**Africa's First Test Run For A CBDC has Failed**

Africa's First Test Run For A CBDC has Failed

_Authored by Martin Armstrong via ArmstrongEconomics.com,_ (https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/great-reset/africas-first-test-run-for-a-cbdc-has-failed/)

**The transition to CBDC in Nigeria did not go as planned.** The elites always seek out African nations to use as their test subjects. Nigeria attempted to slowly roll out the program dubbed **eNaira (https://enaira.gov.ng/)** built on the Hyperleger Fabric blockchain. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is solely responsible for running the nodes of this digital currency. Beginning stress tests stated this currency could execute 2,000 transactions per section.  In October 2021, the government began offering incentives to citizens who chose to CBN.

**A year later, the country was still hesitant to make the switch so the central bank began implementing forceful measures.** In October 2022, the CBN decided to cancel and resign the currency in a **“move aimed at restoring the control of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over currency in circulation.” (https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2022/CCD/CBN%20UPDATE%202022%20OCTOBER%20EDITION%20web.pdf)**

They stated that the original paper notes would only be legal tender until January 31, 2023, leaving the people with no alternative but to convert their cash. Nigerians were no stranger to the concept of currency cancellation as it is something the government has routinely done.

The CBN openly announced that the end goal was to target a 100% cashless society replaced with eNaira. **Fewer than 0.5% of Nigerians adopted the eNaira (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-25/shunned-digital-currency-looks-for-street-credibility-in-nigeria?sref=zNmRQ0gk&leadSource=reddit_wall) and protests erupted across the nation.**

?itok=iQz1aHVz (?itok=iQz1aHVz)

**By December 2, 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a letter to all banking institutes implementing a strict ban on physical cash (https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2022/CCD/RevisedCashWithdrawal.pdf)**.

The central bank set a cash withdrawal limit of ₦100,000 ($225) per week for individuals and ₦500,000 ($1,123) for businesses. Citizens wishing to take out larger sums were subject to a processing fee between 5% and 10%. ATMs were limited to ₦20,000 ($45) per day, and only ₦200 ($0.45) notes or lower denominations were available in the machines.

> @tyson\_melbourne6 (https://www.tiktok.com/@tyson_melbourne6?refer=embed)

>

> ♬ Epic - DM Production (https://www.tiktok.com/music/Epic-7116400669992421377?refer=embed)

**Bloomberg reported that 90% of the country previously used cash for transactions. They did not want to convert to CBDC but were provided with no alternative.** Demonetizing the currency reduced available cash from 3.2 trillion nairas to 1 trillion nairas. This led to the central bank creating over 10 billion eNairas. The people are continually protesting these measures as their society which was largely dependent on cash interactions has been destabilized.

This is how it all begins.

**They are using Nigeria and other countries as test subjects before rolling out these programs in the West.** It is hard for Americans to fathom currency cancelation, as it has never occurred here.

Yet, the Federal Reserve has made it clear that they are looking into this option. Per usual, they market it as a “convenience” for the people.

**In truth, it is a way to ensure money stays on the grid under the thumb of government.** They will not allow one cent to go untaxed, and as the program expands, they can remove individuals and organizations from participating in society entirely.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Tue, 05/23/2023 - 03:30

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/africas-first-test-run-cbdc-has-failed

**Olive Oil Prices Soar As Top Producer Plagued With Drought**

Olive Oil Prices Soar As Top Producer Plagued With Drought

Spain's severe drought and parched soils have sent olive oil prices to levels not seen in more than a decade. The surge in olive oil prices, along with fresh produce, is exacerbating already high food prices as the Northern Hemisphere summer starts in less than a month.

Data from Bloomberg shows that Spanish extra-virgin olive oil prices have jumped 200% since 2020 to 5,870 euros per metric ton -- the highest level since 2010. Most of the price surge was recorded in the last year.

?itok=UaXojEFJ (?itok=UaXojEFJ)

"Output in the country could more than halve this season due to the arid conditions, according to a Spanish farming industry group," Bloomberg said. Spain accounts for 40% of the world's supply, indicating prices across Europe and other regions are being pushed higher.

?itok=QcBBVhXx (?itok=QcBBVhXx)

Europe's Monitoring Agricultural Resources recently said Spain is under severe weather stress, with barely any rainfall since January. The drought is damaging crops and threatens to drive food prices even higher across Europe.

Research firm Gro Intelligence penned a note last week that warned the country is in "extreme" drought across top croplands — the highest recorded reading in at least two decades — while soil moisture levels are the lowest since at least 2010.

Drought conditions in Spain have been exacerbated by above-average temperatures that could be due to an emerging El Nino weather pattern (https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/el-nino-supercharging-heatwave-across-asia). We warned this might create disruptions in the agricultural industry (https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/weve-been-warned-el-nino-watch-initiated-ag-industry-crosshairs).

El Nino comes as global food prices remain at decade highs.

?itok=vr3E_sT1 (?itok=vr3E_sT1)

These price levels are dangerous because high inflation can spark social unrest in countries.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Tue, 05/23/2023 - 02:45

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/olive-oil-prices-soar-top-producer-plagued-drought

**"This Is Basically Apartheid!" London Theater Slammed For Urging White People Not To Attend 'Racially-Charged' Play**

"This Is Basically Apartheid!" London Theater Slammed For Urging White People Not To Attend 'Racially-Charged' Play

_Authored by Thomas Bropoke via Remix News,_ (https://rmx.news/uk/this-is-basically-apartheid-london-theater-slammed-for-urging-white-people-not-to-attend-play-for-black-only-audience/)

A London theater has received widespread criticism for promoting one showing of a play which the venue urges White people not to attend.

?itok=FjAhoP-j (?itok=FjAhoP-j)

The Theatre Royal Stratford East has organized a “Black Out” night on July 5 for the production of “Tambo & Bones,” a play described as a _**“racially charged metatheatrical satire.”**_

**The play runs for a month during June and July, but on this date alone White people have been informed they are not welcome to attend.**

While insisting on its website (https://www.stratfordeast.com/whats-on/all-shows/tambo-and-bones#BookingDetails) that “no one is excluded from attending,” the venue adds that “this performance has been arranged for Black audience members specifically” and states that the production should be enjoyed “free from the White gaze.”

Director Matthew Xia justified the discriminatory move by claiming Black people need “private and safe spaces” away from White people in order to “experience productions that explore complex, nuanced race-related issues.”

**In its FAQs, the venue states the production is for a “Black-identifying” audience, before comprising a list of who it considers to be Black enough to attend.**

_“We define ‘Black’ as of Black African, Caribbean, Afro-Latinx and African-American heritage, including those of mixed-Black heritage who identify as such.”_

> ‘The anti-racists are the new racists.’

>

> Martin Daubney gives his take on Theatre Royal Stratford East urging white people to not attend a play aimed at black audiences.

>

> 📺 Freeview 236, Sky 512, Virgin 604 pic.twitter.com/yBDf73cFso (https://t.co/yBDf73cFso)

>

> — GB News (@GBNEWS) May 21, 2023 (https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1660299886317690881?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

The move has sparked outrage with critics warning it sets a dangerous precedent and is overtly discriminatory.

> _**“Britain is becoming like pre-civil-rights America: segregation and division on the grounds of race. Welcome to progressivism,”** tweeted trade unionist and broadcaster Paul Embrery._

Leader of Britain’s Reclaim party, Laurence Fox, remarked: “I’m so excited to see this production. If it means I have to go in blackface so that everyone feels safe. That’s a price I’m willing to pay.”

The Don’t Divide Us campaign commented that while it doesn’t consider the move to be a dangerous precedent, it did believe it to be “a very stupid and philistine one.”

> _“Everyone has a unique response to a work of art. We don’t need segregated audiences for that. And psychological exploration is best done in private therapy, not public theater,” it added._

Teacher and education reformer Katharine Birbalsingh CBE tweeted tongue-in-cheek: “Because the trauma from ‘the white gaze’ is too much for us black people. That’s how weak we are. We can’t take white people paying for a ticket to see our production because their evil eyes are set upon us.”

**Britain’s first Black police and crime commissioner, Festus Akinbusoye, also condemned the move.**

> _“Society is richer and stronger when an understanding of each other’s cultures and stories are shared and heard. However, I believe the Black Out concept runs contrary to this education and enrichment ethos,” he said._

**This isn’t the first time a “Black Out” night has caused controversy.**

In February, the National Arts Center in Canada was subject to accusations of segregation and discrimination for doing the same thing with a production of “Is God Is.”

The phenomenon of Black-only events appears to be seeping into Western society, with a yoga workshop at Canada’s University of Guelph (https://gryphlife.uoguelph.ca/event/217980) making headlines in November last year for prohibiting the admission of all races other than Black.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Tue, 05/23/2023 - 02:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/basically-apartheid-london-theater-slammed-urging-white-people-not-attend-racially

**Greek Stocks And Bonds Jump As New Election Result Is 'Credit Positive'**

Greek Stocks And Bonds Jump As New Election Result Is 'Credit Positive'

Greece's government bonds and stocks gained Monday as market-friendly Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis received a strong vote from the people compared to his opposition in Sunday's national election.

Mitsotakis' center-right New Democracy received 41% of the vote versus 20% for the leftist Syriza party of former premier Alexis Tsipras. However, Mitsotakis was short of achieving a majority in parliament, but political analysts expect he will secure a single-party government in the next elections in about a month, according to Bloomberg.

