Today marks the start of the Summer Solstice; the longest day of the year!
For the Northern Hemisphere, the official summer season starts on June 20 or 21, depending on where you live, with the arrival of the summer solstice.
So what is a solstice, exactly? It’s the result of Earth‘s north-south axis being tilted 23.4 degrees toward the sun. This tilt causes different amounts of sunlight to reach different regions of the planet during Earth’s year-long orbit around the sun.
On the June solstice, the North Pole is tipped more toward the sun than on any other day of the year.
This means that on the June solstice, the Northern Hemisphere will have the longest day and shortest night of the year. (The opposite holds true for the Southern Hemisphere, where June brings the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year.)
On the summer solstice, the Northern Hemisphere receives more sunlight than on any other day of the year—but that doesn’t mean the first day of summer is also the hottest.
Earth’s oceans and atmosphere act like heat sinks, absorbing and reradiating the sun’s rays over time.
Even though the planet absorbs a lot of sunlight on the summer solstice, it takes several weeks to release it. As a result, the hottest days usually occur in July or August.
All this, despite the current heatwave much of America is experiencing right now.
WORLD NEWS
Tropical Storm Alberto swamps Mexico, Texas and Louisiana with floodwaters!
The outer edges of Tropical Storm Alberto unleashed heavy rains over parts of northeastern Mexico near the U.S. border last night as the large tropical system closed in on the Gulf coast, killing at least three people.
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, the storm was located about 135 miles (217 km) east of the Mexican port of Tampico, packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph), as military and emergency services personnel braced for its full impact.
Alberto is the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, though its sustained wind speeds remain below hurricane strength.
The deaths of at least three people, all minors, have been attributed to Alberto, Nuevo Leon state Governor Samuel Garcia told local media. He did not give any details.
The center of Alberto made landfall along the coast of Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, just south of the U.S. state of Texas, early this morning, bringing torrential rainfall, coastal flooding and strong winds.
The NHC warned of considerable flash flooding in the storm’s path, including in urban areas, along with swollen rivers and potential mudslides.
Along the U.S. Gulf coast, including parts of Texas and Louisiana, videos posted on social media showed some flooding in coastal towns and waves smashing into sea walls.
The NHC also cited the possibility of further coastal flooding along with the formation of tornadoes in Texas linked to Alberto.
Stonehenge was spray painted orange by two Just Stop Oil protesters ahead of Solstice …
Two environmental protesters have been arrested after spraying Stonehenge with orange powdered paint, according to the group responsible and local police.
Wiltshire Police said in a statement they arrested two people “following an incident at Stonehenge” on Wednesday afternoon.
The group responsible is an environmental activism group called Just Stop Oil. The group posted a video of the incident on X, saying “2 people took action the day before Summer Solstice, demanding the incoming government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”
The group said in a news release posted to its website that “today’s action has come days after the Labour party’s manifesto has recommitted them to stopping all future licenses for new oil and gas, should they form the next government.”
Just Stop Oil identified the two men that were arrested as a 21-year-old student from Oxford and a 73-year-old man from Birmingham.
In response to the incident, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “Just Stop Oil are a disgrace” in a post on X.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s goal of eliminating gas-powered cars in favor of 100 percent Electric Vehicles (EV) by 2035 is unlikely to happen due to a lack of consumer demand, auto executives say.
Trudeau’s Liberal Party has set a green energy goal to see all new car sales be EVs by 2035 — effectively eliminating gas-powered cars from the new car market. Like in the United States, those goals are unlikely to be met.
This week, Toyota Motor and Honda Motor executives said they do not see how the Canadian government expects to switch 100 percent to EVs in just a decade when consumers are largely uninterested in anything but gas-powered cars that can reliably drive long distances and in freezing temperatures.
“We need to make sure that we’re revisiting targets to align targets with reality,” Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada President Frank Voss told Bloomberg:
The government can only do so much to entice consumers to purchase vehicles that they would like to see implemented. Consumers will choose what they need. [Emphasis added]
Likewise, Honda Canada CEO Jean Marc Leclerc told Bloomberg that “There’s a lot of things that need to fall into place to give people the confidence to make the transition” to EVs.
