Today’s News: January 05, 2024

WORLD NEWS

Partial Victory for German Tractor Protests as Govt Waters Down Taxes

The German government on Thursday watered down cost-saving plans that have infuriated farmers, announcing that it is giving up a proposal to scrap a car tax exemption for farming vehicles and will stagger cuts to tax breaks for diesel used in agriculture.

The cuts were part of a package agreed last month by leaders of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpopular three-party coalition to fill a 17 billion-euro ($18.6 billion) hole in the 2024 budget.

Farmers staged a protest with tractors in Berlin and called for more demonstrations this month, and even Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir spoke out against the cuts being implemented in full. He said farmers have no alternative to diesel.

The budget revamp was necessary after Germany’s highest court annulled an earlier decision to repurpose 60 billion euros (almost $66 billion) originally meant to cushion the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic for measures to help combat climate change and modernize the country. The maneuver fell afoul of Germany ́s strict self-imposed limits on running up debt.

A government statement Thursday said Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner have now agreed to maintain the car tax exemption for farming vehicles in order to save those concerned “in some cases significant bureaucratic effort.”

The tax breaks on diesel will no longer end all at once, giving farmers “more time to adapt,” it added. They will be cut by 40% this year, with another 30% being cut in each of the next two years.

“We have found a good solution that averts a disproportionate burdening of agriculture – you know I always warned against that,” Özdemir said in a brief statement to reporters in Berlin.

However, the German Farmers´ Association said the government’s about-turn didn’t go far enough and that it would stick to its planned protests.

“This can only be a first step,” its chairman, Joachim Rukwied, said in a statement. “Our position is unchanged: Both proposed cuts must be taken off the table.”

Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Iran Bombings

ISIS used one of its channels on the messaging platform Telegram to claim responsibility for the bombings in Iran that killed almost a hundred people at a ceremony to honor terrorist mastermind Qassem Soleimani.

Iranian officials have been insinuating or outright accusing the United States and Israel of organizing the bomb attacks on Wednesday – the fourth anniversary of Soleimani’s elimination by a U.S. drone strike while he was coordinating terrorist attacks on Iraqi soil.

Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force, a division of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization. He was targeted by the U.S. after he organized attacks by Shiite militia groups in Iraq against U.S. personnel, one of which killed a military contractor. He was also involved in organizing an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which would have been an act of war if he had succeeded.The Iranian theocracy declared Soleimani a “martyr” and vowed revenge for his death. The regime has organized periodic rallies for the slain IRGC officer, while Iranian dissidents often burn photos of him to demonstrate their defiance. 

Thousands of Iranians were attending an event to mark the anniversary of Soleiman’s “martyrdom” in his hometown of Kerman on Wednesday when two explosions occurred within ten minutes of each other. The bomb triggered a stampede, while the second killed both fleeing civilians and first responders, a fairly common terrorist tactic. The Iranian government has confirmed 95 deaths so far, but there were also hundreds of injuries.

Iranian officials and proxies, like Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon, blamed the U.S. and Israel for ordering or perpetrating the attack. 

On Thursday, the Islamic State issued a statement on Telegram saying two of its members “activated their explosive vests” at the ceremony for Soleimani.

U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Sixth-grader killed and five people wounded in Iowa high school shooting

Authorities say that 17-year-old Dylan Butler, a student at a high school in the small town of Perry, Iowa, opened fire inside the school at 7:37 a.m., killing a sixth grader and wounding five others.  Responding officers found Butler dead inside the school with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police also discovered an improvised explosive device when searching the high school, Mitch Mortvedt, an assistant director with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, told reporters. Members of the state fire marshal’s office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rendered the device safe.

Four of the wounded victims are students, and the fifth is a school administrator, said Mortvedt, who declined to release any names. Another school district, Easton Valley Community, issued a statement saying it had received word that Dan Marburger, the high school principal, had been shot in the attack.

One victim was in critical condition but did not appear to be facing life-threatening injuries, Mortvedt said, while the other four were in stable condition.

The suspect was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a handgun, Mortvedt said, and had made a number of social media posts around the time of the shooting. The motive for the attack is under investigation.

‘Do not jump to conclusions’: 7 state capitols evacuated or locked down amid bomb threats

Several state capitol buildings s were locked down or evacuated due to bomb threats, with multiple reports of police investigations.

Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Montana were included in a list of states that evacuated offices or buildings.

No explosives have been found despite a recent trend of false reports of shootings at the homes of public officials, the Seattle Times reported.

Georgia Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling (R) noted a bomb threat in the early morning on his X account:

“Starting 2024 with a bomb threat at the Georgia State Capitol. Delayed opening until the all clear is given. Avoid the area for now.”

Sterling later updated followers of multiple bomb threats at other state capitols but urged readers not to jump to conclusions:

“Do not jump to conclusions as to who is responsible. There will be chaos agents sowing discord for 2024. They want to increase tensions. Don’t let them”

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear stated that his government was investigating a bomb threat that was received in the secretary of state’s office.

A spokesperson for Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams spoke to the Lexington Herald Leader and said the state’s capitol building was evacuated after an email threat said bombs were placed in state buildings.

“[State police] has asked everyone to evacuate the state Capitol and is investigating a threat received by the Secretary of State’s Office. We are aware of similar threats made to other offices across the country,” the governor wrote.

The Connecticut State Capitol was evacuated after a threat claimed there were multiple explosives in the building, Time reported.

“The Connecticut State Capitol Police received complaints from numerous employees about a suspicious email that was received,” said Scott Driscoll, a member of the Connecticut State Capitol Police Department.

“The email, which apparently was sent to numerous states, claimed to have placed multiple explosives in the Capitol Building,” he told the Hartford Courant.

The Connecticut building was later reopened after an investigation.

The Mississippi Capitol was locked down after a bomb threat, also in the morning. The building was later evacuated to make way for bomb-sniffing dogs.

“This is an ongoing investigation and there is no further threat to the Capitol or surrounding buildings,” a spokesperson for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, Bailey Martin, said, also per the Seattle Times.

Police made a sweep of the Montana Capitol but found previous bomb threats to not be credible. The legislature was able to be reopened within two hours of the alleged threat.

Wyoming’s state buildings did not close, despite receiving a threatening email. 

Many outlets have reported on a mass email being sent to multiple state entities, but no other information has been provided at this time.

Federal Judge Dismisses Trump Ballot Disqualification Case ‘With Prejudice’

A federal judge in California on Jan. 3 dismissed a lawsuit that sought to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 Republican primary ballot in that state.

District Judge David Carter granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit “with prejudice,” which means that it can’t be submitted to the same court again, according to court papers.

A plaintiff attempted to argue that they suffered “emotional injury” as a result of the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while watching the events unfold on television, on the radio, and in various publications. They then argued that the incident caused them “severe emotional distress” and then filed a lawsuit to keep the former president off California’s ballot.

However, the judge wrote that because the events occurred “more than two years before the plaintiff” filed suit, it was outside of the two-year statute of limitations.

The decision by Judge Carter, a Clinton-appointed jurist who has ruled against President Trump in a separate case, was posted online by former Republican National Committee for California Chair Harmeet Dhillon.

“The remnants of the last California case to keep President Trump off the ballot here were dismissed today by Judge David O. Carter!!” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Jan. 3.

In recent days and weeks, a number of lawsuits have been filed in different states seeking to bar President Trump from appearing on the ballot ahead of the 2024 election. Those suits have claimed that the former president engaged in “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States under an interpretation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment’s Section 3, which was written in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War.

