1552: Old Trout

Members of the public watching the coronation on television, online and in parks and pubs will be invited to swear aloud their allegiance to the monarch in a “chorus of millions of voices” to be known as the Homage of the People.

People around the UK and abroad will be invited to say the words “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God”, in a declaration that replaces the traditional homage of peers.

Saturday’s service will also involve for the first time the active participation of representatives of faiths other than Christianity. Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, will give a reading from the Bible in his capacity as PM, despite Church of England law in effect barring other faiths from taking an active role in its services. “There is no issue about [Sunak’s] personal faith, we’re delighted that he is doing [this],” said a Lambeth Palace spokesperson.

Other new elements include the king voicing aloud a specially written prayer; a hymn sung in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish in an acknowledgment of the “rich heritage” of the UK; and the participation of female Anglican bishops.

Link

Good Evening Adam

When you and John have been talking recently about the topic of Maoism and how it is being used to try and break up the bonds between parents and children it reminded me of Greta during her peak.

She would stand in front of a crowd and blame the adults for everything wrong in the world and even scream and shout at them.

I remember saying to my wife at the time that she was teaching children that they knew better than adults and it was ok to shout at them which really should not be encouraged the way it was by the media and politicians.

I think it ties in a little bit with what is happening now and may have started the breaking up of family earlier. Its just moved on from climate to gender now as the weapon of choice.

Just a thought and maybe something to look out for. Maybe we will start seeing more climate change news again.

Thanks to you and John for everything you do.

I'm listening to the podcast and I just heard the Swisher/Galloway clip and the psychology of it disturbed me.

First of all, she mentioned that the gay community in Weimar Germany was thriving, "...and then they killed them." This is incorrect. The republic had laws against homosexuality, but they were rarely enforced, hence the "thriving community". IT WAS THE NAZIS who killed the gays shortly after their rise to power, not the Weimar Republic. So the comparison to Florida is actually very apt, since the "thriving community" there is not in danger from Florida, but from the people trying to subvert Florida.

Moreover, she then went on to describe her political opponents by saying, "They never go away, they're like mold, these people." This is EXACTLY THE WAY HITLER TALKED about his victims! In his books and in his speeches he always referred to them as an infection or infestation that needed to be cleansed. This woman is deeply disturbed, and should be surrounded by trained professionals with butterfly nets before her career in art fails.

Hey Adam

Just wanted to weigh in on the trans issue as I have 3 school age boys from adolescence to late teen as well as an aunt to a niece who identifies as non-binary since last year.

I can confirm that when they returned to school after lockdowns, 1/3 of the girls in their classes were now identifying as either the opposite gender or non-binary.

I’ve noticed a couple of things that are common with my niece and with the girls that have switched identities.

1) they typically are very introverted and/or shy and/or outcast in the social order at school. I’m assuming these kids in general, prob rely more on their phones for entertainment than my boys or actually many of the boys in their class. Most of the boys their age, including mine don’t have phones or social media and generally spend most of their spare time playing sports or gaming with each other.

2) this seems to hit mostly the girls and typically at puberty. I can imagine that the kind of social media these girls are being fed not only feed them this trans narrative but also, if you aren’t a “girly” girl, puberty is very confusing and off putting to a girl. This can only be exacerbated by the likes of Kardashian type influencers on SoMe. Because they prob can’t relate to ever wanting to be this type of woman, they may conclude that they must not really be a girl.

It’s very sad to me that we can’t celebrate the different sexes regardless of if you fit into a stereotype or not.

Another great point I heard was, how can a girl or boy know if they don’t feel like that “gender” if that is literally the only perspective they have.

Maybe their discomfort is from something entirely different (which I’m guessing is the case)

Jordan Peterson’s interviews with Dr Miriam Grossman and Sara Stockton are excellent for a deep dive in what’s happening in the clinics.

Glad you recovered well! Happy to have you back :)

Brandi

Gents:

I have been below the RADAR for the past 3+ years because I have been living the COVID/Trans/Maoist nightmare with my daughter. I don’t even know where to start, and if I did my note would be too long for you to even read, and you guys know how much I can write.

In my efforts to save my daughter and kids like her, I’ve been exposed to human trafficking, illegal drug dealers, mental health institutions, social services, law enforcement, district attorneys, politicians all the way to governor, school administrators, mental health unprofessionals, and doctors/psychiatrists. I can truthfully say all of these groups with the exception of law enforcement are in on co-opting our kids from their parents. Some are useful idiots for the politicians and bureaucrats pushing their Maoist agenda, but it is the ones aware of what they are doing that are truly despicable.

I have fought for my daughter’s life even at gunpoint but it is the ones that use the law that are more dangerous than the plugs or traffickers. Colorado liberal legislators of which they now have a super-majority like in California, have methodically and incrementally passed laws to make our children property of the state. They took their time to do it with the help of those fuckers from California that left that shithole state to fuck up Colorado. They have pretty much completed their process last week by legalizing state sponsored genital mutilation. The process was:

Hire radical teachers for indoctrination

Reduce age of consent for medical care (abortions) to 15 without parent consent.

Allow children to consent for medical care at 12 without parent knowledge or consent.

Pass law requiring state employees including teachers to use any bizarre pronoun.

Offer medical and mental health care in schools without parent consent.

Governor encourages kids to inject mRNA poison in their bodies without parental consent.

Require mental health assessments for kids 12 and older over-riding parental objections and not informing parents of any care.

After birth abortions for kids as young as 12 w/o parental consent…also come to CO and will abort your baby.

Genital mutilation and puberty blockers for kids without parental consent in violation of a UN Resolution.

Exposing yourself to a minor is now a ticket.

Not passed yet is lowering the age of consent for sexual contact to 11 including with adults. Yes PEDOPHILIA!

Our radical legislators passed this because too many sheeple just vote “D” down the ticket without a clue of who they are voting for. We have many in Boulder and other places that actually support what is happening. Our pedophile governor is all in on it too. It was all passed with the M5M barely reporting on it. People don’t believe me when I tell them about it. Even if they believe it, they don’t do anything about it.

I rescued my daughter one day bloody half alive in a field next to her school because of what these fucktards did to her. It was a slow and methodical process to confuse her gender identity, isolate her from her friends, and expose her to harmful predators. Dozens of people were contributors to her near demise. When I tried to help her, I was denied access to her medical records or control over her care. They wanted to institutionalize her and subject her to more trauma. Fortunately I had the resources and tenacity to fight it. More than once law enforcement was called on me because I stood my ground, but every time they backed me along with the judges.

I was able to save my daughter because of our love, her ability to think critically after living with me and overhearing No Agenda for 15 years, and my determination not to let them take my daughter from me. She now went from a 1.1 GPA to 4.0 in the last 1.5 years, she is a wonderful singer that wants to be a music teacher, and she will be attending Arizona State this fall. The little girl that Adam and The Keeper met at a meet up in Boulder years ago is again that same child. I have often prayed for Adam’s daughter because I have seen a couple of parallels.

Today I still fight for Maddie. She is still getting over the sexual abuse and other trauma she was subjected. We are working with her eating disorders too. I have taken the last 3+ years off of work to help her through this shit and now I’m finding it hard to get back into telecom because of the agism. Maybe I’ll become a podcaster! Now I am starting an alcoholic beverage company with my son based on his tea company. I have zero income and I’m spending money to bootstrap this company but I won’t prostitute myself to any Sand Hill Road VC or SVB again! We’ll launch the project the first week of June so hopefully I can start reversing the flow of money. You’ll each get some samples after production begins.

I don’t expect you to read any of this note to the listeners but I wanted to provide you with more data on how the Maoist agenda is progressing swiftly in Colorado backed by a man that is trying to beat Mayor Pete as the first gay pedo President. I didn’t even mention the bills removing our property rights and taking our guns away. We may have a bill signed into law that gives the government right of first refusal when we sell our homes and another bill removes all zoning as single-family dwellings. You can read about all of the gun bills passed. If this isn’t implementing communism ala Mao I don’t know what is! I call it a Maoist Evolution because it was done incrementally.

There is so much more I could tell you but you get the gist of it all. I could go on Rogan for a week with the stories I have, if I listened to him. I’d say Adam is mostly on track with his analysis of it all. There is definitely a purpose behind the pronouns but “homey don’t play that game.” Keep up the great work. I may be silent quite a bit but I digest all 7 hours a week. Good luck with your recovery Adam, and John belated happy 71st birthday. I’ll eventually do a make up donation. I’m still promoting TBPITU. I have some good stories of some unlikely listeners.

Bless both of you,

Mark

ITM Gents,

Just wanted to follow up on a couple items:

1. The school I work at in New York State is otg. Families and students must pledge to limit smart devices, time spent on them etc. Many of our students, even high schoolers, have zero access to social media. We are even pushing to limit laptops in the classroom and return to books and paper. Check us out at northernacademy.org

2. In my 5 years here we have had in total; 1 suicide, less than 5 students medicated for a ADD, ADHD, Depression etc

3. Zero student on IEP plans. All students learn together and we do not discriminate based on diagnoses or perceived differences.

4. ZERO TRANS students. It does not even come up in class ever. As far as I know we had one student who identified as homosexual. Again, accepted but not promoted.

5. We are a boarding and day school. Send your kids! But really, any parents who are interested can reach out to me via Mastadon. Handle is @brahphecy@noagendasocial.com

Let's help save the 850,000 listeners and their children. I wholeheartedly believe our school here in NY can help change some of these trends. We focus on the classics, the best traditions of both the east and the west, and we instill the values of integrity, compassion and resilience in our students. I know this is coming off as a sales pitch but I cannot think of anything more important as the kids. Also you could help shape the future Epoch Times and NTD reporters! They need you lol!

Adam, have you enjoyed the nine commentaries on communism?

TYFYC

Alex

In the morning gents,

I heard the show yesterday and wanted to share my experience around children, screens, and phones.

My wife and I have a 20 month old son who we've kept almost entirely screen free. No children's shows, no youtube, no phones, no ipads. Only screen use would be when we have a sports game on but he isn't interested in that. We've noticed that he's less interested in our phones than other toddlers we've seen, perhaps because he doesn't know all the fun things that a phone can have. Having said that, he is still interested in our phones because we're interested in our phones, he is clearly picking up on it. Quick note on low screens kids: almost everyone who meets our son comments on his ability to play creatively with simple toys by himself and his engagement with us and other adults. It's hard to not use screens as a crutch with kids and it takes purpose, but there are very real benefits that start showing up almost immediately!

Several weeks ago, after seeing him more and more interested in my phone, I switched to a light phone 2 (https://www.thelightphone.com) and put my iphone in a drawer. I did this both to unhook myself from my device as well as to help my son have a 'normal' life (abnormal by today's standards). The results have been immediate for both of us. I'm less interested in my phone and he's not interested at all. The phone has a black and white eink screen and very limited functionality so there's no draw for me or for a child. I was anxious to switch at first, but after getting it up and running I felt immediately freed from it all.

I share this because the light phone might be a good tool for others in gitmo nation both in curbing their own addictions to these apps and for allowing older kids to have the ability to communicate without giving them access to anything online.

Please find my paypal donation which I sent today and my recurring check with I set up starting next week as my gratitude for the show,

Mason

ITM Adam,

Want to give you what I think you’ll find as an interesting insight. Hope I’m not wasting your time. I’ve debated sending you screenshots of a group text message with me and several friends (male, all 40 y/o).

I have been trying to gently engage on this topic - from the perspective of ‘what we are doing to kids’.

When it comes to transgenderism two of the friends tell me I’m creepy for being ‘so’ interested in the transgenderism topic. Also, they accuse me of violating freedom of choice, parents rights (ha, I know, crazy town)and because I’m not trans or don’t have a trans person in my life - I should stay out of the conversation.

They tell me I’m treating this group like gays were being treated in the past. The other 5 friends in the group chat stay silent and offer no perspective.

These are friends since high school. They don’t hold back on this. For the first time I am having feelings of concerns for the future.

Thanks for the time. Love and lite,

Joey

Laptop with Mint

High Quality Standalone Camera

Umbrel or Start9 home server

Handheld 2m Ham radio (License required)

Library Card

Dog

AR-15

Old political saying often used by Biden

"Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative” is a political saying meaning that no candidate is perfect (like the Almighty), but he or she—however flawed—might still be better that all the other candidates (the alternatives).

One of Canadian Prime Minster Pierre Trudeau’s cabinet ministers said in 1972, “Don’t compare the Prime Minister to the Almighty. Just compare him to the alternative.” In 1979, Boston Mayor Kevin White borrowed from Trudueau’s slogan and said, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and then President Barack Obama used the line in 2010 and 2012. In 2011, a Maclean’s magazine writer credited Canadian politician Keith Davey (1926-2011) for creating the line about Trudeau.

Sen. Grassley, Rep. Comer Demand FBI Record Alleging ‘Criminal Scheme’ Involving Then-VP Biden | The Daily Caller

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 May 2023 17:40

Announcements

WGA on Strike

Our negotiation with the studios and streamers has failed to reach an agreement. We are on strike.

Monday, May 1, 2023

Dear Members,

We have not reached an agreement with the studios and streamers. We will be on strike after the contract expires at midnight.

Your WGA Negotiating Committee spent the last six weeks negotiating with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Over the course of the negotiation, we explained how the companies' business practices have slashed our compensation and residuals and undermined our working conditions. Our chief negotiator, as well as writers on the committee, made clear to the studios' labor representatives that we are determined to achieve a new contract with fair pay that reflects the value of our contribution to company success and includes protections to ensure that writing survives as a sustainable profession. We advocated on behalf of members across all sectors: features, episodic television, and comedy-variety and other non-prime-time programs, by giving them facts, concrete examples, and reasonable solutions. Guild members demonstrated collective resolve and support of the agenda with a 97.85% strike authorization.

Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal'--and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains'--the studios' responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing. The companies' behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a "day rate" in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.

Therefore, earlier today the Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the AMPTP's final offer before deadline and recommended to the WGAW Board and WGAE Council the issuance of a strike order. Based on that recommendation, the Board and Council unanimously voted to strike after the current MBA's expiration at midnight tonight.

A strike by the WGAW and WGAE against all companies signatory to the 2020 MBA will begin on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET.

We must now exert the maximum leverage possible to get a fair contract by withholding our labor. All WGA members are obligated to follow the strike rules. The FAQ about the strike rules includes forms to assist with notice requirements as well as contact information for Guild staff to provide additional guidance.

Members of the Negotiating Committee, Board and Council will be out with you on the picket lines. The initial picketing schedule can be found here and will be updated regularly.

Writers Guild members can hear a full report from the Negotiating Committee in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium at 7:00 pm PT on Wednesday May 3 (RSVP here) and in New York at Cooper Union at 7:00 pm ET (RSVP here). Members outside of Los Angeles and New York or who are otherwise unable to attend a meeting will receive information in the coming days to hear from leadership and receive information about additional ways to support the strike.

Here is what all writers know: the companies have broken this business. They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy. But what they cannot take from us is each other, our solidarity, our mutual commitment to save ourselves and this profession that we love. We had hoped to do this through reasonable conversation. Now we will do it through struggle. For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice. IN SOLIDARITY,

WGA NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE

David A. Goodman, Co-ChairChris Keyser, Co-ChairEllen Stutzman, Chief Negotiator

John AugustAngelina BurnettKay CannonYahlin ChangRobb ChavisAdam ConoverTravis DonnellyAshley GableHallie HaglundEric HaywoodEric HeissererGreg IwinskiLuvh RakheErica SalehDanielle Sanchez-WitzelJames SchamusTom SchulmanMike SchurDavid ShoreDavid SimonPatric M. VerroneNicole Yorkin

Ex-OfficioMeredith Stiehm, WGAW PresidentMichele Mulroney, WGAW Vice PresidentBetsy Thomas, WGAW Secretary-TreasurerMichael Winship, WGAE PresidentLisa Takeuchi Cullen, WGAE Vice President of Film/TV/StreamingChristopher Kyle, WGAE Secretary-Treasurer

Link to Article

Archived Version

Thu, 04 May 2023 17:39

Vice Media Group LLC is an American-Canadian digital media and broadcasting company. As of June 2021[update], the Vice Media Group included five main business areas: Vice.com (digital content); Vice Studios (film and TV production) Vice TV (also known as Viceland); Vice News; and Virtue (an agency offering creative services). It was cited as the largest independent youth media company in the world, with 35 offices.[10]

Developing from Vice magazine, originally based in Montreal and co-founded by Suroosh Alvi,[11] Shane Smith, and Gavin McInnes,[12] Vice expanded primarily into youth and young adult''focused digital media. This included online content verticals and related web series, the news division Vice News, a film production studio, and a record label among other properties. Vice re-located to New York City in 2001.

Vice Media originally broadcast their news programs on HBO, which broadcast the Emmy-winning[13] weekly documentary series Vice, which premiered in April 2013. Vice features segments on global issues hosted by co-founders Smith and Alvi, and a rotating cast of correspondents.[14][15] They also broadcast Vice News Tonight, which premiered 10 October 2016, showcased a nightly roundup of global news, technology, the environment, economics, and pop culture while eschewing traditional news anchors.[16][17][18] However, on 10 June 2019, HBO announced the news program's cancellation in addition to ending relations with Vice Media, after a seven-year partnership.[19] In August 2019, it was reported that the company was laying off staff, as part of a shift towards news that would involve merging Viceland and Vice News.[20]

In May 2023[update], Vice was preparing to file for bankruptcy.[21]

History Edit Founding and early years (1994''2005) Edit Vice Media founders Shane Smith,[22] Suroosh Alvi[11] and Gavin McInnes[23] launched the magazine Voice of Montreal in October 1994 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with government funding, to cover music, art, trends and drug culture not covered in print.[24] The magazine was an alternative to the Montreal Mirror, then perceived as too mainstream by the Montreal alternative English-speaking scene. During the 1990s, Montreal's Plateau Mont-Royal/Mile-End neighbourhood was home to a burgeoning subculture with the advent of collectives such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Dummies Theatre, Bran Van 3000 and later Arcade Fire.[25][26]

They changed the name to Vice in 1996, and as the magazine became more successful, the company began to find it difficult to scale their operations while based in Canada.[27] Following an investment of $4 million by Canadian investor Richard Szalwinski, Vice relocated to New York City in 1999. In 2001, the co-founders bought Vice back and moved to new offices in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.[28] The magazine continued to gain attention and readership due to its content, commentary, and contributions from photographers Terry Richardson and Ryan McGinley. The magazine then rapidly expanded internationally, with Andrew Creighton and Andy Capper co-founding the UK division of Vice. The magazine then expanded further into five continents.

Digital expansion (2006''2011) Edit In 2006, on the advice of creative director Spike Jonze, Vice began expanding into digital video, launching new video service VBS.tv as a joint venture with MTV Networks.[29][30] VBS gained a fan base with shows like The Vice Guide To Travel, Epicly Later'd, Toxic and Hamilton's Pharmacopeia.[31] The documentaries on the channel featured unusual subjects, and were hosted by young people working at Vice Media, often the founders themselves.

In 2007, Vice Media began aggressively expanding its digital video operation, launching new channels, such as Motherboard (tech), Noisey (music), and The Creators Project, an arts/technology site founded in partnership with Intel. Vice Media would later launch sites around electronic music culture (Thump), global news (Vice News), food (Munchies) and sports (Vice Sports). Additionally, Vice Media launched Virtue Worldwide, a creative services agency, to expand their capabilities for work around their platforms.[32] During this time, Santiago Stelley was the director of content of VBS.tv (2006''2010) and creative director of Vice Media (2010''2012).[33]

In January 2008, co-founder Gavin McInnes left Vice Media due to "creative differences" with the company,[12] and founded the website streetcarnage.com. He later co-founded Rooster, an advertising agency and became a far-right activist, founding the Proud Boys.[34]

According to Columbia Journalism Review, Vice has altered shots during the editing process in pursuit of more entertaining or impressive scenes. In a 2011 documentary on Libya, a voiceover from the reporter claim that he had gone to the frontlines amidst an offensive, while a source claims he did not make the trip, with only a cameraman going there.[35]

Ongoing history (2012''present) Edit In 2012, Vice Media continued to expand its coverage focused around news and current events.

With the end of VBS.tv, Vice began releasing films like UK's Scariest Debt Collector, Swansea Love Story, World's Scariest Drug, and Inside the Superhuman World of the Iceman through their main website and YouTube channel, as well as new series like Slutever, Fringes, Love Industry and High Society.[36] Like previous Vice content, their online films and series almost always featured on-screen hosts such as Thomas Morton, Ryan Duffy, Matt Shea, Karley Sciortino, Charlet Duboc, and Krishna Andavolu.

In mid-August 2013, Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox invested US$70 million in Vice Media, resulting in a 5 percent stake. Following the announcement, Smith explained, "We have set ourselves up to build a global platform but we have maintained control."[37] In 2013 Vice Media premiered a new 30-minute news program for HBO titled Vice, executive produced by Bill Maher. In 2014, the second season of the show won a Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special in the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.[38] In 2014, Vice Media launched its news channel, Vice News, which almost immediately gained global attention for its coverage of protests and conflict in Ukraine and Venezuela. As of October 2014, the editor of BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat claimed the BBC was "playing catch-up" to Vice News.[39]

Vice Media has routinely advocated for their "immersionist" brand of journalism in the pursuit of more authentic and interesting stories. Their founders and editors have regularly garnered controversy from the likes of The New York Times ' David Carr, who bristled in an exchange with Shane Smith in the 2011 documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times. In a 2014 Time column, Carr said that Vice had since grown into a strong news entity. In August 2014, Carr published a New York Times column further reversing his earlier criticism of Vice, saying, "Being the crusty old-media scold felt good at the time, but recent events suggest that Vice is deadly serious about doing real news that people, yes, even young people, will actually watch."[40]

On 2 July 2014, Vice Media announced that it would be relocating into a warehouse space in Williamsburg that had been occupied by the independent arts spaces and concert venues 285 Kent, Death by Audio, and Glasslands, among others. Utilizing various means, Vice and the building property owners facilitated the clearance of the building and the displacement of the existing creative tenants.[41] Vice spent US$20 million to renovate the 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m2) building as part of an eight-year lease,[42] facilitating the establishment of new production facilities with full broadcast capabilities, and received an offer of US$6.5 million in tax credits from New York state's Empire State Development.[43] In August 2014, A&E Networks, a television group jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Corporation, made a US$250-million investment in Vice Media for an ownership stake of 10%.[44] In November and December 2015, Disney made two additional individual investments of US$200 million totalling $400 million.[45][46]

On 26 March 2015, HBO announced it would renew its contract to broadcast the weekly Vice documentary series for four years, while expanding the annual broadcast schedule from 14 to nearly 30 episodes.[47] The network also announced Vice would be launching a nightly news program. The show, entitled Vice News Tonight, premiered 10 October 2016 and was planned to run 48 weeks each year, featuring pre-edited video and graphics segments covering global news, technology, the environment, economics and pop culture, while eschewing the use of live TV anchors.[16][17][18][48] In November 2015, Vice and A&E Networks announced Viceland, a then-upcoming cable network that would feature Vice-produced content.[49][50][51]

On 14 March 2017, Vice announced an expanded original programming deal with Snap Inc. The new deal builds on VICE's previous deal to serve as a 2015 global launch partner on the Snapchat Discover platform. The first program planned under the new deal is Hungry Hearts with Action Bronson, starring the titular rapper.[52] Also in March 2017, Vice announced a wide range of content deals which would make its programming available in more than 80 territories by the end of 2017.[53]

In June 2017, Vice secured a $450 million investment from private-equity firm TPG Capital to increase spending on scripted programming and ongoing international expansion. As a result of the deal, Vice Media was valued at $5.7 billion.[54] In September 2018, Disney wrote down its investment in Vice by $157 million. Disney acquired Fox's stake in Vice when its acquisition of 21st Century Fox completed in March 2019.[55] As a result, Disney owns a combined 26% stake in Vice Media, through Fox and A+E.

On 23 December 2017, The New York Times reported that there have been four settlements involving allegations of sexual harassment or defamation against Vice employees. In addition, over twenty other women stated that they had experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct, including unwanted kisses, groping, lewd remarks and propositions for sex, at the company. In a statement provided to The New York Times, Vice co-founders Shane Smith and Suroosh Alvi said, "from the top down, we have failed as a company to create a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone, especially women, can feel respected and thrive."[56][57][58] In January 2018 Vice's COO/CFO Sarah Broderick sent a memo to staff on 2 January 2018 announcing Creighton had volunteered to go on temporary leave whilst a new investigation into a $135,000 settlement from a case the company paid in 2016 to a former employee who alleged she was fired after turning him down, and the suspension of Mike Germano, who has served as chief digital officer. Germano founded Carrot Creative, which was acquired by Vice in 2013; he has been accused of pulling a former colleague onto his lap at a company party, as well as telling his former strategist Amanda Rue he originally did not want to hire her "because he wanted to have sex with her."[59] The investigation on Creighton found the allegation was without merit. Vice has also been criticized by current and former employees for featuring work by Terry Richardson, a photographer facing accusations of sexual abuse by multiple models.[60] In another documentary, a former female employee covering a story about sex workers in a developing country said Vice attempted to "sensationalize and exploit" the women depicted. In one occasion, producers requested her to go undercover as a prostitute, which she refused. She also remarks being oriented to swear more while on camera.[35]

In March 2018, Vice Media co-founder Shane Smith announced he was transitioning out as CEO and would take on the new title of Executive Chairman. Former A+E Networks CEO Nancy Dubuc succeeded Smith as CEO.[61] "Smith will now be focused on creating content and strategic deals and partnerships to help grow the company."[62] On 20 August 2018, Vice's Munchies and Fremantle Media signed a deal with Triple Five Group to gain control of the food hall at American Dream Meadowlands. The food hall was expected to open in April 2019.[63][64] In November 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Vice Media was looking to trim its workforce by 10''15%, relying on attrition rather than layoffs.[65] The same month, CEO Nancy Dubuc told an audience at The New York Times Dealbook conference that Vice would return to profitability the following year.[66][67][68] In March 2019, it was reported that Vice Media was looking to raise another $200 million in funding.[69][70]

On 1 May 2019, Vice consolidated many of its web channels back into one central platform turning them into feature sections. The move included independent Munchies, Noisey, Motherboard, Broadly, Free, Amuse, Tonic, Waypoint, and Vice Sports. Vice also ended its block on the ad industry's keyword blacklist of 25 terms.[71] On 3 May 2019, Vice Media announced that it raised $250 million in debt from George Soros and other investors.[72] In October, Vice Media announced that it was acquiring Refinery29.[73] The deal, worth a reported $400 million,[74] valued the combined company at $4 billion.[75] In May 2020, Vice media announced they were laying off more than 150 staff due to financial difficulties.[76][77] In June 2020, Vice Media launched an investigation into allegations of subsidiary Refinery29's toxic work environment.[78]

In March 2020, Vice Media organised the Azimuth music festival in Saudi Arabia, less than two years after Vice paused all work in Saudi Arabia following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. Vice's brand was not used on marketing material, and contractors had to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding Vice's involvement. Vice opened a commercial and creative office in Riyadh in 2022.[79] On 2 October 2020, Vice Media Group appointed Nadja Bellan-White as the global CMO, to be in charge of worldwide branding, communications and promotions. It was also announced that Meera Pattni had been promoted to VP Communications, directly reporting to Bellan-White.[80]

In April 2021, Van Scott, former ABC News communications executive, joined Vice as VP Corporate Communications to lead communications in the US. Scott would report into Laura Misselbrook, Global SVP Communications, based in London.[81] In April 2021, Vice Media was criticized by Cambodians for photoshopping images of the victims of the Khmer Rouge Genocide. Some victims had smileys photoshopped onto their faces. Vice later admitted to the images being photoshopped and said that "We regret the error and will investigate how this failure of the editorial process occurred."[82]

In March 2021, it was claimed that "VICE Media Group is the world's largest independent youth media company", with offices in 35 cities across the world. Its five key businesses were listed as: Vice.com (digital content); Vice Studios (film and TV production) Vice TV; Vice News; and Virtue (an agency offering creative services).[10] In September 2021, it was reported that Vice raised another investment round following cancelled plans to go public via special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).[83]

In January 2023, Vice began exploring the possibility of selling itself.[84] On February 24, 2023, Dubuc left as CEO as the company faced problems with turning an annual profit and finding a buyer.[85] On May 1, 2023, The New York Times reported that Vice was preparing to file for bankruptcy.[86] According to Deadline, Vice's primary debt-holder Fortress Investment Group would likely take control of Vice Media as a result of any Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.[87]

Properties Edit Vice Media holds a range of online and offline properties. Digital channels include:

^ Launch refers to year where the first Vice-produced video was released on their respective YouTube channels.^ In 2014, Vice Media took over the YouTube-funded channel The NOC, which was launched in 2012.VICE Media operates a range of digital and offline entities, a live music venue and other enterprises. These include:

Vice magazine Edit Vice is a print magazine and website focused on arts, culture, and news topics. Founded in 1994 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the magazine was the first product of the media company now known as Vice Media.[28]

As of April 2017, the magazine's editor-in-chief is Ellis Jones.[94][95] The magazine switched to a quarterly publication schedule in 2018, though issues still generally explore a single theme.[96]

Vice News Edit Vice News is the name of Vice Media's current affairs brand, consisting of ViceNews.com, a nightly news program called Vice News Tonight, and an Emmy-winning weekly news program, Vice, both airing on HBO.[97] Vice News focuses on coverage of events that may not be as well covered by other news sources. On 24 May 2016, Vice Media promoted Josh Tyrangiel to oversee a unified Vice News division consisting of Vice News, the weekly HBO Vice News show, and the daily "Vice News Tonight."[98]

Vice News creates content daily, distributing written articles and video on its website and YouTube channel.[99] In 2015, the channel won two Peabody Awards for its video series "The Islamic State" and "Last Chance High".[100]

In 2013, HBO aired the first 10-episode season of a half-hour newsmagazine known as Vice, with Bill Maher as executive producer. The initial season saw international coverage for the season one finale that had Vice play an exhibition basketball game in North Korea with Dennis Rodman and the Harlem Globetrotters. The show was renewed for a second season, which aired in 2014 and won an Emmy award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special.[101] The show was picked up for two more 14-episode seasons by HBO in May 2014, which aired in 2015 and 2016. The program is currently in its fifth season which was expanded to a total of 30 episodes.[15]

In October 2016, a second Vice News program, a nightly news program called Vice News Tonight, premiered. The program is slated to run 48 weeks each year, featuring pre-edited video and graphics segments covering global news, technology, the environment, economics, and pop culture, while eschewing the use of live TV anchors.[102]

Following the violent protests by white supremacists, white nationalists and other groups at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Vice News Tonight broke from its normal newsmagazine format to devote an entire episode to a documentary film on the events. The episode aired the same weekend as the rally, 14 August 2017. "Charlottesville: Race and Terror" garnered critical praise, with Esquire urging readers to "watch it and share it".[103] In addition to featuring the video on its subscription streaming channels, HBO agreed to post the entire video on YouTube. Within two weeks, it had more than 44 million views between HBO and online platforms.[104][105][106][107] The Guardian wrote that the film "lays bare" the "horror of neo-Nazis in America."[108] The episode received a Peabody Award for public service journalism in April 2018.[109][110]

Vice on TV Edit Vice on TV is a cable television network operated by Vice primarily featuring documentary-style programs targeted toward millennials.[49][50][51] It operates under partnership with local cable and free-to-air television providers in the following regions:

The channel is available through cable providers as well as OTT services.[123][124]

Viceland was formerly available as a dedicated channel in Canada, through a partnership with Rogers Communications;[125] however, this channel was shut down in March 2018 due to low viewership.[126] In August 2018, Vice signed a new content deal with Bell Media to relaunch Vice-branded content in Canada on various Bell-owned properties including Much and CraveTV.[127]

In August 2019, it was reported that Vice media is moving Viceland toward news and away from entertainment and other lifestyle programming, and has plans to merge Viceland with Vice News.[20]

Vice Music Edit Vice Records or Vice Music, launched in 2002, is Vice's in-house record label. It has released albums and singles by the following artists through various major label distributors:[128][129][130]

Vice Films Edit Since 2007, Vice Media has released documentaries through the Vice Films label. Its first theatrical release was "White Lightnin'" in 2009.[131] Vice Films released its first narrative feature, "Fishing Without Nets," in 2014.[132] On 8 December 2014, 20th Century Fox and Vice Media announced they would collaborate to finance, produce, distribute, market, and acquire narrative films under the Vice Films brand.[133]

Documentaries and features from Vice Films have been recognized by major US and international film festivals. Cutter Hodierne received the best director award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014 for "Fishing Without Nets."[134] "The Bad Batch," another feature film, received the Special Jury Prize at the 2016 Venice Film Festival.[135]

Vice Films also released 2008's feature length rockumentary "Heavy Metal in Baghdad," which followed the thrash metal band Acrassicauda in Iraq. The New York Times praised the production and reporting, calling it a "stirring testament to the plight of cultural expression in Baghdad and a striking report on the refugee scene in Syria."[136]

Andy Capper directed "Reincarnated" starring Snoop Dogg and Diplo, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Netflix acquired the rights. He also made "Lil Bub & Friendz", which won the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

After it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2017, Netflix acquired the rights to the Vice Films documentary "Jim & Andy," about Jim Carrey's portrayal of the late Andy Kaufman in the movie "Man on the Moon." The film was directed by Chris Smith and produced by Spike Jonze.[137][138]

The Vice Guide to Everything Edit The MTV series The Vice Guide to Everything, which premiered in December 2010, was a weekly news magazine featuring short video segments on various global issues, hosted by Shane Smith and roster of correspondents. The segments sought to cater to a younger audience with a more condensed, entertaining approach to the news.[139][140][141][142][143] The series aired until 2011.[144]

Business operations Edit Global expansion Edit Vice Media has steadily acquired media properties and firms and closed deals in order to expand its global operations.

In June 2014, it was reported that Time Warner was negotiating to acquire up to a 40% stake in Vice Media;[145] among the company's plans were to give Vice Media control over the programming of HLN'--a spin-off network of CNN which had recently struggled in its attempts to re-focus itself as a younger-skewing, social media-oriented news service. However, the deal fell through as the companies were unable to agree on a proper valuation,[146] and Vice Media chose to partner with A&E Networks for a 10% minority stake.[147] A&E's co-owner Disney made a second investment of $200 million.[45]

On 30 October 2014, Vice Media announced a CDN$100 million joint venture with Rogers Communications that to facilitate the construction of production facilities in Toronto, as well as the introduction of a Vice-branded television network and digital properties in Canada in 2015. Rogers CEO Guy Laurence described the proposed studio as "a powerhouse for Canadian digital content focused on 18- to 34-year-olds" that will be "exciting" and "provocative." The content of the partnership will be aimed primarily toward digital platforms.[148][149]

In November 2014, Vice Media announced that Alyssa Mastromonaco, who formerly worked in the Obama administration, would come on board as the company's chief operating officer in January 2015,[150] and that James Schwab, who had previously advised Vice and DreamWorks on media deals, would be joining as co-president.[151]

In June 2016, at the Cannes Lions Awards, the company announced its planned expansion into over 50 countries, including partnerships with The Times of India Group and Moby that will see Vice enter the India and Middle East markets with digital, mobile, and linear operations.[152] New Viceland channels have already launched in Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa.[153][154]

In late 2016, Vice announced a news and content expansion into the Indonesian market, with the goal of reaching the country's roughly 100 million young adults aged between 18 and 34 years. As of 7 November 2016, Vice had struck digital and cable programming deals with Google and Indonesian television network Jawa Pos TV to broadcast its original lifestyle, culture, and news content.[155][156]

On 1 March 2017 at Mobile World Congress, Vice announced new content deals with mobile operators in multiple regions, including an extensive Asia Pacific expansion and renewed partnership with Verizon's Go90 branch. The new deals will bring Vice's content into more than 80 global territories by the end of 2017.[53]

Shane Smith of Vice Media during Mobile World Congress 2017

On 22 March 2017, Vice Media finalized a deal with French digital media studio Blackpills for the creation of a line-up of original short-form programming, set to premiere on Vice's digital video hub, video.vice.com. Blackpills would enlist international filmmakers including Luc Besson, Bryan Singer, and Zoe Cassavetes in the creative effort. Vice London subsidiary Pulse Films contributed original content to air on video.vice.com, and Viceland in both the US and Canada aired Blackpills' first series, French/Canadian co-production You Got Trumped: The First 100 Days starring Donald Trump impersonator John Di Domenico and comedian Ron Sparks.[157]

Later in March 2017, while in India, Shane Smith discussed his partnership with the Times Group. The company launched Vice India as well as their agency business, Virtue.[158] Smith also revealed that the company had "held India back as a launch partner because it's so important to get it right. We didn't just want to come in, set up a studio and go. We wanted to have a plan, make sure we did it correctly."[159] In June 2017, Vice announced a partnership with Brazilian media giant Grupo Globo that will see Vice grow its existing presence in the region through increased local production capabilities and increased mobile programming.[160][161]

In November 2017, Vice announced the launch of a new Asia Pacific office with a dedicated CEO to oversee programming and business operations in India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in the region.[162] The headquarters, in Singapore, will include "studio space that will be used for original documentary, drama, and film projects as well as by Vice's branding agency, Virtue."[163]

In March 2021, the Pedestrian Group announced a multi-year deal to become the Australian digital publishing home of the brand.[164][165] In January 2022 a new team of five, headed by Brad Esposito, was announced to head up Vice Australia and New Zealand.[166]

Ventures, acquisitions, and mergers Edit Since 2002, the company has diversified through a number of other businesses.

Old Blue Last Pub Edit In 2004 Vice acquired a pub and music venue in Shoreditch, East London named The Old Blue Last,[167] in which a live music program entitled "Live at the Old Blue Last" is filmed. After Vice bought the Old Blue Last in 2004,[168] it underwent a series of improvements, with most taking place in 2010.[169] In 2012, Vice began selling beer under the Old Blue Last label.[citation needed ]

i-D Magazine Edit Vice integrated with the British fashion magazine i-D[170] in December 2012,[171] with Vice president Andrew Creighton calling it "one of the only fashion publications in the world we actually respect."[172]

VRSE.farm Edit In 2015, Vice announced it invested an "undisclosed sum" in VRSE.farm, a virtual reality company founded by acclaimed director Chris Milk. The announcement came alongside a debut VR experience at the Sundance Festival, a "virtual-reality journalism broadcast" made in partnership with Spike Jonze and Vice News.[173]

Pulse Films Edit Pulse Films was founded in 2005 by Thomas Benski and Marisa Clifford.[174]

In March 2016, Vice acquired controlling stake in UK television and film production company Pulse Films, to bolster its original programming efforts.[175][176] As of 22 March 2017, Pulse Films produces original content, including the series Pillowtalk and Twiz and Tuck Bucket List for exclusive release on video.vice.com, Vice's digital video hub.[citation needed ] As of March 2022[update] Pulse Films has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Berlin and Milan.[10] It specialises in producing fiction feature, music documentaries and drama-documentaries.[174]

Garage Magazine Edit Vice acquired UK magazine Garage in July 2017 to expand its foothold in the youth market and announced plans to launch a digital channel focused on art, fashion and literature.[177]

Villain Edit In May 2018 Vice announced the acquisition of experiential events company Villain at its NewFronts presentation, but did not reveal what they paid for it. Villain is based in a 15,000 ft warehouse near Vice's headquarters in Williamsburg, NYC. The company works with a host of major brands, including PepsiCo, Toyota and RedBull.[178]

Virtue Worldwide Edit On 26 January 2017, Vice announced the consolidation of its in-house agency Virtue with Carrot Creative, a digital and mobile agency Vice acquired in 2013, Pulse Films, a production company Vice acquired in 2016 into the new "Virtue Worldwide."[179][180] Based in Brooklyn, New York, the combined 450-person global consultancy provides the services of a full agency network and multi-platform content creation studio. Virtue Worldwide will be led by CEO Lars Hemming Jorgensen.[181]

Relying on these in-house and acquired agencies, apart from its editorial operations, Vice works with advertisers to create global ad campaigns tailored to the company's younger audience.[182][183] The ads generate revenue from the production of the ad and placement within a given media property.[184] Vice maintains the separation between the production of branded and hard news content, while some critics contend that their operation "blurs the line between editorial and sponsorship".[185] This practice is sometimes referred to as "native advertising," due to how ads are often mingled with regular content.[186] Co-founder Alvi has also said that Vice has had "franchises that were underwritten by sponsors '' that's our goal, to get a lot of our news franchises and stories and reports sponsored by advertisers. It's kind of the way news used to be in the fifties: 'Brought to you by Gillette' or whatever it was. We love that model."[187]

Some of the brands that Vice has worked with are Google, Unilever, Bank of America, Samsung, Toyota, Levi Strauss & Co. and Intel.[188] However, some advertisers have been controversial; Edition Worldwide, a subsidiary of Vice UK, was called "highly irresponsible" by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and other anti-smoking groups for their work producing content for tobacco giant Philip Morris International. This was seen as unethical by anti-tobacco groups due to the young audience which Vice News usually attracts.[189][190] In March 2019, Vice accepted £5M from Philip Morris to promote e-cigarettes to young people.[191]

Unionization Edit On 7 August 2015, the roughly 70-person writing staff of Vice Media US voted to unionize, joining the Writers Guild of America, East. Vice management quickly recognized the union. The successful union drive followed in the footsteps of Salon, Gawker, and The Guardian.[192][193]

Then, in September 2017, employees and freelancers who "work on video content for Vice.com, cable channel Viceland, and Vice programming on HBO" unionized through Writers Guild of America, East and the Motion Pictures Editors Guild.[194] At the time, a leader from one of the unions said, "We have built a constructive relationship with Vice management and applaud the company for continuing to respect the right of its employees to engage in collective bargaining."[195]

On 2 May 2017, Vice Media ratified a three-year collective bargaining agreement with 170 employees of the company's Canadian division who had joined the Canadian Media Guild union in 2016.[196]

In February 2016, staff members at Vice UK called for unionization with an officially recognised trade union by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ). Staff members said this was following the steps of Vice US (which unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East[197]), in order to allow the staff to "share in the success of the company", to strengthen job security by Vice providing better contracts, to address "pay issues ... so everyone gets a fair deal, including freelancers" and enhance career progression opportunities.[198]

This proposition was rejected by Vice UK; the company refused to recognise the NUJ, but instead said that they were free to set up an internal staff council. Vice chief executive, Matt Elek, claimed the NUJ had displayed "a concerning lack of transparency from them about who they are purporting to represent here [and had] not been able to provide us with any numbers to demonstrate the degree of support they have in this office", adding that: "The NUJ are used to working with old print media businesses and structures '' they are not used to innovative, digital workplaces like this where the culture has always been to encourage flexibility and allow people work across different departments."[199]

In response, Michelle Stanistreet (General Secretary of the NUJ) said:

The accusation that the NUJ has not been transparent in its discussions with Vice management is simply untrue. It's a shame that the company has proven so resistant to listening to its own staff and facilitating what they want '' a collective voice at work. That the NUJ and its 30,000 members '' including those at Vice '' are not used to the reality of a digital workforce is laughable and shows it's the company who are out of date with 21st century trade unions. Rejecting calls for union recognition from their own journalists and then trying to fob them off with a Rupert Murdoch-style staff association is a pretty old-fashioned union-busting ruse that misses the point. NUJ officials and reps at Vice will continue with the push for recognition and if the company wants that to be gained through the law forcing their hand rather than through sensible engagement with their staff, so be it.[200]

The NUJ submitted a new request for recognition in March 2019. Following talks at Acas, the company agreed to recognise the NUJ for purposes of collective bargaining on 25 July 2019.[201]

Office expansion in Brooklyn Edit In July 2014, Vice Media announced it would be moving its headquarters to a new building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where their New York office had been since 1999. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, the move would allow them to double their current office size and hire about 500 new employees.[202]

Following this announcement, the two music venues occupying the building, Glasslands Gallery and Death By Audio, soon announced the news they would be closing. Following the announcement from Glasslands management in October 2014 that the arts venue would close at the end of 2014, thereby making it the third Williamsburg music space to close through Vice Media's expansion'--alongside 285 Kent and Death By Audio'--Big Shot Magazine claimed that the Brooklyn music community had received a "proverbial kick in the groin."[203]

After a series of articles covering the venues' eviction, BrooklynVegan reported on the deals that led to Vice Media moving into the new office, including terms buying out tenants and covering past overdue rent, that contradicted some press around the renovation of the building and Vice Media's dealings with the current tenants. Regardless, as the article puts it, "The concept of 'Vice vs. DIY' in Williamsburg is officially a thing."[204]

After expanding into the Glasslands Gallery and Death by Audio space in 2014, Vice further expanded its Brooklyn footprint by leasing a 74,000 square foot property at 55 Washington Street. The new property houses agency acquisitions Carrot Creative along with other Vice corporate staff.[205][206]

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" 'Jews will not replace us': Vice film lays bare horror of neo-Nazis in America". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 11 September 2017 . ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (24 April 2018). "Peabody Awards: '60 Minutes', CNN, NPR Among Winners In News, Radio And Public Service". Deadline . Retrieved 7 May 2018 . ^ "Charlottesville: Race and Terror" . Retrieved 7 May 2018 . ^ Hale, Mike (28 February 2016). "Viceland, a New Cable Channel, Aims to Stand Out". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ Lazaroff, Leon (22 February 2017). "Vice's big bet on television in the age of Facebook and YouTube". TheStreet . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ Keslassy, Leo Barraclough,Elsa (6 April 2016). "Vice Media, Canal Plus Partner to Launch Viceland in France (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "Dutch launch for Viceland on Ziggo". Broadband TV News. 21 October 2016 . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "What is Viceland UK and should you be watching it?". Radio Times . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "AMC Networks, Vice to bring Viceland to Iberia" . Retrieved 25 October 2017 . ^ "Check out the new TV channel Viceland coming to NZ". NZ Herald. 22 June 2016. ISSN 1170-0777 . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ Vivarelli, Nick (16 January 2017). "Viceland to Launch in Africa on Kwes(C) Network". Variety . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "Vice Media Expands to Indonesia". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "Vice Media Signs Deal With Globosat for Vice Brazil". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ K, Brindaalakshmi. "VICE Media India will launch operations in Q1 2017". www.medianama.com . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "Viceland heads to Israel's Partner TV" . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "Viceland Makes Its Cable Debut | Multichannel". www.multichannel.com. 29 February 2016 . Retrieved 21 September 2017 . ^ "About VICELAND". VICELAND . 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"20th Century Fox, Vice Media launch Vice Films" . Retrieved 27 July 2016 . ^ Yamato, Dominic Patten,Jen (26 January 2014). "Sundance Awards: 'Whiplash' & 'Rich Hill' Win Grand Jury Prizes; Dramatic Directing Goes To Cutter Hodierne For 'Fishing Without Nets' ". Deadline . Retrieved 29 September 2017 . ^ "Toronto: 'The Bad Batch' Picked Up by Screen Media for U.S." The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 29 September 2017 . ^ "How to Rock in Iraq". The New York Times. 23 May 2008 . Retrieved 18 September 2016 . ^ McNary, Dave (11 September 2017). "Toronto: Netflix Buys Jim Carrey's Andy Kaufman Documentary 'Jim & Andy' ". Variety . Retrieved 29 September 2017 . ^ "Jim Carrey Andy Kaufman Doc Acquired by Netflix". ComingSoon.net. 11 September 2017 . Retrieved 29 September 2017 . ^ "A Spoonful of Exotica Makes the Geography Go Down". The New York Times. 6 December 2010 . Retrieved 18 September 2016 . ^ Stanley, Alessandra (5 December 2010). " 'The Vice Guide to Everything' on MTV '' Review". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 17 March 2017 . ^ "The Vice Guide to Everything: It may look like Gonzo journalism, but it matters". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 17 March 2017 . ^ "The Vice Guide to Serious Journalism: How a DIY Drug Mag Became Serious Business for HBO". Observer. 26 March 2013 . Retrieved 17 March 2017 . ^ "Millenials-aimed Vice adds TV channel to global video lineup" . Retrieved 17 March 2017 . ^ The Vice Guide to Everything, Shane Smith, Ryan Duffy, Thomas Morton , retrieved 12 October 2017 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link) ^ Times, N. Y. (29 August 2014). "Time Warner Ends Big Negotiations With Vice". HuffPost . Retrieved 3 March 2020 . ^ "Time Warner Ends Negotiations to Buy Stake in Vice Media". The Huffington Post. 29 August 2014 . Retrieved 18 April 2015 . ^ Paul Bond (29 August 2014). "A&E Networks Buying Minority Stake in Vice Media". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 18 April 2015 . ^ "Rogers, Vice Media strike $100M deal to create Canadian content". CBC News. 30 October 2014 . Retrieved 30 October 2014 . ^ "Rogers, Vice Media to partner on $100-million venture". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 30 October 2014 . Retrieved 30 October 2014 . ^ Emily Steel (16 November 2014). "Vice Hires Alyssa Mastromonaco, Former Official in Obama White House, as a Top Executive". The New York Times . Retrieved 12 December 2014 . ^ Tom Huddleston, Jr. (15 December 2014). "Vice Media sees 'deal spree', possible IPO on horizon". Fortune . Retrieved 29 April 2015 . ^ Alpert, Lukas I. (22 June 2016). "Vice Media to Expand in Dozens of New International Markets". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 27 March 2017 . ^ Sweney, Mark (22 June 2016). "Vice to launch in more than 50 new countries". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 27 March 2017 . ^ Jaafar, Ali (22 June 2016). "Vice Media's Viceland To Launch In More Than 50 New Countries". Deadline . Retrieved 27 March 2017 . ^ "Vice Media Expands to Indonesia". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 5 April 2017 . ^ "Subscription needed" . Financial Times. 8 November 2016 . Retrieved 5 April 2017 . ^ "Vice Dives Into Digital Scripted Content With Productions From Luc Besson, Bryan Singer, Zoe Cassavetes (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. 22 March 2017 . Retrieved 27 March 2017 . ^ "Viceland to have India launch in Aug, says founder Shane Smith | TelevisionPost.com". www.televisionpost.com. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017 . Retrieved 3 July 2017 . ^ Gooptu, Biswarup; Chanchani, Madhav. "ET GBS 2017: We will do Vice-type stories in India, says Shane Smith, CEO, Vice Media". The Economic Times . Retrieved 28 March 2017 . ^ Alpert, Lukas I. (22 June 2017). "Vice Media Signs Deal With Brazil's Grupo Globo". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 3 July 2017 . ^ "Globo boosts Vice presence in Brazil". C21media . 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Retrieved 27 March 2017 . ^ "Vice acquires experiential events company Villain". Capital A . Retrieved 10 May 2018 . ^ "Vice Acquires Full-Service Digital Agency Carrot Creative". 12 November 2013. ^ SOMAIYA, RAVI (10 December 2013). "Vice Media Buys a Tech Company to Experiment With Content Distribution". The New York Times. ^ Shields, Mike (26 January 2017). "Vice Encroaches on Ad Agency Business With Creation of Virtue Worldwide". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 3 February 2017 . ^ "Vice takes on bigger agency role with Virtue Worldwide". Marketing Dive . Retrieved 22 March 2017 . ^ Vice Media CEO on Branded Content Success , retrieved 22 March 2017 ^ In Conversation with Co-Founders of Vice '' Suroosh Alvi & Shane Smith , retrieved 11 December 2015 ^ "Vice Media uses Gonzo sensibility to win online". Reuters. 5 November 2013 . Retrieved 11 December 2015 . ^ "Vice Media cranks up news operations". USA TODAY . Retrieved 11 December 2015 . ^ "Why the future of news is Vice". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 11 December 2015 . ^ "How Shane Smith Built Vice Into a $2.5 Billion Empire". AdWeek . Retrieved 11 December 2015 . ^ McCarthy, John (18 March 2016). "Vice Media attacked for making tobacco adverts for Philip Morris". The Drum . Retrieved 17 May 2016 . ^ Jackson, Jasper (17 March 2016). "Vice Media attacked for making tobacco adverts for Philip Morris". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 May 2016 . ^ "Subscription needed" . Financial Times. 21 March 2019 . Retrieved 23 March 2019 . ^ "Vice Media editorial staff vote to join the Writers Guild". Fortune . Retrieved 5 April 2017 . ^ Calderone, Michael (7 August 2015). "Vice Media Votes To Unionize As Trend In Digital Media Continues". Huffington Post . Retrieved 5 April 2017 . ^ Alpert, Lukas I. (21 September 2017). "Vice Media's Video Employees Unionize". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660 . Retrieved 29 September 2017 . ^ McNary, Dave (21 September 2017). "Vice Media Video Employees Unionize With Writers Guild East and Editors Guild". Variety . Retrieved 29 September 2017 . ^ "Vice Canada workers ratify collective agreement as digital journalists turn to unions". CBC News . Retrieved 12 June 2017 . ^ Warren, James (10 August 2015). "VICE workers decide they need a union". Poynter . Retrieved 17 May 2016 . ^ Sweney, Mark (8 February 2016). "Vice UK staff move to unionise to 'share in the success' of media company". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 May 2016 . ^ Jackson, Jasper; Martinson, Jane (27 April 2016). "Vice UK rejects call for union recognition". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 May 2016 . ^ Stanistreet, Michelle (27 April 2016). "Trade union recognition at Vice UK". National Union of Journalists . Retrieved 19 May 2016 . ^ "NUJ achieves recognition at VICE UK". NUJ. 25 April 2019 . Retrieved 6 April 2022 . ^ Laura Kusisto (3 July 2014). 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Official website 40°42'²50'"N 73°57'²35'"W >> / >> 40.713889°N 73.959722°W >> / 40.713889; -73.959722 Coordinates: 40°42'²50'"N 73°57'²35'"W >> / >> 40.713889°N 73.959722°W >> / 40.713889; -73.959722 Brooklyn headquarters

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Thu, 04 May 2023 17:28

A nheuser-Busch is speaking directly to customers and distributors, stating all the chaos stemming from its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney is the product of "one single can."

