The Right Coast

The Twitter Files reveal an elite at war with the truth - spiked

The Twitter Files reporting rumbles on. Last week, journalist Matt Taibbi published a lengthy Twitter thread about the ties between Stanford University’s Virality Project and Twitter executives. The Virality Project was established to detect and counter ‘false and misleading narratives’ in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 45-tweet thread shines a light on how this extensive collaboration attempted to censor legitimate information in the Covid debate.

These latest revelations are particularly important because they prove beyond any doubt what many independent observers already suspected throughout the lockdowns – that the political elite and Big Tech were trying to block true information. In an ideal world, this would dismantle, once and for all, any notion that our supposed betters were merely acting to protect a world under threat. They were not. They were acting to protect their own power.

via www.spiked-online.com

"In an ideal world, this would dismantle, once and for all, any notion that our supposed betters were merely acting to protect a world under threat. They were not. They were acting to protect their own power." That's the gist.

Their Secret Plan to Kill Crypto and Launch FedNow CBDC

via www.youtube.com

I hope this is not true but it might be.

A Big Donor, Nancy Pelosi and the FCC - WSJ

A few months later, Ms. Rosenworcel’s Media Bureau opened the deal to public comment. It was an unusual decision. The FCC doesn’t have the authority to block acquisitions, but the 1934 Communications Act lets the agency block the transfer of station licenses if it finds they don’t serve “the public interest, convenience, and necessity.” Leftwing groups piled in with comments opposing the deal.

On Oct. 6, 2022, Mrs. Pelosi and then chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Frank Pallone sent Ms. Rosenworcel a letter praising the agency’s decision to seek more information and urging it to do a “more thorough review of the public interest claims.”

FEC records show that five days later—a month before the midterm election, as Democrats scrambled to hold their House majority—Mr. Allen donated another $250,000 to the House Majority PAC. Was the timing a coincidence? Were we born yesterday?

On Feb. 24 of this year, Ms. Rosenworcel’s Media Bureau chief issued a memo designating the deal for an administrative hearing. This will likely have the effect of killing the Standard General transaction without a vote of the full FCC since the financing deadline for the deal is May 22. In the past 30 years, no broadcast license transfer has completed the FCC hearing process in fewer than 358 days.

Who would be the most likely beneficiary if the Standard General deal falls through? Why, none other than Mr. Allen. A spokesperson for the Allen Media Group says Mr. Allen’s campaign contributions and Mrs. Pelosi’s letter weren’t connected and that he has contributed to numerous charities and political campaigns for decades.

via www.wsj.com

That darn Pelosi. Always getting corrupted by donations from corporate bigwigs.

Losing Canada | RealClearPolitics

Once upon a time Canada’s absence might have been explained by the political sensitivities of being seen as too close to the U.S. and the need to manage the independence movement in Quebec. Those traditional explanations are now taking a back seat to revelations of the extent of China’s penetration of Canada’s institutions at every level, including its political parties.

Canada’s security services have been sounding the alarm on China’s growing interference and nefarious activities for decades; indifference and hostility were official Ottawa’s response. Recently leaked intelligence assessments that Chinese Communist Party United Front operatives worked actively to influence the results of elections at every level have finally caused the public to take notice of the CCP’s clandestine activities.

The reaction of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been to appoint a family friend with his own China links as a “rapporteur” to investigate Chinese election interference, and to vilify both the security services and those concerned about China’s violation of Canada’s sovereignty.

via www.realclearpolitics.com

That darn Justin. But then the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, ay?

Trump extends poll lead over DeSantis — and nobody else matters | Washington Examiner

Trump has obviously been slamming DeSantis on a virtually daily basis, not the sort of pummeling that Trump has done in the past but hitting DeSantis progressively harder, and that takes a toll. It's why we're seeing DeSantis, who was originally reluctant to hit back, now taking some shots at Trump. It's not anywhere near a thermonuclear exchange at this point, but it's early still.

But the biggest takeaway is that even though DeSantis has not declared his candidacy, the race is taking on the characteristics of a race, with voters responding to daily developments. Right now, it is a two-man race — apparently, respondents, without prompting, cannot come up with any names other than Trump and DeSantis — but it is still a race.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Brian York.

For Five Years, The Pulitzer Prizes Have Rewarded Misinformation

In 2018, a Pulitzer for national reporting was given to The New York Times and Washington Post for reporting on the Donald Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia. A 2019 Pulitzer for “Explanatory Reporting” was given to The New York Times for reporting on Trump’s taxes.

The 2020 Pulitzer for commentary was given to Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times for the 1619 Project. In 2021, a public service Pulitzer was given to The New York Times for its coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic “that exposed racial and economic inequities, government failures in the U.S. and beyond.” In 2022, the Washington Post won a public service Pulitzer for its coverage of January 6.

Every one of these major stories was badly handled by the media writ large, served activist political narratives, frequently involved credulously regurgitating actual misinformation, or some combination thereof. While there is always reason to be suspicious of Pulitzers, historically most of the objections to the awards handed out never rose beyond the level of newsroom gossip.

The Pulitzers always reflected journalism’s skewed priorities. However, this many high-profile failures in such a short time underscores the rapid and catastrophic descent of American journalism into radical political activism and makes winning a Pulitzer look definitively like a mark of ignominy.

via thefederalist.com

Mollie Hemmingway.

Hunter Biden used FBI mole to tip him off to China probes: tipster

Hunter Biden had an FBI mole named “One-Eye” who tipped off his Chinese business partners that they were under investigation, according to an Israeli energy expert arrested in Cyprus last month on gunrunning charges.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating the explosive claims by Dr. Gal Luft, a former Israel Defense Forces lieutenant colonel with deep intelligence ties in Washington and Beijing, who says he was arrested to stop him from revealing what he knows about the Biden family and FBI corruption — details he told the Department of Justice in 2019, which he says it ignored.

Luft, 56, first made the claims on Feb. 18 on Twitter, after being detained at a Cyprus airport as he prepared to board a plane to Israel.

“I’ve been arrested in Cyprus on a politically motivated extradition request by the U.S. The U.S., claiming I’m an arms dealer. It would be funny if it weren’t tragic. I’ve never been an arms dealer.

“DOJ is trying to bury me to protect Joe, Jim, and Hunter Biden.

“Shall I name names?”

via nypost.com

Mr. Luft should probably be put on suicide watch, but not by those who were keeping an eye on Epstein.

