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Logos LP – Everything is FUBAR

Logos LP – Everything is F*cked

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This article was originally published by ValueWalk.

COVID 19 Hope
Logos LP commentary for the month of September 2020, titled, “Everything is F*cked”, discussing the COVID-19 evolution, vaccines, hope and hopelessness, hysteria, volatility, startups, education in america, generational divides, China post USA, remote work, and longevity.

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Q2 2020 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

U.S. stocks rose on Friday, recovering some of their losses for the week, as tech shares clawed back some of their big September declines. Nevertheless, despite Friday’s rally both the Dow and S&P 500 posted four-week losing streaks, their longest slides since August 2019. The major averages have had a tough month, with the S&P 500 falling 5.8% in September. The Dow has dropped 4.4% over that time period and the Nasdaq is down 7.3% month to date.

Our Take

It is important to remember that there are always two ways to view the stock market at any given time. From an optimistic perspective, there is the potential for favorable results from the Phase III clinical trials as early as the end of October, the elections could be decided in an orderly manner, large institutions and investors could put their record cash piles to work, earnings growth could take off as governments and central bankers continue to support the economy and holiday shopping could be impressive with limited disruption from COVID-19. From a pessimistic perspective, one could say that all of those developments above are unlikely. No vaccine at all, the election results could be delayed and contested thus resulting in complete turmoil, as a second wave of COVID-19 prompts further economic shutdowns leading to economic collapse. Whatever camp you fall into, it is important not to get swallowed by emotion as the reality will likely lay somewhere in between. Absent additional full economic shutdowns by governments in response to a second wave of COVID-19 (if this happens again all bets are off as the damage would likely be irreversible) we believe the recovery will continue albeit extraordinarily unevenly across industries and countries. The Economist recently revisited their “90% economy” prediction and found that economies certainly have begun to recover, yet the world is still a long way from normal. Governments continue to enforce social-distancing measures to keep the virus at bay. These reduce output—by allowing fewer diners in restaurants at a time, say, or banning spectators from sports arenas. People remain nervous about being infected. Economic uncertainty among both consumers and firms is near record highs—and this very probably explains companies’ reluctance to invest. Calculations by Goldman Sachs, suggest that social-distancing measures continue to reduce global GDP by 7-8% and such measures are set to continue in most countries. Yet The Economist found that although the global economy is operating at about nine-tenths capacity, there is a lot of variation between industries and countries. Some are doing relatively—and surprisingly—well, others dreadfully. When considering the respective performance of goods and services, goods have bounced back fast while services activity is a lot further below its pre-pandemic level. This is understandable as services require person to person interaction and thus when confidence is lacking, consumption of services wanes. Additionally, the magazine found that the huge gap between countries’ economic recovery can be attributed to: 1) industrial composition (countries which rely on retail and hospitality and laggards) 2) confidence (countries who had good leadership under lockdown) and 3) stimulus (countries that put in place large rescue package ie. America may still not be able to agree on a new one, yet still has ALREADY enacted the world’s largest package relative to the size of its economy). In light of the above, and the fact that most developed countries seem to be hovering around a “90% economy”, should we opt for the pessimistic view of markets or the optimistic view? In our view, absent further draconian lockdowns, we believe that a 90% economy - one which could trend towards 95% if countries can better calibrate social-distancing measures without jeopardizing output - is certainly not a good enough reason for the patient long-term investor to significantly reduce equity exposure and move to cash or gold. There will be scars to the economy and the recovery will take time, there will be more short term volatility in markets as political headlines and a record amount of derivatives trading foster instability, yet we remain hopeful and confident that holding quality businesses with unique secular tailwinds for the long-term, remains the right strategy. Membership to Exclusive Daily Newsletter We have launched an exclusive daily newsletter including actionable daily insights for DIY investors from Logos LP
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Musings

