Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,

The famed psychologist and scholar, and global media personality, Jordan Peterson is being told that he must report to the Ontario College of Psychologists for re-education or else lose his license to practice. He is challenging the order in court, for whatever that’s worth.

No question that this follows his aggressive questioning of the whole of the Covidian agenda, including mass forced vaccination of the population.

It’s hardly the first time he has gotten in trouble with the powers that be. His initial fame came from his brave refusal to acquiesce to the “preferred pronoun” movement in Canada that came before lockdowns. That he is now ensnared in the machinery of the biomedical security state is predictable; this is today’s means by which regime enemies are punished and silenced.

It so happens that I heard Jordan speak in Budapest only months before the lockdowns that coincided with his own grave problem that he encountered with prescription medicine: as with many he was misled about what he believed was a simple medication. The timing was a tragedy because it took him out of the space of public intellectual life right when we needed him most: during the early months of lockdowns.

His voice went silent during these times. It was heartbreaking. The very small resistance continued despite his incapacitation. Once he got better, he gradually became aware of what had taken place and then became ferocious, as any thinking person must. Thus his current issues with the authorities.

Looking back at this date, it seems almost like he saw what was coming. In those months before lockdowns, I wrote the following report on what I saw in Budapest.

*  *  *

Almost from the first words of his outdoor lecture in Budapest, Hungary, held in the courtyard of the St. Stephen’s Basilica, Jordan Peterson’s eyes teared up and his voice cracked with emotion. Not just once. It happened repeatedly. His eyes never entirely dried. The audience could see it all because of the cameras and the huge monitors that made him some 25 times life-size, which is pretty apropos to his status as an intellectual in this part of the world. Indeed, in most parts of the world.

Tonight was interesting, however, because his tears were clearly not performative in any sense. It was a show of extreme vulnerability that he surely hoped that he would not show. He strikes me as a deeply emotional person—a temperamental cryer—who has probably practiced a lifetime to stop this.

It didn’t work this time. Before long, during his impassioned presentation on behalf of the dignity of every individual and the responsibility of living a life of truth, audience members too were tearing up in the midst of the awesome silence that fell over this massive crowd during the hour-long presentation.

He never quite got around to explaining his emotion. I think I can, however. So here is my go at it.

The first issue had to do with his introduction in this hugely dramatic space, which was filled with flares and fanfare and oceans of love from those who gathered, not just people with tickets (which were hard to get) but an equal number behind the barricades, extending as far back as one could see. It was impossible not to view this as a show of incredible affection for the man, his work, his influence, his personal courage, and his message. The crowds and the anticipation were overwhelming.

Now, if you are Peterson, you would have to contrast this scene with the raging nonsense you will read about yourself in the mainstream press, to say nothing of the academic literature along with various left-wing hit sites out there who routinely twist anyone’s words to confirm their wild narratives. His every word is picked apart, his footnotes followed, his analogies deconstructed in an unending game of gotcha in order to put him into some kind of predefined political category for easy dismissal.

For the easily led, he is a target. For the witch hunters in media and academia, he is a convenient scapegoat. Within the academy, he is the object of unrelenting envy. In the face of all this, including campus protests and media hectoring, he has been steadfast and brave, refusing to be intimidated and instead using the attention to get his message out there. To cut through all this nonsense, and like and appreciate him in any case, already marks you as being in possession of a discerning mind, a rebel against conventional wisdom. Apparently, there is no shortage of such rebels.

The crowds—I don’t have an estimate but there were 20,000 people at the Brain Bar event at which he was a main draw—might have seemed to him as a tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit. That people were there at all, seeking not a confirmation of political bias but rather to gain a greater sense of personal purpose, shows that the powerful in this world cannot finally rule the day.

He is just one man with a message against the world’s most powerful voices in media, academia, and government—and yet through ideas alone, beginning as nothing but one man in a classroom, he has become the world’s most influential public intellectual.

As for his emotion this night, Jordan probably felt a deep sense of gratitude for being the recipient of this affection and for his place in inspiring people to become intellectual dissidents. That is enough to cause tears of gratitude.

There is far more that overwhelms you about being in this remarkable and indescribably beautiful city. The history is deep and rich and present everywhere you look. There is drama within eyesight of anywhere you stand. The Danube river and bridges, the castles, the stunning Parliament building, the churches and universities, all of it, are not dusty old monuments but currently in use amidst a teeming commercial life that is equal parts old and new.

The whole city also feels extremely young, similarly today to what it might have been like in the late 19th century, in the last years of the Belle Époque when Budapest’s cultural and commercial life rivaled Vienna’s. It’s a magical place, as delightful to visit as anywhere on the planet, in my view.

