March 19, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today’s News: February 10, 2023

WORLD NEWS

Turkey-Syria Earthquake Deaths Approach 20,000, Hope Fades for Survivors

The confirmed death toll from Monday’s earthquakes in Turkey and Syria passed 19,000 on Thursday.

The already horrific total, easily high enough to make the quakes among the deadliest in recorded history, will likely rise as rescue efforts for missing and trapped victims are suspended. Disruptions in much-needed humanitarian aid caused by the quake will probably result in even more fatalities.

Chinese Spy Balloon Carried Technology to Monitor Communication Signals: Official

The Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States for days before being shot down could monitor communications signals, a U.S. official says.

“High resolution imagery from U-2 flybys revealed that the high-altitude balloon was capable of conducting signals intelligence collection operations,” an official with the State Department, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Epoch Times.

“The high altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons. It had multiple antennas to include an array likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications. It was equipped with solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors,” the official added.

Japan Asserts ‘Legal Right’ to Shoot Down Spy Balloons

Japanese Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu said on Tuesday that Japan has the “legal right” to shoot down foreign balloons that enter its airspace.

Japan, like many other countries, was responding to the Chinese spy balloon that passed over the United States and was shot down by the U.S. military after completing its mission on Saturday. Costa Rica confirmed on Monday another spy balloon penetrated its airspace.

FBI Has Recovered ‘Extremely Limited’ Chinese Spy Balloon Debris, Says Most Parts Still Underwater

Most of the debris from the Chinese spy balloon shot down by the U.S. military last week is still lying in the ocean.

The FBI has so far recovered very limited physical evidence from the Chinese surveillance balloon shot down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4, and senior FBI officials said that the bureau had not yet retrieved enough information from the debris to assess the balloon’s capabilities.

“It’s very early for us in this process, and the evidence that has been recovered and brought to the FBI is extremely limited,” one official said during a Feb. 9 press briefing.

Eric Pokorak, assistant director of the FBI’s Laboratory Division, said that was too early in the investigation to determine the intent and capabilities of the balloon.

Pokorak described the debris field as a “large-scale scene” and said that weather conditions “may impact” evidence collection and the transportation of recovered items in the coming days.

Michael Paul, assistant director of the bureau’s Operational and Technology Division (OTD), said that the FBI did not have access to most of the airship’s payload, where its onboard electronics would have been carried, and that most of the superstructure remained under water.

“We have not seen the payload where we expect to see the lion’s share of the electronics,” Paul said.

“OTD deployed specialists to assist with screening and to specifically assess electronic components that might be recovered during the operation.”

Still, the officials said, agents were working to decontaminate and identify those components that had been recovered, which thus far mostly consist of some wiring and a small amount of electronics.

Pentagon Chief: Chinese Spy Balloon Traveled Near B-2 Stealth Bomber Base

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that a Chinese spy balloon that traveled over the United States went past a B-2 stealth bomber base but claimed the Department of Defense took steps to protect its assets from Chinese surveillance.

“All of our strategic assets—we were, made sure that we were buttoned down and movement was limited and communications were limited so that we didn’t expose any capability unnecessarily,” Austin told CBS News on Wednesday evening in his first interview since the balloon was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean last Saturday.

When pressed further, Austin confirmed that those assets were U.S. nuclear weapons systems.

The B-2 stealth bomber, made by American defense contractor Northrop Grumman, is considered among the most sophisticated aircraft in the world. The bomber is capable of dropping both conventional and nuclear weapons.

Before it was taken down by an F-22 fighter plane, the Chinese balloon flew over four military sites in Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Missouri, Austin said. There were calls to shoot down the balloon when it was first discovered near Billings, Montana, but the U.S. military resisted them, according to a top general, who said that downing the balloon posed a safety hazard to people on the ground.

After the balloon was shot down, Austin said he attempted to call his Chinese regime counterpart. “I put in a request for a call, and they did not accept that request,” he said, adding that there are still attempts to recover the debris of the balloon.

China to offer free fertility treatment in bid to boost record low birth rate

 China is planning to offer free fertility treatment to citizens under its national insurance scheme in a bid to reverse its plummeting birth rate.

The National Healthcare Security Administration said on Friday it would extend its coverage to help shoulder the costs for families trying to conceive.

