**Watch: Ron DeSantis Releases Hilarious Commercial Trolling Trans Athletes**
Watch: Ron DeSantis Releases Hilarious Commercial Trolling Trans Athletes
_**From mediocre to champions...**_
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis displays a talent for trolling trans sports activists (specifically biological men claiming to be women) with a new commercial "congratulating" them on their impressive achievement of pushing women out of women's sports.
> The Desantis team has a new commercial honoring real men who are dominating women’s sports in a play on the old real mean of genius Bud Light commercials. Enjoy: pic.twitter.com/2WRfmva9AW (https://t.co/2WRfmva9AW)
>
> — Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 18, 2023 (https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1648152209740161027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Good work, guys! Show those women athletes who's boss.
Florida has banned biological men from women's sports since 2021 at all publicly funded institutions. At least 21 states have so far passed similar laws. Arguments on the political left range from claims that there are no physical advantages for biological males over biological females, to claims that barring trans athletes from women's competitions could "lead to suicides." So far, none of the assertions made by leftists or trans activists on the issue have proven legitimate.
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 04/23/2023 - 16:00
**The Censorship Industrial Complex Is The Revolt Of The Elites**
The Censorship Industrial Complex Is The Revolt Of The Elites
_Authored by Leighton Woodhouse via 'Public' Substack,_ (https://public.substack.com/p/the-censorship-industrial-complex)
_**The political establishment has constructed a new apparatus of control...**_
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In 2002, the Bush administration, desperate to sell its planned invasion of Iraq to the American public, turned to the mainstream media. Every evening on Fox News, White House officials invoked Hitler allusions (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/aug/21/iraq.richardnortontaylor) and implied fictitious ties between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
Fox, however, allowed them to preach only to the converted. To forge a working national consensus, they had to reach doves as well as hawks.
So the Bush administration zeroed in on The New York Times. With reporter Judith Miller, they hit pay dirt. With breathless headlines such as “HUSSEIN INTENSIFIES QUEST FOR A-BOMB PARTS (https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/world/threats-responses-iraqis-us-says-hussein-intensifies-quest-for-bomb-parts.html), Miller stamped the President’s mythmaking about aluminum tubes, mobile weapons labs, and Weapons of Mass Destruction with the imprimatur of her illustrious employer. So critical was her reporting to the spinning of American aggression as self-defense that it’s conceivable that the White House’s entire drive to war may have failed without it.
**By the time Miller’s stories were exposed as so much laundered propaganda, they had served their purpose: American soldiers were already occupying Iraq.**
The invasion of Iraq marked the last time the political elite would wield the power to mobilize an entire nation merely by manipulating a handful of journalistic elites. The era of mass media, during which just a dozen or so giant print and broadcast corporations enjoyed hegemonic control over the national public discourse, lasted about eighty years, beginning roughly a century ago, when modern television was born. The incestuous relationship between the government and the media during those decades was depicted in Steven Spielberg’s movie _The Post,_ in which Defense Secretary Robert McNamara tries and fails (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkPM61FRXIU) to leverage his cozy relationship with Washington Post editor Katherine Graham to compel the media to fall in line with the government’s suppression of the Pentagon Papers. The story is heroic because it’s so unusual; Graham’s decision was the exception that proved the rule.
**That era ended two decades ago, when social media networks emerged.** About a year after the invasion of Iraq, Facebook was founded. The year after that YouTube was born; the following year came Twitter. With the cheap, targeted advertising their technology enabled, the new tech platforms destroyed the business model of the mass media. Unable to compete for advertisers, the media mammoths of the twentieth century floundered. The entire industry was thrown into crisis, bleeding revenue and laying off staff.
At the same time, social media began sorting news consumers into hyper-polarized digital silos, shattering the broad political center that the traditional media catered to and relied upon to sell advertisements to a mass audience. The New York Times, CNN, and even Fox News saw their broad national readerships and viewerships contract into smaller and evermore partisan echo chambers, even as ordinary people began to forge horizontal connections with one another online, exchanging information laterally. The public began generating their own, autonomous narratives about world events, typically cobbled together eclectically from reports by various news outlets, but beholden to none of them in particular. The power to shape the national narrative devolved downward, becoming increasingly fractured in the process.
**This anarchic new media ecosystem has defined the public discourse ever since.** For both elected politicians and the administrative state, it has constituted a perennial crisis. Bureaucracies manage populations by striking bargains with leaders; you can’t negotiate with a mob, much less a thousand of them. From the perspective of the state, this new information landscape was essentially ungovernable. An entire regime of social control, helmed by the most powerful politicians in the country in partnership with the titans of the media industry, was felled. In the age of social media that the new platforms jump-started, the state’s ability to control world events by playing reporters like Judith Miller like pawns on a chess board withered away, as the influence of the media corporations they worked for dissipated.
The po…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/censorship-industrial-complex-revolt-elites
**Watch: Boeing 737 Engine Catches Fire Over Ohio After Bird Strike**
Watch: Boeing 737 Engine Catches Fire Over Ohio After Bird Strike
On Sunday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 737 jet took off from an airport in Colombus, Ohio, only to be struck by a flock of birds, resulting in one of its engines spewing fireballs, reported The National Desk (https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/boeing-737-forced-to-land-after-engine-struck-by-flock-of-birds-american-airlines-phoenix-columbus-geese-engine-failure-fire-runway-airport-john-glenn-faa-operational-safety). A dramatic video of the incident was shared on Twitter.
American Airlines flight 1958 to Phoenix, Arizona, took off from John Glenn International Airport just after 0740 local time. After being airborne for several minutes, the plane struck a flock of birds.
> _"American Airlines flight 1958, with service from Columbus (CMH) to Phoenix (PHX), returned to CMH shortly after takeoff due to a mechanical issue._
>
> _"The flight landed normally and taxied safely to the gate under its own power. The aircraft was taken out of service for maintenance and our team is working to get customers back on their way to PHX. Safety is our top priority and we thank our customers for their understanding," American Airlines, who operated the plane and flight in question, wrote in a statement._
Here's the video of fireballs coming out of the 737's right engine.
> American Airlines Boeing 737-800 (N972NN, built 2015) safely returned to land at Columbus-Intl AP (KCMH), OH after flames and smoke was seen coming from the right engine. Flight #AA1958 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/AA1958?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) to Phoenix landed back on runway 28L 25 minutes after take-off. No one was hurt. @Cbus4Life (https://twitter.com/Cbus4Life?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)… pic.twitter.com/YsAxsJ3D1O (https://t.co/YsAxsJ3D1O)
>
> — JACDEC (@JacdecNew) April 23, 2023 (https://twitter.com/JacdecNew/status/1650138362613825536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 shows the plane made a giant loop around the Colombus metro area before safely returning to the airport.
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Emergency crews were dispatched to the American Airlines jet when it landed.
> #AA1958 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/AA1958?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw): post landing images are showing traces of bird impacts on the #2 engine cowling and right wing leading edge. @GreaceMonkey98 (https://twitter.com/GreaceMonkey98?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)pic.twitter.com/SVsGZjvkta (https://t.co/SVsGZjvkta)
>
> — JACDEC (@JacdecNew) April 23, 2023 (https://twitter.com/JacdecNew/status/1650141082167005187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
A person on the ground told Daily Mail the plane's right engine sounded "as if it was about to give up."
