WORLD NEWS
Mexicans vote to crown first female president in country’s history!
Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico’s first female president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph.
Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico’s electoral authority. That is set to be the highest vote percentage in Mexico’s democratic history.
The ruling coalition was also on track for a possible two-thirds super majority in both houses of Congress, which would allow the coalition to pass constitutional reforms without opposition support, according to the range of results given by the electoral authority.
The African National Congress lost the majority vote in last week’s general election!
For the first time in South Africa’s democratic era, the African National Congress (ANC) will have to seek one or more coalition partners to govern with after it fell well short of a majority in last week’s national election.
The ANC won just 40% of votes, by far its worst result since democratic elections began in 1994 after the end of apartheid and leaving it short of a majority in parliament.
In any case, the ANC needs to move quickly as the constitution says the new National Assembly must convene within 14 days of the election results being declared to elect a new president.
The ANC will likely have no choice but to seek support from one of its three largest rivals: the pro-business, white-led Democratic Alliance (DA), uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), led by former president Jacob Zuma, or the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Record-breaking 642-million voters cast ballots in India’s general election!
India’s Election Commission said on Monday a record- breaking 642 million voters cast their ballots in the general election that concluded on June 1 and dismissed opposition concerns over how the votes would be counted.
The seven-phase vote – the world’s largest – began on April 19 and was held in scorching summer heat in many parts of the country, with temperatures rising to nearly 50 degrees Celsius (122°F) in some north and northwestern regions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third consecutive term and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance is projected to win a big majority, TV exit polls said on Saturday, ahead of the counting on Tuesday.
Although the 2024 turnout is higher than the 612 million voters who cast their ballots in 2019, it is about one percentage point lower than the 67.4% turnout five years back.
Postal votes, which are paper ballots, are mostly cast by troops serving outside their home constituencies or officials away from home on election duty.
This year, postal votes were also offered to voters over 85 years of age and people with disabilities to allow them to vote from home.
UK announces date for deportation of asylum seekers to African state
The British government intents to start deporting migrants to Rwanda on July 23, Reuters has reported
The UK intends to start deporting asylum seekers who are in the country illegally to Rwanda starting July 23, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a government lawyer.
The announcement follows the passage of the Safety of Rwanda Bill by the UK Parliament in April, paving the way for the start of deportation flights. The legislation aims to block court challenges that have stalled the enforcement of an initial agreement between London and Kigali for asylum seekers who entered the UK illegally to be sent to the East African nation for claim processing.
Documents were submitted to the London High Court by the British government after a charity, Asylum Aid, challenged the policy, the outlet said. The intention was “to effect removals with a flight to Rwanda on July 23, 2024 (and not before),” the report said, citing government lawyers.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Jury selection set to begin in Hunter Biden’s federal gun crime case trial!
Jury selection is set to begin this week in first son Hunter Biden’s federal gun crime case.
The first round of the jury selection process will begin on June 3 at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware.
Mr. Biden has been at the center of a series of controversies since the campaign era of the 2020 election cycle for a series of alleged personal, business, and legal failures.
Now, the first son is about to face the prospect of a trial that’s sure to be highly publicized and runs the risk of years in a federal penitentiary.
The trial will focus on allegedly untruthful statements that Mr. Biden made on a form to receive a firearm in 2018.
The first two charges relate to the allegedly untruthful statements Mr. Biden made on a form to receive a firearm that he wasn’t legally allowed to possess.
When buying a firearm, people have to fill out a form through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives certifying several things before they’re allowed to receive the weapon.
For instance, the form asks whether the buyer has been convicted of a felony, whether they’ve been dishonorably discharged, if they’re a fugitive, and—crucially to Mr. Biden’s case—whether the prospective buyer is “addicted to, or an unlawful user of” marijuana or any other federally scheduled drug.
According to the first two charges in Mr. Biden’s indictment, he checked “no” in response to this last question despite his later admission to using crack cocaine at the time.
This alleged untruthfulness constitutes a federal felony.
The third count in the indictment is related to the actual possession of the firearm, as federal law also prohibits those abusing drugs from possessing a gun.
Mr. Biden reportedly possessed the gun for a total of 11 days, at which point his girlfriend, who was reportedly worried about his mental health, disposed of it.
Post-conviction, Trump campaign “made bank” thanks for mega-donations!
Donald Trump’s campaign claimed on Friday that it had raised more than $34 million immediately following the Thursday evening announcement of his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The massive fundraising haul comes the morning after a jury found the former president guilty in a criminal hush money case filed in a Manhattan court. Shortly after the verdict was announced, the campaign set out to flip his political misfortune into cash, sending out a flood of fundraising emails, social media posts, and text messages.
“I was just convicted of a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG,” the first campaign email read.
