Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

News Analysis

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Republican voters delivered a decisive result for President Donald Trump in the South Carolina presidential primary. The former president demonstrated his command over Republican voters in the fourth and final early primary, defeating the state’s former governor Nikki Haley by 20 percentage points on Feb. 24.

“The people spoke for Trump,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told The Epoch Times, virtually waving a white flag over the Haley campaign, of which he had been a notable proponent.

Ms. Haley has vowed to continue her run for the White House at least through Super Tuesday, March 5, when 15 states will conduct presidential primaries.

Yet the overwhelming support for President Trump in South Carolina, which builds on the momentum generated in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, validates Mr. Norman’s assessment.

Neither legal battles, nor age, nor mean tweets, nor the outcome of previous elections will keep the party from nominating its favorite son.

Republicans want Donald Trump, and nobody but Donald Trump, and many appear immune to any argument to the contrary.

Age and Vitality

Ms. Haley has begun to criticize the former president, albeit gingerly. One line of attack was a veiled reference to his age and the insinuation that he represents an older generation.

Ms. Haley tied President Trump to incumbent President Joe Biden, whose age and mental acuity have become a concern to many voters. Ms. Haley frequently repeated polling numbers suggesting that 70 percent of Americans do not want either man in office, and said that electing either one would be voting for “more of the same.”

Referring to herself as a fresher, more vigorous alternative, Ms. Haley often used the phrase “new generational leader.”

The idea sticks with many Haley supporters, who picture her as a fresher, more vigorous candidate.

“I don’t want either old man in the White House,” Haley supporter Diane Derusha, 75, of Mt. Pleasant told The Epoch Times.

However, the argument failed to persuade President Trump’s core voters in the Palmetto state, most of whom believe he is actually more fit for the job as leader of the free world than Ms. Haley.

Among Republican voters in South Carolina, 69 percent said Trump has the physical and mental health to be president, according to exit polling reported by CBS. Just 62 percent of them said the same of Ms. Haley.

Electability

Ms. Haley’s most direct attack on President Trump centered on his ability to win a general election. “Donald Trump can’t win,” she said in stump speeches. “He lost in 2018. He lost in 2020. He lost in 2022, and he continues to lose.”

Referring to polling data on hypothetical matchups between President Trump vs. President Biden and herself vs. President Biden, Ms. Haley told reporters in Columbia on Feb. 2, “Trump doesn’t defeat Joe Biden … I defeat Biden.”

Indeed, a number of polls show that Ms. Haley would fare better in the general election than would President Trump. The latest, conducted by Marquette University, shows Ms. Haley with a 16 percent lead over President Biden. Other polls show a lead of about 3 percent.

Polls involving President Trump have shown him winning by about 2 percentage points. Others indicate that he would lose to President Biden.

Haley supporters are well-attuned to that polling and are convinced Ms. Haley is the more electable candidate.

“If you look at the big picture, do we want to win?” Melanie Sabelhaus, co-chair of Women for Nikki, said on Feb. 23. “Wake up America! We want to win. The polls are saying … she can beat Joe Biden.”

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has also seen the same opportunity, noting that the GOP results from South Carolina show this is a “three-way race,” thanks to those who won’t vote for President Trump or President Biden.

Tonight’s results in South Carolina proved this is officially a three-way race.

A recent NBC poll showed that in a three-way dead heat, 34% of Americans could see themselves voting for me right now. I have the highest net favorability of any candidate and continue to gain…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) February 25, 2024

Part of Ms. Haley’s favorable polling against President Biden could be that she draws strong support among moderates, independents, and even some Democrats. In the New Hampshire primary, 70 percent of voters choosing Mrs. Haley were independents.

In South Carolina, 53 percent of Haley voters were independents, and 70 percent described themselves as moderates.

“I’ve already voted for Nikki,” Kurt Kehelbeck, 64, of Charleston, told The Epoch Times, having cast his ballot during the early voting period.

But to win the Republican primary, a candidate must have the support of Republican voters. And most of that support has gone to President Trump.

As for electability in the general election, most Republican voters still believe President Trump would fare better than Ms. Haley.

Of Republican primary voters, 83 percent said President Trump was either “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to defeat President Biden in a general election. For Ms. Haley, just 59 percent said the same.

Normalcy

Ms. Haley has positioned her candidacy as a return to “normalcy” after what she described as disorder and unpredictability surrounding President Trump, who pitches his presidency around efforts to “drain the swamp.”

“Chaos follows him,” she told rally goers in Columbia on Feb. 1.

“He’s gotten more unstable and unhinged,” Ms. Haley said of President Trump in a speech at Clemson University on Feb. 20.

After the New Hampshire primary, Ms. Haley added a line to her stump speech about President Trump’s reaction to her 40 percent share of the vote.

“Donald Trump had a temper tantrum on stage. He was completely unhinged. All he did was talk about revenge … and my dress,” she told supporters in Myrtle Beach on Feb. 22.

But two days earlier, when Laura Ingraham asked what revenge meant to him during a Fox News town hall, President Trump was given a chance to respond to the media coverage about his alleged plans for vengeance.

“I don’t care about the ‘revenge’ thing. I know they use the word ‘revenge,’ ‘Will there be revenge?’” he said. “My revenge will be success.”

Ms. Haley’s supporters are apt to use words like “disrespectful” or “arrogant” to describe President Trump. They appear to see Ms. Haley as calmer and more level-headed.

“The most important thing she can do is bring a divided country together. She can reach across the aisle and begin to heal what’s broken,” Mark Wilson, 65, of Mt. Pleasant told The Epoch Times.

Many of President Trump’s supporters, on the other hand, seem more likely to believe that America is in the midst of an internal conflict that needs to be won rather than healed.

Of those who voted for President Trump in this primary, 90 percent said the most important characteristic they look for in a candidate is someone who “fights for people like me.”

“If we don’t take this country back, we’re going to be like Afghanistan or Iraq or Iran or some third world country,” Douglas Benton of Myrtle Beach told The Epoch Times. If things didn’t change, he said, “It’s going to get ugly.”

Lawsuits

As President Trump’s legal problems have mounted over the past year, Ms. Haley has leveraged them as an argument against his presidential candidacy.

