Month: October 2023

Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse,

If you are looking to buy a home right now, I feel so sorry for you.  The other day when I wrote that “life in America has never been more unaffordable than it is right now”, some people thought that I was exaggerating.  But the truth is that I was not exaggerating one bit.  The cost of living has risen to extremely painful levels, and this is particularly true when it comes to housing.  Since 2019, the median price of a home in the United States has risen by more than $100,000.  And thanks to the Federal Reserve, we are now facing dramatically higher interest rates. 

As a result, housing has become extraordinarily unaffordable.  In fact, a new report that was just released determined that homes are currently “unaffordable” in 99 percent of U.S. counties…

The typical American cannot afford to buy a home in a growing number of communities across the nation, according to common lending standards.

That’s the main takeaway from a new report from real estate data provider ATTOM. Researchers examined the median home prices last year for roughly 575 U.S. counties and found that home prices in 99% of those areas are beyond the reach of the average income earner, who makes $71,214 a year, according to ATTOM.

In the entire history of our country, we have never seen anything like this before.

A combination of insanely high home prices and suffocatingly high mortgage rates have literally frozen the housing market.

Until something changes, millions of potential buyers and millions of potential sellers will remain sidelined…

Housing experts point to couple trends driving up housing costs. Mortgage rates have topped 7%, adding hundreds of dollars per month to a potential house payment. At the same time, homeowners who locked in at lower mortgage rates during the pandemic have opted not to sell out of fear of having to buy another property at today’s elevated rates, depleting the supply of homes for sale.

“The only people who are selling right now are people who really need to move because of a life event — divorce, marriage, new baby, new job, etc.,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist of Redfin, told CBS MoneyWatch.

Considering everything that I just shared with you, it should be no surprise that pending home sales in August were 18.7 percent lower than they were a year ago…

Pending home sales plunged in the U.S. last month as high mortgage rates deterred more would-be buyers and sellers from making deals.

The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index tumbled 7.1% to 71.8 in August, a much greater decline than the 0.8% drop analysts polled by Refinitiv expected.

Year over year, pending transactions are down 18.7%, the NAR’s data shows.

According to one analyst, a potential buyer would need an income of more than $125,000 a year in order to qualify for a mortgage on an average U.S. home right now…

The steep drop in pending sales in August, on the heels of reports of slower existing and new home sales at the end of the summer, suggests that the market is cooling, said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright Multiple Listing Service.

Overall, she said, total home sales this year could be below 4.2 million; that would be the lowest level since 2010.

With mortgage rates near and above 7% for all of August, purchasers’ buying power was crushed, and for many the math for buying a home just did not work.

“At a mortgage rate of 7%, a homebuyer would need an income of over $125,000 to qualify for a loan to purchase a $400,000 home,” said Sturtevant.

So the vast majority of us are just going to have to wait until the market shifts.

Of course housing is not the only thing that has become ridiculously expensive.

According to CNN, the price of a box of Girl Scout cookies is going up to six dollars this year…

Girl Scout cookies are getting more expensive. In some places, at least.

At least one New York State chapter, the Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson, told troop parents and other members of the community in an email this week that all cookies will be sold for $6 per box this coming cookie season — which takes place from about January to April annually nationwide – up from $5 last year.

“In order to combat rising production and material costs, GSHH will be increasing the price of all cookie packages to $6.00,” the chapter’s interim CEO wrote, adding “we expect our neighboring councils to announce similar increases in the coming weeks and months.”

I remember the days when it was common for people to buy dozens of boxes every year.

But now if you want to do that you will need to sell an organ.

Our standard of living is being steadily eroded, and meanwhile economic conditions continue to slow down all over the country.

Earlier today, I was saddened to learn that Epic Games is laying off workers…

Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, said on Thursday that it will lay off 16% of its staff, around 830 employees, as it attempts to reverse what CEO Tim Sweeney called “unrealistic” spending.

In a letter to employees Thursday, Sweeney said the video game company had been “spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic.”

“I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic,” Sweeney said in the letter, which the company shared publicly.

If even Epic Games is struggling now, what does that say about the overall state of our economy?

I am so concerned about where things are headed in the months ahead.

A major economic downturn is looming, the most chaotic presidential election in our history will happen next year, and we are already witnessing widespread rioting and looting all over the nation.

In fact, looters in Philadelphia just made headlines for a second consecutive night…

Looting has rocked Philadelphia for a second night in a row as brazen thieves ransacked a liquor store.

