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Darryl Cooper: Why Trump Supporters Are Pissed Off And Don't Trust Anything

As the ruling class went to absurd lengths to try and dismantle Donald Trump, pissed off supporters watched in horror as a captured media peddled lie after lie - typically based on anonymous leaks from deep state bureaucrats, and as  powerful agents within America's intelligence apparatus falsified evidence and collaborated with foreign operatives paid by Trump's political opponents.

In doing so, they exposed themselves to anyone not already paying attention.

Darryl Cooper, aka @MartyrMade, has assembled what might be the most accurate summation of why Trump supporters - the vast majority of conservatives - are livid after the past five years. Cooper, a researcher and writer, is the co-host of The Unraveling Podcast with retired US Navy SEAL commander Jocko Willink, and has hosted several deep-dive podcasts on a number of topics.

Read below:

Most believe some or all of the theories involving midnight ballots, voting machines, etc, but what you find when you talk to them is that, while they'll defend those positions w/info they got from Hannity or Breitbart or whatever, they're not particularly attached to them. 2/x

— MartyrMade (@martyrmade) July 8, 2021

(continued via Threadreader, emphasis ours)

thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413167857697910784" dir="auto" id="tweet_4">Here are the facts - actual, confirmed facts - that shape their perspective: 1) The FBI/etc spied on the 2016 Trump campaign using evidence manufactured by the Clinton campaign. We now know that all involved knew it was fake from Day 1 (see: Brennan's July 2016 memo, etc). These are Tea Party people. The types who give their kids a pocket Constitution for their birthday and have Founding Fathers memes in their bios. The intel community spying on a presidential campaign using fake evidence (incl forged documents) is a big deal to them. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413167857697910784" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413169089560813568" dir="auto" id="tweet_6">Everyone involved lied about their involvement as long as they could. We only learned the DNC paid for the manufactured evidence because of a court order. Comey denied on TV knowing the DNC paid for it, when we have emails from a year earlier proving that he knew. This was true with everyone, from CIA Dir Brennan & Adam Schiff - who were on TV saying they'd seen clear evidence of collusion w/Russia, while admitting under oath behind closed doors that they hadn't - all the way down the line. In the end we learned that it was ALL fake. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413169089560813568" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413171873051930626" dir="auto" id="tweet_8">At first, many Trump ppl were worried there must be some collusion, because every media & intel agency wouldn't make it up out of nothing. When it was clear that they had made it up, people expected a reckoning, and shed many illusions about their gov't when it didn't happen. We know as fact: a) The Steele dossier was the sole evidence used to justify spying on the Trump campaign, b) The FBI knew the Steele dossier was a DNC op, c) Steele's source told the FBI the info was unserious, d) they did not inform the court of any of this and kept spying.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413171873051930626" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413171873051930626" dir="auto"> thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413171873051930626" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413174637077274624" dir="auto" id="tweet_10">Trump supporters know the collusion case front and back. They went from worrying the collusion must be real, to suspecting it might be fake, to realizing it was a scam, then watched as every institution - agencies, the press, Congress, academia - gaslit them for another year. Worse, collusion was used to scare people away from working in the administration. They knew their entire lives would be investigated. Many quit because they were being bankrupted by legal fees. The DoJ, press, & gov't destroyed lives and actively subverted an elected admin.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413174637077274624" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413176502229733376" dir="auto" id="tweet_12">This is where people whose political identity was largely defined by a naive belief in what they learned in Civics class began to see the outline of a Regime that crossed all institutional boundaries. Because it had stepped out of the shadows to unite against an interloper. GOP propaganda still has many of them thinking in terms of partisan binaries, but A LOT of Trump supporters see that the Regime is not partisan. They all know that the same institutions would have taken opposite sides if it was a Tulsi Gabbard vs Jeb Bush election.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413176502229733376" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413179358454317056" dir="auto" id="tweet_15">It's hard to describe to people on the left (who are used to thinking of gov't as a conspiracy... Watergate, COINTELPRO, WMD, etc) how shocking & disillusioning this was for people who encourage their sons to enlist in the Army, and hate ppl who don't stand for the Anthem. They could have managed the shock if it only involved the government. But the behavior of the corporate press is really what radicalized them. They hate journalists more than they hate any politician or gov't official, because they feel most betrayed by them. The idea that the press is driven by ratings/sensationalism became untenable. If that were true, they'd be all over the Epstein story. The corporate press is the propaganda arm of the Regime they now see in outline. Nothing anyone says will ever make them unsee that, period. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413179358454317056" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413183232476995585" dir="auto" id="tweet_17">This is profoundly disorienting. Many of them don't know for certain whether ballots were faked in November 2020, but they know for absolute certain that the press, the FBI, etc would lie to them if there was. They have every reason to believe that, and it's probably true. They watched the press behave like animals for four years. Tens of millions of people will always see Kavanaugh as a gang rapist, based on nothing, because of CNN. And CNN seems proud of that. They led a lynch mob against a high school kid. They cheered on a summer of riots.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413183232476995585" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413183232476995585" dir="auto"> thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413183232476995585" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413186468038594562" dir="auto" id="tweet_19">They always claimed the media had liberal bias, fine, whatever. They still thought the press would admit truth if they were cornered. Now they don't. It's a different thing to watch them invent stories whole cloth in order to destroy regular lives and spark mass violence. Time Mag told us that during the 2020 riots, there were weekly conference calls involving, among others, leaders of the protests, the local officials who refused to stop them, and media people who framed them for political effect. In Ukraine we call that a color revolution.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413186468038594562" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413188573541539842" dir="auto" id="tweet_21">Throughout the summer, Democrat governors took advantage of COVID to change voting procedures. It wasn't just the mail-ins (they lowered signature matching standards, etc). After the collusion scam, the fake impeachment, Trump ppl expected shenanigans by now. Re: "fake impeachment", we now know that Trump's request for Ukraine to cooperate w/the DOJ regarding Biden's $ activities in Ukraine was in support of an active investigation being pursued by the FBI and Ukraine AG at the time, and so a completely legitimate request.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413188573541539842" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413189749997596672" dir="auto" id="tweet_23">Then you get the Hunter laptop scandal. Big Tech ran a full-on censorship campaign against a major newspaper to protect a political candidate. Period. Everyone knows it, all of the Tech companies now admit it was a "mistake" - but, ya know, the election's over, so who cares? Goes w/o saying, but: If the NY Times had Don Jr's laptop, full of pics of him smoking crack and engaging in group sex, lots of lurid family drama, emails describing direct corruption and backed up by the CEO of the company they were using, the NYT wouldn't have been banned.

The way liberal journalists just ignore what was, to me, one of the most repressive events of the Trump years -- Big Tech **censored** reporting on the Hunter Biden docs about Joe's business deals to help Dems -- is still stunning. 3 weeks before the election, they barred links. https://t.co/WKWlkU01be

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 9, 2021 thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413193551073087488" dir="auto" id="tweet_26">Think back: Stories about Trump being pissed on by Russian prostitutes and blackmailed by Putin were promoted as fact, and the only evidence was a document paid for by his opposition and disavowed by its source. The NY Post was banned for reporting on true information. The reaction of Trump ppl to all this was not, "no fair!" That's how they felt about Romney's "binders of women" in 2012. This is different. Now they see, correctly, that every institution is captured by ppl who will use any means to exclude them from the political process. And yet they showed up in record numbers to vote. He got 13m more votes than in 2016, 10m more than Clinton got! As election night dragged on, they allowed themselves some hope. But when the four critical swing states (and only those states) went dark at midnight, they knew. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413195360210620421" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413195360210620421" dir="auto" id="tweet_28">Over the ensuing weeks, they got shuffled around by grifters and media scam artists selling them conspiracy theories. They latched onto one, then another increasingly absurd theory as they tried to put a concrete name on something very real  Media & Tech did everything to make things worse. Everything about the election was strange - the changes to procedure, unprecedented mail-in voting, the delays, etc - but rather than admit that and make everything transparent, they banned discussion of it (even in DMs!).  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413195360210620421" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413196007442042880" dir="auto" id="tweet_29">Everyone knows that, just as Don Jr's laptop would've been the story of the century, if everything about the election dispute was the same, except the parties were reversed, suspicions about the outcome would've been Taken Very Seriously. See 2016 for proof.  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413196007442042880" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413197046404698119" dir="auto" id="tweet_31">Even the courts' refusal of the case gets nowhere w/them, because of how the opposition embraced mass political violence. They'll say, w/good reason: What judge will stick his neck out for Trump knowing he'll be destroyed in the media as a violent mob burns down his house? It's a fact, according to Time Magazine, that mass riots were planned in cities across the country if Trump won. Sure, they were "protests", but they were planned by the same people as during the summer, and everyone knows what it would have meant. Judges have families, too. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413197046404698119" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413201138959065088" dir="auto" id="tweet_34">Forget the ballot conspiracies. It's a fact that governors used COVID to unconstitutionally alter election procedures (the Constitution states that only legislatures can do so) to help Biden to make up for a massive enthusiasm gap by gaming the mail-in ballot system. They knew it was unconstitutional, it's right there in plain English. But they knew the cases wouldn't see court until after the election. And what judge will toss millions of ballots because a governor broke the rules? The threat of mass riots wasn't implied, it was direct. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413201138959065088" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413203117928112129" dir="auto" id="tweet_35">a) The entrenched bureaucracy & security state subverted Trump from Day 1, b) The press is part of the operation, c) Election rules were changed, d) Big Tech censors opposition, e) Political violence is legitimized & encouraged, f) Trump is banned from social media. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413203117928112129" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413203117928112129" dir="auto">They were led down some rabbit holes, but they are absolutely right that their gov't is monopolized by a Regime that believes they are beneath representation, and will observe no limits to keep them getting it. Trump fans should be happy he lost; it might've kept him alive. thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413203117928112129" dir="auto">  thread#showTweet" data-controller="thread" data-screenname="martyrmade" data-tweet="1413203117928112129" dir="auto">/end

As long as you’re here, check out my podcast. The most recent episode was on the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe. There’s also a series on the early history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, and one on Jim Jones’ Peoples’ Temple movement. https://t.co/oJE6176rND

— MartyrMade (@martyrmade) July 8, 2021

This is an absolutely brilliant exposition on the underlying mindset, grievances and motivations of Trump/MAGA supporters. It's not as cathartic as screaming Racist and Fascist but much more illuminating. Don't agree with every particular, etc. etc., but hope everyone reads this: https://t.co/VuHink6ouK

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) July 9, 2021 Tyler Durden Sun, 07/11/2021 - 04:55

What If An Alien Probe Visited Earth?

Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClearScioence.com,

Popular media portrayals of extraterrestrials visiting Earth have tended to display the dramatic: giant spaceraft, killer robots, and nefarious aliens. A more realistic scenario is decidedly more mundane, but still undeniably world-shattering: a single, robotic probe, visiting Earth in orbit or landing as a rover.

Back in 1998, Allen Tough, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and an expert in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) before his death in 2012, postulated that there might be alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy with the ability to send out hundreds of small, intelligent probes to explore space. His supposition was reasonable. Today, well-funded collaborations like Breakthrough Starshot here on Earth are now actively working toward such an endeavor.

So what if Tough was right, and tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years ago, a far-off alien civilization dispatched dozens of robotic scouts out into the cosmos and one such rover eventually cruised its way to Earth?

What should be humanity's response?

The first step, according to Tough, would be to confirm that the craft really isn't from Earth, perhaps from a secretive government. A smart, skeptical team, ideally composed of scientists from various countries, would need to be recruited to examine the probe. If it's on land, the rover should probably be quarantined at the area it touched down. If it's in space, a robotic or a crewed mission would undoubtedly be required for an up-close look.

Once the probe's authenticity is confirmed, Tough stresses that the finding should be made public worldwide, with all collected data openly shared.

What to do next depends upon the nature of the probe.

According to SETI Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak, we'd want to find out if it's broadcasting any radio signals out into space, and probably block them at least temporarily. Such signals, especially if they are unidirectional, would likely be attempts to communicate with the aliens who sent it. We might not want the probe revealing too much about humanity before we can ascertain its intent.

If the probe's intent is judged to be benign, or even friendly, we'd next want to try to communicate with it. If it's plainly unintelligent, this could take some time. After unblocking its communications, we'd likely have Earth representatives attempt to share basic information, something like mathematical principles, gestures of friendship, or music. We'd then have to wait for the probe's handlers to respond through it. If the craft traveled for a long time, this could take hundreds of years! Shostak isn't sure humans would be able to wait that long – the desire to disassemble the probe and learn from it's technological guts might be too great.

But how would extraterrestrials feel if we took apart their probe? Shostak doesn't think aliens would be too mad. After all, if genial Martians suddenly appeared and messed with Curiosity, NASA engineers would be ecstatic - nothing would increase the space agency's budget more.

It would be more interesting if the probe or rover was artificially intelligent, thus capable of communicating with humans directly. Tough believed that any alien probe sent expressly for long-distance exploration would likely be capable of learning from, and even communicating with, a race it encountered.

"The probe has presumably already monitored our radio and television broadcasts, learned at least one of our languages, and learned about our culture and history," he wrote.

That certainly would be convenient and fascinating! While it's hard to hypothesize on what exactly an intelligent alien probe might tell us, Tough has a good idea about how we should act around it: show respect, avoid violence, speak and act truthfully, and deal with it fairly and honestly.

He also thought that any communication should be attempted with international scientific cooperation as well as openness to the public, aspirations perhaps as unlikely as an alien probe visiting Earth in the first place!

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/10/2021 - 23:30

Visualizing Silver's Uses Through The Ages

Silver is one of the most versatile metals on Earth, with a unique combination of uses both as a precious and industrial metal.

Today, silver’s uses span many modern technologies, including solar panels, electric vehicles, and 5G devices. However, as Visual Capitalist notes, the uses of silver in currency, medicine, art, and jewelry have helped advance civilization, trade, and technology for thousands of years.

The Uses of Silver Over Time

The below infographic from Blackrock Silver takes us on a journey of silver’s uses through time, from the past to the future.

3,000 BC – The Middle Ages

The earliest accounts of silver can be traced to 3,000 BC in modern-day Turkey, where its mining spurred trade in the ancient Aegean and Mediterranean seas. Traders and merchants would use hacksilver—rough-cut pieces of silver—as a medium of exchange for goods and services.

Around 1,200 BC, the Ancient Greeks began refining and minting silver coins from the rich deposits found in the mines of Laurion just outside Athens. By 100 BC, modern-day Spain became the center of silver mining for the Roman Empire while silver bullion traveled along the Asian spice trade routes. By the late 1400s, Spain brought its affinity for silver to the New World where it uncovered the largest deposits of silver in history in the dusty hills of Bolivia.

Besides the uses of silver in commerce, people also recognized silver’s ability to fight bacteria. For instance, wine and food containers were often made out of silver to prevent spoilage. In addition, during breakouts of the Bubonic plague in medieval and renaissance Europe, people ate and drank with silver utensils to protect themselves from disease.

The 1800s – 2000s

New medicinal uses of silver came to light in the 19th and 20th centuries. Surgeons stitched post-operative wounds with silver sutures to reduce inflammation. In the early 1900s, doctors prescribed silver nitrate eyedrops to prevent conjunctivitis in newborn babies. Furthermore, in the 1960s, NASA developed a water purifier that dispensed silver ions to kill bacteria and purify water on its spacecraft.

The Industrial Revolution drove the onset of silver’s industrial applications. Thanks to its high light sensitivity and reflectivity, it became a key ingredient in photographic films, windows, and mirrors. Even today, skyscraper windows are often coated with silver to reflect sunlight and keep interior spaces cool.

The 2000s – Present

The uses of silver have come a long way since hacksilver and utensils, evolving with time and technology.

Silver is the most electrically conductive metal, making it a natural choice for electronic devices. Almost every electronic device with a switch or button contains silver, from smartphones to electric vehicles. Solar panels also utilize silver as a conductive layer in photovoltaic cells to transport and store electricity efficiently.

In addition, it has several medicinal applications that range from treating burn wounds and ulcers to eliminating bacteria in air conditioning systems and clothes.

Silver for the Future

Silver has always been useful to industries and technologies due to its unique properties, from its antibacterial nature to high electrical conductivity. Today, silver is critical for the next generation of renewable energy technologies.

For every age, silver proves its value.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/10/2021 - 23:00

Meet Jigsaw: Google's Intelligence Agency

Via PrivacyToGo.co,

It’s no secret that Google regularly collaborates with intelligence agencies.

They are a known NSA subcontractor. They launched Google Earth using a CIA spy satellite network. Their executive suite’s revolving door with DARPA is well known.

In the wake of the January 6th Capitol event, the FBI used Google location data to pwn attendants with nothing more than a valid Gmail address and smartphone login:

A stark reminder that carrying a tracking device with a Google login, even with the SIM card removed, can mean the difference between freedom and an orange jump suit in the Great Reset era.

But Google also operates its own internal intelligence agency – complete with foreign regime change operations that are now being applied domestically.

And they’ve been doing so without repercussion for over a decade.

From Google Ideas to Google Regime Change

In 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt created Google Ideas. In typical Silicon Valley newspeak, Ideas was marketed as a “think/do tank to research issues at the intersection of technology and geopolitics.“

Astute readers know this “think/do” formula well – entities like the Council on Foreign Relations or World Economic Forum draft policy papers (think) and three-letter agencies carry them out (do).

And again, in typical Silicon Valley fashion, Google wanted to streamline this process – bring everything in-house and remake the world in their own image.

To head up Google Ideas, Schmidt tapped a man named Jared Cohen.

He couldn’t have selected a better goon for the job – as a card-carrying member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Rhodes Scholar, Cohen is a textbook Globalist spook. The State Department doubtlessly approved of his sordid credentials, as both Condoleeza Rice and Hillary Clinton enrolled Cohen to knock over foreign governments they disapproved of.

Google Ideas’ role in the 2014 Ukraine regime change operation is well-documented. And before that, their part in overthrowing Mubarak in Egypt was unveiled by way of the Stratfor leaks.

More recently, the role of Google Ideas in the attempted overthrow of Assad in Syria went public thanks to the oft-cited Hillary Clinton email leaks:

Please keep close hold, but my team is planning to launch a tool on Sunday that will publicly track and map the defections in Syria and which parts of the government they are coming from.

Our logic behind this is that while many people are tracking the atrocities, nobody is visually representing and mapping the defections, which we believe are important in encouraging more to defect and giving confidence to the opposition.

