WORLD NEWS
Explosive-laden drone found near Nord Stream pipeline
Swedish authorities investigating the explosion that ripped holes in the Nord Stream gas pipelines reported on October 20 they had found an explosive laden drone on the seabed near the pipelines.
The Swedish armed forces were called in to remove and disarm the drone.
“We don’t consider it to be dangerous to merchant vessels or the pipeline at this point,” Jesper Stolpe, Swedish Armed Forces spokesman, told Radio Sweden. The cable used to control the drone and to set off the explosive was cut, rendering the drone harmless, according to Stolpe.
The national identity of the drone has not been verified so far, as many countries use Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) of a similar construction, Stolpe said.
Swedish seismologists were the first to report several explosions near the pipelines, aftergas began to leak into the sea on the evening of September 26, raising the suspicion of sabotage.
WSJ: Pope Francis Has Undermined His Moral Authority by Pandering to China
The editors of the Wall Street Journal have published a searing indictment of Pope Francis, insisting he has undermined the Church’s moral authority by pandering to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The case in point is the Vatican’s renewal Saturday of its secret agreement with the CCP on the appointment of bishops in the country, which since its inception in 2018 has resulted in the ordination of just 6 bishops, despite some 36 vacant episcopal sees.
The chief fruit of the accord has instead been “to mute Vatican criticism of human-rights abuses,” the editors state in Monday’s op-ed, “from the genocide of the Muslim Uyghurs to the political prosecution of Cardinal Joseph Zen in Hong Kong.”
Pope Francis, “who is so critical of the U.S. and capitalism, is silent on China,” the essay asserts. “This is a return to the Vatican’s failed Ostpolitik of the 1960s and 1970s, when Rome muted criticism of the Soviet Union and its East European satellites.”
Indeed, during his nearly eight years as pope, Francis has carefully avoided doing or saying anything that could be construed as criticism of Chinese leadership, including the CCP’s crackdown on Christian churches, its brutal suppression of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, and its horrific genocide of Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region.
Boris Johnson Pulls Out of Race to Become UK Prime Minister
Boris Johnson has dramatically pulled out of the race to become Conservative Party leader, leaving former Chancellor Rishi Sunak in a dominant position to win the contest and become prime minister.
The former prime minister had raced home from a holiday in the Caribbean to try and secure the backing of 100 Tory MPs to enter the ballot to replace Liz Truss, who was forced to resign on Oct. 20, just six weeks after replacing Johnson in 10 Downing Street.
But in a statement issued on Sunday evening, Johnson said he was pulling out, despite having secured enough nominations, because he would not be able to unite the party even if he won the contest.
Elite German Law Enforcement Now Preparing for Blackouts Amid Fears of Gas Outage
Elite units within Germany’s federal police are now preparing for blackouts in the country amid fears that the country could completely run out of gas by the end of February.
Specialist elements of Germany’s Federal police force are now reportedly preparing to deal with blackouts in the country amid nationwide fears that the country could run out of gas by the end of February.
Poor In UK? Major Supermarket To Pitch Bugs For Survival Diet
A major supermarket chain in the UK is finalising plans to stock insects on its shelves and market them as a cheap food source for people struggling to afford to feed their families amid soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis.
The Daily Mail reports that Aldi is considering stocking ‘edible’ bugs and providing recipe kits for parents to prepare worms and crickets for their hungry children.
Potential products in the range include ‘sustainable’ cricket burgers, as well as ‘nuggets’ and ‘mince’.
Yummmmmy.
“Frankly Terrifying”: Energy Crisis Could Drag 26M Brits Into Fuel Poverty
The axing of the energy price guarantee from April next year could lead to almost 11m UK households falling into fuel poverty, campaigners have warned, which is about 26m people.
It means more than one in three British households face the grim prospect of hardship: there are an estimated 28.1m households in the UK. The average household in Britain has 2.36 people.
The End Fuel Poverty Coalition described the outlook as “frankly terrifying” and urged the Government to focus on a new package of support and energy-market reforms, alongside investment in home insulation and renewables.
The predicted increase from the current seven million households in fuel poverty to 10.7 million after the Government lifts its guarantee limiting the average household energy bill to £2,500 from April will then fall slightly – but will still leave 10.1 million households in fuel poverty in the winter of 2023/24, the group said.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
The spike proteins cause inflammation, turn of type 1 interferon response, and reduce autophagy among other things, all of which adds up to a dysregulated immune system
Multiple studies have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a highly toxic and inflammatory protein, capable of causing pathologies in its hosts.
The presence of spike protein has been strongly linked with long COVID and post-vaccine symptoms. Studies have shown that spike proteins are often present in symptomatic patients, sometimes even months after infections or vaccinations.
The numbers of long COVID and post-vaccine cases have been climbing in the United States, increasingly posing as a healthcare problem.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that around 7 percent of Americans are currently experiencing long COVID symptoms, which would be over 15 million people. Some people with long COVID have been so debilitated that they cannot go to work, the same has been reported in people experiencing post-vaccine symptoms.
Over 880,000 adverse events have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database for possible post-COVID vaccine symptoms.
The campaign finance report for Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Democrat gubernatorial candidate, is tall enough to ride a rollercoaster. It would take 22 reams of paper to print all 10,983 pages of his most recent campaign finance report.
That’s 55 inches tall.
Within those pages are three contributions totaling $120,000 from the family of far-left billionaire George Soros, who has funded the campaigns of soft-on-crime district attorneys now in office in major cities across the nation.
On June 29, George Soros’ son, Jonathan Soros, who lives in New York, gave Shapiro $10,000. The next day, June 30, Jennifer Soros, Jonathan Soros’ wife, contributed $10,000. On Aug. 8, Andrea Soros, George Soros’ daughter, gave Shapiro $100,000.
The large number of special interest donations may explain why Shapiro has raised significantly more than state senator and Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
Republicans Win Major Election Integrity Ruling Against Michigan Secretary of State
Republicans scored a legal victory this week after a judge ruled against Democrat Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson over state restrictions that were imposed on poll challengers ahead of the 2022 midterms, according to the Michigan Republican Party.
The Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed a lawsuit against Benson in a bid to invalidate new instructions that she handed down for election observers and challengers. Michigan Court of Claims Judge Brock Swartzle ordered Benson’s office to either remove a May 2022 manual or amend specific sections that he said violate state election law and the Administrative Procedures Act, a federal law passed in 1946.
“An executive branch department cannot do by instructional guidance what it must do by promulgated rule,” the judge wrote in his Thursday ruling, local media reported. “This straightforward legal maxim does most of the work in resolving these three consolidated cases.”
