WORLD NEWS
Vladimir Putin issues fresh demands to Ukraine to end war
Russian president’s new ultimatum comes as foreign envoys meet in Switzerland to discuss western-led peace plan
Vladimir Putin has demanded that Kyiv cede more land, withdraw troops deeper inside its own country and drop its Nato bid in order for him to end his war in Ukraine.
Putin’s fresh ceasefire demands were issued as envoys from more than 90 countries, including Ukraine, convene in Switzerland this weekend to discuss a western-led peace plan. Russia is not invited to the conference and Putin’s remarks on Friday are likely to have been timed as a spoiler to that summit.
Speaking to diplomats at the Russian foreign ministry, Putin publicly updated his terms for ending the war in Ukraine for the first time since he launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, when he demanded regime change in Kyiv and the country’s “demilitarisation”.
NATO creating land routes for U.S. troops to stop Russia invasion into Europe!
Business Insider continues to regurgitate the Telegraph’s news cycle, citing unnamed officials, that NATO is busy setting up land corridors that U.S. soldiers and military vehicles would use in the case of a Russian invasion of Europe. Operation Mockingbird? Perhaps.
Under the plan, US soldiers would land at one of five key ports in the Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Norway, before being sent along established routes to counter Russian attacks, the officials said.
While some US forces would be transported by land from Italian ports to Hungary, which borders Ukraine, others would be moved from Greek and Turkish ports to the eastern border of the alliance via Bulgaria and Romania.
Local legislation would not restrict militaries in these corridors, allowing them to move cargo without constraints, according to The Telegraph’s unnamed sources.
Israeli soldiers facing Hezbollah use medieval trebuchet to fling balls of fire!
A video went viral on Thursday that showed Israeli troops using a trebuchet to lob fireballs
over the wall near the Israeli border with Lebanon, apparently to clear brush.
The Israeli broadcaster KAN published a video of the “creative solution” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers used to reportedly clear dense brush near the border with Lebanon.
Trebuchets, which drop a heavy weight to propel a long throwing arm with a sling assembly on the end, have considerably longer range and better accuracy than older catapult designs. They were regarded as such a marvel of technology in their day that trebuchet engineering had a substantial influence on the study of physics across a span of centuries. Some physics and engineering classes still construct trebuchets to demonstrate various principles. Using modern materials and technology to improve the design is a niche hobby.
The soldiers in the video appeared to choose a classic trebuchet design, evidently using a pallet of cinderblocks as the counterweight. They also went with a time-tested recipe for their fireball ammunition, employing vegetation soaked with oil or gasoline.
As for why the IDF would be using a trebuchet to shoot fireballs at Lebanon, when Breitbart News asked the Israeli government on Thursday about social media videos of the incendiary device, a spokesman said he had not heard about it.
The Israeli military later told KAN News (via the Jerusalem Post) that the Lebanese border region is littered with “boulders, thickets, and dense thorn vegetation, which poses a challenge to the IDF troops deployed in defense.”
The IDF said the trebuchet was constructed by reservists at a northern outpost who wanted an efficient way to clear the thorns and thickets on the other side of the border barrier. The video that went viral was reportedly filmed in May.
“This is a local initiative and not a tool that is widely used,” the military spokesperson added.
Other videos showed archers shooting flaming arrows and improvised mortars firing Molotov cocktails. Some commenters on social media joked that the Israeli reservists had likely come up with designs for medieval weapons due to boredom. Israeli troops have been at the border for months, awaiting a possible war with Hezbollah.
G7 leaders agree to unlock frozen Russian assets as collateral for Ukraine’s $50-billion loan!
Group of Seven (G7) leaders reached an agreement on June 13 to utilize frozen Russian assets in their continued support of the war in Ukraine.
The G7 will provide Ukraine with a loan using frozen Russian assets as collateral. The total sum is unclear at this time, but the United States has committed $50 billion alone. The risk will be shared among the other G7 nations.
Senior Biden administration officials told reporters that the loan will begin this year, and emphasized that this effectively makes Russia pay for the loan rather than the taxpayers in the United States and G7 countries.
“Russia pays,” said one senior administration official. “The income comes from the interest stream on the immobilized assets, and that’s the only fair way to be repaid. The principle is untouched for now. But we have full optionality to seize the principal later if the political will is there.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a post on X, had expressed hope that the asset deal would be finalized Thursday.
“The entire Ukrainian people, including our warriors, see that the G7 will always support Ukraine,” he wrote. “I am grateful to our partners for their belief in us and our victory.”
Concerns lingered over the payout of the loan and whether or not Russian assets would remain immobilized, especially considering the European Union’s need to renew the sanctions every six months to do so.
