Month: February 2023

Back in September, when looking at various leading rental market indicators, we reported that “Manhattan Apartment Rents Finally “Plateau” After Red-Hot Summer” a trend reversal that was also observed at the national level as we observed in “Nationwide Rents Drop For First Time In Two Years.” With rents peaking in August, two months later the retnal drop accelerated as we discussed in “Just Tumbled The Most On Record As Economy Craters“, incidentally something we wrote just hours after the latest FOMC, when Fed chair Jerome Powell clearly hadn’t yet gotten the rent memo as the following two quotes from his November FOMC presser reveal:

• POWELL: POINT AT WHICH RENT INFLATION SLOWS IS STILL FAR AWAY

• POWELL: AT SOME POINT YOU’LL SEE RENTS COMING DOW

Fast forward to today when not just Powell but everyone at the Fed should be fully aware that rents have been sliding for almost half a year now, because as Powell’s favorite WSJ mouthpiece himself wrote today, “apartment rents fell in every major metropolitan area in the U.S. over the past six months through January, a trend that is poised to continue as the biggest delivery of new apartments in nearly four decades is slated for this year” while tenants are now maxed out on how much income they can devote to rent.

Citing our favorite real-time rental market indicator, listing website Apartment List whose data we used in Sept 2021 when we wrote “What Rental Hyperinflation Looks Like: “Soaring Prices. Competition. Desperation” to explain why rents are far higher than the CPI reports and why the prevailing groupthink consensus of “transitory inflation” was dead wrong, WSJ reported Nick Timiraos writes that renters with new leases in January paid a median rent that was 3.5% lower than they would have paid last August…

… “the first time in five years that rent fell every month over a six-month period, according to the same estimates.”

Realizing what our readers – if not the Fed – knew long ago, namely that to get an accurate picture of rents and inflection points in the apartment rental market one needs to look not at the CPI’s Owner Equivalent Rent data which is delayed by approximately 12 months, Timiraos says that four other market measures by housing-data companies also show that new-lease rents either fell or remained flat in January compared with the previous month, extending a streak of monthly rent declines that began at the end of the summer.

This can be seen in this Goldman chart which uses primary data from CoStar which also shows that rents peaked in August and have been declining since, even if they clearly have a long way to go to catch down to their pre-covid levels.

The softening rental market follows an unprecedented run for the apartment and home-rental industry put into motion by the pandemic. Pent-up demand for housing exploded in the months after the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines in late 2020 and a surge in people searching for apartments lifted rents 25% over two years.

But now that covid stimmies have long run out, the recent rental declines are a sign that many tenants have maxed out on how much of their income they can devote to rent, while the specter of layoffs has created new concerns for some. Other would-be renters who are living with family or friends, remain sidelined by prices that are still far too high for their budgets.

And while some seasonal stalling in rents is normal, Timiraos cautions that according to projections from CoStar, the market faces a significant headwind in the form of a supply “crush”, namely the biggest delivery of new supply since 1986: nearly half a million new apartments are coming on line this year as developers seek to cash in on the high rents that tenants have been paying. Indeed, as discussed over the weekend, countless renters facing the most unaffordable housing market in generations…

… are unable to to buy a home because of higher mortgage rates and steep prices, so rentals have been in high demand.

Rents, of course, are not alone, and they have retreated alongside sharper recent declines in home-sale prices, which fell 3.6% between June and November, according to the Case-Shiller. Soaring mortgage rates and softening buyer demand have been weighing on home prices, despite a period this year when lower rates sparked an uptick in buyer interest. Ironically, the more unaffordable home purchases have become, the greater the demand for rentals… at least until a tipping point of sorts was hit several months ago.

The good news is that with a long delay, the coming tidal wave of new apartment supply – especially in places where housing inventory remains unusually low to the benefit of home sellers – will give renters more choices, making it not only more difficult for landlords to raise rents at rates seen early in 2022, when rent growth was at a near-20% annual clip, but forcing many to cut rents outright.

Indeed, the supply of new rentals is already having an impact: according to software company RealPage, the share of apartment tenants who renewed leases declined in January to 52%, the lowest level for that month since 2018; the data suggests some tenants are finding better deals at other buildings.

