Shareholder activists on both sides of the political spectrum have increasingly been using shareholder proposals to debate the most pressing and divisive social issues of our times. Issues such as abortion, gun rights, and climate change. This increased usage has been facilitated by the SEC taking the position that it has broad authority to compel public companies to include shareholder proposals on social issues in their proxy statements. While these issues need to be addressed, their resolution is to be found in the political arena. That is how our democracy works. They should not be and will not be resolved by a vote of shareholders.
Responding to these proposals cost corporations tens of millions of dollars each year, not to mention the loss in efficiency caused by distracting management from their focus on company business. Most importantly, they pressure management to take stands on divisive issues. For a public company to thrive, it must provide a big tent that covers millions of customers and employees who reside on every possible point of the political spectrum. Antagonizing a significant number of these stakeholders by forcing management to take sides on social issues is not how a public company is going to maximize profits.
[NAM] moves to intervene to raise a fundamental threshold issue addressed by neither party but affecting every publicly traded company in the United States: Whether the First Amendment and federal securities laws allow the SEC, through its Rule 14a-8, to compel a corporation to use its proxy statement to speak about abortion, climate change, diversity, gun control, immigration, or other contentious issues unrelated to its core business or the creation of shareholder value.
NAM’s petition was granted. As NAM points out in its petition, nothing in Section 14 of the Exchange Act of 1934 (“34 Act”) the statutory authority governing the SEC’s regulation of the proxy process, grants the SEC with such power:
It shall be unlawful for any person, by the use of the mails or by any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce or of any facility of a national securities exchange or otherwise, in contravention of such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe as necessary or appropriate in the public interest or for the protection of investors, to solicit or to permit the use of his name to solicit any proxy or consent or authorization in respect.
If so, the SEC has totally misunderstood the term “in the public interest.” This term does not give it broad authority to act as it wants. As stated by the U.S. Supreme Court in NAACP v. FPC: “This Court’s cases have consistently held that the use of the words ‘public interest’ in a regulatory statute is not a broad license to promote the general public welfare. Rather, the words take meaning from the purposes of the regulatory legislation.” In essence, the term is an empty shell, with no real meaning, until it is filled up with the identifiable policy objectives and constraints that Congress writes into a statute.
The interpretation of the two statutory terms presented here does not support the argument that the SEC has broad authority to compel companies to insert shareholder proposals on social issues into their proxy statements. On the contrary, it demonstrates the unreasonableness of trying to interpret the terms as if they do. In sum, it is simply not “in the public interest” for the SEC to have such authority.
Russia Blames Ukraine For Ammonia Pipeline Sabotage, Civilians Injured
Moscow has accused Ukraine of blowing up the Tolyatti-Odesa pipeline in a new act of “sabotage” targeting vital Russian infrastructure. It is the longest ammonia pipeline in the world, at some 2,500km, and Russia utilizes it to export the industrial chemical, which is a core component of fertilizer, among other products.
A Wednesday statement by the Russian Defense Ministry said“A Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group blew up the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline” outside the village of Masyutovka in the northeastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
The sabotage reportedly occurred Monday evening, with photos and footage subsequently appearing on social media which show a chemical leak and thick, white haze of smoke leaking from the pipeline.
The defense ministry cited injuries from the dangerous chemical leak:
“As a result of this terrorist act, there are victims among the civilian population. They received the necessary medical care,” the MoD said.
Ukrainian officials have acknowledged the damaged pipeline, but have instead put the blame on Russia, alleging its forces shelled it.
The Russian statement added: “Currently, the ammonia remnants are being drained through the damaged pipeline sections from Ukrainian territory. There are no casualties among Russian army personnel.”
According to a Dept of Labor OSHA fact sheet, “Ammonia is considered a high health hazard because it is corrosive to the skin, eyes, and lungs. Exposure to 300 parts per million (ppm) is immediately dangerous to life and health. Ammonia is also flammable at concentrations of approximately 15% to 28% by volume in air.”
Additionally, “When mixed with lubricating oils, its flammable concentration range is increased. It can explode if released in an enclosed space with a source of ignition present, or if a vessel containing anhydrous ammonia is exposed to fire. Fortunately, ammonia has a low odor threshold (20 ppm), so most people will seek relief at much lower concentrations.”
Toxic gas clouds….
💬#Zakharova: On June 5, there was an explosion at the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline section controlled by the Ukrainian army.
The Kiev regime has made it impossible to supply ammonia to the global market and also undermined efforts to fight hunger & help countries in need pic.twitter.com/h7iFxoItCr
Currently all eyes are on the bigger disaster unfolding in southern Ukraine and also greatly impacting Crimea – the Tuesday explosion and breach of the Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River. Like with other major incidents throughout the war, both sides are blaming the other – but tellingly, the Biden administration has in this case been reluctant to quickly cast blame on Russia, given it would have no incentive to blow up the very dam it was occupying and overseeing, and which supplies water to Crimea.
