Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

There was a time.

What seemed to be unfolding was a huge intellectual error for the history books.

A new virus had come along and everyone was freaking out and smashing all normal social functioning.

The excuse turns out just to be the cover story. Still, it bears examination.

Even though plenty of outside commentators said the pathogen should be handled in the normal way—with known treatment and calm while those most susceptible stayed cautious until endemicity—some people on the inside fell prey to a great fallacy. They had come to believe computer models over known realities. They thought that you could separate everyone, drive down infections, and then the virus would die out.

This was never a plausible scenario, as anyone who knew something about the history of pandemics would report. All known experience stood against this cockamamie scheme. The science was very clear and widely available: lockdowns do not work. Physical interventions in general achieve nothing.

But, hey, they said it was an experiment born of new thinking. They would give it a whirl.

When it became clear that the lockdowners had gained sway over policy, many of us thought, truly, how long can this really last? A week, maybe two. Then we would be done. But then something strange happened. The money began to flow. And flow. The states thought that was awesome so they kept it up. The money printers got to work. And general chaos broke out: social, cultural, educational, economic, and political.

It all happened so fast. The months rolled on with no break in the narrative. It became crazy after a time. There were so few critics. We didn’t know it but they were being silenced by a new machinery that had already been constructed for this purpose.

Among that which was censored was criticism of the inoculation potion that was being rolled out and which would eventually be forced on populations all over the world. They said it was 95 percent effective, but it wasn’t clear what that could mean. No coronavirus had ever been controlled by any vaccination. How could this be true? It wasn’t true. Nor did the shot stop the spread.

Many people said this at the time. But we couldn’t hear them. Their voices were muffled or silenced. The social media companies had already been taken over by government-connected interests working on behalf of intelligence agencies. We had believed that these tools were designed to increase our connections with others and enable free speech. Now they were being used to broadcast a preset regime narrative.

Strange industrial shifts took place. Gas cars were deprecated in favor of a new experiment in electric vehicles, thanks to intense consumer demand caused by shortages owing to supply chain breakages. Digital learning platforms got a huge boost because physical classrooms were closed. Online ordering and doorstep delivery became the rage because people were told not to leave their homes and small businesses were forcibly closed.

The pharma companies were riding high of course, gradually acculturating the population to a subscription model. There were attempts to convert whole countries to a health passport system. New York City tried this, along with actual physical segregation of the entire city, with the vaccinated considered clean while the unvaccinated were not allowed into restaurants, libraries, or theaters. The digital app didn’t work however, so that plan fell apart quickly.

All of this happened in less than one year. What began as an intellectual error in public health ended up looking like a digital coup d’état.

Coups of the past featured rebel armies from the hills storming the cities and joined by the military as they invaded the palace and the leader and his family fled in a carriage or helicopter depending on the epoch.

This was different. It was organized and planned by intelligence agencies within the structure of the global state, a great reset to reject the forms of the past and replace them all with a new dystopia.

Initially, the people who said this was a great reset were derided as crazed conspiracy theorists. But then it turned out that the head of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Klaus Schwab, had written a book by the very title that you could buy from Amazon. It turns out to be H.G. Wells’s “The Open Conspiracy” updated for the 21st-century technology.

There turns out to be much more than that. There was an angle to all of this that impacts the mechanisms we use for democratic control of societies. Buried in the flurry of bills shoved through in March 2020 was a liberalization of balloting and voting that would never have been tolerated before. In the name of social distancing, mail-in ballots would become the norm, along with the known irregularities they introduce.

Implausibly, this too was part of the plan.

Researching and realizing all of this in real time has been a bit much. It has shattered the old ideological paradigms. The old theories no longer explain the world as it is unfolding. It causes all of us to revisit our priors, at least those with minds adaptable enough to pay attention. For vast swaths of the intellectual class, this is not possible.

