Nov 09

Today’s News 9th November 2023

  • Will The Woke Industrial Complex Ever Wake Up?
    Will The Woke Industrial Complex Ever Wake Up?

    Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times,

    Have you ever wondered if and when the woke industrial complex will rise out of its slumber and smell the coffee? There are plenty of common-sense folks who wonder about the same topic.

    It appears that woke influencers in business, education, entertainment, government, and sports repeat the same mistakes over and over despite being called out by concerned citizens and consumers. Indeed, many businesses such as Budweiser, CNN, Disney, Target, and others continue to defy the will of the people even when public support diminishes.

    In California, the woke industry has permeated every corner of society with its emphasis on identity politics and accompanying speech codes.

    It all starts in public education where governing officials believe that your children belong to the state. If they belong to the state, the schools can teach whatever they want as they create a wedge between parents and students.

    California has one of the highest per pupil spending rates in America (your tax dollars), yet the outcomes are dismal. Test proficiency scores have been near the bottom for several years with no end in sight despite instructional pendulum shifts every 10-12 years.

    Rather than learning fundamental civics and patriotism, students are taught a balkanized ersatz history which generates further division according to color, ethnicity, gender, and race. Other core subjects are also dumbed down to reveal the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” Standards are diluted in order to accommodate the concept of social promotion.

    By the time students enroll in college, large percentages of them require remediation, which puts them further behind those who studied. During my group mentoring of university juniors and seniors, I’ve observed that far too many students have the comprehension and writing skills of early high school students.

    Critical thinking skills are replaced by a fixation on electronic devices.

    How are students going to cope in the real world when they are “traumatized” by folks who question their entitlement mentality, or they discover that entry-level jobs don’t always start at $100,000 a year and they must work for a living?

    Is it any wonder that large numbers of college students have a meltdown over every grievance or perceived microaggression? If they aren’t taught thorough reasoning and research, they will be tossed about by fleeting events and feelings. In the current hatefest on campuses across California and the country, students are ignorant regarding Middle East dynamics, the Holocaust, and the last century of events in and around Israel. They haven’t truly studied the history of Israel or the Jewish people.

    We do know that the infamous George Soros, who has funded borderless border policies and lawless district attorneys, has also helped to finance pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and in the streets, according to the New York Post. He has helped to finance the Tides Center, among other advocacy groups, that are busy attacking Israel with the support of a compliant legacy media and leftist members of Congress.

    If several professors and students at both private and public universities around the state can’t differentiate between the stone age barbarism of Hamas and the ordered liberty of Israel, something is definitely Orwellian in higher education. Perhaps we ought to rename our vaunted postsecondary institutions as “indoctrination centers of shallow learning,” because there is an appalling lack of intellectual diversity on too many campuses.

    When the woke government apparatus portrays nonviolent parents who are concerned about their children’s education as domestic extremists, yet views terrorist groups as legitimate, isn’t something terribly askew with their thought processes? Welcome to the brave new world of dystopian modern Marxism.

    Many “inclusive” campus groups are calling for the elimination of Israel, so why aren’t they being arrested for inciting violence? How could such free speech insanity emanate from Stanford or the University of California system? Aren’t folks supposed to be intelligent to be accepted into our elite universities?

    Moreover, plenty of woke individuals and governing bodies are calling for a ceasefire or truce in the current conflict. However, the cessation of hostilities is primarily aimed at Israel, not Hamas, which unleashed the unprovoked Oct. 7 slaughter upon Israel. Anyone with a head on their shoulders understands that if Israel stopped fighting, the carnage activated by Hamas would accelerate.

    By contrast, if Hamas released the hostages and surrendered without conditions, the chance of peace in the region would vastly increase. Unfortunately, the anti-Israel protestors are oblivious to the track record of Iranian sponsored regional terror over many decades, and they are too lazy to investigate. Without a clear moral compass, they lash out at any convenient target and turn a blind eye to genuine terrorism.

    Are there remedies to the woke apparatus? Yes, there is always hope when the silent majority begins to take a stand against the wrong side of history. We must defund organizations that are antisemitic and stop supporting media outlets that spew irrational hatred toward Israel and the Jewish people. We can also hold on to our wallets when woke businesses ignore their customers by catering to special interest groups.

    It is also critical to encourage competition in education that would give parents options regarding the different types of schools for their children. Character, civics, critical thinking, and merit ought to be ingrained from a young age so youngsters can identify the difference between good and evil. More philosophy and religion courses could be offered even at the secondary school level.

    Finally, it’s crucial to elect representatives that are straightforward and who cherish principles such as border sovereignty, free markets, limited government, responsible liberty, the rule of law, and a peace-through-strength national security infrastructure.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 23:40

  • "Enough Is Enough": Widower Sues Hospital for Withholding Ivermectin, Claims Wrongful Death
    “Enough Is Enough”: Widower Sues Hospital for Withholding Ivermectin, Claims Wrongful Death

    The family of a woman who died after a hospital refused to treat her with ivermectin for Covid-19 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

    Scott Mantel, whose wife Deborah Bucko died at Mount Sinai Hospital on May 16, 2021 from complications related to Covid-19, filed the lawsuit in September. He contends that the hospital refused to administer ivermectin, which was prescribed by her doctor. Mantell claims that the refusal contributed to her death.

    According to the lawsuit, Mantel “researched possible alternative treatments, and he read several news stories about patients with severe COVID-19 illness who had been treated successfully with ivermectin.”

    Despite her condition initially improving after she received the drug under a court order, the hospital’s subsequent decision to stop the treatment led to a rapid decline in her health, according to the complaint.

    “While she was being treated with the ivermectin and immediately afterwards, Ms. Bucko’s respiratory and cardiovascular functions showed significant improvement and she required significantly less oxygen, vasopressors, and ventilator support, which was clearly demonstrated in her medical records,” reads the suit. “As a result of the ivermectin, Ms. Bucko was on her way to recovery.“

    Mantel’s lawsuit seeks not only compensation for himself and his two children but also punitive damages against the hospital. The claim is that Mount Sinai’s withholding of ivermectin after it had been prescribed constituted a breach of standard medical care, the Epoch Times reports.

    Mantel’s lawyer, Steven Warshawsky, says that the hospital’s refusal to comply with the court-ordered treatment, particularly given the patient’s initial improvement, was against the patient’s best interests and the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship.

    “Early on during the pandemic there were a lot of early legal actions seeking court orders requiring hospitals and doctors to treat patients with ivermectin, but here you have a situation where orders were issued and the hospital did not fully comply with them despite [the] patient showing progress of ivermectin,” he said.

    The controversy around the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 has been a contentious issue within the medical community. Despite this, a lawyer for the FDA confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in August 2023 that doctors are legally permitted to prescribe ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.

    “FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” said Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a statement to the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

    Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, who supports the use of ivermectin, has criticized pharmacists who refuse to fill such prescriptions, arguing that this oversteps their authority and impacts patient care.

    “This needs to come to an end. In telling my patients what medicines they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license,” Bowden said on Friday. “They have no accountability for this yet they are allowed to dictate patient care.”

    “I see it every single day. Enough is enough,” she continued.

    The outcome of Mantel’s lawsuit could have implications for future cases where there is a conflict between hospital policies and the treatments doctors wish to prescribe. Warshawsky hopes that a favorable ruling will set a precedent affirming the right of physicians to administer treatments they deem necessary, without undue interference from hospital administration. The hospital is expected to respond to the motion later this month.

    “I am hoping to not only get a good result for Deborah and her family but certainly to lay a precedent which is that physicians cannot withhold life-saving treatments from their patients, not only in the case of ivermectin, but also with other medications that might not be standard protocol for hospitals,” said Warshowsky.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 23:20

  • Sperry: Hamas Ally CAIR Has Been Operating With Impunity Inside America For 30 Years
    Sperry: Hamas Ally CAIR Has Been Operating With Impunity Inside America For 30 Years

    Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClear Wire,

    After Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women and children in Israel last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the terror group “and its allies” could inspire attacks on Americans “here on our own soil.” He also told the Senate that the FBI is conducting “multiple, ongoing investigations” into people affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

    What Wray didn’t say is that the FBI has been investigating Hamas’ biggest ally in America for the past 30 years – without filing any charges. Launched in 1994 as a secret front organization to support Hamas, according to declassified FBI wiretap transcripts and FBI testimony, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has, in the decades since, become an accepted member of Washington’s lobbying community. The New York Times and other influential newspapers routinely describe CAIR as a “Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.”

    Although it has not repudiated its support for Hamas – which is committed to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people – CAIR was enlisted by the Biden administration in May to take part in a White House initiative to fight antisemitism.

    On Oct. 7, the day Hamas terrorists butchered 1,400 Jews, including 33 Americans – raping many and abducting some 240 others to Gaza from southern Israel – CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, delivered an anti-Israel message in Arabic which seemed to justify what Hamas did. Translated into English, it read: “All Arab peoples must go out on Sunday, Oct. 8 – and every day – in demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and in rejection of normalization with the occupier and the apartheid regime [Israel].”

