GOV/MIL Main "Great Reset" Thread

marsh

On TB every waking moment

June 21, 2022
It's the economy, not the bike
By Silvio Canto, Jr.

I remember when President Carter was out boating and ran into a wild rabbit.

Here is the story:
Stuff happens. Today, MSNBC would say it was Trump's rabbit and would a cite a source familiar with the situation for the breaking story.

Back then, I had a good laugh over Carter's incident and learning that a rabbit could swim. I thought rabbits hopped and reproduced, but "swim" was totally new to me.

It was funny, and the timing was bad for President Carter.

Over the weekend, President Biden fell off his bike and thankfully continued with his vacation.

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Once again, I laughed, but I was honestly concerned about the president's age.

The bike fall was not good timing for President Biden, either.

In the end, it won't matter, because this is a nation in trouble with an economy that fell off the bike months ago.

Glad to see that President Biden is back on his feet and celebrating an anniversary.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Canada Completes Construction of Manufacturing Facility to Make Food from Bugs
June 20, 2022 | Sundance | 260 Comments

I’m not sure how everyone feels about this new effort to make bugs into food for humans, but everything about it seems weird. A Canadian company is now celebrating the opening of a manufacturing facility in Ontario what will generate 9,000 metric tons of crickets for people to eat.

I will not be eating the bugs, slugs or any other creepy crawling critter regardless of “protein transfer efficiency.” Nope. Not happening.

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(CANADA) – On May 26th, Aspire Food Group announced that it has completed construction of its alternative protein manufacturing facility. London, Ontario is now home to the world’s largest cricket production facility.

Aspire’s new plant will reportedly produce 9000 metric tons of crickets every year for human and pet consumption. That’s about two billion insects to be distributed annually across Canada and throughout the United States.

Aspire also reports that it already has orders for the next two years.

Crickets are currently being explored as a protein-rich superfood. They contain fibre and are already found in grocery stores and restaurants, and have a smaller environmental footprint than traditional protein sources. (read more)


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marsh

On TB every waking moment

Have Economic Woes Moved Build Back Better To The Back Burner?
With sky-high gas prices, soaring inflation, and dwindling supplies, where’s all the talk of Building Back Better?

By: James FiteJune 21, 2022 - 7:29 am
| Opinion News Article

The inflation crisis in America continues. Fuel is still higher than it has ever been. Shortages of critical necessities and the supply chain crisis persist. In general, the economy remains in shambles – yet still the Democrats strive to enact President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. With sky-high gas prices, soaring inflation, and dwindling supplies, there has been little public talk of the progressive package. While the nation’s economic woes may have moved Build Back Better to the back burner for a time, however, leading Democrats are still trying to cook up a deal behind closed doors. And make no mistake: The time will come – likely soon – when they return that slowly simmering subject to high heat in the national debate.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) was lambasted across the media for threatening the climate, the economy, and – worst of all – the president’s legislative agenda when he killed Build Back Better in December 2021. He made it clear to the other Democrats in the Senate and Biden that spending trillions more on social programs despite funding shortages and rising inflation would be the definition of fiscal insanity. And though he did engage in various discussions after, he stuck to his guns.

A look at the nation today shows the wisdom of the West Virginian’s words – and even the left-wing media are beginning to realize it. “My God, I just wonder what would have happened if progressives would’ve gotten their six-trillion-dollar wish earlier this year,” MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said about a week ago on Morning Joe. Steven Rattner, a former Treasury Department official in the Obama administration, agreed, looking back. “In an ironic way you almost have to thank Joe Manchin for blocking that because $6.5 trillion of spending in this economy would make these numbers look small,” he said to Scarborough. “I wouldn’t even say ironically thank Joe Manchin, you can just thank Joe Manchin if you’re glad that interest rates aren’t even higher,” the host responded.

But after the follow-up bipartisan talks between the West Virginia senator and the GOP fell apart – and most of Washington and the media focusing on gun control – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Manchin have been working on a tax-and-spend package the Democrats can vote on as soon as July or August. It won’t be the progressive wish list we saw before, and it probably won’t quite approach even the $1.75 trillion package Manchin rejected in December. But – if it doesn’t fall apart again – it will be something the Democrats can pass by reconciliation, meaning no Republican support is needed.

GettyImages-1396874433 Ron Wyden

Ron Wyden (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Schumer has kept most of the other Democrats – and the media, of course – largely out of the loop in hopes of keeping the discussions away from the public eye, but there does seem to be progress. “I’m spending a significant amount of time every day on it,” Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) told reporters. Manchin and Schumer are reportedly working on specific details, going over items line by line, to build an entirely new agreement.

Topics covered so far seem to be increased taxes for high earners, more spending on energy – presumably of the green sort – and prescription-drug pricing reform, which, based on Biden’s recent statements, appears to include a Medicare change and a cap to the cost of insulin.

With Americans now choking on what Biden’s progressive policies have served up thus far, there’s likely little to no public appetite for more of what Liberty Nation’s Andrew Moran calls Bidenomics – and Manchin seems unlikely to sign on to anything he thinks will exacerbate these problems. Luckily for the president and his party, the media have taken the gun violence issue and run with it, providing at least a little spice to cover up the foul taste left behind by news of higher energy costs and infant formula shortages.

But the midterms approach, and Democrats need something they can spin as a win. So long as talks don’t fall through this time, you should expect to see social spending back on the menu before the August break. Just how much Build Back Better meat is left on the bones, of course, remains to be seen – but the base recipe appears to be the same.
 

marsh

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Protesters gather in front of a liquor store in flames near the Third Police Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 28, 2020. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters gather in front of a liquor store in flames near the Third Police Precinct in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on May 28, 2020. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

DEFENDING AMERICA
Marxists Seek to Leverage Riots to Subvert American Society: Philosopher

By Hannah Ng and David Zhang
June 20, 2022 Updated: June 20, 2022

Marxists seek to advocate and facilitate riots, such as the 2020 unrest in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, in a bid to subvert American society and pave the way for a socialist takeover, according to professor of philosophy and author Douglas R. Groothuis.

“The goal is to destabilize America, and to threaten the opposition,” Groothuis recently told Epoch TV’s “China Insider” program.

The ideological basis of the 2020 riots demanding racial justice after Floyd’s death is the Marxist-rooted critical race theory, he noted.

“That’s a kind of new Marxism or cultural Marxism, that expands the categories of oppressor and oppression to include racial minorities,” Groothius said.

The people involved in the violence “don’t believe in the founding American ideals,” he added.

“They don’t believe in freedom of speech, freedom of religion … limited government … intrinsic human rights.”

“On the far left and critical race theory, the idea is that America is systemically and intrinsically racist. And so they went to the streets basically saying, ‘We want to tear it all down,’” he added.

The expert called this “a very radical and dangerous kind of movement,” that had been facilitated by a lack of awareness of many Americans, as well as the inaction of others.

“If you have a generation that doesn’t know how evil communism is, and how dangerous it is to liberty, to life, to everything good, to faith, to religious freedom, and if the people who believe in the American vision are sleepy, or are just dying out, then I think America is in trouble,” Groothius said.

“A lot of our institutions have been corrupted by far-left thinking and by socialist thinking,” he said, citing universities, mainstream media, public schools, and Hollywood as examples.

To illustrate this point, Groothuis accused the mainstream media of giving a free pass to the rioting in 2020 by diminishing the level of violence involved in its coverage and insisting the demonstrations were “mostly peaceful.”

“We saw with these riots in 2020, that people on the left did not condemn the riots. It might have taken them a few months to say, ‘well, it’s a better idea not to do this,’” he said.

According to Groothuis, the advocacy of critical race theory, and other ideas such as diversity, equity, and inclusion has ramped up under the Biden administration.

“Those are really … just code words for socialism, for the state taking over the economy, the state taking over business, and getting rid of these founding American ideals that have been so successful for our country,” he said.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House for comment.

As the United States awaits the Supreme Court’s final decision on whether Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling which found a constitutional right to abortions, will be overturned, the expert raised concerns that “very strong pro-abortion supporters will take to the streets” if it is overturned.

The leaking of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in May was for the purpose of mobilizing the pro-abortion camp to take action, he said.

“There’ve been demonstrations at the homes of judges,” he said. “This is actually illegal [but] nothing was done about it.”

To counter such Marxist-style movements, the expert urged Americans to return to the country’s founding principles.

“Don’t let the spirit of the times muffle the spirit of truth that you find in the Bible. And don’t let the spirit of the times muffle the sound principles of civil government we have in the Declaration and the Constitution,” he said.
 

marsh

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Are The Globalists Stepping Up Their Plan To Create Energy & Food Shortages?

Published on June 21, 2022
Written by Andy Rowlands

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Yet another mystery fire at a US food production plant, and a huge fire at Russia’s largest gas field. Coincidences?

On June 16th, the humansbefree website reported another food processing plant had spontaneously caught fire; this times a frozen pizza factory in Portage County, Wisconsin.

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The article reported:
An American Red Cross report says they rushed to provide food and water for the more than 70 firefighters from nearly two dozen departments that were required to put out the fire early Monday morning.

According to Stevens Point Journal, the fire was first reported at roughly 9 am, with billowing smoke spreading out several kilometres east and northwest. Some departments cleared the scene at 4:30 pm, but the fire wasn’t completely extinguished until 8:45 pm, nearly 12 hours later.

The Fire District says the fire began in the compressor room for the refrigeration and stemmed from a problem that arose during maintenance. No employees were injured.

This isn’t the first — and likely won’t be the last fire at a food processing plant. Indeed, there have been several in just the last few months.

But it’s not just food processing plants catching fire that’s troubling, especially during a time of food inflation. Poultry at meat producers is being destroyed at an alarming rate, usually due to barn and factory fires or avian flu.

In early April, 46,000 turkeys had to be killed in Barron, Wisconsin, due to an avian flu outbreak.

Another flock of 53,000 in Beadle County, South Dakota, had to be killed that same month.

On May 3, 13,800 chickens had to be destroyed at an Oklahoma farm for the same reason.

72,300 chickens had to be killed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, just a week later.
See the humansbefree article here: humansbefree.com

The same day, the Daily Mail reported a huge fire at Russia’s largest gas field in Siberia.

