A weekly round-up of geopolitical flashpoint and energy news we’re keeping our eyes on, and trends impacting global markets, which will later be accessible for Premium members and above…

The start of this week saw no less than four top level Russian officials warn of impending “global catastrophe” if the West keeps ramping up heavier arms to Ukraine, now as the decision of Germany to sign off on sending its Leopard II tanks looms.

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, asserted in fresh remarks that NATO providing more weapons to Ukraine risks “global tragedy that would destroy” Western countries. “Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” Volodin said. “If Washington and NATO supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”

And one can read further ultra dire warnings from Moscow’s point of view… specifically from Lavrov, Peskov, and Medvedev… all statements issued on Monday. The red line is being laid out quite brightly. 

As for whether these escalatory scenarios will come to pass, with Russia and the West continuing to slide toward direct military confrontation, the question of whether or not Germany resists the growing pressure from allies for it to lead the way on sending its Leopard 2 main battle tanks looms. Can Berlin resist? Will Kremlin warnings be heeded by Berlin? And for how long? Despite a growing political rift both within the Scholz government among NATO allies more broadly, it’s not looking good. Germany has already bowed to pressure early in the conflict, given it walked away from its historic neutrality. The outcome to the tank question is likely to be decided by month’s end.

👀 pic.twitter.com/yWcRh00Noe

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) January 22, 2023

To gain a sense of the gloomy, apocalyptic outlook from Moscow on a looming war with NATO and the future course of the Ukraine conflict, see the above weekend Russian state TV segment with a panel of officials moderated by editor-in-chief of RT, Margarita Simonyan. Very serious talk indeed.

* * *

Below are global developments we are closely following this week…

Russia-Ukraine

• Poland ramping up pressure on Berlin to send German tanks to Ukraine: DW

• Warns Germany of “international isolation”… could send without approval?: DW

• Broader NATO pressure (and division) mounts over tank issue: AW

• State Duma official says “global catastrophe” coming due to ramped up Western arms: RTRS

• German Intelligence: Ukraine losing hundreds of soldiers daily: AW

• Russia touts gains around Bakhmut, smashes Ukrainian lines with artillery: TASS

• US media cites anon officials to claim spate of mail bomb attacks at embassies in Europe the work of Russian intelligence: NYT

• The long expected Russian offensive in Ukraine has begun: MofA

• Former PM Boris Johnson makes yet another visit to Kiev: RTRS

• NATO Baltic members Estonia & Lithuania boot Russian ambassadors, downgrade relations: RTRS

• Very dark Russian state TV segment predicts worst-case spiral: Video

• Norway holding Wagner deserter, will not deport to Russia: DW

• Pentagon extends airborne troop deployment in southeast Romania: AW

China-Asia

• US National Guard training Taiwan troops in expanded program: Nikkei 

• GOP House Speaker McCarthy planning Taiwan visit: PN

• Will China view it differently than Pelosi’s visit, given he’s in ‘opposition’? SCMP

• Germany eyes ‘China lite’ future that is less dependent: Nikkei

• China will join Russia and South Africa for February naval drills: SCMP

• Beijing issues another veiled warning over Taiwan: VOA

• Yellen in Africa talks China threat: FT

• China’s biggest oil trading firm goes on a buying spree: OP

Middle East/World

• Pressure on US occupation in Syria ramping up with drone attacks: Hill

• Lebanese pound crashes to new low of 50,000 against the dollar: NA

• Hardline Israeli govt risks triggering another Gaza flare-up: NA

• Soaring inflation in Egypt… on the brink of another uprising? MEE

• Israel-Saudi normalization efforts off to rocky start: JPost

• 130,000 Israelis protest govt’s anti-democratic reforms: Haaretz

• Pentagon can’t account for $220BN of gear given to contractors: Reason

• Abraham Accords not so popular on ‘Arab street’: RS

• Saudi goods allowed in Syria after 11 years of trade ban: MEE

• Erdogan tells Sweden not to expect Nato bid support: BBC

• South Africa likely to use China and Russia as “bargaining chips” in its dealings with US: SCMP

Energy

• Massive blackout in Pakistan impacts some 200 million people: BBC

• UK’s National Grid to pay people to use less power as cold snap bites: RTRS

• Musk agrees with JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon that it will take 50 years to transition to green energy: FOX

• Italy to wean itself off Russian gas within two years: OP

• US energy chief says Biden would veto House Republican bill on oil reserve: RTRS

• Oil market braces for fresh turmoil as EU prepares to cut off Russian diesel: FT

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com,

Iran has dismissed the significance of Panama’s de-flagging of more than a hundred tankers allegedly used by Iran to ship oil abroad in violation of U.S. sanctions.

“We reiterate that such efforts are not only viewed as insignificant and unsubstantiated, but they have been publicized due to political pressure by the imperialist government of the United States,” the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization said in a statement cited by Press TV.

The statement followed the release by the Panama Maritime Authority of another statement saying it had de-flagged several hundred vessels since 2019 in compliance with the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea and in line with Panama’s own efforts to counter illicit financing and illegal fishing, Forbes’ Dominic Dudley reported earlier this month.

The AMP’s statement came in response to an op-ed by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, in which he claimed Panama had been helping Iran’s regime to survive by helping the government smuggle oil in violation of sanctions. Jeb Bush sits on the advisory board of an organization dubbed United Against Nuclear Iran.

The Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), the entity in charge of the Panamanian Ship Registry, rejected the assertions made by Jeb Bush, a member of the United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) Advisory Board, in a Washington Post op-ed from January 16, 2023, titled “How the United States can stop Panama from helping Iran avoid oil sanctions,” the AMP said in its statement.

“The Government of Panama maintains a close collaboration with the Government of the United States of America through the Embassy of the United States in Panama, and through direct communication with the Department of State, regarding the Registry of Ships and other safety issues of shared importance,” the authority also said.

In its response, the Iranian maritime authority advised Panama to think about the legal and international implications of such statements, Press TV reported.

