Author: J.P. Knowles

Walmart has announced bonuses and raises for its warehouse staff to discourage voluntary layoffs and vacations following the extended downturn caused by the recent spike of COVID-19 cases, which created distortions in the labor market over the last few weeks.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The majority of Walmart’s 190 U.S. warehouses are offering the weekly bonus or pay raises. The bonuses and raises vary by location and job type, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Some workers have been offered $1,000 over four weeks for not skipping any scheduled shifts during the second half of the summer. Last week, some workers were also offered temporary pay raises of several dollars an hour through January 2022, said this person.

Several economists and legislators are concerned that the federal government’s enhanced unemployment insurance, which President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan includes for those who have been unemployed through September, encourages individuals to remain unemployed rather than go back to work.

In a recent Morning Consult poll of adults who have recently lost their jobs, 1.8 million said they have rejected job offers because they receive enough money from unemployment insurance without having to work.

The Federal Reserve claimed that the increased wages were one of the reasons for the current labor shortages.

With economic activity rebounding, labor demand rose briskly in the spring, while the supply of labor struggled to keep up. Employers reported widespread hiring difficulties, job openings jumped to about 30 percent above the average level for 2019, and the ratio of job openings to job seekers surged… enhanced unemployment benefits have allowed potential workers to be more selective and reduce the intensity of their job search.

But the truth of the matter was confirmed by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) — the Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee — said in a recent interview that due to President Biden’s policies that labor force participation has steadily declined.

“The labor force participation rate, that key indicator — it’s just stuck at a very low rate,” he said. “It hasn’t budged in six months under President Biden. Without those workers returning, we’re gonna continue to see those higher prices and those slower deliveries in a major way.”

An agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services has been directed by Dr. Anthony Fauci to provide taxpayer funding to researchers who intended to infect beagles and use an experimental medication on them.

A government agency in charge of infectious diseases gave a university $424,455 in public cash in September to infect hundreds of beagles with disease-causing parasites in order to test an untested medication on them, according to a recent Daily Caller story.

The grant was found by the White Coat Waste Project (WCW) and has a conclusion date of January 15, 2022.

“According to an NIAID task order form released via a Freedom Of Information Act request, the 28 beagles were to be allowed to develop infections for three months before being euthanized for blood collection,” the Caller reported. “The dog experiments are set to be completed by January 2022, however, the task order states that the beagles are to be euthanized 196 days after the start of the study. According to emails obtained by WCW, the study began on Nov. 12, 2020, meaning the beagles would have been scheduled to be euthanized in June 2021.”

There was no answer to the Caller’s inquiry into whether the beagles had already been euthanized, and Dr. Andrew Moorhead, who was to conduct the study at the University of Georgia, had not responded yet.

These findings come after animal studies conducted with public money have come under scrutiny in recent months, notably after allegations were made about Fauci’s involvement in gain-of-function trials at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“Fauci’s budget has ballooned to over $6 billion in taxpayer funding annually, at least half of which is being wasted on more questionable animal experimentation like these deadly and unnecessary beagle tests and other maximum pain experiments.”

Wuhan wasn’t the only location where NIAID funds were used in dubious research, according to WCW vice president of advocacy and public policy Justin Goodman.

West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has requested the Federal Reserve to begin to slow down its monetary stimulus, or what we like to call it, its “money printing system.”

Despite growing inflation, the Federal Open Market Committee — which controls the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy — has so far refrained from altering its near-zero interest rate goal or reducing its monthly asset purchases of $120 billion.

On Thursday, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) sent a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell stating that the stimulus was no longer necessary given the U.S. economy’s recent recovery.

Below is an excerpt from that letter:

With the recession over and our strong economic recovery well underway, I am increasingly alarmed that the Fed continues to inject record amounts of stimulus into our economy by continuing an emergency level of quantitative easing (QE) with asset purchases of $120 billion per month of Treasury securities and mortgage backed securities.

The record amount of stimulus in the economy has led to the most inflation momentum in 30 years, and our economy has not even fully reopened yet. I am deeply concerned that the continuing stimulus put forth by the Fed, and proposal for additional fiscal stimulus, will lead to our economy overheating and to unavoidable inflation taxes that hard working Americans cannot afford.

While I appreciate your commitment to maximum employment and stable prices, it is imperative we begin to understand that long term policy responses tailored for an economic depression, like the Great Depression and Great Recession of 2008, may not be what is required for today’s economy and could result in higher than desired inflation if not removed in time.

