Sep 28

Today’s News 28th September 2024

  • The 'Chemical War' Killing 70,000 Americans Each Year
    The ‘Chemical War’ Killing 70,000 Americans Each Year

    Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The United States needs to ramp up enforcement against every step of the manufacturing and trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly synthetic drugs if it hopes to stem the crisis, several experts told The Epoch Times. With every passing day, however, the path to success gets narrower as the criminal organizations involved get more sophisticated.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images

    More than 100,000 Americans died of an overdose last year; of which more than 70,000 overdosed on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    The United States government has poured billions into addiction treatment, but the drugs are too broadly available for the treatment to stick, some experts said, arguing the supply needs to be drastically curbed.

    Illicit fentanyl usually comes across the southern border from Mexico where it’s manufactured from chemicals made in China and pressed into pills that often look like prescription drugs such as Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone.

    Steps by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to regulate export of illicit chemicals have been dismissed by the experts as cosmetic. Instead, they say, the regime is using drugs as a strategic weapon against the United States.

    “This is a chemical war that we’re facing, and no one’s treating it as a war,” said Derek Maltz, former head of special operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

    “People are treating it as a drug issue. It’s not a drug issue. It’s the number one threat to our national security,” he told The Epoch Times.

    The House Select Committee on the CCP issued a report earlier this year detailing China’s involvement at every step of fentanyl trafficking. Chinese companies produce the precursor chemicals from which fentanyl is prepared. Chinese companies ship the chemicals to Mexico. Chinese-made pill presses allow the production of counterfeit pills. Chinese organized crime groups then help the cartels launder and move the illicit profits from the United States to Mexico.

    Both the Trump and the Biden administrations have managed to press China to impose additional regulations on fentanyl as well as its analogs and precursors, but the measures “lack teeth” because they fail to impose “substantial costs” on illicit producers, according to Andrew Harding, a research assistant in the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.

    “As long as the producers can stay quiet and evade law enforcement, they will continue to produce,” he told The Epoch Times.

    The CCP has claimed to shut down 14 websites, suspend more than 330 business accounts, and close down more than 1,000 online shops that were engaged in the sale and distribution of illicit drugs and precursor chemicals, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in July.

    But he acknowledged that “there continues to be a significant supply of precursor chemicals out of [China].”

    An overview of global illicit drug pathways, shown during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Oct. 17, 2017. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

    “There’s obviously a whole lot more to do. And that’s why these ongoing conversations and engagements are so important, even if we’re taking small steps one at a time,” he said.

    The experts, however, suggested that the time for small steps and engagement has passed as China’s weak actions hint at intentionality.

    “This is all part of their strategic plan, in my opinion, to harm America,” Maltz said.

    “It’s part of the unrestricted warfare game, and that’s what’s happening. And they’re actually very successful, because America is not taking care of business, and America is not taking it seriously.”

    The Select Committee on CCP found that Beijing was subsidizing illicit chemical exports, providing tax rebates specifically on sales of chemicals that are often not only illegal in China, but lack legitimate use besides making illegal drugs. Some of the rebates were even higher than those offered on any other export products.

    It also found evidence that the regime was intentionally making it difficult for foreigners to find information about the rebates.

    The Biden administration, however, stopped short of endorsing this conclusion.

    “We do not have any information to support that finding, that [China] is actually subsidizing these exports,” said the senior administration official, adding “there’s a need for an ongoing conversation about that.”

    The White House didn’t respond to a list of questions emailed by The Epoch Times.

    To truly solve the crisis, the experts said, the United States needs to hit every chokepoint along the trafficking chain. And it must be done fast.

    “We’re losing hundreds of thousands of Americans. What’s going to happen in a few years?” Maltz asked.

    “They’re not going to be filling jobs that are important down the line. They’re not going to be going to college, they’re not going to be getting professional jobs, they’re not going to be helping our society. They’re going to be gone.”

    The government is already playing catch-up with traffickers, he noted.

    Cartels and other criminal organizations are increasingly trafficking synthetic drugs even more powerful than fentanyl, such as xylazine and nitazenes. Xylazine is particularly abhorrent since it causes tissue necrosis and its overdose can’t be reversed using naloxone—a drug that can overturn an overdose caused by opioids, including fentanyl, if administered quickly.

    If the fentanyl crisis is likened to cancer, the United States is already in an advanced stage, according to Michael Brown, formerly a DEA agent of more than 30 years who now heads counter-narcotics technology at Rigaku Analytical Devices.

    A person lies on the street after the decriminalization of all drugs, in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 25, 2024. (Bottom Left) A used Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray lies on the street after paramedics and police respond to a suspected fentanyl drug overdose in Portland, Ore., on Jan. 25, 2024.

    So far, it should still be possible to crack down on the supply of fentanyl precursor chemicals, perhaps with the aid of artificial intelligence, he said. But the precursor chemicals have their own precursors too. If the cartel labs become so sophisticated as to manufacture fentanyl precursors from chemicals that are too general in purpose to effectively track, it will be even more difficult to root the problem out, he said.

    “If the cartels get to what I call the final evolution of narco-chemistry, which means they have multiple recipes that can be used to make stage one, stage two, and stage three pre-precursors to make the required precursors, there’s no way even using AI, I think, we can beat this issue in the next five to 10 years.”

    Pressure on CCP and Mexico

    “An effective U.S. strategy to combat the international fentanyl trafficking industry should begin with the recognition that the United States lacks good-faith partners in both the Chinese and Mexican governments,” according to a recent Heritage report coauthored by Harding.

    The CCP has not only been unwilling to address the issue constructively, but has in fact used it as a bargaining chip to force concessions from the U.S. on technology sales, he said.

    The Mexican government, in the meantime, seems to be under profound influence of the cartels, the experts said.

    “All those chemicals … are coming in and they’re coming in freely because people are being paid off, and the Mexican government allows it,” Victor Avila, former Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with Homeland Security Investigations, told The Epoch Times.

    The only way to induce cooperation would be to twist the hands of governments, some experts said. The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on more than 300 entities and individuals tied to fentanyl trafficking but it’s not clear if that has produced any tangible effect.

    Sanctions would only be effective if they hit major companies, Brown said.

    In 2019, China had more than 23,000 chemical companies and about 5,000 that produced pharmaceutical precursors. The Chinese chemical industry produces some $1.5 trillion annual revenue. That’s about 40 percent of the world’s chemical market, he noted.

    If a few small Chinese chemical companies are sanctioned, it doesn’t make much of a splash. But if a major Chinese company is targeted, that would get the attention of the regime and create a deterrent, Brown told The Epoch Times.

    Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) holds up a bag representing fentanyl during a hearing in Washington on Jan. 11, 2024. The hearing examined legislative solutions to stop the flow of fentanyl into and throughout the United States. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

    With its extensive internet monitoring, the CCP, sufficiently motivated, should be able to sniff out fentanyl precursor traffickers, the Select Committee on CCP report pointed out.

    The CCP could also share useful information with the United States.

    “If China was sincere on helping the U.S. with the crisis, it would have agreed to share information on chemical shipments with the U.S. and Mexico so that they can be tracked,” Brown said.

    Even in absence of CCP’s cooperation, however, the United States could do much more, the experts suggested.

    Intercepting Packages

    The United States should use its Navy and the Coast Guard to interdict suspicious maritime shipments from China to Mexico before they reach cartel-controlled ports, the Select Committee on CCP report recommended.

    But because fentanyl is so potent, precursor chemicals are often sent in smaller quantities by air, Brown said.

    Packages from China to Mexico are usually shipped through Alaska, giving the United States an opportunity to check them on the way, he noted.

    “Customs and Border Protection have access to those parcels. If they can identify a suspected parcel, they can go in and actually seize it.”

    Sometimes, the chemicals are sent to a front company that looks like a drug maker but in fact doesn’t produce anything. A background check would reveal it as fake.

    Precursor chemicals can also be shipped to a legitimate pharmaceutical company and then diverted to cartels. In that case, the company’s production wouldn’t match the amount of precursors it’s ordering.

    It’s extremely common, however, for the packages to be mislabeled, Brown said. The only way, then, would be to check packages en masse using sniffing dogs or gadgets that can identify chemicals. Not all packages would need to be checked, but it would need to be a percentage large enough to serve as a deterrent.

    Such checks could be much more effective by using artificial intelligence to recognize suspicious patterns, he said.

    “Does it make sense for somebody in Mexico to order 500 pounds of pool cleaner from China? AI would say, ‘I don’t like this. Maybe take a look at it,’ right?”

    An officer from the Customs and Border Protection, Trade, and Cargo Division works with a dog to check parcels for fentanyl at John F. Kennedy Airport’s U.S. Postal Service facility in New York City, on June 24, 2019. Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

    Focusing on shipping has the added benefit of minimizing the civil rights impact of false positives. Nobody needs to be arrested or stopped by police to check a package during transit. International packages are already expected to get probed by customs officers, so there’s no new privacy intrusion.

    “If you’re using pattern recognition and parcel screenings, if you open it up, if five out of 50 parcels are legitimate, it doesn’t matter. You just put it back on the board and send it to where it’s going. But if you start making a 20 to 30 percent seizure rate, cartels are going to go on panic mode,” Brown said.

    Targeting Cartel Labs

    More than 100 “super labs,” operated by cartels in Mexico, produce fentanyl and press it into pills, Avila said.

    The first step should be to designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, he recommended.

    “Let’s start there, because that’s what they are. You designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations now, you treat them just like ISIS, just like the Taliban, just like al Qaeda, exactly the same, meaning that no longer do you do even what I used to do as a special agent—those investigative techniques are stale and outdated. You need to go after these guys using Department of Defense resources.”