Logistics companies are scrambling to meet California’s upcoming Jan. 1, 2024 mandate that all new trucks purchased for servicing ports, rail yards, and distribution centers in the state be zero-emission vehicles, with experts questioning limited access to charging stations and the viability of switching from diesel to electric fleets.
Availability of electric semi-trucks is a concern, as is the price of the vehicles, the number of miles they can go on a charge, and the cost of maintenance and replacement parts, all of which currently remain unknown variables, according to industry experts.
“We need to know all of these things in order to plan,” Nelson Sibrian—owner of Sibrian Trucking based in Wilmington, California—told The Epoch Times. “If we don’t know the actual range, it makes it impossible to schedule, and they can’t give me a straight answer on how long [trucks] will take to charge.”
Charging is problematic on several fronts, as trucks require special charging stations, and with limited infrastructure at and near ports, experts say the frequent need to recharge, and the wait times expected with more trucks than charging ports, add to the time and cost of operation.
Traditionally, maintenance accounts for the majority of expenditures with diesel trucks, and the lack of information regarding similar requirements for electric vehicles presents unique challenges for logistics companies, according to experts. Some say they’ve heard costs could be tenfold for electric as compared to diesel trucks.
“Nobody has real numbers when we ask for details about maintenance and replacement costs,” Sibrian said. “With diesel, we know our cost per day to maintain the vehicle.”
Entry Price Substantially Higher for Electric Vehicles
The price of most electric semi-trucks is approximately $500,000, based on listings for new models, and Tesla is seeking to gain market share by undercutting the price, with models ranging from $180,000 and up.
Availability is considerably different between electric and diesel. Fleet owners have their choice of manufacturers for traditional trucks, while extremely limited production has electric counterparts on backorder in many instances.
“Even if I had the $500,000 to buy a new electric truck, there aren’t any for sale,” John Williams, a trucking professional servicing Oakland ports, told The Epoch Times.
With 10,000 drayage trucks—those that access ports and railyards—reportedly replaced on average each year, the newly imposed mandate will create demand that manufacturers will be unable to supply, based on current production standards, according to trucking company owners. Distributors additionally say only a handful of trucks are available at a time, with supply substantially trailing demand.
Efforts are underway to increase production at facilities in Southern California and Nevada, but transportation professionals expect difficulty buying or leasing the trucks by the time the laws take effect.
“This is a bigger problem than people realize because we’re being forced to do something that is literally impossible,” Williams said. “There are not enough trucks, not enough charging stations, and not enough information that we can rely on.”
Weight and Range Limitations Could Impact Profitability
Industry experts say the estimated 10,000-pound battery pack installed in Tesla trucks is also potentially an issue because replacements would be difficult and costly and lead to less cargo being carried due to laws pertaining to weight limits. They additionally report no success when requesting details from the manufacturer regarding specifics.
China Auto Sales Jump 55% Year Over Year As Price Cuts Continue To Move NEV Metal
Retail sales of passenger vehicles scorched higher in May, with 1.76 million units sold, according to preliminary data from the China Passenger Car Association released this week.
The sales figure represents 8% growth from the month prior. As has been the case over the last several years, new energy vehicles continue to grow disproportionately to the rest of the sector, driving sales higher.
Last month 557,000 NEVs were sold, growth of 55% year over year and 6% sequentially, according to a Bloomberg wrap up of the data.
The sales boost comes as the country slashed prices to move metal throughout the first 5 months of the year. In late May we noted that China’s auto industry association was urging automakers to “cool” the hype behind price cuts that were sweeping across the country.
The price cuts were getting so egregious that the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers went so far as to put out a message on its official WeChat account, stating that “a price war is not a long-term solution”. Instead “automakers should work harder on technology and branding,” it said at the time.
Recall we wrote in May that most major automakers were slashing prices in China. The move is coming after lifting pandemic controls failed to spur significant demand in China, the Wall Street Journal reported last month. Ford and GM will be joined by BMW and Volkswagen in offering the discounts and promotions on EVs, the report says.
At the time, Ford was offering $6,000 off its Mustang Mach-E, putting the standard version of its EV at just $31,000. In April, prior to the discounts, only 84 of the vehicles were sold, compared to 1,500 sales in December. There was some pulling forward of demand due to the phasing out of subsidies heading into the new year, and Ford had also cut prices by about 9% in December.
A spokesperson for Ford called it a “stock clearance” at the time.
Discounts at Volkswagen ranged from around $2,200 to $7,300 a car. Its electric ID series is seeing price cuts of almost $6,000. The company called the cuts “temporary promotions due to general reluctance among car buyers, the new emissions rule and discounts offered by competitors.”