Looking back, we should have known something was up at the outset. There were too many anomalies. Were the people in charge really so stupid as to believe that you can make a virus go away by making everyone stay home? It’s absurd. You cannot control the microbial kingdom this way, and surely everyone with a modicum of intelligence knows this.

Another clue: there never was an exit plan. What exactly was fourteen days of frozen activity going to achieve? What was the benchmark of success? We were never told. Instead, the elites in media and government simply encouraged fear. And then met that fear with ridiculous protocols like dousing ourselves with sanitizer, masking while walking, and presuming every other person is a disease vector.

This was psychological warfare. To what end and how ambitious are these hidden plans for us?

Only four years later, we are grasping the fullness of what was going down.

For those of us schooled in the persistent incompetence of government to get anything right, much less deploy a plan with anything like precision, elaborate conspiracy theories of plots and schemes always seem implausible. We just don’t believe them.

This is why it took us so long to see the fullness of what was deployed in March 2020, a scheme that combined a plethora of seemingly disparate governmental/industrial ambitions including:

1) rollout of subscription/platform model of Pharma distribution,

2) mass censorship,

3) election management/rigging,

4) universal basic income,

5) industrial subsidies to digital platforms,

6) mass population surveillance,

7) cartelization of industry,

8) shift in income distribution and entrenchment of administrative state power,

9) crushing of ‘populist’ movements worldwide, and

10) the centralization of power generally speaking.

To top it off, all these efforts were global in scope. This whole model truly stretches the bounds of plausibility. And yet all the evidence points to exactly the above. It just goes to show that even if you don’t believe in conspiracies, conspiracies believe in you. It was a digital-age coup d’état unlike anything humanity has ever experienced.

How long will it take us to process this reality? We seem to be only at the early stages of understanding, much less resisting.

This week the Financial Times has published contents of a cache of leaked classified Russian documents said to lay out the country’s doctrine and strategy for tactical nuclear weapons use. Included in the documents is info on the Kremlin’s minimum criteria for using tactical nukes.

The criteria outlined in the secret files range “from an enemy incursion on Russian territory to more specific triggers, such as the destruction of 20% of Russia’s strategic ballistic missile submarines,” according to FT.

The question of the possibility of Russia and NATO stumbling toward nuclear war is without doubt heavy on the minds of many this week, especially after French President Emmanuel Macron’s Monday comments wherein he raised sending Western troops to fight Russia in Ukraine and said of the possibility, “nothing should be ruled out.”

Putin appeared to respond directly in his Thursday state of the nation televised address, spelling out: “Everything that they are coming up with now, with which they threaten the entire world – all this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization – don’t they understand this, or what?“

“They must ultimately understand that we also have weapons – and they know about it, just as I now said  – we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” he warned.

As for tactical nuke usage, Russia’s tactical arsenal has more limited range in comparison to strategic weapons, and thus are designed and intended for the possibility of a ‘nearer’ war in Europe or Asia. 

But worrisomely, the FT review of the documents (which date from 2008-2014) finds that the Kremlin likely has a threshold “lower than Russia has ever publicly admitted, according to experts who reviewed and verified the documents.” Experts cited in the FT say the contents of the leaks likely remain part of Moscow’s current nuclear doctrine.

The documents show that Russia has recently rehearsed scenarios involving war with China. Per the leaks and the FT report:

One exercise outlining a hypothetical attack by China notes that Russia, dubbed the “Northern Federation” for the purpose of the war game, could respond with a tactical nuclear strike in order to stop “the South” from advancing with a second wave of invading forces.

“The order has been given by the commander-in-chief . . . to use nuclear weapons . . . in the event the enemy deploys second-echelon units and the South threatens to attack further in the direction of the main strike,” the document said.

And for another scenario involving a hypothetical enemy invasion of Russian territory: 

A separate training presentation for naval officers, unrelated to the China war games, outlines broader criteria for a potential nuclear strike, including an enemy landing on Russian territory, the defeat of units responsible for securing border areas, or an imminent enemy attack using conventional weapons.