    There’s a chance the United States could convince the Mexican government to cooperate with U.S. military operations against cartels.

    “We have good informant networks in Mexico and we know where … a lot of these production labs are. We could definitely get access to their locations. So we should be destroying those production labs, because without the chemicals, without the labs, you can’t produce the poison,” Maltz said.

    There needs to be a way to intimidate the cartels, he suggested.

    “We have to be way more aggressive with the cartels right now. There’s no fear. They have no fear of America because there’s no consequences.”

    Securing the Border

    “Having a wide-open border, and that’s what we have now, is facilitating the ability for these cartels and for these criminals to get these substances into America, because our resources are being overwhelmed,” Maltz said.

    When the Border Patrol has its hands full processing hundreds of thousands of people illegally crossing the border, that’s when the drugs can pour in undetected.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 23:25

  • After Letting 600K Criminals Into The US, Kamala Slithers Down To The Border And Does Trump Impression
    After Letting 600K Criminals Into The US, Kamala Slithers Down To The Border And Does Trump Impression

    On Friday, ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris flew down to Arizona for a photo-op at the southern US border – through which untold millions of migrants from all over the world have entered the United States illegally during the Biden-Harris administration.

    While there, she gave a ridiculous speech in which she (get this) called for tougher border security – pledging to enact various forms of immigration reform if she’s elected in November, including a 5-year ban on reentry for those who enter the country illegally.

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    After doing her best Trump impression, however, Harris then floated a path to citizenship for those who have been in the country “for years.”

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    A reminder…

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    Also on Friday, a damning revelation from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX); US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) revealed that over 650,000 migrants with criminal histories were let loose in the United States between ‘mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024.’

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    “As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,729 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” wrote deputy DHS Director Patrick J. Lechleitner in response to a March letter from Gonzales demanding answers.

    In short, this couldn’t have come on a worse day for Harris…

    Meanwhile, the internet is forever… (maybe)

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 23:00

  • It's Puzzling Why We're Told Fraud In Transgenderism Is Never Possible
    It’s Puzzling Why We’re Told Fraud In Transgenderism Is Never Possible

    Authored by John Ellis via The Epoch Times,

    Fraud is a permanent part of life. There will always be people who seek illicit advantage by representing themselves as something they are not or promising to do something they don’t intend to do. No area of human life is immune: Financiers, doctors, teachers, car mechanics, plumbers, bridegrooms—there will always be frauds among them. So it’s puzzling when we are told that there is one area of human life where fraud can’t exist.

    Transgender activists tell us that if a man says he is a woman, we absolutely must believe him – always, without exception. Let’s be clear about what this means. Even if we were to accept the entirety of the transgender thesis that men can become women if they sincerely believe they are, it still doesn’t follow that every transgender claim must be accepted as genuine. To decide in principle, without scrutiny of the individual case, that not a single transgender claim may be doubted, would make transgenderism unique in human affairs. You can question anything else that someone says, but not this.

    Why?

    Is it because nobody could gain an illicit advantage by claiming to be transgender?

    That is clearly not so. Male felons will have a much easier life in a women’s prison. Mediocre male athletes will benefit greatly by claiming to be female—they can become world-class overnight.

    Predatory males gain by getting access to places of female sanctuary such as locker rooms.

    In all these cases, there are powerful motivations for fraud, which means that there will be fraud.

    Do we see compelling evidence of fraud in some transgender claims?

    You’d have to be blind not to. Biologically male felons have gained access to female prisons and impregnated female prisoners—that’s predatory heterosexual male, not female, behavior. Some males who have gained access to female changing rooms by claiming to be women have been reported to sit idly on a bench ogling the disrobing women and exposing themselves. Again, predatory male, not female behavior. And when biological males exploit the strength advantage of their male bodies to easily defeat female athletes, they don’t seem to be showing any fellow feeling for women—they look more like bullies exploiting their masculine strength advantage to gain athletic triumphs they could never achieve as males.

    Why is the transgender lobby so insistent that every single claim to be a female made by a male must be accepted as sincere?

    Why are we not allowed to consider the possibility of fraud, even when it’s glaringly obvious?

    The answer to this conundrum is probably that transgender activists know it’s hard to convince most people that a man can become a woman just by identifying as one, and so they keep up an unremitting insistence that we simply must believe. But in the grip of this overwhelming need to demand belief, they lose sight of the fact that there are bound to be cases where we—and they, too—should not believe. A public already inclined to skepticism will become even more skeptical when transgender advocates are seen to be protecting fraudsters.

    When transgender activists won’t acknowledge that some transgender claims may be fraudulent, they give new opportunities, and cover, to peeping toms, flashers, lechers, cheats, and bullies – the sort who have always preyed on young women, but now have active assistance from the very people who want us to believe that they are uniquely compassionate and enlightened.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 22:35

  • Ukraine's "Victory Plan" Is Delusional
    Ukraine’s “Victory Plan” Is Delusional

    In the past two years the western establishment media has effectively obscured the reality on the ground in Ukraine.  Only recently has it become clear to the public that the tales we’ve heard about Russia imploding due to “bad tactics” and “throwing bodies into the meat grinder” in exchange for irrelevant territory have all been a fantasy.  The problem is, propagandists often end up believing their own propaganda and then they are caught completely by surprise down the road when reality slaps them in the face.

    Russian offensive actions in the east have greatly accelerated and now in the south the vital city of Vuhledar is set to fall within a couple days (if it hasn’t already).  Their attrition based strategy and artillery superiority have created a shield for small fast moving units to strike Ukraine’s trenches and fixed defenses, and their drone game has dramatically improved.  This has led them to capture multiple towns and cities in the past three months, with their forces closing in on the key eastern operational base of Pokrovsk.  If Pokrovsk falls, the entire east of Ukraine could easily fall.

    Beyond the shift to attrition tactics, Russia is gaining territory quickly because Ukraine is low on manpower.  No amount of NATO technology or weaponry is going to help this fundamental weakness.  This is the reality in Ukraine; they are losing the war.

    The western media is unable to gloss over the situation any longer, which means something dramatic will have to happen to change the course of the war in Ukraine’s favor.  Their government is scrambling to initiate an October surprise in preparation for the US elections in November.  The US runs NATO, and Ukraine is entirely dependent on US aid.  

    The notion of a Ukrainian “Victory Plan” is by itself questionable given the circumstances, but what is reportedly contained in Vladimir Zelensky’s strategy seems to be a over-optimistic wish list relying heavily on escalation between NATO and Russia.  In other words, the only way Ukraine can “win” is for NATO to engage in open warfare with the East.

    While the full plan hasn’t been divulged, senior U.S. officials who are familiar with its contents don’t see anything original or innovative in it. As one told The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 25, “I’m unimpressed, there’s not much new there.” From what we can grasp, the “victory plan” is less a “plan” and more a continuation of Zelensky’s lobbying campaign to keep U.S. arms flowing in perpetuity.  

    Zelensky is dead-set on getting permission to use US and European long range missile systems against targets deep within Russia.  The problem, as Vladimir Putin rightly noted, is that these systems cannot hit such targets accurately without NATO satellite intel and acquisition.  Meaning, the missiles must be guided by US and European military technicians and assets.

    It is likely that the majority of Ukrainian long range drone strikes within Russia are already being aided by NATO intel, but the use of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles far from Ukraine’s front line is another matter entirely.  There’s no plausible deniability for NATO involvement.  The use of these weapons within Russia would be akin to a declaration of war and would trigger escalation outside of Ukraine.

    What would the consequences be?  Not necessarily the use of nuclear weapons (though Putin did just change his bottom line on a nuclear response to include long range attacks using NATO weapons), but the spread of more advanced Russian armaments to countries like China, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and even the Houthis in Yemen is a good bet.  Meaning a more significant threat to NATO interests in Asia and the Middle East.  The war would spread.

    So far the Biden Administration has refrained from supporting the long range option, but has offered another $8 billion in support.  Under a Trump presidency, the money train is likely to stop abruptly.

    Zelensky has offered no practical measures for negotiations, arguing that concessions are off the table.  Furthermore, he claims that peace is only possible once Ukraine has taken back all territory seized by Russia, including Crimea which was annexed in 2014.  He then demanded that Russia pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction and that Putin and a multitude of other Russian officials be handed over to be tried for war crimes.  This is never going to happen.

    The core of Ukraine’s victory plan relies on long range strikes using NATO guided missiles and acceptance into NATO.  Both factors at this stage would cause WWIII.

    Ukraine’s chest beating is the national equivalent of “short man’s syndrome.”  That said, Zelensky would not be making these kinds of demands if he was not being encouraged by someone behind the scenes.  Many officials within the US and Europe have given Zelensky delusions of grandeur about his chances, perhaps because they want the war to grind on forever.  These same officials have hinted consistently that they will not accept a Ukrainian loss.   

    Regardless of what side people think should win, the fact is that Russia is the inevitable victor according to all the evidence on hand.  While the extent of Putin’s goals in the region are unknown, it’s unlikely that he intends to march beyond Ukraine.  He may simply stop at the edge of the Donbas and annex the region like he did Crimea.

    This may actually be the best case scenario for all parties involved.  The longer the war goes on the greater the chances of a powerkeg moment and a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.  Ukraine should not be talking about “victory”, that time has come and gone. They should be talking about peace.   

