Friday, January 28, 2022

This was supposed to be the year that things “got back to normal”, but here we are at the end of January and things have only gotten worse. As we move forward into February and beyond, there are two key global shortages that we are going to want to keep a very close eye on. One of them is the rapidly growing fertilizer shortage. A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal ominously warned that “high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world”…
From South America’s avocado, corn and coffee farms to Southeast Asia’s plantations of coconuts and oil palms, high fertilizer prices are weighing on farmers across the developing world, making it much costlier to cultivate and forcing many to cut back on production.

That means grocery bills could go up even more in 2022, following a year in which global food prices rose to decade highs. An uptick would exacerbate hunger—already acute in some parts of the world because of pandemic-linked job losses—and thwart efforts by politicians and central bankers to subdue inflation.
According to the International Fertilizer Development Center, exceedingly high fertilizer prices could result in a reduction of agricultural output in Africa alone “equivalent to the food needs of 100 million people”.

So this is a really, really big deal.

And this crisis is going to deeply affect us here in the United States too. The following comes from a recent piece authored by U.S. Senator Roger Marshall…

It’s no secret farmers are faced with a fertilizer crisis. Prices for phosphorus-based and potassium-based (potash) fertilizers have more than doubled in Kansas while Nitrogen-based fertilizers have more than quadrupled. Fertilizer is vital to feeding not only the country, but the world. It contains essential nutrients for plant life, and without it, American agricultural yields will quickly suffer as well as food prices in local grocery stores.

As I discussed the other day, these crazy prices for fertilizer are going to make it impossible for many U.S. farmers to profitably plant crops this year.

That means that a lot less food is going to be grown.

On the other side of the world, the North Korean government is asking their citizens to start creating “homemade” fertilizer from their own waste…

State-run media has also been encouraging people to make “homemade” manure, The Daily Beast reported. A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK that residents had started “producing fertilizer from human waste” after authorities launched a 10-day drive to increase production.

Perhaps U.S. citizens should give this a try, because a lot of us are certainly full of crap.

The other major shortage that I want to highlight in this article is...

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Denmark Abolishes ALL Domestic COVID Restrictions as PM Says the Country Can ‘Smile Again’

Denmark has announced that it will be abolishing all domestic COVID restrictions currently in place, with the PM saying that the country could ‘smile again’.

Following in the footsteps of England, Ireland, and the Netherlands, Denmark has announced that it will soon be dramatically pulling back on COVID restrictions within the country.

However, unlike these three European nations which are keeping some measures in place while pulling others back, Denmark is planning on scrapping all of its domestic restrictions from February 1.

From next month, the Nordic state’s gastronomy sector will be allowed to stay open after 10pm, with customers no longer being required to show a COVID cert in order to gain entry to restaurants and bars, according to a report by Reuters.

Meanwhile, mask mandates for the likes of public transport will be scrapped in their entirety, along with limits on the numbers allowed in retail outlets.

Speaking on the decision, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the country was now in a position to “smile again”.

“We have incredibly good news, we can now remove the last coronavirus restrictions in Denmark,” Politico reports Frederiksen as saying at a press conference.

The PM noted that while it may appear “strange and paradoxical” that the government chose to loosen restrictions at a time when case numbers are at record highs, the nation’s health minister affirmed that those numbers do not pose a significant threat.

“The situation in Denmark is that we have this decoupling between infections and intensive care patients, and it is mainly due to the large attachment among Danes to revaccination,” the Health Minister, Magnus Heunicke, said. “That is the reason why it is safe [to loosen measures] and the right thing to do now.”

According to Politico, Denmark is the first European country to fully abolish all of its domestic restrictions in relation to the Chinese Coronavirus, with Reuters noting that only measures in relation to travel from abroad will remain in place after February 1.

Denmark’s abolition of restrictions targeting the Chinese Coronavirus comes as a sea change against lockdown measures takes hold across Europe.

Many countries in Europe have pulled back on harsh COVID rules in recent days, with more and more opting to dump hardline measures, such as vaccine passes and...

DeSantis Riles the Left Up with Merciless Ad Showing Fauci Contradicting Himself, Video Ends Telling Him to 'Pound Sand'

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is using Dr. Anthony Fauci’s record of changing his position as a way to both mock Fauci and make a few campaign dollars.

A new campaign ad features Fauci changing his position on multiple COVID-19 issues.

“Dr. Fauci. He flips. He flops. But he can’t stop freedom in Florida,” the ad’s text says.

It closes with a pair of flip-flops in the sand with the text, “Fauci can pound sand” shown.

The flip-flops are not just any old bit of beach footwear.

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A strap on the top reads, “freedom over Fauci,” while on the sole, the words “pound sand” are printed.

The DeSantis campaign tweeted the ad with a jab at Fauci.

“After 600+ days of ineffective lockdowns & mandates, 3 things are certain with Dr. Fauci: He flips. He flops. He fails. To commemorate Fauci’s flip flopping, we’re launching EXCLUSIVE Freedom Over Fauci Flip Flops on our Team DeSantis storefront,” the campaign tweeted.

The ad drew the ire of MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, according to the Washington Examiner.

“The stupidity in this one is very strong,” he said. “I thought his ads four years ago were the dumbest ads I’ve ever seen, where he’s reading Donald Trump bedtime stories to his baby, who I’m betting is sorry he did that now.”

Scarborough then jabbed the Republican governor’s supporters by saying, “I guess stupid people will like the ad.”

He said Fauci’s ever-changing wisdom is simply a reflection of changing information.

“To attack a guy because, well, the realities of a virus change as the virus changes as the virus moves, as the virus, you know, mutates. It just — again, the height of stupidity. It got him elected last time. I suppose it will get him elected again this time, but just, again, so stupid. It should make your teeth hurt,” he said.

As noted by Florida Politics, Fauci has been a frequent target for DeSantis.

“Dr. Fauci is at it again, folks,” the website quoted DeSantis as saying. “He took to national TV — where he spends most of his time — to pledge support for a permanent mask mandate for air travel. What started as ’15 days to slow the spread’ has now descended into...

(Left) Lee pouring accelerant around the pawn shop. (Right) Lee standing in front of the blazing pawn shop after setting it on fire.

A BLM rioter who set fire to a pawn shop and killed a man is facing a shorter sentence than normal because, according to US Attorney W. Anders Folk, he was “caught up in the fury” of the Black Lives Matter riots.

On June 5, 2020, in Minnesota, BLM riots were breaking out and becoming violent. Hundreds of people took to the streets and began looting local businesses, vandalizing private property, and recklessly setting fire to buildings. Montez Terriel Lee Jr. was one of these violent actors.

That night, Lee broke into a pawn shop, poured fire accelerant around, and set it on fire. These actions were caught on video.

According to court records, one of the videos captures Lee standing in front of the burning shop, saying, “F*** this place. We’re gonna burn this b**** to the ground.”

Over two months after Lee burned down the shop, a 30-year-old man, Oscar Lee Stewart, was found dead among the debris.

By joining in the violence of the BLM riots and being misled into thinking that was the right way to act, Lee took the life of an innocent man that night.

The typical sentence that would be applied to Lee’s case is over 200 months of incarceration. However, in a memo from the US Attorney’s office for the District of Minnesota, a lesser sentence was recommended because of the “motives” behind Lee’s actions.

The memo describes Lee’s motives as almost admirable. Forgetting the violence he enacted and the innocent life he took, at least his intentions were “good”: