Thurs - It's the Retirees, Stupid. It's the Stupid Retirees

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

Thanksgiving.  Bringing out the best in family dysfunction since 1789.
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We Really Need that Omicron-Specific Booster

In 2020, Covid reinfections were considered rare.

In 2021, breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals could occur, but again, the risk was low.

In 2022, that's no longer the case for either. As more immune-dodging coronavirus variants emerge, reinfections and breakthrough infections appear increasingly normal.

The United States isn't currently tracking Covid reinfections. However, U.K. researchers have found that the risk of reinfection was eight times higher during the omicron wave than it was in last year's delta wave.

“I would not be surprised if we see people get infected more than once per year,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, though he added that he feels optimistic that it will eventually settle into becoming just a seasonal occurrence, like the flu. (Fauci, who has received two vaccine boosters, himself tested positive for Covid on Wednesday, saying he has mild symptoms.)

My Fully-Vaccinated Daughter Feels Miserable with a Case of COVID, But It Doesn't Seem Hospital-Level Serious.

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It's Not Going Away

After five weeks of declining COVID-19 deaths, the number of the disease's fatalities reported globally increased by 4% last week, according to the World Health Organization.

In its weekly assessment of the pandemic issued Thursday, the United Nations health agency said there were 8,700 COVID-19 deaths last week, with a 21% jump in the Americas and a 17% increase in the Western Pacific.

The WHO said coronavirus cases continued to fall, with about 3.2 million new cases reported last week, extending a decline in infections since the peak in January. Still, there were significant spikes of infection in some regions, with the Middle East and Southeast Asia reporting increases of 58% and 33%, respectively.

“Because many countries have reduced surveillance and testing, we know this number is under-reported,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week. He said there was “no acceptable level of deaths from COVID-19,” given that the global community now has the vaccines, medicines and diagnostics to stop the virus.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Lie-Walker Has Been Busy

Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker confirmed that he actually has four children, following revelations that the critic of absentee fathers has a 10-year-old son with whom he reportedly has limited contact.

In addition to the 10-year-old, the aspiring Georgia senator has a 13-year-old son as well as an adult daughter who he had when he was around 20 years old, The Daily Beast first reported Thursday. He also has a 22-year-old son who he has previously publicly disclosed.

This brings his total, publicly reported children to four. (That we know of.)

The former football star, who has received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, said he has never denied having four kids ― despite conflicting comments made by his campaign Wednesday.

Herschel the Hypocrite

The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that the mother of his 10-year-old son had to sue Walker after giving birth in order to secure a declaration of paternity and child support from the former NFL player.

He has not played an active parental role in this younger son’s life, though he sends him Christmas and birthday presents, The Daily Beast reported, citing a person close to the child’s family.

In a 2020 interview with conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Walker called fatherless homes a “major, major problem” in Black communities and described himself as acting “like a father” to fatherless kids in the Georgia town where he grew up.

“Remember, you can leave the wife, but don’t leave your child,” he said he advises young men he meets.

In another 2020 interview with conservative video bloggers Diamond and Silk, Walker disparaged Black fathers who leave boys to be raised by their mother. He likened this to when Black families were separated during slavery.

“Even if you have to leave that woman — you don’t leave that child,” he said.

Misconduct Without Punishment.   No.  This Story Isn't About Previous Guy

An Israeli police investigation into the attack by its officers on mourners at the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh has concluded that no one should be punished, despite finding that there had been police misconduct, sources have told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The attack on the pallbearers at the funeral, which almost caused them to drop Abu Akleh’s coffin, was broadcast live around the world, and caused international outrage at what appeared to be an unprovoked assault.

The Police Operations Division presented its conclusions on Wednesday night to Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai, who had initially ordered the investigation in May.

The probe was supposed to clarify the series of events that led up to the police attacking the mourners. The police chief has refused to release the report’s findings to the public.

If You Needed Proof that NFTs Are a Scam, Now a Scam Artist is Selling Them.

Anna Sorokin, known for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from friends and businesses while posing as a German heiress, said she's trying to move away from the "scammer persona" and plans to launch a collection of NFTs.