“Renters facing lease renewals suddenly have a lot more options,” RealPage economist Jay Parsons said in a report. Landlords are likely to start dropping their renewal rents to prevent tenants from leaving, he added.

Ironically, asking rents are sliding just as the much-delayed shelter cost component of the CPI basket soared by oar 7.9% in January compared with the same month a year earlier. Of course, as we long ago noted, the impact of rent declines tends to lead what is expressed in the CPI by as much as 12 months. Furthermore, as we discussed recently, many renters are in the middle of leases signed before recent price drops. That is one reason why the rising cost of rent reflected in the CPI shows annual price growth that is still higher than market measures, which track new leases.

And while rent has been declining sequentially for five months now, rent growth still remains positive on an annual basis according to most data sources; even so the pace of growth is rapidly slowing and if it continues to decelerate beyond winter, it would help pull down services inflation figures, of which housing costs are the biggest component. New-lease rent growth ranged from about 2% to 6% in January compared with one year prior, according to most market reports, down significantly from the pace of growth in early 2022. As more leases expire, analysts expect CPI figures to better reflect the lower costs of new leases.

Where are the rental drops the biggest?

Citing the latest Apartment List data, Timiraos notes that in the months since August, new-lease rents have fallen most sharply in some of the nation’s biggest metro areas. Seattle rents have tumbled 8%, while rents in Boston and Las Vegas have fallen 6%, according to Apartment List.

The Seattle metro area’s median rent was $1,706 in January, while in the Boston metro area it was $1,879. Other measurements of rent with different sample criteria show much higher rent prices, but similar long-term trends in price movement.

Notably, none of the 52-largest metro areas tracked by Apartment List experienced positive rent growth over the period. Indianapolis and Miami were the best performing cities, with rental declines of just 1%. It was all downhill from there.

Rents for single-family homes, which had also increased sharply before last summer, now are stalling, too. The average national asking rent for a house rose just one buck in January, compared with December, to reach $2,070, according to data provider Yardi Matrix.

Assuring further rental declines, apartment vacancies have been rising since last fall, due to weaker demand from potential renters. Fewer people are flocking to Zoomtowns—communities that experienced a surge in population from an influx of remote workers—such as Boise, Idaho, or Phoenix compared with earlier in the pandemic, a recent report from listing website Zumper notes.

Of course, there is a lot of room to fall: even after a 3.5% decline in new-lease rents since last summer, rents in many cities remain 20% or 30% higher than they were when the pandemic began. Rents in the Tucson, Ariz., Tampa, Fla., and Miami metro areas are all 35% higher than in March 2020, according to an Apartment List report.

“Renters are still having a tougher time than they were even a year-and-a-half ago,” said Chris Salviati, economist at Apartment List. However, if the Fed keeps rising rates and ignoring the general economic malaise – which the Biden admin is doing everything to cover up – rents should be in freefall in just a few months, but don’t expect the Fed to respond: as usual it takes the US central bank about 6 to 9 months to realize it is always behind the curve.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A top U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official gave false information about COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring to the agency’s vaccine advisory panel, and a spokesperson for the agency refused to correct the misinformation.

Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, presented on COVID-19 vaccine safety to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Feb. 24.

Shimabukuro went over updates to the safety signal for ischemic stroke following Pfizer bivalent booster vaccination that CDC officials detected in one of the agency’s monitoring systems.

After sharing the updates, Shimabukuro made the false statement.

“No safety signals were detected for ischemic stroke for the primary series or monovalent boosters for Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in U.S. and global monitoring,” Shimabukuro said.

That’s not true. The CDC identified ischemic stroke as a safety signal following Moderna and Pfizer vaccination after analyzing reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a different system, which the agency co-manages.

Asked for comment, Shimabukuro did not respond. But a CDC spokesperson doubled down on the false claim.

“The statement from Dr. Shimabukuro’s slides is correct. There have not been any safety signals detected at this time in the U.S. for ischemic stroke for the primary series or monovalent boosters,” Katherina Grusich, the spokesperson, told The Epoch Times in an email.

The CDC has previously offered misinformation and refused to correct it.

