Dec 16

Today’s News 16th December 2023

  • 10 Key Measures In The Mammoth Defense Policy Bill
    10 Key Measures In The Mammoth Defense Policy Bill

    Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times,

    The $886.3 billion defense budget is headed for President Joe Biden’s desk and Congress is headed home for the holidays, its business concluded—albeit not finished—for the year.

    The House on Dec. 14 approved the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (FY24 NDAA) in a 310–118 vote, ensuring its passage a day after the Senate adopted the massive appropriations measure in an 87–13 tally.

    The NDAA earmarks $841.5 billion for the Department of Defense (DOD)—nearly $32 billion, or 3 percent, more than the FY23 NDAA—$32.26 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration, and $12.1 billion in defense-related allocations for other federal agencies.

    Both chambers adopted their respective defense budgets in July. The NDAA is one of 12 appropriations bills that constitute the federal government’s yearly budget. Five have now been adopted for FY24, which began Oct. 1. Parts of the federal government are operating under continuing resolutions.

    A Senate–House conference committee reconciled differences in the chamber budgets for two months. On Dec. 6, it produced a 3,093-page draft NDAA, 718-page conference report, and a bucket of parliamentary worms that, ultimately, provided the only intrigue during the must-pass bill’s last unpassed days.

    The NDAA includes a 5.2-percent pay raise for service members, $145 billion for research into artificial intelligence and hypersonics, investments in Space Force and many, many things—$886.3 billion worth.

    Below are 10 takeaways from the slow-walked NDAA’s sudden Dec. 13–14 rocket-docket dash through the Senate and House, three months after the federal fiscal year began, and six months after both chambers passed seminal budgets.

    Crosshairs on China

    The NDAA includes hundreds of allocations to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) growing, aggressive military as the Pentagon’s top “pacing challenge.”

    The budget boosts Taiwan’s and Guam’s defense, requests an analysis of a how a 2030 war with China would unfold, tracks defense contractors’ investments in China and China’s investments in defense contractors, and mandates an adjusted Navy shipbuilding plan that emphasizes platforms geared to thwart China’s projected 500-ship navy.

    The NDAA establishes a $500 million Taiwan Foreign Military Financing fund and earmarks $108 million to authorize “a comprehensive training, advising, and institutional capacity-building program” for Taiwan’s military.

    The budget commits billions to Guam’s defense with deployment of a Marine regiment and Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow 3 missile defense systems.

    The NDAA boosts alliances with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK with $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a 40 percent increase.

    FISA Fight

    The NDAA’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702 extension was fiercely, but futilely, contested on both chamber’s floors.

    FISA Section 702 allows intelligence agencies to intercept foreign communications without warrants. It provides a “back door” to ferret through Americans’ conversations with foreign nationals, conservatives say.

    Section 702 expires Dec. 31. House Armed Forces Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said extending it to mid-April provides time to reform FISA while not handcuffing intelligence agencies.

    “By God, let’s reform it,”  Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said, “but do not let it expire. If it expires, Americans and allies will die.”

    Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) maintained the extension should be separately debated, is not related to defense, and would reauthorize it for 16 months, not four.

    “What we’re going to do is pile an extension of FISA on the backs of our men and women in uniform,” Mr. Roy said.

    Yoked to Woke

    When the House adopted its defense budget in July, it included amendments banning the DOD’s paid-leave abortion policy, gender-transition treatments and surgeries for service members and their families, and funding for on-base drag shows.

    None are in the NDAA reported out of conference committee Dec. 6, approved by the Senate Dec. 12, and endorsed by the House Dec. 13.

    Mr. Gaetz said the NDAA was a good bill in July but is now something else. “You almost feel like a parent who sent a child to summer camp and comes back a monster,” he said.

    Win some, lose some, Mr. Rogers said.

    The NDAA bans critical race theory, bases promotions on merit, requires a special inspector general for Ukraine, mandates “the DOD to finally pass an audit,” and provides “a path back for those discharged over COVID-19 vaccine.”

    DOD Inoculated Against Vaccine Reparations

    The NDAA incorporates most of a House-adopted amendment to reinstate 8,600 service members discharged for refusing the DOD-mandated COVID-19 vaccine.

    To qualify, discharged veterans must be within two years of separation and have requested an exemption.

