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A junior gold stock with major appeal

The case for investing in gold, especially through junior exploration stocks, is the strongest it has been since the 2008 Financial Crisis.
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Given persistent pandemic-induced inflation, central banks’ predilection for controlling it through quantitative easing (QE), and elevated geopolitical tensions across the world, including rising worries about U.S. dollar weaponization, the case for investing in gold, especially through junior exploration stocks, is the strongest it has been since the 2008 Great Financial Crisis.

The crisis in 08′ cut the S&P 500 by 48 per cent in just over six months, following irresponsibly lax borrowing practices in the sub-prime mortgage market, which led the U.S. Federal Reserve to purchase billions in treasuries and mortgage-backed securities under QE, lower interest rates to between 0 and 0.25 per cent, and drag the global market down in conjunction with the devaluation of the world’s reserve currency. These moves dampened cash and bond yields, while seeming to foretell further losses in stocks, driving investors to preserve their capital in gold and propel the price per ounce from US$800 in 2008 to US$1,800 by 2012.

With interest rates at record lows, investors rediscovered their appetite for higher-risk assets, sending stocks on a decade-long bull market – even as rates began to creep up again in 2016 – tempering the gold price down to a new floor of US$1,200.

That floor is where gold remained until the bear market of 2018 and the COVID pandemic, which hit the stock market in February-March 2020, rekindled investors’ sense that more value destruction was in store, propelling gold to multiple record highs over US$2,000 per ounce from 2020 to date. The metal, backed by millennia of history as a source of value, is positioned to break these highs because of numerous ongoing catalysts:

Persistent pandemic-induced inflation, which stands at 3.4 per cent in Canada, 70 per cent higher than the Bank of Canada’s 2 per cent target, significantly increasing the strength of gold’s US$1,800-US$2,000 floor since 2020, especially as hawkish monetary policy continues to induce a global economic slowdown and reignite a flight to safety The prospect of near-term U.S. rate cuts toward a soft landing adding upward pressure on the gold price because of less attractive bond and cash yields, and potentially a devaluation of the U.S. dollar, which is traditionally very good for gold. Consistent Central bank gold purchases of 337 tonnes in Q3 2023, up by 120 per cent quarter-over-quarter, following a record 1,083 tonnes in 2022, the highest since 1968, as these institutions look to limit the devaluation of their fiat currencies because of inflation and the accumulation of trillions in bonds during QE. Bond prices have slumped considerably with rising rates, with BMO’s Canadian Aggregate Bond Index ETF down by over 20 per cent from its 2020 high. Fear of further U.S. dollar weaponization, mostly recently highlighted by the U.S. freezing US$600 billion in Russian reserves in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The risks to economic growth posed by tensions between the U.S. and China, Russia and the Middle East, the latter three keen on dethroning the U.S.’s stronghold over global commerce.

With the tenuous macroeconomic climate pointing to a higher gold price from here, investors in junior gold stocks are being gifted with a generational opportunity for returns exponentially beyond those of owning the physical metal because of the massive leverage these stocks have to incremental price gains in gold bullion. For example, it’s not uncommon for junior gold stocks to see price gains in excess of 200 to 300 per cent vs the bullion price gain. It’s precisely these qualities, combined with the current macro malaise, that have driven investors toward safe assets like gold and to shift away en masse from junior gold stocks, regardless of asset and operational quality or gold’s all-time highs. This dynamic has pummeled certain model miners into deep discount territory, making them well worth your full due diligence process.

A prime position in British Columbia’s emerging Spences Bridge Gold Belt

A highly-prospective junior stock to start with is Westhaven Gold (TSXV:WHN), whose only C$28 million market cap and 75 per cent drawdown since 2019 borders on the irrational, given the fact that it has made a very high-grade gold discovery on its Shovelnose project just off a major highway close to necessary infrastructure and cities. The company has already published a preliminary economic assessment on Shovelnose – which is located in British Columbia’s (B.C.) Spences Bridge Gold Belt, one of Canada’s newest gold districts – showing a high-margin, low-cost gold project with several additional discoveries not yet incorporated into the plan. In addition, Westhaven holds three other high-potential projects on Spences Bridge, offering investors a tangible path to outsized long-term returns.

