Chicago 'Mass Shootings'? 52 Shot, 10 Killed Over Memorial Day Weekend

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

At least 52 people were shot and 10 were killed in separate shootings across Chicago over Memorial Day Weekend, officials said Tuesday.

Chicago police work the scene of a fatal drive-by shooting in the 4800 block of South Ada Street, in the Back of the Yards neighborhood in Chicago, on May 10, 2022. (Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

One of the victims, Jeremy Benson, 33, was shot and killed on Sunday morning while he was driving in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, officials said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. As he was driving, he was shot and crashed into a median before he was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Another male was shot and killed in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, officials told the paper. The shooting occurred at a birthday party and sent people running into the street. Later, officials confirmed a 24-year-old had died.

“They won’t even let me see his body,” the man’s mother said. Neither the mother nor the man were identified by the Sun-Times. “They could at least let me hold his hand,” she told the outlet.

Later on Sunday, a male was killed and four others were injured during a domestic dispute in Chicago’s Humboldt Park. The incident led to a standoff with Chicago’s SWAT team. The shooter, 23, was arrested about an hour later, officials said.

In another apparent mass shooting incident, five people were seriously wounded after a fight broke out early Sunday morning in the Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Five people aged 16 to 33 were on a sidewalk on South Karlov Avenue at around 1:30 a.m. when a fight broke out and a shooting ensued, police told local media outlets.

A 16-year-old girl was shot in the back, a male and a female—both aged 21—were shot in the arms, a 21-year-old man was shot in the left side of the body, and a 33-year-old male was shot in the face. No suspects have been arrested.

On Saturday, two males were killed after they opened fire in Englewood at around 5 p.m. on South Bishop Street, police said. After they shot each other, both males were transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead. One of the shooters was identified as 29-year-old Derrick Washington, authorities said.

Another person was shot and killed on the South Side on Saturday at around 1:30 p.m. on West 63rd Street, according to police. The man’s age and identity were not provided, and no suspect has been taken into custody, police said.

A man was shot and killed on Tuesday morning in Brighton Park on Chicago’s Southwest Side, officials told the Sun-Times. The male, 25, was in a vehicle when a dark-colored car pulled next to him and someone inside fired shots. The incident occurred at around 12:30 a.m.

In another incident, three people were shot, including one fatally, in Burnside on the South Side on Monday night, said police. They were standing on a sidewalk at around 7 p.m. when someone opened fire, police said.

Two hours before that, at 5 p.m., a man was shot in a separate incident Gresham on the South Side. Police said the male, 27, was in the 8600 block of South Aberdeen Street when he was struck by gunfire, according to the Sun-Times.

Also on Monday morning at around 2:50 a.m., a 31-year-old man was shot in the Englewood district while he was inside a residence, officials told the paper.

Across the nation over Memorial Day weekend spanning Saturday, Sunday, and the federal holiday on Monday, a total of 352 shootings occurred, according to the nonprofit research organization, the Gun Violence Archive (GVA).

The shootings took place across the states of Florida, Louisiana, Arizona, California, and Pennsylvania.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/31/2022 - 17:40
https://ift.tt/I5HW8MN
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/I5HW8MN
via IFTTT

Chicago 'Mass Shootings'? 52 Shot, 10 Killed Over Memorial Day Weekend

Biden Throws Powell Under The Bus For Soaring Inflation

It appears that not even progressive democrats are dumb enough to believe Biden's glorious lie that Putin is to blame for the explosive inflation of the past year, best encapsulated by the farce that is this quote...

How about now? https://t.co/GDF1z9qVJY

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 30, 2022

... and so on Tuesday, the President - looking more dazed and confused than ever - used a rare meeting with Fed Chair Jerome Powell to declare that he’s "respecting the central bank’s independence" as if he would say anything else in public although everyone knows what really takes place in these private tete-a-tetes...

This is what happens when presidents meet with Fed chiefs in private https://t.co/2im2bCqJgC pic.twitter.com/UDnKFLAyNm

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 31, 2022

... while simultaneously taking this latest opportunity to shift responsibility for taming decades-high inflation ahead of the November midterms.

Biden seized on the Oval Office session to argue that while fighting price increases is his top priority, that work was primarily the purview of the Federal Reserve.

“My plan is to address inflation. That starts with a simple proposition: respect the Fed, respect the Fed’s independence, which I have done and will continue to do,” Biden said.

According to Bloomberg, it was Biden’s third in-person session with Powell since taking office, and recalls the stakes when Ronald Reagan met with then-Fed chief Paul Volcker almost four decades ago as he sought re-election amid galloping price pressure.

Biden has been attempting to show he’s maximizing efforts to curb the hottest inflation in 40 years - sparked by the Fed's record money-printing and Biden's stimmy-printing - heading into November midterms, in which Democrats are facing a historic avalanche.

As Bloomberg also notes, the White House - realizing it is fighting a losing battle in a country where real wages have been negative for almost all of Biden's tenure...

... has increasingly sought to shift the burden for battling prices to the Fed in public comments, as polls show rising costs are voters’ top concern. In an op-ed published Monday in the Wall Street Journal, Biden said the Fed has “a primary responsibility to control inflation.” A Gallup poll found that 18% of Americans - the most since the early 1980s - found inflation to be the most important problem facing the US.

Biden said Tuesday that his his role as president is to give the Fed “the space they need to do their job, adding, “I’m not going to interfere with their critically important work” while also implying that if the Fed fails to tame inflation, it's not his fault either.

Biden set the stage for today's meeting with Powell by writing an at-times surreal WSJ op-Ed in which he sought to draw a contrast with Trump - who regularly slammed the central bank, arguing it should have been more aggressive in cutting interest rates and praised it every time the market rallied - writing that his predecessor “demeaned the Fed, and past presidents have sought to influence its decisions inappropriately during periods of elevated inflation. I won’t do this.”

