Zerohedge

It seems like every time we get close to liking Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) for having the occasional rational thought, he gets ‘handled’ and starts toeing the party line.

Well, it happened again. On Monday, Fetterman regurgitated the new deep state talking point that Elon Musk’s DOGE team is full of bad actors who are going to steal our personal data after the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency was going to audit the IRS (which Chinese hackers breached in December in a ‘major incident‘ Democrats didn’t give two shits about).

“I want to save billions of your money and make our government more efficient,” Fetterman said on X, along with a screenshot of a Politico article fear mongering over Musk and team – adding. “Rummaging through your personal shit is *not* that.“

I want to save billions of your money and make our government more efficient.

Rummaging through your personal shit is *not* that.

A party of chaos loses—always. pic.twitter.com/vMvNtnHqrr

— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) February 17, 2025

To which Musk replied: “Bruh, if I wanted to rummage through random personal shit, I could have done that at PAYPAL. Hello???“

“Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem,” referring to what appears to be massive fraud within the US Social Security system that Fetterman apparently doesn’t think is a big deal. 

“Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country. Think about that for a second …”

Bruh, if I wanted to rummage through random personal shit, I could have done that at PAYPAL. Hello???

Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem.

Obviously.

Some of these people would have been alive… https://t.co/L17rSBR1Tb pic.twitter.com/6hBqAJ5TbF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

Let’s see if Fetterman gets another tap on the shoulder.

🤣

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025

True pic.twitter.com/M3DRjhzjBd

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) February 17, 2025

In their defense, some of them don’t look a day over 125

— CloudStride Guy™ (@cloudstridetech) February 17, 2025

Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

Krakatoa Blows

“’Save democracy’ is code phrase for a club of delusional people who belong to a delusional group that does delusional things to justify their delusions.” 

– Wendy Williamson

You’ve got to wonder who at CBS-News thinks it’s a good idea to quadruple down on mendacious grandstanding when the network faces a $20-billion lawsuit from Donald Trump — for assisting Kamala Harris’s campaign (aka election interference) — while the FCC under new Commissioner Brendan Carr questions the network’s license to operate on the grounds of “news distortion” and violation of the broadcast news fairness doctrine.

So, on Sunday night February 16, CBS’s flagship news show, 60-Minutes, pitched a doubleheader of knowingly faked-up feature pieces intended to scramble American minds to benefit the Party of Chaos and its manager, the US Intel Blob. 

The first piece was a sob-story on how sad and unjust DOGE’s deconstruction of the USAID money-laundering operation is. Yeah, boo-hoo. They interviewed several part-timers and consultants pretending to be long-term employees of the outfit. Complete horse-shit, and they knew it. What really matters is that a whole lot of bureaucrat grifters (and politicians) won’t get paid anymore. . . and the Blob won’t be able to soften-up faraway nations for plunder with its color revolutions and other hijinks.

The second piece was a ringing endorsement of Germany’s current censorship campaign, arresting ordinary citizens for mean tweets. Their camera crew followed the German Gedankenpolizei entering apartments and seizing cell phones. The viewing audience was asked to shed tears for German Green Party politician, Renate Künast, who got dissed on “X” (“misogynist comments” and insults) — the same week that an Islamic immigrant maniac drove a car into a Munich crowd on-purpose, injuring 39 people, including two dead (one, a child). No mention of that incident on 60-Minutes, or, more generally, that illegal immigration is the big taboo subject behind all the censorship.

CBS actually preceded that gaslighting job with a bit of Sunday morning constructed Orwellian fake syllogistic idiocy by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan, who said that free speech caused the Holocaust against the Jews. Her reasoning: free speech allowed the Nazis to gain power, therefore. . . Auschwitz . . . therefore, free speech is bad. Guest, Sec’y of State Marco Rubio, told her that he could not associate himself with her thesis. In fact, once in power, the Nazis totally controlled speech and news and did not permit other political parties to even exist. All of this, you understand, is just deliberate Gramscian distortion-and-perversion of language — black is white, up is down — to defeat any attempt at coherent public debate today.

The conclusion you might draw from all this is that CBS is terrified of free speech, and is trying desperately to hide the Blob’s long-running criminal racketeering activity — which they have aided and abetted for years and deserve to lose their license over, plus pay billions in penalties, and go out of business — a rather existential predicament.