Source: Westhaven Gold.

The portfolio’s demonstrated quality and tier-1 mining jurisdiction have attracted high profile stakeholders, including Franco Nevada and Osisko Gold Royalties, significantly de-risking the projects for prospective retail investors.

The Shovelnose gold project

Westhaven’s flagship Shovelnose project, which it has been exploring for over a decade, features a high-grade discovery only 75 km from the center of the Fraser and Thompson Rivers gold rush, as well as demonstrated potential to yield a multi-million-ounce gold deposit.

The 17,623 ha project is highly prospective for epithermal gold mineralization, as is common throughout Spences Bridge; resides near the Coquihalla Highway, only 30 km south of Merritt, B.C.; and can be explored year-round with close access to power, rail and large producing mines – including Teck Resources’ over 100,000-tonne-per-year Highland Valley copper mine, New Gold’s 1.2-million-ounce New Afton mine, and Hudbay’s value-accretive Copper Mountain mine – all of which translates into lower operating costs.

From 2023 drilling at Shovelnose. Source: AME/Kaylan Worsnop.

Westhaven has drilled 465 diamond drill holes across 161,597 m and spent over C$40 million on Shovelnose exploration since acquiring the project in 2011. This work is highlighted by the initial discovery in 2018 yielding 17.70 m of 24.50 g/t gold and 107.92 g/t silver, and 46.90 m of 8.95 g/t gold and 65.47 g/t silver, from a significant gold-bearing vein system known as the South zone. The junior gold stock followed up these results with:

12.66 m of 39.31 g/t gold and 133.11 g/t silver at the South zone in 2019. The highest-grade intercept in Shovelnose’s history at the FMN zone in 2022, yielding 23.03 m of 37.24 g/t gold and 209.52 g/t silver, including 1.12 m of 294 g/t gold and 2,110 g/t silver.  6.20 m of 73.51 g/t gold and 92.37 g/t silver within 12 m of 39.42 g/t gold and 51.81 g/t silver from surface at the Franz zone in January 2023. South zone

The July 2023 PEA on the South Zone is highlighted by wide, steeply dipping mineralized vein domains, continuity over hundreds of metres of strike length, and a high-margin, low-cost mining model to produce commercially saleable gold/silver doré.

The PEA’s results, which suppose a base case of US$1,800 gold and US$22 silver, indicate “a significant property value with serious economic benefits and provide an excellent cornerstone from which to build upon,” according to Gareth Thomas, Westhaven’s president and chief executive officer. Highlights include:

Pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 41.4 per cent, with an after-tax IRR of 32.3 per cent. All-in sustaining costs (AISC) of C$989/oz. (US$752/oz.) gold equivalent (AuEq), generating a healthy margin of US$1,048 per AuEq ounce. A pre-tax net present value (NPV6 per cent) of C$359 million, with an after-tax NPV of US$222 million. Total payable metals of 534,000 oz. gold and 2,715,000 oz. silver. Average annual production of 56,100 oz. gold and 284,200 oz. silver. A production rate of 1,000 tonnes per day. Metallurgical recoveries of 91.5 per cent gold and 92.9 per cent silver. Expected total revenue of US$961.5 million from gold and US$59.7 million from silver. Payback period from start of production of 2.4 years pre-tax and 2.6 years after tax. Under C$400 million in pre-production (C$149.6 million) and life-of-mine capital costs (C$247 million), including a 20 per cent contingency. A 9.5-year mine life, including the ability to expand processing to accommodate satellite discoveries, which we’ll discuss below.

Far from resting on its laurels, Westhaven has also been hard at work delineating gold and silver-rich targets beyond the South zone, as most recently highlighted by the highest-grade intercept ever off the Zone One trend, which hosts the Franz, FMN, Alpine, MIK and South zones over more than 4 km of strike yielding up to 857 gram-metres of gold (slide 10).

