Today’s News 9th October 2022

• In The Matrix? Cosmologist Explains How Humans Could Be Living In A Simulated Universe Beyond Perception
  In The Matrix? Cosmologist Explains How Humans Could Be Living In A Simulated Universe Beyond Perception

  Authored by Geraint Lewis via The Conversation,

  As a cosmologist, I often carry around a universe or two in my pocket. Not entire, infinitely large universes, but maybe a few billion light years or so across. Enough to be interesting.

  Of course, these are not “real” universes; rather they are universes I have simulated on a computer.

  The basic idea of simulating a universe is quite simple.

  You need “initial conditions” which, for me, is the state of the universe just after the Big Bang.

  To this, you add the laws of physics, such as: how gravity pulls on mass, how gas flows into galaxies, and how stars are born, live, and die.

  You press “go,” and then sit back as the computer calculates all of the complex interactions, and evolves the universe over cosmic time.

  A wonderful description by Andrew Pontzen on how astronomers synthesize and study their very own galaxies and universes.

  What’s more fun is playing “Master of the Universe,” and messing about with the laws of physics, such as changing the properties of gravity, or how black holes swallow matter. Waiting to see the outcome of these mutated universes is always interesting.

  I know in my heart that these universes are nothing more than ones and zeros buried within my computer, but in the movies I make of my evolving galaxies and clusters, and the one embedded further down in this article, I can see the mass moving around. It looks real!

  Computer simulations of complex phenomena are everywhere in science, and cosmologists aren’t the only ones that marvel at synthetic chunks of the real universe.

  It is equally inspiring to watch the flow of air around a newly-designed wing, or how individual molecules make their way through a biological membrane, and such simulations have revolutionized science.

  Of course, these advances have only occurred with the growth of computer power over the last few decades, and the push is always towards the inclusion of more complex physics over an immense range of scales, from the cosmological to the quantum.

  We are always limited by the power of computing, but as computers get bigger and faster, so does the detail within our synthetic universes.

  Cosmologists aren’t the only ones that marvel at synthetic chunks of the real universe.

  But let’s imagine a time in the future, a time when computers are powerful enough to fully simulate a human brain, with its vast array of interconnected neurons.

  These neurons obey the laws of physics, and fire as their chemical balances change. Thoughts would echo around this synthetic brain, with electrical signals coursing backwards and forwards.

  Not being a philosopher, I will ignore the (seemingly endless) debates about free will and consciousness, but if you take a purely mechanical view of the human brain, the synthetic brain will be as “alive” as the organic brain that made it.

  Fed with the stimulus from a synthetic body interacting with a synthetic universe, it will experience pain and fear, happiness and love, even boredom and drowsiness.

  There are, in fact, some who believe we will all be reborn in a glorious future, where computers are powerful enough to recreate everyone who has ever lived, and then sustain them for eternity.

  While this vision of heaven is touted as the Final Anthropic Principle, some have more bluntly labelled it the “Completely Ridiculous Anthropic Principle,” or C.R.A.P.

  But we may not have to wait until the distant future!

  In simulations, I can see the mass moving around. It looks real!

  To quote the late, great Douglas Adams, “There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

  Not that someone on Earth, or even within our universe, has created a truly synthetic universe, complete with beings that are clueless to the fact they are nothing but part of a computer experiment.

  No, the startling realization is that we—our very existence, every thing we have seen, have experienced, or will ever experience—might be nothing but the chugging of bits in an unimaginable supercomputer.

  As I type this on a laptop, and stare out the train window at the station rolling past, at the people, the trees, the dirt on the ground, surely I would know if I was part of a computer program?

  But then again, my brain is simply processing inputs, and if the simulated inputs fed into my simulated brain are good enough, how would I know?

  It is important to remember that this picture is different to the “Brain-in-a-vat” presented in the Matrix movies. There, an organic brain is fed information, recreating the synthetic world in which the characters find themselves.

  Instead, our picture is that there is no organic brain. We are part of the matrix itself.

  So, how can we know if we are part of a computer simulation?

  It is important to remember our earthly computers are limited in the way they can represent real numbers, holding only a finite number of digits for typical calculations.

  What this means is that my simulated universes are quantized, in some sense, with the limited resolution imprinted in the details of the structure that is produced.

  If we are living in a computer simulation, then maybe such resolution effects are apparent to us. Our world doesn’t look like the Minecraft universe, and so we expect the resolution scale to be smaller than the scale of individual atoms, rather than large, cubed blocks the size of footballs.

  Just last month, researchers from the University of Bonn, Germany, suggested we can detect such “chunkiness” of the small scale by looking how high-energy particles, known as cosmic rays, traverse huge distances in the universe. As these rays bounce through this space, their energy properties get modified, and by looking at what arrives on Earth, we can work out the size of the chunks.

  But there are problems with this idea.

  Firstly, we are working under the assumption that the computer we live in operates like an everyday computer. But these everyday computers are governed by the laws of physics of the synthetic universe in which we reside.

  The unimaginably powerful computer that hosts our universe may operate in ways we cannot even think about.

  The resolution scale of our universe is considerably smaller than in the “chunky” Minecraft universe.

  Another problem is that those trying to understand the nature of the very small have already proposed a quantized backdrop of space and time in which we live.

  Is the existence of such a space-time simply a property of a real universe, or the tell-tale sign of a synthetic one? How can we ever tell them apart? Do we even want to?

  One way of potentially detecting the real nature of the universe is to search for the extraordinary—or, in the words of my children, who play video games, “glitches”—where the program doesn’t do as expected.

  Perhaps some of the unexplained things we cannot yet explain are simply glitches in the program (although I am a fan of illusionist Derren Brown and think the human mind can be easily tricked).

  

  The other alternative is more drastic.

  When my synthetic universes are running, they can abruptly come to a halt for a variety of reasons, such as disk-space filling up, errors in the memory, or something as simple as the cleaner unplugging the computer to vacuum the floor.

  If my synthetic universe is running when the power goes out, it simply ceases to exist.

  I do hope the cleaners of our potential-hyperdimensional-universe-simulating overlords are more careful.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 23:45

• Where To Find Water On Mars
  Where To Find Water On Mars

  The hunt for water on Mars has always been a point of interest for researchers.

  Earth has life almost everywhere water exists. Water is an ideal target for finding lifeforms, like microbes, that may exist on other planets.

  And if Mars is to become a future home, knowing where water exists will be necessary for our survival.

  Both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have special instruments searching for water on the red planet. After 10 years of in-depth investigation, their latest findings suggest a new “water map” for Mars.

  Where Did the Water Go?

  Many people know Mars as a dry and dusty planet, but it hasn’t always been that way.

  Approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago, Mars had a massive ocean called Oceanus Borealis. It dominated the northern hemisphere of the planet. Specific planetary conditions at that time let water exist on its surface. Changes in temperature, climate, and geology over the years gradually pushed water out to the atmosphere or into the ground.

  Up to 99% of this ocean water is trapped within the planet’s crust, locked within special rocks called hydrous minerals.

  Hydrous Minerals

  Hydrous minerals are essentially rocks that have water (or its two main elements, hydrogen and oxygen), incorporated into their chemical structure.

  There are four main classes of hydrous minerals: silicates, sulfates, silicas, and carbonates. While these minerals look pretty similar to the naked eye, their chemical compositions and structural arrangements vary. They are detectable by sophisticated equipment and can tell scientists how water geologically changes over time.

  The new water map of Mars actually highlights the location of these hydrous minerals. It is a geological map of the rocks that are holding what remains of Mars’s ancient ocean.

  Other Sources of Water on Mars

  Despite being a “graveyard” for the bulk of the planet’s ocean, hydrous minerals are not the only source of water on Mars.

  Water ice is present at both of Mars’s poles. The northern polar ice cap contains the only visible water on the planet, while the southern pole covers its water with a frozen carbon-dioxide cap.

  In 2020, radar analyses suggested the presence of liquid water, potentially part of a network of underground saltwater lakes, close to the southern pole. In 2022, new evidence for this liquid water suggested that the planet may still be geothermally active.

  More frozen water may be locked away in the deep subsurface, far below what current surveying equipment is able to inspect.

  Mapping Out the Next Missions

  The new water map is highlighting areas of interest for future exploration on Mars.

  There is a small chance that hydrous minerals may be actively forming near water sources. Finding where they co-exist with known areas of buried frozen water provides possible opportunities for extracting water.

  ESA’s Rosalind Franklin Rover will land in Oxia Planum, a region rich in hydrous clays, to investigate how water shaped the region and whether life once began on Mars.

  Many more investigations and studies are developing, but for now, scientists are just getting their toes wet as they explore what hydrous minerals can tell us of Mars’s watery past.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 23:10

• Growing Number Of Americans Want Diplomacy With Adversaries; New Poll Finds
  Growing Number Of Americans Want Diplomacy With Adversaries; New Poll Finds

  Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute, 

  According to a new survey of Americans, a growing majority desire negotiations with Washington’s enemies. For example, nearly 80% of people polled said they want the White House to continue nuclear talks with Iran. 

  The Eurasia Group Foundation released a new survey asking Americans if our government should negotiate with adversaries. Nearly twice as many Americans said they want more talks compared to those calling for less diplomacy. 

  

  Since Joe Biden became president, Washington’s relationship with Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran has become more contentious. However, the increasingly hostile White House is not reflective of the American public. Year-over-year the poll shows an increase in Americans favoring diplomacy over isolation. 

