Saturday, November 19, 2022

Safe and Effective: A Second Opinion



Via Mercola Story at-a-glance Government, Big Tech companies and the media only added to the scandal by suppressing free speech and open debate about the safety and effectiveness of the shots In November 2020, Pfizer claimed their COVID-19 shot was 95% effective against COVID-19, but this was highl

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[WOW. JUST WOW.] "Lockdown Wasn’t Imposed to Protect the World from a New Virus but Because the Real Economy Had to Be Shut Down"

Then, on 17 January 2020, when total deaths worldwide attributed to Covid-19 numbered just 6, the World Health Organisation adopted the protocols for detecting and identifying SARS-CoV-2 set out in the Corman-Drosten paper, ‘Diagnostic detection of 2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR’. Among its numerous flaws, this protocol set RT-PCR tests at 45 cycles, with ‘confirmed positives’ at 40 (1,099,511,627,776 cycles of thermal amplification), far higher than the 28 (16,777,216 cycles) at which infectious virus can be detected. At a stroke, this set the template for how to turn a virus with the infection fatality rate of seasonal influenza into a global pandemic.

On 11 March 2020, with the global apparatus in place, the World Health Organisation partnered with the World Economic Forum to launch the ‘Covid-19 Action Platform’, a coalition of the world’s most powerful businesses that, within two months, numbered over 1,100 companies, banks and other financial institutions. On the same day, the World Health Organisation, ignoring its own previous definitions and criteria, declared SARS-CoV-2 to be a ‘pandemic’, and lockdowns were imposed across the neoliberal democracies of Western capitalism.

Finally, on 15 March 2020, under the cloak of the manufactured ‘crisis’, the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates to 0.25 per cent, eliminated the reserve requirement, relaxed the capital requirement, and offered discount loans of up 90 days to its preferred banks (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Nomura, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Citibank, etc.), which were renewed on a daily basis and continuously rolled over. Allegedly made available to meet demands for credit from households and businesses under lockdown, in practice no obligations were attached to make this effectively interest-free money available to the public through, for example, loans to small businesses, reducing credit-card rates for households or suspending payment plans on mortgages. By July 2020, the cumulative value of these loans was $11.23 trillion.

That’s where most of us came in. But what most of us didn’t know was that the Great Reset of the global financial system supposedly justified and even necessitated by the ‘pandemic’ was initiated 6 months before it was officially declared, and not in response to a virus.

German Public TV Compares Elon Musk To Goebbels

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German Public TV Compares Elon Musk To Goebbels

Authored by Robert Kogon via The Brownstone Institute,

After Germany’s “first” public television network, ARD, compared Elon Musk reducing Twitter censorship to “letting rats out of their holes,” Germany’s “second” public television network, ZDF, has now compared Musk to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels! (The network’s name Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen literally means “Second German Television.”)

Thus, last Friday, ZDF’s would-be comedy program, the “Heute Show,” posted the below tweet and photoshop.

The Tweet reads: “Thanks to Elon Musk, you’re allowed to say anything again on Twitter! Total freedom of speech! #heuteshow.” The caption, whose color scheme and font invoke Nazi-era propaganda, reads “Do you want total tweet?”

It is an allusion to Goebbels’s 1943 speech at the Berlin Sportspalast, in which the Nazi Minister of Propaganda famously shouted, “Do you want total war?” – in response to which audience members leapt to their feet shouting “Yes!” and raising their arms in the Hitler-salute.

The background image appears to show a Nazi Party rally with the swastikas replaced by the Twitter bird logo. Two smaller swastikas are still visible in the lower left-hand corner of the full-size image.

Leaving aside the extreme mental contortionism required to associate freedom of speech with Nazi Germany, if ever there was a don’t-throw-stones-in-glass-houses moment, this was it. For, as so happens, during the Second World War, the founding director of ZDF, Karl Holzamer, himself served in one of the propaganda units that none other than Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda embedded with the different divisions of the Germany military. 

Holzamer served in a propaganda unit of the Luftwaffe or German air force. As noted in a 2012 article titled “Goebbels’s Soldiers” in the German daily Die Frankfurter Rundschau, Holzamer was embedded with the Luftwaffe during its April 1941 bombing of Belgrade and was “the first” to report on the German subjugation of the Yugoslav capital.

The online Lexikon der Wehrmacht, which also notes Holzamer’s service in the propaganda troops, cites Goebbels himself, who explained that “the Wehrmacht’s propaganda troops ensure the coordination between propaganda warfare and armed warfare in the theater of operations.”

As touched upon in my previous post here, Germany has been leading the global push for online censorship in recent years: notably, in the name of “combatting misinformation.” It is thus ironic that one of the explicit tasks of the propaganda troops in which Holzamer served was precisely to spread misinformation. According to the Lexikon der Wehrmacht, these tasks included: “war reporting…, combat propaganda (influencing the enemy)…, combatting enemy propaganda, camouflaging [German forces’] own operations by using targeted misinformation.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 11/19/2022 - 08:10

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Friday, November 18, 2022

[Google blocked this post] "Election Denial" for Me, But Not for Thee: YouTube Censors TK-Produced Videos, Again, Despite Factual Accuracy

In late September videographer Matt Orfalea made a pair of videos for TK. One, Memory Holed: “The Election Was Hacked,” seen above, was a simple montage of Democratic politicians, media officials, and enforcement officials saying the 2016 election was, among other things, “illegitimate,” “rigged,” “hacked,” and a “cyber 9/11.”

The second, Memory Holed, Part II: The “Rigged” Election, was a similar exercise, with one exception: it compared the post-2020 statements of Donald Trump to the post-2016 statements of Democratic partisans. When Trump tells Chris Wallace, “I have to see,” when asked if he’d concede an election, Orfalea shows Hillary Clinton saying, “No, I would not,” when asked in 2017 — after her loss — if she’d contest the results. He shows Trump later saying he’ll of course respect the results, “if I win,” and Hillary Clinton saying Joe Biden should not concede “under any circumstances,” essentially exact analogs.


YouTube’s letter complaining about lack of “EDSA”
YouTube initially tried to demonetize both videos. After a fuss they reversed the decision about the first. Now they’ve taken a more drastic step, not only deleting the second video but two earlier rough-cut versions that were never even shown to the public but lived on his site. (This is another mad feature of the content moderation era: you can be censored and punished for pre-publication thinking). They also gave Orfalea a strike, leaving him two away from being removed from the site, which would essentially put him out of business.


[Google blocked this post] Mother’s Vaccination Status EXCLUDED From Neonatal Death Investigation

Scotland witnessed an unprecedented and unnatural spike is neonatal death reported between September 2021 and March 2022 . According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), neonatal death is defined as “the death of a live born infant, regardless of gestational age at birth, within the first 28 completed days of life.”

Nurse speaking out about babies. pic.twitter.com/Chcht5ZLsz

In May of 2022, the BBC reported that Scotland saw a total of 18 neonatal deaths in March of 2022, which averaged out to 4.6 deaths per 1,000. The BBC also reported that this alarm was first sounded in September of 2021 when the spike reached 4.9 deaths per 1,000. This was an increase from 2.1 deaths per 1,000 in 2020...

Despite this, the investigation being launched in Scotland is deliberately excluding the mother’s vaccination status from the data set. The study will not take into consideration whether or not the mother had received one or more COVID-19 injections in these cases of neonatal death.

[Google blocked this post] UPDATE : Far Left Brazilian Supreme Court Orders Banks to Seize Assets from Millions of Protesters Participating in Mass Democracy Rallies : PROTESTERS STAND STRONG!

This is how it’s done: Over 3 million Brazilians filled the streets on Republic Day yesterday, Nov. 15, to protest the stolen elections.

The party of President Jair Bolsonaro presented its report and announced it will apply to have the election annulled since the results could not be validated.

Since the massive fraud during the runoff election on October 30th in Brazil, millions of Brazilians have been protesting on the streets every day against electoral fraud by Communist convicted criminal Luiz InĂ¡cio Lula da Silva.