At least two of those challenges have seen some success in Maine and Colorado, although there has been widespread speculation that higher courts or even the U.S. Supreme Court will strike those rulings down.

Days before Christmas, Colorado’s highest court ruled to keep the former president off the primary ballot in the state, which was promptly appealed to the Supreme Court. Last week, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, unilaterally decided to keep President Trump off the ballot, which also has been appealed.

Ahead of the Supreme Court appeal, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said that “unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat-appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Legal analysts have suggested that the U.S. Supreme Court would take up those two cases and likely would rule against the plaintiffs at least on procedural grounds. However, it isn’t clear whether the court will take up the more thorny questions presented under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.

“It seems a certainty that SCOTUS will have to address the merits sooner or later,” Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California–Los Angeles, wrote on his website last month, referring to the Supreme Court.

New York mayor sues bus operators that brought migrants from Texas for $708m

New York City has sued 17 charter bus companies that transported migrants from Texas, the mayor, Eric Adams, announced yesterday.

The lawsuit, filed in New York state court in Manhattan, says the city is seeking $708m from the firms because that was the cost it incurred to house the migrants and provide services to them over the past two years.

In that time, more than 33,000 people were bussed to the city as a part of Operation Lone Star, a joint effort between the Texas department of public safety and the Texas military department that began in 2021 to curb illegal immigration. Operation Lone Star was born from what the Texas Republican governor, Greg Abbott, called “Biden’s reckless open-border policies”.

But Adams said the transportation companies had violated a 19th-century New York state law that requires anyone who transports a needy person likely to seek government assistance from another state to cover their expenses.

Republican-led states, such as Texas and Florida, have bussed migrants coming into their states to “sanctuary” cities, or cities that protect undocumented immigrants, such as Chicago, New York and Boston. In 2022, Adams declared a state of emergency amid the influx of buses transporting migrants.

The New York state governor, Kathy Hochul, said she was “proud to support the mayor’s lawsuit”.

Hochul said: “If they are getting paid to break the law by transporting people in need of public assistance into our state, they should be on the hook for the cost of sheltering those individuals – not just passing that expense along to hard-working New Yorkers.”

In a statement reported by the Associated Press, Abbott hit back at the lawsuit.

“Every migrant bused or flown to New York City did so voluntarily, after having been authorized by the Biden Administration to remain in the United States,” Abbott said. “As such, they have constitutional authority to travel across the country that Mayor Adams is interfering with.”

Trump Asks Court to Hold Jack Smith in Contempt for Ignoring Stay Order

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump filed a motion on Jan. 4 to compel prosecutors to show cause for why U.S. special counsel Jack Smith’s office shouldn’t be held in contempt over continuing to litigate a case in which a judge had ordered a stay.

“The Stay Order is clear, straightforward, and unambiguous. All substantive proceedings in this court are halted. Despite this clarity, the prosecutors began violating the stay almost immediately,” the motion reads.

“The court cannot allow the prosecutors to continue to operate lawlessly, in defiance of well-established protocol and this court’s authority.”

They also ask that prosecutors show why they shouldn’t be sanctioned.

The motion names Mr. Smith, Molly Gaston, and Thomas Windom—attorneys who filed briefs in the federal criminal case against President Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia during the stay.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had paused all proceedings and deadlines in the case on Dec. 13, 2023.

Shortly afterward, the special counsel’s office served thousands of pages of discovery, prompting the defense to file a notice of the court order violation.

On Dec. 27, 2023, prosecutors filed another motion to exempt certain evidence and arguments by the defense.

That motion was filled with “partisan rhetoric,” the defense attorneys argue, including false claims of President Trump propagating “irrelevant disinformation.”

They claim the document “mirrors the Biden administration’s dishonest talking points” and pushes the false narrative that President Trump was responsible for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The partisan points “spread like wildfire” in the media, attorneys argued, citing headlines from several outlets that suggest President Trump would “sow disinformation” or spread “misinformation” during his trial.

They accused the prosecutors of weaponizing the stay and claimed that the Dec. 27, 2023, motion was filed against the court order “knowing that President Trump would not fully respond because the court relieved him of the burdens of litigation during the stay.”

ECONOMY & BUSINESS 

Real Estate 2024: The Three Keys To Watch

According to ATTOM Data, single-family homes and condo prices fell slightly between June and October. However, it is also true that home prices increased by more than $42,000 between January and October. Unit sales were down 14.6% from a year earlier as of October, the slowest existing home sales since August 2010, according to the National Association of Home Builders. So, was the real estate glass half full or half empty in 2023? And what about 2024?

Real estate prices give us some idea of how we’re doing. Higher values are good for net worth, the ability to borrow, and owner bragging rights. But the reality is that we tend to hold onto real estate and refinance infrequently. If you look at the longer term, say the past few years, you get a better view of what’s really happening.

Such huge price increases over the past five years are wonderful for owners but make purchasing difficult or impossible for millions of would-be buyers. Worse, incomes have not only failed to keep up with rising prices, but they’ve also declined. According to the Census Bureau, real median household income went from $76,330 in 2021 to $74,580 in 2022, a 2.3% drop.

The affordability problems seen in 2023 are likely to continue because higher prices mean bigger monthly payments and incomes have not kept up. As Redfin pointed out in October, “A homebuyer must earn $114,627 to afford the median-priced U.S. home, up 15% ($15,285) from a year ago and up more than 50% since the start of the pandemic. That’s the highest annual income necessary to afford a home on record.”

The economy — and real estate — continue to be dominated by the fight against Covid-19 and the inflation that followed. To fend off an outright economic collapse — the unemployment rate went from 3.5% in February 2020 to 14.7% in April of that year — the government spent more than $5 trillion for specialized Covid programs. The money was used to fund businesses, hospitals, taxpayer rebate plans, the unemployed, vaccine development, and state and local governments.

Not only did Covid-related money pour into the economy, but with few places to eat, shop, or travel — and with a lot of marketplace uncertainty — households and businesses set aside enormous sums. US commercial bank deposits increased from $3.8 trillion in January 2020 to $17.4 trillion in September 2023.

Real estate prices soared as buyers financed rising prices with ultra-cheap mortgages, worked from home, and hoped to avoid the virus. US mortgage rates reached 2.65% in January 2021, the all-time low. There was little available inventory, and residential bidding wars were common.

Real estate wasn’t the only sector to see rising prices. A massive chip shortage, supply-chain disruptions, ships backed up off the California coast, and other unusual conditions all contributed to supply issues and higher costs. A prime example: 40,000 Ford vehicles could not be completed because of a semiconductor shortage.

The Federal Reserve has long-favored 2% inflation. That’s enough to spark current consumer buying (because prices are likely to be higher next year if you don’t buy now) but not enough to overheat the economy. So, to lower inflation levels, the Fed raised the federal funds rate – the money banks pay to borrow overnight — 11 times between March 2022 and September 2023. Look for the Fed debate to continue into 2024. The best case would include lower mortgage rates, less inflation, and no recession, a so-called soft landing.

Florida Man Sues Dunkin’ After Being Assaulted by Exploding Toilet

Apparently, the most dangerous part of going to Dunkin’ isn’t the carbs, it’s the toilet. A customer found this out the hard way when he entered a location in Winter Park, Florida for a donut and coffee but left with a lawsuit and slightly browner clothing. Florida resident Paul Kerouac is suing Dunkin’ after a toilet exploded when he attempted to use the restroom.