It said the new coverage would include assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques and also cover labor analgesia to ease pain in childbirth. The most commonly performed ART procedure is in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Kim Jong Un abruptly reappears after 36 days out of the spotlight and orders North Korea to ‘prepare for war’

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un abruptly reappeared after 36 days out of the spotlight as he ordered his country to “prepare for war,” according to multiple reports.  

Kim was photographed presiding over a meeting of the central military commission of the ruling Workers’ Party on Monday, Reuters reported.

His presence marked the first time he was back in the public eye after more than a month for reasons that have not been made public.

China’s Alibaba Joins AI Race To Challenge ChatGPT

Open AI’s ChatGPT platform gathered 100 million active users in just four months, launching an all-out “arms race” between Internet giants Microsoft, Google, Baidu and Alibaba. There is no doubt that Apple is lurking in the shadows. Hundreds of app developers are already licensing the ChatGPT API to build related consumer and business products. ⁃ TN Editor

Alibaba is the latest tech giant to wade into artificial intelligence chatbots by developing a tool like ChatGPT.

It joins Microsoft, Google, and Baidu in doing so amid heightened interest in generative AI technology in 2023.

Investors in Alibaba (ticker: BABA) may be cheering the Chinese tech giant’s decision to develop a public-facing AI chatbot, with shares in the group jumping 2% in U.S. premarket trading.

Alibaba has developed and is currently putting a ChatGPT-style tool through internal testing, the company said Wednesday.

“Frontier innovations such as large language models and generative AI have been our focused areas since the formation of DAMO [investment for research & development] in 2017,” an Alibaba spokesperson said. “As a technology leader, we will continue to invest in turning cutting-edge innovations into value-added applications for our customers as well as their end-users through cloud services.”

DAMO is Alibaba’s “Academy for Discovery, Adventure, Momentum and Outlook,” launched in 2017 with the goal of investing more than $15 billion in research and development across the next three years. Like Baidu, Alibaba is a legacy Chinese tech giant that is increasingly pivoting to high-growth areas that are exposed to AI. At its core an e-commerce company, Alibaba has a booming cloud computing business, which is a segment of the group that is leading its high-tech push.

Ukrainian Refugee Ordered Deported After Acquittal for Deaths of Seven Americans

A refugee from Ukraine, with a prior drunk driving conviction, has been ordered deported by a federal immigration judge after being acquitted on all charges of negligent homicide for the deaths of five United States Marine Corps Veterans and two of their loved ones.

Following the fatal June 2019 crash, 26-year-old refugee Volodymyr Zhukovskyy of Ukraine, was charged with seven counts of negligent homicide for allegedly killing five U.S. Marine Corps veterans and two of their loved ones when his trailer, hitched to his pickup truck, hit the motorcyclists.

Biden: No Regrets over Waiting to Shoot down Spy Balloon, even with News It Had Antennas

During an interview with Noticias Telemundo on Thursday, President Joe Biden stated that he doesn’t regret failing to insist on bringing down the Chinese spy balloon even in light of news that the balloon was equipped with antennas and stated that the military “made a wise decision. They shot it down over water.”

Host Julio Vaqueiro asked, “Let me ask you about the Chinese balloon. … Now that we know what we know, that the balloon had antennas and a communication system, do you regret not having insisted on bringing it down sooner?”

U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Chuck Grassley: Whistleblowers Say FBI Has Evidence Joe Biden Involved in Family Business Schemes

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who testified Thursday before the House’s new Select Subcommittee on Political Weaponization, said whistleblower disclosures indicate the FBI has evidence that President Joe Biden is aware of the family business schemes, a statement that directly contradicts the president.

Joe Biden and his staff have claimed seven times that he’s had no part in the family business schemes.

Democrat Rep. Angie Craig Attacked in D.C. as City Tries to Reduce Criminal Punishments 

Democrat Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) was attacked inside her Washington, DC, apartment building Thursday morning, her office acknowledged.

On the same day House Republicans voted to oppose the reduction of punishments for criminals the District is attempting to enact, Craig was assaulted by an attacker outside her building’s elevator around 7:30 a.m.

Craig called 911 but the attacker fled the scene.

The attack left Craig bruised, according to her Chief of Staff Nick Coe.

It came on the same day Rep. James Comer’s (R-KY) resolution to block the District’s efforts to implement soft-on-crime laws passed. It will now head to the Democrat Senate for approval.

The District wants to reduce punishments for crimes and allow misdemeanor cases to be tried by a jury.

“These misguided efforts would allow crime to run rampant and disenfranchise American citizens in our nation’s capital,” Comer stated about the law D.C. hopes to enact.

