WORLD NEWS
Germany’s dependence on China — now its largest trading partner — makes it incredibly vulnerable as the communist state appears more and more likely to come to economic blows with the West.
Having already massively self-sabotaged its economy by getting itself addicted to Russian gas — which the belligerent state can turn off and on at will, and has — Germany is now in danger of further financial hardship as a result of making communist China its single biggest trading partner
Taiwan Conducts Live-Fire Drills in Response to Chinese Pressure Tactics
The Taiwanese military conducted live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday, simulating a stiff defense against the sort of attack China has been simulating with its own live-fire drills ever since U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island last week.
Journalists for Agence France-Presse (AFP) observed the drills, which were conducted by Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps, and included both target flares and live shells.
Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage has expressed his ‘shock’ at what he called the ‘appalling’ raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago yesterday.
Brexit architect and political commentator Nigel Farage has expressed his “shock” at last night’s FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago on Monday morning, an action the veteran populist firebrand described as “appalling”.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Delta Force Seizes IRS Weapons Shipment
Delta Force Operators Monday morning intercepted an 18-wheeler packed with pistols and bound for the Internal Revenue Service Building in Washington, D.C., a source in General David H. Berger’s office told Real Raw News.
Hours after Kabula Harris’s tie-breaking vote on the regime’s climate, health, and tax bill empowered the IRS to hire and arm 87,000 new agents—to the tune of $80bn—an inconspicuous tractor trailer departed a government-leased warehouse in Jessup, Maryland. The obsidian cab and attached trailer swerved through the city’s industrial district and was preparing to veer onto the Baltimore-Washington Parkway when it met an obstacle: four SUVs, each as black as the trailer, blocked its path, two on the road and one on each shoulder. Under ordinary circumstances, the trailer could’ve steamrolled the blockade. But these were not ordinary circumstances. Behind each SUV stood four men garbed in military attire, every one of them brandishing rifles aimed at the cab’s windshield.
US Judge in Florida Approved Search Warrant for FBI Raid on Trump’s Resort: Lawyer
A federal judge approved the search warrant that FBI agents served on former President Donald Trump’s resort in Florida, according to one of Trump’s lawyers.
Christina Bobb, the lawyer, told The Epoch Times that documents agents showed to her during the raid listed U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart as the judge who signed off on the raid.
“It was Bruce Reinhart,” Bobb said.
Court records show that Reinhart issued warrants in response to multiple requests, including a warrant for electronic communications suspected to be relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation, according to docket entries.
Reinhart is one of three magistrate judges for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida’s West Palm Beach location, which encompasses Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
FBI agents raided the resort on Aug. 8.
The warrant applications, the orders approving the applications, and other documents are under seal, meaning they are not available to the public.
Two other magistrate judges work out of the location. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe had no search warrant applications come before him on Friday, the docket shows.
The other, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Matthewman, granted a search warrant on Aug. 8, according to the docket.
The records in that case are also sealed.
The FBI has declined to comment on the raid. The Department of Justice has not returned an inquiry. A White House official told The Epoch Times in an email it was not notified of the raid before it took place.
FBI Agents Were Looking for Classified Records, Took Boxes of Documents From Trump Resort: Lawyer
The FBI agents who raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida resort were looking for certain records, according to a lawyer for Trump who was on the scene while agents were at the resort.
“They’re looking for presidential records, what they deemed to be presidential records, and anything that could potentially be classified,” Christina Bobb, the lawyer, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 9.
“We had been very cooperative with them before. And it’s unclear to me why they went to such drastic measures to do this. But they did. And as far as the probable cause goes, they wouldn’t give that to us,” she added.
In mid-January, the National Archives and Records Administration arranged for the transport from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives 15 boxes that the archives said contained presidential records. Under the Presidential Records Act, the records should have been transferred in January 2021 as Trump left office, and some of the boxes contained classified information, the institution said in a statement at the time. The administration did not return an inquiry on Tuesday.
Approximately two dozen FBI agents arrived around 9 a.m. on Monday morning and remained at Mar-a-Lago, which is in West Palm Beach, for about 10 hours.
