Month: January 2022

Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

When it comes to broad investing themes that I noticed in 2021, that I plan on being invested in for years to come, two sectors come to mind: marijuana and uranium.

I laid out my case for getting long marijuana stocks/ETFs in this comprehensive writeup from November 2021 and detailed my case further in my 22 Stocks I’m Watching For 2022.

Readers of my blog know that I have been delivering monthly, sometimes weekly, updates on the growing adoption of nuclear power globally – a “must” for anyone invested in uranium with a lengthy time frame.

A key part of my argument for investing in uranium is that the world is going to “wake up” one day and realize that nuclear power fulfills the practical energy needs of the world, while appeasing ESG investors and “green” activists at the same time. For all intents and purposes, when considering the power it generates and its carbon footprint, nuclear is as close to a “holy grail” of energy that we have at the present moment.

The major pitfall of nuclear continues to be the sour taste left in the mouths of many people after disasters like Fukushima. In my initial writeup about why I own uranium stocks, I talked about why I think this concern is misguided and how one or two big name incidents like Fukushima belie the true, safe nature of nuclear as a power source.

Since my initial writeup in Fall 2021, I have noted that Japan has called nuclear “key” it its decarbonization goals, pointed out that Germany, Finland, France and Poland were all pushing for nuclear power, made my case as to why nuclear presents a perfect common sense solution for China’s energy crisis, and interviewed bloggers who believe uranium’s price could “double or triple”.

Today, the positive catalysts for nuclear look as though they are set to continue. Over the last month:

1. The European Union has considered giving some nuclear projects a “green” investment label

2. Asia’s planned adoption of nuclear continues, while some other European countries continue to drag their feet

First, let’s talk about the EU, where they are considering allowing both natural gas and nuclear to be be labeled “green” in an attempt to help the shift to net zero emissions.

“The European Commission is weighing whether to classify as sustainable investment in gas plants that replace coal and emit no more than 270 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The projects would have to be finalized by 2030, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks on the proposal are private,” Bloomberg wrote in late 2021.

This falls precisely in line with my argument that the practicality of nuclear would start to push it toward the front of the “Common Sense Solutions” list for countries looking to address climate change. As countries globally continue to move closer to deadlines they have set for themselves to address emissions, nuclear will look more and more like a viable option.

For example, Bloomberg writes: “Europe wants to become the world’s first continent to reach carbon neutrality by the middle of the century under the Green Deal, a sweeping overhaul that aims to accelerate pollution cuts in all areas from energy production to transport.”

The best way to be “first” is to consider all options. Nuclear, which has already been adopted in places like Poland, France and the Czech Republic as key to helping achieve net zero emissions, is likely climbing the list of “green” options for Europe, as well.

Furthermore, the proposed new label looks as though it could also provide an investing tailwind for nuclear companies and funds with exposure to uranium. “Covering almost every sector of the economy, the taxonomy aims to guide investors to clean projects,” the report said.

Just days ago, in January 2022, the debate on the “green” label continued. While there was some opposition from Green Politicians in Austria and Luxembourg, Bloomberg reported that “the biggest political group in the European Parliament threw its weight behind the plan”.

A new proposal being passed around in Europe reportedly says that nuclear may be classified as sustainable energy “if the new plants granted construction permits by 2045 meet a set of criteria to avoid significant harm to the environment and water resources”.

Meanwhile, as Europe grapples over “green” labels, most Nordic states are adoption nuclear and Germany continues to take its nuclear power offline, Asia’s planned nuclear projects have skyrocketed.

“Japan still has 33 reactors in commission while proposals, planning or construction have started on an additional eleven,” according to a late-December analysis from Statista.

Statista continues: “India plans to triple its number of nuclear power plants to 72 in total, while China has proposed the construction of 168 new reactors in addition to 18 being built and 37 being planned, which would amount to an increase of 337 percent. Overall, 35 reactors around Asia are already in construction, with Europe coming in second with 15 plants.”

And it may not be long before we find out who, exactly, is serious about pushing nuclear projects forward into the new decade.

About 66% of the 441 currently active nuclear power plants are older than 30 years, analysis by the International Atomic Energy Agency. This will put several countries to a decision as to whether they should overhaul, or replace, these key sources of power.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the world in my 40 years here, it’s that no one wants to work hard. Nuclear isn’t just a clean solution for the emissions problem, it’s an easy one: we already know how to do, it doesn’t require massive infrastructure overhaul and it checks the boxes that many whiny environmentalists want to check to virtue signal to neighboring nations that they’re doing their part in the “fight” against climate change.