China followed suit, and thus, now we have the sales numbers to prove it…
“Price Erosion” Weighs On Used Car Prices For Second Consecutive Month
Wholesale used-vehicle prices cooled for the second consecutive month. Sales of used vehicles have slumped as the price affordability crisis persists due to elevated prices and high borrowing costs.
According to figures from Cox Automotive, the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI) fell by 2.7% in May from April to 224.5. This marks the second consecutive monthly decline and the lowest level in the index since January.
“Price erosion continued in May, with another month-over-month drop in the index bringing it 0.3 points below our January result,” said Chris Frey, senior manager of economic and industry insights for Cox.
“Taking a longer view, May’s year-over-year decline accelerated from April and March,” Frey pointed out.
However, he noted, “The rate of decline might slow over the next several months as we encounter the lower prices seen at auction from May through November last year. Two consecutive reads in either measure do not a trend make, as used retail inventory is still below last year, and that tends to keep buyers at the auction, supporting prices.”
Cox showed used car sales slid 11% year-over-year in May as affordability wanes. Consumers are forking out an average of $28,381 for a used car in the first quarter, which is considerably higher than the $19,657 level five years ago. And many Americans are stuck with $1,000 monthly payments (some of which can’t afford).
Based on Bankrate data, borrowing costs for used cars have spiked to an average rate of 7.69%, the highest level since September 2009.
The declines in sales and wholesale prices signal continued cooing of the used vehicle market. A win for the Federal Reserve’s battle against high inflation but comes at the cost of many consumers who have been priced out of used and new car ownership. As noted before, purchasing a new car is becoming a luxury for only the wealthy.
A few months ago, Mike Rowe stumbled upon a 2011 video of himself speaking in front of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee during the Obama Administration about the mindset of government toward skilled trades. His argument was that skilled trades were the key to saving our economy, not those jobs that require a four-year degree.
His argument fell on deaf ears.
So he went again in April 2014, this time testifying before the House Committee on Natural Resources to discuss the opportunities for skilled trade workers in the energy industry. This time he brought props, specifically the poster his guidance counselor from high school pointed to when he tried to bully Rowe into picking a high-priced university over a community college his senior year.
Rowe said he had nothing against college, but the universities his counselor recommended were expensive. “I had no idea what I wanted to study. I thought a community college made more sense, but Mr. Dunbar said a two-year school was ‘beneath my potential,’” explained Rowe.
“Mr. Dunbar pointed to a poster hanging behind his desk; on one side of the poster was a beaten-down, depressed-looking blue-collar worker. On the other side was an optimistic college graduate with his eyes on the horizon. Underneath them, the text read: Work Smart NOT Hard,” Rowe told the committee.
“Mike, look at these two guys,” Mr. Dunbar said. “Which one do you want to be?”
“I had to read the caption twice. Work Smart NOT Hard?” Rowe recounted.
The visual was jarring, not to mention insulting, yet once again, nothing happened.
Rowe made his final plea to Congress in March 2017 when he once again schlepped to Capitol Hill, this time for the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education. He discussed how career and technical education (CTE) can help close the skills gap and empower students to succeed, and he stressed the need to reform the current law.
His message was simple: CTE, and skilled trade professions, need a public relations makeover and a champion. “If you want to make America great again, you’ve got to make work cool again,” he said.
“So, my point to Congress was we just have to get people to think differently about the definition of a good job. And we need to put better examples of real people out there who are prospering as the result of learning a trade,” he said.
“We just shot seven or eight PSAs a couple months ago with people who we helped through the trade scholarship fund at the foundation. HVAC workers, plumbers, welders, all making six figures, and I am going to put these PSAs out there in the same spirit of those ads that made people think differently about conservation, and we are going to make people think differently about work,” he said.
The spots are pitch perfect. The first one with Chloe Hudson begins with Rowe dispelling the notion that you cannot make six figures working with your hands. It then cuts to Hudson, a welder who received a work ethic scholarship from mikeroweWORKS and went on to earn six figures a year, talking about the beauty of her life.
“I’m going to raise whatever I have to, I’m going to spend whatever I have to get these examples front and center. So that’s what I’ve got. In a way, it’s nothing new. In another way, it’s me finally saying, ‘Look, this was a good idea 10 years ago, and why not me?’ I’ll do it. I’m going to do it,” Rowe says with his characteristic charm that has endeared him to millions for more than 20 years.
Rowe said people really need to acknowledge the “unspeakable stupidity” of taking shop classes out of high schools 40 years ago. “The unintended consequences of that alone have been unraveling in ways that’s just mind-boggling. We effectively removed from view an entire category of vocations,” he said.
