WORLD NEWS
Tucker Carlson is in Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin!
From TuckerCarlson.com (VIDEO): We’re in Moscow to Interview Vladimir Putin
From the Epoch Times:
Tucker Carlson Confirms Interview With Vladimir Putin
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Feb. 6 confirmed he’s in Russia to interview President Vladimir Putin.
“We’ll be doing that soon,” Mr. Carlson said in a video posted to the X social media website.
Rumors had swirled for days after reports Mr. Carlson was spotted in Moscow.
“There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously. So we thought about it carefully over many months,” Mr. Carlson said.
He said the motivation to interview Mr. Putin stemmed from gaining insight into his mindset. If the interview happens, it would be the first time Mr. Putin is interviewed since Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
“Our duty is to inform people. Two years into a war that’s reshaping the entire world, most Americans are not informed,” Mr. Carlson said.
He noted that many media outlets have interviewed Ukrainian figures, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but few have conducted interviews with Russians.
“Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine, or what his goals are now,” Mr. Carlson said. “They’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in, and we have the right to tell them about it.”
Some of Mr. Carlson’s competitors, including CNN host Erin Burnett, have criticized Mr. Carlson for interviewing Mr. Putin.
“Putin is trying to court the MAGA GOP in the United States. In fact, one of the leaders of the MAGA GOP is in Moscow tonight,“ Ms. Burnett said on her show this week. She added later that Mr. Carlson was ”possibly there in Moscow to interview Putin, definitely there as a Putin-supporting celebrity.”
Mr. Carlson said in his video announcement: “We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States.”
He noted that the video of the interview will be available for free and said Elon Musk, the owner of X, has already promised not to censor the interview in any way once it’s posted to X.
“We’re grateful for that. Western governments, by contrast, will certainly do their best to censor this video on other less-principled platforms because that’s what they do. They are afraid of information they can’t control, but you have no reason to be afraid of it,” he said. “We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview. But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can. And then, like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself.”
Brussels Blinks First: European Union Scraps Key Elements of Green Agenda Amid Standoff with Farmers
The farmer uprisings across the continent have forced the globalist European Union leadership in Brussels to back down from key elements to its green agenda to achieve “net zero” emissions — for now.
Following major wins last year in The Netherlands, tractor protests from farmers secured another significant victory against the globalist agenda on Tuesday, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen scrapping plans to require the agriculture sector to cut methane and nitrogen emissions by a third by 2040.
Brussels is also set to backtrack on plans to cut the use of pesticides in half during the same time frame, which farmers have argued puts them at a disadvantage to foreign agriculture imported into the bloc under free trade deals at cheaper costs due to their countries having less stringent environmental regulations as the EU.
Plans to encourage Europeans to eat less meat, a central theme of the Great Reset movement favored by elites, have also been abandoned.
Commenting on the move, EU chief von der Leyen said per The Telegraph: “Our farmers deserve to be listened to.”
“I know that they are worried about the future of agriculture and their future as farmers. But they also know that agriculture needs to move to a more sustainable model of production so that their farms remain profitable in the years to come”, she told the European Parliament.
However, it is unclear if the concessions made by Brussels on Tuesday will suffice to quell the anger of the farmers, given that they still face over-regulation at both the national and EU levels as well as facing issues from cheap foreign produce, notably from Ukraine, which was granted tariff-free access to the EU market following the Russian invasion.
The farmer protests against the EU’s green agenda, which began in earnest four years ago in The Netherlands, have seen major cities such as Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Rome blockaded by thousands of tractors over the past month, causing supply chain issues and disruptions to urban life.
Yet, the farmers have a broad base of support, with a recent poll finding that nearly 90 per cent of French voters believe that their tractor protests are justified.
The support for the farmers has sparked panic among the neo-liberal factions in Brussels for fear of turning the upcoming European Union Parliament elections in June into a referendum on the failures of the green agenda.
Iran Announces Construction on Another Nuclear Reactor
Iranian Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) Vice President Mohammad Eslami announced on Monday that construction has begun on a fourth nuclear reactor in the city of Isfahan.
According to Eslami, the “process of pouring concrete for the foundation of the reactor” is now underway. His office told Iranian state media that, when completed, the ten-megawatt reactor will test fuel, produce industrial radioisotopes, and process pharmaceuticals.
Isfahan currently has three research reactors. Iran has one operational nuclear power plant, a 3,000-megawatt facility in Bushehr. A second reactor using Russian designs has been under construction at Bushehr since late 2019, and a third is planned after that.
Last Thursday, Eslami announced that an entirely new nuclear power complex is planned in the city of Sirik, and it will be more powerful than the existing reactor at Bushehr, with a capacity of about 5,000 megawatts.
“We must reach the production capacity of 20,000 megawatts of nuclear power in the country by the year 2041,” Eslami said, suggesting that at least one more reactor will be planned after Sirik and the Bushehr expansion.
Iran International, a dissident media organization, was highly skeptical of Eslami’s claims on Sunday, pointing out that the price tag for the Sirik reactor would be at least $20 billion — a difficult bill for Iran to pay given international sanctions against its nuclear missile program.
“The difficulties Iran has faced in building new power plants in the last ten years raise doubts about whether the 25,000 megawatts of new electricity that the previous national development plan sought to bring about can be achieved,” Iran International said, noting that Iran claimed it would generate five percent of its power with nuclear and other non-fossil-fuel methods by 2021 but actually managed only one percent.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in November that Iran now has enough 60 percent enriched uranium to build three nuclear bombs if it took the relatively quick and straightforward step of refining it to 90 percent.
An even more alarming assessment published by the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security on Monday said Iran has already refined enough uranium to weapons-grade to produce one bomb within a week and six bombs within a month.