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 04/23/2023 - 15:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/watch-boeing-737-engine-catches-fire-over-ohio-after-bird-strike
**Tchir: Not Angry Enough To Write?**
Tchir: Not Angry Enough To Write?
_Authored by Peter Tchir via Academy Securities,_ (https://academysecurities.com/)
I really wanted to title today’s report “ **Don’t Cry for Me Argentina**” so that I could write about how amazing the country is! Great trip and while I had high expectations, those expectations were far surpassed by the actual experience.
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Then, I started leaning towards “ **Road to Nowhere**”. In the past 2 weeks, the 10-year yield is up 18 bps, but the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and credit spreads are basically unchanged. Even bitcoin is unchanged, although it did surge and drop 10% during that timeframe. However, I already used “Road to Nowhere” as a title so I couldn’t use it again. Side note – the SNL skit “Flight to Nowhere from LaGuardia” is still one of the better skits I’ve seen in years on that show.
I could write about the **Citi Economic Surprise Index** and while it has “stabilized” for now, I expect it to drop further.
I could write about the **T-bill market** where the curve is **finally attracting some attention**. T-bill yields are as low as 3.3% out to May 23rd. They start rising a bit from there (climbing to 4.1% by June 1st), but then normalize somewhere around 4.9% post July. So far, this weirdness is limited to the T-bill market, where a subset of large investors can only do T-bills and seem to be **skewing their purchases to maturities before the debt ceiling would be “breached”.** The T-bill market is hinting at concerns and issues around the **debt ceiling**, but it is not having undue influence on other markets (SOFR, CP, etc.).
We could also analyze the creation of a **0DTE VIX** (a VIX index that is based on shorter dated options), but it just **isn’t ringing any alarm bells**(or at least nothing new about the “gambling” nature of the 0DTE options market). I “know” that VIX is around 17, but to be perfectly honest, VIX is so far down on my current list of potential signals that I only know it is below 17 because there is so much chatter about this. The “new VIX” could be interesting because I think that 0DTE is where a lot more people are placing their hedging bets.
We could write about the **demise of the dollar**, but the Chinese Yuan is weaker than where it was in January, so there isn’t an urgency to this story.
I do want to write about the transition from **“Made in China” to “Made by China”**, but that isn’t urgent, and it will be long enough to be a separate “thought piece” (much like our Olympics as Bookends (https://academysecurities.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Beijing-Olympics-as-Cultural-Bookends.pdf) or Recentralization of China (https://academysecurities.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Recentralization-of-China.pdf) reports).
**Earnings season has started**, but I’m finding it inconclusive so far (I want to see “weakish” reports met by rising stock prices to turn bullish here).
On mornings where we sell-off (followed by buying in the afternoon), it is hard to tell if it is simply shorts getting squeezed, new longs being set, or something else altogether. However, I am leaning towards viewing the market as being “neutral” in terms of positioning.
**Maybe 10 days away from the screens and news flow has “dulled” my anger**. Maybe, as a contrarian who does tend to “rant” rather than “write”, I need that anger to write?
Or maybe, the markets are just that dull! I was going to go with “ **Home, Home on the Range**” but that seemed like a cop-out.
As I get back in the “saddle” there will be a lot to write about, and I do think that the **debt ceiling will be an issue that could hurt markets**. I have little faith that D.C. can “maximize” their benefit from this round of debt ceiling “side deals” without triggering at least one round of serious **_Planet of the Apes_ “you finally, really did it”** recognition by the markets.
I do think that **geopolitical risk is underpriced**, but that too is part of stories and themes that go beyond the next week or two of earnings releases.
Bank earnings seem ok, but again, the **battle over what banks have to pay on deposits to keep deposits in the banking system has moved to a phase where it will take much longer to play out** than when people were just afraid of default risk (which was heavily overstated).
**Bottom Line**
I’ve tweaked the rate section from 2 weeks ago, but little else has changed. Part of this is because I don’t have the anger and I’m still getting back into the “grind” after a nice vacation. But so little has changed in two weeks that I’m not sure why I’d change my view?
**Rates.**
- **Relatively neutral…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tchir-not-angry-enough-write
**It's A "Defund-The-Global-Police" Moment, Jen Says De-Dollarization Is Happening At A "Stunning" Pace**
It's A "Defund-The-Global-Police" Moment, Jen Says De-Dollarization Is Happening At A "Stunning" Pace
Over the last few weeks, it has seemed you can't turn a page, blink at a pixel, or hear a news report without some form of **de-dollarization** headline shrieking at you. From Brazil to Saudi Arabia, and from India to Argentina, and increasing number of nations are 'reportedly' shifting away from the dollar hegemon.
Some recent headlines:
- "No Reason" For Malaysia To Rely On US Dollar, PM Warns As Yuan Influence Grows (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/no-reason-malaysia-rely-us-dollar-pm-warns-yuan-influence-grows)
- De-Dollarization Just Got Real (https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/de-dollarization-just-got-real)
- Here Are 7 Signs That Global De-Dollarization Has Just Shifted Into Overdrive (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/here-are-7-signs-global-de-dollarization-has-just-shifted-overdrive)
- De-Dollarization Has Begun (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/de-dollarization-has-begun)
Eyeballing the Dollar Index (or some other broad index of fiat relativity) drops modest hints but the nature of the relationship of one un-backed currency against another makes that comparison worthless in the longer-term.
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But below the surface, the dollar's fecal matter is striking rotating objects at an increasing pace and Stephen Jen - infamous for his coining of the 'dollar smile' while at Morgan Stanley (https://www.eurizonsljcapital.com/dollar-smile/) which posits that the US Dollar tends to do well when the economy is soaring or slumping - recently quantified just how rapidly the de-dollarization is ocurring.
Jen, who now runs money at Eurizon SLJ (https://www.eurizonsljcapital.com/), warned in a recent briefing note, that **the dollar is losing its reserve status at a faster pace than generally accepted,** as many analysts have failed to account for last year’s frantic swings in exchange rates.
> _“The **dollar suffered a stunning collapse in 2022** in its market share as a reserve currency, presumably due to its muscular use of sanctions,” Jen and his colleague Joana Freire wrote._
>
> _“Exceptional actions taken by the US and its allies against Russia have startled large reserve-holding countries,” most of which are emerging economies from the so-called Global South (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-18/g-7-vows-to-back-ukraine-indefinitely-seeks-stable-china-ties), they said._
As The FT reports (https://www.ft.com/content/72c27c26-f1d6-4a4b-be50-d6bf70c3546f), Jen estimates that if you adjust for price changes the dollar’s share of official global reserve currencies has gone from about 73 per cent in 2001 to around 55 per cent in 2021.
