COULD USE SOME END-OF-THE-MONTH DONATIONS! THANKS!
COULD USE SOME END-OF-THE-MONTH DONATIONS! THANKS!
"An error becomes a mistake only if we refuse to correct it." -- John F. Kennedy
In the name of regulation, does government have the power to override the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure protection? Indeed, contend Kansas state officials. Absolutely not, counters property and business owner Scott Johnson. “The government thinks it isn’t accountable, but we’re taking a stand.”
At stake is Johnson’s livelihood. He lives where he works. In 2020, when the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) demanded no-warrant access to Johnson’s property under penalty of repeated fines and loss of business license, Johnson fought back. Presently locked in a court battle with KDA, Johnson is resolute: “When average people find out what the government is doing, they’re disgusted. I’m fighting for what’s right.”
Breaching the Bill
At the edge of the Flint Hills outside Winfield, Kan., roughly one hour southeast of Wichita, Johnson operates nationally-recognized Covey Find Kennel (CFK), jointly owned with his wife, Harlene Hoyt. Johnson trains prize-winning bird dogs and he is one of the top handlers in the United States. His house, shop, and kennels sit together on a homestead in rural Cowley County, adjacent to abundant pastureland and wheat fields. CFK is a shipshape operation, clean as a whistle with an extensive list of accolades and awards as testament.
In Kansas, bird dog training is a pervasively regulated industry—lumped in with commercial fishing, animal breeding, horse racing, liquor, firearms, and mining. Operation of a bird dog training business requires a state-issued license, and all applicants must waive Fourth Amendment rights. No waiver; no license. No license; no business.
Beauty giant Dove is facing a Bud Light-style boycott for partnering with controversial Black Lives Matter activist Zyanha Bryant, who was previously accused of getting a white student expelled over “misheard” comments.
Some once-loyal customers even posted pictures of bars of soap in the trash after Bryant, 22, announced she was a “Dove ambassador” helping to promote “fat liberation.”
“After hearing that Dove Beauty chose Zyanha Bryant — who ruined Morgan Bettinger’s life — for their ‘fat acceptance ambassador,’ THIS lifelong large lady and now former Dove customer tossed out the last three bars of Dove products she will EVER buy,” one, Carole Thorpe, tweeted Thursday night along with a shot of the bars in her trash.
Even Elon Musk weighed in as outrage spread across his social media platform X, the new name for Twitter.
“Messed up,” he wrote alongside a clip of the BLM activist’s initial announcement.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday that President Joe Biden will not consider commuting or pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, if he is convicted of the crimes he is accused of committing.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says her city welcomes illegal aliens, yet she admits she is afraid they could be airlifted into her city by the planeload at any moment.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and other New York Democrats were shouted down during a press conference on Friday while speaking to constituents about the flood of illegal aliens that have hit the streets of New York City.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper grilled Ford CEO Jim Farley during an interview this week about the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike that is impacting America’s big three automakers.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the U.S. Department of Justice late this week for the charges it brought against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, arguing that special counsel David Weiss effectively insulated the White House.
A United Airlines flight was forced to turn around this week after plummeting 28,000 feet in a matter of minutes after taking off to Rome from New Jersey.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) released a statement late this week apologizing for her actions that led to her being thrown out of a “Beetlejuice” musical last weekend.
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) appeared to change his views in a matter of just a couple days this week on House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina blasted a teachers union boss on Wednesday for comparing the parental rights movement to proponents of segregation.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the U.S. Department of Justice late this week for the charges it brought against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, arguing that special counsel David Weiss effectively insulated the White House.
Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the federal judge overseeing the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., to impose a “narrowly tailored” gag order on the former president over concerns that he could make public statements that “present a serious and substantial danger of prejudicing” the case.
A school superintendent in the Atlanta area this week doubled down on his promise to protect students from “pornographic material” after critics called for him to be removed for banning books.
Consumers are not too happy with the decision made by personal care brand Dove to pick an open anti-White racist as the brand's “fat acceptance ambassador,” leading to #BoycottDove trending on X/Twitter.
