Tag: news

“71 Chickens Saved, 35 Arrested over Alleged Illegal Cockfighting Ring”

From news.com.au, as run in the Advertiser (Adelaide); thanks to Joe Muha for the pointer.

Whenever I run into people named Sydney, I expect them to have sisters named Adelaide—but I’ve always been disappointed.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/3r6vu9g
via IFTTT

“71 Chickens Saved, 35 Arrested over Alleged Illegal Cockfighting Ring”

From news.com.au, as run in the Advertiser (Adelaide); thanks to Joe Muha for the pointer.

Whenever I run into people named Sydney, I expect them to have sisters named Adelaide—but I’ve always been disappointed.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/3r6vu9g
via IFTTT

“Great Reset” – 61% Of Nations Have Decimated Liberty With COVID Restrictions

“Great Reset” – 61% Of Nations Have Decimated Liberty With COVID Restrictions
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/16/2020 – 16:20

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

An international human rights group has warned that the majority of nations across the globe have implemented COVID related restrictions that have severely eroded the liberties of their citizens.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), based in Sweden, reports that 61 per cent of countries have used restrictions “that were concerning from a democracy and human rights perspective.”

‘These [restrictions] violated democratic standards because they were either disproportionate, illegal, indefinite or unnecessary in relation to the health threat,” the group declared in its report.

Even more concerning was the finding that almost half of all Democratic countries implemented measures that violate basic human rights:

The group has warned that most at risk from the restrictions is freedom of expression:

IDEA also noted that half of all countries have used COVID to implement restrictions in the name of preventing “disinformation” about the virus:

The group also warned that almost 60% of nations have implemented states of emergency, severely restricting freedom of movement, many of which are still in place:

IDEA is not alone in it’s warning of the decimation of freedom.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has warned that”there have also been deeply worrying cases where governments appear to be using Covid-19 as a cover for human rights violations.”

Civil liberties group Reporters Without Borders also issued a report that notes the pandemic has “visibly contributed to a news and information lockdown” which has even seen reporters detained or put in jail.

US group Freedom House has warned that “the condition of democracy and human rights has grown worse in 80 countries” since the COVID pandemic was declared.

The great reset is here.

Override Early Access
On

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

New D.C. Law Says Restaurants Must Rehire Staff They Were Forced To Lay Off

reason-store

In the space of two days, local lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have made it harder for the city’s restaurants to both retain staff they currently employ and hire new workers once the pandemic is over.

On Monday, the District slashed restaurants’ allowable indoor capacity to 25 percent, down from 50 percent.

This reduction wasn’t a surprise for restaurants, given that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had announced the coming restrictions some three weeks ago. It’s nevertheless a blow for business owners who’ve been devastated by the pandemic, lockdown orders, civil unrest, rioting, and everything else 2020 has thrown at them.

Should a restaurant manage to survive the winter and the District’s limits on indoor dining capacity, they’ll find their ability to scale up their operations come springtime more difficult thanks to a bill passed by the D.C. City Council on Tuesday.

That bill will require restaurants, bars, and retail stores that had 50 or more employees up until March 2020 to offer to rehire staff they let go during the pandemic. Hotels will have to offer to hire back employees that were let go as long ago as December 1, 2019, about two months before the U.S. had its first confirmed coronavirus case.

Workers will have three days to accept or reject an offer to come back to their old job. Business owners will have to offer to rehire all their former workers before they can start shopping around for new talent.

Should a business change ownership, the new owners still be required to offer people employed by the old management their jobs back. They’ll also be required to keep those employees on for at least 90 days. At the end of that period, this new employer will have to fill out a performance evaluation of their employees, and offer to keep them on staff so long as their performance was “satisfactory.”

The above provision doesn’t apply to employees of bars and restaurants unless the change in ownership has “no demonstrable” effect on that business’s operations. Businesses won’t be forced to rehire employees that had quit voluntarily or were fired for cause.

One obvious criticism of this new law is that it piles a bunch of bureaucratic requirements onto something that business owners would already be doing: rehiring experienced, reliable staff.