Reality distortion is no longer working so well with Mr. Trump in the White House. 

Here is what’s behind the USAID brouhaha and why it matters. 

By 2016, the Blob had become a fullblown, independent, parasitical organism on US governance. It had several purposes: 

1) to keep itself in perpetual power by paying off its voting blocs of “the poor and marginalized,” 

2) to pay its corps of bureaucrat managers (of the “poor and marginalized”) handsome salaries to win their everlasting allegiance, and 

3) to pay-off elected officials to keep voting the money flows for all that. All this created a massive class of Democratic Party activists dedicated to overthrowing the republic so as to usher-in their social equity nirvana. 

And all that was sheer hubris. More recently, nemesis arrived on the scene and all this institutional Blob power had to be diverted to a massive ass-covering operation, now in full, florid failure. And, worst of all for the Blobists, evidence of actual crime is accruing at a frightful, fast pace.

With the confirmation of Kash Patel later this week, Mr. Trump’s agency team will be complete. What follows will be a Krakatoa of revelation, drastically altering the climate of US politics for years to come. You should learn exactly how many FBI and CIA agents were moiling and roiling in the J-6 mob. You’ll find out what the J-6 DNC pipe bomb caper was all about. You’ll find out why RussiaGate was never properly investigated or adjudicated. . . how the Adam Schiff / Alexander Vindman / Eric Ciaramella impeachment op worked. . . how the Clinton Foundation made a zillion dollars . . . where all the money went that got poured into Ukraine. . . and much much more.

You will also soon start getting some actually reliable information out of CDC, FDA, NIH, and other public health agencies. Do you suppose that Tony Fauci is the only person who must answer for Covid-19?

I expect many of the following persons who were high-ranking officials — nearly all of them completely obscure to the public — to be asked under oath what they thought they were doing:

• Robert R. Redfield, M.D. — Director of the CDC

• H. Clifford Lane, M.D. — Deputy Director for Clinical Research and Special Projects, Clinical Director, NIAID

• Sarah W. Read, M.D., M.H.S. — NIAID Principal Deputy Director

• Jill R. Harper, Ph.D. — NIAID Deputy Director, Science Management

• Carl W. Dieffenbach, Ph.D. — Director, Division of AIDS

• Daniel Rotrosen, M.D. — Director, Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation

• Emily Erbelding, M.D., M.P.H. — Director, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

• Anne Schuchat, M.D. — Principal Deputy Director, CDC

• Sherri A. Berger, Ph.D. — Chief Operating Officer, CDC

• Debra Houry, M.D., M.P.H. — Acting Director, CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

• Nancy Messonnier, M.D. — Director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases

• Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. — Director, NIH

• John Jernigan, M.D., M.S. — Director, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion

• Ruth J. Etzel, M.D., Ph.D. —Director, National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)

• Dana Meaney-Delman, M.D. — Acting Director, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response

• Lawrence A. Tabak, D.D.S., Ph.D. — Principal Deputy Director, NIH

• Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. — Director, National Institute of Mental Health

• Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D. — Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

• Gary H. Gibbons, M.D. — Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

• Richard J. Hodes, M.D. — Director, National Institute on Aging

• Shannon N. Zenk, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N. — Director, National Institute of Nursing Research

I’m sure many more names can be added to the list. 

They must have known, and found out early on, that Covid-19 was created with US Government grants (possibly through DARPA), that the mRNA vaccines were ineffective and harmful, that the lockdowns were shuck and jive, and that public health officials were paid a lot of money in royalties while all this was going on.

If they haven’t shredded or deleted the info — and it’s still possible that Tulsi Gabbard can find it, anyway — the gaslight will finally get turned off and the sunlight will shine in. You know this is going to happen.

China is furious after a State Department fact sheet on Taiwan has been updated. The new updated version has dropped a line which previously stated “we do not support Taiwan independence.”

The State Department has downplayed it as a “routine” update to its online fact sheet on American relations with Taiwan. The change happened last week, but has now triggered a strong rebuke from Beijing, which fears Washington is changing its official long-running policy of not officially endorsing effots toward Taiwan political independence and sovereignty.

The fact sheet still displays a US commitment to ‘One China’ – but still the Chinese Foreign Ministry has on Monday called on the Trump administration to “immediately correct its mistakes” over the removal of the line.