The ambassador's name is Zyahna Bryant, someone who is far from new to the news cycle. Bryant spread around false information about a University of Virginia student who accidentally drove in on a Black Lives Matter protest, per Reason. The student, Morgan Bettinger, drove down the road but a dump truck blocked her from proceeding.
Eventually, she stopped her car upon realizing there was a protest going on and the truck driver approached Bettinger to talk to her. She thanked the truck driver for stopping and assisting her, jokingly saying if she had messed up the protesters would have become “good speed bumps.”
Bryant then began an entire campaign against Bettinger for the one comment she made out of context, painting the young white woman as a vindictive and evil person. Bryant asked for people to write to UVA and ask for punishment against Bettinger which eventually spiraled into harassment against the student.
And now the very same person who led the whole campaign against a white student for a simple misunderstanding has a full brand deal with Dove. Bryant shared a video on her Instagram page sharing an announcement for her partnership and talking about what “fat liberation” means to her.
Iran’s defense minister has rebuked the US government’s seizure of one million barrels of Iranian crude, warning that the Islamic Republic is fully capable of retaliating “on a larger scale” in due time.
The US Department of Justice confirmed on September 8 that it had seized the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker carrying Iranian oil, named Suez Rajan, and its cargo of 980,000 barrels of crude oil off the coast of Texas.
The department claimed that Suez Rajan was in April transporting Iranian oil to China in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran. It also said the US government had obtained a warrant earlier this year for its seizure.
“This is an act of theft by the United States, which is not acceptable across the world whatsoever,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani stated.
Speaking with ISNA, Ashtiani warned that if Washington goes ahead with stealing the Iranian oil cargo, “we will definitely retaliate, and we can react on a larger scale.”
“But for now, we have limited our action to the discussions we are engaged in,” he said, stressing that Iran expects the Americans to stop such actions.
Don’t be fooled. Special Counsel Jack Smith was not hired to argue a brilliant case against President Donald Trump in the court of law. Jack Smith was not hired to bring legitimate charges against President Trump. Jack Smith was hired as a DOJ hitman to take out Trump. Period.
Jack Smith has always been a hitman. He was hired as a hitman before. He was hired as a hitman to destroy Trump.
Jack Smith is not a genius on legal theory. That’s not his job.
When Attorney General Merrick Garland, top DOJ officials, and Joe Biden’s handlers met to plan their next assault on the former president they all agreed on one thing. They needed to destroy President Trump completely and assure that he never makes it to Election Day.
Democratic Virginia political candidate Susanna Gibson, who was outed by the Washington Post for performing sex acts online for cash - and instead of owning up to it cried 'sex crime!', was actually tipped off a week earlier by the Associated Press, which didn't run the story - allowing her to delete videos before the WaPo piece hit, according to the Daily Wire's Luke Rosiak.
Gibson, a 40-year-old nurse practitioner and mother of two, streamed various sex acts on 'Chaturbate,' where more than a dozen videos of she and her husband were archived on a publicly available site, Recurbate, in September 2022 after she entered the race. The most recent were two videos archived Sept. 30, 2022, however it's unclear when the live stream occurred.
Rosiak also reports that Gibson's online sex acts could have exposed her to prostitution charges, lawyers say.
Virginia law states that “any person who, for money or its equivalent … engages in sexual intercourse” or other sexual acts with another person “is guilty of prostitution, which is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
Shawn M. Cline, a former prosecutor and defense attorney in Virginia Beach who represents people charged with sex crimes, said in his view it’s a “chargeable offense.”
“The statute is very clear, you cannot for money or its equivalent perform sex acts,” Cline told The Daily Wire. “It doesn’t matter who’s paying for the act, if it’s an observer or the recipient. You can’t receive money.”
“It would definitely be a chargeable offense,” Cline said. -Daily Wire
What's more, she could be busted for deliberately causing hotel workers to see her performing sex acts.
The New Orleans-based electric utility Entergy (ETR) posted a video on X.com last week featuring one of its nuclear power plant control room supervisors. The video appeared to be intended to highlight the company's embrace of diversity and inclusion.