Agents initially resisted showing Bobb the warrant but ultimately did. But the agents would not allow any representatives of the former president to oversee the search, Bobb said. The justification for the search also remains under seal. Trump’s legal team plans on asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to unseal the search warrant affidavit, which would outline why authorities asked for the warrant.
“We don’t know what the probable cause is. I don’t think there is a good cause to do such a drastic thing. But they did,” Bobb said.
The FBI has declined to comment. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have not returned requests for comment. The White House has said the DOJ is independent and that President Joe Biden and others in the White House were not notified of the raid ahead of time.
Vought Laying Groundwork for Next GOP President to Neutralize Federal Swamp’s Bureaucracy
Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, had a plan, but too little time left in 2020 to restore the bureaucracy as a neutral tool for ensuring that federal officials do what American voters want done by their government.
But Vought will be ready from the get-go when, he hopes, the next Republican Chief Executive enters the Oval Office in January 2025. If he succeeds, Vought will accomplish something that has eluded presidents of both parties since before World War I, when Woodrow Wilson turned federal civil servants from neutral implementers into unaccountable policy-making “experts.”
Wilson upended the neutral federal workforce concept established by the Templeton Act of 1888, which replaced the former “to-the-winner-goes-the-spoils” system that had been in force for a century.
Wilson wanted policy experts in the bureaucracy in whom would be vested immense independent powers to regulate American society as they thought proper. That led to an explosion of regulations, including many intended to protect the newly muscular bureaucracy from electoral accountability.
Two of Wilson’s Democratic successors—Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society—expanded the federal bureaucracy into such an unwieldy, cumbersome, and costly regulatory monster that another Democrat, President Jimmy Carter, made it one of his administration’s chief goals to gain passage of the landmark Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) of 1978.
It fell to Carter’s successor, Republican Ronald Reagan, however, to implement the CSRA, which included multiple provisions designed to make bureaucrats more accountable for their individual performance and easier to replace poor performers.
“It worked for a few years but was fought throughout by OMB, which moderated CSRA during its legislative journey through Congress and then, afterwards, helped agency experts and allies in Congress to modify CSRA’s reforms,” Donald Devine, the former Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), who managed the CSRA implementation for Reagan, wrote recently.
“Today, we are basically back to the system Carter was elected to change—but worse, as aspects of his reforms are now forbidden by both law and regulation,” Devine continued.
That was the situation when Vought became Acting OMB Director under Trump in 2019. Having served on Capitol Hill in various Republican policy positions for two decades, Vought was already familiar with entrenched bureaucrats repeatedly undermining common sense, conservative policy directives. When the Senate confirmed him in the position the next year, Vought began taking concrete steps to address the problem.
What became known as “Schedule F” was a presidential Executive Order (EO) designed to extend application of CSRA’s basic principle of policy and performance accountability deeper into the bureaucracy by giving the president’s appointees throughout the departments and agencies more flexibility to replace recalcitrant bureaucrats in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” positions.
But there were so many fires to put out during the Trump era, that Vought was only able to implement his plan starting 13 days before the 2020 election, and then only within OMB where he reclassified an estimated 90 percent of the agency’s employees.
“We had been working on it for about two years and we were really trying to think through when we do it,” Vought told The Epoch Times in an interview. James Sherk, a Trump domestic policy adviser and former Heritage Foundation analyst, is credited with the original concept for Schedule F.
“A lot of my effort was to help get it across the finish line and then to show that an agency head was willing to use it, and then set down a marker that we would indeed do it in a second [Trump] term,” Vought said.
Biden Signs $280 Billion Semiconductor Bill
President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act on Aug. 9, allocating a $280 billion funding package toward boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing and various research endeavors.
“The CHIPS and Science Act will boost American semiconductor research, development, and production, ensuring U.S. leadership in the technology that forms the foundation of everything from automobiles to household appliances to defense systems,” said a White House fact sheet on the law.
“The law will also ensure the United States maintains and advances its scientific and technological edge.”
The administration maintains that the mammoth spending package would improve jobs and national security by making the United States less dependent on foreign supply chains and building a more robust workforce.
