Month: April 2024

Authored by John Seiler via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commentary

I wish we could call “April fool!” on the $20 minimum wage hitting California fast-food restaurants on April 1. But the wage hike signed into law last September by Gov. Gavin Newsom is really going to hit hard.

Last December, Pizza Hut announced it would lay off more than 1,200 delivery drivers across the state. It switched to independent deliver services for home delivery. On March 25, the Wall Street Journal reported on driver Michael Ojeda, 29, “who previously supported his mother and partner on his Pizza Hut delivery wages.” He told the paper, “Pizza Hut was my career for nearly a decade and with little to no notice it was taken away.”

Round Table Pizza also laid off 73 drivers. And, “In San Jose, Brian Hom, owner of two Vitality Bowls restaurants, now runs his stores with two employees, versus four workers that he typically used in the past. That means it takes longer to make customers’ açaí bowls and other orders, and Hom said he is also raising prices by around 10 percent to help cover the increased labor costs. ”

Mr. Hom said, “I’m definitely not going to hire anymore.”

The $20 wage increase affects only chains with 60 or more restaurants nationwide. One effect might be to discourage national chains from setting up here. If a chain has, for example, 55 restaurants outside California, it would be hesitant to establish five restaurants in the Golden State because that would impact its wage structure everywhere else.

The $7.25 federal minimum wage applies in 20 states with no higher state wage. If a restaurant company operating in those states expanded to California, the disparity between $7.25 and $20 would be a shock to the company.

Another big effect will be on all other California businesses, not just restaurants with fewer than 60 operations nationwide. The state minimum wage overall went up fifty cents to $16 an hour on Jan. 1. The best workers at $16 will gravitate to the $20 jobs, effectively putting pressure on companies to pay more than $16. Companies that can’t do so will go out of business.

We won’t know for a couple of months, but California’s unemployment rate could go much higher. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state’s unemployment already has risen from 5.0 percent last September to 5.3 percent in February, the highest in the nation. The next highest is Nevada at 5.2 percent. Rival Texas is 3.9 percent and Florida is 3.1 percent.

Higher unemployment also will raise costs for the state’s troubled Employment Development Department. Due to incompetence by the Newsom administration, massive fraud during COVID-19 left the state $20 billion in debt to the federal government. Worse, reported California Globe on Feb. 29, higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve Board mean “the state can expect to have to make an interest only payment of about $500 million dollars instead of the $330 million that was planned for in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget for fiscal 2024-25,” which begins on July 1. It must be paid in September.

Newsom’s Political Future

Mr. Newsom can be a savvy politician. But he has a problem with economic realities. For eight years as lieutenant governor, he sat at the feet of Gov. Jerry Brown, who demonstrated how to prevent a budget from getting out of control. Instead, as governor Mr. Newsom went on spending sprees with the $97 billion surplus, everyone, including him, said couldn’t last. It didn’t.

Now he’s staring down a $38 billion budget deficit, according to his Jan. 10 budget proposal; or $73 billion, according to the Legislative Analyst’s latest projection.

The $20 minimum wage will kill many thousands of jobs, canceling the taxes of those workers while they are unemployed, while increasing unemployment costs. Albeit the $20 wage will bring in higher taxes from the workers still employed.

Employers, commonly in the upper middle-class, will suffer fewer profits, cutting into the income taxes they pay. Many even will call it quits and fold up their businesses, or move to more reasonable states.

All this will hit this summer as Mr. Newsom’s presidential ambitions could still advance should President Joe Biden’s mental faculties decline much further. All that still is a long shot, of course. The PredictIt betting on Mr. Newsom gaining the nomination has been decreasing lately (middle line in the graph below), from 18 cents on Feb. 9 to 6 cents on March 29. Mr. Biden’s (top line) rose from 72 cents to 89 cents. Vice President Kamala Harris finished at 4 cents, below Mr. Newsom.

The point is it’s not impossible Mr. Newsom could get the nomination. If he does, California’s rising unemployment rate, the massive budget deficit, homelessness, high housing costs, and crime will be a target-rich environment for the Republicans’ presumptive nominee: former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Newsom could have avoided the unemployment crisis if he simply had pushed the $20 minimum wage into the future to 2027, when he will be out office. Then it would have been the next governor’s problem.

Conclusion: Expect More Joblessness

A higher minimum wage usually kills jobs, unless it is genuinely in line with an area’s cost of living. The current statewide $16 minimum wage is the second-highest of any state in the country, after Washington state’s $16.28. And Washington, D.C., not a state, is the highest at $17.00. All are areas with high expenses.

