Today’s News 11th June 2022

• A Call To Arms: Teachers In Conservative States Are Volunteering To Carry Guns
  A Call To Arms: Teachers In Conservative States Are Volunteering To Carry Guns

  Authored by Darlene MCormick Sanchez (emphasis ours),

  Crosses and flowers laid out in the public square of the grief-stricken town Uvalde, where a teen gunman killed 19 students and two teachers, are an all-too-familiar scene igniting a call to arms for teachers in Texas and beyond.

  

  The Republican-led Texas legislature is addressing the twin issues of school safety and mass violence following the May 24 Uvalde, Texas, school shooting. Committees of lawmakers are reviewing past legislative efforts, such as the Guardian and Marshal programs that allow teachers to carry firearms in the hopes of hardening schools as targets. School officials and firearm trainers in the Lone Star State say interest has risen sharply since the recent shooting.

  Jeff Sellers owns Schools on Target, a company in Marble Falls, Texas, that trains teachers to carry firearms in schools. Since the school shooting, Sellers told The Epoch Times that he has added nine additional classes—double the amount customarily held—for June through August.

  “I’ve gotten an insane amount of calls,” Sellers said. “It hasn’t stopped. Ninety percent is because of Uvalde.”

  Bryan Proctor, owner of Go Strapped Firearms Training in Arlington, Texas, told The Epoch Times much the same thing—that training requests for the Guardian program have skyrocketed.

  “We’ve had about a 100 percent increase,” Proctor said. “It’s been pretty dramatic. I’ve sent out over 20 proposals in the past week.”

  Proctor said teachers want to protect their students and themselves, despite what people may be hearing form the select voices in legacy media.

  “What you’re seeing is a vocal minority,” Proctor said. Arming teachers isn’t about giving them something else to be responsible for—but instead giving them a tool as a last defense.

  Elsewhere, state legislatures are investigating how to make schools safer and arm teachers.

  Louisiana is currently looking at legislation similar to Texas, allowing teachers to carry guns in schools after receiving specialized training. Ohio’s latest bill aims to be less restrictive than the current law, mandating 700 hours of police training and board approval before allowing teachers to be armed.

  Republican governors Bill Lee of Tennessee and Ron DeSantis of Florida took action on school security this week. Lee signed an executive order June 6 to ensure working safety protocols at schools, and to evaluate training for active shooter scenarios. DeSantis signed a school safety bill into law on June 7 that focused on crisis intervention and training, and mental health awareness. 

  Meanwhile, teacher unions have nixed the idea and portrayed arming teachers as unpopular with educators. A 2018 Gallup poll found that 73 percent of teachers oppose the idea.

  

  Meanwhile, policies to arm teachers in some form has widespread participation throughout the country amid the horror of gunmen targeting schools for mass shootings. The RAND Corporation reported in 2020 that 28 states permit armed teachers under some circumstances, while states such as Texas and Florida have passed laws encouraging the practice.

  In North Florida, one principal at a private Christian school said he would like to see the program expanded to include private schools. The principal, who didn’t wish to be identified, said he added chain-link fencing around his school’s 40-acre perimeter and allowed just one-way traffic onto the campus, except during drop-off and pick-up times.

  Now, cameras monitor doors into buildings, and access is controlled remotely or with special key fobs. Classrooms stay locked throughout the day. But it’s not enough anymore, he said.

  He asked for training under Florida’s school guardian program to protect his school’s 340 students, ranging from toddlers to high school seniors. He was denied because the program doesn’t extend to private schools.

  Currently, it is open to employees of public schools or charter schools who volunteer to serve as guardians and their official job duties. To qualify, they must pass psychological and drug screenings, and complete a 144-hour training course.

  

  Sheriff’s offices in 45 of Florida’s 67 counties participate and receive funding to cover screening and training costs. And guardians receive a one-time bonus of $500 for serving in the program. Schools in districts can arrange to send employees for certification.

  So the principal is now training on his own to become a licensed, armed security guard.

  “It’s the only option,” he said. “Even before this last school shooting, I said, ‘I’ve got to go get this taken care of.’ So we’re doing it the right way.”

  About a decade ago, Texas lawmakers created the school Marshal program, as a way for educators to carry weapons inside schools, and later initiated the Guardian program.

  Under the Marshal program, school employees can carry a handgun on school premises after 80 hours of training. However, school marshals are restricted from carrying concealed firearms if they are regularly in contact with students. Instead, the marshal can store a gun in a safe at the school. There are 62 school districts participating in this plan, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement.

  Gretchen Grigsby, director of government relations with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, told The Epoch Times that 30 new students and nine new school districts have signed up for the Marshal program since the Uvalde shooting.

  The Guardian program authorizes school boards to arm employees under the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act and the Texas Penal Code. After completing 16 hours of training, those employees may carry a concealed firearm in the presence of students. According to the Texas Association of School Boards, 389 districts reported using the Guardian plan as of May.

  While Democrats are calling for gun control, people like Sellers reiterate that the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Sellers told The Epoch Times that the first few minutes of an active shooter situation are critical, and arming teachers could save lives.

  “In active shooting incidents, time is everything,” Sellers said. “No gun control law is going to stop evil from conducting evil acts.”

  

  Madalyn Maresh is an assistant superintendent at the Edna Independent School District, a rural 3A district northeast of Victoria, Texas. She told The Epoch Times that her district reopened the application process for the Guardian program at her school in response to the Uvalde shooting.

  “The day I reopened it, I got two applications immediately,” she said. In the three years since the program has been operational, she gets between 3 to 10 volunteers per year. Without guns for protection, teachers are forced to use their own bodies to shield students from an active shooter, she said.

  “You’ve got to find what fits your community. We got zero push back on it—our community embraces it,” Maresh said.

  Kyle Collier, police chief for City View ISD in Wichita Falls, Texas, said an additional four or five teachers volunteered after the Uvalde shooting.

  Nanette Holt contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 23:40

• Boeing & Airbus Control 91% Of Global Commercial Aircraft Fleets
  Boeing & Airbus Control 91% Of Global Commercial Aircraft Fleets

  How many airplanes do the world’s major airlines utilize in their fleets, and which models do they prefer?

  As Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach and Sam Parker details below, some prefer newer planes, such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which came into service in the 2010s. Others prefer large planes, like the Airbus A380 , the world’s largest passenger aircraft. A few carriers, like Air France–KLM, opt for variety. The airline uses 16 different active models. This contrasts with Southwest Airlines, which utilizes a single model in its fleet.

  This series of graphics visualizes some of the world’s most well-known airliners by fleet composition, using fleet data from Planespotters.net as of May 26, 2022.

  

  How Many Planes Are in Airline Fleets?

  Each plane in a fleet is tracked in meticulous detail, from its start of service date and age, to its registration number and current status.

  Above we visualized the parent airline’s current fleets, which includes planes that are either in service or parked for future service. They do not include retired planes (the historic fleet) or future planes on order.

  From conglomerates to flag carriers, here are some of the world’s most well-known airline fleets:

  

  U.S. based airlines were far and away the largest aircraft carriers, with American Airlines being the world’s largest airline by fleet size since 2019. Interestingly, Delta Airlines was the largest by revenue in 2020, despite a smaller fleet size.

  Asia’s largest airline has been China Southern, in both fleet size, revenue, and passengers carried. Together with China Eastern and the flag carrier Air China, it is part of China’s “Big Three” airlines.

