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Tuesday, August 1, 2023

It’s Year 5 Of The Biden Crime Family Coverup

  by Frank Miele via RealClear Wire,

A truism that came out of the Watergate scandal is that often the coverup is worse than the crime. But that is not the case in the unraveling Bidengate scandal. The alleged crime here is so bad that it is probably the worst ever committed by an American president.

Yet the coverup should be studied, too. It deserves superlatives for its longevity, inventiveness, and sheer audacity. The strategy has been simple: deny, deflect, destroy. Deny the facts. Deflect with distractions, and when all else fails, work tirelessly to destroy Trump, who was among the first to raise questions about the Biden family’s shady dealings. At Year 5, it may be the most successful coverup in modern history, especially since so many of the facts have been in plain sight for the entire time.

So what exactly is Bidengate? A decade-long influence-peddling scheme that saw Joe Biden, the former vice president, using his son Hunter as a conduit for millions of dollars in payoffs from foreign entities in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere in exchange for favorable treatment. The most famous instance of this scheme was the millions of dollars paid to Hunter Biden for his role as a board member of the corrupt Burisma energy company in Ukraine. Even Hunter acknowledged that his only qualification for being on the board was his last name.

Trading on one’s name to gain employment is not a crime in itself, but using your father’s public office to influence U.S. policy is definitely against the law – especially when the clout is used to protect your corrupt foreign employer.

That’s just what happened in March of 2016 when Vice President Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine if prosecutor general Viktor Shokin were not immediately fired. Biden even bragged about this escapade a few years later when he told the story to the Council on Foreign Relations.

It’s hard to know whether Biden’s threat to withhold aid was approved by the State Department or whether it was “on the fly” diplomacy, but we do know that Shokin has publicly stated that he was fired because he was investigating Burisma’s alleged corruption, and that after he was fired there was no further substantial investigation of Burisma. Quid pro quo.

Another famous mantra from the Watergate era is “Follow the money.” It almost makes you think Biden was taunting his accusers, quipping to a reporter on June 8, “Where’s the money?” when asked about allegations of corruption.

That’s what we want to know,” the reporter should have demanded, but of course there was no follow-up question. There never is.

Biden’s cheeky response suggests he had reason to think that he could count on the source of any ill-gotten wealth being kept private. And he may have had good reason for that belief.

On July 20, a little more than a month after Biden asked “Where’s the money?”, Sen. Chuck Grassley released an unclassified FD-1023 FBI informant form alleging that Biden and his son Hunter had split a $10 million payment from Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma. Among the many intriguing breadcrumbs in that document was the informant’s claim that the payment to the Bidens was so well disguised that it would take years to uncover:

Zlochevsky responded he did not send any funds directly to the “Big Guy” (which [the FBI source] understood was a reference to Joe Biden). [The source] asked Zlochevsky how many companies/bank accounts Zlochevsky controls; Zlochevsky responded it would take them (investigators) 10 years to find the records (i.e. illicit payments to Joe Biden).

So that’s one possible answer to Joe Biden’s taunt: “Where’s the money?” Perhaps it’s well-hidden.

There are so many flashing red warning lights in the Biden scandal that a casual observer would be forgiven for assuming he was in Amsterdam. Case in point: The FBI informant reported in his June 2020 statement that Zlochevsky had called Joe Biden the “Big Guy” in 2019. That’s the same gangster nickname that one of Hunter Biden’s business associates used to refer to Joe in an infamous email on the “Laptop from Hell” when discussing what percentage of capital equity was being held by Hunter for Joe in a Chinese investment scheme. The laptop was in FBI hands since December 2019, but the email in question wasn’t circulated in public until the New York Post published it on Oct. 15, 2020. The informant’s use of the phrase prior to that time is strong circumstantial evidence that the FBI’s trusted human source was indeed privy to confidential and damning information about Biden.

But what’s truly maddening about the Biden coverup is just how long it has lasted while more and more evidence has mounted. Recent congressional hearings unearthed a trove of detail about bank payments to Biden family members, and IRS whistleblowers have laid bare the protection racket that the FBI and DOJ have been running for the Bidens. Most of that is just confirmation of what we already knew.

Remember, the first time most Americans heard about the Bidens’ bribery schemes was in September 2019 when the transcript of a phone call between President Trump and then-new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was released. In it, Trump raised the issue of former Vice President Biden’s alleged corruption and asked Zelensky to cooperate with U.S. authorities by “looking into” rumors of criminal activity by the Bidens.

