WORLD NEWS
Netanyahu Gloats as Prosecution Stumbles: ‘In Your Face’
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gloated Monday as the prosecution in his corruption trial asked the court for permission to amend its indictment against him when a key witness backtracked on his earlier testimony against him.
“In your face,” Netanyahu told reporters.
He faces three charges, which have been described by critics from the beginning as bogus, and as an apparent effort by Netanyahu’s political enemies in the Israeli legal fraternity to remove him from power.
In what is known as case 4000, considered the most serious of three, “Netanyahu is accused of providing lucrative benefits to Shaul Elovitch, then-owner of [communications firm] Bezeq and the Walla news site, in exchange for favorable coverage,” the Times of Israel notes.
A former Netanyahu-aide-turned state’s witness, Shlomo Filber, told investigators in 2017 that Netanyahu made a hand gesture suggesting “drop the whole thing.” He then changed his story to implicate Netanyahu.
But last week, Filber went back to his original story, and told the court that he may have misinterpreted the non-verbal cue. The prosecution then asked the court to change a key date in the indictment to account for Filber’s apparent inconsistency.
Columnist Caroline Glick noted at the time that the charge was ridiculous, since the deal to approve a merger involving Bezeq was “approved by all the relevant legal and regulatory authorities” and that competitors received similar tax breaks. Bezeq actually lost money on the deal. Moreover, if Netanyahu had hoped for better coverage from Walla, he never received it: “Some 75 percent of the articles about him were negative,” as they were in much of the rest of the left-wing Israeli media.
The prosecution has since been clouded by revelations that state investigators unlawfully hacked Netanyahu’s phone and those of his associates in an effort to spy on him and use damaging personal information to turn witnesses against him.
Netanyahu has refused to accept any plea deals and has insisted on proving his innocence. The prosecution has stumbled as the post-Netanyahu government, a ragtag coalition led by former aide Naftali Bennet, has moved closer to internal collapse.
Report: Globalist Elite Rush Private Jets as Everyone Else Told to Stay Home
Members of the globalist elite who rushed to embrace private jets during the coronavirus pandemic as a means of avoiding the general public are not giving up the habit anytime soon, a report Sunday confirms.
Reuters reports a shift toward private flying that wealthy Americans saw as a necessity during the past two years is now showing signs of becoming something else: a pricey but sought-after alternative to a premium ticket on a commercial flight.
Analysts and industry executives say they see both more first-time jet owners and families and even small- and medium businesses rushing to the skies in a private plane.
Airlines had an 80 percent share of premium travel in 2021, down from 90 percent before COVID-19, according to Alton Aviation Consultancy cited by Reuters.
Business jets have long been associated with A-list entertainers, Hollywood and top executives, even as they were lecturing the rest of us to lower our carbon footprints by flight shaming those who do.
They now account for a quarter of U.S. flights, roughly twice the pre-pandemic share, according to research and consultancy WINGX.
Bill Gates for one has addressed the criticism he has received for speaking out on climate change while also producing a large carbon footprint with the use of flying in private jets.
Gates said last year such criticism is “totally fair.” He acknowledged he has a “large carbon footprint,” so he is a “strange person” to be talking about it even as he continues to book non-commercial flights.
Booking a Gulfstream G280 with nine passenger seats for a one-way New York-to-Miami flight costs $18,100, according to Jettly, a platform for charter bookings. That compares with an average cost for a single business-class, New York-to-Miami ticket of $421, before taxes, according to data from airline analytics firm Cirium for January.
For many price is simply not a deterrent, politicians included.
Cuba Tells Farmers to Use Human Urine as Fertilizer
A Cuban state-run newspaper recently promoted an article touting the alleged benefits of using human urine as an agricultural fertilizer, the independent website Cubanet reported on Wednesday.
A publication called 5 de Septiembre, which is the official government-run newspaper of Cuba’s Cienfuegos province, recently “shared an article suggesting that Cubans fertilize crops with human urine,” Cubanet relayed on May 11.
As has happened on other occasions with different [Cuban] state media, September 5 republished an article shared by a foreign media outlet, in this case Agence France-Presse (AFP), which on April 28 published [an article titled] ‘Human Urine, an Unexpected but Effective and Less Polluting Fertilizer,” the Cuban news website detailed.
“It should be noted that September 5 does not refer to the original source of the article (AFP), but to the [online news] portal Gestión, from Peru, which reproduced it in full two days later,” Cubanet.org clarified.
News that Havana pushed Cuban farmers to use human urine as an alternative fertilizer in late April followed almost exactly one month after a state-run media outlet from Cuba’s Pinar del Río province promoted an article in late March describing the alleged nutritional value of cockroach milk.
The Facebook account of Radio Guamá, which is a local state-run radio station in Pinar del Río province, republished an article on March 29 “highlighting the ‘nutritional value’ of cockroach milk,” Cubanet.org reported at the time.
“The experiment … offers some details that you may find very interesting. We invite you to read this scientific curiosity to the end,” Radio Guamá wrote in a caption accompanying the republished article (originally from the Spanish magazine Mercatrace) on March 29.
An archived webpage from the news website of Radio Guamá appears to show that the state broadcaster also recommended the cockroach milk article to its readers in a separate but similar report on March 28.
The Communist Party of Cuba has previously suggested its citizens, many of whom suffer from food shortages caused by the policies of the Party, consume alternative food sources such as crocodiles, rodents, ostrich eggs, and banana peels.
Russia Withdrawing Troops From Ukraine After ‘Heavy Losses,’ Intelligence Agency Says
Russia is now withdrawing some of its troops after suffering “heavy losses” in recent days, claimed the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense on Thursday.
In an update posted on social media, the ministry alleged that “Ukrainian forces are continuing to counterattack to the north of Kharkiv, recapturing several towns and villages towards the Russian border.”
“Despite Russia’s success in encircling Kharkiv in the initial stages of the conflict, it has reportedly withdrawn units from the region to reorganize and replenish its forces following heavy losses,” the agency said, referring to the second-largest city, located in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border.
But “the withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kharkiv Oblast is a tacit recognition of Russia’s inability to capture key Ukrainian cities where they expected limited resistance from the population,” the ministry continued.
Those withdrawn forces, it added, will “likely” be sent to the Siverskyi Donets River to form a blockade “to protect the western flank of Russia’s main force concentration and main supply routes for operations in the vicinity of Izyum.”
Russian military officials have not made a public comment after the United Kingdom’s assessment.
Meanwhile, it comes as Moscow threatened to retaliate against Finland after the Scandinavian country indicated that it wishes to join the NATO security alliance. Finland, which shares a border with Russia and has long remained neutral even during Soviet times, stated on Thursday it would apply to join NATO “without delay,” and Sweden is expected to follow suit.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Finns would be “warmly welcomed” and promised a “smooth and swift” accession process. French President Emmanuel Macron said he fully supported Finland’s choice to join the alliance.
But through state-run media, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Finland’s proclamation will trigger a negative response from Russia.
“There is a current instruction from the president to develop a list of measures to strengthen our western flanks in connection with the strengthening of NATO’s eastern flanks,” he told state media Thursday.
Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow would be forced to take “retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature,” giving no further details. Russian officials have spoken in the past about potential measures including stationing nuclear-armed missiles on the Baltic Sea.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long said that NATO is attempting to expand its borders in a bid to place military pressure on Moscow. He cited that assertion as a major reason for invading Ukraine, describing it as a “special military operation.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Multiple People Shot at Church in Gun-Controlled California
Multiple people were shot at a church in Laguna Woods, California, on Sunday around 2 p.m.
UPDATE: At 2:49 p.m. the Orange County Sheriff tweeted that five people were wounded in the church shooting and one person was killed.
“The exact number of people injured and the nature of those injuries was not immediately clear. The motive for the shooting is not yet known,” NBC Los Angeles reported.
Police have detained one individual, and a gun which may have been used in the attack was recovered at the scene, ABC 7 noted.
Following the April 3, 2022, Sacramento shootout the Sacramento Bee noted California has “107 different gun-control laws,” all of which have failed to stop committed attackers from opening fire on innocents in the state.
In fact, California is the most gun-controlled state in the Union.
Buffalo shooter’s prior threat, hospital stay under scrutiny
The white gunman accused of committing a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket made threatening comments that brought police to his high school last spring, but he was never charged with a crime and had no further contact with law enforcement after his release from a hospital, officials said.
The revelation raised questions about whether his encounter with police and the mental health system was yet another missed opportunity to put a potential mass shooter under closer law enforcement scrutiny, get him help, or make sure he didn’t have access to deadly firearms.
Authorities said they were investigating the attack on predominantly Black shoppers and workers at the Tops Friendly Market as a potential federal hate crime or act of domestic terrorism. Saturday’s mass violence in Buffalo was the deadliest of a wave of fatal weekend shootings, including at a California church and a Texas flea market.
Payton Gendron, 18, traveled about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from his home in Conklin, New York, to Buffalo to commit the attack, police said.
Federal authorities were still working to confirm the authenticity of a racist 180-page document, purportedly written by Gendron, that said the assault was intended to terrorize all nonwhite, non-Christian people and get them to leave the country.
Law enforcement officials revealed Sunday that New York State Police troopers had been called to Gendron’s high school last June for a report that the then-17-year-old had made threatening statements.
Gendron had threatened to carry out a shooting at Susquehanna Valley High School in Conklin around graduation, a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly on the investigation.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia said Gendron had no further contact with law enforcement after a mental health evaluation that put him in a hospital for a day and a half.
“Nobody called in,” he said. “Nobody called any complaints,” Gramaglia said. The threat was “general” in nature, he said, and not related to race.
New York is one of several states that have enacted “red flag” laws in recent years that were intended to try and prevent mass shootings committed by people who show signs that they might be a threat to themselves or others.
Those laws allow law enforcement officers, a person’s family, or in some cases, medical professionals or school officials to petition courts to temporarily seize the person’s firearms, or prevent them from buying guns.
Federal law bars people from owning guns if a judge has determined they have a “mental defect” or they have been forced into a mental institution — but an evaluation alone would not trigger the prohibition.
After a self-identified “white supremacist” allegedly shot up a New York grocery store, many news outlets and left-leaning Twitter users went wild trying to pin the crime on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro, Greg Gutfeld and other people on the right. But now it has been revealed that the suspect openly hated all the conservatives the media wants to blame as a motivation for the crime.