The statement from Beijing warned of “further serious damage” to China-US relations amid a return of Trump’s ‘America First’ policy.

“The US State Department’s revision of the list of facts regarding US-Taiwan relations represents a serious regression in its stance on Taiwan…(and) sends a seriously erroneous message to the separatist forces advocating for Taiwan independence,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a briefing.

“This is further evidence of the US stubbornly adhering to the erroneous policy of using Taiwan to contain China. We urge the US to immediately correct its mistakes,” Guo added, and emphasized Trump must handle the Taiwan issue with “utmost caution.”

As for the updated State Dept. page, it states that “We continue to have an abiding interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side.”

“We expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means, free from coercion, in a manner acceptable to the people on both sides of the strait.”

But again, Beijing is saying this marks a “serious regression” even as the US administration shrugs off the change. Yet in recent history, even the slightest changes or updates in policy seen as anti-China typically results in swift rebuke from Beijing.

The prior version of the fact sheet was more robust in distancing the US from an open policy of encouraging the independence of Taiwan from China.

The fact sheet just as of less than a week ago said the US opposed “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”

Rubio’s State Department has changed the content of its fact-sheet on Taiwan from the previous administration:

While still opposing “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side,” it has dropped the phrase “we don’t support Taiwan independence”

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇹🇼 pic.twitter.com/8LNaXNx0fR

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) February 16, 2025

China’s PLA military has been once again ramping up flights and drills around the self-ruled island. For example, on Sunday 24 Chinese military aircraft flew near the island, also as a Canadian warship passed through the contested Taiwan Strait. PLA drones were also spotted conducting “joint combat readiness patrols” with military vessels around Taiwan, which the Taiwanese defense ministry confirmed. Last week, the US sent a pair of warships through the strait for the first time of the new Trump administration.

Authored by William Marshall via American Greatness,

The American people have rightly been appalled at the outrageous expenditures Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been exposing at USAID, which not only demonstrates the striking wastefulness of our government but also an ingenious public relations strategy by the Trump administration.

When Americans learn that their tax dollars are going to fund egregious projects around the world, it lays a foundation for the public relations framework needed by the Trump administration to bring American public opinion along on the necessary journey of restructuring the government. It makes people’s blood boil. And it sets the tone for the effectiveness, and need for, the entire Trump efficiency program, even though the spending in absolute monetary terms on these insane USAID projects is fairly minor compared to the overall $6.9 trillion federal budget.

Let’s consider some of the USAID expenditures recently revealed:

• $70,000 for the production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland

• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia

• $2,000,000 for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala

• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru

• Hundreds of millions to support “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban

• $40,000,000 to fund research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which gifted the world with the COVID virus

The creators of Monty Python could not have made this stuff up, although they came close in their “It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them!” sketch. It still makes me laugh. But that’s why Donald Trump and Elon Musk are highlighting these absurd expenditures. They are so ridiculous that they almost defy belief, and they serve to supercharge American anger and righteous indignation.

Trump recognizes, as Ronald Reagan did, the importance of galvanizing American public opinion as an integral part of carrying out his agenda. By inflaming the public, he puts pressure on the craven Congress to go along with his efforts to enact sweeping changes that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to achieve.

No doubt when Musk sets his genius young elves to work applying their AI algorithms on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department’s budget data, they will find waste so massive that it dwarfs that of USAID’s $40 billion annual outlay. But it’s a bit harder for the public to grasp the wastefulness of the government paying many times the price that it should be paying for anti-aircraft missiles, say, or ineffective vaccines. From a public relations standpoint, it’s much easier to see the lunacy of the US taxpayer shelling out $2.5 million for an electric vehicle project in Vietnam or $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbian workplaces.

We live in amazing times, led by an extraordinary team being assembled in the White House. Who would have imagined just a few years ago that a Kennedy family member would (likely) be holding a cabinet position as the head of HHS in a Republican administration? Ot that a prominent Democratic congresswoman and former Democratic presidential candidate would (likely) be the next Director of National Intelligence in that same Republican administration? Or that long-time liberal Democrat-voting, richest man in the world, Elon Musk, would be leading the effort of that administration to completely transform the government of the United States into a lean, mean, efficiently operating machine?

