses.”

Zhengli, known as “Batwoman,” was notably scrutinized in 2015 over her work creating chimeric bat coronaviruses through ‘gain-of-function’ research to more easily infect humans.

According to the State Department, “starting in at least 2016 – and with no indication of a stop prior to the COVID-19 outbreak — WIV researchers conducted experiments involving RaTG13, the bat coronavirus identified by the WIV in January 2020 as its closest sample to SARS-CoV-2 (96.2% similar).

Further, “The WIV has published a record of conducting “gain-of-function” research to engineer chimeric viruses. But the WIV has not been transparent or consistent about its record of studying viruses most similar to the COVID-19 virus, including “RaTG13,” which it sampled from a cave in Yunnan Province in 2013 after several miners died of SARS-like illness.”

Secret military activity

The State Department further noted that “Secrecy and non-disclosure are standard practice for Beijing,” adding that “For many years the United States has publicly raised concerns about China’s past biological weapons work, which Beijing has neither documented nor demonstrably eliminated, despite its clear obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention.”

According to the release, “Despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military. The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”

Pompeo on the offensive

On Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed the CCP for ‘covering up’ the Wuhan Virus, saying in a tweet that the “CCP disappeared the doctors who knew,” and “still refuses to let the world in to see what it wrought.”

CCP lied about where the virus came from,” Pompeo added.

China has repeatedly rejected charges that the virus might have emerged from a laboratory. The U.S. didn’t say how it obtained the new information about illnesses at the lab.

The comments, also noted in a State Department fact sheet, come as China faces criticism for initially preventing some members of a WHO mission from entering China as part of an effort to trace the origin of COVID-19, saying they hadn’t passed health screenings. While the experts were eventually granted clearance, China had already been criticized by the WHO for delaying the mission’s plans to visit the country.

China has been under scrutiny since the outbreak exploded in and around Wuhan, but the Trump administration also sought to pin more blame on authorities in Beijing after the pandemic took off in the U.S. and deaths soared. –Japan Times

The State Department release comes amid China barring entry to two members of a WHO team that was finally allowed to investigate the origins of the pandemic because they tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. China has demanded that the remaining 13 members undergo two weeks of quarantine in Wuhan.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/16/2021 – 16:20

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Trump Administration Puts 13th Prisoner to Death as Justice Sotomayor Blasts ‘Breakneck Timetable of Executions’

Dustin_Higgs_1161x652_1161x653

Dustin John Higgs, 48, was put to death at about 1:23 a.m. this morning by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

His execution is the 13th that has occurred since the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump and now-retired Attorney General William Barr announced the return of the death chamber and relaunched lethal injection protocols. The first of these executions was of Daniel Lee in July 2020, and all the rest followed over the next six months—a density of executions unheralded in modern American history. Under Trump, the federal government has executed more prisoners than under any president of the past 100 years.

The death of Higgs was one of three executions to take place in the final days of the Trump administration. Earlier in the week, Lisa Montgomery and Corey Johnson were also executed via lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute.

All three inmates had been fighting this ultimate fate and had appeals pending in courts. At points during the week, federal courts had ordered stays to determine mental competency (as in Montgomery’s case) or to delay executions because both Johnson and Higgs had gotten infected with COVID-19. In each case, rather than planning for follow-up hearings, the Department of Justice turned to the Supreme Court to have the stays vacated to carry out the executions. In each case, the Supreme Court allowed the executions to proceed, though Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer frequently announced they would have voted to allow the stays.

To be clear, these inmates hadn’t exhausted their appeals. Rather, the majority of the Supreme Court justices gave the Department of Justice permission to just ignore the appeals and carry out the executions anyway.

With Higgs, the last of these executions, Sotomayor and Breyer both released written dissents criticizing the federal government’s push to march these people to their deaths to the point that several appeal claims will remain unresolved because the prisoners are now dead. In her dissent, Sotomayor notes:

Throughout this expedited spree of executions, this Court has consistently rejected inmates’ credible claims for relief. The Court has even intervened to lift stays of execution that lower courts put in place, thereby ensuring those prisoners’ challenges would never receive a meaningful airing. The Court made these weighty decisions in response to emergency applications, with little opportunity for proper briefing and consideration, often in just a few short days or even hours. Very few of these decisions offered any public explanation for their rationale.