According to Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), crime is running rampant in the nation’s capital: sexual abuse is up 117 percent, carjackings are up 86 percent, property crime is up 26 percent, and homicides are up 20 percent

Second NJ Republican Councilperson Shot Dead in One Week: ‘A Dedicated and Loyal Friend’

A Republican councilman in Milford, New Jersey, was fatally shot Wednesday, a week after another councilperson was killed.

Fifty-one-year-old PSE&G worker Russell D. Heller was allegedly killed by an ex-employee in Somerset, Patch.com reported Thursday.

Authorities are still investigating the case, but said the shooting was not politically connected to Heller’s elected office or political affiliations.

Zachary T. Rich, the Director of Hunterdon County Board of Commissioners, said in a statement that Heller would be deeply missed, adding he “was a loving and caring father to his daughter and a dedicated and loyal friend to all of those who had the pleasure of knowing him.”

According to law enforcement, Heller was at his workplace when the former employee, identified as 58-year-old Gary T. Curtis, reportedly fatally shot him in the parking lot.

New Jersey Mayor, City Council Members Switch from Democrat to Republican

The mayor of East Hanover, New Jersey, and all four members of the township council have switched from the Democrat to the Republican Party.

In a statement, Mayor Joseph Pannullo said that the party flip in a township of 11,105 people will be the best move to represent the constituents, deriding what he called the “nastiness” on social media that further drives a wedge between voters.

“Municipal leaders have a responsibility to best represent their constituents, and it is our belief this change of party is in the best interest of the community,” said Pannullo, as reported by the New Jersey Globe.

“As the nastiness, rhetoric, and social media vitriol of national politics continues to infiltrate local governance, we collectively determined this was the best course of action to keep the focus on local issues impacting our community – combating the overburdening and unrealistic fair-share housing mandates, keeping taxes stable, enhancing our parks and investing in public safety needs to be our local priorities. Every decision my administration makes is about putting East Hanover first; this is no different,” he added.

Pannullo will be joined by Council President Frank DeMaio Jr, Councilwoman Carolyn Jandoli, and Councilmen Brian Brokaw Sr., and Michael Martorelli. Morris County GOP Chair Laura Marie Ali said the party welcomes the switch.

“The entire Republican Party in Morris County is welcoming Mayor Pannullo and East Hanover’s four Council members to our family with open arms and great excitement,” Ali said. “East Hanover is an exceptionally run town with great leadership.  It is clear we share the same values as Mayor Pannullo and his Council and we are so excited to have them be part of our Republican family.”

‘Sickening’ Account of Mutilations, Sterilizations Prompts Sen. Josh Hawley to Investigate Transgender Clinic

After reading a whistleblower’s “sickening” revelations about a pediatric gender clinic, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said his office was launching an immediate investigation of its practices.

“This is a sickening account of forced sterilization and child abuse,” Hawley said in a tweet on Feb. 9, attaching the lengthy whistleblower account of a former employee of The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital,

In an article posted by The Free Press, ex-case manager Jamie Reed calls for a nationwide halt to the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for transgender-identifying minors—practices that American lawmakers have attempted to ban in a number of states.

The Epoch Times attempted to reach a spokesperson at the St. Louis hospital, but a receptionist said that the media line was “busy”; the call then disconnected.

The hospital calls itself “the guardians of childhood.”

But Reed’s article, entitled “I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle,” asserts that children are being harmed at the gender clinic.

Reed’s article includes screenshots of emails in which she repeatedly expressed concerns over parents and children lacking full awareness of the possible consequences of these medical interventions. Reed was scorned for raising alarms.

Kari Lake to Speak at High-Profile Conservative Dinner in Washington

Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake will be the featured speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s (CPAC) high-profile Ronald Reagan Dinner in March, according to the event’s organizers.

The high-profile position comes on the heels of the Republican firebrand maintaining that Arizona did not hold a fair election following the race being called for now-Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Hobbs, at the time, served as the Arizona secretary of state and oversaw the election.

CPAC said in their Feb. 9 press release sent to The Epoch Times that Lake is “a rare leader who captured the hearts of conservatives with her honest, bold message, including closing the Arizona border and exposing widespread election fraud.”

The event will be held on March 3 in Washington and will feature prominent conservative speakers, a live auction, dinner, and dancing, according to the announcement.