The president’s message to the Fed in Tuesday’s meeting was that he “plans to stay out of their way,” Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, told Bloomberg Television.

“The President wants to say, go forth and do what you need to do,” Rouse said, leaving open the question what the meeting was called for in the first place.

White House economic adviser Brian Deese defended Tuesday’s meeting, saying it was “standard practice for presidents and chairs of the Federal Reserve to meet from time to time to share views on the economy.”

Biden will use his session to stress that he’s giving the central bank “space to operate” independently to address the inflation crisis, Deese, who attended the meeting along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television earlier Tuesday. 

And while Trump flatly ignored past practice and regularly castigated Powell for raising interest rates, calling him “clueless” and asking if he was a “bigger enemy” than Chinese President Xi Jinping, it is true that neither inflation rose under his admin.

And while it is certainly the case that Biden's helicopter money stimulus has been behind much of the inflation impulse, it is also true that Powell is not blameless: the Fed chair, who erroneously called inflation transitory for much of 2011, and as has been criticized for being too slow in confronting inflation, has also called taming inflation his top priority and has launched the most aggressive tightening campaigns in decades.

At the same time, nobody will call Powell the second coming of Volcker either: as Morgan Stanley's chief strategist Michael Wilson said earlier, he believes that there is one major difference between this Fed and the Volcker Fed that Powell appears now to be trying to emulate to fight inflation— this Fed remains beholden to the idea that they can't surprise the markets too much.

Perhaps that has changed a bit with Chair Powell's recent congressional testimony during which he expressed the Fed's resolve to quash inflation, but as even Wilson admits, "the Fed is still unlikely to go cold turkey" and pretty much everyone on Wall Street agrees. That said, investors may be underestimating the Fed's willingness to shock markets if necessary to achieve its inflation goals, according to Wilson, who however seems to ignore the collapse in housing, and reports of peak inflation and the upcoming crash in the labor market.

As for whether Biden's "strategy" of punting all responsibility for everything that goes wrong with the economy onto others, first Putin and now Powell, works we'll just have to wait until November to find out. Here's an advance look:

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/31/2022 - 17:20
https://ift.tt/CJhZmtr
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/CJhZmtr
via IFTTT

Biden Throws Powell Under The Bus For Soaring Inflation

Top-Paid LA Lifeguards Earned Up To $510,283 In 2021

By Adam Andrzejewski of Open The Books substack

Who knew that LA lifeguards - who work in the sun, ocean surf, and golden sands of California - could reap such unbelievable financial rewards?

It’s time we put Baywatch on pay watch. In 2019, we found top-paid lifeguards made up to $392,000.

Unfortunately, today, the pay and benefits are even more lucrative.

Daniel Douglas was the most highly paid and earned $510,283, an increase from $442,712 in 2020. As the “lifeguard captain,” he out-earned 1,000 of his peers: salary ($150,054), perks ($28,661), benefits ($85,508), and a whopping $246,060 in overtime pay.

The second highest paid, lifeguard chief Fernando Boiteux, pulled down $463,517 – up from $393,137 last year.

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found 98 LA lifeguards earned at least $200,000 including benefits last year, and 20 made between $300,000 and $510,283. Thirty-seven lifeguards made between $50,000 and $247,000 in overtime alone.

And it’s not only about the cash compensation. After 30 years of service, LA lifeguards can retire as young as 55 on 79-percent of their pay.

Furthermore, we found that most of the top-paid lifeguards were men. In fact, only two of the top 20 high-earners were women: Virginia Rupe ($307,664; 16th highest paid), a lifeguard captain, and Lauren Dale ($303,518; 19th highest paid), an ocean lifeguard specialist.

Overtime pay drove earnings into the corporate executive range.

Last year alone, 37 lifeguards made overtime in amounts between $50,000 and $247,000. For example, Daniel Douglas (overtime: $246,060); James Orr (overtime: 146,506); Patrick O’Neil (overtime: $133,235); and five others each made six-figures plus.

However, in a six-year period, between 2016 and 2021, the LA lifeguard corps made a fortune in overtime. The top three high earners made between $505,579 and $980,007 in overtime alone: Daniel Douglas ($980,007); Jaro Spopek ($513,365); and James Orr ($505,579).

Some high-earning lifeguards also win awards for heroism. However, we found many lifeguards winning Valor Awards failed to crack the top of the payroll.

In 2020, the Medal of Valor winner, Edward “Nick” Macko (salary: $134,144), an ocean lifeguard, jumped into the rough waters in a remote Palos Verdes gorge and pulled a man to safety through potentially skull-crushing swells and over razor-sharp rocks.

In 2021, the Exemplary Service Award for EMS went to lifeguards Todd Ribera (comp: $184,676); Stephen Leon Jr. (comp: $36,597); Max Malamed (comp: $130,952); and Blake Hubbell (comp: $170,956).

Also winning Exemplary Service Awards were high-earners: ocean lifeguard specialist Lauren Dale ($303,518), the 19th highest paid lifeguard, and lifeguard captain Roque Roque ($319,566), the sixth highest paid in 2020.

Beach lifeguard pay dwarfs that of their colleagues at the pools. The highest paid “pool lifeguard” made $45,030, including pay and benefits.

During the pandemic, lifeguards continued to work and took additional precautions doing water rescues. Many traded their trunks and sunscreen for masks and scrubs at Covid testing sites. In some cases, lifeguards acted as police, enforcing stay-at-home orders, keeping people off the beaches and out of the water.

Why beach lifeguards earn so much money is an open question the L.A. taxpayer might start asking.