She bluntly follows this with, “This is not justice.” Later in the dissent, she observes, “After failing to act since Higgs’ sentence was imposed in 2001, the Government gives no compelling reason why it suddenly cannot wait a few weeks while courts give his claim the consideration it deserves. Certainly, there is no ‘imperative public importance’ behind the Government’s request.”

The reason for the rush is completely obvious and entirely political. The decision to reinstate executions was a pet project of Trump’s Justice Department and Barr. President-elect Joe Biden is now opposed to the use of the death penalty (though he supported it during his “tough on crime” days). If the Justice Department did not execute these prisoners this week, it is very likely they would not have been executed at all.

Ultimately, Sotomayor’s dissent concludes:

[T]he Court has allowed the United States to execute thirteen people in six months under a statutory scheme and regulatory protocol that have received inadequate scrutiny, without resolving the serious claims the condemned individuals raised. Those whom the Government executed during this endeavor deserved more from this Court.

Meanwhile, as the federal government rushed to execute these prisoners, Mississippi actually dismissed the murder charges of a man this week. Eddie Lee Howard, who had spent more than 25 years on death row and was convicted partly on bite-mark analysis science whose validity is now questionable, is now exonerated. More than two dozen people’s murder convictions have been overturned due to the disreputability of this forensics technique.

Nobody has argued that the 13 people the federal government has executed since July were completely innocent, though it’s worth noting that Higgs didn’t actually kill anybody. He was convicted for allegedly ordering the execution of three women and accused of being the ringleader of the operation. The man who actually shot the women was sentenced to life in prison. Higgs claimed he was set up as the fall guy for the crime. In his last words, he insisted on his innocence and said that he did not order the women’s executions.

So many people having been found innocent and released from death row should be seen as an inherent indictment of the practice as a form of justice and an example of the dangers of granting the government power over life and death. If the Mississippi courts had shut down the efforts of Howard’s lawyers the way the Supreme Court snubbed lawyers for Higgs, Montgomery, and Johnson, the man would have been executed, not exonerated.

What’s so enraging about these executions is not that good people were put to death. Their actions collectively resulted in many deaths, some of them very brutal. What’s enraging, as Sotomayor notes, is that once Justice Department officials decided they wanted to execute these people, absolutely no argument or claim, even when upheld by federal courts, stopped them from proceeding.

They didn’t stop even as COVID-19 infected prison staff, prisoners, and the prisoners’ attorneys and spiritual advisers. They didn’t stop even as experts made clear that Montgomery was so mentally detached that she likely didn’t know what was happening to her (when asked if she had any final words, she simply said “no”). They didn’t stop when relatives of the victims of Daniel Davis Lee insisted they didn’t want the government to execute him. They didn’t stop when former jurors and prosecutors came forward and said they regretted sentencing Brandon Bernard to death and pleaded with the Trump administration for mercy.

And it will be a footnote, if anything at all, in the history books given everything else that has come of Trump’s administration.

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Billionaire Benjamin de Rothschild Dies At 57

Billionaire Benjamin de Rothschild Dies At 57

Billionaire Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, chairman of the iconic Edmond de Rothschild Holding and the 22nd richest man in France with a net worth of €4.3 billion, has died at 57.

Baron Benjamin de Rothschild, his wife Ariane and daughter Noemie attend the dinner hosted by Chateau Mouton Rothschild on June 16, 2013 in Pauillac.

“Ariane de Rothschild and her daughters are deeply saddened to announce the death of husband and father, Benjamin de Rothschild, following a heart attack in the family home in Pregny (Switzerland) in the afternoon of January 15, 2021” the family said in a press release on Saturday.

The namesake company confirmed his death on Saturday, offering condolences to his wife, children and family. In a statement on its website it said that the entrepreneur developed the entity “in an exceptional way during all these years” and was “passionate about finance, speed, sailing and automobiles, wine enthusiast, Benjamin de Rothschild was also an active philanthropist.”

Visionary entrepreneur, passionate about finance, speed, sailing and automobiles, wine enthusiast, Benjamin de Rothschild was also an active philanthropist, namely involved in developing innovation within the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital. With his unique character, Benjamin de Rothschild never ceased to transform and modernise his legacy, in line with the family’s values.

