By John Paul Hampstead of Freightwaves

Well aware of the storm clouds brewing on the macroeconomic horizon, Walmart is doubling down on its supply chain-led transformation into an omnichannel retailer with an integrated, flexible and intelligent distribution and fulfillment network. For Walmart, leveraging its supply chain to unlock new margin gains is integral to “Everyday Low Cost,” which enables “Everyday Low Prices.” 

Walmart doesn’t expect to grow fast in 2023. For the year ending Dec. 31, 2022, (Walmart’s fiscal year 2023), Walmart’s U.S. comparable sales grew 6.6% year over year (y/y) and 13% against a two-year stack. But the annual guidance reiterated at Tuesday’s Investment Community meeting in Tampa, Florida, has U.S. comp sales growing just 2 to 2.5% this year. In other words, Walmart expects significantly slower growth this year, though CEO Doug McMillon recommitted to management’s 4% annual sales growth target over the next five years.

Revenue headwinds are due to the stress that inflation is putting on the American consumer, stress that Walmart management has observed and commented upon. Higher-income shoppers are choosing to go to Walmart; general merchandise sales gave way to daily essential “consumables”; and in grocery, private label growth beat out the name brands. 

Walmart management believes there are (at least) two big ways that supply chain investments can address the overall business environment. First, for Walmart, supply chain has always been a place of experimentation, where small investments that have proven to generate operating leverage can then be scaled. Second, e-commerce is the fastest part of Walmart’s business — growing 17% y/y in the fourth quarter — and connecting all of its inventory and rationalizing its network helps power that growth.

But connecting all of its available products to an e-commerce application and building intelligent fulfillment for hundreds of thousands of SKUs wasn’t easy. In his supply chain-focused Investment Community meeting presentation, Walmart U.S. CEO and President John Furner explained the evolution of the company’s supply chains.

“When Walmart started, customers came to stores, and they bought general merchandise and consumables,” Furner said. “So we built an ambient supply chain that served stores. As our store footprint grew, that network grew. When we added grocery and supercenters, we built a perishable supply chain — with buildings to handle cold and frozen items. That one also serviced stores. Then came e-commerce. So we built another fulfillment network and partnered with carriers to move products from FCs to customers’ homes. And we layered in pickup and delivery too — from our stores. 

“We got by serving customers with these resources … but they weren’t connected. They operated in parallel, and they weren’t flexible. They were each effective at completing the task they were built to perform. Now that’s changing. We’ve reengineered our supply chain networks to connect all the assets we have,” Furner said. 

Freight market down cycles, when transportation capacity is loose, rates are low and shippers have pricing power, are natural times for shippers to think beyond the day-to-day struggle to control costs and maintain service. Trucking capacity is exceptionally loose in the United States now, as carriers are rejecting just 3.1% of the shipments tendered to them by shippers.

Having realized savings on rates and cleaned up their routing guides, now major shippers are embracing expansive supply chain reorganizations, taking advantage of the first real breather many of them have gotten since the pandemic struck in March 2020. For Walmart, that means improving visibility, connectivity and optimization across supply chains that had been operating in relative siloes, both for the purposes of improving customer experience and driving sales higher, but also for gaining internal efficiencies. 

Furner went on to give specific examples of how Walmart was connecting these four previously disparate supply chains, starting with building an integrated digital catalog that had visibility into all inventory and connecting digital profiles of customer intent across multiple inventory systems to optimize the separate physical supply chains as if they were one. New organizational structures were put into place to oversee this supply chain reengineering: Now Supply Chain and Stores both report up to the End to End team led by Chris Nicholas, the Walmart U.S. chief operating officer.

CEO McMillan said at the Investment Community day that Walmart is best described as a “people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer dedicated to helping people save money and live better.”