A lifeguard’s job can be dangerous, but it’s unclear why they are now paid up to a half million dollars a year.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/31/2022 - 17:00
https://ift.tt/3pUlkmA
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3pUlkmA
via IFTTT

Top-Paid LA Lifeguards Earned Up To $510,283 In 2021

'Mariupol Repeat': Russian Forces Capture Most Of Last Major Holdout City In Luhansk

Russian forces have reportedly seized most of Severodnetsk city in eastern Ukraine, which represents the last Ukrainian stronghold and major city of the Luhansk region. Less than 24 hours ago, multiple international outlets reported Russian forces had gained half the city.

On Tuesday Western media outlets reported intense street by street fighting and warned of a 'Mariupol repeat' - strongly suggesting Russian forces are about to imminently capture the city. "The city is still in Ukrainian hands, and it's putting up a fight… (but) evacuations are not possible due to the fighting," head of the city council, Oleksandr Stryuk, announced.

Image via CNN

But on a strategic level, Severodnetsk is even more important that Mariupol. Sky News reports, referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin, "If his forces capture Severodonetsk, it would give Moscow control of the whole of Luhansk - and would be his biggest victory in the invasion so far."

Sky News details Tuesday based on local sources:

Yesterday, Russian forces were at the eastern edge of Severodonetsk - and had taken a power station and a hotel. Overnight, they have slowly moved in towards the center of the city.

Small Ukrainian units which were holding up the Russian advance have had to pull back, with reports suggesting they are moving to the west of the Siverskyi Donets river, towards the city of Lysychansk.

Giving an update from a pocket of resistance that has held back the broader Russian offensive in the Donbas, Serhiy Hayday, the Luhansk governor, told Ukrainian state television there were around 15,000 civilians left in Severodonetsk.

By all accounts, Russian troops have now penetrated deep into the city. Over the weekend Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted for the first time that the situation of his forces on Donbas remained "very difficult".

He described last night in an update during his daily address that 90% of Severodonetsk's houses had been damaged. "More than two-thirds of the city's housing stock has been completely destroyed," he said. "There is no mobile connection. Constant shelling."

Highly likely that the Ukrainians are conducting a fighting retreat from Severodonetsk right now. https://t.co/vzR5FChSfD

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) May 31, 2022

On the Russian side, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told French television that for Moscow it reamains an "absolute priority... to push the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian battalions out" of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Plumes of orange smoke have been seen above the city, following a reported Russian strike on a chemical plant:

31/5: #Severodonetsk-Plumes of orange smoke rising from explosions

-home of giant #Azot chemical plant which produces nitrogen-based fertilisers in normal times

-also is a major regional employer

(#Lysychansk features #Ukraine’s second biggest oil refinery)#RussiaUkraineWar https://t.co/uU0Ts1Z6XW

— Rani Kaur Hayer (@RKHayer) May 31, 2022

This also after Western pundits and officials have slowly begun to realize that Russia's advance in the east is steadily gaining, in contrast to some prior reports and broader narratives suggesting the Ukrainians were winning there.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/31/2022 - 16:40
https://ift.tt/0qZYPzX
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/0qZYPzX
via IFTTT

'Mariupol Repeat': Russian Forces Capture Most Of Last Major Holdout City In Luhansk

Daily Briefing: High Energy Prices Are Giving Way to Higher Energy Prices

Though West Texas Intermediate backed off its intraday high of $119.98, a fresh surge for crude oil has analysts invoking the old “the cure for high prices is high prices” chestnut. Food and energy costs are already dragging down household sentiment, as US consumer confidence fell in May to the lowest since February. And oil’s surge may have only just begun. “Energy prices are set to blow minds this week,” tweeted Tony Greer, founder of TG Macro and editor of The Morning Navigator. “I love that there is still a bearish camp out there talking ‘demand destruction’ because it helps you stay in the trade.” Tony joins Real Vision’s Maggie Lake to talk about energy and inflation. We also hear from Keith Weiner on the future of gold. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3zd27su. Watch the full conversation between Keith Weiner and Mike Green here: https://rvtv.io/3wY0tsa.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/31/2022 - 12:47
https://ift.tt/0N6LiHh
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/0N6LiHh
via IFTTT

Daily Briefing: High Energy Prices Are Giving Way to Higher Energy Prices

Why America Decays: The Tyranny Of Self-Interest

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

Only those societies which still have a functional public interest / common good will survive; those ruled by the tyranny of self-interest will fall.

I've discussed the moral rot consuming the American Project in blog posts and my books. This moral rot--perhaps better described as civic decay--is so pervasive and ubiquitous that we are forgiven for assuming "this is the way it's always been."

This inability to discern the rot is the result of the gradualness of the decay. There are many analogies: the slowly boiled frog, the way in which weight gain creeps up on us, and so on. This is the result of humanity's finely tuned knack to habituate to any new environment and normalize what would have been intolerable in the recent past.

We adapt to changing expectations, incentives, values and realities over time and forget the way our world functioned in previous eras.

There are many examples of this. Many of the changes in our society, politics and economy can be traced back to the early 1980s, when financialization (and its offspring, regulatory capture and pay-to-play) began its rise to supremacy.

Forty years ago, student loans were unknown and healthcare costs did not bankrupt households. Forty years ago, relatively few Americans were obese. Go back a decade further, prior to the explosion of fast-food outlets, and a small percentage of the money Americans spent on food went to eating out / away from home, i.e. fast-food and restaurants. Eating out was a treat reserved for special occasions, not a daily ritual / birthright.

In the post-Vietnam era, Americans were wary of foreign entanglements. The Presidency wasn't quite as Imperial as it is today. Congress still held some modest power over foreign entanglements. This is no longer the case.