Franz

Westhaven discovered the Franz zone in 2020 with initial surface sampling up to 51.1 g/t gold from outcrop. Subsequent drilling returned bonanza grades, including the aforementioned 12 m of 39.42 g/t gold and 51.81 g/t silver, within a 165 m-long vein system.

Further sampling in 2023 led to more high grades up to 191 g/t gold and 226 g/t silver, while percussion and core drilling in 2023 yielded 24.95 m of 14.66 g/t gold and 35.5 g/t silver, with the distribution of gold values leading management to believe that mineralization continues beyond current exploration and warrants further investigation.

FMN

Westhaven executed a fall 2023 drilling program at FMN to better define Vein Zone 1 in a little-drilled area to the southeast, as well as test for localized ore shoots akin to the bonanza shoots intersected toward FMN’s northwest in 2022.

Management’s recent reinterpretation of 2023 drilling (holes SN23-392 to 394 and 398), in conjunction with 2022 results, leads the team to surmise that FMN may house a subparallel northwest-trending splay or parallel vein structure to Vein Zone 1 some 50-80 m to the southwest, which was overshot during initial drilling. The new vein zone boasts a strike length of 300 m and remains open to the southeast, with 2023 drilling suggesting that portions of it may be more mineralized than Vein Zone 1 in FMN’s southeast.

MIK

Drilling in 2023 at MIK produced the aforementioned highest-grade intercept off the Zone One trend, yielding 3.68 m of 17.61 g/t gold and 31.49 g/t silver in SN23-360, which is part of a step-out group delineating a near-surface veinlet zone up to 30 m wide. The zone runs for a strike length of 180 m and remains open to the north and south. Follow-up drilling in 2024 will focus on step-outs to the south, where mineralization is strengthening.

Alpine

Drilling at the Alpine zone substantiates the presence of near-surface gold mineralization. Two drill holes in 2023, SN23-371 (0.30 g/t gold over 125.53 m) and SN23-372 returned significant gold grades and confirm the area’s bulk-tonnage gold potential.

2024 drilling

Westhaven will drill test multiple targets in 2024, including FMN, MIK and Franz, as well as additional prospects Line 6, Romeo, Hydrothermal Breccia 2 and HydrothermalBreccia 5, with eyes on a resource update by year end. Thomas expressed confidence in his team’s ability to “significantly increase the property’s mineral resource base” in a July 2023 news release.

From 2023 drilling at Shovelnose. Source: AME/Kaylan Worsnop.

Shovelnose’s clear upside, backed by a robust exploration dataset, is enough to warrant investor interest at Westhaven’s depressed stock price, but shareholders stand to benefit even further through exposure to the junior gold stock’s three high-grade early-stage gold projects.

The Skoonka Creek gold project

Westhaven sweetens its value proposition with Skoonka Creek, a property that substantiates its potential for epithermal gold mineralization with strong historical gold intersections (12.80 m of 20.20 g/t gold and 3.31 m of 26.80 g/t gold) between 2005 to 2007, and an abundance of prospects across 1.6 km in strike length, including JJ, Zebra, Discovery, Deadwood, Ember and Backburn, the last four of which define the Deadwood-Backburn trend (DBT), a 3,000 m structural corridor rich with gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies.

The property is a four-hour drive from Vancouver, only 15 km from the Trans Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway Line, and only 12 km northeast of Lytton, B.C.

JJ zone

Inaugural exploration at the JJ zone reported in 2022 yielded a highlight of 5.66 m of 6.83 g/t gold and 4.60 g/t silver, including 2.77 m of 12.35 g/t gold and 7.75 g/t silver, with ample room for expansion in untested areas.

“The 2022 drilling at Skoonka Creek confirmed the bonanza gold grades previously encountered in historic drilling at the JJ target,” Peter Fischl, Westhaven’s exploration manager, stated in a January 2023 news release. He went on to add that “new intersections of quartz veining and gold mineralization at JJ west, combined with those at JJ, suggest the presence of an epithermal system extending over a strike length of 1.6 km.”