This renewed focus on driving efficiency out of existing assets, inventory optimization and network velocity may have already started paying off. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Walmart’s U.S. comp sales were up 8.3%, while its consolidated operating expenses as a percentage of sales dropped by 44 basis points. Meanwhile, Amazon’s net product sales were down 1.2% y/y to $70.53 billion, while cost of sales and fulfillment expenses were both up, 3.3% and 2.9%, respectively. 

In fact, Amazon’s net product sales have been flat for three years:

Walmart’s outperformance has been in part due to a changing mindset, which has once again placed ambitious supply chain initiatives at the center of the company. During his Investment Community day presentation, Furner sounded as much like a full-service third-party logistics provider as he did a retailer.

“We’re now able to fulfill customer needs with a flexible, connected omnichannel network, enabled by data,” Furner said. “We know what we own, where it is, and what we’re actually doing is using data to optimize how much inventory we buy and where we place it. In many cases, we don’t need to build a new facility. We’re able to use the existing assets we have more flexibly and efficiently for new ways of working. And importantly, we’re able to consolidate an order as early as possible — even offshore — and deconsolidate it as late as possible — even in the customer’s driveway. That serves customers with the flexibility they want. It creates density across first, middle and last mile.”

In other words, Walmart is demonstrating that data integrations across its inventory systems and separate physical supply chains — ambient, perishable and e-commerce — can improve more than just the customer experience. Inventory visibility at the SKU level that’s appropriately connected across the organization also generates substantial operating leverage. That technology allows Walmart to consolidate earlier and deconsolidate later in order to drive density along core lanes and better utilize its facilities and carrier network. In some cases, Furner said, the efficiencies were significant enough that new facility construction could be avoided.

A woman suing JPMorgan over its ties to Jeffrey Epstein has accused the bank’s former head of private banking, Jes Staley, of using “aggressive force in his sexual assault of her,” according to a Thursday court filing by ‘Jane Doe’ asking a Manhattan federal judge to separate JPMorgan’s March lawsuit against Staley from her case, and a similar case brought by the US Virgin Islands.

Both suits allege JPMorgan knowingly benefited from Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation, Bloomberg reports.

Doe’s legal team is accusing JPMorgan of exploiting the sexual assault claim against Staley in order to force her to provide “intrusive discovery” in the course of litigation, and possibly be subject to a deposition by Staley himself (what?).

“The effect of adding him to the suit is to force her to share private medical records and her most intimate communications with one of her abusers,” wrote Doe’s lawyer, Brad Edwards. “It also sends a message to other victims that (JPMorgan) will exploit all vulnerabilities of each victim who dares come forward to hold the bank accountable.“

Doe wants the suits to be separated so that JPMorgan can’t force “her sexual abuser” back into her life, according to the report.

The bank opposes separating the cases.

“Jane Doe herself has directly accused him of horrific sexual misconduct and, if true, he must be held accountable,” a bank spokesman said, referring to Staley. “He’s inextricably linked to these cases – it makes no sense to separate him.”

Staley also asked US District Judge Jed Rakoff to separate his suit, but for different reasons – calling his relationship with Epstein “baseless but serious.” He says he needs more time to prepare his defense.

Staley’s lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, says he needs to go through tens of thousands of pages of discovery.

“Disproving these false and highly-publicized allegations is of paramount importance to him,” wrote Sullivan, adding “The allegations against him are slanderous, and the potential damages are astronomical.”

“Mr. Staley is accused of aiding and abetting Jeffrey Epstein, one of the most notorious criminals in recent American history.”

JPMorgan sued Staley via a third-party complaint, which would see its claims heard at the same time as those of Doe and the USVI. The bank accused Staley of concealing his inappropriate relationship with the sex offender and said he should be responsible for any damages it may incur from the suits. It is also attempting to claw back tens of millions paid in compensation.

Bloomberg News reported earlier on Thursday that JPMorgan had sent a subpoena to the hedge fund where Staley worked between leaving the US bank in 2013 and becoming chief executive officer of Barclays Plc two years later. -Bloomberg

Perhaps Sullivan can explain a July 2010 email exchange between Staley and Epstein entered into evidence by the US Virgin Islands, in which they discussed Disney princesses?

