- Jeffrey Sachs: NATO Expansion & Ukraine's Destruction
Jeffrey Sachs: NATO Expansion & Ukraine’s Destruction
During the disastrous Vietnam War, it was said that the US government treated the public like a mushroom farm: keeping it in the dark and feeding it with manure. The heroic Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting the unrelenting U.S. government lying about the war in order to protect politicians who would be embarrassed by the truth. A half-century later, during the Ukraine War, the manure is piled even higher.
According to the U.S. government and the ever-obsequious New York Times, the Ukraine war was “unprovoked,” the Times’ favorite adjective to describe the war. Putin, allegedly mistaking himself for Peter the Great, invaded Ukraine to recreate the Russian Empire. Yet last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg committed a Washington gaffe, meaning that he accidently blurted out the truth.
Image: NATO, Flickr In testimony to the European Union Parliament, Stoltenberg made clear that it was America’s relentless push to enlarge NATO to Ukraine that was the real cause of the war and why it continues today. Here are Stoltenberg’s revealing words:
“The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition to not invade Ukraine. Of course, we didn’t sign that.
The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second-class membership. We rejected that.
So, he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.”
To repeat, he [Putin] went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.
When Prof. John Mearsheimer, I, and others have said the same, we’ve been attacked as Putin apologists. The same critics also choose to hide or flatly ignore the dire warnings against NATO enlargement to Ukraine long articulated by many of America’s leading diplomats, including the great scholar-statesman George Kennan, and the former US Ambassadors to Russia Jack Matlock and William Burns.
Burns, now CIA Director, was US Ambassador to Russia in 2008, and author of a memo entitled “Nyet means Nyet.” In that memo, Burns explained to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the entire Russian political class, not just Putin, was dead-set against NATO enlargement. We know about the memo only because it was leaked. Otherwise, we’d be in the dark about it.
Reminder of the famous US🇺🇸 promise of NATO ‘not one inch to the east’ by James Baker to 🇷🇺Gorbachev in 1990. It was so tough to keep a promise for 9 whole years that the US then just had to splurge: 3 central Europeans into NATO in 1999 & another 7, incl Baltics, in 2004. pic.twitter.com/Hw6xPvdQUe
— Tony Norfield (@StubbornFacts) September 18, 2023
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Why does Russia oppose NATO enlargement? For the simple reason that Russia does not accept the U.S. military on its 2,300 km border with Ukraine in the Black Sea region. Russia does not appreciate the U.S. placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania after the U.S. unilaterally abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.
Russia also does not welcome the fact that the U.S. engaged in no fewer than 70 regime change operations during the Cold War (1947-1989), and countless more since, including in Serbia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, and Ukraine. Nor does Russia like the fact that many leading U.S. politicians actively advocate the destruction of Russia under the banner of “Decolonizing Russia.” That would be like Russia calling for the removal of Texas, California, Hawaii, the conquered Indian lands, and much else, from the United States.
Even Zelensky’s team knew that the quest for NATO enlargement meant imminent war with Russia. Oleksiy Arestovych, former Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine under Zelensky, declared that “with a 99.9% probability, our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia.”
Arestovych claimed that even without NATO enlargement, Russia would eventually try to take Ukraine, just many years later. Yet history belies that. Russia respected Finland’s and Austria’s neutrality for decades, with no dire threats, much less invasions. Moreover, from Ukraine’s independence in 1991 until the U.S.-backed overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government in 2014, Russia didn’t show any interest in taking Ukrainian territory. It was only when the U.S. installed a staunchly anti-Russian, pro-NATO regime in February 2014 that Russia took back Crimea, concerned that its Black Sea naval base in Crimea (since 1783) would fall into NATO’s hands.
Even then, Russia didn’t demand other territory from Ukraine, only fulfillment of the U.N.-backed Minsk II Agreement, which called for autonomy of the ethnic-Russian Donbas, not a Russian claim on the territory. Yet instead of diplomacy, the U.S. armed, trained, and helped to organize a huge Ukrainian army to make NATO enlargement a fait accompli.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, confirms that Russia invaded Ukraine to prevent NATO expansionism.
– Also, Stoltenberg recognises that NATO could have prevented the war by ending its expansion and abiding by the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act. pic.twitter.com/H8HObh7LEP— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) September 17, 2023
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Putin made one last attempt at diplomacy at the end of 2021, tabling a draft U.S.-NATO Security Agreement to forestall war. The core of the draft agreement was an end of NATO enlargement and removal of U.S. missiles near Russia. Russia’s security concerns were valid and the basis for negotiations. Yet Biden flatly rejected negotiations out of a combination of arrogance, hawkishness, and profound miscalculation. NATO maintained its position that NATO would not negotiate with Russia regarding NATO enlargement, that in effect, NATO enlargement was none of Russia’s business.
The continuing U.S. obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical. The U.S. would object—by means of war, if needed—to being encircled by Russian or Chinese military bases in the Western Hemisphere, a point the U.S. has made since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Yet the U.S. is blind and deaf to the legitimate security concerns of other countries.
So, yes, Putin went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to Russia’s border. Ukraine is being destroyed by U.S. arrogance, proving again Henry Kissinger’s adage that to be America’s enemy is dangerous, while to be its friend is fatal. The Ukraine War will end when the U.S. acknowledges a simple truth: NATO enlargement to Ukraine means perpetual war and Ukraine’s destruction. Ukraine’s neutrality could have avoided the war, and remains the key to peace. The deeper truth is that European security depends on collective security as called for by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), not one-sided NATO demands.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 09/22/2023 – 02:00 - The Valorization Of The Tyrants
The Valorization Of The Tyrants
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,
This is surely one of the strangest twists in official narratives in perhaps hundreds of years. The bad guys have been christened as the good guys, and the good guys have been purged, deplatformed, canceled, and demonized.
It’s a turn of events none of us could have imagined back in 2020. It cries out for an explanation. I truly fear knowing the answer as to why.
Just consider the fate of former New Zealand Prime Jacinda Ardern.
She locked down her country, trampling all rights of the people under the guise of controlling the spread of a virus. You could not go to church. You could not be unmasked. You could not leave the country and return. No one could travel there without official permission.
As bad as the United States and Europe were during this period, New Zealand was worse, and it was backed up by speech controls. Anyone protesting the policies was risking everything. And when the vaccine came along, Ardern outright said it: the people who get it will have rights but those who do not will not. It was a new biomedical caste system.
Eventually, the country did open. Now speakers decrying the whole period are attracting audiences in the thousands, and Ardern is widely unpopular. Her successor who continues to defend all this despotism is under a cloud and also deeply unpopular. The tables have completely turned. Of course the virus came anyway, as it must, so the junta that did this has turned their attention to climate change, the defense of censorship, and the escalation of the Russia/Ukraine war.
Five years ago, anyone would have supposed that a leader that acted this way would live in shame. I certainly assumed so. My supposition is that Ardern had made horrific misjudgments and would be widely decried as a confused tyrant. She would live out her days in disrepute, surely.
The opposite has happened. She is now the subject of celebratory biographies. She is lauded by mainstream media. She addressed the United Nations last year in a speech that was an open call for a new global censorship regime. True, the fact-checkers disagree with this interpretation. Instead she was merely calling out “the weaponization of free speech societies and platforms by misinformation agents.”
Oh.
In any case, in my imagination, I could not have dreamed up a specimen of error and tyranny more deserving of devaluing than Jacinda Ardern. Everything she did during the COVID era flies in the face of values that the West has held for almost a thousand years since the Magna Carta.
But I was wrong. Completely. I underestimated just how broken the world is. Instead of being disgraced, she is enjoying not one but two fellowships at Harvard University where she enjoys massive prestige and adoration by faculty, staff, and students. To me, this seems like the Twilight Zone—an ending to the story that I could not have imagined. Are we supposed to be against segregation, house arrest, forced medical treatments, locking people in nations, and censorship? I thought at least we would agree on that much. Apparently not. Apparently, it is the opposite. Everything that I believed was deprecated is exalted and all the public virtues I believed we extolled are now denounced.
It’s not just Ardern. The whole tiny but global junta that imposed all these policies seemed to be enjoying a glorious send-off by the entire establishment, even though they have been 100 percent wrong about everything. Fauci’s successor is Fauci II, and same with Walensky’s successor at the CDC. And the media propagandists who for three years lied to the public about lockdowns, masks, school closures, and shots are now writing books that are calling people like me the bad guys!
I almost cannot imagine that this has happened and I cannot fathom why.
As another example, the New York Times op-ed page has carried an amazing and very long article by Yoel Roth, the former chief censor of Twitter 1.0 before he was summarily fired by Elon Musk. The Times let him tell his tale of woe on how oppressed and beaten down he is merely for enforcing trust and safety. He was only doing his job to stop online lies!
The Twitter Files revealed that the company was obeying government priorities and blocking and throttling content that took issue with COVID policies, questions surrounding election integrity, and vaccine effectiveness. Roth, in cooperation with federal agencies, set himself up as the arbiter of truth and arguably distorted information flows based on his personal bias.
Like Ardern, I might have expected that he would retire from public life and deploy his considerable communication for a small company somewhere. But I was wrong again. Instead he holds a coveted position at the University of Pennsylvania and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
For that matter, Anthony Fauci himself is enjoying a comfy sinecure at Georgetown University.
This is not just about how high-end academia has become a haven for woke politics, censorship, and wildly pro-statist thinking across the board. That battle seems to have been won by the bad guys perhaps two decades ago. The problem is much larger. It has to do with the entire academic, corporate, political, and deep-state establishment that was heavily involved in imposing a despotic turn for the entire globe.
They are right now in the business of protecting their own, trolling the rest of us by granting awards and honors to the absolute worst offenders of core Western values. It’s like the world has been turned upside down. As grim as I believed the lockdowns that began in March 2020 were, and as much as I expected some terrible economic and cultural fallout from that period, I never would have imagined that the lockdowners and mandaters would be riding high at 42 months of this.
And at the very same time, the purges of the people who were right all along are continuing at a furious pace. Every day, we observe sneaky attacks on the greatest champions of basic liberties on which I thought everyone agreed back in 2019. Every unflattering bit of personal information on the resistors is fair game, amplified by the media, and then realized in the form of demonetizations by Big Tech, the courts, and the professional circuit generally.