In Canada, like the U.S., EVs remain a tiny fraction of new car sales — indicating slowing consumer demand that both governments had wrongly predicted. Last year, for example, just 11 percent of new cars sold were EVs.
At the same time, more than 1.3 million gas-powered cars were sold in Canada last year, making up the overwhelming majority of cars sold.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
New Louisiana Law requires 10 Commandments be displayed in all classrooms!
Louisiana has become the first state to enact a law mandating that the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed at all public schools and colleges.
Under legislation that became law on June 18, Louisiana schools that receive state funds will have to display the Ten Commandments “in each building it uses and classroom in each school under its jurisdiction.”
The bill specifies that the text must be presented at the main focal point of a poster or framed document measuring at least 11 inches by 14 inches and printed in a “large and easily readable font.”
It also requires a 200-word “context statement” explaining that the Ten Commandments were “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
The Republican-backed measure was approved by the Louisiana state Senate on a 30–8 margin on May 16. It reached Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s desk after receiving a final House approval in a 79–16 vote on May 28.
The measure was spearheaded by Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton. Last year, she successfully led a legislative effort to require the national motto “In God We Trust” to be displayed in classrooms across the state.
Rep. Good locked in tight race with Trump-backed challenger …
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) is locked in a tight race with Trump-backed Virginia state Sen. John McGuire.
The race may not be called on June 18th if the results remain close and it may ultimately head to a recount. A candidate may request a recount if the difference between candidates is 1 percent or less, according to Virginia law.
Mr. Good, chair of the staunchly conservative House Freedom Caucus, risks being the first House incumbent to go down to a primary challenge this year, with the exception of one race in which two incumbents faced off due to redistricting. It is likely Good will call for a recount.
“The entire DC Swamp was aligned against us with over $10 million in attack ads, but with your help we were able to make this race too close to call,” Mr. Good wrote
Despite the race not being called, Mr. Guire, a former Navy SEAL, declared victory at his watch party in Lynchburg at about 11:30 p.m.
The contentious primary battle has been largely defined by loyalty to former President Trump. Mr. Good was one of eight Republicans to join all Democrats in ousting former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as House Speaker in October.
A super PAC affiliated with Republican Main Street Partnership, a group that supports moderate Republicans, has spent more than $450,000 to defeat the GOP incumbent, according to Open Secrets.
RFK, Jr. to fall short of CNN debate requirements …
Independent Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. will reportedly not make the debate stage next week with former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden in Atlanta, Georgia.
The former Democrat will apparently fail to satisfy CNN’s stringent ballot access requirement by Thursday, the Washington Post reports.
CNN noted in May that candidates must “appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold” necessary to win the White House to make the June 27 debate. The Post reports Kennedy is currently eligible for 100 electoral votes when considering states he is certified in and other states, like California and Hawaii, where CNN recognizes him as the presumptive nominee of a minor party.
The Kennedy campaign’s online running ballot access tracker indicates that, as of Wednesday, it has completed petitioning in two dozen or so states, where he would be eligible for 310 electoral votes if all states’ petitions were officially certified.
This is up from the 14 states it claimed it had completed petitioning in when CNN announced the threshold on May 16, as Breitbart News reported at the time.
However, the Washington Post’s ballot access analysis of the campaign shows Kennedy has been certified for the ballot in five states thus far.
When one clicks on a state the campaign categorized as “petitioning complete” on its website, he or she is directed to the phrase, “We’re on the ballot.”
New York Board of Elections Spokeswoman Kathleen McGrath wrote in an email to the Washington Post this classification in New York was “premature” and that certification would take place in “the late Summer.”
CNN indicated that Trump and Biden are both considered their parties’ presumptive nominees and, therefore, meet the ballot access requirement. Trump has made it clear that he would welcome Kennedy to the debate stage with them.
To qualify, candidates also have to score 15 percent in at least four polls recognized by the network.
Conservative group back AOC’s challenger, puts $100,000 in Times Square billboards, media!
The Keep America America Action Fund, a super PAC connected to the pro-small business group Job Creators Network, is backing investment banker Marty Dolan in his bid to unseat far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the 14th congressional district’s Democratic primary. The PAC is shelling out $100,000 in media and social media buys that include billboards in Times Square.