    On Saturday afternoon, CAIR helped rally more than 100,000 Muslims in D.C. to instead condemn Israel for supposedly carrying out “genocide” in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Multiple speakers called for the destruction of Israel – and, by implication, the Jewish people there – by demanding Palestinians take all the lands “from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

    Awad was front and center, delivering a fiery speech bashing Israel and President Biden for not calling on Israel to stop bombing Hamas targets inside Gaza, which he called “genocidal attacks.” He threatened to hurt Biden at the ballot box in 2024 if he does not urge a ceasefire.

    “We have discovered the language that President Biden understands: ‘No ceasefire, no votes,’” Awad bellowed to the crowd, which erupted into a chant repeating his words. “No votes in Michigan, no votes anywhere if you do not call for a ceasefire now. He then led a chant: “Free, free Palestine!”

    Also, Awad promised to provide legal support to Muslim Americans who protest in support of Palestine. “We are with you,” he said. “The people of Gaza rely on your voices and activism.”

    Protesters later marched on the White House, where they defaced the white brick gate of the Executive Mansion with red paint symbolizing the blood of Gazans who have died from the Israeli army’s counterstrikes. Awad is on record declaring his support for Hamas. At Barry University in 1994, for example, he said: “I am in support of the Hamas movement.”

    CAIR did not respond to requests for comment, but without addressing specifics, it has previously argued it “is not a ‘front group for Hamas.’” The FBI and White House declined to comment.

    While CAIR is now a mainstay of American politics – headquartered just three blocks from the U.S. Capitol, with 35 offices across the country – its history reveals its close connections with terror groups such as Hamas, as detailed in the 2009 book this reporter co-authored with counterterrorism expert P. David Gaubatz, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”

    The story began in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan in the 1960s, where Awad and a co-founder of CAIR, Omar Ahmad, were born. Both men eventually came to the United States for university studies. By 1992, Awad was a key member of the so-called Palestine Committee in America, which helped finance Hamas. According to a 1992 letter from the Gaza Strip, Hamas asked the Committee for money to buy “weapons, weapons, our brothers.” The letter continued: “The meaning of killing a Jew for the liberation of Palestine cannot be compared to any jihad on earth.”

    Around the same time, the FBI was eavesdropping on several Hamas leaders in connection with terrorist activities, which produced tapes documenting the incarnation of CAIR in 1993. At a secret meeting that October, Omar Ahmad called to order the Hamas summit in Philly at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Philadelphia to discuss the formation of a new front organization to support their “movement” in America. Awad also attended the meeting.

    According to court testimony by FBI agent Lara Burns, who runs a major counterterrorism program for the bureau, Ahmad, Awad, and the other leaders who gathered there hatched a scheme to disguise overseas payments to Hamas terrorists and their families as charity. FBI wiretaps also recorded them stating the need to deceive Americans about the true aims of their planned American front group as Hamas launched a campaign of terror attacks on Israel known as the “Intifada.”

    They compared the deception to the “head fake” in basketball, where a shooter tricks an opponent guarding him into moving in a different direction. The group, according to the wiretap transcripts, envisioned an “alternative” organization whose pro-Palestinian stripes were “not very conspicuous.” Burns testified CAIR was what they had in mind. During the talks, they tried to mislead any authorities who might be listening in by referring to Hamas as “Samah” – Hamas spelled backward.

    Ahmad would co-found CAIR in 1994, hiring Awad as executive director that same year. Both men have expressed hatred toward Israel and resentment toward their adopted country for helping fund and arm the Jewish nation.

    Burns testified during the 2008 terrorism trial of a charitable front for Hamas known as the Holy Land Foundation. It was the largest terror funding case in U.S. history. As part of the court filings, the Justice Department included CAIR on a list of co-conspirators underwriting Hamas terrorism – though CAIR and its founders were never indicted in the case. The HLF, busted up as the main fundraising arm of Hamas in America, commingled funds, assets, and personnel with CAIR, according to tax records and court documents.

    “CAIR has been identified by the government as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization [Hamas] – a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew,” said former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Jacks, who was the lead prosecutor in the case.

    A federal judge agreed. “The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR with Hamas,” then-U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis wrote in a July 2009 ruling.

    A number of FBI counterterrorism agents were frustrated that CAIR’s national office and executives were never charged in the conspiracy, although the founder of CAIR’s Texas chapter was sentenced to prison. They said politics intervened. After 9/11, they said FBI headquarters viewed CAIR as a link to the Muslim community through which they might obtain tips about terror threats to the homeland. Brass even invited CAIR officials up to the executive suites located on the 7th floor of the Hoover building to discuss outreach policy.

    “We said, ‘These are the bad guys, this is Hamas. What are you doing?’” former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo said, describing how he and other agents protested the special treatment afforded CAIR.

    After CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF’s criminal scheme to funnel more than $12 million to Hamas terrorists, the FBI finally disengaged from the group. The agency stopped conducting formal outreach with CAIR’s national office until, it said, it could resolve issues with Awad and other worrisome leaders.

    “Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner,” then-Assistant FBI director Richard Powers said in a 2009 letter to the Senate.

    But some investigators say the FBI should have shut down the group, not just the outreach program, issuing search warrants and conducting more intrusive surveillance, which they say would have allowed the government to run the Hamas front out of business.

    “CAIR is the leading Hamas entity inside the United States, and the FBI has taken no action to prosecute them,” said Guandolo, who helped lead several major counterterrorism probes at the Washington field office after 9/11. He explained that “politically correct” FBI leadership is hesitant to go after a minority religious group and is overly sensitive to charges of “Islamophobia” often leveled by CAIR against its critics.

    The FBI’s reluctance to roll up the Hamas front has pushed private investigators to take matters into their own hands. In 2008, a counterterrorism specialist led a team of investigators in a daring undercover operation of CAIR that included infiltrating its national headquarters located on New Jersey Avenue in Washington, D.C., near the Capitol Building. Working as interns, the investigators, who posed as recent converts to Islam wearing traditional Muslim garb, secretly video-recorded conversations with CAIR officials. During the six-month operation, they also intercepted more than 12,000 pages of documents CAIR intended to shred as trash. The evidence, which was turned over to the FBI, is documented in “Muslim Mafia,” which also features an appendix with several key internal CAIR documents reprinted.

    Among other things, the book revealed that CAIR employed violent Islamic terrorists, and then supported the terrorists behind the scenes even after they were convicted. It also uncovered an influence operation against members of key homeland security committees in Congress that included planting CAIR operatives in congressional offices. Internal CAIR documents laid out a plan to elect dozens of pro-Hamas Muslims to Congress. CAIR even started holding Muslim prayer sessions each Friday in the basement of the Capitol.

    “Muslim Mafia” also traced the deeper roots of Hamas back to the secretive Muslim Brotherhood, the pro-jihad group founded in Egypt that built a sophisticated network of Islamic nonprofits inside the U.S. several decades ago. The book documented how Muslim Brotherhood leaders wrote a secret blueprint for “destroying [America] from within … so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” FBI investigators discovered the manifesto stashed in a sub-basement of a Brotherhood leader’s home in Annandale, Va., after raiding his residence as part of a terrorism probe.

    Several alarmed Republican members of Congress held a press conference about the book’s findings, warning a Hamas terror front group was infiltrating Congress.

    Besides exposing Hamas’ political arm in America, the book exposed the inner workings of the broader anti-Israel lobby, which includes several leftwing groups aligned with CAIR. This lobby is now revealing itself in the wake of Israel’s own 9/11.

    “The seeds for 9/11 were planted in 1948,” according to a draft of a “Proposed Muslim Platform” found at CAIR’s headquarters. “A resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to be based on recognizing and correcting the harm that was done to the Palestinians since 1948,” when the United Nations partitioned land for Israel.

    Guandolo said Hamas proved just how dangerous it is on Oct. 7. He warned that the terrorist group has already penetrated American society, and CAIR is the tip of the spear.

    “Currently, CAIR is directing efforts at the ground level across the United States with organizations known for violent extremism,” he added in a recent interview with RealClearInvestigations. “Again, the FBI is doing nothing to adhere to their oaths of office and protect the American people.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 23:00

  • Wealthy Detroit Neighborhood Shaken: Family Held Up At Gunpoint In Own Driveway
    Wealthy Detroit Neighborhood Shaken: Family Held Up At Gunpoint In Own Driveway

    Lawlessness continues spreading into America’s wealthy neighborhoods as criminals are emboldened by leftist rogue prosecutors, progressive bail reform laws, defunding the police policies, and other soft-on-crime policies in crime-ridden Democrat-run cities.

    A recent incident in Chicago highlights the concerns why law-abiding taxpayers should reconsider their residence in collapsing progressive cities: Last week, a family in the Beverly neighborhood was held up at gunpoint in their own driveway. 

    According to local media WGN-TV, the two robbers “took the victim’s belongings and fled the scene in the stolen car.”  

    X account Awake Illinois posted a shocking video with comments from the family about the incident: 

    “This could have easily been your wife/daughter/son/mother/you. I ask all of you men who are tasked with protecting your family, when is enough enough? Does the gun have to go off & kill us to wake up & do something about this senseless violence?” the father of the family who wished not to be named said. 

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    “This family was unaware they were likely followed home by the attackers. Please be aware of your surroundings as these attacks are happening with increased frequency in the Chicago area. We support this family and hope the criminals are apprehended and brought to justice,” Awake Illinois said. 