Born on July 30 1963, Benjamin de Rothschild was the son of Edmond – scion of the Rothschild banking family of France – and Nadine de Rothschild. He headed the group created by his father since 1997. Benjamin de Rothschild was chairman of the board of directors at Edmond de Rothschild Holding SA, the umbrella entity of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, specializing in private banking and asset management.

Benjamin de Rothschild most recently made the news in early 2019 when he took the Swiss Bank Edmond de Rothschild (Suisse) S.A. private. The Swiss branch of the sprawling Rothschild banking dynasty – once one of the world’s richest families, and according to some, still the richest – was created by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, whose parents fled to Switzerland during World War II. He created the group in 1953, later buying a Swiss private bank and branching out into asset management.

The banking dynasty has spawned countless labyrinthine and convoluted financial entities which have helped obfuscate its financial exposure. The Edmond de Rothschild Group has financial assets distributed around the globe and in the form of investments in hedge funds via a fund of funds operation with over 173 billion francs in AUM.

The Chateau de Pregny –  also known as the Rothschild Castle – where the banker died, is located near Lake Geneva.

The estate has belonged to the family since it was built in 1858 by the Swiss banker, Adolphe Carl de Rothschild. He bequeathed to a cousin, Maurice de Rothschild of the Rothschild banking family of France, who in turn left it to his son, Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild. The property remains in the family and as at 2013 is the principal residence of Edmond’s widow, Nadine.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/16/2021 – 15:55

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3nMgMS1 Tyler Durden

Trump Administration Puts 13th Prisoner to Death as Justice Sotomayor Blasts ‘Breakneck Timetable of Executions’

Dustin_Higgs_1161x652_1161x653

Dustin John Higgs, 48, was put to death at about 1:23 a.m. this morning by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

His execution is the 13th that has occurred since the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump and now-retired Attorney General William Barr announced the return of the death chamber and relaunched lethal injection protocols. The first of these executions was of Daniel Lee in July 2020, and all the rest followed over the next six months—a density of executions unheralded in modern American history. Under Trump, the federal government has executed more prisoners than under any president of the past 100 years.

The death of Higgs was one of three executions to take place in the final days of the Trump administration. Earlier in the week, Lisa Montgomery and Corey Johnson were also executed via lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute.

All three inmates had been fighting this ultimate fate and had appeals pending in courts. At points during the week, federal courts had ordered stays to determine mental competency (as in Montgomery’s case) or to delay executions because both Johnson and Higgs had gotten infected with COVID-19. In each case, rather than planning for follow-up hearings, the Department of Justice turned to the Supreme Court to have the stays vacated to carry out the executions. In each case, the Supreme Court allowed the executions to proceed, though Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer frequently announced they would have voted to allow the stays.

To be clear, these inmates hadn’t exhausted their appeals. Rather, the majority of the Supreme Court justices gave the Department of Justice permission to just ignore the appeals and carry out the executions anyway.

With Higgs, the last of these executions, Sotomayor and Breyer both released written dissents criticizing the federal government’s push to march these people to their deaths to the point that several appeal claims will remain unresolved because the prisoners are now dead. In her dissent, Sotomayor notes:

Throughout this expedited spree of executions, this Court has consistently rejected inmates’ credible claims for relief. The Court has even intervened to lift stays of execution that lower courts put in place, thereby ensuring those prisoners’ challenges would never receive a meaningful airing. The Court made these weighty decisions in response to emergency applications, with little opportunity for proper briefing and consideration, often in just a few short days or even hours. Very few of these decisions offered any public explanation for their rationale.

She bluntly follows this with, “This is not justice.” Later in the dissent, she observes, “After failing to act since Higgs’ sentence was imposed in 2001, the Government gives no compelling reason why it suddenly cannot wait a few weeks while courts give his claim the consideration it deserves. Certainly, there is no ‘imperative public importance’ behind the Government’s request.”

The reason for the rush is completely obvious and entirely political. The decision to reinstate executions was a pet project of Trump’s Justice Department and Barr. President-elect Joe Biden is now opposed to the use of the death penalty (though he supported it during his “tough on crime” days). If the Justice Department did not execute these prisoners this week, it is very likely they would not have been executed at all.