The article reported:

Russia’s largest gas field is ablaze after a pipe burst early Thursday, sending a huge plume of flames soaring into the sky.

Energy giant Gazprom said the blaze broke out around 2.30am at the Urengoyskoye gas field in the Yamalo-Nenets region of Siberia.
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Image: Metro

Urengoyskoye is the world’s largest active gas deposit with supplies mainly destined for Europe via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.

The last time a fire struck the region – in August last year – it led to a sizable drop in production and saw prices jump.

However, that blaze took place at a processing facility through which large amounts of natural gas passes on its way to Europe.

Gazprom said it is still analysing the extent of the damage, but there was no interruption to supplies.

‘The fire occurred at 2:30 am on June 16,’ said a spokesman. ‘There were no casualties. At 4 am the fire was extinguished.

It is the latest in a series of blazes at key Russian installations amidst the war with Ukraine, which has led to suspicions of sabotage.

Blazes have largely targeted facilities with links to the military or government, and has included at least one other which hit a pipeline supplying Europe.

Two fires broke out at the Transneft-Druzhba Oil Depot, located in the city of Bryansk, early on April 25 after suspected Ukrainian missile strikes.

The Druzhba pipeline is one of the main routes for Russian oil to reach Europe, and the attack came as the EU debated an embargo on the fuel.

Ukraine has not commented on any of the fires, and it is unclear whether all of them have been coordinated from Kyiv.

However, sites close to the Ukraine border are thought to have been attacked with missiles, drones and helicopters.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian special forces are though to be operating behind Russian lines to hamper its military efforts.

And some fires are thought to be acts of Russians who oppose the war, or are fearful of being conscripted to go and fight.

More than a dozen military enlistment offices – which are used to register Russian conscripts who must serve in the armed forces for a year between the ages of 18 and 27 – have been targeted with Molotov Cocktails.
See the Daily Mail article here: dailymail.co.uk

There have now been over a dozen mystery fires at food processing plants, and at least two had aircraft just as mysteriously crash into them, & now this mystery blaze in a Russian gas field.

Coupled with the large number of turkeys and chickens being culled due to ‘avian flu’, and several thousand cattle suddenly dying in Kansas because of ‘global warming’, it seems pretty obvious to me these fires and deaths are being caused deliberately, to reduce the amount of food and energy available, as part of the globalists push towards their Agenda 2030 population reduction.

Header image: KQED
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Is Biden’s Lax Border Policy A Threat Greater Than China?
Potential terrorists are streaming through the porous border in enormous numbers.

By: Dave PattersonJune 21, 2022 - 6:47 amArticles, Illegal Immigration, Opinion
| Opinion News Article

Has President Joe Biden’s lax border policy welcomed a national security threat into the United States? Since he took office, the number of potential terrorists apprehended on America’s southwest perimeter has increased dramatically. And in too many cases, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has released illegal aliens on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist into the country to wander about at will.

In a hearing before the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee last month, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confessed that 42 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist might have been set free. And earlier, in April, Mayorkas testified he could not explain where these potential terrorists were.

It is true that the FBI’s terror and no-fly watchlists have snagged some innocent people whose names should be removed. But when it comes to the most recent illegal aliens apprehended, “the FBI watchlist through which these people’s names were flagged states with certainty that those on it are ‘reasonably suspected to be involved in terrorism (or related activities),'” explained Cynthia Van Gaasbeck in Law Enforcement Today.

The alarming spike in the number of illegal aliens on the terror watchlist apprehended by Border Patrol represents a clear national security threat. The immediacy of the danger is far greater than that of China. According to the most recent Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) statistics described in a Fox News broadcast, the problem of potential terrorists caught entering the United States has increased significantly. Less than 18 months into the Biden administration, the number of illegals on the FBI watchlist stopped at the border is 65, or nearly six times more potential extremist fanatics who sought to attack America than during the four years of Donald Trump. Statistics show 42 “watchlisters” were caught in one month – May 2022.

The US CBP under Mayorkas is encouraged to be lenient with illegal border crossings, given the catch-and-release policy in place. With a growing number of would-be terrorists apprehended, how many were caught and released? A Center for Immigration Studies analysis explained the problem:
“Still, these figures represent only publicly reportable cases and would not represent, for instance, terrorism-associated migrants who evaded detection altogether or who simply had not been watchlisted or never raised suspicion after apprehension as they were released pending asylum claims into the country’s interior.”
New Banner Illegal Immigration


But those released under such conditions seldom, if ever, show up for their day in court.

Compounding the problem are those who sneak across the US border and elude capture. “A high-level CBP source told Fox News that there have been 440,000 known gotaways [equal to the population of Minneapolis, MN] since the fiscal year began in October — with over 50,000 in May alone,” Bill Melugin and Adam Shaw reported for Fox News. There have been more than 1.5 million illegal crossings in FY2022 so far, and the probability of potential terrorists among them is high. Essentially, the number of people invading the United States is equal to the combined populations of Boston and Seattle.

Americans have no way to know in what US city a terrorist attack will take place. Yet, with the casual, even lawless approach to allowing into the homeland potential illegal alien terrorist bombers or assassins bent on doing major harm, the Biden administration has created a near-term threat more immediate than that of any foreign enemy state. Americans are being held hostage by a DHS that is no longer protecting the homeland. The agency is not doing its job; it’s doing the opposite.
 

marsh

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Federal Reserve Details ‘Digital Dollar’ Plans

by BEN BAILEY
June 20, 2022

Federal Reserve Details ‘Digital Dollar’ Plans

Last Updated on June 20, 2022

The Federal Reserve (FED) is rolling out plans to develop a “Digital Dollar”, according to FED President Jerome Powell. According to a report in Reuters, there had been speculation that such a thing would develop in response to the popularity in cryptocurrencies and the decreasing value of the US Dollar (USD). Critics of the Digital Dollar, or what is often referred to as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) point to the idea that the FED will have the power to freeze accounts on an arbitrary basis.

Powell announced the venture on Friday, stressing that the project is aimed at maintaining the USD’s standing as a global reserve currency, meaning that it is one of the most widely used currencies in the world along with the Chinese Yuan, the Euro, and others. Russia and China have tried to displace the USD as the world’s primary currency.

Some economists speculate that a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin could eventually wind up being the world’s most prevalent reserve currency. Bitcoin has a capped supply at 21 million units, so it cannot be devalued through currency manipulation, such as printing. It is also completely decentralized. A digital dollar would be controlled by the FED, which is technically a private entity (a bank), but has proven to be a quasi-government agency, printing money and changing interest rates in response to various policies. Despite this, the FED is practically unaccountable to voters.

Concern that some people have about centralized finance is not unfounded. Large financial institutions have already singled out several dissident figures. Several right wing activists and politicians have even had accounts frozen and funds seized. Prominent examples involve former GOP Senate candidate Lauren Witzke having her Wells Fargo account shut down and political commentator Nick Fuentes having approximately half a million dollars removed from his account at the behest of the DOJ for his participation in the election integrity rally in Washington on January 6, 2021.

Skeptics of the digital dollar point out that giving the FED (and by extension, the federal government) unlimited control over the finances over American citizens, a de facto social credit system would no longer be a fringe conspiracy, but a reality.
 

marsh

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Logistics Costs As A Percentage Of GDP Hit Highest Level In 13 Years

TUESDAY, JUN 21, 2022 - 05:20 PM
By Mark Solomon of FreightWaves

The 33rd annual State of Logistics Report, the year-over-year report card of the U.S. business logistics system, confirmed empirically what everyone already knew: 2021 was nirvana or a nightmare depending on what one does for a living.



Total logistics costs, which measure how much was spent on transportation, warehousing and ancillary services such as support and administrative, soared 22.4% last year to nearly $1.85 trillion, according to the report. That was equal to 8% of the U.S. GDP, a level not seen since 2008, said the report, which was released by the trade group Council of Supply Management Professionals (CSCMP) Tuesday morning.

Demand spiked across every mode and service. Businesses desperate for reliable motor carrier capacity powered a 39.3% jump in spending on private fleets or dedicated contract carriage to $415.2 billion. Inventory carrying costs jumped 25% to $502 billion as surging warehouse demand and supply chain congestion filled facilities to overflowing. The capital costs of carrying mountains of inventory jumped 33.4%.

Spending on waterborne services surged 23.6% as ocean carriers leveraged massive rate increases on international sea routes to make more money in 2021 than in the prior 20 years combined, the report said.

Spending on parcel-delivery services jumped 15.6% and produced a five-year compounded annual growth rate of 11.4%, the highest of all the report’s cost components.

All of this led to a fattening of carrier profits at a time when shippers felt the double whammy of shrinking margins and declining service levels, according to the report. Shippers of all types “longed for the days” when service levels that are now considered acceptable were viewed as major failures, the report said.

Through the report’s long history, a relatively high costs-to-GDP ratio reflected network inefficiencies that forced users to spend more to get goods to market. Network inefficiencies were certainly evident in 2021, along with an unprecedented surge in goods demand that is one of the legacies of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given the events of the first half of 2022, it is clear that next year’s report will look different than this year’s. Consumer demand has cooled off in the wake of higher inflation and the waning effects of pandemic-related government stimulus. Rising interest rates will curtail spending even more.

Consumers worried about cost increases and the possibility of a recession will not be spending nearly as freely this year as they did in the past two. More service-related consumption, especially in travel and entertainment, will cut into goods-spending activity.

Some of that change is showing up in the daily logistics ebb-and-flow. Ron Marotta, vice president of supply chain solutions for the Americas division of freight forwarding and contract logistics firm Yusen Logistics, said on a conference call with reporters last Friday that ocean freight shippers are increasingly looking to negotiate their carrier contracts as more liner capacity opens up.

In a sign that ocean supply and demand might be returning to some form of balance, Yusen has worked off virtually all of its cargo backlogs, some of which have built up over two years, Marotta said. The overall environment, he said, has become “more favorable to shippers.”

While the dual misery of transport delays and higher rates may abate somewhat for shippers, the report’s authors cautioned that the pendulum will not abruptly swing back to capacity abundance and lower rates. E-commerce and last-mile delivery demand will remain elevated and some supply bottlenecks will not loosen easily, they wrote.

