Alexander Vinnik, a 45-year old Russian man accused of running a money laundering operation using bitcoin, has been identified by The New York Times as the man released by the United States which enabled the return of American school teacher Marc Fogel, who had spent over three years in Russian prison.

“Vinnik operated BTC-e, once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. He was arrested in 2017 and detained at Washington’s request on suspicion of laundering $4 billion through the exchange,” Reuters has detailed.

He faced 20 years in US federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering back in May. He was first arrested in Greece and 2017 and was subsequently extradited to the United States.

The 2024 San Francisco federal court case included 21 counts of money laundering. The Kremlin did not initially confirm the identity of the freed Russian who was part of the Fogel exchange.

Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz on Tuesday characterized the exchange of Fogel was a “show of good faith” by Moscow, and the deal is widely being seen as signaling positive momentum toward starting US-sponsored Ukraine peace talks.

According to a backgrounder on Vinnik:

Between 2011 and 2017, Vinnik, 44, from Russia’s Kurgan region, worked at BTC-e, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange which the U.S. Justice Department described as one of the main ways cyber criminals transferred, laundered, and stored the criminal proceeds of their illegal activities.

Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said he was arrested on July 25, 2017 at the request of the U.S. in front of his children, now aged 11 and 14 who have not seen him since, while vacationing on Greece’s Halkidiki peninsula.

In total he’s suspected of having laundered a whopping $4 billion in illicit funds through the Bitcoin exchange he operated. France had also been involved in the investigation and manhunt, and Russia too had requested his extradition.

The fact that Moscow would want him back enough to conduct a high level prisoner swap suggests his money laundering may have been done in connection with the Russian state actors, intelligence, or top officials.

Interestingly, his mother Vera Vinnick had told RIA last month that Trump is the president who could help get her son out of US custody. She explained of Trump, he “has a classic, normal family, he is adequate in this regard, he said that only two genders are recognized, male and female.”

President Trump endured harsh weather to welcome American Marc Fogel home as he arrived by plane in D.C. Tuesday…

WELCOME HOME, MARC FOGEL! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/MgLsdR8f2r

— Margo Martin (@MargoMartin47) February 12, 2025

Marc Fogel of Pennsylvania had languished in Russian prison since he was detained in August 2021 at a Russian airport for Marijuana, which he said was for medical use.

Fogel’s family had long complained that his case was forgotten by the Biden administration who secured Griner’s release (in Dec. 2022) in exchange for arms trafficker Viktor Bout earlier in the war, a controversial trade to say the least.

The Biden administration had long come under fire for focusing on WNBC star Griner’s case, for reasons of “fame” and media focus, while Fogel and others in Russian prison were largely passed over for forgotten by the Democratic administration…

I say this without snark: I genuinely would like to understand why freeing Marc Fogel—whose story was almost identical to Brittney Griner’s, except that he was arrested 6 months *earlier*—did not appear to be a priority of the Biden administration. It’s not a good look. https://t.co/JUdsr2Oo5T

— Billy Binion (@billybinion) February 12, 2025

Vinnik’s release is certainly going to be less controversial, given his crimes are non-violent in nature, vs. Bout who was a notorious arms dealer supplying various sides of conflicts from Africa to Asia and throughout the globe.

Common sense has returned, and the adults are back in the White House. This time, they are not wearing toxic “climate-crisis blinders” that de-growth the economy, spark inflation, and push power grids into near points of failure with unreliable green energy. As “The Next AI Trade” unleashes massive power demand from data centers, electric vehicles, and other electrification trends through the decade’s end and into 2030, electricity will have to become reliable and cheaper.

To achieve this, PJM Interconnection—which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity and ensures power supplies for 65 million people across all or parts of 13 Eastern and Midwestern US states, as well as Washington, DC—will analyze 50 new projects aimed at improving grid stability in April, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stated in an order on Tuesday. Bloomberg was the first to report this. 

Forget solar and wind—PJM will prioritize massive natural gas generators in upcoming projects to ensure grid stability and lower power costs, which is one of the mandates the American people gave the president. These proposed projects will join 55 gigawatts of legacy projects, including batteries and renewables, all set for review this spring. 

The urgent move comes less than one month after PJM issued a Level 1 emergency and “Maximum Generation Alert” across the grid, as the polar vortex caused heating demand to surge.

FERC said last year that PJM warned of “resource adequacy concerns” on the grid after a surge in new data center construction and other electrification trends, including electric vehicles and on-shoring. 

“PJM is in grave danger of not having enough generation to meet demand,” Commissioners David Rosner and Willie Phillips wrote in a statement.

Remember what Goldman noted about the Mid-Atlantic power crisis…

Goldman Says Mid-Atlantic Power Prices “Finally Caught Up To AI Data Center Load Growth Story” https://t.co/6BInBek7Zz

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 4, 2024

So, how did we arrive at the point where grids have become unstable and power costs are soaring? 

Well, radical leftists—under the guise of tackling the climate crisis—pushed de-growth policies, promoting a single solution: buying green technology from China (seems sus). The result has fueled inflation and raised serious concerns about grid stability.

One can’t help but ask whether these policies deliberately sabotaged the US economy while China continued to bring record amounts of coal plants online. America First lawmakers should inquire on Capitol Hill whether America was being weakened from within. 

NatGas generators are crucial to restoring stability and lowering power costs to shore up the grid. 