Republican lawmakers like J. D. Vance, Eli Crane, and House speaker Mike Johnson linked out to the campaign’s donation page on WinRed. The campaign went as far as warning down-ballot candidates against fundraising for themselves off of Trump’s verdict, according to Politico. The dramatic uptick in donation traffic to Trump’s joint fundraising committee caused the site to shut down, according to the campaign. The joint committee shares some of its funds with the Republican National Committee.
Demand for Trump memorabilia explodes after guilty verdict headlines hit the resale market!
And while Alex Soros is telling Democrats to use the phrase “Trump is a convicted felon” as often as possible, just hours after former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, merchandise featuring the former president has become a hot-selling item for some retailers.
Demand for Trump mugshot paraphernalia has skyrocketed, reaching an unprecedented high, according to Richard Kligman, owner of two Trump Superstores in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
“The demand for anything and everything Trump has just exploded,” Mr. Kligman said. “I mean, it is actually really nuts, and we’ve never seen anything close to what we are witnessing right now.”
Mr. Kligman said that on Thursday afternoon, after the former president was found guilty, Trump supporters looking for memorabilia crashed his website.
“To say it’s been busy would be an understatement. At this point, I could basically sell cow chips with the words ‘Trump 2024’ on them, and we would sell out.”
Mr. Kligman says that among his most popular selling items are “Appeal to Heaven” flags, hats, T-shirts, and custom-made decals that reference the recent conviction reading, “34 can’t stop 47.”
And the sales aren’t just exploding in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina either. Trump retailers attribute the dramatic rise in demand for Trump-related memorabilia to a shared sense of injustice and a desire to defend a man they believe has been unfairly maligned by a system that isn’t only out to get the candidate but also his supporters.
“What has happened has reinforced their beliefs that their man has been railroaded,” said Mr. Kligman. “There is a common sense of community with some people just wanting to gather in the store,” he continued.
“This came as a trauma for a lot of people who now believe it is us versus them, and right versus wrong, and they feel compelled to stand on the side of what’s right—and for them, that means standing with Trump.”
Trump addresses the possibility he might end up in jail; says he’s OK with it!
Former President Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Fox & Friends after his historic guilty verdict and in an excerpt of the interview published June 2, he revealed he would be “OK” handling a prison sentence.
The interviewers noted the timing of the trial and how sentencing could take place July 11, days before the Republican National Convention where President Trump will be officially named the party’s candidate, and said a prison sentence could even come right before his nomination.
“I’m OK with it,” President Trump said.
“I saw one of my lawyers on television the other day saying, ‘Oh no, you don’t want to do that to the president,’‘ he added. ”I said, ’Don’t beg for anything.’”
He was likely referring to defense attorney Todd Blanche on a CNN appearance saying a 77-year-old man with President Trump’s record should “never” be sentenced to jail time.
Asked about the possibility of house arrest, which would also take him off the campaign trail, President Trump said he didn’t think Americans would accept it.
“I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he said.
“I think it would be hard for the public to take,” President Trump added. “At a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
“The good news is I think we’ve set a record beyond all records for fundraising—that’s like a poll,” he said. “People get it, it’s a scam.”
Within 24 hours of the guilty verdict, the campaign revealed a record-setting haul of nearly $35 million, with a third of the donors being first-time Trump donors.
Atlanta’s mayor has declared a state of emergency following a massive water main break that left parts of the city’s downtown district without water and prompted a major hospital to transfer patients elsewhere.
The significant disruption to water service in Georgia’s capital is the latest dramatic example of how aging infrastructure throughout the United States has impacted electrical grids, bridges and roadways, dams and other vital systems, inconveniencing millions of Americans or placing them in danger.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens on Saturday declared a state of emergency just a few hours after crews repaired one of two major water main breaks in the city’s downtown area. The other, in the Midtown neighborhood, is still undergoing services with no estimate on when it will be repaired.
Repair crews have made “significant progress in localizing the repairs” as they continue to address the broken water main at the intersection of West Peachtree Street and 11th Street in Midtown, Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management said early Sunday.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Bad news for the U.S. economy: Restaurant apocalypse is starting to sweep across America!
You can get a really good idea how the U.S. economy is doing by watching restaurants in your area. When the economy is booming, restaurant parking lots are full and chains are feverishly establishing new locations. But when the economy is struggling, restaurants get a lot less traffic and poor performing locations get shut down. Sadly, in 2024 it appears that a “restaurant apocalypse” has started to sweep across America. Most people have very little discretionary income to spend as a result of our cost of living crisis, and that is particularly true for our young adults. Americans under the age of 40 love to eat out, but these days most of them are experiencing financial stress, and this is having an enormous impact on the restaurant industry.