Semiconductors are used in many technologies, ranging from cars to hypersonic missiles. The funding package was also widely hailed as a means of improving the nation’s competitiveness with an increasingly hostile communist China.
Appeals Court Rules in Favor of Democrat Effort to Obtain Trump Tax Returns
The Democrat effort to obtain six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns has a legitimate legislative purpose that is not clearly unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled on Aug. 9.
Trump and his lawyers have said that the request, from Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), exceeds the investigative powers of Congress. The appeals court panel found that the request “articulates a clear legislative purpose on a matter which legislation could be had,” the Presidential Audit Program, as well as possible legislation that would help IRS workers conducting the presidential audits.
“The Chairman has identified a legitimate legislative purpose that it requires information to accomplish. At this stage, it is not our place to delve deeper than this. The mere fact that individual members of Congress may have political motivations as well as legislative ones is of no moment,” the panel said in a 29-page ruling.
It also rejected arguments from Trump that the request violated separation of powers, or separation between the branches of the U.S. government, ruling that Trump “failed to demonstrate a burden that would outweigh the Committee’s need for the requested information.”
Neal’s request, first made in 2019 and re-submitted in 2021 after President Joe Biden took office, asks for six years of Trump’s returns, starting the year before Trump took office.
The U.S. Department of Treasury, citing a Department of Justice legal opinion, refused to comply with the initial request. But the Department of Justice reversed course in 2021, finding the new request was valid. The Treasury Department, which includes the IRS, then said it would comply.
Trump and others sued.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, a Trump appointee, turned down the suit, saying the intent to review the Presidential Audit Program was valid even as he acknowledged that public statements from Democrats indicate they will make public Trump’s returns after acquiring them.
The appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld McFadden’s ruling.
FBI’s Trump Home Raid Improperly Intrusive, Circumstances Indicate: Lawyers
There’s reason to suspect that the FBI search of the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump was improperly intrusive, according to several lawyers. The raid prompted a rebuke from Trump and Republicans more broadly and further escalated political tensions in the nation.
About two dozen FBI agents entered Trump’s Palm Beach resort of Mar-a-Lago around 9 a.m. on Aug. 8 and left about 10 hours later with “a handful of boxes of documents,” one of Trump’s attorneys on scene, Christina Bobb, told The Epoch Times.
“I didn’t actually get to oversee the search, they wouldn’t let anybody see what they were doing,” she said.
It isn’t clear what legal basis the FBI had for the raid. The agents had a search warrant signed by a judge, however, the affidavit explaining the basis—its probable cause—was filed under seal and Trump’s lawyers weren’t allowed to examine it, Bobb said.
In general, the agents were looking for “what they deemed to be presidential records,” she said.
“I don’t think there was anything of substance.”
Trump’s legal team will take steps to obtain the affidavit, she said.
There has been a dispute between National Archives and Trump about whether he has documents that should be stored at the archives under the U.S. Presidential Records Act.
Trump has been cooperative on that front, Bobb said, and previously had invited the FBI to Mar-a-Lago to examine the White House records he had in storage at the time.
“Nothing had been hidden and nothing had been kept secret from them, which makes this all the more ridiculous,” she said.
Potentially Illegal
“I’m stunned and dismayed,” commented Marc Ruskin, 27-year FBI veteran and former federal prosecutor.
“The disregard for traditional norms and apparent lack of concern with the appearance of impropriety is indicative of an abandonment of even a veneer of independence and objectivity,” he told The Epoch Times.
Former federal prosecutor Mike Davis went even further, saying the raid may have been illegally invasive.
“Under the case law, you can’t do a home raid if you can secure the documents through less intrusive means,” he told “Bannon War Room” on Aug. 9.
The FBI had to first determine that requests for the documents or even subpoenas wouldn’t be sufficient, said Davis, who formerly advised Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on judicial nominations and now heads The Article III Project.
“There’s zero evidence” that Trump wouldn’t have cooperated, he said.
“There was no allegation or evidence that he [Trump] was destroying any of this evidence or putting it into the wrong hands. This is banana republic-level tactics from the Biden Justice Department.”
Even if Trump took classified documents, he took possession of them when he was still chief executive and had the authority to declassify them, Davis said.