The Supreme Court Nominee Who Would Abolish Mother’s Day

When Ruth Bader Ginsburg submitted her questionnaire response (available at pp. 57–113 of her confirmation-hearing transcript), I pored through it to see what work lay ahead for me. Senator Hatch had already staunchly committed to support Ginsburg’s nomination. Immediately after Clinton announced her nomination, Hatch declared: “We’ll support her. She’s a brilliant woman with impeccable credentials.” Nonetheless, I thought it important to find both what was commendable and what was objectionable in her record. That meant that I would read through everything, including thirteen years of judicial opinions and dozens of law-review articles.

via www.confirmationtales.com

Ed Whelan reveals some surprising opinions from RBG.

Publishers Prepare for Showdown With Microsoft, Google Over AI Tools - WSJ

Since the arrival of chatbots that can carry on conversations, make up sonnets and ace the LSAT, many people have been in awe at the artificial-intelligence technology’s capabilities.

Publishers of online content share in that sense of wonder. They also see a threat to their businesses, and are headed to a showdown with the makers of the technology.

via www.wsj.com

The Crusade Against ‘Malinformation’ Explicitly Targets Inconvenient Truths

Disinformation and misinformation have always been contested categories, defined by the fallible and frequently subjective judgments of public officials and other government-endorsed experts. But malinformation is even more clearly in the eye of the beholder, since it is defined not by its alleged inaccuracy but by its perceived threat to public health, democracy, or national security, which often amounts to nothing more than questioning the wisdom, honesty, or authority of those experts.

Taibbi's recent revelations focused on the work of the Virality Project, which the taxpayer-subsidized Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) launched in 2020. Although Renée DiResta, the SIO's research manager, concedes that "misinformation is ultimately speech," meaning the government cannot directly suppress it, she says the threat it poses "require[s] that social media platforms, independent researchers and the government work together as partners in the fight."

That sort of collaboration raises obvious free speech concerns. If platforms like Twitter and Facebook were independently making these assessments, their editorial discretion would be protected by the First Amendment. But the picture looks different when government officials, including the president, the surgeon general, members of Congress, and representatives of public health and law enforcement agencies, publicly and privately chastise social media companies for not doing enough to suppress speech they view as dangerous.

via reason.com

Zelensky Has an Answer for DeSantis

Zelensky, answering in English, told us that he would respond pragmatically. He didn’t want to appeal to the hearts of Americans, in other words, but to their heads. Were Americans to cut off Ukraine from ammunition and weapons, after all, there would be clear consequences in the real world, first for Ukraine’s neighbors but then for others:   

If we will not have enough weapons, that means we will be weak. If we will be weak, they will occupy us. If they occupy us, they will be on the borders of Moldova and they will occupy Moldova. When they have occupied Moldova, they will [travel through] Belarus and they will occupy Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. That’s three Baltic countries which are members of NATO. They will occupy them. Of course, [the Balts] are brave people, and they will fight. But they are small. And they don’t have nuclear weapons. So they will be attacked by Russians because that is the policy of Russia, to take back all the countries which have been previously part of the Soviet Union.

And after that, if there were still no further response? Then, he explained, the struggle would continue:

When they will occupy NATO countries, and also be on the borders of Poland and maybe fight with Poland, the question is: Will you send all your soldiers with weapons, all your pilots, all your ships? Will you send tanks and armored vehicles with your young people? Will you do it? Because if you will not do it, you will have no NATO.

At that point, he said, Americans will face a different choice: not politicians deciding whether “to give weapons or not to give weapons” to Ukrainians, but instead, “fathers and mothers” deciding whether to send their children to fight to keep a large part of the planet, filled with America’s allies and most important trading partners, from Russian occupation.

via www.msn.com

We were supposed to have learned this lesson about conquerors and their demands. Russia won't stop at Ukraine if they take it. The odds of a nuclear war will go up, not down.

The Joe Biden Banking Crisis - WSJ

A great imponderable was Joe Biden’s decision of Sunday, March 12. Would letting Silicon Valley Bank fail the normal way, with big customers required to accept modest haircuts on their uninsured deposits, cause a nationwide bank run and economic calamity?

Mr. Biden must think so but the information isn’t available to let us judge the matter independently.

We do know he got a lot of help in deciding to bail out Silicon Valley Bank’s uninsured depositors from its uninsured depositors, including tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who worked the phones and social media and skew heavily Democratic in their political giving.

We know that lobbying for the bailout was California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democratic up-and-comer whose personal business and nonprofit ties with Silicon Valley Bank were extensive.

Did the bank’s progressive dabblings contribute to its failure—or its rescue? Its investment in political window dressing at least tells you what management believed about its political environment.

via www.wsj.com

Holman Jenkins.

The ‘Fork Police.’ Offices Crack Down—Over Missing Utensils - WSJ

“I’ve sent out emails saying, ‘We’re missing quite a few forks,’ ” to no avail, said Ms. Williams, adding that her office has only 125 people working there during a good week.

An investigation yielded a confession of sorts. Product manager Jennifer Ta, who goes to the office once a week on Wednesdays, makes it a point to get in before her colleagues, “because everything in the kitchen is a hot commodity.” She immediately collects a mug, fork and teaspoon and puts them on her desk.

via www.wsj.com

This reminds me of when I regrettably stole a set of cutlery from a local diner (I forget what they call them in the UK) at Oxford. I ended up eating there a lot so perhaps they made money on me in the end.

Five things to remember about a 'zombie' Trump indictment | Washington Examiner

The problem is, even if Trump were guilty, that is a misdemeanor, which has a two-year statute of limitations in New York — 2017 was five years ago, so you can see the problem. Now Bragg wants to use a feature of the falsification law, which says that falsification of business records can be charged as a felony if the falsification was done to conceal a crime. Then the statute of limitations would be five years.

But what crime was Trump allegedly trying to conceal? Bragg has apparently decided to charge Trump with violating campaign finance laws because Trump did not report the payoff to Daniels as a campaign expense. That raises the question: Does one normally report hush money, which sounds illicit but is in fact legal under the loftier name of a "nondisclosure agreement," on a campaign finance report? It's a stretch to see that as a crime. Even the New York Times has characterized Bragg's theory as "a low-level felony charge that would be based on a largely untested legal theory."