Kerouac is seeking more than $100,000 in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in state court in Orlando, claiming he suffered “severe and long term injuries” following the explosion of a toilet in the men’s room of a Dunkin’ Donuts a year ago.

After the explosion left Kerouac covered in human feces, urine and debris, he walked out of the men’s room seeking help from workers and the store’s manager, according to the lawsuit. An employee told him that they were aware of the “problem with the toilet” since there had been previous incidents, the lawsuit says, without diving into further details about the explosion.Is it possible that he is dealing with the impact of PTSD (Post-Toilet Stress Disorder)? The filing continues:

As a direct and proximate result of the negligence of Defendant, Plaintiff suffered bodily injury and psychological damages resulting in pain and suffering, disability, permanent and significant emotional injury, mental anguish, loss of the capacity for the enjoyment of life, expense of medical care and treatment. The injuries and damages are either permanent or continuing in nature and Plaintiff will suffer losses in the future.

“Plaintiff requires mental health care and counseling as a direct result of the trauma experienced in the restroom at defendant’s business and from the continuing trauma following the event,” the lawsuit alleges. It’s hard to argue with this. If it happened to me, I’d run away screaming, every time I saw a Dunkin’ donut.

The plaintiff argues that Dunkin’ had a duty to maintain the men’s rooms and ensure that their toilets remained in a much less volcanic condition, and to warn customers of any potential hazards. The lawsuit claims that the franchisee failed to follow through with this duty, which meant Kerouac was unaware of the possibility that he might get more than just maple frosting on his donut after using the facilities. Perhaps the store should have replaced their “men” and “women” restroom signs with one that read “Enter at Your Own Risk.”

In this case, it appears the plaintiff has a compelling grievance with Dunkin’. He went in for a number two, but instead received a “number blew,” which is completely unacceptable. Customers should have a reasonable expectation that they can trust the flush when they need to answer nature’s call. The outcome of the proceedings does not seem to be difficult to predict, but if Kerouac wins this lawsuit, it will be a tremendous victory for the consumer – and possibly Krispy Kreme.

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.

And of course, the doctors and Big Pharma are downplaying it! 

Aspirin Inhibits Metastatic Cancer Spread, Reducing Mortality by 21 Percent: Study

Aspirin is a long-established and widely used medication with a rich history. In addition to its well-known uses for pain relief and its anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant properties, a recent study indicates that cancer patients who take low-dose aspirin daily experience a 21 percent reduction in mortality. Furthermore, there is evidence of aspirin’s role in preventing cancer metastasis.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of global mortality. In 2020 alone, there were approximately 19.3 million new cancer cases worldwide and nearly 10 million deaths. According to statistics, 1 in 6 reported deaths are attributed to cancer. The most common types of cancer include breast, lung, colorectal, prostate, and stomach.

In November 2023, researchers from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom published a comprehensive review in the British Journal of Cancer (BJC) outlining aspirin’s potential to reduce cancer mortality, prevent metastatic cancer spread, and minimize vascular complications. The review encompassed both favorable and unfavorable evidence, thoroughly analyzing the rationale behind using aspirin in cancer treatment.

The study compiled results from 118 observational studies involving approximately 1 million cancer patients. It revealed that daily intake of low-dose aspirin (75 or 81 milligrams) was associated with a 21 percent reduction in all-cause mortality.A study involving pancreatic cancer patients undergoing surgery indicated that patients who took aspirin had a three-year survival rate of 61.1 percent, compared to 26.3 percent for those who did not take it.

The metastasis or spread of cancer is a major cause of death in cancer patients, and platelets play a significant role in this process. Aspirin can inhibit platelet aggregation, thereby reducing the spread of cancer cells. The comprehensive review in the BJC found that aspirin can lower the risk of cancer metastasis by 38 percent to 52 percent.

Additionally, aspirin plays a role in promoting DNA repair. Errors may occur during the replication of DNA, and the human body possesses a mechanism for DNA mismatch repair. Once this function is compromised, it can lead to the development of cancer. Research has demonstrated that aspirin can enhance DNA repair mechanisms, thereby preventing hereditary non-polyposis (Lynch syndrome) colorectal cancer and potentially other cancers.

Over 700 Health Experts Criticize ‘Fundamentally Flawed’ APA Book on Gender Affirmation

More than 700 medical experts and concerned citizens have signed an open letter slamming a recently published book by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) on “gender-affirming” care.

The Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care (GAPC) textbook was published by the APA on Nov. 8 and is touted as “the first textbook dedicated to providing affirming, intersectional, and evidence-informed psychiatric care for transgender, non-binary, and/or gender-expansive (TNG) people.” However, “the book’s claims of being evidence-informed are untenable,” said the open letter published this month by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR). Signatories include psychologist Jordan B. Peterson.

The signatories cited a September 2022 letter written by a group of medical experts to the ACCP journal’s editor stating that while more than 95 percent of youth who take puberty blockers go on to receive cross-sex hormones, 61–98 percent of youth who received psychological support ended up reconciling their gender identity with their biological sex.

“This contradicts both the reversibility and exploratory nature of puberty suppression claimed by GAPC,” the letter said.

Studies cited by GAPC authors “have been extensively critiqued.” Some of them downplay serious side effects, exaggerate efficacy and benefits, and are not based on randomized, controlled trials, the signatories stated. In some studies, only successful cases of medical transition are presented.

The letter criticized GAPC for overlooking the risk that when an individual’s gender dysphoria is rapidly affirmed, it can end up consolidating the feeling and eventually lead to the person’s “regret post-treatment.”The GAPC textbook has come under intense criticism from several quarters for its promotion of transgender ideology. There are a total of 26 chapters in the book that are written by 56 individuals, 50 of whom are from the transgender community.

The book claims that the field of psychiatry was built on “the work [and assumptions] of European, white, cisgender men, including their colonial, Anglo-centric, cis-heteropatriarchal worldview and pathologization of experiences that did not fit their own ‘norm.’”

“For millennia, outside of European colonial influences, gender diversity has flourished to varying degrees among hundreds of indigenous communities around the world.”

It includes chapters using terms like “two-spirit people” and “double queer” individuals. Two-spirit is a term used to refer to a person who believes they belong to both sexes, while double queer is someone who identifies as a transgender but with a mental disability.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, Alan Hopewell, a prescribing neuropsychologist from Texas, called the GAPC textbook “disturbing” and “nonsensical gibberish which has no foundation whatsoever in science.”

Mr. Hopewell pointed out that hospitals can demand doctors to go by the best practices suggested by the book since the APA published it. The book can also be used to revoke the licenses of doctors who do not align with the ideology. “This reminds me of brain-damaged hippies free-associating at a commune,” he said.

SURVEILLANCE STATE 

Introducing ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s Ominous Tech for Tracking Your Every Move

Facebook has recently launched a new feature called “Link History,” designed to keep track of all the links clicked by users within its mobile app. The technology is the latest demonstration of Mark Zuckerberg’s endless hunger to gather every speck of Facebook users’ personal data.

Gizmodo reports that Facebook’s new feature, “Link History,” is the latest addition to its vast library of data collection tools. This new feature automatically logs every link a user clicks within the Facebook app, storing it in a dedicated section in the app. While there is an opt-out option for users, the default setting is to collect this data which will mainly be used for enhancing targeted advertising.