It all came about because of the vision and incredible tenacity of one individual—another former Democrat named Donald Trump, who survived a baptism of legal fire—and actual gunfire—by his political opponents to regain the presidency after all the “smart people” in Washington had written him off politically.

More to the point, however, Trump’s career as a builder and, more importantly for the present discussion, as an unparalleled master of branding and public relations, has made him ideally suited to take on the gargantuan task at hand: bringing to heel an out-of-control government bureaucracy that will surely lead to this country’s destruction if not reined in.

Trump’s highly successful television show, The Apprentice, ran for a remarkable 15 years and caused the phrase, “You’re fired!”, to gain such familiarity that it stood beside such catchphrases as “Got milk?” and “Where’s the beef?” among the iconic popular expressions seared into Americans’ collective consciousness. And what more fitting expression to address a massively bloated and overpopulated federal bureaucracy desperately in need of draconian personnel cuts?

No one wishes ill on American citizens in government service, but there comes a point where the American body politic needs to make hard choices if the United States is to continue as a viable concern. And I don’t recall Democrats being nearly so exercised when Bill Clinton let 377,000 federal employees go after he assumed the presidency, using a buy-out program not so dissimilar to that offered by President Trump, which Democrats are inveighing against. Oh, how quickly Democrats forget. Remember when Clinton said, in his 1996 State of the Union speech, that “the era of big government is over”? Those were the days when Democrats still possessed a semblance of sanity.

The federal budget deficit in 2025 will be $1.8 trillion on outlays of $6.7 trillion, according to Congressional Budget Office data. And these deficits are cumulative. Every year that mountain of debt grows and currently stands at over $36 trillion. That is unsustainable. Approximately 13 percent of our federal budget just goes toward servicing our debt, with $2.6 billion per day on interest payments alone. When a single federal government employee, the recently resigned head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, has a total federal government compensation package of $10.5 million per year, then Houston, we have a problem.

My advice to President Trump and Mr. Musk is: Keep highlighting the absurd spending. The American people will have your back.

A new study by Hastha Kalalu ranked the best U.S. cities for families, evaluating factors like home prices, cost of living, crime rates, family household percentages, childcare costs, house size, and diversity. Scores were scaled from 1 to 100 for easy comparison.

Allen, Texas, ranks as the best U.S. city for families, earning a score of 99. With the highest percentage of family households (74%) among the top ten and a low cost of living index (95), it offers affordability alongside spacious homes averaging 2,170 sq ft.

In second place, Hialeah, Florida, scores 96, standing out as the most diverse city with a perfect multicultural index of 100. It also provides more affordable childcare at $840 per month compared to Allen.

Gilbert, Arizona, takes third with a score of 95, noted for being the safest city in the top ten with the lowest violent crime rate (85.51 per capita), nearly 2.5 times lower than Hialeah. It also boasts the second-highest family household percentage (73%).

In fourth place, Laredo, Texas, earns a score of 92, recognized for its affordability with a median home price of $209.5K and the only home price decline (-0.30%) among the top ten. The city also has a low cost of living index of 88. Close behind, El Paso, Texas, ranks fifth with a score of 87, offering the lowest monthly childcare costs at $734 and sharing Laredo’s affordable cost of living index.

Henderson, Nevada, places sixth with a score of 86.3. Though its living costs are higher than some competitors, it has the strongest housing market with the highest home price growth rate (5.40%) and ranks third-lowest in violent crime.

Virginia Beach, Virginia, follows in seventh place with a score of 86, distinguishing itself with the second-lowest violent crime rate (137 per capita), making it one of the safest options for families.

Chandler, Arizona, secures eighth place with a score of 85, maintaining balanced metrics across all categories. With 65% of households being family-based, it ranks fourth in this category among the top ten. Colorado Springs, Colorado, comes in ninth with a score of 83, offering the largest average home size (2,760 sq ft)—nearly 50% larger than homes in Virginia Beach. However, it also has the highest childcare costs at $1,667 per month.

Finally, Boise, Idaho, rounds out the top ten with a score of 82. While its home prices continue to grow at 3.10%, its multicultural index (1.71) is significantly lower than the other cities on the list. Its average home size of 2,311 sq ft is second only to Colorado Springs, making it an appealing option for families needing more space.

A spokesperson from Hastha Kalalu commented on the study: “Mid-sized cities strike an optimal balance for family life, offering advantages that major metropolitan areas often struggle to match. High concentrations of families in these cities create their own benefits, from more stable property markets to better childcare options.”