    The NDAA also requires the DOD to conduct a study evaluating the health effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, establish a board to review the discharges, and track down to query those discharged about reenlisting within the next six months.

    The NDAA “provides a path back to service for those discharged over COVID-19 vaccine” without losing rank, Mr. Rogers said.

    But not all the way back, Mr. Gaetz lamented.

    “We were told over and over again there would be back-pay, reparations, and restoration-of-rank for people improperly told they could not express their patriotism through military service because they didn’t want to take an experimental vaccine,” he said, but those provisions are “totally absent” in the “watered-down NDAA.”

    Marines Get Their Amphib

    The NDAA requires the Navy and Air Force to build more ships and aircraft than initially requested, and delays or prohibits planned retirements of several ships and warplane types.

    The Navy’s $255.8 billion budget, a 4.5 percent increase, earmarks $32.9 billion to build eight warships: a Columbia-class ballistic submarine, two Virginia-class submarines—part of a multiyear procurement of 10 attack subs—two guided-missile destroyers, two guided-missile frigates, and an oiler.

    The NDAA includes a statute mandating the Navy maintain 11 aircraft carriers and  31 amphibious warfare ships with at least 10 being LHA/LHD “big deck” ships. The Navy wanted to retire a line of LHA/LHD ships and fall below that 31-amphib fleet requirement. The Marines opposed it.

    Congress not only sided with the Marines, but included $1.9 billion to fully fund construction of a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship that the Marine Corps lobbied for and the Navy didn’t request.

    $600 Million for Ukraine

    While Ukraine must wait until 2024 to secure $61 billion in aid the Biden administration is seeking in its stymied $106 billion supplemental request, Kyiv will receive at least two years of funding for the next two years under the defense bill.

    The NDAA appropriates $300 million in both FY24 and FY25—$600 million—to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) fund.

    Some House conservatives oppose funding Ukraine’s defense, claiming it is embroiling the United States into war with Russia and draining taxpayers already on the hook for the government’s $34 trillion debt.

    Mr. Rogers said Ukraine allocations will be audited by a special inspector general.

    Mr. Roy called it “pretty extraordinary” that the House in July voted to defund USAI “and, yet, we are authorizing it here. For the life of me, I do not understand why this is how Republicans think we should end the year, heading out for Christmas.”

    Partial UAP Disclosure Act

    The NDAA partially incorporates the proposed UAP Disclosure Act, which calls for an independent board to review and release records related to unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) collected by federal agencies and shared with commercial entities.

    The board would resemble the one that sifts through JFK assassination-related records under The Collection Act of 1992.

    “We should do the same with UAPs,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

    The NDAA amendment “for the first time [requires] the national archives to gather records from across the federal government on UAPs [with] a legal mandate to release those records to the public,” he said.

    The amendment falls short of the bill, Mr. Rounds said. To “obtain recovered UAP material or biological remains that may have been provided to private entities—and hidden from Congress and the American people—we’re lacking oversight opportunities,” he said.

    A Major Naval Treaty

    The NDAA ratifies the newly-signed U.S., Australia, and UK (AUKUS) agreement, a trilateral treaty the Pentagon says will foster “game-changing defense advantages in building, deploying, and jointly operating attack submarines.”

    Under the pact, Australia will purchase up to five Virginia-class attack submarines, a future generation of submarines will be built in the UK and Australia with U.S. tech support, and submarines for all three will be built and overhauled in Adelaide, Australia.

    The FY24 budget sells three Virginia-class subs—at least one new—to Australia in the 2030s before Australian-built submarines enter service in the 2040s.

    Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said AUKUS is what the FY24 NDAA “will be remembered for.” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) called it “crucial in deterring China and strengthening our allies.”

    Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) said such keel-to-combat integration has “never happened before,” praising the “very unique and unprecedented step being taken by the three countries.”

    NATO Notions and Motions

    Through 2023’s first six months, hours were spent in House committee hearings debating, at conservatives’ prodding, the value of United States’ NATO membership, essentially questioning why the 75-year-old alliance exists since without American muscle and American dollars, it wouldn’t exist.

    While the United States dedicates up to 4 percent of its annual GDP to defense, many NATO nations shirk that commitment, they said, noting Germany for decades contributed 1 percent GDP to defense.