While tech regulations are becoming more strict and companies such as Apple and Google are stepping up their privacy game, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta ( the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) seems to be continuing its usual plan of action to collect as much information on its users as possible. This move appears to be a strategic effort to preserve its data-collection focused business model in the face of growing privacy concerns and regulatory challenges.

Facebook is marketing Link History as a user convenience feature, a tool for users to keep track of their browsing activities in one place. The feature is being advertised as a means for users to “never lose a link again.” However, Meta makes it clear that enabling Link History allows the company to leverage this information to fine-tune ad targeting on its various platforms.

The process for opting into Link History is seamlessly integrated into the Facebook app, with the feature’s toggle set to ‘on’ in the initial pop-up. This design encourages users to accept the feature unless they make a conscious decision to opt-out. Despite potential data privacy concerns, Facebook has claimed that any data stored in Link History will be purged within 90 days in the case that a user deactivates the feature. As of now, Link History is not universally available but is expected to gradually roll out in various regions.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Offshore Wind Project Cancels Contract Due to Inflation, After Biden Admin Brags of Project’s Success

The construction of a major wind energy project previously touted by the Biden administration as an example of positive “Bidenomics” has been canceled, with developers citing “inflation, interest rates and supply chain disruptions,” energy developers BP and Equinor announced Wednesday.

BP and Equinor said they canceled the project, dubbed the Empire Wind 2, that was to be built off the shores of New York.

A press release stated the two companies had reached an agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), to terminate the Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Certificate (OREC) for Empire Wind 2.

“This agreement reflects changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale… The decision recognizes commercial conditions driven by inflation, interest rates and supply chain disruptions that prevented Empire Wind 2’s existing OREC agreement from being viable,” Equinor said.

Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, said in a statement the company is open to more economically viable projects in the future.

“Commercial viability is fundamental for ambitious projects of this size and scale. The Empire Wind 2 decision provides the opportunity to reset and develop a stronger and more robust project going forward,” said Morris. “We will continue to closely engage our many community partners across the state.”

The Department of the Interior (DOI) and Department of Energy (DOE) both endorsed the project in November, with the DOI praising President Joe Biden and referring to Empire Wind 1 and 2 as a “Bidenomics” success.

GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING

Raising Chickens: Beginner’s Guide (+ Pro Tips!)

Table of Contents

• Reasons for Raising Chickens
  • Raising Chickens for Eggs
    • How many eggs does a chicken lay?
    • How many hens do you need?
  • Raising Meat Chickens
  • Best Backyard Chicken Breeds
    • What is a dual purpose chicken?
  • How much do chickens cost?
• Raising Chickens for Beginners: Things to Consider
  • Caring for Chickens
• How to Start Your Backyard Flock
  • Your Backyard Chicken Coop
  • Assess Your Chicken Yard
  • When and Where to Buy Chickens
• Ready to Get Started Raising Backyard Chickens?
  • How long do eggs stay fresh?
  • Do you need a rooster for hens to lay eggs?
  • Do chickens lay eggs every day?
  • What’s the difference between chicken and duck eggs?
  • Can I keep chickens and turkeys together?
  • Can I keep chickens with goats?
  • Want to learn more fun facts about chickens?
  • What are the best books about caring for chickens?

Avocado farmer explains secret why you can’t grow Hass avocado trees from Hass seeds

Did you know this?

Have you ever seen anyone put an avocado pit in water to grow an avocado tree? I’ve seen lots of people try, but only a few succeed. My mom has a tiny avocado tree growing in her living room that she managed to grow from the pit of a Hass avocado she ate. It’s small but thriving, and I’ve often wondered if it will ever grow actual avocados.

As it turns out, it could—but they won’t be Hass avocados.

Wait, huh?

In a wow-that’s-an-interesting-factoid-I-never-knew-before video, an avocado tree grower explains in this YouTube video why a Hass avocado seed doesn’t grow into a Hass avocado tree. Avocados, apparently, are not “true to seed” plants, meaning if you plant the seed, you’ll end up with a different variety of the fruit the seed came from. Apples are the same—if you plant a Fuji apple seed, you will not get a Fuji apple tree. In fact, chances are really, really high that you’ll get an avocado or an apple that tastes terrible if you try to grow it from a seed of an existing fruit.

The guy from Sleepy Lizard Avocado Farm explains how it all works using an analogy with candy flavors. This is the genetics lesson we all needed in school when we were trying to figure out Punnett squares, and he explains it all so clearly.

Incredible how nature works, and so amazing what human beings have been able to figure out over millennia of agricultural advancements.

So how do you get a Hass avocado tree if you can’t plant a Hass avocado seed to grow it? 

As he explains in the video, you can plant the pit and start to grow the tree, but if you want Hass avocados you have to graft a branch of a Hass avocado tree onto the stem of the tree you’re growing.

Or, you can just buy a baby Hass avocado tree that’s already been grafted, which is probably a heck of a lot easier than figuring out how to graft one yourself.

So go ahead and sprout that seed in water and grow yourself a pretty avocado plant if you’d like. Just don’t expect any yummy avocados from it, since your chances are about 1 in 10,000 that it’ll happen.

Thanks for the fascinating lesson, avocado guy!

COVID RELATED NEWS

Big Pharma, biotech and the runaway mRNA vaccine profit machineThe right to bodily integrity, especially the right to refuse a vaccine, has taken on more urgency since the advent of the warp-speed-produced COVID-19 vaccines. Those injections were developed, approved, and rolled out to the public in record time, paving the way for the introduction of additional mRNA vaccines, and additional challenges to individual control over one’s body.  The loss of bodily integrity already became pronounced as the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines (and vaccines in general) came to the fore. Too many people were injured by the “safe and effective” vaccines, became suspicious of the myriad boosters being pushed by public health politicians, and/or resented being coerced to get injected to save their jobs or even to receive needed medical attention for illnesses unrelated to the virus.

New mRNA vaccine technologies in the works – what could go wrong?Now, new technologies in the pipeline that the pharmaceutical industry hopes will take mRNA vaccine production to new heights may be even more cause for alarm. These technologies create concern that, in the future, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between medication, food, and vaccines. Here are three of them:

• An mRNA pill Big Pharma hopes will be “more palatable” for those who just don’t like injections. The pills would have the added feature of entering directly into the gastrointestinal tract, making it an efficient means of providing therapy to those with digestive issues. Currently, it’s been found to successfully deliver mRNA into the digestive systems of mice and pigs. Trials in larger animals and people are still necessary to obtain FDA approval.[1]
• A method whereby tobacco plants will grow vaccines instead of growing or synthesizing them in a lab. The plants are transformed into mini bioreactors in a process called agroinfiltration or vacuum infiltration. 

The plants soak up a group of bacteria that naturally infects the plants which have had been altered to contain a snip of the virus DNA. The bacteria then transfer the DNA to the plant cells which make millions of copies of virus-like particles which are said to be non-infectious. After several days the plants are harvested and the particles are extracted, purified, and packaged.[2]  

• Turning edible plants, such as lettuce, into mRNA vaccine factories which will produce vaccines. This disconcerting method could allow a single plant to vaccinate a person.  