The Institute combined this level of uranium enrichment with Iran’s hostile international posture and lack of transparency to conclude that an “extreme danger” of Tehran producing a nuclear weapon now exists.
At least 22 dead in Pakistan blasts day before election
Two bomb explosions have killed at least 22 people in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on the eve of general elections, officials say.
The first blast killed 14 people in front of an independent candidate’s party office in Pishin district.
A second explosion left eight people dead in Qillah Saif Ullah district, about 150km (93 miles) away. Many others were injured in the two blasts.
The election has been marred by violence and claims of poll-rigging.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack in Pishin, a town about 50km from the city of Quetta and 100km south-east of the Afghan border. The provincial authorities said 25 people were also wounded.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Appeals Court Rules Trump Doesn’t Have Immunity in J6 Case
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on Feb. 6 that former President Donald Trump was not immune to prosecution for conduct that the Justice Department (DOJ) included in its indictment related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“We have balanced former President Trump’s asserted interests in executive immunity against the vital public interests that favor allowing this prosecution to proceed,” the decision reads.
“We conclude that ‘[c]oncerns of public policy, especially as illuminated by our history and the structure of our government’ compel the rejection of his claim of immunity in this case,” the judges added, citing precedents.
The appeal was heard by Judges Karen Henderson, Michelle Childs, and Florence Pan. The decision was unanimous.
Notably, the judges seemed to sidestep interpreting presidential immunity as it pertains to criminal prosecutions. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld broad immunity from civil suits, but has not established immunity from criminal prosecution.
“For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the judges wrote. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
Here, the court stated, President Trump bears the burden of establishing the case for his immunity. He advanced arguments based on jurisdiction, functional policy considerations related to separation of powers, and the impeachment clause, and the judges rejected all three.
The ruling will likely be appealed by President Trump’s attorneys, who decried the Biden administration’s prosecution as encouraging cycles of recrimination for future presidents. The Supreme Court previously declined Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request to fast-track the case, but it could end up there regardless.
Anticipating such a petition, the appeals court has directed the court clerk to “withhold issuance of the mandate through February 12, 2024,” holding onto the case instead of handing it back to the district court.
If President Trump files an application for review before the Supreme Court by the incredibly tight deadline of Feb. 12, the appeals court stays its mandate until the high court has had a chance to weigh in.
The judges added that a petition for a rehearing in the appeals court would not result in withholding the mandate, but a rehearing after the mandate has already been issued may result in a recall of the mandate.
This particular appeal stalled President Trump’s D.C. trial, which had a tentative start date of March 4 but was removed from the court’s calendar by Feb. 2.
President Trump has repeatedly warned that ruling against him would have dire implications for the office.
“If immunity is not granted to a president, every president that leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party,” he wrote in all capital letters in one of his many TruthSocial posts on the topic. “Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function!”
The Trump Campaign issued a statement shortly after the decision.
“If immunity is not granted to a President, every future President who leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party. Without complete immunity, a President of the United States would not be able to properly function,” stated spokesperson Steven Cheung.
“Prosecuting a President for official acts violates the Constitution and threatens the bedrock of our Republic. President Trump respectfully disagrees with the DC Circuit’s decision and will appeal it in order to safeguard the Presidency and the Constitution.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz Introduces Resolution Saying Trump Didn’t Engage in ‘Insurrection’
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) introduced a resolution on Feb. 6 to “authoritatively” state that former President Donald Trump did not commit “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
The issue of insurrection has been raised in some 60 venues over the past six months and in two days will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court as activists have contended that President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, preclude him from running for office based on a Civil War-era statute.
“President Trump did not commit an insurrection,” Mr. Gaetz said. “Congress has a unique role in making that declaration. It’s not the job of the states and especially not the job of some bureaucrats in Colorado to make this assessment and interfere with the rights of voters to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice.”
The bill now has 63 co-sponsors, and Mr. Gaetz added that “many more” are expected to join in the coming days. Many who joined Mr. Gaetz to announce the resolution at a press conference were vocal supporters of President Trump, echoing his claims that the effort has been part of a “political witch hunt.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said the challenges to President Trump’s eligibility on the basis that Jan. 6 was an insurrection are the work of “extreme Democrats” who are “shredding the Constitution in the process.”
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas) claimed the ballot disqualification effort was a “desperate fourth-quarter Hail Mary” to knock down the leading Republican candidate.
“To block him from any ballot in any state is election interference, pure and simple,” said Mr. Babin.
Other representatives stated that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection, and President Trump held no responsibility for any violence that occurred that day.
The 14th Amendment was ratified in the wake of the Civil War, granting citizenship and equal rights to all those born and naturalized in the United States.Section 3 was added to prevent those who abandoned their office to join the Confederacy from returning to their posts without a two-thirds vote from Congress. That section has seldom been used outside of a Civil War context, leaving many unanswered legal questions that interested parties hope the Supreme Court will answer once it hears oral arguments on Feb. 8.
In an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court, 179 congressional Republicans argued that Congress has the right to vote on a Section 3 qualification all the way up to inauguration day, and that the statute bars one from holding office, not running for office. This interpretation would allow a candidate to whom Section 3 applies to be included on all the primary ballots, run in the general election, be elected president, and then have Congress determine whether he will be allowed to serve as president by a vote in both Houses.
Some attorneys for President Trump have also argued that the impeachment vote in Congress served to exonerate him. A week after Jan. 6, the House voted to impeach President Trump, charging him with incitement to insurrection. He was then acquitted in the Senate. Some judges have dismissed the argument, finding that a vote to acquit President Trump of incitement to insurrection was not the same as a two-thirds vote from Congress to allow President Trump to hold office.