Personally, I continue to believe the environment is shaping up nicely for uranium heading into the third year of this decade. I am predicting that by mid-decade, countries’ thirst for appeasing environmentalists and hitting “green” targets will overcome their decision making and, in the absence of wanting to create seismic change (or upset lobbyists), they will meet everyone in the middle at the prospect of nuclear power.

From there, once they meet their “targets”, politicians can do their photo ops in front of fields of windmills and solar panels, while the nuclear reactors off in the distance do the heavy lifting for their country’s energy needs.

Disclaimer: I own, or have recently owned, tons of names with exposure to uranium, including but not limited to CCJ and URA. I may own options in these names as well. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. My positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make investing decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I get shit wrong a lot. 

 

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Days ahead of the planned Russia-NATO talks in Geneva set to start Jan.9-10, the United States has sent several F-16 fighter jets to Poland, as part of a NATO training mission to assist with Polish and Belgian F-16 “policing missions”. 

The US fighters were deployed from Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany in order to rehearse “rapid deployment” in the east European region. Crucially this comes at a moment that tensions between Russia and NATO are on edge, particularly over events in eastern Ukraine, and amid accusations Russia has built-up troops in Crimea and near the border. 

An official NATO press release described of the training mission: “The Belgian, Polish and U.S. fighters will practice advanced airborne manoeuvres and work closely with Combined Air Operations Centre Uedem (CAOCUE) to enhance Command and Control procedures. This detachment in Eastern Europe is designed to improve interoperability among the Allies and rehearse the rapid deployment of aircraft to alternate bases.”

Poland, it should be recalled, became a full NATO member in the late 1990’s – precisely at a time of most intense Russian opposition based on prior pledges from Brussels that it wouldn’t expand the Europ-Atlantic military bloc further to the east. 

Military Times, meanwhile, describes this latest F-16 joint mission as precisely designed to prepare for a possible Ukraine conflict scenario:

NATO air policing efforts may become increasing important as tensions between Ukraine and Russia continue to rise. Ukrainian defense officials have previously stated their growing concern of the possibility of invasion, with one official telling Air Force Magazine — under the condition of anonymity — that their number one priority for fending off Russia would be air defense.

The NATO press release further affirmed the alliance’s “solidarity” amid pressing threats.

Additionally, the Deputy Chief of Staff Operations at NATO Headquarters Allied Air Command Brig. Gen. Joel Carey, asserted that “These deployments demonstrate the Alliance’s ability to rapidly and effectively deploy assets to vital regions to assure partners and safeguard Allied airspace.”

Russia appears to be perhaps “answering” NATO with its own patrols over the so-called ‘union state’ of Belarus and Russia, TASS is reporting.

“The crews of Belarusian and Russian Su-30SM fighters conducted their first joint air patrol of the Union State’s borders this year,” the Defense Ministry of Belarus reported on Wednesday. “The Belarusian and Russian pilots flying Su-30SM multirole fighters conducted their first joint air patrol of the Union State’s borders this year. The pilots spent 120 minutes in the air, covering a distance of over 1,150 km during their patrol,” the statement said.

Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Saker blog,

Steppe on Fire: Kazakhstan’s Color Revolution

So is that much fear and loathing all about gas? Not really.

Kazakhstan was rocked into chaos virtually overnight, in principle, because of the doubling of prices for liquefied gas, which reached the (Russian) equivalent of 20 rubles per liter (compare it to an average of 30 rubles in Russia itself).

That was the spark for nationwide protests spanning every latitude from top business hub Almaty to the Caspian Sea ports of Aktau and Atyrau and even the capital Nur-Sultan, formerly Astana.

The central government was forced to roll back the gas price to the equivalent of 8 rubles a liter. Yet that only prompted the next stage of the protests, demanding lower food prices, an end of the vaccination campaign, a lower retirement age for mothers with many children and – last but not least – regime change, complete with its own slogan: Shal, ket! (“Down with the old man.”)

The “old man” is none other than national leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81, who even as he stepped down from the presidency after 29 years in power, in 2019, for all practical purposes remains the Kazakh gray eminence as head of the Security Council and the arbiter of domestic and foreign policy.

The prospect of yet another color revolution inevitably comes to mind: perhaps Turquoise-Yellow – reflecting the colors of the Kazakh national flag. Especially because right on cue, sharp observers found out that the usual suspects – the American embassy – was already “warning” about mass protests as early as in December 16, 2021.

