September 17, 2021
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." 
Galatians 5:1
Market Recap

For the week, the DJIA was down 22.84 points, or 0.1%, to 34,584.88. The S&P lost 25.59 points, or 0.6%, to 4,432.99. The Nasdaq fell 71.52 points, or 0.5%, to close at 15,043.97. 

U.S. Gulf Coast crude oil exports are flowing again after recent hurricanes took out 26 million barrels of offshore production, according to sources and Refinitiv Eikon data, with local prices easing as more shipments moved out of the region.
 
The dollar bounced higher early Thursday, as markets have recovered from the weak CPI reading on Tuesday.
 
U.S. retail sales unexpectedly increased in August, likely boosted by back-to-school shopping and child tax credit payments from the government.
 
Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales rebounded 2.5% last month after a downwardly revised 1.9% decrease in July.
 
Business inventories rose 0.5% after increasing 0.9% in June, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. Inventories are a key component of gross domestic product.
 
Mortgage rates fell a bit this week and remain near record lows. The average rate on 30-year mortgages ticked down to 3.03 percent from 3.05 percent last week, according to Bankrate's weekly survey of large lenders.
 
Initial jobless claims rose last week, posting the biggest increase since mid-July and stemming two straight weekly declines, but analysts said the uptick might not be a signal that unemployment would continue to trend higher.
 
Under consideration for reappointment as Fed chief while also juggling how to pull off a critical change in U.S. monetary policy, Powell faces a controversy of the Fed's own making that helps reinforce arguments by progressives for broader change at the central bank.
 
World Bank leaders, including the Chief Executive, applied "undue pressure" on staff to boost China's ranking in the bank's "Doing Business 2018" report, according to an independent investigation released Thursday.
 
Production at U.S. factories slowed more than expected in August amid disruptions from Hurricane Ida and lingering shortages of raw materials and labor.
 
The U.S. Federal Reserve in Washington and the regional Fed banks will now require all of their nearly 23,000 employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.
 
Utilities output rose 3.3% as temperatures surged in August and prompted more demand for air conditioning, while mining production fell by 0.6% after three straight monthly gains.
 
Crude oil inventories fell by 7 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 12, a larger decline than analysts had expected. Crude oil inventories are about 7% below the five-year average for this time of the year.
 
***

Friday Recap: Wall Street Closes Rollercoaster Week Sharply Lower

U.S. stocks ended sharply lower in a broad sell-off on Friday, ending a week buffeted by strong economic data, corporate tax hike worries, the Delta COVID variant, and possible shifts in the U.S. Federal Reserve's timeline for tapering asset purchases.
 
The preliminary Michigan Consumer Sentiment index rose slightly to 71 in early September after the index was down more than 10 points to 70.3 in August, but the assessment of current economic conditions moved even lower.
 
Outlook of buying conditions for homes, vehicles and household durables remained near record-lows amid concerns about higher prices.
 
The national unemployment rate fell to 5.2% for August from 5.4% the prior month. National nonfarm payrolls rose by only 235,000 in the month after a 1.053 million increase in July.
 
The largest U.S. banking lobby groups banded together on Friday to make another push to kill a proposed bank account reporting law being drawn up as part of the congressional reconciliation package.
 
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says failure to raise the U.S. debt limit could lead to the unthinkable: a default on government payment obligations which could plunge the economy into recession.
 
China applied to join Pacific trade pact to boost economic clout. Japan said it would have to determine if China meets the "extremely high standards."
 
Gold, Silver, and Copper all ended the week down.
 
All three major U.S. stock indexes lost ground, with the Nasdaq Composite Index's weighed down as rising U.S. Treasury yields pressured market-leading growth stocks. They also posted weekly losses, with the S&P index suffering its biggest two-week drop since February.
 
Of the 11 major sectors in the S&P 500, all but healthcare ended in the red, with materials and utilities suffering the biggest percentage drops
 
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 166.44 points, or 0.48%, to 34,584.88; the S&P 500 lost 40.76 points, or 0.91%, at 4,432.99; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 137.96 points, or 0.91%, to 15,043.97.
 
For the week, the DJIA was down 22.84 points, or 0.1%, to 34,584.88. The S&P lost 25.59 points, or 0.6%, to 4,432.99. The Nasdaq fell 71.52 points, or 0.5%, to close at 15,043.97.