Notably, the vote would only come after it is clear that the candidate has engaged in insurrection or is otherwise disqualified under Section 3.
Mayorkas Impeachment Effort Fails on House Floor in Blow to GOP Leaders
House Republicans failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday for his “willful and systemic refusal to comply” with federal immigration law and lying to Congress about the border being “secure.”
The lower chamber deadlocked on two articles of impeachment against President Biden’s chief border enforcement officer nearly along party lines, with 214 Republicans voting in favor of the resolution and 215 Democrats voting against.
Mayorkas, 64, is the second Cabinet official to be impeached by the House — with the last being Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876, who resigned while facing allegations of corruption.
Reps. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), and Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) joined with the Democrats in opposing it, helped by a surprise appearance from Rep. Al Green of Texas, who had been absent due to illness.
Democratic lawmakers heckled their Republican colleagues with cries of “order” as the clock ticked down, with House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) and others speaking with Gallagher to try to dissuade him.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is currently receiving treatments for cancer, was absent. Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who had been absent, returned just in time for the vote following a mid-January car accident and was seen wearing a neck brace on the floor.
That gave the House Republican conference only a two-vote majority for potential holdout members.
In a floor speech Tuesday, McClintock said America’s founders “didn’t want political disputes to become impeachments because that would shatter the separation of powers that vests the enforcement of the laws with the president.”
Haley loses to ‘none of these candidates’ in Nevada GOP primary
In one of the strangest elections in recent times, candidate Nikki Haley on Feb. 6 technically lost to “None of Those Candidates” in Nevada’s Republican primary, an unsanctioned contest that did not feature GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.
The race was called at 12:01 a.m. Eastern. “None of These Candidates” won 61 percent to Haley’s 32 percent, with 53 percent reporting.
Ms. Haley’s embarrassing setback in the Silver State will have no real effect on the rest of the race—given that no delegates will be awarded—other than providing additional fodder for campaign rhetoric.
But political analysts have said that if Ms. Haley made a poor showing in the “meaningless” primary, it could influence whether she decides to remain in the race.
Regardless of the vote total, “None” cannot be listed as the winner, officials said, so that honor would belong to the second-place finisher.
Ms. Haley, formerly a United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor, is opposing fellow Republican Presdient Trump, who chose to run in the caucus two days after the primary.
The Feb. 8 caucus is the only contest that counts; it will award delegates to the winner at the Republican Party’s national convention this summer. Candidates were required to choose between the two options, but voters were allowed to vote in both contests.
The state GOP enacted those rules in defiance of the state-mandated primary that Democrat-dominant lawmakers approved. Democrats held a separate primary, which the incumbent, President Joe Biden, easily won.
Ms. Haley’s campaign issued a statement on Feb. 5, explaining part of her rationale for avoiding the Republican-run Nevada caucus.
“We have not spent a dime nor an ounce of energy on Nevada,” Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, said in the emailed campaign memo. She said Ms. Haley was refusing to pay the state GOP its required $55,000 caucus-filing fee “to participate in a process that is rigged for Trump.”
Bruce Parks, chairman of Nevada’s Washoe County GOP, denied that allegation. He said the caucus process is fair to all who opted to participate.
Report: RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to Step Down After South Carolina Primary
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman for the Republican National Committee (RNC), has reportedly told former President Donald Trump that she will step down from her position following the South Carolina primary later this month.
Should Ronna McDaniel follow through on her alleged pledge to leave, the former president will then reportedly promote the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Michael Whatley, as her replacement, according to several sources who spoke with the New York Times. A new election will take place within the committee.
The sources said that Trump prefers Whatley due to the two reportedly aligning with each other on views about the 2020 election being allegedly “stolen.”
“Ms. McDaniel and Mr. Trump met at Mar-a-Lago on Monday. He posted on his social media website, Truth Social, shortly after their meeting, all but declaring that changes are coming,” noted the Times.
“In the post, he described her as ‘my friend” and said she was ‘now Head of the RNC, and I’ll be making a decision the day after the South Carolina Primary as to my recommendations for RNC Growth.’”
“Ms. McDaniel had been considering leaving before the end of her term for some time, according to multiple people familiar with the matter,” the Times added. “And despite animosity toward Ms. McDaniel from some of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, he has been uncharacteristically gentle as he has begun to acknowledge her imminent departure in public comments.”
As Breitbart News reported, the RNC’s latest filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) showed that it had “just $8 million in cash on hand and was $1.8 million in debt.” McDaniel’s future within the party was also a “central topic of discussion at the RNC meetings in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week.”
“Those meetings were preceded by the Restoring National Conference summit in Las Vegas a week earlier, which was a Turning Point USA event meant to serve as a ‘wakeup call’ to the RNC and McDaniel,” it said. “Many of the 168 party officials from around the country and U.S. territories and 75 prominent Republican county chairs attended the event.”
RFK Jr. Ramps Up Criticism of Trump Policies
Former President Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” when he took office in 2017, but he was “intimidated by bureaucrats” at federal agencies and did not accomplish that objective, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Feb. 5.
Speaking at a voter rally in Tucson, where he collected signatures to get on the Arizona ballot, the independent presidential candidate said President Trump was “earnest” when he vowed to “drain the swamp,” but it was “business as usual” during his term.
John Bolton, who President Trump appointed as a national security adviser, is “the template for a swamp creature,” Mr. Kennedy said. Scott Gottlieb, who President Trump named to run the FDA, “was Pfizer’s business partner” and eventually returned to Pfizer “to collect his payoff,” Mr. Kennedy said.
Mr. Kennedy said that President Trump had more lobbyists running federal agencies than any president in U.S. history.