Maidan in Almaty? Oh yeah. But it’s complicated.

Almaty in chaos

For the outside world, it’s hard to understand why a major energy exporting power such as Kazakhstan needs to increase gas prices for its own population.

The reason is – what else – unbridled neoliberalism and the proverbial free market shenanigans. Since 2019 liquefied gas is electronically traded in Kazakhstan. So keeping price caps – a decades-long custom – soon became impossible, as producers were constantly faced with selling their product below cost as consumption skyrocketed.

Everybody in Kazakhstan was expecting a price hike, as much as everybody in Kazakhstan uses liquefied gas, especially in their converted cars. And everybody in Kazakhstan has a car, as I was told, ruefully, during my last visit to Almaty, in late 2019, when I was trying in vain to find a taxi to head downtown.

It’s quite telling that the protests started in the city of Zhanaozen, smack into the oil/gas hub of Mangystau. And it’s also telling that Unrest Central immediately turned to car-addicted Almaty, the nation’s real business hub, and not the isolated, government infrastructure-heavy capital in the middle of the steppes.

At first President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev seemed to have been caught in a deer facing the headlights situation. He promised the return of price caps, installed a state of emergency/curfew both in Almaty and Mangystau (then nationwide) while accepting the current government’s resignation en masse and appointing a faceless Deputy Prime Minister, Alikhan Smailov, as interim PM until the formation of a new cabinet.

Yet that could not possibly contain the unrest. In lightning fast succession, we had the storming of the Almaty Akimat (mayor’s office); protesters shooting at the Army; a Nazarbayev monument demolished in Taldykorgan; his former residence in Almaty taken over; Kazakhtelecom disconnecting the whole country from the internet; several members of the National Guard – armored vehicles included – joining the protesters in Aktau; ATMs gone dead.

And then Almaty, plunged into complete chaos, was virtually seized by the protesters, including its international airport, which on Wednesday morning was under extra security, and in the evening had become occupied territory.

Kazakh airspace, meanwhile, had to contend with an extended traffic jam of private jets leaving to Moscow and Western Europe. Even though the Kremlin noted that Nur-Sultan had not asked for any Russian help, a “special delegation” was soon flying out of Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautiously stressed, “we are convinced that our Kazakh friends can independently solve their internal problems”, adding, “it is important that no one interferes from the outside.”

Geostrategy talks

How could it all derail so fast?

Up to now, the succession game in Kazakhstan had been seen mostly as a hit across Northern Eurasia. Local honchos, oligarchs and the comprador elites all kept their fiefdoms and sources of income. And yet, off the record, I was told in Nur-Sultan in late 2019 there would be serious problems ahead when some regional clans would come to collect – as in confronting “the old man” Nazarbayev and the system he put in place.

Tokayev did issue the proverbial call “not to succumb to internal and external provocations” – which makes sense – yet also assured that the government “will not fall”. Well, it was already falling, even after an emergency meeting trying to address the tangled web of socioeconomic problems with a promise that all “legitimate demands” by the protesters will be met.

This did not play out as a classic regime change scenario – at least initially. The configuration was of a fluid, amorphous state of chaos, as the – fragile – Kazakh institutions of power were simply incapable of comprehending the wider social malaise. A competent political opposition is non-existent: there’s no political exchange. Civil society has no channels to express itself.

So yes: there’s a riot goin’ on – to quote American rhythm’n blues. And everyone is a loser. What is still not exactly clear is which conflicting clans are flaming the protests – and what is their agenda in case they’d have a shot at power. After all, no “spontaneous” protests can pop up simultaneously all over this vast nation virtually overnight.

Kazakhstan was the last republic to leave the collapsing USSR over three decades ago, in December 1991. Under Nazarbayev, it immediately engaged in a self-described “multi-vector” foreign policy. Up to now, Nur-Sultan was skillfully positioning itself as a prime diplomatic mediator – from discussions on the Iranian nuclear program as early as 2013 to the war in/on Syria from 2016. The target: to solidify itself as the quintessential bridge between Europe and Asia.

The Chinese-driven New Silk Roads, or BRI, were officially launched by Xi Jinping at Nazarbayev University in September 2013. That happened to swiftly dovetail with the Kazakh concept of Eurasian economic integration, crafted after Nazarbayev’s own government spending project, Nurly Zhol (“Bright Path”), designed to turbo-charge the economy after the 2008-9 financial crisis.