On Saturday, a man police have identified as Payton Gendron, 18, of Conklin, New York, allegedly committed the murder of ten people and the wounding of three others inside a Tops Friendly Market in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York.
Witness said the man entered the store wearing military-styled gear and opened fire with a rifle while yelling racial epithets in an act police called “racially motivated violent extremism,” the Associated Press reported.
The shooter also carried a helmet cam on his head and reportedly began streaming the shooting live on the streaming platform Twitch for several minutes before the site shut down the live feed.
Authorities did not speculate on the motive for the crime, but leftists in the media and on Twitter immediately blamed conservative TV personalities.
Former Obama press secretary Joe Lockhart, for instance, jumped to his Twitter account to claim that Tucker Carlson and Fox News have “more blood” on their hands.
“More blood on the hands of @tuckercarlson and @foxnews this killer used their racist talking points to justify killing 10 people. Carlson won’t stop because as he explained to the NYTimes, it’s good for ratings. Lives be damned. As Carlson will be at judgement day,” he wrote on May 14, less than a half hour after the shooting was reported.
Another blue checked Twitter user, Georgetown professor Don Moynihan, also blamed Tucker Carlson despite the fact that he had no evidence whatsoever that the suspect was a Carlson fan.
Left-wing Twitter “influencer” Majid Padellan — who tweets as “Brooklyn Dad Defiant” — also immediately blamed Carlson and Fox.
But these leftists who jumped to blame Fox and Carlson did not bother to follow up on the facts in the case. A look at the accused killer’s extensive social media posts shows that he is not in any way conservative. Indeed, his manifesto did not mention Fox or Tucker at all.
In parts of the manifesto, he claimed he was an “authoritarian left-wing[er],” said he hated Christianity and also said he was interested in “green nationalism.”
Others also pointed out that the manifesto — to which Big Tech is now blocking access — had absolutely no ties to conservative thinking or Republican Party policies.
Michael Sussmann’s trial to begin in first case brought by Special Counsel John Durham
Durham has charged Sussmann, a former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, with lying to FBI
The trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is set to begin Monday morning as Special Counsel John Durham’s yearslong investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe finally lands in court.
Sussmann is charged with making a false statement and has pleaded not guilty.
The trial is set to begin at 9 a.m. in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with jury selection and U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper presiding.
Durham alleges Sussmann told FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 — less than two months before the 2016 presidential election — that he was not doing work “for any client” when Sussman requested and attended a meeting where he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.
Durham alleges Sussmann lied in the meeting, “falsely stating to the general counsel that he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client.”
Durham, in a filing in the weeks leading up to the trial, said “the night before the defendant met with the general counsel, the defendant conveyed the same lie in writing and sent the following text message to the general counsel’s personal cellphone.”
“Jim — it’s Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss,” the text message stated, according to Durham. “Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? I’m coming on my own — not on behalf of a client or company — want to help the Bureau. Thanks.”
Baker replied: “OK. I will find a time. What might work for you?”
Durham in February first revealed that the government would attempt to establish at trial that among the data “exploited” was domain name system (DNS) internet traffic relating to “a particular healthcare provider, Trump Tower, Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building and the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP).”
In February, Durham said data was exploited “by mining the EOP’s DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump,” adding the data was used to establish “an inference” and “narrative” tying Trump to Russia.
Durham also alleges that Sussmann in February 2017 provided an “updated set of allegations,” including the Alfa Bank claims, and additional allegations related to Trump to a second U.S. government agency, which Fox News has confirmed was the CIA.
The federal judge presiding over the case, Cooper, has said the prosecution can present evidence and question witnesses about the DNS data but has limited the evidence Durham and the prosecution can present against Sussmann during trial.
The prosecution has argued that Sussmann desired to conceal a “joint venture” with the Clinton campaign, which Cooper wrote that the prosecution claims “supplied a motive” for Sussmann to “misrepresent” to Baker “that he was not providing the data to the FBI on behalf of any client, when he was actually representing both Mr. Joffe and the campaign.”
That was a reference to tech executive Rodney Joffe, who has not been named in Durham’s filings and has not been charged with a crime.
Protesters Scream Obscenities Outside Justices’ Houses Following Washington March\
About 20 pro-abortion protesters directed their screams at Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s children while walking by the justice’s Maryland residence multiple times on May 14.
“Kavanaugh girls, tell your dad to stop,” one protester shouted.
“I hope your daughters don’t have to make this choice,” another shouted.
“[Expletive] you, Kavanaugh, you rapist piece of [expletive],” another of the protesters shouted.
The protesters walked past the house in Chevy Chase, then circled back multiple times to scream obscenities again.
About a dozen police officers stood outside the house, but none took action to arrest the protesters, who continued to scream obscenities with every pass.
“No privacy for us, no peace for you,” the protesters chanted.
The protests were a response to a leaked Supreme Court opinion that suggested the court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade.
For the protest’s two organizers, who called themselves “He” and “They,” respectively, everything appeared to be going according to plan.
“We’re not stopping in front of his home. We’re walking by, and we’re turning back. So there’s no threat got to do with it. We don’t threaten people. The other people threaten us,” “He” said before the protesters started marching.
Before the protesters started toward Kavanaugh’s house, one of them distributed masks to the group.
“If you have a mask to cover your face, it would be even better,” “He” said.
“He” said he wasn’t affiliated with an organized group, but he read from a script on his phone at times when offering comment.
“To intimidate: It means to frighten someone, especially in order to make them do what one wants. So intimidation isn’t coming together as Americans in a community to voice one’s opinion. Intimidation is when the Capitol was stormed on Jan. 6,” he read.
“He” then recited a litany of violent incidents toward minorities and abortionists that he described as “intimidation.”
The protest targeted the homes of both Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, although Kavanaugh received a greater measure of the protest’s anger.
According to one protester, a graduate student named Connor, who declined to give his last name, the purpose of the protest wasn’t to make Kavanaugh change his mind.
“At the very least I hope he’s annoyed. I hope he’s very inconvenienced,” Connor said. “If he’s that upset, if he’s that sad about it, quit! You don’t have to be the Supreme Court justice. I’m sure there’d be a lot of people who would be thrilled that he left, including his neighbors, because I’m sure they don’t love this.”
Connor carried a sign that read “Martha Kavanaugh Should Have Gotten an Abortion.”
“The idea that this is infringing upon the justices’ privacy is comical to me, given their legislation on our privacy,” said high school senior Anna, another protester.
Anna said she had flown down from Boston to attend the pro-abortion protests.
“[Expletive] the Court and the legislature! We are not your incubators!” the protesters shouted as they walked through the residential neighborhood.
On the way, the protest passed near a couple taking wedding pictures. The 20 people gave the couple a cheer.
“Sorry,” one protester said.
One of the justices’ neighbors tried to tell the protesters to stop because their actions were likely to embitter the justices.
“Counterproductive!” he shouted at them. “You’re alienating them.”
Sen. Ron Johnson to AG Garland: Why Is Wisconsin Pro-Life Center Attack Not Domestic Terrorism?
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland to ask why an attack on a Madison, Wisconsin, pro-life center wasn’t being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.
Late on May 8, the Wisconsin Family Action clinic in Madison was attacked with a Molotov cocktail following the leaked release of a draft Supreme Court majority opinion suggesting the high court would overturn the Roe v. Wade case that made abortion constitutionally protected.
“Attacking a pro-life organization in a manner that could have injured or killed the office’s occupants due to differing political ideologies fits these definitions,” Johnson wrote. “I am unfortunately compelled to write to you about this matter because DOJ [Department of Justice] has a track record of not prosecuting left-wing violence as we have seen with the summer of 2020 riots that occurred nationwide.”
The FBI says domestic terrorism, he added, is an “ideologically driven criminal act, including threats or acts of violence made to specific victims, made in furtherance of a domestic ideological goal that has occurred and can be confirmed.”
The senator also made note of protests, including some that were held over the recent weekend, outside the homes of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, describing such incidents as intimidation and a violation of federal law.
“The intimidation of sitting Supreme Court justices is a clear violation of federal law, and, once again, DOJ, FBI, and [the Department of Homeland Security] have yet to condemn these activities,” Johnson wrote. “Compare your silence on these events to your robust actions against parents attending public school board meetings to voice their concerns about far-left ideologies being integrated” in public schools.
Officials in Wisconsin told The Epoch Times last week that they were aware of a left-wing group that carried out the attack on the Madison pro-life group’s office. The group claiming responsibility, Jane’s Revenge, sent a statement to Bellingcat that the arson was a “warning.”
“Next time the infrastructure of the enslavers will not survive,” the group said, adding that if pro-life groups and clinics weren’t disbanded within the next month, it would carry out further attacks.
“Wisconsin is the first flashpoint, but we are all over the U.S., and we will issue no further warnings,” the statement said, adding that they would “adopt increasingly extreme tactics to maintain freedom over our own bodies.”
In the letter, Johnson made reference to the group’s apparent threat.
Arizona County Featured in ‘2000 Mules’ Investigating Voter Fraud Allegations
Officials in an Arizona county that was featured in the documentary “2000 Mules” are investigating voter fraud, but a spokesperson said the new announcement wasn’t related to the movie.
In a May 11 statement, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office said it and the Yuma County Recorder’s Office “are working together to actively examine cases of voting fraud from the 2020 general election and now a recent pattern of fraudulent voter registration forms leading up to the 2022 primary election.”
Sixteen cases involving fraud were open as of March, with evidence being documented by the county recorder and being probed by the sheriff.
Officials said they’re seeing people vote under names that are not their own, registering to vote using fake names, and voting in the same election more than once.
Yuma County was one of the jurisdictions that were featured in the documentary. A woman who was not identified, but was described as a receptionist, said she was instructed to receive ballots from people, with the people being paid for alleged ballot harvesting. The woman said she dropped off some of the ballots into drop boxes.
The ‘mules’ in the film’s title refers to people who investigators tracked with cell phone data to being near multiple drop boxes. They also obtained surveillance footage and used that to match with data from cell phones. The mules were seen dropping off multiple ballots, sometimes dozens.
Drop boxes were legal in most states but in many places, only dropping off a ballot on behalf of oneself or family members were legal.
The movie utilized data uncovered by True the Vote, an election integrity group.
