Malliotakis: DSA candidates will make up ‘commie caucus’ if elected

 Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) on Sunday said that Democratic candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will make up the “commie caucus” if the party reclaims Congress after the fall midterm elections.

Malliotakis started off by criticizing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) rollout of a new tax on second homes worth more than $5 million, pointing to his past positions on policing while on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Fox News.

“They want to defund our military, they wipe their hands on the American flag,” she told fill-in host Jackie DeAngelis. “I mean, give me a break. These are the candidates that will be coming to Congress as part of the commie caucus next year, and that is why we must have our Republican majority, because if we don’t keep this Republican majority, they will be running the show.”

Malliotakis also dismissed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for “trying to laugh off Woke 1,” adding that “there’s only so much Americans can take.”

The New York Republican was referring to Ocasio-Cortez’s interview on ABC News’s “This Week” last Sunday, when she explained former Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate and democratic socialist Francesca Hong’s (D) past positions on topics like celebrating Thanksgiving.

Ocasio-Cortez said, quoting New York City Council member Chi Ossé’s line, “Woke 1 was crazy,” and explained that the COVID-19 lockdown allowed political radicals to contemplate different policy proposals and move forward from ideas that went “too far.”

“Well, you know, I think that during this time and during, especially during COVID, there was a huge opening of the Overton window,” she said. “We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns. And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place.”

Ocasio-Cortez said these discussions were “quite fruitful” but noted that “during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”

Republicans have clung to DSA positions, including abolishing prisons and abolishing the police. Some, namely White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have said Woke 1 “never stopped.“

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/6031939-malliotakis-warns-commie-caucus-dsa/

Beijing Wants Nvidia Out But China's AI Developers Aren't Ready

 China has spent years pouring money and political capital into building a homegrown semiconductor industry. Yet when its AI companies need to train their most sophisticated models, many still turn to Nvidia, according to South China Morning Post.

The biggest obstacle may no longer be the chips themselves. It is everything developers have built around them.

Nvidia’s CUDA software has become deeply woven into the way AI labs operate. Models, training tools and internal workflows have been designed around the platform, meaning switching to Chinese hardware can resemble rebuilding part of the factory rather than simply swapping out a machine.

SCMP writes that Huawei’s Ascend processors are among the leading domestic alternatives, but moving an established operation onto them can require substantial engineering work. One researcher estimated that doing so could increase the time and expense of a project by at least 50%.

How painful that transition becomes depends heavily on the model. Widely available open-source models such as DeepSeek are easier because engineers can modify the code and lean on work already done by others. In those cases, migration might require only a few developers and several additional weeks.

Closed systems are another matter. Without access to the underlying source code, engineers may have to spend months rebuilding and optimizing parts of the training process. One industry estimate suggested a difficult migration could occupy roughly 10 engineers for more than half a year.

China has had more success moving the finished products onto domestic infrastructure. Once a model has already been trained, running it for everyday queries — known as inference — is generally much easier to adapt to different hardware.

And domestic chips are beginning to handle training as well. Meituan said its enormous LongCat-2.0 model was developed using a 50,000-chip Chinese computing cluster.

So China’s Nvidia problem is increasingly about inertia as much as technology. Domestic processors may continue closing the performance gap, but Nvidia has something much harder to manufacture quickly: years of software, developer familiarity and infrastructure built around its ecosystem.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/beijing-wants-nvidia-out-chinas-ai-developers-arent-ready

Thieves swap RTX 5080 GPUs for RTX 3060s in Chinese gaming hotel 'rogue downgrades'

 Desperate times call for desperate measures, and necessity is the mother of invention. Such was the impetus behind events that transpired in an esports hotel in China where two thieves secretly swapped GPUs in their rented rooms, and no one found out until days later. They were only caught after management found signs of tampering with the PC case after they'd already checked out, which eventually led to their arrest.

Esports or gaming hotels are commonplace in some Asian countries. Think of them as fancy, isolated gaming zones where you can go and spend time with a nice PC right in your room. As such, these bandits deliberately picked rooms with expensive RTX 5080 and 5070 rigs that could offer the most return on the secondhand market. They would check into rooms posing as unassuming gamers, just like any other customer.