There are other complicating factors, as well. The campaign finance charge would be an alleged violation of federal election law, while Bragg enforces the laws of New York. (Federal prosecutors have already considered and rejected charging Trump in this matter.) Then, even if the case has a five-year statute of limitations, there are still questions about the timing. The final reimbursement payment to Cohen was made in December 2017, more than five years ago. Bragg will apparently try to argue that the accounting and bookkeeping took longer, stretching into 2018, and thus the case, if charges are filed this month, can be squeezed in at the last minute to fit the five-year limit.

Several experts have pronounced the prosecution a weak and convoluted affair. "This is a really dumb case," wrote former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. "I don't like this case," said Michael Zeldin, another former federal prosecutor. "I don't think it is, from what we know in the public domain ... the type of case that should go forward criminally." "Legally pathetic," added George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

Brian York. A dark day yet a ridiculous day.

Zelensky Invites China To Discuss Peace After 'No Breakthrough' In Xi-Putin Meeting | ZeroHedge

But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday his government has reached out to Beijing. Zelensky said he has invited China to engage in talks on implementation of Kyiv's own peace formula, and that he's waiting for an answer.

"We offered China to become a partner in the implementation of the peace formula. We passed over our formula across all channels. We invite you to dialogue. We are waiting for your answer," Zelensky announced at a Tuesday a press conference. He added: "We are receiving some signals, but there are no specifics yet".

This comes after last month Zelensky issued an unexpectedly positive response to Xi's offering China's 12-point peace plan, in an effort to jumpstart negotiations. "I think the fact that China started talking about Ukraine is not bad. But the question is what follows the words," Zelensky said at the time. "I think some of the Chinese proposals respect international law, and I think we can work on it with China. Why not? Our goal is to gather many around us to isolate one [Russia]," he had added.

via www.zerohedge.com

Why All the ChatGPT Predictions Are Bogus

Maybe you see what I’m getting at. Narrowly speaking, GPT-4 is a large language model that produces human-inspired content by using transformer technology to predict text. Narrowly speaking, it is an overconfident, and often hallucinatory, auto-complete robot. This is an okay way of describing the technology, if you’re content with a dictionary definition. But it doesn’t get to the larger question: When we’re looking at generative AI, what are we actually looking at?

Sometimes, I think I’m looking at a minor genius. The previous GPT model took the uniform bar exam and scored in the 10th percentile, a failing grade; GPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile. It scored in the 93rd percentile on the SAT reading and writing test, and in the 88th percentile on the LSAT. It scored a 5, the highest possible, on several Advanced Placement tests. Some people are waving away these accomplishments by saying “Well, I could score a 5 on AP Bio too if I could look everything up on the internet.” But this technology is not looking things up online. It’s not rapid-fire Googling answers. It’s a pretrained technology. That is, it’s using what passes for artificial reasoning, based on a large amount of data, to solve new test problems. And on many tests, at least, it’s already doing this better than most humans.

Sometimes, I think I’m looking at a Star Trek replicator for content—a hyper-speed writer and computer programmer. It can code in a pinch, spin up websites based on simple illustrations, and solve programming challenges in seconds. Let’s imagine a prosaic application. Parents can instantly conjure original children’s books for their kids. Here’s a scenario: Your son, who loves alligators, comes home in tears after being bullied at school. You instruct ChatGPT to write a 10-minute, rhyming story about a young boy who overcomes his bully thanks to his magical stuffed alligator. You’re going to get that book in minutes—with illustrations.

via www.msn.com

David Vencl: Free-diver plunges to record depth beneath frozen Swiss lake | CNN

“He kind of enjoyed it but he admits he was a little more nervous than usual and he had some problems with breathing,” he told Reuters.

“There is nothing difficult for him to be in cold water… Lack of oxygen is something normal for him. But this was completely different because it’s really difficult to work with the pressure in your ears in cold water,” he added.

“If you combine all these three things: cold water, lack of oxygen and the problem with working with pressure, it’s something very unique,” he added.

via www.cnn.com

Sounds very cold.

RNC Flirts with Turning 2024 Primary Debates Over to Left-Wing Media

According to a recent New York Times report, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is actively in talks with left-leaning networks like CNN, CBS, and NBC as prospective sponsors for its 2024 presidential primary debates.

Could the RNC possibly be more out of touch with its voters?

via amac.us

Ridiculous.

The lingering malady of Trump Derangement Syndrome - spiked

There’s a whiff of the banana republic to the reports that Donald Trump will be arrested this week over the Stormy Daniels affair. Trump said on Truth Social that he expects to have his collar felt by the cops tomorrow. It would be related to the 2016 investigation of the hush money Trump gave to porn star Daniels after he caught wind of the fact that she was trying to hawk the story of their extramarital affair. Trump gave her $130,000, which is perfectly legal, but he registered the hush cash as ‘legal fees’, which is not legal – that’s the falsification of business records, prosecutors say, which is a misdemeanour in New York. NYC district attorney Alvin Bragg set up a grand jury on this rather minor matter, and it’s possible an indictment will be announced this week.

You don’t have to be a Team Trump, ‘January 6’ hothead to know that such an indictment would be a brazenly political act, motivated more by coastal-elite animus towards the Bad Orange Man than by concern about a little white lie in Trump’s business accounts. Bragg is a radical Democrat. His loathing of Trump is well known. He’s also notoriously soft on crime, to the fury of many New Yorkers. As the National Review put it, ‘crime is rampant in New York’, in part because ‘Bragg’s default position is leniency and often non-prosecution when it comes to hardened criminals’. The idea that he’s now having sleepless nights over a fib told by Trump seven years ago is preposterous. No, this is ‘bare-naked politics’, in NR’s words.

via www.spiked-online.com

Shocking but not surprising, as we seem to be saying more often lately. We need to figure out a way to get a higher class of professional in the DA's offices around the country. One should not be able to waltz in and buy the offices like Soros has done. This is the result, along with much of the decay of our cities, and all because one billionaire is a crazy socialist. It really does not have to be this way.

OSU requires DEI statements from mechanical, aerospace engineer job applicants | The College Fix

University officials ask applicants to provide a statement that describes their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, along with “specific examples such as teaching and/or mentoring students from underrepresented backgrounds, outreach activities to underrepresented groups, or conducting research that address social inequities,” according to a copy of the application rubric recently tweeted by John Sailer with the National Association of Scholars.