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 22:10

  • Israel Expands Bombing Of Southern Beirut As Nasrallah's Fate Unknown
    Israel Expands Bombing Of Southern Beirut As Nasrallah’s Fate Unknown

    Update(1750ET): Shortly after Israel’s military issued a video message warning Lebanese civilians in Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate key buildings which are to be targeted, a new IDF bombing campaign over the capital has commenced.

    The IDF warned it would begin striking “Hezbollah assets” in southern Beirut in the ‘coming hours’ – according to an earlier Reuters report. The overnight operation has begun, amid widespread reports of loud explosions.

    Reuters has claimed in a fresh news wire: Communication lost with Hezbollah’s senior leadership – source close to Hezbollah.

    Nasrallah’s fate is still uncertain. Israeli media is widely speculating that he and his top deputies are dead. But as far as official statements from Hezbollah goes, there’s been silence. This has only heightened conjecture that he may have been killed in the earlier major strikes which destroyed several buildings in Dahieh. Hezbollah sources have only said that Israel has “crossed all red lines” in the attack.

    IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari: “In the coming hours we are going to attack strategic targets of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in the Dahieh district in Beirut . This is an Iranian-funded coastal missile array, we are checking the results of the attack on Hezbollah’s central compound and will update accordingly.”

    The Al-Laylaki area has already reportedly been hit.

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    Civilians from the southern Beirut suburbs have been observes fleeing Dahieh district. The IDF below warned Lebanon what is about to happen…

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    Were American bombs used in Friday’s massive bombing of south Beirut? Likely it was US-provided bunker busters that left such massive craters.

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    * * *

    Update(1420): The last hour has seen a flurry of contradictory reports concerning who may have been killed in the largescale Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut Friday evening.

    Some Israeli reports are claiming Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was killed or at least injured. Other reports claim his top deputy was taken out. At least six buildings were leveled in the attack.

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    A senior Iranian security officials has told Reuters that Tehran is checking Nasrallah’s status. Iran’s embassy in Beirut has meanwhile said that the major attack is a ‘crime’ that deserves ‘appropriate punishment’. Hezbollah has been slow to issue a statement, and it is unclear whether the group plans to.

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    “In an initial toll, Lebanon’s health ministry says two people were killed and 76 others wounded in Israel’s attacks on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh,” Al Jazeera reports amid continuing rescue efforts.

    Biden: The United States was not aware of the attack & did not participate in it.

    Some media sources have speculated that the delayed Hezbollah statement suggests it lost senior leadership:

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    Just less than thirty minutes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished his remarks to the UN General Assembly, the Israeli military (IDF) announced major new airstrikes across southern Lebanon, which has included the most intense attacks to date on Beirut’s southern suburbs.

    Eyewitness say that shortly before 7pm local time, massive explosions rocked Beirut, shaking windows and with blasts felt for miles. Fox News’ chief foreign correspondent is reporting that “Fox News has learned the target of the strike on Beirut was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.” Hezbollah sources have been cited in Sky News as saying Nasrallah is in a safe place.

    Breaking reports say that Israeli jets have targeted and struck Hezbollah’s main command headquarters.

    Al Monitor regional correspondent Joyce Karam writes, “Israeli media and Arabiya reporting that target was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah but reportedly failed. Awaiting confirmations…lot of rumors.

    An Israeli official has confirmed that Israel notified the US administration just minutes before the new largescale strikes on Beirut. Netanyahu had reportedly left a post-UN press conference early to attend an urgent security meeting.

    Mass casualty event:

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    Unconfirmed initial videos show a massive attack, with a black smoke cloud rising high into the early evening sky at dusk:

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    It is highly unlikely that Nasrallah was at the location, as his whereabouts have long been the most tightly guarded secret of Hezbollah. The death toll is as yet unknown, but casualties are likely to be significant:

    The attack in Beirut’s Haret Hreik suburb has erased a complete block, around six to nine buildings were either completely or partially destroyed. We are talking about a residential block close to the International airport of Beirut.

    For now, we don’t know how many people were killed. But when an attack with such huge explosives, huge rockets is launched towards a residential area, we will expect to see a large number of people killed.

    Oil is spiking on the news, given this represents peak escalation after a week of increasingly heavier fighting…

    The airstrikes appear to be the most devastating and extensive to date on Beirut. According to initial details via Axios:

    • Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar Television reported that four buildings in southern Beirut were struck.
    • Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Adm. Daniel Hagari described the attack as a “precise strike on the central HQ of Hezbollah which was intentionally built under residential buildings in Beirut in order to use them as human shields.”
    • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly left a press briefing at the UN after receiving an update from his military adviser.

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    Images from the scene show a very large attack:

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    LIVE FEED from Beirut:

    developing…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 21:52

  • 'Conspiracy' Confirmed? Fluoride In Drinking Water May Lower Kids' IQs, Judge Rules
    ‘Conspiracy’ Confirmed? Fluoride In Drinking Water May Lower Kids’ IQs, Judge Rules

    Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

    A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children.

    The ruling, which came with little fanfare, appeared to validate one of the longest-running so-called conspiracy theories in America’s alt-right subculture—that the government’s use of fluoridation, especially in specific communities, might be part of a deliberate attempt to lower intelligence in order to create a more compliant and subservient population for the New World Order.

    It follows a series of recent vindications for skeptics after propagandist media have been proven wrong in falsely declaring things like COVID vaccine hesitancy, the Russia-collusion hoax, the Hunter Biden laptop coverup and the Joe Biden mental acuity coverup/coup to be baseless “conspiracy theories” right up until the point that they were proven true.

    If former President Donald Trump were to be reelected and allow Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to declassify files related to his family, several other such theories surrounding significant 20th-century milestones might also be exposed, including the decision to force out then-President Richard Nixon for threatening to reveal who killed his one-time campaign rival, former President John F. Kennedy.

    U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn’t say what those measures should be.

    It’s the first time a federal judge has made a determination about the neurodevelopmental risks to children of the recommended U.S. water fluoride level, said Ashley Malin, a University of Florida researcher who has studied the effect of higher fluoride levels in pregnant women.

    She called it “the most historic ruling in the U.S. fluoridation debate that we’ve ever seen.”

    The judge’s ruling is another striking dissent to a practice that has been hailed as one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Last month, a federal agency determined “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. The National Toxicology Program based its conclusion on studies involving fluoride levels at about twice the recommended limit for drinking water.

    The EPA—a defendant in the lawsuit—argued that it wasn’t clear what impact fluoride exposure might have at lower levels. But the agency is required to make sure there is a margin between the hazard level and exposure level. And “if there is an insufficient margin, then the chemical poses a risk,” Chen wrote in his 80-page ruling Tuesday.

    “Simply put, the risk to health at exposure levels in United States drinking water is sufficiently high to trigger regulatory response by the EPA” under federal law, he wrote.

    An EPA spokesperson, Jeff Landis, said the agency was reviewing the decision but offered no further comment.

    In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and they continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later.

    Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population currently gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data.

    Since 2015, federal health officials have recommended a fluoridation level of 0.7 milligrams per liter of water. For five decades before that, the recommended upper range was 1.2. The World Health Organization has set a safe limit for fluoride in drinking water of 1.5.

    Separately, the EPA has a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water. That standard is designed to prevent skeletal fluorosis, a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.

    But in the last two decades, studies have suggested a different problem: a link between fluoride and brain development. Researchers wondered about the impact on developing fetuses and very young children who might ingest water with baby formula. Studies in animals showed fluoride could impact neurochemistry cell function in brain regions responsible for learning, memory, executive function and behavior.

    The court case, argued in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, started in 2017. The lead plaintiff was Food & Water Watch, a not-for-profit environmental advocacy organization. Chen paused the proceedings in 2020 to await the results of the National Toxicology Program report, but he heard lawyers’ arguments about the case earlier this year.

    “In our view, the only effective way to eliminate the risk from adding fluoride chemicals to water is to stop adding them,” said Michael Connett, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, in an email Wednesday.

    Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 21:45

  • Volkswagen Cuts Profit Forecast Again Amid Sliding Car Demand
    Volkswagen Cuts Profit Forecast Again Amid Sliding Car Demand

    Volkswagen AG lowered its profitability forecast for the second time this year due to sliding passenger vehicle demand, highlighting the bumpy transition to electric vehicles. Additionally, Germany’s economy is faltering, if not already in recession, and the pain has been widespread across the automotive sector. The economic slowdown in China has further pressured vehicle sales for luxury German automakers. 

    The German car maker, known for producing Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Jetta, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda, and Volkswagen brands, announced Friday that its forecast for operating return on sales – a closely watched measure of profitability – had been slashed to 5.6%, down from a forecast of 7% in July. VW lowered its expectations partly due to the expected closure costs of an Audi plant in Belgium. 

    Bloomberg provided a snapshot of VW’s updated full-year guidance: 

    • Sees operating return on sales 5.6%, saw 6.5% to 7%, estimate 6.51% (Bloomberg Consensus)

    • Sees vehicle deliveries 9 million units, estimate 8.1 million

    • Sees Automotive net cash flow EU2 billion, saw EU2.5 billion to EU4.5 billion, estimate EU3.27 billion

    VW has been plagued by several issues, including slowing Chinese vehicle demand, rising competition in EVs, and a deteriorating macroeconomic environment. 

    Our latest reporting on VW paints an ominous future for the legacy automaker: 

    Then there’s this… 

    Source: Bloomberg

    Across Europe, vehicle sales are dramatically slowing. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    “The downturn in EVs is putting carmakers like VW and Renault SA at risk of hefty fines as tighter European Union fleet-emissions rules are set to kick in next year,” Bloomberg recently noted.

