Is American Culture Dead? Dirty Harry at 50

As a student of cycles and social mood, I have often wondered about the coming cultural wave. Dirty Harry was a movie produced in an American society that had its first taste of liberalism taken to its extremes and the resulting chaos. There was soaring crime, riots, drug use and general decay starting in the 1960s. The early 1970s produced a reaction with Dirty Harry, then Death Wish. By the early 1980s, the action hero's were on the scene. Three-strikes-you're-out laws and mass incarceration were the response to lawless violence.

This violence and chaos of this era is worse than the 1970s, but perhaps less shocking because the population has been desensitized to how bad things are compared to before. About a third of the population are immigrants or descended from immigrants who never knew that America was once a far better place to live. They have little connection to a past that the ruling class intentionally hid from them. A backlash is already taking shape, we can see the political outlines hinting at massive shifts in voting, but the cultural response that would have led the politics in a prior era is suppressed by censorship.

The ruling class' grip is tighter than at anytime in American history, yet this may prove to be their undoing because when the change comes it will not be gradual. Elites can adapt to slowly changing society, but when it snaps, the ruling class finds itself so far out of touch as to have become the villian of the story. Consider how DAs in California and other states are letting murderers go free. People arrested with AR-15s (supposedly dangerous assault weapons these politicians want banned) and drugs, involved in robberies and murders, are let go without charges by these DAs. Here is only the latest example I've seen, these are a dime a dozen if you go looking through local news: DC police arrest then RELEASE seven men accused of stealing puppy at GUNPOINT, and who are also suspected of taking French bulldog 17 minutes later, despite finding them in gun and drug-filled apartment

In the 1970s, the courts went soft on crime. Sentences were shortened. Clearly guilty criminals let go on newly created technicalities. Yet for the most part, guilty criminals swere arrested, went to trial, and faced sentencing. Now, the government lets them go free. The government, the ruling class, is one the side of the criminals. Who might a 2020s "Dirty Harry" target? The movies that will be made, cannot be made in this environment, but once that movie is made, it will be over for the ruling class. There's censorship and thought control because the ruling class understands how tenuous its grip on power is becoming.

Law & Liberty: Dirty Harry's Justice

Even in our unhappy times, Dirty Harry stands out, because its protagonist is everything our elites hate: A proud white male authority figure who enforces the law without concern for what we would now call the “optics.” This is not a man who hesitates to kill or suffers a bad conscience over doing what is necessary to protect the innocent. The film would be impossible to make today, since it is so blind to the cries of systemic racism and toxic masculinity that so dominate woke criticism.

Predictably, art has decayed alongside public debate. Dirty Harry was prescient in warning about a future without freedom. Indeed, our elites gradually narrowed the circle of ideas that can be debated and policies people can vote for. They threw out the notion that the rights of ordinary Americans matter, so that authorities no longer feel duty-bound to protect persons and property from destruction.

Texas Can Legally Invade Mexico

The American people do not have a government. USG, the supposed sovereign, has abdicated control of the border. It has ignored a foreign invasion. It has abetted a foreign invasion. Under Article I, section 10 of the Constitution, the States are allowed to engage in war against foreign powers to stop said invasion.

“We’re at a breaking point. We’ve got miles upon miles of border that just aren’t patrolled because we have to deal with, frankly, an invasion,” Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told The Epoch Times.

“When you’re dealing with over 200,000 illegal border crossings per month, I don’t know how you don’t call it anything but that.”

Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states, in part: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion.”

Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution states, in part: “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

An invasion of Mexico may not be necessary because Mexico cooperated with President Trump on the border. Perhaps it would cooperate with U.S. border states. If not, they're party to an invasion. Who will USG side with, a foreign invader or the American people? You have to think about your answer...maybe the civil war would be over before it even begins...

USG Has Abdicated Sovereignty Over the United States

All claims of sovereignty rest on a narrative claim. Kings by blood, democracies by the will of the people (hence why USG is at war with the people and the idea of democracy itself, rebranding it as whatever the ruling class wants). One of the claims for Taiwan independence involves the Qing emperor refusing to deal with pirates around Taiwan. If you do not protect territory under your control, it ipso facto becomes independent or up for grabs for whoever does pacify or occupy it. Another (since I'm on the topic), is that the Japanese surrended Taiwan to the U.S. army and the U.S. has never formally relinquished military control over the island. The U.S. makes no claim on Taiwan so this one doesn't have any teeth, but a truly imperialist American president could theoretically stake a claim on Taiwan.

In the United States, USG has all but formally relinquished control over the Southern border. Border states, led by Texas, are now in control of the border. The behavior of USG reflects that of the declining Qing empire. USG cannot or will not defend territory over which it has sovereignty. It will not defend the people from whom it makes its claim of legitimacy.

