WORLD NEWS
Trudeau government proposes more taxes on wealthy Canadians to fund housing!
Canada on Tuesday revealed a new tax on wealthy individuals that will bring in billions of dollars over the next five years to help fund housing programs designed to win over a disgruntled voter base.
In its annual federal budget, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said that despite the increase in spending the budget deficit for 2023/24 would remain stable before gradually falling.
The government had already outlined its housing plans in the weeks running up to the budget release with the main new element an increase in the capital gains tax. The budget also promised a flurry of measures to unlock government lands across the country for housing.
“The wealthy, who tend to earn relatively more income from capital gains, disproportionately benefit compared to the middle class,” said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, adding the new measure would only affect 0.13% of the population.
China covertly lobbying the U.S. Congress on TikTok!
The Chinese Communist Party is secretly lobbying the U.S. Congress regarding TikTok,
according to Capitol Hill staffers familiar with the situation.
The Chinese Embassy has been holding meetings with congressional employees to lobby against the legislation that would force a sale of TikTok or else ban the Chinese app in the United States, two Capitol Hill staffers familiar with China’s lobbying efforts told Politico.
Chinese diplomats reportedly met with Capitol Hill offices to lobby on behalf of TikTok after the legislation was overwhelmingly passed in March by the U.S. House of Representatives, making its way over to the Senate for review.
Congressional staffers, one of whom worked for the House and the other for the Senate, told Politico that the Chinese Embassy did not initially mention TikTok when it sought out meetings on Capitol Hill.
The staffers spoke to the outlet on anonymity, saying they are not allowed to reveal this information to the public.
As Breitbart News reported, the bill that may end up on the president’s desk seeks to ban TikTok unless its parent company, the Chinese tech giant ByteDance, sells the app within six months.
This is due to national security concerns, among other concerns involving U.S. users and data, given that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
Notably, China’s reported attempt to lobby Congress comes after TikTok purchased $2.1 million in television advertising in the battleground states in an apparent attempt to meddle in U.S. elections.
While TikTok has repeatedly insisted that it severed most of its connections with ByteDance and that U.S. user data will not end up in the hands of China — claiming it has isolated such data from Beijing- based executives at ByteDance — former employees have said otherwise.
As Breitbart News reported, 11 former TikTok employees interviewed by Fortune said the app has continued working with ByteDance while it tells the public a different story.
In one example, a man who worked as a senior data scientist at TikTok said that around the time the app told the public it would start storing U.S. data only in the United States and make it so that only U.S. employees had access to it, he was told he would start reporting to a Seattle-based executive.
The only problem was that this American TikTok executive did not exist, except for on paper, and the former data scientist was told to continue working with the Chinese ByteDance executive, he said.
China dumps more U.S. debt as foreign holdings hit record high!
Foreign holdings of U.S. debt rose to an all-time high in February, representing the fifth consecutive monthly increase, new Treasury Department data revealed on April 17. However, as global investors scooped up U.S. government bonds, China trimmed its exposure to dollar-denominated assets.
In total, foreign holdings were $7.965 trillion, up from $7.945 trillion in January. U.S. debt owned by foreigners also advanced nearly 9 percent from the same time a year ago.
Belgium was the top market to expand its holdings of Treasuries by picking up about $27 billion and raising the total to $320 billion.
Japan continued to be the largest non-U.S. holder of Treasury securities, adding another $16 billion to $1.168 trillion, the highest total since August 2022.
France bought $16 billion, Canada purchased $14 billion, and the United Kingdom acquired more than $9 billion.
China dumped about $23 billion, reducing its holdings to a 14-year low of $775 billion. This is also down close to 9 percent year-over-year. For the last couple of years, the world’s second-largest economy has gradually lowered its exposure to U.S. government bonds as part of diversification efforts and to prop up the struggling yuan renminbi.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
When Bill Barr talks (Deep State), people don’t care!
Former Attorney General William Barr said Wednesday that he believes the trial involving former President Donald Trump is an “abomination” and politicized.
When asked by a Fox News anchor about the trial, which started this week in New York City, Mr. Barr said that the case is “obviously political” and an “abomination,” noting that charges were brought years later in the case.
“It’s obviously political, seven years after he pays hush money to try and come up with this case,” Mr. Barr said.
Also in the interview, Mr. Barr said that he would vote for President Trump despite his prior criticism against the former commander-in-chief and former boss.
“The real threat to liberty, the real threat to our system, are the excesses of the progressive left. They are perverting the system of justice and that’s where the danger lies. The corruption and subversion of our institutions by the left,” he told Fox News.
Excused juror reveals some of the jury selection process for Trump’s hush money trial!
A juror who was excused from serving on the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump provided details about the questions potential jurors were asked.
Kara McGee told media outlets outside the courtroom on Tuesday that she was dismissed but said she believes she could be impartial, adding still that it would be “very difficult for anyone really in this country to not come to this without prior opinions.”
“We all have prior opinions on the defendant, unless you’ve been living in a cardbox,” she said, adding that she was excused because of her job in the cybersecurity sector.
Regarding her personal feelings on President Trump, the woman said, “I’m not a fan.” The main reason why, she said, is because of how she believed he handled the COVID-19 pandemic response.
But Ms. McGee provided some insight on the questions that were asked of the jurors.
“One of which is: Do you have opinions about the ability for a former sitting president to be tried in a court of law? Which I think the way people answered that showed how they felt about case,” she said. “The other one was: Do you have any opinions about legal limits for campaign finance donation amounts? Which I believe was another one that was kinda meant to gauge feelings about the particular case,” she added.
Top military official lied about J-6 details according to whistleblowers!
The secretary of the Army on Jan. 6, 2021, lied about multiple details regarding what unfolded as the U.S. Capitol was breached, National Guard whistleblowers said during a congressional hearing on April 17.