“That was fun,” Staley allegedly wrote to Epstein. “Say hi to Snow White.”

To which Epstein replied: “[W]hat character would you like next?”

“Beauty and the Beast.”

Epstein also emailed Staley photos of young women in seductive poses, the filing continues.

According to US Virgin Islands Attorney General Acting Attorney General Carol Thomas-Jacobs, the exchange was referring to young women and girls procured by Epstein.

Staley, according to the filing, “visited Epstein’s properties in the Virgin Islands and elsewhere,” and “exchanged hundreds of messages with Epstein from his JPMorgan email account in full view of JPMorgan, including some with photos of young women, discussed Epstein’s provision of services to him during his travel on dates that closely corresponded with Epstein’s payments to the same young woman from his JPMorgan accounts, and discussed young women or girls procured by Epstein using the names of Disney princesses.”

Epstein and Staley exchanged more than 1,200 emails over several years, however up until now their contents had never been disclosed. Staley – who left JPMorgan to become CEO of Barclays two years later, stepped down from the latter in 2021 following a UK Financial Conduct Authority probe into his relationship with the pedophile financier.

In another email from Staley to Epstein in November 2009 while the latter was under house arrest in Palm Beach, Florida following his release on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution, Staley, while apparently staying on Epstein’s island, wrote: “Presently, I’m in the hot tub with a glass of white wine,” adding “This is an amazing place. Next time, we’re here together. I owe you much. And I deeply appreciate our friendship. I have few so profound.”

The next month, Staley wrote: “I realize the danger in sending this email,” adding “But it was great to be able, today, to give you, in New York City, a long, heartfelt, hug.”

Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

The Fed could be cutting rates sooner than expected given the historically short period between the last rate hike and the first rate cut.

“Higher for longer” is a neat phrase, but it rarely plays out like that in practice.

Rapid rises in borrowing costs invariably lead to something going wrong, which typically has to be put right by cutting rates.

In fact, the median time between the last Fed hike and the first cut is only four months, while the average time is only six weeks.

Some will say “this time is different” and such caveats should always be noted. But this argument is generally applied incorrectly. One should anchor one’s view with the long-term picture, and then tweak it using today’s information. “This time is different” thinking is an inversion of this, starting with the current outlook and then seeing if agrees with the historical outlook.

In a sign of how quickly things can turn, it wasn’t long ago when the market was pricing in several more Fed rate hikes. Suggesting a pause or an early cut back then was somewhat heretical. But fast-forward to today, in the wake of the SVB failure, and the market barely sees a 50% chance of another hike, while pricing in a cut of more than 25 basis points by September.

Things could change again of course, but there is a lower cost-benefit for the Fed in hiking again while the short-term interest-rate curve (STIR) is so inverted.

As we saw in this cycle, the curve barely responded to the Fed’s hawkish message. Yet with the central bank now close to the end of its rate-hiking cycle, the curve is even less likely to react to another hike. The curve would remain inverted, and become even more so if the market were to deem the hike would do more harm than good to the economy.

Thus another hike would risk only more downside, while the curve would do little to transmit its inflation-cooling effect. So it’s lose-lose situation.

I still lean towards this Fed hiking cycle being over, with the first cut coming as early as June.

What we need to watch now is the latter part of the STIR curve. Once the Fed has stopped hiking, that typically starts to steepen.

We could see come giveback in short-term yields in the coming days as they are very oversold, but the prospect of a renewed upward trend is looking increasingly distant.

An extinction event that kills a large swath of early-stage startups could be in the cards as venture capital funding collapsed by more than half in the first quarter.

According to Bloomberg, new data from research firm PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association show startups raised only $37 billion from VCs in the first quarter, the lowest in three years.

The first quarter marked the lowest number of deals in five years as VCs reduced the size of their checks to startups. 

