March 29, 2024

The Power Hour

Knowledge is Power

Today’s News: February 03, 2023

WORLD NEWS

Large Chinese reconnaissance balloon spotted over the US, officials say

The vessel is described as the size of three buses.

A massive spy balloon believed to be from China was seen above Montana and is being tracked as it flies across the continental United States, with President Joe Biden for now deciding against “military options” because of the risk to civilians, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Still, officials insisted, they continue to closely monitor the vessel as they have since it entered the country — while voicing their concern to Beijing.

“The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is flying over the continental United States right now,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Thursday. “NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] continues to track and monitor it closely.”

NORAD later said in a statement that its commander, Gen. Glen VanHerck, “assesses the balloon does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground at this time. The balloon is currently traveling at altitude well above commercial air traffic.”

The Canadian Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces are working with NORAD and “other partners” to assess the situation, the agency said in a statement, adding that Canada is “taking steps to ensure the security of its airspace, including the monitoring of a potential second incident.”

Mexican Cartel Nets $100K for Smuggling Three Chinese Nationals into Texas

Three Chinese nationals were encountered crossing the border in South Texas by Border Patrol agents and Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol troopers. Each reportedly paid Mexican cartel smugglers $35,000 to be ferried to Mission, Texas, on Tuesday.

According to a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the arrests were part of a joint operation conducted in the Rio Grande Valley with Border Patrol.

42 Percent of Last Week’s Known Border Crossers in One Texas Sector Got Away

More than 40 percent of last week’s known border crossers in the Del Rio Sector simply got away into the U.S. interior. Nearly 8,600 successfully avoided apprehension during the past two weeks, according to a Border Patrol official.

Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens tweeted a weekly recap revealing that of the 10,160 known border crossers (apprehended migrants plus gotaways), 4,297 got away without being apprehended. Agents took 5,863 migrants into custody.

‘We Are Not Done’ – EU Central Bank Warns of More Interest Rate Hikes After March

The European Central Bank chugged ahead with another outsized interest rate hike Thursday and vowed more to come, underlining its drive to subdue inflation even as the European economy slows and the U.S. Federal Reserve eases its pace of increases.

The Frankfurt-based bank raised its key benchmarks by half a percentage point and said it intends to make a similar move in March. Policymakers are moving aggressively to choke off price spikes that have slowed from record highs but are still hurting households in the 20 countries that use the euro currency.

Canadian Court: Govt Justified in Denying Unemployment Benefits to Unvaccinated Man

A Canadian court has ruled that it was justified for the federal government to deny a fired hospital worker unemployment benefits because he refused to take the coronavirus vaccine.

A Federal Court judge has ruled that the Canadian government was correct to deny Anthony Cecchetto employment insurance benefits after he lost his job at a Toronto-area group of hospitals in 2021 because he refused to take the coronavirus vaccine or an antigen test.

Russia Warns ‘Absurd’ Talk of Sending Warplanes to Ukraine Risks War Escalation

Moscow has slammed suggestions that the West should send warplanes to Ukraine, labelling the idea that such a transfer of weapons might not escalate tensions “absurd”.

Officials in Moscow took aim at claims that Western powers could get away with sending fighter jets, such as the F-16, to Ukraine without escalating hostilities, with a spokeswoman for the Kremlin going so far as to lambast the suggestion as being “absurd”.

EXCLUSIVE: Death Toll Rises Nearly 6 Fold in Chinese City Amid COVID Wave, Internal Documents Show

On the road leading to a crematorium in China’s southern city of Nanjing where thick black smoke was billowing into the sky, the line of cars was so long that it wasn’t clear where it ended.

On the curb squatted a woman wearing a white mourning hat with her face buried in her hands, her cries piercing the air.

“It’s the new year,” she said in a video that first circulated on Chinese social media in early January. But “all kinds of cars are coming to collect dead bodies.” Because of the long queues, the corpses can stay in the car for up to two days, she said.

The harsh conditions under China’s COVID tsunami that the woman alluded to align with data from internal documents from Chinese authorities The Epoch Times obtained from multiple parts of the country in recent weeks. These details, together with interviews with local residents, paint a somber picture of the virus toll that contrasts starkly with the positive tone authorities have strived to project.

