Nov 29

Today’s News 29th November 2023

  • Top WHO Consultant Working For US Intelligence Helped Downplay COVID Lab Leak Theory: Official
    Top WHO Consultant Working For US Intelligence Helped Downplay COVID Lab Leak Theory: Official

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

    The P4 laboratory, designated as the highest level of biological safety, at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, on April 17, 2020. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)

    A top U.S. intelligence official who also serves as a consultant with the World Health Organization played a key role in downplaying the theory that COVID-19 came from a laboratory in China, a former official says.

    Adrienne Keen was “very involved in discrediting the information that we were trying to present to the secretary of state,” Thomas DiNanno, a former U.S. acting secretary of state, told Sky News.

    He said that Ms. Keen was an advocate for zoonosis, or the idea that COVID-19 comes from animals, even though no animal has been identified as the origin years after the disease first appeared.

    Mr. DiNanno, who helped efforts to probe the COVID-19 origins, said he learned later that Ms. Keen held a job with the World Health Organization (WHO), which is part of the United Nations (UN).

    “They are a political agency. They’re a UN agency. So it’s just not appropriate to do work for a foreign power. And that would include the United Nations,” he said.

    Ms. Keen is listed on LinkedIn as holding multiple positions, including being a consultant for WHO, director for global health security for the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and an adviser for the U.S. State Department.

    In audio from a Jan. 6, 2021, meeting involving Ms. Keen, she promoted the viewpoint of Ralph Baric, a U.S. scientist who has worked closely with scientists at the lab, according to Sky News. Ms. Keen was responding to an analysis from Dr. Steven Quay, who has said evidence points to COVID-19 coming from the lab.

    “I think Ralph pointed out some of the issues with the probabilities you’ve come up with Dr. Quay. I share a lot of those concerns,” Ms. Keen was quoted as saying during the meeting.

    “It would be in the best interest of the public to know what were ‘the comments of a natural origin advocate, Ralph Baric’ during the January 6, 2021 meeting mentioned,” Bryce Nickels, a professor of genetics at Rutgers University and co-founder of the group Biosafety Now, told The Epoch Times via email.

    Ms. Keen and Dr. Quay did not respond to requests for comment.

    The Epoch Times has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the audio and related materials.

    The Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to dispute the quote.

    A spokesperson for the office told The Epoch Times in an email that the office’s work on the COVID-19 origins “complied with all of the intelligence community’s analytic standards, including objectivity.”

    Those standards include assigning an individual or entity to make sure intelligence products “are timely, objective, independent of political considerations, based on all sources of available intelligence, and employ the standards of proper analytic tradecraft.”

    Public Information

    The State Department said in an assessment made public in 2022 through a Freedom of Information Act request that circumstantial evidence pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic being caused by a leak from the Wuhan lab complex.

    “All other possible places of [the] virus’s origin have been proven false,” the unsigned assessment stated.

    The U.S. intelligence community in April 2020 said in a brief statement that it “concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified” and that it was working “to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”

    Despite the consensus claim, some scientists believed, and still do to this day, that the virus may have been manmade or modified.

    In May 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that the intelligence community was divided between an animal origin and a lab origin, with two elements leaning toward the former and one leaning toward the latter. The majority of elements said there was insufficient information to lean one way or another.

    Most of the community said in August 2021 that there was still not enough information to assess.

    In June 2023, the community was still divided on the matter.

    Inside the community, the Department of Energy and FBI have been identified as the two elements that assess the evidence supports a lab leak, while a majority of other agencies have determined that a natural origin was most likely.

    Two agencies, including the CIA, remained unable to lean one way or another.

    John Ratcliffe, who headed the community until early 2021, has said that the available evidence only supports a lab origin.

    Citing evidence largely withheld from the public, he said that “were this a trial, the preponderance of circumstantial evidence provided by our intelligence would compel a jury finding of guilt to an accusation that the coronavirus research in the Wuhan labs was responsible for spawning a global pandemic.”

    A Senate investigation also concluded that the lab was the origin, although it said the leak was not intentional.

    In another interview released by Sky News as part of a new program, Robert Kadlec, who led that investigation, said he worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who helped fund the Wuhan lab but repeatedly downplayed the possibility of a leak, to downplay the leak theory.

    “I wake up at usually about 2 or 3am and think about it honestly, because it’s something that we all played a role in,” Dr. Kadlec told the Australian broadcaster.

    He said the reason the leak was initially downplayed was to encourage China to cooperate early in the pandemic, but that he thinks Dr. Fauci’s goal was to divert attention from the Wuhan lab since Dr. Fauci’s agency, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, provided funding to it.

    “That would be a natural reaction of him or anybody, particularly I think, for him saying, what could this do to me and to our institute as a consequence if we were found to have some culpability or some involvement in this?” Dr. Kadlec said.

    Dr. Fauci did not respond to a request for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 23:25

  • Overcoming Chinese Communist GDP Myths
    Overcoming Chinese Communist GDP Myths

    Authored by Antonio Graceffo via The Mises Institute,

    In March, at the National People’s Congress, Beijing set its annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth target. Since 1985, in every year but one, China has met or exceeded its official projections, raising doubts about whether or not Beijing’s claims of rapid growth can be believed. The New York Federal Reserve issued a report in 2020 that challenged the numbers, saying that China’s GDP growth chart was too smooth for the data to be authentic.

    Typical of a communist system, the central government’s growth target is divided up and assigned as quotas for provincial governments, who in turn set quotas for local governments, and so on down the line. Politicians who fail to meet quotas can expect negative consequences so they are incentivized to lie, pumping up the numbers. The reports are inflated at each level until they no longer reflect reality by the time they reach the top. China’s National Bureau of Statistics knows this and uses a 5 percent deflator to adjust the reported numbers down. This single fact proves that China’s official GDP values are based on falsified data. Additionally, there is no evidence that the 5 percent reduction brings the numbers back to reality. Neither does it explain why China’s GDP growth hits the target year after year.

    Last month, China’s former premier—the man who used to be in charge of the economy—Li Keqiang passed away. Having a PhD in economics, he knew the importance of free markets and wanted to liberalize the economy, prioritizing the private sector. However, he never managed to have a great impact or make historic changes to the economy because Xi Jinping seized control of the economy, taking all power from the premier. For foreign economists, though, Li’s greatest achievement is one that most people in China are unaware of, one that cannot be discussed or published in the country: the Li Keqiang Index.

    According to WikiLeaks, Li stated, “GDP figures are ‘man-made’ and therefore unreliable.”

    Consequently, he used proxy data to attempt to quantify the economy.

    Li’s approach relied on three key indicators:

    1. electricity consumption,
    2. railway cargo volume,
    3. and bank lending.

    His rationale was that if electricity usage was up, then the factories must be working. The same is true of rail cargo if the trains are busy taking products to distributors and seaports. Finally, the volume of bank lending suggests how many new factories or expansions of existing businesses are being undertaken.

    In 2014, the Chinese government claimed a 7.5 percent GDP growth, but Citibank economists had their doubts. The bank decided to apply the Li Keqiang Index with these specific weightings: railway freight traffic (25 percent), electricity consumption (40 percent), and medium—and long-term loans (35 percent). Sure enough, the index suggested that the GDP growth was much lower than Beijing’s claims. Citibank then looked at other proxies, such as commodity prices. China alone accounts for such a significant percentage of world demand for commodities that increased industrial and construction activity in China drives up world prices. However, in 2014, those prices were coming down.

    The Li Keqiang Index is a good jumping-off point, but Western economists have added other elements of consideration, such as nighttime lights measured by satellites. Nighttime lights have been used, at least informally, in the past. It is common, when describing the difference in wealth between North and South Korea, to mention the fact that North Korea is nearly dark at night while South Korea is brilliant. Other data used are “retail sales, floor-space construction newly started, real estate investment, air passenger traffic, and exports.” This data can be corroborated with data from outside of China, such as real Chinese imports as reported by exporting countries.