Over the course of the month of September it has struck me how emotional the last 6 months have been for most. How difficult it has been to wake up 6 months into the pandemic and read a variety of news headlines which are basically the same as those featured 5 months ago, 4 months ago 3 months ago etc.: The mood is sombre. Hope appears to be slipping away as pandemic fatigue sets in and this is precisely what we as a society need to combat: hopelessness. Flirting which such feelings myself over the last six months, I picked up a book this month with a title that unsurprisingly caught my attention: “Everything is Fucked: A Book About Hope” by Mark Manson (ironically written pre-Covid-19) While the book covers a lot of ground, what resonated with me was his explanation that “the human psyche needs hope to survive the way a fish needs water.” He furthers that: Hope is the fuel for our mental engine. It’s the butter on our biscuit. It’s a lot of cheesy metaphors. Without hope, your whole mental apparatus will stall out or starve. If we don’t believe there’s any hope that the future will be better than the present, that our lives will improve in some way, then we spiritually die. After all, if there’s no hope of things ever being better, then why live- why do anything?” Without hope for the future one sinks into indifference and nihilism- the sense that there is no point, no broader “why?”. Without hope for the future, without a hope narrative that gives us a sense of purpose, we pursue the pure indulgence of desire. Success for the sake of success. Pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Power for the sake of power. Protest for the sake of protests. Shut downs for the sake of shut downs. Hysteria for the sake of hysteria. Manson reminds us that, hopelessness is the root of anxiety, mental illness and depression. It is the source of all misery and the cause of all addiction. Chronic anxiety is a crisis of hope. It is the fear of a failed future. Depression is a crisis of hope. It is the belief in a meaningless future. Should we be surprised that such mental illnesses are on an eighty year upswing among young people and a twenty year upswing among the adult population?

Covid-19 Has Exacerbated The Crisis Of Hope

The problem with COVID-19 six months in, is that it has exacerbated the crisis of hope which was plaguing the rich developed world well before the pandemic struck. Although a serious public health issue, we now have nothing short of a COVID-19 national hysteria. We’ve allowed the virus to take over our economy, our small businesses, our schools, our social lives, our quality of life and most importantly our hope for the future. This irrational sense of hopelessness is growing and those in power should carefully consider its effects when they set out to combat a second wave of COVID-19 and put policies in place to aid in the recovery. The human mind/human nature is the most powerful force on earth. Left misunderstood by those in power as well as by those acutely suffering from a lack of hope themselves, any recovery will be challenged. The rich developed world has made incredible progress in health, safety, material wealth and quality of life yet those are facts about the past, not the future. Hope doesn’t care about these things. Hope only cares about the problems that still need to be solved. Hope must be found in our visions for the future. We as individuals and as a society need to find our “why” again. Our personal hope narratives which give us a reason to believe that our tomorrows will be better than our todays. Our inspirational vision which gives us purpose. Which makes us smile, grounds us, helps us stay on course, joyful in the face of adversity and suffering. Somewhere along the way as we argue about whether everything is “rigged”, or whether we will “accept” to leave office, or what we are entitled to by virtue of our birth, or about how much we wish to take from others who have earned it to give to ourselves, or as we continue to surrender our economies and our lives to the virus, we’ve become lost. My hope is that we succeed in finding hope again. That will be the true recovery.

Charts of the Month

COVID 19 hope Where is hope trending? COVID 19 hope COVID 19 hope In Canada, the Covid-19 mortality rate is 0.024% and the chance of not dying from Covid-19 is 99.975% yet in a survey conducted on behalf of Global News, Ipsos found that 75% of respondents would approve of quickly shutting down non-essential businesses in the event of a second wave??? Why isn’t the media talking about this? That’s also what TIS Group asks in the USA, citing revised Centers for Disease Control statistics that say Covid-19 is only directly responsible for 6% of the reported Covid deaths in the U.S., or around 10-11,000 people. The rest of deaths reflect Covid as a contributing factor to existing illnesses, particularly among the elderly... COVID 19 hope COVID 19 hope A sign of the times... Logos LP August 2020 Performance August 2020 Return: -0.71% 2020 YTD (August) Return: 50.36% Trailing Twelve Month Return: 57.65% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) since inception March 26, 2014: +21.46%