Shocking footage out of the City of Brotherly Love showed Fine Wine And Good Spirits smashed apart in the latest flash rob mob crime.

The brutes made off with the safe and raided the lottery machine on a night when liquor stores were shut down by the authorities.

For a long time, I have been encouraging my readers to consider relocating if they live in any of our major cities.

But now thanks to a combination of ridiculously high home prices and the highest mortgage rates we have seen in ages, most Americans simply cannot afford to move.

Unfortunately, most people will be forced to remain where they are as the events of the next few years shake this nation to the core.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

Democratic lawmaker Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) thinks we’re all idiots, after offering an unbelievable excuse after he was caught on CCTV pulling the fire alarm in a House office building while Democrats were trying to delay a House vote on the stopgap bill which eventually passed at the 11th hour.

Bowman – who founded a school that would have held several fire drills per year, wants us to believe he mistook this fire alarm…

…for an automatic door opener that he was trying to use to open a clearly marked emergency exit.

In a Saturday statement, Bowman said “I want to personally clear up confusion surrounding today’s events,” adding “Today, as I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open.” (it’s not)

“I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door.”

And now, Bowman has found himself under investigation.

“Rep (Jamaal) Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning,” said House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI), who added that “An investigation into why it was pulled is underway.”

As the Epoch Times notes; The fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building, often called the “Old House Office Building,” was triggered around noon, leading to an evacuation of the entire building while the House was in session. The building was reopened an hour later, after Capitol Police determined the situation was not a threat.

Capitol Police said in a statement late Saturday that an “investigation into what happened and why continues.”

The fire alarms in the Old House Office Building are pull down triggers encased in bright red boxes that read “FIRE.”

🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING: Insurrectionist Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman has been CAUGHT ON-CAMERA pulling the Capitol fire alarm seconds before critical vote to keep government open.

Violation of 1512(c)(2) obstruction of an official proceeding.

ARREST & Prosecute Rep. Bowman IMMEDIATELY! pic.twitter.com/3m883RB88A

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 30, 2023

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Capitol Police for further comment.

At the time of the evacuation, Democrat lawmakers in the House were working to delay a vote on a 45-day funding bill to keep federal agencies open. They said they needed time to review the 71-page bill that Republicans had just released to avoid a shutdown.

Lawmakers in the Senate in a vote late Saturday night passed the measure, sending it to President Joe Biden to sign in order to avoid a government shutdown on Oct. 1. President Biden signed the measure late Saturday night.

After the bill passed the House, a number of Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), criticized Mr. Bowman for having triggered the fire alarm.

New: McCarthy compares Bowman to J6ers who were charged with ‘obstruction’ pic.twitter.com/VYEHYMW2Z5

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 30, 2023

He noted Mr. Bowman’s action was caught on camera and said it “should not go without punishment.”

Turley opines

According to constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley;

In D.C., this would constitute a criminal misdemeanor. It would also obviously be treated as sanctionable conduct under the House rules. Even without addressing any attempt to cause fear or panic, here is the most obvious crime:

§ 22–1319. False alarms and false reports; hoax weapons.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to willfully or knowingly give a false alarm of fire within the District of Columbia, and any person or persons violating the provisions of this subsection shall, upon conviction, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine not more than the amount set forth in § 22-3571.01 or by imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Prosecutions for violation of the provisions of this subsection shall be on information filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia.

(a-1) It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to willfully or knowingly use, or allow the use of, the 911 call system to make a false or fictitious report or complaint which initiates a response by District of Columbia emergency personnel or officials when, at the time of the call or transmission, the person knows the report or complaint is false. Any person or persons violating the provisions of this subsection shall, upon conviction, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by a fine not more than the amount set forth in § 22-3571.01 or by imprisonment for not more than 6 months. Prosecutions for violation of the provisions of this subsection shall be on information filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia.

*  *  *

Congressional immunity does NOT apply to Jamaal Bowman as interfering with Congress and breaching the peace is INSURRECTION pic.twitter.com/tbjSbqQIpd

— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) September 30, 2023

Democrat Congressman Jamaal Bowman isn’t ready to face the music after pulling the fire alarm. I speak for all Americans when I say, arrest that nigga. pic.twitter.com/nEPAmSrE88

— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) September 30, 2023

In case you missed it, this is the same stable individual who pulled the fire alarm today in the Capitol during votes. https://t.co/9IFpxKYH0a

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 1, 2023

.@RepBowman evacuating the U.S. Capitol like: https://t.co/oPRQIcytRH pic.twitter.com/FTuayMgmnx

— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) September 30, 2023

Let’s see if Bowman, who by the transitive properties of bullshit is now an insurrectionist, will face justice.

