Today’s News 8th August 2021

• Chinese Regime Has Stolen Enough Data To Compile "Dossier" On All Americans: Former Official
  Chinese Regime Has Stolen Enough Data To Compile “Dossier” On All Americans: Former Official

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  A former U.S. national security official warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is stealing data to compile a “dossier” on every American adult and may use coercive means to influence private citizens and political leaders.

  

  Part of the Chinese Communist Party’s army of “internet trolls” in an undated leaked photo, in Fangzheng County, Harbin City, China. (The Epoch Times)

  During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing this week, former Trump deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger said the CCP has stolen Americans’ sensitive data via illicit methods, including cyber theft and hacking.

  “Assembling dossiers on people has always been a feature of Leninist regimes, but Beijing’s penetration of digital networks worldwide, including using 5G networks … has really taken this to a new level,” Pottinger said, referring to former Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin.

  With the information the CCP has obtained, he said, it “now compiles dossiers on millions of foreign citizens around the world, using the material that it gathers to influence, target, intimidate, reward, blackmail, flatter, humiliate, and ultimately divide and conquer.”

  Going a step further, Pottinger sounded the alarm that “Beijing’s stolen sensitive data is sufficient to build a dossier on every single American adult and on many of our children too, who are fair game under Beijing’s rules of political warfare.”

  

  Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger arrives for a Medal of Honor ceremony for Sergeant Major Thomas P. Payne, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Sept. 11, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

  For years, the CCP has engaged in campaigns to steal U.S. intellectual property and technology secrets in a bid to militarily and geopolitically gain an advantage over the West.

  The regime has also carried out significant hacks against private entities, including last month’s alleged cyberattack against Microsoft—which the United States and its allies blamed on the Chinese Ministry of State Security. In addition, four Chinese nationals were charged by the Department of Justice over a number of separate cyber intrusions that targeted corporate and research secrets.

  During the hearing, the former director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William Evanina, said that the CCP is using a “whole of country approach” to “leverage, infiltrate, influence, and steal from every corner of U.S. success.”

  “It is estimated that 80 percent of American adults have had all of their personal data stolen by the CCP, and the other 20 percent most of their personal data,” he said.

  Furthermore, he said that the Chinese regime poses an “existential threat” to the United States and is employing “complex, pernicious, strategic, and aggressive” tactics to accomplish its goals.

  

  William Evanina, nominee to be director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, testifies during a hearing held by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in Washington, on May 15, 2018. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

  The Chinese regime is even working to illegally obtain data to create artificial intelligence, research, and development programs to bolster its military and economic goals.

  After the recent cyberattacks, Biden administration officials offered sharp criticism against Beijing’s state-sponsored hacks, including intellectual property theft. But the critical words were not accompanied by any punitive actions including diplomatic expulsions or sanctions against the regime.

  Separately, Pottinger also warned about the CCP’s so-called “United Front” efforts to spread propaganda and influence decision-makers around the world and within the United States.

  “The CCP’s 95 million members are all required to participate in the system, which has many different branches. The United Front Work Department alone, which is just one branch, has three times as many cadres as the U.S. State Department has foreign service officers,” he noted.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 08/08/2021 – 00:00

• Visualizing US Military Spending Relative To The Rest Of The World
  Visualizing US Military Spending Relative To The Rest Of The World

  The U.S. is well known for its immense military and defense spending. In 2020, the nation ranked #1 in the world in terms of military spending at $778 billion outpacing the next nine highest spenders, which came out to $703.6 billion combined.

  As Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop notes, one factor is the military–industrial complex (MIC) which feeds into the U.S.’ defense dominance, with a longstanding tradition of the defense and weapons industries working closely with the U.S. government and armed forces.

  

  A Breakdown of U.S. Military Spending

  So what are these billions being spent on?

  The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) laid out the spending plan when they made their 2020 budget proposal. It included a few main areas to invest in, including:

  • Air – $57.7 billion

  • Maritime – $34.7 billion

  • Ground systems – $14.6 billion

  • Space – $14.1 billion

  • Cyber – $6.9 billion

  This is just the tip of the iceberg. The overall goal of the 2020 budget was to promote innovation and to strengthen competitive advantages to increase the military’s ‘readiness’ factor. Additionally, in an effort to sustain forces, a military pay raise of 3.1% was included.

  Military Maintenance

  Surprisingly, however, the U.S. actually does not have the largest military in the world in terms of personnel, and some of the other top 10 countries have larger or similarly sized militaries spread across different branches.

  

  Russia is only the fourth highest spender, but they have the largest military size of any of the top 10, at around 5.9 million personnel.

  All of these countries have militaries that number in the hundreds of thousands to millions, and many are a part of treaties and alliances that require them to upkeep their armies and weaponry — but none spend half as much as the U.S.

  To this day, the U.S. is actively involved in a number of overseas conflicts and maintains a large military force with millions of personnel. Spending on areas such as weaponry and wages is significant in order to maintain jobs, as well as national defense.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 23:30

• 160 San Francisco Sheriffs' Deputies Threaten To Resign Due To Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine
  160 San Francisco Sheriffs’ Deputies Threaten To Resign Due To Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine

  Authored by Enrico Trigoso via The Epoch Times,

  A number of San Francisco deputies will seek employment elsewhere or opt for early retirement if they are required to take the COVID-19 vaccine under a new imposed vaccine mandate, warned the city’s sheriff’s union on Friday.

  

  San Francisco officials recently announced that all city employees will have to be vaccinated or face possible termination.

  There are about 35,000 city employees. Religious exemptions or medical reasons may let some bypass the mandate, but those who refuse the shot and have no exemption will encounter consequences that could result in termination, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

  The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association published a statement on Facebook, saying they always supported safety measures against the virus but the issue at hand is that about 160 of their Sheriffs don’t want to take the vaccine due to their beliefs.

  “The problem we are faced with now is the strict San Francisco Mandate which is vaccinate or be terminated. If deputy sheriffs are forced to vaccinate a percentage of them will retire early or seek employment elsewhere,” reads the statement.

  The Sheriff’s Association notes that 160 of their 700 deputies are unwilling to take the vaccine, and that they can’t afford to lose them since they already have the lowest-ever staffing due to applicant testing restrictions imposed by the mayor.

  “The majority of Deputy Sheriffs are vaccinated. Approximately 160 out 700 Deputy Sheriffs are not vaccinated [and] prefer to mask and test weekly instead of being vaccinated due to religious and other beliefs. Currently, the staffing at the SFSO is at the lowest it has ever been due to the past 9-month applicant testing restriction placed on the Sheriff’s Office by the May.”

  The Epoch Times reached out to the San Francisco mayor for comment.

  “It’s really a decision for the health and safety of our employees and our public that we serve,” the city’s director of human resources, Carol Isen, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

  San Francisco and six other counties in the Bay area have reinstated a mask mandate for all indoor public activities due to the appearance of the Delta variant.

  The mask mandate is to be obeyed by everyone, including vaccinated people, reported the Associated Press.

  “It is unfortunate we have to do this at this point in the pandemic. None of us wanted to be here,” Dr. George Han, deputy health officer for Santa Clara County said, “but the virus has changed.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 23:00

• Rich People Buying "Trophy Trees" And "Enormous Crystals" For Their Mansions
  Rich People Buying “Trophy Trees” And “Enormous Crystals” For Their Mansions

  Shortly after the virus pandemic struck, the Federal Reserve unleashed liquidity spigots to drive down borrowing costs and keep the economy from further collapsing. Much of the emergency bond-buying continues to this day and has greatly benefited wealthy people. 

  So much so that house prices are surging to stratospheric levels, along with stocks, bonds, antique cars, wine collections, and fancy artwork have also dramatically risen in price. 

  Over the last year, the world’s billionaires added more than $5 trillion to their wealth, with the wealthiest 2,755 people on earth amassing more than $13 trillion.

  With all this newfound wealth – what are some of the wealthiest people buying besides megayachts?

  Two buying trends this year are “trophy trees” and “enormous crystals.”  

  Mansion Global reports Michael Chen, a Los Angeles real estate developer, has bought a 150-year-old, 15-foot olive tree imported from Tuscany, which he calls the “tree of life.” The trophy tree sits in the middle of his $65 million Beverly Hills mansion.

  

  In Miami, Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, a company that specializes in landscaping, said the trophy tree business is booming. The wealthy are demanding nondisclosure agreements to keep their horticultural endeavors super secret. 

  Besides exotic trees worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, the rich are also furnishing their homes with giant crystals.  