Project Veritas Report: Stupid amounts of money being spent on mistakes in Ukraine!
While everyday Americans face ongoing economic challenges and sky high inflation at home, a current Country Coordinator for the U.S. State Department stated in a Project Veritas undercover recording that most Americans are unaware of the “stupid amounts of money” flowing from U.S. taxpayers to Ukraine – “billions” he admits is used to prop up the Ukrainian electrical grid and pay handsome salaries.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has now passed a two-year mark and a state department official appears skeptical that the billions of U.S. foreign aid supporting Ukraine is well spent.
Daniel Fitzgerald, who has spent nearly two years in the Office of Foreign Assistance for the U.S. Department of State, disclosed that U.S. funds are going to “fund the entire Ukrainian Government and half their electrical grid.” As he puts it, “stupid amounts of [U.S.] money” is used just to keep the lights on.
Fitzgerald shared that mistakes have been made in Ukraine and that some U.S. funds are “unaccounted for” – a concerning admission about a nation with a long history of institutional corruption.
A January report from the Pentagon showed that the Department of Defense failed to track more than $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine – leaving questions as to where it all ended up.
The injections of U.S. foreign aid at a time when U.S. citizens are struggling economically has become controversial. Americans are increasingly saying the United States is providing too much aid to Ukraine according to a May Pew Research poll reported by Breitbart. In total, the U.S. has sent $175 billion to Ukraine.
Due to the treasure trove hitting Ukraine by the billions, Fitzgerald shares that the State Department is now fast tracking the hiring of additional U.S. foreign service officers to go to Ukraine to look after the funds.
These officials, says Fitzgerald, will make “stupid amounts of money” only to return to the U.S. to buy homes and “do whatever you want.” War appears to be lucrative – for a select few Americans.
Fitzgerald, who spends his days coordinating U.S. foreign aid, isn’t convinced this influx for Ukraine is an effective use of tax- payer funds. “We’re talking stupid amounts of money and what are we getting for it? I couldn’t really tell you.”
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
America Prepares for Global War and Restarts the Draft for 18-26 year olds
From Dennis Kusinich’s substack page – Greetings to Young Americans: You are Automatically Registered for the Draft Conscription without Representation? Where and WHY are we sending our Kids to War?
Our government is planning a big draft, conscripting millions of young Americans for an even bigger war!
I call to your attention a Democratic amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was slipped into the almost trillion-dollar Pentagon war spending bill, by voice vote, in the House Armed Services committee.
The Democratic Amendment to H.R. 8070, the National Defense Authorization (NDAA) reads:
Section 531. Selective Service System: Automatic Registration. SEC. 3. (a)(1) “Except as otherwise provided in this title, every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, shall be automatically registered under this Act by the Director of the Selective Service System.”
This amendment is in the NDAA legislation and there is no pending amendment to strip it from the bill. So, when the NDAA passes, as early as this week, Congress will have taken steps to make automatic conscription the law of the land.
Why an automatic draft? Members of Congress and the President have an obligation to explain to the American people to which foreign land will their sons, and perhaps their daughters, be sent to die?
The U.S. has been in a continuous “State of Emergency” since September 11, 2001, which provides a president with over 100 powers he would not ordinarily have. Notwithstanding that the automatic draft provision will go into effect in a year, a presidential order invoking emergency powers and/or an Act of Congress, could readily move millions from their civilian lives to the front lines of a war.
South and West Florida are still under a state of emergency as torrential rains continue!
The state of emergency continues for five counties in Florida due to a severe rainstorm that continues to cause severe flooding in certain parts of Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier, Lee and Sarasota Counties.
“High water vehicles are deployed strategically around the city and ready to respond as needed,” said Fort Lauderdale officials in a statement on X. “Avoid driving if possible. Never drive through high water,” they advised.
The deluge is set to continue, with forecasts predicting further heavy rain through Friday, potentially causing damages exceeding $1 billion. Roads in Miami and Fort Lauderdale have been submerged, leading to significant floods and road closures.
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Miami issued a warning that southern Florida could experience up to four to six inches of rainfall in a worst-case scenario, raising the risk of further flooding.
The National Hurricane Center has reported that the current storm hasn’t escalated to cyclone level, with a slim likelihood of it developing into a tropical system once it passes through Florida.
Biden says he won’t commute his son’s sentence …
President Joe Biden on June 13 spoke about his son Hunter’s conviction in a federal gun trial, telling reporters that he accepted the guilty verdict and would not pardon or commute his son’s sentence.
The comments came just days after a jury in Delaware found Hunter Biden guilty of all three felony charges in the trial, which probed the First Son’s descent into drug addiction after the death of his brother, Beau, in 2015.