Setting aside how credible any data released by the BLS now is – considering that not just this website but even the Philly Fed has challenged the accuracy of the Payroll reports’ Establishment survey, while Goldman recent found that actual layoffs as indicated by state WARN notices are far higher than those seasonally adjusted by the Department of Labor, there was one data point that prompted quite a few commentators to scratch their heads. Recall that one of the reasons stocks were pleasantly surprised by the jobs report is that not only did payrolls dip again (if printing as usual above average), but average hourly earnings slumped. But there was more: alongside the decline in wages, average hours worked also declined (which had a material impact on the average wages, and had hours been flat, the decline in average wages would have been even more pronounced).

Why does this matter? Well, as Goldman trader Rich Privorotsky wrote on Friday, the deceleration in wage gains as of late and “the shirking of hours worked is in no way consistent with a wage spiral, and in fact suggests something unusual might be happening as corporates reluctant to shed hard to find labor are shrinking the work-week/hours worked rather than cutting payrolls.” This would make intuitive sense if one assumes that employers are still smarting from the difficulty to find workers in the post-covid months when millions of low and medium-income workers simply exited the workforce. As such, if everyone is convinced that the coming recession will be light, employers are more tempted to shrink (in some cases aggressively) their employees’ hours rather then engage in layoffs, especially if they are concerned they will have difficulty finding workers in a few months (all of this, of course, assumes that the recession will be “shallow” whatever that means).

As evidence, Privorotsky shows the decline in the average employee workweek as proxied by both the Philadelphia and Empire Fed’s surveys.

Others at Goldman agree, and in a note published by the bank’s economist team looking at the ongoing rebalancing in the labor market (available to pro subs), they found that while Labor demand still remains high it is now falling: “The trend has admittedly become murkier recently as measures of job openings have diverged. But the average of these measures is still declining, and business surveys also suggest that total labor demand is still coming down.”

Here is the interesting part in the Goldman report, :

Labor supply has at most a bit more room to recover. The discussion about labor supply during the pandemic has mostly centered on “missing workers,” and for the first couple of years there was indeed room for the labor force participation rate to rebound as fiscal support and Covid fears faded.

But we noted last summer that the participation rate had already largely recovered, and the small increase in December to 62.3% brought it to our year-end target that embedded some further cyclical recovery to offset an ongoing downward trend driven by demographics. While prime-age participation is still a bit below its pre-pandemic rate, the overall participation rate has now nearly returned to the CBO’s estimate of the trend implied by demographic changes, as shown on the left of Exhibit 4, and a new paper by economists Bart Hobijn and Ayşegül Şahin also suggests that the gap is largely closed.

The remaining labor supply shortfall relative to pre-pandemic trends actually comes less from reduced participation than from a decline in average work hours. In another paper, Şahin, R. Jason Faberman, and Andreas I. Mueller use data from a supplement to the New York Fed’s consumer survey to show that workers’ desired work hours dropped sharply during the pandemic and remained depressed at least through the end of 2021, when their data end, with much of the decline coming from people classified as outside of the labor force who occasionally enter it, such as retirees. New research by Dain Lee, Jinhyeok Park, and Yongseok Shin shows that average hours have fallen since 2019, especially among college-educated prime-age men and among those who work the longest hours, as shown on the right of Exhibit 4. Because, as the authors note, these workers work far longer hours than is typical for US workers let alone those in other high-income countries, this change might persist to some extent.

Maybe the best discussion on this topic comes from Amberwave co-founder Stephen Miran, who earlier today tweeted some of his observations on why the US is still not in a recession, and concludes that “the principal reason is the missing construction layoffs.  Mortgage rates shot up from 3% to 7%, making buying a home unaffordable for many folks.  Normally, one expects a slowdown in construction activity and layoffs.  But, construction employment is at all time highs!”

The principal reason is the missing construction layoffs. Mortgage rates shot up from 3% to 7%, making buying a home unaffordable for many folks. Normally, one expects a slowdown in construction activity and layoffs. But, construction employment is at all time highs! pic.twitter.com/AepOyF113r

— Stephen Miran (@SteveMiran) January 22, 2023

Arguing that in light of the dramatic slowdown in activity in the construction sector, “we’d expect huge layoffs”  with “expected layoffs in the neighborhood of 500k to 800k jobs, and with multipliers, this would be 1 to 3 million total losses. That’s a real recession.”

But these layoffs still haven’t taken place, prompting Miran to proposed several explanations why not:

1. They will.  (Maybe, but I don’t see -any- sign of them in the data…yet.). There are some reasons for expecting the layoffs to eventually come.  In particular, the huge divergence between the number of homes being sold and the number of homes currently under construction, which will presumably come down as homes are completed.

2. The extraordinary backlog of homes demand due to pandemic changes in the economy like wfh.  This is a possible explanation, but presumably at some point runs out?

3. Labor hoarding by builders, i.e. holding onto employees for fear of being able to replace them if necessary in a tight labor market.  Miran says that he is “generally dismissive of labor hoarding for the economy as a whole, but more sympathetic in the building sector.  Why?”

The principal reason is the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed in 2021.  As I pointed out at the time in WSJopinion, the IIJA is going to further fuel inflation.

Going into CY2023, there’s going to be ~$38 billion of Federal spending on construction and other projects kicking in. In CY24, it’ll be closer to $54 billion.  Assuming some multipliers, these go a long way to offsetting a big chunk of the decline in private structures spending. (Ignore the decline in direct spending here, that’s largely the offsets from reduced spending on phrama or subsidies to GSEs)

In other words, I suspect builders are holding onto employees because the $$$ being spent by Uncle Sam on construction are going to start kicking in this year.  Given a historically tight labor market where employees seem to have all the power, they’d rather hold onto the workers

Why lay off your workers now if you expect real difficulty in hiring them back if building starts to pick back up, particularly for nonresidential construction?