  The pollsters also found overwhelming support for negotiations with Iran. When asked, “Do you think the US should continue to pursue negotiations to prevent Iran from obtaining or developing a nuclear weapon in the near future?” 78.8 of Americans said yes, including over 70% of Republicans. 

  Biden campaigned on engaging Tehran and returning to the nuclear agreement that President Barack Obama helped create. President Donald Trump illegally exited in 2018.

  The Biden White House has largely adopted the hardline position of the Trump administration, expanding the “maximum pressure” campaign, piling on additional sanctions, and preventing the US from reentering the nuclear deal. 

  On Russia-Ukraine, the poll found that “Avoiding a direct war between the US and Russia was the highest ranked goal across all party affiliations. This was followed by preventing the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”

  

  While Americans prefer engagement with adversaries, politicians in Washington largely advocate for an isolationist path Republican Senator from North Carolina Thom Tillis recently said talking with Iran was ill-advised. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is a well-known Iran hawk and has repeatedly expressed his opposition to a diplomatic agreement with Tehran.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 22:35

• A Quarter Of San Francisco's Office Space Is Empty
  A Quarter Of San Francisco’s Office Space Is Empty

  San Francisco’s office vacancy rate has risen to a record 25.5% at the end of Sept., up from 20% a year earlier, according to Bloomberg, citing new data from real estate brokerage CBRE Group Inc. The amount of vacant office space surpassed levels after both the 2008 Great Recession and the dot-com bust. 

  CBRE said that the city’s office vacancy rate was about 4% at the virus pandemic’s start. By September 2021, the rate was 20% and has since increased to 25.5%. 

  Workers have been slow to return to the city’s downtown, with weekly office utilization less than 40% of the pre-pandemic average, according to security company Kastle Systems. Office values in the San Francisco area have tumbled almost 40% on a price-per-square-foot basis from a high in December 2020, according to MSCI Real Assets. — Bloomberg 

  

  The data suggests several forces driving this phenomenon, including remote work and the growing appeal of tech companies moving operations beyond San Francisco, even out of state. 

  Cities like Austin, Texas, and Miami, Florida, have been luring tech companies from the Bay Area with lower taxes, affordable housing, higher-quality public schools, and, of course, less crime. 

  But we wonder if the so-called ‘Great Tech Exodus’ from the Bay Area will be a temporary blip or a much long-term… 

  Perhaps the Bay Area’s social-economic implosion is enough evidence that the trend to exit the area for safer areas is long-term, well, at least as long as progressives continue ruining the city through social justice reforms that have backfired. 

  Some Bay Area neighborhoods and street corners are overrun with homeless people and Fentanyl addicts, it’s tough for a tech company to attract new talent to an area where living costs are astronomically higher than the rest of the US, and parts of town resemble a third-world country.

  Then there’s the Federal Reserve-induced market turmoil, leading large and small tech companies to quickly reduce costs by downsizing their workforce and slashing office space. 

  Facebook parent Meta, Google, and Amazon are some tech giants that have instituted hiring freezes. Salesforce, Airbnb, and Twilio had office space for lease in the Bay Area. 

  A corporate exodus, faltering commercial real estate market, turmoil in financial markets, and social economic implosion will derail the Bay Area’s economic recovery. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 22:00

• Markets Are Expecting The Fed To Save Them – It's Not Going To Happen
  Markets Are Expecting The Fed To Save Them – It’s Not Going To Happen

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  I have said it many times in the past but I’ll say it here again: Stock markets are a trailing indicator of economic health, not a leading indicator. Rising stock prices are not a signal of future economic stability and when stocks fall it’s usually after years of declines in other sectors of the financial system. Collapsing stocks are not the “cause” of an economic crisis, they are just a delayed symptom of a crisis that was always there.

  

  Anyone who started investing after the crash of 2008 probably has zero concept of how markets are supposed to behave and what they represent to the rest of the economy. They have never seen stocks move freely without central bank interference and they have only witnessed brief glimpses of true price discovery.

  With each new leg down in markets one can now predict every couple of months or so with relative certainty that investor sentiment will turn to assumptions that the Federal Reserve is going to leap in with new stimulus measures. This is not supposed to be normal, but they can’t really help it, they were trained over the past 14 years to expect QE like clockwork whenever markets took a dip of 10% or more. The problem is that conditions have changed dramatically in terms of credit conditions and price environment and it was all those trillions of QE dollars that ultimately created this mess.

  Many alternative economists, myself included, saw this threat coming miles away and years ahead of time. In my article ‘The Economic End Game Continues’, published in 2017, I outlined the inevitable outcome of the global QE bonanza:

  “The changing of the Fed chair is absolutely meaningless as far as policy is concerned. Jerome Powell will continue the same exact initiatives as Yellen; stimulus will be removed, rates will be hiked and the balance sheet will be reduced, leaving the massive market bubble the Fed originally created vulnerable to implosion.

  An observant person…might have noticed that central banks around the world seem to be acting in a coordinated fashion to remove stimulus support from markets and raise interest rates, cutting off supply lines of easy money that have long been a crutch for our crippled economy.”

  The Fed supports markets through easy money that feeds stock buybacks, and it’s primarily buybacks that kept stocks alive for all these years. It should be noted that as indexes like the S&P 500 plunged 20% or more in in the first six months of 2022, buybacks also decreased by 21.8% in the same time period. That is to say, there seems to be a direct relationship between the level of stock buybacks and the number of companies participating vs the decline of stocks overall.

  And why did buybacks decline? Because the Fed is raising interest rates and the easy money is disappearing.

  If buybacks are the primary determinant of stock market prices, then the participation of individual investors is mostly meaningless. Stocks cannot sustain on the backs of regular investors because regular investors don’t have enough capital to keep markets afloat. Companies must continue to buy their own shares in order to artificially prop up prices, and they need cheap Fed money to do that. Stocks are therefore an illusion built only on the whims of the Fed.

  And the reason for the Fed’s dramatic shift away from stimulus and into tightening? One could argue that it’s merely the natural end result of inflationary manipulation; that central banks like the Fed were ignorant or arrogant and they weren’t thinking ahead about the consequences. Except, this is false. The Fed knew EXACTLY what it was doing the whole time, and here’s the proof…

  Way back in 2012 before Jerome Powell became Fed Chairman, he warned of a market crisis if the central bank was to hike rates into economic weakness after so many years of acclimating the system to easy money and QE. During the October 2012 Fed meeting Powell stated:

  “…I think we are actually at a point of encouraging risk-taking, and that should give us pause. Investors really do understand now that we will be there to prevent serious losses. It is not that it is easy for them to make money but that they have every incentive to take more risk, and they are doing so. Meanwhile, we look like we are blowing a fixed-income duration bubble right across the credit spectrum that will result in big losses when rates come up down the road. You can almost say that that is our strategy.”

  In other words, Powell and all other Fed officials knew ten years ago what was going to happen. They knew that they were creating a massive financial bubble and that when they raised rates that bubble would collapse causing serious economic damage. Yet, they kept expanding the bubble, and now with Powell as chairman, they are popping the bubble. No one honest can claim that the central bankers were “blind” or ignorant. This is an engineered crash, not an accidental crash.

  If the crash is deliberate then it is a means to an end, and there is no reason for the Fed to intervene to save markets at this time. Some people will argue that this puts a target on the Fed as a saboteur of the economy, and they wonder why the central bankers would put themselves at risk? Because they have a rationale, a way out, and it’s called “stagflation.”

  Price inflation coupled with negative GDP is the basis for a stagflationary environment. The only other factor that is missing in the US today is rising unemployment, but this problem will arrive soon as numerous companies are slated to start layoffs in the winter. Stagflation is the Fed’s perfect excuse for continuing to raise interest rates despite plunging stocks. If they don’t hike rates then price inflation runs rampant and GDP declines anyway. If they return to QE then an inflationary calamity ensues.

  In order to “save us,” they have to hurt us. That’s the excuse they will use.

  It’s a Catch-22 event that they created, and I believe they created it with a purpose. But let’s imagine for a moment that the Fed has the best interests of the economy at heart; would a pivot back to QE change anything?

  Not in the long run. Rising inflation is going to crush what’s left of the system anyway. Supply chain problems will only get worse as costs rise. To return to stimulus would indeed put a target on the central bankers. It’s better for them to pretend as if they are trying to fix the problem rather than continue with policies that everyone knows are draining pocket books.

  Stocks saw a brief rebound this past week for one reason and one reason only – Rumors of a Fed pivot were spread and investors were hoping for a stop to rate hikes or a glorious return to stimulus measures. We will see many short rebounds in stocks like this over the next year, each one initiated by rumors of a reversal in policy. It’s not going to happen.

  Will the Fed stop rate hikes? Sure, probably when the Fed funds rate is between 4% to 5%. Will that mean a reversal is on the horizon? No, it won’t. And it won’t mean that the Fed is done with rate hikes. They could start hiking again a few months down the road as price inflation persists.

  Will the Fed return to QE? I see no reason why they would. Again, they are fully aware of the damage they have done with the QE bubble and the popping of that bubble. They would not have hiked rates in the first place unless they wanted a crash.

  Consider this: What if the goal of the Fed is the destruction of the middle class? What if they are using the false hopes of small time investors in a return to QE? What if they are luring investors into markets with rumors of a pivot, tricking those investors into pumping money back into markets and then triggering losses yet again with more rate hikes and hawkish language? What if this is a wealth destruction steam valve? What if it’s a trap?