Given how hard it is to get information into Syria right now, we are partnering with Al-Jazeera who will take primary ownership over the tool we have built, track the data, verify it, and broadcast it back into Syria. I’ve attached a few visuals that show what the tool will look like. Please keep this very close hold and let me know if there is anything eke you think we need to account for or think about before we launch. We believe this can have an important impact.

-Jared Cohen to State Dept. Officials, July 25, 2012

With all this mounting evidence, surely Google Ideas was decommissioned. Surely Jared Cohen was swiftly ousted from his position at one of America’s premier Big Tech darlings for crimes against humanity, right?

Of course not!

Why scrap all that hard work when you can just rebrand and shift your regime change operations to domestic targets?

Google Jigsaw – USA Psyop Edition

Google Ideas was renamed Google Jigsaw in 2015 after years of bad press and controversy – this time with an eye on performing psychological operations in the United States.

But all that experience data mining and overthrowing Middle Eastern nations wasn’t just thrown out. Rather, Jigsaw repurposed its internal psychological operations program (code-named Operation Abdullah) to instead target “right-wing conspiracy theorists,” as revealed by privacy researcher Rob Braxman.

Using a technique known as the redirect method, Jigsaw attempts to populate outbound links to dissuade potential thought-criminals from looking at wrongthink.

Make no mistake – the redirect method is about more than manipulation of search engine results. It’s one thing to manipulate the content of searches based on query strings, but to target the psychology of the searcher themselves requires an accurate psychological profile of the person doing the searching.

And Google has psych profiles in spades thanks to centralized Google logins: To Android phones, to Gmail accounts, to adjunct services like YouTube, even to children via Google Classroom.

You don’t even need to use Google’s search engine to populate them with weaponized data. In fact, search alone provides far fewer avenues for offensive metadata usage than a cell phone.

We would implore readers to take a look at Jigsaw’s site. It’s a study in how to use front-end design to creep out your visitor, as a snippet of JavaScript code ensures your cursor is tracked in a spotlight throughout your visit:

Jigsaw’s front-end design team has a clear message for you: There’s nowhere to hide.

The site also uses another bit of intelligence tradecraft known as “transferrence” – it’s a simple psychological tactic of shifting blame from yourself to your target.

The four subheaders on Jigsaw’s homepage, Disinformation, Censorship, Toxicity, and Violent Extremism demonstrate this tactic at work.

• There is no greater source of media disinformation than MSM and the information served up by Google search engines.

• Big Tech are at the forefront of destroying free speech through heavy-handed censorship, Google among them.

• Psychological manipulation tactics used by the social justice crowd doubtlessly instill toxicity in those subjected to them.

• And Google’s well-documented history of participating in bloody regime change as described in this article are textbook cases of violent extremism.

Yet Jigsaw markets itself as combating these societal ails. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, just as Google’s former company tag-line of “Don’t Be Evil” was a similar reversal of reality.

And yes, regime change aficionado Jared Cohen is still the CEO of Google Jigsaw. In fact, Jigsaw, LLC was overtly brought back in-house as of October 2020.

In Closing

As we’ve described in previous articles, vast swaths of the State-controlled Panopticon are currently being outsourced to Big Tech companies.

Call this phenomenon a public-private partnership. Call it the Great Reset. Call it Agenda 2030, or Agenda 21, or “stakeholder capitalism,” or any of the other euphemisms dreamt up by these hapless would-be oligarchs to sell neofeudal Technocracy to the public.

Making intelligence services pseudo-independent from the State is simply a mandatory prerequisite for fully globalizing them.

Furthermore, as the Biden administration seeks to reclassify half of the country as domestic extremists, it’s no secret that companies like Google, with their vast data weaponization programs, will play a key role in identifying Public Enemy #1:

You.

There is no “silver bullet” solution to this problem. Nearly all consumer electronics can be exploited at very low levels. Even the Internet itself is a longstanding military intelligence operation.

But this doesn’t mean any action short of becoming a Luddite is meaningless!

If data is the new oil, it’s time to shut off your well:

• Abstain from using Google Mail, Docs, or Search where possible.

• Seek out alternative social media and content creation platforms.

• If your smartphone requires heavy dependence on Apple or Google for logins or closed-source apps, consider privacy-respecting alternatives.

• Familiarize yourself with common data harvesting tactics and take action where you can.

While a full list of meaningful action is beyond the purview of this post (or any single blog entry for that matter), the important takeaway here is this:

We cannot opt out of mass government surveillance. But we knowingly consent to most forms of “privatized” intelligence gathering.

Take the first step and revoke your consent.

Tyler Durden Sat, 07/10/2021 - 22:30

Biden Refuses To Issue Erdogan Meeting Details: "I'll Let The Turks Tell You About It"

President Biden on Wednesday said he's feeling "very good" following the bilateral meeting with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but both sides have remained tight lipped about what was actually discussed in the Monday meeting on the sidelines of the one-day NATO summit.

US-Turkey relations were already at a low point going into the meeting, particularly after the Biden administration's formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide. But when asked by a reporter about the meeting, Biden declined to divulge any details:

President Joe Biden on Tuesday declined to offer details about his one-on-one meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan, saying he'd let the Turks talk about it.

'We had long discussions and I feel very good about our meeting. I'll let the Turks tell you about it,' he told reporters when he arrived at the Europa Building for meetings with European leaders.

Via Turkish Presidency's office

Erdogan had simply described the dialogue as "productive and sincere" - saying optimistically that "We think that there are no issues between US and Turkey relationship that are unsolvable and that areas of cooperation for us are richer and larger than problems."

But in terms of what expected to be the central most contentious issue of Turkey's acquirement of the Russian S-400 system, for which Washington has threatened sanctions, both sides are keeping mum.

Erdogan subsequently merely mentioned inter-NATO discussions about how the Afghan pullout is going, according to the Daily Mail:

"If they don't want us to leave Afghanistan, if they want [Turkish] support there, then the diplomatic, logistic and financial support that the United States will give us will of great importance," Erdogan said during a press conference following his meeting with Biden. While Biden reportedly said he and Erdogan had a "positive and productive meeting" and expressed confidence in making "real progress with Turkey and the United States," the Turkish president described the talks as "productive and sincere."

Seems about right: Erdogan emerged from his bilat with Biden saying "there are no problems in Turkey-US ties that don't have a solution", but the meeting did not actually produce any solutions. https://t.co/3FI5ms8SpT

— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) June 15, 2021

Recently the White House indicated it's still at this very late point attempting to convince Ankara to give back the S-400 missiles in its possession. The US has long dangled the US Army's Patriot systems as an 'alternative' which might induce Turkey to halt progress on taking the S-400 live in operation. 

It should be recalled that Biden has long vowed to "get tough" on Turkey and Erdogan, after the Democrats have long charged that Trump pursued a detrimental 'bromance' with the Turkish strongman. But judging by how things went Monday, and the apparent mutual silence on divulging details, it doesn't appear Biden accomplished much if anything regarding prior tough talk on Turkey at all.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 17:05

9 Signs That Some Of America's Long-Term Trends Are Starting To Become Very Serious Short-Term Problems

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

Ignoring long-term problems can work for a while, but eventually they catch up with you...

Over the years, I have written many articles about alarming long-term trends in our society that desperately needed to be addressed.  Of course the vast majority of those long-term trends never got much attention, because our political system tends to reward politicians that focus on short-term issues.  As a result, many of the long-term trends that I have written about previously have now gotten to a point where they have started to become very serious short-term problems.  In this article, I would like to share 9 examples of this with you.

#1 I have been warning about exploding debt levels for as long as I have been writing about the economy.  Most people know that the U.S. national debt has now crossed the 28 trillion dollar threshold, but hardly anyone is talking about the explosion of corporate debt that we have been witnessing in recent months.  According to the Federal Reserve, total corporate debt in the United States is now up to a whopping 11.2 trillion dollars…

Before the pandemic, U.S. companies were borrowing heavily at low interest rates. When Covid-19 lockdowns triggered a recession, they didn’t pull back. They borrowed even more and soon paid even less.

After a brief spike, interest rates on corporate debt plummeted to their lowest level on record, bringing a surge in new bonds. Nonfinancial companies issued $1.7 trillion of bonds in the U.S. last year, nearly $600 billion more than the previous high, according to Dealogic. By the end of March, their total debt stood at $11.2 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve, about half the size of the U.S. economy.

#2 Needless to say, this level of corporate debt is not even close to sustainable, and we are starting to see a lot of prominent names go bankrupt.  In fact, one of the largest mall owners in the entire country officially filed for bankruptcy on Sunday…

Washington Prime Group, a major mall owner of more than 100 locations across the United States, filed for bankruptcy, citing pandemic-related shutdowns.

The Columbus, Ohio-based company filed for Chapter 11 late Sunday, saying Covid-19 “created significant challenges” and that the move is “necessary.” Washington Prime secured $100 million in new funding to support its day-to-day operations so it can “continue in the ordinary course without interruption.”

#3 The standard of living in the United States has been going down for a very long time.  Here in 2021, inflation is growing at a much faster rate than wages are, and this is squeezing middle class families like never before.  One of the ways that families are dealing with this is by putting off major purchases, and that is one of the reasons why the average age of the vehicles on our roads has now reached an all-time record high…

The average age of vehicles on U.S. roadways rose to a record 12.1 years last year, as lofty prices and improved quality prompt owners to hold on to their cars longer.

It was the first time the average vehicle age rose above 12 years, according to data released Monday by research firm IHS Markit. While the average vehicle age has risen steadily over the last 15 years, the trend accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic partly because of a drop in new-car sales, IHS said.