While this may well be the most likely explanation, and one which will be tested most easily by the severity of the coming recession (if indeed there is labor hoarding within construction, an extended deterioration in the sector will only result in an even more acute collapse in construction jobs in the near-term), there is another possible explanation, namely that financial conditions have eased significantly since September: stocks, mortgage rates, the dollar.

It’s not difficult to imagine a world in which home prices fall by 10% or so, but given strong wages, resilient stocks, and falling mortgage rates, final demand stays robust.  Given the historic run up in home prices, builders are still very profitable at those levels. In other words, maybe builders expect a surge of private demand in the near future and are therefore holding onto their employees.

Miran’s conclusion is spot on, and boils down to the following: The missing construction layoffs ARE the missing recession.  If they come, we’ll have a recession.  There’s a reason for expecting them to come (homes under construction lagging sales), and reasons for expecting them not to (future demand picking up, private & public)

Watching this sector will give us a clue as to whether we’ll see a recession or not.  In the meantime, real incomes are accelerating on lower inflation, and as I’ve stressed 100x, financial conditions easing ought to induce a pickup in GDP growth

There is thus some chance the economy reaccelerates before those layoffs come, and the recession is avoided.  However, in that case, the Fed will be goaded into a new hiking cycle, as inflation will pick back up, and the recession will be delayed and not avoided.

Afternote: there’s a race between the exhaustion of the backlog & the coming construction layoffs, vs. a reacceleration of the economy on easing financial conditions & IIJA boosting construction demand. Which of these forces wins the race determines whether we have:

• Recession, or
• Burst of growth, followed by new hiking cycle, followed by recession

In other words, we will either get a recession, if construction employment suddenly tumbles, or we will get a transitory growth burst – largely on the back of the market pricing in the coming Fed pause – which will avoid a round of mass layoffs in construction, which will however lead to even more inflation, and an even more aggressive hiking cycle, leading also to recession.

Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that two major Social Security funds in the United States will dry out in the coming decades, with one of them running out within the next 10 years as younger members in the programs are set to lose more than older members.

“If the gap between the trust funds’ outlays and income occurs as CBO projects, then the balance in the trust funds will decline to zero in 2033 and the Social Security Administration will no longer be able to pay full benefits when they are due,” the CBO stated in its report, published in December (pdf).

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2033 and the Disability Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2048, the agency said. If the trust funds are combined, the money will be gone by 2033.

The CBO expects spending on Social Security to increase to 7 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2096, up from 5 percent of the GDP in 2022.

During this period, revenues are only expected to remain at 4.6 percent of GDP, resulting in an ongoing deficit.

If Social Security outlays were limited to what is payable from annual tax revenues, the benefit payments would be roughly 23 percent smaller than originally scheduled by 2034. By 2096, the benefit payments would be 35 percent smaller, with the gap remaining stable from then on.

In such a situation, the younger cohort born in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s would see their initial benefits reduced by 24, 27, and 28 percent respectively. Their lifetime benefits would be reduced by 26, 27, and 27 percent, respectively.

For older beneficiaries born in the 1950s and 60s, initial benefits would not be affected too much. Their lifetime benefits would be reduced by 9 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Protecting Social Security of Senior Citizens

In 2021, Social Security amounted to 17 percent of federal spending, according to the CBO. Lawmakers are currently debating how to address America’s debt ceiling issue, with some proposing cuts to Social Security. The United States officially hit its debt limit on Thursday.

In a video message, former President Donald Trump called on GOP members to not compromise on Social Security.

“Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security to help pay for Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree, which is more reckless than anybody’s ever done or had in the history of our country,” Trump said in the statement posted to Truth Social on Friday.

“Do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives,” he said. “Save Social Security. Don’t destroy it.”

The CBO projections come as Social Security benefits are set to increase by 8.7 percent in 2023, which is the biggest boost in four decades. In 2022, benefit payments were increased by 5.9 percent.

Despite the record increase in benefit payments this year, there are concerns about whether it will be enough to keep up with decades-high inflation.

US natural gas futures jumped late in the session after news hit that Freeport LNG, a major liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Texas coast which has been closed since an explosion last summer, said repairs to the terminal are complete and is seeking approval for restart. 

Freeport wrote a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting permission to restart the terminal that accounts for about 15% of all US LNG exports. 

Pursuant to your letter dated June 30, 2022, Freeport LNG Development, LP (“Freeport”) must obtain written approval from FERC before restarting any non-emergency operations in existing facilities, constructing new or modified facilities, and commissioning and placing any facilities back into service.

As further described herein, Freeport has completed repairs to the Export Facility on Quintana Island, Texas, performed safety reviews, revised various procedures, implemented new safety systems and performed necessary training in order to safely begin to resume initial operations at its Export Facility.

NatGas surged 9% to $3.45 per million British thermal units. 

NatGas prices will need to hold the 76.4% Fibonacci retracement level ($3.41) if further upside is to be achieved. 

In recent weeks, we’ve pointed out Freeport flows were indications the plant was nearing a restart:

• NatGas Flows Start To Freeport LNG’s Long-Shut Export Plant
• Freeport LNG Export Facility’s Power Flows Surge For First Time Since Explosion

However, Houston-based energy firm Criterion Research had this to say:

Criterion’s weekly analysis of progress at Freeport LNG indicated that repair work was still taking place as of last week, so it’s unclear what Freeport means when it cited that they have “completed repairs.” We don’t believe feed gas will be flowing in January, and February still seems to be an optimistic time frame for strong nominations. Based on prior announcements, once they get the green light to restart, Freeport’s timeline pinned down a ramp from zero to 2 Bcf/d over an approximately two-month period.

Freeport LNG reported that it has “completed repairs” at its export terminal and asked for approval to start cooling down its Loop 1 LNG Transfer piping. They have not yet asked to start circulating LNG, loading LNG or for the startup of liquefaction onsite. #natgas #ongt #lng pic.twitter.com/rdrca4N8fP

— Criterion Research (@PipelineFlows) January 23, 2023

Here’s Freeport’s full letter to FERC:

Any February cold weather across the Lower 48, plus the Freeport export restart, could be bullish catalysts for reversing months of sliding NatGas prices.  

Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

“Four things need to exist or need to be in place if you want a large-scale mass phenomenon to emerge. The first thing is that there needs to be a lot of socially isolated people, people who experience a lack of social bonds. The second one is that there needs to be a lot of people who experience a lack of sense-making in life. And the third and the fourth conditions are that there needs to be a lot of free-floating anxiety and a lot of free-floating psychological discontent. So: meaning, anxiety, and discontent that is not connected to a specific representation.

So, it needs to be in the mind without the people being able to connect it to something. If you have these four things—lack of social bonds, lack of sense-making, free-floating anxiety, and free-floating psychological discontent—then society is highly at risk for the emergence of mass phenomenon.”

 – Mattias Desmet – The Psychology of Totalitarianism

“Try to unlearn the obsessive fear of death (and the anxious quest for death avoidance) that pervades linear thinking in nearly every modern society. The ancients knew that, without periodic decay and death, nature cannot complete its full round of biological and social change. Without plant death, weeds would strangle the forest. Without human death, memories would never die, and unbroken habits and customs would strangle civilization. Social institutions require no less. Just as floods replenish soil and fires rejuvenate forests, a Fourth Turning clears out society’s exhausted elements and creates an opportunity.” 

– Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

I recently finished reading Mattias Desmet’s fascinating and illuminating book The Psychology of Totalitarianism, where he examines the mass formation psychosis which swept over the world during the time frame of early 2020 until present day. He explores some of the root causes of this psychological phenomena, comparing it to previous episodes in history, and delving into whether it occurred naturally or was purposely generated in order to implement a Great Reset agenda.

This type of spectacle has happened throughout human history, even documented by Charles Mackay in his 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. It is clear to me aspects of mass formation psychosis played a part in the previous two Fourth Turnings, as both sides in the U.S. Civil War displayed characteristics of those being hypnotized by a narrative, and the German people falling under the spell of Hitler and his rhetorical skills.

As the potentially historic year 2023 unfolds before us, we are confronted with a world drowning in unpayable debt; a global recession/depression imminent; raging inflation at twice the level reported by our overlords; real unemployment at four times the level reported by the government apparatchiks; a government completely devoid of honesty, integrity or responsibility to its citizens; a society dictated by corruption, materialism, narcissism, and bereft of civic and personal responsibility; globalist billionaires and their captured organizations (WEF, WHO, NATO, CDC, FDA, FBI, CIA, DOJ, IRS) actively trying to rule the world through technological and biological means; and insane politicians, generals, and bureaucrats pushing the world towards WWIII, using Ukraine and Taiwan as their trigger points.

In the midst of this hellish landscape, we still have an enormous percentage of the U.S. and global population trapped in a mass formation psychosis trance and unable or unwilling to regain their common sense and ability to comprehend they have been duped, used, lied to, and sacrificed at the altar of the Great Reset.

I feel like I’m in a Twilight Zone episode, waiting for the surprise ending, as I continue to go through the motions of life, getting up at the same time every morning, driving the same route to work, doing the same job, going grocery shopping, doing laundry, reading, writing, and waiting for the bottom to drop out. I think I know what is going to happen, but I don’t, and neither does anyone else, no matter how sure they appear and how well compensated they are for providing “expert” opinions.

I’ve been waiting since 2010 for a financial/economic collapse, but the “powers that be” have been able to create a Potemkin façade built upon debt, money printing, propaganda, and market manipulation, much like Madoff juggling balls for decades (never making one actual trade), giving the appearance of stability and success, until he could juggle no more. Then it all collapses suddenly, just as many of the vaxxed thought they were safe, then died suddenly. The Hemingway quote regarding going bankrupt captures our current state of affairs:

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” – Ernest Hemingway – The Sun Also Rises

US Government Interest Payments 🔥🔥🔥

It is projected to rise to over $1.2 trillion per year in the next two years as more debt rolls over at the new higher rates.

That is about 1/3 of all tax revenue. 😱 pic.twitter.com/KKarvz7LI2

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 15, 2023

The reason no one is expecting a sudden collapse is because it hardly ever happens. We are trapped in our normalcy bias cocoon. The stock market goes up for a week. The stock market goes down for a week. The “experts” try to interpret the meaning of each word uttered by Powell or one of his Fed cronies. Elections are held to see which group of corrupt politicians will be in control of screwing us. Biden says something stupid. Harris says something stupid. Trump sells NFT trading cards of himself. Twitter files are released. Covidian cultists continue to deny the reality the jabs are killing and maiming millions, while still pushing the toxic injections on our children.

Drag queen shows for children and transgender deviancy are heralded by satanists. We send another $100 billion we don’t have to an actor in Ukraine so more of his people can be slaughtered. Klaus Schwab, Bill Gates, and the rest of the global elite fly in their private jets to Davos to plan their takeover of the world. Climate imbeciles want to ban your gas stove, make you eat bugs, and never venture more than 15 minutes from your hovel. It’s an endless show and we are both the spectators and victims. The daily distractions of life, along with trivialities like social media, sporting events, mass media propaganda, and this government shitshow, keep the masses from seeing the danger dead ahead.

Whenever I’m befuddled by the incontestable idiocy of the willfully ignorant masses, I have to remind myself we are in the midst of a Fourth Turning where reason and critical thinking are far outweighed by emotion and temporary insanity. As a cynical old bastard who hasn’t believed anything a politician, banker or MSM talking head has emitted in decades, it is hard for me to comprehend how the majority are so easily swayed by the web of lies spun by those pulling the strings behind the curtain.

They want to believe “experts” because thinking is hard, and the latest NFL playoff game starts in 30 minutes. We’ve become a nation of unserious, unintelligent, uncurious, unthinking worshippers of technology, entertainment, and infantilism, as described by Neil Postman in his 1985 book comparing Orwell dystopian vision to Huxley’s dystopian vision. It seems we are now caught in a vise between both visualizations of horror.

