Zero Hedge

Top DOJ Official Resigns After Attempted Reassignment

Top DOJ Official Resigns After Attempted Reassignment

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The man who led the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section has resigned, according to a new letter.

Corey Amundson, who had been in charge of the section for years before the Trump administration recently reassigned him to work on immigration issues, has stepped down.

Corey Amundson, chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section, during a news conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Aug. 4, 2022. Ricardo Arduengo/Reuters

“I am honored and blessed to have served our country and this department for the last 23 years,” Amundson wrote in his letter to Acting Attorney General James McHenry.

“I spent my entire professional life committed to the apolitical enforcement of the federal criminal law and to ensuring that those around me understood and embraced that central tenet of our work.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) did not respond to a request for comment.

Amundson started working for the DOJ out of Louisiana in 2002, according to his LinkedIn profile. He shifted to Washington about 10 years ago.

The profile lists his experience with the DOJ as ending in 2025.

Amundson was tapped in 2019 during Trump’s first term to become chief of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section. That put him in charge of overseeing public corruption and other politically sensitive investigations.

Amundson is one of an estimated 20 career officials inside the DOJ to be reassigned to a new Sanctuary City Working Group inside the associate attorney general’s office.

At least two of those officials, Amundson and George Toscas from the National Security Division, had some involvement in the two criminal investigations against Trump.

Former special counsel Jack Smith said in his final report that his team “consulted regularly” with the Public Integrity Section on topics such as serving subpoenas, bringing election fraud charges, and a U.S. Constitution clause that provides immunity to members of Congress who are furthering legislative acts.

Amundson’s resignation letter did not make reference to his section’s role in the Trump cases.

However, it cited a number of other high-profile cases he helped oversee, including the public corruption cases against Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), and Fugees hip hop group member Prakazrel Michel.

The DOJ, in addition to the recent reassignments, recently fired a number of officials who worked on Smith’s team.

The reassignments and terminations have drawn scrutiny from Democrats, who expressed concern about the treatment of individuals they said were “excellent career prosecutors.”

The moves contradicted Trump’s “repeated pledges to maintain a merit-based system for government employment,” Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said in a letter to DOJ officials.

“By removing them from their positions in this hasty and unprincipled way, you have very likely violated longstanding federal laws,” they added later.

The DOJ has not responded to an inquiry about the letter.

Jacob Burg and Reuters contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 20:30

Better Than Ozempic? How To Engage The Vagus Nerve For Weight Loss

Better Than Ozempic? How To Engage The Vagus Nerve For Weight Loss

Authored by Zena le Roux via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

We often hear about the brain-gut connection and how the vagus nerve keeps our mood in check. But did you know that this same nerve quietly shapes our metabolism every day?

The vagus nerve acts as a metabolic control center, affecting hunger, fullness levels, weight, and blood sugar. The effect of vagal stimulation on weight loss is an emerging area of interest.

Guiding Metabolism

The vagus nerve helps signal feelings of fullness after eating by communicating signals from the gut to the brain. It regulates hunger hormones (such as leptin), influencing food choices and satiety levels. Stimulating this nerve may, therefore, offer a less invasive alternative to traditional bariatric surgery for weight loss.

“A well-functioning vagus nerve can help regulate appetite and prevent overeating, which is key for maintaining a healthy metabolic state,“ Nasha Winters, a naturopathic doctor and integrative oncology specialist, told The Epoch Times. ”This is the ‘I’ve had enough’ signal, but even goes further to the ‘I am enough’ signal.”

The vagus nerve connects the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) with organs that help regulate the absorption of food and storage of nutrients. It innervates organ systems that contribute to metabolism, ensure energy balance, and prevent fluctuations in body weight.

This nerve is involved in blood glucose regulation by prompting the pancreas to release insulin. It also signals the liver to store and release glucose and triggers the release of bile and digestive enzymes.

Another reason that vagus nerve stimulation may support weight management and metabolic health is its ability to reduce inflammation, a significant driver of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome refers to conditions—including high blood sugar, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, and excess belly fat—that together increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

Vagus Nerve Therapy for Weight Loss

Device-based vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is often used to improve metabolism. Transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS) is a great option, Jodi Duval, an Australia-based naturopathic physician and owner of Revital Health, told The Epoch Times. The tVNS method delivers gentle electrical impulses and sends signals through the ear to regulate hunger and digestion.

Other alternative and complementary therapies have also been shown to suppress inflammation and increase vagus nerve activity. These approaches include acupuncture and biofeedback, a method that uses sensors to help you learn to control automatic body functions. Calming the nervous system in this way helps maintain stable blood glucose levels and optimize digestion, both essential for efficient metabolic function. Meditation has also been suggested for the clinical management of metabolic syndrome and obesity.

Another promising type of vagal nerve therapy for weight loss is vagal nerve blocking, often referred to as VBLOC therapy, according to Lena Beal, a registered dietitian nutritionist and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

VBLOC transmits electrical pulses to the vagus nerve at regular intervals, interrupting normal signaling between the brain and the stomach and decreasing hunger and food intake. Because of its pulsed nature, VBLOC does not affect other VNS outcomes, such as reduced inflammation or stabilized blood sugar.

“The higher the electrical current of the stimulator, the greater the weight loss, with some cases leading to significant weight loss,” Beal told The Epoch Times.

The effects of VNS appear to be more noticeable in individuals with a higher body mass index (BMI) or those classified as obese.

Vagus Nerve Therapy Versus Ozempic

Vagus nerve therapy and semaglutide (found in Ozempic and Wegovy), the trending weight-loss drug, tackle weight loss in very different ways, Duval said.

“Ozempic mimics a natural hormone that controls blood sugar and appetite, making it a potent tool for rapid weight loss,“ she said. “However, it is a medication, meaning it can come with side effects and is not normally a long-term solution for everyone.”

Common adverse effects of semaglutide include nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and stomach pain.

Vagus nerve stimulation, in contrast, works more subtly by restoring the body’s natural balance. It may take longer to see results, but it addresses the root causes of metabolic dysfunction, such as stress and inflammation, and comes with added benefits such as improved mood and digestion, Duval said.

“It’s a long-term investment in overall health rather than a quick fix,” she said.

tVNS
  • Cost: $1,000 to $2,500 for the device, plus additional fees for sessions or consultations
  • Average Weight Loss: 3 percent to 5 percent
  • Side Effects: skin irritation, headache, and dizziness
VBLOC
  • Cost: between $18,000 and $22,000 per year
  • Average Weight Loss: about 8.5 percent
  • Side Effects: indigestion, heartburn, abdominal pain
Ozempic and Wegovy
  • Approved For: Type 2 diabetes (Ozempic); BMI greater than 30, or BMI greater than 27 with other medical conditions related to obesity (Wegovy)
  • Cost: $12,000 to $15,000 per year
  • Average Weight Loss: about 12 percent
  • Side Effects: gastrointestinal upset (nausea, diarrhea, bloating), retinal damage, and pancreas inflammation
  • People often partially regain weight when the medication is discontinued.

“The vagus nerve acts as the body’s communication superhighway, connecting the brain and the gut,” Duval said. “Think of it as your body’s internal coach, softly reminding you when it’s time to rest and digest. Essentially, the vagus nerve is your internal guide, helping keep your metabolism balanced and healthy.”

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 20:05

Replace The Income Tax With Tariffs?

Replace The Income Tax With Tariffs?

Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commentary

There was a time, before 1913, when you could keep every penny you earned. You did not have to file with the federal government, telling them what you earned and giving the feds their cut. Your finances were your business and no one else’s. You had the right to earn, own, and keep property, and it was sacrosanct, guaranteed by U.S. law and tradition.

Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock

There were no audits, investigations, account freezes, withholdings, or any other forms of payment. There was your productivity and you and that’s all.

How was the government funded? It earned revenue through tariffs. These are paid directly by importers and indirectly by producers and consumers if the costs can be passed through. As strategies for gaining revenue, this approach is relatively noninvasive. It left the population alone.

Back in those days, however, the federal government barely existed as compared with today. More precisely, in real terms, the federal government in 1885 spent in inflation-adjusted dollars about 0.05 percent of what it spends today. Even then, people believed that it was too big and wanted it cut back to size.

Donald Trump has recently been schooling people in the history of revenue strategies and he is teaching something that people have not known. He has explained how this period of American history saw the greatest amount of economic growth we’ve ever seen. He is correct about that and he is also correct that this was the period of the tariff.

The cause and effect, however, is murky. The main themes of this period were freedom and sound money. The dollar was governed by the gold standard and there was no central bank. The federal government itself had no presence in the life of the American family or typical American business. Those facts more than tariffs account for the difference between then and now.