Ultimately, Sotomayor’s dissent concludes:

[T]he Court has allowed the United States to execute thirteen people in six months under a statutory scheme and regulatory protocol that have received inadequate scrutiny, without resolving the serious claims the condemned individuals raised. Those whom the Government executed during this endeavor deserved more from this Court.

Meanwhile, as the federal government rushed to execute these prisoners, Mississippi actually dismissed the murder charges of a man this week. Eddie Lee Howard, who had spent more than 25 years on death row and was convicted partly on bite-mark analysis science whose validity is now questionable, is now exonerated. More than two dozen people’s murder convictions have been overturned due to the disreputability of this forensics technique.

Nobody has argued that the 13 people the federal government has executed since July were completely innocent, though it’s worth noting that Higgs didn’t actually kill anybody. He was convicted for allegedly ordering the execution of three women and accused of being the ringleader of the operation. The man who actually shot the women was sentenced to life in prison. Higgs claimed he was set up as the fall guy for the crime. In his last words, he insisted on his innocence and said that he did not order the women’s executions.

So many people having been found innocent and released from death row should be seen as an inherent indictment of the practice as a form of justice and an example of the dangers of granting the government power over life and death. If the Mississippi courts had shut down the efforts of Howard’s lawyers the way the Supreme Court snubbed lawyers for Higgs, Montgomery, and Johnson, the man would have been executed, not exonerated.

What’s so enraging about these executions is not that good people were put to death. Their actions collectively resulted in many deaths, some of them very brutal. What’s enraging, as Sotomayor notes, is that once Justice Department officials decided they wanted to execute these people, absolutely no argument or claim, even when upheld by federal courts, stopped them from proceeding.

They didn’t stop even as COVID-19 infected prison staff, prisoners, and the prisoners’ attorneys and spiritual advisers. They didn’t stop even as experts made clear that Montgomery was so mentally detached that she likely didn’t know what was happening to her (when asked if she had any final words, she simply said “no”). They didn’t stop when relatives of the victims of Daniel Davis Lee insisted they didn’t want the government to execute him. They didn’t stop when former jurors and prosecutors came forward and said they regretted sentencing Brandon Bernard to death and pleaded with the Trump administration for mercy.

And it will be a footnote, if anything at all, in the history books given everything else that has come of Trump’s administration.

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Self-Avowed “Hardcore Leftist” Who Bragged About ‘Soros Money’ Arrested Over Inauguration Terror Plot

Self-Avowed “Hardcore Leftist” Who Bragged About ‘Soros Money’ Arrested Over Inauguration Terror Plot

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

Federal agents arrested a self-admitted anarchist and “hardcore leftist” on Friday on suspicion of plotting to violently disrupt planned election-related protests at the Florida state Capitol.

Prosecutors said they “averted a crisis” at the Capitol by arresting 33-year-old Daniel Baker, taking him into custody on a charge involving making a threat to kidnap or injure, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida announced in a news release.

“Baker issued a call to arms for like-minded individuals to violently confront protestors gathered at the Florida Capitol this Sunday,” prosecutors said. “He specifically called for others to join him in encircling any protestors and confining them at the Capitol complex using firearms.”

Protests and rallies are expected at state Capitols across the country ahead of and on inauguration day in opposition to the election results.

“This is an armed COUP and can only be stopped by an armed community!” Baker wrote in a flyer titled “Call to Arms January 20th” posted online, a criminal complaint against him alleges (pdf).

“If you’re afraid to die fighting the enemy, stay in bed and live,” he wrote in the flyer, in which he called Trump supporters who plan to protest at the Florida state Capitol “terrorists.”

FBI agents, with assistance from local law enforcement, took Baker into custody without incident.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Baker’s defense attorney for comment on the charges but did not receive a reply by publication.

Baker, a former U.S. Army Airborne infantryman who was kicked out of the service, in 2017 joined the People’s Protection Units, a group fighting in Syria against ISIS and the Turkish government, prosecutors said. People’s Protection Units is a sub-affiliate of the Kurdistan’s Working Party, which is designated by the U.S. government as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Prosecutors have called Baker a “dangerous extremist,” with the criminal complaint claiming he wished death to anyone whose ideology was different from his, including U.S. military officers.