The slides summarise the threshold as a combination of factors where losses suffered by Russian forces “would irrevocably lead to their failure to stop major enemy aggression”, a “critical situation for the state security of Russia”.

🇷🇺 RUSSIA STATE OF THE NATION – PUTIN SPEECH
West risks nuclear war if NATO sends troops to Ukraine
“But now the consequences will be far more tragic,” said Putin. “They think it (war) is a cartoon,” he said. pic.twitter.com/YT7BxHzY7o

— Freddie Ponton 🇫🇷 (@LFCNewsMedia) February 29, 2024

Another envisioned situation seems to apply more for something like a Ukraine escalation scenario where there’s runaway escalation. According to the FT’s analysis and citations of the documents:

Other potential conditions include the destruction of 20 per cent of Russia’s strategic ballistic missile submarines, 30 per cent of its nuclear-powered attack submarines, three or more cruisers, three airfields, or a simultaneous hit on main and reserve coastal command centres.

Russia’s military is also expected to be able to use tactical nuclear weapons for a broad array of goals, including “containing states from using aggression […] or escalating military conflicts”, “stopping aggression”, preventing Russian forces from losing battles or territory, and making Russia’s navy “more effective”.

The particular above section has language in it which seems to lay out the most minimal threshold, but which perhaps leaves open the most interpretation for Russian leadership. Publicly at least, Kremlin leadership has said nuclear weapons could only be deployed if Russian territory and population face existential threat.

Putin in his aforementioned Thursday major address seemed to appeal in his nuclear warning given to NATO to this doctrine of “containing states from using aggression” – given that’s precisely what he’s now accusing the West of in Ukraine.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Thursday that Israel has killed over 25,000 Palestinian women and children in Gaza since October 7.

When asked how many women and children have been killed during a House Armed Services Committee, Austin replied, “It’s over 25,000.” The number is higher than the estimate that’s been put out by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The Gaza ministry said on Thursday that over 30,000 have been killed so far and has consistently said about 70% of the casualties are women and children, which puts the women and child death toll around 21,000.

Gaza’s Health Ministry does not account for the thousands of civilians who are missing and presumed to be dead under the rubble or for Palestinians who may have been buried instead of being sent to a hospital or morgue.

The breakdown of communications in the Gaza Strip has also impeded the Health Ministry’s ability to keep a count.

In October, President Biden accused the Palestinians of lying about the death toll when confronted about civilian casualties. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said.

But a few weeks later, Barbara Leaf, assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, acknowledged Gaza’s Health Ministry has always been reliable and said the true death toll is likely higher than what they’re reporting. Israeli media reports have also said that Israeli military officials believe the Health Ministry’s numbers are close to accurate.

Austin, a former Raytheon board member, also said the US had provided Israel with 21,000 munitions since October 7 to support the massacre, which does not include the American-provided bombs Israel was already armed with, as it receives $3.8 billion in military aid from the US each year.

Watch the moment Secretary Austin addressed casualties in Gaza…

The death toll in Gaza hit 30,035 today (almost certainly an undercount).

Just now, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that at least 25,000 of those people killed by Israeli forces were women & kids: pic.twitter.com/ZVXkdiePgQ

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) February 29, 2024

Despite the massive civilian casualty rate and the International Court of Justice ruling that it’s “plausible” Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, the US continues to provide unconditional military support and political cover.

A devastating wildfire ravages parts of the Texas Panhandle, home to more than 85% of the state’s cattle herd. This comes when the nation’s cattle herd has collapsed to a seven-decade low, pushing up retail beef prices at the supermarket to record high levels. 

Texas A&M Forest Service said the wildfire, called Smokehouse Creek fire, has scorched more than 850,000 acres (344,000 hectares) of grasslands as of Wednesday. 

Reuters spoke with state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who warned the wildfire has likely killed tens of thousands of livestock and destroyed grain in storage bins. 