  But smaller airlines aren’t any less important, or lucrative. The slightly smaller fleet size of International Airlines Group (IAG), which was formed from a merger between flag carriers British Airways and Iberia, includes planes that fly on the world’s highest grossing routes. They’re joined on the list by other smaller fleets including UAE airliner Emirates, Singapore Airlines (often ranked as the world’s best airline), and Air Canada.

  Boeing, Airbus, and Other Aircraft Manufacturers

  The story of airline fleets usually breaks down to the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, Europe’s Airbus and America’s Boeing.

  By outlasting key competitors and mergers in a difficult industry, the duopoly has solidified a grasp on the commercial aircraft sector. In 2019, they were estimated to control a combined 91% of the global commercial aircraft market.

  Which manufacturers do the world’s popular airlines utilize? Here’s a breakdown of the same airlines from above, this time by manufacturer share:

  

  Notably, European and Asian airlines have emerged as slightly bigger Airbus customers, while American carriers favor Boeing. There are also standouts, such as Southwest Airlines’ utilization of just one make, the Boeing 737.

  And a few carriers used aircraft from other manufacturers as well. Brazil’s Embraer saw usage in IAG and Air France–KLM, making up 17% of the latter’s total fleet. Bombardier‘s CJR planes, formerly produced by the Canadian manufacturer but now owned by the Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, saw use by IAG, Air France–KLM, and Lufthansa. The Airbus A220 was also originally a Bombardier plane before being acquired by the European manufacturer in 2018.

  China Southern Airlines was the only other airline to feature a different manufacturer’s plane in its active fleet, the ARJ21. Also known as the Xiangfeng (literally “soaring phoenix”), it was developed by Chinese state-owned manufacturer Comac and first introduced into service in 2016.

  What Will Airlines Use in the Future?

  Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Airbus was starting to outperform Boeing in market share.

  In 2019, the worldwide grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX model after two crashes saw 387 active aircraft grounded and 1,200 canceled orders, a debacle that could go down as the most costly corporate blunder in history.

  Soon after, Airbus took the global market share lead in new orders, with the Airbus A320 becoming the world’s highest selling family of aircraft in October 2019. But the COVID-19 pandemic quickly followed and severely impacted the entire aviation industry.

  As countries, airliners, and manufacturers look to bounce back and recover, fleet compositions are sure to change in coming years.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 23:20

• Silicon Valley Corporations Are Taking Control Of History
  Silicon Valley Corporations Are Taking Control Of History

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

  Twitter has imposed a weeklong suspension on the account of writer and political activist Danny Haiphong for a thread he made on the platform disputing the mainstream Tiananmen Square massacre narrative.

  

  The notification Haiphong received informed him that Twitter had locked his account for “Violating our rules against abuse and harassment,” presumably in reference to a rule the platform put in place a year ago which prohibits “content that denies that mass murder or other mass casualty events took place, where we can verify that the event occured, and when the content is shared with abusive intent.”

  “This may include references to such an event as a ‘hoax’ or claims that victims or survivors are fake or ‘actors,’” Twitter said of the new rule. “It includes, but is not limited to, events like the Holocaust, school shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters.”

  That we are now seeing this rule applied to protect narratives which support the geostrategic interests of the US-centralized empire is not in the least bit surprising.

  The US government thought police at Twitter locked journalist Danny Haiphong @SpiritofHo‘s account, threatening to suspend him because he contradicted the Western propaganda narrative on Tiananmen, calling it “abuse”.

  There is only “free speech” for US regime propagandists here pic.twitter.com/t9CeCGIBeK

  — Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) June 5, 2022

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  Haiphong is far from the first to dispute the mainstream western narrative about exactly what happened around Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 as the Soviet Union was crumbling and Washington’s temporary Cold War alignment with Beijing was losing its strategic usefulness. But we can expect more acts of online censorship like this as Silicon Valley continues to expand into its role as guardian of imperial historic records.

  This idea that government-tied Silicon Valley institutions should act as arbiters of history on behalf of the public consumer is gaining steadily increasing acceptance in the artificially manufactured echo chamber of mainstream public opinion. We saw another example of this recently in Joe Lauria’s excellent refutation of accusations against Consortium News of historic inaccuracy by the imperial narrative management firm NewsGuard.

  As journalists like Whitney Webb and Mnar Adley noted years ago, NewsGuard markets itself as a “news rating agency” designed to help people sort out good from bad sources of information online, but in reality functions as an empire-backed weapon against media who question imperial narratives about what’s happening in the world. The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal outlined the company’s many partnerships with imperial swamp monsters like former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and “chief propagandist” Richard Stengel as well as “imperialist cutouts like the German Marshall Fund” when its operatives contacted his outlet for comment on their accusations.

  Lauria compiles a mountain of evidence in refutation of NewsGuard’s claim that Consortium News published “false content” about the 2014 US-backed coup in Ukraine, copiously citing outlets which NewsGuard itself has labeled accurate sources of information with its “green check” designation system. It becomes clear as you read the article that NewsGuard’s real function is, as John Kiriakou put it, “guarding the country from the news.”

  US State-Affiliated NewsGuard Targets Consortium News https://t.co/pAT3ZofeNw

  — Consortium News (@Consortiumnews) June 3, 2022

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  Then you’ve got Wikipedia, which blacklists the same sites as NewsGuard and whose operatives run relentless smear campaigns on anti-imperialist voices, thereby guaranteeing a view of history that is wildly tilted in the favor of empire-authorized narratives. Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, also happens to serve on NewsGuard’s advisory board.

  This idea that anyone can ever be an impartial arbiter of objective reality is logically fallacious and is invalidated by facts in evidence. It is clear that imposing regulations on people’s efforts to understand world events on the platforms where people have come to congregate to share ideas and information will necessarily lead to an information ecosystem that is skewed to the benefit of whatever power structure is imposing those regulations. When that power structure is an alliance of oligarchs and government proxies whose interests are served by the ongoing dominance of the US-centralized empire, the information ecosystem will be biased in favor of that empire.

  The most impressive feat of engineering in the 21st century has been of the “social” variety. The social engineering necessary to continually keep people confused and blinkered about what’s going on in the world despite a sudden influx of information availability is one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of civilization, despite its depraved and destructive nature.

  The empire has had mixed feelings about the internet since its creation. On one hand it allows for unprecedented surveillance and information gathering and the rapid distribution of propaganda, which it likes, but on the other it allows for the unprecedented democratization of information, which it doesn’t like.

  Its answer to this quandary has been to come up with “fact checking” services and Silicon Valley censorship protocols for restricting “misinformation” (with “facts” and “information” defined as “whatever advances imperial interests”). That’s all we’re seeing with continually expanding online censorship policies, and with government-tied oligarchic narrative management operations like NewsGuard.

  * * *

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 23:00

• NASA's $10 Billion Space Telescope Hit By Micro-Meteoroid
  NASA’s $10 Billion Space Telescope Hit By Micro-Meteoroid

  NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was struck by a tiny meteoroid impacting one of the 18 hexagonal gold-coated mirrors on the spacecraft.

  Between May 23 and 25, JWST sustained a dust-sized micrometeoroid impact to the mirror segment known as C3, one of the 18 beryllium-gold tiles that make up the telescope’s 6.5-meter wide primary reflector, according to NASA. The shield acts as a reflector and allows the most sensitive infrared sensor ever launched in space to capture footage of stars and galaxies. JWST was launched into space in late December. 