Mainstream media such as O Globo refuse to report on what may be the largest protests the world has ever seen, fueling even more rage and disappointment among the Brazilian people.

[Giggles blocked this post] Supreme Court to hear challenge against Section 230 protections for "publisher" vs. "platform"

(Natural News) There is a case moving through the courts right now that seeks to decide, once and for all, which entities qualify for protection under 47 USC Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).

Gonzalez v. Google addresses the years-long debate over whether social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter become publishers the moment they start censoring content. It would seem as though active content moderation negates platform status and turns an entity into a publisher that is no longer protected under Section 230.

[Google blocked this post] Australia sees 63% drop in births after introduction of covid "vaccines" – what will the government's excuse be?

(Natural News) New data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that ever since Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccines” were launched, the birth rate Down Under has plunged by an astounding 63 percent.

From October to November in 2021, there was a 21 percent decrease in births compared to the average over a 10-year period. From November to December 2021, just one month later, there was a 63 percent decrease in births.

New G20 Agenda 2030 Document calls for Global Vaccine Passports

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G-20 leaders have adopted a joint declaration calling for the establishment of “global digital health networks” that build on existing digital COVID-19 vaccine passports. This document tracks the progress and status of active G20 development commitments.

Why is Nature Praising the Use of Propaganda During the Pandemic and Calling for More?

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Throughout the Covid era, those expressing views at odds with the dominant narrative were often subjected to unprecedented levels of censorship and psychological manipulation.

Elon Musk Pledges To “Deboost” Tweets Deemed Hateful Or Negative, Has Yet To Reinstate Trump

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Last Updated on November 18, 2022

Twitter CEO Elon Musk pledged the social media platform will “deboost” or seemingly shadowban any “negative/hate tweets.”

Additionally, Musk announced the Twitter accounts of Conservative influencer Jordan Peterson and The Babylon Bee, a right-wing media outlet, have been restored.

“Trump decision has not yet been made,” Musk noted, refusing to allow the 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump back on Twitter.

Musk’s admission of shadowbanning and censoring of tweets infuriated social media users.

“What constitutes hate? If I say “men aren’t women” would that get deboosted and demonetized? What if I used slurs in the context of a story in the public interest? Will we have transparency on deboosting?” @NuanceBro, a political commentator questioned.

Justin Amash, a former Michigan congressman, suggested Musk may not be a true advocate for free speech and the First Amendment.

RELATED: Elon Musk Grovels to the ADL, Will Enforce Their Censorship Agenda at Twitter

“It’s your company, so you’re free to enact any policy you like. But free speech includes speech that challenges and sometimes offends others. That’s how people grow. Making “negative” tweets harder to find hurts this process, and there’s no way this policy can be applied evenly,” Amash posted.

One Twitter user equated Twitter to a “partisan echo chamber” for not reinstating Trump, citing qualities the 45th president possesses.

“1. Trump was president of the United States.
2. He’s the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate.
3. He has never, to my knowledge, been convicted of any crime.
4. I don’t see how you can credibly call Twitter anything but a partisan echo chamber if you fail to reinstate him.”

1. Trump was president of the United States.

2. He's the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate.

3. He has never, to my knowledge, been convicted of any crime.

4. I don't see how you can credibly call Twitter anything but a partisan echo chamber if you fail to reinstate him.

— Lifelong Liminalist (@DriskillDanny) November 18, 2022

Allie Beth Stuckey, a rightwing influencer, questioned how Musk’s policy on deboosting tweets differs from previous policy.

“Ok how is this any different than the previous policy? People’s tweets suppressed because a biased rando at twitter thinks a tweet is mean or mad?” Stuckey commented.

National File previously reported on Musk’s intentions to continue Twitter’s censorship:

Elon Musk has announced that he’s groveling to the far-left ADL after they publicly warned him of the “dire consequences” he’d be faced with if he opened Twitter up to free speech and the free exchange of ideas.

Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, announced that he will continue enforcing Twitter’s censorship policies surrounding “hate” and “election integrity” at the behest of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), NAACP, and even the Bush family’s political machine.

“Talked to civil society leaders,” like Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, and Derrick Johnson, the CEO of the NAACP, Musk explained in a tweet.

“Twitter will continue to combat hate & harasssment & enforce its election integrity policies,” Musk announced, flipping the script on what millions of Twitter users believed was a free speech takeover of the Big Tech platform.

READ MORE: Elon Musk Grovels to the ADL, Will Enforce Their Censorship Agenda at Twitter

Stay tuned to National File for any updates.



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BREAKING: Dozens of Documents Linked to Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Associates will be Unsealed After Judge Rules Public Interest Trumps Privacy

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Dozens of documents connected to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s associates will be released to the general public following a judge’s ruling on Friday that the public interest overrides the right to privacy, Daily Mail reported.

This morning Judge Loretta Preska (in the civil suit of Giufre v. Maxwell) ordered the unsealing of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents.  Judge Preska is a senior judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

This latest ruling came in response to efforts by eight (8) “John/Jane Doe” third parties who petitioned the Court, demanding that scores of records be sealed and kept from the public to preserve the “Does'” reputations.

Judge Preska ruled that the documents pertaining to eight people could be released, despite objections from the “Does,” one of which was apparently unmasked in the hearing as Tom Pritzker, billionaire executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels.  Lawyers for Pritzker had argued that unsealing the records would “wrongfully affect (his) privacy and reputation.”

Dozens of documents relating to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s associates will be UNSEALED https://t.co/2LY3g8hWUL pic.twitter.com/QN2GKqDr9U

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) November 18, 2022

Daily Mail reported:

Among those whose names are mentioned in the documents are Emmy Tayler, Ghislaine Maxwell‘s former personal assistant, who was accused of taking part in the sexual abuse of minors.

The Gateway Pundit joined the court hearing earlier this morning.

At the end of July, The Gateway Pundit reported on our legal efforts to unseal the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex clients – the men and women with whom Epstein traded sex with minors for favors or money or both.

TGP Lead Counsel Marc Randazza of the Randazza Legal Group and TGP General Counsel John Burns moved to intervene in the Ghislaine Maxwell case in the Southern District of New York.

However, something truly bizarre and unexpected happened.

An anonymous John Doe – literally styled by his lawyer as “John Doe” – filed an objection to TGP unsealing the sex client list … and the Court SIDED WITH THE JOHN DOE over the interests of the press and public to know what happens in one of the most remarkable court cases in US history.

We now know there are at least sixteen (16) “John / Jane Does.”

Today Judge Loretta Preska announced that the majority of material concerning eight of the “Does” should be unsealed despite objections relating to privacy and reputation.

PLEASE SUPPORT GATEWAY PUNDIT’S APPEAL TO THE SECOND CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, ASKING THE COURT TO UNSEAL THE EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST AND RELATED RECORDS!

 

The post BREAKING: Dozens of Documents Linked to Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s Associates will be Unsealed After Judge Rules Public Interest Trumps Privacy appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.



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Without Easy Money, The Tech Sector Faces Hard Times

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Without Easy Money, The Tech Sector Faces Hard Times

Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

The tech sector in the US has benefited from more than a decade of ultra-low interest rates and easy money. But now it looks like the easy-money era may be ending—at least for now—and that means problems for the sector so long wedded to cheap loans.

Just a year ago, the ten-year treasury's yield was 1.4 percent. This month, however, the 10-year's yield is up to over 3.6 percent, and throughout the economy, debtors are finding that debt service isn't nearly as cheap as it used to be.  Employers in the tech sector are responding as one might expect. Meta/Facebook has announced 11,000 layoffs. Amazon will soon lay off 10,000 employees. Twitter has laid off at least 3,700 employees. Stripe, Microsoft, and Snap have each laid off about a thousand workers. Salesforce and Zillow have laid off hundreds. Dozens of other firms have slowed or frozen hiring.

Thanks to rising debt costs, employers need to cut costs, but many employers will soon be facing declining revenues as well. Given that a multitude of indicators point toward an approaching recession—the yield curve is now the most inverted it's been since 1982—this is likely just the beginning.