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Arizona Files Lawsuit Against White House in Response to Vaccine Mandates
“The Biden Administration allows migrants to decline the vaccine, protecting their freedom and bodily autonomy more than American citizens.”
 
Michael Cardinal, FISM News
Arizona attorney general, Mark Brnovich, filed a lawsuit regarding the newly announced vaccine mandates on Tuesday calling it an” unprecedented and unconstitutional power grab by the Biden administration.” This is the first lawsuit filed by a state after Biden announced sweeping mandates last week forcing companies with 100 employees or more to require that their employees be vaccinated or tested each week.

Immediately following Biden’s announcement of the mandate several Republican politicians voiced their outrage over what they called draconian mandates that invaded the personal freedom’s of American citizens. Many had vowed to sue the president and it appears that this will be the first of many lawsuits…(READ MORE)
Ivermectin: What You Should Know
In 2015 the researchers who developed Ivermectin won a Nobel Prize in medicine.


Lauren Dempsey, FISM News
MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN
What is the truth about Ivermectin? If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’ve heard that it is medication that is dangerous for human consumption, is meant as a horse dewormer, and hospitals are overwhelmed with overdoses.

Recently, Joe Rogan received backlash after being prescribed Ivermectin. Many in the media also criticize the use of such a “dangerous medication” as a treatment for COVID-19. But is there actually cause for alarm?

Ivermectin was first approved for human use in 1996, but had been in use to treat parasitic infections since 1978 before it was approved for veterinary use and has treated millions of people worldwide. Veterinary products are very different than what is prescribed for human usage, and often times animal doses are highly concentrated…(READ MORE)
Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Freeze Disputed Gain-of-Function Research Funding
“…Overwhelming evidence suggests that this very research may have caused a deadly pandemic that upended the world.”
 
Megan Udinski, FISM News
In a bipartisan endeavor, members of Congress are seeking to freeze federal funding towards controversial gain-of-function (GoF) research. The Pausing Enhanced Pandemic Pathogen Research Act, spearheaded by Reps. Mike Gallegher (R-Wis.), Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), and Henry Cueller (D-Texas), would halt halt taxpayer funding of GoF research for the next five years.

This legislation comes on the heels of a recent report received by The Intercept. After filing a Freedom of Information request from the National Institutes of Health, The Intercept reported that 900 pages of documents received proved that the U.S. was funding bat coronavirus research in Wuhan.

According to the Alliance for Human Research Protection, gain-of-function is the “euphemism for biological research aimed at increasing the virulence and lethality…(READ MORE)
Former Intelligence Operatives Accept Deal; Admit Hacking for Foreign Nation
All three men were former US intelligence or military operatives who… continued to have access to sensitive information...
 
Lauren Moye, FISM News
On Sept. 7, three United States citizens with connections to the intelligence community admitted that they provided advanced hacking technologies to the United Arab Emirates. This technology was then used to target United States companies and citizens.

As part of an agreement made with the Department of Justice, defendants Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke will pay $1,685,000 in penalties. They will also immediately forfeit all national and foreign security clearances and face restrictions on future employment.

“This agreement is the first-of-its-kind resolution of an investigation into two distinct types of criminal activity: providing unlicensed export-controlled defense services in support of computer network exploitation, and a commercial company creating, supporting, and operating systems specifically designed to allow others to access data…(READ MORE)
US, UK, Australia Announce Indo-Pacific Alliance
The alliance, though, has not been met with universal acceptance, even in the West.

Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
President Joe Biden, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison convened virtually on Wednesday to announce the formation of a new security alliance.

In a joint presentation, the three leaders championed AUKUS (pronounced “awk-us”), an agreement that will allow the nations to share defense capabilities at an even greater rate than before.

“We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve,” Biden said. “Because the future of each of our nations — and indeed the world — depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades…(READ MORE)

General Milley Reportedly Went Rogue During Final Days of Trump Administration
Many politicians and army personnel have expressed outrage over the revelations and have demanded that Milley resign, with some accusing him of treason...
 
Samuel Case, FISM News
According to newly released excerpts from the book “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley allegedly went rogue and undermined former President Donald Trump during his days of office.

In a released excerpt, Milley allegedly called a meeting on Jan. 8 where he told other military officials to not take orders from the president unless he was involved. Specifically he told officers to not allow the president to use nuclear codes unless he was part of the decision, saying “No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I’m part of that procedure.”

