WORLD NEWS
Chaos in Brazil: Protesters Storm Capital, Destroying Supreme Court and Congress
Thousands of opponents of socialist convicted felon President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stormed his offices and the headquarters of the Congress and Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) of Brazil on Sunday, reportedly demolishing the facades of two of the three buildings and causing “irreparable” damage to priceless artifacts in the chambers.
The riot in Brasilia occurred while Lula himself was in Sao Paulo state assessing the damage of recent floods. Lula, in a public statement following police action to subdue the protesters, announced an official “federal intervention” in Brasilia – consolidating the public security powers of several agencies into the hands of a hand-picked, top-level official – and accused police of acting in “bad faith” in failing to prevent the protesters from storming the buildings.
White House Responds After Pro-Bolsonaro Protesters Breach Brazilian Congress
The Biden administration on Sunday condemned Brazilian protesters who broke through security blockades and breached the country’s national Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court.
“Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable. We join [President Luiz Inacio Lula Silva] in urging an immediate end to these actions,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote Sunday on Twitter.
White House adviser Jake Sullivan said President Joe Biden, who visited the U.S.–Mexico border on Sunday, “is following the situation closely and our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering … Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”
Videos and photos from the scene in Brasilia, the country’s capital city, showed protesters inside the presidential palace and destroying furniture in Congress and the Supreme Court. Some footage showed protesters on top of the national Congress. Reports indicated that Lula, who was inaugurated on Jan. 1, was not there, while it was likely few officials were working in the Brazilian Congress and Supreme Court on a Sunday.
As a deadly new virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, the regime downplayed the severity of the virus and concealed the true scale of the outbreak.
It wasn’t until late January 2020 that Chinese officials disclosed that the mysterious virus was caple of transmitting between humans. The delay in public warning allowed the disease to develop into a global pandemic: By the time Wuhan was locked down, cases had already been reported in the United States, Thailand, and several other countries.
China’s Role in Illicit Fentanyl Running Rampant on US Streets
Beijing never curbed the production of fentanyl but encouraged it, investigative journalist says
News Analysis
Fentanyl overdose has become the leading cause of death for young Americans since 2019. U.S. authorities say that China remains the primary source of the precursor chemicals, which are then processed and manufactured into synthetic opioids by Mexican drug cartels to bring into the United States.
In response to the rising threat of illicit fentanyl, bipartisan lawmakers last year introduced the “End Fentanyl Act,” a bill intended to strengthen border enforcement in combatting the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
This bill would require “U.S. Customs and Border Protection to review and update, as necessary, manuals and policies related to inspections at ports of entry to ensure the uniformity of inspection practices to effectively detect illegal activity along the border, such as the smuggling of drugs and humans.”
The Eradicating Narcotic Drugs and Formulating Effective New Tools to Address National Yearly Losses of Life (END FENTANYL) Act was introduced by Senator Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in June 2022 with bipartisan colleagues.
On Dec. 14, 2022, it unanimously passed the Senate and headed to the House of Representatives, where Congressmen Michael Guest (R-Miss., 3rd District) and David Trone (D-Md., 6th District) introduced the House companion legislation.
“Far too many Americans have lost loved ones to opioid overdoses, and millions more are currently suffering from substance use disorder. Working together, we must do everything we can to stem the flow of illicit fentanyl into our communities,” Trone said on Dec. 13, 2022.
Trone said “99 percent of the fentanyl is coming from precursor drugs from China, and then it’s manufactured by two cartels, the Jalisco and Sinaloa Cartels, and they’re the ones that are bringing it across the border,” adding that it’s important to stop it from the source.
Death of Chinese Official Amid COVID-19 Wave Casts Spotlight on Forced Organ Harvesting
The death of a former Chinese deputy cultural minister amid the country’s COVID explosion would perhaps have attracted little public attention if not for a short-lived obituary.
With his “sharp mind and a booming voice,” the “spry” Gao Zhanxiang didn’t “at all resemble a patient” before the COVID surge, wrote Zhu Yongxin, deputy secretary general of the 12th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the Party’s top political advisory body. “I never imagined that he would leave us so soon.”
But in his condolences, Zhu might have revealed a little more than he desired. The 87-year-old, as he noted, had “replaced many organs in his body” as he “tenaciously fought with illness,” to the point that the former official once joked that “many components are not his own anymore.”
The article caused a stir on Chinese social media Weibo despite its swift deletion. Keen-eyed observers produced copies before censors got to work, circulating them in disbelief over Gao’s alleged extensive organ transplant history and the casual way in which Zhu had mentioned it.
It is widely known that senior Chinese Communist Party officials enjoy a raft of privileges from top-tier medical treatment to special schools for their offspring. But the apparent ease with which Gao was able to access multiple matching organs, each of which could cost a lifetime’s earnings for a regular Chinese citizen, raises troubling questions in a country already scrutinized for the regime’s organ transplant abuses.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Kevin McCarthy Elected as Speaker of the House for the 118th Congress
It took 15 votes beginning on Jan. 3, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) finally gained enough votes on Jan. 7 to be elected the 55th speaker of the House of Representatives in a nail-bitingly close election that ran past midnight in the lower chamber of the U.S. Capitol.
McCarthy’s 216 votes total bested Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who received the votes of all 212 Democrats present in the chamber in all but one of the 15 votes that began a little after noon on Jan. 3 when the 118th Congress convened for the day. Jeffries received 211 on an earlier vote when Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) missed balloting for surgery.
McCarthy’s victory was made possible when the six remaining populist conservative holdouts who had opposed him from the first vote all voted present. That reduced the number of members voting to 428, which reduced McCarthy’s magic number to 216 from 218.
When it became clear that McCarthy had finally secured the speaker’s chair, the Republican side of the House chamber celebrated, with many hugging their new leader, shaking hands, laughing, and slapping one another on the back. McCarthy gave an especially spirited hug to House majority leader, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). McCarthy also posed for selfies with a number of his fellow Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
During a 14th vote about an hour and a half earlier, when everybody in the chamber realized at the end of the roll call that only one more vote was needed to put McCarthy into the speaker’s seat, highly animated conversations took place as members tried to persuade Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) or Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to switch their vote.
But then Gaetz changed his mind and agreed to vote for McCarthy, and a motion to adjourn was defeated, and a 15th vote was to then be taken. Gaetz ended up voting present during the 15th round of voting.
