- Is The End Of COVID-19 In Sight?
Is The End Of COVID-19 In Sight?
Delivering his most upbeat message since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said that the end of the pandemic was finally near.
“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said at a media briefing on Wednesday.
Using the image of a marathon runner approaching the finish line, Dr. Tedros warned against complacency, however, saying that “a marathon runner does not stop when the finish line comes into view. She runs harder, with all the energy she has left.”
Statista’s Felix Richter notes that while the world is still seeing millions of new Covid-19 cases per week, with the real number probably even higher due to limited testing, those infections are no longer resulting in as many severe cases or deaths as we’ve seen in earlier stages of the pandemic.
You will find more infographics at Statista
The weekly number of deaths is now lower than it has been at the end of March 2020, and it’s been below that level for a couple of months now.
Make no mistake, more than one million people still died from Covid this year, but the latest trend in hospitalizations and deaths is encouraging.
“We can see the finish line,” Dr. Tedros said in conclusion.
“We’re in a winning position. But now is the worst time to stop running.” To help the world cross the line and avoid the risk of “more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty, the WHO released six policy briefs outlining best practices to save lives, protect health systems, and avoid social and economic disruption.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 23:20 - 'Toxic' Values Undermining US Ability To Tackle Beijing: Senator
‘Toxic’ Values Undermining US Ability To Tackle Beijing: Senator
Authored by Daniel Y. Teng via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Visiting Australian Senator Andrew Hastie says basic struggles with identifying gender are undermining the ability of the United States to lead the developed world in opposing military aggression from Beijing.
“These tensions are tearing at the fabric of our democracies, many among us are no longer confident of truth, tradition, and our democratic values,” Hastie, a former Special Air Service operative, told the Hudson Institute on Sept. 15.
U.S. Military Academy cadets attend the 2020 graduation ceremony at West Point, New York, on June 13, 2020. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images) The now-opposition defence minister pointed to research by Prof. James Kurth, of Swathmore College, who said the real culture clash was not between the “West and the rest” but within the West itself.
“This is a clash between Western civilisation and a different grand alliance, one composed of the multicultural and the feminist movements. It is, in short, a clash between Western and post-Western civilisations,” Kurth wrote in The National Interest in 1994.
The professor predicted in his article that there would be a lack of consensus on basic issues like humanity, justice, and within politics.
Andrew Hastie during Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra on Nov. 27, 2019. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) In turn, Hastie said this conflict was no longer just playing out in universities but in the mainstream.
“Toxins are in the mainstream now, seeping through the media, entertainment, in our schools, and our families. It has brought disruption and political consequences for the Western body politic. It makes it harder for our leaders and policymakers to deal with the strategic challenges,” the senator said.
Hastie said smaller nations could not set into play grand strategies and could only follow bigger countries like the United States.
“Put starkly, if we can’t agree on basic definitions of gender, how can we possibly agree on national strategy? If we can’t agree on Western values, how can we defend the West?” he added.
“If we look up from the cultural chaos at home, we see China encroaching on Taiwan and Russia on Eastern Europe.”
An example of the ongoing debate regarding gender identity is recent orders within the U.S. Pacific Air Forces for leaders to stop using gender, age, or race pronouns in written format, claiming such a move would improve “lethality.”
“We must embrace, promote and unleash the potential of diversity and inclusion,” according to an email sent out in May to commanders in Guam, a U.S. territory just hours away from the South China Sea.
Speakers Take Aim at Media Mischaracterising AUKUS
Hastie also joined a panel discussion moderated by senior fellow Peter Rough, along with Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific security chair of the Hudson Institute, and Bryan Clark, former submariner and expert in naval operations.
Cronin took aim at Australian media for focusing too much on issues like capability gaps, money wastage, “alienating options” for dealing with China, and mischaracterising the deal as one where Australia was becoming an “adjunct to the U.S. Navy.”
“While there is some validity to these points … it completely misses the fact that America is taking a big gamble on Australia. We’re not talking about just any technology transfer … we’re talking not just about nuclear propulsion, but about technology writ large,” he said.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 23:00 - 'Sharing' Economy Continues To Spread: Americans With STDs Jump 26% To Seven-Decade Highs
‘Sharing’ Economy Continues To Spread: Americans With STDs Jump 26% To Seven-Decade Highs
During President Biden’s first year in office, cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the U.S. increased at an alarming rate not seen in nearly seven decades.
Politico, quoting preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Syphilis rates in 2021 jumped a shocking 26% — or 171,000 new infections — the most significant annual increase since former President Harry Truman was in the White House in 1953.
The CDC data found total infections in 2021 surpassed 2020 figures, increasing from 2.4 to 2.5 million.
Chlamydia, which dropped in 2020, had increased 3% last year. Gonorrhea rose 2.8%, accounting for 700,000 infections in 2021.
Health officials are voicing serious concern over the latest explosion in STDs. We’ve pointed out that the infections trend has been upward sloping over the last four years:
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2018: “STDs Hit Record Highs As Antibiotic Resistant Gonorrhea Concern Emerges: CDC”
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2021: “What Are The Symptoms Of Chlamydia” Most Googled Sex Question As STDs Soar
Numerous factors are being blamed for the increase, notably the virus pandemic, funding cuts for local health departments, opioid and methamphetamine crisis (where people share needles), and even perhaps decreases in condom usage among young people in a post-Covid era.
Instead, Covid’s disruption exacerbated problems brought about by years of budget cuts to STD programs and the pervasive stigmatization of poor people of color and LGBTQ communities where infection rates tend to be higher, according to health experts and government officials. –Politico
Politico pointed out that “preventing new HIV infections, which are tracked separately, slowed during the pandemic, and some parts of the country including San Francisco are even seeing HIV rates increase for the first time in nearly a decade.”
“Officials warn that without significantly more funding, the U.S. may not reach its goal of ending the spread of the virus by 2030,” Politico continued.
CDC warned STD infection trend shows “no signs of slowing” — and comes amid a brave new world where the Great Reset Initiative pushed by the World Economic Forum aims to rebuild economies with twenty-first-century socialism. This means most people ‘will own nothing and will be happy’.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 22:40 -
- Nearly 50 Members Of Congress Call On Pentagon To End Military Vaccine Mandate
Nearly 50 Members Of Congress Call On Pentagon To End Military Vaccine Mandate
Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,
Nearly 50 Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), have called on the Department of Defense (DOD) to withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for military members, citing concerns over the mandate’s impact on the readiness of the U.S. Armed Forces.
In a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin dated Sept. 15 (pdf), lawmakers, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), expressed their “grave concerns” over the impact of the mandate, particularly with regard to the U.S. Army.
“As a result of your mandate, eight percent of the Army’s approximately 1 million soldiers face expulsion, Army recruiters cannot meet their FY22 target, and the Army has cut its projected FY23 end strength by 12,000 soldiers,” they wrote.
Referring to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, lawmakers noted that the U.S. military currently faces “a self-imposed readiness crisis.”
Citing “sparse” data from the Department of Army, they noted that “at least 40,000 National Guardsmen, 20,000 Army Reservists, and at least 15,000 Active Army Soldiers” have not yet received a COVID-19 shot and subsequently face being discharged from service.
