Conrad Black: Is this a return to global MADness?

A nuclear weapons test is seen in Nevada in a June 18, 1957 photo. It's believed Iran and North Korea are about to become nuclear powers, joining the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES

 

In all of these circumstances, the rest of the world has little choice but to assume that Iran and North Korea are about to become nuclear powers, joining the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. The thought of the aggressive dictatorships of Iran and North Korea, which in all other aspects except nuclear weapons development and the techniques of totalitarianism, are poor and primitive countries, achieving such a military capability is distressing to any civilized person. And the fact that China and Russia, which are much closer to those countries than the major Western powers, have been so flagrantly cavalier in effectively encouraging them to become nuclear powers, is a cautionary tale about how far we are from the quasi-nirvana that much of the world thought had been achieved at the end of the Cold War when there would be no more threats of nuclear devastation. In fairness to Iran and North Korea, , they are correct to object that the existing nuclear arms control regime is rank hypocrisy.

Rupa Subramanya: How Ottawa exploited our fear to limit our liberties

A Charter of Rights Freedoms poster at the Freedom Convoy demonstration downtown Ottawa on February 08, 2022. Photo by Jean Levac/Postmedia

 

On June 14, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended its controversial vaccine mandates as they applied to federal workplaces and for travel, the two sectors where the federal government had the authority to issue regulations. However, ministers made it clear that the mandates weren’t dead but merely suspended and could be revived if circumstances warranted. On August 2, my story for Bari Weiss’s Common Sense Substack blog based on a legal challenge to the vaccine mandate for travel before the Federal Court of Canada, made abundantly clear that at least this particular mandate had a lot to do with politics and much less to do with science and evidence. While we’ve not had a comparable court case for the federal workplace mandate, the documents made public in the travel mandate case cast serious doubt on Trudeau’s claim that his government followed science and the evidence.

Raymond J. de Souza: Criminal justice has a credibility problem — in Canada as well as the U.S.

A Secret Service agent is seen in front of former president Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago home in Palm Beach on Aug. 9, 2022, the day after it was raided by the FBI. PHOTO BY GIORGIO VIERA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

Decades of police and prosecutorial abuses have demonstrated that it is right for us to be suspicious

The FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home has brought intense focus on America’s criminal justice system. Department of Justice is not in the custom of commenting upon ongoing criminal investigations, but an unusually chatty attorney general, Merrick Garland, held a press conference on the Trump raid, saying that he had asked the court to unseal the search warrant and the record of property seized due to «substantial public interest». Long concerned about abuse of police and prosecutorial power, I find myself reading, it seems every year, yet another «exposé» of how the criminal justice system gets it wrong.

Hackers steal $611,500 worth of user’s funds by hijacking the Curve Finance homepage

 

Hackers continue to search for weaknesses in popular decentralized finance protocols, and Curve Finance is the latest platform to fend off an attack. On Tuesday the popular decentralized stablecoin exchange fell victim to a domain name system hijack in which hackers briefly took control of the project's homepage. The exchange posted a tweet on Tuesday warning users to refrain from using the website due to the front page being compromised after several users reported a change in the nameserver. The attack appears to have been isolated to the front page of the platform, leaving its backend exchange which uses a completely different DNS unaffected.

The ECB "Bought Lots Of Italian Gov't Bonds And Sold Lots Of German Bunds" To Reverse Spread Blowout

 In the first data release since the ECB activated PEPP reinvestment flexibility, we find a heavy skew in country allocation, away from core countries like Germany and towards the periphery, especially Italy and Spain, over the month of July 2022.

The ECB bought lots of Italian gov't bonds in June & July and sold lots of German Bunds. This is the ECB steering proceeds from maturing government bonds in core countries like Germany and the Netherlands to benefit Italy. As the former Goldman FX trader correctly concludes, "Lo Spread" would be a lot wider without this going on.

The U.S. government underestimated the cost of the student loan program by billions

Students at Pasadena City College, in Pasadena, Calif., participate in a graduation ceremony in 2019. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Government Accountability Office finds the U. Department of Education miscalculated the cost of the federal student loan program. From 1997 to 2021, the Education Department estimated that payments from federal direct student loans would generate $114 billion for the government. But the GAO found that, as of 2021, the program has actually cost the government an estimated $197 billion. A percentage of that shortfall, $102 billion, stems from the unprecedented federal student loan payment pause that began under the CARES Act in 2020.

