BLM Activist Fired by Library for Burning Conservative Books Plays the Race Card

Is everything racist now? A library staffer was recently fired for burning books by conservative authors, according to a Feb. 1o Chattanooga Times Free Press report. Cameron “C-Grimey” Williams, an activist known for organizing Black Lives Matter protests in and around Chattanooga, allegedly burned the books “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)”…

The post BLM Activist Fired by Library for Burning Conservative Books Plays the Race Card appeared first on The Western Journal.

via The Western Journal

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.westernjournal.com

Surge in Illegal Immigrants Swamping Border Towns at Worrying Levels: Report

Less than a month into his tenure, President Joe Biden has managed to bring one aspect of American life at least back to where it was before the coronavirus pandemic hit. The number of illegal aliens being arrested and then released into swamped border cities has reached a high not seen since December 2019, according…

The post Surge in Illegal Immigrants Swamping Border Towns at Worrying Levels: Report appeared first on The Western Journal.

via The Western Journal

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.westernjournal.com

What Poisoned America?

What Poisoned America?

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

America’s financial system is nothing more than a toxic waste dump of speculation, fraud, collusion, corruption and rampant profiteering.

What Poisoned America? The list of suspects is long: systemic bias, special interests dominating politics, political polarization, globalization and the offshoring of productive capacity, over-regulation, the rise of rapacious cartels and monopolies, Big Tech’s gulag of the mind, the permanent adolescence of consumerism, permanent global war, to name a few.

The question boils down to this: what problems cannot be addressed by the status quo? Most of the ills listed above can be addressed with existing mechanisms of governance and adaptation. For example, consider systemic bias. The U.S. Armed Forces have demonstrably led the way in dramatically reducing systemic bias via performance-based advancement. The rest of America would do well to copy these organizational improvements.

Many of the other ills could be addressed within current systems of governance–antitrust, etc.

The two that appear impervious to reform are 1) soaring wealth-income-power inequality and 2) the dominance of special interests. In both cases, the corporate foxes are guarding the hen house, so any reforms with real teeth are watered down to PR by those reaping the vast majority of the financial gains. Corporate profits are in the billions while you can buy elected officials’ cooperation for mere millions. There is no way to get around that asymmetry.

I would propose an even deeper systemic poison: zero-interest yield on capital. For a variety of reasons, the yield on capital is either zero or less than zero if we factor in inflation. We now earn (heh) 0.1% on our cash while inflation is somewhere between the "official" rate of 3% and more real-world measures between 5% and 10%.

This is a significant change from the days when savings (in savings and loans institutions) earned 5.25% by regulation.

While ordinary capital earns nothing (or less than zero), the capital and income of the top 0.01% has rocketed to unprecedented levels. This vast asymmetry is poisoning America, and the financial system, from the Federal Reserve on down, is incapable of addressing it other than making it even more distorted and destructive by doing more of what’s failed spectacularly.

To understand why yields on capital have fallen to zero while wealth-income has flowed to the top elites, we need to look at wages share of the economy and capital’s share of the economy. Wages share (i.e. labors’ share) has been falling for the past 45 years, while corporate profits and the wealth of America’s top tier has soared. (see chart below)

It is not coincidence that as interest rates fell to zero the wealth and income of the top 0.01% soared while ordinary wage income fell 10% when adjusted for the purchasing power of the earnings.

A recent report prepared by the RAND Corporation, Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018, documents that $50 trillion in earnings has been transferred to owners of capital from the bottom 90% of American households in the past 45 years.

What happens when the purchasing power of the earnings of the bottom 90% declines for decades? (Even high-earners such as doctors have experienced a decline in the purchasing power of their earnings since 1975.)

Households cannot borrow as much money as they once could because their earnings simply don’t go as far; there is less disposable income to support more debt service.

What happens when corporate profits skyrocket as jobs are offshored and corporations arbitrage all the goodies of globalization? The corporations don’t need to borrow as much money as they have trillions in profits to work with.

In other words, demand for credit stagnates while at the same time, the Federal Reserve has flooded the economy with near-zero rate credit. Demand has stagnated along with wages while supply has rocketed into the trillions thanks to unprecedented central bank credit creation.

The reason why central banks have slashed rates to zero is obvious: if the bottom 90% can’t borrow more money at 5% to consume more goods and services, they can certainly borrow more at 1.5% because the interest part of their monthly payment drops significantly.

And sure enough, crushing rates to near-zero has triggered refinancing/housing bubbles and generated high auto-truck sales based on a few dollars down and 1.9% auto financing.

In other words: as the purchasing power of wages has relentlessly declined, the "fix" is to substitute debt for earnings. The fact that eventually stagnating earnings cannot support more debt at any rate of interest is inconvenient, so it’s been ignored.