Higher borrowing costs will continue to push up the expense of holding the many billions of dollars of inventory sitting in warehouses and distribution centers. The already-complex task of managing a dizzying array of stock-keeping units will only be compounded by the higher interest expense, said Andy Moses, senior vice president of sales and solutions at 3PL Penske Logistics.

The continued upward march in interest rates will “expose any inefficient process management in the warehouse trade,” Moses said last Friday.
 

marsh

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World War 3 for dummies
54219 ViewsJune 18, 2022 200 Comments

By Gaius Baltar for the Saker Blog

Some knowledgeable people, apparently including the Pope, are beginning to suspect that there may be more going on in the world than just the war in the Ukraine. They say that World War 3 has already started and things will get worse from now on. This can be difficult to determine while we are participating in the unfolding events and do not have the benefit of the historical perspective. It is doubtful that people back in 1939 realized that they were looking at the start of a major worldwide conflict, although some may have suspected it.

The current global situation is in many ways like a giant jigsaw puzzle where the general public only sees a tiny part of the complete picture. Most don’t even realize that there may be more pieces and don’t even ask these simple questions: Why is all this happening and why is it happening now?

Things are more complicated than most people realize. What they see is the evil wizard Vladimir Saruman Putin invading innocent Ukraine with his orc army – for absolutely no reason.

This is a simplistic view, to say the least because nothing happens without a reason. Let’s put things in perspective and see what is really going on – and why the world is going crazy before our eyes. Let’s see what World War 3 is all about.

The pressure cooker
The West (which we can define here as the US and the EU and a few more) has been maintaining pressure on the entire world for decades. This does not only apply to countries outside the West, but also to Western countries which strayed from the diktats of the West’s rulers. This pressure has been discussed widely and attributed to all kinds of motives, including neocolonialism, forced financial hegemony, and so forth. What is interesting, particularly during the last 20 years, is which countries have been pressured and what they do not have in common.

Among the pressured countries we find Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, Serbia, Thailand, and Iran to mention a few. There have also been recent additions, including India and Hungary. In order to understand why they have been pressured, we need to find out what they have in common. That’s not easy since they are extremely different in most ways. There are democracies and non-democracies, conservative and communist governments, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist countries, and so on. Still, many of them are very clearly allied. One must ask why conservative and religious countries such as Russia or Iran would ally themselves with Godless communists in Cuba and Venezuela.

What all these countries have in common is their desire to run their own affairs; to be independent countries. This is unforgivable in the eyes of the West and must be tackled by any means necessary, including economic sanctions, color revolutions, and outright military aggression.

The West and its NATO military arm had surrounded Russia with hostile countries and military bases, armed and manipulated Ukraine to be used as a hammer against it, and employed sanctions and threats. The same thing was and is happening in Asia where China is being surrounded by all means available. The same applies to all the Independents mentioned above to some extent. In the past 10 years or so the pressure has increased massively on the Independents and it reached almost a fever pitch in the year before the Russian invasion of the Ukraine.

During the year before the Ukraine war, the US sent its diplomats around the world to tune up the pressure. They were like a traveling circus or a rock band on a tour, but instead of entertainment, they delivered threats: buy this from us and do what we tell you or there will be consequences. The urgency was absolute and palpable, but then came the Ukraine war and the pressure went up to 11. During the first month of the war, the entire West’s diplomatic corps was fully engaged in threats against the ‘rest of the world’ to engineer the isolation of Russia.

This didn’t work, which resulted in panic in political and diplomatic circles in the US and Europe.

All this pressure through the years, and all the fear and panic when it didn’t work, are clearly related to the events in the Ukraine. They are a part of the same ‘syndrome’ and have the same cause.

The debt dimension
There have been many explanations for what is going on and the most common is the fight between two possible futures; a multipolar world where there are several power centers in the world, and a unipolar world where the West governs the world. This is correct as far as it goes, but there is another reason which explains why this is happening now and all the urgency and panic in the West.

Recently the New Zealand tech guru Kim Dotcom tweeted a thread about the debt situation in the US. According to him all debt and unfunded liabilities of the US exceed the total value of the entire country, including the land. This situation is not unique to the US. Most countries in the West have debt that can only be paid back by selling the entire country and everything it contains. On top of that, most non-western countries are buried in dollar-denominated debt and are practically owned by the same financiers who own the West.

During the last few decades, the economy of the US and Europe has been falsified on a level that is difficult to believe. We in the West have been living far beyond our means and our currencies have been massively overvalued. We have been able to do this through two mechanisms:
  1. The first one is the reserve status of the dollar and the semi-reserve status of the euro which have enabled the West to export digital money and receive goods in return. This has created enormous financial power for the West and enabled it to function as a parasite on the world economy. We have been getting a lot of goods for free, to put it mildly.
  2. The second falsification mechanism is the increase in debt to a level where we have essentially pawned everything we own, including our houses and lands, to keep up our living standards. We own nothing now when the debt has been subtracted. The debt has long since become unserviceable – far beyond our ability to pay interests on – which explains why the interest rates in the West are in the neighborhood of zero. Any increase would make the debt unserviceable and we would all go formally bankrupt in a day.
On top of all this, the falsification has created artificially strong currencies in the West which has boosted their purchasing power for goods priced in non-western currencies. These mechanisms have also enabled the West to run bloated and dysfunctional service economies where inefficiencies are beyond belief. We have giant groups of people in our economies that not only create no value but destroy value systematically. What maintains the West’s standard of living now is a small minority of productive people, constant debt increase, and parasitism of the rest of the world.

The people who own all this debt actually own everything we think we own. We in the West own nothing at this point – we only think we do. But who are our real owners? We know more or less who they are because they meet every year at the World Economic Forum in Davos along with the western political elites who they also happen to own.

It is clear that our owners have been getting increasingly worried, and their worries have been increasing in sync with the increased pressure applied by the West on the rest of the world, particularly the Independents. During the last Davos meeting, the mood was bleak and panicked at the same time, much like the panic among the western political elites when the isolation of Russia failed.

What is about to happen
The panic of our owners and their politicians is understandable because we have come to the end of the line. We can no longer keep up our living standards by debt increase and parasitism.

The debt is reaching beyond what we own as collateral and our currencies are about to become worthless. We will no longer be able to get free stuff from the rest of the world, or pay back our debt – let alone pay interest on it. The entire West is about to go bankrupt and our standard of living is about to go down by a massive percentage. This is what has our owners panicked and they see only two scenarios:
  1. In the first scenario most countries in the West, and everything and everyone within them, declare bankruptcy and erase the debt by diktat – which sovereign states are able to do. This will also erase the wealth and political power of our owners.
  2. In the second scenario, our owners take over the collateral during the bankruptcy. The collateral is us and everything we own.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out which scenario was chosen. The plan for the second scenario is ready and being implemented as we speak. It is called ‘The Great Reset’ and was constructed by the people behind the World Economic Forum. This plan is not a secret and can be examined to a certain degree on the WEF website.

The Great Reset is a mechanism for the seizing of all debt collateral which includes your assets, the assets of your city or municipality, the assets of your state, and most corporate assets not already held by our owners.

This asset seizure mechanism has several components, but the most important are the following four:
  1. Abolishment of sovereignty: A sovereign (independent) country is a dangerous country because it can choose to default on its debt. The decrease in sovereignty has been a priority for our owners and various schemes have been attempted such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The most successful scheme is undoubtedly the European Union itself.
  2. The down-tuning of the economy: The western economy (and indeed the global economy) must be tuned down by a very significant percentage. This down-tuning is necessary because the western economy is massively falsified now and must be taken down to its real level – which may be as low as half of what it is now – or more. The slow takedown has also the purpose of avoiding a sudden crash that would cause massive social unrest which would be a threat to our owners. A controlled takedown is therefore preferable to an uncontrolled crash. This controlled takedown is already happening and has been going on for quite some time. Many examples can be mentioned of this takedown, including the EU and US energy policy which is designed to sabotage the western economy, and the obvious attempts at demand destruction during and after the epidemic, including the fairly bizarre logistical problems which suddenly came out of nowhere.
  3. Asset harvesting (you will own nothing and be ‘happy’): All assets that can be considered to be collateral to our private and collective/public debt will be taken over. This is a clearly stated aim of the Great Reset but it is less clear how this would be carried out. Total control of western governments (and indeed all governments) would seem to be necessary for this. That precondition is closer than one might think because most western governments seem to be beholden to Davos at this point. The process will be sold as necessary social restructuring because of an economic crisis and global warming and will result in a massive decrease in living standards for regular people, although not the elites.
  4. Oppression: A great many people will not like this and an uprising is a likely response, even if the takedown is done gradually. To prevent this from happening, a social control mechanism is being implemented which will erase personal freedom, the freedom of speech, and privacy. It will also create absolute dependence of the individual on the state. This must be done before the economic takedown can be completed or there will be a revolution. This mechanism is already being implemented enthusiastically in the West as anybody with eyes and ears can see.
Russia, China, and other Independents
How do Russia and China, and the war in Ukraine, factor into all of this? Why all the pressure from the West throughout the years and why all this panic now? Part of the reason for the pressure on the Independents, particularly Russia and China, is simply that they have resisted western hegemony. That is enough for getting on the West’s naughty list. But why the increased pressure in recent years?

The reason is that Russia and China cannot be subjugated through bankruptcy and their assets harvested. They do not have much debt in western currencies which means that the people who own the West through debt do not currently own Russia and China (like they own the West and the indebted ‘third world’) and cannot acquire them through debt. The only way to acquire them is through regime change. Their governments must be weakened by any means, including economic sanctions and military means if necessary -thus the use of Ukraine as a battering ram for Russia and Taiwan for China.

Subjugating Russia and China is an existential issue for our Davos owners because when they take the western economy down, everything else must go down too. If the western economy is taken down and a large economic block doesn’t participate in the downfall, it will be a disaster for the West. The new block will gain massive economic power, and possibly unipolar hegemony of sorts, while the West descends into a feudal Dark Age and irrelevance. Therefore the entire world must go down for the Great Reset to work. Russia and China must be subjugated by any means, as well as India and other stubborn nations.