What we're witnessing is the end of the latest tech bubble, and what seemed like rock-solid companies set to expand effortlessly forever will suddenly be characterized more by cost-cutting, falling revenues, and a hard slog in search of more capital. 

The end of easy money will also separate the real innovators and entrepreneurs - people who build real value - from the big-talking frauds who only look smart or productive when they can just borrow more cheap money to kick the can of their failing and stagnating ventures down the road. 

Unless the central bank and governments intervene to provide bailouts and backstops, the industry will face a much-needed reckoning. This will help clear out more than a decade of malinvestments and bubbles propping up top heavy and inefficient companies that could never survive without the artificially cheap credit provided by asset purchases and ultra-low-interest rate policy at the central bank. 

Rising Interest Rates, Falling Valuations

Until very recently, interest rates had been declining for decades in the United States, and that has meant companies, at any given time, have generally been able to bank on cheaper debt not too far down the road. This has increased companies' valuations, and has made it easier for companies to find investors. 

Even for companies that never—or almost never—turn a profit, cheap money has meant that the day of reckoning can simply be pushed further into the future. In many cases, we call these zombie companies: they don't have real value, but they can stay "alive" by paying off older, more expensive debt with new cheaper debt. 

But, things are very different when easy money starts to get scarce. As Ryan Browne at CNBC recently noted:

Higher rates spell challenges for much of the market, but they represent a notable setback for tech firms that are losing money. Investors value companies based on the present value of future cash flow, and higher rates reduce the amount of that expected cash flow.

As a result,

Venture deal activity has been declining ... Not all companies will make it through the looming economic crisis — some will fail, according to Par-Jorgen Parson, partner at VC firm Northzone. “We will see spectacular failures” of some highly valued unicorn companies in the months ahead, he told CNBC. ...

The years 2020 and 2021 saw eye-watering sums slosh around equities as investors took advantage of ample liquidity in the market. Tech was a key beneficiary thanks to societal shifts brought about by Covid-19, like working from home and increased digital adoption. ... In a time when monetary stimulus is unwinding, those business models have been tested.

Part of the reason investors are now less interested in "unicorns" is that as interest rates rise, investors are less desperate to search out yield even in the most unproven and risky corners of the economy. For example, when government debt and other low-risk investments are paying next-to-zero yields, investors will be much more aggressive about finding riskier investments that pay at least something above zero. That includes high-risk trendy unicorn companies that promise big returns. But, as Treasurys and similar investments begin to promise higher yields—as they are doing now—there's less pressure to dump money in whatever flavor of the month is being put forward as the next big thing for investors. Moreover, in times of easy money, investors have more cash to throw around. 

Once the cheap money regime ends, however, newly reticent investors become more interested in actually analyzing the fundamentals of firms seeking investors. That means firms will have to actually show they're efficient and only hiring employees who actually create value. 

Easy Money Enables More Waste

For many top-heavy companies, that means layoffs. It's why Meta's Mark Zuckerberg recently complained that "realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here." Zuckerberg went on to say he would deliberately be "turning up the heat" for employees in the hopes that the less committed would simply quit. (Meta shares are down more than 50 percent this year, and Meta has lost revenues as Zuckerberg's obsession with the metaverse has not been especially popular with consumers.)

Elon Musk has been in the midst of something similar at Twitter, firing thousands of employees, and demanding that those who remains be prepared to work long hours.  While Twitter employees and ex-Twitter employees have been whining continually online about how everything was wonderful at Twitter until Musk showed up, the reality is that Twitter has only ever had two profitable years (2018 and 2019) and is neither efficient nor innovative. 

Moreover, it's certainly not difficult to see why Zuckerberg and Musk would want to trim the fat if recent videos about "a day in the life" at Meta and Twitter are true. The two now-notorious videos show young female employees walking around Meta and Twitter offices showcasing how little work they do and how opulent the office perks are. Perks apparently include complementary gourmet food, red wine on tap, and free cappuccinos. Last May, Project Veritas reporters captured a Twitter senior engineer bragging about how little he works

"[B]asically went to work, like, four hours a week last quarter. And that's just how it works in our company. ... [E]ssentially, like, everyone gets to do whatever they want, no one really cares about, like, [operating expenses]." 

The engineer contrasts this approach at Twitter with "capitalists" who "care about numbers or care about how to make the business more efficient."

If true, it's all a perfect illustration of how the age of cheap credit has made it possible for companies to be highly valued even in the midst of senior employees who are essentially dead weight.  As debt costs rise, labor costs must fall in many cases. That makes employees who work a few hours a day ripe for trimming. 

These companies are probably looking at more hits from the revenue side as well. David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery this week warned that the advertising market is worse now than at any time during the pandemic slowdown of 2020

Yet again, we find that as borrowing costs rise, companies have less money to spend elsewhere. Advertisers have reduced spending, and this has meant hits to the valuation of media companies like Warner Bros. Discovery. This extends to social media companies as well. 

Years of Malinvestment

The story of the last decade has in many cases been rising valuations for companies that often lose money, hire employees who barely work, and simply rake in the cash that yield-starved investors throw at them. 

In other words, much of the tech sector has all the markings of a classic bubble and the effects of years of malinvestment. The lucky business owners and employees on the receiving end of malinvestment get to live high on the hog of cheap money with rising wages, luxurious offices, and never ending "growth." Workers and owners alike can then pat themselves on the back about how brilliant they all are. But much of it is an illusion and its existence depends largely on many years of central bank interventions designed to force down interest rates, prop up asset prices, and essentially print money to keep liquidity flowing unceasingly to firms via investors.  Yet, when price inflation finally forces the central bank to allow interest rates to rise again—as is now happening—the music stops, and it seems all the brilliant geniuses running tech companies weren't quite so efficient, profitable, or clever after all.

Tyler Durden Fri, 11/18/2022 - 14:45

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Wealthier Shoppers Flocking To Walmart As Inflation Bites

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Wealthier Shoppers Flocking To Walmart As Inflation Bites

Authored by Michael Maharrey via SchiffGold.com,

Walmart recently announced better-than-expected third-quarter sales growth. This may seem like great economic news until you realize the reason behind the retailer’s big jump in sales.

As it turns out, wealthier shoppers are flocking to Walmart to make ends meet as rising prices squeeze pocketbooks.

In its earnings report, Walmart said it is making “strong grocery share gains, including from high-income households.”

“Customers who came to us less frequently in the past are now shopping with us more often, including high-income customers,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said on a Tuesday call with investors and analysts.

Why are more affluent people shopping at Walmart? In a recent podcast, Peter Schiff said it was out of necessity.

It’s because they can’t afford to shop at the more expensive, fancier markets that they used to go to because prices are up so much, in order to put food on their tables, they’re having to trade down and buy cheaper stuff at Walmart.”

Walmart also reported strong growth in its private-brand sales, a sign shoppers are abandoning more expensive name brands and turning to lower-priced generic alternatives.

According to CNN, other discount supermarkets, along with Dollar General, reported gaining new, wealthier customers trying to manage budgets during these inflationary times.

While the CPI came in lower than expected in October, food prices continue to rise. The price of food at home increased by 0.6% month-on-month. Food at restaurants was up 0.9% on the month. Annualized, food prices were up nearly 11% in October.

Pundits and analysts like to look at core inflation, stripping out more volatile food and energy prices to gauge inflation, but consumers don’t have that luxury. They can’t just cut food out of their budgets, and Americans are struggling to cope.

Increased spending on food is forcing consumers to cut in other areas. Walmart’s third-quarter report hints at this. While grocery sales increased in the “mid-teens” last quarter, the company reported “softness in discretionary categories including electronics, home, and apparel.”

Wages are rising, but they aren’t keeping up with prices. On an annual basis, real average hourly earnings decreased by 3.0% from September 2021 to September 2022 (seasonally adjusted). It was the 18th consecutive month of declining real wages on an annual basis.