“He spent $50 million of his campaign funds to pay for legal fees. Are you kidding me?” she told reporters in Columbia on Feb. 1. “How’s he going to campaign against Joe Biden when he has no money?” she asked, adding that his court cases will continue throughout the year.

To many Trump supporters, the former president’s legal woes have no bearing on his ability to get elected or to govern. Many view the cases against him as abuses of prosecutorial power intended to scare away voters and keep him out of office. As such, his candidacy is cast as a quest for justice.

Michael Large, 62, of Moncks Corner told The Epoch Times he wanted to “show my support for a man that I believe is being politically persecuted and deserves another chance. That’s really why I want him in office.”

Exit polls showed that 67 percent of Trump supporters believed his legal problems don’t matter, and 61 percent said he would be fit to hold office even if convicted of a crime.

Perhaps the most telling finding of the exit pollsters is that Republican voters were largely unpersuadable in the days before this primary.

Most Republican voters had made their choice long before heading to a polling site. More than two-thirds of Trump voters had locked in their choice more than a month before the election.

If the mindset of Republican voters generally mirrors that of South Carolinians, the grail quest for a dozen Republican candidates whose last name is not “Trump” and a significant number of Republican and independent voters in the GOP presidential race appears to be futile.

Voters are saying, there simply is no Republican alternative to Donald Trump.

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Since the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, a significant number of vaccinated people have reported various adverse reactions.

Some adverse events are widely acknowledged, like blood clots and myocarditis. Others are less publicly discussed but are still present in the research literature.

The Epoch Times reviewed the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), the United Kingdom’s Yellow Card Reporting system, South Africa’s VAERS database, and numerous peer-reviewed studies, selecting the top reported adverse events with literature support. Their severity determines the order of the events.

It is worth noting that VAERS is a passive reporting system that relies on people to send in reports of their experiences. It may not determine causality but “is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns” that might indicate a possible vaccine safety signal, according to the official website.

Some of the adverse events have been previously reported by The Epoch Times. These are supplied with links to past articles with more information.

What Causes COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reactions?

Clinicians treating persistent vaccine adverse reactions believe that the leading cause of such injuries is the COVID-19 spike protein.

Spike proteins exist on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that invades cells and causes disease. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines also induce the body to make spike proteins. The cells that are exposed to the mRNA produce spike proteins and then display these proteins on their surfaces. The immune system then attacks these spike proteins, thereby forming an immunity against them. The cells may also be destroyed.

Other types of COVID-19 vaccines use similar tactics.

However, the spike protein is highly inflammatory and toxic, and clinicians have observed that although people generate antibodies after vaccination, some start suffering from a wide variety of unexplainable symptoms.

Clinicians have put forward six pathways through which the spike protein can cause damage:

1. Immune dysregulation
2. Blood clotting and vascular damage
3. Mitochondrial dysfunction
4. Mast cell activation syndrome
5. Autoimmune reactions
6. Tissue damage through spike persistence

The lipid nanoparticles in the mRNA vaccines may also contribute to reported adverse events. Studies show that lipid nanoparticles activate inflammatory chemicals and affect immune activity.

COVID-19 Vaccine General Adverse Events

The most common COVID-19 vaccine adverse events are those that affect the body generally.

• Chest pain may be a sign of myocarditis, but it can also be due to inflamed rib joints, lung inflammation, or neuropathy in the chest—all of which will be explained later in the article.
• Fatigue after vaccination is mostly transient. However, some people may experience persistent and debilitating fatigue, where even taking showers or doing a basic chore leaves them exhausted for the remainder of the day. Around 8 percent to 80 percent of vaccinated individuals report fatigue as a side effect, with most cases being mild. However, for some people, fatigue may never seem to get better. A study that followed 498 vaccinated physicians and dentists showed that around 6 percent reported long-term fatigue post-vaccination. One possible reason for the fatigue is mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria are the body’s cellular powerhouse, present in most cells and responsible for producing energy for the body.
• Fever and chills may manifest due to the body’s immune system fighting off the vaccine and are usually transient.
• Swelling and pain at the injection site is usually transient. Pain can also happen throughout the body.
• Armpit pain may indicate that the body’s immunity is fighting off infections. The armpit area houses a cluster of lymph nodes that contain immune cells. These lymph nodes can become swollen after infection and vaccinations, leading to pain in the underarm area.

Nervous System Disorders

Nervous system disorders are some of the most common adverse events reported. In the Pfizer trials, these disorders were the third most common, coming after general and muscle-related adverse events, while they were the second most common in the Moderna trials.

Animal and model studies have shown that spike proteins can cross the blood-brain barrier. A 2023 preprint study found spike proteins in the brain tissues of deceased COVID-19 patients. The histological brain examinations of the late German pathologist Dr. Arne Burkhardt showed that spike proteins damage blood vessels in the brain.

Spike proteins share structural similarities with proteins present in the human nervous system, and when our bodies attack the spike protein, collateral damage to the nerves may also occur. mRNA vaccines also contain a prion region and have been shown to accelerate the formation of misfolded proteins, which are potentially linked to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Guillain-Barré Syndrome

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) as a safety signal of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine. A study published in Scientific Reports found that COVID-19 vaccine recipients have a 42 percent increased incidence of developing GBS.

GBS is an autoimmune disease. COVID-19 spike proteins share similarities with over 28 human proteins, including glial tissues and brain growth factors. Therefore, if the body attacks the spike protein, some of the antibodies formed may also attack the brain and the nervous system, potentially leading to neurological disorders.

Dementia

While COVID-19 vaccination has not been directly linked to dementia, it has been linked with cognitive deficits, memory loss, and delirium, all of which are symptoms of dementia.

A study funded by the National Institute on Aging reported delirium the day after vaccination in older people in a nursing home, but it was resolved within two weeks.

The Italian NEURO-COVAX population-based study evaluating over 19,000 people found that almost 2 percent reported cognitive fog after vaccination.

Seizures

In October 2022, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers detected seizures as a safety signal for children aged 5 and under who received the mRNA vaccines. A Japanese study that followed 332 people with epilepsy observed seizure worsening following vaccination in 5.7 percent of those who received their first and second COVID-19 vaccines.

Data from the Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) showed that the first and second doses of the Moderna vaccine were associated with an increased risk of febrile seizures, convulsions in children caused by a fever. The first dose of the Moderna vaccine and fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine were associated with an increased risk of generalized seizures.