“The natural thing to do is rehire the folks that were already trained and who did a good job for you,” Dan Simons, a D.C. restauranter, told DCist. “Now we have restaurants failing left and right. It seems to me the way to help workers is to help restaurants exist as businesses. When restaurants have customers, we need employees.”

At best, this new “right to reinstatement” law just makes this whole process more cumbersome and inflexible. That’s hardly ideal when an industry is trying to bounce back from its worst year on record.

“During this time we need to focus on supporting restaurants, not imposing burdens that will make it more difficult for restaurants to operate, to keep their doors open and to staff back up to pre-pandemic levels,” said the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) in an email urging people to oppose the new D.C. law.

Some 95 restaurants have closed in D.C. during the pandemic, and restaurant sales are down 55 percent, reports DCist, citing numbers from RAMW.

At worst, this new law will freeze out new workers trying to enter the restaurant industry. They’ll have to get in line behind everyone else who has already had a job, regardless of how eager and able they are to work. That’s not a great set up for younger folks just entering the workforce, or for new arrivals to the city looking for a job.

Granted, screwing over younger workers seems to be the intent of the union activists who’ve pushed this proposal. They’ve expressed fears that businesses getting back up on their feet will opt for hiring less experienced employees at lower wages.

The pandemic, and all the public health regulations that have come with it, have been devastating for the hospitality industry. Businesses that make it out of this year alive will no doubt be eager to get back to something approaching business as usual. Politicians in D.C. appear eager to make that as hard as possible.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/3oXZken
via IFTTT

Dollar Drops As Gold & Crypto Pop On Fed Flop, Washington Slop

Dollar Drops As Gold & Crypto Pop On Fed Flop, Washington Slop
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/16/2020 – 16:01

Close to close prices hide what was a very noisy day in the markets with bonds, the dollar, and the broadest stock index flat-ish until some last minute malarkey. Headline hockey between The Fed “flop” – not delivering the QE Twist that so many had hoped for (but promising more will come) – and the constant ‘optimistic’ headlines from Washington over COVID Relief. As a side note, no one seemed to care that US retail sales were a major miss, homebuilder optimism rolled over, and gasoline demand continues to collapse in the US.

Just be careful what’s under the surface…

Treasury yields round-tripped chaotically… twice… today…only to end marginally higher (unch for all intent and purpose)…30Y Yields spiked 5bps at their peak before ending unch…

Source: Bloomberg

The 10Y Yield twice spiked above 94bps before fading back fast…

Source: Bloomberg

The Dollar has been up and down like a whore’s drawers…

Source: Bloomberg

…continuing that trend today, and ending lower on the day…

Source: Bloomberg

Nasdaq led on the day with Small Caps lagging…

Tech led the day with Utes lagging…

Source: Bloomberg

FANG stocks managed to push up to recent resistance despite GOOGL/FB facing renewed antitrust suits…

Source: Bloomberg

Notably there is a major decoupling between the options market’s index and single-stock regimes – As @VrntPerception noted: “Investors still seem cautious on the overall market even as they bet on individual names outperforming”

Source: Bloomberg

But gold and bitcoin bucked that trend, spiking higher…

Gold jumped back to overnight highs…

As Bitcoin roared through $20k for the first time ever…

Source: Bloomberg

To a new record high…

Source: Bloomberg

Oil prices rebounded off some overnight weakness to its highest close since Feb…

Silver had a huge day, back above $25.50…

This pushed the Gold/Silver ratio back to its lowest since 9/21’s spike

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, for all those demanding moar from The Fed… financial conditions have never, ever, been this easy… ever ever…

Source: Bloomberg

And with the dollar plunging and bitcoin soaring…

Source: Bloomberg

Be careful what you wish for. As VIX Whale ’50 Cent’ noted on his major allocation to Bitcoin: “We see this as a small but potent insurance policy against the continuing devaluation of the world’s major currencies. Bitcoin diversifies the company’s (much larger) investments in gold and inflation-linked bonds, and acts as a hedge to some of the monetary and market risks that we see.”