“In the long history of stupidity, you’d have to go a long way to find something dumber than universally removing shop class from high school. But of course, at the same time we did that, we started telling that same generation of kids that the best path for the most people was the most expensive path,” he said of the idea that higher education is the only path to success.
Which brings Rowe to wonder: Were they intentionally telling students who went into trades that they were achieving lower education?
It should make us wonder as well: Who did these decision-makers think was going to take care of their plumbing, fix their car, install their air conditioning, repair their furnace or rewire their house?
Rowe said he knows he is not going to open the eyes of the varsity blues crowd. “I can’t. They’re not persuadable. But there are a lot of people in the middle, a lot of people that just want to feel better about the possibility of exploring a career. So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take my own advice. I’m going to stop telling Congress what to do, and I’m going to do it myself,” he said.
“Yesterday’s Soccer Mom Is Today’s Domestic Extremist”: A Guide To Surviving The Culture
Author and conservative commentator Peachy Keenan is sick and tired of yesterday’s soccer mom being treated as today’s “domestic extremist” in public discourse by media gatekeepers and government officials alike—and all the while parents are sheepishly and too easily abdicating their natural role as captains and defenders of the household.
“They like to make us, the normal people, the moms and dads of America into extremists. But if you look around it’s pretty easy to see who the real extremists are,” Keenan told Harris Faulkner on Fox prime time Tuesday night.
She is calling for a back to the basics while writing from deep behind ‘enemy lines’: southern California. “Parenting is not a game. There is no do-over. You are all that stands between your small charges and the roiling storms ahead—and the band of purple-haired nonbinary pirates that’s about to storm the deck.”
Keenan has written a new handbook of sorts, or a practical guide to winning the culture war and protecting your family from the ravings of “Childless weirdos have taken over every institution we look to for guidance on how to raise good citizens…”
Keenan holds nothing back in the following blistering commentary from her book [emphasis ZH]:
It has become only too clear what this absence of parental authority has wrought. Truly insane people have taken over the American education system, Big Pharma, and Big Tech. They know the best way to reach the Final Solution of the American family is to focus on young, impressionable minds.
We are enjoying the fruits of their labor now: an explosion of teen depression and suicide, an epidemic of children who are confused if they’re boys or girls, and an incredible 40 percent of Gen Z reporting that they are some letter in the ever-expanding alphabet soup known as LGBTQ+.
Peachy Keenan (@KeenanPeachy) makes her debut in Primetime:
“They like to make us, the normal people, the moms and dads of America into extremists. But if you look around it’s pretty easy to see who the real extremists are.” pic.twitter.com/nUkutC8W9V
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 7, 2023
You had a baby? Look at you—you’re the captain now!
Or are you?
The words on a poster taped to a teacher’s classroom door at a New Jersey public school expose the precarious corner American parents have been painted into. “If your parents aren’t accepting of your identity, I’m your mom now.” The poster featured a drawing of a mama bear tending to her bear cubs, who are each painted the color of a different LGBTQ flag.
Parents, I have bad news. You’ve got competition. Someone posted a job listing looking for a new authority figure in your house, and they hired everyone who applied. Lots of other adults, most of them unpleasant strangers, would like to raise your children for you—or at least get your children to hate you.
This may already be happening—and you’ll be the last to know! All your hard work to keep creeps, perverts, and kiddie-sniffers away from your kids may get reversed in an instant when you’re not looking.
Some parents are okay with this. They can barely handle “adulting” themselves and are thrilled not to make any tough parental decisions. Abdicating their natural role as master and commander of the household is lazy, but it’s a defensive posture. They live in terror of accusations from other parents of “closed-mindedness,” or worse, being a prude.
American parents have either forgotten their innate, God-given authority over their household or surrendered it in the face of relentless pressure over many years from the outside. Just as millennia of trickling snowmelt can hollow out mighty granite mountains and turn them into canyons, a half-century of unchecked influence by feminists and far-left progressives have chipped away at the role of parents in their children’s lives. What is left is a barren wasteland, a valley of shadows, where mothers and fathers have been reduced to nothing more than the oldest dependents in the house.
Your job as a parent is not easy, but it’s simple: feed, nurture, love, and protect. In the face of life-and-death danger—say, an escaped tiger or an ax-wielding lunatic—probably 100 percent of parents would risk their lives for their children, even die, without hesitation. So why are so many reluctant to defend their children from less obvious, but equally dangerous, scenarios?
You can tell when you’re about to be trampled by elephants. It’s trickier when the trampling is invisible and being committed by a young teacher with peace stickers on xe/xer’s car. I’ll grant that having pro- nouns in your bio is not quite the same red flag as cruising a playground in a car with no door handles on the inside, but it’s still a red flag parents need to fear.