  According to Los Angeles Times, wealthy buyers purchase crystals sculpted into love seats and coffee tables to furnish their homes. 

  Mineral collector Peter Megaw said the global market for high-end crystals is becoming fine art, with scarcity driving prices higher for unique pieces. 

  Work-at-home and lockdowns turbocharged the craze for self-healing crystals that also create lavish decorations. 

  The wealthy are spending $125,000 amethyst coffee table or a $333,000 peach-colored quartz the size of a laundry basket. 

  

  Here’s a $45,000 amethyst throne. 

  

  A 900-pound quartz chair. 

  

  More fine crystal pieces. 

  

  Trophy trees and crystals, two buying trends of the super-wealthy this year.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 22:30

• "Trust The Science", They Said…
  “Trust The Science”, They Said…

  Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

  “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

  

  “I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me.” – George Carlin

  The pronouncements from the world’s favorite science troll, who hasn’t told the truth since March 2020 when he told the world masks were useless in stopping a virus from spreading, are coming fast and furious as more and more people ignore the fear propaganda. Alpha!!! Delta!!! and now Lambda!!! We’re all going to die unless we allow Big Pharma, with no liability for killing or maiming you with their experimental gene therapy, and totalitarian politicians to inject us with a concoction which doesn’t keep you from contracting covid or spreading covid. But it may kill you, give you a dose of blood clots, or a touch of myocarditis.

  Fauci, Walensky, Biden, Pasaki and the rest of the Biden apparatchiks are liars, frauds, and fear mongering whores for Big Pharma. Fauci is the father of covid. He created it with his illegal gain of function funding, partnering with the communist government of China and is responsible for all the death and economic destruction wrought over the last eighteen months. He should be tried, convicted and executed for crimes against humanity. History should lump him with the likes of Josef Mengele and other mass murders.

  He continues to lie on a daily basis and the cucks in the corporate propaganda media never question his lies or push back in any way. They are co-conspirators in this authoritarian attempt to override the Constitution and enslave you in a pharmacological techno gulag. The merger of Big Government with Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Finance and Big Corp endangers the rights, freedoms and liberties guaranteed to citizens under the U.S. Constitution.

  They are pushing the country towards inevitable violent conflict by using their powers of coercion to force people to inject a substance into their bodies they do not need and do not want. For what ultimate purpose, we do not know. But we do know it is not about your health or the health of others. The current fear narrative being peddled by Fauci and Biden is the dreaded Delta variant, previously known as the Indian variant. Did you ever wonder why they had to rename the Indian variant? The chart below is why.

  

  The panic porn media was running non-stop horror stories about India and the bodies piling up in the streets back in May. At that time less than 4% of the Indian population had been vaxxed. Even today it is only 7% of their 1.3 billion people. The talking heads, and Fauci, all pointed to India as a humanitarian tragedy in the making – using it as their fear tactic for getting the jab. But their narrative fell apart in a matter of weeks and you no longer hear about India on the nightly news.

  That’s because cases crashed by 90% in the two months from the peak in May. And guess what? It happened with no vaccine rollout. They did send tens of millions of doses of ivermectin out to the population. These FACTS do not support the approved narrative being spun by our contemptible corrupt leaders. This flu is seasonal. Cases, based on a flawed PCR test, are already highly questionable. And 40,000 cases per day in a country with four times the population of the U.S. is a non-event. India’s deaths peaked at about 4,000 per day in May and are now 500 per day, down 88% with virtually no one getting jabbed.

  

  How could India’s deaths per million (312) be 64% lower than the U.S. (866) when they have very few vaccinated, have a vast majority of their 1.3 billion people living in squalor, and have limited medical resources for the majority. Seems like a conundrum, and now you know why our pandemia panic patrol no longer speak about India. Just like they no longer speak about Sweden, because their no lockdown, no mask mandates, and no forced vaccination policies have worked spectacularly well, while not infringing upon the rights and freedoms of their citizens. These examples are an embarrassment to the Great Reset crowd and their agenda of controlling the masses through fear and threats.

  After the powers that be were forced to rename the Indian variant to the scarier foreboding Delta variant, it was time to launch a new fear marketing campaign in the UK, where Boris the Great fulfilled his Great Reset obligation to Schwab, Gates and the rest of the Davos elite by ramping up restrictions, lockdowns and vaccine passports. What a good little obedient puppet he has become.

  Cases, again based upon a PCR test just pulled from the market by the FDA, began to rise in early June. By mid-July they had already peaked, just as expected from a seasonal flu. They have now fallen by 50% from the peak. I bet you haven’t heard that on any propaganda spewing mainstream fake news media outlet. Twitter and Facebook would ban these facts and declare them misleading.

  

  A strange thing happened on the way to impending doom, as a teary eyed Walensky would say. Deaths with covid barely budged upward during this surge. When daily cases had reached 50,000 in January there were 1,200 deaths “with” covid per day. During this scary outbreak of the dreaded Delta variant, the average deaths per day has been 80, 93% below the January peak. This isn’t due to masks or lockdowns. The Delta variant is not more transmissible and it is far less deadly than the first strain. It’s the flu bro.

  

  You would think our “trust the science” gurus would actually observe what has actually happened in both India and the UK and give a fact based assessment to the American people. The Delta is far less lethal and nothing to be frightened about. Based on the facts, the cases will peak in early September and then fall precipitously thereafter. Delta is not scary. It’s not deadly. The cases are based upon a faulty PCR test that can’t tell the difference between the common cold, seasonal flu and covid. Real health experts would be telling people to calm down and stop worrying.

  

  The U.S. is currently averaging 100,000 cases per day, the highest since mid February. At that time 3,000 people per day were dying with covid. Currently 470 people are dying per day with covid, 84% below the mid February amount. Oh the horror!!! We already know, based on the facts, those dying are over 80 years old, morbidly obese, and/or have 5 co-morbidities. This horrific surge is nothing more than a fart in the wind. But that is not how our glorious leaders are treating this farce of a flu.

  

  This brings us to more “trusting the science”. These vaccines were hailed as the miracle to win the war against covid. Trump said so. Fauci said so. The executives at Pfizer, Moderna and J&J said so. They declared them 96% effective in keeping you from getting covid. There would just be a minuscule number of “breakthrough” cases. It’s more like a dam break of cases. They didn’t tout these drugs as reducing the symptoms of covid.

  There is no one who got the jabs who thought they would get covid after being vaxxed. Watching the cognitive dissonance being exhibited by the vaxxed is a wonder to behold. They cannot admit they were misled and bamboozled by Fauci and friends.They cannot admit they made a mistake and still don’t know the long term effects of this gene altering therapy. And this doesn’t even take in to account the 12,000 deaths, 70,000 serious injuries and 550,000 adverse reactions reported into the VAERS system from the vaccines. And these numbers are likely under-reported by a factor of at least three.

  The vaccine doesn’t keep you from catching covid, spreading covid or dying from covid. It doesn’t reduce the symptoms any more than ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine. The vaxxed can also carry a heavier viral load, making them even more dangerous. The anger which should be directed at the liars and frauds who touted this “cure” is instead being directed at those who choose to let their immune system do its job. The anger is being fomented by Biden and his acolytes blaming the current “surge” on those choosing to let their natural immunity work. More lies.

  And we have the proof. Israel, the most vaxxed country in the world, is experiencing a surge in cases among the vaxxed, while neighboring Palestine with virtually no one vaxxed is experiencing no surge. And now Israel is locking down again. Are the vaccines causing the Delta surge? You certainly won’t get an honest answer from Fauci & Pfizer. There are hundreds of billions in profits to be made. Just get that booster and all will be well.

  

  The totalitarians never let a good fake crisis go to waste. This faux flu crisis is being marketed to the hilt by those pressing their agenda of medical tyranny, backed by technological surveillance and tracking, and coordinated with mega-corporations and social media censorship police. Their agenda is deeply disturbing and Orwellian in nature. The almost hysterical lies and blather being uttered by Fauci, Walensky, their fawning media acolytes, tyrant governors, and bureaucrat government drones, clearly points toward a more nefarious goal. Nothing being implemented by the Federal government, state governments, or mega-corporations is based upon science, your health, or anyone else’s health.

  This full court press to forcibly vaccinate every person in America is nonsensical, unnecessary, unscientific, and un-Constitutional. This flu already had a 99.7% survival rate. And it is less lethal than the annual flu for anyone under 30 years old. The Delta variant is far less lethal than the original virus. But, those in power are compelled to ruin the livelihoods of anyone refusing to become the research in this experimental gene therapy scheme. The government is conspiring with corporations and social media companies to force these jabs into arms.