Recall how Donald Trump caused USG and the ruling class to lose its mind. First they had a psychological breakdown. They genuinely went nuts almost immediately. Then they initiated psychological warfare on the American public. They invented the Russiagate lie which carried into two impeachments and the January 6 false flag, labeled their political opponents as domestic terrorists. Why? Their control is tenuous at best. It rests on psychological control over the American public. The fact that many people entertain ideas like abolishing student debt (why only student debt and not medical debt, consumer debt...?) or think systemic racism is real, that climate change is a legitimate threat, that transgenderism isn't mostly a mental illness and giving children hormone blockers is so evil that it ranks aside the crimes of genocidal regimes, that  people accept the schools, media and government talking about white people the way Nazis talked about Jews, are signs they are controlled by the media. Nearly everything they talk about it total bullshit. If we were under a corrupt theological government, the blue checks on Twitter would be in a moral panic over the declining number of angels on pinheads.

The country is run so poorly at this point, with USG either in open warfare against the middle class or engaged in anarcho-tyranny where it lets criminals run free (yesterday's NYC subway shooter was on the FBI terror watchlist), that anyone who stops hurting the people will be a wildly popular President.

The ruling class is engaged in totalitarian thought control because it is illegitimate. As fast as Trump went from a joke to POTUS, about 18 months, so could the entire ruling class collapse if someone steps up and starts seizing power. If someone steps up and begins acting in the interest of the people instead of the interests of foreign invaders and the parasitical ruling class.

Fox: First Texas bus drops off migrants blocks from US Capitol in Washington, DC

A bus from Texas arrived in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning, transporting dozens of illegal immigrants as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s new plan to counter federal immigration policies during an ongoing border crisis.

Abbott announced last week that he was directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to transport migrants released from federal custody in Texas to the nation’s capital and other locations outside his state.

...According to TDEM, Abbott’s plan is already working. The agency told Fox News on Monday that many of the communities that originally reached out for support – from the Rio Grande Valley to Terrell County – say the federal government stopped dropping immigrants in their towns since Abbott's announcement on April 6.

The United States is beyond democracy now. It has entered a volatile, chaotic stage of Machiavellian power politics. Something new will emerge or someone/movement will emerge and restore order. Anyone, from anywhere, could emerge as this new power center. It could be a single man if the U.S. drifts into authoritarianism. It could be states that work together, individually or eventually in concert. Debates in the House and Senate, executive orders by POTUS, even decisions by SCOTUS can all be ignored by someone acting in the interests of the people. The Mandate of Heaven is up for grabs. In these times, the worst things for a patriot are a lack of imagination and a lack of ambition.

Pennsylvania DA Won't Prosecute Ballot Stuffing Criminals Because He Can't Prosecute 100pc of Them

Imagine a prosecutor announcing they will not prosecute drug dealing because they only captured some of the dealers and there's a whole gang/cartel of dealers out there. It wouldn't be fair to prosecute the few they caught, while letting all the others go unpunished. Sounds like something a wackjob Baizuo might come up with, but in this case, it is a Republican.

Gateway Pundit: Hundreds of Suspects Filmed Stuffing Multiple Ballots Into PA County Drop Boxes — But Republican DA Won’t Prosecute ANY of the Suspects Because Not Everyone Has Been Identified

On Monday Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin, a Republican, admitted that there were likely hundreds of instances where people deposited numerous ballots into the ballot drop boxes in the last election.

At least 288 people deposited more than one ballot in the various drop boxes, all of which were under video surveillance.

District Attorney Jim Martin, a Republican, then announced he will not prosecute the suspects “because to prosecute those few whose identity can be proven would be unfair and unjust given the much larger numbers who cannot be identified and who also deposited multiple ballots.”

You can’t identify all of the suspects so he will not file charges against ANY of the suspects.

Crime has already exploded in the USA, but it is nowhere close to reaching its peak. And this also proves that Republicans can be Baizuo too! It is a bifactional ruling party, but one ruling class.

Discord and Twitch are Dead Platforms

Discord's new policies ban dangerous health misinformation

Discord hasn't been as active in fighting pandemic misinformation as social networks, but it appears ready to change its tune. According to Protocol, Discord is updating its community policies to ban any misinformation that poses a "significant risk" of physical or social harm, including claims that threaten "public health." A chat server could face action if it spreads falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines, to put it another way. The community rules also bar spam, manipulative bots, fake accounts, bad-faith account reporting and "malicious" impersonation of others. The guidelines also forbid hate linked to age, caste, gender identity and serious illnesses. Discord will also consider "off-platform" activity when making decisions on bans and other policy decisions. Someone who belongs to a hate group or commits real-world crimes could face repercussions online.

Twitch Says It Will Bar Chronic Spreaders of Misinformation

Twitch, the livestreaming site beloved by video gamers that has become a key internet communications service, said on Thursday that it had created new rules aimed at clamping down on egregious purveyors of misinformation.

