Nevada Senate race: Catherine Cortez Masto inches closer to overtaking Adam Laxalt
Nevada Democrat U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is inching closer to overtaking the lead that Republican Adam Laxalt has.
Following the latest updates from Clark County, Laxalt’s lead over Cortez Masto shrunk to 798 votes after the county tallied 27,229 votes, resulting in a pickup of 8,190 votes for the incumbent senator.
Clark County is Nevada’s most populous county, with roughly 2.29 million people.
In the race for governor, Republican Joe Lombardo has unseated Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak, the Fox News Decision Desk can project.
Lombardo is the only Republican to flip a governor’s seat this election cycle.
In Clark County, the deadline for all ballots to be counted is Tuesday.
NEVADA SENATE RACE: LAXALT LEAD OVER CORTEZ MASTO SHRINKS AFTER LATEST VOTE COUNT UPDATE
Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria said during a Friday press conference that they are reaching the “tail-end of what we need to do.”
Washoe County, the state’s second-largest county, still has about 23,000 ballots left to count, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Crypto VC David Pakman on FTX: an “entirely avoidable tragedy”
If you want to better understand exactly how big a deal it is that the cryptocurrency exchange FTX just imploded, you could do worse than talk with David Pakman, an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist. After logging 14 years with the investment firm Venrock, Pakman — who led Venrock’s investment in the digital collectibles company Dapper Labs and even mined bitcoin at his own home years back — leaned into his passion for digital assets and last year joined the now seven-year-old crypto venture firm CoinFund.
His timing was either very good or very bad, depending on your view of the market. Indeed, in part because CoinFund was an early investor in the collapsing cryptocurrency exchange FTX, we asked Pakman to jump on the phone with us today to talk about this very wild week, one that began with high-flying FTX on the ropes, and which ended with bankruptcy filings and the resignation of FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, as CEO. Excerpts of that conversation follow, edited lightly for length.
TC: The last time we talked, almost two years ago, the NFT wave was just getting underway. Now, we’re talking on a day where one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world just declared bankruptcy. Actually, it’s declaring bankruptcy for 130 additional affiliated companies. What do you make of this development?
DP: I think it’s absolutely terrible on a bunch of levels. First, it was an entirely avoidable tragedy. This failure of the company was brought on by a bunch of flawed human decision-making, not by a failing business. The core business is doing great. In fact, it’s highly profitable and growing, even in a bear market. It’s not like it was running out of capital or a victim of the macro environment. But its leadership, with almost no oversight apparently, made a bunch of terrible decisions and did things really wrong. So the tragedy is how avoidable it was, and how many victims there are, including employees and shareholders and the hundreds or even thousands of customers who will be affected [by this bankruptcy].
There’s also the reputational harm to the entire crypto industry, which already suffers from questions like, ‘Isn’t this a scammy place with scammy people?’ This sort of Enron-esque meltdown of one of the most highly valued and arguably most successful companies in the space is just really bad, and it will take a long time to dig out of it. But there are also positives.
Positives?
Well, what’s positive is the technology did not fail; the blockchains did not fail. The smart contracts were not hacked. Everything we know about the tech behind crypto continues to work brilliantly. So it would be different if this was a meltdown because of flawed software design, or the blockchains aren’t scaling, or big hacks that injured people. The long-term promise of the software and the technology architecture about crypto is intact. It’s the people who keep making mistakes. We’ve had two or three pretty big human-generated mistakes this year.
There are plenty of news stories out there outlining what happened in broad strokes. How do you explain it?
I don’t have firsthand knowledge about what they really did or didn’t do. But apparently FTX and [the trading desk also owned and run by Sam Bankman-Fried] Alameda Research had a relationship that maybe was not known to all shareholders, employees, or customers. And it sounds like FTX took FTT, which is their token that was held in great amounts by Alameda, and they pledged it as collateral and took big loans in fiat against that. So they took a highly volatile asset, and they pledged as collateral.
One could imagine if a board of corporate executives or investors knew about that, someone would say, ‘Hang on. What happens if FTT goes down by 50%? It happens in crypto with high frequency, right? So, like, why are we pledging this super highly volatile asset? And by the way, half a billion dollars’ worth of the asset is held by our biggest rival [Binance]. What happens if they dump it in the market?’