?itok=aCb24ehF (?itok=aCb24ehF)

Analysts and investors view the election as one of the last roadblocks standing in the country's path to regaining its investment-grade rating that was lost 13 years ago during a debt crisis and resulting austerity measures to clamp down on debt. Last year, Greece recorded the fastest debt-to-GDP decline than any other country on the continent.

?itok=SVBOa95O (?itok=SVBOa95O)

Moody's Investors Service said the election was a positive credit event:

> _"In particular, continued focus on improving the business environment and banking sector health, together with implementation of milestones and reforms under Greece's National Recovery Plan will support economic growth," Moody's Senior Vice President Steffen Dyck said in an email statement to Bloomberg._

>

> _Dyck continued, "Combined with commitment to fiscal consolidation and rising primary surpluses this improves the prospects for a further significant reduction in Greece's government debt burden."_

After years of austerity measures to tackle government debt, voters feel that Mitsotakis's plan to rebuild Greece and reclaim its investment-grade status will put the country on a successful trajectory.

> _"New Democracy has the people's approval to rule alone._

>

> _"I know how much work we have ahead of us, which requires a government that truly believes in reforms and the ability to implement them," Mitsotakis said Sunday night._

As a result, the benchmark Athens Stock Exchange General Index jumped nearly 7% -- the highest level in almost a decade.

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Also, Greek bonds moved higher, dropping to about 3.91% on the yield for the 10-year debt.

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"The results were well beyond market expectations, with New Democracy being the clear winner," said Alevizos Alevizakos, managing director of Axia Ventures Athens.

Eurobank Equities strategist said, "We expect a sharp re-pricing of Greek assets in the coming weeks, as investors position for the compelling Greek thesis in the next few years."

> Greek stocks are surging in reaction to strong election support for market-friendly Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis

>

> Paul Tugwell has more https://t.co/lVy4OpoBFN (https://t.co/lVy4OpoBFN)pic.twitter.com/B1MwmSdpAm (https://t.co/B1MwmSdpAm)

>

> — Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) May 22, 2023 (https://twitter.com/BloombergTV/status/1660573974701527042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Greeks want an economic miracle after austerity measures that led to slow economic growth. If Mitsotakis wins the second election, planned for June or July, this will allow his party to consolidate victory and make it easier to govern with an absolute majority.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Mon, 05/22/2023 - 06:55

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/greek-stocks-and-bonds-jump-new-election-result-credit-positive

**From Dollar Woes To Debt Denial: The USA Is Screwed**

From Dollar Woes To Debt Denial: The USA Is Screwed

_Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,_ (https://goldswitzerland.com/dollar-woes-to-debt-denial-the-usa-is-screwed/)

**De-Dollarization: Downplaying the Obvious**

De-Dollarization is a real, all too real trend, though it is both fascinating and disturbing to see what is otherwise so obvious being deliberately down-played, excused or ignored from the top down.

But then again, the laundry list of ignored facts and open lies from the top down to hide hard truths in everything from inflation data to recessionary debt traps is nothing new.

Instead, such propaganda replacing blunt transparency is the new normal (and classic trick) for all historical endings to debt-soaked (and failing) nations/systems and their fork-tongued (i.e., guilty) policy makers.

**Slow & Steady**

De-Dollarization, of course, is a gradual rather than over-night process.

Its origins stem from 1) years of exporting USD inflation overseas (to the painful detriment of friend and foe alike) and 2) the insanely stupid decision to **weaponize the world reserve currency** (https://goldswitzerland.com/even-a-weaponized-dollar-wont-stop-golds-historical-turning-point/) (i.e., USD) subsequent to a border war between two local tyrants in the Ukraine.

Whether or not you buy into the Western “media’s” narrative which categorizes Putin as Hitler 2.0 and Zelensky as a modern George Washington, the weaponization of the USD (and freezing of FX reserves) has made an already dollar-tired globe even more distrusting of Uncle Sam’s currency and IOUs.

This trend is confirmed by the profound dumping of USTs throughout 2022 and the undeniable trend among the BRICS (and the 36 other nations) to deliberately seek bilateral trade agreements and settlements _outside_ of the USD.

Furthermore, with Saudi talking to China and Iran, and with China talking to Mexico, Russia and just about everyone else, it’s fairly clear that a move away from the once sacred petrodollar (Pakistan now seeking Russian oil in Yuan) is no longer just the fantasy of conveniently eliminated folks like Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi…

As I discussed **here** (https://goldswitzerland.com/so-many-open-signs-of-financial-disaster-ahead-and-gold-working/) and **here** (https://goldswitzerland.com/gold-oil-global-currencies-entering-a-watershed-moment/), the petrodollar is under threat, which means longer-term demand for the USD is equally so.

**But the USD Still Has Legs—For Now…**

That said, there’s also no denying that the USD is still very strong, very important and very much in demand.

After all, and despite welching in 1971 on its 1944 promise to be gold-backed, the USD is still the world reserve currency.

With over 40% of global debt instruments denominated in Greenbacks and over 60% of the reservoir of global currencies composed of USDs, this reserve status (and hence forced demand) aint going anywhere too soon.

Furthermore, and as I have **written and agreed** (https://goldswitzerland.com/how-an-illiquid-dollar-ruins-the-world/), the so-called “milk-shake theory” is not altogether wrong.

That is, demand for USDs (and USTs) within the tangled and levered web of US derivative and Euro Dollar markets is baked into a system which will take years (not days) to unravel, monetize or replace, and this sure as heck won’t be orderly, global nor overnight.

**Then Comes Change, Pain and Open Denial**

But let’s get real: The days of the USD as a trusted _payment system_ or hegemonic power broker are unwinding right before our very eyes.

And the best way to see the truth of this reality is to catalogue the ever-expanding list of lies from the big boys and their complicit, media _ja-sagenders_ (“yes-sayers”) desperately trying to deny the same.

At first, for example, the centralized economists were blaming de-dollarization and CNY energy transactions on the Russian sanctions.

Gee. Go figure?

Thereafter, the economists said de-dollarization is just the result of Emerging Market (EM) countries momentarily running out of (in fact they’re intentionally dumping) USD reserves.

Western “experts” are trying to convince themselves and the rest of the world that EM nations will implode unless they eventually acquire more USTs and USDs to buy energy.

What these experts are failing to see (or say), however, is that many of those countries are already beginning to buy that energy outside of the USD…

Folks, de-dollarization in global commodity markets is happening already, and will accelerate rather than fade away into some fantasy image of how the “West was Won,” for as argued elsewhere, **the West is already losing**. (https://goldswitzerland.com/how-the-west-was-lost-declining-world-reserve-currency/)

**Facts Are Stubborn Things**

As for the list of nations, both big and small, de-dollarizing right before ou…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/dollar-woes-debt-denial-usa-screwed

**Bill Gates 'Blackmailed' By Jeffrey Epstein Over Affair With Russian Bridge Player**

Bill Gates 'Blackmailed' By Jeffrey Epstein Over Affair With Russian Bridge Player

Remember when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he 'only had dinner' with Jeffrey Epstein?

> FLASHBACK: Bill Gates is asked if his ex-wife Melinda was warning him about Jeffrey Epstein sexually compromising him:

>

> Bill responded “No — I had dinner with him, and that's all.” pic.twitter.com/xaVincPcAA (https://t.co/xaVincPcAA)

>

> — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 21, 2023 (https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1660330002213158912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Turns out (ok, we've known for a while (https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bill-gates-addresses-jeffrey-epstein-connection-new-interview)) that's a total lie - as the two also had a Russian bridge player in common, Mila Antonova.

?itok=aeC8N1if (?itok=aeC8N1if)_Mila Antonova, screenshot (_ (?itok=aeC8N1if) _YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33h_y_mlP7o))_

According to the _Wall Street Journal_ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates-affair-russian-bridge-player-8b2022ff), Gates met Antonova in 2010 at a bridge competition, leading to an affair. Three years later, after Gates associate Boris Nikolic referred her to Jeffrey Epstein to help raise $500K for an online bridge business which failed to pan out, **Epstein paid for her to attend coding classes**.

In 2014, **Antonova "stayed briefly at an apartment in New York City provided by Epstein"** but claims not to have met with the guy who paid for her education.

**Then in 2017, the pedophile financier allegedly blackmailed Gates** **over the affair** \- demanding in an email that the Microsoft co-founder to reimburse him for Antonova's education. Given the de minimis amount involved for both men, Gates interpreted this 2017 email as threat to expose his 2010 affair.

So, poor boner-killer Bill (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1517707521343082496?s=20) was actually an Epstein victim all along, you see, and everyone interviewed for the report says they knew nothing about Epstein's pedophile sex-trafficking operation and was 'disgusted with what he did,' etc.

?itok=hJTvooOh\

_Jes Staley, Lawrence Summers, Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates, Boris Nikolic_ (?itok=hJTvooOh)

But in March of 2013, long before the two had thrown out their BFF bracelets, **they were hanging out at the house of Thorbjørn Jagland, then chair of the Nobel Peace Prize committee** where the pair allegedly discussed " the security situation in Afghanistan as part of Mr. Gates’ work on polio eradication," according to a spokeswoman for the billionaire. We're sure.

