Someone asked Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa for clarification on whether President Trump was really shot on July 13, and it replied in the negative.
Footage widely shared on social media shows Alexa being asked “Was Trump really shot?”
The bot replies “No, Donald Trump was not really shot.”
It adds, “There were two attempted assassinations of Donald Trump, one in 2016 and another in 2024. Both times the assailant was stopped and arrested by security forces.”
“These events were widely reported in the news,” it adds.
Amazon’s Alexa says Trump was never actually shot.
As we previously highlighted, the FBI has categorically confirmed that Trump was hit by a bullet, despite earlier doubts sowed by Director Christopher Wray, who appeared to give credence to a theory that Trump was hit by shrapnel or glass.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” an FBI statement noted.
Wray had earlier in the week during testimony in Congress stated “There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel,” further spurring deranged leftist conspiracy theorists, including some who believe the entire thing was staged by Trump himself.
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UMich sentiment survey shows that preliminary August data shows a small rebound in consumer confidence, driven entirely by hope, as Current Conditions tumbled to its lowest since Dec 2022…
Source: Bloomberg
Inflation expectations were flat in the flash August data.
Source: Bloomberg
Buying conditions continue to plunge overall with homes and durables at record lows while vehicles ticked up extremely modestly off record lows…
Source: Bloomberg
Finally, August saw confidence rebound for Democrats but tumble further for Republicans as Biden was ousted…
Source: Bloomberg
The survey shows that 41% of consumers believe that Harris is the better candidate for the economy, while 38% chose Trump.
In comparison, between May and July, Trump had a 5 point advantage over Biden on the economy.
Overall, Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu notes, expectations strengthened for both personal finances and the five-year economic outlook, which reached its highest reading in four months, consistent with the fact that election developments can influence future expectations but are unlikely to alter current assessments.
Harris Unveils Plan To Fix Last 4 Years Of Economic Destruction
With the election right around the corner and the average American choking on inflation, Vice President Kamala Harris has unveiled several galaxy brain policies aimed at “lowering costs for American families,” which she and her teleprompter will present at a Friday speech in North Carolina – just days before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
While we know about Harris stealing Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate taxes on tips (after she was the tie-breaking vote on legislation to supercharge IRS enforcement), the proposals also include;
Communist price controls to crack down on ‘corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries.’
(Except…)
Here’s your “price gouging” narrative: average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong… pic.twitter.com/ALiw72MXSf
A $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers, under which those who have a two-year history of on-time rent payments would be eligible for “down-payment support.”
A cap on prescription drug costs and the elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans
Child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life (after JD Vance suggested an increase from $2,000 per child to $5,000)
Other items include efforts aimed at lowering the cost of rent and helping renters who are struggling financially, according to NBC News. She will also propose plans to stop data firms from driving up lease rates, as well as stopping Wall Street firms from buying and flipping homes in bulk.
As part of the rollout, Harris will call on Congress to pass the Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act, a bill introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., that they said would prevent corporate landlords from using private equity-backed price-setting tools to raise rents dramatically in communities across the country.
Harris will also call on Congress to pass the Stop Predatory Investing Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and several other Democratic senators. The bill is designed to stop communities from being taken advantage of by Wall Street investors and distant landlords. The bill would curtail those practices by removing key tax benefits for major investors who acquire large numbers of single-family rental homes.
Harris will also call for the construction of three million new housing units via construction tax incentives – as well as a $40 billion proposal for local governments to build or preserve affordable housing units. We’re sure that won’t be a giant cash grab.
Cleaning Up Their Mess?
As even the Washington Post notes – “Harris has thus far surrounded herself with many former aides to Biden, and her team had made some overtures to business leaders that they hoped reflected a more centrist approach. But the policy positions she embraced Friday suggest she will continue, if not deepen, the party’s transformation under Biden, who pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the economy on industrial, labor and antitrust policies.”
Meanwhile, according to a Gallup survey taken earlier this year, just 21% of Americans say it’s a good time to buy a house – while just days ago, July’s inflation reading showed that shelter prices jumped 0.4% from the previous month. According to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, it might take ‘several years’ for the pandemic-era rent increases to abate.
Trump Responds
During a Thursday news conference at his New Jersey golf resort, the former president denounced the package as Venezuela-style communism.