Swartzle noted that some provisions in the Michigan poll challenger manual including a ban on the use of electronic devices at mail-in ballot counting boards were at odds with the law or did not go through proper public rule-making procedures that require comment from the public and state lawmakers.
“Under the APA, only a department’s ‘rule,’ promulgated by that department through the crucible of public notice-and-comment rulemaking, has the force and effect of law,” Swartzle added in his order. “Any other pronouncement by a department does not have the force and effect of law unless specifically authorized by our Legislature.”
The order deems invalid instructions that required challengers to present credentials issued using a form from Benson’s office and restricted election challengers’ communication to only those designated as challenger liaisons.
Chinese Lab’s Purchase of US Land for Primate Breeding Facility Draws Scrutiny
A Chinese firm’s purchase of land in Florida to build a breeding facility for lab monkeys is drawing scrutiny over the company founders’ ties to the Chinese military.
JOINN Laboratories CA Inc., the California subsidiary of a biotech firm headquartered in Beijing, in July purchased more than 1,400 acres of land for building a primate facility in Florida’s Levy County, county records show.
With a combined value of $5.5 million, the 10 parcels of land purchased from L & T Cattle & Timber represent one of the largest known Chinese acquisitions of U.S. land in recent years. While construction has not begun, the deal has attracted public attention at a time of heightened concern about Chinese investments in the United States over security and other risks.
The purchaser’s parent company JOINN Laboratories describes itself as a leader in non-clinical drug screening in China. According to its website, the company was founded in 1995 and employs over 1,500 staff. It has wholly-owned subsidiaries in major Chinese and U.S. cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Boston.
Zhou Zhiwen and Feng Yuxia, the couple who founded and control JOINN Laboratories, both graduated from China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, in 1989 and 1992 respectively. The school is the Chinese military’s top medical institute, which was added to a U.S. trade blacklist last year for supplying biotechnology to the Chinese military.
House Jan. 6 Panel Says It Sent a Subpoena to Trump
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol breach announced Friday it sent a subpoena to former President Donald Trump.
The committee, in a letter (pdf), wrote that it has ” assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff,” that Trump “oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.” Trump has denied such allegations, saying that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
“We recognize that a subpoena to a former President is a significant and historic action,” the panel’s leaders wrote to Trump on Friday, adding, “We do not take this action lightly.”
During its final public hearing last week, the panel unanimously voted to subpoena the former president.
Trump has not publicly responded to Friday’s announcement. Following last week’s vote, he described (pdf) the panel as a group of “highly partisan political Hacks and Thugs whose sole function is to destroy the lives of many hard-working American Patriots,” according to a 14-page letter.
Judge Declines to Dismiss Lawsuit Against Arkansas Ban on Transgender Procedures for Minors
\A federal judge declined on Oct. 21 to dismiss a lawsuit against Arkansas’s ban on gender-transition procedures for minors. As a result, the nation’s first such law will remain in legal limbo while a national debate over the procedures appears to be intensifying.
On Oct. 21, after three days of testimony from plaintiffs’ witnesses in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, lawyers representing the state of Arkansas asked District Judge James Moody Jr. to throw out a constitutional challenge to the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.
Moody said an Aug. 25 decision from a federal appeals court gave him “marching instructions” that largely neutralized the state’s arguments against the suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had ruled that Moody was correct when he temporarily blocked the law from taking effect in 2021. The state’s lawyers have asked the appeals court to reconsider that decision.
Meanwhile, the case has moved forward in Moody’s court; the trial, which began on Oct. 17, will resume on Nov. 28 with testimony from the state’s witnesses.
Specially Trained Capitol Hill Staffers to Observe Closely Contested Elections
An unspecified number of Capitol Hill aides are being deployed as “official House election observers in close, or particularly cumbersome congressional elections, in the coming weeks,” according to Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), the ranking Republican member of the House Administration Committee.
The administration panel is responsible for exercising “the House’s constitutional responsibility to serve as the final ‘Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualifications of its Members,’” Davis told officials in identical Oct. 20 letters (pdf) sent to all 50 states.
“While the Constitution grants the House of Representatives this responsibility and authority, the Constitution grants the states primary authority over the administration of federal elections. Committee Republicans respect the limited nature of Congress’ role in this space and are committed to safeguarding states’ vital constitutional authority,” Davis wrote.
“As in past elections, the House will use this legal authority to credential and deploy trained congressional staffers to serve as official House election observers in close, or particularly cumbersome congressional elections, in the coming weeks. This allows us to prepare for the possibility that a candidate could later contest the race in the House of Representatives.”
The staffers involved are doing so under the House Election Observer Program. Davis also started the Republican members of the administration panel’s Faith in Elections Project, which is “a comprehensive effort to offer educational opportunities on how elections are administered, engage with key stakeholders, and put forth thoughtful conservative reforms on how elections are run in this country, with states maintaining primary control over their elections.”
The Illinois Republican said the panel “takes seriously its responsibility regarding federal elections, and we are committed to making sure all lawful ballots in congressional races are counted fairly, accurately, and according to law.”
“Our credentialed observers have been trained by experts in election observation and instructed that they play no formal or advocacy role in the administration of the election or the vote counting process; they are to function exclusively as observers,” he said.
The congressional observers “must be granted access to view the process even if state law credentialing, partisan quota, or access requirements exist to the contrary,” he said.
Biden Says John Fetterman’s Wife Will Make a ‘Great Lady in the Senate’
President Joe Biden said on Oct. 20 that Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman’s wife, Gisele Baretto Fetterman, will make a “great lady in the Senate.”
The remarks, apparently in error, were made while on a stop at the site of a bridge that collapsed last year in Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania, where the president touted his $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
During the speech, Biden thanked John Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, who attended the event.
“John, thank you very much for running. I really do appreciate it,” said Biden. “And Gisele, you’re going to be a great, great lady in the Senate.”
The apparent gaffe was made amid ongoing questioning of John Fetterman’s health and cognitive ability since he suffered a stroke in May days before the primary. His GOP opponent Dr. Mehmet Oz has repeatedly questioned his ability to serve as senator if elected.
2 Nurses Dead After Shooting at Dallas Hospital, Suspect in Custody
Two nurses were killed in a shooting at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday.
The shooting occurred about 11:15 a.m. inside the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, located in the 1400 block of North Beckley Avenue. The hospital said in a news release Saturday afternoon that Methodist Health System police, Dallas police, and Dallas Fire-Rescue responded to the shooting.