We are testing this approach with spinach and lettuce and have long-term goals of people growing it in their own gardens,” [Juan Pablo] Giraldo [an associate professor in UC Riverside’s Department of Botany and Plant Sciences who is leading the research] said. “Farmers could also eventually grow entire fields of it.[3]

At the moment, none of these methods of mRNA vaccine delivery have been FDA-approved; most are still in exploratory or trial phases. Here are some questions to consider in the meantime:

• Is there a possibility of cross-contamination of other plants, even those in fields far away, if vaccines are grown in plants?
• Will growing edible plants as vaccines:
  • undermine people’s trust in the safety of their food if they cannot guarantee what they are eating is free from vaccines?
  • prevent individuals who suffer vaccine adverse effects from ever making the connection between the vaccine and their illness? 
  • allow for the introduction of bioweapons into the food supply?   
• Would public health officials push the addition of vaccines to pills containing common medications in an effort to expand vaccine compliance (as combination vaccinations like MMR and DTaP increase compliance but remove the ability of parents to choose to give their child just one of the vaccinations, as they are no longer provided separately)?

Important questions on a more basic level:

1. Will informed consent become a relic of the past?
2. Would this enable manufacturers to further avoid accountability beyond the 1986 act than the PREP act?
3. What mechanisms will be in place to ensure that all unanswered questions about the safety of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine will be addressed, including those that have previously been “overlooked, such as  the biodistribution of vaccine mRNA in the body and the capacity for DNA damage (as related by  some researchers)?[4]  

It is uncertain whether we will ever receive answers to the above questions. However, one thing is for sure — in the future, whichever vaccine delivery platforms are approved, the public will be“asked” to comply for the “benefit of society.” That benefit is less than certain, while the benefit to Big Pharma and the biotech industry is guaranteed. And, an individual’s basic right to bodily integrity and to refuse a vaccine will be far from guaranteed.  To the extent that globalism requires a sacrifice of individual rights in the transition to a global collective, the scorecard on mRNA technology is established: Globalists: 1, public: 0.

Florida Surgeon General Ladapo urges ‘halt to the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines’

Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo is advocating a stoppage in the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

“I am calling for a halt to the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” Ladapo declared in a statement on X. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have always played it fast and loose with COVID-19 vaccine safety, but their failure to test for DNA integration with the human genome — as their own guidelines dictate — when the vaccines are known to be contaminated with foreign DNA is intolerable.”

In a May 2023 letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, Ladapo had declared, “Your ongoing decision to ignore many of the risks associated with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, alongside your efforts to manipulate the public into thinking they are harmless, have resulted in deep distrust in the American health care system.”

Then in a December 2023 letter to Califf and CDC Director Mandy Cohen, Ladapo raised the issue of DNA fragments in the vaccines. “In addition to my previous letter, I am writing to you to address the recent discovery of host cell DNA fragments within the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines,” Ladapo wrote.

But in a letter of response later in December, Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that the agency “is confident in the quality, safety, and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines,” and that “with over a billion doses of the mRNA vaccines administered, no safety concerns related to residual DNA have been identified.” Marks wrote that “it is quite implausible that the residual small DNA fragments located in the cytosol could find their way into the nucleus through the nuclear membrane present in intact cells and then be incorporated into chromosomal DNA.”

Now Ladapo is calling for a halt in mRNA COVID-19 vaccine usage.

“DNA integration poses a unique and elevated risk to human health and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients. If the risks of DNA integration have not been assessed for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, these vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings,” he said in a statement, according to a Florida Department of Health press release. “Providers concerned about patient health risks associated with COVID-19 should prioritize patient access to non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and treatment.”

More Mask Mandates Reimposed Across US

More hospitals across the United States have brought back mask mandates, citing a rise in COVID-19 and influenza.

New York City last week instituted a mask mandate for the city’s 11 public hospitals and other health facilities, while similar measures were ordered at some hospitals in other locations. Some hospitals reinstated masking rules for employees months ago, in anticipation of a seasonal rush of sick people.

The New York City Health Department confirmed on Jan. 3 that the mask requirement applies to all 11 hospitals that fall under New York City’s Health and Hospitals division.

Because of reported increases in respiratory viruses, the mandate “applies to clinical settings such as our hospitals, community health centers, and nursing homes,” a spokesperson for the hospital system told the New York Post.

In Chicago, Rush University medical system announced on Jan. 2 that “patients, visitors and staff [are] to wear hospital-approved masks in some areas of the campus,” adding that those places “include clinical waiting areas and patient registration.”

And Cook County Health, which encompasses Chicago, as well as Endeavor Health in the Chicago area, is again requiring masks at its facilities, coming after the Illinois Department of Public Health sent a letter to hospitals suggesting they reimpose masking.

CANCEL CULTURE

Video: Nevada Judge Attacked by Defendant in Las Vegas Courtroom

A presiding Nevada judge was attacked Wednesday by an aggrieved defendant in a felony battery case who flung himself at the judge’s bench, landing on top of her with swinging arms sparking a bloody brawl involving court officials and attorneys.  The attack and the pandemonium that followed was all captured on video from the Las Vegas courtroom.

It shows the moment Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus fell back against a wall and suffered some injuries as her assailant went on the attack. She was not hospitalized, courthouse officials made clear.

Deobra Delone Redden, 30, was wrestled to the floor behind the judge’s bench by several court and jail officers and courtroom staff members – including some who were seen throwing punches in the melee.

Reports indicate that moments before the attack, Redden, who was in court to be sentenced over a previous attempted assault, urged Judge Kay to show lenience, telling her: “I’m not a rebellious person”.

But as she made it clear she intended to put him behind bars, and the court officer moved to handcuff him, Redden yelled expletives, charged forward and leapt over the judge’s bench.

The aggrieved felon was subsequently arrested and jailed at the Clark County Detention Center, where records showed he faces multiple new charges including battery on a protected person — referring to the judge and court officers, the AP report notes.“It happened so fast it was hard to know what to do,” said Richard Scow, the chief county district attorney who prosecuted Redden on a case that stemmed from an arrest last year on allegations that Redden attacked a person with a baseball bat.

PET NEWS

Pet cat saves elderly woman from man who allegedly attacked her and choked her on Christmas day

Texas police say that a pet cat played a pivotal role in saving her elderly owner from an attack by a man who was choking her on Christmas day.

San Antonio police said they arrested 60-year-old Nathaniel Charles Derouen on Dec. 27 for the alleged attack on the 74-year-old woman.

Investigators said that the woman had allowed Derouen to live with her after his residence was damaged in a fire. They had been in a relationship years prior to the incident, according to police.

The woman would also allow Derouen to use her vehicle, but he became angry at her after she refused to let him use it on Christmas day. The man allegedly pushed her onto a bed and began choking her by covering her mouth and her nose and preventing her from breathing.

That’s when her heroic cat jumped into the fray.

The woman told police that her pet cat jumped onto Derouen, which scared him away because he has a fear of cats.

She was then able to climb into her car and call police. 

The affidavit said that crime scene investigators corroborated the victim’s claims by using alternate light source photographs, which are able to show injuries through the skin. 

Derouen was booked on charges of injury to the elderly and assault. He is being held on a bond of $35,000.

Police said the man had been previously convicted of assault but that he obtained a deferred adjudication. 

A similar story was reported in 2022 when Bandit, a pet cat, jumped onto its sleeping owner and scratched at his arms to alarm him to the presence of home intruders. The owner was able to grab his gun, but the intruders were able to get away. 

“You hear of guard dogs,” said the homeowner. “This is a guard cat.”