The biggest problem for California will be the $20 wage in rural areas. Although not as cheap to live in as Mississippi, it’s cheaper than living in San Francisco or Santa Monica. Which also means a lower minimum wage would be more sensible inland. Instead, the $20 wage will wipe out many more fast food jobs per capita inland than in the coastal areas.

The $20 wage is also going to increase prices for those still going to fast-food places. If inflation continues or gets worse, that will boost prices even more, leading to fewer customers, followed by even more layoffs.

Tinkering with the economy has consequences. Starting on April Fools’ Day, California will be finding out how an excessive minimum wage increase is one of the worst ones.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

What are the most popular beers by US generation? Visual Capitalist‘s Marcus Lu has delved into the data based on a consumer survey conducted by YouGov which looks at what Millennials, GenX, and Baby Boomers like to consume the most.

The “popularity” metric represents the % of people who had a positive opinion of that beer. Note that YouGov surveys are conducted with a representative sample of 1,500 respondents.

Overview: Millennials

U.S. millennials appear to favor foreign beers, with the top five spots taken by Dutch (Heineken) or Mexican beers (Modelo, Corona).

While not exactly a beer, White Claws (which have a similar alcohol content) claimed sixth place. Hard seltzers have become very popular in recent years due to their variety of flavors, attractive packaging, and relatively low amount of carbs and calories.

Overview: Gen X

Gen X also has a strong preference for foreign beers, particularly Guinness (fun fact: Over 31 million Americans claim to be of Irish descent).

Two American beers that weren’t on Millennials’ top 10 list are Samuel Adams and Blue Moon.

Samuel Adams is the flagship brand of the Boston Beer Company, named after U.S. Founding Father Samuel Adams. On the other hand, Blue Moon is a Belgian-style witbier brewed by Molson Coors.

Overview: Baby Boomers

Boomers’ top 10 favorite beers are similar to Gen X, with a few key differences. One is the absence of Modelo, which ranked second and fourth for Millennials and Gen X, respectively.

Modelo (which became America’s best-selling beer in 2023) has focused its advertising efforts on sports, which may not reach Boomers as effectively as younger generations.

An interesting pick for Boomers is Dos Equis, which is produced by Heineken-owned Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery. The brand gained popularity for its “most interesting man in the world” commercials, which ran from 2006 to 2018.

See More Beer Graphics 🍺

Be sure to check out this graphic which breaks down global beer consumption by country.

Via Schiffgold.com,

When unemployment and inflation cause skyrocketing incentives for thieves to steal industrial metals like copper, criminals rush for some of the biggest sources: critical infrastructure. That includes cell towers, water pipes, street lights, and rail lines. These copper heists threaten transportation, communication, municipal services, urban safety, and other essentials of modern life. 

The chaos they can cause can cost lives, too — for example, copper heists from railways can cause warning lights, intersection gates, and turnouts that divert trains to other tracks to go offline.

World Bank analysts estimated that prices for base metals like copper and tin had peaked last year, and will decline further in 2024. Some reasons they cited included improving supply and decreasing demand due to widespread adoption of green energy initiatives, and a 52% reduction in the coal price in 2023 compared to the previous year. The report noted that high inflation will reduce demand, will it be enough to offset the speed at which fiat currencies are drained of their purchasing power? So far, the answer appears to be no.

If dollar inflation continues sufficiently unabated, the relative price of copper could continue to rise despite other factors. Other unexpected wrenches in the economy, like the recent closure of the Port of Baltimore, could also challenge the World Bank’s predictions. The Port of Baltimore was one of the US’s main exporters of coal, which could cause upward pressure on the global price of energy in an already-inflationary environment, and make metal smelting operations more expensive.

Copper futures dipped in May, after the World Bank released its report, but rose to a higher low in February, and have since been trending upward:

Copper Futures (USD/Lbs), April 2023 – March 2024

And as metal prices soar, so have incidents of theft that damage crucial infrastructure and multiply existing economic damage. Freight train accidents and delays, power and cellular blackouts, municipal sewer damage, and flooding and drainage issues from stolen gutters and pipes are just a few of the problems caused by 2024’s surging copper theft across America and the world.

Even real estate development projects can go over budget or become severely delayed when thieves snatch copper building materials from construction sites. The problem is so bad that in Los Angeles, a city councilmember declared the city is being “stripped” like an abandoned car:

Also at risk are electric vehicle charging stations, which have been proliferating around the country. Although they only contain a small amount of copper that can be extracted, meaning very little profit for thieves, their opportunistic mischief requires an expensive fix — especially for EV stations that are repeatedly targeted and need to be continually repaired or replaced.