“A Methodist Health System Police Officer arrived on the scene, confronted the suspect, and fired his weapon at the suspect, injuring him,” hospital spokesperson Ryan Owens said in a statement. He added that the suspect was taken to another hospital in undisclosed condition and is under police custody.
Police identified the suspect as 30-year-old Nestor Hernandez, who is currently on parole for aggravated robbery. He faces capital murder charges in relation to the shooting, reported The Dallas Morning News.
Charley Wilkison, CEO of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, said on Twitter that the suspect fatally shot two maternity ward nurses.
In a statement, the hospital system noted that there is no ongoing threat. It expressed condolences for the deaths of the two nurses, whose identities have yet to be released.
Illegal Immigrant Arrests at Border Soar in September, Set New Fiscal Year Record
President Joe Biden is facing fresh criticism after his administration released illegal immigrant apprehension numbers from September, showing the number of arrests soared to a record high.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made 227,547 arrests in September at the U.S.–Mexico border—the most in history. That was by far the highest number for a September, coming in at some 35,000 more than the first September under Biden, the previous record, and up 12 percent from August.
It was also one of the highest numbers in fiscal year 2022, despite September traditionally being one of the months in which illegal immigration slows because of weather and other patterns.
The number “reflects an accelerating pace of apprehensions when they should be declining seasonally,” Steven Kopits, president of Princeton Policy Advisors, said in a statement. “This speaks to both a strong U.S. labor market and deteriorating enforcement at the border.”
Feds Warn That Offers to Increase Your Social Security Benefits Are Scams
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is warning Americans not to trust unexpected offers to activate a Social Security benefit following the agency’s announcement that it would make a higher-than-usual cost-of-living adjustment for 2023.
“That unexpected offer from the Social Security Administration to activate a benefit increase is from a criminal and not the real SSA. Do not share personal or financial information. Do not click on links or respond,” the agency said on Thursday, describing such offers as a scam.
It warned that criminals continue to impersonate the SSA and other agencies to try and obtain an individual’s personal information, cash, or get them to download malware.
About a week ago, the SSA announced it would make an 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) due to decades-high inflation, starting in 2023. The agency last week said that recipients have to do nothing in order to receive the COLA, which is automatically added to retirees’ Social Security payments.
But after the announcement, there have been reports of scammers who are trying to trick people into giving up their financial and personal information via “deceptive text and email messages that lure recipients to a fake Social Security website,” the SSA’s Inspector General said.
“Criminals falsely advise recipients to apply to receive Social Security benefits or extra money, such as a cost-of-living adjustment, or to set up an online account,” it said. “The message may also provide fake contact information for SSA.”
Generally, federal government agencies like the SSA or Internal Revenue Service communicate with people via mail, not through text messages or phone calls.
“If there is a problem, we will mail you a letter,” the SSA says. “Generally, we will only contact you if you have requested a call or have ongoing business with us.”
Judge Dismisses Election Fraud Case, Branding Florida Prosecutions an ‘Overreach of Power’
A Miami judge on Oct. 21 approved a motion to dismiss an elections fraud case brought by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Election Crimes Unit.
The state had charged Robert Wood and 19 other people with election fraud in August after a state roundup by the Election Crimes Unit, a new body that the governor put together in an effort to clean up voter rolls and charge those who have violated election laws.
Wood was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991, making him ineligible to vote under state law.
Larry Davis, who represented Wood, argued that the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP) did not have jurisdiction over the case and Judge Milton Hirsch agreed.
In his order, Hirsch dismissed the charges against Wood and decided the state’s prosecution of election crimes constituted an “overreach of power.”
However, the governor’s office disagreed with the court’s ruling and said it intended to appeal.
“Given that elections violations of this nature impact all Florida voters, elections officials, state government, and the integrity of our republic, we continue to view the Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution as the appropriate agency to prosecute these crimes,” Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
“The state will continue to enforce the law and ensure that murderers and rapists who are not permitted to vote do not unlawfully do so,” he continued. “Florida will not be a state in which elections are left vulnerable or cheaters unaccountable.”
Proof Mail-In Ballots Facilitates Voter Fraud
Opinion by Devvy Kidd
The original intent of mail-in ballots was to accommodate military, their families, legally registered voters who might, for legitimate reasons (assisted living, scheduled surgery, long haul truckers) be unable to get to a polling place on election day. An individual had to request a ballot ahead of time.
Over time, it’s morphed into an open invitation for voter fraud. As someone who has been researching and writing on election fraud since 1993, between advanced technology, dishonest, partisan voters and political operatives, the situation has only worsened.
California has gone to all mail-in ballots sent to millions in that state – even to addresses which turn out to be empty lots, banks, gas stations or 16 ballots with different names to one home where only one individual lived and had never heard of those names. This month a man in Michigan received a request for a mail in ballot addressed to his dog, Ruby. Act surprised: the project who sent the ballot is being paid for by the MI Democratic Party.
California has been sending mail-in ballots to voters who no longer live in California for years.
The Republicans could see large gains in both chambers of Congress in November, according to Epoch Times contributor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
“I would say we’ll be between plus three and plus seven … in the Senate; and we’ll be between plus 20 and plus 50 in the House, with the most likely number being plus 44,” Gingrich told The Epoch Times.
The GOP needs to flip five seats to win back House control. In the evenly-divided Senate, Republicans need to win one more seat to claim the majority.
With the November election day fast approaching, Democratic optimism appears to be fading as GOP candidates close in on key races across the country.
In New Hampshire, Republican challenger Don Bolduc has narrowed the gap between him and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan down to 2 points, according to an Oct. 20 poll by GOP pollster Fabrezio, Lee and Associates, well within the 4 percent margin of error. The poll, which was commissioned by Bolduc’s campaign, placed Hassan at 49 percent to Buldoc’s 47 percent.
In Arizona, the Trump-backed Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters is gaining ground after earlier stumbles. Polling data aggregator RealClearPolitics predicts the state to be a tossup, and gives the Democrat incumbent only a 2.5-point lead.
In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s double-digit edge has evaporated in recent weeks. A recent AARP Pennsylvania poll conducted by Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research showed Fetterman with a 48 percent to 46 percent lead, which is within the margin of error of 4.4 percentage points
EXCLUSIVE: GOP Could Gain Up to 7 Seats in Senate, 50 Seats in House, Gingrich Says
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Barges on Drought-Stricken Mississippi River ‘Dead in the Water,’ Causing Severe Supply Chain Issues
Jeff Worsham is a realist regarding the weather because he believes what he sees.