**Then, last year, it fell to 47 percent of total global reserves.**
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_Source: Eurizon SLJ Capital_
Jen and Freire go on to ominously explain that **the USD is losing its market share as a reserve currency at a much faster rate than is commonly believed.**
> _"After steady declines in its global market share for the past two decades, in 2022 the dollar lost market share at a pace 10 times as rapidly. Analysts have failed to detect this big change because they calculate the nominal value of the world’s central banks’ dollar holdings without considering the changes in the price of the dollar. Adjusting for these price changes, the dollar, we calculate, has lost some 11 percent of its market share since 2016 and double that amount since 2008._
>
> _**This erosion in the USD’s reserve currency status has accelerated precipitously since the start of the war in Ukraine.** Exceptional actions taken by the US and its allies against Russia have startled large reserve-holding countries, most of which are from the Global South._
>
> _...Without the need for us to take sides in this debate on Ukraine, it seems reasonable to speculate that the main driver of the collapse in USD’s reserve status in 2022 may have reflected a panicked reaction to property rights being jeopardised. **What we witnessed in 2022 was sort of a ‘defund-the-global-police’ moment, whereby many reserve managers in the world disagreed with the conduct of both Russia and the US**."_
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This is suddenly serious, as Je…
**Chicago Employees Fired For Not Getting COVID-19 Vaccine Must Be Reinstated: Judge**
Chicago Employees Fired For Not Getting COVID-19 Vaccine Must Be Reinstated: Judge
_Authored by Zachary Steiber via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/chicago-employees-fired-for-not-getting-a-covid-19-vaccine-must-be-reinstated-judge_5214152.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge) (emphasis ours),_
**Workers in Chicago who were fired for not complying with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate must get their jobs back, a judge said in a new ruling.**
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_Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at an election night rally at Mid-America Carpenters Regional Council in Chicago on Feb. 28, 2023. (Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images)_ (
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City officials violated multiple parts of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act by imposing the mandate without negotiating with unions representing the workers over the effects of the mandate, including consequences for not getting vaccinated, Administrative Law Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal said in a 78-page ruling (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23786134-decision-in-chicago-worker-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-case) dated April 19.
**The mandate itself was not subject to bargaining because the vaccination requirements were “integral to \[the city’s\] ability to maintain a functional workforce** that was capable of carrying out public services during a global pandemic,” Hamburg-Gal said. **But that didn’t remove the need to bargain over aspects of the mandate.**
“Even where an employer’s decision to implement a management policy is not subject to negotiations, the Act requires good-faith collective bargaining over the effects of that policy decision on the terms and conditions of employment of bargaining unit employees,” the judge said.
Effects that should have been negotiated included sick leave availability for workers who were injured by a vaccine and discipline for failing to report vaccination status or failing to get vaccinated, according to the ruling.
No emergency removed the bargaining requirements for the mandate, which was imposed on Oct. 8, 2021, the judge said.
“By that date, the pandemic had been in existence for well over a year and a vaccine had been available to the public for over ten months under Emergency Use Authorization,” the ruling noted.
**The city also violated the law by not providing unions with information they requested that was relevant to negotiations** and by eliminating a testing alternative to vaccination.
_Read more **here...** (https://www.theepochtimes.com/chicago-employees-fired-for-not-getting-a-covid-19-vaccine-must-be-reinstated-judge_5214152.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge)_
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sun, 04/23/2023 - 13:30
**Needed: A 'Made In The USA' Policy Plus Energy Independence To Counter Inflation & The Rising National Debt**
Needed: A 'Made In The USA' Policy Plus Energy Independence To Counter Inflation & The Rising National Debt
_Authored by Lawrence Kadish via The Gatestone Institute,_ (https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19588/rising-us-national-debt)
**Sad but true, history is now all but a forgotten subject in our schools.**
But economic history?
With luck, you may find the topic in some esoteric book written by a professor and hidden on some dusty library shelf.
Yet it is there, within those pages, that you will find **the history of nations who harnessed the power of a balanced budget and assumed global dominance.**
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Of equal importance will be the parallel lesson of those that failed to appreciate that **the most sophisticated military in the world can win a war only to come home to a nation that will eventually fall because of a mismanaged economy.**
Without an appreciation of that history a nation's leaders can easily pursue a disastrous course of pork spending that can destroy the promise of the future.
Which is **why Americans should be deeply concerned about this Administration and its reign of spending and resultant increased debt**, that will be burdening us, and future citizens, far into the future.
**That kind of debt is a silent nation-killer.**
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 23:30
**Banks Or Buddies - Where Do People Borrow Money From?**
Banks Or Buddies - Where Do People Borrow Money From?
When making the decision to borrow money, do you turn to friends and family for financial help, or do you go to a financial institution like a bank or credit card company?
On a country-to-country basis, this choice often depends on a mix of various factors, including the availability of financial services, financial literacy (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/7-major-flaws-global-financial-system/), and the cultural approach to the very concept of lending itself.
In these graphics, Visual Capitalist's Richie Lionell sheds some light (https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/borrow-money-country-income-level/)on where people borrow money from, using the 2021 Global Findex Database (https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex/Data#sec1) published by the World Bank.
Borrowing From Financial Institutions
To compare borrowing practices across both location and income level, the dataset features survey results from respondents aged 15+ and groups countries by region _except for high-income countries_, which are grouped together.
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In 2021, most individuals in high income economies borrowed money from formal financial institutions.
CountryRegionBorrowed from a financial institutionCanadaHigh income81.01%IsraelHigh income79.52%IcelandHigh income73.36%Hong Kong SAR, ChinaHigh income70.01%Korea, Rep.High income68.64%NorwayHigh income66.82%United StatesHigh income66.21%Taiwan, ChinaHigh income61.95%SwitzerlandHigh income61.40%JapanHigh income61.19%New ZealandHigh income60.38%AustraliaHigh income57.29%AustriaHigh income56.52%ItalyHigh income55.01%United KingdomHigh income54.98%GermanyHigh income54.68%IrelandHigh income54.11%DenmarkHigh income53.16%FinlandHigh income52.98%SpainHigh income51.92%SwedenHigh income48.69%BelgiumHigh income47.98%FranceHigh income44.37%SingaporeHigh income42.82%SloveniaHigh income42.36%UruguayHigh income42.01%BrazilLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)40.75%ChinaEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)39.19%MaltaHigh income38.95%TürkiyeEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)37.84%NetherlandsHigh income34.45%Slovak RepublicHigh income34.41%MongoliaEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)34.39%UkraineEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)34.13%EstoniaHigh income33.64%CroatiaHigh income33.03%Saudi ArabiaHigh income32.38%PolandHigh income31.92%Czech RepublicHigh income31.33%CyprusHigh income31.25%CambodiaEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)30.89%ArgentinaLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)30.81%PortugalHigh income30.44%KazakhstanEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)29.76%Russian FederationEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)29.75%ThailandEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)28.26%BulgariaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)26.36%ArmeniaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)26.17%Iran, Islamic Rep.Middle East & North Africa (excluding high income)25.11%ChileHigh income24.20%GeorgiaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)23.89%EcuadorLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)23.23%LatviaHigh income22.74%United Arab EmiratesHigh income22.46%KenyaSub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)22.18%North MacedoniaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)22.10%PeruLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)21.95%Dominican RepublicLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)21.65%Bosnia and HerzegovinaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)21.30%Sri LankaSouth Asia21.29%NamibiaSub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)20.97%SerbiaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)20.65%GreeceHigh income20.11%MauritiusSub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)20.09%BoliviaLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)19.30%RomaniaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)19.14%HungaryHigh income18.93%UgandaSub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)18.62%South AfricaSub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)18.22%ColombiaLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)18.10%Kyrgyz RepublicEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)17.73%KosovoEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)17.61%Costa RicaLatin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)17.46%PhilippinesEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)17.45%LiberiaSub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)15.42%BangladeshSouth Asia14.22%NepalSouth Asia14.11%MalaysiaEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)13.48%AlbaniaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)13.39%MoldovaEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)13.18%IndonesiaEast Asia & Pacific (excluding high income)12.86%TajikistanEurope & Central Asia (excluding high income)12.43%ParaguayLatin America & Caribbean (excluding …
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/banks-or-buddies-where-do-people-borrow-money
**US Tries To Blame Russia For Sudan "Deep State" War**
US Tries To Blame Russia For Sudan "Deep State" War
_Authored by Andrew Korybko via The Automatic Earth blog,_ (https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/04/us-tries-blame-russia-for-sudan-deep-state-war/)
**Debunking The Latest Fake News Narrative**
CNN published an exclusive piece on Thursday alleging that “Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army (https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/20/africa/wagner-sudan-russia-libya-intl/index.html)”. They claim that satellite imagery shows increased Russian military transport activity between Libya and Syria in the run-up to Sudan’s “deep state” war (https://korybko.substack.com/p/sudans-deep-state-war-could-have). According to CNN, this confirms rumors that General Haftar is supplying Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hamedti”) with surface-to-air missiles (SAM) on behalf of Wagner.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published their own exclusive piece the day prior on Wednesday alleging that “Libyan Militia and Egypt’s Military Back Opposite Sides in Sudan Conflict (https://www.wsj.com/articles/libyan-militia-and-egypts-military-back-opposite-sides-in-sudan-conflict-87206c3b)”, so these two stories complement one another. Both Hamedti (https://tass.com/world/1607131) and Wagner (https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2023/04/19/Russia-s-private-Wagner-Group-denies-it-is-operating-in-Sudan) have denied these claims, however. The Sudanese Ambassador to Russia also confirmed (https://en.sputniknews.africa/20230420/ambassador-sudanese-leaders-not-asking-for-political-asylum-in-russia-1058730785.html) that “Russia is a friendly country to us so we have been in direct contact with \[the\] Russian Foreign Ministry since the very beginning of those events last Saturday.”