Americans are eating out less as inflation weakens the dollars in their pocket, which is leading to some harsh consequences for restaurants across the country.
Visits to sit-down restaurants were down nearly five percent in 2023 from the year prior, according to location analytics firm Placer.ai.
So this is a trend that has stretched on for over a year.
People just aren’t eating out as much as they once did.
As a result, we are seeing a wave of closures all over the country. Even in the Big Apple, large numbers of restaurants are being shut down…
Even big metropolitan areas in the US known for their great dining spots are struggling to maintain an environment where it’s profitable to run a restaurant.
Applebee’s is to close another 35 further locations this year, after shutting 46 in 2023.
In the case of Boston Market, a chain that once had nearly 1,000 locations nationwide, the company’s death has been slow, but the pace of its demise has picked up over the past few months.
Our ongoing inflation crisis is the primary reason why this is happening. Consumers simply have a lot less discretionary income now. Meanwhile, restaurants are facing much higher costs.
Jessica Dunker, the president and CEO of the Iowa Restaurant Association, said the reason restaurants are shuttering is because the cost of goods is up 30 percent and they are having to shell out higher wages to keep staff on.
We have reached a point where the vast majority of Americans just can’t afford to eat out on a regular basis.
Needless to say, that is really bad news for fast food chains like McDonald’s.
At one time, serving middle class families was their core business.
But now most middle class families just can’t afford to eat at McDonald’s very often.
In a desperate attempt to lure them back, McDonald’s will soon introduce a five dollar meal deal… So they are going to bring back affordable food for one month. That’s just great.
Unless they make the five dollar meal deal permanent, I don’t expect that it will make much of a difference. Consumers are really hurting right now. In fact, consumer sentiment just fell to the lowest level in six months, deeply pessimistic about the economy at this stage.
And they have good reason to be pessimistic, because even though our politicians in Washington are engaging in an unprecedented spending spree in a desperate attempt to keep the economy propped up, the truth is that the wheels are starting to come off and tremendous chaos is ahead.
Of course we don’t have to wait for the economy to come apart at the seams, because that is already happening. At one time, the entire world marveled at the greatness of the mighty
U.S. economy, but our leaders have completely wrecked it.
(From Michael Snyder, Economic Collapse Blog)
Jeff Bezos donates $30-million for fake meat development!
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ charity is establishing a multi- million dollar research facility in North Carolina State University for manufacturing fake meat products.
The Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein was launched at the NC State University on Friday. The center will act as a “biomanufacturing hub for dietary proteins that are environmentally friendly, healthy, tasty, and affordable,” according to a press release.
The Bezos Earth Fund—a $10 billion commitment from Mr. Bezos to address “climate and nature within the current decade”—awarded the university $30 million for setting up the center.
The funding seeks to support research on three types of “sustainable proteins”—plant- based products, cultivated meat grown from animal cells, and precision fermentation that can produce proteins and nutrients to be used in food formulations.
In total, the Earth Fund has committed $100 million to establish a network of research centers focused on such “sustainable protein alternatives.” The NC State center will use the funds to research, create, and commercialize new technologies in the field and gauge the protein preferences of consumers.
Tesla is recalling more than 125,000 vehicles to fix the seat belt warning system!
Tesla is recalling more than 125,000 vehicles to fix a seat belt warning system that may increase the risk of an injury in a collision.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the recall includes certain 2012–2024 Model S, 2015–2024 Model X, 2017–2023 Model 3, and 2020–2023 Model Y vehicles.
The seat belt warning system is supposed to provide audible and visual seat belt reminder signals to drivers to alert them that their seat belt isn’t fastened. The NHTSA said that on certain vehicles, the audible and visual seat belt reminder signals were not going off at the time they were supposed to, which doesn’t comply with federal safety requirements.
The NHTSA said that as of Tuesday, Tesla had identified 104 warranty claims that may be related to the condition. The company isn’t aware of any collisions, fatalities, or injuries that may be related to the condition.
Tesla, which is headed by billionaire Elon Musk, plans to start deploying an over-the-air software update to the affected vehicles free of charge in June. The software update will remove dependency on the driver seat occupancy switch from the software and only rely on driver seat belt buckle and ignition status to activate the seat belt reminder signals.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law prohibiting certain HOA rules!
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law House Bill 1203 that puts limits on some homeowner’s association rules and fines. The bill prohibits homeowners’ associations from issuing a fine or suspension for:
Leaving garbage receptacles at the curb or end of the driveway less than 24 hours before or after the designated garbage collection day or time.
Leaving holiday decorations or lights up longer than indicated in the governing documents, unless such decorations or lights are left up for longer than one week after the association provides written notice of the violation to the parcel owner.