The most insightful way to grasp the pervasive moral rot is to examine the tyranny of self-interest: in the past, the public interest / common good still had a foothold in the nation's values, incentives and expectations. Now the public interest / common good are nothing but paper-thin PR cover for maximizing private gains by any means available, i.e. the supremacy of self-interest.

Our ability to discern the difference between serving the public interest / common good and making a modest profit doing so and harming the common good to maximize private gains has been lost. There are many such examples. The financialized self-interest behind student loans, healthcare, national defense, Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Everything--i.e. cartels and monopolies--is visible in every nook and cranny of the U.S. economy, political structure and economy.

Synthetic opioids offer a good example. Under the preposterously false guise of "serving the common good" with painkillers, Big Pharma caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands more via the devastation of addiction-- addiction which Big Pharma was pleased to promote as non-addictive because this served to maximize profits.

As is now the norm, no one is held personally responsible for this completely needless public health catastrophe. A few wrist-slap fines are administered and life in America goes back to the relentless urgency to maximize private gains by any means available: fraud, deception, overbilling, embezzlement, regulatory capture, pay-to-play, and so on.

The phony PR cover for the the tyranny of self-interest is that the pursuit of maximizing profits by any means available magically benefits the public. The apologists trot out various example of planned obsolescence as "proof" that the supremacy of self-interest is the golden road to a glorious society, but all this careful cherry-picking doesn't make the moral rot and civic decay go away.

America is doomed to decay as long as we can't tell the difference between the public interest / common good and self-interest. The two are not the same, but we've lost the ability to discern the difference. Only those societies which still have a functional public interest / common good will survive; those ruled by the tyranny of self-interest will fall.

*  *  *

My new book is now available at a 10% discount this month: When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/31/2022 - 16:30
https://ift.tt/Rmsp1vS
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/Rmsp1vS
via IFTTT

Why America Decays: The Tyranny Of Self-Interest

Kremlin Makes Announcement Amid Rumors On Putin’s Health

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A top Kremlin official on Monday disputed reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s health is getting progressively worse amid rumors that he may have cancer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart at the Kremlin in Moscow on Feb. 22, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a response to the reports, saying that Putin “makes public appearances on a daily basis.”

“You can see him on TV screens, read, and listen to his speeches. I don’t think that a sane person can suspect any signs of an illness or ailment in this man,” he added. “I’ll leave it on the conscience of those who disseminate such rumors despite daily opportunities for everyone to see how he and others look like.”

Lavrov, who was speaking to a French TV station, did not address claims that Putin is suffering from an undisclosed form of cancer.

Christopher Steele, the former UK spy and reputed author of the infamous and discredited “Steele dossier,” told Sky News earlier this month he believes Putin is “seriously ill” and claimed that factored into the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Notably, Steele was hired by organizations on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to conduct opposition research against then-candidate Donald Trump, creating the dossier accusing Trump of having connections to Moscow. Most of the claims within Steele’s notes have been debunked by U.S. intelligence officials, although those allegations ultimately made it to corporate American news outlets such as MSNBC and the New York Times.

Tanks of pro-Russian troops drive along a street during the Ukraine–

Russia

conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine, on May 26, 2022. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

A report from an outlet called New Lines Magzine claimed that it received an audio recording from an unnamed Russian oligarch, who alleged Putin is “very ill with blood cancer.”

And in March, Moscow also denied other rumors—which are largely based on uncorroborated and unnamed sources—about Putin’s health. At the time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader said he was in fine condition.

However, a former KGB official, Boris Karpichkov told The Sun tabloid that he suspects Putin, 69, has several ailments, including Parkinson’s and dementia. Karpichkov provided no evidence to the publication, which, along with the Daily Mail and Mirror, often publishes speculative reports about Putin’s health and family members.

This month, Jeffrey Edmonds, the former director for Russia on the National Security Council and a former CIA military analyst, told Business Insider that he is “not seeing anything truly credible” in regards to claims about the Russian president’s allegedly poor health.

Because of Russia’s failure to capture certain parts of Ukraine, Edmonds said that he and other analysts have seen “a definite change” in Putin’s public behavior.

Putin is “normally the voice of calm in Russia but publicly has become more emotional and angry,” he said, adding that the president is  “not comfortable with something.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 19:10
https://ift.tt/wdrcE1s
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/wdrcE1s
via IFTTT

Kremlin Makes Announcement Amid Rumors On Putin’s Health

Brent Tops $122 After EU Agrees On "Partial" Ban Of Russian Oil

After days of leaks, late on Sunday Bloomberg confirmed that European Union leaders agreed to pursue a partial ban on Russian oil, setting the stage the way for a sixth package of sanctions to punish Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, for the invasion of Ukraine...

I welcome the #EUCO agreement tonight on oil sanctions against Russia.

This will effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022

... with some member states reportedly already pushing for a seventh EU sanctions package... although considering that Russian oil exports have hit record highs ever since the Ukraine war erupted, one wonders if this round of "sanctions" will be just as worthless as all the previous ones.

Some member states are already pushing for a seventh EU sanctions package.
Discussions move tomorrow onto potential global food crisis, and defence.

— Naomi O'Leary (@NaomiOhReally) May 30, 2022

The sanctions - as previewed last week - would ban the purchase of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia delivered to member states by sea but include a temporary exemption for pipeline crude (at the insistence of Hungary and German), European Council President Charles Michel said late Monday during a summit in Brussels.

“This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine,” Michel said in a tweet. “Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war.”

#Unity

Agreement to ban export of Russian oil to the EU. 

This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine. 

Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war. 