The company, acknowledging the real-world harms that could come with its rapidly expanding influence, said it would prohibit “harmful misinformation superspreaders who persistently share misinformation on or off of Twitch.”

Twitch will target only channels that meet a handful of criteria. To fall afoul of the new policy, users must be persistently sharing harmful misinformation that has been widely debunked, the company said, adding that it had “selected these criteria because taken together they create the highest risk of harm, including inciting real-world harm.”

Remember that saying things such as "men can't have babies" is dangerous and debunked misinformation.

Exit question: why do China and the West have the same Internet censorship regimes?

New Government is Needed

Someone sent me this piece, which makes a similar argument that I made earlier today:

we have a political problem. Solutions such as blockchain can form the basis of a new monetary system, but getting their is a political problem. Relying on the technology is destined for failure because the politics are not solvable by technology.

What Canada Means for Crypto: What Canada Means for Crypto

Imagine you donated C$50 to the Freedom Convoy before it arrived in Ottawa, an action Trudeau has retroactively decided disqualifies you from participating in modern society. (This is not a hypothetical, at least if this Canadian Member of Parliament’s tweet is to be believed). Your bank accounts have been frozen, credit cards canceled, and access to your brokerage account denied. Further, imagine you have accumulated some Bitcoin in a cold storage wallet (i.e., on a flash drive in your possession), carefully ensuring that it is outside Trudeau’s reach. How are you going to pay your mortgage, car payment, tuition expenses, or buy groceries with it? The answer is you can’t. Does that wallet represent a store of value that might be reactivated in the future should the government change its stance towards you, or is itself changed altogether? Absolutely. Does it represent a practical medium of exchange, one that is useful during this personal crisis? Absolutely not.

Unfortunately, we must also admit the same analysis holds true for gold, a conclusion that runs opposite to our previous thinking on the topic. However effective gold might be as a store of value, if the only available functions during a time of personal crisis are to facilitate bartering or fleeing, it isn’t money. Gold bugs and crypto advocates alike should be aghast at what Trudeau has done and at what those in the US Treasury undoubtedly have in store for Americans.

And therein lies the critical conundrum: alternative forms of money require a benign government to allow for their proliferation, but a benign government negates the need for alternative forms of money. This is a political problem, and no amount of Bitcoin or Gold Eagles will help when the political eye turns against you. Money is what the government says it is, and we just got a glimpse that our views – political, cultural…personal – form a relevant condition to being allowed to spend it.

New Year, Same Story: China Crackdown on BigTech Finance

More of the same is coming for BigTech companies trying to push into the financial sector.

January 2021: PBOC Vows to Step Up ‘Prudential Oversight’ of Online Platforms

December 2021: 重磅！央行开始动手了，哪些主播被禁止卖金融产品？

Improve the Internet financial supervision system

The central bank and other relevant departments pointed out the three major necessity for the formulation of the "Measures" in the drafting notes.

The first is to implement the Party Central Committee's decision and deployment on anti-monopoly and preventing the disorderly expansion of capital.

With the vigorous development of the digital economy, social production and lifestyles are changing from production-oriented to demand-oriented, and customers and data resources have become important means for implementing monopoly in the era of digital economy.

Some Internet platform companies take advantage of online scenarios and reach customers to conduct financial business by participating in financial institutions or cooperating with financial institutions. There are some violations in the marketing of financial products, infringing on the rights and interests of financial consumers, and repelling and restricting fair competition. There is an urgent need to formulate policies and systems to regulate the online marketing of financial products.

The second is to protect the safety of people’s property.

Judging from the practice of Internet financial supervision in recent years, problems such as selling illegal financial products to financial consumers or inducing financial consumers to buy financial products that do not match their financial status and risk-bearing capacity are more prominent, which infringes on the people’s property safety .

Preventing and disposing of related risks are related to the vital interests of financial consumers. We must strengthen the supervision of financial institutions and Internet platform companies from the source link of financial product marketing.

The third is to improve the Internet financial supervision system.

In recent years, financial management departments have continuously explored and strengthened the supervision of online marketing of financial products. Relevant behavioral norms and management measures are scattered in the regulatory systems of Internet loans, Internet insurance, Internet fund sales and other fields. At present, there is still a lack of relatively systematic and unified supervision. Management System.

In addition, the Internet platform cooperates with financial institutions to carry out financial services, mainly to provide financial product marketing and customers' personal credit information services. The newly issued "Credit Investigation Business Management Measures" has included personal credit information services in the scope of supervision, and further measures are needed. Strengthen the supervision of online marketing and complete the system puzzle.

The reporter noted that the chaos of Internet marketing has already aroused the attention of regulatory authorities. In the past two years, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, Chongqing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau, Qinghai Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and other local regulatory bureaus have issued consumer risk warnings on related chaos in the fields of Internet insurance insurance, insurance live marketing, and financial consumption on Internet sales platforms.