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    This reminds us of an incident in mid-September when two robbers stormed the garage of a Westport, Connecticut, home, assaulting a man and stealing his Aston Martin. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 22:40

  • 'Cave Sweet Cave?' Geologist Builds Cozy Abode In Vertical Cliffs In New Mexico… Here's Why
    ‘Cave Sweet Cave?’ Geologist Builds Cozy Abode In Vertical Cliffs In New Mexico… Here’s Why

    Authored by Michael Wing via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Was it nuclear holocaust he was expecting? Who in their right mind would spend $20,000 excavating the side of a cliff in a steep valley for a few extra square feet of office space?

    (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    A naval intelligence commander, that’s who. And it was Bruce A. Black who first sketched out the plans for his cave on a bar napkin over a few beers with a pair of miners, the Zink brothers, in 1982.

    That napkin plan became the basis for an abode nested in a geologic wonder in a cliff valley of a special type of sandstone—a formation known as Ojo Alamo—located in northwest New Mexico (did we mention Mr. Black was also a geologist?).

    It’s also worth asking who planted such a crazy idea in his head. It might not be so crazy after all, for the native ancestral Puebloans of the 12th century once lived here and built the impressive Cave Palace not two hours north.

    A cave master bedroom with a balcony overlooking a steep 300-foot vertical drop into La Plata River valley, New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    An aerial view of the geologic valley wonder known as Ojo Alamo located in northwestern New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    Some theorize that those same Puebloans built their fortress halfway up a cliff, partially sheltered in a cave, to defend against tribal aggressors.

    Whether Mr. Black wanted an out-of-the-way office space, a cave fortress, or a nuclear fallout shelter is neither here nor there; it became none of the above in the end. Rather, it became Kokopelli’s Cave—or Koko’s Cave. Although inspired by Puebloan architecture in some ways, it’s now furnished with most of the amenities you’d expect from a cozy bed and breakfast.

    So, the Zink brothers used hydro-drilling and blasting to remove stone, carving a donut cavity in the living sandstone. Inside, a large central pillar was left to help hold up the solid rock roof. There was a main opening for a door and a secondary puncture for a balcony with a vista—it overlooks La Plata River valley with a 300-foot vertical drop to the valley floor.

    A rocky path descends into the valley, leading to Koko’s Cave domicile in New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    The entrance to Mr. Black’s cave domicile, hewn from living sandstone on the side of a cliff in New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    At first, this raw, vacant cavity was unfinished, unfurnished, and unused for years. It turned into a hangout where youngsters partied. It became a blank canvas for vandals, and soon the cave’s interior was covered with graffiti and smoke from bonfires.

    Eventually, Mr. Black became fed up and barred the entrance with ¼-inch-thick steel doors, and the place took on the urban legend of some crazy man’s pet project. That is, until 1993.

    Time passed. Eventually, Mr. Black’s son returned from his first stint in the Air Force, and he would continue where his father left off. He would make the cave something other than a bunker, office, or cliff palace. It wouldn’t be a home either, but something else entirely.

    An interior view of Koko’s Cave shows the living room, hearth, and front entryway. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    Part of the cave living area in Koko’s Cave domicile in New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    “Dad decided the logistics of moving his office in were cumbersome, and he abandoned the office effort,” Mr. Black’s son told The Epoch Times. “As an experiment, we moved my fiancé and her dog in it for a year as I began my career as an FBI agent in Las Vegas.”

    By 1994, he had the place finished and comfortable for living. After his son got married, Mr. Black made it a bed and breakfast, as it remains today.

    It’s comfortable but also a geologist’s dream. The textures are wonderous, for the walls expose the sandstone strata deposited at Ojo Alamo right above the boundary of the last great extinction when the dinosaurs disappeared—in the early Cenozoic period, 65 million years ago.

    A view of the living room in Koko’s Cave domicile in New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    A mockup kiva is made to resemble a traditional Puebloan hearth. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    Inspired by the circular stone hearths the Puebloans once gathered round, called kivas, Koko’s Cave features a mockup construct made of local sandstone with an orno fireplace. There are still many kivas nested throughout Cave Palace today.

    Modern comforts were furnished thanks to electrical and other utilities run through a 100-foot shaft drilled to the clifftop above. The hole doubles as a powered venting shaft. Now they have running water for a jacuzzi with a waterfall that serves as a shower. Of course, like any bed and breakfast, there are a kitchenette and laundry facilities.

    A view of the kitchenette in Koko’s Cave in New Mexico. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    (Left) The bathroom features a jacuzzi and a waterfall shower; (Right) A view of the cave kitchen which also includes a washer and drier. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    The floor plan is a free-flowing ring of about 1,700 square feet. The bathroom is the only room with an installed wall. Drainage pipes run inside excavated grooves under the floors, traveling to a septic system down in the valley.

    “The cave was done on a shoestring,” Mr. Black’s son said. “Fortunately, Mom and my sister picked out excellent colors on the carpet and countertops.

    “The cave, due to its natural stone walls, is full of texture, and we deliberately avoided trying to add to it.” They furnished the cave with aspen wood upholstery.

    A view of the master bedroom in Koko’s Cave. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    A gorgeous sunset viewed from the patio of Koko’s Cave. (Courtesy of Kokopelli’s Cave)

    You can visit Koko’s Cave for a holiday, stay in its cozy cave rooms, and marvel on its magnificent view—perhaps as the Puebloans did in the 12th century. The proprietors will meet you at a church parking lot in nearby Farmington. You’ll drive out to the valley and descend a stone path halfway down the cliff to a cozy alcove of an entrance (bring a backpack and avoid cumbersome luggage!).

    Farmington is close, so you can run to the grocery store or dine out. You’ll have to leave your pets at home, as the proprietors want to encourage local cute critters—squirrels, chipmunks, ring-tailed cats, and hummingbirds—to come keep visitors company during their stay.

    Now, it’s starting to seem much clearer why anyone, whether Mr. Black or the ancestral Puebloans, would want a cliff cave for a domicile. Wouldn’t you agree?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 22:20

  • Urban Revival Stalls As Office-to-Apartment Conversions Face Financial Fiasco
    Urban Revival Stalls As Office-to-Apartment Conversions Face Financial Fiasco

    Transforming vacant office buildings into apartments was supposed to solve so many problems, however the reality of doing so has been anything but straightforward.

    This 1989 building near the White House was once occupied by the Department of Justice. Photograph by Evy Mages

    In 2022, less than 1% of apartments built via new construction were created via office conversions, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing data from RentCafe. The dismal figures were attributed to ‘financing issues, stagnating rental markets and other challenges.’

     

    In an effort to salvage the industry, the Biden administration last month said that it would update guidance for existing grants and spending programs to free up billions of dollars for such conversions, while cities including Washington D.C., New York, and San Francisco are sweetening the deal with tax incentives and faster permits.

    That said, the realities of converting office space into apartments, because less than 1% of available office space in major US cities are ideal candidates for the process, according to Avison Young.

    In significant ways, the conversion process is getting even harder now. Slowing rent growth might make apartment conversions less attractive to investors, if the trend persists into next year. Asking rents for apartments have fallen 1.2% nationally over the past 12 months, according to rentals website Apartment List.

    Construction loans are also far more expensive than they were 18 months ago and many banks now shy away from development lending. A number of conversion efforts are on hold because of higher interest rates. -WSJ

    Steven Paynter, a principal at Gensler, lays out the harsh reality: costs are skyrocketing due to pricier construction loans and hesitant banks, while red tape slows everything down. Delayed projects pile up, waiting for financial backing that’s harder to come by as interest rates bite. “It adds a huge amount of cost to the project,” Paynter points out. The lengthy permit process doesn’t help, often leading to costly waiting games that can “kill the project.”

    Meanwhile, the construction itself is an expensive and complex process, particularly when you factor in essential updates such as plumbing for new kitchens and bathrooms. Trevor Martinez from Sherman Associates doesn’t mince words, comparing it to an intricate and pricey endeavor — “It’s like building a ship inside of a bottle.“

    Trouble in paradise

    While the Biden administration and various states scramble to salvage the deflated scheme, foreclosures loom as stark warnings for ambitious projects in Phoenix and Dallas, where financial struggles have cast a shadow over the entire endeavor. And as Ahmad Abu-Khalaf of Enterprise Community Partners suggests, maybe it’s time to look beyond offices for conversion opportunities — such as strip malls, which could potentially offer over 700,000 new housing units.

    “If you only have a one-floor or two-floor retail building, it may be more feasible to do acquisition, raze it and build from scratch,” he said.

    Before: The former Peace Corps headquarters at 20th and L streets is slated to become 163 apartments with a rooftop pool. Photograph by Evy Mages via Washingtonian

    In August, Gregory Lodato, president of MarLo Associates Inc., told the Stamford Advocate that lending institutions are hesitant to finance apartment construction.

