The Biden administration and US Treasury on Wednesday unveiled nearly 300 new anti-Russia sanctions which especially target third party entities which are said to help Moscow in sanctions-busting activities.

“The almost 300 targets being sanctioned by both Treasury and the Department of State include sanctions on dozens of actors that have enabled Russia to acquire desperately needed technology and equipment from abroad,” the Treasury Department said in a press release.

So-called dual-use items out of China are a key focus of the action, which is being hailed as one of “the most wide-ranging actions against Chinese companies so far in Washington’s sanctions aimed at Russia.” 20 companies based in China and Hong Kong were named.

Companies in Turkey, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Slovakia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are also targeted.

“Treasury has consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia’s war, and the U.S. is imposing them today on almost 300 targets,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.

It also marks the furthest reaching action that seeks to specifically degrade Russia’s military-industrial base, as well as its biological and chemical weapons programs. For example, companies involved in manufacturing precursor materials for Russia to make explosives are listed.

Last week during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China he warned about Beijing’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Russia would struggle to sustain its assault on Ukraine without China’s support,” Blinken had claimed provocatively, while also asserting China is the “top supplier” of Russia’s defense industrial base – albeit not in terms of lethal aid (but instead “dual use” technologies).

This support to Russia’s defense industry additionally constitutes a “medium to long-term threat that many Europeans feel viscerally that Russia poses to them,” Blinken had asserted.

Meanwhile, as Ukraine forces continue getting pushed back from frontline positions by the better-armed Russian force, hawkish threats out of Congress are getting more frantic…

🤡We must be prepared to strike back at Putin on Russian soil – Congressman Scott

“Supporting Ukraine means defeating Vladimir Putin in Russia. We must be prepared to hit him back on Russian territory. And when I see the Biden administration, which does not want to comply with… pic.twitter.com/B3UlXzV5ak

— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) April 30, 2024

He warned last week that the Biden administration stood ready to introduce more sanctions against China if dual-use goods and technologies continue to be sent to Russia, including things previously identified by Washington as problematic: semiconductors, machine tools, chemical precursors, ball bearings, and optical systems. Based on Wednesday’s Treasury action it is clear that the sanctions were already being prepared even as Blinken was on the three-day trip, which including a meeting with President Xi.

Authored by Megan Redshaw, J.D. via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

People with a history of uveitis may experience a recurrence of the eye inflammatory disorder following COVID-19 vaccination, especially in the early postvaccination period.

(MicroScience/Shutterstock)

A recently published study in JAMA Ophthalmology found that about 17 percent of nearly 474,000 vaccinated individuals with a history of uveitis experienced a recurrence within one year after vaccination.

Uveitis is inflammation inside the eye that occurs when the immune system is fighting an infection or attacks healthy tissue in the eyes. It can cause symptoms including pain, redness, and vision loss while damaging the uvea and other parts of the eye.

Researchers collected data on all individuals diagnosed with uveitis in South Korea between January 2015 and February 2021 to determine the risk of recurrence after COVID-19 vaccination. Data was retrieved from the Korean National Health Insurance Service and Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency databases. The incidence of uveitis was assessed from Feb. 26, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2022. The cases were classified according to the onset at three months, six months, and one year, the type of uveitis (anterior or nonanterior), and vaccine type.

Individuals included in the study received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, or Johnson & Johnson and did not test positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the study period.

Study Findings

Of the 473,934 individuals included in the study, the cumulative incidence of postvaccination uveitis was 8.6 percent at three months, 12.5 percent at six months, and 16.8 percent at one year—primarily of the anterior type, which affects the iris at the front of the eye. Moreover, the risk of uveitis reoccurrence was highest in the first 30 days after vaccination, peaked between the first and second vaccine doses, and decreased with subsequent vaccinations.

According to the researchers, the first dose of the vaccine may activate inflammatory pathways leading to initial inflammation in people who are prone to autoimmune reactions or have a history of uveitis. However, there’s a declining risk with repeated vaccination that may be due to the immune system’s adaptation to the vaccine antigen, although further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

Additionally, the risk of experiencing the condition increased among recipients of all four vaccine types, especially among those who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. These patients were more likely to experience uveitis recurrence during the early-onset period. Likewise, those who received Moderna were at a higher risk of experiencing uveitis after the first vaccination and during the early-onset period.

Notably, there were variations in the types of uveitis observed in the periods before and after vaccination. Among patients with infectious uveitis prior to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, nearly 54 percent had noninfectious uveitis after being vaccinated, whereas most of the individuals with noninfectious uveitis before vaccination had a recurrence of the same type after vaccination.

Most patients with uveitis were 60 to 79 years old, followed by those aged 40 to 59. Among those with comorbidities, high blood pressure, diabetes, and rheumatic diseases were the most common.

“Although uveitis following vaccination is rare, our findings support an increased risk after COVID-19 vaccination, particularly in the early postvaccination period,” the authors wrote. “These results emphasize the importance of vigilance and monitoring for uveitis in the context of vaccinations, including COVID-19 vaccinations, particularly in individuals with a history of uveitis.”

Other Studies of Vaccine-Associated Uveitis

Other studies have found an association between uveitis and COVID-19 vaccination, including a February 2023 study published in Ophthalmology. The study provided insights into a possible temporal association between reported vaccine-associated events and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson.

Moreover, ocular adverse events have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination in addition to uveitis, including facial nerve palsy, retinal vascular occlusion, acute macular neuroretinopathy, thrombosis, and new-onset Graves’ disease.

In a June 2022 paper published in Vaccines, researchers analyzed ocular adverse events reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to provide clinicians and researchers with a broader picture of ocular side effects of COVID-19 vaccinations.

VAERS is a voluntary reporting system comanaged by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is designed to detect vaccine safety signals, although it is estimated to represent less than 1 percent of actual adverse events.

During the analysis period of December 2020 to December 2021, VAERS received 55,313 reports for ocular adverse events, 6,688 of which met the inclusion criteria. Of those reports, 2,229 were related to eyelid swelling, ocular hyperemia, and conjunctivitis, 1,785 were reports of blurred vision, and 1,322 were reports of visual impairment.

