Cohen Destroyed: Trump Lawyer "Dog Walks" Star Witness Through Lie After Lie, CNN Pundits Aghast
President Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen had his "knees chopped out" by Donald Trump's defense attorneys in cross-examination during Trump's 'hush money' trial.
Cohen was grilled by Trump attorney Todd Blanche about a pivotal phone call that connected Trump to allegations that he approved reimbursements to pay porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election. In one exchange, Blanche accused Cohen of lying about speaking with Trump on the phone in October 2016 to reassure his boss that he was handling the payment to Daniels.
Blanche then confronted Cohen with text messages that contradicted the lie - revealing that Cohen in fact spoke with Trump's bodyguard, Keith Schiller.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche grilled him about a pivotal phone call that had connected President Trump to the allegations at the center of the case. He accused Mr. Cohen of calling the former president’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, to complain about harassing phone calls—not to disclose an update on a plan to purchase the silence of Ms. Clifford.
Mr. Cohen said that the prank calls were a part of the conversation with Mr. Schiller.
“Now your memory is that you were testifying truthfully on Tuesday, and you had enough time to update Mr. Schiller about all the problems you were having with these harassing calls?” Mr. Blanche asked him.
“I always run everything by the boss immediately,” Mr. Cohen said. “It could’ve just been me saying, ‘everything’s been taken care of, it’s been resolved.’”
“That was a lie. You did not talk to President Trump that night,” Mr. Blanche said. “You can admit it.” “No sir, I can’t,” Mr. Cohen said. “Because I’m not sure that’s accurate.”
“This jury doesn’t want to hear what you think happened,” Mr. Blanche said. -Epoch Times
Cohen appeared blindsided by the line of questioning, and wavered in his recollection of the phone call before blurting out "I believe I was telling the truth!"
Blanche then slapped Cohen around for telling Congress that he didn't want to work in the Trump administration - only to be confronted with conversations in 2016 in which he expressed disappointment that he was overlooked for the role of Trump's chief of staff.
Cohen also lied about seeking a pardon from Trump, for which his attorneys later had to issue a statement to correct the record.
After Cohen had his ass handed to him, CNN pundits were beside themselves.
"It was incredible...lawyers want to build a box around the witness & slam it shut--that's what Todd Blanche did to Cohen...it was an extraordinary cross...Cohen was cornered in...a lie," said host Anderson Cooper.
Anderson Cooper was left stunned by Trump's attorney's cross examination of Michael Cohen
"It was incredible...lawyers want to build a box around the witness & slam it shut--that's what Todd Blanche did to Cohen...it was an extraordinary cross...Cohen was cornered in...a lie" pic.twitter.com/WKnKCs8TkU
The network's top legal analyst said "I don't think I've ever seen a star witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen."
CNN legal analyst: "I don't think I've never seen a star cooperating witness get his knees chopped out quite as clearly and dramatically as what just happened with Michael Cohen." pic.twitter.com/NcghETrUIJ
Rep. Matt Gaetz says Cohen was "dog walked through the series of lies he has told."
The alleged "crime" by President Trump is made up!
No other American in the country would be charged with this type of crime.
I watched Michael Cohen get dog walked through the series of lies he has told. There is literally no branch of government that he has not lied to. pic.twitter.com/Fi1GpbCF13
Stocks Pause After Dow Briefly Touches Historic 40,000
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged above the historic 40,000 mark in late morning and early afternoon trading. Euphoria was high as bulls celebrated Dow 40,000. This week's gains across broad equity indexes were primarily driven by a cooler April CPI print and dismal retail data on Wednesday, along with cooling Philly Fed data, surprisingly weak home-building activity, and a flat industrial production report on Thursday. The macro-intensive week puts the economy potentially on a soft-landing approach, with the Federal Reserve likely to start cutting interest rates in the second half of the year. However, around 1300 ET, broad selling pressure hit US equity indexes, pushing them flat to red for the session. The Dow has since lost the 40,000 mark.
The S&P 500 flirted with the 5,300 level for most of the session. Walmart surged to a record as earnings guided higher as wealthy consumers traded down to the big box retailer, driving sales higher.
Matt Maley at Miller Tabak + Co told Bloomberg that the stock market experienced a breakout to all-time highs this week, though it might be time for a short-term "breather" before further gains are seen.
The GameStop and AMC Entertainment Holdings short squeezes by Roaring Kitty faded into the end of the week.
Long-short hedge funds were hit hard on Monday and Tuesday as the most shorted stocks, including meme stocks like GME and AMC, surged higher. However, as the rally in these heavily shorted stocks reversed, hedge funds have managed to recover most of their recent losses.
"Our HF VIP vs. Most short (GSPRHVMS Index) is +215bps today, now down only -2.5% in the last five days. As of Tuesday, this was down as much as -12%. This feels much more orderly (Unwinds of macro hedges)," Goldman's Chloe Garber wrote in a midday note.
Here are some of Garber's key observations in markets today via the bank's trading desk:
All micro today: WMT +6% on EBIT upside and sales at the high end of the range; DE -3% on a Q2 beat but full year cut; UAA (+66bps) went from -15% to green on the day… shorted name/ one of the worst guides of the EPS season so far. Goldman thinks the stock went green because ppl aware of the consumer pressures at this point.
