Month: July 2021

The interim prime minister of Haiti, Claude Joseph, released a statement early Wednesday that reveals the president was assassinated hours ago. 

The president of Haiti, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated around 0100 local time when “a group of unidentified individuals, some of whom spoke in Spanish,” attacked his private residence. 

“At around one in the morning, on the night of Tuesday, July 6 to Wednesday, July 7, 2021, a group of unidentified individuals, some of whom spoke in Spanish, attacked the private residence of the president of the Republic and thus mortally wounded the Chief of the state. France24‘s translation of Joseph’s statement. 

A gunshot also wounded the First Lady. Joseph asked the public to remain calm, and the “security situation of the country is under the control of the National Police of Haiti and the Armed Forces of Haiti.” He said, “all measures are taken to ensure the continuity of the State and protect the Nation. Democracy and the Republic will win.” 

Haiti has been plagued by insecurity and mistrust of the Moise administration from a large swath of the civilian population. The attackers have yet to be named. 

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A behavioral scientist who wants mask mandates to continue forever freaked out and refused to answer the question when asked if her lifetime membership of the Communist Party informed her beliefs.

Susan Michie, who is advising the UK government as part of the SAGE scientific dictatorship which has had the country locked down for the best part of 15 months, was finally confronted during a segment on Good Morning Britain.

When she was previously asked for how much longer social distancing, mask mandates and lockdowns should continue, Michie said “forever.”

Despite Michie making innumerable appearances on television, not one single interviewer asked her about being a Communist until GMB host Richard Madeley broke the ice yesterday morning.

Susan Michie expresses outrage when asked if her 40-year membership in the Communist Party might inform her policies.

Apparently it’s ok to be a communist, but not to ask if this might be connected to her open endorsement of communist China’s policies.pic.twitter.com/xhkl6Es9Tr

— Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) July 5, 2021

Richard Madeley: There’s a point I really have to put to you and you’ll be aware of this because there’s been a lot of commentary about this in the British media about you and it’s to do with your politics and you know what I’m going to ask you. You’ve been a member of the Communist Party for about 40 years now, you’re still a member, and we know that they’re statist. We look at Communist countries around the world and we see that they are tremendously top down dominant and controlled societies that they rule over. I just wonder – and I’m putting this question on behalf of those who wonder about your politics – if your politics actually informs your sense of control? It’s not just the medical arguments, but you have a kind of a political bent to want the state to tell people what to do?

Susan Michie: I’ve come on your program as a scientist, as do all people who come on to your program as scientists. They come on to talk about the evidence, relevant theories, how we approach our scientific disciplines, and you don’t ask other scientists about politics so I’m very happy to speak about science which is what my job is and to limit it to that.

RM: So you’re saying that your politics doesn’t inform your opinion on this subject?

SM: I’m saying that I agreed to come on this program as a scientist and I’m very happy to talk to you about the issues that you’re raising as a scientist which is the same for other scientists that you invite on to the program.

Michie’s attempt to squirm out of answering the question is transparently deceptive.

For a start, she isn’t a medical scientist or virologist, she’s a behavioral scientist.

In other words, Michie was one of the individuals responsible for brainwashing the British public using “mind control” and the weaponization of behavioral psychology at the start of the pandemic to make everyone overly terrified of a virus that in reality has a relatively low fatality rate.

The fact that the government used people like Michie to deliberately scare people using “unethical” and “totalitarian” tactics isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s all been admitted.

Given that Michie effusively praised Communist China’s draconian response to the pandemic, which included welding people inside their own homes, grilling her on her Communist inclinations is perfectly reasonable.

She tweeted:

“China has a socialist, collective system (whatever criticisms people may have) not an individualistic, consumer-oriented, profit-driven society badly damaged by 20 years of failed neoliberal economic policies. #LearntLessons.”

Making masks permanent is a an integral part of building the collectivist, Communist society that Michie yearns for.

As Toby Young highlights, the woke mob on Twitter rushed to Michie’s defense, with some even claiming it was “misogynistic” to question her extremist political beliefs.

Please get #boycottGMB trending. This behaviour towards women scientists is completely unacceptable. We shouldn’t tolerate it. https://t.co/uK9R7xwka3

— Deepti Gurdasani (@dgurdasani1) July 5, 2021

“I really don’t get why it was “misogynistic” of Madeley to ask Susan Michie whether her hard left politics have affected her position on mask mandates,” writes Young. “Of course they have! After all, forcing people to wear masks as a condition of participating in certain activities is a flagrant breach of their liberty and the reason Michie doesn’t care about that and thinks public health concerns should take priority (even though there’s precious little evidence that masks reduce transmission of the virus) must in part be because she’s a communist, who famously don’t put much value on individual freedom. And the reason Madeley hasn’t put the same question to other members of SAGE is not because Miche’s a woman, but because she’s the only one who’s been a member of the Communist Party for the past 40 years.”

Others wisely observed how Michie was quick to dismiss “unconscious bias” despite this being a staple of behavioral science.

Well that’s the first psychologist/behavioural scientist I’ve heard, not wanting to promote the notion of (unconscious) bias on the media, for a very long time

— tracey follows (@traceyfutures) July 5, 2021

Despite the perfectly justifiable line of Madeley’s questioning, Twitter bed-wetters reacted with outrage, calling for a boycott of GMB and labeling the host a “dangerous man” for daring to challenge the woman who once earned the nickname “Stalin’s nanny.”

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Just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin laid out a new national security strategy (seemingly timed to coincide with the US Independence Day Holiday to underscore the general theme) where he elaborated on how Washington uses the dollar as a tool to wage economic warfare against its geopolitical adversaries, Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, a nearly $190 billion pool of capital derived from the country’s vast oil and mineral wealth, has taken a critical step toward dumping all its assets.

• RUSSIAN FINANCE MINISTRY SAYS IT HAS COMPLETED FX CONVERSION NEEDED TO SCRAP U.S. DOLLAR FROM THE NATIONAL WEALTH FUND

The news isn’t exactly a surprise. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced plans to dump all dollar-denominated assets from the fund’s portfolio a month ago. Still, while it’s unclear how much of the dumping has already been completed, the alacrity with which the massive fund is moving ahead with its plans (trading tens of billions of dollars in FX is a laborious practice and can take time) shows that this wasn’t an empty threat. 

News that the fund has finished this critical step toward rebalancing its portfolio also coincides with Tuesday’s jump in oil prices, triggered by the latest OPEC drama.

The sovereign wealth fund’s decision is consistent with the Russian Central Bank, which has dumped dollar-denominated reserves in favor of gold.

As we have explained in the past, the trend of de-dollarization is a very real threat to the dominance of the greenback, which has ruled as the world’s reserve currency since the end of WWII (when it officially supplanted the British pound).

While the National Friendship Fund’s decision to excise US assets from its portfolio is certainly alarming, it’s only one piece of Russia’s strategy to undermine the greenback. The dollar’s dominance comes largely from its position as the global intermediary of choice for transnational trade. A few months ago, we reported that for the first time ever, Russia settled less than 50% of payments for its exports in currencies other than the dollar.

It’s a trend that’s been in place since the Obama Administration imposed sanctions over the annexation of Crimea back in 2014.

And it’s perhaps the single biggest threat, because if the dollar loses its special status as an intermediary for global trade, than international central banks will have less of an incentive to hold dollar reserves, since it will reduce the demand for dollars overall.

Authored by Bill Blain via MorningPorridge.com,

“The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, not matter which side he is on…”

Global Stock markets seem to be living the dream, but under the surface there are serious concerns. In Yoorp the ECB makes its power play this week to confirm its place within the political trinity of States, EU and ECB by effectively handing itself control of the fiscal and industrial policy levers that could power up Europe. No one tell the Germans…

Fascinating numbers coming out the USA about the $28 bln of new money that pumped up the stock market in June – read all about it in the WSJ: “Retail Investors Power the Trading Wave with Record Cash Inflows”.