Override Early Access
On

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/38c229f Tyler Durden

Texas AG Joins DOJ, Multiple Other States, Suing Google On Antitrust Claims

Texas AG Joins DOJ, Multiple Other States, Suing Google On Antitrust Claims
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/16/2020 – 15:55

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Twitter Wednesday that he is suing Google, alleging the tech giant “manipulated digital advertising markets in violation of antitrust laws”. The suit includes several states and is being led by Texas. 

The complaint follows the Department of Justice and several other states that have already brought antitrust claims again Google. Google “depends on advertising for much of its profits,” the Wall Street Journal wrote in a follow up, noting that it reported digital ad revenue of $37.1 billion last quarter. 

Paxton (Photo: WSJ)

“This internet Goliath used its power to manipulate the market, destroy competition, and harm YOU, the consumer,” Paxton said on Twitter.

Texas’ initial civil subpoena to Google “included more than 200 questions and demands for records,” the Journal wrote, noting that “many of the questions appear designed to solicit evidence that Google engaged in anticompetitive conduct in building up its powerful position.”

Recall, back in October, we wrote about the DoJ’s initial suit against Google. After it was filed, Elizabeth Warren became the first high-profile Democrat to officially step forward and accuse the DoJ of not doing enough to target Google in its latest lawsuit.

AG William Barr released a statement at the time, saying “millions of Americans rely on the Internet and online platforms…” and that “competition in this industry is vitally important.”

Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen accused Google of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Act, the same statute that was used during Bill Clinton’s presidency to carry out a host of antitrust litigation, including the landmark case against Microsoft.

“For years there had been concerns about business practices leading to unprecedented concentration in our economy,” Rosen began, adding that the anti-trust division has been looking at Google and its anti-trust practices for more than a year now. Rosen called Google a “gatekeeper of the Internet” and “one of the wealthiest companies on the planet”, saying it has maintained its monopoly standing via “anticompetitive practices” that are necessary to “enable competition”.

If the DoJ doesn’t act, Rosen said at the time, Americans could risk missing out on the next wave of companies. If that happens, Americans may never get to see “the next Google.”

Override Early Access
On

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2WluU9B Tyler Durden

New D.C. Law Says Restaurants Must Rehire Staff They Were Forced To Lay Off

reason-store

In the space of two days, local lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have made it harder for the city’s restaurants to both retain staff they currently employ and hire new workers once the pandemic is over.

On Monday, the District slashed restaurants’ allowable indoor capacity to 25 percent, down from 50 percent.

This reduction wasn’t a surprise for restaurants, given that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had announced the coming restrictions some three weeks ago. It’s nevertheless a blow for business owners who’ve been devastated by the pandemic, lockdown orders, civil unrest, rioting, and everything else 2020 has thrown at them.

Should a restaurant manage to survive the winter and the District’s limits on indoor dining capacity, they’ll find their ability to scale up their operations come springtime more difficult thanks to a bill passed by the D.C. City Council on Tuesday.

That bill will require restaurants, bars, and retail stores that had 50 or more employees up until March 2020 to offer to rehire staff they let go during the pandemic. Hotels will have to offer to hire back employees that were let go as long ago as December 1, 2019, about two months before the U.S. had its first confirmed coronavirus case.

Workers will have three days to accept or reject an offer to come back to their old job. Business owners will have to offer to rehire all their former workers before they can start shopping around for new talent.

Should a business change ownership, the new owners still be required to offer people employed by the old management their jobs back. They’ll also be required to keep those employees on for at least 90 days. At the end of that period, this new employer will have to fill out a performance evaluation of their employees, and offer to keep them on staff so long as their performance was “satisfactory.”

The above provision doesn’t apply to employees of bars and restaurants unless the change in ownership has “no demonstrable” effect on that business’s operations. Businesses won’t be forced to rehire employees that had quit voluntarily or were fired for cause.

One obvious criticism of this new law is that it piles a bunch of bureaucratic requirements onto something that business owners would already be doing: rehiring experienced, reliable staff.

“The natural thing to do is rehire the folks that were already trained and who did a good job for you,” Dan Simons, a D.C. restauranter, told DCist. “Now we have restaurants failing left and right. It seems to me the way to help workers is to help restaurants exist as businesses. When restaurants have customers, we need employees.”

