Today’s News 30th November 2022

• 'Negative Efficacy' Should Have Stopped COVID Vaccine Recommendations In Their Tracks
  ‘Negative Efficacy’ Should Have Stopped COVID Vaccine Recommendations In Their Tracks

  Authored by Dr. Sean Lin and Mingjia Jacky Guan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Recently, various health agencies around the world have approved and are actively pushing for another COVID booster shot, meant to enhance the vaccine efficacy against a COVD-19 infection.

  However, many studies have found that the boosters do not make a significant  difference in protection, especially in terms of protection against reinfection. In fact, the latest data shows vaccine efficacy against the coronavirus tends to even drop into the negatives after just a few months.

  

  What Does Negative Efficacy Mean?

  It is a well known fact that COVID vaccine effectiveness wanes quickly as time goes on; this is confirmed by countless studies.

  Although the official narrative for COVID-19 vaccines nowadays only emphasizes its efficacy on protection against ICU admission and death rates, it actually implies the indisputable fact that vaccines don’t protect, contrary to their design, against infection or even symptomatic infection, especially after the emergence of various Omicron variants.

  Even the protection two shots offers against hospitalization drops to about 40 percent after less than a year. It’s actually looking worse for protection against severe symptoms, as efficacy rates seem to drop into the negatives about five months into full vaccination.

  When a vaccine’s efficacy drops into the negatives, it means that vaccination actually elevates the risks of hospitalization and severe diseases rather than reducing the risks. In simple terms, it does more harm than good when the efficacy is negative.

  During the time prior to the pandemic, any vaccine with an efficacy less than 50 percent would be regarded as a poor product.  When a product shows negative efficacy, it should be banned. It seems that the pandemic isn’t only bad for our health, but also is tugging at our common sense.

  COVID Vaccines’ Declining Usefulness

  It has been around three years since the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Wuhan, China. Since then, more than 600 million cases of the virus have been recorded, translating into a little less than 1 in 10 people around the world already being infected with the virus. In many countries, “living with COVID” has become the norm, along with getting “fully vaccinated” and getting those booster shots.

  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is recommended that everyone 6 months and older should receive a full vaccination and everyone 5 years and older should receive a booster shot. Booster shots are recommended as they “are an important part of protecting yourself from getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19” according to the CDC.

  However, emerging data paints a different picture.

  At its crux, the vaccines were developed with the earlier strains of the coronavirus, meaning developers primarily used the original Wuhan strain in their testing. The Delta strain that came along was particularly infamous as it was known to have a high death rate, but vaccines fared quite well against it. The results, however, went south as time went on and as the Omicron strain rolled out.

  Trying to Outrun Nature

  Making its debut in South Africa, the Omicron strain started to dominate the world by the beginning of 2022, which caused even more turmoil in terms of vaccine efficacy. The most shocking result is the extent it dragged down the vaccine’s efficacy against infection. Data shows that the vaccine used to be around 90 percent effective for weeks on end after vaccination.

  After Omicron came along, infection prevention dropped to less than 50 percent after about a month after two shots and dived into the negatives four months later. It doesn’t seem to stop after that.

  This clearly suggests that the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns should’ve been suspended as soon as the Omicron variant began to dominate over Delta.

  In a study which analyzed COVID-19 cases from the beginning of this year in children that were previously infected, it was discovered that vaccine effectiveness wasn’t keeping up with pre-Omicron levels. The effects of a full vaccination against a second infection drops into the negatives within a few months, and it seems that the earlier one got the vaccination, the more likely it would lose its efficacy during the omicron waves.

  The results from a September 2022 British Medical Journal study highlights again the fact that vaccine potency drops rapidly with time. It concluded that protection against severe symptoms drops well below half within a few weeks of administering the full two doses, or even after a third dose is administered. It also showed that in the immunocompromised, two doses never had an efficacy rate against hospitalization over 50 percent. Things do look a little better for three doses, but not by much.

  Another study published data on the efficacy of the third dose relative to primary doses and found that the mean efficacy of three doses of the Moderna vaccine against the Omicron variants are, in fact, below 0.

  It is interesting to note a logical assumption made by many, which is that the more you take the vaccine the better prepared you are against the virus, isn’t necessarily true.

  Data published shows that neutralizing antibody count doesn’t necessarily correlate with the number of doses.

  They found that people who took the fourth dose sometimes had higher, but mostly lower, antibody concentrations in the body compared with those who took the third dose.

  Also, the hazard ratio calculated by researchers for the third and fourth vaccine doses provide us with mixed results. Sometimes, it seems like a good option to stick with the third dose, as the hazard ratio actually rises for taking the second booster compared with the first one.

  One possible reason vaccine data is going downhill after Omicron appeared is that the new variant had a lot of changes in its spike protein composition.

  This changes the way the virus enters the body and allows it to better “bypass” the security system set up by the old vaccines, which were developed from the very first SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain. One can understand it as if the variants have new toys to play with the old security guards.

  Another potential mechanism that leads to the significant decline of vaccine efficacy is that repeated vaccination also damages people’s immunity via immune imprinting, a phenomenon in which an initial exposure to a virus–such as the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, by infection or vaccination–limits a person’s future immune response against variants.

  Meanwhile, there are numerous underlying factors that would contribute to the disease’s progression from mild to severe, or even into fatal stages. Even if the vaccination groups during clinical trials were carefully chosen to have similar comorbid medical conditions as the control or unvaccinated group, there are still many other unknown factors that would dictate the outcome of the disease progression.

  It is inconceivable and overtly overambitious that any pharmaceutical company would aim so high to design a vaccine which can protect against severe diseases from the onset of research, especially since the resulting vaccine can’t seem to keep up with preventing infection in the first place.

  If a vaccine reaches negative efficacy, it means that people have higher chances to get infected than if you didn’t get the shot in the first place, meaning that not getting vaccinated might just reduce the chance of infection, unwanted symptoms, and severe disease. This is not just a vaccine failure or breakthrough infection issue, but a good time to halt COVID vaccines for good. Humans will never win in this cat-and-mouse game against nature.

  Are Previous Infections Still Protective?

  As time goes on, the likelihood of reinfection is quite high. Studies do show that in reinfected people the chances of death, hospitalization, and some form of sequela is much higher in those infected for the first time. It also seems like a logical conclusion for the CDC to recommend that everyone gets vaccinated.

  However, the data we have is rather conflicting as the aforementioned study doesn’t show much of a difference between the unvaccinated, the half vaccinated, or the fully vaccinated. They all have just about the same values for cardiovascular, thrombotic, renal, or pulmonary sequelae post infection, or chances of getting a tough COVID-19 infection in the first place.

  Data also shows that previously infected and unvaccinated children were better at preventing a second infection compared with children who were in the same age category but who were vaccinated. Generally speaking, vaccine induced immunity doesn’t seem to be quite as effective as that induced by a previous, natural infection.

  What this essentially means is that the vaccines cannot keep up with the constantly emerging variants and that a waning efficacy was frankly inevitable. The only question left is, what is the driving force behind the Omicron variants, or SARS-CoV-2 variants on a broad scale? What accounts for variants emerging at the same time around the world?

  Microevolution cannot explain everything.

  Over the past 3 years, scientists have applied the theory of evolution to describe and explain the trajectory of SARS-CoV-2. Delta was the deadly variant and now Omicron is the road runner. In theory, the virus developed these strains to best adapt to the objective environment, yet scientists are still looking for more answers.