“Our CPAC community welcomes her once again to CPAC in the Nation’s Capital,” said Megan Powers Small, CPAC spokesperson.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes Political Statement Through Viral State of the Union Outfit

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) decided to use her outfit and a balloon to make a statement at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Greene wore a white wool coat with a fur collar to the speech. She also brought a white balloon to the U.S. Capitol ahead of the address.

According to her office, the Georgia congresswoman wanted to “highlight” Biden’s lack of comment in his speech on the Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States for days.

The congresswoman “wore her outfit to highlight something President Biden refused to address in his speech, the white Chinese spy balloon,” Greene spokesman Nick Dyer told The Hill.

“Biden refused to mention it, just like he refused to stop the intelligence gathering operation that traversed the United States and surveilled some of our most important military facilities in the country,” Dyer added.

Dyer said Greene bought the coat while campaigning against former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and fundraising for her primary opponent, Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.), who is Wyoming’s new GOP lawmaker after winning the state’s House race in the 2022 midterm elections.

Her coat retails for $495 on Overland. According to the store’s website, the coat, composed of 60 percent alpaca and 40 percent wool, is “part of a collection that supports Peruvian artisans in earning fair wages while preserving their ancestral heritage.”

Pictures of Greene in the coat have gone viral on Twitter, with some mocking her look by drawing comparisons to the Disney movie character Cruella de Vil.

NRA and 25 States File Challenge to ATF Pistol Brace Rule

The NRA and 25 states filed a challenge against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) pistol brace rule on Thursday.

Breitbart News reported that the ATF pistol brace rule places pistol stabilizer braces under the auspices of the National Firearms Act (NFA) and mandates that current owners of said braces take one of the five following actions:

  • Turn in the entire firearm with the attached “stabilizing brace” to ATF;
  • Destroy the whole firearm;
  • Convert the short-barreled rifle into a long-barreled rifle;
  • Apply to register the weapon under the NFA; or
  • Permanently remove and dispose of, or alter, the “stabilizing brace” from the firearm so that it cannot be reattached.

Pistol brace owners have 120 days, beginning January 31, 2023, to comply.

Breitbart News noted that the ATF suggests that braces intended to be fired without shouldering a firearm may remain legal, but current owners are worried about ambiguity in the interpretation of what is or is not a legal brace.

Delaware Sidesteps Due Process, Doubles Down on ‘Evict First, Ask Questions Later’ Practice

Delaware officials are doubling down on defending their misguided practice of “evict first, ask questions later” that resulted in constables mistakenly evicting a blind man and his family during a snowstorm, leaving the family homeless.

In coming to the aid of William Murphy and his two teenaged daughters, The Rutherford Institute is challenging the “evict first, ask questions later” practice by which constables acted on obviously incorrect information to force the Murphy family out of their home without due process. The lawsuit in Murphy v. Delaware, Justices of the Peace alleges that Delaware officials violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

“With every ruling handed down, it becomes more apparent that we live in an age of hollow justice, with courts rendering narrow rulings focused on the letter of the law,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “This is true at all levels of the judiciary, where the courts have become fixated on siding with government agents rather than with safeguarding the rights enshrined in the Constitution.”

House Republicans, 42 Democrats Vote to Stop D.C. from Giving Illegal Aliens Right to Vote

House Republicans and only 42 House Democrats voted to stop Washington, DC from giving illegal aliens the right to vote in municipal elections. Meanwhile, 162 House Democrats voted to give illegal aliens the right to vote.

In October 2022, the D.C. City Council voted 12-1 to advance a bill that will allow foreign nationals, regardless of if they have visas or are illegally in the United States, to vote in local elections such as school board races and mayoral elections.

About 50,000 foreign nationals and illegal aliens could be eligible to vote in local elections across D.C. if the measure is not thrown out. Those illegal aliens include thousands who have recently arrived in D.C. on buses from Texas.

On Thursday, every House Republican voted to pass House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer’s (R-KY) resolution to block D.C. from imposing the new law.

On Thursday, every House Republican voted to pass House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer’s (R-KY) resolution to block D.C. from imposing the new law.

The FBI is, once again, finding itself in the hot seat as being politically biased as well as lazy. Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, now whistleblower Kyle Seraphin, brought an 8-page document to light. That document titled, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” bears FBI markings reading “UNCLASSIFIED/FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY” and “FBI INTERNAL USE ONLY — DO NOT DISSEMINATE EXTERNALLY.”