Facebook Attorneys Argue Fact Checks Are Opinions

American Thinker: Stunning: Facebook court filing admits 'fact checks' are just a matter of opinion

Surprisingly little attention is being paid to a bombshell admission made by the attorneys representing the corporation formerly known as Facebook, Inc., which has now transitioned into Meta Platforms, Inc.

In a court filing responding to a lawsuit filed by John Stossel claiming that he was defamed by a "fact check" Facebook used to label a video by him as "misleading," Meta's attorneys assert that the "fact check" was an "opinion," not an actual check of facts and declaration of facts. Under libel law, opinions are protected from liability for libel.

...As an amateur, it seems to me that if Facebook inserts its opinions into posts or blocks them because of its opinion, then that does make it a publisher with legal responsibility for what appears on its website.

Technically speaking, Facebook farms out its "fact-checking" to outside organizations, usually left-wing groups. In the case of Stossel's video that was defamed, the outside website is called "Climate Feedback," which is also named a defendant in the lawsuit.

All the fact checks and censorship by Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. would thus make them publishers and not subject to Section 230 protections.

So-called "fact-checking" is a fraud used to cover up the censorship of opinions that that differ from those of the powerful Silicon Valley oligarchy. And now we have proof attested to in a court filing by one of the richest companies in the world, represented by some of the most elite lawyers in the world.

Investors have no idea how great a legal risk BigTech companies have placed themselves into. One cannot simply focus on the courts either. Their inteference in elections and lies about vaccine side-effects has opened the door to political retribution because the scale of these crimes reaches the point to where allowing these companies to exist at all will be debated.

King Dollar Becomes Emperor: Currency Valuation with Political Modifier

When I was in college my senior thesis was on economic freedom. I used the Fraser Institute Economic Freedom Index and looked through all the factors that go into the score to tease out what was important. Some of my sources were books such as DeSoto's Other Path (which also informs some of my thinking around blockchain). One thing I quickly found was signals were difficult to tease out because most developed nations were also politically free. China was a huge confounding data point because it was politically unfree, but moving towards economic freedom. Also, the index is subjective. China for example, doesn't have "hard" property rights, property rights are fairly well assumed in Chinese culture and the CCP largely reflects this tradition. Not to go down a rabbit hole, but I can both accept that Chinese property rights are very loosely held because I understand the CCP's power advantage in society, while at the same time recognizing that the economy functions as if this advantage will not be abused. Long story short, I was trying to look at economic development like a state and find what are the key components for prosperity?

If we assume a currency is to some degree a reflection of the entire economy and its economic freedom, then we should discount currencies of less free nations if the government's power stretches into economics and property rights. Singapore is the go to example of a nation with less poltiical freedom, but very high economic freedom. I'm going to leave off countries like the Peru described in DeSoto's book, that lack property rights because of poorly functioning law. I believe every nation is unique. A lack of freedom and prosperity can be cultural issues rather than political. The Amish don't allow technology after a certain date, yet they are free to leave and have property rights. Are the Amish as free as other Americans? My sense, informed in part by living in China for a long time and finding that much of what in the West was called communism is actually Chinese or Confucianism, is that the universalist approach of the West confuses culture, religion and politics. Most people freely choose to restrict freedom in some way. They elevate community, they believe in God, sacred things are priceless. The hyper-American view of individuality is not universalist, but particular. I think this all matters when looking at something like economic freedom, but throw that all aside. I want to focus on hard power. On goverment abuse of its political power.

One thing I've said about China's capital controls is that it devalues the yuan. Even though they are holding the line on the exchange rate, the yuan is worth less if it cannot be freely exchanged for foreign currency. That is to say, there is some theoretical value of the yuan and there is the price the government controls, and that theoretical prices goes down when something like capital controls are instituted outside of a crisis. I'm not arguing the theoretical price should be the market price, the market is always "wrong" for your personal valuation. My point is only that if we take all the components of what makes a currency valuable, and think blockchain here if you want, the ease of spending it and exchanging it is a component.

What is the value of the euro, pound, Australian dollar and so on if they are locking down their economies? If they can shut your business? If they can arrest you and place you in a detention camp? If some African country started doing this, the currency might well devalue, no? Assuming it wasn't a highly competent state like China that was engaged in some targeted persecution, a society-wide lockdown would obviously be a signal to sell the currency.

More granularly, what happens to economies that are locked down? The government takes on more debt to stimulate the economy and the central bank monetizes it. If we grade all the economies based on their lockdown policies and their central bank policies, which currencies are better and which are worse? The U.S. is a mixed bag, but if you can travel into the U.S., most of the South and West, the rural and Red states, have almost total freedom with respect to the pandemic. There is almost no mask wearing for example. The pandemic is over in these states.