Waller – a member of the Federal Open Market Committee — stated in an interview with CNBC that monetary and fiscal stimulus had accomplished their goals.

“In my opinion, that’s substantial progress and I think you could be ready to do an announcement in September,” he explained, adding that if the next two jobs reports “come in as strong as the last one, then I think you’ve made the progress you need.” If they do not, “then you’re probably going to have to push things back a couple months.”

“In my view, with tapering we should go early and go fast in order to make sure we’re in position to raise rates in 2022 if we have to,” he asserted. “I’m not saying we would, but if we wanted to, we need to have some policy space by the end of the year.”

Japan has been threatened with a nuclear strike in a video released by Chinese media. From a nuclear power with a long-standing “no first use” policy, this is a bold threat to an otherwise nuclear-free state. As a result, the minimum deterrence approach is clearly abandoned.

“When we liberate Taiwan if Japan dares to intervene by force, even if it only deploys one soldier, one plane, and one ship, we will not only return reciprocal fire but also start a full-scale war against Japan,” the video states. “We will use nuclear bombs first.”

There’s no way to deny that these threats came from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), given the overwhelming amount of power they possess. The CCP channel reposted the video, making it likely that the video was intended as a coercive measure, according to media reports. A nuclear arsenal could be used as part of Hybrid Warfare if nuclear weapons are threatened in order to achieve a strategic foreign policy goal such as the invasion or “liberation” of a sovereign state. A minimum deterrence strategy that aims to prevent military aggression does not fit with this use of nuclear coercion. Minimum deterrence states will generally have just enough deliverable and survivable nuclear weapons to guarantee a successful retaliatory strike.

It’s defined as “a continuation of foreign policy utilizing unconventional hard power and/or subversive instruments in order to achieve strategic goals.” China’s Hybrid Warfare campaign against Taiwan has issued nuclear threats against Japan as a deterrent against allied intervention in the region. Taiwan’s air defense identification zone has been violated repeatedly by fighters and bombers of the United States. Taiwan has been the target of numerous cyberattacks by China. Xi Jinping has promised to “reunify” Taiwan with China and “slam down” any formal independence attempts. By weakening the resistance and allies of Taiwan, the CCP hopes to achieve its goal of annexing the island more quickly.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu, “the supreme art of war consists in subduing the enemy without fighting.” It is the CCP’s goal to show Taiwan and its allies that Taiwan’s “reunification” is a done deal and that it will use any means, including nuclear weapons, to achieve it. Following Sun Tzu’s “Supreme Art of War,” China’s ultimate goals with this strategy are to convince Taiwan’s population of the futility of resisting and to convince Taiwan’s allies that protecting Taiwan is not worth the cost.

Intent alone is not enough to make China’s nuclear threat dangerous. Japan is within striking distance of China’s DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles and its DF26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, both of which are nuclear weapons. Because of the Chinese decision to deploy these missiles against Japan, China’s intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal will remain in reserve should the United States strike its ally in response to the attack. China is aware that the U.S., Japan, and its allies must make these calculations in order to defend Taiwan. In light of the CCP’s use of nuclear coercion as a component of hybrid warfare and its departure from a minimal deterrence strategy, what can be done?

Below is the Chinese propaganda:

The first step should be to ignore China’s nuclear policy of “no first use.” As such, it must be recognized as a delusion. Nuclear weapons are being modernized in China, and they are being used to exert pressure. No-first-use policy, which China is said to have adopted, allows nuclear weapons to be used in retaliation for nuclear attacks. The United States and its allies must disregard China’s ‘no first use’ claims in order to clearly establish strategies to counter nuclear coercion and deter possible Chinese nuclear weapons use by the Chinese government.

The average American home price in June 2021 has increased over 23.4% over the last year alone, and Wall Street has taken notice of the yields. American investment banks are making massive investments into buying single-family homes in an attempt to profit from the increasing rents and property values that have occurred in recent years.

CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rent Index from April showed a “national rent increase of 5.3% year over year, up from a 2.4% year-over-year increase in April 2020,” as The Daily Wire previously reported. The group noticed that “as demand for more space and outdoor amenities remains, detached rentals, in particular, are experiencing accelerated growth with a 7.9% year-over-year increase in April, compared to growth of 2.2% annually for attached rentals.”