Thought of the Month

"Fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to walk into it. When I walk into my fear, practice there, sit upright in the middle of it, completely open to the experience, with no expectation of the outcome. Anything is possible. When our circumstances look impossible or terrifying, there is a way. -Judith Randall

Articles and Ideas of Interest

  • Interactive Brokers braces for election volatility by telling clients to put up more cash. Market action around the election is expected to be so volatile that Interactive Brokers is forcing clients to put up more money in order to trade using leverage. The retail broker is increasing margin requirements — how much money an investor using leverage and derivatives has in their brokerage account after a stock purchase — heading into the November presidential election, according to a clients letter obtained by CNBC.
  • Is Covid to blame for business closures or is it helping new startups? The answer may be both. A report found that more than 100,000 restaurants have closed this year, but another says new business applications are up by 19%. Everyone has their narrative about the plight of small business because it’s a political issue. The right wants to make it out that small businesses are suffering and state governments need to relax the shutdowns. The left says that not only small businesses, but their employees, are feeling pain and therefore significant stimulus is still needed. Both sides agree on some form of a more targeted round of the Paycheck Protection Program. Everyone’s right. Everyone’s wrong. The fact is that no one really knows for sure about the effects Covid has had on small businesses ... yet. We won’t know until this whole thing is over and researchers can comb through the data and that’s going to take a few years. I’m sure they’ll find that many businesses did close permanently because of the pandemic. But then again, how many of these businesses would have closed anyway? And how many were previously buoyed by a strong economy until that facade disappeared?
  • America divided by education. The gulf between the party identification of white voters with college degrees and those without is growing rapidly. Trump is widening it. One of the most striking patterns in yesterday’s election was years in the making: a major partisan divide between white voters with a college degree and those without one. According to exit polls, 61 percent of non-college-educated white voters cast their ballots for Republicans while just 45 percent of college-educated white voters did so. Meanwhile 53 percent of college-educated white voters cast their votes for Democrats compared with 37 percent of those without a degree. The diploma divide, as it’s often called, is not occurring across the electorate; it is primarily a phenomenon among white voters. It’s an unprecedented divide, and is in fact a complete departure from the diploma divide of the past. Non-college-educated white voters used to solidly belong to Democrats, and college-educated white voters to Republicans.
  • Covid grows less deadly as doctors gain practice, drugs improve. For those who develop dangerous cases of the infection, advances in medical care and the growing experience of doctors are improving the chances of survival. Since the first case arrived in the U.S. at the start of the year, medical professionals have gone from fumbling in the dark to better understanding which drugs work -- such as steroids and blood thinners, and the antiviral medicine remdesivir. Allocation of intensive medical resources have improved. And doctors have learned to hold off on the use of ventilators for some patients, unlike with many other severe respiratory illnesses. Governments are also learning lessons from Europe’s lockdowns and finding that they simply can’t lock down again.
  • Why we shouldn’t have unrealistic expectations regarding COVID-19 vaccines. Among pharmaceutical, medicinal and drug products, vaccines are by far the most complex. They are also life-saving. In times of devastating disease outbreaks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not uncommon to foster hopes that an effective vaccine, a magic bullet, could somehow be quickly made and administered to people. Unfortunately, reality can be very different because vaccines can take a long time to be developed (4-5 years typically), longer than most pharmaceutical, medicinal or drug products. Bottom line: there may never be a magic bullet. We need to get better living with the virus. Furthermore trust in Covid-19 vaccines could turn on a knife edge. The race to remove regulatory and legal roadblocks to secure a vaccine could blow the whole vaccine hope wide open. Will you line up to take a vaccine which has been rushed through development without large scale patient trials from a vaccine maker that has been given full legal immunity from personal injury lawsuits?
  • 52% of young adults are living with their parents. That's higher than any prior measure on record, even surpassing the Great Depression's peak. Millennials will likely continue to pay the price for their parents’ luck and self-indulgence. According to a new report by Deutsche Bank the consequences of this dynamic will be so severe this widening generational divide should be a key source of alarm for investors, financial markets and society as a whole. “Investors can expect an abrupt, and significant upheaval in housing and asset markets, tax systems, climate policy, and many other areas,” Allen wrote. “This scenario becomes more likely towards the end of this decade as Millennial and younger voters start to exceed those in older generations.” (This year millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the country’s largest adult population.)
  • How China is preparing its economy for a future where the U.S. isn’t the center of global demand. In a world rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and tensions with the U.S., the Chinese government is stepping up focus on the domestic market with the pronouncement of a “dual circulation” policy. Increased public discussion in the last few weeks has helped crystallize some of the implications for global trade. “The ‘dual circulation’ policy demonstrates China’s recognition that it won’t be able to rely on trade as much for the next two decades, as it did for the previous two,” Stephen Olson, research fellow at the nonprofit Hinrich Foundation, said in an email this week. China is focused squarely on a post U.S.centric world in which China leads in technology innovation.
  • Remote work is killing the hidden trillion dollar office economy. From airlines to Starbucks, a massive part of our economy hinges on white-collar workers returning to the office. As companies in cities across the U.S. postpone and even scrap plans to reopen their offices, they have transformed once-teeming city business districts into commercial ghost towns comprised of essentially vacant skyscrapers and upscale complexes. A result has been the paralysis of the rarely remarked-upon business ecosystem centering on white-collar workers, who, when you include the enterprises reliant on them, account for a pre-pandemic labor force approaching 100 million workers.
  • Japanese doctor who lived to 105-his spartan diet, views on retirement, and other rare longevity tips. 1) Don’t retire. But if you must, do so a lot later than age 65, 2) Take the stairs (and keep your weight in check). 3) Find a purpose that keeps you busy. 4) Rules are stressful; try to relax them. 5) Remember that doctors can’t cure everything. 6) Find inspiration, joy and peace in art.
Missed a Post? Here's the Last 5: Forwarded This Message? Sign Up Here Our best wishes for a month filled with discovery and contentment, Logos LP Interdisciplinary Value Investing. www.logoslp.com/
 