  

  Fortunately, engineers planned for JWST to encounter space debris though the latest hit is concerning. 

  “Since launch, we have had four smaller measurable micrometeoroid strikes that were consistent with expectations and this one more recently that is larger than our degradation predictions assumed. We will use this flight data to update our analysis of performance over time and also develop operational approaches to assure we maximize the imaging performance of Webb to the best extent possible for many years to come,” Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA Goddard, said. 

  The good news is the telescope is still operational:

  “After initial assessments, the team found the telescope is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in the data,” NASA said. “Thorough analysis and measurements are ongoing.”

  There’s no interruption in JWST’s planned first release of full-color images of deep space on July 12. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 22:40

• Jan. 6 Committee Being Used To "Abolish Electoral College", "Cover Up" For Pelosi: House Republicans
  Jan. 6 Committee Being Used To “Abolish Electoral College”, “Cover Up” For Pelosi: House Republicans

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  House Republicans on Wednesday spoke out against the Jan. 6 Committee, accusing the entire effort of being a “partisan witch hunt” used by Democrats to abolish the Electoral College as well as to help cover up what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not want the public to know about matters surrounding the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

  “This committee is not about seeking the truth. It is a smear campaign against President Donald Trump, against Republican members of Congress, and against Trump voters across this country,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House Republican Conference chair, said at a press conference—the first of several events pushing back against the Jan. 6 Committee’s public hearings that are set to begin Thursday.

  “It does not serve any true legislative or oversight purpose. And it is not about finding out why Nancy Pelosi left the Capitol so ill-prepared that day … and it will not prevent another January 6 from happening,” she added. Stefanik had previously accused the Jan. 6 panel of being a political weapon “used to cover up for Nancy Pelosi’s failures.”

  

  Stefanik also accused Democrats and the Biden administration of “scrambling to change the headlines, praying that the nation will focus on their partisan witch hunt instead of [Americans’] pocketbooks,” noting how Americans are currently facing soaring gas prices, high inflation, and a shortage of baby formula.

  Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters on Wednesday, “Regarding January 6, I think the goal is been stated. Mr. Raskin stated that their goal is to end the Electoral College and the goal is to stop President Trump from running in 2024, plain and simple.”

  

  Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) said that “based on reports over the weekend, that the committee is being used to advance the radical Democrat agenda that includes abolishing the electoral college.”

  The two Republicans’ remarks come after Axios reported on June 6, citing anonymous sources, that Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) “has argued that the Electoral College should be abolished”—a stance reportedly concurred by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) but opposed by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), per the outlet. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the details reported by Axios.

  The Jan. 6 panel, which has nine members, has been criticized for its apparent partisanship, in part because the only two Republicans on the panel—Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Cheney—are both known for their strong opposition to Trump.

  “This [Jan. 6] committee is unconstitutional. It is illegitimate. It was not put together according to the rules of the House,” Stefanik said, in reference to how Pelosi had selected Kinzinger and Cheney after refusing to seat Jordan and Banks on the committee.

  The two were selected to be on the panel by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), but Pelosi rejected them, saying at the time: “As legislation allows, I didn’t accept [Jordan and Banks] as they had made statements and taken actions that I think would impact the integrity of the commission of the committee.”

  

  ‘A Cover Up’: Rep. Banks

  Banks said on Wednesday that the Jan. 6 Committee is not just a “partisan witch hunt” or a potential attempt to abolish the Electoral College, but “also a cover up.”

  “Speaker Pelosi blocked us because she’s afraid of what a real investigation would uncover,” Banks said while Jordan stood behind him. “She doesn’t want Americans to find out what really happened on January 6, and leading up to it. And she doesn’t want anyone asking questions about her role and her responsibilities and securing the United States Capitol.”

  Banks said that the committee is “refusing to answer basic questions about January 6, in fact blocking these questions from even being asked questions that must be answered to keep the capital safe, and to prevent another riot or incident like January 6, from ever happening again in the future.” He listed some of the questions at the press conference.

  “First of all, Capitol police officers we now know were half-staffed on January 6, ‘because of COVID.’ How is that?” Banks asked.

  Banks asked about why some Capitol police officers were under-equipped, with some officers having had to use expired helmets or no helmets at all while they faced some rioters. He also asked why the U.S. Capitol police “never trained to deal with riots after all of the riots that were going on in the summer of 2020.”

  “Did Speaker Pelosi communicate with the house sergeant at arms on January 6, or in the days leading up to the riot?” he asked in a fourth question.

  “Five—was Speaker Pelosi involved in the decision to delay the National Guard assistance on January 6?” Banks said.

  Maj. Gen. William Walker, who was then the commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, said in March 2021 that deployment of guardsmen was delayed on Jan. 6, 2021, after the breach of the U.S. Capitol building, because of a memo issued a day prior that barred the use of the Guard’s “Quick Reaction Force” without approval. The memo was issued by then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy. Walker, who is now the House sergeant-at-arms, had said that if the memo wasn’t issued, he would have immediately sent troops to the Capitol following the breach. Instead, it took him over three hours to get the approval from Pentagon officials to deploy that day.

  Pelosi on Jan. 6, 2022, told CNN that it was “inexplicable” why the National Guard took so long to deploy. She said that she, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), were on the phone “fighting to get the National Guard and it was very hard.”

  Banks had three more questions he relayed to reporters on Wednesday.

  “Six—why didn’t the Capitol Police intelligence unit raise the alarm about potential violence when they had evidence and intelligence for weeks leading up to January 6 that something violent could happen at the Capitol that day?

  “Seven—why did the FBI deploy commandos to Quantico on January 3, with shoot-to-kill authority, but failed to send the U.S. Capitol Police a single threat assessment or intelligence bulletin?

  “Eight—why did the House Sergeant-at-Arms refuse to cooperate with the Senate Homeland Security’s bipartisan January 6, investigation?”

  Banks said that he and Jordan were prepared to ask the above questions if they had not been blocked from the Jan. 6 Committee by Pelosi. “Pelosi blocked us because she knows that those questions leave a trail of breadcrumbs right back to [her] office.”

  “The American people are sick and tired of what they’re getting out of this … they’re tired of the theatrics. They want their congressmen and women to focus on the issues that matter most to them. But instead, this is what we’re left up to. It’s a shame. And I believe that will backfire big time on these Democrats as we near the election to come.”

  The Epoch Times has reached out to the offices of Pelosi and Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 22:20

• White House Informs Saudi Arabia: US Ready To 'Move On' From Khashoggi Murder
  White House Informs Saudi Arabia: US Ready To ‘Move On’ From Khashoggi Murder

  CNN on Friday is reporting something which has been long predicted – the Biden White House while waging economic and proxy war against one “dictator” (Putin) is rushing to quickly mend ties with and quickly embrace another:

  Senior US officials have conveyed to Saudi Arabia that the US is prepared to move forward with a “reset” of the relationship, and effectively move on from the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in order to repair ties with the key Middle East ally, senior US officials tell CNN.

  Joe Biden is headed to Riyadh in a few weeks to beg the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman for more oil, and to reaffirm the importance of the decades-old US/Saudi partnership. https://t.co/dTEmbe5J4P

  — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 8, 2022

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  This as the administration is planning an official trip by the president to the kingdom, set to reportedly happen within weeks. There’s as yet no date announced for Biden’s trip to meet with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, but without doubt all of this preparatory talk from the administration of a “reset” with the country the president not long ago referred to as a “pariah” is laying the groundwork.