#4 America’s growing homelessness crisis has accelerated greatly during the pandemic, and the big cities in California are being hit the hardest.  At this point, it is really difficult to navigate through the streets of San Francisco without stumbling over a tent or stepping in human excrement…

For a city as opulent as San Francisco, it’s long been jarring to see the extreme poverty of those experiencing homelessness on its streets. If you walk around downtown, tents, makeshift cardboard beds and human excrement can be seen littering the sidewalks. Impoverished people lie on the ground as a blur of highly paid professionals whiz by.

#5 The homelessness crisis is also one of the factors that is fueling the dramatic rise in crime rates that we have been seeing all over the nation.  Once upon a time, millions of eager tourists would flock to Venice Beach, but now the phrase “like hell went to hell” is being used to describe conditions at that once pristine tourist trap…

Year-to-date numbers show that robberies have nearly tripled since the same period last year. Homeless-related robberies are up 260 percent; homeless-related assaults with a deadly weapon is up 118 percent; property crimes and area burglaries are up 85 percent; and grand theft auto is up 74 percent.

According to Embrich, felony arrests are up 68 percent, while misdemeanor arrests have grown by 355 percent. But arrests aren’t enough: Suspects are often released back onto the streets within hours.

#6 The police are the ones that are supposed to protect us from crime and restore order when things get out of control, but now they are leaving public service in record numbers.  After being endlessly demonized by leftist activists and the mainstream media, police officers are either retiring or resigning at a staggering rate….

Police retirements have risen by 45 percent in the past year, with officers opting out of forces across the country amid Black Lives Matter demonstrations that fueled anti-cop rhetoric.

The alarming statistic was revealed by the Police Executive Research Forum on Sunday, with the organization also revealing that resignations rose by 18 percent during the same twelve month period.

#7 Have you noticed that many of our cities are becoming disgustingly filthy?  When I was growing up, I often heard the phrase “cleanliness is next to godliness”, but you never hear anyone use it anymore.  These days, filth and grime are everywhere, and that has resulted in widespread infestations.  Many of our cities now have massive problems with rats and bed bugs, but Chicago is the worst of them all…

The Windy City is known for quite a few things: hot dogs, deep dish, baseball. But here’s one thing you probably don’t associate with Chicago: bed bugs. Turns out these tiny hitchhiking pests are quite fond of our city, according to the latest numbers available through Atlanta-based Orkin, a company that specializes in pest control services.

In fact, Chicago ranked no. 1 on the 2021 list, according to Orkin, reclaiming the top spot for the first time since 2017, when it slipped to no. 3, just behind Baltimore and Washington. For the sixth year in a row, Orkin also ranked Chicago the “rattiest” city in America.

#8 I have been writing about the drought in the western half of the country for years, but here in 2021 it is the worst we have ever seen.  As I write this article, an astounding 88 percent of the West is officially in a state of drought…

Lakes at historically low levels, unusually early forest fires, restrictions on water use and now a potentially record heat wave: even before summer’s start the US West is suffering the effects of chronic drought made worse by climate change.

Eighty-eight percent of the West was in a state of drought this week, including the entire states of California, Oregon, Utah and Nevada, according to official data.

#9 When drought gets bad enough, it leads to water shortages, and we will want to watch developments in California very closely.  Water supplies have gotten very tight throughout the state, and officials in Santa Clara County just officially declared “a water shortage emergency”…

Santa Clara County is in extreme drought. We can’t afford to wait to act as our water supplies are being threatened locally and across California. We are in an emergency and Valley Water must do everything we can to protect our groundwater resources and ensure we can provide safe, clean water to Santa Clara County residents and businesses.

To better deal with these threats and the emergency they are causing, today my fellow Board Members and I unanimously declared a water shortage emergency condition in Santa Clara County. This declaration, which is among the strongest actions we can take under law, allows Valley Water to work with our retailers, cities and the county to implement regulations and restrictions on the delivery and consumption of water. We also are urging the County of Santa Clara to proclaim a local emergency and join us in underscoring the seriousness of the threats posed by the extreme drought.

Over the past few years, America has been hit by crisis after crisis, and many are yearning for a return to the good old days.  Unfortunately, that simply is not going to happen.

The United States is never going to be like it once was.  Too many things have changed, and our culture has been radically transformed over the past several decades.

Many of the items that I have shared in this article are simply symptoms of much broader cultural problems.  We are a deeply, deeply sick society, and it is getting worse with each passing day.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 16:45

WTI Extends Gains After Biggest Crude Draw In 5 Months

Oil prices extended their recent (meteoric) rise with WTI topping $72 - 32 month highs - as investors weighed the outlook for rising demand (hopes on gasoline and aviation fuel use rise from pandemic lows and global stockpiles are drawn down) against extended anti-virus curbs in some economies (with officials tackling the challenge posed by more infectious variants).

"The continuing good news on the demand front and upbeat sentiment on the financial markets as the key reasons for the latest upswing," Commerzbank analyst Eugen Weinberg said in a note.

" ... In our opinion, however, the crucial (fundamental) test for the oil market and its subsequent price performance is yet to come - will demand continue to recover as dynamically as it has been doing in recent weeks despite the new virus variants that keep sparking renewed restrictions?"

The latest test for this thesis will be tonight's inventory sneak peek ahead of tomorrow's official data.

API

• Crude -8.537mm (-4.2mm exp) - biggest draw since January

• Cushing -1.526mm

• Gasoline +2.852mm (unch exp)

• Distillates +1.956mm (+200k exp)

Analysts expected crude stocks to fall for the 4th straight week and were right as Crude stocks fell by the most since January (as product inventories rose for the 3rd straight week)...

Source: Bloomberg

WTI hovered around $72.25 (the highest since Oct 2018) ahead of the print and spiked higher on the big crude draw...

"The fact that oil prices are still showing few signs of slowing means there has to be some concern that if we go too much higher, we could start to see some early signs of demand destruction," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

"For now, that doesn't appear to be happening, but we've still made another 24-month high on Brent, pushing us closer to $75 a barrel and the highs from 2019," he said in a market update.

"If we go much above $80 that picture could change quite quickly."

Finally we note that brent crude prices have been tracking - almost perfectly - the optimistic rebound in global macro data...

And as OilPrice.com's Tsvetana Paraskova notes, although oil may not be headed to a new supercycle, prices still have room to rise from current levels because of a strong demand rebound and expected tightness in supply, some of the world's largest commodity trading groups say.

There is a chance for $100 oil, Jeremy Weir, chief executive officer at commodity trader Trafigura, told the FT Commodities Global Summit on Tuesday.

"You need higher prices to incentivize… and also maybe to build on the cost of carbon in the future as well. You also need to attract capital in the business," Weir told the online debate.

The largest commodity traders are bullish on oil in the near term, too.

Brent Crude traded at over $73.50 a barrel early on Tuesday, but the top executives of the trading houses see further upsides.

"Higher from here" for the next six months, Glencore's Head of Oil Marketing, Alex Sanna, told the same event today. According to Sanna, better news about vaccination programs, inflation bringing in investor cash, and the demand recovery will all contribute to rising oil prices.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 16:34

"We Can Now Return To Life As We Know" - More States Move To Reopen As US COVID Deaths Top 600K

As worries about the spread of deadly COVID variants prompts the UK to delay plans to reopen its economy, in the US, it's full steam ahead as more major states announced reopening measures on Tuesday, while the number of confirmed COVID deaths in the country topped 600K.

Daily US cases and deaths have fallen substantially as the percentage of the adult population that has been vaccinated has climbed. Now, with some states hitting their thresholds for herd immunity, they're loosening the yoke of repressive restrictions that were justified for more than a year because of COVID.

California, New York and Maryland all affirmed plans to drop most of their COVID protocols on Tuesday in what the press mostly characterized as a "full reopening" after months of lockdowns across the country.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California rescinded the Golden State's stay-at-home order, ended capacity restrictions and stopped the state's tier system that determined which rules certain companies were forced to follow. Newsom announced a "grand reopening" for the state, which was memorably the first in the US to shut down in the March 2020, kicking off a wave of national lockdowns. The state has also "aligned itself" with the CDC's new guidelines for mask wearing which states that fully vaccinated people can ditch their masks in most settings.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo joyfully announced on Tuesday that the Empire State would be lifting all of its COVID-19 restrictions after the state on Monday passed the 70% threshold whereby 70% of the state's adults have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

Capacity restrictions will be lifted in most settings, and mask and cleaning protocols will also be relaxed. Though restrictions will remain in some places, like, well, nursing homes (an area where Cuomo is notoriously vulnerable) hospitals and schools.

"What does 70% mean? That means that we can now return to life as we know," Cuomo said Tuesday.

"All the state-mandated restrictions are lifted on commercial social settings sports and recreation construction, manufacturing, retail buildings, all across the board we can get back to living and businesses can open, because the state mandates are gone," Cuomo said.

Masks will still be required on mass transit and in taxis and ride-hails since that is a CDC recommendation, but they are not required indoors anywhere anymore by the state of New York.

In the Old Line State, Gov. Larry Hogan said he would lift the state's COVID state of emergency orders as of July 1 now that 72% of Maryland adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Hogan said at a news conference in Annapolis that all emergency mandates and restrictions put in place in Maryland over the past 15 months will be terminated. There will no longer be a statewide mask order in effect in any setting, including schools, camps and child-care facilities (though businesses can still require masks be worn on their premises).