Females accounted for 74 percent of the reports, and eye conditions affected primarily individuals between the ages of 40 and 59 who had received either the Johnson & Johnson shot or Moderna’s vaccine.

Of the patients who reported ocular-related complications, 50 percent received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, 38 percent received Moderna, and 12 percent received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Although the study’s authors said they could not determine whether the vaccines were associated with an increased risk of adverse events, their data suggests a “possible association between COVID-19 vaccines and ocular adverse events.”

“Physicians are cautioned not only to be aware of this potential problem, but to check any underlying patient conditions, and to carefully document in VAERS within a few weeks of vaccination,” they wrote.

According to current VAERS data, 734 cases of uveitis, 539 cases of eye inflammation, 2,781 cases of retina disorders, 11,641 cases of facial nerve disorders, and 3,909 reports of eyelid swelling, ocular hyperaemia, and conjunctivitis were reported following COVID-19 vaccination between Dec. 14, 2020, and March 29.

Potential associations between uveitis and other vaccinations have been reported, including influenza, human papillomavirus, and varicella zoster virus vaccines. However, these studies did not necessarily establish a causal link.

Late in the afternoon Wednesday the House approved a bill which seeks to crack down on antisemitism on college and university campuses following days of protests and unrest driven by pro-Palestinian activists.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act has been approved in a 320-91 vote and will now head to the Senate. But the central question is: how and by what measure will federal authorities crack down on speech deemed “antisemitic”?

Will criticism of the government of Israel be deemed antisemitic? Will highlighting alleged war crimes or human rights abuses by the IDF be considered so? Will involvement in the BDS movement be deemed anti-Jewish? Will slogans such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” be illegal according to federal law? Will criticizing the US $3+ billion in annual foreign aid be considered anti-Jewish? 

And what of the many Jewish protesters who are engaged in speech condemning the nation-state of Israel? 

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters who define themselves as anti-Zionist have become a common scene at major rallies in places like New York City or London. via AFP

Already, active participation in causes boycotting Israel is ‘illegal’ in a number of US states (typically taking the form of prohibiting state agencies from engaging with companies involved in BDS).

According to an explanation of the definition of antisemitism outlined by the new House-passed bill: 

The bill would require the Department of Education to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism when enforcing antidiscrimination laws.

The group defines antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews” and says “Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

The organization provides a number of examples for what qualifies as antisemitism, including calling for the harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion, and accusing Jewish individuals as inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

By this measure, even theoretical historical discussions or interpretation could be considered illegal (such has long been the case in some European countries). Like with any attempt to legislate limits related to the 1st Amendment, this is certainly going to prove very slippery — especially if it gets signed into law and then comes the question of actual enforcement on the ground.

A tiny minority of Republicans are voicing fierce opposition to the bill…

Antisemitism is wrong, but I will not be voting for the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 (H.R. 6090) today that could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.

Read the bill text and… pic.twitter.com/Y0eeOiVfnw

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 1, 2024

Currently and historically, pro-Israel hawks who advocate for sending billions in American taxpayer dollars to Israel each year tend to accuse any and all opponents of such policies of being antisemitic. Some independent journalists say they’ve struggled to find blatant examples of people being targeted in antisemitic attacks on campuses for the sole reason of being Jewish. 

So if the federal government gets involved in these polemical and semantic games, where will it end? 

The vast majority of Republicans just voted for a bill to criminalize criticisms of the Israeli government. If the bill passes you will be guilty of hate speech if you “apply double standards” to the government of Israel or accuse it of genocide. This is honestly one of the most… https://t.co/5SPRT0I0jk pic.twitter.com/2k6n9A3hiY

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 1, 2024

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

A group of six Republican state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Department of Education on Tuesday over what they said were “radical and illegal” changes to Title IX rules.

The lawsuit, led by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

In their legal filing, the GOP attorneys general argued that the department overstepped its authority when rolling out new updates to Title IX rules that expanded protections to students by incorporating gender identity into the legal text.

They further claimed the changes to the rules override state laws and will harm Tennessee students, families, and schools. The attorneys general called on the court to pause and overturn the newly expanded policy.

“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Mr. Skrmetti said in a statement.

“In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms. Federal bureaucrats have no power to rewrite laws passed by the people’s elected representatives, and I expect the courts will put a stop to this unconstitutional power grab.”

Mr. Coleman, meanwhile argued the new changes to Title IX rules would “rip away 50 years of Title IX’s protections for women and put entire generations of young girls at risk.”

“As Attorney General, it is my duty to protect the people of Kentucky. As a Dad, it is my duty to protect my daughters,” Mr. Coleman said. “Today, I do both.”

Biden Admin Unveils Changes to Rules

The Kentucky attorney general added that his office is joining the lawsuit to “lead this fight for our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and all the women of our Commonwealth.”

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a longstanding policy designed to protect people from discrimination based on sex in schools.

Specifically, the protections prohibit sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding, either directly or indirectly, from the federal government.

However, the Department of Education last week rolled out newly updated Title IX rules that include expanded protections for LGBTQ students for the first time.

Under the updated rules, the prohibition against discrimination based on “sex” has been updated to include a prohibition against discrimination “based on sex stereotypes, sex-related characteristics (including intersex traits), pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

The new rules also dictate that any K-12 school or institution of higher education that receives any federal funding may not separate or treat individuals differently based on sex “in a manner that subjects that person to more than de minimis harm,” which Republicans say will lead to shared bathrooms, locker rooms and more.

It does, however, clarify that such separations are allowed “in the context of sex-separate living facilities and sex-separate athletic teams.”

The rules also state that all “non-confidential” school employees are required to notify a Title IX coordinator if they learn of any violations.

According to the Biden administration, the new regulations are set to take effect on Aug. 1.

President Joe Biden (R) speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, on June 30, 2023. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

‘Radical, Illegal Attempt to Rewrite the Statute’

In a statement announcing the newly updated rules, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said they “build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights.”

“The final regulations promote educational equity and opportunity for students across the country as well as accountability and fairness while empowering and supporting students and families,” the department said.

However, the attorneys general of Kentucky and Tennessee claim the new rules could put schools at risk of losing federal education funding, including access to free and reduced lunch programs and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants if they fail to abide by them.