Bobb suggested that the invocation of classified documents was a disingenuous attempt of “shrouding this in a national security blanket.”
“They don’t want to disclose what they’re doing, because what they’re doing is wrong. And so they want to hide it behind the premise of ‘Oh, it’s a matter of national security and classified documents, so we can’t disclose to you what we’re doing or why we’re doing it. But just trust us. We’re not lying to you,’” she said.
“Well, no, the American people aren’t going to stand for that anymore.”
Even if the DOJ tried to charge Trump with withholding documents, it wouldn’t hold up, Bobb said, because the statute in question requires a “willful” violation and Trump would have had to have “some malicious intent” to take specific documents.
“They would have to lay the foundation that Donald Trump actually packed up his own office” or ordered somebody what specifically to take, she said.
History of Missing Documents
If Trump had documents that should go to the archives, it would add him to a lineup of former government officials.
Former FBI Director James Comey took his handwritten notes when he was fired by Trump in 2017. His home wasn’t raided. He handed the notes to FBI agents who came to interview him.
The Obama administration didn’t just fail to hand over documents, tens of thousands of its documents went missing or were destroyed. No homes were raided.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to hand over tens of thousands of emails and documents from her server, claiming they were of a personal nature. The FBI was able to retrieve some of the documents, revealing that many were work-related. Moreover, the documents were under congressional subpoena at the time when a Clinton aide deleted them.
Immediate Skepticism
The raid prompted an immediate wave of skepticism, particularly because the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have a history of breaking protocol, misrepresentations, and even forging of evidence, in their case against Trump and members of his campaign.
“After six years of unfounded, absurd investigations of President Trump, the presumption is that any investigation of President Trump is politically motivated, and the burden of proof is on FBI/DOJ to prove otherwise,” Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at the Internet Accountability Project, wrote in an Aug. 9 tweet.
In 2017, the FBI and DOJ obtained two extensions of a spying warrant on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page although the warrant was based on false or unsubstantiated allegations. The FBI later acknowledged that spying based on the extensions was illegal.
The FBI also has a history of harsh treatment of people associated with Trump. His aides have been arrested at gunpoint, handcuffed, and “perp-walked,” and their homes and offices have been raided in pursuit of trivial or nonviolent offenses, even when the targets were cooperating with the government.
Shoe on the Other Foot
The Trump raid increased the already polarized political playing field, as Republicans can now argue that home raids of former presidents are acceptable.
“They’re setting a very dangerous precedent where you can do a home raid of a former president of the United States,” Davis said, noting that such a thing has never happened “in our 250 years as a republic.”
Already, Republican lawmakers are promising to subject the DOJ and the FBI to intense scrutiny, with the expectation of reclaiming the majority in the House after the November midterms.
“When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned,” House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in an Aug. 8 statement.
“Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”
Judge’s Epstein Connection
The search warrant was issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart in the Southern District of Florida. Reinhart was a senior prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida when the office reached a non-prosecution agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, who was later indicted for sex trafficking children and died by apparent suicide in a New York jail.
Upon leaving office, Reinhart went into private practice and represented multiple Epstein associates and employees in civil cases against Epstein by his alleged victims.
Reinhart was appointed a magistrate judge in 2018 by the district judges in the Southern District of Florida.
The warrant was issued on Aug. 5, the day after FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee and was questioned about multiple whistleblower reports alleging politicization of the bureau. Wray cut the questioning short because he said he had to urgently travel. Flight records indicate he flew in the FBI private jet to his vacation retreat in the Adirondacks, according to New York Post columnist Miranda Devine.
Texas Won Election Integrity Battles in 2020, But State Still Vulnerable: Paxton
State senator proposes law to restore attorney general’s power to prosecute voter fraud
Texas could go the way of Georgia if the state’s election integrity laws are not vigorously defended.
That’s according to Attorney General Ken Paxton who gave insight into Texas’ fight to stop Democrat-controlled counties from sidestepping election law during the pandemic and the ongoing defense of election integrity laws.
Paxton, up for reelection, spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas last week. He said the state defended 12 election lawsuits filed against it during 2020.