McCarthy, Jeffries Launch 118th Congress With Preview of Intense Partisanship to Come
Newly elected Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched his tenure leading the lower chamber of the 118th Congress by challenging colleagues in both political parties to work together to do the will of the American people expressed in the November 2022 midterm election.
“You know, if the son of a fireman and the grandchild of immigrants can rise to the highest position in the most important legislative body in our country, and if my colleague, Hakeem Jeffries, with his life story can rise to lead his party, then opportunity and democracy still thrive in America,” McCarthy said, drawing sustained applause from both sides of the chamber.
McCarthy was referring to the fact he is a third-generation descendant of Irish immigrants to America and to the success Jeffries achieved despite growing up in a poverty and crime-stricken neighborhood of New York.
But while both men paid tribute to America as a land of opportunity for all, McCarthy and Jeffries both spoke strongly worded promises to fight for their respective conferences’ policy agendas in what promises to be a Congress marked by heated debate, ideological conflict, and partisan political jockeying for the 2024 presidential and congressional campaigns.
In his introduction of McCarthy as the new speaker, Jeffries delivered an especially partisan celebration of the former speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), calling the 117th Congress one of “accomplishment, not ambiguity” and her “the iconic, the heroic, the legendary, the Speaker Emerita, Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi.”
Jeffries predicted that “she will go down in history as the greatest speaker of all time,” and he added that “throughout her time in Congress, she has been a legendary legislator, a fabulous facilitator, and a no-nonsense negotiator.”
Rep. Andrew Ogles Reveals What Concessions Were Made in Battle for Speaker of the House
News Analysis
Although not yet sworn in, first-year U.S. Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn) from Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District found himself in the middle of a historic maelstrom when he arrived in Washington on Dec. 31, 2022, in the company of his family.
However, Ogles knew a bit of what he was getting into because he had already become a member of the Freedom Caucus and was already involved in the ongoing negotiations that, as of this writing, seem to have vastly reformed the way the U.S. Congress will do business in exchange for allowing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to become House speaker.
Ogles should be known to many Epoch Times readers for his participation in the unique primary debate—using domain experts instead of journalists to ask the questions—sponsored by this company in concert with the Nashville Republican Women.
Little did we know, nor probably did he, that Ogles would end up being one of the 20 to instigate this monumental change they say will return the Congress to the original intention of the Founders as The People’s House.
I spoke with Ogles by phone the night of Jan. 6, 2023, before the roll call vote during which, it was said, two of the remaining rejectionists who couldn’t accept McCarthy personally would absent themselves so that the magic number would be lowered and the new speaker could go over the top.
Apropos, Ogles informed me that what many had guessed was true. His absence from voting in a previous round also was planned. He waited to see that all was going according to plan before stepping forward to flip his vote to McCarthy after the initial round.
For Ogles, the basis of all the negotiations was to establish the rules of the game in Congress that had been altered over the years beyond recognition. As he pointed out, the rules of a game almost always determine the winner.
He shared with me a list of some of what has been roughly negotiated to date. The devil, as always, is in the details.
McCarthy’s Concessions to Freedom Caucus and What They Mean
Newly elected House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had to make numerous concessions to win over a holdout group of populist Republicans in order to secure their votes. Here are the key concessions McCarthy had to make, including what some Republican strategists say is the key one—allowing just one member to move to vacate the speaker’s chair, giving McCarthy a fragile grip on power.
McCarthy was elected as the 55th House Speaker in the early hours of Jan. 7 by a vote of 216–212.
While it normally takes 218 votes—a majority of the House—to become speaker, that threshold can be reduced if members are absent or merely vote present.
It’s precisely this maneuver that gave McCarthy his coveted win, as six Republicans voted “present” instead of “yea” in the final vote: Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).
In a 20-minute speech following the vote, McCarthy laid out his priorities for the 118th Congress, including securing the southern border, combating “woke” indoctrination in American schools, and unleashing domestic energy production.
“We must get America back on track,” he said. “We’ll hold the swamp accountable.”
The House now plans to vote on a hefty rules package, which includes a series of concessions that the 20 holdout Republicans pushed for.
Some GOP strategists hailed the rule changes as a major win for the House Republicans Conference—the party caucus for Republicans in the House of Representatives—saying it marks the first time in decades that they have independent authority from leadership.
Kevin McCarthy Credits Trump for His House Speaker Win
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) thanked former President Donald Trump for helping him secure the speakership.
“I do want to especially thank President [Donald] Trump. I don’t think anybody should doubt his influence. He was with me from the beginning,” McCarthy told reporters early morning on Jan. 7, after winning the 15th vote to become the new speaker of the House.
“He was all in. He would call me and he would call others. And he really was—I was just talking to him tonight—helping get those final votes,” McCarthy added. “What he’s really saying—really for the party and the country—that we have to come together.
“We have to focus on the economy. We’ve got to focus, make our border secure. We got to do so much work to do, and he was a great influence to make that all happen. So thank you, President Trump.”
McCarthy was finally elected speaker after 15 votes beginning on Jan. 3, after the California lawmaker had made several concessions to win over a group of populist conservatives in order to secure the votes. One of the key concessions was allowing just one House member to call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair—giving McCarthy a fragile grip on power.
In the final vote, six remaining Republican holdouts all voted “present,” paving the way for McCarthy’s victory with 216 votes, while Democrat leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York received 212 votes.
The six House Republicans were Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).
Rep. Jordan Says Republicans Will Be Able to Pass GOP House Rules Package
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Jan. 8 that he believes Republicans can pass a House rules package that was subject to negotiations with holdouts during the election of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House speaker last week.
“I think we’ll get the 218 votes we need to pass the rules package,” Jordan told “Fox News Sunday.” “What this rules package is designed to do is to stop what we saw happen literally 15 days ago, when the Democrats passed a $1.7 trillion monstrosity of a bill.”
During his bid for speaker, McCarthy had to make concessions to a group of about 20 Republicans until he was elected during the early hours of Jan. 7—after 15 rounds of voting. Some of the rule changes include lowering the threshold for a lawmaker to issue a motion to vacate, allowing members to oust the House speaker, as well as allowing a vote to allow term limits on members of the chamber.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did away with the “vacate the chair” rule when Democrats regained the majority in 2019.