    A University of Chicago paper found that growth claims by autocracies were on average 35 percent larger than growth estimated by nighttime lights. For China specifically, the official data is believed to have been off by about a third. Four economists conducting a forensic investigation of Chinese GDP claims found that Beijing had falsified the data by an average of 1.7 percentage points per year. Using 2008 as a base year, they determined that, by 2018, the Chinese GDP had been overstated by a cumulative 20 percent.

    For Beijing, this discrepancy is important because Xi Jinping has set a goal of exceeding the nominal GDP of the United States by 2049. That objective will now be delayed. For the common Chinese citizen, a smaller GDP means a smaller per capita GDP. The official per capita GDP is $12,556 per year, or more than $1,000 per month. Given the adjusted GDP numbers, China’s per capita GDP will not exceed that of the US until 2076.

    The assumption that China’s per capita GDP is lower than Beijing’s claims seems very likely given the low salaries many Chinese receive. The country’s highest minimum wage is in Shanghai, where it is $370 per month. Other major cities and regions have minimum wages closer to $270 a month while the lowest is in Liaoning, where it is $195. According to official data, urban salaries are more than double rural salaries. An estimated 295 million rural dwellers have migrated from the countryside to the cities to take factory jobs. This represents nearly half of the country’s labor force.

    The central government believes it controls the economy, but Li Keqiang proved that all they control is the reporting of the economy. The Chinese Communist Party can order falsified results, but they are powerless to change the underlying realities or force the numbers to add to a desired sum.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 22:45

  • WHO Warns That Disease Poised To Kill More In Gaza Than Bombs
    WHO Warns That Disease Poised To Kill More In Gaza Than Bombs

    The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a dire warning for Gaza this week, saying that if the humanitarian aid situation is not immediately improved, more Palestinians could die of disease than Israeli’s bombing campaign.

    “Eventually we will see more people dying from disease than from bombardment if we are not able to put back together this health system,” said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris at a briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

    It’s a shocking statement given the already immense death toll after seven weeks of fighting. Even the lower end estimates put the Gazan death toll at above 10,000 – while Palestinian sources this week have said it topped 15,000. 

    Source: Palestinian Water Authority

    But health authorities are sounding the alarm after all hospitals across the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which faced unrelenting aerial bombardment and a ground invasion prior to the temporary truce which took effect last Friday, have ceased functioning.

    Not only have fuel and supplies long ceased to north Gaza, but the sanitation system has collapsed and there has been no drinking water.

    According to Al Jazeera, summarizing the WHO spokesperson’s briefing: 

    She described the collapse of al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza as a “tragedy” and voiced concern about the detention of some of its medical staff by Israeli forces who took over the complex earlier this month.

    She also repeated concerns about a rise in outbreaks of infectious diseases in Gaza, particularly diarrhoeal diseases.

    Citing a United Nations report on the living conditions of displaced residents in northern Gaza, she said: “[There are] no medicines, no vaccination activities, no access to safe water and hygiene and no food.”

    Cholera outbreaks are a growing fear, after thus far the WHO has documented 44,000 cases of diarrhoea and 70,000 acute respiratory infections.

    A UN official who represents a children’s relief department said there’s been a rise gastroenteritis from drinking dirty water in Gazan neighborhoods. “They don’t have access to safe water and it’s crippling them,” the official said.

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    Since Friday’s truce took effect, hundreds of international aid trucks have been allowed entry from Egypt through the Raffah crossing. It’s as yet unclear if the aid convoys will be able to continue should the ceasefire collapse, however. Currently, the CIA chief and Mossad director are in Doha, Qatar seeking to extend the ceasefire. Already there are reports of progress, and the truce is expected to endure for at least two more days.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 22:25

  • DC Judge Refuses To Let Trump See Evidence In His Own J6 Trial
    DC Judge Refuses To Let Trump See Evidence In His Own J6 Trial

    Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has denied former President Donald Trump’s motion to subpoena records from the House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 committee, arguing that his requests are like a fishing expedition.

    Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) (L), Chair of the House Jan. 6 Committee, delivers remarks alongside Vice Chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during a hearing in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington on Oct. 13, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    Her seven-page decision criticized the scope and alleged vagueness of President Trump’s requests. It also argued that he was improperly applying Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 17 to information that could be obtained through other means.

    “Defendant has not met his burdens with respect to his proposed Rule 17(c) subpoenas,” Judge Chutkan said.

    “He has not sufficiently justified his requests for either the ‘Missing Materials’ themselves or the other five categories of documents related to them.”

    Quoting the United States v. Cuthbertson, she added that the “broad scope of the records that defendant seeks, and his vague description of their potential relevance, resemble less ‘a good faith effort to obtain identified evidence’ than they do ‘a general fishing expedition that attempts to use the [Rule 17(c) subpoena] as a discovery device.'”

    President Trump’s initial motion from Oct. 11 requested purportedly “missing materials” that the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 had allegedly failed to preserve and transfer to another congressional committee.

    Fox News reported in August that Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight for the Committee on House Administration, accused the select committee of failing to provide certain communications with the Biden administration, as well as video recordings of depositions and interviews leveraged by the select committee.

    “President Trump is fully entitled to seek the missing records by subpoena,” the defense wrote in its October motion.

    “It is also equally important to determine if these records have been lost, destroyed, or altered.

    “The requested subpoenas are narrowly tailored to achieve these legitimate ends, which are fundamental to ensuring President Trump’s right to a fair trial under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

    “As the missing records are currently unavailable, the requested subpoenas would not be duplicative of any other records either publicly available or produced in discovery.”

    In addition to those materials, President Trump made requests for five other categories of materials—communications and documents—related to the original.

    “Without these documents, President Trump cannot possibly have a fair trial,” the defense said.

    President Trump is currently preparing for a trial in which the Justice Department is accusing him of conspiring to undermine the 2020 election results.

    The Biden administration has tied President Trump to the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prompting fierce opposition from the defense.

    Issued on Nov. 27, the order comes 10 days after Judge Chutkan denied President Trump’s request to strike certain “inflammatory” statements related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, from the DOJ’s indictment.

    The requested subpoenas targeted the Archivist of the United States at the National Archives and Records Administration, the Jan. 6 select committee, White House and Homeland Security Department attorneys, and Mr. Loudermilk, select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and the Clerk of the House of Representatives.

    Mr. Thompson denied an obligation to provide the video recordings requested by Mr. Loudermilk. He added that some of the records weren’t provided because they were undergoing review by the executive branch because of national security and other concerns.

    “This was part of the select committee’s effort to accommodate the Executive Branch in appropriately protecting certain sensitive information while also complying with the archiving rules of the House,” Mr. Thompson said.

    “The Executive Branch was still conducting its review of that material to provide appropriate archiving guidance at the time the Select Committee dissolved.

    “Accordingly, the Select Committee did not have the opportunity to properly archive that material with the rest of its records with the benefit of the Executive Branch’s guidance to ensure witness safety, our national security, and law enforcement sensitive information.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 22:05

  • Charlie Munger Dead At 99
    Charlie Munger Dead At 99

    Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported on Tuesday that Charlie Munger has died at the age of 99.

    According to the family, he passed peacefully this morning at a California hospital. He would have been 100 on January 1st.

    “Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” said Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, in a statement.

    Munger, in addition to Berkshire’s Vice Chairman, was a member of the Costco board, chairman and publisher of the Daily Journal Corp, a philanthropist and an architect. His fortune was estimated at $2.3 billion earlier this year (while Buffett’s is estimated at around $100 billion).

    Munger dropped out of college in 1943 to join WWII, serving in the US Army Air Corps. Upon his return to the states, he applied himself – taking graduate courses without an undergraduate degree, after which he was eventually accepted into Harvard Law School. He began his career at Wright & Garrett, making $3,300 per year.

    Munger and Buffett met in 1959, after Munger returned to Obama following military service at the age of 35 in order to close his late father’s legal practice – after his eight-year marriage ended in divorce which left him in dire financial straits because his wife received the majority of their assets.

    Munger had also lost his son at the age of 9 to leukemia.

    A year after his divorce, Munger faced a devastating blow when his 8-year-old son Teddy was diagnosed with leukemia. In an era devoid of medical insurance and effective treatments for the disease, Munger shouldered the medical expenses while grappling with the emotional turmoil of his son’s illness. He juggled his responsibilities as a father to his other children and his law practice, even as he watched Teddy’s health decline.