“Baker has made multiple violent threats to those he claims are white supremacists, fascists, United States persons with different ideologies than his, and allies of the United States. In addition, Baker has promoted the killing of United States military officers,” the complaint reads.

Items of concern identified in the investigation against Baker show his “path toward radicalization as well as a fair probability for imminent violence,” the complaint states.

One of these is a Facebook post attributed to Baker, which features the statement, “I don’t give a [expletive], I’m an anarchist and I want to watch capitalist society burn.”

Another item referenced in the complaint is an interview Baker gave for an article about the fall of Seattle’s autonomous zone, in which he identified himself as a “hardcore leftist” and said he had traveled to Seattle to take part in the “Revolution.” In the article, he expressed disappointment “in the lack of violent opposition here,” referring to the occupied zone.

“If they really wanted a revolution, we needed to get AK’s and start making bombs,” Baker is quoted in the article as saying.

The complaint claims Baker authored a social media post on Oct. 20, 2020, in which he wrote that “I hope the right tries a coup Nov. 3rd cuz I’m so [expletive] down to slay enemies again.”

Interestingly, TGP reports that the criminal complaint included Daniel Baker saying he received Soros money and he will be offering cash rewards for information on Trump supporters in his video.

Full Criminal Report below:

The FBI has warned state and local officials about unrest between now and inauguration day, following last week’s violent breach of the U.S. Capitol.

Tallahassee officials have closed City Hall and the county courthouse, which is across the street from the Capitol building, in preparation for potentially violent demonstrations, according to the Miami Herald.

Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson urged Capitol employees to work remotely on Sunday because of “very likely” protests, according to the outlet.

Uncertainty heading into the weekend was a common theme among state officials and law enforcement officers, with many enhancing security based on past demonstrations or general warnings but without specific expectations about whether any protesters would actually show up outside state capitol buildings or other government offices in coming days.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/16/2021 – 15:30

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/38Q4Dr1 Tyler Durden

Chinese Lockdowns Trigger “Chaos And Panic” At Grocery Stores As Prices Soar 50%

Chinese Lockdowns Trigger “Chaos And Panic” At Grocery Stores As Prices Soar 50%

China’s battle with increasing coronavirus caseloads hitting ten-month highs has undoubtedly clouded the economic recovery while officials have lockdown more than 28 million people across multiple municipalities, reported Reuters

Hebei officials have put three cities – Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Langfang – into lockdowns last week to mitigate the virus from spreading further. Beijing authorities expanded screening and prevention measures as cases continue to rise. 

Last Wednesday, Heilongjiang province declared a virus pandemic emergency. Also, the city of Suihua, in west-central Heilongjiang province, has put 5.2 million people under lockdown.

“The worsening coronavirus situation will impact economic activity, and markets may need to temper their expectations for strong pent-up consumption demand in the coming LNY holidays,” Nomura wrote last week. 

One possible reason behind increasing caseloads in China could be due to frigid temperatures as the polar vortex splits into two and dumps Arctic air into certain parts of the country. Goldman Sachs recently told clients that when temperatures dip, expect virus outbreaks to accelerate – and that is exactly what is happening in China. 

Last week, an alleged video published on Twitter handle @TruthAbtChina shows the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) law enforcement or health officials or some governmental agency placing “seals” on apartment doors to make sure people abide by new lockdown orders. 

As one would think, locking down tens of millions of people would generate panic among the working-class population. @TruthAbtChina unveiled Saturday that “People are hoarding food in the wake of the forced lockdowns all over China.” 

The Twitter account added, “In an attempt to keep food on the shelves, grocery stores have more than tripled the price of many food items. This has only amplified the chaos and panic in grocery stores.”

The video allegedly shows from multiple Chinese cities of people panic hoarding food between Jan. 7-14.

If Twitter police delete the video – we saved a segment of it in GIF format.

Hong Kong tabloid-style newspaper Apple Daily reported Saturday morning that “grocery prices Shijiazhuang in northern China have soared by 50% as authorities started a citywide lockdown on Jan. 6 to stem the coronavirus outbreak.”

So maybe there’s some truth to @TruthAbtChina video of Chinese panic hoarding food. 

