There’s now a convenient way to bet against everyone’s favorite fund manager, ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood.
That’s due to the new “SARK” Short ARKK ETF which proposes to track the inverse performance Wood’s $23 billion ARKK Innovation ETF, according to Bloomberg. The ETF will track the inverse performance through swaps contracts and charge the same fee as the ARKK fund, which is 0.75%.
Matt Tuttle, chief executive officer at Tuttle Capital Management LLC, will manage the fund.
While Bloomberg refers to the ETF as a “bold bet against one of 2020’s most successful managers,” we can’t help but be reminded of the old adage that past performance is not indicative of future results.
And that appears to already be the case for 2021, where the ETF is down by 3.6% so far this year.
Tuttle told Bloomberg: “In sum, as ARKK already represents a long exposure to a basket of unprofitable tech stocks, we thought that investors should have access to the short side as well. Keep in mind there are a lot of non institutional investors, that cannot short stocks or ETFs or they may have trouble finding a borrow to put on the short.”
The ETF could be right on time, too. As Bloomberg notes, short interest in ARKK is currently at 4.6% of shares outstanding and hit a record interest of 5.3% in March.
Meanwhile, Wood’s “active management” has recently included scooping up almost 1.3 million shares of Robinhood.
Earlier in July, U.S. President Biden came away from a meeting with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and calmly announced that in addition to inflation being “short term,” we should fear not, as Biden also “made it clear to Chairman Powell that the Fed remains independent,” but “will act as needed.”
Whewwww. Where to even begin in unpacking the lighthouse of reality behind so much verbal fog?
When it comes to market analysis, no one wants to hear political opinions within finance reports, left or right.
We get this.
Thus, rather than run the risk of offending the left, right or center, I’ll be frank in confessing my foundational view that nearly all politico’s (and Fed Chairs) have been universally comical when it comes to math, history or blunt-speak.
In short, the math, facts and warning signs rising by the hour (and outlined below) make it easy to be an equal-opportunity cynic when it comes to fiscal leadership or political “truth.”
So, let’s get back to Biden’s recent observations…
Deconstructing Biden-Speak
As for inflation being “short-term,” we’ve written ad nauseum about our stance on this fiction many times elsewhere.
But as for Biden’s declaration about the Fed being “independent,” let me wipe the coffee I just spilled on my shirt and speak plainly: That’s a lie.
First of all, if the Fed were as “independent” as Biden claims, then how can Biden be so certain they “will act as needed”?
Aren’t “independent” actors supposed to act as they, rather than the politicians, decide or “need”?
And if an otherwise unconstitutional Fed, which sits on Constitution Ave behind marble columns screaming of a governmental architectural façade were truly an independent “private bank,” then why does it call itself a “Federal” Reserve?
Furthermore, for any who have taken the time to read the actual (as well as sordid) history of the Fed’s not-so-immaculate conception (as uniquely outlined in Ed Griffin’s seminal work, The Creature from Jekyll Island), they already know that the Fed is as tied to the hip of Wall Street money and D.C. politics as an anchor is to a rotting ship.
Finally, and most importantly, if the Fed were truly “independent,” then why has it been buying the near entirety of Uncle Sam’s IOUs (Treasury bonds) for the last 18 months at negative real interest rates?
Biden: Very Dependent on the “Independent” Fed
Needless to say, Biden has publicly offered Jerome Powell “broad support” for another Fed term for one simple reason: The Biden Administration, like every administration since Eisenhower, wants a dependable rather than independent Federal reserve.
In other words, in a nation 1) whose manufacturing has been offshored, 2) whose workers are increasingly unemployed or on the dole, 3) whose feudalistic top 10% have disconnected entirely from the bottom 90%, and 4) whose entirely Fed-supported (and sky-rocketing) securities bubble is now the only reliable source of capital gains tax receipts allowing the U.S. to pay its interest expense on governmental debt… it’s actually quite easy to see that the Fed is anything but independent of D.C. politics.