July 1 will mark the beginning of a "45-day grace period," in which some regulations will still be relaxed, Hogan said. That includes drivers' license renewals and a moratorium on evictions, which won't expire until Aug. 15. Right next door in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam has already said he will allow his state's emergency declaration to expire at the end of June.

Most of these states offered some kind of statewide vaccination lottery program offering rewards in the millions of dollars for a lucky few as an incentive to convince more adults to accept the vaccine.

But for a reminder of how quickly things can change, just look over toward the UK, where PM Boris Johnson revived restrictions for England yesterday, and where Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Tuesday that plans for easing restrictions will be put on hold due to the dangerous "delta" mutant strain which was first documented in India.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 16:29

Foreigners Dump The Most US Stocks Since 2019

Having broken its 4-month streak of buying in March (the longest streak since 2017), China sold US Treasuries for the second straight month in April (the latest TIC data available), down to fall to $1.096trn in April from $1.100trn in March...

Source: Bloomberg

But, Japan’s holdings increased in April by $36.4b to $1.277t

Source: Bloomberg

But, perhaps the most notable aspect of today's TIC data was that for the first time since April 2020, Foreigners sold US equities in April... (and that was the biggest net selling since August 2019 when we had the repo crisis and NOT QE)...

Additionally, the last twelve months' transactions in TSYs by foreign central banks just turned positive for the first time since Feb 2015...

Overall in April:

• Foreign net buying of Treasuries at $49.6b

• Foreign net selling of equities at $13.3b

• Foreign net buying of corporate debt at $10.1b

• Foreign net buying of agency debt at $46.8b

And finally, despite the 12mth net buying, the recent trend of rotation into Treasury reserves from gold may have just reverted...

Source: Bloomberg

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 16:13

Bitcoin, Black Gold, & Breakevens Bounce As Retail Sales Slump Sinks Stocks

Futures trod water overnight but the wave of selling pressure began at the cash market open (remember Friday is Quad Witch and there is some serious gamma malarkey flying around as yesterday's closing ramp showed). Small Caps bounced hard after the European close but faded late on. Nasdaq was the day's biggest loser...

Stocks just could not sustain the idiocy of the late-day meltup in stocks yesterday...

A strong 20Y auction eased some of the weakness in Treasuries today, but 30Y yields are still up 6bps on the week...

Source: Bloomberg

But notably - ahead of tomorrow's FOMC - 10Y Yields were unable to break and hold above 1.50%...

Source: Bloomberg

Breakevens rebounded today...

Source: Bloomberg

The dollar broke out of its short-term narrow range to the upside today, testing stops above last week's payrolls print...

Source: Bloomberg

Cryptos managed gains today with Bitcoin leading once again, back above $41k, erasing the losses since the China crackdown crash...

Source: Bloomberg

After 4 straight limit down days, Lumber rebounded from limit down to limit up today before sliding into its close - but ended higher (finding support at $1000)...

Source: Bloomberg

Gold was down again today...

Copper crashed by the most since October (4th down day in the last 5)...

But crude surged ahead of tonight's API inventory data, with WTI back above $72...

Brent crude and the global macro economic surprise index have been glued at the hip since early March...

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, the dismal disappointment in retail sales today, combined with Empire Manufacturing's miss, a worse than anticipated drop in homebuilder confidence, and a bigger than expected drop in business inventories, the US macro surprise index fell to its lowest since May 2020...

Source: Bloomberg

Maybe Dr.Copper is on to something!?

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 16:00

Feds Investigating Suspected Chinese Spies' Return To US Ahead Of COVID Travel Ban

Authored by Joseph Simonson via the Washington Free Beacon (emphasis ours),

Intelligence officials are investigating why suspected Chinese spies returned to the United States on student and work visas at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to internal government documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

Travelers at an Air China desk in Feb. 2020 / Getty Images

Hundreds of Chinese nationals are the subject of a federal probe after law enforcement officials flagged their travel at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese nationals returned to the United States earlier than expected in January 2020, often having modified their travel plans. Then-president Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting entry from non-citizens and residents from China on Jan. 31, 2020.

The episode is recounted in an internal report that circulated among various national security and law enforcement agencies on June 3. That report surmises that the Chinese students returned to the United States earlier than expected in order to avoid future travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States recorded its first COVID-19 case on January 21, the same day a Chinese scientist said the virus could spread person to person.

"The team examined 58,000 inbound Chinese F/J visa holders in the [Passenger Name Record] database and identified 396 individuals whose return travel was [scheduled] after January 2020 but had returned in January 2020," the report reads.

Although intelligence officials have not concluded whether the hundreds of monitored students were confirmed spies, the students' modified travel suggests that many Chinese nationals were aware of the severity of COVID-19, in spite of assurances to the contrary from their government and U.S. health officials. The World Health Organization did not declare a global health emergency until Jan. 31, 2020, even though China ordered a quarantine for the entire city of Wuhan eight days before.

Education watchdogs say the memo highlights the risk to national security posed by America's lax student visa system.

"The Chinese government relies on nontraditional collectors of information as an important piece of its espionage efforts. Academia is not immune," said Rachelle Peterson, a senior research fellow at the National Institution of Scholars. "Cutting-edge research, technological inventions, and other forms of intellectual property are key targets for the Chinese government, which has sought to create in its foreign-based citizens a sense of obligation to bring back something of use for the Chinese Communist Party."

U.S. intelligence agencies have long warned universities and research facilities about the threat of Chinese espionage. Roughly 30 percent of all foreign students in the country come from China—totaling about 340,000 people. In September 2020, the United States canceled more than 1,000 student and research visas for Chinese students, claiming the recipients had ties to the Chinese military.

The Trump administration made confronting China's military and espionage practices a cornerstone of its agenda, with Trump spy chief John Ratcliffe calling China "the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II." Trump signed an executive order in May 2020 barring "certain graduate-level and above Chinese nationals associated with entities in China" from entering the country.

The National Institute of Health opened an ongoing investigation into recipients of its research grants in 2019. The Free Beacon reported on June 14, 2020, that at least 54 scientists who received National Institute of Health grants were fired for failure to disclose their ties to foreign governments, particularly China.

The investigation into the movements and purpose of the Chinese nationals remains ongoing, but the report serves as another indication that Chinese Communist Party officials deliberately obscured the origins and severity of COVID-19 while secretly taking precautions for themselves.

On May 26, Rep. Diana Degette (D., Colo.), the chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee, endorsed a GOP-led call for an investigation into whether COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese research lab. Other Democrats, as well as members of the media, have called for greater scrutiny into the virus's origins after having dismissed questions as part of a right-wing conspiracy theory.

 

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 15:50

US Is Already Grappling With Real Inflation Rates Above 10% Kyle Bass Warns

Following the latest hot inflationary print, more investors are becoming skeptical of the Fed's view that inflationary pressures are "transitory". Yesterday, famed investor Paul Tudor Jones lamented the deluge of money pumped into the financial system by fiscal and monetary policymakers, and warned that markets might go "bat sh*t crazy" after Wednesday's FOMC press conference, which PTJ believes could be the most important meeting of Chair Jerome Powell's tenure, as the Fed sees its grip on a rapidly overheating economy start to slip.

On Tuesday morning, billionaire hedge fund investor Kyle Bass warned during an appearance on CNBC that official gauges of inflation aren't accurately reflecting how much of Americans' wealth is being eroded by the Treasury and the Fed's twin money issuance programs, and that the actual amount by which inflation is eating away at Americans' savings is already in the double-digits.

Digging into the weeds, Bass said that Fed uses "chain-weighted inflation numbers" which are "designed to be artificially low." Because of this, Bass believes actual inflation in the US is more than 10% with rates at 0.

"We're in a new world where unfortunately the wealth gap is going to widen, the income gap is going to widen and we're going to see more social pressure in the markets," says @Jkylebass on the Fed maintaining low rates. pic.twitter.com/uO98FOuqID

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) June 15, 2021

Right now, investors who own stocks need to bank double-digit returns just to keep up, Bass said.

"Typically stocks keep up at about 85% of inflation so you're not going to lose too much by owning the market vis-a-vis inflation...but you're going to need to break mid-teens numbers if you want to make money like we're seeing today."

He pointed to Tuesday morning's wholesale price data as an example.

"If you look at retail sales, they're at all time highs in nominal terms today, much higher than they were pre-pandemic, and we still lack 8 million jobs. It's fascinating to see the net results of such Fed largess and the money that they've printed really generating a monster in this retail sales number."

As Bass sees it, much of the Fed's asset buying is actually hurting normal Americans by - for example - contributing to the forces that are pushing home and food  prices higher.

"I think we're in a new world where unfortunately the wealth gap is going to widen the income gap is going to widen and we're going to see more social pressure in the markets. but when you look at the fed itself...look at housing, housing is in very short supply in many places in the country and yet the Fed is buying $40 billion in new mortgages per month, they buy $6 billion a day...there's housing unaffordability everywhere, there are some policies that I deem to be inconsistent with 'rational' behavior."

But what does this all mean for investors?

"We have all seen what's happened in previous taper tantrums, and you've seen 10-12% pullbacks in the market. Will that be healthy? It would probably scare some people but I do think that in the end that you can't worry about the market's every move because in real terms, we have negative real rates of more than 10% today, meaning you're losing 10% of your purchasing power annually at the current moment. Negative real rates are pretty repressive. And when food prices start moving...that's a huge regressive tax on the poor."