The new rules would also require K-12 schools, colleges, and universities to “allow males identifying as females access to women’s sports, bathrooms and locker rooms,” they said.

“Under this radical and illegal attempt to rewrite the statute, if a man enters a woman’s locker room and a woman complains that makes her uncomfortable, the woman will be subject to investigation and penalties for violating the man’s civil rights,” Mr. Skrmetti said.

“Federal bureaucrats have no power to rewrite laws passed by the people’s elected representatives, and I expect the courts will put a stop to this unconstitutional power grab.”

The attorneys general of Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia have also joined the lawsuit with Tennessee and Kentucky.

It marks the latest lawsuit against the new Title IX changes after Republican attorneys general from nine states including Alabama and Louisiana filed similar legal challenges against the newly updated protections on Monday.

The Texas attorney general also has filed a lawsuit against the expanded rules, calling them “unlawful” and claiming they mandate schools comply with a “radical gender ideology.”

Authored by Peter Reagan for Birch Gold Group,

President Biden’s decision to participate in the Ukraine-Russia conflict back in February 2022 has taken a new and dangerous turn this year.

The U.S. dollar could suffer dramatically as a result.

Before we explore that new development, we’re going to start by quickly summarizing some of the events that led the United States to this point.

Let’s begin…

In the February 28th, 2022 issue of Matt Levine’s Money Stuff column for Bloomberg, Levine wrote about the sanctions placed on Russia:

the U.S., the European Union, the U.K., Switzerland, Singapore and other countries announced harsh sanctions against Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. There are a lot of these sanctions – banning Russian flights through European airspace, limiting Russian banks’ access to the SWIFT interbank messaging system, etc. – but the most drastic might be U.S., U.K. and EU bans on any transactions with the Russian central bank. The bulk of Russia’s foreign reserves are held in the form of securities, deposits at other central banks and deposits at foreign commercial banks. A ban on transactions with Russia’s central bank means that it can’t sell those securities or access those deposits. Its foreign currency reserves turned out to be mostly useless.

As is the case with most geopolitical conflicts, there is always a lot more to the story than gets reported in the mainstream media (Russian, U.S., or otherwise). For example, some of the history behind the current conflict actually dates back to 2014.

Nonetheless, the bottom line is that the financial sanctions placed on Russia in 2022 were supposed to have a severe impact on Russia’s economy.

Unfortunately, for President Biden and NATO allies…

Russia shrugs off brutal sanctions

If the sanctions placed on Russia in 2022 had their intended effect, Russia’s economy would’ve been wrecked, set back 30 years or more. It would’ve become a third-world country by now.

But that hasn’t happened. Russia has prospered despite those sanctions.

A revealing NPR interview shed light on some of the economic impacts, as of December 2023:

Russia has been hit with huge economic sanctions since it invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago. But the Russian economy has remained strong, defying many economists’ expectations.

Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at Carnegie Eurasia Center, explained:

Economic growth in Russia in 2023 is likely to exceed 3%. It is – in terms of figures, I mean, it’s great. It’s more than the economy of the United Kingdom or of Germans’ economy. So what’s behind these figures is that over a third of this growth is attributed to the war economy, where defense-related industries are flourishing at double-digit rates.

Now, it makes sense that war would boost military and defense-related industries. But Russia’s economy also doesn’t appear to be suffering much.

In fact, according to Bloomberg, Russia’s economy is actually at risk of overheating.

Even left-leaning think tanks can’t do much more than wag their fingers and exclaim “just you wait”:

Russia’s economy is now stable both in spite of and as a result of Western sanctions…

Russia’s economy could begin to see major challenges in the next year-and-a-half, think tank researchers write.

Just like Bidenomics! “Sure, it’s not working yet, but it will eventually, any day now…”

Nonsense. Russia’s currency, GDP, and banks are thriving:

The ruble is steady at about 92:1 (compare this to Biden’s claims from 2022 that “the ruble will be rubble”). Russia’s debt-to-GDP level is 17.2%, compared with the U.S. level of 131.0%. Russian bank profits for 2024 are projected to exceed the record profits in 2023.

In other words, Russia’s economy is outperforming the U.S. by almost every measure, and is doing so on a more sustainable level from a debt perspective.

So, let’s take stock…

Two years after these shock-and-awe sanctions intended to pressure Russia into ending its invasion of Ukraine:

Russia’s economy is outperforming not only the U.S. but also NATO allies (including the UK’s, Germany’s etc.)

The embargo on Russian oil by the West had zero impact on Russian exports

Russia’s defense and military industries are booming (talk about unintended consequences!)

Don’t misunderstand! I’m no fan of Vladimir Putin.

But I’m also not a fan of the Biden administration’s half-baked plan to teach Russia a lesson. It’s a total failure.

At this point, a rational person would assess the situation, look at the data and make a new plan.

Never one to learn from his mistakes, President Biden has instead opened a new front in his financial war on Russia.

This time, though, I’m seriously concerned he’s gone too far…

“This is outright theft”

Thanks to a recently passed piece of legislation, the Biden administration plans to take control of Russia’s frozen assets.

Rickards provided a nice summary:

The House passed the “REPO Act” this weekend, which authorizes the administration to seize about $20 billion worth of Russian assets sitting in U.S. banks, mostly Treasury securities. It would then transfer that money to Ukraine.

The securities were legally purchased by Russia using dollars earned through the sale of oil prior to the war. They were frozen in early 2022. That means the securities are still legally owned by Russia, but they can’t be sold or pledged, and Russia can’t receive the interest or cash at maturity.

But this legislation goes one step further and authorizes the actual seizure of these assets. This is outright theft and a violation of the Sovereign Immunities Act, but no one seems to care about that.

We’ve discussed dollar weaponization repeatedly over the last couple of years.

This development is next-level.

Freezing assets is bad enough – but seizing those legally-purchased assets? In violation of all international law?

That’s the act of an autocrat. Which is exactly what Biden calls Putin.

Is this a good idea? Probably not. Russia already can’t get its hands on those assets. So how does stealing them make Russia’s situation worse?

It doesn’t!

Instead, what it does accomplish (again, unintended consequences) is send a message to the rest of the world.