Authored by Jeff Louderbeck via The Epoch Times,

Speculation that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will soon declare his run as an independent escalated further on Sept. 29 when he released a video announcing an event in Philadelphia on Oct. 9 when he will share “our path to the White House.”

“I’m going to be in Philadelphia on October 9, to make a major announcement at the very birthplace of our nation. I’m not going to tell you right now, exactly what that announcement will be. I can say, though, that if you’ve been waiting to come to one of my public events, this will be the one to come to,” Mr. Kennedy said in the video that appears on his campaign website.

“I’ll be speaking about a sea change in American politics and what your part and my party is in that change,” he added.

“A lot of Americans who had previously given up any hope and real change come through the American electoral process have begun to find new hope in my candidacy.”

Later in the video, Mr. Kennedy noted, “Our government may be broken, but our people are kind, brave, and caring that goodness is stronger than the divisions that are keeping us all apart. I see it every day on the campaign trail, and the more I see it, the more I trust it. And the more I trust that, the more the path to victory becomes visible.”

Mr. Kennedy’s campaign is planning attack ads against the Democratic National Committee to “pave the way” for what will be an announcement on Oct. 9 that he will run as an independent, Mediaite reported on Sept. 29, citing a text from a campaign insider.

Anthony Lyons is co-chairman of the American Values 2024 PAC, which is working to get Mr. Kennedy elected president. He told The Epoch Times on Sept. 29 that a poll they commissioned with Zogby International will be released on Oct. 2 and shows that if Mr. Kennedy runs as an independent or third-party candidate in a race against President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, he will start at 19 percent compared to “37 percent to 38 percent” for President Biden and President Trump.

The results indicate that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling equally from Biden and Trump,” Mr. Lyons told The Epoch Times.

“Critics of independents and third-party candidates always claim that they split the vote and serve as a spoiler, but what we are seeing is that people are disillusioned with both major parties and they are tired of partisan politics,” Mr. Lyons said.

“People are tired of being told what to do, what to think, and who to vote for by the Democrat and Republican parties, and they are open to an alternative candidate.”

For months after announcing his candidacy in April to challenge President Biden for the 2024 Democrat nomination, Mr. Kennedy told media outlets and supporters, “I’m a Democrat” when asked if he would consider running as an independent or third-party candidate.

During an interview with The Epoch Times in Columbia, South Carolina, in August, he reiterated that stance when asked if he would serve as President Trump’s running mate or run as an independent or a third-party candidate.

“I’m a Democrat. The Democrat party has lost its way, and I want to return it to its traditional ideals,” Mr. Kennedy said.

“I’m hoping to run in the Democratic Party. If it’s possible to have a fair election in the Democratic Party, I will run in the Democratic Party, and I haven’t made any kind of plans other than that,” he said.

Yet Mr. Kennedy has faced what he deems as multiple roadblocks to “fair primary elections” from the DNC. Earlier this year, the organization voted to give President Biden its full support. At the same meeting, the DNC voted to replace New Hampshire with South Carolina as the first-in-the-nation primary state. The organization has warned that New Hampshire will face potential penalties if that state’s Democrat primary does not comply with new primary calendar plans.

At a town hall in New Hampshire earlier in September, Mr. Kennedy told supporters that he would have to make a decision before Oct. 15 to run as an independent and that it would require around $15 million in funds to get on the ballot in all 50 states.

Under the proposed plan, New Hampshire must hold its primary on the same day as Nevada on Feb. 6 or face possible sanctions.

South Carolina will conduct its primary on Feb. 3.

Georgia and Michigan would follow, according to the new schedule.

Iowa, which holds caucuses, was removed from the list of early-voting states.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to supporters at the opening of his New Jersey office in Elizabeth on Sept. 28. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)

Keeping Options Open

In 2020, President Biden lost in Iowa and New Hampshire to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders before winning South Carolina.

“They’re trying to make sure that I can’t participate at all in the political process, and so I’m going to keep all my options open,” Mr. Kennedy said earlier this month at a town hall in South Carolina.

“It’s pretty clear that the DNC does not want a primary. Essentially, they are fixing the process so that it makes it almost impossible to have democracy function,” he added.