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Copper Soars, Iron Ore Tumbles As Goldman Says “Copper’s Time Is Now”

Copper Soars, Iron Ore Tumbles As Goldman Says "Copper’s Time Is Now"

After languishing for the past two years in a tight range despite recurring…

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Copper Soars, Iron Ore Tumbles As Goldman Says "Copper's Time Is Now"

After languishing for the past two years in a tight range despite recurring speculation about declining global supply, copper has finally broken out, surging to the highest price in the past year, just shy of $9,000 a ton as supply cuts hit the market; At the same time the price of the world's "other" most important mined commodity has diverged, as iron ore has tumbled amid growing demand headwinds out of China's comatose housing sector where not even ghost cities are being built any more.

Copper surged almost 5% this week, ending a months-long spell of inertia, as investors focused on risks to supply at various global mines and smelters. As Bloomberg adds, traders also warmed to the idea that the worst of a global downturn is in the past, particularly for metals like copper that are increasingly used in electric vehicles and renewables.

Yet the commodity crash of recent years is hardly over, as signs of the headwinds in traditional industrial sectors are still all too obvious in the iron ore market, where futures fell below $100 a ton for the first time in seven months on Friday as investors bet that China’s years-long property crisis will run through 2024, keeping a lid on demand.

Indeed, while the mood surrounding copper has turned almost euphoric, sentiment on iron ore has soured since the conclusion of the latest National People’s Congress in Beijing, where the CCP set a 5% goal for economic growth, but offered few new measures that would boost infrastructure or other construction-intensive sectors.