> _While he was working on the charitable fund, Epstein met in 2013 with Gates and Norwegian officials who were visitors to Epstein’s townhouse. **Epstein told one former Gates Foundation employee that he knew the Norwegians, and could help Gates win a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eradicate polio.**_

Here's what else is contained in the report (some known, some unknown).

- " **Starting in 2011, Gates had more than a half dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein**, including dinners at Epstein’s New York townhouse, documents show. "

- Gates flew on Epstein's 'lolita express' plane from New Jersey to Florida in March, 2013. " **That same month the two men met in France with an official on the Nobel Peace Prize committee**." (that official being its chair, Thorbjørn Jagland)

> _While he was working on the charitable fund, Epstein met in 2013 with Gates and Norwegian officials who were visitors to Epstein’s townhouse. **Epstein told one former Gates Foundation employee that he knew the Norwegians, and could help Gates win a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eradicate polio.**_

- **In 2012, Epstein pitched Gates on a failed investment in a multibillion-dollar, JPMorgan-run charitable fund** with a minimum contribution of $100 million.

The deal went sideways. In messages to **Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes**, Epstein essentially coached the JPMorgan execs on how to pitch the fund to Gates' team.

"In essence this \[fund\] will allow Bill to have access to higher quality people , investment , allocation , governance without upsetting either his marriage or the sensitvites of the current foundation employees," Epstein wrote on Aug. 16, 2011.

The next day, Epstein wrote: "Bill is terribly frustrated. He woud! like to boost some of the things that are working without taking away from thoses that are not."

Six weeks later on Oct. 2, Epstein sent another email to Staley and Erd…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bill-gates-blackmailed-jeffrey-epstein-over-affair-russian-bridge-player

**Lawmakers Clash Over Regulation Of Stablecoins**

Lawmakers Clash Over Regulation Of Stablecoins

_Authored by Liam Cosgrove via The Epoch Times,_ (https://www.theepochtimes.com/lawmakers-clash-over-regulation-of-stablecoins_5275983.html)

House lawmakers took part in a contentious debate over how stablecoins should be regulated at a hearing held by the Financial Services Committee’s digital assets panel - where there were also some hopeful signs from both sides.

?itok=5xUAqoIm (?itok=5xUAqoIm)

**At the heart of the debate on May 16 was the level of involvement of state regulators and the Federal Reserve.**

Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.), who chairs the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, supports legislation that gives more power to state regulators, while Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the overall committee, advocates for a leading role for the Federal Reserve in the Democratic proposal.

Hill challenged a previous notion put forth by Waters that yielding oversight to the states would be a step backwards in establishing a clear legal framework.

> _“We’re not starting from scratch,” Hill said._

>

> _“The similarities between the two proposals are strong, and that’s why we’re not that far apart.”_

**Still, Waters argued that “several critical positions” are missing from the Republican proposal, leading to a further divide between the parties.**

Amid the volatile cryptocurrency markets, stablecoins are meant to be a safe haven. They also hold bipartisan appeal as an accessible and less expensive way to conduct monetary transactions outside of the traditional financial system and internationally.

Tether - the largest U.S. stablecoin - and Circle, are digital assets tied to the value of the U.S. dollar and play a significant role in the cryptocurrency market. **Both Republicans and Democrats share common goals of protecting consumers and preserving the global role of the U.S. dollar.** Regulating dollar-denominated stablecoins within the United States could contribute to achieving these objectives.

While the crypto industry eagerly awaits U.S. regulations, many are encouraged by the multiple congressional hearings dedicated to stablecoins and cryptocurrencies in recent weeks. A compromise on stablecoin regulation would be a significant first step toward establishing oversight of the industry in the United States.

University of Hong Kong economist Douglas Arner authored a paper (https://www.bis.org/publ/work905.pdf) for the Bank of International Settlements in 2020 calling for “an appropriate registration or licensing regime.” **The paper argued that regulatory clarity is beneficial to crypto entrepreneurs who are focused on long-term prospects within the sector.**

However, any legislation needs to pass through the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

**So far, Brown has not shown any inclination to move forward with a bill.**

In addition to stablecoins, Hill has also weighed in on the topic of a digital dollar.

**Together with Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Hill introduced a bipartisan bill to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a government-backed digital currency.**

> _“Uncle Sam is going to use a central bank digital currency to surveil where they’re spending their money and how much, and ultimately block them from using the banking and payments system,” Hill said._

Recently, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans any U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDCs) from being considered legal tender in the state, further highlighting the ongoing discussions surrounding digital currencies in various jurisdictions.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Mon, 05/22/2023 - 05:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/lawmakers-clash-over-regulation-stablecoins

**Seymour Hersh: 'Something Else Is Cooking' In Ukraine**

Seymour Hersh: 'Something Else Is Cooking' In Ukraine

_Authored by Seymour Hersh, via Scheerpost,_ (https://scheerpost.com/2023/05/19/seymour-hersh-the-ukraine-refugee-question/)

_This story is a follow up to Seymour Hersh’s original report (https://scheerpost.com/2023/02/08/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream-pipeline/) on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage._

_Sign up at seymourhersh.substack.com (http://chrishedges.substack.com/) so you can support Sy Hersh’s work_

Last Saturday the _Washington Post_ published an exposé of classified American intelligence documents showing that Ukrainian President Volodymyr **Zelensky, working behind the back of the Biden White House, pushed hard earlier this year for an expanded series of missile attacks inside Russia.** The documents were part of a large cache of classified materials posted online by an Air Force enlisted man now in custody. A senior official of the Biden administration, asked by the _Post_ for comment on the newly revealed intelligence, said that Zelensky has never violated his pledge never to use American weapons to strike inside Russia. In the view of the White House, Zelensky can do no wrong.

**Zelensky’s desire to take the war to Russia may not be clear to the president and senior foreign policy aides in the White House, but it is to those in the American intelligence community who have found it difficult to get their intelligence and their assessments a hearing in the Oval Office.** Meanwhile, the slaughter in the city of Bakhmut continues. It is similar in idiocy, if not in numbers, to the slaughter in Verdun and the Somme during World War I. The men in charge of today’s war—in Moscow, Kiev, and Washington—have shown no interest even in temporary ceasefire talks that could serve as a prelude to something permanent. The talk now is only about the possibilities of a late spring or summer offensive by either party.

_**But something else is cooking,**_ as some in the American intelligence community know and have reported in secret, at the instigation of government officials at various levels in Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Czechoslovakia, and Latvia. These countries are all allies of Ukraine and declared enemies of Vladimir Putin.

This group is led by Poland, whose leadership no longer fears the Russian army because its performance in Ukraine has left the glow of its success at Stalingrad during the Second World War in tatters. **It has been quietly urging Zelensky to find a way to end the war—even by resigning himself, if necessary—and to allow the process of rebuilding his nation to get under way. Zelensky is not budging, according to intercepts and other data known inside the Central Intelligence Agency, but he is beginning to lose the private support of his neighbors.**

?itok=2E5ePJ9J (?itok=2E5ePJ9J)

**One of the driving forces for the quiet European talks with Zelensky has been the more than five million Ukrainians fleeing from the war who have crossed the country’s borders and have registered with its neighbors under an EU agreement for temporary protection that includes residency rights, access to the labor market, housing, social welfare assistance, and medical care.** An assessment published by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that the estimate excludes roughly 3 million Ukrainian refugees who escaped from the war zone without a visa into any of the 27 European nations that have abolished border control between each other under the Schengen agreement. Ukraine, though not in the EU, now enjoys all the benefits of the Schengen pact. A few nations, exhausted by the 15-month war, have reintroduced (https://substack.com/redirect/9515494f-1981-486c-ba40-597c07d37c35?j=eyJ1IjoiMjIyY2UifQ.-MnNuZ-50qGXFtAk8Moebbb3coRbcXliOvG2u-zm640) some forms of border control, but the regional refugee crisis will not be resolved until there is a formal peace agreement.

The UNHRC reports that free travel from Ukraine into the Baltic states and EU states in Western Europe “makes it particularly difficult to determine exactly how many Ukrainians have reached the EU in the last few months, and where they are now.” The report says the “vast majority” of the Ukrainian refugees are women and children, and one third of them are under the age of eighteen. Seventy-three per cent of the refugees of working age are women, many with children.

A February analysis of the European refugee issue by the Council on Foreign Relations found that **“tens of billions of dollars” in humanitarian aid were poured into Ukraine’s neighbors during the war’s first year.**

> _“As the conflict enters its second year with no end in sight,” the report says, “experts worry tha…

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/seymour-hersh-something-else-cooking-ukraine

**Why The Middle East Will Be Vital In Any U.S.-China Conflict**

Why The Middle East Will Be Vital In Any U.S.-China Conflict

_Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com,_ (https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/Middle-East/Why-The-Middle-East-Will-Be-Vital-In-Any-US-China-Conflict.html)

- **As tensions between the U.S. and China continue to escalate, the importance of the Middle East for these two superpowers is only growing.**

- **China is heavily dependent on energy imports from the Middle East and has struggled in recent years to keep up with its rising energy demand.**

- **While much has been made of the U.S.’ waning influence in the region, it retains a significant footprint throughout the Middle East and multiple key allies.**

If the United States and China ever enter into conflict, one of the key battlegrounds could be the Middle East. China has been busily trying to shore up its energy security and diversify its energy portfolio around the world, but the country remains heavily dependent on the Middle East for oil. Unfortunately for Beijing, the United States retains a significant amount of leverage and military might in the region which could be used as a powerful weapon in a war of wills between the two global superpowers.