“They’re effectively disenfranchising the Democratic voters from having any choice in who becomes president, the Democrat nominee.”

If New Hampshire is found non-compliant, the state could lose half of its delegates to the August 2024 Democratic National Convention, where the party’s 2024 presidential candidate will be nominated.

An unsanctioned primary would likely keep President Biden off the ballot.

Mr. Kennedy continued to tell attendees at town halls in Texas last week and New Jersey on Sept. 28 that he is “keeping his options open.”

Supporters who attended Mr. Kennedy’s opening of his New Jersey office in Elizabeth on Sept. 28 told The Epoch Times they will continue to back him if he decides to run as an independent or third-party candidate.

Philip Nicosia is a 28-year-old plumber who drove two hours from Pennsylvania to attend the event. He said he was a registered Republican who previously voted for President Trump and changed his affiliation to the Democrat party so he could vote for Mr. Kennedy in the primary.

“I was an independent, and then I changed to Republican to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. I am voting this time for Kennedy because I believe he will do what he says he will do and not be divisive. Trump is exhausting,” Mr. Nicosia said.

Philip Nicosia, a former President Donald Trump voter, said he supports Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the 2024 election. (Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times)

Mr. Nicosia admits that he worries that Mr. Kennedy’s candidacy as a third candidate could draw voters away from President Trump and lead to another term for President Biden.

“We need anybody but Joe Biden, but I’m still gonna vote on principle,” Mr. Nicosia told The Epoch Times.

“I am voting for who I believe in, and that is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

Lauren Hanley is an attorney who lives in New York City. She is also a registered Republican who voted for President Trump and has shifted her support to Mr. Kennedy.

“There are people who back him because of his stance against (COVID) vaccine mandates, and there are people who support him because he stands up against corporate corruption. I think that, in this election, people are going to vote for the candidate who most resonates with them because they are tired of the fighting and the divisiveness,” Ms. Hanley told The Epoch Times at the Elizabeth, New Jersey event.

‘Surge of People Power’

In his video he released on Sept. 29, Mr. Kennedy said that he can win against the Washington establishment by rewriting “the assumptions” and changing “the habits” of American politics.

“We’re going to tap into a mighty surge of people power and reclaim an honest peaceful, just, and prosperous America,” he continued before inviting potential voters to join him in Philadelphia on Oct. 9.

Mr. Kennedy has drawn interest from conservatives, moderates, independents, and liberals for his vow to “heal the divide” and unify the country” by fighting corporate corruption, ending the Ukraine war, addressing the border crisis, and protecting Second Amendment rights, among other focuses.

He has also said that he will offer 3 percent mortgages for Americans funded by tax-free bonds, ban pharmaceutical advertising on television, and “work on changing the tax code to make it more difficult for large corporations to buy single-family homes.”

At every town hall and campaign stop, Mr. Kennedy rails against BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, which he notes owns more than 80 percent of the companies on the S&P 500.

If Mr. Kennedy chooses to run as an independent, Mr. Lyons noted that the candidate will have almost 13 months to “amplify his message.”

“Bobby Kennedy has been censored more than any other political candidate. I think a big percentage of the American public still doesn’t know about him and what his platform is. A big reason for that is the DNC … a result of the DNC censoring him and vilifying him with untruthful attacks,” Mr. Lyons told The Epoch Times.

“They are terrified of what would happen if there was a fair primary process and real debates between Bobby Kennedy and Joe Biden,” Mr. Lyons added.

“Bobby Kennedy believes in free speech, ending the Ukraine war, and a strong border, so he is a classic Democrat like his father (Robert F. Kennedy) and uncle (President John F. Kennedy). That is the opposite of what the DNC represents. This is not his father’s Democrat party.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) announced on Sunday that he will file a motion this week to remove McCarthy as speaker, and will use a parliamentary process that hasn’t resulted in the removal of a speaker since 1910.

The move comes after McCarthy reached across the aisle for bipartisan support to pass a Continuing Resolution which will keep the US government operating until mid-November, and then Democrats revealed that McCarthy had struck a side deal to guarantee Ukraine funds at a later date.

Wow.@SpeakerMcCarthy made a side Ukraine deal with Democrats and didn’t tell House Republicans until after his Continuing Resolution passed.

More deceit. https://t.co/LC91laLyTp

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 1, 2023

Speaking with CNN‘s “State of the Union,” Gaetz said he will file what’s known as a motion to vacate.