One other underappreciated danger for copper when prices are skyrocketing due to economic uncertainty: inside jobs by bad apples at copper suppliers and storage facilities, which can lead to thefts on a grand enough scale that they affect the broader metals market. When they do, it helps incentivize further waves of small-time theft that damage infrastructure and victimize businesses that rely on the metal.

Angela Seidler is a PR representative for Europe’s number one copper producer in Germany which was caught in one such scandal. She explained to Bloomberg:

“What we currently know is that some of our recycling suppliers appear to have manipulated details about the raw materials they deliver to us, and they have been working with employees in our sampling department to hide the shortfall.”

And when thieves are desperate, nothing is sacred. Not even statues of civil rights leaders or copper headstones in graveyards are safe from the temptation of an easy flip when prices are too high for criminals to ignore. And while these sorts of thefts don’t endanger infrastructure, they’re a sign of the times and a unique indicator that the US dollar and economy are in troubled shape.

The newest global happiness index doesn’t have any massive surprises from the ongoing trends of the last decade: Europe generally does the best, Africa is still finding its footing, and Asia and South America have vast rank disparities between constituent nations.

However, as the World Happiness Report notes, happiness levels differ across age groups, and countries’ overall ranks tend to obfuscate how the old and young feel separately. To counter this, the report also creates a happiness index by age.

In the follow graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao visualizes the top 20 happiest countries according to those aged above 60. For comparison, we have also included a country’s overall index rank.

Data and Takeaways

ℹ️ Gallup’s survey in Israel occurred after October 7th, but before much of the subsequent warfare. As a result, overall life evaluations in the country fell by 0.9 for 2023. Note that each country’s rank is based on a three-year average score.

The top two countries where the seniors are most satisfied—Denmark and Finland—also happen to be the top two countries on the overall happiness index.

As a general trend, advanced economies make up the bulk of this top 20 list, likely due to their stronger social security systems and financial security. Relatedly, they also tend to do well when it comes to the best countries to retire in.

Norway, at third, has the first real discrepancy, with its elderly population ranking four places higher compared to its overall 7th place rank.

New Zealand (6th) and Canada (8th) also have gaps with their overall ranks: indicating that the older generation is happier than other generations within the country.

But for the U.S., (10th) and the UAE (11th), this rank discrepancy is in the double-digits.

In fact, when ranking only by those aged below 30, the U.S. ranks outside of the top 50, indicating that its younger residents are significantly unhappier than their older counterparts.

This is an interesting phenomenon mirrored in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. According to the report, as recently as a decade ago, the younger generation in these countries were about as happy as those aged over 60.

“In the West, the received wisdom was that the young are the happiest and that happiness thereafter declines until middle age, followed by substantial recovery.”

– WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT.

For other countries like Costa Rica (17) and Israel (18), this pattern reverses. Their overall rank is higher than their rank for older populations, indicating that the young are happier.

Authored by Andrew Korybko via eestieest.com,

The New York Times (NYT) cited unnamed sources on Thursday to report that “The adversarial relationship between Washington and Moscow prevented U.S. officials from sharing any information about the (Crocus terrorist attack) plot beyond what was necessary, out of fear Russian authorities might learn their intelligence sources or methods.” This vindicates President Putin, who the West hitherto claimed had downplayed terrorist threats in the run-up to one of the worst attacks in Russian history.

Without actionable intelligence and informed only of the US’ vague warning that large gatherings like concerts could soon be targeted, his security services were unable to stop the plotters, thus meaning that Washington is partially responsible for what happened by withholding specific information about it. Just as scandalously, this bombshell also prompted speculation about the exact sources and methods that America employed to first catch wind of this attack.

While it’s possible that the US learned about this from spying on the radical Telegram channel whose curators reportedly recruited the culprits, such as if the CIA had a mole inside that preacher’s team, the case can compellingly be made that this might have actually been brought to its attention by spying on Kiev. Last spring’s Pentagon leaks confirmed that the US has been spying on Zelensky, which Ukrainian officials told CNN was “unsurprising” but still left them “deeply frustrated”.

Those documents also confirmed that the US was spying on Ukraine’s military-intelligence service GUR as well, from whom they learned about a plot to attack the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the first anniversary of the special operation and then ordered them to stand down to avoid provoking Moscow. Seeing as how the Washington Post (WaPo) reported half a year later that the CIA rebuilt the GUR from the ground-up after 2014, it’s obvious that they embedded moles within that institution from the get-go.

They don’t always learn about terrorist plots ahead of time since their infiltration of the GUR and other Ukrainian government agencies isn’t total, but they’re still usually able to conclude sometime afterwards that Kiev was responsible whenever a serious attack happens in Russia. Such was the case last May when the NYT reported that Kiev was responsible for the Kremlin drone attack, in which piece they also reminded their reader that it was behind other attacks up until that point too.

