Society's Child

"Historic levels of fraud": US watchdog estimates $45.6 billion bilked from pandemic unemployment program

Zerohedge
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 18:00 UTC

A federal watchdog has found that $45.6 billion may have been scammed out of the nation's unemployment program during the pandemic, as fraudsters used a variety of methods to commit fraud - including using the Social Security numbers of dead people, hard-to-trace emails, and the identities of prisoners who were ineligible for aid.

According to the Washington Post, a Thursday report by the inspector general for the Labor Department reveals that the program - which helped some 57 million families in the first five months of the crisis - became an easy target for criminals.

To siphon away funds, scammers allegedly filed billions of dollars in unemployment claims in multiple states simultaneously and relied on suspicious, hard-to-trace emails. In some cases, they used more than 205,000 Social Security numbers that belonged to dead people. Other suspected criminals obtained benefits using the identities of prisoners who were ineligible for aid.

But officials at the watchdog office warned their accounting still may be incomplete: They said they were not able to access more updated federal prisoner data from the Justice Department, and acknowledged that they only focused their report on "high risk" areas for fraud. The two factors raised the prospect that they could uncover billions of dollars in additional theft in the months to come. -WaPo

30 ex-FBI agents stand up to support whistleblower who exposed agency's political bias

Miranda Devine
New York Post
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 23:12 UTC

Thirty former FBI agents, including a retired deputy assistant director, head of counterterrorism and five SWAT team members, have spoken out publicly in support of suspended FBI whistleblower Stephen Friend.

Their heartfelt messages, obtained exclusively by The Post, show a deep and widespread anguish about the politicization of the FBI.

"It's time to stop the FBI from being the enforcer of a political party's ideology," says Ernie Tibaldi, a retired agent from San Francisco. "We need to re-establish the FBI as the apolitical and independent law enforcement entity that it always was."

The Bank of England just saved the stock market... for now

Bram Berkowitz
The Motley Fool
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:30 UTC

After a tough week, The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed nearly 550 points on Wednesday.

It has been a brutal month for the market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 7.4%, or more than 2,370 points, in September.

The main culprit has been the hawkish Federal Reserve, which not only continued to aggressively raise interest rates but also continues to forecast more big rate hikes ahead this year. The market now firmly believes a more severe recession is inevitable in 2023 once these rate hikes fully work their way through the economy.

Comment: The Guardian reports:

The Bank said it had become alarmed at the turbulence in the markets after the chancellor's mini-budget last Friday, and has been particularly concerned at the sell-off in government gilts, the bonds it floats to cover its borrowing.

"Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability. This would lead to an unwarranted tightening of financing conditions and a reduction of the flow of credit to the real economy.

"In line with its financial stability objective, the Bank of England stands ready to restore market functioning and reduce any risks from contagion to credit conditions for UK households and businesses."

Canada's gender authorities push for 'two spirit' inclusivity but can't even define the word

Mia Ashton
The Post Millennial
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:23 UTC

The term two-spirit is one that Canadians hear a lot these days, but few actually know it means. Turns out that's because "there is no way to define the term," according to a document produced by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (EFTO).

"A lot of Americans ask me what 'two-spirit' means. the fact is that even Canadians don't know, & we aren't allowed to ask. so I was interested in this 30-page ... doc about the issue. Alas, page 10 informs us 'there is no way to define the term,'" tweeted Quillette editor Jon Kay.

Comment: See also

New energy protest roils EU country

RT
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 22:27 UTC

© Lukas Kabon / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Protest against the Czech government at Wenceslas Square in Prague, Czechia, September 28, 2022.

A crowd numbered in the tens of thousands gathered in Prague on Wednesday to protest against the Czech government, NATO, and the European Union. Demonstrators called for Czechia's neutrality and protested Prime Minister Petr Fiala's policy of sanctioning Russia, which has driven up energy prices.

Meeting on St. Wenceslas' Day - a public holiday celebrating Czech statehood - the crowd took to Prague's main square, named after the medieval saint, and chanted slogans against the EU, NATO and Fiala's cabinet. Prague police would not give a specific figure of the estimated crowd size, calling it only "tens of thousands."

The protest was organized by a group called 'Czech Republic First,' which Reuters described as a coalition of "far-right and fringe groups and parties including the Communists." CRF opposes the EU and NATO and has called for Czechia's military neutrality.

"A government has two duties: to ensure our security and economic prosperity. This government does not fulfill either of these duties," said one unidentified speaker at the rally, according to Reuters.

US urges Americans to leave Russia in wake of 'sabotage' of Nord Stream pipelines

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:01 UTC

The State Department is urging Americans to leave Russia "as soon as possible" in the wake of the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

The official reasoning they're giving to tell everyone to leave is to avoid getting conscripted in their mobilization effort but that logic only applies to dual citizens and this advisory is for all Americans.

I suspect the real reason they're telling everyone to leave is the risk of a full-blown war breaking out due to the US, Ukraine or Poland being responsible for the extremely stupid, belligerent alleged bombing of the pipelines.

Bank Of England emergency action, what it means

Kenneth Rapoza
Forbes
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 16:58 UTC

Central Banks are intervening more in markets. I don't want to repeat what market participants are telling me about the Bank of England's (BoE) move to save pension funds from supposedly going belly up. They bought an unlimited amount of sovereign bonds to bring yields down and bond prices back up. They were supposedly afraid of a wave of insolvencies. That's the word on the streets of London.