#EUCO

— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) May 30, 2022

Of course, that's just propaganda for the idiot masses: as we have shown previously, it is thanks to Europe's laughable "sanctions", that Russian oil revenues have soared by 50%, hitting a record high, and sending Russia's current account to all time highs.

Officials and diplomats still have to agree on the technical details and the sanctions must be formally adopted by all 27 nations. As we reported previously, Hungary, which will continue to receive Russian oil via pipeline, had been blocking an embargo for the past month as it sought assurances its energy supplies wouldn’t be disrupted.

Of course, if one actually reads the fine print, the latest round of "sanctions" is even more laughable then the previous ones: the European Commission has proposed to ban crude oil six months from inaction, while refined petroleum products would be halted in eight months, which of course is ridiculous as the Ukraine war will be long over by then. Meanwhile, showing just how turn Europe actually remains, shipments of oil through the giant Druzhba pipeline to central Europe will be spared until a technical solution is found that satisfies the energy needs of Hungary and other landlocked nations.

Seaborne supplies account for about two-thirds of Russian oil imports, and once in place, the measure would cost Putin up to $10 billion a year in lost export revenue, according to Bloomberg calculations. That’s because the ban would force Russia to sell its crude at a discount to Asia, where it’s already changing hands at about $34 a barrel cheaper than the price of Brent futures. Of course, while Russia will quickly compensate for that discount once the price of spot Brent rises by - say - $10, it will be Europeans who end up with exploding gas bills.

The latest "sanctions" package also proposes another softball ban on insurance related to shipping oil to third countries... which is also absolutely toothless as it won’t take effect until six months after the adoption of the measures, from the previously proposed three-month transition. That adds to a longer list of concessions since the proposal was originally put forward by the EU’s executive arm in May, all meant to appease German while appearing to act tough on Russia.  

It gets even funnier: some countries will also have a longer transition for the seaborne oil ban. For Bulgaria, a transition period until June or December 2024 is envisioned, while Croatia could get an exemption for imports of vacuum gas oil, which is used to make products including gasoline and butane.

The EU’s efforts to limit price spikes and Russia’s ability to divert its oil exports in the event of a European embargo had already been watered down in earlier negotiation rounds after a plan to ban tankers from transporting oil to third countries was abandoned.
A plan to ban Russians from purchasing real estate in the EU was dropped from the deal, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Haggling over the terms of the EU’s oil embargo also led other member states to seek exemptions.

Meanwhile, as Europe's revels in the laughable pomp of yet another toothless round of sanctions, Russia - the wolrld's 2nd largest exporter of oil (and perhaps 1st if Saudis are having a bad month), shipped about 720,000 barrels a day of crude to European refineries through its main pipeline to the region last year. That compares with seaborne volumes of 1.57 million barrels a day from its Baltic, Black Sea and Arctic ports.

According to Bloomberg, some of the other measures in the proposed EU sanctions package include:

• Cutting three more Russian banks off the SWIFT international payments system, including Russia’s largest lender Sberbank.
• Banning the ability to provide consulting services to Russian companies and trade in a number of chemicals.
• Sanctioning Alina Kabaeva, a former Olympic gymnast who is “closely associated” with Putin, according to an EU document; and Patriarch Kirill, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church and has been a vocal supporter of the Russian president and the war in Ukraine. Hungary, however, is opposed to sanctioning Kirill, the people said.
• Sanctioning dozens of military personnel, including those deemed responsible for reported war crimes in Bucha, as well as companies providing equipment, supplies and services to the Russian armed forces.

In any case, between Europe's surprising ability to agree on something, even if it is yet another symbolic and theatrical round of "sanctions", and China effectively "defeating" covid over the past week...

... which has resulted in the end of lockdown measures in Shanghai and Beijing, Brent topped $122 and WTI was trading above $117.

One can only imagine where oil would be trading if Biden hadn't taken the political decision to drain the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve just so dems had even a glimmer of a chance come November...

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 18:36
https://ift.tt/IpdE0kq
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/IpdE0kq
via IFTTT

Brent Tops $122 After EU Agrees On "Partial" Ban Of Russian Oil

Hurricane Agatha, First Of The Season, Takes Aim At Mexico Tourist Beaches

Agatha is the first hurricane of the 2022 season and is spinning towards Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane. Landfall could be as early as Monday afternoon or evening, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. 

Agatha has sustained maximum winds of 110 mph (1 mph shy of Cat 3) about 65 miles southwest of Puerto Angel as it moved northeast at six mph early Monday. 

"Life-threatening hurricane-force winds are expected in portions of the hurricane warning area in southern Mexico on Monday," NHC warned.

The storm's path is near Puerto Escondido and Puerto Angel in the southern state of Oaxaca, an area known for beaches and resorts. 

NHC said that Agatha could "bring extremely dangerous coastal flooding from storm surge accompanied by large and destructive waves is expected near and the east of where Agatha makes landfall." 

NHC forecasts Agatha to dump 10 to 16 inches of rain on parts of Oaxaca, with some areas of at least 20 inches, which may trigger mudslides and flash floods. 

Another busy season hurricane season is expected. One of the reasons is due to the ongoing La Niña.

The official Atlantic hurricane season begins on Wednesday and lasts through Nov. 30, where there's a strong possibility of an above-normal season. 

"Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook 2022: 70% likelihood of 14-21 named storms of which 6-10 could become hurricanes, including 3-6 major hurricanes," tweeted NOAA.

Meanwhile, there's a 40% chance of tropical development in the Gulf of Mexico over the next five days. 

"A large and complex area of low pressure is expected to develop across Central America, the Yucatán Peninsula, and the southwest Gulf of Mexico in a few days, partially related to the remnants of Hurricane Agatha from the eastern Pacific. Some gradual development is possible within this system in the far southwest Gulf of Mexico around midweek or in the northwest Caribbean by the latter part of this week as it drifts eastward or northeastward," NHC said. 