Barbara Loe Fisher, president and co-founder of the National Vaccine Information Center, said what unfolded was concerning.

“Those of us who worked with Congress to secure vaccine safety informing, recording, and reporting provisions in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act—of which VAERS was one—are deeply concerned that federal health officials are deliberately ignoring signals in VAERS and that mRNA COVID shots are causing ischemic strokes and other potentially fatal complications,” Fisher told The Epoch Times in an email.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines utilize messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology.

Bivalent boosters from both companies were authorized in the fall of 2022, but the primary series are still composed of the original vaccines, sometimes referred to as monovalent shots.

Shimabukuro’s statement had an impact. After his presentation, while the slide with the false information was on the screen, a member of the panel highlighted it.

“I think it’s important to note [the statement] for the public,” Veronica McNally, president and CEO of the Fanny Strong Foundation, said, before reading it in full.

Another False Statement

Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, a member of the advisory panel, also offered false information about the safety signal.

Read more here…

Who would have thought that all of the spur-of-the-moment government spending we engaged in to “beat the virus” over the last several years would turn out to be mismanaged and reckless?

That certainly seems to be the case now, as it is being reported that about $200 million worth of Covid supplies that were purchased during the Covid era in New York have been fire-sold off for just $500,000, according to Fox 5. 

Bill Hammond, senior policy fellow at the conservative-leaning think tank The Empire Center, told Fox: “People were dying. There was reasonable concern that it was going to keep getting worse.”

Among the emergency orders made by then-Mayor Bill de Blasio was an order for 3,000 emergency ventilators that cost the city $12 million. One investigative reporter, Greg Smith, said of the purchase: “They put them in the corner or in the closet or something, and they never turned [them] on.”

And now with de Blasio out of office, new Mayor Eric Adams is in the process of selling excess masks, medical gowns, and ventilators for “pennies on the dollar” in online auctions, the report says. 

On source told Fox: “The advertisement in the auction was for ‘nonfunctioning medical equipment for scrap metal,’ and they sold it to this junk dealer on Long Island for $24,600. That works out to about eight dollars per ventilator.”

In sum, the city wound up selling $200 million of Covid-era equipment for just $500,000. 

“I mean, they’re trying to sell it, so it’s still usable. Why don’t they keep it? Because, I mean, are we really comfortable with the idea that this will never happen again?” Smith asked. 

Mayor Adams has said that the city requires a 90 day stockpile, which is why he is selling off the rest: “The charter calls for a 90-day stockpile. After that 90 days, we have to make a determination, of my understanding, either to auction it off, give it away, or discard.”

Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,

In the title of this piece, I use the term, “high tech” however this is about the vulnerabilities of any advanced civilization. Such societies tend to be specialized with their members dependent on services and jobs being carried out by others in the community to provide the basic necessities they need. If people were suddenly faced with losing the things they need to survive it is easy to envision a situation where survival of the fittest became the mantra of the day and things would rapidly become quite dicey. 

High-tech societies are particularly vulnerable to collapse due to their population being dependent on both the system and others to provide the basic items they need to survive in everyday life. Electricity, food, water, sewer systems, phone and computer connections, transportation, and healthcare fall into this category. Just about everything else we have come to expect and experience as we go through our day depends on technology. 

Life has become more complex as we transferred the task we did in the past to machines, and this could come back to haunt us. Our growing dependence on computers and devices such as smartphones and computers has dumbed down society. This has compromised the skills we need to endure and survive. We have reached the point where many people can not do simple math or read a map.

A video by City Prepping reveals just how difficult it would be to survive following a massive disaster where no help or aid comes forth. Imagine being forced to exist for months on your own. The video points out many people will die if such a situation would arise. Would you know what to do? Even if you do, many of the things that would help you and your family survive are easier said and done. 

The video gives ideas and details on how to survive the first 90 days following a major widespread society-altering catastrophe. It also makes clear and helps drive home the reality that even after that time things would probably not improve rapidly, but that is an entirely different subject. This idea dovetails with previous AdvancingTime articles warning that the government, or governments in general, are incapable of taking care of its population during a major widespread disaster.