    Mr. Roy’s July amendment “that the U.S. should not continue subsidizing NATO-member countries who choose not to invest in their own defense” narrowly failed, 2018–2012.

    Motions to leave NATO, including Rep. Warren Davidson’s (R-Ohio) failed amendment, didn’t get far in Congress, but the FY24 NDAA ensures such motions and notions stay in Congress.

    An amendment, co-filed by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), prohibits a president from withdrawing from NATO by executive order without congressional approval.

    Missile Defense Upgrades

    Since October, U.S. Navy destroyers have knocked down drones and ballistic missiles launched from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, and U.S. Army anti-missile batteries have repelled more than 100 drone and missile attacks on Marines and soldiers in Syria and Iraq.

    The Pentagon’s increasing demands, and Ukraine–Russia and Israel–Hamas wars, have fostered munitions shortfalls and exposed an urgent need for more missile systems, missiles, and missileers to counter proliferating threats “across all realms.”

    The FY24 NDAA earmarks more than $70 billion for theater-range, tactical missile defense, primarily the MIM-104 Patriot missile, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor, and Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system.

    It includes $30 billion for five new 90-man Patriot units; six THAAD units; and seven newly Aegis-equipped warships, bringing the number to 60.

    The Pentagon says the package will send a $50 billion “demand signal” to domestic industry and spur investment in munitions and production lines.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 23:40

  • Tropical-Storm-Like System Will Slam Eastern Seaboard 
    Tropical-Storm-Like System Will Slam Eastern Seaboard 

    Hurricane season ended two weeks ago, but meteorologists on X forecast a strong area of low pressure developing in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend that will roar up the Eastern Seaboard with high winds, flooding rain, and severe thunderstorms. 

    The storm’s path might parallel Interstate 95 this weekend, causing traffic disruptions to millions across major cities on the East Coast – at a time when AAA is calling for a busy Christmas travel season. Most of the disruptions are expected between  Sunday and Monday. 

    Meteorologists expect the storm conditions to arrive late Saturday in Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, and even the Mid-Alantic area into Sunday and Monday. 

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    During El Niño conditions, cyclone-like storms from the southern part of the country are not uncommon. 

    More on the El Niño-induced storms. 

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    Looking ahead… 

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    The Mid-Atlantic and Northeast just need a dose of cold air for the next big snowstorm. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 23:20

  • Pfizer mRNA Vaccine Makes 'Aberrant Proteins', Experts Concerned About Autoimmunity Events
    Pfizer mRNA Vaccine Makes ‘Aberrant Proteins’, Experts Concerned About Autoimmunity Events

    Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    There may be around a 1 in 10 chance that Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines will not generate spike proteins but something else, a new Cambridge study finds, raising concerns about autoimmune response among experts.

    Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine vials are seen in a file photo. (cortex-film/Shutterstock)

    The study authors found that 8 percent of the time, Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are mistranslated, leading to the formation of unintended proteins.

    “Our work presents both a concern and a solution for this new type of medicine,” said leading author Anne Willis in the study’s press release.

    One can think of mRNA vaccines as a set of instructions used to make spike proteins. Once the vaccine enters the cell, ribosomes interpret the mRNA instructions to make proteins, like spike proteins.

    If the instructions are misinterpreted, errors in the final protein may be produced. Some errors are minor, like misspelling one word in a text, while others are more detrimental.

    This misinterpretation is called a frameshift, which occurs when one or two mRNA bases are skipped. Since mRNA bases are translated in sets of threes, skipping a base would affect all the sequences downstream, leading to new proteins being formed.

    When ribosomes make mistakes in mRNA translation, aberrant proteins are formed. (ART-ur/Shutterstock)

    “Frameshifting results in the production multiple, unique and potentially aberrant proteins,” immunologist Jessica Rose wrote in her Substack article discussing the study.

    While most naturally occurring mRNA contains uridine, the Pfizer mRNA vaccines use N1-methylpseudouridine. This makes the mRNA sequence hardier and less prone to breakdown by the immune system. Pfizer’s opting for less commonly occurring mRNA bases is also why some scientists call the mRNA vaccines modified RNA, or modRNA.

    By implementing additional edits to the mRNA sequences, the authors were able to reduce further frameshifted proteins.