The battle lines are very clear and only one side stands for the rights and liberties for which humanity worked for a millennium. The other side stands for controls, impositions, divisions, surveillance, censorship, degrowth, and corporate cartelizations. Can someone explain to me why we are supposed to think that the bad guys are now the good guys? In short, how can we account for the valorization of tyrants?
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 23:40 - Seattle Reverses Course, Makes Public Drug Use Arrestable Crime
Seattle Reverses Course, Makes Public Drug Use Arrestable Crime
The Seattle City Council on Tuesday ruled that public drug use will soon be illegal in the city.
Imagine that!
According to KIRO7, public drug use can now end in arrest – though there remains a large effort to funnel drug users into treatment programs.
CB 120645 adds the crimes of using a controlled substance in public space and knowing possession of a controlled substance to the statute’s list of crimes. The move follows a Sept. 12 proposed ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee by a vote of 4-1.
Residents were sharply divided over the plan.
“There is no budget to support this and there is no plan, no care, compassion or commitment to do anything other than imprison our most vulnerable citizens,” said one woman during the public comment section during a committee meeting.
People hold up posters criticizing the Seattle Police Department in City Council chambers on Tuesday before a vote on a new drug possession and public use bill. (Daniel Kim / The Seattle Times) Others were for it.
“Restoring a safe and welcoming environment downtown will bring back residents, workers and visitors, increase the momentum needed to get downtown on a sustained path to recovery,” said one man.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – MARCH 13: A homeless man, 24, holds a piece of aluminum foil he used to smoke fentanyl on March 13, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) The dissenting councilmember, Teresa Mosqueda, said the ordinance lacked attention to diversion efforts.
“I want people to get access to public health services just as much as the people who testified in support of this legislation say they want. But that is not what this legislation does. And without the funding that is purported to come with this bill, we have no assurances that there will be alternative structures and programs and diversion strategies to prevent people from going to jail. We do not have to pass this legislation,” she said.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 23:20 - US Wants Saudi Defense Pact Modeled After South Korea, Japan Deals
US Wants Saudi Defense Pact Modeled After South Korea, Japan Deals
US and Saudi officials are advancing talks for a “mutual defense treaty” that would resemble broad agreements Washington maintains with Japan and South Korea, according to officials who spoke with the New York Times.
“Under such an agreement, the United States and Saudi Arabia would generally pledge to provide military support if the other country is attacked in the region or on Saudi territory,” the NYT report reads.
The security pact is part of a so-called “megadeal” that would be sealed between Washington and Riyadh in exchange for the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel.
“Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) … regards a mutual defense agreement with the United States as the most important element in his talks with the Biden administration about Israel,” the NYT cites US officials as saying.
The NYT report was published the same day US President Joe Biden extolled the benefits of normalization with Israel during his speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
“Israel’s greater normalization and economic connection with its neighbors delivering positive and practical impacts even as we continue to work tirelessly for just and lasting peace, for Israelis and Palestinians, two states for two peoples,” Biden said.
His talk of a two-state solution echoed comments from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Monday when he stressed that the only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is an “independent Palestine.”
“The solution to the Palestinian issue must be based on the two-state solution and the establishment of the Palestinian state in accordance with international resolutions. We seek to bring the conversation about the two-state solution back to the forefront,” the kingdom’s top diplomat told reporters on the sidelines of the 78th UNGA session in New York City.
Last week, Saudi media reported that the kingdom had allegedly ended talks of normalizing ties with Israel over inflammatory comments from Jewish-supremacist ministers within the Israeli government who vehemently oppose making concessions to the Palestinians. One day later, however, US and Israeli officials called the report “false.”
If approved by two-thirds of the US Congress, the security pact would be a reversal from a 2021 move by the US to remove Patriot missile batteries from the kingdom as it prepared to incite an armed conflict with Russia and China.
Nonetheless, according to a White House letter sent to Congress in June, the US has about 2,700 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. These troops have recently been conducting expanded counter-drone drills with the Saudi military.
“Over the last 16 months, we worked very closely with our Saudi counterparts to develop their counter-UAS [-drone] tactics, techniques, and procedures … Our objective for this exercise was to shoot down [drones], dawn till dusk,” Colonel Robert McVey, the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) director of the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center, told Al-Monitor on Tuesday.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 23:00 - America's First 'Shroom Clinic' Opens In Oregon
America’s First ‘Shroom Clinic’ Opens In Oregon
America’s first licensed health clinic to sell ‘magic mushrooms’ opened in June in Oregon and has been swamped with surging demand. The waitlist for the clinic exceeds 3,000 people, some of whom are searching for ways to treat depression and PTSD.
No prescription or referral is needed for Epic Healing Eugene, but customers must be over 21 to receive psilocybin services.
AP News said some customers complained the ‘mind-bending’ experience is too costly:
“A client can wind up paying over $2,000, which helps cover service center expenses, a facilitator and lab-tested psilocybin. Annual licenses for service centers and growers cost $10,000, with a half-price discount for veterans.”
Even though The Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association opposed legalizing psilocybin in 2020, voters thought otherwise and also decriminalized the possession of hard drugs.
Epic Healing Eugene’s owner Cathy Jonas told AP that providing legal access to mushrooms is a ‘dream come true’:
“The plant medicines have communicated to me that I’m supposed to be doing this thing.”
State regulators decided that 50-milligram doses would be allowed. Jonas said she offers 35 milligrams of pure psilocybin or about 6 grams of dried mushrooms.
Each customer must consume the shrooms in the vicinity of Epic Healing Eugene and must remain on the property until the drug wears off. So forget about tripping in the forest with friends.
One of Jonas’ customers described being in a “kind of infinite-dimension fractal that just kept turning and twisting” after consuming 35 milligrams of shrooms.
“It was kind of mesmerizing to watch, but it got so intense,” said the client, who didn’t want to be identified to protect his privacy.
The client continued, “I started to have this experience of dying and being reborn. And then I would kind of see large portions of my life going by in a very rapid way.”
Several studies have revealed psilocybin is a possible treatment for psychiatric disorders.
Roland Griffiths, a professor who studies the neuropsychopharmacology of consciousness at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, received approval in 2000 to carry out the first experiments on psilocybin since the 1960s. He found in a survey of early study participants that more than half regarded it as one of the most meaningful experiences of their life.
“The mystical experience itself does seem to be really important for therapeutic effects, but we published survey data to suggest it’s not actually the mystical experience itself, but the personal insights you can encounter or gain during that mystical experience that actually lead to therapeutic change,” Barrett said, adding, “The idea here is that mystical experience can create the opportunity for personal insights.”
Since then, other more recent studies have shown promise in using psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat psychiatric disorders like depression. Some have been used to identify their usefulness in smoking cessation (alongside talk therapy). They have also shown some usefulness in alleviating anxiety in people with terminal cancer.
Another study, one published last week, found that the psychedelic drug MDMA can reduce symptoms of PTSD:
“It’s the first innovation in PTSD treatment in more than two decades. And it’s significant because I think it will also open up other innovation,” said Amy Emerson, CEO of MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, the research sponsor.
Before the Food and Drug Administration can prescribe MDMA, the Drug Enforcement Administration would need to change its classification from Schedule 1 to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
Psilocybin is still illegal federally, but several states are considering adopting Oregon’s decriminalizing approach to drugs.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 22:40 - A Comprehensive Timeline Of COVID-19 Vaccines And Myocarditis
A Comprehensive Timeline Of COVID-19 Vaccines And Myocarditis
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
2020
Sept. 22, 2020: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies myocarditis as an adverse event of special interest, or a potential side effect.
Oct. 30, 2020: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identifies myocarditis as an adverse event of special interest.
December 2020: One case of pericarditis reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is co-managed by the CDC and FDA.
Dec. 11, 2020: FDA authorizes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Americans 16 and older.
Dec. 13, 2020: CDC launches V-safe, a new vaccine safety monitoring system, without including myocarditis as an option in the adverse events list.
Dec. 18, 2020: FDA authorizes the U.S. government-backed Moderna vaccine for Americans 18 and older.
2021
2021: Myocarditis cases spike in the U.S. military.
January 2021: 28 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS.
January 2021: First U.S. military member experiences postvaccination myocarditis, according to a study published months later.
January 2021: First cases of postvaccination myocarditis recorded in Israel.
January 2021: VAERS report processing is delayed due to unexpected spike in reports.
February 2021: 64 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including two deaths.
Feb. 1, 2021: Israeli teenager is hospitalized with myocarditis after Pfizer vaccination, doctors say.
Feb. 18, 2021: Safety signal for myocarditis triggered in VAERS using CDC-endorsed method called Proportional Reporting Ratio.
Feb. 19, 2021: Safety signal for myocarditis triggered in VAERS using another method called Fisher’s Exact Test.
Feb. 24–25, 2021: CDC meets with its advisers but does not discuss COVID-19 vaccines.
Feb. 27, 2021: FDA authorizes Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.
Feb. 28, 2021: Israeli officials privately alert CDC to “a large number of reports of myocarditis, particularly in young people, following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.”
Feb. 28, 2021: 57 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis within seven days of vaccination in Pfizer’s database in document given to the FDA in April 2021 and not revealed to the public until November 2021.
March 2021: 54 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS.
March 1, 2021: CDC officials disclose (pdf) that two postvaccination cases were identified in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), another CDC-run system.
March 2, 2021: CDC recommends Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for adults.
March 3, 2021: Israeli authorities meet with hospital officials to discuss postvaccination heart problems.
March 4, 2021: Israeli officials confirm they’re investigating postvaccination pericarditis.
March 5, 2021: FDA holds meeting with its advisers. Myocarditis is not discussed.
March 6, 2021: Rutgers University becomes first major US school to announce COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
March 8, 2021: Australian health officials contact CDC about U.S. myocarditis cases.
March 9, 2021: U.S. internal memorandum says Israel received around 40 reports of postvaccination myocarditis. U.S. officials say some postvaccination cases were reported in the United States and acknowledge issues with passive surveillance such as underreporting. “Thus, FDA has not made a final determination regarding the causality between myopericarditis and the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” the memo stated.
March 20, 2021: First postvaccination myocarditis case report is published in the literature.
March 20, 2021: Pfizer contract with South Africa (pdf) says that “there may be adverse effects of the vaccine that are not currently known.”
March 31, 2021: Second postvaccination myocarditis case report published.