New York voters can already see the massive billboards in Times Square blaring messages blaming Ocasio-Cortez for ignoring “rising crime,” “high grocery prices,” and “out of control energy costs.”
For Dolan, “illegal immigration chaos” is central to his campaign’s criticism of AOC.
“The increase in undocumented immigrants arriving in New York are competing for resources with her (Ocasio-Cortez’s) constituents,” Dolan told USA Today. “The consequences of A.O.C dumbly encouraging global migration with the prize being a 2,200 mile walk from Ecuador to Texas is 25,000 to 50,000 civilian casualties along the Central American trail to El Paso.”
“We need to freeze the border and send that message to the world to stop the death and casualties along the way,” says Dolan. “The Republicans are right on this issue. But that doesn’t make me a Republican. No party is right on every issue.”
“It makes no sense to have competing national, state, county, and city policies,” he says. “Cities are agencies not sovereign entities. This is where all the confusion and subsequent mayhem comes from.”
Dolan, 66, also slams AOC-backed bail reform policies that have let lawlessness run rampant
and criminals run amuck in New York. “Bail reform a disaster, the National Guard in the subway, toothpaste locked up in drug stores but criminals running free,” his campaign website says.
Federal judge hands down 55 concurrent life sentences to Colorado mass shooter …
A U.S. district judge has handed down 55 concurrent life sentences for a Colorado mass shooter who killed five people at a nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022.
Along with the five deaths, 19 people were injured in the shooting, carried out by Anderson Lee Aldrich at an LGBT venue called the Club Q, prosecutors had said. On June 18th, Mr. Aldrich pleaded guilty to dozens of felony crimes as well as felony hate crime charges, according to court reporters.
Mr. Aldrich’s guilty plea was entered under a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to avoid being sentenced to death. U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney sentenced him to 55 concurrent life sentences plus 190 years.
After he was arrested in November 2022, Mr. Aldrich, who is biologically male, requested in court documents that officials use the transgender pronouns “they/them” to describe him. He was also identified as “nonbinary” in court papers.
Last year, Mr. Aldrich was sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison on state charges in connection to the attack. The June 18 sentencing pertained to the separate, federal charges that he also faced.
Trump lawyers file notice on using classified documents in trial …
Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys filed a notice confirming they will use classified materials as part of their defense strategy in his federal documents case.
A Monday filing from Trump attorneys Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, and Christopher Kise informed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon and special counsel Jack Smith that they will submit a notice under the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA), which is a set of rules governing how to use classified records in cases.
Specifically, according to the notice, the former president’s attorneys made their first selection of the documents and told a “Classified Information Security Officer” in Fort Pierce, Florida, about their plans to use the classified materials. They did not reveal the nature of the documents they will use.
The filing suggests that the case appears to be progressing as the Trump attorneys had to meet a pre- trial deadline to inform the court of their decision. No trial date has been set in the case by Judge Cannon, and she has yet to rule on several motions to dismiss the case as well as a gag order request from the special counsel’s team.
In a number of motions, Mr. Smith’s lawyers have been telling the court that the former president should submit their CIPA filing, accusing him of attempting to delay the case as long as possible.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
U.S. 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage rates fell below 7%; no real sign of demand however!
The average rate on the popular U.S. 30-year mortgage rate fell below 7% this week for the first time in more than a month, which could help revive the housing market’s waning fortunes.
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.94% during the week ending May 23, the lowest level and first reading below 7% since the second week of April, down from 7.02% in the prior week, mortgage finance agency Freddie Mac reported this morning.
Still, nobody’s running to their nearest mortgage loan officer as demand continues to wane.
The Walt Disney Company continues to pay a steep price for its political war with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Disney is now facing a class action lawsuit from some of its own employees who relocated from California to Florida for the planned Lake Nona campus in the Orlando area, only to find themselves with nowhere to go after Disney canceled the $1 billion project last year amid its beef with DeSantis over the state’s ban on gay and transgender indoctrination in schools.
Employees filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleging Disney fraudulently induced them to sell their homes in Southern California and move to Central Florida. The L.A. Times was the first to report on the suit.
In one instance, a Disney employee allegedly sold his home that had been in his family for generations.