“If a CEO is not doing the job, you can fire him—the same thing in politics,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), one of the holdouts who was won over by McCarthy by the rules changes.
McCarthy also committed to spending cuts, including slashing spending on defense. Congress faces an agenda of must-pass bills to fund the government, restock a military that has seen its supplies depleted by military aid to Ukraine and decades of war, authorize farming programs, and raise the nation’s borrowing limit to avert a federal default.
“We got a $32 trillion debt, everything has to be on the table,” Jordan said during the Jan. 8 interview. “When you’ve got numbers like that … frankly, we better look at the money we send to Ukraine as well.”
Biden Arrives at Border for First Time as President
President Joe Biden arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, touching down in El Paso, Texas, following policy announcements and calls from Republicans as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued new criticism.
Biden is due to spend a few hours in the Texas city, currently the biggest corridor for illegal crossings, and is expected to meet with border officials to discuss migration as well as the increased trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which are driving skyrocketing numbers of overdoses in the United States. Footage released on Sunday afternoon showed Biden exiting Air Force One after the plane arrived at the El Paso International Airport.
Biden will visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with nonprofits and religious groups that support migrants arriving to the United States. It is not clear whether Biden will talk to any migrants, according to officials.
“The President is very much looking forward to seeing for himself first-hand what the border security situation looks like, particularly in El Paso. He’s very much also interested in getting to talk to Customs and Border Patrol agents on the ground who are actually involved in this mission to get their first-hand perspectives of it,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Jan. 6.
Biden’s announcement on border security and his visit to the border are aimed in part at quelling the political noise and blunting the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. But any enduring solution will require action by the sharply divided Congress, where multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed in recent years.
US Government Bump Stock Ban Struck Down by Court
The U.S. government was wrong when it said a ban on machine guns applied to bump stocks, a federal court ruled on Jan. 6.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) in 2018 claimed that two laws banning machine guns meant bump stocks were illegal, reversing its earlier position. The move, backed by then-President Donald Trump, came after a man carried out a mass shooting in Las Vegas, using bump stocks to fire more rapidly.
Michael Cargill, a Texas resident who had to surrender bump stocks due to the reversal, sued in 2019, arguing that the ATF and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, violated the Constitution by usurping the role of Congress in defining the machine gun ban as extending to bump stocks.
“Cargill is correct. A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machine gun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said in its new ruling.
Machine guns are defined as a weapon that shoots, or is designed to shoot, or “can be readily restored to shoot,” more than one shot automatically without manual reloading by “a single function of the trigger.” The term includes “the frame or receiver of any such weapon, any part designed and intended solely and exclusively, or combination of parts designed and intended, for use in converting a weapon into a machinegun, and any combination of parts from which a machinegun can be assembled if such parts are in the possession or under the control of a person,” according to the Gun Control Act of 1968, one of the laws cited by the ATF.
The ruling noted that semi-automatic weapons do not fall under the definition because one pull of the trigger corresponds to the firing of a single bullet.
Bump stocks are accessories that, when attached to a weapon, let a shooter speed up the firing mechanism of a semi-automatic weapon, enabling a quicker discharge of bullets. But it does not change the mechanics of a semi-automatic weapon, or the crucial aspect of needing to re-engage the trigger to fire an additional bullet, U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee writing for the majority, wrote.
“Without a bump stock or the use of an alternative bump technique, the user must provide manual input by pulling the trigger with the muscles of his trigger finger. With a bump stock, the shooter need not pull and release his trigger finger. But the shooter must still apply forward pressure to the weapon’s forebody in order to maintain the shooting mechanism,” Eldrod said. “Again, the manual input remains, even though its form changes.”
Weighing against the government was how the ATF for years after bump stocks were invented in the early 2000s decided they did not fall under the machine gun ban. That changed under public pressure following the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, which left 60 dead and hundreds wounded. The ATF’s final rule stated that the term machine gun “includes a bump-stock-type device, i.e., a device that allows a semi-automatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semi-automatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.”
Here Are the 6 Republicans Who Voted ‘Present’ in the Final Vote for McCarthy’s House Speakership
Six Republican House lawmakers voted “present” instead of “yea” in the final vote that secured the House Speakership for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
McCarthy was elected as the 55th House Speaker in the early hours of Jan. 7 following 15 rounds of votes, the first of which was held on Jan. 3. McCarthy, who was the House Republican leader of the 117th U.S. Congress, became House Speaker by a 216–212 vote.
The six Republicans who voted “present” instead of outright signaling their support for McCarthy in the final ballot were Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).
The six had previously opposed him, having voted “no” in the first vote. By the 13th vote, they made up the six votes that were in support of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), leaving McCarthy with 214 votes and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries with 212 votes from Democrats.
But with their “present” votes in the 15th round, the number of members voting was reduced to 428, which reduced McCarthy’s number of votes needed to win House Speaker to 216, which he secured.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Major US City Prepares for Nurses to Go on Strike, Impacting Hospitals
The New York City Office of Emergency Management is preparing in case thousands of New York hospital nurses go on strike on Jan. 9, officials said.
A situation room will bring together officials with the New York Police Department, New York Fire Department, New York City Health Department, health care facilities, and other groups to keep “eyes and ears” on the health care system amid the strike, a spokesperson for the Greater New York Hospital Association told Politico. A spokesperson for New York Mayor Eric Adams’s administration said the fire department has plans to reroute ambulances, while NYC Health + Hospitals will implement an emergency plan to deal with patients amid the staffing shortfall.
“We recognize the effect that a nurse strike would have on health care in our city and we are actively planning for different scenarios to minimize any impact to New Yorkers and ensure that the people of our city continue to receive care,” a City Hall spokesperson said in a statement. “We encourage all of the parties to remain at the bargaining table for however long it takes and work toward reaching a voluntary agreement. Our system will be prepared, in the event of a strike, to meet the challenges.”
As of the morning of Jan. 8, the New York State Nurses Association, a union representing 42,000 members across the state, said no new agreement was reached with area hospitals. It said about 8,700 union nurses at three hospitals—Montefiore Bronx, Mount Sinai Hospital, and Mount Sinai Morningside and West—will go on strike if the union’s demands aren’t met.