March 31, 2021: First death from postvaccination myocarditis reported in Israel. The deceased was a 22-year-old previously healthy woman.
April 2021: 158 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS.
April 2021: CDC holds multiple public meetings with no discussion of myocarditis.
April 1, 2021: Israel has received 84 reports of postvaccination myocarditis or pericarditis, news outlet reports.
April 2, 2021: U.S. military officials, CDC meet on postvaccination myocarditis cases.
April 5, 2021: Israeli officials brief the CDC on postvaccination myocarditis cases.
April 5, 2021: Canada reports first case of postvaccination pericarditis.
April 7, 2021: U.S. government call covers myocarditis cases recorded in military members after vaccination.
April 10, 2021: CDC-funded Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment program reviewed postvaccination myocarditis cases, email shows.
April 12, 2021: U.S. military officials brief CDC on postvaccination myocarditis cases.
April 12, 2021: Canada reports first case of postvaccination myocarditis.
April 13, 2021: U.S. military has submitted manuscripts on myocarditis cases to two journals, CDC official says.
April 13, 2021: CDC, FDA advise pause in administration of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine due to six cases of blood clotting.
April 15, 2021: Two otherwise healthy adults hospitalized with chest pain and diagnosed with myocarditis after Moderna vaccination, CDC adviser tells agency.
April 17, 2021: CDC official tells adviser there have been reports of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination “but we aren’t observing any clear indication of a safety signal.”
April 20, 2021: Three cases of myocarditis after second Pfizer dose in Idaho, official tells CDC.
April 23, 2021: United States lifts recommended pause on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.
April 23, 2021: Israeli Ministry of Health report on postvaccination myocarditis identifies two deaths, Israeli media report. The second deceased was a previously healthy 35-year-old man. Among men aged 18 to 30, there is a one in 20,000 probability of developing myocarditis, the report found. “It seems that these events can be a signal of a possible connection to the vaccine,” the committee said. The findings were sent to the FDA.
April 26, 2021: U.S. military officials are tracking 14 cases of myocarditis following messenger RNA vaccination, Military.com reports.
April 26, 2021: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says CDC “aware of” cases in the military. She says “we have not seen any reports of those” and that “we have not seen a signal” in CDC databases.
April 27, 2021: CDC officials privately acknowledge that processing of VAERS reports is “taking longer than usual.”
April 27, 2021: CDC officials say 24 cases of myocarditis were identified in VSD.
April 27, 2021: U.S. military official warns that pausing administration of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines “will have an adverse impact on US/CA vaccination rates.”
April 28, 2021: France detects safety signal for postvaccination myocarditis.
April 28, 2021: CDC director receives notes from discussion with military on myocarditis cases.
April 29, 2021: First cases of pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination reported in the literature.
April 30, 2021: FDA receives Pfizer report noting myocarditis cases in Pfizer’s database.
May 2021: 487 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including four deaths.
May 2021: CDC forms a team to review medical records for reported cases of postvaccination myocarditis.
May 5, 2021: CDC meets with advisers but doesn’t discuss COVID-19 vaccines.
May 7, 2021: European Medicines Agency announces it has asked Pfizer for information on myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination.
May 10, 2021: FDA authorizes Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15. It does not mention myocarditis.
May 12, 2021: Myocarditis is not discussed during meeting on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC official, gives a presentation on blood clotting after Johnson & Johnson vaccination.
May 12, 2021: Dr. Walensky recommends Pfizer’s vaccine for virtually all children aged 12 to 15, based on advice from advisers.
May 13, 2021: CDC officials told to direct questions on potential myocarditis cases to two top vaccine safety officials, Drs. John Su and Shimabukuro.
May 13, 2021: Same officials discuss analyzing VAERS data for myocarditis using the Proportional Reporting Ratio in heavily redacted emails. The agency says the analysis didn’t actually start until 2022.
May 13, 2021: CDC adviser says “multiple people texting and email[ing] me with concerns” about myocarditis.
May 13, 2021: Children’s National in Washington registers two suspected cases.
May 14, 2021: Dr. Shimabukuro seeks “experts in myocarditis.”
May 16, 2021: CDC official says in email, “we are hearing quite a lot about this now, and I don’t have a clear understanding of what is and has been being done.”
May 17, 2021: CDC workgroup says there are “relatively few” reports of myocarditis after vaccination and that rates “have not differed from expected baseline rates.”
May 17, 2021: Dr. Shimabukuro speaks with American Academy of Pediatrics officials to “centralize our coordination” with outside groups.
May 17, 2021: Dr. Su says health care providers “aren’t reporting these cases to VAERS.”
May 17, 2021: Dr. Su says the “myocarditis thing” is “exploding.”
May 18, 2021: States across the U.S. publicly report cases of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.
May 18, 2021: First case report of an American person with postvaccination myocarditis published.
May 19, 2021: CDC tells state officials it has been “closely monitoring” myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination and that cases “can be serious.”
May 20, 2021: Three more cases of postvaccination myocarditis at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, official tells CDC.
May 20, 2021: CDC officials hold meeting with doctors from pediatric hospitals on myocarditis cases. Slides from the meeting were provided to The Epoch Times fully redacted.
May 23, 2021: The American Heart Association says the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination for everyone eligible “enormously outweigh the rare, possible risk of heart-related complications, including inflammation of the heart muscle.”
May 24, 2021: CDC workgroup acknowledges for the first time that the number of reports of postvaccination myocarditis to VAERS was higher than expected in those 16 to 24.
May 24, 2021: French Society of Cardiology calls for vaccinating heart failure patients without acknowledging possible vaccine-myocarditis connection.
May 24, 2021: Massachusetts official asks CDC for “messaging” on postvaccination myocarditis.
May 25, 2021: Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA adviser, says about myocarditis and COVID-19 vaccines, “there’s every reason to think this isn’t a problem.”
May 26, 2021: The New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority says there’s a safety signal for myocarditis and COVID-19 vaccines.
May 28, 2021: CDC says to keep vaccinating everyone eligible, or virtually all Americans 12 and older.
May 28, 2021: Case series of young, previously healthy males hospitalized with postvaccination myocarditis discloses hospitalizations happened as early as Jan. 30, 2021.
May 28, 2021: CDC says it is focusing on reported cases among those 30 and under.
May 28, 2021: Nine postvaccination myocarditis cases from one state not reported to VAERS, according to CDC.
May 30, 2021: Brighton Collaboration issues case definition for myocarditis.
June 2021: 752 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including five deaths.
June 2021: Some experts start calling on U.S. authorities to pause COVID-19 vaccination of young, healthy people.
June 2, 2021: Israel says “there is some probability for a possible link between the second vaccine dose and the onset of myocarditis among young men aged 16 to 30” after researchers find incidence of one in 3,000 to one in 6,000 men aged 16 to 24.
June 4, 2021: U.S. researchers report seven cases in healthy young males following Pfizer vaccination.
June 10, 2021: 99 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis detected in FDA’s Biologics Effectiveness and Safety Initiative database, and 1,260 cases reported in Medicare claims data, FDA official says (pdf).
June 10, 2021: CDC working to rapidly follow up on reports of myocarditis following vaccination among people aged 30 and under, CDC official says (pdf). Most cases are in young adults after a second dose.
June 10, 2021: “There’s a lack of alternative explanations” apart from vaccination given the consistency across postvaccination cases, Dr. Cody Meissner, an FDA adviser, says.
June 10, 2021: “I think the myocarditis is something that needs to be looked at closely because we’re likely seeing the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Michael Kurilla of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, another FDA adviser. June 10, 2021: Pfizer spokesperson tells news outlets that “the benefit-risk profile of our vaccine remains positive.”
June 11, 2021: European Medicines Agency announces investigation into reports of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination.
June 23, 2021: CDC’s safety committee says evidence now suggests a “likely association” of mRNA vaccination and myocarditis.
June 23, 2021: Number of myocarditis cases recorded in VSD rise to 75. Based on VAERS reports, CDC says number of events higher than expected after dose two in males aged 12 to 49 and females aged 12 to 29. Among children 12 to 17, 188 cases were reported within 21 days of vaccination through June 11. CDC advisers say data suggest vaccines cause myocarditis.
June 23, 2021: CDC estimates (pdf) Pfizer’s vaccine will cause up to 69 myocarditis cases per million second doses but will prevent 215 hospitalizations and two deaths in males aged 12 to 17.
June 25, 2021: FDA adds warnings about “the suggested increased risks” of myocarditis and pericarditis to labels for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
June 28, 2021: The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs says privately it detected more myocarditis cases than expected.
June 29, 2021: Military researchers report 22 previously healthy members suffered myocarditis after receiving a messenger RNA vaccine. “The presentation pattern and clinical course suggest an association with an inflammatory response to vaccination,” they say. The cases are among hundreds reported in the literature this month.
June 29, 2021: CDC officials say of reported cases that “the striking clinical similarities in the presentations of these patients, their recent vaccination with an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, and the lack of any alternative etiologies for acute myocarditis suggest an association with immunization.”
June 30, 2021: Canada adds myocarditis and pericarditis risk information to labels of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
July 2021: 364 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including seven deaths.
July 3, 2021: 13 young males with postvaccination myocarditis treated at a single hospital in Washington state between April 1, 2021, and June 21, 2021, researchers report.
July 6, 2021: CDC estimates for every million doses of vaccination, dozens of cases of myocarditis can be expected, including 56 to 69 cases among 12- to 17-year-olds. The expected benefits outweigh the risks, though, according to the agency.
July 9, 2021: European Medicines Agency recommends listing myocarditis and pericarditis as side effects for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines after identifying 221 cases after mRNA vaccination. Five of the patients died.
July 10, 2021: South Korean researchers report a 22-year-old man was killed by vaccine-induced myocarditis, the first such death reported in the literature.
July 22, 2021: CDC says it confirmed 282 postvaccination myocarditis cases in people aged 18 to 29.
July 28, 2021: Pfizer tells FDA of “important identified risk” of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination and discloses 17 deaths among the cases reported.
July 30, 2021: Data mining does not show a signal for myocarditis among adolescents 12 to 17, CDC and FDA say.
July 31, 2021: Australian experts recommend people be informed about possibility of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination.
August 2021: 311 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including seven deaths.
Aug. 4, 2021: UK delays recommending second dose for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Aug. 10, 2021: 15 children hospitalized at Boston Children’s Hospital with postvaccination myocarditis between May 1 and July 15, 2021, researchers say.