Then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy made multiple false claims, including that he spoke to the commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard on two separate occasions after officials requested that the Guard be deployed to the Capitol, the whistleblowers said.
After Maj. Gen. William Walker conveyed a request from the U.S. Capitol Police for Guard personnel, Mr. McCarthy called Maj. Gen. Walker at 2:14 p.m. and instructed the Guard to stand by, according to a Guard timeline of Jan. 6, 2021. But that call and others that Mr. McCarthy or one of his top advisers were said to have made later authorizing the Guard for mobilization and deployment did not happen, according to the Guard officials.
“At no time did Gen. Walker take any calls, nor did we ever hear from the secretary on any of the ongoing conference calls or the secure video teleconferencing throughout the day,” Capt. Timothy Nick, who served as Maj. Gen. Walker’s personal assistant on Jan. 6, 2021, said during the hearing. “This I know because I was with the command general the entire time recording the events.”
Capt. Nick has not previously discussed publicly what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021, and neither has Brig. Gen. Aaron Dean, who was the National Guard’s adjutant general on the day that the Capitol was breached.
The Department of Defense (DOD) inspector general report on Jan. 6, 2021, which relied heavily on Mr. McCarthy and other military officials, was rife with “inaccuracies,” Brig. Gen. Dean said. “I believe it is my duty and moral obligation to stand before you today and illuminate the truth,” he told the hearing, which was held by the House Administration Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight.
Despite Mr. Walker conveying the request for assistance at about 1:50 p.m., the Guard was not deployed to the Capitol until about 5:10 p.m.
“This was a dereliction of duty by the secretary of the Army,” Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), one of the members of the committee, said.
Mr. McCarthy refused to appear before the panel, Dr. Murphy said.
Christopher Miller, the acting secretary of defense at the time, authorized Guard deployment at 3:11 p.m., but Mr. McCarthy took the order and decided to draw up a plan before ordering the deployment, according to military timelines and testimony from Mr. McCarthy and others.“You never would employ our personnel, whether it’s on an American street or a foreign street, without putting together a [plan],” Mr. McCarthy told the now-disbanded House Jan. 6 committee.
Mr. McCarthy could not be reached for comment. The Army declined to comment.
“We stand by our January 6th Report and have no further comment at this time,” a DOD inspector general spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.
The whistleblowers also testified that Army officials Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt and Gen. Charles Flynn, during a 2:30 p.m. conference call on Jan. 6, 2021, expressed concern about the optics of having the Guard at the Capitol.
“I did hear the word optics. And they did use it. Specifically, Gen. Piatt said ‘optics.’ And his concern was that he did not want soldiers or airmen on Capitol grounds, with the Capitol in the background,” Brig. Gen. Dean said. “They were giving every other reason why we should be around the Capitol, away from the Capitol, and not responding to the Capitol.”
The officials lacked familiarity with the Guard and the Guard’s capabilities, Brig. Gen. Dean said.
Lt. Gen. Piatt has been quoted by Maj. Gen. Walker and others as saying during the call: “I don’t like the visual of the National Guard standing in a line with the Capitol in the background. I would much rather relieve USCP [U.S. Capitol Police] officers from other posts so they can handle the protestors.”
Lt. Gen. Piatt has told lawmakers that he did not recall using the words optics, visuals, or image during the call or in any other conversations on Jan. 6, 2021. But he later said, “I may have said that,” citing people who took notes during the call.
Gen. Flynn told the House Oversight Committee in 2021 that he “never expressed a concern about the visuals, image, or public perception of sending the D.C. National Guard to the U.S. Capitol.”
Col. Earl Matthews, a lawyer who was with Maj. Gen. Walker on Jan. 6, 2021, and who has challenged the Pentagon Jan. 6 narrative, and District of Columbia National Guard Command Sgt. Michael Brooks, a senior officer with the Guard until he retired in 2022, also testified during the hearing in Washington.
None of the Guard officials who testified were formally interviewed by the House Jan. 6 committee, which was primarily run by Democrats and disbanded at the end of the previous Congress.
The officials said the Guard was ready to act and could have made a difference if not for the delay.
“I know if we were able to deploy immediately when Gen. Walker made the request, the National Guard could have helped end civil disturbance and restore order quickly,” Capt. Nick said.
Mike Johnson’s top policy advisor is a former lobbyist with corporate interests in Ukraine!
The inside story of how House Speaker Mike Johnson was flip-flopped on Ukraine aid starts with his top policy adviser, a former lobbyist whose clients include a number of major companies who have issued corporate statements indicating some kind of interest in the war.
Johnson’s policy director, Dan Ziegler, was–until he joined the Speaker’s office as his top policy aide when Johnson won the Speakership last year–a lobbyist with the firm Williams & Jensen. He had previously worked for Johnson in other capacities, but left Johnson to become a lobbyist and accumulated a client list that included several top companies–some of which seem to have a financial interest in seeing Congress pass Ukraine aid. The lobbying firm for which he worked represents a number of top companies. Lobbying disclosures reveal Ziegler represented many of these companies, including several that have made corporate statements about the war in Ukraine or issued press statements or other public guidance saying it could affect their business operations.
What’s more, Ziegler also represented the highly controversial News Media Alliance, which was lobbying Congress when he worked for Williams & Jensen to push a dangerous proposal that would have se
verely hurt conservative media. That proposal, called the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA), has died several times in Congress but has kept coming back to life thanks to lobbyist pressure.
Ziegler is not the only one in Johnson’s inner circle who has issues. Several other staffers working for Johnson have a series of troubling developments in their backgrounds, and as of now it is unclear if the Speaker himself is aware of all of this or not. Either way, this raises serious questions about his management of the conference and his handling of major legislative proposals like the foreign aid plan before Congress this week–and it undercuts the explanation several Johnson apologists have offered up that he is just having a tough time managing a one-seat majority and things would not be different if he resigned and Republicans picked a new Speaker.