“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” 

– Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

“Americans no longer talk to each other, they entertain each other. They do not exchange ideas, they exchange images. They do not argue with propositions; they argue with good looks, celebrities, and commercials.” 

– Neil Postman – Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Huxley warned us over 90 years ago, before TV. Postman warned us almost 40 years ago, before the internet, 24-hour cable TV, smart phones, or social media. They were prescient in their warnings, but unheeded. Their prophecies tie in perfectly with Desmet’s theories on why the world has been overcome by this mass formation psychosis. Essentially, Desmet argues our society was sick before the onset of covid. The technological “advancement” of our world has led to people leading meaningless lives and working bullshit jobs.

The rise of the administrative state where hard fulfilling jobs (farmers, craftsmen, builders) have been replaced by finance and administrative paper pushing jobs where human interaction is drastically reduced and their worlds revolve around rules, regulations, and impersonal dogma, has created tens of millions of depressed, anxious, neurotic people seeking something to make their pitiful lives worthwhile. The most meaningless administrative jobs steadily increase and are rewarded more generously, while the hardest workers struggle to put food on the table. Industrialization and specialization may be efficient from a corporate profit standpoint, but it has been dehumanizing from a psychological standpoint.

The Enlightenment brought about a transformation of a world built upon religion, superstition, and small communities into a world built on science, reason, and industrialization. The fear and discomfort, once inflicted by the clergy and nobility, with the dread of judgement day, transformed into a false hope of a scientific created nirvana. As the centuries have progressed the social connectedness of humans has deteriorated, with isolation and lack of social relationships leading to anxiety, depression, and loss of purpose.

Humans used to depend on each other and live for each other, but are now relegated to being nameless, faceless automatons among the masses. Half the workers in America find their jobs meaningless. A 2013 Gallup World Poll found that 63% of workers sleepwalk through their jobs, while another 24% are disengaged, actively demoralizing, and demotivating their coworkers. Only 13% love what they do. Most people just feel like a cog in the machine, as Desmet contemplates.

“The worker became, as they say, a cog in the industrial machine, lubricated only by the thought of wages due. Labor changed from a cumbersome but inherently meaningful existential task into a disembodied utilitarian necessity.” 

– Mattias Desmet, The Psychology of Totalitarianism

As work became nothing more than a means to earn wages, in order to consume and amuse themselves, the rise of mass media has further contributed to the decline in sincere social connections, as TV and the internet have further isolated millions and allowed those constituting the invisible government to propagandize whatever narrative suits their malevolent purposes.

Those in power don’t want neighbors congregating, mates gathering in pubs, joyous festivals of friends, or anyone sitting around kitchen tables figuring out how they’ve been screwed over by those they elect to represent their interests. Their plans depend on a populace living in constant fear of something, or they might inadvertently turn their attention to their looting and pillaging of the world’s wealth. Fear is the basis for the mass formation psychosis currently consuming the world.

Decades of psychological deterioration of the masses due to their pointless occupations, meaningless lives, mass media and government school indoctrination, and feelings of purposelessness, despair, and anxiety set the foundation for the onset of this covid driven mass formation psychosis. The free-floating anxiety infecting hundreds of millions around the globe was seeking a conduit to channel their fears and fantasizing about becoming part of a crusade for the greater good.

All that was needed was a virus with a scary name, a billion-dollar marketing campaign, a narrative spun by a well-compensated media, corrupt politicians and Deep State actors seeking to depose a president, and a plethora of unethical “experts” willing to sell their souls to Big Pharma. Once the covid narrative was connected to their free-floating anxiety a global swindle was born.

“Free-floating anxiety is the most painful psychological phenomenon someone can experience. It’s extremely painful. It leads up to panic attacks, to all kinds of extremely painful psychological experiences. What people want in this situation is something to connect their anxiety to. They’re looking for an explanation for the anxiety. And now, if this free-floating anxiety is highly present in a population, and the media provide a narrative, which indicates an object of anxiety, and at the same time, describe a strategy to deal with this object of anxiety, then all the anxiety connects to this object and people are willing to follow the strategy to deal with this object, no matter what the cost is. That is what happens in the beginning of mass formation.” 

– Mattias Desmet – The Psychology of Totalitarianism

Fear and anxiety are the lifeblood of a mass hysteria event. An already psychologically damaged populace was primed to react insanely to an entirely overblown “crisis”, spurred on by bad actors who sought riches, notoriety, acclaim, and the ability to impose authoritarian measures on the masses as proof of their power and supremacy. This unjustified fear about a flu virus has resulted in far greater problems which should really be feared. The onset of this psychological tsunami of fear has resulted in the rise of a dictatorial state, with presidents, governors, mayors, and lower-level tin pot totalitarians issuing decrees, mandates, and commands with the threat of imprisonment, loss of jobs, fines, or beatings as the immediate consequence for not obeying.

This absurd terrified reaction by the masses has destroyed millions of small businesses; severed the bonds between family, friends, and neighbors; wrecked our economy; handed unlimited power to corrupt malicious politicians; provoked societal chaos; empowered deviants to gain cultural traction; destroyed the health of millions through the collapse of immune systems; and will trigger both civil and global warfare in the immediate future.

The truth is mental health has been declining for decades, as meaningless jobs, government school indoctrination and dumbing down of the populace, technology creating generations of socially awkward shut-ins, cultural decay, corporatism, and the ineptitude and corruption of political leadership, have created an atmosphere of hopelessness and angst. Depression, anxiety, suicides, drug addiction, and a slew of psychological disorders infected the world before this virus ever appeared.

Over 13% of adults take anti-depressants, with almost 25% of women over 60. The results are similar for Europe. A general malaise had settled across the world as we entered 2020. The latent fear and anxiety in society, combined with little knowledge of viruses and inadequate critical thinking skills, created a perfect storm of social panic and a willingness to believe whatever they were told by people who proclaimed to know the answers and pretended to be experts. The covid cause provided the fearful with meaning in their otherwise woeful lives.