When it comes to achieving real grid decarbonization while maintaining stability, we highlighted the nuclear theme back in December 2020 with our note: “Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze” . 

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

Google Calendar has erased so called ‘cultural’ dates including Pride, Black History Month, Indigenous People Month, and Hispanic Heritage, and will only display official public holidays and national observances going forward.

Over 500 million people who use Google Calendar will no longer see the DEI dates popping up with a spokesman for the company explaining that “maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable.”

Google Calendar will no longer force pride month onto your calendar going forward. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/CM0ndmSy3a

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 11, 2025

In other words, there are too many made up woke ‘holiday’ dates to keep up with.

They’re saying this wasn’t sustainable?

No kidding… pic.twitter.com/74hdZIwBaX

— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) February 11, 2025

Some have interpreted the move as an effort to fall into line with the Trump administration’s purging of DEI nonsense from government agencies.

Common sense is making a comeback who’d thought that would happen

— The Goon (@Supergoon231) February 11, 2025

Google founder Sergey Brin met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December, as did Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

Sounds like Google got the message. So they can make good decisions, that’s good to know. #zelena

— Mister Sugar (@ScottWi92107364) February 11, 2025

All this garbage will be gone within the next 4 years.

— Stewie Griffin (@StewGriffin52) February 11, 2025

Deranged leftist Google Calendar users have flooded support pages with complaints, accusing the company of  “capitulating to fascism,” and being “Nazi sympathisers.”

If it wasn’t clear before, FUCK Google. Fuck Donald. Fuck fascism. You can remove us off your calendar but you can’t remove us off this planet.
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻

— Potatoo (@potatoo4905) February 11, 2025

*  *  *

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Russia has confirmed its forces launched major overnight missile strikes on Ukrainian military plants as well as energy infrastructure. Kiev suffered significant damage, resulting in casualties and several fires in the city.

A Wednesday statement by the defense ministry said that Russian forces had carried out a “group missile strike on workshops of Ukrainian military-industrial complex enterprises producing unmanned aerial vehicles and FPV drones.”

“The goals of the strikes have been accomplished, all designated facilities have been hit,” it said. The oblasts of Kyiv, Sumy, Poltava, and Chernigov were struck in the widespread assault.

Importantly the attack involved Iskander-M ballistic missiles and over 120 drones, which Ukrainian forces claiming to have shot down seven Iskanders and 71 UAVs, according to Russian media sources.

The Ukrainian capital appears to have been one of the hardest hit cities in the wave of strikes, which has been a rarity over the last year. One person was killed there, and four injured, including a nine-year-old girl, Kiev’s mayor said.

This night, russia fired ballistic missiles and drones at Ukraine.
Unfortunately, one person was killed in Kyiv as a result of the attack. My condolences to the family. There are wounded, including a child.
Buildings, offices and civilian infrastructure have been damaged. All… pic.twitter.com/wIBiuJ4EQj

— Denys Shmyhal (@Denys_Shmyhal) February 12, 2025

Ukraine’s Deputy Energy Minister on Wednesday said that the recent Russian strikes on gas infrastructure is creating “certain pressure” and that Ukraine will need help from partners to import additional volume of gas.

According to description of the missile attack in Ukrainian regional media:

Kyiv’s air defense systems intercepted six Russian Iskander-M ballistic missiles over the capital, according to Timur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration (KMVA), citing the Air Force.

“This is a dangerous weapon that is not easy to neutralize, and even falling debris can cause serious destruction,” Tkachenko wrote on Telegram.

The attack damaged residential buildings, an office complex, and non-residential infrastructure in the Holosiivskyi, Svyatoshynskyi, Obolonskyi, Dniprovskyi, and Pecherskyi districts. As of 10:00 a.m., all fires in Kyiv had been extinguished or localized.

And Russia’s RT detailed, “Russian Telegram channels cited eyewitnesses reporting a 16 explosions across the city. Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko reported fires in several districts, including one in the industrial zone in the northern part of the capital.”

President Zelensky reacted by saying that Vladimir Putin is “not preparing for peace” as “he continues to kill Ukrainians and destroy cities.”

“This night, Russia launched ballistic missiles and drones against Ukraine, damaging apartment buildings, office complexes, and civilian infrastructure.”

“Right now, we need unity and support from all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war,” he wrote on Telegram.

Just the day prior Zelensky offered a land swap deal to Putin, saying Ukraine will give up Kursk territory to end the war. The Tuesday comments described that if President Trump gets the warring sides to the negotiating table, “We will swap one territory for another.”

Moscow confirms massive strike on Ukrainian military plants. The attack targeted drone assembly enterprises, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Russia has launched a major missile strike on Ukrainian military drone production plants, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.… pic.twitter.com/Th4UupvnKd

— DJ Danza (@DJDanzadotcom) February 12, 2025

The Ukrainian leader when asked in The Guardian interview precisely which territories Kiev would demand back, he responded: “I don’t know, we will see. But all our territories are important, there is no priority.” Obviously he has the four annexed eastern territories in mind.

But Wednesday’s ballistic missile and drone attack on Kiev has clearly slammed the door on Zelensky’s offer, which the Kremlin was never going to seriously entertain regardless. Ukraine has also continued to fire Western-supplied missiles on Russian territory, for which Moscow has warned it will start hitting command ‘decision-making centers’ in response.

Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times,

A Feb. 10 deadline for the 195 signatories of the Paris (climate) Agreement to publish and submit their emissions-reduction plans to the U.N. has come and gone with just 10 nations complying.

The reason so many countries have not published their reports on time remains unclear.

When the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, member countries agreed to work toward the goal of keeping the global temperature from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial era levels.

The optimum target is 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the agreement.

To hold the signatories accountable, the deal requires each country to list its efforts, measure its results, report on its progress, and talk about further action every five years.

The reports are called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). They include the pledges each nation has made toward meeting the COP’s (Conference of Parties to the Paris Agreement) objectives for 2035.

The current NDCs are scheduled to be considered at a COP meeting in November.

A Change of Direction

Consistent with President Donald Trump’s campaign promise, his new administration began the process of extricating the U.S. from the Paris Agreement altogether, as it did during his first term.

President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement in 2021.

The United States was one of the 10 compliant nations because its NDC was submitted by the Biden administration.

The nine other nations were the United Kingdom, Saint Lucia, Ecuador, Andorra, Uruguay, Switzerland, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, and Brazil.

Two major industrialized nations, China and India, did not submit an NDC by the deadline.

China is the biggest CO2 emitter, the United States second, and India third.

How the Big Economic Powers Rate

In September 2024, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), an ongoing, independent analysis of how countries are responding to climate change, gave China and India an overall rating of “Highly Insufficient.”

CAT rated the response of the United States to climate change as “Insufficient.”

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office on Feb. 10. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

The CAT analysis said the United States made progress under the Biden administration but will still be “far from meeting its domestic climate target—let alone aligning its emissions with a 1.5 degrees Celsius trajectory.”

International Cooperation

In 2023, under Biden’s leadership, the United States formally adopted the COP policy of pursuing net-zero carbon emissions in the energy and transportation sectors by 2050.

The Biden administration declared its intention to decarbonize transportation by relying primarily on electric-powered vehicles—a plan critics call an electric car mandate.

The 2050 American timeline “is not compatible with the Paris Agreement,” the CAT analysis said.

According to a September 2024 report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the goal of carbon neutrality, as declared by the COP, necessitates a transitioning away from fossil fuels in a “just, orderly, and equitable manner” with “accelerating action in this critical decade.”

Achieving the COP’s optimum target by the turn of the century, the IEA states, would “require a holistic package of complementary actions and alignment with a 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway to realize all of them comprehensively.”

The IEA report emphasized “the importance of continued multilateral cooperation in driving implementation” of the COP goals.

How the exit of the United States from the Paris Agreement will impact the situation is not yet known.

Experts say leaving the agreement may take as long as a year.

The Trump Approach

Transitioning away from fossil fuels runs contrary to the promises candidate Trump made on the campaign trail to increase American fossil fuel production in order to bring down gasoline prices, which he said would in turn reduce inflation.

The IEA states that another essential leg is the tripling of renewable capacity by accelerating the deployment of low-emissions technologies over the next five years.

That objective also runs contrary to Trump administration policies that have deemphasized renewable energy sources such as windmills and solar farms.

Trump also eliminated the so-called EV mandate.

According to CAT, the United States is the world’s largest crude oil producer, achieving record production in 2023. The country is also the world’s largest fossil gas producer and exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG).

In early 2024, the Biden administration placed a temporary moratorium on pending LNG export terminals.

Trump lifted the moratorium on Jan. 20, the first day of his second term. 

Tl;dr: Headline CPI accelerated for the 7th straight month as the Biden admin BLS is gone but the surge in money-supply they left behind is still in play:

CPI Highlights:

• The index for shelter rose 0.4 percent in January, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the monthly all items increase. 

• The energy index rose 1.1 percent over the month, as the gasoline index increased 1.8 percent.

• The index for food also increased in January, rising 0.4 percent as the index for food at home rose 0.5 percent and the index for food away from home increased 0.2 percent.

• The food at home index rose 0.5 percent over the month. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs rose 1.9 percent over the month, as the index for eggs increased 15.2 percent. This was the largest increase in the eggs index since June 2015 and it accounted for about two thirds of the total monthly food at home increase

• The food away from home index rose 0.2 percent in January. The index for limited service meals rose 0.3 percent over the month and the index for full service meals rose 0.1 percent

• The index for nonalcoholic beverages increased 2.2 percent over the same period, while the index for other food at home rose 0.8 percent and the index for dairy and related products increased 1.2 percent

• The energy index increased 1.1 percent in January. The gasoline index increased 1.8 percent over the month.

• The index for natural gas rose 1.8 percent over the month while the index for electricity was unchanged in January

Core CPI Details:

• Indexes that increased over the month include motor vehicle insurance, recreation, used cars and trucks, medical care, communication, and airline fares. The indexes for apparel, personal care, and household furnishings and operations were among the few major indexes that decreased in January.

• The shelter index increased 0.4 percent over the month.

  • The index for owners’ equivalent rent rose 0.3 percent in January, as did the index for rent.

  • The lodging away from home index increased 1.4 percent in January.

• The medical care index increased 0.2 percent over the month. The index for prescription drugs increased 2.5 percent in January and the index for hospital services rose 0.9 percent over the month.

  • The physicians’ services index increased 0.1 percent in January.

• The motor vehicle insurance index rose 2.0 percent in January.

