War Expands With Massive Israeli Airstrikes 60km Deep Into Lebanon
The Israel-Hezbollah war is expanding, which was on display Monday as Israel for the first time struck near a large city which is deep inside Lebanon, far away from the border, in the region of Ghaziyeh.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari has confirmed in a statement that military was behind large airstrikes that rocked a town just south of Sidon earlier in the day. Hagari the strikes targeted Hezbollah weapons depots, and also served as a response to an explosive-laden that struck northern Israel previously on Monday. Video captured the moment of the massive airstrikes:
Happening now: More footage from Israel’s bombing of Lebanese civilian areas 45 kms from the border. It is clearly visible that these are homes in a residential area. Sidon is under the control of the Lebanese army, which receives financial assistance from the US govt. pic.twitter.com/ebTde3HvWG
Sidon is the third largest city in Lebanon, and the region that was attack liesat least 45-60 kilometers from the Israeli border. So far the tit-for-tat strikes which stretch back to early October, following the Hamas terror attack on southern Israel, have been confined to southern Lebanon. Fighting has by and large stayed to within kilometers of the border on either side.
“Israeli jets attacked near Sidon on Monday, Israeli media reported, citing the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper,” regional media also confirms. “The two strikes occurred in the region of Ghaziyeh some 60 km from Israel’s northern border.”
Videos of the strikes show a huge fireball erupt high into the air…
This also marks the first time a Sunni-dominant area has been hit (as opposed to focusing on the Shia south, where Hezbollah has most sway)…
BREAKING: Massive Israeli military attack against #Lebanon targets civilian areas near major coastal city, Sidon. Is Tel Aviv trying to incite the Sunni of Lebanon? Sidon is where ex-PM Rafik Hariri hails from. It is 5 days since the anniversary of his assassination. pic.twitter.com/vB72KWWUVN
Casualties in Ghaziyeh are as yet unknown, but the location was deep in a civilian area along the coast.
Meanwhile there are reports of missile alert sirens sounding once again in various towns of northern Israel, which portend the coming Hezbollah response.
Attack is unprecedented since fighting began following Oct.7, given this is very deep inside Lebanese territory:
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz recently repeated a warning to the Lebanese government, saying that if Hezbollah isn’t removed from near the border that Lebanon would “pay a heavy price”. However, Lebanon’s Army is widely seen as not having the capability to remove the powerful Shia paramilitary group backed by Iran, which would also most certainly set off another civil war.
Massive voter fraud allegations that marred the 2020 election spurred a political and grassroots movement from coast to coast to pursue an array of election reforms designed to increase election integrity.
However, with just months left ahead of the 2024 election, Republicans say little was mended, especially in contested states where they thought fixes were needed most.
Much concern is centered around five key swing states that became the focus of 2020: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Election reforms tend to follow party lines. Democrats commonly castigate increased election security measures as voter suppression, while Republicans often condemn laws and directives that loosen security as aiding and abetting voter fraud.
According to a report from the Brennan Center for Justice, a left leaning, non-profit, law and research foundation, 23 states enacted 53 laws relaxing election security restrictions in 2023, while 14 states enacted 17 laws tightening them.
The statistics suggest that Democrats are still winning the nationwide battle, as they have for the past several years. The report found the states that took the most actions to tighten election security are the places that already had security measures in place.
Of the 14 states that tightened voting procedures, President Trump won all but one (New Mexico) in both 2016 and 2020. The 14 states listed by the Brennan Center include Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
The methods by which Americans cast their ballots have changed markedly over the last four federal election cycles, with many people embracing election procedures such as no-excuse absentee voting, early voting, and same-day voter registration.
As early as 2005, the bipartisan Carter-Baker Commission raised concerns that mail-in voting was a vehicle for potentially significant election fraud, yet the method has since steadily grown.
In 2018, a quarter of the electorate voted by mail, according to a study by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). By 2022, it had become one-third.
Forty-six states and territories permitted no-excuse absentee voting in 2022. The number was 43 in 2020 and 40 in 2018.
Twenty-three states and territories had a permanent absentee voter list in 2022—a practice that allows a voter to request to automatically be sent a mail-in ballot in every succeeding election. No new application or update of registration information is required in most of them.
In the 2022 election, half the states and territories allowed same-day voter registration.
In the election cycles before the pandemic, the EAC study said that nearly 60 percent of Americans voted in person on election day. In 2022, the figure was 49 percent.
Before the pandemic, mail-in ballot drop boxes were rare, with most being deployed in or around an election office. By 2022, there were 13,000 drop boxes being used in 39 states, with many boxes placed in settings that lacked security and surveillance measures.
Fifteen of the 39 states and territories using drop boxes, including Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, New York, and Maine, couldn’t report how many ballots were collected from their receptacles in 2022, the report said.
According to the EAC study, 334,382 voting machines were used in the nation’s polling places in 2022. The utilization of electronic ballot marking devices was up 18.6 percent from 2020, while the use of electronic scanners rose 7.8 percent in the same period.
Despite the push by some election integrity activists for the hand-counting of ballots as a means to improve accuracy and security, the method was used by only 17.8 percent of jurisdictions in 2022, down from 20.7 percent in 2020.