Aug. 13, 2021: Canada identifies a safety signal for postvaccination myocarditis.
Aug. 17, 2021: Death of 27-year-old man following myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination reported by U.S. researchers. Family declined an autopsy. No non-vaccination causes identified.
Aug. 18, 2021: U.S. researchers report death of 42-year-old man with myocarditis following Moderna vaccination. No other causes identified.
Aug. 18, 2021: Dr. Walensky and other U.S. government officials call for COVID-19 vaccine boosters to be cleared due to waning effectiveness.
Aug. 19, 2021: Two deaths from myocarditis following Pfizer vaccination, Pfizer reports to the EMA.
Aug. 19, 2021: Dr. Walensky notified of UK preference for Pfizer over Moderna for adolescents.
Aug. 23, 2021: FDA approves Pfizer’s vaccine for people 16 and older. Approval theoretically has a higher bar than authorization. The agency says that analyses of reported events “will not be sufficient to assess known serious risks of myocarditis and pericarditis.”
Aug. 24, 2021: South Korean authorities determine a young man died from myocarditis after Pfizer vaccination.
Aug. 30, 2021: One myocarditis case and one pericarditis case occurred among vaccinated trial participants, Pfizer reveals.
Aug. 30, 2021: Of 742 reports in VAERS that met the CDC case definition of myocarditis or myopericarditis after vaccination, 701 patients required hospitalization and 18 are still hospitalized, CDC official reports (pdf). Twenty-three percent of patients whose cases were detailed in VAERS reports were not known to have recovered at the time of the report.
Aug. 30, 2021: Highest rate of reported myopericarditis cases within seven days of a shot was 71.5 cases per million second Pfizer doses among boys aged 16 or 17, according to the CDC.
Aug. 30, 2021: Myocarditis and pericarditis cases in VSD rise to 115, with some patients still experiencing symptoms, CDC official says (pdf).
Aug. 30, 2021: Benefits of Pfizer’s vaccine continue to outweigh the risks, CDC officials say. They estimate every million Pfizer shots among 16- to 17-year-olds will cause 73 cases of myocarditis but prevent more hospitalizations.
Aug. 30, 2021: Woman who died in New Zealand after Pfizer vaccination perished from myocarditis, an independent safety panel said.
September 2021: 377 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including 10 deaths.
Sept. 2, 2021: 654 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis in Pfizer’s safety database, company says. Seventy-seven reports of myocarditis or myocarditis and pericarditis in Moderna’s safety database, company says. Some patients, including a young male, died or had not recovered.
Sept. 2, 2021: Based on the reports and other data, a causal association between myocarditis/pericarditis and the mRNA vaccines is “considered of at least a reasonable possibility,” the European Medicines Agency says.
Sept. 3, 2021: 67 myocarditis/pericarditis cases recorded in VSD among people aged 12 to 39, CDC says.
Sept. 8, 2021: Healthy, young boys face a higher risk of cardiac events from vaccines than from COVID-19, U.S. researchers find.
Sept. 9, 2021: U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration announce COVID-19 vaccine mandates for tens of millions of Americans, including many young, healthy people.
Sept. 15, 2021: Hong Kong changes recommendation from two doses of Pfizer to one dose after spike in myocarditis cases.
Sept. 17, 2021: Excess myocarditis risk for vaccinated males aged 16 or 17 “approaching 200 cases per million,” FDA discloses, based on data from Optum health care claims database.
Sept. 21, 2021: “A clear signal for vaccine associated myocarditis has emerged,” U.S. doctors say.
Sept. 22, 2021: One case of myocarditis reported after Pfizer booster, CDC official says. Not possible to determine the risk of rare side effects like myocarditis after boosting, CDC safety committee says.
Sept. 22, 2021: V-safe does not collect information on myocarditis, CDC official admits.
Sept. 22, 2021: FDA authorizes a Pfizer booster for millions of Americans.
Sept. 23, 2021: CDC officials say they don’t know how many cases of myocarditis booster shots will cause. They project up to 26 cases per million boosters in 18- to 29-year-olds, but say more COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations would be prevented.
Sept. 24, 2021: CDC recommends Pfizer’s booster for certain populations.
Sept. 27, 2021: New Zealand expert tells CDC it “seems to make huge sense to me” to delay second doses for young people.
Sept. 28, 2021: Pfizer vaccine may have “played a role” in death of 15-year-old California boy who died after receiving shot, medical examiner tells CDC.
Sept. 29, 2021: CDC meets on non-COVID vaccines.
Sept. 30, 2021: CDC falsely tells California officials that reports of postvaccination myocarditis did not come until June 2021.
October 2021: 321 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including five deaths.
Oct. 4, 2021: Identification of postvaccination myocarditis cases “does not change clinical decision-making,” JAMA Internal Medicine editors say.
Oct. 7, 2021: Norway, Finland, and Sweden suspend use of Moderna’s vaccine for younger people due to myocarditis risks.
Oct. 8, 2021: Iceland suspends use of Moderna’s vaccine due to the heart inflammation.
Oct. 11, 2021: CDC director briefed on how Nordic countries are limiting vaccination due to myocarditis.
Oct. 12, 2021: Secret U.S. government meeting considering counting post-infection immunity as one or more vaccine doses ends with no update.
Oct. 14, 2021: FDA says more myocarditis/pericarditis cases have been reported to its Biologics Effectiveness and Safety Initiative system.
Oct. 21, 2021: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has identified 7 post-vaccination myocarditis cases, CDC publicly discloses, but no signal was established and all cases resolved.
Oct. 21, 2021: Highest rate of myocarditis following vaccination, based on VAERS data, is 69.1 cases per million second shots among males aged 16 or 17, Dr. Su says (pdf).
Oct. 21, 2021: About a quarter of cases in people 29 or younger reviewed in VAERS were not known to have recovered, according to available data, with 19 still hospitalized.
Oct. 21, 2021: Analyses of VSD data “indicate that both Pfizer and Moderna are associated with increased risk of myocarditis/pericarditis in 12–39-year-olds,” Kaiser Permanente doctor says (pdf). Myocarditis/pericarditis cases in VSD rise to 138, with rates higher after Moderna vaccination compared to Pfizer vaccination.
Oct. 21, 2021: CDC says tens of millions of Americans should get a Pfizer or Moderna booster.
Oct. 22, 2021: Rates of reported cases among males aged 18 to 24 approximately 139 per million after Moderna second dose and 43 per million after Pfizer second dose, French researchers say.
Oct. 22, 2021: Norway says adolescents can’t get second doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.
Oct. 26, 2021: FDA says benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks. Projection of harm is highest for 16- and 17-year-old males, at 196 postvaccination myocarditis/pericarditis cases, and 171 myocarditis/pericarditis hospitalizations per million doses.
Oct. 26, 2021: CDC cardiologist Dr. Matthew Oster says “we don’t know a whole lot” about myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination. “We really need to see what the long-term outcomes for these kids will be,” he added later.
Oct. 26, 2021: Dr. Michael Nelson, an FDA vaccine adviser, says he’s concerned that some cases of postvaccination myocarditis aren’t being reported.
Oct. 26, 2021: Dr. Eric Rubin, another FDA adviser, says “we’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it.”
Oct. 27, 2021: World Health Organization says the mRNA vaccines likely cause myocarditis.
Oct. 27, 2021: Prevalence of postvaccination myocarditis may be underestimated due to its reliance on symptoms for diagnosis, researchers say.
Oct. 28, 2021: Dr. Su says myocarditis reported after COVID-19 vaccination “has been neither severe nor persistent … however, we’ll need to wait to see if longer-term complications arise.” He also says CDC does not know what percent of cases became chronic.
Oct. 29, 2021: FDA authorizes Pfizer’s vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 despite dearth of efficacy data.
Oct. 30, 2021: Seventeen myocarditis patients seen at a single facility in Switzerland between March and July 2021, researchers report (pdf).
Oct. 31, 2021: FDA delays decision on approving Moderna’s vaccine for children.
November 2021: 267 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including six deaths.
Nov. 1, 2021: Dr. Su says in email that “we’re all doing our part to build confidence” in COVID-19 vaccines.
Nov. 1, 2021: English researchers estimate vaccinating children aged 12 to 17 will prevent 230 to 4,590 COVID-19 hospitalizations while causing 160 cases of myocarditis requiring hospitalization.
Nov. 1, 2021: Seven patients still had symptoms about a month after being diagnosed with myocarditis, U.S. researchers report.
Nov. 2, 2021: Nine deaths with myocarditis reported among people 29 and younger in VAERS. Most deaths had at least one potential non-vaccination cause while evaluation of two was still ongoing, CDC official says (pdf).
Nov. 2, 2021: Of postvaccination myocarditis patients who received cardiac MRIs, 72 percent had abnormal results, official says. Of patients who responded to CDC survey, 48 percent reported symptoms persisting after three months.
Nov. 2, 2021: Rates of myocarditis after Pfizer vaccination in children aged 5 to 11, if cleared, is unknown, CDC says (pdf). Rates in those 12 to 15 are as high as 108.5 per million second doses among males.
Nov. 2, 2021: CDC recommends virtually all children aged 5 to 11 receive a Pfizer series.
Nov. 3, 2021: 18-year-old previously healthy woman dies after COVID-19 vaccination with fulminate myocarditis, Washington state officials tell CDC. They attribute the myocarditis to asymptomatic COVID-19. Family declined an autopsy at one facility and King County Medical Examiner’s Office says it did not perform an autopsy due to “social and complex” reasons.
Nov. 8, 2021: France halts Moderna’s vaccine for people under 30.
Nov. 16, 2021: UK recommends second dose for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Nov. 18, 2021: Reported cases of myocarditis as high as 117 per million after doses of Moderna, and 47 per million doses of Pfizer, among males aged 18 to 29, German researchers say.
Nov. 19, 2021: Lower rates of myocarditis reported to VAERS after booster doses, CDC official says (pdf). Fifty-four reports were lodged, with some people not known to have recovered.
Nov. 19, 2021: CDC enables all adults to receive a booster of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Nov. 23, 2021: Between Dec. 27, 2020 and Sept. 3, 2021, 113 patients with suspected myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination presented to a single practice, German researchers report.