Most People Are Ill-Prepared To Face A Major Disaster

It does not help that most people are ill-prepared to face the obstacles and miseries such conditions would heap upon them. Then there is also mother nature which is very capable of pounding them with additional challenges. While this blog is not a “preppers destination” and generally focuses on cultural and economic issues, it also notes the idea of a total collapse of our society and support system must be considered. This includes the notion of an electromagnetic pulse knocking out and destroying all electronic devices.

Flowing into this is that military analysts have long warned about the threat of electromagnetic pulses, such a blast of radio waves could burn out most electronic devices. The most extreme version is a nuclear EMP from a high-altitude explosion. It is suggested a ‘ Pearl Harbor’ surprise attack might disable power systems across the continental U.S. and render most electronic equipment unusable. In such a situation, we are talking about a disaster complete with planes falling from the sky and automobiles hopefully coasting to a stop.

Rebooting Our Systems Would Be Difficult

Ironically, I have to wonder why those going to great lengths and costs to protect certain devices do not think follow-up EMPs would not affect those protected devices as soon as they were removed from their protective bags and put into use. This all feeds into the reality that we would all be screwed. Follow this thought with the Herculean task of ever rebooting our systems.

Even if you don’t take the threat seriously of such a life-altering event occurring, watching the video I refer to merits a few minutes of your attention. Simply being aware of some of the issues you might someday be forced to face could save your life. Basic survival skills are important and being prepared is linked to thinking about what is often considered the unthinkable. 

The video also addresses the issue of making the important decision as to whether to flee the area or try to move to what you think will be a safer location following a disaster. This is often referred to as “bugging out.” It points out that if you choose to move, relocating should be done sooner than later. After the first few days as people become desperate, unrest and violence will most likely surge making travel unsafe. Still, the matters of where to go, what to take, and how to get there remain. In my opinion, those city-dwellers living in dark high-rise apartments will find little comfort in their choice as the hallways and stairs become dangerous to navigate.

Well, that is enough doom-porn for one day, and following this post I will be returning to subjects more in line and related to the world we are more likely to face. Still, remember, even local governments urge people to prepare when a storm is forecast in the offing. Being prepared for an event that may never happen is both a pain in the ass and can be expensive. It also takes a great deal of discipline. Still, when all is said and done, it may be the most important thing you ever do.

There’s been spiraling violence since Sunday across multiple West Bank towns and villages. Israeli settlers went on a rampage in the Nablus area – burning cars, businesses and attacking random Palestinians – after a Sunday night shooting wherein a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis in the Huwara area.

Palestinian officials have condemned what they called a “pogrom” which saw some 400 Palestinians injured. This resulted in more shootings by Palestinian gunmen on Monday, including of a motorist identified by US officials as an American.

According to Al Jazeera, “Palestinian media reported stabbings and attacks with metal rods and rocks. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said one person was in hospital after being beaten in the head with a rock, causing fractures to the skull. Another person suffered a beating with a metal rod to the face.”

There’s since been a series of tit-for-tat revenge attacks from either side, with the latest resulting in the death of an American citizen in his 20s.

He was shot Monday near the city of Jericho by Palestinian gunmen, the US State Department confirmed:

According to Reuters, the killing was part of several drive-by shootings conducted by Palestinians along a highway amid escalating violence this week.

Two Israeli settlers were shot dead on Sunday, reportedly by a Palestinian gunman, prompting other settlers to storm through part of the West Bank.

The State Department later condemned the killings and “the wide-scale, indiscriminate violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians.”

US ambassador to Israel Tom Nides issued a statement saying, “Sadly, I can confirm that a U.S. citizen was killed in one of the terror attacks in the West Bank tonight. I pray for his family.”

Israeli reports describe that gunmen drove up beside the man’s car and shot at him while also opening fire on other cars, and subsequently the gunmen abandoned their car, setting it on fire. No others in nearby vehicles were injured. 

Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times,

A 73-year-old Arizona man will go on trial for the alleged second-degree murder of an illegal immigrant on his ranch property in January.

Justice of the Peace Emilio Velasquez determined at an evidentiary hearing in Nogales Justice Court on Feb. 24 that there was probable cause against George Alan Kelly to proceed to a trial in Superior Court.