"Negative real rates are pretty repressive. When food prices start moving, like the UN Ag & Food index has moved in the last 5 months, that's a huge regressive tax on the poor. The Fed has got to really start thinking about food prices," says @Jkylebass. pic.twitter.com/B4nTbgUtIB

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) June 15, 2021

In other words, investors are going to need to book returns in the mid-teens just to tread water in this new inflationary paradigm.

"The US has never increased its money supply by a third in 14 months in the history of our country...is it a new paradigm? It's a new techtonic shift in the amount of money that's in the system. The Fed doesn't know where this is going to end up and neither do you and I just know, it just makes sense to me, with that much more money in the system, it's no wonder we're seeing prices move the way we're seeing them move."

"When you think about real business movements, you're seeing a fairly predictable population move," says @Jkylebass the inflation trade. "There's a way to stay ahead of it by buying land within 2, 2.5 hours of major metropolitan areas and investing in environmental remediation. pic.twitter.com/h3mNYzid4q

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) June 15, 2021

Echoing Ray Dalio's infamous "cash is trash" slogan, Bass warned that people need to be more "defensive" about their capital since cash is hurting them with a massive negative real return. One option, as Bass sees it, is to invest in real estate.

"I think there's a way to stay ahead of it by investing in land that's within 2 hours of major metros,"Bass added.

The Fed's two-day meeting is set to begin Tuesday morning, and will conclude on Wednesday with a press conference held by Chairman Jerome Powell. The market will be closely scrutinizing his every word for any hint that the Fed might be bringing forward its planed rate hikes. If PTJ and Bass are correct and Powell moves the goalposts for the market on Wednesday, expect pandemonium to ensue.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 15:35

Politico Fact Bombs New York Times Over Criticism Of Leak Prosecutor

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

The New York Times faced a stinging contradiction from Politico this week after it ran a story besmirching the lead prosecutor in the leak investigation launched under former Attorney General Bill Barr.

The article relies on anonymous sources to claim that Assistant U.S. Attorney Osmar Benevenuto of the District of New Jersey was brought in by Barr as part of his “small circle of trusted aides officials.” 

In reality, it appears that Benevenuto was not initially selected by Barr and does not appear to have known him.

Here is what the New York Times wrote:

“… William P. Barr revived languishing leak investigations after he became attorney general a year later. He moved a trusted prosecutor from New Jersey with little relevant experience to the main Justice Department to work on the Schiff-related case and about a half-dozen others, according to three people with knowledge of his work who did not want to be identified discussing federal investigations.

In February 2020, Mr. Barr placed the prosecutor from New Jersey, Osmar Benvenuto, into the National Security Division. His background was in gang and health care fraud prosecutions.

Mr. Benvenuto’s appointment was in keeping with Mr. Barr’s desire to keep matters of great interest to the White House in the hands of a small circle of trusted aides and officials.

However, Politico ran a story that suggests that Barr did not know Benevenuto when he selected him in February 2020. Rather, it says that Barr asked the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Craig Carpenito who told Politico:

“The attorney general told me that he wanted someone who was an experienced prosecutor and wasn’t afraid to make decisions. What he wanted to know was whether or not there was anything to these investigations, whether they should be closed or brought forward,” Carpenito said in an interview.

“I told him Oz Benvenuto was someone I trusted to give him an honest answer and he has the experience to separate the wheat from the chaff. … I also told him Oz had the intestinal fortitude to give him a real answer: He would say, ‘yes or no.’”

Benevenuto is a registered Democrat and, while it is true that he did not previously conduct a leak investigation, few prosecutors have. Instead, he was an experienced prosecutor in cases that often involve heavy reliance on searches of electronic and text communications.  He was made a federal prosecutor in 2012 by Paul Fishman, U.S. Attorney in New Jersey under Barack Obama.

The Politico article is full of praise from career prosecutors and others for Benevenuto’s independence and judgment. One of his former colleagues in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, Andrew Bruck, “scoffed at the idea that his friend was carrying out political orders for Barr. ‘The idea that Oz is or was Bill Barr’s stooge is just laughable. It’s just outrageous.'”  Even Daniel Richman (the law professor who is a close friend of former FBI Director James Comey and acted as his intermediary in passing notes to the media) praised Benevenuto for his judgment, intelligence and integrity.

So who are these three unnamed sources? It appears that career prosecutors and others (including Democrats) uniformly deny that Benevenuto was part of any inner circle or some ally of Barr’s. Indeed, there was ample reason for Barr to go outside of the Main Justice since he was seeking to launch a leak investigation that would potentially include many people inside the Trump Administration, including some political appointees.  It made a great deal of sense to find a seasoned prosecutor with no ties to Washington.

However, anonymous sources have been repeatedly used to fulfill narratives in the media.

As I wrote this week in USA Today, there are compelling reasons to fully investigate the subpoenas targeting reporters and members of Congress.  However, there is already that all-too-familiar effort to frame the facts to fit a narrative.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 15:15

An Apparently Confused Biden Goes Silent After Fielding Question About Putin

More clips have surfaced which highlight Biden's apparent difficulty in handling unscripted back-and-forth discussion during his ongoing foreign policy focused Europe trip. As early as the weekend at the G-7 the Associated Press had noticed a "handful of verbal stumbles" the US president made. As we also highlighted there would be more to come. And then at his big Monday night NATO summit presser, there was the following bizarre moment...

Vladimir Putin laughed at the suggestion that you had called him a 'killer,'" a CNN reporter asked. "Is that still your belief, sir, that he is a killer?"

The reporter followed with a second question, also asking, "Do you believe if he does agree to cooperate, then what kind of a challenge do you find yourself in? How would you ever trust him? And if Ronald Reagan said, 'trust, but verify,' what do you say to Vladimir Putin?"

The leader of the free world's brain just completely broke when he was asked if Putin is a "killer" pic.twitter.com/q1pEK4nMFp

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) June 14, 2021

After an unusually long and awkward silence as Biden grasped for words, he later forgets the second question and looks around the room for a verbal que. 

Many pundits have observed that it's alarming that the leader of the free world is about to go into the biggest foreign policy meeting of his presidency, with Vladimir Putin, and he's appearing to have trouble keeping track of simple questions and verbal exchanges.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald on Monday wrote the following:

"Given this genuinely disturbing videos and others like it, it's a good day to remind everyone that the warnings that Biden is suffering from serious cognitive decline came *not* from MAGA people or Bernie supporters, but from worried establishment Dems," Greenwald said Monday.

There's growing speculation that Biden's planned-for "solo news conference" - as opposed to the norm in a bilateral summit of two world leaders jointly taking question from the press - is really about ensuring a predictable and scripted enough exercise to avoid any personal embarrassment which might involve the US president stumbling in his thoughts or grasping for words.  

"Obama met several times with Mr. Putin... Obama came under criticism at the time from rights groups for giving Mr. Putin a platform and for not challenging the Russian president more directly on human rights."https://t.co/nV1vxpqXB9

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 14, 2021

Certainly the White House fears that Putin would seek to capitalize on any potential 'confusion' on display by Biden, hence the solo press conference.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 14:56

Jon Stewart Hijacks Colbert Show With Lab-Leak Rant, Liberal Twitter Explodes

Comedian Jon Stewart overpowered Stephen Colbert's ability to shill on Monday, hijacking the Late Show's return to a live (and fully vaccinated) audience with an epic rant on the COVID-19 lab-leak theory.

"I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science," Stewart said after Colbert asked how he was feeling about the scientific response to COVID-19.

"Do you mean perhaps there’s a chance that this was created in a lab?" asked Colbert, adding "There's an investigation."

"A chance?" shot back Stewart - kicking the door open.

"Oh my god, there’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab. That’s just a little too weird, don't you think? And then they asked those scientists - they're like 'how did this... so wait a minute, you work at the Wuhan respiratory coronavirus lab. How did this happen?' and they're like 'mmmm - a pangolin kissed a turtle?' and you're like 'no... the name of your lab! If you look at the name! Can I... let me see your business card. Show me your business card. Oh - I work at the coronavirus lab in Wuhan. Oh, cause there's a coronavirus loose in Wuhan. How did that happen?'

'Maybe a bat... flew into the Cloaca of a turkey and... then it sneezed into my chili. And now we all have Coronavirus."

Stewart landed one final joke as Colbert desperately tried to control the situation;

"HOLD IT, HOLD IT! What about this, what about this... listen to this! 'OH MY GOD, there's been an outbreak of chocolately goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania. What do you think happened?'

'Oh I don't know, maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean?'

"Or... it's the fucking chocolate factory! Maybe that's it!" Stewart screamed.

Right now: Jon Stewart on the Covid Lab Leak “theory” is solid laughs pic.twitter.com/WlRX35p9WK

— siskin.eth (@mns) June 15, 2021

"Can I say this about scientists?" Stewart said after the break. "I love them and they do such good work but they are going to kill us all."

As noted by pundit Stephen Miller, Liberal Twitter is not happy.

On the first Late Show back with a full audience, Jon Stewart dives intensely down the COVID lab-leak rabbit hole, rebuffing Colbert’s repeated efforts to save him from himself.

— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) June 15, 2021

(Click into Miller's feed for an avalanche of similar...)

US Intelligence. The Secretary of State. Officials at NIH. Us Senators. A president - All crazy conspiracy theorists

Jon Stewart - Shit now we have to believe the lab leak.