“This announcement is an admission that her economic policies have totally failed and caused really a catastrophe for our country, and beyond that, a catastrophe in the world,” said Trump.
President Trump calls Kamala’s price controls “the Maduro Plan”
“This announcement is an admission that her economic policies have totally failed.” pic.twitter.com/LlnkwVgnGo
And for the icing on the cake – the Washington Post is now framing it as a “populist policy agenda,”a word whose starter pack we thought came with a tiki torch and khakis (reeee).
Mississippi and eight other states have sued the Biden administration to block an executive order that requires federal agencies to develop strategies to expand voter registration, which the states claim aims to promote left-wing politicians and policies at elections.
The complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas on Aug. 13, accuses Executive Order 14019 on Promoting Access to Voting of “partisan infection” so severe as to undermine its claimed intent, which is to make registering to vote and voting simple and easy, and to promote the right to vote among eligible Americans.
Mississippi, which was joined in the lawsuit by Montana, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and South Dakota, alleges that the executive order oversteps the boundaries of federal authority and violates the U.S. Constitution, particularly in its alleged encroachment on states’ rights to manage their own voter registration processes.
The lawsuit claims that the executive order turns federal agencies into voter registration entities, bypasses transparency, and is driven by partisan motives.
“We fully support encouraging voter registration and promoting an engaged electorate,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said in a statement. “But putting the full weight of the Oval Office behind an effort first developed by partisan activist groups and then hiding the agency activities from public scrutiny goes too far. The law does not allow it. Mississippi will not stand for it.”
The legal action seeks to block implementation of Executive Order 14019, arguing that plans for the order did not go through notice and public comment or any of the safeguards under the Administrative Procedure Act that ensure accountability and transparency.
“The partisan infection is so severe as to render EO 14019, and the agency decisions stemming from it, the product of pretext,“ the complaint reads. ”That is, rather than ensure ‘that registering to vote and the act of voting be made simple and easy for all those eligible to do so,’ or promoting or defending ‘the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections,’ … the purpose is to promote left-wing politicians and policies at elections.”
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the legal challenge.
Federal Agencies Mobilized
President Joe Biden signed the executive order on March 7, 2021. It directs federal agencies to explore ways to expand voter registration and participation by providing relevant information and resources during public interactions, facilitating access to voter services, and ensuring equal voting opportunities.
“Agencies shall consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process,” the order reads.
Various government agencies—including the Department of Justice, the Department of Education, and the Department of Agriculture—are carrying out campaigns to sign up new voters.
Ceridwen Cherry, a former staff attorney on the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, called the executive order “visionary.”
“In a democracy, governments at all levels should be doing everything they can to help eligible people register to vote,” he said in a statement. ”The voting access executive order is an important step toward achieving this goal because it gets the federal government involved in aiding with voter registration, just as state governments already do.”
Some experts have said that the executive order benefits Democrats over Republicans.
“They’re targeting welfare agencies that serve predominantly left-leaning voters,” Stewart Whitson, legal director of the Foundation for Government Accountability, told The Epoch Times in an earlier interview.
“It’s targeted voter registration, so you don’t have to worry about turning out more Republican voters if you focus your efforts in places where the vast majority of voters are going to lean left.”
A report by a coalition of progressive groups details their assessment of how well 10 federal agencies are doing in implementing the executive order and where they can do better.
Some of the report’s recommendations include urging the Department of Health and Human Services to sign up new voters in applications for health insurance under Obamacare.
The report also encourages the Department of Veterans Affairs to include voter registration for veterans who sign up for VA health benefits and suggests that the Education Department include voter registration when students apply for federal student aid.
Also, the Bureau of Prisons should work to register eligible convicts,per the recommendations of the report, which praised the Treasury Department for targeting voter registration efforts at “low income clients of its voluntary tax preparation clinics.”
Critics have said federal agencies are also partnering with private groups to sign up voters on federal agency premises.
“They’re essentially taking third-party groups and they’re bringing them onto federal land, into a federal office, and who knows what they’re doing,” Whitson said.
“Who knows if they’re following state laws governing voter registration and the collection of applications?”
He said that the Biden administration hasn’t disclosed which private groups will partner with federal agencies.
Hackers May Have Stolen Every American’s Social Security Number From Background Check Firm
Billions of records that purportedly contain personal data of every American, Canadian and Briton has reportedly found its way to a shadowy online identify-theft marketplace — where it’s been served up at no charge to legions of criminals.