DeSantis Moves to Dissolve Disney’s ‘Corporate Kingdom,’ Bring It Under Florida Control
A central Florida county on Friday issued a notice of its plans to seek legislation that would allow for dissolving Walt Disney World’s self-governing area to appoint a state-run board to manage the district while a spokesperson for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that “Disney will no longer control its own government” under the proposal.
“Notice is hereby given of intent to seek legislation before the Florida Legislature, during a regular, extended, or special session, of an act relating to the Reedy Creek Improvement District,” said a notice from Osceola County on Friday. Reedy Creek, established in the 1960s, is the name for Disney’s self-governing district and is located in Osceola and Orange counties and allowed Disney to control the land currently occupied by its massive theme park.
Friday’s notice also stated that Florida lawmakers will take up legislation “increasing state oversight, accountability, and transparency” of Reedy Creek district. Republicans currently hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Florida legislature, although a bill hasn’t been filed in the Legislature as of Friday.
The move to dissolve Reedy Creek is backed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been a frequent critic of Disney’s jumping into the political arena to back leftist causes. Disney is one of the largest employers in the state and Walt Disney World is one of the world’s most popular theme park attractions.
“The corporate kingdom has come to an end,” Taryn Fenske, a spokesperson for DeSantis, told Fox News in a statement on Friday. “Under the proposed legislation, Disney will no longer control its own government, will live under the same laws as everyone else, will be responsible for their outstanding debts, and will pay their fair share of taxes.”
The decision to impose “a state-controlled board will also ensure that Orange County cannot use this issue as a pretext to raise taxes on Orange County residents,” she added. That statement was also posted by a Twitter account associated with DeSantis.
10 Major Layoff Announcements That Have Already Happened So Far In 2023
Commentary by Michael Snyder – This is my rebuttal to those in the federal government and elsewhere that are attempting to claim that the job market is in good shape. No matter how many workers get laid off, the Bureau of Labor Statistics always seems to find a way to post a positive jobs number each month. We were told that the U.S. economy somehow added 256,000 jobs in November even though Challenger, Gray & Christmas determined that the number of layoffs in November 2022 was actually 417 percent higher than it was during the same month a year earlier. And even though the tsunami of layoffs continued in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is telling us that the U.S. economy somehow added 223,000 jobs last month. It is almost as if there is a certain number that the BLS refuses to go below. For each of the last five months, the number of jobs that the U.S. has “added” has miraculously come in between 200,000 and 300,000 each time. But meanwhile large companies all over America have been laying off workers at a staggering rate.
Unfortunately, the pace of layoffs seems to be picking up speed during the early days of 2023. The following are 10 major layoff announcements that have already happened so far this year…
#1 Salesforce has announced that approximately 10 percent of their workers will be canned…
#2 Vimeo says that “11% of the company’s workforce” will be permanently canceled…
#3 StickFix is eliminating “about 20% of its salaried workforce” as the company starts to come apart at the seams…
#4 Their first round of layoffs was not deep enough, and so now Genesis is saying goodbye to “30% of its workforce in a second round of layoffs”…
#5 Not to be outdone, Silvergate Capital is laying the axe to 40 percent of their workers…
#6 SuperRare Labs has just announced that 30 percent of their workforce will need to look for new jobs…
#7 More than a third of Biocept’s workers will be shown the door as the company struggles to survive…
#8 The first two rounds of layoffs didn’t do the trick, and so now Compass has decided to conduct a third round of layoffs…
#9 It turns out that the layoffs at Amazon will be much larger than originally anticipated…
#10 The Daily Mail is reporting that McDonald’s “will slash many of its 200,000 corporate staff in coming months” as it attempts to turn the business back in a positive direction…
But don’t worry.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is telling us that everything is just fine.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
How The Military Will Fight Using 5G In Electromagnetic Spectrum
Whether it’s to look up funny cat videos or operate a robotic system using wireless internet, 5G has become a staple in the everyday lives of many.
But for the Pentagon, the communications technology has become a key enabler for another more critical function — the ability to harness the electromagnetic spectrum for operations.
A significant amount of military weapon systems and applications depend on the electromagnetic spectrum — the range of frequencies or wavelengths of electromagnetic energy — to operate, according to a Congressional Research Service report published August 2021.
The spectrum supports military operations today by linking wireless communications, satellites, signal intelligence and radar technologies that support situational awareness and electronic warfare, said the report, titled “Overview of Department of Defense Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum.”
To ensure the United States maintains its advantage over adversaries across an increasingly complex, congested and contested electromagnetic spectrum, or EMS, the Defense Department released its Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy in 2020. It called on the department to develop capabilities and policies that support electromagnetic spectrum operations — coordinated actions to exploit, attack, protect and manage the electromagnetic environment.
“In modern warfare, EMS superiority is a leading indicator and fundamental component of achieving superiority in air, land, sea, space or cyberspace,” the document said.
One of the emerging technologies the Pentagon believes will give a decisive edge on future battlefields — especially for electromagnetic spectrum operations — is the fifth-generation wireless network known as 5G, said Tom Rondeau, principal director for FutureG and 5G at the Pentagon’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
“It’s not just about the spectrum. It’s not just about the radio at the edge. It’s about the network and the control of that radio surface, and that becomes a really powerful tool for us to use,” Rondeau said during a panel discussion at the Association of Old Crows annual symposium in Washington, D.C.
The power of 5G comes from its ability to leverage higher frequencies on the electromagnetic spectrum as well as the mid- and low-range frequencies accessible by its predecessor 4G. The addition of high-range frequencies allows the department to transmit vast amounts of information — such as critical communications needed for operations at the edge or sensor data — at a faster speed and lower latency, while maneuvering around the spectrum to perform actions on the best-suited frequency.
Rondeau compared 4G to a highway during rush hour — slow and congested with traffic.
“You want to differentiate your services. You want to have access roads and other highways and local roads and driveways,” he said. “And that’s what 5G starts to allow us to do — differentiate those services and split off those resources in a way that allows you to customize the network to your application.”
New York City Public Schools Block AI Chatbot Over Cheating Concerns
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) has blocked OpenAI’s ChatGPT service access on its networks and devices amid fears that students will use it to cheat on assignments and other school tasks.
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot capable of producing content mimicking human speech. Accessible for free, the service can be used to generate essays, technical documents, and poetry, Chalkbeat New York reported. The program uses machine learning to pull and compile historical facts and even make logical arguments that sound convincing, all the while ensuring that the output remains grammatically correct.