The brewery shared a message with wholesalers addressing the backlash ravaging the brand and nosediving sales, according to a report.

BUD LIGHT SALES NOSEDIVE AS ANHEUSER-BUSCH IS ASKED TO REAFFIRM DYLAN MULVANEY SUPPORT

"This was one single can given to one social media influencer," the letter states.

"It was not made for production or sale to the general public. This can is not a formal campaign or advertisement."

The letter to wholesalers was shared with local restaurants, bars, and retailers throughout the country by Missouri-based distributor Grey Eagle, the report noted.

Grey Eagle distributes Anheuser-Busch products, including Bud Light, in the greater St. Louis area and included a cover letter to Anheuser-Busch's message.

"Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement," the letter read.

"In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval ... Since that time, the lack of oversight and control over marketing decisions has been addressed and a new VP of Bud Light marketing has been announced."

When looking at the week of April 17 and April 22, Bud Light sales are down 26.1% from what they were a year ago, and the financial battering of the iconic beer brand comes as conservatives throughout the United States continue to boycott Anheuser-Busch products.

Many on the Right are furious about Bud Light going "woke" and allowing Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as female, to promote its product while dressed like Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's.

The move to partner with the transgender activist appears to have been a part of the push by executives to "evolve and elevate" Bud Light, but it has come at a great cost to both Anheuser-Busch's bankroll and public image, and at least two senior marketing executives have been forced to take a leave of absence.

Former Anheuser-Busch Chief Creative Officer Robert Lachky left the company in 2009, and he has publicly criticized Bud Light's partnership with Mulvaney, the report noted.

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"The minute you step into the political or religious spectrum, when you know your target audience is going to have a real issue with this, you know you've alienated at least half of your target audience," he said.

"None of these marketing folks has ever been to a NASCAR race. None has been to a football game or a rodeo...That's insanity. That's marketing incompetence."

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Thu, 04 May 2023 16:06

Lender teetered for weeks after Silicon Valley Bank's collapse in March

Updated May 1, 2023 1:22 pm ETRegulators seized First Republic Bank and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase & Co., heading off a chaotic collapse that threatened to reignite the recent banking crisis.

JPMorgan said it will assume all of First Republic's $92 billion in deposits'--insured and uninsured. It is also buying most of the bank's assets, including about $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities.

As...

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Regulators seized First Republic Bank and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to JPMorgan Chase & Co., heading off a chaotic collapse that threatened to reignite the recent banking crisis.

JPMorgan said it will assume all of First Republic's $92 billion in deposits'--insured and uninsured. It is also buying most of the bank's assets, including about $173 billion in loans and $30 billion in securities.

As part of the agreement, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will share losses with JPMorgan on First Republic's loans. The agency estimated that its insurance fund would take a hit of $13 billion in the deal. JPMorgan also said it would receive $50 billion in financing from the FDIC.

San Francisco-based First Republic, the second-largest bank to fail in U.S. history, lost $100 billion in deposits in a March run following the collapse of fellow Bay Area lender Silicon Valley Bank. It limped along for weeks after a group of America's biggest banks came to its rescue with a $30 billion deposit. Those deposits will be repaid after the deal closes, JPMorgan said.

Three of the four largest-ever U.S. bank failures have occurred in the past two months. First Republic, with some $233 billion in assets at the end of the first quarter, ranks just behind the 2008 collapse of Washington Mutual Inc. Rounding out the top four are Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank , a New York-based lender that also failed in March.

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The deal means JPMorgan, the largest bank in the U.S., is poised to emerge from the current crisis even bigger. The lender has said it got about $50 billion in new deposits from panicky customers looking to move their money to a too-big-to-fail bank following March's failures. JPMorgan had $2.4 trillion in deposits at the end of the first quarter.

The megabank said it bid to help stabilize the financial system. ''This part of the crisis is over,'' JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said Monday. ''Everyone should just take a deep breath.''

Both First Republic and Washington Mutual are now substantially owned by JPMorgan. While the 2008 deal helped the bank expand in California and Florida, it also brought years of regulatory and legal headaches tied to issues with the failed bank's mortgages.

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Mr. Dimon played a key role in earlier efforts to rescue First Republic. His bank was one of the largest contributors to the $30 billion deposit, and he tried to rally the other banks to take additional steps to help. His bankers were also hired to advise First Republic on its various options.

''A lot of people looked at it,'' Mr. Dimon said on a call with reporters Monday. ''The whole world knew it was available and no one bought it.''

First Republic's 84 branches are reopening as part of JPMorgan Monday during normal business hours, and customers will have full access to their deposits, the FDIC said.

The move protects the bank's depositors but likely leaves shareholders with nothing. First Republic shares were halted in Monday morning trading. Shareholders were wiped out at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature.

Regional banks including PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Citizens Financial Group Inc. and

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Fifth Third Bancorp also

submitted bids to the FDIC Sunday, people familiar with the matter said. The FDIC said there was a highly competitive bidding process. Its choice, the agency said, was consistent with its requirement to go with the offer that is projected to cost the

deposit-insurance fund the least.

First Republic's failure seems unlikely to spur another crisis of confidence in the Main Street lenders that serve a large chunk of America's businesses and consumers. Regional lenders uniformly lost deposits during the first quarter, but the declines were modest compared with First Republic's $100 billion outflow.

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''This is the last stages of that initial panic. First Republic's problems started as a result of SVB and Signature,'' said Steven Kelly, a senior researcher at the Yale Program on Financial Stability. ''This isn't the story of 2008, where one bank went down and investors focused on the next biggest bank, which would wobble.''

The immediate cause of First Republic's collapse was a smartphone-enabled exodus of panicked depositors with big uninsured balances, but the bank's problems were rooted in a wrong-way bet on interest rates.

A focus on America's coastal elite helped First Republic become one of the most valuable U.S. banking franchises. Big deposits from customers with lots of cash funded low-rate jumbo mortgages to wealthy home buyers.

Ultralow interest rates and a pandemic savings boom supercharged the bank's growth.

When the Fed began raising interest rates last year to cool inflation, customers began demanding higher yields to keep their money at First Republic. Rising rates also dented the value of loans the bank made when rates were near zero.

The chronic problem turned into an acute one in March, when the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sparked fears about the overlooked risks lurking in the banking system.

Investors and customers were especially worried about banks, such as First Republic, that relied heavily on uninsured deposits and had large unrealized losses in their loan and securities portfolios due to rising rates.

''It was a run on the business model,'' Mr. Kelly said.

First Republic's badly damaged balance sheet left it with few good options.

In a dismal quarterly-earnings report last week, the bank disclosed the extent of the deposit run and said it had filled the hole on its balance sheet with expensive loans from the Federal Reserve and Federal Home Loan Bank. An untenable future, in which it earned less on its loans than it paid on liabilities, appeared all but certain.

The earnings report sent the bank's stock down nearly 50% in one day. First Republic shares ended the week at $3.51. They closed at $115 on March 8, the day before SVB's disastrous run.

Some employees started jumping ship after SVB's collapse. First Republic lost around 10% of key staffers in the wealth-management division that it had spent heavily on to build, the bank said at its April 24 earnings update.

Employees who stayed watched the bank's stock crater last week and frantically texted friends about how they feared the bank would go under soon. Some said they wished management had provided clearer communication about where the bank was headed.

Business had grown quieter since the banking turmoil started, current and former employees said. First Republic bankers who previously focused on luring in deposits found there was little they could do to reverse the tide when customers started pulling cash. Pay took a hit too: Bankers were compensated in part by how much in customer deposits they brought to the bank.

In a pair of emails late Friday and Saturday morning, CEO Michael Roffler and Executive Chairman Jim Herbert thanked First Republic employees for staying focused during the turmoil.

''Throughout our history and in these past weeks, we have done what we always do'--serve our clients, support our communities, and take care of one another,'' Mr. Roffler wrote. ''When we come in next week, we will continue to do the same.''

A Midtown Manhattan First Republic branch opened for business as usual Monday morning. There were employees inside but no customers.

An advertisement in the window offered five- and eight-month certificates of deposit paying a 4.95% rate. A copy of the FDIC's press release about the seizure was posted on the door.

'--AnnaMaria Andriotis, Nick Timiraos, Lauren Thomas and Andrew Ackerman contributed to this article.

Write to Rachel Louise Ensign at Rachel.Ensign@wsj.com and Ben Eisen at ben.eisen@wsj.com

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Thu, 04 May 2023 16:06

Schedules and emails detail meetings in the years after he was a convicted sex offender; visitors cite his wealth and connections

April 30, 2023 7:59 am ETThe nation's spy chief, a longtime college president and top women in finance. The circle of people who associated with Jeffrey Epstein years after he was a convicted sex offender is wider than previously reported, according to a trove of documents that include his schedules.

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein's townhouse...

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The nation's spy chief, a longtime college president and top women in finance. The circle of people who associated with Jeffrey Epstein years after he was a convicted sex offender is wider than previously reported, according to a trove of documents that include his schedules.

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein's townhouse in Manhattan.

Kathryn Ruemmler, a White House counsel under President Barack Obama, had dozens of meetings with Epstein in the years after her White House service and before she became a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2020. He also planned for her to join a 2015 trip to Paris and a 2017 visit to Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.

Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, invited Epstein, who brought a group of young female guests, to the campus. Noam Chomsky, a professor, author and political activist, was scheduled to fly with Epstein to have dinner at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2015.

None of their names appear in Epstein's now-public ''black book'' of contacts or in the public flight logs of passengers who traveled on his private jet. The documents show that Epstein arranged multiple meetings with each of them after he had served jail time in 2008 for a sex crime involving a teenage girl and was registered as a sex offender. The documents, which include thousands of pages of emails and schedules from 2013 to 2017, haven't been previously reported.

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The documents don't reveal the purpose of most of the meetings. The Wall Street Journal couldn't verify whether every scheduled meeting took place.

Most of those people told the Journal they visited Epstein for reasons related to his wealth and connections. Several said they thought he had served his time and had rehabilitated himself. Mr. Botstein said he was trying to get Epstein to donate to his school. Mr. Chomsky said he and Epstein discussed political and academic topics.

Mr. Burns met with Epstein about a decade ago as he was preparing to leave government service, said CIA spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp. ''The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,'' she said. ''They had no relationship.''

Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein in connection with her role at law firm Latham & Watkins LLP and didn't travel with him, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said. Epstein introduced her to potential legal clients, such as Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates,

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the spokesman said. ''I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,'' Ms. Ruemmler said.

A spokeswoman for Latham & Watkins said Epstein wasn't a client of the firm.

In 2006, Epstein was publicly accused of sexually abusing girls in Florida who were as young as 14 years old. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and police investigated, and Epstein reached a deal with prosecutors in 2008. He avoided federal charges and pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. He registered as a sex offender and served about 13 months in a work-release program.

Epstein's case generated waves of media coverage at the time, with publications in the U.S. and abroad reporting on accusations from underage girls and young women. In 2006, several politicians returned donations from Epstein. Some associates moved to distance themselves from him. His biggest known client, retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, later said he cut ties in 2007. His bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., later said it closed his accounts in 2013, though some bankers continued to meet with him for years after.

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In 2015, Virginia Giuffre publicly accused Epstein of sexually abusing and trafficking her when she was a teen and forcing her to have sex with influential people, including Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew has denied the allegations and last year settled a sex-abuse lawsuit by Ms. Giuffre.

Despite the negative press, Epstein's days were filled from morning to night with meetings with prominent people, the documents show. There were dinners at New York restaurants, meetings at luxury hotels and gatherings in the offices of prominent law firms. Many appointments were held at Epstein's townhouse in Manhattan.

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Prosecutors alleged in 2019 that the townhouse is where Epstein sexually abused female victims for years, many underage, and that he paid some of them to recruit their friends to engage in sexual activity.

After the Miami Herald reported that dozens of women said they were abused, prosecutors charged Epstein in 2019 with a sex trafficking conspiracy. He died that year in a New York jail while awaiting trial in what the city's medical examiner said was a suicide.

Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state.

A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport.

Mr. Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York, said Ms. Thorp. ''The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport,'' she said.

The following month, October 2014, Mr. Burns stepped down from his role at the State Department to serve as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. He ran the Carnegie Endowment until he was nominated in early 2021 by President Biden to serve as CIA director.

The documents show that Epstein appeared to know some of his guests well. He asked for avocado sushi rolls to be on hand when meeting with Ms. Ruemmler, according to the documents. He visited apartments she was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. ''See if there is a first class seat,'' he wrote, ''if so upgrade her.''

In 2014, Epstein called Ms. Ruemmler within weeks of her leaving the Obama White House. Epstein planned a lunch in August 2014 at his townhouse, followed by a series of meetings to introduce her to a wider circle of his acquaintances.

Ms. Ruemmler first met Epstein after he called her to ask if she would be interested in representing Mr. Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Goldman Sachs spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates said Epstein never worked for Mr. Gates, misrepresented their relationship, and that Mr. Gates regrets ever meeting with him.

Epstein and his staff discussed whether Ms. Ruemmler, now 52, would be uncomfortable with the presence of young women who worked as assistants and staffers at the townhouse, the documents show. Women emailed Epstein on two occasions to ask if they should avoid the home while Ms. Ruemmler was there. Epstein told one of the women he didn't want her around, and another that it wasn't a problem, the documents show.

Ms. Ruemmler didn't see anything that would lead her to be concerned at the townhouse and didn't express any concern, the Goldman spokesman said.

Several people who visited Epstein during this time period said they noticed young women at his townhouse. One of the visitors, Helen Fisher, an anthropologist who studies romantic love and attachment, had lunch with Epstein in January 2016 to discuss her work.

Dr. Fisher said that after the lunch, Epstein invited her to speak with his staff. ''And then, in filed, I would say, six young women,'' she said. ''All of them good looking. All of them young.''

Dr. Fisher said Epstein never funded her work, they weren't friends and they didn't stay in touch. ''I didn't have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein,'' she said. ''But I remembered it because of his spectacular house and because of the six young women.''

Over the next few years, Ms. Ruemmler, then a partner specializing in white-collar defense at Latham & Watkins, had more than three dozen appointments with Epstein, including for lunches and dinners.

''In the normal course, Epstein also invited her to meetings and social gatherings, introduced her to other business contacts and made referrals,'' the Goldman spokesman said. ''It was the same kinds of contacts and engagements she had with other contacts and clients.''

In 2015, she was scheduled to fly with Epstein to Paris and in 2017 he planned to stop in St. Lucia to take her to his island home in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the day, according to the documents.

Ms. Ruemmler never visited his island and ''never accepted an invitation or an opportunity to fly with Jeffrey Epstein anywhere,'' the Goldman spokesman said.

In addition to her current role as general counsel at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Ruemmler is co-chair of its reputational risk committee, which monitors business and client decisions for potential damage to the bank's image.

Epstein also connected Ms. Ruemmler with Ariane de Rothschild, who is now chief executive of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group. The bank hired Ms. Ruemmler's law firm, Latham & Watkins, after the introduction to help with U.S. regulatory matters, according to the bank and the Goldman spokesman.

Mrs. de Rothschild, who married into the famous banking family, had more than a dozen meetings with Epstein. He sought her help with staffing and furnishings as well as discussed business deals with her, according to the documents.

In September 2013, Epstein asked Mrs. de Rothschild in an email for help finding a new assistant, ''female'...multilingual, organized.''

''I'll ask around,'' Mrs. de Rothschild emailed back.

She bought nearly $1 million worth of auction items on Epstein's behalf in 2014 and 2015, the documents show.

Mrs. de Rothschild was named chairwoman of the bank in January 2015. That October, she and Epstein negotiated a $25 million contract for Epstein's Southern Trust Co. to provide ''risk analysis and the application and use of certain algorithms'' for the bank, according to a proposal reviewed by the Journal.

In 2019, after Epstein was arrested, the bank said that Mrs. de Rothschild never met with Epstein and it had no business links with him.

The bank acknowledged to the Journal that its earlier statement wasn't accurate. It said Mrs. de Rothschild met with Epstein as part of her normal duties at the bank between 2013 and 2019, and Epstein introduced the bank to U.S. finance leaders, recommended law firms and provided tax and risk consulting.

''In parallel to that, Epstein solicited her personally on a couple occasions for advice and services on estate management,'' the bank said.

Mrs. de Rothschild had no knowledge of any legal proceedings against Epstein and ''was similarly unaware of any questions regarding his personal conduct,'' the bank said. After later learning of his behavior, the bank said, ''she feels for and supports the victims.''

One of Epstein's scheduled meetings with Mrs. de Rothschild, in January 2014, included another of his regular guests: Joshua Cooper Ramo, then co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger's corporate consulting firm.

Epstein scheduled more than a dozen meetings from 2013 to 2017 with Mr. Ramo, who at the time served on the boards of Starbucks Corp. and FedEx Corp. , the documents show. Epstein had special snacks on hand because he believed Mr. Ramo was vegetarian, the documents indicate.

Many of Mr. Ramo's appointments with Epstein were in the evenings, typically after 5 p.m., at the townhouse. Mr. Ramo also was invited to a breakfast at the townhouse in September 2013 with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, another regular guest, the documents show.

Mr. Ramo, who still sits on the board of FedEx and recently stepped down from the Starbucks board, didn't respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Kissinger said he wasn't aware that Mr. Ramo was meeting with Epstein.

Mr. Barak also met Epstein in 2015 with Mr. Chomsky, now 94, a linguistics professor and political activist who has been critical of capitalism and U.S. foreign policy.

Mr. Chomsky said Epstein arranged the meeting with Mr. Barak for them to discuss ''Israel's policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.''

Mr. Barak said he often met with Epstein on trips to New York and was introduced to people such as Mr. Ramo and Mr. Chomsky to discuss geopolitics or other topics. ''He often brought other interesting persons, from art or culture, law or science, finance, diplomacy or philanthropy,'' Mr. Barak said.

Epstein arranged several meetings in 2015 and 2016 with Mr. Chomsky, while he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When asked about his relationship with Epstein, Mr. Chomsky replied in an email: ''First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone's. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.''

In March 2015, Epstein scheduled a gathering with Mr. Chomsky and Harvard University professor Martin Nowak and other academics, according to the documents. Mr. Chomsky said they had several meetings at Mr. Nowak's research institute to discuss neuroscience and other topics.

Two months later, Epstein planned to fly with Mr. Chomsky and his wife to have dinner with them and movie director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, the documents show.

''If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes,'' Mr. Chomsky said. ''I'm unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.''

Epstein donated at least $850,000 to MIT between 2002 and 2017, and more than $9.1 million to Harvard from 1998 to 2008, the schools have said. In 2021, Harvard said it was sanctioning Mr. Nowak for violating university policies in his dealings with Epstein, and was shutting a research center he ran that Epstein had funded. MIT said it was inappropriate to accept Epstein's gifts, and that it later donated $850,000 to nonprofits supporting survivors of sexual abuse.

In a 2020 interview with the ''dunc tank'' podcast, Mr. Chomsky said that people he considered worse than Epstein had donated to MIT. He didn't mention any of his meetings with Epstein.

Mr. Chomsky told the Journal that at the time of his meetings ''what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.''

MIT said lawyers investigating its ties to Epstein didn't find that Mr. Chomsky met with Epstein on its campus or received funding from him. Harvard declined to comment beyond the report it published on its Epstein ties in 2020. Mr. Nowak has said he regretted his role in fostering a connection between Epstein and Harvard. He didn't respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Botstein, 76, president of Bard College since 1975, had about two dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein over about four years, which were mostly visits to the townhouse.

''I was an unsuccessful fundraiser and actually the object of a little bit of sadism on his part in dangling philanthropic support,'' said Mr. Botstein. ''That was my relationship with him.''

Mr. Botstein said he first visited Epstein's townhouse in 2012 to thank him for unsolicited donations to Bard's high schools, then he returned over several years in an attempt to get more donations. In 2015, Epstein donated 66 laptops, the documents show.

''We looked him up, and he was a convicted felon for a sex crime,'' he said. Bard has a large program providing education to prisoners, he said. ''We believe in rehabilitation.''

Mr. Botstein, also the longtime music director for the American Symphony Orchestra, invited Epstein to an opera at Bard in 2013, then a concert at the college in 2016, the documents indicate. Epstein planned each time to bring some of his young female assistants and arrive by helicopter.

Mr. Botstein said he was expecting Epstein to support classical music causes and that the school took precautions when he visited. ''Because of his previous record, we had security ready,'' he said. ''He did not have any free access to anybody.''

At Epstein's home, Mr. Botstein was led to a dining room where they discussed classical music and other causes, he said. ''He presented himself as a billionaire, a really, really rich person,'' he said. ''I found him odd and arrogant. And what I finally came to believe, which is why we stopped contact with him, is that he was simply stringing us along.''

Despite all his meetings, Mr. Botstein said, Epstein never made another donation to Bard. ''It was a blessing in disguise,'' he said, ''that we never got any [more] money.''

'--Rob Barry contributed to this article.

Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com and David Benoit at David.Benoit@wsj.com

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 May 2023 16:02

Modern models are a bit smarter than those from the early 2000s, but still offer a needed break from endless notifications

By

Kate Morgan / Photographs by F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal; Styling by Lizzy Wholley

May 2, 2023 4:00 pm ETWHEN SAMMY Palazzolo goes out, people constantly ask to see her phone. The 18-year-old often obliges, flipping it open and handing it over.

...

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WHEN SAMMY Palazzolo goes out, people constantly ask to see her phone. The 18-year-old often obliges, flipping it open and handing it over.

In late 2022, Ms. Palazzolo and some of her dorm-mates at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were bemoaning their smartphone addictions. ''We were talking about how we [felt] like slaves to our phones, like robots who keep scrolling and scrolling, even when we're out at parties.'' The group hatched a plan to do something about it. The next day, they went flip-phone shopping at Walmart . Ms. Palazzolo ended up with a $40 AT&T Cingular Flex.

Now the freshman advertising major evangelizes flip phones on TikTok, with posts about bringing her ''dumb'' phone to social events instead of her iPhone. Nokia recently sent her its $90 2780 for free, plus 44 more to give away to friends and social-media followers.

While some Gen Zers might be buying smartphones that flip and fold, like the $1,000 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, the chatter online centers on ''dumb'' models with few capabilities. These devices are experiencing a renaissance as budget second phones'--allowing you to detach from constant notifications and the lure of infinite scroll, without losing the ability to send texts and make calls in an emergency.

Young people aren't the only fans. Nokia sells tens of thousands of its flip phones each month in the U.S., according to Lars Silberbauer, chief marketing officer of HMD Global, the Finnish manufacturer of Nokia phones. Sales are growing across demographics, he said. ''It's not a small trend.''

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Modern models improve on the ones you might remember. Most come with features like Bluetooth, 4G and contemporary cameras, even if they retain the design (and brawny batteries) of early relics. Some have an internet browser but employ an operating system that doesn't support apps like Instagram and TikTok. What are you going to scroll now?

Osamah Qatanani, a 23-year-old content strategist in New York City, carries both an iPhone and a basic flip phone and estimates his usage is split 50-50. He views his ''dumb'' phone purely as a means for his closest contacts to reach him. ''Other than that,'' he said, ''there's no work emails, no Instagram updates, nothing from Facebook , nothing from TikTok. Nothing from anyone except the people who are important to you.''

You can buy a basic flip phone, and a prepaid plan, for under $100 at most big-box stores. Mr. Qatanani, who already had an AT&T account for his iPhone, visited an AT&T store to add a $60 Alcatel Smartflip phone and its new line to his existing plan. He pays $30 a month for unlimited calls and texts, plus $1 toward the cost of the phone.

For some, the trend is vindicating. Melissa Range, 49, an associate professor of English at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., never made the switch to a smartphone. Sometimes, she said, her flip phone's limitations make things tough. ''If I get lost, I have to use my wits or ask someone for directions,'' she said. But for the most part, Prof. Range values its simplicity. ''I have a really busy job, and I'm pulled in a lot of directions,'' she said, adding that she doesn't want to give her remaining attention to a phone. Like Ms. Palazzolo, Prof. Range gets constant comments on her flip phone. People almost sound wistful, she said, when they tell her, ''I wish I could get rid of my smartphone.''

Phones to Flip ForThree models with the essential features fans want and''more importantly''nothing they don't

The Bare Necessities The TCL Classic ($75) eschews bells and whistles. The focus is on reliable calling and texting and battery life, with a battery that can last up to 16 days on a single charge. It does have 4G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities. The latter is mostly limited to email clients and a basic web browser, but the phone can be used as a hotspot for up to 10 other devices. There's a 2-megapixel camera with no flash'--think security-camera resolution. And since the phone weighs just under 5 ounces, you might forget it's in your pocket until it rings.

Nokia NostalgiaThe Nokia 2780 ($90) retains the look and feel of Nokia phones past, with some major upgrades in functionality. It makes calls over the same LTE data network that smartphones use, and Wi-Fi support lets you download some apps and even watch YouTube. One of the biggest selling points is a 5-megapixel camera (about as powerful as the front camera on an iPhone 6s) with flash. There's also an FM radio app, but you'll need to dig for a set of wired headphones (which act as the antenna) to actually listen.

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Basically BulletproofFor those who want to disconnect in the great outdoors, the Kyocera DuraXV Extreme+ ($250) is dust-, water- and shock-proof. In short, it's virtually indestructible. Built to survive construction sites and extreme work environments, the phone can handle any skiing, paddling, fishing, hunting or hiking adventure with aplomb. You can't use it to post your vacation pictures to the Instagram app, but a 5-megapixel camera will still let you snap a fish photo or summit shot.

The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.

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Thu, 04 May 2023 15:27

The European Commission announced on Tuesday a slew of social media platforms and other Big Tech websites that will come under stricter content moderation surrounding so-called hate speech and disinformation by the summer.

Under the European Union's recently adopted Digital Services Act (DSA), which the bloc has described as providing ''an unprecedented level of public oversight'' on the internet, the European Commission will place at least 19 online platforms under its strictest level of censorship by August 25th.

Announcing the measure, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said: ''With great scale comes great responsibility,'' adding: ''They will not be able to act as if they are too big to care.''

So far, the Commission has identified Alibaba AliExpress, Amazon Store, Apple AppStore, Bing, Booking.com, Facebook, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Search, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Zalando as those in need of stricter 'content moderation'.

The Digital Services Act specifies that websites or online platforms with at least 45 million users within the EU will come under more regulatory scrutiny, under the premise that they hold a special responsibility to police the internet and provide ''safety'' for their user base, with the legislation greatly expanding the ability of Brussels to police so-called 'hate speech' and 'disinformation'.

Those that fail to comply with the censorship law by February of 2024 will face fines from the EU of up to six per cent of their global revenue as well as face a potential ban from Europe entirely.

With great scale comes great responsibility 🇺

Extra #DSA obligations as of 25 August for:

AliExpressAmazon StoreAppStoreBingBookingFacebookGoogle MapsGoogle PlayGoogle SearchGoogle ShoppingInstagramLinkedInPinterestSnapchatTikTokTwitterWikipediaYouTubeZalando pic.twitter.com/CVmDuzkKe9

'-- Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) April 25, 2023

The driving force behind the legislation, Thierry Breton, a former French tech executive, has previously warned new Twitter boss Elon Musk that the microblogging site could run the risk of being banned in the European Union should it restore the free speech roots of the company.

Although the bill claims to try to protect free speech, Breton himself has backed Big Tech taking censorship into their own hands, seemingly expressing support for Twitter's decision to ban then-President Donald Trump in 2021, saying that tech companies ''have recognised their responsibility, duty and means to prevent the spread of illegal viral content''.

The announcement on Tuesday is just the latest challenge facing Twitter since Elon Musk took over the platform. Earlier this month, prosecutors in Berlin announced that they have opened up legal action against the platform under Germany's Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) for failing to purge ''illegal'' content such as hate speech and insults. Should the case be successful the Silicon Valley giant could face a fine of up to '‚¬50 million.

While Twitter chief Elon Musk has expressed a desire to facilitate free speech on his platform, he has also said that Twitter will abide by local laws of governments around the world such as in the EU, where there are not robust First Ammendment-style protections for speech like in the United States.

Twitter could be banned from the EU if Elon Musk continues with his free speech reforms, a senior official within the bloc has reportedly said. https://t.co/M79DWZKc1f

'-- Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 3, 2022

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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Thu, 04 May 2023 14:41

Members of the public watching the coronation on television, online and in parks and pubs will be invited to swear aloud their allegiance to the monarch in a ''chorus of millions of voices'' to be known as the Homage of the People.

People around the UK and abroad will be invited to say the words ''I swear that I will pay true allegiance to your majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God'', in a declaration that replaces the traditional homage of peers.

Saturday's service will also involve for the first time the active participation of representatives of faiths other than Christianity. Rishi Sunak, a Hindu, will give a reading from the Bible in his capacity as PM, despite Church of England law in effect barring other faiths from taking an active role in its services. ''There is no issue about [Sunak's] personal faith, we're delighted that he is doing [this],'' said a Lambeth Palace spokesperson.

Other new elements include the king voicing aloud a specially written prayer; a hymn sung in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish in an acknowledgment of the ''rich heritage'' of the UK; and the participation of female Anglican bishops.

The coronation liturgy, published this weekend, has been drawn up by Lambeth Palace, the London headquarters of the archbishop of Canterbury, in close consultation with the king. Its new elements ''reflect the diversity of our contemporary society'', said Justin Welby, the archbishop.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, reading the coronation Bible, specially commissioned for the event, at Lambeth Palace. Photograph: Neil Turner/Lambeth Palace/PABut the coronation was ''first and foremost an act of Christian worship'', he said. ''It is my prayer that all who share in this service, whether they are of faith or no faith, will find ancient wisdom and new hope that brings inspiration and joy.''

It has also emerged that rehearsals for the coronation have been aided by the construction of a movie-style set of Westminster Abbey inside Buckingham Palace's ballroom.

A scale model of the abbey stage has been installed to ensure everyone with a part to play '' including the king '' has ample chance to practise before rehearsals start in the abbey this week. Palace sources said the set had been devised so that Westminster Abbey would not have to be closed for any longer than necessary. In 1953, it was shut for months while rehearsals took place '' something that was deemed an impossible imposition on the abbey and its finances in 2023.

Insiders said that the arrangement was nothing extravagant: ''It's basically a raised stage and some carpet.''

However, Graham Smith of the pressure group Republic said the coronation was already costing £100m.

''This kind of nonsense suggests that the price tag might be a lot higher,'' he said. ''Is it really beyond the wit of these people to do rehearsals without reconstructing Westminster Abbey?''

Describing the new homage, Lambeth Palace said: ''A chorus of millions of voices [will be] enabled for the first time in history to participate in this solemn and joyful moment''.

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The service will start with a procession of faith representatives of the Jewish, Sunni and Shia Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Bah'­ and Zoroastrian communities. Peers from different faiths will take part in the presentation of regalia, and at the end of the service the newly crowned king will receive a greeting spoken in unison by representatives of Jewish, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and Buddhist communities. This will be unamplified because of the prohibition on using electricity on the Jewish sabbath.

Welby will preface the coronation oath by saying the established church which the king swears to maintain ''will seek to foster an environment in which people of all faiths may live freely''.

Although Welby will later refer to the monarch as ''defender of the faith'' '' a title bestowed by the state, not the church '' Charles himself will not speak the words. He will declare that he is a ''faithful Protestant'' and he will pledge to ''uphold and maintain'' the Protestant succession to the throne.

In 1994, Charles caused controversy by suggesting he would prefer to be regarded as defending all faiths, rather than being defender of the Protestant faith.

The anointing of the king '' ''the most sacred moment'' in the service, according to Lambeth Palace '' will be conducted behind a screen. Charles will remove his robes of state, and will receive consecrated oil on his hands, breast and head wearing a simple linen tunic. Afterwards, he will be vested with the supertunica

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Thu, 04 May 2023 14:39

RUSSIA will collapse into potentially nuclear armed warring mini-states as a result of Vladimir Putin's disastrous invasion of Ukraine, a former CIA analyst has grimly predicted.

The vast country has been fatally weakened by the tyrant's recklessness and he is likely to be killed on the verge of the tumultuous events that will engulf it in the coming years, argues Paul Goble.

6

Vladimir Putin will be killed before Russia falls apart, says Paul Goble 6

6

Russia troops preparing for a parade marking victory in World War Two 6

Nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of waring mini-statesPutin launched his invasion of Ukraine in the expectation of a quick victory but heroic Ukrainian resistance has led to his troops being slaughtered and shattered his prestige.

The number of Russian dead is approaching 200,000, according to Ukraine's defence ministry, while an estimated £17 billion worth of equipment has been lost.

In the wake of the disastrous defeats, attention has now focused on what happens to Russia and the fate of Putin himself.

Some are now beginning to predict the country could fall apart, with Putin's use of ethnic minority troops who have been dying in disproportionate numbers in the Ukraine war also a factor that could come back to haunt him.

Colourful maps have been produced by various analysts painting a picture of Russia that resembles the board game Risk - with borders redrawn and the country splitting apart into pieces.

Goble is a longstanding expert on Russia and previously the Soviet Union who has worked as an analyst for the CIA and also the US State Department.

''People are now much more open to the possibility that the Russian Federation might not be able to remain in one piece,'' he told The Sun Online.

''What we're likely to see is something different than the coming apart of the great empires.

''I think that it's going to be kaleidoscopic. It will be chaotic - what you see one year won't be the same after two years.''

He predicted the world is facing ''Yugoslavia with nukes'' in reference to the bloody break-up of the former Balkan state.

When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 into 15 new states, those where the superpower's vast nuclear weapon arsenal was stationed were persuaded to give them up.

I would argue that this time around the period of decay is going to be messier, longer and vastly more varied than what we had in 1991

Paul Goble That meant avoiding a terrifying situation in which a flurry of nations suddenly acquire weapons of mass destruction.

But Goble chillingly warns ''we can certainly get that now'' adding: ''I suspect that there could be a lot more people with nuclear weapons than anybody is talking about.''

When it comes to mapping out a collapse, he draws parallels to the year when Russia and the Soviet Union stood on the eve of cataclysmic change - 1916 and 1991.

In 1916 Russia had a vast army fighting in World War 1 and with the opposition in jail or exile, it seemed to outsiders that the rule of its royal family with the Tsar at its head seemed secure, says Goble

But the next year the Tsar was overthrown and executed in the Russian Revolution the Soviet Union established.

Similarly, in 1991 that state seemed secure yet within a few weeks it had disintegrated and 15 new, independent countries emerged.

Goble argues Russia is standing on the verge of events that could be even more dramatic.

''I would argue that this time around the period of decay is going to be messier, longer and vastly more varied than what we had in 1991.''

Putin, he says, ''made a fatal mistake in his invasion of Ukraine'' and the way he's ruled Russia ''has made the country fundamentally unstable''.

Why Russia's patchwork of nations want to breakaway

MILITARY defeat often results in the collapse of empires and the idea that Russia could suffer the same fate is gaining popularity.

Ethnic Russians currently make up around 80 per cent of the country but beyond them is a patchwork of groups, spread out in corners of the vast country.

With anger over the disproportionate deaths they've suffered in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin's authority crumbling, a growing number feel their day could be coming.

An organisation called the Forum of Free Peoples of Post-Russia exists to campaign for that end, which has representatives from the 21 republics that make up Russia.

They range from vast areas such as mineral-rich Sakha in the far east to the tiny predominantly Buddhist Kalmykia in the North Caucasus.

In the Tyva Republic, one soldier has died per 3,000 adults compared to one in 480,000 in Moscow.

In Dagestan, another area which has suffered disproportionate casualties, riots broke out when Putin announced a mobilisation.

Video emerged of men headbutting policemen and kickboxing them in mass brawls, forcing them to fire warning shots

''The collapse of the empire is obvious,'' said Arslang Sandzhiyev, a leading Kalmyk independence campaigner.

''It is a natural historical process that has been radically accelerated by the mad and ineffective domestic and foreign policies of the Kremlin.''

''The war in Ukraine has compromised the ability of Putin to effectively run the country again," he went on.

''He has called into question the ability of a state centred in Moscow to rule anything like the territory it currently does.

''We're talking about the death of the Russian state and chaos after that state dies as the various component parts form and seek to sort things out.''

He agrees that Russia will begin to break up into fiefdoms controlled by local warlords as the state's authority collapses.

''I think that's going to be part of what happens.

''We're going to see some places where there are local strongmen, business-types, they might be military officers, they may be people who are part of an ethnic or cultural tradition.

''Russia is an incredibly complicated and diverse place and I would expect its approaching demise to be incredibly complicated and diverse too.

''That raises the question, will there be alliances among these people? Yes. Will some of these alliances fight with each other and with foreigners? The answer to both is yes.''

He explained that ''no one knows how many countries will be there, the numbers range from one to well over a hundred''.

''No one knows what the borders will be, no one knows what the political relationships will be, no one knows who will form the political elites.

''I think that process is going to take years. I don't think that suddenly there will be 47 new states joining the United Nations.''

He singled out the Cossacks as being one group that could seek to break away from Russia.

''I think you may see Cossack proto-states. The fact is that they might play an interesting role.''

As for the fate of Putin himself, ''he will either die just before it happens or shortly afterwards''.

He added: ''The most likely situation is that Putin is [killed] by people who realise he's destroying the country.''

Another factor that could spell the end of Putin and the breakup of Russia is the prospect of angry returning Ukraine war veterans from ethnic minorities, argues Douglas London, another CIA veteran.

Figures show the highest mortality of soldiers was among those from poor regions in Siberia and the Russian Far East.

''The Russians have put a great number of ethnic minorities in the field,'' London told the Background Briefing podcast.

6

Russia has lost huge numbers of troops and large quantities of equipment in Ukraine Credit: AP 6

The father of a Russian army ethnic minority soldier from Buryatia holds up a picture of his dead son Credit: AP''Putin has tried to avoid putting pressure on his base of support, which is really the more urban and affluent Russian communities in the likes of Moscow and St Petersburg.''

The former CIA station chief said Russia's mobilisation has focused on those whose mother tongue isn't Russian from remote and rural regions.

''There are largely aggrieved communities in Russia who are not getting resources because they're not meaningful to Putin.

''Because they're often being used as cannon fodder this really could stir up some of these historic divisions and be something that comes home to roost.''

London drew a parallel to jihadis who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union's occupation of the country.

''They will come home to see repression their own people have faced and like a lot of the foreign fighters of these past three decades decide to take up the cause of revolution.

''They're going to bring home radical ideas'.

''Communities that have been left behind will see their sons, brothers and fathers have been used by Putin for a cause that does very little for him.''

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Thu, 04 May 2023 13:58

What if the world's states were to come together and create a single world currency? From a purely economic point of view, there would be significant advantages if every nation didn't operate with its own money but with the same currency. Not only for an individual economy, but for the world economy as a whole, the optimal number of currencies is one. Let's take a look.

The decisive factor is how this single world currency comes about, and who issues it. In a free market for money'--in a natural process'--a single world currency would emerge from the voluntary agreements of the market participants: the money demanders would decide which commodity they want to use as money. It is impossible to predict with certainty what the outcome of the free choice of currency would be; after all, it resembles a discovery procedure whose outcome is not known in advance. However, it can be assumed that a commodity currency would be created, that gold or possibly a cryptounit would be chosen as the money base.

However, if states monopolize money production, a single world currency cannot develop through voluntary decision-making. In 2023, several national fiat currencies coexist. But this is not a stable equilibrium. Rather, here too, there is a tendency to create a single world currency'--because it is optimal for everyone in the world to trade and calculate with the same currency. This is what democratic socialism takes advantage of.

Creating a single world currency is a means to an end for democratic socialism. Its adherents recognize that a single world state cannot be established directly. The national resistance that would have to be overcome is too great. The detour, the indirect way, by which democratic socialism can achieve its goal is by creating a single world currency under state control. The eurozone can serve as a ''model'' for this process. We've seen nations voluntarily give up their monetary sovereignty and accept a single fiat currency that is issued by a supranational central bank. Within the eurozone, money is no longer controlled by individual national parliaments.

The shared euro currency creates major problems in and between the participating countries. But the forced euro marriage has not yet been through the ''divorce courts'' because of the high costs of a euro exit and also because the democratic socialists fight any attempts to withdraw from the euro with all political means available to them. The problems created by the single currency are increasingly forcing participating countries into communization. As part of the eurozone, some nations must pay for the national debts of others, and the cost of saving ailing banks from collapse is borne by all taxpayers and money users.

All of the problems of imposing one fiat money across many nation-states only became apparent after the euro community was locked into place'--the potential problems received little or no attention beforehand. From the outset, it was not economic rationality that inspired the euro, but political endeavors that can be traced back, unsurprisingly, to politics, namely the ideology of democratic socialism. The end of national monetary sovereignty and the adoption of the euro were promoted in public by emphasizing the peace and prosperity effects of a single currency.

In light of the experience gained with the ''euro experiment,'' the question arises: What are the consequences of creating a single fiat world currency? A state-controlled world currency would bring with it all the negative characteristics and problems of national fiat currencies, and it would cause economic, political, and cultural damage that would eclipse that from national fiat currencies.

What every single state that has fallen victim to democratic socialism wants is also what a community of states wants: to control the production of money and to expand the money supply at will in order to secure and expand its rule. It is a logical step for the states to merge their own fiat currencies into a fiat world currency'--especially for small and medium-sized states, whose financial leeway is considerably increased as a result.

The fact that a fiat currency and not a commodity money has been chosen is virtually self-explanatory: the national currencies are already fiat money, and fiat money is the type of money that states prefer because it can be multiplied at any time and in any quantity at the lowest cost.

If the national states agree to accept a single fiat currency issued by a world central bank, then the money users will no longer have any choice or escape options. They will be at the mercy of a fiat world money. The world central bank will not have to fear that dissatisfied users of its money will ''migrate'' to other currencies because there will be no other currencies anymore. And because the single fiat world currency will have no competition, it will also become a plaything of political interests. Above all, the states will encourage the world central bank to pursue a monetary policy through which they can finance themselves as cheaply as possible with credit.

After all, debt financing is particularly attractive to every state: the possibility of easy borrowing is a very important motive for states to adopt a fiat world currency. Unlike with taxation, savers usually give their money voluntarily to the state, because they expect it to be repaid to them plus interest. A world central bank has a free hand to set the market interest rate as it sees fit. It does not have to fear that capital will migrate away from an extremely low market interest rate'--after all, the interest rate that it determines will prevail all over the world.

A world central bank, which has a monopoly on the fiat world money, facilitates the worldwide debt economy to an extent probably still unknown. The relatively bad state debtors'--i.e., those who have so far only been able to finance themselves at relatively high interest rates'--particularly benefit from a single fiat world currency. If there is only one currency left in the world, there will be a single large, transparent, and liquid capital market in which there will be no exchange rate fluctuations, which helps to reduce credit costs. The improved debt opportunities in such a market favor the expansion of state influence and thus promote the nationalization of the economy and society.

A single currency will put governments in a favorable position to buy votes. The states will lure voters with money, and more and more citizens and entrepreneurs will become transfer recipients and beneficiaries of the state. They will benefit from state-financed jobs, social benefits, and contracts. States' involvement in economic and social life will increase. The culture of collectivism will be promoted, and individualism will be repressed. What is left of the free market economy will inevitably give way to a command economy in which states play a decisive role in determining who produces what, when, and where. Although this transformation is already progressing under national fiat currencies, it will be uninhibited under a global fiat currency.

With a single fiat world currency, it will be possible for a world central bank to set an artificial boom in motion worldwide and to protect itself from a bust for a long time. Thanks to the global currency, the boom will affect all the world's economies: the prices in all labor and factor markets will be distorted'--after all, there will no longer be any exchange rate movements between the economies that could shield a region from the monetary policies in other regions; all economies will thus be ''monetarily aligned.''

Companies and investors will continue to favor some regions of the world over others, just as investors in the eurozone see the ''northern countries'' as less risky than the ''southern countries'' and the ''northern countries'' continue to be the most attractive region for investors within the eurozone. If, however, the economic developments of the participating nation-states vary too much, the world central bank can be expected to take political countermeasures: it will support weaker countries. For example, it will buy up weak countries' government and bank bonds; the eurozone's many ''rescue policies'' are an example of this eventuality.

In this way, the world central bank will weaken or eliminate the market's remaining corrective forces, which could put an end to the boom. The boom set in motion by the world bank will therefore be able to last a long time. However, the longer the boom lasts, the greater the damage (overconsumption and bad investments) will be. And the longer the boom progresses, the greater the costs of the corrective crisis will be, which will intensify the political incentives to keep the boom going by any means'--after all, states shy away from recession and unemployment and the associated social and political consequences.

In order to avert the corrective crisis, the states will continue to intervene in the market with bans and prohibitions, laws, price controls, subsidies, and labor and expenditure programs. Above all, however, they will make use of the world central bank. If it is politically desired, the world bank will keep any stumbling debtor afloat with newly created money and delay the arrival of the crash. This leads to the question: Will a single fiat world currency be more inflationary than national fiat currencies? The answer is yes.

States' primary goal with a single fiat world currency is to be able to pursue a controlled inflationary policy with as little punishment as possible. Controlled inflation benefits states and politically connected groups.

However, even under a uniform fiat world currency, there are limits to inflationary policy. The world central bank does not have to reckon with the fact that money users will switch from its fiat money to other currencies when inflation is high, as there will be no other currencies left. But if the inflation of the fiat world currency is too high, its users will lose confidence in it. In an extreme case (hyperinflation) people will start to escape from the fiat world money by taking desperate measures. They will no longer want to use the money at all, and this could seal the fate of the fiat world money.

Of crucial importance for the inflation of the fiat world currency is which forces gain the upper hand in the decision-making body of the world central bank. There are two possible scenarios. In the first case, the governments of the states have a direct influence on the world central bank. In democracies, rulers are known to have short-term goals: their power is only temporary. Therefore, they are anxious to maximize their income during their term of office. Those in power do not participate in the long-term prosperity of the community and consequently have no great interest in making decisions that maintain or increase its net present value beyond their term. In other words, the cow is not milked but slaughtered. Inflation will be comparatively high in this case.

In the second case, the decision-makers on the council of the world central bank are closely connected to those in the financial sector and big business. Such a world central bank council's interest is that its ''product,'' its currency, remains permanently marketable. It will not frivolously jeopardize the world currency by implementing an exaggerated inflation policy. The world central bank council would therefore not want to slaughter the cow but milk it for as long as possible. In this case, an oligarchic democracy will prevail in the world central bank council.

In this scenario there is a high probability that the world central bank will above all serve the special interests to which the council oligarchs are closely linked (these are, of course, big banks and big businesses). The interests of the general public take a back seat and are only taken into account if they do not jeopardize the continuation of the world central bank's special-interest monetary policy. The world central bank will therefore endeavor to keep inflation from becoming too high so that the population does not become dissatisfied and rebel.

Under a self-referential oligarchic democracy, in which councilmen recruit their own successors, the fiat world money is even granted a particularly long stay. The oligarchs will make every effort to ensure that the fiat world money system can continue to exist for as long as possible, that crises, when they occur, are tackled in such a way that the fiat world currency does not suffer and a ''flight from money'' is avoided.

In view of the overindebtedness problem that fiat money necessarily creates, we cannot exclude the possibility of negative interest rates. Under a policy of negative interest rates, the central bank might set the interest rate at, say, ''4 percent per year. This means that a bank balance of '‚¬100.00 is reduced to '‚¬96.00 one year later and after ten years is only '‚¬66.48. What harms the saver benefits the debtor, who makes a profit by taking out a loan! Savers and investors will not tolerate this. Wishing to avoid the losses, they will go to the bank and demand that their assets be paid out in cash and coins. Therefore, as long as there is cash, the effectiveness of a negative interest rate policy is limited.

However, a world central bank can easily enforce the abolition of cash by shutting down cash production. Without cash, the money is ''trapped'' in bank accounts and can no longer be withdrawn from the banking sector. The negative interest rate policy can then be implemented unchecked. Money holders no longer have the opportunity to evade the devaluation of money and savings. Individual states welcome the abolition of cash for another reason: they will be able to track the financial dispositions of citizens and companies, who will only be able to make payments electronically: banks will be required to provide full information on the payments and financial assets of bank customers at all times. As a result, the taxation possibilities of states will be increased immensely.

As long as there is still cash, there are limits to taxation: if market participants feel that the tax burden is too high, they can carry out their transactions anonymously with cash. This in turn encourages states not to tax citizens and businesses too heavily. But when the taxpayers no longer have this alternative because there is no more cash, the political reluctance which still stands in the way of increased taxation in a world with cash decreases. And if the financial privacy of citizens and businesses is lost, states can easily subject citizens and businesses to full monitoring.

A global central bank will undertake the supervision of the banking and financial sector. It will want to prescribe how commercial banks operate; for example, what liquidity and capital requirements they must meet and how they must assess their credit risks. The world central bank will also want to decide whether and under what circumstances failing banks will be aided or allowed to close. The right of national governments to have their say will increasingly dwindle in favor of the supranational world central bank and supranational supervisory authorities and bodies. The consequences will be far reaching.

The pressure for a body of regulation to which all banking and financial enterprises are subject will increase'--and will come from the large and powerful interest groups. National or regional peculiarities will not be taken into account if the large and powerful interest groups have asserted themselves in the political negotiation of the regulatory provisions. For many small countries, this will force far-reaching adjustments'--not only in their banking and financial economies but also in their production structures. There will be winners and losers in this process: adjustment costs will be higher for some regions and lower for others. This will create conflicts of interest between the nation-states.

A fiat currency used by people in many countries will fuel further conflicts. It is well known that the expansion of the money supply means that a few are made better off at the expense of many others: the first recipients are the beneficiaries, the late recipients, the disadvantaged. This is already resulting in disputes in nation-states that are relatively homogeneous in terms of culture, language, and tradition. The conflicts over redistribution will become even more acute when the effects of redistribution are felt across borders, when people in one country realize that they are being bled in favor of people in another country.

A world central bank has a free hand to set the world interest rate at will. Not only can it keep it artificially low to set a boom in motion and keep it going for a long time, but it can also bring about a negative world interest rate, a political ''solution'' to the overindebtedness problem caused by a fiat world money. Another motive for forcing world interest rates into negative territory is the democratic socialists' desire to better steer and control the economy and society, or to shatter what is left of the free market economy.

The fact that this is possible with a negative interest rate policy becomes apparent when one considers the consequences of a negative interest rate for the credit market. Commercial banks receive credit from the world central bank at, say, ''2 percent, on the condition that they lend the money to consumers and companies. If they borrow '‚¬100 at ''2 percent and lend the money at ''1 percent, their profit is '‚¬1. Under these circumstances the demand for credit grows enormously: after all, everyone wants to profit from the negative interest rate loans.

The world central bank must ration the loans so that the creation of credit and money does not get out of hand. It is no longer the market interest rate that balances supply and demand, but the world central bank, which gives a certain amount of credit and allocates it. But what criteria should be used to allocate the loans? Should all those who ask for loans get them too? Or should labor-intensive economic sectors be preferred? Or should the loans go only to sunrise industries? Or should weakening branches of industry be supported with additional loans? Or should the south get more than the north?

The world central bank has a decisive influence on who can finance and produce what, when, and where. Like a central planning authority, it'--or the interest groups who control it'-- determines the fate of the economies in all the regions of the world: which industries are promoted or pushed back; which economies grow stronger and which weaker; which banks are allowed to survive in which countries and which are not. Welcome to the centrally planned economy! However, a negative interest rate policy would not be possible in the long term; it would lead to the end of the division of labor in the economy.

First, lowering the interest rate inflates the prices of existing assets: stocks, houses, and land'-- everything becomes more expensive. The lower the interest rate, the higher the present value of future payments and thus also the market prices of the assets. The speculative bubble, which is inflated, initially provides investors with high returns. At the same time, the outlook for future returns deteriorates. The reason? Zero and negative interest rates cause the prices of stocks, houses, etc., to rise until the expected yield that these asset classes promise has approached the low or negative interest rate set by the central bank. In extreme cases, the expected market returns will fall to or even below the zero line.