Nov. 26, 2021: Six people were reported to have died with myocarditis or pericarditis after Pfizer vaccination, the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb reports. Other causes were found for two of the deaths.
Nov. 28, 2021: Hong Kong researchers find rate of 212 myocarditis cases among 12- to 17-year-old males per million Pfizer second doses.
Nov. 28, 2021: Three verified cases of post-booster myocarditis, CDC discloses in private emails.
Nov. 29, 2021: UK recommends second dose for 12 to 15-year-olds.
December 2021: 304 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including five deaths.
Dec. 1, 2021: 22-year-old woman spent 74 days in hospital with myocarditis after AstraZeneca vaccination, South Korean researchers report.
Dec. 2, 2021: European Medicines Agency says safety signal confirmed for postvaccination myocarditis.
Dec. 2, 2021: Israeli researchers estimate 106.9 myocarditis cases per million vaccinated males aged 16 to 29.
Dec. 9, 2021: FDA authorizes booster doses for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Dec. 9, 2021: CDC says 16- and 17-year-olds should get a booster shot. It does not mention myocarditis.
Dec. 14, 2021: 114 vaccinated people had myocarditis listed as a cause of death on their death certificate, English researchers report.
Dec. 16, 2021: Eight cases of myocarditis among children aged 5 to 11 confirmed, including one in a 6-year-old male, CDC official says.
Dec. 18, 2021: 26-year-old New Zealand man’s death ruled as being caused by vaccine-induced myocarditis following an autopsy.
Dec. 25, 2021: Males under 40 face an excess risk of 101 cases per million second doses, UK researchers find.
Dec. 27, 2021: Incidence of myocarditis among males 12 to 39 is 195.4 per million second doses among males aged 12 to 39, U.S. researchers estimate. They identify cases missed by the CDC.Dec. 28, 2021: Risk of myocarditis much higher from Moderna’s vaccine compared with Pfizer’s shot, Canadian officials report.
Dec. 30, 2021: 21 patients with myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination admitted to a single center between Dec. 15, 2020, and June 15, 2021, U.S. researchers report.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 22:20 - DC Swamp In Crosshairs? Models Indicate Storm Advancing Up East Coast
DC Swamp In Crosshairs? Models Indicate Storm Advancing Up East Coast
The National Hurricane Center is tracking a storm off the Florida coastline. Computer models forecast a direct hit for the Mid-Atlantic region late Saturday into Sunday.
The storm will be several hundred miles away from North Carolina’s coast by Friday afternoon. Models show the storm will make landfall or come extremely close to the Outer Banks in the early hours of Saturday and ride up the Chesapeake Bay late Saturday, with the possibility of even strengthening.
“Around that time, it will pass over the Gulf Stream on its way toward the Chesapeake Bay. The warm Gulf Stream waters will help an uptick in convection, or thunderstorm activity, near the storm’s center. That could lead to it being classified as “subtropical” — part nor’easter, part tropical,” Capital Weather Gang meteorologist Matthew Cappucci wrote in a report on Thursday.
“There is a possibility of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the coastline,” NWS wrote in an early morning update.
From the Carolinas to Washington–Baltimore metro area to New York City, gusts of 40 mph, with some areas exceeding 50 mph near the coastline, could be seen.
Heavy rainfall is expected for major US East Coast cities. Some areas see 2 to 4 inches of rain – or about a month’s rainfall.
The storm won’t be enough to drain the ‘DC swamp.’
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 22:00 - Victor Davis Hanson: Our Self-Induced Catastrophe At The Border
Victor Davis Hanson: Our Self-Induced Catastrophe At The Border
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,
Since early 2021 we have witnessed somewhere between 7 and 8 million illegal entries across the now nonexistent U.S. southern border.
The more the border vanished, the more federal immigration law was rendered inert, and the more Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas spun fantasies that the “border is secure.” He is now written off as a veritable “Baghdad Bob” propagandist.
But how and why did the Biden administration destroy immigration law as we knew it?
The Trump administration’s initial efforts to close the border had been continually obstructed in the Congress, sabotaged by the administrative state, and stymied in the courts. Nonetheless, it had finally secured the border by early 2020.
Yet almost all its successful initiatives were immediately overturned in 2021.
The wall was abruptly stopped, its projected trajectory cancelled. The Obama-era disastrous “catch-and release” policy of immigration non-enforcement was resurrected.
Prior successful pressure on Mexico’s President Andrés Obrador to stop the deliberate export of his own citizens northward ceased.
Federal border patrol officers were forced to stand down.
New federal subsidies were granted to entice and then support illegal arrivals.
No one in the Democratic Party objected to the destruction of the border or the subversion of immigration law.
However, things changed somewhat once swamped southern border states began to bus or fly a few thousand of their illegal immigrants northward to sanctuary city jurisdictions—especially to New York, Chicago, and even Martha’s Vineyard.
The sanctuary-city “humanists” there who had greenlighted illegal immigration into the southern states suddenly shrieked. They were irate after experiencing the concrete consequences of their own prior abstract border agendas. After all, their nihilism was always supposed to fall upon distant and ridiculed others.
New York mayor Eric Adams went from celebrating a few dozen illegal immigrants bused into Manhattan, to blasting his own party by allowing tens of thousands to swamp his now bankrupt city.
But why did the Biden administration deliberately unleash the largest influx across the southern border in U.S. history?
The ethnic chauvinists and Democratic Party elites needed new constituents, given their increasingly unpopular agendas.
They feared that the more legal Latino immigrants assimilated and integrated into American society, the less happy they became with leftwing radical abortion, racial, transgender, crime, and green fixations.
Democratic grandees had always bragged that illegal immigration would create what they called “The New Democratic Majority” in “Demography is Destiny” fashion. Now they slander critics as “racists” who object to leftwing efforts to use illegal immigration to turn southwestern red states blue.
Mexico now cannot survive as a modern state without some $60 billion in annual remittances sent by its expatriates in America. But many illegal immigrants rely on American state and federal entitlements to free up cash to send home.
Mexico also encourages its own abject poor and often indigenous people from southern Mexico to head north as a safety-valve of sorts. The government sees these mass exoduses northward as preferable to the oppressed marching on Mexico City to address grievances of poverty and racism.
The criminal cartels now de facto run Mexico. An open border allows them to ship fentanyl northward, earn billions in profits—and kill nearly 100,000 Americans a year. Illegal immigrants pay cartels additional billions to facilitate their border crossings.
Do not forget American corporate employers. Record labor nonparticipation followed the Covid lockdown. In reaction to the dearth of American workers, the hospitality, meat packing, social service, health-care, and farming industries were desperate to hire new—and far cheaper—labor.
Human rights activists insist that the borders themselves are nineteenth-century relics. And the global poor and oppressed thus have a human right to enter the affluent West by any means necessary.
Many in the tony suburbs and in universities do not live anywhere near the border. So they pontificate on the assurance that thousands of unaudited illegal immigrants will never enter their own enclaves or campuses.
The result is elite bottled piety—but not firsthand experience with the natural consequences of millions chaotically fleeing one of the poorest countries in the world to pour into the wealthiest. Without background checks, vaccinations and health audits, legality, high-school diplomas, English-facility, skill sets, or capital, the result is an abject catastrophe.
Polls continue to show that the American people support measured, diverse, legal, and meritocratic immigration as much as they oppose mass illegal immigration into their country and the subsequent loss of American sovereignty on the border.
They understand what the Biden administration does not: no nation is history has survived once its borders were destroyed, once its citizenship was rendered no different from mere residence, and once its neighbors with impunity undermined its sovereignty.
Ending illegal immigration now depends solely on the American people overriding the corrupt special interests and leaders who profit from the current chaos and human misery.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 21:40 - UAW Auto Strike Costs "Detroit 3" $250 Million In Lost Profit Every Day, Will Lead To Much More Inflation
UAW Auto Strike Costs “Detroit 3” $250 Million In Lost Profit Every Day, Will Lead To Much More Inflation
One week ago, when previewing the three events that are about to slam US GDP in the tail end of the 3rd and the 3th quarter (including the return of student loan payments, the UAW strike and the government shutdown), Goldman calculated that reduced auto production from a potential UAW strike would reduce quarterly annualized growth by 0.05-0.10% for each week it lasted, if all three companies currently undergoing contract negotiations are impacted. “Those three companies—Ford, GM, and Stellantis—produce almost half of domestically-assembled cars. Auto production would likely fall sharply—we assume to roughly zero—at any company impacted by a strike”, Goldman said in its 30,000 approximation of the impact..
Fast forward to today when Morgan Stanley’s auto strategist, Adam Jonas, takes a closer look at the impact of the UAW strikes, which are now in their 5th day.
According to Jonas, investors have expressed a degree of trepidation over the strike outcome in a recent survey and now that it’s here, the path to resolution does appear to have matched investor fears.
Here is his quick calculation: “the value of N. American light production of the D3 (F, GM, STLA collectively) is approximately $750mm per day (approx. 15k units per day). Applying slightly more than a 30% decremental (yes, mix is that high) implies around $250mm of lost profit per day (assuming 100% of production impacted).”
Extrapolating to a full month of lost output (adjusted for production days) could be worth $7 to $8bn of lost profit for the D3, collectively.
According to Jonas, some of the lost production would be made back as some customers may be tempted to buy an import brand – or Tesla – with lack of availability.
But beyond the 1-time losses, Jonas says he is much more concerned about the potential for 30 to 40% labor inflation over the life of the next 4-year contract and how the domestic auto companies may recalibrate their ROIC and payback math for EV onshoring. The MS strategist thinks the outcome will be greater austerity and focus on the ICE run-off (that, however, would make many more workers redundant as EV require far less mechanical intervention than ICEs).
One must also consider that new car purchases account for roughly 5% of US CPI and soon car companies will have to raise prices (structurally) to compensate for higher labor input cost. Put simply, a 3% increase in new car prices could be worth 15bps to CPI over 4 years.
Finally, some thoughts on the UAW strike from One River CIO Eric Peters:
“The money is there. The cause is righteous. The world is watching, and the UAW is ready to stand up,” declared United Auto Workers boss Shawn Fain to his union members on a Facebook livestream. “This is our defining moment.”
Detroit automaker unionized labor costs, including wages and benefits, are estimated at an average of $66/hour. That compares with $45 at Tesla, which isn’t unionized, and $55 for Asian automakers.
Meeting all of Fain’s initial demands would boost average hourly labor costs to an estimated $136/hour.