Tight budgets aren’t just altering shopping behavior. It is also forcing people to dig deeper and deeper into debt. Household debt increased at the fastest pace in 15 years during Q3, as American consumers ran up their Mastercards and Visas month after month. Credit card balances surged by 15% year-on-year in Q3, increasing by $38 billion between July and September. That was the biggest annual increase in credit card debt in more than two decades. Rising credit card debt coupled with increasing mortgage costs pushed overall household debt higher.

Economists and pundits talk about inflation as an academic exercise. They rarely reflect on the fact that rising prices have real impacts on real people. After months of rising prices, even wealthier Americans are feeling the pain. And if you happen to be somebody living on a fixed income or savings, you’re really screwed as inflation is rapidly eating away your purchasing power and your income streams aren’t increasing at all. Inflation always causes the most pain for the poor and elderly.

Tyler Durden Fri, 11/18/2022 - 15:20

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Thursday, November 17, 2022

Jim Jordan Says House Republicans Will Expose Biden’s Corrupt DOJ/FBI’s Involvement in Covering Up Hunter Biden’s Laptop From Hell (VIDEO)

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Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Thursday delivered remarks as Republicans announced an investigation into Joe Biden’s international money laundering operation. House Oversight Republicans on Thursday launched an investigation into Joe Biden and the Biden crime family.

"This Is Unprecedented": Enron Liquidator Overseeing FTX Bankruptcy Speechless: "I Have Never Seen Anything Like This"

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A few days ago we asked how much longer do we have to wait for the "first-day affidavit" in the FTX bankruptcy, traditionally the most detailed and comprehensive summary of how any given company collapsed into Chapter 11 (and in FTX's case, Chapter 7 soon, as this will soon become a full-blown liqui

1 in 5 Young Adults Dies From Excessive Alcohol Consumption

Deaths attributed to excessive alcohol consumption in the U.S. are trending upward. Between 2015 and 2019, 1 in 5 deaths (20.3%) in the 20- to 49-year age group was related to excessive alcohol intake. The percentage of men dying from excess alcohol consumption (15%) was higher than that of women (9.4%), but both are on the rise

Common types of alcohol-related deaths include alcohol poisoning, motor vehicle accidents, suicides, falls and alcohol-related liver disease or pancreas failure

Other data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest the rate of deaths directly attributed to alcohol rose by more than 25% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when many were self-isolating and working from home. The trend continued into 2021, by then up 34% from prepandemic levels

Researchers have established a clear link between isolation, loneliness and alcohol abuse and addiction so, clearly, health officials did not have public health in mind when they declared liquor stores to be an “essential business” during the pandemic, while churches, gyms and even parks and beaches were shut down

Two alcoholic drinks per day or less for men and one drink or less for women is considered “moderate” consumption. Binge drinking is defined as having five or more alcoholic drinks on a single occasion for men, or four or more for women. A “drink” is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1.5 ounces of hard liquor

48,817 DEAD and 5,107,883 Injured Following COVID-19 Vaccines in European Database of Adverse Reactions

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The European (EEA and non-EEA countries) database of suspected drug reaction reports is EudraVigilance, verified by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and they are now reporting 48,817 fatalities, and 5,107,883 injuries following injections of four experimental COVID-19 shots:

[Does this mean every grocery store and pharmacy offering the shots can be sued when the truth comes out?] A Doctor Is Facing $500 Billion In Fines For Promoting Vitamin D3 & Zinc During The Scamdemic

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A St. Louis-based chiropractor, Dr. Eric Nepute is facing federal fines of about half a trillion dollars for allegedly profiting from sales of vitamin D3 and zinc supplements during the “pandemic.”

The 27-page complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April 2021 accused Dr. Nepute of profiting from the sales of supplements during the COVID-19 scamdemic. He sold vitamin D3 and zinc supplements, which have been proven to address COVID-19 infection, under the Wellness Warrior brand.

At the same time supplements are being discouraged, excessive deaths following the mRNA injections are ongoing and those who made said injections will not be held liable for any damages done.

Big Pharma Will Not Be Responsible For COVID-19 Side Effects Caused By Vaccines

“Starting no later than June 2020, [Nepute] began advertising a protocol that customers should follow to protect against, prevent or treat COVID-19. This protocol, which has varied over time, advises consumers to take [daily] substantial quantities of emulsified vitamin D3 and zinc,” the complaint stated. “No published studies prove vitamin D protects against, treats or prevents COVID-19.”

The complaint added that Nepute’s “lack of factual or scientific bases for these claims [are] frequently accompanied by equally unsupported assertions regarding applicable science. In short, (the) defendants are selling their products by disseminating information, exploiting fears [amid] a pandemic and posting a significant risk to public health and safety.”

When has that happened? Oh, we remember:

Cruise Ships Exposed Coronavirus Fearmongering Deception in 2020 and Expose Coronavirus Vaccine Efficacy Deception Now

MSM Is Really Turning Up The Propaganda: Vaccinated Dying From COVID Means Vaccines Work!

“The federal government is suing me for half a trillion dollars … for telling people to take vitamins,” said Nepute, who hosts “Real Talk with Dr. Eric Nepute” on Brighteon.TV. “The only reason they’re coming after me – and they said this – is because I’m the first doctor they went after and they want to set a precedent. They said they wouldn’t stop until they had ‘blood on their sword.’ That’s literally from the FTC’s mouth.’

Lawyers for Nepute have already filed a motion to dismiss the government’s case on summary judgment, including more than 10 million alleged violations of the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act of 2020 and more than 12 million violations of the FTC Act. Each alleged violation carries a maximum civil penalty of $43,792 – which amounts to a total of more than $500 billion. This penalty, according to the chiropractor’s lawyers, exceeds “the gross domestic product of Austria, Nigeria, and all but 25 nations.” -Natural News

Nepute remarked that the FTC is pushing the case “because it’s political.” He added: “I’ve spent $3.5 million defending myself. The only tactic they have is to drag this out, so I can’t afford to take it to trial.”



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Google is sued for auto-installing Covid “spyware” on people’s phones

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(by Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net) – A class action lawsuit has been filed against the US state of Massachusetts for what the plaintiffs claim is a case of covert mass surveillance carried out via “Covid spyware” installed on over one million phones. The complaint asks for declaratory and injunctive relief (a bid to legally compel the defendants to fulfill their mandatory duties) and nominative damages, and was filed on November 14, 2022, by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) non-profit. We obtained a copy of the complaint for you here. It names the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) […]

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Millions Suffer as Junk Food Industry Rakes in Profit

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Guest Post by Colin Todhunter

Increased consumption of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) was associated with more than 10% of all-cause premature, preventable deaths in Brazil in 2019. That is the finding of a new peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The findings are significant not only for Brazil but also for high income countries such as the U S, Canada, the UK, and Australia, where UPFs account for more than half of total calorific intake.

Brazilians consume far less of these products than countries with high incomes. This means the estimated impact would be even higher in richer nations.

UPFs are ready-to-eat-or-heat industrial formulations made with ingredients extracted from foods or synthesised in laboratories. These have gradually been replacing traditional foods and meals made from fresh and minimally processed ingredients in many countries.

The study found that approximately 57,000 deaths in one year could be attributed to the consumption of UPFs – 10.5% of all premature deaths and 21.8% of all deaths from preventable noncommunicable diseases in adults aged 30 to 69.

The study’s lead investigator Eduardo AF Nilson states:

To our knowledge, no study to date has estimated the potential impact of UPFs on premature deaths.”

Across all age groups and sex strata, consumption of UPFs ranged from 13% to 21% of total food intake in Brazil during the period studied.

UPFs have steadily replaced the consumption of traditional whole foods, such as rice and beans, in Brazil.

Reducing consumption of UPFs by 10% to 50% could potentially prevent approximately 5,900 to 29,300 premature deaths in Brazil each year. Based on this, hundreds of thousands of premature deaths could be prevented globally annually. And many millions more could be prevented from acquiring long-term, debiltating conditions.

Nilson adds:

Consumption of UPFs is associated with many disease outcomes, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some cancers and other diseases, and it represents a significant cause of preventable and premature deaths among Brazilian adults.”