But once the world central bank has pushed all returns to or below the zero line, the free market economy (or what is left of it) is on the verge of collapse. Without a positive market interest rate, without the prospect of a positive return, saving and investing cease: after all, every consumer and entrepreneur has a positive originary interest rate. And when there is no more return to earn, there is no more saving and investment, only consumption. The economy based on the division of labor comes to a standstill. Replacement and expansion investments fail to materialize, capital consumption begins, and the modern economy falls back into a primitive subsistence economy. An extreme example. Or is it?

The very process by which the world central bank lowers the world market interest rate to or below zero (something it can do as a monopolist of money production) is extremely problematic. It artificially pushes people's time preferences up. As Friedrich Nietzsche put it, there is a ''revaluation of all values,'' a devaluation of the future. The here and now is made even more important than tomorrow. The consequences are far reaching. Life on credit is promoted. The virtue of thrift goes out of fashion. ''Permanent debt'' becomes morally acceptable. Achieving short-term goals becomes more important to people than achieving longer-term goals. The willingness to achieve decreases, because, compared to the disutility of labor, leisure time rises even higher in value. Divorce also becomes more attractive as a ''solution'' to marital problems; efforts to overcome relationship difficulties are increasingly shunned. The quality of education suffers: if the here and now is so important, then we will also spend less time cultivating and maturing for the future. Morals decay: consideration and manners are costly activities in interpersonal relationships and often only pay off in the long term. Aesthetics degenerate: it is easy for passing fads to find buyers; breaking away from ''proven classics'' is made easier. A world central bank that issues fiat money has decivilizing consequences worldwide.

The idea that states could remain sovereign and independent once they participate in the fiat world money system is illusory. If the same money is used in different countries, this will help to make the best possible use of the efficiency potential offered by the international division of labor. The commodity and factor financial markets of the national economies will increasingly dovetail. And the closer the ties between those markets, the stronger will be the incentive of the nation-states to surrender sovereignty to supranational authorities. This applies both to economically good times'--then the willingness to share, to make compromises, is relatively high'--and to economically bad times'-- then a way out of the economic problems is seen in moving closer together, in jointly pursued ''emergency policies.''

A fiat world currency promotes political centralization. The ''urge'' to establish a unified government, a world state, is strengthened, especially under the ideological leadership of democratic socialism. If economic and financial ties become ever tighter, why not create a single world state that can more effectively implement the desired policies'--such as policies for prevention of economic and financial crises as well as tax fraud, environmental protection, counterterrorism, etc.? The world central bank, which issues the fiat world currency, becomes a particularly sought-after political power and control center in this concentration process.

Drawing on Robert Michel's iron law of oligarchy, it is to be expected that a relatively small, assertive group of people which originates from the party and government structures of the participating states will try to put the world central bank under its control and make it serviceable for its own purposes. Against this background, it would be unrealistic for something to emerge that could be described as a ''democratic world central bank.''

The representatives of the participating states may initially endeavor to ''chain'' the world central bank'--i.e., to design the rules and regulations to which the world central bank is subject in such a way as to prevent abuse of power. However, what happens in the hierarchy of parties also happens in the hierarchy of a community of states: the most determined, tireless, ruthless, and relentless advocates of democratic socialism prevail. The aim of the oligarchy will be to make the world central bank serviceable and, above all, to enable the creation of a world government, a world state, which democratic socialism must necessarily strive for.

A world state, equipped with its own global fiat money monopoly, would open a dark chapter in the history of humankind and lead to a civilizational catastrophe. The world state would have no competitors to fear. No one could escape from it. Emigration would be impossible; the world state would be everywhere. The hope that the expansion of the power of the world state could be effectively curbed by democratic electoral acts would prove to be illusory as soon as oligarchization set in'--and this is to be expected, of course, as already impressively illustrated by the expansionist drive of the nation-states in recent decades.

It is downright absurd to think that a world state with its own fiat world currency would not sooner or later mutate into a totalitarian tyrant.

But are there perhaps good forces that could challenge the money monopoly and thereby effectively prevent the ideas of world money and a world state from being put into practice? One possible good force is technological disruption, which could revolutionize the global monetary system or show people that better money than that offered by states is both necessary and possible. There is no doubt that cryptocurrencies hold such potential for disruption.

Technological Disruption: CryptocurrenciesThe cryptounit bitcoin holds out the prospect of something revolutionary: money created in the free market, money the production and use of which the state has no access to. The transactions carried out with it are anonymous; outsiders do not know who paid or who received the payment. It is money that cannot be multiplied at will, whose quantity is finite, that knows no national borders, and that can be used unhindered worldwide. This is possible because bitcoin is based on a special form of electronic data processing and storage: blockchain technology (distributed ledger technology), which can also be described as a decentralized account book.

Think through the consequences if such a ''denationalized'' form of money should actually prevail in practice. The state could no longer tax its citizens as before. It would lack information on the labor and capital incomes of citizens and enterprises and their total wealth. The only option left to the state would be to tax the assets in the ''real world'''--such as houses, land, works of art, etc. It could try to levy a ''poll tax'': a tax in which everyone pays the same absolute tax amount'-- regardless of the personal circumstances of the taxpayers, such as income, wealth, ability to achieve, and so on. But would that be practicable? Could it be enforced? This is doubtful.

The state could also no longer simply borrow money. In a cryptocurrency world, who would give credit to the state? The state would have to justify the expectation that it would use the borrowed money productively to service its debt. But as we know, the state is not in a position to do this and is in a much worse position than private companies. So even if the state could obtain credit, it would have to pay a comparatively high interest rate, severely restricting its scope for credit financing.

In view of cryptocurrency's financial disempowerment of the state, the question arises: Could the state as we know it today still exist at all, could it still mobilize enough supporters and gather them behind it? After all, the fantasies of redistribution and enrichment that today drive many voters into the arms of political parties and ideologies would disappear into thin air. The state would no longer function as a redistribution machine; it basically would have little or no money to finance political promises. Cryptocurrencies, therefore, have the potential to herald the end of the state as we know it today.

The transition from the national fiat currencies to a cryptocurrency created in the free market would have consequences for the existing fiat monetary system and the production and employment structure it has created.

However, bitcoin has not yet developed to the point where it could be a perfect substitute for fiat currencies. For example, the performance of the bitcoin network is not yet high enough. Another problem with bitcoin transactions is finality. In modern fiat cash payment systems, there is a clearly identifiable point in time at which a payment is legally and de facto completed, and from that point on, the money transferred can be used immediately. However, distributed ledger technology consensus techniques (such as proof of work) only allow relative finality, and this is undoubtedly detrimental to the money user (because blocks added to the blockchain can subsequently become invalid by resolving forks).

The transaction costs are also of great importance regarding whether bitcoin can assert itself as a universally used means of payment. In the recent past, there have been major fluctuations in this area. In addition, the time taken to process a transaction has also fluctuated considerably at times, which may be disadvantageous in view of the emergence of instant payment options for fiat money.

Another important aspect is the question of the ''intermediary.'' Bitcoin is designed to enable intermediary-free transactions between participants. But do the market participants really want intermediary-free money? What if there are problems? If someone made a mistake and transferred one hundred bitcoins instead of one, he cannot reverse the transaction. And nobody can help him! The fact that many hold their bitcoins in trading venues and not in their private digital wallets suggests that even in a world of cryptocurrencies there is a demand for intermediaries offering services such as storage and security of private keys.

As soon as intermediaries come into play, the transaction chain is no longer limited to the digital world, but reaches the real world. At the interface between the digital and the real world, a trustworthy entity is required. Just think of credit transactions. They cannot be performed unseen and anonymously. Payment defaults can happen here, and therefore the lender wants to know who the borrower is, what credit quality he has, and what collateral he provides. But if the bridge is built from the digital to the real world, the cryptomoney inevitably finds itself in the crosshairs of the state. However, this bridge will ultimately be necessary, because in modern economies with a division of labor, money must have the capacity for intermediation.

It is safe to assume that technology will continue to make progress, and that it will remove many remaining obstacles. However, it can also be expected that the state will make every effort to discourage a free market for money by reducing the competitiveness of alternative money media such as precious metals and cryptounits vis- -vis fiat money through tax measures (such as turnover and capital gains taxes). As long as this is the case, it will be difficult even for money that is better in all other respects to assert itself.

Therefore, technical superiority alone will not be sufficient to help free market money'--whether in the form of gold, silver, or cryptounits'--achieve a breakthrough. In addition, and above all, it will be necessary for people to demand their right to self-determination in the choice of money or to recognize the need to make use of it. Ludwig von Mises has cited the ''sound-money principle'' in this context: ''The sound-money principle has two aspects. It is affirmative in approving the market's choice of a commonly used medium of exchange. It is negative in obstructing the government's propensity to meddle with the currency system.'' And he continues: ''It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of sound money if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights.''

These words make it clear that in order for a free market for money to become possible, quite a substantial change must take place in people's minds. We must turn away from democratic socialism, from all socialist-collectivist false doctrines, from their state glorifying delusion, and no longer listen to socialist appeals to envy and resentment. This can only be achieved through better insight, acceptance of better ideas, and logical thinking. Admittedly, this is a difficult undertaking, but it is not hopeless. Especially since there is a logical alternative to democratic socialism: the private law society with a free market for money.

A Free Market for MoneyA free market for money means two things. On the one hand, those demanding money can freely choose what they want to use as money'--for transaction and saving purposes. On the other hand, every market participant has the freedom to try to offer his fellow human beings a good to demand voluntarily as money. But wouldn't that lead straight to ''money chaos''? Wouldn't hundreds, maybe even thousands of types of money circulate and thus make financial calculation impossible in the economy? And wouldn't that undermine the efficiency of the economy? This concern is unfounded.

The money demander plays the decisive role. In a free market for money, anyone who asks for money will, out of self-interest, ask for a good that has the greatest possible marketability, a good that is recognized by its trading partners as the generally accepted medium of exchange. What do you offer the baker? It is best to offer something that the baker can use to buy shoes from a cobbler or shirts from a tailor. In a free market for money, people will demand as money a good that finds the widest acceptance, which is regarded by the largest number of people as a medium of exchange. The choice of the good that serves as money is based on the wishes of the trading partners.

But what if Mrs. A offers colorfully printed paper slips and says that these are ''good money''? The answer is that no one would accept her paper slips as money. Why not? Quite simple: you wouldn't know what these colorful notes are worth, or what you could get for them in exchange. That's why no one would demand them as money. This is exactly what Mises has shown with his regression theorem: money must arise from a good that already has a nonmonetary market value before it is used as money. This is not the case for colorful and arbitrarily printed paper slips. They would not be able to compete against other goods such as gold and silver.

In a free market for money, people will demand a good that possesses the physical qualities that ''good money'' must have: be scarce, storable, transportable, divisible, malleable, and transferable and be regarded as valuable. If we take into account currency history, it seems quite probable that money would still be chosen in the form of precious metals'--notably gold and silver'--today. But cryptounits could also possibly assert themselves as money in the future. The choice people will ultimately make in a free market for money cannot be predicted with certainty.

Precious metals as money is an improvement compared to unbacked fiat money. No one has to carry jangling coins around in their pockets. The use of gold and silver can be digitalized. All kinds of payments that are common today could be carried out easily and problem-free with gold and silver. If cash is desired, precious metal coins can circulate or banknotes can be used that can be exchanged 100 percent for physical gold at the storage facility that issued the banknotes. Cashless payment transactions are also possible in the usual way when using gold money: bank transfer, direct debit, crossed check, payments by credit and debit card, mobile payment, bills of exchange, etc.

In a free market for money, in which a good that cannot be multiplied at will (by granting credit) is chosen as money, the credit market can exercise its intended function undisturbed: the supply of and demand for savings create a market interest rate that ensures that sufficient savings are available to make investments. This puts an end to the chronic economic disruptions of boom and bust caused by the issuance of fiat money. Because the banking business is not inflationary, the nonmarket (antisocial) redistributive effects of fiat money cease.

In a free market for money, there is no central bank and no state supervisory or regulatory authorities. All that is necessary for the functioning of a free market for money is a functioning legal order, which ensures that the contracting parties fulfill their obligations and that infringements of contractual agreements are effectively sanctioned: for example, that the stored commodity money is not embezzled, that banknotes can be exchanged for the money base at face value at any time. In order to guarantee that contractual obligations are fulfilled, there is no need for state monopolies of law. Jurisprudence and law enforcement can also be organized in the free market.

A free market money system'--with free choice of money and bank freedom'--is not a national but an international concept. If trade takes place internationally, across national borders, the market participants select the good to use as money with the same calculation as is used at the national level. Every user of money has an economic incentive to demand as money that good which he thinks is the most attractive means of exchange from his trading partner's point of view. The idea of a free market for money is thus global in the truest sense of the word: just as free trade knows no national borders, a free market for money extends globally.

A free market for money is incompatible with the state as we know it today; namely, as a territorial compulsory monopolist with ultimate power of decision over all conflicts in its territory. There is no question that a free market for money requires far-reaching changes in people's thinking. This insight was formulated by Mises in 1923:

The belief that a sound monetary system can once again be attained without making substantial changes in economic policy is a serious error. What is needed first and foremost is to renounce all inflationist fallacies. This renunciation cannot last, however, if it is not firmly grounded on a full and complete divorce of ideology from all imperialist, militarist, protectionist, statist, and socialist ideas.

The Private Law SocietyThe alternative to the state, in its present form, is the private law society. It is characterized by the fact that the same rules apply to all people always and everywhere: that everyone has self-ownership and that everyone has ownership of external goods acquired lawfully'--i.e., nonaggressively. And since the same law applies to everyone, there is no public law apart from private law. A private law society is by no means synonymous with anarchy. Far from it! Rather, the private law society is characterized by a very clear distinction between mine and yours, and violations of property are punishable and sanctioned.

In a private legal system, security is offered in the free market. On the supply side, there are insurance companies that offer security services (insurance against theft, personal protection, etc.) in competition with other companies. In insurance contracts, the security service is specified precisely and the mutual rights and obligations are contractually laid down (such as the exclusion of negligence by the insured from compensation in the event of damage). The insurance contracts specify independent conciliation bodies'--which also compete with each other for customers who pay voluntarily'--to be called upon in the event of a dispute between the policyholder and the insurer.

Under competitive conditions, it is to be expected that prices for insurance coverage and dispute resolution will fall (while they will rise chronically in today's state-monopolized security and legal apparatus). And it is not only that the insurance services in the free market for security are more geared to the customer's wishes (in terms of scope and pricing); peaceableness and conflict avoidance are also promoted. Those who demonstrably behave well and are friendly toward their fellow human beings represent a smaller risk and are rewarded with comparatively low insurance premiums.

Since an insurance company is contractually obliged to indemnify the policyholder in the event of a loss (e.g., burglary), it will make a great deal of effort to prevent the occurrence of a loss. And if the damage has nevertheless occurred, the insurance company will do everything in its power to track down the perpetrator and make him liable; otherwise, it will have to pay the compensation, which in turn will reduce its profit. The free market for security discourages crime because potential perpetrators face highly efficient private insurance providers and police agencies. Such insurance and legal contracts can be established not only nationally, but of course also internationally, for private households as well as companies.

In a private law society, a free market for money is a natural phenomenon in the truest sense of the word: a free market for money is people's right to self-determination when choosing money. The voluntary agreement of the people involved in the global division of labor would result in a single world currency. A freely chosen world currency differs categorically from a single fiat world currency, which is the passion of democratic socialists. A world currency chosen in a free market for money would literally be economically and ethically good money, which best serves humankind and best promotes the peaceful and cooperative coexistence of people in this world.

The ChallengeUnderstanding and practicing economics is the key to destroying the foundations of the driving force of democratic socialism, which for decades has been working toward establishing a world state with a world currency and has already made considerable progress along this path. Bad experiences, undesirable developments, and crises will not be able to deprive democratic socialism of its power and overcome it. This can only be achieved by insight into better ideas, and by the struggle of arguments of reason. The Global Currency Plot is meant as a contribution to help the better ideas prevail.

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Thu, 04 May 2023 13:34

Anheuser-Busch is trying to convince wholesalers that the Dylan Mulvaney controversy that has caused sales of Bud Light to plummet has been overblown.

The brewery sent a letter to wholesalers about the backlash to the trans-identifying influencer posting a TikTok video with a can of Bud Light that had Mulvaney's face on it. In the video, Mulvaney celebrated 365 days of ''being a woman.''

''This was one single can given to one social media influencer,'' the letter declares. ''It was not made for production or sale to the general public. This can is not a formal campaign or advertisement.''

The letter was forwarded to retailers, bars, and restaurants by Grey Eagle, which distributes Anheuser-Busch products, the St. Louis Dispatch reported. A cover letter from Grey Eagle stated, ''Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement.''

''In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval,'' Grey Eagle continued. ''Since that time, the lack of oversight and control over marketing decisions has been addressed and a new VP of Bud Light marketing has been announced.''

''The minute you step into the political or religious spectrum, when you know your target audience is going to have a real issue with this, you know you've alienated at least half of your target audience,'' Robert Lachky, the former chief creative officer at Anheuser-Busch, told the Dispatch. ''In the end, people don't like getting preached to, especially when it comes to drinking beer.''

Soon after InBev, based in Belgium, purchased Anheuser-Busch in 2008, Lachky left. He said that foreign marketers didn't understand American consumers. He said of the current marketing team, ''None of these marketing folks has ever been to a NASCAR race, none has been to a football game or a rodeo. That's insanity. That's marketing incompetence.''

In the wake of the controversy, Anheuser-Busch is reportedly offering a free case of beer to every employee of its wholesaler network.

The giveaway may just be the only viable plan to get rid of a product that customers are rejecting. The company's wholesaler network, which consists of many family-run businesses, has been hurt by the disastrous PR stunt and the boycott that has followed.

Related: SOS: Anheuser-Busch Now Sending Free Beer To Every Employee Of Wholesaler Network: Report

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Thu, 04 May 2023 13:27

Ford lost tens of thousands of dollars per electric vehicle sold in the first quarter of 2023, as the division remained on track for roughly $3 billion in yearly losses, according to the company's Tuesday evening earnings report.

Ford's electric vehicle division '-- which was separated from its traditional gas and professional-grade vehicle departments in a late March reorganization '-- lost $722 million in the first three months of 2023, while selling just 12,000 units, according to the company's first quarter earnings report. This amounts to a roughly $60,167 loss for each vehicle sold, according to calculations made by the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: Major Automaker Expects It Will Hemorrhage Billions From Its Electric Vehicle Business)

''Because the auto industry is very capital intensive and has high fixed costs that need to be spread out over thousands of units, it is not uncommon to have steep losses initially which are followed by profits,'' Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni told the Daily Caller News Foundation. ''Imagine, for instance, needing to retool a factory and rebuild an assembly line to build different vehicles. That is much more expensive than the revenue from the first few vehicles that are produced.''

Despite this, however, Antoni characterized the decision to go ''all-in'' on electric vehicles as a ''tremendous risk'' that required ongoing support from government subsidies. Private analysts expect that the total cost of the green manufacturing subsidies offered by President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act will top $1 trillion, with subsidies for the electric vehicle battery packs alone topping $130 billion.

EV EBIT margin took a nosedive in Q1. pic.twitter.com/aOEYZexgue

'-- Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) May 2, 2023

The company cited production issues with the Mustang Mach-E SUV and the F-150 Lightning pickup truck for the low level of production, which was 32% lower than the same time in 2022. Ford expects that the division, which it characterizes as operating ''like a startup,'' will be on track to produce at a rate of 600,000 units per year by the end of 2023.

Compared to the same quarter last year, Model e's $700 million in revenue represented a 27% decline, while total losses were more than twice the $342 million lost last year. Ford further cut the price of the Mach-E by $3.750 on Tuesday, bringing its sticker price as low as $43,000 in some cases as the company continues its ongoing price war with Tesla, according to CNN.

The company expects that its electric vehicle division will begin turning a profit by the end of 2024 and have an 8% profit margin by 2026, according to Reuters. CFO John Lawler described these targets as ''totally realistic'' in the context of the company's ''aggressive'' cost-cutting moves.

Overall, the company posted a $1.8 billion profit, beating expectations, although its year-round forecast of $9 billion to $11 billion in profits remained unaffected, according to Bloomberg.

Ford did not immediately respond to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Thu, 04 May 2023 13:26

NPR said on Wednesday that Elon Musk threatened to take away the Twitter handle belonging to the news outlet unless the firm continues to post on the platform.

The outlet, which ceased using Twitter last month after Musk temporarily affixed a label to the account noting that NPR receives funds from government entities, revealed that Musk sent a ''series of emails'' to business reporter Bobby Allyn on Tuesday: ''So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?''

Allyn wrote that the idea shocked ''even longtime observers of Musk's spur-of-the-moment and erratic leadership style'' and asserted that an effort to reassign companies' handles on the site ''poses a serious risk of impersonation and could imperil a company's reputation.''

The reporter noted to Musk that the current Twitter terms of service define inactive accounts as those which do not log into the platform at least once every 30 days. ''Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant,'' Musk replied in another email. ''Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.''

NPR expressed outrage over the decision from Twitter to add a ''state-affiliated media'' tag to the company's profile, a label that placed NPR in the company of foreign state-run media outlets such as TASS in Russia and Xinhua News in China. Although NPR was created with an act of Congress, Twitter previously listed NPR as an exception in the United States because of the ''editorial independence'' maintained by the company.

''NPR's organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent,'' a statement from NPR said last month. ''We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public's understanding of our editorial independence.''

Musk removed the ''state-affiliated media'' label from the NPR account nearly one month ago after Allyn told him that the outlet receives only 1% of its operating budget from government funds. The account has 8.8 million followers and has remained inactive since early April.

The complaints from NPR come after the outlet reduced headcount by 10% and shuttered production on four seasonal podcasts as a result of a sponsorship shortfall. Dismissed employees accused NPR CEO John Lansing of racism in one virtual meeting about the layoffs.

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Musk, who also serves as chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, said he bought Twitter at the end of last year for $44 billion in order to reserve a corner of the public square for open dialogue. The billionaire entrepreneur introduced a new revenue structure based on subscriptions rather than advertisements after he noted that a number of advertisers have ended their relationships with the company at the behest of leftist organizations, dealing a significant blow to the business.

''Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,'' Musk remarked on the platform. ''Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America.''

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Thu, 04 May 2023 12:58

Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) disagree with banning children under 13 years of age from having social media accounts, which is part of the bipartisan Protecting Kids on Social Media Act.

Both Blumenthal and Blackburn have introduced alternative legislation, the Kids Online Safety Act, to require "social media platforms to perform an annual independent audit that assesses the risks to minors, their compliance with this legislation, and whether the platform is taking meaningful steps to prevent those harms," according to the senators' offices.

Blackburn and Blumenthal were asked if they would seek to ban or condition the creation of social media accounts below specified ages, similar to the ban in the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act, which is sponsored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) of Arkansas and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).

"I have strong concerns about a bill that puts more of the burden on parents than on Big Tech," Blumenthal replied during a briefing on Tuesday. "Our bill holds Big Tech accountable and puts the burden on the social media platforms, not making parents, in effect, police people for their kids. And I'm also concerned about age verification that would require collection of information, personal and private information about children."

Blumenthal argued that there is a "huge danger" of "exploitation or abuse" with an age verification system, which he said would require a "national database held by government or that a goldmine of confidential private information" be handed over to Big Tech.

Blackburn said she cannot support the Schatz-Cotton social media bill either.

"You cannot support something like the Schatz-Cotton bill does, with the creation of a digital ID for teenagers and then the collection of even more identification, government-issued IDs, things of that nature, from children and their parents," she said.

"So that amount of data in the federal government's hand, you're talking about a data breach waiting to happen," she added. "So ours puts that burden on social media, to design, to do safety by design and default, and to provide that toolbox to parents and teens for policing social media."

Blumenthal told reporters the senators' have made modifications to their bill after speaking with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union.

"We have been in touch with the ACLU along with a number of other groups," he said. "We've made improvements and clarifications to the bill as a result. For example, we've clarified that the bill does not apply to schools or educational software. We've also made sure that there is explicit protection for support services and that we have tightened rules around platforms' data collection."

He argued that the First Amendment should not apply to certain content on social media platforms that can be harmful to teenagers.

"I don't think there's a First Amendment right to drive eating disorder content or bullying or suicide to kids," he said. "We're going to try to meet the ongoing concerns of any groups or individuals who have legitimate suggestions and criticisms. It's has been an ongoing process."

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Thu, 04 May 2023 12:57

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor declined to recuse herself from multiple copyright infringement cases involving book publisher Penguin Random House despite having been paid millions by the firm for her books, making it by far her largest source of income, records show.

In 2010, she got a $1.2 million book advance from Knopf Doubleday Group, a part of the conglomerate. In 2012, she reported receiving two advance payments from the publisher totaling $1.9 million.

In 2013, Sotomayor voted in a decision for whether the court should hear a case against the publisher called Aaron Greenspan v. Random House, despite then-fellow Justice Stephen Breyer recusing after also receiving money from the publisher. Greenspan was a Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg's who wrote a book about the founding of Facebook and contended that Random House rejected his book proposal and then awarded a deal to another author who copied his book and eventually turned it into the movie The Social Network.

In 2017, Sotomayor began receiving payments each year from Penguin Random House itself, which continued annually through at least 2021, the most recent disclosure available, and totaled more than $500,000. In all, she received $3.6 million from Penguin Random House or its subsidiaries, according to a Daily Wire tally of financial disclosures.

In October 2019, children's author Jennie Nicassio petitioned the Supreme Court to hear her lawsuit against Penguin Random House alleging that the book publisher had copied her book by selling one that was nearly identical. On the same day that the petition was distributed to the justices, Sotomayor received a $10,586 check from the publisher.

On February 24, 2020, the Supreme Court voted not to hear the case, denying the ''writ of certiorari'' and meaning that the case would remain where it left off '-- with a circuit court having found in the publisher's favor. Sotomayor's next check, coming in May of that year, was her largest ever from the parent company, at $82,807.

The Supreme Court does not reveal how individual justices vote when it comes to ''cert,'' but it does note when they recuse, which Sotomayor did not. Her decision not to recuse is particularly notable because Breyer again recused. Breyer received payments from Penguin Random House or Knopf each year, which he seemingly viewed as a conflict, even though he received only a tenth of the amount '-- $340,000 during the same time period '-- as Sotomayor (Breyer's wife also wrote a book for the company).

The Penguin Random House money dwarfed the pay that Sotomayor received from the court and made up all of her reported outside earned income, with the exception of $6,000 in payments from groups '-- some of which related to her book '-- and a $5,000 ''option fee,'' which typically relates to books, according to the disclosures. The publisher also footed the bill for her to speak to various groups. Breyer, by contrast, would typically have those groups foot the bill.

Lawyers for Nicassio made a compelling argument that her case was worthy of being taken up by the Supreme Court. Nicassio wrote a book called ''Rocky'' which ''tells the story of a little evergreen tree named Rocky who dreams of becoming the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and embarks on an adventure toward that goal'' against all adversity, getting advice from a mentor and facing attack by other plants, they wrote. Penguin Random House then published a book called ''Albert'' in which all of the same occurs, with the name of the Christmas tree changed. The lawyers said ''Albert'' even lifted key pieces of language from ''Rocky,'' and that the publisher had legally conceded that the work was copied.

The lawyers said that the Third Circuit found against Nicassio anyway because of a rule used in a handful of circuits in which a work is not considered wrongfully copied if similar elements would ''naturally flow'' from a ''simplified version of the original plot.'' In other words, taking for granted that there is a puny evergreen that wants to become the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, it would not be surprising that multiple authors would each imagine the tree facing adversity '-- setting aside the obvious similarities of the premise itself.

The rule tightly construing what constitutes copyright infringement created a problem that was ripe for resolution by the Supreme Court, the lawyers argued, because the rule used by the Third Circuit was ''radically different'' from the one used by other circuits. ''In the majority of the Circuits, the opposite outcome would have occurred,'' they wrote. A Supreme Court ruling would serve to unify the understanding of the law.

Penguin Random House and Viacom '-- which was also sued by the author because ''Albert'' was also made into a movie, meaning others seemingly took Nicassio's idea and then made far more money off of it than she did '-- did not file any motion in response to the petition for the Supreme Court to hear the case.

The case being heard by the high court would be of significant concern to publishers because it could set a precedent that could open the floodgates to many other copyright infringement suits against them.

The Supreme Court did not return a request for comment.

Sotomayor, who joined the court in 2009, is a prolific author, pumping out the memoir ''My Beloved World'' and children's books such as ''Turning Pages: My Life Story;'' ''A Judge Grows In the Bronx;'' ''Just Ask! Be Different, Be Brave, Be You.'' Her latest, ''Just Help! How to Build a Better World,'' was published in 2022, after the most recent financial disclosure, by a Penguin Books imprint.

The findings come amidst a seemingly coordinated push in the media accusing a slew of conservative justices of misconduct related to their financial disclosures, such as Justice Clarence Thomas taking trips financed by a wealthy conservative friend. Fix The Court, a nonpartisan group that has long watchdogged Supreme Court finances and which compiled some of the financial disclosures used in The Daily Wire's analysis, pointed out that Sotomayor failed to disclose six trips in 2016 funded by outside groups, before later correcting her disclosures.

Fix The Court has criticized the conservative justices on financial disclosures more than anyone has, but even it said that media had overreacted with stories about right-leaning justices this month, calling an issue with Justice Neil Gorsuch selling a house misleading and saying breathless findings about Chief Justice John Roberts' wife working as a legal recruiter ''much ado about nothing.''

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Thu, 04 May 2023 12:55

A whistleblower tip about a document allegedly putting President Biden at the center of a bribery scheme triggered a guessing game across Washington Wednesday '-- as journalists and politicians pored over Biden's extensive history of interactions with his family's overseas business associates.

Biden, 80, regularly met with his son Hunter and brother James' international connections during and after his eight-year vice presidency, including citizens of China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.

However, the tip pertains to alleged wrongdoing by President Biden, a source said, meaning that it may not necessarily involve figures linked to his relatives.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) revealed the whistleblower information Wednesday, saying the tip involves ''an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.''

''If it's as explosive as what we heard, we expect it to be very difficult to get it,'' Grassley told Fox News Wednesday afternoon, ''but we know it's unclassified now, and the American people deserve transparency from the FBI, and that's what this is all about.''

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) revealed the whistleblower information Wednesday. REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzComer set the FBI a deadline of May 10 to produce the document '-- leaving at least a week for speculation to mount about the dealings, and countries, involved.

Here are a few possibilities:

UKRAINENatural gas company Burisma paid then-second son Hunter Biden up to $1 million per year to serve on its board beginning in April 2014, shortly after then-VP Biden assumed control of the Obama administration's Ukraine policy in the chaotic aftermath of the Maidan uprising that deposed Kyiv's pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Just three days after Hunter joined the board, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, then a vice presidential aide, told reporters on Air Force Two en route to Kyiv that Joe Biden would push for US support to Ukraine's natural gas industry, which later that year was awarded $50 million by Congress.

Vikor Yanukovych once served as Ukraine's President. Getty Images/Sasha MordovetsFormer White House stenographer Mike McCormick, who recently outed Sullivan as the anonymous US official who briefed reporters on the flight, tells The Post he did not contact the FBI in June 2020, ruling him out of involvement in the latest disclosure due to the date specified in Comer's subpoena.

Obama-Biden administration visitor logs show Joe Biden met with his son's business partner Devon Archer, a since-convicted felon, in 2014 around the time both Hunter Biden and Archer joined Burisma.

And Joe Biden raised eyebrows by visiting the island of Cyprus, where the gas firm's corporate headquarters were located, on April 21, 2014.

About a year later, then-VP Biden attended an April 16, 2015, dinner at DC's Cafe Milano with a group that included Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi, who emailed Hunter the next day to thank him for the ''opportunity to meet your father.''

President Biden regularly met with his son Hunter and brother James' international connections during and after his eight-year vice presidency. AFP via Getty Images/ Nicholas KammFormer President Donald Trump was impeached by House Democrats in December 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after pressuring Ukraine to investigate the Biden family, allegedly using US military aid as leverage.

Although some Republicans focus on Joe Biden's public boast about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired as a condition of Ukraine receiving $1 billion in US aid, Democrats have countered that the prosecutor's ouster was sought by NATO allies as well as the American administration.

MEXICOJoe Biden as vice president also was closely linked to his family's Mexican pursuits as both Hunter and James Biden courted the country's business elites.

Hunter Biden visited Mexico at least six years in a row '-- from 2011 through 2016 '-- while his father was vice president, according to laptop records, and communications include references to Joe Biden, though details remain vague on the amount of money that changed hands and the then-VP's specific involvement.

In November 2015, Joe Biden hosted billionaire Carlos Slim and members of the wealthy Alemn family, whom Hunter Biden and his associate Jeff Cooper were courting, at the vice president's official residence in Washington.

Pictures of the meeting show Joe Biden with Cooper, Hunter Biden, Carlos Slim, Miguel Alemn Velasco, and his son Miguel Alemn Magnani, the founder of the airline Interjet.

Hunter and Cooper sought Slim's investment in Cooper's online gaming company Ocho Gaming and digital wallet firm ePlata, in which Hunter had a 5.25% stake.

In addition, the then-second son earned $80,000 a year on the board of Cooper's venture capital firm Eudora Global, in which he held a 3% stake and from which received a ''one-time payment'' of $300,000 in 2015.

Laptop records show Hunter Biden facilitated access to Obama-Biden administration figures, but it's unclear what policy changes would have been at play.

Hunter set up two meetings for Alemn Magnani with then-Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx for March 17, 2014, and Jan. 23, 2015, as well as a meeting with the Federal Aviation Authority's administrator, according to laptop emails.

Jeff Cooper, Carlos Slim, Joe Biden, Miguel Aleman Velasco, Hunter Biden and Miguel Aleman Magnani in a photo taken in 2015 in the living room of the Naval Observatory.James Biden, who also was seeking business in Mexico, emailed Hunter on May 7, 2015, about a proposed deal that would involve Slim and oil and gas company Pemex.

''Have a very real deal with Pemex (Carlos Slim) need financing literally for a few days to a week,'' James Biden wrote. ''Have the seller (refinery /slims) and buyer major being delivered from pipeline in (h/ USA) Nothing is simple but this comes very close. As always the devil is in the detail! Any interest on the long skirts part?''

RUSSIAJoe Biden allegedly met with one of his son's Russian associates, billionaire Yelena Baturina, and her husband, former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, at the same April 2015 DC dinner attended by Pozharskyi.

Baturina allegedly wired $3.5 million to a firm associated with Hunter more than a year prior on Feb. 14, 2014, and allegedly met with Hunter and his associate Devon Archer that April in Lake Como, Italy.

President Biden stands with his son Hunter Biden, left, and sister Valerie Biden Owens, right, as he looks at a plaque dedicated to his late son Beau Biden while visiting Mayo Roscommon Hospice in County Mayo, Ireland. AP/Patrick SemanskyIt's unclear what policy matter Joe Biden would have influenced on Baturina's behalf, though she did evade US sanctions over the Donbas War between Russia and Ukraine that broke out in April 2014.

Baturina, who sought out US property investments with Hunter, and fellow Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who met with Hunter in March 2012 and January 2013 to discuss real estate options, according to laptop documents, have avoided increasingly severe US sanctions against Russia's business elite since last year's invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden family's links to the two billionaires remain murky, as does the scope of their eventual US property purchases.

Because the underlying FBI document dates to June 2020, it would not pertain to Biden's actions toward Russia, or lack thereof, while president.

ROMANIAHunter Biden began working for Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu in early 2015 to help him challenge a corruption conviction.

Laptop emails show Hunter managed the relationship for law firm Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, but a person familiar with the arrangements told The Post Hunter made a side agreement directly with Popoviciu that raked in ''millions'' more for himself and associates.

Popoviciu also hired former FBI director Louis Freeh '-- and Freeh called Hunter Biden directly in July 2015, just two hours before Hunter was scheduled to meet with his dad, emails show.

Hunter also flew to Romania on Nov. 15, 2016, for a two day trip to represent Popoviciu before the National Anticorruption Directorate.

The then-second son was booked for ''breakfast with dad'' two days after his return.

CHINAAlthough one of The Post's sources said the whistleblower complaint is not believed to deal with China, the world's most populous country was a source of Biden family riches through two separate business ventures that involved additional countries.

The first venture '-- the Hunter Biden-cofounded BHR Partners '-- was registered 12 days after Joe and Hunter Biden arrived in Beijing aboard Air Force Two in December 2013, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hunter introduced his father to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li's children.

In 2016, BHR facilitated a deal in which a Chinese firm bought a Congolese cobalt mine from US and Canadian companies.

Cobalt is used in electric car batteries.

The Journal reported that Hunter Biden's ''paid-in capital'' to establish BHR was $425,000, according to corporate registration records, and a purported Suspicious Activity Report flagged wires totaling nearly $2.5 million among the Chinese and US BHR partners between 2014 and 2019.

President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit. REUTERS/Kevin LamarqueOne week after Joe Biden's November 2021 virtual summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Hunter Biden's attorney Chris Clark said his client's stake in BHR had been divested.

However, records don't reflect a new holder of Hunter's 10% stake and neither Clark nor the White House provided further information on the supposed transaction, such as the dollar amount or buyer's identity.

The second Biden family venture in China involved a relationship with CEFC China Energy, a since-defunct firm reputed to be an arm of Beijing's ''Belt and Road'' foreign influence operation.

Although most known details about that project happened after Biden left office as VP, Comer has raised the possibility that the venture began while Biden remained in office.

Vuk Jeremic appears to have assisted the Biden family in connecting with CEFC leaders in 2015. AFP via Getty Images/DON EMMERTVuk Jeremic, a former foreign minister of Serbia and president of the United Nations General Assembly, appears to have helped Biden family members connect with CEFC leaders in late 2015 when Joe Biden was still vice president.

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Hunter's abandoned laptop included a May 2017 email from business partner James Gilliar proposing that the ''big guy'' get 10% of the partnership with CEFC.

A whistleblower, former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski, says that he met with the elder Biden in May 2017 to discuss the venture.

Both Bobulinski and Gilliar have separately identified Joe Biden as ''the big guy.''

Hunter and James Biden ultimately received at least $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018 from CEFC, according to the Washington Post's later review of laptop records.

The House Oversight Committee revealed in March that subpoenaed bank records show that first daughter-in-law Hallie Biden, who was married to the president's late son Beau Biden before dating his other son Hunter, also received money from the CEFC venture '-- with $35,000 in transfers sent to her by a Biden family associate in early 2017.

Evidence hinting at Joe Biden's involvement in the CEFC venture includes an October 2017 email that identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC's attempt to purchase US natural gas.

Hunter Biden also asked in September 2017 for a new sign and more keys to an office he was renting in DC's House of Sweden building.

The sign was to say, ''The Biden Foundation and Hudson West (CEFC-US)'' and the keys were for Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, James Biden and a Chinese exec named Gongwen Dong.

The keys reportedly were not picked up.

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Thu, 04 May 2023 12:54

Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer sent letters Wednesday to the FBI, calling on the bureau to produce an unclassified record of an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.

The document in question is an FBI-generated FD-1023 form that allegedly shows an arrangement exchanging money for policy decisions. Comer issued a subpoena Wednesday after ''legally protected disclosures'' to Grassley's office.

''We believe the FBI possesses an unclassified internal document that includes very serious and detailed allegations implicating the current President of the United States. What we don't know is what, if anything, the FBI has done to verify these claims or investigate further. The FBI's recent history of botching politically charged investigations demands close congressional oversight,'' Grassley said in a statement.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) questions witnesses during the first public hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on March 08, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

In his own statement, Comer said that the ''information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national.''

''The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself. Senator Grassley and I will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people,'' Comer continued.

(This is a developing story. More information will be added as it becomes available.)

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Thu, 04 May 2023 03:39

The chart above is about to add another relatively large bubble when PacWest Bancorp is forced into receivership and inevitably acquired by a bigger bank. With $41B in assets it will be the fifth largest bank failure in US history and the fourth bank failure in 2023. And it will come less than a week after the failure of First Republic bank, the second largest bank to fail in US history.

If it wasn't abundantly clear to you already, we are in the middle of a systemic banking crisis the likes of which we have never experienced in this country. Despite this glaringly obvious fact Jamie Dimon, Joe Biden, Janet Yellen and Jerome Powell have all had the gall to "reassure" the American people that the banking system is stable. Jerome Powell uttered the phrase, "the banking system is sound and resilient" literally two hours before PacWest announced that they were looking to get acquired by another bank.

*PACWEST SAID TO WEIGH STRATEGIC OPTIONS, INCLUDING SALETo JP Morgan? here we go again....

'-- zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 3, 2023After the markets closed rumors began to swirl that the Treasury and the FDIC plan to make an announcement that they would backstop all of the deposits in the banking system.

SCOOP: Senior banking execs tell @FoxBusiness that they believe @SecYellen @FDICgov are moving toward either an explicit or de facto guarantee of deposits above the $250k limit to stem the regional banking crisis now threatening a new set of mid sized institutions developing

'-- Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) May 3, 2023Unfortunately for the government this type of guarantee is going to be ineffective. They basically gave a similar guarantee in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse less than two months ago. And if those promising to backstop every single dollar held as a deposit in the banking system had any common sense they would realize that this type of statement is counterproductive. It signals that something is terribly wrong in the banking system and highlights that the Treasury and Fed can work together to print money out of thin air to create that backstop.

To make matters worse, the US is less than a month away from hitting the debt limit as tax receipts have come in well below expectations. On the heels of this reality, the Treasury announced today that they are launching the first treasury buyback program since 2000 at some point next year when a material block of treasuries is set to roll over. Signaling that demand for US debt is so low that the US is being forced to Japanify itself to prop up the market for treasuries.

Everywhere one looks things look absolutely terrible for the US financial system. This feels like the endgame. I find it hard to believe there is anything that can be done to restore confidence in the system. No amount of backstopping, money printing, buybacks, consolidation, or World Wars will be able to put this genie back in the bottle. The Fed and the Treasury will try their hardest to make the public believe otherwise, but this is simply too much all at once. The scars of 2008 are still healing and people will naturally ask, "Well if all of that didn't work and, not only that, put us in a worse position, why will it work this time?" All of the money printing and bailouts seem to have created a bigger problem as is evidenced by the magnitude of the bank failures we have seen in rapid succession.

What you are witnessing is the consolidation and nationalization of the banking system in real time. The powers that be have lost control and the only solution is rolling the regional banking system up to the systemically important too big too fail banks where things can be more tightly controlled. A competitive system made up of thousands of independent banks isn't easy to control. Consolidation is the most direct path to the type of control they desire.

Whether or not their grasp for control is driven by some evil intent to effectively enslave the population in a digital panopticon where everything is tightly monitored and controlled or the simple wish to maintain the mirage of legitimacy does not matter. What matters is that it's happening and you need to act.

There is no future that exists where the system as we know it can persist without turning into an overtly Orwellian hellscape where people's money is tightly controlled and it loses any connection to the actual definition of money. You can choose to continue barrelling down the path of digital slavery with the federal government and Federal Reserve, or you can make the decision to opt-out by adopting a form of money that is controlled by no one, easily secured without counterparty risk, and auditable at any moment in time.

The government isn't going to save you. In fact, the only option the government has if it wants to maintain control is to further enslave you in their monetary system. It is becoming abundantly clear that they have lost control of that system and the only option left on the table for them is to cattle herd you into a more tightly controlled system where they can do whatever they want. The endgame is in play and you are currently standing at a fork in the road with one path leading to misery and the other leading to freedom. Choose wisely.

Final thought...

We're going to win.

You have your place to buy Bitcoin, but have you tried River? It's where all the Bitcoiners are now going. See why at River.com/TFTCCrowdHealth BTC is now accepting memberships starting June 1st and later. Use code TFTC during sign-up and the first 1000 members will receive a discounted membership of $99/ month for the first 6 months.This rag was delivered to you via Ghost. If you are thinking about starting a newsletter or website and are looking for the most robust and sovereign option you should check out Ghost. For sovereign payments connect your Ghost site to Scrib. Donate to Marty's Ƀent ${donationMessage} Subscribe to TFTCGet the latest posts delivered right to your inbox

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Thu, 04 May 2023 03:37

First of all, how does a voting machine company get this far with a libel lawsuit that has tons of hurdles to jump over to prove malice? Nobody was ''out to get Dominion'' and the lawsuit settlement seemed more like a creative cash infusion orchestrated by an unknown investor.

In fact, big media companies fend off libel suits with teams of expensive lawyers who go after the litigant.

The crux of the whole lawsuit is various Sydney Powell appearances on certain shows, along with Trump's never-ending complaining about the election. The whole suit seems sketchy and looks like an excuse to clean house.

Then comes the irked booker, Abby Grossberg, who was suing Carlson and Fox for grievances that involved an alleged toxic workplace. This, too, seems contrived.

The first is the ''Tucker as religious nut'' thesis promoted in Vanity Fair. This is a beauty and the timeline is decent insofar as the events are concerned. Tucker's downfall began with a Friday night speech (the day of his last show) to the Heritage Foundation where he discussed ''evil'' and the need for prayer. Word of this speech got back to Murdoch over the weekend. Here's the nut of the Vanity Fair piece:

''Rupert Murdoch was perhaps unnerved by Carlson's messianism because it echoed the end-times worldview of Murdoch's ex-fianc(C)e Ann Lesley Smith, the source said...I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was ''a messenger from God.'' Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch's Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. ''Rupert just sat there and stared,'' the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex's favorite show.''

While this is a wild analysis, it indicates the incredible pettiness of a very powerful man. This strikes one as wishful thinking on the part of the left-leaning media that hates Murdoch.

A second theory involves Robert Kennedy, Jr., who appeared on one of Tucker's last shows. Kennedy, who is running for President as a Democrat, discussed the politics of Big Pharma and Tucker's anti-Covid vax stance, which was thematic on his show.

Bringing Kennedy on to slam Pharma '' the biggest source of media advertising in the USA '' was the last straw. Attacking advertising sources is verboten on any network, period.

A few days later, Tucker was out. Kennedy cited other reasons why Tucker had to go, including that Tucker was the only anti-war voice amongst the pundit class.

This brings us to the third theory. Tucker's anti-war rhetoric was intolerable once the recently-leaked documents entered the public domain. Fox execs--all war supporters--could only imagine the blowback if Tucker started digging into the classified docs that indicated that the Ukraine War was not going well and was costing too much.

Also, if you haven't noticed, there is not one consistent anti-war voice from the left or the right on network TV or big cable (Fox, CNN, MSNBC). Tucker was the last one, a genuine outlier.

And while there is some tolerance for end-times prophecies and complaining about vaccine mandates, the United States has never tolerated anti-war sentiments on any scale. A few tolerated brand-name peaceniks will write an op-ed once in a while. That's it.

This mass media war push began in earnest during the WWI recruitment campaign and has continued to this day with a few moments of contemplation in-between. Those moments were short-lived. It's telling that only Donald Trump, within recent memory, did not get the USA into some new conflict. He had to go, too.

It's funny how this joy over Tucker's ouster often incorporates the war-mongering mentality. Even during their ''Tucker is out'' celebration on the ABC show The View, someone quipped, ''It was a good day for the Ukraine War.''

It's surprising that they left Tucker on for as long as they did. - JCD

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:36

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch had calls with President Zelensky on March anniversary of Fox reporters' deaths - after senior Ukrainian officials complained about Tucker Carlson's war coverageTucker was fired in April after covering the war in Ukraine on his show for a yearHe was unreserved in his criticism of Zelensky, who he called a 'dictator' Fox has not given a specific explanation for Carlson's sudden departure By Jen Smith, Chief Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 09:53 EDT, 2 May 2023 | Updated: 10:26 EDT, 2 May 2023

Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch both spoke with President Zelensky in March this year on the anniversary of two Fox reporters' warzone deaths, while Tucker Carlson continued to trash the war effort on his now defunct show.

Carlson was unceremoniously fired by Fox in April after hosting its most popular show for seven years.

Fox is yet to explain the move, but insiders say it was largely down to a growing impatience among bosses for Tucker's insubordination - he trashed senior executives in private text messages that were revealed as part of the Dominion lawsuit.

His opinion of the war in Ukraine and America's steadfast support of Zelensky was unfavorable, and pushed senior Ukrainian officials to complaint, according to a report in Semafor today.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week. He spoke with both Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch in March

The calls are said to have mostly been about the death of two Fox News reporters last March. Lachlan (left) also spoke with Zelensky

Neither Lachlan nor Rupert spoke about Carlson during their calls with Zelensky in March, according to Semafor's sources.

Instead, the discussions centered instead around the deaths of Fox News reporters who were killed while reporting on the conflict.

Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, and Oleksandra Kuvshinova, 24, were killed when their vehicle was struck.

Carlson was unreserved in his criticism of Zelensky on-air.

While the rest of the media largely fawned to him, Carlson in one December broadcast called hima 'dictator'.

'In fact, Zelenskyy is far closer to Lenin than to George Washington.

Tucker was fired in April after covering the war in Ukraine on his show for a year, though his opinion of the conflict is not what led to his firing. He was however unreserved in his criticism of Zelensky, who he called a 'dictator'

Pierre Zakrzewski (left) and Oleksandra Kuvshynova (centre) were killed in Ukraine while they were travelling in a vehicle involved in the same attack which left a British journalist injured

He is a dangerous authoritarian who has used a hundred billion in U.S. tax dollars to erect a one-party police state in Ukraine,' he said.

It remains unclear what senior News Corp executives thought of his approach.

His firing has been largely attributed to text messages that had been private, but became public as part of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox.

Carlson railed against bosses in those messages, calling one a 'c**t', according to some reports, and was prepared for those remarks to become public.

Tucker has not given any explanation for his firing.

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 May 2023 03:00

Hollywood's writers are demanding to write their own happy endings '-- rather than Artificial Intelligence doing it for them.

Creeped out by advances in scarily realistic computing technology which allows programs to create text very similar to how a human would, script writers are seeking protection from being replaced by machines.

As part of current negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the major TV and film studios they are demanding better pay and regulation on how AI is used so tech like ChatGPT, Bing and Bard doesn't eventually take over.

''We just don't know what the technology will be like months or years from now,'' said Michael Weiss, who wrote the 2008 sci-fi thriller ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' and other films.

''Do not underestimate the computer's ability to generate material and take over human capabilities and don't underestimate any corporation's desire to save money.

''With both of these things, you're going to see an inflection point. How much can we rely on AI to create and who are we going to pay to do it? Those are the big questions.''

AI models take huge amounts of text and data from all over the web to create images, videos or text based on the instructions it is given.

Songs generated by ChatGPT imitating best-selling artists like Drake and The Weeknd have gone viral, while fake pictures of Pope Francis and Donald Trump have fooled users into thinking they were the real thing.

The Writers Guild of America is asking TV and film studios to regulate the US of artificial intelligence. REUTERS/Mike BlakeThe WGA has said it supports using AI as a tool to assist in rewriting scripts, but members want to make sure writers would still get full credit, even when asked to rewrite content generated by AI.

To help control AI's influence over scripted work, the WGA demanded that AI-generated material should not be considered ''source material,'' such as novels, plays and magazine articles which a screenplay can be based on.

The guild is also pushing for AI-content not to be labeled as ''literary material,'' which includes original screenplays, stories and dialogue.

The WGA has said it supports the use of AI when revising scripts. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File PhotoIn a Tweet posted on March 22, the Writers Guild of America West noted that AI software ''does not create anything'' but merely ''generates a regurgitation of what it's fed.''

''In the same way a studio may point to a Wikipedia article, or other research material, and ask the writer to refer to it, they can make the writer aware of the AI-generated content,'' officials said. ''But, like all research material, it has no role in guild-covered work, not in the chain of title in the intellectual property.''

The Post's request for comment from the Writers Guild of America was not answered Monday.

Screenwriter Michael Weiss warned that we shouldn't ''underestimate the computer's ability to generate material and take over human capabilities.'' Dreams Quest Official/YouTubeWeiss said while the WGA's decision to include the AI component is ''very forward thinking,'' negotiations between writers and the major studios might not even keep up with the speed of how AI technology is already changing Hollywood.

''Ten years ago, people thought the movie 'HER' was weird because a guy falls in love with an operating system,'' Weiss said, referring to the 2013 Spike Jonez movie starring Joaquin Phoenix. ''And now, it doesn't seem strange at all.

''Obviously, there is a financial component to this, which is if an AI can rewrite your script faster by feeding it into an algorithm and it does the rewrite '... that seems like a possibility one day and it could get very messy.

''But the guild is still interested in protecting its human membership first, and not robots. What I'm happy about is that this is being talked about now because we can't even predict what will happen with AI three years from now.''

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Archived Version

Thu, 04 May 2023 02:10

The U.S. Navy confirmed to Breitbart News on Wednesday that it used a drag queen influencer as one of its ''digital ambassadors'' to attempt to recruit ''a wide range of potential candidates.''

The influencer is active-duty U.S. Navy Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, whose stage name is ''Harpy Daniels.''