    Munger’s friend Rick Guerin recalls the heart-wrenching moments Munger spent at the hospital with Teddy and his solitary walks through Pasadena, California, overwhelmed with grief. Teddy’s death at age 9 left Munger shattered. –Benzinga

    And how did Munger later reflect on that period in his life?

    “Envy, resentment, revenge and self-pity are disastrous modes of thought,” he later said. “Self-pity gets close to paranoia. … Every mischance in life is an opportunity to behave well and learn. It’s not to be immersed in self-pity but to utilize the blow constructively.”

    That year he was introduced to the then-29-year-old Buffett by one of Buffett’s investment clients, and the two hit it off.

    Munger served as chairman and CEO of California-based insurance and investment company Wesco Financial between 1984 and 2011, when Buffett’s Berkshire purchased the remaining shares. According to Buffett, Munger convinced him to invest in higher-quality, underpriced companies as opposed to those in distress.

    An early example of the shift was illustrated in 1972 by Munger’s ability to persuade Buffett to sign off on Berkshire’s purchase of See’s Candies for $25 million even though the California candy maker had annual pretax earnings of only about $4 million. It has since produced more than $2 billion in sales for Berkshire. –CNBC

    “He weaned me away from the idea of buying very so-so companies at very cheap prices, knowing that there was some small profit in it, and looking for some really wonderful businesses that we could buy in fair prices,” Buffett told CNBC in May 2016.

    At one point Buffett started calling Munger the “abominable no-man” for his wholesale rejection of potential investments.

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 22:01

  • "Might As Well Call It An X-Flare!": Sun Burps Strong Solar Flare
    “Might As Well Call It An X-Flare!”: Sun Burps Strong Solar Flare

    The space weather community on social media platform X reports a powerful solar flare around the center disk of the sun that almost registered as an X-class earlier today. 

    Space weather and aurora website SolarHam reports, “A strong solar flare (M9.8) was just detected around AR 3500 near center disk. A wave of plasma appears to be leaving the flare site, a good sign for a potential Earth-directed eruption.” 

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    “Might as well call it an X-Flare!” one X user said. 

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    “The solar flare is eruptive and seems likely to produce a CME in Earth’s direction. The radiation caused by the solar flare is also affecting Earth’s ionosphere on the daylit side and may interfere with users of high-frequency radio communications,” aurora forecast website Space Weather Watch wrote in an X post. 

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    University of Maryland Solar physicist Keith Strong said, “In about a week (assuming it survives) it will move into a geoeffective position and high-speed solar wind from it will likely impact the Earth, causing geomagnetic storms.” 

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    The commonly used system for classifying solar flares categorizes them based on their intensity. The weakest are A-class flares, followed in ascending order of strength by B, C, M, and X classes.

    Powerful X-class solar flares can cause damage, particularly to satellites, communications systems, and power grids on Earth.

    The frequency of solar flares increases as the sun moves towards another solar maximum. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 21:45

  • Michigan Township Creates Militia To Defend The Right To Bear Arms
    Michigan Township Creates Militia To Defend The Right To Bear Arms

    Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times,

    Citing possible “political targeting” under a new state gun confiscation law, the board of Holton Township, Michigan, adopted a resolution creating a voluntary community militia dedicated to preserving the constitutional right to bear arms.

    The resolution by the Republican-majority board also declared Holton Township a “Second Amendment Sanctuary Community” in which unconstitutional laws controlling firearms wouldn’t be recognized.

    Half of Michigan’s 83 county governments have declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuary counties.

    Holton’s resolution protects the lawful purchase and possession of all firearms, including semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic pistols, accessories, ammunition, and body armor, that are legal under existing federal law.

    According to Holton Township Supervisor Alan Jager, a Republican, the political targeting could presumably occur through the unfair enforcement of Michigan’s recently passed ‘Red Flag’ law.

    Under the statute, a law enforcement officer or other specified parties, such as mental health professionals, family members, friends, or neighbors, could request a judge to order the confiscation of all firearms from an individual whom the court finds to be a potential violent threat to himself or others.

    The temporary precautionary action, which may last for one year or more, can be initiated on the word of a single complainant.

    A judge is required by law to make a determination within 24 hours of receiving the complaint. Within 14 days, a hearing must be set to allow the suspect to prove that he isn’t a threat to anyone and thus have his firearms returned.

    Some Michigan sheriffs have said that they won’t enforce such a law, according to the Associated Press.

    “An ex-girlfriend could file a complaint against a person out of spite. So could someone that disagreed with your political views,” Mr. Jager said in a Nov. 24 interview with The Epoch Times.

    In an effort to reduce gun violence, more than 20 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some version of what’s called the “extreme risk protection order,” commonly called Red Flag laws.

    An Associated Press analysis discovered that since 2020, governments have, under the authority of the protection order, seized individuals’ firearms 15,049 times.

    Concern Over Mass Shooters

    “For those who are in law enforcement who refuse to enforce these important orders … I will make certain that I find someone with jurisdiction who will,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said shortly after the Michigan Red Flag bill was signed into law by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

    Ms. Whitmer said in a statement: “We have heard too many times from those who knew a mass shooter who had expressed concern in advance about that mass shooter’s intentions. With extreme risk protection orders, we have a mechanism to step in and save lives.”

    Mr. Jager likened the new Michigan law to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was created to protect national security but ultimately was abused by government officials to spy on members of the Trump campaign.

    “The victims of the FISA Court abuses were American citizens who did nothing wrong,” he said.

    “If you think our own government wouldn’t misuse the Red Flag law to target you, just look at what they are doing to President Trump.”

    According to Mr. Jager, most of his Republican colleagues on the board felt that a powerfully worded resolution alone wasn’t enough to get the point across that the right to bear arms and the right to self-defense are “unalienable.”

    The lone Democrat on the five-member township board was away on an excused absence and didn’t vote on the resolution.

    The Republican majority also resolved to not acknowledge any new regulations pertaining to open or concealed carry.

    “We took the extra step of creating a militia dedicated to protecting the Second Amendment and all of our other constitutional rights,” Mr. Jager said.

    “But don’t expect to see our people patrolling through our towns carrying guns. That’s not what this is all about.”

    No ‘Right to Take Violence’

    A section of the resolution reads, “This policy does not give any member the right to take violence into their own hands or act above the law in any way.”

    The township opened the militia to all legal residents of the community. A member must be at least 18 years old and pass a federal firearms background check.

    The resolution says that all a qualified person needs to do to enlist in the Holton Township Militia is to state openly on social media or by a letter to friends and/or family that he or she wants to be a member.

    Mr. Jager said the main reason for creating the militia is to help bolster the legal standing of gun owners who might end up in court challenging further firearms restrictions that they regard as unconstitutional.

    He told The Epoch Times that another reason for creating the militia was to draw attention to the gradual infringement of Second Amendment rights through gun control bills such as the Red Flag law.

    “On that score, we have been very successful. Ever since we passed the resolution, my phone has been ringing off the hook. We hope other communities will take a similar stand,” Mr. Jager said.

    “The odd thing is, I’m not really a gun enthusiast. I just have a couple of old shotguns. I’m doing this more to protect other gun owners’ rights.”

    The Second Amendment in its entirety reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

    When asked if he feared that the state and federal government may retaliate against him for his activism, Mr. Jager said: “I am not afraid, though I know the government could beat up this little township of 1,900 people in a heartbeat.

    “This taking things without giving much chance to defend your rights is wrong and can be easily abused. We are trying to uphold due process for everyone.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 21:25

  • Alberta Premier Defies Trudeau Carbon Agenda – Invokes Sovereignty Act
    Alberta Premier Defies Trudeau Carbon Agenda – Invokes Sovereignty Act

    It is an action which multiple red states in the US have undertaken: Blocking carbon controls ingrained in “green power” initiatives conjured by the federal government. 

    Now it appears the momentum has spread to Canada through Alberta’s conservative leadership as Premier Danielle Smith defies the Trudeau regime by invoking the province’s recently drafted Sovereignty Act.