45% of the total market volume so far today is in <$1 stocks (CRKN, GWAV, FFIE, SINT stick out specifically. This compares to YTD average of ~12% for <$1 stocks. Clearly a knock-on effect associated w/ meme stock activity.
Volumes elevated today +30% vs the rest of the week, with S&P top of book tracking higher as well. The floor is skewed +8% better to buy today led largely by LO buying.
LOs most active in tech and macro products on the buy side, vs selling cons discretionary. HFs also much better buyers with demand concentrated in macro products, HC, Industrials, and Tech. HFs are selling Fins, staples, and Energy.
The macro-intensive week has sent the Citigroup Economic Surprise Index to its lowest level since September 2022, as economic data increasingly prints to the downside as the economy slows.
After all this data, yields on 10-year US Treasuries are marginally higher on the session, trading around 4.37%.
Chris Zaccarelli at Independent Advisor Alliance said, "Breaking the 40,000 barrier is a big psychological boost for the bulls as round numbers hold special significance in people's hearts and minds."
Goldman's Chris Hussey writes in a midday note, "As for markets, the equity market continues to like what it's seeing in the data -- data that is pointing to a decidedly 'soft' landing and not the 'strong' landing that many had started to worry about through March."
Interest-rate swaps showed traders have priced in just two Fed rate cuts by the end of the year. Probabilities at the moment have the first cut at 86.5% in September.
The gap between 2-10 year yields inverted further, approaching the 200-day moving average of around 41bps.
"The re-establishment of a disinflation trend in the coming months should allow the Fed to start easing policy in September," Solita Marcelli, chief investment officer for the Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management, wrote in a note.
Taking a look at GS' latest earning results as 88% of total S&P 500 market cap has reported:
60% beat earnings by at least 1 standard deviation of analyst estimates (vs. 15 year average of 48%) and 10% of companies missed earnings by at least 1 standard deviation of analyst estimates (vs. 15 year average of 13%). Consensus expected EPS to grow by 3% at the start of 1Q reporting season. With reporting season almost complete, EPS growth year/year is tracking at +6%.
Chart of the day via GS are energy companies saw the largest increase in AI mentions on earnings call vs the prior quarter.
Let's not forget while this is happening...
Dow hits 40,000 on the day the Citi economic surprise index dumps to the lowest level since Sept 2022 pic.twitter.com/QJQj2Fmbws
Large Barge Slams Into Galveston Bridge, Stranding Thousands On Pelican Island
As the Biden administration continues funneling billions of dollars to Ukraine and with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg nowhere to be found, America's infrastructure continues deteriorating. Earlier today, a large barge crashed into a bridge in Galveston, Texas, causing a partial collapse.
At approximately 10:00am, a barge owned by Martin Petroleum collided with the Pelican Island Bridge that connects Galveston Island to Pelican Island. Power was temporarily interrupted to Pelican Island, which is home to Texas A&M Galveston. Secondary power has been restored. pic.twitter.com/5zTOs2ODIb
— Galveston County OEM (@galvcountyoem) May 15, 2024
Fox 7 Austin reports that a barge crashed into the Pelican Island Bridge, causing a section to collapse. There were no reports of injuries. However, it's the only bridge in and out of the island.
BREAKING: Barge strikes bridge in Galveston, Texas, partially collapsing rail line and closing the only road to a small island - AP pic.twitter.com/0vLlWRyqEK
The island is home to approximately 9,000 people, along with the campus of Texas A&M University at Galveston.
The university told students that "all vehicular traffic" is closed on the bridge.
Engineers from the Texas Department of Transportation have been dispatched to the bridge and will "inspect the roadway and determine if there is damage."
People are once again panicking about a barge hitting a bridge in Galveston, Texas.
1) The Pelican Island Causeway isn’t a significant piece of infrastructure, per se. It connects Galveston to Pelican Island which houses two museums and the maritime academy for Texas A&M, but… pic.twitter.com/AFuVrpQK17
The incident comes nearly two months after a massive container ship lost power and rammed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the Port of Baltimore, paralyzing the entire port. The vessel has yet to be removed.
BREAKING: Explosives are now being used to attempt to free the ship that crashed into the Key Bridge in Baltimore
The footage on X shows that the bridge connecting Pelican Island to Galveston did not have timber shields or any bumper system to deflect a direct blow from a vessel. The New York Times recently reported that dozens of bridges across the nation are vulnerable to ship strikes. After today, that threat remains clear.
Here's a map of America's vulnerable bridges via NYTimes.
America's foreign enemies are getting a lot of ideas from these bridge strikes. It's time for taxpayers to demand the government protect critical infrastructure instead of squandering the nation's wealth in foreign lands.
A new report reveals that over half of the population of illegal aliens that have come into the United States under Joe Biden’s watch are unemployed, thus creating an even greater strain on the country.
As reported by Breitbart, the report from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released on Monday revealed that only 46% of illegals who came to the U.S. “in 2022 or later” were employed at the start of 2024.