That the regional drought is a bad one, getting worse, is beyond dispute. The Mississippi River is at the lowest it’s been in decades, he said.
Worse, the barges are backing up because of it, running aground, and wreaking havoc on the regional supply chain.
“There’s no relief in sight as far as rainfall,” said Worsham, port manager of Poinsett Rice & Grain’s loading facility in Osceola, Arkansas.
When will it rain next?
Worsham said, “Who knows?”
Loaded at about 65 percent capacity with soybeans to reduce weight, the barges at the Osceola facility have been “dead in the water” for days in a jagged queue, blocked by a single barge that became stuck in the shallow mouth of the port.
Unprecedented Times
“I’ve never seen it this bad,” said Worsham, who’s been with the company for over 20 years. “We had water [levels] close to this in 2012. But it was August, and it wasn’t the harvesting season. It wasn’t a big deal for us.”
At the height of the corn and soybean harvest, and with tons of products waiting to be shipped, Worsham remains optimistic.
“A lot of the soybeans have been stored on the barges. We’ll be down a little bit on volume and stretched out. We’ll be able to get the bushels [out]. It’s just going to take longer,” he told The Epoch Times.
Worsham said a tow boat would eventually drag the stuck barge to deeper water and free up the other barges. He said until then, nothing can get in or out of the port—and then the phone rang.
Abbott Nutrition to Invest $500 Million in Infant Formula Manufacturing as Shortages Continue
Abbott Nutrition has announced plans to invest half a billion dollars in an infant formula manufacturing facility, saying that it has determined that the domestic supply chain for formula needs to be bolstered amid capacity shortfalls.
“We’re moving forward with plans for a half-billion-dollar investment in a new U.S. nutrition facility for specialty and metabolic infant formulas,” Abbott Nutrition chairman and CEO Robert Ford said during an Oct. 19 earnings call.
Ford said the company is in the final stages of deciding where to build the plant, which he expects to be “state-of-the-art” and that would set “a new standard for infant formula production.”
“We recognize there’s more to do but feel confident in the progress we’re making,” he added.
Baby formula had been in short supply in the United States amid supply chain pressures and a labor shortage.
The supply crunch hit a fever pitch in May when an analysis by Datasembly showed that around 40 percent of the top-selling infant formula products were out of stock at the end of April.
“This is a shocking number that you don’t see for other categories,” Ben Reich, CEO of Datasembly, told CBS News at the time. “We’ve been tracking it over time and it’s going up dramatically.”
Prior to the shortage, infant formula out-of-stock levels sat at around 5 percent.
Federal Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Biden’s Student Loan Relief
A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel billions of dollars in federal student loans.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency petition from six Republican-led states who asked for a pause on the student debt relief while the court rules on their request for a longer-term injunction.
The St. Louis-based appeals court also ordered an expedited briefing schedule on the matter.
The lawsuit by the six Republican-led states—Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina—is before the appeals court after a lower court judge rejected the suit a day prior.
The states had argued that the debt relief program bypassed Congress and posed a threat to the states’ future tax revenues, as well as money earned by state entities that invest in or service the student loans. But U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey in St. Louis determined that while the six states had raised “important and significant challenges to the debt relief plan,” their lawsuit lacked the necessary legal standing to pursue the case.
Autrey’s decision had come about an hour after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied without explanation an emergency request to put the debt relief plan on hold in a separate challenge brought by the Wisconsin-based Brown County Taxpayers Association.
These Global Cities Show The Highest Real Estate Bubble Risk
Housing bubbles are a tricky phenomenon. As a market gathers steam and prices increase, it remains a matter of debate whether that market is overvalued and flooded with speculation, or it’s simply experiencing robust demand.
Of course, once a bubble bursts, it’s all obvious in hindsight.
One common red flag is when prices decouple from local incomes and rents. As well, imbalances in the real economy, such as excessive construction activity and lending can signal a bubble in the making.
Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley created the map below, based on data from the Real Estate Bubble Index by UBS, to examine 25 global cities, scoring them based on their bubble risk.
US Has Only 25 Days of Diesel Supply; Shortage Could Cripple Economy
The United States is down to 25 days of diesel supply as a top White House official declared the stockpile levels to be “unacceptably low.”
Data provided by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) show that diesel stockpiles are at their lowest level for October in records that date back to 1993, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. EIA data show that the United States, as of Oct. 14, has 25.4 days of supply—down from 34.2 days of supply four weeks prior.
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, a top adviser to President Joe Biden, told Bloomberg News last week that current diesel levels are “unacceptably” low and that “all options are on the table” to increase supplies.
The diesel crunch comes just over two weeks before the November 2022 midterm elections and will likely drive up prices even more. Diesel is the fuel used by freight trains and commonly used by long-haul truckers to transport goods and food.
“Most of the products we use are transported by trucks and trains with diesel engines, and most construction, farming, and military vehicles and equipment also have diesel engines,” the EIA’s website states. “As a transportation fuel, diesel fuel offers a wide range of performance, efficiency, and safety features. Diesel fuel also has a greater energy density than other liquid fuels, so it provides more useful energy per unit of volume.”
California’s Economy Looks Headed for Disaster
California officials are sounding the alarm after recent statistics showing that less corporate and start-up activity in the state will lead to a decline in tax revenue, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
This year, just nine companies based in California have held initial public offerings, or IPOs, which is when a company first lists shares for sale on the stock market—considered a milestone in its growth after strong activity and high valuation, Bloomberg’s report revealed.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Mastercard Just Outlined Its Digital ID Push
At the Authenticate 2022 event, Mastercard SVP of Digital Identity Sarah Clark detailed the company’s digital ID plans. Clark detailed Mastercard’s plans for a digital ID network at a presentation on “Use of FIDO in a Reusable Digital Identity Network.”
The network is aimed at individuals who already have a government-issued ID. Mastercard plans to create a network through which digital IDs can be reused online, for in-person interactions, through calls and other channels.
Last-Mile Automation Carnage: Fedex And Amazon Give Up On Delivery Robots
October has been a rough month for the last-mile delivery robot industry as Amazon called it quits on their six-wheeled robot “Scout” for home deliveries. Now FedEx is doing the same.
Robotics 24/7 has obtained an internal memo written by Sriram Krishnasam, chief transformation officer at FedEx, who told employees its last-mile delivery robot, Roxo, will be scaled back.