The FBI’s Richmond office apparently cited the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in an intelligence bulletin, violating longstanding FBI guidelines on the SPLC’s credibility. Many have asserted over the years that that organization is nothing more than a communist front organization as it seemingly attacks those who are against some of the communist goals, as we reported here.

Seraphin published the document on UncoverDC.com Wednesday. He said, “We got briefings that SPLC was not legitimate when I was at Quantico.” Seraphin served six years at the FBI as a special agent before getting indefinitely suspended without pay in June 2022; he told The Daily Signal in a phone interview Wednesday.

Are Americans Slouching Toward Technocratic Rule?

The liberal and thoroughly woke publication, The Conversation, reports on a poll that “Large numbers of Americans want a strong, rough, anti-democratic leader.” The only takeaway is that American sentiment is swinging toward those who can “just fix stuff” with more authoritarian and Technocratic rule. This is very dangerous Technopopulism, a blending of Technocracy and Populism.

For further discussion of Technopopulism, see From Technocracy and Populism to Technopopulism ⁃ TN Editor

It might be comforting to think that American democracy has made it past the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. But our research shows that a wide range of the American people, of all political stripes, seek leaders who are fundamentally anti-democratic.

It’s true that many who participated in the insurrection are facing consequences, including prison time. Many candidates for state office who falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election lost their races. And the congressional committee investigating the insurrection voted to refer Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal charges.

But more than 100 members of Congress who objected to the results of a free and fair election won their reelection campaigns. And at least seven people who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 have been elected to state legislatures and two have been elected to Congress.

As scholars interested in how committed citizens are to democracy, we wanted to measure whether regular Americans want someone who will abide by democratic traditions and practices or dispense with them.

Using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 respondents, we found that a large proportion of Americans are willing to support leaders who would violate democratic principles.

Support for anti-democratic leaders

About two decades ago, an important study found that roughly 1 in 4 Americans supported leaders who are uncompromising and take decisive action. These people said they would also prefer nonelected experts to make decisions. Our study replicates this finding nearly 20 years later but sheds light on a troubling reason for this preference.

At the Allegheny College Center for Political Participation, we, with our former student Candaisy Crawford, asked people about their willingness to support leaders who promised to protect them by any means necessary, even if that meant violating expected standards of behavior in a democracy, a set of principles often called “democratic norms.” We developed these questions based on existing research about the strategies that leaders with anti-democratic tendencies use to build public support.

HEALTH

Jay’s Corner: February 2023

Presenting some ideas, testimonies & product information to help each and every one of you make the best decisions possible for your health and wellbeing. 

Reducing Salt Intake can Help Reduce Heart Failure

The largest randomized clinical trial to look at sodium reduction and heart failure reported results simultaneously in The Lancet and at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session, and the findings were mixed.

Though reducing salt intake did not lead to fewer emergency visits, hospitalizations or deaths for patients with heart failure, the researchers did find an improvement in symptoms such as swelling, fatigue and coughing, as well as better overall quality of life.

Frequent Antibiotic Use Linked to Risk for Crohn’s, Colitis

A review of over 6 million medical records found exposure to antibiotics may increase your risk of developing Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, two main types of inflammatory bowel disease

The risk rose in a dose-dependent manner and was highest in those taking nitroimidazoles and fluoroquinolones — often used to treat gut infections

Just one course of antibiotics can negatively affect your gut microbiome for up to 12 months and can increase your risk of heart attack, stroke and colorectal cancer. Unnecessary use of antibiotics increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance, which is rising and experts estimate it will kill 10 million each year by 2050

Emulsifiers, a common food additive found in mayonnaise, salad dressings, baked goods and ice cream, have been associated with the development of gut inflammation and “robust” colitis in an animal model

Natural options that may help reduce symptoms include ginger, curcumin, omega-3 fats, probiotics, coconut oil and optimizing vitamin D levels

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

U.S. Foreclosure Activity In January 2023 Continues To Increase Annually For 21 Consecutive Months

 ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released its January 2023 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 31,557 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions – up 36 percent from a year ago, and up 2 percent from the prior month.

”The uptick in overall foreclosure filings nationwide points toward a trend that may suggest more increased activity is on the horizon as we enter the new year,” said ATTOM CEO Rob Barber.” While both completed foreclosures and foreclosure starts have stalled slightly over the past month, the annual increase in overall activity seen over the past 21 months may indicate a more substantial trend that could continue into 2023.”

