Month: June 2021

Last week, when Biden released his $6 trillion budget, we asked if it was a joke that the BIden budget saw just 2.1% inflation in 2021 and 2022.

Is this a joke: the BIden budget sees 2.1% CPI in 2021 and 2022

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 28, 2021

Fast forward to this weekend, when Fed Chair Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen addressed our rhetorical concern, and following the G7 finmin meeting in London where the world’s most advanced nations agreed to impose a 15% minimum corporate tax rate (with zero enforcement provisions), said that contrary to the Biden Budget, inflation could climb as high as 3% this year in what the WaPo said was “the first time the Biden administration projected what inflation could be through 2021″, which by the way is dead wrong since Biden’s budget just last week predicted only 2.1% CPI in 2021.

What the pathologically misleading Bezos Post meant to say is that this was the first time the Biden administration actually told the truth about how high the galloping US inflation will rise. And the only reason it did so is that in a time when home prices – and pretty much all other prices – are soaring at the fastest pace in US history, adhering to the laughable 2.1% CPI forecast would crush the credibility of everyone in this progressive administration.

Of course, the admission that inflation is about to turn red hot led to many other unpleasant questions that need to be answered, such as what will this to the economy, to purchasing intentions (which as we reported at the end of May just crashed the most on record), and last but not least, to the market, where the tiniest hint of inflation leads to immediate selloffs.

So, scrambling to preempt the barrage of questions come Monday, on Sunday Janet Yellen said that even though inflation is now at the highest level since Paul Volcker hiked rates to 20% and the US is about to issue another $3 trillion or so in debt just to fund existing stimulus programs, Joe Biden should push forward with his $4 trillion spending plans even if they trigger inflation that persists into next year and higher interest rates.

Why? Because soaring inflation is good for you.

“If we ended up with a slightly higher interest rate environment it would actually be a plus for society’s point of view and the Fed’s point of view,” Yellen said in an interview with Bloomberg. And yes, she really said that.

It wasn’t immediately clear why rising rates, hence inflation and a drop in one’s purchasing power is “a plus for society’s point of view” but needless to say, this is the kind of idiotic drivel that Rudy von Havenstein and his cronies said some time in 1921, just around the time Weimer hyperinflation kicked in.

The debate around inflation has intensified in recent months, between those who, like Yellen, argue that current price increases are being driven by transitory anomalies created by the pandemic — such as supply-chain bottlenecks and a surge in spending as economies reopen — and critics who say trillions in government aid will fuel a lasting spike in costs.

Just to make sure there was no doubt which side of the argument Yellen is on, she said the recent rise in prices will subside and the U.S. labor market still has a ways to go before returning to pre-pandemic strength.

“We’re seeing some inflation but I don’t believe it’s permanent,” Yellen said at a press conference Saturday after the G-7 finance meeting in London. “We at least on a year-over-year basis will continue, I believe, through the rest of the year to see higher inflation rates — maybe around 3%.”

Yet even Yellen admitted that she could be wrong (narrator: “she is”) and that officials are still watching price increases closely. “I don’t want to say this is mind absolutely made up and closed. We’ll watch this very carefully, keep an eye on it and try to address issues that arise if it turns out to be necessary,” she said, although again she added that personally she believes “this represents transitory factors,” and that “policy should look past such factors.”

Yellen also made it clear that even though the world is now more indebted than at any time since World War II, it is about to take on even more debt, because you see, it’s contained: “There is a concern among some about fiscal sustainability and an evident desire to begin to withdraw accommodation when things are back on track,” Yellen said, eyeing her former democrat buddy Larry Summers who has emerged as one of the biggest critics of “Biden’s trillions.” Yellen dismissed his concerns simply by saying that “we think that most countries have fiscal space.”

“I will not give up on the next packages,” Yellen said. “They’re not meant as stimulus, they’re meant as investments to address long-standing needs of our economy.”

Yes, she really said that, and yes she better be right about the “transitory” inflation part because we are about to get a whole lot more of it. Biden’s packages would add up to roughly $400 billion in spending per year, Yellen said, contending that’s not enough to cause an inflation over-run. Any “spurt” in prices resulting from the rescue package will fade away next year.  And, if she is wrong, well… it will be someone else’ problem to mop it up.