As a result, the main steelmaking ingredient has shed more than 30% since early January as hopes of a meaningful revival in construction activity faded. Loss-making steel mills are buying less ore, and stockpiles are piling up at Chinese ports. The latest drop will embolden those who believe that the effects of President Xi Jinping’s property crackdown still have significant room to run, and that last year’s rally in iron ore may have been a false dawn.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg notes, on Friday there were fresh signs that weakness in China’s industrial economy is hitting the copper market too, with stockpiles tracked by the Shanghai Futures Exchange surging to the highest level since the early days of the pandemic. The hope is that headwinds in traditional industrial areas will be offset by an ongoing surge in usage in electric vehicles and renewables.

And while industrial conditions in Europe and the US also look soft, there’s growing optimism about copper usage in India, where rising investment has helped fuel blowout growth rates of more than 8% — making it the fastest-growing major economy.

In any case, with the demand side of the equation still questionable, the main catalyst behind copper’s powerful rally is an unexpected tightening in global mine supplies, driven mainly by last year’s closure of a giant mine in Panama (discussed here), but there are also growing worries about output in Zambia, which is facing an El Niño-induced power crisis.

On Wednesday, copper prices jumped on huge volumes after smelters in China held a crisis meeting on how to cope with a sharp drop in processing fees following disruptions to supplies of mined ore. The group stopped short of coordinated production cuts, but pledged to re-arrange maintenance work, reduce runs and delay the startup of new projects. In the coming weeks investors will be watching Shanghai exchange inventories closely to gauge both the strength of demand and the extent of any capacity curtailments.

“The increase in SHFE stockpiles has been bigger than we’d anticipated, but we expect to see them coming down over the next few weeks,” Colin Hamilton, managing director for commodities research at BMO Capital Markets, said by phone. “If the pace of the inventory builds doesn’t start to slow, investors will start to question whether smelters are actually cutting and whether the impact of weak construction activity is starting to weigh more heavily on the market.”

* * *

Few have been as happy with the recent surge in copper prices as Goldman's commodity team, where copper has long been a preferred trade (even if it may have cost the former team head Jeff Currie his job due to his unbridled enthusiasm for copper in the past two years which saw many hedge fund clients suffer major losses).

As Goldman's Nicholas Snowdon writes in a note titled "Copper's time is now" (available to pro subscribers in the usual place)...

... there has been a "turn in the industrial cycle." Specifically according to the Goldman analyst, after a prolonged downturn, "incremental evidence now points to a bottoming out in the industrial cycle, with the global manufacturing PMI in expansion for the first time since September 2022." As a result, Goldman now expects copper to rise to $10,000/t by year-end and then $12,000/t by end of Q1-25.’

Here are the details:

Previous inflexions in global manufacturing cycles have been associated with subsequent sustained industrial metals upside, with copper and aluminium rising on average 25% and 9% over the next 12 months. Whilst seasonal surpluses have so far limited a tightening alignment at a micro level, we expect deficit inflexions to play out from quarter end, particularly for metals with severe supply binds. Supplemented by the influence of anticipated Fed easing ahead in a non-recessionary growth setting, another historically positive performance factor for metals, this should support further upside ahead with copper the headline act in this regard.

Goldman then turns to what it calls China's "green policy put":

Much of the recent focus on the “Two Sessions” event centred on the lack of significant broad stimulus, and in particular the limited property support. In our view it would be wrong – just as in 2022 and 2023 – to assume that this will result in weak onshore metals demand. Beijing’s emphasis on rapid growth in the metals intensive green economy, as an offset to property declines, continues to act as a policy put for green metals demand. After last year’s strong trends, evidence year-to-date is again supportive with aluminium and copper apparent demand rising 17% and 12% y/y respectively. Moreover, the potential for a ‘cash for clunkers’ initiative could provide meaningful right tail risk to that healthy demand base case. Yet there are also clear metal losers in this divergent policy setting, with ongoing pressure on property related steel demand generating recent sharp iron ore downside.