These include the assassinations of Darya Dugina and Vladlen Tatarsky, cross-border terrorist raids into Russia’s Belgorod Region, and the Nord Stream II bombing. About that last-mentioned one, the claim of Ukrainian complicity might very well be a preplanned red herring for deflecting from American involvement after Seymour Hersh served as the conduit for dissident members of the Intelligence Community (IC) to inform the public that their country was the one that ordered that attack.

Nevertheless, what’s important to note in this larger narrative context is that the Wall Street Journal claimed last summer that the US learned about Ukraine’s plans to blow up that pipeline from Dutch sources and then told Kiev to not to go through with it. Irrespective of whether Ukraine really was involved and despite however the US allegedly obtained the information, not to mention whether that even happened, the point is that IC wanted Americans to know that it told Ukraine to stand down.

WaPo then reported last November that a former senior official from GUR coordinated the Nord Stream II bombing with more senior officials, who supposedly took orders from former Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny, and all of this purportedly went on behind Zelensky’s back. It’s unimportant whether any of that is true since the significance lies in the fact that IC-connected WaPo introduced this narrative into the global discourse of ostensibly rogue members of the Ukrainian IC plotting such major attacks.

To recap everything that’s been shared thus far by the Mainstream Media: the US spies on Zelensky, the GUR, and other Ukrainian institutions; they’ve learned via these means that Kiev was responsible for prior terrorist attacks; sometimes they catch wind of them ahead of time and order their proxies to stand down; which succeeded in February 2023 when Ukraine then decided not to attack Novorossiysk; but failed in summer 2022 after putatively rogue members of the Ukrainian IC then bombed Nord Stream II.

With this in mind, suspicions that the US withheld possibly actionable intelligence about the then-impending Crocus terrorist attack in order to not reveal their Ukrainian sources and methods make a lot more sense. The FSB and Security Council chiefs already suspected Ukrainian involvement, President Putin informed the nation that the terrorists’ contacts in that country had prepared a “window” for them to cross the border, and investigators just discovered evidence that Kiev paid them via cryptocurrency.

The Deputy Chairman of Turkiye’s ruling party also recently said that “It is obvious that it is impossible to carry out such a professional action without the support of intelligence of any state. Such events always have sponsors, lobbies that want the (Ukrainian) war to continue.” Seeing as how his country is a NATO member, arms Ukraine, votes against Russia at the UN, and doesn’t recognize Crimea’s reunification, there are no reasons to suspect that he has ulterior motives so his words should be taken seriously.

In the face of these allegations, the US feverishly doubled down on its claim that Ukraine wasn’t responsible, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described as “suspiciously” “obsessive”. His spokeswoman Maria Zakharova had earlier described Bloomberg’s report that Kremlin insiders doubt Ukraine’s involvement, which was arguably an IC-planted narrative deflection, as “the mother of all fakes.” The trend is that the US is desperately trying to convince everyone that Kiev wasn’t responsible.

All of this suggests that the US knows that Ukraine was involved but fears what Russia might do once the evidence becomes indisputable. For instance, this could then be shared with the world for justifying the legal transformation of Russia’s special operation into an all-out war, which could precede another offensive. A breakthrough might eventually occur and the government could collapse soon thereafter exactly as the Ukrainian Intelligence Committee warned in late February might happen by this summer.

This insight adds context to the NYT’s bombshell since it might very well have been that the CIA learned about the Crocus plot by spying on its GUR protégés, which this analysis here explains how they could have orchestrated everything, but then told them to call it off. Just like the GUR reportedly delayed the Nord Stream II bombing, so too does it seem in hindsight like it delayed this bloodbath, only to later carry out both irrespective of whether they were formally approved or done by rogue IC members.

The aforesaid version of events accounts for why the US only passed along vague information to Russia since it assumed that the GUR wouldn’t go through with the Crocus plot, but Washington still wanted to discredit its rival’s government and security services, ergo its embassy’s provocative warning at the time. After the terrorist attack happened and evidence began piling up of Ukraine’s involvement, the US swiftly ran interference for its proxies because it fears the consequences of Russia’s possible military reaction.

It’s unclear what those members of the US IC that spoke to the NYT were thinking when they told that outlet to report that their services withheld details of the then-impending Crocus terrorist attack from Russia in order to not betray their sources and methods, but the larger narrative context within which this pivotal detail entered the global discourse casts more aspersions on Ukraine. It seems increasingly obvious that Kiev was involved, and it’s likely only a matter of time before a smoking gun is found.