So just the act of borrowing against it was ill-advised. And then it sounds like they also took the proceeds of that borrowing, and they invested that in highly illiquid assets, like maybe to rescue BlockFi or all these other private companies that FTX recently bought. But it’s not like they could quickly sell out of those if they needed to return the proceeds of their borrowing. They were also apparently using customer funds and loaning that out or maybe even loaning it to their trading arm. So all this stuff is just stuff that I think a board, if they knew about it, would be like, no, no.
But there was no board, which is mind blowing, considering that VCs poured $2 billion into this company. Your firm is among those firms.
I joined CoinFund a little bit more than a year ago, so the investment that the firm made in FTX was a long time ago, before my time, and it’s a tiny, tiny amount. We’re barely on the cap table. We didn’t hold any FTT tokens.
But I will address your big question, which I think is about the governance of this company. I come from a traditional tech investing background, where maybe 99% of the time, there’s just a standard set of governance that every entrepreneur agrees to when they take venture capital, which is: there’s going to be a board; the board is going to be made up of investors and employees and maybe outside experts; there’s going to be a set of controls; the controls usually say things like, ‘You have to disclose any related party transactions’ so you don’t shuffle coconuts between one company and something else that we don’t know about. The board also has to approve things, so that whenever you’re going to pledge assets as collateral for borrowing, you can’t issue new shares without [the board] knowing about it.
The fact that none of that was present here is mind-boggling. And I hope what comes of this Enron-like moment in crypto is that whatever loose norms there were about not giving that level of oversight and governance as part of investing goes away immediately.
Everything is so highly correlated. Crypto investor Digital Currency Group is reportedly giving a $140 million equity infusion to a derivatives business in its portfolio called Genesis Global Trading because Genesis has about $175 million dollars locked in its FTX account. How bad is this going to become? What percentage of your own investment portfolio is being impacted here because of FTX’s failure?
How much are we at CoinFund impacted? It’s negligible because we had such a tiny investment in this company from one of our funds and we held none of our assets at FTX, either its U.S. or international business. [As for broader implications], I don’t think any of us knows the full, long-term impact of what’s happening here because there’s like some contagion, right? Like, how many other funds when companies and investors have assets at FTX and how long will it take to get those funds back? One must assume that the entire thing goes into a massive bankruptcy proceeding that takes many months or years to unwind. And so there’ll be this uncertainty, not just about when you’re getting money back but how much you’re getting.
The overwhelming majority of the startups that we invest in aren’t trading on FTX and so they weren’t customers. But FTX was very useful for providing a launching pad for tokens to become liquid, and then either making a market for those tokens or at least providing a place for them to trade and providing liquidity. A big part of crypto today is not just raising equity capital but creating tokens and using tokens as an incentive mechanism, and that requires at some point for these tokens to become liquid and trade on exchanges, and FTX was one of the largest places where those tokens traded. And now you lose that.
How does that affect your day-to-day business of making investments? I did see the news that CoinFund is looking to raise a new $250 million fund, that it filed SEC paperwork on November 1 after closing a $300 million fund three months ago. Will you have to put a pin in that now? I’m sure this debacle has LPs feeling nervous.
We’ve talked to a lot of our LPS in the last 48 hours. I think most people are processing. They’re asking, like you’re asking, ‘What happened here?’
I think late-stage capital will freeze up for a little bit here. The dust really needs to clear. And it’s unlikely that capital is attracted to a tragedy like this.
A more immediate impact is on startup valuations. Valuing startups is an imperfect process done by investors in non-liquid markets, and one way it’s done is to look at comparables. And one of the brightest star comps that just about everyone in crypto pointed to was FTX. If FTX is worth $40 billion, we’re worth X. So you take the most highly valued venture-backed crypto company, and it goes from $40 billion to zero, then who is the new ceiling of crypto value? It immediately impacts late-stage valuations.
Crypto VC David Pakman on FTX: an “entirely avoidable tragedy” by Connie Loizos originally published on TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/11/crypto-vc-david-pakman-on-ftx-an-entirely-avoidable-tragedy/
Nevada Republican Joe Lombardo defeats incumbent Democrat Steve Sisolak in gubernatorial election
The Fox News Decision Desk can project that Sheriff Joe Lombardo, a Republican, will become the next Governor of Nevada. He has unseated Democratic incumbent Steve Sisolak.