“The Department of Defense’s own Covid response page indicates that approximately 900,000 soldiers are fully vaccinated out of the 1 million soldiers in the Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard,” they wrote.
Lawmakers pointed to testimony delivered in July by Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Joseph Martin, before the House Armed Services Committee. During that testimony, Martin stated that “less than 20,000” people were facing discharge for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, much less than the initial figures that officials had provided.
‘Inquiries Remain Unanswered’
However, lawmakers in their letter to the DOD noted that the Army has not published official data pertaining to the number of unvaccinated service members in months.
“The opaqueness of the Department continues to frustrate Members of Congress attempting to perform oversight of the Executive Branch,” they wrote, noting that their “repeated inquiries remain unanswered.”
Republicans also pointed to the “thousands of servicemembers” that “have been left in limbo” while they await a formal judgment regarding their medical exemptions to the vaccine.
“Some have waited for nearly a year to learn if they will be forcibly discharged for their sincerely held religious beliefs or medical concerns,” lawmakers wrote.
“Furthermore, according to current Army policy, even those few soldiers who receive permanent exemptions will be treated as second-class soldiers for the rest of their careers—each of them requires approval from the Undersecretary of the Army to travel, change assignments, or even attend training courses away from their home station,” they wrote.
According to U.S Army fragmentary orders published by Fox News, the Army has barred unvaccinated soldiers from official travel unless they receive the undersecretary’s approval.
“The Department has abused the trust and good faith of loyal servicemembers by handling vaccine exemptions in a sluggish and disingenuous manner,” lawmakers said.
They then questioned who would replace the roughly 75,000 soldiers if they were to be discharged from the Army. Martin said in July that if a shortfall in Army troop size were to persist, it could have an impact on readiness.
A military member prepares a COVID-19 vaccine in Fort Knox, Ky., on Sept. 9, 2021. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Service Member Shortfall
Citing Army Secretary Christine Wormuth’s interview with NBC News earlier this year in which she noted that the Army has only met 52 percent of its recruiting goal for the fiscal year 2022, they asked, “How will it recruit another 75,000 troops beyond its annual target to account for vaccine-related discharges?”
In that same interview, Wormuth said she believes the Army would end up roughly 12,000 to 15,000 recruits short this year.
“The data is now clear. The Department of Defense’s Covid vaccine mandate is deleterious to readiness and the military’s ability to fight and win wars,” lawmakers concluded.
“The vaccine provides negligible benefit to the young, fit members of our Armed Forces, and the mandate’s imposition is clearly affecting the Department’s ability to sustain combat formations and recruit future talent.”
“We urge you to immediately revoke your Covid-19 vaccine mandate for all servicemembers, civilian personnel, and contractors and re-instate those who have already been discharged.”
As of July 1, 2022, under the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, members of the Army National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve who are not vaccinated and do not have an approved exemption are unable to participate in federally funded drills and training and will not receive pay or retirement credit.
Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate has been in place across the entire military since last year and the White House has defended the move, stating that mass vaccination will help stem the spread of the virus.
The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Defense for comment.
…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 22:20 - Mapping The Countries With The Highest Risk Of Flooding
Mapping The Countries With The Highest Risk Of Flooding
Devastating floods across Pakistan this summer have resulted in more than 1,400 lives lost and one-third of the country being under water.
This raises the question: which nations and their populations are the most vulnerable to the risk of flooding around the world?
Using data from a recent study published in Nature, Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte and Christina Kostandi created this graphic that maps flood risk around the world, highlighting the 1.81 billion people directly exposed to 1-in-100 year floods. The methodology takes into account potential risks from both inland and coastal flooding.
Asian Countries Most at Risk from Rising Water Levels
Not surprisingly, countries with considerable coastlines, river systems, and flatlands find themselves with high percentages of their population at risk.
The Netherlands and Bangladesh are the only two nations in the world to have more than half of their population at risk due to flooding, at 59% and 58%, respectively. Vietnam (46%), Egypt (41%), and Myanmar (40%) round out the rest of the top five nations.
Besides the Netherlands, only two other European nations are in the top 20 nations by percentage of population at risk, Austria (18th at 29%) and Albania (20th at 28%).
The Southeast Asia region alone makes up more than two-thirds of the global population exposed to flooding risk at 1.24 billion people.
China and India account for 395 million and 390 million people, respectively, with both nations at the top in terms of the absolute number of people at risk of rising water levels. The rest of the top five countries by total population at risk are Bangladesh (94 million people at risk), Indonesia (76 million people at risk), and Pakistan (72 million people at risk).
How Flooding is Already Affecting Countries Like Pakistan
While forecasted climate and natural disasters can often take years to manifest, flooding affected more than 100 million people in 2021. Recent summer floods in Pakistan have continued the trend in 2022.
With 31% of its population (72 million people) at risk of flooding, Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to floods.
In 2010, floods in Pakistan were estimated to have affected more than 18 million people. The recent floods, which started in June, are estimated to have affected more than 33 million people as more than one-third of the country is submerged underwater.
The Cost of Floods Today and in the Future
Although the rising human toll is by far the biggest concern that floods present, they also bring with them massive economic costs. Last year, droughts, floods, and storms caused economic losses totaling $224.2 billion worldwide, nearly doubling the 2001-2020 annual average of $117.8 billion.
A recent report forecasted that water risk (caused by droughts, floods, and storms) could eat up $5.6 trillion of global GDP by 2050, with floods projected to account for 36% of these direct losses.
As both human and economic losses caused by floods continue to mount, nations around the world will need to focus on preventative infrastructure and restorative solutions for ecosystems and communities already affected and most at risk of flooding.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 22:00 - Pressure On China To Devalue Yuan Becoming More Acute
Pressure On China To Devalue Yuan Becoming More Acute
By Simon White, Bloomberg Markets Live commentator and reporter
China’s vulnerability to a heavy private-debt load and the collapsing real-estate market increase the risk that the PBOC allows the yuan to weaken further, or that the fixed exchange-rate system with the dollar is dropped altogether.
The dollar is rallying again today, putting pressure on currencies around the world. Of significance, the yuan has breached the widely-watched level of 7 for the first time since 2020.
China has started to push back more heavily against the weakening, with the official yuan fix moving from about 400 pips lower than USD/CNY at last week to 845 pips today.
The PBoC also withdrew yuan liquidity from the market Thursday, as well as last week announcing a reduction in the FX reserve ratio for banks due to take effect today.
But it is getting harder for China to keep gravity at bay for the yuan.
China’s growth model of subsidizing the export-facing state-owned enterprise sector by repressing the household one – a policy reinforced by the pandemic – means that China’s ballooning trade surplus is a sign of weakness, not strength.
In a nominally closed capital-account country, a proxy for capital outflow is given by the difference between FX reserves and the trade surplus. If such a vast surplus was good for growth, we would expect to see FX reserves and deposits rise (even taking account of dollar-devaluation effects to existing reserves).
Instead, both are falling, highlighting that the trade surpluses are triggering a growth slowdown and net capital flight.