X.com gives users the option of hiding certain replies to their posts. Here's a sample of some of the replies to this one that Entergy chose to hide:
From the exterior, to the fortified loading ramps for incoming and outgoing 18-wheelers, to the police who diligently patrol on foot and passively survey sidewalk activity — everything about these buildings exudes a sense of security.
However, as tourists walk through the front doors to peruse carefully assembled exhibits explaining our monetary system, the back rooms in these buildings are busy generating pure inflation. There, PhDs in suits hand down flawed monetary policies that are, by mathematical certainty, setting our country down the wrong course.
There are days, like one I experienced early this week, when I simply stand in awe of these buildings. Everything about them screams stability, and their inhabitants will passionately argue that stability is precisely their raison d'être. Yet, it's hard to ignore the facts. Income inequality is widening, and inflation is spiraling out of control, disproportionately affecting the middle and lower classes. Meanwhile, limousine-liberal economists like Paul Krugman take to the airwaves, confidently proclaiming an economic victory utilizing these institutions…for reasons they can't even clearly articulate.
“The economic data have been just surreally good. Even optimists are just stunned,” he recently said on CNN. “This is a goldilocks economy.”
A large nationwide study of more than 4 million people in New Zealand identified a statistically significant association in two adverse events following vaccination with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
In the post-marketing safety study recently published in Springer, researchers examining 12 specific adverse events found an increase in myopericarditis during the 21-day period following both Pfizer vaccine doses. Myopericarditis describes two distinct inflammatory heart conditions that occur simultaneously, myocarditis and pericarditis.
The highest rate of myopericarditis was observed in the youngest participants under 39 years of age following the second vaccine dose—with an estimated five additional myopericarditis cases per 100,000 persons vaccinated regardless of age. Researchers also observed an increase following both vaccine doses in individuals aged 40 to 59.
“Our findings align with international postmarketing studies, case series reports, and cases detected through reports to New Zealand’s spontaneous system that identify an association between the BNT162b2 vaccine and myo/pericarditis, especially in younger people and after the second dose,” the researchers stated.
In addition to myopericarditis, the study found an increase in single-organ cutaneous vasculitis (SOCV) in the 20- to 39-year-old age group following the first vaccine dose. SOCV is a syndrome characterized by inflammation and damage to the skin's blood vessels without the involvement of other organ systems.
Frederic Neumann, Chief Asia Economist at HSBC Global Research, highlighted in a note to clients Friday that skyrocketing rice prices present hurdles for central banks combating high inflation. He drew parallels between the current surge in food prices and the one that rocked the world in 2008, noting that shortage fears are rising for the staple food that feeds billions of people.
"The memory of the 2008 Asian food price scare sits deep," Neumann wrote.
He said, "Back then, rising rice prices in some economies quickly spilled over into other markets as consumers and governments across the region scrambled to secure supplies. It also lifted the prices of other staples, such as wheat, as buyers shifted to alternatives."
Rice from Asia accounts for about 90% of the global production. The El Nino weather phenomenon has sparked heavy rainfall and droughts across top-producing regions, such as India, which has imposed export restrictions to ensure adequate domestic supplies.
We provided readers with enough understanding that rice, which is critical to the diets of billions of people worldwide, was headed for a shortage:
Sept. 2022: The Stage Is Being Set For A Massive Global Rice Shortage
April 2023: "We've Been Warned": El Nino Watch Initiated As Ag-Industry In Crosshairs
May 2023: Global Rice Shortage Looms, Set To Be The Biggest In Decades
May 2023: Thai Rice Crop In Crosshairs Of El Nino As Farmers Are Warned About Water Shortages
August 2023: Rice Crisis Sends Prices To Highest Levels Since 2008
US weapons maker RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, scrubbed a multibillion deal with Saudi firm Scopa Defense earlier this year over "concerns" that the latter was pursuing business with sanctioned Russian and Chinese companies, according to people familiar with the deal that spoke with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
In 2022, RTX and Scopa signed a memorandum of understanding to build a factory in the kingdom for air defense systems to protect Riyadh from airstrikes. The plan reportedly called for installing radars and multiple air defense systems with an investment of $25 billion in the kingdom and $17 worth of sales.