The lawsuit reportedly seeks to represent “all current and former California Disney employees who relocated from California to Florida as a result of Disney’s announcement of the Lake Nona Project.” Plaintiffs are seeking unspecified punitive damages.
As Breitbart News reported, Disney pulled the plug on the $1 billion Lake Nona project last year at the height of the company’s feud with Florida. The mega-campus was expected to accommodate 2,000 employees, including those within Disney’s “Imagineering” department, with an average salary of $120,000.
Under former CEO Bob Chapek, Disney’s instigated the fight with DeSantis by publicly condemning Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law, which prohibited schools from indoctrinating children in gay and transgender ideology,. Disney even vowed to fight to repeal the law, even though the company is headquartered in California, not Florida.
Even when Bob Iger returned to the helm, Disney persisted in its fight with the state. In response, DeSantis revoked Disney’s self-governing privileges in the Orlando area — a valuable perk that Disney had enjoyed for five decades. Lawsuits were filed on both sides, with a costly legal showdown in the making.
The feud generated non-stop negative press for Disney, sucking the company into the culture wars and inflicting incalculable brand damage.
This year, Disney waved the white flag by dropping its lawsuits in the so-called “Reedy Creek”
dispute. Disney is now poised to invest up to $17 billion in Disney World in Florida, including opening a fifth theme park.
A Democrat staffer was criticized on social media after he shared a post thanking
President Joe Biden for canceling his student loans.
Ben Kamens, who is the communications director for Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), shared a post on X that he reportedly received “a call” informing him that his “student debt has been canceled.” In Kamens’ post, he shared a photo showing two student loans with disbursement dates from 2010. The original principal balance on one loan was $2,750, while the other showed $5,500. This comes out to $8,250.
“Just got a call to let me know my student debt has been canceled,” Kamens wrote. “This is why elections matter. Thanks @JoeBiden.”
Kamens wrote in another post that his “job was paying it down for me ahead of schedule,” adding that he was “happy to let the government cancel it instead of paying it off.”
Several people were quick to criticize Kamens for his post, pointing out that other taxpayers were left to pay the student loans he had not been able to.
“As a government worker, this guy got paid more than $80,000 last year by taxpayers according to Legistorm, and now he’s bragging about forcing those same taxpayers to pony up another $8k for loans he refused to pay himself,” Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of the Federalist wrote in a post on X.
“I worked on Capitol Hill for 10 years,” Steven D. Smith, who previously worked as a communications director for former Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), wrote. “I could never imagine tweeting out something so stupid (including my home address). I would show my staff tweets like this to show them examples of what you should not be tweeting.”
Kamens reportedly earned over $80,000 in 2023, according to Legistorm.
Estimates on Glassdoor show that the salary range for a communications director in the House of Representatives is roughly between $77,000 and $120,000 a year, with a median range of $96,000.
HEALTH
Health officials warn that some medications and high temperatures don’t mix …
About 80 million Americans on the East Coast and Midwest are under a heat advisory this week, and officials warn that those taking certain medications should be on the lookout for symptoms of heat stroke and heat exhaustion.
Some health officials noted this week that people taking certain medications should be aware that those drugs increase the risk of heat-related illnesses such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, almost all “psychotropic medications except benzodiazepines” can increase the risk of a heat-related illness. That includes commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs such as Paxil, lithium, Zyprexa, Haldol, clozapine, Prozac, Seroquel, Zoloft, Thorazine, and many others.
“Psychotropic medications may increase risk, and use of alcohol and other substances also can place people at more risk of harm,” said the Greater Cincinnati Behavior Health Sciences organization in a news release.
Many of the psychotropic drugs listed in the are either selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—such as Paxil or Prozac—or tricyclic antidepressants.
Those types of drugs can target the body’s capacity to regulate its temperature, says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They also interfere with the balance of fluids in the body, increasing sweating, which can more easily lead to dehydration, the agency adds.
Heart medications such as beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers also can exacerbate heat illnesses, Ohio Health officials say. Sinus and allergy medications such as Benadryl also create a risk, according to the pamphlet.
The Ohio Health Department notice also listed several illicit street drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, cocaine or crack, PCP, “bath salts,” MDMA, anabolic steroids, and more.