And speaking of what’s coming, keep in mind that last month we learned that headline CPI rose 4.2%, but it is the May print that could be an “absolute shocker”, as discussed last week.

Yet despite surging prices, and despite soaring wages, the Fed has committed to only begin scaling back the $120 billion monthly pace of its asset purchases after there’s “substantial further progress” on inflation and employment. It is unclear how much higher inflation should rise for the Fed to be happy, but one thing is clear: we are now at a point where the government’s welfare handouts and weekly unemployment benefits are distorting the picture dramatically, and the job market is growing far below expectations precisely because of Biden’s ruinous fiscal policies, policies that keep the Fed’s QE in play even longer and assure that not only is the wealth divide the widest it has ever been, but that when inflation really hits, it will truly be an “AAAAAAH!!!” moment.

But none of that is a concern to the phlegmatic 74-year-old: Yellen said that monetary policy makers can handle any potential rise in inflation if it sticks. “I know that world – they’re very good,” Yellen said in the interview. “I don’t believe they’re going to screw it up.”

This is the same clueless hack who in 2017 said she doesn’t expect another financial crisis in “our lifetimes.”

As small businesses complain that it has never been harder for them to hire workers according to a recent NFIB survey, many are facing growing pressure to survive. As the American economy continues to reopen, some fear it might not happen soon enough to save thousands of small businesses. Data from Alignable’s June Revenue Poll shows that 35% of all small business owners are still at risk of closing permanently by the end of the summer.

Among the 3,772 small business owners in the 10 days ended June 1, Alignable’s June Revenue Poll showed a myriad of factors – including the remaining closures and restrictions, growing inflationary pressures on prices, rising gas and transportation prices and labor shortages – are creating problems that affect small businesses more intensely than their corporate partners.

The biggest increase in the survey was trouble finding employees, which was identified as a potential closure risk by 55% of respondents, up from just 5% the prior month.

For the record, Alignable calculates the percentage of small business owners who believe their businesses are in jeopardy by combining the answers to two of its questions: what percentage of last summer’s revenue will these businesses make this summer? And what percentage of last year’s revenue do they need to earn to ensure their business stays afloat. If the first is smaller than the second, then businesses are deemed to be in jeopardy.

Beyond this, several respondents complained about the lingering impact of not being able to fully reopen. Some say they’ve had to take a second job to keep their small business afloat long enough to see if it actually has a chance to recover after COVID subsides.

Based on the answers to the first question, only 22% of small business owners said they expected to make as much or more than they earned last summer. Considering that 40-50% of small businesses weren’t even fully open last summer, this figure alone is cause for alarm.

Retailers and restaurant owners were also feeling slightly better about their prospects, but many are still concerned about their prospects. Some expressed worries about whether to impose mandatory masking policies and other precautions since a significant slice of the population remains unvaxxed.

Amid these frustrating insights, there is an important silver lining: 33% of business owners said they had fully recovered to their pre-COVID monthly revenue numbers, adding more support for the “two recoveries” narrative that’s also encapsulated by the recent winnings of “meme stock” traders who have come into sudden financial windfalls by betting on hot stocks like AMC, which soared past $70 a share last night.

For many small business owners, watching millions of Americans collect “enhanced” unemployment checks, while others make thousands of dollars betting on stocks, feels like salt in their wounds.

Picking up on a joke we made earlier this week when we called Joe Biden the Six Trillion Dollar Man (in homage to a very deflationary Lee Majors) in response to the 12 zeroes contained in his budget, in his latest Weekly Kickstart note Goldman’s David Kostin writes that…

by at least one measure, inflation has been rampant during the past 50 years, noting that in 1973, Steve Austin was the most powerful man in the world, with super strength in his right arm, a bionic eye, and artificial legs that could run 60 mph. It cost the federal government $6 million to re-build the NASA astronaut into the bionic man, played by Lee Majors in the hit TV series, “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

Fast forward to today, often sporting his trademark 1970s-style aviator sunglasses, President Joe Biden is the most powerful man in the world.Biden is the $6 trillion man when his three 2021 fiscal spending plans are combined: the $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan that was passed in March, the $2.0 trillion American infrastructure plan proposed in April, and the $1.8 trillion American families plan proposed in May. If all three proposals are passed by Congress, it would represent an unprecedented level of peacetime spending in relation to the size of the underlying economy. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the latter two plans pass Congress.