“I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid,” said Gaetz. “I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy.“

When asked how many Republicans were behind him, Gaetz said he has enough.

“Enough so that when you host this show next week, if Kevin McCarthy is still Speaker of the House he will be serving at the pleasure of the Democrats,” said Gaetz. “He will be working for the Democrats. The only way that McCarthy will be Speaker of the House is if Democrats bail him out. Now they probably will.”

Matt Gaetz wants McCarthy OUT:

“I intend to file a motion to vacate Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House this week. We need to rip off the bandaid.” pic.twitter.com/oXLvXK2Z0I

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 1, 2023

Gaetz’s announcement came just hours after the CR was passed, and says it’s the latest in a string of broken promises by McCarthy.

“This isn’t personal. This is about spending,” said Gaetz. “This is about the deal Kevin McCarthy made.”

McCarthy will need a simple majority of the House to stop Gaetz’s effort to oust him. If just five Republicans join the Democrats, it could work. Democrats, meanwhile, would generally be expected to back such a motion since they would prefer one of their own, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as speaker.

“I’m going to be totally blunt. There are a lot of trust issues in my chamber right now,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who thinks McCarthy is in trouble, in a statement to Fox News.

Byron Donalds on Fox News blames Kevin McCarthy for why he didn’t end up voting on the CR pic.twitter.com/HozOXvgaeE

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2023

As Bloomberg further notes, 

Even if McCarthy survives the current mutiny, Republican dissenters could call for a new vote at any time or impose procedural hurdles to block consideration of legislation. That essentially requires him to either maintain the alliance with Democrats—essentially a coalition government in the House—or resolve differences with hardliners who now have one more reason to resent his leadership.

In 2015, then-Speaker John Boehner resigned when hardliners threatened such a rebellion rather than rely on Democratic votes to remain in power.

House Democrats led by Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York could decide to bail out McCarthy, even if they don’t actually cast votes to keep him in his post. Enough members could simply not show up, hold back their votes, or merely vote “present,” lowering the threshold number of “nays” to removal that McCarthy needs to prevail.

Weeks ago Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) says he and other Democrats would consider helping McCarthy remain in power, but backpedaled on those comments after the speaker authorized the formal impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, which Phillips called an act of “pandering.”

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The company that manufactures remdesivir, used across the United States to treat COVID-19, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit over allegations it deceptively promoted the drug without disclosing possible side effects.

Two California residents, one of whom is a relative of a person who died after receiving remdesivir, lodged the suit against Gilead Sciences in Shasta County on Sept. 26.

Deborah Fust, the surviving spouse of Michael Fust, and Edward Pimentel, who says he was injured after receiving remdesivir, are accusing California-based Gilead of failing to mention documented side effects in its promotion of remdesivir.

“It’s a terrible drug. The nonprofit has thousands of members who have the hospital records, and you can see there’s a big difference in the creatinine levels and the blood levels, kidney readings after they get the remdesivir,” Bradford Geyer, an attorney with Former Feds Group who is representing the plaintiffs, told The Epoch Times.

The FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit, has compiled some of the cases on its website.

The suit says that Gilead’s press releases and statements to consumers and investigators from Gilead show “a pattern of downplaying or omitting altogether the clinical dangers experienced by patients from remdesivir use, instead emphasizing its supposed benefits, safety, and efficacy.”

For example, a website for the drug, also known as veklury, makes no mention of kidney problems. A handout (pdf) given to patients also does not mention the issues.

“Defendant’s advertising that remdesivir is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19 is false and misleading to a reasonable consumer, including plaintiffs, because defendant in fact knew or should have known, based upon prior studies and data on remdesivir, that it was unsafe and posed a high risk of severe adverse effects and death to plaintiffs and the class,” the suit states.

The advertising “misrepresented and/or omitted the true content and nature of the drug,” it also says.

Gilead did not respond to a request for comment.

Plaintiffs are seeking class status, which would enable two groups of people to join the suit. They are people who received remdesivir while hospitalized with COVID-19 and suffered serious injuries as a result, and people whose loved ones died after receiving remdesivir after being hospitalized with COVID-19.

Early FDA Authorization

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization to Gilead for remdesivir in May 2020, primarily based on results from a government-sponsored trial in which researchers changed the endpoint midway. Critics said the change was done in order to garner positive results. The trial found remdesivir quickened recovery time from COVID-19.

The agency made the move without consulting its advisory committee on antimicrobial drugs.