  The desperate nature of the authoritarian actions being implemented by the elitists running our country and their corporate co-conspirators is foretelling a much darker truth lurking below the surface. This global Ponzi scheme we call our economic and financial system is ripping apart at the seams. The powerful and wealthy oligarchs who already control the levers of power and own most of the wealth do not want to see their heaven on earth of riches evaporate like a puddle on a hot summer day. This is why they are attempting to install a command and control “build back better” Great Reset plan where they will own everything and you will own nothing,  say nothing, do as you are told, and get your yearly booster shot for the newest variant of a phantom flu.

  The globalist empire of debt is faltering under the weight of un-payable obligations and derivatives of mass destruction. How these “vaccines” play into their overall plan to retain power, control and wealth is unclear at this point, but the frantic, autocratic, and unrestrained shredding of our Constitutional rights over a flu virus should make every critical thinking American pause and ponder what comes next.

  We allowed them to shut down the country, destroy small businesses, put tens of millions out of work, forced you to wear face diapers, created drastically more dependency on government handouts, drove the national debt up by $6.5 trillion in eighteen months, and essentially handed over our entire economy to Wall Street puppets at the Federal Reserve whose sole purpose is to keep enriching bankers, billionaires, and the corporatocracy.

  They reduced the pressure for a brief time, but they learned how gullible and pliable the willfully ignorant masses were during round one of their authoritarian takeover. Round two looks to be more tyrannical and enforced by their police thugs, corporate backers, social media tyrants, and their zombie hordes of vaxxed Karens snitching on those not following the plan. Biden and his handlers are shitting on the Constitution on a daily basis and don’t believe the rule of law applies to them. They are allowing millions of illegal immigrants (many with covid), who somehow (Soros) have the money to fly to Mexico from their 3rd world shitholes, to pour over the border and be transported to swing state Democrat run urban paradises.

  If we don’t forcefully push back now, we may never be given another chance to reverse this downward spiral of a once free nation. We are crossing our Rubicon and there will be no turning back. The decisions we make individually and as a country in the next few months will determine whether we are mice or men.

  Wise men from the past knew the enemy can always be found within. We need to identify our enemy, confront them through non-compliance with their mandates, boycotting corporations supporting the regime, organizing workers to resist vaccine mandates through strikes or mass resignation,  passive resistance by throwing monkey wrenches into the gears of their financial system, and if need be exercising our 2nd Amendment rights. I am not overstating this threat, as this country is being pushed toward the brink by an enemy in plain sight.

  “The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

  

  “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” – John Adams

  *  *  *

  The corrupt establishment will do anything to suppress sites like the Burning Platform from revealing the truth. The corporate media does this by demonetizing sites like mine by blackballing the site from advertising revenue. If you get value from this site, please keep it running with a donation.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 22:00

• Emerging Markets Hit 20 Year Low Against S&P, Waiting For A "Cathartic Event"
  Emerging Markets Hit 20 Year Low Against S&P, Waiting For A “Cathartic Event”

  The old “new normal” is firmly back in control of the market.

  As BofA CIO Michael Hartnett writes in his latest Flow Show, despite a host of stagflationary concerns about the economy and markets in the second half (laid out in his second half preview discussed here), investment grade bonds (LQD) and semiconductors (SOX) are back at all time highs, both leaders of a ”secular stagnation” bull market indicating that the Fed’s reflationary hopes are all but dead for the time being; Additionally, the Brazilian real (BRL) – which Hartnett calls the “world’s best “risk-on” indicator” – is dithering above 5.00 level despite the Brazilian Central Bank hiking 325bps in 5 months (and warning that inflation is anything bur transitory), while stealth “flight-to-quality” trades are observed so far in H2, as utilities, health care, and REITs are the best SPX performing sectors.

  Hartnett then looks at the latest “Biggest Picture” trend which shows that EM stocks are approaching a 20-year low versus S&P500…

  

  … and notes that big lows in EM normally triggered by cathartic events (LTCM, 9/11, Lehman) and while we wait for the next “cathartic” trigger, Hartnett notes that emerging markets are unambiguously where the secular value is, e.g. EM bonds cheapest relative to US high yield in 20 years (of course, China is a big factor here and following Beijing’s recent crackdown on various “non-social” industries – as defined recently by Goldman – the wait for the catalyst could prove to be a lengthy one). Hartnett concedes as much, but notes that whereas regulatory risk has hit large cap China tech (HSTECH -43% peak to trough) where over a $1 trillion in market cap has been lost, the small cap China innovation index, i.e., ChiNext (CNT) is trading to new all time highs.

  

  Hartnett then switches track to observe the performance of various “balanced” portfolios, but instead of the ubiquitous 60/40, the BofA CIO instead focuses on his favorite “25/25/25/25”, i.e., a max diversified portfolio of 25% in global equities, bonds, commodities, and cash which he has pitched for the past several years and which in 2021 is enjoying record returns, annualizing a 16% return which is the best since 1987.

  

  The bank strategist then focuses on the macro distortions that have emerged in the US economy and captured best by a chart showing payrolls (7 million below pre-covid levels) vs retail sales (which as 18% above covid).

  

  And while the market was clear to jump on Friday’s payroll as opening the gates to a Jackson Hole taper announcement, Hartnett is not so sure, noting that the Fed has made it clear they don’t see clarity on payrolls until Sept report released early-Oct.

  Additionally, the recent surge in Delta cases coupled with renewed outperformance of lockdown vs reopening stocks is also clouding the autumn outlook.

  

  Looking ahead, Hartnett lays out a trio of potentially “unanticipated” autumn events which could undo the market’s relentless meltup, including:

  • White House fails to reappoint Powell as Fed Chair;
  • escalation of US-China cold war (Covid-19 origin investigations, Biden-Xi to meet in Rome Oct 30th);
  • stagflationary resolution to US labor market conundrum.

  Putting it all together, Hartnett says that the best analog to the current market regime is the late ‘60s-early ‘70s with persistent negative real  rates, large budget deficits, populist & polarized electorates, an excessively easy & complicit Fed, which led to inflation rising to multi-year highs. Back then the value bull of 1968 (= H1’2021) was followed by volatile bear of 1969 (H2’2021).

  As such, his advice to investors: own defensive quality = good market hedge H1 (peak policy) & good macro hedge H2 (peak profits).

  One final point: in keeping with what his publication originally covered, namely market flows, Hartnett makes the following notable observations:

  • The latest week saw $24.7Bn flows to cash, $12.1Bn to bonds, $4.8Bn to stocks, and $0.7Bn to gold (the largest in 8 weeks) which alas culminated with a brutal hammering gold sustained in the aftermath of the blockbuster jobs report
  • Flows to Know: 6th week of inflows to tech ($1.2bn), 7th week of inflows to healthcare ($0.3bn), largest outflow from EM equities in 6 weeks ($1.6bn).
  • Tech & healthcare: inflows to “growth” sectors have resumed after Q2 redemptions

  

  • EM equities: similarly, slowdown in EM inflows since spring looks to be over (Chart 8).

  

  • Financials, energy, materials, value: in contrast cyclical sectors that saw big H1 inflows have seen redemptions past 6 weeks; same trend for value funds

  

  IG, HY, EM debt: inflows to credit funds (need-for-yield bid) remain steady

  

  TIPS, bank loans: inflow to TIPS rising, to bank loan funds slowing as Fed shifts back to ‘let it run hot” in recent weeks.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 21:30

• New Identity Authentication Requirement For Unemployment Spreads Across The Country
  New Identity Authentication Requirement For Unemployment Spreads Across The Country

  Authored by Beth Brelje via The Epoch Times,

  Pennsylvania now requires individuals filing for unemployment compensation to prove their identity before receiving payments.

  

  In an effort to prevent fraudulent claims which have plagued the online unemployment system, Pennsylvania has hired ID.me, a McLean, Virginia-based company, to authenticate users.

  Since 2020, some 27 states have hired ID.me for unemployment verification, including Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.

  “We are also now under contract with an additional two states. ID.me Spokesman Nicholas Michael told The Epoch Times.

  “Our federal partners include the Department of Veterans Affairs and Social Security Administration.”

  Unemployment applicants in these states must submit to a new, more invasive level of vetting to receive payments.

  ID.me’s online authentication process begins with a request for permission to use details from the user’s credit profile and other public sources. Soon after that, the system requires users to consent to ID.me collecting their Social Security number and biometric data. The user cannot continue the process or receive unemployment without consenting.

  The fine print explains ID.me may collect facial biometrics and voiceprints.