People who manage to produce offspring are too often seduced into voluntarily surrendering their authority over them. They allow various “experts” to hold sway over their kids. Exhausted and confused, they willingly hand their kids off to the local public school teachers’ unions, the DEI struggle-session facilitators, the storytelling drag queens, and the sex-education consultants who arrive at school with teaching props, including wholesome kid-friendly items like dildos and anal lube.
They all share a common goal: to dilute your authority and increase their own. They aim to groom America’s children from birth to become compliant consumers of all they wish to sell them: bespoke genders, any-term abortion, strictly enforced racial hierarchies, a lifetime of therapy, prescription drugs, and whatever political and social ideology they choose to upload into their brains.
God forbid you are the only parent at your school who keeps your fifth grader home on Share Your Favorite Sex Toy Day. What will people say?
Allow me to remind you gently: it’s your job to steer the ship, avoid icebergs, prevent scurvy, and stave off mutinies. Parenting is not a game. There is no do-over. You are all that stands between your small charges and the roiling storms ahead—and the band of purple-haired nonbinary pirates that’s about to storm the deck.
Sexualized Early and Often
Imagine being the only one at the PTA meeting who stands up and objects to your second grader studying detailed diagrams of adult genitalia, or your middle schoolers instructed on how to grant consent to anal sex. (These are real sex ed guidelines introduced in New Jersey public schools in 2020.)
Your choices are stark: assert your authority over your children and get called a bigot or go along with the madness and let them take your child to places you don’t want them to go.
How bad is it? Bad enough that Tiara Mack, a “reproductive justice advocate” and “child sex educator” running for state senator in Rhode Island tweeted this in 2021: “Really excited for the house sex ed bill hearing later today. Teaching comprehensive, queer inclusive, pleasure-based sex ed was a highlight of my time teaching.”
This is who wants to talk to your six-year-old about how to “pleasure” themselves and their partner!
The first step in any cult, or any abusive relationship, is to get the victim to sever ties to their outside friends and family. Maybe you’ve seen this happen to people you know. They suddenly change their phone number, delete their social media, and have a new friend now—one that has them spellbound. Once children come to believe their mom and dad are clueless bigots and racists who are holding them back from being who they are, the cult leaders own them.
Government-run public schools have accomplished “regime change” in America and transformed us, slowly, from a society centered around the family, where the schools work for the parent, into a society centered around government employees, where families are required to supply the raw goods for the teachers’ unions to mold as they see fit.
Year after year, their assembly lines have been left unsupervised to churn out freshly minted graduates. These graduates move on to college, where their high school indoctrination is hardened and polished by professors. The end product is a citizen who will go to his grave believing a set of Ministry of Truth–approved lies: “whiteness” is intrinsically evil, abortion is health care, there are dozens of genders, America was founded on racism and must be dismantled, marriage is oppressive and bad for women, children hold you back, and unchecked sexual “exploration” with a variety of partners of every gender is the surest path to emotional happiness.
Sane people have a terrible choice to make: exercise parental authority over what their children are taught and risk financial ruin, social blackballing, and permanent cancellation—or allow their kids to be turned against them.
When a teacher or government official replaces the parent as the ultimate authority in the child’s life, all bets are off. Educators know that any adult with the authority to influence a child has the power to expose said child to any radical or extreme ideas they want.
To them, you are the extremist if you don’t think young children need to learn about sex and gender dysphoria yet. You are the extremist if you question a teacher or school administrator’s choice of books to read or lessons to teach. You are an extremely racist extremist if you’d rather not force a five-year-old to feel bad about the color of his skin and apologize for it.
In California, students in middle school can ask their school to change their names and genders in the school computer system, and the school is not permitted to inform the parents. The school authorities and the teachers are legally allowed to conspire with eleven-year-olds in sixth grade to induct them into a cult and keep it secret. Literally “it’ll be our secret,” a classic groomer move.
These government educational bureaucrats may not drive window-less vans and carry dirty magazines and candy bars to lure young boys (although let’s be honest, some do), but they are even more dangerous. Any parents who send a child into an environment like this, either knowingly or blindly, are forfeiting their authority over their kid.
The Regime’s child-catchers are prowling the locker rooms and cafeterias looking for lost, confused pre-teens to cart off to Pleasure Island, where they can get transformed into donkeys without their parents’ consent.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney is working on a new version of Pinocchio where he asks the Blue Fairy to turn him into a real girl.
Parental Surrender
Too many sentient adults seem to simply wait for a new update to the operating system to decide what to do with their kids. They unquestioningly accept the Current Parenting Thing, the rancid gruel served up as “education” at the local public school.