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 15, 2021

pic.twitter.com/dwKoVYXpNm

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) June 15, 2021 Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 14:44

Price Discovery Is Alive And Well In Crypto

Authored by Doug French via The Mises Institute,

“If the market continues to see wild swings based on Elon Musk tweets, it’s going to be a big setback for this asset class,” Matt Maley, chief market strategist for Miller Tabak + Co. told Bloomberg.

“The fact that it sees such wild swings to the tweets from one person takes away the legitimacy of the asset class.”

Reminds a bit of a financial planner who told me bitcoin is “manipulated” and followed up with the ultimate smear “unregulated.” Yikes.

Then the Chinese government made all sorts of threats concerning the mining and holding of crypto's top brand.

A wag on Twitter responded with words to the effect that when the Chinese banned Google in 2010 it didn’t seem to slow down the company. 

Weston Nakamura in an interview with Real Vision’s Jack Farley made the trenchant point, “This is what markets look like when you don't have global central banks artificially suppressing volatility, intervention of central banks buying every dip, putting a safety net under every single slight tremor or taper tantrum or whatever it may be, this is what happens.”

Making money isn’t easy. Whether it be working 9 to 5 or trading markets.

The Fed seeks to smooth every bump so everyone will stay calm and carry on, buying stocks.

Perhaps a viewer or two of his recent 60 Minutes interview caught Powell’s off-hand comment that the central bank has bailed out money market funds twice in recent months. Money market funds? Most people believe that is cash. 

There was no mention of the Plunge Protection Team or other secret committees to ensure the safety and soundness of securities markets.

Just keep plugging your savings into those 401(k)s, folks, and let the experts handle it.

Cyrptoland is a little different.

“This is a 70 vol asset, 80 vol, or whatever it is. What that means is that—forget what the volatility is, this is what freely trading markets look like. We haven't seen what freely traded markets look like for, I don't know, a decade or so,” Nakamura told Farley.

“There's no Chairman Powell that needs to come out and announce something for you to put your capital to work. Free markets will do that. That was on display today. 70 vol assets don't exist except for here and this is what 70 vol assets behaves like. If there is a value proposition behind it, you will see investors take advantage of it.” 

Farley, somewhat of a financial history buff, chimed in, “Weston, who would say hey, we had this Wild West before the Federal Reserve, what we had was banking panics, we had deflation, we had banks issuing their own currency. One thinks of this whole, Dave Portnoy launching Safemoon, someone launching CumRocket, someone else launching—all these coins new every day, perhaps it would remind you of the Wild West of banking before the Federal Reserve.”

That’s right, there used to be gold in them there banks. Unfortunately, not enough to cover all the paper notes these banks would issue. However, there wasn’t runaway asset inflation either. Having all of these different bank notes floating around might have been confusing. However, the market created note clearinghouses, what Murray Rothbard describes in A History of Money and Banking in the United States before the Twentieth Century as “A Free-Market ‘Central Bank.’” The Suffolk Bank and the Bank of New York, provided, as Rothbard wrote describing the former, “an island of monetary stability in an America contending with monetary chaos.” 

Professor David Howden writes in his chapter “A Pre-history of the Federal Reserve” (included in The Fed at One Hundred), of the New York clearinghouse created in 1853 “as a solution to a complex settlement process among New York City Banks.” He cites monetary scholar Richard Timberlake, who saw the Federal Reserve as no more than “an evolutionary development of the clearinghouse associations.” 

Today’s not-so-free-market central bank has two stated mandates, price stability and full employment, as well as a third that Mr. Nakamura calls out, “where asset prices can never go down for a certain cohort of investors.” If there is such a mandate, Nakamura says, just say so and then we’ll know “there really is no real market anymore when you have an unlimited non-economic actor in the market distorting prices, and furthermore, that other investors perceive them to be there, whether or not they're there. That is not a functioning market at all.”

Meanwhile, when crypto collectively hit the ditch, “[w]hat you saw today was functioning markets, even not functioning platforms, but functioning markets,” Nakamura said. 

He explains, “Bitcoin is not a US asset, just like oil is not a US asset, just like gold is not a US asset. Now, those are denominated in USD.” Sure, Americans think in US dollars, but “it's BTC/fiat, and it's not an American asset. People need to get that in their head. If you actually look at BTC/JPY (Japanese yen), the levels make a hell of a lot more sense.”

Investors are simply looking for ways to escape the US dollar and “What this crypto space does is it allows for 1 trillion or 2 trillion of that excess froth to be diverted away from stocks and from real estate and all that and to go into this very benign asset,” Nakamura told Farley. 

There will be a day when the Fed, the Treasury and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) will stick their long regulatory snouts into crypto. It may not mean the digital party is over, but the markets will lose the price discovery elasticity that currently works so well.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 14:36

Biden Administration Moving Forward With Trump-Era Proposal For US Uranium Reserve

The Biden administration is taking steps to establish a US uranium reserve, a proposal put forward by the Trump administration which could boost mining of the mineral as well as the potential to expand nuclear energy in the United States.

"Yellowcake" uranium coming off a conveyor line

In Tuesday testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that her department is laying the groundwork for such a move.

"We’re about to issue a request for information [RFI] regarding establishing a reserve," she said, adding "We are, I think this month, issuing an RFI on that."

Jennifer Granholm

In a major funding bill passed late last year, Congress set aside funds to establish the strategic reserve, which would buy US-mined uranium from domestic producers, which we assume is separate from the US reserves bought by Russia during Hillary Clinton's Uranium One scandal.

When asked why the Biden administration's budget request for 2022 didn't include funding for the reserve, Granholm cited the existing funding for the project.

"It had been appropriated for last year so it’s carrying over," she said.

A 2020 Trump administration report endorsed spending millions on the reserve, which would aim to boost domestic mining.

The concept is similar to that of the already existing strategic petroleum reserve, where the government can hold up to 714 million barrels of that fuel in case of an emergency.  -The Hill

Zero Hedge readers will recall our coverage on the uranium sector, which we said in April was set to benefit from several factors - including upcoming infrastructure spending, the reddit short squeeze crowd, an extremely bullish case laid out by a BofA analyst, and a passionate tweetstorm by former hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry, who said "A lot of you are invested in uranium. I commend you. I wish I was. Uranium is the rockstar of commodities. It doesn't mess around - bull and bear markets are of epic proportions."

Furthermore, Michael "big short" Burry advocated for converting US to nuclear power as a way for Democrats to create jobs in a 'green' industry.

Related stocks moved higher on the news.

And to review what we said in April:

The first reason is a mix of regulatory and market developments.

As we reported earlier today, the spot price for U3O8 moved above $30 per pound for the first time this year as uranium producers and mine developers hoovered up above-ground inventories and reactor construction continues apace. Two new research notes from BMO Capital Markets and Morgan Stanley say today’s price marks a floor and predict a rally in prices over the next few years to the ~$50 level by 2024, which - all else equal - would translate into soaring stock prices for names such as CCJ, UEC, URA and URNM.

Indeed, as Mining.com said, the stars seem to be aligning for a new phase of nuclear energy investment with the US, China and Europe bolstering the bull case for the fuel this month.

And while nuclear energy was not (yet) mentioned explicitly in the $2 trillion Biden infrastructure proposal released today, its federally mandated “energy efficiency and clean electricity standard” is hardly achievable without it. 

Curiously, the big regulatory move may be coming out of Europe, where - as we expected - Uranium is now officially part of the cool ESG crowd as over the weekend leaked documents showed a panel of experts advising the EU is set to designate nuclear as a sustainable source of electricity which opens the door for new investment under the continent’s ambitious green energy program.

Then there is China - as Mining.com notes, China’s 14th five-year plan released a fortnight ago also buoyed the uranium market with Beijing planning to up the country’s nuclear energy capacity by 46% – from 48GW in 2020 to 70GW by 2025. There are several factors working in uranium’s favor, not least the fact that annual uranium demand is now above the level that existed before the 2011 Fukushima disaster when Japan shut off all its reactors:

• Uranium miners, developers and investment funds like Yellow Cake (13m lbs inventory build up so far) are buying material on the spot market bringing to more normal levels government and utility inventories built up over the last decade

• Major mines are idled including Cameco’s Cigar Lake (due to covid-19) which accounts for 18m lbs or 13% of annual mine supply.  The world’s largest uranium operation McArthur River was suspended in July 2018 taking 25m lbs off the market

• Permanent closures so far this year include Rio Tinto’s Ranger operation in Australia (3m lbs) and Niger’s Cominak mine (2.6m lbs) which had been in operation since 1978. Rio is exiting the market entirely following the sale of Rössing Uranium in Namibia

• Like Cameco, top producer Kazatomprom, which mined 15% less material last year due to covid restrictions has committed to below capacity production (–20% for the state-owned Kazakh miner) for the foreseeable future

• Price reporting agency and research company UxC estimates that utilities’ uncovered requirements would balloon to some 500m lbs by 2026 and 1.4 billion lbs by 2035  

• Roughly 390m lbs are already locked up in the long term market while 815m lbs have been consumed in reactors over the last five years, according to UxC

• There are 444 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide and another 50 under construction – 2 new connections to the grid and one construction start so far in  2021

• Much cheaper and safer, small modular nuclear power reactors which can readily slot into brownfield sites like decommissioned coal-fired plants (or even underground or underwater) are expected to become a significant source of additional demand.