?itok=NcKpFO2I (?itok=NcKpFO2I)

Maintaining a reliable and increasing energy supply is crucial to the well-being and continued growth of the Chinese economy. But as the country continues to develop, Beijing is having a hard time keeping up with demand. For several (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58733193)years (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/26/chinas-long-running-heatwave-raises-electricity-usage-and-causes-blackouts) in a row, China has suffered major rolling blackouts, with entire cities sometimes going dark for extended periods. And last year, China’s energy industry underwent an extreme stress test as drought (https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Hydropower-Shortage-In-China-Sends-Coal-Prices-Higher.html) crippled the domestic hydropower sector at the same time that the global energy market was in crisis due to a myriad of factors stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing has been hard at work increasing the size and breadth of its own energy empire, paying special attention to increasing its energy footprint in developing countries with large and mostly untapped energy production potential. Back in 2020, Barron’s proclaimed that **China had already become “the center of gravity for global energy markets (https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-global-energy-trades-new-center-of-gravity/)”, and its sphere of influence has only continued to grow (https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Chinas-Energy-Influence-Is-Growing-In-Emerging-Markets.html) since then.** On top of Beijing’s heavy investing in other nation’s burgeoning energy markets, China has also blown everyone else away in terms of clean energy spending (https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/China-Is-Crushing-The-Competition-In-Clean-Energy-Spending.html) in recent years. But it’s still not enough to fill the country’s nearly insatiable hunger for additional energy supply.

It’s clear that Beijing is extremely worried about the precariousness of China’s energy security as the country’s economy continues its upward trajectory and demand continues to skyrocket. The country remains hugely dependent (https://fpif.org/in-the-middle-east-u-s-holds-china-at-risk/) on imports to meet its energy needs. It is the second biggest consumer of oil in the world, after the United States, and an incredible 72% of this is imported. The Middle East alone is responsible for about half of those imports. This renders the country extremely vulnerable (https://fpif.org/in-the-middle-east-u-s-holds-china-at-risk/) to energy sanctions or other kinds of strategic energy blockading. Indeed, the Suez Canal, the Bab al-Mandab, and the Strait of Hormuz are all critical shipping routes that could be blocked with relative ease by Middle Eastern leaders.

The United States is well aware of this Achilles heel, and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has openly discussed the possibility of wielding its influence in the Middle East to ensure leverage over China if one of the many sources of tension between the oft-altercating superpowers were ever to come to a head.

> _**“God forbid there’s ever a conflict with China, but we could end up holding a lot of their economy at risk in the CENTCOM region,”**_ General Erik Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said in a congressional hearing (https://armedservices.house.gov/hearings/full-committee-hearing-us-military-posture-and-national-security-challenges-greater-middle) in March of this year.

The United States has built …

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/why-middle-east-will-be-vital-any-us-china-conflict

**Hunter Biden Faces Call For Key Business Associates In The Arkansas Proceedings**

Hunter Biden Faces Call For Key Business Associates In The Arkansas Proceedings

_Authored by Jonathan Turley,_ (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/05/21/hunter-biden-faces-call-for-the-appearance-of-key-business-associates-in-the-arkansas-proceedings/)

There is a new and interesting development in Arkansas where attorneys for Lunden Alexis Roberts have **prepared a list of witnesses (https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/hunter-bidens-shady-business-partners-called-to-testify-in-his-arkansas-child-support-case/) for the upcoming proceedings involving Hunter Biden’s daughter**, Navy.

As previously discussed (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/05/01/hunters-collapsing-world-why-a-criminal-plea-could-now-be-the-best-option-for-the-bidens/), Hunter Biden is seeking to reduce child support payments and has balked at Navy being able to use the Biden name (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/01/15/the-importance-of-being-biden-how-hunter-reached-seeking-to-bar-daughter-from-using-his-surname/). If successful, this could get a lot worse for Hunter in his alleged efforts to conceal his past income.

**On the list are business partners at the center of the influence peddling scandal.**

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_(Thank you to the reader who sent this possibly prophetic intersection picture)._

**On the list are business partners who are connected to millions of dollars acquired from foreign interests in China, Ukraine and other countries.** Also on the list is New York City art gallery owner Georges Bergès who continues to sell his art.  Bergès has reportedly (https://nypost.com/2022/12/30/hunter-bidens-dealer-blows-off-house-gop-says-dont-politicize-positive-art/) pushed back on congressional efforts to reveal details on these proceeds and buyers even though former government ethicists have raised concerns over the sales. (https://nypost.com/2022/12/30/hunter-bidens-dealer-blows-off-house-gop-says-dont-politicize-positive-art/)

The costs of these proceedings and high-priced legal team would seem to undermine claims of financial distress by Biden. However, by putting his financial worth at issue, Hunter has opened up a new front in battling over the disclosure of his past dealings. Some of his past associates are reportedly cooperating with House investigators in tracking foreign payments.

Even the _Washington Post_ has belatedly published an editorial admitting that this is all a serious concern over influence peddling. In an editorial (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/18/foreign-payments-to-biden-family-members/) titled  “ _Millions flowed to Biden family members. Don’t pretend it doesn’t matter_.”

It was a bittersweet moment for many of us who have been writing about these dealings for years as newspapers like the Post downplayed the scandal or the authenticity of the laptop. **Media outlets like National Public Radio (NPR)  declared (https://www.npr.org/2020/10/14/923766097/facebook-and-twitter-limit-sharing-new-york-post-story-about-joe-biden) that it “not want to waste our time on stories that are not really stories, and we don’t want to waste the listeners’ and readers’ time on stories that are just pure distractions.”** These disclosures have been forced into the public despite the best efforts of the Post and other media.  Indeed, recently the Post’s Philip Bump derided the House investigation as a “fishing expedition (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/21/comer-oversight-biden/) . . .  it’s nearly all innuendo, a big corkboard with lots of pictures but little interconnecting string.” His “witchhunt” attack was then repeated by others at the Post. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/22/some-republicans-express-worry-about-their-own-witch-hunts/)

Despite these efforts, Hunter Biden appears to doing his level best to force the issue in Arkansas. It is not clear if the court will call any of these witnesses. **However, since Hunter has put his finances at issue, some disclosures will need to be made.**

**As for Navy, she is still uncertain if the court will allow her to use the Biden name despite her father’s efforts to the contrary.** While it does not appear that Hunter (who lives in a California mansion) is financially broke, his actions (and those of the President and First Lady (https://jonathanturley.org/2023/04/30/daddy-dearest-hunter-forced-to-appear-in-arkansas-in-fight-his-childs-name-and-support/)) toward this little girl show a moral deficit and delinquency that is abundantly obvious.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 05/21/2023 - 23:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hunter-biden-faces-call-key-business-associates-arkansas-proceedings

**NYC Has A Shoplifting Problem... And Kiosks Aren't Going To Stop It!**

NYC Has A Shoplifting Problem... And Kiosks Aren't Going To Stop It!

_Authored by Andrea Widburg via AmericanThinker.com,_ (https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/05/new_york_city_has_a_shoplifting_problem_but_kiosks_arent_going_to_stop_it.html)

**Like all Democrat-run cities** that turned against police in 2020, New York City has a crime problem, including an **explosive uptick in shoplifting.** Fortunately for New York City store owners, Mayor Eric Adams has a plan. The problem is that, as with all lefty plans, it will cost money and almost certainly be completely useless.

Ever since the George Floyd riots caused leftist-managed cities to defund their police, all sorts of crimes have increased. In New York City, the crime that’s really taken off is shoplifting.

In the first eight months of 2021 (https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-shoplifting-organized-retail-crime/), shoplifting in New York increased by 30% over rates in 2020. Of course, one could argue that slowly ending the lockdown was what made the difference. However, that wouldn’t explain what happened in 2022. In that year, shoplifting went up (https://thepostmillennial.com/shoplifting-in-nyc-soars-45-to-63000-reported-incidents-in-2022) by another 45% over rates in 2021, with an even better marker being the fact that it was 275% higher than a decade or so earlier.

Shoplifting may be a non-violent crime, but it has a disastrous effect on people in the community because stores, including big box stores, respond to theft in two different ways: _**First, they raise their prices; then when that proves ineffective, they pick up their marbles and go home by shutting down stores.**_ In San Francisco, for example, Walgreens closed five stores (https://luxxle.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2021%2F10%2F13%2Fus%2Fwalgreens-store-closures-san-francisco.html) due to shoplifting. Target, meanwhile, predicts that retail crime will cost it (https://nypost.com/2023/05/17/target-may-lose-500m-from-theft-and-organized-crime/) as much as $1.3 billion:

> Crime-battered retail giant Target said it expects to suffer as much as a $1.3 billion hit to its bottom line because of “theft and organized crime,” according to the company’s first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday.

>

> The Minneapolis-based chain said its profit will be squeezed by “$500 million more than what we saw last year” – when the company lost as much as $800 million from “inventory shrink.”