Sabrina Maddeaux: Calling Pierre Poilievre a 'populist' is a lazy scare tactic used by the elites he threatens

Pierre Poilievre, a candidate for Conservative party leadership, speaks with supporters at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. Steven Wilhelm/Postmedia

 

There were certainly populist elements to Donald Trump’s campaign, but he is not a true populist, even if it is convenient for anti-populists to paint him as one. Calling Trump a populist, however, allows fearmongerers to undermine populist movements and politicians without actually having to provide proof for all the «isms» they imply. Take, for example, Poilievre. When elites and opponents warn he’s a populist leader, they hope voters will also hear «nativist,» «racist,» and «fascist» when there’s no evidence to back any of this –– and certainly none more damning than photos of our current prime minister sporting blackface.

Deflation: Bad for the Government, Good for Producers and Consumers. What's Not to Like?

Prices fall in a scenario where the currency is not inflated and, therefore, there are more sustainable investments and increased productivity. In an economy with little or no government intervention, there are more long-term investments, which increase the economy’s productivity. In a deflationary economy, the purchasing power of money tends to increase, as there is no monetary inflation by central banks and prices tend to fall. Consumers can purchase more products and services and companies have higher profit margins.

But governments do not like deflation, they are the most indebted entities.

John Robson: Liberals are infecting our military and police forces with wokeism. We will all pay the price

"I think policing, like soldiering, used to attract mostly serious, stoic applicants willing to endure hardship to protect order against chaos," writes John Robson. "But if so, those professions are unlikely to appeal to social justice warriors." PHOTO BY PATRICK GIBSON/COCHRANE TIMES

 

What the government is determined to fix is not the military's capabilities as a force, but its lack of social justice

Years ago, American political philosopher Harvey Mansfield made a troubling observation that I cited in these pages five years ago. You might suppose that a mere $8 billion under current circumstances, for what Gurney rightly calls unspecified purposes, indicates that the Trudeau Liberals are not serious about fixing the military. What they are determined to fix is the lack of social justice. And they really seem convinced that, if identity politics crushes all opposition, there will be such a flowering of true human fulfillment that lack of modern equipment, logistical support or actual soldiers will be of no importance in safeguarding our security.

JPMorgan Predicts That Global Commodities Prices May Rise by 40 Percent

Marked ingots of 99.99 percent pure gold are placed in a cart at the Krastsvetmet non-ferrous metals plant in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on March 10, 2022. (Alexander Manzyuk/Reuters)

 

Russia is a main supplier for up to 10 percent of global energy production and about 20 percent of global wheat production. The commodities affected include oil, which is already up 33 percent from the same month the previous year, while natural gas has gone up by 65 percent since the invasion roiled the markets. Metals excluding gold, such as copper, are up by 7 percent from 2021, while wheat has surged upward by 33 percent. «In the current juncture, where the need for inflation hedges is more elevated, it is conceivable to see longer-term commodity allocations eventually rising above 1 percent of total financial assets globally, surpassing the previous highs seen during 2008 or 2011,» said the JPMorgan note.

LEVY: COVID hypochondriacs dread every case of the sniffles

 

It seems the common cold has made a comeback – or at least that it’s still around – but you wouldn’t know it from the continuing hysteria over COVID-19. Just a week ago, I was sick for six days with symptoms similar to those of the contagious Omicron variant of COVID. After five days of downing cough medicine and cold pills, eating the chicken soup my wife made me, and wearing a mask the few times I ventured out, I decided I’d better take a COVID test just to be safe. It wasn’t COVID.

Are You Ready for the End of the PetroDollar?

 Fallout from the war in Ukraine—what I call the New Iron Curtain—seems to be accelerating the shift away from pricing all commodities in US dollars. China and Russia have been working on this for a long time, but that’s now shifting into a higher gear with Russia demanding that «unfriendly» countries pay for oil in rubles.

COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Jump Among Vaccinated: CDC Data

 

Vials of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in Bridgeport, Conn., in a file image. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Rex Murphy: 'Greenism' has helped Putin fuel his war machine

 

A member of a pro-Russian militia mans a tank on a road in the Luhansk region of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022. PHOTO BY ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO / REUTERS

Will the horror of what is occurring in Ukraine wake up the environmentally 'woke' governments of the world to their folly?