10 million new brokerage accounts and over 70% of US retail investors are convinced the market rally has further to go, the Fed will stand stead-fast behind the market – keeping the money spigot open, and meme stocks and cryptos are cheap. They are buying – buying dips in the really classy financial assets they know and love.. like Gamestop and Buttcon. When a stock tumbles like that, it must be because the market has got it wrong surely… it’s what Wall Street calls a buy the dip opportunity, a window to make lots of money.

If you think so…

Only 44% of professional fund managers share the retail bullish view. They are far more concerned about the way in which certain tech stock movements look very 2000 dot.com crash familiar. They are concerned about IPOs, SPACs and valuations. They are concerned about rates, central banks and recovery.

Meanwhile things are getting interesting in Europe.

The ECB’s governing council will sit down in Finanzplatz Frankenfurt later this week to discuss and approve President Christine Lagarde’s grande plan – an all-encompassing strategic policy rejig of its remit – the first review in nearly 20 years! It’s the usual European thing – an opportunity for the 25 voting and vetoing members to trade naked and not-so-naked domestic self-interest and political advancement, versus the objectives of the Eurocracy in Brussels.

It’s a fascinating thing the ECB.

Christine Lagarde has proved herself an effective leader of financial institutions – but she is not a classical central banker. She is very much part of the French political master class, which is why she was parachuted in over the heads of many well qualified bankers. Her role within the ECB was always to build political unity and steer it in the correct direction. Which direction? France’s or the Brussels Eurocracy?

Which ever suits. France is unfazed by monetary debate. The number of angels holding €500 notes on a pinhead required to spike inflation bothers them not. How much debt-addled Southern Nations are borrowing under the ECB’s skirts – is not an issue. France has been bust many times, and is still France. And, if the ECB leads ends up leading European climate change policy, that’s just another thing you can’t blame the Elysée Palace for. Lagarde will make a great President of the Republic when she retires…

It’s a very un-Germanic approach. The Germans, as we all know, fear nothing but tremble at inflation above 2%. Curiously they still sincerely believe that German workers should not be paying the inflated pensions of Club Med workers. They have even broken ranks with the rest of Europe by showing remorse about Brexit, and heaven forbid, letting the perfidious English beat them at Football.

Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann is earnestly dull and boring, warning about inflation and bond buying dangers, while the new crop of German politicians are all trying to attach themselves to demands Europe reverts back to strong enforcement of debt/GDP rules. The rest of Europe is resolutely looking the other direction. Everyone promises to consider German fears and then does the opposite…. Because they know the Germans will complain, but will never act for fear of discovering how unpopular they remain in Yoorp for the crime of bring wealthy and successful.

Lagarde’s plan is to boost the ECB’s political relevance by effectively placing it at the centre of European Climate Change policy. She will direct ECB bond purchases to qualifying assets, ie Green bonds that suit her environmental objectives. Corporate Bond QE has proved a very effective central banking control tool – limiting access to capital and funding for perceived bad actors.

The ECB’s powers to direct fiscal aid via the EU’s de-facto mutualised European €800 bln bond recovery programme, and to set industrial policy via its climate change mandate will give it unprecedented power.

Which is .. dangerous. The idea an essentially bureaucratic, unelected – but subject to domestic political patronage, independent (well, notionally) financial body should be setting European climate change policy will concern many Northern nations who may conclude Southern Europe’s willingness to pay climate-change costs and externalities will prove as unenthusiastic as their efforts to rein back spending.

Let’s see what emerges…

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Overnight, the UK’s Office for Budget Responsibility, an independent financial watchdog housed within the UK Treasury, released its annual report on fiscal sustainability pointing to several risks to the UK’s public finances, which have deteriorated since the start of the pandemic.