Another active hurricane season could prove disastrous for offshore drilling and inland refinery operations along the US Gulf Coast and comes at a time the Biden administration struggles to stomp out high pump prices. It only takes one powerful storm to dent Gulf Coast refining capacity, thus catapulting fuel prices on the East Coast to the moon. So much for the SPR drain... 

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 18:35
https://ift.tt/I2MiULR
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/I2MiULR
via IFTTT

Hurricane Agatha, First Of The Season, Takes Aim At Mexico Tourist Beaches

Elizabeth Warren Desperately Seeks "More" Inflation

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MIshTalk.com,

To put things politely, Elizabeth Warren is an economic moron...

Gas Gouging

Big oil companies are making out like bandits. Our plan would crack down on their price gouging, tax their windfall profits, and send four rebate checks a year to American consumers:https://t.co/EH147IeQpC

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 24, 2022

Elizabeth Warren Flashback

On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And I will ban fracking—everywhere.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 6, 2019

"On my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that puts a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling offshore and on public lands. And I will ban fracking—everywhere."

Thank you Elizabeth Warren for another "Hoot of the Day".

She is a multiple time winner.

More Free Money

As a country, we shouldn’t crush people with debt for trying to build a better future. Technical schools, community colleges, and public universities should be tuition-free. And to start righting this wrong, President Biden must #CancelStudentDebt. https://t.co/cHl9197vYc

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 24, 2022

Warren's plan to tamp down inflation includes more free money.

"As a country, we shouldn’t crush people with debt for trying to build a better future. Technical schools, community colleges, and public universities should be tuition-free. And to start righting this wrong, President Biden must #CancelStudentDebt."

Why stop there?

Free Universal Child Care

Let’s take this vision nationwide with my plan for universal child care and pre-k.https://t.co/cL2fhrxgpC

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 29, 2022

"Let’s take this vision nationwide with my plan for universal child care and pre-k."

Yeah, that'll sure fix inflation.

To put things politely, Elizabeth Warren is an economic moron.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 18:00
https://ift.tt/jFdsOrv
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/jFdsOrv
via IFTTT

Elizabeth Warren Desperately Seeks "More" Inflation

Memorial Day Air Travelers Hit With Heavy Flight Cancellations 

Flight disruptions spread across the US on Memorial Day weekend, a turbulent start to the summer travel season two years since the virus pandemic began.  

On Monday morning, Flight Aware's plane tracking website reports 272 cancellations within, into, or out of the US. There were 546 cancellations on Sunday, and hundreds more on Saturday and Friday, totaling at least a thousand across the holiday period. 

One of the most significant headaches over the weekend was when Delta Air Lines canceled more than 250 flights or 9% of its US operations on Saturday.

In an email statement, Atlanta-based Delta told AP News that Saturday's cancellations resulted from bad weather and "air traffic control actions." 

Angry passengers tweeted their woes from airports. 

"So our flight from Savannah to Miami has just been canceled out of the blue not other flights available on the day wtf do we do," one traveler said. 

"Instead of canceling the flight hours ago, delta had me waiting from 3:50 pm till 12:04 am just to tell me my flight was canceled," another said. 

Demand destruction has yet to be reached despite soaring domestic airfare prices, as TSA throughput data at US airports shows air travel is back to pre-COVID levels. 

According to travel data firm Hopper, this weekend's average cost for a plane ticket was more than $400 round trip, 24% higher than this time in 2019 and 45% higher than a year ago. 

Multiple major airlines, such as Delta, JetBlue Airways, and Alaska Airlines, recently announced a reduction of flights this summer due to a pilot shortage. 

Combine reduced flights and soaring jet fuel costs -- on top of increasing flight demand, ticket prices have already catapulted with a record monthly jump in March. And could go higher this summer. 

Flight cancellations this past holiday weekend may suggest a rocky summer for airline carriers. Unreliable airlines and record-high ticket prices, at what point do travelers give up on flying? 

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 17:25
https://ift.tt/wbQLOdl
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/wbQLOdl
via IFTTT

Memorial Day Air Travelers Hit With Heavy Flight Cancellations 

Watch: Rand Paul Rages At "Democrat Plan To Brand Police, Soldiers As White Supremacists And Neo-Nazis"

Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

In a speech on the Senate floor Friday, Rand Paul blasted efforts by Democrats to paint up all law enforcement officers and those in the military as dangerous radical racists.

Paul was addressing The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022, blocked by Republicans in the Senate, that demands the FBI and Department of Homeland Security change the way they investigate and monitor domestic terrorism suspects.

The official summary of the bill notes that an “interagency task force” would be established in order to probe into “white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies.”

“This bill should be called by a more accurate name: the Democrat plan to brand our police and soldiers as white supremacists and neo-Nazis,” Paul proclaimed.

He continued, “How insulting,” adding “We knew that Democrats despise and want to defund the police, but now, they believe that the police, federal law enforcement, and the U.S. military are full of white supremacists and neo-Nazis?”

Referring to the now mothballed ‘Disinformation Governance Board’, Paul also noted “Those of us who still care about the Bill of Rights just got done taking down the DHS ‘Ministry of Truth,’ and a day later, Democrats want to create the DHS Thought Police. You couldn’t make it up if you tried. But they don’t stop there.”

“The bill creates two other Thought Police offices at the Department of Justice and at the FBI, which seems like a self-defeating choice, since elsewhere in the bill, we are told that federal law enforcement is shot through with white supremacists and neo-Nazis,” Paul urged.