Some medications, the agency adds, can cause a “reduced thirst sensation.” They include drugs such as diuretics, ACE inhibitors, and ARBS, or angiotensin II receptor blockers. Both ACE inhibitors and ARBS are used to treat heart conditions and high blood pressure.
“For patients on these medications, sun avoidance, protective clothing and hats, and broad-spectrum sunscreen that filters out UVA and UVB rays, with an SPF of 30 or higher, is recommended.”
1 in 4 US Yards May Have Unsafe Levels of Lead
The yards of 1 in every 4 U.S. households have soil lead levels that exceed new federal lead screening levels of 200 parts per million (ppm), a new study finds.
“I was shocked at how many households were above the new 200 ppm guideline,” said Gabriel Filippelli, a biochemist at Indiana University who led the new study. “I assumed it was going to be a more modest number.”
“The results for the 100 ppm guideline are even worse,” he added. The EPA has set a 100 ppm guideline for households with lead exposures thought to be from multiple sources.
About 29 million U.S. households could be contaminated by soil lead levels that exceed the new EPA guidelines.
The price tag for remediating all of those lead-contaminated yards, using “dig-and-dump” soil-removal methods, could exceed $1 trillion, the study authors estimated.
Lead is an environmental toxin that in much of the 20th century was ubiquitous in gasoline, paint, plumbing and other products. It’s a heavy metal that accumulates in the body and has potentially severe neurological effects, especially for children.
For years, the EPA had set a level of 400 ppm of lead in soil, but in January it lowered that guideline to 200 ppm. Some states have lowered that number even further, with California setting its lowest screening level at 80 ppm.
Decades of slow, steady contamination of air, water and soil mean the challenge to rid the environment of lead is enormous.
“The scale [of the problem] is astounding, and the nation’s lead and remediation efforts just became substantially more complicated” with the new EPA guideline, the study authors said.
Their findings come from a database of soil samples from almost 16,000 residents across the contiguous United States.
Study: Walking Staves Off Lower Back Pain Recurrence
If you’ve recovered from lower back pain, try walking away from a recurrence.
New research out of Australia shows that folks who started a walking regimen kept recurrent back pain episodes at bay for much longer than people who didn’t.
“We don’t know exactly why walking is so good for preventing back pain, but it is likely to include the combination of the gentle oscillatory movements, loading and strengthening the spinal structures and muscles, relaxation and stress relief, and release of ‘feel-good’ endorphins,” said senior study author Mark Hancock. He’s a professor of physiotherapy at Macquarie University in Sydney.
Over 800 million people around the world suffer from low back pain, according to background information from the study authors. In 7 of 10 cases, the pain will ease — only to return later.
Special exercise programs, along with educating patients about back pain, are typically part of standard care aimed at preventing a recurrence.
Hancock’s team wondered if plain old walking might help.
“Walking is a low-cost, widely accessible and simple exercise that almost anyone can engage in, regardless of geographic location, age or socio-economic status,” he reasoned in a Macquarie news release.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Bird Flu: The evil twins’ next assault wave against humanity!
Technocracy News is reporting that the media is seemingly concerning itself with bird flu and the next pandemic. Operation Mockingbird has again reared its ugly head and the mainstream media is again chirping louder than ever about how we must protect ourselves against it.
All of these stories talk about “gathering data”, “flying blind”, and the need for “prevention”. And all of that is really code for “testing”. Almost every article talks up the need to increase testing – both of humans and animals.
But anyone who’s been paying attention since 2020 knows PCR tests don’t gather data, they create data. They are machines for generating “cases”. Far from preventing a pandemic, they can be used to manufacture one.
There are even early signs of mandating tests going forward, such as this Politico article bemoaning the lack of farmers voluntarily signing up for government surveillance programs:
“The federal response is largely focusing on voluntary efforts by farmers to help track and contain the outbreak. But many farms still have not signed up for USDA efforts to boost surveillance and testing for the virus.”
Paying farmers to test their animals is another recycled Covid strategy. It will generate cases, which will generate culling, which links us up with the other aspect of “bird flu” – not “the next pandemic” but “the war on food”.
As the alleged disease allegedly spreads from poultry farm to dairy farm more and more chickens are being culled and cows slaughtered. This is going to escalate even further soon, when governments start paying farmers to destroy their cattle.
The goal will be to make it more profitable for farmers to kill their cows than milk them.