The Skoonka North project

Westhaven’ next value-accretive property is Skoonka North, a trio of contiguous mineral claims covering 6,167 ha that produced the highest gold silt sample ever on Spences Bridge – 1,720 ppb gold – in addition to standout samples of 992 ppb gold, 783 ppb gold and 594 ppb gold. The property is located less than 1 km from the community of Spences Bridge and only a 4.5-hour drive from Vancouver.

The main anomaly benefits from rock and soil assays up to 2 g/t gold and 701 ppb silver, respectively, while trenching delineated a 55 m-long veining zone up to 1.44 g/t gold. A third target is comprised of geochemical anomalies yielding soils up to 41.9 ppb gold and an anomalous silt sample of 89.6 ppb gold.

The Skoonka North claims have seen little in the way of exploration work, with no drilling completed to date. A magnetics survey in 2018 delineated strong northeast-trending magnetic high and low linear anomalies, with follow-up sampling in fall 2023 adding 313 soil samples, 19 stream silts, 83 rock samples, and the identification of numerous new areas of interest. In 2024, Westhaven will conduct additional mapping, prospecting, sampling and geophysical programs with eyes on bringing the drill bit into the equation.

The Prospect Valley gold project

The last, but not least, among Westhaven’s high-upside assets is the 10,927-ha Prospect Valley gold property, where sampling and drilling since the 2016 acquisition has delineated six gold-quartz vein showings indicative of an intrusion related low-sulphidation epithermal gold system, including Bonanza Valley, South Discovery, North Discovery, the Northeast Extension zone (NEZ), and NIC, in addition to five other secondary exploration targets.

Prospect is located about 30 km west of Merritt and is both road accessible and in close proximity to highways, which may prove crucial on the path to shareholder value, as management believes the Bonanza target, Discovery zones and Northeast Extension may be related to a multi-kilometre-scale fault system extending across the property.

Bonanza Valley

The Bonanza Valley target features quartz vein and breccia float up to a historical 43.3 g/t gold, with gold scattered over a 1.5 square km area straddling the Bonanza Creek valley, though no bedrock source has been found to date.

Ground magnetic data collected from the Bonanza Zone in 2023, along with a LiDAR survey and surface rock samples, confirmed historical reports of high-grade quartz veins and quartz breccia float with assays of up to 3.21 g/t gold.

Management with proven mining experience

A junior gold stock doesn’t accumulate such a rich and untapped portfolio without leadership well-versed in the minutiae of mineral discoveries, whose incentives, to the tune of 24 per cent insider ownership, are squarely aligned with shareholders.

Grenville Thomas, Westhaven’s advisor and outgoing chairman, is a member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame and has been working in the mining industry for over 50 years, including as chairman, president and director of Aber Resources. His lengthy record of discoveries is highlighted by the Diavik mine (now a Rio Tinto asset) and the Thor Lake rare metals deposit in the Northwest Territories.

Eira Thomas, the incoming chairwoman and long-time Westhaven shareholder, has built an over 30 year mining career, including leading the US$520 million sale of Kaminak Gold to Goldcorp in 2016. Other notable accomplishments across her distinguished career include:

14 years at Aber Diamond (now Dominion Diamond), including as vice president exploration and director Founding Stornoway Diamond, serving as its first chief executive officer and executive chairman, where she led the acquisition of the Renard diamond deposit, which eventually became Quebec’s first diamond mine Founding Lucara Diamond in 2007 and serving as chief executive officer between 2018 and 2023. Serving as a director of Suncor Energy for 17 years

Thomas’ son, Gareth, co-founded Westhaven and serves as chief executive officer, bringing over 20 years of mineral exploration experience to the table across project management, business development and property acquisitions.

From 2023 drilling at Shovelnose. Source: AME/Kaylan Worsnop.

