Month: August 2023

After a flood of more than 100,000 asylum seekers descended upon New York City, more than 120 CEOs, including JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, BlackRock’s Larry Fink and Citigroup’s Jane Fraser have penned a letter to President Biden and Congress urging federal assistance for the problem they created.

“The situation is overwhelming the resources not only of the border region but of city and state governments across the nation,” reads the open letter from Partnership for New York City. “Immigration policies and control of our country’s border are clearly a federal responsibility; state and local governments have no standing in this matter.”

The cost for sheltering and care of the migrants could exceed $12 billion by July 2025, jeopardizing the city’s ability to provide goods and services to its more than 8 million residents, Mayor Eric Adams said earlier this month.

New York has previously called on other municipalities around the state to take on more responsibility for housing and feeding new arrivals. Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul have said the federal government should mount a comprehensive national response that would provide migrants a path out of New York’s care. –Bloomberg

“We urge you to take immediate action to better control the border and the process of asylum, and provide relief to the cities and states that are bearing the burdens posed by the influx of asylum seekers,” reads the letter, which was also signed by the co-chairmen of the Partnership for New York City, Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla and Tishman Speyer Properties LP CEO Rob Speyer.

The city says it’s trying to find many of the new arrivals jobs despite the fact that they’re unable to work legally until their immigration cases work their way through the system.

According to officials, they’re trying to find migrants construction jobs and access to NYC identification cards, as well as connections to legal clinics to fill out authorization forms – but state and city leaders want the Biden administration to help out – including expediting the work authorization process.

“The federal government can expedite work authorizations through executive actions like granting and extending Temporary Protected Status, specifically for countries like Venezuela, which constitute a significant portion of the arriving population and where the situation on the ground continues to deteriorate,” wrote Gov. Hochul in a separate letter to Biden released last week.

Meanwhile, residents have been protesting the housing of migrants to various areas of the city.

“If you’re not gonna do your job, Mayor, then let Staten Island secede” Representative Nicole Malliotakis speaks at today’s protest against a new migrant shelter in New York pic.twitter.com/I4UJbdqNg9

— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) August 29, 2023

A large group of protesters gathered in Staten Island, New York City to protest against the borough hosting migrants at a former Catholic school. pic.twitter.com/rArr3Gd01I

— Andy Ngô 🏳️‍🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) August 28, 2023

Curtis Sliwa says that a 95 year old widow of a World War 2 veteran was put into the streets to make room for migrants and leads a chant of “American’s first, migrants to the back of the line” in a New York city protest. pic.twitter.com/AVsUtIxQns

— 3sidedstory 🇺🇲 (@3sidedstory) August 27, 2023

Antifa, no surprise, is encouraging the migrant crisis.

New York City:

More far-left / Antifa counter protesters arrested by NYPD as multiple scuffles and arguments break out between opposing sides at migrant crisis protest. pic.twitter.com/WzVr79gtuU

— Rebecca Brannon (@RebsBrannon) August 27, 2023

Of note, Hochul has already spent $1.5 billion and deployed nearly 2,000 National Guard members. while asylum seekers continue to cause visible disruptions – even lining up near Wall Street offices.

The Biden administration’s response has been, to put it mildly, lackluster. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas threw a curveball by questioning New York’s handling of the crisis, offering as an alternative federal sites that are practically in another timezone from the city’s core. Essentially, the Biden administration has turned this into a game of hot potato with lives and resources hanging in the balance.

That said, as the NY Times notes, Wall Street execs are huge Democratic donors, so maybe they can call in a few favors?

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute,

Just four and a half months since President Biden declared an end to the Covid “emergency,” the media is suddenly full of stories about the return of Covid.

This time a new “variant” is being rolled out and the media, in collusion with big Pharma and the fear-industrial complex, are churning out stories about how forced masking is making a comeback.

Also, the “unvaccinated” are again to be denied basic human rights in the name of fighting a virus that the vaccine demonstrably does not protect against.