US tech giant to lay off fifth of workforce

Yahoo will cut 1,600 jobs in its advertising technology division

IT giant Yahoo is planning to lay off around 20% of its staff, it was reported on Friday. The decision comes amid similar redundancies at other Big Tech companies.

The cuts concern Yahoo’s ad tech division and will affect more than half of the department, CEO Jim Lanzone confirmed to Axios. He claimed the decision was “tremendously beneficial for profitability” and was not motivated by financial concerns. “The moves are meant to simplify and strengthen the good parts of the business, while sunsetting the rest,” Lanzone added.

Yahoo was once a household name when it came to search engines, and was considered one of the pioneers of the early internet era. However, the company now provides various online services such as email and news. 

The CEO of media relations company EZPR, Ed Zitron, discussed the recent Big Tech layoffs in his blog in January. Zitron argued that IT companies “chose to blame thousands of people for a problem that was specifically created by their execs… responsible for unrealistic projections, unrealistic spending, and unrealistic hiring.”

After The Worst January Job Cuts “Since The Great Recession”, Here Are 12 Major Layoffs That Have Already Been Announced In February

It appears that the tsunami of layoffs that started late last year is starting to accelerate.  January was a horrible month for job losses, and major layoff announcements are coming fast and furious here in February.  But of course the Biden administration would have us believe that everything is just fine.  Last week, the government told us that the U.S. economy “added 517,000 jobs” in January.  But as I discussed in a previous article, that wasn’t what actually happened.  The raw, unadjusted number showed that the U.S. economy actually lost 2.5 million jobs last month.  That is a terrible number, but after the bureaucrats in Washington were done with their “adjustments” it magically became a gain of 517,000 jobs.  If you want to have faith that their “adjustments” are appropriate, good for you.  But other sources also confirm that things have really taken a turn for the worse.  For example, Challenger, Gray & Christmas just issued a report that concluded that last month “was the worst January for job cuts since the Great Recession in 2009”

U.S. companies announced roughly 103,000 job cuts in January, the highest monthly total since September 2020, a Thursday analysis found.

Last month was the worst January for job cuts since the Great Recession in 2009, according to a report from employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Around 40 percent of last month’s job reductions came in the tech industry, where Google parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce announced plans to lay off thousands of workers. Many of the companies said they grew too quickly in recent years and must cut costs to boost profitability.

So many large companies announced staff reductions last month, and that trend has definitely continued this month.

The following are 12 major layoffs that have already been announced in February…

#1 Disney has decided to tell approximately 7,000 employees to hit the bricks…

#2 Yahoo has announced that it will be laying off “more than 20% of its workforce”…

#3 Ebay was doing quite well, but now they have decided that 4 percent of their workers are no longer needed…

#4 Affirm is yet another tech company that has recently made a decision to conduct mass layoffs…

#5 As the U.S. housing crash deepens, JPMorgan Chase has concluded that now is the time to “cut hundreds of mortgage employees”…

#6 GoDaddy just let their workers know that they plan to “reduce the size of our global team by about 8%”…

#7 Micron is one of the biggest private employers in Idaho, but now it intends to “reduce its global headcount by about 10% over the next year”…

#8 GitHub has become yet another victim of the downsizing trend in the tech industry…

#9 Nomad Health just laid off approximately 20 percent of their entire corporate workforce…

#10 Zoom is giving the axe to approximately 1,300 workers…

#11 Boeing was supposedly going to be hiring more workers, but instead the company just announced that thousands of positions in finance and human resources will be eliminated…

#12 Do you remember when Dell computers were still popular?  Unfortunately, the tide has turned and now Dell has been forced to get rid of 6,650 workers…

There are countless other firms that have also just announced significant layoffs.

Google’s Market Value Plummets $100 Billion After AI Chatbot Failure

Shares of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, suffered a $100 billion decline in market value after the company’s new AI chatbot provided inaccurate information in a promotional video.

Reuters reports that this week, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, saw a $100 billion decline in market value as a result of Bard, the company’s new chatbot, providing inaccurate information in a promotional video. Because of this failure and the lack of information regarding Bard’s integration into Google’s primary search function, there are worries that Google is falling behind its competitor Microsoft. The stock fell as much as 9 percent during Wednesday trading.

Feds Probing Possible Labor Trafficking Pipeline of Migrant Kids into U.S. Jobs

Investigators with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are reportedly probing a possible labor trafficking pipeline of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) into American jobs, particularly in the meatpacking industry.