Police initially charged Kelly with first-degree murder in the Jan. 30 shooting death of 43-year-old Mexican national Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, based mainly on inconsistent statements that Kelly made during an interview. 

The incident allegedly occurred on Kelly’s ranch located near Nogales, a southern border city of 20,837 in Arizona’s Santa Cruz County.

George Alan Kelly enters court for his preliminary hearing in Nogales Justice Court in Nogales, Ariz., on Feb. 22, 2023. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool)

During the Feb. 24 court hearing, the prosecution announced that Kelly would face a reduced charge of second-degree murder, which doesn’t require proof that the alleged crime was premeditated. 

Prosecutors didn’t elaborate on the downgraded felony charge. Kelly faces two additional charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Kelly’s attorney, Brenna Larkin, asked the judge to grant a continuance since the state’s case had “changed drastically” with new disclosures, requiring time for her to prepare a response. 

“In my experience, it is routine to grant continuances,” Larkin said. “Mr. Kelly should not be treated any differently.”

“Frankly, I am amazed at the state’s opposition [to a request for a continuance],” she said.

The judge denied the defense’s motion and the hearing moved forward to determine whether there was sufficient evidence that Kelly committed second-degree murder.

Kelly, wearing a blue long-sleeved shirt and a vest, was present in the courtroom at the Feb. 24 hearing. He remains free after posting a $1 million surety bond on his property.

Murder or Self-Defense?

The defense says that Kelly and his wife were having lunch in their kitchen when they heard a single gunshot at about 2 p.m. on Jan. 30. 

In court documents, Kelly told police that he went out onto his porch and saw a horse running in his direction and then a group of 10 to 15 men in camouflage clothing, wearing backpacks, and armed with AK-47 assault rifles. 

Kelly claimed he fired multiple warning shots from his AK-47 over the heads of the men when they pointed their weapons at him. The men then scattered and ran off his property.

During the alleged confrontation, Kelly called a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol liaison on his cell phone to report the incident. 

An initial search of his property by Border Patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies failed to locate any of the men or the deceased.

Later in the day, Kelly texted the Border Patrol liaison and left a voice message saying the matter was “worse than he could imagine” and that he “might have shot at something.”

Kelly reportedly told police he discovered the body of a man after he went to check on his horses around 5 p.m. that day and used a flashlight to mark the location of the body. 

A second search of the property found Cuen-Butimea lying face down with a single gunshot wound in his back.

Wanda Kelly (C), wife of George Alan Kelly, accused of first-degree murder in the shooting death of an illegal immigrant on Jan. 30, leaves the Nogales Justice Center in Nogales, Ariz., following a hearing on Feb. 22, 2023. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

Police were issued a warrant to search Kelly’s house; during a second search, they discovered Kelly’s AK-47, ammunition, and at least eight shell casings on and around his porch. 

During the defense cross-examination of a Santa Cruz County detective, Larkin alluded to a federal agent who described the location near Kelly’s ranch as a “high crime area” used for drug trafficking and criminals who steal drugs from the cartels.

The detective testified that during an interview, he told Kelly it was time to “come forward with the truth” and that the charge of first-degree murder rested largely on Kelly making “inconsistent statements.”

“I arrested him based on the totality of the circumstances,” the detective testified.

Prosecutors called a man identified only by the initials D.R.R., who testified that he was with Cuen-Butimea on Jan. 30 when Kelly allegedly started shooting at the group. 

The witness, wearing a blue hoodie and medical mask to conceal his identity, testified using a Spanish interpreter.

“[The group was] walking when this gentleman shot at us,” the witness testified. “I saw Gabriel hold his chest.”

He added that then, Cuen-Butimea rolled his eyes and fell to the ground sideways.

“I ran. I couldn’t help him.”

The witness testified that the gunshots, about 15 in total, sounded like rounds from an AK-47 rifle. He said he thought “the government” had shot at him as the group fled back across the border fence and into Mexico.

Witness Testimony ‘Not Credible’

Before the judge’s ruling on probable cause, Larkin said there was “no reason” to believe the “absolutely incredible” testimony of the witness and said that police found no shell casings in the quantity matching the witness description.

“It’s not conceivable that Mr. Kelly aimed from his porch, somehow saw this person, and made this long, difficult shot,” she said.