  For example, when much of the world’s population was in different degrees of “lockdown” or restriction of movements, when international travel was severely impaired, how did the Alpha and Delta variants emerge and quickly spread widely, and even become dominant globally?

  If the only factor that determines which variant to become dominant or not was its fitness, i.e., its transmissibility and replication efficiency, why were there not multiple variants with better fitness that emerged and all became dominant regionally, just like how divergent strains of flowers blossom at the same time in distinct locations? Why does it appear as if there is a coordinating force behind the virus such that one strain was able to uniformly retire the previous one?

  In order to answer all these questions, I believe that there needs to be a more holistic evaluation of the current pandemic. At the same time, it’s important to note that viruses adapt to the vaccines, and not the other way around.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 11/30/2022 – 00:05

• Law-Abiding Americans Had "Strong Appetite" For Guns On Black Friday
  Law-Abiding Americans Had “Strong Appetite” For Guns On Black Friday

  The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported the latest National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) checks on gun sales during Black Friday was one of the “Top 10” busiest days in history.

  NSSF said NICS processed 711,372 background checks during the days leading up to and including Black Friday. FBI’s NICS recorded 192,749 background checks on Black Friday alone, a 2.8% increase from Black Friday 2021, when 187,585 background checks were completed. 

  Below are the number of NICS checks leading up to Black Friday.

  • Saturday, Nov. 20, 2022: 102,376

  • Sunday, Nov. 21, 2022: 57,665

  • Monday, Nov. 22, 2022: 103,543

  • Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2022: 109,895

  • Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2022: 116,033

  • Thursday, Nov. 25, 2022: 29,111

  • Friday, Nov. 26, 2022: 192,749

  Third-highest Black Friday NICS checks on record since the system was established in 1998. 

  

  When a person tries to buy a firearm at a gun shop, known as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), they’re required to fill out an ATF form, and the FFL forwards that information to the NICS electronically. NICS staff performs a background check on the buyer to ensure he/she does not have a criminal record or isn’t otherwise ineligible to purchase or own a firearm. 

  Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President and CEO, commented on the large influx of law-abiding Americans buying guns last week and said:

  “Background checks for firearm purchases were already trending to make 2022 the third strongest year on record, coming off of the outsized years of 2020 and 2021.

  “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.”

  What’s important to note is that NICS checks are a proxy for the number of guns sold and are not exact because the background checks are performed on the buyer rather than the gun. 

  Elevated NICS checks imply a strong firearm appetite among law-abiding Americans. There was no explanation given why this trend remained red hot since the early pandemic days. 

  What might have supercharged gun buying among law-abiding Americans is this summer’s US Supreme Court’s NYSRPA v. Bruen ruling affirmed the right-to-carry applies outside the home, which forces states to stop arbitrarily denying carry permits to applicants who didn’t meet specific requirements. Perhaps another reason is that under the Biden administration, violent crime has soared in some parts of the country — law-abiding Americans might want protection. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 23:45

• US, South Korea Plan To Expand 'Silent Shark' Drills
  US, South Korea Plan To Expand ‘Silent Shark’ Drills

  Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute,

  Washington and Seoul are reportedly discussing plans to ramp up anti-submarine military exercises set to begin next year. The talks came amid soaring tensions in the region, and just days before North Korea pledged to further develop its nuclear arsenal. 

  While some details of the biannual ‘Silent Shark’ drills remain undecided, they are set to be “bigger than those of the past, given the North heightening tensions with its dozens of missile tests in recent months,” the Korea Times reported last week, citing an unnamed navy official.

  

  Seoul has claimed the exercises are needed to contain the growing threat from Pyongyang, saying they will focus on anti-submarine warfare assets and are “designed to improve their capability to respond to increasing North Korean submarine threats, including its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).”

  In October, the DPRK said it had successfully fired a KN-23 SLBM – modeled on the Russian Iskander missile – as part of a flurry of weapon tests carried out in retaliation to joint US-South Korean war games. The nuclear-capable KN-23 was launched from a special underwater reservoir, prompting speculation that Pyongyang may have developed a new launch platform for the weapon.

  Military activity on the Korean Peninsula has reached a multi-year high in 2022, with North Korea conducting a record number of missile tests, including two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches this month alone. The US and South Korea, for their part, have deployed additional strategic assets to the region, and have carried out several rounds of live-fire military exercises, helping to drive a cycle of escalation with the North. 

  Earlier this month, Washington flew nuclear-capable, long-range B-1B stealth bombers over Korea during its ‘Vigilant Storm’ drill as a show of force to Pyongyang. Though US Air Force Chief of Staff CQ Brown Jr. downplayed the maneuvers as “just part of an exercise,” the DPRK has repeatedly denounced such drills as provocative, viewing them as preparations for an attack.

  In addition to continued missile, rocket and artillery tests, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to further develop his country’s nuclear capabilities in response to the growing tensions, saying the military would work to improve its nuclear forces at the “fastest possible speed” back in April. 

  Kim Jong Un is still smoking near fueled liquid propellant ICBMs in 2022. https://t.co/9XbGFWWYMW

  — Ankit Panda (@nktpnd) November 18, 2022

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  More recently, Kim claimed North Korean scientists had made a “wonderful leap forward in the development of the technology of mounting nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles,” going on to say that Pyongyang would create “the world’s most powerful strategic force, the absolute force unprecedented in the century.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 23:25

• Deja Vu All Over Again: China's Auto Industry Is Once Again Shuttering Some Operations Due To Lockdowns
  Deja Vu All Over Again: China’s Auto Industry Is Once Again Shuttering Some Operations Due To Lockdowns

  Just when the automobile industry thought it was out of the clutches of the Covid-induced supply chain SNAFU that had taken place over the last several years, it looks as though China’s strict Covid policy threatens to pull them back in again. 

  “At least three major automakers” are once again shuttering production, according to a new report from Bloomberg this week. Honda has shut down operations in Wuhan for the time being due to “limitations around movement” in the area, the report says.

  The company also suspended operations at a lawnmower engine plant in Chongqing.

  

  Yamaha has also been hit by the new Covid lockdowns, partially suspending operations at a motorcycle plant in Chongqing. Bloomberg reports that 8,721 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the area on Monday this week. 

  VW also halted production at a joint venture plant that it has with China FAW Group on Monday of this week, the report continues. Volkswagen is attributing the shutdown to a shortage of components. It has also shut down two of five production lines at its factory in Changchun and has no date for resuming operations.

  Nissan, Mazda and Mitsubishi told Bloomberg that their operations had not been affected. 

  Recall, just last week we published on how China’s Covid restrictions were actually tightening when the country’s market had assumed they were easing. 

  

  We published:

  “More than a week after Beijing fine-tuned its Covid Zero strategy, local governments are struggling to balance the need to control the pandemic while also limit the economic damage. Shijiazhuang, a closely-watched city that had experimented with a version of “living with the virus,” has reversed course, suspending schools and asking residents to stay at home for five days. As infections multiplied, subway rides in some big cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Chongqing have tumbled.

  The result is that Goldman Sachs’s Effective Lockdown Index has increased in recent weeks, despite Beijing’s new order to reduce the need for mass testing and citywide shutdowns.”