Mr. Biden was found guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, falsely claiming on his application that he was not a drug user at the time of purchase, and then unlawfully possessing the gun for 11 days.
Southern Baptists vote on women pastors rule, reject the use of invitro-fertilization!
Representatives of the largest Protestant body in the United States narrowly rejected a proposal to ban churches with female pastors.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in 2023 provisionally passed an amendment to their constitution that would have required member congregations to appoint only men to pastoral leadership positions or face expulsion. The measure required a second vote to become effective. That vote failed on June 12. Although 61 percent of some 10,000 delegates, referred to as messengers, voted in favor of the change, that fell short of the required two-thirds majority.
The outcome of the vote may have little practical effect on this denomination, which has long opposed placing women in pastoral leadership.
Its doctrinal statement continues to assert that the pastoral role is for men only, and the denomination already has the ability to expel congregations that differ from this teaching.
The convention later approved a measure that opposes the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF), calling it “dehumanizing” and asking “the government to restrain” the practice.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
ATTOM Data Report: U.S. foreclosure activity sees an increase in May, 2024!
ATTOM Data is reporting that last month’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report shows there were a total of 32,621 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 3 percent from a month ago but down 7 percent from a year ago.
Nationwide one in every 4,320 housing units had a foreclosure filing in May 2024. States with the highest foreclosure rates were New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut and Florida. Among the 224 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in May 2024 were Longview, TX; Trenton, NJ; Atlantic City, NJ; Lakeland, FL; and Bakersfield, CA.
Those metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million with the worst foreclosure rates in May 2024 were Chicago, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Riverside, CA; Jacksonville, FL and Las Vegas, NV.
Lenders started the foreclosure process on 22,385 U.S. properties in May 2024, up 3 percent from last month but down 4 percent from a year ago. States that had the greatest number of foreclosure starts in May 2024 included: Florida (2,750 foreclosure starts); Texas (2,560 foreclosure starts); California (2,370 foreclosure starts); Illinois (1,427 foreclosure starts); and New Jersey (1,219 foreclosure starts).
North Carolina AirBnB squatters threaten to press charges unless they’re lawfully evicted!
Renters of an AirBNB in North Carolina set up a sign saying they were going to stay without paying the host in the latest incident of squatting.
Farzana Rahman says she’s losing income from her rental after her last renters became squatters and threatened to press charges against her if she tried to gain entry to her property in Durham. The squatters initially rented her unit from October to May, but when their checkout date arrived, they decided to stay.
“Now, they’re refusing to leave until there’s an eviction order. I think they’re just trying to gain time to stay there for free because they haven’t paid,” Rahman told WTVD-TV.
She said the squatters told her cleaning lady to leave.
“They answered the door and they said, ‘No, we haven’t moved out.’ She said, ‘Should I come tomorrow?’ And they said, ‘No, don’t come back,'” Rahman added.
They put up a sign claiming they were legal residents and threatening to press charges against the owner of the property.
“NO Trespassing. We will vacate the property when you have filed the proper paperwork with the civil magistrate for an eviction, for we are legal residents of this house,” read the sign.
The video report from WTVD showed the cardboard sign in handwriting.
“If you try to enter we will press charges for violation of expectation of privacy,” the sign concluded.
Rahman says she’s a single mom with a son in college, and she depends on the income from the rental to sustain her budget.
“This is my place, and I mean, I’m counting on this income,” she said.
Rahman said she tried to contact AirBNB but that it was not very helpful despite her having another long-term renter booked after the previous term.
“They’re sending me messages such as ‘please get help for your safety and get whatever legal help you have to get to get them out’,” she explained.
Rahman says she has filed for the eviction process to begin and has a court date set.
“It’s wasted my time; it is wasting my energy; it is stressing me out,” she concluded.
The average AirBNB rental costs about $184 per day, according to data aggregator AirDNA.
Supreme Court sides with Starbuck’s in a labor dispute with union activists!
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Starbucks on June 13, reining in the National Labor Relations Board’s authority to decide whether fired union activists in Tennessee should get their jobs back.
For years, the coffee giant has been battling organized labor, which is trying to unionize baristas across the United States.
The court’s 9–0 opinion in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney was written by Justice Clarence Thomas. The court has tended to rule for employers in recent years.
In June 2023, in Glacier Northwest Inc. v. Teamsters, the Court found 8–1 that employers may sue collective bargaining units for damages caused by strikes.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter in the Glacier Northwest ruling.
In the Starbucks case, Justice Jackson dissented in part and concurred in part.
Headquartered in Seattle, the petitioner, the world’s largest coffeehouse chain, reported nearly $36 billion in revenue last year. The respondent is M. Kathleen McKinney, regional director for Region 15 of the board.