The economy and inflation, education, crime, and the governor’s performance in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic were key issues in the gubernatorial campaign.
Sisolak was elected governor in 2018 after spending nearly a decade as a Clark County Commissioner. Lombardo, after serving more than two decades in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, was elected Clark County Sheriff in 2014. Clark County covers just 7% of the Nevada’s land area, but holds nearly three-quarters of the state’s population, making it by far Nevada’s most populous county.
MIDTERM ELECTIONS 2022: LIVE UPDATES
Lombardo advanced to the general election after winning a crowded and contentious GOP gubernatorial primary, thanks in part to an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, who remains the Republican Party’s most popular and influential politicians.
During the general election campaign, Lombardo said he did not support Trump’s repeated unproven claims that his 2020 loss to now-President Biden was due to a “rigged” and “stolen” election. But Lombardo appeared last month alongside Trump at a rally near Reno, Nevada.
The Republican Governors Association reacted in a statement Friday night.
“The RGA is excited to congratulate Governor-elect Sheriff Joe Lombardo on winning Nevada’s gubernatorial race,” said RGA Co-Chairs Governors Doug Ducey and Pete Ricketts. “After four years of Steve Sisolak’s small business and job-killing policies, Governor-elect Lombardo’s unique perspective as a seasoned law enforcement officer and fiscal conservative will get the state moving in the right direction on behalf of all Nevada families. The RGA was proud to be a crucial partner in this race to elect Joe and fire Steve Sisolak. Our independent expenditure effort in Nevada was the largest in RGA history and we’re excited to have Joe joining our ranks.”
Republican Lombardo ousts Democratic governor in Nevada
Republican Joe Lombardo unseated Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, notching a win for the GOP in an otherwise tough year for the party’s candidates for governor.
Lombardo’s defeat of Sisolak, who was the first Democrat to hold the governorship in two decades, ends four years of Democratic dominance in Nevada, where the party has enjoyed total control of state government.
The race remained a toss-up through late summer and fall, with recent polling showing Lombardo, the elected sheriff of populous Clark County who was backed by former President Donald Trump, ahead in a consistently tight contest in the presidential swing state.
Lombardo, an Army veteran with decades of law enforcement experience who was first elected to the sheriff’s post in 2014, clinched the Republican nomination in June with Trump’s backing, beating out more than a dozen primary challengers, including former Sen. Dean Heller.
The two-term sheriff campaigned on a law-and-order and pro-business platform, accusing Sisolak of being corrupt and soft on crime and attacking his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Republican’s campaign hammered Sisolak for keeping businesses closed during the pandemic and as late as last month accused him of continuing to “shut down the state.” He argued the Sisolak administration “devastated our economy” by keeping many businesses, including those on the Las Vegas Strip, closed while some other states reopened. Lombardo promised never to raise taxes and said he would enact proposals that drew businesses to the state.
He accused Sisolak of making schools unsafe, repeatedly pointing to a “restorative justice” law the governor signed in his first year which proposed alternatives to expulsion and suspension for students who committed minor infractions, intended at slowing the so-called school-to-prison pipeline. The law has received renewed attention by opponents amid a violence uptick in southern Nevada schools.
Lombardo pledged during the campaign to expand charter school access and give parents more say over their children’s curriculum.
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in June, Sisolak and his allies seized on the issue of abortion rights. Lombardo was forced to balance national Republicans’ position on abortion with that of many Nevadans, who traditionally support individual liberties.
The sheriff said he would respect the state’s 1990 ballot referendum upholding the right to the procedure, and his campaign and outside allies ran ads characterizing Democrats’ talking points as exaggerated. But his campaign also sponsored an event with an anti-abortion organization. In at least one ad, Lombardo’s campaign sought to turn the attention back to economic and crime-focused issues, illustrating the precariousness of the issue in the state.
Alec Baldwin sues several ‘Rust’ crew members for handing him loaded gun
Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit against several people involved in the movie “Rust” on Friday for providing him with the loaded gun that he fired on set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last year.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/11/alec-baldwin-sues-rust-crew-members-for-handing-him-loaded-gun/
The Real Story Behind RSV & The So-Called “Tripledemic”
The Real Story Behind RSV & The So-Called “Tripledemic”
Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,
MSM sources are now warning of a co-pandemics of flu, RSV and COVID… but is there any reason to be afraid?