And while it increasingly looks like Biden’s original $6 trillion proposal will be substantially reduced – and may even collapse should it not gather the required support from centrist democrats – Goldman’s economists did not wait to find out what happens and recently raised their near-term inflation forecasts even as they maintained their expectation that inflation will begin to abate later in the year. In April, both core PCE (+3.1% y/y) and core CPI (+3.0% y/y) exceeded expectations and notched highs not seen in more than two decades. In turn, Goldman’s economists expect that core PCE will register 2.5% at the end of 2021 and decline to 2.1% during 2022.

To be sure, after initially freaking out about a deluge of inflation, the growing likelihood that Biden’s stimulus package will be materially diluted is why equity market performance has already shown a recent unwinding of inflation concerns. As Goldman notes, In March, amidst fears about rising inflation, stocks with high pricing power

… began to outperform those with low pricing power, reversing 5 months of low pricing power outperformance as the economy recovered. However, during the past few weeks, low pricing power stocks have outperformed again (7% vs. 3%). At the same time, the interest rate 10-year inflation breakevens has declined by 14 bps to 2.4%, suggesting inflation fears priced by both equity and debt markets are easing.

Not surprisingly, this whiplash has prompted most of Goldman’s recent client discussions to focus on inflation and its implications for equities.And, as Kostin explains, investors ask just one thing: “how does inflation affect corporate earnings and stock valuations?”

Answering this recurring question, Goldman’s Kostin notes that while inflation has mixed implications for earnings, it is generally a positive (as long as it is not hyperinflation in which case all bets are off of course). Kostin then reveals that in the bank’s top-down sector-level earnings models, inflation consistently has positive coefficients for sales and negative coefficients for margins. On net, however, Goldman argues that “the boost to nominal sales growth through rising prices typically more than offsets inflation-driven margin compression.” While one can debate this, it is certainly the case that companies with revenues tied to commodities, like Energy, or interest rates, such as Financials, are the largest beneficiaries from strong inflation regimes.

That said, inflation becomes a headwind to valuations if it leads to expectations of Fed tightening and thus higher real interest rates. And as Morgan Stanley has argued as part of its mid-cycle transition thesis, S&P 500 returns have been consistently positively correlated with breakeven inflation but valuations have typically contracted alongside sharp increases in real interest rates (as a reminder, MS expects PE multiples to shrink 15% in the next 6 months).

On the other hand, and adding to the complexity, the Fed has indicated it will not tighten the funds rate before seeing prolonged labor market improvement resulting in broad wage gains, particularly at the lower end of the income spectrum. In the past, the S&P 500 P/E multiple has typically expanded during periods of falling inflation and interest rates.

For the record, Goldman’s economists forecast the yield curve will steepen in 2021 and 2022, with the funds rate unchanged while the 10-year yield rises from 1.6% today to 1.9% and 2.1% at year-end 2021 and 2022.

Here Kostin makes another valiant attempt to ease worries about runaway inflation, claiming that although inflation is generally a negative impulse for valuation multiples, “recent popular investor focus on earnings yield less the inflation rate is misplaced” and here’s why:

Investors concerned by this metric note that it has fallen to its lowest point since the peak of the Tech Bubble in 2000 and suggests the return from owning equities is erased by inflation. We disagree with this interpretation. First, equity earnings and the prices tied to them are nominal and typically rise with inflation. Second, even inflation hawks agree that the most recent prints are biased by base effects and reopening dynamics. In contrast to the gap between the earnings yield and inflation, the EPS yield gap versus the 10-year US Treasury yield, which is commonly used as a proxy for equity risk premium, actually remains above its long-term average. See Exhibit 1.

Kostin’s spin aside, it is undisputable that overall, stocks perform better during periods of low inflation than when inflation is high. Goldman categorizes periods since 1962 into those of high and low inflation by comparing year/year core CPI to the Fed’s estimate of consensus long-term inflation expectations. Exhibit 2 clearly shows two inflationary regimes during the past 60 years: The first 20 years (1962-1980) and the past 40 years.

During the first period – which culminated with Volcker hiking rates to 20% – core CPI averaged 5.3% and registered above the long-term estimate 69% of the time.