And although chain of custody protections for ballots are being tightened in several states, dirty voter registration rolls—resulting in mail-in ballots being sent to ineligible people, undeliverable addresses, or multiple ballots being sent to the same individual—are still a widespread issue.
Georgia
The state of Georgia has been the scene of continuous controversy over the conduct of the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election in which challenger Mr. Biden defeated incumbent President Trump by 11,779 votes (0.23 percent).
The persistent public outcry over alleged election fraud prompted the Republican-controlled Georgia General Assembly to pass the 95-page Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021.
The declared purpose of the legislation is to apply “the lessons learned” in 2020 and “make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,” in the future.
An explanatory notation in the bill acknowledged that there was a “significant lack of confidence” in the state’s election systems stemming from persistent allegations of “rampant voter fraud” and “rampant voter suppression.”
“The changes made in this legislation in 2021 are designed to address the lack of elector confidence in the election system on all sides of the political spectrum,” the notation said.
In order to ensure that more votes are not counted than ballots cast, every precinct, by 10 p.m. on election night, must post the number of all ballots cast, including all absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7 p.m.
The new law mandates that the total number of cast ballots must equal the number of ballots counted.
No pauses are allowed once the counting begins, as were seen in the early morning hours in Atlanta in 2020.
To help achieve a timely vote count, the statute allows absentee ballots to be processed days before the election, but the voter’s choices must not be tabulated until the counting begins on election day.
The act provides that ballots shall be printed with authentication marks in order to eliminate counterfeiting.
To deter duplicate voting and ballot harvesting, the statute mandates that mail-in ballot applications be sent out only at a registered elector’s request, and nobody but statutorily specified individuals may return a marked absentee ballot filled out by another person. Seeking to obtain more than one absentee ballot can now expose an individual to legal penalties.
When applying for an absentee ballot, the new law requires a person to provide the numbers from either their driver’s license or state-issued identification card or the last four digits of their social security number.
To expand opportunities to vote, early voting is now an option for three weeks before the election. The law makes early voting on Sunday available at the choice of each county.
The new legislation codifies the use of drop boxes in 2024, but mandates they be placed in secure, well-lit, locations with continuous human monitoring. To protect the chain of custody, two people are now required to deliver the contents of a drop box to an election clerk.
The act prohibits local officials from accepting non-government funds, grants, or gifts in connection with election administration.
In 2023, the Georgia legislature passed SB-222 to bolster the 2021 prohibition to make it a crime.
In protest to the new 2021 measures, Major League Baseball deemed them “restrictive,” and moved that year’s All-Star Game from Georgia to Colorado.
Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican, said that although improvements have been made since 2020, much meaningful work is still needed.
“Nothing of substance has changed since 2020. Every mechanism to facilitate a steal is still in place,” he told The Epoch Times. “We must work to eliminate the vulnerabilities still in place today.”
Mr. Moore also highlighted the “ridiculous” number of absentee ballots still used in Georgia elections and said they ought to be restricted to military personnel and medically disabled citizens. He said he was also worried about the institutionalization of the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, which he believes should be done away with altogether.
“We need to make it a legislative priority to stop authoritarian figures like [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis from prosecuting people for merely questioning our elections. Her actions have created a chilling effect among my colleagues in the legislature,” he said.
“Unless we obtain a legislative solution soon, we must resolve to overcome fraud through an overwhelming turnout in November.”
Right after being elected in 2018, Michigan’s Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used her veto power to shoot down nearly 20 election integrity reform bills sent to her desk by the then-Republican-controlled state legislature.
In the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump lost Michigan to Joe Biden by 154,000 votes or 2.8 percent.
Afterwards, judges in six different court cases found that Michigan’s Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson issued inaccurate or legally unauthorized guidance to local officials in the runup to the 2020 general election.
When Ms. Whitmer was reelected in 2022 and Democrats captured control of the legislature, within a year 12 new Democrat-sponsored election laws were enacted—all of which Republicans say loosen security.
The new Democrat-authored statutes extend automatic voter registration to other state agencies and offices beyond the Secretary of State’s office, which issues driver’s licenses in Michigan.
They liberalize online registration and allow a person to apply for an absentee ballot online. They permit 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote.
During the past several election cycles, Democrat activists, backed by out-of-state, big-money donors, effectively used the ballot initiative process to repeal existing election laws, enact new laws, and amend the state constitution. Two of the largest contributors were the Sixteen Thirty Fund ($11 million) and the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundation ($1.2 million).
The ballot initiative method was employed to expand and institutionalize the use of mail-in ballot drop boxes, allow no-excuse absentee voting, permit same-day registration and voting, and shorten the length of residency required to register to vote.
The initiative process was also used to weaken photo ID requirements by mandating that election officials accept an affidavit of identity signed by the prospective voter instead. It also enabled people to request to automatically receive an absentee ballot for every election in perpetuity, and it authorized taxpayer-funded, postage-free mailing for people returning absentee ballot applications or mail-in ballots.
Left-wing activist groups also utilized the initiative process to obtain the constitutional right to nine consecutive days of early voting; and early voting sites can now be used by people from more than one community within a county.