Incentivizing testing, rewarding positive results. That’s how you make a pandemic out of nothing, and sabotage the food system in the process.
But there’s good news, after all the EU is already procuring 40 million doses of vaccines, just in case. And the Moderna stock price keeps going up too. So there’s that.
This looks like a repeat of the same batch of fear mongering propaganda that preceded the COVID pandemic.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
U.S. State Department to open 6 new passport agencies …
The U.S. Department of State announced the opening of more passport agencies in the country. The network will grow to 35 passport agencies and centers, in addition to the more than 7,400 public passport acceptance facilities around the nation.
The statement did not say when the facilities would be operational.
Back in 1990, only 5 percent of Americans had a passport, a figure that has now grown to 48 percent, he noted. In fiscal year 2023, the department issued over 24 million passport books and cards, “more than ever before.”
The new agencies will provide services to people with urgent travel needs. Individuals who do not require such services are advised to apply at any of the thousands of passport acceptance facilities, which include post offices and local government centers.
The Secretary of State pointed out that over 99% of Americans live within 25 miles of an acceptance center, adding that the department is processing passports at pre-pandemic levels even though it is issuing more passports than before. This past week, the agency announced a beta trial of an online passport renewal system.
FTC tells DOJ that China’s Tik-Tok is violating U.S. law on child privacy!
The FTC informed the DOJ on Tuesday that China’s TikTok may be in violation of U.S. law
on child privacy.
The FTC said in a statement that it has investigated TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, and “uncovered reason to believe” the companies are “violating or are about to violate” the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, according to a report by ABC News.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is a federal law that requires apps and websites hosting kids under the age of 13 to get parental consent before the platforms can collect personal information of the children.
The FTC has therefore referred a complaint against TikTok and ByteDance to the Justice Department, leaving it up to the DOJ if it wants to file a lawsuit against the Chinese companies. The agency also reportedly cited TikTok and ByteDance’s potential violations of the FTC Act, which outlines its responsibility to enforce the law.
The FTC added that while it does not typically publicize its complaints referred to the DOJ, it is doing so in this case give that the matter is “in the public interest.” “Consistent with our normal approach, the Justice Department consulted with FTC in advance of this referral and will continue to do so as we consider the claims,” a DOJ spokesperson told ABC News. “As always, the Department will be guided by the facts and the law as well as our responsibility to protect the American people.”
TikTok is also facing multiple lawsuits brought by several mourning families who say the Chinese social media platform is directly responsible for the deaths of their children.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Texans are expecting rolling blackouts this summer, poll finds
A new survey of 1,200 registered Texas voters by researchers at the University of Texas found little confidence in the state power grid.
State of play: Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they thought it’s likely the state will experience rolling or temporary blackouts this summer, per the Texas Politics Project poll out Thursday.
- And 51% of the poll’s respondents said they thought it’s likely there will be a widespread failure of the electric grid this summer.
Threat level: Grid operators said last week that there’s a 12% chance of rolling blackouts in August because of increased demand.
Texas electricity demand could nearly double in six years, grid operator predicts
The prediction by ERCOT reflects a new way of counting future demand and a spike in requests to connect to the grid from large power users.
The state’s main electric grid operator has sharply increased its prediction for how much power demand will increase in coming years. If it’s accurate, the state would need to be able to provide nearly double the amount of power within six years.
Two factors led to the higher forecast: A new law allows officials to count companies’ requests for grid connections before they are finalized. And there has been a significant rise in requests from large users such as data centers, hydrogen production facilities and oil and gas companies that are electrifying their operations.
On top of that, the state’s population continues growing, Electric Reliability Council of Texas President and Chief Executive Officer Pablo Vegas told state lawmakers in a Senate Business and Commerce Committee hearing last week, repeating information he shared with the ERCOT board in April.
“All of that is putting together a picture of a very significant, different demand growth that is forcing us to really re-think how we’re looking at planning to make sure we can meet those needs and continue to deliver on the expectations of all Texans,” Vegas told lawmakers.
FOOD, PREPPING, GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
How to deter squirrels when it becomes obvious they’re tearing up your garden …
Although squirrels are cute little animals, they are not welcome in our gardens!