Eira and Gareth Thomas’ leadership is complemented by proven experts in their fields, each with decorated histories that contribute to long-term value creation by de-risking ongoing development, including:

Exploration manager Peter Fischl, whose 30 years of Canadian and international exploration experience focus on epithermal gold deposits Director Victor A. Tanaka, and his over 45 years of experience as a geologist and exploration manager with junior and senior mining companies, including roles in numerous mineral discoveries in Saskatchewan and Canada’s Arctic Independent director Paul Mcrae, whose 40-year career in mining project and construction management, including stints at De Beers and Lundin Mining, will serve Westhaven well as it moves Shovelnose toward a construction decision

Guided by mining veterans with about two centuries of expertise between them, and a track record of over 10 years of value-accretive exploration, it screams of market inefficiency how WHN shares have fallen by 85 per cent since their all-time-high of C$1.38 in 2018, shortly after making the initial Shovelnose discovery.

A multi-bagger opportunity

The concept of a multi-bagger investment is unfortunately overused and has lost some of its luster, but junior stocks like Westhaven Gold boast the assets and expertise to reimbue it with meaning.

“At C$0.19 per share, and only a C$28 million market cap, Westhaven shareholders gain ownership in the high-grade discovery at Shovelnose, which already has a high-margin, low-cost PEA, plus the discoveries on the property to be integrated into the resource update, in addition to three other properties with potential for high-grade gold along the emerging Spences River Gold Belt,” Sean Thompson, Westhaven’s vice president corporate development & investor relations, stated in a recent interview with Stockhouse.

Westhaven’s properties also reside in a safe jurisdiction governed by a strong rule of law, where mining has enriched local communities dating back to the mid 1800s. This type of industry-friendly environment, contrasted with First Quantum Minerals’ travails in Panama, makes long-term holding periods viable and M&A more attractive as a) 2024 drilling brings wider market awareness to Westhaven having only scratched the surface of its total resource base, and b) major miners look to shore up dwindling resources amid a consistently strong gold price.

Taylor Combaluzier, P.Geo., a mining analyst at Red Cloud Securities, agrees that there is considerable discovery potential on the table, offering a target price of C$1.30 per share, or a 6.5x return from the closing price on Jan. 29, 2024.

There will doubtlessly be volatility ahead, as is common in the junior mining space, but Westhaven Gold is as perfect a pitch as an active investor could hope to receive. There is nothing left to do, but to swing.

Join the discussion: Find out what everybody’s saying about this junior gold stock on the Westhaven Gold Bullboard.

This is sponsored content issued on behalf of Westhaven Gold, please see full disclaimer here.

The post A junior gold stock with major appeal appeared first on The Market Herald Canada.

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United Airlines adds new flights to faraway destinations

The airline said that it has been working hard to "find hidden gem destinations."

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March 8, 2024

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Since countries started opening up after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, airlines have been seeing demand soar not just for major global cities and popular routes but also for farther-away destinations.

Numerous reports, including a recent TripAdvisor survey of trending destinations, showed that there has been a rise in U.S. traveler interest in Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Vietnam as well as growing tourism traction in off-the-beaten-path European countries such as Slovenia, Estonia and Montenegro.

Related: 'No more flying for you': Travel agency sounds alarm over risk of 'carbon passports'

As a result, airlines have been looking at their networks to include more faraway destinations as well as smaller cities that are growing increasingly popular with tourists and may not be served by their competitors.

The Philippines has been popular among tourists in recent years.

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United brings back more routes, says it is committed to 'finding hidden gems'

This week, United Airlines  (UAL)  announced that it will be launching a new route from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Morocco's Marrakesh. While it is only the country's fourth-largest city, Marrakesh is a particularly popular place for tourists to seek out the sights and experiences that many associate with the country — colorful souks, gardens with ornate architecture and mosques from the Moorish period.

More Travel:

"We have consistently been ahead of the curve in finding hidden gem destinations for our customers to explore and remain committed to providing the most unique slate of travel options for their adventures abroad," United's SVP of Global Network Planning Patrick Quayle, said in a press statement.