Perusing a summary of the report’s contents, two bits caught our attention: assessing the long-term impact of the pandemic on the government’s finances, the report warned that the pandemic could leave the British government facing a “potentially catastrophic” financial hit equivalent to around 10 billion pounds of unfunded “legacy costs” tied to the pandemic per year over the next three years.

The report highlighted three categories of risks: health, education and transport.

• Health: Pressures on health budgets could be around £7 billion a year from the potential need to pay for: standing test and trace and revaccination programmes; the consequences of the pandemic for individuals’ physical and mental health; additional spare capacity to cope with possible future outbreaks; and the pandemic-related backlog of treatments.
• Education: Schools may require around £1¼ billion a year to enable pupils to catch up on the estimated two to three months of education that they have lost on average during the pandemic, in addition to the £1.4 billion that has been committed since the Budget, with the intention of reviewing the case for further funding in the Spending Review.
• Transport: Around £2 billion a year may be needed to fill a 10 to 25 per cent hole in the fare revenues of the new Great British Railways and Transport for London (TfL) if passenger numbers do not return to pre-pandemic levels. The Government has already provided £12.8 billion of direct support to the railways and TfL in 2020-21. However, as of June 2021, passenger numbers on national rail and the London Underground were still down a half on pre-pandemic levels.

Here’s a representation of these expectations showing how the NHS, the UK’s public health-care.

Beyond these medium-term pressures, the report’s authors also identified additional longer-term risks expected to be caused by economic “scarring” caused by lower investment, lower labour supply, and lower total factor productivity.

But unanticipated pandemic-related costs weren’t the only red flag raised in the report. Another issue that caught our eye was the watchdog’s estimate that the UK’s transition to “net zero” carbon emissions could add debts equivalent to 21% of annual GDP over three decades. While the UK’s “transition” to a low-carbon economy is off to a good start, getting the rest of the way to net zero by 2050 will require Britons to find ways of overcoming both the technological obstacles to delivering cost-effective carbon removals at scale, as well as the challenges associated with upgrading insulation and installing low-carbon heating systems in more than 28 million homes. All told, the cost to Briton’s public finances could amount to roughly half a trillion dollars.

Fortunately for the UK and its public finances, PM Boris Johnson is planning to lift the last remnants of the country’s COVID restrictions on July 19. But as the Delta “scariant” continues to spread, eliciting more shouts of alarm from public health officials (while more mutated COVID variants appear to be waiting in the wings) we wouldn’t be surprised to see the government’s long-term fiscal position deteriorate further.

Read the full report below:

Fiscal Risks Report July 2021 by Joseph Adinolfi Jr. on Scribd

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

In recent years, there has been an explosion of academic work declaring everything from meritocracy to math to be racist or vehicles of white dominance.

Offering statistical analysis to support such claims is itself problematic since statistics have also been declared racist.

Now however Law professor Mathilde Cohen of the University of Connecticut have found an untapped area of white dominance.  In a talk at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Nanterre, Cohen explained how “French eating habits reinforced the ‘dominance’ of white people over ethnic minorities.”

Presumably, the French themselves are allowed to continue to eat their own food without violating the Civil Rights Act.

However, Cohen explained that the cuisine is used “to reinforce whiteness as a dominant racial identity.” The reason is the white people value it and thereby force minorities to “act white” by eating it:

“The French meal is often presented as the national ritual to which every citizen can participate equally. But French food ways are shaped by white middle- and upper-class norms … and the boundaries of whiteness are policed through daily food encounters.”

The remarks are based on Cohen’s paper “The Whiteness of French Food Law, Race, and Eating Culture in France,” which explores the “neglected area” of “food studies, critical race theory, and critical Whiteness studies.” Cohen works “to identify and critique a form of French food Whiteness (blanchité alimentaire), that is, the use of food and eating practices to reify and reinforce Whiteness as the dominant racial identity.” It also allows you to go to France to present such theories like going to Medellín, Colombia to discuss the scourge of the drug trade.

As an Italian, I am happy to note that our cuisine is not viewed as a vehicle for white dominance.