“It became very clear this was an orchestrated effort somewhere outside the state by somebody who had a lot of money, but we didn’t know who,” he said.
“It was designed to make sure that mail-in ballots were mailed out to as many people as possible in violation of Texas law,” he continued.
Election officials in highly populated counties such as Bexar, Travis, and Harris were attempting to mail out ballots, which would have reached 5 million people or more, Paxton said
Hillary Clinton Fundraises With ‘But Her Emails’ Merchandise After FBI’s Trump Raid
Donald Trump’s classified documents got him a home raid, but Hillary Clinton’s classified documents got her funds raised.
A day after the FBI raided the former president’s house, Clinton was selling shirts and hats with the phrase “But Her Emails” written on them.
Clinton used a private email server to conduct official state business with more than 2000 of them classified by the State Department. She later deleted about 33,000 emails before government officials could investigate them.
A State Department internal inquiry into the Clinton emails found no “deliberate mishandling,” although it did find violations by 38 department officials.
Some of the estimated 15 boxes of documents the FBI seized from Trump were classified too, the National Archives said.
In this context, Clinton raised funds by selling clothing that referenced the email scandal.
“Every ‘But Her Emails’ hat or shirt sold helps @onwardtogether partners defend democracy, build a progressive bench, and fight for our values. Just saying!” Clinton posted on Twitter.
“But Her Emails” hats and T-shirts sold for $30 apiece on the progressive political fundraising organization Onward Together’s website.
It also offered coffee mugs, lapel pins, and stickers with the same phrase.
The hats sold out quickly, Clinton wrote on Twitter.
“That was fast—I’m told hats are now sold out. We’ll re-stock ASAP,” Clinton said. “In the meantime, know that we’ve got shirts, too.”
Clinton co-founded Onward Together after losing the 2016 election. It has donated to more than a dozen people who have a history of working with her.
Previously, Clinton offered “But Her Emails” hats after “the news that Trump was flushing documents down White House toilets.”
Trump has denied those claims and responded to the raid on his house with a blistering letter.
“Nothing like this has ever happened to a [former] president of the United States before,” Trump said.
Trump said the FBI’s actions resembled that of a corrupt, Third World dictatorship.
Michael Keaton: If The FBI Can Raid Trump, They Can Do It to You
Hollywood star Michael Keaton is cheering the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, noting that if the FBI can raid a former president, everyone is a potential target.
While many Americans would see that as a threat to basic liberties and a dangerous weaponization of the FBI, Keaton portrayed Monday’s night-time raid as a victory for the rule of law, apparently unaware that he is endorsing giving the FBI unprecedented power over average U.S. citizens.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Poll: Americans Anticipate Even Higher Grocery Prices
A majority of Americans report seeing their grocery bills increase and expect food prices to keep rising, a new Rasmussen Reports poll found.
As Democrats continue to exacerbate inflation by spending billions and trillions in taxpayer funds on other countries and “climate change,” 89 percent of American adults say they are paying more for groceries now than a year ago (87 percent). Sixty-one percent say they expect the amount they spend on groceries to be even higher a year from now.
Out of 1,000 U.S. American adults surveyed between July 24-25, 63 percent say they have changed their eating habits because of increasing food costs. That percentage is up from 55 percent in April, and 31 percent report not having to change how they eat because of inflation. The margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence.
More married Americans and those with children say they expect to spend more on groceries next year compared to Americans who are unmarried and without children. Additionally, Americans who make an annual income below $30,000 (75 percent) say increasing food costs have cause them to change their eating habits, compared to 31 percent of people with incomes above $200,000 yearly.
Broken down by political affiliation, 77 percent of Republicans, nearly half (47 percent) of Democrats, and 60 percent of unaffiliated voters expect their grocery bills to be higher a year from now. However, Democrats are “less likely to say rising food prices have caused them to change their eating habits,” the poll report stated.
The survey results are similar to a June YouGov/CBS News poll, which found that 61 percent of Americans say the price of food is affecting them “a lot,” followed by 29 percent who say it is affecting them “some.”
Commerce Department Accuses Chinese Company of Illegally Shipping Equipment to Iran
The Department of Commerce accused China’s largest wire and cable manufacturer, Far East Cable, of violating export controls aimed at preventing the shipment of equipment to Iran.