That diplomat’s reaffirmation of Sudan’s close ties with Russia (https://korybko.substack.com/p/analyzing-russias-strategic-interests) is especially important since he represents the government that’s internationally recognized as being led by Chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who commands the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and is one of the two figures vying for power. At present, Khartoum therefore doesn’t extend credence to the emerging US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) narrative that Russia is arming the RSF via Haftar-Wagner, but that could soon change.
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**Preconditioning The Public For Another Proxy War**
Unless the present three-day Eid ceasefire (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/21/sudans-rsf-announces-72-hour-ceasefire-amid-khartoum-fighting) holds and leads to the start of peace talks that ultimately end this “deep state” war, which is unlikely since both sides made clear their intent to completely destroy the other, then this conflict is expected to resume in the near future. Should the SAF fail to defeat the RSF and possibly even be placed on the backfoot, then Burhan might gamble that it’s in his best interests to parrot the MSM’s anti-Russian accusations in an attempt to receive direct Western military support.
That scenario isn’t all that far-fetched either considering that the Associated Press (https://apnews.com/article/united-states-sudan-djibouti-evacuation-2773f4922611aeed462652f178745688) and Politico (https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/20/us-troops-sudan-embassy-evacuation-00093038) both cited unnamed officials on Thursday to report that the US is assembling additional troops in nearby Djibouti to prepare for the possible evacuation of Americans from Sudan. This pretext could easily be exploited to arm the SAF and/or attack the RSF, especially if the Pentagon claims that the latter tried stopping its operation by building upon last week’s claim (https://tass.com/world/1605625) that its forces shot at an armored US diplomatic vehicle.
In the event that Burhan repeats the MSM’s emerging anti-Russian narrative and promises to rubbish Sudan’s naval base deal with Moscow upon defeating the RSF, then the Biden Administration can “justify” its military intervention on the basis of “defending Sudanese democracy from a Kremlin coup”. The public would then be told that the latest conflict was sparked by Russia’s support for the “insurgent” RSF, which the MSM would attribute to its interests in defending Wagner’s mining operations there.
**American Meddling In Russian-Egyptian Relations**
This would predictably precede an unprecedented but preplanned information warfare campaign (https://korybko.substack.com/p/axios-exposed-frances-infowar-against) painting Russia as a “destabilizing” force in Africa, which would be aimed at counteracting its hitherto …
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-tries-blame-russia-sudan-deep-state-war
**"Entire Downtown Is Effectively Dead:" Baltimore City Descends Further Into Turmoil**
"Entire Downtown Is Effectively Dead:" Baltimore City Descends Further Into Turmoil
Downtown Baltimore is plagued with shootings, carjackings, muggings, and out-of-control packs of teenagers wreaking havoc (https://www.zerohedge.com/political/baltimore-mayor-calls-citywide-curfew-after-all-hell-breaks-out). Baltimore residents can thank five decades of Democrat politicians for mismanaging this once-thriving town.
Earlier this month, the Inner Harbor district was overrun by hundreds of teenagers that resembled an apocalyptic scene from a Hollywood or Netflix movie. The video below might provide some insight into why people are shunning the area, which caused a plunge in foot traffic, making it difficult for retail stores to survive.
> Just a late night run at the great Baltimore City’s #InnerHarbor (https://twitter.com/hashtag/InnerHarbor?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#SpringBreak (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpringBreak?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) vibes #SpringBreak2023 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpringBreak2023?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#Baltimore (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Baltimore?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#Maryland (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maryland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#น้องวินอยากเป็นพี่วิน (https://twitter.com/hashtag/%E0%B8%99%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%81%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%9B%E0%B9%87%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#TAEHYUNGxCELINE (https://twitter.com/hashtag/TAEHYUNGxCELINE?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#SuccessionHBO (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SuccessionHBO?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#Succession (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Succession?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#ChaguoSmartNaAirtel (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChaguoSmartNaAirtel?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#Maryland (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maryland?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#Taiwan (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Taiwan?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#TikTok (https://twitter.com/hashtag/TikTok?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#SummerMMFF2023 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/SummerMMFF2023?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#INVASION (https://twitter.com/hashtag/INVASION?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)#Russia (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)… pic.twitter.com/X36btbT65g (https://t.co/X36btbT65g)
>
> — Daniel Barahona (@GlobalSETT) April 10, 2023 (https://twitter.com/GlobalSETT/status/1645377339058970625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
This leaves us with local media outlet Baltimore Brew's (https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2023/04/20/harborplace-now-empty-shops-locked-doors-and-a-fabulous-view/) reporting about a mall situated on the waterfront, once popular with tourists and residents, had lots of activity, and is now nothing more than a ghost town.
> _"I knew this place had gone down. But I didn't know it was this bad!" exclaimed Patel, a California software engineer who recalled eating at a restaurant in the waterfront mall about a decade ago. He said, "I remember it being pretty nice back then."_
All that's left of the mall is a Hooters restaurant. Baltimore Brew's pictures show almost every other store has moved out.
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... and now, as the media outlet explains, what to do with this prized piece of commercial real estate?
> _That's the question before Mayor Brandon Scott and other city leaders, who yesterday gave Harborplace's new owner, MCB Real Estate, three years to figure out a plan._
>
> _Among the other terms of the amended lease that the Board of Estimates approved were three years of rent abatement and up to $1 million for future planning and other costs._
>
> _MCB co-founder P. David Bramble says he needs more ti…
**First Smart Gun With Fingerprint Unlocking Hits The Market**
First Smart Gun With Fingerprint Unlocking Hits The Market
_Authored by Emily Miller via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/in-depth-first-smart-gun-with-fingerprint-unlocking-hits-the-market_5209508.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge) (emphasis ours),_
**The first so-called “smart gun” that uses biometrics to unlock for shooting will hit the market at the end of the year.**
Biofire Technologies announced this month that it is taking pre-orders for its home defense gun that is intended to prevent unwanted access to children and criminals. This is either a big step forward in gun safety or a gimmick with unreliable technology, depending on who you ask.