“Although robotics and automation are key pillars of our innovation strategy, Roxo did not meet necessary near-term value requirements for DRIVE,” Krishnasam wrote in the memo. “Although we are ending the research and development efforts, Roxo served a valuable purpose: to rapidly advance our understanding and use of robotic technology.”
FedEx launched Roxo in 2019 in collaboration with DEKA Research and Development Corp. The robot uses multiple sets of wheels to traverse steps and obstacles while hauling up to 100 pounds. It navigates sidewalks and city streets using cameras and LIDAR sensors. Human operators can intervene with remote controls if need be.
“We are immensely proud of our role in working with DEKA to advance this cutting-edge technology that has put it on the path to future implementation, and we remain committed to exploring last-mile innovations that align with our business strategy,” the company said. “The collaboration with DEKA has been outstanding, and we will continue to explore compelling opportunities arising from the technologies we have developed together.”
FedEx and Amazon are some of the largest shippers moving packages around the country and the world. When these two companies simultaneously decide to axe their last-mile delivery robots, it indicates the program has been a complete and utter failure. This is excellent news for the humans working at FedEx, Amazon, UPS, USPS, Uber Eats, Instacart, and other last-mile companies that your jobs will be safe for now. However, when the Federal Aviation Administration clears airspace for delivery drones, that could be a different story but won’t happen at scale until the end of this decade.
Technocracy: The Full Digitization of Everything, And Then Some
What if we were really at the point where the arrow indicates on the bar-code cartoon below? Or, it could be much worse, we could already be just a tiny little speck on the all-encroaching and dominating QR code.
The QR code is everywhere. In some places you can’t even open a toilet door without using a QR code, first downloaded on your smartphone.
There is hardly a restaurant – anywhere in the Western world – where its menus are not loaded onto a QR code. Screw those who do not have a smartphone, or do not want to use their smartphone to be invaded by QR codes.
In some cases, when you are lucky, a restaurant may offer you as a “temporary feature”, a printed menu, or the waiter is kind enough to use his own smartphone to show you the choices of meals.
It’s the “smartphonization” of humanity. It is also the stultification, or dumbing-down of our minds, and eventually our intelligence. It is likely the smartphone was invented to eventually deaden the brains of society. Because human beings tend to go for comfort, for the ways of least resistance. The smartphone offers all that. Once we have it, we get hooked.
About 20-30 years ago, we still lived happy with the fix phone at home, with the phone booth at the street corner. We were not missing anything. What would eventually become a smartphone, was gradually introduced as a portable telephone. First, they were the size of a brick, then they became smaller and smaller, so, they would fit in our breast pocket, or in a lady’s purse; no problem. A real convenience.
In the course of the last two decades, smartphones became slimmer and slimmer; their screens became larger and larger, progressively resembling a small computer. They started having the features of a computer, were connectable to internet – internet became universally available, not only in restaurants and shops, but in the streets and even in the forests. Everywhere, or almost.
The cell phone could be synchronized with your computer at home. Bingo! You were connected walking and crossing the streets, taking a nap – or kissing your partner. Pretty invasive. Don’t you think?
But never mind – it’s fantastic! You have access to your internet account anytime, everywhere, you are “connected” even in your sleep.
‘Speed of Science’ — A Scandal Beyond Your Wildest Nightmare
The premise behind COVID shot mandates and vaccine passports was that by taking the shot, you would protect others, as it would prevent infection and spread of COVID-19
In early October 2022, during a COVID hearing in the European Parliament, Dutch member Rob Roos questioned Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, about whether Pfizer had in fact tested and confirmed that their mRNA jab would prevent transmission prior to its rollout
Small admitted that Pfizer never tested whether their jab would prevent transmission because they had to “move at the speed of science to understand what is happening in the market … and we had to do everything at risk”
We’ve known for well over two years that the shots were never tested for transmission interruption. In October 2020, Peter Doshi, associate editor of The BMJ, highlighted that trials were not designed to reveal whether the vaccines would prevent transmission. Yet everyone in government and media insisted they would do just that
It was never about science or protecting others. It was always about following a predetermined narrative that sought to get experimental mRNA technology into as many people as possible
HEALTH
Big Pharma Is Putting All Of Humanity At Risk Of Demographic Collapse
Media are reporting that pregnancy complications have spiked during the COVID pandemic, but claim the cause is unknown
Most blame the virus itself. But even then, they fail to address the fact that it’s the spike protein that is the most likely culprit. The obvious reason for that is because the spike protein is also what your body produces in response to the COVID shots
Around the world, women are reporting abnormal menses and vaginal hemorrhaging, both post-COVID and after exposure to the jab or someone who got the shot. Birth rates have significantly dropped, and we’re seeing upticks in preeclampsia, miscarriages, premature births and early puberty, as well as maternal and infant deaths
Despite the clear risks of vaccinating during pregnancy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a whooping cough vaccine for newborns that is given to mothers in the third trimester. This is the first vaccine aimed at infants that is to be preemptively given to the mother during pregnancy
While U.S. media celebrated the FDA’s authorization of COVID shots for infants under the age of 5 last summer, European countries had long since stopped caring about the pandemic, and the head of public health in Denmark admitted it was a mistake to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11
Randomized Double-Blind Study Shows Saffron Can Help ADHD
The herb saffron may be a safe and effective treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).1 This common neuropsychiatric disorder affects up to 7% of school-age children, causing a mix of symptoms including difficulty concentrating and hyperactivity to mood swings and short attention span.
In up to 60% of cases, symptoms persist into adulthood,2 where the disorder is linked to social problems, low self-esteem and low quality of life. It’s also known to affect academic achievement.
The standard, first-line approach to treating ADHD is medication, typically central nervous system stimulants such as methylphenidate (Ritalin). However, such drugs may cause side effects such as difficulty sleeping, loss of appetite and nausea. In some cases, the side effects, such as sleep loss, may be so severe that they undermine any benefits of the drug.3
What’s more, an estimated 30% of children do not respond to Ritalin,4 and others give up the medication due to its side effects. Oftentimes, the drug treatment does not even lead to meaningful improvements.
In a study that analyzed the effects of drug versus behavioral treatment on homework performance in children with ADHD, the drug treatment led to no significant improvements in homework completion or accuracy compared to placebo.5
“So far, the outcome with these approved medications for ADHD are often unsatisfactory and there is an empty place to be filled by alternative medications, in particular herbal medicines,” researchers wrote in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.6
They noted that herbal medicine is still used for health care for upward of 80% of the world’s population, making saffron a reasonable choice for ADHD treatment.