  The grisly death and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist and US resident Khashoggi at the Istanbul consulate shocked the world, driving headlines for months, and not long following, official investigations by the UN and CIA pointed straight to the top – to crown prince MbS himself for ordering the assassination. 

  But, as CNN tells us in one of the more curiously gratuitous lines in its report, Biden has “set aside his moral outrage” – apparently in order to go after the “bigger bad guy” of the moment:

  But officials say Biden, who is under immense pressure to crack down on Russia and lower domestic gas prices amid inflation that’s rising at the fastest pace since 1981, has set aside his moral outrage to pursue warmer relations with the Kingdom amid the dramatic global upheaval spurred by the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

  Though it should be noted that the US weapons shipments and close Pentagon help executing the Saudi coalition war on Yemen never ceased, Biden is “moving on” in hopes the Saudis will finally accede to his longtime demands that the kingdom pump more oil.

  One senior official cited in CNN referenced Khashoggi’s murder in saying, “Both sides have decided that for the sake of achieving peace and stability in the Middle East, we need to move past it.” However, “That doesn’t mean forgiving and forgetting, the sources noted,” CNN continues. 

  

  “Biden, they said, does plan to raise Khashoggi’s murder directly with MBS, as the crown prince is known, when they meet as soon as next month,” CNN sources note. “And some officials inside the administration still believe more should be done to hold MBS accountable for the crime. But the shift is now well underway…”

  What’s left? Perhaps a light verbal scolding before Biden and the prince who was not long ago dubbed “psychopath and killer” in global headlines retire to a nice candlelit dinner in an stately gold-encrusted room?

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 22:00

• 3 US Companies That Allegedly Sent Defense Blueprints To China Receive Export Denial Order
  3 US Companies That Allegedly Sent Defense Blueprints To China Receive Export Denial Order

  Authored by Mary Hong via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The Commerce of Business has issued a temporary denial order (TDO) for 180 days to three U.S. companies for the illegal export of data relating to satellite, rocket, and defense technology to China.

  

  On June 7, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) accused three U.S.-based companies of unauthorized export of technical drawings and blueprints used to 3-D print satellite, rocket, and defense-related prototypes to China.

  The three entities are Quicksilver Manufacturing Inc., Rapid Cut LLC, and U.S. Prototype Inc., all located in Wilmington, North Carolina.

  “Outsourcing 3-D printing of space and defense prototypes to China harms U.S. national security,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod in a statement on June 8.

  “By sending their customers’ technical drawings and blueprints to China, these companies may have saved a few bucks—but they did so at the collective expense of protecting U.S. military technology.”

  According to the statement, TDOs are some of the most significant civil sanctions the BIS can issue.

  The statement indicated, “Without their customers’ advance consent or knowledge, these drawings were provided to manufacturers in China to 3-D-print the items without the required U.S. Government authorizations.”

  As stated in the TDO, these three entities use “the same rental mailbox.”

  “The information illegally sent to China included sensitive prototype space and defense technologies,” said the BIS.

  

  The statement also encouraged customers of the three entities to “review their records to determine whether intellectual-property or export-controlled technology was provided and/or potentially compromised.”

  The BIS did not disclose the customers that have contracts with the three entities.

  According to the TDO, the customers include an aerospace and global defense technology company; a manufacturer of specially designed parts intended for a rocket platform’s ground support and test equipment; and an advanced science and engineering company with multiple U.S. government contracts, including with the Department of Defense.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 21:40

• Shanghai Returns To Lockdown For Mass Testing Just Days After Reopening
  Shanghai Returns To Lockdown For Mass Testing Just Days After Reopening

  Just over a week after we reported that “Shanghai was finally lifting its Covid lockdown“, China’s commercial capital is once again backsliding into the warm embrace of Wuhan’s proudest export, and will “briefly” lock down most of the city this weekend for mass testing as Covid-19 cases continue to emerge, causing more disruption and triggering a renewed run on groceries days after exiting a grueling two-month shutdown.

  According to Bloomberg, the plan emerged from one area with a handful of cases, then spread in hours to 15 of the financial hub’s 16 districts, and now encompasses almost all of the city’s 25 million residents as health officials use testing to root out any silent transmission of the virus, a key tool in China’s “Covid Zero” arsenal.

  The instant escalation reflects the worry that continues to shroud Shanghai (and also Beijing), which implemented one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March after a sluggish initial response to its outbreak. The newest move follows a rebound in infections within the community to six on both Thursday and Friday, up from zero a day earlier. Residents will be released after taking the tests, but they’ll be back under lockdown if new infections are found in their compounds.

  There were 5 additional infections found among people in quarantine on Thursday, for a total of 11 cases in the financial hub, health officials said. Nationwide, China added 71 infections a far cry from the record high near 30,000 in April.

  

  The threat of disruptive measures also returned to Beijing, where testing turned up 21 new local cases as of 3 p.m. on Friday. More than 4,400 people who were in close contact with those who were infected have been sent to government-mandated quarantine facilities.

  As Bloomberg details, several neighborhoods in the capital’s key Chaoyang district, home to company headquarters and embassies, were on alert after a flareup in a local bar ended a five-day streak of zero community spread on Thursday. There were two new infections found outside of quarantine there on Friday.

  The return of restrictions and mass testing in China’s biggest cities underscores the difficulty of eliminating the virus while the rest of the world accepts it as endemic. The disruption wrought by pandemic curbs have impacted production at companies like Sony Group Corp. and Tesla, with the electric-car maker only now normalizing operations at its factory in southern Shanghai. 

  The latest moves hit home quickly for residents. It led some to flee their apartment complexes and sparked a run on grocery stores after many struggled to get fresh fruits and vegetables in the early days of the original lockdown. While the latest curbs may lift in as little as a few hours if no new infections are found, two more weeks of isolation may be imposed for areas where new chains of transmission are uncovered.

  Entire citywide block locked down at midnight, all for a case several blocks over. We hid out in a hotel nearby airport for following three days. All this for a single case three blocks over. On Friday, we made it to airport and flew home to see family for first time since COVID.

  — Dan (@DRechts) June 10, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  Most economists say it will be tough for China to meet its annual growth target this year because of lockdowns. By having zero tolerance for new cases, the country risks being in a constant loop of imposing and easing restrictions.

  Still, President Xi Jinping continues to emphasize the country’s adherence to a policy that has delivered one of the lowest Covid death rates in the world. Xi called for Covid Zero to be adhered to “unwaveringly” in a visit to Sichuan province Thursday, according to the official Xinhua news agency, while stating that it should be achieved in balance with the needs of the economy.

  For now, the renewed restrictions aren’t yet having a significant impact on the financial markets.China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index rose 1.52%, paring earlier losses. For the week, it’s up about 3.5%.

  “Investors are watching but there is not much reaction at the moment given its just flare ups,” said Kevin Li, fund manager at GF Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd. “If it expands into more areas that affect people turning to work, then it will lead to some volatility.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 21:20

• India And China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year: That's Greater Than All US Coal Output
  India And China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year: That’s Greater Than All US Coal Output

  Authored by Robert Bryce via RealClearEnergy.org,

  If you think the world is moving beyond coal, think again. The post-Covid economic rebound and surging electricity demand have resulted in big increases in coal prices and coal demand. Since January, the Newcastle benchmark price for coal has doubled. And over the past few weeks, China and India have announced plans to increase their domestic coal production by a combined total of 700 million tons per year. For perspective, US coal production this year will total about 600 million tons. 