The “tripledemic” is upon us, according to the mainstream media. What is a “tripledemic”, you ask?
Apparently, it’s when we have simultaneous pandemics of influenza, Covid and RSV at the same time. At least, according to the LA Times:
A ‘tripledemic’ of flu, RSV and COVID is feared in California
And the Atlantic:
What a ‘Tripledemic’ Means for Your Body
And CBS:
“Tripledemic” in U.S. could bring deluge of patients to hospitals
All three stories – and there are many others out there too – hit the same handful of talking points.
They report that the flu is back after its “mysterious” disappearance during the Covid “pandemic” (the Alantic notes US flu cases reduced by well over 90% and calls it “getting lucky”, the doublethink is unbelievable).
They also warn that Covid is “still around” or “not over”, or some variation on that them.
However, the main thrust of the fear is reserved for RSV. Now, you’re all probably more than familiar with “flu”. And you’re definitely tired of hearing about Covid. But RSV could be a new one for you…so let me explain.
THE VIRUS
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is – according to virus theory – one of the many viruses circulating in the general population at all times. To quote the Mayo Clinic’s website [emphasis added]:
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes infections of the lungs and respiratory tract. It’s so common that most children have been infected with the virus by age 2. Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-ul) virus can also infect adults. In adults and older, healthy children, RSV symptoms are mild and typically mimic the common cold.
And according to the CDC:
Almost all children will have had an RSV infection by their second birthday […] Most RSV infections go away on their own in a week or two.
So, according to official sources, RSV is not serious in the vast majority of cases, and almost all of us have already had it.
In fact, seeing as the symptoms are both generic and mild, the odds are you have had it multiple times throughout your life and never really known. It’s simply one of the many viruses known to cause what we refer to as “the common cold”.
THE DECEPTION
There’s a trick being played here, and as usual in the age of the “pandemic”, it’s a trick of language. The powers that be are exploiting linguistic ambiguity in order to generate fear.
Across most of the world, we simply refer to “a cold” or “the flu” almost interchangeably to describe the dozen or so respiratory infections we all get throughout our lifetime.
Most of the time we don’t know what specific virus or bacteria is supposedly the cause, we have no way of finding out and it doesn’t make any difference because the symptoms and treatments are all the same: Cough, fever, headache – bedrest, orange juice and painkillers.
Now, essentially, the media are taking advantage of that ubiquitous ambiguity by naming something that has always been there but pretending it is something new.
Here’s a case in point, the Scientific American published this article on November 4th, which headlines:
RSV Is Surging: What We Know about This Common and Surprisingly Dangerous Virus
Now, although the headline claims RSV is “surprisingly dangerous”, the article seems to go out of its way to prove the opposite.
-
“the virus is so common that nearly all children have encountered it by their second birthday.”
-
“It’s that ubiquitous,” Flores says. “Even adults are exposed to it repeatedly over time, so we develop some immunity to it.”
-
“In healthy adults and children, though, RSV typically presents as a common cold, with symptoms similar to those caused by other “common cold” viruses, such as rhinovirus, adenovirus and a couple of common coronaviruses.”
-
“For the average person, RSV is little more than a nuisance”
The article does warn that RSV can be “particularly dangerous for newborn babies and adults older than age 65” and the immunocompromised, but this is true of literally every pathogen . And even then, they go on to add:
only about 1 to 2 percent of children under six months with RSV need hospitalization (usually for a couple of days), and death is rare.
This is a tactic we’re all familiar with – it was routine, throughout the Covid narrative, for official voices to tell us to be afraid, whilst simultaneously explaining there was nothing to be afraid of.
This approach clearly serves some purpose, although I could not say for certain what that may be.
Regardless, the deception is obvious and clearly deliberate.
The question is, why?
THE MOTIVE
To sum up – there is no reason to fear RSV infection. The media are clear about that themselves, even if they bury it under layers of hysterical headlines.
It is just one of the many viruses which cause – or are said to cause – cold or flu symptoms, all of which circulate the whole world constantly, especially at this time of year.
There’s ALWAYS a “tripledemic”, or a quademic or a septemic. The only difference is now they are naming it.