Zero-interest rates has played out differently in Corporate America: since capital is so cheap to borrow, why not borrow a few billion dollars at 1.5% and use the money to buy back shares of the company’s stock, which generates a hefty 10% annual increase in the share price? Indeed, why not?

And why not use that cheap capital to automate tasks to reduce costly American labor and move even more staff overseas to low-wage nations? Indeed, why not? Maximizing profits demands it, and the near-zero cost of capital incentivizes it.

The net result of near-zero yields on capital? The top 0.1% own more wealth than the bottom 80%. Roughly 75% of all income gains have gone to the top 0.01%.

This extreme asymmetry has poisoned American society and its economy. This immense distortion in the cost of capital can best be understood by asking: what happens when a resource is free?

The answer is that it’s squandered. But the squandering is only part of the problem.

Consider what happened when air and water were "free". Both the air and water became toxic waste dumps, and American rivers infamously caught on fire. The same is true of "free" capital: America’s financial system is nothing more than a toxic waste dump of extreme speculation, fraud, collusion, corruption and rampant profiteering.

The rivers are on fire but the Federal Reserve’s plan remains the same: keep the cost of capital at "free" so the extremes of speculation can run to failure. The run to failure will be as extreme as the asymmetries that have poisoned America.

*  *  *

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

*  *  *

My recent books:

A Hacker’s Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook $17.46) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World (Kindle $5, print $10, audiobook) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($5 (Kindle), $10 (print), ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).

The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)

Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).

Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/18/2021 – 16:40

via ZeroHedge News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://cms.zerohedge.com/

OF COURSE: MSNBC Blames GOP Policies for Texas Power Outages

MSNBC Live host Stephanie Ruhle asked correspondent Morgan Chesky the question that was on a lot of people’s minds Wednesday morning: "why is this power grid failing so badly" in Texas? According to both of them, it’s because Texas’ conservative energy policies led to companies putting profits over people, which resulted in the failure to properly winterize equipment.
According to Chesky, the attempts to blame wind turbines that have stopped working in the low temperatures are misguided because, "that only makes up a small portion of the massive sources of energy that Texas has at its disposal."
 
 
Chesky, instead pointed to the "natural gas pipelines that froze up because they’re being built without any insulation. And we saw a nuclear plant that provides energy have to temporarily shut down due to a safeguard caused by the cold."
At this point it would have been useful for Chesky to point out that Texas has not only seen very cold weather, but has shattered temperature records that are in some cases well over 100 years old.  
Instead, Chesky blamed policies that were passed in the ’90s under George W. Bush:
The equipment that provides so much of the power to so many Texans was not properly winterized and some people would point to the fact Texas had its power supply deregulated back in the ’90s and you would say critics say because of these businesses we’re focusing on profits, they were not necessarily concerned with maintenance to prepare for a worse-case scenarios like we’re experiencing right now. In all, it was not built to sustain this many people turning to heat their homes and try to heat up water at the same time simultaneously.
Chesky then sort-of acknowledged the historical nature of the situation, "This winter storm caused the first winter storm warning over the entire state of Texas, all 254 counties, the first time in history," but did not say how a more regulated system would have made life any better for those currently without power.
Ruhle then concluded the segment by also blaming GOP policies, "It’s an important reminder it’s not regulation good or bad, it’s about smart regulation. The reason regulation is put in place is to protect everyday individuals. When you have mass deregulation in an emergency situation like this, you have millions and millions of individuals not protected."
This segment was sponsored by Vicks.
Here is a transcript for the February 17 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle
9:23 AM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: But that same governor is blaming the Green New Deal and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and let’s remind our audience, the Green New Deal was never passed federally or in Texas. AOC has nothing to do with that state. What in the world is he talking about, and why is this power grid failing so badly? 
MORGAN CHESKY: want to make a couple of key clarifications here, Steph. So, one of the things that’s come under fire recently the last several days is the renewable energy here in Texas, particularly the one driven by the wind. The massive turbines out in West Texas, they did suffer issues due to the cold. Those massive turbine blades had ice build up on them and because of incredibly cold temperatures, the batteries that store power there to be dispersed whenever we do have events like this actually drain faster than anticipated because of the incredibly cold weather. Now, that having been said, that only makes up a small portion of the massive sources of energy that Texas has at its disposal. Also we saw natural gas pipelines that froze up because they’re being built without any insulation. And we saw a nuclear plant that provides energy have to temporarily shut down due to a safeguard caused by the cold. It depends who you ask but as stands now, the equipment that provides so much of the power to so many Texans was not properly winterized and some people would point to the fact Texas had its power supply deregulated back in the ’90s and you would say critics say because of these businesses we’re focusing on profits, they were not necessarily concerned with maintenance to prepare for a worse-case scenarios like we’re experiencing right now. In all, it was not built to sustain this many people turning to heat their homes and try to heat up water at the same time simultaneously. This winter storm caused the first winter storm warning over the entire state of Texas, all 254 counties, the first time in history. Steph. 
RUHLE: It’s an important reminder it’s not regulation good or bad, it’s about smart regulation. The reason regulation is put in place is to protect everyday individuals. When you have mass deregulation in an emergency situation like this, you have millions and millions of individuals not protected. 