The ballot proposals enacting these new laws were approved handily by the Michigan electorate at the polls.
“12 Fellas Down. 1 To Go”: Nikki Haley Has Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend On Social Media
The only thing more hilarious than Nikki Haley continuing to remain in the 2024 presidential race despite zero chance of winning is her completely inept social media team – which suggested she’s more than just a whore for the military-industrial complex.
In Sunday afternoon tweet, ‘Haley’ let the world know: “12 fellas down. 1 to go.”
And if that wasn’t bad enough – they don’t even know how to use X! Later that day, after the ‘I’m a huge whore’ tweet, a staffer using X Pro (formerly Tweetdeck), scheduled Haley’s entire week of pre-canned tweets (so very authentic!) in under an hour.
DEVELOPING: A Nikki Haley staffer using Tweetdeck (now X Pro) for the first time just scheduled all of Haley’s posts for the week to drop within the hour. We are on 26 tweets in less than 40 minutes. pic.twitter.com/A1Rtdq6D5D
This Is A Cycle Of Illusion: You See What You Want To See
By Stefan Koopman, senior macro strategist at Rabobank
We are living in a time of economic bewilderment. The pandemic has given us an unprecedented shock, but we have also seen a surprisingly swift recovery. Inflation has risen to the highest level in decades, but has been declining while unemployment sits at its lowest in years. Central banks have raised interest rates at breakneck pace, yet markets continue to soar to new heights. How is this possible?
The answer lies in the realization that we are not experiencing a typical business cycle, but rather a cycle of illusion. This is not a cycle driven the by organic macro processes as outlined in our economics textbooks and forecasted by our DSGE models, but one marked by huge disruptions in demand and supply, by logistical chaos and geopolitical tensions, by pent-up demand and increased savings, by mismatches in the labour market and strong wage growth, by vacant commercial real estate and shortages of residential real estate, by China offloading their excess capacity overseas and the West trying to rebuild its own capacity. It is a cycle that constantly gives false signals about the state of the economy and the prospects for the future.
The hope that inflation will gently recede to around 2 percent has been gaining a lot of ground since November. Such a scenario seemed completely unattainable in October. Decreasing risk premiums and heightened expectations for a ‘normalization’ of monetary policy were the outcomes. But will we finally get a normal business cycle?
It appears not. We are still in a transitional phase, wherein the global economy grapples with adapting to a new, harsher geopolitical reality. Risks such as the war in Ukraine, the crisis in the Red Sea, or escalating tensions between China and the United States are not isolated incidents. They are not some unlucky draws from the same tail of the distribution of risks we’ve always had. Instead, we have seen a shift in the entire distribution of those risks. This not only leads to more supply shocks but will also introduce new macroeconomic paradoxes. The cycle of illusion, it seems, is far from over.
So the economy is playing tricks with us, and markets and policymakers have fallen for them. Only a very, very brave analyst would at this stage forecast a couple of rate hikes instead of cuts. Yet some of this month’s data do tell that different story. Take the US, for example. In January, non-farm payrolls surged by 353,000, initial claims fell, and core inflation proved stubborn at 3.9% y/y. The producer price index (PPI) jumped by 0.5% month-on-month, University of Michigan inflation expectations rose, and the prices paid index of the ISM services survey hit 64. That’s not exactly rate-cutting territory. However, things may do a 180 again in February, as this economy is like magic. You see what you want to see; the reality is too complicated anyway.
Pentagon Confirms $32M Drone Downed Off Yemen, Same Day UK Tanker Destroyed
Update(1330ET): Monday has been a bad day for the Western coalition patrolling the Red Sea. First, US defense officials have confirmed to The New York Times that overnight an MQ-9 Reaper drone was downed and that the Pentagon is investigating, after the Houthis stated (see below) they successfully shot it down:
The Pentagon is investigating the cause of a crash of an American military surveillance drone off the coast of Yemen on Monday morning, two U.S. officials said.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, confirmed that the drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, fell out of the sky. Iranian-backed Houthi militants said on Monday that they had downed the drone near the port city of Al Hudaydah, in western Yemen.
As a reminder, the cost of each Reaper is commonly estimated at $32 million. The below purports to be video of the US drone downing (unverified footage):
The Yemeni armed forces and Ansar Allah shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone last night. They also destroyed a UK owned ship.
Next, CENTCOM has issued a fresh statement confirming the Houthis destroyed a UK-owned commercial ship. The Houthis have claimed the vessel sunk, and this seems to have been acknowledged in the US statement, which follows:
Between 9:30 and 10:45 p.m., Feb. 18, two anti-ship ballistic missiles were launched from Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist-controlled areas of Yemen toward MV Rubymar, a Belize-flagged, UK-owned bulk carrier. One of the missiles struck the vessel, causing damage. The ship issued a distress call and a coalition warship along with another merchant vessel responded to the call to assist the crew of the MV Rubymar. The crew was transported to a nearby port by the merchant vessel.
All of this comes after several weeks of US coalition airstrikes on Yemen. But the Biden’s administration’s going on the ‘offensive’ against the Houthis is clearly having little or no effect. In fact, Operation Prosperity Guardian seems to only be emboldening the attacks on targets in and over the Red Sea.