• The index for recreation rose 1.0 percent over the month and the index for used cars and trucks increased 2.2 percent.

• Other indexes that increased in January include communication, airline fares, and education.

• In contrast, the index for apparel fell 1.4 percent in January.

• The indexes for personal care and household furnishings and operations also declined over the month. The new vehicles index was unchanged in January.

President Trump clarifies who is to blame for this…

The other partner in crime is also obvious… Fed Chair Powell and his pals pumping markets in desperation into the election…

Repeating the mistakes of the past…

*  *  *

As we highlighted in our preview, the CPI matters a lot, again!

After last month’s CPI report came in cooler than expected, with Core CPI missing expectations both sequentially and YoY, analysts expect core to accelerate sequentially, but bear in mind we have the annual revisions malarkey to wade through first, so who knows what the ‘expectation’ will be comparable to.

Seasonality screams big beat today, as Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid points out, surprises to CPI over the last 25-plus years have been more likely to be biased to the upside in H1 than in H2. January’s release (which we will see today) has seen the largest number of beats (50%) and the lowest number of downside misses (15%).

And sure enough, both headline and core CPI rose more than expected in January. Headline CPI jumped 0.5% MoM (+0.3% exp) dragging the price series up 3.0% YoY (+2.9% exp). That is the seventh straight month of accelerating MoM CPI prints…

Source: Bloomberg

Core Services costs are accelerating rapidly…

Source: Bloomberg

Core CPI – more watched – jumped 0.4% MoM (more than the 0.3% rise expected) and that dragged core consumer prices up 3.3% YoY (3.2% exp)…

Source: Bloomberg

Core Goods prices have shifted away from YoY deflation…

Source: Bloomberg

The so-called ‘SuperCore CPI’ exploded 0.7% MoM higher in January, leaving the YoY rise in prices ‘sticky’ above 4%…

Source: Bloomberg

Transportation Services costs soared…

Source: Bloomberg

Shelter inflation has flatlined, rising in Jan to 5.06% YoY from 4.99% in Dec, while rent inflation continues to drop, now at 4.60% from 4.72% in Dec, and the lowest since March 2022

Breakfast just got a lot more expensive…

Wow! My Bacon, Egg & Cheese (With a Cup of Coffee) Price Index just saw its largest-ever monthly price jump in January, surging 6.1% (+18 cents)! Here are the details:

(Chart from WSL POLITICS) pic.twitter.com/iVdg4yMXek

— Michael McDonough (@M_McDonough) February 12, 2025

And before everyone blames Trump, this was baked in the cake from the last year of money supply pumping by Bidenomics…

Source: Bloomberg

Finally, what will stocks do with this new information?

It’s certainly been a wild ride on Payrolls and CPI days, but as Goldman’s Lee Coppersmith notes, a hit CPI liked this suggests considerable downside for the S&P today…

And in the pre-market, futures are heading that way…

Perhaps more notably, the market is now pricing in just one rate cut this year (pushing expectations from Sept to Dec)…

…but is it different this time under Trump?

Do you see what happens Larry, when Biden’s BLS is no longer around to pretend “inflation is contained” pic.twitter.com/bZ2Dcbdmja

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 12, 2025

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

The answer is all of them, in due time. Here are the latest spectacular failures.

Birds Fry Every Two Minutes

It took 10 years, and hundreds-of-thousands of dead birds, before the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California would meet its fate.

The Wall Street Journal explains in ‘A Prolific Executioner of Wildlife’

An Obama-era monument to green delusions finally faces extinction.

Longtime readers may recall a 2014 Journal editorial about California’s “bird-fryer” solar plant, a taxpayer-backed venture that was hell on local animals. Turns out it was also hell on electricity ratepayers. But as with so many politically favored green ventures, waiting for official acknowledgment of failure can feel like an eternity.

Now finally here in 2025 it seems the reckoning has begun. The Las Vegas Review-Journal notes in an editorial that “a major California utility —  Pacific Gas & Electric — announced that it will no longer buy power from the Ivanpah solar plant off Interstate 15 near the Nevada-California border. As a result, two of the plant’s three towers will shut down next year — and the third will probably follow.”

The plant might have functioned merely as the world’s most expensive backyard bug zapper. But it was just too lethal. The Review-Journal’s Emerson Drewes reported last month:

Federal wildlife officials said Ivanpah might act as a “mega-trap” for wildlife, with the bright light of the plant attracting insects, which in turn attract insect-eating birds that fly to their deaths in the intensely focused light rays.

So many birds have been victims of the plant’s concentrated sun rays that workers referred to them as “streamers,” for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair. When federal wildlife investigators visited the plant around 10 years ago, they reported an average of one “streamer” every two minutes.

Performance has proven so poor that PG&E has exercised its right to terminate the contract, about which negotiations have been completed; there is no doubt that towers 1 and 3 will cease operations within roughly a year. And it appears to be the case that Edison too wants out: “the utility is in ‘ongoing discussions’ with the project’s owners and the federal government over ending the utility’s contract.”

Calculating the Number of Dead Birds

There are 525,600 minutes in a year.

At one fried bird every two minutes, assuming sunshine 50 percent of the time (more in summer and less in winter), that’s 525,600 / 4 or roughly 131,400 dear birds per year.

Over 10 years that would be 1.31 million dead birds. Ouch!

That may be the high side, perhaps even low side. However, it’s clear that hundreds of thousands of birds were killed in this boondoggle that was never profitable even with subsidies.