Considering that Target voiced its full-throated support for BLM and dug deep in its pocket to support the communist organization, one can’t help but notice an “actions have consequences” scenario at work. That’s a shame because Target used to be a very nice place. Now, though, aside from shoplifting, lots of people (me included) are fed up with its Pride shenanigans, which it’s now aimed at children (https://pjmedia.com/culture/catherinesalgado/2023/05/10/lgbtqinfant-target-releases-lgbtq-clothes-for-babies-kids-n1694283). But I digress…

**New York mayor Eric Adams seems to have been feeling the heat from merchants in New York City, so his office has announced a “crackdown on shoplifting plan.”**

As always, though, when the government steps in to help, the devil is in the details:

> Clown world intensifies. 🤡🌎

>

> NYC plan to “crackdown” on shoplifting. 🤨 pic.twitter.com/4MHcnBgucn (https://t.co/4MHcnBgucn)

>

> — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) May 20, 2023 (https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1659949847418380289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

**And yes, that screen shot is real, not a Photoshop.** According to Fox 5’s full report (https://www.fox5ny.com/news/adams-unveils-plan-to-tackle-nyc-shoplifting),

> The new crackdown includes giving first-time offenders intervention programs instead of prosecution, de-escalation training for retail employees, establishing neighborhood retail watch groups to share information about a theft in real-time with one another and the police, and installing kiosks in stores to connect would-be thieves with social service programs.

**One of the things that everyone has noticed about shoplifters is that they’re not starved, Dickensian-style waifs stealing a loaf of bread to survive.** Instead, they’re organized gangs that go in and steal merchandise that has a good retail value on the street:

> San Francisco pic.twitter.com/klaiesGE2C (https://t.co/klaiesGE2C)

>

> — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld\_) May 16, 2023 (https://twitter.com/ClownWorld_/status/1658419954839076866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Or if they’re eating what they steal, it’s party time, not starvation time:

> Why is Walmart struggling in urban areas?

>

> pic.twitter.com/jDQlStgBWp (https://t.co/jDQlStgBWp)

>

> — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 19, 2023 (https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1659569640010579968?ref_src=twsrc%5Et…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nyc-has-shoplifting-problem-and-kiosks-arent-going-stop-it

**Where International Travelers Spend The Most**

Where International Travelers Spend The Most

**When it comes to travel, some tourists spare no expense. And some cities are well suited to attract them.**

From the luxurious desert city of Dubai to the city of light and love, Paris, many international travelers today are looking to tick the crème de la crème of destinations off their bucket lists. In some cases, they’re seeking out the opulent experiences they missed out on when the pandemic brought the world to a halt.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist's Freny Fernandez and Bhabna Banerjee (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-top-10-cities-where-international-travelers-spend-the-most/) use the latest research (https://wttc.org/news-article/wttc-reveal-paris-as-the-worlds-most-powerful-city-destination) by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) to highlight the top 10 cities where international travelers spent the most in 2022.

?itok=F0QDu-Fy (?itok=F0QDu-Fy)

Cities of Opulence

Last year, Dubai took top spot, followed by nearby Doha, Qatar.

RankCityCountry / RegionIncome from International Tourists (2022)#1Dubai🇦🇪 UAE$29.42B#2Doha🇶🇦 Qatar$16.79B#3London🇬🇧 UK$16.07B#4Macau🇲🇴 Macau SAR$15.58B#5Amsterdam🇳🇱 Netherlands$13.59B#6Istanbul🇹🇷 Türkiye$13.13B#7Barcelona🇪🇸 Spain$12.73B#8New York🇺🇸 U.S.$12.45B#9Singapore🇸🇬 Singapore$10.97B#10Paris🇫🇷 France$9.76B

Singapore and Macau represented East Asia, and New York was the sole city from the Americas on the list.

It’s worth noting that this list differs somewhat from _overall tourism spending_, which would include domestic travel spending as well. Large countries like the United States and China fare better in that ranking.

City Spotlight: Destinations Favored by Big Spenders

When you think of luxury travel, you think of five-star hotels, Michelin-star restaurants, luxury retail outlets, and many other premium experiences. And these cities offered their international travelers just that.

#1\. Dubai

From the Burj Khalifa, currently the world’s tallest building, to the desert excursions and yacht cruises, Dubai offers extravagant experiences for international visitors. The city’s reputation for tax-free, high-end shopping and its commitment to providing a luxurious experience has made it a top travel destination for luxury shoppers from around the world.

Location is another factor in the city’s success. Dubai sits at the natural crossroads between Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and is home to one of the world’s busiest, well-connected airports.

International travelers spent close to $30 billion in the city in 2022.

#3\. London

London has long been a preferred location for the ultra-wealthy, and as a result, the city has an abundance of amenities for well-heeled travelers. For one, London is home to more five star hotels than any other city. As well, London offers ultra-wealthy travelers access to a wide range of high-end designer retailers, as well as world-famous museums, galleries, and landmarks.

Of course, the UK’s largest city also sees a high overall volume of tourists overall, which adds to the **$16 billion** global visitors spent in the city in 2022.

#4\. Macau

Known as the Las Vegas of Asia, Macau’s gambling hub has been a magnet for international tourists for years. However, as the city began re-imagining (https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/macao-tourism-reopening-intl-hnk/index.html) its tourism strategies post-pandemic, it has grown stronger as an international tourist destination.

Outside tourists brought in $15.6 billion in 2022, and that number is only expected to multiply further over the next decade. This growth is being fueled by **China** and **Hong Kong**, which account for the lion’s share of visits.

_Note: Although Macau is now a part of China, it remains a Special Administrative Region under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle._

Transforming Travel Trends

The global travel industry continues to recover from the pandemic, which is good news for the many nations that economically rely on tourism (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-reliant-tourism/).

As travel restrictions were lifted, many tourists flocked to remote destinations (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/top-islands-to-visit-2022/) that were less traveled. However, this WTTC research is proof that the world’s iconic cities are making their way back onto tourist itineraries once again.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 05/21/2023 - 22:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/where-international-travelers-spend-most

**Abandon The Swamp**

Abandon The Swamp

_Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,_ (https://amgreatness.com/2023/05/20/abandon-the-swamp/)

**Suppose a document drops in the wilderness and no one is around to hear it. Does it make a sound?**

I submit that John Durham just tested this Bishop Berkeleyesque query. The special counsel spent four years beavering away in the forests of the deep state and what did he produce?

**Three hundred pages telling us what, for the most part, we already knew and with the result that exactly nothing, apart from a little hand wringing, will happen.**

We already knew that James Comey, Robert Mueller, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, John Brennan, Susan Rice, Michael Sussmann, Kevin Clinesmith, and all the other characters in and around the Russia Collusion Delusion had fabricated the story of Trump’s supposed connection with Russia out of whole cloth.

We already knew that they had gone out of their way to protect Hillary Clinton.

We knew that there was no predicate for obtaining a FISA warrant against Carter Page (one of many thousands of such warrants), thus opening a back door into the Trump campaign.

We knew that the surveillance apparatus of the regime had been weaponized to prevent Donald Trump from being elected and then, when he surprised everyone by winning anyway, to taint his administration and render him radioactive.

**What should we make of Durham’s non-revelatory revelations? I think that, wittingly or not, they were just a big exercise in track-covering, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Well, nothing beyond the sound and fury, anyway.**

?itok=txGFH4qq (?itok=txGFH4qq)

**Still, Durham’s bulletin is useful as a marker of the futility in which we labor.** André Gide touched on this point when he reminded us that “ _Toutes choses sont dites déjà, mais comme personne n’écoute, il faut toujours recommencer_.” Over the past five or six years, virtually everything that Durham said in his report had already been said. But because no one was listening, it is necessary to start again and say it once more.

In this spirit, I am going to say again some things I have said elsewhere, beginning with what has become my ritual invocation of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s observation that a week is a long time in politics. That’s time enough, as T. S. Eliot said in another context, “for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, Before the taking of a toast and tea.”

Until the night of March 5, 2023, I suspected that “The Donald Trump Show,” which has been such blockbuster entertainment, might have entered its final season. That’s still possible, of course. The people clamoring for its cancellation are many and vociferous. Moreover, they have another concession with which they propose to entertain us: “The Ron DeSantis Deliverance.” Someday, I’d like to see that show myself.

I wonder, though, about the most profitable time to air it. 2024? Perhaps. But I think the jury is still out on that. We’ll know more after DeSantis finally announces what he has already made clear, namely that he, too, is running for the presidency in 2024. He will, if the past is any guide, get a bump in the polls. But at the moment, anyway, I am inclined to think that 2024 belongs to the Donald. Why? There are many reasons.

**One vivid reason was vouchsafed us during the final hours of the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) program in National Harbor, Maryland, in March. It was then that Trump addressed the crowd (https://www.c-span.org/video/?526456-1/president-trump-speaks-cpac). C-SPAN described the speech as “remarks.” To me, the word “remarks” suggests something brief and casual. Trump’s performance was long and, for Trump, well-prepared.**

As usual with the former president, the talk was peppered with digressions and offhand observations. But he was clearly following a script. Chris Christie, formerly an ally, sighed that the room was only half full (was it?) and that Trump was “not what he used to be (https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/3885066-chris-christie-on-trump-hes-not-what-he-used-to-be/).” Opinions about that vary. I thought the talk bristled with rhetorical electricity. And in terms of substance, it was one of the most forthright and powerful political speeches I’ve heard.