The Houthis are now actively going after aerial assets as well, with some ‘successes’, a very dangerous escalation.
* * *
Attacks on Red Sea shipping from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis escalated overnight when missiles hit a commercial vessel and forced the crew to evacuate. There are also reports a US drone was knocked out of the sky by an anti-air missile.
Bloomberg reports missiles hit the engine room of “Rubymar,” a Belize-flagged cargo ship sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Rubymar reported severe damage after “an explosion in close proximity to the vessel,” the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center reported.
“Military authorities report crew have abandoned the vessel,” UKMTO said, adding, “Vessel at anchor and all crew are safe.”
This is the first instance the crew of a commercial vessel has been forced to evacuate due to damage sustained by rebel attacks.
Yahya Sare’e, the Houthis’ spokesperson, warned in a statement that Rubymar is “now at risk of potentially sinking.”
“The ship suffered catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt,” Sare’e continued.
He also said Yemeni air defenses shot down a US General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drone in the region “with a suitable missile while it was carrying out hostile missions against our country.”
— United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) (@UK_MTO) February 19, 2024
Despite the US and UK having carried out hundreds of attacks on the country in an attempt to neutralize rebels, continued missile and drone attacks on the international shipping lane represent a failure by the collective West to bring peace and safety to the area.
Hillary Clinton Claims “Wannabe Dictator” Trump Will Pull US Out Of NATO, “Militarize American Law Enforcement”
Ex-Secretary of State and failed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton apparently couldn’t pass up the opportunity to trash former President Donald Trump before an audience of Western defense leaders in Europe. A gathering of elite European defense bureaucrats is perhaps the only venue she remains ‘popular’.
Clinton said during a panel of the Munich Security Conference that if Trump enters the White House again he’ll seek to withdraw the United States from NATO. She told the international audience that Trump must be taken “literally and seriously” after he on the campaign trail blasted NATO countries for lagging behind on defense spending. For many years Trump has been consistent in his message of demanding alliance members fulfill their obligation of 2 percent.
Trump had earlier this month said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO states that don’t meet spending guidelines on defense. In the remarks which can easily been seen as hyperbole spoken before an enthusiastic ‘America First’ crowd, he explained:
“NATO was busted until I came along,” Trump said at a rally in Conway, South Carolina. “I said, ‘Everybody’s gonna pay.’ They said, ‘Well, if we don’t pay, are you still going to protect us?’ I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ They couldn’t believe the answer.”
Clinton on Saturday in Munich warned that as Trump seeks re-election, “We have a long struggle ahead of us, and the obvious point to make about Donald Trump is take him literally and seriously.”
“He means what he says,” she emphasized. “People did not take him literally and seriously in 2016. Now he is telling us what he intends to do, and people who try to wish it away, brush it away, are living in an alternative reality.”
She further claimed that his prior statements are an indicator that he will seek to “pull us out of NATO.” She continued:
“He will do everything he can to become an absolute authoritarian leader if given the opportunity to do so. And he will pull us out of NATO even though the Congress passed a resolution saying that he couldn’t without congressional support, because he will just not fund our obligations.”
Hillary has really been on a roll lately, and mainstream networks have naturally been ready to give her a platform no matter the nature of her ravings…
Speaking to Christiane Amanpour on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference she claimed that if Trump returns to the presidency he’ll call in the Army to “round up people because of the way they look.”
She said, “They may or may not be undocumented. It doesn’t matter to him. He wants to call out the Army to do that.”
Deranged Hillary Clinton claims Trump is going to use the Army to round up Americans and use the Insurrection Act to militarize law enforcement because he’s “enamoured of Putin,” or something. Report here https://t.co/cRbejO2guZpic.twitter.com/WHjGK5ph8z
Hillary further claimed that Trump “wants to use, you know, the Insurrection Act to militarize American law enforcement.”
And of course she played the Putin card in the interview:
She then threw in Putin and Russia for good measure, stating “That’s what he wants. He wants to bend the government of the United States to his will, just like Vladimir Putin did to Russia.”
Hillary also charged that Republicans “are not doing America’s business, they’re doing Donald Trump’s business,” adding “He’s a wannabe dictator. Why is Donald Trump so enamoured of Putin?”
As for NATO and defense spending, the reality is that Trump’s biting criticisms of NATO predate even his getting elected in 2016. Throughout his four years, he berated and threatened NATO over the dire issue. Since the Ukraine crisis, a number of Western officials have quietly admitted Trump was right to sound the alarm over European preparedness (or lack of).
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has recently voiced that he’s “confident” that the US will “remain a strong ally and committed ally” regardless of the outcome of upcoming election.
“Shedding is unfortunately real,” said Dr. Pierre Kory at the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in early February. “The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) knows that.”
Dr. Kory is a co-founder of the FLCCC, a non-profit advocacy group founded by physicians for the treatment of COVID-19, long COVID, and postvaccine syndromes. He is also the co-founder of the Leading Edge Clinic and has treated over a thousand long-COVID and postvaccine patients.
Fact-checkers have largely denied shedding on the basis of definition. The commonly cited definition comes from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, which defines shedding as the release of viruses, bacteria, and their components from live vaccines.