Fein claims to be matching the roughly 40% compensation gains automaker CEOs have realized in the past decade. Ford’s CEO made $22mm last year. Stellantis’s $24.8mm. GM’s nearly $29mm.
“Competition is code word for race to the bottom, and I’m not concerned about Elon Musk building more rocket ships so he can fly in outer space and stuff,” Fain told CNBC, defending his demands. “Our concern is working-class people need their share of economic justice in this world.”
The secular trend toward ever rising inequality is turning. In August, UPS settled its labor dispute with the Teamsters 340k drivers who on average now make $170k in wages and benefits. That same month, Yellow failed to come to agreement with the Teamsters and ceased operations after nearly a century of trucking delivery — it awarded ten executives $4.6mm in special retention bonuses, laid off all 30k drivers and went into liquidation.
A secular trend reversal to how society divides its economic spoils is not all that different from revolution. Bitterly fought, treacherous for all involved. And this latest episode promises to be particularly so.
Because in the timeless conflict between capital and labor, it is extremely rare for the imbalance to be so extreme. The wider the gap, the bigger the stakes. And the last time the chasm was so great was at the height of the Roaring 1920s.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 21:20 - Estes' $1.525BN Stalking Horse Bid For Yellow's Terminals Wins Out
Estes’ $1.525BN Stalking Horse Bid For Yellow’s Terminals Wins Out
By Todd Maiden of FreightWaves
An order was entered in a Delaware bankruptcy court Thursday naming less-than-truckload carrier Estes Express Lines’ $1.525 billion stalking horse bid as the winning offer of Yellow Corp.’s portfolio of owned terminals.
Bid protections for Estes were also approved, including a $7.5 million breakup fee and expense reimbursement up to $1.6 million.
Yellow filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 6 after failing to reach terms with its union workers on a proposed change of operations it said was vital to its survival.
Last week Estes submitted the bid, which eclipsed a $1.5 billion offer from rival LTL carrier Old Dominion Freight Line. Estes’ proposal also came with lower bid protections. The carrier kicked off the bidding with an initial offer of $1.3 billion.
The bid sets the price floor for Yellow’s service centers. Estes is unlikely to walk away with all 174 terminals as a full sales process will still occur. The bid deadline for the terminals is set for Nov. 9, with an auction expected to take place on Nov. 28 if needed.
A hearing held last week revealed that initial indications of interest for some of the real estate has been as much as two to 11 times the appraised value. At the hearing, counsel for Yellow also said that the proceeds from the terminal sales will likely be more than enough to repay all outstanding amounts due to secured creditors.
The company’s unsecured claims, however, may garner more interest moving forward. A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Yellow’s pension fund withdrawal liabilities could top $6.5 billion.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents roughly 22,000 former Yellow workers, was vocal this week, calling for the U.S. Senate to investigate the company’s bankruptcy as a judiciary committee looks more broadly at bankruptcy reform.
Up next on the auction block is Yellow’s owned rolling stock, which includes nearly 12,000 tractors and 35,000 trailers. A deadline for equipment bids has been set for Oct. 13, with an auction set to occur on Oct. 18 if needed.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 21:00 - Lawlessness Spreads To Suburbia: Westport Man Carjacked In Own Garage
Lawlessness Spreads To Suburbia: Westport Man Carjacked In Own Garage
Violent crime appears to be spreading to suburbia. For the millions of Americans who fled crime-ridden metro areas where Democrat leaders failed to enforce law and order, the dramatic video of a carjacker assaulting a Westport, Connecticut, man in his garage for his Aston Martin serves as a wakeup call to better defend yourself and loves ones.
Westport Journal reports that the Westport Police Department released dramatic security footage from a Ring camera that shows a residential burglary and carjacking on Bayberry Lane on Sunday afternoon. Two suspects assaulted the man in his garage and stole his Aston Martin.
“They surround the vehicle and drag the man from the car as he calls for someone in the home to contact police. The intruders appear to repeatedly strike the man as he tries to fend them off,” the local media outlet said.
Westport police Lt. Eric Woods said the victim was targeted and followed back to his residence. “Therefore, Westport Police are encouraging residents to be aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior to 911,” he said.
The consequence of failed Democrat policies in major cities has only emboldened criminals who are now expanding their theft wave to suburbia. It’s also a cautionary sign for homeowners who might want to explore firearms training to defend themselves, their families, and their property.
Meanwhile, the average police response time is more than ten minutes. And Democrat lawmakers want to strip the public of firearms (see New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham‘s latest 2A overreach).
The video proves the Westport man couldn’t afford to wait just one minute.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 20:40 - Pfizer-Funded Study Shows Poor Effectiveness For COVID-19 Vaccine In Young Children
Pfizer-Funded Study Shows Poor Effectiveness For COVID-19 Vaccine In Young Children
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A new study funded by Pfizer found the company’s COVID-19 vaccine did not perform well in children under 5.
Syringes and vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are prepared to be administered at a drive-up vaccination site in Reno, Nev., on Dec. 17, 2020. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) Children aged 6 months to 4 years are supposed to receive three shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The number was increased from two when early testing showed little effectiveness.
Three doses of the Pfizer vaccine provided little protection against emergency room visits, urgent care encounters, or outpatient visits, according to the new study.
Researchers with and funded by Pfizer analyzed records from Kaiser Permanente Southern California. They included patients who tested for COVID-19 at an emergency department, urgent care, or outpatient setting along with being diagnosed with acute respiratory infection. The date range was July 23, 2022 through May 19, 2023.
Positive cases were those with a positive test result. Controls tested negative and had no evidence of prior infection in the past 90 days. Children were only counted as vaccinated if they received a second or third shot two or more weeks before being exposed to COVID-19. Children were excluded if they only received one dose, received any doses from a different company, or did not follow the recommended dosing schedule.
After adjusting for factors such as age and sex, researchers estimated just 12 percent effectiveness against medically-attended encounters for children who completed the three-dose primary series.
Confidence intervals crossed well over one, indicating that the effectiveness might actually be worse or even negative.
The effectiveness was estimated to be higher, or 44 percent, for children who received two doses of the regimen.
Researchers speculated that the difference stemmed from more immune-evasive virus variants becoming dominant in the United States by the time children received a third dose.
“Updated vaccines will likely be needed to maintain protection against contemporary Omicron strains in young children,” they wrote.
Sara Tartof, the study’s corresponding author and an employee of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, did not answer questions, including why researchers included those with two doses but not those with one dose.
Pfizer did not return a request for comment.
Key Problems
Among the key problems with the research were only including children who were diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI), Dr. Robert Malone, who was not involved in the research, said.
That “may predispose to young children that lack a primary care physician/pediatrician,” Dr. Malone, who helped invent the mRNA technology Pfizer’s vaccine utilizes, told The Epoch Times via email.
“Likewise, the control group of non-vaccinated with ARI will also have selection bias. These intrinsic study biases make the relevance of the measured outcome to the general population quite problematic.”
Another issue is using positive results on polymerase chain reaction testing as the metric for having COVID-19, given the false positives the testing brings, Dr. Malone said. Some patients who tested positive may actually have another virus, such as influenza, he said.
Need a Trial
Pfizer’s vaccine was authorized for children despite unreliable efficacy estimates against infection, and no efficacy estimates against severe disease.
The newly reported results are based on a test-negative design, which is inappropriate for measuring effectiveness, said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University.
“The design starts with children who are already seeing a doctor and then makes strong and unsupportable statistical assumptions to derive the probability of seeing a doctor for vaccinated and unvaccinated children,” Dr. Bhattacharya, who was not involved in the research, told The Epoch Times via email.
“What is needed to answer this question without bias is a randomized control trial. I am shocked that the FDA has not asked Pfizer and Moderna to conduct such a study,” he added.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared Pfizer’s shot on the basis of immunobridging, or comparing antibody levels in children after vaccination with levels in adults after vaccination.
Antibodies are believed to protect people against COVID-19.
The authorization has been the subject of protests, including a complaint that said the FDA violated its own standards with the clearance.
The FDA this month cleared new vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for children. The only trial data was from 50 people aged 12 or older who received Moderna’s shot. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the shots to all people aged 6 months and older.
CDC Data
CDC data presented on Sept. 12 showed that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines failed to provide much protection to young children.
One dose of Pfizer’s vaccine provided just 8 percent protection against emergency room and urgent care visits beyond 13 days, while two doses provided a peak of 44 percent protection, according to the data (pdf).
A third dose provided 71 percent protection between 14 and 59 days, but the shielding plunged to 16 percent after two months.
A two-shot primary series of Moderna’s shot initially provided 46 percent protection. That shielding dropped even lower, to 24 percent, beyond 60 days.
The World Health Organization considers 50 percent as adequate effectiveness for vaccines.
A single dose of a bivalent shot, introduced in the fall of 2022, boosted protection to 61 percent, but no estimates were available over time and the estimate was based on just eight vaccinated patients who tested positive.
“This imprecision indicates that the actual [effectiveness] could be substantially different,” the CDC said.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 20:20 - Leftist Mayor Calls 911 On Peaceful Petitioners – Describes Them As "Far Right Wing"
Leftist Mayor Calls 911 On Peaceful Petitioners – Describes Them As “Far Right Wing”
It is no secret that blue state politicians have been growing more extreme each passing year. Given a taste of ultimate authority during the covid lockdowns, they now seem to operate on the assumption that this is how society will function from now on – Unilateral authority with no checks and balances based on arbitrary proclamations rather than constitutional law.
As the old saying goes, if you want to test a person’s character, give them power. Democrats assumed far reaching powers during the pandemic scare, and they have revealed their true natures. This reality also extends to their behavior regarding “trans rights”, which they believe allows them to restrict individual speech, violate women’s privacy rights and erase the right of parents to be informed of school interactions with their children.
It may be opposition to the school trans indoctrination problem in particular that compelled leftist Mayor Janice Deccio of Yakima, Washington to call 911 on Sept. 3rd; outraged because of the presence of conservative petitioners collecting signatures at a local Walmart to stop schools from hiding information from parents. In June of this year, Deccio proclaimed the entire month as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual, Aromantic, Queer, Two-Spirit, Non-Binary, and Intersex Pride Month” in Yakima, during a city council organized event.