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_A gun salesman holds a Walther PDP Pro 9mm handgun at Lawful Defense in Gainesville, Fla., on April 19, 2023. (Nanette Holt/The Epoch Times)_ (
?itok=OQGiK3aO)**Futuristic Gun**
**Smart guns, otherwise known as personalized handguns, have been in development for many years**. The CEO and Founder of Biofire Technologies, Kai Kloepfer, told The Epoch Times in an interview that this is the first “major innovation in how a handgun has been designed or manufactured in 50 years.”
Kloepfer, 26, has been working on designing a smart gun since he was a teenager. “This is a new option for gun owners to give them peace of mind that their children or criminals won’t get their hands on it.”
The Biofire Smart Gun (https://smartgun.com/) is a handgun that can be stored with fingerprints and 3D facial recognition to unlock it to shoot. The company says unlocking works in the dark. The data is stored in the gun in encrypted form. The gun can have biometrics for up to five total authorized users.
The **Biofire gun has integrated infrared sensors in the grip to keep it armed while the user is holding it.** As soon as the grip is released, the gun locks. It is powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that Biofire says lasts several months with average use and can fire continuously for several hours. The firearm only comes in 9mm caliber, but buyers are given multiple choices for color and style and left- or right-handed.
Kloepfer, who said he owns a lot of regular guns, said his product gives people an option for a “new and better choice.”
**Reliable Technology?**
Gun rights groups have been leery that biometrics can function perfectly in self-defense scenarios. The National Shootings Sports Foundation (NSSF) represents gun manufacturers. Biofire is a member.
“ **Firearms are tools that individuals rely upon to save their lives and the lives of their loved ones.** That necessitates a firearm to work, as designed, each and every time,” Mark Oliva, NSSF’s director of public affairs, told The Epoch Times. “Additional points of failure, including authorized-user technology, are concerns for gun owners. If that technology fails, that could be catastrophic for an individual depending upon it to save his or her life.”
The National Rifle Association (NRA) warns the stress of real life is different than product testing.
_Read more **here...** (https://www.theepochtimes.com/in-depth-first-smart-gun-with-fingerprint-unlocking-hits-the-market_5209508.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge)_
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 20:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/first-smart-gun-fingerprint-unlocking-hits-market
**Anti-CRT Measures Adopted By 28 US States**
Anti-CRT Measures Adopted By 28 US States
**More than half of U.S. (https://www.statista.com/topics/760/united-states/) states have passed measures against the teaching of critical race theory**\- for example in schools or government employee trainings. Another dozen have seen successful initiatives on a smaller scale, with single cities, counties or school districts (or both) establishing such laws and directives. This is according to a tracking project at the University of California Los Angeles law school (https://crtforward.law.ucla.edu/map/).
(https://www.statista.com/chart/29757/anti-critical-race-theory-measures/)
_You will find more infographics at Statista (https://www.statista.com/chartoftheday/)_
**Additionally, as Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports** (https://www.statista.com/chart/29757/anti-critical-race-theory-measures/), **almost all states that haven't yet passed any such measures have seen them proposed on the state level,** the exceptions being California, Vermont and Delaware.
In California, however, several school districts have already decided to prohibit or limit the teaching of critical race theory (https://www.statista.com/topics/5701/political-division-in-the-united-states/), including in Orange county and Paso Robles.
**A few states with no finalized laws or directives on any level remain:** _They are Illinois, Nevada, Vermont, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and Hawaii._
The newly released report State of Black America (https://soba.iamempowered.com/sites/soba.iamempowered.com/files/NUL-SOBA-Executive-Summary-2023-web.pdf) by the National Urban League **identifies 567 anti-CRT laws introduced in the U.S.**
In the opinion of the report, the limitation on CRT are limiting the civil rights of Americans, including Black Americans.
Critical Race Theory is a framework that sees race not mainly as a biological factor, but as a social construct and **sees racism not only as an individual's biases but as embedded in society.**
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 20:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/anti-crt-measures-adopted-28-us-states
**Feds Have No Data On How Regulations Reduce Emissions: Audit Finds**
Feds Have No Data On How Regulations Reduce Emissions: Audit Finds
_Authored by Marnie Cashcart via The Epoch Times,_ (https://www.theepochtimes.com/feds-have-no-data-on-how-regulations-reduce-emissions-audit_5210888.html)
The federal government does not know the extent that regulations are reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, despite committing $200 billion towards the issue.
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_Jerry DeMarco, commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, holds a press conference in Ottawa on April 20, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)_
An April 20 report released (https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/mr_20230420_e_44254.html) by the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Jerry DeMarco, **indicates that Environment and Climate Change Canada does not attribute emission results to specific regulations.**
The federal department does not measure, or report on, the contributions of each regulation toward meeting the set target for 2030. An audit by the commissioner concluded that Environment Canada “used modelling approaches to estimate greenhouse gas emission reductions.”
**The federal government does not know if regulations to limit methane emissions are achieving their target,** said the report. The audit found that large sources of methane emissions were unaccounted for in inventories and not covered by any existing regulations.
The audit considered five regulations with the stated intent to reduce emissions from vehicles on the road, power plants, and oil and gas production.
DeMarco concluded, _**“Without comprehensive impact information, the federal government does not know whether it is using the right tools to sufficiently reduce emissions to meet its target.”**_
The audit suggested some regulations, targeted at reducing emissions from power generation, achieved the targeted level, while regulations intended to reduce vehicle emissions failed to meet their target.
_“Although greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars decreased, this was offset by even larger increases in emissions for light trucks and heavy-duty vehicles, such as school and transit buses and freight, delivery, garbage, and dump trucks,” said the report._
**The audit also said the government took “too long to develop regulations given the urgency of the climate crisis.”** The report was critical that it took more than five years to develop the Clean Fuel Regulations, which was double the initial plan.
The Liberals first promised to plant (https://globalnews.ca/news/9638864/trudeau-liberals-two-billion-tree-planting-promise/) 2 billion trees by 2031 on the campaign trail in 2019, and said the country would cut emissions from 42 to 45 percent lower than 2005 levels. The country only cut 8.4 percent of emissions between 2005 and 2021, according to the most recent national greenhouse gas inventory report.
The audit found the country isn’t on track to plant even one-tenth of the promised trees by the deadline, despite a $3.2 billion allocation (https://globalnews.ca/news/9638864/trudeau-liberals-two-billion-tree-planting-promise/) in the 2020 fall economic statement.
> _**“There is no solution to climate change and terrestrial biodiversity loss that does not include forests,”**_ DeMarco’s report said.
>
> _**“It is unlikely that the two billion trees program will meet its objectives unless significant changes are made.”**_
On the emissions front, the audit (https://globalnews.ca/news/9638864/trudeau-liberals-two-billion-tree-planting-promise/) indicates the federal government committed to eliminating 2 million tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions yearly, by 2030. Now the Liberal government said it will not start reducing emissions until 2031, at the earliest.