The infamous socialite minted 10 NFTs that will grant holders "exclusive access" to her, which includes perks like one-on-one phone calls, she told NBC News' Savannah Sellers in a recent interview.

Three "ultra platinum" NFTs grant the opportunity to meet Sorokin in person, and holders will receive a package of "personal items" from Sorokin.

“I’m trying to move away from this like, quote unquote scammer persona,” Sorokin, who is still in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, said from the Orange County Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

Who Or What is He Protecting and Serving?

Barry County, Michigan Sheriff Dar Leaf, actually got his hands on a ballot tabulation machine last year in the wake of conservative conspiracy theories insisting that Donald Trump only lost reelection because of "rigged" voting machines.

Leaf had previously attempted to get courts to allow him to impound voting machines, but Leaf didn't have a shred of evidence to justify it, and the court told him to take a hike. After the court refused to go along, reports TPM, Leaf sent "a deputy and a private investigator" to township election clerks throughout the county, questioning and attempting to bully them into surrendering equipment. One clerk allowed them to take a Dominion ballot tabulator for inspection; Leaf's team (or somebody) allegedly took the machine to Detroit and disassembled it.

By "disassembled," we effectively mean "destroyed." The machine's security seal was broken, revealing the machine had been tampered with. And rather than being, say, thrown out of office for a plot to improperly tamper with voting machines, Leaf is now filing another lawsuit claiming that it's other state officials who are interfering with his authority to hunt for fraud that neither he nor anybody else can find.

And if the name Dar Leaf rings a bell for you, that's because this particular Michigan has a history. Leaf earned national attention when a militia kidnapping plot targeting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was foiled, but produced footage of Leaf speaking onstage at an anti-Whitmer rally shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the militia thugs arrested for their roles in the plot.

Leaf was putting the "constitutional sheriff" theory that his decisions trumped all other government regulations into practice, during that rally. He specifically praised a local barber who defied pandemic lockdown orders as a "little version of Rosa Parks," encouraging other Michigan citizens to defy pandemic orders.

Undeterred, Leaf later responded to questions about the kidnapping plot by suggesting to a reporter that the militia had the right to attempt a citizen's arrest of Whitmer.

It's Curtains for Mother


Here's a Little Ditty About Clarence and Ginni and John

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has obtained email correspondence between Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and lawyer John Eastman, who played a key role in efforts to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, according to three people involved in the committee’s investigation.

The emails show that Thomas’s efforts to overturn the election were more extensive than previously known, two of the people said. The three declined to provide details and spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The committee’s members and staffers are now discussing whether to spend time during their public hearings exploring Ginni Thomas’s role in the attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, the three people said. The Washington Post previously reported that the committee had not sought an interview with Thomas and was leaning against pursuing her cooperation with its investigation.



The Big Grift

The Trump campaign’s alleged grift was well underway long before Election Day. He showed no compunction about tricking his supporters. In one of the most shameless scams, the Trump campaign extracted tens of millions of dollars by setting up the donations page on the campaign website that by default turned every donation into a recurring payment, according to reporting last year by the New York Times.

The scam snagged huge amounts of money. Among those who got caught up in it were Trump supporters – including a cancer patient – who saw their bank accounts drained. Complaints about the scheme overwhelmed fraud lines at credit card companies, according to the Times report. Despite issuing more than $122 million in refunds, campaign spokesman Jason Miller downplayed the controversy, arguing campaign records showed only a small percentage of complaints.

Not content with that shakedown, the campaign added another default setting, a so-called “money bomb” that doubled the donation of Trump supporters they took for suckers.

Trump’s campaign transgressions are in keeping with Trump’s own decades’ long track record of pushing the envelope on financial matters, no matter the consequences for others.

It's the Retirees, Stupid.  It's the Stupid Retirees.

Since he lost the election, Trump’s Save America PAC has been raking in tens of millions more from Trump supporters. So where are all these millions coming from, the money for that non-existent defense fund and for the Save America PAC that just keeps on raking it in? Retirees, in large part, The Washington Post finds: more than half of the donations are from people on Social Security. The Post reviewed Federal Election Commission records for the Save America PAC and a Save America joint fundraising committee, data showing that “nearly two-thirds of those 2.5 million contributions came from people who listed their occupation as ‘retired.’ More than 6 in 10 were contributions of $100 or less from retirees.”