El Salvador Opens 40,000-Bed Prison, More than Doubling Its Inmate Capacity

El Salvador on Tuesday formally opened an immense prison called the Terrorism Confinement Center. The prison has 40,000 beds, making it one of the largest in Latin America, with more capacity than all of El Salvador’s 20 existing penal facilities combined.

Most of those existing prisons are filled far beyond their nominal capacity, as President Nayib Bukele’s war on organized crime has put almost two percent of the population behind bars while cutting the homicide rate by over 50 percent. The largest prison in El Salvador until now, La Esperanza, is rated for 10,000 inmates but currently holds more than triple that number.

U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Hunter’s Business Partner Moved 1,850 Boxes of Biden’s Sensitive Docs

According to Josh Boswell at Daily Mail Online, Hunter Biden’s business partner moved 1,850 boxes of sensitive documents (not necessarily classifed – we don’t know) from then-VP Joe Biden’s White House office. Allegedly, lawyers WARNED HIM about including “Obama-Biden transition papers,” which Joe “likely did not own.”

Hunter Biden Admits Infamous Laptop Belongs to Him

A lawyer for President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, urged state and federal agencies in a letter on Feb. 1 to probe what he said were attempts by close allies of former President Donald Trump and others to “weaponize” the contents of a laptop that an electronics repair shop owner says was dropped off at his Delaware store in 2019.

The letters from Hunter Biden’s attorneys mark the first time he and his legal team have publicly acknowledged that it was his personal data found on the laptop.

The letters were sent by Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell to the Delaware attorney general, the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

They call for an investigation into former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, campaign lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as Giuliani’s own lawyer, Robert Costello, and the owner of the Wilmington computer repair shop, John Paul Mac Isaac, who said Hunter Biden dropped a laptop off at his store in April 2019 and failed to return to pick it up.

“We write on behalf of our client, Robert Hunter Biden, to request an investigation into the following individuals for whom there is considerable reason to believe violated various federal laws in accessing, copying, manipulating, and/or disseminating Mr. Biden’s personal computer data,” states the letter (pdf) to the DOJ’s top national security official, Matthew Olsen.

The letter goes on to claim that Mac Isaac “unlawfully accessed Hunter Biden’s personal data” and distributed its contents to “the political enemies of Mr. Biden’s father without Mr. Biden’s consent,” including the New York Post.

It adds that toward the end of the 2020 presidential election campaign, Mac Isaac “chose to work with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer to weaponize Mr. Biden’s personal computer data against his father, Joseph R. Biden, by unlawfully causing the provision of Mr. Biden’s personal data to the New York Post.”

4 Takeaways From House Judiciary Committee’s ‘Biden Border Crisis’ Hearing

As fentanyl kills thousands of Americans and illegal immigration continues to increase, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Wednesday addressing how Biden administration’s border policies have affected American lives.

Representatives heard testimony from several witnesses, including Brandon Dunn, co-founder of the Forever 15 Project; Dale Lynn Carruthers, county judge of Terrell County, Texas; and Mark Dannels, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona.

The number of undocumented immigrant crossings at the southwest border for the fiscal year 2022 topped 2.76 million, topping the previous annual record by more than 1 million, Customs and Border Protection data revealed.

The Drug Enforcement Administration seized record amounts of illegal fentanyl in 2022, a news release said. More than 100,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses in a 12-month period.

The following are four takeaways from the hearing on “The Biden Border Crisis.”

House Approves Resolution to Remove Rep. Ilhan Omar From Foreign Affairs Committee

House Republicans on Feb. 2 approved a resolution that would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

The resolution passed along party lines, with 218 Republicans voting to remove Omar and 211 Democrats voting against the resolution. One lawmaker voted present, while three Republicans and one Democrat didn’t vote.

Despite some pushback from GOP critics of the move, the measure easily overcame a procedural hurdle to begin debate in a 218–209 vote along party lines on Feb. 1.

However, because Democrats haven’t yet released their list of appointees for the committee, no further action can happen yet on the resolution. Omar has indicated that she expects to be one of her party’s appointees to the committee.

Omar has on several occasions come under fire for negative comments about Israel, which critics have described as “anti-Semitic.”

Because of the comments, Republicans have long expressed sharp opposition to placing Omar on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has for some time indicated that he wouldn’t allow Omar to serve on the committee.