27.6 million people were living under the conditions of forced labor around the world on any given day in 2021, according to data published in a report on Tuesday by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, this equates to roughly 3.5 people for every 1,000 people worldwide and is an 11 percent increase since 2016, when there were 24.9 million people living in forced labor (3.4 people per 1,000 population). The vast majority of these are thought to have been in privately-imposed forced labor (23.6 million in 2021), rather than state-imposed forced labor (3.9 million in 2021).

You will find more infographics at Statista

The report, titled ‘Profits and poverty: The economics of forced labor’, reveals the extent to which forced labor is a global issue. At 15.1 million, Asia and the Pacific had by far the highest number of people living in forced labor in 2021, accounting for more than half of the global total. Europe and Central Asia was the region with the second biggest absolute number at 4.1 million people, followed by Africa with 3.8 million, the Americas with 3.6 million and the Arab States with 900,000 people living under these conditions.

When looking at prevalence, a different order emerges: the Arab States were the worst offending group of countries that year (5.3 people in forced labor per 1,000 population), followed by Europe and Central Asia (4.4 people per 1,000 population), Asia and the Pacific (3.5 people per 1,000 population), the Americas (3.5 people per 1,000 population) and Africa (2.9 people per 1,000 population).

And the economic scale of illegal forced labor profits is vast.

Forced labor is estimated to generate illegal profits summing to $236 billion in 2024 alone, with exploiters making at average of $9,995 per victim. This is according to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), released Tuesday. This profit represents the wages that “rightfully belong in the pockets of workers that instead remain in the hands of their exploiters as a result of their coercive practices.” It is even a low estimate, since the ILO does not include further illegal profits made through means such as recruitment fees or the money from avoided taxes. Forced labor is here defined as “work that is both involuntary and under penalty or menace of coercion”.

As Statista’s Anna Fleck shows in the following chart, sexual exploitation is the biggest driver of forced labor profits, accounting for some $172.6 billion worldwide in 2024. This breaks down to a significant amount in all regions, at $58.6 billion in Europe and Central Asia, $48.4 billion in Asia and the Pacific, $34.9 billion in the Americas, $16.1 billion in Africa and $14.6 billion in the Arab States.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Despite making up nearly three quarters (73 percent) of the total illegal profits from forced labor, sexual exploitation accounts for only 27 percent of all people in privately imposed forced labor (i.e. not including state-imposed forced labor). Some of the other major areas for illegal forced labor are industry (including mines and quarrying, manufacturing, construction and utilities), the services sector (including but not limited to wholesale and trade, accommodation and food service activities, transport and storage), the agriculture sector (forestry, hunting, cultivation of crops, livestock production and fishing) and domestic work (in third party households).

According to the ILO’s calculations, illegal profits for forced labor have increased by some $64 billion since 2014 worldwide. This is the result of both more people in forced labor (23.7 million in 2024 versus 18.7 million in 2014) as well as more illegal profit being generated per victim.

Authored by Drago Bosnic via infobrics.org,

Even before the horrendous Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, the Russian military’s long-range strike capabilities were sending shivers down the spines of NATO aggressors and their Neo-Nazi junta puppets. Weapons such as the 3M22 “Zircon”, a scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, have been inducted into service in recent years and are now also being transferred to land-based platforms, specifically the K300P “Bastion-P” coastal defense system. With a 1500 km range (perhaps even more) and Mach 9 speed, the “Zircon” is over 3 times faster and its range is at least double that of the P-800 “Oniks” supersonic missiles originally used by the aforementioned platform, further enhancing Russia’s already unprecedented long-range strike capabilities (to both the Neo-Nazi junta’s and NATO’s horror, as previously mentioned).

This has become even more noticeable in the aftermath of the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack, as the Russian military is now hunting for the organizers, both the Kiev regime’s intelligence services and their NATO overlords. With such a range (at least 1500 km or possibly even beyond 2000 km), the usage of “Zircon” allows Moscow to target any location on the territory of Ukraine. However, it should be noted that the Eurasian giant always had this ability. The difference now is that it can do so much faster and with far less warning time. The usage of air-launched and ground-based hypersonic missile systems such as the 9-A-7660 “Kinzhal” and “Iskander-M” is still very much relevant, as evidenced by the latest elimination of high-ranking NATO officers (although their deaths will surely be attributed to “sudden” skiing accidents).

However, the “Iskander-M” can use a massive 700 kg HE warhead that is best used against frontline targets and higher concentrations of troops in the rear. Virtually the same goes for much faster “Kinzhal” missiles. In addition, these can sometimes be detected by NATO ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) assets, particularly airborne and space-based, giving the Neo-Nazi junta officers and their foreign “advisers” just enough time to run away (albeit not much and certainly not always). The launch of an “Iskander” can be detected by early warning systems, while ISR can pick up the MiG-31K/I deployment. This information can be relayed to the Kiev regime or any NATO personnel on the ground. On the other hand, detecting a scramjet-powered “Zircon” can be a lot more problematic.