While We Wait for Molasses Merrick, the Lawyers Are Still Busy

The main focus of the House Jan. 6 committee's first two public hearings has been clear: proving then-President Donald Trump was responsible for the Capitol riot by showing he knowingly lied about so-called fraud in the 2020 election.

The audacity of Trump's "big lie" has become clearer as we've learned more about what his staffers were telling him in private — that he was, justly, an election loser. And those lies could cripple Trump financially.

The burden of proof is much lower in civil lawsuits—remember what happened to O.J. Simpson—and could result in Trump having to pay millions of dollars in damages and legal expenses. He might even end up having to declare bankruptcy again. Now, that wouldn’t be as gratifying as seeing Trump behind bars, but seeing Trump financially ruined would still be somewhat satisfying.

Back in February, The Guardian wrote that there are 19 pending legal actions against Trump. Fifteen of them are civil lawsuits. The most significant and advanced pending criminal case against Trump is the one in Fulton County, Georgia, where District Attorney Fani Willis has convened a special grand jury to hear evidence into Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results:

Most of the cases fall under three themes: financial wrongdoings that made him more money; his role in the January 6 2021 insurrection; and his alleged interference in the 2020 election. Trump has denied wrongdoing in most of these cases. He has filed motions to dismiss several of them and has filed countersuits in some cases.

There are six civil lawsuits seeking damages from Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Eleven House members are suing Trump, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and two extremist groups, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, for conspiring to incite the violence at the Capitol. The lawsuit was originally filed in February 2021 by Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi who later was named chairman of the House Jan. 6 select committee, and the NAACP civil rights group.

And Trump could face even more legal complications after it was revealed during Monday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing that he raised more than $250 million off of his “stolen election” claims in the two months after Election Day for an “election defense fund” that did not actually exist.

He Found the One Election That Wasn't Rigged

Nevada Republican Jim Marchant insisted there hadn’t been a legitimate election in his state in more than a decade. All of Nevada’s election winners since 2006, he said on a recent podcast, were “installed by the deep-state cabal.”

But when Marchant won the Republican nomination for Nevada secretary of state this week, he immediately celebrated the victory as legitimate.

“I am beyond humbled by the overwhelming support of our campaign. Nevadans made their voices heard,” Marchant declared on social media.

Bannon Can't Control the Message

Steve Bannon got a double whammy on Wednesday.

First, a federal judge declined to dismiss the contempt of Congress charges filed against Donald Trump’s former White House adviser after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Court and Trump appointee Judge Carl Nichols ruled there was insufficient evidence the former president had asserted executive privilege to block Bannon from testifying to the committee.

Nichols also rejected Bannon’s claim that internal Justice Department opinions granted him “immunity” from a congressional subpoena for documents related to his contacts with Trump while Trump was in office, saying Bannon’s team had not presented evidence that the DOJ’s opinions applied in his case.

This means that Bannon’s trial could begin July 18, although one member of his team told NBC News they might seek to have it delayed.

The second blow hit Bannon during a post-hearing press conference where he dubiously attacked the Jan. 6 committee because “their ratings stink and they can’t compete with the trial of Bannon.”

But the bombastic Bannon’s attempt to control the narrative was thwarted, in part, by a protester whose strategically placed protest sign attempted to remind people of Bannon’s alleged role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.



Another One Bites the Dust

U.S.-led coalition forces captured a senior Islamic State leader in a military operation in northern Syria on Thursday, the coalition said.

In a statement, it said the captured leader was an experienced bomb maker and operational facilitator, describing him as one of the top leaders of the extremist group’s Syria branch.

The statement did not identify the individual nor say where the raid took place. It said the operation was “successful” with no civilians harmed nor any injuries to coalition forces.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

Proud Graduates Celebrate Pride

Seattle Pacific University graduates handed rainbow flags to the school’s interim president as he gave out their diplomas on Sunday to protest of the school’s anti-LGBTQ policies.