Chronic and Mysterious Symptoms May Be Autoimmunity
Autoimmunity can take years to diagnose—all too often after serious damage has been done
While heart disease and cancer dominate the media, millions more people suffer from a barrage of miserable and sometimes debilitating “mystery” symptoms. These symptoms can rob them of their energy, motivation, ability to function, livelihood, relationships, and even their hope.
It takes most patients many years of visiting multiple doctors before they finally find out that an autoimmune disease is causing their symptoms.
Until then, they’re told they’re “perfectly healthy,” accused of making up symptoms that “don’t exist,” or prescribed antidepressants. Never mind that they can’t get out of bed, they hurt all over, their brain barely functions, they have lost motivation to do anything, they can’t lose weight but are losing hair, or they have a myriad of other unexplainable health issues.
When these patients find their way to functional medicine, testing shows that many of them suffer from the early stages of autoimmune reactivity, a condition in which an imbalanced immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys a person’s own body tissue, usually slowly over many years. Autoimmunity can attack any tissue, enzyme, hormone, or cell in the body, depending on a person’s genetic predisposition and their unique inflammatory triggers.
Common examples of autoimmune diseases include Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, vitiligo, celiac disease, Graves’ disease, Type 1 diabetes, lupus, and some inflammatory bowel diseases.
Normally our immune system defends us against bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. However, immune imbalances and chronic inflammation can cause it to attack the body’s tissues, organs, and glands, too. This is called “autoimmunity” or “self-attack immunity.” In the early stages of autoimmunity, our immune system makes immune antibodies that erroneously stick to our own tissue instead of attaching to foreign invaders.
When these antibodies attach to our own tissue, this signals our immune system to send out destructive immune cells called natural killer cells to destroy the tissue just as it would destroy a pathogen.
Millions of people suffer for years or decades without treatment because insurance companies don’t approve screening for autoimmunity until the patient shows significant signs of organ or tissue destruction. At this point, the patient can be prescribed some type of immune-suppressing treatment.
However, a patient’s ever-worsening symptoms and declining function can go on for years before diagnosis. Until then, doctors continue to tell patients they’re perfectly healthy.
This is unfortunate, as early antibody testing allows patients to make dietary and lifestyle modifications to relieve symptoms and prevent the condition from progressing.
How Conventional Medicine Kills, and What to Do About It
In “Dying to be Free: How America’s Ruling Class Is Killing and Bankrupting Americans, and What to Do About It,” Dr. Leland Stillman shares his views on conventional and alternative health care systems, and how an entirely new health care system can, and is, being built that is focused on maintaining health rather than managing disease
Emergency care medicine can make you better in a short amount of time, but 99% of the people in the ER and the urgent care wouldn’t be there if they had a healthy environment, a healthy lifestyle and a healthy diet
GoldCares Health & Wellness is creating a robust training for clinicians that incorporates the best of allopathic and natural medicine
You can save a lot of money by becoming a member of a Health Care Sharing Ministry such as Medi-Share, Liberty HealthShare or Zion HealthShare. Members share expenses and prices are negotiated with hospitals to minimize the cost for each bill
Many are stuck in the health insurance loop because they fear they wouldn’t be able to pay for certain drugs, were they to develop some disease. However, if your doctor can help keep you healthy, you don’t need drugs, and hence you don’t need insurance
The Science Behind Molecular Hydrogen Tablets
Molecular hydrogen (H2) is a gas with very unique and selective antioxidant effects. It works primarily by improving the redox status of the cell when needed
Hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the universe, which is why its bioavailability is so great. It’s also neutral, so it can easily penetrate any membrane space in your body
Drinking hydrogen water can double your cellular concentration of hydrogen gas. For about five minutes, your blood level peaks, and this is when beneficial changes in cell signaling and gene expression occur
Molecular hydrogen is best taken cyclically or pulsed. If you take it continuously — say you’re drinking hydrogen water throughout the whole day — the effect seems to dissipate and can actually vanish altogether
For best results, place two tablets in 1 liter of water and drink it all in the morning. This will give you a very strong pulse, which will produce better results than a lower pulse twice a day. Once the tablets are fully dissolved, you’ll want to drink it as fast as possible
Common Medications That You Shouldn’t Be on for Long
Big Pharma is big business, even when compared to other large companies. The U.S. pharmaceutical market reached $555 billion in 2021, of which $37 billion in revenue was generated by the COVID-19 vaccine
Polypharmacy, or using multiple medications, increases your risk of experiencing significant adverse side effects, some of which are life-threatening. Some of these drugs include over-the-counter (OTC) medications
Long-term use of pain medications, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) and NSAIDs may lead to kidney and liver damage, high blood pressure and heart events. Opiates can lead to addiction, respiratory depression and death
Medications that affect the central nervous system are used to treat anxiety, ADD, ADHD, and depression. These can lead to physical dependence, addiction, hallucinations, heart disease and seizures
Common OTC medications like heartburn drugs, antihistamines, laxatives and oral decongestants can cause great harm when used long-term, including high blood pressure, seizures, hallucinations, pneumonia, and chronic kidney disease
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
CEO Warns Biden Put US in a ‘Very Precarious Position’ After More Oil Is Released
An oil CEO said the White House put the United States in a “very precarious position” after another significant release of oil from U.S. reserves.
After President Biden announced an additional 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) would be released to combat rising gas prices just weeks before the midterm elections, one American oil industry leader is now calling it the “strategic political reserve.”
“This is a very precarious position we’re in today at a time of dramatic geopolitical upheaval,” American Petroleum Institute president and CEO Mike Sommers told Fox News on Thursday. “We need to have that SPR in place and at the right levels dealing with the current geopolitical situation we’re in today.”
In the coming months, the United States could again see record-high gas prices, he warned.
‘Yecosystem’: Kanye West Planning His Own ‘Universe’ with Branded Food and Homes
Amid an escalating cancel culture campaign that has seen key business partners sever ties with him, Kanye West is reportedly laying the foundation for what appears to be a self-contained business universe called the “Yecosystem” or “Yeezyverse” that will offer branded homes, food, retail stores, and more.
The “Yecosystem” or “Yeezyverse” is actually intended to be a physical place, sources told Rolling Stone. The first community formed around the fledgling West brand is already in development, with an initial campus set to open as early as next month.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Duck Eggs Vs. Chicken Eggs: What’s The Difference? Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1017218/duck-eggs-vs-chicken-eggs-whats-the-difference/?utm_campaign=clip
We all know the difference between duck and chicken eggs, right? Duck eggs come from ducks. Chicken eggs come from chickens. There, that’s it. Problem solved, article finished. Wait … there’s more to it than that? Of course there is. Apart from being the products of different birds, there are a variety of differences between duck and chicken eggs to take into consideration, such as nutrition, size, taste, texture, substitutions, and price.