  I present this idea because we have seen this before in the US, from 1929 through the 1930s during the Great Depression. The Fed used very similar tactics to systematically destroy middle class wealth and consolidate power for the international banking elites. I leave you with this admission by former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on the Fed’s involvement in causing the Great depression through rate hikes into weakness…

  “In short, according to Friedman and Schwartz, because of institutional changes and misguided doctrines, the banking panics of the Great Contraction were much more severe and widespread than would have normally occurred during a downturn.

  Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.” – Ben Bernanke, 2002

  Is the Fed really sorry? Or are they just repeating the same strategy they used 90 years ago while acting as if they are unaware of the eventual outcome?

  *  *  *

  After 14 long years of ultra-loose monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, it’s no secret that inflation is primed to soar. If your IRA or 401(k) is exposed to this threat, it’s critical to act now! That’s why thousands of Americans are moving their retirement into a Gold IRA. Learn how you can too with a free info kit on gold from Birch Gold Group. It reveals the little-known IRS Tax Law to move your IRA or 401(k) into gold. Click here to get your free Info Kit on Gold.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 21:25

• These Are The World's Most-Surveilled Cities
  These Are The World’s Most-Surveilled Cities

  This may come as a surprise, but it wasn’t until 2007 that the global urban population overtook the rural population. At that time, the two groups were split nearly 50/50, with around 3.3 billion people apiece.

  Today, the percentage of people living in urban areas has grown to over 55%, and is expected to reach 68% by 2050. Due to this trend, many of the world’s largest cities have become home to tens of millions of people.

  In response to such incredible density, governments, businesses, and households have installed countless security cameras for various purposes including crime protection. To grasp the scale of this surveillance, Visual Capitalist’s Marcu Lu used data from a recent report by Comparitech to visualize the most surveilled cities in the world.

  

  The List (Excluding China)

  Excluding China for the time being, these are the world’s 10 most surveilled cities.

  

  The top four cities all belong to India, which is the world’s second largest country by population. Surveillance cameras are playing a major role in the country’s efforts to reduce crimes against women.

  Further down the list are cities from a variety of countries. One of these is Russia, which has expanded its use of surveillance cameras in recent years. Given the country’s track record of human rights violations, activists are worried that facial recognition technology could become a tool of oppression.

  The only U.S. city on the list is Los Angeles, which contains some of the country’s wealthiest neighborhoods and municipalities. That includes Beverly Hills, which according to the Los Angeles Times, has over 2,000 cameras for its population of 32,500. That translates to about 62 cameras per 1,000 people, meaning that Beverly Hills would finish at #2 in the global ranking if it were listed as a separate entity.

  Surveillance in China

  IHS Markit estimates that as of 2021, there are over 1 billion surveillance cameras installed worldwide. The firm also believes that 54% of these cameras are located in China.

  Because of limited transparency, it’s impossible to pinpoint how many cameras are actually in each Chinese city. However, if we assume that China has 540 million cameras and divide that amongst its population of 1.46 billion, we can reasonably say that there are 373 cameras per 1,000 people (figures rounded).

  

  A limitation of this approach is that it assumes everyone in China lives in a city, which is far from reality. The most recent World Bank figures suggest that 37% of China’s population is rural, which equates to over 500 million people.

  With this in mind, the number of cameras per 1,000 people in a Tier 1+ Chinese city (e.g. Shanghai) is likely far greater than 373.

  More About China

  China’s expansive use of cameras and facial recognition technology has been widely documented in the media. These networks enable the country’s social credit program, which gives local governments an unprecedented amount of oversight over its citizens.

  For example, China’s camera networks can be used to verify ATM withdrawals, permit access into homes, and even publicly shame people for minor offences like jaywalking.

  This might sound like a dystopian nightmare to Western audiences, but according to Chinese citizens, it’s mostly a good thing. In a 2018 survey of 2,209 citizens, 80% of respondents approved of social credit systems.

  If you’re interested in learning more about surveillance in Chinese cities, consider this video from The Economist, which explores the opportunities and dangers of comprehensive state control.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 20:50

• FBI Team Involved In Censorship Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story Identified
  FBI Team Involved In Censorship Of Hunter Biden Laptop Story Identified

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  The FBI team that was in communication with Facebook before the social media company censored the original Hunter Biden laptop story has been identified, according to a new court filing.

  

  Meta, Facebook’s parent company, identified the team as the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), according to an updated complaint entered late on Oct. 6.

  Meta named the team after receiving a subpoena in a case alleging the federal government pressured Big Tech firms to censor users.

  “Pursuant to the third-party subpoena, Meta has identified the FBI’s FITF, as supervised by Laura Dehmlow, and Elvis Chan as involved in the communications between the FBI and Meta that led to Facebook’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story,” the updated complaint states.

  Mark Zuckberg, Meta’s CEO, said in August that Facebook reduced the reach of posts about Hunter Biden’s laptop in response to advice from the FBI.

  “The background here is the FBI I think basically came to some folks on our team [and] were like, ‘Hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. We thought that there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election, we have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump similar to that, so just be vigilant,’” Zuckerberg said on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He made similar comments before the Senate in 2020.

  “One of the threats that the FBI has alerted our company and the public to was the possibility of a hack and leak operation in the days or weeks leading up to this election,” Zuckerberg said then. Those alerts “suggested we be on high alert and sensitivity if a trove of documents appeared that we should view that with suspicion that it might be part of a foreign manipulation attempt,” he added.

  The FBI did not respond to a request for comment on the updated lawsuit, which now names the FBI as a defendant. The bureau said previously that it is routinely in touch with U.S. companies but “cannot ask, or direct, companies to take action on information received.”

  2 Officials

  The FITF was established by FBI Director Christopher Wray in 2017 “to identify and counteract malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States,” according to the bureau’s website. Such operations include covert actions by outside governments aimed at influencing the American political scene or discourse, the bureau has said.

  Laura Dehmlow is a supervisor of FITF. She has been named as a defendant in the case along with Elvis Chan, a special agent who manages the cyber branch at the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office.

  According to new documents produced by the government as part of discovery in the case, Dehmlow briefed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Cybersecurity Advisory Committee on March 1, 2022. Minutes of the meeting show Dehmlow telling members that the FITF actually started in 2016 and has since grown to 80 workers.

  Asked about goals for approaching mal-, mis-, and disinformation, Dehmlow said that “we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable; we need to early educate the populace; and that today, critical thinking seems to be a problem currently,” according to the minutes.

  Chan, meanwhile, bragged on a recent podcast that the San Francisco office “was very involved in helping to protect the US elections in 2020” by working with private companies and election officials. He also indicated he works closely with CISA Director Jen Easterly, who has been revealed to have taken part in pressuring Big Tech companies to crack down on alleged misinformation.

  “We talked with all of these entities I mentioned regularly, at least on a monthly basis. And right before the election, probably on a weekly basis. If they were seeing anything unusual, if we were seeing anything unusual, sharing intelligence with technology companies, with social media companies, so that they could protect their own platforms. That’s where the FBI and the US government can actually help companies,” Chan said.

  Plaintiffs in the case said that helping social media companies protect their platforms “includes censorship and suppression of speech at the FBI’s behest.”

  Chan also organized meetings with LinkedIn from 2020 through the present, with agendas provided indicating the meetings included going over censoring election-related posts on social media. Chan organized similar meetings with other Big Tech firms, plaintiffs said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 20:15

• Ebola Is Back: US To Screen Passengers From Uganda
  Ebola Is Back: US To Screen Passengers From Uganda

  US-bound travelers who have been to Uganda within the previous 21 days will be redirected to five major American airports to screen for Ebola, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday issued an alert to healthcare workers to raise awareness about the current outbreak.

  

  The agency said there were currently no suspected or confirmed cases of the disease on US soil, as the Sudan strain of Ebola fuels the latest infections in Uganda.

  According to Uganda’s Health Ministry, at least nine people had died of the disease in Uganda by Oct. 3, since authorities in the east African nation announced the outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever on Sept. 20. It added there are 43 total cases, including the deaths.

  U.S. screening was beginning on Thursday at airports but the funnelling requirements are expected to take effect within the coming week or so, a source told Reuters. –GH Standard

  “Out of an abundance of caution (CDC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will apply new layers of screening at these five U.S. airports in response to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda,” said the US Embassy in Uganda.

  The five airports are, JFK, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles.

  According to two sources, around 140 people who regularly go to Uganda are arriving daily in the US, with 62% of those landing at one of those five airports.

  University of Minnesota infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Osterholm said the CDC’s health alert is a reminder that people should be prepared for outbreaks to spread.

  “We can handle Ebola safely in the hospital setting and provide the best care to the patient, but you have to be aware that it might even be a possibility,” he said, referring to a 2014 incident in which an Ebola-stricken passenger who had been to Liberia was initially turned away by a hospital in Dallas – and then admitted two days later when he arrived by ambulance.

  “The key message is if you see someone with a clinical illness and they had a history of being in Uganda, that’s where you want to concentrate your efforts,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 19:40

• The Fed's Real Mandate
  The Fed’s Real Mandate

  Authored by Mark Thronton via The Mises Institute,

  The Federal Reserve has a legal dual mandate to minimize unemployment and price inflation. The current “dual” between the two mandates is to reduce price inflation by increasing interest rates to increase unemployment and kill businesses to choke off aggregate demand. This has been the most important economic and investment issue this year and this dual minimization procedure has dominated Fed policy for at least three-quarters of a century.