As an aside, I cannot remember another U.S. president having as clear an opinion on 19th-century economic history. Most comments by presidents have been limited to pieties about the Founding Fathers or Lincoln but skip over details concerning revenue sources or controversies concerning national banks and the like. Trump is clearly different, highly confident in these details of history that are lost even on most economists.

Trump has explained that the income tax came along in 1913 as a replacement for the tariff. That is correct in design but the historical reality was slightly different. Tariffs were not abolished entirely. The income tax just became a second and additional source of revenue. Then the Great War came, financed in large part by the central bank (the Federal Reserve) that was created the same year.

The income tax and the Fed became the financial source of Leviathan power. Both came about in 1913, along with the direct election of Senators that blew up the bicameral structure of Congress and put the big cities in charge of America’s equivalent of the House of Lords.

Trump’s history lesson opens up the opportunity to examine all of this more closely. In 19th-century terms, he seems to be siding with the Hamilton faction inherited by Henry Clay, the Senator from Virginia who advocated what came to be called “the American System.” This was a policy of protective tariffs, a national bank, and federal subsidies for internal improvements to promote economic growth and national cohesion.

That’s a pretty good summary of what seems to be Trump’s position. In historical terms, the Clay view contrasted with the Jeffersonian view, which favored a tiny government, free trade, no national bank, no industrial subsidies, and a society of small farmers to serve as the economic engine.

These days, the debates between the Jeffersonians and Hamiltonians seem far less relevant to the current situation. Both Hamilton and Clay would be appalled by the size and scope of government power, and would happily link arms with Jefferson and John Randolph of Roanoke to cut the beast down to size. That seems to be the actual ambition of Trump, to be an agent of change that makes the federal government manageable again.

As part of this, Trump has floated the idea of abolishing the income tax. And all the people said: yes! But of course that would end in denying vast amounts of revenue to the federal government. No matter how you do the math, there is simply no way that the tariff can make up the difference. The only solution, then, is massive cuts in government spending, which people like Elon Musk have promised but we are waiting to see the plans.

Again, the last time government was funded entirely by tariffs, government spending was a mere 0.05 percent of what it is today. If we are going to cut it back that much, fantastic, but nothing like that has happened in American history, nothing even close to that. Usually what Washington calls cuts are really just cuts in the rate of increase of spending.

Without real cuts, and with a curbing or elimination of the income tax, the United States merely ends up with more debt that will be financed by the Federal Reserve and that results in more inflation. Inflation is nothing but a different and more surreptitious form of taxation. Instead of taking money out of your bank account directly, government simply reduces the purchasing power of the dollar itself.

Let’s return to this idea of abolishing the income tax. The best case for that idea ever made was written by a great journalist named Frank Chodorov (1887–1966) and his wonderful book “The Income Tax: Root of All Evil.” He wrote about the 16th Amendment to the Constitution:

“[It] puts no limit on governmental confiscation. The government can, under the law, take everything the citizen earns, even to the extent of depriving him of all above mere subsistence, which it must allow him in order that he may produce something to be confiscated. Whichever way you turn this amendment, you come up with the fact that it gives the government a prior lien on all the property produced by its subjects. In short, when this amendment became part of the Constitution, in 1913, the absolute right of property in the United States was violated.”

Further: “In name, it was a tax reform. In point of fact, it was a revolution. For the Sixteenth Amendment corroded the American concept of natural rights; ultimately reduced the American citizen to a status of subject, so much so that he is not aware of it; enhanced Executive power to the point of reducing Congress to innocuity; and enabled the central government to bribe the states, once independent units, into subservience. No kingship in the history of the world ever exercised more power than our Presidency, or had more of the people’s wealth at its disposal. We have retained the forms and phrases of a republic, but in reality we are living under an oligarchy, not of courtesans, but of bureaucrats.”

The abolition of the income tax would restore property rights, restore rights to enterprise, and restore the privacy of American citizens not to be spied on and pillaged by arbitrary government power.

The constituency that would favor such a thing in America is practically everyone. Why, then, has no president ever promoted such an idea? Precisely because doing so is incredibly enlightening and consciousness-raising. It forces the realization on the part of the American people that the government is living at their expense. For any political establishment, lording over a population that is newly aware of this is a dangerous proposition.

There is no getting around the math. If we really are talking about getting rid of income taxes, there is no tariff high enough to make up the difference. There is no choice but to cut spending dramatically. The budget freeze, the freeze on new hires, the freeze on outgoing grants—all of this point in the right direction. We cannot rule out the possibility that the Trump administration will take us to where we need to go.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 19:15

NYPD Searching For 6 Suspects Who Stole An MTA Train From Brooklyn And Took It For A "Joyride"

NYPD Searching For 6 Suspects Who Stole An MTA Train From Brooklyn And Took It For A "Joyride"

The monetary black hole that is the MTA apparently hasn't figured out a way to secure its property, despite what appears to be an incessant, neverending need for additional cash.

That's because the NYPD is now searching for six suspects who allegedly stole an R train from a Brooklyn storage yard and took it for a joyride, traveling down the tracks.

The incident occurred around 10 p.m. Saturday near the 71st Avenue station in Forest Hills, Queens, according to Fox 5.

Fox reported that the suspects operated the train and vandalized its camera by marking the glass panels. No arrests or injuries have been reported. Their identities and whereabouts after leaving the train remain unknown.

ABC reported that surveillance footage shows the hooded suspects leaving the conductor’s compartment and walking through the empty train.

Police are offering a $3,500 reward for information, as the group is wanted for reckless endangerment. The joyride began around 10 p.m. Saturday at Brooklyn’s 36th Street and 4th Avenue station, but officials haven’t disclosed how far they traveled.

The suspects fled on foot after vandalizing the train’s camera panels.

No sooner did we mumble "We're sure at some point this will be used as some type of impetus for another fare hike..." under our breath than we read that MTA Chairman Janno Lieber criticized the security failures - and then urged investment in better protections beyond basic locks.

How soon until we're paying congestion tolls just to walk around in Manhattan?

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 18:50

December FAA Report Cites "Urgent Need To Modernize Air Traffic Systems"

December FAA Report Cites "Urgent Need To Modernize Air Traffic Systems"

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Over 60 people died in a preventable plane crash...

Urgent FAA Actions Are Needed to Modernize Aging Systems

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Air Traffic Control says Urgent FAA Actions Are Needed to Modernize Aging Systems

FAA had 64 ongoing investments aimed at modernizing 90 of the 105 unsustainable and potentially unsustainable systems; however, the agency has been slow to modernize the most critical and at-risk systems. Specifically, when considering age, sustainability ratings, operational impact level, and expected date of modernization for each system, as of May 2024, FAA had 17 systems that were especially concerning. The investments intended to modernize these systems were not planned to be completed for at least 6 years. In some cases, they were not to be completed for at least 10 years. In addition, FAA did not have ongoing investments associated with four of these critical systems.

A contributing factor to the lengthy implementation schedules is that FAA does not always ensure that investments are organized in manageable segments.

Until FAA takes urgent action to reduce the time frames to replace critical and at-risk ATC systems, it will continue to rely on a large percentage of unsustainable systems to perform critical functions for safe air travel. This reliance occurs at a time when air traffic is expected to increase each year.

FAA has had longstanding challenges with maintaining aging ATC systems.

For example, the Notice to Air Missions system, which enables air traffic controllers to provide real-time updates to aircraft crew about critical flying situations relating to issues such as weather, congestion, and safety, is over 30 years old.

For over 4 decades we have reported on challenges facing FAA’s modernization of its ATC systems.

About One-Third of FAA ATC Systems Are Considered Unsustainable

  • During fiscal year 2023, FAA determined that of its 138 ATC systems, 51 (37 percent) were unsustainable and 54 (39 percent) were potentially unsustainable.

  • FAA categorizes its ATC systems by criticality. Of the 105 unsustainable or potentially unsustainable ATC systems,

  • 29 unsustainable and 29 potentially unsustainable systems have a critical operational impact on the safety and efficiency of the national airspace

  • 16 unsustainable and 9 potentially unsustainable systems have a moderate operational impact on the safety and efficiency of the national airspace

  • 6 unsustainable and 16 potentially unsustainable systems were mission support systems and were not considered critical.

Aging Components of Systems

  •  73 systems were deployed over 20 years ago, with 40 being deployed over 30 years ago, and six of those deployed over 60 years ago.

  • 32 systems were implemented within the past 20 years

  • Only four systems as recently as 2020.

GAO Analysis of FAA Systems

Top Issues: System Obsolescence and Finding Replacement Parts

According to a February 2024 response from FAA technicians, the top issue facing the agency is system obsolescence and difficulty in finding replacement parts. 

The response also indicated that inadequate staffing of FAA facilities posed a challenge to maintaining systems because some technicians were responsible for areas spanning hundreds of miles.