“Immigration clearly adds workers to the country, but it just as clearly adds non-workers who need to be supported by the labor of others,” said CIS researchers Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler in the report.
“This was the case in the past, it is true today, and it will surely be the case for immigrants who arrive in the future. Those who simply see immigration as a source of labor need to understand it is also a source of school children, retirees, and many other non-workers.”
The numbers in CIS’s report appear to debunk one of the most common arguments used by advocates of mass migration and open borders, who claim that illegals must be brought into the country to fill jobs that American citizens will not do.
Furthermore, CIS reported that the population of illegals in the U.S. has risen by at least 6.6 million since Joe Biden first took power in January of 2021. As of March of this year, there are over 51.6 million foreign-born illegals in the country, an increase of approximately 5.1 million since 2022. This accounts for at least 15.6% of the entire population of the United States.
“Many advocates for the unauthorized argue they should be given work permits so they can support themselves while they await a court date,” the report noted.
“Of course, others worry that this would only incentivize more illegal immigration. In 2024, a larger share of new arrivals were unauthorized relative to prior years due to the ongoing border crisis.”
CIS previously released a study debunking the Biden Administration’s attempts at claiming that it has overseen job growth in recent years, as many of the new jobs created were filled by illegals rather than American citizens; the number of employed Americans has actually decreased under Biden’s watch, falling even below pre-COVID levels.
The net result is America's working class is up against the wall, maxed out.
Let's start by defining the working class in a meaningful way rather than by tossing around meaningless income metrics which implicitly suggest that exceeding some semi-arbitrary income bracket will magically lift a working class household into the middle class.
In the real world, in terms of class status it doesn't matter whether the household income is $30,000 or $130,000; what matters is 1) ownership of assets that have bubbled higher in the Everything Bubble which then provide a buffer of wealth that can be tapped when misfortune strikes, and 2) a cost of living that is consistently and significantly lower than net income, enabling regular savings.
In other words, a household earning $130,000 that owns negligible assets / wealth buffers and consumes every dollar of income just to service its debts and pay all the other bills is working class, while the household earning $30,000 that owns meaningful assets and frugally gets by on $20,000 a year is middle class. The household that earns $130,000 (generally considered a middle class income) but has a net worth is $2 million, no debt and an annual cost of living of $90,000 is upper middle class.
Income by itself misses what's truly important: wealth buffers and a lifestyle that leaves surplus income to be consistently saved and invested.
While we focus on the alarming leap in the cost of living over the past three years, we lose focus on the larger issue: America's working class has been squeezed for decades by the relentless decline in the purchasing power of wages. I explained how to calculate this in We Feel Poorer Because We Are Poorer: Here's Proof (December 4, 2023).
The devastating decline in the purchasing power of wages since 1975 is beyond dispute. As I noted in the above post: "The status quo cheerleaders in the Ministry of Truth ignore the $5,000 annual cost increases in essentials while trumpeting the $100 decline in occasional discretionary purchases. Your rent costs you 100 more hours of work, but you save $100 on airfare, so it all evens out. Um, no."
This chart reveals that the decades of hyper-globalization-hyper-financialization transferred trillions of dollars from wage earners to owners of capital. I explained this in Labor Rising: Will Class Identity Finally Matter Again? (May 1, 2024).
As the purchasing power of wages fell and costs increased, it became more difficult to save earnings and climb the ladder of social mobility. The net result is the bottom 50%'s share of the nation's financial wealth has plummeted to a rounding error / signal noise: 2.6%. A great many of the bottom 80% households have little financial wealth to serve as buffers when misfortune strikes.
Many of the bottom 90% of households own a family home....
But "ownership" doesn't measure equity or mortgage debt. This chart shows that the bottom 90% "own" the majority of debt that drains income, while the wealthy own income-producing assets:
Meanwhile, with interest rates rising, the cost of servicing debts is soaring: since the majority of debt is "owned" by the working class and middle class, the higher interest payments burden the many, not the few.
The working class households which don't own a home are being squeezed by sharply higher rents: as for buying a house now, that is a luxury only affordable to the top layer of American households.
The net result is America's working class is up against the wall, maxed out: whatever lines of credit that were available have been tapped (credit cards, "buy now, pay later" credit, etc.) and wage increases are soaked up immediately by higher costs for virtually everything.
The ladder of universally accessible social mobility has been broken. The stresses generated are already visible, but the political-social consequences are still ahead, and once they manifest, economic earthquakes will follow.
“My take is that the US is incredibly unstable right now, and could go in almost any imaginable direction between now and the election, as well as some unimaginable ones.”
- John Michael Greer
Did you notice that it took just a little bit of internal chaos to alert the Party of Chaos that maybe chaos wasn’t the greatest thing to be the party of? Something went awry the past two weeks when thousands of creamy coeds on every campus across America donned the keffiyeh and, in effect, demanded submission to history’s most notorious misogynist cult. It struck a most cacophonous chord among progressives, like Kumbaya as orchestrated by Karlheinz Stockhausen. To awaken from Wokery, you see, is a brutal shock to the brain.