At best, this new “right to reinstatement” law just makes this whole process more cumbersome and inflexible. That’s hardly ideal when an industry is trying to bounce back from its worst year on record.

“During this time we need to focus on supporting restaurants, not imposing burdens that will make it more difficult for restaurants to operate, to keep their doors open and to staff back up to pre-pandemic levels,” said the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) in an email urging people to oppose the new D.C. law.

Some 95 restaurants have closed in D.C. during the pandemic, and restaurant sales are down 55 percent, reports DCist, citing numbers from RAMW.

At worst, this new law will freeze out new workers trying to enter the restaurant industry. They’ll have to get in line behind everyone else who has already had a job, regardless of how eager and able they are to work. That’s not a great set up for younger folks just entering the workforce, or for new arrivals to the city looking for a job.

Granted, screwing over younger workers seems to be the intent of the union activists who’ve pushed this proposal. They’ve expressed fears that businesses getting back up on their feet will opt for hiring less experienced employees at lower wages.

The pandemic, and all the public health regulations that have come with it, have been devastating for the hospitality industry. Businesses that make it out of this year alive will no doubt be eager to get back to something approaching business as usual. Politicians in D.C. appear eager to make that as hard as possible.

from Latest – Reason.com https://ift.tt/3oXZken
via IFTTT

‘Squad’ Member Cori Bush Wants Biden To Grant Clemency To Everybody On Death Row

‘Squad’ Member Cori Bush Wants Biden To Grant Clemency To Everybody On Death Row
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/16/2020 – 15:40

Authored by Rusty Weiss via The Mental Recession blog,

The ‘Squad’s’ newest member Cori Bush is demanding President-elect Joe Biden move to grant clemency to everybody currently sitting on death row.

Bush’s view shows once again that there isn’t any level of criminal the group won’t embrace.

The Missouri Democrat made her views clear in an op-ed with Time Magazine on Monday.

“If [Biden] truly opposes the death penalty,” she wrote, “he must do everything in his power to stop it for good. Granting clemency to all on federal death row is his most effective tool.”

Bush went on to describe the death penalty as “murder in the name of justice” and drew a link between it and the dark stain of racism in American history.

“Ending the death penalty is about justice,” she argued, seemingly unaware that families of their victims need justice as well. “It’s about mercy. It’s about putting a stop to this nation’s dark history of lynching and slavery.”

“We must build a fair criminal-legal system on a foundation of mercy, due process and equity,” continued Bush. “We must break the cycles of death, devastation and trauma that have broken Black and brown communities like mine.”

Cori Bush Wants Death Row Inmates Granted Clemency From Joe Biden

42.1 percent of inmates currently sitting on death row are white, while African-Americans make up the next largest group at 41.6.

Compared to the U.S. population, the numbers are skewed. So, does Bush have an argument? Of course not, she’s the victim of ‘Squad-think’ an inability to process information more than two steps forward.

Men make up 98 percent of all those currently on death row, while just 2 percent are female. Most certainly, the U.S. population does not represent that kind of makeup.

Does that make the criminal justice system is inherently sexist? You decide.

Bush’s op-ed was spurred on by the recent execution of Brandon Bernard, a man convicted for the 1999 robbery, kidnapping, and the brutal murder of youth pastors Todd and Stacie Bagley.

That’s the type of person Bush is rallying behind.

Biden supports eliminating the death penalty according to his campaign website.

“Biden will work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level, and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example,” the site reads. “These individuals should instead serve life sentences without probation or parole.”

President Trump, by contrast, made a campaign promise to bring back capital punishment then followed through on that promise.

Bush’s Views on the Criminal Justice System

Cori Bush’s views on the death penalty, granting clemency to murderers, and law enforcement in general, show she is squarely on the side of criminals, not on the side of the victims of crime.

She stands in opposition to Biden and Barack Obama’s suggestion that defunding the police is a losing political argument.

“It’s not a slogan,” Bush argued. “It’s a mandate for keeping our people alive. Defund the police.”

Bush has even gone so far as to argue that it is necessary to defund our military.

“If you’re having a bad day, just think of all the social services we’re going to fund after we defund the Pentagon,” she tweeted.