(Image credit: Wuhan Police via Videocardz)

Once inside, they would open up the PC case, take out the high-end GPU, put a lower-end GPU like the RTX 3060 in there, and close the PC back up. Since the GPU variants matched, they looked similar enough from the outside that management would never suspect anything. The systems also ran just fine, and there were no complaints from later customers, so there was no reason to inspect them up close.

What gave these thieves away was an unexpected power outage on July 18. While they were in the middle of their nefarious activities, the lights went out, so they called the front desk to ask for a new room. After shifting, an electrician noticed pry marks on the PC cases in their old room. When management opened them up and saw two RTX 3060s instead of two RTX 5080s in there, they realized that they'd been robbed.

(Image credit: Wuhan Police via Videocardz)

Just two days later, the local police caught the suspects in the Guangbutun computer district after tracing them through hotel registration details. Investigation revealed that they would book hotels with the best systems and loot their GPUs to sell for half their value for a quick return.

A new RTX 5080 will run you around $1,400 today while an RTX 3060 goes for roughly $400. That means the thieves sold a 5080 for around $700 — anyone would pounce on that deal. The suspects even admitted to already having pulled this off four different times before. The total loss reported from their GPU-swapping spree was 80,000 Yuan, or almost $12,000. That's a lot more than the last time we looked at esports-hoping bandits who stole $2,000 worth of RAM in a similar heist in Shihezi City last month, but about the same amount as the amateur burglary in Korea earlier this year.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/thieves-swap-rtx-5080-gpus-for-rtx-3060s-in-chinese-gaming-hotels-rogue-downgrades-go-unnoticed-until-sudden-blackout-exposes-usd12-000-heist

'Wolves In White Coats': 5 Points From HHS Report On Alleged Pediatric Gender-Treatment Fraud

 by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

A report released Aug. 13 by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has shined a light on alleged fraud by health providers who performed pediatric gender procedures.

The report, titled “Wolves in White Coats: How Doctors and Hospitals Pushed and Profited from the Fraud of ‘Gender Medicine’,” examined the actions and motives of 225 healthcare institutions and found they allegedly put profits and gender ideology ahead of patient needs.

Here are five key takeaways from that study.

HHS Alleges Insurance Coding Fraud

The HHS report laid out an alleged pattern of deception, encouraged by groups promoting gender procedures in children, where hospitals and healthcare providers utilized incorrect insurance codes to ensure they got paid.

Rather than use already-existing, specific codes related to gender identity disorders, HHS alleged they used what the study called “proxy diagnosis codes” that were vague, or outright false.

One common diagnosis was “endocrine disorder—unspecified,” which allowed doctors to bill for cross-sex hormones. HHS data showed that between 2015 and 2025, more than $42 million was billed to insurance companies under the unspecified disorder diagnosis.

A 2023 study by the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics found that out of 1,480 patients diagnosed with unspecified endocrine disorder, only 71 actually had such an illness. An analysis by the Manhattan Institute also found a 30 percent rise in such diagnoses between 2020 and 2022, HHS said.

Another common miscoding was for “precocious puberty,” which allowed the doctors to prescribe and bill insurers for puberty blockers. The study found that between 2015 and 2025, insurers were billed more than $11 million under this diagnosis for patients aged 13 to 17.

But that can’t be accurate, the report said, because 13 to 17 is the natural age for puberty.

Advocates Encouraged ‘Alternative Diagnosis Codes’

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health, Planned Parenthood, and other groups encouraged healthcare providers to use “alternative diagnosis codes” not related to gender dysphoria, the HHS report stated.

The Epoch Times reached out to these organizations for comment.

In one instance, a Harvard-affiliated gender clinic called Fenway Health advocated using “more vague” diagnosis codes, but also warned that using inaccurate coding is illegal.

Another organization, the Campaign for Southern Equality, put together a toolkit called “Insurance Coding Alternatives For Trans Healthcare” that outlined workarounds for patients with gender dysphoria.