FAA has been slow to modernize some of the most critical and at-risk systems. Specifically, when considering age, sustainability ratings, operational impact level, and expected date of modernization or replacement for each system, as of May 2024, FAA had 17 systems that were especially concerning. The 17 systems range from as few as 2 years old to as many as 50 years old, are unsustainable, and are critical to the safety and efficiency of the national airspace. However, the investments intended to modernize or replace these 17 systems are not planned to be completed for at least 6 more years. In some cases, they were not to be completed for at least 10 years.

Without near-term modernization plans for these systems, critical ATC operations that these systems support may continue to be at-risk for over a decade before being modernized or replaced. Specifically, FAA can take well over a decade to implement modernization investments once initiated.

GAO Summary

In summary, FAA’s reliance on a large percentage of aging and unsustainable or potentially unsustainable ATC systems introduces risks to FAA’s ability to ensure the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of up to 50,000 flights per day.

Yesterday we saw the result.

It’s Time to Privatize Air-Traffic Control

On May 10, 2023, the Bloomberg editorial board said It’s Time to Privatize Air-Traffic Control

It’s no accident that controllers still track planes with little slips of paper. Congress is making the FAA’s job all but impossible.

At least eight serious safety incidents have occurred at US airports so far this year, including a near-miss on Feb. 4 when a FedEx Corp. cargo jet flew within 100 feet of a Southwest Airlines Co. passenger flight outside Austin. A few days later, an Air Canada Rouge plane was cleared for takeoff at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport just as an American Airlines Group Inc. jet was given permission to land — on the same runway. The American crew “self-initiated” a go-around to avert catastrophe.

Under pressure from Congress, the FAA convened a hearing on the mishaps in March, then established an independent team to make recommendations. Such steps are missing the bigger picture: The government shouldn’t be operating the country’s air-traffic-control system.

Outdated technology has plagued the FAA for decades. Notoriously, US air-traffic controllers still use strips of paper to track planes in their vicinity. The agency chronically struggles to hire technical staff. Its main system for preventing collisions between planes and ground traffic is decades old, short of spare parts, and prone to prolonged failures. An outage last year almost led to tragedy when a truck ambled onto the runway at Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport and narrowly missed an incoming plane.

Similar problems have bedeviled the FAA’s emergency-alert system, called Notam, first adopted in 1947. It’s meant to warn of potential hazards along a planned flight route. Yet its notices are composed in all-caps block text, employ arcane codes and abbreviations, and can be so riddled with irrelevant information that pilots overlook crucial alerts. On Jan. 11, the Notam system failed entirely, leading to thousands of flight delays. A planned modernization may not be completed until sometime in the 2030s.

The problem with the Bloomberg recommendation is the same problem with public schools.

We sure don’t want unions running the system either based on seniority, not merit and competence.

Not Exaggerations

The online systems look like the antiquated game of asteroids.

Rep. Thomas Massie provides this Tragic Video.

Please give it a play. A portion of the lead image is from that video.

A friend writes “Almost nobody realizes we are relying on a dinosaur technology when they step on a plane.”

Floppy Disks In Planes and Trains

On May 15, 2024 ZdNet commented on Floppy Disk Usage.

As computer networking and new storage formats like USB flash drives and memory cards emerged, the floppy disk’s reign waned in the mid-to-late 1990s. The end of the floppy disk era came with the introduction of the floppy-less iMac in 1998.

By the early 2000s, floppy disks had become increasingly rare, used primarily with legacy hardware and industrial equipment. Sony manufactured the last new floppy disk in 2011.

Some older Boeing 747 models still use floppy disks to load critical navigation database updates and software into their avionics systems. Indeed, Tom Persky, the president of floppydisk.com, which sells and recycles floppy disks, said in 2022 that the airline industry remains one of his biggest customers.

Closer to the ground, in San Francisco, the Muni Metro light railway, which launched in 1980, won’t start up each morning unless its Automatic Train Control System staff is booted up with a floppy. Why? It has no hard drive and it’s too unstable to be left on, so every morning, in goes the disk, and off goes the trains. It will be replaced, though… eventually. Currently, the updated replacement project is scheduled to be completed in 2033/4.

The number of near misses is high and rising. It’s a wonder we haven’t had more accidents.

Sheesh, we cannot even find replacement parts including floppy disks.

Questions Abound

How much did we spend on DEI, the Green New Deal, Climate Change, and FAA improvements in the past four years?

If I am not mistaken we have had seriously misguided priorities in the last four years. And in relation to the FAA, we’ve been lucky with near misses for decades.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 18:25

US 'In Contact' With Russia, Trump Confirms

US 'In Contact' With Russia, Trump Confirms

President Donald Trump has acknowledged that the United States and Russia are "in contact" related to the tragic events of the American Airlines passenger plane colliding with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday evening near Reagan National airport in Washington D.C.

All 64 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 5342 perished, while the three US servicemembers on board the H-60 Black Hawk were killed. No one survived the crash in the Potomac River. Among the 16 figure-skaters on board, two well-known skating coaches who were Russian nationals died: Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov.

Trump in a Thursday briefing told reporters: "We had a Russian contingent – some very talented people – unfortunately on that plane," emphasizing of the deadly tragedy that he's "Very, very sorry about that."

Via Reuters

"We’ve already been in contact with Russia," Trump said in response to a question from a reporter. He pledged that the the US "will facilitate" the transfer of the remains of any Russian nationals who died in the crash, and that sanctions and flight bans into Russia will not impact this.

The Kremlin has since clarified that this did not involve direct contact between Presidents Putin and Trump.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has since indicated there may have been up to four Russian citizens on board the plane when it went down: "According to our embassy, three victims of this plane crash had Russian passports. There is confirmation regarding another, a fourth person who could hold a Russian passport, this information is currently being verified," the diplomat said.

Despite Trump's positive words of condolence, Zakharova strongly suggested that the US side hasn't been very responsive to Russian requests:

"Our embassy is communicating with the US Department of State on the entire range of issues," Zakharova assured reporters, even as it "looks like a one-way communication." The Russian embassy has been asking questions, "but we have not received substantive responses so far. However, there is communication, and we have been given some general replies," she explained.

"We are grateful to the American authorities, with whom we are in constant contact, for the words of support expressed to the families of the victims and their readiness to help with the transfer of the remains to their homeland," the Russian embassy said in a statement on Thursday.

Plane crash victims Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. Getty Images

The question of how quickly Trump and Putin might directly engage in frank dialogue related to seeking to wind down the Ukraine war is being watched by many.

There's a likelihood of lower level talks which could hammer out the parameters of such initial dialogue. But the expected Trump-Putin phone call quickly on the heels of Trump's inauguration doesn't appear to have happened yet.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 18:00

China's Boldest Oil Hunt Yet

China's Boldest Oil Hunt Yet

By Irina Slav of OilPrice.com

In October last year, China’s CNOOC reported record oil and gas production from a field called Deep Sea #1. The field was the company’s first ultra-deep project, an example of the pursuit of new, untapped resources that lie deeper under the sea. Yet it’s not only ultradeep offshore drilling that the Chinese are focusing on. Right now, China is building a new rig that should be able to drill much deeper than any other rig-onshore.

Led by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, the project involves a number of research institutions and companies. Its purpose: to develop a smart drilling rig that could reach depths of 15,000 meters, or about 50,000 feet.

“The Deep Earth National Science and Technology Megaproject is a forward-looking strategy that aligns with global scientific frontiers while ensuring national energy and resource security,” state news outlet Xinhua said, as quoted by the South China Morning Post.

Scientific frontiers aside, it’s all about the oil and gas and other mineral resources. That was the purpose of a CNPC project in the Tarim Basin in Northwestern China, where the state oil major experimented with drilling depths of up to 11,000 meters. The drilling began in 2023. Last year, after 279 days of drilling, the drill broke the 10,000-meter mark, per Chinese media reports, making the well the deepest ever drilled in the country. It was also the deepest well drilled in Asia—and the fastest drilled well of over 10,000 meters. The well was completed in March last year.

Drilling ultra-deep wells is certainly a challenging endeavor.

The deeper you go, the hotter it gets, and this can interfere with the process, which is why ultradeep drilling is not yet standard practice.

However, the fact that Chinese energy companies and researchers teamed up on the subject is telling—and it tells us that China is prepared to go to these lengths to increase the degree of self-sufficiency in the energy space.

The Shendi Take 1 well—the one that CNPC drilled in the Tarim Basin—cuts through 13 layers of rock, reaching formations that are 500 million years old. The new drill that the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences-led team is developing will make it possible to cut even deeper into the Earth’s crust and tap new oil and gas. And there is lots of these at such depths.