“The whole market is taking much more caution toward investment,” said Kyle Stanford, a VC analyst at PitchBook. He warned, “It’s not going to be easy for companies to raise capital even if they’re growing at a pace they set in their last round.”

Before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, early and mid-stage startups faced a heightened risk of running into cash crunches due to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hiking cycle. The demise of SVB led to even more funding pipelines being severed for startups.

For months, we’ve outlined VC funding was sliding and the coming hell startups would face as a result:

• Fundraising By Venture-Capital Firms Tumbles To Near Decade Low Amid’ Tech-Wreck’
• VC Funds See “Mass Extinction Event” For Startups In 2023: “It Will Make The Financial Crisis Look Quaint”

Even Substack faced funding woes and turned to its users: 

• Substack Asks Writers For Money As VC Funding Freezes

PitchBook’s Stanford warned the sharp slowdown in VC funding could soon hit later-stage startups and mature companies in the second half of this year, and even the ones who’ve been reducing headcount and cutting costs. 

“Companies are trying to lengthen their runways,” he said, adding VCs might not be able to support all the early-stage startups that burn cash. 

This suggests that a wave of startups is on the brink of closing up shop. Andrea Lamari, the general partner at Manhattan Venture Partners, said, “There has not been this level of uncertainty in nearly a decade surrounding what the macro environment impact will be on startups.” She warned, “It’s as if everyone’s waiting for the next shoe to drop.” 

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

As we warned throughout 2022, the Fed’s overly rapid and overly steep rate hikes would only “work” until things began breaking, and, well…things have clearly begun to break, including the petrodollar.

Even prior to the recent headlines regarding US regional banks, “credit event” stressors were already tipping like dominoes around the world, from the 2019 repo crisis and the 2020 bond spiral to the 2022 gilt implosion.

Then came SVB et al in 2023, and, of course, the forewarned disaster at Credit Suisse…

But as we also warned literally from day 1 of the sanctions against Putin, the oh-so-critical petrodollar would be among the next dominoes to tip, and tipping is precisely what we see.

As argued below, petrodollar shifts are yet another headwind for USTs and USDs, but an obvious tailwind for gold.

But before we dig into this historical tipping point, it’s important to see the forensic cause of all that is breaking…

The Bond Market, Of Course…

We can’t repeat this point enough: The bond market is the thing.

And toward this end, the signs of generational and global shifts in global trade, currency settlements and political instability is directly tied to broken sovereign credits reeling under the pressure of artificial rate hikes.

Less Credit, Less Growth, More Volatility

In the wake of recent bank failures and now carefully muted headlines, credit is tightening behind the curtains, and that’s a bad sign.

Even the safer companies in the US with “investment grade” credit status aren’t issuing bonds into a credit market that has seen volatility on the short end of the UST market which looks more like a crypto-coin trade than a “risk-free-return” UST.

The recent gyrations in the 2-year UST and futures market surpassed vol levels seen in 1987, 9-11, or even the GFC of 2008, but I’m betting those details didn’t make the headlines of the financial media with much attention to detail…

As the WSJ recently noted, however, March issuance of bonds by even the highest rated companies came in at just under $60B, significantly below the five-year average of $180B for the same month.

And as for the junkier companies and their junkier bonds, well…their luck, as well the demand for their IOUs, has all but dried up.

March saw US zombie/junk borrowers (who live off “extend-and-pretend” low rates and yield-desperate investors [suckers]) issuing only $5B in bonds, compared to a five-year average of over $24B for the same month.

Hmmm.

Uh-oh?

Stated simply, easy, cheap and freely available credit, which has been the fun but toxic wind beneath the otherwise broken wings of the so-called post-08 “recovery” (bubble), is ending/breaking, which means hope for any vestige of US economic growth is now all but an open joke.

Small banks, which will be falling off the vine one by one in the coming months as depositors openly move toward the larger banks and money markets, means that credit, and hence hope, for small businesses in the US will be harder to get than an honest voice in Congress.