In September 2015, in Beijing, Nazarbayev aligned Nurly Zhol with BRI, de facto propelling Kazakhstan to the heart of the new Eurasian integration order. Geostrategically, the largest landlocked nation on the planet became the prime interplay territory of the Chinese and Russian visions, BRI and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).

A diversionary tactic

For Russia, Kazakhstan is even more strategic than for China. Nur-Sultan signed the CSTO treaty in 2003. It’s a key member of the EAEU. Both nations have massive military-technical ties and conduct strategic space cooperation in Baikonur. Russian has the status of an official language, spoken by 51% of the republic’s citizens.

At least 3.5 million Russians live in Kazakhstan. It’s still early to speculate about a possible “revolution” tinged with national liberation colors were the old system to eventually collapse. And even if that happened, Moscow will never lose all of its considerable political influence.

So the immediate problem is to assure Kazakhstan’s stability. The protests must be dispersed. There will be plenty of economic concessions. Permanent destabilizing chaos simply cannot be tolerated – and Moscow knows it by heart. Another – rolling – Maidan is out of the question.

The Belarus equation has shown how a strong hand can operate miracles. Still, the CSTO agreements do not cover assistance in case of internal political crises – and Tokayev did not seem to be inclined to make such a request.

Until he did. He called for the CSTO to intervene to restore order. There will be a military enforced curfew. And Nur-Sultan may even confiscate the assets of US and UK companies which are allegedly sponsoring the protests.

This is how Nikol Pashinyan, chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council and Prime Minister of Armenia, framed it: Tokayev invoked a “threat to national security” and the “sovereignty” of Kazakhstan, “caused, inter alia, by outside interference.” So the CSTO “decided to send peacekeeping forces” to normalize the situation, “for a limited period of time”.

The usual destabilizing suspects are well known. They may not have the reach, the political influence, and the necessary amount of Trojan horses to keep Kazakhstan on fire indefinitely.

At least the Trojan horses themselves are being very explicit. They want an immediate release of all political prisoners; regime change; a provisional government of “reputable” citizens; and – what else – “withdrawal of all alliances with Russia.”

And then it all gets down to the level of ridiculous farce, as the EU starts calling on Kazakh authorities to “respect the right to peaceful protests.” As in allowing total anarchy, robbery, looting, hundreds of vehicles destroyed, attacks with assault rifles, ATMs and even the Duty Free at Almaty airport completely plundered.

This analysis (in Russian) covers some key points, mentioning, “the internet is full of pre-arranged propaganda posters and memos to the rebels” and the fact that “the authorities are not cleaning up the mess, as Lukashenko did in Belarus.”

Slogans so far seem to originate from plenty of sources – extolling everything from a “western path” to Kazakhstan to polygamy and Sharia law: “There is no single goal yet, it has not been identified. The result will come later. It is usually the same. The elimination of sovereignty, external management and, finally, as a rule, the formation of an anti-Russian political party.”

Putin, Lukashenko and Tokayev spent a long time over the phone, at the initiative of Lukashenko. The leaders of all CSTO members are in close contact. A master game plan – as in a massive “anti-terrorist operation” – has already been hatched. Gen. Gerasimov will personally supervise it.

Now compare it to what I learned from two different, high-ranking intel sources.

The first source was explicit: the whole Kazakh adventure is being sponsored by MI6 to create a new Maidan right before the Russia/US-NATO talks in Geneva and Brussels next week, to prevent any kind of agreement.

Significantly, the “rebels” maintained their national coordination even after the internet was disconnected.

The second source is more nuanced: the usual suspects are trying to force Russia to back down against the collective West by creating a major distraction in their Eastern front, as part of a rolling strategy of chaos all along Russia’s borders.

That may be a clever diversionary tactic, but Russian military intel is watching. Closely. And for the sake of the usual suspects, this better may not be interpreted – ominously – as a war provocation.

Submitted by The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN).,

Governing By Executive Fiat. 

It’s something that the Biden Administration knows quite well. Not even a week into the new year, Merrick Garland, Attorney General at the Department of Justice, announced a new “rule” for Federal Firearms Licensees, also known as FFLs. 

The “Rule” is as follows: FFLs must have “safe storage” options for sale. The government is mandating that FFLs sell locks and safes. It also changes the definition of an antique firearm; you can read the change here. 