New Jersey Reaps the Wind, Again

It’s not just solar. Also note that Shell just backed out of a wind-energy project despite huge subsidies.

Please note New Jersey Reaps the Wind, Again

Another offshore wind development stalled this week off the Jersey shore, making it the latest of three such projects to fail despite generous terms from the state. Energy giant Shell wrote off its 50% stake in Atlantic Shores, choosing to take a $1 billion impairment instead of complete the 2,800 megawatt wind farm. New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities canceled its request for a wind-energy provider, leaving the unfinished project with no prospective customer.

Ratepayers can rejoice. Atlantic Shores would have charged about three times the market price for the power it generated, according to a review by Whitestrand Consulting. That would have raised electricity rates by 11% for residents and 13% to 15% for businesses, forcing them to overpay by $48 billion over the wind farm’s lifetime.

Gov. Murphy has treated renewable energy as a sacred cause no matter the costs since 2018. That includes a bill he signed to let Ørsted pocket federal credits it had promised to pass on to customers, though he clawed money back when the projects died.

Mr. Murphy says he approves of the utility bureau’s decision not to seek a new wind provider, but he still hasn’t given up his green dreams, calling offshore wind a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” A once-in-a-generation failure is more accurate.

A Mountain of Unrecyclable Waste

The Institute for Energy Research notes Broken Windmill Blade Closes Nantucket Beaches

This story is from July 2024, but it contains pertinent details.

A massive wind turbine blade shattered offshore Massachusetts causing extensive debris, which shut down beaches on Nantucket Island and caused serious concern to fishermen, who worried that the debris could damage their boats. The failure of the massive blade and the resulting debris caused the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to suspend operations at Vineyard Wind until it could be determined whether the “blade failure” impacts other turbine blades on the development of the offshore wind farm. Power production has been suspended and installation of new wind turbine construction is on hold. And as more green energy trash washes ashore the local town is considering litigation. The facility’s massive wind turbines began sending electricity to the grid this past winter.

A GE Vernova turbine blade failed at the U.K.’s massive Dogger Bank offshore wind installation this spring, and another broke several blades in Germany last fall, which brought the number of broken GE blades at the Alfstedt-Ebersdorf wind farm in Lower Saxony to three. The first blade had broken off the previous year at one of the wind farm’s eight GE 5.3-158 turbines.

On June 28, America Electric Power (AEP) filed suit against GE Vernova in New York court over quality and warranty concerns, claiming widespread issues with the turbines it has deployed at three wind projects in Oklahoma. It is alleging that “within only two to three years of commercial operation, the GE wind turbine generators have exhibited numerous material defects on major components and experienced several complete failures, at least one turbine blade liberation event, and other deficiencies.”

GE Vernova is not the only wind turbine maker facing losses. Last year, Germany’s Siemens Energy, announced it would take a loss on its wind business due to quality problems with its wind turbines. Siemens Energy announced that quality problems at its wind turbine unit would take years to fix, wiping over a third off its market value and dealing a blow to one of the world’s biggest suppliers of wind turbines.

Massive Wind Graveyards

Wind turbine blades are made from fiberglass, or fiber reinforced plastic, and cannot be recycled. The Biden-Harris administration has not indicated what or who it expects to deal with the mountain of waste that will result when thousands of turbine blades reach the end of their useful lives in 20 to 25 years, or in many cases less. In fact, wind blades are piling up in Texas and Iowa without proper disposal. Massive wind graveyards, for example, have popped up on the outskirts of Sweetwater, Texas. The pile of wind blades covers more than thirty acres, in stacks rising as high as basketball backboards.

How Many Birds are Killed by Wind Turbines?

The American Bird Conservancy estimates approximately 538,000 wind turbine-caused bird deaths occur in the U.S. each year.

Raptors like Golden Eagles and nighttime migratory songbirds are particularly vulnerable. 

That estimate is from 2021. So double or triple it. But skeptics point out cats kill 2.4 billion birds a year. And 200 million birds are allegedly killed by automobiles each year.

Have cats killed any golden eagles?

Economic Reality

Let’s return to economic reality.

None of these projects are profitable, even with subsidies. That’s why they fail.

Meanwhile, consumers face monstrous hikes in energy bills to pay for these boondoggles as mounds of unrecyclable garbage piles up in massive wind graveyards.

Related Posts

August 19, 2020: Green Energy Failed Leaving Millions in California Blackout

Electrical companies imposed rolling blackouts for the first time since 2001. Inability to meet the surge in demand is due to a shift from natural gas.

September 5, 2023: Biden’s Green Energy Inflation Reduction Act Needs a Big Bailout Already

Surprise, surprise. Subsidies were not enough to make Biden’s energy projects profitable.

May 21, 2024: Hoot of the Day: No One Wants Green Energy if It’s Too Cheap

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wants the EU to hike tariffs on China just as the US did.

August 10, 2024: Another Green Energy Company Declares Bankruptcy, Thank Biden’s Tariffs

Conflicting goals often leads to the worst of both outcomes. That’s what’s happening with solar panels and EVs.

Finally please consider The Futility of Wind and Solar Power in One Easy to Understand Picture

How do we get green energy from here to there and at what cost?

Let’s return to the lead question. 

Q: How Many More Ridiculous Green Energy Projects Will Fail?