  

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 23:05

• Two Oath Keepers, Including Founder Stewart Rhodes, Found Guilty Of Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy
  Two Oath Keepers, Including Founder Stewart Rhodes, Found Guilty Of Jan. 6 Seditious Conspiracy

  Authored by Madalina Vasiliu via The Epoch Times,

  Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers militia group, was found guilty by a jury on Nov. 29 of seditious conspiracy connected to the events on Jan 6, 2021.

  One co-defendant, Kelly Meggs, was also found guilty of seditious conspiracy on Tuesday, while three others—Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell—were acquitted of that charge.

  In total, Rhodes was found guilty on three out of five counts: seditious conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, and tampering with documents or proceedings.

  Meggs was found guilty on five counts out of six: seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties, and tampering with documents.

  

  Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, on June 25, 2017. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo)

  The other three defendants were each found guilty on multiple lesser charges.

  In closing arguments, defense attorneys said the government failed to prove that the Oath Keepers planned to attack the Capitol or to interfere with the certification of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

  A defense lawyer said that none of the 50 witnesses in the Oath Keepers trial testified that they heard any of the defendants discuss or plan to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  However, in the final rebuttal, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said that according to the jury instructions (pdf), the government did not have to prove that the defendants had a detailed plan to breach the Capitol and meet in person to discuss their alleged scheme. An implicit agreement and mutual understanding were enough to prove the defendants’ conspiracy, he said.

  

  Sharon and Thomas Caldwell at the Peace Monument during the January 6, 2021 protest in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Sharon Caldwell)

  Nestler told the jury that the three defendants who decided to take the witness stand to testify in their defense (Stewart Rhodes, Thomas Caldwell, and Jessica Watkins) allegedly lied.

  “But it’s important to ask not just whether they lied. Ask yourself, why? Because the truth is so damning,” Nestler emphasized.

  The government told the 14 jurors that the defendants deleted evidence that could prove even further their plan to breach the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

  

  A sign outside the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington on Sept. 29, 2022. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

  James Bright, the attorney for Rhodes, asked the jury how the Oath Keepers could conspire as early as November 2020 to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, if the Jan. 6 rally wasn’t announced until late December 2020.

  Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers organization in 2009 to assist in natural disaster situations, Bright said, to volunteer to provide security for small businesses that could not afford security services from a regular company and to offer personal security details for VIPs.

  Several members of the Oath Keepers testified during the weeks-long trial, saying that the organization gave them a sense of purpose since most members were retired veterans who found meaning in continuing to serve the country.

  During nearly two months of trial, the U.S. prosecutors presented exhibits showing contact between the five defendants on trial and others who allegedly plotted to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6.

  Most of the government’s evidence came from the FBI agents assigned to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. Text messages, video footage, Signal messages (an encrypted messaging app), and Zello audio recordings (a walkie-talkie app) were frequently shown in the courtroom, among other exhibits.

  In his closing argument, defense counsel Bradford Geyer walked the jury through a video where he pointed out that unknown provocateurs broke through the Capitol doors first.

  “Please send Ken home,” Geyer told the jury.

  Another defense attorney, David Fischer, explained an unsent message that Thomas Caldwell, an Oath Keeper affiliate, deleted containing a link. That shouldn’t be considered evidence, the attorney said, since a link is not a document. That link was a video available to everyone, Fischer continued.

  The prosecution distorted timeframes throughout its presentation of when the defendants walked up the stairs and entered the building, argued Jonathan Crisp, Jessica Watkins’ attorney. He also said that the government’s evidence was mostly out of context. Crisp explained that the stack formation was a way to get through the dense crowd and not for attacking the Capitol.

  

  Only defendants Jessica Watkins, Kelly Meggs, and Kenneth Harrelson entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes and Caldwell did not.

  In the aftermath of Jan. 6, the U.S. government charged Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell with seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, aiding and abetting, conspiracy to prevent an officer from carrying out any duties, destruction of government property, civil disorder, and tampering with documents.

  Before passing the trial to the jury on Nov. 21 evening, Judge Amit Mehta, an appointee of Barack Obama, reminded the jurors that the trial was against the five defendants on trial and not against the Oath Keepers’ organization.

  Edward Tarpley, attorney for Rhodes said, “The judge treated us with respect.”

  “There was no evidence ever introduced that there was a plan,” Tarpley told The Epoch Times, “I am grateful for the jury for not finding them guilty on all counts.”

  “Jessica testified well, however, the government will seek multiple enhancements,” Jonathan Crisp, attorney for Jessica Watkins, told The Epoch Times.

  Seditious Conspiracy

  The most recent charge of seditious conspiracy was in 2010 when the government accused nine members of the Hutaree Militia from Michigan of “levy war against the United States.” An FBI agent who infiltrated the militia group provided most of the prosecution evidence.

  When the defendants’ trial began two years later, in 2012, U.S. district judge Victoria Roberts dismissed the conspiracy charges. The judge explained that the government’s evidence mainly consisted of the defendants’ controversial speech protected by the First Amendment and did not prove the group’s alleged plan to overthrow the government.

  The U.S. government pressed multiple charges, including attempted murder and seditious conspiracy, against five members of the Puerto Rican Nationalists who attacked the Capitol in 1954. The group opened fire on the House of Representatives and injured five Congress members.

  Another seditious conspiracy charge was pressed in 1995 against Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine of his followers. They were found guilty of planning to bomb bridges, tunnels, and other landmarks in New York City.

  In 2006, Adam Gadahn was the first American charged with treason since World War II. He “gave al Qaeda aid and comfort … with intent to betray the United States.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 22:45

• The White House Just Changed Its Plan To Refill SPR At $70 Per Barrel
  The White House Just Changed Its Plan To Refill SPR At $70 Per Barrel

  Several months ago, we mocked the ridiculous idea spawned by some of the “best and brightest” progressives currently cogitating and advising the 80-year-old in the White House, according to which even as Biden was actively steamrolling US energy companies by vowing to end US fossil fuel usage in a few decades and single-handedly crushing the price of oil through the biggest ever release of crude from the strategic petroleum reserve (where the term “emergency” now means not war or a natural disaster but Democrats lagging in the polls) he would be throwing them a bone by “promising” to buy oil if and when it hit a price of $72/barrell, as otherwise US producers would have zero incentive ever to invest even one dollar in growth (or even maintenance) capex, thereby guaranteeing much, much higher oil prices once the current SPR drain inevitably drew to a close (which may or many not happen in what’s left of the president’s lifetime).

  Progressives cheering the latest SPR news unaware that the government is literally giving out tens of billions in risk-free dollars to US energy producers arbing the SPR trade. https://t.co/572IYI8t9L

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 26, 2022

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  And while on paper this noble lie may have looked appealing – after all by giving an oil price floor, Biden would at least tacitly encourage US majors to invest in much needed growth capex – we warned that it was still nonetheless just that: a lie.

  Today, that was confirmed after Biden’s Energy Security Advisor Amos Hochstein said that the White House would look to refill the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves when oil prices were “consistently” at $70 per barrel, Bloomberg said.

  As a reminder, in mid-October, the White House released a fact sheet that outlined the administration’s intention to refill the SPR when oil prices were between $67 and $72 per barrel, following the President’s release of 200 million barrels from the SPR to help bring down the price of oil.

  According to the White House statement at the time, the Administration was counting on its repurchase of crude oil helping to create some certainty around future crude oil demand, stimulating greater domestic oil production. The United States has added 15 oil-directed drilling rigs since that announcement was made.