The protest went viral on TikTok, raking in millions of views.

“It started just as a conversation among students that we didn’t really want to shake the president’s hand at graduation,” student and organizer Chloe Guillot told CNN. “So, we thought, what can we do instead of that? And the idea came up: Why don’t we hand out a pride flag?”

She said about 40 to 50 graduates participated in the organized action. Some declined to shake interim President Pete Menjares’ hand and passed him a flag instead.



Seattle Pacific University is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church USA. According to the school’s website, it is “permitted and reserves the right to prefer employees or prospective employees on the basis of religion” and expects its employees to refrain from certain conduct “described in the University’s Employee Lifestyle Expectations.”

Those expectations include refraining from “sexual behavior that is inconsistent with the University’s understanding of Biblical standards, including cohabitation, extramarital sexual activity, and same-sex sexual activity.”

SPU’s board of trustees decided last month to uphold that policy despite protests from the school’s students and faculty.

A Kosher Lawsuit

A South Florida synagogue is suing to block the state’s newly passed 15-week abortion ban from going into effect on July 1. The lawsuit, filed Friday by Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor, argues that the law violates not only privacy rights, but religious freedom rights for Jewish people.

“For Jews, all life is precious, and thus the decision to bring new life into the world is not taken lightly or determined by state fiat,” according to the lawsuit. “In Jewish law, abortion is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman, or for many other reasons not permitted under the act [the new law]. As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and thus violates their privacy rights and religious freedom.”

Elizabeth Warren Has a Plan For Almost Everything.  But Not This.

“The former leader of the Proud Boys, a violent far-right nationalist group whose members were prominent in the January 6 riot, was found in possession of comprehensive plans to “surveil and storm” government buildings, prosecutors said.

Enrique Tarrio, the group’s former chairman who was arrested last week and charged with conspiracy over the deadly attack, had a nine-page document entitled “1776 Returns”, named for the year of American independence, the New York Times reported.

The document, mentioned only in general terms in Tarrio’s indictment, contained details of a complex plan for supporters of Donald Trump to invade and occupy at least seven House and Senate office buildings on the afternoon Congress met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory, according to Times sources.”




The whole plan is here
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 113

Fighting

Ukrainian fighters inside the Severodonetsk Azot chemical plant ignored a Russian ultimatum to surrender, as the United Nations warned essential supplies are running out for the thousands of civilians trapped in the city, including many sheltering in the facility.

For both Russian and Ukrainian forces, fighting for key towns and cities such as Severodonetsk was “devolving to small groups of troops typically operating on foot”, the United Kingdom’s defence ministry said.

The Russian military said it used long-range missiles to destroy a depot in Ukraine’s western region of Lviv near the Polish border where ammunition for NATO-supplied weapons was stored.

Two United States citizens who travelled to Ukraine to fight against Russian forces have been missing for a week and are feared captured, family members said. A White House national security spokesperson said if the reports are true, the US “will do everything we can” to get them back.

Diplomacy

Washington announced an additional $1bn in security assistance to Ukraine, including 18 howitzers, 36,000 rounds of ammunition, and 18 tactical vehicles to tow the howitzers. Russia’s UN ambassador denounced Western countries for supplying weaponry to Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have arrived in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, where they will hold talks with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The European Union’s executive is expected to propose on Friday that Ukraine becomes a formal candidate for membership of the bloc, diplomats and officials said.

The head of the UN refugee agency said the food crisis stoked by the war in Ukraine was set to drive record displacement to more “staggering” levels.

Economy

The Black Sea port in the Romanian city of Constanta has become one of the main transit hubs for Ukrainian grain exports.

Russian Gazprom’s move to cut gas supplies to Germany is a warning signal for Europe’s biggest economy next winter, the head of Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur energy regulator said.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said the rouble is overvalued and industry would be more comfortable if it fell to between 70 to 80 against the US dollar from the current 57, according to state-owned Tass news agency.

Russian people and companies are using Georgian entities to bypass Western sanctions, Ukrainian lawmakers on a visit to Washington, DC, said but did not provide details or examples. The Georgian embassy in Washington said the accusations were “completely false”.