Needless to say, none of these open signals of tightening credit bode well for Main Street in particular or economic growth in general.

The Fed’s Generational Sucker-Punch

The Fed may have given the top 10% of the US 90% of all the bubble wealth which came from their post-08 rate repression…

… but now that same centralized (and rate-hiked) bank is giving the ignored 50% of small business owners and average Joes on Main Street the sucker-punch of a generation.

The recession in which we likely already find ourselves will nevertheless (and soon) become more and more undeniable, and yes dis-inflationary, within an over-all inflationary backdrop.

In the near-term, moreover, such slowing growth and tightening credit will also be a tailwind for the USD.

But those dis-inflationary winds and rising dollars won’t last for long in my opinion.

Why?

Here are six simple reasons…

Why Dis-Inflationary Forces and a Rising USD Will Indeed be “Transitory”

Of course, I hate using a word like “transitory” … but here are six reasons a strong USD and near-term dis-inflationary forces likely won’t last for long.

With:

1) Uncle Sam running twin deficits while…

2) the US stares down the barrel of $33+T in year-end debt levels and…

3) declining tax receipts (down 10% y/y) with…

4) true-interest expense on outstanding US sovereign debt at 118% of tax receipts—and all within the setting of…

5) openly tightening credit while facing…

6) a de-dollarizing world with less rather than more interest in American IOUs/USTs…

… the US will hit that fork in the road where it must print money to survive.

In short: A Pivot Will Come

Why?

Because, when forced to choose between imploding credit markets or a dying currency, the central planners will sacrifice the dollar, not the market(s).

As warned many times, the currency is always the last bubble to pop in a broken financial system.

And that, folks, is precisely when the inflationary forces of magical mouse-clicked trillions will surpass the dis-inflationary forces (above) of a broken economy and an increasingly loan-less banking system—all of which we can thank each and every central banker since patient-zero Alan Greenspan took a chair at the Eccles Building.

All Roads Lead to Gold…

All of this, of course, leads us to my favorite topic and asset: Physical gold.

Needless to say, my colleague, Egon von Greyerz, and I have always had a lot to say about this so-called “barbarous relic.”

Many, of course, will just chalk such conviction to the good-ole “gold bug” retort, but those who understand the math and history of money in general or broken credit cycles in particular are a bit more than just “gold bugs” …

And as for gold’s inevitable direction, we know it will trend north for the undeniable reason that currencies, ever since Nixon welched on the Bretton Woods gold standard, have been steadily trending south.

It’s really that simple.

The OPEC Factor… History Rhyming, Gold Shining

But notwithstanding our consistent and common-sense arguments, let’s look at the petrodollar shifts of late.

Toward this end, folks like Chris Rutherglen and Luke Gromen have done an exceptional job in reminding us of the history as well as critical importance of gold, oil and credit markets.

History Rhyming

As I’ve presented elsewhere, history (borrowing from Mark Twain) may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.

And toward this end, Rutherglen and Gromen have shown the poetry of rhyming patterns in the context of the ever-changing petrodollar politics, which, modestly, we too foresaw over a year ago.

As we warned from literally day-1 of the western sanctions against Putin, the end result would be disastrous for the West in general and the USD in particular.

And nowhere was this US Dollar prognosis truer than with regard to the petrodollar—i.e., those good ol’ days when nearly every oil purchase was linked to the USD.

However, and as Gromen and Rutherglen suggest, that oil-USD linkage was never a sure thing in the 70’s, and will be even less of a sure thing in the years ahead.

And this, folks, will have a massive impact on gold in the years ahead.

How so?

Let’s dig in.

Gold and Oil—Ready to Link?

Although still in diapers when Nixon closed the gold window in 71, and still watching Saturday morning cartoons when gold soared from $175/ounce in 1975 to over $800/ounce less than five years later…

… I am at least old enough now to glean a few historical lessons and patterns which may point toward similar and rising gold valuations tomorrow.