While mRNA and adenovirus vaccines are not live vaccines, they function similarly to gene therapy products.
All gene therapy products pose a risk of shedding, according to the FDA.
FDA Documents
In a 2015 document titled Design and Analysis of Shedding Studies for Virus or Bacteria-Based Gene Therapy and Oncolytic Products, the FDA defines shedding as “the release of [viral or bacterial gene therapy products] … from the patient through one or all of the following ways: excreta (feces); secreta (urine, saliva, nasopharyngeal fluids etc.); or through the skin (pustules, sores, wounds).”
In the same document, the FDA also explains what gene therapy products are: “All products that mediate their effects by transcription and/or translation of transferred genetic material.”
The COVID-19 mRNA and adenovirus vaccines fall into this category. They mediate their effects by inducing the body to translate mRNA genetic information into spike proteins.
Some gene therapy products known to shed include an eye treatment branded as Luxturna. Luxturna uses an adenovirus carrier to deliver eye protein DNA to retina cells in patients.
The Luxturna adenovirus and its DNA have been found in patients’ tears, according to the product’s package insert.
Similarly, mRNA and adenovirus COVID-19 vaccines may cause vaccinated patients to release spike proteins or other vaccine components, Dr. Kory explained.
For example, COVID-19 mRNA has been found in the breast milk of vaccinated mothers, indicating possible exposure of the vaccine to infants. Another study showed that spike protein, the product of COVID-19 vaccination, can last for at least half a year in the blood of vaccinated individuals, indicating prolonged spike protein persistence.
The FDA, however, denied that the 2015 document applies to COVID mRNA vaccines.
“COVID-19 vaccines are not regulated as gene therapy products by the FDA; therefore, the guidance document cited is not applicable to the COVID-19 vaccines,” an FDA spokeswoman told The Epoch Times.
Pfizer Investigators Told to Report ‘Environmental’ Vaccine Exposures
Another piece of evidence resides in Pfizer documents, Dr. Kory added.
In Pfizer’s COVID mRNA vaccine protocol, the company instructs investigators to report “environmental exposures” if trial participants expose people around them to the vaccine through inhalation or skin contact.
Examples of such environmental exposures are noted as follows:
“A male participant who is receiving or has discontinued [vaccine] intervention exposes a female partner prior to or around the time of conception.”
“A female family member or healthcare provider reports that she is pregnant after having been exposed to the [vaccine] intervention through inhalation or skin contact.”
The protocol also goes into what Dr. Kory and his clinic co-founder, Scott Marsland, call “secondary shedding.” This occurs when a person who has had environmental exposure to the vaccine then exposes another person.
“An example of environmental exposure during breastfeeding,” Pfizer writes, “is a female family member or healthcare provider who reports that she is breastfeeding after having been exposed to the study intervention (the vaccine) by inhalation or skin contact.”
Pfizer’s Documents Showing Indirect Exposures
Pfizer has documented hundreds of adverse events that occurred as a result of indirect exposures or exposure to babies during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
In its Periodic Safety Report submitted to the European Union, Pfizer listed several adverse events it deemed not attributable to the vaccine and that should be excluded from discussion.
The document listed 22 cases of adverse events in babies who had received “indirect exposure” to COVID mRNA boosters, suggesting exposure other than a direct vaccination.
The investigators also monitored several special adverse event cases. Two blood-related adverse events involved babies being exposed through breastfeeding. Ten cases of liver-related adverse events and one adverse event of the vasculature system were reported for the same reason.
Two cases of acute kidney or renal failure and eight respiratory cases also involved babies being exposed during pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Testimonies From Patients
Patients who may be affected by vaccine exposure tend to be those with a history of sensitivities and chronic diseases, said Dr. Kory and Mr. Marsland. They also tend to have bad experiences with pharmaceuticals and are more likely to be chronically debilitated by COVID-19 or the vaccine.
Dr. Kory said that after compiling over 800 anecdotal reports, they observed a clear pattern in symptoms that they determined to be shedding.
Typically, the manifestation of symptoms is repeatable and predictable, such as when a person repeatedly becomes symptomatic when going into supermarkets or crowded places.
Dr. Kory gave the example of a patient who noticed he could not handle going into grocery stores.
The patient told Dr. Kory that he just couldn’t “go into grocery stores anymore.” Within five minutes of entering a Trader Joe’s grocery store, he “feels so terrible” that he has to leave. He experienced the same aversion upon going to a crowded farmers market.
At the FLCCC event, Mr. Marsland also shared several cases where he believed shedding was involved.
One case involved a 54-year-old male, who previously suffered from symptoms after the COVID-19 vaccine, meeting up with a friend who received a COVID-19 booster.
They sat close to each other, talking and laughing. “Within hours of spending their time together, [the man] had a headache, myalgia, and joint pain, increased fatigue,” Mr. Marsland relayed.
When the patient went to a busy airport, he felt worse.
He returned home and had sexual contact with his spouse, exchanging bodily fluids. Within minutes, the spouse developed severe “nine out of 10” abdominal pain.