To the contrary, the Fed is now, and has been evolving for years, as not only the lender of last resort for America, but the “solution” of last resort in pretending that a debt-soaked nation can survive off more debt.
Sadly, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and many others had warned us long ago that such a toxic “solution” was nothing more than the undoing of our system, not its salvation.
“I sincerely believe that banking establishments [like a private central bank] are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity under the name of funding is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“A U.S. central bank would represent the prostitution of our government for the advancement of the few at the expense of the many.”
– Andrew Jackson
Following the Bread Crumbs to “What’s Next”
So, there you have it. A few little reminders from history, securities bubbles and tax receipts of what I think about Presidential truth in general or Biden’s “independent Federal Reserve” meme in particular.
But for those thinking about currencies and markets, let me get less political and even more blunt: The blatant dishonesty, desperation and open absurdity of such financial leadership makes it far easier for informed investors to behave and prepare for a future laid out to us by the so-called experts.
Let’s just follow the bread crumbs (i.e., data and math) and see where they always lead.
It’s no great mystery to political administrations addicted to Fed money that they will be asking for even more of it:
And it’s no great mystery that Federal deficits like this…
… will be ignored by the Don Lemon-like “journalists” of the world throwing soft-ball questions to soft-brained politicos like Biden, all of whom promise more free money to the legitimately downtrodden masses like this…
…in order to get or stay elected.
But expanding the money supply at astronomical levels like this…
…doesn’t help those same Wall Street-ignored and increasingly angry masses for long, as the invisible tax of inflation eats away at the dollars they earn, collect or try to save at negative rates of return.
All the Signposts Point to Gold
As we have stated over and over, all financial roads and conversations in such a perverse debt and currency backdrop turn to gold, not because we are gold bugs, but simply because the writing is all over the walls (or charts above).
Stated more simply and more bluntly, taking on more debt paid for with more fake money results in one simple reality: The debasement of that money as a store of value.
Period. Full stop.
Toward this end, the one chart which can’t be overstated or repeated enough reminds us that gold can only trend further North for the simple reason that the fiat currencies in your wallet, bank account or 401K can only trend further South in a world awash in fiat currencies.
Again: Compared to a single milligram of gold, the major currencies are losing their war on value with each central bank mouse-click:
Choosing Between “Experts” or Facts?
In such a clear yet tragic setting, relying on the expertise or double-speak of the “experts” is an individual choice.
We get this too.
As for me, I am, after all, an evidence-based cynic.
Nevertheless, the examples of outright fraud and dishonesty from the lips of such leadership can’t be denied, brushed aside or debated, when the facts, quotes and numbers speak for themselves.
We’ve separately addressed this history of open charades masquerading as policies in the examples of Greenspan, Powell, and Yellen in particular.
Furthermore, we have been agnostic as to whether these policy makers served a left or right leaning administration for the simple reason that regardless of who is (or was) in the White House, the “independent Federal reserve” has been consistent in leaning our dying dollar, debt-soaked economy and artificially bloated markets further toward ruin with each passing day, mouse-click and misstatement.
Alcohol sales rose dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic as some relieved stress with an adult beverage. But now, that could change as liquor shortages are metastasizing across parts of the U.S.
Internet searches for “liquor shortage” have exploded to record highs this summer, especially in states like Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, and Ohio.
According to local news reports in several states, liquor shortages are developing and leaving shelves bare.
“I’ve never had it this bare,” a bar manager in Durham, North Carolina, told ABC Action News.
“Broadly speaking, there have been strains on the global supply chains of a variety of products throughout the entire pandemic, and not just here,” North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission spokesperson Austin McCall told Salon. “The retail demand for spirituous liquor has remained high even as more bars and restaurants have opened in recent months, straining supply even further.”