Earlier that day, Trump had won the CPAC straw poll (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/cpac-2023-trump-wins-straw-poll-desantis-loses-support) with 62 percent of the vote. DeSantis was the runner-up with 20 percent. As of May 19, with a half a dozen Republican candidates in the field, Trump leads by 42 points (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/abandon-swamp

**Joe Biden, Habitual Racialist Demagogue: VDH**

Joe Biden, Habitual Racialist Demagogue: VDH

_Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via RealClear Politics (https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2023/05/18/joe_biden_the_habitual_racialist_demagogue_149248.html),_

The most recent liberal ABC News/Washington Post poll showed President Joe Biden's approval rating at 36 percent - the lowest in history for a president at this point in his first term.

_?itok=T4Wik1JV (?itok=T4Wik1JV)_

**Biden's low popularity is no mystery.**

He inherited energy independence, affordable gas prices, historically low interest rates, low inflation, calm overseas, a low crime rate, and a largely closed border with legal-only immigration.

And then Biden destroyed that inheritance.

He has begged illiberal foreign governments to pump oil he refuses to drill domestically for.

He spiked inflation at the highest rate in over 40 years.

Home interest rates have skyrocketed from less than 3% to 7%.

He nearly doubled the price of gasoline.

His hare-brained retreat from Afghanistan marked the greatest humiliation of the American military in the last half-century.

Kabul is now selling billions of dollars' worth of abandoned American equipment to terrorists and anti-American regimes.

After that fiasco, Biden foolhardily played down a possible "minor" Russia invasion of Ukraine. He implored Russia to exempt some American institutions from its cyber-attack target list.

No wonder an empowered Russian President Vladimir Putin went into Ukraine.

**Biden's family is corrupt from top to bottom.**

Its influence peddling schemes increasingly are targets of congressional investigations. Biden himself is explicitly mentioned by his son Hunter as the recipient of a 10% commission on monies the family syndicate leveraged from foreign interests.

Biden promised "unity." Instead, he habitually smears half the country as "semi-fascists" and "ultra-MAGA" extremists.

Biden is cognitively challenged and often incoherent. And he is now losing support in the polls from African Americans, once his most loyal constituency.

**In response, Biden does what he has always done for some 40 years: mouth wild racist demagoguery.**

This graduation season, Biden deliberately chose Howard University to scare its Black graduates into believing the greatest threat to their aspirations is "white supremacy" - but that he, Biden, has been their protector in fighting it.

Note the existential threats Biden deliberately omits.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are flooding over a border Biden deliberately destroyed. Millions of incoming poor will vie for limited federal and state support with Americans who are in need.

Since Biden was elected, there have been nearly 7 million illegal entries.

Some 100,000 Americans now die each year from Mexican-produced fentanyl and other opioids shipped across a wide-open border.

Biden did not mention that nearly 10,000 African Americans are murdered each year, over 90% of them killed by other African Americans.

**Biden first should heal his own racism before he fabricates it in others.**

He fueled his early Senate career with homages to southern Democratic segregationists such as Senator James O. Eastland, D-Miss. Biden even bragged that Eastland "never called me 'boy.'" Biden gave eulogies for former Dixiecrat Sen. Strom Thurmond and former Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd.

Of school busing, a younger Senator Biden thundered, "My children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle."

Biden in 2008 patronized former President Barack Obama in racist terms as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

In 2012, Biden condescended to a group of accomplished Black professionals that the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, would "put y'all back in chains."

As a presidential candidate in 2020, he dismissed two Black journalists, respectively with the putdowns "you ain't Black" and "junkie."

**His fabricated "Corn Pop" he-man autobiographical tales are utterly racist.**

As president he has referred to two prominent people of color as "boy." **He still uses the term "Negro" to refer to Blacks.**

Biden never cites data to support his wild accusations that white supremacy poses the nation's greatest threat.

The 2020 riots, the lengthiest in our history, left up to 40 people dead, destroyed $2 billion in property, led to 14,000 arrests, spanned 120 days of mass looting, and arson, and saw mobs torching police precincts, federal courthouses, and an historic church.

That violence was engineered by radicals in Antifa and Black Lives Matter.

In the January 6 Capitol protests, the only person confirmed to have been killed at that event was an unarmed military veteran and Trump sup…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-biden-habitual-racialist-demagogue-vdh

**"Not Our Beliefs" - Bud Light Distributor Sends Out Public Plea to Bring Back Customers**

"Not Our Beliefs" - Bud Light Distributor Sends Out Public Plea to Bring Back Customers

_Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,_ (https://www.theepochtimes.com/bud-light-distributor-sends-out-public-plea-to-bring-back-customers_5280859.html)

A Bud Light distributor in Alabama issued a public plea to bring back customers who boycotted the brand after it produced a can with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s face.

Steve Tatum, with **the Montgomery-based Bama Budweiser distributor, deployed a radio advertisement for several area stations, pleading with customers to purchase Bud Light again.**

In April and during the first week of May, sales of Bud Light were down significantly, while sales of other Anheuser-Busch products also dropped amid the Mulvaney backlash.

> _“We too at Bama Budweiser are upset about it and have made our feelings known to the top leadership at Anheuser-Busch,” Tatum said in the ad, according (https://www.al.com/news/2023/05/montgomery-beer-distributor-on-bud-light-controversy-you-deserve-to-know-the-truth.html) to multiple news reports._

>

> _“The voice of the consumer has been heard, and Anheuser-Busch has taken action.”_

?itok=srzSkNX_ (?itok=srzSkNX_)

‘#BudLightPartner’

Like Anheuser-Busch’s leadership, Tatum also tried to distance Bud Light from Mulvaney, a biological male who had posted the custom-made Bud Light can and used a hashtag “#BudLightPartner” in early April, drawing significant ire from consumers and conservative celebrities. Several popular country singers, including Travis Tritt and John Rich, said they wouldn’t serve the beer, while Kid Rock posted a video of him shooting up cases of Bud Light.

> _“We at Bama Budweiser, an independent wholesaler, employ around 100 people who live here, work here, and our children go to school here,” Tatum said (https://www.newsweek.com/bud-light-distributor-issues-public-plea-bring-back-angry-customers-1801500) in the ad._

>

> **_“We do not, and as I said before, did not support this issue involving Dylan Mulvaney. There was one single can made. It was not for sale and wasn’t properly approved. As a result, the Bud Light brand has new leadership.”_**

Tatum added:

> _“ **Dylan Mulvaney is not under contract with Bud Light.** The videos you may have seen are Mulvaney’s own social media posts that went viral and many web-based news outlets have distorted the story. **You deserve to know the truth, and life is too short to let a couple of individuals decide what you can eat or drink or spend your hard-earned money on**. And remember, making friends is our business, not enemies.”_

Drop in Sales

Latest industry data shows that Bud Light’s sales dropped in the first week of May, falling 23.6 percent in the week ending May 6, reported (https://beernet.com/latest-bud-light-numbers-have-declines-hit-their-floor/) Beer Business Daily using Nielsen IQ data. In the final week of April, sales for the beer dropped 23.3 percent, the data show.

> _**“Trends aren’t getting much worse, but certainly not getting any better either,”** Beer Business Daily wrote in a commentary on the figures._

Tatum told AL.com that he’s received positive feedback for his ad campaign. However, he said that there has been no response from Anheuser-Busch or Bud Light corporate officials.

> _**“I’m just trying to look after Bama Budweiser,” he said. “I’ve worked too hard to give it all away.”**_

The distributor added (https://www.newsweek.com/bud-light-distributor-issues-public-plea-bring-back-angry-customers-1801500) to Newsweek that “I felt like we had to get a message out there,” adding: _**“We are tied to a corporation, but that’s not necessarily our beliefs in our market here in Alabama.”**_

Sales volumes for Anheuser-Busch products also dropped 9.7 percent for the first week in May, up from the 11.4 percent decline in late April, according to industry data. Anheuser-Busch, which has headquarters in the Netherlands, also makes Budweiser, Michelob, Stella Artois, and Beck’s, among other beers.

‘Misinformation and Confusion’

Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris told the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/dc63c64c-d32e-460a-afdc-458c94860c93) in a recent interview that his company believes the Bud Light boycott was triggered by “misinformation and confusion” circulating on social media and sought to distance his firm from Mulvaney. He said that Mulvaney wasn’t part of an official marketing campaign and that “one can” was produced with Mulvaney’s face.

> _**“It was one post. It was not an advertisement,”**_ Doukeris told the outlet.

He alleged viral videos o…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/not-our-beliefs-bud-light-distributor-sends-out-public-plea-bring-back-customers

**"Isolated Event" Again? All Voters Of New York County Falsely Identified As Democrats In Voter IDs**

"Isolated Event" Again? All Voters Of New York County Falsely Identified As Democrats In Voter IDs

_Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,_ (https://www.theepochtimes.com/all-voters-of-new-york-county-falsely-identified-as-democrats-in-voter-ids_5280910.html)

All voters of Nassau County, New York, were identified as Democrats on their voter ID cards irrespective of political affiliation due to a botch-up by a printing company, triggering accusations about “sabotaging elections” ahead of the upcoming primaries.