This is what has fueled the situation we now find ourselves in and will fuel the continuation of World War 3. The western owner-elites are going to war to keep their wealth and power.

Everyone who resists must be subjugated so they can follow the West into the planned Great Reset Dark Age.

The reason for the current panic among western elites is that the Ukraine project isn’t going as planned. Instead of Russia being bled on the battlefield, it is Ukraine and the West that bleed.

Instead of the Russian economy crashing resulting in Putin’s replacement by a Davos-compatible leader, it is the West’s economy that is crashing. Instead of Russia being isolated, it is the West that is being increasingly isolated. Noting is working, and to top it all off, Europe has given the Russians the means and motive to destroy the European economy by partly shutting down its industry. Without Russian resources, there is no European industry, and without industry, there are no taxes for paying for unemployment benefits, pensions, all the refugees, and pretty much everything else which holds European societies together. The Russians now have the ability to engineer an uncontrolled crash in Europe which is not what Davos planned. An uncontrolled crash might see Davos’s heads roll, literally, and that is causing fear and panic in elite circles. The only solution for them is to move on with World War 3 and hope for the best.

What to do
The Great Reset of the world economy is the direct cause of World War 3 – assuming that is what is going on. What can be done about this? From inside the West, little can be done. The only way is to somehow remove Davos from the equation, but that is most likely not going to happen for two reasons: The first one is that the Davos great resetters are too entwined in the western economy and politics. Davos is like an octopus with its arms and suckers inside every country’s elite circles, media, and government. They are too entrenched to be easily removed.

The second reason is that the western population is too brainwashed and ignorant. The level of their brainwashing is such that a large part of them actually want to become poor – although they use the word ‘green’ for ‘poor’ because it sounds better. There are, however, some indications that there may be divisions within western elites. Some of them, particularly within the US, may be resisting the primarily Europe-designed Great Reset – but whether this opposition is real or effective remains to be seen.

However, outside the West, there are certain measures that can be taken and must be taken.

Some of those measures are drastic and some of them are being done as we speak. Among the measures are the following:
  1. The Independents, led by Russia, China, and India, must create a block to isolate themselves from the radioactive West. This isolation must not only be economic, but also political and social. Their economic systems must be divorced from the West and made autonomous. Their cultures and history must be defended against western influences and revisionism. This process appears to be underway.
  2. The Independents must immediately ban all western sponsored institutions and NGOs in their countries, regardless of whether they are sponsored by western states or individuals. Furthermore, they must ban all media receiving western sponsorship and strip every school and university of western sponsorship and influence.
  3. They must leave all international institutions up to and possibly including the United Nations because all international bodies are controlled by the West. They must then replace them with new institutions within their block.
  4. They must, at some point, declare the dollar and the euro currencies non grata. That means that they should declare default on all debts denominated in these currencies, but not other debts. This will most likely come at a later stage but is inevitable.
This will create a situation where the West will descend into darkness without pulling others down with it – if we manage to escape the nuclear fire.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
‘Increasing The Flow’: Michael Yon Gives In-Person Update On The Southern Border 6:36 min

‘Increasing The Flow’: Michael Yon Gives In-Person Update On The Southern Border
Bannons War Room Published June 22, 2022

(no synopsis given. Have not watched)

^^^^
Jun 18, 2022 at 3:32am​
Them Belly full but we hungry​
Them belly full but we hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
A rain a-fall but the dirt, it tough
A pot a-cook but the food no ‘nough

A hungry man is an angry man
— Bob Marley and the Wailers

A hungry Army is a dangerous Army. Millions of invaders — by far mostly Military Aged Men — are crossing our border into the homelands.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no5YWKY6eOs
3:13 min

Bob Marley and The Wailers - Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)

Jun 22, 2022 at 8:38am​
Millions Crossing our Border this year​
The caravan makes cool optics but on the scale is dust.

May was 239,000 apprehended, 61,000 known getaways. 300,000. A Border Patrol agent told me 10 minutes ago that 61,000 is a big underestimate so that Border Patrol looks more effective.

That’s about 10,000+ per day.

This does not account for easier tourist visas, anchor babies, etc.

I made this photo a couple nights ago. I see this constantly night and day.

1655931401703.jpeg
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
Jun 22, 2022 at 9:04am​
Report: Sri Lanka Cannot buy oil​
They went organic by stroke of a magic wand. Now into famine. How this plays out, nobody knows.

Just six months of famine can kill millions. Judging by the 17 books on famine I have read — now they will be in the fighting and robbing stage. Gangs forming or formed. Gangs can last longer.

People wandering around the streets and in the forest. Hiding every scrap of food that cannot be eaten immediately.

Government will confiscate food and do price controls that will not work.

Within a month of food truly running out, most will have returned to their homes, or be somewhere staring off into the distance. They will have eaten the leather, cats, dogs, cows, tree bark, birds, some will be eating children, family, strangers. Cannibals have major survival advantage — and tons of people turn out to jump that threshold within weeks.

Farmers stop planting because the government and robbers rob them, and they are bankrupt or starving. Famine creates famine.

Diseases explode. Bodies unburied.

But nobody knows. Maybe they will find a way. Donors?

Their government made decisions and now there will be death.

PanFaWar: Pandemic, Famine, War.

Report: Sri Lanka Cannot buy oil .30 min video clip on website​
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
30,000 Farmers Revolt Against the Dutch Government's Prepared Climate Restrictions .48 min

30,000 Farmers Revolt Against the Dutch Government's Prepared Climate Restrictions
Red Voice Media Published June 22, 2022

30,000 farmers, from all over the Netherlands, are converging in Stroe in the centre of the country against the government's plan to drastically reduce nitrogen emissions from the agricultural sector, which should force some of them to stop their activity.

^^^^^
Thousands of Dutch Agriculturists Assemble in Stroe for the Nation's Largest Farmer Demonstration in History .27 min

Thousands of Dutch Agriculturists Assemble in Stroe for the Nation's Largest Farmer Demonstration in History
Red Voice Media Published June 22, 2022

In response to planned climate restrictions on the agricultural sector, an expected 30,000 farmers from all over the Netherlands are expected to amass in Stroe today.

Upload via The Vigilant Fox
 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment
Fed Chair Powell Admits Ukraine Is Not the Primary Driver of Inflation 1:05 min

Fed Chair Powell Admits Ukraine Is Not the Primary Driver of Inflation
Red Voice Media Published June 22, 2022

HAGERTY: “…would you say that the war in Ukraine is the primary driver of inflation in America?”

POWELL: “No, inflation was high before certainly before the war in Ukraine broke out.”

HAGERTY: “I'm glad to hear you say that the Biden administration seems to be intent on deflecting blame”

Credit: Fed Chair Powell Admits Ukraine Is Not the Primary Driver of Inflation

^^^^

'Inflation Was High Before Ukraine': Powell Tosses Biden Back Under The Bus

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 08:36 AM

At the end of May, amid a flurry of scapegoating over surging prices and plunging approval ratings, President Biden seized on an Oval Office meeting with Fed Chair Powell to argue that while fighting price increases is his top priority, that work was primarily the purview of the Federal Reserve.
“My plan is to address inflation. That starts with a simple proposition: respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence, which I have done and will continue to do,” Biden said.
Addittionally, Biden placed the blame for Americans' suffering squarely on the shoulders of Russian president Vladimir Putin and his 'Putin Price Hike'...



As we have noted numerous times, this is just farcical spin as the following chart shows consumer prices were accelerating dramatically well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine...



Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is having none of that at all as he affirmed Biden's narrative during Powell's hearing this morning, blaming the "three P's" for inflation:
  • Putin's war
  • Pandemic supply disruptions
  • Price gouging
And definitely not over-zealous and profligate spending and over-regulation by the Biden administration.

But, having thrown The Fed under the bus in May, it appeared Chair Powell was not going to take that lying down as he responded surprisingly honestly to a clearly politically-angled question (fact)...



Sen Bill Hagerty (R-TN) addressed the Biden narrative, noting that "the problem [of inflation] hasn't sprung out of nowhere," before asking Chair Powell the following question:
"Would you say that the war in Ukraine is the primary driver of inflation in America?"
Fed Chair Powell's response - which we note was completely ignored by many mainstream media outlets who were writing real-time transcripts of the hearing - was shocking in its frankness:
"No. Inflation was high, certainly before the war in Ukraine broke out."
Ouch! So 'Putinflation' is not real after all?

As for whether Biden's "strategy" of punting all responsibility for everything that goes wrong with the economy onto others, first Putin and now Powell, works we'll just have to wait until November to find out. Here's an advance look:

 
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marsh

On TB every waking moment

Biden Blames Putin, Refiners, & Gas Stations For Record Prices: 'Cost Of Saving Democracy'

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 10:57 AM

Having had the 'Putin Price Hike' narrative thoroughly dismissed by Fed Chair Powell earlier in the day, President Biden is set to keep repeating the 'big lie' until more people believe it.

Presumably, President Biden will announce his cunning plan to cut the federal gas tax...
“By suspending the 18-cent federal gas tax for the next 90 days, we can bring down the price of gas and bring families a bit of relief,” Biden said Wednesday at the White House.
Breaking down proposed tax savings, 18-cent savings per gallon of regular gas for 12 gallons (average fuel tank size for a US car) will save the consumer a whopping $2.16 every time they fill up.



Something that President Obama called "a gimmick" and Speaker Pelosi called "very showbiz".

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1539658221861740544
2:54 min

1655932728539.png

President Biden explained "this is a time of war and global peril," and that he reminded voters that he had always said there would be a price to pay for saving democracy in Ukraine.

Biden said that states, many of which are enjoying budget surpluses thanks in part to federal pandemic stimulus, should also suspend their own gas taxes, and he called on refiners and gasoline retailers to make sure “every penny” of the tax pause goes to consumers.
"Your customers, the American people, they need relief now,” Biden said.
The president took another shot at 'big oil', claiming they should stop buying back their own shares and spend that money on refining capacity. There's just one problem with that...

1655932787864.png

Then Biden turned up the 'blame-plifier' to 11 by pointing the finer at gas station owners!!!

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1539673235981230080
.30 min

Of course, the president didn’t take questions after his remarks, since that would mean explaining all the policy contradictions: he’s moved to curtail US oil production in the past before now urging its expansion, and cutting the price of gasoline may encourage higher consumption, countering his efforts to reduce US dependence on fossil fuels.
"Bottom line is this is just kind of another rhetorical tool of the White House to sort of show that they’re doing everything they can on inflation,” Libby Cantrill, head of public policy at Pacific Investment Management Co., said Wednesday on Bloomberg Television.
Ironically, Wholesale Gasoline prices are up today... as you'd expect from an inflationary policy...



Will President Biden claim a victory lap as gas prices have dropped 6c in the last week...



Watch the president mumble through another failed narrative (due to start at 1400ET):

View: https://youtu.be/H3Y7VCAmmlI
35:06 min

As Summit News' Paul Joseph Watson detailed earlier, only 11 per cent of Americans believe the Biden administration’s narrative that Vladimir Putin is to blame for record high gas prices, with the majority blaming Biden’s poor energy policies instead.



A Rasmussen poll finds that 52 per cent of respondents think unaffordable gas prices are the fault of the president, with the vast majority rejecting the ‘Putin price hike’ excuse.

The survey also found that 80 per cent of Republicans blame Biden for the energy crisis, while 54 per cent of Independents also say responsibility lies with the occupant of the Oval Office.

29 per cent of respondents who didn’t blame Putin or Biden said greedy oil companies were the culprit.

1655932925938.png1655932955649.png


After the Biden administration’s attempt to blame the Russian leader failed to land, the White House has switched its rhetoric to start blaming oil companies, with Biden asserting the industry is “making more money than God.”

The poll reveals that Americans are also unimpressed with the media’s attempt to prop up the failing Biden economy, with just 11 per cent saying it has gotten better, with 57 per cent rating his economic performance as “poor.”

Biden loyalists have become increasingly absurd in trying to explain away gas price hikes and inflation, with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers blaming people who downplay what happened on January 6.
“The banana Republicans who are saying that what happened on January 6th was nothing or OK are undermining the basic credibility of our country’s institutions and that in turn feeds through, uh, for inflation,” said Summers.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also ludicrously claimed “nationalism” was to blame for inflation, asserting,
“The rise– whether you call it nationalism or the rise of this belief that we have to focus on communities that have been devastated by globalization, we need to find ways of creating better jobs for more Americans, that in itself is inflationary.”
As we highlighted earlier, more emergency services in the U.S. are having to limit the amount of 911 calls that they are responding to in person because of record high gas prices.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Biden 'Nanny State' Comes For The Smokers

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 06:48 AM
One day after the Biden administration said it would develop a rule requiring tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in cigarettes, a new report via WSJ said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to order Juul Labs Inc. to take its e-cigarettes off the U.S. market.



WSJ cites people familiar with the matter who said the FDA decision could come as soon as today.

"The marketing denial order would follow a nearly two-year review of data presented by the vaping company, which sought authorization for its tobacco- and menthol-flavored products to stay on the U.S. market," WSJ notes.

Juul has spent the last several years attempting to regain the trust of the FDA and the public. The company limited marketing and stopped selling fruity flavors in 2019 -- since then, sales have tumbled.

Altria invested $12.8 billion in Juul in December 2018, acquiring a 35% stake. Shares in Altria are down almost 10%, the lowest since February 2021.



Meanwhile, the Biden administration is also gunning for the percentage of nicotine in cigarettes. As the American Thinker's Andrea Widburg notes:

Not only will this offer dubious health benefits (and I suspect that it will backfire), but it also represents, yet again, the excessive power the Executive Branch has managed to gain, something that's far from what the Founders in their great wisdom envisioned.

The news report isn't complicated:
The Biden administration plans to propose a rule to establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and other finished tobacco products in an attempt to make them less addictive, the White House Budget Office said Tuesday.
The rule, expected in May 2023, would be designed with the goal of making it easier for tobacco users to quit and help prevent youth from becoming regular smokers, according to a document released by the Budget Office.
The proposal comes as the Biden administration doubles down on fighting cancer-related deaths.

In a statement on Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the plan was to 'to reduce youth use, addiction and death.'
This follows on the heels of the FDA's proposal to ban menthol cigarettes, which are the cigarettes of choice for Blacks, and flavored cigars. (I have no idea who smokes those cigars.)

My suspicion is that the plan to decrease nicotine may be counterproductive. While activist White leftists may not believe it, there are people to don't wish to stop smoking. If each cigarette has less nicotine, they'll simply smoke more cigarettes to get the same rush. And while nicotine may be the addictive part of cigarettes, it's all the other stuff in the cigarettes that's harmful to health. If my cynical suspicions are accurate, smoking more cigarettes to get more nicotine will mean more health problems, not fewer.

But there's something else that really irks me about this. I should note before going farther that I don't have a dog in this fight. I've never smoked a cigarette and can't stand the smell of either cigarettes or cigars. If the whole panoply of tobacco products suddenly disappeared from the earth, I would be happy.



However, I am not happy about an Executive Branch that has this much power. No president should be able to dictate how a product should be made and sold. This is something that Congress, through the Commerce Clause, should control.

In the same way, the Executive Branch should not be able to affect so drastically the flow of fossil fuels into America. Our entire way of life is dependent on fossil fuels. Everything we buy, use, eat, drink, wear, or anything else requires fossil fuels. Ending fossil fuels means no modern health care, no modern education, no travel, no anything at all. We will instantly be returned to a dark, grim, narrow world that cannot be saved with limited and expensive wind and solar power (both of which are dependent upon fossil fuels for their manufacturing).

Yet beginning on his first day in the Oval Office, Biden has signed a few pieces of paper that have paralyzed fossil fuel in this country. He stopped the cheap, easy, and environmentally friendly Keystone Pipeline (giving money to dirty trains and trucks) and stopped drilling and exploration on federal lands. His administration has done everything possible to damage Americans' access to the energy that underlies this country.

The Founders never intended the Executive Branch to have that kind of power, which drastically affects commerce and should be something Congress debates and votes upon. The president's job is to enforce the existing laws (laws such as immigration and maintaining a functioning military), not to destroy the energy that keeps America humming.

The fact that Biden wants to destroy the tobacco industry, depriving millions of people of something that gives them pleasure and potentially creating a new health risk, doesn't mean Biden should be able to do so. Congress must take its power back, or our country risks becoming a pure dictatorship. The only comforting thought will be that the dictator's new military, complete with transgender troops obsessed with pronouns, "green" ships, and officers focused on Critical Race Theory, won't have the emotional strength to be a Wehrmacht or People's Liberation Army.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Here Is What Biden Actually Could Do To Lower Gas Prices... But Is Blocked By Environmentalists

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 02:05 PM

Biden's proposal for a three month gas-tax holiday, the same one which his predecessor in the White House Barack Obama joked about opposing before the 2008 election...

1655933283502.png

... and which would cut the price of gasoline by a whopping 18 cents/gallon if it were to pass... isn't going to pass:
  • REPUBLICAN U.S. SENATOR THUNE: BIDEN'S GAS TAX HOLIDAY IS DEAD ON ARRIVAL IN CONGRESS
Even Biden's own Democrats refuse to commit:
“We will see where the consensus lies on a path forward for the President’s proposal in the House and the Senate" said Pelosi.
In any case, according to Goldman - which thinks the odds are less than even that Congress votes to suspend the tax, nor are many states expected to suspend their own taxes - Congressional action is unlikely before the upcoming 4th of July recess, and after that, the odds are less than even that Congress votes to suspend the tax. Still, there is a modest chance of enactment, as even skeptical lawmakers might feel compelled to support a suspension if the issue comes up for a vote, and Democratic leaders control the calendar and could come under pressure to schedule such a vote.

What is more interesting than Biden's insistence on pushing through this fact-sheet which will almost certainly die quietly in some corridor in the Capitol, is what is omits which perhaps not surprisingly are things that actually could lower the price of gas, if only briefly. As we noted last week, recent media reports indicated the White House was considering proposing a $400 gas rebate card for households, though since this was just another stimulus, it never seemed likely and it seems less likely with today’s proposal. Among the more actionable and impactful ideas that the White House could have pursued are:
  • Regulatory changes which the White House could make without Congress, including issuing Reid VaporPressure (RVP) waivers, and which would allow the sale of cheaper winter-blend gasoline during the summer
  • Jones Act waivers, which would allow generally less expensive foreign vessels to transport fuel between US ports
  • Easing the Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO), which has seen increased compliance costs for refiners as Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs)—the credits purchased to comply with the program—have traded substantially higher over the last two years.
Goldman noted that these likely would have met opposition from environmentalists, labor unions, and/or the agricultural sector, whereas a tax suspension does not affect any particular constituency (assuming the lost revenue to the Highway Trust Fund is made up through a general revenue transfer, as would occur under most recent congressional proposals to suspend the tax, it would have no impact on infrastructure spending, which would otherwise be a concern for the construction sector).

Ironically, it is those same entities - the environmentalists whispering in Biden's ear, alongside the labor unions and so on, who together with the Fed, have pushed the ESG lunacy beyond the breaking point and it is they, not Putin (whose oil is actually selling at about $80/bbl or about a $30 discount from spot), that one should look toward when casting blame for today's record gas prices.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

After API Reports Big Crude Build, EIA Announces Official Data Won't Be Published

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 01:38 PM

Update (1700ET): Shortly after API reported a surprisingly large crude inventory build last week (and the first gasoline build in 3 months), The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued a statement saying that it won't publish its closely-watched weekly oil inventory report as planned on June 23 as "a result of systems issues."
“Our experts are working on a solution to restore the affected systems”
Full Statement:
Several U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) product releases scheduled for the week of June 20, 2022, will be delayed as a result of systems issues. Our experts are working on a solution to restore the affected systems.
We will release the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report as scheduled on June 23. All other data releases scheduled for this week will be delayed. We will resume our normal production schedule and release delayed data as soon as possible.
We apologize for the inconvenience of this delay, and remain committed to our mission of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating independent and impartial energy information as we resolve this issue.
Bloomberg's Energy expert Javier Blas took to Twitter to point out just how unusual this is...