“We are extremely encouraged that the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office and Recorder’s Office are now working together to investigate individuals involved in the subversion of elections,” Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of the group, said in a statement. We’ve spent concentrated time in Yuma County and have provided significant information to both state and federal authorities. What has been happening in Yuma County is happening across the country. The targeting of vulnerable communities and voter abuse must be stopped.”
Tania Pavlak, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, told The Epoch Times that the announcement was not triggered by “2000 Mules.”
“We already had been investigating these cases for the past few months and so the sheriff wanted to make sure we sent out that information with election season now hot and up and running. That way, people were aware of what was happening and also could stay vigilant,” she said.
The cases referred to the sheriff were based on information from the Electronic Registration Information Center, a consortium made up of election officials in various states, that was independently verified by staffers at the county recorder’s office, Tiffany Anderson, the county’s election director, told The Epoch Times in an email when asked about any connection to the new film.
Officials said the pattern of fraudulent voter registration forms was detected by the recorder’s office, with a number of people sending
in duplicate forms or documents with false information on them.
“What they’re seeing is that there are registration forms that are being either falsified or people that are double registering with information that doesn’t match their current registration,” Pavlak said. “So for example, they’ll have the same name but a different birthday, but everything else will be the same. So it looks like people are either not filling it out completely when they’re filling it out with soliciting groups, and then they’re just getting filled in by other people.”
The sheriff is focusing on groups that are soliciting registrations. The office declined to name any specific groups.
Disgusting and insane that Democrat operatives are already exploiting the murder of 10 by blaming Tucker Carlson and Fox News.
The manifesto cites the internet (specific websites) as his inspiration (not TV)—and has an antisemitic meme attacking Fox News.https://t.co/kboxiRSm7P https://t.co/yUxhQCjTpI pic.twitter.com/aqt9jsUlxF
From the accused killer’s own ranting, it is evident he is not a conservative.
Nothing in his social media can lead one to believe he was influenced by the right. Conservatives believe in individual freedom, equal treatment under the law and the U.S. Constitution. According to his social media, this suspect did not believe in any of that.
While being a fan of Fox News, Tucker Carlson, John Stossel, Ben Shapiro and the other high-profile libertarian and conservative personalities is not necessarily a litmus test for being a conservative, it is telling that the suspect in this horrible crime hated these folks and didn’t use them as a foundation for this shooting.
Lawmaker Says Illegal Immigrants Getting ‘Pallets’ of Baby Formula Amid Shortage
A House Republican lawmaker alleged that baby formula is being shipped to illegal immigrant holding centers near the Mexico border amid a nationwide shortage of the products.
According to videos and photos posted by Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.), the White House has allowed shipments of formula to the holding facilities.
“They are sending pallets, pallets of baby formula to the border,” Cammack wrote in two online postings Wednesday. “Meanwhile, in our own district at home, we cannot find baby formula,” she added, holding a photo of empty shelves where the formula would be.
Cammack said in two videos that a Border Patrol agent sent her photographs of baby formula deliveries at the holding centers.
“We literally are struggling to find baby formula around the country. Moms are struggling, going from store to store to store and then the stores are actually capping the amount of baby formula that they will sell them, but, and this got sent to me by a Border Patrol agent this morning [who] said, ‘This is disgusting. You will not believe this. They’re receiving pallets, and more pallets of baby formula at the border,’” Cammack said.
“Meanwhile, in our own district … we cannot find baby formula,” Cammack added in the clip. She posted photos on social media of store shelves that were empty in Florida next to a photo that allegedly shows pallets of formula being sent to the border.
What’s Behind the US Baby Formula Shortage?
The baby formula shortage is intensifying in the United States, according to new Datasembly numbers.
The retail information provider reported that out-of-stock (OOS) rates continue to climb nationwide, rising to 43 percent in the week ending May 8. This is up from the 30 to 40 percent readings in April.
“Unfortunately, baby formula out-of-stock levels have continued to soar since the beginning of April, and we see no indication of a slowdown,” Ben Reich, CEO of Datasembly, told The Epoch Times. “Baby formula out-of-stock levels have reached 43 percent nationwide and continue demonstrating higher out-of-stock levels than other categories.”
Data as of May 1 show that nine states have OOS rates above 50 percent, including Tennessee (54.7 percent), Delaware (54.5 percent), Texas (52 percent), Montana (51 percent), and Nevada (51 percent). Jurisdictions with the lowest OOS rates were Colorado (26.3 percent), New Mexico (29 percent), and Indiana (29.7 percent).
Across the United States, multiple retailers including CVS, Kroger, Target, and Walgreens, have applied limits on purchases of infant formula.
Last month, CVS limited in-store and online purchases of baby formula to three per order. Kroger installed a limit of four products per customer. Target and Walgreens have maintained restrictions for several weeks.
Media reports suggest that some parents are responding to the shortages by producing their own, watering down current supplies, and rationing formula.
The FDA has discouraged parents from making formula at home due to “very serious health concerns” for babies.
“The potential problems associated with errors in selecting and combining the ingredients for the formula are very serious and range from severe nutritional imbalances to unsafe products that can harm infants,” the agency noted.
Health experts warn that too much water for infants under six months could trigger seizures and brain swelling and dilute the calories.
As of 2018, four companies control close to 90 percent of the market: Abbott, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestlé, and Perrigo.
How Did This Formula Crisis Begin?
Earlier this year, Abbott Laboratories, a leading baby formula maker, recalled products sold under the Alimentum, EleCare, and Similac brands that were produced at a Michigan facility. Four children had become sick with bacterial infections, resulting in two deaths. This prompted public health authorities to encourage shoppers to avoid buying formulas tied to the plant, although Abbott doesn’t believe there is a link between these illnesses and its formulas.
In addition to Abbott’s recall, the baby formula shortage has been exacerbated by global supply chain snafus, the shifts in pandemic-related consumer patterns, and soaring price inflation worldwide.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 public health crisis, many parents hoarded containers of baby formula much in the same way consumers accumulated large amounts of toilet paper and paper towels.
In 2021, manufacturers noticed that demand had been sliding. They responded by curbing production. Today, infant formula demand is surging once again as shortage fears grow and breastfeeding rates fall.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only one-quarter of babies born in 2018 were breastfed exclusively in their first six months.
In recent years, the prevalence of breastmilk substitutes has been a source of controversy among public health experts.
“The promotion of commercial milk formulas should have been terminated decades ago,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the WHO Nutrition and Food Safety Department, in a statement last month. “The fact that formula milk companies are now employing even more powerful and insidious marketing techniques to drive up their sales is inexcusable and must be stopped.”
The global formula milk industry is now worth $55 billion.
Meanwhile, Abbott announced that it will work closely with the FDA to restart operations within two weeks. The company projects that it could take six to eight weeks to get its products back on store shelves.
US House Opens Investigation Into Baby Formula Shortage
U.S. lawmakers on May 13 announced a probe into the baby formula shortage hitting American consumers.
The House Oversight Committee is investigating what four top formula manufacturers are doing to address the shortage, which stems from the Biden administration forcing the closure of an Abbott Labs plant after an inspection found unsanitary conditions.
In letters sent to Abbott, Nestlé USA, Reckitt subsidiary Mead Johnson, and Perrigo, lawmakers noted that people in many states are experiencing shortages and called the dearth of baby formula “a threat to the health and economic security of infants and families in communities throughout the country.”
“It is critical that your company take all possible steps to increase the supply of formula and prevent price gouging,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House panel, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, wrote.
They asked for briefings on the matter as well as written responses to their questions, which included asking when the companies became aware of the shortages and what steps they’ve taken to increase supply.
The companies together produce about 90 percent of the formula sold in the United States.
A Perrigo spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the company’s facilities are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week but are at full capacity.
Perrigo “is doing everything possible to provide as much infant formula to its retail partners during this challenging time,” the spokesperson said.
In the three months ending on March 31, Perrigo shipped 37 percent more formula than the same time period in 2021.
Nestlé is “a small player in the infant formula market,” a company spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email, adding that “we are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to help get parents and caregivers the formula they need so their babies can thrive.”
“We have significantly increased the amount of our infant formula available to consumers by ramping up production and accelerating general product availability to retailers and online, as well as in hospitals for those most vulnerable. We are also working through our Gerber Parent Resource Center, website, social media and industry groups to help make sure essential information is available for those parents and caregivers seeking it,” the spokesperson added.
15-Year-Old Smuggler Shot While Trying to Run Down Deputy in Texas
A 15-year-old was shot and injured during a traffic stop early on May 9 after he allegedly tried to run over a sheriff’s deputy, according to Brad Coe, sheriff of Kinney County, a rural border county in south Texas.
The teen was smuggling five illegal aliens in his vehicle when he was stopped by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and a sheriff’s deputy.
The teen is still in the hospital.
“He’ll be there for a while,” Coe told The Epoch Times on May 11.
“We’re going to go ahead and file the charges for the smuggling and attempted capital murder. That will be our bargaining chip, to use that to say, ‘OK, we can reduce this if you tell us where you picked everybody up at. Let us know who you contacted,’ and on and on.”
Coe said both the deputy and a Texas state trooper discharged their weapons. The Texas Rangers are investigating the incident.
The deputy isn’t from Kinney County, but was working part-time in the county as part of Operation Lone Star, Coe said. He declined to say which county the deputy is from. Operation Lone Star is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s $3 billion border security initiative that has deployed more resources to beleaguered border areas.
Coe said the vehicle belonged to the teen, who lives in San Antonio.
“He got into something over his head and didn’t know what to do, so he panicked and tried to run somebody over,” he said.
“It looks like the parents are going to cooperate 110 percent, which is a good thing. They said they did not raise him that way.”
Law enforcement officers apprehended three of the five illegal aliens, Coe said.
The Texas Rangers didn’t respond by press time to a question regarding the anticipated timeline of their investigation.
Coe, who was a Border Patrol agent in the area for 31 years before becoming sheriff, said he’s never experienced such issues with smuggling.
“I’ve never seen it this bad before, period.”
Sen. Paul Delays Vote on $40 Billion Ukraine Package, Calls for Spending Oversight
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday delayed the Senate’s vote to pass a nearly $40 billion aid package for Ukraine that would provide the nation with further military and economic assistance amid its ongoing conflict with Russia.
