90 Miles From Tyranny

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Morning Mistress

Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,

Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.

If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.

Please Leave Silently Into The Night......

You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?

It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,

from the beautiful to the repugnant,

from the mysterious to the familiar.

If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,

you could be inspired, you could be appalled.

This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.

You have been warned.

CANADA "DIGITAL CURRENCY" BETTER START WAKING UP

With war raging across the world’s bread basket, risk of World War 3 the highest it has been since the Cuban missile crisis, commodities hitting new all time highs every single day, inflation (even the watered down CPI version) set to hit 10% in a few months, and the Fed rushing to hike rates so high it slams the US into a pre-scripted recession (as it somehow hopes to make a “soft landing” even as fed funds futures signal a hard landing and at least 50 bps of rate cuts after the burst of hiking is over later this year), it is easy to forget that China is still around.

So here is a vivid remind that not only has nothing been fixed in the country that single-handedly pulled the world out of depression during the GFC, but that things are going from bad to much worse.

1. China on brink of biggest Covid-19 crisis since Wuhan as cases surge

China is scrambling to address its most severe Covid-19 outbreak in two years, reporting soaring cases in a fresh wave that has seen the country tweak its zero-Covid policy by allowing rapid antigen tests for public use. After topping 1,000 for two days in a row, new locally transmitted cases surged to more than 3,100, this time driven by a spike in symptomatic infections, the National Health Commission reported on Sunday. It came as 16 provinces reported new coronavirus infections, as did the four megacities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing.

As a result of the latest covid breakout, China’s government has shut down the city of Shenzhen, a city of 17.5 million people known as China’s Silicon Valley, and is restricting access to Shanghai by suspending bus services. All businesses except those that supply food, fuel and other necessities were ordered to close or work from home. That includes Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese slaves:

FOXCONN SUSPENDS OUTPUT AT CHINA HQ, IPHONE SITE IN SHENZHEN

And since the port of Shenzhen – one of the world’s busiest container post is now also locked down, expect a fresh round of cascading chaos in Transpacific supply chains, just in time to join the snarled Transatlantic supply chains as the Ukraine war cripples all global seaborne traffic.

2. Chinese stocks are crashing

The Hang Seng tech index has plunged 61% from its peak last year. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index of U.S.-traded stocks has fared even worse, down 68%, and with another bad day or two, the peak-to-trough decline could surpass its 72% crash in the 2008 global financial crisis. Meanwhile, in the US, Chinese ADRs collapsed 10% in a single day on Friday, the worst selloff since 2008, after the SEC listed 5 Chinese companies at risk of delisting should they refuse to show their books to American auditors, stoking panic every ADR will eventually be booted out. “The market is very panicky,” Paul Pang at Pegasus Fund Managers Ltd., who has sold almost all his stake in Alibaba Group, told Bloomberg. “Sanctions against China are not impossible, if China refuses to take sides on the war in Ukraine. Tech shares are among those risky names exposed in the crossfires in the rising Sino-U.S. tensions.”

Fear of a fresh regulatory crackdown by Beijing has escalated lately as policy makers proposed more curbs on online games. Earnings results so far have been unable to ease any worry about the growth outlook amid weakening consumer demand in China. The Hang Seng Tech Index is the one of the world’s worst-performing tech gauges since the war in Ukraine broke out and has dropped 17% in March, on course for its biggest monthly drop ever.

“We can’t see any rebound signals at the present,” said Yan Kaiwen, analyst at China Fortune Securities. The market is concerned about inflation because of the higher prices for oil and other commodities, which will have a negative impact on the global economy, he said.

3. Chinese bonds are crashing

While nothing new to those who have been following the collapse in the Chinese junk bond market – closely linked to China’s property sector – China credit stress reached new extremes in the offshore, USD market, where average junk yields rose above...

Visage à trois #119

Three Videos For Your Viewing Pleasure:

Three Additional Bonus Videos:

Quick Hits Of Wisdom, Knowledge And Snark #294

Transgender serial killer, 83, charged with murder after cops find woman’s severed head in apartment

An 83-year-old serial killer was charged with second-degree murder after a woman’s severed head was found in the transgender suspect’s apartment, prosecutors said Thursday.

When cops went to Harvey Marcelin’s apartment to execute a search warrant and question "her" about a headless, limbless torso found dumped on a Brooklyn street, they found what they believe is the head of Susan Leyden, who was reported missing March 2, prosecutors said.

Marcelin served two stints in prison for killing two girlfriends in Manhattan and now identifies as a transgender woman, authorities said.

Marcelin was arrested for concealment of a human corpse on March 4 and ordered held without bail. She was indicted Thursday on second-degree murder and other charges.

A source said the head found in Marcelin’s apartment was in a plastic bag.

“Last week my office charged Harvey Marcelin with allegedly concealing the severed head of a woman in her home and discarding the victim’s torso in a bag on the street,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

”Today, the grand jury indicted Harvey Marcelin for murder, and my office is committed to vigorously seeking justice,” Gonzalez said. “The facts of this horrific case are gruesome and unsettling, and my heart is with the victim’s family and friends,”

A contractor who worked on the newly opened affordable housing development where Marcelin lives said he saw the suspect in the hallways and remembered her distinctive wig, nails and lipstick.

“I’m a pretty social guy,” the contractor said. “But something told me to stay away. With some people, you just get a vibe. Murdering someone is one thing. But killing and chopping?”

Leyden’s torso was found in a multicolored...

cat astrophe

Reflex in the sky

Warn you you're gonna die
Storm coming, you better hide
From the atomic tide

Flashes in the sky
Turns houses into sties
Turns people into clay
Radiation minds decay

Robot minds of robot slaves
Lead them to atomic graves
Plastic flowers, melting sun
Fading moon falls upon

Dying world of radiation
Victims of man's frustration
Burning globe of obscene fire
Like electric funeral pyre

Anti-Radiation Pills, Survival Food Selling Out in US Amid Panic Buying

Americans release their inner prepper.

Anti-radiation pills and survival food is selling out in the United States amid panic buying in response to the potential for the war in Ukraine to escalate to a nuclear conflict.

Manufacturers in the US are reporting depleted inventories of potassium iodide tablets, with IOSAT having sold out of its 14 pack boxes which ordinarily sell for $13.99 on their website.

Demand is so intense that the same box of pills is now selling for around $149 dollars on eBay.

Four boxes of Thyrosafe potassium iodide tablets were also selling for $132.50, while another listing featured a box of IOSAT 130 mg pills costing $89.95 each.

New York-based company Anbex, Inc., which supplies the pills to retailers, is completely out of stock and won’t have new stock until possibly next month.

“We hope to be back in stock in early April but we’re pushing for late March,” said Troy Jones, vice president of sales and marketing for Anbex.

Jones said demand began to spike in late February and had come from hospitals, municipalities and governments in the aftermath of Russia taking control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

“The big run started on February 23 through February 28,” said Jones. “We sold out of all the inventory we had.”

The last time suppliers experienced similar spikes was back in 2018, when President Donald Trump tweeted he had a “much bigger & more powerful” button than North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, in addition to the false ballistic missile alert over Hawaii that happened in January of the same year.

As we previously highlighted, despite being largely useless in the event of an actual nuclear war (they’re meant to be used to protect against radiation leaks from nuclear plants), Europeans have also been panic buying...