1655933614822.png

There's no coincidences in politics (or politically-sensitive data).
* * *
Oil prices extended their recent weakness today, finding support at around $102 again before bouncing back, driving by recession fears.
Crude has whipped back and forth as the Fed’s commitment to taming inflation “has shaken the confidence of investors using crude as an inflation hedge,” said Rebecca Babin, senior energy trader at CIBC Private Wealth Management.

“Market liquidity is challenged as volatility has also taken its toll on traders and investors alike, leaving crude susceptible to massive swings.”
Futures holdings are at the lowest since 2016, leaving headline prices prone to outsized swings.
API
  • Crude +5.607mm
  • Cushing -390k
  • Gasoline +1.216mm - first build since March
  • Distillates -1.656mm
US crude stocks rose for the 3rd straight week (and rose significantly) and gasoline inventories built for the first time since March...


Source: Bloomberg

WTI was hovering around $105.20 ahead of the API data and slipped lower on the surprise crude/gasoline builds...



Finally, we note that wholesale gasoline prices bounced higher today, shrugging off Biden's plans for a federal tax cut...



But we note that retail prices are down 6c in the last week and wholesale prices suggest prices could drop further in the short-term...



Biden victory lap?

Not so fast as Goldman reminded traders today that “investors should remember that Fed-induced slowdowns are simply a short-term abatement of the symptom - inflation -- and not a cure for the problem - underinvestment."
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Our No-Win "Kobayashi Maru" Economy

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 01:20 PM
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

It's time to reprogram the conditions of the economy to serve the many rather than the few.

Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru training exercise tests officer candidates' response to a no-win scenario: any attempt to rescue the crippled ship's crew results in the destruction of the candidate's ship, while standing by and taking no action results in the loss of the Kobayashi Maru's crew.



Captain Kirk famously defeated this no-win scenario by reprogramming the simulation to "change the conditions of the test." This can be viewed as either cheating or as creative problem-solving via "thinking outside the box."

The Kobayashi Maru is a very apt description of both the U.S. and the global economies, which are currently running a real-world no-win scenario called "Profits, Infinite Growth, Low Inflation, Full Employment." (PIGLIFE). To win in the PIGLIFE scenario, you need permanent expansion of GDP, consumption, profits and employment and a permanently low limit on inflation. Anything less and you lose.

Central banks and political leaders have managed to "win" the PIGLIFE scenario for decades, but at a cost that can no longer be cloaked by happy-happy statistics. The economy has been fatally hollowed out into a fragile shell of monopolies and cartels profiting from hyper-financialization and hyper-globalization, a system in which the only possible outcome is hyper-inequality and hyper-self-exploitation as the immense profits enable the purchase / capture of political and regulatory power.



Now that the PIGLIFE economy has stripmined all the easy-to-exploit resources and workforces, scarcities are pushing inflation far above the "winning" low level. Oops, you lose. Now the real teeth in the Kobayashi Maru scenario are bared: if Central banks and political leaders close the spigots of "free money" that's been expanding GDP, consumption, profits and employment for decades, then all those slide from expansion into contraction.

But if they keep the spigots of "free money" wide open, inflation threatens to feed back in a self-reinforcing loop of expectations of higher inflation that push inflation higher, which then justifies the expectations which then push prices, wages, etc. higher.

Meanwhile, the two engines of the PIGLIFE expansion, hyper-financialization and hyper-globalization, have dived off the cliff of diminishing returns. Boosting debt, leverage and globalized supply chains aren't generating expansion, they're actively undermining whatever "growth" is still sluicing through the PIGLIFE economy.

So sorry, Central banks and political leaders, you lose. The way you've rigged the system, it goes into self-reinforcing contraction if you close the spigots of "free money" even modestly.

But if you don't, the Klingon ships of inflation destroy you. The more you push hyper-financialization and hyper-globalization as "solutions," the greater the destruction.

Clearly, we need a new set of conditions for prosperity and well-being that do not rely solely on expanding GDP, profits, consumption and employment. Many economists, for example, Joseph Stiglitz, have proposed retiring GDP as a measure of prosperity and well-being and using more accurate and sustainable measures of well-being to inform policies.

If we've learned anything, we've learned that enriching the already super-rich so they have even greater means to distort democracy to serve their private interests undermines the prosperity of the many rather than increases it. It's time to reprogram the conditions of the economy to serve the many rather than the few, and enable a truly winnable scenario of sustainable prosperity and well-being by tossing the "waste is growth / Landfill Economy" PIGLIFE model into the toxic waste dump of failed, no-win scenarios.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

What Is Your Plan To Make It Through The Worst Global Food Crisis In Any Of Our Lifetimes?

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 12:37 PM
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

We are being warned well ahead of time that it is coming. Joe Biden has publicly admitted that the coming food shortages are “going to be real”, and the head of the UN World Food Program is now telling us that we could soon see “hell on Earth” because the lack of food will be so severe. Food prices are already escalating dramatically all over the globe, and food riots have already erupted in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. But most people in the western world are treating this crisis as if it is no big deal. Many seem to assume that our leaders have everything under control and that things will work out just fine somehow.


Unfortunately, the truth is that everything is not going to be okay.

So far this year, the number of hungry people around the globe has risen to more than 800 million
Currently around 811 million people are experiencing hunger. Levels of food insecurity have doubled from 2019, increasing from 135 million to 276 million. Of this total around 48.9 million people are facing acute or emergency levels of food insecurity that require humanitarian intervention.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Much worse is ahead, and David Beasley is openly warning that “hell on Earth” is coming…
The UN has warned that there could be “hell on earth” due to the global economic impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Guardian reports that David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), has said that the war has been “devastating” in conjunction with various other factors.
He said, “Even before the Ukraine crisis, we were facing an unprecedented global food crisis because of Covid and fuel price increases. Then, we thought it couldn’t get any worse, but this war has been devastating.”
According to Beasley, we will soon see “frightening” shortages of food, and those shortages could potentially spark civil unrest in literally dozens of different nations…
Dozens of countries risk protests, riots and political violence this year as food prices surge around the world, the head of the food-aid branch of the United Nations has warned.

Speaking in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on Thursday, David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the world faced “frightening” shortages that could destabilise countries that depend on wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia.
But most Americans are not paying much attention to this rapidly growing crisis because they don’t think that it will really impact them personally.

For the vast majority of us, a lack of food is something that we have never had to be concerned about before.

During “normal” times, we could always go to the grocery store and fill up our carts with mountains of super cheap food whenever we wanted.

Unfortunately, things have changed. Food production in the U.S. is going to be way below expectations this year, and the head of the National Black Farmers Association claims that we will soon see “a lot of empty shelves and a lot more high food prices”
Three weeks ago John Boyd Jr., the President of the National Black Farmers Association, said “We are in a crisis right now as far as the food chain goes with the farmer in this country,” adding “We’re going to see a lot of empty shelves and a lot more high food prices.”

In his forty-year career as a farmer, Boyd said he never imagined he would be “paying $5.63 for a gallon of diesel fuel, $900 a ton for fertilizer, and all-time high prices for soybean seeds.” All of the prices he mentioned are at record highs, pressuring farmers’ margins.
Of course we are already seeing widespread shortages of certain products around the country.
For example, Fox Business is reporting on the serious shortage of tampons that has recently started making headlines…
A spokesperson for Tampax, which is owned by P&G, told FOX Business in a statement that this is “a temporary situation, and the Tampax team is producing tampons 24/7 to meet the increased demand for our products.”
Meanwhile, the ongoing shortage of baby formula just keeps getting even worse...
Parents aren’t getting much of a break as the out-of-stock rate for baby formula rose to 73% nationwide for the week ending May 29, according to the most recent data by retail data firm Datasembly. It’s a significant increase from earlier in the month, when the national out-of-stock rate for baby formula stood at 45%.
On top of everything else, we are now facing a shortage of hot sauce
In April, Huy Fong Foods, Inc., the nation’s leading sriracha sauce manufacturer, sent a letter to customers about an impending shortage, which would directly impact retailers and restaurants.

“Unfortunately, we can confirm that there is an unprecedented shortage of our products,” Huy Fong Foods told Fox News Digital in an email.
These shortages are just a very small preview of what is approaching.

As I have been warning on my website throughout 2022, conditions are going to deteriorate quite a bit more in the months ahead.

So what is your plan to make it through the worst global food crisis in any of our lifetimes?

Have you been stocking up?

Earlier this year, I published a list of 50 basic items that I would recommend having on hand.

The following list is certainly not exhaustive, but it will help you cover many of the essentials…
#1 A Generator
#2 A Berkey Water Filter
#3 A Rainwater Collection System If You Do Not Have A Natural Supply Of Water Near Your Home
#4 An Emergency Medical Kit
#5 Rice
#6 Pasta
#7 Canned Soup
#8 Canned Vegetables
#9 Canned Fruit
#10 Canned Chicken
#11 Jars Of Peanut Butter
#12 Salt
#13 Sugar
#14 Powdered Milk
#15 Bags Of Flour
#16 Yeast
#17 Lots Of Extra Coffee (If You Drink It)
#18 Buckets Of Long-Term Storable Food
#19 Extra Vitamins
#20 Lighters Or Matches
#21 Candles
#22 Flashlights Or Lanterns
#23 Plenty Of Wood To Burn
#24 Extra Blankets
#25 Extra Sleeping Bags
#26 A Sun Oven
#27 An Extra Fan If You Live In A Hot Climate
#28 Hand Sanitizer
#29 Toilet Paper
#30 Extra Soap And Shampoo
#31 Extra Toothpaste
#32 Extra Razors
#33 Bottles Of Bleach
#34 A Battery-Powered Radio
#35 Extra Batteries
#36 Solar Chargers
#37 Trash Bags
#38 Tarps
#39 A Pocket Knife
#40 A Hammer
#41 An Axe
#42 A Shovel
#43 Work Gloves
#44 N95 Masks
#45 Seeds For A Garden
#46 Canning Jars
#47 Extra Supplies For Your Pets
#48 An Emergency Supply Of Cash
#49 Bibles For Every Member Of Your Family
#50 A “Bug Out Bag” For Every Member Of Your Family
Many of the items on this list are now much more expensive than they were earlier this year.

And if you wait, many of them will continue to become much more expensive.