In a charging letter (file) issued July 29, the department said that Far East Cable committed 18 violations of U.S. export controls between 2014 and 2016. During that time, the department alleged Far East Cable entered an agreement to supply equipment from China’s ZTE to Iranian companies, effectively circumventing export restrictions against ZTE.
“As alleged, Far East Cable acted as a cutout for ZTE, facilitating ZTE shipments to Iran at the very time ZTE knew it was under investigation for the exact same conduct” said Office of Export Enforcement Director John Sonderman in an Aug. 8 statement (pdf).
“Far East Cable engaged in serious conduct as part of the attempt to conceal the activity from U.S. investigators. These charges should send a strong message to any company contemplating facilitating violations on behalf of another.”
The charges developed out of an investigation opened into ZTE, a Chinese telecoms equipment company, in 2012. ZTE ultimately reached a series of settlements with the department in 2017, admitting to violating U.S. export control rules and sanctions on Iran.
During that investigation, in 2014, the department alleged that Far East Cable picked up ZTE’s contracts and went on to act as an intermediary by delivering American technologies to Iran and obfuscating ZTE’s role in the transactions.
Far East Cable contracted with Telecommunications Company of Iran and Khadamate Ertebati Rightel, another Iranian company, the letter said.
Both companies were customers of ZTE. Both companies also suspended shipments of items originating from the United States to Iran in 2012. The following year, however, ZTE made plans to resume shipments to Iran through Far East Cable, the letter said.
ZTE paid an $892 million penalty in 2017 and pleaded guilty to shipping American goods to Iran in violation of laws that restrict the sale of American-made technology. It also admitted to obstructing justice after being caught in an elaborate scheme to mask its illicit Iranian business ties.
ZTE was allowed to continue to buy U.S. goods and technology until 2018, when it was caught lying about disciplining employees tied to the original wrongdoing. This ban was later lifted when the company agreed to replace its senior management, pay an additional fine, and establish internal compliance procedures.
The charges were brought by the department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which leads efforts to prevent foreign adversaries from obtaining sensitive American technologies.
“This action reflects the Commerce Department’s commitment to enforce our laws vigorously against those involved in a scheme to disguise the true parties to a transaction,” said Assistant Secretary of Commerce Matthew Axelrod.
“We have no tolerance for companies that subvert our rules, either on their own behalf or on behalf of others.”
US Housing Sentiment Drops to Lowest in Over a Decade
Housing sentiment in the United States, as measured by the Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), has fallen to its lowest level in more than 10 years.
In July, the HPSI declined by two points, to 62.8, the lowest level since 2011 and far below the all-time high set in 2019, according to an Aug. 8 press release. Homeowners and renters who participated in the survey expressed pessimism about current buying conditions. Only 17 percent of respondents said it is a good time to buy a home. Meanwhile, the proportion of respondents who believed it was a good time to sell a home came down, to 67 percent in July from 76 percent in May.
An index of home price growth expectations also fell, but continues to remain in positive territory. According to Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae Senior vice president and chief economist, higher mortgage rates are taking a toll on housing affordability, thus resulting in the decline in the HPSI for much of the year.
Unfavorable mortgage rates were often cited by consumers as the “top reason” for the perception that it was a bad time to buy or sell a home, Duncan stated. Consumers are indicating that selling conditions are “softening.” Fannie Mae expects the current housing conditions to remain “increasingly mixed.”
“Some homeowners may opt to list their homes sooner to take advantage of perceived high prices, while some potential homebuyers may choose to postpone their purchase decision believing that home prices may drop,” Duncan said.
“Overall, this month’s HPSI results appear to confirm our forecast for moderating home sales over the coming year,” he added.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Critics, CBO Warn Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act Could Slash US Medical Innovation
Critics of Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), are warning that the bill’s health care provisions could cause medical innovation in the United States, which leads the world in the sector, to decline sharply.
The measure, hammered out as a compromise agreement between moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), serves to fulfill a series of broad Democratic aspirations: increasing federal revenue by closing so-called tax loopholes, enacting climate change policies, expanding the Affordable Care Act, and reducing prescription drug prices.