They continued: “These places naturally develop into environments where public safety, affordability, and community services reinforce each other – the presence of more families leads to more family-oriented services, which in turn attracts more families. The result is a self-sustaining cycle where moderate living costs, strong community ties, and family-focused amenities create ideal conditions for raising children.”

You can access the full research here.

Via American Greatness,

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) may be only pretending to comply with an Executive Order keeping men out of women’s sports that was signed by President Trump on Feb 5.

Jennifer Sey, who is a former U.S. gymnastics champion, says the NCAA’s new policy claims to comply with Trump’s order, yet leaves itself two loopholes through which men who identify as women may continue to participate as student athletes in women’s sports.

One loophole in the NCAA’s new policy is a clause that allows them to duck accountability by stating that “member schools will remain responsible for certifying student-athlete eligibility for practice and competition.”

The NCAA newly announced policy to “keep women’s sports female” — and (supposedly) uphold the Executive Order — is no policy at all. There are holes upon holes upon holes, and mostly the NCAA wants to appear to satisfy the Executive Order while allowing the gender ideologues… pic.twitter.com/5i0Ag3zNaO

— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) February 15, 2025

This means that it is up to the schools to determine who is eligible to participate in women’s sports and that the NCAA can also defer to the schools being subject to local, state and federal legislation that supersedes the rules of the NCAA.

An even bigger loophole which is called out by Sey, is that the NCAA’s new policy states that they will determine who is what sex based upon an athlete’s birth certificate, which can be changed in all but 6 states.

Sey states:

A birth certificate is a record of fact. And it can now be altered to change — literally — facts. All that is required is a “signed statement of identity” and a photo ID for the mother or father listed on the birth certificate. What??

This practice of changing one’s birth certificate is called a “gender marker correction” but Sey says, “It’s not a correction. It’s a lie.”

Sey points to the fact that some governors, like Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson, are touting how they are giving priority to individuals who wish to change their sex on their birth certificates.

Very proud to announce the Department of Health will now process all requests to change gender designation on birth certificates within three business days. Previously, there was as much as a 10 month wait.

— Governor Bob Ferguson (@GovBobFerguson) February 12, 2025

The bottom line, according to Sey, is that, “The NCAA policy is no policy at all. There are holes upon holes upon holes, and mostly the NCAA wants to appear to satisfy the Executive Order while allowing the gender ideologues and whiny scream-y failed male athletes to still have their way and validate their kooky identities.”

Alibaba Group’s founder, Jack Ma, vanished from public view in late 2020 after making critical remarks about China’s financial regulatory system. He briefly resurfaced in early 2021 during a video call with rural teachers but remained out of the spotlight for several years—until now. 

Goldman’s Philip Sun penned a note to clients overnight titled “A pic is worth thousands of words. President Xi shook hands with Jack Ma. Buy GS A500 inclusion basket?”

Sun was watching CCTV Prime Time News when top CCP leaders gathered at the Great Hall of the People for a meeting with Chinese business executives, including Jack Ma.

“I took a snapshot of President Xi shaking hands with Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma,” the analyst said, adding, “The young man sitting to the right of Pony Ma is DeepSeek founder Mr. Liang WenFeng (born in 1985)” and “The young man sitting to the right of Jack Ma (with 2 people in between them) is the robotics company UniTree’s founder Mr. XingXing WANG (born in 1995).” 

Ma was also joined by other private enterprise heads who spoke at the event, including Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu, New Hope Group’s founder Liu Yonghao, Will Semi’s founder Yu Renrong, and Xiaomi’s founder Lei Jun.

The rare meeting between Ma, other Chinese tech leaders, and President Xi signals the CCP’s renewed confidence in the tech space after years of regulatory crackdowns. 

Summarized here:

Goldman’s Sun told clients: “As mentioned this morning, I think the symposium is highly symbolic. It is yet another very strong testimony that China’s political pendulum is swinging from the left (SOE’s) to the right (POE’s), as highlighted in the sales note below.” 

He told clients to consider “our GS A500 inclusion basket (GSTDA500)” to “get more exposure to China A-shares.” 