But what you see is only on the surface. The scars of this city are extremely deep, having been put through astonishing traumas of totalitarianism of the left and right, the bombings, the terror and cruelty and poverty—the experience is not that far back in history. It was tyrannized by Soviet occupation twice, first after World War I and then following World War II, between which it experienced Nazi occupation and devastating Allied bombing that destroyed its infrastructure (all of which has since been rebuilt).

And yet you can walk the city and not see this deep suffering overtly. The city, which wears this grim past lightly, is a tribute to the survival of hope in the face of overwhelming forces that sought to destroy it. The city lives. It thrives. It dreams anew.

In addition to being a psychologist, Peterson is also a historian of totalitarianism. There are ways to read history as a dry reportage of events. That is not how he reads history. Good historians recount events. Great historians tell stories as if they lived them. Peterson is next level: he has sought the inner philosophical and psychological turmoil that shape history through the moral choices of both the oppressed and oppressors. He seeks to understand the inner horror from the point of view of human nature.

As he exclaimed in a slightly terrifying moment, he has read about the history of Hungary and totalitarianism “not as a victim, not as a hero, but as a perpetrator.” What he means is that we must come to terms with evil not just as something external to ourselves but as a force deep within the human personality itself—not excluding our own personalities. What character traits do we need to acquire, what values do we need to adopt, that can prepare us to resist when evil invites our participation in violence and terror? He never stops reminding us what we are capable of doing both good and evil, and urges that we steel ourselves to live good lives even when it is not in our political and economic interests to do so.

So here we were in St. Stephen’s square outside the great Basilica, packed with young people there to hear his message, in this remarkable city, a tribute to the resiliency of the human personality in the presence of one hundred years of oppression and violence. And yet there we were in this year, an age of hope, everyone given yet another chance to get it right, to live well, to treat others with dignity, to build peace and prosperity yet again.

The look on his face, and tears in his eyes, seem to suggest to himself and others: we can do this. We will not give in to evil. We can be strong. We can learn, build, and achieve. Against all odds, he has emerged as a leading voice to add to the possibility of success in our times.

I’ve heard Peterson live before and, like you, watched many of his speeches and interviews on YouTube. I can tell you, I’ve never heard anything like what he said on this evening. It was for the ages.

The latter part of his presentation was lighter, with some very charming “one-minute therapy” sessions on stage with audience members that variously turned profound once again. And here is what is amazing: you discover that the real core of Peterson is not his political outlook or his role as a cultural pundit, historian, or philosopher but his professional training as a psychotherapist, just one man there to help one individual find a way forward through the terrifying struggles of life. Through technology, he finds himself in the blessed role of serving millions of willing readers and listeners.

Even now he can’t possibly know the full impact of his influence. I suspect, for example, that he is unaware of the crucial role he played in American political life when only two years ago, young men were being drawn to the invidious politics of the so-called alt-right as an alternative to the false moralism of the social-justice left. They were drawn to his brave stances against speech controls, but he knew better than to side with any mob on either side of the extremes. He schooled even his new fans in the evils of every brand of identity politics—and the moral urgency of universal human dignity—and justly earned the wrath of alt-right leadership. Thus did he contribute to saving a generation from perdition in extremely volatile times. For this, he deserves the gratitude of every genuine liberal, but, so far as I know, he has never been publicly credited for this achievement.

“Ego Sum Via Veritas et Vita,” read the sign above the entrance to the Basilica. I am the way, the truth, and the life. The sign reminds us of the universal hunger to find direction, purpose, meaning, and redemption in the midst of the chaos and anomy of the historical narrative.

Peterson is not a religious man but he respects its ethos and contribution. This night he became a preacher of goodness, of civility, of moral strength in the face of struggle. The poetry of it all, and the promise that goodness and decency can prevail, was manifest in the crowds and the city right here, this night, in Budapest. It combined to inspire him to find the fullness of his voice.

And this is why he cried tears of joy.

*  *  *

Soon after this presentation, Peterson was in the hospital in recovery at the same time the world of freedom and rights fell apart. He woke to a different world. He began to fight again. And here we are, exactly as he predicted: he is the enemy of the state. He has spent his entire professional career not only as a scholar and therapist—really a genius—but also as a resistor and a bringer of light in dark times.

Authored by John Fredricks via The Epoch Times,

“I don’t even know if I will be alive tomorrow. I might OD tonight,” Pete—a pseudonym—told The Epoch Times.

“You are talking to a drug user right now and that’s the name of the game.”

The 34-year-old comedian has been using the opiate fentanyl since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and commonly checks in and out of rehabilitation centers. With his addiction, he wakes up some mornings homeless on the streets of Southern California.

“You are talking on the phone to a guy about to get his drugs right now,” he said slurring his words off of Huntington Beach’s 17th Street. “And you just missed me getting shaken down by some guy over here.”