Examples of UPFs are prepackaged soups, sauces, frozen pizza, ready-to-eat meals, hot dogs, sausages, sodas, ice cream, and store-bought cookies, cakes, candies and doughnuts.

And yet, due to trade deals, government support and WTO influence, transnational food retail and food processing companies continue to colonise markets around the world and push UPFs.

In Mexico, for instance, these companies have taken over food distribution channels, replacing local foods with cheap processed items, often with the direct support of the government. Free trade and investment agreements have been critical to this process and the consequences for public health have been catastrophic.

Mexico’s National Institute for Public Health released the results of a national survey of food security and nutrition in 2012. Between 1988 and 2012, the proportion of overweight women between the ages of 20 and 49 increased from 25 to 35% and the number of obese women in this age group increased from 9 to 37%. Some 29% of Mexican children between the ages of 5 and 11 were found to be overweight, as were 35% of the youngsters between 11 and 19, while one in ten school age children experienced anaemia.

The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) led to the direct investment in food processing and a change in Mexico’s retail structure (towards supermarkets and convenience stores) as well as the emergence of global agribusiness and transnational food companies in the country.

NAFTA eliminated rules preventing foreign investors from owning more than 49% of a company. It also prohibited minimum amounts of domestic content in production and increased rights for foreign investors to retain profits and returns from initial investments.

By 1999, US companies had invested 5.3 billion dollars in Mexico’s food processing industry, a 25-fold increase in just 12 years.

US food corporations began to colonise the dominant food distribution networks of small-scale vendors, known as tiendas (corner shops). This helped spread nutritionally poor food as they allowed these corporations to sell and promote their foods to poorer populations in small towns and communities. By 2012, retail chains had displaced tiendas as Mexico’s main source of food sales.

A spoonful of deceit

Turning to Europe, more than half the population of the European Union (EU) is overweight or obese. Without effective action, this number will grow substantially by 2026.

That warning was issued in 2016 and was based on the report A Spoonful of Sugar: How the Food Lobby Fights Sugar Regulation in the EU by the research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO).

CEO noted that obesity rates were rising fastest among lowest socio-economic groups. That is because energy-dense foods of poor nutritional value are cheaper than more nutritious foods, such as vegetables and fruit, and relatively poor families with children purchase food primarily to satisfy their hunger.

The report argued that more people than ever before are eating processed foods as a large part of their diet. And the easiest way to make industrial, processed food cheap, long-lasting and enhance the taste is to add extra sugar as well as salt and fat to products.

In the United Kingdom, the cost of obesity was estimated at £27 billion per year in 2016, and approximately 7% of national health spending in EU member states as a whole is due to obesity in adults.

The food industry has vigorously mobilised to stop vital public health legislation in this area by pushing free trade agreements and deregulation drives, exercising undue influence over regulatory bodies, capturing scientific expertise, championing weak voluntary schemes and outmaneuvering consumer groups by spending billions on aggressive lobbying.

The leverage which food industry giants have over EU decision-making has helped the sugar lobby to see off many of the threats to its profit margins.

CEO argued that key trade associations, companies and lobby groups related to sugary food and drinks together spend an estimated €21.3 million (2016) annually to lobby the EU.

While industry-funded studies influence European Food Standards Authority decisions, Coca Cola, Nestlé and other food giants engage in corporate propaganda by sponsoring sporting events and major exercise programmes to divert attention from the impacts of their products and give the false impression that exercise and lifestyle choices are the major factors in preventing poor health.

Katharine Ainger, freelance journalist and co-author of CEO’s report, said:

Sound scientific advice is being sidelined by the billions of euros backing the sugar lobby. In its dishonesty and its disregard for people’s health, the food and drink industry rivals the tactics we’ve seen from the tobacco lobby for decades.”

ILSI industry front group

One of the best known industry front groups with global influence is what a September 2019 report in the New York Times (NYT) called a “shadowy industry group” – the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI).

The institute was founded in 1978 by Alex Malaspina, a Coca-Cola scientific and regulatory affairs leader. It started with an endowment of $22 million with the support of Coca Cola.

Since then, ILSI has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies around the globe and has more than 17 branches that influence food safety and nutrition science in various regions.

Little more than a front group for its 400 corporate members that provide its $17 million budget, ILSI’s members include Coca-Cola, DuPont, PepsiCo, General Mills and Danone.

The NYT says ILSI has received more than $2 million from chemical companies, among them Monsanto. In 2016, a UN committee issued a ruling that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s weedkiller Roundup, was “probably not carcinogenic,” contradicting an earlier report by the WHO’s cancer agency. The committee was led by two ILSI officials.

From India to China, whether it has involved warning labels on unhealthy packaged food or shaping anti-obesity education campaigns that stress physical activity and divert attention from the food system itself, prominent figures with close ties to the corridors of power have been co-opted to influence policy in order to boost the interests of agri-food corporations.

As far back as 2003, it was reported by The Guardian newspaper that ILSI had spread its influence across the national and global food policy arena. The report talked about undue influence exerted on specific WHO/FAO food policies dealing with dietary guidelines, pesticide use, additives, trans-fatty acids and sugar.

In January 2019, two papers by Harvard Professor Susan Greenhalgh, in the BMJ and the Journal of Public Health Policy, revealed ILSI’s influence on the Chinese government regarding issues related to obesity. And in April 2019,  Corporate Accountability released a report on ILSI titled Partnership for an Unhealthy Planet.

2017 report in the Times of India noted that ILSI-India was being actively consulted by India’s apex policy-formulating body – Niti Aayog. ILSI-India’s board of trustees was dominated by food and beverage companies – seven of 13 members were from the industry or linked to it (Mondelez, Mars, Abbott, Ajinomoto, Hindustan Unilever and Nestle) and the treasurer was Sunil Adsule of Coca-Cola India.

In India, ILSI’s expanding influence coincides with mounting rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

In 2020, US Right to Know (USRTK) referred to a study published in Public Health Nutrition that helped to further confirm ILSI as little more than an industry propaganda arm.

The study, based on documents obtained by USRTK, uncovered “a pattern of activity in which ILSI sought to exploit the credibility of scientists and academics to bolster industry positions and promote industry-devised content in its meetings, journal, and other activities.”

Gary Ruskin, executive director of USRTK, a consumer and public health group, said:

ILSI is insidious… Across the world, ILSI is central to the food industry’s product defence, to keep consumers buying the ultra-processed food, sugary beverages and other junk food that promotes obesity, type 2 diabetes and other ills.”

The study also revealed new details about which companies fund ILSI and its branches.

ILSI North America’s draft 2016 IRS form 990 shows a $317,827 contribution from PepsiCo, contributions greater than $200,000 from Mars, Coca-Cola and Mondelez and contributions greater than $100,000 from General Mills, Nestle, Kellogg, Hershey, Kraft, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Starbucks Coffee, Cargill, Unilever and Campbell Soup.

ILSI’s draft 2013 Internal Revenue Service form 990 shows that it received $337,000 from Coca-Cola, and more than $100,000 each from Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow AgroSciences, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Bayer Crop Science and BASF.

Global institutions, like the WTO, and governments continue to act as the adminstrative arm of industry, boosting corporate profits while destroying public health and cutting short human life.

Part of the solution lies in challenging a policy agenda that privileges global markets, highly processed food and the needs of ‘the modern food system’ – meaning the bottom line of dominant industrial food conglomerates.

It also involves protecting and strengthening local markets, short supply chains and independent small-scale enterprises, including traditional food processing concerns and small retailers.

And, of course, we need to protect and strengthen agroecological, smallholder farming that bolsters nutrient-dense diets – more family farms and healthy food instead of more disease and allopathic family doctors.



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Sen. Schumer Calls For Amnesty For 11+ Million Illegals Because American Population ‘Is Not Reproducing On Its Own’

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Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Wednesday called for all “11 million” or “however many” illegal aliens there are in the US to be given amnesty because the American population “is not reproducing on its own at the same level that it used to.”