  Users upload an image of a driver’s license or passport, and a current “selfie” image taken with their smartphone. In some cases, a video selfie is used.

  “We use these images to create a facial geometry or faceprint which we use for purposes of identity verification and to prevent the fraudulent creation of multiple accounts in a fraudulent manner,” the agreement explains.

  Users may also be required to call ID.me and leave a voice recording that is used to create a voiceprint. “We use this voiceprint for identity verification and to prevent the creation of multiple ID.me accounts in a fraudulent manner,” the agreement explains.

  Collecting Biometric Data

  ID.me stores a user’s biometric data for use up to seven and a half years after they stop using the service, the agreement says. Users may ask ID.me to delete their biometric data, but the company may decline the request in some cases.

  “ID.me will never share your biometric data with a third party except to protect you or others from identity theft,” the consent agreement says.

  However, the agreement also says ID.me can share biometric data with its clients such as the Department of Labor and Industry to process unemployment claims, plus third-party service providers and “other third parties where permitted by law, to enforce the terms, to comply with legal obligations or applicable, to respond to legal process (such as a subpoena, warrant or civil discovery request), to cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct or activity that we reasonably and in good faith believes may violate federal, state, or local law, and to prevent harm, loss or injury to others.”

  Batches of digital files containing the personal information of each person authenticated by ID.me are regularly sent to the state. The files contain an individual’s full name, email address, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, street address, city, state, postal code, gender, and a unique identifier.

  ID.me tracks the IP address, town, and time when users interact with the company.

  Where Is the Information Going?

  “It’s overbroad and absurd considering the limited purpose the verification is supposed to further,” Jeff Schott, a labor and civil rights attorney at the Scaringi Law Firm in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told The Epoch Times.

  “To me, it’s wrong because you are entitled to those benefits and you have to agree to their terms, which exceed what is needed for the purpose for ID verification.”

  Schott says the law firm has fielded numerous calls about ID.me from Pennsylvanians applying for unemployment. The complaints generally fall into one of two categories.

  Some are people who are not computer savvy and through the pandemic, have been laid off for the first time in their lives. They need help navigating ID.me and worry about submitting to facial recognition and handing their Social Security number over to a third-party company.

  “They want to know and where all this information is going and where it is stored,” Schott said.

  “Since COVID, people are more in tune with government intrusion in their lives, for obvious reasons.”

  Other folks are calling the law firm complaining ID.me rejected them, even though their information was legitimate.

  If there is a problem, ID.me says cases will be handled on a video conference by a “trusted referee,” but Schott said some clients have told him that the video conference never happened, others told him ID.me’s trusted referees seemed more hostile than helpful, acting as if they were speaking with a fraudster instead of helping them solve the problem.

  About 90 percent of people verify their identity through the automated process in about five minutes, Michael said. Applicants’ selfie photo or video is compared to the photo on their passport or driver’s license through facial recognition.

  “If the individual takes a blurry, or cut off image of their face three times, or uploads documents that have issues, we offer a live video chat session—similar to a Zoom call—with a live agent,” Michael said. “The individual can finish the verification process that way. No one is blocked by this step.”

  People who do not have a presence in records, are recent immigrants, or have no credit history have difficulty proving their identity online, he said.

  “ID.me is the only vendor in the country that offers identity verification through a video chat with one of our trusted referees,” Michael said.

  Pennsylvania first engaged with ID.me through an $800,000, one-year contract to authenticate Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applicants from September 2020-September 2021.

  In late July, Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry informed applicants of regular (not pandemic-related) unemployment that they are required to verify their identity through ID.me to start or continue receiving payments.

  There is likely another contract to cover this new service but the Department of Labor and Industry was unable to produce it or say how much it is paying ID.me.

  Labor and Industry Spokeswoman Sarah DeSantis told The Epoch Times ID.me is subcontracted through Geographic Solutions, the company that manages the state’s online unemployment system, which was recently updated. But Geographic Solutions spokesman Donald Silver told The Epoch Times the contract is between ID.me and the state.

  “We’ll have to defer to Pennsylvania L&I for information about the contract,” ID.me Spokesman Nicholas Michael said.

  Ultimately, neither ID.me nor the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry would provide a contract or disclose the cost of this service.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 21:00

• Does The Tuskegee Experiment Really Explain Black Vaccination Rates?
  Does The Tuskegee Experiment Really Explain Black Vaccination Rates?

  Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith, writes that it is bizarre to see the press keep repeating the myth that the Tuskegee syphilis experiment is the big reason blacks are lagging other groups in vaccination.

  But it is also proof of how removed the press and our nominal betters are from the struggles of individuals and families at the lower end of the income spectrum.

  Many people who have gotten the Covid shots are pretty ill for a half a day to two days. Many of our readers have confirmed that happens, and blown that off as if it’s no big deal. It’s not if you can’t afford to miss any shifts, or worse, might lose your job if yo call in sick.

  To put it another way, “What about precarity don’t you understand?”

  Perhaps I am overthinking things, but I also wonder if the Tuskegee experiment rings “Bad Bubba!” bells, which makes it even more appealing to those who want to assign blame for low vaccinations to retrograde whites. Even though the Tuskegee study was a Federal initiative, run by the United States Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control, it was managed by the then Tuskegee Institute, and recruited poor black sharecroppers in Alabama. In other words, even if the top brass might not have been from the South, the front line staff and immediate managers were.

  Oddly, I have yet to see someone who tries assigning blame to the Tuskegee study highlight the CDC’s role, and play out a possible thought process: “The CDC was behind that atrocity. And they are headquartered in Atlanta, in the Deep South. How can we trust them?” Is it that the CDC is now “the science” and can’t be seen as responsible for past mistakes, no matter how horrific?

  Matt Breunig doesn’t get into alternative explanations but simply demonstrates that the popular account doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

  *  *  *

  By Matt Bruenig. Originally posted at his website

  Black vaccination rates lag the rest of the country, according to data from the Census Household Pulse Survey and other similar sources.

  

  One common explanation for this in the discourse is that black people are skeptical of the vaccine because of prior historical events in which they were abused and experimented upon by the US government and healthcare authorities. The main incident brought up in this explanation is the Tuskegee Experiment. In that experiment, black people with syphilis were told they were receiving drugs to treat the disease but they were actually given placebos while the researchers studied the effects of untreated syphilis.

  This theory checks off certain boxes that make it resonate well within current discourse frameworks, but it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. If the coronavirus vaccines were only being given to black people, then you could see how someone might reason that it is a trick. But they are being given to everyone, including over 100 million white people. Are we meant to think that black people who aren’t getting the vaccine believe that the government is poisoning 100 million white people because the government has a racist history of poisoning black people? The racial analysis here would tell you that there is no way the white supremacist government would do such a thing and so the vaccine must be safe!

  Perhaps more compelling than this abstract reasoning is the breakdown of the black vaccination rate by education level.

  

  As with the population in general and every other racial group, black vaccination rates climb in lockstep with educational attainment. Educational attainment of course is also a decent proxy, on average, for income, wealth, and other socioeconomic indicators.

  I would guess that awareness of the Tuskegee Experiment and black history more generally is greater among those with higher education than those with lower education. If this guess is right, then knowledge of historical racist medical abuses is actually strongly correlated with getting the vaccine.

  One of the reasons I am bringing this up because it seems to me that this just-so story about black vaccine hesitancy is actually very unhelpful when it comes to trying to getting black people and the population more generally vaccinated.

  It’s soothing to a certain mindset that is prevalent in the discourse, but it’s totally detached from reality and papers over the much more significant socioeconomic factors.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 20:00

• Did The CDC Director Just Accidentally Admit That Vaccination Passports Are Futile?
  Did The CDC Director Just Accidentally Admit That Vaccination Passports Are Futile?

  Authored by ‘Sundance’ via The Last Refuge blog,

  They are just making up narratives now, and the media are not calling them out on it….

  The Director of the CDC made an important admission during an interview today on CNN.   CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stated the vaccine does not prevent COVID-19 infection, nor does it stop the vaccinated person from transmitting the infection or the delta variant. 

  According to Director Walensky, the only benefit from the vaccine now is presumably that it reduces the severity of symptoms.

  If a vaccinated and non-vaccinated person have the same capacity to carry, shed and transmit the virus – with or without symptoms – then what difference does a vaccination passport or vaccination ID make?

  According to the CDC TODAY, both the vaxxed and non-vaxxed person walking into a restaurant, store, group, venue or workplace present the exact same risk to other people there, so how does the presentation of proof of vaccine make any difference?  