Gold, as Gromen and Rutherglen remind, was ripping in the late 70’s largely because it was not yet a foregone conclusion that oil would be pegged to USDs.

In that bygone era of disco, ABBA, wide neckties and checkered suits, neither OPEC nor Europe was against the idea of settling oil transactions in gold rather than USTs.

This was because those very same USTs (thanks to Nixon’s welch) were not very well…loved, trusted or valued in the 70’s.

(See where I’m going [rhyming] with this?)

Fortunately, Paul Volcker was able to seduce the oil nations into trusting Uncle Sam’s fiat money by cranking (and I do mean cranking) interest rates to the moon to restore faith in the UST and hence give OPEC the confidence to sell oil in dollars rather than settle in gold.

Specifically, Volcker took rates to 15+%, a move which placed real rates on that all-important 10Y UST at +8%.

Such hawkish policy was thus a game changer for making the petrodollar a reality and hence the USD the world’s reserve energy asset (and bully) for a generation to come.

Powell Ain’t No Volcker

Unfortunately, and thanks to Uncle Sam’s embarrassing bar tab (i.e., debt levels), those days, and those USDs and USTs, have fallen from grace, and hence are slowly falling off the radar of OPEC.

For this, we can also thank an openly cornered Powell’s so-called war on inflation, which has, among so many other backfired fiascos, led to a slow and steady process of de-dollarization and declining faith in that oh-so-important global IOU otherwise known as the UST.

The Oil Nations Aren’t Stupid

The OPEC folks know that Uncle Sam’s IOU’s aren’t what they used to be.

Unlike Volcker, however, Powell can’t get the 10Y UST to an 8% real (i.e., inflation-adjusted) rate.

Even his so-called “hawkish” nominal rates of 5% have crushed credit markets, Treasuries and nearly everything else in its path.

 And if Powell even dreamed of pushing rates to 15% ala Volcker to seduce OPEC, he would literally murder the entire US economy with a double-digit rate hike against a $31T public debt pile.

In short, there is simply no way to compare Volcker’s options in the 70’s to Powell’s debt reality in 2023.

This means the Fed can’t do what will be needed this time around to prevent OPEC from looking outside the USD or UST and hence inside the gold markets as a primary asset to settle its energy transactions.

The days of the mighty petrodollar, as I warned (in two languages) over year ago here, here and here, are slowly but steadily coming to end.

Think about that a second.

Or better yet, look at it for a second—with kudos again, to Gromen and Rutherglen.

Something to Think About

Boiled down to simple math, if the 2020’s rhyme with the 1970’s, which is clearly plausible, and gold becomes a primary (or even secondary) settlement asset in the energy market, this factor alone would place gold near $9000 an ounce by 2027 or 2028.

Again, something to think about, no?

In the interim, I’d hate to be in Powell’s shoes.

We’ll have to see if he’ll try to save the petrodollar by destroying the US economy or, who knows, even something worse…

Perhaps his neocon neighbors in DC will distract us with more war games?

We can only wait and see as the US runs out of good options and is left with only the bad (and desperate) ones, a pattern which Hemingway, rather than Twain, made perfectly clear and is worth repeating:

The posh world of buying and selling overpriced intangible bullshit “alternative assets” isn’t just for Hunter Biden’s art shows, it turns out. During the crypto boom, tons of “crypto bros” also wound up diving into items like global art, NFTs and Rolexes. 

But now that the music is starting to slow on the economy, so also slows the luxury goods market. 

Global art sales rocketed to $67.8 billion in 2022, according to the Washington Post, up 3% from the year prior. 2021 saw a 30% boost in art sales from their low in 2020, the report says. It’s amazing what $9 trillion in liquidity can do for the art market, isn’t it?

The art market had been driven by the U.S., WaPo notes, with Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn selling for $195 million and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi selling for $450 million in 2017. 

But this market started to cool off in late 2022, the report notes, citing “stalled demand for lower-end works” as a result of “fear of recession, sky-high inflation and rising interest rates”. 