  And now, just as we expected, the Administration is walking back that plan by clarifying that its repurchase program would begin only when crude oil prices were $70 or below “consistently”.

  Hochstein did not say how long prices would need to stay at the level before repurchasing would begin.

  One thing is certain: if and when oil prices are below $70 “consistently”, the White House will next lower the bogey to $60, $50, $40 and so on… as E&Ps watch in disgust and scrap any plans to expand production in the next decade.

  Oil prices have been experiencing significant volatility over the past month, with OPEC’s production plans, the EU’s price cap plan and export ban, China’s Covid struggles, and stagnating U.S. production at the center of the volatility.

  The amount of crude oil in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has declined by 204.3 million barrels so far this year, with the current levels at just 389.1 million barrels—the lowest level since March 1984.

  

  “Refining and refilling the reserve at $70 a barrel is a good price for companies and it’s a good price for the taxpayers, and it’s critical to our national security,” The White House said in October. It lied, just as it has lied about everything else.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 22:25

• Democrats Admit 'Assault Weapons Ban' Likely Doesn’t Have Enough Votes To Pass Senate
  Democrats Admit ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ Likely Doesn’t Have Enough Votes To Pass Senate

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

  A gun control bill that would ban “assault weapons” likely does not have enough votes to make it to President Joe Biden’s desk, Democrats said on Nov. 27.

  “I’m glad that President Biden is going to be pushing us to take a vote on an assault weapons ban. The House has already passed it. It’s sitting in front of the Senate. Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

  “I don’t know how you get 60 votes in the Senate,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the House majority whip, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

  

  The Democrat controlled-House of Representatives in July passed H.R. 1808, or the Assault Weapons Ban. The law would prohibit the sale, manufacture, and possession of all semiautomatic guns.

  Democrats also control the Senate. The upper chamber is split 50–50 and Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes. But to pass the filibuster, Democrats must convince 10 Republicans to support legislation.

  Republicans will gain control of the House in January 2023 after flipping seats in the midterm elections, adding urgency to the Democrat push to pass gun control bills.

  Biden on Thanksgiving called for “much stricter gun laws” and said he would call for a ban on so-called assault weapons during the lame-duck session.

  “The idea we still allow semi-automatic weapons to be purchased is sick,” Biden said.

  “It’s just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value. Zero. None. Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers,” he added.

  

  Criticism

  Pro-Second Amendment groups and some Republicans have criticized the effort to ban “assault weapons,” noting the term would encompass many firearms.

  “They are coming for everything,” the Firearms Policy Coalition said on Facebook, alongside a picture of Biden’s remarks.

  “Americans rejected Pelosi’s gun control schemes in the mid terms, yet here is Biden saying he wants to ban modern firearms, and maligning most gun owners,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

  He was referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and how Democrats lost the House in the midterms.

  The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action estimated that more than 24 million guns could fall under the definition outlined in H.R. 1808.

  

  Senate Prospects

  The House narrowly passed H.R. 1808 in a 217–213 vote. Five Democrats—Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Vincente Gonzalez (D-Texas), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)—voted against the bill. The latter two were voted out in the midterms. Two Republicans—Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Chris Jacobs (R-N.Y.)—backed the legislation. Jacobs chose to retire due to his vote.

  Bills only need a majority vote to pass the House. In the upper chamber, most bills need to meet a threshold called the filibuster, currently set at 60 votes, in order to advance to a final vote.

  Democrats only hold 50 seats, necessitating support from at least 10 Republicans.

  Fifteen Senate Republicans joined Democrats in June in approving a gun control bill called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, including Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine). The bill included expanding background checks; incentivizing states to impose measures known as red flag laws, which enable judges to strip people of guns; and boosting school security.

  But none of the Republicans who voted for the bill has said they support a ban on so-called assault weapons.

  The legislation “is being implemented as we speak,” Murphy said on Sunday, adding that “it takes a little while for these big, complicated laws to be put into place.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 22:05

• US Mulls 100-Mile Range Rockets For Ukraine With Boeing's Help
  US Mulls 100-Mile Range Rockets For Ukraine With Boeing’s Help

  The United States is considering transferring new longer-range rockets to Ukraine which are capable of striking targets 100 miles away, despite the Biden White House previously shutting the door on the possibility, citing worries that long-range systems could strike inside Russian territory, potentially bringing Moscow and Washington into direct confrontation. 

  But those legitimate worries over stumbling into WW3 are apparently quickly going by the wayside, as Reuters reports this week that Boeing is getting involved by proposing its Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) for the Ukrainians, which could be delivered as early as spring 2023.

  Time is indeed of the essence from NATO’s point of view, given rapidly depleting stockpiles in the militaries of the West, which the Pentagon has also of late expressed alarm over. 

  

  The GLSDB is seen as versatile and capable of being quickly delivered to the battlefield given it combines small-diameter bombs with a key rocket technology said to be widely available among Pentagon inventories – the M26 rocket motor.

  Boeing says it can easily manufacture many of these small precision-guided bombs cable of fitting into a variety of common rocket systems. Neither Boeing nor the Pentagon have yet to officially confirm, but Reuters details:

  Although the United States has rebuffed requests for the 185-mile (297km) range ATACMS missile, the GLSDB’s 94-mile (150km) range would allow Ukraine to hit valuable military targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russian rear areas.

  GLSDB is made jointly by SAAB AB and Boeing Co and has been in development since 2019, well before the invasion, which Russia calls a “special operation”. In October, SAAB chief executive Micael Johansson said of the GLSDB: “We are imminently shortly expecting contracts on that.”

  Crucially, the main appeal and priority is beginning to rest on availability… “According to the document – a Boeing proposal to U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which is overseeing weapons headed to Ukraine – the main components of the GLSDB would come from current U.S. stores,” Reuters writes.

  “The M26 rocket motor is relatively abundant, and the GBU-39 costs about $40,000 each, making the completed GLSDB inexpensive and its main components readily available,” the report adds. “Although arms manufacturers are struggling with demand, those factors make it possible to yield weapons by early 2023, albeit at a low rate of production.”

  Given that some US generals and officials have forecast that the Ukraine conflict could take years before the fighting ceases, and given already arms availability is becoming a major determinant for what gets sent, the massive Western weapons pipeline to Kiev could be growing thinner by the month. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 21:45

• DeSantis: Congress Should Target Apple Over Alleged Threats To Block Twitter
  DeSantis: Congress Should Target Apple Over Alleged Threats To Block Twitter

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republicans this week said that Apple’s alleged threat to remove Twitter from its App Store warrants congressional investigation.

  “That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress,” DeSantis told an audience in Duval County, Florida, on Tuesday.

  

  The “old regime” at Twitter attempted to “suffocate the dissent” in regards to COVID-19 reporting, DeSantis said, adding that Apple is acting as a “vassal of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party]” while using “corporate power in the United States … to suffocate Americans.”

  The governor appeared to have been referring to reports that Apple blocked some features of its popular AirDrop service for only Chinese users prior to widespread protests against the regime’s “zero COVID” policies.