The bill also provides that homeowners’ associations may not prohibit a homeowner or others from parking:
A personal vehicle, including a pickup truck, in the property owner’s driveway or in any other area where they have a right to park.
A work vehicle, which is not a commercial motor vehicle, in the property owner’s driveway.
Their assigned first responder vehicle on public roads or rights-of-way within the homeowners’ association.
An HOA also cannot prohibit a homeowner operating a vehicle in conformance with state traffic laws, on public roads or rights-of-way or the property owner’s parcel, unless the vehicle is a commercial motor vehicle.
In addition, the governing documents may not prohibit a property owner from:
Inviting, hiring, or allowing entry to a contractor or worker on the owner’s parcel solely because the contractor or worker is not on a preferred vendor list of the homeowners’ association or does not have a professional or occupational license.
HEALTH
12 Impressive Health Benefits of Chlorella
Chlorella is a single-cell microalga, commonly called green algae or freshwater seaweed, and is native to Japan and Taiwan. Chlorella contains chlorophyll (a green pigment) that absorbs sunlight to produce food through photosynthesis.
Chlorella is rich in essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, fiber, proteins, antioxidants, and many more. Studies have shown that consuming chlorella is highly beneficial to health, so it is regarded as a superfood. Though it is native to Japan and Taiwan, it is available in the U.S. market as supplement powders, pills, or extracts.
As chlorella has a very hard outer cell wall that cannot be digested. Chlorella supplements and granules can be added to smoothies, soups, and dips (such as guacamole or hummus).
Additionally, chlorella contains the following minerals and vitamins:
- Vitamin K
- Vitamin D
- Omega-3 fatty acids
- Zinc
- Carotenoids
- Polysaccharides
12 impressive health benefits of chlorella
- Boosts immunity
- Improves cholesterol levels
- Prevents cancer
- Reduces high blood pressure
- Improves blood sugar levels
- Detoxifies body
- Aids in digestion
- Enhances endurance
- Aids in weight loss
- Helps with premenstrual syndrome
- Supports eye health
- Supports health during chemotherapy
Power Mall Products that contain Chlorella:
Optivida COMPLETE Essentials & Optivida BASIC Essentials (both 10% off this week!)
Report: PTSD rates surge among college students!
A new study shows a rise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among American college students. PTSD rates increased by 4.1 percentage points, jumping from 3.4 percent in 2017-2018 to 7.5 percent in 2021-2022.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who conducted the study, suggest the stark increase likely stems from a combination of events, including campus shootings, nationwide racial tensions, and the loss of loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the team examined student populations from a diverse array of 332 higher education institutions across the U.S., encompassing a broad geographic range and various institutional types. Their extensive survey captured data from nearly 400,000 college students, with females comprising a slight majority at 57.7 percent.
Over the five-year period from 2017 to 2022, the researchers also observed an increase in the prevalence of acute stress disorder (ASD) among college students. ASD prevalence rose by 0.5 percentage points, growing from 0.2 percent to 0.7 percent over the same timeframe.
A 2023 annual report from the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University suggested that nearly half of all college students seeking counseling have experienced some form of trauma. This figure represents a staggering 10 percentage point spike compared to the center’s initial 2012 report, surging from 37.5 percent to 46.8 percent.
RECALL: FDA recalls cucumbers in 14 states over potential salmonella contamination!
Certain batches of cucumbers sold by Florida-based Fresh Start Produce Sales Inc. have been recalled from U.S. stores due to concerns about bacterial contamination, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The recalled whole cucumbers were shipped to 14 states between May 17 and 21.
The cucumbers were shipped in bulk cartons and sent to distributors in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
The product was recalled “due to the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems,” according to a June 1 FDA recall notice. The recalled cucumbers are dark green, around 5-9 inches long, and roughly 1.5-2 inches in diameter. Images of the items have been published on the FDA’s website. English and mini cucumbers are not affected by the recall.
Study: Tattoos may increase the risk of lymphoma by 21 percent!
Getting a tattoo is correlated to developing a rare type of blood cancer—regardless of the size of the tattoo, a new study has found.
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden said that tattoos may increase the risk of developing lymphoma by 21 percent. They analyzed 11,905 participants, including 2,938 who had lymphoma, between the ages of 20 and 60. They asked those with lymphoma and those without cancer to complete a questionnaire about whether they had tattoos.
The study discovered that the risk of developing the rare form of blood cancer was highest among individuals who had their first tattoo fewer than two years before.
WARNING: If this doesn’t make you take notice of what you’re ingesting, nothing will:
- Definition: An omega-6 PUFA that is the most abundant in modern diets, primarily due to the widespread use of seed oils.
- Examples: Found in high amounts in soybean, canola, sunflower, and corn oils.
- Relevance: Excessive intake of linoleic acid is associated with chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and an increased risk of chronic diseases.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Is gain-of-function responsible for the bird flu jump to cows and humans?