Take a labor shortage involving a lack of truck drivers, dock workers, and warehouse employees, then shake that up with backed up docks, slower manufacturing processes and more expensive raw materials, and you get a quick lesson in how supply chain economics is having a direct impact on small businesses all over the U.S. Everything from the labor market and the sudden re-opening of bars to a lack of glass bottles and aluminum cans is blamed for liquor shortages reported in Winooski, Vermont; Durham, North Carolina; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. –Forbes
The consequences of the virus pandemic have resulted in more alcohol consumption in the U.S. So far, there’s no indication on social media of panic buying. But as we’ve seen before, that can abruptly change.
Norway doesn’t have any second thoughts about oil exploration and investment in light of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) report suggesting that no new fossil fuel exploration would be needed for a net-zero world.
Western Europe’s biggest oil and gas producer is doubling down on oil development and continues to consider oil exploration and production a critical part of its economy and income for the state.
Norway, the country with the highest electric vehicle (EVs) share of new car sales anywhere in the world, is not giving up on one of its core industries. The oil and gas sector is a major employer and the key contributor to the so-called oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with US$1.3 trillion in assets and holdings of 1.4 percent of all of the world’s listed companies.
The Norwegian government believes that the industry could reduce emissions and reach net-zero operations on the Norwegian continental shelf, at the same time ensuring new oil developments to support the local supply chain and employment. Norway is also betting big on offshore wind and carbon capture technology, including with strong financial support from the government, but it believes that oil and gas can continue to create value in the long term.
Norway is betting on offshore wind, hydrogen, and electrification to meet its commitment under the Paris Agreement, but its oil and gas sector will continue to play a major role in long-term job creation, economic growth prospects, and value for the country, the government said in a White Paper last month.
“The main goal of the government’s petroleum policy – to facilitate profitable production in the oil and gas industry in a long term perspective – is firmly in place,” Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Tina Bru, said.
Norway has become yet another oil-producing country that has said it would not stop investing in oil and gas since the IEA suggested in a report in May that the world wouldn’t need new investment in fossil fuels ever if it wants to achieve net-zero in 2050.
The Norwegian Oil and Gas Association has also commented on the IEA report, saying that it “does not share the assumption that Opec members alone should account for more than half of oil and gas production for the world market in a 2050 perspective. If demand does not decline as rapidly as the IEA assumes in its scenario, and the supply side is simultaneously choked off, global energy provision could be threatened and lead to very high energy prices.”
Exploration activity and production offshore Norway were high in the first half of 2021, and many new oil and gas developments are being currently studied, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said earlier this month.
Between January and June, eight discoveries were made in mature areas close to existing infrastructure, which could allow cost-effective development of the new discoveries, the directorate noted.
“Exploration has enormous significance for long-term value creation on the shelf. The addition of oil and gas resources from new discoveries, like we have seen so far this year, is necessary to prevent a sharp decline in petroleum industry activity after 2030. Without new discoveries, production could fall by more than 70 per cent in 2040 compared with 2020”, said Torgeir Stordal, director of Technology and coexistence at the NPD.
Going forward, Norway will see high activity and production, considering that there are as many as 50 projects where the licensees are aiming for investment decisions by the end of 2022, the NPD said.
Combined, these projects represent more resources than one and a half Johan Sverdrup fields. Total estimated investments for these planned projects are around US$43 billion (380 billion Norwegian crowns), the directorate has estimated.
“These projects would most likely have been implemented regardless, but the temporary amendment to the Petroleum Tax Act have probably led to some acceleration in certain projects. Progress in time-critical projects is another positive factor. There may be postponements, but we see a strong willingness to submit development plans by 2022”, Kalmar Ildstad, director of Licence management at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, says.
Regardless of the growing ‘keep it in the ground’ calls, Norway will keep oil and gas at the center of its economy and value creation of its energy resources. The government and the industry believe that emissions reductions and oil production are not mutually exclusive concepts.
