from Kitco NEWS
Facebook is Keeping Trump Off Its Platform
by Andrew Trunsky
DailyCaller.com
Facebook’s oversight board upheld the company’s decision to ban former President Donald Trump Wednesday morning.
“The Board found that, in maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Mr. Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible,” the board said in a statement.
It also found, however, that a permanent ban was inappropriate, and requested that Facebook reach a “proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of the platform.”
“Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and decide the appropriate penalty,” the social media platform said.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Rejects DeSantis Orders, Keeps ‘Key’ Restrictions in Place
[Ed. Note: There’s something interesting about watching three different levels of government argue about who has the right to put a boot on your neck.]
by Hannah Bleau
Breitbart.com
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) opposes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) efforts to roll back coronavirus orders and insists that “key” coronavirus requirements, including masking and distancing, will remain in place across all county spaces.
DeSantis on Monday effectively suspended all local coronavirus emergency orders — another step in prioritizing the freedom of Florida residents.
However, the Miami-Dade County mayor is not having it, stating that the county will “continue to require key COVID [coronavirus] safety precautions including masking, distancing, and disinfecting at all County spaces, including libraries, County parks, and County buildings.”
While she recognized DeSantis’s action allows businesses to forgo mask requirements, she is urging business owners to keep those rules in place anyway:
Is This Our 1914 Moment?
by Joakim Book
The American Institute for Economic Research
A friend recently asked me how I can be so positive about the world’s progress yet so desperately pessimistic about the long-lasting horrors that will come from last year’s authoritarian power grab.
And it’s true: it’s a dissonance I often struggle with – the joy at the flourishing wonders of the world, coupled with the desperate fear of decline. I can go from pondering last year’s permanent loss of freedom to idealistically proclaim a century of liberty and an age of patronage prospering outside the rotten institutions of government.
Is this the mark of a schizophrenic mind or is there a deeper method at work? Is it possible to hold two thoughts in our heads at once?
I have no doubt that the 2020 government invasions of every aspect of life – monetary, fiscal, regulatory, medical, or whether you may leave your country, your state, or even your house – won’t (fully) roll back. Temporary government policies never do; this is the new normal.
Your Investment Strategy Depends On One Factor
by Kris Sayce
Casey Research
Wall Street thinks it knows what type of investor you are.
That’s why it creates all those investor labels.
Growth… Conservative… Balanced… Income… Defensive.
The list goes on.
The problem is, those labels don’t mean anything…
And today, we’ll show you why there are only two that matter.
Whether you’re new to the Dispatch or you’re a long-time reader, thank you for reading today’s edition.
In the Dispatch, our goal is two-fold:
Biden’s Vaccine Push: Some “Need More Convincing”
by Mac Slavo
SHTF Plan
Joe Biden is making a desperate push to get people to take the experimental gene therapy. He says 70% of the country will be fully”vaccinated” by July 4th and that some people just “need more convincing.”
Since the rulers are running out of people willing to take this concoction, it makes you wonder how they will cross that 70% mark.
New Poll: U.S. Is Running Out Of Adults “Willing To Be Vaccinated”
Perhaps the next step is an attempt to force this thing into people, or the “punishment” for refusing.
Medical Journal: Get The COVID-19 Vaccine, Or Be Punished HARSHLY
With his administration meeting its goal of administering 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines in its first 100 days, Biden set a new target on Tuesday: to have 70% of the adult population covered with a first dose, and 160 million people fully vaccinated by Independence Day. As of Tuesday, 105 million people in the US were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to a report by RT. When the masters are in a desperate attempt to get people willingly “vaccinated,” it’s time to ask questions.
50 Cent Flees New York for Texas After Complaining About Covid Restrictions, High Taxes
Joins wave of Americans, both rich and middle class, leaving coastal cities.
by Paul Joseph Watson
Info Wars
Rapper Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson has joined the wave of Americans fleeing New York, announcing that he had moved to Texas after complaining about draconian COVID-19 restrictions and high taxes.
“I love New York, but I live in Houston now,” 50 Cent told his social media followers. “I’ll explain later.”
[…] However, the hip hop star had already made it clear why he was planning to leave the Big Apple in March by responding to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s vow to lift mask mandates and other lockdown restrictions with the remark, “I’m headed to Texas fuck this.”
[…] The actor and producer is also notorious for flouting COVID rules, having hosted a huge party in an aircraft hangar in St. Petersburg, Florida back in February, putting himself at risk of a massive fine.
Look at What is Happening to U.S. Household Incomes
from King World News
Look at what is happening to US household incomes.
May 5 (King World News) – Gerald Celente: In March, U.S. household income shot up 21.1 percent from February, the U.S. Commerce Department reported, setting a record one-month jump and fueling first-quarter economic growth of 6.4 percent.
The windfall, which included $1,400 in federal payouts to most U.S. adults, sent consumer spending up 4.2 percent and personal consumption spending 10.7 percent higher in March, the biggest monthly gains since June 2020.
The stimulus payments accounted for $3.948 trillion of the month’s extra $4.213 trillion in household income, according to the Wall Street Journal…
Withdraw Your Consent with Dr. Elaina George
from Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network
Dr. Elaina George returns… Are we really giving informed consent in an era when a doctor visit lasts little more than 7 minutes. Has technology really helped the practice of medicine? Conveyor belt medicine doesn’t work. Hands-on medicine is still works best and is crucial for the patient’s well-being. Telemedicine isn’t medicine. It’s a prescription factory. They’re too busy writing a script to be concerned with your underlying health and getting to the real root of the problem. Follow the money. We’re starting to find out the truth about the Covid measures that were taken. Believe it or not. the vaccines have not been FDA approved. What does that tell you?