The Shendi Take 1 well is certainly an achievement. But it is not the deepest well drilled in the world. That honor falls to the Chayvo well, drilled offshore Russia’s Sakhalin island by a local subsidiary of Exxon—the operator of the Sakhalin-1 project. The Chayvo well exceeds 12,000 meters in depth, which makes it 15 times longer than the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The deposit, which the well was drilled into, holds an estimated 2.3 billion barrels of crude oil and 480 billion cu m of natural gas.

This is the ultimate reason for the ultra-deep drilling exercises: finding new hydrocarbon resources. Because the biggest energy challenge that human civilization faces—as articulated by “Landman” protagonist Tommy Norris—is whether we would find an alternative before it runs out. There are schools of thought that argue there is in fact an unending supply of hydrocarbons in the Earth’s crust. While that remains debatable, it is a fact that the world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources lie in greater depths than previously considered standard. Researching ultra-deep drilling is an example of adaptation to the changing realities of energy supply.

China is the most obvious candidate for such research and experiments. The largest crude oil and gas importer in the world has substantial local reserves of hydrocarbons, but reaching them is more challenging than it is, say, in the Permian. Hence the concerted investment in ultra-deep drilling and the pursuit of “leading-edge scientific breakthroughs as soon as possible” – even as China cements its dominance in the wind and solar sector.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 17:40

Treasury Dept's Highest-Ranking Career Official Rage-Quits After Musk's DOGE Team Probes Payment System

Treasury Dept's Highest-Ranking Career Official Rage-Quits After Musk's DOGE Team Probes Payment System

The Treasury Department's highest-ranking career official quit after a clash with aides of Elon Musk over access to sensitive payment systems, according to the Washington Post, citing (of course), three anonymous sources.

David A. Lebryk, a decades-long Treasury official who President Trump named as acting secretary upon taking office last week, announced his retirement in a Friday email to colleagues. According to the report, Lebryk had a dispute with Musk surrogates over access to the US government's payment system used to disburse trillions of dollars every year.

[Imagine Musk and team uncover decades of improper payments and shady dealings?]

The Musk surrogates are affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and have been asking since the election for access to the system, according to the report. The requests were reiterated after Trump's inauguration.

After Trump pick Scott Bessent was confirmed as Treasury Secretary on Monday, Lebryk ceased to be acting agency head.

The payment system in question is run by a handful of career officials within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service - which controls the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses, and other entities nationwide - and includes Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, payments to government contractors, tax refunds, grant recipients, and more.

The clash is the latest incident involving career 'deep state' bureaucrats vs. the Trump administration. And of course, WaPo, the CIA's favorite tentacle, frames it as follows:

The clash reflects an intensifying battle between Musk and the federal bureaucracy as the Trump administration nears the conclusion of its second week. Musk has sought to exert sweeping control over the inner workings of the U.S. government, installing longtime surrogates at several agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management, which essentially handles federal human resources, and the General Services Administration, which manages real estate. (Musk was seen on Thursday visiting GSA, according to two other people familiar with his whereabouts, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal matters. That visit was first reported by the New York Times.) His Department of Government Efficiency, originally conceived as a nongovernmental panel, has since replaced the U.S. Digital Service.

Translation:

Unfortunately for the career bureaucrats, Trump signed an executive order instructing all agencies to ensure DOGE has "full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems," which appear to include the Treasury payment systems.

Musk has previously slammed rising national debt as an existential threat to the country, while DOGE has already made progress in rooting out bullshit programs established by Democrat administrations.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 17:20

Long Awaited JFK Files Could Be Released Soon

Long Awaited JFK Files Could Be Released Soon

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Attorney General have until Feb. 7 to present a full disclosure plan for the records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 23.

President John F. Kennedy presents the Congressional Gold Medal to Robert Frost. (Abbie Rowe. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.) Public Domain

“I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest, and the release of these records is long overdue,” Trump wrote in the order.

Since Kennedy was shot in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, some have speculated about what the government knows, and the slow release of documents has only heightened suspicions, according to those calling for declassification.

According to the National Archives, more than 5 million documents, photographs, and other artifacts related to the assassination are in the government’s possession.

Approximately 99 percent of the records are available for the public to review, although around 5,000 documents remain sealed or redacted.

Some have additionally questioned the official narratives regarding the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.. The order also calls for King’s records to be released—with the plans due by early March.

“Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,” Trump’s order states. “It is in the national interest to finally release all records related to these assassinations without delay.”

While signing the executive order, Trump said, “People are waiting for this for years, for decades, and everything will be revealed.”

He instructed his staff to hand the pen he used to sign the order to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.—the nephew of the deceased president and the son of the slain former senator.

RFK Jr. has long criticized the government for concealing documents and has suggested the Central Intelligence Agency may have played a role in his uncle’s death.

He quoted the 35th president in a Jan. 24. post on social media platform X.

He said JFK warned that ‘The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society, and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secrecy … We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.’”

He suggested the lack of transparency has eroded the public’s trust in government.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr,, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies before the Senate Committee on Finance on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 29, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

RFK Jr., who has been nominated by Trump as Health and Human Services Secretary, said the government owes Americans the truth and thanked the president for working to release the documents.

“A nation that does not trust its people is a nation that is afraid of its people,” he wrote. “A government that withholds information is inherently fearful of its citizens’ ability to make informed decisions and participate actively in democracy.”

A law passed by Congress, the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, ordered all government records related to the incident to be released to the public in full by Oct. 26, 2017.

Exceptions were made for items deemed harmful to intelligence operations, foreign relations, military defense, or law enforcement and that such harm outweighed the public’s right to know.

When the deadline approached during Trump’s first term, he acknowledged in his order accepting redactions proposed by certain unnamed agencies and executive departments.

He subsequently directed the agencies to reconsider the redactions within three years and further disclose information.

The deadline was extended three times during President Joe Biden’s term in office.

Trump said on an episode of the “All-In” podcast in June 2024 that the CIA was “probably behind” the pressure to delay the release of all the documents during his first administration.

He said people have been waiting a long time for the information to be declassified, and they deserve transparency from their government.

“Whatever it is, it will be very interesting for people to see,” Trump said. “And we’re going to have to learn from it.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Jan. 21, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Investigative Timeline

President Kennedy was killed at approximately 12:30 p.m. while riding in a convertible limousine through downtown Dallas, Texas.

He suffered a head wound and was pronounced dead at 1 p.m.

Soon after, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested by Dallas police officers and charged at 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 23 with the president’s murder.

The next day, Oswald was shot and killed on live television by Jack Ruby during a prisoner transfer.

One week after the assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Warren Commission to study the incident.

Chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, the group—which included CIA director Allen Dulles—concluded that Oswald was solely responsible for the crime.

Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of assassinating former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, is pictured with Dallas police Sgt. Warren (R) and a fellow officer in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963. Dallas Police Department/Dallas Municipal Archives/University of North Texas via Reuters

The 888-page report produced by the commission has generated questions from researchers since its release in September 1964.

Other investigations followed, including one from the Rockefeller Commission in 1975.

Commissioners studied the CIA’s domestic activities and determined the agency was not involved in the assassination and that the president was not hit by a shot from in front of the vehicle—a claim some have made because Kennedy’s head is seen moving backward in the widely distributed Zapruder film.

Over the course of 1975 and 1976, the Senate’s Church Committee investigated intelligence agencies’ actions.

Initial findings led the committee to call for another look at the assassination.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives established a Select Committee on Assassinations in 1976.

The group concluded that the president was likely murdered because of a conspiracy that could have included elements of organized crime.

However, the committee agreed with the Warren Commission’s findings that Oswald fired the fatal shot and the one that struck the president and then-Texas Gov. John Connally.

Questions have surrounded the bullet the commission alleges struck both individuals, with the so-called “single bullet theory” a main premise of the Oliver Stone film “JFK” released in 1991

The new order was one of the president’s promises to voters.

“When I return to the White House, I will declassify and unseal all JFK assassination-related documents,” Trump said repeatedly on the campaign trail last year. “It’s been 60 years, time for the American people to know the truth.”

In a 1998 report, the Assassination Records Review Board suggested that releasing documents could help restore trust in the government.

“The suspicions created by government secrecy eroded confidence in the truthfulness of federal agencies in general and damaged their credibility,” lawmakers wrote.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 17:00

At 5 PM EST, Fed Workers' Pronoun Use On Emails Will Be 'Was/Were'

At 5 PM EST, Fed Workers' Pronoun Use On Emails Will Be 'Was/Were'

The Trump administration is following through with a mandate the American people gave him to rid the federal government of cultural Marxism, where woke activists have been placed into managerial positions over the years - not necessarily based on merit - but on gender or other nonsense.