Tax-To-GDP Ratio: Comparing Tax Systems Around The World
Taxes are an important source of revenue for most countries. In fact, as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang notes,taxes provide around 50% or more of government funds in almost every country in the world.
How does each country’s tax system compare to one another? This question is tricky to answer. Since countries’ populations and economies differ greatly, measuring total tax revenue is not the best way to compare international tax systems.
Instead, using a tax-to-GDP ratio is one of the more useful ways to compare tax systems around the world.
What is the Tax-to-GDP Ratio?
The tax-to-GDP ratio compares a country’s tax revenue to the size of its economy, which in this case is measured by its GDP.
The higher the ratio, the higher the proportion of money that goes to government coffers. If managed effectively, this can support the long-term health and prosperity of an economy. According to research conducted by the International Monetary Fund, countries should have a tax-to-GDP ratio of at least 12% in order to experience accelerated economic growth.
The countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) all meet that threshold, with an average tax-to-GDP ratio of 33.8%.
Ranked: The Tax-to-GDP Ratios of OECD countries
The dataset used for this graphic looks at 35 of the 37 OECD countries, since recent data for Australia and Japan was not available.
At 46.3%, Denmark has the highest ratio on the list. The country puts its relatively high tax revenue to use, particularly when it comes to subsidizing post-secondary education—in Denmark, university is free for all EU citizens.
On the less-taxed end of the spectrum, the U.S. ranks 30 out of 35, with a ratio of 24.5%—that’s notably lower than the OECD average of 33.8%. It’s also worth mentioning that the U.S. has one of the highest GDP per capita measures out of all OECD countries.
Where does America’s tax revenue come from? It gains most of its revenue from the personal income tax. In fact, 41% of the country’s total tax revenue comes from taxes on personal income, as well as individual profits and gains—for context, the OECD average is 24%.
With President Biden’s recent announcement to increase corporate taxes and personal investment gains, America’s ratio could look a lot different in the near future.
Following the expansion of Chinese-led projects in many emerging markets over the past decade, the G7 has unveiled its own initiative to support global infrastructure development, dubbed Build Back Better World (B3W). Announced at a G7 meeting in June, the B3W will focus on four main areas: climate, health, digital technology and gender. Its overarching goal is to catalyse hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure development in low- and middle-income countries.
Beyond this outline, little information has been released about how the B3W initiative will operate in practice. However, it is clear that it responds to two broad, interconnected aims.
On the one hand, the B3W will constitute “a values-driven, high-standard, and transparent infrastructure partnership”, according to a fact sheet put out by the US government.
It seeks to help narrow the more than $40trn infrastructure gap in the developing world, which has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, the B3W will serve as a counterweight to China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), with the fact sheet highlighting that it will be a means of “strategic competition with China”.
BRI pivots away from infrastructure
Launched in 2013 and initially intended to revive ancient Silk Road trade routes between Eurasia and China, the BRI grew to become a far-reaching plan for transnational infrastructure development, linking countries and continents through land and sea corridors and industrial clusters.
The BRI caused consternation among G7 countries from the moment of its inception. This was due in part to the fact that it was widely seen as a way to expand Chinese geopolitical influence.
For example, in December 2017 Sri Lanka formally ceded 70% control of Hambantota Port to a Chinese state-owned firm on a 99-year lease after the government was unable to service Chinese loans used to build the $1.3bn strategic gateway on the Indian Ocean.
Concerns have also been raised over the lack of transparency in terms of lending, environmental and social impacts, and corruption.
This pivot has meant that the countries participating in the BRI are receiving fewer financial resources: from a peak of more than $125bn in total spending in 2015, China spent around $47bn on BRI projects last year.
Mind the gap
China’s shift away from infrastructure projects has left a gap which the B3W is aiming to fill.
A key aspect of the B3W is the mobilisation of private sector capital through the expansion of existing development finance tools.