Deccio claims she was simply informed by her constituents of “far right wing petitioners” at Walmart “harassing” shoppers, and that she was not aware of what they were specifically collecting signatures for. Petitioners held signs listing their goals, making her assertion less believable.
The volunteers were gathering signatures over Labor Day weekend on six Washington ballot initiatives funded by Let’s Go Washington. I-2113 would roll back restrictions placed by Democrats on when police officers can engage in vehicular pursuits. I-2117 would lower the Democrat-imposed carbon tax that has spiked gas prices. I-2124 would allow employees to opt out of Washington’s long-term care insurance program. I-2109 would repeal the state’s capital gains tax. I-2111 would prohibit state income taxes being imposed and I-2081, would allow parents of public school students to review their child’s instructional materials and student records.
The signature gatherers also caught the attention of former Democrat candidate for Congress Doug White who posted on Twitter/X complaining about the “illegal petition” while asking his followers “What will you do about it?” Perhaps hoping to rally leftists to disrupt the petitioners since the police refused to violate their rights.
Illegal petitioners outside west valley Walmart. They have been trying to get rid of them for a week but refuse to leave. Police and sheriff will do nothing. Sgt Shepard of the YPD states “it’s their constitutional right”. Do you agree? What will you do about it? pic.twitter.com/9q2Hro9YyT
— Doug White (@DougWhiteRAU) September 3, 2023
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The Yakima Mayor says she “does not care” about the nature of the petition and was only concerned about “harassment” and the property rights of Walmart. However, if this is true why would she make sure to paint the petitioners as “far right wing?” Her clear disappointment and expression of disbelief after being told that the petitioners were acting within the law also reveals that the 911 call may have been motivated by political zealotry.
Attempting to conflate the private property of a home residence with the parking lot of Walmart could be blamed on ignorance. Perhaps Mayor Deccio is simply stupid. Clearly she was aware that police could not intervene before she made the call, and contacted 911 anyway. Was she hoping to use her government position to pressure police to confront petitioners regardless of the law?
At bottom the most important question is not a legal one – How was this small group of people causing harm? Why bother them at all? Would the Mayor have made the same phone call if the petitioners were far-left and in support of gun control, carbon taxes and trans propaganda in schools?
The identification of “far right wing” is often used by leftists as a qualifier for censorship. They argue that free speech is protected, but not absolute. Meaning, free speech is okay for those they deem to be the “good guys” but it should be restricted for those they deem to be the “bad guys.” Conveniently, leftists have also declared themselves the arbiters of who is good and who is bad, and they believe everyone to the right of Karl Marx and Klaus Schwab to be bad.
While some might say that this is a minor problem associated with a small city, it is in fact a reflection of a much larger agenda. The political left has been trying to establish double standards on every level of government and social redress for years; rules for thee but not for me. And when government begins to silence and suppress one group in favor of another, the end result will be predictably explosive. Luckily the local police in this instance were properly informed and were not subject to political pressure.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 20:00 - On The Idiotic Notion That It's Brave To Support Nuclear Brinkmanship In Ukraine
On The Idiotic Notion That It’s Brave To Support Nuclear Brinkmanship In Ukraine
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,
During a Sunday appearance on Face the Nation to plug his new Zelensky movie, actor Sean Penn decried the “cowardice” of the US government in its caution around provoking a nuclear exchange with its proxy warfare in Ukraine.
“It is my absolute feeling that the caution with which the United States has pledged support, which seemed, in my reading of February 2022 was a, like a lean on in the fear of nuclear conflict, something I think all of us should look very carefully at and understand that, of course, is possible,” Penn said.
“And that’s to be concerning. The likelihood is extremely low. And as one of our witnesses in the film says, you know, are we going to let a gangster with nuclear weapons dictate the way we live?”
Penn emotionally lamented the fact that the Biden administration did not pour F-16 warplanes into Ukraine from the very beginning of the conflict, initially fearing the move to be too escalatory. Describing this hesitation, Penn said that “at some point, caution becomes cowardice.”
As you might expect, the interviewer refrained from challenging Penn on his claim that the likelihood of nuclear war is “extremely low” in spite of his acknowledgement that it’s a real possibility, or on his claim that resisting increasing the likelihood of nuclear war is an act of cowardice.
Sean Penn has been one of Hollywood’s most egregious empire apologists for some time now (in 2020 he told CNN that “there is no greater humanitarian force on the planet than the United States military”), but even by his standards these comments about nuclear brinkmanship are remarkably odious.
There’s this obnoxious idea that comes up in mainstream political discourse about Ukraine that an aversion to nuclear brinkmanship is somehow cowardly, and that being willing to risk the life of every terrestrial organism advancing US strategic objectives is somehow an act of courage.
We saw this back in July from Paul Massaro, an advisor to the US government’s Helsinki Commission and a minor celebrity in online Zelenskyite circles. During this year’s “Captive Nations Summit” with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Massaro mocked westerners for being “fearful” of proxy warfare in Ukraine leading to nuclear warfare.
“I think the biggest thing is fear, I think we’re fearful,” Massaro said. “It’s very funny to me, because you meet Ukrainians, not a single Ukrainian is fearful. You talk to Ukrainians it’s like ‘What if the Russians use nuclear weapons?’, they’re like ‘We’ll keep fighting, we’ll win.’ You know it’s only the westerners that are like ‘Oh my god, I’m over here in California and what if the Russians use nuclear weapons?’ You know, it’s almost pathetic.”
Fear of nuclear war is a pathetic Western phenomenon, says cheerleader for WW3 and NAFO e-celebrity @HelsinkiComm advisor Paul Massaro, gleefully amped-up about the war in Ukraine at this week’s “Captive Nations Summit” held at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington. pic.twitter.com/FX8kKqRO9H
— Moss Robeson (@mossrobeson__) July 21, 2023
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It’s a common theme. Any time you talk publicly about the risk of the continually escalating war in Ukraine leading to nuclear catastrophe you’ll get empire apologists calling you a coward and saying we all need to be brave and stand up to the big bully Putin. And it’s just such a disgusting perversion of what courage actually is and what it looks like.
Empire loyalists often talk about nuclear brinkmanship like it’s something courageous that they personally are doing, as though gambling every terrestrial life on strategic grand chessboard maneuverings is a brave risk that could only hurt them. If you think you are brave for risking the life of everyone on earth to advance your personal geopolitical agendas, you might be a malignant narcissist, because you think the world revolves around you, and other lives exist only as props to support your main character adventures.
Hardly any human on this planet gives a shit who governs Crimea or the Donbass — and exactly zero of the plants and animals do — but people like Sean Penn and Paul Massaro think they have every right to not only gamble all their lives on a bid to control that outcome, but to call themselves courageous for doing so. Imagine being so self-absorbed you think you’re a brave hero for putting the lives of Africans, Asians, and South Americans on the betting table who’ve never even heard of Donetsk or Luhansk and don’t care who governs them, as well as every non-human life on earth.
I mean, the absolute arrogance. The fucking gall. It’s as emotionally stunted and infantile a perspective as you could possibly come up with, but these are the people whose worldview is shaping outcomes on this planet. These are the sort of people who are setting the trajectory of our species as a collective.
The mainstream western political consensus is a sickness of the mind. Its existence should make us all want to fall to our knees and beg the forgiveness of every life on this earth that it imperils.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 19:40 - Olive Garden Owner Warns: "Decline In Fine Dining" As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze
Olive Garden Owner Warns: “Decline In Fine Dining” As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze
Sentiment continues to turn negative for the US consumer as the latest warning sign comes from a multi-brand restaurant operator with more than 1,900 full-service locations nationwide. During a Thursday morning conference call, the management team warned Wall Street analysts about “softness” among wealthier households.
Darden Restaurants CEO Rick Cardenas said, “We are seeing a little softness versus last year with household incomes above $125,000, and that primarily affects our Fine Dining brands, but it does affect all of our brands.”
The multi-brand restaurant operator owns Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, and five other brands with more than 1,900 locations nationwide.
Cardenas offered more clues about waning consumer spending habits at restaurant locations:
“Now, this could be because the increase in luxury travel, particularly international travel, which you’ve heard a lot of people talk about, but as I’ve said before many times, there is a tension between what people want to pay and what they can afford, and they’re going to continue to seek value, not always about low price. They’re making tradeoffs, and food away from home is one of the most difficult things they can give up.”
Darden’s CFO told analysts that a decline in fine dining has been due to customers opting for lower-priced wines and other beverages over the past year:
“The decline in Fine Dining, part of that is driven by incremental costs they have year-over- year. Their pricing is starting to catch up. But also, there was some negative mix. On a one- year basis, there was a lot of negative mix on alcohol. When we look at what’s happening with — at Fine Dining, there is trading down to lower-priced wines and other alcohols on a one-year basis.”
Darden’s exec team offered a cautionary view on wealthier customers amid a period of high credit card debt and depleted savings for consumers. The $2 trillion in excess savings from the Covid crisis has been all but depleted, according to according to JPM calculations.
The latest slide in consumer credit suggests folks are finally tapped out.
Meanwhile, with average credit card interest rates rising above 22% to a new record high…
And now that repayment of student loans has officially resumed, it will likely cause a $15.8 billion headwind for consumers every month.
The days of $80 steaks and $25 martinis might be over for now.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 19:20 - Eric Clapton Helps RFK Jr. Raise $2.2 Million At Los Angeles Fundraiser
Eric Clapton Helps RFK Jr. Raise $2.2 Million At Los Angeles Fundraiser
Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Eric Clapton helped raise $2.2 million for the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a political action committee (PAC) at a private fundraiser on Monday night, the Kennedy campaign announced Tuesday.
Eric Clapton and his band perform at a private fundraiser in support of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2023. (Courtesy of Team Kennedy, Kennedy24.com) The star-studded event, held in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, raised a total of $2.2 million, with $1 million earmarked for Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, while the remaining $1.2 million will bolster a PAC dedicated to supporting his bid for the presidency.
“I am deeply grateful to [Eric Clapton] for bringing his musical artistry and rebellious spirit to my gathering in Los Angeles last night and helping raise $2.2 million for my campaign,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement released by his campaign.
Mr. Kennedy, who is the son of assassinated former presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, expressed his appreciation for music having the power to bring people together “in our divided society.”
“Eric sings from the depths of the human condition. If he sees in me the possibility of bringing unity to our country, it is only possible because artists like him invoke a buried faith in the limitless power of human beings to overcome any obstacle,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement.