Additionally, the first dose of the Moderna vaccine was also associated with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a type of autoimmune condition that may present as seizure attacks.

Gait Disturbance

One review linked four cases of gait disturbance to the COVID-19 vaccine. Another paper published in Cureus reported four neurological case studies, with one patient developing gait disturbance from Guillain-Barré syndrome and one from meningitis-retention syndrome.

Researchers at the University of Florida followed several Parkinson’s disease patients who experienced worsening Parkinsonian symptoms after vaccination, with gait disturbance being the most common.

Bell’s Palsy

Bell’s palsy manifests as facial muscle weakness or paralysis and has been recognized as a COVID-19 vaccine safety signal by researchers at the FDA. An FDA preprint found that older people who received the Pfizer booster had a higher rate of developing Bell’s palsy.

Data from the GVDN similarly found that the first doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were associated with an increased risk of Bell’s palsy.

Tremors

Tremors may be a sign of brain and neural damage, causing impairment in motor control.

A case study published by clinicians at the Cleveland Clinic reported a man who developed tremors in all four limbs 12 days after he took the second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, the Italian NEURO-COVAX study found that 1.5 percent of vaccinated individuals reported tremors, and the same amount reported muscle spasms.

Sensory Changes

Sensory changes such as pins and needles, temperature intolerance, pain, and lack of sensation are all indicators of neuropathy. The Epoch Times has reported on neuropathy that occurs after vaccination.

Neuropathy is when sensory neurons in the periphery are damaged. If the neuron is meant to detect heat, then the damage may cause a burning sensation or reduced ability to detect temperature. Damage to the neurons meant to detect touch may result in a pins-and-needles feeling, diminished sensation, or even a feeling of electric shock.

Headaches and Dizziness

Though many people have temporary headaches or dizziness after vaccination, some may also experience persistent and painful migraines that affect daily living. These headaches may be the result of neuroinflammation induced by the spike protein.

Fainting, or a temporary loss of consciousness, can occur due to decreased blood flow to the brain.

Cardiac Disorders

Spike proteins have been shown to damage the endothelium lining of the heart, causing inflammation and fusing the heart muscle cells, as demonstrated by research conducted at the Mayo Clinic. Both processes can harm the heart muscles’ functioning, leading to various conditions.

A German study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology showed that heart cells exposed to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines produce spike protein and exhibit different abnormalities.

Cardiac Arrest

There has only been a few studies linking cardiac arrest with COVID-19 vaccination. Analysis of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) adverse events database showed that the COVID-19 vaccines were associated with an increased risk of cardiac arrest in those older than 75 years of age.

Only one peer-reviewed study has linked cardiac arrest with the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine, in which a 59-year-old male with no significant past medical history received a third dose of the mRNA shot and experienced cardiac arrest within seven hours.

Cardiomyopathy

Cardiomyopathy is a condition affecting the heart muscle. The heart cavities may become enlarged, with the muscles becoming thicker or stiffer, causing a weakened heart and even leading to heart failure or cardiac arrest.

A 2022 global review on stress cardiomyopathy cases reported post-vaccination found that, on average, most symptoms occurred around three days after vaccination. The authors concluded that the problem is rare but can be life-threatening. Medical journals documented several cases of cardiomyopathy, including one healthy 63-year-old woman with no cardiovascular risk factors who was admitted to the emergency room one day after her first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Heart Attack

Spike protein damages blood vessels and is also prone to forming blood clots, which can block coronary arteries, leading to heart attacks. The WHO’s adverse events database showed that the COVID-19 vaccines are associated with an elevated risk of heart attacks in those older than 75.

Several case studies have reported heart attacks within 24 hours of vaccination, including one Japanese case study and one Harvard University study.

Myocarditis and Pericarditis

Reports of myocarditis as a safety signal have been extensively reported in The Epoch Times’ premium reports. Recently, FDA researchers have also detected myocarditis as a safety signal for the latest COVID-19 monovalent vaccines.

It can occur as a result of spike protein damaging the heart muscles. A paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that the Moderna vaccine was associated with a higher rate of myocarditis than the Pfizer vaccine for young men.

Like myocarditis, pericarditis is also a type of heart inflammation, but the outside heart lining is affected rather than the heart muscles. Pericarditis can lead to pericardial effusion, which occurs when fluid builds up around the heart. The Epoch Times has reported on a professional mountain biker who was diagnosed with pericarditis after vaccination and was hospitalized.

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

Cases of POTS have increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. POTS is a condition that causes rapid heart rate when a person changes positions from lying down to standing up, indicating dysfunction between the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Dr. Tae Chung, director of the Johns Hopkins POTS program, noticed some unusual cases among medical students or physicians who were vaccinated but not infected with COVID-19. Later, a large cohort study identified a possible link between the COVID-19 vaccine and the disease.

In July 2023, The Epoch Times spoke to two women in their 20s who were diagnosed with POTS after COVID-19 vaccination.

Arrhythmia

Arrhythmias occur when there is an electrical malfunctioning of the heart, with heartbeats becoming too rapid, slow, or irregular.

A study published in Vaccine: X found an increased risk for arrhythmias without myocarditis within 14 days of a second dose of mRNA vaccine in adults. The Moderna vaccine presented a greater risk than the Pfizer. A systematic review concluded that “the incidence rate … of cardiac arrhythmia post-COVID-19 vaccination is rare and ranges between 1 and 76 per 10,000.” Another 2023 review said the problem is “not uncommon.”

Atrial fibrillation, the most common type of arrhythmia, has also been reported in the literature.

Hypertension

As the vaccination campaign continues, evidence of possible blood pressure alteration has accumulated. The mechanism is unknown; it may be linked to the reduction of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) receptors in the body, as spike proteins bind to ACE-2 receptors to enter cells.

A meta-analysis study published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease examining data on 357,387 vaccinated individuals found that around 3.2 percent reported an increase in blood pressure in post-vaccination reports filed 15 minutes to days after vaccination.

Heart Palpitations

Heart palpitation is a sign of underlying heart disease, though it is typically transient and non-severe.

Blood Disorders

A major side effect reported following vaccination is blood clots. Spike proteins are particularly prone to clotting. While most blood clots require the presence of thrombin and platelets, spike proteins can form clots even in the absence of these proteins.