NEW – Chuck Schumer calls for amnesty for "all 11 million" undocumented migrants in the US because the American population "is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to."pic.twitter.com/DNHHim68xr

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) November 16, 2022

“Now more than ever, we’re short of workers,” Schumer said. “We have a population that is not reproducing on its own with the same level that it used to.”

“The only way we’re going to have a good future in America is if we welcome and embrace immigrants, the Dreamers, and all of them, ’cause our ultimate goal is to help the Dreamers but get a path to citizenship for all 11 million or however many undocumented there are here, and we will be pursuing that in the next Senate, in the Senate, the comprehensive immigration reform,” he continued.

Last year, Schumer joined with the Anti-Defamation League in calling for Tucker Carlson to be deplatformed for spreading the “anti-Semitic” and “racist lie” of “replacement theory,”otherwise known as the Great Replacement. 

“Proponents of this white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theory believe that a complicit or cooperative class of elites are advancing a plot designed to undermine the political power and culture of white Americans,” Schumer wrote in a letter for Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch. “For years, these types of beliefs have existed at the fringes of American life. However, this pernicious theory, which has no basis in fact, has been injected into the mainstream thanks in large part to a dangerous level of amplification by your network and its anchors.”

“I implore you to immediately cease all dissemination of false white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theories on your network,” Schumer said. 

SUPERCUT!

Dangerous Demagogues Spread 'Great Replacement Theory' pic.twitter.com/g5x4KgylrM

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 17, 2022

Just months later, and just days after the midterms, Schumer is now calling for mass amnesty for potentially tens of millions of illegal aliens because our population “is not reproducing.” 

“This is literally the Great Replacement, clearly outlined by Chuck Schumer,” Matt Walsh commented. 

This is literally the Great Replacement, clearly outlined by Chuck Schumer https://t.co/zLCnGtImmg

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 16, 2022

“If Chuck Schumer is so concerned about the reproduction of Americans, then he should adamantly oppose abortion,” commented Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). “That’s 63 million Americans which is far greater than 11 million illegal aliens.”

If Chuck Schumer is so concerned about the reproduction of Americans, then he should adamantly oppose abortion.

That’s 63 million Americans which is far greater than 11 million illegal aliens. https://t.co/czrDtYHYhY

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor GreeneđŸ‡ºđŸ‡¸ (@RepMTG) November 16, 2022

Interestingly, though Schumer is one of the top proponents of abortion in America, he actually is strongly opposed to abortion in Israel. 

“Senator Chuck Schumer, a noted pro-choice champion who has used the issue of abortion to secure his New York Senate [seat], attended a 30th anniversary gala for Efrat [a staunch anti-abortion group in Israel],” Mondoweiss reported in 2013. “Schumer has been lauded by Planned Parenthood who called him a ‘hero,’ with ‘a 100% pro-choice, pro-family planning voting record,’ but in 2007 Schumer put his pro-choice position aside and joined his anti-abortion foes at the celebration.”

Efrat, which Schumer supports, says that “preventing abortions is the key to Israel’s survival as a Jewish state.” 

“Israel is currently fighting a demographic war for her survival,” Efrat says. “As we go to print Israel’s borders are in jeopardy. The Arab birthrate is about double the Jewish birthrate. General Uzi Dayan speaking as the Director for the Council of National security announced: ‘Demographic projections forecast an Arab majority in Israel by the year 2020 less than 15 years from now.'”

[Incidentally, Bill Maher raised this same issue with Benjamin Netanyahu last month and asked if Israel “would have to become an apartheid state” if Jews became a minority in Israel.]

When asked by Mondoweiss why Schumer supports abortion in America but opposes it in Israel, his office refused to comment. 

This post was originally published at Information Liberation

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Canadian Woman To Be Euthanatized After Complaining She Can’t Afford Her Rent

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woman-canada.jpeg.webp

Canadian authorities have given the green-light for a 32-year-old woman to be sent to heir death due to her extremely low income. The decision to kill the low-income woman is part of a new project [...]

The post Canadian Woman To Be Euthanatized After Complaining She Can’t Afford Her Rent appeared first on News Punch.



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Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Others Launch 12-Week Digital Dollar Pilot Program with New York Fed

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Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and others launched a 12-week digital dollar pilot program with the New York Fed.

Don’t worry because the New York Fed says the pilot program will only use “simulated data” and is “not intended to advance any specific policy outcome.”

Via Business Wire:

Members of the U.S. banking community today announced the launch of a proof of concept (PoC) project that will explore the feasibility of an interoperable digital money platform known as the regulated liability network (RLN). Using distributed ledger technology, the proposed platform would create innovation opportunities to improve financial settlements and would include participation from central banks, commercial banks of various sizes and regulated non-banks.

The 12-week PoC will test a version of the RLN design that operates exclusively in U.S. dollars where commercial banks issue simulated digital money or “tokens” – representing the deposits of their own customers – and settle through simulated central bank reserves on a shared multi-entity distributed ledger. The PoC will also test the feasibility of a programmable digital money design that is potentially extensible to other digital assets, as well as the viability of the proposed system within existing laws and regulations.

Members of the U.S. banking and payments community involved in this PoC (as listed further below) are pleased to be working alongside the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) that is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The NYIC collaborates with the private and public sectors on innovations aimed at enhancing the functioning of the global financial system and the ability of central banks to carry out their missions.

Other key aspects of the proof of concept (PoC) via Business Wire:

  • Regulatory framework: The platform will align with the existing regulatory framework and preserve existing requirements for deposit-based payments processing, notably maintaining know your customer and anti-money laundering requirements.
  • Scope: The PoC will simulate digital money issued by regulated institutions in U.S. dollars, although the concept could potentially be extended to multi-currency operations and regulated stablecoins.
  • Tokens: The PoC will simulate tokens that are 100% fungible and redeemable with other forms of money.
  • Industry collaboration: The PoC will include dialogue with the broader U.S. banking community, including community and regional banks.
  • Results: Following the conclusion of the PoC, the banking group will publicize the results, which they hope will be an important contribution to the literature on digital money.
  • Future plans: The banking group participants are not committed to any future phases of work once the PoC has been completed.

The post Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Others Launch 12-Week Digital Dollar Pilot Program with New York Fed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.



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Inflation & Economic Woes Lead 54% Of 'Gen Z' Americans To Live With Their Parents

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Inflation & Economic Woes Lead 54% Of 'Gen Z' Americans To Live With Their Parents

Authored by Bryan Fung via The Epoch Times,

Generation Z, the youngest generation of American adults, are struggling in an era of high inflation and expensive housing, with more than half of them living with their parents in an uncertain economic environment.

At least 54 percent of adults aged 18–25 are opting to live with their parents out of economic necessity, according to a new study of over 300 participants conducted by The Harris Poll and commissioned by DailyPay.

The Gen Zers now in adulthood and who are seeking to become independent from their families are starting to have trouble remaining financially afloat, as the cost of everyday items goes up.

Out of all of the respondents polled, 80 percent of Gen Z say that they expect the U.S. economy to remain the same or decline through next year.

This youngest American age cohort started to enter the workforce in the midst of a pandemic and increasing political instability at home and abroad.

They also happen to be the most technologically savvy generation when it comes to social media.

Unlike the previous millennial generation, which came of age during the “War on Terror” and the Great Recession, American Gen Z have grown up in an era of relative peace.

However, for most of this year, inflation has remained around 8 percent, a 40-year high, pushing up prices across the board, as the Federal Reserve raises borrowing rates to control rising prices.

A spike in housing and rental prices across the country since the pandemic have also made it hard for young adults to find an affordable home.

Gen Z Is Facing an Initial Disadvantage Entering the Workforce

Much like the millennials over a decade ago, many of these young Americans are very concerned about their long-term financial prospects, according to the survey.

“Between COVID, inflation, and a looming recession, Gen Z has kicked off adulthood in the most uncertain of times,” Jeanniey Walden, chief innovation and marketing officer at DailyPay, told FOX Business.

“So it’s no surprise that many say current economic conditions are keeping them living at home and/or worrying about paying bills on time.”

Only 28 of those surveyed between the ages of 18–25 said that they were regularly able to pay off their bills on time.