What is going on in Australia is off the charts criminal. The state is behaving like a totalitarian dictator and everyone seems to think it's OK because the government was elected. Lifesite: Australian army hauls 38 citizens to quarantine facility over some positive COVID tests

Link: Northwest Territory detention camps open for business

So the exit question is, how would you value the Australia dollar if the government never relinquishes their power? Or what if Australia has permanently turned the totalitarian ratchet forward, such that they will eventually ease their economic controls, but they will not revert back to the pre-pandemic level. Is the Australian dollar worth more or less? Does it deserve a "permanent" haircut on the exchange rate with the U.S. dollar for as long as these conditions persist? If lockdowns create permanent economic damage via inflation, shouldn't lockdown countries see their currencies devalued?

The Bear Market Slowly Emerges from the Mist

NBER: Is Stock Index Membership for Sale?

While major stock market indices are followed by large monetary investments, we document that membership decisions for the S&P 500 index have a nontrivial amount of discretion. We show that firms’ purchases of S&P ratings appear to improve their chance of entering the index (but purchases of Moody’s ratings do not). Furthermore, firms tend to purchase more S&P ratings when there are openings in the index membership. Such a pattern is also confirmed by an event study that explores a rule change on index membership in 2002. Finally, discretionary additions exhibit subsequent deterioration in financial performance relative to rule-based additions.

I sort of file away lots of news items like stars in the nightsky. When they start forming a pattern I sit up and take notice. Something I've believed for a long time and no doubt mentioned in prior posts is that the Federal Reserve will fail, literally or perceptually, in the next "real" bear market. The 2008 financial crisis was a bear market in price, but not really in time or i policy response. There was no reform like Sarbanes-Oxley in the prior bear. The crooks were never punished, instead they received most of the bailout money! The recession barely qualified, it was one of the most shallow in history (though manufacturing was hit hard).

In the next real bear market, institutions will come down. The past month saw two Fed official resign over insider trading charges. Fed Chairman Powell may be done with rising inflation becoming an issue for Republicans, Democrat Sentor Warren already blasted him and also the Biden admin may want an MMTer in the job. What seemed liked a slam dunk reappiointment with the Fed riding a wave of popularity now looks like an institution coming under serious scrutiny. If this continues, the Fed will either be restrained and pullback from intervention or it will submit to political demands from POTUS or Congress, which will mean excessive inflation with the current slate.

The story above broadens the scope of institutional failure to passive investing and major stock market indexes. It also parallels the housing bubble fraud of paying for ratings on CDOs and other securities. I assume the next bear market will see some type of major reform, possibly limiting participation in the stock market or similarly strong restrictions on activity. This is the first story that puts some meat on that idea. The market is going to tank in a bear market, people look to blame someone, and the politicians will say, "Here's one of the largest index providers selling access to their indexes. They destroyed your retirement." If there is any truth to what that paper claims, even if it doesn't rise to anything criminal, it will be a PR disaster in a bear market and will be justifiation for all manner of regulations. If there is no bear market coming soon, S&P can get out front and settle it before it turns into something they cannot control.

Maybe this S&P story will fade, but this is the type of story that will emerge when a major bear market gets underway. Core institutions will go bust or be targeted by regulators and politicians. However, when the negative stories are already hitting major financial market institutions and companies, it makes me wonder. Recall an analyst called for Citigroup to cut its dividend in Nov 2007 and they did in Janaury 2008. This story is nowhere near that level yet and that was financially driven, but the corroborating piece of evidence I'm working with is that I suspect the markets may have already topped or have only one last blow-off move left in them.

Authoritarian USG Takes Shape

The Capitol Police are expanding into Florida and California. They are the special police for Congress and are not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.

HuffPo: The Capitol Police Are Not Subject To Freedom Of Information Laws. Jan. 6 Could Change That.

Unique among major law enforcement agencies, the roughly 2,000-officer department that secures Congress isn’t subject to a transparency law that allows the public to access official records. As a branch of Congress, which is excluded from FOIA, no such law applies to the Capitol Police. When presented with FOIA requests, it’s common for the agency’s counsel to respond simply that it doesn’t have to comply. In 2005, Congress passed a law that gave the Capitol Police more latitude to shield records the department deemed sensitive from public disclosure.

...The Capitol Police have drawn scrutiny over the years for arresting journalists and protesters, use-of-force incidents and discrimination allegations. But documents surrounding such events are often inaccessible unless they’re produced as the result of a court case. The agency shields basic records, like Office of Inspector General reports, from the public.

“A lot of people are rightfully asking really tough questions of the Capitol Police and the reality is that, unlike most police departments, we’re going to have a really tough time getting answers,” said Michael Morisy, chief executive of MuckRock, a news outlet devoted to public records access and reporting. “They have a track record of not being transparent about their operations, especially when there’s scandal or scrutiny.”

Federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI or Immigration and Customs Enforcement have public disclosure requirements under FOIA. Local police departments typically have similar responsibilities under separate state laws.

Washington Examiner: Capitol Police expansion to California and Florida prompt fears of government overreach

Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman announced Tuesday that the department would open field offices in San Francisco and Tampa. The offices, Pittman said, will “investigate threats to members of Congress,” and more regional offices will be announced in the future.

In the movie Escape From New York, the country created a federal police force to deal with out of control crime. Democrats in various cities are defunding police and letting crime skyrocket. George Soros and other left-wing activists supported district attorneys in the 2020 election who are letting murderers walk free.It's hard to pick a worst of the bunch, but lately the one he supporteed in St. Louis, Kim Gardener, is not showing up in court. Judges are letting murderers walk as a result.

KSDK 5: 'Kim Gardner is a poor excuse for a prosecutor': Family of murder victim outraged after charges dropped, suspect freed

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s office has “essentially abandoned its duty to prosecute those it charges with crimes.”

This according to St. Louis Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser, who dismissed a murder case Friday after Gardner’s prosecutors failed to appear for multiple hearings on the case.

Brandon Campbell is accused in the shooting death of Randy Moore back on April 9, 2020.

St. Louis police told the I-Team murder suspect Campbell is now free, despite a statement from Gardner’s office saying it re-filed the charges and that he is in custody.

This wasn't a mistake. This has been going on for months in this case alone and the judge was fed up.

Why is the upper echelon of the ruling class unleashing murder and mayhem on the poorest and most vulnerable Americans, while unleashing an authoritarian police state on their political enemies? It's clearly an effort to push a federal police force that will put the ruling class in total control over that nation. Between this power and the lockdowns, all political and economic life will be controlled in Washington, DC.

The Essence of Anarcho-Tyranny: America's Woke Military Stand By as Carjackers Murder an Uber Driver

This video is graphic. It shows the absolute mayhem going on in "Woke" American cities. It also shows the National Guard were on the scene. They are clueless bystanders doing nothing in Washington, D.C. except provide theater for the politidal establishment's tyrannical takeover of the levers of power. They are there to help create the narrative of a threat from rural whites and Trump voters, one that allows for a domestic Patriot Act to crush political dissent. Meanwhile, for the citizens of D.C., there is murder and mayhem. This is the essence of Anarcho-Tyranny. Anarchy as lawbreaks are protected by law, be they criminals or illegal aliens. Tyranny for law abiding citizens, be it lockdowns, mask laws, gun control, vaccine passports, etc. Your children cannot go to school, but illegal alien children get free school on the border. You cannot visit DC because of "a threat" to the political establishment, but the threats to your life and property run wild in the streets. Repeat this across society and you can see the future if the Woke establishment isn't ejected from power. The media, governmental (including nearly all Democrats and most of the GOP estalishment) and educational instituions are all converged and controlled by Woke ideology, critical race theory, preogressivism, whatever you want to call it. It goes by many names to confse you and dissipate opposition into factions, but it is all united by the same evil impulses and false ideas that fueled communism and fascism in the 20th Century.

I will be surprised if Twitter doesn't take this video down. Not because it is graphic, but because it is destructive for the ruling class.

They murdered an Uber Eats driver in DC. pic.twitter.com/Zz7xOu0Piv

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 27, 2021

Wyoming Moves Bill to Legalize DAOs

Decentralized autonomous organizations can become legal entities if Wyoming turns this bill into law. Defirate: Wyoming DAO Bill Approved by Senate

Bill 38 was originally submitted in January of this year and sent to the Wyoming Senate’s Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Committee in early February.

The bill would enable DAOs would to legally register themselves as limited liability companies (LLCs), connecting the blockchain-centric business structure to the legal world. Such DAOs would then be recognized by local state authorities and more easily engage in contracts and legal agreements that are legitimate and enforceable in the eyes of state law. This could involve off-chain employment, investment and more, at last bridging the gap between blockchain and traditional systems.

According to Professor Wright in his Tweet-storm, Wyoming will also be building a registration API, which would drastically streamline the process for setting up legally-recognized DAOs.

Social Credit for Domestic and Foreign Companies Too

Back in 2018 I warned, If I was running a visible American brand in China, I'd be thinking about lowering my profile right now. . Nothing much has happened to this point in terms of boycotts, but the pieces are in place for a much stronger crackdown.

Breitbart: China Uses ‘Social Credit System’ to Control Domestic, Foreign Companies

Bloomberg News provided the example of China Railway Construction Corporation, a company that covered up some fatalities on a railroad project in Mongolia, got caught, and was banned from doing business for a year as well as being “subject to more inspections, limits on bidding for public projects and restrictions on issuing bonds and shares.” And those were only the immediate consequences – there is no telling how long the demerits fed into the social credit system will haunt the company and its managers across every province of China.