Early in the vaccine rollout, the now discontinued J&J vaccine was shown to cause blood clotting despite low platelets in the blood. The mRNA vaccines have similar problems.

Spike proteins also change the structure of the proteins inside the clot, resulting in amyloid-like blood clots that are much larger and harder to break down. Multiple studies have shown that spike proteins directly bind to clotting factors in the blood, promoting both large and microclot formations.

Depending on where the blood clots form, patients may develop various pathologies related to the clotting.

Read more here…

In a very unexpected plot twist, Ukraine appears to be in agreement with the Kremlin on Alexei Navalny’s death inside a far northern Russian prison which occurred on Feb. 16 and was listed by Russian authorities as officially due to “natural causes”. The dominant Western narrative has thus far been that Putin had him “murdered”. 

Yet now Kiev sources are saying that the anti-Putin activist supported by the West died of a blood clot. Surprisingly, this explanation is being advanced among Ukraine media sources after none other than Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR), bluntly stated it to a group of journalists on Sunday. “I may disappoint you, but as far as we know, he indeed died as a result of a blood clot. And this has been more or less confirmed,” Budanov stated.

“This wasn’t sourced from the internet, but, unfortunately, natural [causes],” he added in the remarks which were also caught on video. The spy chief’s words were also picked up in The Daily Mail, though predictably US mainstream outlets have been slow to acknowledge the assessment.

Further, the NATO-friendly pundit Anton Gerashchenko, who also served as former Ukrainian Advisor to Internal Affairs Minister, has said the following:

Vladimir Osechkin, founder of Gulagu. Net, says that, according to his sources, Navalny was killed (finished off with a blow to the chest) after being tortured with frost.

Head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov said that according to his sources, “it was a blood clot.”

Over the weekend Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, said her son’s body was finally released to the family. She has said Russian officials are seeking to pressure the family into doing a ‘secret funeral’ so as not to attract public demonstrations. “We do not know if the authorities will interfere to carry it out as the family wants and as Alexey deserves,” she said previously.

Navalny’s wife has laid ultimate blame on Putin for his death, while President Biden too and other Western leaders have said “Putin is responsible.”

“What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality,” Biden had said immediately after Navalny’s death was announced by Russian prison services. Some European leaders quickly branded Putin’s government a “rogue regime” as a result, urging that Moscow “must be held accountable”. The whole situation seems akin to the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, where there was a rush to blame Moscow, but allegation which were later quieted and walked back.

Meanwhile, Russia hawks in the US are urging the administration to go beyond last Friday’s large round of new anti-Moscow sanctions…

Lindsay Graham: “Let’s make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law. Let’s make them pay for Navalny’s death…”

“President Biden told Putin, if something happens to Navalny, you’re going to pay a price.

President Biden: I agree with you. The price they should pay… pic.twitter.com/FXFBey68UH

— Ben Swann (@BenSwann_) February 21, 2024

Another stunning development and further plot twist has emerged via Bloomberg reporting on Monday. Navalny was supposedly very close to being released amid secret talks involving the US and Germany:

Alexey Navalny had been close to release in a prisoner exchange with the US and Germany shortly before his death in an Arctic prison, a top aide to the Russian opposition leader said.

“Navalny was supposed to be freed in the coming days,” Maria Pevchikh said in a video statement posted Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin was offered an assassin imprisoned in Germany in exchange for Navalny and two US citizens, she said.

Moscow has long been seeking to gain the freedom of Vadim Krasikov, who is currently serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park. Krasikov is widely believed to be part of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. Washington had reportedly previously rebuffed any prisoner swap deal involving Krasikov (related to talks in the context of the Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout swap).

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, ex-Marine Paul Whelan, and schoolteacher Marc Fogel are all still in Russian custody. Two Americans were supposed to be part of this alleged impending Navalny swap. According to more from Bloomberg, citing a Navalny family spokesperson: 

Pevchikh didn’t name the two Americans involved in the deal. “Putin was clearly told that the only way to get Krasikov is to exchange him for Navalny,” said Pevchikh. Instead, he decided to “get rid of the bargaining chip” and “offer someone else when the time comes.”

Meanwhile, news of Navalny’s funeral arrangements will likely emerge in the coming days. His family has hinted at their desire to see it happen in Moscow, which could spark anti-Kremlin protests.

As for the aforementioned blood clot narrative offered by Ukraine’s military intelligence chief and possible context helping to explain why such a top level Kiev official would essentially “side” with the Kremlin on this, what’s missed in the West is the fact that Navalny had always been a fairly hardline nationalist. From a Ukrainian perspective, he wasn’t necessarily seen as an “ally” per se, even though he was anti-Putin. For more crucial context, see the below brief segment discussing Navalny’s checkered past…

Surprising observations by @Alexey__Kovalev on PodSave w/ @TVietor08 @brhodes

He says Navalny is actually to the right of Putin on key issues, and is anti-immigrant like Trump

Looked into it more and found a horrific skit by Navalny doing a mock execution of a Muslim immigrant pic.twitter.com/fr5gogPmXn

— Erik Sperling 🌍 (@ErikSperling) January 29, 2021

Commercial real estate is the third-largest asset class, trailing only behind fixed income and equities. Despite the “Magnificent Seven” driving broad equity indexes to new highs, CRE markets are experiencing a worsening downturn, particularly in the office sector. A series of notable CRE loan defaults and regional bank failures underscores this mess. 

Goldman’s senior equity research analyst Susan Maklari penned a note for clients on Monday titled “Non-Residential Construction: January Data Indicates Soft Start to the Year” (avail. to pro subs in the usual place). 

Maklari cited data from the Dodge Momentum Index, a 12-month leading indicator of construction spending for nonresidential buildings. She found that the index rose 0.1% in January to 184.1 from 183.9 in December but was down 8% from 199.3 a year ago. 

“We will continue to monitor readings in the coming months given heightened risks surrounding commercial sub-sectors,” she said. 

Meanwhile, the Architecture Billings Index is in contraction territory. Here’s more from the analyst

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) decreased to 46.2 from 46.5 in December. The commercial/industrial component fell to 47.0, from 47.2 in December, while the pace of institutional decline improved to 48.5 from 47.9 last month. Despite weaker backlogs, we believe the macro backdrop will support activity in certain verticals this year. We note the ABI is a leading indicator of spending for non-residential construction activity, with an average lead time of 9-12 months. 