“You can’t reform them when you’ve got the swamp creatures running them, and I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do something different,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“I can fix this country. All of these agencies that have intimidated normal politicians, I have sued every single one of them. I’ve sued the NIH (the National Institutes of Health), the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and the EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency), and we just sued the FCC (the Federal Communications Commission) and won in the federal Court of Appeals,” Mr. Kennedy added.
In the early stages of his campaign, while running as a Democrat, Mr. Kennedy exchanged praise with President Trump.
Mr. Kennedy complimented President Trump’s debating skills and criticized President Joe Biden for not debating his Democrat primary opponents. By avoiding primary debates, President Biden would not be effectively prepared to take to the debate stage with President Trump if both men gained the nominations of their respective parties, Mr. Kennedy told The Epoch Times.
President Trump called Mr. Kennedy “a very smart person” and noted “he’s hit a little bit of a nerve,” “his heart is in the right place,” and “he’s doing really well.”
Trump Codefendant Joins Push to Disqualify Fani Willis for ‘Prejudicial’ Behavior
As Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis moved to cancel a hearing that would further spotlight allegations of misconduct in the high profile election case she is prosecuting against former President Donald Trump and 15 codefendants, several of those codefendants are arguing that an evidentiary hearing needs to be held.
David Shafer, former chair of the Republican Party in Georgia and one of the alternate electors who cast a ballot for President Trump in 2020, filed a lengthy motion to disqualify Ms. Willis on Feb. 5.
He argued that Ms. Willis “has engaged in a pattern of prosecutorial, forensic misconduct” that warrants the disqualification of her and her entire team, citing dozens of news articles and quoting Ms. Willis’s interviews extensively.
“All of the causes for the disqualification are self-inflicted blows,” the motion reads. He alleged that Ms. Willis’s public statements about the case have strayed “wildly” from what is proper, pointing to multiple interviews in which she referred to some of the codefendants as “fake electors.”
Mr. Shafer’s argument is similar to one filed by attorneys for President Trump, who argue that Ms. Willis has made extrajudicial statements to inject “racial animus“ and prejudice into the case in a manner unbefitting a public prosecutor. Both motions highlight a speech Ms. Willis gave at the Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta on Jan. 14, where she repeatedly invoked God while implying her critics were racially motivated.
Mr. Shafer’s motion also references allegations made by codefendant Michael Roman in a Jan. 8 court filing, which first drew attention to the romantic relationship between Ms. Willis and Nathan Wade, an attorney she appointed special prosecutor to take a lead role in the election case.
Mr. Shafer’s attorneys have taken issue with the way Ms. Willis chose to respond to those allegations, by making “the most offensive and incendiary allegations against her accusers” and to “infect” and “taint” the jury pool and allege that anyone questioning her relationship must be doing so “for racist purposes.”
As such, Mr. Shafer cannot get a fair trial in Fulton County, his attorneys argue. They requested a change of venue in a separate motion. According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Mr. Shafer is hoping to transfer his case to Burke County or Peach County, both of which voted for President Trump over President Joe Biden in 2020. In Fulton County, more than 70 percent of voters had voted for President Biden.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Super Bowl LVIII is already breaking records in the amount of money being laid on the line at sportsbooks nationwide, with a shocking $23.1 billion in bets.
The New York Post claims that one in four Americans will gamble on the Super Bowl, adding up to 68 million Americans placing a wager on the game’s outcome. That is a massive 35 percent jump over the $16 billion in bets for last year’s big game.
Even though gambling has pretty much been legalized everywhere, the Post also noted that a large amount of betting is still being down outside the sportsbooks and betting apps. The paper reported that $1.5 billion is being wagered through legal sources, but that is only a tiny slice of the estimated $23.1 billion in bets the game is drawing.
So, why the illegal gambling underground still a thing? You can thank the government and sportsbooks for their high taxes and fees for that, the paper says. Many gamblers still prefer illegal betting because they can avoid the extra costs and reap more of their winnings.
Still, Chris Grove of Ellers & Krejcik says that legal gambling is still in a growth phase.
“Our view is that the regulated sports betting market is well on its way to eclipsing the illegal sports betting market in the U.S. – it’s just a matter of the major remaining states like California and Texas passing bills and a few more years for regulated sports betting operators to fully connect with customers,” Grove told the Post.
“With that said,” he continued, “there will likely always be a substantial illegal market for sports betting in the U.S., as the illegal operator holds a number of advantages over the regulated casino sportsbook, such as the ability to offer credit, the willingness to provide a level of anonymity, and the lack of substantial tax rates weighing down profits.”
Even as so many other states have jumped onto the gambling bandwagon, several large states have resisted the siren call for more tax revenue, including Texas, California, Georgia, and North Carolina.
“It’s projected that 12.8 percent of the overall betting action — the most — will take place in Las Vegas, where the game is held, while 12.4 percent is expected in New York and 9.6 percent in New Jersey,” the paper reported.
It is also estimated that 42.7 million Americans will place bets with legal sportsbooks, even though 36.5 million will stick with their private “squares” contests at work or other betting pools.
The number of people who say they intend to watch the Super Bowl is up, too.
The paper says that some 73 million Americans are preparing to tune in, nearly a ten percent increase over last year’s viewership. Some attribute that to the fact that Taylor Swift will be at the game in Las Vegas to root for her boyfriend, Chiefs star Travis Kelce.
No, The NFL Isn’t Banning Taylor Swift From The Super Bowl
A story has gone viral on social media in recent days claiming the NFL is considering a “ban” that would keep music star Taylor Swift from attending the Super Bowl on February 11. Swift is expected to attend the game to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce with the Kansas City Chiefs, as they take on the San Francisco 49ers. But the story is completely fake.