The two believed the pain was from shedding, so both took ivermectin, known to bind to and block spike proteins. Within about half an hour, the spouse’s abdominal pain receded.
“It’s the temporal association and the accumulation of symptoms,” Mr. Marsland reasoned.
Professors in vaccinology, however, do not acknowledge that mRNA vaccines may induce shedding.
“mRNA leads to the expression of proteins in cells, and this expression is different from shedding, as you would have if you are infected by certain viruses,” associate professor Paulo Verardi of the University of Connecticut told The Epoch Times.
“While SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to virus shedding, and, therefore, transmission of the virus from person to person, shedding of the spike protein does not occur in individuals receiving the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine,” he continued.
While another definition of shedding refers to the release of live viruses in people infected or vaccinated with live vaccines, Dr. Kory reiterated that the shedding discussed in the case of COVID-19 vaccines is different from the shedding of live viruses.
Professor Florian Krammer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai also told The Epoch Times that shedding does not exist.
He did not reply when The Epoch Times presented him with information regarding the FDA’s documents on gene therapy and shedding.
Fred Smith, the founder of executive chairman of shipping giant FedEx, is the latest business leader to sound the alarm that if America’s ballooning public debt is left unchecked, it will threaten to spiral into a catastrophic crisis.
Mr. Smith was asked during an interview on Fox News for his opinion on projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that U.S. federal debt held by the public will go from 99 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024 to a record 116 percent in 2034, before pushing above 170 percent by midcentury.
He replied by saying that warnings about the level of government spending adding to America’s public debt are both serious and growing and, “hopefully, I’m adding to the chorus and saying this is unsustainable.”
Recently, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon warned that out-of-control spending in Washington threatens a government default that could trigger a “rebellion,” while billionaire investor Ken Griffin said that trying to print more dollars to deal with the possibility of a default would push the economy into a “deep tailspin.”
Under President Joe Biden’s term in office, the national debt has jumped by more than $6.3 trillion (and $7.8 trillion under former President Donald Trump).
‘Catastrophic Fiscal Crisis’
Mr. Smith told Fox News that America’s ability to print money depends on the dollar remaining the world’s foremost reserve currency, but that this is increasingly at risk.
“The so-called BRICs alliance—Brazil, Russia, India and China—have set out on a deliberate course to dethrone the dollar,” Mr. Smith said. “If that happens and we can’t sell our bonds, I can assure you the living standards that we all enjoy today are going to be a thing of the past.”
The Fox News host then recalled Mr. Smith’s remarks at an event in December, when the FedEx chairman said that he hoped political leaders in Washington could recognize the “unprecedented dangers” that the country faces in terms of political and financial instability, and would have enough common sense to take steps to avoid a “catastrophic fiscal crisis.”
Asked whether he sees the wisdom to avert a catastrophe in today’s political leaders, Mr. Smith said: “no, quite the contrary.”
While a number of captains of industry have warned about the need to put America’s fiscal house in order, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said recently that she doesn’t think the federal government needs to cut deficit spending and balance the budget to put the country on a fiscally sustainable path.
Ms. Yellen’s remarks came during a Feb. 6 appearance before the House Financial Services Committee, when asked if the U.S. budget would ever be balanced over the next 50 years to bolster the country’s financial standing.
“I don’t think the budget needs to be balanced,” she said during an exchange with Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). “The U.S. budget does not need to be balanced to be on a fiscally sustainable path.”
Recent Treasury data show that budget deficit grew 16 percent from a year ago, pushing the federal budget shortfall to $532 billion in the first four months of the fiscal year.
Ms. Yellen said at the hearing that President Joe Biden’s deficit-reduction economic policy proposals would help “guarantee” the government is on a sustainable path by ensuring the national economy is growing.
Her remarks—and the warnings from business leaders—come as the annual interest payments on America’s public debt have exceeded the $1 trillion mark and as the national debt has broken above $34 trillion.
Recent CBO projections show that federal debt held by the public as a percentage of GDP is expected to hit 172 percent by 2054.
CBO Director Phill Swagel said in remarks about the budget outlook that interest payments on U.S. government debt would rise to around $1.6 trillion within a decade.
“Net interest costs are a major contributor to the deficit, and their growth is equal to about three-quarters of the increase in the deficit from 2024 to 2034,” Mr. Swagel said.
“Initially, net interest costs are similar to the amounts of discretionary spending both for defense and for nondefense activities. By the end of the period, they are roughly one and a half times larger than each, at $1.6 trillion,” he added.
While some in the executive branch downplay the danger of budget deficits, Congress appears to be moving closer to at least establishing a commission to consider steps to rein in out-of-control spending.
Debt Commission
The Republican-led House Budget Committee recently voted 22–12 to create a 16-member commission that would submit fiscal policy recommendations.
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the House Budget Committee chair, blamed both parties for being fiscally irresponsible.
“We are all in this boat together. The boat is sinking. Our unsustainable national debt is the greatest challenge of the 21st century,” he said.
The commission has been tasked with assessing ways to balance the federal budget promptly.
One of its aims is to propose ways to enhance the long-term solvency of various government programs, in particular Medicare and Social Security.