  

  The surge in coal demand in China and India – as well as in the U.S., where coal use jumped by 17% last year – demonstrates two things:

  • First, that the Iron Law of Electricity has not been broken,

  • Second, it shows that it is far easier to talk about cutting emissions than it is to achieve significant cuts. 

  In April, China announced it will increase coal output by 300 million tons this year. Last month, India said it aims to increase domestic coal production by more than 400 million tons by the end of next year. 

  Adding the 700 million tons of new coal that China and India will be mining to the amount they are now producing leads to some staggering numbers. By the end of next year, China will be producing about 4.4 billion tons of coal per year and India will be mining about 1.2 billion tons. Add those together and you get 5.6 billion tons of coal, which is more than 9 times the amount of coal that will be mined in the U.S. this year. 

  As I point out in my latest book, A Question of Power, electricity is the world’s most important and fastest-growing form of energy. After writing that book, and doing further reporting, I coined the Iron Law of Electricity, which says that “people, businesses, and countries will do whatever they have to do to get the electricity they need.” The Iron Law matters because the electricity sector is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions. And as the Iron Law states, politicians in countries like China and India are going to do everything they can to prevent (or reduce) blackouts, including burning more coal. 

  The Iron Law helps explain why coal continues to be a dominant fuel for electricity production today, nearly 140 years after Thomas Edison used coal to fuel the first central power station in Lower Manhattan. Coal persists because it can be used to produce the gargantuan quantities of electricity the world’s consumers need at prices they can afford. Indeed, coal’s share of global electricity generation has stayed at about 35%, since the mid-1980s.

  In India, the push for more coal has led the government to give a “special dispensation” to the Ministry of Coal which allows the agency to relax environmental controls and public consultations so mines can produce more coal. As one media outlet explained, the move came after the government “received a request from the Ministry of Coal ‘stating that there is huge pressure on domestic coal supply in the country and all efforts are being made to meet the demand of coal for all sectors.’”

  Of course, the surge in coal is going to hamper efforts to control emissions. Last year, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said there is a “high risk of failure” to reach a new climate accord unless politicians agree to slash their respective countries’ emissions. Guterres’ remarks came just a few days after the United Nations issued a report which found that global greenhouse gas emissions are likely to increase by 16% by 2030 compared to 2010 levels. 

  Last week, John Hanekamp, a St. Louis-based coal industry consultant, told me that “the incremental coal production in India and China is exceeding whatever coal-fired generation capacity that was retired in the US and Europe. Whatever policymakers thought they were achieving by getting rid of coal, they’ve effectively done nothing but increase the cost of energy,” he said. “We haven’t changed anything but make ourselves energy poorer.”

  I will conclude with two points I have been making for more than a decade.

  • First, soaring global electricity demand will largely be met in the near term, meaning the next decade or so, by burning more coal, oil, and natural gas. Why? Renewables cannot, will not, be able to scale up to meet soaring global demand for power. 

  • Second, if the countries of the world are serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing more electricity to the 3 billion people now living in energy poverty, the only way to do it is with nuclear energy and lots of it.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 21:00

• Red-Hot US Inflation Is No Longer An Outlier
  Red-Hot US Inflation Is No Longer An Outlier

  Today’s US inflation print continued the trend of upside surprises, coming in at 8.6% YoY. In fact, in the past two years, there have been just two occasions when inflation came in below expectations, and judging by the market’s reaction, many more upside surprises lie in stock.

  

  Perhaps more importantly, DB’s Jim Reid today notes that inflation is not meeting the Fed’s test of MoM deceleration that would force a slower path of rate hikes, with headline CPI at 1.0% MoM versus expectations of 0.7% and 0.3% in April.

  Yet what may come as a shock to readers, US inflation doesn’t really stand out globally any more; in fact, as Reid’s Chart of the Day below shows, the US is now just above the middle of the pack when ranked the highest to lowest using 111 countries covering the most up to date data available. In fact, the US is “only” 48th highest on this list.

  

  Compare this to June last year when the US was ranked 28th highest out of 116 and the Eurozone 84th (now only 2 spots below the US). This was soon after the Biden fiscal package and associated helicopter money. Since then YoY US inflation has increased around 3% but many other countries have seen it increase even more.

  Just for statistical interest, Reid calculates that the median global inflation is now 7.9% YoY. It was 3.05% last June. Inflation is now truly a global phenomenon with Asian economies generally the least effected. So the shock value from US inflation data has lessened.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 20:40

• Republicans Press FDA On Why COVID-19 Vaccines Would Be Authorized For Young Children
  Republicans Press FDA On Why COVID-19 Vaccines Would Be Authorized For Young Children

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A group of members of Congress is pressing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for answers before the regulator decides whether to authorize COVID-19 vaccines for young children.

  

  All Americans aged 5 and older can get a COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA is scheduled to meet with its advisory panel on June 15 to discuss whether to grant emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children aged 6 months to 4 years old.

  A bicameral group of members of Congress, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), are questioning whether an EUA makes sense, given how little risk COVID-19 poses to young children and how the vaccines have plunged in effectiveness against infection as new virus variants have emerged during the pandemic.

  “The broad approach of the CDC and FDA to date has been a one-size fits all policy—get the vaccine regardless of age, risk factors, the underlying health of the individual, or previous infection,” the members wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and members of the advisory panel in a June 7 letter obtained by The Epoch Times. “Yet, to date there remain many unanswered questions about these EUA-approved COVID-19 vaccines and only a small percentage of the safety data about these vaccines that are in the possession of the FDA and the manufacturers has been released for review.”

  The members noted that nearly 70 percent of children aged 1 to 4 have recovered from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That recovery gives the children a level of protection against re-infection that studies show is better than the protection from the vaccines. The members also pointed out that children who contract COVID-19 have a high survival rate and have little risk of experiencing severe disease.

  The group asked the FDA to answer a series of questions before issuing its decision on the EUA requests from Moderna and Pfizer. They want to know, among other details, the cardiac risk factor for children getting the vaccines; whether the FDA will commit to sticking with a 50 percent effectiveness threshold it outlined in 2020; and whether there is a possibility children who get the vaccines will face higher risk from future variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

  “The data show that the risks of serious adverse outcomes for COVID for children five and under is very low and as such the standard for evaluating EUA interventions must be very high,” the group wrote. “We believe each question raised above is not just important, but essential questions for the FDA, VRBPAC and the CDC when it comes to doing a thorough job of evaluating the potential benefits and potential risks of the vaccines for which you have been asked to consider granting an Emergency Use Authorization.”

  VRBPAC stands for the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. It is the FDA’s advisory panel on vaccines.

  The group who wrote the letter also includes Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Rep Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.), Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), and Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.).

  The FDA did not respond to a request for comment.

  “I am concerned that in a rush to mandate a ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy, the FDA is failing to consider that this age group is least at risk for complications from COVID and that the CDC estimates 68% of those under five have already had COVID. Common sense would suggest that VRBPAC members have already asked these questions, so we would expect a response by the time they meet. If we don’t receive answers, it is right to assume they haven’t asked basic benefit and risk questions about using this vaccine for millions of children who are at very little risk from COVID,” Posey said in a statement.