“Obviously, there is a dead body here,” she added.

“There needs to be probable cause that this crime took place [and that] this specific person committed this crime.”

Larkin asked the judge to “do the right thing” and find no probable cause in the case.

In the meantime, a fundraising campaign on GiveSendGo had raised $344,460 toward Kelly’s legal defense.

Shannon Pritchard, who created the campaign, wrote that the original goal was $250,000, calling the amount raised “astounding, miraculous, a blessing to the Kelly family beyond belief.”

“It is a tragedy that a simple farmer, who should be protected by the government has been abandoned and had to defend himself. That is bad enough, but the government that caused this, now wishes to persecute him,” Pritchard wrote. 

A Change.org petition that urges the charges against Kelly be dropped collected 11,526 signatures, toward a goal of 15,000.

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the border crisis in Yuma, Arizona, on Feb. 23, Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb said he thought the $1 million bond set for Kelly was “a little excessive” based on what he has seen.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels talks about the fentanyl crisis at the southern border in Arizona on Feb. 16, 2023. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)

“Just from what I’ve seen, it seemed a little excessive for a guy who doesn’t have a criminal history and claiming self-defense and is claiming he didn’t even shoot him.”

Lamb told The Epoch Times that a first-degree murder charge seemed unusual for the case, given the evidence presented.

“I heard the term premeditated. Premeditated first-degree is pretty hard to prove. From what I’ve heard, it’s going to be tough. But I don’t know the case.”

Santa Cruz County Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Geraldo Castillo told The Epoch Times that the department has “not investigated a crime of this magnitude [previously] involving a migrant and a rancher.”

“The investigation continues. There’s a lot still ongoing. I will not be able to comment at this time,” Castillo said.

While prosecutors argued that Kelly shot Cuen-Butimea without provocation, Larkin said the case has been “highly political” from the start.

“This essentially lit a match over an incredibly intense political powder keg and, predictably, there was an explosion,” Larkin said at a court hearing on Feb. 22.

Kelly declined to comment to The Epoch Times at the probable cause hearing on Feb. 24.

Last week, the US State Department authorized the extradition of former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, after his home country has long sought to try him on corruption charges. The 76-year old has resided in the US since he left office in 2006. He’s since been under US house arrest, and is the latest in a long line of Peruvian leaders who have faced corruption charges.

But Alejandro’s return to Peruvian custody has sparked concerns over where to house him, given that a special prison built for disgraced former presidents has already run out of space. 

There are so many ex-presidents behind bars, that there’s literally no more space to put them in specialized units, away from general population inmates. 

As Bloomberg points out, every single Peruvian president who has held office since 1990 has been in jail, or is in jail currently, or has been slapped with a detention order, equaling six total.

According to Bloomberg, “The Barbadillo jail on the outskirts of Lima is currently occupied by former president Alberto Fujimori, held there since 2007 over death squad killings and corruption, and Pedro Castillo, who attempted a coup in December.” 

And now with Alejandro headed there, “Adding a third presidential inmate would exceed the two-person capacity stated in documents published by prison authority INPE.”

The presidential jail was previously home behind bars for other famous (or infamous) heads of state as follows: 

In addition to Fujimori, Toledo and Castillo, three other ex-presidents have faced detention orders. Ollanta Humala, who governed between 2011 and 2016, was in Barbadillo over allegations that Odebrecht had illegally financed his presidential campaign.

And further, “In 2019, former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was arrested over alleged ties to the same builder, but was ultimately put under house arrest due to health issues.”

Alan Garcia, who was President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms from 1985 to 1990, and from 2006 to 2011, killed himself when he was served a preliminary arrest warrant notifying him he was headed to jail. Based on these past stats, it’s almost certain at this point that if a person becomes Peruvian president, future jail time awaits them.

Authored by Gary Bai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Republican lawmakers responded to a news report saying that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded the lab leak theory was “likely,” saying that the finding supports what many have long suspected.

A Wall Street Journal article on Feb. 26 reported that a classified intelligence report by the Energy Department said that the virus likely leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“So the government caught up to what Real America knew all along,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote in a Twitter post on Sunday.