It’s not a hopeful message.

Are dollars assets? Or liabilities?

In today’s financialized world, most financial assets are based on debt. They’re promises to pay. As Ray Dalio recently reminded us:

…the dollar, to a lesser extent the euro, to a much lesser extent the yen, and to an even lesser extent the Chinese renminbi… are held in debt assets – i.e., they are debt-backed money—i.e., currency = debt. In other words, when you hold these monies, you are holding debt liabilities, which are promises to deliver you money.

The REPO Act has broken this promise to deliver money.

Which begs the question: What if central banks start to view dollars as a liability rather than an asset?

This Wall Street Journal article shows that economists were already grappling with this question back in 2022:

Recent events highlight the error in this thinking: Barring gold, these assets are someone else’s liability – someone who can just decide they are worth nothing…

What can investors do? For once, the old trope may not be ill advised: buy gold. Many of the world’s central banks will surely be doing it.

Indeed, 2022 was the biggest year for central bank gold-buying in history.

2023 was a close second-place, coming in just 4% below the previous year’s record.

The lesson is quite clear. What we think of as assets can become liabilities overnight.

So what can we do about it?

Do you have enough non-debt money?

Between brutal loss of purchasing power over the last three years, and now this escalation of dollar weaponization, you have to wonder: How much more abuse can the dollar take?

There’s no way to know.

That’s why Dalio wants you to ponder the question, “Do you have enough non-debt money?”

Gold, on the other hand, is a non-debt-backed form of money. It’s like cash, except unlike cash, which is devalued by risks of default or inflation, gold is supported by risks of debt defaults and inflation. It is held by central banks and other investors for this reason. In fact, gold is the third-most-held reserve currency by central banks, more so than the yen or renminbi…

When the financial system is working well – which is when there aren’t debt and inflation crises and the borrower-debtor governments printing debt-backed monies are meeting their obligations and paying their interest without printing and devaluing money – debt assets and other financial assets are good assets to hold; on the other hand, when the reverse is the case, gold is a good asset to own. That’s the main reason that gold is a good diversifier and why I have some in my portfolio.

Physical precious metals are just about the only asset that isn’t someone else’s liability. They aren’t an easily-broken promise to pay. They’re not an obligation.

With physical precious metals, you either own them or you don’t. Learn more about why physical gold ownership is vital.

Do you have enough non-debt money?

If all the promises to pay you own were broken, where would that leave you?

*  *  *

With global instability increasing and election uncertainties on the horizon, protecting your retirement savings is more important than ever. And this is why you should consider diversifying into a physical gold IRA. Because they offer an easy and tax-deferred way to safeguard your savings using tangible assets. To learn more, click here to get your FREE info kit on Gold IRAs from Birch Gold Group.

Law-abiding, freedom-loving Americans are finally catching on. The chaos spreading across the nation’s colleges and universities is a direct result of failed woke ideologies pushed by radical Marxist teachers, school groups, and school administrators. These schools have brainwashed an entire generation of ‘useful idiot’ youngsters in classrooms, otherwise called ‘indoctrination camps.’ 

Let’s begin with one Marxist extremist preaching the quiet part out loud to hundreds of youngsters this week: 

“There’s only one solution, intifada revolution. We must have a revolution so we can have a socialist reconstruction of the USA.”

The X user who posted the footage wrote, “This isn’t just about Israel/Palestine. It’s an attempt of the Marxist takeover of America. Our colleges have become indoctrination camps.” 

An extremist on the mic says: “There’s only one solution, intifada revolution. We must have a revolution so we can have a socialist reconstruction of the USA.”

This isn’t just about Israel/Palestine. It’s an attempt of the Marxist takeover of America. Our colleges have become… pic.twitter.com/2IEqRyuorB

— A Man Of Memes (@RickyDoggin) April 30, 2024

Following the overnight clashes between Marxist extremists masquerading as pro-Palestinian protesters across a dozen or more schools, partly funded by you know who… Soros, there was a glimmer of hope as NYPD officers restored law and order at City University and raised Old Glory from the ashes once again. 

#HAPPENINGNOW: An incredible scene and proud moment as we have assisted @CityCollegeNY in restoring order on campus, culminating in raising Old Glory once again on their campus flagpole. 🇺🇸@NYPDPC @NYPD1stDep @NYPDChiefOfDept @NYPDChiefPatrol @NYPDnews pic.twitter.com/XZWFmvXcUs

— NYPD Deputy Commissioner, Operations Kaz Daughtry (@NYPDDaughtry) May 1, 2024

There were more signs of hope, this time from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where a band of fraternity students protected Old Glory from Commies who tried to burn and trample the flag. 

MY BEAUTIFUL PI KAPPA PHI CHAD SQUAD AT UNC CHAPEL HILL HOLDING THE LINE!!!😎🇺🇸 ABSOLUTE LEGENDS!!! pic.twitter.com/VBCSkggy9m

— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) May 1, 2024

Now, the boys of Pi Kappa Phi at UNC are being celebrated as heroes on the internet – and someone started them a GoFundMe page titled “Pi Kappa Phi Men Defended their Flag. Throw ’em a Rager.” 

As of late afternoon, more than 2,200 donations have been seen, raising $61,557, nearing the goal of $65,000. 

Here’s what the organizer of the fundraiser wrote: 

Commie losers across the country have invaded college campuses to make dumb demands of weak University Administrators.

But amidst the chaos, the screaming, the anti-semitism, the hatred of faith and flag, stood a platoon of American heroes. Armored in Vineyard Vines and Patagonia, fueled by Zyn and White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde — laughing at their shrieks and wails and shielding the Stars & Stripes from Soviet missiles.

These boys… no, men, of the UNC Chapel Hill Pi Kappa Phi, gave the best to America and now they deserve the best.

Help us raise funds to throw this frat the party they deserve, a party worth of the boat-shoed Broleteriat who did their country proud.

Hayman Capital Management founder and CIO Kyle Bass wrote on X that he donated to the cause:

“I just sent a donation to these principled defenders of our flag, our country, and our values. It’s time we fight back against the spineless ‘victims’ who represent the rot that has infected our universities.” 