The hiring parameters were shown through current open positions within OSU’s College of Engineering, which includes a tenure-track faculty position in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department as well as a tenure-track faculty position as an assistant professor in the Knowlton School of Architecture and Administration.

These positions are hiring for OSU’s nuclear engineering programs and its urban design Race, Inclusion, and Social Equity, or RAISE, initiative, respectively.

The application also states scholars are expected to participate in and support DEI efforts, which has drawn concern from liberty advocates and state lawmakers.

Ohio state Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Republican, introduced Senate Bill 83 on March 14 that seeks to prohibit political and ideological litmus tests in all hiring at public universities, among other measures.

“This is not a political issue for me. This is not conservative or liberal,” Cirino told the Columbus Dispatch. “This is making sure students are exposed to different theories.

via www.thecollegefix.com

It's surprising to me that it takes legislation for this to be considered illegal in a state. But you've got a lot of state court judges I suppose unwilling to stand up against the tide without express legislation.

Clean pantries are ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’: Loyola marketing scholar | The College Fix

Clean pantries and tidy houses have “racist,” “sexist” and “classist” roots according to a marketing professor at Loyola University-Chicago.

Professor Jenna Drenten recently criticized a social media trend of users posting videos showing off different ways to organize pantries. Drenten wrote that these video creators, “predominantly white women,” have created “a new status symbol” to replace the old one of “nice houses,” “nice yards” and “nice neighborhoods.”

Drenten’s scholarly pursuits include papers on “Video Gaming as a Gendered Pursuit” and “More Gamer, Less Girl: Gendered Boundaries, Tokenism, and the Cultural Persistence of Masculine Dominance.”

via www.thecollegefix.com

A quick inspection of our pantry would prove evidently that neither LWJ nor I are racist or sexist. Indeed, by this standard we're probably anti-racist and anti-sexist.

Feds give professors $5.7M to develop tool to combat ‘misinformation’ | The College Fix

A group of professors is using taxpayer dollars doled out by the federal government to develop a new misinformation fact-checking tool called “Course Correct.”

National Science Foundation funding, awarded through a pair of grants from 2021 and 2022, has amounted to more than $5.7 million for the development of this tool, which, according to the grant abstracts, is intended to aid reporters, public health organizations, election administration officials, and others to address so-called misinformation on topics such as U.S. elections and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

This $5.7 million in grant money is on top of nearly another $200,000 awarded in 2020 through a Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act-funded NSF grant for a project focused in part on mental health that Course Correct is said to have grown out of.

According to the abstract of the 2021 grant, Course Correct’s developers, a group of five professors from various institutions nationwide, are using techniques related to machine learning and natural language processing to identify social media posts pertaining to electoral skepticism and vaccine hesitancy, identify people likely to be exposed to misinformation in the future, and flag at-risk online communities for intervention.

“Democracy and public health in the United States rely on trust in institutions,” the professors wrote in the grant abstract. “Skepticism regarding the integrity of U.S. elections and hesitancy related to COVID-19 vaccines are two consequences of a decline in confidence in basic political processes and core medical institutions.”

The College Fix recently reached out to several of the researchers associated with Course Correct, including Michael Wagner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Wagner is also listed as the principal investigator on the 2021 and 2022 grants.

In response, Wagner supplied a FAQs sheet and a link to a February 2023 UW-Madison post about the project.

via www.thecollegefix.com

Wherever the feds point the firehose of money, there our brave academic truth-seekers will be found, even if the hose is pointed at truth-suppression. It's a marvelous thing, is money.

Professor fired after tweeting about ‘black privilege’ sues university | The College Fix

Negy, an associate professor of psychology, made headlines in the wake of George Floyd’s May 2020 death after he tweeted: “Black privilege is real: Besides affirm. action, special scholarships and other set asides, being shielded from legitimate criticism is a privilege.”

He also tweeted: “Sincere question: If Afr. Americans as a group, had the same behavioral profile as Asian Americans (on average, performing the best academically, having the highest income, committing the lowest crime, etc.), would we still be proclaiming ‘systematic racism’ exists?”

He has since deleted the tweets, but a petition demanding he be fired had garnered nearly 35,000 signatures and protesters even targeted him at his home.

After that, university leadership denounced Negy in emails to students and solicited complaints that culminated in the 22-year veteran educator’s firing.

“As a result of this sudden loss of income, Negy — who is the sole caretaker of his mentally and physically disabled brother — was forced to sell his home and move in with a relative,” the lawsuit states.

Although he was awarded back pay through the arbitration, the lawsuit alleges “the award cannot compensate Negy for the massive loss he incurred on the sale of his home; for the out-of-pocket medical expenses he faced after UCF’s destruction of his life led him to be diagnosed with anxiety and depression; or for the severe emotional distress he suffered for nearly two years at the hands of UCF administrators who, because they disliked his political views, treated him as less than human.”

The lawsuit also points out that because the arbitrator concluded the university had violated the collective bargaining agreement by denying Negy a six months’ termination notice, the arbitrator “did not reach the second question of whether Negy was actually responsible for the misconduct of which UCF accused him.”

“He noted, however, that Negy’s case raised issues such as ‘effective use of protected free speech texts’ and ‘announcement preinvestigation that Dr. Negy was a pariah in the view of the administration.’”

via www.thecollegefix.com

I hope Prof. Negy wins his lawsuit against UCF.

Robby Soave: Stanford Virality Project EXPOSED: TRUE Covid Info CENSORED on Social Media

via www.youtube.com

U.N. Is A Climate "Disinformation Threat Actor"

The United States government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), within the Department of Homeland Security, is raising the alarm about the threat of “foreign influence” that is “leveraging misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.” CISA defines “malinformation” as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” In 2021, CISA, along with the White House and private sector partners, successfully persuaded Facebook and Twitter to censor accurate information about the origins of the SARS-2 coronavirus and covid vaccines.

And yet CISA is failing to do its job when censoring malinformation, misinformation, and disinformation about climate change, including by “threat actors,” often funded or employed by foreign governments. A Google survey of over 2,300 people conducted last year by the nonpartisan research organization Environmental Progress, which I founded and lead, found that 53% of people surveyed in the U.S. agree with the false statement, “Climate change is making hurricanes more frequent,” while 46% agree with the false statement, “Climate change threatens human extinction.”