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 19:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feds-have-no-data-how-regulations-reduce-emissions-audit-finds
**New York's Democrat Mayor Says Migrant Crisis Has 'Destroyed' The City, Biden Admin Has 'Turned Back'**
New York's Democrat Mayor Says Migrant Crisis Has 'Destroyed' The City, Biden Admin Has 'Turned Back'
The Mayor of New York City says that **the illegal immigration crisis has 'destroyed' his city**, and noted that the Biden administration has done **nothing to help** deal with the problem they created.
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" **The city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis,**" said Mayor Eric Adams (D) in a Friday panel discussion hosted by the African American Mayors Association in Washington D.C.
Adams' comments came **one day** after he signed an executive order (https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/386-003/emergency-executive-order-386) which extended the state of emergency in NYC over the influx of illegal immigrants.
"The City now faces an unprecedented humanitarian crisis that requires it to take extraordinary measures," reads the order.
According to city Comptroller Brad Lander in an April 7 report, the city has had to **ramp up its provisions for shelter by over 75%** due to the influx of more than 55,000 foreigners claiming to be seeking asylum over the past year.
Meanwhile, the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget says that the full cost of providing shelter and other services to refugees is around $1.4 billion this year, and will be $2.8 billion in 2024.
"New York State and (to a lesser extent) the federal government have begun to offer some assistance, though less than their appropriate share. But even with federal and state support, the current approach is beyond what the City of New York can reasonably sustain," wrote Lander.
**Adams on Wednesday** slammed the Biden administration for leaving New York City high and dry when it comes to the influx of illegals.
"The national government has turned its back on New York City," Adams said during a City Hall press conference. "We’re here today telling the White House we have been extremely patient. We’ve allowed the coordination of all of our agencies to come together to deal with this response."
" **This is in the lap of the president of the United States.**"
Adams also **expressed concern over the Biden administration trying to get rid of Title 42**, a Trump-era policy that allows the US to rapidly expel migrants who have entered the country illegally, warning that "52,000 \[asylum seekers\] could jump to 100,000 if we don’t get this under control."
> _Adams’ administration has proposed measures that include **providing access to humanitarian parole for illegal immigrants, including expediting work authorization.**_
>
> _New York officials have said that they’ve received around $8 million from state and federal sources, which pales in comparison to the over $4 billion in related expenses the city is expected to incur through 2024 due to the migrant influx. -Epoch Times_
In his April 20 executive order, Adams said that the thousands of illegals which have flooded New York City have created an "unprecedented humanitarian crisis."
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 19:00
**Bragg Drops Case Against Jordan, Allowing House GOP To Depose Ex-Manhattan Prosecutor**
Bragg Drops Case Against Jordan, Allowing House GOP To Depose Ex-Manhattan Prosecutor
_Authored by Gary Bai via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/rep-jordan-secures-victory-in-legal-battle-with-bragg-amid-probe-into-trump-case_5213727.html) (emphasis ours),_
**Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has dropped his effort to quash a congressional subpoena to a former prosecutor who worked in his office, a congressional aide told The Epoch Times in a statement on Friday.**
“This evening, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office **withdrew its appeal in Bragg v. Jordan. Mr. Pomerantz’s deposition will go forward on May 12**, and we look forward to his appearance,” Russel Dye, spokesperson for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to The Epoch Times in a statement.
“ **Bragg caved. Jim Jordan won**,” the House Judiciary Committee wrote in a statement (https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1649569189114306561) on Twitter Friday.
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_L: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg outside the Manhattan Federal Court in New York, April 4, 2023. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) R: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in Washington, on July 21, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)_ (
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The development wrapped up a legal clash between Bragg and House Judiciary Republicans, whereby Bragg had attempted to stop the lawmakers from requesting testimony from Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor who investigated former President Donald Trump’s finances. Pomerantz left Bragg’s office in February 2022 in protest of Bragg’s initial unwillingness to bring an indictment against Trump.
**A grand jury, encouraged by Bragg, brought an indictment against Trump in late March,** prompting Jordan to initiate a probe into what he calls a “politically motivated” prosecution against a former president. Jordan subpoenaed (https://www.theepochtimes.com/jordan-subpoenas-former-manhattan-prosecutor-who-pushed-for-trump-indictment_5176674.html) Pomerantz to seek his testimony as a part of that probe. In response, Bragg sued the House Judiciary Committee and Pomerantz to prevent Pomerantz from testifying.
That lawsuit led to a hearing on Wednesday in the Southern District Court of New York, and a subsequent decision by District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, ordered that the congressional panel has the authority to become involved in the investigation of Trump and declined Bragg’s request for a court injunction on the congressional subpoena.
Bragg wrote in a court filing that he intended to appeal the lower court’s decision to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on April 19. On the same day, the court issued a temporary administrative hold on the return date of the House Judiciary Committee’s congressional subpoena of Pomerantz. This administrative hold did not reflect the court’s opinion on the merit of Bragg’s case, the court indicated in an April 19 filing, but serves as a short pause as the court considers whether to extend the freeze on the subpoena as Bragg appeals the case.
A three-judge panel was originally scheduled to decide early next week on this matter.
Bragg on Friday dropped the appeal, wrapping up the legal contention between him and the House lawmakers.
“Our successful stay of this subpoena blocked the immediate deposition and afforded us the time necessary to coordinate with the House Judiciary Committee on an agreement that protects the District Attorney’s privileges and interests. We are pleased with this resolution, which ensures any questioning of our former employee will take place in the presence of our General Counsel on a reasonable, agreed upon timeframe. We are gratified that the Second Circuit’s ruling provided us with the opportunity to successfully revolve this dispute,” Bragg’s office wrote in a statement (https://twitter.com/ManhattanDA/status/1649576178074746880) on Friday on Twitter.
Judge’s Comments
During the district court hearing on Wednesday, the court affirmed the congressional lawmakers’ position that requesting Pomerantz’s testimony serves a valid legislative interest and that Pomerantz, due to his own conduct, is not protected by confidentiality privileges.
In her order, Vyskocil agreed with the congressional lawmakers’ reasoning that testimony by Pomerantz can help inform current and pending legislation. This includes a bill that, if enacted into law, would bar the use of federal funds to investigate a sitting or former president (the Accountability for Lawless Violence In our Neighborhoods (https://biggs.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/biggs.house.gov/files/evo…
**A Pyrrhic End To 130 Years Of Vicious Bad Money And Banking Crises**
A Pyrrhic End To 130 Years Of Vicious Bad Money And Banking Crises
_Authored by Brendan Brown via The Mises Institute,_ (https://mises.org/wire/pyrrhic-end-130-years-vicious-bad-money-and-banking-crises)
_**The original vicious circle starts with inflationary interventions in an up-to-then well-anchored monetary regime.**_
_Consequent asset inflation spawns a banking crisis. That leads to the installation of anticrisis safety structures (one illustration is a novel or enhanced lender of last resort). Alongside a possible monetary regime shift, these damage the money’s anchoring system. A great asset inflation emerges and leads on to an eruption of another banking crisis, devastating in comparison with the first._
_**An array of additional safety structures is put in place which makes the now-bad money worse than before.** After a long and variable lag, a long and violent monetary storm means the safety structures fail, a banking crisis again erupts but this time milder than the previous._
_Then a further tinkering with the safety structures causes money to deteriorate even more in quality. Another shift in monetary regime coincidentally does much additional damage. Consequently, in time, a new crisis erupts much worse than the last one._
_**The safety engineers do more work, causing yet more damage to the mechanisms essential to sound money.** But now the safety structures are so pervasive and strong across the banking industry that there is widespread belief that bank crisis eruptions will be smaller or, more likely, totally repressed._
_Subsequent events demonstrate those beliefs to be hollow. There is a new round of safety structure elaboration leading to further monetary deterioration. Regime officials declare the end of bank crises._
_The cumulative economic cost of this vaunted triumph over bank crisis is an advance of monopoly capitalism and monetary statism that throttles the essential dynamism of free market capitalism. **Malinvestment becomes cumulatively larger. Living standards in general suffer. The severely ailing money which subsists is beyond any cure except the most radical.**_
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**Let’s fit the above abstract series of vicious bad money–bank crisis cycles to the most recent 130-year history of US money.**
At the start there were the inflationary interventions by US administrations in the two penultimate decades of the international gold standard, overpowering for sustained periods the “checks and balances” of that regime.