In short, they are desperately trying to revive the tyranny, insanity, and utter irrationality of the two-year Covid scare. And they are pretending none of us remembers how they destroyed society with their lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccine mandates. They are hoping that none of us will remember the suicides, lost jobs, broken marriages, increased alcoholism and drug abuse, and the rest of what went along with the world’s experiment with global lockdown.

Even Fauci himself is back – like a moth drawn to the light of publicity. Despite all the scientific evidence that the lockdowns were a disaster, that they did far more harm than good, Fauci has re-emerged with his trademark arrogance and claimed that they were the right thing to do and should be done again if that’s what it takes to force people to take the vaccine. A vaccine that does not work.

They won’t even allow us to mention the spike in all-around mortality or the millions who may have been vaccine-injured the first time around. They want us to think that 20-year-old world-class athletes have always just dropped dead of heart attacks out of the blue.

It’s all normal! Don’t question it! What are you, some kind of conspiracy theorist? Are you a science-denier?

Yes, look for a renewal of all those old hollow phrases used to attack those of us who can see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears.

Their slogans are meant to silence any debate. The same “experts” like Fauci who claimed “I am the science” are back and they shamelessly demand to silence us again.

The big question is…why? Why are they doing this and how do they think they can get away with it a second time? One reason they believe they can get away with it again is that no one has ever been punished for what they did the first time. The Federal Government made sure that the pharmaceutical companies would not be liable for vaccine damages.

The public figures who openly became monsters, demanding the unvaccinated be drummed out of society and maybe even off the face of the earth have not been shamed or shunned. Politicians who displayed cowardice and worse have not been voted out of office for their treachery.

Why are they coming back around for another round of Covid tyranny? Fear is a weapon to gain control.

Karine Jean-Pierre says the administration will soon be “encouraging” Americans to get an “updated” COVID vaccine pic.twitter.com/FEZ4CB0LId

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 28, 2023

Last time around they generated fear to radically change how America voted. Suddenly everyone was mailed ballots. How closely were they checked? No one knew and no one dared ask. The people who did ask about the election are now facing jail terms.

They want us to shut up while they do it again. Will we?

According to the latest update by the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Idalia formed early Tuesday morning and is currently 320 miles south-southwest of Tampa. With maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, Idalia is a Category 1 hurricane. 

NHC expects Idalia to ‘rapidly intensify’ later today and could strike the Gulf Coast of Florida as a Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale on Wednesday morning. 

“Rapid intensification is likely through landfall, and Idalia is forecast to become an extremely dangerous major hurricane before landfall on Wednesday,” said NHC senior hurricane expert Eric Blake.

🗣️ WRAP UP PREPARATIONS! #HurricaneIdalia continues to move north!

Potential Impacts:
🌊8-12′ storm surge further north, 4-7′ Tampa Bay
🌬️ TS/H force winds depending on location
🌧️4-8″ rain with locally higher amounts
🌪️ Several tornadoes possible

¡Vea gráfica en Español!#FLwx pic.twitter.com/kIZFxtqUBY

— NWS Tampa Bay (@NWSTampaBay) August 29, 2023

Landfall is expected between 0800 and 1000 ET tomorrow around the north of Tampa, but any shift in trajectory could put the metro area of 400,000 in jeopardy. 

NHC predicts Florida’s Big Bend area could be flooded with 12 feet of storm surge. 

Rainfall between 6 to 12 inches is expected. 

Forecasters predict sustained winds of 120 mph with gusts up to 150 mph before the storm makes landfall. 

“This is going to be a major hurricane,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis from the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee Monday.

DeSantis continued, “It’s likely to continue strengthening all the way until impact and it could have catastrophic storm surge in your area.”

“If this storm hits at high tide, storm surge could and would reach 8 to 12 feet in some areas and so that would be life-threatening storm surge,” the governor said. 