While this might sound wholly bland and harmless, keep in mind that the DOJ can use the 1968 Gun Control Act to add new rules and regulations to gun ownership without passing any laws. This change means that unelected bureaucrats in executive branch positions can usurp federal power to make “law” as they see fit. 

It is precisely this attitude that we’ve seen throughout 2021 from the Biden Administration, the Department of Justice, and the ATF. There’s no reason to expect that they would shift their plans for 2022. 

Just because gun owners were able to make their voices heard and stop the disastrous nomination of David Chipman to head the ATF doesn’t mean that it’s all over. 2021 has been full of significant accomplishments; we’ve added more constitutional carry states and 2nd amendment sanctuaries. Support for gun control has hit its lowest point, and almost 8 million new gun owners have decided to exercise their constitutional rights. That being said, we’re headed into year number two of one of the most hostile administrations to gun rights in recent history. 

We can make a few predictions about what the Biden admin may do (and to a lesser extent blue state governors as well) but let’s take a look at some recent actions first. 

In 2020, the ATF raided a company called Diversified Machine. Diversified Machine sells Solvent Traps. The ATF now considers these devices to be Suppressors. Since they raided Diversified Machine, the ATF has a list of all of Diversified Machine’s customers. 

A few days ago, the ATF sent customers of Diversified Machine letters saying that they were actually in possession of a suppressor and that those needed to be turned in immediately or those customers would face felony charges. 

What separated Diversified Machine’s solvent traps from any other solvent trap on the market? Well, their solvent traps were dimpled on the end caps. 

Prior to these letters, the ATF offered no guidance on what they did/did not consider to be a suppressor, or solvent trap, dimpled end caps or not. Solvent traps are popular with Form 1 Suppressor groups online, as they can be purchased, an ATF Form 1 can be filed, and then said solvent trap can be converted into a suppressor. 

This behavior is par for the course with the ATF and should come as no surprise for long-time gun owners. In 2021 we saw them change rules on 80% kits, pistol braces, and the Rare Breed Forced-Reset-Trigger. 

What’s interesting about this letter to Diversified Machine customers, though, is that the ATF states explicitly that the customer is in possession of a suppressor. Even though the words “readily convertible” are used in conjunction, we can only infer that the ATF is considering these solvent traps as sold to be actual suppressors, making the purchase of a solvent trap a violation of the 1968 GCA and the National Firearms Act, or NFA. 

We should expect a forthcoming “rule” on solvent traps that will turn millions of Americans into felons overnight. What’s worse is the ATF hasn’t stopped at solvent traps; they’ve started investigating people who have bought fuel filters online. According to Ammoland, Federal Agents visited an unnamed Florida resident who had purchased fuel filters online. The Agents demanded that he hand over the filters, even though he did not own firearms. Another example of wackiness, a YouTuber named “Truck Master” was told to turn over the diesel truck filters he was using for his truck builds under suspicion that they were illegal suppressors.

The question we have to ask is, how far is too far? The ATF has decided on a whim that fuel filters and solvent traps fit their definition of a suppressor, even though both items have legitimate uses beyond being firearm suppressors. 

In 2022, we should expect the ATF and DOJ to march forward with the idea that anything that is “readily convertible” to be a firearm, is in fact, a firearm in the eyes of the Feds. It’s looking grim for 80% kits like Polymer80. How long until it’s an NFA/GCA violation if you have a block of metal and CNC knowledge. There’s not much separating those two things. 

We should also expect a “Blue Wave” of gun control legislation and proposals on the state and federal level, with politicians and governors doubling down on unpopular gun policy. Considering how low Biden is currently polling and the 2022 midterms fastly approaching, gun control is an easy issue for the President to pull out and energize his base. Doubling down on gun control will also keep his major donors like Bloomberg and Soros from the anti-gun lobby happy. Blue state governors will, of course, follow suit. We saw Gavin Newsom of CA recently propose gun control as a way to spit in the face of gun owners and one-up the Texas abortion law at the same time. 

Expect the Biden Admin to try and move forward with already proposed rules regarding pistol braces as well. Currently, the DOJ has asked for delays on the final rule’s implementation as they try to figure out a way to get around all the impending lawsuits from the pro-gun lobby. 

I also expect Biden to nominate a Gun Czar, as an appeasement to the Gun Control lobby, after being such a disappointment that the mainstream media have run headlines like this.