Johnson’s tune on Ukraine changed when he became Speaker and hired Ziegler and Hodges, two men who previously worked for Johnson during his tenure as a back-bench representative. On
Wednesday, Johnson’s office unveiled a complicated scheme that includes a standalone vote on tens of billions in American taxpayer aid to Ukraine.
The process of the vote entails Johnson retracting promises he made to conservatives to win the Speaker’s gavel.
The legislation will likely only pass the House if enough Democrats support the measure.
Johnson’s scheme infuriated conservatives and some Republican lawmakers, who accuse Johnson of pushing President Joe Biden’s agenda and advocating for Ukraine’s border instead of America’s southern border.
In response to Johnson’s Ukraine package, MTG added an interesting Amendment to it!
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced an amendment to a supplemental funding bill for Ukraine that would require members of Congress who vote “in favor” to enlist in the Ukrainian military.
Greene’s amendment comes as House Republicans released the legislative text regarding four bills wrapped into one, according to CBS News.
Under the three bills, $26.4 billion would be sent to Israel, $60.8 billion would go to Ukraine, and $8.1 billion would go to countering the threat of China in the Indo-Pacific and providing foreign aid to Taiwan.
A fourth bill focuses on providing other defense measures to “strengthen” the “national security” of the United States.
“Any Member of Congress who votes in favor of this Act shall be required to conscript in the Ukrainian military,” the amendment to the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act 2024 reads.
During a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) revealed his plan to combine all four bills into a single piece of legislation, and a single vote would be held.
If successful, the vote would unlock separate votes for each of the bills.
The legislation package would only need a majority of support on the floor, as would the four separate bills included in the legislation.
Johnson had previously revealed that each of the four separate bills would be brought to the floor where members of Congress would be allowed to propose additional amendments before a final vote is conducted.
Members of Congress were reportedly given 72 hours to review the legislation package before a vote on Saturday.
Speaker Mike Johnson is one step closer to being ousted. Rep. Thomas Massie is IN!
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blessed Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) move to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), saying that House Republicans need someone with “courage” and “intestinal fortitude.”
The Kentucky senator said: I think Thomas Massie is doing the right thing, and I think that Republicans need real leadership. We need to use our power; our people are frustrated. Why don’t we use the power of the purse? Why does the debt keep getting bigger even when Republicans are in charge of the House? So, I think we need somebody that has some courage and some intestinal fortitude.
Paul’s comments follow after Massie became a cosponsor of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to vacate to remove Johnson as the leader of the House.
“Every negotiation he’s [Johnson] gone into with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden, he’s received nothing in exchange. He’s either not good at negotiating, or he’s negotiating for their side,” Massie said on Breitbart News Daily.
Massie and Greene have become increasingly frustrated with Johnson’s leadership, which includes his spending plans, his lack of reforms to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and his moves to grant more foreign aid without border policies.
Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), the former Freedom Caucus chairman, and Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), the former Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman, scoffed at Johnson’s foreign aid framework, which includes a substantial amount of aid for Ukraine and neglects the migrant crisis at the southern border.
And meanwhile, if you were watching the Senate on CSPAN2, you were probably nauseated!
Senate Democrats voted unanimously to shut down the Senate trial of President Joe
Biden’s impeached homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas.
The first vote of 51 Democrats to 48 Republicans, with one non-voting Republican senator, was reported at 3:18 p.m. on Wednesday.
The vote, initiated by Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), declared that the first article of impeachment was “unconstitutional” because the charges against Mayorkas did not rise to the impeachable level of “high crimes.”
The House’s articles of impeachment charged Mayorkas with “the willful and systematic refusal to comply with the law,” including Congress’s law that asylum seekers be detained until their legal claims are completed.
The vote was delayed while Republican senators proposed motions to extend the trial period. Each proposal was defeated with a party line score of 51 to 49.
Immediately after the vote, Schumer proposed a vote to take down the second article of impeachment, which said that Mayorkas lied to Congress about border security or a “Breach of Public Trust.”
“It is a felony!” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said as he proposed a motion to delay the vote.
The Democrats passed their motion at 4:16 p.m., wiping out the second article of impeachment.
Republican legislators say the Democrats want to minimize public recognition of the damage caused by Mayorkas’s refusal to enforce the nation’s popular and beneficial immigration laws. “The evidence is devastating,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told Fox News. “It will gut them like a fish.”
Mayorkas has repeatedly explained that he supports more migration because of his migrant parents, his sympathy for migrants, and his support for “equity” between Americans and foreigners.
He also justifies his welcome for migrants by saying his priorities are above the law and claiming that the “needs” of U.S. business are paramount — regardless of the cost to ordinary Americans, the impact on U.S. children, or Americans’ rational opposition.
An 18-year-old illegal immigrant was arrested in connection to the death of Kurt Englehart, a Senior Advisor to Nevada Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto. Elmer Rueda-Linares is in custody at the Washoe County Jail being held on a $100,000 bond.
According to police, on April 6 at around 4:30 a.m. Rueda-Linares was involved in a two-vehicle crash at the intersection of Kietzke and Peckham Lanes in Reno that killed Engelhardt.
The Department of Homeland Security told the Reno-Gazette Journal that an immigration detainer from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as an “ICE hold” was placed on Rueda-Linares on April 8th. .
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told RGJ, Rueda entered the United States March 12, 2021, at or near the Rio Grande City, Texas, Port of Entry without inspection by an immigration official. United States Customs and Border Protection arrested him, and he was later released on his own recognizance June 22, 2021. Two days before then-15-year-old Honduran native Rueda-Linares illegally entered the United States and was subsequently arrested and released into the country, Sen.Cortez Masto appeared in an interview on MSNBC arguing that it is “misinformation” to purport that the Biden Administration has permitted open borders. Sen. Cortez Masto said:
“There are no open borders. There are so many children! These children are fleeing for their lives.”