“Due to concerns about negative impacts on student learning, and concerns regarding the safety and accuracy of content, access to ChatGPT is restricted on New York City Public Schools’ networks and devices,” NYCDOE spokesperson Jenna Lyle told Chalkbeat. “While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success.”
However, if individual schools do need access to the site in case they wish to study the technology powering ChatGPT, they only need to put in a request, Lyle said.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
The Pentagon Creates Road Map For ‘Zero Trust’ Internet Access By 2027
The Defense Department has finally laid out its plan for protecting its cyber networks after years of pledging to make it a commitment.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer released “The DoD Zero Trust Strategy” in November — which laid out metrics and deadlines for the department to achieve full zero trust adoption by 2027. Cybersecurity experts said the government and private sector should work together to leverage resources to successfully enter the new regime.
“Cyber physical threats to critical infrastructure really are one of our biggest national security challenges that we’re facing today, and that the landscape that we’re dealing with has gotten more complex,” Nitin Natarajan, deputy director at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said during a MeriTalk event in October.
Cyber attackers have more resources than they have in the past, and it’s less expensive to do a lot of damage to an unsecure system, he said. It’s not just lone wolf hackers, but nation states and cyber terrorists who can pose a threat.
For example, the 2019 SolarWinds cyber attack, which swept past the defenses of thousands of organizations, including the federal government, has been linked to Russia-backed operatives.
The new strategy’s basic tenet is that treating organizations’ security like a moat around a castle doesn’t keep out bad actors.
“Mission and system owners, as well as operators, increasingly embrace this view as fact. They also see the journey to [zero trust] as an opportunity to affect positively the mission by addressing technology modernizations, refining security processes and improving operational performance,” the document said.
Zero trust culture requires every person within a network to assume that it is already compromised and requires all users to prove their identities at all times.
The strategy lists technologies that can help cultivate a zero trust environment such as continuous multi-factor authentication, micro-segmentation, advanced encryption, endpoint security, analytics and robust auditing.
While these various technologies can be used to implement this basic premise, it essentially means that “users are granted access to only the data they need and when needed.”
The strategy revolves around four pillars: accepting the culture of zero trust, operationalizing zero trust practices, accelerating zero trust technology and department-wide integration. The strategy notes that while IT departments across the Pentagon may need to purchase products, there is no one capability that can solve all their problems.
“While the objectives prescribe ‘what’ shall be done in furtherance of the goal, they do not prescribe ‘how,’ as DoD Components may need to undertake objectives in differing ways,” the strategy read.
For the technology pillar, the Pentagon’s zero trust strategy calls for capabilities to be pushed out faster while reducing silos. Capabilities that promote simpler architecture and efficient data management are also important, according to the document.
While many methods can be used to authenticate users, the integration pillar calls for creating an acquisition plan for technologies that can be scaled department-wide by early fiscal year 2023.
One technology development already underway is the Thunderdome, a $6.8 million contract awarded to Booz Allen Hamilton earlier this year. The technology would protect access to the Secure Internet Protocol Router Network, the Pentagon’s classified information transmitter, according to a Defense Information Systems Agency press release.
It won’t be possible to completely retrofit every legacy platform with technology such as multi-factor authentication, the strategy points out. However, the services can implement safeguards for these less modern systems in the interim.
The securing information systems pillar will also require automating artificial intelligence operations and securing communications at all levels.
Automating systems is an important part of zero trust, said Andy Stewart, senior federal strategist at digital communications company Cisco Systems and a former director at Fleet Cyber Command/U.S. Tenth Fleet. If the processes behind zero trust don’t work well, people can struggle to use the technology and adopt the zero trust mindset.
“Zero trust is about raising the security, but it also means, ‘How do I operate more efficiently?’” he said. “The user experience should get a vote.”
While the strategy marks a turning point for the effort, the Pentagon started down the road of zero trust years ago. Its 2019 Digital Modernization Strategy mentioned that zero trust was an emerging initiative concept it was “exploring.”
Apple Kisses Up to China Again
Apple stabs Taiwan in the back with iPhone shift to China
Commentary
Apple is doing the splits. The maker of iPhones, MacBooks, and AirPods is moving much of its production outside of China to the United States, India, and Vietnam.
Simultaneously, the company is shifting production within China from Taiwanese to Chinese companies.
Moves to the West and friendly countries will please Western consumers and governments.
Within China, whose consumers spend a whopping 17 percent of Apple’s total revenues, the company is moving production from Taiwan’s Foxconn to Chinese companies like Luxshare Precision, Goertech, and Wingtech.
That makes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) happy, or at least, less unhappy.
The production split is driven by politics. Apple wants to maintain production in China and the West during an incipient global decoupling between Washington- and Beijing-led trading blocs.
Chinese production will continue to supply China, Russia, and Iran, while non-Chinese production can reliably supply the rest of the world.
Taiwan is a definite loser in the split, as its Foxconn company specializes in Chinese production for Western markets. That specialty is no longer in demand. Vietnam and India are the biggest winners.
Apple’s first major order for premium iPhones from Luxshare was reported on Jan. 4 by the Financial Times. It comes shortly after worker riots at Foxconn, allegedly over pay and COVID-19 lockdowns at the plant. The protests hurt the Apple brand, production, and revenues.
They also pressured Apple and served as a convenient excuse for it to move Foxconn production to Luxshare, despite the Foxconn plant having regained speed.
Luxshare previously assembled only non-premium iPhones. With the new contract, the company broke Foxconn’s monopoly on the premium phones.
The day the news broke, Luxshare shares rose over 3 percent. Apple’s valuation, conversely, fell over the past year from $3 trillion to under $2 trillion.
Cutthroat business practices are a strong possibility. Luxshare was founded by Grace Wang, a former Foxconn worker.
The latest Taiwanese-to-Chinese production shift follows the same course as many in the past, where a Chinese company cannibalizes a competitor and then develops similar products to outcompete its rival.