In the past six months, bird flu has surprised scientists at least twice.
Bird flu viruses have circulated mainly in birds for a long time. However, in early December 2023, an outbreak occurred in U.S. dairy cows, even though cattle are not typically susceptible to avian influenza A, the bird flu virus.
The history of the H5N1 virus family can be traced back to 1996 when it was first discovered in a sick goose in the Guangdong province of China.
H5N1 has evolved, resulting in different genetic lineages (clades) as they mutate, similar to a typical pattern of behavior for RNA viruses such as the ever-emerging COVID-19 variants. In 2013, the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b emerged. Since then, it has spread rapidly to nearly 100 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, and America, becoming the most dominant clade and causing significant losses to the poultry industry.
In December 2021, this particular clade 2.3.4.4b, was first identified in wild birds in the United States.
The clade quickly mixed with other circulating influenza A viruses in wild birds in North America. This resulted in viral reassortment and recombination of genes and exhibiting diverse characteristics. Many of these variants cause severe illnesses in mammals, significantly affecting their nervous system.
The avian influenza virus, commonly called the bird flu virus, belongs to the flu virus family. Flu viruses have many natural hosts, including ducks, geese, swans, gulls, terns, waders, pigs, and horses.
Certain types of flu viruses typically infect specific hosts and do not usually jump from one host to another.
There is a wide variety of bird flu viruses, ranging from H1 to H19, but they have mostly remained in birds and animals, rarely affecting humans.
This changed with the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b.
About a decade ago, two virologists, Yoshihiro Kawaoka from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Ron Fouchier of Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, alarmed the world by conducting high-risk gain-of-function studies on H5N1.
On April 1, 2021, a three-party project was initiated between the United States, the UK, and China that included the USDA, the U.S. National Poultry Research Center, the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Georgia, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Roslin Institute in the UK.
The USDA is sponsoring a grant of $1 million for this project. The SEPRL and Roslin Institute provide expertise in avian immunology genomics and viral transcriptomics analysis.
The actual experiments are conducted in China’s CAS lab. There might be a specific reason for choosing this location.
In the United States, gain-of-function experiments involving influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus were banned from October 2014 through December 2017. The moratorium was lifted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Dec. 19, 2017.
Chinese labs often have sufficient technical capacity but face a major challenge due to relatively loose biosecurity regulations.
Former CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield, recently stated, “Bird flu, I think, is going to be the cause of a great pandemic—where they are teaching these viruses how to be more infectious for humans.”
Ticketmaster was hacked; hundreds of millions of users’ personal data compromised!
Entertainment giant Live Nation has confirmed its ticketing subsidiary Ticketmaster has been hacked.
Live Nation confirmed the data breach in a filing with government regulators late on Friday after the markets closed.
In its statement, Live Nation said the breach occurred on May 20, and that a cybercriminal “offered what it alleged to be Company user data for sale via the dark web.” The company did not say who the personal information belongs to, though it’s believed to relate to customers. It’s unclear why it took the company more than a week to publicly disclose the breach.
Live Nation said in its statement that it “identified unauthorized activity within a third-party cloud database environment containing Company data.”
The company did not name the third-party cloud database in its statement.
A spokesperson for Ticketmaster, who would not provide their name but responded from the company’s media email address, told TechCrunch that its stolen database was hosted on Snowflake, a Boston-based cloud storage and analytics company.
Ticketmaster’s spokesperson did not say how the data was exfiltrated from Snowflake’s systems.
Live Nation’s communications chief Kaitlyn Henrich also would not comment on the record or answer questions about the breach.
Earlier this week, the administrator of a since-revived popular cybercrime forum called BreachForums claimed to be selling the personal information of 560 million customers, including the alleged personal information of Ticketmaster customers, along with ticket sales and customer card information.
Until now, Live Nation had not commented on the data breach. Earlier this week, Australian authorities confirmed it was assisting Live Nation with a cybersecurity incident, and U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA deferred comment to Live Nation.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Dane Wigington at Geoengineering Watch: Hail on earth!
“Fierce hail that caused major damage described as hell on Earth”, from Fox News. “Massive hail storms keep hitting the U.S.”, from The Washington Post. “Texas town deploys snow plows after 50-degree temperature swing and 2 feet of hail”. “Residents of a southwest Texas town reported a dramatic temperature drop on Wednesday and hail so deep they had to deploy snow plows to clear the streets”. “The temperature in Marathon, Texas, fell more than 50 degrees on Wednesday afternoon as thermometers tumbled from around 105 degrees to the mid-50s in about an hour”. All from ABC News. From The Weather Channel: “DVD-Size Hailstones Fall in Texas”. Record heat and record ice falling from the skies. Do these weather scenarios make sense meteorologically speaking? Welcome to patented processes of chemical ice nucleation cloud seeding. What else will the coming weeks and months bring?