    Gregory Lodato, president of MarLo Associates Inc., poses in an apartment building that was converted from office space to apartments along Summer Street in downtown Stamford, Conn., on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2013.Jason Rearick

    “You go to residential because you can get financing,” he said. “I think it’s a trend out of necessity. There’s no sign of recovery in the office market.“

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 22:00

  • COVID-19 Lockdowns Contributed To 'Collective Trauma' Among Americans: Psychologists
    COVID-19 Lockdowns Contributed To ‘Collective Trauma’ Among Americans: Psychologists

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via Th Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The United States is still reeling from the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns and other aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic as Americans have suffered a “collective trauma,” the American Psychological Association (APA) has said, citing a study.

    People wearing protective face masks walk on the street in Brooklyn, New York on Oct. 7, 2020. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)

    While the national health emergency caused by the COVID-19 outbreak officially came to an end on May 11, in some ways the country hasn’t returned to “normal.” according to the organization.

    The APA concluded in the results of its survey, released on Nov. 1, that there are “signs of collective trauma among all age cohorts” in the United States.

    “The COVID-19 pandemic created a collective experience among Americans. While the early-pandemic lockdowns may seem like the distant past, the aftermath remains,” Arthur C. Evans Jr., the organization’s CEO, said in a statement.

    The study found that adults between the ages of 34 and 44 reported the biggest surge in chronic health conditions since the pandemic, rising to 58 percent in 2023 from 48 percent in 2019.

    The same age group also experienced the biggest jump in mental health illnesses, chiefly anxiety and depression. These rose to 45 percent this year from 31 percent in 2019, according to the study.

    Chronically elevated levels of stress create risks for various mental health challenges and wear down the immune system, according to the APA. The association noted that the data suggest that long-term stress sustained since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on Americans’ well-being.

    “We cannot ignore the fact that we have been significantly changed by the loss of more than one million Americans, as well as the shift in our workplaces, school systems, and culture at large,” Mr. Evans said. “To move toward posttraumatic growth, we must first identify and understand the psychological wounds that remain.”

    Chronic stress can cause inflammation, breaking down the immune system and raising the risk of all sorts of ailments, including stroke and heart disease, the APA warned.

    The study is the latest that suggests that the heavy-handed response to the outbreak, which included school closures, business shutdowns, and near-universal mask-wearing, has had a negative effect on people’s physical and mental health.

    Child Gun Deaths Rise Sharply

    Recent research on child gun deaths adds heart-wrenching evidence to the growing pile of data suggesting that COVID-19 lockdowns and other restrictions had a devastating effect on society.

    The study, authored by researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and published on Oct. 5 in a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that injury-related deaths among children rose sharply during the pandemic years 2020–21.

    The spike in pediatric fatal injuries was driven by drugs and injuries involving firearms.

    In 2021, when lockdowns and other COVID-19 restrictions were pervasive, more child homicides (2,279) and suicides (1,078) by gun were recorded than in any year since 1999, according to the study.

    Some see a clear causal link between the explosion in child gun deaths and pandemic lockdown policies, which other studies have linked to a variety of negative outcomes, including delayed health treatments, learning loss, and mental health crises.

    “Due to lockdowns and other misconceived pandemic policies, child gun deaths in the United States exploded exponentially in 2020,” Kevin Bass, a researcher and doctoral student in medicine, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

    While the study shows that firearm-related homicides began rising in 2018, Mr. Bass said that it’s “very clear that the huge leap to record levels occurred between 2019 and 2020, which is when lockdowns happened.”

    The study’s findings dovetail with an April report from the Pew Research Center, which found that the number of children and teenagers killed by gunfire surged by 50 percent between 2019 and 2021.

    Some studies have identified lockdowns as contributing to jumps in suicides, mental health crises, learning loss, and delayed health treatments.

    “Our results show that major non-pharmaceutical interventions—and lockdowns in particular—have had a large effect on reducing transmission,” wrote the authors of the study backing restrictive measures, although the research didn’t evaluate any other unintended impacts of the measures.

    However, one recent study that looked at a wide array of research into lockdowns concluded that such measures can be an effective tool in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic but only if “long-term collateral damage is neglected.”

    “The price tag of lockdowns in terms of public health is high: by using the known connection between health and wealth, we estimate that lockdowns may claim 20 times more life years than they save,” the study’s authors wrote.

    The authors also said that what deserves a “special and urgent analysis” is the question of “to what extent, why, and how the dissenting (disapproved by healthcare officials) scientific opinions were suppressed during COVID-19.”

    “Suppression of ‘misleading’ opinions causes not only grave consequences for scientists’ moral compass; it prevents the scientific community from correcting mistakes and jeopardizes (with a good reason) public trust in science,” they wrote.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 21:40

  • 'We Don't Feel Safe': Florida Jews Panic Buy Guns Over Antisemitism Fears
    ‘We Don’t Feel Safe’: Florida Jews Panic Buy Guns Over Antisemitism Fears

    In response to the rise in antisemitism and pro-Palestinian protests at universities and in liberal-leaning cities, American Jews are panic-buying firearms as a precautionary measure.

    Vicky Furer, a 48-year-old educator from South Florida, told Bloomberg that she recently joined members of her synagogue for a shooting lesson at a firing range in Pompano Beach – just north of Fort Lauderdale. 

    “It’s scary, holding this thing,” Furer said, “thinking of how I will ever be able to shoot at someone.” 

    Across South Florida, as well as across the US, Jewish folks have historically leaned left and pro-gun control. However, that appears to be changing following the Israel-Hamas war, as well as the rise in antisemitism and pro-Palestinian spreading across the US. 

    The latest data from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) shows that unadjusted criminal background checks in Florida were 124,000 in October, up 30% from September. Background checks serve as a proxy for gun sales because there is no national database tracking firearm purchases. 

    Outside of Israel, Florida has one of the largest concentrations of Jewish people, upwards of 740,000. In predominantly Jewish neighborhoods, people are arming up:

    “This is the first time I really feel unsafe in the US,” Michele Lazarow, a Hallandale Beach city commissioner, told Sun Sentinel. He added: “Maybe it’ll finally be when I get a firearm.”

    Rabbis, firearms instructors, and gun shops have told Bloomberg that gun buying among Jewish folks has soared in recent weeks because they fear a Hamas attack and or see the rising tide of antisemitism nationwide. 

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    On Tuesday, a 69-year-old man demonstrating in support of Israel died after sustaining a head injury during a fight with a pro-Palestinian protester in Los Angeles. 

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    Also, Jewish people are watching the surge in antisemitism at liberal colleges and are shocked. 

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    Left-leaning Jewish folks who never thought they would own a gun are now realizing in Biden’s America – that the need for self-defense against crazies is crucial for survival. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 21:20

  • Has Uber Caused More Societal Harm Than Good?
    Has Uber Caused More Societal Harm Than Good?

    Authored by Terrence Keeley via RealClear Wire,

    Has Uber caused more harm than good? After disrupting the lives of tens of thousands of livery drivers the globe over, many believe it has – but those critics probably never met Meshack Andrew and Osman Omer.

    Osman spent 1991-95 living in a Kurdish refugee camp following Saddam Hussein’s brutal invasion of Kuwait. The Kurds have never had a country to call their own, and Osman’s teenage years near Erbil were particularly harsh. After miraculously winning a US visa in 1996, his life has been transformed. Osman and his wife now own their home and make a good living in Salt Lake City. He supplements his income as a receiving manager at a Walmart super center by driving an Uber several days a week. “Whenever I have spare time, I can drive MY customers to wherever they need to go.” Osman feels deeply blessed by both job opportunities. “If anyone told me when I was in Makhmur I would one day own a piece of the American Dream, I would have told them they were crazy.”

    But even Osman’s blessings seem modest when compared to Meshack’s. The hardworking father of four children has more than doubled his income to 40,000 Kenyan shillings per month since abandoning his career as a corporate driver in Nairobi five years ago. It’s not that his life’s become easier: Meshack typically works 14 hours a day, 30 days a month. But because of his industriousness and thrift, his eldest son Simon will soon finish his electrical engineering degree at Kabete Technology College. Simon’s younger brother Steven plans to follow in his older brother’s footsteps, relying upon the same tuition help he got from his father. Simon and his siblings will reap the benefits of advanced technical degrees and life-transforming careers Meshack himself could never attain. Meshack exudes prideful joy, knowing all four of his children will live easier, more fulfilling lives because of his hard work and entrepreneurialism.   

    “The process of industrial mutation incessantly revolutionizes economic structures from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one,” wrote the late, great Joseph Schumpeter. Just as all of our personal weaknesses are mirror images of our strengths, capitalism’s painful tendency towards “creative destruction” is precisely how it breeds improved productivity, higher living standards and greater consumer choice. I can speak passionately to the latter. Over the past month alone, I have ridden Ubers in eleven different cities on three separate continents, all summoned through the convenience of a single app. In addition to getting from point-to-point in totally unfamiliar African, European and US environs efficiently, I made two great, new friends, Osman and Meshack.

    Uber now has more than 3.5 million drivers worldwide. Many have inspirational, entrepreneurial stories like Osman and Meshack. Like Osman, many drivers work part time, augmenting their income whenever they can. Others like Meshack work punishing hours just to make as much as money as they can. Uber has clearly opened up new labor markets, and that new supply of labor has been met with consumer demand. In the US, a quarter of Uber drivers are female. They co-exist with licensed-for-hire drivers in most urban centers, but also service many more remote jurisdictions that never had car services. Approximately 25 million Uber trips are taken every day around the globe. Since its founding, Uber has provided more than 42 billion rides, point-to-point. Uber has created a much larger market, one traditional drivers could have never reached.