Judge Allows Wrongful Death Suit Against Kyle Rittenhouse to Proceed

A judge ruled Wednesday that a wrongful death suit filed against Kyle Rittenhouse over the shooting death of Anthony Huber can proceed.

The suit targets “the city and county of Kenosha” in addition to Rittenhouse, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted.

Councilwoman Fatally Shot Outside New Jersey Home in Apparent ‘Targeted’ Attack

Eunice Dwumfour, a 30-year-old New Jersey councilwoman, was found dead outside her Sayreville home Wednesday evening in what officials believe was a “targeted” attack, authorities say.

In a press release, Sayreville police chief Daniel Plumacker and Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said a woman, later identified as Dwumfour, was located by police at 7:22 p.m. inside her vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds.

Police said the councilwoman was pronounced dead on the scene, noting that the incident is being investigated as a homicide.

No arrests have been reported in connection with the shooting. However, an eyewitness who lives in the area saw an individual, possibly the suspect, running toward the Garden State Parkway, which is near the scene of the shooting, RLS Media reported.

Authorities told news outlets that Dwumfour was believed to be the intended target, but have not given a motive.

The Sayreville Police Department, meanwhile, alerted citizens in a statement on Facebook of police activity in the area while advising everyone to avoid the scene.

A video shared on social media by Charlie Kratovil, a journalist and the founder of New Brunswick Today, shows police at the scene of the shooting as a white Nissan SUV is being towed away.

Kratovil said on Twitter that he personally knew Dwumfour and described the councilwoman as “a very kind person and public servant.”

Over 100 Democrats Join Republicans in Passing Resolution Condemning Socialism

The U.S. House of Representatives on Feb. 2 passed H. Con. Res. 9, a bill “denouncing the horrors of socialism.”

The bill was introduced by Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). It passed in a bipartisan 327–86 vote. All Republicans and 109 Democrats voted in favor of the measure. Thirteen Democrats voted present.

Salazar explained her rationale for unveiling the bill in comments to NTD, a sister media outlet to The Epoch Times.

“Because 44 percent of Americans believe the Communist Manifesto is better than the Declaration of Independence,” Salazar said.

Salazar represents Miami, the world capital of communist refugees fleeing from the socialist systems of Cuba, Venezuela, and others in the Southern Hemisphere. She grew up in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, where she experienced the deprivation of basic essentials that has historically been part and parcel of socialist states.

Republicans pointed to the atrocities and human rights violations historically common to socialist states such as the Soviet Union, the Chinese communist regime, and North Korea.

Founded in the political philosophy of Karl Marx, socialism and its offshoot communism push for state ownership of the means of production—meaning capital goods such as factories, machinery, and other equipment for production.

In Marx’s formulation, a communist country in its final form has no need for a state; however, as a transitionary device, Marx called for a “dictatorship of the proletariat,” a nominally short-lived body meant to transition a society from capitalism to communism.

Thus far, however, no communist state has moved beyond this first conceptual stage.

Guided by Marx’s ideology, socialists were responsible for the deaths of upward of 100 million people during the 20th century.

Democrat Lawmakers Demand IRS Answer Key Tax Questions on Data Sharing

Members of Congress are demanding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigate tax preparation software companies for allegedly sharing taxpayer information with Facebook.

Several news outlets, including The Markup, reported in November 2022 that several services, including H&R Block, TaxAct, and TaxSlayer, sent personal and financial information to Facebook after users filed their taxes. That included filers’ return amounts and information on their dependents, and it was gathered via Facebook parent company Meta.

Specifically, that financial information was transferred to Meta via a widely used code called Meta Pixel, which includes a piece of code that allows users to track visitor activity on a website.

On Thursday, three Democrat lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the IRS to investigate the alleged data-sharing activities between tax filing websites and Facebook.

“The Meta Pixel, operated by Facebook’s parent company, collected taxpayers’ personal information through various tax e-filing websites, including taxpayers’ names, usernames, email addresses, home addresses, income, filing status, refund status, dependents, health savings accounts, college tuition grants, and college scholarship amounts of their dependents,” the Democrats wrote in a news release from Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-Calif.) office. Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) joined Schiff in issuing the demand.