  WATCH:

  (UPDATE – Google removed the video, I replaced with Rumble)

  Additionally, her entire statement makes no sense. 

  

  There is no evidence that vaccinated asymptomatic carriers are asymptomatic because of the vaccine.  There are likely just as many asymptomatic non-vaccinated carriers.  The data shows an equally distributed infection rate regardless of vaccination rate, which is simultaneously admitted by Direcor Walensky, which, as an outcome, is an admission that undercuts the entire argument for compulsory vaccines.

  The reverse is also evident in the data.  There are just as many vaxxed carriers who are symptomatic (ie. sick), as there are un-vaxxed carriers who are symptomatic (ie. sick). The percentage of vaxxed and non-vaxxed people hospitalized it identical to the vaxxed/non-vaxxed population around the hospital.

  In regional populations with extremely high vaccination rates, the COVID infection rate continues unabated. 

  The percentage of vaccinated people hospitalized is identical to the percentage of people vaccinated in the community.

  In Gibraltar, 99% of the population vaccinated; COVID infection rate climbs.  In Iceland over 75% of population vaccinated; infection rate climbs.  Singapore and Israel show the same thing [Data Sets Here].  So what value is the vaccination passport?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 19:00

• Activity On Dating Apps Hits Record High In July
  Activity On Dating Apps Hits Record High In July

  Activity on dating apps hit a record high in July as people who were cooped up for a year due to the virus pandemic now feel comfortable mingling with others. 

  According to Bloomberg, citing research firm Apptopia, daily active users on top ten dating apps, including Match Group Inc.’s Tinder and Bumble Inc., reached more than 15 million users.

  

  Early in the pandemic, users frowned upon dating apps for fear of meeting others who may be a carrier of the virus.

  But since more than half the country is vaccinated and life has been getting back to normal, users are online searching for their soul mate. 

  Emma-Claire Ziolkowski, a dietitian from Virginia Beach, Virginia, said she re-downloaded Tinder after she was fully vaccinated. 

  Ziolkowski said that after more than a year spent alone and working at home, an app is an easiest and safest place to search for love:

  “My favorite thing about dating apps as a whole is that you have access to people you would have never had access to.”

  More insights into dating app trends will follow next week’s quarterly report of Bumble. The dating app recently went public, taking advantage of the reopening of the economy. 

  However, the recent spread of the delta variant could be a significant challenge for online dating apps as cities and states reimpose public health guidelines. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 18:30

• After Russiagate, Why Wouldn't People Be Skeptical About COVID
  After Russiagate, Why Wouldn’t People Be Skeptical About COVID

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone,

  You hardly ever hear about Russiagate anymore. The last time it made a blip in the radar was when disgraced Collusion author Luke Harding published a very thinly-sourced story in The Guardian claiming to have proof that Donald Trump was a Kremlin asset, but other mass media outlets barely touched it and it vanished as quickly as it came.

  

  Looking at mainstream news outlets in 2021, you’d hardly know they’d recently spent years hammering the story into public consciousness that Vladimir Putin had infiltrated the highest levels of the US government, day after day after day after day after day.

  But they did.

  Vast fortunes were raked in off the public interest generated by click-friendly stories about the latest BOMBSHELL revelation involving some peripheral member of Trump’s associates perhaps maybe having some kind of contact with a Russian national at some point. Entire careers were built on this.

  Then the Mueller investigation invalidated the entire claim by failing to indict a single American for conspiring with the Russian government, and the mass media who’d spent the previous few years bashing everyone in the face with that story just kind of slowly sidled away from it.

  And now they act like it never happened.

  The sweeping Mueller investigation ended with zero indictments of zero Americans for conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election, writes @ggreenwald. https://t.co/4KSjNegEyU #MuellerReport

  — The Intercept (@theintercept) April 18, 2019

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  Now I’m going to ask you to put yourself in the shoes of someone you might not normally be inclined to.

  Imagine you’re someone on the political right watching this whole thing unfold. Imagine that from late 2016 to mid-2019 you were watching the mass media aggressively shove this story down everyone’s throat that a US president, whom you support, is secretly working for a hostile foreign government with the goal of subverting the United States of America. The media you consume have been highlighting all the massive, glaring plot holes in this narrative the entire time, so you know it’s not true, yet you’ve still got friends, coworkers and family members who believe it is.

  Can you imagine how disgusted you’d get with the media watching this happen day after day? How outraged? How resentful? If you’re really putting yourself there, I think you probably can.

  Now imagine a year later these exact same media institutions start telling you there’s a novel coronavirus which we’re all going to have to sacrifice some personal liberties in order to stop. We might have to stay in our homes, wear a mask, get injected with new drugs we’re not sure about, possibly while watching our bank account drain and our business go under, and all these media institutions you just watched lie to everyone’s face for years on end are aggressively saying you need to do this and support this or you’re a dangerous monster whose voice should be banned from social media.

  How well do you imagine that would go over with you?

  A study of the unvaccinated in Cda, UK and US found they had “less agreeable personalities”, are less cooperative with others, more selfish, and more extroverted.

  In the vernacular, the term is “assholes”. Maybe it’s time to start treating them as such. https://t.co/TuPeZmBfxT

  — Scott Gilmore (@Scott_Gilmore) August 3, 2021

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  And yet now we’re seeing article after article after article and news segment after news segment after news segment from these very same institutions freaking out about “the unvaccinated”, a new label for a new category of human we’re all meant to have very strong opinions about. The very media institutions which actively cultivated the distrust of these populations are now whipping up public outrage at the people they alienated.

  And of course it’s not just right-wingers; people of color across the political spectrum have relatively low vaccination rates as well. What do those groups have in common? Distrust for institutions which in their experience have an extensive history of being untrustworthy. People on the left who saw through the Russiagate madness would be skeptical as well.

  The sane way to counteract the public distrust that’s been caused by generations of lies, wars and depravity would be a tremendous increase in transparency, accountability and contrition on the part of those institutions, showing the public that they have changed and are working to become more trustworthy. So naturally what we are seeing is vaccine mandates in New York City, pundits calling for forced injections, and soldiers policing the streets of Sydney.

  A study of the unvaccinated in Cda, UK and US found they had “less agreeable personalities”, are less cooperative with others, more selfish, and more extroverted.

  In the vernacular, the term is “assholes”. Maybe it’s time to start treating them as such. https://t.co/TuPeZmBfxT

  — Scott Gilmore (@Scott_Gilmore) August 3, 2021

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  The way people are acting like trust in media-sanctioned narratives should be a given after those institutions literally just discredited themselves in front of everyone is insane. You don’t have to believe anything odd about the virus or the vaccine to understand the distrust. It was entirely predictable that this trust crisis would occur, and surely there were people in positions of influence who did predict it. And now this entirely predictable thing is being used to ban people from social media, justify vaccine passports, etc. I find that immoral.

  I don’t know what’s going on with this virus; my brain just doesn’t work in a way that lends itself to science. One of the most annoying things about the indie media scene in the age of Covid has been gaining an audience because I’m good at logic and writing and then being told by lots of people “Oh you’re good at writing? Cool. Now you have to be good at science or I hate you.” People expect me to either understand things I don’t understand or pretend that I do, and maybe that’s good enough for them but it isn’t for me.

  What I do know is that things are getting increasingly ugly and authoritarian as global capitalism looks more and more like the end of a Monopoly game, and that media institutions have no business complaining that people don’t trust them after spending years actively alienating their trust. The sooner humanity wakes up from its unwholesome relationship with mental narrative, the better.

  *  *  *

  My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. 

  Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

  Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 18:00

• California Judge Rules Newsom Can Blame "Republicans And Trump Supporters" For Recall
  California Judge Rules Newsom Can Blame “Republicans And Trump Supporters” For Recall

  California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has won the right to blame “Republicans and Trump supporters” for the Sept. 14 recall election.

  

  Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Laurie M. Earl said in a final ruling that Newsom’s proposed wording for the voter information handbook does not violate election law – echoing her prior conclusion in a tentative decision before a hearing, according to Yahoo News.

  “The Court finds there is nothing false or misleading about describing the recall effort’s leaders as Trump supporters,” wrote Earl.

  Recall leaders charged in a lawsuit that Newsom was lying in his ballot statement because not all recall supporters and candidates vying to replace Newsom were Republicans.

  During a hearing Thursday, the recall backers also claimed Newsom lied when he said they were “abusing our recall laws.”

  Earl disagreed, saying there was “an argument that this recall is an abuse of a perfectly legal process.”

  “The recall is being held less than three years after a sizable majority of California voters elected Newsom Governor,” she noted.