He said the Big Bend area of the state hasn’t been blasted with a hurricane of this strength in decades. 

Ron DeSantis has ordered the activation of the National Guard while the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced President Biden approved an emergency declaration for the Sunshine State.

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Some deny there is a housing bubble. I believe the bubble is obvious…

Case-Shiller home price index and Real Disposable Income via St. Louis Fed, chart by Mish.

Chart Notes

• Case-Shiller is a measure of repeat sales of the same house. This is a far better measure than average or median prices that widely vary over time by home size and amenities.

• Disposable means after taxes

• Real means inflation adjusted using the BEA’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation index, not the BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI).

• Both indexes are set to 2000=100.

• Case-Shiller is through May (reflective of March) while Real DPI is through June. There is a minor bit of skew that I did not factor in.

For at least 12 years, home prices followed extremely closely to real disposable personal income. In 2012 the indexes touched again at 133-134.

The BEA calculates REAL based on PCE. Adjusting for inflation by the CPI would make the current bubble look bigger and I believe more accurate.

The important point is the massive divergence between the measures noting that the bubble is a bit understated.

Percentage Difference Between Home Prices and Real DPI

• 2006: (185-120)/120 * 100 = 54.17 Percent

• 2023: (305-169)/169 * 100) = 80.47 percent

On a real DPI basis, home prices are roughly 80 percent above where they should be.

Some justify these home prices on the basis of mortgage rates and affordability. They are wrong.

The difference between home prices and income is really a measure of the Fed’s propensity to blow financial bubbles by keeping rates too low too long.

I will address alleged affordability in a following post.

The Fed Commits to a 2 Percent Inflation Target, Carefully

Meanwhile, please note The Fed Commits to a 2 Percent Inflation Target, Carefully

Powell’s Warnings

Here is the key thing Powell said today: “As is often the case, we are navigating by the stars under cloudy skies.”

And to that I would add, using tools like inflation expectations proven to be totally worthless.

For discussion of inflation expectations and Biden’s energy goals guaranteed to be inflationary, please see Should the Fed Declare Defeat and Move On?

The Fed wants inflation at 2 percent but is clueless how to measure it.

This creates bubbles of increasing amplitude over time. And the middle class shrinks as a result.

*  *  *

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Pope Francis is once again under fire, this time for telling ethnic Russians that they should be proud of their rich heritage. Even the New York Times has taken note Tuesday, and immediately highlighted that the pontiff’s remarks which it says have caused “pain” and “disappointment” for Ukrainians and their supporters.

“Never forget the legacy,” Francis said in video remarks. “You are the heirs of Great Russia: Great Russia of saints, rulers, Great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire — great, enlightened, of great culture and great humanity.” Watch:

Pope Francis tells young Russians to be proud of their history and uphold the legacy of the great Russian Empire. pic.twitter.com/iJZ42lZa8E

— Russian American Daily (@RussiaUSA) August 28, 2023

“You are descendants of the great Mother Russia, step forward with it. And thank you — thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russian,” he continued.

He was addressing a group of young Russian Catholics at a parish in St. Petersburg via video link. The prepared remarks released by the Vatican are said to be less controversial, but once a longer video of his full remarks began circulating, that’s when a wave of criticism and anger was unleashed, including from the former president of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, who wrote on X that the remarks were “truly revolting.”

The Pope has been accused of parroting Russian nationalist talking points which echo those of President Vladmir Putin. The video address triggered a swift response from Ukraine’s foreign ministry, which said: “It is very unfortunate that Russian grand-state ideas, which, in fact, are the cause of Russia’s chronic aggression, knowingly or unknowingly, come from the Pope’s mouth,” according to spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.

The Vatican has firmly rejected the criticisms from Kiev and Western officials, defending the comments as follows:

“The Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote what is positive in Russia’s great cultural and spiritual heritage, and certainly not to extol imperialistic logics and governmental personalities, cited to point to certain historical periods of reference,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement.