They are taking the routine and pretending it’s exceptional simply to try and frighten you.
Why?
Well, rather predictably, to sell vaccines.
Yes, you’ll be relieved to know that just as RSV is hitting the headlines for the first time EVER, they’ve also just produced the first ever vaccines against it.
On November 1st, Vox reported:
New RSV vaccines are coming. This is very, very good news.
Which claims:
After decades of failed efforts to produce an RSV vaccine, several highly effective ones are finally on the verge of approval.
On the same day, Pfizer announced “positive top-line data” for their new RSV vaccine, with CNN reporting:
After promising trial results for maternal RSV vaccine, Pfizer says it will seek FDA approval this year
That’s right, after decades of trying and dozens of failed attempts, the pharmaceutical companies have finally managed to create not just one but multiple effective vaccines against an endemic virus…just as the virus has hit the headlines.
Now, this all sounds rather familiar, doesn’t it?
If you didn’t fall for this last time you don’t need me to warn you.
If you DID fall for this last time?
Well, fool you once shame on them, fool you twice…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/11/2022 – 21:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/real-story-behind-rsv-so-called-tripledemic
Texas fire dog unlocks door after officials get locked out
A Texas city’s fire dog saved the day when she opened the fire department’s front door for a first responder who was locked outside.
When an official got locked out of the Public Safety building in Georgetown, Texas, the city’s fire dog, Koda, came to the rescue.
ARIZONA POLICE PULL OVER A MAN FOR DUI, FIND METH, OWL IN CAR
The fire department’s surveillance camera caught the moment on video as the golden retriever excitedly, her tail wagging rapidly, goes to the front door and opens it to the relief of the man stuck outside in the dark.
POLAR BEAR CUB CAUGHT SNUGGLING WITH MOM IN ADORABLE PICS
After opening the door, the first responder greets the dog with lots of attention and love.
Koda is well-loved in the community, and fans can follow her on social media.
Koda can usually be found with her best pal and handler, Deputy Fire Marshal Jonathan Gilliam, educating people about fire safety and prevention.
She is also a registered therapy dog to help even more people in the community.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-fire-dog-unlocks-door-officials-locked-out
Chargers vs. San Francisco 49ers matchups, how to watch and prediction
With Keenan Allen and Mike Williams out injured and the 49ers boasting a top defense, the Chargers likely need a special game from Justin Herbert.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/chargers/story/2022-11-11/chargers-49ers-matchups
Trump files lawsuit to avoid Jan. 6 committee subpoena
Former President Donald Trump is suing the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block a subpoena requiring him to testify.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/11/trump-files-lawsuit-to-avoid-jan-6-committee-subpoena/
The search for POW Lt. Dave Carey, a bracelet connects Fox News editor to one of America’s heroes
As war raged in Vietnam, a quiet effort started by two sorority sisters to show support for the POW and MIA’s shot down in Vietnam took off across America. Many of these POW’s were held for years at the Hanoi Hilton. Students across America began wearing bracelets with the name of an American POW and the date they were shot down. Stars like John Wayne, Princess Grace and Sonny and Cher wore them.
“We and a lot of other Americans have been wearing bracelets like this for several years, and it’s just our quiet way of letting them know that we remember the guys, and they are in our hearts,” Sonny said on his popular TV show with Cher.
Fox News editor Brad Paxton was one of those kids who sent his $2.50 away to purchase a bracelet. His bracelet honored Navy Lt. Dave Carey, shot down in North Vietnam on Aug. 31, 1967.
“It was a trend that was happening and we kind of wanted to be part of it. It grew to be a much deeper thing for me … after wearing the bracelet for so long, I kind of made a mental commitment to myself to kind of keep his name in my mind,” Paxton says.
He estimates about 50% of his junior high school was wearing a bracelet back in the day.
“This was a way to show support for the troops without, in a non-political kind of way. You didn’t have to be for the war against the war. You just could be in support of these people who had been captured,” Paxton said.
He saved the bracelet in a box of trinkets in his basement. Spurred by a conversation with his wife about the bracelets and how they united the country during a divisive war, he decided to try to find Carey, the man whose name he wore on his wrist when he was in 8th grade.
“I went down and pulled out a box. I knew right where it was and looked it up and then like a lightning bolt, it’s kind of like I should just see whatever happened to this guy,’ Paxton said.