I just sent a donation to these principled defenders of our flag, our country, and our values. It’s time we fight back against the spineless ‘victims’ who represent the rot that has infected our universities. 🇺🇸 #UNC #ColumbiaUniversity @squirrelburger https://t.co/6P3sgRfw9F

— 🇺🇸 Kyle Bass 🇹🇼 (@Jkylebass) May 1, 2024

Another X user pointed out:

Democrats: Set up fundraisers to bail out rioters and looters.
Republicans: Set up fundraisers to celebrate patriotism with kegs of Natty Light.

Democrats: Set up fundraisers to bail out rioters and looters.

Republicans: Set up fundraisers to celebrate patriotism with kegs of Natty Light. https://t.co/QE7BqOypht

— Harrison Fields (@HarrisonWFields) May 1, 2024

Here’s what others are saying… 

Did I just toss in my support for these guys? You better believe I did! They are the ray of light and sign of hope that we all needed to remind of us that we have a generation of great kids and fearless leaders that still believe in doing what’s right.https://t.co/7ragrRsQUU

— Dennis Bonnen (@RepDennisBonnen) May 1, 2024

There are many good activities to support on America’s colleges and universities.

Today I’m going to contribute towards the Pi Kappa Phi brothers who raised the American flag at UNC!https://t.co/qLi2ZU4Owj

— Michael J. Hicks (@HicksCBER) May 1, 2024

The internet is raising money for the fraternity men who saved the USA flag to throw an epic rager. 🇺🇸

Chip in:https://t.co/bRFzIqw6Rv

— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) May 1, 2024

Buy these gentlemen a beer
“Armored in Vineyard Vines & Patagonia, fueled by Zyn & White Claws, these triumphant Brohemians protected Old Glory from the unwashed Marxist horde”https://t.co/Rv3wACfz6y

— Merav Ceren (@MeravCeren) May 1, 2024

 Perhaps Bass is correct.  

Authored by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

Nearly one year ago, Chicagoans cheered Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s removal from office.

Gone was her toxic attitude. Her flippant dismissal of the city’s many crises. Her abrasive politics.

In her place was Brandon Johnson, who promised a more inclusive approach to building a “better, stronger, safer Chicago.” 

It hasn’t turned out that way.

Today, there’s little disagreement that Mayor Johnson has disappointed on most key issues. On crime. On policing. On migrants. On education. On governance. Even on foreign affairs. 

Two recent polls show Chicagoans have a low opinion of Johnson and his performance so far.

A January poll by Tulchin Research found just 21% of registered Chicago voters approved of Johnson. And a new Harris poll shows just 9% of city residents rated Johnson’s performance as above average while 50% rated his performance as below average. 

It’s reached the point where some Chicagoans are pursuing a recall initiative to remove the mayor.

As we approach Johnson’s one-year anniversary, let’s review how he’s mishandled the city’s key issues.

On crime 

Even before taking office, Mayor Johnson fully embraced soft-on-crime policies. Johnson said in 2020 that defunding the police is not “a slogan, it’s an actual real political goal.” He later defended looting as “an outbreak of incredible frustration and anguish” tied to “a failed racist system.” And at a panel for a police-free future, Johnson said “part of it is removing ourselves away from this state-sponsored policing…”

Johnson has continued to openly excuse crime and violence since becoming Mayor. He declared the youth of last summer’s teen takeovers as just kids being “silly.”  He later pushed back against those who complained of youth mobs taking over city streets: “We’re not talking about mob actions…to refer to children as baby Al Capones is not appropriate.”

All that rhetoric has helped fuel Chicago’s crime problem. 2023 ended up with a five-year high in major crimes committed, while Chicago led the country again in homicides for the 12th year in a row. And while murders are down 10% this year, robberies and violent crimes overall are currently running at a six-year high.

Despite that rise in violence, Johnson earlier this year canceled ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection technology, to appease soft-on-crime advocates who declared the program “racist.” He was later pressured to extend the contract through November to ensure ShotSpotter would be in place during the Democratic National Convention. 

The saga is not over, however, as now there’s a concerted effort by several aldermen to override Johnson’s decision to get rid of the program. They call ShotSpotter an ‘invaluable tool’ for fighting crime in their homicide-ridden wards.

On illegal immigrants

Mayor Johnson never had a plan – and still doesn’t – for how to handle the inflow of illegal migrants to Chicago. That’s led to a series of walkbacks, unforced errors and costly mistakes by him and his administration. The mayor continues to blame Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the inflow, but it’s Johnson’s continued support of Chicago’s failed sanctuary status and his increased handouts that keep the migrants coming in. 

The Johnson administration has committed nearly $400 million to migrant health and welfare so far and that’s created outrage across the city’s black and brown communities, many of whom protest that the city’s resources are being diverted away from their own struggling neighborhoods. They feel they’ve become second class citizens in their own city. 

And then there was the Mayor’s flip-flop on his traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson originally said he would travel there to see the impact of the migrant crisis first-hand, but walked that back a few weeks later, with the excuse that he had too much to do and that “I’m doing all of that with a Black wife raising three Black children on the west side of the city of Chicago. I am going to the border as soon as possible.” Mayor Johnson has yet to visit the border.

There’s also the tent city debacle, where the Brighton Park site Johnson chose to host a migrant encampment turned out to be an environmental health hazard. Gov. J.B. Pritzker had to step in and block Johnson and the city from proceeding with the 2,000-bed encampment.

On schools

Johnson staked out his vision for K-12 education long before he ran for mayor, declaring he was “against the structure” of education and decrying homework, standardized tests and selective enrollment schools. 

His first step in enacting that vision, a CPS school board resolution calling for a “transition” away from selective enrollment schools and “school choice,” sparked a major backlash from both parents and the state’s political class. Chicago’s selective enrollment and magnet schools are actually among the best, most diverse schools in the state, where black and Hispanic students achieve the same high marks as white students.

A bill protecting those schools from closure recently passed overwhelmingly in the House, serving as a direct repudiation of the Mayor’s efforts.

On Gaza

The mayor recently took the tie-breaking vote in support of a city resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

That, from the city that leads the country in murders and just hit a five-year high for major crimes.

Even Saturday Night Light Live mocked Johnson and the city council, joking that Gaza had in return called for a ceasefire in Chicago.