ABC News reports that federal employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have until 5 pm EST to remove pronouns from their email signatures. The directive was stated in internal memos obtained by the media outlet, citing two executive orders signed by Trump on his first day to dismantle toxic wokeism in the federal government.  

"Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday," Jason Bonander, the CDC's Chief Information Officer, wrote in a memo to staff on Friday morning. 

Bonander said, "Staff are being asked to alter signature blocks by 5.p.m. ET today (Friday, January 31, 2025) to follow the revised policy."

A similar directive was pushed through the Department of Transportation on Thursday after a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a commercial jet over the Potomac River. President Trump has slammed years of DEI hirings at the Federal Aviation Administration, made by the Biden-Harris administration.

Employees at the Department of Energy also received a directive about pronoun elimination in emails to meet Trump's executive order requirements for the removal of DEI "language in Federal discourse, communications and publications." 

Apparently, all federal employees have now received 5 pm EST. deadline to eliminate pronouns from email signatures. 

Former US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, America's far-left DEI warrior, quietly removed his gender pronouns from social media profiles in recent days. We theorize in the note why...

Fed employees on the subreddit r/fednews are revolting 

Trump signed two executive orders calling for an end to what his administration called "radical and wasteful DEI programs" and aiming to restore "biological truth to the federal government."

Under Obama and Biden, pronoun-wielding gender Marxist activists were being installed across all levels of government - not based on merit - but based on gender, race, and other woke attributes that do not increase job performance.

Meritocracy will return. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 16:40

"Six Ways From Sunday..."

"Six Ways From Sunday..."

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

“A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.”

- White House Guidance

Was it the miasma of cognitive dissonance blackening the air-space over the DC swamp that caused the deadly collision of AA Flight 5342 and a Blackhawk Helicopter this week - an impenetrable fog arising from the fetid exhalations of so many hyperventilating swamp creatures brooding between the urges of fight-or-flight as Mr. Trump deploys his chosen pest-controllers across the Potomac Basin?

Altogether, these many parasitical swamp creatures make up the greater DC blob, and the blob convulsing and fibrillating is what you witness in these committee hearings with Bobby, Tulsi, and Kash. For instance, fake “progressive” Bernie Sanders (D-VT) faced with the reveal that he leads his colleagues in pharma “contributions” (just under $2-million) . . . or fake Cherokee Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in a fugue state over the perceived threat of Mr. Kennedy to pharma profits . . . or presidential pardon recipient Adam Schiff (D-CA) lecturing Mr. Patel on ethical behavior. . . or Ms. Gabbard enduring the meltdown of Senate Intel Committee tool Michael Bennet (D-CO).

Behind these histrionics by the big gators and peccaries of the collapsing Democratic Party is pure scintillating fear.

They are afraid that all of their hoaxes and lies of recent years will be exposed in the months ahead. And they fear that such exposure might lead eventually to legal complications for them. All of that implies loss-of-power, the single element that demonically drives their careers.

The fact is they have already lost their grip on the levers of power and, for the moment, that is all that matters. They especially no longer control the Department of Justice, its subsidiary, the FBI, the many public health agencies under Health and Human Services, and the many-footed intel “community,” as it styles itself. These agencies are where the truth about our national affairs has been locked up. Now, the citizens will either see what’s there, or find out what has been deliberately destroyed - such as the internal agency email correspondence over RussiaGate, the Covid-19 operation (and the deadly vaxx campaign), the J-6 affair (and the pipe-bomb sideshow), the weird, documented irregularities of the 2020 election, the Ukraine War money-laundering shenanigans, the manifold janky DOJ prosecutions of Mr. Trump, and much more.

Every day now since January 20, heads explode all over DC as the executive orders roll out and the insanity of whatever lurked behind “Joe Biden” gets systematically expunged from the order of things.

And as this happens, the more plainly deranged the past four years looks.

Did they really believe that men dressing-up as women would improve the US military?

Or was it a traitorous effort to weaken and demoralize our armed forces?

Was DEI a public ethics exercise or a massive jobs program for incompetents?

In what way did “Joe Biden’s” Department of Homeland Security imagine that funneling known criminals, certified lunatics, and saboteurs across the border squared with their duty to protect and defend the country?

And how did it happen that US taxpayers’ money got shelled out to fake “religious” NGOs in Mexico minting debit cards for border-jumpers, handing them wads of cash, cell phones, airplane tickets, fully-equipped backpacks, and apps for evading arrest?

In effect these NGOs took over the exact job description of “coyote” formerly performed by the criminal cartels — leaving the cartels free for the more lucrative rackets of dealing fentanyl and trafficking women and children.

The corruption in all this has been supernatural, and the fact that, until late 2024, seventy-million Democratic Party American voters thought this was all okay is extra-supernatural.

What happened to their minds?

The cliché of “Trump derangement” doesn’t really answer that.

What it probably comes down to was the stunningly successful mind-fucking operation run by the blob (the CIA and the darker elements of the DOD in particular), in league with captured news media, to bend and distort the consensual perception of reality — all of which leads to the question: why?

The two main answers to that seem to be:

1) Some organized entity seeking to destroy the country for instance, the Chinese Communist Party, or the World Economic Forum, or

2) that the blob had evolved into such an overt criminal racketeering operation that it increasingly and desperately needed to keep covering its mighty ass.

Thus, the Democratic Party became the blob’s enforcer and the news media became its propaganda arm.

And the “thinking class” of America especially got ignominiously hosed by all that.

There’s a pretty good chance that blob agents in the Senate will successfully block the confirmations of Bobby, Tulsi, and Kash.

They are all superlative candidates for the particular jobs at HHS, ODNI, and the FBI. But know this: excellent as they are, there are a great many other worthy, dedicated, and stalwart warriors in this land who can take their places if necessary.

The blob has already lost in the political battle-space. All they can manage at this point is some rearguard action.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 16:20

US Cattle Herd Shrinks To 1951 Lows As Beef Crisis Deepens

US Cattle Herd Shrinks To 1951 Lows As Beef Crisis Deepens

Update: USDA figures are in: the nation's cattle herd has plunged to a 74-year low, totaling 86.7 million head.

*   *   * 

Ahead of this afternoon's 3 pm est. USDA release of official US cattle inventory data, estimates compiled by Bloomberg forecast the herd will be at its lowest level in more than seven decades. The ongoing cattle supply crunch continues to push supermarket ground beef prices to record highs.

Bloomberg cited estimates from four analysts that expect the US cattle herd as of Jan. 1 will decline by .7% from one year ago. This would mark the lowest level since 1951 and extend the decline for a sixth straight year.

We have thoroughly documented the cattle crisis resulting in higher ground beef prices at the supermarket:

The average retail price for ground beef at the supermarket, calculated by USDA, recently topped $5.61 per pound. Before Covid, that prices was around $3.81.

Live cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have surged to record highs. 

The latest CFTC data via Bloomberg shows money managers boosted bullish live cattle bets by 2,764 net-long positions to 161,970 last week, the most bullish in about five years - and nearing levels of the most bullish ever on record. 

On top of all this, the nation's cattle crisis is set to worsen with new pressures: President Donald Trump's anticipated tariff war 2.0, which is expected to tighten domestic beef supplies. 

"All of the things he is talking about have potentially negative consequences more so than anything positive," Derrell Peel, a professor of agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University, told Bloomberg in a previous report, adding, "Our fate's pretty well determined in the cattle industry in the US for the next two to four years – and it's not looking good."

About a year ago, the USDA projected that the cattle herd could begin rebuilding by 2025. However, that timeline has since shifted to 2027. The reason is primarily because of high interest rates and poor pasture conditions in the Midwest. 

"Even as the beef industry has experienced periods of growth over the past decades, the animal count has dropped almost 40% since a peak in 1975. During the current downcycle, which started in 2020, the herd has been shrinking at the fastest pace since the big farm crisis of the 1980s," Bloomberg noted.

All things point to higher beef prices this year. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 15:45

Meta Reportedly In Talks To Reincorporate In Texas, Exit Delaware

Meta Reportedly In Talks To Reincorporate In Texas, Exit Delaware

First Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago following the presidential election. Then, he appointed UFC CEO Dana White (Trump's friend) to the company's board, dismantled its woke fact-checking system, and now is reportedly mulling over relocating Meta's legal residence from Delaware to Texas—a state that has positioned itself as a pro-business alternative to heavily-regulated blue states run by the radical left. 

Wall Street Journal report reveals that Meta has been discussing a potential move to reincorporate outside of Delaware. Sources familiar with the matter said Texas had been heavily considered for the company's new legal domicile but noted there would be no changes to its corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California. 