If you don’t like my list, come up with your own.
The important thing is to have a plan.

Global events are really starting to spiral out of control, and I expect the second half of this year to be even more chaotic than the first half of this year has been.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Oil Giants Warn Of Much Higher Prices For The Next 3-5 Years Amid Lack Of Supply

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 11:56 AM

It wasn't just the epic confusion unleashed by the Biden admin in the past few days over how to lower record gas prices (suggesting that Biden really has no idea what the 79-year-old president is doing), that sparked today's jump in crude oil and surge in energy names.

1655934635049.png

Providing some bullish support for the oil cash, in his latest weekly note, Bank of America's energy analyst Fernando Blanch writes that even if the world goes into recession, Brent oil could average more than $75/bbl next year. Here is some more from his summary:
  • As Europe targets Russian oil export reductions, the energy supply side needs more than just a price fix. Investors are looking to curb exposure to the energy sector too on ESG concerns. Also, US shale supply has become much less sensitive to price. What does this mean for balances and prices?
  • If Russian oil supply does not drop below 10mn b/d, global oil demand could grow by 1.7mn b/d in 2023.
  • Having averaged $104/bbl this year, BofA stills see Brent at $102/bbl in 2022 and 2023 on average, with a potential spike to $150/bbl if European sanctions push Russian oil production below 9mn b/d.
  • Yet the market does not seem to be pricing in a decade-long Russian supply crisis, as long dated oil prices have stayed firmly anchored in our long term oil price band of $60 to $80/bbl.

There is much more in the full BofA note, available to professional subs.

A similarly bullish message, yet one where there was much more book talking, came from Exxon Mobil, whose CEO said that global oil markets may remain tight for another three to five years largely because of a lack of investment since the pandemic began.

Chief executive Darren Woods said it’ll take time for oil firms to “catch up” on the investments needed to ensure there’s enough supply.

Woods was speaking at the Economic Forum in Qatar, which is among the world’s biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas and one of few nations that can substantially replace Russian gas supplies to Europe. Firms including ConocoPhillips are investing in a $29 billion project to boost Doha’s exports. On Tuesday it emerged that Exxon is also one of the bidders and Qatari Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi, speaking alongside Woods, said the US firm would get a stake.

The project is one of the largest in the gas industry and state-controlled Qatar Energy is scheduled to formally announce a deal with Exxon later on Tuesday.

Incidentally, Exxon got some more good news today when Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to a buy with a $125 price target, with CS analyst Manav Gupta writing that Exxon “always believed that the world will need fossil fuels for much longer and in the medium term demand for oil and gas will be increasing not contracting" and adding that “while some of XOM’s peers have been selling refining assets at the bottom of the cycle at distressed valuations, XOM has actually been investing in its refining assets,” Gupta wrote. Notably, the CS analyst also sees XOM reducing net debt and being in net cash position by 2024.



Woods message was also echoed by Russell Hardy, the CEO of the world's largest independent oil merchant, Vitol; he too believes that oil prices will remain high because the market can’t see where additional supply is coming from to balance demand, although he noted that high oil prices are starting to curb demand “at the edges” (many others, such as the gas buddy guy, disagree, failing to see any slowdown in demand despite record high gas prices).

Finally, and ensuring that gas prices aren't going lower any time soon, in a world where refining capacity is approaching the lowest in years, China’s state-run refiners again trimmed operating rates to 70.8% in the week ended June 17, from 71.3% the prior week according to Citic, which also noted that run rates for teapots edged higher to 65.6% from 64.4%.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Homeland Security Asks All Federal Employees To Consider Volunteering At The Border

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 11:05 AM

With migrant encounters at the southern border continuing to set new records, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is asking all civilian federal employees to consider volunteering for a 60-day summer stint along the sweltering frontier.

A similar call for volunteers was made in March, but migrant traffic has continued to rise since then. Last week, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the number of migrant encounters at the southern border in May was a record 239,416. The previous record was just set in April, and the May 2022 tally was a whopping 33% higher than May 2021.

"As we continue to encounter large numbers of individuals along our southwest border, we are now, more than ever, in need of your assistance," says a five-page flyer on the DHS Volunteer Force program obtained by Zero Hedge.

Federal employees who sign up to help DHS manage the masses "will provide humanitarian and logistical, non-law enforcement support to those processing through the immigration system." An employee's current responsibilities are irrelevant.

Volunteer duties can include handing out clothes, blankets and personal care items, meal prep, picking up medical prescriptions at a local pharmacy, picking up trash, cleaning refrigerators, shredding paper, answering phones, housekeeping, warehousing, file tracking and data input.
Such responsibilities might otherwise command a minimum wage or something close to it, but federal employees who sign up will keep taking home whatever they make in their regular job, plus per diem and the possibility of earning overtime. There's no hazardous duty pay, however.

Volunteers don't get to pick their destination. The DHS flyer cautions that "conditions may be challenging," and that, while volunteers are typically put in hotels, they could end up in a tent. Volunteers are asked not to bring "firearms/flare guns/machetes"—or expensive jewelry, passports or anything else they "don't want" to be stolen. A Covid-19 shot is merely "encouraged."

Volunteers are prohibited from taking photographs or video or "posting anything on social media."

Apparently, former rapists who are currently federal government employees need not apply. A "Prison Rape Elimination Act Form" asks prospective volunteers if they've:
  • "Ever engaged in sexual abuse in a prison, jail, holding facility, community confinement facility, juvenile facility, or other institution"
  • "Ever been convicted of engaging or attempting to engage in sexual activity facilitated by force, overt or implied threats of force, or coercion"
As record numbers of migrants swarm the border, the Biden administration is attempting to end a Trump-imposed emergency restriction on immigration that was put forth as a Covid-19 safety measure. In May, a federal judge stopped Biden from doing so, finding the administration must first go through standard processes that require the solicitation of public input before making such a policy change.

The first of five pages in a DHS flyer used to recruit federal employees to sign up for a 60-day summer stint on the southern border
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Watch Live: Fed Chair Powell Testifies Before The Senate

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 08:25 AM

Watch live here (due to start at 0930ET):

View: https://youtu.be/4tEYjoaz8_I
2;29:16 min

Powell's prepared remarks: (emphasis ours)
Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Toomey, and other members of the Committee, I appreciate the opportunity to present the Federal Reserve's semiannual Monetary Policy Report.

I will begin with one overarching message. At the Fed, we understand the hardship high inflation is causing. We are strongly committed to bringing inflation back down, and we are moving expeditiously to do so. We have both the tools we need and the resolve it will take to restore price stability on behalf of American families and businesses. It is essential that we bring inflation down if we are to have a sustained period of strong labor market conditions that benefit all.

I will review the current economic situation before turning to monetary policy.

Current Economic Situation and Outlook
Inflation remains well above our longer-run goal of 2 percent. Over the 12 months ending in April, total PCE (personal consumption expenditures) prices rose 6.3 percent; excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 4.9 percent. The available data for May suggest the core measure likely held at that pace or eased slightly last month. Aggregate demand is strong, supply constraints have been larger and longer lasting than anticipated, and price pressures have spread to a broad range of goods and services. The surge in prices of crude oil and other commodities that resulted from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is boosting prices for gasoline and fuel and is creating additional upward pressure on inflation.

And COVID-19-related lockdowns in China are likely to exacerbate ongoing supply chain disruptions. Over the past year, inflation also increased rapidly in many foreign economies, as discussed in a box in the June Monetary Policy Report.

Overall economic activity edged down in the first quarter, as unusually sharp swings in inventories and net exports more than offset continued strong underlying demand.

Recent indicators suggest that real gross domestic product growth has picked up this quarter, with consumption spending remaining strong. In contrast, growth in business fixed investment appears to be slowing, and activity in the housing sector looks to be softening, in part reflecting higher mortgage rates. The tightening in financial conditions that we have seen in recent months should continue to temper growth and help bring demand into better balance with supply.

The labor market has remained extremely tight, with the unemployment rate near a 50‑year low, job vacancies at historical highs, and wage growth elevated. Over the past three months, employment rose by an average of 408,000 jobs per month, down from the average pace seen earlier in the year but still robust. Improvements in labor market conditions have been widespread, including for workers at the lower end of the wage distribution as well as for African Americans and Hispanics. A box in the June Monetary Policy Report discusses developments in employment and earnings across all major demographic groups. Labor demand is very strong, while labor supply remains subdued, with the labor force participation rate little changed since January.

Monetary Policy
The Fed's monetary policy actions are guided by our mandate to promote maximum employment and stable prices for the American people. My colleagues and I are acutely aware that high inflation imposes significant hardship, especially on those least able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation. We are highly attentive to the risks high inflation poses to both sides of our mandate, and we are strongly committed to returning inflation to our 2 percent objective.

Against the backdrop of the rapidly evolving economic environment, our policy has been adapting, and it will continue to do so. With inflation well above our longer-run goal of 2 percent and an extremely tight labor market, we raised the target range for the federal funds rate at each of our past three meetings, resulting in a 1-1/2 percentage point increase in the target range so far this year. The Committee reiterated that it anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate. In May, we announced plans for reducing the size of our balance sheet and, shortly thereafter, began the process of significantly reducing our securities holdings. Financial conditions have been tightening since last fall and have now tightened significantly, reflecting both policy actions that we have already taken and anticipated actions.

Over coming months, we will be looking for compelling evidence that inflation is moving down, consistent with inflation returning to 2 percent. We anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate; the pace of those changes will continue to depend on the incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy.

We will make our decisions meeting by meeting, and we will continue to communicate our thinking as clearly as possible. Our overarching focus is using our tools to bring inflation back down to our 2 percent goal and to keep longer-term inflation expectations well anchored.

Making appropriate monetary policy in this uncertain environment requires a recognition that the economy often evolves in unexpected ways. Inflation has obviously surprised to the upside over the past year, and further surprises could be in store. We therefore will need to be nimble in responding to incoming data and the evolving outlook. And we will strive to avoid adding uncertainty in what is already an extraordinarily challenging and uncertain time. We are highly attentive to inflation risks and determined to take the measures necessary to restore price stability. The American economy is very strong and well positioned to handle tighter monetary policy.