So, what can we do to stop this? Right now, because of the way that the ATF is using current law to add additional regulations, our best bet of stopping the ATF from continuing to be able to act in this manner is the bump stock case currently making its way to the supreme court. The case is Aposhian v. Garland, and it tackles why the ATF has been able to, on a whim, decide that items are illegal. That being a legal doctrine called the “Chevron Deference.” This is a legal test in which a court may not substitute its own interpretation for a reasonable interpretation made by an administrative agency. 

The question isn’t if Aposhian v. Garland makes it to the supreme court; it’s when. A panel of 16 judges on the 6th circuit just had a tie vote (8-8) on the case, making it even more necessary for the Supreme Court to weigh in on this hotly debated issue. 

We’ve seen a clear pathway that the anti-gun lobby is taking in our coverage of gun control issues. Using the NFA, 1968 GCA, FOPA, and other gun control laws on the books, they’ve managed to ban bump stocks and inch closer and closer to regulating semi-automatic firearms under the NFA or outright ban them. This Case, Aposhian v. Garland, would put a significant roadblock in front of the ATF by taking away their ability to regulate items without congressional approval.

With hotly contested midterms and Presidential approval ratings plummeting, The Biden Administration will be looking for any scapegoat to rally their base back to vote. Gun control will likely be that issue, and gun owners should be ready to get out and once again make their voices heard.

A video has gone viral on Reddit of the Las Vegas Loop, an underground express transportation tunnel designed and built by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company to help alleviate traffic congestion on convention streets, showing everything the tunnel promised not to do: cause traffic jams. 

The Boring Company’s Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) Loop system is a 1.7-mile tunnel under the Las Vegas Strip that stretches from the convention center with three stations, the South, the West, and the Central. It allegedly slashes the above-ground 45-minute walk to a two-minute drive. 

Musk founded The Boring Co. in 2017 with the hopes of solving traffic problems in major cities by creating underground tunnels for Tesla vehicles. However, this is the first instance where Musk’s grand tunnel idea has hit a snag, or rather a traffic jam. 

The viral video titled “Lol. Elon Musk’s Boring company has traffic jams. I was told it was impossible” was posted on Reddit on Thursday morning. It already has 21k upvotes and 3k comments. 

Redditors were not that enthusiastic about the tunnel. Many voiced concerns about the safety of the tunnel, with one person calling it a “death trap.” 

Another said, “I’m surprised it’s even legal. No lighting, no ventilation, no fire detection or suppression, not enough space between the cars and the wall to walk out… They are asking for trouble. If somehow a car catches fire, people will die.” 

 “Not any fire. A fucking battery fire burning brightly, extremely hot and producing poisonous gas,” someone else said. 

One Redditor said, “Imagine having to go in reverse because the person in front of you had their car catch on fire. But then you just run into more people going in reverse… If you exit your car you’re going to inhale poisonous toxins… But it’s getting hotter in your car by the second.” 

So Musk, maybe back to the drawing boards. The big idea to solve traffic congestion with underground tunnels appears not to be working. Also, people think it’s a death trap. 

If you frequent Vegas, there are efficient monorails on the surface that do just fine. 

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

Recently, Democrats have been despondent over President Joe Biden’s sinking poll numbers. His policies on the economy, energy, foreign policy, the border, and COVID-19 all have lost majority support.

As a result, the left now variously alleges that either in 2022, when they expect to lose the Congress, or in 2024, when they fear losing the presidency, Republicans will “destroy democracy” or stage a coup.

A cynic might suggest that they praise democracy when they get elected, only to claim it is broken when they lose.

Or they hope to avoid their defeat by trying to terrify the electorate. Or they mask their own revolutionary propensities by projecting them onto their opponents.

After all, who is trying to federalize election laws in national elections contrary to the spirit of the Constitution? Who wishes to repeal or circumvent the Electoral College? Who wishes to destroy the more than 180-year-old Senate filibuster, the over 150-year-old nine-justice Supreme Court, and the more than 60-year-old, 50-state union?

Who is attacking the founding constitutional idea of two senators per state?

The Constitution also clearly states that “When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside.” Who slammed through the impeachment of former president Donald Trump without a presiding chief justice?

Never had a president been either impeached twice or tried in the Senate as a private citizen. Who did both?

The left further broke prior precedent by impeaching Trump without a special counsel’s report, formal hearings, witnesses, and cross-examinations.

Who exactly is violating federal civil rights legislation?

New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in December decided to ration potentially lifesaving new COVID-19 medicines, partially on the basis of race, in the name of “equity.”