Since 1962, both pre-and post-1980, the median monthly US equity market real return during high inflation environments has been an annualized 9% vs. 15% during periods of low inflation. As shown in the chart below, periods of high inflation have corresponded with the outperformance of Health Care, Energy, Real Estate, and Consumer Staples sectors, while Materials and Technology stocks have fared the worst in high inflation environments. Surprisingly, Value and Size factors have not performed very differently in periods of high versus low inflation.

Finally, drilling down a little deeper, equity performance has differed greatly in periods where inflation was high and rising versus high and falling.The median monthly market real return has been 2% annualized in phases where inflation was high and rising vs. 15% when inflation was high and falling. At the factor level, Value has generally fared better when inflation was high and rising than when it was high and falling. Among sectors, although Energy and Health Care have outperformed in periods of high inflation, they have performed much better when inflation was rising than falling.

Surging construction costs to build a new home is not sustainable and is becoming a pain in the arse for homebuilders and prospective homebuyers. From concrete to lumber to copper pipes to paint and even appliances, costs have surged over the past year. 

The housing boom sparked by the Federal Reserve during the virus pandemic was built on historically low mortgage rates (thanks to Powell) and accelerated by a combination of record-low inventory as city-dwellers moved to rural areas amid the remote-work phenomenon. 

According to Zillow Group Inc, the past year has been the hottest real estate market since 2007. Economist Robert Shiller, the co-founder of the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller home price index, recently told CNBC that “in real terms, home prices have never been so high. My data goes back over 100 years, so this is something.” 

Making matters worse is a shortage of materials as there is just too much demand from builders and not enough supplies due to supply chain disruptions. There’s also the issue of not enough buildable land. All of this has manifested into dangerous inflationary pressures vibrating not just through the housing market but the entire economy that may force Federal Reserve to announce tapering at Jackson Hole. It wouldn’t be surprising if MBS purchases from the Fed would be some of the first to be reduced. 

Bloomberg provides an example of surging housing costs in one of the hottest housing markets in the country: Boise, Idaho.

Steve Martinez, the operator of Tradewinds General Contracting Inc., said his company had to raise costs on some of its new builds to offset high raw material and labor costs. 

Martinez said the sale price of a 3,000 sqft, which excludes the lot but includes costs, labor, and profit, was $746,671 this spring. He said that’s 58% higher than two years ago in 2019. These costs are primarily the reason why home prices are surging. 

Foundation costs for the builder jumped 104% since 2019. 

Lumber costs are one of the most significant issues for the builder. Prices have nearly surged 262% since 2019. 

Timber roof trusses to frame a structure to support the roof have more than doubled since pre-pandemic levels. 

Meanwhile, drywall, used for interior walls and ceilings, has only risen 26% since 2019. 

With plastic and base metal prices soaring, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical costs are up 49% since 2019. 

Interior and exterior paint have risen 68% since 2019. 

Custom millwork, such as trim around doors, paneling, and cabinetry, has surged 68% since 2019. 

Appliances are up 65% from 2019 levels due to increasing demand and not enough supply. 

Factor this all together, the Boise homebuyer purchasing a 3,000 sqft home from the builder is forking over $950,000, up 61% from 2019. 

… and here’s the final product. 

The cost of building a home has rocketed higher in a post-pandemic world that could soon be an industry killer as housing affordability becomes a significant issue. This is why the Fed needs to get a hold of inflationary pressures by unleashing tapering. 

“This could be industry killing if things continue going the way they’re going,” said Martinez, who has had to tack on price increases during construction of anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000, primarily due to rising lumber costs. “We’re putting projects off. We’ve got clients that are hitting their price ceiling.”

Record-high housing prices have already begun to dent homebuyer confidence as prices become unaffordable. 

It’s time for the Fed to end their grand experiment in juicing the economy and let the price of everything normalize. 

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Georgia Republican Party on Saturday approved a resolution censuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, local media reported.

The Georgia GOP during a convention approved a resolution that says Raffensperger, a Republican, failed to perform his duties in “accordance with the laws of the Constitution of the State of Georgia,” WSB-TV reported.