  “We are in our third year with COVID-19, and we know vastly more about the virus now than we did in 2020. One of the most important things we know is that this virus poses minimal risk for children. Before the FDA approves an Emergency Use Authorization for a children’s vaccine, parents should be able to see the data and paperwork they would use to justify this decision. This is the least the FDA can do for families in Texas and across the country so parents can make the best decisions for their children,” Cruz added.

  

  Given the high survival rate of children, the unknown long-term side effects of the shots, and the post-vaccination heart inflammation cases that were only detected after the vaccines were authorized, “the push for vaccine approval seems absolutely reckless,” Gohmert said.

  “Just last month, the FDA essentially announced that people should no longer take the Johnson and Johnson vaccine due to dangerous blood clotting side effects. This, after telling us the J&J vaccine was safe and effective for over a year. As Americans, we have every right to demand that the utmost safety and efficacy standards be implemented and rigorous studies and testing be performed before these injections are approved for anyone, especially innocent children,” he added.

  After Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) reported being told by Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA vaccine official, in May that the agency would not withhold authorization solely because a vaccine was not at least 50 percent effective. An FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency “will evaluate any data submitted in the context of the ongoing public health emergency and will only authorize vaccines for the youngest children that meet our standards and for which the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks.”

  Experts and parents are divided on whether vaccines are needed for children, especially healthy children.

  Based on research and the effect of COVID-19 on youth, “childhood vaccination should not be considered unless a child has significant co-morbidities like cystic fibrosis, severe Type I diabetes, etc.,” Dr. Steven Hatfill, a virologist, told The Epoch Times in an email.

  Dr. Moira Szilagyi, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement that U.S. authorities should “move with all possible speed” to review the data on vaccines for young kids, adding, “Children are not immune from COVID, which can cause severe and long-term illness, hospitalizations and even death.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 20:20

• Three US Military Aircraft Crash In Southern California Within One Week
  Three US Military Aircraft Crash In Southern California Within One Week

  While the Tom Cruise sequel to 1986’s Top Gun (Top Gun: Maverick) shatters multiple box-office records and excites an entire generation of young people who want to become fighter pilots, a disturbing trend of military aircraft crashes emerges in Southern California in less than a week. 

  The latest is an MH-60S Seahawk that crashed along the Arizona-California border Thursday near El Centro, California. All four of the helicopter’s crew members survived with non-life-threatening injuries. 

  

  The crash comes just one day after five Marines were killed in an MV-22B Osprey near Glamis, California. Both Osprey and Seahawk crashed about 100 miles away from each other. 

  

  Last Friday, further north, a F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, killing the pilot. 

  

  All three military aircraft crashed within one week of each other in Southern California. 

  

  The aviation disasters come as the military actively uses Cruise’s patriotic action film to boost recruitment since numbers have been dismal over the last several years. 

  The number of internet searches for “how to become a fighter pilot” have gone parabolic since the Top Gun: Maverick debuted in theaters on May 27. 

  And according to Defense News, more than half the Navy’s aircraft are grounded because there’s not enough money to fix them. The Air Force has a similar issue. Only 71.5% of the service’s fleet is mission ready. America’s aging military appears to have reliability issues, even though it outspends the entire world. It’s unknown whether the three aircraft experienced mechanical problems. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 20:00

• Jim Bovard: It's Time For Joe Biden To Exit The Ring
  Jim Bovard: It’s Time For Joe Biden To Exit The Ring

  Authored by Jim Bovard via The Libertarian Institute/Mises.org,

  President Biden often looks like a punch-drunk old fighter sent into the ring once too often. At this point, the only thing lower than Biden’s approval numbers is his energy level. Is Uncle Joe too old to rebound?

  At this point, Biden is running on little more than fumes and righteousness. In his televised antigun speech Thursday night, Biden proclaimed that he expected most people “to turn your outrage into making this issue [assault weapons] central to your vote.” Biden’s histrionic spiel was far more likely to turbo-charge gun owners than gun banners and could be another coffin nail for Democratic candidates in middle America. Biden perennially tells audiences that banning assault weapons is justified because the Second Amendment didn’t permit Americans to own cannons—a falsehood that even The Washington Post has repeatedly derided.

  Inflation is the top issue by a wide margin for Americans nowadays. Biden’s inflation will soon have inflicted a 10 percent cut in the purchasing power of Americans’ paychecks. But Biden is indignant at criticism of his policies. When Peter Doocy of Fox News asked about the impact in January, Biden called him “a stupid son of a bitch.” In a March speech to Democratic members of Congress, Biden raged at being blamed for inflation: “I’m sick of this stuff!…We have to talk about it because the American people think the reason for inflation is the government spending more money. Simply. Not. True.”

  

  Biden first tried to blame greedy corporations for inflation and then began railing about “Putin’s price hikes.” Didn’t work. Last week, The Washington Post revealed that Biden now blames White House aides who “were not doing a good job explaining the causes of inflation and what the administration is doing about it.” But his aides have a hell of a challenge when Biden boasts “a gallon of gas is down 14 percent today”—as he claimed based solely on a happy fantasy on March 9. Even wackier? Last Friday, Biden boasted that Americans feel more “financially comfortable,” thanks to his policies.

  Biden won in 2020 in part because he promised in the final debate: “I’m going to shut down the virus.” Biden bet his presidency on covid vaccines. When their efficacy faded, Biden dictated a “jab or job” ultimatum to more than a hundred million Americans. The Supreme Court rebuffed most of that mandate but not before the omicron variant was causing a million new cases a day and obliterating Biden’s covid victory boasts. Last month, the White House predicted up to a hundred million new covid cases this fall—after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that almost half of covid fatalities now are among the fully vaxxed. In lieu of more reliable vaccines, Team Biden is pressuring social media companies to crack down on “disinformation” that casts doubts on presidentially ordained injections.

  Biden has a long DC reputation for trampling the facts. His first presidential bid collapsed in the late 1980s, thanks to his brazen plagiarism of a British politician. But the Democrats in 2020 were desperate to find someone who could defeat Donald Trump. Their verdict: “He’s a pathological liar, but he’s our pathological liar.” During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden was shielded by a phalanx of media allies and former government honchos who helpfully buried issues such as the damning revelations of Hunter Biden’s laptop (first exposed by the New York Post).

  But, regardless of how often Biden flees back to Delaware, he is in the limelight far more than during the campaign. He struggled to find his way off stage after a speech, and the video of him attempting to shake hands with invisible people on stage was jolting. A decade ago, Biden seemed mentally quick and verbally agile in battering Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the vice presidential debate. But Biden’s verbal and mental struggles make that stellar performance seem like a thousand years ago.

  

  The Biden White House discloses little or no verified medical information on the president’s health, mental or physical. Instead, Biden’s apologists in the media insist that he is doing fine—the same way that much of the press corps covered for President Woodrow Wilson after he was debilitated by a stroke.

  Last month, The Washington Post reprinted a column by Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein demanding that Americans “Stop Smearing Biden’s Mental Capacity.” Bernstein described doubts about Biden’s acuity as “one of the many ugly things that’s happened during Joe Biden’s presidency.” Bernstein rests his defense of Biden on the trustworthiness of the Washington elite: “To believe that Biden is impaired requires a belief in a massive conspiracy…by thousands of people.”