  Earl said that while reasonable minds may disagree on the propriety of the recall, Newsom’s statement falls within the realm of ‘legitimate political debate,’ according to the report.

  Meanwhile, a recent shock poll has Newsom losing the recall by double digits, according to SFGate.

  The poll came from Survey USA and the San Diego Union Tribune, and was conducted among 1,100 Californians from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4. It found that 51% of respondents were in favor of recalling Newsom, while only 40% wanted to keep him in power. The previous Survey USA/San Diego Union Tribune poll from May found 36% in favor of the recall with 47% opposed.

  Interestingly, Democrats support the recall by a 1:3 margin according to the poll, meaning that it isn’t just ‘Republicans and Trump supporters’ who want the governor out, despite who organized it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 17:30

• Chinese City Offers $15,000 Reward For Snitching On Gatherings
  Chinese City Offers $15,000 Reward For Snitching On Gatherings

  Authored by Dorothy Li via The Epoch Times,

  An eastern city has become the first in China to offer significant financial rewards to people who report public gatherings. Authorities across the nation are scrambling to contain new outbreaks of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, also known as COVID-19, especially with more breakthrough cases emerging.

  

  Officials in Tai’an city, in China’s coastal Shandong Province, paid a resident $15,000 on Aug. 3. The individual reported a company group training in a hotel on July 30, according to local state media.

  Authorities said organizers didn’t report the 12-day training to the local government, and its attendees came from several cities across China. After the attendees’ tests came back negative, they were ordered back to their homes.

  It is the latest of a number of regions to introduce cash incentives as part of a recent campaign to battle the new outbreak. Authorities in cities, counties, districts, and even the lowest government level—neighborhood committees— from at least eight provinces announced financial rewards to members of the public for providing tip-offs about the CCP virus. The latest outbreak started in Nanjing city, with nine airport cleaners infected on July 20.

  A neighborhood committee in Yangzhou city announced residents could receive a $310 reward if they reported others who had traveled from infected areas or had close contact with confirmed cases. A district office in the city offered to pay people $775 for providing information, and would double the reward if the case is confirmed, according to state news outlet ThePaper.cn.

  Yangzhou, about one and a half hours drive from Nanjing, has become the latest hotspot, reporting 32 cases on Wednesday. Although this figure likely does not reflect the actual total, given that the Chinese regime is known for grossly underreporting its virus numbers, it accounted for almost half of the 73 confirmed across the country on Wednesday.

  

  Aerial view of a restricted residential area due to the CCP virus in Yangzhou, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, on Aug. 3, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

  Authorities attributed the outbreak in Yangzhou to a 64-year-old female citizen who failed to inform local officials after traveling back from the epicenter Nanjing on July 21. Before seeking treatment for cough and fever on July 27, she frequently visited crowded places, including entertainment centres used for playing cards and mah-jong, restaurants, and shops, according to state mouthpiece Xinhua.

  Local police have detained the woman, according to the report.

  Yangzhou authorities have also set up a special hotline for members of the public to report information related to the spread of the CCP virus.

  

  Residents line up to test for the CCP virus in Yangzhou in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province on Aug. 3, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

  Chinese commentator Li Muyang said the cash incentives indicate that authorities are under pressure to squash the CCP virus outbreak. But Li suggested officials worry more about their positions than the safety of local citizens.

  The mayor of Yangzhou city resigned on Aug. 2. The provincial governor criticized the mayor on Aug. 1 because COVID-19 positive patients were identified too late, resulting in the city’s situation becoming “complicated and serious.”

  The CCP’s top anti-corruption body punished 18 officials in Zhangjiajie city on Wednesday. Many of the latest cases emerging nationwide are related to a performance held in this popular tourist destination on July 22. Authorities are now trying to track down over 2,000 people who attended it.

  Breakthrough Cases

  Shanghai health officials reported on Aug. 3 that an inoculated airport worker had returned a positive test result of the CCP virus. The head of the Shanghai panel overseeing the treatment of COVID-19, Zhang Wenhong, confirmed the infected worker had been vaccinated.

  “The staff had received vaccines, of course, because the high-risk group must be vaccinated according to the vaccination rules,” Zhang said at a press conference on Tuesday. He added that 85 percent of the adult population in Shanghai, the largest city in China, had been vaccinated, and all airport workers were inoculated.

  Gene sequencing results show a high match of the Delta variant, but it is not related to the new cases in Nanjing, authorities said on Wednesday.

  Shanghai had tested over 68,000 people related to the case on Aug. 4, Shanghai health officials said.

  

  Staff members checking a unit at a temporary “Fire Eye” laboratory used for COVID-19 testing at an exhibition center in Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province on July 28, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

  China’s recent infections stemming from the Nanjing Lukou International Airport have hit 17 of all 31 provinces. Nanjing’s health authorities admitted on July 22 that almost all of the infected workers had received vaccines, except for one person under 18 years old.

  In another coastal city, Xiamen, next to the Taiwan Strait, an airport worker, and his three family members were confirmed to be infected with the CCP virus on July 30. The local authorities did not mention whether they had received Chinese vaccines, but airport workers are listed as a high-risk group on China’s vaccination priority list.

  Xiamen city has completed 93 percent of the second round of mass testing, collecting over 420,000 samples as of Aug. 3, state media ChinaDaily reported.

  Mass Testing Relaunched

  In response to the rising number of breakthrough cases, the Chinese regime has doubled down on its containment approach with mass testing and strict lockdowns.

  

  Residents line up to test for the CCP virus in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei Province on Aug. 3, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

  Zhuhai, a city neighboring Macao, announced the first round of mass testing of 2 million people on the evening of Aug. 4.

  Wuhan city of Hubei Province, where COVID-19 was first identified in late 2019, started to test its 13.5 million people on Tuesday. A “state of emergency” status has been declared in Hubei, resulting in provincial authorities launching strict measures to battle the spike in cases of the CCP virus, which prompted citizens to raid supermarkets for food supplies.

  

  Empty shelves at a supermarket in Wuhan, as people stock up on items, in China’s central Hubei Province, on Aug. 2, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

  The recent flood-stricken Zhengzhou planned to complete the second round of mass testing of its 12.6 million residents on Aug. 6, state-back news agency Xinhua said.

  In capital Beijing, the CCP has sealed off residential compounds on Wednesday, where the three new confirmed cases live. A resident surnamed Li confirmed to The Epoch Times on Wednesday that they are not allowed to go out and were waiting to receive the nucleic acid test.

  Meanwhile, authorities of all 31 provinces have urged people to avoid travel and gatherings while many domestic flights, ships, and trains have been canceled. State media reported that the Chinese regime tightened the border controls, suspending the issuing of entry and exit documents for non-essential, non-emergency travel.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 17:00

• Facing Fraud Charges For Lying About "Nearly All Aspects" Of Nikola, Trevor Milton Hires Elon Musk's Lawyers
  Facing Fraud Charges For Lying About “Nearly All Aspects” Of Nikola, Trevor Milton Hires Elon Musk’s Lawyers

  Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up. Nikola’s Elon-Musk-Wannabe-Founder, Trevor Milton – who now has plead not guilty to, and stands accused of, three counts of fraud for lying about…well, everything…has turned to Elon Musk’s lawyers for help. 

  Milton has retained Terence Healy, who represented Musk when the SEC claimed he had committed securities fraud by faking an $80 billion buyout offer for Tesla, mid-day during a trading day. Healy was joined by Brad Bondi, who Milton has also hired, and was able to negotiate a settlement where Musk stepped down as Tesla’s chairman. 

  Milton has also hired Marc Mukasey, who is advising President Trump on the criminal case brought against his company by Manhattan’s DA, Cyrus Vance, according to Bloomberg. 

  Recall, Milton was charged with three counts of fraud just days ago. CNBC reported that Milton was charged with making false claims regarding “nearly all aspects of the business” – something Elon Musk’s lawyers should have extensive experience in dealing with…

  

  “Prosecutors say that when Milton unveiled their tractor trailer truck it had to be plugged into the wall, the headlamps were activated by remote by a staffer, and air had to be pumped in because there was a slow leak in the air lines of the truck,” the report continued.

  “And yes, prosecutors do say part of Milton’s conduct was video of the Nikola truck in the Super Bowl ad was not in fact of a working truck but was towed to the top of a hill. Brakes were released and it rolled downhill.”

  An SEC complaint filed last week also revealed that footage of the truck “had been sped up two-to-three times” and that the video was “ultimately approved” by Milton.