While leaders were unanimous in their agreement to proceed with passing the package this week, Paul refused to do so until changes are made to the legislation that will ensure an inspector general can monitor exactly how the billions of dollars are being spent.
The legislation has been approved by the House and has strong bipartisan support in the Senate, and is still likely to pass.
However, Paul’s objection signified a departure from the overwhelmingly supportive stance that Congress and the Biden administration have so far shown for Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues with his “special military operation.”
The GOP senator, a libertarian who often opposes U.S. intervention abroad, argued that the extra spending outweighed that which the United States currently spends on multiple domestic programs, and raised concerns over how it could potentially further exacerbate federal deficits and inflation in the country, which currently stands at a 40-year-high.
“My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation, and no matter how sympathetic the cause, my oath of office is to the national security of the United States of America,” Paul said on the floor on Thursday.
“We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy … gasoline alone is up 48 percent, and energy prices are up 32 percent over the last year. Food prices have increased by nearly 9 percent. Used vehicle prices are up 35 percent for the year, and new vehicle prices have increased 12 percent or more,” he continued.
Paul noted that inflation “doesn’t just come out of nowhere” while pointing to deficit spending, noting that the United States spent almost $5 trillion on “COVID-19 bailouts” which have led to sky-high levels of inflation.
“Americans are feeling the pain, and Congress seems intent only on adding to that pain by shoveling more money out the door as fast as they can,” the Republican said.
The approximately $39.8 billion package for Ukraine includes $6 billion for security assistance to its military and national security forces and $8.7 billion to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to the country.
It also contains $3.9 billion for European Command operations and would also authorize an additional $11 billion in Presidential Drawdown Authority, which would allow Biden to authorize the transfer of articles and services from U.S. stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency. Biden had asked for $5 billion.
Another $4 billion would go to Foreign Military Financing, providing Ukraine and other countries with additional support to build and update their capabilities.
If approved, it would bring U.S. support for Ukraine since Russia invaded to nearly $54 billion, on top of the $13.6 billion in support that Congress passed in March.
Paul noted that the United States has provided more than $6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, and said that if the latest amount is passed, it would see total aid equaling the entire military budget of Russia.
“And it is not as if we have that money lying around. We will have to borrow that money from China to send it to Ukraine,” he said. “The cost of this package we are voting on today is more than the U.S. spent during the first year of the U.S. conflict in Afghanistan.”
The senator also noted that the billions of dollars in funding towers in comparison to what the United States spends on cancer research annually—$6 billion—and is more than the government collects in gas taxes each year to build roads and bridges. It nearly equals the entire State Department budget, he said, and exceeds the budget for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy.
Specifically, Paul asked that a special inspector general be created to oversee how the military aid to Ukraine is spent.
But Democrats objected to Paul’s plan because it would expand the powers of an existing inspector general whose current purview is limited to Afghanistan.
“Congress should evaluate the cost of going down this path,” the senator said, adding that, “the biggest threat to the United States today is debt and inflation and the destruction of the dollar” and that “we cannot save Ukraine by killing our economic strength.
“So I act to modify the bill to allow for a special inspector general. This would be the inspector general that’s been overseeing the waste in Afghanistan and has done a great job.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats opposed Paul’s push to change the language and instead offered to have a vote on it, but that offer was rejected.
That means lawmakers will now vote on the passage of the measure again next week in hopes of advancing it.
Elon Musk Says Biden Wrong to Think He Was ‘Elected to Transform the Country’
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has weighed in on his thoughts about the 2024 Presidential election, stating that while he firmly believes former President Donald Trump should have his Twitter account reinstated, a “less divisive candidate” would be a better option.
The businessman also took aim at President Joe Biden, writing on Twitter on May 13 that the Democrat’s mistake is that “he thinks he was elected to transform the country,” but that “actually everyone just wanted less drama.”
Musk previously told a Financial Times conference on Tuesday that Twitter’s decision to ban Trump was “morally bad” and said he would reverse the platform’s decision.
“I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk told the conference. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” he added.
Trump, however, has stated that he has no plans to return to Twitter as he concentrated on building his own Truth Social platform, which is set to launch on a web browser at the end of May, Chief Executive Devin Nunes said earlier this month.
“I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on TRUTH,” Trump told Fox News last month. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on TRUTH.”
Musk told his Twitter followers on May 13 that while he believes a “less divisive candidate would be better in 2024,” however, the businessman still thinks the former president’s account on the platform should be restored.
He also joked that he would also prefer a candidate that is “also younger than 8,000 years old.”
U.S. Solicitor General Advises Supreme Court to Deny Bayer’s Request in re Roundup Lawsuits
Bayer continues to get an “A” for effort in trying to avoid compensating cancer-stricken Roundup weedkiller users. Fortunately, past and current efforts aren’t working. Earlier this year, more sick American Roundup users filed lawsuits against the company. Thanks to Cary Gillam for continuing to cover Bayer’s attempts to avoid more.
Another legal blow to Bayer
U.S. Solicitor General tells U.S. Supreme Court it should deny review of Roundup trial loss
The U.S. Solicitor General on Tuesday dealt a blow to Monsanto owner Bayer AG, advising the U.S. Supreme Court that it should deny the company’s request for a review of a key Roundup cancer trial loss.
Bayer has seen the Supreme Court as its last and best hope for putting a stop to the flood of lawsuits filed by tens of thousands of people claiming exposure to Roundup weed killing products caused them to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).
The brief from Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar states that “There is no sound reason for the Court to grant review…”
Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, filed its petition to the high court in August, asking the court to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that affirmed the district court’s judgment in Monsanto’s 2019 trial loss to plaintiff Edwin Hardeman. The jury in the case agreed with Hardeman’s attorneys that exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide was a cause of Hardeman’s NHL and that Monsanto failed to warn of the risks despite decades of science showing links between the herbicide and cancer.
Hardeman was awarded approximately $80 million by the jury, but the award was cut by the trial court judge to roughly $25.2 million.
Bayer did pay Hardeman as it awaited word from the U.S. Supreme Court, but accompanied the funds with a letter warning him that he may have to repay the money if the company was successful in getting a reversal by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bayer maintains Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicides do not cause cancer, and it additionally argues that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), which governs the registration, distribution, sale, and use of pesticides in the United States, preempts “failure-to-warn” claims by Hardeman and other plaintiffs in the Roundup litigation. Because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved labels with no cancer warning, failure-to-warn claims should be barred, the company maintains.
In addition to the FIFRA issue, the company urged the Supreme Court to also address whether or not the Ninth Circuit’s standard for admitting expert testimony “is inconsistent” with precedent and federal evidence rules. Bayer argues that the admission of expert testimony in the Hardeman case “departed from federal standards, enabling plaintiff’s causation witnesses to provide unsupported testimony on the principal issue in the case, Roundup’s safety profile.”
The Solicitor General’s brief states that “FIFRA does not preempt respondent’s claims” and found that the evidentiary ruling by the court of appeals was proper.
The Solicitor General wrote that Bayer’s request on the federal rules issue was “particularly misconceived.”
Texas high court OKs investigations into parents of transgender kids
While the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services may resume investigating parents who provide gender-affirming care for child abuse, the court stressed the agency is not legally required to follow Governor Greg Abbott’s directive telling it to do so.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state Department of Family and Protective Services is allowed to investigate the families of transgender children for abuse with the one exception of a family that has already won an injunction against the state.
In a 12-page ruling, the high court held that an appeals court decision to entirely enjoin the state from opening child abuse investigations into parents who provide gender-affirming care to their children was improper. However, the justices emphasized that a legal opinion written by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defining hormone treatments and surgeries as child abuse and a letter from Republican Governor Greg Abbott directing DFPS to investigate parents who provide such care for child abuse are nonbinding and do not alter the responsibilities of the state agency.
In his letter, Abbott wrote, “Texas law…imposes a duty on DFPS to investigate the parents of a child who is subjected to these abusive gender-transitioning procedures, and on other state agencies to investigate licensed facilities where such procedures may occur.”
Justice Jimmy Blacklock, a Republican, granted partial relief to the state. He wrote the court of appeals “abused its discretion” by enjoining DFPS entirely from investigating the parents of transgender kids for child abuse.
“The state lacks an adequate appellate remedy by which to avoid this invalid aspect of the court of appeals’ order,” Blacklock wrote. “Mandamus relief is appropriate as to the order’s application to ‘any and all’ nonparties.”
However, the court refused to lift an injunction blocking the state from investigating the family of a 16-year-old transgender girl and a Houston-area clinical psychologist. The family sued the state after an investigation of them was opened. An Austin district court judge enjoined the state from investigating the family further, saying that allowing the state to continue would result in irreparable harm. The state then filed an interlocutory appeal challenging the injunction, resulting in the appeals court blocking all such investigations.
The mother, identified as Jane Doe in the family’s lawsuit, worked at DFPS and was put on leave hours after the agency received Abbott’s letter. While their case is pending, the family is protected from investigation.
The court unanimously reiterated that the opinion released by Paxton and the DFPS directive from Abbott are both nonbinding and do not change the legal obligations of the state agency.
“Unlike some executive orders of the governor that are afforded binding legal effect by statute, the governor’s letter cites no legal authority that would empower the governor to bind state agencies with the instruction contained in the letter’s final sentence, and we are directed to none,” wrote Blacklock. “Neither the governor nor the attorney general has statutory authority to directly control DFPS’s investigatory decisions.”
Blacklock went on to say that while DFPS may have bound itself to the governor’s letter, it is the agency that has the authority to launch investigations into reports of child abuse or neglect.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Former Goldman Sachs CEO warns people to prepare for economic recession
Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is warning people to prepare for an economic recession.
Asked by CBS’ Margaret Brennan about whether a recession was headed Americans’ way, Mr. Blankfein said it is time to brace for a worsening economic future although a recession is not guaranteed.
“It’s definitely a risk,” Mr. Blankfein said on “Face the Nation.” “If I were running a big company, I would be very prepared for it. If I was a consumer, I’d be prepared for it, but it’s not baked in the cake.”
Mr. Blankfein, now senior chairman at Goldman, served as CEO from 2006 through September 2018 and witnessed the 2008 economic downturn up close. Goldman took $10 billion from the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008 and later repaid the funds it received with interest, according to NPR.
Mr. Blankfein told CBS on Sunday that some of the rising costs of inflation will stick around and hurt Americans on the bottom of the economic ladder.