And so, over the weekend every big dog in the Democratic Party’s doghouse came out barking against the current direction of the Democratic Party — that is, over an electoral cliff, lemming-style. Bill Clinton lamented at the Milken Conference that:
“the political rewards of grievance politics and name-calling and being negative have been so immense that nobody could give’em up. That’s what this whole shebang has come down to now.”
James Carville had a veritable nervous breakdown on X:
“It’s going the wrong way, it’s not working. Everything we’re throwing is spaghetti at a wall, and none of it is sticking, me included.”
Fareed Zakaria over on CNN confessed that:
“None of this is playing out the way I thought it would.”
Gee, really?
None of them could bring themselves to actually name the doddering donkey in the room, “Joe Biden.”
Nor did they dare call out the stage manager behind the old Joe-from-Scranton show, Barack Obama, not exactly coasting into his fourth term, as expected.
They’re all surprised the way things are turning out. And, of course, “JB” himself did not come out of his Rehoboth Beach hidey-hole after declaring no more bullets and missiles for you, Israel, which landed amongst the Party’s donor class like a tear-gas bomb.
Hillary Clinton popped up on the Morning Joe show wearing royal purple to remind the audience that Donald Trump is another Hitler, threatening “the sanctity of the Constitution” and adding “maybe this will be our last election.”
If she’s putting herself up as possible last-minute replacement for the ever more ghostly “Joe Biden,” she was not so crass as to say so. The party will have to come pleading to her on its knees, hoping she can once again muster the legions of indignant women to oppose the wicked Golden Golem of Greatness — who was, that very day, on display in a Manhattan courtroom having to endure the jibes of the paradigmatic wronged woman, porn-star Stormy Daniels.
What else have they got, really? Gavin Newsom?
If Mr. Trump is Hitler, then think of Mr. Newsom as Godzilla with hair gel. Imagine what he could do to the whole USA after trashing California, as he has managed to do. Sorry to tell you, but in an election contest between Hitler and Godzilla, Hitler would probably win. It’s a rock-paper-scissors deal. Any other ringers they might throw in? The only name that ever comes up is Illinois governor JB Pritzker, who actually looks a bit like King Kong, and has certainly done a Kong-job on Chicago. And, by the way, that’s where the Democrats’ convention will happen in August. Wouldn’t it be something to see King Kong versus Godzilla there?
All of which is to say that something beyond desperation has set in amongst the Democrats, an emotion so dire that Elizabeth Kubler Ross couldn’t find a word for it on her transect of grief. They don’t know what to do at this point. They have only a few months to figure it out and there is more at stake than a mere turnover in administrative duties. The shadow of the gibbet looms in their nightmares. Their lawfare schtick was one thing, a kind of fun-and-games compared to what’s coming at them: the actual law, trials for more serious crimes than mere book-keeping errors and mis-pricing real estate valuations. Think: sedition, treason, bribery and tack on conspiracy to commit all the above.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump provided a further shock to the awakening Woke with a Saturday evening fan meetup down-the-shore in Wildwood, New Jersey. Somewhere between eighty to a hundred-thousand voters showed up in what is said to be among the bluest states in the country. Bruce Springsteen must have been weeping into his avocado toast over in Red Bank. Then, across the Sunday morning news digests there was talk about “a landslide win,” and even more amazed chatter about RINOs and Never-Trumpers returning to the folds of the Golden Golem’s heavenly garment, as though Mr. Trump had virtually Jeezified himself through a year of tribulation.
Will the Democrats just go through the motions the next six months, awaiting execution? Naw. One way or another, they are going to jam Hillary into this psychodrama.
Stay tuned for a couple of medical emergencies.
First, Kamala Harris will resign on account of a sudden “health problem” that prevents her from attending to her duties. Cancer will be implied but not spelled out. “Joe Biden” will appoint HRC of the Purple Pantsuit as veep.
Three weeks later, “JB” will submit his resignation for medical reasons, and nobody will need to ask why.
Voila! The first woman president, she-whose-turn-has-finally-come, flies triumphantly out of the Democratic Convention in her hometown, Chicago, like Rodan the Flying Reptile emerging from the mythic volcano, cawing her battle-cry across the land. The Golden Golem answers with a roar. The great re-match is on!
On February 21st, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a press conference in Edmonton, announcing his government’s decision to introduce the Online Harms Act, or Bill C-63. It was described in Canadian media as a “bill to protect kids” that would stop the “exploitation of children,” and Trudeau’s curt speech focused solely on minors. The scarf-clad PM angrily dismissed criticisms the bill might have a broader focus.
“I look forward to putting forward that Online Harms bill, which people will see is very, very specifically focused on protecting kids, and not on censoring the Internet,” he said sharply. “I think everyone, wherever they are in the political spectrum, can agree that protecting kids is something governments should be focused on doing.”
Soon after, on February 26th, Trudeau’s government introduced the bill. Canada’s stable of retreating, credulous on-air personalities announced its rollout like the arrival of penicillin. “Tonight, Web of Harm,”gushed CTV’s Omar Sachedina. “Tackling online dangers and safeguarding children… The long-awaited framework for protecting the vulnerable…”
There was little initial uproar. What could be wrong with increasing child safety, or “protecting the vulnerable”?