This puts pressure on the yuan.
Some of the weakening has been sanctioned by the Chinese authorities, easing some of the negative growth impact from capital outflow. But it is clear they are now trying to push back against the yuan’s decline.
The problem is compounded by the collapse in the real-estate sector. The debt of real-estate companies is down over 60% from last year’s peak. Overall, China has seen a rapid rise in debt over the last ten years, with the cost of servicing it increasing to over 20%, a level that has previously triggered debt crises in other countries.
Also, while the yuan has weakened mostly against the dollar, it has actually strengthened against two of China’s largest trade competitors, Japan and Korea. We may therefore soon see the yuan’s weakness becoming more broad-based, and it also falling against the CFETS FX basket, which has held remarkable steady so far.
To try to avoid a debt-triggered crisis, one lever China can pull is allowing the yuan to weaken further, or even dropping the fixed exchange-rate altogether.
It is one way to stave off the greater evil of widespread unemployment and civil unrest, dangers China could well face if growth continues to fall.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 21:40 - US Army's Recruiting Crisis Worsens As Test Scores Drop, Disqualifications Rates Surge
US Army’s Recruiting Crisis Worsens As Test Scores Drop, Disqualifications Rates Surge
The US Army has a major recruiting problem and can’t find enough young people who meet the basic requirements to enlist, according to Army Times.
Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais, second in command for Army Training and Doctrine Command, sounded off Thursday about the troubling developments. She highlighted disqualification rates for potential recruits jumped from 30-40% (pre-Covid) to a whopping 70% this year due to obesity, low test scores, and/or drug use.
Gervais pointed out the service has experienced a “nosedive” in recruits since July 2021. She explained Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores were 10% lower during the virus pandemic in 2020-21. That figure has since increased to 13% for the most recent high school graduating class.
Perhaps America’s youth was dumbed down during Covid with at-home schooling via daily video conferences. The latest Education Department data confirm reading and math scores plummeted. Maybe those kids were playing too many video games or trading ‘meme stocks’ or posting useless videos on TikTok during the pandemic instead of opening a book and learning something valuable.
Besides failing to meet academic standards, obesity was another driver of higher disqualification rates. Also, increasing drug use among youngsters didn’t help.
The challenges of today’s youth put combat preparedness in question as liberal war hawks are determined to spark World War III in Ukraine and or in the Taiwan Strait.
Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, warned in July that the recruitment goal for 2022 could be slashed by a quarter. He said the total size of the Army (including active and reserve components) will decrease by 10,000 troops this year and between 14,000 and 21,000 in 2023.
Perhaps lowering the standards to meet targets is a question the service should ponder. Even though the quality is more important than quantity, in tumultuous periods like today, where the world is shifting from a unipolar world to a multipolar world, conflicts tend to ignite — and the US — one who has overseen the unipolar world for decades — will fight ‘tooth and nail’ to maintain the status quo.
At least the youth have one thing going for them: obsession with violent video games has desensitized an entire generation to all sorts of violence where war might not be a big shock.
Remember, the service’s recruitment crisis has been an ongoing issue but has worsened in the last few years. We pointed out it’s “another signal of declining support for the federal government and its institutions.”
Maybe because the military has gotten too ‘woke‘? You know the saying: “go woke, go broke” — this can also happen to empires…
The shrinking pool of eligible youth due to obesity, low test scores, or drug use should be a national security threat to US health and security.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 21:20 - Violence In California Reaches "Epidemic" Levels As Our Society Rapidly Deteriorates All Around Us
Violence In California Reaches “Epidemic” Levels As Our Society Rapidly Deteriorates All Around Us
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
I can’t understand why anyone would still want to live in California. Yes, there are lots of high paying jobs and the weather is very nice, but crime is completely and utterly out of control. As you will see below, a new report that has just been issued is warning that violence in the state has now reached “epidemic” levels. The police are doing what they can to try to contain the violence, but at this point they are vastly outnumbered by the predators. Sadly, this is the end result of literally decades of cultural rot, and what is happening in California is going to happen to the rest of the nation if we do not take urgent action to turn things around.
Originally, I was going to write about something else today. Tens of thousands of rail and port workers were threatening to go on strike, and this could definitely cause some substantial economic disruptions…
America is bracing for chaos as tens of thousands of railway, port, and hospital workers look set to strike over the winter – plunging the country into further disruption.
As many as 60,000 railway workers, 15,000 nurses, and 22,000 West Coast port workers are plotting mass walkouts as they seek better working conditions.
Several US freight railroads said they were preparing for widespread strike and service interruptions Friday, a deadline set by two holdout labor groups in protracted talks with railroad carriers about better benefits.
But even though these strikes could cause severe short-term problems, they will eventually be resolved.
[ZH: And were resolved right before the strike was set to take place]
So in the greater scheme of things, they really aren’t a major concern.
On the other hand, our cultural decay is a massive ongoing crisis that isn’t going to go away.
As I mentioned earlier, a brand new report that was just released is warning that violence in the state of California has risen to “epidemic” levels…
The Golden State is losing its luster. A troubling new report labels physical and sexual violence in pandemic-era California a statewide “epidemic.” To put it simply, violence is on an alarming rise.
According to the new annual report from the California Study on Violence Experiences across the Lifespan (CalVEX), violence statistics have seen a significant increase since COVID-19 emerged. The report, conducted by scientists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, reports more than one in six Californians (18%) experienced either physical or sexual violence in just the past year.
If you live in one of the biggest cities in California, this isn’t news to you.
Once upon a time, the state was a place of great beauty and great tranquility, but now it has been transformed into a crime-infested hellhole.
I was particularly alarmed by the numbers on sexual violence in this new report…
While more than 1.5 million adults in California admit to committing acts of sexual violence in the past year, men were more than two times as likely as women to report that they perpetrated sexual violence and intimate partner violence.
Women also showed greater mental health impacts and life disruptions due to violent experiences, with 82 percent of women reporting anxiety or depression as a result of physically aggressive, coercive or forced sexual behavior.
Of course much of this violence is being fueled by illegal mind-altering drugs.
Some of these drugs are so immensely powerful that they literally put people into catatonic states for an extended period of time…
Can anyone explain to me why Democrat voters enjoy seeing this so much they just keep voting for more? pic.twitter.com/hq4unJn0S8
— 🗽🐷Piglosi’s Peaks🗻🐘 (@StokingFreedom) September 13, 2022
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I will never understand why people would willingly do that to themselves.
Today, we are facing the biggest drug crisis that we have ever seen in American history, and addicts will often do whatever it takes to get another fix.
Sadly, this is one of the factors that is contributing to skyrocketing rates of shoplifting all over the nation…
We are all painfully aware of the huge rise in shoplifting and even violent robberies of stores. We watch the videos of thugs brazenly raiding stores, and read about the organized crime rings that have sprung up to profit from the trend. Shoplifting has become a big, if criminal business. Chances are that if you use eBay to purchase a wide range of products at reduced prices you have unwittingly purchased stolen goods. No good way for eBay to stop the practice.