More than 400 of the company’s 9,600 corporate-run U.S. stores have reportedly voted to unionize since 2021.
The company stated that it terminated the employment of the so-called Memphis Seven because they ran afoul of company policy by letting a television news crew into a store after business hours. The employees announced that they intended to unionize the store.
TESLA shareholders approve CEO Elon Musk’s $56-billion compensation package!
Shareholders at Tesla on June 13 voted to ratify CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package and approved a plan to move the electric vehicle maker’s legal headquarters to Texas.
On the social media platform X, which he owns, Mr. Musk shared what appeared to be two charts showing the results of the vote ahead of Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
The Space X founder said both shareholder resolutions were “currently passing by wide margins” but stopped short of disclosing the exact results of the vote.
“Thanks for your support,” he wrote.
The pay package shareholders voted to approve was initially granted by Tesla to Mr. Musk in 2018. Under the compensation plan, Mr. Musk could secure 12 tranches of Tesla stock options, which would vest if Tesla achieved various market capitalization and operational “milestones,” such as a $50 billion increase in its market capitalization.
Boeing investigates quality control problem on its undelivered 787 Dreamliners!
Boeing is investigating a new quality problem with its 787 Dreamliner after discovering that hundreds of fasteners have been incorrectly installed on the fuselages of some undelivered jets, two people familiar with the matter said.
The latest in a series of manufacturing snags affecting the U.S. planemaker involves incorrect “torquing” or tightening in a Boeing plant of more than 900 fasteners per plane – split equally between both sides of the jet’s mid-body, they said.
There is no immediate concern about flight safety but Boeing is working to understand what caused the problem and will decide how much if any rework needs to be done once its investigation is complete, the sources said, asking not to be identified.
Boeing confirmed the checks in response to a Reuters query on Thursday and said it saw limited to no impact on deliveries.
“Our 787 team is checking fasteners in the side-of-body area of some undelivered 787 Dreamliner airplanes to ensure they meet our engineering specifications. The in-service fleet can continue to safely operate,” a spokesperson said.
“We are taking the time necessary to ensure all airplanes meet our delivery standards prior to delivery. We are working closely with our customers and the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and keeping them updated.”
FAA said in a statement that Boeing disclosed it may have “improperly installed fuselage fasteners on some 787” jets. “The FAA is investigating and is working closely with Boeing to determine appropriate actions and to ensure an immediate fix in the production system.”
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he would hear from people on site during a previously- planned visit to a Boeing 787 plant in South Carolina on Friday. Shares of Boeing initially fell 1.7% before paring losses to be flat.
The U.S. planemaker has been under scrutiny from regulators and customers since a January 5 incident in which a smaller 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing after a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight.
The latest manufacturing flaw was discovered inside the company’s South Carolina plant where the 787’s lightweight carbon-composite skin is attached to skeletal supports inside the fuselage sections called longerons.
The sources said the affected fasteners had been torqued from the wrong side, using the head instead of the associated nut.
HEALTH
FDA Tells Vaccine Makers to Target New COVID Variant for Fall
COVID vaccine makers will be advised to update their shots to target the KP.2 variant, an offshoot of the JN.1 variant that spread widely last winter, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced.
Velvet Beans: A Closer Look at Their Health Benefits and Uses
Key Highlights:
- Velvet beans, or Mucuna pruriens, have been traditionally used in Indian medicine for various health conditions.
- Potential health benefits include brain protection, anxiety and depression reduction, enhancement of male fertility, and support for heart health.
- Side effects may occur, but they are generally mild and can be managed with proper usage and monitoring.
- Safety precautions should be taken for certain populations, and dosage recommendations should be followed.
- Interactions with other medications and supplements may be possible, so it’s important to consult a healthcare professional before using velvet beans.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Servers at GameStop crashed during its annual shareholder meeting due to interest!
GameStop’s annual shareholder meeting was disrupted by computer problems Thursday, as servers crashed under overwhelming interest in the stream, a customer service representative for the company hosting the stream told CNBC.
The meeting, slated to begin at 11 a.m. ET, was hosted on Computer Share, but when people tried to access the event, many received error messages that the page couldn’t load, according to posts made on social media site X and CNBC’s own attempts to access the event.
According to a YouTube stream from an unaffiliated user purporting to reproduce the feed, the annual meeting was brought to order at 11:48 a.m. ET and was “immediately adjourned … due to technical difficulties that have prevented stockholders from accessing the meeting.” GameStop said it would provide an update “as soon as possible” as to when the event would be rescheduled, according to that feed.
When reached by phone, a customer service rep for Computer Share told CNBC that it was seeing a “mass amount” of issues from people trying to access the meeting.