Then people read the bill.
“If you look at the purpose of this law, it’s actually quite noble and most lawyers would agree with it,” says Canadian attorney Dan Freiheit. “Online safety, protecting children’s physical and mental health.” But the actual text?
“It’s wild,” Freheit says.
Trudeau was lying when he said C-63 was “very, very specifically focused on correcting kids.” The purview of the Online Harms Act extends far beyond speech, reimagining society as a mandated social engineering project, creating transformational new procedures that would:
enlist Canada’s citizens in an ambitious social monitoring system, with rewards of up to $20,000 for anonymous “informants” of hateful behavior, with the guilty paying penalties up to $50,000, creating a self-funded national spying system;
introduce extraordinary criminal penalties, including life in prison not just for existing crimes like “advocating genocide,” but for any “offence motivated by hatred,” in theory any non-criminal offense, as tiny as littering, committed with hateful intent;
punish Minority Report pre-crime, where if an informant convinces a judge you “willcommit” a hate offense, you can be jailed up to a year, put under house arrest, have firearms seized, or be forced into drug/alcohol testing, all for things you haven’t done;
penalize past statements. The law gets around prohibitions against “retroactive” punishment by calling the offense “continuous communication” of hate, i.e. the crime is your failure to take down bad speech;
force corporate Internet platforms to remove “harmful content” virtually on demand (within 24 hours in some cases), the hammer being fines of “up to 6% of… gross global revenue.”
Things you’re saying, things you’ve already said, things an administrative judge thinks you might say, all barred, with neighbors deputized as enforcers? Good times. Leave it to Trudeau, a frequent trailblazer in new forms of illiberalism in the digital age, to come up with this quantum leap downward on the rights front. C-63 is a Frankenstein’s Monster combining the worst censorship ideas already deployed by supposed ally government-in-laws like Europe’s Digital Services Act, Australia’s updated Australian Communications and Media Authority Act (ACMA), and Scotland’s Hate Crime and Public Order Act, which saw 7,152 complaints in its first week when the law took effect last month.
Trudeau’s creation is a turbo-charged social surveillance law aimed first at forcing big platforms like Facebook and Twitter to “self-police,” but secondarily targeting individuals and doling out civil and criminal penalties for speech and thought on a scale not seen anywhere. What constitutes hateful conduct? While the bill newly defines hate speech as “likely to foment detestation or vilification” of Canada’s growing list of protected groups and individuals, Canadian lawyers interviewed were generally unsure of what the standard might look like in practice.
“It’s impossible to know what exactly it’s going to mean,” says Bruce Pardy, Executive Director of Rights Probe. “So you’re going to have to rely upon the court in a criminal prosecution, or the human rights tribunal in a human rights proceeding, to put their own interpretation on that, and figure out where the line is.”
Despite being split on how serious the immediate impact might be (“We’re not looking at prisons full of people doing life for misgendering” said one), most attorneys seemed to agree C-63 will be a game-changer if passed, aimed beyond speech at the very concept of individual rights, chipping away at ideas like the presumption of innocence and the right to face one’s accuser, and using traditionally dubious tools like ex post facto laws.
On one level, it’s not surprising, given Canada’s historically diffident attitude toward rights — the first section in the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, ironically introduced when Trudeau’s father Pierre was Prime Minister, is essentially a giant loophole — but this Prime Minister appears determined to swap out Canada’s reputation for brotherhood, humor, and generosity for a new one based on rigidity and collective paranoia.
There’s a long backstory of important recent laws and Supreme Court cases that helped push Canada down a path toward C-63, but this bill still stands apart as a unique problem, and only a few domestic media outlets have been willing or able to criticize it. One of those is Rebel News, whose founder Ezra Levant says Canadians could really use America’s help in sounding the alarm. “Canadians need to fight for our own freedom, but the Canadian political and media establishment are obsessed by what U.S. journalists and politicians have to say about us,” Levant says. “So any attention Americans can bring to this civil liberties bonfire really makes a difference. Frankly, we need your help.”
How bad is C-63? See for yourself, in a tour through its key sections:
The biggest headline-grabber in C-63 involves new provisions for life imprisonment for speech offenses. There are really two. “Advocating genocide” is already a crime in Canada, but C-63 boosts its maximum penalty from five years to life. “Life sentences for sending out some words. That’s heavy,” Canada’s former Supreme Court Chief Justice, Beverley McLachlin, told journalist Edward Greenspon.
Andrea MacLean of the Calgary-based JSS Barristers is among the lawyers who don’t necessarily foresee an avalanche of life sentences for speech offenses, but does worry the draconian life sentence provisions might have serious downstream effects.
“They might encourage people to take plea deals they wouldn’t otherwise take,” MacLean says.
As bad as the “sending out some words” portion is, a more frightening provision prescribes potential life sentences for any “offence motivated by hatred.” This is a difficult concept, but what the law proscribes is any violation of any “Act of Parliament,” no matter how minor, combined with hateful motivation. One example given was crumpling up an anti-gay flier and throwing it out the window in a national park, which would combine a federal littering prohibition with hate speech. Another attorney suggested this could refer to something like denial of restaurant service, and marveled that “this takes civil offenses and makes them into crimes.”