2ND AMENDMENT
Democrat AG’s demand federal civil rights probe of Daniel Perry after Abbott pardoned him!
New York Attorney General Letitia James and 13 other Democrat attorneys general have called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a federal criminal civil rights investigation into Daniel Perry, who was recently pardoned by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after being sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting an armed Black Lives Matter (BLM) protester who confronted him while wielding an AK-47.
Ms. James, who made headlines recently for suing former President Donald Trump in Manhattan over property valuations, asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in a May 29 letter to investigate Mr. Perry, alleging he was motivated by racism when he shot and killed Garrett Foster during a protest against “police brutality and racial injustice” in the summer of 2020.
“We urge the Department to open an investigation into whether Mr. Perry violated federal criminal law, including specifically several federal criminal civil rights laws,” Ms. James and the 13 other Democrat attorneys general wrote in the letter. “We note that whether or not Texas law gives Mr. Perry a defense to state prosecution for his actions here, Texas law does not prevent a federal prosecution for Mr. Perry’s act of killing someone for racial reasons in order to prevent him from exercising constitutional rights.”
Mr. Perry has maintained he acted in self-defense when he shot Mr. Foster, who confronted Mr. Perry while wielding his rifle in a potentially threatening manner during a protest on July 25, 2020. Much of the controversy over the legitimacy of the shooting has centered on whether Mr. Foster actually pointed his firearm at Mr. Perry and threatened his life or whether Mr. Perry fired without provocation.
While Ms. James and the others did not mention which laws the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ would use in this case, a legal expert from The Heritage Foundation told The Epoch Times that it would likely be 18 U.S.C. § 249, which makes it a criminal violation to cause bodily injury motivated by factors such as race and religion.
Armed crooks demanded property from a woman sitting in her car in a Wal-Mart parking lot …
Armed individuals walked up to a 53-year-old woman sitting in her car overnight Tuesday in a Walmart parking lot in Auburn, Washington, and demanded her property, KCPQ-TV reported. Auburn is about a half hour south of Seattle.
The woman also was armed, and the station said she shot at the suspects.
The suspects shot back, KCPQ said, and the woman was wounded.
Police arrived at the scene around 3:30 a.m. and treated the victim’s single gunshot wound at the scene, the station said, adding that she’s expected to be okay.
KCPQ said police employed a K-9 to track the suspects, after which they were found and taken into custody. Police noted in a news release that the suspects, both males, are 19 and 21 years of age. The station said additional information is “limited at this time,” and police didn’t offer further information about the suspects in its news release.
A number of folks commented under KCPQ’s story about the incident posted on Facebook. Here’s what some of them had to say:
- “This is exactly why I carry ALL the time now,” one commenter said. “Auburn has become dangerous.”
- “I hate that you can’t go anywhere without having fear,” another user wrote.
- “While she was still shot, she at least had the chance to defend herself,” another commenter observed.
- “Very little good happens at 0330, especially in a Wallyworld parking lot,” another user quipped.
- “Always carry,” another commenter declared. “The law states if a gun is pulled on you, you can use the same force — and remember shoot once, and shoot to kill.”
- “Auburn is pretty rough these days!” another user exclaimed.
COVID RELATED NEWS
Fauci says he signed off on grants without reviewing them!
Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a newly disclosed interview that he signed off on thousands of grants without reviewing them.
“I sign off on each … but I don’t see the grants and what they are. I never look at what grants are there,” Dr. Fauci told the U.S. House of Representatives Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. “It’s just somebody at the end of the council where they’re all finished and they go, ‘Here,’ and you sign it.”
Dr. Fauci, 83, was the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to late 2022.
Grant proposals first go to a group of peers. If they pass through that group, they are received by the NIAID’s National Advisory Council.
Dr. David Morens, one of Dr. Fauci’s top advisers while he was in the government, had written in an email that “Tony doesn’t maintain awareness of these things and doesn’t know unless program officers tell him, which they rarely do.”
“We have very highly trained subject matter experts at the program level that look at the grants and monitor the grants. Dr. Fauci told the subcommittee. ”It would be physically impossible for me to get into and look at every grant.”
He was speaking in January, but the transcript of the two-day interview was not released until May 31, several days ahead of Dr. Fauci’s public appearance before the panel.
Dr. Fauci said he was not aware of the grant to the EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based organization, until after the COVID-19 pandemic started. The grant began in 2014 and included money that was funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where Chinese researchers experimented on bat coronaviruses.
Big Pharma paid $690-million to Fauci’s agency; most of it during the pandemic!