Meta Platforms is discussing moving its incorporation from Delaware, where most big U.S. companies are legally housed, people familiar with the matter said. Texas has billed itself as a better destination for companies such as Meta with controlling shareholders like Zuckerberg. The paperwork change wouldn't relocate its corporate headquarters. The company has talked to Texas officials about the possible changes, one of the people said. It has also considered reincorporating in other states, another person said. -WSJ

The sources continued:

The talks between Meta and Texas predate the new administration, the people said. Meta has been incorporated in Delaware since 2004—well before its 2012 initial public offering. The company is considering the pros and cons of legal setups outside the state and how other companies fared when they reincorporated, the people said. -WSJ

Potential reincorporation of Meta outside of Delaware to Texas, or wherever, comes as Elon Musk has reincorporated several of his companies out of Delaware, including SpaceX and Tesla to Texas, along with Neuralink to Nevada. The exit comes after an activist judge in Delaware rejected Musk's Tesla compensation package valued at $55.8 billion twice.

"Don't forget that what the Democrat judge in Delaware is doing to Elon Musk, they could do to anyone else. The State nullified the shareholders, the Board of Directors, and the entire company's management just to deprive Elon of his pay. Companies must leave Delaware now," X user Leave Delaware wrote in Decemeber. 

The activist judge in Deleware who went after Musk has been a wake-up call within corporate America. The result will be a continued shift of reincorporation from Delaware to pro-business states - this move will accelerate over the next four years.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 15:05

11 Random Facts That Show That America Is Rotting And Decaying Right In Front Of Our Eyes

11 Random Facts That Show That America Is Rotting And Decaying Right In Front Of Our Eyes

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

We are in far more trouble than most people realize.  Fentanyl and other drugs are ravaging our cities, and homelessness, poverty and hunger are rapidly growing all around us.  Meanwhile, our federal government, our state governments, and our local governments are drowning in debt, and economic conditions are steadily deteriorating.  Corruption is rampant, incompetence is seemingly everywhere, and the moral decay of our society is accelerating.  Unfortunately, much of the population is completely oblivious to what is going on because they are deeply addicted to the electronic gadgets that they are constantly staring at.  

The following are 11 random facts that show that America is rotting right in front of our eyes…

#1 A new study has discovered that smartphones “are making teenagers more aggressive” and are causing them to “hallucinate”…

Smartphones are making teenagers more aggressive, detached from reality and causing them to hallucinate, according to new research.

Scientists concluded the younger a person starts using a phone, the more likely they would be crippled by a whole host of psychological ills after surveying 10,500 teens between 13 and 17 from both the US and India for the study, by Sapien Labs.

“People don’t fully appreciate that hyper-real and hyper-immersive screen experiences can blur reality at key stages of development,” addiction psychologist Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, who was not part of the team who did the study, told The Post.

#2 According to Bloomberg, our cost of living crisis is driving more working Americans than ever to seek assistance from food banks…

Once a month, Kersstin Eshak visits a food pantry in Loudoun County, Virginia to stretch her family’s budget.

Eshak’s husband works at a big box retailer. She works as a substitute teacher. They have income, but with prices up nearly 23% over the past five years — and still rising — their earnings just don’t stretch quite far enough some months.

Food banks across the nation are seeing a similar story: A post-pandemic wave of demand for food driven by working people caught in America’s cost-of-living crunch.

#3 The U.S. national debt was sitting at about 10 trillion dollars when Barack Obama first entered the White House.  Today, it is sitting at 36.2 trillion dollars.

#4 Criminals freely roam the streets, but a pastor in Ohio could face jail time for using his church to house the homeless…

The only problem is that while opening up his church — Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio — to the homeless, he’s also opened himself up to the reality of city code.

“Pastor Avell has known that this was not permitted use and that he does not have firewalls, he does not have sprinkler systems,” said Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade. “The kind of things you need in a residential facility. “

#5 A cryptocurrency called “Fartcoin” that was created as a joke currently has a market capitalization of 847 million dollars.

#6 Fentanyl is absolutely destroying communities all over America.  For example, check out what has been happing in Las Cruces, New Mexico…

Las Cruces authorities say they first encountered fentanyl in 2018. In 2020, they confiscated a total of 461 pills.

In 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, fentanyl seizures exploded to more than 22,600 – and continued rising: roughly 70,000 pills were seized in 2022 and nearly 86,000 in 2023.

“It wasn’t in Las Cruces, and then it was, and then it was everywhere. In 2021, it really intensified and we’ve seen that the past few years. During that same period from 2018 to 2021, we saw a huge increase in crime: an 85% increase in violent crime and a 71% increase in property crime,” Las Cruces Chief of Police Jeremy Story stated last year during a virtual press conference on New Mexico’s fentanyl epidemic.

#7 In 2024, corporate bankruptcies in the United States reached the highest level “since the 2008 financial crisis”.

#8 We don’t hear much about cargo theft, but it reached a staggering 454 million dollars in 2024.  That was a brand new all-time record high…

Cargo theft hit a record high in the U.S. and Canada for the second consecutive year, and the trend is expected to continue as criminal enterprises have become more sophisticated in their methods.

Verisk CargoNet’s annual analysis released this week found that cargo theft surged 27% from 2023 to 2024, hitting a record 3,625 reported incidents last year with an average value of $202,364 per theft. All told, the losses are estimated at more than $454 million.

#9 According to the New York Times, 15 percent of the “women” in our federal prisons are transgender.

#10 Most of the foods on our grocery store shelves are “highly processed”, and since “highly processed foods” are less expensive many U.S. consumers tend to gravitate to them…

Next time you walk down the aisles of your local grocery store, take a closer look at what’s actually available on those shelves. A stunning report reveals the majority of food products sold at major U.S. grocery chains are highly processed, with most of them priced significantly cheaper than less processed alternatives.

In what may be the most comprehensive analysis of food processing in American grocery stores to date, researchers examined over 50,000 food items sold at Walmart, Target, and Whole Foods to understand just how processed our food supply really is. Using sophisticated machine learning techniques, they developed a database called GroceryDB that scores foods based on their degree of processing.

#11 Homelessness in the U.S. is at the highest level ever recorded, and it is increasing at the fastest pace ever recorded.

We desperately need change in this country.

And you are never too young to be part of that change.  Just check out how old some of our founding fathers were in 1776…

James Monroe was 18 years old.

Aaron Burr was 20 years old.

John Marshall was 20 years old.

Alexander Hamilton was 21 years old.

James Madison was 25 years old

John Jay was 30 years old.

Thomas Jefferson was 33 years old.

If we truly want to make this country great again, we need to rediscover the values and principles that once made this country so great.

Our nation is in the condition that it is today because of the choices that we have made.

If we want to turn things around, we must start making better choices.  Anyone that does not understand this is just being delusional.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 14:45

It Took $5.8 In Debt To Generate $1 Of US "Growth" In The Fourth Quarter

It Took $5.8 In Debt To Generate $1 Of US "Growth" In The Fourth Quarter

We will have much more to say on the composition of yesterday's first estimate of Q4 GDP which as we highlighted was a very ugly print, and only another quarter of extensive government spending (the 10th quarter in a row) and a record beat of consumer spending relative to expectations, prevented the GDP print from sliding into the 1% range...

... but even if one assumes that there was nothing abnormal about the number itself, the context in which it was derived was astounding. Here's why.

As the BEA reported, in Q4 US GDP grew at a seasonally adjusted rate of 2.3%, below the 2.6% estimate and down from the 3.1% growth pace in Q3. More specifically, the number represented the annualized increase in the 131BN change between what the BEA calculated was chained Q3 GDP ($23.400 trillion) and Q4 GDP ($23.531 trillion). In other words, to keep it simpler, in Q4 the US economy actually grew some $130.6 billion chained dollars.

So far so good. The only problem is what funded this growth, and as regular readers are well aware, in the US the source of all growth is - and for the past 100 years - has been debt, and boy was Q4 a doozy.

As the chart below shows, while the US generated $131bn in chained GDP growth in Q4, this was the result of a $711 billion increase in the US budget deficit, which in turn was funded with a $754 billion increase in debt which, as of Dec 31, 2024, stood at a record 36.218 trillion. The Q4 snapshot is shown below.

And it's not just Q4. Extending this analysis to all of 2024 we find an almost identical pattern: in the full year 2024, US GDP grew by $570 billion from $22.961 trillion to $23.531 trillion, growth which was made possible by a near record $2.034 trillion increase in the budget deficit, which in turn was funded by a mammoth $2.2 trillion increase in debt.

The bottom line: in Q4 it took $5.8 dollars of debt to create $1 dollar of growth, an increase from $3.5 in Q3 and from $1.5 in Q2, which is to be expected: as we revealed in the summer of 2023, US growth was one giant illusion and was entirely the result of the Biden admins' massive debt creation spree. No surprise that with the election in Q4 2024, that's when the bulk of the debt-fueled frenzy would take place.