On top of that, younger participants in the luxury market in general are starting to curb their spending, with Burberry Group Plc and Gucci-owner Kering SA reporting that “aspirational buyers” (read: young idiots) are tightening their belts heading into 2023. 

Nowhere is the mania slowing more than in NFTs, the report notes. The $2.9 billion in NFTs sold in 2021, up from just $20 million the year prior, has now started to collapse. “Art-related NFT sales roughly halved in 2022 from the year earlier,” WaPo reported. 

And while young people continue to buy art, they are differentiated from the “crypto bros” because they have more than $1 million of assets, usually including real estate and private businesses. 

And, as is the case with most markets, WaPo contends that with the U.S. market collapsing, “China now holds the key to transforming both art and luxury”:

Arts Economics notes that after the 2008 crisis, a booming market in China was one of the key factors behind the recovery, with sales rebounding  in 2010. Already the signs there are promising. Art Basel Hong Kong last month was busy, indicating that there is significant pent-up demand for art. This adds to positive signals from brands including Prada SpA and Moncler SpA that luxury shoppers are back in force too. Analysts at Bernstein even noted that some Chinese fashionistas had begun to travel abroad again.

For sellers of creations by Balenciaga and Basquiat, Chinese shoppers unleashing another wave of revenge spending can’t come too soon.

Submitted by Mark Pellin via Headline USA (emphasis ours),

Still dodging public accountability while drawing a hefty government check for his myriad COVID failures, Anthony Fauci has reportedly already landed a new gig tinkering with more viruses, vaccines and possibly another plan-demic.

The mask-mandate monarch has agreed to a consultancy role for a newly created “anti-pandemic” bio lab, which is being funded by the Italian government, The Dossier reported.

“American immunologist Anthony Fauci has agreed to act in an informal capacity as a strategic advisor to Rino Rappuoli, scientific director of the Biotecnopolo biotech hub in Siena, an institution founded by the Ministries of the University, Health, Economy and Industry with the aim of focusing on applied research in biotechnologies and life sciences, the Fondazione Biotecnopolo announced this week,” reported Italy’s ANSA news wire service.

Flying under the innocuous moniker Biotecnopolo, officials described the lab as “an anti-pandemic hub with a particular focus on the development and production of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of emerging epidemic-pandemic pathologies.” The lab has already received copious funding upwards of hundreds of million Euros from Rome.

Fauci came under considerable fire for his links to gain-of-function research through the cutout group EcoHealth Alliance, which ultimately had direct links to China’s Wuhan lab, where a growing amount of evidence indicated the COVID virus originated.

Bio-lab board members gushed praise for Fauci in a press release, informing that his experience would prove “a fundamental step towards making the Biotecnopolo the Italian hub for the research, study and prevention of pandemics.”

Biotecnopolo’s scientific director Rino Rappuoli comes with his own tawdry set of baggage from his work as head of vaccine research and development at GSK, nee Big Pharma’s GlaxoSmithKline, infamous for shelling out a record $3 billion settlement for health-care fraud, The Expose reported.

Rappuoli also holds a professorship at Imperial College, London, whose concocted and widely skewered computer stimulations helped spark COVID madness.

“Last year, Fauci spoke at a conference organized by GSK on the ‘role of vaccines in protecting people and the planet,’” wrote Dossier investigative journalist Jordan Schachtel.

“So Fauci has now linked up with Big Pharma heavyweights and he’s an advisor for a clandestine bio lab project being financed by the Italian government. What could possibly go wrong?”

Via People’s Dispatch, 

Two leaders from NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) were barred from visiting imprisoned journalist Julian Assange on April 4 in Belmarsh Prison. RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire and Director of Operations Rebecca Vincent were not able to carry out their visit with Assange, a visit which had taken months to secure. Belmarsh Prison Governor Jenny Louis denied their visit at the last minute because she had “received intelligence” that the two were journalists.