I heard conflicting takes on this section, and it’s worth noting that Justice Minister Arif Virani has repeatedly described this “offence motivated by hatred” section as hateful intent mixed with a “criminal” offense like theft, assault, or murder. But the text reads like a parody of the American “hate crime enhancement” idea:
The “prior restraint” portion of C-63 describes the process by which a person can be punished preemptively if an informant convinces a judge that either a “hate propaganda offence” or the aforementioned “offence motivated by hatred” has a “reasonable” chance of occurring:
This clause might particularly affect a high-profile person like J.K. Rowling who’s already declared an intention to keep saying things deemed offensive to Canadians, who in 2017 passed a law (C-16) forbidding “gender identity” discrimination. Pardy, who described the 2017 measure as a “weaponization of human rights law,” says C-63 is like that act “on steroids.” This pre-crime provision includes a long list of potential punishments, ranging from house arrest, scheduled exit and entry from the home, ankle monitoring, and seizure of firearms. MacLean pointed out that this guts Canada’s Section 11 guarantee of presumption of innocence unless guilt is proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Again, a “reasonable” chance the crime will occur is sufficient to justify detention...
Watch: Pelosi Dismantled In Real Time In Masterclass On Populism
Two weeks ago, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was thoroughly savaged during a debate at Oxford University over the question of whether populism is a "threat to democracy." In case you missed it, read on as it's making the rounds. If you have 14 minutes to spare, jump right in:
Opening the case for the left was Rachel Haddad, Secretary of the Oxford Union. She argued that populist leaders like Donald Trump and Nigel Farage pose a threat to democracy, and are not a "new generation of geniuses" who can find simple solutions to longstanding, complex problems.
Pelosi closed the debate for the proposition, defining populism as an "ethno-nationalist populism, generated by an ethnic negativity to immigrants, people who are different from them and the rest" (so, 'they're racists!').
Speaking against the motion were Union committee members Sultan Kokhar (Chair of Consultative Committee) and Oscar Whittle (Director of Research), as well as former Mumford & Sons lead guitarist, Winston Marshall - now a podcaster for The Spectator - who got into an exchange with Pelosi during parts of his speech.
Marshall started out by saying:
"Words have a tendency to change meaning when I was a boy, "woman" meant "someone who didn't have a cock."
Populism has become a word used synonymously with "racists." We've heard "ethno-nationalist," with "bigot," with "hillbilly," "redneck," with "deplorables."
Elites use it to show their contempt for ordinary people."
He then noted that Barack Obama, while still president, tried to frame he and Bernie Sanders as actual populists vs. Donald Trump, who 'doesn't care about working people.'
But then, "If you watch Obama's speeches after that point, more and more recently, he uses the word "populist" interchangeably with "strong man," with "authoritarian." The word changes meaning, it becomes a negative, a pejorative, a slur."
"To me, populism is not a dirty word. Since the 2008 crash and specifically the trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout, we are in the populist age, and for good reason. The elites have failed," Marshall continued.
He then got into it with Pelosi after drawing a parallel between January 6th and June 2020, saying: "I'm sure Congresswoman Pelosi will agree that the entire month of June 2020, when the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon was under siege, and under insurrection by radical progressives, those too were dark days for America."
To which Pelosi shot back, "You are not. There is no equivalence there," adding "It is not like what happened on January 6, which was an insurrection incited by the president of the United States."
Read on for Marshall's complete masterclass in populism (transcript courtesy of RealClear Politics).
My point, though is that all political movements are susceptible to violence, and indeed insurrection. And if we were arguing that fascism was a threat to democracy, I'd be on that side of the House.
Indeed, the current populist age is a movement against fascism. I've got quite a lot to get through.
Populism as you know, is the politics of the ordinary people against an elite, populism is not a threat to democracy. Populism is democracy, and why else have universal suffrage, if not to keep elites in check?
Ladies and gentlemen, given the success of Trump, and more recently, Javier Milei taking a chainsaw to the state behemoth of Argentina's bureaucratic monster, you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a right-wing populist age, but that would be ignoring Occupy Wall Street. That would be ignoring Jeremy Corbyn's "for the many, not the few," that would be ignoring Bernie against the billionaires, RFK Jr. against Big Pharma, and more recently, George Galloway against his better judgment. Now all of them, including Galloway, recognize genuine concerns of ordinary people being otherwise ignored by the establishment.
I'm actually rather surprised that our esteemed opposition, Congressman Pelosi, is on that side of the motion. I thought the left was supposed to be anti-elite. I thought the left was supposed to be anti-establishment today, particularly in America, the globalist left have become the establishment. I suppose for Miss Pelosi to have taken this side of the motion, she'd be arguing herself out of a job.
But it's here in Britain, where right and left populists united for the supreme act of democracy, Brexit. Polls have showed the number one reason people voted for Brexit was sovereignty, for more democracy.