A: All of them, unfortunately not fast enough. And none of them should have been approved in the first place.

Addendum

One reader commented, “Onshore wind is cheap and kills a tiny amount of birds. To me it is an important part of future energy mix.”

I replied … If wind was cheap, without subsidies, then we would have more of it.

That we don’t, even with subsidies, is telling.

And if government would stop investing in losers, with subsidies, and just stay out of it, we would likely be further along with solutions.

Since Trump’s inauguration, the U.S. dollar has been highly sensitive to tariff announcements given its role in global trade and economic confidence.

The dollar strengthened after tariff threats against China, Mexico, and Canada, it later fell once they were suspended in January. 

While trade policy remains uncertain, some predict the dollar will strengthen over the next few years, but then pullpack amid swelling U.S. debt accelerated by Trump’s tax cuts.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the performance of the U.S. Dollar Index by president since 1967, based on data from TradingView.

The U.S. Dollar Under Every President Since 1967

Below, we show trends in the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) across each president since Richard Nixon.

The DXY measures the value of the dollar against six major currencies as a way to track its relative performance or weakness. When the U.S. economy is strong relative to global economies, the value of the DXY often rises, given higher demand for the safe haven asset.

In 1985, the DXY ascended to record highs during Ronald Reagan’s presidency when the federal funds rate reached 18%.

These high rates made holding U.S. dollars more attractive, and America’s relative economic strength played a role in driving investor sentiment.

At the time, the sharp appreciation of the dollar contributed to a substantial trade deficit as American goods became increasingly expensive while imports were cheap. To curb the dollar’s rise, global leaders struck a deal in 1985 called the Plaza Accord, which contributed to its 40% decline over the next two years.

By contrast, the dollar hit all-time lows in 2008 during the global financial crisis under George W. Bush. At the end of 2008, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near-zero amid deteriorating labor market conditions. Amid concerns of a slow economic recovery, investors looked to gold and other higher-yielding currencies.

Will the U.S. Dollar Index Continue Rising?

Over 2024, the dollar’s uptrend was underscored by America’s economic dynamism while Europe and China faced muted GDP growth.

This trend could continue if Trump follows through on tariffs for a number of reasons. First, tariffs could rekindle inflation, leading the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated, which could cause the dollar to strengthen. Secondly, tariffs could cause economic weakness in other countries, improving America’s relative strength, creating higher demand for the currency.

However, tariffs run the risk of dampening the U.S. economy, which could weigh on the dollar.

While Trump’s position on the dollar is contradictory—he wants it to maintain its dominance but advocates for competitive weakening to boost U.S. exports—all eyes will be watching if tariffs serve as bargain chips or materialize into new sweeping policies.

To learn more about this topic from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the performance of the U.S. dollar against major currencies in 2024.

Authored by Liz Heflin via Remix News,

The European Commission is essentially manipulating NGOs to achieve its own goals in exchange for financial support. A Dutch newspaper has exposed part of this process, writes Magyar Nemzet, which then shows how Brussels does this and who the biggest domestic beneficiaries are. 

On Jan. 22, De Telegraaf reported on secret contracts that the European Commission had signed with green NGOs to conduct alleged covert lobbying activities. According to the newspaper, the lobbying organizations, commissioned by Brussels with EU money, were tasked with persuading MEPs and member states to support the commission’s ambitious green policy initiatives.

For example, the European Environment Bureau (EEB), an umbrella organization for green groups, was tasked with providing at least 16 examples of how the European Parliament had tightened green legislation thanks to its lobbying. According to documents reviewed by the newspaper, the EEB was also tasked with supporting the controversial nature restoration bill initiated by former Commissioner Frans Timmermans. 

In addition, they could use around €700,000 in support to steer the debate on agricultural activity in a more environmentally friendly direction.

In Hungary, the EU provides funding to certain organizations, which then use their activities to serve Brussels’ political goals. Here are some examples.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee is heavily dependent on international funding. According to their latest available financial report for 2023, more than 61 percent of their annual income came from private foundations, including George Soros’s organization. They received a total of 48.85 million forints from the European Commission, which accounted for 6.1 percent of their income. Helsinki has received funding for various projects serving legal protection purposes, typically for several years.

In recent years, the organization has often criticized the Hungarian government’s immigration policy, especially the measures related to border closures and the operation of transit zones, and has also undertaken the legal representation of migrants, for example, at the European Court of Human Rights.

One of the “results” of Helsinki’s operation is that in June 2024, the European Court of Justice imposed a migration fine of €200 million on Hungary and ordered our country to pay an additional €1 million per day until we change the relevant regulations.

Helsinki has actively contributed to the European Commission’s 2023 Rule of Law Report, which contains a number of criticisms of Hungary, including problems and recommendations in the areas of justice, the fight against corruption, and institutional checks and balances. The Helsinki Committee, together with other NGOs, including Transparency International Hungary, has submitted a nearly 100-page submission to the European Commission, which is withholding billions of euros from Hungary.

Transparency International Hungary (TI Hungary) has regularly attacked the Hungarian government in recent years, primarily on issues related to corruption, lack of transparency, and the management of public funds. 

The organization also receives significant foreign funding, including funds from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, but their supporters also include the European Commission, from which they received a total of 13.7 million forints in revenue, according to their 2023 report.