However, I must confess that I am skeptical. Indeed, it would suggest that President Joe Biden and the First Lady were coopting Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman by recently taking them to Le Diplomate. If the Bidens were “policing” the “boundaries of whiteness . . . through daily food encounters” there were cheaper ways to do it. Having eaten at the restaurant, it is a lot less expensive to do your policing with a baguette at Le Pain Quotidien.

It would also make Julia Child the Bull Connor of cooking.

Then again maybe people of all races just enjoy good cooking. The rest is . . .  well . . . just tripe.

And so the oligarch and ruling class hypocrisy comes full circle…

According to Argus Media, the European Commission – that murder of career bureaucrats – has proposed exempting private jets and cargo flights, two of the most polluting forms of transportation, from the planned EU jet fuel tax. A draft indicates that the tax would be phased-in for passenger flights, including ones that carry cargo.

The draft, which the commission will on 14 July present with its proposed revisions to the bloc’s 2003 energy-taxation directive, indicates there could be an exemption from taxation for energy products and electricity used for intra-EU air navigation of cargo-only flights. It proposes allowing EU states to only tax such flights either domestically or by virtue of bilateral or multilateral agreements with other member states.

The commission is worried that taxing fuel for cargo-only flights would adversely affect EU carriers, Argus reports adding that third-country carriers, also with a significant share of the intra-EU cargo market, have to be exempted from taxation due to aviation services agreements, the commission argues.

Meanwhile, private jets will enjoy an exemption through classification of “business aviation” as the use of aircraft by firms for carriage of passengers or goods as an “aid to the conduct of their business”, if generally considered not for public hire. It gets better: a further exemption is given for “pleasure” flights whereby an aircraft is used for “personal or recreational” purposes not associated with a business or professional use.

Non-governmental organization Transport & Environment (T&E) called the proposal “generally good”.

“The downside, though, is the commission is considering exempting cargo carriers that are often US-run,” said its aviation director Andrew Murphy, who noted “multiple” solutions for taxing jet fuel used by cargo carriers that “tend to use older, dirtier aircraft”.

Hilariously, none other than Murphy recently co-authored a report indicating that private-jet CO2 emissions in Europe rose by 31% between 2005 and 2019, with flights to popular destinations up markedly during summer holiday seasons. He has argued for a fuel tax for this “leisure-driven” private jet sector.

But, naturally, the very rich people who use private jets, pulled just enough strings within Europe’s bureaucracy to avoid paying the tax.

Of course, in a world of fake concerns about climate change and ESG poseurs galore, there needed to be some excuse for this glaring exemption, and sure enough Airlines for Europe (A4E) came up with on, saying that it feared setting minimum tax rates for intra-EU flights could lead to distortion of competition. The industry association, which counts 16 airline groups as members including Ryanair, Air France/KLM, Lufthansa, IAG, easyJet and Cargolux, indicated that the commission’s proposal could lead to aircraft deliberately carrying excess fuel bought outside the EU specifically to avoid the bloc’s jet fuel tax.

So it’s best to just do away with the tax altogether.

The draft may change before 14 July, and does not contain the all-important annexes with tax rates. To enter into force it must be approved by all 27 EU member states, and it may change markedly over the coming months. A commission proposal made in April 2011 to update EU energy taxation rules failed after finance ministers could not agree by unanimity in 2014.

The commission wants to align energy taxation with EU climate goals, meaning that taxes should be based on the net calorific value of the energy products and electricity and that minimum levels of taxation across the EU would be set out according to environmental performance and expressed in €/GJ. These minimum levels should be aligned annually on the basis of the EU’s harmonised index of consumer prices, excluding energy and unprocessed food.

Next week, the commission will propose changes to the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS). A draft of these did not detail how aviation will be treated, but no free allocations are envisaged for maritime, road transport and buildings sectors. Officials will also present the commission’s mandate for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), whereby all firms could be expected to fill up with blended jet fuels at EU airports.