Additionally, the Vatican rejected that the Pope was taking a political stance on the war, and said his words “are to be read as a voice raised in defense of human life and the values attached to it.” Further the Vatican stressed the Pope always condemns a “morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious” war.

As for the Kremlin, it greeted Francis’ words positively, with Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling it “admirable that the pontiff knows Russian history.” Peskov added: “It is deep and the legacy is very old, not restricted to Peter I. The entire society and schools work hard to hand over this to young people. The pontiff going along with this effort is really good and makes us glad.”

Pope Francis has on a couple of occasions within the first year of the Ukraine war come under fire for appearing to heap criticism on NATO expansion and the Western weapons industry which benefits from the conflict, while at the same time condemning the war.

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has agreed to put a two-year freeze on implementation of a contentious new rule that requires catch-up contributions by higher-income participants in 401(k) and similar retirement plans to be designated as after-tax Roth contributions.

Bowing to public pressure, the IRS has agreed to provide an administrative transition period until 2026 that postpones enforcement of a new provision in the SECURE 2.0 Ac t that requires catch-up contributions by higher-earning retirement plan participants to be designated not as pre-tax contributions to plans like the 401(k) but as after-tax contributions to Roth IRA accounts.

The new Roth catch-up contribution rule (Section 603 of the SECURE 2.0 Act) applies to people who participate in 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) plans and whose prior-year Social Security wages exceeded $145,000.

Also, the IRS provided additional clarification that plan participants aged 50 and older can continue to make catch-up contributions after 2023, regardless of income.

“The IRS basically has announced that they are going to interpret around the legislative text glitch that’s been discussed,” said Kelsey Mayo, Outside Director of Regulatory Affairs for the American Retirement Association, according to a note issued by the National Association of Plan Advisors.

“They’re essentially saying catch-up provisions have not been eliminated, period. That’s point No. 1,” Ms. Mayo added. “And point No. 2 is now you don’t have to make it a Roth for two years, and it can continue to be pre-tax catch-ups until 2026 regardless of income.”

The American Retirement Association was one of over 100 organizations that, in a June letter (pdf) to the House Ways and Means Committee, demanded a two-year delay in implementing the new Roth IRA catch-up rule.

Request for 2-Year Transition

The coalition letter cited an inability on the part of many signatories—to adapt their systems to ensure that catch-up contributions will be made on a Roth IRA basis for those earning more than $145,000 in the preceding year.

“Unless transition relief is granted as soon as possible, many retirement plan participants will lose the ability to make catch-up contributions at the end of this year,” the signatories wrote.

“For many of these plans, unless this requirement is delayed very quickly (i.e., this summer), their only means of compliance will be to eliminate all catch-up contributions for 2024.”

The reason is that, for the most part, the signatories lack arrangements that coordinate retirement plan recordkeeping with payroll systems (which determine who earned more than $145,000 in the prior year).

“These circumstances pose a long list of other obstacles including, for many plans, the challenges of adding a Roth feature and communicating that feature to participants, as well as special challenges for state and local governments and collectively bargained plans,” the signatories wrote.

Their request was for Congress to pass legislation to provide a two-year delay to allow employers and plan providers to adapt their systems—or for the IRS to act unilaterally and grant relief from the new catch-up contribution rule.

With its Aug. 25 announcement, the IRS has done just that.

“The administrative transition period will help taxpayers transition smoothly to the new Roth catch-up requirement and is designed to facilitate an orderly transition for compliance with that requirement,” the IRS wrote in the announcement.

American Retirement Association CEO Brian Graff said that the organization had asked for relief on the issue “and we really appreciate Treasury and the IRS understanding how challenging it would have been to comply with the mandatory Roth catch-up requirement by January 1, 2024.”

“Allowing for a two-year transition period is a big win for plan sponsors, recordkeepers and participants,” Mr. Graff added.