“It’s going to be hard for people to have savings, but they already have savings,” he said. “They’re not going to necessarily increase it quickly because of inflation but they’re starting in a much better place than we were then.”
Goya CEO warns world on the brink of a food crisis
The world has ‘weaponized food,’ Bob Unanue says
Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue warned that the world is on the brink of a food crisis.
Speaking on “Mornings with Maria,” he also argued that the world has “weaponized food.”
“We are on the precipice of a global food crisis,” the CEO told host Maria Bartiromo.
Inflation accelerated to a new four-decade high in March with supply chain constraints, the Russian war in Ukraine and strong consumer demand fueling rapid price gains that wiped out the benefits of rising wages for most Americans.
Musk Sends Twitter Shares on Rollercoaster After Saying Deal ‘On Hold,’ Then ‘Still Committed’
Twitter (TWTR) shares fell nearly 10 percent on May 13 after Elon Musk posted mixed messages on Twitter about his proposed takeover of the social media platform.
Musk sent Twitter shares tumbling almost 25 percent in premarket trading that day after stating that his acquisition of Twitter was “temporarily on hold” until he could get more information about the number of false or fake accounts on the social media network.
“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 percent of users,” Musk wrote in a tweet early on May 13.
“Still committed to acquisition,” Musk, the world’s richest man, later stated on Twitter.
Musk’s announcement came weeks after the Tesla CEO reached a deal with Twitter to take the company private for $54.20 a share, putting the firm’s value at about $44 billion. Twitter’s stock is currently trading below $41, which is roughly a 25 percent discount to the $54.20 purchase price.
Meanwhile, Tesla (TSLA) stock has risen 7 percent in response to the news. The stock also reacted to earlier media reports that Musk is in talks to secure more equity funding for his takeover deal, avoiding the need for any margin loans guaranteed by his Tesla shares.
According to market analysts, the likelihood of a takeover is decreasing following Musk’s announcement. However, because Twitter currently trades at a substantially higher valuation multiple than Facebook, they say, investors will be disappointed if the acquisition falls through as shares will collapse.
Actual user numbers could affect the valuation of the company.
Biden Oil and Gas Lease Sale Cancellations Draw Strong Reaction
As gas prices continue to break records, the Biden administration’s cancellation of two lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and one lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet has drawn clashing responses, including an accusation that the administration is “blatantly lying.”
One political figure who weighed in was Donald Trump Jr., who recently campaigned with successful Republican Senate primary candidate J.D. Vance in Ohio.
“Looks like Joe is doing a great job of making inflation his top priority,” he wrote in a tweet.
The Cook Inlet oil and gas lease would have covered 1.09 million acres in the Cook Inlet, a body of water connecting Anchorage with the Gulf of Alaska.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior told The Epoch Times the Cook Inlet sale was canceled due to a “lack of industry interest in the area.”
“I’m not sure that’s completely accurate,” Kara Moriarty, president and CEO of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA), told The Epoch Times.
“A lot of times, companies don’t want to tip their hand about participating in lease sales. The only time you really know if there’s interest or not is when you have the lease sale.”
“As the former Natural Resources Commissioner for Alaska, I know there is no way they could have confirmed ‘no interest’ until they held the lease sale,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who said the Biden administration was “blatantly lying to the American people.”
Both he and Moriarty referenced correspondence on the Cook Inlet sale from AOGA, which represents more than a dozen oil and gas producers in Alaska, as evidence of industry interest.
“The nature by which this announcement came to news—from the White House’s ultra-left climate czar Gina McCarthy, just down the hall from the president, [and] not the Department of Interior—raises further questions over who is crafting these disastrous energy policies,” Sullivan said, referencing the accidental email to a CBS reporter from a Biden administration official that first revealed the Cook Inlet lease’s cancellation.
Moriarty told The Epoch Times that “baffling is the nicest word I can come up with” for the cancellation.
Some local environmentalists, by contrast, expressed strong support for the decision.
“I’m very excited that we aren’t going to see an oil and gas lease sale that would really hurt our local economy,” Liz Mering told The Epoch Times.
Are Railroads Colluding To Curtail Food Production?
Holodomor means “death by hunger” in Ukrainian, and Americans would do well to revisit the details of that horrible Ukraine genocide where up to 7 million rural farmers and peasants died after their means to grow food was intentionally removed from them. ⁃ TN Editor
CF Industries, the nation’s largest manufacturer of fertilizers, is warning its customers that fertilizer shipments will be delayed and may not reach farmers in time for the critical spring planting season because of a move by Union Pacific Railroad to limit the volume on private boxcars carried by its rail lines.
The railroad company ordered CF Industries and 29 other shippers cut their volume by 20 percent. Union Pacific says the reductions are needed to reduce congestion, but CF Industries said it would ask federal regulators to intervene and end the railroad restrictions.
Why Union Pacific would single out the nation’s largest fertilizer producer just as it is trying to get its product to farmers in time for spring planting is suspicious, to say the least.
Mike Adams is reporting that rail carriers are also partially halting transportation of livestock feed grain, potentially forcing farmers to slaughter their cows and chickens if they can’t get enough grain to feed them. This would further drive up prices of dairy products such as milk, eggs, yogurt, etc.
The railroad-mandated shipping reductions not only means shipping delays for farmers but CF Industries said it would be unable to accept new orders involving Union Pacific rail transportation for the foreseeable future.
CF Industries announced its dire predicament April 14 on its website. This disruption in the delivery of fertilizers comes at a time of steadily escalating food prices at grocery stores nationwide due to supply chain disruptions, War between Russia and Ukraine, China hording global grain supplies, weather-related crop failures and other issues, all adding up to a perfect storm for global famine.
Unless American farmers produce a bumper crop this fall, the rampant food price inflation will continue to intensify, driving prices up even faster and leading to more shortages on the store shelves heading into late 2022 and 2023.
CF Industries ships to customers via Union Pacific rail lines primarily from its Donaldsonville Complex in Louisiana and its Port Neal Complex in Iowa. The rail lines serve key agricultural states in America’s heartland, including Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas, as well as California.
Products that will be affected include nitrogen fertilizers such as urea and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) as well as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), an emissions control product required for diesel trucks.
CF Industries is the largest producer of urea, UAN and DEF in North America, and its Donaldsonville Complex is the largest single production facility for the products in North America.
Tony Will, president and chief executive of CF Industries, summed up the direness of the situation in a press release reproduced below:
“The timing of this action by Union Pacific could not come at a worse time for farmers. Not only will fertilizer be delayed by these shipping restrictions, but additional fertilizer needed to complete spring applications may be unable to reach farmers at all. By placing this arbitrary restriction on just a handful of shippers, Union Pacific is jeopardizing farmers’ harvests and increasing the cost of food for consumers.
“On Friday, April 8, Union Pacific informed CF Industries without advance notice that it was mandating certain shippers to reduce the volume of private cars on its railroad effective immediately. The Company was told to reduce its shipments by nearly 20 percent.
“CF Industries believes it will still be able to fulfill delivery of product already contracted for rail shipment to Union Pacific destinations, albeit with likely delays. However, because Union Pacific has told the company that noncompliance will result in the embargo of its facilities by the railroad, CF Industries may not have available shipping capacity to take new rail orders involving Union Pacific rail lines to meet late season demand for fertilizer.”
The application of nitrogen fertilizer is critical to maximizing crop yields. If farmers are unable to secure all the nitrogen fertilizer that they require in the current season because of supply chain disruptions such as rail shipping restrictions, the Company expects yield will be lower. This will likely extend the timeline to replenish global grains stocks. Low global grains stocks continue to support high front month and forward prices for nitrogen-consuming crops, which has contributed to higher food prices.
CF Industries intends to engage directly with the federal government to ask that fertilizer shipments be prioritized so that spring planting is not adversely impacted.
“CF Industries’ North American manufacturing network continues to produce at a high rate to meet the needs of customers, farmers and consumers,” said Will. “We urge the federal government to take action to remove these Union Pacific rail shipment restrictions to ensure this vital fertilizer will be able to reach U.S. farmers when and where they need it.”
The dramatic rise in home prices and mortgage rates in the early months of 2022 has had a relatively limited effect on wealthy buyers and sellers, but has had a severe impact on lower-income Americans—and the Democratic Party may pay a steep price for their frustrations in the November midterm elections and beyond, according to real estate analysts and commentators.
Average payments on mortgages went from 3 percent to 5 percent in the first three months of the year, and are now 38 percent higher than a year ago, according to a Politico report citing figures from real estate listing service Zillow.
Partly because of inflation, the average rate on 30-year mortgages this week hit 5.46 percent, the highest figure since August 2009, according to Bankrate statistics.
Rates are up across the board, including 30-year fixed rates, 15-year fixed rates, and 5/1 adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) rates. As of April 2022, the median home price in America stood at $344,141, a 20.9 percent leap from a year before, Zillow states.
Inflation, driven by the pandemic and other factors including the government’s expansionist monetary and fiscal policies, has contributed to adverse market conditions where lower-income voters whom the Democratic Party claims to represent have it the hardest. The sharply rising mortgage rates, compounded by an inventory shortfall, are driving many prospective buyers out of the market, experts say.
Jeff Bezos Criticizes Biden Administration on Inflation, ‘Misdirection’
Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, ramped up his criticism of President Joe Biden on May 15, saying that the “misdirection” coming from the White House isn’t helping the country.
Bezos, like many economists, criticized the administration’s attempts to stoke an already overheated economy with further stimulus. He said inflation mostly harms the poor.
“In fact, the administration tried hard to inject even more stimulus into an already over-heated, inflationary economy and only [West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe] Manchin saved them from themselves,” he wrote on Twitter. “Inflation is a regressive tax that most hurts the least affluent. Misdirection doesn’t help the country.”
The statement from Bezos was in response to a thread on Twitter, in which Biden claimed credit for the reduction of the federal budget deficit.
“Under my predecessor, the deficit increased every single year,” Biden wrote on Twitter on May 14. “This year, we’re on track to cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion—the biggest one-year decline ever. It matters to families, because reducing the deficit is one of the main ways we can ease inflationary pressures.”
However, critics have contended that Biden is distorting reality when he says that he’s directly responsible for the decline in the deficit while, in fact, government expenditures have been decreasing from extremely high levels because of the end of temporary COVID-19 pandemic relief spending.