Transparency International produces its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) every year, which is used to calculate which countries are the most and least corrupt in the world. Tamás Lánczi, president of the Office for the Protection of Sovereignty, has already held the organization accountable for the bias experienced in determining the CPI. 

All of this is significant because the index serves as a reference point for the withholding of EU funds due to Hungary.

The 2023 report from Amnesty International Hungary shows that the organization is significantly dependent on foreign sources. 

Their revenues from the European Union budget, as well as other states and international organizations, exceeded 170 million forints, which represented 42 percent of their total revenue in that year.

They received almost 53 million forints in funding from the European Commission in 2023, which is almost 13 percent of their total annual income. They received the money as the winner of a call for proposals under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Value (CERV) program to promote gender equality. Amnesty has been working against Hungary’s interests on several fronts, as shown below.

The organization reports that it prepared its analysis related to the European Commission’s annual rule of law assessment, which examined, among other things, the Hungarian justice system, corruption, the press, civil society organizations, and the legislature. It says: “The success of our work, which has been carried out for four years, together with our civil society friends, is also demonstrated by the fact that many of our recommendations are reflected in the report published in July.” 

In other words, they are explicitly proud of having put Hungary at a disadvantage.

The annual report also mentions that in March 2023, in addition to the European Parliament, 15 EU member states joined the European Commission v. Hungary lawsuit filed on the side of the commission over the child protection law adopted in 2021. Amnesty boasts that the actions of many member states are due to their work.

The Hungarian Digital Media Observatory (Lakmusz–HDMO) was established in January 2023 as the Hungarian center of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), established by the European Commission in 2020. Six organizations work together within the framework of the project: Political Capital, Mérték Médiaelemző Műhely, AFP news agency, Lakmusz, Idea Foundation and Epresspack. According to their own admission, their activities include fact-checking and related research and analysis, and they also provide training for journalists and teachers on the topic of fact-checking and conscious media consumption.

The HDMO Project is being implemented with the partial support of the European Commission, and the consortium forming the HDMO was selected by the Commission through an open tender. Lakmusz, which participated in the project, has also previously attacked the Hungarian government. For example, they have tried to discredit the institution of the national consultation on several occasions. Political Capital, Mérték, and Lakmusz can also be directly or indirectly linked to the foundations of George Soros.

Read more here…

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

Trump signed an Executive Order late last week “Addressing Egregious Actions Of The Republic Of South Africa” that mandated cutting off aid to the country as punishment for its new contentious Expropriation Act and promoting the resettlement of the white minority (Afrikaners) to the US.

Supporters applauded him for giving attention to what they consider to be the long-ignored issue of black-on-white racially discriminatory policies while opponents believe that it’s a racist move promulgated on false pretexts.

Before proceeding, readers might want to review some of RT’s reports about the Afrikaner farmer (Boer) issue, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), and the country’s economic challenges:

* 19 March 2009: “The Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War”

* 25 October 2013: “S. Africa evacuation plan: White Afrikaner group fears genocide upon Mandela’s death”

* 1 May 2018: “Why South Africa’s govt plans to strip land from white farmers”

* 15 June 2018: “Calls to ‘kill the Boer’ make all farmers targets, not just whites – South African official”

* 9 July 2018: “‘A matter of life & death’: 15,000 white South African farmers seek refuge in Russia, report says”

* 19 July 2018: “‘They want us all to leave’: South African farmer wants to move to Russia, change name to Ivan”

20 July 2018: “First 50 families of farmers from South Africa may soon resettle in Russia”

* 4 August 2018: “South African farmers seek refuge in Russia’s Crimea”

* 28 February 2019: “South Africa’s ANC needs just 5 years ‘to destroy the economy & the country,’ economist warns”

* 17 April 2019: “South Africa’s economic & social decline the worst of nations not at war”

* 18 April 2019: “‘Don’t ever vote for white person’: South African ANC leader’s race-based call discussed on RT”

* 11 May 2019: “As it re-elects hopeless ANC again, do we finally admit that post-apartheid South Africa has failed?”

* 4 April 2020: “‘White monopoly capital’: Anti-white South African radicals scorn massive donations that could help black businesses”

* 16 October 2020: “White farmer’s brutal murder sends protesters & counter-protesters to rally outside courthouse in South Africa”

To oversimplify, the brutal murder of some Boers on their farms led to some Afrikaners suspecting that the ANC turns a blind eye to this and even encourages it, while the ANC believes that the Afrikaners’ outsized control over national wealth is an injustice that must be rectified via redistribution. The Expropriation Act’s recent passing came amidst the country’s continued economic challenges, ergo why some of the Afrikaners consider it a distraction while the ANC insists that it’s a long-overdue solution.

Regardless of one’s personal views on this subject, it’s arguably the case that this is just a pretext for Trump to pressure South Africa for reasons beyond those stated in his Executive Order. While some speculate that his motives are as crude as a favor to South African-born Elon Musk amidst his public feud with President Cyril Ramaphosa over this issue and/or revenge for South Africa’s ICJ ruling against Israel, and these could have indeed played a role, his team might have broader strategic interests in mind.

ANC-led South Africa has presented itself as a rising multipolar pole in Africa amidst the global systemic transition, to which end it’s sought to increase its role in BRICS alongside participating in multilateral naval drills with China and Russia, thus reinforcing the aforesaid international reputation. The US disapproved of South Africa flexing its sovereignty in such a symbolic way, especially given the ongoing NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine, hence why the Biden Administration began pressuring it.