Traditional 401(k) accounts are funded with pre-tax earnings, and withdrawals are taxed once savers enter retirement. Roth IRA accounts, by contrast, are funded by after-tax dollars, with subsequent withdrawals being tax-free.

Other Changes Under SECURE 2.0

The SECURE 2.0 legislation introduced a number of other changes, as well.

The legislation changed the age at which people are required to start taking minimum distributions from their retirement accounts. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, the new minimum distribution age is 73 for those who turn 72 after Dec. 31, 2022, and 75 for those who turn 74 after Dec. 31, 2033.

However, if someone is already qualified to take their first distribution by April 1, 2023, these changes won’t affect them. The act also reduced the penalty for not taking the required distribution to 25 percent from 50 percent, starting Dec. 29, 2022.

The SECURE 2.0 Act also permits employers to count qualified student loan repayments as employee contributions to retirement plans, even if the employee isn’t making regular contributions. This allows employers to match these repayments with contributions to the retirement plan.

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, individuals can now withdraw up to $1,000 from their retirement accounts for unforeseeable and immediate personal emergency expenses. The plan administrator relies on the employee’s certification that the emergency meets the required criteria for the withdrawal.

Another change is that, starting in 2025, part-time employees will be able to participate in workplace retirement plans sooner. Previously, they had to work at least 500 hours for three consecutive years in order to be eligible; now they need to work only 500 hours for two consecutive years to qualify.

Rare video footage has emerged of detained American citizen and former Marine Paul Whelan inside a Russian penal colony, where he’s serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges.

“Today was the first time I’ve seen what he really looks like since June 2020,” his brother David said to Reuters, describing that the footage was taken in May by Russia’s RT. Given it’s the first time Whelan has been seen in public footage in three years, this could be an attempt of Moscow to restart interest in his case, possibly for a prisoner swap such as happened with Brittney Griner. RT has alleged that “the White House has shown little interest in fighting for his release.” Watch:

Paul Whelan is a US citizen serving time in a high security prison since 2020 who was convicted of spying on Moscow for Washington and yet the White House has shown little interest in fighting for his release

Follow us on Rumble: https://t.co/Nuc9nUzlmx pic.twitter.com/5kjfUhTOhV

— RT (@RT_com) August 28, 2023

RT says Whelan gave his written permission to be filmed and interviewed, but upon being granted access to the prison in Russia’s remote republic of Mordovia, the RT crew was rebuffed by Whelan.

Whelan has been deemed by Washington “wrongfully detained” – but by all appearances the Biden administration has done little to free him, even after his family and supporters expressed outrage that diplomatic efforts had focused on gaining Griner’s freedom, though she was convicted on lesser drug charges.

“I can’t answer any questions,” Whelan, who is engaged in manual labor in what looks like a sewing room, tells the camera crew. In the footage he appears healthy, dressed in a prison issued black prison jacket and hat, and is heard speaking a smattering of Russian in the beginning.

Here’s the exchange when the RT camera crew approaches him: 

Sitting at a sewing machine folding green strips of material, the bespectacled U.S. national is asked by a voice off camera, “How many did you do today?”

“100,” Whelan replies in Russian.

“100 units already, and what’s the norm?” asks the voice.

“80,” says Whelan.

“Good job,” the voice replies, “production leader.”

Whelan is then approached by an English-speaking RT reporter for an interview:

“Sir, you understand when I say that I can’t do an interview, which means that I can’t answer any questions,” Whelan tells him. He is later pictured in the prison yard talking to fellow inmates and eating in the cafeteria.

In 2020, Whelan was issued a 16-year sentence on charges of espionage by a Russian court. He told CNN in late 2022 in statements from prison that the Biden administration has actually done nothing significant in attempting to secure his release. 

“I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four year anniversary of my arrest is coming up,” he said in the phone interview at the time. “I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,” he added, before saying:

“I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”

“I was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon,” Whelan complained.