Rex Murphy: Trudeau's wild misuse of state authority

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives at the House of Commons to speak on his invocation of the Emergencies Act, on Feb. 17, 2022. PHOTO BY DAVE CHAN / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 Are there no hero MPs willing to denounce this gross usurpation of citizens' rights?

Visualizing the State of Global Debt, by Country

Since COVID-19 started its spread around the world in 2020, the global economy has been put to the test with supply chain disruptions, price volatility for commodities, challenges in the job market, and declining income from tourism. To analyze the extent of global debt, we’ve compiled debt-to-GDP data by country from the most recent World Economic Outlook report by the IMF.

What is the main risk of a high debt-to-GDP ratio?

A rapid increase in government debt is a major cause for concern. Generally, the higher a country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is, the higher chance that country could default on its debt, therefore creating a financial panic in the markets. The World Bank published a study showing that countries that maintained a debt-to-GDP ratio of over 77% for prolonged periods of time experienced economic slowdowns. COVID-19 has worsened a debt crisis that has been brewing since the 2008 global recession.

Source: World Economic Outlook Report (October 2021 Edition)

The IMF Warns of Interest Rates

Global debt reached $226 trillion by the end of 2020, seeing the biggest one-year increase since World War II. Borrowing by governments accounted for slightly over half of the $28 trillion increase, bringing global public debt ratio to a record of 99% of GDP. As interest rates rise, IMF officials warn that higher interest rates will diminish the impact of fiscal spending, and cause debt sustainability concerns to intensify.

Read more.

Source: Raul Amoros, Christina Kostandi | Visual Capitalist

Jack M. Mintz: The measure of a model is how well it predicts

COVID-19 mandate protesters block the roadway at the Ambassador Bridge border crossing with the U.S. in Windsor, Ont., on Feb. 9, 2022. PHOTO BY GEOFF ROBINS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

 

With the trucker protest against mandatory health policies still in play, it is no surprise that the controversial Johns Hopkins economic study released last week made the front pages here. This is a far cry from Imperial College London epidemiology studies from almost two years ago that estimated lockdowns were needed to cut deaths by 98 per cent. The three authors, only one of whom, Hanke, is actually at Johns Hopkins, conducted a «meta-analysis» of 34 COVID studies focused on March 16-April 20, 2020. Comparing COVID deaths across jurisdictions, they concluded that mask mandates had the largest impact on mortality with rules such as shelter-in-place or school closings having only marginal effects.

Child Safeguarding Harms & The Pandemic Response

We must not aim simply to restore ‘normality’ for children. Many took to social media in the aftermath, trying to make sense of how the abuse of these defenceless children could have occurred. Some were vehement that Arthur’s death, was the result of lockdown and school closures, whilst others argued that such claims only detract from the culpability of the perpetrators. Thinking in such binary terms, however, does not advance our learning or help to better protect children in the future.

‘Between April and September 2020, the period in which Arthur and Star were both killed, there were 119 child deaths and 153 incidents of serious harm due to known/suspected abuse or neglect, as compared to 89 and 132 during the same period in 2019. During the first month of lockdown, calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline increased by around 50% . Fleeing domestic abuse will also have resulted in homelessness for many children, likely compounding their experience of trauma. In England, 15,370 households with children were homeless or threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse between April 2020 and March 2021, reflecting an increase of almost 14% from the previous year.

The crowd booed him, but Tom Wilson’s fellow all-stars were very complimentary

Tom Wilson made his first all-star appearance Saturday in Las Vegas. (Rick Scuteri/AP)

 

The 27-year-old was just soaking in his first career all-star appearance, an experience he described as a «dream come true.» The boos, he said, just added to the memories. «Guys had a lot of fun with me being booed, and it is just all part of the journey,» Wilson said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. «’Guys were hearing it and then making nice comments toward me. I had to say to a couple guys, ‘Thanks for having me this weekend,’ because they were all so good to me».