Kelley served as part of the Navy's pilot ambassador program from October 2022 to March 2023 and has openly performed as a drag queen for awhile, but garnered broader public attention this week after a video of him circulated on social media.

The Navy brought a drag queen 'Harpy Daniels' who is an active duty sailor to participate in a pilot program aimed at targeting a wider array of potential recruits through digital platforms.

China and Russia are laughing their asses off right now. pic.twitter.com/o00x5SYiVc

'-- I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) May 2, 2023

Kelley announced in November 2022 in a video on his Instagram page that the Navy asked him to be their ''first'' ''Navy Digital Ambassador.''

''I identify as Non- Binary and this has been an unbelievable experience since I've joined the Navy,'' he wrote in a caption for the video.

''From joining to 2016 and being able to share my drag experience on my off time with my fellow sailors has been a blessing,'' he continued. ''This experience has brought me so much strength, courage and ambition to continue being an advocate and representation of queer sailors!''

He added: ''Thank you to the Navy for giving me this opportunity! I don't speak for the Navy but simply sharing my experience in the Navy! Hooyah, and let's go Slay!''

Kelley said he first performed drag for fellow sailors during lip sync shows on a deployment in 2017 and 2018, and that video from the second show was released on ''international platforms.''

Kelley on Tuesday responded to criticism from conservative podcaster Graham Allen: ''Here you go for my rebuddle [sic].''

''Queer ppl were oppressed in the military for years only until 2011 and trans people since 2021. You only want to support the military when it benefits you and doesn't involve queer people. Yet the military is the largest diverse, and adaptable organization in the use [sic].''

A Navy spokeswoman said in a statement:

The Navy Digital Ambassador Program was a pilot initiative designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates as the Navy navigates the most challenging recruiting environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force.

''The pilot has concluded; we are evaluating the program and how it will exist in the future,'' she added.

A Navy spokesperson told Fox News Digital the service did not pay YN2 Kelley or any others for being Navy Digital Ambassadors.

Follow Breitbart News's Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook.

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 16:21

Update(10:02ET): Zelensky's office is insisting it had nothing to do with the drone strike on the Kremlin, which Russian officials say was a "terrorist" attempt to assassinate President Putin:

Even though Ukraine has denied involvement, pro-Kremlin voices are already calling for revenge. In a social media post, Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia's lower house of Parliament, said: "We will demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime."

Another video of a reported Ukrainian drone hitting the Kremlin last night pic.twitter.com/nutepPdooD

'-- Faytuks News Î-- (@Faytuks) May 3, 2023The reaction out of lawmakers in Russia's State Duma has been predictably hawkish, also with prominent Russian MP Mikhail Sheremet reportedly saying "It's time to launch a missile attack on Zelensky's residence." Via news wires:

RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER DEMANDS KYIV REGIME BE DESTROYED AFTER DRONE ATTACK ON KREMLIN

Russia's State Duma on Kremlin attack:Socialist-Revolutionary leader #Mironov: ''This is a real casus belli - a pretext for war. To eliminate the terrorist elite of Ukraine. We have something to hit their bunkers with.''#Sheremet: ''It's time to launch a missile attack on'... pic.twitter.com/SKOfESbPRl

'-- Russian Market (@runews) May 3, 2023The New York Times meanwhile has underscored that "If confirmed, it would be the most audacious attempted strike on Russian soil since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year." The report also provides a reminder of recent US intelligence revelations which previewed just such a scenario as drones targeting the Kremlin:

Local and regional authorities in Russia have reported a series of drone strikes in recent months. Some have landed close to Ukraine's border with Russia, but at least one has hit south of Moscow. Ukraine has not acknowledged responsibility for most of the incidents. Moscow is around 280 miles northeast of the Ukrainian border at its closest point.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that the United States had secretly monitored discussions among Ukrainian officials about possible attacks against Moscow timed to coincide with the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia's invasion. The White House feared that such a move would provoke an aggressive response from Moscow, and two days before the anniversary, the C.I.A. said that Ukraine's intelligence directorate ''had agreed, at Washington's request, to postpone strikes'' on Moscow. The information was part of a trove of classified U.S. intelligence documents obtained by The Post and other news organizations.

Meanwhile, overnight there were also new Russian aerial attacks against Kiev and other locations throughout Ukraine. There continue to be reports of Russian bombers airborne over the country, as people on the ground brace for more waves of strikes.

Speculation continues over the drone attack on the Kremlin...

* * *

Update(0845ET): Below is the clearest video to have surfaced thus far which appears to show what the Kremlin is calling an assassination attempt targeting President Putin:

#BREAKING: Russia says Ukraine tried to attack the Kremlin with drones in a move to target President Vladimir Putin, alleges terrorist act underscoring its right to respond. pic.twitter.com/lEgwxVUieT

'-- Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) May 3, 2023The video is remarkably close and shows the inbound flight path of the drone as it flew over the Kremlin perimeter. A small explosion briefly sets fire to the rooftop of the struck main building, which houses presidential offices, and may have resulted in minor damage.

Will this incident provide Moscow with a justification for the possible coming "shock and awe" campaign against Ukraine in response?

Ukraine is quickly trying to distance itself from the drone attack, which some online pundits have already begun to claim and speculate could have been a 'false flag'...

UKRAINE HAS NO LINKS TO DRONE ATTACKS ON KREMLIN: PODOLYAKUKRAINE: NOT USING RESOURCES TO ATTACK FOREIGN TERRITORIESUKRAINE: DON'T HAVE INFORMATION ON KREMLIN DRONE ATTACK"Ukraine presidential office denies drone strike on Kremlin, says such an attack would achieve nothing and not change anything on the battlefield," VOA correspondent Steve Herman has noted of the statements from Zelensky's office.

* * *

The Kremlin says two drones were sent by Ukraine in an overnight attack on Moscow and on government buildings which it sees as an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.

A Kremlin press statement called it a "planned terrorist attack" against Putin directly, and says Russia has a right to respond "where and when it deems necessary".

Getty ImagesThe president was not injured in the attempted attack and is said to be safe and carrying on his regular work schedule after the drones were "downed" - according to the Kremlin statement, as cited in RIA.

Further the statement emphasized there was no material damage to the president's offices from falling debris after Russian defenses disabled the inbound UAVs.

"The aircraft were downed using electronic warfare measures and caused no casualties or damage, it said in a statement," Russian state media RT reports. "Moscow considers the incident an act of terrorism," and details further:

The incident occurred late on Tuesday night, and both unmanned aircraft fell on the grounds of the Kremlin in Moscow, according to the president's office. His schedule was not affected.

The statement from the Russian presidency's office emphasized: "We consider this a preplanned terrorist action and an attempt against the Russian president." It happened "ahead of Victory Day and the parade on May 9, when foreign guests plan to be present." The statement detailed, "Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services using radar warfare systems, the devices were disabled."

Initial videos from the attack are being widely circulated, strongly suggesting the accuracy of the Kremlin statements of a nighttime attack on central government buildings in Moscow; however, they do appear to show a direct strike of at least one of the drones on a building:

NEW: Kremlin says ''Ukrainian'' drones attacked Putin's residence in Moscow last night, but he is safe pic.twitter.com/nQFDNDhpvw

'-- Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) May 3, 2023Fire can be seen atop the roof of one of the iconic buildings of the Moscow Kremlin complex...

Another video purportedly showing the aftermath of the drone attack against the Kremlin pic.twitter.com/GgkwaFl4Em

'-- Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) May 3, 2023The Russian presidential spokesman followed-up with this message after the initial Kremlin press release:

"As a result of this terrorist act, the President of the Russian Federation was not injured. His work schedule has not changed, it continues as usual," the message said.

Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov explained that the head of state was not in the Kremlin during what he described as a Ukrainian UAV attack on Tuesday night. He noted that President Putin is currently working from his residence near Moscow.

All of this makes a downed Ukrainian drone incident outside Moscow from last week much more interesting in hindsight, which we covered here: Kremlin Rejects German Media's 'Putin Drone Assassination' Report. It will also be interesting to see whether Russia points the finger at the United States and West for its longtime intelligence support to Kiev, as we reviewed in December based on this statement: We Are Not "Enabling" Or "Encouraging" Ukraine To Strike Within Russia: White House.

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 16:20

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 3, 2023 ~

President Joe Biden is putting the national security of the United States at risk by not suspending the short-selling of federally-insured banks. Concerns over the safety and soundness of the U.S. financial system could cause money flight out of the U.S., impacting the strength of the U.S. dollar and a loss of confidence by our foreign allies.

This is also a matter that impacts the financial lives of every American, because every American '' rich, poor or middle class '' will suffer the consequences in terms of ability to access bank credit and higher fees on that credit as a result of rebuilding the rapidly depleting federal Deposit Insurance Fund that protects bank deposits.

The second, third and fourth largest bank failures in the history of the U.S. have now occurred in the span of seven weeks (First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, respectively) with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) taking big hits in each case to its Deposit Insurance Fund.

At the time of First Republic Bank's failure on Monday (with JPMorgan Chase given a very sweet deal by the FDIC to buy its underwater assets and take over the deposits that hadn't yet fled), it was one of the most heavily shorted bank stocks with one-third of its outstanding shares shorted as of one week before it failed, according to a report from Reuters.

First Republic Bank was not a small bank. At the time of its demise, it had $207.5 billion in assets. According to a statement from the FDIC on Monday, it ''estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be about $13 billion. This is an estimate and the final cost will be determined when the FDIC terminates the receivership.''

The FDIC estimated the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund in the failure of Silicon Valley Bank to be $20 billion, and the cost to the DIF in the failure of Signature Bank to be $2.5 billion.

All of these FDIC estimates seem very optimistic but even if they are accurate, that's a combined hit thus far of $35.5 billion to a Deposit Insurance Fund that had just $128.2 billion as of December 31, 2022.

On April 18 '' prior to the failure of First Republic Bank '' the FDIC released the following statement:

''The Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDI Act) requires that the FDIC's Board of Directors adopt a restoration plan when the Fund's reserves fall below 1.35 percent of all insured deposits held in FDIC-insured financial institutions. Extraordinary deposit growth during the first and second quarters of 2020 caused the Fund's reserve ratio to decline below this statutory minimum. On September 15, 2020, the FDIC established a plan to restore the Fund's reserves to at least 1.35 percent by September 30, 2028, while maintaining the assessment rate schedule in place at the time.''

In short, assessments on banks to restore the Deposit Insurance Fund are going to be going up as a result of these bank failures and attendant losses '' which mean that banks are going to be passing those increased costs along to their customers. If more banks fail, those costs will rise exponentially, putting aside the more critical issue of loss of confidence in the U.S. banking system.

This is not some abstract theory. The newest target of the short sellers is PacWest Bancorp (ticker PACW). According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, as of March 31, 20.6 percent of PacWest's shares outstanding were sold short, making it the third largest shorted bank stock at that point. (The bank stock with the largest percentage of shares shorted on March 31 was Silvergate Bank, which became an easy target of short sellers because it had entangled itself with crypto companies, including Sam Bankman-Fried's house of frauds, FTX and Alameda Research. Silvergate wound itself down voluntarily by the end of the first quarter. The second largest short position in a bank as of March 31 was in First Republic Bank, which failed on Monday.)

PacWest Bancorp is showing similar distress. PacWest's stock has lost 71 percent year-to-date. On Monday and Tuesday of this week, the stock has gone from a closing price of $10.15 on Friday to $6.55 at the close on Tuesday '' a stunning collapse of 35 percent in just two trading sessions.

Other banks that are targets of short sellers that have seen outsized year-to-date losses in share price include Western Alliance, Comerica, Zions Bank, Republic First Bancorp (no relation to First Republic Bank other than similarity of its name, which may be why short sellers have piled on). Those stocks are down anywhere from 45 to 60 percent year-to-date versus a decline of 27 percent in the regional bank index (ticker KRX). See chart above.

The longer President Biden waits to sign an executive order suspending short sales in federally-insured banks, the faster the contagion will spread to other banks.

Editor's Note: We believe that, in general, short sellers perform a critical role in U.S. markets '' calling attention to corporate corruption and fraud that has been missed by regulators and the media. But the rapidly deteriorating condition of U.S. banks is a function of the unprecedented span of time that the Fed kept interest rates at the zero interest level, forcing banks to make fixed-rate mortgage loans at 3, 4 and 5 percent interest in order to remain competitive. Those loans and their related mortgage-backed securities are now underwater as a result of the Fed raising rates faster than at any time in the last 40 years. Exceptional times call for exceptional actions. President Biden needs to step up to the plate.

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 15:18

Bud Light has resorted to handing out free beer as the brand's efforts to squash the backlash to its Dylan Mulvaney deal become increasingly desperate.

Bosses have also promised to boost marketing spending and ramp up ad production after an industry expert said Bud's 'compass is completely broken' over its failure to deal with the fallout.

Sales of Bud Light are in free fall after its disastrous partnership with Mulvaney, 26, which was announced in March. The controversial trans influencer was sent a can with her face on it to celebrate a year since she transitioned from male to female.

Anheuser-Busch, the beer's parent company and America's largest brewer, said it will hand a free case over beer to every employee of its wholesaler network - which consists of many family-run businesses who've been badly hurt by the scandal.

Figures from Bump Williams Consulting, which specializes in the alcohol industry, show in-store sales fell 26 percent in the week ending April 22. The decline in the week previously was 21 percent and the week before that sales fell 11 percent.

Bump Williams, an alcohol industry analyst, said Bud Light's 'compass is completely broken' following its failure to handle the backlash to its tie-up with Dylan Mulvaney

Sales of Bud Light have plummeted after customers abandoned the beer over its deal with the controversial trans influencer and failure to apologize. Analysts say other brands owned by Anheuser-Busch, Bud's parent company, could also suffer

Bump Williams, the founder of the firm, said Bud Light must apologize and added: 'Right now their compass is completely broken. There's no game plan.'

Williams said that without a clear plan to navigate the backlash and turn around the decline in sales, 'Bud Light is in serious trouble this year'. He said the brand is still the biggest-selling in America, but risks being overtaken by Modelo Especial by the end of the year if the backlash continues.

His assessment comes after another PR expert told DailyMail.com that Bud Light must properly address the issue or 'they're only going to further hurt themselves'.

Bud's current responses have been mealy-mouthed explanations of the Mulvaney partnership without a concrete apology to angry customers.

The outrage deepened when comments surfaced from Bud Light executive, Alissa Heinerscheid, who said the beer needed to update its 'fratty' and 'out of touch' branding.

Heinerscheid and her boss, Daniel Blake, Anheuser-Busch' VP for mainstream brands, have been placed on leave over the scandal.

Williams told the St Louis Post-Dispatch: 'Her big miss was I don't think she understood who the core Bud Light shopper was. When she came out with her comments, they were deemed as being derogatory, insulting and juvenile. And the Bud Light drinkers said, enough of that.'

Analysts think Anheuser-Busch's other brands will also suffer because of the Mulvaney anger.

Mulvaney announced her partnership with Bud Light in March and the backlash was immediate

Anheuser-Busch is led by US CEO Brendan Whitworth, a former Marine lieutenant, CIA officer, and Harvard Business School graduate, who joined A-B in 2014. The company is accused of failing to properly address the backlash or apologize to customers

'I also think that what's happening now is that anybody that is a Bud Light drinker and switches to Michelob Ultra because they don't want to be seen holding a Bud Light, someone down the bar is going to say, 'Hey, buddy, that's an Anheuser-Busch product you're holding,' said Williams.

Big Light's biggest competitors, including Miller Lite and Coors Lite, have enjoyed a boon in sales during the scandal.

Anheuser-Busch is led by US CEO Brendan Whitworth, a former Marine lieutenant, CIA officer, and Harvard Business School graduate, who joined A-B in 2014 after serving as a senior executive at Frito-Lay.

Anheuser-Busch's only comment on the matter has been a single statement confirming the Bud Light cans showing Mulvaney's face were a personal gift to the influencer, and not for sale to the public.

'Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics,' the statement said.

Country singers Travis Tritt (left) and John Rich (right) vowed to cut ties with Anheuser-Busch over the polarizing partnership with Mulvaney

'From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public,' the company added.

In an appearance on Rosie O'Donnell's podcast this week, Mulvaney said: 'The reason that I think I am so'...I'm an easy target is because I'm so new to this.

'I think going after a trans woman that's been doing this for like 20 years is a lot more difficult. I think maybe they think that there's some sort of chance with me '... But what is their goal?

'These people, they don't understand me, and anything that I do or say then somehow gets taken out of context and is used against me, and it's so sad because everything I try to put out is positive.

'It's trying to connect with others that maybe don't understand me. It's to make people laugh or to make a kid feel seen.'

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 14:55

The Russian presidential administration said Wednesday that the Kremlin was attacked by drones overnight in an attempt on President Vladimir Putin's life.

Moscow residents had reported hearing two explosions behind Kremlin walls shortly after 2 a.m. local time, after which the lights went out. Footage shared by residents in a local Telegram channel captured the incident, as smoke was seen filling the sky above the Kremlin. Videos also appeared to show part of the Kremlin on fire.

Now, authorities say it was a brazen attack by Ukraine using two drones, both of which they say have been destroyed.

No injuries were reported, according to the TASS news agency. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was not at the presidential residence at the time.

The Kremlin, describing the incident as a ''planned terrorist attack'' and ''assassination attempt on the president of Russia,'' is now threatening to take ''retaliatory measures.''

A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied that the country was behind any attack on the Kremlin and accused Moscow of deliberately ''escalating the situation ahead of May 9,'' when Russia routinely flaunts its military prowess to mark Victory Day.

''Separately, the phrasing by the terrorist state is surprising. A terrorist attack is houses destroyed in Dnipro and Uman, or a rocket attack on a railway station in Kramatorsk, and many other tragedies,'' Zelensky's spokesman Serhii Nykyforov said.

The Kremlin's official version of events left many unanswered questions. Witnesses said the two separate explosions occurred more than 10 minutes apart'--meaning federal protection units guarding the Kremlin either did not react to the first blast or are exceptionally bad at their jobs.

A Moscow resident interviewed by the independent outlet Verstka said he heard the first blast at about 2:30 a.m. The second one, he said, happened several minutes later at 2:42 a.m. Footage shared on local Telegram channels of the first and second explosions also surfaced several minutes apart.

Verstka noted that one of the more striking videos of the ''attack'' was also apparently filmed from a building located on Red Square that belongs to the presidential administration.

An unnamed worker inside the Kremlin told Verstka there was no sense of panic or heightened security as the work day began Wednesday.

''Nothing strange has happened. The Alexander Garden was not blocked off, cars were parked in the lot as usual,'' the worker said.

It was also unclear how two Ukrainian drones could have made it through Russia's air defenses and into the heart of the capital.

The alleged assassination attempt comes after Russia's pro-war hawks have spent months demanding the military unleash more brutal attacks against Ukraine, claiming military commanders have been held back from doing so.

Many Russian lawmakers on Wednesday seized on news of the incident at the Kremlin to re-up that demand.

''Terrorists have settled in Kyiv, and, as you know, negotiations with them are meaningless. They need only to be destroyed, quickly and mercilessly. It's time to launch a missile attack on Zelensky's residence in Kyiv,'' United Russia lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet said in comments to Russian state media. ''I'm ready to give the coordinates: 11 Bankova Street, where the so-called administration of the president of Ukraine is located.''

Kremlin propagandists also burst into hysterics, with Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of RT, suggesting on Telegram that the alleged attack is just the pretext Moscow needs to go scorched earth on Ukraine: ''Maybe now it will start for real?''

The incident comes just days before Russia's main Victory Day parade on Red Square, an event that authorities reportedly fear could be disrupted by drone attacks. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Wednesday banned drone flights in the city without a special government permit.

Independent Russian media reported last week that utility workers have been ordered to patrol the streets of Moscow in search of any bombs or drones ahead of the event.

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 14:13

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Ex-FBI Agents Accuse Top CIA, FBI Officials of 9/11 Coverup; CIA Said to Use Saudis, Others for Illegal Domestic Spy Operations

Published: April 24, 2023 |

I'm posting this with the following caveat: This should not be considered an endorsement of any aspect of the official story of how 9/11 was carried out.

My take on this is that it might indicate some activities related to CIA's management of patsies ahead of the big day.

Via: Florida Bulldog:

It is nevertheless remarkable for its accounts supporting the veracity of long public, yet highly disturbing allegations that top CIA officials, including Director George Tenet, intentionally withheld vital intelligence from the FBI that might have prevented the Sept. 11, 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington. Specifically, that known operatives and future hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar had entered the U.S. in Los Angeles shortly after attending an al Qaeda summit meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in early January 2000.

The new accounts, mostly obtained during interviews in 2016 and 2018, flesh out that narrative. They also support the ominous theory, never fully explored by either the 9/11 Commission or Congress, that the CIA kept silent because it was secretly working hand in glove with its Saudi Arabian counterpart to recruit Hazmi and Mihdhar as informants.

'...

The CIA's lack of cooperation with the FBI is discussed in detail in the declaration. One ex-FBI agent who worked under CIA control at Usama Bin Laden (UBL) Station, also known as ALEC Station, discussed how a colleague had prepared a Central Intelligence Report ''outlining the possible presence of Al-Hazmi and Al-Mihdhar in the U.S.,'' but was not allowed to forward it to the FBI for action.

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Wed, 03 May 2023 14:13

Recently released court filings outlining how two of the 9/11 hijackers had knowingly or unknowingly been recruited into a joint CIA-Saudi intelligence operation, confirmed what was already open knowledge.

In July 2016, the infamous '28 Pages' section of the official inquiry into the intelligence services activities before and after 9/11 was declassified, outlining the role that high-ranking Saudi officials and intelligence officers had played in the attacks by providing financial and logistical support to the hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi nationals.

Indeed the Al-Qaeda organisation itself has its roots in Operation Cyclone , a Cold War-era CIA programme involving the arming, funding and training of Wahhabi militants known as the Mujahedeen, who were then sent on to wage war on the Socialist government of previously-Western friendly Afghanistan in 1979. One of the most well-known of the Mujahedeen was none other than Osama Bin Laden .

The 9/11 attacks also served as the pretext for the US to pursue an aggressive foreign policy in line with the aims of Project for the New American Century, a highly-influential Neoconservative think tank which envisaged the United States maintaining global hegemony through radical changes in its military and defence policy, including the removal by force of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. In ominous fashion, a September 2000 report by the PNAC predicted that the implementation of such policy changes would be slow and incremental, and that only an event on the scale of Pearl Harbour would allow for rapid upheaval, with such a catalyst conveniently occurring a year later in New York and Virginia.

In further ominous foreshadowing, retired four-star General Wesley Clark would later recount how on a visit to the Pentagon in the days following 9/11, an unnamed military official had informed him that the decision had been made for the US to go to war with Iraq, despite there being no evidence to link Baghdad to the attacks. In a subsequent follow up meeting a few weeks later when the US had begun bombing Afghanistan, the same official informed Clark that a further six countries - Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran - would be targeted in response to 9/11, despite each one, like Iraq, having no established connection to the attacks.

The timing of the latest release of court documents highlighting Saudi involvement in 9/11 is also highly suspect.

Last month, in a seismic geopolitical shift, it was announced that the Gulf Kingdom and its long-time regional rival Iran, had resumed diplomatic ties in a deal brokered by China. Less than two weeks later, it was announced that Saudi Arabia would also seek to restore diplomatic ties with Syria in talks mediated by Russia, effectively signalling the end of US hegemony in the region.

The release of documents relating to Saudi Arabia's role in 9/11 in the same timeframe suggests that ties between Washington and what was perhaps its most strategic ally in west Asia after Israel '' also with known connections to the 9/11 attacks - have now began to go cold following Riyadh's pivot towards Beijing and Moscow; and in response, Washington has now began to publicise Saudi Arabia's role in 9/11, possibly in a bid to isolate Riyadh on the world stage.

Indeed, the US throwing former allies under the bus in light of new geopolitical developments has a historical record.

Iran, once a key US-ally in the region, has been the subject of Western sanctions and threats of war since the 1979 Islamic Revolution saw the US and UK-backed Shah Pahlavi overthrown and replaced with Ayatollah Khomeini, with a Syria-style coup attempt currently ongoing in the country.

Neighbouring Iraq would effectively be used as a US-proxy during the Iran-Iraq war that began a year later, with then-Middle East envoy to the Reagan administration and future PNAC member, Donald Rumsfeld, infamously meeting Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 1983 in order to reiterate US support. Two decades, Rumsfeld would serve as Secretary of Defense in the administration of George W. Bush that would go on to invade Iraq, with Hussein subsequently being executed in the aftermath.

Now, with Riyadh's pivot eastwards and the publication of documents relating to its role in 9/11 in the same period, it would appear that this historical trend is now beginning to take place in Saudi Arabia.

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 14:12

A newly-released court filing raises grave questions about the relationship between Alec Station, a CIA unit set up to track Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his associates, and two 9/11 hijackers leading up to the attacks, which was subject to a coverup at the highest levels of the FBI.

Obtained by SpyTalk, the filing is a 21-page declaration by Don Canestraro, a lead investigator for the Office of Military Commissions, the legal body overseeing the cases of 9/11 defendants. It summarizes classified government discovery disclosures, and private interviews he conducted with anonymous high-ranking CIA and FBI officials. Many agents who spoke to Canestraro headed up Operation Encore, the Bureau's aborted, long-running probe into Saudi government connections to the 9/11 attack.

Despite conducting multiple lengthy interviews with a range of witnesses, producing hundreds of pages of evidence, formally investigating several Saudi officials, and launching a grand jury to probe a Riyadh-run US-based support network for the hijackers, Encore was abruptly terminated in 2016. This was purportedly due to a byzantine intra-FBI bust-up over investigative methods.

When originally released in 2021 on the Office's public court docket, every part of the document was redacted except an ''unclassified'' marking. Given its explosive contents, it is not difficult to see why: as Canestraro's investigation concluded, at least two 9/11 hijackers had been recruited either knowingly or unknowingly into a joint CIA-Saudi intelligence operation which may have gone awry.

'A 50/50 chance' of Saudi involvementIn 1996, Alec Station was created under the watch of the CIA. The initiative was supposed to comprise a joint investigative effort with the FBI. However, FBI operatives assigned to the unit soon found they were prohibited from passing any information to the Bureau's head office without the CIA's authorization, and faced harsh penalties for doing so. Efforts to share information with the FBI's equivalent unit '' the I-49 squad based in New York '' were repeatedly blocked.

In late 1999, with ''the system blinking red'' about an imminent large-scale Al Qaeda terror attack inside the US, the CIA and NSA were closely monitoring an ''operational cadre'' within an Al Qaeda cell that included the Saudi nationals Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. The pair would purportedly go on to hijack American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.

Al-Hazmi and al-Midhar had attended an Al Qaeda summit that took place between January 5th and 8th 2000, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting was secretly photographed and videotaped by local authorities at Alec Station's request although, apparently, no audio was captured. En route, Mihdhar transited through Dubai, where CIA operatives broke into his hotel room and photocopied his passport. It showed that he possessed a multi-entry visa to the US.

A contemporaneous internal CIA cable stated this information was immediately passed to the FBI ''for further investigation.'' In reality, Alec Station not only failed to inform the Bureau of Mihdhar's US visa, but also expressly forbade two FBI agents assigned to the unit from doing so.

''[I said] 'we've got to tell the Bureau about this. These guys clearly are bad'...we've got to tell the FBI.' And then [the CIA] said to me, 'no, it's not the FBI's case, not the FBI's jurisdiction','' Mark Rossini, one of the FBI agents in question, has alleged. ''If we had picked up the phone and called the Bureau, I would've been violating the law. I'...would've been removed from the building that day. I would've had my clearances suspended, and I would be gone.''

On January 15th, Hazmi and Mihdhar entered the US through Los Angeles International Airport, just weeks after the foiled Millennium plot. Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi government ''ghost employee'' immediately met them at an airport restaurant. After a brief conversation, Bayoumi helped them find an apartment near his own in San Diego, co-signed their lease, set them up bank accounts, and gifted $1,500 towards their rent. The three would have multiple contacts moving forward.

In interviews with Operation Encore investigators years later, Bayoumi alleged his run-in with the two would-be hijackers was mere happenstance. His extraordinary practical and financial support was, he claimed, simply charitable, motivated by sympathy for the pair, who could barely speak English and were unfamiliar with Western culture.

The Bureau disagreed, concluding Bayoumi was a Saudi spy, who handled a number of Al Qaeda operatives in the US. They also considered there to be a ''50/50 chance'' he '' and by extension Riyadh '' had detailed advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

That remarkable finding wasn't known publicly until two decades later, when a tranche of Operation Encore documents were declassified upon the Biden administration's orders, and it was completely ignored by the mainstream media. Don Canestraro's declaration now reveals FBI investigators went even further in their assessments.

A Bureau special agent, dubbed ''CS-3'' in the document, stated Bayoumi's contact with the hijackers and support thereafter ''was done at the behest of the CIA through the Saudi intelligence service.'' Alec Station's explicit purpose was to ''recruit Al-Hazmi and Al-Mihdhar via a liaison relationship'', with the assistance of Riyadh's General Intelligence Directorate.

A most 'unusual' CIA unitAlec Station's formal remit was to track bin Laden, ''collect intelligence on him, run operations against him, disrupt his finances, and warn policymakers about his activities and intentions.'' These activities would naturally entail enlisting informants within Al Qaeda.

Nonetheless, as several high level sources told Canestraro, it was extremely ''unusual'' for such an entity to be involved in gathering intelligence and recruiting assets. The US-based unit was run by CIA analysts, who do not typically manage human assets. Legally, that work is the exclusive preserve of case officers ''trained in covert operations'' and based overseas.

''CS-10'', a CIA case officer within Alec Station, concurred with the proposition that Hazmi and Mihdhar enjoyed a relationship with the CIA through Bayoumi, and was baffled that the unit was tasked with attempting to penetrate Al Qaeda in the first place. They felt it ''would be nearly impossible'...to develop informants inside'' the group, given the ''virtual'' station was based in a Langley basement, ''several thousand miles from the countries where Al Qaeda was suspected of operating.''

''CS-10'' further testified that they ''observed other unusual activities'' at Alec Station. Analysts within the unit ''would direct operations to case officers in the field by sending the officers cables instructing them to do a specific tasking,'' which was ''a violation of CIA procedures.'' Analysts ''normally lacked the authority to direct a case officer to do anything.''

''CS-11'', a CIA operations specialist posted to Alec Station ''sometime prior to the 9/11 attacks'' said they likewise ''observed activity that appeared to be outside normal CIA procedures.'' Analysts within the unit ''mostly stuck to themselves and did not interact frequently'' with others. When communicating with one another through internal cables, they also used operational pseudonyms, which ''CS-11'' described as peculiar, as they were not working undercover, ''and their employment with the CIA was not classified information.''

The unit's unusual operational culture may explain some of the stranger decisions made during this period vis a vis Al Qaeda informants. In early 1998, while on a CIA mission to penetrate London's Islamist scene, a joint FBI-CIA informant named Aukai Collins received a stunning offer: bin Laden himself wanted him to go to Afghanistan so they could meet.

Collins relayed the request to his superiors. While the FBI was in favor of infiltrating Al Qaeda's base, his CIA handler nixed the idea, saying, ''there was no way the US would approve an American operative going undercover into Bin Laden's camps.''

Similarly, in June 2001, CIA and FBI analysts from Alec Station met with senior Bureau officials, including representatives of its own Al Qaeda unit. The CIA shared three photos of individuals who attended the Kuala Lumpur meeting 18 months earlier, including Hazmi and Mihdhar. However, as an FBI counter-terror officer codenamed ''CS-15'' recalled, the dates of the photos and key details about the figures they depicted were not revealed. Instead, the analysts simply asked if the FBI ''knew the identities of the individuals in the photos.''

Another FBI official present, ''CS-12'', offers an even more damning account. The Alec Station analysts not only failed to offer biographical information, but falsely implied one of the individuals might be Fahd Al-Quso, a suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole. What's more, they outright refused to answer any questions related to the photographs. Nonetheless, it was confirmed that no system was in place to alert the FBI if any of the three entered the US '' a ''standard investigative technique'' for terror suspects.

Given Hazmi and Mihdhar appeared to be simultaneously working for Alec Station in some capacity, the June 2001 meeting may well have been a dangle. No intelligence value could be extracted from inquiring whether the Bureau knew who their assets were, apart from ascertaining if the FBI's counter-terror team was aware of their identities, physical appearances, and presence in the US.

Quite some coverupAnother of Canestraro's sources, a former FBI agent who went by ''CS-23,'' testified that after 9/11, FBI headquarters and its San Diego field office quickly learned of ''Bayoumi's affiliation with Saudi intelligence and subsequently the existence of the CIA's operation to recruit'' Hazmi and Mihdhar.

However, ''senior FBI officials suppressed investigations'' into these matters. ''CS-23'' alleged, furthermore, that Bureau agents testifying before the Joint Inquiry into 9/11 ''were instructed not to reveal the full extent of Saudi involvement with Al-Qaeda.''

The US intelligence community would have had every reason to shield Riyadh from scrutiny and consequences for its role in the 9/11 attacks, as it was then one of its closest allies. But the FBI's eager complicity in Alec Station's coverup may have been motivated by self-interest, as one of its own was intimately involved in the unit's effort to recruit Hazmi and Mihdhar, and conceal their presence in the US from relevant authorities.

''CS-12'', who attended the June 2001 meeting with Alec Station, told Canestraro that they ''continued to press FBI Headquarters for further information regarding the subjects in the photographs'' over that summer. On August 23rd, they stumbled upon an ''electronic communication'' from FBI headquarters, which identified Hazmi and Mihdhar, and noted they were in the US.

''CS-12'' then contacted the FBI analyst within Alec Station who authored the communication. The conversation quickly became ''heated'', with the analyst ordering them to delete the memo ''immediately'' as they were not authorized to view it. While unnamed in the declaration, the FBI analyst in question was Dina Corsi.

The next day, on a conference call between ''CS-12'', Corsi, and the FBI's bin Laden unit chief, ''officials at FBI headquarters'' explicitly told ''CS-12'' to ''stand down'' and ''cease looking'' for Mihdhar, as the Bureau intended to open an ''intelligence gathering investigation'' on him. The next day, ''CS-12'' emailed Corsi, stating bluntly ''someone is going to die'' unless Mihdhar was pursued criminally.

It was surely no coincidence that two days later, on August 26th, Alec Station finally informed the FBI that Hazmi and Mihdhar were in the US. By then, the pair had entered the final phase of preparations for the impending attacks. If a criminal probe had been opened, they could have been stopped in their tracks. Instead, as foreshadowed by the officials in contact with ''CS-12,'' an intelligence investigation was launched which hindered any search efforts.

In the days immediately after the 9/11 attacks, ''CS-12'' and other New York-based FBI agents participated in another conference call with Bureau headquarters. During the conversation, they learned Hazmi and Mihdhar were named on Flight 77's manifest. One analyst on the line ran the pair's names through ''commercial databases,'' quickly finding them and their home address listed in San Diego's local phone directory. It turned out they had been living with an FBI informant.

''CS-12'' soon contacted Corsi ''regarding information on the hijackers.'' She responded by providing a photograph from the same surveillance operation that produced the three pictures presented at the June 2001 meeting between Alec Station and FBI agents; they depicted Walid bin Attash, a lead suspect in Al Qaeda's 1998 East Africa US Embassy bombings and its attack on the USS Cole.

Corsi was unable to explain why the photo was not shown to FBI agents earlier. If it had been, ''CS-12'' claims they would have ''immediately linked'' Hazmi and Mihdhar to bin Attash, which ''would have shifted from an intelligence based investigation into a criminal investigation.'' The FBI's New York field office could have then devoted its ''full resources'' to finding the hijackers before the fateful day of September 11, 2001.

Alec Station operatives fail upwardsAlec Station's tireless efforts to protect its Al Qaeda assets raises the obvious question of whether Hazmi and Mihdhar, and possibly other hijackers, were in effect working for the CIA on the day of 9/11.

The real motives behind the CIA's stonewalling may never be known. But it appears abundantly clear that Alec Station did not want the FBI to know about or interfere in its secret intelligence operation. If the unit's recruitment of Hazmi and Mihdhar was purely dedicated to information gathering, rather than operational direction, it is incomprehensible that the FBI had not been apprised of it, and was instead actively misdirected.

Several FBI sources consulted by Canestraro speculated that the CIA's desperation to penetrate Al Qaeda prompted it to grant Alec Station the power to recruit assets, and pressured it to do so. But if this were truly the case, then why did Langley refuse the opportunity to send Aukai Collins '' a proven deep cover asset who had infiltrated several Islamist gangs '' to penetrate bin Laden's network in Afghanistan?

One alternative explanation is that Alec Station, a powerful rogue CIA team answerable and accountable to no one, sought to infiltrate the terror group for its own sinister purposes, without the authorization and oversight usually required by Langley in such circumstances. Given that Collins was a joint asset shared with the FBI, he could not be trusted to participate in such a sensitive black operation.

No member of Alec Station has been punished in any way for the supposed ''intelligence failures'' that allowed 9/11 to go ahead. In fact, they have been rewarded. Richard Blee, the unit's chief at the time of the attacks, and his successor Alfreda Frances Bikowsky, both joined the CIA's operations division, and became highly influential figures in the so-called war on terror. Corsi, for her part, was promoted at the FBI, eventually rising to the rank of Deputy Assistant Director for Intelligence.

In a perverse twist, the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's torture program found that Bikowsky had been a key player in the agency's black site machinations, and one of their chief public apologists. It is increasingly clear that the program was specifically concerned with eliciting false testimony from suspects in order to justify and expand the US war on terror.

The public's understanding of the 9/11 attacks is heavily informed by testimonies delivered by CIA torture victims under the most extreme duress imaginable. And Bikowsky, a veteran of the Alec Station that ran cover for at least two would-be 9/11 hijackers, had been in charge of interrogating the alleged perpetrators of the attacks.

The veteran FBI deep cover agent Aukai Collins concluded his memoir with a chilling reflection which was only reinforced by Don Canestraro's bombshell declaration:

''I was very mistrustful about the fact that bin Laden's name was mentioned literally hours after the attack'... I became very skeptical about anything anybody said about what happened, or who did it. I thought back to when I was still working for them and we had the opportunity to enter Bin Laden's camp. Something just hadn't smelled right'...To this day I'm unsure who was behind September 11, nor can I even guess'... Someday the truth will reveal itself, and I have a feeling that people won't like what they hear.''

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Archived Version

Wed, 03 May 2023 14:11

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental and anti-vaccine activist, once called for corporations and conservative groups that dispute climate change to be handed the "death penalty."

Kennedy, a controversial environmental lawyer whose r(C)sum(C) includes work for the Natural Resources Defense Council and waterway preservation group Waterkeeper Alliance, argued in a 2014 blog post that big oil companies, including Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, "should be given the death penalty."

The post, titled, "Jailing Climate Deniers," was a response to claims made at the time that Kennedy said "all climate deniers should be jailed." He denied ever saying such a thing, writing, "I support the First Amendment which makes room for any citizen to, even knowingly, spew far more vile lies without legal consequence."

"I do, however, believe that corporations which deliberately, purposefully, maliciously and systematically sponsor climate lies should be given the death penalty," Kennedy wrote for EcoWatch.

CHEVRON, EXXON DEVELOPING CLEANER GAS AS ALTERNATIVES TO EVS

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during an event to launch his 2024 presidential bid at the Boston Park Plaza in Boston on Wednesday. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

He named Koch Industries and ExxonMobil as the supervillains behind "a successful multimillion dollar propaganda blitz to mislead the public about global warming using the same techniques honed by Big Tobacco in its campaign to hoodwink the public about smoking."

Ticker Security Last Change Change % XOM EXXON MOBIL CORP. 109.35 -0.69 -0.63% Kennedy, the 69-year-old son of the late senator, attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, launched a campaign for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday in Boston.

His platform emphasizes civil liberties and he calls free speech "the capstone of all other rights and freedoms." However, Kennedy's previous writings indicate he does not believe free speech rights extend to businesses, or even some nonprofit groups.

In his EcoWatch article, Kennedy asserted that state attorneys general could use a legal process he called "charter revocation" to dissolve companies that "put their profit-making before the 'public welfare.'"

AAA CAUTIONS OVER GAS PRICES: OIL MARKET DISRUPTERS 'ALWAYS LURKING'

Kennedy has previously called for fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, to be handed the "corporate death penalty" for campaigning against climate change science. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File / Reuters Photos)

"Laws in every state maintain that companies that fail to comply with prescribed standards of corporate behavior may be either dissolved or, in the case of foreign corporations, lose their rights to operate within that state's borders. These rules can be quite expansive and, in contrast to the U.S. Supreme Court's ­­­­recent rulings on campaign finance law, companies, under state laws, enjoy far less protection than human beings," he argued.

Kennedy suggested that a state attorney general "with the will, resolve and to stand to up to the dangerous and duplicitous corporate propagandists" could not only annul the corporate charters of businesses that dispute climate change, but also nonprofit conservative groups, including the Cato Institute, The Heritage Foundation, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge disputed Kennedy's claims, writing at the time there was no legal basis for dissolving a company that put profits before "public welfare."

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. LAUNCHES DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE AGAINST JOE BIDEN, VOWS TO FIGHT 'CORPORATE FEUDALISM'

Kennedy is challenging President Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"If corporations have free speech rights (as they do), after all, speaking on issues of public policy must be covered and protected by the First Amendment," Bainbridge wrote in a scathing response to Kennedy's blog post.

Still, Kennedy was undeterred. As recently as 2016, he urged then-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to ban ExxonMobil from doing business in New York for allegedly misleading the public about climate change, according to a memo reported by the New York Post in 2018.

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The Kennedy campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether he continues to hold these views as he runs for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In recent years, Kennedy's controversial anti-vaccine activism has largely overshadowed his environmental work. He was banned on Instagram and YouTube in 2021 for spreading misinformation about the vaccines and opposing COVID-19 restrictions. Years before, members of his famous family had called his social media posts "dangerous misinformation."

Announcing his candidacy for president Wednesday, Kennedy presented his environmental views as unifying, speaking about his desire to work with "rural and working class Americas, and particularly hunters and fishermen." He said these "bullet people" were "alienated from the mainstream environmental community."

"Good environmental policy is good economic policy," Kennedy said.

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:53

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:47

This story is one of three in Insecure, a series about the private security industry.

Andre Boyer enters the gas station like a soldier'--back straight, boots shined, AR-15 pointed towards the floor. He's late to meet me, he says, because his employee caught a shoplifter and he needed to sort through red tape. He seems unaware of the flutter of anxiety spreading through the store as customers see his weapon, handcuffs, and bulletproof vest. But if anyone asked, which they don't, he'd assure them that he's there for their own good, even though it's hard to be relaxed in the presence of a loaded gun.

''We're not here to beat people up,'' says Boyer, who heads S.I.T.E, a private protection agency that is patrolling gas stations and hotels in Philadelphia at the behest of store owners. ''We're here to let the public know that they can feel safe.''

Boyer's armed guard service has boomed over the last year as Philadelphia police staffing issues led to longer response times. Neil Patel, the owner of this Karco gas station, says he hired Boyer in December after thieves stole an ATM from his gas station and the police didn't respond for six hours.

Patel is not the only business owner shelling out money for private security as police departments across the U.S. lose staff. Already struggling to recruit new applicants in 2019, police departments saw a spike of retirements and a drop-off in new recruits after the 2020 murder of George Floyd and subsequent backlash against police, says Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. In Philadelphia alone, police staffing levels dropped nearly 10% from the end of 2019 to the end of 2022, a recent government audit found. Nationally, the number of sworn officers dropped 7% between 2019 and 2021, according to FBI data.

While police departments were losing officers, crime was rising in many parts of America. Murders, assaults, and car thefts rose nationally in 2020, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, and an increase in homelessness has heightened anxieties about safety. These factors bolstered the private security industry, which had already been growing steadily since the terrorist attacks of September 11 but has boomed since 2020. There are roughly twice as many security guards employed in the U.S. than there were 20 years ago, according to the Security Industry Association, though the nation's population has only grown 16% over the same time period. By 2021, there were about 2 police officers but 3.1 security guards for every 1,000 civilians.

''Private security is going to take over everything,'' says Boyer, the Philadelphia armed guard. He adds that a father recently hired him to take his two children to the movies, armed with a shotgun, to make sure they were safe.

A view into the Karco gas station with a surveillance feed is seen in North Philadelphia, Pa. on April 24, 2023.

Michelle Gustafson for TIME

Private security signals an unequal economyThe rise of private security is both driven by income inequality'--wealthy people have more things to protect and money to spend to protect them'--and exacerbates it. For every Neil Patel who decides to shell out $750 a day for round-the-clock armed guards, there are thousands of business owners and civilians who have to make do with what their taxes can buy. The Los Angeles Police Department is not meeting its staffing goals, for instance, but its neighbor, tony Beverly Hills, Calif., has hired two security firms whose employees patrol the city in cars or on foot as ''an extension of the police,'' says Todd Johnson, CEO of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce.

''In the last two years, with everything we have gone through, we want to make sure that the luxury capital of the world is also one of the safest places,'' Johnson says.

Residents and business associations in upper-middle class neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, Chicago, Neponsit, N.Y. and San Francisco's Marina District have chipped in extra money to hire private security because residents report feeling unsafe. By contrast, in New Orleans, a city where the median income is about half that in Beverly Hills, police response times have tripled, from 51 minutes in 2019 to 146 minutes last year.

Wealthy cities can also attract more police officers because they have the tax base to offer high wages and benefits. Seattle, for instance, is offering an $80,000 salary and $30,000 signing bonus. But poorer police departments can't come close to matching that kind of money, says Wexler, with the Police Executive Research Forum. ''This is what keeps police chiefs and mayors up at night'--who are going to be the future police officers in their city,'' he says.

Karco gas station manager Neil Patel.

Michelle Gustafson for TIME

This have and have-not of protection is one sign of an unequal economy. Sociologists use the term ''guard labor economy'' to describe a situation where a growing number of people are employed in jobs where they exercise control over people and protect private property. As inequality rises and there is more media coverage of crime, companies allocate more labor to protecting their property, says Luke Petach, a professor of economics at Belmont University, whose research has found that places with higher shares of people employed in guard labor are correlated with more inequality and racial animosity.

Deborah Avant, a professor at the University of Denver who studies the security industry globally, says that inequality leads us to ''think of security in narrower and narrower ways'--protecting our stuff rather than generating communities where we are all safe.''

A mile or so south of where Boyer and his company are patrolling the gas station, William Miller steers a decommissioned police car etched with JNS Protection Services around the ''green zone,'' a 10 block area bordering the campus of Temple University. Jennifer Hedberg, the mom of a Temple University student, hired JNS Protection Services to patrol the streets in 2021 after another student at the college was shot and killed in an apparent carjacking. (Like many city police departments, the Temple University police have had trouble recruiting, and now have about 40% fewer officers on patrol than a decade ago, says Alec Shaffer, the president of the Temple University Police Association. Temple did not return multiple requests for comment.)

Hedberg says she ''set up our own perimeter,'' having JNS patrol the blocks on which her son and his girlfriend lived, and then asking for donations from parents of other students living there. She admits that JNS security can't really do anything if they see a crime in progress except call the police, and that the workers are ''not as vetted'' as the police, but she says the patrols give parents and kids peace of mind knowing someone is there.

As he drives around, Miller, a former fitness trainer, takes pictures at intersections and dictates what he is seeing into his phone. But only some parents can access these reports. That's because Stacy Fritz, the mom who took over organizing the patrols after Hedberg's son graduated, made a private Facebook group to share the reports and only admits parents who donate'--because, she says, she wasn't raising enough money to keep the patrols funded when any parent could access the reports. The cost of having a security guard patrol six hours a day, six hours a week, adds up to about $17,000 per semester, or around $1,000 a week.

The parents who organize the patrols are the ones who get to determine the rules. ''It breaks my heart when people say, 'My son isn't in the zone, can you extend it?''' says Fritz. ''But then they just get too big and you don't feel as safe.''

The Karco gas station is seen in North Philadelphia, Pa.

Michelle Gustafson

Security guards don't always make communities saferOstensibly security guards are hired to make people feel safer. But, understandably, some civilians feel uneasy around the increased presence of guns and guards who are largely unregulated. Because the laws regulating private security vary from state to state, there's a gray area where neither guards, their employers, nor the public seem to know exactly what a private security officer can and can't do on the job.

Though many security companies will say that their employees act only as a deterrent and should call the police if they see a crime occurring, others appear to have a different take. Boyer, the Philadelphia guard, says that if someone steals something from the gas station where he works, the law allows him to ''go after that person'' to retrieve the property; he is currently getting eight Rottweilers trained to help him reclaim stolen property.

(A spokesman from the Pennsylvania State Police disagreed that Boyer could act like a police officer at the gas station, though the law in Pennsylvania does allow private citizens a good amount of leeway, says Rick McCann, the founder and CEO of Private Officer International, an association for security and law enforcement professionals. Pennsylvania and about 30 other states allow people to get trained as private police officers, which gives them full arrest authority on the private properties where they're employed, McCann says.)

And some security guards, including Boyer, have contentious relationships with the police, which complicates questions of authority. Boyer worked for the Philadelphia Police Department from 1997 until 2013, when he was terminated, he says, for blowing the whistle on police misconduct. (The Philadelphia Police Dept. did not return multiple requests for comment.)

In 2021, Boyer was guarding a hotel when, according to a complaint he filed in U.S. District Court, two women acting ''belligerent'' assaulted him and spit in his face. He tasered one and then handcuffed her and called the police, but when the police arrived, they arrested Boyer, detaining him for 16 hours until the district attorney decided not to press charges. He is suing the police for wrongful arrest and says he was fully within his rights to defend himself. ''If it comes to that, I will take a life,'' he says.

Andre Boyer stands for a portrait while patrolling a Karco gas station.

Michelle Gustafson for TIME

The presence of armed security guards in public settings does not even appear to be reducing violence'--or crime. Walgreens said in an earnings call in January, for instance, that it was reverting to putting law enforcement in its stores rather than security officers because ''the security companies are proven to be largely ineffective.''

On the campus of Temple University, where parents paid for private security patrols and where the university also hired a private security firm to supplement campus police, a campus officer was shot and killed in February, an off-campus home was firebombed in November, and Temple students in three separate off-campus homes were the victims of armed home invasions in November 2022. Temple University president Jason Wingard resigned in late March amid growing concerns about safety.

''You can increase policing, or security. But safety is a double edged sword,'' says Veronica Rin, a Temple freshman who is thinking of transferring because of the violence around campus. ''It's not just about presence. It's also how people feel.''

In February, Rin was walking by a campus building that holds a public food court when she and a friend saw a group of teenagers punching and kicking an older man on the street. A security guard employed by Allied Universal was posted on the corner, near where the fight was happening, but he didn't intervene'--Temple later said that the guard did what he was supposed to do and called the police. Rin stepped in and broke up the fight. Students captured her actions on camera and local news labeled her a hero, but the incident made her feel even more uneasy because she knows just how little private security will do.

''I would love to have someone who was like John Wick who made sure I was safe all the time,'' she says, ''but I'm just a college kid in America.''

I recently visited the spot where Rin broke up the fight; I was talking to the Allied Universal guard posted there when a call came over his radio that there was a fight happening inside the food court. By the time we got inside, the fight was over; two women had been screaming and throwing chairs at each other, a student told me, but workers from Panda Express had deescalated the situation.

I wondered if that food court fight would have gone differently had Andre Boyer been there with his AR-15 and then I was immediately glad that he wasn't. I imagined a gun and a crowded dining hall and the terrible things that could have happened next.

It's true that Neil Patel, the gas station owner, says he hasn't had to report one criminal incident since Boyer's firm started patrolling his lot. Before then, he says, his store was a constant blur of crime; people stealing and carjacking'--one time, his car was vandalized while police were in the store, taking down a report about another crime. He's sick of it all. I asked: couldn't an armed guard have escalated those situations and led to someone being killed? ''Too bad,'' he said. ''They deserve it.'' Then he retreated behind the bulletproof glass shielding his cash register.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:32

Nearly 2 million local National Grid customers could be seeing red over hefty proposed rate hikes pushing them to get more green.

The natural gas and electric utility giant has proposed gas-use increases of 17% for its New York City residential customers and 16% for Long Islanders, with the company blaming inflationary costs and government green-energy requirements.

That means the typical bill for residents in Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens would jump by $30.95 per month, National Grid estimated.

The average customer on Long Island and the Rockaway Peninsula could see a bill increase of about $28.52 a month.

National Grid, which provides only gas to customers in downstate New York, said it is proposing to phase in the increases over ''multiple years to better manage customer bill impacts.''

The utility says it needs a total of $414 million more from city customers and $228 million from Long Island ratepayers to make ''investments to enable the company to deliver safer, more reliable and cleaner energy.''

The state Public Service Commission '-- whose members are appointed by Gov. Kathy Hochul '-- will hold hearings before voting on whether to approve the rate hike or something less, likely early next year.

The proposed rate hikes, if approved, would start taking effect April 1, 2024.