The rep said Computer Share’s servers appeared to be unable to handle the amount of traffic the meeting had received and weren’t accustomed to the volume of accounts. They added that Computer Share’s tech team was working to solve the issue and advised interested parties to attempt to log in “every 5 to 10 minutes.”
The debacle comes amid a new meme stock craze that surged when Keith Gill — known as Roaring Kitty online — resumed posting on his social accounts after going dark for more than three years. Gill gained notoriety in the online trading realm for his big bets on the stock, spurring a frenzy among retail traders.
GameStop last traded up 6% on Thursday in another volatile day. The stock gained as much as 10.7% earlier in the session.
GameStop announced Tuesday that it raised more than $2 billion in a recent at-the-market equity sale as the video game company took advantage of the revived meme rally. GameStop said it intends to use the money for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions and investments.
Traders have been closely monitoring Roaring Kitty’s positioning, as his active selling could knock the price of the stock.
Elon Musk sued by 8 ex-SpaceX employees for wrongful termination, sexual harassment!
Eight former employees sued SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk, alleging that Musk ordered them fired after they challenged what they called rampant sexual harassment and a hostile “Animal House”-style work environment at the company.
The employees, who filed suit in a California state court, detailed their complaints in a 2022 open letter to management they shared via a company intranet. The next day, four of the plaintiffs were fired, they alleged; others were terminated later after an internal investigation.
In January, the federal National Labor Relations Board filed its own complaint against SpaceX based on issues raised by nine fired employees.
Among other workplace concerns, the open letter called on executives to condemn Musk’s public behavior on X — the platform then known as Twitter — and to hold all employees accountable for unacceptable conduct. Musk’s actions included making light of sexual harassment allegations against him — charges that the billionaire denied.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
AI and Smart Technology: Simple tips from experts to protect your privacy!
If you’re worried about your data and privacy, here are some simple steps you can take, from experts working in AI.
Check your phone settings
“The number one thing [you can do] is look at where you share your data, starting with your smart phone.
“Go to your settings and click ‘mic’ and see all the apps that are using the mic. Why does your map need a mic? You don’t need that.”
Go through the apps that have permission to use your camera, microphone, files on your phone and location and make sure you’re only sharing your data with the apps
you’re happy to let in.
The big worry is about people allowing apps access to their microphones without realizing.
“Three seconds [of recording] is enough to clone your voice for a bad actor.”
Read the terms and conditions
Make sure you read what you’re accepting as you browse the internet.
“The most common example is cookie banners,” said Conor McCaffrey from Securiti Sciences Limited, an AI data security company.
“The most conscious thing I do is read those forms to understand what the organization is, what data they are collecting on me, and what they are doing with it.”
You don’t have to just hit ‘accept’ – you can choose which permissions you allow, or reject them all.
This is also important when you upload content like photos to websites.
By uploading your content, you could be giving away your rights to it, so it’s good practise to check what you’re agreeing to.
Do you need to give that information?
“People are just collecting data. That’s their business.”
“When signing up to a website or service, consider how much information you actually should need to give.
“[Companies] collect data to sell data. That’s the only thing that they care about. Whether it’s you, your grandmother, your friends, it’s data and that has a price.”
Think about what information you actually need to give. If you’re getting an item delivered, it makes sense to give your address, but in other scenarios, that might not be relevant.
“Make sure that when you give your information, does it make sense to leave my email, my address, my age, my passport number?
“You need to be very careful with that.”
Is it worth it?
The final big thing you can do is decide whether an app is worth giving someone access to your phone.
“Be conscious that your data is the most valuable thing,” said Mr McCaffrey. “That’s what these organizations mostly trade off.”
He specifically points out free apps like games. While you’re not paying for the apps with money, you may well be paying with your personal information.
“I don’t download random game apps because I know they’re just sucking all my data out of my phone and reselling it,” says Mr McCaffrey.
“Those games can be fun. But it’s whether five minutes of dopamine is worth selling my date of birth potentially or whatever IP information [they’re taking].”
Commerce Department to digitize the identities of all Americans receiving public benefits!
Federal ‘Guidelines’ have already been secretly adopted for a Digital ID program that will start off as ‘voluntary’ but only the most gullible Americans would believe that’s anything but temporary.
In the globalist drive toward the creation of a national digital ID for all Americans is well under way, and the first group of citizens to be coerced into accepting a digital ID will be those receiving public benefits of one type or another.
Government healthcare benefits, Veterans’ benefits, Social Security benefits, and of course low-income welfare programs of every type will all be fair game for digital IDs, and the U.S. government is already far down the road to adopting a strategy of digitizing all government-dependent citizens.
It all begins with a little-known program within the U.S. Department of Commerce.