The agency also allegedly used racial preferences to determine who would be first tested for COVID-19. Yet such racial discrimination seems in direct violation of various title clauses of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

That law makes it clear that no public agency can use race to deny “equal utilization of any public facility which is owned, operated, or managed by or on behalf of any State or subdivision thereof.” Who is behind the new racial discrimination?

In summer 2020, many local- and state-mandated quarantines and bans on public assemblies were simply ignored with impunity — if demonstrators were associated with Black Lives Matter or protesting the police.

Currently, the Biden administration is also flagrantly embracing the neo-Confederate idea of nullifying federal law.

The administration has allowed nearly 2 million foreign nationals to enter the United States illegally across the southern border — in hopes they will soon be loyal constituents.

The administration has not asked illegal entrants either to be tested for or vaccinated against COVID-19. Yet all U.S. citizens in the military and employed by the federal government are threatened with dismissal if they fail to become vaccinated.

Such selective exemption of lawbreaking non-U.S. citizens, but not millions of U.S. citizens, seems in conflict with the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

After entering the United States illegally, millions of immigrants are protected by some 550 “sanctuary city” jurisdictions. These revolutionary areas all brazenly nullify immigration law by refusing to allow federal immigration authorities to deport illegal immigrant lawbreakers.

At various times in our nation’s history — 1832, 1861-65, and 1961-63 — America was either racked by internal violence or fought a civil war over similar state nullification of federal laws.

In the last five years, we have indeed seen many internal threats to democracy.

• Hillary Clinton hired a foreign national to concoct a dossier of dirt against her presidential opponent. She disguised her own role by projecting her efforts to use Russian sources onto Trump. She used her contacts in government and media to seed the dossier to create a national hysteria about “Russian collusion.”

• Clinton urged Biden not to accept the 2020 result if he lost, and herself claimed Trump was not a legitimately elected president.

• The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has violated laws governing the chain of command.

• Some retired officers violated Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice by slandering their commander-in-chief.

• Others publicly were on record calling for the military to intervene to remove an elected president.

• Some of the nation’s top officials in the FBI and intelligence committee have misled or lied under oath either to federal investigators or the U.S. Congress, again, mostly with impunity.

All these sustained revolutionary activities were justified as necessary to achieve the supposedly noble ends of removing Trump.

The result is Third World-like jurisprudence in America aimed at rewarding friends and punishing enemies, masked by service to social justice.

We are in a dangerous revolutionary cycle. But the threat is not so much from loud, buffoonish one-day rioters on Jan. 6. Such clownish characters did not for 120 days loot, burn, attack courthouses and police precincts, cause over 30 deaths, injure 2,000 policemen, and destroy at least $2 billion in property — all under the banner of revolutionary justice.

Even more ominously, stone-cold sober elites are systematically waging an insidious revolution in the shadows that seeks to dismantle America’s institutions and the rule of law as we have known them.

Earlier today we joked that while many on Wall Street were lamenting their fate, it could be even worse: they could be running a risk-parity fund.

It could be worse, you could be running a risk-parity fund

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 6, 2022

But for investors in one particular fund, however, this wasn’t a joke.

While secretive risk-parity hedge funds such as Bridgewater will reveal their losses from the recent market turmoil in due time, there is one investment vehicle which invests in portfolios of stocks and bonds and which reveals in real time just how much pain its has suffered as a result of the concurrent plunge in equities and Treasuries in recent days.

The $1.6 billion RPAR Risk Parity exchange-traded fund (ticker RPAR) – the biggest of its kind – has dropped 3.4% in the five trading days through Thursday, on course for the worst five-day streak since March 2020. Its systematic strategy, popularized by Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, allocates across asset classes based on risk and tends to suffer outsize losses when markets fall together.

According to Bloomberg, the cross-asset volatility is also bad timing for RPAR’s new sister fund launched this week, which seeks to amp up returns with extra leverage (yes, that’s leverage upon leverage). The RPAR Ultra Risk Parity ETF (UPAR) has fallen in each of its first three trading days, including a 1.5% slump on Wednesday — a drop that equals some of RPAR’s worst moves in the past year.

Both funds traded lower on Thursday in New York as the S&P 500 fluctuated and Treasuries extended their retreat.

While risk-parity indexes hit records in 2021 as reopening optimism fueled stocks and commodities while dovish central banks kept bond yields in check, runaway inflation and the Fed’s hiking intentions are disrupting the “everything rally” and making life for balanced portfolio investors mierable.