Inevitably, one of the “children fleeing” would take the life of Englehart, who leaves behind a young son to grow up without a father.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
FAA issues ground stop advisory for Alaska Airlines; flights to resume!
An issue with the system that calculates weight and balance of Alaska Airlines planes, causing all of its flights to be halted on Wednesday morning, has been resolved and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) canceled a ground stop.
The ground stop, which halted all Alaska Airlines departures as well as for Horizon Air, a regional carrier owned by Alaska Air Group, was instituted at approximately 7:50 am PT (1450 GMT), the airline said. It lasted for about an hour.
“This morning we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance,” the airline said in a statement. Residual flight delayed are expected throughout the day, the airline said.
In a statement earlier, the FAA said the carrier “asked the FAA to pause the airline’s mainline departures nationwide.”
Shares of Alaska Air Group, which owns the airline, pared gains after the advisory, and were last up 2.6% at 11:51 ET.
Red States fight the urge to give basic income cash to residents …
South Dakota state Sen. John Wiik likes to think of himself as a lookout of sorts — keeping an eye on new laws, programs and ideas brewing across the states.
“I don’t bring a ton of legislation,” said Wiik, a Republican. “The main thing I like to do is try and stay ahead of trends and try and prevent bad things from coming into our state.”
This session, that meant sponsoring successful legislation banning cities or counties from creating basic income programs, which provide direct, regular cash payments to low-income residents to help alleviate poverty.
While Wiik isn’t aware of any local governments publicly floating the idea in South Dakota, he describes such programs as “bureaucrats trying to hand out checks to make sure that your party registration matches whoever signed the checks for the rest of your life.”
The economic gut punch of the pandemic and related assistance efforts such as the expanded child tax credit popularized the idea of directly handing cash to people in need. Advocates say the programs can be administered more efficiently than traditional government assistance programs, and research suggests they increase not only financial stability but also mental and physical health.
Still, Wiik and other Republicans argue handing out no-strings-attached cash disincentivizes work — and having fewer workers available is especially worrisome in a state with the nation’s second-lowest unemployment rate.
South Dakota is among at least six states where GOP officials have looked to ban basic income programs.
The basic income concept has been around for decades, but a 2019 experiment in Stockton, California, set off a major expansion. There, 125 individuals received $500 per month with no strings attached for two years. Independent researchers found the program improved financial stability and health, but concluded that the pandemic dampened those effects.
GOP lawmakers like Wiik fear that even experimental programs could set a dangerous precedent.
“What did Ronald Reagan say, ‘The closest thing to eternal life on this planet is a government program’?” Wiik said. “So, if you get people addicted to just getting a check from the government, it’s going to be really hard to take that away.”
The debate over basic income programs is likely to intensify as blue state lawmakers seek to expand pilot programs. Minnesota, for example, could become the nation’s first to fund a statewide program. But elected officials in red states are working to thwart such efforts — not only by fighting statewide efforts but also by preventing local communities from starting their own basic income programs.
Democratic governors in Arizona and Wisconsin recently vetoed Republican legislation banning basic income programs.
Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Harris County to block a pilot program that would provide $500 per month to 1,900 low-income people in the state’s largest county, home to Houston.
Paxton, a Republican, argued the program is illegal because it violates a state constitutional provision that says local governments cannot grant public money to individuals.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, a Democrat, called Paxton’s move “nothing more than an attack on local government and an attempt to make headlines.”
Meanwhile, several blue states are pushing to expand these programs.
Washington state lawmakers debated a statewide basic income bill during this year’s short session. And Minnesota lawmakers are debating whether to spend $100 million to roll out one of the nation’s first statewide pilot programs.
“We’re definitely seeing that shift from pilot to policy,” said Sukhi Samra, the director of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, which formed after the Stockton experiment.
So far, that organization has helped launch about 60 pilot programs across the country that will provide $250 million in unconditional aid, she said.
Despite pushback in some states, Samra said recent polling commissioned by the group shows broad support of basic income programs. And the programs have shown success in supplementing — not replacing — social safety net programs, she said.
The extra cash gives recipients freedom of choice. People can fix a flat tire, cover school supplies or celebrate a child’s birthday for the first time.
“There’s no social safety net program that allows you to do that.” she said. “ … This is an effective policy that helps our families, and this can radically change the way that we address poverty in this country.”
Biden calling for higher tariffs on Chinese aluminum and steel!
Yesterday, Joe Biden called for sharply higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese metal products as part of a package of policies aimed at pleasing steelworkers in the swing state of Pennsylvania, at the risk of angering Beijing.
As he campaigned for reelection in the “Steel City” of Pittsburgh, Biden aides said the U.S. president was proposing raising to 25% the tariffs imposed by his predecessor Donald Trump on certain Chinese steel and aluminum products.
“China’s steel companies don’t need to worry about making a profit,” Biden said as he visited the headquarters of the United Steelworkers union. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America.”
The products now being targeted currently face up to a 7.5% levy under a Trump-era policy under Section 301 of the U.S. trade law, which Biden launched a review of in 2022. The proposed higher tariff rate would apply to more than $1 billion worth of steel and aluminum products, a U.S. official said.
The Biden administration is also pressuring neighboring Mexico to prohibit China from selling its metal products to the United States indirectly from there.
At the same time, it is launching an investigation into Chinese trade practices across the shipbuilding, maritime and logistics sectors, which could lead to more tariffs.
The measures invite blowback from China at a time of already heightened tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.
A spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, called the tariffs an “embodiment of unilateralism and protectionism,” adding that the U.S. government was “making the same mistake again and again.”
Trump’s broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency prompted China’s retaliation with its own levies.