On tax hikes

Johnson’s failure to pass his signature “Bring Chicago Home” initiative, a real-estate transfer tax hike to address homelessness, highlighted how little support the mayor has.

Passage of the tax should have been a slam dunk. It was structured to deliver small tax cuts to the overwhelming majority of Chicagoans, while hiking taxes on the wealthy few.

The tax hike, effectively a referendum on Johnson’s performance, failed 52 to 48, dealing a significant blow to the mayor’s authority.

On a new Bears stadium

Johnson is looking for any win to lift his flagging popularity. Cue his support for the Chicago Bears’ plan for a new multi-billion dollar stadium with more than $1.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies.

Never mind that Johnson originally rejected the idea of public subsidies for a stadium during his candidacy, saying that such money would be better spent on new housing, removing lead pipes or “dozens of other urgent needs.” 

What makes Johnson’s desperation for a “win” so obvious is that no prominent Democrat stood with him in support, certainly not the ones that matter most: Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Senate President Don Harmon and House Speaker Chris Welch all expressed skepticism of the deal.

*  *  *

Perhaps nothing better captures the depth of the mayor’s struggles more than this: Johnson was asked not to attend Monday’s funeral of slain police officer Luis Huesca.

His mother said, “Tell the mayor not to come.  We do not want him there. Tomorrow is about my son and my family’s grief. We do not want him to disrespect his memory. The mayor does not support the police.”

A Chicago mayor, not attending the funeral of a fallen officer. Nothing more needs to be said.

Read more from Wirepoints:

Death to Facts: Northwestern journalism prof Steven Thrasher tells pro-Palestinian demonstrators to reject objective reporting

Floundering Illinois wind energy program blamed partly on (you guessed it) climate change

Traumatizing Chicago robberies, violent crimes at six-year high

Even more evidence Illinois can thank the federal government’s covid bailouts for its budget bonanza

Two days after the yen soared after crashing to a 34 year low of 160 against the US, when the Japanese Ministry of Finance reportedly spent around 5 trillion yen, or just over $30 billion, to push the imploding Japanese currency to levels not seen in … about 48 hours, moments ago with much of the impact from the first intervention having fizzled, the Japanese Ministry of Finance appeared to step in again when moments after the US cash market close, USDJPY cratered in seconds in the second Japanese intervention in as many days.

Of course, one can’t help but be amused by the sheer amateur hour at the BOJ where the second consecutive intervention, one which will cost the MOF another $30 billion or so, has managed to push the yen to levels not seen since… last week.

And speaking of the intervention cost, while we won’t know how much they officially cost Japan until the end of the month, what is notable is that the first intervention – which took place amid super thin liquidity due to a holiday in Japan which typically exacerbates market moves – cost nearly as much as one of the interventions in 2022, when they bought a record amount of yen, according to a Bloomberg analysis of central bank accounts.

“Despite spending ¥5 trillion in a market where there should have been little trading activity, the yen was pushed up by only a little over ¥5 and quickly recovered more than half its value,” said Takuya Kanda, the head of research at Gaitame.com Research Institute. “That doesn’t seem very cost effective” compared to intervention two years ago, he said.

What is notable about this particular intervention is that it took place just 2 hours after the latest Fed decision – which was viewed as moderately dovish due to the greater than expected QT taper. And indeed, it would be pointless to intervene had the Fed come out as hawkish and sent the dollar soaring.

In fact, one can argue that the BOJ and MOF – having had discussions with Powell  and Yellen about this intervention ahead of time  – received some  assurance that as far the Fed and Treasury are concerned, the US dollar isn’t going to spike in the near-future. In fact, one can probably go so far as  speculating that Yellen actually leaked to the BOJ what the next NFP and CPI prints will be so that Japan doesn’t waste tens of billions in yentervention firepower only to watch the JPY plunge again in two days  when a red hot jobs print send the USD soaring.

If so, we’ve seen the dollar highs for the year.

Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“As I look at America today, I am not afraid to say that I am afraid.”

– Former presidential advisor Bertram Gross

The American governmental scheme is sliding ever closer towards a pervasive authoritarianism.

The American people, the permanent underclass in America, have allowed themselves to be so distracted and divided that they have failed to notice the building blocks of tyranny being laid down right under their noses by the architects of the Deep State.

This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past fifty years regardless of their political affiliation.

Biden, Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton: they have all been complicit in carrying out the Deep State’s agenda.

Frankly, it really doesn’t matter who occupies the White House, because it is a profit-driven, unelected bureaucracy—call it whatever you will: the Deep State, the Controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the corporate elite, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—that is actually calling the shots.

In the interest of liberty and truth, here’s an A-to-Z primer that spells out the grim realities of life in the American Police State that no one seems to be talking about anymore.

A is for the AMERICAN POLICE STATE. A police state “is characterized by bureaucracy, secrecy, perpetual wars, a nation of suspects, militarization, surveillance, widespread police presence, and a citizenry with little recourse against police actions.”

B is for our battered BILL OF RIGHTS. In the militarized police culture that is America today, where you can be kicked, punched, tasered, shot, intimidated, harassed, stripped, searched, brutalized, terrorized, wrongfully arrested, and even killed by a police officer, and that officer is rarely held accountable for violating your rights, the Bill of Rights doesn’t amount to much.

C is for CIVIL ASSET FORFEITURE. This governmental scheme to deprive Americans of their liberties—namely, the right to property—is being carried out under the guise of civil asset forfeiture, a government practice wherein government agents (usually the police and now TSA agents) seize private property they “suspect” may be connected to criminal activity. Then, whether or not any crime is actually proven to have taken place, the government keeps the citizen’s property and it’s virtually impossible to get it back.

D is for DRONES. Nearly 1500 police departments across the U.S. include drones as part of their technological arsenal, and that number is growing. Although drones may be used for benevolent purposes, they have increasingly become extensions of the surveillance state, carrying out warrantless and constant mass aerial surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment. New autonomous police drones can “read a license plate from 800 feet away and follow a vehicle from a distance of 3 miles.”