Taking a bigger picture look, for the full year 2024, it took $3.9 dollar in debt to generate $1 in growth, an increase from the $3.6 in 2023.

What this means is that the only hope the US ever has to grow is to issue debt, or rather issue lots and lots of debt. So good luck to Trump and Elon and DOGE if they hope to slow down the firehose of US debt issuance. They may be successful, but they better have a plan for how to deal with the deep recession that will be immediately triggered as a result.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 14:05

Bullish Exuberance Returns As Trump Takes Office

Bullish Exuberance Returns As Trump Takes Office

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

Bullish exuberance is returning to the markets and the economy in a big way following the Presidential election.

Such is particularly the case with recent executive orders signed by Trump, which fulfill Trump’s promises to “Make America Great Again.” Given that short-term market dynamics are driven primarily by sentiment, as investors, we can not dismiss the rapid turn in optimism over the last few weeks. We addressed this point in this past weekend’s “Bull Bear Report,” which I want to build on in today’s commentary.

As discussed in that report, the NFIB confidence index has surged from some of the lowest readings on record for the past four years to some of the highest.

Consequently, as small business owners’ confidence improves, the CEOs of large companies are also becoming much more optimistic. As shown, and unsurprisingly, there is a correlation between the improvement or decline in CEO confidence and the annual rate of change in the financial markets. Higher asset prices, which impact CEO compensation through stock options, have certainly lifted their spirits.

The improvement in optimism is unsurprising given the many anti-business policies and regulations implemented by the former administration. With many of the previous regulatory hurdles either being immediately repealed or promised to be, business owners are “feeling” much more confident about the future of their businesses.

Note that I put “feeling” in quotes.

This is because the NFIB, CEO, consumer confidence, and most business surveys are based on “sentiment.” While sentiment is important to business decision-making, economic outcomes can easily reverse it. In other words, optimism must be supported by improving economic activity. However, the “hope” is certainly high that such will be the case, and increased activity will lead to an extension of the current bull market.

Consumer Confidence: A Critical Driver

In a previous article, we discussed the importance of consumer confidence in the economy and the stock market. This is why, in 2010, the Federal Reserve clearly expressed its reasoning for launching the second round of “Quantitative Easing.”

“This approach eased financial conditions in the past and, so far, looks to be effective again. Stock prices rose and long-term interest rates fell when investors began anticipating the most recent action. Easier financial conditions will promote economic growth. For example, lower mortgage rates will make housing more affordable and allow more homeowners to refinance. Lower corporate bond rates will encourage investment. And higher stock prices will boost consumer wealth and help increase confidence, which can also spur spending.” – Ben Bernanke

Specifically, Bernanke was referring to two things. First, creating the “wealth effect” by lifting asset prices was crucial to getting consumers “feeling better” about spending money in the economy. As their wealth rose, their economic activities increased business demand, thereby lifting the sentiment of business owners and CEOs. The chart below shows a composite index of Consumer, Small Business, and CEO confidence compared to real GDP growth.

While the high correlation is unsurprising, it is worth noting that not all periods of high confidence led to increasing strong economic activity rates. Such was particularly the case following the financial crisis as sentiment rose sharply, but economic activity was mired around 2% annualized growth rates. That was because the wealth effect creation following the “Financial Crisis” was not broad-based. As shown, the inflation-adjusted household net worth for the bottom 50% of the population failed to change substantially.

Furthermore, while asset price inflation certainly lifted overall confidence, the benefit was concentrated in the top 10% of income earners. That group owns roughly 88% of all household equity ownership. That concentration of wealth kept economic growth rates suppressed as the bottom 50% of economic participants could not substantially increase consumption.

Nonetheless, the current levels of bullish exuberance in the markets are understandable. As shown, there is a high correlation between the confidence composite index and the market’s annual rate of change.

So, while Trump’s recent inauguration and his policy agenda have certainly boosted the market’s “bullish exuberance,” there is a risk.

The Risk Of Bullish Exuberance

The risk to “bullish exuberance” is that it depends on “expectations” being met by reality. Investors and Wall Street analysts are very optimistic about a continued bull market in the years ahead. However, I suggest there are potential headwinds as the economy normalizes following an era of monetary interventions.

One of those headwinds is earnings growth. Earnings are a function of economic activity. To visualize this data, we must look at the correlation between the annual change in earnings growth and inflation-adjusted GDP. There are periods when earnings deviate from underlying economic activity. However, those periods are due to pre- or post-recession earnings fluctuations. Currently, economic and earnings growth are very close to the long-term correlation.

However, earnings growth will also slow as economic growth normalizes toward its post “Financial Crisis” 2% long-term trajectory.

In an economy roughly 70% dependent on consumption, that consumption generates the revenues to create corporate earnings. As that consumption rate declines toward its 2% trend, so too will the corporate earnings growth rate.

Secondly, since the “Financial Crisis,” the market has vastly outgrown the underlying fundamentals of corporate revenue and economic growth. With the wealth gap widening, it will become more difficult to “pull forward” future consumption. Since the 2007 peak, the stock market has returned over 300%. That increase is more than 7x the growth in real GDP and roughly 3x the growth in corporate revenue. 

(I have used SALES growth, which is not as subject to accounting manipulation.) 

Conclusion

For investors, the biggest risk to “bullish exuberance” in 2025 is “disappointment.” With the bar set for “perfection,” a slower-growing economy or economic disruption leaves investors open to a large reversal in sentiment. As discussed, optimistic sentiment is important for business owners and CEOs to increase wages, employment, and CapEx. However, those plans will be reversed if consumer demand fails to appear.

Will such a thing happen with certainty? No one knows, but the underlying data certainly suggests the risks are elevated.

As investors, we must analyze the risks to our capital and adjust accordingly. As we concluded in “Curb Your Enthusiasm:”

  1. Tighten up stop-loss levels to current support levels for each position. (Provides identifiable exit points when the market reverses.)

  2. Hedge portfolios against significant market declines. (Non-correlated assets, short-market positions, index put options)

  3. Take profits in positions that have been big winners. (Rebalancing overbought or extended positions to capture gains but continuing to participate in the advance).

  4. Sell laggards and losers. (If something isn’t working in a market melt-up, it most likely won’t work during a broad decline. It is better to eliminate the risk early.)

  5. Raise cash and rebalance portfolios to target weightings. (Rebalancing risk regularly keeps hidden risks somewhat mitigated.)

“Investing in 2025 will require a blend of optimism and caution. With slowing economic growth, fiscal policy uncertainties, global challenges, overconfident sentiment, and ambitious earnings expectations, investors have plenty of reasons to approach the markets carefully. There will be a time to raise significant cash levels. A good portfolio management strategy will ensure exposure decreases and cash levels rise when the selling begins.”

That remains our suggestion as “bullish exuberance” increases.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 13:45

Pentagon Employees Connected To Chinese DeepSeek Servers For Days Before Block

Pentagon Employees Connected To Chinese DeepSeek Servers For Days Before Block

Several US Defense Department employees connected their work computers to Chinese servers to access DeepSeek's new AI chatbot for at least two days before the Pentagon shut off access, according to Bloomberg, citing a defense official familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon's Defense Information Systems Agency moved to block the Chinese startup's website late Tuesday after defense officials raised concerns over Pentagon workers using the tool. According to DeepSeek's privacy policy, it stores user data on servers in China, and governs that information under Chinese law.

That said, while some Pentagon work screens showed a "website blocked" message, citing operational concerns, others could still access DeepSeek, according to the defense official and correspondence reviewed by Bloomberg.

The Pentagon’s IT experts are still determining the extent to which employees directly used DeepSeek’s system through a web browser, the official said.

US military personnel started downloading an earlier release of DeepSeek code on their workstations in the fall of 2024, according to the person familiar with the matter. At the time, the downloads didn’t raise concern with Defense Department security teams as the connection to China wasn’t clear to them, the person added. -Bloomberg

DeepSeek and its AI model they claim to have developed for less than $6 million rattle markets earlier this week, after their model raised questions about hundreds of billions of dollars that major US tech companies are spending on AI infrastructure. That said, a deeper analysis showed that DeepSeek is only 17% accurate, and hallucinates a lot. Then again, the deep state's favorite censorship outlet NewsGuard was the one that came up with that analysis, so who actually knows.

According to the report, the DeepSeek phenomenon has triggered efforts throughout the military to find and remove code from China-origin chatbots on employees' individual machines, however thousands of DoD personnel appear to be using DeepSeek through Ask Sage - an authorized software platform that doesn't connect to Chinese servers, according to Nicolas Chaillan, founder and CEO of the platform.