Our guess is that a continued gloomy outlook for CRE construction spending and waning demand for construction products and services will persist this year because of tight financial conditions. 

And let’s not forget Morgan Stanley’s latest note explaining that the “greatest headwind” facing the office segment of the CRE market is “years of supply.” 

It remains to be seen if upside momentum in the Dodge Momentum Index returns this year as fears of inflation re-accelerating has repriced rates market from 7 to 3 cuts this year. The first expected rate cut has been pushed from March to July. 

It’s safe to say the CRE downturn will continue throughout the year.

Authored by Steve Ispas and Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

It was as simple as flipping a switch, but doing so could have catastrophic consequences.

Jesalyn Harper, a City of Reedley code enforcement officer, had to determine whether to turn off the power to a secret Chinese biolab in California in order to prevent a fire that inspectors had said was a risk.

But with the power off, the freezers’ contents would thaw, with potentially dangerous consequences. The biolab was full of thousands of vials of possible infectious pathogens.

She called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for advice.

“It was a very short-lived and frustrating phone call that ended with them hanging up,” said Ms. Harper.

She left the power on.

That was in March 2023, months after Ms. Harper had first discovered the biolab in December 2022 and alerted authorities.

Ms. Harper found inside what was supposed to be an unoccupied warehouse, thousands of vials of potentially infectious agents, including ones labeled as coronavirus, chlamydia, E. coli, streptococcus pneumonia, HIV, hepatitis, herpes, rubella, and malaria. A freezer was labeled “Ebola” and about 1,000 lab mice were kept for experimentation.

But there was no single authority that could deal with all of the pathogens, chemicals, and biological hazards and the response became drawn out.

It wasn’t until local officials contacted their congress member, Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), asking him to intervene at the federal level, that the CDC responded to California state government and local official requests, according to a congressional report from the Select Committee on the CCP that was published in November 2023.

In early May 2023, the CDC spent two days inspecting the biolab, along with several other agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Fresno County Public Health, and the California Department of Public Health.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) told The Epoch Times he is trying to find out from the CDC why the agency initially “looked the other way” as local officials tried to get their attention.

“They [CDC] didn’t investigate for months and months and months and months,” Mr. Kiley said. “Why? What are your protocols for responding to credible intelligence of public health risks that are present in our communities?

“Why would you not be on top of that right away?”

However, when the CDC did visit the biolab, it wouldn’t investigate something unless it had a specific label on it, according to Ms. Harper.

The agency created a report for 20 items that were labeled, and those items were sprayed down, disinfected, and put in special waste containers to be incinerated.

“CDC officials confirmed that the CDC made this list of pathogens based solely on the labels that were placed on samples. The CDC did not test these samples to assess whether the listed labels were correct or otherwise,” the congressional report states.

“According to local officials, they also asked if the CDC could at least test a random sample of the pathogens. The CDC still refused,” the report states.

“Despite their limited local budget, local officials then offered to pay the CDC for the entirety of the cost of testing these samples. The CDC still did not and left the site.”

Meanwhile, it was becoming apparent that behind the Chinese man who controlled the biolab was a tangled web of Chinese shell companies operating in the dark in several countries.

Jia Bei “Jesse” Zhu, a Chinese national and wanted fugitive in Canada, controlled both Universal Meditech Inc., which initially owned the biolab, and Prestige Biotech, which later took over the lab. After the biolab was discovered, Mr. Zhu, using the false name “David He,” introduced himself to Reedley city officials as a “special representative” of Universal Meditech and asked them not to destroy the pathogens and requested to move them to another location. Local officials refused.

Then, another two months after the CDC’s inspection, the Ebola freezer was discovered. The freezer was among 32 refrigerators and freezers that Fresno County public health staff had observed in the biolab.

A city worker found the freezer in July 2023 and unfolded the white piece of paper taped on top “and that paper read ‘Ebola,’ and it was handwritten,” Ms. Harper said.

None of the silver sealed bags tossed inside the freezer were labeled, she said.

“They [CDC] didn’t come, they didn’t test, they didn’t even ask us to sample,” Ms. Harper said. “Unless an item is actually labeled ‘Ebola,’ it doesn’t fall under the CDC purview.”

The city never found out what was in the silver bags, as the CDC never examined them.

Dave Daigle, a spokesman for the CDC, told The Epoch Times via email that, “CDC did not discover any label on a freezer that identified Ebola virus or any other select agent or toxin at the time of their onsite support.”

“As CDC determined that, at the time of the on-site review, there wasn’t evidence of violation select agent and toxin regulations, CDC does not have regulatory authority to unilaterally enter or seize materials,” Mr. Daigle wrote.

The county was left to coordinate the destruction of the freezer along with more than 103 tons of general waste and 448 gallons of medical and biological waste.

“How did you not comprehensively enough investigate and search the facility to find a whole freezer that had Ebola labeled on it?” Mr. Kiley said.

“I mean, this is very serious stuff. It’s labeled with Ebola, how do you not find that and test that as well?”

Mr. Kiley, as well as the Select Committee, are looking for an explanation from the CDC about the Ebola freezer.

“We are concerned by the freezer labeled ‘Ebola’ reported by local officials,” the report states.

“It is concerning that, when this was brought to the CDC’s attention, a CDC employee did not take meaningful action in response.”

The Select Committee noted that the CDC confirmed that it didn’t contact the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, the government biodefense laboratory located in Fort Dietrich, Maryland, “that could potentially have provided greater assistance.”

CDC spokesman Mr. Daigle said, “While CDC currently has no regulatory or investigative authority over this building, CDC continues to collaborate with federal, state, and local partners to provide technical guidance on biosafety and biosecurity as requested and appropriate.”

At the Biolab

Universal Meditech allegedly misbranded, sold, and distributed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 tests using FDA lot numbers that didn’t exist, according to a criminal complaint.

Mr. Zhu is accused of importing more than over 47,000 pregnancy test kits that were made in China and selling them to the American public “without being registered with the FDA as was required.”

“We discovered these devices on Amazon, in just doing our own research,” Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba told The Epoch Times.

According to an abatement warrant filed on June 15, 2023, during a city inspection of the biolab on March 16, 2023, a room was found “housing hundreds of laboratory mice,” according to the Select Committee report.