Italy’s lifeguard dogs work with humans to create a ‘six-legged unit’ for water rescues

Every year, the list of successful rescues on Italy’s beaches grows, thanks to these good doggos.

If you’re enjoying the gorgeous waters off the coast of Italy and find yourself swept out by a riptide or a rogue wave or in some other kind of water peril, you might be surprised by who comes to save you.

Lifeguards on Italy’s beaches will sometimes bring a canine companion along with them to assist with water rescues. These aren’t just any old dogs—they’re specially trained lifeguard dogs who are paired with a human, making a “six-legged unit” that’s able to paddle multiple swimmers to safety.

According to Ferruccio Pilenga, president of the Italian School for Lifeguard Dogs, our furry friends make ideal lifeguard partners because they are able to remain calm under pressure and instinctively choose the safest path through the water currents to get back to shore safely.

And because the dogs are able to keep both the rescuer and the person(s) being rescued afloat, they allow the human lifeguard to conserve energy and focus on being a more effective rescuer.

“I always say, to pull a sled you need at least six dogs.To pull six people, you only need one dog,” shares Pilenga.

The lifeguard school has over 350 certified rescue dogs. They currently save between 20 and 30 people a year, with those numbers increasing each year. These heroes jump from speeding boats and helicopters to reach people in distress. The training is rigorous and exhausting, but the dogs seem to enjoy it.

Pilenga started the training school after his own dog, a Newfoundland named Mas, rescued his daughter when she was struggling to stay above water in a lake as a young child.

Newfoundlands make great water rescue dogs with their thick double coats, webbed feet, and immense size and strength that allows them to pull large loads behind them as they swim. But other breeds of dogs are trained at the Italian School for Lifeguard Dogs as well. The school is serving as an inspiration for other countries to utilize dogs to aid in water rescues. In fact, there’s even an American Academy of Canine Water Rescue in Massachusetts.

What a wonderful way to use a dog’s natural strengths to save lives.

Hero Dog Wakes Up Owners After Sensing Fire Across Street: ‘Bark was Unlike’ Any Heard Before

In Arlington, Washington state, a hero dog changed his tune and alerted her owners to a fire consuming their neighbor’s house.

It was 3:00 a.m. and a fire was quietly burning the workshop of a nearby North County home. Nearby, Douglas O’Connor II was sleeping soundly in a house across the road, when he was awakened by the sound of his dog, Lucy.

“Normally, I just yell at her to go to sleep, you know?” said O’Connor, remembering a hundred instances of waking up to his dog barking.

But he said this was a type of bark that he’d never heard before from Lucy.

“Loud, screaming-type bark. It was totally different than her just barking at a usual, usual bark. It was totally—woke us both up. Something’s wrong. Wow. She was trying to tell us something.’”

O’Connor’s wife went to investigate the Australian Shepherd-Labrador mix’s alarm and saw the fire out of the window. They called 911 and firefighters arrived to contain and eventually kill off the blaze before it spread from the detached workshop to the home where the owner was still asleep by the time the engine arrived.

“Firefighters said another 10 minutes that could have reached the house. So that was a little scary,” said O’Connor.

The firefighters got to meet the furry early warning system, who became a hit among them and the police.

KING 5 News reported that Lucy’s barking was so strong it woke up other neighbors as well, who also alerted fire and rescue along with O’Connor.

GOOD NEWS

The cavalry is coming to save red states from themselves

Opinion editor Roger L. Simon is among millions of Americans who’ve migrated from blue states to red states. Here’s what he learned (in his words):

On June 1, 2018, my wife, daughter, and I decamped from Los Angeles for Nashville, Tennessee.  We had had enough.

Our semi-glamorous Hollywood Hills home wasn’t seeming so semi-glamorous anymore with homeless trudging down from Mulholland Drive every morning, making it a treacherous experience to walk the dog. Nor was it a particularly enlightening experience to drive through the city for work, play, or shopping, to see, with your children next to you, the drug-addled crouched in doorways, defecating. This wasn’t exactly “California Dreamin’” anymore.

Moreover, having been involved in betraying the cause of knee-jerk movie business liberalism by founding and becoming CEO of the conservative website Pajamas Media (now PJ Media) I had already discovered in my mailbox the scrawled warning, “We know where you live!”

Many people I met were strong constitutionalists searching for a lost America they loved and hoping they would find it in red states. It was time to go, but the question was: where?

I was partial to Charleston, South Carolina. My wife and daughter, both country music fans, preferred Nashville. So I was outvoted.

We also chose it because my wife and I had spent our lives as novelists and screenwriters and wanted a creative city.

But the truth is, though we had visited, we didn’t know much about the place. We were blindly and optimistically fleeing the bluest of blue states for a red state. To say there were surprises is an understatement.

And that is why it took me over five years to write “American Refugees: The Untold Story of the Mass Migration from Blue States to Red States.”

This is an experiential book, not data-driven, so I had to live it first. I am a “write what you know” guy, even for my series of detective novels. After living most of my life in L.A. and New York, the first surprise was that everybody was so nice. Initially, I almost thought it was a trick.

The bigger shock was just how blue the city of Nashville itself was. Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga are blue islands in red Tennessee.

Naïve me, I had thought Music City to have been more or less purple. It turned out that meetings of its Metro Council were more like gatherings of a “woke” politburo on steroids.

But it wasn’t all that. A few miles out of Nashville, it was becoming increasingly more red. Or was it? The demography was complicated. Even places like neighboring Franklin, Tennessee — something of a Republican dreamland; Norman Rockwell meets sushi bars — were at play.

Our friends on the left were hell-bent on turning the red states blue. (My book deals primarily with Tennessee but also has chapters on Texas, Georgia, and Florida.) Which brings me to the story of the “refugees” and what their role was and is.

It was originally assumed that those of us arriving from blue America were motivated by cheaper living (tax savings) and were to be viewed suspiciously because we would pollute red state nirvana with our innate “California views.” While true of a few, this preconception was, in my observation, wildly off base.

Who doesn’t want to save on taxes? But moving across America is a huge undertaking that usually takes more motivation than saving a few bucks that may disappear in the cost of the move anyway. Many people I met were strong constitutionalists searching for a lost America they loved and hoping they would find it in red states. They were often, as I learned, more constitutionalist, often more MAGA too, than the denizens of the red states themselves.

Is this really surprising? It’s worth noting that California, due to its size, had more Trump voters in 2020 than any other state.

Who then would be the people who bothered to make the cross-country trek to become those new American refugees, recapitulating the refugees of old (legal only) who built our country?

In my book, I call them a cavalry — in SUVs, not on horseback — come to save the red states from themselves. Now, this isn’t always true. As the cliché goes, “It’s complicated.”

Whatever the case, they are confronted by entrenched politicians, a fair number of whom are titularly Southern Republicans but often resemble the old Southern Democrats in new clothes.

This has created a conflict, a kulturkampf in which both sides of necessity are changing.

One thing the old guard insists, with justification, is they were the ones who turned Tennessee, and other red states, red in the first place. Aren’t you renegade blue staters just a bunch of buttinskies? I try to puzzle this all out in “American Refugees.”

Overall, I deem moving in my book a positive experience, perhaps most importantly because so many in red America are devoted to God, as opposed to blue America, where he is largely ignored. That part, above all, changed me.

Adults surprising their grandparents with sleepovers is the most wholesome trend of 2024

Watching the grandparents go from confused to elated is just so sweet.

