Zero Hedge: Last week we asked if Biden’s $2.25 trillion “Infrastructure” plan, also known as the American Jobs Plan (not to be confused with its sequel the American Family Plan) will pass Congress, and observed that the plan’s fate will ultimately depend on how centrists such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema end up voting:
Centrist Senators such as Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who also featured in Rabo’s American Rescue Plan report, may be difficult to keep on board. In other words, while the American Jobs Plan has the potential to unite the Republicans in their opposition to Biden, it will also put tremendous pressure on the internal relations between the left and the right of the Democratic Party.
Since then, amid increasing criticism by progressives (and outright opposition by the GOP) of the Biden infra plan, the market appears to have repriced the likelihood of the $2.25TN plan passing, with Bloomberg yesterday noting that “the response so far in bond markets has been muted, with inflation concerns easing amid doubts over the viability of more-generous spending, even as central banks remain committed to keeping interest rates lower for longer.” Read More
And Magazine: Recently the state of Georgia adopted a new election law. The centerpiece of this bill is a requirement that voters in the state requesting absentee ballots establish their identity by listing a driver’s license number, state ID number, or providing a copy of some other form of acceptable voter ID.
“Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil, but those who plan peace have joy. Proverbs 12:20 ESV
This is a change from the previous procedure where your identity was established by a comparison of your signature on your application with your signature on file with the state, a notoriously unreliable methodology. The new law also allows you to return your application for an absentee ballot online via a newly established website. (No, the bill did not forbid people from drinking water while waiting to vote, limit the hours of polling places, or do any of the other myriads of things its detractors claimed.)
Immediately, the usual suspects went into fits of rage. The woke multinational corporations of America in particular melted down – led it seems by Coca-Cola – home-based in Atlanta and one of Georgia’s largest corporations. James Quincey, Coca-Cola’s chief executive, speaking on CNBC has this to say. “This legislation is unacceptable. It’s a step backward and it does not promote principles we have stood for in Georgia around broad access to voting, around voter convenience, about ensuring election integrity.”
The official statement of the Coca-Cola Company, appearing over Quincy’s name added this.
“We want to be crystal clear and state unambiguously that we are disappointed in the outcome of the Georgia voting legislation. Throughout Georgia’s legislative session we provided feedback to members of both legislative chambers and political parties, opposing measures in the bills that would diminish or deter access to voting… Our focus is now on supporting federal legislation [emphasis ours] that protects voting access and addresses voter suppression across the country. We all have a duty to protect everyone’s right to vote, and we will continue to stand up for what is right in Georgia and across the U.S.”
Then Coke went back to work preparing for its role in the upcoming 2022 “Genocide Games” in Beijing. The 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in China. Coca-Cola is an official sponsor of the games. It has even designed and begun to distribute in China commemorative Coke cans celebrating the upcoming games. The gold and red cans, which are already being seen in Beijing, bear the message “Congratulations Beijing.” Read more
Wolf Street: The Fed has shut down or put on ice nearly the entire alphabet soup of bailout programs designed to prop up the markets during their tantrum a year ago, including the Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) that bought corporate bonds, corporate bond ETFs, commercial mortgage-backed securities, asset-backed securities, municipal bonds, etc. Its repos faded into nothing last summer. And foreign central bank dollar swaps have nearly zeroed out.
, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7
What the Fed is still buying are large amounts of Treasury securities and residential MBS, though no one can figure out why the Fed is still buying them, given the crazy Everything Mania in the markets.
But for the week, total assets on the Fed’s weekly balance sheet through Wednesday, March 31, fell by $31 billion from the record level in the prior week, to $7.69 trillion. Over the past 13 months of this miracle money-printing show, the Fed has added $3.5 trillion in assets to its balance sheet. Read More …
I previously wrote that the key to conviction in the Derek Chauvin trial (and avoiding a cascading failure in all four cases) is the autopsy findings and the role of drugs (including fentanyl) in the body of George Floyd.