A homeless man contorts his body while working off a drug high in Santa Ana, Calif., on June 28, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The “guy” Pete was referencing, a drug dealer, did not give Pete the drugs he wanted. Instead, he paid a nearby homeless individual $80 to help him track down a dealer.

“I would say that the easiest cities to get [fentanyl] in Orange County would be either Costa Mesa or Santa Ana,” Pete said the morning after being arrested for public drunkenness by Newport Beach Police.

“You can ask any homeless person and they can tell you where to find fentanyl to inject or smoke,” he said.

Dealers which are nicknamed “Fentanyl Fairies” blend in with local homeless populations, even sometimes pushing shopping carts that appear to be filled with their belongings.

There’s a “connection with homelessness and fentanyl,” Pete said.

“When you are selling everything to feed your own addiction, you become homeless. Dealers look homeless and sell to the homeless.”

A Record Year

As 2022 came to a close, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency announced a record-breaking seizure of over 379 million deadly doses of fentanyl throughout the country.

United States Customs and Border Protection agents also faced their busiest year on record regarding fentanyl seizures. According to the Department of Justice, 60 percent of apprehensions occurred in California’s Imperial and San Diego counties with more than 5,000 pounds of fentanyl confiscated from drug traffickers, just in the first nine months of the year.

In San Diego County, the drug has been declared a public health crisis response with homeless individuals experiencing the greatest increase of deaths from fentanyl over the last three years, according to county officials.

Mock sizing of a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl in a file photo. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

“From 2020 to 2021, the number of fentanyl overdose deaths increased by 90 percent among the unhoused population versus a 32 percent increase among individuals who were not experiencing homelessness,” County of San Diego spokesperson Fernanda Lopez Halvorson, told The Epoch times.

According to Lopez Halvorson, the county is now saturated with naloxone, known best by its brand name Narcan, to reverse and block the effects of opioids, such as fentanyl.

“The overarching goal is to distribute 33,000 naloxone kits by June 30, 2023,” Lopez Halvorson said.

“Overdose deaths are preventable using a comprehensive approach that includes widespread public messaging on the risks of fentanyl and offering naloxone, a safe medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, and an effective treatment for opioid use disorder.”

At 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, deaths caused by fentanyl are on the rise in Southern California as the powerful opiate continues to be used more as a substitute ingredient for illicit drugs due to its powerful effect at a cheaper cost. Often, officials say, San Diego is a first stop for smugglers.

A firefighter displays Narcan, a lifesaving medicine used to treat drug overdoses, on Feb 26, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Just in north Orange County, fentanyl deaths among the homeless population continue to increase in Santa Ana and Anaheim, both of which topped the lists for homeless deaths involving the drug in 2020, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (pdf).

In Santa Ana, which recorded the most homeless deaths involving fentanyl, all officers are now equipped with naloxone, according to the Santa Ana Police Department.

“With fentanyl being such a potent drug, our officers are instructed to take additional precautionary measures when handling this,” Santa Ana Police Department Sgt. Maria Lopez told The Epoch Times.

“Our officers are trained in the use of Narcan and administer the medication when they suspect opioid overdose.”

Further north, in Long Beach, medics recently shared having to use Narcan multiple times in one week on the same person.

“Usually when it’s a fentanyl [overdose], most of these people have what we call the ‘agonal breathing.’ They look like they’re dead and they might be close to death, but they’re breathing maybe once every minute or so with unbelievably small pupils,” one Long Beach firefighter told The Epoch Times.

A fast driving ambulance navigates the Los Angeles streets on April 4, 2012. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

As a first responder, the firefighter said he has become all too familiar with two usual responses of recovering someone who has overdosed on fentanyl.

“More times than not, they are kind of mad at you for ruining the drug high that nearly killed them,” he said.

The other response, he said, is projectile vomiting.

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office, which oversees Long Beach, told The Epoch Times that the total number of homeless deaths involving fentanyl as a contributing factor was 310 cases, with cases still pending to the yearly total.

Sign of the Times

Along 1st Street in Santa Ana, on a recent day, a man began stripping off his clothing and started clawing at the sky. Working up a sweat as the veins in his arms and head began to protrude, he suddenly bent forward with convulsions in what is known as “nodding out”—body language for an individual working off a fentanyl high.

Just blocks away a group of about 10 who appeared homeless gathered under shelter at Birch Park as rain began to fall.

“I’ve got a prize for you!” one man said, between toppling two metallic poles together, pointing his chin toward four homeless individuals to his right.

A homeless encampment in Santa Ana, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

There, two men and two women in their mid-to-late 20s passed around a zip-locked bag of an off-white, powder-like substance. They were surrounded by others passed out on benches next to trash bags filled with dirty blankets and comforters.

A clean-shaven Hispanic man, who appeared to be in his late 50s walked toward the group asking if they wanted money.

“Nah, we’re alright,” one of the women said. “We’ll take some cigarettes, though.”