“A person associated with Prestige Biotech and who appeared to be in control of the Property, informed the investigators that these mice were genetically engineered to catch and carry the COVID-19 virus,” the report stated.

In March 2023, Prestige Biotech President Xiuqin Yao emailed City of Reedley officials and asked about the mice.

According to the select committee report, she wrote in her email that the mice were a “special purebred population that took six years to build up” and were “of special significance in the study of immunology and oncology.” She also said the transgenic mice were “biological assets” that were worth “hundreds of thousands or even one million” dollars.

Ms. Yao asked the city to keep the mice and take care of them until she could travel to the United States from China, but she was delayed due to a “visa backlog.”

Despite repeated requests from the City of Reedley officials, Ms. Yao “failed to provide any certifications or licenses from any state or federal agency for storage and experimentation on mice and other laboratory activities” at the Reedley biolab, the select committee report stated.

Ms. Zieba said that the transgenic mice had been modified in order to have the ability to simulate the human immune system. The mice were destroyed.

“We pleaded with the authorities, prior to euthanizing and even after euthanizing these mice, to test these mice, and they refused to test them,” said Ms. Zieba.

According to the congressional report, the CDC compiled its list of pathogens based on the labels that were on the samples. They didn’t test these samples to see if the labels were correct, or test any of the samples that were labeled with a code that was a combination of Mandarin characters or English letters and numbers, or test the samples that were unlabeled.

The congressional report quotes the CDC as stating, “Although some pathogens could have come from Nigeria or Canada, there were no import or shipping records available at the time of the visit to establish conclusive evidence of violations.”

In its three-page report, although the CDC hadn’t tested any samples, it concluded that there “was no evidence of select agents or toxins” at the biolab, according to the congressional report.

In October 2023, after the county had destroyed the illegal biolab’s contents, Mr. Zhu and Universal Meditech, through lawyers, submitted a claim to the city for $30 million for “unlawful seizure by city officials” and another to the county for $50 million for “unlawful seizure and destruction by county officials.”

Read more here…

Adidas AG revealed on Monday that it will sell another batch of Yeezy products. The German sportswear company is working through hundreds of millions of euros in Yeezy inventory following the canceled partnership with rapper Kanye West, also known as “Ye.”  

The “further release of YEEZY inventory with a range of existing products being available in phases over the coming weeks across the world,” Adidas wrote in a press release, adding the remaining YEEZY inventory includes products from 2022, such as 350 V2 sneakers in steel gray. 

Adidas said that Yeezy sneaker offerings will be made through its digital platforms. 

The products will be exclusively available through adidas digital platforms including the CONFIRMED app, adidas app and adidas.com. The phased release of products will help ensure a fair and premium experience for consumers. Availability and timing of release will vary depending on location. -Adidas

Adidas terminated its partnership with Ye in October 2022 after a series of antisemitic comments on various social media platforms. In early 2023, the termination led to financial turmoil for the German company: “Adidas To Cut Dividend 80% After Losing $1.3 Billion Severing Ties With Kanye West.” 

However, by November, the company boosted its full-year guidance due to the sales of Yeezy sneaker inventory. That helped it work through about 40% of the Yeezy inventory in warehouses. 

Besides selling sneakers produced in Chinese sweatshops, Adidas stated it was a proud activist company: 

Since terminating the YEEZY partnership in October 2022, Adidas has donated to selected organizations to combat discrimination and hate, including racism and antisemitism. -Adidas

In its financial guidance statement last month, Adidas stated that it had 250 million euros of remaining Yeezy products left. 

The good news, as Cowen analyst John Kernan explained in a recent interview via Bloomberg, is that “There’s still demand for that Yeezy silhouette in the marketplace.” 

Authored by Jon Queally via Common Dreams,

Two years of fighting after Russia’s brutal 2022 invasion of Ukraine has the world asking what peace between the two nations can possibly look like and what is the possible path to end a war that has left a nation shredded and hundreds of thousands dead.

Calling the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine a violation of the UN Charter and international law, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday said the war has created “an open wound at the heart of Europe” that only diplomacy could fix. “It is high time for peace—a just peace, based on the UN Charter, international law, and General Assembly resolutions,” declared Guterres.

The Secretary-General condemned the invasion as a “dangerous precedent” set by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has claimed eastern regions of Ukraine rightfully belong to Russia and justified the war as necessary to block the ongoing expansion of NATO that betrayed earlier promises by the military alliance.

As the war enters its third year, foreign policy experts argue that the current standstill—in which Russia has realized it cannot possibly take the whole country by force and Ukraine is unlikely to have the might to push the invading army back over the border—proves there is no military solution.

In a brief published to mark the two-year anniversary of the war’s start, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecrafts analysts Anatol Lieven and George Beebe argue that the people of Ukraine have much more to win than lose by seeking a diplomatic solution.

“Conventional wisdom holds that a negotiated end to the Ukraine war is neither possible nor desirable,” Lieven and Beebe’s paper states. “This belief is false.”

The pair war that resistance to diplomacy is “also extremely dangerous for Ukraine”s future because the bloody war—in which over 10,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed and more than 5 million displaced—”is not trending toward a stable stalemate, but toward Ukraine’s eventual collapse.”

The New York Times reports Sunday that while Ukrainians are “weary” of the bloody war that has taken so much from them, “but ever determined to repel the invaders.”

The Times interviewed Dr. Maryna Prokopenko, a surgeon at Kharkiv Regional Hospital, who said the battered bodies and suffering she sees inform her desire for “this war to end,” but said ceding territory to the Russians was unacceptable.

But with the Ukrainian military “outgunned and outnumbered against a more powerful opponent,” as the Associated Press reports—and additional foreign military assistance stalled in the U.S. Congress and by other allies in Europe due to domestic concerns about prolonging support for a war with no end in sight—the idea of a negotiated settlement has deep appeal for many.

“As things stand, neither side has won. Neither side has lost. Neither side is anywhere near giving up. And both sides have pretty much exhausted the manpower and equipment that they started the war with,” claimed Richard Barrons, a retired British general and current co-chair for Universal Defence & Security Solutions, a military consultancy firm.

While militarists argue the U.S. and other NATO countries must double-down on their support for Ukraine to combat Russian aggression, critics of endless war say it is Ukranian civilians paying the biggest price over the refusal to forge a negotiated settlement leading to a peace agreement to end the war.