"The Bank of England is in a sense responsible for this because they have hopped onto this central banker hubris right now, which is to dampen demand to stop inflation," says Vladimir Signorelli, head of Bretton Woods Research. "I believe this means they are going to flood the U.K. monetary system with liquidity. When the Bank of England buys bonds, it puts more liquidity into the economy, but when you have more (British) pounds in the economy than is necessary, then you have a pound that gets weaker and weaker. It's money printing. That is their answer. Their answer to contraction is money printing."

Markets are unstable, economic situations are dire, and the reputations of lawmakers have been shredded into pieces. This is the view among traders who are looking at the U.K.'s fixed income and forex markets, says Naeem Aslam, chief market strategist for AvaTrade in London.

Trans 'charity' Mermaids is a scandal unfolding before our eyes

Kathryn Knight
Daily Mail
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 16:35 UTC

Binders (pictured) are items of clothing designed to flatten and constrict the breasts, which can cause serious health issues

A scheme to send 'harmful' breast binders to children behind parents' backs, and staff pushing puberty-blocking drugs. Is it time to withdraw its status as a charity?

Like many troubled adolescents, the 13-year-old who logged on to an online forum was looking for guidance and support.

Calling themselves a 'female to male trans' person, they spoke of their physical self-loathing. They were desperate, they said, to wear both a 'packer' — used to create the impression of male genitalia — and a 'binder', an item of clothing designed to flatten and constrict the breasts, and which can cause serious health issues.

'The thing is, my mum won't let me,' they wrote of the binder in 2019. 'She says it's neglect to do it for under-18s.'

No binder? No problem. The chatroom moderator offered to send the item to the troubled teenager — behind their mother's back.

Many would feel that such an intervention was questionable from any source. But this wasn't just an anonymous nobody — the offer came from Mermaids, a registered UK charity for 'gender variant' and transgender children.

Comment:

Supply chain effects from Hurricane Ian could linger for weeks

Eric Kulisch
American Shipper
Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00 UTC

© AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack
Eastbound traffic crowds Interstate 4 as people evacuate in preparation as Hurricane Ian approaches the western side of the state in Lake Alfred.

Citrus growers, manufacturers, marine terminals at high risk of damage and delays

The risk to manufacturing, agriculture and distribution sectors in Florida is rapidly intensifying as powerful Hurricane Ian takes aim at the state's southwest coast. But the economic ripple effects are likely to be felt well beyond the storm zone.

Experts are predicting severe disruption to supply chains from flooding, power outages and wind damage that could stall factory and farm production, as well as freight movement through major port, airport, highway and rail nodes. The Tampa-to-Orlando corridor is chockablock full of huge retail and e-commerce distribution centers.

Meanwhile, Typhoon Noru is similarly upsetting supply chains in Southeast Asia as it barrels across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.

Ian is expected to make landfall in western Florida on Wednesday, according to forecasters. Major flooding from the storm surge is expected for communities along Tampa Bay.

The storm could impact up to 2,800 manufacturing firms in aerospace, automotive components, heavy machinery, chemicals and plastics, as well as about 7,000 health care producers in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics and other fields, Everstream Analytics, which uses predictive software to help customers like Apple and Schneider Electric manage supply chain risk, said in a weather update Tuesday.

Comment: As of now, fatalities due to Hurricane Ian are said to be in the hundreds, with damage to private and commercial infrastructure estimated to be over $70 Billion dollars.

Shooting at California highschool campus leaves at least six people injured - violence in Oakland surged when lockdowns began

Abené Clayton
The Guardian
Thu, 29 Sep 2022 02:29 UTC

© Ray Chavez/AP
A shooting on Fontaine Street in Oakland, California, on Wednesday left six people injured.

The incident at Rudsdale Newcomer high school comes as Oakland has been grappling with more than two years of elevated gun violence.

At least six people were injured in a shooting at a school campus in Oakland, on Wednesday, authorities in the northern California city said.

The shooting occurred at Rudsdale Newcomer high school, said Darren Allison, the Oakland assistant police chief. The school serves students who are at risk of not graduating and have recently immigrated to the US after fleeing their home countries "because of violence and instability", according to the school's website. It is one of four adjacent schools that serve middle and high school students on Fontaine Street in east Oakland.

"The victims were affiliated with the school and we are determining the affiliation at this time," Allison said, although he declined to say whether any students or teachers were involved.

Comment: The following selection of incidents occurred just in the last 6 months, and mainly in the US:

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Society's Child

"Historic levels of fraud": US watchdog estimates $45.6 billion bilked from pandemic unemployment program

30 ex-FBI agents stand up to support whistleblower who exposed agency's political bias

The Bank of England just saved the stock market... for now

Canada's gender authorities push for 'two spirit' inclusivity but can't even define the word

New energy protest roils EU country

US urges Americans to leave Russia in wake of 'sabotage' of Nord Stream pipelines

Bank Of England emergency action, what it means

Trans 'charity' Mermaids is a scandal unfolding before our eyes

Supply chain effects from Hurricane Ian could linger for weeks

Shooting at California highschool campus leaves at least six people injured - violence in Oakland surged when lockdowns began

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