As far as childhood memories go, nothing hits quite like those sleepovers at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. A night full of comfies and yummies all while snuggled up and watching a movie…such a special time for bonding.

Well, in a fabulously wholesome new viral trend, pajama-clad adults are bringing the sweet tradition back into the present, much to their grandparents‘ surprise—and delight.

Take a scroll stroll though #grandparentssleepover on TikTok, and you’ll find countless videos featuring unsuspecting grandparents at first confused by an impromptu grandkid visit, then utterly thrilled that they get to relive a nostalgic memory.

‘Miracle’ Evacuation from Burning Japanese Airplane Credited to ‘Disciplined’ Passengers and Crew

The next time you’re aboard a plane watching the safety demonstrations, don’t brush them off as unnecessary details of a catastrophe that won’t save anyone—because on a runway in the Japanese Airport of Haneda, they saved 379 souls.

“The Miracle on Haneda” as it’s being called, saw an Airbus A350 owned by Japan Airlines set completely ablaze but every passenger and crew member escaping to safety.

Inquests into the incident detail that the pilot received the all-clear from the control tower to land, but a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft was crossing the runway at the time. Striking it, the plane caught fire and had to come to a complete stop from landing speed before the evacuation could take place.

Footage taken from social media shows the passengers filming the fire from inside the plane shortly after landing, with the vast majority of those on board remaining remarkably calm.

“I heard an explosion about 10 minutes after everyone and I got off the plane,” 28-year-old passenger Tsubasa Sawada, told Reuters. “I can only say it was a miracle, we could have died if we were late.”

Reuters also heard from an aviation safety expert at a UK-based consultancy, who said that it appeared no one left the plane with a carry-on bag, which he said has been part of in-flight safety announcements for years. He reckoned the crew did an excellent job. They were communicating with megaphones since the plane’s intercom was broken.

“It really is a lesson for the rest of the world,” Geoffrey Thomas told Japan Times, who billed him as “an aviation expert” who noted that despite what the passengers experienced, people followed textbook exit procedures.

The Times spoke with two middle-aged passengers who both feared for the worst, but nevertheless managed to keep their nerve and evacuate promptly.

ICYMI

Why James Madison Trembled at the Prospect of An Article V Convention

Commentary By Joanna Martin, J.D. 

The following outline shows the absurdity of the Convention pushers’ arguments; their false claims & assurances about the Convention process; their misrepresentations of Court Opinions; their misrepresentations of whom they really serve, and their faked “popular support”. Since everything they tell you is false; the question arises, “What’s their real agenda?”

I’ll show you.  And then you will see why James Madison “trembled” at the prospect of an Article V Convention.[1]

1. The absurdity of the Convention pushers’ arguments

1. They claim we need a Convention so we can get Amendments to “limit the power & jurisdiction of the federal government”.

But our Constitution already limits the federal government to a few enumerated powers!

Everyone ignores it. The federal government was able to usurp hundreds of powers not granted by our Constitution because state & local governments, hospitals, businesses, universities, farmers, individual citizens, & everybody else collaborated with the usurpations by taking federal funds to participate in unconstitutional federal programs.

Our Constitution doesn’t need “fixing” – it needs to be read & obeyed:  downsize the federal government to its enumerated powers! And stop taking the money!

1. Their proposed Amendments increase the powers of the federal government by granting new powers, legalizing powers already usurped, or stripping States of their existing powers. E.g.,

• HERE are the Nightmare Amendments from “COS’s” first mock convention.
• To see how six of Mark Levin’s “liberty amendments” do the opposite of what he claims, go HERE. [His other amendments are just as bad.]
• To see how the “regulation freedom amendment” increases federal power and makes gun control by the federal government constitutional, see The “Regulation Freedom” Amendment and Daniel Webster.

No Amendment can make people obey the Constitution:  When the federal government usurps powers not granted – and everybody accepts federal funds to participate in unconstitutional federal programs, all of them are ignoring the existing constitutional limits on federal power.

State Legislators who are concerned about federal spending and federal control should stop taking federal money to implement unconstitutional federal programs in their State!

1. The Convention pushers’ false claims & assurances about the Convention Process

1. They claim George Mason said that when the federal government violates the Constitution, we need a Convention to amend the Constitution.

• Mason never said that! The Framers agreed the purpose of Amendments is to correct defectsin the Constitution.
• Mason’s concern was that Congress might not consent to Amendments needed to correct defects in the Constitution. HERE is what Mason really said.

1. Who judges and counts the applications? They assure State Legislators that Congress “can’t” call a Convention until Congress gets 34 applications asking for the same Amendment & that Delegates “can’t” do anything except consider Amendments requested by 34 State Legislatures.

But our Constitution doesn’t say that – they made it up!

And meanwhile, their supporters in Congress are filing legislation for Congress to count all applications together – regardless of the Amendment specified in State Legislature’s application.

1. Who decides how Delegates will be selected? They assure State Legislators that they will select & control the Delegates.

But our Constitution doesn’t say that – they made it up!

• And in Congress’ preliminary preparations for a convention in the past, they provided for the election of Delegates.

We don’t know what the Congress of today would decide…. 

III.

The Convention pushers’ misrepresentations of the holdings of federal court opinions

1. The “Convention of States” organization (COS) distributes this flyer to State Legislators. COS misrepresents what the Courts said!

Here’s my response showing what the Courts actually held.

IV.

The Convention pushers’ false claims about whom they really serve & their faked “popular support” 

1. Mark Meckler tells State Legislators that his organizations are funded by grandmas sending him $5.00 checks out of their paltry monthly incomes (with little notes attached saying they wish they could give more). But Dark Money—Not the Grassroots—Is Behind the Convention of States Organizations (COS) proves that almost 2/3 of the money driving Meckler’s effort to get State Legislatures to apply to Congress for a convention under Article V of the US Constitution is coming from major donors annually giving Meckler’s organizations $5,000 to $2,000,000 eachover the latest 3 years of reporting available.  Why are multi-billionaires trying to get their hands on our Constitution?

The Convention pushers are spending millions of dollars every year to buy a Convention:  Meckler’s “Convention of States Action” organization alone spent $10,689,465.00 for 2022 [link under “Core Financials” & the 2022 Tax Form 990 for Convention of States Action [item 18 on page 1].  

No organization with donors like that & with two Board Members (Robert P. George & C. Boyden Gray) who are also Members of The Council on Foreign Relations is a “grassroots” organization.

1. COS claims to have massive grassroots support for an Article V Convention.  However, there is considerable evidence that their alleged support is faked:

• This Phony Petitions & Polls flyer tells of how, during 2018, two Idaho Legislators reported that the COS Petitions they received were digitally “signed” by some constituents who, when contacted, said they never signed.  Representative Priscilla Giddings called this practice “hi-tech fraud”.  Representative Dorothy Moon called it “dirty tricks”.
• In this video, Representative Pepper Ottman of Wyoming tells of how during 2023, she received hundreds of emails from alleged supporters of SJR 11 (“COS’s” application for a convention).  Since the names and addresses of [alleged] senders were provided, she contacted the alleged senders and they said they didn’t send the emails!
• In this video, Representative Sarah Penn, also of Wyoming, recounts of how she received emails in support of SJR 11 from “constituents” – but when she contacted them, they responded with comments such as, “I don’t know what this is – I didn’t send it – what is COS?”
• In this video, a South Dakota Senator Exposes COS Deceit and Fake Petitions Including From His Own Wife!