Murray Rothbard highlights these interventions in his US monetary history book (https://mises.org/library/history-money-and-banking-united-states-colonial-era-world-war-ii) \- the first intervention under the “Billion Dollar Congress” of 1889–91 and the second from 1902–7 under Secretary Leslie Shaw who aimed to create a virtual central bank within the Treasury by deploying the huge cash balances of the federal government. The results were the Panic of 1893 and then the epic crash of 1907 followed by a recession.
**These financial system convulsions and the related economic slumps were decisive events behind the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.** Its advocates promised that an elastic currency, a state-run clearing house, and a monopoly of note issuance would mean the end of episodic banking crises.
The true source of these crises, however, were the preceding episodes of monetary inflation, and the scope for this crisis just got a lot worse. The international gold standard disintegrated at the outbreak of World War One. Demand for monetary gold in the belligerent European countries collapsed as governments there sequestered the yellow metal to pay for imports.
Beyond that wartime experience, the launch of the Fed destabilized the demand for monetary base. The novel provision of lenders of last-resort facilities and, more generally, discount window-access to member banks diluted the perceived special qualities of the monetary base (as means of payment and store of value) essential to its enjoying strong, broad, and stable demand despite its constituents bearing no interest. These “super money” qualities are crucial to monetary base’s role in the solid anchoring of money (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Good-Money-Illusions-Inflation/dp/3031060407).
**In the wake of the immediate postwar depression in 1920, during which no banking crisis erupted, opinion was prevalent that the institution of the Federal Reserve meant no more systemic bank runs and panics.** Correspondingly, individuals saw less reason to hold large amounts of cash or types of deposits that were backed by large amounts of cash, gold, or reserve deposits. Hence, though monetary base growth seemed low an…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/pyrrhic-end-130-years-vicious-bad-money-and-banking-crises
**Airman's Leaks Started Just 48 Hours After Russia Invaded Ukraine**
Airman's Leaks Started Just 48 Hours After Russia Invaded Ukraine
**The Pentagon's humiliation just grew deeper, as it turns out National Guard Airman Jack Teixeira's leaks of classified documents started far earlier than has previously been reported.**
Tipped off about a second, 600-member Discord chat group where Teixeira also posted, the _New York Times_ (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/politics/jack-teixeira-leaks-russia-ukraine.html) found the Massachusetts Air National Guard information technology specialist **started sharing information about the war in Ukraine within 48 hours of Russia's February 2022 invasion.** In contrast to the previously reported chat group, this one was far larger and was publicly listed on a YouTube channel.
This development makes the intelligence community's failure to discover the posts all the more embarrassing: The document used to criminally charge Teixeira says he started posting in December (https://www.wsj.com/articles/airman-jack-teixeira-set-to-appear-in-court-for-detention-hearing-eb567dcb) 2022, but **it turns out his** **stream of leaks spanned 13 months**.
The _Times_ matched Teixeira to the account in the newly-publicized chat room by a variety of means, including the user name, photos he posted that match known photos of his family home's interior, a reference to his birthday, and, not least, the user's declaration that he worked in an Air Force intelligence unit.
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?itok=dw04tXdB)**Teixeria's senior quote in the 2020 high school yearbook at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School in Massachusetts**( (?itok=dw04tXdB)_Taunton Daily Gazette_ (https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/local/2023/04/14/dighton-ma-jack-teixeira-dr-dighton-rehoboth-leaking-pentagon-documents/70116976007/))
The posts reviewed by the _Times_ were detailed descriptions of classified documents, with the user believed to have also posted photos of documents that have since been deleted.
Teixeira jumped into leak mode just two days after the Russian invasion, posting, **“Saw a pentagon report saying that ⅓rd of the force is being used to invade."** When others in the chat room questioned his information, he wrote, "I have a little more than open source info. Perks of being in a USAF intel unit.”
In a March 27, 2022 post in which he said he was citing "an NSA site," Teixeira told the group Russian forces were about to pull back from Kiev: **“Some ‘big’ news. There may be a planned withdrawal of the troops west of Kiev, as in all of them.”** Two days later, Russia announced it was doing just that.
“The job I have lets me get privilege’s above most intel guys,” he boasted with imperfect punctuation. When another chat participant cautioned him not to abuse those privileges, Teixeira fittingly replied, **"Too late."**
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**Teixeira was arrested on April 13 at his mother's North Dighton MA home** (
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**Teixeira appears to have made some posts while on duty** at the 102nd Intelligence Wing (https://www.102iw.ang.af.mil/), the unit he was assigned to at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod. Once, **he told the chat room he was about to enter a SCIF,** or Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. In the aftermath of the leaks' discovery, the Air Force temporarily stripped (https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/04/18/metro/air-force-strips-unit-cape-cod-base-intelligence-mission-after-mass-guardsmen-charged-security-leak-scandal/) the 102nd of its intelligence mission -- (which is pretty bad when "intelligence" is in your unit's name).
In the larger chat group that's been previously reported, **Teixeira announced the end of his information-sharing services on March 19:** “I was very happy and willing and enthusiastic to have covered this event for the past year and share with all of you something that not many people get to see. **I’ve decided to stop with the updates**.”
> The national security division of the New York Times continues to outdo the FBI. Their new cyber sleuth from Bellingcat helped the NYT uncover a chat group where Jack Teixeira was allegedly posting material since February 2022. The FBI should consider hiring them. pic.twitter.com/Fl7rm7qWQy (https://t.co/Fl7rm7qWQy)
>
> — Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) April 22, 2023 (https://twitter.com/kgosztol…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/airmans-leaks-started-just-48-hours-after-russia-invaded-ukraine
**The Real Reason Behind China’s $10 Billion Offer To Taliban For Lithium**
The Real Reason Behind China’s $10 Billion Offer To Taliban For Lithium
_Authored by Venus Upadhayaya via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/in-depth-chinese-firm-offers-taliban-10-billion-for-access-to-lithium_5205268.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge) (emphasis ours),_
**A Chinese company has offered the Taliban $10 billion and a proposal to build key strategic infrastructure connecting north-south Afghanistan in exchange for access to the country’s lithium reserves.** Some experts raised concerns that the offer would allow the Chinese regime to expand its influence in the region.