Here are some background briefings about their campaign against it over the past few years:

* 3 September 2022: “South Africa Deserves Praise For Its Neutral Foreign Policy In The New Cold War”

* 11 December 2022: “Germany’s Double Standards On South African Coal Expose Its ‘Green Imperialism’”

* 18 February 2023: “South Africa’s naval drills with China and Russia set a positive example”

* 26 April 2023: “South Africa’s Neutrality In The New Cold War Is Under Threat From Western Pressure”

* 12 May 2023: “The US Is Forcing South Africa To Take Sides In The New Cold War”

* 17 May 2023: “South Africa Is Presenting Itself As The Continent’s Leader”

* 14 July 2023: “South Africa’s Deputy President Spilled The Beans About His Country’s BRICS-ICC Dilemma”

* 19 July 2023: “South Africa Showed That BRICS Isn’t What Many Of Its Supporters Assumed”

* 20 July 2023: “South Africa Bungled The Optics Of Its BRICS Compromise With Russia”

* 3 September 2024: “Mongolia’s Embrace Of Putin Despite His ICC Warrant Exposes South Africa’s Political Cowardice”

This is the basis upon which Trump is now waging his own pressure campaign against South Africa.

His predecessor succeeded in coercing South Africa into complying with the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin and therefore forcing him to participate in that year’s BRICS Summit by video instead. For as symbolic of a concession that that was to the US, it didn’t change anything tangible with regard to South Africa’s foreign policy, which is what Trump is aiming to do. His team might have identified South Africa as one of the weak links in BRICS and correspondingly concluded that a pressure campaign could break it.

It’s debatable whether Trump truly believes that BRICS is conspiring to create a new currency or backing the yuan as a rival to the dollar, or if this is just a pretext for him to individually pressure its members, but his recently repeated threat to impose 100% tariffs against them preceded his Executive Order. Therefore, the possibility exists that cutting off aid to South Africa in response to its Expropriation Act is just an excuse to coerce it into tangible foreign policy changes, most immediately with regard to BRICS.

In practice, this could hypothetically take the form of South Africa obstructing progress on the BRICS Bridge, BRICS Clear, and BRICS Pay initiatives that were discussed during last October’s Kazan Summit. It might also lead to South Africa militarily distancing itself from Russia and especially China together with exporting more precious minerals to the US in the long term in exchange for pressure relief. To be clear, just because Trump might want this doesn’t mean that it’ll happen, but it should still be taken seriously.

The relevance that all of this has to the Expropriation Act is that the aforesaid represents both a populist distraction from South Africa’s continued economic challenges as well as a potential solution from the ANC’s perspective despite some warning that it risks leading to a Zimbabwean-like disaster. In the far-fetched scenario that the same lawmakers who voted for this act are coerced by the US into voting to rescind it, then this would deal a deathblow to the ANC, which might then be replaced by the EFF.

The Economic Freedom Fighters are led by radical leftist-populist Julius Malema, who’s infamous for leading chants of “Kill the Boer”, which he and his supporters claim is just metaphorical and not literal. He fashions himself as a revolutionary that’s been very outspoken against the US and in favor of multipolarity. More South Africans might flock to Malema and his EFF for patriotic-nationalist reasons if Ramaphosa and his ANC ultimately capitulate to what he just described as Trump’s “bullying”.

In order to preemptively avoid any misunderstanding, talking about this scenario doesn’t mean that it’s likely, only that it’s possible and should thus be considered just in case. Ramaphosa knows that he and his party would be doomed if they give in to Trump so they’re not expected to budge, at least for now, unless the US drastically ramps up its pressure campaign. Even then, however, they might try to co-opt Malema’s leftist-populist and nationalist rhetoric in order to rally the population at large behind them.

Observers should also be aware that new Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared late last week that he won’t attend this November’s G20 Summit in Johannesburg in protest of the Expropriation Act and what he said are South Africa’s other “anti-American” policies. Knowing that this act likely won’t be rescinded, it could very well be that Trump’s team planned to exploit this pretext for the purpose of weakening the world’s most influential economic-financial multilateral platform by boycotting its annual event.

He’s already taken a wrecking ball to economic globalization in recent weeks by threatening tariffs against Colombia, Panama, Canada, and Mexico before they gave in to his pressure, all while imposing 10% tariffs on China and threatening to do something similar against the EU too. If this trend continues, then the G20 might no longer wield anywhere near the influence that it did just one year ago, thus dooming November’s summit to failure regardless of whether or not the US ends up attending.

It’s South Africa’s bad fortune that it was already in the US’ crosshairs during the Biden Administration for its multipolar foreign policy, that there’s genuine concern about the treatment of some of its white minority, and its plans to host the next G20 Summit later this year. These factors converged to incentivize Trump into launching a pressure campaign against it in order to coerce tangible changes to its foreign policy, particularly vis-à-vis BRICS, so as to fully subordinate South Africa it to the West.

The ANC’s long track record of political mistakes and policy failures is finally catching up to it precisely at the moment when the party finally started prioritizing South Africa’s participation in global processes, thus creating the pretext for the US to meddle in this BRICS member’s affairs. The outcome of Trump’s pressure campaign against it will indicate he continues picking off this group’s countries one-by-one or decides to reconsider this strategy, therefore making it immensely important.