Society's ChildS


Pirates

JPMorgan manipulated gold market to make money from hedge funds, ex trader tells jury

Tom Schoenberg
Bloomberg
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 12:35 UTC
Bullion gold
© David Gray/Bloomberg , BloombergFILE PHOTO: A worker handles ABC Bullion one kilogram gold bars at the ABC Refinery smelter in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on Thursday, July 2, 2020.
Big hedge funds like Moore Capital Management and Tudor Capital Corp. were so important to JPMorgan Chase & Co. that its precious-metals traders routinely manipulated gold and silver markets to get the best prices on client orders, a former trader for the bank told a Chicago jury.

"They brought in a huge volume of trading, which made the bank a lot of money and our team a lot of money," John Edmonds, a former trader on JPMorgan's precious metals desk, said Wednesday when asked about Tudor. He made similar statements about Moore Capital. "Knowing that they're trading in the market and what they're doing" was valuable information for the bank, he said.

Edmonds worked on the JPMorgan precious-metals desk for more than a decade and pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy and commodities fraud related to "spoof" trading. He is testifying against his former boss, Michael Nowak, the longtime head of the trading desk, gold trader Gregg Smith and hedge funds salesman Jeffrey Ruffo. They're accused of thousands "spoof" trades in which huge orders were placed and quickly canceled in the hope of moving prices up or down so they could complete desired trades.
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Cult

Syringe attacks puzzle European authorities


RT
Tue, 12 Jul 2022 10:29 UTC
Syringe
© Unsplash / Mat Napo
After a wave of assaults in France, the disturbing phenomenon has spread to Spain.

Revelers at the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain have reported being stuck with syringes in crowded public places. Little is known about the substances they've been injected with, but one curious detail in victim testimony may link the attacks with a spate of similar syringe assaults in France.

As crowds gathered in Pamplona to watch daredevils run with the bulls over the weekend, a more sinister threat was lurking on the sidelines. Four young people - three females and a male - told police that they felt a pinching sensation before being overcome with dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and cold sweats.

All four were taken to the hospital by their friends, El Mundo reported on Tuesday. None were separated from their friends, none suffered sexual abuse, and no toxic substances were found in samples from the victims.

While the national authorities have opened an investigation, police don't know who carried out the attacks or why. "There is nothing concrete and nothing clear at the moment," a police source told El Mundo. "We need more time."

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Pathological persistence? Amber Heard loses request for new trial and wrong juror investigation in Johnny Depp suit

David Ng
Breitbart
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 10:12 UTC
amber heard
© JIM LO SCALZO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Amber Heard had another bad day in court.

The Aquaman star has failed in her attempt to overturn the $10 million verdict in the case, with a judge rejecting her requests for a new trial and an investigation into what her team claimed was a misplaced juror.

On Wednesday, Judge Penny Azcarte handed down her decision, saying there was no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing.

"The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict," wrote the Virginia judge. "The only evidence before this Court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the Court's instructions, and orders. This Court is bound by the competent decision of the jury."

Comment: See also:

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Brick Wall

NY Supreme Court rules state's quarantine and isolation orders unconstitutional

Jarryd Jaeger
The Post Millennial
Thu, 14 Jul 2022 08:58 UTC
new york supreme court
In February, New York Democratic governor Kathy Hochul enacted a new order that would allow health officials to enforce isolation and quarantine wherever they deemed it necessary.

On Friday, a New York Supreme Court judge struck down the rule after finding it to be in violation of state law.

Rule 2.13 of the law, titled "Isolation and Quarantine Procedures," reads as follows:

Comment: See also:

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Eye 1

Bring back mask mandates because pandemic "nowhere near over", WHO tells governments

Will Jones
The Daily Sceptic
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 08:00 UTC
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom
The COVID-19 pandemic is "nowhere near over", warns WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as he urges governments to reintroduce measures like face masks to "push back" against a rise in global Covid infections. GB News has more.
In a speech at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, the Director-General emphasised his "concern" over rising coronavirus cases, stating "further pressure" is being burdened on "health systems and health workers".

Commending the progress governments have made globally in tackling the pandemic, the WHO Director-General said: "Of course, there's been a lot of progress. We have safe and effective tools that prevent infections, hospitalisations and deaths. However, we should not take them for granted."

Noting the recent spike in hospitalisations of patients with coronavirus, he urged governments to "deploy tried and tested measures like masking, improved ventilation and test and treat protocols".

The WHO's emergency committee on the pandemic met on Friday via video-conference and determined the pandemic remains a matter of Public Health Emergency of International concern, the highest alarm the WHO can issue.

Acknowledging several "interlinked challenges" the committee stated how reduced testing made it increasingly difficult to monitor the spread of variants and how measures are reducing these.

He encouraged governments to "review and adjust" their COVID-19 protocol and response plans, in accordance with current epidemiology.
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Yellow Vest

Dutch farmers rise up against food system 'reset'

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 07:11 UTC
dutch farmers protest 2022
The Netherlands is currently in an uproar over the government's decision to reduce the number of livestock by 30% in an effort to halve its nitrogen and ammonia pollution by 2030.1 As a result of this "green" policy, many farmers will be driven out of business.2 As with current energy shortages, the resulting reductions in farming are said to be an "unavoidable" part of the Green Agenda to improve air, soil and water quality.3

The Dutch government has even appointed a new Minister of Nature and Nitrogen to oversee the climate goals.4 Provincial authorities now have one year to work out how they're going to meet the emission reduction targets.