About 41 percent said they were concerned that rising inflation would make it more difficult for them to pay their bills over the next year, and 38 percent expect that necessities like food and fuel would become more expensive to buy.

The study also found that rising costs have greatly affected the ability of many of these young people to save.

“Potentially most concerning is that Gen Z does not feel they are able to save for the future,” said Walden.

An alarmingly signicant number, 78 percent out of of those surveyed, admit that they have saved less compared to last year, or have the same amount of savings as they did last year, while some have not been able to save at all.

Young Adults Remain Optimistic About the Future

However, many of  the Gen Z are less pessimistic about their long-term economic future, with only 33 percent worrying about finding a house due to high prices, while only 20 percent of them are finding it difficult to pay for health care for family members.

“This report demonstrates the need for employers to provide meaningful and impactful financial benefits to help their employees, particularly Gen Z, despite the negative effects of inflation,” said Kevin Coop, CEO of DailyPay.

Nearly 72 percent of Gen Z in the workforce said that having their salaries delivered directly to their accounts at the end of the day, instead of waiting for their regular payday, would aid them in paying bills on time.

The survey recommended that employers could better assist their workforce by applying these changes to help their younger workers take care of their monthly expenses.

Tyler Durden Wed, 11/16/2022 - 13:34

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Obama event on 'disinformation' features serial spreaders of disinformation

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Barack Obama (Video screenshot)

Barack Obama (Video screenshot)

By Bronson Winslow
Daily Caller News Foundation

  • The Obama Foundation is hosting a forum Thursday where “disinformation” will be discussed by a group with alleged ties to spreading disinformation.
  • The forum will be moderated by Renee DiResta, who allegedly helped sway elections through the use of bots and is connected to the censorship of stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
  • Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of the panelists for the forum, is the author of the “1619 Project” which claims slavery was the primary cause of the American Revolution, a claim rebuked by historians and a group of college professors in a New York Times article.

The Obama Foundation is hosting a forum Thursday where “disinformation” will be discussed by a group with alleged ties to spreading disinformation and a historian who has been criticized by many in her field.

The “Tackling Disinformation, Protecting Democracy” forum, hosted by former President Barack Obama in connection with Columbia University and the University of Chicago, will be moderated by Renee DiResta, who allegedly helped sway elections through the use of bots and is connected the censorship of stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of the panelists for the forum, is the author of the “1619 Project” which claims slavery was the primary cause of the American Revolution, a claim rebuked by historians and a group of college professors in a New York Times article.

“[Nikole Hannah-Jones] erroneously claims that slavery was a primary cause of the American Revolution. She bases this claim on the Dunmore proclamation, where the British governor of Virginia offered freedom to slaves who fought for the royalist cause. She claims at one point that Dunmore’s proclamation induced George Washington to join the rebellion,” Phillip Magness, who authored a critique of the “1619 Project,” told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

WND is now on Trump's Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews

“This is false though. Dunmore issued his proclamation in November 1775. But George Washington had already been named the commander-in-chief of the Continental army the previous June,” Magness continued.

In 2019, a group of professors from Princeton University, City University of New York, Brown University and Texas State University rebuked Hannah-Jones’s claim in a letter to the editor of The New York Times where the “1619 Project” was originally published.

“We are dismayed at some of the factual errors in the project and the closed process behind it,” the group said. “These errors, which concern major events, cannot be described as interpretation or ‘framing.’ They are matters of verifiable fact, which are the foundation of both honest scholarship and honest journalism,” the group said.

Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 project (Video screenshot)

Nikole Hannah-Jones of the 1619 project (Video screenshot)

“Hannah-Jones is a serial generator and purveyor of misinformation herself. She has done so flagrantly in the cases I mentioned, and she becomes belligerent and personally abusive toward anyone who corrects her claims – even when she is unambiguously wrong on basic matters of fact,” Magness said.

Panel moderator DiResta previously served as an advisor to tech company American Engagement Technologies, which is credited with creating fake online personas to fight against the Republican vote in 2017, according to The Washington Free Beacon. DiResta denied involvement, yet moved to tech company New Knowledge, which was involved in the same disinformation project.

DiResta was also part of the Aspen Commission that released a report criticizing social media companies for failing to address disinformation, but did not reference the censorship of the Hunter Biden article, according to the Beacon. The founder of the commission, Craig Newmark, reportedly sponsored disinformation about Biden’s laptop.

Obama was cited for disinformation in 2012 after referring to an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi as the result of an unplanned protest spurred by a YouTube video taped in California. Obama’s claim was later undermined by Matt Olsen, the director of the multi-agency National Counterterrorism Center, who labeled the event a”terrorist attack,” stating that it was a planned surprise attack.

In another example, Obama told Americans in 2009 that Obamacare would not prevent anyone from keeping their current doctors.

This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!

The post Obama event on 'disinformation' features serial spreaders of disinformation appeared first on WND.



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HOW IT’S DONE: Over 3 Million Brazilians Protest Election Fraud – Bolsonaro to Annul the Steal!

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The capital BrasĂ­lia on Republic Day, Nov. 15

This is how it’s done: Over 3 million Brazilians filled the streets on Republic Day yesterday, Nov. 15, to protest the stolen elections. The party of President Jair Bolsonaro presented its report and announced it will apply to have the election annulled since the results could not be validated.

Since the massive fraud during the runoff election on October 30th in Brazil, millions of Brazilians have been protesting on the streets every day against electoral fraud by Communist convicted criminal Luiz InĂ¡cio Lula da Silva.

#BrazilNasRuas#BrazilWasCensored #Brazilwasstolen https://t.co/uI3pDEkBK5

— Carla M. Lodi (@LodiMaffei) November 15, 2022

On yesterday’s Day of the Republic, millions took to the streets again, especially in Rio de Janeiro and the capital, BrasilĂ­a, but also in smaller towns across the country.

Mainstream media such as O Globo refuse to report on what may be the largest protests the world has ever seen, fueling even more rage and disappointment among the Brazilian people.

“I’m no expert on the history of protests, but I think these may be the biggest protests the world has ever seen,” Brazil expert Fernando Teles told German website Free World. “People are very angry. That isn’t really like the Brazilians at all, who are usually pretty laid back.”

Brasil nas ruas
Queremos esclarecimentos #brazilwasatolen, we had the polls rigged, but we are being prevented from contesting.
He is involved in the biggest corruption schemes in the country's history.#OutLula#brazilwasstolen#BrazilNasRuas #BrazilianCensorship pic.twitter.com/825V8ZflD4

— andre Lau (@atkl170) November 15, 2022

According to Teles, over 3 million people demonstrated yesterday in BrasilĂ­a, although the capital is very difficult to reach and people often had to travel several days to get there. In Rio de Janeiro, approx. 500,000 protested in front of the old Ministry of Defense, demanding military intervention to prevent the communists from taking power.

#BrazilWasStolem #braziliansprings #BrazilNasRuas #BRAZIL #BrazilianProtests #BrazilWantsTheCode #BrazilWasSilenced #BrazilWasCensored #BrasilFoiRoubado #Brasilien pic.twitter.com/dbBmbfdgGN

— QueenStefaneđŸ‡§đŸ‡· (@StefaneQueen) November 16, 2022

Demonstrators complained that at least 100 of the electronic ballot boxes did not contain a single vote for Bolsonaro. 5 million votes were discarded. Allegedly, Lula won 50.9% of the vote and Bolsonaro 49.1%.

Last week, Minister of Defense Paulo Sergio Nogueira de Oliveira sent his report on possible election fraud to the radical leftist Supreme Electoral Court (TSE), which consists of diehard Lula supporters. The military’s report spoke of “relevant security risks”: “It is not possible to say the electronic voting system is free from the influence of malware that could affect its outcome,” says the report. The TSE will likely ignore the report.

Now President Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party (PL) has also submitted its report on electoral fraud, stating that the PL will request “an annulment of the election” because “it is not possible to validate the results of all the electronic voting machines.”