“It’s almost like gasoline when it goes up,” Miller said, adding, “We have now lost over a million acres.

Massive wildfires burning in the Texas Panhandle sent cattle fleeing from the smoke. https://t.co/5PrXIHBO85 pic.twitter.com/RP62inDfKO

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 28, 2024

Miller said the wildfire rages in the Panhandle area, where 85% of the state’s herd is located. It’s important to note that Texas is the top cattle producer in the nation. He said cattle in feedlots and dairies are safe. 

“Feed supplies are scarce for surviving cattle because the fire destroyed grazing lands and bins holding crops like wheat and corn,” he said.

Miller continued: “There’s absolutely zero vegetation. The cattle that do survive, they have absolutely nothing to eat.”

Readers have been well informed about ‘beeflation’ and why it’s happening: 

• Dwindling US Cattle Herd Implies Supermarket Beef Prices May Rise Even More
• Hamburger Prices Might Continue To Rise As US Cattle Herd Shrinks
• US Cattle Prices Hit Nine-Year High As National Herd Drops To Half-Century Low
• US Beef Prices Hit Record High As Nation’s Cattle Herd Expected To Shrink Through 2025
• US Cattle Herd At 73-Year Lows As Retail Beef Prices At Record Highs

The latest data from the US Department of Agriculture’s biannual cattle inventory report earlier this month showed that the US cattle herd (as of Jan. 1) fell 2% from a year ago to 87.2 million cattle. That’s the smallest herd count since 1951. 

A shrinking herd has pushed US retail beef prices to a record of $5.35 per pound. And prices could go much higher. 

In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Miller said: “I know ranchers up there — families that have had these ranchers for more than 100 years — everything is gone.” 

Meanwhile, elites in the WEF cult have been pushing hard to ban cow farts because they allege it’s contributing to climate change. These folks are adamant about resetting the global food supply chain to one that puts working poor folks on a bug-heavy diet. 

We, the people, will not eat bugs.

The Significance Behind The Texas Fires

– This Is Another Blow To Our Supply Chain
– Where The Fires Happened Is Where 88% Of Texas Cattle Feed
– The US Is Already Down Roughly 1 Billion Pounds Of American Beef
– These Fires Are Another Win For Foreign Imports

Is it another… pic.twitter.com/HrF6XuVMnk

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 29, 2024

Now, more than ever, Americans must break out of the food industrial complex and start their own farms or simply buy from local mom-and-pop farms. 

Hunter Biden on Wednesday testified to Congress that his father, Joe, was indeed “the big guy” referenced in an email pertaining to a business deal with a Chinese state-linked energy company that made the Biden family and friends millions of dollars. He denied, however, that Joe Biden ever received a 10% stake as was indicated in the text message.

“At one point, we asked Hunter about the 10% for the ‘big guy,’” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told Breitbart News following the first son’s six-hour, closed-door deposition.

“We showed him the email … And he said, ‘Oh, that was after my father left office.’” she told the outlet.

Hunter then tried to downplay the 10% idea:

What’s wrong with having a pie-in-the-sky idea? When he [Joe Biden] left office in 2017, it thought he was done. I had no idea was gonna run for president. What’s wrong with just some pie?’ … thinking that he [Joe Biden] could be in the business. –Breitbart

Greene said that Hunter insisted that “there was no percentage for my father in the business,” and that the 20 speakerphone calls Joe Biden joined was considered normal.

“He was saying it’s totally normal for your parents to call you,” said Greene. “He just totally kept on saying, ‘Oh, this is normal. This is normal.'”

Greene also confirmed Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-KY) statement that Hunter testified he joined the board of Burisma Holdings to counter Russian aggression. “He said he was picked to serve on Burisma ‘s board to defend democracy and Burisma was stopping Russian aggression,” Greene said.

Hunter’s stated purpose for joining Burisma’s board is a new claim that indicates bizarre reasoning never before revealed.