    Meanwhile, what is critical to understand are ‘green’ (de-growth) policies pushed by elected and unelected far-left progressive officials that undermine Western economies, essentially making companies unable to compete in Asia. In China, energy is abundant and cheap, unlike in Germany. 

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    De-growth (climate) policies are strangling Western companies, while China constructs new coal plants at six times the rate of any other country, supplying its manufacturers with an abundance of cheap energy. How can the West possibly compete? The answer is… they can’t. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 21:20

  • The IRA's Unconstitutional Drug Price Controls
    The IRA’s Unconstitutional Drug Price Controls

    Authored by Roger D. Klein via RealClearPolicy,

    The Biden-Harris administration recently announced the negotiated prices for the first 10 drugs of the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) drug price negotiation program (DPNP). That same day, Vice President Harris stood alongside President Biden for their first joint appearance since Biden stepped down as the Democratic presidential nominee. At the campaign event, Harris touted the Medicare drug pricing scheme as evidence of their administration’s economic success. Her friends in the media have followed suit, applauding Harris’s “well-earned victory lap.”

    However, as a number of pharmaceutical companies have argued in court, the IRA’s drug price negotiations are misnamed, unconstitutional price controls. In a series of lawsuits, drug companies have collectively argued the program illegally coerces pharmaceutical firms to accept massive discounts on 60 of the most successful medications sold to Medicare and Medicaid. The administration deceptively describes the “maximum fair price” for each drug as the product of a negotiation to avoid blame for the decreases in the supply of existing and newly discovered drugs these price controls are likely to cause.  

    The first 10 drugs selected for price controls include treatments for diabetes, blood clots and prevention of strokes, heart failure, leukemia, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and chronic kidney disease. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the IRA would result in a loss of 13 new drugs over 30 years. This is probably a substantial underestimate. Many pharmaceutical companies have already cut back on or cancelled development programs for new drugs, and a University of Chicago analysis predicts that as many as 79 new drugs and 188 indications would not be developed over the next 20 years This would result in 116 million years of life lost.

    Manufacturers who choose not to participate in the DPNP would be excluded from providing any Part D or Part B drugs to Medicare beneficiaries. Nevertheless, aside from its fiction that the DPNP is a negotiation, the government has argued participation in the DPNP is voluntary because participation in Medicare is voluntary, an argument accepted by several circuit court judges. However, Medicare and Medicaid account for over 40 percent of pharmaceutical spending in the United States. Walking away from Medicare would be suicidal for any drug manufacturer. Further, there are program restrictions that do not permit ending participation at will. Instead, drugmakers that don’t accept Medicare dictated prices could face ruinous financial penalties – euphemistically labeled an excise tax – starting at 186 percent and rising to as high as 1900 percent of a drug’s total daily revenues from all sources, not just Medicare. Thus, pharmaceutical companies are given a Hobson’s choice. Participate under the government’s arbitrary and detrimental terms or cease to operate.

    In addition to the DPNP and other provisions of the IRA such as mandated rebating of price rises in excess of inflation that are estimated to cost drug companies $288 billion over 10 years, the IRA creates serious financial risks for Part D insurance plans. Irrespective of the merits of lowering the cap on out-of-pocket costs, increased low income subsidies, and other benefits, their implementation has raised costs, creating premium price instability that will lead to an expected 21.5% increase in 2025 premiums. In response, and just weeks before the President and Vice President’s joint event, their administration announced a rescue package it is calling a “voluntary demonstration project,” aimed at achieving premium stabilization and protecting insurers.

    Analogous to the DPNP, insurers have no practical alternative but to participate. As part of this program, taxpayers will fund an additional $10 billion in subsidies, masking increased costs and mitigating an already hefty 21.5% estimated increase in 2025 Part D premiums.  

    To add insult to injury, most of the projected $266 billion in Medicare savings in pharmaceutical spending is being siphoned off as a downpayment on Democrats’ green new deal, rather than being applied toward lowering premiums or strengthening the Medicare program.

    Millions of Americans depend on lifesaving prescription medications. These drugs are developed with enormous investments made at great financial risk. Policies that encourage competition among drugmakers will best achieve optimal pricing, maintain the supply of essential therapeutics, and encourage the development of novel medicines. The phony “negotiation” program forced on drug makers, the strain placed on Part D insurers, and other noxious provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act will do the opposite.

    Roger D. Klein, M.D., J.D. is a faculty fellow at the Center for Law, Science and Innovation at the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law. He was previously Chief Medical Officer of OmniSeq, Inc., which was acquired by LabCorp. A former advisor to HHS, FDA, CMS,  and CDC, he completed his medical training at Yale School Medicine and received his law degree from Yale Law School.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 20:55

  • Goldman Says War Risk Premium Is Missing From Oil Markets 
    Goldman Says War Risk Premium Is Missing From Oil Markets 

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly in New York this morning, stating that Israel has “no choice” but to fight back against Iran-backed Hezbollah. His remarks come as tensions rise between Israeli officials and the Biden-Harris administration over the inaction this week of instituting a 21-day ceasefire-fire while Israel Defense Forces gear up for a potential ground invasion of Lebanon. 

    “As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right, to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely,” Netanyahu told the General Assembly, adding, “And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

    During his speech, Netanyahu showed world leaders two maps of the Middle East, pointing out the difference between a “blessing” and a “curse.”

    “Now look at this second map,” he said, pointing out, “It’s a map of a curse. It’s a map of an arc of terror that Iran has created and imposed from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean.” 

    Netanyahu added: “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach – that’s true for the whole of the Middle East.”

    Even with broadening war risks in the Middle East, the geopolitical risk premium in Brent crude has all but evaporated – overshadowed by economic slowdown fear in China and the US. Not even the China stimulus story earlier this week could ignite crude prices. 

    On Thursday, we noted the usual anonymous sources reporting by corporate media were back, and pressured Brent crude prices lower. The first report was published by Reuters earlier this month. In that report, journos cited anonymous sources that said OPEC+ was set to proceed with a production hike in October. Then an FT report on Thursday joined the anonymous-source-citing oil manipulation game with the news that the Saudis were ready to ditch the unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude.

    Also, recent headlines surrounding a possible ceasefire in the Middle East have pressured oil prices. We must ask what exactly ‘the powers that be’ are afraid of?

    Maybe Goldman analyst Lindsay Matcham’s note to clients this morning shows precisely what ‘the powers that be’ are afraid of… 

    “We’re continuing to keep a close eye on the conflict in the Middle East amid intensifying tensions between Hezbollah and Israel.” 

    Matcham added:

    “We think further escalation in the conflict could have material market implications, especially if it involves a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which would likely lead to a spike in oil prices here.” 

    Strait of Hormuz…

    In a separate note, Goldman analyst Lina Thomas outlines four positive near-term drivers for crude markets:

    • The easing in global policy.

    • Inventories are still drawing.

    • Positioning and valuation remain low.

    • Oil markets are not pricing a significant risk of geopolitical disruptions.

    Fast forward to noon today, Brent prices jumped to the mid-point of the $72 handle after IDF airstrikes targeted Hezbollah headquarters in Beirut. 

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    Broadening war risks come as speculators have placed record bearish bets in crude markets. 

    Brent prices hover around $72/bbl in late morning trading in the US. 

    The looming question for Brent traders is: When will the war risk premium return?

    A potential IDF invasion of Lebanon could provoke Iran, although there are currently no signs of Tehran’s imminent closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Given the Israel-Hezbollah escalation in conflict to the end of the week, traders should monitor these events as traders hold record net-bearish bets on crude.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 20:30

  • Despite Escalation, Israel Secures $8.7BN Military Aid Package From Washington
    Despite Escalation, Israel Secures $8.7BN Military Aid Package From Washington

    Via The Cradle

    Israel said on Thursday it had secured an $8.7 billion aid package from the US government to support its ongoing military assaults on Lebanon and Gaza and to maintain a “qualitative military edge in the region,” Reuters reported.

    The package includes $3.5 billion for critical military purchases and $5.2 billion for air defense systems, including the Iron Dome anti-missile system, David’s Sling, and an advanced laser system.

    Getty Images

    US support for Israel’s missile defense systems is crucial to shielding Israeli military installations and infrastructure.

    While Israeli warplanes have devastated south and east Lebanon with airstrikes since Monday, killing over 600 Lebanese and Syrians, Hezbollah has hit numerous targets in the vicinity of the city of the Israeli city of Haifa, as well as an Israeli intelligence base on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in central Israel.

    Israel also needs US munitions and financial support to continue its horrific bombing campaign of Gaza, which is nearing its twelfth month and has reportedly killed over 40,000 people and destroyed large swathes of the crowded strip.

    The aid announcement came after a meeting at the Pentagon between Eyal Zamir, the director general of Israel’s defense ministry, and US defense officials, including acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Amanda Dory.

    “This substantial investment will significantly strengthen critical systems such as Iron Dome and David’s Sling while supporting the continued development of an advanced high-powered laser defense system currently in its later stages of development,” Israel’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

    The deal illustrates the “strong and enduring strategic partnership between Israel and the United States and the ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” the statement added.

    Reuters reported in late June that Tel Aviv’s allies in Washington had sent more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of the war in Gaza last October.

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    The news agency added that Washington had transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions.

    Since October of last year, news channels and social media sites have shown a steady stream of videos and images of Palestinian men, women, and children who have been torn apart by US bombs.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 20:05

  • US Vs China: Which Country Is The World's #1 Superpower?
    US Vs China: Which Country Is The World’s #1 Superpower?