In April, a notorious hacker group called “USDoD” claimed it had obtained 2.9 billion personal data records that it stole from National Public Data, an obscure background check firm that is a DBA brand of a Jerico Pictures Inc in Coral Springs, Florida. Claiming the data covered every person in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, the hackers put the trove up for sale at $3.5 million.
In the following months, other groups published distinct subsets of the data haul, Bleeping Computer reports. However, on August 6, someone claiming to have obtained breached National Public Data information via another person or entity called “SXUL,” served up 2.7 billion records in two files totaling 277GB — for free.
Each person contained in the database will have a separate record associated with each of their known residential addresses. “This data [set] may be outdated, as it does not contain the current address for any of the people we checked, potentially indicating that the data was taken from an old backup,” reports Bleeping Computer. Nonetheless, “If you live in the US, this data breach has likely leaked some of your personal information.”
Cybersecurity firm Pentester has created an online tool you can use to check if your personal information is included in the National Public Data breach. To use it, you need only enter your name, state and birth year. This Tyler Durden found his date of birth, mailing address, phone number and Social Security number are readily available to bad actors digging into the trove.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Jerico Pictures in US District Court in Fort Lauderdale. According to the 50-page complaint, National Public Data “scrapes the [personally identifiable information] of potentially billions of individuals from non-public sources” without their consent or knowledge, and failed its “legal and equitable duties…to protect and safeguard that information from unauthorized access.”
According to a page on National Public Data’s website that addresses the vast data theft, “the information that was suspected of being breached contained name, email address, phone number, social security number, and mailing address(es).”
“For somebody who’s really suave at it, the possibilities are really endless,” Public Information Research Group consumer watchdog director Teresa Murray told the Los Angeles Times. She warns that identify thieves could combine the National Public Data information with data from previous hacks to “cause all kinds of chaos, commit all kinds of crimes, steal all kinds of money.
Here are a few ways to reduce your risk of being victimized:
Freeze your credit files. To make it harder for criminals to open new accounts in your name, you can direct three major credit rating agencies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — to lock down your credit reports. Keep in mind, that will freeze your files for you too, so you’ll need to unfreeze them when you’re seeking credit or doing something else necessitating a credit check.
Activate two-factor authentication for existing accounts. These protocols require an extra login step beyond just an email and password — such as a code that’s texted to you, or a code you obtain from an authenticator app linked to the account. This is important because criminals can use your leaked data to reset your login credentials.
Strengthen your password game. Use many-charactered passwords, and avoid using the same one for multiple accounts — especially the high-stakes ones. Consider a password-manager app to make that arrangement easier on you.
While news of the breach is grim, it’s a least spawned some fine humor, particularly from those who don’t feel they have much to lose:
Bayer Shares Soar After Roundup Weedkiller Legal Victory In Philadelphia Court
Shares of Bayer AG have been pressured over the years after a tidal wave of litigation over its Roundup weedkiller. The company settled much of the Roundup litigation but still faces tens of thousands of lawsuits.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled in favor of Bayer’s Monsanto, shielding the German company from a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania groundskeeper. This decision could open the door for a crucial review by the US Supreme Court, potentially paving the way to finally resolve the ongoing litigation nightmare.
Chief Judge Michael Chagares, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, stated that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act mandates nationwide uniformity in pesticide warning labels, blocking any attempt from Pennsylvania to add the warning label to the Roundup weedkiller bottle.
Bayer pointed out that the decision conflicts with rulings from federal appeals courts in Atlanta and San Francisco. This ruling sets the stage for the case to be reviewed by the US Supreme Court.
A Bayer spokesman told Bloomberg via an emailed statement that the ruling “creates a split among the federal appellate courts and necessitates a review by the US Supreme Court.”
Years of litigation have weighed on shares of Bayer trading in Germany, which have been down nearly 80% since peaking at around $120 in 2017. Shares are up 10% to end the week at around the 29 euro handle.
“On the single stock level, Bayer’s shares are rallying after the company won an appeal in Roundup litigation, driving the Pharma space higher (GSXEPHAR +1.15%),” Goldman’s Ananya Prakash wrote in a note this AM.