This reflects an awareness that what the US administration calls “status quo funding and financing approaches” are insufficient to close the vast infrastructure gap which continues to stymie development in emerging economies around the world.
Another key pillar of B3W is sustainability, a term that has become a watchword globally in light of Covid-19 and escalating ecological disasters.
In this respect, the B3W’s aims dovetail with growing appetite among private sector investors for green projects – evidenced by the record $269.5bn in green bond issuance last year, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative, a figure which some expect to double in 2021.
Among other factors, this would suggest that the B3W is well placed to capitalise on investment trends.
Many emerging economies are in urgent need of funds to drive their Covid-19 recoveries, and are waiting expectantly for further details of how the initiative will operate. However, while the principles enshrined in recent announcements are certainly encouraging, more details will need to emerge promptly in order to demonstrate that the B3W is more than a memorable acronym.
I don’t think I am the only person that has noticed it – There has been a sudden deluge of covid vaccination propaganda and vaccine passport propaganda in the past month, more so than I think we have seen since the beginning of this year. I am speaking of the US in particular, but it is important to point out that in the US the establishment is still desperately clamoring for a much higher vaccination rate. In places like Europe, the UK and Australia vaccinations rates are higher and governments have moved on to the vaccine passport phase of their agenda.
Some people may be confused by the obvious lockstep that most nations are moving in as far as covid mandates and restrictions are concerned. How is it possible that almost all the governments on the planet are in agreement on medical totalitarianism? Well, it’s rather easy to understand when you realize the majority of them are linked together through globalist institutions like the World Economic Forum, which has repeatedly called the pandemic a “perfect opportunity” to push through their plans for a “Great Reset”.
The “Great Reset” is a long term ideological usurpation of what’s left of individual freedom and free market economies, and it’s goal is the imposition of a global socialist/communist dictatorship. Globalists wrap these objectives in pretty sounding words and humanitarian sounding aspirations, but at bottom the “Reset” is about an end to liberty as we know it. This is not an exaggeration, this is reality; this is what these people desire above all else. But how to achieve such a goal?
Well, interestingly enough the WEF and the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation described exactly how they planned to do it during a “simulation” they held in October of 2019 called “Event 201”. During the event, they imagined a massive coronavirus pandemic, spread supposedly from animals to humans, which would facilitate the need for pervasive restrictions on individual liberties, national economies as well as the internet and social media. I’m sure it’s all a coincidence, but the exact same scenario the globalists at the WEF played out during Event 201 happened in the real world only two months later.
In any case, the pandemic itself has been a boon for the globalists. We have not seen a far reaching government power and corporate power grab since the rise of the National Socialists in Europe and the spread of communism in Russia and China almost a century ago. In fact, I would say that what humanity as a whole is facing today is much worse than what those wretched empires ever could have produced.
There is no doubt; globalist institutions and their government “partners” are the greatest beneficiaries of the covid crisis. They stand to gain ultimate social and political power if their agenda to exploit the pandemic succeeds.
That said, there a few hangups in their plan, and this is why I believe we are seeing an aggressive propaganda push in recent weeks. For example, as I outlined with extensive evidence in my article ‘Biden’s Vaccine Strike Force Plan Stinks Of Desperation’, it appears that the vaccination rate, especially in the US, is nowhere near as high as the elites would like.
While the Biden Administration and the CDC claims an overall vaccination rate of 67%, numerous other stats including the Mayo Clinics state map numbers indicate that only four states in the US actually have a vaccination rate over 65% (for one dose or more), and the majority of states have rates around 50% or less. Even large population blue states like California and New York are not above the 65% mark, and frankly, those numbers are going nowhere as vaccinations are dropping off a cliff.
If someone has not submitted by now with zero wait times and ample doses everywhere, then they are unlikely to ever be vaccinated.