The man then approached them, placing both knees on the ground before exchanging his cash for a smaller cut of the group’s product.

Then the man with the metal poles began to tap them together at an even faster pace, showing the whites of his eyes as they locked on the man who then retreated.

During 2022, fentanyl seizures increased 594 percent throughout the State of California, according to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 83 illegal aliens to Haiti on Monday and 273 to Cuba on Sunday after they were intercepted in the Florida Keys over the New Year period.

(L) An illegal alien vessel about seven miles south of Big Pine Key, Florida, on Jan. 1, 2023; (R) A vessel carrying Haitians on Jan. 3, 2023, who were repatriated to Haiti on Jan. 9, 2023. (Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard)

The Coast Guard said it continues to intercept and rescue illegal aliens from overloaded and unseaworthy vessels and warned that those interdicted at sea would be repatriated.

In a statement about the 83 Haitians repatriated on Monday, Lt. Travis Poulos said Coast Guard District Seven and partner agencies continue to patrol the Florida Straits, Windward, and Mona passages.

“These ventures are extremely dangerous and could cost you your life,” Poulos said.

The Coast Guard Cutter Mohawk’s crew departs Matanzas, Cuba, following a repatriation of Cuban illegal aliens to Cuba on Jan. 8, 2023. (Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Newmeyer/U.S. Coast Guard)

The 83 Haitians were first spotted in a sailing vessel by a West Palm Beach Coast Guard crew near Hobe Sound on Jan. 2, then again by a good Samaritan on Jan. 4 about five miles east of Key Lago—around 156 miles apart. There were men, women, and children aboard, according to the Coast Guard.

Lt. Cmdr. John Beal said Coast Guard District Seven crew continue to intercept and rescue Cubans “from grossly overloaded, unseaworthy vessels.”

“These illegal voyages are always dangerous and often deadly,” Beal said in a statement on Sunday.

“We are working closely with partner agencies to save lives and prevent illegal entry to the United States via our southeast maritime border. Those interdicted at sea will be repatriated.”

Florida’s state government will also deploy aircraft from the Florida National Guard to back up marine patrols to “support water interdictions and ensure the safety of migrants attempting to reach Florida through the Florida Straits.”

A vessel carrying illegal aliens who were repatriated to Cuba on Jan. 8, 2023; reported to U.S. Coast Guard Sector Key West watchstanders by a good Samaritan about four miles south of Duck Key, Florida, Jan. 1, 2023. (Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard Station Marathon’s crew)

DeSantis Activates National Guard

Over 300 illegal aliens unlawfully arrived in the Florida Keys over the New Year period, prompting Gov. Ron DeSantis to sign an executive order on Jan. 6 to activate the National Guard.

State officials were forced to shut the Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles west of Key West, after 300 aliens landed there, while a further 45 arrived in Key West. The Coast Guard said around 10 vessels were reported and intercepted throughout the Florida Keys between Dec. 31 and Jan. 1.

“As the negative impacts of [President Joe] Biden’s lawless immigration policies continue unabated, the burden of the Biden administration’s failure falls on local law enforcement who lack the resources to deal with the crisis,” the Republican governor said in a statement.

“That is why I am activating the National Guard and directing state resources to help alleviate the strain on local resources. When Biden continues to ignore his legal responsibilities, we will step in to support our communities.”

A boat that was left along the shoreline after it was used recently to transport Cuban illegal aliens from the island nation to America in Key West, Florida, on Jan. 6, 2023. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

In addition, DeSantis’s executive order (pdf) directs state law enforcement and other state agencies to “provide resources in support of local governments” responding to the influx of illegal aliens in the Florida Keys, as well as “additional support toward efforts to prevent further migrant landings on Florida’s shores.”

The 194 deputies of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department struggled to manage the influx of hundreds of illegal aliens while also trying to ensure public safety, according to DeSantis’s office.

Biden Parole Program

On Jan. 5, Biden announced a new policy to turn back Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who arrive illegally in the United States. People from these four countries make up the majority of illegal aliens crossing the southwest border, Biden said.

The “parole program” will allow up to 30,000 people a month from those four countries to seek asylum in the United States, provided they apply online while in a non-U.S. country, pay their airfare, and find a U.S. sponsor. They then need to make an appointment via the CBP One app to meet with a border agent.

“But if their application is denied or if they attempt to cross into the United States unlawfully, they will be returned back to Mexico and will not be eligible for this program after that,” Biden said.

The president said his administration expects this will “substantially reduce” the number of people attempting to cross the southwest border “without going through a legal process.”

“We can’t stop people from making the journey, but we can require … that they come here in an orderly way under U.S. law,” he added.

“And let me say it again: The actions we’re announcing today will make things better … but will not fix the border problem completely.”