National Grid said it needs another $414 million more from city customers and $228 million from Long Island ratepayers for investments to deliver ''safer, more reliable and cleaner energy.'' AP Photo/Hans PenninkBut if the PSC's previous actions are any indication, it will likely lower the hike sought by National Grid, which says it serves 20 million customers in New York and Massachusetts.

''State regulators pore over the utility's books to identify ways to cut costs,'' PSC spokesman James Denn told The Post in a statement Tuesday.

''Nothing about a utility's rate case is taken for granted or assumed.

see also''For the major electric and gas utilities, the approved rates after this process are nearly always dramatically lower than what is requested, due entirely to this time-tested stakeholder review process.

''The Department will continue to act to buttress affordability in New York.''

National Grid blamed state and federal mandates and climate-change policies as partly responsible for its fat-pitched hike.

''Approximately 70% of the proposal is driven by federal and state safety mandates, as well as increased property taxes and the costs to deliver expanded energy efficiency and other demand reduction offerings necessary to meet State climate targets,'' National Grid NY Vice President Philip De Cicco said in a release defending the increase.

''We're determined to build a better energy future while keeping energy as affordable as possible.''

The proposed rate hike comes as Hochul and the state Legislature have agreed to ban gas stoves in all new housing construction to reduce greenhouse emissions, thus requiring the use of electric stoves.

Meanwhile, a city Climate Change emissions law that kicks in next year is forcingco-op and condo owners to shell out millions of dollars in upgrades to replace old oil and gas boilers with cleaner electric heat or potentially millions of dollars in fines. A coalition representing co-op and condo owners living in 800,000 apartments is calling the edict the largest unfunded mandate in city history and is backing a proposed state law that would offer tax breaks to mitigate the costs.

Consumer advocates blasted National Grid's proposed rate hikes, including the Public Utility Law Project '-- noting that the other city utility provider, Con Edison, previously proposed its own double digit rate hikes that also are under state review '-- 12% over three years for residential electric customers and 20% for natural-gas customers.

''Approximately 70% of the proposal is driven by federal and state safety mandates, as well as increased property taxes and the costs to deliver expanded energy efficiency and other demand reduction offerings necessary to meet State climate targets,'' National Grid NY Vice President Philip De Cicco said in a release. AP''New York has an energy affordability crisis already, and this potential rate hike would exacerbate that, especially for NYC customers who will see their Con Ed bills go up significantly next year,'' said PULP's Legal Aid rep, Andrew Saavedra.

''Rate increases of these magnitudes have a devastating impact on ratepayers, in particular low- and fixed-income households, and are unreflective of the financial realities of the current economic climate.''

PULP noted that 187,000 National Grid-NYC and 51,000 National Grid-LI households are 60 days or more behind on their gas bills and collectively owe the utility $150 million-plus.

National Grid emphasized its commitment to implement new clean energy projects, curbing greenhouse emissions and reducing energy consumption to comply with New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

The gas utility said it reduced power usage and emissions through new weatherization programs and replacing old gas main lines and leaky pipes.

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:23

Two banks and a bank executive could be liable for Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking, a judge has ruled.

Plaintiffs have presented enough evidence that JPMorgan Chase, longtime JPMorgan executive Jes Staley, and Deutsche Bank could be liable for Epstein's sex trafficking, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said on May 1 as he rejected motions to dismiss cases brought against Staley and the institutions.

''Plaintiffs have pled sufficient facts to support their allegations that JP Morgan had '... knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking venture, either directly or by recklessly disregarding what was plainly to be seen,'' Rakoff, a Clinton appointee, wrote in a 54-page decision.

One of the plaintiffs, a woman who says she was abused by Epstein and his associates, has also pled ''sufficient facts to support her allegation that Deutsche Bank knew or recklessly disregarded that Jeffrey Epstein ran a sex-trafficking venture,'' the judge also said.

The ruling came in cases brought by several alleged Epstein victims and the U.S. Virgin Islands government against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank. It also covers a claim filed against Staley by JP Morgan.

The banks are accused of violating federal law that prohibits sex trafficking of children by force, fraud, or coercion, with one section of the law allowing for the punishment of people who knowingly benefit financially from participating in a sex trafficking venture.

Defendants have argued they did not participate in Epstein's venture because they were only providing typical banking services. Participation in a venture requires ''specific conduct that furthered the sex trafficking venture,'' or conduct that is ''more than just passive facilitation,'' previous rulings have stated. But plaintiffs have presented evidence that both banks structured the voluminous cash withdrawals Epstein enacted in ways that hid how they were suspicious, the judge said, in addition to delaying or failing to file suspicious activity reports.

Plaintiffs have noted that Epstein pleaded guilty to a sex offense in Florida in 2008 and that news articles and lawsuits lodged before and after the plea accused Epstein of sex offenses, including abuse of minor girls. They have released internal correspondence showing JPMorgan officials questioning whether the bank should cut ties with Epstein in light of the allegations.

The ruling means the cases are slated to hear on trial later this year.

Former ExecutiveStaley was the head of JPMorgan's private banking division in 2000 when he began to service Epstein's accounts. Emails indicate the two became friends.

''I deeply appreciate our friendship. I have few so profound,'' Staley, who has left the company, said in one missive.

Staley visited homes owned by Epstein on multiple occasions.

One day after Staley went to Epstein's home in New York, Epstein emailed to say ''you were with Larry, and I had to put up with'...,'' attaching a picture of a young woman posing in a sexually suggestive manner. In another missive, Epstein wrote no words but only sent a picture of a different girl.

Plaintiffs say Staley not only saw one of the alleged victims while visiting Epstein, but that he abused multiple girls himself.

Staley wrote to Epstein after a visit: ''That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.'' Epstein asked, ''what character would you like next?'' Mr. Staley responded, ''Beauty and the Beast.''

''If the allegations in plaintiffs' complaints are taken as true, Mr. Staley had actual first-hand knowledge that Epstein conducted a sex-trafficking venture,'' Rakoff said in the new ruling.

Staley, who was brought into the lawsuits by JPMorgan, has said he was not in charge of Epstein's accounts.

''The third-party complaints, while creating provocative media fodder, never explain how an employee who is not alleged to have had decision-making authority over Epstein's accounts'--and who is not alleged to have seen any of the suspicious account activity that other JPMorgan employees ignored'--caused the plaintiffs' alleged injuries,'' he said in one filing.

Staley has asked the court to dismiss the bank's claim against him, arguing that the bank is trying to ''treat Mr. Staley as its public relations shield by asserting claims that lack any legal (or factual) basis.'' That motion is still being considered.

The Epoch Times reached out to JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank for comment.

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:17

The Murdoch's have not revealed which of Carlson's many provocations triggered his firing, and there's no particular suggestion that Zelenskyy '-- whom Carlson had called a ''dictator'' '-- delivered the final blow.

But Carlson's firing will immediately relieve pressure on key Capitol Hill Ukraine supporters whom Carlson had criticized on air '-- and sometimes pressed behind the scenes to change their positions on the war.

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has been one of the most outspoken Republican supporters of the US support for Ukraine, stepping out of line to occasionally reprimand figures in his own party who do not share his views on the subject.

In a segment last year, the Fox News host told viewers that the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee had privately called his show ''Russian disinformation.''

''In other words, not only are we wrong '-- which is fine '-- we are disloyal Americans. We're doing the bidding of a foreign power,'' Carlson said. ''That is not fine, that is slander.''

According to two people familiar with the conversation, the then-Fox News host also made his displeasure to McCaul known in a tense private conversation in which Carlson criticized the congressman's comments, describing the congressman as having a low IQ. (Both Carlson and McCaul's office declined to discuss the conversation).

The populist Republican right remains hostile to the war effort and at times openly sympathetic to Russia. But none of Fox's other top figures seem to share Carlson's zeal.

"Clearly, he spooked a lot of members into not being fully supportive of Ukraine," a senior Republican congressional aide told Semafor. Carlson's ouster, the aide added, "probably reduces the loudest voice out there against U.S. support."

Regardless of the reason for Carlson's departure, more moderate pro-Ukraine members of the Republican caucus on the Hill are not hiding their relief.

''There have been some that have argued that he was setting foreign policy for the Republican Party, which I find to be bizarre. Certainly not for me,'' Sen. Mitt Romney told the Hill. ''To the primary [Republican] voter, the active participant, the grassroot voter, he's a person they listen to and has a big influence.''

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Wed, 03 May 2023 00:45

Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine

About Dr. Ghayas C. Issa Dr. Issa is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with leukemia. He conducts translational research in the Departments of Leukemia and Genomic Medicine at MD Anderson. His research involves analysis of leukemia genetics in order to better understand causes of progression and response to treatment. As a clinician, he is dedicated to provide high-quality care for all of his patients by helping them decide which therapies work best for them. His goal as a researcher is to more fully understand the genetic underpinnings of leukemia and to develop safe and effective novel therapies.

Dr. Issa has authored numerous research articles and has obtained peer-reviewed funding in support of his research. He has received a number of awards including the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Celgene Future Leaders in Hematology Award, and the Kimberly Patterson Fellowship in Leukemia Research. He is a member of the MD Anderson Clinician Investigator Program (Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology Award).

Read More Primary AppointmentAssistant Professor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX

Degree-Granting Education2010Saint Joseph University Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, LBN, MD, Medicine2007Saint Joseph University Faculty of Medicine, Beirut, LBN, Certificate, ImmunologyPostgraduate Training2014-2017Clinical Fellowship, Hematology/Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX2011-2014Clinical Residency, Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York, NY2010-2011Research Fellow, Epigenetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 2017American Board of Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology2017American Board of Internal Medicine, Hematology2014American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine Academic AppointmentsInstructor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2017 - 2018

2018Translational Research Training in Hematology Award, European Hematology Association and the American Society of Hematology2018Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology Award (K12), NIH2017The Kimberly Patterson Leukemia Research Fellowship, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center2017Future Leaders Award for Clinical Research in Hematology, Celgene2016Young Investigator Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology2016Molecular Biology in Clinical Oncology, 25th Annual AACR Workshop, American Association for Cancer Research2015Abstract Achievement Award,, American Society of Hematology2011Abstract Achievement Award, American Society of Hematology2008Scholar In Training Award, American Association for Cancer Research Peer-Reviewed ArticlesBidikian A, Jabbour E, Issa GC, Short NJ, Sasaki K, Kantarjian H . Chronic myeloid leukemia without major molecular response after 2 years of treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Am J Hematol 98(4):639-644, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36606715. Siddiqui M, Konoplev S, Issa GC, Kantarjian H, Daver N, Ravandi F, Kadia T, Tang G, Wang SA, Thakral B, Medeiros LJ, Pozdnyakova O, Pierce S, Montalban-Bravo G, Chien K, Hammond D, Sasaki K, Garcia-Manero G, Hasserjian RP . Biologic features and clinical outcomes in newly diagnosed myelodysplastic syndrome with KMT2A rearrangements. Am J Hematol 98(4):E91-E94, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36661399. Jabbour EJ, Sasaki K, Haddad FG, Issa GC, Garcia-Manero G, Kadia TM, Jain N, Yilmaz M, DiNardo CD, Patel KP, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Champlin R, Khouri IF, Dellasala S, Pierce SA, Kantarjian H . The outcomes of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia treated with third-line BCR::ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Am J Hematol 98(4):658-665, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36683287. 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Issa GC, Aldoss I, DiPersio J, Cuglievan B, Stone R, Arellano M, Thirman MJ, Patel MR, Dickens DS, Shenoy S, Shukla N, Kantarjian H, Armstrong SA, Perner F, Perry JA, Rosen G, Bagley RG, Meyers ML, Ordentlich P, Gu Y, Kumar V, Smith S, McGeehan GM, Stein EM . The menin inhibitor revumenib in KMT2A-rearranged or NPM1-mutant leukaemia. Nature 615(7954):920-924, 2023. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36922593. Haddad FG, Kantarjian HM, Bidikian A, Jabbour EJ, Short NJ, Ning J, Xiao L, Pemmaraju N, DiNardo CD, Kadia TM, Marx KR, Garcia-Manero G, Ravandi F, Sasaki K, Issa GC . Association between bariatric surgery and outcomes in chronic myeloid leukemia. Cancer. e-Pub 2023. PMID: 36882573. Nguyen D, Kantarjian HM, Short NJ, Qiao W, Ning J, Cuglievan B, Daver NG, DiNardo CD, Jabbour EJ, Kadia TM, Borthakur G, Garcia-Manero G, Konopleva MY, Andreeff M, Ravandi-Kashani F, Sasaki K, Issa GC . 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DiNardo CD, Maiti A, Rausch CR, Pemmaraju N, Naqvi K, Daver NG, Kadia TM, Borthakur G, Ohanian M, Alvarado Y, Issa GC, Montalban-Bravo G, Short NJ, Yilmaz M, Bose P, Jabbour EJ, Takahashi K, Burger JA, Garcia-Manero G, Jain N, Kornblau SM, Thompson PA, Estrov Z, Masarova L, Sasaki K, Verstovsek S, Ferrajoli A, Weirda WG, Wang SA, Konoplev S, Chen Z, Pierce SA, Ning J, Qiao W, Ravandi F, Andreeff M, Welch JS, Kantarjian HM, Konopleva MY . 10-day decitabine with venetoclax for newly diagnosed intensive chemotherapy ineligible, and relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia: a single-centre, phase 2 trial. Lancet Haematol 7(10):e724-e736, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32896301. Yilmaz M, Alfayez M, DiNardo CD, Borthakur G, Kadia TM, Konopleva MY, Loghavi S, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Patel KP, Jabbour EJ, Garcia-Manero G, Pemmaraju N, Pierce SA, Issa GC, Short NJ, Montalban-Bravo G, Takahashi K, Assi R, Alotaibi AS, Ohanian M, Andreeff M, Cortes JE, Kantarjian HM, Ravandi F, Daver NG . Outcomes with sequential FLT3-inhibitor-based therapies in patients with AML. J Hematol Oncol 13(1):132, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33032648. Jabbour E, Richard-Carpentier G, Sasaki Y, Konopleva M, Patel K, Roberts K, Gu Z, Wang F, Huang X, Sasaki K, Short NJ, Jain N, Ravandi F, Daver NG, Kadia TM, Alvarado Y, DiNardo CD, Issa GC, Pemmaraju N, Garcia-Manero G, Verstovsek S, Wang S, Khoury JD, Jorgensen J, Champlin R, Khouri I, Kebriaei P, Schroeder H, Khouri M, Mullighan CG, Takahashi K, O'Brien SM, Kantarjian H . Hyper-CVAD regimen in combination with ofatumumab as frontline therapy for adults with Philadelphia chromosome-negative B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: a single-arm, phase 2 trial. Lancet Haematol 7(7):e523-e533, 2020. PMID: 32589978. Montalban-Bravo G, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Class CA, Sasaki K, Ravandi F, Cortes JE, Daver N, Takahashi K, Short NJ, DiNardo CD, Jabbour E, Borthakur G, Naqvi K, Issa GC, Konopleva M, Khoury JD, Routbort M, Pierce S, Do KA, Bueso-Ramos C, Patel K, Kantarjian H, Garcia-Manero G, Kadia TM . Outcomes of acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia related changes depend on diagnostic criteria and therapy. Am J Hematol 95(6):612-622, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32112433. Zarka J, Short NJ, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Issa GC . Nucleophosmin 1 Mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Genes (Basel) 11(6), 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32545659. Samra B, Richard-Carpentier G, Kadia TM, Ravandi F, Daver N, DiNardo CD, Issa GC, Bose P, Konopleva MY, Yilmaz M, Ohanian M, Borthakur G, Garcia-Manero G, Pierce S, Cortes JE, Kantarjian H, Short NJ . Characteristics and outcomes of patients with therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia with normal karyotype. Blood Cancer J 10(5):47, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32366832. Short NJ, Kantarjian H, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Sasaki K, Ravandi F, Cortes J, Konopleva M, Issa GC, Kornblau SM, Garcia-Manero G, Garris R, Higgins J, Pratt G, Williams LN, Valentine CC, Rivera VM, Pritchard J, Salk JJ, Radich J, Jabbour E . Ultra-accurate Duplex Sequencing for the assessment of pretreatment ABL1 kinase domain mutations in Ph+ ALL. Blood Cancer J 10(5):61, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32457305. Abou Dalle I, Ghorab A, Patel K, Wang X, Hwang H, Cortes J, Issa GC, Yalniz F, Sasaki K, Chihara D, Price A, Kadia T, Pemmaraju N, Daver N, DiNardo C, Ravandi F, Kantarjian HM, Borthakur G . Impact of numerical variation, allele burden, mutation length and co-occurring mutations on the efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in newly diagnosed FLT3- mutant acute myeloid leukemia. Blood Cancer J 10(5):48, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 32366841. Short NJ, Patel KP, Albitar M, Franquiz M, Luthra R, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Wang F, Assi R, Montalban-Bravo G, Matthews J, Ma W, Loghavi S, Takahashi K, Issa GC, Kornblau SM, Jabbour E, Garcia-Manero G, Kantarjian HM, Estrov Z, Ravandi F . Targeted next-generation sequencing of circulating cell-free DNA vs bone marrow in patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Blood Adv 4(8):1670-1677, 2020. PMID: 32324887. Alotaibi AS, Yilmaz M, Loghavi S, DiNardo C, Borthakur G, Kadia TM, Thakral B, Pemmaraju N, Issa GC, Konopleva M, Short NJ, Patel K, Tang G, Ravandi F, Daver N . Emergence of BCR-ABL1 Fusion in AML Post-FLT3 Inhibitor-Based Therapy: A Potentially Targetable Mechanism of Resistance - A Case Series. Front Oncol 10:588876, 2020. e-Pub 2020. PMID: 33194747. Bannon SA, Routbort MJ, Montalban-Bravo G, Mehta RS, Jelloul FZ, Takahashi K, Daver N, Oran B, Pemmaraju N, Borthakur G, Naqvi K, Issa GC, Sasaki K, Alvarado Y, Kadia TM, Konopleva M, Shamanna RK, Khoury JD, Ravandi F, Champlin R, Kantarjian HM, Bhalla K, Garcia-Manero G, Patel KP, DiNardo CD . Next-Generation Sequencing of DDX41 in Myeloid Neoplasms Leads to Increased Detection of Germline Alterations. Front Oncol 10:582213, 2020. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 33585199. Jabbour EJ, Sasaki K, Ravandi F, Short NJ, Garcia-Manero G, Daver N, Kadia T, Konopleva M, Jain N, Cortes J, Issa GC, Jacob J, Kwari M, Thompson P, Garris R, Pemmaraju N, Yilmaz M, O'Brien SM, Kantarjian HM . Inotuzumab ozogamicin in combination with low-intensity chemotherapy (mini-HCVD) with or without blinatumomab versus standard intensive chemotherapy (HCVAD) as frontline therapy for older patients with Philadelphia chromosome-negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A propensity score analysis. Cancer 125(15):2579-2586, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30985931. Abbas HA, Ravandi F, Loghavi S, Patel KP, Borthakur G, Kadia TM, Jabbour E, Takahashi K, Cortes J, Issa GC, Konopleva M, Kantarjian HM, Short NJ . NPM1 mutant variant allele frequency correlates with leukemia burden but does not provide prognostic information in NPM1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia. Am J Hematol 94(6):E158-E160, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30838674. Chamoun K, Kantarjian H, Atallah R, Gonzalez GN, Issa GC, Rios MB, Garcia-Manero G, Borthakur G, Ravandi F, Jain N, Daver N, Konopleva M, DiNardo CD, Kadia T, Pemmaraju N, Jabbour E, Cortes J . Tyrosine kinase inhibitor discontinuation in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: a single-institution experience. J Hematol Oncol 12(1):1, 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30606227. Morita K, Kantarjian HM, Wang F, Yan Y, Bueso-Ramos C, Sasaki K, Issa GC, Wang S, Jorgensen J, Song X, Zhang J, Tippen S, Thornton R, Coyle M, Little L, Gumbs C, Pemmaraju N, Daver N, DiNardo CD, Konopleva M, Andreeff M, Ravandi F, Cortes JE, Kadia T, Jabbour E, Garcia-Manero G, Patel KP, Futreal PA, Takahashi K . Clearance of Somatic Mutations at Remission and the Risk of Relapse in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. J Clin Oncol 36(18):JCO2017776757, 2018. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29702001. Jain P, Kantarjian HM, Ghorab A, Sasaki K, Jabbour EJ, Nogueras Gonzalez G, Kanagal-Shamanna R, Issa GC, Garcia-Manero G, Kc D, Dellasala S, Pierce S, Konopleva M, Wierda WG, Verstovsek S, Daver NG, Kadia TM, Borthakur G, O'Brien S, Estrov Z, Ravandi F, Cortes JE . Prognostic factors and survival outcomes in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in blast phase in the tyrosine kinase inhibitor era: Cohort study of 477 patients. Cancer 123(22):4391-4402, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28743165. Issa GC, Kantarjian HM, Gonzalez GN, Borthakur G, Tang G, Wierda W, Sasaki K, Short NJ, Ravandi F, Kadia T, Patel K, Luthra R, Ferrajoli A, Garcia-Manero G, Rios MB, Dellasala S, Jabbour E, Cortes JE . Clonal chromosomal abnormalities appearing in Philadelphia negative metaphases during CML treatment. Blood 130(19):2084-2091, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28835440. Kanagal-Shamanna R, Jain P, Takahashi K, Short NJ, Tang G, Issa GC, Ravandi F, Garcia-Manero G, Yin CC, Luthra R, Patel KP, Khoury JD, Montalban-Bravo G, Sasaki K, Kadia TM, Borthakur G, Konopleva M, Jain N, Garris R, Pierce S, Wierda W, Estrov Z, Cortes J, O'Brien S, Kantarjian HM, Jabbour E . TP53 mutation does not confer a poor outcome in adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who are treated with frontline hyper-CVAD-based regimens. Cancer 123(19):3717-3724, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28608976. Short NJ, Kantarjian HM, Sasaki K, Ravandi F, Ko H, Cameron Yin C, Garcia-Manero G, Cortes JE, Garris R, O'Brien SM, Patel K, Khouri M, Thomas D, Jain N, Kadia TM, Daver NG, Benton CB, Issa GC, Konopleva M, Jabbour E . Poor outcomes associated with +der(22)t(9;22) and -9/9p in patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia receiving chemotherapy plus a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Am J Hematol 92(3):238-243, 2017. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 28006851. Issa GC, Kantarjian HM, Yin CC, Qiao W, Ravandi F, Thomas D, Short NJ, Sasaki K, Garcia-Manero G, Kadia TM, Cortes JE, Daver N, Borthakur G, Jain N, Konopleva M, Khouri I, Kebriaei P, Champlin RE, Pierce S, O'Brien SM, Jabbour E . Prognostic impact of pretreatment cytogenetics in adult Philadelphia chromosome-negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the era of minimal residual disease. Cancer 123(3):459-467, 2017. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27696391. Sasaki K, Jabbour EJ, Ravandi F, Short NJ, Thomas DA, Garcia-Manero G, Daver NG, Kadia TM, Konopleva MY, Jain N, Issa GC, Jeanis V, Moore HG, Garris RS, Pemmaraju N, Cortes JE, O'Brien SM, Kantarjian HM . Hyper-CVAD plus ponatinib versus hyper-CVAD plus dasatinib as frontline therapy for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A propensity score analysis. Cancer 122(23):3650-3656, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27479888. Short NJ, Kantarjian HM, Sasaki K, Cortes JE, Ravandi F, Thomas DA, Garcia-Manero G, Khouri I, Kebriaei P, Champlin RE, Pierce S, Issa GC, Konopleva M, Kadia TM, Bueso-Ramos C, Khoury JD, Jain N, O'Brien SM, Jabbour E . Prognostic significance of day 14 bone marrow evaluation in adults with Philadelphia chromosome-negative acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Cancer 122(24):3812-3820, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27508525. Short NJ, Jabbour E, Sasaki K, Patel K, O'Brien SM, Cortes JE, Garris R, Issa GC, Garcia-Manero G, Luthra R, Thomas D, Kantarjian H, Ravandi F . Impact of complete molecular response on survival in patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Blood 128(4):504-7, 2016. e-Pub 2016. PMID: 27235138. Delmore JE, Issa GC, Lemieux ME, Rahl PB, Shi J, Jacobs HM, Kastritis E, Gilpatrick T, Paranal RM, Qi J, Chesi M, Schinzel AC, McKeown MR, Heffernan TP, Vakoc CR, Bergsagel PL, Ghobrial IM, Richardson PG, Young RA, Hahn WC, Anderson KC, Kung AL, Bradner JE, Mitsiades CS . BET bromodomain inhibition as a therapeutic strategy to target c-Myc. Cell 146(6):904-17, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21889194. Ghobrial IM, Maiso P, Azab A, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Issa GC, Azab F, Sacco A, Quang P, Ngo H, Roccaro A . The bone marrow microenvironment in waldenstrom macroglobulinemia. Ther Adv Hematol 2(4):267-72, 2011. PMID: 23556094. Issa GC, Leblebjian H, Roccaro AM, Ghobrial IM . New insights into the pathogenesis and treatment of Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia. Curr Opin Hematol 18(4):260-5, 2011. PMID: 21519243. Ghobrial IM, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Ngo H, Azab F, Sacco A, Azab A, Maiso P, Morgan B, Quang P, Issa GC, Leleu X, Roccaro AM . Targeting the bone marrow in Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 11 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S65-9, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 22035751. Sacco A, Aujay M, Morgan B, Azab AK, Maiso P, Liu Y, Zhang Y, Azab F, Ngo HT, Issa GC, Quang P, Roccaro AM, Ghobrial IM . Carfilzomib-dependent selective inhibition of the chymotrypsin-like activity of the proteasome leads to antitumor activity in Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia. Clin Cancer Res 17(7):1753-64, 2011. e-Pub 2011. PMID: 21355079. Sacco A, Maiso P, Azab A, Azab F, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Ngo HT, Morgan B, Quang P, Issa GC, Ghobrial IM, Roccaro AM . Key role of microRNAs in Waldenstr¶m's macroglobulinemia pathogenesis. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 11(1):109-11, 2011. PMID: 21454206. Ghobrial IM, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Ngo H, Azab F, Sacco A, Azab A, Maiso P, Morgan B, Quang P, Issa GC, Roccaro A . The bone marrow niche in Waldenstr¶m's macroglobulinemia. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 11(1):118-20, 2011. PMID: 21454209. Issa GC, Ghobrial IM, Roccaro AM . Novel agents in Waldenstr¶m macroglobulinemia. Clin Investig (Lond) 1(6):815-824, 2011. PMID: 22034589. Sacco A, Issa GC, Zhang Y, Liu Y, Maiso P, Ghobrial IM, Roccaro AM . Epigenetic modifications as key regulators of Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia biology. J Hematol Oncol 3(1):1-5, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 20929526. AbstractsSasaki K, Jabbour E, Issa GC, Garcia-Manero G, Kadia TM, Wierda WG, Yilmaz M, DiNardo CD, Skinner J, Khouri M, Pemmaraju N, Nasnas P, Pierce SA, Cortes JE, Kantarjian HM . Outcomes of Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Treated with Third-Line Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors. Blood 136(1):25+26, 2020. Issa, GC, Kantarjian HM, Wang F, Gonzalez G, Borthakur G, Tang G, Bueso-Ramos C, Kanagal R, Hidalgo J, Zhao C, Coyle M, Takahashi K, Jain P, Ravandi F, Kadia T, Garcia-Manero G, Jabbour E, Futreal PA, Cortes JE . Clinical and Molecular Characterization of Clonal Chromosomal Abnormalities Appearing in Philadelphia- Negative Metaphases of Chronic Phase Cml. Blood 130(1):47, 2017. Issa GC, Kantarjian HM, Short NJ, Ravandi F, Huang X, Garcia-Manero G, Plunkett P, Gandhi V, Pemmaraju N, Daver NG, Borthakur G, Jain N, Konopleva M, Estrov Z, Kadia TM, Dinardo C, Brandt M, O'Brien SM, Cortes JE, Jabbour E . Idarubicin and cytarabine with clofarabine or fludarabine in adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia: updated results of a randomized phase II study. JCO Glob Oncol 15:7037-7037, 2017. Issa GC, Leblebjian H, Roccaro AM, Ghobrial IM . Distinct patterns of somatic mutation clearance and association with clinical outcome in patients with AML. American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting 35(15):7005-7005, 2017. Issa GC, Kantarjian HM, Ravandi F, Thomas D, Khouri M, Garcia Manero G, Garris R, Cortes JE, Short NJ, Sasaki K, Schroeder H, Kadia T, Verstovsek S, Daver N, Jain N, Konopleva M, O'Brien SM, Jabbour E . Updated Results from the Phase II Study of Hyper-CVAD in Combination with Ofatumumab as Frontline Therapy for Adults with CD20 Positive (CD20+) ALL. Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia Volume 16, S6, 2016. Issa GC, Kantarjian HM, Yin CC, Ravandi F, Garcia-Manero G, Thomas DA, Cortes JE, Short NJ, Sasaki K, Qiao W, Takahashi K, Pierce S, Verstovsek S, Kadia TM, Borthakur G, O'Brien SM, Jabbour E. . Prognostic impact of pre-treatment cytogenetics in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting; 2016 34(15), 2016. Issa GC, Kantarjian HM, Jabbour E, Borthakur G, Verstovsek S, Pierce S, Wierda W, Ferrajoli A, Garcia-Manero G, Kadia T, Daver N, Pemmaraju N, Ravandi F, DellaSala SE, Cortes JE. . Additional Chromosomal Abnormalities in Philadelphia Chromosome Negative Metaphases Appearing during Therapy with Imatinib, Dasatinib, Nilotinib and Ponatinib in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Blood 126(23):1577, 2015. Issa GC, Jake DE, Micheal MR, Madeleine LE, Rahl PB, Jacobs HM, Kastritis E, Gilpatrick T, Paranal RM,Jun Qi, Shi J, Chesi M, Schinzel AC, Vakoc CR, Bergsagel PL, Richardson PG, Young R, Hahn W, Ghobrial IM, Anderson KC, Kung AL, Mitsiades CS, and Bradner JE. . Inhibition of c-Myc Expression and Function in Hematologic Malignancies. Blood 118(21):1409, 2011. Title:The Impact of Clonal Heterogeneity on Relapse after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant in Patients with Acute Myeloid LeukemiaFunding Source:American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)Role:Principal InvestigatorTitle:Leukemia SPORE Career Development AwardFunding Source:NIH/NCIRole:Principal InvestigatorTitle:Investigating the Expression of the Luteinizing Hormone Receptor in the Hematopoietic Stem Cells of Patients with LeukemiaFunding Source:Leukemia TexasRole:Principal InvestigatorTitle:Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology AwardFunding Source:NIH/NCIRole:Co-InvestigatorTitle:2019-0997 Phase 1/2, Open-Label, Dose-Escalation and expansion cohort study of SNDX-5613 in Relapsed/refractory acute leukemiaFunding Source:Syndax PharmaRole:Principal InvestigatorTitle:Dual targeting of BCR-ABL in CML by adding the allosteric inhibitor ABL001Funding Source:NovartisRole:Principal InvestigatorTitle:2020-0717 A Phase 1/2A First in Human Study of the Menin-MLL (KMT2A) Inhibitor KO-539 in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid LeukemiaFunding Source:Kura Oncology, IncRole:Principal InvestigatorTitle:Targeting Minimal Residual Disease and Stem-Like Cells in HIgh-Risk AMLFunding Source:MDACC Moon Shot ProgramRole:Co-Principal InvestigatorWhether you are ready to make an appointment now or have questions for our expert team, we are standing by to help.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 15:31

Announcements

WGA on Strike

Our negotiation with the studios and streamers has failed to reach an agreement. We are on strike.

Monday, May 1, 2023

Dear Members,

We have not reached an agreement with the studios and streamers. We will be on strike after the contract expires at midnight.

Your WGA Negotiating Committee spent the last six weeks negotiating with Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Discovery-Warner, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony under the umbrella of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Over the course of the negotiation, we explained how the companies' business practices have slashed our compensation and residuals and undermined our working conditions. Our chief negotiator, as well as writers on the committee, made clear to the studios' labor representatives that we are determined to achieve a new contract with fair pay that reflects the value of our contribution to company success and includes protections to ensure that writing survives as a sustainable profession. We advocated on behalf of members across all sectors: features, episodic television, and comedy-variety and other non-prime-time programs, by giving them facts, concrete examples, and reasonable solutions. Guild members demonstrated collective resolve and support of the agenda with a 97.85% strike authorization.

Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal'--and though your strike vote gave us the leverage to make some gains'--the studios' responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing. The companies' behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing. From their refusal to guarantee any level of weekly employment in episodic television, to the creation of a "day rate" in comedy variety, to their stonewalling on free work for screenwriters and on AI for all writers, they have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.

Therefore, earlier today the Negotiating Committee unanimously rejected the AMPTP's final offer before deadline and recommended to the WGAW Board and WGAE Council the issuance of a strike order. Based on that recommendation, the Board and Council unanimously voted to strike after the current MBA's expiration at midnight tonight.

A strike by the WGAW and WGAE against all companies signatory to the 2020 MBA will begin on Tuesday, May 2, 2023 at 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET.

We must now exert the maximum leverage possible to get a fair contract by withholding our labor. All WGA members are obligated to follow the strike rules. The FAQ about the strike rules includes forms to assist with notice requirements as well as contact information for Guild staff to provide additional guidance.

Members of the Negotiating Committee, Board and Council will be out with you on the picket lines. The initial picketing schedule can be found here and will be updated regularly.

Writers Guild members can hear a full report from the Negotiating Committee in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium at 7:00 pm PT on Wednesday May 3 (RSVP here) and in New York at Cooper Union at 7:00 pm ET (RSVP here). Members outside of Los Angeles and New York or who are otherwise unable to attend a meeting will receive information in the coming days to hear from leadership and receive information about additional ways to support the strike.

Here is what all writers know: the companies have broken this business. They have taken so much from the very people, the writers, who have made them wealthy. But what they cannot take from us is each other, our solidarity, our mutual commitment to save ourselves and this profession that we love. We had hoped to do this through reasonable conversation. Now we will do it through struggle. For the sake of our present and our future, we have been given no other choice. IN SOLIDARITY,

WGA NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE

David A. Goodman, Co-ChairChris Keyser, Co-ChairEllen Stutzman, Chief Negotiator

John AugustAngelina BurnettKay CannonYahlin ChangRobb ChavisAdam ConoverTravis DonnellyAshley GableHallie HaglundEric HaywoodEric HeissererGreg IwinskiLuvh RakheErica SalehDanielle Sanchez-WitzelJames SchamusTom SchulmanMike SchurDavid ShoreDavid SimonPatric M. VerroneNicole Yorkin

Ex-OfficioMeredith Stiehm, WGAW PresidentMichele Mulroney, WGAW Vice PresidentBetsy Thomas, WGAW Secretary-TreasurerMichael Winship, WGAE PresidentLisa Takeuchi Cullen, WGAE Vice President of Film/TV/StreamingChristopher Kyle, WGAE Secretary-Treasurer

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Tue, 02 May 2023 15:30

Gimlet Union, ParcastWGA East-represented writers, editors and producers at Spotify's Gimlet and Parcast podcasts are blasting their parent company for having created ''chaos instead of treating employees with the dignity and respect they deserve'' when it announced on Thursday that it would cancel 11 podcasts and eliminate about 5% of its podcast employees.

''Yesterday, Spotify blindsided both Gimlet Union and Parcast Union with at least 38 layoffs across their studios,'' the bargaining units said in a joint statement. ''Spotify has said in the press that these layoffs constitute less than 5% of people working on original podcasts. That number is misleading. The reality is that each bargaining unit, organized with the Writers Guild of America East, has lost about 30% of its members. These aren't small cuts, they are massive restructurings.

RELATED: Spotify Names New Heads Of Gimlet, Parcast Podcast Studios Amid Cancellations

''Each shop has lost seasoned producers, writers, and editors. Many of those laid off were longtime employees '' people who helped build our studios from the ground up, and who saw them through a global pandemic. Some were on parental leave. Others were in the middle of relocating. These employees left other jobs, other cities '' other countries '' to work at a company that told them repeatedly that their jobs would be secure. Most egregious is that in Parcast's case, these layoffs directly impacted the majority of members in the union's Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Committee, as well as the majority of the former organizing and bargaining committees.

''Yesterday Spotify told show teams that their podcasts were being canceled because of low numbers. But decisions Spotify leadership made directly contributed to those low numbers. Their decision to make most of Gimlet's and Parcast's shows Spotify exclusive caused a steep drop in listeners '' as high as three quarters of the audience for some shows. Yet the company did little or nothing to staunch the bleeding. Shows languished without marketing support, and teams were not given clear audience goals to meet. The strongest indication these employees received that their shows were not meeting Spotify's goals was when they were laid off yesterday. To contribute to the confusion, some of the employees who were laid off were working on popular shows, suggesting the cuts weren't solely due to the reach and success of those programs. And yet, Spotify has failed to give any explanation for how they evaluated who would be let go.

''Spotify gave employees as little as an hour to close out their work, even though they needed to collect sources, tell guests that episodes weren't airing, file expenses, download personal paperwork including paystubs, and finish putting out episodes. Spotify subscribers expecting to hear their favorite shows have been left in the lurch, with no explanation. The fact that Spotify chose to handle these cuts in this way shows their disregard for both their employees and their audience.

''It didn't have to be this way. And Spotify can still take steps to help laid-off employees. It can start by allowing them to take their contacts, sources, and unfinished work with them.''

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Archived Version

Tue, 02 May 2023 15:21

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it will hear a case that could significantly scale back federal agencies' authority, with major implications for the future of environmental and other regulations.

The justices next term will consider whether to overturn a decades-old precedent that grants agencies deference when Congress left ambiguity in a statute.

Named for the court's decision in Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, the Chevron deference has become one of the most frequently cited precedents in administrative law since the decision was first handed down in 1984.

It involves a two-step test: First, judges decide if Congress has in the statute directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If it is ambiguous, courts defer to agencies as long as their actions are based on a ''permissible construction.''

Some of the high court's conservatives have raised concern about the precedent and how it has expanded the reach of agencies' authority.

Now, the justices will take up a case that explicitly asks them to overturn it. The high court announced the move on Monday in a brief, unsigned order '-- as is typical '-- indicating at least four justices agreed to take up the case.

Herring fishing company Loper Bright Enterprises is appealing a ruling that left in place a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) regulation based on the doctrine.

Former Apple employee gets prison term for $17M fraud schemeFederal judge blocks Illinois assault weapons banThe regulation requires herring fishing boats to allow a federal observer aboard to oversee operations and compensate them for their time. The company argues the regulation significantly decreases their profit margin, and the agency had no authorization to impose it.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of the federal government, deferring to NMFS after finding that the law at issue was ambiguous.

''Nearly four decades of judicial experience with Chevron have demonstrated that courts are incapable of applying its two-step Chevron framework in a consistent manner,'' attorneys for Loper Bright Enterprises wrote in court filings.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 15:20

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Monday that the U.S. may default on its debt by June 1 if Congress doesn't act to raise the debt ceiling.

''[O]ur best estimate is that we will be unable to continue to satisfy all of the government's obligations by early June, and potentially as early as June 1, if Congress does not raise or suspend the debt limit before that time,'' Yellen wrote in a letter addressed to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is currently embroiled in a dispute with President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats on the subject. McCarthy and the House Republican majority have pressed for spending cuts and reforms in exchange for raising the debt ceiling, which Biden and the Democrats have rejected, arguing for a debt increase without conditions, instead.

Yellen's letter echoes Democratic rhetoric against Republicans, criticizing them for holding the nation's economy ''hostage'' at the risk of a debt default. She added that a ''last minute'' increase in the debt ceiling before June 1 would cause ''serious harm to business and consumer confidence, raise short-term borrowing costs for taxpayers, and negatively impact the credit rating of the United States.''

Sec. Yellen Letter to Speaker McCarthy by Daily Caller News Foundation on Scribd

The letter comes shortly after House Republicans passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, a bill that raises the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for cuts to spending on Democratic priorities, such as repealing tax credits for green technology under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Biden-Harris Student Debt Relief Initiative. While most Republicans had supported the bill, it was only passed narrowly after some representatives opposed the repeal of IRA ethanol subsidies. (RELATED: WILFORD: McCarthy's Latest Debt Triumph May Not Be Enough)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has called the Limit, Save, Grow Act ''dead on arrival'' in the Senate.

Yellen's letter also announced that the Treasury Department would be suspending State and Local Government Series (SLGS) Treasury securities, which are issued by the federal government to help states and municipalities comply with local tax rules but count against the debt limit, according to the letter.

McCarthy, meanwhile, has sought to compel Biden and Democrats to negotiate with him over his proposed spending cuts to resolve the impasse, which has so far been unsuccessful.

''The White House needs to ultimately get into this negotiation. The president's been in hiding for two months. That's not acceptable to Americans. They expect the president to sit in a room with Speaker McCarthy and start negotiating, not hiding,'' said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise on ABC.

McCarthy's office has been contacted for a request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 15:09

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 2, 2023 ~

There are two critical things you need to know about JPMorgan Chase's Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon's ability to stabilize the banking crisis: (1) he's tried twice and failed both times; (2) his bank is a key financier of hedge funds, some of which are undermining bank stock prices with short selling.

The Financial Times reported on April 5 that ''Hedge funds made more than $7bn in profits by betting against bank shares during the recent crisis that rocked the sector, their biggest such haul since the 2008 financial crisis.'' Shares of First Republic Bank have lost billions of dollars more in market value since April 5, meaning the $7 billion haul for short sellers is now an understatement.

The one thing that would help dramatically to stem the banking crisis is for President Biden (a man who derives his powers from U.S. voters rather than a p.r. machine like Dimon) to immediately issue an Executive Order halting the short selling of federally-insured bank stocks. As of right now, short sellers see an easy path to picking a regional or community bank target, or a bank that got in bed with crypto companies, or some inscrutable federally-insured fintech bank, and driving its share price into the ground while minting billions for themselves.

This is now a matter of national security to the United States. The second largest bank failure in U.S. history just occurred on May 1 with First Republic Bank. The third largest bank failure in U.S. history occurred on March 10 with Silicon Valley Bank. The fourth largest bank failure in U.S. history occurred on March 12 with Signature Bank. In each case, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the federal agency that insures bank deposits up to $250,000 per depositor per bank, was on the hook for losses on underwater assets at the banks. It will book tens of billions of dollars in losses to its Deposit Insurance Fund as a result. (The largest bank failure in U.S. history was Washington Mutual. That occurred in 2008. JPMorgan Chase was allowed to take it over, just as happened with First Republic Bank yesterday.)

The FDIC simply cannot afford for this banking crisis to pick up momentum.

Also, something else unthinkable occurred on March 19. The Swiss government stripped shareholders of two publicly-traded banks from voting on the shotgun marriage of collapsing Credit Suisse and its stronger rival, UBS. Both banks are highly interconnected to U.S. mega banks and are regulated as G-SIBS '' Global Systemically Important Banks.

The chart above is pretty much all you need to know about the prediction from Jamie Dimon yesterday that his mega bank's purchase of First Republic Bank has brought the current banking crisis to an end. Each of these publicly-traded stocks in the chart above is the parent of a federally-insured bank. Six of them experienced a percentage loss in the double digits by the close of trading yesterday. Five others fell many multiples of the losses experienced by the broader Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Jamie Dimon's record on forecasting future events is not something to write home about. He is, after all, the same guy that called the London Whale hoopla in the media ''a tempest in a teapot.'' Not long thereafter, it was revealed that his bank's derivative traders in London, supervised by an unlicensed woman who worked down the hall from Dimon in New York, had used customers' deposits to trade risky derivatives and lost $6.2 billion of customers' deposits. The U.S. Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (which used to conduct highly sophisticated investigations of Wall Street corruption but now seems to have been muzzled in a kind of witness protection program when it comes to Wall Street) issued a 300-page investigative report on that London Whale ''tempest in a teapot'' in March of 2013.

The late Senator John McCain, co-chair of the Subcommittee at the time, said this in his opening remarks at a related hearing:

'''...The 'London Whale' incident matters to the Federal Government because the traders at JPMorgan were making risky bets using excess deposits, portions of which were federally insured. These excess deposits should have been used to provide loans for Main Street businesses. Instead, JPMorgan used the money to bet on catastrophic risk.

''Through an extensive bipartisan investigation, this Subcommittee has uncovered a wealth of new information. Internal emails, memos, and interviews reveal that these trades were not conducted by a group of rogue traders, but that their superiors were well aware of their activities.

''Traders at JPMorgan's Chief Investment Office, the CIO, adopted a risky strategy with money they were supposed to use to hedge, or counter, risk. However, even the head of the CIO could only provide a 'guesstimate' as to what exactly the portfolio was supposed to hedge. And JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon admitted that the portfolio had 'morphed' into something that created new and potentially larger risks. In the words of JPMorgan's primary Federal regulator, it would require 'make-believe voodoo magic' to make the portfolio actually look like a hedge.

''Top officials at JPMorgan allowed these excessive losses to occur by permitting the CIO to continually breach all of the bank's own risk limits. When the risk limits threatened to impede their risky behavior, they decided to manipulate the models.

''Disturbingly, the bank's primary regulator, the OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency], failed to take action even after red flags warned that JPMorgan was breaching its risk limits. These regulators fell asleep at the switch and failed to use the tools at their disposal to effectively curb JPMorgan's appetite for risk.

''However, JPMorgan actively impeded the OCC's oversight. The CIO refused to release key investment data to the OCC and even claimed that the regulator was trying to 'destroy' the bank's business.

''After these losses were uncovered by the press, JPMorgan chose to conceal its errors and, in doing so, top officials at the bank misinformed investors, regulators, and the public. In an April 2012 earnings call, then Chief Financial Officer Douglas Braunstein falsely told investors and the public that the bank had been 'fully transparent to regulators.'

''The deception did not end there. During the same earnings call, Mr. Dimon tried to downplay the significance of the losses by infamously characterizing them as 'a complete tempest in a teapot''...

''Let me be clear: JPMorgan completely disregarded risk limits and stonewalled Federal regulators. It is unsettling that a group of traders made reckless decisions with federally insured money and that all of this was done with the full awareness of top officials at JPMorgan. This bank appears to have entertained '-- indeed, embraced'--the idea that it was 'too big to fail.' In fact, with regard to how it managed the derivatives that are the subject of today's hearing, it seems to have developed a business model based on that notion '-- the notion that they are too big to fail.

''It is our duty to the American public to remind the financial industry that high-stakes gambling with federally insured deposits will not be tolerated. In 2012, the 'London Whale' trades resulted in a $6 billion loss. What if it was $60 billion? Or $100 billion? Does JPMorgan operate under the assumption that the taxpayer will bail them out again? What place does taxpayers' underwriting of the big banks' disregard for 'moral hazard' have in the proper operation of a truly free market?''

You can see why Senator Elizabeth Warren is quite upset about Jamie Dimon's mega bank being allowed to get even bigger with the purchase of First Republic Bank.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 14:45

You cannot select more than 25 topics Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.

This is the Git repository containing Fediverse Enhancment Proposals (FEPs).

A Fediverse Enhancement Proposal (FEP) is a document that provides information to the Fediverse community. The goal of a FEP is to improve interoperability and well-being of diverse services, applications and communities that form the Fediverse.

The FEP Process is an initiative of the SocialHub developer community, a liaison of the W3C Social Web Incubator Community Group. For ongoing and past discussion see the SocialHub FEP category.

FEPsSubmitting a FEPDo you have an idea, opinion or information that you want to share with the wider Fediverse community? You may do so with a Fediverse Enhancement Proposal (FEP).

To create and submit a FEP:

Fork this repository, and then clone it to your local machine. Check the Codeberg Cheat sheet on how to prepare your Pull Request.Think of a title for the FEP you want to submit.Compute the identifier of the FEP by computing the hash of the title. This can be done with following Unix command:$ echo -n "The title of my proposal" | sha256sum | cut -c-4b3f0Copy the FEP template (fep-0000-template.md) to the feps/ folder and change the filename to fep-abcd.md where abcd is the identifier computed in step 2.Write down your idea in the newly created file and commit it to a new branch in your repository (ex. fep-xxxx).Create a Pull Request to complete Step 1 of FEP-a4ed: The Fediverse Enhancement Proposal Process. Further process is described in FEP-a4ed.EditorsThe list of FEP's is facilitated by Editors who are listed in the EDITORS.md file. Editors are neutral custodians of the FEP process, who merge PR's, create tracking issues, and start discussion threads for each FEP in the SocialHub developer community forum.

ContributingDo you have ideas to improve the FEP Process? Post your suggestions to the issue tracker, or on the SocialHub forum. The SocialHub developer community is a "DoOcracy" which means: ''pick up any task you want, and then steer it to completion''. Your contributions are most welcome, so delve in and find out how you can help.

LicenseCC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

To the extent possible under law, the authors of this document have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 14:39

Des Moines, Iowa '-- The Iowa legislature is planning to spend an extra 750 thousand dollars to prepare for a possible outbreak of African Swine Fever.

Representative Norlin Mommsen of DeWitt says the virus, which causes severe bleeding and death, has killed pigs in the Caribbean Islands.

https://kiwaradio.com/wp-content/uploads/RIkayASF1.mp3The Senate has already approved a budget for the Iowa Department of Agriculture that includes 250 thousand dollars toward the development of a vaccine and 250 thousand dollars to buy equipment to euthanize pigs. Mommsen says it ensures state officials could quickly respond to the first report of an Iowa herd getting African Swine Fever.

https://kiwaradio.com/wp-content/uploads/RIkayASF3.mp3The House is expected to approve the budget bill this week. It includes another 250-thousand dollar boost to the state's program for responding to an outbreak of a foreign animal disease.

https://kiwaradio.com/wp-content/uploads/RIkayASF2.mp3According to the Iowa Pork Producers Association, on a typical day, there are about 24 million hogs in Iowa. African Swine Fever is not a threat to humans, but once a pig is infected it is highly contagious to other pigs and the mortality rate is 95 percent.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 14:19

The Supreme Court announced Monday it will take up a case next term that could overturn a 40-year-old precedent '-- and reshape the acronym-heavy DC administrative state.

By opting to hear a case involving New Jersey fishermen, the justices will return to the high court's 1984 ruling in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the most commonly cited Supreme Court cases '-- and the bane of conservatives.

In the Chevron case, the court articulated a two-part ''deference test'' '-- known as the ''Chevron test'' '-- which found that federal agencies may interpret statutes without direct congressional approval, if legislators left the laws unclear and if the agency's interpretation was deemed reasonable.

Four of the Court's six conservative justices have already expressed skepticism about the concept of deference outlined in Chevron.

In 2016, while still an appeals court judge, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the ruling allowed ''executive bureaucracies to swallow huge amounts of core judicial and legislative power and concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers' design.''

The case will be further complicated by news that the newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, will recuse herself after hearing arguments in a similar case while a DC appeals court judge.

The Supreme Court will take up a case next term involving New Jersey fishermen that will challenge federal regulatory overreach. APLast June, the Supreme Court signaled support for placing limits on federal regulation when it ruled against the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to place caps on greenhouse gas emissions.

Days earlier, the court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that bestowed a constitutional right to abortion nationwide.

The case at hand, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo will settle a dispute between a New Jersey fishing company and the Commerce Department over whether federal regulations force them to pay hundreds of dollars each day to third-party contractors, who are required to monitor activities on board fishing boats and report back to the government to help shaping rules and regulations.

Loper Bright Enterprises must pay federally mandated monitors as much as $700 per day. YouTube/Cause of Action Institute Four of the Court's six conservative justices have already expressed skepticism about the concept of deference outlined in Chevron. AP The Court's conservative supermajority has been willing to revisit longstanding precedents. REUTERSFormer US Solicitor General Paul Clement, who served under former President George W. Bush, and attorneys with Cause of Action Institute petitioned the Court in November to overrule the 2020 federal mandate that commercial fishing groups pay for the monitors.

Loper Bright argues that Congress never gave federal regulators authority to require that it shoulder the expense of being monitored.

The group estimates the watchdogs could make more than $700 per day '-- more than even some boat captains earn.

''Our way of life is in the hands of these justices, and we hope they will keep our families and our community in mind as they weigh their decision,'' Bill Bright said. YouTube/Cause of Action Institute The justices will return to the deference precedent from the 1984 ruling in Chevron. YouTube/Cause of Action Institute''We are delighted that the Court took this case not only to potentially deliver justice to these fishermen, but also to reconsider a doctrine that has enabled the widespread expansion of unchecked executive authority,'' Clement said.

''We are grateful to the Supreme Court for taking our case,'' said Bill Bright, a New Jersey fisherman and plaintiff in the case. ''Our way of life is in the hands of these justices, and we hope they will keep our families and our community in mind as they weigh their decision.''