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_Afghanistan's acting first deputy prime minister Abdul Ghani Baradar (L) and China's ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu in Kabul on Jan. 5, 2023. (Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP via Getty Images)_ (
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The proposal was discussed between a representative of Gochin and the acting minister of the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, Sheikh Hadith Shahabuddin Delawar, in his office on (https://momp.gov.af/dr/%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D8%B1-%D9%BE%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%86-%D9%88-%D9%BE%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%85-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%87-%DA%A9%D9%85%D9%BE%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%AF%D9%88%DA%86%DB%8C%D9%86-gochin) April 13. The talks happened (https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-arrest-chinese-nationals-for-allegedly-smuggling-afghan-lithium-/6928878.html) just a few months after the Taliban arrested two Chinese nationals trying to smuggle 1,000 metric tons of lithium-bearing rocks out of the country.
Experts said it needs to be seen if the deal is feasible, but once signed, it will have diplomatic and political ramifications, and the proposed infrastructure development will likely have a long-term strategic impact.
“ **Geopolitically, this deal could give China a significant advantage and influence in the region, as it secures a supply of critical resources and strengthens its presence in Afghanistan**,” Maher Saadat, an exiled activist and Afghan affairs analyst, told The Epoch Times in an email.
Afghanistan’s lithium reserves potentially rival those of Bolivia, which has the world’s most significant amount of lithium resources. The Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said in a press release (https://momp.gov.af/dr/%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%B3%D8%B1-%D9%BE%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D9%88%D8%B2%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%86-%D9%88-%D9%BE%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%85-%D8%A8%D8%A7-%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%87-%DA%A9%D9%85%D9%BE%D9%86%DB%8C-%DA%AF%D9%88%DA%86%DB%8C%D9%86-gochin) that the deal, once executed, will provide direct employment to 120,000 people and indirectly to 1 million.
Abhishek Darbey, a research associate of the Chinese Research Program at the New Delhi-based Center for China Analysis and Strategy (CCAS), pointed out to The Epoch Times in an email that China is among the first countries that supported the Taliban to form a government in Kabul following the withdrawal of the United States from the country. He believes the Chinese regime wants to control the region.
“In the case of Afghanistan, **the country is important for China because the land domain of the Belt and Road Initiative will pass through this region, and a peaceful Afghanistan will create favorable conditions for the BRI to grow and progress**,” he said.
“Also, China considers itself to be a major power of the region and, therefore, it wants to be a participant in \[the\] decision-making of the region or wants to be a power with a capacity to influence the regional politics,” he added.
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_Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, political chief of Afghanistan’s Taliban, in Tianjin, China, on July 28, 2021. (Li Ran/Xinhua via Reuters)_ (
?itok=M1nsEY5q)Lithium for the Taliban
Afghanistan’s lithium reserves are a quick source of money for the Taliban, but they don’t have a long-term strategic goal for it, according to the experts.
“They may view it as an opportunity to generate immediate revenue to fund their activities and consolidate their power, given their history of relying on various sources of illicit financings, such as drug trafficking…
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/real-reason-behind-chinas-10-billion-offer-taliban-lithium
**FBI Blocking Release Of Nashville Trans Shooter's Manifesto**
FBI Blocking Release Of Nashville Trans Shooter's Manifesto
If the Nashville shooter had been a straight constitutional conservative would the FBI be blocking the killer's manifesto, or would it be scrutinized for months on every mainstream media platform from day one?
The question is important because it illustrates the discomforting double standards in play whenever a mass murder is committed by a person on the political left (and there have been many lately). If the manifesto outlines ideologically motivated intent then the actions of Audrey Hale, a biological woman identifying as male, could be labeled a terrorist act. However, if the manifesto stays locked away from the public then there will always be suspicions but never any confirmation. Certain political groups and activist groups benefit greatly from the suppression of Hale's motives.
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Rep. Tim Burchett, (R-Tenn.) told The New York Post he knew the FBI was behind the delay (https://nypost.com/2023/04/20/audrey-hale-manifesto-blueprint-on-destruction-say-pols-who-claim-fbi-stalling-release/) of the manifesto's release, saying the news was “disappointing."
Twenty journals, five laptops, a suicide note and various other notes written by Hale were seized from the house she shared with her parents as well as two memoirs, five Covenant School yearbooks and seven cellphones, according to a search warrant.
Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston states that the FBI has ruled out releasing the manifesto anytime soon.
**“What I was told is, her manifesto was a blueprint on total destruction, and it was so detailed at the level of what she had planned...that document in the wrong person’s hands would be astronomically dangerous...”**
She added: “I personally don’t want to know the depths to which her psychosis reached…When I’m told by an MNPD high-ranking official that it keeps him up at night, I’m going to defer to that person in that agency that I don’t need to read that.”
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch described the writings he had seen during a meeting with the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association, saying: “The documents that we have, and I have viewed those, you know, one is specifically a plan and the other is some journal-type rantings.”
Was Audrey Hale a criminal mastermind? It's highly unlikely given she was taken down by police within moments of the officers arriving on scene. It is more probable that the FBI is following orders from political leadership to hide any documents that might embarrass Democrats, who are now closely aligned with trans activist groups and social justice organizations. Democrats have effectively shifted the debate on the Nashville shooting over to gun control and trans rights, and have avoided discussing the potential ideological causes of the attack.
Would such documents inspire further violence from the political left on a scale similar to what happened at Covenant School? It's hard to say, but it doesn't seem as though activists need much encouragement these days. The first and most obvious conclusion one can draw from the FBI's refusal to make Hale's writings public is that they are incredibly damaging to the trans movement, a class of people now protected by government officials and the corporate establishment.
In other words, a message is being sent by federal agencies, the White House and others that if you are a trans person and you commit mass murder, you will enjoy special treatment. The consequences of such a message are obvious.
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 16:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fbi-blocking-release-nashville-trans-shooters-manifesto
**Senator Demands Answers From Government On COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Compensation**
Senator Demands Answers From Government On COVID-19 Vaccine Injury Compensation
_Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (https://www.theepochtimes.com/exclusive-senator-demands-answers-from-government-on-covid-19-vaccine-injury-compensation_5210160.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge) (emphasis ours),_
**A U.S. senator is demanding answers from U.S. officials on compensation to people who were injured by COVID-19 vaccines.**
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_Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in Washington on Feb. 9, 2021. (Ting Shen/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)_ (
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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, asked for key details on the U.S. compensation scheme, including how much each person who has been compensated requested.
The government recently paid three people (https://www.theepochtimes.com/us-compensates-people-injured-by-covid-19-vaccines-for-first-time_5200854.html) who were injured by the vaccines, marking the first time payments were rendered for the COVID vaccines. **But the highest payout was just $2,019.**
Johnson is also asking whether the government has advertised the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), the only venue for federal compensation; **whether officials expect an increase in claims in light of how many injury reports have been logged** with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, and how much money injured people are eligible for under the program.
The Republican outlined the requested information in a letter (https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23784960-sen-johnson-letter-to-hhs-hrsa) to Xavier Becerra, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health and Resources Administration (HRSA).
HHS and HRSA did not respond to requests for comment.
“Although the government appears to be providing very limited compensation to individuals who have filed COVID-19 vaccine injury claims, **the process by which HHS evaluates these claims or even advertises the existence of this compensation program remains opaque**,” Johnson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
“HHS owes the American people a complete explanation of its administration of the compensation program for individuals who have suffered COVID-19 vaccine injuries,” he added.
_Read more **here...** (https://www.theepochtimes.com/exclusive-senator-demands-answers-from-government-on-covid-19-vaccine-injury-compensation_5210160.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge&src_src=partner&src_cmp=ZeroHedge)_
Tyler Durden (https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Sat, 04/22/2023 - 15:30