Then the numbers come into play:

 – Kiev: 3 minutes 30 seconds;

 – Lvov: 5 minutes 20 seconds;

 – Dnepropetrovsk: 2 minutes 30 seconds;

 – Vinnitsa: 3 minutes 40 seconds;

 – Kharkov: less than 4 minutes;

 – Odessa: less than 1 minute.

Imagine being an officer of the SBU, GUR (Neo-Nazi junta’s military intelligence) or some of the NATO occupation forces. You’re stationed in a building, living in the illusion that you’re safe when the Russian SVR or GRU learns about your location and relays this information to units in Crimea who then fire a “Zircon” at that building. This is how much time you’d have before impact. However, let’s consider the best-case scenario and imagine that NATO ISR assets detect the missile immediately after launch (which is extremely improbable). This is how much time you’d have to evacuate. Is it possible to run away in time? Certainly, but that doesn’t mean it’s very likely. On the contrary, the sheer panic resulting from a warning would surely make the evacuation a lot more difficult. The same goes for the “Kinzhal” and “Iskander” missile launches.

However, the primary reason why the “Zircon” is a lot more dangerous for high-value targets (HVTs) in the rear is because it has a much smaller warhead (around 300 kg), meaning that the Russian military is more likely to use it in long-range strikes. Firing an “Iskander” or “Kinzhal” could cause unacceptable damage to purely civilian infrastructure in the surrounding areas, both due to their larger and more destructive warheads, particularly in the case of “Kinzhal”, with the speed also giving it massive kinetic energy. That’s why these more destructive missile systems are far likelier to be used against purely military targets such as large troop concentrations and important hostile equipment, particularly SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems and MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) known to use PGMs (precision-guided munitions), etc.

On the other hand, precisely because of the large-scale deployment of “Zircon” missiles, Russia has more options to strike decision-making centers in Ukraine. This explains the panic in NATO and the Pentagon, which are now in a dilemma about how to ensure the safety of their occupation forces in Ukraine. I suggest everyone watch closely for news about the “sudden deaths” of NATO officers in various “freak accidents” in the coming days and weeks. We might soon learn about American, Polish or some other NATO majors, colonels and even generals “mysteriously” and “inexplicably” dying while skiing in the Alps, falling out of helicopters, choking on croissants while having breakfast or suffocating when their throats swell from hot coffee, etc. Still, the Kiev regime insists there’s nothing to worry about, as it can “shoot down anything”.

Namely, according to their latest claims, they’ve “shot down at least two ‘Zircon’ missiles“. Expectedly, the Neo-Nazi junta insists they’ve achieved this with “US-made missile defense systems over Kyiv, on March 25”. I presume we can proceed now that you’re done laughing and catching your breath. The report never named any system specifically, but it can be assumed that future claims will attribute the supposed “kill” to the atrociously overhyped “Patriot” SAM that has been failing everywhere for the last 30+ years, even against rather primitive ballistic missiles, but is “suddenly so successful” against the latest hypersonic ones. In addition, it’s rather interesting how they can “achieve” that, but have been absolutely helpless against over 300 P-800 “Oniks” missiles. Not a single one has been shot down, despite being 3-4 times slower and less maneuverable than the “Zircon”.

Authored by Todd Hayen via Off-Guardian.org,

As you all know, I have not been one to believe that the tides are turning. But lots of people think they are. They cite many victories, in court, in the streets, with family and friends.

The fact that the agenda has not sent out a second wave of horror and fear propaganda is also rather telling to these folks. Where is the next pandemic? What happened to Covid’s diabolic never-ending run of mutations, what happened to Monkey Pox? What happened to Disease X?

Yes, all this could still happen, but it seems there have been more false starts—starts that didn’t go anywhere. But if so, you would think they wouldn’t have put them out there just to not have them continue. It’s been rather weird, like an electrical storm you see on the horizon with its threatening lightning strikes, but it never gets close enough to warrant closing the cellar door.

How about CBDCs? And the Digital IDs? You hear a lot about these, but nothing that is concretely happening to implement them. Is it happening in other places? Australia? Germany? The UK? Of course, a lot is said about it, on YouTube, and in alt media. Lots of talking heads, but how imminent is it? Actually, I won’t dwell on this, I have no doubt all of this is coming, but has the dragon been wounded? Even a little bit? Has this march into oblivion been slowed down?