Payments to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s agency and colleagues from private pharmaceutical firms under obscure licensing and royalty schemes skyrocketed during the pandemic.
The American people started to feel that Big Pharma was very close to Big Government. Thanks to our two federal lawsuits demanding transparency, we know more details and they do not inspire confidence.
In 2022 and 2023, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies paid the National Institutes of Health a sum of $710,381,160 in third party royalties. These were payments to NIH, its leadership and scientists by healthcare entities licensing inventions created in federal, taxpayer-paid labs. The two-year average of such payments over the prior decade was less than $5 million, for an increase of more than 175 times.
Fauci’s institute, The National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) received $690,218,610 of the $710 million, or 97%. In the same period, the other 26 institutes under the NIH received some $26 million in total.
It was an extreme cash haul at Fauci’s institute:
Between 2009-2021, OpenTheBooks.com, the organization I founded and lead, previously reported that $325 million was paid to all NIH institutes. Fauci’s NIAID received $23.9 million of that – or an average of $2 million per year.
NIH and NAIAD wasted countless taxpayer dollars illegally resisting the requirement to tell taxpayers what was happening with their tax dollars. That’s because in the next two years – 2022 and 2023— Fauci’s institute collected the equivalent of 175 years in NIAID royalty payments. Nearly $690 million in just two years vs. $23.9 million over 12 years.
State Supreme Courts take up COVID-19 jab cases on children when told NO by parents!
Two state supreme courts are considering whether workers who administered COVID-19 vaccines to minors without parental consent should be shielded by a federal law.
The North Carolina Supreme Court agreed to take up an appeal from Tanner Smith, one of the minors, and his mother, according to an order dated May 23.
Tanner, who was 14 at the time, went to a clinic at a school in his district, Guilford County Schools, in 2021 to receive a COVID-19 test. Instead, his mom and stepfather learned later, he was injected with a COVID-19 vaccine even after he told workers at the clinic he didn’t want it.
The Vermont Supreme Court, meanwhile, heard arguments on May 28 in a case involving a 6-year-old who received a COVID-19 vaccine despite his parents explicitly stating they did not want the child to receive the shot.
The child was injected in 2021 at Academy School in Brattleboro even after Dario and Shujen Politella, the child’s parents, had informed officials they did not want the child vaccinated.
Mark Speno, superintendent of the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union, apologized and blamed the injection on a mixup with name tags.
Mr. and Mrs. Politella removed their child from the school and sued, alleging negligence, battery, and fraud.
The Vermont Superior Court dismissed the suit, finding that they needed to bring litigation in federal court under the PREP Act’s willful misconduct immunity exemption.
CANCEL CULTURE
Alex Jones repels unauthorized ambush seizure by bankruptcy official; sleeps in studio …
One day after Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in his ‘hush money’ trial, a court-appointed officer overseeing the Infowars bankruptcy apparently went rogue on Friday and tried to seize and shut down Alex Jones’ studio without a court order, despite having a reported “path with the [bankruptcy] judge to continue on for years.”
On Saturday, Jones held a four hour X space, in which supporters including Gen. Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone commented on the situation. All three suggested that Jones stand his ground and peacefully resist.
According to commentator and attorney, ‘Viva Frei’ (David Freiheit), the court-appointed Chief Restructuring Officer (CRO) in the Infowars bankruptcy, Patrick Magill, “showed up to lock the place down,” adding “and apparently in the absence of a court order.”
“This is going to be Infowars’ last show, because I learned yesterday that they were going to padlock the door and kick us out last night,” Jones said during the Saturday space.
A CRO is typically appointed during times of significant financial stress, and is tasked with overseeing the restructuring companies in bankruptcy. On Saturday, Jones suggested that his legal team had come to terms with the judge in the bankruptcy proceedings regarding a long-term timeline for transition, and was instead surprised with an ambush by Magill to seize his studio.
“They want us shut down because in bankruptcy and what was happening we have a path with the judge to continue on for years, and the judge has signaled that. So, different groups involved in the bankruptcy that will be exposed soon have literally made a move to shut this place down and end my show,” Jones said.
In March, tensions came to a boil between Jones’ legal team and Magill, after a company managed and partially owned by Jones’ father, PQPR Holdings Limited, LLC asked the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to replace Magill with a new CRO – days after accusing Magill of acting unprofessionally and in a dysfunctional manner.
PQPR has been accused of receiving millions in payments from Jones’ Free Speech Systems while families of Sandy Hook Elementary School students attempt to collect $1.5 billion worth of legal judgments against Jones and Infowars. In a court filing, PQPR slammed Magill’s decision to replace the company’s lead bankruptcy attorney with someone new, after the CRO accused attorney Ray Battaglia of hindering progress on the bankruptcy.