Milley also secretly called his Chinese military counterpart on two occasions…(READ MORE)
Ways and Means Committee Releases Plan for Funding $3.5 Trillion Budget
Republicans argue that this proposal, though aimed at the rich, will reap heavy damage in the American middle class.
 
Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
The debate over increasing taxes to fund Democrats’ social spending package began in earnest Tuesday, as federal lawmakers got their first chance to go on record following the Monday release of the House Ways and Means Committee’s budget proposal.

The committee met on Tuesday to continue its markup of the package, the process by which the committee and its chair finalize the proposal that will be presented to the House.

The package is currently estimated to cost $3.5. trillion. Democratic proponents hope to pass most of that cost, about $3 trillion, onto corporations and the wealthy. As currently worded, this legislation would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% for companies with more than $5 million in income and enact a graduated tax increase based on pay for Americans making more than…(READ MORE)
NIH Study to Evaluate Impact of COVID-19 Vaccines on Women's Health
In light of this, what are the potential impacts on fertility and the push to vaccinate women in pregnancy?
 
Lauren Dempsey, FISM News
MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN
On Aug. 30, the NIH announced that it will commission a $1.67 million yearlong study to investigate the impact of COVID-19 vaccines on reproductive health. This research will include about 500,000 participants and will follow “menstruating people” to gather data on menstrual cycle changes before and after each dose of the vaccine. Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the Institute of Child Health and Human Development stated that the study will include adolescents, transgender, and nonbinary participants, but will exclude those that are on birth-control or hormone treatments as that may have an effect on periods.

Thousands of women have reported irregularities post-vaccination including irregular periods, hemorrhagic bleeding, clots, delayed or absent periods, pre-menopausal symptoms, and periods lasting for…(READ MORE)
Vaccine Mandate Resignations Force Hospital to Pause Baby Deliveries
Nationwide, the healthcare industry is seeing workers leave the profession as the pandemic reaches its eighteenth month in the United States.
 
Chris Lieberman, FISM News
A hospital in upstate New York announced Friday that they will be temporarily suspending baby deliveries beginning Sept. 25 because of staffing shortages in the maternity department. These shortages are due to hospital employees resigning over the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Lewis County General Hospital, located in Lowville, New York, has seen at least 30 employees resign from their jobs, including six from the maternity department. “We are unable to safely staff the [maternity] service after 24 September,” Gerald Cayer, CEO of the Lewis County Health System, said on Friday. “The number of resignations received leaves us no choice but to pause delivering babies at Lewis County...(READ MORE)
Chip Shortage May Last Longer Than Previously Expected
In addition, the emergence in popularity of bitcoin mining as early as 2017 has driven up chip demand and prices.
 
Ian Patrick, FISM News
with contributions from Eric Cicale
There is growing concern that the chip shortage will be around for an extended period of time, putting more strain on their manufacturers as well as on companies that use chips in their products.

Auto makers in particular are feeling the squeeze of the broken supply chain. This week CEOs from multiple car manufacturers including Volkswagen, Daimler, and Ford Europe expressed their uncertainty of continuing production of their automobiles. Talking to CNBC, the Volkswagen CEO said his company is “relatively weak because of semiconductor shortages.”

The CEO of Daimler told the BBC that the chip-makers assert the lack of semiconductors “will bleed into 2022 from a structural point…(READ MORE)
Fauci Has No "Firm Answer" for Why Recovered COVID Patients Should Vaccinate
Fauci responded by saying “I don’t have a really firm answer for you on that”
 
Ian Patrick, FISM News
With the federal government ramping up vaccine mandates to inoculate the remaining 25% of American adults, the question of protection by natural immunity has begun to rise to the forefront once again. The question being: if someone had COVID-19 and developed the necessary antibodies from it, would they also need a vaccine on top of that?

Examples of natural immunity winning over vaccine mandates have been documented in the past. In August, a professor for George Mason University won a vaccine mandate exemption using natural immunity as a valid reason not to receive a jab. However, Biden’s new sweeping vaccine mandate is causing health officials to ask the question again.

In fact, NIH Director Dr. Anthony Fauci was prompted by CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to answer that.…(READ MORE)
Monoclonal Antibody Treatment for COVID-19 Infections
The greatest benefit of these treatments is reduced symptoms, shortened duration of symptoms, and reduced risk of hospitalization.
 