    Today, the global balance of power is shaped by many forces, including economic strength, trade, and a country’s defense-industrial base.

    While the U.S. and China stand as two great powers, as Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld details below, their sources of strength vary significantly. America has unrivaled status in capital markets, and its reserve currency status shows little sign of being overtaken anytime soon. Meanwhile, China’s influence in international trade has grown substantially, now being the top trading partner for 120 countries worldwide.

    This graphic compares the U.S. and China across eight key measures of power, based on analysis from Ray Dalio’s Great Powers Index 2024.

    Methodology: Measuring the Strength of Nations

    For this analysis, Ray Dalio identified eight core pillars that measure a nation’s different types of strength. These eight categories are:

    1. Trade

    2. Innovation and Technology

    3. Education

    4. Economic Output

    5. Military

    6. Financial Center

    7. Competitiveness

    8. Reserve Currency Status

    Scores for these categories were quantified using Z-scores, which tells you how far a data point is from the average of the dataset, using the typical amount of variation (a standard deviation) in the data as a measuring stick:

    • Z-score of 0 = data point is at the average

    • Z-score of 1 = data point is one standard deviation above the average

    Is the U.S. or China More Powerful?

    Below, we show how the U.S. and China measure across each metric of country power in 2024, along with their overall strength score which sees the U.S. (0.89 overall strength score) beat out China (0.80 overall strength score):

    As we can see, both countries are closely matched across certain metrics like innovation and technology along with economic output, while also featuring wide differences in categories like reserve currency status and overall competitiveness.

    When looking at tech and innovation, America is home to the world’s largest tech companies driving AI advancements, China is quickly developing much of the intellectual property in new industries such as semiconductors, electric vehicles, and advanced manufacturing.

    In terms of economic output and strength, the gap between America and China’s GDP stands at about $10 trillion. China could overtake America’s economy by 2035 assuming 5% in annual GDP growth, however, Ray Dalio’s own estimates of 10-year real GDP growth have China at 4% annual growth. The country’s fragile property sector and weak consumer demand are its biggest obstacles for its future growth prospects.

    Comparing education, while America’s stagnating high-school educational system is a source of concern, its top-ranking universities play a key role in its education score. Meanwhile, China is home to 100 elite universities, although it too has an unequal education system that disproportionately impacts lower-income households.

    When it comes to military power, the U.S. has long being a global leader in defense spending, outpacing China by more than twofold as of 2022. Yet, this position is deteriorating. Today, China’s military modernization means that its defense capabilities are neck and neck with America, and perhaps even greater than the U.S. according to sources like the Global Firepower Index.

    Moreover, China is increasingly growing alliances with Russia, Iran, and North Korea through arms transfers and battlefield exercises, posing a greater risk to America’s military dominance.

    To learn more about this topic from a labor force perspective, check out this graphic on the growth of working age populations around the world’s major economies.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 19:40

  • What Is Eco-Anxiety And Why Is It On The Rise?
    What Is Eco-Anxiety And Why Is It On The Rise?

    Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Sadness, depression, fear, and a deep sense of betrayal, coupled with the feeling that humanity is doomed, are some of the emotions affecting a growing number of people, particularly children and young adults around the world.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock

    What’s driving these feelings isn’t war, worldwide unrest, politics, or escalating crime. Instead, it’s something called “eco-anxiety,” which Yale defines as fear about climate change and humanity’s existence.

    “Scientists and mental health clinicians are in agreement that eco-anxiety will continue to rise and will become one of the biggest sources of mental health distress within the next year,” Melissa Porrey, a counselor who specializes in treating eco-anxiety, told The Epoch Times.

    “Although symptoms of eco-anxiety can present similarly to other types of anxiety, including general anxiety, eco-anxiety is often rooted in feelings of helplessness and/or hopelessness about the changing climate and our role in it.”

    As to what’s driving the increase in cases, Porrey pointed to more natural disasters, and news coverage about “what we are and aren’t doing to address global warming.”

    Tom Nelson, a member of the CO2 Coalition and producer of the documentary “Climate: The Movie,” agreed that increased media coverage has likely fueled eco-anxiety cases, but said the hype around climate change goes beyond what can be backed up by science.

    He said the late Stanford climate scientist Steven Schneider “said the quiet part out loud” in 1989.

    Climate scientists, Schneider said, are ethically obliged to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but, ‘including’ all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts.”

    Simultaneously, he said, climate scientists also want “to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change,” which takes broad-based support.

    “That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have,” Schneider said.

    “That dynamic is absolutely still happening today,” Nelson said.

    “It’s 100 percent true that we’re seeing the purposeful increase of anxiety in youth and young adults to bring about demands for climate change action.”

    Environmental activists block an intersection while protesting during global climate action week in Washington on Sept. 23, 2019. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

    Changing Behavior

    The Lancet published a study that surveyed 10,000 people aged 16–25 from 10 countries and asked about their feelings regarding climate change.

    Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they were “very or extremely worried” about climate change, 75 percent said the “future is frightening,” and more than half of respondents said the government had betrayed them by failing to take appropriate action to address climate change.

    The 2021 research was sponsored by political action group Avaaz. The group’s website explains how “painstaking work, usually behind the scenes, by dedicated people” can channel “a massive, public outcry” to influence major decisions.

    A year later, the Journal of Environmental Psychology published a study that called climate anxiety a “significant psychological burden.”

    It also said, “climate anxiety may not necessarily be a negative impact of, or maladaptive response to, climate change; but rather, at least to some degree, be a motivating force for effective action.”

    The authors said the results of the study can be used to find ways to support people in managing their “climate change-related psychological distress, in such a way as to promote wellbeing and pro-environmental behavior.”

    Study author Lorraine Whitmarsh said the study suggests some levels of climate anxiety are beneficial to society.

    “Ours is now one of several studies showing consistently that climate anxiety is positively linked to climate action,” she told The Epoch Times via email.

    “It seems to be important as a motivator for action and taking action may also be a helpful coping mechanism to keep anxiety in check.”

    A light display created using drones is performed near the United Nations headquarters as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the Amazon rainforest and the climate ahead of the 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 15, 2023. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

    The study surveyed 1,338 United Kingdom residents and was funded by the European Union’s European Research Council, which is itself funded by Horizon Europe.

    Horizon Europe’s strategic plan for 2025–2027 is to find ways to address climate change by spurring the “green transition” and bringing forth “a more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe.”

    The European Research Council didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by the time of publication.

    In 2023, Penn State researchers released their own study, which investigated how “frightening news about climate change” impacts people.

    “Our findings suggest that people have gotten used to doom-and-gloom reporting around climate change and what may be more important for motivating them to take action is that they see coverage of it on a daily basis,” Jessica Myrick, one of the researchers, said in a press release.

    “This is called an agenda-setting effect, where a topic that is covered more often in the news is then viewed as more important by people who consume the news.”

    In May, the Journal of Health Communication published its report that used a cross-sectional survey of 440 college students to determine if media exposure to climate change has an impact.

    Among other results, the study found “that the frequency of media use and attention given to climate change news significantly predicted climate anxiety.”

    “The media plays a crucial role in shaping public perceptions of issues such as climate change,” study author Emmanuel Maduneme told The Epoch Times via email.

    As a result, he believes it’s the media’s responsibility to translate complex scientific information into easily understood facts that convey the urgency of the climate change situation without “sensationalizing it.”

    “If the media realizes its outsized role in shaping reality, especially among young people, then it should pay close attention to the way news coverage impacts the mental health of its audiences,” he said.

    A demonstrator holds a sign at a rally to #SealTheDeal for Climate, Jobs, Care, and Justice in Champaign, Ill., on Aug. 19, 2021. Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network

    According to Maduneme, there’s a curved relationship between climate change anxiety and climate action—low to moderate levels encourage people to take preventive and adaptive actions to fight climate change, while too much anxiety can cause people to disengage.

    The study found that “liberal-leaning respondents” were more prone to eco-anxiety and were more likely to take “pro-environmental action.”

    A recent study from Brookings, one of the largest U.S. think tanks, found that climate coverage has surged 300 percent since 2012, with the most significant increase occurring over the past five years.

    Nelson, however, expressed concern about the subsequent impact of climate-related restrictions on people’s lives.

    “They have to scare us enough that we’ll buy into all these crazy restrictions on our lifestyle. If that anxiety and fear goes away, then they can’t sell any of it,” he said.

    Focusing on Change

    Porrey said eco-anxiety often arises from the feeling of having no control, and, as it can be isolating and overwhelming, it should be treated at a personalized level.

    As possible treatment, Porrey often suggests seeking controllable actions that benefit the planet, such as biking to work, joining a “Climate Café,” connecting with nature, and volunteering.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 19:15

  • Americans & Britons Already Stuck In Lebanon As Embassies Plead 'Leave Now'
    Americans & Britons Already Stuck In Lebanon As Embassies Plead ‘Leave Now’

    The UK Foreign Ministry has issued an urgent appeal for all all British nationals still in Lebanon to exit the country as soon as possible and by any means due to the rapidly deteriorating situation with Hezbollah-Israeli fighting.

    “British nationals in Lebanon should leave now. You should take the next available flight,” the new Friday alert said.

    “We are working to increase capacity and secure seats for British nationals to leave,” it added, amid reports that some Britons who’ve been trying to get out are already stuck.

    British nationals have also been told to immediately register with the UK embassy or consulates. As of Thursday, British leaders acknowledged problems with flights, given commercial air traffic has largely come to a halt amid repeat Israeli attacks on Beirut: 

    Britons have told the BBC they are struggling to get out of Lebanon, as Sir Keir Starmer repeats his call for UK nationals to leave.