Bloomberg, citing a note from Holly Froum, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, highlights what might be next for Bayer…
The next step could entail a more comprehensive review from the Philadelphia appeals court, which may take months and could push back trials scheduled in Pennsylvania, Holly Froum, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a note. That could reduce Bayer’s ultimate exposure in the overall litigation, potentially keeping settlement costs within the company’s $16 billion outlay, Froum said.
So far, Bayer has settled most of Roundup litigation for $10.9 billion but faces almost 58,000 claims. Another 114,000 claims have been settled or deemed ineligible.
China Home Prices Just Plunged The Most Since 2015
By George Lei, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist
Home Prices to Slide Amid Elusive Stimulus
China’s new home prices in July plunged the most since 2015 on a year-over-year basis, as a gauge of homebuilder stocks remain mired in a bear market. Shimao Group Holdings Ltd. — among the biggest companies on the index based on weightings — has seen its share price fall more than 50% over the past three months.
Meanwhile, remarks from the People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng suggest policymakers are in no rush to stimulate the economy. That means the country’s battered housing sector will likely struggle to find a bottom.
July’s residential property sale values were 45% below their four-year average, deteriorating further from June when transaction amounts were 37% below average, according to a Thursday note from JPMorgan. The US bank revised lower its 2024 forecast for residential sale values to -17% year-on-year from -13%, implying a 2%-3% year-on-year decline for the rest of 2024.
The disappointing data, however, doesn’t seem likely to nudge Beijing into action. Since last year, policymakers have drip-fed fiscal stimulus into the slowing economy, stopping short of any big moves. The measured response, on top of the housing market downturn, was largely responsible for a surprise moderation in fixed-asset investments in the first seven months of the year.
On Thursday, state media published a pair of interviews with PBOC’s Pan, who hinted that further aid will come to moderate prices but emphasized “policy patience and stability” and pledged to refrain from any “drastic tightening or drastic easing” of monetary policy.
Pan also reiterated the central bank’s commitment to a 300 billion yuan ($41 billion) re-lending program to help fund local-government purchases of unsold homes.
That program, however, is likely far from enough to fix China’s housing woes. The International Monetary Fund said the country probably needs $1 trillion to help complete and deliver properties that are pre-sold yet unfinished, a proposal that was swiftly rejected by Chinese authorities.
Barclays estimates only 4% of the PBOC facility had been tapped by the end of June.
The Telegraph reports that National Health Service staff in the UK are being mandated to ask everyone, even men, if they are pregnant before carrying out radiography.
The report notes that as part of ‘inclusivity guidance’, all patients aged 12-55 must be asked the question, regardless of their sex.
The new mandate was introduced following an incident where a ‘trans man’ (a biological woman) who was unknowingly pregnant underwent a CT scan.
The guidance states that staff must be inclusive of transgender, non-binary and intersex patients and refrain from making assumptions about biological sex.
Whistleblowers within the health service have told the Telegraph that new ‘inclusive’ forms to be filled in by patients are causing “confusion and anger” and putting people’s health at risk.
The report further notes that the pregnancy forms have sections asking for sex at birth, preferred name and pronouns, and contain “ridiculous” statements about people who are born with variations in sex characteristics.
A radiographer notes that one male patient who was scheduled to see specialists for an urgent cancer diagnosis “was so annoyed by the questions on the form, he shouted, he left the department and didn’t actually have a scan”.
Other patients were left with doubts about the quality of care they were receiving due to the inclusivity forms.
Women in particular have reacted badly to the new policy, with some “who have had terrible miscarriages, [and] ectopic pregnancies” being reminded of the trauma.
“Instead of just asking ‘is there any chance you could be pregnant?’ and them choosing to say ‘no’, they’re now having to say, ‘I had two ectopic pregnancies, and I don’t have ovaries anymore’ and we then write that down,” a source urged.
Parents are also fuming over the policy, according to sources, charging that their children are being “indoctrinated” to choose preferred pronouns and gender identity.
Figures from the Office For National Statistics show that less than 1 percent of the population identifies as trans or non binary.
This is the latest in a line of such concerns to be aired from within the NHS, as we have previously highlighted.
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“It’s Communism”: Kamala’s First Economic Plan Proposes Price Controls To “Combat Inflation”
After the unoriginal Vice President Kamala Harris stole former President Trump’s proposed ‘no tax on tips’ policy, she’s at it again with yet another recycled idea. This time, she’s echoing President Biden’s actions and rhetoric to crack down on sky-high food prices by proposing the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries”—a move that reeks of socialism.