“The system will be widely used in China to oversee domestic and foreign companies, and firms have to assign resources to keep a real eye on making sure their records are clean,” noted Andrew Polk of the Trivium China consulting firm.

...The Chinese government is not shy about warning that American companies could be blacklisted as part of the trade war, or in retaliation for U.S. criticism of Chinese policies such as the internment of Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps.

Credit Constrained China

China will start recording plaintiffs in credit disputes. Repeat litigants will be investigated for illegal lending and if so, they can collect principal and interest, but the latter will be assessed at the benchmark lending rate.

I want to highlight this factoid within the story. Remember China has been fighting illegal lending for years now and the banking system continues to funnel credit into large and state-owned companies.

Caixin: Province Aims to Weed Out Illegal Lenders With New Court Register

Private lending outside the official banking system has boomed in China over the past few years, especially through online platforms, and much of it is estimated to be carried out by individuals and companies who don’t have a license to offer credit and charge usurious interest rates. With a growing number of borrowers now defaulting on their debts and the government cracking down on illegal and violent debt collection, lenders are increasingly turning to the courts to get their money back.

China’s courts dealt with 2.24 million private lending disputes in 2018, up from 1.42 million in 2015, according to data from the Supreme People’s Court.

Why Nobody Invests in A-Shares: Maotai Parent Company Screws Shareholders

Caixin: Moutai Maker’s Shares Plunge on Direct-Sales Plan

Since the beginning of this year, Moutai has launched a major overhaul to increase the proportion of direct sales and reduce the number of dealers. According to Moutai’s 2019 sales plans, 17,000 tonnes of liquor are assigned to dealer channels, accounting for about 55% of the total sales target, down from about 80% in 2017. In 2018, only about 6% of revenue came from sales at the company’s own stores and on its online retail platform, and the rest came from the dealer network.

The parent group controls 62% of the Shenzhen-listed distilling company. The group-owned sales network suggests that at least some of current sales will be transferred from the listed company to the parent group, diverting revenue from the listed company, according to some investors and analysts.

This is one of the better performing A-shares and popular with foreign investors. Yet what are they invested in? At any moment, the state-owned company can change the relationship between listed shares and the parent. And MSCI is (was?) planning on pumping your emerging market and global indexes full of these companies.

More on Maotai from iFeng: 茅台大刀砍向“毒贩子”？
Sogou translation

The article makes a good case for Maotai's move from a business perspective, but that is not the issue. It's that the company has publicly traded equity and the business change is being implemented through the parent company, not the listed shares.

China Further Opens Autos and Finance

Global Times: New negative list reflects opening-up policy

Chinese authorities released a new negative list, which identifies sectors which prohibit or limit foreign investments, on Thursday, and the number of items subject to special administrative measures was cut from 63 to 48, according to the document posted on the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) website.

The list scrapped shareholder ratio requirements for banks and lowered ratio requirements for securities, insurance and futures companies. The list also eliminated restrictions on the shareholder ratio for new-energy vehicles, and provided a road map for the further opening-up of the auto industry.

"For example, the new list will remove the shareholder ratio for foreign passenger vehicle manufacturers by 2022, which shows that the country will open its door wider to foreign investors not only for now but also in the future," Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times.

China Launches 30 City Crackdown on Housing Speculators and Illegal Developers

Chinese regulators are targeting buying groups along with illegal developers and those still violating advertising rules.

Xinhua: 七部门将在30城打击炒房团 楼市调控再释强烈信号

The real estate market will be regulated again and again, and real estate speculators and “black intermediaries” in 30 cities across the country will be hard hit. According to an analysis, these 30 cities are the “nose of the nose” of real estate regulation. These cities are stable and the national real estate market is also stable.

　　On June 28th, the Ministry of Housing and Construction and other seven departments jointly issued a notice that from the beginning of July to the end of December 2018, special actions to control chaos in the real estate market will be carried out in 30 cities including Beijing and Shanghai.

　　There are four key targets: speculative real estate gangs, real estate “black media”, illegal and illegal real estate development companies, and false real estate ads.

For example, speculative real-estate gangs manipulate house rents, sell plates and reluctant sellers, fabricate false information, fabricate room illusions, drive up house prices, and provide “down payment” loans; “black media” crack down on violence and drive out tenants, bundle fees, and yin and yang contracts. , Compulsory provision of agency services, infringement of customer funds, participation in speculation real estate and so on.

　　The 30 cities on the list include: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Hefei, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Jinan, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Changsha, Chongqing, Xian, Kunming and Foshan. Xuzhou, Taiyuan, Haikou, Ningbo, Yichang, Harbin, Changchun, Lanzhou, Guiyang.