At least 38 organizations and individuals have also submitted amicus briefs in defense of the fishermen's case, one of which signed by 18 state attorneys general.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 14:15

Chevron deference, or Chevron doctrine, is an administrative law principle that compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency's interpretation of an ambiguous or unclear statute that Congress delegated to the agency to administer. The principle derives its name from the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.[1]

Though it has been applied inconsistently across cases, justices had been reluctant to formally indicate any desire to formally abandon the doctrine. However, since 2015, ''[i]f one counts King v. Burwell, all nine justices have at least once signed an opinion explicitly holding that Chevron should not apply in a situation where the administrative law textbooks would previously have said that it must apply.''[2]

The Trump administration was open about its desire to nominate judicial appointees who were, according to a March 2018 New York Times article, "devoted to a legal doctrine that challenges the broad power federal agencies have to interpret laws and enforce regulations, often without being subject to judicial oversight." The criteria were first applied when nominating Justice Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gorsuch's opposition to the Chevron doctrine made him the model for Trump administration judicial appointments.[3]

What is Chevron deference? Chevron deference is a doctrine of judicial deference that compels federal courts, in reviewing a federal government agency's action, to defer to the agency's construction of a statute that Congress directed the agency to administer. The original, two-step Chevron process was first outlined in the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court opinion for Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

Chevron's two-step review The U.S. Supreme Court's 1984 ruling in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. provided federal courts with the following two-step process for reviewing an agency's interpretation of a statute:

Step one A court must determine whether Congress expressed intent in the statute and, if so, whether or not the statute's intent is ambiguous.

If the intent of Congress is unambiguous, or clearly stated, then the inquiry must end. Agencies must carry out the clearly expressed intent of Congress.If, however, the intent of Congress is unclear, or if the statute lacks direct language on a specific point, then a federal court must decide whether the agency interpretation is based on a permissible construction of the statute'--one that is not arbitrary or capricious or obviously contrary to the statute.Step two In examining the agency's reasonable construction, a court must assess whether the decision of Congress to leave an ambiguity, or fail to include express language on a specific point, was done explicitly or implicitly.

If the decision of Congress was explicit, then the agency's regulations are binding on federal courts unless those regulations are arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to statute.If the decision of Congress was implicit, then so long as the agency's interpretation is reasonable, a federal court cannot substitute its own statutory construction superior to the agency's construction.[4][5]Preliminary review: Chevron step zero In 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Mead Corporation narrowed the scope of application for Chevron deference and shed light on a preliminary step in the Chevron process that scholars later described as Chevron step zero. Under Chevron step zero, a federal court asks the initial question of whether or not the Chevron framework applies to the situation. In other words, a federal court must determine whether or not Congress intended for agencies or courts to possess interpretive authority over a statute before embarking on the Chevron two-step process. Administrative law scholar Cass Sunstein coined the phrase "Chevron step zero" in a 2006 article for the Virginia Law Review.[6][7][8][9]

Background: Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council See also: Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. was decided on June 25, 1984, by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case concerned a disagreement over a change in the Environmental Protection Agency's interpretation of a permitting provision of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977.[10][11]

The case questioned how federal courts should view a federal agency's interpretation of a statute that Congress directed the agency to implement. The Supreme Court held that federal courts should defer to an agency's interpretation of a statute under these circumstances, unless the court determines that the agency's interpretation is "arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to the statute."[12][13]

The ruling established the principle of Chevron deference, a practice in which federal courts, in reviewing a federal government agency's action, defer to the agency's construction of a statute that Congress delegated to the agency to administer.[4]

U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Chevron Justice John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion for a unanimous six-person court. Justice Stevens began his opinion by clarifying the scope and extent to which a federal court should defer to a federal agency's interpretation of a statute, which the agency itself has authority and obligation to administer. These principles are known today as Chevron deference:[5]

''When a court reviews an agency's construction of the statute which it administers, it is confronted with two questions. First, always, is the question whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue. If the intent of Congress is clear, that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress. If, however, the court determines Congress has not directly addressed the precise question at issue, the court does not simply impose its own construction on the statute, as would be necessary in the absence of an administrative interpretation. Rather, if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute. ...

If Congress has explicitly left a gap for the agency to fill, there is an express delegation of authority to the agency to elucidate a specific provision of the statute by regulation. Such legislative regulations are given controlling weight unless they are arbitrary, capricious, or manifestly contrary to the statute. Sometimes the legislative delegation to an agency on a particular question is implicit rather than explicit. In such a case, a court may not substitute its own construction of a statutory provision for a reasonable interpretation made by the administrator of an agency.[14]

''Chevron deference in theory and practice Support and opposition Support EfficiencyIn a March 2017 SCOTUSblog post, contributor Eric Citron summarized arguments for and against the application of Chevron deference. According to Citron, supporters assert that the principle allows federal agencies to operate most efficiently. Under Chevron, agencies are able to interpret the statutes that Congress has instructed them to administer and issue the necessary administrative rules, rather than first seeking judicial approval on each statutory interpretation. Citron observed that if an agency were required to seek judicial approval for each regulation, supporters claim that the regulatory process would move at a snail's pace. Similarly, Citron noted a view among Chevron supporters that it would be inefficient for agencies to wait for Congress to legislate each technical detail of a policy. According to Citron, since legislators often struggle to reach compromises on broad policy objectives, Chevron supporters claim that Congress would not be able to quickly agree upon complex, technical regulatory details, such as the definition of "air pollutants" in the Clean Air Act, and pass the necessary legislation for implementation. Chevron deference, supporters contend, allows agencies to efficiently fill in the technical gaps and administer Congress' broad legislative goals.[15][16]

Harvard law professor Adrian Vermeule observed that "for many of the same reasons that agencies are better positioned than courts to interpret the procedural provisions contained in their organic statutes, agencies are also better positioned than courts to assess the marginal costs and benefits of additional increments of procedure for program beneficiaries and regulated actors," contributing to administrative efficiency.[17]

ExpertiseIn his opinion for Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Justice John Paul Stevens noted that federal judges are not experts in the field. According to Citron, Chevron proponents claim that agency officials have honed subject matter expertise in their specific area of regulation. Therefore, federal judges should defer to the expertise of agency officials to interpret statutes that Congress has required the agency to administer, given that the interpretation is deemed reasonable. As former Harvard administrative law professor Louis Jaffee observed in Judicial Control of Administrative Action, "Since procedural decisions should be made to serve the substantive task, it follows that expertness in matters of substance [is] relevant to the exercise of procedural discretion."[15][18][17]

In Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., Justice Stevens remarked:

''Judges are not experts in the field, and are not part of either political branch of the Government. Courts must, in some cases, reconcile competing political interests, but not on the basis of the judges' personal policy preferences. In contrast, an agency to which Congress has delegated policymaking responsibilities may, within the limits of that delegation, properly rely upon the incumbent administration's views of wise policy to inform its judgments. While agencies are not directly accountable to the people, the Chief Executive is, and it is entirely appropriate for this political branch of the Government to make such policy choices - resolving the competing interests which Congress itself either inadvertently did not resolve, or intentionally left to be resolved by the agency charged with the administration of the statute in light of everyday realities.[19][14]''Delegated authorityIn a speech at Duke University School of Law, Justice Antonin Scalia argued that in a case where Congress has expressly delegated the administration of a particular statue to a federal agency, the responsibility to interpret the statute rests with the agency. Thus, where Congress clearly intended to grant authority to an agency, Scalia stated that the courts should defer to the agency's interpretation.[18]

Justice Scalia observed:

''In my view, the theoretical justification for Chevron is no different from the theoretical justification for those pre-Chevron cases that sometimes deferred to agency legal determinations. As the D.C. Circuit, quoting the First Circuit, expressed it: 'The extent to which courts should defer to agency interpretations of law is ultimately "a function of Congress" intent on the subject as revealed in the particular statutory scheme at issue.' An ambiguity in a statute committed to agency implementation can be attributed to either of two congressional desires:

(1) Congress intended a particular result, but was not clear about it; or

(2) Congress had no particular intent on the subject, but meant to leave its resolution to the agency.

When the former is the case, what we haveis genuinely a question of law, properly to be resolved by the courts.When the latter is the case, what we have is the conferral of discretionupon the agency, and the only question of law presented to the courts iswhether the agency has acted within the scope of its discretion-i.e.,whether its resolution of the ambiguity is reasonable.[20][14]

''Opposition Separation of powersIn his opinion for Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch while serving on the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, Justice Neil Gorsuch argued that federal agencies exercise an unconstitutional combination of executive, legislative, and judicial functions. According to Gorsuch, the resulting concentration of power in federal agencies increases the power of the executive branch and infringes on the separation of powers between the three branches of government. Gorsuch's argument harkens back to James Madison's declaration in Federalist 47 that "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."[21][22]

Justice Gorsuch observed:

''There's an elephant in the room with us today. We have studiously attempted to work our way around it and even left it unremarked. But the fact is Chevron and Brand X permit executive bureaucracies to swallow huge amounts of core judicial and legislative power and concentrate federal power in a way that seems more than a little difficult to square with the Constitution of the framers' design. Maybe the time has come to face the behemoth.[22][14]''In a 2018 opinion piece published by The Hill, attorney Mark Holden of Koch Industries and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce argued that Chevron deference violates the separation of powers, weakens the judiciary, and biases court proceedings in favor of the government:[23]

''You could say that when it comes to administrative-law jurisprudence, lady justice is not blind;her blindfold is off and she's winking at the lawyers, who work for the most powerful litigant in the country '-- the federal government. ... This is not about rejecting the administrative state '-- it's about ensuring the judicial branch plays the role it was meant to play under Article III of the Constitution and fully formed in Marbury v. Madison. Federal judges are obliged to decide the law. They should 'defer' to the decisions of unaccountable bureaucrats only when the law and the Constitution are in sync with the bureaucrats' interpretation.[14]

''Judicial authorityIn The Administrative Threat, Columbia law professor Philip Hamburger argued, "When judges defer to agency interpretations, they depart from their judicial office or duty, under Article III of the Constitution, to exercise their own independent judgement." Thus, according to Hamburger, deference to federal agency interpretations of statute undermines the authority of the judiciary to determine and interpret the law. In City of Arlington v. Federal Communications Commission, Chief Justice John Roberts argued that "we do not defer to an agency's interpretation of an ambiguous provision unless Congress wants us to, and whether Congress wants us to is a question that courts, not agencies, must decide.''[24][25]

Gorsuch put forth an analogous argument in Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch:

''Yet, rather than completing the task expressly assigned to us, rather than 'interpret[ing] . . . statutory provisions,' declaring what the law is, and overturning inconsistent agency action, Chevron step two tells us we must allow an executive agency to resolve the meaning of any ambiguous statutory provision. In this way, Chevron seems no less than a judge-made doctrine for the abdication of the judicial duty. Of course, some role remains for judges even under Chevron. At Chevron step one, judges decide whether the statute is 'ambiguous,' and at step two they decide whether the agency's view is 'reasonable.' But where in all this does a court interpret the law and say what it is? When does a court independently decide what the statute means and whether it has or has not vested a legal right in a person? Where Chevron applies that job seems to have gone extinct.[22][14]''Justice Clarence Thomas made similar observations in his concurrence for Michigan v. EPA:

''Chevron deference precludes judges from exercising that judgment, forcing them to abandon what they believe is 'the best reading of an ambiguous statute' in favor of an agency's construction. Brand X, supra, at 983. It thus wrests from Courts the ultimate interpretative authority to 'say what the law is,' Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 177 (1803), and hands it over to the Executive. See Brand X, supra, at 983 (noting that the judicial construction of an ambiguous statute is 'not authoritative'). Such a transfer is in tension with Article III's Vesting Clause, which vests the judicial power exclusively in Article III courts, not administrative agencies. U. S. Const., Art. III, §1."[26][14]''InstabilitySince a federal agency's statutory interpretations can vary according to the policy priorities of the president, Gorsuch noted that the practice allows federal agencies to change regulatory interpretations at the whim of the executive, causing regulatory instability for affected individuals and industries.

In his opinion for Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch, Gorsuch observed:

''Perhaps allowing agencies rather than courts to declare the law's meaning bears some advantages, but it also bears its costs. And the founders were wary of those costs, knowing that, when unchecked by independent courts exercising the job of declaring the law's meaning, executives throughout history had sought to exploit ambiguous laws as license for their own prerogative.[22][14]''Empirical research about the usage of Chevron Eskridge and Baer, 2008 In 2008, professors William Eskridge Jr. and Lauren E. Baer studied "all Supreme Court cases decided between Chevron (1983 Term) and Hamdan (2005 Term) in which a federal agency interpretation of a statute was at issue, 1,014 in all." According to the authors:[27]

''For us, the most striking finding of our study was that in the majority of all cases'--53.6% of them'--the Court invoked no deference regime at all. This finding is especially notable in light of the fact that we searched hard for signs of deference and counted quite liberally (including Supreme Court reliance on amicus briefs, which formed the bulk of our consultative-deference category). This striking finding is also conceptually significant. It is contrary to both the Court's statements about its own deference practice and the academic literature on the topic. Indeed, in a legal culture where the Court and commentators are obsessed with delineating the distinct domain of Chevron, and arguing over whether the Court's jurisprudence has room for Skidmore, the idea that, more often than not, the Court would not invoke a deference regime is highly counterintuitive.[27][14]

''The following table from Eskridge and Baer's study shows a breakdown of the various deference regimes cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in agency interpretation cases from the 1983 through 2005 terms:[27]

The Supreme Court's Continuum of DeferenceDeference RegimeForm of DeferencePercentage of Cases in PopulationAgency Win RateNo DeferenceAd hoc judicial reasoning53.6%66.0%Anti-DeferenceThe Court invokes a presumption against the agency interpretation in criminal cases (the rule of lenity) and in some cases in which the agency interpretation raises serious constitutional concerns (the canon of constitutional avoidance)6.8%36.2%Consultative DeferenceThe Court, without invoking a named deference regime, relies on some input from the agency (e.g. amicus briefs, interpretive rules or guidance, or manuals) and uses that input to guide its reasoning and decisionmaking process17.8%80.6%SkidmoreAgency interpretation is entitled to "respect proportional to its power to persuade," with such power determined by the interpretation's "thoroughness, logic and expertness"; its "fit with prior interpretations"; etc.6.7%73.5%Beth IsraelPre-Chevron test permitting reasonable interpretations that are consistent with the statute4.8%73.5%ChevronReasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes accepted. If the statute is clear, no deference to agency8.3%76.2%Seminole RockStrong deference afforded to an agency's interpretations of its own regulations1.1%90.9%Curtiss-WrightSuper-strong deference to executive interpretations involving foreign affairs and national security0.9%100.0% Eskridge and Raso, 2010 In 2010, Eskridge and Connor Raso published a follow up to the Eskridge and Baer study of agency interpretation cases decided by the United States Supreme Court from the 1983 through 2005 terms. Starting with the original Eskridge and Baer data set of 1,014 cases, Eskridge and Raso "excluded agency litigating positions (the agency's position on a case as expressed via briefs to the Court) because they are not entitled to a deference regime under any theory or doctrine. ... We were left with 667 cases in the Eskridge and Baer data set that were potentially eligible for a deference regime under administrative law doctrine."[28]

Eskridge and Raso drew several conclusions from their empirical analysis. First, they argue that the data shows the U.S. Supreme Court does not apply Chevron and other announced forms of deference as binding precedents. Instead, the authors argue that Chevron operates as an optional canon of interpretation that the court applies episodically, not systematically. Eskridge and Raso also identify factors that they found to have an influence on the justices' decisionmaking, including ideological considerations, concerns about the rule of law, and attention to the preferences of Congress and the president:[28]

''These empirical findings deepen the suggestion of our previous statistical study, that the Court does not apply its announced deference regimes predictably and that those regimes do not operate as a formal constraint on the Justices. Stated doctrinally, our empirical evidence falsifies the proposition that any of the Justices treats Chevron and the Court's other announced deference regimes as precedents strictly binding on them as a matter of stare decisis. Especially with regard to Justice Scalia, who is a fan of both Chevron and stare decisis (and apparently believes that Chevron ought to be followed as a matter of stare decisis), this finding is most surprising.

If formal deference regimes do not drive the Justices' voting in agency interpretation cases, what does? Our empirical analysis finds that ideological concerns influence application of deference doctrine. Justices are significantly less deferential toward agency policies with which they disagree. On the other hand, we also find that the Court's announced policies justifying deference (namely, congressional delegation of lawmaking authority and consistency of agency interpretations over time) significantly influence the Justices' willingness to go along with agency interpretations. This is perhaps our most striking finding from a political science perspective, as most political scientists assume or believe that rule-of-law considerations play no discernible role in judicial behavior. Quite the contrary, we show that they do play a role-though the legal bite of deference regimes is ad hoc and not entirely predictable, much as one would expect if the regimes operated like canons of statutory construction rather than like binding precedents. Also contrary to much conventional wisdom among political scientists, we find that the preferences of the President and Congress seem to influence the Court's application of deference doctrine.[28][14]

''Chevron and a new period of uncertainty Once considered canonical judicial doctrine'--cited 81,000 times as of 2018 in legal arguments since its first articulation in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.'--Chevron deference has been seen by some scholars as "entering a period of uncertainty, after long seeming to enjoy consensus support on the Court.'' What has emerged since 2015 has been a period "in which it seems that the Court may be more willing to explicitly refine the doctrine, to limit its application in certain ways, and to articulate new exceptions."[2]

Hailed by Kenneth Starr during the Reagan administration as a Magna Carta for use in federal administrative agency deregulation, Chevron has been a tool for subsequent administrations for deregulatory as well as increased regulatory purposes. The Obama administration, for instance, relied on Chevron in its case for the Affordable Care Act.[29]

Once supported by conservative-leaning legal authorities including Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas, Thomas, for instance, has in more recent years reversed his views. He wrote the 2005 opinion in National Cable & Telecommunications Ass'n v. Brand X Internet Services, seen as "one of the Court's most robust articulations of the commandment for judges to defer to administrative agencies." In 2015's Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, however, Thomas' views had changed; his ruling in that case "derided his own prior majority opinion."[2]

Prior to joining the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch declared Chevron to be ''no less than a judge-made doctrine for the abdication of the judicial duty.'' Gorsuch's opposition to deference regimes became the model for Trump administration judicial appointments.

But opposition to Chevron has materialized along a broader ideological spectrum. According to a 2018 study, ''[i]f one counts King v. Burwell, all nine justices have at least once signed an opinion explicitly holding that Chevron should not apply in a situation where the administrative law textbooks would previously have said that it must apply."[2]

There had been uncertainty since the inception of Chevron about why the courts had appeared to apply deference in one case but not another. But because prior to 2015 "no justice had announced any desire to formally abandon Chevron, the dominant streams of administrative law scholarship were reluctant to draw doctrinal conclusions from the justices' failure to practice what they preached." The future of Chevron is therefore unclear. As one study stated, "despite all the fanfare, it is now well known that the Supreme Court itself applies Chevron inconsistently at best."[2]

Some commentators in 2021 had anticipated that American Hospital Association v. Becerra would provide the Supreme Court with an opportunity to limit Chevron deference. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, however, made no mention of the doctrine in the majority opinion, leading SCOTUSblog analyst James Romoser to question whether "the doctrine may be shunned into oblivion" rather than explicitly overturned.[16]

Chevron and the states See also: State responses to judicial deferenceChevron deference compels federal courts to defer to a federal agency's interpretation of ambiguous statutes. State-level approaches to judicial deference vary significantly. State courts are not, by virtue of the Chevron doctrine, obliged to defer to state-level administrative agencies. Some state courts, however, have implemented judicial deference to state administrative agencies similar to the deference established federally in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. and other Supreme Court cases. Below are some responses to judicial deference made by state governments:

Arizona bill regarding judicial review of state administrative decisions signed into law

Arizona House Bill 2238 (2018): On April 11, 2018, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) signed House Bill 2238 into law. The law amended Arizona Revised Statutes §12-910, which addresses judicial review of administrative decisions. H.B. 2238 instructs courts handling proceedings between an agency and regulated party to decide all questions of law without deference to government agencies, including on matters of constitutional, statutory, and regulatory interpretation. This requirement "applies in any action for judicial review of any agency action that is authorized by law." The law also included two exceptions to this requirement. First, for healthcare-related appeals arising from a specific article of Arizona law, courts are instructed to defer to agencies unless they find that the agency action in question "is not supported by substantial evidence, is contrary to law, is arbitrary and capricious or is an abuse of discretion." Second, agencies created pursuant to the Arizona Corporation Commission (the state's utility regulator) are exempt. At the time it was passed, the law was the first of its kind at the state or federal level.[30][31][32]Proposed Florida ballot measure would prohibit courts from deferring to state agency's interpretation of rules in legal cases

Florida Amendment 6, Marsy's Law Crime Victims Rights, Judicial Retirement Age, and Judicial Interpretation of Laws and Rules Amendment (2018): This proposed ballot measure is one of eight constitutional amendments referred to the November 6, 2018, ballot by the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) on April 16, 2018. The CRC bundled three proposed amendments related to trials, judges, and courts into this one ballot measure. If enacted, the third part of the measure would prohibit state courts from deferring to an administrative agency's interpretation of a statute or rule in legal cases. Instead, the measure would require state courts to interpret statutes or rules de novo. To interpret a statute or rule de novo means to interpret a statute or rule without deference to the legal opinions of administrative agencies or previous judgments.[33]State legislation related to judicial review and deference The following table lists bills related to judicial review of and deference to administrative decisions that have been introduced in state legislatures. Bills are compiled and monitored by BillTrack50 and sorted by action history.

Other types of deference See also: Deference in the context of the administrative stateBelow is a list of various deference regimes cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in agency interpretation cases:[27]

No deference: ad hoc judicial reasoningAnti-deference: the court invokes a presumption against the agency interpretation in criminal cases (the rule of lenity) and in some cases in which the agency interpretation raises serious constitutional concerns (the canon of constitutional avoidance)Consultative deference: the court, without invoking a named deference regime, relies on some input from the agency (e.g. amicus briefs, interpretive rules or guidance, or manuals) and uses that input to guide its reasoning and decisionmaking processSkidmore deference: agency interpretation is entitled to "respect proportional to its power to persuade," with such power determined by the interpretation's "thoroughness, logic and expertness"; its "fit with prior interpretations"; etc.Beth Israel deference: pre-Chevron test permitting reasonable interpretations that are consistent with the statuteChevron deference: reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes accepted. If the statute is clear, no deference to agencySeminole Rock deference (also known as Auer deference): strong deference afforded to an agency's interpretations of its own regulationsCurtiss-Wright: super-strong deference to executive interpretations involving foreign affairs and national securityNoteworthy events Fifth Circuit declines to apply Chevron deference in bump stock ruling (2023) The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 13-3 on January 6, 2023, that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its statutory authority when it adopted a rule banning bump stock devices. Since the rule implemented criminal penalties for those found in violation, the court departed from prior appellate court reasoning on the issue and declined to apply Chevron deference to the agency's changed interpretation of the underlying statutes.[34][35]

Following guidance issued by President Donald Trump (R) in 2018, the ATF changed its interpretation of the Gun Control Act and the National Firearms Act to find that bump stocks qualify as machine guns and can therefore be prohibited. Gun owners and organizations challenged the rule, arguing in multiple lawsuits that the agency lacked the authority under federal law to issue the rule. Three appellate courts upheld the ban and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to reconsider the decisions'--leaving in place a district court ruling that applied Chevron deference to the ATF's changed interpretation of the law.[34][35]

After a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit upheld the ban in December 2019, the en banc court voted to enjoin the ATF rule. The majority concluded in part that the imposition of criminal penalties by a federal agency prompts the rule of lenity to supersede Chevron deference. Judge Jennifer Elrod, writing for the majority, argued that ''Chevron deference shifts the responsibility for lawmaking from the Congress to the executive, at least in part. That tradeoff cannot be justified for criminal statutes, in which the public's entitlement to clarity in the law is at its highest.''[34][35]

The ATF had not commented on the ruling as of January 19, 2023.

SCOTUS considers Chevron deference in Medicare challenge (2021-2022) See also: American Hospital Association v. BecerraThe following timeline identifies key events in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, a case that concerned applications of Chevron deference.

The case challenged a 2018 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decision to reduce the reimbursement rate that HHS pays certain hospitals for treating Medicare patients. A hospital coalition filed suit, arguing that HHS' decision in the absence of adequate supporting data violated the Medicare statute. The case questioned whether courts should exercise Chevron deference and defer to HHS' formulation of Medicare drug reimbursement rates according to the agency's statutory interpretation.

June 2022: SCOTUS finds HHS violated statutory authority, declines to weigh in on Chevron deference The U.S. Supreme Court on June 15, 2022, unanimously held that HHS' interpretation of the underlying statute in the case was flawed and that the agency acted in violation of its statutory authority when it reduced the reimbursement rates. Justice Brett Kavanaugh's majority opinion made no mention of Chevron deference.[36]

November 2021: SCOTUS hears oral argument in case that could limit Chevron deference The U.S. Supreme Court on November 30, 2021, heard oral argument in American Hospital Association v. Becerra, a case that could have affected the scope of agency powers by limiting future applications of Chevron deference.

The court ''appeared receptive to the claim that Medicare overstepped its authority when it cut the amount that it paid certain hospitals for drugs they dispensed in their outpatient departments,'' observed University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley in an analysis for SCOTUSblog. ''None of the justices voiced sympathy with the government's argument that Congress had precluded judicial review of the question,'' Bagley continued, adding that ''several of the conservative justices toyed with the possibility of abandoning Chevron deference.''[37]

Professors Richard A. Epstein and Mario Loyola contributed an opinion piece to The Wall Street Journal arguing that a potential ruling narrowing applications of Chevron deference would serve to rein in agency authority. ''Chipping away at Chevron won't by itself solve the larger problem in the rise of the administrative state,'' claimed the authors. ''But curbing abuses in agency rulemaking by returning to the Administrative Procedure Act would be a good start.''[38]

Staff writer Matt Ford of The New Republic, on the other hand, argued that such a ruling would empower judges to substitute their reasoning for that of neutral policy experts. ''That would be a massive shift in the separation of powers'--maybe back to Congress and the American people themselves, as Gorsuch and the other justices have suggested, but certainly towards the unelected judges who would be freed from the burden of deference to, well, anyone,'' wrote Ford.[39]

Sixth Circuit considers applications of Chevron deference in criminal contexts (2021-2022) The following timeline identifies key events in a 2021 lawsuit, Gun Owners of America v. Garland, a case that concerned applications of Chevron deference to agency interpretations of statutes that carry criminal penalties.

October 2022: SCOTUS declines to hear case The Supreme Court issued an order on October 3, 2022, declining to hear Gun Owners of America v. Garland. The order did not provide a reason for the decision.[40]

December 2021: Judges split on appropriateness of Chevron deference in criminal contexts following rehearing en banc A majority of the judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit voted to grant en banc review of this case and vacate the previous decision on June 25, 2021. The full court's decision was evenly divided following arguments on October 20, 2021. Eight judges voted to affirm the decision of the district court and eight judges voted to reverse the decision. As a result of the split decision, the district court's ruling was affirmed on December 3, 2021.[41]

March 2021: Sixth Circuit three-judge panel limits applications of Chevron deference in criminal contexts A divided three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on March 25, 2021, limited applications of Chevron deference in the criminal context in its Gun Owners of America v. Garland decision, which invalidated the Trump administration's bump stock ban.[42][43]

The court declined to apply Chevron deference to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm's statutory interpretation supporting the agency's rule that allowed bump stocks to be classified as machine guns. The court held that Chevron deference did not apply because the law in question was a criminal statute. The court also found that the district court should have permitted the plaintiffs' request for an injunction to block the rule.[42][43]

''Consistent with our precedent and mandated by separation-of-powers and fair-notice concerns,'' wrote Judge Alice Batchelder in the opinion, ''we hold that an administering agency's interpretation of a criminal statute is not entitled to Chevron deference.''[42][43]

Judge Eric Murphy joined Judge Batchelder in the opinion. Judge Helene White dissented.[43]

Judge White disagreed with the court's limitation on Chevron deference. ''The Supreme Court has applied Chevron in the criminal context in three binding decisions'--Chevron itself, Babbitt, and O'Hagan'--and has never purported to overrule those cases,'' she wrote.[42][43]

The court remanded the case to the district court and eliminated the possibility of a nationwide injunction by limiting any subsequent injunctions to the four states within the Sixth Circuit.[42][43]

See also Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.Deference (administrative state)U.S. Supreme CourtExternal links U.S. Supreme Court homepageSearch Google News for this topic '†‘ Bloomberg, "Get Ready, Supreme Court Fans. Brush Up on Your Chevron Doctrine." February 3, 2017 '†‘ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper, "Loud and Soft Anti-Chevron Decisions," September 9, 2017 '†‘ New York Times, "Trump's New Judicial Litmus Test: Shrinking 'the Administrative State'," March 26, 2018 '†‘ 4.0 4.1 U.S. Department of Justice, "Chevron, U.S.A. v. Natural Res. Def. Council," accessed July 15, 2016 '†‘ 5.0 5.1 Supreme Court of the United States (via Findlaw), Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, decided June 25, 1984 '†‘ Virginia Law Review, "Chevron Step Zero," 2006 '†‘ Notre Dame Law Review, "Chevron Step Two's Domain," accessed May 22, 2018 '†‘ Fordham Law Review, "Step Zero After City of Arlington," 2014 '†‘ American Bar Association, "The decline of deference: Is the Supreme Court pruning back the Chevron doctrine?" accessed May 24, 2018 '†‘ JUSTIA, "Chevron Deference: Your Guide to Understanding Two of Today's SCOTUS Decisions," March 21, 2012 '†‘ FindLaw, "CHEVRON US A. v. NATURAL RES. DEF. COUNCIL," accessed August 16, 2017 '†‘ Legal Information Institute, "Chevron Deference," accessed August 18, 2017 '†‘ The Heritage Foundation, "Who Will Regulate the Regulators? Administrative Agencies, the Separation of Powers, and Chevron Deference," May 7, 2015 '†‘ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 14.8 14.9 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source. '†‘ 15.0 15.1 Christian Science Monitor, "Gorsuch hearings: Should agencies '' or courts '' decide the law?" March 22, 2017 '†‘ 16.0 16.1 SCOTUSblog, "The roots and limits of Gorsuch's views on Chevron deference," March 17, 2017 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name "blog" defined multiple times with different content '†‘ 17.0 17.1 Harvard Law Review, "Essay: Deference and Due Process," May 10, 2016 '†‘ 18.0 18.1 Bloomberg, "Get Ready, Supreme Court Fans. Brush Up on Your Chevron Doctrine." February 3, 2017 '†‘ FindLaw, "CHEVRON US A. v. NATURAL RES. DEF. COUNCIL," accessed August 30, 2017 '†‘ Duke Law Journal, "JUDICIAL DEFERENCE TO ADMINISTRATIVE INTERPRETATIONS OF LAW," June 1989 '†‘ The Avalon Project, "The Federalist Papers: No. 47," accessed August 30, 2017 '†‘ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit, "No. 14-9585, Gutierrez-Brizuela v. Lynch," August 23, 2016 '†‘ Mark Holden, "There's nothing 'fair' about judges tipping the scales in favor of federal agencies," April 5, 2018 '†‘ Heritage, "Who Will Regulate the Regulators? Administrative Agencies, the Separation of Powers, and Chevron Deference," May 7, 2015 '†‘ Hamburger, P. (2017). The Administrative Threat. New York, NY: Encounter Books. (page 43). '†‘ Legal Information Institute, "MICHIGAN v. EPA," accessed August 30, 2017 '†‘ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 The Georgetown Law Journal, "The Continuum of Deference: Supreme Court Treatment of Agency Statutory Interpretations from Chevron to Hamdan," 2008 '†‘ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Columbia Law Review, "Chevron as a Canon, Not a Precedent: An Empirical Study of What Motivates Justices in Agency Deference Cases," 2010 '†‘ New York Times, "Should Agencies Decide Law? Doctrine May Be Tested at Gorsuch Hearing," March 14, 2017 '†‘ Pace Law Library, "Arizona Passes New Law Limiting Deference to Agencies," April 12, 2018 '†‘ Arizona House of Representatives, "House Bill 2238," 2018 '†‘ Endangered Species Law and Policy, "Arizona becomes the First State to Eliminate Chevron Deference," April 12, 2018 '†‘ Constitution Revision Commission, "Proposal Analysis - P6," January 29, 2018 '†‘ 34.0 34.1 34.2 Reuters, "Bump stock ruling highlights appellate dispute: Can agencies decide what is a crime?" January 9, 2023 '†‘ 35.0 35.1 35.2 United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, "Cargill v. Garland," January 6, 2023 '†‘ U.S. Supreme Court, "American Hospital Association v. Becerra," June 15, 2022 '†‘ SCOTUSBlog, "Justices mull Chevron and voice skepticism of Medicare's rate cut for hospital drugs," November 30, 2021 '†‘ Wall Street Journal, "The Supreme Court's Chance to Rein In the Regulatory State," December 7, 2021 '†‘ New Republic, "The Supreme Court Is Poised to Sabotage the Administrative State," November 30, 2021 '†‘ Scotusblog.com, "Order List: 598 U.S.," October 3, 2022 '†‘ United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, "Gun Owners of Am., Inc. v. Garland," December 3, 2021 '†‘ 42.0 42.1 42.2 42.3 42.4 Reason, "Divided Sixth Circuit Panel Rejects Chevron Deference for Interpretation of Criminal Statute," March 25, 2021 '†‘ 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 43.4 43.5 United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, "Gun Owners of America v. Garland," March 25, 2021

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In a rare display of unity, all nine Supreme Court Justices issued a statement last week, pushing back against Senate Democrats' attempts to implement new ethics oversight measures over the nation's highest court, following recent controversy surrounding three conservative justices.

This development follows recent attempts by the political Left to generate controversy surrounding conservative Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch.

The statement, which also included a letter from Chief Justice John Roberts to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL), made it clear that Roberts would not attend a hearing that Senate Democrats sought to hold.

''Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Chief Justice of the United States is exceedingly rare, as one might expect in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence,'' Roberts said.

The nine justices stated that their letter aimed to provide new clarity to the bar and the public on how they address recurring issues and dispel common misconceptions. They proceeded to outline how justices handle various issues that have recently been targeted in left-wing attacks on the aforementioned conservative justices.

According to the Associated Press, the unanimous letter implicitly communicates the court's rejection of Democrats' proposed legislation that would impose the same ethics obligations on Supreme Court Justices as those applied to all other federal judges.

Furthermore, the letter addressed recent threats against justices, which escalated last year when a leftist reportedly attempted to assassinate up to three conservative justices.

''A word is necessary concerning security. Judges at all levels face increased threats to personal safety,'' the letter stated. ''These threats are magnified with respect to Members of the Supreme Court, given the higher profile of the matters they address. Recent episodes confirm that such dangers are not merely hypothetical. Security issues are addressed by the Supreme Court Police, United States Marshals, state and local law enforcement, and other authorities. Matters considered here concerning issues such as travel, accommodations, and disclosure may at times have to take into account security guidance.''

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NOTE: This post was updated on October 11, 2022. In discussions of studies 5, 7, 8 and 10, the final sentence was appended to include further information about the study.

I'm a physician-scientist who studies the mental health of transgender and gender diverse youth. I also spend a lot of time on Twitter. And yes I know, that's my first mistake. I've noticed there seem to be hundreds if not thousands of Twitter accounts that will repeatedly post that there is no evidence that gender-affirming medical care results in good mental health outcomes for transgender youth.

Since several U.S. states are introducing legislation to outlaw gender-affirming medical care this year (despite opposition from just about every major medical organization including The American Medical Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, and The American Psychiatric Association), I thought this was a good time to review the relevant research for you all. So buckle up '-- here we go. The studies are in chronological order. I'll provide a brief summary of each and provide the citation for people who want to read more. I'll plan on updating this post as new studies become available. As you read, please keep in mind that all studies have methodological strengths and weaknesses and conclusions must be drawn from all of these studies together.

The StudiesStudy 1: De Vries, A. L., Steensma, T. D., Doreleijers, T. A., & Cohen'Kettenis, P. T. (2011). Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: A prospective follow'up study. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8(8), 2276-2283.

This study from the Netherlands followed 70 transgender adolescents and measured their mental health before and after pubertal suppression. Study participants had improvements in depression and global functioning following treatment. However, feelings of anxiety and anger, gender dysphoria, and body satisfaction did not change.

Study 2: De Vries, A. L., McGuire, J. K., Steensma, T. D., Wagenaar, E. C., Doreleijers, T. A., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2014). Young adult psychological outcome after puberty suppression and gender reassignment. Pediatrics, 134(4), 696-704.

Another study from the Netherlands. This one followed 55 transgender adolescents through pubertal suppression, gender-affirming hormone treatment (estrogen or testosterone), and gender-affirming genital surgery (as adults). Of note, many of these participants were also participants in study 1 (this study followed them for longer). The researchers found that psychological functioning steadily improved over the course of the study and by adulthood these now young adults had global functioning scores similar to or better than age-matched peers in the general population. Of note, one patient in this study died from a surgical complication of vaginoplasty (necrotizing fasciitis), but little additional information is provided.

Study 3: Costa, R., Dunsford, M., Skagerberg, E., Holt, V., Carmichael, P., & Colizzi, M. (2015). Psychological support, puberty suppression, and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with gender dysphoria. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12(11), 2206-2214.

This study is from the United Kingdom. They followed 101 adolescents who received pubertal suppression at the beginning of the study and 100 adolescents who, for a range of reasons, were deemed by the team not ready to start pubertal suppression and thus did not receive it over the course of the study. Both groups received supportive psychotherapy. Both groups saw improvement in mental health. While the pubertal suppression group had a 5-point higher mean score on the study's psychological functioning scale at the end of the study, the difference was not statistically significant. This could have been due to the small sample size by the end of the study (the researchers only had data from 36 participants in the therapy-only group and 35 participants in the pubertal suppression group at the final time point of the study). We will see that later studies were able to obtain larger sample sizes so that statistically significant differences between those who did and did not receive pubertal suppression could be detected.

Study 4: Allen, L. R., Watson, L. B., Egan, A. M., & Moser, C. N. (2019). Well-being and suicidality among transgender youth after gender-affirming hormones. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 7(3), 302.

This study was from researchers at Children's Mercy Hospital Gender Pathway Services Clinic in Missouri. They followed 47 transgender adolescents who received gender-affirming hormones (estrogen or testosterone) to a mean 349 days after starting treatment. They found statistically significant increases in general well-being and a statistically significant decrease in suicidality. Of note, the adolescents also received psychotherapy.

Study 5: Kaltiala, R., Heino, E., Ty¶l¤j¤rvi, M., & Suomalainen, L. (2020). Adolescent development and psychosocial functioning after starting cross-sex hormones for gender dysphoria. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 74(3), 213-219.

This study is from Finland. Researchers conducted a retrospective chart review of 52 adolescents who received gender-affirming hormones (estrogen or testosterone) and found statistically significant decreases in need for specialist level psychiatric treatment for depression (decreased from 54% to 15%), anxiety (decreased from 48% to 15%), and suicidality or self-harm (decreased from 35% to 4%) following treatment. However, the authors note that gender reassignment is "not enough to improve functioning and relieve psychiatric comorbidities among adolescents with gender dysphoria."

Study 6: de Lara, D. L., Rodr­guez, O. P., Flores, I. C., Masa, J. L. P., Campos-Mu±oz, L., Hernndez, M. C., & Amador, J. T. R. (2020). Psychosocial assessment in transgender adolescents. Anales de Pediatr­a (English Edition), 93(1), 41-48.

This study is from Spain. It followed 23 transgender adolescents who received gender-affirming hormones (estrogen or testosterone) and 30 cisgender controls for approximately one year. They found the transgender adolescents at baseline had worse measures of mental health than the cisgender control adolescents but that this difference equalized by the end of the study. The transgender adolescents in the study who received gender-affirming hormones had statistically significant improvements in several mental health measures, including anxiety and depression.

Study 7: van der Miesen, A. I., Steensma, T. D., de Vries, A. L., Bos, H., & Popma, A. (2020). Psychological functioning in transgender adolescents before and after gender-affirmative care compared with cisgender general population peers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), 699-704.

This was another Dutch study, with an impressive sample size. Researchers compared 272 transgender adolescents referred to the gender clinic who had not yet received pubertal suppression with 178 transgender adolescents who had received pubertal suppression. They found those who received pubertal suppression had better mental health outcomes than those who did not receive pubertal suppression. However, because subjects received psychotherapy, the authors note that the study does not provide "direct evidence" that pubertal suppression improves mental health in transgender youth.

Study 8: Achille, C., Taggart, T., Eaton, N. R., Osipoff, J., Tafuri, K., Lane, A., & Wilson, T. A. (2020). Longitudinal impact of gender-affirming endocrine intervention on the mental health and well-being of transgender youths: preliminary results. International Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology, 2020(1), 1-5.

This study was from Stony Brook Children's Hospital in New York. It followed 50 transgender adolescents longitudinally. Over the course of the study, 23 received pubertal suppression only, 35 received gender-affirming hormones only, and 11 received both. Three participants received no gender-affirming medical interventions. Over the course of the study, there was a statistically significant decrease in depression scores in one group: Male-to-female transitioners who underwent puberty suppression only.

Study 9: Kuper, L. E., Stewart, S., Preston, S., Lau, M., & Lopez, X. (2020). Body dissatisfaction and mental health outcomes of youth on gender-affirming hormone therapy. Pediatrics, 145(4).

This study was from a gender clinic in Dallas, Texas. The researchers followed 148 transgender adolescents who were receiving gender-affirming medical treatment. 25 received pubertal suppression only, 93 received gender-affirming hormones (estrogen or testosterone) only, and 30 received both. 15 participants received gender-affirming chest surgery. When examining all participants together, the study found statistically significant improvements in body dissatisfaction, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms.

Study 10: Turban, J. L., King, D., Carswell, J. M., & Keuroghlian, A. S. (2020). Pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation. Pediatrics, 145(2).

This study was conducted by myself along with several other researchers from Harvard Medical School. It utilized data from a non-probability sample of 20,619 transgender adults who reported ever wanting pubertal suppression. Of these, 89 actually received pubertal suppression. After adjusting for potentially confounding variables, access to pubertal suppression was associated with a lower odds of lifetime suicidal ideation. Of note, this study did not identify psychotherapy as a potentially confounding variable.

Study 11: Carmichael, P., Butler, G., Masic, U., Cole, T. J., De Stavola, B. L., Davidson, S., ... & Viner, R. M. (2021). Short-term outcomes of pubertal suppression in a selected cohort of 12 to 15 year old young people with persistent gender dysphoria in the UK. PLoS One, 16(2), e0243894.

This is another study from the United Kingdom. Researchers presented data for transgender adolescents who had received pubertal suppression. They had data for 44 patients after 12 months of treatment, 24 patients after 24 months of treatment, and 14 patients after 36 months of treatment. They were unable to detect any changes on their mental health measures (positive or negative).

Study 12: Grannis, C., Leibowitz, S. F., Gahn, S., Nahata, L., Morningstar, M., Mattson, W. I., ... & Nelson, E. E. (2021). Testosterone treatment, internalizing symptoms, and body image dissatisfaction in transgender boys. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 132, 105358.

This study recruited 42 birth-assigned female adolescents from a gender clinic in Ohio. Nineteen were receiving testosterone and 23 were not. Those not receiving testosterone were not receiving it due to a number of reasons (referred to endocrinology but hadn't started, parents not providing consent, and one was not interested in testosterone). The adolescents who were receiving testosterone treatment had lower scores on measures of generalized anxiety, social anxiety, depression, and body image dissatisfaction.

Study 13: Hisle-Gorman, E., Schvey, N. A., Adirim, T. A., Rayne, A. K., Susi, A., Roberts, T. A., & Klein, D. A. (2021). Mental healthcare utilization of transgender youth before and after affirming treatment. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 18(8), 1444-1454.

This study utilized military healthcare data from transgender youth who received medical care through the U.S. military healthcare system. The researchers identified 963 transgender adolescents who had received some form of gender-affirming medical treatment. The mean age of starting any gender-affirming medical care was 18.2 (so this study may not technically qualify for our review of studies of adolescents). Their outcomes of interest were number of mental healthcare visits after gender-affirming medical care and number of days taking a psychiatric medication after starting gender-affirming medical care. In their adjusted models, there was no change in number of annual mental healthcare visits and an increase in days taking psychiatric medication from a mean 120 days per year to a mean 212 days per year. It's difficult to make firm conclusions based on this study, given the unusual outcome measure of number of days per year taking a psychiatric medication. The authors present a range of possible interpretations in the discussion section of the manuscript for those who are interested.

Study 14: Green, A. E., DeChants, J. P., Price, M. N., & Davis, C. K. (2021). Association of gender-affirming hormone therapy with depression, thoughts of suicide, and attempted suicide among transgender and nonbinary youth. Journal of Adolescent Health.

This study was conducted by researchers from The Trevor Project. They recruited 5,753 transgender adolescents who said they wanted gender-affirming hormone treatment (estrogen or testosterone). Of these, 1,216 had accessed gender-affirming hormones treatment. To focus on the results for only participants who were under 18: After adjusting for potential confounding variables, access to gender-affirming hormones was associated with lower odds of recent depression and suicide attempts when compared to those who desired but did not access gender-affirming hormones.

Study 15: Turban, J. L., King, D., Kobe, J., Reisner, S. L., & Keuroghlian, A. S. (2022). Access to gender-affirming hormones during adolescence and mental health outcomes among transgender adults. PLoS One, 17(1), e0261039.

This study was also conducted by me and other researchers at Harvard Medical School. We examined 21,598 adults who reported ever desiring gender-affirming hormones (estrogen or testosterone). Of these, 481 accessed gender-affirming hormones during adolescence, 12,257 accessed gender-affirming hormones as adults, and 8,860 were never able to access gender-affirming hormones. We found that regardless of age of initiation, accessing gender-affirming hormones was associated with lower odds of past-year suicidal ideation and past year severe psychological distress. We also found that access to gender-affirming hormones during adolescence was associated with a lower odds of these same adverse mental health outcomes when compared to not accessing gender-affirming hormones until adulthood. Because the study was cross-sectional, we created a variable for people who had suicidal ideation in the past but did not have it in the past year (a proxy for mental health improving over time). We found that people who accessed gender-affirming hormones were more likely to meet this criterion than people who desired but did not access gender-affirming hormones, arguing against reverse causation (a common problem with cross-sectional studies).

Study 16: Tordoff, D. M., Wanta, J. W., Collin, A., Stephney, C., Inwards-Breland, D. J., Ahrens, K. (2022) Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care. JAMA Network Open, 5(2), e220978.

This study was a prospective cohort study from Seattle Children's Gender Clinic. The researchers followed 104 transgender and non-binary youth who were receiving gender-affirming medical treatment. After adjusting for temporal trends and potential confounders, they found lower odds of depression and suicidality among young people who had started gender-affirming medical care, when compared to those who did not.

No Randomized Controlled TrialsOne will notice that there have not been any randomized controlled trials. There is a general consensus in the field that such a trial would be unethical given the body of literature we have so far indicating that those in the control group would be likely to suffer adverse mental health outcomes compared to those randomized to the treatment groups. For this reason, it appears that no institutional review board would approve a randomized controlled trial at this time, under the principle of "equipoise" to which some bioethicists refer.

ConclusionIn summary, there have been, to my knowledge, 16 studies to date studying the impact of gender-affirming medical care for transgender adolescents. Taken together, the body of research indicates that these interventions result in favorable mental health outcomes. I will continue to update this post as new studies become available. Please feel free to contact me if you are aware of any new studies I have not yet included.

References

De Vries, A. L., Steensma, T. D., Doreleijers, T. A., & Cohen'Kettenis, P. T. (2011). Puberty suppression in adolescents with gender identity disorder: A prospective follow'up study. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8(8), 2276-2283.

De Vries, A. L., McGuire, J. K., Steensma, T. D., Wagenaar, E. C., Doreleijers, T. A., & Cohen-Kettenis, P. T. (2014). Young adult psychological outcome after puberty suppression and gender reassignment. Pediatrics, 134(4), 696-704.

Costa, R., Dunsford, M., Skagerberg, E., Holt, V., Carmichael, P., & Colizzi, M. (2015). Psychological support, puberty suppression, and psychosocial functioning in adolescents with gender dysphoria. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12(11), 2206-2214.

Allen, L. R., Watson, L. B., Egan, A. M., & Moser, C. N. (2019). Well-being and suicidality among transgender youth after gender-affirming hormones. Clinical Practice in Pediatric Psychology, 7(3), 302.

Kaltiala, R., Heino, E., Ty¶l¤j¤rvi, M., & Suomalainen, L. (2020). Adolescent development and psychosocial functioning after starting cross-sex hormones for gender dysphoria. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 74(3), 213-219.

de Lara, D. L., Rodr­guez, O. P., Flores, I. C., Masa, J. L. P., Campos-Mu±oz, L., Hernndez, M. C., & Amador, J. T. R. (2020). Psychosocial assessment in transgender adolescents. Anales de Pediatr­a (English Edition), 93(1), 41-48.

van der Miesen, A. I., Steensma, T. D., de Vries, A. L., Bos, H., & Popma, A. (2020). Psychological functioning in transgender adolescents before and after gender-affirmative care compared with cisgender general population peers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), 699-704.

Achille, C., Taggart, T., Eaton, N. R., Osipoff, J., Tafuri, K., Lane, A., & Wilson, T. A. (2020). Longitudinal impact of gender-affirming endocrine intervention on the mental health and well-being of transgender youths: preliminary results. International Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology, 2020(1), 1-5.

Kuper, L. E., Stewart, S., Preston, S., Lau, M., & Lopez, X. (2020). Body dissatisfaction and mental health outcomes of youth on gender-affirming hormone therapy. Pediatrics, 145(4).

Turban, J. L., King, D., Carswell, J. M., & Keuroghlian, A. S. (2020). Pubertal suppression for transgender youth and risk of suicidal ideation. Pediatrics, 145(2).

Carmichael, P., Butler, G., Masic, U., Cole, T. J., De Stavola, B. L., Davidson, S., ... & Viner, R. M. (2021). Short-term outcomes of pubertal suppression in a selected cohort of 12 to 15 year old young people with persistent gender dysphoria in the UK. PLoS One, 16(2), e0243894.

Grannis, C., Leibowitz, S. F., Gahn, S., Nahata, L., Morningstar, M., Mattson, W. I., ... & Nelson, E. E. (2021). Testosterone treatment, internalizing symptoms, and body image dissatisfaction in transgender boys. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 132, 105358.

Hisle-Gorman, E., Schvey, N. A., Adirim, T. A., Rayne, A. K., Susi, A., Roberts, T. A., & Klein, D. A. (2021). Mental healthcare utilization of transgender youth before and after affirming treatment. The Journal of Sexual Medicine, 18(8), 1444-1454.

Green, A. E., DeChants, J. P., Price, M. N., & Davis, C. K. (2021). Association of gender-affirming hormone therapy with depression, thoughts of suicide, and attempted suicide among transgender and nonbinary youth. Journal of Adolescent Health.

Turban, J. L., King, D., Kobe, J., Reisner, S. L., & Keuroghlian, A. S. (2022). Access to gender-affirming hormones during adolescence and mental health outcomes among transgender adults. PLoS One, 17(1), e0261039.

Tordoff, D. M., Wanta, J. W., Collin, A., Stephney, C., Inwards-Breland, D. J., Ahrens, K. (2022) Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care. JAMA Network Open, 5(2), e220978.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 12:46

Adolescence can be a uniquely distressing time for young transgender people, who often experience gender dysphoria: a discrepancy between the sex they were assigned at birth and the gender that matches who they are. During this period, hormone production increases, leading to secondary sexual characteristics such as facial hair and breasts. The irreversible, slow-motion physiological changes can be emotionally and mentally disturbing, leading to depression, social withdrawal, self-harm and a risk of suicide. Hormonal medications called gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists (GnRHas), often referred to as puberty blockers, temporarily halt the production of sex hormones testosterone, estrogen and progesterone with minimal side effects. They can pause puberty and buy transgender children and their caregivers time to consider their options.

These medications are well studied and have been used safely since the late 1980s to pause puberty in adolescents with gender dysphoria. They have been used routinely for even longer in children who enter puberty too early and in adults with a range of other medical conditions. Puberty-blocking medications are part of a class of hormonal therapies that include birth control pills, treatments for menopause symptoms, treatments for certain kinds of cancer, and more.

But despite the evidence for the safety and efficacy of puberty-delaying treatments, some lawmakers across the U.S. have spread false claims about the drugs and other gender-affirming treatments as part of their efforts to ban or severely restrict access to health care for transgender people. Florida, Idaho, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah, Iowa and Tennessee have banned gender-affirming care for anyone under 18 years old. The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking the status of 122 health care''related anti-LGBTQ+ bills, which disproportionally target transgender youth.