E is for EMERGENCY STATE. From 9/11 to COVID-19 and beyond, we have been the subjected to an “emergency state” that justifies all manner of government tyranny and power grabs in the so-called name of national security. The government’s ongoing attempts to declare so-called national emergencies in order to circumvent the Constitution’s system of checks and balances constitutes yet another expansion of presidential power that exposes the nation to further constitutional peril.

F is for FASCISM. A study conducted by Princeton and Northwestern University concluded that the U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens. Instead, the study found that the government is ruled by the rich and powerful, or the so-called “economic elite.” Moreover, the researchers concluded that policies enacted by this governmental elite nearly always favor special interests and lobbying groups. In other words, we are being ruled by an oligarchy disguised as a democracy, and arguably on our way towards fascism—a form of government where private corporate interests rule, money calls the shots, and the people are seen as mere economic units or databits.

G is for GLOBAL POLICE. The federal government has distributed more than $18 billion worth of battlefield-appropriate military weapons, vehicles and equipment such as drones, tanks, and grenade launchers to domestic police departments across the country. As a result, most small-town police forces now have enough firepower to render any citizen resistance futile. By the time you take those small-town police forces, train them to look and act like the military, and then enlist them to be part of the United Nations’ Strong Cities Network program, you not only have a standing army that operates beyond the reach of the Constitution but one that is part of a global police force.

H is for HOLLOW-POINT BULLETS. The government’s efforts to militarize and weaponize its agencies and employees is reaching epic proportions, with federal agencies as varied as the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration stockpiling millions of lethal hollow-point bullets, which violate international law. Ironically, while the government continues to push for stricter gun laws for the general populace, the U.S. military’s arsenal of weapons makes the average American’s handgun look like a Tinker Toy.

I is for the INTERNET OF THINGS, in which internet-connected “things” monitor your home, your health and your habits in order to keep your pantry stocked, your utilities regulated and your life under control and relatively worry-free. The key word here, however, is control. This “connected” industry propels us closer to a future where police agencies apprehend virtually anyone if the government “thinks” they may commit a crime, driverless cars populate the highways, and a person’s biometrics are constantly scanned and used to track their movements, target them for advertising, and keep them under perpetual surveillance.

J is for JAILING FOR PROFIT. Having outsourced their inmate population to private prisons run by private corporations, this profit-driven form of mass punishment has given rise to a $70 billion private prison industry that relies on the complicity of state governments to keep their privately run prisons full by jailing large numbers of Americans for petty crimes.

K is for KENTUCKY V. KING. In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that police officers can break into homes, without a warrant, even if it’s the wrong home as long as they think they may have a reason to do so. Despite the fact that the police in question ended up pursuing the wrong suspect, invaded the wrong apartment and violated just about every tenet that stands between the citizenry and a police state, the Court sanctioned the warrantless raid, leaving Americans with little real protection in the face of all manner of abuses by law enforcement officials.

L is for LICENSE PLATE READERS, which enable law enforcement and private agencies to track the whereabouts of vehicles, and their occupants, all across the country. This data collected on tens of thousands of innocent people is also being shared between police agencies, as well as with government fusion centers and private companies. This puts Big Brother in the driver’s seat.

M is for MAIN CORE. Since the 1980s, the U.S. government has acquired and maintained, without warrant or court order, a database of names and information on Americans considered to be threats to the nation. As Salon reports, this database, reportedly dubbed “Main Core,” is to be used by the Army and FEMA in times of national emergency or under martial law to locate and round up Americans seen as threats to national security. There are at least 8 million Americans in the Main Core database.

N is for NO-KNOCK RAIDS. Owing to the militarization of the nation’s police forces, SWAT teams are now increasingly being deployed for routine police matters. In fact, more than 80,000 of these paramilitary raids are carried out every year. That translates to more than 200 SWAT team raids every day in which police crash through doors, damage private property, terrorize adults and children alike, kill family pets, assault or shoot anyone that is perceived as threatening—and all in the pursuit of someone merely suspected of a crime, usually possession of some small amount of drugs.

O is for OVERCRIMINALIZATION and OVERREGULATION. Thanks to an overabundance of 4500-plus federal crimes and 400,000 plus rules and regulations, it’s estimated that the average American actually commits three felonies a day without knowing it. As a result of this overcriminalization, we’re seeing an uptick in Americans being arrested and jailed for such absurd “violations” as letting their kids play at a park unsupervised, collecting rainwater and snow runoff on their own property, growing vegetables in their yard, and holding Bible studies in their living room.

P is for PATHOCRACY and PRECRIME. When our own government treats us as things to be manipulated, maneuvered, mined for data, manhandled by police and other government agents, mistreated, and then jailed in profit-driven private prisons if we dare step out of line, we are no longer operating under a constitutional republic. Instead, what we are experiencing is a pathocracy: tyranny at the hands of a psychopathic government, which “operates against the interests of its own people except for favoring certain groups.” Couple that with the government’s burgeoning precrime programs, which will use fusion centers, data collection agencies, behavioral scientists, corporations, social media, and community organizers and by relying on cutting-edge technology for surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, biometrics, and behavioral epigenetics in order to identify and deter so-called potential “extremists,” dissidents or rabble-rousers. Bear in mind that anyone seen as opposing the government—whether they’re Left, Right or somewhere in between—is now viewed as an extremist.

Q is for QUALIFIED IMMUNITY. Qualified immunity allows police officers to walk away without paying a dime for their wrongdoing. Conveniently, those deciding whether a cop should be immune from having to personally pay for misbehavior on the job all belong to the same system, all cronies with a vested interest in protecting the police and their infamous code of silence: city and county attorneys, police commissioners, city councils and judges.

R is for ROADSIDE STRIP SEARCHES and BLOOD DRAWS. The courts have increasingly erred on the side of giving government officials—especially the police—vast discretion in carrying out strip searches, blood draws and even anal and vaginal probes for a broad range of violations, no matter how minor the offense. In the past, strip searches were resorted to only in exceptional circumstances where police were confident that a serious crime was in progress. In recent years, however, strip searches have become routine operating procedures in which everyone is rendered a suspect and, as such, is subjected to treatment once reserved for only the most serious of criminals.

S is for the SURVEILLANCE STATE. On any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears. A byproduct of the electronic concentration camp in which we live, whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, Facebook posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere.