    Stakeholder capitalism has captured the imagination of managers and workers alike because many have concluded that wealth generated by traditional capitalism has not been distributed broadly enough. The UAW insisted they had not been given their fair share of GM, Ford and Stellantis’ burgeoning profits. They now have more coming their way. Displaced livery drivers around the globe justly claimed Uber has made their former livelihoods less livable.

    But new markets play an essential role in distributing capital and labor more broadly. If stakeholder capitalism is to have any chance of success, it must remain capitalistic. “Incessantly revolutionizing structures from within” invariably hurts some, but when it benefits more than it hurts – as has clearly been the case with Uber – the common good is served.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 21:00

  • "Dick Cheney In 3-Inch Heels": Vivek Takes No Prisoners During GOP Debate, Savages Haley, DeSantis And NBC Moderators
    “Dick Cheney In 3-Inch Heels”: Vivek Takes No Prisoners During GOP Debate, Savages Haley, DeSantis And NBC Moderators

    In what some have called “the greatest opening statement ever,” GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy ‘unleashed hell’ at the start of the 3rd primary debate tonight.

    Zero shits were given and no punches were pulled as the tech mogul began his opening statement by inviting Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to resign on stage in the aftermath of the disastrous Tuesday night election results.

    “There’s something deeper going on in the Republican Party here and I am upset about what happened last night,” he said.

    “We’ve become a party of losers,” he continued, adding: 

    “…there is a cancer in the Republican establishment… Since Ronna McDaniel took over as chairwoman of the RNC in 2017 we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022, no red wave, that never came.”

    And then the haymaker…

    “We got trounced last night in 2023 and I think that we have to have accountability in our party,” he went on.

    “For that matter, Ronna if you want to come up on stage tonight. You want to look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you resign… I will turn over my time to you.”

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    Vivek then switched focus to the fact that the debate is being moderated by NBC, saying that the GOP debates should be moderated by Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk:

    “We’d have 10x the viewership, asking questions that GOP primary voters actually care about!”

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    Then specifically at the NBC hosts and their years-long bias:

    “Do you think the Democrats would actually hire Greg Gutfeld to host a Democratic Debate? They wouldn’t do it…

    Kristen I’m going to use this time to ask you if the Trump collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years, was that real or was that Hillary Clinton, made up disinformation? Answer the question— Go..”

    Her response…

    Ramaswamy was not done…

    “…we need accountability because this media rigged the 2016 election; they rigged the 2020 election with the Hunter Biden laptop story; and they’re going to rig this election unless we have accountability…”

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    Next Mr. Ramaswamy pivoted to the neocons, slamming the warmongerers and aiming a particularly sharp arrow at Nikki Haley (and DeSantis):

    “Do you want a leader from a different generation who’s going to put this country first, or do you want Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels.”

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    Watch the full , uninterrupted, opening statement below…

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    Did Vivek just out-Trump Trump?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 21:00

  • US Attacks Eastern Syria In 2nd Round Of Major Strikes On 'Iran-Linked' Militants
    US Attacks Eastern Syria In 2nd Round Of Major Strikes On ‘Iran-Linked’ Militants

    Update(1930ET): The US has just confirmed it conducted a second round of major airstrikes in Syria since the Gaza war began, which the Pentagon has described as retaliation for a recent series of attacks by “Iran-linked” militias against US troops in the country’s east:

    U.S. fighter jets conducted “a self-defense strike” at a weapons storage facility in Syria that was being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday.

    The strike in eastern Syria was carried out at President Joe Biden’s direction, Austin said in a statement.

    “This precision self-defense strike is a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates,” Austin said.

    At this point the Pentagon has cited that 46 US service members have been injured over the past month of attacks inside Iraq and Syria, most with ‘traumatic brain injuries’.  

    * * *

    Update(11:45ET): Yemen’s Houthis have claimed they’ve successfully shot down a US MQ-9 reaper drone over “territorial waters” off the Yemeni coast. According to a machine translation of a Houthi army statement: 

    Our air defenses were able to shoot down an American MQ9 aircraft while it was carrying out hostile, monitoring and spying activities in the airspace of Yemeni territorial waters and within the framework of American military support for the Israeli entity.

    If confirmed as accurate, this could draw the United States deeper into what could develop into a broader regional conflict. The Pentagon has had aerial assets flying over Gaza, and the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Further US warships have been seeking to intercept ratcheting drone and missile attacks from the Houthis, with one such intercept having already occurred in the opening weeks of the Gaza war, now having reached one month.

    There’s as yet been no Pentagon or US official confirmation of the alleged MQ-9 drone shootdown. 

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    However, footage purporting to show the drone shootdown has been released…

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    President Biden in a phone call this week urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement a three-day pause in fighting. This was revealed by multiple sources to Axios Tuesday, and Biden’s request appears to have been rejected, given the call took place Monday and Israel has since reaffirmed there will be no truce until the hostages held by Hamas are released.

    “According to a proposal that is being discussed between the U.S., Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10-15 hostages and use the three-day pause to verify the identities of all the hostages and deliver a list of names of the people it is holding, the U.S. official said,” according to the report. 

    AFP via Getty Images

    But Netanyahu on Tuesday gave a speech declaring that his forces were “reaching deeper than Hamas ever imagined” a hailed the killing of thousands of Hamas terrorists and commanders. “There will not be a ceasefire without the return of our kidnapped,” he emphasized in a message “to our enemies and our friends alike.”

    Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had at the same time declared that the IDF is fighting “in the heart” of Gaza City and is “tightening the noose” around Hamas.

    Concerning the Monday phone call, Axios revealed further, “The two U.S. and Israeli officials said Netanyahu told Biden he doesn’t trust Hamas’ intentions and doesn’t believe they are ready to agree to a deal regarding the hostages.”

    The Israeli leader “also said that Israel could lose the current international support it has for the operation if the fighting stops for three days, the officials said.” Netanyahu further voiced to Biden that in 2014 Hamas took advantage of a humanitarian pause to kidnap an Israeli soldier and kidnap others.

    The official White House call readout from the Biden-Netanyahu meeting only said the two leaders “discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas” – but without offering further details.

    Of the estimated total 240 captives, Hamas has so far released four hostages, reportedly in large part through Qatar’s mediation, but lately US officials have said progress has stalled since then.

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    Israel says it was able to free a female soldier during the initial phase of ground operations, while reports have said that in some cases deceased hostages have been found, possibly due to airstrikes.

    Hamas has meanwhile continued to publish short videos of what the group says are successful ambush attacks on tanks and armored convoy units, also showing close urban combat, but typically with IDF ground troops nowhere to be seen. The IDF appears to be advancing into Gaza City purely with armor, and presumably with ground infantry troops staying in the rear until a city area is initially prepared through tank, artillery, and airstrikes.

    On Wednesday Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US stands by Israel in rejecting calls for a full ceasefire. “Israel has repeatedly told us that there is no going back to October (7) before the barbaric attacks by Hamas — we fully agree,” he said. He then said of G7 counterparts, “We all agreed humanitarian pauses would advance key objectives.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 20:59

  • Steve Cohen Plans $8 Billion Mega Casino For Queens
    Steve Cohen Plans $8 Billion Mega Casino For Queens

    Because in his time as Mets owner, he has proven himself to be such an incredible capital allocator, Steve Cohen has now revealed an $8 billion plan to build a massive complex in Queens, near Citi Field. 

    The plan is part of Cohen’s bid to try and win a state casino license and the complex would covert nearby parking lots to a “Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a live music venue, a food hall and 20 acres of park space,” CBS News New York reported. 

    Empire City Casino in Yonkers and the Racino at Aqueduct are expected to get two of the state’s three casino licenses and there is “intense competition” for the third license, CBS reported. 

    Tom Grech, president and CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce, commented: “It’s going to be an $8 billion investment in Queens, 15,000 construction jobs — both temporary and permanent — and a way to transform an entire area to continue to cement Queens as kind of our sports and entertainment mecca for the entire city.”

    The details of Cohen’s proposal were released publicly for the first time on Tuesday, Bloomberg added in a writeup. Bloomberg detailed the plans:

    If Cohen is granted the license, he plans to partner with Hard Rock and SHoP Architects to build the gaming complex, which is being called Metropolitan Park. It would feature 20 acres of newly built public park space designed by landscape architect firm Field Operations, which helped develop the High Line in Manhattan and Freshkills Park in Staten Island.

    It would also include new athletic fields, a renovated mass-transit station and a “Queens food hall,” a Cohen spokesperson said in a statement. The new gaming complex would create 15,000 permanent and construction jobs, Cohen said.  

    Cohen has hired more than 6 lobbying firms and spent millions to get feedback and support from the surrounding neighborhoods. Cohen also faces additional obstacles, with Bloomberg noting that “The proposed casino site sits on what is technically state-owned parkland, and the legislature would need to pass a bill allowing annexation of the land.”

    It is estimated that a casino in Queens could generate $1.9 billion annually in revenue. The state has still not set a deadline for when prospective bids are due or when it will decide on the third license, the report concludes. 