Ukraine is Moving Further West

We've been hearing from Ukraine's president and the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Romania who've been in Kyiv for talks.

Here's what we learned from their joint press conference:

The leaders said they support Ukraine's bid to join the European Union, and the country should be given immediate candidate status

The leaders also said more weapons were being sent to Ukraine, including six more long-range Ceasar guns from France

This Sounds Kosher to Me

When the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen signed an agreement to ship gas from Israel through Egypt to the European Union, she clearly wanted it to be seen as a big achievement.

At the ceremony, held at a five-star hotel in Cairo on Wednesday, von der Leyen hailed the deal as a “historic step” away from Russian energy and towards a “green transition”.

The memorandum of understanding concerning the delivery of natural gas through Egypt, where the gas will be liquefied before being shipped to Europe, would put “an end to [the bloc’s] dependence on Russian fossil fuels” as it seeks to distance itself following the invasion of Ukraine, according to von der Leyen.

Things That Make You Go Boom

The United States and several of its Western allies announced a new round of military (and humanitarian) aid for Ukraine.

United States, $1 billion:

18 155mm Howitzers;
36,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition;
18 Tactical Vehicles to tow 155mm Howitzers;
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems;
Four Tactical Vehicles to recover equipment;
Spare parts and other equipment.
Two Harpoon coastal defense systems;
Thousands of secure radios;
Thousands of Night Vision devices, thermal sights, and other optics;
Funding for training, maintenance, sustainment, transportation, and administrative costs.

Germany

3 MLRS M270 launchers and ammunition.  (This shows the range of ONE MLRS launcher.)


Canada:

10 M777 howitzers
Replacement M777 barrels

Slovakia:

Mi17 attack helicopters (it has four left in its entire fleet)
Missiles and parts

Poland and Netherlands:

More artillery (undisclosed amounts. Netherlands is also sending additional Harpoon anti-ship missiles, alongside the U.S., U.K, and Denmark.

At a press conference, General Mark Miley, the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, summarized Western responsiveness to Ukrainian requests:

These are official requests from their Department of Defense. They asked for 10 battalions of artillery; 12 battalions of artillery were delivered. Again, I'd say 97,000 antitank systems. That's more anti-tank systems than tanks in the world. They asked for 200 tanks; they got 237 tanks. They asked for 100 infantry fighting vehicles; they got over 300. We've delivered, roughly speaking, 1,600 or so air defense systems and about 60,000 air defense rounds. This is -- when I say "us", I mean the international community. You're looking at 260 artillery tube systems. Either rocket or tube artillery have been already delivered. There's 383 committed, and like I said, almost half a million rounds of artillery.

How Can Ukraine Win?

That victory will be dependent upon inflicting enough damage on Russian artillery units to take away their primary tool in this war. Should Ukraine be able to either destroy enough guns, or kill enough soldiers who know how to use those artillery pieces, or somehow cut the rail lines to those guns, then we will start to see the Russians fold as quickly as they did in the north. Every Russian artillery man should have a bounty on his head. The quicker Ukraine can degrade the artillery, the quicker this will be over. Until then, we should expect Russia to attempt slow, methodical annihilation of anything within range of a railhead. And therefor we should continue to expect them to work towards expanding their control of Ukraine’s railroads.
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If You Picked Kyrgyzstan in Your Office Pool, You Are a Winner

Researchers believe they have discovered the origins of the Black Death, more than 600 years after it killed tens of millions in Europe, Asia and north Africa.

The mid-14th Century health catastrophe is one of the most significant disease episodes in human history.

But despite years of research, scientists had been unable to pinpoint where the bubonic plague began.

Now analysis suggests it was in Kyrgyzstan, central Asia, in the 1330s.

A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland and Germany's Max Planck Institute and University of Tubingen analysed ancient DNA samples from the teeth of skeletons in cemeteries near Lake Issyk Kul, in Kyrgyzstan.

They chose the area after noting a significant spike in burials there in 1338 and 1339.

Dr Maria Spyrou, a researcher at the University of Tubingen, said the team sequenced DNA from seven skeletons.