I bet you didn’t know that the federal Commerce Department has a sub-agency called the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST for short, and that NIST has already adopted a set of “digital identity guidelines.”
These guidelines are ostensibly designed “to better support public-benefits programs.” Biometric Update reports that these programs assist beneficiaries with essential needs such as food, housing, and medical expenses, and then goes on to explain NIST’s role in digitizing all these government beneficiaries.
As is almost always the case, the federal agency has partners in the private sector to help it fulfill its mission of bringing in the technocratic/biometric beast system designed to replace people’s free will with government mandating every facet of their lives.
Wells Fargo fires remote worker employees over “mouse jigglers” …
In the era of hybrid work, with employees splitting their time between two days in the office and three days working remotely, employers have ramped up using productivity monitoring software. However, employees have outsmarted some of these surveillance programs with gadgets like mouse movers, otherwise known as ‘mouse jigglers.’
The popularity of mouse jigglers has exploded on TikTok in the last several years. Firms have been cracking down on these devices following a surge in fake work activity, which has weighed on productivity.
Wells Fargo, in a new disclosure with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, first reported by Bloomberg, had terminated over a dozen employees in its wealth- and investment-management unit for their use of mouse jigglers.
They were “discharged after review of allegations involving simulation of keyboard activity creating the impression of active work,” according to the disclosures.
On Amazon, some of the top-ranking mouse jigglers sold have thousands of reviews and cost between $6 and $25. Google Trends shows a massive search spike for these devices in 2022. The bank’s Finra disclosure does not indicate whether the employees were fired for faking work at home or in the office. It’s unclear how the employees were caught, and if the bank opted to use other forms of surveillance to catch the employees faking work.
Major banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, were among the most aggressive institutions in ordering workers back to the office after the government enforced lockdowns.
The jiggler is just proof of the unintended consequences of remote working. Instead of employers micromanaging their workforce with mass surveillance, perhaps implementing baseline objectives for them…
FOOD, PREPPING, GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Live near a chicken farm? Texas Supreme Court intervenes in lower court nuisance case!
POWER HOUR NEWS:
If you live near a chicken farm, you have probably noticed a certain foul odor that emanates from the farm during certain times of the year. Many of these farms raise broilers for meat, which ends up in the grocery stores, courtesy of Sanderson Farms, who supplied the young chicks to the farms to grow into table-sized broilers. This case revolves around a nuisance claim from nearby homeowners who brought suit against two poultry farms located on a single tract of rural land in Henderson County, southeast of Dallas. The neighbors claimed that the odors from the farms were a nuisance, causing them discomfort and annoyance. A jury found that the odors were a temporary nuisance and the trial court granted permanent injunctive relief that effectively shut down the farms.
The farm owners and operators appealed, challenging the injunction on three grounds: whether the trial court abused its discretion in finding imminent harm; whether equitable relief was unavailable because damages provide an adequate remedy; and whether the scope of the injunction is overly broad.
In a 92-page ruling, the Supreme Court of Texas upheld the trial court’s authority to grant an injunction, rejecting the first two challenges. However, the court concluded that the trial court abused its discretion in crafting the scope of the injunction, which was broader than necessary to abate the nuisance. The court therefore reversed in part and remanded for the trial court to modify the scope of injunctive relief.
There has to be a happy medium in all this. The lower court went to extreme, effectively shutting down the farms, without first considering what the operations could do to remediate the odors (and potentially “black drift” that plants like this cause).
Now the Asian plant operators will have to figure out (and likely spend a bunch of money on) how to abate the odors.
2ND AMENDMENT
Federal judge overturns ATF’s pistol brace rule!
A federal judge in Texas has overturned a rule issued by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) that targeted pistol attachments known as “stabilizing braces” or “pistol braces” and treated pistols fitted with such devices as short-barreled rifles, subjecting them to various restrictions.
In a 12-page decision issued on June 13, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the ATF’s rule that treated roughly 99 percent of pistols fitted with the braces as short-barreled rifles violated the Administrative Procedures Act’s procedural requirements because it was not a “logical outgrowth” of the proposed version of the rule.
“The Court finds that the adaptation of the Final Rule was arbitrary and capricious for two reasons,” Judge O’Connor wrote. “First, the Defendants did not provide a detailed justification for their reversal of the agency’s longstanding position. And second, the Final Rule’s standards are impermissibly vague.”
The judge granted the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and ordered the rule vacated. The plaintiffs in this case are two individual members of the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Maxim Defense, and FPC.
FPC President Brandon Combs said the ATF had “lawlessly acted to turn millions of gun owners into felons.”
Supreme Court backs challenge to federal gun bump stock ban!
The U.S. Supreme Court today just ruled in favor of a challenge to a federal ban on “bump stock” devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, dealing a setback to yet another firearms restriction – this time one enacted under Republican former President Donald Trump.