    We’re sure it won’t be long until AOC voices her displeasure for the idea, just as she did with the proposed construction of new Amazon facilities that would have brought thousands of jobs to Long Island City years ago. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 20:40

  • The Unexpected Battle Between Vaccines And The COVID Virus
    The Unexpected Battle Between Vaccines And The COVID Virus

    Authored by Yuhong Dong via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Since the unprecedented COVID-19 global pandemic that started in January 2020, humans have been in a constant battle with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    Vaccine strategy targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus is challenged in the COVID-19 battle. (Shutterstock/Lightspring)

    A series of vaccine versions have been developed and administered globally, beginning in January 2021 when an mRNA vaccine based on the original Wuhan strain was implemented. Subsequently, a bivalent mRNA vaccine was developed based on the Omicron offspring. Currently, the most updated version is based on XBB.1.5 and is ready to be injected into people’s arms.

    Bivalent vaccines contain two different components. One component is to protect us against the original viral strain, while the other targets the most recent variants.

    The vaccine is based on the gene code of a known virus, whereas the lead time for vaccine development normally takes an average of 10 years. Even with the current “green-light” policies for COVID-19 vaccines, it takes almost one year for the first generation to launch and a couple of months for the second and third generations.

    However, due to the basic survival skills of SARS-CoV-2, the virus is always mutating in order to escape from a vaccine. Even before a vaccine is ready to launch, there are always a few mutants that have already found a way to escape from the antibodies induced by the sluggish vaccine, creating the next wave.

    Regardless, the unprecedented speed of vaccine development won’t be able to compete with the speed of viral mutation, as the virus is always taking the lead and will be one step ahead of the vaccine.

    This is why even the top scientists cannot predict how the virus will mutate and when the next wave will occur.

    SARS-CoV-2 Variants

    From 2020 to early 2021, a number of major SARS-CoV-2 variants have appeared: Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Gamma(P.1), and Delta (B.1.617.2).

    Not including those old variants, once Omicron (B.1.1.529) was first reported in South Africa in November 2021, it quickly evolved into a few sister lineages: BA.1, BA.2, BA.4, BA.5, XBB.1.5, EG.5, and HV.1, which each took the stage, one after the other within an interval of a couple of months.

    • BA.1 and BA.2: first detected in February 2022.
    • BA.4 and BA.5: first detected in May 2022.
    • XBB.1.5 (Kraken): an offspring of two BA.2 sublineages first detected in October 2022.
    • BA.2.86 (Pirola): first detected in 2023 and is currently being monitored.
    • EG.5 (Eris): first detected in Feb 2023, peaked in October, and is now declining.
    • HV.1: first detected in July 2023, has taken the lead in the United States at the end of October 2023.

    The fierce battle between the virus and human technology has become a marathon. With each generation of vaccine development, who were the winners?

    First Generation Vaccine: Delta Emerged, Creating Global Havoc

    In January 2021, the original mRNA monovalent vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna and based on the old Wuhan strain were launched at a rocket-like speed.

    In June 2021, when more than 50 percent of the U.S. population had received two doses of these vaccines, the stage was set for various mutants to take over, including the well-known alpha and delta variants.

    A key mutation in spike protein called N501Y, which can escape from vaccine protection, was discovered in alpha. It was also found in two other major variants prevalent during that time and significantly increased in the rate at which it spread.

    Shortly thereafter, Delta (B.1.617.2) emerged and presented even more enhanced transmissibility and vaccine escape ability with its intriguing spike protein double mutations of L452R and E484Q, refreshing the viral spreading and escaping records. It was designated as a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 11, 2021.

    These double mutations in the spike protein cause the vaccine-induced antibodies to significantly lose their ability to bind to delta, resulting in immunological evasion and causing major global havoc.

    The increased binding affinity caused by delta makes it much easier to replicate in human cells. It was reported that patients infected with delta had a viral load 1000 times greater than patients with the original strain. It’s also been able to spread twice as fast as the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    In July 2021, preliminary data from Israel showed that Pfizer’s vaccine efficacy was significantly reduced at five and six months after vaccination to 44 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

    In a July 2021 outbreak in Massachusetts, 74 percent of breakthrough infections occurred in fully vaccinated persons, and the delta variant was detected in 90 percent of them.

    The first round of the battle between the vaccine and the virus concluded with an overwhelming vaccine failure when the first generation of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine met the unexpected delta variant.

    Vaccine Versus Virus: The First Battle Round

    Vaccine: Monovalent.

    Result: The vaccine failed.

    Time lapsed: Seven months from the first monovalent vaccine launched in January 2021 until the dominant delta wave in July 2021 in the United States.

    Since then, a concern regarding the vaccine strategy of generating vaccine escape variants has been raised by scientists, including researchers from Michigan State University.

    Second Generation Vaccine: XBB.1.5 Won

    People continued to witness the declining effects of the original vaccine against delta, even after boosters were widely administered. The government continually stressed that the original vaccines had sufficient efficacy, one time after another.

    Almost all of Omicron and its subvariants have developed specific mutations that have made them spread more quickly while evading our immune response. It has been clearly defined as an immune escape strain according to this Nature review.

    A surprising virus, Omicron (B.1.1.529) surged more quickly than any previous strain and completely took over by April 2022. This emergence of hypermutated, increasingly transmissible Omicron variant significantly threatened the vaccine strategy.

    It harbors multiple amino acid mutations in the spike (including Q498R and N501Y), which significantly enhance binding to the ACE2 receptor. It has also altered the cell entry pathway which further contributes to its ability to escape from vaccine protection.

    In mid-2022, BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of Omicron were the dominant COVID-19 variants in the United States and were predicted to circulate in the second half of 2022.

    Thus, Pfizer and Moderna quickly took the initiative to develop bivalent boosters based on the original strain from Wuhan and Omicron BA.4 and BA.5. They made it within another miraculously short time frame of just a few months.

    On August 31, 2022, the FDA approved the bivalent booster shots of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines designed to target the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, with Pfizer only providing the data on eight mice.

    However, Omicron keeps quickly changing, splitting into even more diversified subgroups. Soon after the new bivalent vaccine was distributed, BA.4 and BA.5 became history.

    A new variant XBB.1.5 began appearing in October 2022 and reached its peak in April 2023. It combines two descendent lineages (BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75) of Omicron. The featured new spike protein mutation (F486P) leads to increased transmissibility and significant escape from the vaccine.

    Not surprisingly, the antibody levels to XBB.1.5 in bivalent mRNA-boosted individuals declined significantly to pre-booster levels after only three months. The bivalent booster vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19-associated hospitalization declined to as low as 24 percent at six months post-vaccination, according to CDC data collected from September 2022 to April 2023.

    The second round ended when the second generation bivalent mRNA vaccine encountered the XBB.1.5 starting in April 2023.

    Vaccine Versus Virus: The Second Battle Round

    Vaccine: Bivalent mRNA.

    Result: The vaccine failed.

    Time lapsed: Five months after the bivalent booster vaccine launched in September 2022 and was utilized until the U.S. dominant wave of XBB.1.5 in January 2023 emerged.

    Third Generation Vaccine: Doomed to Fail

    As of September 2023, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines have been reformulated—for the third time—this time based on XBB.1.5, which is the great-grandchild of Omicron. This latest booster recommendation applies to all individuals, regardless of previous COVID-19 vaccination history.

    However, one month before the 3.0 vaccine was approved, the dominant virus had already changed from XBB.1.5 to EG.5—the “Eris” variant, which spreads faster and has a stronger ability to escape from the XBB.1.5 vaccine.

    Vaccine Versus Virus: The Third Battle Round

    Vaccine: XBB.1.5 mRNA.

    Result: Vaccine doomed to fail.

    Time lapsed: Less than one month from the XBB.1.5 booster vaccine launch in October 2023 to the U.S. dominant wave of vaccine escape by EG.5 or other cousin variants in October 2023.

    Omicron continues to change from XBB to JN, HK.3, EG.5, and  HV.1—all belonging to the huge and diversified Omicron family.

    EG.5, carrying an additional F456L mutation, is significantly more resistant to neutralization by the sera from vaccinated people. That means even the most recent version of the COVID-19 vaccine based on XBB.1.5 is going to lose its protection with EG.5. Since the risk of breakthrough infection remains high, the WHO listed EG.5 as a “variant of concern” in early August.

    While HV.1 shares almost all spike mutations that EG.5 carries, it took on a surprising additional mutation (L452R) from a remote ancestor delta variant in 2011, which had normally disappeared in the omicron variant. HV.1 can further escape the XBB.1.5-based vaccine-induced immunity and is even more evasive than EG.5.

    The same detour trick of HV.1 is also used by JN.1 coming on the scene in August 2023. It gains an additional L455S mutation, switching from the XBB sublineage to BA.2.86 (Pirola).

    The HK.3 virus has played a novel trick. It has two mutations in the adjacent spike 455 and 456 positions (L455F and F456L), thus called a “FLip.” Together, this virus binds even more tightly to ACE2 and is taking off slowly in Brazil and Spain.

    Both HK.3 (FLip) and JN.1 present even lower binding affinities, meaning the vaccine is even less effective than the current version, raising further concerns over vaccine strategy.