These little deviants are constantly looking for food, so if you don’t have a nut tree nearby, prepare yourself for a long battle because they can completely ruin your fruit and vegetables. Squirrels often dig around plants and eat the seeds, and they also steal spring crops and delicious fruits.
To make things even harder, they breed quite quickly and multiply like crazy. Soon, you will be dealing with an entire squirrel population.
So, if you want to enjoy gardening properly, you have to find some ways to keep squirrels at bay. Keep reading to learn some handy methods on how to deter squirrels!
- Use squirrel deterrent (repellents made of a liquid that mimics urine of their natural predators) that for squirrels, would be coyote and fox urine.
- Plant squirrel-proof flowers (Daffodils, Lily-of-the-Valley, Hyacinths, Fritillaries, Geraniums, Alliums and Galanthus) in and around the garden.
- Remove any food sources (this includes trash cans and compost piles, bird feeders and pet food). You can also add cayenne pepper to food sources, especially bird feeders, as birds don’t react to and cannot taste capsaicin. Magpies don’t like cayenne either.
- Create and use certain scents squirrels can’t stand (DIY vinegar solutions, use white vinegar, not apple cider vinegar; garlic; peppermint essential oil mixed with water).
- Install fences or wires (electric kinds, which won’t hurt the squirrels), or chicken wire.
- Get a dog!
- Set up live traps (and relocate them miles away).
- Consider motion-activated sprinklers!
- Add mulch to keep squirrels from digging.
You can also try a thin layer of coffee grounds or tucking a small amount of dog hair around and under plants.
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (for those who still want to plant veggies!
Power Mall Items of Interest:
Heaven’s Harvest HEIRLOOM VEGETABLE SEED KIT
Heaven’s Harvest HEIRLOOM MAX SEED KIT
COVID RELATED NEWS
First-of-its-kind study explains why some people don’t get COVID-19!
Researchers have discovered why some people remain uninfected by the COVID-19 virus—even after their nasal cavities are exposed to it.
According to a recent study, these people have faster and more subtle immune responses than those who develop symptomatic COVID-19.
“These findings shed new light on the crucial early events that either allow the virus to take hold or rapidly clear it before symptoms develop,” Dr. Marko Nikolić, senior author of the study and honorary consultant in respiratory medicine at the University College London, said in the press release.
Researchers recruited 16 young, healthy participants under 30 for the study. None had comorbidities, and none had ever previously been infected with COVID-19 or vaccinated.
The 16 individuals responded to the virus exposure differently and were grouped accordingly.
The first group contained six symptomatic people. The study authors categorized them as having sustained infections.
People in the second group were asymptomatic but still tested positive for COVID-19 with PCR tests. These participants were categorized as having transient infections.
The third type of people were asymptomatic and continuously received negative COVID-19 PCR test results. The authors confirmed that these participants were infected but cleared their infections so rapidly that the infections were dubbed “abortive.”
The second and third groups, who had asymptomatic COVID-19, had faster or more subtle immune responses, according to the authors.
“We now have a much greater understanding of the full range of immune responses, which could provide a basis for developing potential treatments and vaccines that mimic these natural protective responses,” said Dr. Nikolić.
CANCEL CULTURE
White House boob flasher arrested for sexual assault!
Rose Montoya, a controversial trans activist known for his attention-grabbing display at the White House last June, has now found himself entangled in serious allegations of sexual assault. The accuser, Jesse Diamond, a biological female who identifies as a “man,” has come forward with disturbing claims against Montoya.
After facing public backlash for flaunting his augmented breasts during a pride event at the White House, Montoya was swiftly banned from future White House events. The incident, captured in a viral video on TikTok, drew sharp criticisms from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, calling Montoya’s behavior “simply unacceptable.”
Attempting to defend his actions, Montoya initially stood firm, citing his pursuit of “living my joy and my truth.” However, facing reprimands from within the trans community for “embarrassing the transgender community,” Montoya eventually backtracked, offering a public apology for causing offense during a significant event.
Montoya now faces grave accusations of sexual assault from his ex-girlfriend, Jesse Diamond, who has accused him of assaulting her post-“phallo surgeries.” Diamond detailed the traumatic experiences she endured due to the alleged assault, with screenshots of an email allegedly from Montoya admitting to the assault being shared on social media.