The document says the failure stemmed from Raffensperger entering into a settlement agreement with the Democratic Party of Georgia, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The agreement saw Raffensperger agree to promote and enforce regulations regarding prompt notification if a mail-in ballot was rejected and regarding county clerks’ signature reviews of absentee ballot envelopes and ballots.

Georgia Republicans accused Raffensperger of “undermining the security of our elections by allowing mass mailings of absentee applications by his office and third parties which created opportunities for fraud and overwhelmed election offices; rendering accurate signature matching nearly impossible; allowing ballot drop boxes without proper chain of custody; and ignoring sworn affidavits and disregarding evidence of voter fraud.”

“It’s obvious that there was fraud,” Michael Ovitz, an attendee at the convention, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“A civilized society depends upon truths and facts, not deception and deceit.”

The Georgia Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.

Raffensperger has said there is no evidence of widespread fraud occurring in the 2020 election. The State Election Board, which he chairs, has sent dozens of election fraud cases to prosecutors in the wake of the election, including allegations that voters failed to register and vote or registered to vote while living outside the state.

Raffensperger’s office told WSB-TV: “The secretary of state’s office, county election directors, and the tens of thousands of poll workers across the state worked to ensure that democracy was upheld. It is the job of counties to run elections and the secretary of state’s office’s job to report those election results—it is the job of the political parties to deliver wins for their candidates. Let’s not confuse the two.”

In the latest surreal and brazen example of federal government overreach, the FBI is demanding that USA Today turn over the IP addresses of all individuals who accessed a public online article during a specific time period. 

The subpoena was issued in April but is only in recent days being made public after the newspaper’s parent company Gannett sought to fight it in court. It’s being widely condemned as an outrageous instance of abuse not only of press freedom, but of the public’s right to access information and media as well as breach of both the 1st and 4th Amendments. Underscoring this, WikiLeaks was among the first to highlight the case which seeks to sweep up info on all individuals who accessed the article in question during a 35-minute window on February 2nd, 2021. 

FBI Demands identifying Info including IP addresses and telephone numbers of readers of a USA Today articlehttps://t.co/WVDlA8PnIo pic.twitter.com/VUgYeczcuV

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 4, 2021

A statement given from USA Today to The Verge said, “We were surprised to receive this subpoena particularly in light of President Biden’s recent statements in support of press freedom. The subpoena is also contrary to the Justice Department’s own guidelines concerning the narrow circumstances in which subpoenas can be issued to the news media.”

USA Today’s legal team is further seeking to fight the subpoena in order to “protect the important relationship and trust between USA TODAY’s readers and our journalists.”

According to the details known about what the FBI is asking and who it could impact, The Verge report details that “The article in question was one published on February 2nd, 2021, about a shootout that occurred when FBI agents tried to execute a search warrant in a child pornography case, resulting in the deaths of two FBI agents and the suspect.”

But strangely the suspect written about in the article was already literally dead (reportedly by self-inflicted gunshot wound) significantly before the USA Today article was published.

Here’s a snippet of the article in question:

Two FBI agents were killed and three were wounded in a shooting early Tuesday while agents were serving a warrant in a child exploitation case in Florida, according to the FBI. The suspect died of an apparent self-inflicted gun shot wound, a person familiar with the matter said.

Authorities are investigating whether the suspect had cameras rigged at the apartment to provide an outside view of people who might be approaching at the time of the incident, said the source, who is not authorized to comment publicly.

The FBI is essentially asking for a large data dump covering that entire time frame the article was live and the public was accessing it.

In response to the FBI’s demand for info that could identify readers of a USA Today story, @rcfp Exec. Director Bruce Brown is calling on DOJ & FBI to explain how officials applied policies that limit when the government can seek records from news outlets. https://t.co/vFEbktBk4K

— Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (@rcfp) June 5, 2021

The government has since kept mum on just why it needs the data. There remains the possibility that the FBI is potentially eyeing an accomplice to the crime, or a broader conspiracy, and has knowledge that another suspect or suspects had accessed that particular article. 

One of USA Today’s attorney’s confirmed that the government refused to answer reasonable questions over just why it’s essential to be given everyone’s IP address who read the article. “Despite these attempts, we never received any substantive reply nor any meaningful explanation of the asserted basis for the subpoena,” Washington Post quoted the lawyer as saying.