Imagine if Congress had opened an inquiry then into the question of Hunter Biden’s huge salary for sitting on the board of Burisma Energy, the company controlled by oligarch Zlochevsky. Hunter Biden might be in prison now, and his father would have retired to Delaware to live out his final years in shame.

Instead, Democrats in Congress put Trump on trial for daring to notice that which must not be named – the influence-peddling scheme run by Joe Biden and his kin. The impeachment was America’s crash course on Ukrainian corruption, but somehow the mainstream media missed the story and tried to convince the public that Biden was the victim. They hid the evidence then, just as they did last week when Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal fell apart.

The Democrat-adjacent media seem to have a hard time understanding the case against Hunter Biden – and Joe Biden – even after five years. It’s not uncommon to hear cable news anchors lamenting that the Republicans are persecuting Joe and that they haven’t proven the president did anything wrong.

Either they don’t understand the meaning of the word proven, or they don’t understand our system of justice. It is not the job of Congress or reporters to prove anything, but rather to investigate and unearth evidence. For anyone who has eyes to see, there is a mountain of evidence against both Hunter and Joe Biden. But what we are still waiting for – what the nation is waiting for – is justice. To get that, we need a prosecutor who will present the evidence to a jury and ask for a verdict. Then and only then will the president’s guilt be proven or unproven.

How many more years do we have to wait?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-year-5-biden-crime-family-coverup

Health Catalyst started at Overweight by Cantor

 Target $16

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Altimmune Starts Phase 2b Trial of Pemvidutide in Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)

 Altimmune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that it has enrolled the first subject in the Phase 2b IMPACT trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of pemvidutide in subjects with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Pemvidutide is a novel, investigational GLP-1/glucagon dual receptor agonist under development for the treatment of obesity and NASH.

This randomized, placebo-controlled biopsy-driven trial is being conducted at approximately 60 sites in the United States, with Dr. Stephen Harrison, Medical Director, Pinnacle Research, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Oxford University, serving as the Principal Investigator. The trial is expected to enroll approximately 190 subjects with and without diabetes randomized 1:2:2 to receive either 1.2 mg, 1.8 mg pemvidutide or placebo weekly for 48 weeks. The key efficacy endpoints are NASH resolution and fibrosis improvement at 24 weeks of treatment, with subjects followed for an additional 24 weeks to a total of 48 weeks for safety and biomarker responses. Top-line results are expected in Q1 2025.

Results from a blinded, 24-week Phase 1b trial of pemvidutide in subjects with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) showed a greater than 75% relative reduction in liver fat and 19% relative reduction in liver volume, with over 50% of the subjects achieving normalization of liver fat at the 1.8 mg dose. In addition, significant reductions in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and MRI-based corrected T1 (cT1) were observed, both established markers of liver inflammation. Glycemic control was maintained, with trends toward improvements in fasting glucose and HbA1c in subjects with diabetes. Subjects on 1.8 mg pemvidutide also achieved a mean weight loss of 6.2%, with continuing weight loss at the end of treatment. Preclinical studies have shown pemvidutide to have anti-fibrotic effects in animal studies.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/altimmune-announces-initiation-of-phase-2b-impact-trial-evaluating-the-efficacy-and-safety-of-pemvidutide-in-non-alcoholic-steatohepatitis-nash-/

Adderall shortage prompts FDA, DEA to urge production boost

 

Amid an on-going shortage of the ADHD drug Adderall, the US FDA and DEA are asking manufacturers to step up prod
uction. 

Apollo Leading Bankruptcy Loan Deal for Trucking Firm Yellow

 Creditors led by Apollo Global Management Inc. are nearing a deal to provide Yellow Corp. with fresh cash during a coming bankruptcy, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The investing giant is finalizing a deal to lead a debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing for the imperiled trucking company, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Apollo is well-positioned to provide the financing because it owns most of one of Yellow’s term loans, the people said. Talks aren’t final and plans may change, they added.

Representatives for Apollo and Yellow declined to comment.

The less-than-truckload carrier, which accepts shipments that don’t fill a whole trailer, has been teetering in recent weeks and told workers it was shutting down, according to the labor union that represents Yellow’s drivers. The company has more than $1 billion of debt maturing next year that it has struggled to refinance. Apollo was the lead lender on the company’s $600 million term loan in 2019, when it was known as YRC Worldwide Inc.