This is the second time recently that Bezos has criticized the Biden administration. Amazon’s founder earlier criticized a Biden Twitter post over inflation and business taxes.
“You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share,” Biden wrote on Twitter on May 13.
In response to Biden’s post, Bezos said blaming companies was “misdirection” and that the president should be subject to his own disinformation board.
“The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead,” Bezos wrote. “Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection.”
These Twitter posts are believed to be the billionaire’s first public spat with Biden.
McDonald’s to leave Russia for good after 30 years
McDonald’s has said it will permanently leave Russia after more than 30 years and has started to sell its restaurants.
The move comes after it temporarily closed its 850 outlets in March.
The fast food giant said it made the decision because of the “humanitarian crisis” and “unpredictable operating environment” caused by the Ukraine war.
The opening of McDonald’s first restaurant in Moscow in 1990 came to symbolise a thaw in Cold War tensions.
A year later, the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia opened up its economy to companies from the West. More than three decades later, however, it is one of a growing number of corporations pulling out.
“This is a complicated issue that’s without precedent and with profound consequences,” said McDonald’s chief executive Chris Kempczinski in a message to staff and suppliers.
‘Small But Powerful’ Group Pushing SEC Climate Disclosures: Professors
Law and finance professors from across the country have criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) March 21 proposal to compel climate-related disclosures by public companies, arguing that the move exceeds the SEC’s authority and reflects the outsized influence of “institutional asset managers who are managing other people’s money, not their own.”
“Rather than provide investor protection,’ the Proposal seems to be heavily influenced by a small but powerful cohort of environmental activists and institutional investors, mostly index funds and asset managers, promoting climate consciousness as part of their business models,” the academics wrote in an April 25 letter to the SEC.
“I joined the letter because I believe the SEC is overstepping its authority,” said Jonathan Berk, a professor of finance at Stanford University, in an email interview with The Epoch Times.
“I don’t like the precedent that appears to be set, that now the SEC becomes the arbiter of what risks investors should care about,” he added.
“I have heard confidentially from many law firms, current and former government officials, and professional associations who have said that the issues we identified and explained will be helpful to them as they parse the proposal and formulate their own comment letters on the proposal, or potential lawsuits if the SEC proceeds with the rule,” said Lawrence Cunningham, the lead author of the letter and a law professor at George Washington University, in an email to The Epoch Times.
“I have heard from a dozen scholars in our field agreeing with the thrust of the letter and offering to add their names,” he added.
Authored by 22 academics from major institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, George Mason University, Northwestern University, and Stanford University, the letter argues that investors lack any meaningful consensus on climate change, raising doubts about claims of uniform “investor demand” for sweeping SEC regulations.
“People’s opinions differ sharply, and investors have varied views on issues associated with the earth’s climate,” the authors note.
“Climate models are imprecise and were not designed for the purpose of measuring risk exposure. Using them to measure exposure would be irresponsible,” Stanford’s Berk told The Epoch Times.
The letter also takes issue with the proposal’s emphasis on global financial consortia organized by the United Nations, including the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative.
“The United Nations is neither a business nor an investor and lacks any relevant expertise in either domain. It is a political institution coordinating international policies on contentious topics, including as an incubator of the concept of ‘ESG’ and climate management that provide the backdrop for the Proposal,” the letter states, referring to the abbreviation for ‘environmental, social, and governance.’
“The Proposal relies heavily on global institutions and institutional investors incorporated outside the U.S. It is not obvious that such institutions share any concern for American competitiveness,” it later notes.Multiple People Shot at Church in Gun-Controlled California
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Musk says Twitter algorithm is manipulating people online in ways they don’t see
Billionaire Elon Musk said Twitter’s algorithm is manipulating people without their understanding and encouraged people to make changes to how they use the social media platform.
Twitter offers its users the option to sort others’ posts by chronology, “latest Tweets,” or via an algorithm developed by Twitter that makes recommendations, “Home Tweets.” Mr. Musk, who is set to acquire Twitter, urged people to “fix” their Twitter usage by selecting the chronological option.
“You are being manipulated by the algorithm in ways you don’t realize,” Mr. Musk said via Twitter on Saturday. “Easy to switch back & forth to see the difference.”
Twitter’s intent was not to directly manipulate people’s usage and behavior, according to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
“It was designed simply to save you time when you are away from [the] app for awhile,” Mr. Dorsey said in reply to Mr. Musk.
Mr. Musk later sought to clarify his criticism of Twitter’s algorithm to make clear he was not accusing the company of causing harm. According to a regulatory filing from last month detailing the agreement for his Twitter takeover, Mr. Musk’s tweets must not disparage the company or its representatives.
“I’m not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather that it’s trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening,” Mr. Musk said on Twitter on Sunday morning.
He also said “potential bugs” may exist in Twitter’s computer code and thought making the code open source, or more publicly accessible, was the way to go.
The Tesla CEO and founder of SpaceX has found his looming acquisition of the social media platform presents different challenges than the electric vehicle and commercial space sectors. After saying his deal for Twitter was “on hold” on Friday, he quickly added that he remained committed to the acquisition.
“Whoever thought owning the libs would be cheap never tried to acquire a social media company!” Mr. Musk said on Saturday.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Georgetown Law Center: Immigration Officials Created Network That Can Spy On Majority Of Americans
They told us that “if you have nothing to hide” then there is no problem in examining you. Now, in a shroud of secrecy ICE hides everything, and was discovered only after gaining information from hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests. ⁃ TN Editor
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has crafted a sophisticated surveillance dragnet designed to spy on most people living in the United States, without the need for warrants and many times circumventing state privacy laws, such as those in California, according to a two-year investigation released Tuesday by the Georgetown Law Center on Privacy & Technology.
Over the years, privacy law experts and civil rights activists and attorneys have accused ICE of overreach in its surveillance tactics directed at immigrants and Americans alike, but the Georgetown report paints a picture of an agency that has gone well beyond its immigration enforcement mandate, instead evolving into something of a broader domestic surveillance agency, according to the report, called “American Dragnet: Data-Driven Deportation in the 21st Century.”
ICE officials did not respond to a Times request for comment.
The report outlines the extent to which ICE has gone to form a large-scale surveillance system that has reached into the lives of ordinary people living in the U.S. Skirting local laws intending to protect individuals’ privacy, the agency has turned to third-party outfits — utility companies, private databases and even the department of motor vehicles in some states — to amass a trove of information from hundreds of thousands of Americans and immigrants to target people for deportation.
ICE spent an estimated $2.8 billion between 2008 and 2021 on surveillance, data collection and data-sharing initiatives, according to the Georgetown report. The scale of ICE surveillance came as a shock to the report’s authors.
“I was alarmed to discover that ICE has built up a sweeping surveillance infrastructure capable of tracking almost anyone, seemingly at any time. ICE has ramped up its surveillance capacities in near-complete secrecy and impunity, sidestepping limitations and flying under the radar of lawmakers,” said Nina Wang, a policy associate at the Center on Privacy & Technology and a co-author of the study.
Wang said that even “sanctuary” states such as California are affected by the agency’s sweeping dragnet, using third parties — such as utility companies and other non-law enforcement outfits — to amass data on hundreds of thousands of Californians.
“Even in states that have tried to protect immigrants’ data, ICE has found ways to sidestep some of the strongest restrictions on the kinds of records that it can access, as well as regulations on when and how and on whom it can pull this information,” she said. “As a result, anyone’s information can end up in the hands of immigration enforcement simply because they’ve applied for driver’s licenses, driven on the roads or signed up with their local utilities to get access to heat, water and electricity.”
Formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, ICE was given sweeping powers to fight terrorism and enforce immigration law. Since then, the agency has collected data on hundreds of millions of Americans largely without much oversight or accountability, often crossing legal and ethical lines to amass people’s personal information to weave a vast surveillance system, according to the Georgetown report.
For years, civil liberty and immigrant rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, have exposed and pushed back against ICE’s massive surveillance powers, launching lawsuits against the agency, with some success.
Researchers compiled the report from the results of hundreds of Freedom of Information Act requests.
HEALTH
When Gender Surgery Goes Wrong
About 9,000 transgender surgeries are performed a year in the United States as government and private insurance increasingly cover them. Globally, the sex reassignment surgery market is projected to be $1.5 billion by 2026. But how safe are the expensive procedures, like the popular genital or “bottom” surgeries whose costs starts at $25,000?
Male-to-female and female-to-male genital surgeries seek to create an “aesthetic genital organ, as well as to allow for their excretory and related functioning,” wrote researchers in Current Urology last year. For example, in addition to achieving the correct look, most female-to-male surgical patients want to “stand up” when they urinate. Unfortunately, the urological aspects of the surgeries are the most prone to complications for both men and women.
Urethrocutaneous fistulas, unwanted openings that allow urine leakage, and urethal strictures, narrowings that impede urine flow, are the most common complications of genital surgery for both men and women. Researchers in Current Urology write that the fistula and stricture complication rates may be as high as 75 percent in female-to-male surgery. A study last year in the Journal of Urology of male-to-female genital surgery (vaginoplasty) found a quarter of 869 patients in California experienced complications including strictures and fistulas.
While fistulas can cause urine dribbling or leaking, a uretha stricture can lead to kidney damage, says the website All Things Kidney. If the blockage is “left untreated over the years, it can cause urine retention with back-pressure on kidneys as a consequence. This can lead to a condition called ‘Hydronephrosis’” or kidney swelling.
Other Concerns
What do the genital surgeries entail? Penile inversion vaginoplasty includes removal of the testicles, penile disassembly, and creation of a vagina and clitoris from penile tissue. (The prostate is left in place to avoid incontinence and to keep erotic sensations.)
Female-to-male surgery involves hysterectomy, removal of fallopian tubes, the ovaries and vagina but not the clitoris and creation of a “penis” (which requires an implant for erections). Voice and face surgery are also performed in many cases.
Creating a vagina surgically can cause rectal and urethral injury, wrote researchers in Translational Andrology and Urology in 2019. Patients might want to choose a “limited depth” vagina for safety and less future maintenance. “Patients who are not interested in penetrative forms of sex, higher perioperative risk, or are not willing to commit to lifelong douching and dilating should be considered ideal candidates for limited depth vaginoplasty,” they write. “This leaves the patient with an externally feminine genitalia with a very short vaginal canal of just a few centimeters inadequate for penetrative intercourse. However, it mitigates the risk of rectal and urethral injury, obviates the need for supplemental grafts or flaps for additional vaginal length (and thus hair removal needs), and shortens the operative time.”