“No trade war,” Biden told reporters traveling with him. But Biden’s trade representative told Congress on Wednesday that there was need for “decisive” action to protect electric vehicles from subsidized Chinese competition, and Reuters reported the administration would also restore some solar tariffs.
HEALTH
U.S. pharmaceutical drug shortages reach record highs!
Despite efforts to stabilize the availability and cost of medications, prescription drug shortages have reached record highs in the United States.
The news comes from new data released by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) detailing a shortage of 323 in the first quarter of 2024. The number marks the highest on record since the industry group began tracking shortage data in 2001.
Fourteen more drugs have experienced a shortage since the organization’s July survey, which found 309 medications in short supply.
Drug shortages have often made U.S. headlines in recent years. The July 2023 ASHP survey found that 85 percent of hospitals and pharmacies were rationing drugs, and over 40 percent were delaying appointments due to the national pharmaceutical drug shortage.
The report also highlighted that basic and life-saving drugs are in short supply, including oxytocin, Rho(D) immune globulin, standard-of-care chemotherapy, pain and sedation medications, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs.
Classes of drugs in short supply include central nervous system (CNS) drugs, antimicrobials, electrolytes and fluids, chemotherapies, and hormone drugs.
For the most part, manufacturers failed to provide a reason or didn’t know the reason for the shortage, ASHP reported. Fourteen percent of manufacturers reported that supply/demand issues were to blame, 12 percent blamed manufacturing, 12 percent blamed business decisions, and 2 percent said raw material issues were the main factor.
The constant shortages and supply chain issues have pressured the Biden administration and other lawmakers to help increase domestic production of critical medications. Lawmakers have also launched investigations into why pharmaceutical companies have been unable to manage the bottleneck.
Managing drug shortages is laborious and costly, the ASHP noted. A 2019 analysis estimated the annual labor cost of drug shortages to U.S. hospitals was $359 million. Additionally, purchasing alternative package sizes or concentrations of drugs, sourcing from other suppliers, or sourcing alternative products adds to the hefty cost.
The Truth about Raw Milk (Blaze News investigates)!
Lisa Bass is a raw milk evangelist.
“When you look at all of the data, and you look at what is a health-supporting
decision to make, I think raw milk comes out on top,” Bass told Blaze News.
Bass, a mother of eight who is known for her popular YouTube channel “Farmhouse on Boone” and blog about homemaking, is part of a growing movement of free thinkers eschewing processed milk and embracing the benefits of raw dairy.
“I think we are created by God, and there is a way everything was designed,” Bass said. “And if you take certain aspects of the food away, of course there’s going to be other ramifications and other ways it wouldn’t be as healthful. It’s close to a perfect food. It’s whole and good.”
Unfortunately, the potential benefits of raw dairy are a secret to most Americans. That’s because the federal government and dairy lobbyists warn that raw milk is inherently dangerous, and they claim that consuming raw milk and raw dairy products can lead to severe illness — or even death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in fact, describes raw milk as “one of the riskiest foods.”
But is that true?
As it turns out, the government, dairy lobby, and the so-called “experts” are not telling you the full story.
The anti-raw-milk narrative
According to the CDC and Food and Drug Administration, raw milk and raw dairy products are unsafe to consume no matter what.
The public health agencies warn that raw dairy contains “disease-causing pathogens” that, if consumed, can send you to the hospital with severe illnesses and, if you’re
The dairy lobby is no different.
The National Dairy Producers Federation, one of the oldest and most powerful dairy advocacy groups, strongly opposes raw dairy and efforts to legalize it. Earlier this year, the NDPF suggested the raw dairy movement is akin to the “anti-vaccination movement.”
That narrative is tidy and convenient. And it’s true, after all, that pasteurization — the process of rapidly heating and cooling a liquid to kill all bacteria in it — helped solve a serious problem a century ago: People who lived in cities wanted to share in the benefits of consuming dairy products. But problems with urban sanitation, commercial agriculture, and the inability to refrigerate dairy led to many outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. Pasteurization, then, proved to be the right solution for a unique problem in time.
“It’s a 19th-century problem, and pasteurization is a 19th-century solution,” Mark McAfee, owner of Raw Farms USA in California — the largest raw dairy farm in the world — told Blaze News.
What they aren’t telling you
As a general rule, absolutes are (almost) never true, and that is the case with raw milk. To claim that raw dairy is only harmful and there are no benefits to consuming it is a clue the government, dairy lobby, and so-called “experts” are not being honest with you.
Dr. Paul Saladino, MD, is a health influencer best known for promoting a holistic understanding of medicine and an ancestrally consistent diet, and he believes raw milk is a superfood.
In his educational content, Saladino teaches that consuming raw milk improves gut health, allergies, and immune function, and he has the scientific literature to back his claims.
“Raw milk contains many naturally occurring bioactive components that are beneficial and protective and prevent it from becoming a pathogenic breeding ground, things like lactoperoxidase immune cells, like neutrophil macrophages and immunoglobulins, which are antibodies. All of these are contained in raw milk. It is a bioactive-alive fluid,” Saladino explains in a YouTube video.
The problem with pasteurization, then, is obvious in Saladino’s view: Not only does pasteurization kill the “bad” things in raw dairy, but it also kills, reduces, denatures, or inhibits the benefits of raw dairy.
In Saladino’s view, raw dairy has received a “bad rap” because of outbreaks of foodborne illness involving raw dairy more than a century ago. But that was a unique problem in time, he argues, because cows were being milked in “very unsanitary conditions” and were being fed “complete garbage.”
Metabolically unhealthy animals and unsanitary conditions were the perfect recipe for bacteria growth.
But advances in sanitation, technology, and understanding of human health now render raw milk “inherently safe” for all humans, according to Saladino — as long as farmers harvesting it uphold high quality and sanitation standards.