BrasĂ­lia 15/11/22 #BrazilSpring #BrazilNasRuas đŸ‡§đŸ‡· pic.twitter.com/fH28cTSuSR

— Charley Tapes (@CharleyTapes) November 15, 2022

Only a party involved in the election can contest the result, Teles said. “The electoral court will probably refuse,” says Fernando Teles. “Then the sitting President can order a military court to decide. Then it will be a battle between the judicial system and the executive branch. The military will probably have to take to the streets. Under the Law and Order Act (GLO), the President can order the army to restore peace.”

According to Teles, Bolsonaro and the military leadership are making every effort to follow the law and the rules of democracy. Protestors are already demanding military intervention, with chants of “Forças armadas, salvam nossa pĂ¡tria!” (Armed Forces, Save Our Country!).

“The funny thing is, although they say they won the majority in the election, there are no protests by Lula supporters,” Teles said. “Where are they?

The post HOW IT’S DONE: Over 3 Million Brazilians Protest Election Fraud – Bolsonaro to Annul the Steal! appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.



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CDC Study confirms COVID Vaccination increases risk of suffering Autoimmune Disease affecting Heart by 13,200%

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A study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Food and Drug Administration has shown that the risk of myocarditis following mRNA COVID vaccination is around 133x greater than the […]

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Tuesday, November 15, 2022

The ACLU Says California's Ban on COVID-19 'Misinformation' From Doctors Is Gratuitous and Unconstitutional

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A California law that threatens to punish doctors who disseminate COVID-19 "misinformation" is gratuitous and unconstitutional, two chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argue in a brief they filed in federal court last week. The ACLU of Northern California and the ACLU of Southern California say decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which includes California, make it clear that the law, A.B. 2098, is inconsistent with the First Amendment.

"Under the Ninth Circuit's well-established framework for evaluating regulations of healthcare professionals, AB 2098 sweeps in exactly the kind of protected speech physicians rely on in their doctor-patient relationships," the brief says. "AB 2098 is a content-based regulation encompassing speech protected by the First Amendment. Strict scrutiny therefore applies." The ACLU adds that the state has not come close to meeting that test.

A.B. 2098, which is scheduled to take effect on January 1, redefines the "unprofessional conduct" policed by the Medical Board of California (MBC), a state agency charged with licensing and disciplining physicians, to include COVID-19 "misinformation." That category includes "false or misleading information" regarding "the nature and risks of the virus," "its prevention and treatment," and "the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines." Medical advice qualifies as "misinformation" when it is "contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus."

In Hoeg v. Newsom, a lawsuit it filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California on behalf of five physicians, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) argues that A.B. 2098 is unconstitutionally vague and violates the First Amendment by penalizing doctors for candidly sharing their honest opinions with patients. The Liberty Justice Center (LJC), which is representing two other physicians, makes similar claims in McDonald v. Lawson, a lawsuit it filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The ACLU brief supports the plaintiffs in the latter case.

The state claims A.B. 2098 does not implicate the First Amendment at all because it merely regulates professional conduct. Not so, the ACLU says: "AB 2098 undoubtedly reaches speech protected by the First Amendment. It expressly limits the ability of physicians to speak about certain topics to their patients and thereby restricts their ability to communicate. The law defines the prohibited dissemination as a licensed professional's 'conveyance of information from the licensee to a patient under the licensee's care in the form of treatment or advice.'"

In the 2002 case Conant v. Walters, the 9th Circuit held that the federal government violated the First Amendment when it threatened to revoke the prescribing privileges of doctors who recommended medical marijuana to their patients—advice that was contrary to the "scientific consensus" as federal officials defined it. "An integral component of the practice of medicine is the communication between a doctor and a patient," the appeals court said. "Physicians must be able to speak frankly and openly to patients." That decision, the ACLU says, "plainly forecloses the State from censoring physicians' discussion, medical advice, and recommendations related to COVID-19 unless the content-based regulation can meet strict scrutiny."

Strict scrutiny would require California to show that A.B. 2098 is narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest. But as the ACLU points out, existing regulations address the danger that the state perceives.

Legislators said they were worried that doctors might promote "treatments and therapies that have no proven effectiveness against the virus" and prescribe "ineffective and potentially unsafe" treatments such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and disinfectant injections. Yet Section 2234 of California's Business and Professions Code already authorizes the MBC to take action against doctors for "gross negligence," "repeated negligent acts," "incompetence," and "any act involving dishonesty or corruption."

California courts "have long interpreted the types of conduct the Legislature was concerned about—such as failing to provide patients with sufficient information to make informed health choices, committing medical fraud, and providing patients with medically inappropriate treatment—as falling under section 2234," the ACLU brief notes. "Indeed, when considering AB 2098, the Legislature acknowledged that the MBC was 'already fully capable of bringing an accusation against a physician for this type of misconduct.'"

The ACLU notes that legislators also expressed concern about "physicians' public dialogue regarding COVID-19," such as messages on social media or interviews with the press. The NCLA's complaint cites threats from supporters of A.B. 2098 who implied that the law could be used to punish doctors for promoting their own research or publicly expressing opinions about COVID-19 controversies. But public commentary is "beyond AB 2098's final scope," the ACLU brief says, because it was obvious "the State cannot regulate such speech," and the same goes for private advice to patients that falls short of "unprofessional conduct" as previously defined.

Even if some applications of the new law passed constitutional muster, the ACLU argues, its vagueness would violate the First Amendment by encouraging self-censorship. "Prophylactic, content-based rules like AB 2098 are suspect in part because their 'very existence' threatens to chill speech," the brief says, and that problem is compounded when the rules are ambiguous.

The LJC's motion for a preliminary injunction notes the difficulty that physicians will have in figuring out what A.B. 2098 requires. The law defines "misinformation" as "false information that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care." As written, the LJC notes, "the definition is senseless, as it says that the covered information is contradicted by a consensus that is itself contrary to the standard of care." That puzzling language, the motion says, "suffices to make the statute void for vagueness, for it is incomprehensible."

Let's assume legislators meant that "misinformation," rather than the "scientific consensus," is "contrary to the standard of care," which is how Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to read the law. Even then, "hopeless ambiguities remain," the LJC says.

"Is information false because it is 'contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus' and (or?) 'contrary to the standard of care'?" the motion asks. "Or is falsity a separate requirement? How does a court decide 'falsity' in the context of scientific questions that are, and will always remain, matters of hypothesis and study? When is falsity determined: at the time of the statement, or given how the evidence has developed? What is a 'scientific consensus,' and how is a court to determine it? When is 'contemporary': when the statement was made, or at another point? Whose 'standard of care' matters? Does the information have to be both contradicted by consensus and contrary to the standard of care?"

Consider advice about the benefits of face masks in preventing COVID-19 transmission, a subject on which official guidance evolved during the course of the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially dismissed the value of general masking, then embraced it as "the most important, powerful public health tool we have." More recently, it has conceded that commonly used cloth masks do little, if anything, to stop coronavirus transmission.

Imagine a doctor who was advising patients in March 2020, when the CDC was still saying that healthy people who are not caring for COVID-19 patients "do not need to wear masks." Suppose the doctor "disregarded the consensus guidance not to wear masks," the LJC says, "and advised his patients that they needed to wear N95 masks to have the best protection from COVID"—the position that the CDC eventually adopted. "Was that advice false?" the LJC asks. "When? Was it contradicted by a contemporary scientific consensus? Which consensus? When? Was it contrary to a standard of care? Was it all three? If it was all three, but is now none, does it matter? The statute answers none of these questions, all of which are crucial to understanding the law."

That is a due process problem, since the law does not give doctors fair notice of which conduct it reaches. It is also a free speech problem. "Given the ambiguities in the reach of AB 2098 highlighted by the Plaintiffs," the ACLU brief says, "physicians will be loath to speak their minds and share their opinions with patients about a rapidly evolving disease with many unknowns. At any point, the State could determine that a physician has violated AB 2098 for sharing an unconventional opinion and go after their medical license."

The post The ACLU Says California's Ban on COVID-19 'Misinformation' From Doctors Is Gratuitous and Unconstitutional appeared first on Reason.com.



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