Later over the weekend USA Today announced the following: “The FBI has withdrawn a subpoena demanding records from USA TODAY that would identify readers of a February story about a southern Florida shootout that killed two agents and wounded three others.”

But it remains that the FBI’s request is somewhat unprecedented and a huge threat to press as well as individual freedom, given that if granted it would mean all citizens could at any time unwittingly be treated as suspects merely for reading an online news article. 

Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Alameda County, California, fell by about 25 percent after health officials changed their methodology for total mortality count, removing those that were not a “direct result” of the disease, or “in whom death caused by COVID-19 could not be ruled out.”

The county’s COVID-19 dashboard, following an update on June 4 to reflect the total number of COVID-19 deaths using the state’s death reporting definition, shows 1,223 deaths were caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, 411 fewer than what it previously reported.

“Alameda County previously included any person who died while infected with the virus in the total COVID-19 deaths for the County,” the county’s public health department said in a press release (pdf). For example, someone who tested positive for the virus before dying in a car accident would still have been counted toward the COVID-19 death toll .

“Aligning with the State’s definition will require Alameda County to report as COVID-19 deaths only those people who died as a direct result of COVID-19, with COVID-19 as a contributing cause of death, or in whom death caused by COVID-19 could not be ruled out,” the health officials said, noting that their system of reporting COVID-19 deaths on the dashboard and to the state was implemented early in the pandemic, before the state established guidelines for how deaths should be classified.

Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss told the Mercury News that his department was aware of the inconsistency between the county and state’s numbers, but they had to put off the change because of a major surge in infections during the winter.

“We just weren’t able to move as quickly on this as we would’ve liked, but we felt it was important and sometimes better late than never,” he said.

Moss also admitted that some people may use the revision to argue that the pandemic isn’t as severe as it’s made out to be, and he strongly disputes that idea.

“There are going to be people who make hay out of it and use it to question things about the pandemic, but it’s irrefutable, the severity of the pandemic,” he told Mercury News. “I think anyone who would use this to make the argument that this is somehow overblown is really turning a blind eye to some of the simple truths of the pandemic.”

As of June 6, California has 3,689,994 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 62,470 deaths, according to the state’s health department. In the United States, more than 33 million cases have been confirmed and there have been more than 600,000 reported deaths.

*  *  *

The overcounting fed the panic that produced the lockdowns, school closings and other regrettable decisions. https://t.co/he5rYLlAy1

— Brit Hume (@brithume) June 6, 2021

Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

Political rancor and tensions surround the 2020 election had many US companies trying to distance themselves from the process by halting political donations. This included one of the biggest sectors for buying influence, the arms industry.

After a few months to reexamine things, the arms companies are back to throwing money around, donating in large quantities to members of both parties involved in military spending, and trying to ensure that they stay on good terms with everyone responsible for their business’ contracts.

While it isn’t shocking that the post-election pause didn’t last, it is noteworthy that some of the biggest donations are going to some in Congress who were big proponents of the “stolen election” narrative, despite that supposedly driving those companies to hold off in the first place.

Recall what BAE systems previously pledged:

“In response to the deeply disturbing violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, our U.S. political action committee has suspended all donations while we assess the path forward,” BAE Systems spokeswoman Tammy Thorp said in a statement at the time.

In reality, it seems that the Biden Administration and Congress have been signaling that the massive military spending part of the status quo will remain more or less untouched, and that seems to be all the companies needed to hear to start the spigot on their donations again.

One Third of Biden’s Pentagon Transition Team Hails From Organizations Financed by the Weapons Industry @inthesetimesmag https://t.co/ts518OkxAg

— Rachel Pirani (@Liberty5380) November 12, 2020

Military analysis site Defense News details that “Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Leidos and BAE are all giving again, while Honeywell, General Electric, Raytheon and Booz Allen Hamilton are not giving, according to their most recent filings.”

And further: “Honeywell and GE had said they would suspend donations to the 147 members of Congress who voted against certifying Biden’s win.” In terms of these latter companies, we’ll see just how long that actually lasts.

Liftoff of NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity will occur no later than today if all goes to plan, according to a NASA press release. 

Ingenuity, a small robotic helicopter weighing no more than 4 pounds, is preparing for its seventh flight today. The mission is to fly Ingenuity 350 feet south from its current location on the floor of Jezero Crater. 