Meanwhile, Snowdon believes that the driver behind Goldman's long-running bullish view on copper - a global supply shock - continues:

Copper’s supply shock progresses. The metal with most significant upside potential is copper, in our view. The supply shock which began with aggressive concentrate destocking and then sharp mine supply downgrades last year, has now advanced to an increasing bind on metal production, as reflected in this week's China smelter supply rationing signal. With continued positive momentum in China's copper demand, a healthy refined import trend should generate a substantial ex-China refined deficit this year. With LME stocks having halved from Q4 peak, China’s imminent seasonal demand inflection should accelerate a path into extreme tightness by H2. Structural supply underinvestment, best reflected in peak mine supply we expect next year, implies that demand destruction will need to be the persistent solver on scarcity, an effect requiring substantially higher pricing than current, in our view. In this context, we maintain our view that the copper price will surge into next year (GSe 2025 $15,000/t average), expecting copper to rise to $10,000/t by year-end and then $12,000/t by end of Q1-25’

Another reason why Goldman is doubling down on its bullish copper outlook: gold.

The sharp rally in gold price since the beginning of March has ended the period of consolidation that had been present since late December. Whilst the initial catalyst for the break higher came from a (gold) supportive turn in US data and real rates, the move has been significantly amplified by short term systematic buying, which suggests less sticky upside. In this context, we expect gold to consolidate for now, with our economists near term view on rates and the dollar suggesting limited near-term catalysts for further upside momentum. Yet, a substantive retracement lower will also likely be limited by resilience in physical buying channels. Nonetheless, in the midterm we continue to hold a constructive view on gold underpinned by persistent strength in EM demand as well as eventual Fed easing, which should crucially reactivate the largely for now dormant ETF buying channel. In this context, we increase our average gold price forecast for 2024 from $2,090/toz to $2,180/toz, targeting a move to $2,300/toz by year-end.

Much more in the full Goldman note available to pro subs.

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/15/2024 - 14:25

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Government

Moderna turns the spotlight on long Covid with new initiatives

Moderna’s latest Covid effort addresses the often-overlooked chronic condition of long Covid — and encourages vaccination to reduce risks. A digital…

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Moderna’s latest Covid effort addresses the often-overlooked chronic condition of long Covid — and encourages vaccination to reduce risks. A digital campaign debuted Friday along with a co-sponsored event in Detroit offering free CT scans, which will also be used in ongoing long Covid research.

In a new video, a young woman describes her three-year battle with long Covid, which includes losing her job, coping with multiple debilitating symptoms and dealing with the negative effects on her family. She ends by saying, “The only way to prevent long Covid is to not get Covid” along with an on-screen message about where to find Covid-19 vaccines through the vaccines.gov website.

Kate Cronin

“Last season we saw people would get a flu shot, but they didn’t always get a Covid shot,” said Moderna’s Chief Brand Officer Kate Cronin. “People should get their flu shot, but they should also get their Covid shot. There’s no risk of long flu, but there is the risk of long-term effects of Covid.”

It’s Moderna’s “first effort to really sound the alarm,” she said, and the debut coincides with the second annual Long Covid Awareness Day.

An estimated 17.6 million Americans are living with long Covid, according to the latest CDC data. About four million of them are out of work because of the condition, resulting in an estimated $170 billion in lost wages.

While HHS anted up $45 million in grants last year to expand long Covid support initiatives along with public health campaigns, the condition is still often ignored and underfunded.

“It’s not just about the initial infection of Covid, but also if you get it multiple times, your risks goes up significantly,” Cronin said. “It’s important that people understand that.”

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Consequences Minus Truth

Consequences Minus Truth

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“People crave trust in others, because God is found there.”

-…

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Consequences Minus Truth

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

“People crave trust in others, because God is found there.”