  Like the notion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction—a Bush scam to justify a war that was supported in lockstep by most of the media and the Washington establishment? Or the notion that the Federal Reserve flooding the nation with increasingly worthless currency is good for America—another beloved myth embraced by the Beltway?

  A poll last month showed that 53 percent of Americans doubted whether Biden was “mentally fit” for the presidency. Who knew that antigeezer prejudice would explode during Uncle Joe’s reign? But even 51 percent of senior citizens doubt Biden’s mental competence for office. That the official scorekeepers ruled that Biden won eighty-one million votes in the 2020 election is supposedly the only proof of “competence” that matters.

  Perhaps there is only one proof of Biden’s mental capacity that matters in Washington: he is delivering the conflict with Russia that the Democratic Party has craved since Hillary Clinton made anti-Russia agitation a linchpin of her 2016 presidential campaign. Biden’s hysterical denunciations of Vladimir Putin have endeared him to DC insiders itching to drag this nation into a military conflict that they know most Americans would not support if the full facts and risks were presented to them.

  Biden Dismisses Elon Musk’s Fears of a Recession: “Lots of Luck on His Trip to the Moon”

  Good luck to Biden on this gaffe not haunting him in the future pic.twitter.com/OEs1VOjXHa

  — Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 3, 2022

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  The White House, State Department, CIA, and Pentagon have provided almost zero credible evidence on how the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine is proceeding. Instead, Biden has been the front man for a fairy tale that pretends that providing almost unlimited U.S. government aid and weapons to a corrupt regime in Kiev will create a historic victory for democracy everywhere.

  But Russia’s unjust invasion and atrocities against civilians do not purify a Ukrainian regime that has been abusing its own people for decades. In effectively opposing any peace talks between Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Team Biden has simply assured more pointless deaths on both sides.

  Biden is a listless president surrounded by aides with broken compasses. Biden’s worst pummeling could occur if Democrats lose control of Congress in November. Republican committees will be investigating an array of potential abuses of power that Team Biden has successfully buried (at least according to media scorekeeping) so far. Unless Biden can make it a hate crime to attach “I did this!” stickers to gas pumps, his support will keep draining away every time Americans fill up their tanks.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 19:40

• Apartment Companies Saw Net Income Spike 57% Last Year Thanks To Rising Rents
  Apartment Companies Saw Net Income Spike 57% Last Year Thanks To Rising Rents

  Apartment owners have been earning big profits off of raised rents, according to a new report by Accountable.US released this week. 

  The report notes that the top 10 public apartment companies saw net income collectively rise 57% to about $5 billion as a result. 

  These numbers far exceed losses that the companies incurred at the beginning of the pandemic, the report showed. 

  Accountable.US President Kyle Herrig commented: “It’s obvious the punishing rental prices on our most vulnerable populations are driven by corporate greed. Big apartment companies have joined the long list of industries using inflation as cover to charge working families far beyond any new cost of doing business.”

  The study found that rent was up more than 17% last year and occupancies grew 2.5% above the historical average of 95%.

  

  Pressuring the everyday citizen further, these increases came despite inflation doling out a 2.4% pay cut in 2021. 

  Starwood Property Trust’s CEO Barry Sternlicht said during the company’s most recent investor call that inflation was “an extraordinary gift that keeps on giving to a tune of maybe $400M or $500M.”

  [It was] “the strongest real estate market I’ve seen in 30 years, 35 years if you count my time before Starwood,” he added.

  Additional key findings from the report included: 

  • Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA): Benefited from “strong rent growth” and saw FY 2021 net income nearly double to over $550 million after multiple lawsuits for excessive fees and tenant mistreatment in recent years—Meanwhile, its CEO’s compensation rose over 60% to over $7.6 million and he owns two lavish homes together worth $9.3 million.
  • Starwood Property Trust: Called inflation “an extraordinary gift that keeps on giving” while being affiliated with Invitation Homes, known for “horror stories” from tenants, as it reported “a record year” in FY 2021 with net income jumping by over $126 million and its billionaire chairman owning a luxury waterfront Miami Beach mansion valued at almost $34 million.
  • AvalonBay Communities: Saw move-in rent grow by 23% in FY 2021 and expected further rent hikes in FY 2022 as its net income grew by over $176 million—Meanwhile, its CEO saw compensation swell by 27% to over $14 million and owns at least four homes together worth over $11.2 million.
  • Equity Residential: Touted its “pricing power” as it talked about increased rents while reporting that its FY 2021 net income jumped by 45% to almost $1.4 billion while being sued by 135,000 applicants for “‘unlawful conduct’” in its fee practices—Its CEO’s compensation increased by 11% to nearly $8.5 million while he sold his 8 bedroom home with “gourmet kitchen” and wine cellar for over $1.3 million.
  • Essex Property Trust: Saw rents go “above pre-covid levels” in FY 2021 and warned that Los Angeles’ extended eviction moratorium “will hurt collections” as it posted an FY 2021 net income of $515.7 million—Its CEO saw compensation rise by $627,000 to over $7.1 million and he owns a $1.9 million home with a “covered outdoor kitchen” and a “separate casita.”
  • Camden Property Trust: Has touted rent increases while calling rent caps “impediments to running our business” after seeing FY 2021 net income grow by nearly 143% to $312 million—Meanwhile, its CEO’s compensation rose by almost $420,000 to over $4.2 million and his “masterpiece” home has been valued at $18.3 million.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 19:20

• Doctors Suing Food And Drug Administration Over Ivermectin
  Doctors Suing Food And Drug Administration Over Ivermectin

  Authored by Alice Giordano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Washington law firm has filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for interfering with the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.

  

  The lawsuit was filed by Boyden Gray & Associates on behalf of three doctors who were disciplined for prescribing human-grade ivermectin to patients.

  The firm’s founder, attorney Boyden Gray, is a former legal adviser to the Reagan and Bush administrations.

  Gray told The Epoch Times that the FDA had violated well-established law that allows doctors to prescribe an FDA-approved drug as an off-label treatment.

  Ivermectin was no different, he said. It was approved by the FDA in 1966.

  “Congress recognized the importance of letting doctors be doctors and expressly prohibited the FDA from interfering with the practice of medicine,” Gray said.

  “That is exactly what the FDA has done time and time again throughout this pandemic, assuming authority it doesn’t have and trying to insert itself in the medical decisions of Americans everywhere.”

  The three plaintiffs in the case are Dr. Paul Marik of Virginia, Dr. Mary Bowden of Texas, and Dr. Robert Apter of Arizona.

  Marik is a founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care 21 Alliance (FLCCC), a national nonprofit that promotes alternative COVID-19 treatments to the government-touted vaccine.

  “The FDA has made public statements on ivermectin that have been misleading and have raised unwarranted concern over a critical drug in preventing and treating COVID-19,” Marik told The Epoch Times. “To do this is to ignore both statutory limits on the FDA’s authority and the significant body of scientific evidence from peer-reviewed research.”

  According to Marik, more than 80 medical trials conducted since the outbreak of COVID-19 show that ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for the virus.

  Gray said the FDA has engaged in unlawful interference with the use of ivermectin and should be held accountable for that.

  The lawsuit included several statements made by the FDA that Gray said show that the administration interfered with the use of ivermectin.

  They include an Aug. 21, 2021, Twitter post by the agency: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

  The post, with an image of a horse and a doctor, has a headline that reads, “Why you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.”