The FDA approved remdesivir in October 2020 and expanded its allowable use to outpatient settings and children.

Soon after, a large trial run by the World Health Organization found remdesivir did not quicken recovery time or reduce mortality. The group recommended against using remdesivir in hospitalized patients, which ran counter to the recommendation in the United States.

Animal studies found indications that remdesivir injured the kidney. The U.S. trial found kidney injuries among remdesivir recipients, including in three patients who were forced to stop taking the drug.

Other studies, as well as post-approval data, have also raised safety and effectiveness concerns.

Researchers reviewing reports to VigiBase, a World Health Organization database, for instance, found reports of kidney injuries after remdesivir were far higher than reports of kidney injuries after other COVID-19 treatments.

Before receiving remdesivir, American patients are instructed (pdf) by the FDA to disclose all of their medical conditions, including kidney problems.

Gilead, while promoting remdesivir, needed to disclose the risk of kidney injuries, according to the new suit.

By not doing so, the company allegedly violated California laws against using deceptive practices and making untrue or misleading statements.

Gilead also made negligent misrepresentations, resulting in unjust enrichment, the suit says.

Plaintiffs are seeking an order establishing a class, an order preventing Gilead from engaging in “unfair, unlawful, and deceptive business practices, and false advertising,” an order forcing Gilead to correct its previous advertisements, an order ordering Gilead to recall and destroy misleading and deceptive advertising materials, an order requiring Gilead to pay back money obtained by the allegedly violative actions, and an order compelling Gilead to pay restitution and interest.

Plaintiffs also want damages.

Follows Michigan Ruling

The new suit comes after a court in Michigan ruled that remdesivir was not protected under federal law against an action brought by a man who needed his leg amputated after receiving remdesivir.

The man, Don Nowacki, also suffered two strokes.

The remdesivir he received was said to be contaminated with glass particles.

Gilead argued that it could not be sued because of immunity granted by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, which was triggered by the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The judge rejected that argument, finding the act did not cover the manufacturer in the situation.

Mr. Nowacki and his lawyers are now poised to receive discovery, with a trial coming later.

“One of the things that we’re going to figure out is exactly what Gilead, the FDA, and the hospital knew and when,” Ven Johnson, one of the lawyers, told The Epoch Times. “How did glass particles that could cause strokes and death in people get into this medication? Why aren’t these people approaching us to get our client’s medical records to understand what happened?”

A potential new crack in Europe’s support for the war in Ukraine emerged Saturday, as a populist left-wing party took the most votes in Slovakia’s national election. 

With 98% of the districts having reported their results, the populist Smer (or “Direction Social Democracy”) party had racked up 23.4% of the votes, well ahead of the 16.9% received by the newcomer, liberal Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, Reuters reports. The leftist Hlas (“Voice”) party took 15%. The populist party solidly outperformed opinion polls leading up to the election, which showed a neck-and-neck race. 

Smer is led by former Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has been pointed in his determination to pursue peace in Ukraine rather than continuing to pour weapons into an increasingly hopeless campaign to evict Russian forces from the country’s eastern provinces. 

“Peace is the only solution,” said Fico in early September. “I refuse to get criticized and labeled as a warmonger just for talking about peace, whereas those who support war and killing are being called peace activists. We have it all messed up in our heads. We will not send a single bullet to Ukraine from the state stocks.”

Fico has also said the Ukraine war didn’t start in 2022: “I say it loud and clear and will do so: The war in Ukraine didn’t start yesterday or last year. It began in 2014, when the Ukrainian Nazis and fascists started to murder the Russian citizens in Donbas and Luhansk.”

A March opinion poll found that 51% of Slovakians think the West and/or Ukraine are responsible for the conflict. Half also said the United States posed a security threat to their country. 

Fico’s opposition to arming Ukraine and his support for an immediate, negotiated peace echoes the stance of neighboring Hungary, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Both countries have borders with Ukraine.    

To this point, Slovakia has been an eager military supplier of Ukraine, having donated its entire fleet of 13 Soviet-era MiG-29 fighters, as well as an S-300 air defense missile system. The aircraft donation left Slovakia without any fighter jets; fellow NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic are securing the country’s airspace.  

Aside from ending military aid to Ukraine, Fico has also pledged to veto Ukrainian membership in NATO and economic sanctions against Russia. Slovakians tend to identify with their Russian slavonic “cousins.” 