The last bullet brings us to reason number 2: the coming "small modular reactor" frenzy:

As Nikkei Asia reports today, one of Japan's top industrial engineering companies will join a US-led project to build a new type of nuclear power plant designed with added precautions against meltdowns. These plants will be built in the US, where they will propel the uranium sector to level it hasn't seen in decades (indicatively CCJ traded roughly double where it is today as just before the 2008 financial crisis).

According to the Nikkei, Japan's JGC Holdings will help build a plant in the state of Idaho designed by NuScale Power, an American company whose proposal for a small modular reactor (SMR) involves immersing the containment units in a pool of water.

Small nuclear reactors have been hailed as an option for replacing fossil fuel power plants as nations commit to cutting carbon dioxide emissions in the coming decade

And here, we get one step closer to Uranium becoming part of ESG: when Joe Biden meets Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for a summit in the U.S. later this month, fighting climate change will be on the agenda and "small nuclear" - and uranium - will be high on the agenda.

JGC has invested $40 million for a roughly 3% stake in NuScale, one player in the emerging field of SMRs. The Japanese group will work with NuScale's parent, U.S.-based engineering company Fluor, on construction management and other aspects of the Idaho project.

One thing is clear: as the SMR strategy takes off, much more uranium will be needed, as the partners eventually could set their sights on similar projects in the Middle East - where JGC boasts a long track record in oil and petrochemical infrastructure - and Southeast Asia. In fact, the entire world could soon be covered in small, safe nukes which will lead to an unprecedented renaissance for the uranium sector.

Why the scramble for SMR?

The first reason is simple: price. Nuclear plants on the scale of 1,000 megawatts cost around $10 billion to build using established reactor designs. NuScale's SMR design - which completed a technical review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in August 2020, ahead of rival proposals - reportedly costs around $3 billion for more than 900 MW. The Idaho plant will have a capacity between 600 MW and more than 700 MW, according to announced plans. NuScale also has a strategic partnership with South Korea's Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, which will supply components for the plant.

The second, and far more important reason, is safety. Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster a decade ago shows what happens when reactor cooling systems break down. The loss of emergency power after a devastating 2011 tsunami led to reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings. Well, NuScale's SMR design seeks to remove this risk, as the water in the pool takes a month to evaporate and helps keep the reactor's temperature down.

The U.S. government supports research and development in small-scale reactors. A Green Growth Strategy announced by Japan last year calls for "providing active support" to Japanese companies participating in experimental overseas projects in this field. Many existing nuclear plants in Japan, the U.S. and other advanced economies have been in operation for decades and require upgrades or decommissioning.

In short, between recent bullish market dynamics, and a sector that is on the cusp of becoming the next ESG craze, the promise of new SMR technologies could ensure uranium demand is stable for decades, leading to a new golden age for uranium stocks.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 14:15

Watch: Roger Waters Tells "Little Pr**k" Zuckerberg To "F**k Off" Following Request To Use Iconic Pink Floyd Song For Ad

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

Pink Floyd song writer Roger Waters slammed Mark Zuckerberg during a press conference recently, announcing that the Facebook owner had offered a “huge, huge amount of money” to use the iconic song Another Brick In The Wall Part II in an advert for Instagram.

Speaking at an event to raise awareness about imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Waters noted the deep deep irony of Facebook wanting to buy and use a song that rails against ‘thought control’ and mindless conformity.

Waters described the development as part of Zuckerberg’s “insidious movement… to take over absolutely everything.”

Waters read out Facebook’s request, which noted “We want to thank you for considering this project. We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and so necessary today, which speaks to how timeless the work is.”

“And yet, they want to use it to make Facebook and Instagram more powerful than it already is,” Waters urged, adding “so that it can continue to censor all of us in this room and prevent this story about Julian Assange getting out into the general public so the general public can go, ‘What? No. No More.’”

“So it’s a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me… with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money and the answer is, ‘f**k you! No f**king way!’,” Waters boomed to rapturous applause.

“I will not be a party to this bullsh-t, Zuckerberg,” Waters added.

He then asked “How did this little pr**k, who started off going, ‘She’s pretty, we’ll give her a four out of five. She’s ugly, we’ll give her a one’… How the f**k did he get any power in anything?”

“And yet here he is, one of the most powerful idiots in the world,” Waters emphasised.

Watch:

“¡Vete a la chingada!”: @rogerwaters a Mark Zuckerberg. El músico contó que le ofrecieron “una gran cantidad de dinero” por permitir el uso de Another brick in the wall II para promover Instagram. Lo narró en un acto por la libertad de Julian Assange (@Wikileaks)#VideosLaJornada pic.twitter.com/gEVqaor8Eo

— La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) June 12, 2021

Following media attention, Waters requested trolls to pile on and call him a hypocrite for posting the video on “Zuckerberg’s crappy censored platform”:

.@petercronau, thank you for paying attention brother. Calling all trolls, come on you pricks, call me a hypocrite for posting this on Zuckerberg’s crappy censored platform @Facebook now. https://t.co/3NYrW7Pw2i

— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) June 12, 2021

You would know for sure that we had descended into dystopian hell if this song was ever approved for promoting shiny Instagram graphics, urging kids to sign up to liquify their brains and act like every other insta-zombie uploading 4 million selfies every second:

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 14:00

Arizona Senator: State Lawmakers Prepared To Act On Findings From Election Audit

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The Arizona legislature is ready to take action if the election audit taking place in the state’s largest county uncovers irregularities, a state senator said.

“It’ll be our duty to act in whatever way is appropriate,” Arizona Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican who has been closely tracking the audit in Maricopa County, told The Epoch Times.

Auditors, led by Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, started reviewing ballots from the 2020 election at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix last month, along with machines used in the contest and other election materials. Auditors expect to finish their work by the end of this month. They will then produce a report outlining what they found.

Contractors working for Cyber Ninjas, who was hired by the Arizona State Senate, work during a 2020 election audit at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz. on May 1, 2021. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican who authorized the audit, said last month that she thinks some irregularities will be uncovered.

“I hope we don’t find anything serious. I think we’ll find irregularities that is going to say, you know what, there’s this many dead people voted, or this many who may have voted that don’t live here anymore. We’re going to find those,” she said.

Alexander Kolodin, who formerly represented Cyber Ninjas and remains a lawyer for the Arizona GOP, said in a recent interview that the audit “is going to show that something went wrong, because something goes wrong in every election.”

“I think even Maricopa County would probably admit that the question is, to what degree did it go wrong? Okay, that’s question one. But even that doesn’t tell you so much. It went wrong, and someone caused it to go wrong. The next question is, does the audit tell you who caused it to go wrong?” he said on NTD’s “Wide Angle.”

“If the audit illuminates that there’s [sic] vulnerabilities in X, Y, and Z parts of our election system, state legislatures can target those with a laser beam and fix X, Y, and Z parts of our election system,” he added.

Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas, at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Ariz., on May 6, 2021. (Matt York/AP Photo/Pool)

If the audit reveals fraud, then there would be a referral to law enforcement authorities, according to Fann. The Arizona Senate would focus on closing any loopholes in the election system.

Speaking just hours after spokespersons for the audit shot down rumors that hundreds of thousands of ballots were found missing, Rogers said she’s not sure what auditors will uncover.

“As of now we do not know what the results will be,” she said.

The first-term state senator, a retired U.S. Air Force pilot, has been keeping close tabs on the audit. She has been a regular presence at the coliseum, consulting with Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and helping lead tours for legislators from other states who want to see what’s happening.

Delegations from over a dozen states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, have visited the audit in recent weeks.

“They want to come in to see what a gold standard forensic audit is and this is a real deep dive into not only counting the ballots, but looking at the machines and interestingly, examining very closely, microscopically if you will, the ballots themselves,” she said. “They have been blown away.”

Pennsylvania Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican who toured the coliseum, told The Epoch Times last week that he was impressed by what he saw. He recommended lawmakers from battleground states go to Arizona to tour the facility. Pennsylvania Republicans are pushing for a similar audit in their state, but leadership has not yet decided on whether to order one.

Rogers wanted people to know that Arizonans “are resolute” and “will never quit” on election integrity efforts.

“We will get to the bottom of the truth, not only for truth’s sake, but also to restore election integrity for 2022,” she said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 13:54

Record High Directs, Record Low Dealers In Blockbuster 20Y Auction

Coming several days after the trifecta of benchmark auctions when both the 10Y and 30Y auctions demonstrated solid demand despite a blistering hot CPI print, moments ago the Treasury sold another $24BN in 20Y paper in the form of a 19Y-11M reopening of Cusip SY5 which, too, was greeted with stellar demand.

The high yield of 2.12% was not only far below last month's 2.286% but was also the lowest since February's sub-2% auction; it also stopped 1.7bps through the When Issued, the biggest stop through since March's 2.0bps.

The bid to cover of 2.40 was also a solid improvement to the 2.24 in May and the 2.33 6-auction average, while the internals were perhaps the most impressive, with Indirects taking down 62.1%, the highest since October and far above the 58.0% recent average, and with Directs taking down 20.4%, or the most since the 20Y auction restarted in May, Dealers were left with just 17.5%, the lowest Dealers takedown on record.

Overall, a stellar 20Y auction which despite the lack of concession saw tremendous buyside demand.  Yet despite the blockbuster result there was barely a move in the curve, with the 10Y trading virtually unchanged from before the 1PM deadline.

Tyler Durden Tue, 06/15/2021 - 13:41