The Coast Guard said it’s intercepted and blocked 4,795 Cubans trying to enter the United States illegally since October, while the governor’s office said over 8,000 illegal aliens have been encountered in the waters off Florida since August.

We once thought the obvious pivot would be traditional food and beverage manufacturers looking to eventually incorporate marijuana based products into their portfolios of products. Now, it looks like the opposite could be happening. 

As marijuana legalization at the federal level in the U.S. has not proceeded as expediently as once predicted, grower Tilray Brands is now considering acquisitions that could move it into the alcohol – or even the produce – space. 

Chief Executive Officer Irwin Simon said this week that, while it has set up infrastructure for the eventual distribution of its products in the U.S., a “lack of political action” has caused it to shift its vision, Yahoo reported. 

Now the company is considering using some of its growing capacity for fruits and vegetables as a short term measure. It is also considering acquisitions that would move it further into setting up a U.S. distribution network, for when marijuana is eventually legalized. 

Simon asked rhetorically on a company conference call this week: “There’s food shortages in the world of lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries. If we have overcapacity, how do we start growing fruits and vegetables at some of these facilities and supply food to the world?”

Analysts were hesitant at the idea, instead asking if the company should simply be focused on reducing its growing capacity. In response, Simon reminded them that the company’s top priority remains cannabis and that the idea of growing fruits and vegetables would only be a “temporary bridge”. Later in the day, on a different call, Simon reassured analysts that facilities would be easily converted for legalized cannabis in the U.S. or Europe when the time was right. 

Tilray already owns SweetWater Brewing Co and Montauk Brewing Co, as well as a bourbon maker, Breckenridge Distillery, Yahoo reported. While those names are small in size, the company isn’t against taking on a larger potential brand name. “If there was a national brand, we would look at that too,” Simon concluded. 

Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA (emphasis ours),

The Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability announced this week that it has obtained records about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ use of stingrays to track Americans.

Stingrays are a relatively new technology that simulate cell towers and collect signals from devices nearby.

PPSA filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the ATF in February 2021, and announced on Wednesday that it had received a batch of documents. According to PPSA, those documents show that the agency uses stingrays.

“The information released by the ATF confirms the agency is indeed utilizing stingray technology,” PPSA said. “Although the agency attempted to minimize the usage of stingrays, it is clear they are being widely used against Americans.”

PPSA has not published the documents it received, but described some of their contents.

“The ATF stressed that stingrays are not precise location trackers like GPS, despite the plethora of information stingrays can still provide,” the organization said. “Answers to questions from the Senate Appropriations Committee about the ATF’s usage of stingrays and license plate reader technology are entirely blacked out in the ATF documents we received.”

PPSA added that ATF policy conceals the use of these devices from their targets, even when relevant to their legal defense.

PPSA said there’s an example of this in the documents it received.

“When an ATF agent interviewed by a defense attorney revealed the use of the equipment, a large group email was sent out saying: ‘This was obviously a mistake and is being handled,’” the privacy watchdog said.

PPSA said it will continue to track stingray usage and report the responses it receives to its FOIA requests with various federal agencies.

Civil liberties activists have noted that the use of stingrays by law enforcement dramatically increased after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Carpenter v. U.S., which found that law enforcement’s warrantless collection of cell phone geolocation data violated the Fourth Amendment. Instead of obtaining warrants, police agencies have used stingrays as a workaround.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

The S&P 500, the world’s biggest and most liquid equity index influences the sentiment or price of most global assets. However, as discussed here repeatedly over the past few years, its performance has been skewed by mega-cap growth stocks, i.e., the Generals. Of course, in 2022, they had a very tough time. Tesla (-65.0%), Meta (-64.2%), Amazon (-49.6%), Alphabet (-39.1%), Microsoft (-28.0%), and Apple (-26.4%) all underperformed to sometimes dramatic effect. And given these 6 names alone still comprise around 19% (down from 26% this time last year) of the world’s most important stock index, DB’s Jim Reid notes that even macro-only investors need to pay attention.

Of this list, Tesla has been the most volatile this year falling 12.2% on the first day but having two +5% plus days, including yesterday. It’s -2.8% so far in 2023.

Which brings us to today’s Chart of the Day from Jim Reid, which updates a graph from his “bubble chart book” in January 2021. Back then, he showed that Tesla’s market cap was around as big as the next largest 8 global auto companies. That was obviously a premature concern as at the peak in November 2021 (market cap $1.24tn), it was then worth around the same amount as the next 13 largest – an incredible stat.

Fast forward to today and it’s now back down to being worth a bit more than just the next two largest ($378bn market cap).