VIRGINIA NAVY VETERAN SAYS ALL VETERANS DESERVE THANKS, NOT JUST THOSE WHO SAW BATTLE
He found him in Texas, 80 years old and now an author and motivational speaker. Carey spent five-and-a-half years in the Hanoi Hilton – some of it overlapping with John McCain who was shot down a month and a half after him.
Paxton sent Carey an email and a picture of the bracelet. To his surprise, within minutes Carey emailed him back and said he would love to have it.
Carey told Paxton how much those bracelets meant to him.
Turns out, Carey has been getting emails like Paxton’s for years.
“Those bracelets were incredibly important to us. That kind of lifted our morale and reassured us that the folks at home were working on it,” Carey says.
Carey, who retired as a captain, can still vividly recall the day he was shot down.
“The missile went right between us. There was a huge explosion. Fireball blew the tail section of my airplane. The airplane just stayed on its back, starts spinning and tumbling and jirating falling through the sky. It was shaking so bad that it would focus well. I try to see what was going on. It was just a blur.”
With his plane falling through the sky, Carey got a glimpse of his altimeter and ejected from the plane. His parachute landed in the middle of a small North Vietnamese village. He still remembers the beatings.
“I was interrogated, the interrogation led to beatings, the beatings led to torture,” Carey recalls.
“My arms didn’t work. My arms that worked for weeks and weeks. I ate by wiggling around on my stomach, stick my face in a bowl of rice.”
To help him stay sane, he remembered the first line of the 23rd psalm.
“That line kept coming into my head. … The Lord is my shepherd. I could think about that line.”
Carey and his fellow prisoners found other tricks to keep their minds intact.
Carey explained, “I let slip that I had taken French in high school at the Naval Academy, and so I immediately became the French teacher…. That was French, according to me, because there was a lot of stuff I had to make up.”
Carey kept his sense of humor through it all.
MEET A MARINE VETERAN ON A PERSONAL MISSION AGAINST SUICIDE
Meanwhile, back in California, the woman who started the bracelet movement, Carol Bates Brown, was a student at California State University Northridge. She and a girlfriend came up with the MIA/POW bracelet concept and tried to convince their parents to let them go to Vietnam.
“Nobody wants to send two sorority girls to Vietnam in the middle of a war. Parents were horrified. So we ended up trying to make our own,” Brown said.
She and fellow students got materials donated. One of them came up with the idea of putting names on the bracelets.
Brown thought, “Well, other college kids might want to wear them, too. And when it really took off like it did, it was just shocking and unbelievable.”
Brown estimates 5 million bracelets were distributed during that time. The bracelets were especially popular from 1970 to 1973.
They cost $2.50, the price it was to see a movie.
“At the time, that’s what it cost to go to a movie in the UCLA area if you were a student. So we decided if the kids could pay for a movie they would pay for a bracelet,” Brown said.
The campaign led to a decades-long career at the Pentagon for Brown at the Defense Intelligence Agency in the office of POW/Missing Personnel.
55 years later, Carey still has the flag airmen carried in their flight suits in case they had to eject.
Carey held it up and read it.
“It says I am a citizen of the United States of America. I do not speak your language. Misfortune forces me to seek your assistance in obtaining food, shelter and protection. Please take me to someone who can provide for my safety and see that I return to my people, my government will reward you,” Carey read.
But when they heard kids back home were wearing bracelets with their names on them, that gave them hope that they had not been forgotten.
“We kept our sense of humor. And we kept the faith, faith in ourselves, faith in each other, faith in our country and faith in God,” Carey said.
While in captivity, one of the ways this Naval aviator kept sane was by pretending to play the piano. After his release, he finally learned to play on a real piano. Today he still receives mail from kids now grown who wore those bracelets for him and the other POW/MIAs.
“I always knew where the bracelet was. I never forgot his name. Even 50 years later, I can tell you about Lt. David Carey,” Paxton said. “He’s a genuine American hero. And I’m just humbled and to have had a small footnote in his story.”
Carey’s book, “May God Bless Your Choices,” draws from his time in captivity. He travels the country, speaking to business leaders, helping them by speaking about his own experience.
His message is this: “They are way stronger, way more resilient, way more resourceful than they ever would give themselves credit for that they just haven’t been tested.”