Jones says Magill is trying to “obviously and maliciously” entrap him, per Frei, in order to “facilitate the shutting down of Infowars.”
Gen. Mike Flynn (Ret.) suggested that this was part of a play for the ruling party to stay in power and cripple opposition voices in advance of a potential NATO-instigated false flag in Europe in order to trigger Article 5 and spark war with Russia.
“They’re looking for big excuses to stay in power and shut the election down,” Flynn added.
Chicago suburb invaded by thieves; homeowner gets into firefight as they attempt car theft!
Winnetka,Illinois police said that an armed homeowner thwarted a plot by a trio of car thieves after they broke into his home and stole his keys.
The homeowner, who didn’t want to be publicly identified, spoke about the incident that happened a week ahgo at his home on Sheridan road in the suburb of Winnetka.
He said that the thugs broke into his home office while he and his family were sleeping at about 5 a.m. They obtained the keys to his cars and tried to drive them away.
One of the vehicles was behind a gate that the thieves were unable to open while the other vehicle was parked in his front driveway.
The homeowner said he and his wife were awakened by the noise of his Ferrari being started. He ran outside with his gun and seeing the group, yelled at them to stop. He said that he threatened to shoot and then heard gunshots being fired at him.
He fired back about seven times at the suspects while taking cover behind a tree.
Police said that one of the suspects fled by foot, and the other two fled in a getaway car they believe was a silver Audi. They also found dozens of bullet casings at the scene and dusted the cars for fingerprints.
The homeowner said the suspects wore masks and appeared calm and organized. He added that this was the second time in two years that his home had been targeted in a robbery.
Residents in the neighborhood were shocked by the incident.
Police said no one was reported injured in the firefight and the two cars were recovered. WGN reported that no descriptions of the suspects had been provided at the time of their report, and police had not arrested anyone.
PET NEWS
Natural tick repellants … for humans and dogs!
TICKS – Everything you will read about avoiding or repelling ticks will have the word DEET in it. From the CDC to the EPA, they all recommend using DEET to protect yourself and those you love from blood-sucking ticks. Instead, I’d like to discuss Natural Tick Repellents, tick control, and tips to avoid getting bit. We also include recipes for tick repellents for humans and dogs made with essential oils, and how to remove a tick safely.
In an attempt to remove toxic chemicals from our lives, I always look for an organic approach and alternatives to conventional methods. Even though DEET is commonly recommended, that doesn’t mean it is safe for my family. It is up to us to make informed and educated decisions and decide whether or not we trust their advertising.
Many of the same herbs that repel mosquitoes and spiders also repel ticks.
Tick repelling herbs include:
- Rose Geranium (Pelargonium capitatumx raden)
- Sweetgrass – New research finds that sweetgrass, a meadow grass native to northern climates, contains chemicals that work as well as DEET in fending off the blood-sucking insects.
- Pennyroyal
- Rosemary
- Rue
- Wormwood
- Lavender
- Lemongrass
- Citronella
- Eucalyptus
Planting any of the above herbs, as well as Beauty Berry Bush and Mountain Mint, will act as a natural tick repellent for your yard.
ICYMI
Man plummets to his death after jumping 90 feet from the world’s largest cruise ship!
Male passenger jumped from the fifth level of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas on the first day of the week-long journey. The report mentioned that each deck on the ship is about 20 feet, which means the man fell approximately 90 feet into the water. The passenger has not yet been identified.
After the man dropped into the water, the ship was stopped for around two hours so a recovery effort could be completed, according to WFLA. According to crew members, the man was soon transported in a van to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt was allegedly beaten and stabbed to death by prominent author, friend!
There are reports out that Tulsi Gabbard’s aunt was brutally beaten and stabbed to death. The culprit was allegedly the woman’s protege.
Caroline Sinaviana-Gabbard, 78, was discovered dead at the home of prominent Samoan author and playwright Papalii Sia Figiel, 57. The authorities said Sinaviana-Gabbard was killed last Saturday, and Figiel reportedly turned herself in the next day.
The report mentioned that the two were close friends who got into an argument before the 78-year-old was brutally killed. However, it is not known what sparked the dispute. Figiel reportedly used a hammer and knife to kill the victim, according to the report. Both of the weapons were found at the scene of the crime.
When Figiel turned herself in, she was arrested and charged with manslaughter. The charge was soon upgraded to murder after more evidence was gathered by the authorities.
The victim’s brother, Tulsi Gabbard’s father Mike Gabbard, mourned the death of his “best friend,” per the report. Mike is currently a state senator for Hawaii.
In April, Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party in 2022, revealed that she had turned down an offer to be Robert F. Kennedy’s running mate. However, there has been speculation about whether she might try to become Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
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Today’s News: June 26, 2024
Today’s News: June 27, 2024