In late August, the Kennedy campaign revealed that Mr. Clapton would be headlining the exclusive fundraising event, where ticket prices reportedly ranged from a minimum of $3,300 to a maximum of $6,600.
Eric Clapton and his band performed at a private fundraiser in support of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2023. (Courtesy of Team Kennedy, Kennedy24.com) At the time, Mr. Clapton expressed his excitement about the event in a brief video message, praising Mr. Kennedy for his commitment to championing “truth, unity, peace, and posterity.”
Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Clapton have criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Mr. Kennedy is one of two Democratic candidates running against President Joe Biden, who is facing an impeachment probe and who has the support of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in seeking a second term in the White House.
The presidential hopeful recently accused the DNC of rigging the presidential primary system to hinder any substantial challenge to President Biden’s campaign.
In an open letter published on Sept. 13, Mr. Kennedy accused DNC leadership of going “off track” by limiting democracy and manipulating the primary rules to favor President Biden.
“The DNC and the Joe Biden campaign have essentially merged into one unit, financially and strategically,” Mr. Kennedy wrote.
Section 4 of the DNC’s charter states that the party chair is required to maintain impartiality and evenhandedness when it comes to presidential candidates and their campaigns.
In February, the DNC passed a resolution with unanimous agreement, pledging its “full and complete support” for both the president and Vice President Kamala Harris. This resolution was adopted prior to Mr. Kennedy’s launch of his campaign several months later.
Responding to Mr. Kennedy’s criticisms, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison told his campaign in a letter cited by The Washington Post that the criticism was based on “serious misunderstandings” of the nominating process.
“I am hopeful that a meeting with our Delegate Selection leadership team will prevent future instances of voters receiving erroneous information that could cause confusion about the equity of the Democratic nominating process,” Mr. Harrison wrote, per the report.
The Biden campaign has raised more than $72 million between April and the end of the quarter in July. While these figures are substantial, they fall short when compared to the amounts raised by previous American presidents at this stage in their reelection campaigns. For instance, in 2019, then-President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised a total of $105 million in the second quarter, reported The Associated Press.
The poll by RealClearPolitics, as of Sept. 19, put Mr. Kennedy in a distant second with 11.9 points for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, following President Joe Biden with 66.6 points.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 19:00 - Biden Finally Gives Netanyahu Long-Delayed White House Invitation
Biden Finally Gives Netanyahu Long-Delayed White House Invitation
At a moment the US is pushing hard for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, President Joe Biden has finally and much belatedly issued a formal invitation for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House before the end of the year.
This means a White House trip for the Israeli PM will happen nearly a full year after his reelection to office, which has been seen in Tel Aviv as a bit of an insult.
Via Office of the Israeli Prime Minister Biden reportedly issued the invitation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
He told the press, “Today, we’re going to discuss some of the hard issues, that is upholding democratic values that lie at the heart of our partnership, including the checks and balances in our systems and preserving the path to a negotiated two-state solution, and ensuring that Iran never, never acquires a nuclear weapon.”
Netanyahu responded positively in the UN meeting with Biden: “I think that under your leadership, Mr President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said.
“Such a peace would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” the Israeli leader added.
Typically new Israeli leaders make an official trip to the White House within a mere weeks of being reelected, but Biden’s “snub” is being seen in reaction to the Netanyahu ruling coalition’s ultra-controversial judicial overhaul agenda, which will greatly weaken the independence of Israel’s judiciary. Biden addressed this in the meeting:
President Joe Biden raised “hard issues,” including protecting the “checks and balances” in a democracy, in a Wednesday meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushing the Israeli leader to find a compromise on a judicial overhaul that has set off months of mass protests in Israel and concerns in Washington.
Biden also raised concerns about the far-right Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians, urging Netanyahu to take steps to improve conditions in the West Bank at a time of heightened violence in the occupied territory.
As for Saudi-Israeli normalization, in an interview published by Fox this week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said of ties with the Jewish state, “Every day we get closer.”
In exchange for pursuing a peace deal along the lines of the Abraham Accords, Riyadh is demanding Washington’s help in creating a Saudi civilian nuclear program. Importantly, it appears the Netanyahu government is willing to bless this…
“Netanyahu directed top Israeli nuclear and security specialists to cooperate with US negotiators… the clearest sign yet that the Israeli prime minister is willing to allow Saudi Arabia to advance its nuclear ambitions.” https://t.co/PD0BMBSLNT
— Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) September 21, 2023
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Interestingly, MbS also said in the Fox interview that Saudi Arabia will obtain a nuclear weapon if its number one regional rival Iran does so first. “If they get one, we have to get one,” MbS told Fox’s ‘Special Report’ anchor Bret Baier when asked what the kingdom would do if Iran builds a nuclear weapon.
Of course, that would greatly complicate the question of peace and normalization with Israel, which remains the region’s sole nuclear-armed power, though not officially and on a publicly disclosed level.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 18:40 - Next Arms Package For Ukraine Includes More Internationally-Banned Cluster Bombs
Next Arms Package For Ukraine Includes More Internationally-Banned Cluster Bombs
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
President Biden’s expected new weapons package being announced when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Washington on Thursday is expected to have more internationally-banned munitions, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Sources told Reuters that the package will be worth $325 million and is expected to include the second tranche of widely-banned cluster bombs in the form of 155mm artillery shells. The US began providing Ukraine with cluster munitions in July despite their history of killing and maiming civilians.
An MK-20 ‘Rockeye’ US-made cluster bomb, file image. The cluster munitions the US is providing Ukraine are packed with 72 submunitions, known as bomblets, that are scattered over a large area.
Cluster bombs are so hazardous to civilians because many of the submunitions do not explode on impact, and can be found years or decades later. Due to their indiscriminate nature, cluster bombs are banned by over 100 countries by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the US, Ukraine, and Russia are not signatories to the treaty.
A US official also told Reuters that the new weapons package will not include Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which can be fired from the HIMARS rocket systems and have a range of up to 190 miles.
ATACMS have been long sought by Ukraine, and recent media reports said they could be soon on their way, but the White House said this week no decision has been made.
Providing ATACMS would mark a significant escalation of US support for Ukraine as they could potentially hit targets inside Russia. When asked earlier this month about Ukraine using ATACMS to target Russian territory, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said targeting decisions are up to Ukraine.
Other weapons expected to be in the new arms package include Avenger short-range air defense systems, HIMARS ammunition, TOW and AT-4 anti-tank weapons, and Javelin anti-tank missiles.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 18:20 - Trudeau Tried But Failed To Convince Allies To Condemn India Over Killing Of Sikh Leader
Trudeau Tried But Failed To Convince Allies To Condemn India Over Killing Of Sikh Leader
Canada says it is still investigating “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents with the killing of a Sikh separatist leader outside of Vancouver in June. Sikh leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in a parking lot by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple on June 18.
The accusation which was made public Monday by Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau has sent relations with India to their lowest point in history. But India had formally designated Nijjar a terrorist starting in 2020, and while rejecting the accusation it has also said Canada is playing host to terror organizations.
After a mutual expelling of top diplomats from either country, as of Wednesday India is warning its citizens to exercise caution when traveling in Canada in a new advisory.
A previous Trudeau trip to India India’s External Ministry published the warning which tells citizens and students in Canada that “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate-crimes” are one the rise.
The statement also tells Indians to stay away from venues and events where “threats have particularly targeted Indian diplomats and sections of the Indian community who oppose anti-India agenda,” the ministry said.
Canada is simultaneously circulating its own updated advisory which requests that its citizens exercise “high degree of caution” when traveling in India. The message highlights the potential for “terrorist attacks” – in what’s clearly intended as a punitive measure against New Delhi.
“Exercise a high degree of caution in India due to the threat of terrorist attacks throughout the country,” it states.
Trudeau is meanwhile attempting what looks like damage control amid the escalating diplomatic war. He says it’s not his aim to “provoke” India in fresh statements:
“Canada is not trying to provoke India by suggesting its agents were linked to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader but Ottawa wants New Delhi to address the issue properly,” Reuters quoted him as saying on Tuesday.
“The government of India needs to take this matter with utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate,” he reportedly said.
Trudeau had raised the issue with PM Modi during the G20 hosted in New Delhi. But it was also his efforts to convince Washington to stand by Canada’s side which also got rebuffed, according to reporting in The Washington Post…
“Some of these allied nations, including the United States, however, declined to join Canada in jointly announcing the findings of the ongoing probe, underscoring the lengths the Biden administration has gone to avoid antagonizing India and court the Asian power as a strategic counterweight to China,” WaPo wrote.
According to more from the Post, the Biden administration was not willing to go all-in on the accusation so as not to risk deepening the US relationship with India:
On Monday, Trudeau did not give specific evidence linking Indian operatives to the shooting but said Canada was looking into the killing with allied nations. The controversy comes at an awkward moment when Western nations, led by the White House, are looking to woo India as a geopolitical and trade partner and have refrained from criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi over India’s authoritarian backsliding.
HUGE TURNAROUND AFTER MEGA SNUB? TRUDEAU ON BACKFOOT AFTER ABSURD CLAIM?
Canadian PM Justin Trudeau says ‘ We are not looking to provoke or escalate matters with India.’ #JustinTrudeau #CanadaIndiaRelations #Canada pic.twitter.com/RC4UHcLtHZ
— Jan Ki Baat (@jankibaat1) September 20, 2023
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Canada was strongly lobbying other allies as well, particularly among the “Five Eyes”:
In recent months, Canada began pushing its closest allies, the members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network – the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – to raise Nijjar’s killing with India at the highest levels of government and issue a joint statement condemning the act as contravening international norms, said a Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.
But several countries, including the United States, demurred, fearing a diplomatic backlash from the Modi government at a moment when India was due to hold a lavish coming-out party on the international stage, the G-20 Summit in New Delhi, the Western official said. Instead, the alleged assassination was privately raised by several senior officials from the Five Eyes countries in the weeks before the summit, which took place on Sept. 9 and 10.
Trudeau had in his Monday televised announcement before the House of Commons asserted that “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.” Some pro-Indian commentators and media are questioning whether Nijjar is a Canadian citizen at all.
There remains the possibility the whole row could push India further away from the West when it comes to the Ukraine war, and into closer trade and economic cooperation with Russia and China.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 09/21/2023 – 18:00
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