The new route will launch on Oct. 24 and take place three times a week on a Boeing 767-300ER  (BA)  plane that is equipped with 46 Polaris business class and 22 Premium Plus seats. The plane choice was a way to reach a luxury customer customer looking to start their holiday in Marrakesh in the plane.

Along with the new Morocco route, United is also launching a flight between Houston (IAH) and Colombia's Medellín on Oct. 27 as well as a route between Tokyo and Cebu in the Philippines on July 31 — the latter is known as a "fifth freedom" flight in which the airline flies to the larger hub from the mainland U.S. and then goes on to smaller Asian city popular with tourists after some travelers get off (and others get on) in Tokyo.

United's network expansion includes new 'fifth freedom' flight

In the fall of 2023, United became the first U.S. airline to fly to the Philippines with a new Manila-San Francisco flight. It has expanded its service to Asia from different U.S. cities earlier last year. Cebu has been on its radar amid growing tourist interest in the region known for marine parks, rainforests and Spanish-style architecture.

With the summer coming up, United also announced that it plans to run its current flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, and Portugal's Porto more frequently at different points of the week and reach four weekly flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai by August 29.

"This is your normal, exciting network planning team back in action," Quayle told travel website The Points Guy of the airline's plans for the new routes.

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Walmart launches clever answer to Target’s new membership program

The retail superstore is adding a new feature to its Walmart+ plan — and customers will be happy.

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March 8, 2024

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It's just been a few days since Target  (TGT)  launched its new Target Circle 360 paid membership plan. 

The plan offers free and fast shipping on many products to customers, initially for $49 a year and then $99 after the initial promotional signup period. It promises to be a success, since many Target customers are loyal to the brand and will go out of their way to shop at one instead of at its two larger peers, Walmart and Amazon.

Related: Walmart makes a major price cut that will delight customers

And stop us if this sounds familiar: Target will rely on its more than 2,000 stores to act as fulfillment hubs. 

This model is a proven winner; Walmart also uses its more than 4,600 stores as fulfillment and shipping locations to get orders to customers as soon as possible.

Sometimes, this means shipping goods from the nearest warehouse. But if a desired product is in-store and closer to a customer, it reduces miles on the road and delivery time. It's a kind of logistical magic that makes any efficiency lover's (or retail nerd's) heart go pitter patter. 

Walmart rolls out answer to Target's new membership tier

Walmart has certainly had more time than Target to develop and work out the kinks in Walmart+. It first launched the paid membership in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, when many shoppers sheltered at home but still required many staples they might ordinarily pick up at a Walmart, like cleaning supplies, personal-care products, pantry goods and, of course, toilet paper. 

It also undercut Amazon  (AMZN)  Prime, which costs customers $139 a year for free and fast shipping (plus several other benefits including access to its streaming service, Amazon Prime Video). 

Walmart+ costs $98 a year, which also gets you free and speedy delivery, plus access to a Paramount+ streaming subscription, fuel savings, and more. 

An employee at a Merida, Mexico, Walmart. (Photo by Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images

If that's not enough to tempt you, however, Walmart+ just added a new benefit to its membership program, ostensibly to compete directly with something Target now has: ultrafast delivery. 

Target Circle 360 particularly attracts customers with free same-day delivery for select orders over $35 and as little as one-hour delivery on select items. Target executes this through its Shipt subsidiary.

We've seen this lightning-fast delivery speed only in snippets from Amazon, the king of delivery efficiency. Who better to take on Target, though, than Walmart, which is using a similar store-as-fulfillment-center model? 

"Walmart is stepping up to save our customers even more time with our latest delivery offering: Express On-Demand Early Morning Delivery," Walmart said in a statement, just a day after Target Circle 360 launched. "Starting at 6 a.m., earlier than ever before, customers can enjoy the convenience of On-Demand delivery."