The primaries are scheduled for June. Voters of the county, amounting to nearly a million, began to receive their voter ID cards on Tuesday, with voters supporting Republicans, Independents, or another political party surprised to see themselves identified as Democrats in the cards, according to NBC (https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/politics/printing-error-makes-every-registered-voter-a-democrat-in-gop-leaning-nassau-county/4341046/). “We’re already starting to get phone calls from people, saying ‘I’m a registered Republican, I’m a registered Conservative—how come I’m being identified as a Democrat? Who changed my registration?’ And they’re quite upset about it,” said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

_**“There’s a lot of confusion, there’s a lot of people emotionally upset about this,”**_ he added. Blakeman, a Republican, is pinning the blame on Rochester-based Phoenix Graphics, the printing company hired by Nassau County’s Board of Elections to print the voter ID cards.

?itok=AehjNjMp (?itok=AehjNjMp)

**The printing company called it an “isolated event” that was the result of a human error.** “We apologize for our mistake, especially to Nassau County officials, who bear no responsibility for this problem.”

However, this is not the first time that Phoenix Graphics has committed such a mistake. In 2020, Phoenix messed up absentee ballots for 99,000 voters in Brooklyn. The printing firm had erroneously sent mailings to voters containing return envelopes having the names and addresses of other people.

The campaign for Kari Lake (R-Ariz.), who is running for the post of Arizona Governor, slammed the incident.

> _**“A ‘printing error’ in Nassau County, N.Y. led to every voter in that county being listed as a Democrat. There’s that word again. ‘Printer error.’ This is just their blanket excuse for sabotaging elections and hoping nobody calls them on it,”**_ the campaign said in a May 21 tweet (https://twitter.com/KariLakeWarRoom/status/1660019534693302277).

Since New York is a closed primary state, voters registered as belonging to a party are not allowed to vote for any other party. As such, if a GOP supporter is identified as Democrat in the voter registration system, the individual would be barred from casting votes for the Republican primary.

Trust in Elections

Out of the 972,000 voters in the county, Democrats account for around 40 percent. At a press conference, Blakeman ruled out partisanship as a cause for the mishap and said that the county is investigating the matter.

“I don’t think the Democratic Party is engaged in a conspiracy to create havoc in their own primaries. I don’t think the Democratic Party wants a bunch of Republicans showing up to vote in their primaries,” said (https://nypost.com/2023/05/16/deja-blue-printers-flub-makes-every-nassau-county-voter-a-dem/) Blakeman, according to the New York Post.

However, some voters are now questioning the election process due to the typo error. “I have no faith in this country today, as far as what the politics are,” said George Klein, a voter from Nassau. “I’m going to vote Republican primary day, and Democrat on that is not going to affect it,” he said referring to the erroneous ID card he received.

During the 2022 midterms, only 56 percent of Republicans thought the elections will be administered “very” or “somewhat” well, according to Pew Research.

Accurate Voter ID Cards

According to Phoenix Graphics, they are correcting the error and will send out new and accurate voter ID cards soon without any additional cost to taxpayers.

Democratic County Election Commissioner Jim Scheuerman told the New York Post that Phoenix will be paying around $300,000 required to resend the correct registration cards to the county’s voters.

Phoenix was contracted more than ten years ago via a sealed-bid process. Officials with Nassau County’s Board of Elections are reportedly not ruling out considering other vendors to ensure that the recent mistake doesn’t occur again, according to Fox.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 05/…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/isolated-event-again-all-voters-new-york-county-falsely-identified-democrats-voter-ids

**Crypto Calm Before The Smile**

Crypto Calm Before The Smile

_By Marcel Kasumovich and Kartikey Sinha of One River Asset Management_

1\. **Adapt or die.** It’s clever, even if overused. The finite nature of life is what makes it so precious. Embracing adaptation over comfort, the joy of the struggle. Hundreds of brainy quotes are at your fingertips to give credibility to the mantra. Maya Angelou is my mom’s personal favorite: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” There is no try in adaptation – you either do or you don’t. Crypto asset markets choose “do.”

2\. **Adaption is evident in natural cycles, naturally.** Biodiverse ecosystems strengthen the resilience of cycles. Of course, the same is true of economic systems and financial markets. But our instincts are to resist. Intervening to stop forest fires that are disruptive to homes that probably shouldn’t be there. Intervening to guard against losses of banks that probably shouldn’t exist. Intervention leans against natural cycles, lessens diversity, and weakens resilience.

3\. **Intervention requires great humility.** We don’t know what we don’t know. Yet, intervention is often executed with a force of certainty. If banks were not bailed out, we were certain to enter a Great Depression. The unintended consequence of intervention must be less than the social strains of soup kitchens in Central Park. Intervention centralizes debt to government balance sheets, leaving rich countries with unsustainable obligations. It brings generational fragility.

4. **The crypto asset ecosystem stands in sharp contrast.** It demands adaptive resilience. Take US dollar stablecoin. Total assets are roughly $130 billion today, on par with October 2021. Dollars chose to stay in the digital ecosystem despite a sharp rise in US interest rates, a crash in crypto asset markets, and the annihilation of poorly designed stablecoin. Resilience. Then, strains in the US banking system led to a rapid shift of stablecoin to USDT and away from USDC, raising Tether’s share to 46% of the Ethereum stablecoin supply. Adaptation.

5. **Why has US dollar stablecoin been so durable?** Its velocity demonstrates it is well designed and useful. A total of $1,952 billion stablecoin transactions settled on the Ethereum blockchain in the first quarter. Ethereum US dollar stablecoin assets averaged $95 billion over the same period. So, the entire stock of stablecoin turned over 20 times in the quarter, or roughly once every 4-5 days. And that doesn’t include off-chain transactions. It makes USD stablecoin the most efficient collateral in the global financial system. Bank runs are for banks.

6\. Now, **resilience also changes the nature of cycles.** We know that cycles of the weather are simply defined – hot in the summer, cold in the winter. But the amplitudes and timing are highly nonlinear. No two cycles are the same. Crypto asset prices and activity have surged this year. Bitcoin was up more than 80% at its peak this year, transaction volumes have leapt to record levels, and bitcoin mining fees have garnered the third-highest share of revenue in its history. Historically, these would be signs of excess.

7. But **derivative markets are clearly not flashing red.** On the contrary, the signals are remarkably bland. Bitcoin’s three-month volatility expectation is near historic lows at 47%, the skew in option markets is neutral, and the cost of futures leverage is near-zero versus more than 10% annualized during past periods of rapid price gains. Surprised? It’s the benefit of no intervention and increased resilience. Last cycle’s crypto crash is bringing far more discipline to the current cycle.

8. It got us thinking – the “Royal us” in this case, including Kartikey, a member of our Digital Labs. **How does bitcoin’s price and volatility adjust to the demand for leverage?**

We take funding rates implied by the bitcoin perpetual futures from 2018-2022, partition them into percentile ranges, and then evaluate bitcoin’s volatility. Figure 1 shows a happy smile relationship, a dream for risk managing a portfolio.

?itok=lNL4fM8E (?itok=lNL4fM8E)

There’s information content on both extremes – **risk rises when the cost of leverage is extremely low and extremely high, in the boom and bust respectively.**

9 . **The same smile emerges with the absolute move in bitcoin price returns across different stages of the leverage cycle from 2018 to 2022** (Figure 2). But the return profile is more of a jump in the extremes.

?itok=2gWMSVPI (https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/price%20sm…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/calm-smile

**Despite Denials, Experts Say Fentanyl-Laced Marijuana Is A Growing Problem**

Despite Denials, Experts Say Fentanyl-Laced Marijuana Is A Growing Problem

_Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/despite-denials-experts-say-fentanyl-laced-marijuana-is-a-growing-problem_5273311.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge) (emphasis ours),_

Twenty-one states, plus the District of Columbia, have legalized recreational marijuana for adults as of April 2023. And while marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, **88 percent of adults think it should be legalized for medical and recreational use**, according to an October 2022 Pew Research Center survey (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/22/americans-overwhelmingly-say-marijuana-should-be-legal-for-medical-or-recreational-use/)—a significant increase from 1999’s 31 percent.

?itok=m7eqxhpV\

_Cannabis plants grow inside of Thrive Cannabis' production facility in Simcoe, Ontario, on April 13, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Tara Walton)_ (?itok=m7eqxhpV)

Additionally, 55 million Americans currently use marijuana, and 45 percent of the population has tried it at least once, according (https://drugabusestatistics.org/marijuana-addiction/) to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics.

But as attitudes and state laws change regarding marijuana—and its use increases— **reports of marijuana laced with substances like the synthetic opioid fentanyl, are also increasing.**

“One of the trends that we saw secondary to the pandemic was individuals stopped reporting opioid use as their primary drug of choice, and it seems to be replaced with marijuana and methamphetamine,” Teresa Russell, the director of criminal justice outreach in Dayton, Ohio, told The Epoch Times. Russell works between the county jail and community health and treatment facilities.

Russell explained that when someone is booked into the jail and needs to detox, they’re asked about drugs they’ve taken and must take a urine drug screen. Russell said it’s becoming increasingly common for someone to say they’ve only used marijuana but then pop positive for fentanyl.

?itok=svCcsar6\

_Teresa Russell, treatment coordinator at the Montgomery County jail, in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 30, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)_ (?itok=svCcsar6)

“They genuinely don’t know that \[opioids are\] in there,” Russell said. “They have no idea what’s actually being put inside their substances. That’s an ongoing trend of what we’re seeing.”

When explicitly asked if marijuana is being laced with fentanyl and showing up on drug screens, Russell confirmed that’s what she’s seeing.