  CNBC’s Phil LeBeau reported last week:  “All of this started initially with Hindenburg Research saying ‘Hey look, a lot of the comments and claims that were made by Trevor Milton and Nikola regarding the ability of their semis to power themselves, videos that were shot, that they’re not accurate’. Ultimately, Trevor Milton was bounced out of the job at Nikola.”

  The DOJ complaint against Milton said he “repeatedly made false and misleading statements about core aspects of Nikola’s products, technological advancements, and commercial prospects” including

  • (a) Falsely claiming that Nikola’s first semi-truck prototype, the Nikola One, could be driven under its own power, and using a misleading video to create the false impression that the Nikola One was, in fact, driving under its own power
  • (b) Falsely claiming that Nikola was producing hydrogen, that it was doing so at a cost that was four times less than the prevailing market rates, and that it had obtained electricity at costs that made hydrogen production profitable
  • (c) Falsely claiming that Nikola had significantly developed or already completed a prototype of an electric pickup truck, the Badger, and that this vehicle used primarily Nikola’s proprietary components
  • (d) Falsely claiming that Nikola had obtained “billions and billions and billions and billions” of dollars of committed truck orders
  • (e) Falsely claiming that Nikola had developed a “game-changing” battery technology and that Nikola was manufacturing and developing multiple key vehicle components “in-house”; and
  • (f) Falsely claiming that the total cost of ownership of Nikola’s trucks was 20-30 percent below that of diesel vehicles.

  The complaint also says that Milton would regularly take action to try and stop declines in Nikola’s share price Elon . It reads: 

  “On days when Nikola’s stock price declined, Milton regularly attempted to direct Nikola’s senior executives to take actions to stop the price decline. Senior executives received frantic phone calls or text messages from Milton on such days in which he urged the executives to “do something.” Milton also spoke of needing to put out “good news” or some kind of announcement “to get people excited” as a way to counteract price declines or maintain support for the stock price.”

  The complaint also says that “Milton tracked the daily number of new Robinhood users who held Nikola stock” and apparently was excited that retail bagholders stockholders were buying the stock:

  The senior executive responded, in part, by expressing his amazement at how many calls he received “from retail investors today that have no clue about Nikola, other than their friends told them to buy. A lot of hype out there with retail investors,” to which Milton replied: “That’s how you build a foundation. Love it.”

  Milton also misled the public about the company’s Badger pickup truck, the SEC alleged, claiming the pickup was only a “CGI rendering” and nothing more:

  SEC: “Milton’s unveiling of the Badger was straight out of his Nikola One playbook. Milton continued his pattern of touting capabilities of vehicles that [were] not functioning & did not exist beyond a CGI rendering of an illustration created by a employee many months before.”

  — Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) July 29, 2021

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  You can read the full complaint here:

  Update: The SEC just filed parallel charges against Trevor Milton alleging he “engaged in a fraudulent scheme to deceive retail investors” and used his social media to “flood the market with false and misleading information about Nikola”.https://t.co/1XMpaXPHA1 $NKLA

  — Hindenburg Research (@HindenburgRes) July 29, 2021

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  Milton pleaded not guilty and was ultimately freed on a $100 million bond,” according to FreightWaves. 

  The report noted that bail was secured by two properties in Utah owned by Milton, “one worth $36 million, the other worth $4 million.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 16:30

• FBI Officials "Widely Ignored" Rules In 2016, With Dozens In Contact With Reporters: Watchdog
  FBI Officials “Widely Ignored” Rules In 2016, With Dozens In Contact With Reporters: Watchdog

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  FBI policy strictly limiting which employees can speak to reporters was “widely ignored” in 2016, with over 50 officials having contact that year with one or more reporters using government-issued devices, a watchdog found.

  

  The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) probed allegations that FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public information in 2016 before the presidential election in violation of bureau rules.

  A review of FBI records and a forensic examination of FBI devices found that 52 employees had contact in April and May 2016 with reporters who wrote stories using the information. The investigation also found 33 FBI employees had contact with the reporters in October 2016.

  Staffers at the OIG’s office interviewed 56 current and former FBI employees who were identified as having contact with reporters in 2016. Nearly all of them acknowledged the contacts but denied providing non-public information. Many also claimed they were authorized to be in touch with the media, either by FBI policy or by a supervisory official.

  There could well be more employees who were in touch with reporters using their personal devices or face-to-face, the OIG said in the report on its investigation (pdf) released this week.

  The probe was hampered by what the FBI described as a gap in its collection of text messages from bureau-issued devices for four of the people in contact with the media. The OIG asked for the government-issued phones to fill the gap, but the FBI couldn’t locate the devices that the employees were using in 2016.

  Additionally, the large number of employees in touch with reporters made pinpointing the source of the leaks difficult.

  The OIG was unable to figure out which agents or officials were the source of leaks.

  However, it was able to confirm that six employees at the FBI’s headquarters in Washington were not authorized by policy to have contact with the media and referred those to the bureau to determine if the conduct warrants disciplinary action.

  

  FBI Director Christopher Wray arrives to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 2, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via Reuters)

  The same watchdog previously found misconduct by three senior FBI officials for “unethical interactions with reporters.” One accepted sporting tickets from a reporter and lied to OIG investigators about paying for them, a second accepted a ticket valued at $225 to a media-sponsored dinner, and a third received “items of value” from reporters.

  “The misconduct by these three senior officials, and the substantial media contacts identified by the OIG involving numerous other FBI employees, evidenced a cultural attitude at the FBI that was far too permissive of unauthorized media contacts in 2016,” the watchdog said.

  That culture reached the top of the bureau. Former Director James Comey leaked to his attorneys classified information, some of which later appeared in the media.

  The FBI declined to comment on the new report. In a letter to the OIG, Douglas Leff, the FBI’s assistant director, said the bureau has strengthened procedures guiding media contacts. For instance, the bureau has updated its training on media policy.

  There is no indication that any of the employees who broke policies were punished in any way.

  The FBI decided in 2018 that the penalties for violations of the rules are sufficient to deter unauthorized contact with the media, improper acceptance of gifts, and other misconduct.

  “That’s what’s noticeably missing to me—you’re never going to change the culture of unlawful conduct until you actually start to enforce the rules,” Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer representing former Trump campaign associate Carter Page, who the FBI illegally surveilled, told The Epoch Times.

  “And the reality is you have that all the way to the top, you have Jim Comey himself who’s doing that stuff. So if you don’t hold people accountable, how is anything ever gonna change? Otherwise it’s just lip service,” added Parlatore, who is involved in ongoing litigation with the FBI over Page’s case.

  The OIG found found that agents assigned to the case made “at least 17 significant errors or omissions.” 

  One FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to manipulating an email from saying Page was a CIA asset to saying he was not, and sending it along to be used to bolster the case to get secretive warrants to spy on Page. Clinesmith was sentenced to probation.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 16:00

• Wuhan's 'Bat Lady' Warns Of Coming Covid-19 Mutants
  Wuhan’s ‘Bat Lady’ Warns Of Coming Covid-19 Mutants

  Of all the people on the planet who should probably take a pass on weighing in over the future of Covid-19, the woman suspected of either creating it and/or releasing it is probably at the top of the list.

  Yet, that’s what just happened.

  

  According to Chinese state media cited by the South China Morning Post, top CCP virologist Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology – also known as “Bat Lady” – says the virus will continue to mutate, and we must prepare to coexist with it.

  “As the number of infected cases has just become too big, this allowed the novel coronavirus more opportunities to mutate and select. New variants will continue to emerge,” said Shi, whose lab was working with a US-Funded nonprofit to make bat coronaviruses more infectious to humans.

  

  Fear porn or legitimate concern?

  Aside from the obvious value in having ‘Wuhan’s Bat Lady™’ opine on emerging strains of the virus she’s an expert in – note that she doesn’t discuss how much more or less deadly new strains could be.

  For example, there’s no evidence that the Delta strain – while much more virulent than the original Alpha strain of Covid-19, is any deadlier.

  “There’s no evidence that it’s more deadly,” said Dr. Larry Corey, who is coordinating all of the COVID-19 vaccine research in the U.S (via King5). “There is evidence that it’s more infectious and more infectious to others, i.e., more transmissible. But [is it] actually more severe? There’s really not good hard evidence of that.”

  “Becoming more transmissible and less lethal are absolutely what’s best for the pathogen,” said Troy Day, a professor of mathematics and biology at Queen’s University in Canada, who has studied how infectious diseases – including coronaviruses – evolve (via AP).

  That said, sometimes viruses evolve to become more deadly.

  “…in many instances is never possible, to be more transmissible and also less lethal,” Day added – noting that there are documented cases of animal viruses which have evolved to become more lethal over time.