    Despite the extraordinary speed of vaccine development against COVID-19 and the continued mass vaccination program, the never-ending emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants threatens to significantly overturn the vaccine’s intended effects.

    This is a tiring battle between vaccines and the virus. The winners and losers are clear. The microscopic tricks utilized by the SARS-CoV-2 virus variants are far superior to the vaccines’ unproven technology.

    Alerts have been raised and major concerns have been discussed by scientists as early as 2021 in top-ranked journals including The Lancet and Nature in addition to Nature Reviews, eBioMedicine (part of The Lancet Discovery Science), and other publications through 2023.

    The common view is that the pressure exerted on viruses from repeated vaccination programs serves as a primary driver of the diversified variants of SARS-CoV-2.

    If humans continue to develop vaccines based on these emerging new variants, there will continue to be repeated failures. How many more failures will it take to realize that all of these vaccine efforts have been in vain?

    It is a time for rational deliberation to pause to reflect on finding the root cause of the viral infection.

    We already have a dynamic shield of protection against serious viral attacks—our natural immunity. Only by facing our own innate immunity will the virus find its tricks useless.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 20:20

  • Retailers Expect A Weaker Holiday Season
    Retailers Expect A Weaker Holiday Season

    This is not what Bidenomics promised…

    Yesterday, we highlighted the fact that retail job cuts were the highest since 2020.

    Amid the early holiday shopping season, retailers have cut 72,182 jobs through October, a 258% increase from the 20,191 jobs eliminated in 2022, according to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

    This marks the most significant number of job cuts since retailers cut 179,520 jobs in October 2020.

    Additionally, corporate America is delivering the bleakest sales reports in four years this earnings season, a sign that weakening consumer demand is limiting companies’ ability to raise prices further.

    “We heard a lot of caution in managements’ guidance during the season and that’s exactly what we are watching for — weaker sales and margins compression as pricing power wanes,” said Marija Veitmane, senior multi-asset strategist at State Street Global Markets.

    “For now, consumer and corporates still have access to credit, but it’s getting harder and more expensive. Once that dries out, we would see more pain.”

    Not a pretty picture, but it gets worse…

    As Apollo’s Torsten Sløk highlighted this week, hiring for the holiday season is generally done in October, and adding up new jobs created in the BLS-defined holiday season retail sectors in the latest employment report shows that retailers expect a weaker holiday season.

    The BLS defines holiday sectors as furniture, electronics, personal care, clothing, sporting goods, general merchandise stores, miscellaneous store retailers (e.g., florists, office supply stores, gift shops, and pet shops), and non-store retailers (e.g., online shopping and mail-order houses, vending machine operators, and direct store establishments).

    This soft outlook is consistent with growing inventories at many retailers.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 20:00

  • Biden 2.0: Can The President Avoid The "Second-Term Curse"?
    Biden 2.0: Can The President Avoid The “Second-Term Curse”?

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Below is my column in The Hill on a second Biden Administration and what it might entail in policy priorities. With one year before the next presidential election, the Hill asked me to project what such a second term might look like for President Joe Biden.

    Here is the column:

    Popular culture has curses that range from the charming (the Billy Goat Curse) to the chilling (King Tut). No curse, however, has more objective validity than the “second-term curse” of American presidents.

    Only 21 presidents have stuck around for a second round. For those, the additional four years have proven the downfall of many a good president.

    While some have actually died in successive terms (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Lincoln, McKinley), others have politically died from debilitating scandals, from Grant to Nixon to Clinton.

    Some second-term presidents become far too comfortable in their second terms, allowing others to dictate decisions.

    For others, it is not laziness but legacy that gets them into trouble. Some feel a certain liberty and license that comes with being a lame duck president — pursuing a legacy with reckless abandon.

    A second term for Joe Biden could easily repeat these common failings, particularly if the U.S. House remains in Republican hands. During the election, Biden pledged to follow a strategy that served him well over decades of politics: to pursue a moderate government that unites a divided country. He then immediately abandoned that strategy and moved sharply to the left. The general view was that Biden handed over much of governing to far-left aides, who proceeded to populate his administration with similar far-left appointees.

    The decision to lead from the left will likely make this election more challenging for Biden, who could well join the other 10 presidents who lost bids for a second term. To succeed, he will have to defend those policies in this election.

    It is less likely that Biden will break from his Cabinet and staff in a second term. To the contrary, second terms tend to be more ideologically aggressive, since they free presidents from the need to face voters again. Second terms are when presidents are most likely to yield to temptation.

    Second-term presidents tend to have little patience for negotiations as they watch their final years in politics ticking away. If one or both houses of Congress remain under Republican control, Biden is likely to dramatically increase his controversial use of unilateral action in areas like the environment and immigration. He has already lost a number of major legal cases finding that he exceeded his constitutional authority. That is not likely to deter a second-term Biden.

    On specific issues, Biden is likely to become more extreme.

    For example, Biden has already been criticized by industry for fulfilling his pledge to hamper domestic fossil fuel production and prioritize green technologies in the name of climate change. Even as hostile countries like Iran, Russia and Venezuela have raked in billions from oil sales, Biden has pushed for greater production by such countries rather than production in the U.S. Despite activists’ superficial complaints, he showed a remarkable level of commitment to this issue in his first term, and is likely to become more aggressive in a second term.

    Specifically, climate czar John Kerry is likely to be given the ultimate “green light” in pursuing new international agreements, as the administration tries to bolster flagging sales of electric vehicles by putting pressure on increasingly jittery auto companies.

    Biden has often called for gun bans and other measures to combat gun violence in the U.S. His claims have often been historically or technically challenged. The range of movement for Congress and the president is limited by the Second Amendment and the individual right to bear arms.

    However, Biden has made gun control a major part of his legacy. He is expected to pursue new legislation in Congress or, if the Democrats do not control the legislative branch, unilateral action through federal agencies. We saw the later type of measures recently when the administration imposed a moratorium on gun exports to much of the world, pending further review about where such guns would be used.

    Biden has faced withering criticism over his immediate moves after taking office to dismantle Trump measures along the border and to stop any additional building of segments of the wall, despite the rusting border material left at the border. Rather than build the wall, the administration sold the wall material for scrap, at a fraction of its value. As with the fossil fuel policies, the commitment has been impressive, given the public backlash with an election looming.

    It is not clear whether a second term will make Biden more or less likely to crack down on the southern border.

    The good money says that he will be more likely to yield to his party’s far-left in pursuing paths to employment, citizenship and other measures for undocumented persons.

    Across the country, Democrats are running on abortion rights. Biden has rallied his supporters to the pro-choice cause. With a sizable number of Democratic members making this a priority, it is likely that Biden will double down on unilateral actions to target states that have passed limits on abortion, while continuing an equally aggressive effort in the courts to reverse or curtail current precedent.

    The other issue that concerns me most, as someone associated with the free speech community, is the impact that a second Biden term would have on the First Amendment. Biden in his first term has proven the most hostile president toward free speech since John Adams. His administration has maintained a massive system committed to the monitoring and censorship of social media.

    This elaborate system recently led to a court finding an unprecedented, “Orwellian” attack on free speech. Free of the pressure of a new election, Biden is likely to double down on such efforts to limit what his administration views as “disinformation, malinformation, and misinformation” in areas ranging from climate change to election fraud to transgender policy.

    For a second-term president, what is past is prelude. Biden is likely to move even more boldly to the left, where he has laid the foundation for his presidency. In his first term, Biden had every reason to fulfill his pledge to lead from the center, yet chose not to do so despite dismal popularity levels.

    A shift now to the center would muddle his legacy and make him appear opportunistic in his prior appeal to the far-left.

    The odds favor more of the same, as Biden seeks to seal a legacy as the greenest, most anti-gun and most pro-abortion-rights president in history.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 19:40

  • Used Vehicle Prices Record Largest Maximum Drawdown In History 
    Used Vehicle Prices Record Largest Maximum Drawdown In History 

    Auto research firm Cox Automotive – the owner of the closely followed Manheim price index – published new data this week for October that shows wholesale used-vehicle prices continue to slide and have reached the lowest levels since April 2021. 

    The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index stood at 209.4 in October, down 2.3% from September. The index is down 4% from a year ago. These wholesale prices filter into the retail side of the market with a slight lag.  

    “October revealed some not-so-spooky price moves, namely a reversal of the gains that were seen during the prior two months,” said Chris Frey, senior manager of Economic and Industry Insights for Cox Automotive.

    Frey continued, “This confirms the caution that was mentioned last month The UAW strike, avoiding one action that could have led to higher wholesale prices. October’s price decline is eerily similar to last October’s 2.2% drop, and this was not unexpected as the market remains balanced. Wholesale vehicle values typically experience some modest increases during the holiday season, and with two months remaining, we could see some upward price movements.” 

    Charles Schwab Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders was the first to point out on social media platform X that the Manheim price index has “extended its maximum drawdown to -18%, which is largest in index’s history.” 

    X user CarDealershipGuy said the “strikes [UAW] are over” and “now back to reality.” He said used car demand is waning. 