  This is odd given that the Fed is in the business of creating money, the cause of price inflation, and it is responsible for all the largest surges in unemployment since its founding in 1913. Employing an army of monetary economists, macro theorists, and statisticians, the Fed appears to be pursuing its quixotic quest of the Phillips curve sweet spot of minimizing inflation and unemployment.

  The real mandate of the Fed is serving its masters, the political elites, by financing government spending and debt, bailing out cronies, and supporting the political process, including the Fed’s own interests. Everything else, including the inflation and unemployment rates are derivative of the primary mandate.

  

  The so-called dual mandate is just subterfuge to protect the Fed’s “confidence game.”

  The Quest of the False Mandate

  In The Fed Explained: What the Central Bank Does, we learn how control of the Fed is “decentralized.” This might sound good to some supporters of the free market. However, any hint of decentralization, such as the importance of District Banks, is long gone and the remnant is merely a diversion or historical curiosity. Of the twelve votes on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) there are only four of twelve rotating District Bank presidents voting, plus the President of the New York Fed. The central Board of Governors in Washington DC has seven voting members who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate and has nearly twice the voting power over interest rate decisions. Plus, the Chairman (Powell) has the power of the bully pulpit and is the consensus builder on the FOMC.

  We are also told of the balancing of public and private (banks’) interests controlling the Fed and some free-market supporters latch onto the influence of the private sector as an effective check on the Fed’s enormous economic power. Big banks do work directly with the Fed in “open market operations” and interact in the day-to-day business of banking regulation. Commercial banks have some voting power within the District Banks. However, this influence is contingent on political goals and even the big banks can be pawns in the Fed’s political chess game. Their shares are “nonnegotiable” and are nothing like shares in private corporations. Banking interests are clearly derivative, and the Fed has thrown such interests overboard when necessary, such as with the Savings and Loan Crisis or Lehman Bros. In any case, the union of public and private interests is the ultimate source of corruption and can be the greatest threat to human liberty. Such private interests are clearly not a bulwark of liberty.

  It is true that the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was established and intended to be a cartel device for the banks and some banks are better protected than others. Marx and Engels (1848) called for the establishment of central banks and thereafter Americans were increasingly duped by socialist ideology. This socialist influence was an important force during the so-called Progressive Era (1890–1920). History textbooks make the Federal Reserve Act appear to be the result of a coalition of popular interests. However, the big banks and their academic technocrats controlled by political elites, created and controlled the legislative campaign with their “independent” National Monetary Commission.

  A final and critical canard about the Fed is its “independence.” We are told that the Fed must be independent of political power to carry out its mandates and be effective. In this vein, if the Fed were to succumb to political pressures, then it would continually increase the money supply and suppress interest rates below market determined levels, especially before elections. This they tell us would destabilize the economy and might lead to hyperinflation the way it does under dictatorships where central banks do not have independence. I’m sure the Fed would love to be independent, but they are controlled by powerful office holders who are in turn controlled by the elites. As Ryan McMaken reminds us, “Fed independence is a fairy tale academic economists like to tell their students” and they are biased toward the inflationary mandate.

  The sturdiness of the False Mandate is also bolstered by the ever-expanding duties and powers of the Fed. The original mandate of the Fed spoke of macroeconomic stability and an elastic currency to promote maximum employment and low inflation. The mandate also spoke to stable prices and the purchasing power of the dollar. These roles have been updated to include such things as “moderate” long-term interest rates, but the Fed has other duties concerning the banking and financial industry, maximizing the long run productive capacity of the economy, and even growth in money supply aggregates. Some in Congress even want the Fed to act on issues such as economic inequality and global warming. Despite these added duties, it is the false dual mandate that provides cover for the Fed. In addition to covering its tracks in the short run, the Fed’s expanding power and duties also illustrates Ludwig von Mises’s theory of the mixed economy and progressive interventionism—the ever-increasing need for power to address past errors of policy.

  Revealing the Real Mandate

  In recent years the Fed has become increasingly interventionist along with its ever-expanding mission creep and the necessity of solving problems of its own making. As a result, the Fed’s veneer of science in the service of the public good has worn thin. For example, once upon a time, the Fed dealt with only short-term government securities. These US Treasury debts were only of the shortest duration, borrowings for ninety days or less under the “bills only” doctrine. The idea was to manage short term rates so that longer term rates could be minimized.

  Of course, the Fed has increased its domain to include longer term government debts of any duration, including thirty-year bonds. In recent years, it has also become the dominant holder of mortgages and other securitized instruments. Mortgages now make up a huge proportion of its balance sheet and it has become the big player on the supply side of the US mortgage market. Then there are the trillions of quantitative easing (QE). They are not even sure how QE works, but it bailed out the political elites who were able to exchange their risky assets with their friends at the Fed and earn risk free interest on their excess reserves. All of this did nothing good for the general public and set up the current collapse.

  With a massive inflationary wave behind them, the Fed now speaks of reducing its balance sheet and of reversing its QE policies, selling massive amounts of government debt and mortgages back into the market. Their plan increases interest rates on government debt, mortgages, and everything else with the goal of reducing price inflation. This quantitative tightening (QT) has thus far only reduced the overall Fed balance sheet from about $9 trillion in May to about $8.85 trillion today.

  With a potential powder keg of an election upon us and financial markets already in turmoil, the Fed’s timid tightening policies make sense. In addition to barely budging on QT, they have only raised the federal funds rate from 0 percent to 2.3 percent in 2022 when a “normal” federal funds rate is probably about 3 percent and an “inflation fighting” rate is much higher. They are causing real economic pain, but their greatest efforts have been in terms of “moral suasion” that is not moral or true persuasion, but simply a devious deception: disingenuous speeches and public comments threatening draconian interest rate hikes to gas light a higher dollar and help stave off ongoing price increases, at least until election day.

  

  The real mandate of the Fed is rigging the political system in favor of the political elites. It is not a scientifically driven policy, but rather an effort to misdirect its own impact as the fault of the free market. The Fed is a political institution that is the primary cause of price inflation, cyclical unemployment, and economic crises! Over time the world has been taken off the gold standard and put on an ever more dangerous course of boom-and-bust economic cycles.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 19:05

• Haiti Asks For International Forces To Break Gangs' Blockade Of Fuel Terminal
  Haiti Asks For International Forces To Break Gangs’ Blockade Of Fuel Terminal

  The Haitian government will ask the international community to send “a special police force” to break the blockade imposed on the country’s principal fuel terminal by a powerful federation of gangs. 

  “It was decided in the Council of Ministers last night … to ask the international community for a special police force to deal with such an unbelievable humanitarian crisis,” a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Henry said Friday.  

  A State Department spokesman said the Biden administration is evaluating a request to help create a humanitarian corridor so the flow of fuel throughout the country can resume. U.S. officials are also consulting with other governments. 

  The coalition of nine gangs blocked the entrance to the Varreux fuel terminal in the capital city of Port-au-Prince last month in response to the government’s announcement of a reduction in fuel subsidies. 

  While the fuel terminal blockade is the Haitian government’s most pressing challenge, it’s not clear just how broad an intervention against the gangs the government is seeking.

  Haiti has also been beset by widespread looting:

  “In the last two weeks alone, attacks on [World Food Program] have resulted in the loss of some 2,000 tons of food aid valued at close to $5 million, that would have collectively supported up to 200,000 of the most vulnerable Haitians over the next month,” Haitian envoy Helen La Lime told the UN Security Council last week.   

  WATCH: #BNNHaiti Reports:

  Haiti’s food shortage is worsening with recent reports of warehouse and food looting in neighboring Dominican Republic zones.

  A cholera outbreak has been discovered, adding to the country’s ongoing social, humanitarian, security, and political crisis. pic.twitter.com/LOGax456Y8

  — Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) October 6, 2022

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

  The weeks-long fuel blockade has taken a steep toll. In addition to paralyzing the economy and creating food shortages, it’s contributing to drinking water shortages by stalling water treatment operations, and thwarting the country’s battle with a cholera outbreak by forcing the closure of medical facilities. 

  The gang coalition — called G9 Families and Allies and led by former police officer Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier — is seeking to topple Prime Minister Ariel Henry. Standing at the entrance of the fuel terminal, Chérizier said: 

  “We are sending this message to Ariel Henry: ‘Resign. Resign to give the country a chance.’ For the moment, you are the one executing the plan to destroy the Haitian people. We are removing you because of that.” 

  

  Haitian gangs have grown more powerful — and violent — since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Outbreaks of inter-gang warfare periodically take hundreds of lives. For example, a 10-day stretch of gun battles in the slums of Cité Soleil in July reportedly killed 300 people and wounded another 160. 

  Despite the dire situation, many Haitians are wary of international intervention. For starters, a Nepalese UN contingent is believed to have triggered a years-long cholera epidemic in Haiti that began in 2010 and killed upwards of 10,000 people.  

  Also, it’s important to stress that gangs aren’t the only Haitians pushing for Henry’s resignation. Protestors are demanding his removal too, with many calling him a U.S. puppet. Putting U.S. troops in Haiti could thus exacerbate the situation. 

  Another shot of massive protest in #Haiti‘s capital today demanding US-backed govt of Ariel Henry resign and a true Haitian govt of national unity take charge without foreign interference. pic.twitter.com/kcLLCQOV36

  — HaitiInfoProj (@HaitiInfoProj) September 27, 2022

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

  The same groups that stripped Haiti’s sovereignty away, will continue to work to make it a permanent condition.