Walmart  (WMT)  clearly sees consumers' desire for near-instant delivery, which obviously saves time and trips to the store. Rather than waiting a day for your order to show up, it might be on your doorstep when you wake up. 

Consumers also tend to spend more money when they shop online, and they remain stickier as paying annual members. So, to a growing number of retail giants, almost instant gratification like this seems like something worth striving for.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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President Biden Delivers The “Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President”

President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"

Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through…

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March 8, 2024

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President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"

Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through the State of The Union, President Biden can go back to his crypt now.

Whatever 'they' gave Biden, every American man, woman, and the other should be allowed to take it - though it seems the cocktail brings out 'dark Brandon'?

Tl;dw: Biden's Speech tonight ...

  • Fund Ukraine.

  • Trump is threat to democracy and America itself.

  • Abortion is good.

  • American Economy is stronger than ever.

  • Inflation wasn't Biden's fault.

  • Illegals are Americans too.

  • Republicans are responsible for the border crisis.

  • Trump is bad.

  • Biden stands with trans-children.

  • J6 was the worst insurrection since the Civil War.

(h/t @TCDMS99)

Tucker Carlson's response sums it all up perfectly:

"that was possibly the darkest, most un-American speech given by an American president. It wasn't a speech, it was a rant..."

Carlson continued: "The true measure of a nation's greatness lies within its capacity to control borders, yet Bid refuses to do it."

"In a fair election, Joe Biden cannot win"

And concluded:

“There was not a meaningful word for the entire duration about the things that actually matter to people who live here.”

Victor Davis Hanson added some excellent color, but this was probably the best line on Biden:

"he doesn't care... he lives in an alternative reality."

*  *  *

Watch SOTU Live here...

*   *   *

Mises' Connor O'Keeffe, warns: "Be on the Lookout for These Lies in Biden's State of the Union Address." 

On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden is set to give his third State of the Union address. The political press has been buzzing with speculation over what the president will say. That speculation, however, is focused more on how Biden will perform, and which issues he will prioritize. Much of the speech is expected to be familiar.

The story Biden will tell about what he has done as president and where the country finds itself as a result will be the same dishonest story he's been telling since at least the summer.

He'll cite government statistics to say the economy is growing, unemployment is low, and inflation is down.

Something that has been frustrating Biden, his team, and his allies in the media is that the American people do not feel as economically well off as the official data says they are. Despite what the White House and establishment-friendly journalists say, the problem lies with the data, not the American people's ability to perceive their own well-being.

As I wrote back in January, the reason for the discrepancy is the lack of distinction made between private economic activity and government spending in the most frequently cited economic indicators. There is an important difference between the two:

  • Government, unlike any other entity in the economy, can simply take money and resources from others to spend on things and hire people. Whether or not the spending brings people value is irrelevant

  • It's the private sector that's responsible for producing goods and services that actually meet people's needs and wants. So, the private components of the economy have the most significant effect on people's economic well-being.

Recently, government spending and hiring has accounted for a larger than normal share of both economic activity and employment. This means the government is propping up these traditional measures, making the economy appear better than it actually is. Also, many of the jobs Biden and his allies take credit for creating will quickly go away once it becomes clear that consumers don't actually want whatever the government encouraged these companies to produce.

On top of all that, the administration is dealing with the consequences of their chosen inflation rhetoric.

Since its peak in the summer of 2022, the president's team has talked about inflation "coming back down," which can easily give the impression that it's prices that will eventually come back down.

But that's not what that phrase means. It would be more honest to say that price increases are slowing down.

Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the cost of living will not return to prepandemic levels, and they're not happy about it.

The president has made some clumsy attempts at damage control, such as a Super Bowl Sunday video attacking food companies for "shrinkflation"—selling smaller portions at the same price instead of simply raising prices.

In his speech Thursday, Biden is expected to play up his desire to crack down on the "corporate greed" he's blaming for high prices.