Strictly regular use of ivermectin as prophylaxis for COVID-19 leads to a 90% reduction in COVID-19 mortality rate, in a dose-response manner: definitive results of a prospective observational study of a strictly controlled 223,128 population from a city-wide program in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Background: Previously, we demonstrated that ivermectin use as prophylaxis for COVID-19 was associated with reductions in COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality rates, and in the risk of dying from COVID-19, irrespective of regularity and accumulated use of ivermectin, in an observational, prospectively obtained data from a strictly controlled city-wide program in a city in Southern Brazil (Itajaí, SC, Brazil) of medically-based, optional use of ivermectin as prophylaxis for COVID-19. In this study, our objective was to explore the data obtained from the program to evaluate whether the level of regularity of ivermectin use impacted in the reductions in these outcomes, aiming to determine if ivermectin showed a progressive dose- and regularity-response in terms of protection from COVID-19 and COVID-19 related outcomes. Materials and methods: This is a prospective observational study of the program mention above, that used ivermectin at a dose of 0.2mg/kg/day for two consecutive days, every 15 days.

Kulldorff Deleted: Famed Epidemiologist and Early Opponent of Lockdowns Banned by LinkedIn

 

Just a few days ago, I linked to an epic article in the history of the pandemic response. Finally, he decided to post it on his LinkedIn account. The posting of this article was an important moment in the modern historiography of lockdowns and the response. It became very easily the most important English-language dissent against the unprecedented and catastrophic response deployed by states all over the world.

LinkedIn made this possible because it allowed its users the freedom to post their thoughts.

Vaccines are a tool, not a silver bullet. If we’d allowed more scientific debate, we would have realized this earlier

PHOTO LLUSTRATION BY THE GLOBE AND MAIL

 

More than two years since COVID-19 emerged, our kit of solutions – and the mindset needed to use them – is too small. The December 20 announcement, coming at a time when Canadians were preoccupied with Omicron, and the fear hospitals would soon be overwhelmed, received hardly any news coverage. Fluvoxamine is a "repurposed drug," and comes from what might seem like a most unlikely source – psychiatry.

The drug has had two randomized control trials, or RCTs and four observational studies showing it keeps people with COVID out of hospital, from requiring intubation, and helps prevent death. The discovery of its anti-COVID properties came after impressive sleuthing in France and the United States. This is a good news story, about our public-health officials doing something right, and showing flexibility, at a time when we are learning the limits of our vaccines and accompanying strategies. Reappraisal is in the air, driven by everyone’s two-year-experience with the pandemic – scientists included.

The Truth About Vaccine-induced Myocarditis

 

As a young male with a platform, it's my responsibility to give voice to the voiceless. The following essay has been rigorously fact-checked by Stanford medicine professor and infectious disease expert Dr. Most alarmingly, our universal triple-vaccination regime is victimizing more and more young males. And both conservative and liberal media have ignored the problem entirely. Vinay Prasad highlights, if the researchers used more accurate seroprevalence data for viral infection and analyzed the risk in younger males ages 16-24 specifically, the risk-benefit ratio would swing further against the administration of the aforementioned vaccine doses in this population.

How long until you retire? Across Europe, people’s working life is getting shorter

Evidence suggests that people are finishing their working lives at an earlier age. Image: Unsplash/Matthew Bennett

 

Read the original article.

• For the first time this century, the expected average duration of working life for Europeans has dropped.
• The pandemic is partly to blame, according to the European Commission.
• People are living longer and age-related costs are rising accordingly.
• It’s a global problem which could affect developed and developing economies alike.

In Europe, people are living longer but spending fewer years working.

Double Vaccinated Have Double the Infection Rate, Data From Iceland Shows

 

The double-vaccinated are almost twice as likely to be infected as unvaccinated people, data from Iceland shows. This is the same pattern as found in data from the U. After December 20th, the 14-day incidence of COVID-19 infection by vaccination status took a very unexpected turn in Iceland. The infection rate per 100,000 of fully vaccinated adults with booster is now eleven times higher than on December 20th, and the infection rate of double-vaccinated adults seven times higher. At the same time, infections among unvaccinated people have grown by a factor of 2.6 only.

Professor Ehud Qimron: "Ministry of Health, it’s time to admit failure"

Professor Ehud Qimron (center) at Tel Aviv University (Haaretz)

 

In the end, the truth will always be revealed, and the truth about the coronavirus policy is beginning to be revealed. When the destructive concepts collapse one by one, there is nothing left but to tell the experts who led the management of the pandemic – we told you so. You do not admit it, because you have admitted almost no mistake in the last two years, but in retrospect it is clear that you have failed miserably in almost all of your actions, and even the media is already having a hard time covering your shame. You refused to admit that the infection comes in waves that fade by themselves, despite years of observations and scientific knowledge.