Half of transgender people aged 13 to 24 have seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to a 2023 nationwide survey released on May 1 by the Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ suicide prevention. Gender-affirming hormone therapy can decrease this risk. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, showed that hormone therapy significantly decreased symptoms of depression and anxiety in transgender youth. Another study found that transgender teenagers who received gender-affirming care were 73 percent less likely to self-harm or have suicidal thoughts than those who didn't.

Medication that pauses puberty, specifically, has the power to prevent a mental health crisis, making the treatment a ''profoundly meaningful intervention'' for a young person and their family, says Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent medicine physician at the Yale School of Medicine. ''Puberty-blocking treatment is probably one of the most compassionate things that a parent can consent to for a transgender child.'' It allows transgender children and their families the opportunity to weigh their options carefully, without the constant pressure of physical changes, she says.

Puberty has a long natural window, which typically occurs between eight and 14 years of age and lasts from two to five years. Blockers are usually prescribed once puberty has already begun, and the process involves evaluations by multiple doctors, including mental health practitioners, explains Stephen Rosenthal, a member of the board of directors at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco, Benioff Children's Hospitals.

''Most people, within a year [of receiving puberty blockers], decide whether or not they're going to continue to transition,'' says Vin Tangpricha, an adult endocrinologist at Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown and a co-author of some of the foremost clinical guidelines for treating gender dysphoria in the U.S. and worldwide. ''You can't have someone on puberty blockers for a prolonged time.'' If a teen decides not to transition and stops taking puberty blockers, the hormones their body produces on its own will cause puberty to resume. If they decide to move forward with a medical gender transition, they may take some combination of hormones'--estrogen for feminizing effects or testosterone for masculinizing effects'--to experience puberty that aligns with their gender.

Teens who had access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy require fewer gender-affirming surgeries as adults. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health's standards of care recommend waiting until adulthood for gender-affirming surgeries. Gender-affirming surgeries are not common among those under age 18 and are usually limited to ''top surgery,'' or a mastectomy. Breast reduction surgery is also one of the most common forms of plastic surgery in cisgender teenagers.

At every stage, the adolescents, their families and their doctors monitor their development. Each step of their transition is considered independently and carefully by the young people and their families, McNamara says.

''These puberty-pausing medications are widely used in many different populations and safely so,'' McNamara says. GnRHas are also used in adolescents to treat endometriosis, a condition in which the cells lining the uterus grow in other parts of the body. These hormonal drugs have provided solutions to a number of hard-to-treat conditions. They adjust hormone levels for people with prostate and breast cancer, pause menstruation for those undergoing chemotherapy and help with in vitro fertilization. This host of beneficial clinical uses and data, stretching back to the 1960s, shows that puberty blockers are not an experimental treatment, as they are sometimes mischaracterized, says Simona Giordano, a bioethicist at the University of Manchester in England. Among patients who have received the treatment, studies have documented vanishingly small regret rates and minimal side effects, as well as benefits to mental and social health.

''From an ethical and a legal perspective, this is a benign medication,'' Giordano says. She is puzzled by the extra scrutiny these treatments receive, considering their benefits and limited risks. ''There are no sound clinical, ethical or legal reasons for denying them to those in need,'' she says.

Like any medication, GnRHas carry the potential for adverse effects. GnRHas, when used as puberty blockers or for endometriosis, are known to limit the buildup of bone mineral density, raising concerns about bone fractures. But bone density often recovers after sex hormones are reintroduced. The impacts on bone health depend on many factors, such as when someone started taking GnRHas, how long they stayed on the medication, what their sex at birth was and what sex hormones they will go on to take afterward.

But these bone density scores might not tell the full story of a person's long-term health, McNamara explains. An individual's bone density is evaluated on a broader population average'--data that might not be representative of transgender people, who often have lower bone density than their cisgender peers to begin with. Transgender people'--especially transgender women'--are more likely to have lower bone density, whether or not they used puberty blockers. This is potentially because of the social stressors of being transgender, such as social isolation, exclusion from some physical activities and a high prevalence of restrictive eating.

''The bright side of this whole story is that fractures do not appear to be increased [by GnRHas]. That's what we really care about,'' Tangpricha says. The treatment ''hasn't translated to really bad health outcomes.'' Meanwhile the increased rates of suicide among those who do not receive gender-affirming care is well documented.

''I think the patients and their families have to weigh the risk of having lower bone density versus a gender issue that's not properly treated,'' Tangpricha says.

The families that McNamara and Rosenthal work with are aware of the potential risks and benefits of puberty blockers. ''We [physicians] are honest acknowledgers of the uncertainty to our patients and their parents, who then make informed consent decisions,'' McNamara says. Caregivers must weigh any concerns against the lifelong risks of not receiving the care, such as depression and suicidality, and the need for future surgeries, she says. ''These are private decisions that parents make for their children's well-being. And the conversations had in these private settings are thorough and exhaustive and iterative,'' she adds.

To McNamara, the widespread attempts to take these decisions out of families' hands by banning care for transgender youth is a clear indication that the goal is not to protect the health of children, as proponents claim. ''These bans did not come from a public outcry about concern for trans youth,'' she says.

Transgender health care bans are increasingly expanding beyond restrictions for minors. Last month an emergency rule by Missouri's state attorney general placed new, onerous restrictions on adults seeking gender-affirming care, including blocking people diagnosed with autism and depression from accessing it. Nearly one in four transgender people are autistic, compared with one in 20 cisgender people, and depression is a common outcome of gender dysphoria. A state judge temporarily blocked the order hours before it was set to take effect last Thursday.

''Politicians deciding what doctors can do puts doctors, not only patients, in a really difficult situation ... of not serving the best interests of the patients,'' Giordano says. '''Alarming' is, I think, the right word.''

IF YOU NEED HELPIf you or someone you know is struggling or having thoughts of suicide, help is available. Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or use the online Lifeline Chat. The Trevor Project provides support to LGBTQ+ individuals and can be reached by texting START to 678-678 or calling 1-866-488-7386.

Editor's Note (5/1/23): This article was edited after posting to update the description of the Trevor Project's survey results with the latest data and to clarify Simona Giordano's area of expertise.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)Allison Parshall is a science journalist, multimedia editor, podcast host and current news intern at Scientific American. Follow her on Twitter @parshallison

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Tue, 02 May 2023 12:45

(C) Calla Kessler/The Washington Post Balloons and caution tape line the perimeter of the Capital Gazette building in Annapolis after the June 2018 shooting that killed five employees. Federal officials have approved a site on the National Mall for the capital's first memorial dedicated to journalists who have died while reporting the news and to the role of the free press in a democracy, the foundation planning the project announced Monday.

The Fallen Journalists Memorial will be located on a third-of-an-acre parcel in Southwest Washington between the National Museum of the American Indian and the Voice of America building. The location is bordered by Independence and Maryland avenues and Third Street SW.

The site, which has a direct view of the Capitol, was chosen to evoke journalists' role as government watchdogs. The memorial is projected to open in 2028 and will cost as much as $50 million, which will be entirely funded by private donations. Officials said they have commitments to cover 40 percent of the cost so far.

The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation is working with architecture critic Paul Goldberger to identify architects, designers and artists to create a ''commemorative landscape that represents the full breadth of journalism '-- past, present, and future,'' according to a news release. The memorial will honor slain journalists, convey the dangers they face and provide a spot for reflection.

Barbara Cochran, the president of the foundation, said planners envision an outdoor memorial that melds with the surrounding green space, but they do not have other specific features in mind. She said plans do not include a roofed museum or other indoor space.

Cochran said the memorial will not include names of slain journalists because of rules governing using names on memorials in D.C. and the logistics of having to update the memorial in perpetuity. The foundation will maintain a list of fallen journalists online, but Cochran said the criteria for inclusion are still being ironed out.

The foundation will also curate programming and digital materials to educate the public about the history of the First Amendment and the role of reporters in a democracy.

''It is amazing there hasn't been such a memorial up to now,'' Cochran said. ''With the increasing threats and dangers to journalists, it seems it's needed now more than ever.''

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that at least 67 reporters and media workers were killed worldwide in 2022 '-- a 50 percent increase over 2021 and the highest number since 2018. The increase was driven by journalist deaths during the war in Ukraine and a large uptick in the killing of reporters in Latin America, according to CPJ.

David Dreier, who started the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation, said he was inspired to seek the memorial after a gunman shot and killed five employees at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis in 2018. The attack remains the deadliest assault against journalists in the nation's history. The Gazette was then owned by Tribune Publishing.

Four years later, Annapolis remembers Capital Gazette shooting victims Dreier, a former congressman and former chairman of Tribune Publishing, said he realized at that same time that the Newseum '-- a D.C. museum dedicated to journalism '-- was shutting down and that there was nothing commemorating slain journalists on the Mall, even as they were coming under increasing attack at home and abroad.

Dreier said he consulted with a number of other major figures in the news business, including former Washington Post publisher Don Graham, before forging ahead on an effort to construct a memorial. Congress approved the Fallen Journalists Memorial Act in 2020, allowing the project to move forward. President Donald Trump signed the bill into law the same year.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts signed off on the site location on Thursday. The next step will be selecting a design proposal for the memorial, which officials hope will happen early next year.

''This will be the first memorial on the National Mall that is actually about an idea,'' Dreier said. ''That idea is the First Amendment and journalists who died in the pursuit of the truth.''

Phil Davis, a former criminal justice reporter at the Capital Gazette, said he was appreciative of the effort to create a new memorial. He said that one way to help prevent tragedies like the one that befell the Gazette was by not forgetting what happened and that a memorial was an important way to do that.

''I wish it wasn't necessary, but it so is in this country,'' Davis said.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 12:41

Twisted Sister's Dee Snider and wrestler Chris Jericho also endorsed the glam-metal guitarist's characterization of gender expression as a "sad and dangerous fad"

Once upon a time, concerned parents warned each other about their children falling under the possibly demonic influence of the metal band Kiss '-- whose name was falsely alleged to stand for ''Knights in Satan's Service.'' But this week, conservatives are standing in solidarity with one of the group's founding guitarists, Paul Stanley, 71, who issued an unprompted statement calling expression of gender identity among children ''a sad and dangerous fad.''

Stanley '-- a.k.a. Starchild, who along with the rest of Kiss is known for wearing platform heels, full makeup and big, teased-up hair on stage '-- seemed to suggest that adults are ''encouraging'' kids to take their experimentation with individual presentation beyond ''the innocence of what they are doing.'' He also appeared to erroneously conflate gender with sexual orientation, which develop separately, according to medical researchers.

But the statement was applauded, amplified, and exaggerated across right-wing media. Fake news site the Gateway Pundit summarized Stanley's innuendo in more extreme terms, inaccurately reporting that Stanley had said that ''parents are normalizing the mutilation of innocent children.'' The Post Millennial's article referred to Stanley as a ''legend'' and indulged in anecdotal fear-mongering about the dangers of gender transition. (The site's senior editor, Andy Ngo, also tweeted that Stanley's commentary was ''brave.'') The rock star's remarks were also covered approvingly by the Daily Wire, the Blaze, and Newsmax, while Breitbart compared them to his previous denunciation of Kanye West's antisemitic hate speech.

Other praise came from Gays Against Groomers, an astroturfed-front group fomenting anti-LQBTQ sentiment and chaired by right-wing operatives with connections to the MAGA and QAnon movements. ''We need more and more people to come forward and denounce this evil,'' the organization tweeted. The ''gender critical'' group Genspect, which broadly opposes gender-affirming care and works alongside anti-LGBTQ activists, also shared Stanley's post. Editor's picks

Paul Stanley, legendary rocker from the band Kiss, bravely condemns society's obsession with confusing and sexualizing children.Thank you for sticking up for kids, @PaulStanleyLive! We need more and more people to come forward and denounce this evil. https://t.co/0rt426GB8i

'-- Gays Against Groomers (@againstgrmrs) May 1, 2023Michael Young, a visiting fellow at conservative think tank Center for Renewing America who has amassed a large Twitter following with ''anti-woke'' rhetoric, declared: ''This means we are at the very beginning of it now being socially acceptable for artists, culture makers, and celebrities being allowed to push back on gender nonsense.''

Meanwhile, Marina Medvin, an attorney representing several defendants charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, noted that ''Paul Stanley, a father of four, is joining the moms defending their children against the radical trans genital mutilation movement.'' The post also made the rounds on the alt-tech platforms Gab and Truth Social. A QAnon conspiracist account with nearly 60,000 followers on the latter site wrote: ''boom ['...] well said.''

And Stanley found support among a handful of other entertainers as well, including Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, also known for a flamboyant stage persona. ''You know what? There was a time where I 'felt pretty' too,'' he tweeted. ''Glad my parents didn't jump to any rash conclusions!'' Phil Labonte, lead vocalist of the metal band All That Remains, tweeted, ''Paul is right.'' And pro wrestler Chris Jericho '-- despite a record of staunchly supporting trans athletes who have faced abuse and harassment in the sport '-- retweeted Stanley without additional comment, to 3.5 million followers.

TrendingWhatever Stanley thought he was saying, his vague allusions to unsubstantiated trends among youth clearly resonated with reactionaries stirring up outrage about gender identity and transition. It's not the first time a founding Kiss member has flipped the script by endorsing the sort of moral panic that, in the past, would've targeted them: In 2021, guitarist Ace Frehley promoted the baseless conspiracy theory that the Astroworld Festival, at which a crowd surge killed 10 people, was a satanic ritual. Perhaps it's just the way of the aging rock rebel: When you get old enough, you suddenly think it's everyone else who's going too far.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 11:20

ST. LOUIS '-- Sales of Bud Light have been plunging since the company enlisted the help of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a marketing campaign a month ago.

In the week that ended April 22, the brand's in-store sales plummeted more than 26%, according to figures reported by Bump Williams Consulting, a Connecticut-based firm that specializes in the alcoholic beverage industry.

And the decline is only accelerating. The week before, sales dropped by 21%. The week before that, it was 11%.

Bud Light is still the bestselling beer in America by far, said Bump Williams, the founder, president and CEO of the agency that bears his name. In 2022, Anheuser-Busch InBev sold more than $4.8 billion worth of it in stores, he said, far outpacing Modelo Especial ($3.75 billion) and Michelob Ultra ($3.3 billion).

But if the company can't stop the decline in sales, especially as the peak beer-drinking summer season approaches, ''then Bud Light is in serious trouble this year. And I think it runs the risk of losing that No. 1 position at the end of calendar year 2023 to Modelo Especial,'' Williams said.

Already, sales are off 8% for the year.

In early April, Anheuser-Busch sent a can of Bud Light to the 26-year-old Mulvaney with a picture of her face on it. The influencer posted a brief video of herself on TikTok '-- in black gown and black gloves '-- drinking a Bud Light, noting that the promotion was part of March Madness and joking that she did not know what sport that was for.

An Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said Monday, ''Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics. From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney.

''This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.''

The blowback was swift. Within days, singer Kid Rock posted a video of him shooting cases of the beer. A couple of weeks later, model and influencer Bri Teresi did the same thing but dressed in an American flag bikini top and firing a semi-automatic rifle.

An informal boycott of Bud Light ensued by people protesting the use of a transgender person in the marketing campaign.

Williams said that when Bud Light brand manager Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid took over marketing for the brand last year, sales of Bud Light were already slumping. She tried to increase sales with this campaign by trying to appeal to a younger, politically progressive market.

''Her big miss was I don't think she understood who the core Bud Light shopper was. When she came out with her comments, they were deemed as being derogatory, insulting and juvenile. And the Bud Light drinkers said 'Enough of that,''' Williams said.

Heinerscheid explained the shift in marketing strategy by saying Bud Light previously was ''a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor.'' She is now on a leave of absence, along with Daniel Blake, vice president for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands.

During the controversy, sales have shot up for Bud Light's biggest competitors, Miller Lite and Coors Light, Williams said. What is more, he is beginning to see what is known as a negative halo effect '-- other Anheuser-Busch brands are suffering because of the dispute.

''I also think that what's happening now is that anybody that is a Bud Light drinker and switches to Michelob Ultra because they don't want to be seen holding a Bud Light, someone down the bar is going to say, 'Hey, buddy, that's an Anheuser-Busch product you're holding,''' Williams said.

The slowdown in sales of Michelob Ultra is of particular concern to Anheuser-Busch because it had been one of the fastest-growing brands on the market, said David Steinman, vice president and executive editor at Beer Marketer's Insights.

Meanwhile, the company is taking heat from all sides, Steinman said. The anti-trans contingent is upset because of the association with Mulvaney, while the progressive contingent is upset by what it sees as backing down from the pro-trans statement made by sending her the beer.

According to Williams, the plunge in sales is hitting beer distributors especially hard, costing them millions of dollars every day. To stop the slide, Anheuser-Busch needs to cooperate with them and come up with a way to entice their former consumers back into the fold, he said.

In addition, the corporation should remember who its customers are and apologize to them for abandoning them in their support of Dylan Mulvaney, he said.

''Right now their compass is completely broken. There's no game plan,'' he said.

Sen. Greg Razer, D-Kansas City, spoke during floor debate on a bill that would end medical care for transgender children who are transitioning. Video courtesy of the Senate media office, editing by Beth O'Malley

Brick CityPost-Dispatch business reporters bring you insights into the latest news in the St. Louis business community.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 05:08

Who is Zooey Zephyr? Zooey Zephyr is the transgender lawmaker from Missoula who just got barred from the floor of the Montana House of Representatives following a mob protest at the capitol that led to several arrests. We know that. The Missoula lawmaker has been getting national attention for the past several days. But why do we have ZERO background on Zooey Zephyr? Why do we have no idea who this person was prior to 2019?

Bradley Warren with Wake Up Montana was the first reporter I saw to attempt to do the story and ask the question. What did we learn? Zooey Zephyr was born in Billings, Montana and went to the University of Washington prior to getting a job at The University of Montana.

Interesting. What schools did Zooey Zephyr attend? Anyone in Billings grow up with Rep. Zephyr? I looked up the old Billings Gazette archives from August of 1988 and found that there was indeed a baby born to the Raasch family on the same day that Rep. Zephyr lists as a birthday. Could this Zachary Raasch be the same person?

It looks like Jeremy Carl, a Senior Fellow with The Claremont Institute who lives in Bozeman, Montana, may have the answers for us- with the type of journalism we oddly aren't seeing anywhere else- even as this lawmaker from Missoula has gotten so much attention from the national news media. Check out the below guest column that Jeremy is sharing with our readers/listeners.

*Warning: There is what can be considered graphic content included below.

-Guest Column by Jeremy Carl, a Senior Fellow at The Claremont Institute

It takes a lot to make national news out here in Montana. We don't have any big cities, and we are far from America's population centers and even further from the corridors of power.

Yet in the past week, transgender-identified Montana State House Member ''Zooey Zephyr,'' who attracted some notice upon his initial election in 2022, has exploded to national prominence after accusing members of the Montana State House GOP supermajority, who passed legislation to block genital mutilation and cross-sex hormonal treatment of children, of ''having blood on their hands'' When they were praying. It was a clear and obvious breach of House rules during a floor debate and Zephyr refused to apologize for violating them.

After the House Speaker refused to call on him again until he apologized, Dozens of radical activists, spurred in part by Zephyr, then disrupted the Montana legislature (which has an enormous workload and meets for just three months every two years). Almost overnight, Zephyr was interviewed by numerous national media outlets and became a political celebrity, with far more Twitter followers than either of Montana's Congressmen.

Yesterday, the Montana House expelled him from the floor for the rest of the legislative session, ensuring his star will continue to rise. Rep. Zephyr claims that when he came out as transgender, his mother told him that he ''always wanted to be a martyr.''

He is now getting his wish.Montana, despite being the fourth largest state in America, is actually a small town, as residents often say. Everyone knows everyone. We also have, in my experience, a completely leftist media that has acted as a stenographer for Zephyr--uncritically repeating his claims and treating him as a hero, rather than critically examining his behavior and his personal story in an evenhanded manner.

Of note in this context is that in contrast to Zephyr's dramatics, non-binary-identified State Representative S.J. Howell has been serving in the same legislature as Zephyr without incident this term'--because Montana Republicans are objecting not to Zephyr's professed gender identity but to his behavior. (For those who may wonder how a conservative state like Montana with a Republican supermajority legislature could elect two trans/non-binary representatives, each house district in Montana represents just 11,000 people and Zephyr and Howell, were elected from liberal parts of Missoula, by far the most liberal city in the state.)

But who really is ''Zooey Zephyr''?Both Montana and national media seem incurious, and even a fairly thorough Internet search revealed only snippets of his earlier life (residences in Washington and Montana a background in wrestling and competitive video games). But a more exhaustive search revealed a more disquieting story, one that shows a disturbed young man with a troubled past and a series of relationships with dubious characters.

Much of this information about Zephyr was pieced together from posts on Kiwi Farms, a trollish but at times sophisticated online message board that is strongly opposed to gender ideology and delights in both juvenile insults and what we once would have been recognized as investigative journalism.

Zephyr was born Zachary Raasch in Billings, MT and grew up there and in Washington State where he was a champion high school wrestler. The media has been so negligent in their vetting of Zephyr that as far as I am aware this is the first time his birth name has been publicly revealed in an article. ''Zooey Zephyr,'' currently in the state and national headlines, did not even exist until 2019, when, after several months of taking female hormones, Raasch publicly transitioned. He had surgical vaginoplasty in 2022 (indeed he was not in Missoula on election night when he was elected to the Montana House, but flying to New York for post-operative care of the permanent wound where his natural genitals used to be) He seems to have had a number of marketing jobs in Seattle before moving to Missoula, getting involved in the activist community and working at the University of Montana.

According to Raasch, his parents (who were conservative Christians) ''disowned'' him when he decided to transition. Raasch was originally motivated to run for the state legislature in response to the attempts to ban ''Transgender girls'' from girls and women's sports. This enraged Raasch who claims, contrary to both common sense and scientific evidence, that men who transition to female do not have an advantage in sports, a proposition increasingly rejected even by politically correct athletic bodies.

Raasch is intelligent and extremely interested in transhumanism (the melding of man and machine through ''technological enhancement'' of the human body)'--the subject of an abandoned master's thesis at the University of Montana, a subject that seems relevant to his decision to radically modify his own body.

He was also a video gaming champion in a game called Super Smash Brothers-- some pre-transition performances of his tournament videogaming can be seen online. In 2020, a huge scandal erupted in the Super Smash Brothers community involving mass sexual harassment and abuse of minors during in-person gaming meetups. Raasch publicly expressed regret that he may have put children at risk in taking them to these events. It may be just a coincidence that serious child sexual abuse broke out in a community with which Raasch was heavily involved, or it is possible that he been a perpetrator or a victim of such abuse, but we don't know, as none of the puff piece legacy media has bothered to investigate Raasch's background. What can be said is that childhood experiences of abuse, such as those that were going on around him, are often precursors to those involved developing non-standard sexual identities.

Raasch is also a noted fan of Manga and anime, a hobby enjoyed by many perfectly healthy people, but also a favorite of transgender individuals, such as Chris Tyson, an important member of Mr. Beast, the world's most popular YouTube channel, who announced a love of anime involving sexualized children in the years before he came out as trans. Raasch has posted disturbing sexualized anime images such as the one below that as of this writing'--still on his official Twitter account.

He shows all the classic signs of an autogynephilic'--a man who (often spurred by pornography or fetish) becomes sexually aroused by the idea of themselves as a woman. This existence of this condition and its popularity among certain kinds of transgender-identifying men was first observed by Dr. Ray Blanchard and then popularized by Northwestern University psychologist and transgender scholar J. Michael Bailey in his pathbreaking 2003 book The Man who Would Be Queen.

For the last year or so, Raasch has been dating Anthony ''Erin'' Reed, one of the most prominent transgender activists in America. Reed has a disturbing background himself, and one again that has been almost completely ignored by the national media in which he has frequently appeared.'--Once married with a child, he got divorced and came out as transgender, eventually, like Raasch, opting for hormones and surgery.

(Editor's note: the author also included a post on Reddit from user Supernavosky from around 10 years ago as citation for the above portion. Originally published post described Reed as a convicted felon. Reed has disputed that description and says they are not a convicted felon. Click here for Reed's response via Twitter. Reed also says there was never an order to stop wearing an ex-wife's clothes. We have offered for Reed to join us on the radio and write up a full response.)

Reed's family was (unsurprisingly) unhappy about his decision to transition complaining that his family would not use his ''pronouns'' or his fake name. He is divorced enough from reality that he expressed anger that his ex-wife ''Told me that I can't have the name 'mom' because she gave birth.'' He later expressed frustration because his ex-wife was fighting him for custody after he came out as trans.

Screenshot of Tweet

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In his spare time Reed maintains an ''informed consent'' map of the many clinics in America where you can get cross-sex hormones just on your own say-so without any previous therapy or confirmed gender dysphoria required. Sadly, four such clinics exist even in Montana.

Prior to Reed, Raasch's previous ''girlfriend'' @stardustdog was a trans-identified man and a ''furry''--someone who enjoys dressing up as anthropomorphic animal characters, often with an explicit sexual component. Needless to say, the picture I have painted above is not a picture of a healthy man with values that most Montanans share. Nor is it the picture of a healthy woman.

Neiher Raasch nor his boyfriend Anthony believe that parents should have any right to know if a child is transitioning at school and Anthony is on record saying that those dating a trans person do not have the right to know that the trans person is trans because ''Trans women are women.'' Most heterosexual men, I daresay, would beg to differ.

Finally, it is notable that Raasch's own tantrum on the Montana House floor directly contradicts the professional advice of a host of organziations that Raasch supports including GLAAD, the National LGBTQ Task Force, the Trevor Project, and the Transgender Law Center. These organizations stress that you should not ''Say that a specific anti-LGBT law or policy will ''cause'' suicide.. . . Linking suicide directly to external factors like. . . Anti-LGBT laws can normalize suicide by suggesting that it is a natural reaction to such experiences or laws.''

Just so.If there is anyone with blood on his hands, it is Raasch, not those legislators who are attempting to protect Montana's kids.

Montana Republicans don't want transgender-identified Montanans (especially children) to die'--we want them to live!'--not to be seduced by gender ideology and social contagion into sterilizing themselves, mutilating their bodies with permanent wounds, and stuffing themselves with hormones entirely foreign to their natural condition. And we know this doesn't just happen to bad people or the children of bad parents. As with any social contagion, good young people and people from caring families can fall prey to it. That's why we're spending so much time and energy fighting back against radical gender ideology.

Raasch himself--and the rest of the transgender-identified Montanans are the victims of this ideology. But through the false media martyrdom that he always desired, the victim has also become a perpetrator.

Jeremy Carl (@jeremycarl4) is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute. He lives with his family in the foothills of the Bridger Mountains near Bozeman, Montana.LOOK: Baby names that are illegal around the worldStacker scoured hundreds of baby name databases and news releases to curate a list of baby names that are illegal somewhere in the world, along with explanations for why they're banned.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 04:22

Media | Vice Is Said to Be Headed for Bankruptcy https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/business/media/vice-bankruptcy.htmlThe company, which was once valued at $5.7 billion, has been struggling to find a buyer this year.

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Vice headquarters in Venice, Calif. Credit... Kayla Reefer for The New York Times Vice, the brash digital-media disrupter that charmed giants like Disney and Fox into investing before a stunning crash-landing, is preparing to file for bankruptcy, according to two people with knowledge of its operations.

The filing could come in the coming weeks, according to three people familiar with the matter who weren't authorized to discuss the potential bankruptcy on the record.

The company has been looking for a buyer, and still might find one, to avoid declaring bankruptcy. More than five companies have expressed interest in acquiring Vice, according to a person briefed on the discussions. The chances of that, however, are growing increasingly slim, said one of the people with knowledge of the potential bankruptcy.

A bankruptcy filing would be a bleak coda to the tumultuous story of Vice, a new-media interloper that sought to supplant the media establishment before persuading it to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2017, after a funding round from the private-equity firm TPG, Vice was worth $5.7 billion. But today, by most accounts, it's worth a tiny fraction of that.

In the event of a bankruptcy, Vice's largest debtholder, Fortress Investment Group, could end up controlling the company, said one of the people. Vice would continue operating normally and run an auction to sell the company over a 45-day period, with Fortress in pole position as the most likely acquirer.

Unlike Vice's other investors, which have included Disney and Fox, Fortress holds senior debt, which means it gets paid out first in the event of a sale. Disney, which has already written down its investments, is not getting a return, the person said.

''Vice Media Group has been engaged in a comprehensive evaluation of strategic alternatives and planning,'' Vice said in a statement on Monday. ''The company, its board and stakeholders continue to be focused on finding the best path for the company.''

Vice began as a punk magazine in Montreal more than two decades ago. Over the years, it blossomed into a global media company with a movie studio, an ad agency, a glossy show on HBO and bureaus in far-flung world capitals. Disney, after investing hundreds of millions in Vice, explored buying the company in 2015 for more than $3 billion, according to the two people familiar with the conversations.

Image Shane Smith, a co-founder of Vice, with Nancy Dubuc, the former chief executive, in 2019. Ms. Dubuc left Vice this year after nearly five years at the company. Credit... Craig Barritt/Getty Images The deal never materialized, and Vice eventually succumbed to a bearish market for digital media companies. The company has been trying for years to turn a profit but has consistently failed to do so, losing money and repeatedly laying off employees.

Last week, Vice told employees it was closing Vice World News, a global reporting initiative that covered world conflict and human-rights abuses. The closure of the world news operation was a blow to employees who saw the division's aggressive coverage as in keeping with Vice's roots in gonzo journalism, established when co-founder Shane Smith would report from risky destinations like North Korea.

As it has sought a buyer in recent months, Vice has dealt with turnover in its leadership ranks. Nancy Dubuc, the company's former chief executive, left this year after nearly five years at the company. Jesse Angelo, the company's global president of news and entertainment, also left the company.

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Tue, 02 May 2023 02:35

Shelters in a Texas city struggled to find space Saturday for migrants who authorities say have abruptly begun crossing by the thousands from Mexico, testing a stretch of the U.S. border that is typically equipped to handle large groups of people fleeing poverty and violence.

The pace of arrivals in Brownsville appeared to catch the city on the southernmost tip of Texas off guard, stretching social services and putting an overnight shelter in an uncommon position of turning people away. Officials say more than 15,000 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, have illegally crossed the river near Brownsville since last week.

That is a sharp rise from the 1,700 migrants that Border Patrol agents encountered in the first two weeks of April, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.

''It's a quite concerning because the logistical challenge that we encounter is massive for us,'' said Gloria Chavez, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Rio Grande Valley Sector.

The reason for the increase was not immediately clear. Chavez said migrants have been frustrated by relying on a glitch-plagued government app that can allow them to seek asylum at a port of entry. Some migrants who crossed this week cited other motivators, including cartel threats that immediately preceded the sudden increment.

The uptick comes as the Biden administration plans for the end of pandemic-era asylum restrictions. U.S. authorities have said daily illegal crossings from Mexico could climb as high as 13,000 from about 5,200 in March.

Other cities '-- some far away from the southern U.S. border '-- are also grappling with suddenly large influxes of migrants. In Chicago, authorities reported this week a tenfold increase in the arrival of migrants in the city, where as many as 100 migrants have begun arriving daily and begun sheltering in police stations.

Brownsville is across the Rio Grande from Matamoros, Mexico, where a sprawling encampment of makeshift tents has housed about 2,000 people waiting to enter the U.S.

Last week, some tents were set ablaze and destroyed. Some migrants have said cartel-backed gangs were responsible, but a government official suggested the fires could have been set by a group of migrants frustrated over their long wait.

''It was desperation, the cartel,'' said Roxana Aguirre, 24, a Venezuelan migrant who sat outside a Brownsville bus station Friday afternoon. ''You couldn't be on the street without looking over your shoulder.''

In downtown Brownsville, families from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and China walked aimlessly, carrying their belongings and talking on their cellphones.

Some waited for their buses while others were in limbo, waiting for relatives before making plans to leave but finding no shelter in the meantime. One Venezuelan couple said they slept in a parking lot after being turned away at an overnight shelter.

Officials in Brownsville issued a disaster declaration this week, following other Texas border cities that have done the same in the face of suddenly large influxes of migrants, including last year in El Paso.

''We've never seen these numbers before,'' said Martin Sandoval, spokesperson for the Brownsville Police Department.

The reshuffling of resources at the border '-- in one of the busiest sectors with robust Border Patrol staffing levels '-- comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security prepares to end the use of a public health authority known as Title 42, which allowed them to reject asylum claims.

The administration has expelled migrants 2.7 million times under a rule in effect since March 2020 that denies rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Title 42, as the public health rule is known, is scheduled to end May 11 when the U.S. lifts its last COVID-related restrictions.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 21:43

In 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration announced COVID-19 vaccination requirements to promote the health and safety of individuals and the efficiency of workplaces, protecting vital sectors of our economy and vulnerable populations. Since January 2021, COVID-19 deaths have declined by 95%, and hospitalizations are down nearly 91%. Globally, COVID-19 deaths are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. Following a whole-of-government effort that led to a record number of nearly 270 million Americans receiving at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, we are in a different phase of our response to COVID-19 than we were when many of these requirements were put into place.

Today, we are announcing that the Administration will end the COVID-19 vaccine requirements for Federal employees, Federal contractors, and international air travelers at the end of the day on May 11, the same day that the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. Additionally, HHS and DHS announced today that they will start the process to end their vaccination requirements for Head Start educators, CMS-certified healthcare facilities, and certain noncitizens at the land border. In the coming days, further details related to ending these requirements will be provided.

Our Administration's vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations. The Federal government successfully implemented requirements for its workforce in a way that increased vaccination to achieve 98% compliance, reflecting employees who had received at least one dose of a vaccine or had a pending or approved exception or extension request filed by January 2022. We also put in place vaccination requirements for certain international travelers to slow the spread of new variants entering the country and to allow our healthcare system time to effectively manage access to care if faced with an increase in cases and hospitalizations.

Our COVID-19 vaccine requirements bolstered vaccination across the nation, and our broader vaccination campaign has saved millions of lives. We have successfully marshalled a response to make historic investments in broadly accessible vaccines, tests, and treatments to help us combat COVID-19. While vaccination remains one of the most important tools in advancing the health and safety of employees and promoting the efficiency of workplaces, we are now in a different phase of our response when these measures are no longer necessary.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 21:43

An official website of the United States government

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Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( LockA locked padlock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Breadcrumb Home Access denied Release Date: May 1, 2023

Beginning May 12, 2023, DHS will no longer require non-U.S. travelers entering the United States via land ports of entry and ferry terminals to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide related proof of vaccination upon request. DHS intends to rescind these Title 19 travel restrictions in alignment with the end of the Public Health Emergency and the termination of the Presidential Proclamation on air travel.

Topics Border Security Keywords Border Security Coronavirus (COVID-19) Last Updated: 05/01/2023

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Mon, 01 May 2023 17:18

The Southern Poverty Law Center's famous list of ''hate'' groups is under fire in a courtroom in Alabama, where a judge has opened the door for a group that opposes illegal immigration to challenge the SPLC for slapping it with the Scarlet H.

The Georgia-based Dustin Inman Society and founder D.A. King say they work against illegal immigration but have no problem with legal immigrants. Indeed, some legal immigrants are on the organization's board, and Mr. King's adopted sister is an immigrant.

He says it's defamation for the SPLC to call him an ''anti-immigrant hate group.''

The SPLC asked a judge to toss the case, but U.S. District Judge W. Keith Watkins refused in a ruling last week. He said Mr. King should have a chance to develop his case and seek more evidence against the SPLC through discovery.

''Plaintiffs have 'nudged' their defamation claims '-- premised on SPLC's designation of DIS as an 'anti-immigrant hate group' '-- 'across the line from conceivable to plausible,''' Judge Watkins wrote.

Mr. King still has a high hill to climb. Defamation cases are almost impossible to win, particularly for those deemed ''public figures,'' as Mr. King acknowledged he is for this case. To prevail, he must prove that the SPLC was wrong and showed ''actual malice'' in making the claims.

But Tyler O'Neil, author of ''Making Hate Pay,'' an examination of the SPLC, called the judge's ruling ''monumental.''

''This is the very first defamation lawsuit specifically challenging the SPLC's 'hate group' accusation to make it to discovery,'' Mr. O'Neil said. ''Conservatives who have faced routine defamation may finally get some justice, and the American people may finally see behind the curtain how the SPLC runs its 'hate group' scam.''

The SPLC holds itself out as the ultimate arbiter of domestic hate groups, and those on the political left widely cite its list as evidence that some groups deserve to be silenced. The FBI has cited the SPLC's work in its decisions about whom to target '-- including a recent memo from the FBI's Richmond, Virginia, office urging agents to keep an eye on those who ascribe to ''radical traditionalist Catholic ideology.''

After it came to light, the bureau was forced to recant the memo.

The SPLC's work used to be universally praised, but it has become more controversial as the organization has expanded its hate label beyond traditional violent racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis to snare conservative Christian outfits and groups that advocate for stricter limits on immigration.

In its legal briefs in Mr. King's case, the SPLC has acknowledged that its labels are less science and more a political argument.

SPLC attorneys said the First Amendment's free speech guarantee protects opinions, so the organization cannot be held liable for defamation.

''SPLC's anti-immigrant hate group designation is not capable of being proved false, but is an opinion expressed as part of a political debate,'' the organization argued.

The SPLC questioned whether there can be a fixed definition of hate or being ''anti-immigrant.'' If there is no definition, then there is no standard to judge the SPLC's argument as false.

Judge Watkins said that doesn't wash, at least for the anti-immigrant label. He said there is a fixed definition of ''immigrant'' in federal law, so it's easy to figure out what anti-immigrant means. That should be clear to ''SPLC's attorneys, who encompass some of the brightest legal minds in the country,'' he wrote.

So the inference of the anti-immigrant label is that the Dustin Inman Society and Mr. King hate legal immigrants, including those who have become citizens.

Mr. King says that's ridiculous for many reasons '-- not least of which is his adoptive immigrant sister, the immigrants who are on the society's board and his organization's repeated statements that its chief goal is to reel in illegal immigration.

In an email to The Washington Times, Mr. King said he and the Dustin Inman Society already have achieved something with the lawsuit by getting the SPLC to acknowledge that its vaunted hate list is a statement of opinion, not fact.

''They have already told a federal court that their 'hate group' designation doesn't mean the designation is factual. We hope to allow the SPLC to expose themselves in court,'' he said. ''We want an apology and a retraction. We hope one of the violent SPLC followers doesn't get to us before the trial.''

In 2012, a mentally ill gunman inspired by the SPLC's list attacked the Washington office of the Family Research Council, wounding the building manager who wrestled the man to the ground.

SPLC has apologized for some of its work, including a 2015 listing of Republican Ben Carson as an extremist and a 2018 settlement with a Muslim activist, Maajid Nawaz, whom it oddly labeled an anti-Muslim extremist. SPLC acknowledged that it didn't do enough to learn about Mr. Nawaz's organization before using the label.

The Times contacted the SPLC for this report and got a response in an email intended for internal use.

''I thought we are not commenting and we shouldn't for the Washington Times. I met with Sybil yesterday and we are working on a communications plan,'' SPLC Chief Communications Officer Julian Teixeira wrote in an email to a colleague '-- which he also sent to The Times.

Sybil Hadley is SPLC's general counsel.

A key part of Mr. King's case is the SPLC's changing narrative on the Dustin Inman Society.

In 2011, the SPLC specifically said the society didn't meet its definition of a hate group. Heidi Beirich, who ran the SPLC's intelligence project, told The Associated Press the organization saw Mr. King as a ''nativist'' but not a hater.

''His tactics have generally not been to get up in the face of actual immigrants and threaten them,'' she said. ''Because he is fighting, working on his legislation through the political process, that is not something we can quibble with, whether we like the law or not.''

In 2017, though, Ms. Beirich told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the SPLC would take a new look at the group after the newspaper told her that the society had ties to U.S. Inc., a group founded by John Tanton to advance immigration restrictions.

By 2018, the hate label had been applied.

Mr. King argues that the only change was that the SPLC began lobbying in Georgia against legislation cracking down on illegal immigration, which meant it was now going toe-to-toe with Mr. King and the society. The anti-immigrant ''smear'' came soon afterward, he said.

''This came as a big surprise to the immigrants on our board and our immigrant donors,'' he said.

Ms. Beirich, who left the SPLC and founded the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, didn't reply to a request for comment for this report.

Other groups targeted by the SPLC are watching the case.

Among them is the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank that argues for stricter immigration limits, which the SPLC labeled an anti-immigrant hate group.

''That happened, literally, right after Trump was elected. In other words, it was a clear political decision on their part,'' said Mark Krikorian, the center's executive director.

He said the SPLC's hate designation can take a toll on fundraising and exposure and that some news outlets are now reticent about seeking out the center's perspective on issues.

Mr. Krikorian said that if Mr. King prevails, ''every other group that has been attacked with this label will be able to use the ruling to jujitsu SPLC and delegitimize it.''

' Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

Copyright (C) 2023 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 15:41

Tucker Carlson may be off the air at Fox News, but he's still under contract and the conservative news network reportedly plans to keep it that way until after the 2024 elections. According to inside sources, employees at Fox are ''rattled'' thanks to the decision to fire Carlson causing an immediate drop in viewers for his time slot, but for now, the goal is to keep Carlson off camera at Fox or anywhere.

''As of right now, the plan remains the same: pay out Carlson's contract and keep him on the sidelines through the 2024 elections,'' a Fox News source told Breitbart. ''They knew they would take a beating for this, but everyone '-- and I mean everyone '-- is pretty rattled. They weren't expecting the blowback to be this bad. Hate to say it, but it's clear that Rupert has lost a step or two.''

According to Breitbart, Carlson's current contract runs through December 2024, and Rupert Murdoch is reportedly trying to hold Carlson to that agreement so he can effectively ''silence him'' and keep Carlson from becoming ''serious competition.''

This strategy mirrors Joe Rogan's recent thoughts on Carlson's firing. The controversial podcaster opined that the ''smart'' and ''not stupid'' Fox News would pay out Tucker's contract to keep him from becoming a threat.

''You'd be better off just giving him the same amount of money he made when he was on the air, than you would have with him opposing you,'' Rogan said.

(Via Breitbart)

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Mon, 01 May 2023 15:39

''Rupert Murdoch basically wants to conquer the world,'' Sumner Redstone says. ''And he seems to be doing it.'' Illustration by Steve Brodner

When Rupert Murdoch arrives at his office on the Twentieth Century Fox lot, in Los Angeles, the single television is set to CNN, and the sound is off. At about eight-thirty, Dot Wyndoe, Murdoch's assistant of thirty-three years, spreads newspapers out on a shelf across from his desk: ''TOP COP NICKED MY WIFE,'' blares one of his London tabloids, the Sun; ''LOVE JUDGE COMES HOME,'' screams the New York Post. These are the only noisy elements in the office. Even the phones are quiet. Numerous calls stack up and are announced on an electronic monitor at his right elbow. Pastel paintings by Australian artists hang on snow-white walls over white couches and armchairs.

Murdoch's hair is turning white. He is sixty-four, and his shoulders stoop slightly. His voice is soft, and his manner is unfailingly courteous, as he sits with one leg tucked under the other. Only the hard brown eyes suggest that he is a predator.

He spends most of his time on the phone. He phones while driving his BMW to work, and he starts phoning from his desk as soon as he arrives, about 7 A.M. He always apologizes for disturbing an employee at an odd hour or on vacation, but the apology is more a ritual than a sign of genuine contrition. He hardly ever says hello or goodbye.

Murdoch lives in Beverly Hills, in a Spanish-style house, on six acres, formerly owned by Jules Stein, the founder of MCA. He's often away, doing business out of a Gulfstream jet he owns, or from one or another of the offices he keeps in several cities, including New York, where he works from a high-rise on Sixth Avenue near Times Square. This office is also white, and it has seven silent TV sets.

''Eric, sorry to wake you,'' Murdoch was saying from the New York office one recent afternoon. It was before dawn in Australia, and he had reached Eric Walsh, a lobbyist based in Canberra, who has been advising him on how to get the Chinese government to sanction his Star TV satellite system. ''I was going to go to Hong Kong for a week, but I've been invited for a one-day conference in Beijing,'' he told Walsh. Murdoch wanted to know if he should reach out to the Chinese. And, if so, when? ''Do I need an alibi?'' he asked Walsh. ''Or can I just write and say, 'I need a half hour of your time'?''

Walsh cautioned Murdoch to stay in the background. ''Nobody understands what's going on in there,'' Murdoch mused in response, slipping down further in his soft leather chair, until his head was not much higher than his desk. ''Everyone has different readings. You just never bloody know.''

Without the support of the Chinese government, Star TV can have no paid subscribers, and advertisers stay away. That situation translates into big losses projected at eighty million dollars in the current fiscal year, Murdoch says. He owns a satellite service that can potentially reach two-thirds of the world's population, yet, because of widespread concern in Asia about ''cultural imperialism'' and the impact of uncensored images and information, he has had to curb his aggressive tendencies. ''My Chinese friends tell me, 'Just go there every month,' '' he says. '' 'Knock on doors. It may take ten years.''' This is not the message that Murdoch wants to hear.

Murdoch is the chairman, C.E.O., and principal shareholder of a company, the News Corporation, that produced nearly nine billion dollars in revenue this year and more than a billion in profits, but he feels frustrated. He is frustrated by China. He is frustrated because he has no international news network to supply his Fox network here, or his Sky or Star satellite services in Europe and Asia, while Ted Turner has CNN. And until last month he was frustrated because he owned the rights to televise sporting events all over the world but didn't own a sports network, like ESPN.

Over all, however, these frustrations present mere skirmishes in a global war that Murdoch is winning. All the media deals and maneuvers of the past few months have come about, in part, because Disney and Time Warner felt that they had to catch up to Murdoch. ''He basically wants to conquer the world,'' says Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom. ''And he seems to be doing it.'' Former press lords, like Lord Beaverbrook, William Randolph Hearst, and Henry Luce, were dominant figures in a single medium on a single continent. Rupert Murdoch's empire spreads across six continents and nine different media: newspapers (his company owns or has an interest in a hundred and thirty-two); magazines (he owns or has an interest in twenty-five, including TV Guide, which has the largest circulation of any weekly magazine in the United States); books (HarperCollins and Zondervan, the dominant publisher of religious books); broadcasting (the Fox network, twelve TV stations in the United States; fifteen per cent of the Seven network, in Australia; and Sky Radio, in Britain); direct-broadcast satellite television (Star TV, in Asia; forty per cent of BSkyB, in Europe; half ownership of Vox, in Germany; and a yet to be named joint venture with Globo, in South America); cable (the fX network, in the United States; Canal Fox, in Latin America; and half ownership of Foxtel, in Australia); a movie studio (Twentieth Century Fox); home video (Fox Video); and on-line access to the worldwide Internet (Delphi). Murdoch not only reaches readers; he also holds the electronic keys to their homes.

Murdoch moves more swiftly than most rivals, takes bigger risks, and never gives up. In fact, despite public denials he has made, in late October he was still contemplating ways to reverse the deal that Time Warner announced in September to buy Turner Broadcasting System'--a deal that blocked some of Murdoch's own expansionist plans. One scheme that he discussed internally and ordered his bankers and lawyers to dissect carefully was to attempt a takeover of Time Warner valued at more than forty billion dollars. ''We're working hard at it,'' a central figure in the News Corporation said in late October, days before Murdoch became convinced that the effort would fail. The impediment, two participants say, was not finding partners but figuring out how to avoid the steep capital-gains taxes on the sale of Time Warner's various pieces to eager buyers. The idea was to make a bid for Time Warner in the next few months, before the merger with Turner was consummated. There were internal discussions about such potential partners as the Bronfmans, whose Seagram already owns just under fifteen per cent of Time Warner; US West, which owns twenty-five per cent of Time Warner's entertainment assets and opposes the terms of the Turner merger, and John Malone, the president and C.E.O. of Tele-Communications, Inc., the world's largest cable company.

Murdoch created the first global media network by investing in both software (movies, TV shows, sports franchises, publishing) and the distribution platforms (the Fox network, cable, and TV satellite systems) that disseminate the software. Within the next few years, the News Corporation's satellite system will blanket South America, in addition to Asia and Europe and parts of the Middle East and Africa. ''Basically, we want to establish satellite platforms in major parts of the world,'' Murdoch explains. ''And that gives us leverage here.'' If a cable-box owner or a programmer'--John Malone or Time Warner, for instance'--wants to reach a foreign market covered by one of Murdoch's satellite systems, Murdoch can extract favors from the programmer in the markets it controls in the United States. ''What we're trying to do is put ourselves in a position in other countries that some of these cable companies are in in this country,'' he says. He wants to be the gatekeeper.

To advance his grand plan, Murdoch arranged a summit meeting in suburban Denver on August 10th with John Malone, of TCI. Murdoch called the meeting because he believed that Malone was necessary for capturing two of the missing pieces in his empire'--the sports network and the news network. Malone owns fifteen regional cable sports channels and is a partner with Charles Dolan's Cablevision Systems in other regional sports channels around the country; these, when joined with Murdoch's and Malone's overseas sports holdings, could become the foundation for an international sports network. In addition, Malone was Ted Turner's most influential shareholder and could link Murdoch with CNN. Murdoch was assuming that Turner was a possible partner, and Malone was openly dismissive of Time Warner's management.

The day before the meeting, Murdoch summoned to his California office Chase Carey, the chairman and C.E.O. of Fox Television, and Preston Padden, the president of network distribution for Fox and the president of telecommunications and television for the News Corporation. Murdoch, from behind the oak table he uses as a desk, began by noting that at that moment Malone was trying to help Turner finance a bid to acquire CBS, which would compete with Fox. ''I think he intends to screw us,'' Murdoch said.

The three men held another caucus the next day, huddling in green upholstered armchairs on Murdoch's Gulfstream as it headed toward Denver for the meeting, at 2 P.M. They knew that Malone and Turner needed cash to take over CBS, and they talked about how Turner might be encouraged to sell something.

''The only asset we'd be interested in is CNN,'' Carey said.

Padden asked what might happen if Fox became a one-third owner in CNN.

''You don't want to hand over all your news efforts to Ted,'' said Murdoch, who is as wary of Turner's being too liberal as Turner is of Murdoch's being too conservative.

A car waited at the Denver airport to take Murdoch, Carey, and Padden to TCI headquarters. The meeting was held in a stark, glass-walled conference room dominated by a black granite oval table. The only refreshments were a few cans of diet soda and a thermos of coffee on a granite sideboard; each corner of the room was occupied by a rubber plant. Malone, attired in a red-and-white checked short-sleeved button-down shirt and chinos, was careful not to sit at the head of the table. Flanked by two TCI executives, he took a seat across from the Murdoch trio. The table was bare except for a single folded sheet of paper in front of Malone.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 13:52

Schedules and emails detail meetings in the years after he was a convicted sex offender; visitors cite his wealth and connections

April 30, 2023 7:59 am ETThe nation's spy chief, a longtime college president and top women in finance. The circle of people who associated with Jeffrey Epstein years after he was a convicted sex offender is wider than previously reported, according to a trove of documents that include his schedules.

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein's townhouse...

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The nation's spy chief, a longtime college president and top women in finance. The circle of people who associated with Jeffrey Epstein years after he was a convicted sex offender is wider than previously reported, according to a trove of documents that include his schedules.

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency since 2021, had three meetings scheduled with Epstein in 2014, when he was deputy secretary of state, the documents show. They first met in Washington and then Mr. Burns visited Epstein's townhouse in Manhattan.

Kathryn Ruemmler, a White House counsel under President Barack Obama, had dozens of meetings with Epstein in the years after her White House service and before she became a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2020. He also planned for her to join a 2015 trip to Paris and a 2017 visit to Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.

Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College, invited Epstein, who brought a group of young female guests, to the campus. Noam Chomsky, a professor, author and political activist, was scheduled to fly with Epstein to have dinner at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse in 2015.

None of their names appear in Epstein's now-public ''black book'' of contacts or in the public flight logs of passengers who traveled on his private jet. The documents show that Epstein arranged multiple meetings with each of them after he had served jail time in 2008 for a sex crime involving a teenage girl and was registered as a sex offender. The documents, which include thousands of pages of emails and schedules from 2013 to 2017, haven't been previously reported.

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The documents don't reveal the purpose of most of the meetings. The Wall Street Journal couldn't verify whether every scheduled meeting took place.

Most of those people told the Journal they visited Epstein for reasons related to his wealth and connections. Several said they thought he had served his time and had rehabilitated himself. Mr. Botstein said he was trying to get Epstein to donate to his school. Mr. Chomsky said he and Epstein discussed political and academic topics.

Mr. Burns met with Epstein about a decade ago as he was preparing to leave government service, said CIA spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp. ''The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector,'' she said. ''They had no relationship.''

Ms. Ruemmler had a professional relationship with Epstein in connection with her role at law firm Latham & Watkins LLP and didn't travel with him, a Goldman Sachs spokesman said. Epstein introduced her to potential legal clients, such as Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates,

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the spokesman said. ''I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein,'' Ms. Ruemmler said.

A spokeswoman for Latham & Watkins said Epstein wasn't a client of the firm.