What was the response of the Brussels elite? They did everything in their power to undermine the Democratic will of the British people and the Westminster elite were just as disgraceful. As we've heard, David Cameron called the voters "fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists." The liberal Democrats did everything they could to overturn a democratic vote. Keir Starmer campaigned for a second referendum. Elites would have had us voting and voting and voting until we voted their way. Indeed, that's what happened in Ireland and in Denmark.
Let's look at some of the other populist movements. The Hong Konger populist revolt is literally called the Pro-Democracy Movement. In the Farmer revolts from the Netherlands to Germany, France, Greece, to Sri Lanka, farmers are taking their tractors to the road to protest ESG policy that's floated down to us from those all-knowing, infallible elites of Davos. The trucker movement in Canada became anti-elitist when petty tyrant Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze their bank accounts, not the behavior of a democratic head of state. The Gilets Jaunes France, ULEZ in London, working people protesting policy that hurt them. And how are they treated? They're called conspiracy theorists. They're called far-right, by the mayor as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, populism is the voice of the voiceless. The real threat to democracy is from the elites. Now don't get me wrong, we need elites. If President Biden has shown us anything, we need someone to run the countries. When the president has severe dementia, it is not just America that crumbles, the whole world burns.
But let's examine the elites. European corporations spend over €1 billion a year lobbying Brussels, U.S. corporations spend over $2 billion a year lobbying in DC, and two-thirds of Congress receive funding from pharmaceutical companies. Pfizer alone spent $11 million in 2021. They made over $10 billion in profit. No wonder then that 66% of Americans think the is rigged against them for the rich and the powerful.
And by the way, we used to have a word for when big business and big government were in cahoots. And I think any students here of early 20th-century Italian history will know what I'm talking about.
What about Big Tech? Throughout the pandemic, Biden's team, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security colluded with Big Tech in censoring dissenting voices. Not kooky conspiracy theorists, people like Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the Stanford epidemiologist, people like Harvard scientist Martin Kulldorf, people spreading true information, not misinformation, true information at odds with the government narrative.
Need I remind you, democracy without free speech is not democracy.
This was a direct breach by the way of the First Amendment. Before COVID, Intelligence services colluded with Big Tech to have Trump suspended off Twitter. Yes, the same platform which hosted the Taliban and Ayatollah "Death To Israel" Khomeini. They thought the president crossed the line when he tweeted on Jan 6 quote, "Remain peaceful. No violence! Respect the law and our great men and women in blue." That's a quote.
You may be thinking now that Trump is a populist. You are right. He didn't accept the 2020 elections and he should have. So should Hillary in 2016. So should Brussels, and so should Westminster in 2016. And so too should Congresswoman Pelosi, instead of saying the 2016 election was quote, "hijacked."
PELOSI: That doesn't mean we don't accept the results, though!
WINSTON MARSHALL: What about the mainstream media? Let me read you some mainstream media headlines. The New Yorker the day before the 2016 election, "The Case Against Democracy." The Washington Post, the day after the election, "The Problem With Our Government Is Democracy." The LA Times, June 2017, "The British Election Is A Reminder Of The Perils Of Too Much Democracy." Vox, June 2017, "Two eminent political scientists say the problem with democracy is voters." New York Times, June 2017, "The Problem With Participatory Democracy Is The Participants."
Mainstream media elites are part of a class who don't just disdain populism, they disdain the people. If the Democrats had put half their energy into delivering for the people, Trump wouldn't even have a chance in 2024. He shouldn't, he shouldn't have a chance. You've had power for four years. From the fabricated Steele dossier, to trying to take him off the ballot in both Maine and Colorado, the Democrats are the anti-Democrat party. All we need now is the Republicans to come out as the pro-Monarchist party.
Ladies and gentlemen, populism is not a threat to democracy, but I'll tell you what is. It is elites ordering social media to censor political opponents. It's police shutting down dissenters, be it anti-monarchists in this country or gender-critical voices here, or last week in Brussels, the National Conservative Movement.
I'll tell you what is a threat to democracy. It's Brussels, DC, Westminster, the mainstream media, big tech, big Pharma, corporate collusion and the Davos cronies. The threat to democracy comes from those who write off ordinary people as "deplorable." The threat to democracy comes from those who smear working people as "racists." The threat to democracy comes from those who write off working people as "populists."
And I'll say one last thing. This populist age can be brought to an end at the snap of a finger. All that needs to be done is for elites to start listening to, respecting, and God forbid, working for ordinary people. Thank you.
And of course, being Oxford, the Union voted for 'populism bad' - with 177 members voting for the motion, and 68 voting against.
A man who was caught on camera in a horrific rape in the Bronx has been arrested.
Kassan Parks, 39, was arrested Saturday and charged with walking up behind a 45-year-old victim at 3 a.m. May 1, lassoing her with a bent from behind, dragging her unconscious body between two cars, and raping her, the NY Post reports.
According to the NYPD, Parks pulled the victim to the ground, "causing her to lose consciousness."
"The male then dragged the victim between two cars and sexually assaulted her," before fleeing the scene.
Parks has been charged with first-degree rape, assault, strangulation, sex abuse, public lewdness and harassment.
🚨BREAKING UPDATE: Police identified Kashaan Parks, 39 for choking a woman with a belt and ráping her between two cars in the Bronx.