The Senator also noted that “None of the bill makes sense. It doesn’t make sense because it was a bill that was never intended to become law. It’s a dumb, Washington talking points memo masquerading as legislation.”

“But congressional Democrats have gotten so radical, so extreme, and so out-of-touch with the American people that when they read it, they see something worthwhile,” he added.

Paul concluded that “This bill will fail today because the Democrats’ message — hate the police, defund the police, slander the military and police as racists and white supremacists — has been roundly rejected by the American people.”

The bill failed to pass the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster in a 47-47 vote.

Watch:

*  *  *

Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 16:50
https://ift.tt/L6O1ntJ
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/L6O1ntJ
via IFTTT

Watch: Rand Paul Rages At "Democrat Plan To Brand Police, Soldiers As White Supremacists And Neo-Nazis"

As US Economic Data Crashes, Biden 'Invites' Powell To Oval Office

Shit is not going well for President Biden... and blaming Putin is not working...

Despite proclamations of the 'strongest economy ever' or some such gaslighting, Americans' cost of living is rapidly outstripping their wage growth as those with assets (stocks and real estate) are facing an annus horibilis, and those without assets are forced to borrow at higher and higher rates of interest to cover day-to-day expenses...

So it little wonder that President Biden will reportedly hold a rare Oval office meeting on Tuesday with Fed Chair Jerome Powell amid the highest inflation in decades, which has angered Americans and hurt his standing with voters.

According to a White House statement, the two will discuss the state of the American and global economy. Bloomberg reports that, it’s the first meeting between the two since Biden in November announced his intention to nominate Powell for a second term at the helm of the US central bank, according to a record of the Fed chief’s public schedule which is available through March.

Mr. Biden has said he won't tell the Fed what to do but has broadly supported the Fed's plans to withdraw stimulus.

"I believe that inflation is our top economic challenge right now, and I think they do too," Mr. Biden said on May 10.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, while presidents and the party in power have often favored lower interest rates to support stronger growth, polls show that inflation is very unpopular, and Democrats are bracing for losses in this fall's midterm congressional elections. Consumer confidence has slumped amid rising prices of food and gas. Lawmakers in both parties have supported the Fed's efforts to raise interest rates, with some criticizing the Fed for having waited too long to do so.

Remember, as the stock market was hitting record highs in Nov 2021, real estate sales were soaring and the economy was being allowed to reopen by the government, President Biden explained why he renominated a Republican appointee (and as Liz Warren said "a dangerous man") promising that he will "maintain the independence of The Fed."

"The Federal Reserve is an independent operation," he said in April 2021.

"I want to be real clear that I'm not going to do the kinds of things that have been done in the last administration... telling them what they should and shouldn't do."

However, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth... The last month has seen one of the biggest run of serial macro data disappoint in history, crashing US Macro Surprise Index to its weakest since Sept 2021

As Global Stagflation accelerates...

So given Biden's 'invitation' for a chat, we wonder, did the president finally realize that market crashes, free-falling real-estate, and recessions poll worse than hyperinflation...

Biden about to find out what polls worse: recession and bear market or runaway inflation.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 20, 2022

Because it appears whatever he is doing is not working as his approval rating nears record lows once again...

If Powell now suddenly pivots to more dovish talk, 'pause in September', transitory-inflation once again... is there any doubt that the 'independent' Fed is just a figment of America's imagination, like "equal justice for all"?

Tyler Durden Mon, 05/30/2022 - 16:15
https://ift.tt/3opUHvA
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/3opUHvA
via IFTTT

As US Economic Data Crashes, Biden 'Invites' Powell To Oval Office

San Francisco School District Drops 'Chief' From Job-Titles, Cites Native-American Concerns

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

San Francisco’s public school district, which not too long ago underwent a recall election fueled by its controversial priorities, said it will remove the word “chief” from all job titles to avoid offending the Native American community.

Gentle Blythe, a spokesperson for San Francisco Unified Schools District (SFUSD) told the San Francisco Chronicle that the word “chief” will no longer be used in job titles because of its connotations with Native Americans.

“While there are many opinions on the matter, our leadership team agreed that, given that Native American members of our community have expressed concerns over the use of the title, we are no longer going to use it,” Blythe said, reported The Chronicle.

The word “chief” entered English via Old French and shared the same Latin origin with words such as “capital” and “captain.” In the 17th century, English settlers started to use the word to describe the headmen of indigenous tribes of America.

The SFUSD’s website lists a dozen officials who have the word “chief” in their titles, including Chief Technology Officer Melissa Dodd, Chief of Staff Jill Hoogendyk, and Chief General Counsel Danielle Houch. As of May 26, these titles remain unchanged on the website.

The school district, which has approximately 10,000 employees, has not yet decided what top officials will be called instead of chiefs. Blythe clarified that the name change does not mean demotion.

“By changing how we refer to our division heads we are in no way diminishing the indispensable contributions of our district central service leaders,” the spokesperson explained.

The decision comes about three months after a recall vote that decisively ejected three members from the San Francisco Board of Education.

According to San Francisco Mayor London Breed, voters were frustrated because the school district had been focusing on things other than its “fundamental job.”

“It was really about the frustration of the board of education doing their fundamental job, and that is to make sure that our children are getting educated, that they get back into the classroom,” Breed said in February on NBC programming.

“That did not occur.”

As an example of the school district’s misplaced priorities, Breed pointed to a now-shelved plan to find alternative names for 44 schools that weren’t even open at that time.

In January 2021, the SFUSD unanimously approved a decision to start replacing names of schools named after prominent figures who allegedly have connections to injustices in history, such as slavery, oppression of women, and “inhibiting societal progress.”