McAfee says that’s exactly what Raw Farms USA does. According to McAfee, his family- owned farm has perfected the art of safely harvesting raw dairy and making it a product for consumers.
Raw Farms USA’s cows are happy and clean, and the farm abides by “extremely strict standards” that McAfee told Blaze News surpass the standards of pasteurized dairy.
It’s important to consider four more important facts about raw dairy.
First, humans have been drinking mammalian milk for thousands of years, and we haven’t been stingy about our sources, harvesting from cows, sheep, goats, camels, horses, deer, buffalo, and other mammals. And for the vast majority of human history, this milk was consumed unpasteurized without problem.
We should consider, then, whether raw milk itself is the problem — as the anti-raw- milk narrative argues — or if something humans do makes raw milk sometimes risky to consume.
Second, the government’s narrative about human breast milk is completely different from its narrative about raw dairy. Not only does the government recommend that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, but officials acknowledge that breast milk has “unique properties” that protect young children.
Breast milk, obviously, is neither pasteurized nor sterile, nor are human breasts sterile.
Considering that breast milk is raw milk harvested in a non-sterile environment — just like other mammalian milk — the natural question arises: Why is raw breast milk best, but other raw dairy is unsafe under every circumstance?
“They talk out of both sides of their mouth,” McAfee told Blaze News, citing scientists who have found that raw dairy milk and breast milk, while quantitatively different, are “practically identical” qualitatively.
“You compare cow’s milk to breast milk — it’s practically identical on kinds of proteins, the kinds of fats, but the amounts are different. That’s why there’s so much compatibility between humans and cows,” he said.
“We’re a match made in heaven in terms of being able to have a portable, whole food nutrition from cows to people,” McAfee explained. “Breastfeeding is the tell.”
Third, the government emphasizes the dangers of raw milk and points to foodborne illness outbreaks as evidence. What officials never include alongside data about alleged raw-milk outbreaks is data about outbreaks involving pasteurized dairy.
A recent systematic review analyzing dairy outbreaks in the U.S. and Canada between 2007 and 2020, indeed, had interesting results. It found:
Thirty-two disease outbreaks were linked to dairy consumption. Twenty outbreaks involving unpasteurized products resulted in 449 confirmed cases of illness, 124 hospitalizations, and five deaths. Twelve outbreaks involving pasteurized products resulted in 174 confirmed cases of illness, 134 hospitalizations, 17 deaths, and seven fetal losses.
That’s right: More deaths associated with outbreaks connected to pasteurized dairy than to raw dairy.
Statistically speaking, the data can’t be compared directly because most people in the U.S. and Canada consume pasteurized dairy, and thus deaths from unpasteurized dairy are a much smaller percentage of overall consumers.
But the point to remember is this: There is risk associated with consuming both raw dairy and pasteurized dairy — just as there is risk with almost everything in life.
“Every food has risks. There are outbreaks with greens, fruit — there is no food without risk. Even pasteurized milk,” Bass told Blaze News. “We think that there is a way to live a risk-free life, but there’s always risk.
“There’s no risk-free choice,” she said.
Unfortunately, the government and the “experts” only emphasize the risk and potential harmful consequences of raw dairy while ignoring altogether the potential risks of pasteurized dairy, which is why the FDA has officially prohibited the interstate commerce of raw dairy since 1987.
Finally, there is a difference between raw milk harvested specifically for human consumption and the pasteurized milk that ends up on most grocery store shelves.
“It’s filthy milk, I wouldn’t produce it ever, and guess what? You need to pasteurize it because it’s going to make somebody sick,” McAfee said of pasteurized milk.
“That’s what the FDA, in their minds, in their reality, thinks is raw milk,” he explained. “What you have is two paradigms that are true at the same time: My milk is safe without pathogens because I set up the conditions for that, I test for it, and I’m preparing for human consumption — not pasteurization. Their paradigm is correct because their definition of raw milk is that it’s filthy.
“You have two different realities, two different structures, two different protocols, two different standards and practices,” McAfee said. “They’re rendering filthy milk ‘safe,’ but it’s not really safe. It’s highly allergenic and hard to digest. So what they’ve got is a filthy milk problem that they’re fixing with pasteurization that’s killing all of the bio- actives that consumers want.”
In fact, McAfee said most dairy farms have no incentives to produce raw milk for human consumption.
“It’s not their fault. Their milk design is to have pathogens, their [design] is to put as much milk as they can into the channel — they’re being paid by the weight of the milk, not the bacterial standards,” McAfee said.
Should you consider raw milk?
Should you consider raw milk?
Bass told Blaze News that she transitioned her family to raw dairy when her first child was in the weaning process. She did her research, became confident about the benefits of raw dairy, and “never looked back.”
Bass has a humble spirit. She doesn’t want to push her view on others, and she doesn’t want to engage in the politics of the issue.
But if you consider drinking raw dairy, Bass wants you to know that you’re more than capable of understanding the issue — despite what “experts” may claim — and that you are the best advocate for yourself and your family.
“Get some hard facts, not just fearmongering; get some real data and statistics, and you’re going to find there have been sicknesses and deaths from both [raw dairy and pasteurized dairy],” she said. “But, either way, it’s extremely low.”
That skill — questioning with boldness the narrative that is pushed on you — translates to many areas of life.
“When you take a look at the actual numbers and you look at the actual studies, you’ll find that a lot of times the narrative can be questioned, and there are a lot of benefits to learning things yourself and not just trusting what is told to you,” Bass said. “I encourage people to be that advocate for themselves.”
“It’s important to ask questions because we live in this culture where it [is] always whatever the experts say,” she explained. “I see what the experts say — there’s a lot of fearmongering with a lot of, ‘This will happen to you. This is scary.’ And then when you actually look at the statistics, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not at all what I was expecting.'”