The covid narrative gave frightened people purpose to their existence. They became mentally intoxicated they were part of an army, fighting to defeat this evil virus for the greater good of humanity. Once this belief took hold, the central mechanism of mass formation was firmly in control, and they would believe whatever they were instructed to believe. They became myopically focused on their imminent deaths, unless they masked, social distanced, locked down, and obeyed every dictate of their covidian savior – Saint Anthony Fauci, a petty life-long government bureaucrat playing out his totalitarian Napoleon complex fantasies, while reaping Big Pharma riches and Big Media accolades.

Once the covidian cult was formed, it no longer mattered whether the narrative was blatantly wrong. It didn’t matter that masks didn’t work, social distancing was a farce, lockdowns were worthless, ivermectin worked, ventilators and Remdesivir killed people, or the survival rate for anyone under 70 years old was 99.9%. It wasn’t about facts and reason. The covidian cult had a purpose and they didn’t want to go back to their wretched pointless lives. Desmet describes this process of mass formation psychosis.

“This process yields a psychological gain. Firstly, the anxiety that previously roamed through society as a tenebrous fog is now linked to a specific cause and can be mentally controlled via the strategy put forward in the story. Secondly, through a common struggle with “the enemy,” the disintegrating society regains its coherence, energy, and rudimentary meaning. For this reason, the fight against the object of anxiety then becomes a mission, laden with pathos and group heroism. Thirdly, in this fight all latent brewing frustration and aggression is taken out, especially on the group that refuses to go along with the story and the mass formation. This brings an enormous release and satisfaction to the masses, which they will not let go of easily.” 

– Mattias Desmet – The Psychology of Totalitarianism

Desmet believes the masses and the leaders they choose to follow are spellbound by the ideologically produced storyline, both under a form of hypnosis which is exceedingly difficult to interrupt. The hypnosis is deepened and fostered by the relentless mass media propaganda spewed across the airwaves and internet by organizations benefiting from the panic and fear.

The Deep State corporatocracy which has replaced our Constitutional Republic takes advantage of every fabricated “crisis” by expanding their wealth, power, and control over a populace which has been indoctrinated to believe the lies, misinformation, and propaganda pronounced by the overlords they are told to worship and obey. I think Desmet accurately assess the percentage of people enthralled by the narrative and completely under the spell of the false plot. Approximately 30% of people are completely hypnotized, with 40% to 60% not hypnotized but choosing to go along with the crowd, and a minority of 10% to 30% who resist the narrative and actively push back.

Considering only 30% of the adult population didn’t let themselves be injected with the untested, experimental, Big Pharma enriching gene therapy, which was guaranteed to keep you from catching covid according to Fauci, Walensky, Biden and numerous other “experts”, it seems like Desmet’s estimates are pretty accurate. Only 10% have been vocal dissenters. These were the people fired from their jobs, censored on social media, and canceled by friends and family. The mass formation A team were the 30% posting selfies of themselves with masks, shields, vaccine cards, and any other virtue signaling BS showing they were part of the cult, saving the world from this evil virus.

They were also the Karens berating the unmasked, screaming at people closer than six feet, turning in neighbors for breaking the rules, and wishing death upon all the unvaxxed. The cowardice of middle 40% has been the most disappointing aspect of this overhyped flu faux pandemic, as they dutifully submitted to the whims of the cultists – wearing their masks, locking down, avoiding human contact, obeying the totalitarian dictates of politicians, believing absurdities spouted by blustering bureaucrats, complying with un-Constitutional mandates, and sheepishly lining up for jabs that didn’t keep them from catching covid, spreading covid, being hospitalized with covid, or dying from covid. These sheepish followers are the pitiful descendants of the German prison guards who claimed they were only following orders during WWII.

In Part 2 of this article I will attempt to relate this mass formation psychosis phenomenon to the waning years of this Fourth Turning, and how they will intertwine and impact the final outcome of this crisis.

*  *  *

It is Jim’s sincere desire to provide readers of The Burning Platform with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit Jim’s site, he asks that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. He needs your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. 

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The official tax-filing season will start Monday, Jan. 23, and the Internal Revenue Service says the amounts might be different than last year.

“This filing season is the first to benefit the IRS and our nation’s tax system from multi-year funding in the Inflation Reduction Act,” said acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell in a Jan. 12 news release. “With these new additional resources, taxpayers and tax professionals will see improvements in many areas of the agency this year.”

Although some people might want to file their taxes as soon as possible, the IRS release said that people should “have all the information they need before they file.” If not, they risk “refund delays” or risk needing to file an amended return, the agency said.

Taxpayers have until Tuesday, April 18, to file their taxes in 2023. That’s because April 15 falls on a Saturday and because the Emancipation Day holiday in Washington falls on Monday. Those who want an extension can file one before that date, which will postpone it back to Oct. 16, 2023.

Meanwhile, the IRS has already issued a notice to taxpayers that refunds are likely to be smaller this year, and some people who expect to get money back might end up even owing the federal government.

“Refunds may be smaller in 2023,” the IRS said last November. “Taxpayers will not receive an additional stimulus payment with a 2023 tax refund because there were no Economic Impact Payments for 2022. In addition, taxpayers who don’t itemize and take the standard deduction, won’t be able to deduct their charitable contributions.”

And if people are eligible for a refund, it may take longer. Last year, the IRS warned that some tax returns may require extra time to process this year.

“The IRS cautions taxpayers not to rely on receiving a 2022 federal tax refund by a certain date, especially when making major purchases or paying bills,” the federal tax agency said in November.

As of Dec. 23, the agency said on its website that it still has 1.91 million unprocessed individual returns that it received in 2022, including returns for 2021 or late-filed returns from previous years. “Of these,” it added, “1.49 million returns require error correction or other special handling, and 414,000 are paper returns waiting to be reviewed and processed.”