One homeless man that originally came from Alabama recently admitted that he regularly shoplifts in order to fund his heroin use…
People say high rent causes homelessness but Ben, who has been homeless in San Francisco for 7 years, says the “vast majority” are homeless due to addiction. Just 6-7% are from SF. Ben says he “boosts” (shoplifts) and breaks into cars to pay for his $60/day heroin habit. pic.twitter.com/uewKTtBuOS
— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 6, 2022
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There have been homeless addicts in the streets of San Francisco for years, but now we have reached a point where they are seemingly everywhere.
The following is what one reporter witnessed during a recent journey through the city…
I saw complete hopelessness in the eyes of haunted souls dragging themselves down the street looking for their next fix.
I saw men and women of all ages hunched over on the sidewalks with open wounds all over their bodies.
I saw the filthy tent cities stinking with human excrement and strewn with needles and pipes.
I saw children staring in horror at people dying right in front of them.
At one time, such activity was limited to the bad portions of the city.
But now addicts that have been drugged out of their minds are pulling down their pants and crapping in the streets right in front of some of the most expensive real estate in San Francisco.
This has made the wealthy people really angry, and Mayor Breed says that she is finally going to “get serious” about this crisis.
Of course “getting serious” doesn’t mean arresting a bunch of people and throwing them into prison.
That just wouldn’t be very “progressive”.
Instead, authorities in San Francisco are getting ready to launch a “soft-touch” program that will seek to “interrupt” drug trafficking…
City supervisors released a resolution for a vague ‘soft-touch’ initiative called ‘San Francisco Recovers.’
And here’s the catch, and it’s a doozy: the plan is being touted as, ‘a way that nobody’s going to jail but we’re doing an effective job of interrupting the drug market and drug scenes.’
Is this a sick joke?
Yes, it certainly sounds like a sick joke to me.
Good luck with all that.
If major cities such as San Francisco actually want to have a chance of turning things around, they need to send the police out to round up all the drug dealers.
Unfortunately, police forces in many of our biggest cities are rapidly getting smaller.
In fact, a whopping 122 officers have left the Seattle Police Department in 2022 alone…
The liberal city of Seattle is losing police officers amid a major spike in crime, 770 KTTH reported.
“We’re screwed,” former King County Sheriff John Urqhart said, according to 770 KTTH.
In total, 122 officers have left the Seattle Police Department in 2022, including six that left in August, 770 KTTH reported, citing a police source. Since the city council voted to defund the police department in 2020, nearly 500 police officers have left the force.
I wouldn’t want to be a police officer in a major west coast city at this point either.
They are underpaid, the politicians treat them with tremendous disdain, and they are often hindered by absolutely ridiculous regulations which keep them from doing their jobs effectively.
We like to think that we are so “advanced”, but the truth is that if you compare video footage from major cities on the west coast from decades ago to video footage from today there is absolutely no comparison.
Our society is melting down right in front of our eyes, and if we stay on the path that we are currently on there is no future for our country.
But the politicians insist that people like me have it all wrong.
They continue to tell us that things are better than ever and that a glorious future for our nation is dead ahead.
You can believe that if you want, but the truth of what is really happening to our society is on display for the whole world to see.
America is dying, and we are quickly running out of time to turn things around.
* * *
It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 21:00 - India Overtakes UK To Become Fifth Biggest Economy
India Overtakes UK To Become Fifth Biggest Economy
Just a decade ago, Indian GDP was the eleventh largest in the world.
Now, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the chart below, with 7 percent growth forecast for 2022, India’s economy has overtaken the United Kingdom’s in terms of size, making it the fifth biggest.
That’s according to the latest figures from the International Monetary Fund.
You will find more infographics at Statista
India’s growth is accompanied by a period of rapid inflation in the UK, creating a cost of living crisis and the risk of a recession which the Bank of England predicts could last into 2024.
This situation, coupled with a turbulent political period and the continued hangover of Brexit, led to Indian output overtaking that of the UK in the final quarter of 2021, with the first of 2022 offering no change in the ranking.
Looking ahead, the IMF forecasts this to become the new status quo, with India expected to leap further ahead of the UK up to 2027 – making India the fourth largest economy by that time, too, and leaving the UK behind in sixth.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 20:40 - Mike Pompeo Tells Chicago Crowd He's Prepping For 2024 Run
Mike Pompeo Tells Chicago Crowd He’s Prepping For 2024 Run
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a crowd in Illinois this week that he is preparing to run for president during the 2024 elections.
“We’ve got a team in Iowa, a team in New Hampshire and South Carolina. And that’s not random. We are doing the things one would do to get ready,” Pompeo told 1,100 people during a Chicago event on Tuesday, according to a Politico reporter.
“Unlike others, if I go down an escalator, no one will notice,” Pompeo joked, referring to former President Donald Trump’s announcement in 2015 that he was running.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference at The Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The Epoch Times has contacted Pompeo’s Champion American Values PAC for comment.
“We are trying to figure out if that is the next place for us to serve,” he also said during the event. “If we conclude it is, we’ll go make the case to the American people of why that is. And in the end, the American people, I pray, will make a good decision about who’s going to be their next leader.”
Pompeo, a former secretary of state and director of the CIA under Trump, made the comments while speaking at the Navy SEAL Foundation Midwest Evening of Tribute on Tuesday evening.
It’s been no secret that Pompeo may be planning to run for president in 2024. In August, the former GOP congressman said he would run for the nation’s highest office “no matter who decides to get in,” including his former boss.
“We’re going to make our decision based on if we think this is the right place for us to serve,” Pompeo said at a Faith and Freedom barbeque in late August. “If I come to believe I ought to become president, that I have something to offer the American people, I will run no matter who all decides to get in and who else decides not to get in the race.”
Pompeo has not made an official announcement on whether he will run. Trump and other top Republican candidates similarly have not said whether they will run, although Trump has strongly hinted that he would in several public speaking engagements.
In a July interview with The Hill, Trump indicated that it’s not a question of whether he will run but rather a question of when he’ll make the announcement. That came weeks before the FBI raided the former president’s Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, which Pompeo condemned last month.
“I would say my big decision will be whether I go before or after,” he said. “You understand what that means?”
Trump also indicated that the announcement would come around the 2022 midterm elections. “Do I go before or after? That will be my big decision,” he said.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 20:20 - One Year Of Global Waste Visualized
One Year Of Global Waste Visualized
Waste generation is expected to jump to 3.4 billion tonnes over the next 30 years, compared to 2.2 billion in 2019.
This is due to a number of factors, such as population growth, urbanization, and economic growth.
As Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti details below, and in this graphic by Northstar Clean Technologies, the impact of waste generation varies worldwide and explains how it can be reduced.
The Growing Pile of Global Waste
The United States is the world’s most wasteful country, with each American producing a whopping 809 kg (1780 lbs) of waste every year.
Approximately half of the country’s yearly waste will meet its fate in one of the more than 2,000 active landfills across the nation. The country also has the largest landfill in the world, Apex, located in Clark County, Nevada.
The United States is followed by other industrialized countries like Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, and Switzerland based on average annual per capita municipal waste generation.