The justices, in a 6-3 ruling over a dissent by the court’s three liberal justices, upheld a lower court’s decision siding with Michael Cargill, a gun shop owner and gun rights advocate from Austin, Texas, who challenged the ban by claiming that a U.S. agency improperly interpreted a federal law banning machine guns as extending to bump stocks.
The rule was imposed after the devices were used during a 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a Las Vegas country music festival.
Federal officials have said the rule was needed to protect public safety in the United States, a nation facing persistent firearms violence. The ban was put in place in 2019 during Republican former President Donald Trump’s administration and was defended by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
Bump stocks use a semiautomatic’s recoil to allow it to slide back and forth while “bumping” the shooter’s trigger finger, resulting in rapid fire. Federal law prohibits the sale or possession of machine guns, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The bump stocks case centered on how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a U.S. Justice Department agency, interpreted the National Firearms Act, which defined machine guns as weapons that can “automatically” fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger.”
After a gunman used weapons outfitted with bump stocks in the Las Vegas shooting spree that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more, Trump’s administration took action to prohibit the devices. In a reversal of the agency’s previous stance, the ATF decided that bump stocks were covered by the National Firearms Act.
The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative minority, has taken an expansive view of gun rights, striking down gun restrictions in major cases in 2008, 2010 and in 2022. In that 2022 decision, struck down New York state’s limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home and set a tough new standard for determining the legality of gun regulations. Unlike those three cases, this challenge was not centered on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
COVID RELATED NEWS
NIH documents show $1.6-billion long-COVID initiative so far fell short of goals …
It’s been more than three years since Congress directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the long-term effects of COVID-19—and there are still no answers for the millions of Americans suffering from long COVID.
The NIH launched the $1.15 billion RECOVER initiative in early 2021 to understand, prevent, and develop potential treatments for long COVID. The NIH set deadlines for certain goals to be met when it allocated funding.
But according to documents obtained by The Sick Times, MuckRock, and STAT through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the goals outlined in contracts between the NIH and the institutions tasked with leading the research have not been met despite passing the deadline, and nearly all of the initial funding has already been allocated.
“It’s a waste of money,” Dr. Darrel DeMello, a COVID-19 specialist, told The Epoch Times. Dr. DeMello believes there should be a solution or a series of solutions for treating long COVID by now.
Congress allocated more than a billion dollars to the NIH in December 2020 and recently signed off on an additional $515 million to bolster research efforts. However, the documents show the majority of the funding has been used for observational research to collect data instead of clinical trials that test therapies or treatments.
CANCEL CULTURE
Sandy Hook families want to seize Alex Jones’s social media accounts!
Families of the Sandy Hook massacre victims want to seize Alex Jones’ social media accounts in his bankruptcy, saying that the conspiracy theorist’s frequent posts to fans are a key part of the Infowars business being liquidated to pay Jones’ debts.
Jones, who filed for bankruptcy protection 17 months ago, has given up on trying to reach a settlement that would reduce the $1.5 billion that he owes to the relatives of 20 students and six staff members killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
Jones and the Sandy Hook families now agree that Jones’ assets should be liquidated in bankruptcy. But the families on Wednesday asked a U.S. bankruptcy judge in Houston, Texas, to additionally take control of Jones’ X.com account and prevent Jones from using it to promote new business ventures.
The Sandy Hook families asked the judge to make clear that the Jones’ “@RealAlexJones” account on X.com, formerly known as Twitter, will be among the assets turned over to a court-appointed trustee in charge of liquidating Jones’ assets. Jones’ X account, which has 2.3 million followers, is “no different than a customer list of any other liquidating business,” the Sandy Hook families argued.
They argued that Jones has used the social media account to push down the value of Infowars by diverting sales from that site to his father’s DrJonesNaturals.com, which sells health supplements and other products.
Jones’ attorney, Vickie Driver, said on Thursday that the Sandy Hook families’ request was procedurally improper and that Jones would oppose it at the appropriate time.
“The Connecticut Plaintiffs have never wanted money from Jones but to silence him,” Driver said.
Jones was banned from the platform for nearly five years, but his account was reinstated in December after a user poll conducted by X.com owner Elon Musk.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge is scheduled to hear the families’ demands this morning in a court hearing in Houston. The judge is expected to convert Alex Jones’ bankruptcy case from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which offers more control to a bankrupt debtor, to a Chapter 7 liquidation, which would allow a court-appointed trustee to take and sell Jones’ assets.
Jones claimed for years that the Sandy Hook killings were staged with actors as part of a government plot to seize Americans’ guns. Jones has since acknowledged that the shooting occurred.