If male-to-female patients do not want to be consigned to such lifelong “douching and dilating,” tissue from the colon or small bowel can be used to line the vagina instead of penile says the University of California San Francisco website “Transgender Care.” While such a vagina is naturally “self-lubricating,” its secretions could be constant, undesirable, and the vagina is at risk for bowel-related diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, arterio-venous malformations (tangle blood vessels), and neoplasms. A vagina created from penile tissue can also pose disease risks, says the site. “The same skin cancers that occur on the penile and scrotal skin (squamous cell, basal cell, melanoma)” can occur.
Male-to-female patients may also experience vaginal prolapse—the top of the vagina collapses into the vaginal canal—says a 2021 article in Andrology. It is a rare complication but may increase over time, write the authors.
10 Common Nutrient Deficiencies
Your body depends on essential nutrients for growth, development and health maintenance, and deficiencies in certain vitamins can impact your immunity, vision, wound healing, bone health and much more
Common nutrient deficiencies include vitamin D, magnesium, vitamin K2, carnosine (beta-alanine) and vitamin B12
Many people also do not consume enough omega-3 fats, vitamin A, vitamin E, iodine and saturated fat from butter and animal products
The best way to ward off nutrient deficiencies is to intentionally fortify your meals with whole, nutrient-dense foods, including healthy saturated and omega-3 fats; targeted supplements can also be beneficial to make up for any nutritional gaps
Higher Levels of These Antioxidants Linked to Lower Dementia
People with higher levels of lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-cryptoxanthin had a lower risk of developing dementia as measured in 7,283 people over 16 years
Lutein and zeaxanthin have long been prized for their ability to protect the eyes; when combined with vitamin E they appear to improve lung function and when combined with beta-cryptoxanthin and vitamin E they are inversely correlated with congestive heart failure
Astaxanthin is another antioxidant associated with slowing brain aging; it plays a role in protecting the skin from the inside out and against dementia, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease
Sulforaphane is an organosulfur compound that fights against Alzheimer’s Disease and activates the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory responses in the body, including augmenting the role of glutathione, the “master antioxidant”
Do You Suffer From This Underrated Significant Health Risk?
- According to the most recent statistics, loneliness is at “epidemic” levels in the U.S., with 46% of adults saying they sometimes or always feel lonely
- Through interviews with leading experts, investigative journalist Johann Hari has tried to sort out why so many of us struggle with loneliness, depression and anxiety, and what we can do to turn the tide
- Through his travels and interviews, Hari identified nine scientifically verified causes of depression — only two of which are biological. The remaining seven are all related to how we live
- Historically, mankind survived because we banded together and worked as a group. Our very survival often depended on being part of a tribe. When feeling disconnected from community, anxiety and depression arise
- Internet and social media arrived when our sense of community was already waning, and social media gave the appearance of giving back to us something of what we’d lost — friends and status being two examples. But it’s not a proper replacement, as humans were not designed to relate to each other without face-to-face interactions
COVID RELATED NEWS
COVID Vaccines May Bring Avalanche of Neurological Disease
The COVID-19 vaccine was developed with Operation Warp Speed in less than one year as the vaccine has not been adequately tested.
- The typical unprecedented vaccine takes 12 years to develop, and of all the unprecedented vaccines in development, only 2% are projected to ever make it through all Phase 2 and 3 clinical phases of testing
- The COVID-19 vaccine was developed with Operation Warp Speed in less than one year, which makes it virtually impossible to assess safety and efficacy, as the vaccine has not been adequately tested
- In the next 10 to 15 years, we are likely to see spikes in prion diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases at younger ages, and blood disorders such as blood clots, hemorrhaging, stroke and heart failure
In this interview, return guest Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT for over five decades, discusses the COVID-19 vaccines. Since 2008, her primary focus has been glyphosate and sulfur, but in the last year, she took a deep-dive into the science of these novel injections and recently published an excellent paper [1] on this topic.
“To have developed this incredibly new technology so quickly, and to skip so many steps in the process of evaluating [its safety], it’s an insanely reckless thing that they’ve done,” she says. “My instinct was that this is bad, and I needed to know [the truth].
So, I really dug into the research literature by the people who’ve developed these vaccines, and then more extensive research literature around those topics. And I don’t see how these vaccines can possibly be doing anything good. When you weigh the good against the bad, I can’t see how they could possibly be winning, from what I’ve seen.”
The Pfizer Documents: What Is Pfizer Really Up To?
It would be very foolish to dismiss Pfizer as simply incompetent, bumbling or merely corrupt. What is emerging is a picture of a company colluding with others in the total takeover of all genetic material on earth, including yours. ⁃ TN Editor
The FDA and Pfizer wanted to keep the vaccine trial results hidden for up to 75 years. Now we know why. There are some quite serious anomalies that are begging for answers.
One such example is the fact that the lead author on the seminal vaccine paper in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), one Fernando Polack, MD, just happened to be the only investigator in charge of a site in Argentina that purportedly managed to recruit 4,501 patients in just three weeks!
Is this even possible with a full team and the backing of a major contract research organization (CRO)? It’s quite the feat and it needs to be investigated and answers given.
Without more transparency some might be left wondering if perhaps there was fraud involved or that perhaps patient records were sloppy because the on-boarding pace was too rapid. Regardless, no such questions should ever be part of the landscape, especially not when it involves a brand new medical intervention platform (mRNA) that was mandated as a condition of continued education and/or employment.
Why were these records fought to be effectively sealed? Why wasn’t complete and open transparency a cornerstone of the entire program of mass vaccination in the first place?
Such a stunning lack of transparency and the hiding of records…This. Should. Never. Be. The. Case.
Otherwise, there’s no possibility of informed consent.
One of the key issues made obvious in the document release regarded the dose-ranging studies (or lack of).
For clarity, a dose-ranging study is what happens first, before the larger clinical trial to determine vaccine effectiveness. Before you can give something to a bunch of volunteers, you have to establish how much you should give. They do this by giving a range of doses, usually low, medium and high, and then measure the effects. In this case, they were seeking to know how much of an antibody response a given dose would trigger. You’d think that this is vital information to get right. You might imagine they would give a wide ranges of doses to hundreds of people in each dose range.
But, when I dug into the new batch of 80,000 clinical trial records, I discovered that the only records (so far) showing the measurement of antibody levels in dose-ranging studies revealed three things:
- The grand total number of people tested in the 18-55- and 65–85-year-old age brackets was just 12 in each.
- There apparently was a gap without any testing of the immunogenic response of 55–65-year-old age bracket.
- There was clear evidence the antibody levels varied enormously (10x) between patients, and for all patients tailed off significantly by one month after the second dose. This means it should have been 100% obvious to all authorities and Pfizer, that the shots weren’t going to last all that long and boosters would be soon needed.
Taken all together, this means that Fauci’s continued insistence that the rationale for getting the shots was to “achieve herd immunity so we can get back on with our lives” was completely unscientific and provably and known to be false.
I sincerely hope there are hundreds of yet-to-be-revealed records showing lots and lots of additional antibody level testing because otherwise we have to believe hundreds of millions of people of all different sizes, ages, races, and comorbidity levels were given a 30-microgram dose based off of just 12 data points.
Again, it’s not surprising that the FDA wanted to keep such shocking findings hidden for 75 years. The data is exceptionally embarrassing from every possible scientific, ethical and public health standpoint.
The Exciting Emergence of Regenerative Medicine
Tony Robbins’ new book, “Life Force,” details breakthroughs in precision medicine that can transform the quality of your life
Breakthroughs include stem cell therapies, novel NAD supplements with superior effectiveness, incisionless brain surgery for Parkinson’s disease, audio implants for deaf people and much more
CCTA testing can predict a heart attack up to five years in advance; Release uses ultrasound to scan your body for connective tissue that has tightened or hardened around nerves or blood vessels. A fluid is then injected into the affected area, instantly releasing that restriction
Fountain Life, a health care company founded by Robbins, works with doctors around the world to provide testing and regenerative and peak performance medicine
A Stanford clinical research study of Robbins’ “Date With Destiny” program found 100% of participants with clinical depression were symptom-free 30 days after completion of the five-and-a-half-day course
Propaganda Revealed: Most Americans Are Now Rejecting Shots
While the bums rush was on to stampede everyone into taking the mRNA injections, statistics were released showing that everybody was doing it. One problem: it was a lie. This is a common propaganda technique called “Bandwagon” ⁃ TN Editor
The New York Times provides daily updates from the CDC on the numbers vaccinated. While nothing that comes out of CDC’s mouth is necessarily reliable, I am presenting the official numbers below. But it is certainly possible that the numbers of the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated are even higher than presented here. Pay close attention to the numbers.
257.6 million (of a total 334 million Americans) got at least one dose of vaccine. That is 77% of the country. If you remove the 0 through 4 year olds, it is 82% of those eligible by age for vaccine. It seems like the vast majority of Americans went along with the vaccine program.
But Not for Long
A surprising 15% of the initially vaccinated (and 11% of all Americans) never went back for their second shot. That is huge. There is no other vaccine where such a high percentage fails to complete a 2 dose series. So if you add together the 18% who refused any shot and the 11% (of all Americans) who refused to complete the initial series, you are up to 29% vaccine refusers and ex-vaxxers who did not get “fully vaccinated,” using CDC’s terminology.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that about 257.6 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, including about 219.6 million people who had been fully vaccinated by the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine or the two-dose series made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.”
[Why does CDC use the word “about” when it has a record of every single vaccinated American? — Nass]
The C.D.C. also reported that about 100.5 million fully vaccinated people have received an additional vaccine dose or a booster dose, the highest level of protection against the virus. Now let’s look at how many Americans went along with the booster dose. Only 100.5 million Americans took that first booster, or 30% of Americans, according to the NYT.
But if you look at the NYT graph of % boosted by county, in many counties less than 15% of the population took booster #1. Why didn’t the NYT use additional colors for counties where over 35% or over 40% were boosted? Are there none? If so, the total boosted in the US may be less than 30%.
CDC: No Documents Supporting Claim Vaccines Don’t Cause Variants
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it does not have documents backing its claim that COVID-19 vaccines do not cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.