- Dom de Bailleul

The rewards of civilization have come to seem rather trashy in these bleak days of late empire; so, why even bother pretending to be civilized? This appears to be the ethos driving our politics and culture now. But driving us where? Why, to a spectacular sort of crack-up, and at warp speed, compared to the more leisurely breakdown of past societies that arrived at a similar inflection point where Murphy’s Law replaced the rule of law.

The US Military Academy at West point decided to “upgrade” its mission statement this week by deleting the phrase Duty, Honor, Country that summarized its essential moral orientation. They replaced it with an oblique reference to “Army Values,” without spelling out what these values are, exactly, which could range from “embrace the suck” to “charlie foxtrot” to “FUBAR” — all neatly applicable to our country’s current state of perplexity and dread.

Are you feeling more confident that the US military can competently defend our country? Probably more like the opposite, because the manipulation of language is being used deliberately to turn our country inside-out and upside-down. At this point we probably could not successfully pacify a Caribbean island if we had to, and you’ve got to wonder what might happen if we have to contend with countless hostile subversive cadres who have slipped across the border with the estimated nine-million others ushered in by the government’s welcome wagon.

Momentous events await. This Monday, the Supreme Court will entertain oral arguments on the case Missouri, et al. v. Joseph R. Biden, Jr., et al. The integrity of the First Amendment hinges on the decision. Do we have freedom of speech as set forth in the Constitution? Or is it conditional on how government officials feel about some set of circumstances? At issue specifically is the government’s conduct in coercing social media companies to censor opinion in order to suppress so-called “vaccine hesitancy” and to manipulate public debate in the 2020 election. Government lawyers have argued that they were merely “communicating” with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others about “public health disinformation and election conspiracies.”

You can reasonably suppose that this was our government’s effort to disable the truth, especially as it conflicted with its own policy and activities — from supporting BLM riots to enabling election fraud to mandating dubious vaccines. Former employees of the FBI and the CIA were directly implanted in social media companies to oversee the carrying-out of censorship orders from their old headquarters. The former general counsel (top lawyer) for the FBI, James Baker, slid unnoticed into the general counsel seat at Twitter until Elon Musk bought the company late in 2022 and flushed him out. The so-called Twitter Files uncovered by indy reporters Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and others, produced reams of emails from FBI officials nagging Twitter execs to de-platform people and bury their dissent. You can be sure these were threats, not mere suggestions.

One of the plaintiffs joined to Missouri v. Biden is Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and professor at the Harvard Medical School, who opposed Covid-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He was one of the authors of the open letter called The Great Barrington Declaration (October, 2020) that articulated informed medical dissent for a bamboozled public. He was fired from his job at Harvard just this past week for continuing his refusal to take the vaccine. Harvard remains among a handful of institutions that still require it, despite massive evidence that it is ineffective and hazardous. Like West Point, maybe Harvard should ditch its motto, Veritas, Latin for “truth.”

A society hostile to truth can’t possibly remain civilized, because it will also be hostile to reality. That appears to be the disposition of the people running things in the USA these days. The problem, of course, is that this is not a reality-optional world, despite the wishes of many Americans (and other peoples of Western Civ) who wish it would be.

Next up for us will be “Joe Biden’s” attempt to complete the bankruptcy of our country with $7.3-trillion proposed budget, 20 percent over the previous years spending, based on a $5-billion tax increase. Good luck making that work. New York City alone is faced with paying $387 a day for food and shelter for each of an estimated 64,800 illegal immigrants, which amounts to $9.15-billion a year. The money doesn’t exist, of course. New York can thank “Joe Biden’s” executive agencies for sticking them with this unbearable burden. It will be the end of New York City. There will be no money left for public services or cultural institutions. That’s the reality and that’s the truth.

A financial crack-up is probably the only thing short of all-out war that will get the public’s attention at this point. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it happened next week. Historians of the future, stir-frying crickets and fiddleheads over their campfires will marvel at America’s terminal act of gluttony: managing to eat itself alive.

*  *  *

Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page or Substack

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/15/2024 - 14:05

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