via NewsBusters – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.newsbusters.org/

Texas Democrat Mayor Urges Biden to Stop Releasing Migrants During Power Grid Outage


The mayor of a small Texas city along the border between the United States and Mexico is “pleading” with the Biden administration to stop releasing illegal aliens into his city while the state’s power grid remains down.

Bruno Lozano, the Democratic mayor of the city of Del Rio, Texas, made the request on Wednesday via a video uploaded to his municipality’s YouTube page. In the video, which is meant to be a candid and direct appeal to President Joe Biden, Lozano argues that his city cannot accommodate further illegal aliens.

“I am pleading and requesting with you to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of immigrants awaiting court dates into the city of Del Rio and surrounding areas,” the mayor states. “We do not have the resources available to house and accommodate these migrants within our community.”

“If you do send these individuals into our community, we will be forced to make a decision to leave them without resources under these dire circumstances,” Lozano adds. “I am asking to please stop, please make another plan for this federal issue.”

The mayor’s plea comes as below-average winter temperature across the Southwest have impacted Texas’s power grid. As such, most of the state has been dealing with power outages that have affected everything from grocery stores to municipal water services. Nowhere has the impact been more felt than in rural communities, especially those along the Rio Grande River.

In Del Rio, alone, the power has remained out since at least Tuesday. The outage has prevented the city from being able to replenish its water system, leaving most residents without not only power but also running water.

Texas’s power outage has only exacerbated the immigration issues that have long plagued the towns on the U.S.-Mexico border. One particular issue that became most notable during the Obama era was the practice of “catch and release.” The practice essentially means that captured illegal immigrants are released into U.S. communities while they await a hearing in immigration court. The concept has long been favored by many on the left as an alternative to immigration detention and deportation.

With border communities already under immense strain, mayors like Lozano are calling for a pause in the practice.

“If you’re going to allow these individuals into our community, I respectfully ask that you provide the means and the supplies necessary to accommodate them safely under these extreme circumstances,” Lozano said Wednesday. “Do to the crisis we can not provide these supplies.”

It is unclear if the Biden administration, however, will comply with the request. The White House did not return requests for comment on this story.

Lozano’s plea comes as the president and his staff have begun preparing their immigration agenda for congressional action. On Thursday, the White House unveiled the final version of its comprehensive immigration bill, which includes a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing within the U.S.

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Florida Lawmaker Requests Gov. Ron DeSantis Lower Flags to Honor Rush Limbaugh


A Florida lawmaker has requested Gov. Ron DeSantis order the state’s flags be lowered to half-staff to honor Rush Limbaugh’s passing.

Limbaugh lived in Palm Beach, Florida, and died Wednesday from complications of advanced lung cancer.

State Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R-Lake County), who has been a member of Florida’s House of Representatives since 2018, made the request in a letter to DeSantis Wednesday, calling Limbaugh a “true American patriot.”

DeSantis has yet to respond to or publicly acknowledge the letter.

DeSantis did release a statement Wednesday about the passing of the conservative radio legend, calling him “the greatest of all time” who could not be replaced.

Sabatini is the same lawmaker who proposed renaming a major Florida highway after former President Donald Trump last month.

The Florida lawmaker said he would be sponsoring a bill that would rename U.S. Highway 27 to “President Donald J. Trump Highway” in the next legislative session.

“Looking forward to working on this important designation honoring one of the greatest Presidents in American History,” Sabatini said.

The Florida legislature meets yearly for a 60-day period. This year, Florida lawmakers will convene on March 2.

via Breitbart News

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.breitbart.com

Planned Parenthood Sues After South Carolina Governor Signs ‘Heartbeat’ Bill

Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit against South Carolina in light of new abortion restrictions that Governor Henry McMaster (R) signed into law on Thursday. The lawsuit, jointly filed by Planned Parenthood and Greenville Women’s Clinic, seeks to challenge the South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act, which prohibits abortions once a fetal […]

via Conservative Review

Enjoy this article? Read the full version at the authors website: https://www.conservativereview.com/