    The Sovereignty Act is designed to give Alberta’s legislative assembly the power to identify any federal programs or actions that violate Alberta’s constitution, the government would then refuse to implement those programs.  The implementation of the act means that finally, an open dialogue on the existential threat of the UN’s “sustainable development goals” and Agenda 2030 has begun in Canada.  

    The reasons for opposition to “Net Zero” objectives have been repeated over and over again by political critics, economic critics and scientific critics alike. 

    • First, net zero as the UN defines it is impossible using existing green technologies with inefficient and costly power generation. 

    • Second, in most cases net zero proponents refuse to acknowledge the usefulness of nuclear power as a means to reduce reliance on oil and gas. 

    • Third, net zero would require perpetual authoritarian oversight of individual carbon emissions and probably population reduction in the near term. 

    • Fourth, none of the above even matters because there’s no concrete evidence whatsoever of a causational relationship between man-made carbon and global warming.

    In other words, the supposed crisis is a fraud and there’s no reason for any nation, province or state to sacrifice their power grids. 

    Beyond the big con, stagflation has made carbon controls economically impossible.  Aggressive price spikes since 2020 make gas, oil and coal more important than ever in maintaining basic services for the populace along with the needs of industry.  Reducing available supply in the face of desperate demand would only fuel the fires of inflation further.  Even Europe has been reverting back to “villainous” energy sources like coal to keep things running. 

    When people face the possibility of freezing or starving there is little chance they are going to listen to unfounded claims of climate doomsday from a bunch of ultra-rich yacht sailing private jet-setting carbon-spewing hypocrite elites.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 21:05

  • Higher Incidence Of COVID-19 Found Among Consistent Mask-Wearers: Peer-Reviewed Study
    Higher Incidence Of COVID-19 Found Among Consistent Mask-Wearers: Peer-Reviewed Study

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A discarded mask lay on a sidewalk in Orange, Calif., on June 19, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    People who wore protective masks were found to be more likely to contract COVID-19 infections than those who didn’t, according to a recent Norwegian study.

    The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Epidemiology and Infection on Nov. 13, analyzed mask use among 3,209 individuals from Norway. Researchers followed them for 17 days, and then asked the participants about their use of masks. The team found that there was a higher incidence of testing positive for COVID-19 among people who used masks more frequently.

    Among individuals who “never or almost never” wore masks, 8.6 percent tested positive. That rose to 15 percent among participants who “sometimes” used masks, and to 15.1 percent among those who “almost always or always” wore them.

    Adjusting for factors such as vaccination status, the study determined that individuals who sometimes or often wore masks had a 33 percent higher incidence of COVID-19, compared to those who never or almost never wore masks. This jumped to 40 percent among people who almost always or always wore them.

    However, adjusting for “differences in baseline risk over time,” the risk of wearing masks turned out to be “less pronounced,” with only a 4 percent higher incidence of infection among mask-wearers.

    “The results contradict earlier randomized and non-randomized studies of the effectiveness of mask-wearing on the risk of infection,” the researchers wrote.

    “Most of these studies reported that wearing a face mask reduces the risk of COVID-19 infection. Some observational studies have reported manyfold reductions while one community-based randomized trial failed to demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in infection risk and one cluster randomized community trial found only a modest reduction.”

    The researchers pointed out a major limitation of their study: Individuals who used masks may have done so to protect others from their own infection. This could explain the “positive association between risk of infection and mask usage.”

    Behavioral differences and the fact that the survey was based on self-reporting could also contribute to bias, it stated.

    There’s also a possibility that mask wearers felt safe while wearing masks and thus didn’t follow other regulations such as social distancing, which raised their risk of contracting COVID-19, the study said.

    “Our findings suggest that wearing a face mask may be associated with an increased risk of infection. However, it is important to note that this association may be due to unobservable and non-adjustable differences between those wearing and not wearing a mask,” the researchers stated.

    “Therefore, caution is imperative when interpreting the results from this and other observational studies on the relationship between mask-wearing and infection risk. Recommendations to wear face masks in the community are largely informed by low certainty evidence from observational studies.”

    Researchers called for more trials and studies to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of wearing masks against transmission of respiratory pathogens.

    The study was fully funded by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. It reported no conflicts of interest.

    Masking Mandates

    The new study comes at a time when some regions in North America are reinstating mask mandates amid a reported increase in COVID-19 cases.

    At the beginning of November, many regions in the Bay Area issued masking rules in health care settings ahead of the respiratory disease season, when infections such as COVID-19, the flu, and respiratory syncytial virus are expected to spread.

    In the state of California, San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa, Napa, Sonoma, and Solano issued masking mandates, with the rules remaining in effect until next March or April.

    While in some places only staff and workers of a health care facility are required to wear masks, others require patients and visitors to wear masks as well.

    Rosemary Hills School in Maryland announced in September that it distributed KN95 masks to students and teachers while mandating masking for at least 10 days after three students from a classroom tested positive for COVID-19.

    A month earlier, school officials with the Kinterbish Junior High School in Cuba, Alabama, asked students, employees, and visitors to wear masks “due to the slow rise of COVID cases in the area.”

    Seven hospitals in Canada reinstated mask mandates last month to “help prevent transmission of COVID-19.”

    In British Columbia, Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry announced that health care workers, volunteers, and visitors would be required to wear “medical” masks in all public health care facilities starting on Oct. 3.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wearing masks to counter COVID-19. “Masking is a critical public health tool and it is important to remember that any mask is better than no mask,” it said in an August 2021 update.

    Certain states have already made it clear that mask mandates wouldn’t be allowed. In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in an X post that there would be “NO mask mandates in Texas.”

    Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo highlighted the issue of the ineffectiveness of masking policies.

    “What do you call re-imposing mask policies that have been proven ineffective or restarting lockdowns that are known to cause harm? You don’t call it sanity,” he said in a post on X. “These terrible policies only work with your cooperation. How about refusing to participate.”

    Several studies have questioned the use of masks to prevent viral transmission. A review published in late January at the Cochrane Library that analyzed 78 randomized controlled trials found that they didn’t show “a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks.”

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    In an interview with the Brownstone Institute in February, Tom Jefferson, a senior associate tutor at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study, pointed out that there hasn’t been a “proper trial” of masks whereby a huge, randomized study was done to check their effectiveness. Instead, some experts overnight began to perpetuate a “fear-demic.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 20:45

  • WSJ Reporter's Pretrial Confinement Will Reach 250 Days, After Russian Court Extends
    WSJ Reporter’s Pretrial Confinement Will Reach 250 Days, After Russian Court Extends

    Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been locked up in Russia since his arrest on March 29. He had been detained in Yekaterinburg, accused of spying, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. 

    On Tuesday a Russian court ruled to extend his detention as he still awaits trial. This means he’s about to spend 250 days in pre-trial confinement. A statement from the WSJ said “every day is a day too long” and condemned the espionage charges as “categorically false” – and as a “brazen and outrageous attack on a free press.” 

    Evan Gershkovich previously in a court appearance, via Reuters.

    The White House has previously denounced the spy charges as “ridiculous” and “totally illegal” – and moved quickly to designate him as unlawfully detained. This paves the way for potential hostage negotiations.

    Gershkovich had reportedly been looking into a story related to a major state-backed defense technology firm, and his case marks the first American journalist to be held on spy charges since the Cold War.

    Moscow’s Lefortovo district court said Tuesday: “The court ruled to extend the term of detention of Gershkovich, accused of a crime under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, for up to 10 months, that is, until Jan. 30, 2024.”

    Gershkovich and his lawyer have rejected the charges, and he maintains his innocence. Upon the latest ruling, the US Embassy in Moscow said, “We reiterate our call for his immediate release” and said it is “deeply concerned” by the court’s decision. His pre-trial detention had already been formally extended on at least one occasion before.

    The perception among US officials is that Russia is growing more brazen in detaining US citizens, which can be used as bargaining chips to gain the release of high-profile Russians locked up in the West.

    Certainly it worked in the case of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has swapped for notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout in Qatar on December 8, 2022. Griner had been arrested just weeks before the Russian army’s Feb. 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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    The US State Department has since urged all US citizens out of the country, citing “the potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials.”