“This will mark the second time the helicopter will land at an airfield that it did not survey from the air during a previous flight,” NASA wrote. “Instead, the Ingenuity team is relying on imagery collected by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that suggests this new base of operations is relatively flat and has few surface obstructions.”

On May 22, Ingenuity flew its sixth mission that did not go so well. The solar-powered helicopter experienced glitches that interrupted internal systems. There was no mention of what caused the glitches; the craft was able to land safely. 

Ingenuity has marvelously performed five flights and beamed incredible images from Mars back to Earth. 

NASA also has the Perseverance rover conducting land-based missions in the search for life. 

In the last couple of months, the Red Planet has become a hotspot for the US and China, with China landing a rover of its own on the planet.

Sudden interest in Mars between both countries is because the planet allegedly has an abundance of rare metals that will power tomorrow’s economy. 

Authored by Bob Zeidman via RealClearPolitics.com,

NORMANDY, France, June 6, 1944

In a surprise aggressive move, American and British troops are landing on the beaches in Normandy today.

Germany’s Transocean News Service reports that Germans vacationing in the sleepy hamlets of this coastal region were awakened by the ships, planes, guns, and bombs of this sneak attack. A few brave German tourists quickly ran to bunkers and began returning fire to protect their French brothers and sisters.

Germany has already been subject to a horrifying 363 air raids by the Allied air forces in an attempt to terrorize its citizens. British bombers have already dropped over 45,000 tons of bombs while American aircraft dropped 23,000 tons. Nearly 1.7 million people have been forced from their homes, creating what the United Nations has called the greatest refugee problem in history. Many fleeing Germans only stopped briefly to say their goodbyes to the friends they made at the various camps throughout Germany and Poland.

The attack on the Normandy coast was an oppressive show of military might, the Allied forces having amassed the largest armada in human history, building a harbor where none previously existed, and sneaking into it unnoticed. On college campuses, various socialist student organizations have held vigils, protests, and riots to condemn this “illegal occupation.” They noted that the deaths in Germany have numbered in the millions while Americans have had relatively few casualties, perhaps only 100,000 to 200,000. If the number of vacationers in the German camps are included, that German death count increases by another 6 million. It is obvious from the numbers that this militant operation is an attempt to murder innocent Germans and wipe out their culture. The League of Nations has labeled this action illegal under international law.

Protests are occurring in all major American cities, with demonstrators shouting that they will support the indigenous people of Germany against the occupying Allied forces, and they will not stop until this “disproportionate” action is halted, and the “imperialist” invading military is defunded.

American heroes including Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford have come out strongly against this illegal and heartbreaking invasion that has resulted in the deaths of innocent Germans.

Of course, some known deplorables like communist Charlie Chaplin and B-movie actor Ronald Reagan have stood by America and foolishly proclaimed that this invasion is needed for self-defense and to “save Western civilization,” as if Western civilization were somehow superior to others, such as Aryan civilization.

American Corporations including Coca-Cola, MGM, Ford Motor Co., General Motors and IBM all declared that in they are operating in solidarity with their oppressed German brethren. They will be donating money to the German Lives Matter group and step up their hiring of Germanic-Americans.

The “Squad,” consisting of Mildred “Axis Sally” Gillars, William “Lord Haw-Haw” Joyce, and Iva “Tokyo Rose” Toguri have been sitting for interviews with the press and doing radio and television shows to get out the word about their cause and make Americans aware that their politicians are being dishonest and immoral and also advising the Allied soldiers that their wives are cheating on them back home.

From the comfort of his simple bunker amid the constant bombing, German leader Adolf Hitler stated that Germany simply wants to reclaim land that was forcefully and illegally taken from it in 1918: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Poland. If only these stolen lands were returned, there would be peace, he said.

The League of Nations condemned the Allies for their unequal response and called for an end to the cycle of violence. League officials hope that a cease-fire can be obtained before Germany has been overrun and the Allies institute their own government, as these officials have discovered a secret “Marshall Plan” that surely will impose martial law on Germany and result in the end of the German Reich, which is intended to last 1,000 years.

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Bob Zeidman is the founder of several high-tech firms, and an author of textbooks on engineering and intellectual property as well as several award-winning screenplays and novels. His latest novel is the political satire “Good Intentions.”