In the name of "bringing down costs for Americans," the administration wants to implement targeted price ceilings - something anyone who has taken even a single economics class could tell you does more harm than good. Biden would never place the blame for the dramatic price increases we've experienced during his term where it actually belongs—on all the government spending that he and President Donald Trump oversaw during the pandemic, funded by the creation of $6 trillion out of thin air - because that kind of spending is precisely what he hopes to kick back up in a second term.

If reelected, the president wants to "revive" parts of his so-called Build Back Better agenda, which he tried and failed to pass in his first year. That would bring a significant expansion of domestic spending. And Biden remains committed to the idea that Americans must be forced to continue funding the war in Ukraine. That's another topic Biden is expected to highlight in the State of the Union, likely accompanied by the lie that Ukraine spending is good for the American economy. It isn't.

It's not possible to predict all the ways President Biden will exaggerate, mislead, and outright lie in his speech on Thursday. But we can be sure of two things. The "state of the Union" is not as strong as Biden will say it is. And his policy ambitions risk making it much worse.

*  *  *

The American people will be tuning in on their smartphones, laptops, and televisions on Thursday evening to see if 'sloppy joe' 81-year-old President Joe Biden can coherently put together more than two sentences (even with a teleprompter) as he gives his third State of the Union in front of a divided Congress. 

President Biden will speak on various topics to convince voters why he shouldn't be sent to a retirement home.

According to CNN sources, here are some of the topics Biden will discuss tonight:

  • Economic issues: Biden and his team have been drafting a speech heavy on economic populism, aides said, with calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy – an attempt to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans and their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

  • Health care expenses: Biden will also push for lowering health care costs and discuss his efforts to go after drug manufacturers to lower the cost of prescription medications — all issues his advisers believe can help buoy what have been sagging economic approval ratings.

  • Israel's war with Hamas: Also looming large over Biden's primetime address is the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which has consumed much of the president's time and attention over the past few months. The president's top national security advisers have been working around the clock to try to finalize a ceasefire-hostages release deal by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins next week.

  • An argument for reelection: Aides view Thursday's speech as a critical opportunity for the president to tout his accomplishments in office and lay out his plans for another four years in the nation's top job. Even though viewership has declined over the years, the yearly speech reliably draws tens of millions of households.

Sources provided more color on Biden's SOTU address: 

The speech is expected to be heavy on economic populism. The president will talk about raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He'll highlight efforts to cut costs for the American people, including pushing Congress to help make prescription drugs more affordable.

Biden will talk about the need to preserve democracy and freedom, a cornerstone of his re-election bid. That includes protecting and bolstering reproductive rights, an issue Democrats believe will energize voters in November. Biden is also expected to promote his unity agenda, a key feature of each of his addresses to Congress while in office.

Biden is also expected to give remarks on border security while the invasion of illegals has become one of the most heated topics among American voters. A majority of voters are frustrated with radical progressives in the White House facilitating the illegal migrant invasion. 

It is probable that the president will attribute the failure of the Senate border bill to the Republicans, a claim many voters view as unfounded. This is because the White House has the option to issue an executive order to restore border security, yet opts not to do so

Maybe this is why? 

While Biden addresses the nation, the Biden administration will be armed with a social media team to pump propaganda to at least 100 million Americans. 

"The White House hosted about 70 creators, digital publishers, and influencers across three separate events" on Wednesday and Thursday, a White House official told CNN. 

Not a very capable social media team... 

The administration's move to ramp up social media operations comes as users on X are mostly free from government censorship with Elon Musk at the helm. This infuriates Democrats, who can no longer censor their political enemies on X. 

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that the president's SOTU performance will be critical as he tries to dispel voter concerns about his elderly age. The address reached as many as 27 million people in 2023. 

"We are all nervous," said one House Democrat, citing concerns about the president's "ability to speak without blowing things."

The SOTU address comes as Biden's polling data is in the dumps. 

BetOnline has created several money-making opportunities for gamblers tonight, such as betting on what word Biden mentions the most. 

As well as...

We will update you when Tucker Carlson's live feed of SOTU is published. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 07:44

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