  Top story: @FLVoiceNews: ‘WATCH: Ron DeSantis says Apple removing @elonmusk‘s Twitter from app store warrants Congressional response

  “That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopol… pic.twitter.com/vmJ2ACglGb, see more https://t.co/whhQ7jVrUh

  — NewsNosh (@NewsNosh) November 29, 2022

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

  The Florida governor was referring to a claim from new Twitter owner Elon Musk’s posts on Monday that Apple, considered the world’s most valuable company, threatened to remove the Twitter app from its App Store. Apple has not yet issued a public comment on the matter, and The Epoch Times has contacted the firm for comment.

  “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk asked on Twitter.

  “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store,” he posted, “but won’t tell us why.” The tech billionaire also directly asked CEO Tim Cook: “What’s going on?”

  Outside of DeSantis, other Republicans said that Apple and Google have too much control over the internet via their respective app-downloading stores. Removing Twitter from both would mean that the social media app would be heavily limited in its growth and usage.

  Parler, a social media platform favored by conservatives, was removed from the App Store, Google Play, and Amazon Web Services days after the Jan. 6 Capitol incident. For more than a month, the website was not accessible, and data shows that its usage significantly dropped during that time period and has never recovered.

  “This is why we need to end the App Store duopoly before the end of this year. No one should have this kind of market power,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo) wrote.

  Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who co-sponsored a Senate measure targeting app stores, added that “Apple and Google currently have a stranglehold on companies and have used their leverage to bully businesses.”

  

  Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at a gaming convention in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 13, 2019. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

  In the first quarter of 2022, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million and accounting for more than 4 percent of total revenue for the period, the Washington Post reported, citing an internal Twitter document.

  Cook, Apple’s CEO, has not yet weighed in on Musk’s comments. When asked about possibly removing Twitter from the App Store in an interview on Nov. 15, he replied: “They say that they are going to continue to moderate and so … I count on them to do that.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 21:25

• Saudis Unveil Plans For Massive 6-Runway Airport Hub To Boost Tourism, Trade
  Saudis Unveil Plans For Massive 6-Runway Airport Hub To Boost Tourism, Trade

  Saudi Arabia has unveiled plans for a massive new airport in Riyadh as part of the kingdom’s ambition to diversify its economy so its fortunes aren’t solely determined by the price of oil.  

  In announcing the plan, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said the airport would be named after his 86-year-old father, King Salman. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — the Public Investment Fund — will own the airport.

  The move is part of a previously-announced Saudi intention to invest $1 trillion to transform the head-chopping kingdom into a tourist destination.  

  

  The airport is slated to have six parallel runways on a 22-square-mile expanse, subsuming the existing King Khaled airport. The initial goal is to accommodate upwards of 120 million travelers by the end of this decade.  

  

  It’s not all about tourism. Today, just a half-million tons of airfreight transit the kingdom each year. By 2030, MBS wants to see that skyrocket to 4.5 million tons.    

  King Salman International Airport will challenge current airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Doha, Qatar. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is also launching a new national airline, RIA, to compete with the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways. In discussions with Boeing and Airbus, RIA is slated to take its first flight by the end of this year. 

  The Public Investment Fund posted a slick video with renderings of the future “aerotropolis”: 

  Introducing King Salman International Airport.

  An aerotropolis centered around seamless passenger journeys, world-class efficient operations, and innovation.#KSIA#PIF pic.twitter.com/yNXbAizzFH

  — Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) November 28, 2022

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

  “The airport project is in line with Saudi Arabia’s vision to transform Riyadh to be among the top ten city economies in the world and to support the growth of Riyadh’s population to 15–20 million people by 2030,” Saudi state news agency SPA said. The development is projected to create more than 100,000 jobs.

  The lofty goals for the air hub are positively humble when compared to the country’s planned building of Neom, a giant, modern mega-city in the northwest part of Saudi Arabia. Believe it or not, it’s supposed to center on two parallel skyscrapers that will be 110 miles long, 500 meters tall and house 9 million people. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 21:05

• Former White House 'Disinformation Czar' Nina Jankowicz Registers As Foreign Agent
  Former White House ‘Disinformation Czar’ Nina Jankowicz Registers As Foreign Agent

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

  Nina Jankowicz, who briefly served as the Biden administration’s “disinformation czar,” has registered as a foreign agent of a nonprofit organization based in the United Kingdom.

  

  According to registration documents received by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) unit, Jankowicz filed for her foreign agent status this month (pdf). The name of the foreign principal is listed as the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) from the United Kingdom. The nonprofit is founded and directed by Adam Rutland, a UK citizen, and Ross Burley, a dual UK–U.S. national.

  The entity is financed by a “foreign government, foreign political party, or other foreign principal,” the documents show. It receives grants from the UK government, including the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development offices.

  According to its website, CIR “is an independent, non-profit social enterprise dedicated to countering disinformation, exposing human rights abuses, and combating online behavior harmful to women and minorities.”

  What it really is, as it readily admits, is a social media influence operation.

  It’s literally for influence operations lmao pic.twitter.com/8dtThxB7j5

  — O (@O08678458) November 30, 2022

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

  At CIR, Jankowicz is tasked with supervising research, executing business strategy, overseeing the establishment of CIR’s research, communicating with the media, and briefing individuals and officials on the organization’s research, according to her registration documents.

  She will work with CIR employees from the UK via online communication platforms in order to “further the goals” of the organization.

  Jankowicz also documented that in the 60 days prior to the obligation to register for the foreign principal, she received money for promoting the interests of the organization. She cited two payments in excess of $12,000 each made in October and November with the purpose stated as “remuneration for services rendered.”

  Jankowicz was selected to lead the Disinformation Governance Board under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in April 2022. At the time, the Biden administration had portrayed Jankowicz as an expert in online disinformation.

  Her appointment instantly drew criticism, with reports showing that Jankowicz had made posts on Twitter trying to whitewash the Hunter Biden scandal as disinformation.

  She also made posts in support of the discredited “Steele dossier” that was used to smear former President Donald Trump by insisting he had ties with the Russian government.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 20:45

• These Are The World's 100 Biggest Pension Funds
  These Are The World’s 100 Biggest Pension Funds

  Despite economic uncertainty, pension funds saw relatively strong growth in 2021, and as Visual Capitalist’s Jenna Ross details below, the world’s 100 biggest pension funds are worth over $17 trillion in total, an increase of 8.5% over the previous year.

  This graphic uses data from the Thinking Ahead Institute to rank the world’s biggest pension funds, and where they are located.

  

  What is a Pension Fund?

  A pension fund is a fund that is designed to provide retirement income. This ranking covers four different types:

  • Sovereign funds: Funds controlled directly by the state. This ranking only includes sovereign funds that are established by national authorities.

  • Public sector funds: Funds that cover public sector workers, such as government employees and teachers, in provincial or state sponsored plans.

  • Private independent funds: Funds controlled by private sector organizations that are authorized to manage pension plans from different employers.

  • Corporate funds: Funds that cover workers in company sponsored pension plans.

  Among the largest funds, public sector funds are the most common.

  The Largest Pension Funds, Ranked

  Here are the top 10 pension funds, organized from largest to smallest.

  

   

  U.S. fund data are as of Sep. 30, 2021, and non-U.S. fund data are as of Dec. 31, 2021. There are some exceptions as noted in the graphic footnotes.

   

  Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is the largest in the ranking for the 21st year in a row. For a time, the fund was the largest holder of domestic stocks in Japan, though the Bank of Japan has since taken that title. Given its enormous size, investors closely follow the GPIF’s actions. For instance, the fund made headlines for deciding to start investing in startups, because the move could entice other pensions to make similar investments.