In a public statement about the new emissions targets, the Dutch government admitted that "The honest message ... is that not all farmers can continue their business."5 Those who do continue will have to come up with creative solutions to meet the new emissions restrictions.


Comment: See also: Dutch farmers are fed up with totalitarianism rebranded as 'climate change'

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Gear

Rage Against the Machine has become the machine

Chris Queen
PJ Media
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 11:27 UTC
Rage Against the Machine
© Jeff Chiu
Confession: I've always hated the band Rage Against the Machine. Musically, I've never cared for any of that rap-rock stuff, but their politics was what really bothered me. While many of my peers either ignored the clear Marxist messages of Rage's music or missed it altogether, I saw right through it.

MTV featured glowing profiles of band members, especially founding guitarist Tom Morello, for their radical activism, which was often literally communistic, and their videos made no attempt to hide what their lyrics were expressing.

Rage has always cultivated an anti-authoritarian ethos. Witness the poetry that is one of their most famous songs, "Killing in the Name," a song whose outro consists of the line, "F*** you, I won't do what you told me" a whopping 16 times.

These days, their rhetoric more closely resembles this meme I saw on Twitter:

Rage Against the Machine
© Meme from Twitter

Comment: Leftist authoritarianism among rock stars? Reminds us of these stories:

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Stock Down

US inflation reached new 40-year high in June of 9.1%

Christopher Rugaber
Associated Press
Wed, 13 Jul 2022 23:31 UTC
gas prices inflation
© AP Photo/Matt RourkeGas prices are displayed at a filling station in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 12, 2022. On Wednesday, July 13, 2022, the Labor Department will report on U.S. consumer prices for June.
Surging prices for gas, food and rent catapulted U.S. inflation to a new four-decade peak in June, further pressuring households and likely sealing the case for another large interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve, with higher borrowing costs to follow.

Consumer prices soared 9.1% compared with a year earlier, the government said Wednesday, the biggest yearly increase since 1981, and up from an 8.6% jump in May. On a monthly basis, prices rose 1.3% from May to June, another substantial increase, after prices had jumped 1% from April to May.

The ongoing price increases underscore the brutal impact that inflation has inflicted on many families, with the costs of necessities, in particular, rising much faster than average incomes. Lower-income and Black and Hispanic Americans have been hit especially hard, because a disproportionate share of their income goes toward such essentials as housing, transportation and food.
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Green Light

There's no despot so tyrannical as a green politician


Issues & Insights
Tue, 12 Jul 2022 00:00 UTC
AOC image
© UnknownRepresentative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-NY
Reports of unrest over environmental policies from the Netherlands and Sri Lanka are much more than novelty news. What is happening in both spots is a lesson that has to be learned quickly. If not, there's deep trouble ahead.

Dutch farmers, whose history of crop yields puts them among the most productive in the world, continue to protest rules that limit their use of nitrogen, a nutrient in commercial fertilizers that converts to nitrous oxide, which is feared as a greenhouse gas. Officials expected them to cut use 50% nationally, which means in some regions, the reductions will be as high as 95%.

The crippled farmers, their survival under attack, are, as they should be, revolting. ​​Wytse Sonnema of the Netherlands Agriculture and Horticulture Organization told the Australian media:
"Imagine if you're a fifth-generation farmer, living on your land, making a living, being part of the local community" and suddenly there is "basically no future, no future for farming, but also no future for the economic, social, cultural fabric of the countryside. There's a broad sense of frustration, of anger, even despair amongst farmers at the moment."
But political officials don't care about the effects of their tyranny. They're too dedicated to demonstrating before the world their great green cred.

Don't think that it can't happen here.

Canada, which exports tens of billions of dollars of agricultural products to the U.S. every year and is, unfortunately, "led" by boy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, plans to force nitrogen cuts that will "decimate Canadian farming." And also don't think such a truly rancid idea won't easily make it across the border to Washington and blue state capitals itching to put more restrictions on an ostensibly free people to carry out their eco-madness.
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Footprints

Ukraine frees warlord sentenced for torture


RT
Tue, 12 Jul 2022 15:26 UTC
twitter
© Screenshot from kp ukraine/twitter
Ruslan Onishchenko, former commander of the notorious Ukrainian Tornado battalion, whose fighters were convicted of torturing people in Donbass, has reportedly been released from jail and may join the fight against Russia.

Ukraine began selectively releasing inmates who want to serve on the frontline shortly after Moscow attacked the neighboring state in late February.

The now-disbanded Tornado unit was formed in 2014 to fight for Kiev during the conflict in Donbass. Despite the unit's designation as a volunteer police battalion, former felons were allowed to become members. Onishchenko had three prior convictions before joining the unit.

In 2017, a Kiev court sentenced Onishchenko to 11 years in prison for kidnapping and torture. Several of his fellow fighters also received jail sentences for kidnapping, torture, rape, and looting.
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