“There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets, and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business,” the Harris campaign wrote in a statement, adding, “Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills.”
News: Harris to propose “federal ban on corporate price-gouging” on groceries and “impose stiff penalties in the food industry,” campaign announces.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 15, 2024
The Harris campaign said the vice president will unveil the new federal proposed ban on Friday at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina as part of a broader economic policy platform. The proposal will ensure food companies can’t exploit consumers to increase profits, according to CBS News, citing Harris-Walz campaign officials.
Harris’ policy speech will also call on the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys to examine corporations violating price-fixing rules. Her remarks are expected to echo Biden’s actions and rhetoric, especially with his war against meat processing companies that he alleges are responsible for higher burger prices at the supermarket.
VP Harris’ campaign argues that lowering Americans’ costs is a function of socialist-style price controls. Yet this is the quickest way to understand that Harris’ economic team has no actual understanding of inflation.
Here comes the real Kamalanomics: price controls
To follow: mile-long lines for food, meat coupons, shortages, food black market. https://t.co/EGx0dQMhxY
Heritage Foundation’s EJ Antoni explained, “Here’s your “price gouging” narrative: average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong…”
Here’s your “price gouging” narrative: average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong… pic.twitter.com/ALiw72MXSf
Instead of curbing out-of-control government spending, which debt rises $1 trillion every 100 days, and understanding that monetary inflation driven by the Federal Reserve’s money creation is the root cause of inflation, Harris deflects the actual problem: The Fed. She instead goes after big corporations for ‘illegal price gouging.’
Here’s a snippet of Money Metals Midweek Memo’s Mike Maharreycommenting on Harris’ proposed price-fixing ban on big food companies:
The second “dumb” idea Maharrey discussed came from Vice President Kamala Harris, who was recently asked about her plan to combat inflation. Maharrey criticized her response, which he described as “word salad,” pointing out that she merely acknowledged the problem without offering any concrete solutions. Instead, she promised to take on “big corporations” engaging in “illegal price gouging,” corporate landlords, and big pharma.
Maharrey argued that Harris’s approach misses the root cause of inflation, which is monetary inflation driven by the Federal Reserve’s money creation. He cited the July budget deficit data, revealing that the Biden administration spent another $574 billion in just one month, running a $243 billion deficit. Maharrey emphasized that inflation is not caused by corporate greed but by the government’s excessive spending and borrowing.
“Price inflation is a symptom of monetary inflation, which has everything to do with money creation by the Federal Reserve,” Maharrey explained. He warned that Harris’s proposed policies, including price controls, would likely lead to shortages and exacerbate the problem rather than solve it.
“We are no longer talking about hypothetical communism, we are talking about two straight up communists who want to institute a federal price ban on food and a federal minimum wage that is going to make every corporation go out of business.
…
Voting for communism is not the solution to your precious feelings.”
Big Tech Uses More Electricity Than Entire Countries
Big Tech’s AI dreams are coming with a big energy price tag—technology companies and their data centers are consuming more electricity than countries with many millions of people.
Ranking Tech Companies Energy Use vs. Select Countries
Google and Microsoft both consume more electricity (24 TWh) than countries like Jordan (population: 11 million) and Ghana (34 million).
*U.S. territory. **Estimated value. Figures rounded. Population source: World Bank.
This highlights the enormous energy draw for these Big Tech companies that maintain massive data centers as a key part of their operations.
In their 2024 Environment report, Google said its data center electricity use grew 17% in 2023, a trend it expects to continue. It further estimated the company’s data centers accounted for 10% of global data center electricity use in 2023.
And it’s easy to see how AI is playing into this consumption. Training AI models increases data centers’ energy and cooling requirements compared to more traditional data center use, like storing files and apps on the cloud or processing emails.
Tellingly, Microsoft’s electricity use was 11 TWh as recently as 2020 and has doubled to 24 TWh in less than four years. Similarly, Google’s has also doubled to 24 TWh from 11 TWh in 2018.
Both trends coincide with the companies’ generative AI push in which they are both frontrunners.
Meanwhile, tech companies who have had a comparatively later start to the race (Meta and Apple) are further behind in electricity consumption, though Meta seems to be catching up.