Compared to those in developed nations, residents in developing countries are more severely impacted by unsustainably managed waste. In low-income countries, over 90% of waste is often disposed of in unregulated dumps or openly burned, according to the World Bank.
In this scenario, the need for authorities to provide adequate waste treatment has become ever more important. However, less than 20% of waste is recycled each year, with huge quantities still sent to landfill sites.
Repurposing Waste
One of the major sources of waste is the construction industry. Every year, around 12 million tons of used asphalt shingles are dumped into landfills across North America.
Similar to roads, asphalt shingles have oil as the primary component, which is especially harmful to the environment.
However, using technology, the primary components in shingles can be repurposed into liquid asphalt, aggregates, and fiber for use in road construction, embankments, and new shingles.
Providing the construction industry with clean, sustainable processing solutions is also a big business opportunity. Canada alone is a $1.3 billion market for recovering and reprocessing shingles.
Even though 100% zero waste may sound difficult to achieve in the near future, a zero waste approach is essential to reduce our impact on the environment.
Northstar Clean Technologies’ mission is to be the leader in the recovery and reprocessing of asphalt shingles in North America.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 20:00 - Fauci Says He's Handed Over Documents For Big Tech Censorship Lawsuit
Fauci Says He’s Handed Over Documents For Big Tech Censorship Lawsuit
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sept. 14 that he and his staff members have handed over all responsive documents to a lawsuit alleging the U.S. government colluded with Big Tech to censor social media users.
“I have handed and my staff have handed over every document that the Department of Justice has asked for, and it’s up to them to make it available, but I have held nothing back from anything that I was asked to provide,” Fauci said during a Senate hearing in Washington.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a Senate hearing in Washington on Sept. 14, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) The attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana filed the suit in May, and the first tranche of discovery returned evidence of collusion, including emails between the federal officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House and officials at Facebook parent company Meta, Google, and Twitter.
Absent from the release were any messages from Fauci and just a few involving officials at the agency he directs, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
That’s because government lawyers asserted most of Fauci’s communications should be shielded. U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, the Trump appointee overseeing the case, disagreed.
“First, the requested information is obviously very relevant to Plaintiffs’ claims. Dr. Fauci’s communications would be relevant to Plaintiffs’ allegations in reference to alleged suppression of speech relating to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19’s origin, and to alleged suppression of speech about the efficiency of masks and COVID-19 lockdowns,” Doughty said.
The judge ordered the government on Sept. 6 to produce the requested Fauci records to plaintiffs within 21 days.
“Any communications that are made in that regard as far as I’m concerned are an open book and available,” Fauci said during the Senate hearing.
The Department of Justice and NIAID did not return requests for comment.
Personal Cell Phone
Fauci has acknowledged that he was in contact with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook.
Several emails between them sent in 2020 were released in 2021 through a Freedom of Information Act response.
Zuckerberg asked whether he could provide resources to “potentially accelerate” the COVID-19 vaccines, which were still in development at that time. Fauci thanked him and said that “I believe we will be OK.”
“There was one communication or two perhaps with Mark Zuckerberg in which he emailed me and wanted to know if there was anything he could do,” Fauci said under questioning by Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) in July 2021. “It was mostly propagating a public health message, it had nothing to do with the origins of the virus at all.”
Braun asked if Fauci consults with social media companies frequently, and Fauci said no. Fauci also said he was “not sure” whether he had Zuckerberg’s cell phone number.
The discovery produced so far in the lawsuit shows that Zuckerberg provided Fauci with the number, according to a joint statement by plaintiffs and defendants.
“And on August 28, 2022, Meta disclosed Dr. Fauci in its list of 32 federal officials who may have communicated with Meta about content modulation on Facebook and Instagram,” they said. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 19:40 - China Taps 'Strategic Pork Reserves' In Largest Monthly Release Yet
China Taps ‘Strategic Pork Reserves’ In Largest Monthly Release Yet
China, the world’s top consumer and pork producer, tapped its ‘strategic pork reserves’ to dump the largest amount of supplies ever into the marketplace in one month to cool prices.
A statement from the country’s economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), indicates that the first batch of pork reserves flooded regional markets on Sept. 9. The second batch is slated for Sept. 18.
“According to the amount already put in and the plan for later release, it is expected that the country and localities will put a total of about 200,000 tons of pork reserves in September, and the amount put in a single month will reach the highest level in history,” NDRC said in a statement.
The move comes as consumer prices hit a two-year high in July with a 2.7% increase YoY, due mainly to a rebound in pork prices.
Wholesale pork prices have more than doubled since March. The good news is prices are still well below prices during the pig ebola days of 2019-20.
NDRC said the pork reserves are well supplied and have more than enough to maintain an orderly market, adding it will monitor market changes if more releases are needed.
The agency also asked farmers to increase the number of live pigs sold at markets.
A new survey via research firm Oliver Wyman found that Chinese people are beginning to complain about inflation as pork prices rise. However, inflation is not nearly anywhere compared to the US and the rest of the world.
The only thing President Xi Jinping can’t afford is discontent among the population due to rising prices … thus Beijing will continue dumping pork supplies to tame prices.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 19:20 - US Announces Fund To Benefit Afghan Economy – Using Stolen Afghan Bank Reserves
US Announces Fund To Benefit Afghan Economy – Using Stolen Afghan Bank Reserves
Authored by Julia Conley via Common Dreams,
Rights organizations on Thursday responded to a new Biden administration plan to use $3.5 billion in U.S.-held Afghan funds to “help mitigate the economic challenges” facing the people of Afghanistan by saying the proposal was “better than keeping that money locked away in a U.S. vault” but must only be the first step in returning $7 billion in stolen money to Afghanistan.
Following months of outcry from economists, peace groups, and Afghan rights campaigners, the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday that it is coordinating with international partners, including the Swiss government, to establish what it called the “Afghan Fund.”
The fund will include “$3.5 billion of Afghan central bank reserves to be used for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan while keeping them out of the hands of the Taliban and other malign actors,” the Treasury Department said, and will make “targeted disbursements of that $3.5 billion to help provide greater stability to the Afghan economy.”
Image via DW/picture alliance The Afghan economic justice group Unfreeze Afghanistan said that “the freezing of this money has devastated Afghanistan’s economy and contributed to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world,”
“Over the past year, the banks have been so starved for cash that Afghans have been unable to withdraw their own money for paying basic household expenses or running their businesses,” said the group. “We believe the Afghan people would ultimately be best assisted if these funds are quickly made available for Central Bank functions.”
The money being placed in the Afghan Fund represents half of the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) reserves, stored in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which were seized by the U.S. earlier this year even as Afghanistan faced a worsening hunger crisis.
The Biden administration said earlier this year that the other $3.5 billion would be retained to potentially be claimed by the families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to settle legal judgments against the Taliban—a proposal that several families objected to, saying the money belonged to the people of Afghanistan.
Last month, a U.S. federal judge concluded that the families should not be permitted to claim the funds. On Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said the U.S. is taking an “important, concrete step forward in ensuring that additional resources can be brought to bear to reduce suffering and improve economic stability for the people of Afghanistan while continuing to hold the Taliban accountable.”