COVID RELATED NEWS
‘Speed of Science’ — A Scandal Beyond Your Wildest Nightmare
The premise behind COVID shot mandates and vaccine passports was that by taking the shot, you would protect others, as it would prevent infection and spread of COVID-19
In early October 2022, during a COVID hearing in the European Parliament, Dutch member Rob Roos questioned Pfizer’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, about whether Pfizer had in fact tested and confirmed that their mRNA jab would prevent transmission prior to its rollout
Small admitted that Pfizer never tested whether their jab would prevent transmission because they had to “move at the speed of science to understand what is happening in the market … and we had to do everything at risk”
We’ve known for well over two years that the shots were never tested for transmission interruption. In October 2020, Peter Doshi, associate editor of The BMJ, highlighted that trials were not designed to reveal whether the vaccines would prevent transmission. Yet everyone in government and media insisted they would do just that
It was never about science or protecting others. It was always about following a predetermined narrative that sought to get experimental mRNA technology into as many people as possible
Here are the states rejecting mandatory COVID shots for kids
Republican Ron DeSantis of Florida is among the governors who have vowed that COVID-19 shots won’t be mandated for schoolchildren in his state in the wake of a CDC panel’s decision to recommend adding the vaccine to the routine childhood immunization schedule.
Some states, such as Massachusetts and Virginia, simply adopt the CDC schedule while others rely on the agencies guidance.
But others have laws in place barring schools from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for students.
Here’s how some states, as the Daily Caller News Foundation reports, are handling the CDC recommendation:
- Wyoming: Republican Gov. Mark Gordon’s office said the governor “has not mandated vaccines for adults or children, and believes that COVID-19 vaccination is a personal choice.”
- Iowa: A law went effect in July that exempts students in K-12 schools from vaccine requirements until 2029, the Des Moines Register reported.
- Oklahoma: A 2021 law prohibits schools from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine to attend the school. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said Thursday, “Regardless of what the CDC says, as long as I am governor, we will never force kids to get a COVID vaccine to go to school.”
- Montana: A law barring discrimination based on one’s vaccination status applies to all “educational opportunities.”
- Indiana: Public school districts by law are prohibited from requiring students, employees and parents to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
- West Virginia: No state entity can require proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter or utilize services.
- South Carolina: School districts can’t require the COVID-19 vaccine for student attendance. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster told the DCNF that “as long as I am governor, I will never let the federal government – or anyone else – force the COVID-19 vaccine on South Carolina school children.”
- Florida: Educational institutions are prohibited from enacting a COVID-19 mandate.
- Georgia: School districts can’t require the vaccine to receive an education.
- Mississippi: Schools are prohibited from requiring students to get the COVID-19 vaccine to attend.
- Arkansas: Vaccine passports are banned, “including as a condition for education.”
- Arizona: A law bars the COVID-19 vaccine from being required to attend the school.
NIH Investigating Boston University’s COVID-19 Study With ‘80 Percent’ Mortality in Mice
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said it is looking into a preprint study that was carried out at Boston University that created a “chimeric” COVID-19 variant that killed 80 percent of lab mice.
“The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, did not review nor issue awards for experiments described in a pre-print article on SARS-CoV-2 research at Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL),” NIH told news outlets this week.
The statement added that the “NIH is examining the matter to determine whether the research conducted was subject to the NIH Grants Policy Statement or met the criteria for review under the HHS [Health and Human Services] Framework for Guiding Funding Decisions about Proposed Research Involving Enhanced Potential Pandemic Pathogens (HHS P3CO Framework).”
It came after an NIAID official, Emily Erbelding, told Stat News that her agency should have been informed about the research before it was carried out. She claimed that Boston University did not disclose the exact nature of the study when it applied for a grant.
“What we would have wanted to do is to talk about exactly what they wanted to do in advance, and if it met what the P3CO framework defines as enhanced pathogen of pandemic potential, ePPP, we could have put a package forward for review by the committee that’s convened by HHS, the office of the assistant secretary for preparedness and response,” Erbelding told Stat News.
The official said that they are “going to have conversations over upcoming days” about the research.
Just one day after she got a COVID-19 booster shot, Regan Lewis, a 20-year-old nursing student at Colby Community College in Colby, Kansas, had a heart attack.
Her mom, Connie Werth Lewis, desperately asked for prayers for her daughter in a public post on Facebook.
“I can’t say for sure that there is a link, but our beautiful 20 year old healthy daughter … had a [COVID-19 injection] yesterday so she could participate in her clinicals,” Werth Lewis wrote. “Today, she went into cardiac arrest and has been flown to Kearney. She is on a ventilator and is fighting for her life. PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR HER!”
That night, Regan Lewis died.
People Dying in Their Sleep Linked to Vaccines, Explains Dr. Peter McCullough, Cardiologist
At a conference for medical professionals in Sedona, Arizona this past weekend, several speakers–all physicians–commented on a disturbing trend: an increase in otherwise healthy people dying in their sleep.
Sudden unexplained age-inappropriate deaths seem to be happening more than usual, both in the United States, where these medical doctors practice, and in several other countries in the industrialized world.
Excess death “is a phenomenon all over the world at the moment,” said Dr. John Campbell, a nurse educator who has been meticulously following and commenting on the scientific data for his YouTube channel, which has 2.47 million subscribers.
The data shows that “deaths are 16 percent higher than we would expect,” Dr. Campbell said in a recent video, “and the vast majority of these are not COVID deaths.”
Statistics tell part of the story. Unusual deaths making headlines tell another part.
For example, South African actress, Franci Swanepoel, was found dead in her bed on Sunday morning, October 16. She was in the middle of filming a new project. Swanepoel was 50 years old. Her cause of death is not yet known, according to news reports.
Earlier this month, a young dad, Jack Grozier, was also found dead at his home in New Cumnock, Scotland. Just hours before, he had texted his girlfriend to say that he’d talk to her the next morning. Grozier was 23. He leaves behind a one-year-old son, according to the Irish Mirror.
Seventeen-year-old Gwen Casten, whose father is a lawmaker in the state of Illinois, also died in her sleep.
On October 7, 2022, Casten’s family issued a statement on Instagram explaining that their daughter, who had no known health or behavioral problems, died of a heart arrhythmia of an unknown cause.