    Although “there is no evidence: that the aberrant proteins generated by Pfizer vaccination are associated with adverse outcomes, for future use of mRNA technology, it is important that “mRNA sequence design is modified” to reduce these shifts, the authors concluded.

    Among Tested Vaccines, Only Pfizer Has the Issue

    Apart from frameshift errors, the N1-methylpseudouridine modification can also slow down and interrupt mRNA translation to protein, potentially leading to shorter-than-expected protein sequences.

    “Under ideal circumstances, ribosomes translate the vaccine mRNA into the S [spike] protein … If the cellular machine (ribosomes) ‘detect’ the difference [between normal uridine and N1-methylpseudouridine], it can result in stalling or mistranslation,” Dr. Adonis Sfera, assistant clinical professor of medicine at Loma Linda University, wrote to The Epoch Times via email.

    In the study, the researchers first inoculated mice with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines. They found that Pfizer vaccines were significantly more likely to produce frameshifted proteins.

    Researchers then compared vaccine inoculations in humans, comparing 21 participants who took the Pfizer vaccine to 20 who took the AstraZeneca vaccine. None of the AstraZeneca vaccinees had an immune reaction to proteins made from mistakes in translation, but around one-third of the Pfizer vaccinees did.

    Misdirected Immunity and Autoimmunity

    The authors wrote that none of the Pfizer vaccinees developed adverse effects, but they were concerned about immunological consequences.

    “Mis-directed immunity has huge potential to be harmful,” immunologist Dr. James Thaventhiran, one of the study’s lead authors, said in the press release. “Off-target immune responses should always be avoided.”

    The authors did not further define misdirected immunity, though it generally describes a reaction where the body’s immune system targets the wrong thing.

    In this case, it can mean that rather than training the body to fight spike protein, it is trained to fight unnaturally occurring proteins instead, as highlighted by Norwegian nutritional biologist Marit Kolby in her post on X.

    Additionally, some health experts are concerned that these unique proteins may increase a person’s risk of developing autoimmune disorders.

    Molecular biologist professor Vladimir Uversky, PhD, from the University of South Florida and physician Dr. Alberto Rubio-Casillas concluded that autoimmunity may occur if immune cells start attacking cells producing these aberrant proteins.

    “A mistranslated protein can [also] resemble a human protein and trigger antibody formation,” Dr. Sfera added.

    Autoimmunity occurs when the immune system attacks self-tissues. It can occur for many years before symptoms manifest.

    Study findings by immunologist Aristo Vojdani suggest that spike proteins have the potential to cause cross-reactions—meaning the body accidentally targets self-tissue in a fight against other pathogens—with over 20 different human tissues, as they share structural similarities with human proteins.

    The production of these aberrant proteins and peptides may also increase a person’s risks of cancer, Mr. Uversky and Dr. Rubio-Casillas added in an email to The Epoch Times.

    Melanoma cells have been shown to induce frameshifted proteins to escape immune detection.

    “In our opinion, there is a possibility that during the translation of mRNA from COVID-19 vaccines, the aberrant proteins generated during frameshifting could activate survival mechanisms mimicking those developed by cancer cells to escape immune surveillance,” the two added.

    Unknown Proteins in the Body

    Researchers currently do not know the structure or sequence of the new proteins formed.

    The authors identified in the study that one of the proteins detected was a chimeric protein—one formed by joining two or more genes that originally coded for separate proteins. The chimeric protein was structurally similar to human proteins, which might induce autoimmune responses.

    “Of course, nobody knows for sure that the observations are linked to harms, but the fact they theoretically might be, and that regulators seem disinterested in investigating such a possibility, should be of huge concern to all,” Dr. Jonathan Engler, co-chair of the Health Advisory and Recovery Team (HART) told The Epoch Times. HART is a UK group of academic experts sharing concerns about COVID-19-related recommendations.

    “It should be emphasized that the … paper was submitted for publication nearly a year ago, and presumably, the work was carried out some months before then. Moreover, the investigators weren’t some third-rate-university, part-time academics,” he added.

    Flawed Design

    Dr. Engler said that the fact that the mRNA injections can be mistranslated is a design flaw. Other experts disagree.

    “People are determined to make a mountain out of this molehill,” Edward Nirenberg, a medical publisher, criticized the concerns in an X post about the study.