    Other Americans have also long been imprisoned, including ex-Marine Paul Whelan and Marc Fogel. Their families expressed regret and outrage that US media had been so focused on Griner’s case, which ultimately led to her release.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 20:25

  • Not Only Can Trump Win, Right Now He's The Favorite To Win
    Not Only Can Trump Win, Right Now He’s The Favorite To Win

    Authored by Sean Trende via RealClear Wire,

    There’s a strange disjunction in the discourse about the 2024 elections. On the one hand, when presented with the proposition “Trump can win,” people will nod their heads sagely and say something along the lines of: “Of course he can; only a fool would believe to the contrary.”

    At the same time, whenever polling emerges showing that Donald Trump is performing well in 2024 matchups, a deluge of panicked articles, tweets (or is it “X”s?), social media posts, and the like emerge, reassuring readers that polls aren’t predictive and providing a variety of reasons that things will improve for President Biden.

    As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Elections analysts seem to know that they are obliged to mouth the words that Trump can win, but deep down, they don’t believe them. The notion that Biden is the favorite is deeply internalized, likely for a variety of reasons.

    So let us set the record straight: Trump can win. Not in a “maybe if all the stars align and then Russia changes the vote totals (even somehow in states like Michigan that use hand-marked paper ballots)” kind of way. Just flat out: Trump can win.

    As of this writing, Trump leads Biden by 2.6 percentage points nationally in the RealClearPolitics Average. This is Trump’s largest lead in the RCP average to date. Not for 2024, mind you. Ever.

    Let’s put this in perspective. In 2016, Trump led Hillary Clinton for all of five days in the national RCP Average, each of those days in the immediate aftermath of the Republican convention. He led in 29 polls taken over the course of the entire campaign, 10 of which are recorded in the RCP averages as Los Angeles Times/USC tracking polls.

    In 2020, Trump never led Biden in the national RCP Average. He briefly closed to within four points in early January of 2020, but that is it. He led in five polls all cycle.

    So, counting the L.A. Times tracker as a single poll, Trump led in a total of 24 national polls. This cycle? He’s led in that many since mid-September. He’s led in more polls in the past three weeks than he did against Biden in all of 2019-2020.

    You may be thinking that we don’t elect our president via the popular vote, but rather do so through the Electoral College. This is, of course, true. It also makes Trump’s current position in the polls all the more striking. After all, Trump has consistently outperformed his polling, and his Electoral College positioning has consistently been stronger than his national positioning. That doesn’t mean that this will necessarily hold in 2024, and at some point, the GOP’s worsening position in the suburbs will reverse the Electoral College dynamic that has plagued Democrats for the past few cycles. 

    But we can look at state-level polling as well. In 2016, Trump (somewhat infamously) never led in a poll in Wisconsin. He was never within more than three points of Clinton there. He led in a single poll in Michigan and a single poll in Pennsylvania. His lead in North Carolina never exceeded two points in the RCP averages, while in Florida, his largest lead was 1.2 points.

    The 2020 comparison is even more striking. Trump led Biden in Florida in the RCP averages briefly, in October and March of that year. In Arizona, it was the same story. North Carolina was a little better for Trump, as he led in the RCP averages perhaps a quarter of the time. In Ohio, Trump led in only six polls all cycle. He led in five polls in Pennsylvania. In Michigan it was five polls, and in Wisconsin, it was four.

    To put this in even deeper perspective, Mitt Romney never led President Barack Obama in the RCP Average in Wisconsin (and led in just three polls), Pennsylvania (likewise, he led in just three polls), Michigan (he led in just eight polls), or Ohio (Romney led 10 polls all cycle). Things were a bit sunnier for Romney in Florida, where he had leads in the low single digits frequently. The same is true for North Carolina, although Obama led there until May.

    What does the state polling show today? Trump leads in the RCP Average in Michigan for the first time, ever.

    Pennsylvania? He leads for the first time ever, and has led in most polls.

    He narrowly trails Biden in Wisconsin but has already led in almost as many polls as he led in the state in 2016 and 2020 combined. His 0.7% deficit compares to his previous best showing in the state: A 3.5% deficit in August of 2020.

    Florida? Trump has led or tied in every poll, including some double-digit leads.

    Arizona? He leads by five in the RCP Average.

    Georgia? He leads by six.

    Ohio? Polling is sparse, but he leads by 10.

    In other words, analyzing this election correctly isn’t just a matter of giving lip service to the notion that Trump can win this election. The correct position right now is that Trump is better positioned in the polls to win this election than any GOP nominee since at least 2004. Not only that, he habitually over-performs his polls. Frankly, if you are willing to set favorites this far out, you should almost certainly declare Donald Trump the favorite.

    Does any of this mean that Trump will win the presidency in 2024? Absolutely not. There are good arguments why perceptions of the economy will improve between now and then (although maybe they won’t). Perhaps Trump will under-perform his polling this time, as the GOP did in 2022 (although, maybe he won’t). There are good arguments that Trump’s criminal trials will erode his standing in the polls (although having watched Trump scandals unfold for the better part of four decades now, maybe they won’t).

    These all make for fun speculation and are useful reminders that if a week is a lifetime in politics, then a year is, well, a very, very long time. Analysts should, of course, feel free to indulge in gaming out the possibilities. 

    But when the conversation returns to what we do know, there honestly is only one correct answer: Trump can win this election, and is well-positioned to do so.

    Sean Trende is senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics. He is a co-author of the 2014 Almanac of American Politics and author of The Lost Majority. He can be reached at strende@realclearpolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter @SeanTrende.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 20:05

  • Iranian-Backed Hackers Breach Pennsylvania Water Control Station, Display Anti-Israel Messages
    Iranian-Backed Hackers Breach Pennsylvania Water Control Station, Display Anti-Israel Messages

    An Iranian backed group of hackers called the “Cyber Av3ngers” took control of a station belonging to the municipal water authority of the Pennsylvania town of Aliquippa this week. 

    The station is part of the water pressure system for Raccoon and Potter Townships in Pennsylvania, Brietbart reported this week. Instead of a normal, run of the mill work week, employees were instead greeted by messages on their screens that said: “Down with Israel!” and “Every equipment ‘Made in Israel’ Is Cyber Av3ngers legal target.” 

    The compromised system utilized equipment from Unitronics, an Israeli automation company, was promptly disabled for safety reasons once the breach was detected.

    The incident in Aliquippa prompted alarm systems to activate immediately upon the compromise of the system, although the water quality in the affected townships was not seriously jeopardized, the report said. 

    Security Week said that the attack seemed to target a Unitronics Vision system, which is a programmable logic controller (PLC) with an integrated human-machine interface (HMI). Unitronics Vision products have been known to have vulnerabilities that could make them susceptible to cyberattacks, the report said.

    It added that HMIs, in particular, are sometimes left exposed to the internet without authentication, making them attractive targets for threat actors with varying levels of skill.

    Congressman Chris Deluzio (D-PA) said:

    “Attacks on our critical infrastructure like water are unacceptable. I intend to push for a full investigation here and accountability for the attackers, and I will continue the important bipartisan work on the House Armed Services Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation (CITI) Subcommittee to shore up America’s defenses,”

    He expressed his vigilance in monitoring the cyberattack and noted that federal officials are involved in the investigation.

    Breitbart noted that the hacking group was “among the terrorist-supporting Iranian hacker groups that threatened to increase their attacks on Israel after the Hamas atrocities of October 7.”

    While the group has asserted that they have disrupted multiple water and power infrastructure targets in Israel, experts don’t necessarily agree. A number of these claims have been definitively refuted by cybersecurity experts on the global stage. Instead, experts say that the Cyber Av3ngers frequently rely on data files and screenshots from attacks conducted by other groups to falsely claim responsibility for hacks. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 19:45

  • A Look At Unprecedented Surges In Cardiac Arrest Cases In Victoria, Australia
    A Look At Unprecedented Surges In Cardiac Arrest Cases In Victoria, Australia

    Authored by Ellen Wan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    In the past two years, there has been a notable surge in the number of cardiac arrest cases in Victoria, Australia. From 2021 to 2022, cases increased by 5.8 percent compared to the previous year, reaching a historical high. These numbers have sparked public concerns about the potential side effects of vaccines.