The responses came as GOP lawmakers ramp up investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and allegations of government-big tech censorship of the debate.

The Energy Department was previously undecided on the issue but now joins the FBI in corroborating the lab leak hypothesis, according to the report. Several people who have read the report said the Department’s judgment was made with “low confidence,” the Journal reported.

Responding to the report on Sunday, White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN that the intelligence community does not have a “definitive answer” on the matter at this point.

Republican lawmakers have been vocal about the theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan laboratory soon after the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Initially, some health professionals and legacy media outlets dismissed the theory, labeling the theory’s proponents as racist and conspiracy theorists.

Fauci

Some lawmakers also accused Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), of colluding with big tech companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, and censoring stories about the lab leak theory via what these companies describe as a crackdown on “misinformation.”\

“Fauci knew this immediately but dismissed it because of funding for the Wuhan lab,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) wrote in another post. “We know what happened next — when Fauci spoke Big Tech censored. I exposed this collusion as AG and I’ll work to ensure this type of censorship never happens again.”

“Americans knew this from Day One,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) wrote on Twitter on Sunday. “Unfortunately, Big Tech and Big Government silenced them.”

Republicans and critics of Fauci have raised concerns about the NIAID’s funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology via the non-governmental organization EcoHealth Alliance, including for research described by experts as gain-of-function. The NIAID issued about 3.4 million in grants to EcoHealth.

Gain-of-function research makes the virus more deadly by enhancing its pathogenicity, its ability to cause disease and harm the host, or transmissibility, how easily it spreads.

The elites and academics owe everyone who had legitimate questions and concerns about the origins of COVID an apology.

The American people deserve to see all the information concerning the Chinese lab leak and the origins of COVID. This won’t be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/hKARnyNgab

— Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) February 26, 2023

The NIH has denied that the grants were for gain-of-function research, while Fauci has defended the decision to issue the grants to EcoHealth.

“More evidence continues to mount that COVID came from the Wuhan lab. We’ve uncovered emails showing Dr. Fauci was warned that the virus looked man-made & came from a lab, but he may have acted to cover it up. Why? We need answers & accountability,” wrote the official Twitter account of the House Oversight Republican Committee.

Re. China’s lab leak, being proven right doesn’t matter.

What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn’t happen again.

— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) February 26, 2023

Read more here…

Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times,

A radical social justice Marxist and former member of the Black Panthers discovered that one of her ancestors arrived in the New World from England on the 1620 Mayflower expedition.

On Tuesday’s PBS episode of “Finding your Roots,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviewed Angela Davis, whom he said came to the show to have the mystery of her lineage solved.

In the show’s final moments, Gates revealed that the investigation into her ancestry dated back to her tenth great-grandfather, a white man named William Brewster, who was born in England in 1570 and traveled to America on the Mayflower.

A visibly stunned Davis said, “No, I can’t believe this. My ancestors did not come here on the Mayflower. That’s a little bit too much to deal with right now.”

Marxist Angela Davis, Who Teaches That America Was Built By Racist Colonizers, Finds Out Her Ancestors Was On The Mayflower pic.twitter.com/j7XBpthT69

— 757 Patriot (@757patriot) February 26, 2023

Davis emerged in California during the late 1960s as a prominent civil rights figure and a member of the Communist Party.

She’s continued to support radical, far-left politics, and is currently a professor at the University of California in Santa Cruz.

Amid her social justice activism, Davis was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for her alleged involvement in the armed seizure of a Marin County Courthouse in California that left four people dead, including a judge.

It had been shown that Davis purchased the guns used in the attack.

Davis went into hiding but was eventually arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping, and criminal conspiracy charges.

She was imprisoned for 16 months before being released on bail and later acquitted by an all-white jury in 1972.

Born in Jim Crow-era Birmingham, Alabama, Davis told Gates she had always assumed that her ancestors were slaves.

While that’s partially true on her grandmother’s side, she also descends from slave owners, a piece of information that runs contrary to the message of the current social justice movement for which Davis advocates.

Critical Race Theory

Davis has been a proponent of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a variation of a concept put forth by German philosopher Karl Marx called “Critical Theory,” which divides people between oppressors and the oppressed.