If you ask Saladino, he will tell you that you should consider drinking raw milk not only because it’s beneficial for your health and is ancestrally consistent, but it’s just plain tasty.
“Raw milk is delicious!” Saladino says. McAfee agrees.
“If you poll people about why they drink raw milk, the No. 1 thing they’re going to say: It’s delicious! ‘It tastes good. It settles in my belly. It feels good. It makes me feel good,'” McAfee explained.
No matter what choice you make, remember to question with boldness, seek the truth, and cultivate the health of your family.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
Florida mom finds an airtag in her son’s shoe!
A Florida mother was horrified to find out that her son was being tracked through the use of an Apple AirTag, but a police investigation found there was a simple and harmless explanation.
Jackie Giurleo told WOFL-TV that she was alerted about the tracking device after her family attended a Christmas parade in Satellite Beach. When they returned home, the mom started getting notifications from her phone that there was an AirTag tracker in her vicinity.
The map of the tracker shown on the phone appeared to be following her son, Aidan.
“I go a lot of places,” the 7-year-old told WOFL.
Giurleo was alarmed by the discovery because she didn’t own any AirTags, so the natural assumption was that someone else was tracking her son.
“It was every mother’s worst nightmare,” she said.
She searched through his toys and clothes in order to try to find the tracker, and then she looked in the foam of his shoes.
“When we found it, my heart just dropped. Honestly, my knees gave out because it was inside my son’s shoe,” Giurleo said.
It was in a small cavity that was cut into the foam. She went to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office with the tracker to file a report, and they started an investigation. Police issued a subpoena to Apple to get the address of the owner of the AirTag, and then they found the real owner of the shoes.
It turned out that Aidan had accidentally swapped his shoes with another boy’s shoes when they took them off to go into a bounce house at the Christmas parade. Aidan said that he remembered noticing that another boy had the exact same shoes as he did.
“I think we put them in the same places, and then we just swapped,” he said.
The other family from Oklahoma had put the tracker in order to keep track of their own child. Giurleo said she was surprised to learn that AirTags could be used to monitor people.
“We have never had AirTags,” she said. “I knew about them with luggage and keys and things like that. I never thought about them when it came to tracking your kids.”
She said she was relieved that the explanation for the bizarre incident was innocent.
“Luckily, it just turned into a happy coincidence of a tale of two moms,” she added. “We were really lucky that we had a happy ending.”
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Stop! Don’t Make These 5 Vermicomposting Mistakes If You Want Successful Composting!
Vermicomposting turns your kitchen and garden scraps into gold—well, black gold, to be exact! However, setting up a worm bin and getting it right isn’t as straightforward as it might seem.
A common blunder, like overfeeding your worms, is just the beginning. From choosing the wrong ratio of worms to waste to letting your bin turn anaerobic, there’s a host of pitfalls that could lead to a smelly, soggy, and bug-ridden mess.
It’s easy to make these mistakes, but being aware of them can significantly improve your composting success. No need to worry, though—I’m here to help you navigate these common pitfalls.
In this blog post, I’ll uncover the top five vermicomposting mistakes. Even better, I’ll provide practical tips to help you avoid them, ensuring that your worm bin does more than just survive—it thrives, providing you with the best possible compost for your garden.
2ND AMENDMENT
Defense rests in the trial of the Arizona rancher who police say killed an illegal immigrant!
Today, a jury will hear closing arguments in the month-long trial of an Arizona man accused of murdering an illegal immigrant on his ranch property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
George Alan Kelly, 75, faces charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the alleged shooting death of Mexican citizen Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, on Jan. 30, 2023.
Prosecutors claim the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Kelly fired an AK-47 at a group of men who were trespassing on his property and that one of the bullets struck and killed Mr. Buitimea. However, investigators did not recover a bullet.
Defense lawyers argue the case is largely circumstantial, lacking physical proof that the bullet came from the same rifle Mr. Kelly used in the incident when he fired warning shots over the men as they fled south.
Investigators recovered the victim’s body with a single perforating gunshot wound lying face down in the grass about 116 yards away from the defendant’s east-facing property. An alleged eyewitness to the shooting testified the victim died face up.
The victim was also wearing a backpack, fanny pack, tactical clothing, and had a two-way radio.
On April 17, the defense rested its case after a second day of questioning of Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway, who testified to his involvement in the investigation and traveling to Mexico to interview the eyewitness.
Mr. Hathaway testified that the interview with Daniel Ramirez Ruiz (Varela) on Feb. 15, 2023, lasted about an hour and that only a small portion was recorded on video.
The sheriff said his goal was to assess the “veracity” of the witness.
Mr. Kelly’s defense co-counsel Brenna Larkin asked, “How were you planning to test Daniel’s credibility?”
“I know probably more than anyone else in the sheriff’s office about the overall aspects of this case since I am the sheriff and I was briefed continually on it,” Mr. Hathaway responded.
“I did not go to the crime scene, but I can attest, for example, that an AK-47 was fired, that [Ramirez] recognized the sound, that I know an AK-47 was recovered, and that shell casings from an AK-47 [were found at the scene], so that’s one example of testing.”
Mr. Hathaway testified he was aware of two other potential eyewitnesses named Ramon and Miguel.
“Were you aware that Ramon was also claiming that he was at the shooting? That he was there?” Ms. Larkin asked.
Mr. Hathaway responded that he was aware of an initial group of seven migrants that split up when they spotted a Border Patrol vehicle near the border wall and Mr. Kelly’s property in Nogales.
“And you’re aware of that because Daniel told you that? Is that where that came from?” Ms. Larkin asked.
Mr. Hathaway replied, “That would be one way I was aware of that.”
“What was the other way you were aware of that?”
“Um. [Paused]. I don’t know.”
“That’s what Daniel told you?”
“That’s what Daniel told me.”