HEALTH
Propaganda Perpetuates the Pandemic and Censorship
COVID-19 is the largest, most sophisticated propaganda operation in history. Psychological techniques were extensively used during 2020 to incite fear and panic in the population
Propaganda strategies were also used to get people to support and defend irrational COVID measures such as masking, isolation, social distancing, lockdowns and jab mandates
What made the COVID propaganda so much more effective than any previous propaganda operation is the fact that a virus is the perfect enemy. It’s invisible, could be carried by anyone, including those you love the most, and could “get” you anywhere
Classical rhetoric is about persuasion through argument. It appeals to logic. Propaganda, on the other hand, is a kind of subrational manipulation that appeals to our most basic instincts, such as fear. An informal definition of propaganda is “an organized attempt to get people to think or do something — or not think or do something”
The Great Lie is possible because the more divorced a lie is from reality, the more likely it is to succeed, as most people are reluctant to think that authority figures would lie and completely ignore reality
>> Video: Covid is a Global Propaganda Operation
FDA Grants Accelerated Approval for Alzheimer’s Drug Lecanemab
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday granted accelerated approval for the experimental dementia drug lecanemab.
Lecanemab, which will be marketed as Leqembi, is the second of a new class of Alzheimer’s disease drugs that target the illness’s core pathophysiology, according to the FDA, which said the drug is a significant step forward in the ongoing battle to treat Alzheimer’s disease properly.
Going Barefoot Helps Strengthen Feet, Improves Balance, Control and Health
Our feet have the ability to communicate a great deal of vital information, not just about the world around us but also about our own bodies and how we navigate through space. But it’s hard to hear what they have to say when they are shoved into shoes most of the day.
Feet have more nerve endings per square centimeter than nearly any other part of the body. Their job is to gauge the grade, slope, texture, and temperature of the earth below our feet. This information is then rapidly communicated to our brains to help us respond in a way that assists in how we walk and keeps us standing upright.
But with shoes interfering, we might be getting dulled or muted messages, and limiting the body’s ability to heal. Those are a couple of reasons Susan Milton, 54, ditched her shoes for a full-time barefoot lifestyle a decade ago. On the very rare occasion when she wears shoes now, the lack of sensation on her soles feels foreign.
“I really value that extra input in my environment,” she said. “It’s more information coming in about what my surroundings are. I just really enjoy it. It makes what I’m doing a richer experience. It’s amazing.”
For some Americans, it’s offensive—and perhaps even crass—to be in public places without shoes. And yet research is increasingly clear that most footwear options are damaging our feet, and by extension, our bodies, by putting too much burden on the lower joints.
Most shoes are elaborately designed to absorb shock but they also dull sensations. Going barefoot—at least part of the day and learning how to nourish the nerves of the feet—can help anyone with or without foot injuries support natural foot function. But for those with existing foot problems, starting slow may be vital to avoid additional pain.
How Nebulized Peroxide Helps Against Respiratory Infections
Hydrogen peroxide sits inside and outside cells of your cells in low levels, ready and waiting to be generated in greater amounts as soon as a pathogen is detected by your immune system
Nebulizing hydrogen peroxide into your sinuses, throat and lungs is a simple, straightforward way to augment your body’s natural expression of hydrogen peroxide to combat infections
In addition to having direct viricidal effects, iodine improves white blood cell function and thyroid hormone production. This provides a metabolic boost to white blood cells to increase hydrogen peroxide antimicrobial properties which is one way your immune system works to kill pathogens
Vitamin C also increases hydrogen peroxide production when used at high doses, while vitamin A helps modulate your immune system
Buy a desktop nebulizer and stock food-grade hydrogen peroxide, Lugol’s iodine and some saline. That way, you have everything you need and can begin treatment at home at the first signs of a respiratory infection
>> Video: HOW NEBULIZED PEROXIDE MAY HELP FIGHT RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS – INTERVIEW WITH DR. DAVID BROWNSTEIN
It is rarely too late to start resistance training; you can build muscle mass well after age 60. In 2022, I set a new personal record in the leg press for 600 pounds, far better than the 400-pound deadlift I did the year before
Sarcopenia — age-related muscle loss — threatens a healthy lifespan. Skeletal muscle not only manages physical activity, but also plays a major role in metabolism, circulation and cognition
Skeletal muscle acts as endocrine organ secreting myokines and transcription factors into the bloodstream, thereby regulating the function of other organs. It also has immune regulatory properties
The loss of muscle mass is thought to be a primary driver of insulin resistance in older adults. Declining muscle strength and reduced physical activity also contribute to metabolic dysfunction
In order to gain muscle mass though one needs a critical to eat enough protein. A minimum is about 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight (0.54 grams/pound) per day. Athletes and the elderly could probably benefit from going up from that level to about 1.6 grams/kilogram (0.71 grams/pound)
>> Video: HOW BFR TRAINING MAY HELP MAINTAIN MUSCLE MASS AS YOU AGE
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Man Arrested After Alleged Terror Incident at Vegas Power Plant: Police
A man is facing terrorism-related charges after he allegedly rammed his car through a gate at a solar power plant near Las Vegas, set the car on fire, and disabled the facility, according to police.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department stated that its Counter Terrorism division identified the suspect as 34-year-old Mohammed Mesmarian, local media outlets reported.
Mesmarian was taken to the Clark County Detention Center and was charged with committing an act of terrorism, first-degree arson, third-degree arson, destroying or injuring real or personal property, and escape by a felony prisoner, police told local media outlets.
“Mesmarian clarified he burned the Toyota Camry a couple of days ago,” Las Vegas Police said, 8NewsNow reported. “Mesmarian [said] he burned the vehicle at a Tesla solar plant and did it ‘for the future.’”
An employee at the facility told the media outlet that the fire caused “major damage,” estimating that it would take two years to receive replacement parts. The damaged unit was shut down and isn’t producing electricity at this time, officials told the outlet.
Investigators told the channel that they believe Mesmarian siphoned gasoline from his vehicle and placed gas on wires at the transformer before setting them on fire. Security camera footage was also released, allegedly showing the suspect lighting his car on fire near the transformer.
Damage was done to the Mega Solar Array facility, which provides power to MGM properties, including its hotels.
“Following an incident at the Mega Solar Array facility, on-site personnel immediately notified authorities and shut down the plant’s operations as a precaution in accordance with industry-standard safety protocols,” a spokesperson for Invenergy, which manages the plant, told the media outlet. “No one was injured, and we are currently restoring the facility’s full operations.”
Biden Administration Admits Keystone Cancellation Cost Tens of Thousands of Jobs
The Biden administration has released a congressionally required report on the jobs impact of the president’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline, which reveals a failed opportunity to create tens of thousands of jobs.