The namesakes that were planned to be dropped, in addition to U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, included two-time Secretary of State Daniel Webster, Spanish missionary Junipero Serra, American revolutionary Paul Revere, and Francis Scott Key, the author of the lyrics for “The Star Spangled Banner.”

The plan was met with immediate opposition from the district’s families and the general public. The backlash continued until board president Gabriela López announced that the district would focus on reopening those schools instead of finding new names for them. López was ousted in this year’s recall election.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/29/2022 - 19:30
https://ift.tt/PrkjyHW
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/PrkjyHW
via IFTTT

San Francisco School District Drops 'Chief' From Job-Titles, Cites Native-American Concerns

When Will Powell Trigger The "Fed Put": Here Are The Four Things To Watch, As Well As The Most Important One

Despite the market's long-overdue rebound after a near-record 7 consecutive down weeks for the S&P (a 20yr record), the Fed has so far offered no help to risk assets and appears far from stepping in or triggering the elusive "Fed Put". This is despite, as BofA's Gonzalo Aziz warns in the bank's latest Global Equity Volatility Insights note (available to pro subs), risks building in financial markets to an extent that central banks wouldn’t have allowed in years past.

Indeed, as we observed recently (see "When Will The Fed Capitulate And Stop Hiking: Finally Some Good News For The Bulls"), credit spreads, historically the most reliable predictor of Fed interventions, have reached levels of prior Fed rescues. Furthermore, over 85% of dovish Fed turns in the last 50yrs were preceded by less volatile equity selloffs than today’s. And as we highlight virtually every day, S&P futures liquidity has only been worse in the depths of the GFC and the Covid shock, adding to fragility risk and the potential the Fed put is tested in a dysfunctional market.

And yet, despite all these growing risk-factors, so far Powell has ignored all appeals for help from the market. Of course, no matter how hard the US central bank may try to signal otherwise, the Fed put isn’t fully gone, and it will likely be tested, as it has repeatedly since Greenspan gave birth to it in 1987.

So what signposts should investors watch to know when the Fed put’s strike is near? According to Bank of America there are key indicators to keep an eye on:

1. Credit stress: We have discussed before that credit stress has been the most consistent predictor of dovish Fed pivots in the last 10yrs, particularly stress in Investment Grade bonds (which have historically used by companies to fund buybacks, if not so much capex). This is notable because CDX IG spreads are near those key levels now, but the Fed’s focus on inflation means spreads are likely to widen further before triggering a policy response.

2. S&P drawdown: Perhaps just as important as nascent credit stress, the size of the equity drawdown from all-time highs has according to BofA become an important signal for investors looking to buy the dip in recent years. However, while this may have worked relatively well in the era of high Fed sensitivity to markets, it has been a much less reliable predictor of dovish Fed turns over a longer history. As chart 10 shows, the Fed has either stopped hiking or begun cutting rates during S&P drawdowns of very different magnitudes – from as low as 2-3% in the mid-1990s to over 30% in ‘75 and ‘87.

3. Economic data: Economic data is of course critical to the Fed’s reaction function, and a sustained cooling of inflationary pressures is arguably the data point most likely to slow their tightening plans (something we expect is gradually taking place now and will become manifest at the Jackson Hole Pivot^TM). Indeed, BofA's rates team’s 20-May Global Rates Weekly argues that a Fed pivot requires a meaningful slowdown in job market data. However, that type of data is much slower-moving, and it would take several months or quarters to convince the Fed that a dangerous inflationary spiral has been averted. On the other hand, as PIper Sandler quantified recent layoff announcements, it is clear that mass layoffs have begun, and the bank expects "a million layoffs or more" which will be more than sufficient to force the Fed to pivot.

4. Market dysfunction: While all of the above are certainly important catalysts for the Fed to "panic" and go into full-blown Fed Put mode, BofA's derivatives traders believe that an episode of market dysfunction is the most likely trigger for central banks, or as they quote us (quoting BofA's Michael Hartnett), “markets stop panicking when central banks start panicking”, but today it will take more market panic for the Fed to start panicking.

So are we there yet? Not quite, but getting closer. The near-record low liquidity in equity futures (a key feature of fragility shocks) which we highlight virtually every day...

... indicates that such risk may be closer than the relatively orderly pace of the YTD selloff may suggest.

And in fact 85% of the Fed’s dovish turns in the last 50yrs were preceded by less volatile equity selloffs than today’s.

In other words, while the Fed may need a lower inflation and higher unemployment print to greenlight a dovish pivot, one which will send high beta growth names and cryptos limit up in milliseconds, the actual catalyst that prompts the Fed's capitulation may simply be a market crash which the illiquidty in the market accelerates to the point where not even the Fed will be able to ignore what is going on.

One final, important point, according to the BofA strategists: the Fed pivoting to rescue markets may not crush volatility or create a sustained rebound back to new highs, as the 2013, 2015, and 2018 pivots did. If inflation remains a pressing concern, a Fed intervention may only bring temporary relief to risk assets.

Despite the lack of a Fed capitulation so far, BofA believes markets will continue to test the Fed put, but they caution that it will take more market panic for the Fed to start panicking. To hedge this event, BofA's derivatives traders like owning local SPX skew near 10yr lows through Dec put ratios. The trade is designed for a tail event in which markets test the Fed put and find that it’s heavily compromised in the face of inflation. As one example, consider selling 1x SPX Dec 4050 put to buy 2.5x of the Dec 3500 put for an upfront debit of ~1% (ref. 3973.75). More details on this highly convex trade in the full BofA note available to pro subscribers.

Tyler Durden Sun, 05/29/2022 - 19:00
https://ift.tt/jVPTOpa
from ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/jVPTOpa
via IFTTT

When Will Powell Trigger The "Fed Put": Here Are The Four Things To Watch, As Well As The Most Important One