Contradictory stats suggest to me that Biden and the CDC are inflating their vaccination numbers to create the illusion that a larger majority of Americans support the jab. And if this is the case, it explains why Biden, Fauci and the mainstream media are force feeding the public with pro-vaccine hype that consistently contradicts the real science. They are not getting the fear and public compliance that they had hoped for.
But why do they want 100% vaccination? Why are they so desperate for every single person in the world to get the mRNA jab?
After all, the average (IFR) death rate of covid is a mere 0.26% of those infected (this is a stat that the media consistently and deliberately refuses to mention to the public). This means that 99.7% of the public is in NO danger from covid whether they are vaccinated or not.
Do the vaccines ensure better odds? Well, according to recent statistics from Massachusetts, not necessarily, as they report over 5100 infections and 80 deaths of fully vaccinated patients. The media keeps telling us that only the unvaccinated are dying, but this is a lie, like so many other lies they have been peddling when it comes to covid. So, what’s the point of taking an experimental vaccine if the death rate of the virus is so low and the jab doesn’t necessarily protect you anyway?
There is no point. The science and the stats do not support it. The vaccines can’t even be credited with the decline in infections and deaths this year; the numbers plunged in January – Only 5% of the population was vaccinated by February. The only explanation for this is that the population hit herd immunity many months ago. Remember when governments said that they needed 70% herd immunity or vaccination to stop the lockdowns and mandates? The goalposts have been moves several times and the government “science” changes monthly. Now they claim herd immunity doesn’t matter and demand 100% vaccination.
We must ask the question again – Why the relentless government push for total vaccine saturation? It’s not saving lives, and the mandates remain regardless, so why?
I can only posit theories based on the evidence at hand, but I think it’s clear to most of us that the vaccines are NOT about public health nor are they about saving lives. They are obviously about something else…
As numerous virology and vaccine experts have warned over the past year, there is a great risk of harmful health side effects when it comes to experimental mRNA technology. Even one of the creators of mRNA vaccines has suggested that there are dangers in rolling out these gene manipulation cocktails without more testing. Of note are concerns about longer term disorders such as autoimmune disorders and infertility.
The mainstream media and the globalists will argue that there is “no evidence” that the mRNA vaccines will cause deadly side effects or infertility.I would argue back that there is NO EVIDENCE that they are safe. Most vaccines are tested over the course of 10-15 years before they are released to the public for use. The covid vaccines were unleashed on the public within months. Honestly, I have no intention of acting as a guinea pig for an untested vaccine.
But what if the elites know exactly what the side effects will be? What if the vaccines are a pivotal part of their “Great Reset?”
The infertility question in particular is drawing the most fire from the establishment, and I would point out a particularly insidious narrative being implanted in the media. Whenever people question the chance of sterility caused by the vaccines, bureaucrats and media talking heads go on the attack, and then say “There’s no evidence that the vaccines cause infertility, but Covid-19 might cause it…” Just watch this recent speech by the governor of Arkansas where he and his medical flunky were almost run from the podium by an angry audience for peddling the same propaganda:
And there you have it. The stage is being set, in my view, for a mass infertility event, and covid will be blamed in place of the experimental vaccines. This is why the establishment needs a 100% vaccination rate; unvaccinated people would stand as evidence of their crime. Let me explain…
My concern is that Klaus Schwab’s reset agenda is impossible to enforce in a permanent way unless the human population is greatly reduced over a short period of time (a generation or two). Globalists are constantly talking about population control and reduction. Elites like Bill Gates are famous for it. Is it any wonder that they would devise a plan to institute it?
What if, as many experts have suggested, the vaccine side effects create this condition of a diminishing population? What if they are meant to? We will not know for certain for a couple of years at least as autoimmune disorders and infertility take time to become visible in a population. The average timeline for actually diagnosing an autoimmune disorder is 4.5 years. Infertility can take six months to a year to diagnose.