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) denounced the Biden administration’s statement as “pure spin,” noting that the $3.5 billion in Afghan funds is not the United States’ money to disburse. “The Afghan Fund is funded by Afghanistan, and the U.S. is only delivering unprecedented suffering,” said the CEPR.
Since the U.S. has withheld the $7 billion from the DAB, Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis has steadily grown more dire, with six million people facing famine and an estimated three million children suffering from acute malnourishment. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows expressed gratitude that the Afghan economy will receive a boost through the Afghan Fund, and called on the Biden administration to return the full $7 billion it confiscated.
Unfreeze Afghanistan said that now that the U.S. has committed to place $3.5 billion in the fund, the reserves must be sent to the DAB as quickly as possible to benefit the Afghan people. The DAB has already agreed to independent monitoring of its funds, said Unfreeze Afghanistan, adding that the international community must now “assist DAB in getting the technical capacity needed to implement” anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding controls.
Pure spin.
The Afghan Fund is funded by Afghanistan, and the US is only delivering unprecedented suffering.
The US confiscated $7B and directed EU allies to seize another $2B, amounting to the expropriation of 45% of Afghanistan’s economy. @POTUS #UnfreezeAfghanistan now. https://t.co/OOv5fWiYww
— CEPR (@ceprdc) September 15, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
“We urge the U.S. government, the Afghan Fund, and DAB to work closely together to ensure that the money from the Afghan Fund is channeled to the Afghan central bank as soon as possible,” said the group, “with the goal of shoring up the nation’s economy and alleviating the suffering of the Afghan people.”
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, added the U.S. must “follow this action by reassuring banks and governments worldwide that engage with Afghanistan’s central bank to provide liquidity will not face sanctions.”
Afghanistan’s current crisis “has been intensified by the Western freeze of Afghanistan’s reserve assets held abroad—a policy that has contributed to an economic depression, mass hunger, and displacement,” said Jayapal. “While this fund has the potential to unlock $3.5 billion of the $7 billion in U.S. possession—which should be pursued swiftly—we believe the full $7 billion that rightfully belongs to the Afghan people should be restored to the Central Bank.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 19:00 - New York City Ride-Hailing Still Feeling Pandemic Crunch
New York City Ride-Hailing Still Feeling Pandemic Crunch
According to reports from Bloomberg and W42ST, Uber has been rolling out its collaboration with New York City taxis which the groups had agreed on back in March.
Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports that under the agreement, cabs can be ordered using the Uber app as long as drivers opt in. Taxis will be offered at the same pre-calculated fares usual for Ubers and will be priced at the level of UberX.
The unlikely alliance between the two actors long considered mortal enemies was first announced for New York City, but has since been expanded to Brussels and a nationwide Italian cab company as well as providers in Spain, Greece, Germany and Austria. Yet, the New York deal remains most remarkable as Uber has been relegated to licensed taxis business in European countries anyways. So how did it come about in such a highly competitive and lucrative market for taxis and ride-shares like New York City?
According to March reports by The Wall Street Journal, Uber had been struggling with driver shortages amid the U.S. labor crunch, which led fare rises. A look at the development of average daily taxi and ride-hailing rides in New York City by the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission aptly shows the struggles Uber as well as traditional taxi companies have been going through since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The number of all rides in New York City plunged in early 2020 and neither taxis nor ride-hailing have fully recovered yet.
You will find more infographics at Statista
While ride-share drivers more easily entered other industries when business was down in the worst times of the pandemic, taxi drivers and operators were more likely to stick around but are now acutely looking to make up for pandemic losses. This twist of events causes taxi drivers of all people to be exactly the personnel that Uber is looking for at the present moment. But Uber wouldn’t be Uber if it didn’t use the opportunity to go all out on a new strategy. As part of the course change, Uber’s global mobility chief Andrew Macdonald said in March that his company wanted to list every taxi in the world on its app by 2025.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 18:40 - F-16 Pilot Died Because His Ejection Seat May Have Been Counterfeit
F-16 Pilot Died Because His Ejection Seat May Have Been Counterfeit
By Rachel Cohen of DefenseNews
An Air Force investigation of a fatal fighter jet crash in 2020 quietly discovered that key components of the pilot’s ejection seat may have been counterfeit, Air Force Times has learned.
First Lt. David Schmitz, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot at South Carolina’s Shaw Air Force Base, died June 30, 2020, when his ejection seat malfunctioned as he tried to escape from a failed nighttime landing. He was 32.
The Air Force’s official inquiry in the months following the accident found that electronics inside the seat were scratched, unevenly sanded and showed otherwise shoddy craftsmanship.
That raised red flags at the Air Force Research Laboratory, which called for a closer look to confirm whether the pieces were fraudulent, according to previously unreported slides provided to Air Force Times. It’s unclear whether that question was ever answered.
While the Air Force suspected parts of the seat were counterfeit, it buried the information in a nonpublic section of its accident investigation report.
Those details have come to light in a federal civil lawsuit filed by Schmitz’s widow, Valerie, who is suing three defense companies for negligence and misleading the Air Force about the safety of their products.
“What the military does is inherently dangerous to begin with,” plaintiff attorney Jim Brauchle said Tuesday. “If you’re going to be engaging in that kind of activity, you want to be doing it with equipment that’s going to work.”
The case in U.S. District Court in South Carolina targets F-16 manufacturer Lockheed Martin; Collins Aerospace, which builds the ACES II ejection seat installed on planes across the Air Force; and multiple business units of Teledyne Technologies, which makes the seat’s digital recovery sequencer.
A sequencer is supposed to execute the steps of the ejection process when triggered in an emergency. Teledyne’s product is used in ejection seats on the F-15, F-16, F-22 and F-117 fighter jets, the A-10 attack plane, and B-1 and B-2 bombers around the world, according to its website.
In Schmitz’s case, the ejection seat shot 130 feet into the air but failed to deploy its parachute. The airman hit the ground about seven seconds later while still strapped into his seat. He died on impact.
The public version of the Air Force’s official accident report, released in November 2020, blamed the mishap on how Schmitz mishandled his descent into Shaw, as well as his supervisor’s suggestion to try a tail hook landing instead of telling Schmitz to eject earlier.
Brauchle argues that glosses over the true cause of Schmitz’s death.
“What ultimately killed him was the ejection seat failure,” he said. “It has only one job, and that’s to get the pilot out and to get out a [parachute].”
The public accident report acknowledged that the sequencer malfunction contributed to Schmitz’s death, but did not offer further details.
According to Air Force Research Laboratory slides dated Aug. 3, 2020, however, the service suspected that several transistors and microchips inside the sequencer were fake. Valerie’s legal team obtained the slides through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Six transistors “had no conformal coating, were heavily gouged, had arcing scratch marks, were considered obsolete and were suspected of being counterfeit,” the complaint said. A capacitor that may have been damaged while it was handled was “partially dislodged.”
Suppliers Atmel, Analog Devices and Siliconix provided the potentially counterfeit transistors, memory chips and accelerometer chip, according to the Air Force slides.