The New Climate of Panic Among the Panic-Mongers

 

A new climate panic is gripping the far-Left profiteers of doom. Those few of Them who are climate scientists have made fame and fortune by telling us the world is toast unless the once-free West commits economic hara-kiri. The cost of placating climate Communism is already in the quadrillions. However, They are becoming aware that Their official climate narrative is rooted in a grave error of physics – an error so elementary that it can be described here.

The Toronto Star calls for massive violations of Charter rights

 

The Star asserts the following as «irrefutable» facts

The government of Canada has declared COVID vaccines safe. Vaccines reduce the risk of death from COVID and lower the burden on doctors and nurses holding our health care system together. When our hospital critical care units become overwhelmed with COVID care, they can no longer function to treat other diseases, injuries, and accidents. With hospitals overwhelmed, our government will mandate forced lockdowns, resulting in social isolation that has been shown to contribute to increased drug overdoses, suicides, and spousal abuse.

FUREY: A former military leader breaks down what Ontario must do now

When retired lieutenant-colonel David Redman wrote Alberta’s 2005 Alberta pandemic influenza response plan, he received input from 10 deputy ministers. Only one of them was the deputy minister of health. The rest represented other ministries, other sectors. PHOTO BY FILES /TORONTO SUN

 

When retired Lt.-Col. David Redman wrote Alberta’s 2005 Alberta pandemic influenza response plan, he received input from 10 deputy ministers. Only one of them was the deputy minister of health. The rest represented other ministries, other sectors.

That’s because a pandemic is a whole-of-society emergency. Health care shouldn’t be the only voice at the table.

But what would they do and what would that accomplish?

The Mainstream Media Is Losing The Fight Of Its Life...All Thanks To Joe Rogan

I'm expecting one of the largest mainstream media pivots in history in 2022, catalyzed by capitalism and common sense.

A couple of things all happened together over the last 48 hours.

First, I came up with the idea of writing 100 predictions for the year 2022 – a blog post that I might still wind up finishing at some point. And second, I listened to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast interview of mRNA inventor Dr. Robert Malone, M.D., hours after the doctor was banned from…

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Source: Quoth the Raven | QTR’s Fringe Finance

RCMP member sent on unpaid leave writes this powerful letter you must read:

Long, but great read.

RCMP member sent on unpaid leave writes this powerful letter you must read:

Hi everyone,

Since most members make a goodbye email before they leave, I figured I should as well, despite the "special" circumstances around my departure. Anyways, my time here in the RCMP is up. For now. The low T wannabe tyrants in Ottawa have decided that I can no longer serve as a police officer because I refuse to tell them if I have submitted to their "vaccine" edict. I’ve served in the RCMP for 21 years and one of the first things I said to any person I ever arrested was "you don’t have to say anything to me." Unfortunately, our government has told me that I have to tell them what’s in my body, and if the right drug is not inside me, I have to get it as condition of my continuing employment, human rights be damned. Why did I put vaccine in quotations above you ask? More on that later. Buckle up and tighten the straps on your government mandated shame muzzle, this goodbye email will likely ruffle some feathers.

The Fed’s Doomsday Prophet Has a Dire Warning About Where We’re Headed

 

Thomas Hoenig knew what quantitative easing and record-low interest rates would bring. Thomas Hoenig doesn’t look like a rebel. Hoenig has all the fiery disposition that one might expect from a central banker, which is to say none at all. When Hoenig gets really agitated he repeats the phrase «lookit» a lot, but that’s about as salty as it gets.

This makes it all the more surprising that Tom Hoenig is, in fact, one of America’s least-understood dissidents. In 2010, Hoenig was president of the Federal Reserve regional bank in Kansas City. As part of his job, Hoenig had a seat on the Fed’s most powerful policy committee, and that’s where he lodged one of the longest-running string of «no» votes in the bank’s history. Hoenig’s string of dissents shattered that appearance of unanimity at a critically important time, when the Fed was expanding its interventions in the American economy to an unprecedented degree.