The upcoming Steadfast Defender NATO war drills, set for early 2024, are expected to be the biggest military exercises in Europe since the end of the Cold War, the Financial Times is reporting Monday.
At a moment the war in Ukraine grows more and more unpredictable, given neither Russia nor the West have shown any signs of backing down, the FT writes that "Nato is preparing its biggest live joint command exercise since the cold war next year, assembling more than 40,000 troops to practice how the alliance would attempt to repel Russian aggression against one of its members."
Like with the ongoing, smaller 'Northern Coasts' war games currently being executed by NATO in Baltic waters, the Steadfast Defender 24 drills will simulate how the military alliance would respond in the face of a hypothetical Russian invasion.
NATO officials were quoted in FT as saying the planned exercises are seen as a key part of "demonstrating to Moscow that the alliance is prepared to fight."
Steadfast Defender is slated to run in February and March, and is likely to be seen as a provocation by Moscow given it will take place in various locales across Germany, Poland, and the Baltic states - the latter which border Russia. According to more from the FT report detailing the upcoming giant war game:
"It will start in spring next year and is expected to involve between 500 and 700 air combat missions, more than 50 ships, and about 41,000 troops, Nato officials said."
"It is designed to model potential maneuvers against an enemy modelled on a coalition led by Russia, named Occasus for the purposes of the drill."
This report is designed to help readers think about some big topics: how to really prevent pandemics and biological warfare, how to assess proposals by the WHO and its members for responding to pandemics, and whether we can rely on our health officials to navigate these areas in ways that make sense and will help their populations.
We start with a history of biological arms control and rapidly move to the COVID pandemic, eventually arriving at plans to protect the future.
Weapons of Mass Destruction: Chem/Bio
Traditionally, the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) have been labelled Chemical, Biological, Radiologic, and Nuclear (CBRN).
The people of the world don’t want them used on us—for they are cheap ways to kill and maim large numbers of people quickly. And so international treaties were created to try to prevent their development (only in the later treaties) and use (in all the biological arms control treaties). First was the Geneva Protocol of 1925, following the use of poison gases and limited biological weapons in World War I, banning the use of biological and chemical weapons in war. The US and many nations signed it, but it took 50 years for the US to ratify it, and during those 50 years the US asserted it was not bound by the treaty.
The US used both biological and chemical weapons during those 50 years. The US almost certainly used biological weapons in the Korean War (see this, this, this and this) and perhaps used both in Vietnam, which experienced an odd outbreak of plague during the war. The use of napalm, white phosphorus, agent orange (with its dioxin excipient causing massive numbers of birth defects and other tragedies) and probably other chemical weapons like BZ (a hallucinogen/incapacitant) led to much pushback, especially since we had signed the Geneva Protocol and we were supposed to be a civilized nation.
The Biden administration is reportedly close to authorizing yet another weapons system for Ukraine that it had previously ruled out. According to ABC News and the Financial Times, the US will send Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, a high priority for Kiev and its most hawkish backers. The long-range missiles, which travel up to 190 miles, would bolster Ukraine’s capacity to hit Crimea and possibly mainland Russia.
The White House previously invoked that very capability to rule out the ATACMS as too dangerous an escalation. As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan explained in June 2022, President Biden was “not prepared to provide” long-range missiles, given the “key goal” of avoiding “the road towards a third world war.”
Just over one year later, the road towards a third world war is no longer closed.
Helping matters is what ABC News describes as “a surprising discovery”: according to two US officials, the US “has found it has more ATACMS in its inventory than originally assessed.”
The “surprising discovery” for the war effort is reminiscent of another fortuitous find. In June, the Pentagon claimed that an “accounting error” had freed up more than $6.2 billion in new funds to buy weapons for Ukraine.