    The UK has urged British nationals to leave immediately because of the escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Speaking to BBC News, the prime minister said Britons still in the country should: “Leave now. It’s very important.”

    Given Friday’s major Israeli strikes on what’s widely being described as a command HQ center in southern Beirut, most analysts consider all-out war as assured at this point.

    A Friday message from the US Embassy in Beirut indicated the United States is not yet evacuating its citizens.

    “The U.S. Embassy is not evacuating U.S. citizens at this time,” the official message said. “There is a commercially available flight that U.S. citizens who expressed interest in departing Lebanon will have to book and pay directly with the airline.”

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    A prior Sept.24 statement from the US Embassy reads as follows:

    The U.S. Embassy notes most airlines have suspended or cancelled flights, and many flights have sold out; however, limited commercial transportation options to leave Lebanon still remain available.  Please see available flight options at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport .  We urge those who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available to them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first-choice route.

    Late into the evening Friday (local), Hezbollah has resumed firing rockets on northern Israel, the town of Safed in particular, and things are fast sliding into full war.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 18:50

  • Those Published "17,000 Hydroxychloroquine Deaths" Never Happened
    Those Published “17,000 Hydroxychloroquine Deaths” Never Happened

    Authored by David Gortler, Pharm.D via the Brownstone Institute,

    Early January of 2024, Americans learned about the publication of an article from Elsevier’s Journal of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy overseen by Dr. Danyelle Townsend, a professor at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy’s Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences.

    As Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Townsend reviewed, approved, and published the article titled: “Deaths induced by compassionate use of hydroxychloroquine during the first COVID-19 wave: An estimate.” 

    The article was always a hypothesized estimate of people that might have died, but now even that estimate has been retracted. The reason for the retraction was that the Belgian dataset that was one of the bases for the piece was found to be “unreliable” (but in reality was fraudulent). The article also repeatedly referenced the New England Journal of Medicine’s 2020 RECOVERY trial. The RECOVERY trial is well known to be a deeply flawed study which, in addition to implementing late treatment in severely ill Covid patients, used extremely high doses of HCQ. 

    The now retracted publication authors were all French or Canadian, with the primary author a pharmacist by the name of Alexiane Pradelle. According to a rudimentary internet search, Dr. Pradelle had never published before. Subsequently, listed authors were degreed as physicians, pharmacists, and/or professors of their respective disciplines. The main, corresponding author, Jean-Christophe Lega, runs the Evaluation and Modeling of Therapeutic Effects team at the University of Lyon. 

    Hydroxychloroquine’s Fabled Safety History Contrasts Data

    In addition to being a hypothesized estimate, the article also attacked the legendary safety of HCQ, contradicting centuries of the safety of quinolines as a class. 

    HCQ, chloroquine and quinine are structurally and pharmaceutically/mechanistically related, sharing the same quinoline structural group. The original iteration of quinine was a very fortunate discovery that dates back to the 1600s (at least) as a medicinal tipple used by Jesuit missionaries in South America. It is naturally found in the bark of the Cinchona tree (also called a “Quina-Quina” tree). 

    Quinine is still available today both as a prescription drug, for similar indications as HCQ including malaria…and as a Covid-19 treatment. 

    Quinine is so safe that it may be unique in that the FDA simultaneously permits its use without a prescription, as an ingredient in tonic waters. 

    HCQ is similarly safe when used appropriately and under medical supervision. 

    The CDC describes HCQ as “a relatively well tolerated medicine” and that “HCQ can be prescribed to adults and children of all ages. It can also be safely taken by pregnant women and nursing mothers” referring to its long-term use in chronic diseases. 

    Basic logic dictates that, if a drug is safe for long-term use, it would also be safe for short-term use, including (and especially) in Covid-19 early treatment/pre-exposure prophylaxis type indications. 

    These are pharmacology fundamentals that ought to be known by any pharmacist or physician – let alone to a professor serving as a Journal Editor-in-Chief at a taxpayer-funded state College of Pharmacy. 

    Did not even one person on her editorial board of over 50 “peer-reviewers” and staff ponder the celebrated and storied history of HCQ (and its predecessors) and how incongruent this study’s findings were before choosing to publish data denigrating HCQ safety? 

    The correct answer to that might actually be: “no”…

    The publishing editorial board all seem to be laboratory bench (non-clinical) research scientists, per their biographies. Although the board does promote itself as meeting DEI requirements of being “gender diverse,” a more important question might be is if they have the appropriate credentials and experience to review and opine on clinically complex drug safety/epidemiology subject matters in the first place. 

    Is just anyone now allowed to opine on specialty clinical pharmacology drug safety matters? 

    In certain journals/news publications, the answer to that question seems to be: “yes”…

    Those “17,000 Deaths” Never Occurred

    Another point of confusion surrounded the interpretation and promotion of this little-known publication by the lay press. 

    To be exact: there were never “17,000 deaths;” it was always a hypothetical extrapolation of people that could have died, based on “unreliable” (eg, actually, fraudulent) databases on top of the previously mentioned, problematic late-stage RECOVERY-trial-type dosing and timing. 

    Still, Josh Cohen, a Forbes.com PhD senior healthcare columnist, used this publication to headline an absurdly biased op-ed against HCQ, stating that Trump’s HCQ proposal was “Linked To 17,000 Deaths.” Forbes’ Tufts, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania- trained “healthcare analyst” misrepresented or appeared to not understand the now-retracted study methodology or projections. 

    It went downhill from there. Mere hours following the publication, very similar, now objectively inaccurate, highly politicized, and seemingly coordinated attacks on HCQ and Trump were published by: The Hill, Politico, Frontline News, Scripps News, the Guardian, KFF Health News, News Nation, Newsweek, AOL.com, Yahoo News, and Daily Kos, in addition to a multitude of prominent regional, international, and US federal news outlets, many falsely estimating that 17,000 deaths had already taken place and that the (imaginary) victims’ blood was already on Donald Trump’s hands. 

    As of September 15, 2024, the above and other articles still show up very prominently (on the first page) of a Google search for “hydroxychloroquine deaths”…which never happened. 

    Here are some screenshots of headlines referencing non-existent deaths based on a now-retracted study: 

    Journal Editors Were Immediately Warned about Questionable Findings

    Almost immediately following the January 2, 2024 publication, its critical flaws including basic miscalculations among many other deficiencies were brought to the attention of Dr. Townsend by Xavier Azalbert and non-profit BonSens.org attorneys starting on Jan 7, 2024. In fact, a total of 9 communications were sent by the above individuals, but none of them were ever shared as “Letters to The Editor” by Dr. Townsend in good faith to inform readers of specific potential shortcomings, as is otherwise commonly done. 

    Dr. Townsend seemed to forget that bad medical data and publications can do actual patient harm, and kept legitimate and important study criticisms to herself. Instead of taking responsibility and making a leadership decision, she passed the buck to a Committee on Publication Ethics, delaying the needed retraction. 

    It appallingly took 234 days (~7 months, from the January 2nd publication to August 26th) for Dr. Townsend’s Journal of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy to finally retract the “unreliable” article. But at that point, untold millions around the world had already been (and continue to be) polluted with outrageously incorrect information about non-existent HCQ deaths. 

    This raises some questions about Dr. Townsend’s duties and responsibilities as the Editor in Chief: 

    • What efforts were made to correct incorrect headlines and articles published by the lay press, incorrectly frightening patients, pharmacists, and physicians, by fueling false tropes about HCQ? 
    • What efforts were made to let news organizations know that data from the peer-reviewed publication was under question? (She refers to “a number of Letters to the Editor and correspondence from readers.”) 
    • What immediate efforts are being made to notify news organizations and/or amplify search engine results regarding the now-retracted publication? 
    • What funding source/individual paid the $3,490 (“excluding taxes and fees”) publication fee? (Note: reputable academic journals do not charge to publish articles.)
    • Does Elsevier’s Journal of Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy meet certain definitions of what is known as a predatory publisher? 
    • Was this Editorial Board qualified to review regulatory/drug safety/epidemiology/any other clinical subjects?
    • Are the ramifications of this Journal’s publication and its subsequent retraction known to the University of South Carolina administration, co-faculty, and whichever body adjudicates its faculty Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice? 
    • This isn’t the first time Townsend has needed to retract articles – a normally very rare occurrence for reputable journals. Will Elsevier, which publishes over 2,700 journals, permit further opining or publishing on clinical subjects by this editorial board? Can the Editor-in-Chief and/or editorial board be trusted to recuse themselves from opining on any topics that are not within their area of expertise? 
    • What should be done to prevent a reoccurrence of this incident at the University of South Carolina and other taxpayer-funded institutions? 

    Beyond that, what ramifications/punishments (if any) will occur for other prominent Covid-19 Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine authors/publishers whose articles were also retracted after they were found to be based on so-called “unreliable” (eg, non-existent) databases? 

    Ethical scientists who believe in truth, transparency, and academic accountability are standing by, waiting for medical and academic justice. 

    Unethical scientists are also watching this situation unfold, twisting their mustaches, learning about what they could potentially one day get away with. 

    DISCLAIMER: This article is not medical advice. Do NOT start or discontinue ANY drug without first discussing it with a pharmacist or physician you know and trust. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 18:25

  • Structural Supports Of North Carolina Dam "Compromised" As Officials Warn "Imminent Failure" 
    Structural Supports Of North Carolina Dam “Compromised” As Officials Warn “Imminent Failure” 

    The remnants of Hurricane Helene have dumped torrential rains across the southeastern US, particularly in Florida’s Big Bend region and up the coast into the Carolinas. In western North Carolina, officials have issued urgent evacuation orders, warning residents to move to higher ground as a dam collapse could occur. 