I strongly oppose efforts by the U.S. government to censor American citizens by ordering social media platforms to remove content, sometimes while threatening to end Section 230, the federal law that makes companies like Facebook and Twitter possible. Such censorship is a violation of the First Amendment. The journalist Matt Taibbi, former State Department official Mike Benz, and I have all pointed to the emergence since 2016 of a censorship-industrial complex operated and funded by the U.S. government. It should be defunded.

via public.substack.com

Top Universities: Tools of the WEF

The United Nations no longer represents nations, it is a partner with the 1000 largest transnational corporations in the world: the WEF. We can only assume that with this partnership a massive amount of money flowed into the coffers of the United Nations.

The United Nations and the World Economic Forum do not have officials which represent the people. Their leaders have not been elected to make decisions on our behalf or on our nation’s behalf. The agendas of these organization are not those of our nation and do not reflect our concepts of rights to personal sovereignty. Yet through vessels such as Agenda 2030 and the World Health Organization’s (a UN umbrella organization) proposed IHRs, there is the appearance that the UN wishes to supersede national law and both national and personal sovereignty.

Those politicians with affiliations to the WEF need to declare themselves as foreign agents. It is an inherent conflict of interest to both represent and support the WEF and the US government. Likewise, many of the University Presidents named as WEF GULF leaders are from public institutions. They have a duty, as public officials, to report this as a conflict of interest with their institution. Taxpayer’s money should not be supporting university presidents who have fealty to a foreign NGO.

via rwmalonemd.substack.com

The source of all evil in the universe has been identified.

Voters of color are a big reason Trump leads the GOP primary | CNN Politics

Former President Donald Trump holds an average double-digit advantage over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in national 2024 Republican primary surveys. That, in itself, isn’t notable given Trump, the frontrunner, has been ahead of DeSantis (by far his nearest competitor or potential competitor) since polling began about the race.

But what may surprise is how Trump is ahead. An average of CNN/SSRS and Quinnipiac University polls released this week reveals that Trump’s lead may, in large part, be because of his clear edge among potential Republican primary voters of color.

Trump was up an average of 55% to 26% over DeSantis among Republican (and Republican leaning independent) voters of color in an average of the two polls.

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Among White Republican voters, the race was well within the margin of error: Trump’s 38% to DeSantis’ 37%.

via www.cnn.com

Why Ukraine may embrace China’s peace plan – Asia Times

The several dozen attendees, many of whom had held cabinet or sub-cabinet positions, met under Chatham House rules, which forbid identification of individual participants but allow the content itself to be presented.

Overwhelmingly, the sentiment of participants leaned towards escalation in the form of providing additional weapons to Ukraine. One prominent analyst proposed the formation of a “foreign legion” of fighters from other countries to supplement Ukraine’s shrinking pool of trained manpower.

The great majority of participants favored risking everything for absolute victory over Russia. None of the attendees mentioned the qualms that former president Donald Trump voiced on May 17 about the risk of nuclear escalation in Ukraine.

The question of how the Russia-Ukraine war might escalate into a broader conflict received no attention. Their frustration, rather, was that Ukraine seems less likely to defeat Russia, even if the West makes the maximum effort and risks escalation.

We should not be surprised, one of the lead presenters said at the end of the conclave, if Ukraine’s President Zelensky takes up China’s peace plan. No one in the West anticipated that China would mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Although Washington has dismissed China’s peace plan for Ukraine, Zelensky has not. Russia would keep the Sea of Azov and most of the Donbas, a settlement that might be forced on Ukraine as it runs out of manpower and ammunition. America’s view of China is “primitive,” the expert added, and tends to underestimate Chinese sophistication.

via asiatimes.com

Spengler.

What Happened to Stanford? › American Greatness

Stanford was once one of the world’s great universities. It birthed Silicon Valley in its prime. And along with its nearby twin and rival, UC Berkeley, its brilliant researchers, and teachers helped fuel the mid-20th-century California miracle.

That was then. But like the descent of California, now something has gone terribly wrong with the university.

via amgreatness.com

Go Bears.

Alvin Bragg’s Political Charge Against Donald Trump - WSJ

Alvin Bragg may actually do it. The Manhattan district attorney is by all media accounts preparing to indict Donald Trump for failing to account properly for hush money paid to his alleged mistress, unleashing who knows what political furies. Mr. Trump said Saturday he expects to be arrested on Tuesday and urged his supporters to “protest, protest, protest.” Cry, the beloved country.

via www.wsj.com

The U.S. Needs Economic Regime Change - WSJ

History will give a full accounting of the grave errors committed in recent years in economic policy. A central lesson is already clear: Nothing is as expensive as free money.

The costs of the Federal Reserve’s zero-interest policy are multiplying: The misallocation of capital—goosing the price of the riskiest and least-productive of assets—set the conditions for boom and bust. The financing of the “big state” set the country on an unsustainable fiscal trajectory. The extraordinarily loose financial conditions created herd behavior among market participants and firms and complacency among policy makers, including regulators. The surge in inflation substantially raised the cost of living for citizens and undermined business planning.

via www.wsj.com

East San Diego County: RV catches fire near Skyline Truck Trail, Cal Fire

JAMUL, Calif. — An RV fire broke out in East County Saturday night, according to Cal Fire San Diego County.

Authorities responded to the blaze after a call came in at 4:41 p.m. at the intersection of Skyline Truck Trail and Babel Drive in Jamul, according to the agency.

In an email to FOX 5, San Diego County Fire Capt. Michael Cornette said the trailer’s owner was driving the vehicle when the fire broke out.

via fox5sandiego.com

This explains the police activity near our house. Now they just need to find a 4500 square foot mansion to park the burnt out shell in front of for the next few years.

America's Feral Hog Problem Is About to Get Even Worse

It seems that these traditional wild boars have now crossbred with domestic pigs, creating huge hybrid hogs that are descending en masse from Canada into the U.S., primed to cause even greater destruction than usual.

These so-called "super pigs" that are moving south from Canada are "incredibly intelligent, highly elusive," larger in stature than their cousins, and capable of tunneling into snow to survive in colder climes, the Guardian reported in February.

via www.newsweek.com

In the end, it was the feral hogs. Descending in their millions from the Great White North. A new breed, arising from wild stock and the new genetically modified super pigs. Half ancient evil; half spawn of nightmare science. Will they be stopped? Can they be stopped? America picked the wrong moment to crack down on assault rifles.