Ms. Larkin suggested a better way to test the credibility would have been to ask the witness who else was with him at the time of the alleged shooting.
“Tell me about [the interview],” Ms. Larkin said. “What did you record? What did you not record? And why?”
Mr. Hathaway responded that he recorded six minutes and 40 seconds of the interview on his cellphone video camera.
“Who is Big Super?” Ms. Larkin later asked.
“Um, he has a YouTube channel,” Mr. Hathaway responded.
“Is this a person that you talked to about this case? Did you make comments to Big Super about Mr. Kelly’s case?”
“Um. As a public information officer for the sheriff’s office, I try to be transparent and talk to anybody,” Mr. Hathaway answered. “This Big Super individual wanted to do a border tour, and while we were doing that border tour, he asked me what about vigilantes. Do you have vigilantes on the border? I gave an answer—I didn’t say Mr. Kelly’s name—I said we have a situation where there’s a rancher that shot at two migrants and killed one of them, and the other one got away. I did mention that incident, but I didn’t say George Kelly’s name in that interview.”
Ms. Larkin pressed the witness further, “You told Big Super we caught this rancher shooting at migrants. And then you said some people want to hunt some Mexicans. You made that statement.”
“Yeah. I did kind of colloquial—there are some people that they want to come hunt them some Mexicans. I did say that statement.”
“Right after referencing Mr. Kelly’s case,” Ms. Larkin said.
“I didn’t mention Mr. Kelly, but I did refer generically to a type that has that attitude,” Mr. Hathaway responded.
“You didn’t say Mr. Kelly’s name, but that’s who you meant. Right?”
“That is who I meant,” the sheriff answered.
The witness also testified that he believe some Arizona ranchers frequently exaggerate their concerns over illegal immigration to the media.
He referred to these people as “pet ranchers.”
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink later met with the defense and prosecution lawyers to hash out jury instructions.
Of the eight men and four women sitting on the jury, eight will actually deliberate the facts in the cases, and the other four will serve as alternates.
Newport Beach homeowner stood their ground following an apparent home invasion!
CANCEL CULTURE
Reacher star Alan Ritchson has finally irritated the nation’s most prestigious police union!
The National Fraternal Order of Police has some tough words for actor Alan Ritchson after the Reacher star insulted cops across the country by claiming they “get away with murder all the time.”
Making it abundantly clear they won’t stand for that kind of disrespect, leaders of the fraternal organization pointed out that real police officers put their lives on the line every day while the “pampered” Ritchson merely pretends to be in danger while also getting his “face and forehead powdered on set.”
“Just another useless Hollywood actor, virtue signaling for attention at the expense of brave police officers around this country,” the labor group wrote in an X/Twitter post. “Go back to your pampered life and let the heroes handle this.”
The 41-year-old actor hurled his accusation against police officers in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“Cops get away with murder all the time, and the fact that we can’t really hold them accountable for their improprieties is disturbing to me,” the actor said.
Ritchson also insulted Christians who support former President Donald Trump.
“Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to treat him like he’s their poster child, and it’s unreal,” he said. “I don’t understand it.”
Amazon’s Reacher, based on the popular Lee Child novels, stars Ritchson as the title protagonist, a former U.S. Army military police major who drifts from town to town fighting crime.
The National Fraternal Order of Police is the nation’s oldest and largest law enforcement labor organization, with an estimated membership of more than 350,000 police officers nationwide.
Meanwhile, California Christians are fighting to keep their cross from being removed!
A California Christian club is fighting to put their cross back on display after city officials used eminent domain to remove it while citing complaints of it being “reminiscent of KKK cross-burnings” and offensive to “diverse communities.”
The Albany Lions Club had maintained their majestic 28-foot cross and lit it up for the Christmas and Easter holidays to send “the message of God’s love” and be a “comfort to the Christian community” since 1971, a press release states.
In the over 50 years it stood on Albany Hill, the cross also served as a meeting place for group prayers, weddings, baby dedications, and memorial services for the community.
The structure was erected on private land owned by one of the club’s members, but that land is now part of a dispute with the city of Albany, which seized the plot last year.
According to the civil liberties organization Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), there were “no objections” to the cross until 2016 when an “atheist group raised a complaint and convinced the Albany City Council to take up the cause of removing the cross.”
In 2017, then-Mayor Peggy McQuaid publicly denounced the club for lighting the cross on September 11:
The Albany City Council was dismayed to learn that in a departure from historical practice, the cross on Albany Hill was lit by the Albany Lions Club on Monday, September 11. Flags on city buildings and parks were flown at 1⁄2 staff on that day which is an appropriate, non- denominational civic remembrance of that terrible and tragic day. I am sure many Albany residents paused during the day for personal reflection.
I want to reiterate that the neither City Council nor the City of Albany endorses in any way the lighting of the cross for any occasion, religious or nationalistic, or supports its continued presence on public property
In January 2023, the Alameda County Superior Court demanded the cross be removed, with the ruling claiming that the Lions Club did not need the cross for its “organizational purpose.”
“Apparently, according to the Court, only a church or religious group has a right to free exercise of religion,” PJI said in its press release, arguing that the court “failed to recognize the Lions Club had a property right to display the cross, a right which the City recognized when it acquired the land.”
When the cross was officially taken down in June 2023, the mayor celebrated.
“The city has actually put its money where its mouth is, and our city looks a little bit more accepting now in a way that we think is consistent with our values,” then-Mayor Aaron Tiedemann told the East Bay Times.
Tiedemann, who now sits on the Albany City Council, referred to the Lion Club’s cross as a “privilege” that had been taken away.
“For the small local group of people that really want to see the cross stay, when you’ve had such privilege for so long, losing it feels like being oppressed,” the former mayor said. “That’s going to be an adjustment for folks, but I think we will all get used to it, and I think it’s a real benefit.
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