“We followed all of the prison’s procedures and rules. We arrived early with all documents. But we were told at reception that we would not be allowed in,” tweeted Vincent.

The RSF leaders have made it clear that they are not in fact journalists. “[RSF] defends journalists. Some of my colleagues have journalistic backgrounds. But we work as an NGO to support journalists,” wrote Vincent. “Our prison visit would be as an NGO, not journalistic.”

April 5, will mark 13 years since WikiLeaks published the infamous “Collateral Murder” video, which showed the US military killing of 12 civilians including two Reuters journalists in Baghdad.

“What has happened this morning is a shameful act and it is actually part of a pattern,” said Assange’s wife Stella outside of the prison. She was allowed her visit with Assange while Deloire and Vincent were barred. “This is a political persecution against a publisher who was only doing his job.”

According to RSF, the NGO has already faced extreme difficulty in monitoring Assange’s extradition proceedings, precisely for the opposite reason as supposedly why their visit was barred today: because they are an NGO and therefore not permitted to register for accreditation as journalists.

13 years ago today Julian Assange published the Collateral Murder video showing the gunning down of civilians in Iraq including two @Reuters journalists

For his commitment to the truth he now faces a 175 year sentence if extradited for truthful publishing https://t.co/1OW8c5y2oq pic.twitter.com/RqizzQbrYk

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 5, 2023

RSF also chronicled how the UK government has twice rejected their petitions to not extradite Assange, with tens of thousands of signatures.

Submitted by Gun Owners of America, 

It is fascinating to see how manipulation tactics are used by the anti-gun lobby to trick the average American into thinking that there is some large grassroots movement to push gun control. 

If you spoke to someone with anti-gun views, you’d probably hear stories about the boogeyman of the firearms industry and how that industry funnels millions upon millions of dollars from firearms corporations into politicians’ pockets to push for less restrictions on firearms.

This simpleminded explanation couldn’t be further from the truth. Major anti-gun organizations are funded by a small group of billionaire donors. Just take the group “March for Our Lives,” for example. 

Founded during the aftermath of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, March for Our Lives bills itself as a grassroots movement of young people working to restrict the average citizen’s Second Amendment Rights. In reality, they’re funded by about 36 wealthy donors. 

According to March for Our Lives’ tax documents, the group is funded almost entirely by large donations in excess of $100,000. According to that same report, only 0.5% of donations came from people giving less than $5,000. 

Meanwhile, groups like Gun Owners of America rely entirely on small donations from regular individuals to operate. But until recently, those donations came directly from those interested in becoming members of GOA. 

Earlier this month, GOA announced a partnership with Gearfire. For those not in the know, Gearfire is one of the largest point-of-sale system providers for gun ranges, gun shops, and firearms training facilities around the country. 

The partnership allows patrons of firearms businesses to round up their purchases and donate the funds to GOA’s Second Amendment Preservation Fund. 

Kailey Nieman, GOA’s Director of Development, issued the following statement:      

“Gun stores and ranges are the lifeblood of the Second Amendment. We are thrilled to be working with Gearfire and retailers across the country. We have never compromised on the Second Amendment, and it is partnerships like these that not only help fuel that mission but strengthen our efforts.” 

This partnership is an opportunity for average Americans to fight back against the billionaire class that wants to see them disarmed and the Second Amendment completely abolished. 

Because of donations from average Americans, GOA can continue fighting on Capitol Hill, where we work with US Senators and Congressmen to pass pro-gun legislation like the SHORT Act and more. 

But the work doesn’t stop on Capitol Hill. We’re also in the courts fighting to overturn bad laws in anti-gun states, and at the federal level. Notable cases include Texas v. ATF challenging the ATF’s Pistol Brace Rule, Morehouse v. ATF challenging the ATF’s “Ghost Gun” Rule, and Antonyuk v Hochul which deals with New York’s post-Bruen ban on carrying a firearm in “sensitive places.”

Small donations from our grassroots network of members help us achieve these goals. 

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We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.