    In a Facebook post, Rutherford County Emergency Management told residents that Lake Lure Dam’s “structural supports” have been compromised but are currently holding. 

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    “Evacuations have occurred from the Dam to Island Creek Road. Evacuation sirens are sounding downstream of the dam. Emergency personnel are working with the structural engineers and are going house to house to ensure all citizens have been evacuated,” Rutherford County officials said in a Facebook post shortly after lunch. 

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    Earlier, Rutherford County officials told residents around the dam to evacuate to higher ground immediately. They warned, “Dam failure imminent!! Evacuate to higher ground immediately!!”

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    “Terrible situation taking shape over at Lake Lure,” WSOC meteorologist Keith Monday wrote on X. 

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    WSOC provided more clarity into the dire situation playing out around Lake Lure Dam. 

    The failure will impact neighbors in Cleveland County as well. The sheriff’s office asked anyone who lives along Waterway Drive, Abes Mountain Road, and the Broad River to evacuate.

    …

    Lake Lure is a small lake town located about 30 miles east of Asheville. The town is next to Chimney Rock, which is home to an iconic North Carolina hike of the same name.

    Not good. 

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

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    Another dam failure. 

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    *Developing… 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 18:00

  • Mystery Of Upward GDP Revision Solved: You Are All $500 Billion Richer Now According To A Revised Biden Admin Spreadsheet
    Mystery Of Upward GDP Revision Solved: You Are All $500 Billion Richer Now According To A Revised Biden Admin Spreadsheet

    Something strange happened yesterday when the Bureau of Economic Analysis released the final estimate of Q2 GDP data: as part of the release, Biden’s Dept of Commerce run by Gina Raimondo, which also runs the BEA, reported that GDP in since 2020 had been revised markedly higher (with the exception of H2 2023) …

    … even though banks such as Goldman warned of, and expected, a significantly negative revision to historical GDP numbers.

    So what happened?

    Recall that about a year ago, questions started to swirl around the record divergence between Gross Domestic Product (GDP, or also known as Gross Domestic Output) and Gross Domestic Income (GDI), which unlike GDP also captures various interest payments, mostly to and from the Federal Reserve.

    Ironically, back in September 2023, JPMorgan expected that GDP would catch down to GDI, resulting in a much weaker GDP print. That did not happen, because the Biden admin came up with a last minute sticksave that revised historical data to make it seem the US was stronger than previously thought.

    Fast forward to this week, when Goldman was looking at the same gap, and also at the divergence between various GDP components as reported and their revisions, and also expected that historical GDP would be revised much lower (also catching  down to GDI). That too did not happen, because the Biden admin… well, it pretty much did the same thing again.

    What did happen, is that not only was GDI revised sharply higher, effectively closing the record divergence between the two series by boosting various interest income assumptions of GDI.

    There’s more: after the release of today’s Personal Income and Spending data, we found just why Goldman was so wrong in its (correct) assumption that US GDP should be revised lower based on historical data.

    The reason for Goldman’s erroneous forecast and the unexpected “boost” in US economic growth is because Dept of Commerce head Gina Raimondo, the same person who one month ago told ABC that she was unfamiliar with the Bureau of Labor (which had just slashed historical US jobs by over 800K) and one of the most political operatives of the Biden admin, decided to drastically revise the two most important data sets propping up the US economy: personal income and personal spending.

    First, as shown in the chart below, personal income was unexpectedly revised about $800 billion higher, as a result of not just an increase in what the government believes was interest and dividend income, but also government handouts (i.e., personal current transfer receipts rising by over $200 billion) and also a $293 billion cumulative increase in wages and salaries. In total, Disposable personal income was revised from just under $21 trillion (annualized) to $21.8 trillion.

    Spending was also revised higher, if to a lesser extent: the August number for Personal outlays was revised higher by about $350 billion, from $20.38 trillion in July to $20.73 trillion in the revised data, reflecting a reduction in spending on goods offset by much higher increase in spending on services.

    To summarize: disposable personal income (after tax) was revised 3.8% higher to $21.8 trillion, while personal spending was revised higher by about half that, or 1.7%, to $20.7 trillion.

    And since the difference between how much you make and how much you spend is also called savings, we can finally get to the bottom of how the US economy magically grew in the past several years instead of shrinking more: it turns out that, when some bureaucrat in Gina Raimondo’s Bureau of Economic Analysis decided to click on a mouse button in recent weeks perhaps in (political) response to the dramatic plunge in revised jobs, Americans suddenly became much wealthier… if only in some Dept of Commerce spreadsheet.

    You see, when subtracting the revised personal spending from the revised personal income, what you get is the revised savings of US consumers, which as of today’s deus ex revision has almost doubled, rising from $600 billion in July to $1.1 trillion in August!

    Yes, dear Americans, rejoice for a spreadsheet revision means  you are all now half a trillion bucks richer!

    Finally, we can also calculate the revised personal savings rate, which looks like this.

    What this chart shows is remarkable: instead of dropping to a near record low – where it was according tot he pre-revised income/spending data just last month – all it took was one assumption about the trajectory of income, spending, and savings, in the post-covid era, to make it seem that US consumer are much healthier than they appears just last month!

    Why does this matter? Because alongside record credit card balances and various Federal Reserve estimates that all the covid excess savings had already been spent, the plunge in personal savings to a record low was the straw that many economists saw would finally break the US consumer’s back (see for example this note from Albert Edwards, available to pro subs).

    And from there, the path to a self-reinforcing consumer-driven recession narrative was just a breath away.

    However, now that a perfectly timed and very strategic data “revision” has come in just in time to drown out the rapidly rising recession narrative, we can pretend – if only for a few months until the election – that US consumer and households are actually quite healthy, even if said healthy is totally fabricated and the result of a mouse click… and nothing else.

    So, dear Americans, even as you can barely afford to buy food, eve as you can barely afford your monthly rent, and are several months behind on your record-breaking car and home insurance, you can at least take solace in the fact that while your actual savings int he bank have never been lower, your imputed savings – according to some political appratchik in the Biden Dept of Commerce – have doubled overnight because, well, the election is just over a month from now and you can’t talk about a solid economy when you just vaporized over 800K jobs so something had to be revised dramatically higher.

    It just so happened that something was the one number that is most easy to fudge and manipulate: a number which bears zero correspondence to reality, even though it may well be the most important number for US consumers – the personal savings number, arbitrarily construed by BEA beancounters – and which in no way reflects the amount of actual savings in the bank.

    What it does, reflect, however is that we are about to hear a whole lot of bullshit by Kamala Harris’ puppet-masters, how the US consumer has rarely been stronger and how US personal savings – instead of being the lowest on record – are actually the highest in three years.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 17:45

  • House Intelligence Committee Sounds Alarm On Chinese Shopping App Temu
    House Intelligence Committee Sounds Alarm On Chinese Shopping App Temu

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    House Republicans on Sept. 25 requested a briefing by the FBI and U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) over shopping app Temu, whose owners reportedly have ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    The Temu logo is displayed on a laptop in San Anselmo, Calif., on Feb. 26, 2024. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee said they are concerned about the “growing national security and personal data concerns surrounding” Temu and its parent company, Pinduoduo, according to a statement. A letter noting their concerns, signed by every GOP lawmaker on the panel, was directed to FBI Director Christopher Wray and SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

    Those Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), said that they are flagging Temu and Pinduoduo for “possible trade, slave labor, and national security concerns.”

    The letter highlighted their concerns about Temu and cited a New York Post report from June showing that senior executives at the company and Pinduoduo have an affiliation with the CCP. That report said that the firm’s top leaders include a former senior official in the CCP’s State Administration for Market Regulation and a former official with the regulation department of the Shanghai Administration for Market Regulation, among others.

    Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin also told Fox Business in July that Temu is operated by Pinduoduo Inc., which is based in Shanghai and includes “former Chinese communist officials” in its ranks.

    Other concerns include that the Pinduoduo app was suspended by Google last year because of malware concerns.

    “Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement last year.

    When it was removed from the Google Play store, Pinduoduo said it was told by the tech giant that its “current version is not compliant with Google’s Policy,” adding that Google “has not shared more details.”

    An Epoch Times review of the Google Play store shows that the Pinduoduo app currently isn’t listed, although Temu remains available and is one of the most widely downloaded apps on the Android platform.

    “Due to the above cited incidents and many others, we are concerned about the protection of [Americans’] data,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “Analogous to Congress’ action on TikTok, the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party, Chinese national security laws, and [Americans’] data must be understood.”

    The two federal agencies were asked whether the FBI has provided any intelligence to the SEC and whether the SEC has requested information regarding Temu or Pinduoduo relating to the companies’ reported ties with the CCP, malware concerns.

    A report from research company Grizzly Research months ago said that it believes Temu has already illegally sold or intends to illegally sell “stolen data from Western country customers to sustain a business model that is otherwise doomed for failure.”

    “Temu is estimated to be losing $30 per order. Its ad spending and shipping costs (1–2 weeks from China, expedited to U.S. delivery) are astronomical,” the report said.

    The Epoch Times contacted Temu for comment on Sept. 25 about the House Republicans’ letter but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.

    In July, the company told The Epoch Times that it rejected allegations made by Griffin in his lawsuit.