Most insurers exclude gender procedures unless state law requires coverage, the document states. The toolkit shows which coding is frequently rejected by insurers, and which commonly accepted codes to use instead.

If the insurer denies coverage, the toolkit suggests appealing repeatedly. After the third appeal, the case “goes to an outside agency, and is often accepted.”

For example, a patient can claim orchialgia—persistent pain in the testicles—to justify surgical castration, according to the report.

“How do you do a mastectomy, but then bill an insurance company and not raise any red flags? … You bill it as breast reduction instead of a mastectomy,” said Dr. Eithan Haim, an author of the report.

“This guide is essentially a template for how to commit medical fraud. We should all remember that this is something that people go to prison for. This is a major deal.”

In 2024, Haim was indicted by the DOJ for allegedly exposing private information on patients after he accused a Texas hospital of secretly providing gender surgeries on minors in violation of state law. His case was dismissed with prejudice the next year.

Lifelong ‘Captive Patients’ and Revenue

So-called gender affirming care is lucrative as the “captive patients,” as the report called them, require continual medical maintenance that can last decades—or a lifetime.

“You take a little girl and put her on testosterone, or a little boy and put them on estrogen. Well, they’re going to be on that forever and ever, right?” Assistant HHS Secretary Adm. Brian Christine said in an interview with NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.

The surgeries and hormone treatments can also result in severe side effects, requiring more doctor visits and racking up hospital fees, the report noted. Mental therapy is often needed, too.

Citing data from the Human Rights Campaign—an organization that supports these procedures in minors—the report said the costs can range from $25,000 to $75,000 per patient.

If the client chooses to have surgeries, the total can skyrocket as high as $170,000 and beyond. Those numbers don’t include peripheral costs, such as hair removal, voice therapy, or reversal procedures.

The report included testimony from one young man who was told that “facial feminization” surgery would cost him $200,000.

“This new patient cohort—young, insured, or Medicaid-eligible, and requiring perpetual follow-ups—represented a strategic area of growth,” the report stated.

“Endocrinology and surgery departments gained volume and prestige, while hospital administrators gained a reliable revenue line that helps subsidize lower-margin services.”

The industry has brought in an estimated $120 million since 2019, the report stated.

Biden Administration

According to the report, President Joe Biden’s administration facilitated youth gender procedures, putting pressure on hospital systems by threatening to go after institutions that refused to perform them.

The Biden administration said healthcare workers were bound by the rules of the Affordable Care Act, and refusing gender treatments was “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“Attempts to restrict, challenge, or falsely characterize this potentially lifesaving care as abuse is dangerous,” a Biden-era HHS document stated.

The approach was multi-faceted. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told employers that their insurance couldn’t exclude such procedures. HHS, the DOJ, and the Department of Education also “took the position in guidance, regulations, and litigation that prohibitions on disability-based discrimination … may apply to individuals with gender dysphoria.”

The Office of Personnel Management also mandated that federal insurance carriers cover the procedures. The National Institute of Health also conducted a $10 million study to probe the impact of gender procedures on children, the HHS report said.

The Biden administration’s gender initiatives were overturned by President Donald Trump at the beginning of his second term in office. The Federal Trade Commission has also sued the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, alleging youth gender interventions are offered under false pretenses since they don’t resolve patients’ mental distress.

WPATH, in a June statement, said the suit was a product of “a relentless and targeted campaign to undermine gender-affirming care.”

Vance Calls for Investigation

In the wake of the report’s publication, Vice President JD Vance asked the Justice Department to look into the fraud accusations.

“These allegations are crazy, and they demand investigation,” Vance said in a video posted to social media Aug. 13.

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ to learn if the department would do so but received no response by time of publication.

As Fenway Health noted in one of its guidance documents, deliberately miscoding to deceive insurers is illegal, and the liability risk increases when Medicaid is involved because such fraud can run afoul of the  Federal False Claims Act.