24 hours of HELL in top NYC hospital: Patients left lying in hallways and urine soaked floors | Daily Mail Online

Twenty-four hours of hell in one of New York's top hospitals have been laid bare with pictures showing patients lying in hallways, urine soaking the floor and staff incapable of providing answers.

A woman who asked not to be named told DailyMail.com that she rushed her mother to the Mount Sinai Hospital on Madison Avenue on March 8 because she suspected the 67-year-old was having a stroke.

This was ruled out by a CAT scan carried out within 10 minutes. But then a nightmarish day for the sufferer and her daughter began as they were left waiting in the ER ward in limbo, desperate to find out what was wrong. littering the floor, urine pots used by male patients kicked over and homeless people seeking treatment but totally ignored by staff.

It comes amid patient backlogs and staffing shortages after the pandemic that have stretched New York hospitals to breaking point and sparked strikes by nurses.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

NYC is getting back to the way it used to be.

“That’s Not True”: President Biden Moves Toward the Evil Twin Family Defense – JONATHAN TURLEY

President Joe Biden has repeatedly denied that his family received money from China. He has also denied any knowledge of his son’s foreign dealings despite direct evidence to the contrary, including a recorded message from the President to Hunter referencing the deals. The White House has simply refused to address the recording or photographs contradicting the President. Now, there is confirmation that millions were sent from China and then money from a third-party account was distributed to at least three, and possibly four, Biden family members. However, when confronted with the evidence on the way to Marine One, the President again declared “that’s not true.” Given that these are suspicious activity reports (SARs) from Biden’s own Treasury Department, it is unclear now what the President is suggesting beyond the possibility of an evil twin Biden family that is besmirching his good name.

via jonathanturley.org

Jonathan Turley. The old evil twin family. It'll getcha every time.

Court rules against Planned Parenthood in Texas ‘sting videos’ case, bringing it a step closer to getting defunded - The Washington Post

In the opinion, Judge Edith H. Jones of the 5th Circuit criticized Sparks for being too “dismissive” of a report by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s Office of Inspector General that served as the basis for booting the organization from Medicaid and revoking $3.4 million in funding. The report concluded Planned Parenthood had diverged from “standards of medical ethics" based on the video footage, which was produced by the Center for Medical Progress, an antiabortion group.

Sparks had all but crumpled up that report and thrown it in the trash. He noted that the people who led the report — a lawyer and orthopedic sports-medicine surgeon — had no background in reproductive health care, questioning how they would know whether medical standards were breached. In fact, when the inspector general initially recommended Planned Parenthood be defunded, he acknowledged he had not even reviewed all eight hours of the video footage, Sparks noted. He said the state health agency offered no evidence “at all” that it took steps to authenticate the sting videos.

But Jones, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, said Sparks was wrong to make these judgments. She said Texas’s report should have been given "deference” over the outside testimony from Planned Parenthood’s experts — regardless of Sparks’s opinions of the authors' qualifications.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Private-federal censorship machine targeted TRUE 'misinformation'

Did you make any “worrisome jokes” about the Biden administration’s proposal to send agents door-to-door to browbeat people to get COVID vaccines? Then you were a public enemy guilty of spreading dangerous disinformation.

Did you ask questions about COVID policy? You were guilty of a tactic “commonly used by spreaders of misinformation to deflect culpability.”

Did you complain to anyone that vaccine passports violated your liberty? You were deluded, if not depraved, and guilty of propelling a deceptive “anti-vaccination narrative about the loss of rights and freedoms.”

Your tax dollars at work: These are the bizarre revelations from the latest and perhaps funniest Twitter Files from Matt Taibbi.

Last week, House Democrats pounded Taibbi as a “so-called journalist,” a hypocrite, a threat to the peace and a stooge for Elon Musk.

Now, Taibbi has settled scores with “The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine,” exposing the machinations of federal contractors spurring social-media companies to censor Americans who doubted COVID decrees.

via nypost.com

In terms of sheer scale, this has to be the biggest and most ambitious conspiracy to undermine free speech in American history. And it was a real conspiracy, not just a figurative conspiracy. You had secret meetings, violations of law, of constitutional principles, and you probably had profit motives, though that is yet to be proven. You got the whole darn thing. Golly.

Experts pour scorn on Chinese data suggesting RACCOON DOGS were responsible for COVID | Daily Mail Online

A research paper which suggests Covid-19 originated in raccoon dogs held in cages at a market in Wuhan has been criticized after it emerged the data originated from Chinese scientists who've now withdrawn it.

Samples taken from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan were used for the new study which comes just weeks after US authorities doubled down on their belief the virus leaked from a nearby lab in Wuhan.

But the very same samples - which have never been shared with the international community - have previously been studied by scientists in China who concluded the virus didn't come from animals at the market.

On Friday morning, the World Health Organization also said the research 'doesn't give us the answers of how the pandemic began' and was critical of how the data surfaced. 

The data was unexpectedly uploaded to an international research database called GISAID last week and downloaded by international researchers who stumbled across it while looking for other information. Within hours of processing this new data, the team discovered traces of the Covid-19 virus in samples that also contained animal genetic material that matched the raccoon dog. 

via www.dailymail.co.uk

DeSantis vs. ‘Faucian Dystopia’ - WSJ

Looking back it’s hard to believe how many media and political players bought the idea that one could shutter much of society and then try to simulate prosperity with trillions in government spending and money creation at the Federal Reserve—and then expect a positive result. Of course Joe Biden and the Fed inflamed the problem by continuing the binge of spending and money creation long after the economy had begun to rebound. This led to inflation and now to banking tumult from higher interest rates as the Fed finally started to tighten monetary policy,

But even though anyone can now recognize how bad the outcomes were for the country when policy makers listened to Dr. Fauci and experts in public health, which is a failed discipline, one could argue that Faucian economics continues.

via www.wsj.com

I was not a lockdown skeptic from the very beginning, but I was from early on.

I really wonder sometimes whether it's worth spending so much time trying to figure out what is going on in the world and to try to see through all the hype and lies. But I can't help it, even if I don't like what I see. I did see the pandemic coming early, as much as month before everyone else. This gave me time to get stocked up on food, water, weapons, etc. This was when then credible sources, such as the Los Alamos laboratory, were projecting a death rate of 5 percent from Covid, and an R naught of 3 or 4. Which would have been utterly catastrophic. As it turned out, it was closer to 1 percent. As it gradually dawned on me that the virus was far less deadly than I thought it would be, the idiocy of lockdown became increasingly obvious. Yet all authorities blithely proclaimed that Science said we had to stay indoors, avoid our relatives, and all the other misinformed, and even deliberately deceptive and self-serving (e.g., the teachers' unions, fed funded virologists) claptrap.