While Reid admits that he not is a single-name stock analyst, he says it’s interesting to debate what valuation such a disruptor should have relative to the competition: “After all, non-fossil fuel cars will continue to dominate the roads for some years, but most car companies will also compete for the spoils in the electric market. It is true that Tesla bulls have pointed out for some years that disruptors such as Apple and Amazon have maintained a dominant position in their respective sectors. But it’s not clear if the sectors/products are comparable. The bulls might also point to Tesla still having increased by 5 times since the March 2020 Covid lows. So, the starting point is important.”

In any event, at the peak, we were still in a world of zero yields and expected to stay there in perpetuity by many. As such, companies with an expected high earnings stream in the future were given very high multiples. This wasn’t the fault of those companies impacted.

So for macro, Reid says that “it is interesting to debate how much of the recent fall in such stocks is down to the interest rate environment changing, and how much was a fundamental overvaluation story.” That matters if the interest rate environment changes again (not if but when) and as such is important for macro.

Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute,

Senator Angus King said the US should not put a timetable on support for Ukraine and remain involved in the war until “Putin is out.” Comparing the current situation with Russia to the Allies’ failure to stop Nazi Germany before World War II, the Maine senator insisted on more Western aid for Kiev.

During a virtual press conference following his recent visit to the Ukrainian capital, King was asked how long the United States should continue its role in the conflict, replying that support for Kiev should be indefinite. “I believe we should remain there until Putin is out,” he said. 

It is unclear if King was calling for Putin’s removal from power in a coup d’etat, or merely for Russian troops to vacate all Ukrainian-claimed territory. The two warring parties maintain conflicting territorial claims and King acknowledged the war is now in a stalemate, but he nonetheless claimed the conflict would not be a “20-year struggle” like America’s experience in Afghanistan.

Throughout the virtual presser, King referenced a historical need to prevail over Russia, saying nothing of the potential for escalation to nuclear war between the world’s largest atomic arsenals. 

The senator noted that he often receives questions from constituents about the wisdom of US involvement in the war, but went on to cite his own version of a Bush-era epithet: ‘We fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.’

“I get letters every now and then, people saying, ‘Why are we doing this? Ukraine’s far away. It’s not our fight.’ Well, it is our fight, because if we don’t fight it now, it will spread,” King said. “And it will become something that we can’t avoid being involved in, just as occurred in the late 1930s at the beginning of World War II.”

He went on to claim that if Putin was not stopped in Ukraine, he would go on to conquer more of Europe, comparing the Russian leader to Adolf Hitler several times. 

King also suggested the US could give additional aid to Ukraine, pointing to allies who are giving more when compared to their overall gross domestic product. “If you measure it in terms of GDP, we’re between fifth and tenth in the world, and other countries are contributing actually larger shares of their GDP to the defense of Ukraine,” he continued, “Why? Because they recognized, as hopefully we will continue to recognize, that this is really a fight for Western values.”

Since Russia’s invasion kicked off last February, Congress has authorized nearly $120 billion in aid for Kiev, including more than $21 billion in direct military assistance and a series of other financial and humanitarian aid packages. King claimed the American tax dollars are being well spent and accounted for, arguing “The software that they’re using, working with Deloitte and SAP, to track everything coming in – every spare part, every dollar.”

Amazing candor from Iran-Contra felon Ollie North:

Ukraine is just like Reagan’s dirty wars in Central America, Africa and Afghanistan

Most of the aid is a kickback to US weapons makers and Beltway contractors

The proxy war is preparation for a larger war w/ China over Taiwan pic.twitter.com/kmKW2JZCH4

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 29, 2022

However, CNN has reported that US arms sent to Ukraine quickly fall into a “black hole” and are nearly impossible to track. In October, Finland’s national law enforcement agency warned that weapons being shipped to Ukraine are ending up in the hands of criminal gangs, while Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari warned weeks later that “the situation in the Sahel and the raging war in Ukraine serve as major sources of weapons and fighters that bolster the ranks of the terrorists in the Lake Chad Region.”

King’s latest presser followed a trip to Ukraine last week, where he said he held a “thrilling” meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky and described him as among “the great leaders of the century.”

While the senator claimed Zelensky and Ukraine are champions of democracy, some analysts have argued that Kiev has only continued its transformation into an authoritarian state under his rule. As commentator Ted Galen Carpenter wrote in The American Conservative, “genuine democracies do not ban multiple opposition parties or close opposition media outlets. Nor do they rigorously censor (and put under strict government control) media outlets that they allow to remain open. Genuine democracies do not outlaw churches that advocate policies the government dislikes.” He added, “yet the Ukrainian government has committed not just one or two, but all of those abuses.”

Authored by Chris Morrison via DailySceptic.org,

A damning indictment of the Net Zero political project has been made by one of the world’s leading nuclear physicists.

In a recently published science paper, Dr. Wallace Manheimer said it would be the end of modern civilisation. Writing about wind and solar power he argued it would be especially tragic “when not only will this new infrastructure fail, but will cost trillions, trash large portions of the environment, and be entirely unnecessary”. The stakes, he added, “are enormous”.