They now want the IRS to provide answers on if it is aware of the number of taxpayers whose data may have been shared with Meta and Facebook, if the data can be recovered from the companies, and if there is a violation of relevant tax laws.

HEALTH

Vitamin D Supplementation May Reduce Suicide Risk

A new study hints that treating low vitamin D levels with supplements might have a critical benefit for certain people: a decreased risk of attempting suicide.

In a study of more than 1 million U.S. veterans, researchers found that those prescribed vitamin D were nearly 50% less likely to attempt suicide over eight years, versus those who were not prescribed the supplements.

The benefit was seen specifically among veterans who had low vitamin D levels to begin with, as well as Black veterans — who may be at greater risk of insufficient vitamin D stores.

—> Power Mall Products of Recommendation: OPTIVIDA VITAMIN D – 800IU (60 CT) – Plant based Vitamin D with magnesium for better digestion

Eye Drops Linked to Drug-Resistant Bacteria Outbreak

U.S. health officials are advising people to stop using over-the-counter eye drops that have been linked to an outbreak of drug-resistant infections.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday night sent a health alert to physicians, saying the outbreak includes at least 55 people in 12 states. One died.

Disease investigators have linked the infections, including some found in blood, urine and lungs, to EzriCare Artificial Tears. Many of the patients said they had used the product, which is a lubricant used to treat irritation and dryness.

Surgery and Prescriptions Now Advised for Obese Children?

In its updated guidance on childhood obesity, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends weight loss drugs and surgery in children as young as 12 and 13

The weight loss drug Wegovy causes gastrointestinal side effects, including nausea and vomiting, as well as concerns of pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer and retinopathy complications, including hemorrhage and blindness

Subjecting children to surgery for weight loss is egregious, as it can lead to permanent complications and even death; the procedures may also involve removing a part of the body, which cannot be undone

The AAP guidelines make no mention of controlling exposure to obesogens, ultraprocessed foods and other drivers of childhood obesity

Part of the problem with the conventional model for treating childhood obesity is that children receive flawed nutritional guidance focused on reducing saturated fats and other whole foods, while promoting vegetable oils and low-fat diets

By resorting to drugs and surgery, children may be saddled with a lifetime of related side effects, for a condition they could have likely reversed using natural lifestyle strategies

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

Home Equity Flattens Out Across U.S. In Fourth Quarter Of 2022

 ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, today released its fourth-quarter 2022 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 48 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the United States were considered equity-rich in the fourth quarter, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than 50 percent of their estimated market values.

The portion of mortgaged homes that was equity-rich in the fourth quarter of 2022 declined slightly from 48.5 percent in the third quarter of 2022, but was still up from 41.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021. While the equity-rich levels nationwide remain nearly double what it was three years ago, the drop-off in the last three months of 2022 reversed a string of 10 straight quarterly gains. The report found that the portion of equity-rich mortgage-payers went down from the third to the fourth quarter of 2022 in 31 states around the U.S.

The dip marked one of the first signs of how a recent fall in home prices across the country has started to affect homeowners following a decade-long market boom.

Privacy Nightmare: FTC Claims Drug Discount App GoodRx Leaked User Data to Facebook, Google

The FTC claims that drug discount app GoodRx has been selling user data to Facebook and Google. Although the Masters of the Universe have an insatiable appetite for personal details of all types, medical data is particularly prized for use in advertising and other ventures.

The New York Times reports that U.S. regulators have criticized GoodRx, a drug discount app that millions of Americans use to find cheaper prices on prescription medications. The app’s creator, GoodRx Holdings, was charged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with improperly disclosing users’ private health information to tech giants Facebook and Google.

New DOL Rule Allows Retirement Money to Finance ESG Agenda

U.S. lawmakers are fighting back against a new Biden administration rule that allows retirement money to be invested according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria.

Every GOP senator, plus West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, signed on to a disapproval resolution this week in protest of a Department of Labor (DOL) directive which went into effect on Monday. The resolution charges that the Biden administration is putting the pensions of 152 million Americans at risk to support “climate and social justice.”

“President Biden is jeopardizing retirement savings for millions of Americans for a political agenda,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who introduced the resolution, stated. “In a time when Americans’ 401(k)s have already taken such a hit due to market downturns and record-high inflation, the last thing we should do is encourage fiduciaries to make decisions with a lower rate of return for purely ideological reasons.”