If a large population of millions of people remain unvaccinated after the next couple of years, then they will represent a sizable and undeniable control group. A control group is a group of subjects that act as a pure sample untouched by a drug or vaccine experiment. If the vaccinated group becomes ill or dies from specific conditions and the control group does not have those same conditions, then that is a pretty good sign that your vaccine or drug is poison.
The 50% of Americans and smaller percentages in other nations are a control group for the experimental vaccines. If something goes wrong with the vaccines, then we will be the proof. I suspect this is what the elites are really afraid of.
They have to force us to be vaccinated as well – ALL of us, so that there is no control group and thus no proof os what they have done. They could simply blame mass health disorders on covid itself, or some other false culprit.
If the vaccines are a Trojan horse that causes widespread illness or infertility, and the globalists get caught because a control group exists, then it will mean outright rebellion along with ropes and lampposts for them. Their “Great Reset” will fall apart.
To be sure, this might happen anyway. Vaccine passports are the line in the sand for most people. We are even seeing extensive protests and riots in places like Italy, France, UK and Australia over the draconian passport scheme. The US, though, is where the biggest fight will take place, in my opinion. We have an armed population, millions upon millions of trained combat veterans and civilians, a military with around 70% conservatives and independents and a historical understanding of asymmetric warfare. As we have seen in places like Afghanistan, tanks, jets, missiles and drones are no guarantee if victory against a guerrilla force.
Vaccine passports are not going to happen here. We simply won’t allow it.
The globalists have set in motion an end game – It could be an end game for us, but it also could be an end game for them. They are on a strict timeline. They must get near 100% vaccination rates in the next couple of years or sooner. They must get their vaccine passports in place in the next couple of years or sooner. And, they must instill permanent lockdown conditions in the near term to stifle growing dissent. We are now in a kind of race in which the globalists must implement their agenda as fast as possible while we must hold out and hold them back until the truth becomes obvious to the masses; the truth that the lockdowns, mandates and vaccines were never about safety and were always about control – from social control to population control.
* * *
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Wildfires Are Coming For Wine, Weed, And Christmas
There are 86 large wildfires that have burned 1,498,205 acres in 12 US states and emit large quantities of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and dangerous particulate matter into the atmosphere this summer that could affect wine weed and Christmas.
The West Coast fire season is off to a fiery start, and an abundance of smoke can destroy precious vineyards and damage the fruit.
University of California Davis researchers say California’s wine country is being consumed by a megadrought and resulting wildfires that taint and affect crop yields.
“We’re seeing the impact of climate and climate change,” said Megan Bartlett, a UC Davis plant biologist and assistant professor.
“Especially after the heatwaves and the megadrought a few years ago, we really saw, as an industry, declines in (crop) yield. These are really pressing problems, especially now.”
The smoke of wildfires permeates regions like Napa Valley and other top-producing vineyards, changing the taste of wine.
“Can you imagine licking an ashtray?” Anita Oberholster, a Cooperative Extension enology specialist at UC Davis, said.
“When wines are heavily impacted, it can taste like that.”
The smoke of wildfires can also stress or even kill marijuana plants growing outdoor or in greenhouse operations.
“Smoke taint is the most obvious and the most apparent threat to cannabis as [it’s] exposed to these forest fires, and that’s something you’re going to be able to readily tell from just qualitatively examining the cannabis,” Josh Wurzer, president of SC Labs, told Cannabis Business Times.
“So, that’s certainly a concern—just ruining the flavor of the cannabis,” Wurzer said.
Although Christmas is about five months away, record-breaking heatwaves and raging wildfires are destroying Christmas tree farms in Oregon. We noted days ago that Reuters spoke with multiple tree farm operators, who said their crop yields this year would be reduced.
Dozens of wildfires burning in the Western half of the US are unleashing near-surface smoke in parts of California but also countrywide. Smoke was visible on the East Coast last week.
So what this all means is that if wildfires persist, wine and marijuana crop yields could be affected and or at least tainted, which would lower quality, and Christmas tree yields would also be reduced, resulting in higher prices.