“NFL Reportedly Considering Banning Taylor Swift from Super Bowl, ‘We’re Tired of Her’,” reads the headline that’s spreading far and wide on Facebook.
But the headline is a screenshot from a website called Esspots, which labels its articles as “satire.” An account called SpaceX Fanclub has gotten over 19,000 comments on the fake article, with most people not realizing it’s a joke.
“Ridiculous! She is an extremely successful, young, kind, generous, talented business woman, just trying to live her life. Stop with the hate!!” on defender of Swift’s honor wrote on Facebook.
“She is a US citizen and has every right to be there if she chooses. That is discrimination at its best!!!” another Swift defender wrote, believing the story is real.
But not everyone was so supportive of Swift.
“Amen, I’m tired of her too !!” wrote one rare dissenter on Facebook.
Swift has become an unusual lightning rod for controversy in recent years, with some conspiracy theorists online floating the idea that the musician is a “psy-op” who only became popular due to artificial boosting from the U.S. intelligence community. Fox News has run multiple segments providing oxygen to the baseless conspiracy theory, even suggesting Joe Biden was also behind some kind of nefarious plot to indoctrinate young people into voting for Democrats.“Have you ever wondered why or how she blew up like this?” Fox News host Jesse Watters asked viewers about Swift on January 9.
Watters played a heavily edited clip from a 2019 NATO conference where a civilian academic who studies how information spreads on the internet gave Swift as an example of an influential person. Anyone who watches the full presentation online can see the presenter was merely floating Swift in a hypothetical scenario, not suggesting that NATO was actually using Swift to influence American opinions.
“The first one, and the most common [example of influence], is working with famous people or influencers to share information of a particular message. I include Taylor Swift in here because she’s a fairly influential online person, I don’t know if you’ve heard of her,” the presenter said jokingly.
But conspiracy theorists, including Watters, insisted this presentation was evidence of something nefarious.
“The Pentagon psy-op unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset,” Watters told his viewers.
While Swift did endorse Biden in the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Biden, she’s largely steered clear of making bold political statements. And, again, there’s absolutely no evidence that Swift is some kind of “psy-op” for the CIA or any other shadowy government entity.
The Super Bowl is just over a week away, and Swift is expected to be there at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to support Kelce. There are even extensive social media posts examining how quickly Swift will need to leave her last concert in Japan to get back to the U.S. for the game in time. And that’s not fake news.
Credit Card and Auto Loan Delinquencies Surge on Back of Bidenflation
Spending by American consumers has kept the economy humming at an unexpectedly fast clip over the past year. The dark side is that credit card and auto loan delinquencies are surging.
“Both auto loans and credit cards have seen particular worsening of new delinquencies, with transition rates now above pre-pandemic levels,” the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in a post on its Liberty Street Economics blog.
The serious delinquency rate—meaning, loans that are more than 90 days overdue—for credit cards jumped to 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, up from four percent a year earlier, data from the New York Fed showed Tuesday.
The serious delinquency rate for auto loans increased from 2.2 percent to 2.7 percent.
“Credit card and auto loan transitions into delinquency are still rising above pre-pandemic levels,” said Wilbert van der Klaauw, economic research advisor at the New York Fed. “This signals increased financial stress, especially among younger and lower-income households.”
The high inflation that has haunted the economy throughout Biden’s tenure in the White House is playing a role. Prices of motor vehicles soared, inflating auto loan balances. The average amount borrowed on a car loan jumped 11 percent in 2021 and another 10 percent in 2022, according to the New York Fed.
By the end of 2022, the average initial loan amount on a car purchased with financing was nearly $24,000, up from $18,000 in the first quarter of 2020.
Prices have begun to fall but that might also increase delinquencies because it lowers the resale value of cars, making it harder for consumers to pay off loans when they face financial distress.
Overall credit card balances rose by $50 billion to $1.13 trillion in the fourth quarter. Auto loan balances climbed by $12 billion to $1.61 trillion.
While higher prices pushed up loan balances, higher interest rates have made those balances more costly for borrowers. Inflation, in other words, has been a one-two punch to U.S. consumers, hitting them first on prices of goods and second on the cost of debt that financed the purchases.
Delinquencies on credit cards are rising particularly sharply among Millenials. But on auto loans, the delinquencies are broader and have been rising sharply.
Credit card delinquencies have risen more quickly for Millennials than for other generations.
The share of auto loans to Millenials going into delinquency is also rising more sharply than for other generations, although the generation gap is less pronounced.
“All generations have delinquency transition rates that have been rising sharply over the past two years, with those for Millennials and Baby Boomers (born 1946-64) now being above their pre-pandemic levels,” the New York Fed said.
“Loans opened during 2022 and 2023 are, so far, performing worse than loans opened in earlier years, perhaps because buyers during these years faced higher car prices and may have been pressed to borrow more, and at higher interest rates,” the Liberty Street blogpost said.
HEALTH
Please note: The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for advice from your physician or other health care professional.
RECALL WARNING:
Centers for Disease Control Warns of Listeria Outbreak in Dairy Products
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a warning to Americans
of a listeria outbreak in dairy products sold nationwide.
The outbreak has already killed two people and has largely been spread by contaminated cheese, crema, and yogurt made by Rizo-Lopez Foods, which has voluntarily recalled the items. The products are sold in a number of supermarket chains, including Whole Foods and Food City. Per the Daily Mail, 26 Americans have been stricken with the virus, with another 23 hospitalized in 11 states. Two deaths have been reported in Texas and California.