Its supporters say the legislation also will help to slow the growth of the ballooning U.S. national debt by decreasing the deficit.
While it authorizes about $433 billion in new spending, Democrats’ internal estimates suggest that the bill will bring in around $725 billion in new revenue to the federal government, thus reducing the federal deficit and slowing the growth of the national debt. Specifically, Democrats estimate that the bill will reduce the deficit by about $292 billion annually.
Though less far reaching in tax code changes, climate policies, and health care policy changes than the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act that preceded it, the Inflation Reduction Act would still entail one of the largest changes to federal health policy in many years.
Democrats have been sanguine about the long-term effects of these new policies on the U.S. health care system; others, however, suggest that the bill will bring about an array of unintended consequences.
HEALTH
Top 4 Reasons to Check Your Iron Level, Not Your Cholesterol
While your body requires sufficient iron to stay healthy, elevated levels have been linked to cancer, heart disease, neurodegenerative diseases, gouty arthritis, hepatitis C, liver disease and many other health problems
Elevated cerebrospinal fluid iron levels are strongly correlated with the presence of the Alzheimer’s risk allele, APOE-e4, and elevated iron in your brain may actually be the mechanism that makes APOE-e4 a major genetic risk factor for the disease
Elevated ferritin has been linked to impaired glucose metabolism, raising the risk of diabetes fivefold in men and fourfold in women, a magnitude of correlation similar to that of obesity
Iron causes significant harm primarily by catalyzing a reaction within the inner mitochondrial membrane. When iron reacts with hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl free radicals are formed, causing severe mitochondrial dysfunction
If your iron level is too high, the easiest way to lower it is to donate blood two or three times a year. If you have severe overload you may need to do more regular phlebotomies. Regular sauna use, which is an effective form of detoxification, is also helpful
‘We Have a Corrupt Medical System in This Country’: Sen. Ron Johnson
Over two years of pandemic oversight, Johnson said he’s witnessed money being put before public health
From the early days of the pandemic, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has been trying to hold U.S. public health agencies accountable on many issues, including why the agencies censored early treatment options for COVID-19, pushed vaccine mandates, and demonstrated a lack of integrity and transparency involving the vaccine data and reporting.
After conducting two years of oversight, Johnson said that the U.S. medical system has been compromised by money from Big Pharma.
“We have a corrupt medical system in this country,” Johnson said in a recent interview for NTD’s “Capitol Report” program. “From the pharmaceutical companies down to the federal health agencies through to the research centers and medical journals. It should concern every American.”
Agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration have not freely provided the public with accurate data about the vaccine’s origin, efficacy, and adverse effects, said Johnson, and he and others conducting oversight have had to rely heavily on other countries’ data.
“We’ve had to look to either Israel or Public Health England, Public Health Scotland. Now they’re shutting down their information streams as well,” he said. “One of my biggest concerns is our federal health agencies have not been honest. They’ve not been transparent.”
He called what the CDC is doing “willful ignorance.”
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Spanish Populists Vow Court Action Over Govt ‘Climate Fanaticism’
Spanish populist party VOX has promised to take the government to court over any climate-crazy policies the national government tries to enforce on regional governments.
VOX has stated that it will pursue legal action against the left-wing national government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for any measure deemed to be unconstitutional or measures that fall to the roles of the regional governments themselves.
The party, which is part of the government in the region of Castile and León following an election earlier this year, wrote to national Minister of Culture Miquel Iceta from the regions Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport on the issue, rebuking the national government’s proposed energy policy, El Mundo reports.
Earlier this month, the Spanish government proposed that offices, shops and other venues not be allowed to set air conditioning below 27 degrees Celsius (80 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and not raise heating more than 19 degrees Celcius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) in the winter as a way to save energy.
In the letter, VOX proposed that the Spanish Council of Ministers “immediately adopt policies that reduce our now growing energy dependence,” while Castile and León Minister for Culture Gonzalo Santonja called for the government to repeal rules preventing the exploration and extraction of energy sources in Spain.
As energy prices climb in Spain, at least in part due to the effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on Spaniards to help save energy last week by ditching neckties in a bizarre move.