The report (pdf) was published without fanfare in late December by the Department of Energy (DOE) after being mandated to do so by provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which required the agency to evaluate how many jobs would have been created absent Biden’s decision to axe the pipeline.
Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that halted the Keystone XL project, saying the pipeline “disserves the U.S. national interest” as its construction and operation would be inconsistent with his administration’s larger agenda to tackle a “climate crisis.”
Study: 6G May Use Humans As Power Source5G wireless technology is just starting to take off worldwide, but a new study is already speculating on the future of 6G! Researchers from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst say, unlike older technology, 6G could end up using people as antennas.
Specifically, 6G telecommunications could possibly take advantage of Visible Light Communication (VLC), which is like a wireless version of fiberoptics. Right now, fiberoptics use incredibly thin glass or plastic strands to transmit information on flashes of light. These wires are extremely small, but also extremely fragile.
The UMass Amherst team says they have created a low-cost and innovative way of harvesting waste energy from VLC — using the human body as an antenna. Their invention can recycle waste energy to power wearable devices and possibly larger electronics as well.
“VLC is quite simple and interesting,” says Jie Xiong, professor of information and computer sciences at UMass Amherst, in university release. “Instead of using radio signals to send information wirelessly, it uses the light from LEDs that can turn on and off, up to one million times per second.”
What makes VLC so appealing to the future of wireless technology is the fact that the infrastructure to use it already exists. Thanks to modern technology and smart devices, our homes, vehicles, streetlights, and offices are all lit by LED bulbs, and they could also be transmitting data.
“Anything with a camera, like our smartphones, tablets or laptops, could be the receiver,” Xiong explains.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
A mom of five and property renovator has built the home of her dreams, a transformed 305-year-old farmhouse that embodies her family’s philosophy: invest in the people you love. Now, her message is spreading far beyond the walls of her happy home.
California-born Ruth McKeaney, 54, lives outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her husband, Bob. She gave up a career as an attorney to become a stay-at-home mom and is now a published author, having transformed a once-derelict farmhouse and 12-acre plot into a grand yet intimate family home with Bob, over the course of almost two years.
The family’s home has since been featured in several magazines. The couple also runs a dedicated website, Hungry4Home, and an Instagram channel, @hungryforhome, sharing the love of their “charming historic home” with the world and advising them how to make their own niche a place worth cherishing and living in.
“We have done a lot of houses, huge old homes. I love to restore something that once had life and lost it,” Ruth told The Epoch Times. “When we saw this house, it was not habitable anymore. The windows were all broken, things had been stolen, it was horrible.
“So to bring it back and give life to it and make it beautiful again, to me, that was a big motivator.”
COVID RELATED NEWS
Video: The Untold Story of a ‘Miracle Drug’
For 35 years, ivermectin was hailed as a miracle drug.
It had an incredible impact on millions of people’s lives around the world who suffered from diseases like river blindness, scabies, and elephantiasis, without side effects and at an affordable price. The scientists who discovered it even won a Nobel prize.
Some doctors tried to use it on patients with COVID-19—and the effect was profound.
Not perfect, but in Peru, there was a 14-fold decrease in excess death during the pandemic while Ivermectin was used.
But many governments are not allowing doctors to use this cheap, generic drug to treat COVID-19. And today we’re going to try to answer: why?
Propaganda Perpetuates the Pandemic and Censorship
COVID-19 is the largest, most sophisticated propaganda operation in history. Psychological techniques were extensively used during 2020 to incite fear and panic in the population
Propaganda strategies were also used to get people to support and defend irrational COVID measures such as masking, isolation, social distancing, lockdowns and jab mandates
What made the COVID propaganda so much more effective than any previous propaganda operation is the fact that a virus is the perfect enemy. It’s invisible, could be carried by anyone, including those you love the most, and could “get” you anywhere
Classical rhetoric is about persuasion through argument. It appeals to logic. Propaganda, on the other hand, is a kind of subrational manipulation that appeals to our most basic instincts, such as fear. An informal definition of propaganda is “an organized attempt to get people to think or do something — or not think or do something”
The Great Lie is possible because the more divorced a lie is from reality, the more likely it is to succeed, as most people are reluctant to think that authority figures would lie and completely ignore reality
>>Video: Covid is a Global Propaganda Operation
COVID-19 Destroys the Weakest and Poorest
COVID-19 has been called the great equalizer, but nothing could be further from the truth. The disease clearly affects certain groups far worse than others, and the countermeasures implemented to quell the outbreak have been a phenomenal boon for wealthy globalists while decimating the lives of the rest
Certain comorbidities significantly raise your risk of complications and death from COVID-19. Among the top ones are obesity, insulin resistance and vitamin D deficiency
While the media and political and economic institutions claim the pandemic narrative is based on scientific consensus, this clearly isn’t the case. There’s no evidence supporting universal mask use and there’s even less scientific support for lockdowns
While 45.5 million Americans filed for unemployment due to pandemic lockdowns, 29 new billionaires were created. The five richest men in the U.S. grew their wealth by a total of $101.7 billion (26%), between March 18, 2020, and June 17, 2020, alone
Now, as reckless government overreach has destroyed many small businesses and engineered catastrophic unemployment around the world, world leaders are joining the World Economic Forum in calling for a Great Reset of the global economy that will benefit wealthy powerbrokers while enslaving and impoverishing everyone else
CANCEL CULTURE
2 Years Later, Defund the Police Movement Continues to Haunt Police
Law enforcement officers say leaders let them down
More than two years after activists called to defund police departments over accusations of murder, brutality, and other crimes allegedly committed by a few, law enforcement officers say the wounds are still present and painful.
“If you want me to risk my life, it’s one thing to pay me, but it’s another to respect me,” veteran police officer, law enforcement trainer, and public speaker Dave Smith told The Epoch Times.
Smith and other law enforcement representatives say defunding police departments hurt the communities they served and destroyed police officer morale. Sgt. Betsy Smith is a retired police officer, the current spokesperson for the National Police Association, and married to Dave Smith. She said restored funding has yet to do much to rebuild the confidence many officers once had in their communities.
“We’ve had two and a half years of demonization,” Betsy Smith told The Epoch Times. “Many departments are short-staffed.”