The body is recalling 61 products including cheese, yogurt, and sour cream (crema) sold under 13 brand names – including 365 Whole Foods Market and Food City. The items of concern were sold between June 2014 to December 2023.
The agency urged people to throw out any affected products, clean your refrigerator and surfaces, and call a health care provider right away if you suffer any symptoms. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, tiredness, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, or seizures.
The CDC asked people who were sickened about the foods they had eaten within a month of becoming ill, though not all patients were surveyed. The agency states that it is still conducting interviews. Of the 22 patients who were interviewed, 16 – 73 percent – reported eating queso fresco, cotija, or other similar cheeses.
The age of patients has ranged from a one-year-old to an 88-year-old, with an average age of 52. About 58 percent of those infected were female, while 42 percent were male. Of those affected, 71 percent were white Americans, five percent were Native American, and 24 percent were of another race.
The specific brand most listed for having caused infection was the cheese product Don Francisco. According to the Associated Press, the California cheese company Rizo-Lopez Foods has been under scrutiny since the virus was first detected in 2014.
“New lab and inspection evidence linked soft cheeses and other dairy products made by Rizo-Lopez Foods of Modesto, California, to the outbreak, which was first detected in June 2014,” it said.
“On Monday, the company recalled more than 60 soft cheeses, yogurt and sour cream sold under the brands Tio Francisco, Don Francisco, Rizo Bros, Rio Grande, Food City, El Huache, La Ordena, San Carlos, Campesino, Santa Maria, Dos Ranchitos, Casa Cardenas, and 365 Whole Foods Market,” it added.
Is Zinc Deficiency Behind the Dramatic Spike in Yeast Infections?
3 out of 4 women are impacted by this infection, and this deficiency is the No. 1 culprit. The good news: In a pilot study, this cream prevented reinfection in 5 out of 6 actual cases.
Three out of four women will have a vaginal yeast infection in their lifetime and an estimated 140 million women worldwide suffer recurrent infections
According to recent research, vaginal yeast infections may be triggered by zinc insufficiency. Candida feeds on zinc, and when zinc is low, it releases an inflammatory zinc-scavenging protein called pH-regulated antigen (Pra1). Pra1-induced inflammation is what causes the hallmark burning and itching that goes along with a vaginal yeast infection
In a pilot study, commercially available zinc-containing vaginal cream prevented yeast reinfection in five out of six women. A larger clinical trial is planned to confirm the results
Other supplements that can be helpful in the treatment of Candida include caprylic acid, berberine, echinacea, pau d’arco and aloe vera gel
A yeast infection will produce an odorless, white, curd-like discharge from your vagina along with itching and swelling of the vagina and vulva, while cloudy, foul-smelling urine and frequent painful urination are hallmarks of a urinary tract infection. Common causes and treatments of UTIs are also addressed
Power Mall Product of Interest: Zinc & Copper Re-Natured®
California Could Legalize Medicinal ‘Magic’ Mushrooms
A pair of California lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill Tuesday to allow people 21 and older to consume psychedelic mushrooms under professional supervision as part of an agenda to tackle the state’s mental health and substance use crises.
It comes after Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom last year vetoed legislation that would have decriminalized the possession and personal use of several plant-based hallucinogens, including psychedelic mushrooms. It was the first time the proposal by Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener made it through the legislature after years of stalling. In his veto message, Newsom, who championed legalizing cannabis in 2016, asked lawmakers to work on therapeutic guidelines and regulations.
Now Wiener has teamed up with Republican Assemblymember Marie Waldron on a proposal to allow participations to consume psilocybin — the hallucinogenic component in what’s known as psychedelic mushrooms — under the supervision of a licensed therapist. The bill also would include dimethyltryptamine (DMT), MDMA and mescaline.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Google Claims Government-Backed Hackers Targeted Apple iPhone Vulnerabilities
Google’s Threat Analysis Group claims to have uncovered a series of government-backed hacking operations that exploited previously unknown vulnerabilities in Apple’s iPhone OS, using spyware allegedly developed by Barcelona-based startup Variston.
TechCrunch reports that in a recent article published by Google’s Threat Analysis Group — a team dedicated to investigating nation-backed cyber threats — a European startup named Variston has been identified at the core of a sophisticated espionage campaign targeting Apple iPhone users. The campaign reportedly leveraged three “zero-day” vulnerabilities — security flaws unknown to Apple at the time of exploitation—to install spyware on victims’ devices. This operation, detected in March 2023, specifically targeted individuals in Indonesia through a malicious SMS link.
Variston, which has previously come under Google’s scrutiny in 2022 and 2023, allegedly developed the hacking tools utilized in these campaigns. Despite losing multiple employees over the past year, as reported by former staff under conditions of anonymity to TechCrunch, Variston’s activities and client list, particularly its government customers, have remained shrouded in secrecy.
The company’s association with Protected AE, a UAE-based cybersecurity firm, highlights the collaborative and international nature of the spyware market. Protected AE integrates Variston’s Heliconia software into comprehensive spyware solutions, marketed directly to government entities.
Variston, founded in 2018 in Barcelona by Ralf Wegener and Ramanan Jayaraman, and the acquisition of Italian zero-day research company Truel IT, illustrates the rapid development and increasing influence of European firms in the global spyware market. Despite the focus on Israeli companies like NSO Group in recent years, Google’s report highlights the significant role of European entities like Variston, Cy4Gate, RCS Lab, and Negg in supplying surveillance tools to government customers worldwide.
In its report, Google wrote: “Commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) are enabling the proliferation of dangerous hacking tools. The harm is not hypothetical. Spyware vendors point to their tools’ legitimate use in law enforcement and counterterrorism. However, spyware deployed against journalists, human rights defenders, dissidents, and opposition party politicians — what Google refers to as ‘high risk users’ — has been well documented.”