Dr. Manheimer holds a physics PhD from MIT and has had a 50-year career in nuclear research, including work at the Plasma Physics Division at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He has published over 150 science papers. In his view, there is “certainly no scientific basis” for expecting a climate crisis from too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the next century or so. He argues that there is no reason why civilisation cannot advance using both fossil fuel power and nuclear power, gradually shifting to more nuclear power.

There is of course a growing body of opinion that points out that the Emperor has no clothes when it comes to all the fashionable green technologies. Electric cars, wind and solar power, hydrogen, battery storage, heat pumps – all have massive disadvantages, and are incapable of replacing existing systems without devastating consequences.

Manheimer points out that before fossil fuel became widely used, energy was provided by people and animals. Because so little energy was produced, “civilisation was a thin veneer atop a vast mountain of human squalor and misery, a veneer maintained by such institutions as slavery, colonialism and tyranny”.

This argument hints at why so many rich, virtue-signalling celebrities argue not just for Net Zero but ‘Real’ Zero, with the banning of all fossil fuel use. King Charles said in 2009 that the age of consumerism and convenience was over, although the multi-mansion owning monarch presumably doesn’t think such desperate restrictions apply to himself. Manheimer notes that fossil fuel has extended the benefits of civilisation to billions, but its job is not yet complete. “To spread the benefits of modern civilisation to the entire human family would require much more energy, as well as newer sources,” he adds.

The author notes that the emphasis on a false climate crisis is becoming a “tragedy for modern civilisation”, which depends on reliable, affordable and environmentally viable energy. “The windmills, solar panels and backup batteries have none of these qualities,” he states. This falsehood has been pushed by what has been termed a climate industrial complex, comprising some scientists, most media, industrialists and legislators. Furthermore, he continues, this grouping has “somehow” managed to convince many that CO2 in the atmosphere, a gas necessary for life on Earth, one which we exhale with every breath, is an environmental poison.

In Manheimer’s view, the partnership among self-interested businesses, grandstanding politicians and alarmist campaigners, “truly is an unholy alliance”. The climate industrial complex does not promote discussion on how to overcome this challenge in a way that will be best for everyone. “We should not be surprised or impressed that those who stand to make a profit are among the loudest calling for politicians to act,” he added.

Perhaps one of the best voices to cast doubt on an approaching climate crisis, suggests the author, is Professor Emeritus Richard Lindzen of MIT, one of the world’s leading authorities on geological fluid motions:

What historians will definitely wonder about in future centuries is how deeply flawed logic, obscured by shrewd and unrelenting propaganda, actually enabled a coalition of powerful special interests to convince nearly everyone in the world that CO2 from human industry was a dangerous planet-destroying toxin. It will be remembered as the greatest mass delusion in the history of the world – that CO2, the life of plants, was considered for a time to be a deadly poison.

Much of Dr. Manheimer’s interesting paper debunks many of the fashionable nostrums surrounding politicised ‘settled’ climate science. It is an excellent read. Discussing some of the contrary opinions that debunk obviously false claims, he says it is “particularly disheartening” to see learned societies make definitive claims when so much contrary information is readily available. He points out that over the last 10,000 years, the Earth has almost certainly been warmer. There have been warmer and colder periods, just like today.

To find the off-narrative information, even Google can be used, Manheimer says – though he does note that the company warns it will not provide information on “claims denying that long-term trends show that the global climate is warming”.

The top Marine Corps General for Japan this week issued some very revealing statements in an interview focused on countering China in the Financial Times. Despite Chinese leadership insisting that the Taiwan and Ukraine situations are not comparable, this is precisely how Lieutenant General James Bierman presented the situation, even going so far as to admit the Pentagon is preparing a counter-China “theatre” by cultivating military ties with southeast Asian allies.

“The US and Japanese armed forces are rapidly integrating their command structure and scaling up combined operations as Washington and its Asian allies prepare for a possible conflict with China such as a war over Taiwan, according to the top Marine Corps general in Japan,” the FT report begins.

While it’s no secret that Tokyo has been more and more openly siding with the US stance on arming Taiwan over the past year, also abandoning its historic post-WWII neutrality by drastically ramping up defense spending, Gen. Bierman confirmed “exponential increases” over the past year in joint US-Japan operations. 

The interview itself is explosive enough to provoke the ire of Beijing officials, given how explicit the theme of the ‘Ukraine-ification of Taiwan’ is throughout Bierman’s statements, especially given it’s coming from the commanding general of Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) and of Marine Forces Japan.