T is for TASERS. Nonlethal weapons such as tasers, stun guns, rubber pellets and the like have been used by police as weapons of compliance more often and with less restraint—even against women and children—and in some instances, even causing death. These “nonlethal” weapons also enable police to aggress with the push of a button, making the potential for overblown confrontations over minor incidents that much more likely. A Taser Shockwave, for instance, can electrocute a crowd of people at the touch of a button.

U is for UNARMED CITIZENS SHOT BY POLICE. No longer is it unusual to hear about incidents in which police shoot unarmed individuals first and ask questions later, often attributed to a fear for their safety. Yet the fatality rate of on-duty patrol officers is reportedly far lower than many other professions, including construction, logging, fishing, truck driving, and even trash collection.

V is for OPERATION VIGILANT EAGLE. One of several government initiatives dating back to 2009 that call for heightened scrutiny of those who challenge the government’s authority, this particular program calls for surveillance of military veterans, characterizing them as extremists and potential domestic terrorist threats because they may be “disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war.” Coupled with a report that defines extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” these tactics bode ill for anyone seen as opposing the government.

W is for WHOLE-BODY SCANNERS. Using either x-ray radiation or radio waves, scanning devices and government mobile units are being used not only to “see” through your clothes but to spy on you within the privacy of your home. While these mobile scanners are being sold to the American public as necessary security and safety measures, we can ill afford to forget that such systems are rife with the potential for abuse, not only by government bureaucrats but by the technicians employed to operate them.

X is for X-KEYSCORE, one of the many spying programs carried out by the National Security Agency that targets every person in the United States who uses a computer or phone. This top-secret program “allows analysts to search with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.”

Y is for YOU-NESS. Using your face, mannerisms, social media and “you-ness” against you, you are now be tracked based on what you buy, where you go, what you do in public, and how you do what you do. Facial recognition software promises to create a society in which every individual who steps out into public is tracked and recorded as they go about their daily business. The goal is for government agents to be able to scan a crowd of people and instantaneously identify all of the individuals present. Facial recognition programs are being rolled out in states all across the country.

Z is for ZERO TOLERANCE. We have moved into a new paradigm in which young people are increasingly viewed as suspects and treated as criminals by school officials and law enforcement alike, often for engaging in little more than childish behavior or for saying the “wrong” word. In some jurisdictions, students have also been penalized under school zero tolerance policies for such inane “crimes” as carrying cough drops, wearing black lipstick, bringing nail clippers to school, using Listerine or Scope, and carrying fold-out combs that resemble switchblades. The lesson being taught to our youngest—and most impressionable—citizens is this: in the American police state, you’re either a prisoner (shackled, controlled, monitored, ordered about, limited in what you can do and say, your life not your own) or a prison bureaucrat (politician, police officer, judge, jailer, spy, profiteer, etc.).

None of these dangers have dissipated in any way, and yet suddenly, no one seems to be talking about any of the egregious governmental abuses that are still wreaking havoc on our freedoms: police shootings of unarmed individuals, invasive surveillance, roadside blood draws, roadside strip searches, SWAT team raids gone awry, the military industrial complex’s costly wars, pork barrel spending, pre-crime laws, civil asset forfeiture, fusion centers, militarization, armed drones, smart policing carried out by AI robots, courts that march in lockstep with the police state, schools that function as indoctrination centers, bureaucrats that keep the Deep State in power.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how freedom dies.

If there is any means left to us for thwarting the government in its relentless march towards outright dictatorship, it may rest with the Tenth Amendment, which affirms that “we the people” (in the form of juries and local governments) have the power to invalidate governmental laws, tactics and policies that are illegitimate, egregious or blatantly unconstitutional.

Nullify everything.

Nullify the court cases. Nullify the laws. Nullify everything the government does that flies in the face of the Constitution.

It’s time to rein in our runaway government, reclaim our freedoms, and restore justice in America.

Having adversely intervened in virtually every other M&A deal in the past 3 years, the Biden FTC will reportedly allow Exxon’s $60 billion purchase of Pioneer to go through after the companies agreed to minor concessions, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The announcement of the deal will likely come any moment, and the resulting deal will make Exxon – a company which Biden once said makes money money than god – far and away the biggest oil and natural gas producer in the Permian Basin, North America’s largest US oil field, and also the biggest energy company in the US.

Pioneer shares that had been down more than 2% on the day reversed those losses and were trading up as much as 0.9% on the news. Hess Corp, the target of a takeover bid by Chevron, also climbed 0.9% although the probability of that deal passing is far lower especially in light of the ongoing arbitration with Exxon over Guyana.  Chevron, Occidental and Chesapeake are among companies with large pending takeovers that are undergoing in-depth reviews before the FTC.

The Pioneer deal will combine two fast-growing Permian operations, lifting Exxon’s production in the basin to the equivalent of about 2 million barrels a day by 2027, up from about 600,000 last year.

More than 50 lawmakers – obviously mostly communists, pardon, democrats – urged the FTC in March to increase scrutiny on concerns a $230 billion wave of consolidation in would increase energy prices for consumers, squeeze suppliers and suppress wages. In short: enforce more Soviet-style central planning and crush conventional capitalism. As a result, investors had feared the agency, which has become more a ruthless enforcer of authoritarian anti-capitalism under Democrat admin puppet Lina Khan, would stand in the way of several large deals, especially in an election year when the Biden administration is seeking to prove its climate credentials and contain gasoline prices at all cost.

In response to the ruling communists, oil executives have claimed the deals will benefit shareholders, consumers and the environment. Exxon CEO Darren Woods said the Pioneer deal would lower its cost of production, making US barrels more competitive in the global market, and provide a strong platform for growth, which would ultimately benefit consumers. Exxon also pledged to reduce climate-warming emissions from Pioneer operations to net zero by 2035, accelerating the prior target by 15 years.

The Biden administration has constantly been at odds with the oil industry, but easing through what many executives see as necessary consolidation is likely to improve relations. With domestic crude prices up roughly 14% this year and tensions rising the Middle East, the administration is vulnerable to Republican attacks on measures that hurt the oil industry and raise fuel prices.