They surrender their kids to the authorities, in all their forms: teachers, principals, pediatricians, drag queens reading stories, social media influencers, YouTubers, Disney, Netflix, TikTok, the Kardashians—anyone who is credentialed as a “kid expert” or “important” now holds more sway over American kids than their own mothers and fathers. “Who am I to tell my kids how to behave, or what to learn, or how to think about the world? I’m just a random person who had a baby. I made plenty of mistakes in my life. How can I possibly ask my children to obey me?”
This is why we can’t have nice things. This is why healthy toddlers were kept in COVID masks for two years while they sat in sandboxes alone, outside, in rain or sleet. This is why you see massive brawls happening at middle schools, where kids punch their own teachers. This is why children are indoctrinated into the cult of trans, coached and groomed to say their pronouns, to switch genders, to explore various “sexualities” and “identities.” This is why mothers pimp out their own children as “drag kids” and put little boys in princess dresses and post the photos on Instagram while thousands of likes wash over them.
This is what abdicating the parenting throne looks like. Childless weirdos have taken over every institution we look to for guidance on how to raise good citizens, and no, I’m not talking about Catholic priests.
It has become only too clear what this absence of parental authority has wrought. Truly insane people have taken over the American education system, Big Pharma, and Big Tech. They know the best way to reach the Final Solution of the American family is to focus on young, impressionable minds.
We are enjoying the fruits of their labor now: an explosion of teen depression and suicide, an epidemic of children who are confused if they’re boys or girls, and an incredible 40 percent of Gen Z reporting that they are some letter in the ever-expanding alphabet soup known as LGBTQ+.
Everywhere, in every way, the fertile, fallow minds of children are being terraformed by people who identify as “fur baby” parents.
I wouldn’t let fur baby parents walk my dog, let alone educate my eight-year-old.
AuthorityAtrophied
This is why you must exercise your parental authority early and often. You must speak up!
“No, I don’t want you to ask my teenage son if he’s comfortable with his gender during his doctor visit.”
“No, you can’t wear your sister’s Elsa dress to school today, because boys don’t wear dresses, now get in the car and never ask me that again.”
“No, you can’t buy those shorts that display the entire lower half of your rear end.”
“No, you can’t have a TikTok account, and if I find it on your phone, say goodbye to the phone.”
Parental authority makes you the heavy in the house and the bouncer at the door. Pull on your big boy pants and lay down the law, or the law is going to lay down all over you.
“Yes, he actually said that, which goes a long way to explaining why gunmen patrol the streets with impunity.”
But Tuesday, about last weekend’s number of shootings – the worst in ten years for the first week in June – Johnson said it’s the critics of Chicago’s violence who are wrong, saying, “What I find disingenuous is, where were these individuals when schools were being shut down and closed? Did they have a critique then?”
Are you kidding, Mayor Johnson?
It was your Chicago Teachers Union, where you worked and that played a major role electing you, that was behind Chicago’s indefensible, catastrophically long shutdown of its schools ostensibly because of Covid. That shutdown lasted long after even the Center for Disease Control and left-leaning press said it was safe to open schools. Critics sure did “have a critique then,” including Wirepoints, among many others. We wrote often to reason, shame, insult, and beg obsequiously to get schools open, but your CTU fought relentlessly against opening.
Maybe Johnson was referring not to the Covid closing but to the shutdown of empty schools ten years ago.
Regardless, the point remains the same. And still today, nearly a third of CPS’ 478 traditional schools are less than 50 percent full. Further consolidation is needed and that certainly shouldn’t justify more killing.
Johnson was just getting started. He went on to give a speech criticizing the media for its coverage of Chicago violence, though he didn’t name names.
To the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce he saidthe best thing you can offer to young people is jobs.
That’s good, but then he said what he wants:
“Not criticism, not demonization of a city that is divided over whether young people should be seen or heard. We’re not going to allow the press or the media to dictate who our young people are.”
Johnson at Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday
“In fact,” he said, “if you don’t live in Chicago and you aren’t offering solutions, stop talking about us.”
Forget that, Mayor Johnson.
All Americans have a stake in the destruction of what was once among the world’s greatest cities.
As for jobs, you and your fellow progressives seem intent on running job creators away. Your and the CTU’s hatred of capitalism is open and notorious.
And you say critics aren’t offering solutions?
Among those that have been offered:
Ask for legislation vesting Cook County prosecutorial authority in somebody other than Kim Foxx.
Eliminate the paperwork and liability cops face if when they try to catch criminals.
Ask to trash the Safe-T Act which, if courts let it get through, will further hamstring prosecutors and police.
Get Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans replaced.
Tell your Chicago Teachers Union to cease teaching racial division and hatred.
Rail against unwed parenting.
Tell CPS to take down the video that’s one of the “Tools” on the Office of Equity page that justifies burning down communities.