Worse, since risk parity funds target a level of risk by allocating across assets based on their volatility and then levering up, that means that during times of market turbulence they can be forced to unwind positions exacerbating price moves. That’s what happened during March 2020 when Treasury yields first exploded then crashed.

RPAR and its levered cousing, UPAR, are actively managed but seek to match the returns of an index across four major asset classes: global equities, commodities, Treasuries and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS.

By Ishika Mookerjee, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and analyst

Demand for quality stocks is strengthening in Asia as the Federal Reserve dials up its hawkish commentary, making riskier firms look more vulnerable with borrowing costs expected to rise.

The MSCI AC Asia ex-Japan Quality Index has climbed about 1% since the end of October as the Fed announced its plan to taper asset purchases, while the MSCI AC Asia ex Japan Index has slumped 4%. The gauge of stocks with a high return on equity, stable earnings growth and low leverage trounced the broader benchmark by about nine percentage points last year, a better relative performance than that seen in its global peer.

“Asian quality stocks tend to outperform during global slowdown, inflationary regime in Asia and in the following 12 months post China slowdown,” Sanford C. Bernstein analysts Rupal Agarwal and Anusha Madireddy wrote in a note on Wednesday. There’s also support from positive earnings revisions and a historical discount to low-quality stocks, they added.

Investors are dumping riskier companies, yet the outperformance of the quality gauge suggests they are still comfortable betting on the more mature tech companies in the region. The sector had the biggest weighting in the gauge as of November with software firms Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services as well as chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing among the largest constituents. Their shares are up 9%, 12% and 9% respectively since the end of October, despite pressure on the global tech sector

While the jury’s still out on China’s internet behemoths, semiconductor stocks are expected to fare better in Asia amid an ongoing chip shortage. The 12-month forward earnings estimates for Samsung Electronics and TSMC have risen more than 20% in the past year and over 50% for SK Hynix. That’s while the MSCI Asia Pacific Communication Services Index — which includes Tencent — saw a drop of 13% in its earnings estimates.

Given inflationary pressures, high-yielding quality stocks in Taiwan and China are preferred by Bernstein. “We are most bullish on staples, tech and energy while being most negative towards discretionary and industrials,” the analysts wrote.

The median forecast in Bloomberg’s survey of analysts anticipates the FOMC will raise its policy rate twice this year and three times next.

Repeat child sex offenders in Russia could be sent to hard labor penal colonies in the Arctic, where they would be forced to work in Siberian mines, according a plan floated by Parliamentary Speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin.

The new legislation was presented after the horrific murder of a five-year-old girl, who was abducted by a serial pedophile and his lover, before being raped and stabbed to death.

Veronika Nikolayeva had been playing near her mother’s workplace in Kostroma, and a video showed how she was snatched before being abused.

The helpless girl ‘struggled and fought back’ but passersby did not pay attention to her distress – and the men took her to their hostel.

Her corpse was later found in a duffle bag as the suspects, named Denis Gerasimov, 44, and Vadim Belyakov, 24, planned to dispose of her body.

…

As the girl’s body was removed from the suspects’ hostel, a mob of locals demanded to be allowed to lynch the suspects. The suspects are understood to have been in a long term relationship since the younger man was underage. The men told interrogators that the crime was ‘spontaneous’, it was reported. The younger one ‘suggested that his partner catch the girl and make fun of her’.

The video shows one suspect carrying the kidnapped girl down snowy streets, while the other walks alongside. When police raided the room shared by the suspects in a hostel, they found the girl’s body hidden in a duffle bag, say law enforcement sources. –Daily Mail

Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, called the child’s abuse and death a “terrible tragedy,” which illustrated the need for tougher laws against pedophiles.

“One of the detained men turned out to be a formerly convicted paedophile,” he said, adding “Let’s do everything for the law on life sentences for paedophiles to be adopted in January.”

“Those convicted for such crimes should serve life sentences in the harshest conditions – in the extreme north (of Russia) or in mines,” he continued, adding: “These bastards should undergo the hardest labour, so they remember the crimes they committed every day – and regret them.”

“They cannot be called human,” he said.

The idea was supported by influential MP, Alexander Khinstein, who said “‘It is necessary to adopt our bill on life punishment for paedophile-rapists as soon as possible,” adding that all sex attackers released from prison should be forced to wear electronic tags.