“At a time when our country is already facing economic uncertainty, record inflation and increasing energy costs, it is irresponsible of the Biden administration to jeopardize retirement savings for more than 150 million Americans for purely political purposes,” Manchin stated. “I’m proud to join this bipartisan resolution to prevent the proposed ESG rule from endangering retirement incomes and protect the hard-earned savings of American families.”

It may seem counterintuitive that Americans’ pension investments would be targeted to support political causes, but according to Derek Kreifels, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, “If you’re not able to get bills passed in Congress, and you can no longer count on the Supreme Court to back you, this is the next frontier: Use corporate and private [money] to push through social policy and social change in this country.” This misuse of people’s savings, he told The Epoch Times, is “putting retirees at risk that they will not have the funds that they will need when they retire.”

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

Geneticists Intend To Bring The Dodo Bird Back From Extinction

Scientists believe they have found a way to bring back the animal most synonymous with the extinction, the dodo bird. Should their endeavor prove successful, this could open the door for the resurrection of several other animals that were thought to be long gone.

A “de-extinction company” known as Colossal Biosciences has decided to play God and right a “wrong” done by humans by using edited DNA to create a so-called proxy version of the dodo since an exact clone is not possible. Should the recreation prove successful, the next step would be to re-introduce the dodo to its original habitat in Mauritius.

The founders of the company believes reintroducing the dodo will benefit conservation and the wildlife ecosystem. They do not elaborate on why, however.

Colossal Biosciences is also working bringing other endangered species back from the dead, such as the Tasmanian tiger and wooly mammoth.

Metaverse: ChatGPT Tech Will Let You Talk To Dead Relatives

The ChatGPT setup that will allow you to speak to your dead relatives has been revealed. Sooner than later, you can engage in dialogue with the digital likeness of your loved one.

If you save your voice, movement patterns, and personality traits onto Artur Sychov’s Live Forever mode, an AI chatbot will allow your surviving relatives to have a conversation with you in the metaverse after your death, Vice said.

Sychov works for metaverse creators Somnium Space, and his project is aimed at allowing grieving humans to engage with their loved ones in a realistic way after they die.

His inspiration was the death of his father, and advancing tech means about “five years” from now, it will be normal for these VR robots to mimic conversing with the person of interest.

He said: “The AI is progressing extremely fast. Honestly, it is progressing faster than even we anticipated.”

Somnium Space is active on virtual reality headsets already, and users can dive deep into the 3D world.

Artific, a user of the Somnium Space metaverse, was the one who actually put ChatGPT in play within the virtual world.

This user used to work within data science, and was hesitant about AI, but was ultimately in awe of its capabilities, including the chatbot, Vice said.

In the metaverse, he asked the chatbot what the best way to embed it into the digital space was, and it answered with a blueprint that Artific was able to perfect and make a reality.

They aren’t perfected yet, but the robots do have a sort of short-term memory.

Artific explained: “If you leave this world, and you come back, she will still remember what you talked about.

“Of course, there’s a lot of progress that still needs to be done. But it already works like that.”

SURVEILLANCE STATE 

11,000 Police Surveillance Cars With 360-Degree Cameras and “Perimeter Alerts” To Patrol NYC

Way back in 2017, I wrote about tech companies working together to create 360- degree police surveillance vehicles complete with facial recognition. This has now become a reality.

As the above video shows, the Wausau Police Department is already using Ford’s 360-degree police surveillance vehicles to quietly surveil everyone.

According to Yahoo News the New York City Police Department (NYPD), which employs more people than the FBI, has announced it is turning all their police vehicles into 360-degree surveillance vehicles.

The department is in the process of redesigning its fleet of patrol vehicles, which will now have 360-degree cameras installed in them for constant monitoring of the streets, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said Wednesday.

To put the public’s mind at ease of having 11,000 spying police vehicles monitor everyone, the NYPD has decided to put QR codes on their new patrol cars.

Each car will also have a QR code printed on the outside of the vehicle that the public can scan and connect to the NYPD’s websites.

Sewell said the new design will “ensure the safety of our officers, have a QR code to improve customer service and a revamped interior for more efficient and comfortable work environment for our officers.”