  America is home to 47 funds on the list, including the largest public sector fund: the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), overseen by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. Because of its large financial influence, both political parties have been accused of using it as a political tool. Democrats have pushed to divest assets in fossil fuel companies, while Republicans have proposed blocking investment in Chinese-owned companies.

  Russia’s National Wealth Fund comes in at number 19 on the list. The fund is designed to support the public pension system and help balance the budget as needed. With Russia’s economy facing difficulties amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the government has also used it as a rainy day fund. For instance, Russia has set aside $23 billion from the fund to replace foreign aircraft with domestic models, because Western sanctions have made it difficult to source replacement parts for foreign planes.

  The Future of Pension Funds

  The biggest pension funds can have a large influence in the market because of their size. Of course, they are also responsible for providing retirement income to millions of people. Pension funds face a variety of challenges in order to reach their goals:

  • Geopolitical conflict creates volatility and uncertainty

  • High inflation and low interest rates (relative to long-term averages) limit return potential

  • Aging populations mean more withdrawals and less fund contributions

  Some pension funds are turning to alternative assets, such as private equity, in pursuit of more diversification and higher returns. Of course, these investments can also carry more risk.

  Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, number 18 on the list, invested $95 million in the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The plan made the investment through its venture growth platform, to “gain small-scale exposure to an emerging area in the financial technology sector.”

  In this case, the investment’s failure is expected to have a minimal impact given it only made up 0.05% of the plan’s net assets. However, it does highlight the challenges pension funds face to generate sufficient returns in a variety of macroeconomic environments.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 20:25

• Lawyer To Private Equity Billionaire Dies Of Self-Inflicted Gunshot On Eve Of Tax-Fraud Trial
  Lawyer To Private Equity Billionaire Dies Of Self-Inflicted Gunshot On Eve Of Tax-Fraud Trial

  You may know billionaire Robert F. Smith, 59, founder of private equity giant Vista Equity, as the richest black man in the U.S with a net worth of $8 billion.

  

  You may also know him for his escapades with the US Treasury which accused him of hiding tens of millions in income from the IRS and then using the untaxed money to buy up expensive homes in California, Colorado and France as well as putting his girlfriend up in an expensive Manhattan pad. He is also the same philanthropist who previously donated some $34 million (in more untaxed income) to pay off the student debt of black students at Morehouse College.

  

  This libertarian tax evader, however, never saw the inside of a jail: he escaped charges by agreeing to testify against his business partner, former Reynolds & Reynolds CEO Robert Brockman, who was accused of hiding $2 billion from the IRS in the largest tax bust in US history (Brockman died earlier this month). He didn’t completely get away with it however: the Vista Equities boss was hit with $139 million in fines for his admitted tax evasion.

  And while you may or may not know Bob, you probably don’t know and never heard of Houston lawyer Carlos Kepke who had been set to go on trial Monday in San Francisco federal court on charges of conspiring to defraud the IRS and aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by Bob.

  And you never will: Carlos, who was 83, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head on Sunday in a bedrom in his home, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences website.

  “The court is advised that defendant Kepke has passed away,” U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco said in a Monday order canceling the trial.

  In an interview on Monday, Kepke attorney Richard Strassberg said, “Carlos always maintained that he was innocent of these charges, and we were prepared to prove that at trial.”

  Carlos Kepke, was charged with helping Robert Smith, the billionaire founder of private equity Vista Equity Partners LLC, conceal $225 million from the IRS.

  Prosecutors had alleged Kepke created for Smith a limited liability company in Nevis called Flash Holdings, as well as an offshore trust based in Belize, called Excelsior Trust. Excelsior was set up to own Flash. Thus, when Smith’s portion of capital gains from Vista funds was deposited into accounts held in Flash’s name in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands, the money could be routed to the offshore Excelsior trust, away from the eyes of the IRS.

  According to the DOJ’s press release, Kepke enabled what Smith has admitted to as an illegal scheme. Thanks to Kepke’s work, “Smith was able to hide this income because Excelsior, and not Smith, was the nominal owner of Flash. Smith then allegedly failed to timely and fully report his income to the IRS.”

  In 2020 Smith entered into a “non-prosecution agreement” with the DOJ, in which he admitted to felony tax evasion and the wrongful use of roughly $30 million in charitable trust funds for his personal benefit. Smith agreed to fork over $139 million in taxes and penalties, and to cooperate against affiliated scofflaws like Brockman, and Kepke. U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson said at the time that despite having committed “serious crimes,” Smith’s cooperation had “put him on a path away from indictment.”

  Both Brockman and Kepke are now dead, which may or may not will Bob sleep better at night, having thrown both under the bus to save his own ass.

  Meanwhile in Bermuda, oversight of the multi-billion-dollar A. Eugene Brockman Charitable Trust, remains in limbo, as attorneys for Brockman and his wife Dorothy argued recently to the Bermuda appelate court that they ought to appoint a new independent trustee to oversee the trust, replacing anyone connected to former trustee Tamine. According to attorneys, Cayman Island-based trust specialist Maples Group has agreed to take on the job. We are surprised Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t somehow get involved and embezzle the funds to keep his crypto scam going a little longer.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 20:20

• End Of Zero-COVID Will Not Cure China's Deep-Set Debt Problem
  End Of Zero-COVID Will Not Cure China’s Deep-Set Debt Problem

  Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

  China’s risk of slipping into “debt deflation” will be the longer-term driver of its asset markets even after the country finally manages to exit its Covid Zero policy. A much weaker yuan remains likely as one of the tools to alleviate the problem.

  China’s stocks and the yuan bounced today after the government said it would ramp up vaccination among its elderly population and avoid excessive virus restrictions.

  Furthermore, more property easing measures were announced, with the removal of restrictions for builders to issue shares. This adds to 16 targeted easing measures for the property market announced earlier this month. The debt of property companies, which had slumped by 80%, has rallied over 50% off the lows.

  

  Still, this will not be enough on its own to resolve China’s longstanding debt problem, and the risk that the country sinks into debt deflation. The essence of debt deflation (see diagram below) is when the value of assets and the income from these assets declines in relation to the value of liabilities, meaning the debt becomes increasingly difficult to service and pay back, leading to slower growth and ultimately deflation.

  

  The property downturn is a particular problem for China as local government debt – of which there is an estimated $8 trillion of outstanding, half of China’s GDP – is often collateralized by land values. Falling land values increase the chance of collateral calls, leading to the distressed sale of other assets, adding to deflationary dynamic.

  China saw the largest rise in private debt since 2010 of any country in the world, with the private-debt-to-GDP ratio rising a dizzying 90 percentage points.

  That has led to China’s debt service ratio, the ratio of its debt service repayments to private disposable income, to rise above 20%.

  The BIS notes that DSRs of 20%-25% have preceded financial crises in other countries. Hong Kong’s DSR is even worse at over 30%.

  

  One increasingly likely lever China will pull (and has been pulling) to ease the debt problem is allowing the yuan to weaken, and perhaps eventually dropping the fixed-rate exchange system altogether. Property easing measures and an eventual exit from Covid restrictions will help, but the debt problem is not going away.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 20:05

• Cyber Monday Sales Hit Record $11.3B, Fueled By Deep Discounts
  Cyber Monday Sales Hit Record $11.3B, Fueled By Deep Discounts

  Thanks to deeper than expected discounts, Cyber Monday set new records yesterday – with online retailers pulling in $11.2 billion in sales, a 5.1% jump over 2021 when $10.7 billion of sales were recorded, according to figures from tracking firm Adobe Analytics.