  Some examples of viruses that became more deadly over time include those that developed drug resistant variants, and animal viruses such as bird flu, which were harmless to humans initially but then mutated to become capable of killing people, according to Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security.

  “Flu viruses have developed resistance to certain antivirals that make them more difficult to treat, and therefore make them more deadly,” said Adalja, noting that this has happened with HIV and certain strains of Hepatitis C.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 15:40

• One Man Killed After Homeless Crowd Attacks Couple At Seattle Encampment
  One Man Killed After Homeless Crowd Attacks Couple At Seattle Encampment

  A man was killed by an “angry group” of homeless people in Seattle after venturing to their encampment to retrieve items stolen from him during a burglary.

  Seattle police responded to a hit and run call on July 27 “at a large tent encampment at Dexter Avenue North and Mercer Street,” according to KIRO 7 News.

  A couple had driven to the South Lake Union homeless encampment in hopes of finding items stolen from them when their car was burglarized. The driver told police they were able to locate his shoes and a Bluetooth speaker that belonged to him. They had their 2 year old son in a car seat with them. 

  The couple was “immediately attacked by several people in the group,” according to the police. Nearby surveillance footage showed the driver being hit in the back with a 5 foot wooden pole while another man “smashed the windows of the car with a machete”.

  

  The report says that additional people joined with rocks and sticks and that a woman began fighting with the female passenger in the car.

  The driver desperately tried to get away and wound up speeding through the crowd, killing a man who was part of the group attacking the car.

  One man who attacked the car, Mario Miller, is a 12 time felon in Washington and California. Another, John Rosser IV, was a 9 time felon.

  A nearby business owner said: “It was a car being attacked. Being surrounded by people from this encampment. And they were bashing the car to pieces with bars, sticks, whatever they had. Then the car made a run for it to break through this crowd. One of the guys who was surrounding the car got thrown up into the air and then run over by this vehicle.”

  He continued: “Since Denny Park (encampment) closed down, these are the worst of these types of people. It’s almost the center of crime here.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 15:30

• White House Press Secretary: "We're Not Going To Lock Down Our Economy Or Our Schools"
  White House Press Secretary: “We’re Not Going To Lock Down Our Economy Or Our Schools”

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  The U.S. economy isn’t going to be locked down, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday.

  “This is not March 2020 or even January 2021. We’re not going to lock down our economy or our schools because our country’s in a much stronger place than when we took office,” Psaki told reporters in Washington.

  She credited President Joe Biden’s “leadership in vaccinating American people and getting economic relief to those who need it.”

  More mixed messaging: Despite saying the Biden White House will be led by science and whatever health experts tell them to do, Psaki insists that “[w]e’re not going to lock down our economy or schools because our country is in a much stronger place.” pic.twitter.com/zJhktwYCJ5

  — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 6, 2021

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  COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have increased across the country in recent weeks, a rise officials have attributed to the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.

  While some teachers unions have recently called for all-virtual classes to be held at the beginning of the upcoming school year, and a number of states and counties have re-imposed mask mandates and put into place vaccine verification requirements, the United States isn’t poised to go into the lockdown it did last year, Psaki said.

  “We are not going back. We are not turning back the clock,” she said.

  The U.S. government has been preparing for the possibility of the virus evolving and becoming more difficult to deal with.

  “We’ve been preparing, like boys scouts and girl scouts, for this moment and the potential that there would be ups and downs in our recovery, there would be ups and downs as we fight the virus, and that’s why a number of programs were designed to extend for several months beyond this summer,” Psaki told reporters.

  The remarks contrasted with Psaki deferring to states in a briefing last month when asked if the White House would attempt to reimpose harsh restrictions due to the pandemic.

  But she said Biden would support states if they went into lockdown again.

  Psaki’s new message echoed one offered by Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top medical adviser to Biden, over the weekend.

  Fauci said Sunday on ABC that things will get worse due to the Delta variant.

  But, he added, “I don’t think we’re going to see lockdowns.”

  “I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country, not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter,” he said, referring to the number of people who have been vaccinated against the CCP virus.

  Earlier Friday, Biden touted statistics saying over 70 percent of adults 18 or older have gotten at least one COVID-19 dose.

  The vaccines were developed during the Trump administration but the effort to vaccinate Americans ramped up once Biden took office.

  Biden also warned of the Delta variant, urging people to get vaccinated to protect themselves against it, but said the economic toll would not be as bad this time around as last year, when millions of people lost their jobs amid the lockdowns.

  “America can beat the Delta variant just as we beat the original COVID-19,” he said in remarks made in Washington.

  “We can do this. So wear a mask when recommended. Get vaccinated, today. All of that will save lives and it means we are not going to have the same kind of economic damage we have seen when COVID-19 began.”

  Schools have the resources to safely reopen, according to the president.

  Biden later hinted at new rules under consideration, after requiring federal workers to show proof of vaccination or wear masks and socially distance while at work.

  “There will be more to come in the days ahead,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 15:00

• "One Step Closer To Dictatorship": Joe Rogan Slams Vaccine Passports, Warns Vax May Cause 'Virulent Mutations'
  “One Step Closer To Dictatorship”: Joe Rogan Slams Vaccine Passports, Warns Vax May Cause ‘Virulent Mutations’

  Joe Rogan raised eyebrows during a Friday episode of his podcast, where he railed against vaccine passports and suggested that the vaccine may in fact lead to vax-resistant SARS-CoV-2 mutations.

  Now you have a mini dictator. You have one step away from a king. One step closer. You’re moving one step closer to dictatorship. That’s what the f**k is happening. That’s what’s going to happen with the vaccine passport. That’s what’s going to happen if they close borders. You can’t enter New York City unless you have your papers! You can’t go here unless you have that! You can’t get on a plane unless you do what I say.

  Watch:

  Joe Rogan on Vaccine Passports 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/58leIBUuFp

  — Jay (@investjay_) August 6, 2021

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  Rogan – who acknowledge that he’s not a doctor or an anti-vaxx person, says that concerned doctors have been anonymously sending him studies – including one which asserts that an imperfect vaccine can lead to ‘highly virulent pathogens,’ and that ‘vaccines that keep the host alive but still allow transmission can thus allow virulent strains to circulate in a population.’

  “The very sort of environment that we’re creating by having so many people vaccinated with a vaccine that doesn’t kill off the virus, it actually can lead to a more potent virus. Try finding that story anywhere,” said Rogan, who was referring to a peer-reviewed paper published in 2015, in which its authors – from Penn State and the Pirbright Institute concluded that “anti-disease vaccines that do not prevent transmission can create conditions that promote the emergence of pathogen strains that cause more severe disease in unvaccinated hosts.“

  People are trying to cancel Joe Rogan because of this video where he cites a scientific study proving lab rats are more at risk than those who think for themselves. They are losing the narrative.
  pic.twitter.com/hECK3lsGze

  — Carlos Del Valle 🇺🇸⚔️ (@cdelvallejr) August 7, 2021

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  Watch the whole segment below:

  Meanwhile, mRNA pioneer Dr. Robert malone points out that if 95% of severe patients in Israel were indeed vaccinated, and 85-90% of hospitalizations are among the truly vaccinated, it could suggest Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is occurring, in which antibodies generated during an immune response can bind to a pathogen, but are unable to prevent infection – instead acting as a Trojan Horse.

  If this holds true and is verified, this is looking more and more like ADE

  — Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) August 5, 2021

  Rogan’s comments drew immediate rebuke from the usual suspects:

  And then finally that it’s totalitarian if people have to show a vax card to go to a public gym, and that instead of doing this the government should be telling people to lose weight. Incredible.

  — Jake Flores (@feraljokes) August 6, 2021

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  The fact that @Spotify continues to platform Joe Rogan in the face of a pandemic, despite his repeated use of their platform and money to spread dangerous disinformation, is unacceptable.

  I think it’s finally time to cancel my Spotify account. https://t.co/hLqSNQTPwn

  — Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) August 7, 2021

  Rogan supporters showed up to defend the host:

  I’ll never understand the people who openly support more government control. Give us guidelines and allow us to have the freedom to decide for ourselves. That’s how America works.

  — Connor Earl (@ConEarl) August 7, 2021

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  I love that all Twitter criticism of Joe Rogan boils down to jealous whining about the “responsibility of his reach”

  He has that reach BECAUSE he speaks his mind.

  If you think your personal “platform” includes responsibility for your listeners, that’s called a messiah complex.

  — Josh Denny (@JoshDenny) August 7, 2021

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/07/2021 – 14:30

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