That law allows the government to recoup triple damages and impose other financial penalties, and opens the door for private citizens to file civil suits on its behalf.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/wolves-white-coats-5-key-takeaways-hhs-report-alleged-pediatric-gender-treatment-fraud

SpaceMD will use Starfall to launch its creation of space pharmaceuticals

Redwire, working through its space-based pharmaceutical subsidiary, SpaceMD, has bought the first operational flight of the SpaceX Starfall to continue the research and development of drugs using microgravity to improve their potency and other qualities. If and when the company creates space-manufactured drugs, they will constitute the first physical product created beyond the Earth.

The only two successful commercial space products have been Earth observation and satellite communications. The possibility of space-manufactured drugs has been the subject of experiments on the International Space Station and, before that, the shuttle for decades. 

SpaceMD’s use of Starfall represents a leap forward toward treatments for everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease being created in low Earth orbit.

The SpaceX Starfall was first launched on a Falcon 9 on June 23 on a test flight, though it can also be deployed on a Starship. The “disk-shaped spacecraft” is roughly “2.5 feet tall,” with “a diameter of 10.2 feet,” and weighs “roughly 4,600 pounds.” It carries “about 2,200 pounds” of cargo.  

Starfall has two parts: “an aluminum ‘top plate’ that weighs about 3,090 pounds,” and “a detachable carbon-fiber heat shield.” The cargo rides in the top plate.

A typical Starfall mission would take a payload like the one developed by SpaceMD to low Earth orbit, remain there for a time, and then reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in the ocean. 

SpaceMD mission is currently scheduled to launch in 2028. It will take as many as 32 Pharmaceutical In-Space Laboratory, dubbed PIL-BOXes, to develop candidates “to crystallize drug compounds in microgravity to develop improved formulations and new therapeutics.”

Redwire has already flown versions of the PIL-BOX on the International Space Station. Starfall will greatly expand the company’s capacity to perform drug research in low Earth orbit.

According to a piece in Tech Times, SpaceMD will be able to process over 100 distinct drug compounds in a single Starfall mission. By contrast, the company has been able to crystalize 45 drug compounds on the ISS to date, “including insulin and drug candidates targeting cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.”

Performing drug crystallization in space eliminates two factors that damage the resulting crystals on Earth: gravity and temperature differentials. Drug crystals created in space are larger and more orderly than those grown on the ground. 

“Drug crystal structure directly affects dissolution rate, solubility, and bioavailability — how quickly and completely an active ingredient enters the bloodstream,” according to Tech Times. 

Growing the drug crystals will be only the first step in developing new pharmaceuticals that will be available in a clinical setting. SpaceMD has a licensing agreement with ExesaLibero Pharma to develop drugs from the crystals grown in space and go through the arduous process of clinical trials and regulatory approval. Every drug that ExesaLibero Pharma brings to market using crystals developed in space by SpaceMD will win Redwire subsidiary royalties.

What sort of treatments will be made available by drugs made in space has yet to be determined. But any new treatments will be a boon for people who have to deal with debilitating diseases.

For example, according to the National Cancer Institute, over 2.1 million people are estimated to receive a cancer diagnosis in 2026. Of that number, 626,140 will eventually die of the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that 6.7 million American adults are living with Alzheimer’s, a figure that is expected to double by 2060.

Any treatment that reduces those numbers will be a good thing. The degree of human suffering, not to mention the cost of caring for patients of such debilitating diseases that could be lessened, is beyond evaluation.

In times past, space activities have been regarded at best as something nice to have and at worst a distraction from more Earthly concerns. More recently, politicians such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have attacked commercial space barons such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for their activities, some conducted at the behest of NASA and the Defense Department.

The position that exploring and developing space are bad things is becoming more and more untenable. Real, direct benefits have been flowing from the frontier of space. That flow, thanks to enterprises such as Redwire, is about to become a flood.

Better, more effective drugs will be just one benefit that will feature the new, commercial space age.

Mark R. Whittington, who writes frequently about space policy, has published a political study of space exploration entitled “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond” and, most recently, “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” 

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/6030495-redwire-spacemd-starfall-drug-research/