The judge overseeing Jones’ bankruptcy has ruled that most of the debt will survive after a liquidation, because it resulted from “willful and malicious” conduct.
Jones has estimated that he has less than $12 million in assets, meaning that he will carry an enormous legal debt even after Infowars and his other assets are sold.
The Sandy Hook families intend to continue collection actions against Jones’ future income, and pursue additional payments from Jones’ wife, father, employees and other associates to whom Jones’ allegedly diverted assets.
A Chapter 7 liquidation will enable the Sandy Hook families to enforce their judgments “now and into the future while also depriving Jones of the ability to inflict mass harm as he has done for some 25 years,” said Chris Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families.
Jones has said on a June 7 broadcast of The Alex Jones show that Infowars is “overrun” and “will be completely worthless” without him. He encouraged listeners to buy products from DrJonesNaturals to support his “future” and make sure he can continue to broadcast after the shutdown of Infowars.
“I’ve already sold everything but my house,” Jones said on June 7. “I’m down to my last moves on this.”
PET NEWS
Domesticated dogs have been our besties for ages, but they still retain some of their wild instincts, including licking. Licking is an innate behavior that dogs learn during puppyhood, says Dr. Stefanie Schwartz, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist and founder of Civilized Pet. It plays an important role in dog-to-dog communication, and it can also give us humans clues about what our dogs need and how they’re feeling. So what does it mean when a dog licks you, and how do you get them to stop when it gets to be too much?
Affection: Dogs lick as a way to show affection and love.
Puppies are lavished with licks from their very first days. It’s how their moms bond with them, nurture and stimulate them. Because “dogs are affectionate and social creatures,” Dr. Schwartz says it’s only natural for adult dogs to express affection for their people in a similar way. Whether it’s puppy kisses or a cuddle on the couch, Dr. Schwartz says it’s important to allow those close interactions while maintaining healthy boundaries. In fact, studies have shown that sharing bonding moments between dogs and humans can lower cortisol levels — aka stress levels — in both humans and dogs.
Grooming: Dogs lick their parents as a way to groom them, just as their mothers groomed them as puppies. Another form of affection, dogs lick their favorite people as a way to groom them, just as they lick and groom each other. This behavior is called allogrooming, and it’s a way for dogs to show affection, build trust, and maintain social bonds.
Attention: Dogs may lick people to get attention.
A dog who is constantly trying to lick you while you’re busy with another task (like reading this article) might feel left out. Licking as a means of attention-seeking is a behavior that can easily become reinforced, cautions Dr. Rachel Malamed, a veterinary behavioral specialist.
Boredom: Dogs may lick people if they are bored or anxious.
Many dogs will excessively lick themselves, you, or other objects out of boredom. While any pup can become bored without the appropriate amount of exercise or stimulation, working breeds such as German Shepherds, German Shorthaired Pointers, Golden Retrievers, Great Danes, Irish Setters, Labrador Retrievers, and Pointers are most likely to find other, more destructive, activities to do when they’re understimulated.
Saying “hello”: Dogs may lick to greet others.
Dogs lick each other and us to say “Hello!” It’s a greeting observed in ancestral wolves that our dogs still do today, says Jen Gumas, a certified professional dog trainer and founder of Wiggles and Woofs Dog Training & Pet Care.
“Wolves returning to the group often lick other wolves as a greeting,” Gumas explains. “Sometimes licking the inside of the other wolves’ mouths to gather information.” That’s why dogs tend to lick your face — or attempt for the mouth. In addition, licking is done by the submissive animal in the dynamic.
While licking is typically a normal behavior, it’s important to recognize when a behavior could signal poor health. If your dog doesn’t just lick your face but is licking odd surfaces such as floors, walls, carpet, and furniture, they could have a medical condition such as an underlying gastrointestinal issue.
You taste good: Sometimes, there’s something on your skin that tastes good.
Dogs may enjoy licking our salty skin, particularly in areas with lots of sweat glands like our feet. They might also pick up traces of the food we’re eating or aromas from our meals. Other times, Gumas says, they just want to taste us to figure out where we’ve been.
How do I know if my dog is licking me out of affection?
Does your dog like to lick you as soon as you come home? Cuddle up and lay a wet one on you? What about a puppy kiss as soon as you wake up? Those are all out of affection, Gumas says. Schwartz adds that this is also a submissive greeting. Considering the context of the situation is key to understanding the meaning behind your dog’s slobbery signals.
Can licking be a sign of stress or anxiety in dogs?
“Some dogs tend to lick more when they are nervous,” Gumas says. “Licking can be a way that dogs show another dog that they are not a threat, and sometimes they do this with humans too.”
There’s also a theory called “ kiss to dismiss.”
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