The CRT variation of the theory focuses on the concept of “white supremacy” in that it labels white people as the oppressors and all other races as the oppressed while blaming white people of today for slavery that took place in the past.

…

Descended From a Patriot Slave Owner

According to the lineage, Davis’s mother was named Salley Belle, and Belle’s father was a white Alabama attorney and lawmaker named John Austin Darden.

This was another surprise to Davis.

When Gates pointed out that John Austin Darden was a prominent member of the community, Davis asked, “Well, was he a member of the Klu Klux Klan or the White Citizen’s Council? That’s something I would also want to know because in those days, if one wanted to achieve that power one had to thoroughly embrace white supremacy.”

The information of her lineage only drifted further from the social justice dogma.

Her fourth great-grandfather, Stephen Darden, was born in colonial Virginia in 1750, and later served in the Revolutionary War.

After the Revolutionary War, Darden moved from Virginia to Georgia, where he owned a farm and six slaves.

Angela’s grandmother, Mollie Spencer, lived next door to a white man named Murphy Jones, whom the genetic profile showed to be Davis’ grandfather.

Jones and Spencer had four children together. Murphy later sold Spencer 22 acres of land for $200, PBS reported.

On processing the information about her ancestry, Davis told Gates, “I always imagined my ancestors as the people who were enslaved. My mind and my heart are swirling with all of these contradictory emotions.”

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That’s a nice little EV industry you got over there in the US, it’s be a shame if suddenly it found itself without the most important commodity.

That’s one way to interpret what just happened in China; another – a less cynical – is the way Bloomberg described it, namely that China’s lithium industry itself is reeling as its top production hub –  responsible for around a 10th of the world’s supply –  faces sweeping closures amid a government probe of environmental infringements.

The crackdown in Yichun, Jiangxi province, also known as the country’s “Lithium capital” follows a local lithium frenzy over the past year as miners raced to feed rampant demand for the battery material — and to benefit from record global prices. Now, they’re grappling with a close-up inspection by environment officials sent from Beijing.

According to Yicai newspaper, ore-processing operations in Yichun have been ordered to stop as investigators probe alleged violations at lithium mines. That, Bloomberg notes, threatens somewhere between 8% and 13% of global supply, according to various analyst estimates, although it’s unclear for how long the immediate shutdowns will last.

The sudden probe injects a big dose of uncertainty into a lithium market that has seen  prices drop, bringing some relief to EV manufacturers, as more global output emerges. Jiangxi province was expected to be a big source of extra supply, from a lithium-bearing mineral known as lepidolite.

“This supervision may mean that the inspection and control over lepidolite mining in China will be more stringent in the future,” said Susan Zou, analyst at Rystad Energy. Companies with operations in Yichun include major battery manufacturers Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and Gotion High-Tech Co., whose shares both fell more than 1% on Monday.

Due to the ongoing probe, all lepidolite mining in Yichun aside from those by a state-owned company have been suspended, but refineries are still operational, Daiwa analysts Dennis Ip and Leo Ho said.

Global lithium prices soared to a record high last year as demand from China’s booming electric-vehicle industry outstripped production. And, as so often happens in commodities, where the cure to high prices is more supply, leading to lower prices, this high-profit, high-demand environment has encouraged miners to skirt regulations.

Some companies had already been targeted for infringements, including incidents of pollution, over the past year. This is a much wider crackdown, and involves officials from central government departments including the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Yucai added that Beijing will mainly look at violations at lithium mines and seek to guide the “healthy development” of the industry; they will largely target those mining without permits or with expired licenses.

Curiously, a recent Goldman report found that the Chinese car industry’s demand for lithium has fallen by more than half in recent months, a dramatic reversal that will drive a further slump in the market. Meanwhile, Chinese prices have dropped more than 30% from last year’s peak.

According to calculations form Citic Securities analyst Bai Junfei, a month-long mining halt in Yichun would reduce lithium output by an amount equivalent to around 13% of the world’s total. Rystad Energy, a consultancy, estimated the amount at 8%.

“At present, the market speculation is that the probe may stop after the two sessions in China next month,” Rystad’s Zou said, referring to the annual parliamentary meetings due early March.