“She had just come home from an evening with friends, went to bed and didn’t wake up,” the statement read.
95 Percent of Corpses Had Received COVID Vaccination Within 2 Weeks of Death: Funeral Director
A funeral director from New Zealand says that 95 percent of the corpses he has been seeing had received a COVID-19 vaccine within two weeks of their passing away.
“Ninety-five percent of the people who have passed away through the work that I’ve done have been vaccinated within two weeks,” Brenton Faithfull said.
Faithfull has been working as a funeral director for the last 41 years and has been running his own mortuary business for the last 26 years. He recently spoke out about the apparent relationship between the COVID-19 vaccines and the deaths he has been observing.
“It’s very obvious, they die within two weeks of receiving the vaccination, a lot of them … almost appear to have died from anaphylaxis, almost a reaction straight away to the booster.”
Anaphylaxis is an acute reaction of the body to an antigen, such as that of a bee sting, or an injection.
“They die the same day, the following day after receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. This isn’t a one-off case, this is the majority of cases that have come through our facility,” Faithfull said in an interview.
Republicans Vow to Not Mandate COVID-19 Vaccines for School Attendance
Republican governors and gubernatorial hopefuls are promising to prevent COVID-19 vaccine requirements for children to attend school.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moves toward adopting an updated immunization schedule that will include COVID-19 vaccines, Republican governors and candidates say the update won’t lead to mandates in their states.
“As long as I’m around, as long as I’m kicking and screaming, there will be no COVID shot mandate for your kids,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for reelection, said during an unrelated press conference in Lee County. “That is your decision to make as parents.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, also a Republican, said in a video statement that “as long as I’m governor, I will continue to protect your children, and I’ll fight off anyone and the federal government who tries to force the COVID vaccine on our kids.”
“Regardless of what the CDC in Washington says, nothing changes in Oklahoma, and kids are not required to get a COVID vaccine to attend school,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said in a statement. “It’s up to parents to decide how to protect their child from viruses, and as long as I am governor, we will never force kids to get a COVID vaccine to go to school.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, another Republican, wrote on Twitter that he has always opposed mandates:
“Thanks to our work with the General Assembly, TN families won’t be impacted by today’s CDC vote. We’ll continue to stand for TN children & for personal freedom.”
Advisers to the CDC voted on Oct. 20 to recommend including the COVID-19 vaccines on the next version of the child and adolescent immunization schedules, which will be published in early 2023.
Vaccination Poses Higher Risk of Myocarditis Death for All Age Groups: Study
People of all ages are at higher risk of death from heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccination compared with the typical occurrence of myocarditis death, according to a new study.
Researchers in Japan analyzed deaths caused by myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, where the myocarditis set in within 28 days of vaccination. Thirty-eight deaths fit the definition, about half of which were diagnosed by autopsy and or biopsy, with the others being determined through tools such as blood tests and electrocardiogram.
Researchers then took the vaccinated mortality rate and compared it with the death from myocarditis rate from the general population before the pandemic, in the years 2017 to 2019.
“Using the disclosed data by the Japanese government, we observed increased myocarditis mortality rate ratio in the SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated population compared with general population during three years pre-COVID-19 pandemic era, especially in young adults,” the researchers, Dr. Sintaroo Watanabe of the Japan Marine United Corporation and Dr. Rokuro Hama of the Japan Institute of Pharmacovigilance, said. SARS-CoV-2 is a name for the virus that causes COVID-19.
“However, not only in young adults, but also in the middle aged (40s) and in the elderly and overall vaccinated, increased risk of myocarditis death is associated with vaccination even without consideration of healthy vaccinee effect,” the researchers added.
The “healthy vaccinee effect” refers to how vaccines are sometimes not given to people with poor health, a factor that can skew study results in favor of vaccination.
CANCEL CULTURE
Judge Orders Fauci, Psaki, Top Officials Be Deposed in Big Tech Censorship Case
A federal court ordered on Oct. 21 that Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top officials testify under oath at depositions in a case that has uncovered evidence of alleged federal government collusion with Big Tech companies to censor users.
The attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri and other plaintiffs allege that Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, and other defendants colluded and coerced social media companies to “suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content” regarding COVID-19.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty went a step further than a previous ruling that forced written testimonies and ordered Fauci and other defendants to testify under oath at depositions.
“After finding documentation of a collusive relationship between the Biden Administration and social media companies to censor free speech, we immediately filed a motion to get these officials under oath,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a statement.
“It is high time we shine a light on this censorship enterprise and force these officials to come clean to the American people, and this ruling will allow us to do just that. We’ll keep pressing for the truth.”
California Judge Refuses to Force Christian Baker to Make Wedding Cake Celebrating Same-Sex Marriage
A Christian baker in California has prevailed in a lawsuit that a lesbian couple filed against her for refusing to bake a wedding cake to celebrate their marriage on religious grounds.
The left has been targeting Christian bakers for years for political purposes, asking religious bakers that are opposed to same-sex marriage to bake wedding cakes for gay marriages knowing that they’ll be met with resistance. When the bakers refuse to make the cakes, these activists sue under anti-discrimination laws, hoping to secure favorable legal precedents.
In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), the Supreme Court sided with a Christian baker whom a gay couple had asked to create a custom cake to celebrate their union. A state human rights commission violated Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips’s First Amendment right to free exercise of religion by ruling against him, the court found. The high court will hear a similar case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, on Dec. 5.
The new ruling (pdf) by Judge Eric Bradshaw of the Superior Court of California in Kern County came on Oct. 21 in Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) v. Cathy’s Creations Inc.
GOOD NEWS
Masters of Destiny: Working Multiple Jobs Is About More Than Money
The American dream—that hard work is rewarded with a better life—is still alive. It beats in the hearts of the millions who juggle multiple jobs for multiple reasons. People like Tiffany Toscano of Benton County, Minnesota, 29, who has been working multiple jobs since 2016 when a suicide made her a single mother and she suddenly had to show more income to qualify for an apartment lease.
She is one of the 4.3 million Americans who worked a full and part-time job in September, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED). The number of folks with multiple jobs has been increasing since April 2020, when COVID-19 shutdowns were implemented.
The number of people with two full-time jobs historically, according to FRED, peaked in August 2022, at 440,000 U.S. workers.
Toscano has three jobs: She is a full-time service adviser at a small automotive repair shop, a part-time school janitor, and she has a commercial and residential cleaning business.
“It takes lots of scheduling and planning, and then lots of flexibility and grace from everyone else in my life,” Toscano told The Epoch Times.
ICYMI
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