    (PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock)

    According to the annual report from the Victorian Ambulance Cardiac Arrest Registry, 6,934 cases were recorded from 2020 to 2021, representing a 2.5 percent increase compared to the previous year and marking the highest number of cardiac arrest events in the state at that time. However, within the short span of one year from 2021 to 2022, the number of cases surged to 7,361 incidents—a new historical high.

    Is There a Connection Between Cardiac Arrest and Vaccination?

    Numerous comprehensive studies indicate that myocarditis is a primary cause of sudden and unexpected deaths in adults under the age of 40. The increasing incidence of myocarditis in young individuals may contribute to a heightened risk of other severe cardiovascular adverse events, including cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndromes.

    According to the Australian COVID-19 vaccine tracking website, CovidBaseAU, as of Sept. 1, 2023, 97.53 percent of individuals aged 16 and above in the country have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

    The Australian government has reported cases of myocarditis and pericarditis associated with mRNA vaccines and the Nuvaxovid (Novavax) vaccine. There are approximately 3 to 4 reported cases of myocarditis and 13 reported cases of pericarditis per 100,000 doses of Nuvaxovid vaccination. Pericarditis is noted to be more common in males aged 18 to 49, with an estimated 27 cases per 100,000 doses. The government further states that myocarditis is a known but very rare side effect of mRNA vaccines.

    However, a study published in May of this year indicated that myocarditis (with an overall incidence rate of around 1.62 percent) has been identified as the most common cardiac event following COVID-19 vaccination. It is reported that cases of myocarditis are more prevalent in males and after the administration of the second dose. Additionally, the use of mRNA and vector-based vaccines, as opposed to inactivated vaccines, is associated with a higher incidence of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia and pulmonary embolism.

    Other studies showed that the incidence of post-COVID-19 vaccination cases related to the heart is low, and they are predominantly of mild severity. If the second dose is administered more than 30 days after the first vaccine dose, the risk of developing myocarditis or pericarditis may be lower.

    In 2022, Dr. Eli Jaffe, a leading figure in emergency medicine and health care management in Israel, along with other authors, published a staggering study in the journal Scientific Reports. The team analyzed data from Israel National Emergency Medical Services, revealing that from January to May 2021, there was a surge of over 25 percent in emergency calls related to cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome (a severe form of coronary heart disease) among individuals aged 16 to 39, compared to the same period in 2019 and 2020.

    The researchers found that the increase in emergency calls related to cardiac issues was associated with COVID-19 vaccine administration but unrelated to COVID-19 infection.

    The authors of the paper pointed out that the research results have raised concerns about undetected severe cardiovascular side effects induced by vaccines. They highlighted the established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, which is a common cause of sudden cardiac arrest in young individuals.

    The study aligns with adverse event reporting systems and clinical evidence in various countries, highlighting the presence of diverse side effects associated with COVID-19 vaccines, some of which can be severe.

    Another study, also based in Israel, indicated that, compared to the expected incidence rate based on historical data, the rate of myocarditis in young males (aged 16 to 19) increased by 13.6 times after receiving the second vaccine dose.

    Concerns Arising From Vaccine Side Effects

    An organization compiled data on adverse events reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding COVID-19 vaccines, revealing that as of Oct. 27, 2023, 1,605,764 individuals have reported adverse reactions post-vaccination. This includes 36,501 reported deaths, 20,983 cases of heart attacks, and 27,655 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis. The significant number of deaths and adverse reactions attributed to the vaccine should not be underestimated, prompting concerns among researchers, health care professionals, and the public.

    CDC stated on its website that “most patients with myocarditis or pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination responded well to medicine and rest and felt better quickly.”

    However, in February 2022, three scientists published a letter to the editor in the journal Clinical and Translational Discovery. The conclusion drawn by these scientists was, “When we vaccinate 100,000 persons, we might save five lives, but risk two to four deaths.”

    Stuart Fischbein, a community-based obstetrician based in Southern California, told The Epoch Times that once you lose trust in the CDC, you start looking into everything, especially when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccines. “There are no long-term safety studies. Anyone who tells a parent the vaccine is safe is saying something that can’t be verified. The truth is we don’t know. However, we are seeing an unprecedented number of side effects being reported. Honestly, you have to be wearing blinders to not see the damage being done by this vaccine,” said Dr. Fischbein.

    An increasing number of researchers are scrutinizing data, publishing their research findings, and expressing concerns about potential side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Trust in public health authorities and their recommended vaccination programs can only be restored when people have access to accurate medical information, whether positive or negative.

    Emergency Lifesaving Procedure for Cardiac Arrest

    Globally, the number of deaths caused by cardiac arrest surpasses the combined total of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, pneumonia, HIV, influenza, auto accidents, house fires, and firearms. Notably, the mortality rate for cardiac arrest exceeds 90 percent.

    Previous studies on cardiac arrest have identified symptoms such as chest pain, dyspnea (difficulty breathing), lightheadedness, palpitations, and fainting. However, effective methods for predicting or preventing this life-threatening condition have yet to be found. About half of the patients report symptoms in the hours, days, or weeks leading up to cardiac arrest. Some individuals even contact health care providers a week before experiencing cardiac arrest, but unfortunately, most patients and their families do not take action in response to these early warning signals. The survival rate for cardiac arrest is more than five times higher for those who call 911 before collapsing.

    According to the American Heart Association, the 2023 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics showed that among over 356,000 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, 40.2 percent received CPR from bystanders. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest most frequently occurs in homes or residences (73.4 percent), followed by public places (16.3 percent) and nursing homes (10.3 percent).

    Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency life-saving procedure for when the heart stops beating. According to the 2021 to 2022 data from Victoria, Australia, when the public witnesses a cardiac arrest event, citizens administer CPR in 79 percent of cases, marking an increase from the previous year (2020 to 2021) when the rate stood at 77 percent. Notably, patients who received bystander CPR experienced a significantly improved survival rate of 11 percent, in contrast to those without CPR assistance, who had a mere 5 percent survival rate.

    The Australian government recommends the following three steps to save a life: Call (dial 911), Push (perform CPR), and Shock (use an automated external defibrillator).

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 19:25

  • FBI Conducts Record Number Of Background Checks On Black Friday As Gun Demand Surges 
    FBI Conducts Record Number Of Background Checks On Black Friday As Gun Demand Surges 

    The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported the FBI conducted a record-breaking number of National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks on Black Friday. 

    NSSF said FBI NICS completed 214,913 background checks on Black Friday – the highest number recorded for the most popular shopping day of the year, besides Cyber Monday. It noted the figure also includes background checks for other firearms-related purposes, such as approvals for concealed carry permits. Recall that NICS data is a proxy for gun sales because there is no national database tracking firearm purchases.

    Last week’s 214,913 background checks surpassed 192,749 on Black Friday 2022, 187,585 NICS checks on Black Friday 2021, and 186,645 checks on Black Friday 2020. 

    From Nov. 18 through Black Friday, a total of 680,671 background checks were run by the FBI, down slightly from last year’s figure of 711,372 for the same period. 

    “The background checks reported by the FBI are in keeping with the trends NSSF has seen throughout the year. Firearm sales remain consistently strong, with over a million per month for more than four years running,” explained Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President and CEO. 

    Bartozzi continued, “These figures tell us that there is a continued strong appetite for lawful firearm ownership by law-abiding Americans and that firearm manufacturers across the country continue to deliver the quality firearms our customers have come to expect.”

    Reviewing several years of NICS data reveals that Covid plus BLM riots and the implosion of progressive cities significantly boosted the firearm industry. However, the gun-buying mania has cooled. 

    Notice how Smith & Wesson shares track NICS data? 

    On a seasonal basis over the last 15 years, NICS checks increased through the end of the year. 

    NSSF explained why: “Annual background check data shows that firearm sales will typically rise during the final months of the year coinciding with hunting seasons and holiday sales.” 

    We wonder how many 2A-loving, law-abiding Americans used ‘buy now, pay later’ services to fund their Black Friday firearm and ammo-buying sprees. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 19:05

  • The Federal Reserve Is Running Losses. Does This Cost Anyone Anything?
    The Federal Reserve Is Running Losses. Does This Cost Anyone Anything?