“To resolve the ongoing crisis, diplomatic engagement through negotiations and mediation needs to be given more consideration,” says Omotola Adeyoju Ilesanmi, a senior research fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, in a memo this week. “Further, it ought to take precedence over other inefficient measures, such as using military force to accomplish political goals.”

The U.S.-based peace group CodePink issued a statement Friday similarly arguing that two years of war have proved that there is no military solution and that another $61 billion in U.S. military assistance—mostly in the form of more bombs, missiles, and other armaments—would not do more than the $113 billion already spent overall on assistance.

“Prolonging the war in Ukraine will not stabilize the region nor bring peace to Ukrainians; only peace talks and diplomacy can do that,” the group said. “Stop the weapons. Start the talks.”

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Lieven and Beebe argue in their assessment that the United States and other powerful allies to Ukraine have more leverage now to bring Russia to the negotiating table even as the Ukraine army appears weaker than at previous intervals in the war. As they write:

Russia cannot conquer, let alone govern, the majority of Ukraine, nor can Russia secure itself against the ongoing threats of Ukrainian sabotage or potential NATO strikes absent a costly permanent military buildup that would undermine its civilian economy. Reducing the deep dependence on China created by the invasion will also sooner or later require Russia to seek some form of détente with the West.

As a result, the United States has significant leverage for bringing Russia to the table and forging verifiable agreements to end the fighting. But this leverage will diminish over time. The United States should therefore quickly challenge Putin to make good on his insistence that Russia is willing to negotiate by publicly supporting calls from China, Brazil, and other key Global South actors for talks to end the war.

In a recent column promoting a new kind of engagement by the U.S. government, Lauren Evans, program assistant for peacebuilding at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), mourned the “devastating conflict and catastrophic harm to civilians” across Ukraine over the last two years and said the “situation cannot improve un the war stops.”

“While the U.S. cannot and should not dictate terms of peace,” wrote Evans, “it can be a better champion of a diplomatic resolution and help envision a new security paradigm in Europe based on the principles of shared security, not the threat of force.”

Those pushing for the diplomatic path acknowledge it will be a hard path, but say the alternative of war cannot be the permanent choice. “Even if the United States embarks seriously on an effort to create a path to negotiations, the process of compromise will not be easy or simple,” Lieven and Beebe conclude. “But the alternatives—for Ukraine and the world—will be far worse.”

The Biden administration has actively pursued legal actions against companies pushing for mega-mergers. Just weeks ago, the Justice Department sued to block a proposed merger between JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines. Now, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit to halt Kroger Co.’s proposed $24.6 billion acquisition of Albertsons Cos, warning the merger would “eliminate competition and raise grocery prices for millions of Americans, while harming tens of thousands of workers.” 

The FTC filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Oregon on Monday. Nine attorneys general – from Arizona, California, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia – have joined the suit to block what the FTC describes as the “largest supermarket merger in US history.” 

“The FTC charges that the proposed deal will eliminate fierce competition between Kroger and Albertsons, leading to higher prices for groceries and other essential household items for millions of Americans,” the agency said. 

It continued: “The loss of competition will also lead to lower quality products and services, while also narrowing consumers’ choices for where to shop for groceries.” 

And added: “For thousands of grocery store workers, Kroger’s proposed acquisition of Albertsons would immediately erase aggressive competition for workers, threatening the ability of employees to secure higher wages, better benefits, and improved working conditions.” 

“This supermarket mega-merger comes as American consumers have seen the cost of groceries rise steadily over the past few years. Kroger’s acquisition of Albertsons would lead to additional grocery price hikes for everyday goods, further exacerbating the financial strain consumers across the country face today,” said Henry Liu, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.

Liu continued: “Essential grocery store workers would also suffer under this deal, facing the threat of their wages dwindling, benefits diminishing, and their working conditions deteriorating.”

In 2022, Kroger and Albertsons agreed to merge. The supermarket chains claimed the merger would allow them to compete with larger grocery chains like Walmart, Amazon, and Costco. A recent note by JPM analyst Ken Goldman showed that Kroger and Albertsons would control about 13% of the US grocery market share, while Walmart controls 22%. 

“Albertsons Cos.’ merger with Kroger will ensure our neighborhood supermarkets can better compete with these mega retailers, all while benefitting our customers, associates, and communities.,” Albertsons wrote in a statement, adding, “We are disappointed that the FTC continues to use the same outdated view of the US grocery industry it used 20 years ago.”

Kroger stated: “This decision only strengthens larger, non-unionized retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon by allowing them to further increase their overwhelming and growing dominance of the grocery industry.” 

The Biden administration has demonstrated that it will kill any mega deal during the election cycle. This was evident in the DoJ’s recent suit against the planned merger between JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines. 

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

Comes Thermidor

“Democratic Party elites such as those on CNN are not just angry but genuinely confused by the fact that American voters don’t obey them.”

– Glenn Greenwald

What’s most amazing about the fiasco that was the French Revolution is that it happened at exactly the same time that the United States successfully organized themselves into an orderly and effective government following the American Revolution. George Washington was elected and sworn-in by April of 1789, with the backing of an exemplary constitution assembled by the best minds in the land. The Bastille fell in July that same year. France then fell into a years’ long orgy of beheading and chaos that went nowhere until 1799 when an artillery officer named Bonaparte put an end to it by sheer force of personality.

Of course, France had assisted America in concluding our revolt against King George — surely you remember the Marquis de Lafayette from your high school history class (or has he been replaced by George Floyd?). There were plenty of Frenchmen still on the American scene during the years following the British surrender at Yorktown in the fall of 1781. Some of them must have kept tabs on the Constitutional Convention, May to September, 1787, out of which came our blueprint for managing national affairs, and not a few of these Frenchmen were active in their own revolution which kicked off two years later.

By the way, Thomas Jefferson was in Paris from 1784 until autumn of 1789, months after the Bastille fell. He succeeded Ben Franklin as minister there to negotiate trade agreements (Ben went to London as ambassador). John Adams was also on-the-scene in Paris as our ambassador there when Jefferson arrived. These Americans met daily and chatted endlessly with France’s political players. The American Articles of Confederation were in effect then, to be replaced by the improved US Constitution in 1787. The people of France, including the various elites involved in public life, royal, haut bourgeoise, lawyers and generals, might have taken a lesson from the American experience of how to successfully come out of a political tribulation. Alas, they simply could not get their shit together.