A report from NBC News details the probe by federal investigators into whether UACs, released directly into the United States by DHS, were the victims of a labor trafficking scheme coordinated to provide meatpacking companies and supporting industries with cheap, young border crossers — most of whom are teenagers — who were forced to take the jobs while traffickers profited.

Spirit Airlines says expects DOJ decision on JetBlue merger in around 30 days

Spirit Airlines Inc (SAVE.N) said on Tuesday it expects U.S. antitrust regulators to decide whether to allow the low-cost carrier to proceed with its $3.8 billion merger with JetBlue Airways Corp (JBLU.O) in the “next 30 days or so.”

“We are now waiting to see whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit to block the deal or allows us to proceed,” Spirit CEO Edward Christie said during an investor call.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

Scientism: The Technocratic Worship Of Science

Others also recognized Scientism as not just a religion, but THE religion of the Technocrat class. It is ignorant, uninformed and, far from humble, real science. Furthermore, it has a priesthood that has become the arbiter of Scientism to mankind. Scientism immediately falls into the trap of pseudo-science, which in turn shreds real science. ⁃ TN Editor

I’ve been reading “The Science Delusion” by Rupert Sheldrake, a timely treatise on fallible humans’ hubris.

It ought to be required reading for all public school children, so that they may understand how little the authorities actually know about life on Earth, how it works, and what it means (if anything.)

Knowledge is provisional. It’s multi-pronged. It’s contingent on the observer. And it’s complicated.

Exhibit A is the infamous double-slit experiment of quantum mechanics fame, which defies the laws of physics previously considered absolute fact.

The double-slit dilemma stretches the limits of my understanding of physics. I understand it shows light behaving like a wave and a particle at the same time, and the same particle on dual paths simultaneously. These are substantial things for physicists to have been wrong about for hundreds of years.

Piece of sun breaks off, stuns scientists: ‘Very curious’

Scientists were left baffled after material broke off of the sun’s surface and created a tornado-like swirl around its northern pole.

The remarkable phenomenon was caught by NASA on the James Webb Space Telescope and tweeted by Dr. Tamitha Skov, a space weather forecaster.

‘Impossible’ new ring system discovered at the edge of the solar system, and scientists are baffled

A ring looping around the icy dwarf planet Quaoar is located much farther from its parent body than scientists thought was possible.

Astronomers have discovered an entirely new ring system within the solar system, and it’s located at such a great distance from its dwarf planet parent that it should be impossible. 

The ring surrounds Quaoar, which is around half the size of Pluto and located beyond Neptune. It is only the third ring to be found around a minor planet and the seventh ring system in the solar system, with the most famous and well-studied rings surrounding the giant planets Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.

“The six [previously known] planets with ring systems all have rings which are quite close to the surface of the planet. So this really challenges our ring formation theories,” study co-author Vik Dhillon

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, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Sheffield in England, told Live Science. “It was previously thought to be impossible to have rings that far out, so in a nutshell, the ring of Quaoar is a real challenge to explain theoretically.”

SURVEILLANCE STATE

Biden Admin to Reduce Surveillance Crafts Used in Counting Migrant Got-Aways

The Biden Administration announced this week it is reducing the number of tactical aerial surveillance crafts being used along the U.S.-Mexico Border. The vehicles are used to interdict human and drug smuggling and is also a source of data for migrant got-aways.

CBP officials distinguished between the Tethered Aerostat Radar Systems operated by CBP’s Air and Marine Operations vs. the tactical systems used by Border Patrol.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

L.A. City Council Votes Unanimously to Replace Natural Gas with Unproven Hydrogen Power

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to convert a natural gas power plant to a new hydrogen system that critics say may not provide enough power and could cause more environmental damage.

The proposal is part of a “Green New Deal” adopted by former mayor Eric Garcetti to shutter three natural gas plants in favor of “renewable” energy — over objections that solar and wind power would not be sufficient, and that the move would cost thousands of union jobs.

GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING

When to Start Seeds Indoors: Zone 6

Follow indoor seed starting tips and a calendar for your successful indoor seed starting in a Zone 6 garden.

Zone 6 Hardiness Dates

Last Frost Date First Frost Date
May 1 November 1

Learning Download: What to Grow in Zone 6

Kitchen Gardening At Home

Learn how to create your own easy kitchen garden to produce fresh fruit, veggies and herbs for delicious, healthy meals. Start kitchen gardening at home and become an expert in choosing the best crops and preparing your garden site.