And, most importantly, speak directly to the wrongdoers and their parents about personal responsibility.
Big-Tech, Bonds, & Bullion Battered As Billionaire Druckenmiller Warns “More Shoes To Drop”
Another quiet day on the macro side in the US, though Gasoline and Distillates inventory builds hinted at a lack of demand. US mortgage apps fell for the 4th week in a row. Most notably, the US trade gap widened to its largest in six months (as overnight saw China exports collapse).
The Bank of Canada surprised with a 25bps hike (which also pushed Fed rate-hike expectations higher). While expectations remain low for June (32%), that ‘pause’ is expected to be only for a month with July pricing around a 85-90% chance of a 25bps hike by then…
Source: Bloomberg
Nevertheless, it was a violent day across asset-classes, and rightly so as billionaire Stan Druckenmiller told Bloomberg’s Invest Conference that “this is the most complicated non-roadmap, unanalyzable situation I’ve ever seen in terms of having a lot of confidence in an economic prediction going forward… I just don’t see a fat pitch right now.”
He added:
“I think my record is as much knowing not when to play as when to play and because I deal in five or six different asset classes, I’ve had the luxury, if there’s uncertainty in equities, usually that’s a good time for bonds and currencies.
They’re doing crazy things when the world’s blowing up. So there’s a lot of volatility there.”
He was positive on one thing:
“Unlike crypto, I think AI is real… If [AI is] as big as I think it is, Nvidia is something we’re going to want to own for at least two or three years. Not for 10 months,” the founder of Duquesne Family Office said.
“I actually think there is a very very real possibility and could be every bit as impactful as the internet literally going forward. And it could be a beautiful opportunity in a hard landing, just like in 01, 02 were a beautiful opportunity when the tech bubble burst, going forward for companies who have benefited from the internet, AI could be there… My firm has only been able to participate in AI by owning Nvidia and Microsoft”
But – and perhaps reflecting on the recent volatility (and apparently blind buying panic), Druck concluded:
“Our central case is there’s more shoes to drop, particularly in addition to the asset markets economically.”
Here’s the full interview:
And sure enough, today was Nasdaq’s worst day since mid-April (all of a sudden long-duration stocks care about soaring rates). Biggest single-day outperformance of Russell 2000 over Nasdaq since early March 2021, and biggest 4-day outperformance since Nov 2020. The S&P was marginally lower and Dow marginally higher…
The last few days have seen Small Caps up 7% and Nasdaq down 1%…
Some notable 0-DTE action today as Nasdaq options traders attempted to ignite another leg higher…but failed…
Regional bank stocks continued their charge higher…
Despite the down-tape, TSLA rallied for the ninth straight day (longest streak since 2021) and up 13 of the last 15 days) to its highest since Nov 2022…
Goldman noted that ‘soft landing’ narrative is making a comeback as signaled by the very recent break-out of their ‘soft-landing’ basket:
Source: Bloomberg
Which is interesting because Druckenmiller remains steadfast in his view that the US economy will suffer a hard landing, but has pushed his timing off to the end of the year:
“A lot of people – because we haven’t had an economic decline start yet – have changed their forecast from a hard landing to a soft landing, and a lot of others have changed it from soft landing to no landing. I haven’t changed mine at all.
The fact that it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t change the probability if it does happen of the depth of it…
So to me, the probabilities haven’t changed. It’s been pushed out relative to expectations, but in no way does the fact that it hasn’t started yet, change the probability of whether it’s gonna be hard or soft.
I would actually argue since it’s taken so long, the Fed has ended up with a higher terminal rate. And in fact, inflation gets stickier the longer it stays in the system and that it increases, not decreases, the probability of a hard landing…”
One more thing before we move on to the bloodbath in bond-land. It appears – as we noted above – tech stocks are suddenly waking up to the reality of tighter financial conditions…
Source: Bloomberg
Treasuries were clubbed like a baby seal today with the belly underperforming (but all up 10-13bps)…
Source: Bloomberg
The 10Y Yield rose to 3.80% resistance and stalled…
Source: Bloomberg
The dollar roller-coastered today, dumping overnight (and into the US day session) to test the pre-payrolls levels from Friday, before ripping back higher to unchanged…
Source: Bloomberg
The Chinese yuan hit a fresh 2023 low against the dollar…
Source: Bloomberg
The decline in the yuan follows Druckenmiller’s comments:
I was in love with China until about six or seven years ago. You go over there and the energy in Shanghai was like New York on crack. It’s just fantastic energy. The entrepreneurs were exciting, they were into it. And then Xi Jinping did his thing. And if you look at China and the rise of China, I think it all happened.