What’s Different

For those who have children, there may be dramatic changes. For the 2022 tax year, parents could claim a maximum child tax credit of $2,000 for each child if their earnings fell below a certain threshold.

“Initially it was 3,000 per child and it went up to 3,500 per child. In 2021, it jumped up to 8,000 for one qualifying person, or 16,000 for two or more dependents. However, the caps have returned to the 3,000 and 6,000 for one or multiple dependents,” Crystell Harris, CEO of Dream Team Solutions, told KATV.

A number of Americans got a $1,400 stimulus payment in 2021, or the third of such payments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox told NPR said that “a whole bunch of taxpayers actually received what’s called a recovery rebate credit … and they got $1,400 per person on their 2021 taxes.”

“But now that’s gone” for people filing their 2022 taxes, Khalfani-Cox said.

Separately in 2021, there was a temporary tax break that allowed for a “$300 deduction for people who don’t itemize and a $600 deduction for married couples,” she added. “But Congress didn’t extend this deduction in 2022.”

A controversial rule was enacted under the American Rescue Plan of 2021 that would have required anyone who earned $600 or more via online platforms like PayPal, Etsy, eBay, and Venmo to report their earnings. However, just days before the start of 2023, the IRS announced that it delayed the reporting rule by another year at the least, as O’Donnell told news outlets that the rule sparked widespread confusion.

Read more here…

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is disputing claims that anti-police protests and rioting on Jan. 21 weren’t violent, saying that charges against six individuals who were arrested will include “domestic terrorism.”

In a Jan. 22 interview with CBS News, the Democratic mayor said that Atlanta’s police department “took swift action within two blocks and brought that situation under control” during the unrest.

“The violence stopped, and those six individuals were arrested,” he said.

“And it should be noted that these individuals were not Atlanta or Georgia residents. Most of them traveled into our city to wreak havoc. And so, we love to support people when they’re doing right, peaceful protest is a part of the American – our freedoms, but when you are violent, we will make sure that you get held accountable.”

Masked activists dressed in all black threw rocks and lit fireworks in front of a skyscraper that houses the Atlanta Police Foundation, shattering large glass windows. They then set fire to a police cruiser, smashed more windows, and vandalized walls with anti-police graffiti as stunned tourists scattered.

The riot followed the death of an environmental activist who was killed by law enforcement this week after officials said the 26-year-old had shot a state trooper. Word of the Jan. 21 protest had been widely circulated ahead of time on social media and among leftist activists, with some passing out flyers that read, “Police killed a protester. Stand up. Fight back.”

The initial hour of the demonstration appeared to have been peaceful as a few activists shared their memories of Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez, describing him as a member of the left-wing “Stop Cop City” community. The speakers said he had undergone a 20-hour medic course in order to serve as a medic for fellow “forest defenders” who had found their home in the DeKalb County woods just outside Atlanta’s city limits.

Paez was killed on Jan. 18 as authorities cleared a small group of protesters from the site of a planned Atlanta-area public safety training center that activists have dubbed “Cop City.” Opponents of the training center have been protesting for more than a year by building platforms in surrounding trees and camping at the site. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said about 25 campsites were located and removed in the raid, and mortar-style fireworks, edged weapons, pellet rifles, gas masks, and a blow torch were recovered.

Authorities said Paez refused to exit a tent on the wooded property, and then shot a Georgia State Patrol trooper with a 9 mm handgun, prompting other troopers to open fire. According to The Associated Press, Paez described himself as a “nonbinary person” who used “they/it pronouns.”

The Georgia Department of Public Safety stated that it won’t disclose the name of the injured trooper because “disclosure would compromise security against criminal or terroristic acts due to retaliation.”

‘Domestic Terrorism’

During the interview, Dickens elaborated on the arrests and said the charges will range from “domestic terrorism” to assault.

“It is violent when someone turns to burn down a police car or break out windows or have explosives on them,” he added. “I don’t get into the names. I don’t know all the organizations. I’ll let y’all decide who did it. I just know they’re arrested.”

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens as seen in a file photo. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

“And if they come into Atlanta, again, to wreak havoc, they will be arrested again,” he said.

Dickens appeared to be pushing back against reports from ABC and CNN on Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, which received backlash online. CNN guest David Peisner, without providing evidence, claimed that the violence that took place was being instigated by police, while a post on Twitter by ABC News described the unrest as a “peaceful protest” while sharing a video of a police car that was on fire.

“Yes, those individuals that are protesting against ‘Cop City,’ as they call it, it’s really a public safety training center,” Dickens told CBS.

“They don’t want to see the very things that they asked for more police training, we can’t train imaginary, we have to do it in a facility that allows for police [and] firefighters in the community to train together.”

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp denounced the violence and thanked the responding officers.

“Violence and unlawful destruction of property are not acts of protest,” the Republican governor wrote.

“They are crimes that will not be tolerated in Georgia and will be prosecuted fully.”

On Jan. 21, Dickens confirmed that explosives were used during the riots.

“You heard that correctly, explosives,” he told reporters.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday confirmed that his country is about to seek formal permission from the German government to send Leopard main battle tanks to Ukraine. Berlin requires formal permission for any of its German-manufactured military items to be sent to third party countries, especially in active war zones.

Germany has continued to refrain from giving its permission, citing fears of uncontrollable escalation between Russia and NATO countries, while further stressing Germany is not a party to the conflict. This as some Polish officials have stressed Germany faces possible “international isolation” if it doesn’t agree to send tanks. “Germany will be completely isolated if it does not give in and hand over the tanks,” Poland’s deputy foreign minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk told a Polish radio broadcaster.

On the same day Poland said it will seek Berlin’s approval, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was grilled by reporters at a European Union meeting on the issue.

She didn’t give a definitive answer, appearing to dodge the questions, but instead explained: “The whole country [Ukraine] is under attack from the Russian regime, and it’s clear that even 11 months after the start of the brutal Russian war of aggression, Putin has not deviated from his murderous plan to destroy Ukraine.”