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The Gods/Markets Must Be Crazy with Nick Santiago (Ep #260)
from Daily Market Wisdom with Nick Santiago
For more than 20 years, Master Trader Nick Santiago has been beating the markets. He’s made some incredible calls along the way and now he’s looking to spread the word. There’s no reason that the average trader should be coming up short. So now we’ve started a daily show to bring you up to date on the latest market developments. Nick will be sharing trades and concepts and discussing current trends.
Click Here to Listen to the Audio
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Covid Has Triggered the Next Great Financial Crisis
by Charles Hugh Smith
Of Two Minds
What’s left are the ‘fatal synergies’ of soaring debt and leverage, diminishing returns on stimulus, the substitution of credit for savings and the coming deflationary tsunami that pops all the speculative bubbles.
Imagine a once modest but sturdy home built near a cliff to maximize the vistas. Over the decades, the foundation slowly degraded and the house moved imperceptably closer to the unstable edge of the cliff. Those who observed the slippage and the potential for eventual disaster were either derided as alarmists or ignored.
Given the enviable location and views, the home rose in value and a series of increasingly gaudy additions were added, completely obscuring the once-modest exterior with cheap imitations of long-lasting, time-tested materials (plastic trim and brittle fake-marble veneers). The foundations of these ostentatious additions were slapdash, shallow and poorly made, as the goal was not durability but appearance.
The low-quality additions accelerated the slide to the unstable cliff edge, and in 2019 the viewing deck broke away and crashed into the canyon below. The repairs were hasty and the residents were assured all was well–in fact, better than ever.
Absolute Interference Documentary by Mike Lindell
by Greg Hunter
USA Watchdog
Nobody is doing more to reveal and draw attention to the massive election fraud of 2020 than My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell. His second documentary on this profound national security disaster is brought out in “Absolute Interference.” If you want to be informed, this is a must watch video. This is a free download that I am running to help draw attention to an issue that affects all Americans here on USAWatchdog.com. This is a 2 hour documentary packed with information about how the 2020 Election was hacked by foreign players.
Most people do not know of the special report that Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe dropped just a few days before the end of the Trump Administration. One headline reads: “Bombshell Report: China Interfered In the 2020 Federal Elections.” Lindell is on solid ground, and a government report comprised of information from 17 of America’s intel agencies backs up Lindell’s “Absolute Interference.” There are many experts featured in this 2 hour documentary including Lt. General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the Pentagon.
Federal Regulators Require Rent Collectors to Lie About the CDC’s Illegal Eviction Moratorium
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau claims to be enforcing a law that prohibits “false or misleading representations.”
by Jacob Sullum
Reason.com
A federal rule that took effect yesterday requires that anyone attempting to collect unpaid rent tell tenants they may be protected by the residential eviction moratorium that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) imposed in September. Yet federal courts have repeatedly held that the moratorium, which the CDC recently extended through June 30, is invalid because it exceeds the agency’s legal authority.
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which yesterday sued the CFPB on behalf of residential property managers and Louisiana real estate attorney Gordon Schoeffler, argues that the rule, which the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued under a statute that forbids “false or misleading representations,” requires debt collectors to lie. The NCLA’s complaint, which it filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, says the CFPB’s rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act because it is not authorized by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
Why Masks Are Still Mandatory
by Alex Hamilton
American Thinker
Joe Biden is in a pickle. He wants to continue to convince Americans they should get the experimental biological agent (AKA “the vaccine”), but, as Tucker Carlson pointed out last week, the administration and the CDC have offered no explanation as to why you need to continue to wear a mask after you have taken “the vaccine.” Why would they want us to doubt the efficacy of the vaccine? Why would any sane person who is not in a high-risk group contemplate becoming a lab experiment subject if you are not allowed (yes, our rights are now derived from government and will be doled out based on compliance) to burn your mask and return to a pre-pandemic way of life? That’s just bad salesmanship…until you think about the alternative.
Think about what would happen if they allowed (there’s that word again) people not to wear masks after being vaccinated. Here’s a typical scenario. The vaccinated test subject enters the supermarket. The vigilante mob of leftists can’t wait to accost and demand compliance to their edict, using physical violence if necessary. The test subject then proclaims that he has put his mask in his pocket. A short time later, the test subject hears the man claim the same immunity.
Here Are the Companies Hiking Prices in Response to Soaring Inflation
from Zero Hedge
Earlier today we noted that the one thing every company was obsessing during their Q1 earnings call: inflation. As BofA equity strategist Savita Subramanian calculated, mentions of “inflation” quadrupled YoY, and after last week, mentions have exploded nearly 800% YoY. More striking was her observation that as “mentions skyrocket to near record highs from 2011” these point to at the very least, “transitory hyper-inflation ahead.” This is an official statement from a Big-4 bank, not some tinfoil conspiracy blog.
What is more concerning is that not only are companies talking about inflation, they are also responding to soaring input costs by hiking prices either in absolute terms or by stealth shrinkflation.
We presented an example of the latter over the weekend when we showed how Costco was masking nearly 15% inflation by selling a paper roll with 140 sheets for the same price it used to sell 160 sheets.
The Dynamics Behind the Ugly Amount of Empty Office Space
by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
This sort of sudden structural collapse in demand for office space raises some existential questions for landlords.
Companies are not massively defaulting on their office leases, and that’s the good thing. But they have put a historic amount of vacant office space on the sublease market, while continuing to pay rent to the landlord. They decided they no longer need that much space, now that some form of flexible work, or hybrid work-from-home, or even permanent work-from-anywhere is being integrated into office real estate plans, cost cutting efforts, and footprint-reduction strategies.