In 2015, Burisma was under suspicion of money laundering and public corruption. Prosecutor Victor Shokin investigated the case before his termination due to pressure from then-Vice President Joe Biden, who threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid from Ukraine if the Ukrainian government did not fire the prosecutor investigating Burisma.

Joe Biden later bragged about the firing during a 2018 appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations. –Breitbart

According to Greene, Republicans need to “get ready” for Democrats to fabricate another Russian disinformation hoax related to Hunter and the 2024 election – and that it would likely fit the media’s existing narrative against both Trump and protecting the Biden family.

“I have a prediction that they’re gonna move it on to members of Congress like me and others, Jim Jordan, Jamie Comer, any of us that got hot and heavy on this Ukraine Burisma stuff, that they’re somehow going to say that Republicans are Russian sympathizers. They’re gonna call me that anyway, because I won’t fund the Ukraine war. They’re probably going to accuse us of being Russian sympathizers and falling for Russian disinformation and its election meddling. And then Democratic members of Congress here already saying they will not certify Trump’s election if he wins.” -MTG

“It was there’s a really weird theme in there with the whole Russian thing,” said Greene. 

In November, the House Oversight Committee revealed that President Biden received $40,000 in Chinese funds which were “laundered” through his brother, James Biden, in a “complicated financial transaction” marked as a ‘loan,’ which took place just weeks after Hunter Biden threatened the Chinese with his father’s wrath in a July 30, 2017 text message to a CEFC China Energy employee.

The alleged 2017 transfer from first brother James Biden to the future president involves the same business deal in which Joe Biden was called the “big guy” and penciled in for a 10% cut — and would be the first proven instance of the commander-in-chief getting a piece of his family’s foreign income.

…

The money ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account on Sept. 3, 2017, via a check labeled “loan repayment” from his younger brother, who partnered with Hunter in the venture. -NY Post

“Remember when Joe Biden told the American people that his son didn’t make money in China?” asked Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) in a video posted to X. ““Well, not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check.”

pic.twitter.com/WKwuRzmYUy

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) November 1, 2023

This of course came on the heels of another “loan” repayment from James to Joe for $200,000.

pic.twitter.com/tJUMLMD5iu

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 20, 2023

The aristocrats!

Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) is facing greater scrutiny after it was discovered that a minimum wage carveout he is pushing for would benefit one of his top campaign donors.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the newly-passed law that will go into effect in April will raise the minimum wage at fast-food chains from $16 to $20 an hour. However, the law includes an exception for restaurants that bake and sell bread; one of the chains that would thus be excluded from the new $20 minimum wage would be Panera Bread, which is owned by Democratic megadonor Greg Flynn.

Flynn had previously donated $100,000 to oppose the recall election against Newsom in 2021, then donated another $64,800 to support the governor’s re-election campaign in 2022. Flynn has even admitted to knowing Newsom so personally that he can text him directly.

Newsom claimed that the new law, known as the FAST Act, was negotiated after “countless hours of negotiations with dozens of stakeholders over two years.” Flynn denied having anything to do with the exception for Panera, although other sources have claimed that it was indeed Flynn who pressured Newsom into supporting the carveout.

The exception drew criticism even from figures who wouldn’t necessarily be political enemies of Newsom. Michelle Korsmo, the head of the National Restaurant Association, said that “everyone’s scratching their heads” in reaction to the exception, adding that “you may be celebrating or you may be lamenting the bakery exemption. But remember, all of that comes through relationships.”

Newsom’s push for the exception even drew criticism from the original author of the FAST Act, Assemblyman Chris Holden (D-Calif.), who said “we don’t know how that came about.”

Other fast-food chains lashed out at the law itself, regardless of the bizarre exception. A spokesman from McDonald’s said that the new law would cost each of the company’s locations at least $250,000 a year due to the forced pay raise. This reflects the ongoing trend of California passing laws that are increasingly hostile to businesses, thus forcing many companies to relocate to other states to escape such high costs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used the occasion of his much anticipated annual state of the nation address to directly warn NATO that sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine could result in nuclear war.