Maybe there is no wounding of the general juggernaut of world rule by the schmucks who are claiming power. Although even that sacrosanct organization may have suffered from shell damage. Wasn’t DAVOS not all that they expected this past year? Hasn’t there been some pretty obvious whiplash from some leaders in their little club? How about the UN and the “sustainable development” circus? How is that going?

Anyway, I digress. Although the health of the world agenda, including all of these projects I mention, are all part of it, Covid, and pandemics in general, are the specific topics of this article.

I don’t buy any of this talk of victory for a New York minute. This is like cancer, you can’t claim victory until it is ALL gone, every last scrap of it. Remissions are nice, but if you’ve still got cancer in your body somewhere, it is only a time-out. I feel that this is similar. Even if one cell survived, it would start multiplying again and wouldn’t stop until it was big and gnarly and spitting out all the garbage this monster has been known to spit out. So, I don’t buy it…but…

Is it possible that at least one battle was won? Maybe, but just because they have pulled the troops back doesn’t mean they didn’t still take the city and got essentially what they stormed in for. I may still say that is a possibility. I mean, what did they want as a consequence of their Covid campaign? Did they want 100% compliance, with billions of sheep bowing down to them? Did they want everyone locked up in their own little cage, ala 1984, each of us in a squalid apartment with just a giant TV in the middle of it so Big Brother could blab at us all day long? If that is true, then indeed the psyop failed, because they didn’t get that—at least not yet.

But what if they got this: a toxic injection placed in billions of people worldwide that will kill untold millions over the course of about 20 years? Not only that, but the injection will render another untold millions sterile. Do the math here: how many people would need to be sterilized over 20 years to reduce the population worldwide by 1 billion? 2 billion? What other havoc could such a death jab wreak? What untold horrors are yet to overcome us? Your guess is as good as mine. Think zombies here, think soulless ghouls, think humans with no empathy, think lost humanity.

And that’s just the physical consequences. What about the psychological success they have had with the Covid campaign? Sure, many participants have shot them the bird regarding more boosters, and have ignored more threats of losing jobs over vaccine resistance. Sure, the courts have ruled in Canada that the illustrious leader here performed a no-no with his reckless enactment of the Emergency Act, and as a result, lawsuits are flowing into the courts. Does all this mean that no one fell for the psychological operation? That no one was mentally affected by the lockdowns, the masks, the closure of schools, churches, and other institutions? Does it mean that we have all recovered from the trauma of those three years, and mentally and emotionally we are just back to square one—all normal again?

If anyone reading this knows anything about hypnosis, they probably understand what hypnotic suggestion is all about. It is real, folks. What has been altered subliminally in our unconscious minds could be quite formidable. We are being programmed for better performance in future projects the agenda has in store for us. Most of the shrews reading this are safe from this brainwashing (hopefully) because we closed our eyes during the deadly meteor storm perpetrated by the fear-mongering agenda (watch The Day of the Triffids to understand that reference!) But those out there who got caught up in it and drank the delayed-reaction Kool-Aid—are all like sleeper spies from the Cold War, soon to be re-activated at some future date to continue complying with TPTB’s bidding.

Here I go again. I am supposed to be entertaining the possibility that the Covid psyop failed, not suggesting evidence to prove its great success. Sorry. Well, maybe it didn’t go as well as they wanted it to go. It does seem there was a lot more gas in the tank and that they could have pushed it a bit further than they did. They were doing pretty well, but they just fizzled out. Maybe they did expect more people to get vaxxed, maybe that was a disappointment. They sure looked like they were going for the whole enchilada with all their “you’ve GOT to get vaccinated!!” hoopla. Maybe they got too much pushback from us shrews. So many angry shrews showed up pretty quickly. And the shrews that were already on the scene, who were not surprised with all these shenanigans to begin with, just got louder and louder. Sure, not many sheep flipped, but some did. Their booster campaign is floundering (in my opinion, only because they turned the heat down, or off entirely).

So maybe they did get nicked a bit. Maybe a few arrows penetrated the armour, and they backed off a step or two. Maybe we did surprise the bastards with our resolve, tenacity, wit, and refusal to play the game.

But then again, maybe not.

A group of migrants involved in a riot at the southern US border have been ordered to be released by an El Paso magistrate judge.

The swarm of migrants overwhelmed Texas National Guard soldiers who were trying to organize them into groups to be taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). At one point, a migrant attempted to grab a soldier’s firearm, one National Guard source told the NY Post.

Following the riot, authorities confiscated knives and shanks from some of the migrants.