New data from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index showed world food prices rose for a seventh consecutive month in December. 

Everyone’s favorite permabear, SocGen’s Albert Edwards, who, unlike Goldman Sachs, is starting to worry about soaring food inflation. 

Could soaring food inflation in China result in social destabilization? 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/16/2021 – 15:05

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/35LrJgL Tyler Durden

The Lynch Mob Comes For Citizen Trump

The Lynch Mob Comes For Citizen Trump

Authored by Pat Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled this mob and lit the flame of this attack.”

So alleged Liz Cheney, third-ranking Republican in the House, as she led nine GOP colleagues to vote for a second impeachment of Donald Trump. The House Republican caucus voted 197-10 against impeachment.

House Democrats voted lockstep, 222-0, to impeach in an exercise the solidarity of which calls to mind the Supreme Soviet of Stalin’s time.

But is what Cheney said true?

Undeniably, the huge crowd that assembled on the mall Wednesday did so at Trump’s behest. But that peaceful crowd was not the violent mob that invaded the Capitol.

The mob was a mile away as Trump spoke. It was up at the Capitol while Trump was on the Monument grounds. It could not hear him. And the break-in of the Capitol began even before Trump concluded his remarks. It was done as he spoke. Nor is there anything in the text of those remarks to indicate that Trump was signaling for an invasion of the Capitol.

How then did he light “the flame of this attack”?

At the end of his remarks, Trump said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Is that a call to riot?

The impeachment resolution charges Trump with an “incitement of insurrection.” Where did he do this? Where is the smoking gun?

The House Judiciary Committee declined to conduct hearings and call witnesses to reveal the links between Trump and the rioters.

What was the imperative that demanded a suspension of the normal process? Urgency, answers House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Trump’s continuance in the presidency is a “clear and present danger” to the republic.

But this is hysterical nonsense that covers up the real motive.

The left wants to stigmatize Trump down through the ages with twin impeachments, and its hatred of him has overwhelmed any commitment they had to due process.

Trump not only defeated the establishment in 2016. He got 74 million votes for a second term. Then, he defiantly refused to recognize that his defeat was fairly accomplished. Trump is hated because he will not play the role the left has assigned to him in its historic morality play, in which the left is always the triumphant star.

The Washington Post is now demanding that the trial, conviction and expulsion of Trump from the presidency begin before Joe Biden takes the oath in five days.

This is a familiar mindset: the spirit of the lynch mob. No time for evidence. No need for a trial where both sides can be heard. No need for reflection. Just declare him guilty and hang him.

Concerning the riot and rampage on the hill, the right has offered no rationalizations or justifications, as the left invariably has ready when its minions go too far. It is not the right, but the left that has, since the ’60s, condoned and excused and called for empathy and understanding of those who use violent means to advance political ends.

It was Martin Luther King who urged us to understand the root causes of riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark and Detroit when he explained, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

In 1964, Hubert Humphrey, observing the same riots, declared, “if I were in those conditions… I have enough spark left in me to lead a mighty good revolt under those conditions.”

At Colby College in June 1964, Adlai Stevenson, twice Democratic presidential nominee, asked us to appreciate the indispensable role of civil disobedience in advancing social progress:

“In the great struggle to advance civil and human rights, even a jail sentence is no longer a dishonor but a proud achievement. … Perhaps we are destined to see in this law-loving land people running for office not on their stainless records but on their prison records.”

In a retort to President Eisenhower, who had deplored the giving of moral sanction to rioters, Sen. Robert Kennedy said: “There is no point in telling Negroes to obey the law. To many Negroes the law is the enemy.”

In 1970, Justice William O. Douglas described how we should regard leftist demonstrations that turned into violent riots:

“We must realize that today’s Establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution!”

What should Trump’s people do now?

  1. If we are headed for an impeachment trial, force the Democrats to prove that Trump deliberately instigated an “insurrection.”

  2. Then, lay out the history of the American establishment’s endless condoning and justifying of disorders, riots and rampages when done in the hallowed name of the social progress in which they believe.

  3. Then vote down impeachment a second time and leave Pelosi 0-2 in her collisions with President and Citizen Trump.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 01/16/2021 – 14:39

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