  Marik, Bowden, and Apter are among a number of U.S. doctors across the United States who have been disciplined for prescribing ivermectin.

  Marik, a critical care specialist, was suspended by Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for prescribing ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. Bowden, an ear, nose, and throat specialist, was suspended from the Houston Medical Hospital. Apter was under investigation by both the Washington Medical Commission and Arizona Medical Board for prescribing ivermectin.

  Marik was recently informed that he was under investigation by the medical licensing board in Virginia.

  Gray filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Texas.

  The doctors are seeking a permanent injunction that would prohibit the FDA from interfering with the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 19:00

• Geico Ordered To Pay $5.2 Million To Woman Who Contracted HPV In Man's Car
  Geico Ordered To Pay $5.2 Million To Woman Who Contracted HPV In Man’s Car

  A Missouri Court of Appeals has upheld a $5.2 million award against GEICO after a woman filed a claim because she contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the car of a man who was insured by the company, according to court documents.

  

  The woman, a resident of Jackson County identified in court papers only as “M.O.” – said she contacted human papillomavirus (HPV) from the her ex-boyfriend in November and December 2017 after she “engaged in unprotected sexual activities in Insured’s vehicle.”

  In a February 2021 p;etition to Geico, the woman claimed that the man “negligently caused or contributed to” her catching the disease. She made a final settlement offer of $1 million to resolve her claims, which Geico denied.

  In an opinion published Tuesday and reported by NBC News, the Court of Appeals for the Western District of Missouri affirmed the judgement after Geico challenged the decision through an arbitrator, who found in her favor.

  Geico appealed the arbitrator’s decision, and lost again.

  “At the time of Geico’s intervention, liability and damages had been determined by an arbitrator and confirmed by the trial court. GEICO had no right to relitigate those issues,” the appeals court wrote. “But GEICO did have the opportunity to participate and defend its interests — including the ability to challenge liability and damages — by entering a defense of Insured.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 18:40

• Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Volumes To China For July
  Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Volumes To China For July

  By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

  Saudi Arabia will ship lower-than-nominated crude oil volumes to some of its Chinese buyers in July, but will provide most other Asian customers with all the crude they have requested, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing refinery officials in Asia.

  

  Many buyers in Asia have asked for more Saudi crude oil for July as barrels from the Middle East are cheaper than those from the North Sea and the U.S. because of a drop in the Dubai/Oman benchmark compared Brent and WTI benchmarks. The oil going to Asia from the Middle East is priced off the Dubai/Oman benchmark.

  The Saudis will not fully meet all Chinese requests but will supply all the volumes and even extra barrels to some customers in India, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, Bloomberg’s sources say. 

  This past weekend, Saudi Arabia raised its official selling prices (OSPs) to Asia and Europe for July, as widely expected, signaling confidence in demand in the near term.

  The increase in Saudi crude prices for next month was the biggest for Asian buyers, with the flagship Arab Light grade set to sell for $2.10 per barrel more than it did this month, at $6.50 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai benchmarks. Strong refining margins in Asia amid a global crunch in fuels also played a part in the Saudi decision to raise the prices for its oil selling in Asia.

  

  Many of Saudi Arabia’s customers in Asia have asked for more Saudi supply as they prefer to steer clear of Russian cargoes.

  China and India, however, continue to buy Russian oil, and India is even reportedly seeking more of it in order to take advantage of the cheap crude, which sells at record discounts. Currently, the flagship Russian grade Urals sells at a discount of $30 a barrel or more to Dated Brent.   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 18:20

• With Border Cities Swamped, Biden To Bus Migrants Deeper Into US
  With Border Cities Swamped, Biden To Bus Migrants Deeper Into US

  With border cities overwhelmed by a record surge in migration, the Department of Homeland Security is planning to start transporting migrants into cities away from the border, according to DHS documents reviewed by NBC News.  

  

  Los Angeles has been designated as the first city to be the recipient of the transported migrants, with Albuquerque, Houston, Dallas and others to follow. In a statement to NBC, DHS said “no decision has been made.” 

  Away from microphones, DHS officials jokingly refer to the scheme as the “Abbott plan,” according to an unidentified official who spoke to NBC. That’s a reference to Texas governor Greg Abbott, who earlier this year sent at least 10 busloads of illegal immigrants to Washington, D.C. as a means of redistributing the wealth of inbound Latin American diversity.  

  At the time, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Chris Magnus said Abbott’s shipping of immigrants made CBP’s job more difficult. 

  Texas taxpayers paid for those buses, but the federal embrace of the Abbott plan will put all taxpayers on the hook for who knows how much. The new scheme will be managed by the Southwest Border Coordination Center, a joint undertaking of CBP, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies. 

  The busing plan is Washington’s answer to overflowing shelters run by charitable and nongovernmental organizations in border cities. In April, CBP tallied a record-breaking 234,088 migrant encounters.  

  NBC’s revelation of the Biden administration plan comes the same week that a massive migrant caravan has begun a thousand-mile trek from Mexico’s Guatemala border to the Rio Grande. Numbering upwards of 12,000, the group paused Wednesday in the town of Huixtla while the Mexican government issued work visas that will ease their travel throughout Mexico and up to the U.S. border. 

  On Friday, Biden is expected to sign an international declaration on migration at the poorly-attended “Summit of the Americas” that he’s hosting in Los Angeles. According to AP, the declaration will “call for more pathways to legal status, mechanisms to reunite families, more efficient and humane border controls and improved information sharing.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 18:00

• Median Manhattan Apartment Rent Tops New Record-High Of $4,000
  Median Manhattan Apartment Rent Tops New Record-High Of $4,000

  Manhattan apartment rents surged to a record high in May as spring demand remains robust and supply is ultra-tight. The baffling part about the strong demand is why people are flocking to a metro area experiencing an eruption in violent crime (remember what happened to the Goldman Sachs analyst?) and soaring living costs.  

  Bloomberg reports new data from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate that shows Manhattan apartment rents touched an average of $4k per month, a 25% jump from a year ago. 

  

  Strong demand is apparently due to the real estate market’s busiest season (spring) as new college graduates find jobs and families make moves before fall when school begins. “Rents now have notched records in the past four months as New York came roaring back from the pandemic,” Bloomberg explains. 

  “Historically, new lease signings always peak in August, which increases the chances that the additional demand will push prices up further.

  “In other words, tenants could see more price pain through the summer,” Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, said. 

  Manhattan’s vacancy rate was 12% a little more than a year ago and has since plunged to 2%. Supply is tight and is the reason why rents are at record highs. The lack of supply could push rent prices even higher by the end of summer (we noted last month: “Not A Peak” – Manhattan Apartment Rents Hit Another Record High). 

  

  Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said units listed last month spent just 52 days on the market, down from 68 in April and 107 a year earlier. Strong demand has enabled landlords to slash concessions. Only 15.3% of new leases in May had added perks, the lowest since September 2016. 

  Here’s the current situation on the ground: 

  $8k/month for that in NYC 😳. pic.twitter.com/y6ooEhKbeY

  — TTI (@TikTokInvestors) June 9, 2022

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  As people flock to the borough, an exodus of New Yorkers continues to accelerate. 21,546 New Yorkers left the state for Florida (where taxes, costs of living, and violent crime are low) in the first four months of the year. 

  In today’s age of remote or hybrid work, living in a violent city, and paying some of the highest living costs in the country, makes absolutely no sense. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 06/10/2022 – 17:20

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