Analysts at the University of Pennsylvania estimate that when the debt-to-GDP ratio hits around 200 percent, it will hit the point of no return. That’s when no amount of future tax increases or spending cuts could prevent the government from defaulting on its debt.
“Unlike technical defaults where payments are merely delayed, this default would be much larger and would reverberate across the U.S. and world economies,” they explained.
Under a best-case scenario, the University of Pennsylvania analysts estimate that the United States has around 20 years to take corrective action before the growing debt spiral spins out of control.
Key Events This Week: Nvidia Earnings And FOMC Minutes
It’s a quiet start to the week thanks to the President’s Day holiday in the US, and it’s also a relatively quiet week on the data front, however as DB’s Jim Reid writes in his weekly preview, “it‘s a reflection of the world we live in that the most important event of the week may be Nvidia’s earnings on Wednesday.”
Indeed, NVDA is now the 4th largest company in the world and the best performer in the S&P 500 so far this year (+46.6% YTD), so this will be very important for sentiment. China’s return from holidays will also add some interest after its recent equity market volatility and weak growth/inflation numbers (as noted earlier, it was the unexpected arrival of the plunge protection team that helped send Chinese stocks to session highs at the close). Here are the rest of the week’s earnings:
Needless to say, all of the focus will be on NVDA earnings – Wednesday 2/21 (numbers hit at 420pm, conf call at 5pm).
While we will do a more detailed preview shortly, here are the highlights: according to Goldman, options are pricing in a ~11% move on earnings next week – notable given the last two quarters, NVDA hasn’t budged T+1 (‘consolidation’ events), despite beating EPS by 20-30% on both prints, with Goldman top TMT trader Peter Callahan writing that there is “plenty of tactical debate whether this print will be a local top or a ‘break-out’ moment for the stock and for the A.I. trade (.. from my seat, feels like consensus is learning more towards the former..).”
NVDA is now up more than 50% since last quarter’s earnings, surpassing both GOOGL & AMZN in market cap in the interim. Investors are looking for Nvidia to once again deliver a clear beat-and-raise print — for context, Nvidia has beat revenue by ~$2bn the last couple of quarters (vs cons modeling ~$20bn in Jan qtr revenues), which will likely serve as a measuring stick alongside commentary on the April quarter (recall, Nvidia had guided Jan qtr +10% q/q) and the 2025+ roadmap (both visibility + product cadence). Next catalyst = NVIDIA GTC 2024 | March 18–21.
Elsewhere, we have the FOMC January minutes on Wednesday but a lot of data has flowed under the bridge since then and market pricing has moved closer to the Fed’s dots and tone since then so its hard to see how much we’ll learn from their thoughts three weeks earlier. The account of the January ECB meeting on Thursday will also be of note.
In terms of data, the global flash PMIs come out on Thursday and in the US this week’s claims on the same day correspond to survey week for payrolls. Winter storms may make data challenging to interpret in the next few weeks though. Tomorrow’s leading indicators and Thursday’s existing home sales are the other US highlights.
Over in China, after leaving the 1-yr MLF rate unchanged yesterday (as expected), tomorrow sees them decide on the 1-yr and 5-yr loan prime rates. The market is expecting the latter to be cut 10bps to 4.1%.
The full list of events in the week ahead, including earnings and central bank speakers, is below. Thursday is a big day for Fed speak including Vice Chair Jefferson who we haven’t heard from since the FOMC, so his views at the center of the committee will hold some weight.
Courtesy of DB, here is a day-by-day calendar of events
Monday February 19
Data: Canada January raw materials and industrial product price
Tuesday February 20
Data: US January leading index, February Philadelphia Fed non-manufacturing activity, China 1-yr and 5-yr loan prime rates, Japan January trade balance, Italy December current account balance, EU 27 January new car registrations, ECB December current account, Eurozone December construction output, Canada January CPI
Earnings: Walmart, Home Depot, BHP, Palo Alto Networks, Medtronic, Air Liquide, Carrefour
Wednesday February 21
Data: UK January public finances, France January retail sales, Eurozone February consumer confidence
Central banks: Fed’s January FOMC minutes, Bostic speaks, BoE’s Dhingra speaks
Earnings: Nvidia, Rio Tinto, Analog Devices, Synopsys, Glencore, BAE, Vertiv, Rivian, Etsy
Auctions: US 2-yr FRNs (reopening $28bn), 20-yr Bonds ($16bn)
Thursday February 22
Data: US, UK, Japan, Germany, France and the Eurozone February PMIs, US January existing home sales, Chicago Fed national activity index, initial jobless claims, France February manufacturing confidence, Canada December retail sales
Central banks: Fed’s Jefferson, Bowman, Harker, Cook and Kashkari speak, ECB’s account of the January meeting, BoE’s Greene speaks
Data: China January new home prices, UK February GfK consumer confidence, Germany Q4 private consumption, government spending and capital investment, February ifo survey
Earnings: Deutsche Telekom, Allianz, BASF, Warner Bros Discovery
Turning to just the US, Goldman notes that the key economic data releases this week are the jobless claims report on Thursday and the existing home sales report on Friday, while the minutes from the January FOMC meeting will be released on Wednesday. There are several speaking engagements by Fed officials this week, including Fed Vice Chair Jefferson, Fed Governors Bowman, Cook and Waller, and Presidents Bostic, Harker, and Kashkari.