Google added: “While the number of users targeted by spyware is small compared to other types of cyber threat activity, the follow-on effects are much broader. This type of focused targeting threatens freedom of speech, a free press, and the integrity of elections worldwide.”
SURVEILLANCE STATE
2024 Is the New 1984: Big Brother and the Rise of the Security Industrial Complex
“Big Brother is Watching You.”―George Orwell, 1984
2024 is the new 1984.
Forty years past the time that George Orwell envisioned the stomping boot of Big Brother, the police state is about to pass off the baton to the surveillance state.
Fueled by a melding of government and corporate power—the rise of the security industrial complex—this watershed moment sounds a death knell for our privacy rights.
An unofficial fourth branch of government, the Surveillance State came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and beyond those of any other government agency save the military.
It operates beyond the reach of the president, Congress and the courts, and it marches in lockstep with the corporate elite who really call the shots in Washington, DC.
This is the new face of tyranny in America: all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful.
Tread cautiously.
Empowered by advances in surveillance technology and emboldened by rapidly expanding public-private partnerships between law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, and the private sector, the Surveillance State is making the fictional world of 1984, Orwell’s dystopian nightmare, our looming reality.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Growing Potatoes: What You Need to Know
Learn everything you need to know about growing potatoes, including when to plant potatoes, how to plant potatoes and common potato pests. MOTHER’S vegetable garden shares the history and horticulture of how to grow potatoes: nutritious, versatile, far from fattening, and easy to grow.
Connect with an age-old process and the life cycle of plants to make fragrant, textured paper.
2ND AMENDMENT
Gun Owners Sue New York Over Permit Restrictions
A group of gun owners filed a lawsuit against New York over state laws that prohibit non-residents from obtaining a license to carry firearms in the state.
Under current state law, only residents of the Empire State may obtain a firearm license. The state does not have reciprocity, meaning it will not honor other state permits.
Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation filed a federal lawsuit Monday in the Northern District of New York challenging the ban. Among the plaintiffs include Newsmax’s Carl Higbie, who is listed as an individual plaintiff.
“The State of New York and its cadre of anti-gun politicians have done everything in their power to weaken and outright ban the Second Amendment within their borders,” Gun Owners of America’s Senior Vice President Erich Pratt said in a statement. “The Supreme Court has made clear that the right to bear arms extends to the public square, and this right is for all Americans, not just those who are residents of individual states.”
The lawsuit argues the state’s prohibition on non-residents applying for a gun permit to possess or carry firearms violates both the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. The lawsuit alleges the state allows “New Yorkers to exercise enumerated rights that are denied to (but are held by) all other Americans.”
“Second, New York does not honor the permit of any other state, a scheme that is plainly unconstitutional under Bruen, and which violates the constitutional requirement that New York grant Full Faith and Credit to the concealed carry permits issued by other states,” the lawsuit continues.
A similar lawsuit has been filed in California by the California Rifle & Pistol Association and multiple gun rights organizations against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Among the plaintiffs in the case is a Florida resident who frequently travels to California and alleges that his carry permit was denied due to his status as a non-resident. California does allow non-residents to transport firearms within the confines of the state, unlike New York.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Biden Administration Pressured Amazon to Censor COVID-19 Books: Emails
Top officials in President Joe Biden’s administration pressured Amazon to censor some books about COVID-19, according to newly disclosed emails.
“Who can we talk to about the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation of [sic] Amazon?” Andrew Slavitt, President Biden’s senior adviser for responding to COVID-19, wrote to Amazon on March 2, 2021, the tranche of missives shows.
Mr. Slavitt said in another message that officials had searched on Amazon for “vaccines.”
“I see what comes up. I haven’t looked beyond that, but if that’s what’s on the surface, it’s concerning,” he wrote.
Zach Butterworth, another White House official, told Amazon that he searched “vaccine” on Amazon and found a certain book, which he attached, as the top result.
“When I click on the product page I don’t see any CDC warning,” he added. CDC is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That same day, internal Amazon emails show the company opted against carrying out “manual intervention” in response to the White House concerns because it would be “too visible” and “further compound the Harry/Sally narrative.”
Amazon removed Ryan T. Anderson’s book “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment” just weeks earlier, sparking a flood of negative stories, because it “frame[d] LGBTQ+ identity as a mental illness.”
The Amazon official said he or she had asked company employees to place a box directing people to the CDC’s website on more pages. The official said officials were considering tagging content with labels, like Facebook and Twitter do, but did not want to disclose that consideration to the White House “to avoid boxing in.”
Another internal email explained that Amazon did not specifically address content about vaccines in its guidelines and that Amazon, as a retailer, “provide our customers with access to a variety of viewpoints, including books that some customers may find objectionable.”
White House officials later met with Amazon officials, although it’s unclear what was discussed in the meeting.
Among the questions the White House submitted ahead of the meeting was about a line in the Amazon guidelines that stated, “We do not allow descriptive content meant to mislead customers.”
“Doesn’t this line in your policy include the spread of misleading information about vaccination?” the White House asked, according to one of the emails.
Amazon was also prepared to ask whether the Biden administration was asking the company to remove books or was more concerned about the order of listings in search results.
On the same day the Amazon-White House meeting was scheduled, according to an Amazon email, the company enabled a “Do Not Promote” effort for “anti-vax books whose primary purpose is to persuade readers vaccines are unsafe or ineffective.”
A review of nine titles resulted in the removal of one over it violating the company’s COVID-19 policy, the email stated.
Amazon did not respond to emailed questions, including which book it removed.