“I’d like you to note that I am not wearing a tie. That means that we can all make savings from an energy point of view,” Prime Minister Sanchez said and added, “So I have asked all ministers and public decision-makers [to follow suit].”
Rising costs of natural gas and other forms of energy have led the European Union to call on member states to reduce their consumption of gas by as much as 15 per cent from August to March of next year.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Growing Up: Five Tips for Successful Vertical Gardens
“Grow up!” While that phrase most often is used as an insult for those acting immaturely, it can also be great gardening advice – especially for gardeners with limited gardening space. Growing upward, or vertically, can help you make the most of your gardening space by tapping the potential of the vertical space above your garden plot or container gardens. Gardening in all three dimensions increases the growing area available to gardeners, increasing the yield potential for gardens of all sizes.
As a trial judge for AAS, it is important that I have a few tips and tricks up my sleeve for growing all the entry and comparison plants in the space I have, especially when they are bigger vining crops.
Here are some of my tips for gardeners wanting to “grow up”:
- Choose vining cultivars/varieties instead of bush types if you’re growing vertically. While bush type crops such as cucumbers are more petite, they actually take up more horizontal space on the ground. Growing a vining variety lets you grow it up on a trellis, using less horizontal space. This is also true for tomatoes, even though the effect isn’t as dramatic. Growing indeterminate tomatoes vertically on trellises, wire, etc. can increase yield and use a little bit less garden space than bushy determinate types.
- Explore a variety of techniques to find what works for you. From cages to trellises to bamboo teepee structures, there are lots of different systems to grow just about any crop you could imagine in the garden or in containers. Check out resources for newer techniques that home gardeners can adapt for their own use, like the Florida weave system for keeping tomatoes, peppers, and other tall, heavy plants upright. The technique replaces traditional staking or caging of individual plants with twine woven around and between plants, supported by equally spaced stakes or poles. It reduces the number of stakes needed and can reduce setup and maintenance.
- Be creative when selecting materials and techniques for vertical growing. While gardeners may be accustomed to buying pre-made trellises, netting, or using bamboo poles, there are lots of creative ways to grow vertically. Using livestock fence panels, for example, can be a quick way to build a vertical structure for many crops in rows. These 8- or 16-foot long panels come in a variety of heights and can be installed by using a few metal posts. While a bit more labor-intensive, branches can be repurposed for a functional and pleasing trellis.
- Intercrop short plants underneath your trellised vertical crops to make good use of space…and shade. This is especially great for teepee or A-frame structures that have extra space underneath and lower-light crops that would appreciate growing in the cool shade, like lettuce, leafy greens, or radishes.
- Go totally vertical! Green walls, growing pockets, hanging containers, and vertical hydroponic systems can let you make use of extra wall space to grow vertically, as well. There are extra labor and watering involved, but using wall space is a great way to grow if you’ve got severely limited space.
PET NEWS
‘They’re Very Loving Dogs’: Couple Share Country Home With 10 Humongous Irish Wolfhound Dogs
An English couple who share a huge love for dogs have a 15-strong pack in their country home—10 of which represent their favorite breed, Irish wolfhounds.
Claire Moorhouse and her husband, Mav, live in the English village of Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. Their plus-sized furry family includes their 10 Irish wolfhounds, three white Swiss shepherds, a whippet, and a lurcher.
“We’re dog fanatics, but we’ve got a particular soft spot for wolfhounds,” Mav, 49, told The Epoch Times.
The couple’s obsession with the Irish wolfhounds first began 10 years ago, in 2012.
“The intention was to have a go at showing, which we did,” Claire, 46, said. The pair had planned to have a male and female so they could show them. But they then decided that, rather than buying them, they’d have a go at breeding their female.
“We had our first litter. We kept one, and then we had another litter and we kept two,” she explained. “Very quickly, we went from having two to having five, and once you’ve got five, adding another and another and another makes very little difference!”
Describing their gentle giants’ characteristics, Mav said that they’re supposed to be the tallest breed in the world and have soft, gentle, boisterous characters.
He further explained that “they’re very loving dogs,” and it’s like they’ve got a “human soul.”
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