He explained that allegations from Western officials saying Russia intends to attack Europe are “nonsense”—after on Monday French President Emmanuel Macron really escalated the rhetoric by telling a security forum in Paris that sending Western troops to Ukraine “cannot be ruled out”. 

“Everything that they are coming up with now, with which they threaten the entire world – all this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization – don’t they understand this, or what?” Putin said.

“They must ultimately understand that we also have weapons – and they know about it, just as I now said  – we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” he warned.

On the battlefield, the Ukrainians have continued their retreat amid defeat in several villages and towns outside of Avdiivka. As we previously analyzed, it seems the more that evidence of Russia’s ‘winning’ the war becomes obvious, the more desperate the actions and rhetoric out of NATO officials becomes.

Putin acknowledged that the Russian military is “confidently advancing in a number of operational areas and liberating more and more territories” and currently “firmly holds the initiative” in Ukraine.

He also warned over Sweden’s recent approved accession into NATO, saying Russia is building up extra forces along its Western border to “neutralize the threats” of ongoing NATO expansion.

“The West has provoked conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and other regions around the world while consistently propagating falsehoods. Now they have the audacity to say that Russia harbours intentions of attacking Europe. Can you believe it? We all know that their claims are utterly baseless,” Putin said. 

Putin suggested that years of Western aggression and foreign meddling and disastrous interventions have only served to unite “numerous” countries and a “multi-ethnic people:

The so-called West, with its colonial practices and penchant for inciting ethnic conflicts around the world, not only seeks to impede our progress but also envisions a Russia that is a dependent, declining, and dying space where they can do as they please. In fact, they want to replicate in Russia what they have done in numerous other countries, including Ukraine: sowing discord in our home and weakening us from within. But they were wrong, which has become abundantly clear now that they ran up against the firm resolve and determination of our multi-ethnic people.

This is very dark. Putin gets to nuclear threats vs. the west quickly.

“We also have weapons that can strike targets on their territory […] We remember what happened to those who sent their forces to our country. Now consequences for interventionists will be far more tragic.” pic.twitter.com/oEFPBzZ7o1

— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 29, 2024

According to more from the speech via state media on his comments pertaining to ramped-up NATO involvement in Ukraine:

At the same time, those same nations are “selecting targets to conduct strikes on our territory,” the Russian head of state claimed, adding that there is now talk of “deploying NATO military contingents to Ukraine.”

Putin reminded would-be aggressors that all previous attempts to conquer Russia have ended in failure, warning that “now the consequences for potential invaders would be far more tragic.” He pointed out that Russia has a massive nuclear arsenal, which is in a state of “complete readiness for guaranteed deployment.”

The past two months have seen the Kremlin specifically accuse France of sending its mercenaries to northern cities like Kharkiv, in order to conduct cross-border drone and mortar attacks on Russian territory. Russia’s military says it has successfully targeted places where foreign fighters are staying, but Kiev has of course not confirmed this.

* * *

More from Putin’s speech: “Russia ready for dialogue”

“Russia is ready for dialogue with the United States on issues of strategic stability. However, it is important to clarify that in this case we are dealing with a state whose ruling circles are taking openly hostile actions towards us. So, they seriously intend to discuss strategic security issues with us while simultaneously trying to inflict strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield, as they themselves say…

…Indeed, just like any other ideology promoting racism, national superiority or exceptionalism, Russophobia is blinding and stupefying. The United States and its satellites have, in fact, dismantled the European security system which has created risks for everyone.

Clearly, a new equal and indivisible security framework must be created in Eurasia in the foreseeable future. We are ready for a substantive discussion on this subject with all countries and associations that may be interested in it. At the same time, I would like to reiterate (I think this is important for everyone) that no enduring international order is possible without a strong and sovereign Russia.”