Something profound has changed, and I'm not the only one who feels it.

Insurance Companies Are Quietly Fleeing California - WSJ

This regulatory environment explains why California insurers can’t charge rates that reflect their actual risks. It also shows why there’s so little competition in the state’s insurance industry. Over the long run, competition keeps rates low. Insurance commissioners can certainly hold premiums down by edict, but the result is a contracting market. Homeowners then have little choice but to buy inadequate policies in a government-run marketplace.

Proposition 103 isn’t the state’s only insurance problem. In 2018 Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law banning insurance cancellations and nonrenewals in wildfire-affected areas for a year after the fires—and Mr. Lara continues to force the already overstressed FAIR Plan to offer additional coverage. Such edicts further burden an overextended backup insurance fund.

Lawmakers often talk about the need to help consumers and businesses in California’s many disaster-prone areas to secure affordable coverage, yet those same lawmakers impose edicts that impair the ability of insurance markets to do so. As a result, insurance may soon join droughts, fires, floods, infrastructure, traffic congestion, homelessness and crime among California’s many crises.

via www.wsj.com

Last year my fire insurance was cancelled because I was uninsurable at the current regulated (see above) rates. But I need insurance -- so say my mortgagers. After a diligent search, I saw I had no choice but to buy the State of California's supplementary insurance (the FAIR plan, so called because it's not) on top of a policy from Farmer's. All for a lot more than a policy from a less regulated market would have been. So regulating prices leads to higher prices. This should surprise no one and it probably doesn't.

My Struggle Session at Stanford Law School - WSJ

Stanford Law School’s website touts its “collegial culture” in which “collaboration and the open exchange of ideas are essential to life and learning.” Then there’s the culture I experienced when I visited Stanford last week. I had been invited by the student chapter of the Federalist Society to discuss the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, on which I’ve served since 2018. I’ve spoken at law schools across the country, and I was glad to accept this invitation. One of my first clerks graduated from Stanford. I have friends on the faculty. I gave a talk there a few years ago and found it a warm and engaging place, but not this time.

When I arrived, the walls were festooned with posters denouncing me for crimes against women, gays, blacks and “trans people.” Plastered everywhere were photos of the students who had invited me and fliers declaring “You should be ASHAMED,” with the last word in large red capital letters and a horror-movie font. This didn’t seem “collegial.” Walking to the building where I would deliver my talk, I could hear loud chanting a good 50 yards away, reminiscent of a tent revival in its intensity. Some 100 students were massed outside the classroom as I entered, faces painted every color of the rainbow, waving signs and banners, jeering and stamping and howling. As I entered the classroom, one protester screamed: “We hope your daughters get raped!”

via www.wsj.com

"We hope your daughters get raped!" This at a law school. Disgusting. This is what the crits have brought us to. I'm glad I'm getting out. Even though, I hasten to add, I really cannot see my small formerly cute university sinking so low. But I have been wrong before.

The Tyranny of the DEI Bureaucracy - WSJ

Critical race theory is becoming institutionalized across American universities, and a major reason is the educational bureaucracy. Most universities now have offices for diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, that exercise a broad writ on campus and act as speech police within the university.

That power was on ugly display last week at Stanford Law School, where a mob of law students shouted down Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kyle Duncan in a spectacle unfit for any institution of higher learning. (Judge Duncan relates his experience nearby.)

via www.wsj.com

Truth.

Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill Build an Anti-China Alliance - WSJ

A group of Silicon Valley executives, including investor Peter Thiel, and Washington lawmakers are quietly mobilizing against China’s involvement in the U.S. tech industry ahead of TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew’s Capitol Hill testimony next week.

They plan to meet for a private dinner on Wednesday to discuss China, national security and the intensifying competition between the tech sectors of the U.S. and China. Mr. Chew is scheduled to testify the following day.

via www.wsj.com

Not surprising to see Peter Thiel leading the way on this. TikTok is indeed a threat, but Palantir seems to want to rule us instead of the CCP. Google is putting its oar in as well, probably for similar reasons. It's like the scene at the beginning of the Exorcist -- "Evil against evil."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLTP-SH0Mvo

When Your Dog Pays the Mortgage | The Free Press

Six years ago, Bryan Reisberg was a struggling New York University film school grad whose first feature had been described by Variety as “an 84-minute shoulder shrug.” He was working in advertising and barely making the rent when he and his fiancée Alex Garyn gave themselves a wedding present in November 2015 that changed their lives.

It was a corgi puppy, who they named Maxine. Reisberg started posting videos as @madmax_fluffyroad because, he said, “I just wanted the world to see how damn cute my puppy was.” Maxine built up a respectable number of followers—about fifty thousand—and within a year, Reisberg’s filmmaker instincts returned. “I shot a video with a cinematographer friend in Brooklyn,” said Reisberg. “Then I wrote a script, and hired the voice-over actor Jon St. John (he was the voice of Duke Nukem in the video game); he responded to a casting notice I put on Voices.com.” 

Reisberg posted “Maxine the Fluffy Corgi” to Vimeo on November 1, 2016. It became a Vimeo “staff pick”—and @madmax_fluffyroad went viral. Maxine now has over five million followers across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Last year, Reisberg signed five-figure deals with MGM Rewards, Amazon, and Grubhub; Dell computer paid him $75K for two @madmax_fluffyroad posts. And if you live in New York, you recently saw Maxine’s furry face on digital billboards showing New Yorkers how to travel responsibly with their pets on subways, buses, and commuter trains.

“I’m getting paid to hang out with my dog,” said Reisberg, who is 34 and quit his advertising job in 2021. “It’s incredible. I’d do all this stuff for free. I probably shouldn’t say that, should I?”

via www.thefp.com

We could try this with Mitzi but it would probably just make her crazier. That would be wrong. But Maxine just seems to be eating all this attention up. Typical.