Ten days ago, Goldman’s Hailey He informed clients her stance on Chinese tech stocks was “cautiously optimistic,” noting that “AI enthusiasm sparked by Deepseek pushed Chinese tech shares into a bull market. 

Goldman’s He provided more color around “cautiously optimistic“: 

As China returns from one week CNY holiday, market sentiment on China asset improves as seen from the bullish price action in both equities and fixed income. Tariff reprieve, AI enthusiasm sparked by Deepseek and easy liquidity all contributed to the move.

China equities staged a meaningful rebound this week on AI optimism. HSI tech, the parameter of foreigner confidence, surged 23% from January lows. GS Asia internet research is bullish on further AI advancement and cost efficiencies. To highlight, the cost of Doubao, the most popular AI Chatbot in China, is 85% cheaper than industry average. In terms of stocks, we continue to see Tencent as best positioned in introducing To-C AI agent applications given the Weixin super-app with both social and transaction capabilities. We continue to be bullish on Alibaba (China’s largest public cloud hyperscaler) and data centers (GDS, VNET) that will benefit from ongoing public cloud and AI computing demand growth from multi-year higher AI adoption. The latest piece from equity research on China AI can be accessed here.

In a separate note, Sat Duhra, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors in Singapore, told clients, “This is a sector that has been ignored but like other purely domestic sectors, there are some bright spots,” adding, “The recent DeepSeek announcement is a timely reminder that behind the scenes, industrial policy — for example Made in China 2025 — has pushed many sectors toward world-class status.”

Deutsche Bank analyst Peter Milliken told clients, “We think 2025 is the year the investing world realizes China is out-competing the rest of the world.” 

“Investors, we believe, will have to pivot sharply to China in the medium term and will struggle to get access to its stocks without bidding them up,” Milliken wrote.

China politics observer Alfred Wu of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy told The Straight Times that the meeting was twofold:

1. to address international challenges
2. and domestic economic stagnation.

“It is certainly good that the government hears from the private sector in person. But it remains to be seen whether this will lead to concrete actions that address their concerns,” Associate Professor Wu said, citing the difficulty in getting loans and dealing with predatory behavior by local governments, such as profit-driven enforcement.

Professor Bert Hofman, an economist at NUS’ East Asian Institute, viewed the meeting as a major signal that the government would begin supporting the private sector.

“China’s innovation and development depend on a healthy private sector as demonstrated by the people in the meeting – all innovators in their own field. The fact that Jack Ma and Pony Ma (chief executive officer of Tencent) were in the meeting is good news for the platform economy, which had been under regulatory scrutiny for some time,” Hofman said. 

The return of Ma and the CCP’s renewed love of domestic tech firms comes as China’s rivalry with US tech companies intensifies amid an AI arms race and an ongoing ‘Great Power’ competition. This development is promising news for investors who have recently loaded up on cheap Chinese tech.

However, despite the rally in Chinese tech stocks and broader domestic markets, onshore equity ETFs saw 44 billion in outflows last week, marking the largest weekly outflow this year. It remains to be seen how the market will react once the plunge protectors step back.

Reports are circulating on X about a Delta CRJ-900 regional jet that appears to have crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport. While there are no confirmed details on injuries or casualties, the first images of the accident show the plane overturned on the runway.

CTV News has confirmed: “Crews responding to plane crash at Toronto Pearson, police say.” 

Flight tracking website Flightrader24 said the Delta regional jet (DL4819) experienced an “accident” while landing … 

We are following reports of accident involving Delta flight #DL4819 while landing in Toronto. https://t.co/fAGbADxfBU pic.twitter.com/ND2dGltNfY

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 17, 2025

Footage: 

Delta plane that crashed was reportedly an Endeavor Air Mitsubishi CRJ900 operating flight DL4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto Pearson Airport.

It crashed while attempting to land and came to a stop upside down.