1. So what’s the real agenda?

The Globalists want a new Constitution which moves the United States into global government.

1. The North American Union: During 2005, President George W. Bush, the Prime Minister of Canada, & the President of Mexico hammered out a Plan for a North American Community.  A Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations wrote it up – here’s their Report.  It provides for the political integration of Canada, the US, & Mexico.  A Parliament is set up over the three Members and their military & police forces are combined.

          The USMCA Trade Agreement:  This so-called “Trade Agreement” between the United States, Mexico and Canada was approved by the United States during the Trump Administration.  It is, in reality, a Transfer of Sovereignty Agreement.  It provides for the economic & financial integration of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. In addition to putting the three countries under global regulation of a host of issues such as patents, environmental regulation, labor, immigration policy, prohibition of discriminatory practices respecting sexual preferences and “gender identity” in the workplaces; it puts the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in control of our economy and binds us to submit to an international monetary system which is to be administered and enforced (at least initially) by the IMF and which will replace our collapsing Federal Reserve system.[2]

The Declaration of North America:  The Biden Administration is also pushing the North American Community:  On Jan 10, 2023, Biden, the Prime Minister of Canada, & the President of Mexico issued the Declaration of North America. It’s a summary of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force Report on the North American Community.

On December 7, 2023, the United Nations’ “Human Rights Committee” issued it’s Final Report[click on “PDF”], wherein it praises the Biden Administration for its progress in complying with the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights[3] by promoting abortion & transgenderism.  The Report goes on to demand that the Covenant be applied in the United States’ “domestic legal order at the federal, state, local and territorial levels” (5).  It objects to State Laws restricting abortion for women & girls (29).  It objects to State Laws restricting voting by mail & ballot collection, and to “burdensome” voter ID requirements (64-65).  It demands background checks for all private acquisitions of firearms & ammunition, and red flag confiscations.  It demands bans on “assault rifles” & “high-capacity” magazines (35).  It demands laws at the federal, state, local and territorial levels preventing schools from prohibiting biological boys who identify as girls from using girls’ bathrooms or competing in girls’ sports (24-25).  It demands that the United States rectify past discriminations against Muslims seeking entry into the US (16-17).  See Alex Newman’s article, UN Report Condemns U.S., Demanding Speech Control, Constitution Change & More Abortion.

1. The above is antithetical to our existing Constitution. The structure of the global government is already in place and its policies are now being carried out[4]; but it is not yet “legal“.  They have no legal authority to force the federal, State and local governments to submit to their demands.  So they need a new Constitution for the United States which moves us into the global government and strips the States and The People of their Rights and retained powers.  Under the new system, we will have only the rights “granted” to us by government.[5]

To get a new Constitution, they need Congress to call an Article V Convention.  A Convention isn’t about getting Amendments to our existing Constitution – that’s just the pretext for inducing State Legislatures to apply to Congress for Congress to call a convention. James Madison expressly warned that those who secretly wish for a new Constitution would push for an Article V Convention under the pretext of “getting Amendments”.  He said that here, at endnote 3.  Beware of false friends and paid endorsers who are selling you into slavery.

A Constitution which formally implements the Council on Foreign Relations’ Task Force Report hasn’t been released. But several other proposed Constitutions have been released: 

The Constitution for the Newstates of America: Article XII, §1 provides for ratification by a referendum initiated by the President.[6] The States are dissolved & replaced by regional governments answerable to the new national government.  We are disarmed under this Constitution (Article I, Part B, § 8).

The Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America was prepared by the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.

The National Constitution Center is a quasi-official agency of the federal government. Under their Constitution Drafting Project, they released three proposed new Constitutions (read them here):

The Progressive Constitution,

The Libertarian Constitution, and

The so-called “Conservative” Constitution. This Constitution was co-authored by the above-mentioned COS Board Member Robert P. George. It creates a new federal government which has express constitutional authority to impose gun control & red flag confiscations. 

James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, 4 US Supreme Court Justices & other legal scholars warn against an Article V Convention. They understand that a Convention would likely result in the imposition of a new Constitution – after all, we have already gotten rid of one Constitution at an “Amendments Convention” & replaced it with a new one.  Here’s what happened:

Our first Constitution was The Articles of Confederation. It had defects.  So on Feb. 21, 1787, the Continental Congress Resolved to call a convention to be held at Philadelphia,

“…for the sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation…”

But the Delegates ignored the instructions of Congress and similar instructions from the States, and wrote a new Constitution (our present Constitution of 1787) which created a new federal government.

And the new Constitution had an easier mode of ratification: it would be ratified when only 9 of the then 13 States approved it (Art. VII); whereas Amendments to the Articles of Confederation had to be approved by the Continental Congress & all of the then 13 States (Art. 13).

In Federalist 40 (15th para), James Madison, who was a delegate to the Federal “Amendments Convention” of 1787, invoked the Declaration of Independence as justification for the Delegates’ ignoring their instructions to propose Amendments to the Articles of Confederation and writing a new Constitution which created a new Form of gov’t. 

Go here to see where Madison said itThe Remedy our Framers actually advised:

Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton wrote that because the States created the federal government [when they ratified the Constitution], the States are the final authority on whether their “creature” has violated the constitutional compact the States made with each other; and that when the fed gov’t usurps powers not delegated, each State has the natural right to nullify of their own authority all such acts of the fed gov’t. The refusal to go along with unconstitutional acts is the remedy they advised when the fed gov’t violates the Constitution.

This is not a mere “constitutional right” created by our Constitution of 1787 – this is the God-given natural right of self-defense which pre-dates and pre-exists the Constitution.

VII. Please Rescind your States’ existing applications for Congress to call a Convention

Here is an archived & unofficial list of applications for a Convention already submitted by State Legislatures to Congress. Under the method of counting applications proposed by COS supporters in Congress, any one of the applications filed by your State Legislature could be counted by Congress to make your State one of the 34 States applying for a Convention. 

Endnotes:

1. Here is where Madison said he “trembled” at the prospect of another Convention.
2. For details on the USMCA “Trade Agreement” and the North American Union, refer to the three articles posted here: https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/category/usmca-trade-agreement/
3. The United States ratified the UN’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on June 8, 1992 under President George Bush, Sr.
4. E.g., the immigration laws passed by the US Congress have long been ignored. The US government has been taking its orders respecting immigration from the United Nations. That’s why our Borders are wide open. The globalists are right now in the process of imposing their new monetary system on the United States.  They are right now demanding that State & local governments submit to the UN’s perverse agenda respecting “human rights”.
5. Our Declaration of Independence recognizes that Rights come from God and that the purpose of government is the hallowed one of securing the rights God gave us.

Compare that with the new conception of “rights” pushed in the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

• Article 8 provides we have the rights granted to us by the constitution or by law.

• Article 21 provides that “the will of the people” is the basis of the authority of government; and that “the will of the people” is expressed by those whom they elect to public office (let that sink in).

• Article 29 provides that our rights & freedoms can’t ever be exercised “contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations”
•  (let that sink in – the UN is the ultimate Authority – not God).Note well: Any new Constitution will have its own mode of ratification.  The mode of ratification for our US Constitution of 1787 is set forth at Article VII thereof.  The mode of ratification of the proposed Newstates Constitution is set forth at Article XII, Sec. 1 thereof.  Convention pushers are not telling the Truth when they assure you that “anything which comes out of a Convention must be approved by 3/4 of the States before it can be effective.”