    “The allegations in the lawsuit are based on misinformation circulated online, primarily from a short-seller, and are totally unfounded. We categorically deny the allegations and will vigorously defend ourselves,” Temu said. “We understand that as a new company with an innovative supply chain model, some may misunderstand us at first glance and not welcome us.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 17:40

  • Biden-Harris Admin Let A Staggering 650,000 Criminal Illegals Loose In The US: ICE
    Biden-Harris Admin Let A Staggering 650,000 Criminal Illegals Loose In The US: ICE

    New data from US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) reveals that over 650,000 migrants with criminal histories were let loose in the United States between ‘mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024.’

    Members of Venezuelan gang tren de aragua

    In a response to a March letter from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), deputy DHS Director Patrick J. Lechleitner writes:

    “As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,729 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges.”

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    Of those, more than 13,000 illegals convicted of homicide and 15,000 convicted of sexual assault are roaming the country.

    “To see the numbers on paper, it just goes to show of how real this threat is…Americans deserve to feel safe,” Gonzales told Fox News.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsICE called out so-called “sanctuary” cities as part of the problem, noting in their response:

    “ICE recognizes that some jurisdictions are concerned that cooperating with federal immigration officials will erode trust with immigrant communities and make it harder for local law enforcement to serve those populations. However, ‘sanctuary’ policies can end up shielding dangerous criminals, who often victimize those same communities.”

    The letter also stressed DHS’ efforts to remove illegals; “From mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024, DHS removed or returned more than 893,600 individuals, including more than 138,300 individuals in family units. The majority of all individuals encountered at the Southwest Border over the past three years have been removed, returned, or expelled.”

    the Biden administration came under fire for releasing many migrants who came to the U.S. border into the interior, which coincided with a sharp drop in deportations as it focused on prioritizing public safety and national security threats. There were 142,580 removals in FY 23, up considerably from 72,177 in FY 22 and 59,011 in FY 21, but still down from the highs of 267,258 under the Trump administration in FY 19. –Fox News

    “It may be shocking to hear that the Biden-Harris administration is actively releasing tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens into our communities, but their own numbers conclusively prove this to be the case. This defies all common sense,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green told Fox News Digital. “Under President Biden and his ‘border czar,’ Vice President Harris, DHS law enforcement has been directed to mass-release illegal aliens whom they know have criminal convictions or are facing charges for serious crimes—and these dangerous, destructive individuals are making their way into every city and state in this country. How many more Americans need to die or be victimized before this administration is forced to abide by the laws they swore to uphold? This is madness. It is something no civilized, well-functioning society should tolerate.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 17:20

  • David Stockman On Why The Biden-Harris "Strong" Economy Claim Is A Big Lie
    David Stockman On Why The Biden-Harris “Strong” Economy Claim Is A Big Lie

    Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

    There is only one way to rescue America’s faltering economy and that’s the wholesale abandonment of Washington’s reckless spending, borrowing and printing policies of the last quarter century. These policies did not remotely attain their ostensible goals of more growth, more jobs and more purchasing power in worker pay envelopes. What they did do, of course, was to freight down the main street economy with crushing debts, dangerous financial bubbles, chronic inflation and stagnating living standards.

    For want of doubt, go straight to the most basic economic metric we have – real compensation per labor hour. The latter metric not only deletes the inflation from the pay figures, but also measures the totality of worker compensation, including benefits for health care, retirement, vacation, disability, sick leave and other fringes.

    Needless to say, the purple line below makes crystal clear that historic worker gains have ground to a complete halt.

    Per Annum Increase In Real Hourly Compensation:

    • Q1 1947 to Q1 2001: +1.79%.
    • Q1 2001 To Q1 2020: +0.71%.
    • Q1 2020 to Q2 2024: -0.01%.

    It doesn’t get any cleaner than this. No matter how the White House, the Fed and the fawning financial press cherry pick the “incoming data” you flat-out can’t say the US economy is “strong” when the growth of the inflation-adjusted pay envelope of 161 million workers has deflated to the vanishing point. Indeed, it has literally been dead in the water for the last 52 months running.

     Real Nonfarm Worker Compensation per Hour, 1947 to 2024

    Moreover, the above graph covers all workers, from the bottom to the top end of the wage scale. But when you look at the most recent trends for the highest paid jobs in the durable goods manufacturing sector, the stagnation has been even more dramatic. There has been zero net gain in real compensation per hour in this high-pay sector during the last 15 years; and an obvious contributor to that baleful outcome has been the surge of inflation since 2020 when Washington went off the deep-end with fiscal stimmies and upwards of $5 trillion of newly minted central bank credit.

    And we do mean deep-end. During the one-year pandemic stimmy bacchanalia, Washington spent $6.5 trillion on a one-time basis or 150% of the regular Federal budget for war, welfare and everything else as of 2019. At the same time, the Fed printed $5 trillion of new credit during the 30 months between October 2019 and March 2022, which was more than it had printed during the first 106 years of its existence!

    In any event, these reckless fiscal and monetary policies had long since caused much of the high productivity, high-pay industrial sector to be off-shored. Yet that happened not because free market capitalism has a death wish in America. It happened because Washington policies generated so much internal cost and nominal wage inflation that vendors of goods to the retail markets had no choice except to source from far lower dollar cost venues abroad, and most especially China and its associated supply chains.

    Inflation-Adjusted Compensation in Durable Goods Manufacturing, 2010 to 2024

    Nor is this just a manufacturing sector issue. The fact is, stagnation and shrinkage has afflicted the entire goods-producing sector of the US economy, including energy production and mining and gas and electric utility production. As shown below, during the heyday of American economic growth after WWII, these sectors were the motor force of prosperity. Between 1947 and 1978:

    • Real hourly earnings (purple line) in good-producing doubled, rising by 23% per annum.
    • Total hours worked (black line) increased by nearly 20%.

    Since that late 1970s peak, however, no cigar with respect to either pay rates or total hours worked. In fact, by 2023–

    • Real hourly pay was down by 2% versus 1979, meaning it had stagnated for 45 years!
    • Total hours worked were even more debilitated, having been rolled all the way back to the late 1940s level.

    That’s right. There were once 24 million high paying jobs in the good-producing sectors, which represented more than 28% of total US employment of 90 million in 1979. But by 2023, total hours worked in the goods-producing sectors have fallen to levels first achieved 75 years earlier.

    Goods-Producing Sector: Index Of Real Hourly Wages Versus Index of Total Hours Worked, 1947 to 2023

    In light of the above, all of the Biden-Harris palaver about a “strong” economy actually gives the concept of humbug a bad name. Like the claims of the Trump Administration before them, it is based on such egregious manipulation and cherry-picking of the data as to amount to the classic Big Lie, if there ever was one.

    The fact is, neither every job counted by the BLS nor every dollar of GDP computed by the Commerce Department is created equal when it comes to economic significance. And it is exactly low pay/low productivity “jobs” and government-fueled “GDP” which has accounted for much of the ballyhooed “strength” of the US economy in recent years and decades.

    For instance, at the time that good-producing employment peaked in 1979, jobs in the low-pay, minimum wage, episodic employment Leisure & Hospitality sector were just beginning to attain lift-off. During the next 45-years, hours worked in the later sector rose by +128%, even as the index for goods-producing hours per the black lines (both above and below) fell by -18%.

    Needless to say, the economic weight of the purple line is only a fraction of that implicated in the black line. For instance, hours worked in the Leisure & Hospitality (L&I) sector average just 23.9 per week and average wages currently stand at $19.66 per hour. This computes to an annual pay equivalent of just $24,400 per L&I “job”.

    By contrast, the equivalent figures for the goods-producing sector are 40.6 hours per week, $31.26 per hour pay rates and an annual equivalent of $66,000 in gross pay. That is to say, in terms of economic throw-weight a L&I “job” is equal to only 37% of a goods-producing “job”.

    Index of Total Hours Worked: Leisure & Hospitality Sector Versus Good-Producing, 1978 to 2023

    Not surprisingly, therefore, the Biden-Harris claims about 15.9 million jobs “created” on their watch should be taken with a grain of salt.

    In the first place, about 9.1 million of these purported new jobs or 58% were actually “born-again jobs”. That is, jobs that were lost during the massive lay-offs triggered by UniParty lockdowns during 2020-2021 that have been subsequently recovered. Specifically, the total nonfarm job count peaked at 152.05 million jobs in February 2020 versus the 158.78 million total posted in August 2024.

    So the net gain of 6.73 million jobs is a far cry from the nearly 16 million gain ballyhooed by Biden-Harris, which includes all the born-again ones.

    But that’s not the half of it. When you look at the net gain of 6.73 million jobs, only 763,000 or 11% were in the good-producing sector. By contrast, 2.54 million or 38% of the net new jobs on the Biden-Harris Watch were in the low-pay or low productivity L&H, retail, government or private education and health sectors.

    Indeed, these data remind that the GDP numbers reflect the same misleading distortions. Since Q1 2007, for instance, the health care sector has expanded in real terms by 57.4% compared to just 35.7% for the balance of real GDP.  Likewise, since Q4 2020, the health care sector has expanded by 17.2% in real terms or nearly double the 9.8% gain for all other components of real GDP.

    Index Of Real Health Care PCE Versus Total Real GDP, Q1 2007 to Q2 2024

    Then again, the health care sector is overwhelmingly a ward of the state via Medicare/Medicaid and upwards of $300 billion per year in tax subsidies for employer-sponsored health plans. So it’s a case of “if you spend it, it will grow.”

    *  *  *

    The truth is, we’re on the cusp of an economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/27/2024 – 17:00

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