Despite Montoya’s denial and accusation of domestic violence against Diamond in response, she maintains that Montoya’s abusive behavior extends beyond her alone. Diamond, a prominent trans activist, spoke out about her troubling experiences with genital surgeries, adding weight to the accusations against Montoya.
As the situation unravels, Diamond and others affected by Montoya’s alleged abuse seek accountability and an end to what they perceive as a cycle of violence. Diamond is now speaking out against Montoya publicly, shedding light on the potential dangers posed by individuals accused of such serious misconduct.
FBI shows up and confronts second whistleblower in Texas Medicaid abuse scandal …
The FBI dispatched two agents to the home of a Texas nurse after she spoke to journalist Christopher Rufo about the sex-change program at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Last year, Rufo broke news about an elaborate sex-change program happening at Texas Children’s Hospital. A whistleblower gave Rufo documents proving the hospital continued its “transgender medicine” operations despite publicly saying the program had ended. That whistleblower was Dr. Eithan Haim, whom the Justice Department has now indicted on four felony charges for allegedly violating medical privacy laws.
Haim’s bravery encouraged a second whistleblower to come forward.
Last May, that whistleblower provided new insight into how physicians at Texas Children’s Hospital provided “transgender medicine,” explained how “transgender medicine is highly lucrative,” and described her workplace as having a “demonic presence.”
On Tuesday, Rufo revealed the identity of the whistleblower, registered nurse Vanessa Sivadge.
In the new report, Sivadge accused Texas Children’s Hospital of engaging in Medicaid fraud.
“The largest children’s hospital in the country is illegally billing Medicaid for transgender procedures,” she said. “It is evident that the hospital continues to believe it is above the law not just by concealing the existence of their transgender medicine program from the public, but by stealing from the federal government.”
What is shocking is what happened to Sivadge after she initially spoke to Rufo.
Two months after their conversation, Sivadge called Rufo in a “panic,” he recounted. Sivadge told Rufo that two FBI agents unexpectedly showed up at her home wanting to talk about “some of the things that have been going on at work lately.”
Sivadge’s doorbell camera captured her partner opening the door to their home as two FBI agents flashed their badges and demanded to speak with Sivadge.
According to Sivadge, the FBI agents told her that she was a “person of interest” in the investigation into Dr. Haim.
“They promised they would make life difficult for me if I was trying to protect the leaker,” Sivadge told Rufo. “They said I was ‘not safe’ at work and claimed that someone at my workplace had given my name to the FBI.”
In the months since that visit, FBI agents have not re-appeared at her home. Still, Sivadge told Rufo that she is motivated to fight against the transgender agenda.
“My faith and my gut, just knowing right from wrong, compels me,” she said. “I was born for this. I have no doubt this is what I am supposed to do.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has confirmed that his office is investigating the newest whistleblower allegations.
ICYMI
Queen’s music catalog bought by Sony for $1-billion!
Sony Music has reportedly bought the music catalog of English rock band Queen, including hits like Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, and Another One Bites The Dust, for around $1.27 billion.
The news was first reported by Hits; according to the outlet, the only revenue outside the deal is for live performances, which founding members Brian May and Roger Taylor, who still actively tour with singer Adam Lambert, will retain.
Another interested player was said to be very close in the bidding, but stopped short at $900 million, with music rights seen as an attractive investment because songs continue to generate money for decades.
The $1 billion price tag means it is the biggest deal of its kind, surpassing the $500 million Sony paid to acquire Bruce Springsteen’s catalog in late 2021.
Earlier this year, Sony also acquired a 50 percent interest in Michael Jackson’s music from the late singer’s estate – at a cost of at least $600 million, the BBC notes.
Queen are more popular than either of those artists, with 52 million monthly listeners on Spotify – compared to 41 million for Jackson and 20 million for Springsteen.
According to its most recent financial statements as seen by the BBC, Queen Productions Ltd made $52 million in the year ending September 2022.
The proceeds are shared equally between guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, bass player John Deacon and the estate of late singer Freddie Mercury.
Variety reports the success of the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody shows the potential for the group’s name and likeness rights, and the likelihood of a jukebox musical that could open in London or on Broadway and then tour indefinitely.
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