Zhang Dawei pointed out that from the perspective of the real estate market trend, the national real estate market in May has been warming up in the early days, and some cities have become irrational. It is expected that the temperature will cool down after the rectification.

Illegal Fundraising Falls in 2017

Illegal fundraising saw 5052 cases and 180 billion yuan in 2017, down from the year before. Cases continued falling in early 2018. However, there are still 13,000 cases outstanding and the caseload is still growing.

East Money: 非法集资持续“双降” 2017年未处置存案1.3万起

On April 23, the information released by the Inter-Ministry Joint Conference Office on Disposal of Illegal Fund Raising (hereinafter referred to as "the Office") showed that illegal fund-raising cases continued to "double down", but the overall situation was still severe. In 2017, a total of 5052 new illegal fund-raising cases were filed across the country, involving a total amount of 179.55 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.8% and 28.5% respectively. From January to March 2018, there were 1037 new illegal fundraising cases, involving a total amount of 26.9 billion yuan, down 16.5% and 42.3% year-on-year respectively, and continued to maintain a “double down” trend.

　　However, Yang Yuzhu, director of the office, also stated that the current total case rate is still operating at a high level, the number of people involved in fundraising continues to rise, inter-provincial cases continue to occur, and serious cases involving multiple provinces and even the whole country still occur from time to time. The overall situation is still severe. .

　　It is reported that in 2017, various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) combed over 13,000 cases of Chen’s case that had not been disposed of.

What is illegal fundraising? It includes everything from fraud and Ponzi schemes to companies misrepresenting themselves:

Companies that are not financial institutions or engage in financial activities do not use "exchange", "exchange center", "finance", "asset management", "financial management", "funds", "fund management", and "investment management" in principle. "Wealth Management," "Equity Investment Fund," "Internet Lending," "Internet Lending," "P2P," "Equity Crowdfunding," and "Internet Insurance.""Pay" and other words.

The Supreme People's Court stated that the people's court has always adhered to the principle of strict punishment and severely cracked down on illegal fund-raising crimes in accordance with the law to ensure the effect of punishment. From 2015 to 2017, the rate of heavy penalty for illegally assaulting public deposit crime cases (the rate of sentence of imprisonment of more than five years imprisonment) was 23.17%, 19.42%, and 18.4%, respectively, and the conviction rate for fund-raising fraud cases was 75.03% respectively. , 77.77%, 77.22%. The imprisonment rates for illegally absorbing public deposits were 71.20%, 72.91%, and 78.36, respectively. The imprisonment rates for fund-raising fraud cases were 93.44%, 94.82%, and 93.66%, respectively.

Pop Goes the Overseas Chinese Housing Bubble

The big winners from Chinese foreign investment will be Canadian lawyers and populist politicians. The big costs are natives priced out of their own city and clogged courts.

Vancouver Sun: B.C. court ruling foreshadows flood of litigation, forced sales involving Chinese home ownerships, lawyer says

Chang’s claim says that defendant Xing Xua Hua agreed to buy her Kitsilano home in June 2016, for $3.9 million. Hua, who currently owns four homes in Vancouver, paid Chang a deposit of $190,000. Hua was to complete the purchase of Chang’s home by the end of September 2016. But Hua asked Chang to extend the closing into October 2016, and offered an additional $500,000 deposit.

Chang agreed to the sale extension, her claim says, but she never received the additional deposit funds, and determined the sale had collapsed.

In November 2016, she sued Hua, claiming losses and damages from the collapsed deal.

In a response, Hua claimed that after the purchase deal wasn’t completed in October 2016, Hua’s son, named Hua Wang, offered to buy Chang’s home for $3.9 million. But Chang did not accept the offer from Hua Wang, filings say.

In June 2017, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in Chang’s favour. The judge ordered Hua to pay Chang damages of $583,000, plus legal costs for the case. Chang was also given a mortgage against a Shaughnessy home on the 2000-block West 19th Ave owned by Hua to secure the judgment.

The judge then ordered the sale of that Shaughnessy home and further ordered that three other properties owned by Hua, including a second Shaughnessy home valued at $3.1 million, and two Vancouver condos, could be sold. The judge said Chang could set the prices of Hua’s four properties and sell them successively, until she received her full court ordered payment.

A review by Postmedia of land title and mortgage documents connected to Hua’s four Vancouver properties show that he was involved in a number of real estate deals in 2016, and that multiple bank and private lenders have issued loans to Hua. These successive loans are secured against his properties. This suggests that multiple lenders could become involved in a complicated B.C. court battle involving Hua’s properties, in order to seek repayment of Hua’s real estate-backed debts. The issue being triggered by the forced sale of Hua’s properties.

One private lender with loans against several of Hua’s homes, according to documents, is named Su Cheng Chen. CIBC has issued multiple mortgage loans to Hua, as has Reliable Mortgage Investments Corp., according to property documents.