In 2006, Epstein was publicly accused of sexually abusing girls in Florida who were as young as 14 years old. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and police investigated, and Epstein reached a deal with prosecutors in 2008. He avoided federal charges and pleaded guilty to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. He registered as a sex offender and served about 13 months in a work-release program.

Epstein's case generated waves of media coverage at the time, with publications in the U.S. and abroad reporting on accusations from underage girls and young women. In 2006, several politicians returned donations from Epstein. Some associates moved to distance themselves from him. His biggest known client, retail billionaire Leslie Wexner, later said he cut ties in 2007. His bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., later said it closed his accounts in 2013, though some bankers continued to meet with him for years after.

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In 2015, Virginia Giuffre publicly accused Epstein of sexually abusing and trafficking her when she was a teen and forcing her to have sex with influential people, including Prince Andrew. Prince Andrew has denied the allegations and last year settled a sex-abuse lawsuit by Ms. Giuffre.

Despite the negative press, Epstein's days were filled from morning to night with meetings with prominent people, the documents show. There were dinners at New York restaurants, meetings at luxury hotels and gatherings in the offices of prominent law firms. Many appointments were held at Epstein's townhouse in Manhattan.

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Prosecutors alleged in 2019 that the townhouse is where Epstein sexually abused female victims for years, many underage, and that he paid some of them to recruit their friends to engage in sexual activity.

After the Miami Herald reported that dozens of women said they were abused, prosecutors charged Epstein in 2019 with a sex trafficking conspiracy. He died that year in a New York jail while awaiting trial in what the city's medical examiner said was a suicide.

Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state.

A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport.

Mr. Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York, said Ms. Thorp. ''The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport,'' she said.

The following month, October 2014, Mr. Burns stepped down from his role at the State Department to serve as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. He ran the Carnegie Endowment until he was nominated in early 2021 by President Biden to serve as CIA director.

The documents show that Epstein appeared to know some of his guests well. He asked for avocado sushi rolls to be on hand when meeting with Ms. Ruemmler, according to the documents. He visited apartments she was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. ''See if there is a first class seat,'' he wrote, ''if so upgrade her.''

In 2014, Epstein called Ms. Ruemmler within weeks of her leaving the Obama White House. Epstein planned a lunch in August 2014 at his townhouse, followed by a series of meetings to introduce her to a wider circle of his acquaintances.

Ms. Ruemmler first met Epstein after he called her to ask if she would be interested in representing Mr. Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Goldman Sachs spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Gates said Epstein never worked for Mr. Gates, misrepresented their relationship, and that Mr. Gates regrets ever meeting with him.

Epstein and his staff discussed whether Ms. Ruemmler, now 52, would be uncomfortable with the presence of young women who worked as assistants and staffers at the townhouse, the documents show. Women emailed Epstein on two occasions to ask if they should avoid the home while Ms. Ruemmler was there. Epstein told one of the women he didn't want her around, and another that it wasn't a problem, the documents show.

Ms. Ruemmler didn't see anything that would lead her to be concerned at the townhouse and didn't express any concern, the Goldman spokesman said.

Several people who visited Epstein during this time period said they noticed young women at his townhouse. One of the visitors, Helen Fisher, an anthropologist who studies romantic love and attachment, had lunch with Epstein in January 2016 to discuss her work.

Dr. Fisher said that after the lunch, Epstein invited her to speak with his staff. ''And then, in filed, I would say, six young women,'' she said. ''All of them good looking. All of them young.''

Dr. Fisher said Epstein never funded her work, they weren't friends and they didn't stay in touch. ''I didn't have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein,'' she said. ''But I remembered it because of his spectacular house and because of the six young women.''

Over the next few years, Ms. Ruemmler, then a partner specializing in white-collar defense at Latham & Watkins, had more than three dozen appointments with Epstein, including for lunches and dinners.

''In the normal course, Epstein also invited her to meetings and social gatherings, introduced her to other business contacts and made referrals,'' the Goldman spokesman said. ''It was the same kinds of contacts and engagements she had with other contacts and clients.''

In 2015, she was scheduled to fly with Epstein to Paris and in 2017 he planned to stop in St. Lucia to take her to his island home in the U.S. Virgin Islands for the day, according to the documents.

Ms. Ruemmler never visited his island and ''never accepted an invitation or an opportunity to fly with Jeffrey Epstein anywhere,'' the Goldman spokesman said.

In addition to her current role as general counsel at Goldman Sachs, Ms. Ruemmler is co-chair of its reputational risk committee, which monitors business and client decisions for potential damage to the bank's image.

Epstein also connected Ms. Ruemmler with Ariane de Rothschild, who is now chief executive of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group. The bank hired Ms. Ruemmler's law firm, Latham & Watkins, after the introduction to help with U.S. regulatory matters, according to the bank and the Goldman spokesman.

Mrs. de Rothschild, who married into the famous banking family, had more than a dozen meetings with Epstein. He sought her help with staffing and furnishings as well as discussed business deals with her, according to the documents.

In September 2013, Epstein asked Mrs. de Rothschild in an email for help finding a new assistant, ''female'...multilingual, organized.''

''I'll ask around,'' Mrs. de Rothschild emailed back.

She bought nearly $1 million worth of auction items on Epstein's behalf in 2014 and 2015, the documents show.

Mrs. de Rothschild was named chairwoman of the bank in January 2015. That October, she and Epstein negotiated a $25 million contract for Epstein's Southern Trust Co. to provide ''risk analysis and the application and use of certain algorithms'' for the bank, according to a proposal reviewed by the Journal.

In 2019, after Epstein was arrested, the bank said that Mrs. de Rothschild never met with Epstein and it had no business links with him.

The bank acknowledged to the Journal that its earlier statement wasn't accurate. It said Mrs. de Rothschild met with Epstein as part of her normal duties at the bank between 2013 and 2019, and Epstein introduced the bank to U.S. finance leaders, recommended law firms and provided tax and risk consulting.

''In parallel to that, Epstein solicited her personally on a couple occasions for advice and services on estate management,'' the bank said.

Mrs. de Rothschild had no knowledge of any legal proceedings against Epstein and ''was similarly unaware of any questions regarding his personal conduct,'' the bank said. After later learning of his behavior, the bank said, ''she feels for and supports the victims.''

One of Epstein's scheduled meetings with Mrs. de Rothschild, in January 2014, included another of his regular guests: Joshua Cooper Ramo, then co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger's corporate consulting firm.

Epstein scheduled more than a dozen meetings from 2013 to 2017 with Mr. Ramo, who at the time served on the boards of Starbucks Corp. and FedEx Corp. , the documents show. Epstein had special snacks on hand because he believed Mr. Ramo was vegetarian, the documents indicate.

Many of Mr. Ramo's appointments with Epstein were in the evenings, typically after 5 p.m., at the townhouse. Mr. Ramo also was invited to a breakfast at the townhouse in September 2013 with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, another regular guest, the documents show.

Mr. Ramo, who still sits on the board of FedEx and recently stepped down from the Starbucks board, didn't respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for Mr. Kissinger said he wasn't aware that Mr. Ramo was meeting with Epstein.

Mr. Barak also met Epstein in 2015 with Mr. Chomsky, now 94, a linguistics professor and political activist who has been critical of capitalism and U.S. foreign policy.

Mr. Chomsky said Epstein arranged the meeting with Mr. Barak for them to discuss ''Israel's policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.''

Mr. Barak said he often met with Epstein on trips to New York and was introduced to people such as Mr. Ramo and Mr. Chomsky to discuss geopolitics or other topics. ''He often brought other interesting persons, from art or culture, law or science, finance, diplomacy or philanthropy,'' Mr. Barak said.

Epstein arranged several meetings in 2015 and 2016 with Mr. Chomsky, while he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

When asked about his relationship with Epstein, Mr. Chomsky replied in an email: ''First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone's. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally.''

In March 2015, Epstein scheduled a gathering with Mr. Chomsky and Harvard University professor Martin Nowak and other academics, according to the documents. Mr. Chomsky said they had several meetings at Mr. Nowak's research institute to discuss neuroscience and other topics.

Two months later, Epstein planned to fly with Mr. Chomsky and his wife to have dinner with them and movie director Woody Allen and his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, the documents show.

''If there was a flight, which I doubt, it would have been from Boston to New York, 30 minutes,'' Mr. Chomsky said. ''I'm unaware of the principle that requires that I inform you about an evening spent with a great artist.''

Epstein donated at least $850,000 to MIT between 2002 and 2017, and more than $9.1 million to Harvard from 1998 to 2008, the schools have said. In 2021, Harvard said it was sanctioning Mr. Nowak for violating university policies in his dealings with Epstein, and was shutting a research center he ran that Epstein had funded. MIT said it was inappropriate to accept Epstein's gifts, and that it later donated $850,000 to nonprofits supporting survivors of sexual abuse.

In a 2020 interview with the ''dunc tank'' podcast, Mr. Chomsky said that people he considered worse than Epstein had donated to MIT. He didn't mention any of his meetings with Epstein.

Mr. Chomsky told the Journal that at the time of his meetings ''what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate.''

MIT said lawyers investigating its ties to Epstein didn't find that Mr. Chomsky met with Epstein on its campus or received funding from him. Harvard declined to comment beyond the report it published on its Epstein ties in 2020. Mr. Nowak has said he regretted his role in fostering a connection between Epstein and Harvard. He didn't respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Botstein, 76, president of Bard College since 1975, had about two dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein over about four years, which were mostly visits to the townhouse.

''I was an unsuccessful fundraiser and actually the object of a little bit of sadism on his part in dangling philanthropic support,'' said Mr. Botstein. ''That was my relationship with him.''

Mr. Botstein said he first visited Epstein's townhouse in 2012 to thank him for unsolicited donations to Bard's high schools, then he returned over several years in an attempt to get more donations. In 2015, Epstein donated 66 laptops, the documents show.

''We looked him up, and he was a convicted felon for a sex crime,'' he said. Bard has a large program providing education to prisoners, he said. ''We believe in rehabilitation.''

Mr. Botstein, also the longtime music director for the American Symphony Orchestra, invited Epstein to an opera at Bard in 2013, then a concert at the college in 2016, the documents indicate. Epstein planned each time to bring some of his young female assistants and arrive by helicopter.

Mr. Botstein said he was expecting Epstein to support classical music causes and that the school took precautions when he visited. ''Because of his previous record, we had security ready,'' he said. ''He did not have any free access to anybody.''

At Epstein's home, Mr. Botstein was led to a dining room where they discussed classical music and other causes, he said. ''He presented himself as a billionaire, a really, really rich person,'' he said. ''I found him odd and arrogant. And what I finally came to believe, which is why we stopped contact with him, is that he was simply stringing us along.''

Despite all his meetings, Mr. Botstein said, Epstein never made another donation to Bard. ''It was a blessing in disguise,'' he said, ''that we never got any [more] money.''

'--Rob Barry contributed to this article.

Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com and David Benoit at David.Benoit@wsj.com

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Mon, 01 May 2023 12:56

A video showing a young ''drag queen'' dancing at a party sponsored by a gay hookup app is sparking outrage on social media, with many calling the clip ''disturbing.''

On April 29, Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis uploaded a TikTok to her Twitter showing a clip of a young boy dancing at a party surrounded by adults. The child is seen wearing a short pink dress and black latex high-heeled boots, and appears to be the only minor in the crowd.

In the corner of the TikTok, the words ''Sponsored by Jack'd'' can be seen. Jack'd is a chat and dating app similar to Grindr for gay and bisexual men seeking sex.

13 year old boy Drag Queen performs an explicit Strip Club dance routine in front of a crowd of men. The event was sponsored by a gay adult men's hookup and sex app. pic.twitter.com/o6B9Bhumpy

'-- Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis (@DrLoupis) April 29, 2023The video can be traced to an event which took place on February 16 of this year. The boy in the video is known as Ally Marc Jacobs, a prolific ''drag kid'' born Kingston Wells.

Wells originally posted the video to his TikTok and Instagram, tagging Jamari Amour in the description and calling him ''dad.'' Jamari is a gay porn model and choreographer who has been a mentor to Wells in his drag training.

This is not the first time videos of Wells performing for adults have gone viral on social media. The child recently caused outrage on Twitter after footage began to circulate showing him dancing in a black latex dress and high-heeled boots for an audience of adults. The video, which was filmed in March, was taken at the Brtb TV Awards Ball in New York.

On Instagram, Wells revealed that Jamari Amour had been the one to bring him to New York from his home in Los Angeles to perform at the Ball.

Wells' Instagram account currently has over 15,000 followers and is said to be ''mom monitored,'' but the boy's parents are never seen in his videos.

The child's social media history suggests his parents had been attempting to get him involved in performing from a very early age, with photos and videos uploaded as early as 2015 showing he had been entered into various singing and acting contests. Wells' family had seemingly traveled from Dayton, Ohio to Los Angeles regularly for auditions, eventually moving there outright. Wells has multiple siblings who were also involved in ''show business'' from very young ages.

In videos from 2015 and 2016, when he would have been just 5 or 6 years of age, Wells can be seen boisterously performing in auditions with the purpose of getting a role in a Disney commercial. The videos are tagged ''younghollywood'' and ''futurestar.''

Wells was selected for the commercial and appeared in a Disney advertisement in 2016.

In January of 2018, Wells uploaded a video to his Instagram titled ''King and Zoe'' showing his ''male'' and ''female'' sides confronting each other. It marks the first instance of the child's gender identity being mentioned.

The video's description reads: ''Have you ever met Zoe? Zoe has been around since I was 4 years old, and as I get older'...Zoe becomes more a part of me everyday!!! I'm still Kingston, but I LOVE being Zoe. Hope you like my first lil scene my mom shot for me!''

Following the video, Wells is seen wearing more feminine clothes in his photos and videos. He first attends a drag convention five months after he was first tagged as being a ''gender fluid kid.'' Wells becomes more involved in the drag scene over the coming year.

In a 2020 post ostensibly written by Wells' mother, Wells is seen dressed as a ''drag queen'' for career day at his school. In the photo description, Wells' mother uses ''she/her'' pronouns to refer to her son.

''Real talk'... this morning was hard. I know kids are going to mess with her, I know she is going to be questioned'... but this child has waited ALL YEAR for career day! She got up at 5:45 to put on her best drag, she secured her wig extra tight so no one would snatch it and she was soooo excited. I only wish at 10 I was as secure with who I WAS, AS THIS KID IS!!!! She's going to be a drag queen when she grows up '... so there.''

Following the 2020 post, Wells' Instagram feed becomes almost entirely dedicated to his drag persona. He has attended multiple Ru Paul events, and quickly developed a profile within the drag community.

Wells has since been seen performing at several adult drag shows and parties in outfits that have become progressively more suggestive.

In 2022, Wells became officially affiliated with the House of Marc Jacobs, a dance collective participating in the ballroom scene. Ballroom culture is overwhelmingly associated with the gay male community, and began as a way for Black and Latino drag queens to organize their own pageants. Most participants in ballroom belong to dance groups known as ''houses.'' The House of Marc Jacobs was launched by Jamari Amour, Wells' drag ''dad,'' with the official blessing of the Marc Jacobs brand.

Wells took the name Ally Marc Jacobs to represent his affiliation with the House.

In September of 2022, Wells was introduced as ''the youngest member of the Marc Jacobs family'' by Jamari Amour at an event. In the video, which was posted to Wells' Instagram, Amour is seen wearing thong-shorts that prominently display his genital region as he invites Wells out to dance for an audience of primarily gay men. Wells then emerges wearing a blue tutu and corset and begins to dance while Amour and others scream ''pussy cunt.''

Wells has since participated in multiple events on behalf of the House of Marc Jacobs.

''Drag kids'' and child involvement in drag shows have become a boiling point in the debate surrounding gender ideology and its impact on children, especially since the controversial spread of Drag Queen Story Hours across North America and Europe. The controversy has been stoked by the arrests of multiple prominent drag queens for child sexual abuse-related offenses.

Last October, armed protestors and counter-protestors clashed outside of an Oregon drag queen storytime event after it was discovered that an 11-year-old female child would be performing. ''Vanellope'' was often 'tipped' by adult male drag performers found to have sent money to the child via a Venmo account set up in her name.

Days later, it was discovered ''Vanellope's'' drag coach was facing child sexual exploitation material charges after exchanging abuse images with pedophiles on the internet.

Since then, protests outside of drag events have become a regular occurrence. In November, a transgender drag queen event directed at children in Denton, Texas was provided security from protestors by black-clad Antifa members armed with loaded guns.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 12:51

Ireland is set to become the latest country to pass "hate speech" legislation, making it a crime to "possess material that is likely to incite violence or hatred against a person or group" and a violation of the act can carry a prison sentence of up to five years.

The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 passed the Dail Eireann stage of the Irish legislature on Wednesday and has begun the process in the Seanad Eireann. The bill makes it an offense to "incite violence or hatred against a person, condonation, denial or gross trivialisation of genocide, and preparing or possessing material likely to incite violence or hatred against persons on account of their protected characteristics."

Protected characteristics include race, colour, nationality, religion, national or ethnic origin, descent, gender, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, or disability.

One part that drew controversy about the bill is the notion that mere possession of material that is deemed hateful is enough for up to two years in prison, and the burden of proof is on the accused to prove their intent was not to spread "hate."

In section 10(3) it states that "reasonably assumed that the material was not intended for personal use of the person, the person shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, to have been in the possession of the material."

The bill clarifies that comunicating these materials to the public in any way constitutes a violation of the law. It states if a person "displays, publishes, distributes, disseminates, shows or plays the material," or "makes the material available in any other way including the use of an information system" such as social media, it is against the law.

According to a tweet from Free Speech Ireland, the house voted against adding the UN Convention on Human Rights protections on Free Speech to the bill. They also voted against removing the offense for possession.

In a Tweet, Elon Musk responded to this news with "This is a massive attack against freedom of speech."

Countries around the world have been enacting so-called hate speech laws. On Friday, the Australian government threatened Reduxx mag for publishing an article about a male playing female soccer. In Canada, Amy Hamm has been in a legal battle for her involvement for putting up a billboard with the words "I (heart) J.K. Rowling" on it. Women's Rights Campaigner Kelly-Jay Keen has been threatened for arrest in Sussex for using "words or behaviors to stir up hatred."

Bill 2022 is currently in stage 7 out of 11 in the Irish legislature.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 12:41

In 2014, current CIA director William Burns had three meetings with Jeffrey Epstein when Burns was Obama's deputy secretary of state, and after Epstein had been convicted of child sex exploitation, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Burns and Epstein first met in Washington prior to Burns visiting Epstein and his Manhattan townhouse, according to a trove of leaked documents that include Epstein's schedules which were not contained in Epstein's "black book" of contacts or flight logs.

Burns, who became CIA Director under Biden in 2021, met with Epstein while he was preparing to leave his position in the government, according to agency spokeswoman Tammy Kupperman Thorp.

"The director did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector and offered general advice on transition to the private sector," she said, adding "They had no relationship."

Mr. Burns, 67 years old, a career diplomat and former ambassador to Russia, had meetings with Epstein in 2014 when Mr. Burns was deputy secretary of state.

A lunch was planned that August at the office of law firm Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Epstein scheduled two evening appointments that September with Mr. Burns at his townhouse, the documents show. After one of the scheduled meetings, Epstein planned for his driver to take Mr. Burns to the airport.

Mr. Burns recalls being introduced in Washington by a mutual friend, and meeting Epstein once briefly in New York, said Ms. Thorp. ''The director does not recall any further contact, including receiving a ride to the airport,'' she said. -WSJ

One month after meeting with Epstein, in October 2014, Burns stepped down from this role at the State Department to serve as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank. He ran it until he was nominated by Biden to serve as CIA director in early 2021.

Epstein's former residence on a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Photo: Emily Michot/TNS/Zuma PressEpstein also had dozens of meetings with then-Obama White House attorney Kathryn Ruemmler, who went on to become Goldman Sachs' top lawyer in 2020. Epstein also planned for her to join him in 2015 on a trip to Paris, and in 2017 to visit his private island in the Caribbean.

According to a spokesman for Goldman, Ruemmler had a 'professional relationship' with Epstein tied to her role at law firm Latham & Watkins LLP, and did not travel with him.

"I regret ever knowing Jeffrey Epstein," she said.

According to the documents, however, they knew each other well enough... following Epstein's 2006 conviction for sexually abusing girls in Florida as young as 14-years-old.

He asked for avocado sushi rolls to be on hand when meeting with Ms. Ruemmler, according to the documents. He visited apartments she was considering buying. In October 2014, Epstein knew her travel plans and told an assistant to look into her flight. ''See if there is a first class seat,'' he wrote, ''if so upgrade her.''

Kathryn Ruemmler had dozens of meetings with Epstein in the years after her White House service and before she became a top lawyer at Goldman Sachs. Photo: William B. Plowman/NBCUniversal/Getty ImagesWithin weeks of Ruemmler's 2014 departure from the Obama White House, Epstein planned an August lunch at his townhouse, followed by a series of meetings to introduce her to his acquaintances.

The two first met when Epstein called her to ask if she would be interested in representing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - a relationship which never panned out.

Epstein and his staff discussed whether Ms. Ruemmler, now 52, would be uncomfortable with the presence of young women who worked as assistants and staffers at the townhouse, the documents show. Women emailed Epstein on two occasions to ask if they should avoid the home while Ms. Ruemmler was there. Epstein told one of the women he didn't want her around, and another that it wasn't a problem, the documents show.

Ms. Ruemmler didn't see anything that would lead her to be concerned at the townhouse and didn't express any concern, the Goldman spokesman said. -WSJ

Epstein also connected Ruemmler with Ariane de Rothschild, current CEO of the Swiss private bank Edmond de Rothschild Group. Ruemmler's law firm was hired by the bank to help them with US regulatory matters, according to the bank and the Goldman spokesman.

I have been asserting that Epstein was OBVIOUSLY not a major financier since well before his Florida arrest in 2006.These leaders are meeting him years after his conviction and incarceration.

This thing appears just *impossibly* fake. I'm sorry. It seems fake. Just fake. https://t.co/vIyjwEshZx

'-- Eric Weinstein (@EricRWeinstein) April 30, 2023De Rothschild, who married into the famous banking family, met with Epstein over a dozen times.

In September 2013, Epstein asked Mrs. de Rothschild in an email for help finding a new assistant, ''female'...multilingual, organized.''

''I'll ask around,'' Mrs. de Rothschild emailed back.

She bought nearly $1 million worth of auction items on Epstein's behalf in 2014 and 2015, the documents show.

Mrs. de Rothschild was named chairwoman of the bank in January 2015. That October, she and Epstein negotiated a $25 million contract for Epstein's Southern Trust Co. to provide ''risk analysis and the application and use of certain algorithms'' for the bank, according to a proposal reviewed by the Journal.

In 2019, after Epstein was arrested, the bank said that Mrs. de Rothschild never met with Epstein and it had no business links with him. -WSJ

The bank admitted to the Journal that it lied in its earler statement, and that Mrs. de Rothschild and Epstein met as part of her normal duties at the bank.

Other notables in the new report include;

Leon Botstein, president of Bard CollegeNoam Chomsky, who was scheduled to fly with Epstein to have dinner at the pedophile's Manhattan townhouse in 2015Anthropologist Helen Fisher, who says she 'didn't have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein, "But I remembered it because of his spectacular house and because of the six young women."Joshua Cooper Ramo, then co-chief executive of Henry Kissinger's corporate consulting firm. Harvard professor Martin NowakFormer Israeli Prime Minister Ehud BarakMore on Ehud Barak, given rumors that Epstein was running a Mossad honeypot operation;

Mr. Ramo also was invited to a breakfast at the townhouse in September 2013 with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, another regular guest, the documents show.

...

Mr. Barak also met Epstein in 2015 with Mr. Chomsky, now 94, a linguistics professor and political activist who has been critical of capitalism and U.S. foreign policy.

Mr. Chomsky said Epstein arranged the meeting with Mr. Barak for them to discuss ''Israel's policies with regard to Palestinian issues and the international arena.''

Mr. Barak said he often met with Epstein on trips to New York and was introduced to people such as Mr. Ramo and Mr. Chomsky to discuss geopolitics or other topics. ''He often brought other interesting persons, from art or culture, law or science, finance, diplomacy or philanthropy,'' Mr. Barak said.

When asked about his relationship with Epstein, Noam Chomsky said: "First response is that it is none of your business. Or anyone's. Second is that I knew him and we met occasionally."

Noam Chomsky, a professor and political activist, said he discussed political and academic topics when meeting with Epstein. Photo: Alejandro Acosta/Agencia EL UNIVERSAL/Zuma PressAfter Epstein donated $850,000 to MIT between 2002 and 2017, and $9.1 million to Harvard between 1998 and 2008, Chomsky said in a 2020 interview that people 'worse than Epstein' had donated to MIT. He didn't disclose their friendship at the time.

Chomsky said that at the time of their meetings, "what was known about Jeffrey Epstein was that he had been convicted of a crime and had served his sentence. According to U.S. laws and norms, that yields a clean slate."

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Mon, 01 May 2023 12:40

Washington, DC, needs an emergency supply of snazzy sandwich boards announcing, ''Will Legislate for Food.''

A hunger crisis on Capitol Hill gave congressional leaders no choice but to trample the Constitution.

Thanks to a backroom deal, House members can now claim automatic reimbursement of $258 a night for lodging expenses and $79 a day for meals in DC '-- even if they don't spend a dime.

But though House members can pocket up to $34,000 a year in additional tax dollars, it's not a pay raise because politicians are entitled to use false labels for everything they do.

There is a pity party in Washington: You weren't invited, but you'll pay the bill.

Members of Congress are whining that they receive only $174,000 a year '-- more than triple the average US salary and higher pay than 93% of Americans pocket.

And it is a part-time job: The House of Representatives will be in session just 117 days this year.

That didn't stop Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from moaning that ''Congress structures itself to exclude and push out the few working class people who *do* get elected.''

Congressional salaries are far higher than average Americans' pay in part to cover the extra cost of spending time in Washington. But House members wanted more.

After Republicans captured the House majority in November, the Democrat-controlled House Administration Committee rushed through a provision in December to boost members' pay.

The House Administration Committee, then led by Dems, rushed through the provision for the reimbursements shortly after the GOP took control of the House in the midterm elections last year. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThe Constitution's 27th Amendment, ratified in 1992, though, prohibits any law ''varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives'' from taking effect ''until an election of representatives shall have intervened.''

The new windfall was labeled ''reimbursements'' and took effect thanks to a tweak in the Members' Congressional Handbook.

There was no debate or vote on the House floor; neither the Senate nor the president had a say in the matter.

Former Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) denounced the ''clandestine secrecy'' of the process.

In a press conference Friday, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), House Democratic leader, denied any pay raise occurred: It was just ''reimbursement.''

Jeffries used the word ''bipartisan'' five times in one minute to sanctify the new measure.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries called the reimbursement a ''bipartisan'' measure. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty ImagesInside the Beltway, ''bipartisan'' bestows instant absolution. House Republican leaders did not oppose the windfall.

Congress wouldn't dare openly hike its own pay because only 20% approve of how Congress is handling its job (78% disapprove).

So congressional leadership is portraying the new windfall as practically a typo on W-2 forms.

The up-to-$34,000-a-year benefit is part of a budget boost to ''provide a 'living wage,''' according to a summary from House Appropriations Committee Democrats.

The new benefit system ''does not require the submission of receipts to reduce burdens and address the potential security risks,'' ruled the House's chief administrative officer.

Congress last year bankrolled hiring 87,000 new IRS agents and employees to audit Americans' 1040 forms and shake more money out of their bank accounts.

The new benefits are tax-free, so House members can pocket the pre-tax equivalent of $50,000 in extra income based solely on unverified claims.

The House report bewailed that ''the personal benefits of winning a seat in Congress have . . . decreased.''

But that was because Congress' reckless deficit spending helped wreck the value of the dollar, which has fallen 40% since the last pay raise Congress gave itself in 2009.

The report claimed permitting reimbursement would ''modernize'' the pay system.

Was the goal to have congressional compensation harmonize with the nationwide epidemic of shoplifting?

The covert pay raise is akin to hiring a store clerk who then announces he is entitled to pilfer cash registers to get his lunch money.

How much would you pay a lawyer who didn't bother reading the contracts he signed on your behalf? Every year, Congress enacts multiple thousand-page legislative blunderbusses without bothering to read the text.

Most members of Congress are millionaires. Most members are also landlords, and there is no limit to the rent they pocket on top of their salary.

Nor is there any limit to the illicit profits they snare from insider stock trading '-- despite congressional leaders' endless promises to end that crime spree.

The House report laments that ''the decision to retire from Congress is sometimes driven by financial concerns.''

It didn't mention representatives rushing to get rich by selling out America. Almost a hundred former members of Congress have registered as foreign agents.

That notorious revolving door inspired a Politico headline: ''Want to be a 'foreign agent'? Serve in Congress first.''

The report justified the compensation boost: ''More candidates are willing to run for office if they see public service as an economically viable career.''

But the Founding Fathers didn't intend for citizens to make ''viable careers'' from endlessly seeking coercive power over other Americans.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy should strike a blow for political decency by torpedoing the backdoor pay raise. Or do congressional Republicans believe they are entitled to free lunches on top of their $174,000 salaries?

I don't want my name on an FBI terrorist watch list for inciting ''contempt of Congress,'' so here's my compromise proposal: If Congress will balance the budget and stop violating the Constitution, it can spend my tax dollars to buy all the beer that representatives and senators can drink.

But Democrats only get Bud Light.

James Bovard is the author of 10 books and a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors.

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Benny Johnson : 🚨BREAKING: Chuck Grassley discusses the letter sent to the FBI after a Whistleblower revealed existence of an FBI r'... https://t.co/f5N4ef7Ilh

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Alex Sheppard 🇺🇸 : WATCH 🚨President Donald Trump reacts to news that Ukrainians attempted to drone strike Vladimir Putin and the Kre'... https://t.co/O2Vrpe73Gx

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Find out your parenting style with my parent personality quiz!

Find out your parenting style with my parent personality quiz!

Parenting Great Kids Podcast - Episode 191

with guests Irene Ericksen & Mary Anne Mosack

Hosted by Dr. Meg Meeker | February 7, 2023 | 31:52 min

Episode 191 | You won't want to miss this episode! Dr. Meeker brings in some experts to talk about kids and transgender issues. They discuss what the medical data shows not just nationally, but worldwide.

Mary Anne Mosack is the President/CEO of Ascend, a national organization empowering youth to make healthy choices about sex, relationships, and marriage through Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) education. She is a developer of Ascend's nationally. recognized Sexual Risk Avoidance Certification Course credentialing over 3,000 SRA educators across America.

https://weascend.org/

Irene Ericksen is a Senior Research Associate at The Institute for Research & Evaluation, an agency known for its work evaluating school-based sex education for over 25 years. She is recognized internationally for her expertise in teen sexual risk prevention and has provided expert testimony to state, national, and international governmental bodies. She has recently completed a review of the research on key questions about gender identity confusion in adolescents.

https://institute-research.com/

Dr. Meeker brings in some experts to talk about kids and transgender issues. They discuss what the medical data shows not just nationally, but worldwide. Irene Ericksen is a Senior Research Associate at The Institute for Research & Evaluation, an agency known for its work evaluating school-based sex education for over 25 years. She has recently completed a review of the research on key questions about gender identity confusion in adolescents.

Mary Anne Mosack is the President/CEO of Ascend, a national organization empowering youth to make healthy choices about sex, relationships, and marriage through Sexual Risk Avoidance (SRA) education. She is a developer of Ascend's nationally recognized Sexual Risk Avoidance Certification Course credentialing over 3,000 SRA educators across America. Both ladies bring a plethora of information regarding this topic.

FROM THE PRODUCER

Thanks for listening to Episode#191, Kids and Transgender '' What theMedical Data Shows, Part 1 and for helping Dr. Meg's parenting revolution reach more than FIVE MILLION downloads! '

Peaceful Discipline April 18, 2023

Episode 199 | Sarah Moore's book, Peaceful Discipline: Story Teaching, Brain Science, & Better Behavior helps mitigate adults' very real struggles, and gives them specific strategies that increase cooperation and connection with the children in their lives.

Read More >>How to Build Trust Between You and Your Kids April 11, 2023

Episode 198 | Dr. Henry Cloud is a clinical psychologist, pastor to pastors, and New York Times best-selling author. His 45 books, including the iconic Boundaries, have sold nearly 15 million copies worldwide.

Read More >>Trading Our Fears for God's Unshakeable Peace April 4, 2023

Episode 197 | Katie Davis Majors is the bestselling author of Kisses from Katie and Daring to Hope. Katie is the founder of Amazima Ministries, an organization that desires to empower people in Uganda through authentic relationships, education, community strengthening, vocational training, and spiritual disciples

Read More >>Helping Young Adults Launch March 21, 2023

Episode 196 | Bruce Sheridan talks about how he is passionate about helping young adults plan and live an intentional and fulfilling life. Bruce coaches young adults to take responsibility for their relationships with God and their family/friends, what career to pursue and managing their money.

Read More >> Previous Next >>Simplify Fatherhood with these Practical Tools

Dr. Meg Meeker is a global leading authority in child-father relationships. She has over 30 years of experience as a pediatrician; is the author of the bestselling book and now movie, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters ; host of the popular parenting podcast, Parenting Great Kids ; TEDTalk and international speaker; and father-inclusive advocate. As an expert in the field, Dr. Meg equips dads (and those who love them) with tools and training based on extensive practical experience and research.

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Media caption, Watch: Ros Atkins on... the Russian social media videos appearing to show Kremlin drone attack

By Will Vernon in Moscow & Thomas Spender in London

BBC News

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied his country carried out an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, which Russia says was an attempt on President Vladimir Putin's life.

"We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities," he said, speaking on a visit to Finland.

The Russian president's office said defences downed two drones overnight.

It threatened to retaliate when and where it considered necessary.

Unverified footage circulating online shows smoke rising over the Kremlin - a large government complex in central Moscow - early on Wednesday. A second video shows a small explosion above the site's Senate building, while two men appear to clamber up the dome.

The Russian presidency said Ukraine had attempted a strike on Mr Putin's residence in the Kremlin and described it as "a planned terrorist act and an assassination attempt on the president".

Officials said two drones targeting the complex had been disabled using electronic radar assets, adding that President Putin had not been in the complex at the time of the alleged attack.

But Ukraine has said the Russian accusations are merely a pretext for massive attacks on its territory and the US says it is treating the Russian claims with a lot of caution.

Mr Putin appears to be one of the most closely-guarded leaders in the world. At Putin events in Moscow attended by BBC journalists, extremely tight security has been in place, including extensive checks and long convoys of vehicles with airspace closed and traffic halted.

However if what the Kremlin is saying is true, it will raise questions about how well protected the president really is.

There will also be scrutiny over the effectiveness of Russian air defences. In recent months, anti-aircraft systems have been spotted on Moscow rooftops in the vicinity of key buildings.

They have been placed there because the Kremlin is concerned that Ukraine, or those sympathetic to Ukraine, may attempt to carry out aerial attacks on high-value targets.

Whatever actually happened on Wednesday morning, the question now is how Russia will respond. Some officials have already called for tough action. Russian generals have warned many times of harsh responses to any strikes on Russian territory.

But it is unclear whether Russia has the capacity to carry out meaningful retaliatory strikes, or whether this incident will lead to any significant escalation on the battlefield inside Ukraine.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser told the BBC the incident indicated Russia could be "preparing a large-scale terrorist provocation" in Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak said attacking Moscow made no sense for Ukraine but would help Russia justify its own attacks on civilian targets.

On Wednesday Russian strikes on Ukraine's southern Kherson region killed 21 people. Mr Zelensky said the shelling had hit "a railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket and a gas station". The victims included supermarket customers and employees of an energy company who were performing repairs, officials said.

Mr Podolyak added that any drones flying over locations in Russia were down to "guerrilla activities of local resistance forces".

"Something is happening in RF [Russian Federation], but definitely without Ukraine's drones over the Kremlin," Mr Podolyak said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he could not validate Russia's accusation that Ukraine had tried to kill Mr Putin, but said he would take anything the Russian presidency said with a "very large shaker of salt".

Mick Mulroy, a former US deputy assistant secretary of defence and CIA officer, told the BBC that if reports of the incident were accurate, it was "unlikely" to be an assassination attempt as Ukraine tracks President Putin's movements closely and he was not in Moscow at the time.

"This may have been to show the Russian people that they can be hit anywhere and that the war they started in Ukraine may eventually come home to Russia, even the capital," he said.

Alternatively, if the reports were not accurate, "Russia may be fabricating this to use as a pretext to target President Zelensky - something they have tried to in the past", Mr Mulroy said.

Russia also noted the alleged drone incident had come shortly before Russia's 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow, which foreign dignitaries were expected to attend.

The parade will go ahead as planned, Russian officials said.

Moscow's mayor on Wednesday announced a ban on unauthorised drone flights over the city.

Several Russian cities had already announced they would scale back this year's Victory Day celebrations.

Russian authorities have cited security reasons and attacks from pro-Ukrainian forces for the changes. Explosions and fires have occurred in Russia in recent weeks.

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America 180 with David Brody

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America 180David BrodyMichelle ObamaPresidencyRoger StoneDonald TrumpChina2.95K

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Political icon Roger Stone explains why he thinks Michelle Obama will be the democrat nominee for president in 2024. Plus, how U.S. financial institutions are under threat from China and within America.

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Website: www.america180.usTwitter: @america180_officialInstagram: @america180_officialGETTR: @america180_officialTruth Social: @america180_officialFacebook: America 180

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ZZZ : Newt Gingrich: ''I Think Republicans Better Pay Significant Attention to Michelle Obama''#Election2024 https://t.co/9zVmbbQUPD

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Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party'--Introduction Jul 6 comments The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party were first published in November of 2004, followed quickly by an English translation. In 15 years, the series has led over 300 million Chinese to renounce the communist party and its affiliated organizations, fostering an unprecedented peaceful movement for transformation and change in China. People continue to renounce ['...]

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:52

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LOS ANGELES (AP) '-- The union representing 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms are now on strike. It's the first writers' strike '-- and the first Hollywood strike of any kind '-- in 15 years. Here's a look at the storylines the fight has spawned.

WHY ARE THE WRITERS STRIKING?Streaming and its ripple effects are at the center of the dispute. The guild says that even as series budgets have increased, writers' share of that money has consistently shrunk.

Streaming services' use of smaller staffs '-- known in the industry as ''mini rooms'' '-- for shorter stints has made sustained income harder to come by, the guild says. And the number of writers working at guild minimums has gone from about a third to about half in the past decade. Writers of comedy-variety shows for streaming have no minimum protections at all, the guild says.

''On TV staffs, more writers are working at minimum regardless of experience, often for fewer weeks,'' the guild said in a March report.

The lack of a regular seasonal calendar in streaming has depressed pay further, the report says. And scheduled annual pay bumps under the current contract have fallen well short of increases in inflation.

The weekly minimum for a staff writer on a television series in the 2019-2020 season was $4,546, according to industry trade outlet Variety. They work an average of 29 weeks on a network show for $131,834 annually, or an average of 20 weeks on a streaming show for $90,920. For a writer-producer, the figure is $6,967 per week.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents Hollywood's studios, streamers and production companies, say their priority is ''the long-term health and stability of the industry'' and they are dedicated to reaching ''a fair and reasonable agreement.''

HOW DID WE GET HERE?Months of negotiations still left considerable distance between writers and the AMPTP. The Writers Guild of America '-- whose East and West versions are technically two unions that act as a unit in these negotiations.

Talks, which often extend for hours or days past a contract deadline, instead ended hours before the most recent contract expired Monday night. By that point writers, who voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike, had already begun making signs for picket lines, Which they promptly put to use Tuesday.

The AMPTP said that it had offered ''generous increases in compensation for writers as well as improvements in streaming residuals'' and would improve its offer but couldn't due to the multitude of demands by the writers.

WHAT SHOWS WILL BE AFFECTED FIRST?Late-night talk shows, heavily dependent on same-day, current-events-based comedy writing, were the first to feel the strike's effect. The shows have been the de facto frontline during previous writers strikes. NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,'' ABC's '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' and CBS's ''The Late Show With Stephen Colbert'' all went immediately into hiatus and will air reruns. James Corden's Thursday night farewell to his ''Late Late Show'' was well-timed.

''Saturday Night Live,'' nearly as dependent on last-minute writing, has already axed this week's episode with host Pete Davidson. The final two episodes in the season that follow it are in serious jeopardy.

The status of daytime talk shows, which lean more into host chats and interviews, are less certain. ABC's ''The View'' was uninterrupted during the last strike, which began late in 2007 and ended early in 2008.

HOW WILL THE STRIKE AFFECT SCRIPTED SERIES AND MOVIES?The strike's impact on scripted series could take far longer to manifest, though some, including Showtime's ''Yellowjackets'' are already pausing production. Noticeable effects on the movie release calendar could take even longer.

Production on finished screenplays can proceed as planned (without the benefit of last-minute rewrites). In general, Hollywood's other unions '-- including guilds for actors and directors, both of which face expiring deals with AMPTP in the coming months '-- are forbidden by their contracts to join the current strike and must continue working, though both members and leaders have expressed solidarity with the WGA.

Productions, long aware of the looming deadline, sought to wrap before it arrived. FilmLA, which hands out location permits for the Los Angeles area, say that none have been requested for television dramas or sitcoms this week.

Depending on their media consumption methods, many viewers and moviegoers may not notice the effects of a strike until long after it's over, if at all. The menus on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video will look no different next week, but because this would be the first writers' strike of the streaming era, there is no template for how they will look months down the line.

During the last strike, when broadcast and cable networks with well-established seasonal schedules were still predominant, many shows, including ''30 Rock,'' ''CSI,'' and ''Grey's Anatomy,'' shortened their seasons.

Unscripted reality television grew in strength at the time. ''Big Brother'' and ''The Amazing Race'' both increased their output. ''The Apprentice,'' hosted by Donald Trump, got new life when a celebrity version of the shelved show was created to help fill the scripted void.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW FOR THE WRITERS? The full stop to work will mean major economic losses for screenwriters, though many say it's worth it to fight the day-to-day dwindling of income.

Guild strike rules prevent members from striking new deals, making new pitches, or turning in new scripts. They are allowed to accept payment for any writing that's already been done.

Those known in the industry as ''hyphenates,'' including showrunners who act as head writer-producers, performer-writers, and people like Quinta Brunson of ''Abbot Elementary'' who do all the above, are allowed to do the non-writing parts of their jobs under union rules, though that work may be minimal as they seek solidarity with their writing staffs. (At Monday's Met Gala, Bruson said ''I'm a member of the WGA and support WGA and ... We, us, us getting what we need. ... No one wants a strike, but I hope that we're able to rectify this, whatever that means'')

HOW PREVIOUS WRITERS STRIKES HAVE PLAYED OUTWriters have gone on strike six times, more than any group in Hollywood.

The first came in 1960, a Writers Guild walkout that lasted nearly five months. Strikes followed in 1973, 1981, and 1985. The longest work stoppage, lasting exactly five months, came in 1988.

The 2007-2008 strike was resolved after three months. Among the main concessions the writers won were requirements that fledgling streaming shows would have to hire guild writers if their budgets were big enough. It was an early harbinger of nearly every entertainment labor fight in the years that followed.

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Wed, 03 May 2023 12:22

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' ᗰISᑕᕼIᗴᖴ ' ' : Peter Doocy calls out Karine Jean Pierre on her lie saying illegal migration is down 95% because of Biden's border'... https://t.co/HohJTkDXuq

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Tue, 02 May 2023 15:29

The Writers Guild of America West offices are seen in Los Angeles as Hollywood film and TV writers, who voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving union negotiators the power to call a strike if contract talks with studios break down, can order a work stoppage after May 1, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 25, 2023.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Hollywood film and television writers will go on strike starting Tuesday, throwing Hollywood into turmoil as the entertainment business grapples with seismic changes triggered by the global streaming TV boom.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA) called its first work stoppage in 15 years after failing to reach an agreement for higher pay from studios such as Walt Disney and Netflix .

"The companies' behavior has created a gig economy inside a union workforce, and their immovable stance in this negotiation has betrayed a commitment to further devaluing the profession of writing," the WGA said in a statement on its website.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Walt Disney, Netflix and others, said late on Monday it had offered "generous increases in compensation" in negotiations with the Writers Guild of America (WGA).

The 11,500 members of the WGA had given union leaders the power to call a strike as early as Tuesday, after their current contract expires, as the entertainment industry faces a tough economic backdrop. Conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make their streaming services profitable after investing billions of dollars on content to attract subscribers.

The last WGA strike, in 2007 and 2008, lasted 100 days. The action cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion as productions shut down and out-of-work writers, actors and producers cut back spending.

Producers had indicated they were prepared to increase their offers of higher pay and residuals from a day earlier, the AMPTP statement said, but were "unwilling to do so because of the magnitude of other proposals still on the table that the Guild continues to insist upon."

The primary sticking points, the group said, were proposals that "would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether needed or not."

"The AMPTP is willing to engage in discussions with the WGA in an effort to break this logjam," the statement added.

As well as the disruption brought by the streaming business, studios are contending with declining television ad revenue, as traditional TV audiences shrink and advertisers go elsewhere. On top of all that, the threat of a recession in the world's biggest economy also looms.

Writers say they have suffered financially during the streaming TV boom, in part due to shorter seasons and smaller residual payments. They are seeking pay increases and changes to industry practices they say force them to work more for less money.

Half of TV series writers now work at minimum salary levels, compared with one-third in the 2013-14 season, according to Guild statistics. Median pay for scribes at the higher writer/producer level has fallen 4% over the last decade.

Artificial intelligence is another issue at the bargaining table. The WGA wants safeguards to prevent studios from using AI to generate new scripts from writers' previous work. Writers also want to ensure they are not asked to rewrite draft scripts created by AI.

Late night hitIf a strike is called, late-night shows such as "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" and "Saturday Night Live," which use teams of writers to craft topical jokes, are expected to immediately stop production.

That means new episodes will not be available during their traditional TV time slots or on the streaming services that make them available the next day.

Soap operas and other daytime shows such as "The View" will likely be disrupted. News programs would not be interrupted because those writers are members of a different union.

Further ahead, the strike could lead to a delay of the fall TV season. Writing for fall shows normally starts in May or June. If the work stoppage becomes protracted, the networks will increasingly fill their programming lineups with unscripted reality shows, news magazines and reruns.

Netflix may be insulated from any immediate impact because of its global focus and access to production facilities outside of the U.S.

Studios do not want another disruption after the Covid-19 pandemic halted production worldwide for months.

But budgets are tight, and a new era of fiscal austerity has dawned in Hollywood, with studios laying off thousands of employees and curtailing spending on content.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 12:46

Bud Light boycott? I'll drink to that: Poll finds most Americans BACK Anheuser-Busch snub over its tie-up with Dylan Mulvaney '-- and say corporations give transgender rights too much attentionBrewing giant Anheuser-Busch 'stepped in a hornets' nest,' says pollsterAmericans support the boycott and reject the trans focus by wide margins Even significant numbers of Democrats say they're buying less Bud Light Read DailyMail.com's exclusive about Dylan Mulvaney's first year of girlhood By James Reinl, Social Affairs Correspondent, For Dailymail.Com

Published: 17:30 EDT, 18 April 2023 | Updated: 18:05 EDT, 18 April 2023

Most Americans support the boycott of Anheuser-Busch over Bud Light's tie-up with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney and say big corporations give too much attention to trans people, a new poll shows.

A Rasmussen Reports survey of some 1,000 adults found that the brewing giant 'stepped in a hornets' nest' by getting Mulvaney, 26, a controversial TikToker, to promote their low-calorie beer.

The tie-up quickly backfired, with the likes of John Rich, Travis Tritt, and Kid Rock among dozens of conservative celebrities and politicians leading a boycott that wiped billions off the firm's value within days.

'We now have polling numbers back in, and it's pretty clear they stepped in a hornets' nest,' Mark Mitchell, Rasmussen's head of polling, said in a video about the survey.

More than half of respondents (54 percent) supported the boycott of Anheuser-Busch, the firm that brews Bud Light, while 30 percent were opposed

Some 52 percent of respondents said major corporations give too much attention to transgender issues. Another 18 percent said they do not focus enough on the hot-button topic.

Mulvaney's April 1 Instagram post included her drinking a beer with her face printed on the can and lying in a bathtub knocking back Bud Light

More than half of respondents (54 percent) supported the boycott of Anheuser-Busch, the firm that produces Bud Light, while 30 percent were opposed. Another 16 percent said they were not sure.

A similar share of respondents (52 percent) said that major corporations give too much attention to transgender issues. Another 18 percent said they do not focus enough on the hot-button topic.

Pollsters also found that the firm could well take a sales hit from the debacle '-- 40 percent said they were less likely to buy Bud Light after Mulvaney's skit, while only 19 percent said they were more likely to buy the beer.

Another 37 percent said it made no difference to them.

Middle-aged, married people and Republicans were generally more supportive of the boycott, and more likely to say corporations were pandering to the trans cause than were other groups.

Still, even large numbers of Democrats felt the same way and said they'd stop stocking up on Bud Light. Some 41 percent of Democrat-voting respondents said big companies like Anheuser-Busch focussed too much on trans issues.

'We have tons of polling showing that a large chunk of the Democrat electorate is not in favor of the entire gender agenda,' said Mitchell.

'In fact, it's about the same amount that now support boycotting Anheuser-Busch over the issue.'

The survey of 1,041 US adults was conducted between April 12-16 and has a three percentage point error margin.

The controversy erupted after Bud Light gifted Mulvaney an influencer package on April 1 to celebrate the first anniversary of her hit TikTok series, Days of Girlhood, charting her man-to-girl transition.

Kid Rock posted a video wearing a white MAGA hat firing his gun at cases of Bud Light

Dylan Mulvaney's hit TikTok series Days of Girlhood tracks the influencer's man-to-girl transition, which some critics have called 'creepy'

The glorified swag bag featured bespoke Bud Light cans with illustrations of Mulvaney's face, which she showed off in an Instagram video.

While Mulvaney has millions of adoring fans and 10.8 million TikTok followers, her energetic, attention-seeking skits are tedious and grating for many.

Critics dislike her shrill approximation of femininity, and worry about influencers driving a rise in the number of teenagers coming out as trans and asking for cross-sex hormones and other potentially-harmful drugs and procedures.

The promotional tie-up backfired on Anheuser-Busch, setting ablaze conservative and trans-skeptical pockets of social media as thousands of news articles were published about the controversy.

Kid Rock famously posted a video of himself firing a rifle at cases of Bud Light.

In a statement released on Friday, CEO, Brendan Whitworth, a former Marine and CIA agent and registered Republican, appeared to backtrack, saying the company had never intended to divide Americans by partnering with Mulvaney.

The company's stock market value tanked by $6 billion, but started to recover after the CEO's statement and when some conservative voices, including Donald Trump Jr., called for the boycott to end.

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Mon, 01 May 2023 12:38

'There Was No Evidence': Former CIA Officer Explains Why He Didn't Sign Hunter Biden Laptop Letter Harold Hutchison on April 28, 2023

A former CIA chief of station said Friday he did not join dozens of other former intelligence officials in signing a letter regarding Hunter Biden's laptop because ''no evidence'' that it was Russian disinformation was presented.

''I remember I got the letter Oct. 18, 2020, and at first glance, it seemed natural to lay the blame at the Kremlin's doorstep,'' Dan Hoffman, who served in the CIA for 30 years, told Fox News host John Roberts. ''Remember, Vladimir Putin is in the Kremlin and he's well known for cloak-and-dagger espionage operations. But at the same time, there was no evidence and the letter noted there was no evidence. And I just felt like we needed to do the forensics.''

Dozens of former intelligence officials signed an October 2020 letter published by Politico that claimed a bombshell New York Post report about emails from a laptop supposedly abandoned by Hunter Biden ''has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.''

WATCH:

The House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committee wrote Secretary of State Antony Blinken April 20, demanding documents relating to the letter, citing testimony by former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell that Blinken ''triggered'' the response to the Post's story.

Twitter locked multiple accounts, including the New York Post's and the personal account of then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany for sharing the Oct, 14, 2020 report, citing a ''hacked materials'' policy. Documents releasedto journalist Michael Shellenberger by Elon Musk show that the FBI contacted Twitter about the potential for leaks involving Hunter Biden prior to the New York Post's report.

''There were many others who '-- who didn't sign it. Look, when I was at CIA, we would sit in Michael Morell's office when we had a particularly difficult, challenging intelligence issue, and we would hash out all the evidence that we have, the intelligence we had and then Michael would draw analytical conclusions with some level of confidence '-- low, medium, or high '-- and bring it to the White House,'' Hoffman said. ''We didn't have that debate about this laptop issue. We weren't invited to debate it.''

The Daily Caller News Foundation confirmed the authenticity of one of the emails in October 2020. The Washington Postand New York Times confirmed the authenticity of the data in March 2022 in articles about investigations into Biden by the Department of Justice.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected] .