“That’s why it’s so important that we as an international community do everything we can to defend Ukraine, so that Ukraine wins — wins to live in peace and freedom again,” she added. “Because if it loses this war, there will be no more Ukraine.”

But as CBS reports at a moment of apparent widening division among the Western allies on the tank issue: 

A day earlier, Baerbock said on French television that Germany would not block the export of Leopard tanks to Ukraine from third countries.

“At the moment, the question has not been asked, but if we were asked, we would not stand in the way,” she said after being asked what would happen, in theory, if Poland decided to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

The division is on full display in Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s latest comments:

When things seem to be going in a slightly better direction on the subject of heavy weapons for Ukraine, Germany steps in and raises doubts. The enemy is in the east, and we are wasting time on discussions that do not lead to anything good,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told the PAP Polish Press news agency.

Ukrainian diplomats and officials are also stepping up the pressure campaign: 

Just a kind reminder: Ukraine officially asked Germany to supply Leopard tanks on 3 March 2022, on the 7th day after russia started a war of annihilation against the Ukrainian statehood &🇺🇦nation. Today is the 334th day of barbarian🇷🇺war. Maybe it’s time to speed up this process? pic.twitter.com/C3N2C6pelT

— Andrij Melnyk (@MelnykAndrij) January 23, 2023

Meanwhile Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday mocked the clear “anxiety” and “legal balancing act” on display by NATO countries regarding the German tanks issue.

“This whole legal balancing act that we see now, and the exchange of statements between European capital cities… European capitals, including Warsaw, are now threatening Berlin with international exclusion and much more,” he said. “All this suggests that anxiety among the members of the alliance is increasing all the time, keeps growing. But here, of course, all the countries that are directly or indirectly involved in pumping weapons and in raising the technological sophistication of Ukraine, they are all responsible for this in one way or another,” the Kremlin spokesman added, according to TASS.

The Kremlin later in the day added…

POLAND MUST ENSURE CHANCELLOR BACKS GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTRY BEFORE EXPORTING LEOPARD TANKS TO UKRAINE -TASS QUOTES PUTIN SPOKESMAN

Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

The L.A. county sheriff praised two brave members of the local community on Sunday who he said helped prevent further loss of life after the gunman who had already murdered 10 people at a Los Angeles-area ballroom dancing studio attempted an attack on a second location.

In a press conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna explained how around 20 to 30 minutes after the suspected gunman, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran, opened fire at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, California, he then entered another dance studio, Lai Lai Ballroom & Dance Studio in the nearby town of Alhambra.

ALHAMBRA, CA – JANUARY 22: The Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio near the site of a deadly shooting on January 22, 2023 in Alhambra, California. 10 people were killed and 10 more were injured at a dance studio in Monterey Park near a Lunar New Year celebration on Saturday night. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

Sheriff Luna said that the suspect was armed with a gun, specifically a “magazine-fed semiautomatic assault pistol” with a large-capacity magazine attached to it when he arrived at the Alhambra studio where he probably intended to kill more people.

However, upon arriving at the second dance studio, the suspect was swiftly disarmed by two brave individuals who jumped on him and disarmed him before he fled in a white van.

“Remember, the suspect went to the Alhambra location after he conducted the shooting (in Monterey Park), and he was disarmed by two community members who I consider to be heroes,” Luna said.

“They saved lives. This could’ve been much worse.”

No further details regarding the two brave community members were revealed.

No Motive for Attack

The Sheriff added that he believes the weapon taken from the suspect at the Alhambra location is not legal under Californian law.

Luna said that law enforcement still have no clear motive for the attack but believe the gunman acted alone.

“We want to know how something this awful can happen,” Luna said.

According to police, the suspect opened fire at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park—a city of about 60,000 people which is known for its large Asian population—on Saturday at around 10:22 p.m. local time as a day of celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year drew to a close.

A total of 10 people were killed, with police stating that the majority of the victims appear to be in their 50s, 60s, or older. Another 10 more people were injured, seven of whom were still in hospital as of Sunday evening—some in critical condition.

The shooting sparked a huge manhunt for the suspect who was later found dead in Torrance on Sunday morning, at around 1 p.m. local time in a white van, about 30 miles from the Monterey Park shooting scene.

The vehicle, which was stationed in a parking lot, was isolated by a SWAT team. Police said that earlier, they had heard what appeared to be a single shot from inside the van, triggering officers to call for reinforcements.

Authorities said that upon further inspection, it appeared as though Huu Can Tran died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was declared dead at the scene.

Sheriff Luna told the press conference that the number plates on the van had been changed and were likely stolen. A handgun was found in the van where Tran died.

Law enforcement personnel open the door of a van outside the site in Torrance, California, where the alleged suspect in the mass shooting in which 10 people were killed in Monterey Park, Calif., is believed to be holed up on Jan. 22, 2023. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Orders Flags Flown at Half-Staff

Elsewhere during Sunday’s press conference, Monterey Park representative Judy Chu, who chairs the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) and is a former mayor of the city, said that community members are “no longer in danger” but that there were questions surrounding why the two dance community studios were targeted.

“What was the motive for this shooting? Was he a domestic violence abuser? How did he get these guns? Was it through legal means or not? These questions will have to be answered in the future,” Chu said.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the Alhambra ballroom said it was closed following the devastating shooting in Monterey Park and would implement visitor searches when it reopened on Monday.

The Lai Lai Ballroom and Studio near the site of a deadly shooting in Alhambra, Calif., on Jan. 22, 2023. (Eric Thayer/Getty Images)

“In observance of the tragedy at Star Dance last night, Lai Lai Ballroom will be closed today,” the post read.

“Lai Lai will reopen Monday for lessons only. As an extra precaution, all students and teachers are subject to search prior to entering the studio. Our prayers go out to all the victims families.”

President Joe Biden on Sunday evening ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff at the White House and all other federal posts until Jan. 26 as “a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence,” according to a White House statement.