The CDC’s website calls it a myth that the vaccines cause variants.
“FACT: COVID-19 vaccines do not create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent new variants from emerging,” the website states.
“New variants of a virus happen because the virus that causes COVID-19 constantly changes through a natural ongoing process of mutation (change). As the virus spreads, it has more opportunities to change. High vaccination coverage in a population reduces the spread of the virus and helps prevent new variants from emerging,” it also says.
The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit, asked the CDC in Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation supporting the claim.
In one request, the group asked for “All documents sufficient to support that COVID-19 vaccines do not create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.”
Another requested “All documents sufficient to support that the immunity conferred by COVID-19 vaccines does not contribute to virus evolution and the emergence of variants.”
The CDC has now responded to both requests, saying a search “found no records responsive” to them.
The first response came in January (pdf); the second came on May 4 (pdf).
If the CDC is making declaratory statements, the agency should have documents supporting them, Aaron Siri, an attorney representing ICAN, told The Epoch Times.
The responses are “very troubling,” Siri said. “I thought the CDC was a data-driven organization, that they made their decisions based on the studies and the science and the data.
CANCEL CULTURE
Boom! Texas Slams Social Media, Allows Lawsuits Over Censorship
“While HB 20 is in effect, Texas users can sue platforms like Facebook and Twitter if they get “censored” for their viewpoints — a vague premise, designed by conservatives who claim that Big Tech unfairly silences them and down-ranks their content.” ⁃ TN Editor
The surprise Wednesday ruling by a panel of three federal appeals court judges allows Texas’ social media law to go into effect — and has led to panicked befuddlement among tech policy experts wondering how platforms could possibly comply, even if they wanted to, and what options the services have for challenging the ruling.
The judges ruled 2-1 that the law should be effective while they hear an appeal by two Big Tech trade groups of a district court injunction that initially put the measure on hold. The judges did not immediately publish their reasoning, but the move will force social media companies to face a legal environment that could threaten the core content bans, moderation practices and ranking algorithms that have allowed them to flourish since the 1990s.
While HB 20 is in effect, Texas users can sue platforms like Facebook and Twitter if they get “censored” for their viewpoints — a vague premise, designed by conservatives who claim that Big Tech unfairly silences them and down-ranks their content.
Until this week, industry observers widely expected the court to uphold a block on the law. In addition to the lower court’s injunction, a different federal court also paused a similar Florida law, finding that it violated the First Amendment in seeking to punish private companies for their views and treatment of content. Those decisions also echoed extensive Supreme Court precedent.
But instead, the Fifth Circuit judges appeared to struggle with basic tech concepts during a Monday hearing — including whether Twitter counts as a website — before issuing Wednesday’s startling decision.
Matt Schruers, the president of Computer & Communications Industry Association, one of the two groups that challenged the law, said in a statement that “no option is off the table” as far as challenging the ruling and the statute. A lawyer for NetChoice, the other plaintiff, tweeted that it would “absolutely be appealing.”
One option for the groups is to seek an en banc appeal — basically, a rehearing by a larger panel of judges in the same court, which is often viewed as the most conservative circuit in the U.S. But the decision on Wednesday may signal that even that larger group would come to a similar conclusion, said David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The EFF supported the platforms’ suit in a brief. The law is unconstitutional, Greene said. “My hope is that at some point, a court will agree with that, and strike [the law] down,” Greene told Protocol. “But I think that’s only going to happen at the Supreme Court level.”
There are two ways the companies could end up in the Supreme Court: They could skip the en banc hearing and start by appealing to the Supreme Court directly, or they could try to bring the case there after another loss in the appeals court. But the majority of the nine justices might not see a reason to jump in at this stage, and could instead hold for a time when the companies are actually facing lawsuits permitted by the Texas statute.
Alternatively, experts said, the high court would be more likely to get involved if the 11th Circuit court upholds the existing block on the Florida law and the Supreme Court can resolve the differences between the two approaches.
Any decision the Supreme Court makes would depend greatly on the appeals courts’ framing of the issues, Greene said. If the court’s conservative majority wants to approve Texas’ law, however, it would likely have to contend with precedent that five conservative justices signed on to as recently as 2019, which affirmed the First Amendment rights of private actors to control content they carry as they see fit.
In the meantime, lawsuits could kick off any minute now as aggrieved users — or the state, which can act on their behalf — claim they’ve been targeted for their viewpoints and seek to force services restore their content and accounts, or even win some sort of prime placement on social media feeds. Such lawsuits were already common, despite failing repeatedly due to sites’ Section 230 protections, but if those suits become successful, even the most basic content moderation models could become untenable. Platforms have worried that would, in turn, force a spike of hate speech and dangerous misinformation on services that host user posts, or prompt the return of chronological feeds, which tend to be spammy and unpopular.
Medium-sized sites and services that don’t have Meta-sized budgets to handle litigation — but still have the 50 million monthly active users that make them qualify under Texas’ law — would likely struggle in particular with the new legal regime.
“It’s so hard to know what the law means and … whether you can change your entire product to try [to] comply with the law,” Greene said. “That’s really hard.”
In addition, an early suggestion — that companies could simply pull out of Texas — might be impractical and politically disastrous, said Corbin Barthold, director of Appellate Litigation at the libertarian group TechFreedom, which also supported the challenge to the law.
“Can you imagine the loudmouths on Capitol Hill, the hell they would raise?” Barthold said. Companies will probably feel that “the nuclear option is too much.”
Barthold pointed out that such a move may even fall afoul of the law, which stops companies from complying by isolating users in Texas. Instead, companies might try to have suits moved to other venues, or wait for the issue to get back down to the federal trial court level and argue that Texas’ law impermissibly gets in the way of other states’ commerce.
The Texas law contains yet another provision that could throw off companies’ planning: There’s a section that says Texas courts can’t impose any action that federal law prohibits. Sec. 230 currently protects internet content companies from exactly those actions when they pertain to content moderation, which may leave in place only Texas’ disclosure requirements. The law also requires platforms to maintain public policies that delineate what kinds of content are banned — i.e., the terms of service that most apps and platforms already publish — though in practice, would-be plaintiffs could easily claim that even moderation decisions arising from such clear policies are actually viewpoint-based and forbidden under the law.
ICYMI
Colorado School Board Cuts Off Mom for Reading Out Sex Scene From Book Available to Students
A Colorado mother was cut off at her local school board meeting after trying to read out a sexually explicit passage from a book she said was available to children in the school district.
The mother, identifying herself as D. Barnes, spoke at a March 16 school board meeting for Adams 12 Five Star Schools, which serves Denver’s northeastern outskirts. She told board members that she was “very concerned” about the material that children have access to through their schooling.
“I do not favor book banning,” she said to the audience, many of whom had spoken before her either in support or opposition to the district’s policy regarding “gender non-conforming” and transgender students. “But I do want to tell you that pornography does not belong in our schools.”
Barnes specifically took issue with two books: “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe, and “Lawn Boy,” a young adult novel by Jonathan Evison. She said that young children have access to these titles “via online resources that Adams 12 made possible.”
“Alison Bechdel writes ‘Fun Home’ about discovering masturbation soon after her first period,” Barnes began reading from “Gender Queer.”
“I discovered around the same age followed by the further realization that my ability to become aroused was governed by a strict law of diminishing returns, an elaborate fantasy based on Plato’s Symposium. The more I had to interact with my genitals, the less likely I was to reach a point of satisfaction. The best fantasy was one that did not require any physical touch at all.”
She then continued to read a section detailing the use of a new sex toy and various associated quotes.
It was at this point that the board decided Barnes was “out of order” and demanded she stop reading. “This is your first warning,” a board member said.
“This is a book that is accessible in Adams 12,” the mother protested as that board member asked her to refrain from reading further. “This is what you allow in our schools. This is what you allow for our kids to have access to. This is pornography and this is grooming for pedophilia.”
Another board member suggested restoring Barnes’s time so long as she agreed to keep the content “appropriate for K-12.” The apparent irony prompted several attendees in the audience to speak out in frustration.
“But it’s in the library. You made it appropriate,” a man yelled.
Barnes moved on to describe her feelings when she discovered “Lawn Boy” was available to high school students in the district.
“I was livid, I was angry, I was hurt that this was accessible to our children,” she said, arguing that the book should be treated the same way as “Playboy” or “Penthouse,” which don’t deserve a place in schools in the first place, she added.
The video of the four-hour meeting has been on the Adams 12’s YouTube since March, but has recently gone viral on social media after a two-minute clip of the exchange was shared by popular Twitter account LibsofTikTok.
Research Firm That Helped Clinton Campaign Must Give Emails to John Durham: Judge
The firm that conducted opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump for his rival Hillary Clinton must give nearly two dozen emails they claimed were protected by privilege to special counsel John Durham’s team, a judge ruled on May 12.
Prosecutors, though, cannot use the messages at the upcoming trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.
The firm, Fusion GPS, withheld some 1,500 documents from Durham after the special counsel in 2021 issued a subpoena as he was building a case against people involved with triggering the government’s investigation into claims Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia.
Prosecutors in April contested the withholding of 38 emails, arguing they were improperly being withheld. Clinton’s campaign, which hired Fusion through a law firm, asserted attorney-client and work product privilege over the missives.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, the Obama appointee overseeing the case, said Durham’s team was correct with regards to 22 of the emails.
Based on evidence in the case, including the judge’s closed-door review of the 38 emails, Fusion employees took part in work that does not fall under the asserted privileges, Cooper said.
“Based on non-privileged emails that Fusion did produce to the grand jury, and on the withheld emails the court has reviewed in camera, it is clear that Fusion employees also interacted with the press as part of an affirmative media relations effort by the Clinton campaign. That effort included pitching certain stories, providing information on background, and answering reporters’ questions,” he said.
“Some of the emails at issue—including internal Fusion GPS discussions about the underlying data and emails circulating draft versions of one of the background white papers that was ultimately provided to the press and the FBI—relate directly to that undertaking. And because these emails appear not to have been written in anticipation of litigation but rather as part of ordinary media-relations work, they are not entitled to attorney work-product protection.”
The emails, which appear to relate solely to spreading the opposition research Fusion compiled, also cannot be shielded by attorney-client privilege, the judge added.
He ordered Fusion to supply Durham with the documents by May 16.
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