You had this internal capitalist system. There were a bunch of people that act like crazy New Yorkers building new businesses in a dynamic economy. But he has proved he’s not a capitalist. He’s definitely not a monopolist. There’s only room for one monopolist in China. In his mind, that’s him. Anybody that gets their heads stuck up and I honestly think he either doesn’t understand why China grew and succeeded the way they did, or frankly, he doesn’t care because in terms of staying in power, but I would be looking out 10 or 15 years. I just don’t see it. I, unless there’s a change in power there at the top I think that’s gonna be a very non-dynamic economy. It’s not so much the geopolitical concerns. I will say this, that if I’m right, it makes me more fearful of military action, because that’s when dictators become more dangerous, is when they’ve gotta divert attention from the immediate problem. So what they’re doing now is very stimulative. We’re expecting a sugar high in some kind of robust growth there, maybe for six to nine months.
But looking out, I do not look at them as a big challenge in the United States in terms of economic power and growth.
The Turkish Lira utterly collapsed today to over 23/USD (a new record low)…
Source: Bloomberg
Gold was slammed back lower today, erasing Monday’s gains…
Oil prices extended gains today – after a small crude draw (and another SPR drain) – with WTI back above pre-Saudi-production-cut levels…
Finally, we give the last word back to Stan Druckenmiller who cautioned: “There are definitely lessons to be learned [from the Dot Com bubble]. Don’t get emotional, don’t get crazy.”
As Russian paratroopers descended on Kyiv and attempted to seize Antonov Airport, U.S. officials offered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a lifeline. Western leaders could guarantee him safe passage if he fled immediately.
Zelenskyy famously retorted that he needed ammunition, “not a ride.”
In the 15 months since, the United States has spent tens of billions of dollars giving Zelenskyy and embattled Ukraine just that. Now, officials say, the nation has depleted its own stores of critical munitions so severely that it would likely be incapable of fighting a major war.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has said that the United States’ munitions production capacity is pushed to the “absolute edge.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley has said that the nation “has a long ways to go” to replenish its sorely depleted stockpiles.
One unnamed Pentagon official allegedly told the Wall Street Journal that the nation’s stores of critical artillery rounds were “uncomfortably low” as early as August of last year.
The Pentagon declined to provide an update to the Epoch Times on the status of its current munition stockpiles, with one spokesperson saying that providing any specifics on the matter could jeopardize “operational security.”
The spokesperson suggested, however, that the United States was making great strides in rebuilding what had been lost.
“Of note, the department has enabled a rapid increase in 155mm ammo production, from approximately 14,000 a month in February 2022 to over 20,000 a month more recently, with plans to produce more than 70,000 a month in 2025,” the spokesperson told the Epoch Times.
“This represents a 500 percent increase.”
There’s just one problem with the Pentagon’s rosy outlook on its quickly dwindling stockpiles: Even with a 500 percent increase in production by 2027, the nation would still only be halfway to keeping afloat.
That’s because, by the end of August of last year, the United States had already sent just over 800,000 155mm artillery rounds to Ukraine. That number has since increased to more than two million, according to a fact sheet provided to the Epoch Times by the Pentagon.
That’s a rate of more than 130,000 rounds per month. Nearly twice as much as the proposed production rate of 70,000 that the Pentagon hopes to achieve in five years.
To be sure, the Pentagon has taken steps to stop the hemorrhaging of its critical munitions stocks. Most notably, it has taken to trying wherever possible to purchase ammunition for Ukraine from other countries rather than strip its own stores bare.
How long it can keep the current balance up is open for debate. Allied stockpiles are not infinite either, after all, and already some partners are thinking of their own security concerns.
Key ally South Korea, for example, has already refused requests to sell the munitions to the United States, citing fears of North Korean aggression.
Now, the U.S. is going so far as to pull equipment from units stationed in Israel and South Korea in order to adequately supply Ukraine without emptying its stockpiles.
Likewise, the U.S. Army is now seeking $18 billion from Congress to expand and modernize its munitions production capabilities over the course of the next 15 years. According to Secretary Wormuth, the effort will help to replenish the more than $20 billion in lethal aid already delivered to Ukraine directly from U.S. stockpiles.
Even that may not be enough, however.
“My sense is we’re going to need to do more,” Wormuth said during a March 30 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“One thing the war in Ukraine has shown us is that the estimates we’ve made for the munitions [required] for future conflicts are low.”
The Army’s first tranche of investments, worth $1.5 billion, is included in the Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal year 2024.
That amount is expected to help the Army expand and modernize the nation’s ammunition production facilities, arsenals, and depots, many of which date to World War II.
Despite the stoic facade presented by policymakers, the idea that it will take 15 years to modernize the United States’ munitions production capability has some lawmakers worried. Particularly so for those dedicated to stopping a Chinese communist invasion of Taiwan.