White House Pushed Facebook to Censor Tucker Carlson on COVID-19 Vaccines: AG Landry
The White House pressured Facebook to take action against Fox News host Tucker Carlson for supposedly saying COVID-19 vaccines “don’t work,” according to a document released by Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry, who characterized the move as a request to censor the journalist.
Landry shared the document—an email exchange between White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty and an unidentified Facebook employee—in a Jan. 7 post on Twitter, with the comment: “Rob Flaherty tells facebook to censor” Tucker Carlson.
“Since we’ve been on the phone—the top post about vaccines today is [T]ucker Carlson saying they don’t work. Yesterday it was Tomi Lehren [sic] saying she won’t take one,” Flaherty reportedly said in the message to the Facebook staffer, whose name and email address have been redacted.
“This is exactly why I want to know what ‘Reduction’ actually looks like—if ‘reduction’ means ‘pumping our most vaccine hesitant audience with [T]ucker Carlson saying it doesn’t work’ then … I’m not sure it’s reduction!” Flaherty continued, per the document shared by Landry.
Signaling action regarding the request, the unidentified Facebook employee then reportedly wrote: “Running this down now.”
ICYMI
The U.S. Capitol Police officer who killed an unarmed woman inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was housed for months afterward at a military base in Maryland, according to newly disclosed records.
Michael Byrd, the officer, stayed at a visitor suite at the Presidential Inn on Joint Base Andrews from July 8, 2021, through January 2022, according to documents (pdf) released to the nonprofit Judicial Watch as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.
The cost to taxpayers was $158 or more per night, with the cost escalating as high as $185 at times. Byrd was joined by an unidentified pet that added $10 per night to the tab.
The U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) paid the bill every 10 days by phone, according to an email included in the set of records, about half of which were billing statements.
Byrd was initially in a “Temporary Lodging Facility” but was later moved to “the Distinguished Visitor Suite,” which led to a price hike, according to another email.
Byrd checked out on Jan. 28, 2022, a hotel manager said. USCP was hit with additional charges because, after he left, hotel workers discovered “sundry items that were used in the room that were not paid for before the guest left.”
A USCP worker said in one email that the hotel was charging the force for the room. USCP is funded by taxpayers.
“These extraordinary revelations forced out by a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit show Defense Department facilities were used to provide long-term housing for the Capitol Hill police officer who shot and killed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said in a statement.
Ashli Babbitt’s Mother Arrested Outside US Capitol
‘I was there to honor my daughter’
The mother of Ashli Babbitt—Micki Witthoeft—was detained near the U.S. Capitol on Friday afternoon and was charged with violating two Capitol traffic regulations.
The detainment took place during a demonstration on the second anniversary of the death of Babbitt and three other Americans on Jan. 6, 2021. Witthoeft, 58, told The Epoch Times she was there to honor her daughter, who died two years ago after being shot by U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Lt. Michael Byrd.
Witthoeft was arrested around 1:45 p.m. local time by officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and charged with having violated two traffic regulations (pdf)—§16.3.20 Obey An Order, and §16.3.40 Blocking And Obstructing Roadways, the USCP announced in a release.
“As is typical for this charge, Ms. Witthoeft was processed and released this afternoon after being given a citation to appear in court at a later date,” the USCP stated.
The USCP stated that the group “did not have a permit to demonstrate on Capitol Grounds.”
“Officers established a clear police line to prevent the group from moving further west on Independence Avenue, SW,” per the release. “The officers and officials told the group to get out of the road or the group would be arrested. The sidewalk was open.”
Dr. Ben Carson at the helm of American Cornerstone Institute
Last year, Dr. Ben Carson coordinated a National Faith and Values Prayer Call the day before the midterm elections. He encouraged those listening to “vote our values” promoting faith, liberty, community, and life as foundational pillars.
“There is good news,” he said on the call. “Our founders have a vision for truth.”
It’s these same values that anchor the American Cornerstone Institute, a non-partisan nonprofit that Carson founded focused on principles that have guided him personally and he believes what makes America a great country.
The former 17th secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the Trump administration and retired pediatric neurosurgeon, Carson started the organization to offer solutions using these values as the guiding force.
In 2023, the American Cornerstone Institute will begin its third year of operation.
“We’re rapidly expanding,” said Carson in a December interview with the Epoch Times noting some 300,000 followers to date.
The American Cornerstone Institute offers a plethora of educational tools designed for adults and children all geared to inform, enlighten and inspire.
Former NFL Star in Critical Condition After Saving Children in Swimming Accident
Peyton Hillis, a former Cleveland Browns running back, has been hospitalized after rescuing his two children from drowning in the ocean, according to reports.
A man believed to be the NFL veteran’s uncle confirmed in a statement on Facebook that doctors told him his nephew’s health is “improving,” though he remains in intensive care due to “some problems with his kidneys and his lungs.”
“I just wanted to let everyone know on Razorback Nation that Peyton is doing better,” Greg Hillis wrote. “I’m sure he would want everyone to know that he appreciates all of the prayers being thrown up on his behalf!!!”
Woman Gets 3 Years in Prison for $400K GoFundMe Scam Involving Ex-Boyfriend
A woman was sentenced Friday to three years in New Jersey State Prison for her part in a well-known $400,000 GoFundMe scam that defrauded more than 14,000 people.
“Katelyn McClure, 32, was not present at her sentencing in Burlington County as she is already serving her one-year federal term in the case in a Connecticut prison, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office,” the New York Post reported Sunday.
The state sentence will run concurrent to the federal sentence, the prosecutor’s office said, adding the former state Department of Transportation employee is barred from working as a public employee in the future.
Return of the Prince? Harry’s U.S. Visa ‘At Risk’ over Admission of California Drug Abuse
Woke royal Harry, Duke of Sussex, has put his U.S. visa “at risk” by admitting to drug abuse both in his home country and California, according to an immigration expert.
Prince Harry, the fifth in line to the British throne now most famous as the simpering spouse of American actress Meghan Markle — properly Meghan, Duchess of Sussex as a result of the courtesy title granted to her by the late Queen whose life’s work was trashed in the couple’s recent Netflix series — has admitted to abusing illegal drugs from the age of 17 in his ghostwritten memoir Spare.
More Stories
Today’s News: April 25, 2024
Today’s News: April 24, 2024
Today’s News: April 23, 2024