    Authored by Lane Johnson via The Mises Institute,

    Financial statements of the US Federal Reserve, which consists of the board of governors in Washington and twelve district reserve banks across the country, indicate that the consolidated system has generated both capital and operating losses for the past couple of years. The Fed was created in 1913 to issue and circulate an “elastic currency” that could respond to consumers’ demand for cash, end bank runs known then as “money panics,” and serve as a “lender of last resort” to the nation’s commercial banks. How is it possible that the Fed could be losing money after one hundred years of operation?

    The debate has raged in the banking and finance communities. Two investigators, Paul Kupiec at the American Enterprise Institute and Alex Pollock at the Mises Institute, have analyzed Fed financial statements and presented their findings about these Fed losses in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and on the websites of the American Enterprise Institute, the Mises Institute, the Federalist Society, and Law and Liberty. The Wall Street Journal has produced a nontechnical video explaining how the Fed makes (and loses) money.

    Capital Losses and Operating Losses

    The Fed’s capital losses are derived from its large bond portfolio of low-coupon US Treasury and mortgage-backed securities purchased in earlier times of low rates during the period of quantitative easing following the 2008–09 financial crisis. As the Fed has now raised interest rates in its efforts to reduce inflation, the market value of its bond portfolio has inevitably declined. Estimates of these capital losses range as high as $100 billion. The bond portfolio resides in the System Open Market Account, which is managed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on behalf of the entire Fed system.

    The Fed’s operating losses, on the other hand, result when its expenses run higher than its revenues. The Fed’s revenues consist mostly of interest income on its large bond portfolio. The Fed’s expenses include payment of interest on commercial banks’ reserves on deposit at Fed district banks and reverse repurchase (repo) transactions with money market funds, as well as Fed overhead expenses such as the operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is funded by the Fed rather than as an independent agency funded by Congress. The US Supreme Court is currently considering the constitutionality of this funding arrangement between the Fed and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    The Fed’s expenses are annually running $100 billion above Fed revenues, with potentially higher levels later. Such operating losses are unique for the Fed, which throughout its years of operation has generated annual surpluses. These surpluses are by law transferred to the US Treasury to help pay the many governmental expenses such as defense, entitlement programs, interest on federal debt, and the many other myriad federal outlays.

    Are These Losses Genuine, and Who Pays for the Losses?

    The Fed’s operating and capital losses are genuine in both an accounting and an economic sense. Though the Federal Reserve has designed its own accounting rules rather than subscribing to those of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Fed’s own financial reports clearly show ongoing accounting losses by any metric. And because of interest rate increases since 2022, the market value of the Fed’s portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities has declined.

    Both types of losses are also genuine in terms of the economic principle that one cannot gain something for nothing, that nothing is “free” despite claims to the contrary, and every action or choice taken in life always incurs an opportunity cost measured as the cost of the foregone option.

    Economics also analyzes the incidence of costs—that is, on whom the cost burden actually falls, which is not necessarily the party on whom it may initially appear to fall. Although a retail sales tax, for example, is nominally paid by a buyer at the point of sale, further analysis reveals that the incidence of a sales tax falls on both buyer and seller (but not necessarily in equal shares), depending on the relative price elasticities (i.e., responsiveness to price changes) of supply and demand for the item in question. With respect to the Fed’s losses, on whom these losses fall is another matter, but economic analysis clearly shows that these losses are not without costs to one or more parties.

    Two candidates are likely to absorb the Fed’s operating losses:

    1. American taxpayers as a whole. Now that the Fed is incurring operating losses instead of surpluses that would otherwise be paid over to the US Treasury, federal budget deficits are commensurately larger, requiring the Treasury to sell more debt in order pay its bills. This is an obvious cost to American current and future taxpayers.

    2. Commercial banks that are members of the Federal Reserve system, which are required to buy and hold stock shares in their respective Fed district banks. The 1913 Federal Reserve Act specified that these member banks could be assessed for Fed system losses. If the Fed were to make this demand of its member commercial banks, they would be obligated to cover the Fed system’s losses. Again, there is no precedent for this.

    An Alternative View of the Fed’s Losses

    Some observers disagree that the Fed’s operating and capital losses must be borne by one or more parties. Jason Furman, a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and former chair of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, expresses an alternate view. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he explains that the Fed turned a cumulative profit of over $1 trillion from 2008–22, and that current annual losses of about $100 billion do not impede the Fed’s ability to fulfill its mandate to ensure maximum employment and price stability.

    With rising interest rates, the Fed is paying higher rates to commercial banks’ deposits held at Fed district banks, well in excess of what it earns on its portfolio of Treasury and Mutual Broadcasting System securities. Now that the Fed is running losses, it simply books them as a “deferred asset,” an accounting technique unique to its own accounting rules.

    Furman further explains that the Fed was never designed to turn a profit, and that the Fed need not hold any capital because insolvency is a meaningless concept in the world of central banking. He also explicitly notes “partisan gamesmanship and shortsightedness” as a reason not to denigrate the Fed’s fluctuating profits as it apolitically fulfills its mandated responsibilities.

    Kupiec and Pollock responded with a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal to reiterate their earlier conclusions that American taxpayers will ultimately bear the cost of the Fed’s losses. When asked by email how he can justify his claim that no one, including taxpayers, actually bears the cost of the Fed’s losses, Professor Furman responded as follows:

    The Fed’s losses do lead to higher debt. And its gains to lower debt. On net it has reduced the debt. But it is a public entity and we didn’t assign it the job of maximizing profits—and for good reason—we should leave that to the private sector. Instead we assigned it macroeconomic goals which it has done well at times and done badly at other times—like in not responding fast enough to inflation in 2021.

    Why It Is Important to Understand This Controversy

    The accounting analysis clearly indicates that the Fed system is presently incurring both operating and capital losses. Honest differences of opinion can arise, but numbers do not lie. And economic principles tell us that no one can reap something for nothing, that the costs and benefits of any action will always redound to one or more parties.

    Do political agendas perhaps explain the differences in opinion about the Fed’s losses?

    Is it possible that investigators at two right-of-center think tanks can read the data so differently than does an Ivy League university professor?

    Denying that taxpayers will ultimately bear the cost of the Fed’s dual losses is tantamount to averring that inflation isn’t a tax on everyone, or that federal student loan forgiveness doesn’t cost taxpayers anything. If the Federal Reserve system truly were able to withstand continuing losses into the future with no consequence or cost, it may prove a bigger bonanza for American taxpayers than alchemists believed they could achieve when attempting to transform base metal into gold.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 18:45

  • Sports Illustrated Freaks Out, Deletes Evidence Of AI-Generated Journalists Writing AI-Generated Articles
    Sports Illustrated Freaks Out, Deletes Evidence Of AI-Generated Journalists Writing AI-Generated Articles

    Sports Illustrated has been busted using AI-generated journalists to ‘write’ AI-generated articles, and then freaked out and deleted the evidence after one of their webdevs dropped the dime on them.

    According to an in-depth investigative report by Futurism;

    There was nothing in Drew Ortiz’s author biography at Sports Illustrated to suggest that he was anything other than human.

    “Drew has spent much of his life outdoors, and is excited to guide you through his never-ending list of the best products to keep you from falling to the perils of nature,” it read. “Nowadays, there is rarely a weekend that goes by where Drew isn’t out camping, hiking, or just back on his parents’ farm.”

    The only problem? Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn’t seem to exist. He has no social media presence and no publishing history. And even more strangely, his profile photo on Sports Illustrated is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, where he’s described as “neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes.”

    It wasn’t just ‘Drew Ortiz’ either… The outlet used multiple AI-generated ‘journalists,’ according to a person involved in the creation of the content who asked to remain anonymous.

    “There’s a lot,” said the source. “I was like, what are they? This is ridiculous. This person does not exist.”

    “At the bottom [of the page] there would be a photo of a person and some fake description of them like, ‘oh, John lives in Houston, Texas. He loves yard games and hanging out with his dog, Sam.’ Stuff like that,” the said, adding “It’s just crazy.“

    ‘Alien’ AI writing

    A second whistleblower involved in the creation of the AI content told Futurism that it’s not just the headshots – entire articles were churned out using AI as well.