  The US, Canada, France, Core Group, OAS, USAID, UNSC – THESE ARE THE TRUE GANGS OF HAITI

  — JPierre (@grosmorne29) October 7, 2022

  Former Haiti elections minister Mathias Pierre says he’s worried about how foreign military forces would address the situation.

  “I don’t think Haiti needs another intervention,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s not an army they’re facing. ​​They’re facing gangs located in poor areas…using the population as shields to protect themselves.”

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

  Haiti’s plea comes in the wake of a Thursday meeting of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Haiti Foreign Affairs Minister Jean Victor Généus and other governments’ officials. The meeting was led by Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States. Almagro has routinely backed aggressive intervention by the United States throughout the region. 

  

  On Thursday, Almagro tweeted that he’d “called on Haiti to request urgent support from international community to help solve security crisis and determine characteristics of the international security force.”  

  While the United Nations hasn’t yet received an official request for intervention, spokesman Stephane Dujarric acknowledged the grim situation in the Caribbean country:

  “We remain extremely concerned about the security situation in Haiti, the impact it’s having on the Haitian people, on our ability to do our work, especially in the humanitarian sphere.” 

  Americans leery of another foreign commitment of U.S. troops should take note: The United Nations’ last peacekeeping presence in Haiti lasted 13 years. 

  

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 18:30

• PayPal Reverses Course, Says Company Will Not Seize Money From People For Promoting 'Misinformation'
  PayPal Reverses Course, Says Company Will Not Seize Money From People For Promoting ‘Misinformation’

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

  

  PayPal on Oct. 8 said it was not implementing a new policy that would have enabled the company to seize money from users who allegedly promote “misinformation” or “hate.”

  “An AUP notice recently went out in error that included incorrect information. PayPal is not fining people for misinformation and this language was never intended to be inserted in our policy,” a PayPal spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

  “Our teams are working to correct our policy pages. We’re sorry for the confusion this has caused,” the spokesperson added.

  The company in September announced that it was amending its acceptable use policy, or AUP.

  The policy, due to take effect in November, said that users may not use PayPal to for the “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable, (b) depict or appear to depict nudity, sexual or other intimate activities, (c) depict or promote illegal drug use, (d) depict or promote violence, criminal activity, cruelty, or self-harm (e) depict, promote, or incite hatred or discrimination of protected groups or of individuals or groups based on protected characteristics (e.g. race, religion, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.) (f) present a risk to user safety or wellbeing, (g) are fraudulent, promote misinformation, or are unlawful, (h) infringe the privacy, intellectual property rights, or other proprietary rights of any party, or (i) are otherwise unfit for publication.”

  For each violation, PayPal says users are subject to repercussions. Those include “liquated damages” of $2,500 per violation. The money will be taken directly from a person’s PayPal account.

  Users were directed to PayPal’s user agreement, which states in part that PayPal can take a number of actions if users participate in restricted activities, such as holding their money in balance indefinitely. It also says that “you will be liable to PayPal for the amount of PayPal’s damages caused by your violation of the Acceptable Use Policy” at the amount of $2,500 per violation.

  That money will cover internal administrative costs for PayPal to monitor and track violations and damage to PayPal’s brand, among other costs, according to the agreement.

  Scores of people noticed the pending update in recent days and many announced on social media they would be closing their accounts.

  “Seriously, close your PayPal account immediately if they don’t reverse this today,” Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 17:55

• On The Path To Hyperinflation
  On The Path To Hyperinflation

  Authored by Tuomas Malinen via The Epoch Times,

  I have had a series of conversations lately on how did we, the world, get to this point? I think that it’s a valid question, considering how well things were in the 1990s after the Soviet Union had collapsed.

  The really interesting follow-up question is: Has this deterioration been a series of mere random events, or have we been somehow guided to this point?

  

  I think there have been two major “game changers”: the 9/11 terrorist strikes and the global financial crisis of 2008–09 (GFC). If you really consider the aftermath of these events, it’s rather clear that we never really returned to the status quo after either.

  The 9/11 terrorist attacks started an escalating series of conflicts around the world, which have now turned into a Russian–Ukrainian war. I have my own worries that the war in Ukraine is, in veritate, not proceeding as presented in the Western media, which is likely to rather strongly follow the Ukrainian propaganda. As the late California Republican Senator Hiram Johnson once said, in 1918: “The first casualty when war comes is truth.” I have detailed my doubts in my newsletter.

  The global financial crisis, on the other hand, changed our economic landscape, rather permanently, which is now converging with the war-related costs to create an extremely precarious economic situation.

  If someone had told me in the early 2000s that in in the 2010s, central banks, led by the Federal Reserve, would be buying hundreds of billions’ worth of government bonds each month, I would have wished him/her a nice trip to an asylum. The mere idea would have sounded so preposterous at the time. But after the financial crisis—there we were.

  The Federal Reserve started the asset purchases on Nov. 25, 2008, and slowly but surely all major central banks followed. It became the biggest central bank money-conjuring operation in history!

  In 2020, the size of the combined balance sheet of the four largest central banks—the Bank of Japan, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the People’s Bank of China—reached an insane 32 percent of the gross domestic product of the world.

  

  A figure presenting the balance sheet of the four largest central banks as a share of the gross domestic product of the world. (GnS Economics / Bank of Japan / European Central Bank / People’s Bank of China / Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis / International Monetary Fund)

  Like I have been detailing, this had some serious repercussions for the financial markets and the real economy (see, e.g., this, this and this).

  However, the main point to understand is that if you artificially and vastly increase the amount of money in circulation, it will increase prices. This may occur with a lag, meaning that money may increase considerably without causing any noticeable increase in the price level. Then a supply-side shock, like an oil shock, hits and prices start to rise.

  Combined with the greatly increased money in circulation, this shock, if it persists, will put in motion a process whereby prices increase but the demand will not come down, because it is supported by the vast amounts of money slushing around in the economy. When a sustained demand meets ailing supply, prices naturally continue rising. Then consumers will notice that the purchasing power of their wages is declining, and they start to demand higher salaries. At this point, fast inflation becomes self-sustaining. This process can be further supported by government subsidies and support.

  This is the self-sustaining process of inflation central banks helped to create.

  As I  explained previously, this is not “President Putin’s inflation” but central bankers’ and governments’ inflation. The thing is that almost every Western government helped to create the inflation crisis by artificially sustaining demand during a time when supply was artificially constrained because of lockdowns through stimulus checks and other such schemes.

  

  A figure presenting the development of the M2 (broad money) money aggregate consisting of currency and coins held by the non-bank public, savings deposits (including money market deposit accounts), small time deposits under $100,000, and shares in retail money market mutual funds in the United States in billions of dollars. (GnS Economics / National Bureau of Economic Research / Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)

  We in Europe are about to fulfill two preconditions for one of the most destructive economic phenomenon known to man: hyperinflation.

  The ravaging inflations in the Weimar Republic during the early 1920s, in Russia in the early 1990s, and in Zimbabwe in 2007–15 taught us that the two preconditions for a rapid decline in the value of money—hyperinflation—were and are:

  1. The creation of vast amounts of central bank credit (money). (Check!)

  2. The diminution of production capabilities to a serious degree. (Almost there.)

  At the end, hyperinflation is always, always, a political decision. While the diminution (or “destruction”) of production capabilities can be caused by a nonpolitical force (like an earthquake), usually it is caused by an abrupt political-induced shock, like war and/or sanctions.

  There is also very little other than political reasons to keep printing—that is, creating vast amounts of central bank credit (money)—for an extended period of time.

  During the Weimar Republic and in Russia during the early 1990s, both governments decided that instead of painful reforms and a likely default, they would try to uphold national demand and production by monetizing their budget deficits. In Zimbabwe, the reasons were a bit more numerous, but all the problems were met by more deficit financing by the government.

  In the process of monetization, a central bank usually buys the debt issued by the finance ministry (or Treasury), and the central bank then nullifies the value of the bonds, which creates a loss, which is then covered by issuing new currency notes (physical or digital) to reconcile its balance sheet, which increases money in circulation. Government uses this newly created money to sustain its consumption, provide subsidies and different schemes, like job guarantees.

  Then, sustained or even growing demand combined with increasing money in circulation meet declining production, leading to a very rapid pace of inflation. As inflation accelerates, consumers, firms, and workers start to expect ever-higher inflation, which, combined with the quickly increasing supply of money from the central bank, destroys public faith in the currency. A hyperinflation emerges, which is technically defined as a 50 percent monthly increase in consumer prices.

  Central banks have already done their “job” on this path, by vastly increasing the money in circulation; but they could make it exponentially worse by ending monetary tightening. This especially is relevant as governments in Europe are pouring bailout money to households and governments, which will artificially sustain demand in a situation, where high prices would push down the demand. At the same time, industrial production in Europe is shutting down. Europe is effectively facing a process of deindustrialization.

  This combination—excess money, growing government spending, and falling production—is the exact recipe for a ravaging inflation.

  The real tragedy is that we have had all the knowledge necessary to avoid the creation of vast asset market bubbles and fast inflation, but our leaders have refused to listen to the (true) experts, economics and economic history. Now, if our policymakers in Europe, or elsewhere, push us into a hyperinflation, we don’t have to wonder anymore about the question I posed above.

  Because in that case, our political leaders are either utterly incompetent or they are deliberately trying to destroy our living standards.