Putin’s response allegations of ‘nukes in space’

“Here is a good example of their hypocrisy. They have recently made unfounded allegations, in particular, against Russia, regarding plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space. Such fake narratives, and this story is unequivocally false, are designed to involve us in negotiations on their conditions, which will only benefit the United States.

…At the same time, they have blocked our proposal which has been on the table for over 15 years. I am referring to the agreement on preventing the deployment of weapons in outer space, which we drafted back in 2008. There has been zero reaction to it. It is totally unclear what they are talking about.”

With the horrifying death toll in Ukraine, it’s past time for the West to push Kiev toward serious peace negotiations, and for a final end to this war, now having entered its third year.

Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

Questions are mounting as to why Joe Biden was not given a cognitive test during his medical examination yesterday.

Biden underwent a physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center yesterday, with Dr Kevin O’Connor asserting there were no new concerns about Biden’s health.

Mr Biden “is a healthy, active, robust, 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,” wrote O’Connor in his report.

However, the exam did not include a cognitive test despite innumerable examples of Biden getting lost on stage, thinking he had talked to dead political leaders and falling prey to embarrassing verbal gaffes in recent months.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ludicrously said Dr O’Connor and Biden’s neurologist “don’t believe he needs” a cognitive exam, and added: “He passes a cognitive test every day, every day as he moves from one topic to another topic, understanding the granular level of these topics.”

Before the results were released, which contained no information whatsoever about Biden’s cognitive health, Dr. Marc Siegel said that the president’s mental acuity should have been the top priority.

“What I’m concerned about and what the American public is concerned about is what are they gonna say about his neurological exam,” said Dr. Siegel, drawing attention to Biden’s “stiffened gait”.

“To a lot of neurologists who I have talked to, it’s a shuffling gate that looks like it could come from some kind of neurological problem,” he added.

“What does the MRI of the brain show?” asked Siegel, adding that there have been “a lot of lapses going on that would want us to see an MRI of the brain.”

Siegel said that a lot of people who showed as much difficulty with walking as Biden would be using a cane.

“If he falls on his head on blood thinners, that’s an enormous problem, it’s not just an 81-year-old falling, it’s an 81-year-old falling on blood thinners,” noted the doctor.

As we previously highlighted, after Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in his report that Biden did not remember when he was vice-president or within “several years” when his son Beau died, Canadian neurologist Dr. Ziad Nasreddine, who invented the ‘gold standard’ of cognitive tests, told the New York Post that all ageing politicians should take it.

Democrats are panicking to replace Biden after he twice claimed to have recently spoken to political leaders who have been dead for decades.

The White House tried to dismiss the mistake as “normal,” but one ally told the Telegraph that his recent press conference performance was “the worst day” of Biden’s entire presidency.

*  *  *

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the regional bank waters…

Remember New York Community Bank – the embattled bank that made the surprise decision to slash its dividend to stockpile cash (in case commercial real estate loans go bad) amid mounting pressure from a top US watchdog (read here, here, and here)?

Well theeeyyyy’re back!

According to a regulatory filing this evening, NYCB disclosed that it identified material weaknesses in its internal controls related to internal loan review as part of an assessment.

“Management identified material weaknesses in the company’s internal controls related to internal loan review, resulting from ineffective oversight, risk assessment and monitoring activities,” the bank said in the filing.

Due to this, the bank will delay its annual report.

“‘NYCB’ has determined that it is unable to file, without unreasonable effort or expense, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023

NYCB also took a $2.4 BN hit to 4Q and annual net (loss) income, as GAAP accounting required a “goodwill impairment” charge for the quarter and fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2023.

Separately, New York Community Bancorp said it appointed executive chairman Alessandro (Sandro) DiNello as president and CEO, effective immediately.

Thomas Cangemi has stepped down from this role, but will remain a member of the board.

“It is my mandate as president and CEO, alongside our Board, to continue our transformation into a larger, more diversified commercial bank,” DiNello said.