Parks has five prior arrests.
A video emerged from the Bronx showing residents capturing Parks.
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) May 10, 2024
On Thursday, the Post reported that the victim had stopped cooperating with the NYPD's Special Victims Unit. She was brought to a NYC hospital and is in stable condition.
A total of 511 rapes have been reported throughout New York City as of May 5, which is in-line with 2023 figures YTD.
Sadly, one has to wonder if he'll even be prosecuted given where the crime occurred.
What's the point of searching for him since the NY "no crime" DA will release him the next day https://t.co/92Zid6nN86
First F-16s To Arrive In Ukraine 'Within Weeks' From West, But Will It Matter?
A high-ranking UK military source has told London's daily Evening Standard newspaper that F-16 fighters will be delivered by the Western allies to Ukraine "within weeks".
The official indicated that the aircraft are due to arrive by June, or at least July at the latest. The US previously authorized NATO countries to supply the US-made fighters to Kiev, at a moment Russia still controls the skies and has been degrading the country's energy infrastructure via frequent attacks. Zelensky previously called the decision by the Biden administration "a breakthrough".
Even small NATO states like Denmark are reportedly involved in handing over a few of its F-16s. Others in the program include the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium. Some of the planes are currently reported to be at a training facility in Romania, as efforts to prepare Ukrainian pilots for aerial combat in the Western fighters appear in their final phases.
The Dutch especially are playing a big part, having committed to delivering a total of 24 F-16s for Ukraine's armed forces.
But a big question remains at a moment it's been widely acknowledged that Ukraine is losing the conflict: will the US-made fighter jets make an actual difference at this late stage where Moscow is clearly dominant?The Evening Standard bluntly admits the following:
But US officials have privately said the jets will not be a game changer when they eventually arrive after months of training, given the strength of the Russian air force and its defense systems.
So essentially, aircraft worth multiple tens of millions of dollars each are being primed to get shot down in what will likely prove a major humiliation for the West.
Putin has already vowed that his forces will prioritize taking out Western-supplied fighter jets. In March, the Russian leader said during an address to pilots, "We will destroy their warplanes just as we destroy their tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, including multiple rocket launchers."
Significantly, he warned at the time that even bases in Western countries could be targeted if Ukraine flies sorties from them. "Of course, if they are used from airfields of third countries, they become a legitimate target for us, wherever they are located," Putin had said.
Beginning last summer the Kremlin began highlighting that F-16 fighter jets are capable of carrying tactical nukes which are in select NATO countries' possession. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for example at that time explained, "Moscow can’t ignore the nuclear capability of US-designed F-16 fighter jets that may be supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers. He went so far as to say that it will be seen as a threat from the West "in the nuclear domain."
Stocks End Week On Muted Note As Stagflation Fears Mount
Late Friday afternoon, US main equity indexes showed little change, with the S&P 500 on track for a 2% weekly gain after investors digested new concerns about a slowing economy and elevated inflation, rekindling fears of stagflation.
During the session, Treasury yields increased due to persistent inflationary pressures, complicating Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's plan to cut interest rates later this year. Although most of the earnings season has concluded (prepare for Nvidia ER later this month), the continued strength from Corporate America remains a positive highlight. However, companies are increasingly signaling that low-income consumers are starting to crack.
Let's begin with the biggest macro news in the session: This morning's consumer confidence survey from the University of Michigan pointed to an implosion of Bidenomics. The report was a total disaster. The index "unexpectedly" plunged from 77.2 to 67.4, a 9.8-point drop, the biggest since August 2021.
... and was only a 7-sigma miss to expectations of a 76.2 print...
... but it was the biggest miss on record!
The consumer confidence report was released at 10:00 AM ET. Immediately afterward, US equity indexes gave up most of the gains and fell, moving sideways in afternoon trading.
Among the US main equity indexes, the Russel 2000 was the biggest loser in the session. This is mainly because of economic weakness.
There was little notable sector performance across the S&P500 besides tech, which was marginally higher, and energy, down half a percent.
NYSE TICK showed selling pressure after 10:00 AM and persisted into early afternoon.
Most shorted stocks are running out of steam to end the week.
Treasury yields extended gains after the report as stubborn inflationary pressures reminded traders of the higher-for-longer theme. 2-year yields reached weekly highs while Fed-dated OIS adjusted to price out rate cut expectations for this year.
The Treasury 10-year Yield climbed above 4.5%.
Today's stagflationary warning is a new challenge to the outlook of the Fed's interest rate cutting cycle. Fed swaps for '24 immediately sank from 1.77 cuts to about 1.63 cuts by late afternoon. Nasdaq futures tracked lower on fewer rate cuts.
"Our economists continue to forecast two rate cuts from the Fed this year beginning with the July meeting. And yields on 10-year Treasuries have come off recent highs following last week's soft Payrolls report," Goldman's Chris Hussey wrote in a note this afternoon.
Citi's US Economic Suprise Index slides to the lowest since January 2023.
Whoops.
Entire dovish move from huge jobs report miss has been reversed on catastrophic UMich print (which signals even more economic weakness) pic.twitter.com/xbjLTsa24e