Read more at the Political Insider…

Override Early Access
On

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3oWt3o4 Tyler Durden

Ken Moelis Is Letting His Staff Work From Anywhere They Choose

Ken Moelis Is Letting His Staff Work From Anywhere They Choose
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/16/2020 – 15:25

It appears that the good old days of packing a lunch, grabbing the briefcase and showing up to the NYC office every morning are officially over. 

The Covid pandemic has shifted a lot of paradigms across many industries, not the least of which has been dispensing with the notion that businesses need everyone in the same geographical place to be effective. Ken Moelis seems to be understanding this – and is letting his staff work from wherever they want, according to Bloomberg. 

In a recent interview, Moelis said: “We’re a talent business. I want to attract, I want to motivate and I want to retain the greatest talent in the world. And if that talent wants to do it in Florida, that’s where we’ll support them.”

He said his company headquarters in New York will still remain “a place to collaborate, to build camaraderie and to nurture new recruits,” but otherwise he expects his staff to move to “cities where tax rates are lower, the climate is warmer and government is friendly to business.”

Moelis is embracing a playbook that would have been frowned upon just months ago on Wall Street. But now, in a post-Covid world, he is embracing change that appears as though it’ll be inevitable, regardless of how and when the pandemic ends. He had the realization after seeing how productive his 128 managing directors could be working on Zoom instead of coming into the office. 

Moelis told Bloomberg: “We all woke up and said, ‘Wow, you mean we could have done this without flying 20 hours and drafting a document in a room together?’ This is a moment of enlightenment.”

Recall, back in April, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman was one of the first to say that banks would require “much less real estate” going forward. Since then, a number of firms have moved operations to places like Florida, including Goldman Sachs and Citadel. 

Moelis’ embrace of the policy could act as an added benefit for top talent looking to decide where to work. He has even considered building new offices in regions where employees wind up congregating. 

“I’m actually going to facilitate where the people want. The Northeast likes Florida, California has chosen Texas,” he concluded. 

Override Early Access
On

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3r7c6JE Tyler Durden

Iran’s Khamenei Emerges After Rumored Health Decline To Urge Reviving Nuclear Deal With Biden

Iran’s Khamenei Emerges After Rumored Health Decline To Urge Reviving Nuclear Deal With Biden
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/16/2020 – 15:13

Days ago into last week there were widespread rumors spreading on Mideast social media of the severe health decline of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The persistent rumors ranged from saying he was in a coma even to some claiming his death.

But Khamenei put the unfounded speculation to rest after on Wednesday morning he appeared at an event marking the first anniversary of the death of IRGC Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani. He hasn’t made a public appearance in three weeks.

But more importantly he emerged to give final high level backing to prior statements of Iranian leaders, most notably President Hassan Rouhani, indicating that should the United States return to the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by Trump in 2018, Iran would “follow within an hour”.

Source: Official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

Khamenei, as the top cleric representing also the highest and final political authority in what’s essentially a Shia Islamic theocracy repeated Rouhani’s Monday words almost precisely, as Bloomberg reports:

His statement sends a clear signal to Iranian hardliners not to stand in the way of talks with US President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office next month having pledged to rejoin the accord abandoned by Donald Trump.

“If sanctions can be removed, we shouldn’t delay, not even for an hour,” Khamenei said Wednesday in comments almost identical to ones made this week by President Hassan Rouhani.

Khamenei added, “I support the country’s officials as long as they are committed to the nation’s goals.” He expressed that he wants to see a swift removal of US-led sanctions on the country, especially the devastating banking and energy sector restrictions. 

But he still underscored in a nod to hardliners that skepticism is warranted no matter who is in the White House and despite prior Biden pledges that he’ll restore US participation in the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal. In the end officials of the Islamic Republic should “not to trust the enemy,” he warned.

Meanwhile, hardliners who primarily exercise power through the Iran’s parliament and Guardian Council have recently approved a law to end intrusive United Nations inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities.

This looming drastic action, which doesn’t appear to have been implemented yet, is likely by design intended to give Iran significant leverage after January 20, when the regime deals with the new Biden administration.

Override Early Access
On

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