Much of Yellow’s current debt predicament stems from a now-controversial rescue loan it took on during the Covid-19 pandemic. The US government lent the company some $700 million in 2020, making up 95% of what was dispersed under a Cares Act program to offset losses for businesses critical to national security. The company owes about half its total debt load to the US Treasury, according to company filings.

Yellow has faced years of financial stress. The company staved off a bankruptcy filing in 2009 after bondholders agreed to swap debt for equity, only to have to restructure again in 2011.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/apollo-leads-deal-to-provide-trucker-yellow-with-bankruptcy-loan

ResMed upped to Outperform from Sector Perform by RBC

Target to  $284 from $262

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Cognitive Dysfunction, Viral Persistence Studied First in New Long COVID Trials

 The first two of the long-awaited long COVID clinical trials

opens in a new tab or window from the RECOVER initiative are underway, the NIH said.

RECOVER-NEURO, which will study interventions for long COVID cognitive dysfunction, and RECOVER-VITAL, a study targeting viral persistence, are opening enrollment, said Acting NIH Director Lawrence Tabak, DDS, PhD, in a press briefing today.

Two other trials, RECOVER-SLEEP and RECOVER-AUTONOMIC, will launch soon.

"The trials can test multiple treatments simultaneously and be quickly adapted to evaluate new therapies," Tabak said. "They are designed not only to stand on their own, but also to inform one another. While each trial focuses on certain symptom clusters, they also collect data about the impact of the intervention on a broad range of symptoms."

The trials follow a platform protocol, allowing multiple targeted therapies to be tested in the same study.

RECOVER-NEURO, for example, will test a web-based training program called BrainHQ, a goal-management training program known as PASC-Cognitive Recovery, and transcranial direct current stimulation. RECOVER-VITAL will focus initially on treating SARS-CoV-2 persistence; its first intervention will test a long regimen -- up to 25 days -- of the antiviral nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid). (Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir also is being studied in a Yale University long COVID studyopens in a new tab or window; a previous study of the antiviral at Stanford Universityopens in a new tab or window was stopped early.)

RECOVER-SLEEP will test interventions for changes in sleep patterns or ability to sleep after having COVID-19, including melatonin and sleep coaching. RECOVER-AUTONOMIC will focus first on postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and will test multiple drugs in several arms.

The biologic underpinnings of long COVID are still not understood, observed Walter Koroshetz, MD, director of the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "Recognizing that more than one solution is likely needed, we've taken the lessons learned from RECOVER participants to design rigorous clinical trial platforms that will identify treatments for persons with different symptom clusters to improve their function and well-being," he said.Each RECOVER study will be a phase II trial and can adjust rapidly as needed. "The goal of these trials is to evaluate safety and efficacy of interventions," said Kanecia Zimmerman, MD, PhD, MPH, principal investigator of the RECOVER Clinical Trials Data Coordinating Center at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina.

"This is a step in the right direction," noted Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, and chief of research at the VA St. Louis Health Care System, who has conducted large observational studiesopens in a new tab or window of long COVID.

"We have been waiting for this for 3 years, so it is good to see this effort finally launched," Al-Aly told MedPage Today. "I think there needs to be a greater sense of urgency around long COVID. Millions of patients are suffering en masse, and we need to meet the challenge of the moment with greater urgency and resolve."

But this effort might not be comprehensive enough, Al-Aly added. "The scope seems to not take into account a lot of the hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of long COVID," he said. "There is nothing in there about microclots, microbiome, and other potential mechanisms."

Overall, more than 200 symptoms are associated with long COVID. Earlier this year, researchers identified 12 key symptoms associated with long COVID and provided a framework to defineopens in a new tab or window it.

Also today, HHS announced it is forming the Office of Long COVID Research and Practice, which will be under the leadership of Assistant Secretary for Health, Admiral Rachel Levine, MD. The new office will coordinate efforts of 14 federal departments that work on long COVID, with a goal of improving quality of life and reducing disparities for people with long COVID symptoms.

"Last year, President Biden called on HHS to coordinate the response to long COVID," HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statementopens in a new tab or window. "The official establishment of the Long COVID Coordinating office and the launch of the RECOVER clinical trials solidifies this issue as an ongoing priority."

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/longcovid/105703