Stanford Students Demand Journalist Remove Their Names from Stories … After Targeting Other Students By Name – JONATHAN TURLEY

There is an interesting development in the controversy at Stanford Law School where U.S. Circuit Court Judge Kyle Duncan was shouted down by law students and condemned by a law school dean for discussing his conservative judicial views. Student protesters reportedly published the names of students in the Federalist Society online as part of their cancel campaign. However, Aaron Sibarium, a journalist for the Washington Free Beacon has said that a board member of the Stanford National Lawyers Guild, sent an email demanding the Free Beacon remove her name and those of other students from their reporting because it is threatening and dangerous.

Sibarium tweeted that “On Sunday, I identified board members of the Stanford National Lawyers Guild–one of the groups responsible for the posters–who in a public statement described the protest as ‘Stanford Law School at its best.’ A few hours later, the board demanded I redact their names.”

It was a highly ironic moment to be sure. However, I am more interested in another aspect of the controversy. I wrote earlier about the joint apology letter of Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Law School Dean Jenny Martinez. Neither Tessier-Lavigne nor Martinez promise to hold these students accountable or to sanction Steinbach. They merely express regret that “staff members who should have enforced university policies failed to do so, and instead intervened in inappropriate ways that are not aligned with the university’s commitment to free speech.”

This latest controversy highlights the fact that the identity of some of these students (including those on videotape) who disrupted a speaker at the law school are known to the school. In this case, it was a federal appellate judge but we have seen this type of “deplatforming” at other schools. These students — and many faculty — voice a twisted view that silencing the free speech of others is a form of free speech.

via jonathanturley.org

Can't say any of this is surprising. Appalling yes, surprising no.

Get ready for Manhattan DA’s made-for-TV Trump prosecution: high on ratings, but short on the law | The Hill

Although it may be politically popular, the case is legally pathetic. Bragg is struggling to twist state laws to effectively prosecute a federal case long ago rejected by the Justice Department against Trump over his payment of “hush money” to former stripper Stormy Daniels. In 2018 (yes, that is how long this theory has been around), I wrote how difficult such a federal case would be under existing election laws. Now, six years later, the same theory may be shoehorned into a state claim.

It is extremely difficult to show that paying money to cover up an embarrassing affair was done for election purposes as opposed to an array of obvious other reasons, from protecting a celebrity’s reputation to preserving a marriage. That was demonstrated by the failed federal prosecution of former presidential candidate John Edwards on a much stronger charge of using campaign funds to cover up an affair.

In this case, Trump reportedly paid Daniels $130,000 in the fall of 2016 to cut off or at least reduce any public scandal. The Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office had no love lost for Trump, pursuing him and his associates in myriad investigations, but it ultimately rejected a prosecution based on the election law violations. It was not alone: The Federal Election Commission (FEC) chair also expressed doubts about the theory.

via thehill.com

Ugh.

Cardinals Müller, Burke rebuke German bishops over same-sex union blessings | Catholic News Agency

A synod of German bishops overwhelmingly approved Church blessings of same-sex unions and unions between divorced and remarried Catholics, but the move has faced harsh criticism from some members of the Catholic hierarchy who have accused the German bishops of abandoning the faith. 

German Cardinal Gerhard Müller and American Cardinal Raymond Burke rebuked the German bishops and called on them to be sanctioned in an interview on EWTN’s “The World Over with Raymond Arroyo,” which aired on Thursday night, March 16. 

“There must be a trial and they must be sentenced and they must be removed from their office if they are not converting themselves and they are not accepting the Catholic doctrine,” Müller said during the interview.

“That is very sad that a majority of bishops voted explicitly against the revealed doctrine, and the revealed faith of the Catholic Church and of all our Christian thinking, against the Bible, the word of God in the Holy Scripture and in the apostolic tradition and in the defined doctrine of the Catholic Church,” the cardinal added. 

via www.catholicnewsagency.com

It looks like the Church is heading towards schism. Crazy times.

The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine -- Matt Tiabbi

2.“The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Spring 2020 emails… has been used to exacerbate distrust in Dr. Fauci.”
“Increased distrust in Fauci’s expert guidance.”

via threadreaderapp.com

This is Matt Tiabbi's epic twitter thread revealing the shocking scope of the censorship machine, really more of a lie machine, put in place by an unholy trinity of the feds, big tech and the legacy media. This is a very big problem, only gummed up by Elon's acquisition of twitter. The format is terrible but then so is the story.

The Great Covid-19 Lie Machine -- Matt Tiabbi

2.“The release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Spring 2020 emails… has been used to exacerbate distrust in Dr. Fauci.”
“Increased distrust in Fauci’s expert guidance.”

via threadreaderapp.com

This is Matt Tiabbi's epic twitter thread revealing the shocking scope of the censorship machine, really more of a lie machine, put in place by an unholy trinity of the feds, big tech and the legacy media. This is a very big problem, only gummed up by Elon's acquisition of twitter. The format is terrible but then so is the story.

Things are only getting harder for the Fed | Financial Times

The Fed’s expansive actions to prevent the Silicon Valley Bank collapse from becoming systemic, followed by the Suisse National Bank’s massive lifeline to troubled Credit Suisse, left little doubt this week that financial leaders are determined to act decisively when fear starts to set in. Let us leave moral hazard for another day.

But even if risks of a 2023 financial Armageddon have been contained, not all the differences with 2008 are quite so reassuring. Back then, inflation was a non-issue and deflation — falling prices — quickly became one. Today, core inflation in the US and Europe is still running hot, and one really has to strain the definition of “transitory” to argue that it is not a problem. Global debt, both public and private, has also skyrocketed. This would not be such an issue if forward looking, long-term real interest rates were to take a deep dive, as they did in the secular stagnation years prior to 2022.

Unfortunately, however, ultra-low borrowing rates are not something that can be counted on this time around. First and foremost, I would argue that if one looks at long-term historical patterns in real interest rates (as Paul Schmelzing, Barbara Rossi and I have), major shocks — for example, the big drop after the 2008 financial crisis — tend to fade over time. There are also structural reasons: for one thing, global debt (public and private) exploded after 2008, partly as an endogenous response to the low rates, partly as a necessary response to the pandemic. Other factors that are pushing up long-term real rates include the massive costs of the green transition and the coming increase in defence expenditure around the world. The rise of populism will presumably help alleviate inequality, but higher taxes will lower trend growth even as higher spending adds to upwards pressure on rates.

What this means is that even after inflation abates, central banks may need to keep the general level of interest rates higher over the next decade than they did in the last one, just to keep inflation stable.

via www.ft.com

Ken Rogoff is one of the few worth listening to on global macro.