“ **We hear that not just from my team here in the jail from our intake screens, but we’re hearing that from our outreach partners.**”

NORML, a nonprofit public-interest advocacy group pushing for the legalization of marijuana, is quick to downplay the issue of fentanyl-laced marijuana.

“Rarely a week goes by without police or other public officials warning about so-called ‘fentanyl-laced’ weed. Upon closer inspection, however, there’s little if any truth behind these sensational claims,” NORML says on its site (https://norml.org/blog/2022/10/04/norml-op-ed-claims-of-fentanyl-laced-cannabis-are-common-but-are-they-accurate/).

“It’s controversial,” Russell said of fentanyl-laced marijuana, “But I have urine drug screens that show it.”

Russell isn’t the only one sounding the alarm on what she believes is a growing issue.

Cases

On Feb. 10, two students at North Mac High School in Illinois, were found to be in possession and under the influence of marijuana, and two field tests administered by the Virden Police Department found that the marijuana was positive for fentanyl.

Kyle Hacke, the superintendent of North Mac, said in a statement (https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/wandtv.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/11/a118021a-abf3-11ed-832e-af5614139522/63eac36e9dd4a.pdf.pdf), “We are fairly certain our students did not know they were ingesting fentanyl. Fentanyl-laced drugs … continue to show up in small communities like ours nationwide. We implore you to speak with your children and take necessary steps to combat this danger.”

On Nov. 17, 2022, police in Leeds, Alabama, charged Jose Ingnacio Medina-Estrada with murder after he allegedly sold marijuana that was laced with fentanyl. The buyer—who believed he was only purchasing marijuana according (https://www.facebook.com/leeds…

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/despite-denials-experts-say-fentanyl-laced-marijuana-growing-problem

**China Bans Micron As Supplier Over 'Major National Security Risk'**

China Bans Micron As Supplier Over 'Major National Security Risk'

In retaliation over a sweeping US ban on selling advanced chip-making technology to China, Beijing is now **banning major Chinese firms from doing business with Micron Technology**, claiming that its products pose a 'major national-security risk,' the _Wall Street Journal_ (https://www.wsj.com/articles/beijing-bans-micron-as-supplier-to-big-chinese-firms-citing-national-security-5f326b90?mod=e2tw) reports.

?itok=8H9h5QvA (?itok=8H9h5QvA)

On Sunday, the Cyberspace Administration of China said that Micron failed a national security review, and that its products contain "significant security risks" that would affect national security. The agency has warned operators of key Chinese information infrastructure (telecom firms and state-owned banks in particular) against purchasing Micron products.

" **We are evaluating the conclusion and assessing our next steps**," Micron told the _Journal_. "We look forward to continuing to engage in discussions with Chinese authorities."

> _**The Chinese ban came less than two months after Beijing announced an investigation on imports from Micron (https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-opens-cybersecurity-probe-of-micron-amid-competition-with-u-s-over-technology-57698d0a?mod=article_inline)**, the largest memory-chip maker in the U.S., in what seemed a political gesture aimed at hitting back at a sweeping ban (https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-restricts-semiconductor-exports-in-bid-to-slow-chinas-military-advance-11665155702?mod=article_inline) Washington put in place late last year on selling advanced chip-making technology to China._

>

> _**Chinese officials believe certain American companies lobbied the Biden administration to institute the ban.** The Micron probe suggested Beijing zeroed in on Micron as a particular target. It also comes as China has broadly ratcheted up pressure on foreign businesses (https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-ratchets-up-pressure-on-foreign-companies-524b958e?mod=article_inline) in a bid to fortify its economy from foreign influence. -WSJ_

According to Lester Ross, a Beijing-based lawyer at WilmerHale which advises US companies doing business in China, **the impact could be broader than initially thought**.

"Other domestic customers may also consider this to be a political signal to stop buying, and even replace, their products," he said.

The action against Micron **follows Beijing's condemnation of a recent statement issued by President Joe Biden** and the leaders of six other countries which have pledged to take action against the transfer of sensitive technology to China, and to protect nations from what they've characterized as Chinese intimidation tactics.

China, meanwhile, called the Group of Seven as fostering "Western rules" that lack international credibility.

According to anonymous Chinese officials, Beijing is pondering whether to send Commerce Minister Wang Wentao to Washington DC to meet with his US counterpart, instead of sending him to Detroit for a meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers.

"Such a bilateral meeting must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect," said one of the officials.

On Sunday, **Biden told reporters after the G-7 meeting that the US wants to open more lines of communication with China**. "Then this silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars worth of spy equipment was flying over the United States and it got shot down and everything changed in terms of talking to one another," he said. "I think you’re going to see that begin to thaw very shortly."

> _**China has been looking for ways to retaliate against intensified U.S. sanctions against Chinese companies.** It has held back its required green light for mergers (https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-new-tech-weapon-dragging-its-feet-on-global-merger-approvals-d653ca4a?mod=article_inline) that involve American companies such as Intel as the U.S.-China technology war intensifies._

>

> _But **Chinese officials have also been wary of punching too hard** as to further limit Chinese companies’ access to advanced Western technology._

>

> _Micron represents an easy target for Beijing because Chinese companies can easily switch out its products for those made by competitors such as Samsung and SK Hynix, according to analysts and Western business executives who have consulted with Chinese authorities. -WSJ_

Approximately 10% of Micron revenue comes from China, according to Gavekal Dragonomics.

Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 05/21/2023 - 18:00

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-bans-micron-over-major-national-security-risk

**Paul Craig Roberts: The United States Has Been Destroyed By Its Ruling Elites**

Paul Craig Roberts: The United States Has Been Destroyed By Its Ruling Elites

_Via PaulCraigRoberts.org,_ (https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/05/18/the-united-states-has-been-destroyed-by-its-ruling-elites/) _(emphasis ours)_

_Against the backdrop of the United States’ recognition of the investigation against Donald Trump as politically motivated, structural and ideological controversies, and concerns that the American economy will enter a recession, the GEOFOR editorial board asked Paul Craig Roberts, Chairman of the Institute for Political Economy (USA), a PhD in Economics and US Undersecretary of Treasury in the Reagan administration, to share his views on America’s future._

?itok=uYAfkwv1 (?itok=uYAfkwv1)

GEOFOR: Special Counsel John Durham “acquitted” Donald Trump on the so-called “Russiagate”, writing in his report that the FBI investigation was politically motivated. How will this news affect the Democrats’ fight against Trump?

> _Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: The Special Counsel’s vindication of Donald Trump and denunciation of the FBI for conducting a politically motivated investigation devoid of any evidence should collapse the equally fraudulent Biden regime investigation of Trump on fake documents charges and the New York state prosecution of Trump on alleged expense misreporting charges. **It has been clear for a long time that the list of fake charges against Trump, supported by the media, are propaganda to prevent Trump again running for President and to teach all future potential presidential candidates that they will be destroyed if they attempt to represent the people instead of the unelected ruling oligarchy.**_

>

> _However, the Democrat Party and the presstitutes that service them have no respect whatsoever for truth. **Facts simply do not matter to them**. This is true also of American Universities, law associations, medical associations, the CIA, FBI, NSA, the State Department, the regulatory agencies such as NIH, CDC, FDA, the large corporations, and many establishment Republican members of the House and Senate who serve the economic interests that pay them, not truth. It is also the case with a high percentage of Democrat voters who have been conditioned by propaganda to hate Trump. To Democrats what matters is not facts, but getting Trump. Truth is not permitted to prevent the destruction of Trump._

>

> _**Consequently, the US is moving toward a fatal split in the society from which recovery is impossible.** Trump represents ordinary Americans who prefer peace to the neoconservatives’ wars, who want their jobs back that the greed-driven capitalist global corporations sent to China and Asia, who want their children properly educated instead of indoctrinated with sexual perversion, Satanism, and told that they are racists. In contrast, the Democrats are increasingly Woke–people who believe that truth is an oppressive tool of white supremacy, that Christian morality is tyrannical and discriminatory against pedophiles and other sexual perverts, and that, as “President” Biden himself has said, white people are the greatest threat to America. See: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/05/15/us-navy-enlists-drag-queen-for-digital-ambassador-role-to-attract-more-recruits-2/ (https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/05/15/us-navy-enlists-drag-queen-for-digital-ambassador-role-to-attract-more-recruits-2/)_

>

> _Now that official investigations by the House Republicans have brought the utter corruption of Biden and his son to light (see: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/05/16/bank-records-show-biden-family-received-10-million-in-payments-from-china-foreign-interests-house-oversight/ (https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/05/16/bank-records-show-biden-family-received-10-million-in-payments-from-china-foreign-interests-house-oversight/) ), **the Democrats, the dangerous and corrupt military/security complex, and the complicit whore American media, are desperate.** They all stand as being exposed. So, rather than apologize for their mistreatment of Trump and his supporters–1,000 of whom the Democrats have illegally imprisoned–they will likely strike out while they still control the Executive Branch, the US Senate, the CIA, FBI, NSA, and federal agencies such as the IRS that have been armed and militarized._

>

> _**Alternatively, the corrupt and threatened Democrats might cause war between the US and Russia, or Iran, or China in the hopes that a war will unify even Trump supporters, especially the super-patriots among them, around the “President” against “foreign enemies.”**_

GEOFOR: Recently there were reports that former Vice President Mike Pence seriously intends to compete wit…

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/paul-craig-roberts-united-states-has-been-destroyed-its-ruling-elites