  And if that point is reached, they all need to go.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 16:45

• Your Next Pain Will Be Soaring Electricity Costs As Energy Crisis Comes To America
  Your Next Pain Will Be Soaring Electricity Costs As Energy Crisis Comes To America

  One central theme that comes to mind is the impact of higher natural gas prices and, by extension, power prices. Americans will soon see higher gasoline prices at the pump because of OPEC+ production cuts slated for next month. Many folks will also see their electricity bills rise this winter because NatGas generators power a large percentage of the country’s grid. This is a double whammy for hundreds of millions of Americans ahead of the midterm elections in about a month — as Democrats scramble to find solutions to tame the energy crisis. 

  From the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline system in the Baltic Sea (in NATO’s backyard) to reduced Russian NatGas flows to Europe to soaring US liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Europe, NatGas markets will be very tight everywhere this winter. 

  “With US gas storage finishing this summer well below average levels, and lower than what we expected previously owing to strong power burns, we believe there is a mispricing of this upside risk to gas prices in the near-term,” Goldman Sach commodity analyst Samantha Dart wrote in a note to clients last month. 

  Dart revised her Winter 2022-2023 forecast up to $7.75/mmBtu from the previous $6.93/mmBtu on renewed tightening fears, and her view of US LNG exports will be higher. The Freeport LNG outage is expected to be resolved next month, increasing LNG exports to the EU. 

  

  Prices of NatGas are trading about 94% higher than at the start of the year and 370% higher than the 2020 lows.

  

  This means that power generation units at utilities will be even more expensive to operate and pass along costs to end users. 

  “We’re looking at fairly high gas prices, so all things equal, electricity prices should be higher as well,” Sarah Emerson, managing principal at ESAI Energy, told Yahoo Finance. “We’re going to have a pretty strong winter [for prices].”

  A recent National Energy Assistance Directors Association forecast said the average US household heating bill is expected to increase by 17.2%. 

  “The rise in home energy costs this winter will put millions of lower-income families [at] risk of falling behind on their energy bills and having no choice but to make difficult decisions between paying for food, medicine and rent,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of NEADA.

  OilPrice.com’s Robert Rapier explains more about soaring electricity costs for Americans in the months ahead due in part to the global energy crisis that is finally washing ashore. 

  And even before the cold season begins, there are 20 million households behind on their power bills. Now power companies are renegotiating power contracts with households, increasing the price per kilowatt substantially. 

  A double whammy at the gas pump and utility bill should stoke discontent with many Americans who’ve been battered by high inflation under the Biden administration as the Federal Reserve attempts to quell high prices with aggressive interest rate hikes that could plunge households into even more financial chaos by stoking a 2023 recession. What a mess the elites in Washington have caused. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 16:10

• Watch What They Do Instead Of What They Say
  Watch What They Do Instead Of What They Say

  Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

  Actions speak louder than words.  Let me put it another way.  Most of the time, what people do is so much more important than what they say.  This is especially true when it comes to government officials, because many government officials lie as easily as they breathe.  Over and over again, we are being told that there is nothing to be concerned about and that our leaders have everything under control.  But then we keep getting more signs that more war is coming.  In fact, it appears that preparations are being made for scenarios that would have once been unthinkable.

  

  Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.  On Thursday, we learned that the U.S. government is spending almost 300 million dollars to buy radiation sickness drugs…

  The US has stocked up on radiation sickness drugs just weeks after Vladimir Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons against the West.

  Officials said the deal — worth $290 million — was ‘part of ongoing work’ and ‘has not been accelerated’ by the Kremlin leader’s escalating rhetoric.

  The drug that is being purchased is known as Nplate, and it is used “to reduce bleeding caused by acute radiation syndrome”.

  This is not a cheap medication at all.  It is being reported that a single dose can cost “between $1,000 and $2,500”…

  However, the timing will likely raise questions given that this is the first time the US Government has bought Nplate.

  It is unclear how many doses the order covers, but the drug normally fetches between $1,000 and $2,500 per dose.

  A nuclear war would be the only reason why we would ever need such a high number of doses.

  So why is such a large purchase being made if Biden administration officials are assuring us that there is almost zero chance of a nuclear conflict with Russia?

  Something doesn’t add up.

  Meanwhile, both sides continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine.

  The mainstream media keeps telling us that the “Ukrainian Army” is whipping the Russians right now, but that is not exactly accurate.

  The Ukrainian Army that existed at the beginning of the war was largely decimated as the Russians steadily gained territory for months.

  But now a new “Ukrainian Army” is pushing the Russians back, and it turns out that this new “Ukrainian Army” has a very high percentage of foreign mercenaries…

  Mercenaries from Eastern Europe account for 60%-70% of the Ukrainian army’s manpower near Lugansk, an aide to the LPR’s interior minister, Vitaly Kiselyov, said on Wednesday.

  “In practice, 60%, in some cases, 70% of Ukraine’s military personnel are mercenaries from Eastern Europe,” he said on Russia’s TV Channel 1.

  A lot has been made of the fact that there are English-speaking mercenaries involved in the offensive against the Russians, but the truth is that most of the mercenaries are not from wealthy western nations.

  Our money is certainly paying for them, but most of the troops are actually coming from the poor countries of eastern Europe.

  If you can believe it, some are actually making as much as $3,000 a day…

  Kiselyov also added that Albanian mercenaries were paid $2,000-$3,000 a day and mercenaries from European countries, $35,000-$40,000 a month.

  If you can stay alive, it is a way to make a lot of money in a short period of time.

  And to a large extent, the American taxpayers are footing the bill.

  Another thing that we are being told that is not exactly true is that we are not likely to go to war with China.

  We are being told this over and over again, but meanwhile it is being reported that U.S. officials “are intensifying efforts to build a giant stockpile of weapons in Taiwan”…

  American officials are intensifying efforts to build a giant stockpile of weapons in Taiwan after studying recent naval and air force exercises by the Chinese military around the island, according to current and former officials.

  The exercises showed that China would probably blockade the island as a prelude to any attempted invasion, and Taiwan would have to hold out on its own until the United States or other nations intervened, if they decided to do that, the current and former officials say.

  Why would we build a giant stockpile of weapons in Taiwan if there was no threat of invasion?

  Actually, by arming Taiwan so heavily we are making an invasion more likely.  The Chinese are getting angrier and angrier, but we just keep provoking them.

  Before I end this article, I want to talk about the rising tensions between North Korea and South Korea.

  The North Koreans really do not like the new South Korean leader, and on Thursday there was an incident that made international news…

  An unusually large number of South Korean fighter jets were scrambled today in response to reported air-to-surface firing exercises flown by North Korean warplanes, on the other side of the border. The incidents add to tensions around Korea, where a tit-for-tat campaign of surface-to-surface missile launches continues, as part of potentially provocative exercises on both sides of the Korean Demilitarized Zone as well as in the waters off the peninsula.

  The South Korean Yonhap news agency reported that a formation of at least 12 North Korean warplanes “presumably conducted a firing exercise” today, with aerial activity “north of the inter-Korean air boundary.” The location of the drills took the North Korean aircraft from Koksan County to Hwangju County in North Hwanghae Province, a process that took around an hour, according to the Korea Herald. North Hwanghae Province is situated on the western end of the border between the two Koreas.

  Of course this wasn’t the first time that the North Koreans have done something provocative this week.

  On Wednesday evening, they fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan…

  North Korea fired a ballistic missile that likely flew over Japan, the militaries of South Korea and Japan said Wednesday evening.

  The unidentified ballistic missile was fired into the Sea of Japan, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed to NBC News.

  Things with North Korea seemed to be getting better during the Trump era, but now there has been a complete reversal.

  The North Koreans have conducted dozens of missile launches in 2022, and there are rumors that they may soon resume their nuclear tests for the first time in quite a few years…

  As for the North Korean missile launches, these are only the most recent within a growing total, with the tally for this year so far having reached around 40, including a “super-large” intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), back in March. At the same, there are continued concerns among officials in both Washington and Seoul that North Korea could be poised to conduct a nuclear test — its first since 2017.

  I do not believe that a North Korean invasion of South Korea is imminent.

  But if China invades Taiwan, I think that the North Koreans will be extremely tempted to make a move.

  While the U.S. is preoccupied with Russia and China, it would be a golden opportunity for the North Koreans to pour across the border.

  The South Korean military would be completely outmatched, and only massive U.S. intervention could save the day.

  Hopefully such a scenario will not play out any time soon.

  But without a doubt, more war is coming.

  A war between Israel and Iran is far closer than most people would dare to imagine, the Russians will be moving a lot more troops into Ukraine to bolster their existing forces, and I am convinced that the Chinese will move against Taiwan at some point.

  There is no peace on the horizon.

  The third world war has begun, but for now it is still only in the very early stages.

  Unfortunately, politicians all over the globe are determined to show how tough they are, and that is really bad news for all of us.

  *  *  *

  It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “7 Year Apocalypse” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 15:35

• "Declaration Of War Without Rules": Russian Officials Fume Over Crimea Bridge Blast As Ukraine Celebrates
  “Declaration Of War Without Rules”: Russian Officials Fume Over Crimea Bridge Blast As Ukraine Celebrates

  Update(1435ET): Russia’s state Investigative Committee has put out a statement saying at least three civilians died as a result of the attack on the Crimean Bridge, which was likely a fertilizer-laden truck bombing. “According to preliminary data, three people died as a result of the incident. They were presumably passengers of a car, which was near the exploded track. As of now, the bodies of a man and a women have been recovered from the water, their identities are being established,” the committee said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at the same time blasted what she called the “criminal logic” of some NATO officials who are positively cheering the attack.