Fico, who was was prime minister from 2006 to 2010 and 2012 to 2018, has also sounded alarms over a rising tide of migrants traversing Slovakia en route to Western Europe. 

Though Fico’s Smer party took the most votes, it fell well short of an outright majority, which means it will have to form a governing coalition with other parties. Promisingly, the third-place Hlas party is lead by Fico’s former deputy, Peter Bellegrini. Expect Washington to take a keen, active interest in the negotiations. 

As the election tally is finalized, observers are watching two parties on the cusp of the 5% threshold required to earn representation: the ultranationalist Slovak National Party, and the People’s Party Our Slovakia, whose members cherish Slovakia’s Nazi-Germany-subservient World War II government and use Nazi salutes. Both are potential members of a Fico-led coalition. 

Earlier on Saturday, Slovakian progressives and their international backers were crowing on social media as exit polls indicated the progressives would win: 

Wow! If this holds its an amazing outcome – for @progresivne_sk & @MSimecka
– but mainly for #Slovakia 🇸🇰
– wait for the final result & expect bumps on the road to any coalition but WOW!
– liberal, pro-NATO, pro-EU, pro-🇺🇦Progressive Slovakia are in the lead. 🎇🎆🎇
(Exit poll) pic.twitter.com/rWHgMP0nkJ

— Benjamin Tallis 🇺🇦 (@bctallis) September 30, 2023

However, when the votes were counted, their premature parade was rained upon. Aside from its allegiance to the US-led proxy war in Ukraine, the PS party is also defined by its support of green energy and LGBT-backing policies.  Fico, on the other hand, has said adoption of children by same-sex couples — which is illegal in Slovakia — is a “perversion.” He also opposes same-sex marriage. 

A Fico campaign ad mocked the PS party’s LGBT-catering stances, depicting a character similar to PS party leader Michal Simecka wrapped in a rainbow flag as he decides which school bathroom to use. 

“While the progressive Misho (Michal) decides whether he is a boy, a girl or a helicopter today, for us gender ideology in schools is unacceptable and marriage is a unique union between a man and a woman,” Mico says as he grins into the camera. 

“Keep LGBT out of schools” Political advertisement by Robert Fico’s SMER party in Slovakia pic.twitter.com/oKVsQUhagj

— Polish Connection (@PoleConnection) September 12, 2023

Via Remix News,

Russian military spending is set to rise by almost 70 percent — to €106 billion — by 2024, according to a Russian Finance Ministry document published Thursday, an increase that illustrates Moscow’s determination to continue its military intervention in Ukraine despite the human and economic costs.

According to the document, Russian defense spending will increase by 68 percent in 2024 compared to this year and will reach 10.8 trillion rubles (€106 billion).

As a result, the amount allocated to defense will represent about 30 percent of total federal spending in 2024 and 6 percent of GDP — a first in Russia’s modern history.

The budget for internal security is set to rise to 3.4 trillion rubles (€33 billion), almost 10 percent of annual federal spending.

The priorities for this budget are outlined as “strengthening the country’s defense capacity” and “integrating the new regions” of Ukraine whose annexation Moscow has demanded, as well as “social aid for the most vulnerable citizens,” just months ahead of the Russian presidential elections in spring 2024.

Conversely, total spending on education, healthcare and environmental protection accounts for barely a third of the defense budget, according to ministry figures. Overall, federal spending will total 36.7 trillion rubles (€359 billion), a dramatic 20 percent increase over 2023.

The government, however, has explained little about how it will finance this large increase, as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Musustin said last Friday that revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons will be down sharply and will account for “a third of next year’s budget” in 2024, whereas before the invasion of Ukraine, they accounted for half the budget.

The sector used to drive Russia’s growth, hydrocarbon sales are declining due to international sanctions and the European Union’s determination to move away from energy dependence on Moscow.

One indication that the government expects a delicate month ahead for the Russian economy is that it has announced that it has based its budget forecast on the assumption of a dollar worth around 90 rubles, thus betting on a weakening of the national currency in the medium term. The draft budget law for 2024-2026 is due to be sent to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, on Friday.

Each year, agriculture and fisheries ministers decide on total allowable catches (TACs) for commercial fishing.

Scientific bodies, such as the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), provide information on the state of fish stocks around the world and recommend maximum catch levels per zone to ensure sustainable fishing.

However, this scientific advice is all too often ignored by the authorities, jeopardizing the sustainability of marine resources.

Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the following infographic, based on the latest report from the New Economics Foundation, these European countries are the worst offenders for this, having on numerous occasions set their fishing quotas in the North-East Atlantic in excess of the sustainability recommendations in recent years.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Sweden exceeded its recommended TAC by almost 33 percent in 2020 (the latest year available), equivalent to 12,000 tonnes of fish, followed by Denmark (6 percent, 20,000 tonnes) and France (6 percent, 17,000 tonnes).

Ireland, Belgium, Spain and the UK all exceeded their targets by between 2 and 4 percent.

The year before, in 2019, the overshoot of the sustainable fishing threshold in the zone was even more pronounced: 7 percent of the recommended TAC for Spain, 9 percent for France, 10 percent for Belgium, 18 percent for Germany, 20 percent or more for Denmark, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and 52% for Sweden.

Authored by Naveen Athrapully via The Epoch Times,

Major North American anthropology groups canceled a discussion on the importance of biological sex in anthropology, claiming that the talk harmed people identifying as LGBT.

During a joint conference between the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the Canadian Anthropology Society (CASCA) scheduled for November in Toronto, a session titled “Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Why biological sex remains a necessary analytic category in Anthropology” was set to be hosted. The meeting (pdf) proposed that, while it has become “increasingly common” to substitute “sex” with “gender” in the field of anthropology, there are research domains in which biological sex is “irreplaceably relevant” to anthropological analysis.

The discussion included a panel of experts who were going to talk about “why in their work gender is not helpful and only sex will do.” The presentations aimed to discuss why “sex identification—whether an individual was male or female—using the skeleton is one of the most fundamental components in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology.”

A Sept. 25 letter (pdf) informed about the cancelation. CASCA and AAA told panelists that the session’s ideas “were advanced in such a way as to cause harm to members represented by the Trans and LGBTQI of the anthropological community as well as the community at large.”

In a Sept. 26 open letter (pdf) to CASCA and AAA, the panelists pushed back against the decision. They argued that the panel was accepted in July after the submission was reviewed by both organizations.

“From the time of this acceptance until we received your letter dated September 25th, 2023, no one from the AAA or CASCA reached out to any of the panelists with concerns,” it said.

“Thus, it comes as a shock to all of us that the AAA and CASCA canceled the panel due to the false accusation” that the discussion would “cause harm” to LGBT people.

‘Anti-Science Response’

In their letter, the panelists asked the two organizations to share the nature of the complaints which led them to cancel the session.

“We are puzzled at the AAA / CASCA adopting as its own official stance that to support the continued use of biological sex categories (e.g., male and female; man and woman) is to imperil the safety of the LGBTQI community.”

The letter noted that the panel itself is composed of a diverse group of women, including a lesbian, and is “concerned about the erasure of women.”

For instance, an abstract from one of the panelists focuses on the issue of “counting men who identify as trans” as women in the tech industry rather than having more women in the field.

“Your suggestion that our panel would somehow compromise ‘the scientific integrity of the programme’ seems to us particularly egregious, as the decision to anathematize our panel looks very much like an anti-science response to a politicized lobbying campaign.”

The letter also raised concerns about AAA and CASCA deciding to conduct a “major review” of the processes involved in vetting sessions.

“Anthropologists around the world will quite rightly find chilling this declaration of war on dissent and on scholarly controversy. It is a profound betrayal of the AAA’s principle of ‘advancing human understanding and applying this understanding to the world’s most pressing problems,’” it said.

Sex Identification Versus Estimation

On Sept. 28, the AAA released a statement against the now-canceled discussion, accusing it of transphobia and marginalizing LGBT.

“The function of the ‘gender critical’ scholarship advocated in this session, like the function of the ‘race science’ of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is to advance a ‘scientific’ reason to question the humanity of already marginalized groups of people, in this case, those who exist outside a strict and narrow sex/gender binary,” it insisted.

The organization accused the panel of committing a “cardinal” sin by proposing that sex and gender are “simplistically binary.”

AAA claimed that forensic anthropologists only talk about the “sex estimation” of bones and not “sex identification.”

“No single biological standard” exists according to which human beings can be grouped into the male/female binary classification, it stated.

The Epoch Times has reached out to AAA for comment.

In physical anthropology, human skeletal remains are distinguished based on whether they are male or female. This differentiation is done by examining the features and dimensions of the skeleton.

For instance, male skeletons have more cranial features and robust muscle attachment sites. Female skeletons are smaller in overall size and more gracile.