After the meeting, Amazon officials said they had been taking a closer look at books “related to vaccine misinformation” and “debating additional steps Amazon might want to take to reduce the visibility of these titles.”
One official wrote that officials were “feeling pressure from the White House” on the matter.
The emails were released by the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
“Amazon caved to the pressure from the Biden White House to censor speech,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the panel, said in a statement.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
CANCEL CULTURE
An Oklahoma broadcaster for high school basketball was awarded $25 million in a defamation lawsuit filed against a local newspaper that accused him of muttering racial slurs on the air after members of a team took a knee to protest against America during a game.
The incident occurred in March of 2021 when members of the Norman High School girls basketball team took a knee to protest against the United States during the national anthem ahead of the game. The broadcast team of Scott Sapulpa and Matt Rowan was in the booth at the time, and listeners were shocked when one of them began blasting the girls in a racial epithet-tinged tirade.
“They’re kneeling? F–king n—-s. I hope Norman gets their ass kicked. F–k them. I hope they lose. They’re gonna kneel like that?” one of the broadcasters was heard saying on the livestream of the game. The comments naturally caused an outrage.
In its reporting on the offensive broadcast, The Oklahoman newspaper reported that it was Sapula who was heard on the air making the racist comments. The report fingering Sapula was live for only a few hours before the paper corrected the story and properly identified Rowan, Sapula’s broadcast partner, as the one who actually made the comments.
The paper published its first story identifying Sapula as the ranter at 11 a.m. It updated the story at 12:37, adding Sapula’s name, but by three p.m., Sapula’s name was removed when doubts were raised. By that evening, Rowan admitted it was his voice heard dissing the high school girls for taking a knee, and he made the comments during an adverse diabetic reaction.
Despite the correction, Sapula sued, saying that his reputation was irreparably damaged as a result of being wrongfully identified as the on-air racist ranter, the New York Postreported.
On Jan. 5, a jury agreed with Sapula and awarded him a $25 million settlement against newspaper chain Gannett, owner of The Oklahoman. The jury ordered the chain to pay Sapula $5 million in actual damages and another $20 million in punitive damages.
“Their entire culture, we’ve seen in this case, is profits over people,” Sapula’s attorney, Michael Barkett, said as he argued the case. “Their power is what blinds them from telling the truth. They think they can get away with it.”
Gannett’s attorney, Bob Nelson, warned that such a huge settlement would damage small newspapers everywhere.
“Newspapers are made up of people, and people make mistakes. Mistakes happen,” Nelson exclaimed. “Gannett is made up of people — over 11,000 people. When you punish Gannett, you’re punishing all those small-town newspaper editors.”
Gannett spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton also blasted the ruling, saying, “There was no evidence presented to the jury that The Oklahoman acted with any awareness that what was reported was fake or with any intention to harm the plaintiff in this case.
ICYMI
Jury Finds Jennifer Crumbley, the Michigan School Shooter’s Mother, Guilty of Manslaughter
A Michigan jury convicted a school shooter’s mother of involuntary manslaughter Tuesday in the killings of four students in 2021, making her the first parent in the U.S. to be held responsible for a child carrying out a school attack.
Prosecutors say Jennifer Crumbley had a duty under Michigan state law to prevent her son, who was 15 at the time, from harming others. She was accused of failing to secure a gun and ammunition at home and failing to get help for Ethan Crumbley’s mental health.
The guilty verdicts — one for each student slain at Oxford High School — were returned after roughly 11 hours of jury deliberations.
Jennifer Crumbley, 45, looked down and shook her head slightly as each juror was polled after the verdicts were read.
“We all know that this was one of the hardest things you’ve ever done,” Oakland County Judge Cheryl Matthews told the jury.
On her way out of the courtroom, prosecutor Karen McDonald hugged Craig Shilling, the father of victim Justin Shilling, and the family of Madisyn Baldwin.
“Thank you,” a man whispered to her.
Jennifer and James Crumbley are the first parents in the U.S. to be charged in a mass school shooting committed by their child. James Crumbley faces trial in March.
Florida senators have moved forward with a proposed bill to ban people under 16 from using social media platforms with addictive features, regardless of parental approval.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has expressed concerns about the legality of the move.
The Florida House overwhelmingly approved the proposal in a 106-13 vote last month, and the Senate’s Judiciary Committee advanced the bill on Feb. 2 with a 7-2 vote. The policy doesn’t specifically name which platforms would be affected but has broad parameters on any social media site that tracks user activity.
Under the legislation, any platform that allows minors to upload material, interact with others, and use addictive features designed to cause excessive or compulsive use would be banned.
Monitoring personal data for minors up to the age of 18 would also become illegal, as would collecting, selling, or sharing geographic information on underage users.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Erin Grall, a Republican, said social media platforms and the current practices used by Big Tech companies pose such a significant threat to children that they cannot be ignored any longer.
“If we as a government have identified this harm, that is beyond the magnitude of really any one person to get in the middle of and control,” she said.
“This is beyond any one family and anyone parent-child relationship.”
Supporters of the policy say serious action is needed to protect children from social media platforms with addictive features, such as infinite scrolling. The features have been likened to other addictive and harmful habits such as smoking or gambling.
Opponents argue that a ban overrides parental rights, violates the First Amendment, and ignores social media’s positive aspects, such as fostering a sense of community.Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel for the ACLU of Florida criticized the bill as government censorship.
“SB 1788 is a government censorship bill, and it is aimed at stifling the freedom of expression online and requiring all users, including adults, to verify their age by providing a photo ID or other age verification documentation,” she said.
Mr. DeSantis is also concerned about the legislation’s legality and whether it would violate the constitution.
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