On Friday, the Navy prohibited any use of DeepSeek over potential security and ethics concerns associated with the model's origin and usage, CNBC reported. According to Navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Commander Lauren Chatmas, the Navy already has guidance against the use of open source AI systems for official work, while recent internal Navy correspondence named DeepSeek in connection with that guidance.

The Air Force, meanwhile, hasn't issued any specific guidance on DeepSeek, but has a longstanding prohibition on the use of commercial generative AI systems in conjunction with sensitive information, according to spokeswoman Laura McAndrews.

The Army issued guidance in June of 2024 warning of "unique challenges in terms of data privacy, security and control over the generated content," which urges individual commands to develop appropriate governance processes. That said, it has not banned generative AI tools outright.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 11:00

Ukrainian Drone Attacks Disrupt Key Russian Oil Export Route

Ukrainian Drone Attacks Disrupt Key Russian Oil Export Route

By Alex Kimani of Oilprice.com

An overnight attack by Ukrainian drones on Russia's Andreapol oil pumping station, part of the oil export route via the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, has forced oil flows to stop, Bloomberg has reported. The attack also hit a Russian missile storage facility, causing a string of explosions. Ukraine has stepped up drone strikes on Russian military and energy facilities in recent weeks as the third anniversary of the war approaches. Ust-Luga port is one of the main ports used by Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers.

Russia's oil shipments via the Baltic Sea declined 10% over the final four months of 2024 due to the impact of EU sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports, the Finnish Border Guard has reported. Finland's Coast Guard monitors the shadow fleet that Russia uses to export crude via the Gulf of Finland.

"In the last four or five months of last year, we saw a roughly 10% decline in the amount of oil leaving from Russia," the Finnish Border Guard's Head of Maritime Safety Mikko Hirvi told Reuters late last week. "That is of course very good, but on the other hand, older vessels have been added to the traffic on the Baltic Sea at the same time. The vessels in operation are in worse condition than before," he added, saying it’s difficult to determine whether the decline will only be temporary.

Last month, the Biden administration announced the harshest sanctions yet on Russian oil. Reuters reported that a purported U.S. Treasury document circulating among traders in Europe and Asia, revealed that some 180 vessels, several senior Russian oil executives, dozens of traders and two major oil companies are targeted by the sanctions.

Later, it emerged that the Biden administration targeted Surgutneftgas and Gazprom Neft, two firms that handle 25% of Russian oil exports. The two companies shipped an average of 970,000 bbls a day in 2024.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 10:40

Thousands Of STMicro Layoffs Near After Gloom Outlook & Chip Slump

Thousands Of STMicro Layoffs Near After Gloom Outlook & Chip Slump

A day after STMicroelectronics—one of Europe's largest chipmakers—said that 2024 was one of the worst years for the industry and forecasted first-quarter revenue below the Bloomberg Consensus estimates, the company is reportedly planning to cut thousands of jobs. 

Bloomberg cited sources close to the Franco-Italian chipmaker that say about 6% of the workforce could be slashed through early retirements and attrition amid a prolonged downturn in auto and industrial sectors. 

Here's more from the report:

The job cuts under discussion, which could be announced as soon as next month, are in the range of 2,000 to 3,000 workers and will affect its operations in both Italy and France, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public. The decision isn't final and the scale of the reductions is still under review, the people added.

The Italian government, which together with France holds a 27.5% stake in the company, is seeking to limit the impact of the restructuring on the Italian workforce, the people said.

A spokesperson for STMicro confirmed to the media outlet that workforce restructurings were ahead:

"In the coming weeks, we will start engaging a constructive dialog with employee representatives around end of career support programs, built on a voluntary basis, including early retirement." 

On Thursday, CEO Jean-Marc Chery told analysts that providing a framework for full-year guidance would be difficult because of poor visibility and elevated inventory correction among customers. He added, "We think its fair to consider Q1 as the low point of 2025." 

Goldman's Alexander Duval, James Saunders, and Anant Jakhar provided clients this morning with key takeaways from STMicro's earnings report:

  1. STM expects meaningfully sub-seasonal growth in 1Q25, with limited visibility into timelines for a recovery,

  2. The company's revenues in automotive face several headwinds in 2025, including company/customer specific factors, with sales likely to decline yoy, in our view,

  3. Industrial semis market demand remains soft, with excess channel inventory still a headwind to any potential sales recovery, and

  4. We remain cautious on near-term gross margins given high unloading charges and persistent excess inventory. Remain Neutral.

The analysts were "Neutral" rated on STMicro with their 12-month price targets of €24.5 / ADR $25.5 (vs €27 / ADR $28.5 prior) based a 6x CY26 (rolled forward vs 6x 2HCY25E+1HCY26E prior) EV/EBITDA multiple.

Slippery slope...

STMicro also told analysts that some production across its fabs, assembly, and test plants will be idle in the coming days. 

"We also have a plan for temporary closing of many of our fabs during this quarter. Our expectation is that in Q2, we will continue ... to have a significant amount in terms of unloading," finance chief Lorenzo Grandi said.

Competitors like Texas Instruments also provided investors with forecasted first-quarter profit below Bloomberg Consensus estimates, citing sluggish demand and higher manufacturing costs.

Meanwhile, data center chip companies have been buoyed by the Stargate AI infrastructure project and robust Capex spending projections by Mag7 companies.

However, DeepSeek's new AI models unveiled at the start of the week put all that Capex spending into question.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 09:00

DeepSeek Data Exposed To Web, Cybersecurity Firm Says

DeepSeek Data Exposed To Web, Cybersecurity Firm Says

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Researchers with cybersecurity company Wiz said on Wednesday that sensitive information from the Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) app DeepSeek was inadvertently exposed to the open internet.

DeepSeek's logo is displayed alongside its AI assistant app, in a file photo taken on Jan. 28, 2025. Florence Lo/Reuters

Hangzhou-based DeepSeek prompted a global selloff in tech shares last week when it launched its free, open-source language learning model DeepSeek-R1.

DeepSeek’s flagship v3 model cost $5.6 million to train, amounting to a fraction of the money spent by America’s leading tech companies to train models including OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The popular app has also raised national security concerns in Washington.

In a blog post, Wiz said it set out to assess the external safety of the chatbot and identify any potential vulnerabilities after it saw a surge in registrations and became the most downloaded free app on Apple’s App Store last week.

Within minutes, researchers with the New York-based cybersecurity company found a publicly accessible database linked to the chatbot that was “completely open and unauthenticated” and “exposing sensitive data,” Wiz said.

The database contained more than a million lines of data that were left unsecured, according to Wiz.

This included sensitive information, along with digital software keys, and chat logs that appeared to capture prompts being sent from users to the company’s free AI assistant, according to the cybersecurity company.

“More critically, the exposure allowed for full database control and potential privilege escalation within the DeepSeek environment, without any authentication or defense mechanism to the outside world,” the blog post stated.

Wiz said the level of access posed a critical risk to DeepSeek’s security as well as to its end-users, including allowing bad actors to retrieve sensitive information and plain-text chat messages.

Additionally, the vulnerabilities could allow bad actors to exfiltrate plaintext passwords, Wiz said.

The Wiz Research team “immediately and responsibly disclosed the issue to DeepSeek, which promptly secured the exposure,” according to the blog post.

Wiz noted that the widespread and fast adoption of AI by companies poses ongoing risks, particularly for those that have “rapidly grown into critical infrastructure providers without the security frameworks that typically accompany such widespread adoptions.”

White House Evaluating DeepSeek National Security Implications

The Epoch Times contacted a DeepSeek spokesperson for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

DeepSeek said on Monday it would temporarily limit user registrations following “large-scale malicious attacks” targeting its services.

The company reported a major outage was affecting its application programming interface (API) and user logins but did not provide further details regarding the attacks or when it would lift the pause on registrations.

The White House is evaluating the potential national security implications of DeepSeek, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday. She said that President Donald Trump “believes in restoring American AI dominance.”

Leavitt’s remarks echoed those made by Trump during a speech to Republican colleagues in Florida on Monday.

During his appearance, Trump said the release of DeepSeek last week and its subsequent impact on the stock market should serve as a wake-up call for American tech companies.

Trump said he hoped the app would prompt U.S. companies to come up with a cheaper, faster method of AI.

“We always have the ideas. We’re always first. So I would say that’s a positive that could be very much a positive development,” Trump said. “So instead of spending billions and billions, you‘ll spend less, and you’ll come up with, hopefully, the same solution.”

Trump on Jan. 21 announced $500 billion in private sector investment to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure in the United States.

OpenAI, Softbank, and Oracle will invest in the infrastructure through their joint venture, Stargate.

Trump described it as the “largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”

Emel Akan, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Fri, 01/31/2025 - 08:45

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