  Ukrainian government sources have owned up to the attack, but this claim of responsibility stopped short of being made publicly or officially: “A Ukrainian government official told The Washington Post that the country’s special services were behind the attack, though Kyiv stopped short of saying it was responsible — even as top officials taunted Moscow.” As for the taunting and trolling, the official Twitter account for the government of Ukraine also tweeted out:

  sick burn

  — Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) October 8, 2022

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  A fire which had raged for hours at the scene, particularly freight which had been on the rail part of the bridge that had burned out of control, now appears to be out – allowing Russian investigators to view the full extent of the damage.

  A large section of bridge which has been vital to Russian military supply lines has been totally collapsed, with entire sections of roadway having fallen into the water below.

  Even closer images of the Crimean Bridge, fire seems to have burnt itself out. pic.twitter.com/AdO3yabZjh

  — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 8, 2022

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  One or two lanes of the bridge weren’t directly impacted, with reports that this section of bridge has already resumed traffic, with the Kremlin saying ferry traffic is to assist in transporting more.

  This is what the Crimean bridge looks like now.

  Russian journalists showed footage after the fire was extinguished.

  One lane out of four works – cars only. pic.twitter.com/zSuG1AoS0w

  — ТРУХА⚡️English (@TpyxaNews) October 8, 2022

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  Russia has almost finished restoring rail service over the bombed Crimean Bridge.

  This is video of the first train transiting the repaired bridge span.

  The combination of restored rail and car service makes the strategic consequences of the bombing negligible. pic.twitter.com/xmTMKceuLK

  — Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) October 8, 2022

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  In the aftermath of the major attack on Russian infrastructure, there’s growing speculation that President Vladimir Putin could be poised to declare full war on Ukraine, escalating far past the currently dubbed “special operation”. Some prominent Russian politicians are loudly calling for an equal response to Ukraine’s own “declaration of war” in the attack, according to state media sources: 

  “The terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge is no longer just a challenge, but a declaration of war without rules,” said Russia’s State Duma on October 8 after an explosion rocked the Kerch Strait crossing earlier this morning.

  Speaking to RIA Novosti, Deputy Oleg Morozov said that the explosion was “a blatant terrorist war is being waged against us.”

  …if there is no “adequate” response, such acts of aggression would be more likely to occur. “If we keep silent in response and do not give an adequate response, such terrorist attacks will multiply,” he said.

  At the same time, many war observers are wondering, is this the start of Zelensky’s declared intent to take back Crimea? 

  The moment of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge was caught on surveillance cameras. pic.twitter.com/7PgyXC9cSq

  — Clash Report (@clashreport) October 8, 2022

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  By all appearances, Putin is preparing for greater escalation in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and after weeks of reports and indicators that Russian lines are being rapidly pushed back in the east and south amid the major Ukraine counteroffensive. On Saturday a new overall commander for Russian forces in Ukraine has been announced. “Russia has appointed a notorious general who opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in the 1990s as its first overall commander for the war in Ukraine, as the Kremlin struggles to halt a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has left its forces in disarray,” The Guardian writes.

  “The appointment of Gen Sergei Surovikin came on the same day as Vladimir Putin was dealt a humiliating blow after an explosion on the Kerch bridge sank a section of the motorway into the Kerch Strait and caused a major fire on the railway,” the publication confirmed. “Surovikin is a veteran commander who led the Russian military expedition in Syria in 2017, where he was accused of using ‘controversial’ tactics including indiscriminate bombing against anti-government fighters.”

  An appropriate moment to recall the warning last month in NYT “that the most dangerous moments are yet to come,” given that Russia, by only making “limited attempts to destroy infrastructure” so far, “has avoided escalating the war” in ways that have “baffled Western officials.” pic.twitter.com/SOp2INmh9g

  — Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) October 8, 2022

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  * * *

  Russian authorities said that an explosion involving a truck on Saturday caused a fire and destroyed a section of a bridge linking Russia and Crimea. The bridge is regarded as a key supply route for Russian troops in southern Ukraine.

  

  The Crimean Bridge – also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge – is a structure 19 kilometers (12 miles) in length that passes across the Kerch Strait and links southern Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. The Kerch Strait links the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

  The Epoch Times’ Mimi Nguyen reports that a truck exploded on the bridge around 6 a.m. local time. Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee announced that the explosion caused a fire on the parallel rail section, where seven railway cars carrying fuel caught fire. The blast also caused a “partial collapse of two sections of the bridge.”

  (17)#CrimeanBridge#Ukraine #Crimea #Крым pic.twitter.com/IIsCbFZGIc

  — Pierre Davide Borrelli (@PierreDBorrelli) October 8, 2022

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  A spokesperson from the Russian Highways State Company (Avtodor) told the TASS news agency that the movement of vehicles across the Crimean Bridge has been temporarily suspended, adding at the time that “personnel of the Russian emergencies ministry and the road service are working on the site to contain the blaze.” The fire has since been extinguished.

  Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the explosion and he ordered the creation of a government panel to deal with the emergency.

  While the bridge undergoes repair, a ferry service will be provided later on Saturday. Crimea’s Head Sergey Aksyonov said on Telegram, per TASS: “A ferry service is ready to be launched, it will start operating later today. We will announce a timetable later.”

  (19)#CrimeanBridge#Ukraine #Crimea #Крым pic.twitter.com/PL7Io6wnET

  — Pierre Davide Borrelli (@PierreDBorrelli) October 8, 2022

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  The Crimean Peninsula is key to sustaining Russia’s military operations in the south. If the bridge is made inoperable, it would make it significantly more challenging to ferry supplies to the peninsula. While Russia seized the areas north of Crimea early during the invasion and built a land corridor to it along the Sea of Azov, Ukraine is pressing a counteroffensive to reclaim them.

  The explosion on the Crimean Bridge took place hours after multiple explosions early Saturday hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which triggered a series of secondary explosions. The city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said that the series of explosions were due to missile strikes aimed at the center of the city, which caused fires at one of Kharkiv’s medical institutions, as well as a nonresidential building. No reports of casualties were noted.

  

  Bridge Explosion Is the ‘Beginning’: Ukraine Official

  While no one has yet to explicitly claim public responsibility for the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aide, Mikhail Podoliak, posted on Twitter saying the explosion is “the beginning.”

  “Crimea, the bridge, the beginning. Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled,” he wrote in English.

  Podoliak previously in August threatened the bridge, telling The Guardian that the bridge is “an illegal construction and the main gateway to supply the Russian army in Crimea” and that “such objects should be destroyed.”

  Another big question

  Who leaked this surveillance videos so easily? pic.twitter.com/mryt3TzwiT

  — Russiаn Market (@runews) October 8, 2022

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  Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials have also previously stated that Ukraine will use force to retake Crimea.

  Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a vast majority of people in Crimea had voted in a referendum in March 2014 to reunite with Russia and secede from Ukraine. The vote took place after anti-Russia, pro-E.U. factions overthrew then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s government, which wasn’t against Russia, in an armed coup in February 2014.

  The referendum was condemned by the United States and the European Union, with the latter saying in a statement (pdf) that the poll was “illegal and illegitimate.” Both the United States and the E.U. issued sanctions in response to the vote.

  The Crimean Bridge, a $3.69 billion (230 billion rubles) project, was constructed following the annexation of Crimea. Russia opened the first part of the span to car traffic in May 2018. The parallel bridge for rail traffic opened the following year. Before the bridge’s existence, the Crimean Peninsula could only be reached from Russia by sea or air.

  

  It was Russia’s only land link to the peninsula until Russian forces later seized more Ukrainian territory on the northern end of the Sea of Azov in heavy fighting, particularly around the city of Mariupol, earlier in 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 14:35

• In Latest Recession Signal, Money-Supply Growth Plummeted To Three-Year Low In August
  In Latest Recession Signal, Money-Supply Growth Plummeted To Three-Year Low In August

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  Money supply growth fell again in August, dropping to a 36-month low. August’s drop continues a steep downward trend from the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years. During the thirteen months between April 2020 and April 2021, money supply growth in the United States often climbed above 35 percent year over year, well above even the “high” levels experienced from 2009 to 2013. 

  

  During August 2022, year-over-year (YOY) growth in the money supply was at 4.35 percent. That’s down from July’s rate of 4.84 percent, and down from August 2021’s rate of 8.28 percent. The growth rate peaked in February 2021 at 23.12 percent.

  The growth rates during most of 2020, and through April 2021, were much higher than anything we’d seen during previous cycles, with the 1970s being the only period that came close. Since then, however, we have seen a fast fall from previous highs and such rapid declines generally point to economic contraction in following months. 

  

  The money supply metric used here—the “true” or Rothbard-Salerno money supply measure (TMS)—is the metric developed by Murray Rothbard and Joseph Salerno, and is designed to provide a better measure of money supply fluctuations than M2. The Mises Institute now offers regular updates on this metric and its growth. This measure of the money supply differs from M2 in that it includes Treasury deposits at the Fed (and excludes short-time deposits and retail money funds).

  In recent months, M2 growth rates have followed a similar course to TMS growth rates. In August 2022, the M2 growth rate was 4.077 percent. That’s down from July’s growth rate of 5.25 percent. August’s rate was also well down from August 2021’s rate of 13.42 percent. M2 growth peaked at a new record of 26.91 percent during February 2021.

  Money supply growth can often be a helpful measure of economic activity, and an indicator of coming recessions. During periods of economic boom, money supply tends to grow quickly as commercial banks make more loans. Recessions, on the other hand, tend to be preceded by slowing rates of money supply growth. However, money supply growth tends to begin growing again before the onset of recession. 