    In one instance of Ortiz’s writing described by Futurism as ‘alien,’ the article warns that volleyball “can be a little tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with.”

    What?

    “The content is absolutely AI-generated,” said the second source, adding “no matter how much they say that it’s not.”

    After Futurism reached out to Sports Illustrated publisher, The Arena Group, all of the AI authors mysteriously disappeared.

    Damage control

    Arena, after initially ghosting Futurism‘s inquiries, blamed a 3rd party contractor.

    Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles. According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate. The articles in question were product reviews and were licensed content from an external, third-party company, AdVon Commerce. A number of AdVon’s e-commerce articles ran on certain Arena websites. We continually monitor our partners and were in the midst of a review when these allegations were raised. AdVon has assured us that all of the articles in question were written and edited by humans. According to AdVon, their writers, editors, and researchers create and curate content and follow a policy that involves using both counter-plagiarism and counter-AI software on all content. However, we have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy — actions we don’t condone — and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership.

    As Futurism notes, however, “It sounds like The Arena Group’s investigation pretty much just involved asking AdVon whether the content was AI-generated, and taking them at their word when they said it wasn’t. Our sources familiar with the creation of the content disagree.”

    The statement also never addresses the core allegation of our story: that Sports Illustrated published content from nonexistent writers with AI-generated headshots. The implication seems to be that AdVon invented fake writers, assigned them fake biographies and AI-generated headshots, and then stopped right there, only publishing content written by old-fashioned humans. Maybe that’s true, but we doubt it.

    Regardless, the AI content marks a staggering fall from grace for Sports Illustrated, which in past decades won numerous National Magazine Awards for its sports journalism and published work by literary giants ranging from William Faulkner to John Updike.

    But now that it’s under the management of The Arena Group, parts of the magazine seem to have devolved into a Potemkin Village in which phony writers are cooked up out of thin air, outfitted with equally bogus biographies and expertise to win readers’ trust, and used to pump out AI-generated buying guides that are monetized by affiliate links to products that provide a financial kickback when readers click them.

    Hilariously, after Sports Illustrated scrubbed ‘Drew Ortiz’ from the site entirely, his profile picture redirected to another AI generated bio – of one “Sora Tanaka.”

    There’s no evidence of Sora outside this profile, but ‘her’ picture is for sale on the same AI headshot marketplace as Ortiz!

    Tanaka too eventually disappeared, replaced by another profile with no headshot at all – which was then deleted too.

    Other Arena Group outlets doing it too?

    The rabbit hole goes even deeper, according to Futurism, which also reports that similar AI-generated authors and articles have been found on The Street.

    Take TheStreet, a financial publication cofounded by Jim Cramer in 1996 that The Arena Group bought for $16.5 million in 2019. Like at Sports Illustrated, we found authors at TheStreet with highly specific biographies detailing seemingly flesh-and-blood humans with specific areas of expertise — but with profile photos traceable to that same AI face website. And like at Sports Illustrated, these fake writers are periodically wiped from existence and their articles reattributed to new names, with no disclosure about the use of AI.

    Sometimes TheStreet’s efforts to remove the fake writers can be sloppy. On its review section’s title page, for instance, the site still proudly flaunts the expertise of AI-generated contributors who have since been deleted, linking to writer profiles it describes as ranging “from stay-at-home dads to computer and information analysts.” This team, the site continues, “is comprised of a well-rounded group of people who bring varying backgrounds and experiences to the table.” -Futurism

    Read the rest here…

    Meanwhile, shares of Arena plunged 21% on Tuesday.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 18:25

  • USDJPY Won't Sustain Any Bid It Gains From MOF Abstinence
    USDJPY Won’t Sustain Any Bid It Gains From MOF Abstinence

    By Michael Wilson, Bloomberg markets live reporter and strategist

    USD/JPY won’t be able to sustain any bid it may gain from this week’s Ministry of Finance intervention data.

    The data, due between now and month-end, is likely to again confirm that Japanese authorities did not step in to currency markets in November. When that happened at the end of October, USD/JPY saw a quick 100-pip rally to a fresh one-year high of 151.72, as it was interpreted by investors as tacit approval of yen weakness.

    The knee-jerk reaction may be similar this time, but the background context is extremely different. For a start, the report in October came on the same day as a BOJ meeting which disappointed those speculating on a more hawkish policy shift. Second, the US 10-year Treasury yield was ~50 basis points higher and the spread to JGBs was almost 400 bps then, instead of ~365 today.

    Ultimately, USD/JPY is always and everywhere a derivative of US yields, and so its level by Friday’s close will depend much more on the US data set and Powell comments, rather than any local excitement on MOF data.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 18:05

  • Goldman Finds 4 Most Affordable Cities For Housing… But There's A Catch
    Goldman Finds 4 Most Affordable Cities For Housing… But There’s A Catch

    US home prices are at or near record highs, making them less affordable compared to income and mortgage rates than they were during the peak of the 2006 housing bubble. 

    Buyers have been on the sidelines, waiting for home prices to fall. Sellers won’t sell because most of them locked in the lowest mortgage rates in a generation before the Federal Reserve unleashed the most aggressive rate hiking cycle in four decades. 

    With the housing market ‘struck,’ demand has been reduced because of high mortgage rates, and supply is at the most severe levels since the underbuilding woes more than a decade ago, relative to population growth.

    With that being said, Goldman’s Susan Maklari published a note to clients on Tuesday that included a chart pack of the US housing industry. Combing through the report, Maklari focused attention on the issue of affordability.

    Here’s what she found:

    In the charts below, we highlight the four most and least affordable housing markets according to the National Association of Home Builders’s Housing Opportunity Index (NAHB HOI), within the top 25 MSAs by 2022 closings.

     In 3Q23, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Washington DC ranked highest with 75%, 59%, 49%, and 43% of homes affordable relative to median income, respectively.

    The lowest-ranked MSAs were led by Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Riverside, with 3%, 11%, 12%, and 13% of homes affordable for the median income, respectively.

    The bad news for prospective buyers is that the most affordable housing markets are located in crime-ridden metro areas run by Democrats who refuse to enforce ‘common sense’ law and order. Even some of the least affordable areas are run by radical progressives, too. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 17:45

  • Houston Lawyer Charged With Smuggling Drugs Into Jail On Ecstasy-Saturated Legal Papers
    Houston Lawyer Charged With Smuggling Drugs Into Jail On Ecstasy-Saturated Legal Papers

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    A Houston attorney, Ronald Lewis, 77, is facing criminal charges over an allegation that he brought drug-laced papers into a jail that later caused the death of two inmates.

    We have previously discussed charges of attorneys for criminal conduct in jails, but few have reached this level of culpability.

    Lewis is currently facing two charges of having a banned substance in a correctional facility.

    However, it is possible, if not likely, that additional charges will be brought later.

    Drugs are often smuggled into prison on papers.

    In the classic case, a page or a word in a book is saturated in a drug like LSD or Ecstasy and the inmates told about the spot. It is then digested or sold in the prison.

    Lewis, a retired lawyer, is accused of saturating whole pages (marked as legal papers) with ecstasy and synthetic marijuana.

    The material was brought into the Houston County Jail.

    According to police, the sheets could sell for between $200 and $500 a sheet.

    Lewis was shown to have visited 14 inmates between July 2023 until November 2023.

    Police recovered approximately 154 sheets of paper believed to be laced with narcotics. Police are now testing 11 sheets of paper found in his possession.

    Even assuming that the 154 sheets were the only drug-saturated pages introduced into the jail (as opposed to the unused sheets), that could fetch as much as $77,000 on the prison black market.

    Lewis posted a $7,500 bond after his arrest.

    If the sheets in his possession test positive, it is hard to see a defense absent coercion.  Even that defense breaks down due to the ability to seek police protection.

    If convicted, the sentence is likely to be harsh despite his age. 

    As an officer of the court and member of the bar, Lewis could face significant enhancement of the sentence.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 11/28/2023 – 17:25

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