Looks like many survivors. pic.twitter.com/g9rFPWIFPq

— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 17, 2025

Toronto Pearson confirms an incident involving a Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis. Emergency teams responded, and all passengers and crew are accounted for. Investigation ongoing. pic.twitter.com/NX0bZomYqB

— NTC Report (@NTC_Report) February 17, 2025

Breaking: A Delta CRJ900 seems to have experienced a crash landing at Toronto Pearson Airport. No causalities have been reported yet. pic.twitter.com/H7VfEByhbI

— Josh Cahill (@gotravelyourway) February 17, 2025

BREAKING🚨: Delta plane crashes at Toronto Pearson International Airport; no word on injuries or casualties pic.twitter.com/MSGpleZW6O

— Officer Lew (@officer_Lew) February 17, 2025

Air plane crash at Toronto Pearson airport pic.twitter.com/UFVABIgPEu

— Lil Shmoo (@lilshmoo6) February 17, 2025

 

 *Developing…

Another midweek winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow and ice from Kansas through the Ohio Valley and into the Mid-Atlantic. This wintry system overlaps with a polar vortex pouring Arctic air into the central and eastern areas of the Lower 48. 

Meteorologist Kelly Cass wrote on X, “Another winter storm from the plains/midwest to the east. Oh, and yes, some snow for parts of the south too!”

Cass provided snow total forecasts through Wednesday for parts of the Midwest and Southeast. 

More notably, the forecast through Thursday for the Mid-Atlantic states shows the potential for a major winter storm that could impact Raleigh, Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Philadelphia.

Meteorologist Ava Marie of local media outlet WBAL in Baltimore provided a more in-depth snow forecast for the Washington–Baltimore metro area.

It was me. 😉 I spent all weekend wishing away the snowstorm, and voila, the models continue to decrease the snow for Baltimore. I’ll let you know if that changes, but that’s the best data we have for now. Are you bummed? Or relieved? @wbaltv11 pic.twitter.com/mxfNiw5qu8

— Ava Marie (@AvaWBAL) February 17, 2025

At the same time, a polar vortex is set to dump Arctic air into some central and southern states, with tens of millions of Americans expected to be under cold weather alerts by the middle of the week. 

“Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue, & Polar Vortex Is Coming For You” https://t.co/Z3XtMvNxkZ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) February 15, 2025

Meteorological spring begins on March 1. 

Authored by Stephen Katte via CoinTelegraph.com,

Argentine lawyers have reportedly filed charges against Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, in a criminal court for promoting a cryptocurrency that briefly pumped and then tanked over the weekend. 

The Libertad project’s native Solana token, Libra (LIBRA), rallied to a market capitalization of $4.56 billion on Feb. 14, after Milei posted about the token on X. It then fell over 94% after he deleted the post, prompting accusations of a pump and dump scheme. 

Lawyers Marcos Zelaya and Jonatan Baldiviezo, along with engineer María Eva Koutsovitis and economist Claudio Lozano, have filed a criminal complaint that alleges Milei was complicit in fraud by promoting Libra, according to a Feb. 17 Associated Press report. 

Source: Kobeissi Letter

Baldiviezo also accused Milei of violating the Public Ethics Law, which is Argentina’s framework for public officials, requiring them to declare asset holdings and conflicts of interest. 

 “Within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential,” Baldiviezo said.

A judge will be assigned to the case, or it will be referred to a prosecutor for further investigation on Feb. 17, according to the Associated Press report.

Meanwhile, Argentine lawyer Agustín Rombolá, founder and associate of Rombola Mangione law firm, has filed a separate legal complaint about Milei promoting Libra. 

In a Feb. 16 statement to X, Rombolá, who is also a member of the Argentine political party Unión Cívica Radical, said he had reported Milei for alleged “fraud, negotiations incompatible with public office, price manipulation and financial crimes.”

Source: Agustín Rombolá

Rombolá also said his firm is preparing a class-action suit for people who might have invested in the token and lost money. 

Argentina’s presidential office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

After the token’s collapse, Milei requested the Anti-Corruption Office to investigate all government members, including himself, for potential misconduct, with the findings to be shared with the courts, Argentina’s presidential office said in a statement. 

The presidential office claimed that the president was not aware of the details of the project when he endorsed it and had no connection to the company that launched the token.

However, Milei did disclose that he held a meeting with KIP Protocol representatives on Oct. 19 in Argentina, where the company informed him about the blockchain project.

KIP Protocol, a Web3 company that builds AI payment infrastructure, has said it was the tech consultancy company hired to help distribute project funds to local businesses in Argentina. However, it says it didn’t create the token or act as a market maker.

Some analysts have also raised concerns about the project after discovering that Libra’s website domain was created hours before launch, and there is no public owner information.

Opposition lawmaker Leandro Santoro told Reuters he would be launching a request to impeach the president.