They analysed the teeth because, according to Dr Spyrou, they contain many blood vessels and give researchers "high chances of detecting blood-borne pathogens that may have caused the deaths of the individuals".

The research team were able to find the plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in three of them.
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Note to Federal Reserve:  When Inflation is Partly the Result of Global Factors, Raising Interest Rates Will Only Do So Much.

In addition to raising the rate, Powell indicated that another three-quarter-point hike is possible at the Fed’s next meeting, in July. The members of its policymaking committee also raised their predictions for where the federal funds rate will be at the end of this year and next year—to 3.4 per cent and 3.8 per cent, respectively. “We anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate,” Powell said.

When inflation began to rise last year, Powell resisted calls from some quarters—yes, that’s you, Larry Summers—for the Fed to hit the monetary brakes, describing the rise in prices as “transitory.” He dropped this term late last year, in time for the economy to be hit by the Omicron variant, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and a fresh lockdown in China—each of which carried a further inflationary shock. In retrospect, the Fed made an error by not starting to raise rates sooner, although, given that inflation is a global problem—it’s running ​​at 8.1 per cent in the eurozone and 7.8 per cent in the United Kingdom—it’s not clear how much of a difference a quicker policy reversal in the U.S. would have made.

In any case, the big question now is whether the Fed can raise rates at a more rapid pace than it previously anticipated, and bring inflation down, without knocking the economy into an outright recession. According to a new survey conducted by the Financial Times and the University of Chicago, which was published on Sunday, more than two-thirds of academic economists think that Powell won’t pull it off: they are predicting that a recession will start next year.
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Where Will Santa Go When All the Ice Melts?

The heating is occurring in the North Barents Sea, a region where fast rising temperatures are suspected to trigger increases in extreme weather in North America, Europe and Asia. The researchers said the heating in this region was an “early warning” of what could happen across the rest of the Arctic.

The new figures show annual average temperatures in the area are rising across the year by up to 2.7C a decade, with particularly high rises in the months of autumn of up to 4C a decade. This makes the North Barents Sea and its islands the fastest warming place known on Earth.

Recent years have seen temperatures far above average recorded in the Arctic, with seasoned observers describing the situation as “crazy”, “weird”, and “simply shocking”. Some climate scientists have warned the unprecedented events could signal faster and more abrupt climate breakdown.

It was already known that the climate crisis was driving heating across the Arctic three times faster than the global average, but the new research shows the situation is even more extreme in places.
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Abbot Hasn't Found the Right Formula to Keep the Plant Running

Baby formula production halted at Abbott's Michigan plant due to flooding after severe storms

Production of its EleCare specialty formula was stopped after severe storms in southwestern Michigan flooded areas of its Sturgis, Michigan plant.

This is the same plant that forced Abbott to issue a recall of some of its formulas in February due to contamination issues.
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Today's Worst Headline from CBS

"Stock drop has erased $3 trillion in retirement savings this year"

1. Nobody has lost a penny unless they sell their stocks.
2. Just like nobody makes money when their stocks go up unless they sell them
3. Did CBS post big headlines during the stock rally in the last two years about how much retirement savings have grown?
4. This kind of stuff just creates hysteria and panic selling.

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Milk Most Foul

An investigation is underway at an Alaskan elementary school after a dozen students drank floor sealant they thought was milk, school officials announced Wednesday.

On Tuesday, students enrolled in a summer program at the Sitʼ Eeti Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley Elementary School were served breakfast beginning at 8:45 a.m., according to a statement on the Juneau School District website.

A short time after, students began to complain about the milk tasting bad and burning their mouths and throat.

It was found that the 'milk' served was actually a floor sealant resembling liquid milk," the statement said.

Staff immediately advised students to stop consuming the chemical and it was removed. The parents and guardians of the students who drank the floor sealant were informed of the incident.

One student did receive medical treatment and two others who were picked up may have also sought treatment, the statement said.

Staff removed the remaining product and placed it in the chemical/hazardous storage. The Juneau Police Department, Juneau School District, NMS and City and Borough of Juneau are assisting in the investigation.
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