The lab also found signs that Teledyne had destroyed evidence related to the case, the lawsuit said. Teledyne appeared to have replaced five microchips on the sequencer before sending it to the lab.
“Teledyne had removed the printed wiring board from the DRS housing and had mounted the [board] to a ‘test fixture,’” the lawsuit said. “Teledyne had cut the leads on Channel #2′s parallel flash memory chip to facilitate chip removal.”
Still, the lab said it wasn’t sure whether any of those parts caused the ejection seat to fail.
“The parts … are strictly considered suspect at this time,” AFRL wrote in 2020. “Destructive analysis on these components, and analysis of components on other DRS boards, would be required to provide [a] higher level of confidence in whether or not they are counterfeit.”
Plaintiffs hope to learn through the legal discovery process whether the components were proven fake. Counterfeiting has plagued the Pentagon’s supply chain for decades, and contractors are often unaware they are providing faulty materials.
“The DoD is aware of this problem and is working to eliminate these components from supply chains,” the Air Force Research Laboratory said.
Plaintiffs are also questioning whether the sequencers meet the Air Force’s standard of reliability. The Air Force Safety Center recommended in 2012 that the sequencer be replaced with more reliable hardware.
Delays in that replacement effort led the Air Force to continue using sequencers longer than intended — including on Schmitz’s fighter jet.
To keep an eye on potential degradation, contractors tested 60 sequencers in 2017 and 2018, the lawsuit said. Three were flagged for further evaluation. Teledyne found that two of the three units would have functioned properly in an ejection.
Two years after that testing, the lawsuit claims, the companies hadn’t said whether the third unit passed muster. Still, the Air Force relied on the test data when it decided to continue using the sequencer that ended up in Schmitz’s F-16, the lawsuit said.
Now, the plaintiffs are calling for a jury trial to recoup damages that could total several million dollars.
The complaint accuses the contractors of wrongful death, accident liability, misrepresentation of the seat’s airworthiness, negligent supervision on Lockheed’s part, failure to warn the F-16 community and the public about the seat’s flaws, and violation of South Carolina law.
Brauchle indicated a successful trial would offer Valerie some closure after losing her husband, her support network of military friends and the Air Force’s backing.
“‘Here’s your [life insurance payment], here’s your outbrief, see you later,’” he said of the Air Force’s response. “Then she feels like they’re not giving her the whole truth, and that hurts even more.”
Plaintiffs said the Air Force has stonewalled further requests for information due to a federal law enforcement probe. A recent response to the legal team cited a law that allows the government to withhold information that is “expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
“Any responsive documents to your request are not releasable to you at this time. … Your request has been closed,” wrote Roxanne Jensen, head of OSI’s FOIA branch, to Valerie’s legal team on June 22.
Brauchle said the Air Force isn’t named as a defendant in the case because it is protected by the Feres Doctrine, which blocks active duty troops from suing the military for most damages incurred as a result of their service.
Air Force spokesperson Rose Riley declined to comment on the claims made in the lawsuit.
“We are not tracking this court case or any related investigations,” she said Tuesday.
Multiple Air Force organizations did not respond to questions from Air Force Times, including the Air Force Research Laboratory; Air Force Office of Special Investigations; Air Combat Command, which oversees the F-16 fleet; or the Air Force Safety Center.
Lockheed Martin spokesperson Leslie Farmer declined to answer questions on pending litigation. Other lawyers and representatives for Lockheed, Collins and Teledyne did not respond by press time Tuesday.
The defendants are required to file a rebuttal in court by the end of September.
Schmitz’s crash sparked renewed discussion in Washington about the measures needed to keep military pilots safe. Eighty-nine people have been killed in Air Force mishaps since 2012, according to the Air Force Safety Center. Six of those incidents occurred in the F-16.
Reporting by Military.com last year illuminated concerns about whether the airman was pushed too hard to fly a training sortie with tasks he hadn’t yet tried at night because of an upcoming deployment, and about slow-moving ejection seat repairs.
Schmitz’s seat hadn’t been fixed in three years because of a spare parts shortage. The Air Force put off addressing the problem despite knowing it could turn fatal, Military.com reported.
After his death, Congress passed a law requiring the Air Force and Navy to provide updates on their ejection seats twice a year.
Lawmakers want to know how many seats are installed at each active flying base, and how many have a waiver that clears them for use, despite needing repairs or replacement parts. They also ask for more transparency regarding who signed off on each waiver and when.
The first report was due to Congress on Feb. 1.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 18:20 - Tesla Is Now Requiring Powerwall Purchases For Every Solar Roof Install
Tesla Is Now Requiring Powerwall Purchases For Every Solar Roof Install
Well this is one way to move more product and keep the energy business narrative alive…
Tesla is now reportedly requiring every solar roof install to be accompanied by a Powerwall, according to a new report from electrek. The required add-on is expected to significantly increase the cost of solar roof projects, the blog noted.
Electrek has learned from sources familiar with the matter that starting last week, Tesla is requiring every new solar roof project to include a Powerwall. The move will accelerate Powerwall deployment and add more prospective members to Tesla’s growing virtual power plants.
The company’s solar roof business has already been slow to get off the ground – recall earlier this year we noted that the company had suspended installs of the roof due to “supply chain issues”.
The company is reportedly rescheduling now for the fourth quarter of this year, the report says.
As the blog notes, Tesla’s energy sales last quarter were just $866 million, compared to auto business of $14.6 billion. The forced add-on of Powerwalls will likely help bolster that number in future quarters. The blog noted that Tesla is ramping up production of Powerwalls to meet what will become newfound demand:
On top of ramping up deployment, Tesla has been working on new energy products and testing a new version of Solar Roof (v3.5), but the company is also looking to leverage its energy assets to provide grid services, like through its virtual power plants leveraging Powerwall installations. Last week, we reported that Tesla is finally getting more Powerwall availability with an impressive production ramp to 6,500 Powerwalls per week.
After being part and parcel with the controversial Solar City bailout, Tesla’s solar roof tiles have long been at the center of controversy. Recall, back in December 2021 we reported about an ongoing SEC probe into the company’s solar panels. “The company was being probed by the Securities and Exchange commission over claims about defects on its solar panels made by a former-employee-turned whistleblower,” we wrote.
In describing the allegations made by the whistleblower, Reuters wrote that “…the company failed to properly notify its shareholders and the public of fire risks associated with solar panel system defects over several years.”
The SEC disclosed the probe after “a Freedom of Information Act request by Steven Henkes, a former Tesla field quality manager, who filed a whistleblower complaint on the solar systems in 2019 and asked the agency for information about the report,” Bloomberg wrote early Monday morning.
“We have confirmed with Division of Enforcement staff that the investigation from which you seek records is still active and ongoing,” the SEC reportedly said in their response to Henkes.