Rewind a little to 1793 in Paris, the revolution in full swing: King Louis XVI went to the guillotine in January. The National Convention had replaced the National Assembly as the furnace of political action. The radical Jacobin faction, led by Robespierre and Saint-Just, coalesced into a power-seizing majority there. They took their name from a political club founded by anti-royalists, but their platform became increasingly extreme as the revolution lurched toward pandemonium.

During their year in power, the Jacobins turned the life of the nation upside down in their zealous quest to create a perfectly equitable society. They abolished the church (and replaced it with their own “cult of the supreme being”). They changed the week from seven days to ten days, they changed the names of all the months of the calendar. (1792 was denoted “the Year One.”) They put in price and wage controls while churning out money (paper assignats) which triggered (voila) monetary inflation! They confiscated grain from farmers all over the country. They condemned thousands (estimate: 20,000 to 40,000) of political enemies to the guillotine in their “Reign of Terror.” In short, the Jacobins made a bloody mess of things and pissed-off a lot of their countrymen.

By the summer of 1794 (in their renamed month of Thermidor), everybody else finally had enough of the Jacobin nightmare. On July 27, Robespierre was at the rostrum once again denouncing his enemies and crying for blood when the out-group members present started throwing food at him and shouting him down. That was the magic moment when everything flipped — the shock of recognition that the Jacobins had lost power. Just like that! The chamber fell into a melee, a lot of shoving and shouting. . . Robespierre and his cronies were chased across town to the city hall (Hôtel de Ville) and barricaded themselves inside.

The mob broke through and arrested them. Somewhere in the confusion a policeman shot Robespierre in the face, shattering his jaw (no more speeches for you!). . . and the very next day, Robespierre, Saint-Just, and twenty of their associates had their appointment with “the national razor.”

The Arrest of Robespierre, The Night of the 9th to 10th Thermidor, Year Two, 27th July 1794

This event became known as the Thermidorian Reaction. The insane Jacobin program of terror and social derangement was swiftly abolished. Nothing like it was seen again until the Bolsheviks, the Maoists and the Khmer Rouge came along in the 20th century, and now, in our time, The Party of Chaos as led by “Joe Biden” (or whoever and whatever is behind him), with their open border, their lust for another world war, their drive for censorship, their sadistic lawfare, their race and sex hustles, their compulsive lying, and their sick destruction of every norm and boundary in daily life.

America is headed for its own Thermidorian Reaction. It’ll end up being called something else, of course, because it is a different time, place, and set of circumstances. But it feels close, doesn’t it? Everybody I know or correspond with mentions this feeling that something is going to blow in our country, and pretty soon. The air is alive with it, just as the air is alive with portents of spring. Are you waiting for it?

*  *  *

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

Authored by Jason Rantz via mynorthwest.com,

A Seattle comedy club canceled on four stand-up comedians after angry community activists complained, according to the comedians involved. The shows at Capitol Hill Comedy/Bar purportedly offended left-wing community activists and progressive comics. The news broke as comic Shane Gillis finally performed on and hosted NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” following his termination before even appearing because activists feigned outrage at a politically incorrect bit.

Four comedians were scheduled to perform in Seattle throughout this year: Dave Smith, Luis J. Gomez, Jim Florentine, and Kurt Metzger. All are known for either being right of center or “unwoke.” The comedians say they received an email from the club co-owner and booker Jes Anderson, who is also a stand-up comic, saying the gigs had to be canceled. The decision came after “discussions with our team, investors, local comedians, and neighborhood advocacy groups,” according to an email posted by Florentine and Metzger that was sent to their manager.

“Capitol Hill is known for its progressive values, and we’ve received significant feedback expressing concerns about the alignment of these upcoming shows with the neighborhood’s ethos. This feedback includes concerns from local advocacy groups that are deeply embedded in our community and work towards upholding its values,” according to the email.

Anderson wrote that the cancelations were meant “to avoid any potential negative impact on both our club and the artists involved, as well as to maintain the harmony within our community.”

Seattle comedy club canceled shows to appease ‘super woke progressive’ Seattle activists

Gomez, who was slated to perform in May and June, took the cancelations in stride. In his recent podcast, Gomez said Anderson has the right to cancel appearances and credits her for being respectful in the email. Still, it was a questionable decision.

“Are they idiots for booking us and then unbooking us? Yes, it’s a dumb move. Is my former agent an idiot for booking me at a super woke progressive venue that like the entire lineup is like… blue haired… freaks?” Gomez said.

Gomez suspects part of the issue was that “young, jealous” local comics who play the venue were upset that he and the others were coming to town. He says it’s easy to find their offensive comedy online.

“That’s what happens when comics don’t have anything going on. They just look for drama,” he said. “So (Anderson) found drama within the comedy space there and she was like, ‘Alright, I think they’re great, but I’m not, you know, I don’t need to… make it a thing.’ Maybe they were concerned with protests? Seattle is like a super woke area.”

According to a KING 5 report, the Capitol Hill Comedy/Bar makes comics “adhere to the code of conduct, which outlines expectations for respectful behavior and language, helping to create a safe and welcoming space for both comics and guests.”

‘Too funny not to immediately put on blast!’

Metzger, one of the comedians the Seattle comedy club canceled, pointed out the venue is located in the former Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). That is the location where radical, violent activists took over six city blocks during the Black Lives Matter riots after the death of George Floyd.

“I’m sorry, but this is too funny not to immediately put on blast! Also, am I mistaken that this club is in Seattle’s historic ‘CHAZ’ district? (Kurt looks up toward heaven.) THANK U GEORGE FLOYD!,” he posted on X.

I’m sorry, but this is too funny not to immediately put on blast! Also, am I mistaken that this club is in Seattle’s historic “CHAZ” district?
(Kurt looks up toward heaven.)
THANK U GEORGE FLOYD! For the fun Im about to have with this on Twitter after I take a quick shit! BRB! pic.twitter.com/K4gGSGoPkW

— Kurt Metzger (@kurtmetzger) February 23, 2024

But wait, there’s more!

Click here to read about Metzger’s mockery on Jimmy Dore, SNL’s sashay into unwoke comedy, and the last word by Jason Rantz.