A more recent report from the National Association of Realtors explained that average American home prices in June 2021 reached $363,300 — a 23.4% increase over the average of $294,400 in June 2020.

According to Hanna Ziady, a CNN Business journalist, rapidly rising rents and property values are attracting the attention of Wall Street investment banks to the housing market:

According to John Burns Real Estate Consulting, in the first three months of this year, nearly a quarter of all homes sold in the United States were going to investors. That’s a broad umbrella that covers everything from mega institutions to individuals buying vacation homes, but BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs were among the big-name buyers.

Institutional investors still own only about 2% of all single-family rentals in the United States, or roughly 300,000 homes, according to John Burns research director Rick Palacios.

A similar pattern is being observed in England, where American corporations are also purchasing residential real estate:

Institutions poured a record £3.7 billion ($5 billion) into the UK build-to-rent sector in 2020, almost a third of which came from first-time investors, according to real estate consultants Knight Frank. This year’s number is likely to come in even higher, with inflows in the first three months of the year alone reaching almost £1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) — a 16% increase on the same period last year.

One of the institutional investors actively seeking single-family housing opportunities is Goldman Sachs, which earlier this year bought 900 single-family houses in the northwest of England, and is now partnering with developers to build more homes.

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, as pointed out by senators during a recent hearing with Fed Chair Jerome Powell, lower the cost for investors and purchasers to purchase real estate, resulting in homes increasing in value.

Devin Funchess, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, has apologized for using an anti-Asian slur.

During a news conference on Saturday, the Packers playmaker was addressing the media and explained how he can tell when individuals are smirking beneath their masks.

Apparently, for reasons that no one will understand, the gifted receiver stated that he can tell when people are smiling because their faces appear “ch*nky,” and he then pointed to the skin around his eyes being pushed back.

I don't think he did it in jest, but I'm 95% sure Devin Funchess used a racist term in his post-practice presser and no one in the room seemed to catch it?

— Justis Mosqueda (@JuMosq) August 8, 2021

The NFL receiver instantly made a public statement taking back his previous remarks.

“I want to apologize for the disparaging remake I used tonight…I meant no harm and those that know me, know I have love and respect for all cultures and people,” Funchess posted over his social media early Sunday morning.

Below is his full statement:

pic.twitter.com/lH0AdyoAgX

— Devin Funchess (@D_FUNCH) August 8, 2021

Do I believe that Funchess should be instantly fired and his life damaged as a result of what he said? Absolutely not, but he needs to be a little more astute.

Even if there was no malicious intent, he should not have dropped a slur like it was nothing in front of the entire audience of people in the audience.

A man from Washington killed his cellmate after discovering that he was the convicted child rapist who had attacked his sister.

NBC affiliate KHQ-TV reported that Shane Goldsby, 26, was sentenced to 298 months in prison for the June 2020 murder – just under 25 years — for the crime.

“I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose a loved one in this kind of way,” Goldsby read from a prepared statement, before learning of his sentence. “To his wife and his whole family, I apologize. I am so sorry and I hope you are able to heal from what I caused.”

Washington man gets 25 years for murdering sister's rapist after meeting him in jail https://t.co/EFpogdY7hT

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 7, 2021

According to KHQ-TV, Robert Munger, 70, suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions as a result of multiple hits from Goldsby on Tuesday, June 2 inside the Airway Heights Corrections Center. After he died three days later in the hospital, the Spokane County Medical Examiner verified the cause of death as blunt force trauma.

Court records say Goldsby “[hit] Munger in the face and head region around 14 times, (stomped) on his head at least four times, and (kicked) a couple more times before walking away and being brought into custody by Airway Heights Corrections Guards.”

Goldsby told KHQ-TV that Munger kept telling him about the horrors he perpetrated on his victims. When Goldsby discovered Munger was his younger sister’s abuser, he told KHQ-TV, “I was in shock.” ‘What the f***?’ I said… This kind of thing doesn’t happen. You’re talking about the same institution, unit, and pod in the same cell as this guy. That’s like striking the jackpot seven times in a row at the casino.”

Munger was sentenced to 43 years in jail in December 2019 after being engaged in several child sex abuse cases, including that of Goldsby’s sister. Goldsby was initially imprisoned in 2017 after hijacking a police car and leading officers on a high-speed chase.

It has been reported that a transgender political candidate confronted the owner of a Star Wars memorabilia store in Washington state and that the owner was caught on video having a shouting match with him over a sign in his window that read, “If you are born with a d–k you are not a chick,” according to the report.