Speaking in an unusually open and detailed manner regarding ongoing preparations to defend Taiwan, the US general said the following:

“Why have we achieved the level of success we’ve achieved in Ukraine? A big part of that has been because after Russian aggression in 2014 and 2015, we earnestly got after preparing for future conflict: training for the Ukrainians, pre-positioning of supplies, identification of sites from which we could operate support, sustain operations,” he said.

“We call that setting the theatre. And we are setting the theatre in Japan, in the Philippines, in other locations.”

Again, this kind of talk itself constitutes a brazen shot across China’s bow. FT admits Bierman’s comments are an “unusually frank comparison” between potential conflict with China and the Ukraine crisis.

Of course, as applied to Ukraine itself the comments are highly revealing, given the casual admission that US defense planners were busy inside Ukraine years ago “earnestly preparing” for war with Russian, even down to the “pre-positioning of supplies” and readying the battle space.

The NDAA that was just signed into law makes clear that the US is rapidly accelerating its Ukraine-ification of Taiwan, including explicitly preparing to wage war against China, but no doubt we’ll be told any action taken in response is “unprovoked” https://t.co/KMTKPcpcKw

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 26, 2022

And more frank comments from the top Marine general in Japan, per the interview: 

“When you talk about the complexity, the size of some of the operations they would have to conduct, let’s say [in] an invasion of Taiwan, there will be indications and warnings, and there are specific aspects to that in terms of geography and time, which allow us to posture and be most prepared,” he said. As part of those preparations, the Philippines plan to allow US forces to preposition weapons and other supplies on five more bases in addition to five where the US has already access.

“You gain a leverage point, a base of operations, which allows you to have a tremendous head start in different operational plans,” Bierman said. “As we square off with the Chinese adversary, who is going to own the starting pistol and is going to have the ability potentially to initiate hostilities . . . we can identify decisive key terrain that must be held, secured, defended, leveraged.”

Another interesting part of the interview comes in him cautioning regional US allies, including Taiwan, not to overestimate the Chinese military, asserting that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should not be fearfully seen as as being “10 feet tall”.

The general’s remarks were published at the very moment China is continuing its threatening drills aimed at Taipei, which since Nancy Pelosi’s provocative August trip to the self-ruled island has featured PLA fighters and navy ships breaching the Taiwan Strait media line on frequent occasions, including dozens of times on Sunday. It was the second major exercise within less than two weeks into 2023, which the PLA Eastern Command described as “joint combat readiness patrols and actual combat drills.”

If Pentagon leadership continues down this path of casting the Taiwan-China standoff in terms directly relatable to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and correspondingly, the Unites States’ arming of Kiev to the teeth… comparable to arms transfers to Taipei), we can fully expect Beijing to steadily ramp up its aerial and naval threatening drills aimed at Taiwan.

China’s longstanding official policy, including that which is consistently articulated by President Xi, has been that it only seeks peaceful unification, and that it remains only Washington “playing with fire” in falsely stoking pro-independence forces. Yet Beijing is certainly not naïve, and appears busy paving the way of setting its own theatre looking ahead to a potential clash.

For example, a fresh report in South China Morning Post cites evidence of recent PLA Navy maneuvers that strongly suggest it’s seeking to expand warfighting capacity in Pacific waters:

A People’s Liberation Army warship’s solo trip deep into the South Pacific is believed to have been a test of the Chinese navy’s refueling and supply capacity at sea.

The PLA Navy’s guided-missile destroyer Yinchuan (hull number 175) had been sailing near the exclusive economic zone of New Caledonia, a French overseas territory in the South Pacific, about 1,500km east of Australia, according to a French defence ministry tweet on December 29.

French navy jets tracked and photographed the warship’s activities, it said.

The same warship had only last month been spotted sailing close to French Polynesia, causing SCMP to point out that “The area it appeared in was tens of thousands kilometers away from the Chinese coast, and far beyond the range the 7,500-tonne destroyer could sustain without resupply, leaving aside the requirements for the return journey.”

China and Philippines agree on new channels to resolve South China Sea maritime issues, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Xi Jinping also agreed to restart joint oil and gas exploration. pic.twitter.com/VYe7ZKrYyB

— Geopolitics.wiki (@GeopoliticsW) January 5, 2023

Meanwhile, China also necessarily finds itself in a position where it must utilize strong diplomacy – or else soft power – with its neighbors as it seeks to mitigate the effects of America’s significant and growing regional presence. As but the latest clear example, last week Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos visited Beijing. He met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Wednesday, and the two agreed to “friendly consultation to appropriately resolve maritime issues,” according to state media.

* * * 

War-gaming a China-US war over Taiwan: a hypothetical invasion would exact “high costs on the island and the US Navy,” according to a new think tank study…

A hypothetical Chinese invasion of Taiwan “quickly founders” but exacts high costs on the island and the US Navy, according to a Washington think tank’s war games https://t.co/Bc9Hl8zOYM

— Bloomberg (@business) January 9, 2023