  Another indicator of recession appears in the form of the gap between M2 and TMS. The TMS growth rate typically climbs and becomes larger than the M2 growth rate in the early months of a recession. This occurred in the early months of the 2001 and the 2007–09 recession. A similar pattern appeared before the 2020 recession. 

  Notably, this has happened again beginning in May this year as the M2 growth rate in fell below the TMS growth rate for the first time since 2020. Put another way, when the difference between M2 and TMS moves from a positive number to a negative number, that’s a fairly reliable indicator the economy has entered into recession. We can see this in this graph: 

  

  In the two “false alarms” over the past 30 years, the M2-TMS gap reverted to positive territory fairly quickly. However, when this gap firmly enters negative territory, that is an indicator that the economy is already in recession. The gap has now been negative for 3 of the past 5 months. Interestingly, this indicator also appears to follow the pattern of yield curve inversion. For example, the 2s/10s yield inversion went negative in all the same periods where the M2-TMS gap pointed to a recession. Moreover, the 2s/10s inversion was very briefly negative in 1998, and then almost went negative in 2018. 

  

  This is not surprising because trends in money supply growth have long appeared to be connected to the shape of the yield curve. As Bob Murphy notes in his book Understanding Money Mechanics, a sustained decline in TMS growth often reflects spikes in short-term yields, which can fuel a flattening or inverting yield curve. Murphy writes:

  When the money supply grows at a high rate, we are in a “boom” period and the yield curve is “normal,” meaning the yield on long bonds is much higher than on short bonds. But when the banking system contracts and money supply growth decelerates, then the yield curve flattens or even inverts. It is not surprising that when the banks “slam on the brakes” with money creation, the economy soon goes into recession.

  In other words, a sizable drop in the TMS growth levels often precedes an inversion in the yield curve, which itself points to an impending recession. Strong recession signals can be found elsewhere, as well. GDP growth turned negative in both the first and second quarter of this year, and two consecutive quarters of negative growth virtually always indicate recession. Average national home price growth in the US has recently turned negative for the first time in a decade. Real weekly earnings have gone negative for the past 17 months in a row. Consumer debt is surging as consumers borrow more money to make ends meet in this inflationary environment. 

  In other words, numerous other indicators point to just what we would expect: economic weakness and recession following a drop in money supply growth. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 14:25

• Musk Proposes Taiwan Become Chinese "Special Administrative Zone"
  Musk Proposes Taiwan Become Chinese “Special Administrative Zone”

  Not content kicking one hornet’s nest, Elon Musk just suggested to the Financial Times that tensions between China and Taiwan could be resolved by handing over some some control to Beijing – which would consider the island of 23 million people a “special administrative zone” similar to Hong Kong.

  

  “My recommendation… would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy,” Musk said while responding to a question about China, where his company Tesla operates a super factory in Shanghai.

  Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province of China that they will eventually reclaim, either through diplomacy or by force. China has offered Taiwan a “one  country, two systems” model of semi-autonomy similar to Hong Kong, which has been rejected by mainstream Taiwanese political parties.

  “And it’s possible, and I think probably, in fact, that [Taiwan] could have an arrangement that’s more lenient than Hong Kong,” Musk continued.

  Beijing imposed a tough National Security Law on Taiwan in 2020.

  In response, a senior lawmaker for Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Wang Ting-Tu, hit out on Facebook- writing: “Individual independent companies cannot take their ownership as a joke. So why should they casually pass off the democratic freedoms, sovereignty and way of life of 23 million Taiwanese?”

  “Musk needs to find a clear-headed political adviser,” according to one senior Taiwanese official in a statement to Reuters. “The world has seen clearly what happened to Hong Kong… their economic and social vibrancy abruptly ended under Beijing’s totalitarian rule.”

  Beijing was mum on Musk’s statement – with the Chinese foreign ministry saying that Taiwan was a “domestic affair” (aka ‘mind your own business’).

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 13:50

• North Korea Fires Unspecified Ballistic Missile
  North Korea Fires Unspecified Ballistic Missile

  South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired an “unspecified ballistic missile” toward the East Sea early Sunday, according to Yonhap News. 

  *NORTH KOREA FIRES BALLISTIC MISSILE TOWARD EAST SEA: YONHAP
  *N. KOREA MISSILE HAS LIKELY ALREADY FALLEN: JAPAN COAST GUARD

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 8, 2022

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  This launch follows a joint naval exercise between Seoul and Washington. Ahead of the launch, North Korea warned the redeployment of the US aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula would spark regional security issues. 

  Japan, U.S. conduct joint drill involving aircraft carrier https://t.co/K8uhNcAmHq pic.twitter.com/L80EkKu8vG

  — Reuters (@Reuters) October 8, 2022

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  Little details are known about the ballistic missile firing, but this is at least the tenth ballistic missile launched (Bloomberg’s Sangmi Cha has the count around 10) in two weeks.

  

  Japan’s Coast Guard said the missile had already fallen into the water. 

  [Emergency alert]
  North Korea has launched a suspected ballistic missile. More updates to follow.

  — PM’s Office of Japan (@JPN_PMO) October 8, 2022

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  *Developing 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 13:24

• Florida Surgeon General Recommends Against mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines For Males Aged 18–39
  Florida Surgeon General Recommends Against mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines For Males Aged 18–39

  Authored by Mimi Nguyen Ly via The Epoch Times,

  Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, announced new guidance on messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines on Friday, specifically recommending against mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for males aged 18 to 39.

  

  Messenger RNA is the technology utilized by both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, the most administered vaccines in the United States and a number of other countries.

  The new guidance came after the Florida Department of Health carried out an analysis to evaluate vaccine safety, the department said in a bulletin on Friday.

  The statewide analysis of vaccinated Florida residents aged 18 years or older (pdf) found an 84 percent increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related deaths among males aged 18–39, within 28 days of mRNA vaccination.

  “Non-mRNA vaccines were not found to have these increased risks,” the Florida Department of Health noted.

  Given the high level of global immunity to COVID-19, the benefit of vaccination with mRNA vaccines “is likely outweighed by this abnormally high risk of cardiac-related death among men in this age group,” the department said.

  “As such, the State Surgeon General recommends against males aged 18 to 39 from receiving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” it said. “Those with preexisting cardiac conditions, such as myocarditis and pericarditis, should take particular caution when making this decision.”

  “Far less attention has been paid to safety and the concerns of many individuals have been dismissed—these are important findings that should be communicated to Floridians,” Ladapo said in a statement, referring to the analysis.

  In the new guidance (pdf), Florida’s health department said it also “continues to stand by” its guidance for pediatric COVID-19 vaccines it issued in March. That guidance (pdf) recommends against COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and adolescents aged 5–17. It now also recommends against COVID-19 vaccination among infants and children under five years old.

  Today, we released an analysis on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines the public needs to be aware of. This analysis showed an increased risk of cardiac-related death among men 18-39. FL will not be silent on the truth.

  Guidance: https://t.co/DcWZLoMU5E
  Press Release: https://t.co/Y0r9yepi7F

  — Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD (@FLSurgeonGen) October 7, 2022

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  Statewide Analysis

  The analysis from the Florida Health Department that informed Ladapo’s latest recommendation had sought to “evaluate the risks of all-cause and cardiac-related mortality following COVID-19 vaccination.”

  Residents in Florida aged 18 years or older who died within 25 weeks of having received a COVID-19 vaccine, since the start of the vaccination roll-out in the state—Dec. 15, 2020—were included. The study end date was June 1, 2022.

  People were excluded from the study if they had a documented COVID-19 infection, had a COVID-19 associated death, had received a COVID-19 vaccine booster, or had received their last COVID-19 vaccine after Dec. 8 2021. The last criterion was put in place to make sure that each person was followed up after 25 weeks.

  The study found that COVID-19 vaccination “was not associated with an elevated risk for all-cause mortality,” but “was associated with a modestly increased risk for cardiac-related mortality 28 days following vaccination.”

  “Results from the stratified analysis for cardiac-related death following vaccination suggests mRNA vaccination may be driving the increased risk in males, especially among males aged 18–39,” according to the analysis.

  It also noted that the risk for both all-cause and cardiac-related deaths was “substantially higher 28 days following COVID-19 infection.”

  As such, the study concluded that people should weigh the risk associated with mRNA vaccination with the risk associated with COVID-19 infection.

  The analysis was a self-controlled case series (SCCS), which is a study design originally developed to evaluate vaccine safety, the department stated. The SCCS method uses individuals as their own control, such that comparisons are made within individuals.

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use in 2020 marked the first time it did so for vaccines that use mRNA technology.

  According to the FDA, the mRNA vaccine contains a small piece of the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s mRNA that instructs cells in the body to make the distinctive spike protein of the virus. When a person receives the vaccine, their body produces copies of the spike protein which “does not cause disease, but triggers the immune system to learn to react defensively, producing an immune response” against the virus, according to the agency.

  The mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and from Moderna have both been linked with heart inflammation, including myocarditis and pericarditis, data from around the world have suggested. Younger populations, especially young men, have been observed to experience these conditions at much higher than expected rates, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) previously suggested. A small number of deaths from heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccine have also been reported.

  The primary regimens of the vaccines, which are two doses administrated several weeks apart, were insufficient to protect against infection and showed waning efficacy in protecting against hospitalization amid newly-emerging variants. This prompted the governments of many countries to recommend boosters and subsequent boosters throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/08/2022 – 13:15

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