To conclude, we understand that our actions affect communities, families, and businesses across the country. Everything we do is in service to our public mission.

We at the Fed will do everything we can to achieve our maximum-employment and price-stability goals.

Thank you. I am happy to take your questions.
We hate to steal the jam out of Powell's rosy donut about "recent indicators suggest that real gross domestic product growth has picked up this quarter",but The Atlanta Fed's GDPNOW is now signaling a second quarter of contraction and The Fed's Harker just this morning suggested we could have two quarters of contraction. All of which makes sense when one looks at the total collapse in "recent indicators" of the US economy?!



Oh, and The NY Fed economists see the probability of a hard landing at 80%...

So, Mr. Powell, WTF are you looking at?
* * *
As we detailed earlier, the big catalyst cited by traders for today's weakness - besides the on again/off again fears of an imminent recession which UBS summarized best as follows “markets are flip-flopping between recession fears and inflation fears. Today it is recession fears" - is Fed Chair Powell's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee as part of the Fed’s semiannual Monetary Policy Report that they deliver to Congress, which according to the Fed's website will take place at an earlier than usual time of 930am ET (usually these take place after 3pm).

According to JPMorgan, the market "will look for any insight into how the Fed views various data input to gauge the Fed’s reaction function. Further, are there any insights into what would move the Fed back to 25bps hike cadence or even a pause?"

That said, JPMorgan warns against hope for gaining that insight, and instead thinks it is prudent to prepare for a 75bps hike in July given the Fed broke its guidance due to an elevated CPI print combined with falling consumer confidence.

Indeed, while markets are gearing up for Powell to unveil some unprecedented pearl of wisdom, his appearance will be a far more subdued affair and the Fed chair will not contradict himself. According to DB economists, Powell will reiterate the same themes he gave at his post-meeting press conference last week, where he signalled that they’d likely be deciding between 50bps and 75bps at the July meeting.

Fed funds futures are currently implying that another 75bps move is more likely, with +71.8bps currently priced in, but don’t forget that there’s still plenty yet to happen ahead of that meeting in just over a month, including the subsequent CPI release and jobs report for June, and as we found out at the last meeting, it’s not implausible that unexpected data releases throw the previous guidance off course.

1655935466323.png
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

EIA: US Refining Capacity Sinks To Near Decade Low

WEDNESDAY, JUN 22, 2022 - 05:42 AM
By Julianne Geiger Of OilPrice.com

Operable refining capacity in the United States hit a nearly decade low in 2022, the EIA’s latest Refining Capacity Report showed on Tuesday.



U.S. refining capacity fell this year to 17.94 million barrels per day as of January 1, according to the latest EIA data—down from 18.09 million bpd on January 1 last year. U.S. refining capacity is now the lowest it’s been since 2014.

The total number of operable refineries rose to 130, up from 129 last year, with the number of operating refineries increasing by 1 to 125.

Compared to operable U.S. refining capacity as of January 1, 2020, this year’s refining capacity has decreased by more than a million barrels per day.



U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.3 million bpd during the week ending June 10, according to the EIA’s Petroleum Status Report published last Wednesday—that’s a decrease of 67,000 bpd over the previous week—running at 93.7% of operable capacity.

The United States has more refining capacity than any other country, although China’s refining capacity could overtake the United States’ yet this year—in fact, it may have already overtaken the United States.

Gasoline prices in the United States began ticking up in 2021, and with high refining utilization rates and low crude product inventories, the refining segment has been fingered as one of the biggest price culprits.

Chevron’s CEO Mike Worth said earlier this month that he doesn’t see any relief to the refining capacity issue in sight, even going so far as to suggest that the United States may not see any new refineries built, ever, given their long lead times and lengthy ROI combined with the uncertainty of the future of fossil fuels in general given climate concerns.
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Biden Celebrates His Green Policies that Will “Take Millions of Cars Off the Road” (VIDEO)
By Cristina Laila
Published June 22, 2022 at 2:05pm

IMG_4669-1.jpg


Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered remarks on soaring gas prices from his fake White House set in the South Court Auditorium.

Biden repeated the same lies in his speech and blamed Vladimir Putin for high gas prices.

“Let’s remember how we got here: Putin invaded Ukraine,” said Biden.

This is a lie.

Gas prices spiked before Putin invaded Ukraine.

IMG_1463-1.jpg
chart courtesy of Zero Hedge

Even Biden’s Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday fact-checked Biden’s lies on rising prices.

“I promise you I’m doing everything possible, everything possible to bring the price of energy down,” Biden said.

Biden celebrated his ‘green’ policies that will take millions of cars off the road.

The pain at the pump is by design to usher in the left’s public transit utopia so they can restrict movement.

“We’re investing nearly $100 billion in public transit” to “take millions of cars off the road,” he said.

WATCH:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1539676685569871873
.16 min
 

raven

TB Fanatic

Biden Celebrates His Green Policies that Will “Take Millions of Cars Off the Road” (VIDEO)
By Cristina Laila
Published June 22, 2022 at 2:05pm

IMG_4669-1.jpg


Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered remarks on soaring gas prices from his fake White House set in the South Court Auditorium.

Biden repeated the same lies in his speech and blamed Vladimir Putin for high gas prices.

“Let’s remember how we got here: Putin invaded Ukraine,” said Biden.

This is a lie.

Gas prices spiked before Putin invaded Ukraine.

IMG_1463-1.jpg
chart courtesy of Zero Hedge

Even Biden’s Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday fact-checked Biden’s lies on rising prices.

“I promise you I’m doing everything possible, everything possible to bring the price of energy down,” Biden said.

Biden celebrated his ‘green’ policies that will take millions of cars off the road.

The pain at the pump is by design to usher in the left’s public transit utopia so they can restrict movement.

“We’re investing nearly $100 billion in public transit” to “take millions of cars off the road,” he said.

WATCH:

View: https://twitter.com/i/status/1539676685569871873
.16 min
Unable to manufacture cars because of a lack of chips
Astronomical gas prices.
Atronomical food and housing prices.
Limiting refineries.

He'll will take millions of cars off the road - without green energy,
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment
Reporter to Jean-Pierre: "Is there a working theory ... to why the oil companies have not already increased their refining capacity?" .12 min

Reporter to Jean-Pierre: "Is there a working theory ... to why the oil companies have not already increased their refining capacity?"
The Post Millennial Clips Published June 22, 2022

Reporter: "Is there a working theory ... to why the oil companies have not already increased their refining capacity?"

Jean-Pierre: "There's no working theory on our part."

^^^^^

Biden: "To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump, this is a time of war." .30 min

Biden: "To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump, this is a time of war."
The Post Millennial Clips Published June 22, 2022

Biden: "To the companies running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump, this is a time of war. Global peril. Ukraine ... Bring down the price you are charging at the pump."

^^^^
Biden: "I know my Republican friends claim we are not producing enough oil, and I'm limiting oil production ... that's nonsense." .08 min

Biden: "I know my Republican friends claim we are not producing enough oil, and I'm limiting oil production ... that's nonsense."
The Post Millennial Clips Published June 22, 2022

Biden: "I know my Republican friends claim we are not producing enough oil, and I'm limiting oil production ... that's nonsense."
 
Last edited:

marsh

On TB every waking moment
(COMMENT: I like this discussion between Str. Kennedy and Powell. If inflation is too much money chasing too few goods, then there are 2 ways to reduce the imbalance in supply and demand: (1) reduce the amount of money in circulation; and (2) increase the supply of goods. Powell said that higher interest rates and reducing the balance sheet of the Fed will decrease demand. Kennedy suggests reduced regulation and not passing big expenditure bills beyond federal and state revenue could increase supply. This would make it easier and more profitable to supply and not spend more money that bonds will have to be sold and money created to pay for. The issue here is that supply will not be sufficient to meet near future demand. Demand can be essential - like food and energy or discretionary like entertainment and luxury goods. The core issue here is increasing supply of essential goods.)

'Hell Of A Mess Here': Sen. John Kennedy Tears Into Fed Chair Over The State Of The Economy 6:28 min

'Hell Of A Mess Here': Sen. John Kennedy Tears Into Fed Chair Over The State Of The Economy
The Daily Caller Published June 22, 2022
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

marsh

On TB every waking moment
1:51 min

Jack Posobiec on crime tourism soaring in California
The Post Millennial Clips Published June 22, 2022

Jack Posobiec on crime tourism soaring in California:

"We are seen as a place where crime and crime sprees are just waiting to happen..."

(Apparently this is now a thing. Foreigners get a tourist visa to come rob wealthy homes where DA's are easy. If they don't get caught, they go home with their loot. If they do get caught, they are let out before their visa expires and they go home.

"Uri Bezmenov, the KGB defector said, that the way to destabilize a society is by releasing the criminals."
 

marsh

On TB every waking moment

Attorney General Intervenes After Bill Gates Buys A Massive Amount Of Farmland In North Dakota

FILE PHOTO: Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, speaks at a panel discussion in Washington

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

SARAH WEAVERSTAFF WRITER
June 22, 202212:02 PM ET

The office of the Attorney General of North Dakota sent a letter Tuesday asking Red River Trust, a group with ties to billionaire Bill Gates, to prove the company’s use of the land does not violate the state’s Corporate Farming Laws.

The trust had acquired six parcels of land in Pembina County.

“I’ve gotten a big earful on this from clear across the state, it’s not even from that neighborhood,” Agricultural Commissioner Doug Goehring, according to Valley News Live.

“Those people are upset, but there are others that are just livid about this.”

The letter stipulated that under North Dakota law, there are “certain limitations on the ability of trusts to own farmland or ranchland.”

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“The Corporate or Limited Liability Company Farming Law has certain exceptions, such as permitting registered family farms or allowing the use of the land for business purposes,” the letter continued.

According to the letter, corporations that are in violations of this law will have a year to divest themselves of the land and are subject to a civil fine of $100,000.

“Our office needs to confirm how your company uses this land and whether this use meets any of the statutory exceptions, such as business purpose exceptions, such as the business purpose exception, so that we may close this case and file it in our inactive files,” the letter continued.

As of January 2021, Bill Gates is the largest owner of farmland in the U.S., owning 242,000 acres across 18 states, according to the Daily Mail.
 
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