If and when the public finally cares about losing their privacy, all they have to do is scan a police vehicle’s QR code. This will bring them to a carefully worded law enforcement website that will reassure them that the government really cares about their privacy and that 360-degree surveillance cameras are for the public’s safety.

When a concerned citizen approaches a 360-degree police surveillance vehicle, they may be surprised to find out what is really happening inside.


U.S. Military Monitoring Suspected Chinese Spy Balloon

The U.S. military is currently monitoring a suspected Chinese spy balloon that has been hovering for several days over the northern United States.

Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Thursday that the “high-altitude surveillance balloon” poses no immediate threat to the United States and will be monitored for the time-being.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Former John Kerry Aide Joins Green Energy Giant Poised To Massively Benefit From Biden’s Climate Handouts

A former adviser to U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry has been tapped for a top post at a Danish green energy giant that stands to benefit from the Biden administration’s climate handouts, according to a Thursday announcement.

Varun Sivaram, who is also the former managing director for Clean Energy and Innovation under the Biden administration, will serve as Orsted’s senior vice president for Strategy and Innovation, the announcement said. The company holds the largest offshore wind portfolio in the world and is rapidly expanding into onshore renewable technologies, according to an annual 2022 report. (RELATED: The Biden Admin’s Latest Offshore Wind Lease Sales Mostly Went To Foreign Energy Companies)

Despite the company suffering a loss in its offshore wind business in the fourth quarter of 2022, Orsted CEO Mads Nipper remained optimistic that climate tax credits and subsidies in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act would be a “turning point” for the renewable energy industry, Reuters reported. The legislation includes the allocation of approximately $370 billion to combat climate change by spurring renewable energy initiatives.

Manchin: Biden’s Trying to Use ESG to Push out Fossil Fuels Before We’re Ready, Risk We End up Like Germany Should Be Considered

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated that the Biden administration’s ESG investment rule is an attempt to push out fossil fuels before we’re ready to do so and “puts our economy in jeopardy” and argued that the geopolitical risk from ending up like Europe “should be evaluated the same as anything else.”

Manchin stated, “When you start putting ESG and basically making evaluations on the environmental impacts, I think we all have a responsibility and we’ve done a good job on that. We’ve reduced our emissions by more than any other country in the free world. So, with that being said, then why don’t they look [at] the geopolitical risk that’s involved? Why don’t you evaluate that too? Why don’t you ask Europe what’s happened to them, ask Germany what’s happened to their economy? Look what Putin did to weaponize energy. The geopolitical risk should be evaluated the same as anything else. Because the fallout would be, if you’re trying to put pressure and get rid of fossil before we have anything to replace it, you are going to damage our economy and make our country much weaker. That’s what I’ve been fighting for, energy security. So, geopolitical risks should be evaluated just as much as they’re talking ESG.”

British Gas Debt Collectors Broke Into Homes of Vulnerable People Behind on Bills

British Gas has been found to have employed debt-collecting contractors who broke into the homes of vulnerable customers who fell behind on payments to forcibly install prepayment meters during the energy crisis.

An investigation by The Times of London in which a reporter was embedded clandestinely with British Gas contractors from Arvato, a debt-collecting firm tasked with installing prepayment energy meters for those late on their payments, has found that contractors broke into homes to do so.

GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING

‘Everyone’s Hungry for Home’: Family Spends 2 Years Transforming 305-Year-Old Farm Into Their Happy Home

A mom of five and property renovator has built the home of her dreams, a transformed 305-year-old farmhouse that embodies her family’s philosophy: Invest in the people you love. Now, her message is spreading far beyond the walls of her happy home.

California-born Ruth McKeaney, 54, lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Bob. She gave up a career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mom and is now a published author, having transformed a once-derelict farmhouse and 12-acre plot into a grand yet intimate family home with Bob, over the course of almost two years.