According to King 5 TV, Tiesa Meskis, a councilwoman from the town of Aberdeen, stormed into the Sucher & Sons Star Wars Shop on Wednesday and confronted owner Don Sucher about a handwritten message that he had posted on Facebook, according to the station.

“Trans women are women,” as she comes face to face with Sucher in the video, Meskis can be heard yelling at the store owner.

His window sign said: “Just out. Dr. Seuss’s new book. ‘If you are born with a d**k, you are NOT a chick’. Period. This new release is out now because cancel culture banned his early books.”

When Meskis accused the shop owner of lying, Sucher responded, “No, what you’re spouting is bulls–t.”

“No, it’s not. Trans women are women, sir, that sign is bulls–t,” Meskis hit back.

Sucher later gave Mekis the real truth about the whole ordeal: “You know what, nobody confronts your a-s. That’s the problem.”

“Every time some bulls–t like this happens, my sales go up because people are wanting this.”

The argument eventually spilled out onto the street with Meskis repeatedly shouting: “Trans women are women.”

Sucher fired back: “You’re nuts. You’re not a woman.”

The shop owner later told King5 that he was entitled to display the sign in his window.

“I don’t care what they do but don’t come in here and complain to me about stuff. I have free speech,” he told the outlet.

“I don’t give a (expletive) about feelings anymore. I went to Vietnam to fight for all this (expletive). Do you think I care about some (expletive) feeling? Absolutely not.”

The council member acknowledged that Sucher had the right to free expression, but she insisted on confronting the store owner.

“We are people. We are who we are and we all want to be accepted in our community,” she said.

Here is footage of the heated exchange below:

Footage of an arrest of NBA Pelican’s Center Star, Jason Hayes, has appeared over social media.

Hayes was arrested by police officers on the scene after allegedly getting into an altercation with police at his residence in Los Angeles while responding to a call at his home.

Hayes was arrested in late July after allegedly getting into an altercation with police after they responded to a call at his residence in Los Angeles.

NBA's Jaxson Hayes Arrested, Hospitalized After Alleged Brawl With Cops https://t.co/DFAplKTW9X

— TMZ (@TMZ) July 28, 2021

TMZ released a video of the arrest Wednesday, and in it you can see an officer tasing Hayes while it takes multiple officers to conduct the arrest. Most Democrats would say that this is all unnecessary force. But those people have never been in an altercation before that needed multiple people to de-escalate the situation.

Here is the footage of the end of the arrest below:

https://youtu.be/7ewBamaUN2g?t=42

According to initial reports of the scene, police claim that Hayes injured an officer prior to the altercation by shoving him into a wall.

That footage of the altercation that started the brawl between officers and Hayes has not been released at this time of writing.

Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci sounded the alarm this week warning that another coronavirus variant could quickly spread across the country as the daily case rate continues to rise.

Fauci spoke with McClatchy D.C., telling the outlet that the number of extremely infectious delta variant cases could soon double across the nation.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, delta variant cases –including sub-variants – make up more than 93% of all new cases in the U.S. In the Midwest, that percentage is even higher and the delta variant is especially prevalent in areas with low vaccination rates.

#COVID19 community transmission in the United States is high.

The current 7-day average of daily new cases is 89,463. This is a 43.3% increase from the previous week & a 678.6% increase from the lowest average in June 2021. Get vaccinated. More: https://t.co/KTzQW0TtKJ. pic.twitter.com/KUn68tWsjr

— CDC (@CDCgov) August 4, 2021

Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, said that the country could be “in trouble” unless unvaccinated Americans decide to get the shots.

The agency said on Twitter Wednesday that the current seven-day average of daily new cases is 89,463, a 43.3% increase from the previous week and a 678.6% increase from the lowest average in June 2021.

“What we’re seeing, because of this increase in transmissibility, and because we have about 93 million people in this country who are eligible to get vaccinated who don’t get vaccinated — that you have a significant pool of vulnerable people,” he said.

“And so when you look at the curve of acceleration of seven-day averages of cases per day, it is going up in a very steep fashion,” Fauci noted.

Fauci estimates the U.S. would likely “wind up somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 cases,” as the country fights what he said is a different kind of virus.

As of Thursday morning, the United States had reached more than 35.3 million cases of the coronavirus and over 614,785 deaths.