“These people were willing to assault military,” said the Post‘s source. “They were willing to assault law enforcement. They have complete disregard for our laws.“

In an Easter Sunday decision, presiding Magistrate Judge Humberto Acosta ordered the rioters released after accusing the El Paso DA’s Office of being unprepared to proceed with detention hearings for each defendant, so they should be released, the El Paso Times reports.

This is the moment when TX National Guard became overrun by migrants rioting to get across the border here in El Paso today

We were there and saw it all happen. Absolute chaos here. pic.twitter.com/VN6Kf663ie

— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) March 21, 2024

“It is the ruling of the court is that all the rioting participation cases will be released on their own recognizance,” Acosta ordered, noting that they will only remain jailed if there’s a federal immigration hold blocking their release.

The arrests were made by the Texas Department of Public Safety in connection with a March 21 stampede of asylum-seeking migrants — mostly men from Venezuela — who torn down razor wire along the Rio Grande and rushed the border fence at Border Safety Initiative Marker No. 36 in the Riverside area of El Paso’s Lower Valley.

Some migrants face charges of assault of a public servant for knocking down National Guard troops before order was regained. The migrants had sought to surrender themselves to U.S. Border Patrol in bids for asylum.

It was unclear if Acosta’s decision applied only to the “riot participation” charge, or the assault and criminal mischief charges related to the border incident.

BREAKING: A riot just broke out here in El Paso

Hundreds of migrants decided they had enough of TX National Guard returning them to Mexico and rushed the border wall here.

Thankful to be here w/ @JamesBreeden pic.twitter.com/sY84y8QiYi

— Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) March 21, 2024

It is unknown how many migrants were booked on the charge of “riot participation,” a Class B misdemeanor – though Acosta referred to “hundreds of arrestees,” who he says are entitled to individual detention hearings within 48 hours.

The DA’s office requested a continuance to have the hearings at a later date, however Acosta rejected the request.

“So if the DA’s office is telling me that they are not ready to go, what we’re going to do is we’re going to release all these individuals on their own recognizance,” Acosta said at the hearing.

Meanwhile on Sunday, two other migrants – including a Colombian man, had separate hearings on criminal mischief charges for allegedly cutting border fencing. After being jailed with a $2,000 bond each, Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun also released them on personal recognizance bonds, however both men have immigration holds.

Last week, Texas sent 700 National Guard soldiers to El Paso, including 200 with the Texas Tactical Border Force, to reinforce the border.

As the El Paso Times notes further, ‘Operation Lone Star video shows troops boarding a transport plane and on the border with riot shields moving migrants back so crews could replace rolls of damaged razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande.’

By John Liu and Zheng Wu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and analysts

1. The use of a familiar tool to stabilize the yuan sowed confusion and touched off a debate among investors. The People’s Bank of China stepped in to halt a drop in the currency last week by strengthening the fixing, and traders said state-owned banks then proceeded to dumped dollars onshore.

The move helped to stabilize the foreign-exchange market but it also left traders wondering about the People’s Bank of China’s intentions. Investors were baffled because the yuan’s earlier selloff had been triggered by a weaker-than-expected reference rate.

Authorities have allayed fears of a steep decline in the currency for now. The yuan is trading near the weak end of the band allowed by the reference rate, and state banks are selling an undisclosed amount of dollars to prop up the Chinese currency.

But the PBOC’s mixed signals have unsettled the market and the yuan may become even more volatile if policymakers relax their grip on it again.

2. Xi Jinping’s remarks on monetary tools generated a buzz but they’re unlikely to signal a move toward quantitative easing. The Chinese leader was quoted in a newly published book as saying the central bank should increase the buying and selling of government bonds, fueling speculation that Beijing was planning to embark on aggressive monetary easing.

A closer examination of the context in which the comments were made suggests otherwise. Xi was probably expressing a view on how the PBOC can fine-tune its market operations, not ramp up purchases of government bonds to flood the economy with liquidity, according to Bloomberg Economics.

There is still room for the PBOC to ease policy by lowering interest rates or the required reserve ratio. On the whole, the central bank is likely to exhaust all conventional tools before resorting to QE, and any move to trade government bonds will probably be part of efforts to better manage the sovereign yield curve.

3. Xiaomi’s stock surged 12% in the US on Thursday after the Chinese smartphone and appliance maker launched its first electric vehicle. With aggressive pricing, pre-orders for the SU7 models topped 50,000 within 27 minutes of their debut.

Xiaomi’s ambitious EV bet arrives at a challenging time. Carmakers from Tesla Inc. to BYD Co. are engaging in a price war as sales growth slows, with the former recently cutting production at its plant in China.  To make matters worse, trade tensions are compounding the pressure on the highly competitive sector. China’s EV exports to the European Union slumped in the first two month of the year amid a probe by Brussels into unfair subsidies.