COVID RELATED NEWS

The FDA’s New Vaccine Strategy

When the bivalent COVID boosters against Omicron first came out, only those who had received the initial series of shots were eligible to receive them, but uptake was disappointing. Less than 5% of those eligible had taken a bivalent booster by October 2022, and by late January 2023, that had only risen to 16.2%

In the hopes of increasing uptake of the jab, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is now recommending everyone get an annual COVID shot, even if you didn’t receive the initial series

Under the new approach, most people will be advised to get whatever the latest version of the COVID shot is, once a year, just like the flu vaccine. And, as with the flu vaccine, the FDA’s advisory committee will meet each June to determine which SARS-CoV-2 strains should be included in the shot given that fall

Should a particularly dangerous strain emerge, the FDA will roll out an additional emergency jab directed specifically at that strain. Such an emergency dose would then be given in addition to the annual shot

As with the annual flu vaccine, the FDA is not requiring reformulated mRNA shots to undergo additional testing. Reformulations are deemed “safe and effective” based on the original shots. The problem is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has hid and is ignoring hundreds of safety signals found in its post-market data

Might Flu Shots Increase COVID-19 Pandemic Risk?

People who received the trivalent influenza vaccine during the 2008-2009 flu season were between 1.4 and 2.5 times more likely to get infected with pandemic H1N1 in the spring and summer of 2009 than those who did not get the seasonal flu vaccine

A double-blind, placebo-controlled study on ferrets confirmed the results, showing the seasonal influenza vaccine did worsen symptoms after subsequent exposure to the H1N1 virus

A 2011 study found the seasonal flu vaccine may weaken children’s immune systems and increase their chances of getting sick from influenza viruses not included in the vaccine

In a 2012 study, children receiving inactivated influenza vaccines had a 4.4 times higher relative risk of contracting noninfluenza respiratory virus infections in the nine months following their inoculation

A 2020 study found people were 36% more likely to get some form of coronavirus infection if they had been vaccinated against influenza

Long-COVID Mental Health Issues: 2 Main Causes, Low-Cost Treatment, and Natural Ways to Heal

“If I could take one symptom away from all of [my long-COVID patients], I think that would be depression,” said critical care specialist Dr. Joseph Varon, chief of critical care and the COVID-19 department at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

Beyond the physical tribulations and social instability that this condition can bring, long-COVID patients feel that the one thing not getting adequately addressed is the mental health toll the disease inflicts.

CANCEL CULTURE

DeSantis Says Congress Must Investigate DirecTV for Dropping Newsmax

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that Congress should investigate AT&T-owned DirecTV over its decision to drop conservative channel Newsmax.

“I think there should be no ideological litmus test when you have these big companies that have the decision to make or break a news network, or any type of network,” DeSantis said on Jan. 31.

“They will give different rationales for why they don’t want to do it, but the reality is they have so much other content that is very lightly viewed, and yet they keep that on, and it seems it is the One America News and the Newsmax who are being targeted,” DeSantis added. “So I think it does warrant an investigation.”

DirecTV removed Newsmax from its channel lineup overnight on Jan. 24, in a move that came less than a year after the canceling of another conservative network, One America News (OAN) network, on its platform.

The cable provider said it had wanted to keep Newsmax but the channel’s demand for rate increases would have led to price hikes for its customers.

Newsmax has dismissed DirecTV’s claims that the decision to drop the channel was merely a fee dispute.

“This is a blatant act of political discrimination and censorship against Newsmax,” Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax said in a statement. “The most extreme liberal channels, even with tiny ratings, get fees from AT&T’s DirecTV, but Newsmax and OAN need to be deplatformed.”

GOOD NEWS

Couple Quit Corporate Jobs to Save Wife’s Family Ranch on the Ropes—Succeed Making It Profitable Again

Old-fashioned family cattle farms—like the dying embers of a campfire—are on the brink of being snuffed out into ashes in the United States.

But it might not be too late to save them.

So says Avery Claire, 30, who grew up on one before moving to Jersey island, off the coast of France, where she worked in finance and eventually met her husband, Marc, 32. That was until she got a phone call from her dad, Needham Mallory, telling her they were selling the farm she grew up on. Avery wasn’t about to let that happen.

“In the U.S., we lose around 2,000 acres of farm and ranchland every day and I refused to let our family farm become part of that statistic,” she told The Epoch Times. So, to rescue the ranch, she and Marc made a life-altering decision to pull up, quit their jobs, and move to LaGrange, Georgia, in 2019. “Saving the family farm for generations to come was the driving force behind this,” she said.

But that would be easier said than done. They faced challenges on multiple fronts.

For one, although her father and grandfather were cowboys, she was trained in English equestrian and ballet and that skillset didn’t necessarily translate into moving cattle and raising livestock.

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