Lauren Dempsey, FISM News
MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN

Monoclonal antibodies have been mentioned throughout news cycles lately, but what exactly are they?

Antibodies are the natural defenders in our immune system that recognize and defend against harmful pathogens. Monoclonal antibodies are their scientific counterpart as they are created in a laboratory and are designed to fight a specific virus or bacteria.

In the case of COVID-19, monoclonal antibodies have been used to fight against SARS-CoV-2 after exposure for patients who are considered high risk and have both tested positive for COVID-19 and exhibited symptoms for 10 days or less. These man-made proteins are an imitation of the body’s natural ability to fight off infection. They are designed to stop the virus from entering the host cell…(READ MORE)
Over 10,000 Migrants Sleep Under Texas Bridge, as Border Encounters See Two Decade High
Sen. Ted Cruz filmed himself at the bridge on Thursday, attacking the Biden administration for creating a “man-made crisis.”
 
Samuel Case, FISM News
This week images and video emerged of thousands of migrants under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, highlighting the ongoing border crisis. Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said the number of migrants had increased by 2,000 in less than 24 hours, in a situation that has been growing worse for over a week. Currently the number of those seeking entry is estimated to be over 10,000. A majority of the migrants originate from Haiti, as the nation has been racked by natural disasters and political turmoil.
 
Fox News drone footage showed thousands of migrants packed under the bridge, some sleeping in tents, while most were limited to blankets, piles of clothes, or the bridge itself...(READ MORE)
North Korea Tests Cruise Missile with Nuclear Capabilities
His administration’s policy on North Korea has remained primarily diplomatic with complete denuclearization as the goal.
 
Ian Patrick, FISM News
North Korea tested a long-range cruise missile over the weekend which many believe furthers their nuclear capabilities.

Recently a United Nations nuclear watchdog reported that the country appears to have reactivated some of their nuclear processing equipment. That same report included goals from North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who said that he wants his party to complete a “modernization of the nuclear force.”

Korean state media reported that the missile flew 930 miles before hitting a test target and landing in the country’s territorial waters on Saturday and Sunday. Experts say that this missile has a strategic nuclear purpose as it has the capability to fly below missile defense…(READ HERE)

Psaki: White House Won't Force Vaccine on Migrants, as it Implements Mandate for U.S. Businesses
Doocy followed up by asking why vaccines are required for U.S. businesses, but not those trying to enter the country at the border.
 
Samuel Case, FISM News
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged on Friday that the United States is not requiring illegal immigrants at the southern border to get the COVID-19 shot, even as President Biden is mandating the vaccine for American businesses with over 100 employees.

Psaki’s admission came during an exchange with Fox News reporter Peter Doocy who asked the Press Secretary, “Why is it that you’re trying to require anybody with a job or anybody who goes to school to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but you’re not requiring that of migrants that continue walking Doocy followed up by asking why vaccines are required for U.S. businesses, but not those trying to enter the country at the border…(READ MORE)
FBI Releases 9/11 Investigation Documents
15 of the 19 hijackers who crashed the four planes on 9/11 were of Saudi descent.
 
Seth Udinski, FISM News
On the 20th anniversary of the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks, the FBI released the first of several documents that reveal the details of their investigation into the 9/11 attacks. The first document released is a summary of an interview with a man who was in contact with conspirators who provided logistical support to some of the hijackers.

Many families of 9/11 victims have long sought the release of the investigation due to their belief that the Saudi Arabia government was complicit in the attacks. The document does show that the men had connections with several Saudi associates but does not reveal any direct connection with senior Saudi Arabia officials. Lawyers for the families said that the document along with other evidence validates their claims of Saudi …(READ MORE)
Taliban Death Squads Continue to Search Out, Murder US-Trained Afghans
CNN reported that the Taliban had been accused by one Afghan family of murdering a pregnant woman in front of her family.
 
Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
The Taliban’s practice for seeking out, torturing, and executing Afghans trained by or sympathetic to the United States continues in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, The Sunday Times reported that over the past three weeks, the Taliban had killed four counterterrorism agents who had been trained by either the U.S. or Great Britain. In one case, Lamb wrote, the executioners had pulled out a victim’s fingernails before shooting him.
Lamb’s report features a harrowing, first-hand account…(READ MORE)
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