Target to $18 from $8
Friday, December 8, 2023
Market Confused By 'Goldilocks' Jobs Data
Flat wage growth (hotter than expected MoM), lower unemployment rate (good news is bad news), more jobs added (good news is bad news)... but the narrative-delivers claim "goldilocks".
This looks anything but goldilocks and the kneejerk reactions agreed with rates and the dollar higher (hawkish) and stocks lower.
But that has basically all been unwound now.
Dollar is down...
Gold is reversing higher,..
Bond yields are falling back from the kneejerk higher...
The payrolls print was right in the middle of Goldman Sachs' sweet-spot for stocks and they are still holding on to post-payrolls gains (though only Small Caps are in the green)...
The odds of a rate-cut in March dropped from around 60% to around 50%...
Still a long way to go for these narratives to be rewritten today.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/market-confused-goldilocks-jobs-data
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Arizona Sheriff: Illegal Immigrants Being Handed $5,000 Visa Gift Cards, Cell Phones, And Plane Tickets
by Matthew Lysiak via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Immigrants who illegally cross the border into Arizona are being handed $5,000 in good-as-cash gift cards, along with cell phones and costly plane tickets, all of which are being paid for by the American taxpayer, according to Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb.
Mr. Lamb, sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, told The Epoch Times that he had been informed of the lucrative hand-out through his close sources working at the United States border.
“I was absolutely in shock when these agents came forward,” said Mr. Lamb. “I had known we handed out free cell phones and plane tickets, but to give out $5,000 Visa gift cards to people who break our laws and come into our country illegally when the average American is struggling to pay their bills is just tough to swallow.”
“People need to know the truth and let their representative lawmakers hear about it. This needs to end,” added Mr. Lamb.
Mr. Lamb, who in April became the first Republican to announce his candidacy to challenge Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) for the United States Senate, says that the high-end gift cards, in addition to the plane tickets and cell phones, are paid through American tax dollars funneled from government agencies.
“We know they've been giving illegal immigrants money for a long time,” said Mr. Lamb, who worked in the position of sheriff of Pinal County for seven years. “The government can make the claim that they aren't directly paying for it, because each dollar first goes from the government to a non-government institution like a charity before it is used to pay for the illegals.”
“They are just moving the money around, but it all comes from the same place,” he added.
The Epoch Times reached out to a representative from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who was not immediately available for comment.
Surge in Crossings
In recent years the nation has seen a large surge in illegal border crossings.
In October, CBP reported the highest number of illegal immigrant encounters for any October on record, with 240,988 encounters at the southern border. The agency also reported that 13 of the arrests it made during the month were of people on the FBI terror watchlist (12 from the southern border and one from the northern border). It is expected that the fiscal year total for 2023 will exceed 2.4 million, surpassing 2022's record of 2.3 million, once the figures are finalized.
In Arizona, a record high of 17,500 illegal immigrants were arrested for unlawfully entering the southeast region of the state from Mexico between Nov. 24 and Nov. 30—up from approximately 15,650 the previous week.
On Monday, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border into Arizona had grown so large that the federal government shut down a port of entry in Lukeville, Arizona to pull those federal customs officers to manage the crisis.
In Tucson, Arizona, the surge has spiraled so far that there is no longer room to hold new arrivals, according to an email obtained by the Washington Examiner.
"As you are aware, Tucson Sector is experiencing an unprecedented surge of illegal entries in our [area of responsibility]," Tucson, Arizona, leadership wrote in an email to agents this afternoon, according to the Washington Examiner on Nov. 27. "This morning we had more than 5,000 people in custody—far more than our holding capacity."
As the chaos at the border continues to spiral into an unmanageable crisis, the government needs to prioritize the growing number of struggling American families, according to Mr. Lamb.
“We got Christmas coming up,” said Mr. Lamb. “Families are finding it difficult to keep lights on and find a way to buy their kids a few presents for under the tree, and now the American taxpayer has to watch as their hard-earned money is being taken from them and handed to people who have broken the law?”
“It is infuriating. I know a lot of hard-working Americans who could use that money,” he added.
Mr. Lamb says in his role as sheriff—where he is tasked with enforcing existing law—his hands are tied. However, securing the border has become one of the main platforms, and reasons, for his current run for Senate.
The race to represent the GOP in the upcoming Senate race continues to be tight. Currently, Mr. Lamb is polling second in the GOP primary behind former television anchor and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, according to a Noble Predictive Insights poll conducted between Oct. 25 and Oct. 31.
However, if he does go on to represent the people of Arizona in the Senate, Mr. Lamb says he will do “whatever it takes” to close the border and end the taxpayer-funded gifts being handed to those who come into the country illegally.
“The border is our greatest national security threat,” said Mr. Lamb. “I’m the guy who has the experience and knows how to finally do what it takes to secure it.”
Japan's First-Ever Conviction For Illegal Organ Trafficking Shines Light On Forced Organ Harvesting
by Bin Zhao and Sean Tseng via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
In a landmark ruling, a Japanese court has convicted a non-profit executive of facilitating illegal overseas organ transplants for Japanese citizens.