“While we’ve faced recent challenges, we are confident in the direction of our bank and our ability to deliver for our customers, employees and shareholders in the long term.”

The company also named Marshall Lux presiding director of the board, effective immediately, after Hanif Dahya stepped down from the role (in opposition to DiNello’s appointment).

NYCB Shares are down over 10% in the after-market, having stabilized (albeit at lower levels) after early Feb’s debacle (that wiped over 50% of the bank’s value away)…

Full filing details below:

On January 31, 2024, NYCB filed a Current Report on Form 8-K furnishing under Items 2.02 and 9.01 the Company’s press release announcing its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 (the “Original Filing”). The full text of the press release was included as Exhibit 99.1 to the Original Filing.

On February 29, 2024, NYCB filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) an Amendment (the “Amendment”) to the Original Filing to reflect, among other things, (a) an adjustment related to a goodwill impairment with respect to 2007 and prior transactions, as more fully described therein, (b) certain measurement period adjustments impacting the Company’s bargain purchase gain from the Company’s acquisition of certain assets and liabilities of the former Signature Bank through a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation facilitated transaction and (c) an adjustment for a type 1 subsequent event (as more fully described in the Amendment). Each of these adjustments were identified by NYCB’s management after the date of the Original Filing and as part of the Company’s customary procedures to finalize its financial statements for inclusion in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 (the “2023 Form 10-K”).

Separately, as part of management’s assessment of the Company’s internal controls, management identified material weaknesses in the Company’s internal controls related to internal loan review, resulting from ineffective oversight, risk assessment and monitoring activities. Although assessment of the Company’s internal controls is not yet complete, the Company expects to disclose in the 2023 Form 10-K that its disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting were not effective as of December 31, 2023. The Company’s remediation plan with respect to such material weaknesses is expected to be described in the 2023 Form 10-K.

The Company has been working diligently to finalize the 2023 Form 10-K; however, the Company must complete its work related to the evaluation and planning for remediation of the material weaknesses described above and other items included in the Amendment. Accordingly, the Company has determined that it is unable to file, without unreasonable effort or expense, the 2023 Form 10-K by the prescribed due date.

The Company expects to file its 2023 Form 10-K within the fifteen calendar day grace period provided by Form 12b-25. The Company does not currently anticipate that its statement of operations contained in the 2023 Form 10-K will differ materially from those reported for the full fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, in the Amendment dated February 29, 2024.

Does anyone trust any of the valuations in the loan book after this?

The sitting US Commander-in-Chief seems to sometimes just make stuff up on the fly, based on apparently no real information, but just because it sounds good in the moment. Here’s what he said at the start of the week… Biden while in an ice cream shop Tuesday in New York with Seth Meyers was asked by a reporter when he thought a ceasefire could begin, to which he answered he hoped a truce would be implemented within days. “Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend,” he said. And that’s when offered Monday as the day the warring sides will reach a ceasefire. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is, by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire.”

As we reported earlier, Israeli officials and even Hamas seemed to have no idea what he was talking about. Both sides issued statements concerning the Qatar-mediated negotiations process saying they are a long way away from achieving any kind of truce. Biden’s somewhat off the cuff remarks likely even raised eyebrows among his own officials, given the totality of reporting over the last several days has been negative on the prospect of an imminent peace deal and hostage/prisoner swap. 

And now by week’s end, on Thursday Biden issued the opposite assessment, and even pinpointed his own prior “Monday” remarks. Apparently some his own negotiators got back to him (including likely the CIA Director William Burns, who has been key in the talks) and told him they’re not even close. After all, PM Netanyahu has been hammering the “delusional” Hamas demands, something he’s just repeated again on Thursday. Biden now says: “I was on the telephone with the people in the region. Probably not by Monday.”

🇺🇸🇵🇸BIDEN: No Gaza Ceasefire Soon…

“I was on the telephone with the people in the region. Probably not by Monday.”

Source: Fox News pic.twitter.com/gssaVVrGpX

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 29, 2024