COVID RELATED NEWS

Are Enzymes a Key to COVID Endothelial Injury?

Studies suggest damage to the endothelium, which are cells covering blood vessels, is contributing to the development of blood clots, or thrombosis, in the blood vessels of severely ill COVID-19 patients

Enzymes may turn out to be the missing link in helping to break up clusters of clotting proteins involved in this dangerous thrombosis, which is linked to increased mortality in COVID-19

Levels of Von Willebrand factor (VWF), a clotting protein released by endothelial cells, were found to be significantly elevated in COVID-19 patients in advanced stages of the disease

Proteolytic enzymes such as lumbrokinase, serrapeptase and nattokinase also act as natural anticoagulants by breaking down the fibrin that forms blood clots

Bill Gates Makes 10x Investment on mRNA Vaccines

In 2019, Bill Gates invested $55 million in BioNtech, which developed the COVID-19 shot for Pfizer; it’s now worth $550 million

Gates sold some of the stock at the end of 2022, when the share price was over $300

After reaping huge profits, Gates criticized COVID-19 jabs, stating they don’t block infection, aren’t effective against variants and have “very short duration”

Gates’ motivations run far deeper than making money off shrewd investments; by funding WHO, Gates is able to ensure that the decisions it makes end up profiting his own interests and those of his Big Pharma partners

Gates, via collaborations with WHO, Anthony Fauci and others, is aiming to have absolute power to control pandemic declarations and responses worldwide

CANCEL CULTURE
PET NEWS

Animal shelters nationwide report an increase in pet surrenders due to higher cost of living

Shelters nationwide report that more pet owners are surrendering their dogs and cats because they can no longer afford to take care of them. With rising inflation and an increased cost of living, pet owners across the country are making the difficult decision to give up their four-legged friends.

Rover, an online marketplace for pet care services, issued a March press release addressing the costs of pet care.

Police officer fights through tornado to save his K-9 partner

“I love that dog. He’s my hip attachment every day of the week. He’s a part of our family.”

GOOD NEWS

Teen Steps in to Prevent Rape of 13 Year Old Girl: Alleged Attacker is Migrant with 11 Prior Convictions

A 49-year-old Algerian migrant with a series of criminal convictions was arrested after a teenager stopped him as he was allegedly trying to rape a 13-year-old girl in a suburb of the French city of Bordeaux.

The incident took place Saturday in Cenon on the outskirts of Bordeaux and saw the 49-year-old Algerian migrant approach the 13-year-old on the street. The girl was reportedly on the phone with her mother at the time.

‘It was transformational’: the breathing techniques ‘changing’ lives

How can something as simple as breathing transform your life? When his girlfriend died of cancer, Stuart Sandeman was surprised to discover his new path in life through the power of breathwork

ICYMI

Burt Bacharach, Legendary Composer of Pop Songs, Dies at 94

Burt Bacharach, the singularly gifted and popular composer and Oscar winner who delighted millions with the quirky arrangements and unforgettable melodies of “Walk on By,” “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” and dozens of other hits, has died at 94.

Bacharach died Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, publicist Tina Brausam said Thursday.

Burt Bacharach: 20 essential songs

  1. The Drifters, “Mexican Divorce” (1962)
  2. Dionne Warwick, “Don’t Make Me Over” (1962)
  3. Jackie DeShannon, “What the World Needs Now Is Love” (1965)
  4. Dionne Warwick, “Alfie” (1967)
  5. Dusty Springfield, “The Look of Love” (1967)
  6. Aretha Franklin, “I Say a Little Prayer” (1968)
  7. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, “This Guy’s in Love With You” (1968)
  8. Dionne Warwick, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” (1968)
  9. Isaac Hayes, “Walk on By” (1969)
  10. B.J. Thomas, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969)
  11. The Carpenters, “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (1970)
  12. The 5th Dimension, “One Less Bell to Answer” (1970)
  13. Burt Bacharach, “Something Big” (1973)
  14. Luther Vandross, “A House Is Not a Home” (1981)
  15. Christopher Cross, “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” (1981)
  16. Naked Eyes, “Always Something There to Remind Me” (1983)
  17. Dionne & Friends, “That’s What Friends Are For” (1985)
  18. Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald, “On My Own” (1986)
  19. Elvis Costello, “God Give Me Strength” (1996)
  20. Ronald Isley, “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (2003)

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