“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.” Proverbs 10:9 ESV
Prosecutors are now asking the jury to effectively dismiss the findings of the only official autopsy in the case and insist, contrary to those findings, that Floyd died from asphyxia, or, lack of oxygen. Some new disclosures may make that claim more difficult for the prosecution.
Last week, special prosecutor Jerry Blackwell admitted to jurors that Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker pointed to cardiac arrest as Floyd’s cause of death. However, he insisted that the state would prove that “was … not a fatal heart event,” but asphyxiation.
It is a bold move since it could invite reasonable doubt on the cause of death. The question is whether a case of manslaughter could have been advanced without the need of opposing the state’s own coroner on such findings.
The failure of Chauvin to respond to a medical emergency speaks more to manslaughter than murder but it could be framed consistently with these findings. Instead, the prosecution has asked the jury to effectively reject the coroner’s findings — a risky maneuver. Read More
Axios: Janet Yellen will use her first major address as Treasury secretary to argue for a global minimum corporate tax rate, Axios has learned, as she makes the case for President Biden’s plan to raise U.S. corporate taxes to fund his $2 trillion+ infrastructure plan.
“The fourth beast shall be A fourth kingdom on earth, Which shall be different from all other kingdoms, And shall devour the whole earth, Trample it and break it in pieces.” Daniel 7:23
Why it matters: Convincing other countries to impose a global minimum tax would reduce the likelihood of companies relocating offshore, as Biden seeks to increase the corporate rate from 21% to 28%.
“We are working with G20 nations to agree to a global minimum corporate tax rate that can stop the race to the bottom.” Read More
Next step: Determine the global corporate tax based on the environment, social and governance (ESG) score per company Read More
Zero Hedge: A Rasmussen poll has revealed that almost half of Americans support the introduction of vaccine passports in order to get “back to normal.”
“As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” 1 Samuel 8:8-9
The findings were released over the Easter period, and noted that 44% of Americans said that a government run system requiring proof of vaccination is a “good idea.”
62% of those who say they’ve gotten the COVID-19 vaccine believe it’s a good idea to require proof of vaccination … Read More
Arutz Sheva: Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has tasked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday with forming a new government.
“They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 1 Samuel 8:1 NIV
Rivlin announced Tuesday afternoon that he has decided to grant Netanyahu a mandate for the premiership, following consultations with representatives of parties from the incoming 24th Knesset.
Rivlin’s nomination will grant Netanyahu selected a 28-day mandate to attempt to cobble together a governing coalition with the support of at least 61 MKs.
“After consulting with the representatives of all the factions in the Knesset, the following picture has emerged: 52 MKs requested that I entrust MK Benjamin Netanyahu with forming a government. 45 MKs requested that I entrust MK Yair Lapid with forming a government. 7 MKs requested that I entrust MK Naftali Bennett with forming a government. 16 MKs did not make any recommendation to me.” Read More
PJ Media: On Easter Sunday, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) — pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the same church Martin Luther King, Jr. pastored — tweeted a message that subverted the gospel of Christianity and preached utter heresy, rejected by Christian churches for more than a millennium.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.2 Tim. 4:3-4
“The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether you are Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves,” Warnock tweeted. Read More
Breitbart: Even as Major League Baseball continues its attack on Georgia’s requirement to show a valid photo ID to vote, the league has a photo ID requirement of its own for fans picking up tickets at the stadium.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:5 ESV
South Carolina Republican state Rep. Nancy Mace took note of this requirement and found it hypocritical. “Hey @MLB, this you?” Mace wrote, as a caption to a screenshot of baseball’s Will Call policy at mlb.com.
The MLB pulled its 2021 All-Star Game from the Atlanta Brave’s Truist Park in the wake of the state’s new election integrity law enacted last month.
The league has characterized the law as a “voter suppression” law. Read More