  

  The figure tops Black Friday, which saw $9.12 billion in sales – while Thanksgiving saw $5.29 billion in sales. There was roughly $9.55 billion in sales over the weekend on top of that. Altogether, “Cyber Week” is expected to reach $35.27 billion in online sales, up 4% over last year. The week accounts for 16.7% of all sales in November and December, according to TechCrunch.

  

  And as we noted on Monday, the record sales were underpinned by record discounts – with electronics, toys and apparel leading the charge. Discounts on electronics were as high as 25% (vs 8% in 2021), while toys had an average discount of 34%.

  

  Followed by televisions, sporting goods, computers, furniture and appliances. Top products included games, gaming consoles, Legos, Hatchimals, Disney Encanto, Pokémon cards, Bluey, Dyson products, strollers, Apple Watches, drones, and digital cameras, according to the report (via TechCrunch).

  

  More via Techrunch:

  Adobe expects $210 billion in sales for the two months, and so far in the season mobile has accounted for 44% of sales.

  Salesforce separately released its own preliminary figures of $6 billion for Cyber Monday in the evening Monday. We’ll update these as we get more complete results.

  Notably, although inflation is definitely being felt in the U.S., Adobe said that these figures were based on more transactions overall. At the peak, people were spending $12.8 million per minute on Monday, and Adobe said that its digital price index, which tracks prices across 18 categories, said that prices have been nearly flat in recent months.

  Deep discounts — retailers perhaps anticipating needing to have something more to lure shoppers — have played a big role, too, as have the sheer availability of goods after shortages of the years before.

  “With oversupply and a softening consumer spending environment, retailers made the right call this season to drive demand through heavy discounting,” according to Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst, Vivek Pandya. “It spurred online spending to levels that were higher than expected, and reinforced e-commerce as a major channel to drive volume and capture consumer interest.”

  As far as buying trends, buy-now-pay-later transactions (BNPL) were down slightly on Cbyer Monday vs Black Friday and the weekend. According to Adobe, people tend to use BNPL when the overall shopping cart size is higher.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 19:45

• Pennsylvania County That Ran Out Of Paper Ballots Fails To Certify Election Results
  Pennsylvania County That Ran Out Of Paper Ballots Fails To Certify Election Results

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

  A county in Pennsylvania that didn’t have enough paper ballots on Election Day failed to certify the results of the Nov. 8 midterms by the Nov. 28 deadline.

  

  The Luzerne County Board of Elections split 2–2 to certify the results, while one member abstained from voting. It’s unclear what the next steps are.

  Republican board members Alyssa Fusaro and Jim Mangan voted no, while Democrat members Denise Williams and Audrey Serniak voted for the certification, according to the Times Leader. Daniel Schramm, also a Democrat, was the lone board member who abstained.

  Fusaro and Mangan said the ballot shortage on Nov. 8 that caused voters to be turned away was the reason they wouldn’t certify the results, according to local media reports. Fusaro said on Nov. 28 that voters were turned away from the polls, privacy safeguards weren’t in place, and machines jammed and ran out of paper.

  “There were so many challenges, so many issues, so many problems, so many concerns, that I can’t with good conscience certify this election,” Fusaro said, stating that a new election should be held.

  Schramm said at the hearing that he’s “not a rubber stamper” and wants more time to review a reconciliation report. He also wants to look into claims made by voters on Election Day, the Times Leader reported.

  Mangan said the board “made every effort” to accept every ballot possible during the adjudication phase. The paper ballot issues, he said, triggered a “humiliating experience” for Luzerne County’s government that drew international headlines.

  The Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office previously stated that it’s investigating the paper shortage along with other issues on Election Day.

  Officials with the Pennsylvania Department of State didn’t provide an immediate public comment about the next steps. In May, three Pennsylvania counties refused to record mail-in votes from the state’s primary elections and delayed Pennsylvania’s certification of the results before a judge intervened and ordered that the votes be counted.

  During the Nov. 28 hearing, an attendee called Serniak a liar after she said, “I can’t see any massive fraud in this,” according to local media. The man was escorted out of the building by deputies.

  Deputies also asked another man to leave after he called Williams a communist and said board members shouldn’t vote until voters get a full explanation of why the paper shortage was caused.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 19:25

• NASA's Orion Spacecraft Breaks Apollo 13 Record For Further Distance From Earth
  NASA’s Orion Spacecraft Breaks Apollo 13 Record For Further Distance From Earth

  The uncrewed Orion capsule, the centerpiece of NASA’s historic Artemis I mission, reached its farthest distance from Earth on Monday, breaking the record for the maximum distance a spacecraft developed to carry humans has ever traveled.

  The space agency tweeted that Orion reached its maximum distance from Earth of 268,563, adding the uncrewed capsule “has now traveled farther than any other spacecraft built for humans.” 

  

  Record-breaking distance! @NASA_Orion, a spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to deep space destinations, has reached its farthest distance from Earth today — nearly 270,000 miles away! pic.twitter.com/V4pU5Pjguv

  — NASA Astronauts (@NASA_Astronauts) November 28, 2022

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

  On Saturday, Orion broke the record-setting distance of 248,655 miles from Earth, achieved by the Apollo 13 crewed command module over a half-century ago. 

  Orion is set to fire its engines on Thursday and head back to Earth with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on December 11.

  If all goes well for the pivotal mission, then the Artemis II mission could fly astronauts around the moon in 2024. By 2025, astronauts could return to the lunar surface via the Artemis III mission. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 19:05

• Bahamas AG Says FTX 'Debacle' Not Their Fault
  Bahamas AG Says FTX ‘Debacle’ Not Their Fault

  Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder took to the podium Sunday night to defend his country’s securities regulators against “inaccurate allegations” by the U.S.-based legal team, led by veteran work-out attorney John Ray III, that has taken over management of FTX in bankruptcy, following the cryptocurrency exchange’s abrupt collapse in early November.

  “It is possible that the prospect of multimillion-dollar legal and consultancy fees is driving both their legal strategy and their intemperate statements,” Pinder alleged, adding that “any attempt to lay the entirety of this debacle at the feet of the Bahamas because FTX is headquartered here would be a gross oversimplification of reality.”

  

  Ray is reportedly earning $1,300 per hour, with a $200,000 retainer, to lead the work-out effort. Other attorneys are reported to earn $975 per hour, with other technical and investigative consultants earning $50,000 per month. In addition, many of the original 350 FTX employees are being kept on the payroll in order to try to preserve for investors whatever value of the company remains, but according to Ray, even figuring out who all these employees are has been challenging.

  Ray states in his bankruptcy declaration of Nov. 17 that because of poor record keeping by the company’s human resources department, bankruptcy attorneys “have been unable to prepare a complete list of who worked for the FTX Group as of the petition date or the terms of their employment. Repeated attempts to locate certain presumed employees to confirm their status have been unsuccessful to date.”

  

  Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried in 2019, FTX was valued at $32 billion by 2021 and was the third-largest exchange for cryptocurrency in the world, with more than a million investors trading its version of digital currency, known as FTT. Bankman-Fried’s net worth at the height of the crypto market was believed to be $16 billion.