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

    Sliding demand comes as Bankrate data shows the average borrowing rates for used cars have surged from around 3.85% in Feb. 2022 to 7.3% this month. A rate shock like this – with used car prices still above pre-Covid highs has sparked an affordability crisis among consumers. 

    The most significant drawdown in history for wholesale used car prices only means that more and more Americans who panic-bought cars during Covid peak will find themselves underwater in auto loans. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 19:20

  • White House Admits "Many, Many Thousands Of Innocents" Killed In Gaza, Still Says "No Conditions" On Military Aid To Israel
    White House Admits “Many, Many Thousands Of Innocents” Killed In Gaza, Still Says “No Conditions” On Military Aid To Israel

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    The White House acknowledged on Monday that the US-backed Israeli onslaught on Gaza has killed “many, many thousands of innocent people” as the Biden administration continues unconditional support for Israel’s war.

    The comments were made by White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who previously told reporters to expect that Israel would continue to kill innocent civilians.

    Image via AP

    Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday that at least 10,328 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,237 children. Thousands more are missing and presumed to be under the rubble.

    The Biden administration has cast doubt on the numbers coming from Gaza’s Health Ministry but is not denying civilians are being killed on a massive scale. Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder has also acknowledged that “thousands” of civilians have been killed.

    Despite the grim death toll, the US still refuses to place any limits on Israel’s use of American weapons. When asked on Tuesday about the civilian casualties, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, “We don’t put conditions on weapons that we’re sending or that Israel is using.” 

    Here’s the exchange from the DoD transcript below:

    Q: And separately, yesterday, General Ryder acknowledged that thousands of civilians in Gaza have been killed from Israel’s attacks, and at the same — in the same briefing, also acknowledged that the U.S. is not putting any conditions on the weapons its sending. Is the Pentagon comfortable with the fact that the weapons it’s sending could be used to kill civilians?

    MS. SINGH: Well, we don’t put conditions on weapons that we’re — that we’re sending or that Israel is using, but I can tell you, in all of our — both public and — and private conversations, the Secretary and this administration has been very clear that humanitarian law, proportionality, always be taken into consideration when conducting any type of response within Gaza.

    The administration is also refusing to disclose the types of weapons it’s sending to Israel. Kirby said in an October 23 press briefing that the US is shipping military equipment to Israel “on a near daily basis” but that the administration won’t detail what Israel’s receiving “for their own operational security purposes.”

    Tensions have also been growing in the State Department’s press briefings over the soaring Gaza civilian death toll, as the below demonstrates:

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

    While US weapons shipments to Israel are shrouded in secrecy, a report from The Intercept noted that the Pentagon has been releasing fact sheets detailing the weapons and numbers of rounds the US has been providing Ukraine.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 19:00

  • Trump Net Worth Jumps $500 Million Since Leaving White House
    Trump Net Worth Jumps $500 Million Since Leaving White House

    As former President Donald Trump stands trial in New York on charges of inflating his wealth by billions of dollars, his net worth has come back into the spotlight.

    According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Trump’s fortune went from $2.6 billion in 2021 to $3.1 billion, a jump of $500 million, Bloomberg reports.

    Despite the sluggish real estate market, Trump’s businesses have demonstrated considerable resilience. Notably, revenues at his golf courses have soared by more than 50% since 2019, reflecting a surge in profitability. This financial buoyancy coincides with Trump’s move to Florida, which has experienced a real estate boom, benefiting properties such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach and the Doral resort in Miami. Additionally, the liquidation of his Washington hotel and the reduction of loans have left Trump with a robust financial standing, featuring more liquidity and less debt than at any previous point in the past decade.

    “The company has never been stronger and never been better,” said Eric Trump, EVP of the Trump Organization, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We have the most cash and the lowest debt. We are in a fantastic spot.”

    The ongoing trial dissecting Trump’s financial disclosures. While Trump claims his assets are worth  $4.5 billion, Bloomberg’s calculations have consistently been lower. The state of New York has accused Trump of inflating his fortune, adding intensity to the trial’s proceedings.

    Trump argued in court that the properties accused of being overvalued are, in fact, undervalued when considering the premium his brand contributes to their market value. He also suggested that his financial statements were not a pivotal factor for banks when deciding on his loans.

    “They just weren’t a very important element in banks’ decision-making process,” Trump told the court. “And we’ll explain that as this trial goes along.”

    Mar-a-Lago, for example, was valued by Trump in 2021 at $612.1 million, while Bloomberg has it at $240 million, and the state of New York has it at $27.6 million.

    According to Florida realtor Liza Pulitzer, New York’s estimated value for Mar-a-Lago “was a shock to the real estate community and anybody with any understanding of the island and its values.”

    That assumes a buyer views it as a single-family residence. It’s currently not zoned for such use, though Trump is able to reside there through a loophole designating himself an employee.

    Trump’s legal team engaged an expert witness who argued that a future buyer could do the same thing. And if they didn’t like the idea of sharing their property with others, they could reduce the club to a membership of one. Still, it’s unclear if Palm Beach would allow that without a change to its zoning status.

    Historically, Mar-a-Lago never made much money for the Trump organization, but that seems to be changing. It took in about $41 million in revenue last year, according to Trump’s most recent ethics disclosure, compared with $21 million in 2019. -Bloomberg

    Meanwhile, Trump valued his penthouse apartment at Trump Tower at $131.3 million, while Bloomberg has it at $40 million, and New York hasn’t weighed in.

    Trump Tower in New York City.Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    Trump’s trial could set precedent for future disputes involving high-profile properties.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 18:40

  • Democrats Should Propose Alternative Offsets
    Democrats Should Propose Alternative Offsets

    Authored by Bill King via RealClear Wire,

    Last week, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $14.3 billion aid package to Israel, paired with a corresponding cut in the increased funding for the IRS included in the Inflation Control Act passed last year. The bill was almost unanimously opposed by Democrats, who lashed out at the new speaker and Republicans for holding aid to Israel hostage to providing tax cuts to the wealthy.

    The bill, which will be dead on arrival at the U.S. Senate, was mostly partisan theatrics, with Republicans attempting to placate their base that is pro-Israel but hates more funding for the IRS. Democrats, however, played along with the theatrics when they could have begun a serious conversation about our national debt.

    After all, it did just exceed $33 trillion and now equates to 123% of our gross domestic product. While that is down slightly from stratospheric levels at the height of the pandemic, these are levels we have not seen since WWII. So, I am completely okay with members of Congress insisting that any new spending be offset by cutting spending somewhere else.

    However, I do not agree with the Republicans’ proposal to reduce IRS enforcement. I pay my taxes and I suspect that the vast majority of you do as well. When someone is not paying their taxes that means that you and I must pay more.

    Many economists estimate that as much as 10% of our economy is conducted underground and is never taxed. Much of this is in the illicit drug and human trafficking trades. But there is also a large independent contractor community that largely does not pay the same income and payroll taxes that you and I do. At a GDP of about $28 trillion, if the 10% estimates are accurate, that is $2.8 trillion escaping taxation. The federal government collects about 20% for every dollar of GDP, so taxing the $2.8 trillion in the underground economy could yield as much as $500-600 billion annually. By the way, that would be enough to cut our current annual deficit in half.

    But beyond those completely avoiding taxation in the shadows, there is plenty of other fudging that goes on in the preparation of tax returns. For many years, I practiced commercial litigation. In a number of cases, I had the opportunity to review tax returns of prominent and successful individuals as part of the discovery process. I saw all kinds of schemes to reduce their tax bills that would not stand up in an audit. I saw one case where a couple owned a vacation home in a family limited partnership and wrote off the expenses as if it was a business. I saw another where the owners of a private company wrote off all of the expenses of their corporate jet, yet the logs showed that it was routinely used for purely personal trips.

    Those in the underground economy and those fudging their tax returns do so, and almost always get away with it, because the IRS is overwhelmed and only audits a tiny fraction, about .04% of returns filed. I am perfectly fine with Congress setting limits on the kinds of returns that can be audited – say only those over $500,000 and those failing to report their income altogether. But to just say we are going to starve the IRS of resources so they cannot enforce our tax laws is self-defeating and grossly unfair to those of us who do pay our taxes.

    And it’s not as though there aren’t plenty of other places to cut or loopholes to plug – loopholes which ultimately have the same effect as spending. For example, the carried interest loophole, which allows private equity investors to treat an interest they receive for putting to together a deal as a capital gain instead of regular income, costs the federal government as much as $18 billion annually – enough to fund the aid to Israel by itself.

    Of course, the cost of the aid to Israel, even if you throw in the aid to Ukraine and some money for the southern border (all of which enjoy widespread, bi-partisan support), are a rounding error on our national debt and deficits going forward. The Congressional Budget Office’s current baseline projections are that the federal government will run up another $15 trillion in debt this decade, mostly driven by the rising costs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The entire package proposed by Biden for Israel, Ukraine, and the border is only about 7% of the deficit this year and .05% of the deficit projected for this decade.

    Until we start talking about the fact that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are not sustainable in their current forms, any discussion about the national debt and deficits is mostly partisan noise. But you must start somewhere. So, let’s hear it, Democrats. What is your alternative proposed offset to provide this aid to Israel and Ukraine and to strengthen our southern border?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 11/08/2023 – 18:20

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