Monday, February 19
No major data releases scheduled.
Tuesday, February 20
No major data releases scheduled.
Wednesday, February 21
08:00 AM Atlanta Fed Bostic (FOMC voter) speaks: Atlanta Fed president Raphael Bostic will give welcoming remarks at the Airports Council International CFO Summit in Atlanta. On January 18, Bostic said “Premature rate cuts could unleash a surge in demand that could initiate upward pressure on prices… [but] if we continue to see a further accumulation of downside surprises in the data, it’s possible for me to get comfortable enough to advocate for normalization sooner than the third quarter.”
02:00 PM FOMC meeting minutes, January 30-31 meeting: The FOMC kept the target range for the federal funds rate unchanged at its January meeting. During the press conference, Fed Chair Powell noted that the committee “does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent” and gave a strong signal that a March funds rate cut “is probably not the most likely case.”
Thursday, February 22
08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended February 17 (GS 210k, consensus 218k, last 212k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended February 10 (GS 1,895k, consensus 1,880k, last 1,895k)
10:00 AM Fed Vice Chair Jefferson (FOMC voter) speaks: Federal Reserve Vice Chair Philip Jefferson will give remarks at the International Economics event held by Peterson Institute. The event will be livestreamed, and a moderated Q&A is expected.
01:00 PM Fed Governor Bowman (FOMC voter) speaks: Fed Governor Michelle Bowman will speak at the Exchequer Club luncheon in Washington DC. A moderated Q&A is expected. On January 8, Bowman said “While the current stance of monetary policy appears to be sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to 2 percent over time, I remain willing to raise the fed funds rate further at a future meeting should the incoming data indicate that progress on inflation has stalled or reversed.”
02:00 PM Philadelphia Fed President Harker (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker will give a speech on the economic outlook in Newark, Delaware. The event will be livestreamed. Speech text and moderated Q&A are expected.
05:00 PM Fed Governor Cook (FOMC voter) speaks: Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook will deliver a keynote address at a conference hosted by Princeton University on “Macrofinance in the Long Run: New Insights on the Global Economy.”
05:00 PM Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will participate in a panel discussion focused on economic trends and the outlook for 2024 and the growth of Minnesota’s economy. A Q&A with audience is expected. The event will be livestreamed.
07:35 PM Fed Governor Waller (FOMC voter) speaks: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will speak on the economic outlook at the University of St. Thomas Minneapolis campus. Speech text and moderated Q&A are expected. The event will be livestreamed. On January 16, Waller said “As long as inflation doesn’t rebound and stay elevated, I believe the FOMC will be able to lower the target range for the fed funds rate this year.”
Friday, February 23
09:45 AM S&P Global US manufacturing PMI, February preliminary (consensus 50.5, last 50.7): S&P Global US services PMI, February preliminary (consensus 52.1, last 52.5)
10:00 AM Existing home sales, January (GS +7.0%, consensus +5.0%, last -1.0%)
In the last week, Joe Biden had flat-out lied in the most egregious fashion in so many ways.
In his disastrous press conference of last week, he claimed that special counsel Hur’s report exonerated him. Anyone who read the findings concluded exactly the opposite.
According to Hur, Biden would have been indicted for his willfully unlawful removal of classified documents except for two reasons:
one, the Department of Justice protocols apparently prohibit indicting a sitting president;
and two, Biden suffers such cognitive decline that the special counsel believes a jury would more likely pity him into acquittal than convict him of what he is certainly guilty.
He lied that Hur brought up his son’s death (“How in the hell dare he raise that?”). In fact, Biden as is his serial wont, raised it, and does on a regular basis, usually deliberately and further lying that his son died while on military duty in Iraq (he died six years subsequently as a civilian in Walter Reed Hospital), and always contorting the death to enhance his own greater sense of grieving.
He lied that he notified authorities when he discovered that he unlawfully had taken out classified documents to various residencies (perhaps for over some 30 plus years during his senatorial and Vice Presidential tenures). In fact, Biden only admitted that he had apparently for decades unlawfully removed classified files in 2017, to his ghostwriter in a recorded tape, and then he hid that fact and kept quiet for five years—until his administration’s special counsel began to investigate Trump for the same thing.
Note the worried ghostwriter erased the tape of Biden’s confession as soon as he learned there was an appointment of a special counsel. (Destroy evidence much?)
He lied that the files bore no classification marks. In fact, they did and do. He lied that he kept the files safe in a secure location. In fact, the special counsel report includes several photographs of the Biden garage, in which there were sloppily stored, open, and torn boxes of classified documents amid a complete mess of junk.
He lied that Trump’s once secure border is somehow responsible for Biden’s intentionally open border.
He just lied that Trump caused the 2022 Putin invasion of Ukraine on Biden’s watch that never occurred on Trump’s.
It is not enough that the Biden team must wildly lie daily that the non-compos-mentis President is dynamic, impressive in his recall and cognition, and stands out as the most astute mind in most of this meetings.
Well apart from his cognitive decline, Biden himself is a pathological prevaricator.