  The crypto market has had a difficult year across the board, falling from a total global market capitalization of $3 trillion a year ago to around $800 billion today, with other crypto companies facing bankruptcy. But FTX had specific problems beyond the general market decline.

  On Nov. 6, Binance, a rival exchange to FTX, abruptly sold off its $2 trillion holdings of FTT, which it acquired in connection with a prior stake in FTX. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao noted in a tweet: “Due to recent revelations that have came to light, we have decided to liquidate any remaining FTT on our books.”

  Caroline Ellison, CEO of Alameda Research at the time, responded by tweet to Binance: “If you’re looking to minimize the market impact of your FTT sales, Alameda will happily buy it all from you today at $22!” But Alameda was unable to make good on this pledge, and the massive unloading of FTT sparked other investors to rush to sell the digital coin as its value collapsed, sparking a liquidity crisis at FTX.

  According to Pinder, “FTX was experiencing the equivalent of a run on a bank, when customers are all rushing to withdraw all of their assets simultaneously.” Binance then offered to step in and acquire FTX, but quickly withdrew its offer once it got a look at FTX’s books, which Ray subsequently described as “a complete failure of corporate controls and a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.”

  Liquidity issues, it now appears, were only the tip of the iceberg. To date, the investigation of FTX’s books indicates that money that investors put up to buy FTT crypto on the exchange was being passed from their exchange accounts to an affiliated hedge fund called Alameda Research. It was also being lent out to owners, used to buy houses in the Bahamas and elsewhere, donated to various progressive causes that Bankman-Fried supported, or paid out as political donations.

  But the blame for regulators failing to notice any of this should not be placed solely on the Bahamas, Pinder said. Of the more than 100 subsidiaries and affiliates of FTX’s crypto empire, FTX Digital Markets is the only entity regulated in the Bahamas, according to Pinder. Alameda Research, the hedge fund affiliate of FTX, is registered in Delaware. According to Ray’s bankruptcy filing, however, other Alameda affiliate companies are registered in the Bahamas, as well as in Korea, Japan, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Seychelles, the Cayman Islands, Australia, Panama, Turkey, and Nigeria.

  ‘Next Warren Buffet’

  Numerous FTX subsidiaries are registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), with some operating with licenses from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)—both U.S. regulators who were established to protect small investors and appear to have had no concerns about illicit activity at FTX prior to the bankruptcy filing. At the height of his success, Bankman-Fried was lauded on the cover of Forbes and Fortune Magazine, which referred to him as the “next Warren Buffet.”

  

  He was praised for his support of progressive causes, which ranged from climate change to pandemic policy. Sam’s brother, Gabe Bankman-Fried, ran the advocacy group Guarding Against Pandemics, which sought to increase government efforts for pandemic prevention and to which Bankman-Fried donated millions.

  Bankman-Fried had relationships and took meetings with prominent politicians and regulators, including SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who seemingly also failed to notice anything amiss at FTX during a 45-minute phone call with Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried was the second-largest donor to the Democratic Party, after billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros, and donated $10 million to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Of the tens of millions of dollars Bankman-Fried donated to political campaigns, $262,200 went to Republican candidates, while $40 million went to Democrats.

  Pinder took no questions after his speech and did not address other open issues, including whether FTX founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried would be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges or whether the global assets of the FTX empire would be consolidated from the various jurisdictions around the globe into the United States, as the bankruptcy team is attempting to do.

  Bankman-Fried remains a headline speaker at the upcoming New York Times’ DealBook Summit, which also features BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, actor Ben Affleck, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among others. BlackRock was reportedly one of the investors in FTX.

  A recent tweet from Bankman-Fried stated, “I’ll be speaking with [New York Times business columnist] Andrew Sorkin at the dealbook summit next Wednesday (11/30).”

  The Times’ summit, billed as a gathering of “today’s most vital minds on a single stage,” identifies Bankman-Fried as “a 29-year-old American investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.”

  “At this time, we expect Mr. Bankman-Fried will be participating in the interview from the Bahamas,” a spokesperson for the New York Times told The Epoch Times.

  Bankman-Fried’s parents, both professors at Stanford University, are prominent supporters of the Democratic Party. His mother, Barbara Fried, is the founder of “Mind the Gap,” a secretive Silicon Valley fundraising organization for Democrat candidates. Mind the Gap has reportedly raised approximately $20 million from tech investors to support left-wing political campaigns.

  ‘A Very Complex Investigation’

  In defense of Bahamian regulators, Pinder said that authorities in the Bahamas were the first in the world to act when trouble at FTX became apparent, and that there were “a number of protective measures” that were taken by the Bahamian Securities Commission on Nov. 10, including freezing FTX’s accounts, seizing FTX’s assets and putting FTX into provisional liquidation the day after rival crypto exchange Binance abruptly pulled out of a deal to acquire FTX.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 18:45

• There's A $19 Billion Backlog Of Weapons Bound For Taiwan
  There’s A $19 Billion Backlog Of Weapons Bound For Taiwan

  US-approved weapons deliveries to Taiwan have been considerably delayed and slowed throughout the course of the nine-month long Ukraine war, despite the US having approved some $20 billion total in arms sales for the self-ruled island since 2017. In October, Defense News cited a $14 billion backlog in sales from the US, but that number has now dramatically increased to a nearly $19 billion backlog, according to a fresh estimate in The Wall Street Journal. 

  “U.S. government and congressional officials fear the conflict in Ukraine is exacerbating a nearly $19 billion backlog of weapons bound for Taiwan, further delaying efforts to arm the island as tensions with China escalate,” the report begins. 

  

  The WSJ continues with a somewhat rare mainstream media acknowledgement that was missing-in-action from public discourse, albeit an easily predictable outcome, during the opening months of the war: “The U.S. has pumped billions of dollars of weapons into Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February, taxing the capacity of the government and defense industry to keep up with a sudden demand to arm Kyiv in a conflict that isn’t expected to end soon.”

  This puts the ability of the Pentagon to respond adequately to any potential major cross-strait crisis in question for the near and long term: “The flow of weapons to Ukraine is now running up against the longer-term demands of a U.S. strategy to arm Taiwan to help it defend itself against a possible invasion by China, according to congressional and government officials familiar with the matter,” WSJ observes.

  Ironically, American and Taiwanese officials themselves have consistently referenced the Ukraine crisis as demonstrating why the US “must” urgently equip the island with everything it needs. And yet, until now few officials have admitted the reality that US arms manufacturing can’t keep up, especially not if an additional conflict beyond Ukraine were to suddenly open up.

  Additionally, other NATO allies are facing this same problem and worry, especially ‘neutral’ Germany which has dramatically shifted its historic stance on not sending weapons into foreign conflict zones. A number of German politicians have warned that Berlin should not be sharing weapons from its own arsenal, given that “Unfortunately, the situation here is such that we have an absolute deficit in our own stocks,” according a prior admission of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock – words which came at the end of the summer.

  She had told German media agency ZDF at the time: “However, Germany must also think in the medium term. Due to the German arms problem, the armaments industry had to dedicatedly produce material for the Ukraine.” By many accounts Ukraine’s military has only ramped up its plowing through artillery ammo, which the West has struggled to replace at the rates needed to hold off the superior numbers of Russian forces. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 11/29/2022 – 18:25

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