It will be of no surprise to anyone who has followed the Ukraine proxy war that the Biden administration is once again crossing its own red line. From the start, the White House has publicly resisted sending major weapons systems only to later relent. The arsenal of rejected-turned-authorized weapons includes HIMARS rocket artillery, Patriot missiles, Abrams tanks, F-16 fighter jets, cluster munitions, and depleted uranium.
The threat of world war has not changed. Instead, by supplying just enough weapons to continue the fight, the US can achieve its primary aim: not help defend Ukraine and end the war, but use Ukraine to “lock Russia in a quagmire” that will leave Moscow “weakened” or even regime changed.
As Edward Stringer, ex-head of operations for the UK Defense Staff, put it, the NATO weapons supply has been a “drip-feed” that offers “just enough for Ukraine not to lose,” and ultimately amounts to “just prolonging the war.”
Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros is financing an army of Gen-Z TikTokers to push his extreme left-wing causes, praise President Joe Biden, and bash conservatives, a review of public documents and social media by The Post shows.
Soros’ Open Society Foundation shelled out $5.5 million to the nonprofit Accelerate Action Inc. in 2020 and 2021 — which in turn gave at least $300,000 in 2022 to another nonprofit, Gen Z for Change, which boasts a network of 500 “activists, organizers, and creators,” tax filings show.
The woke foot soldiers regularly go into battle on behalf of abolishing border enforcement, defunding cops, and ending cash bail according to their website.
Throughout his term in office, President Biden has looked to Gen Z for Change and other social-media stars to sell his policy agenda.
In March 2022, top White House officials briefed them on the ongoing US effort in Ukraine.
President Biden, who was mentored by former KKK 'Exalted Cyclops' Robert Byrd, once called a black adviser 'boy' during a FEMA briefing, called Obama the first mainstream 'bright and clean' and articulate African-American, and worried in the late 70s that forcing schools to desegregate would subject his white children to "a racial jungle," just did it again.
(There's a lot more, by the way...)
In another humiliating gaffe, the 80-year-old Biden suggested that httdfdps://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/1432401230916169742?s=20b black and hispanic workers don't have high school diplomas.
"We’ve seen record lows in unemployment particularly — and I’ve focused on this my whole career — particularly for African Americans and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, the workers without high school diplomas," he said in televised remarks.
The White House, of course, went into damage control mode - doctoring the official transcript to read something Biden never said, and claiming that there was supposed to be the word "and" separating the minority groups and veterans, from 'those without high school diplomas.'
"We’ve seen record lows in unemployment particularly — and I’ve focused on this my whole career — particularly for African Americans and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, and the workers without high school diplomas," reads the official transcript.
Blacks, hispanics, veterans, and possibly those without high school diplomas took offense, and general mockery ensued.
We’re seeing signs of a notable shift in how some U.S. mainstream media outlets operate. Surprisingly, some have started reporting certain news stories fairly and accurately. Recently, the Washington Post published an article urging Joe Biden not to run in 2024 and CNN spent an entire segment blathering on about what a liar Joe Biden is.
Now, most likely, CNN and the Washington Post have gotten their marching orders from higher-ups who’ve decided Joe needs to go. But there’s a lot more to this story.
What’s even more notable and can’t be so easily explained away is a recent ABC News story on Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis and President Trump. It’s quite something that ABC News didn’t mince words, describing Fani’s actions against Trump as a desperate move, like “throwing stuff against the wall.” This level of honesty is quite a departure from what we would have seen just a few months ago.
Here’s what Trending Politics co-founder Collin Rugg shared on X:
NEW: ABC News producer John Santucci is appalled at how “bad” Fani Willis’ case against Trump is, admits she is just “throwing things against the wall.”
You know it’s bad when even the main stream media is admitting it.
Santucci also mentioned how Trump scored a big win after the judge denied Willis’ motion to try all 19 co-defendants at once,
“Bad. I mean, Fani Willis wasn’t there… she’s throwing things against the wall based on this hearing.”
“A great win for Donald Trump and others that did not want to be part of this speedy trial case.”
“I can tell you, sitting here with you, just texting with some of the attorneys involved in the other defendants celebrating. Yay victory!”