Henkes was “fired from Tesla in August 2020 and he sued Tesla claiming the dismissal was in retaliation for raising safety concerns,” the report says.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 18:00 - Massachusetts Gov. Activates National Guard, Sends Martha's Vineyard Illegal Immigrants To Military Base
Massachusetts Gov. Activates National Guard, Sends Martha’s Vineyard Illegal Immigrants To Military Base
The Massachusetts governor’s office announced Friday that dozens of illegal immigrants who were transported to Martha’s Vineyard will be taken to a military base in Cape Cod, while some members of the National Guard will be activated.
Venezuelan migrants stand outside St. Andrew’s Church in Edgartown, Massachusetts, U.S. September 14, 2022
As Jack Phillips reports via The Epoch Times, the move comes as video footage and photos show the illegal aliens – of mostly Venezuelan descent – being transported on several buses from the St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts island that is popular among the rich and powerful Democrats.
It took less than 24 hours for the libs to kick these illegal immigrants out of Martha’s Vineyard, but Biden won’t lift a finger to deport the thousands of illegals pouring through the southern border daily out of the country. https://t.co/o19mTKbc6S
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 16, 2022
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s office announced Friday that it is going to mobilize 125 members of the National Guard and said that families and individuals will be housed at the Joint Base Cape Cod.
“We are grateful to the providers, volunteers, and local officials that stepped up on Martha’s Vineyard over the past few days to provide immediate services to these individuals,” Baker said in a statement.
“Our administration has been working across state government to develop a plan to ensure these individuals will have access to the services they need going forward, and Joint Base Cape Cod is well equipped to serve these needs.”
The move by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, sparked outrage among left-wing commentators and pundits on social media.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, claimed the Department of Justice should investigate DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on human trafficking charges busing illegal immigrants.
Hillary Clinton today agreed with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sending 50 undocumented migrants to Martha’s Vineyard is “literally human trafficking.”
Twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says giving illegal aliens bus and plane tickets to New York City and Martha’s Vineyard is “literally human trafficking.” Ignores the fact Biden has been flying them around the country in the dark of night for the past 2 years. pic.twitter.com/VYpeYW1jUN
— Ishikawa Katsumi (@TwistedEagle49) September 16, 2022
On the program, Scarborough repeated the common claim that this transportation qualifies as “human trafficking.” In fairness to Scarborough and Clinton, some law professors have echoed this view which is wholly at odds with not just the governing statutory provisions but controlling case law.
Clinton, who is a lawyer, chimed in with the same dubious analysis:
“I think, Joe, you have laid out the craziness of the time in which we’re living where some politicians would rather not only have an issue but exacerbate it to the extent of literally human trafficking, as you said.”
So, as Jonathan Turley writes, MSNBC and these legal experts are telling the public that the consensual transport of migrants within the country constitutes human trafficking. While Turley notes there are good-faith reasons to oppose the transportation to migrants to the island, he points out in detail here that, as a legal matter, this is legally nonsense.
But DeSantis argued Thursday that the Biden administration has failed in its duty to secure the border, while Abbott said that New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. are suitable locations for illegal immigrants due to their “sanctuary city” status. After the Martha’s Vineyard deployment, few Democrats made mention of the crisis that’s emerged along the U.S.–Mexico border or the White House’s immigration policies.
‘America Knows These Problems’
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) told Fox Business that he believes DeSantis’ decision to send two flights of illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard will help highlight problems with the southern border.
“I will tell you, House Republicans have highlighted all the problems, and I think America knows these problems,” Gonzales, who represents Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, told the outlet Friday. “I say now it’s time for House Republicans to show action. We’re going to win back the majority here in November.”
The White House, meanwhile, criticized DeSantis’s move to bus illegal aliens to Martha’s Vineyard and Abbott’s recent decision to send buses of illegal immigrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington.
“The children … deserve better than being left on the streets of D.C. or being left in Martha’s Vineyard,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
A report last month issued by the Federation for American Immigration Reform found that illegal immigration has skyrocketed under the Biden administration, with nearly 5 million people illegally entering the United States in the past year and a half. The group blamed the administration’s policies as well as its decision to reverse several Trump-era immigration rules.
“Roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Ireland has illegally entered the United States in the 18 months President Biden has been in office, with many being released into American communities,” the group wrote in August, attacking the White House for having no “willingness to enforce our laws.”
Buses have arrived in Edgartown to transport migrants from St. Andrew’s Parish House.
There is one big bus and two shorter buses to transport folks off the island. People with bags are taking selfies and hugging volunteers goodbye pic.twitter.com/wuauiZM4Y3
— Samantha J. Gross (@samanthajgross) September 16, 2022
Sheriffs from across the U.S. slammed the Democratic leaders of several sanctuary cities for complaining about receiving illegal migrants from the southern border, they told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“It’s an example of just the height of hypocrisy much like I’m seeing in my local community. We have people of that mind that think basically ‘anywhere but my backyard,’” Culpeper County, Virginia, Sheriff Scott H. Jenkins told the DCNF Friday.
“It’s happening in every community,” Jenkins explained.
“So, it’s time for America to wake up and realize it’s not a southwest border issue or a Texas, Arizona issue, it’s every county is a border county.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 17:40 - Deloitte Sees Slowdown In Holiday Sales Growth As Inflation Grinch Hurts Households
Deloitte Sees Slowdown In Holiday Sales Growth As Inflation Grinch Hurts Households
Real wage growth has stayed deeply negative for more than a year, and consumer confidence is extremely low amid persistent high inflation that is wrecking household finances. The souring macro backdrop has also wiped out personal savings and racked up credit card debt as households struggle for survival amid soaring cost of living.
So what does this all mean for the upcoming holiday season in terms of retail sales?
To answer that question, Deloitte’s US economic forecaster Daniel Bachman explains retail sales are projected to slow from November through January.
“Retail sales are likely to be further affected by declining demand for durable consumer goods, which had been the centerpiece of pandemic spending,” Bachman said in a report.
He “anticipated more spending on consumer services, such as restaurants, as the effects of the pandemic continue to wane.”
Deloitte expects retail sales for November, December, and January to be 4% to 6% higher than the $1.39 trillion retail sales for the same period in 2021.
This compares to a 15.1% jump last year versus the same period in 2020, fueled by pent-up demand and stimmy checks, which caused consumers to spend like there was no tomorrow. There’s a noticeable slowdown in this year’s estimates as they’re more in line with pre-pandemic trends.
Bachman said the sharp pullback from last year “reflects the slowdown in the economy.”
Deloitte noted high inflation would push more consumers online in search of deals. The consulting firm forecasts e-commerce sales for the holiday season could be up 13% to 14% from 2021’s $231 billion — that’s a quicker growth rate than last year’s 8.4%.
There’s no question that this year’s shopping season will be very challenging for retailers as consumers have changed spending behaviors from durable goods to experiences.
The latest evidence of this was a warning from Sweden’s Electrolux AB, the world’s second-largest home appliances manufacturer, which said demand for home appliances across the US has plunged.
The good news for consumers is that retailers are stuck with a massive inventory glut of consumer goods. This suggests retailers will be bringing back holiday promotions more than ever to liquidate the excess — this will be bad news for company earnings.
Inflation could be the Grinch that stole Christmas as households cut back on durable goods spending amid the ongoing inflationary environment.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/16/2022 – 17:20
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