On Nov. 28, the Tokyo District Court sentenced 63-year-old Hiromichi Kikuchi, chairman of the Association for Patients of Intractable Diseases, a non-profit organization. Kikuchi received an eight-month prison term and a fine of 1 million yen (around $6,800) for arranging organ transplants abroad for two Japanese citizens without government approval. His organization, which has been working with transplant patients for over fifteen years, is now under scrutiny.
The case, the first of its kind in Japan, has prompted widespread media coverage and heightened concerns over illegal organ transplants.
Mr. Kikuchi's conviction shows Japan's efforts to crack down on organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting. The transplants that led to his arrest took place in Belarus in 2022. However, the case has drawn attention to the grim reality of forced organ harvesting in China, as Mr. Kikuchi admitted that the vast majority of the transplants he has orchestrated since 2007 involved organs from China.
This verdict has sparked intense public debate in Japan, where organ harvesting is already a hotly contested topic because of widespread ethical reservations about the source of organs for transplant.
Forced Organ Harvesting
For years, investigations and reports have highlighted the practice of forced organ harvesting in China's major hospitals, with substantial evidence supporting the claims.
On June 25, 2022, The Epoch Times Japanese edition published an exclusive interview with Ushio Sugawara, a former member of Japan's largest "Yakuza" crime syndicate, Yamaguchi-gumi.
Mr. Sugawara, who left the underworld in 2015 to become an economic commentator, recalled an incident from 2007. At that time, he was involved in a liver transplant for a friend's brother, arranged through an intermediary, and costing about $220,000. The liver transplant took place at Beijing's Armed Police General Hospital.
After arriving in China, Mr. Sugawara visited his friend's brother at the hospital the day before the scheduled surgery.
He described seeing the donor, a 21-year-old Falun Gong practitioner labeled a "terrorist" and sentenced to death, unconscious and medicated, with bandages on his hands and feet. The hospital staff explained that the severing of tendons in the donor's hands and feet was to prevent escape and ensure the quality of the organs.
The transplant ultimately failed, resulting in the deaths of both the recipient and the donor.
After the report on forced organ harvesting practices by The Epoch Times Japan, several prominent Japanese media outlets, including Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper, launched investigations into Japanese intermediaries in overseas organ transplants and found evidence against the Association for Patients of Intractable Diseases and Mr. Kikuchi.
The non-profit, according to its website, has been connecting Japanese patients with overseas hospitals, primarily in China, for organ transplants since 2003.
This timeline coincides with when Chinese hospitals began aggressively marketing organ transplants to foreign nationals.
Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and the late David Kilgour, a former Canadian cabinet minister, have long investigated the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) organ transplant practices. Their 2006 report, which was expanded into the book "Bloody Harvest," raised suspicions that the CCP was illicitly harvesting organs and particularly targeting Falun Gong practitioners.
In 2016, Mr. Matas, together with Kilgour and London-based investigative journalist Ethan Gutmann, published "Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: An Update." The 680-page report estimated that China was conducting 60,000 to 100,000 transplant surgeries annually.
'Organ Extractions for Profit'
On Oct. 10, the Tokyo District Court conducted its first hearing in the widely-publicized Kikuchi case. The defendant was charged with brokering organ transplant operations without government permission for two patients, in violation of Japan's organ transplant law.
Presiding Judge Baba Yoshiro said Mr. Kikuchi recruited patients for overseas organ transplants and expedited organ transplant surgeries within a matter of a few months. Japan's organ transplant law outlaws the sale of human organs and profiting through intermediaries.
In a startling admission, Mr. Kikuchi revealed that over the past two decades, his organization had facilitated about 170 transplants, with 90 percent of patients receiving transplants in Chinese hospitals. He highlighted the cost-effectiveness of the operations, noting that prices in China were significantly lower than in the United States. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing travel restrictions, Mr. Kikuchi shifted his focus to Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Mr. Kikuchi also outlined the costs involved: 20 million yen (approximately $136,000) for a kidney, 30 million yen (around $204,000) for a liver, 30–40 million yen ($204,000–$272,000) for a heart, and 40–50 million yen ($272,000–$340,000) for lungs. These figures included surgery, travel, and intermediary fees.
On Nov. 28, the court handed down its final verdict: Mr. Kikuchi was sentenced to eight months in prison and fined 1 million yen (about $6,778).
The decision was widely discussed online, with some Japanese netizens expressing outrage: "This group's inhumane acts, forcibly extracting organs from young individuals in China, are utterly deplorable," read one post.
Another post criticized the leniency of the sentence: "Kikuchi is essentially an accomplice to murder; this punishment is insufficient."
Initially, Mr. Kikuchi had maintained his innocence, claiming his actions "saved hundreds of lives." However, Hiroaki Maruyama, a representative for the Stop Medical Genocide (SMG) Network, vehemently disagreed with this perspective.
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Mr. Maruyama said the "Chinese hospitals' organ extractions from living persons for profit" contrasted with the principles of medical ethics. Mr. Kikuchi, by engaging in these activities, not only abetted them but also implicated many Japanese patients unaware of the truth, he said.
Mr. Maruyama emphasized that Mr. Kikuchi's arrest and conviction, along with the media coverage surrounding it, shed light on a network of illegal intermediaries tied to the global organ black market, particularly CCP's large-scale forced organ harvesting.
These revelations represent just the surface of a much darker reality, he stressed. He called for legislation preventing Japanese citizens from seeking organ transplants in countries like China, which are known for human rights violations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)