    “Frameshifts are uncommon but naturally occurring events in, for example, viral infections … These give rise to protein products that can also be targeted by the immune system.”

    However, authors of the study have highlighted in the press release that the synthetic mRNA sequence used in the vaccine was “error-prone.”

    Pfizer did not respond to requests for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 23:00

  • Mark Zuckerberg Building Top-Secret Hawaii Doomsday-Bunker With Blast-Resistant Door
    Mark Zuckerberg Building Top-Secret Hawaii Doomsday-Bunker With Blast-Resistant Door

    A Wired investigation reveals Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is building a massive underground bunker with a “blast-resistant door” to survive the end times. 

    For years, Zuckerberg has added hundreds of acres to his controversial 1,500-acre ranch in Kauai, Hawaii. Much of that has been known, but now new planning documents reveal a “5,000-square-foot underground shelter” equipped with “own energy and food supplies” is being constructed, according to the tech blog, citing public planning documents obtained through public records requests. 

    Detailed planning documents obtained by WIRED through a series of public record requests show the makings of an opulent techno-Xanadu, complete with underground shelter and what appears to be a blast-resistant door. -Wired

    On the surface, the estate, also called “Koolau Ranch,” will have two central mansions joined by a tunnel connected to the underground bunker. 

    Building documents also showed the compound would be self-sufficient, with its own power generation, food supplies, and a 55-foot-diameter and 18-foot-tall water tank. 

    Wired noted, “Building permits put the price tag for the main construction at around $100 million, in addition to $170 million in land purchases, but this is likely an underestimate.”  

    It was revealed by several former contract workers at the ranch that everyone working there was bound by an NDA.

    “It’s fight club. We don’t talk about fight club,” said one anonymous former contract employee. 

    Another former worker said the “very strict” enforcement of NDAs made anyone on-site unwilling to “take the chance to get caught even taking a picture.”

    Other billionaires, like PayPal and Palantir founder Peter Thiel, have built or been planning doomsday bunkers in remote places worldwide. 

    There are several reasons why billionaires feel worried about the future and are compelled to build doomsday bunkers, some of which include spillover risks of the Russia-Ukraine war, possible regional conflict in the Middle East, imploding Western cities into crime-ridden hellholes, the surge in illegal migrants across West, deteriorating financial conditions in the West, and the list goes on and on. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 22:40

  • Harris Unveils New Gun Control Initiative Urging States To Ban Assault Weapons, High-Capacity Magazines
    Harris Unveils New Gun Control Initiative Urging States To Ban Assault Weapons, High-Capacity Magazines

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Vice President Kamala Harris has announced a new gun control initiative, including a state-level ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which the White House says is aimed at helping curb violence involving guns.

    Vice President Kamala Harris attends a Rose Garden event at the White House in Washington on May 25, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    The White House published the new “Safer States Initiative,” which officials said will “provide states with additional tools and the support they need to reduce gun violence and save lives,” in a Dec. 13 press release.

    As part of the initiative, the White House is calling for states to take a number of “key actions,” including establishing their own state offices for preventing violence involving guns, strengthening support for survivors and victims of violence involving guns, and investing in “evidence-informed solutions” to prevent and respond to such violence.

    That includes rolling out community violence interventions, establishing Crime Gun Intelligence Centers, and implementing extreme risk protection orders, among others.

    President Joe Biden established the first ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which is overseen by Ms. Harris, in September 2023.

    Under the new initiative, the administration is also asking states to reinforce responsible gun ownership, including by requiring safe storage of firearms and that lost and stolen firearms be reported, according to a White House fact sheet.

    The Department of Justice’s newly published model legislation detailing how states can require the safe storage of firearms, including in vehicles, will help aid states in crafting requirements for safe gun storage, the White House said.

    Assault Weapons Ban

    It will also help provide states with a framework for requiring that a person promptly report the loss or theft to law enforcement.

    Additionally, President Biden’s administration is asking states to strengthen gun background checks, including by enacting universal background checks legislation and “removing barriers” to completing enhanced background checks.

    Finally, the president and vice president want states to “hold the gun industry accountable,” including by “banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines” and enacting “firearm-specific liability laws to ensure that victims of gun violence have their day in court.”

    Several studies, including a recent review of five studies by the American nonprofit global policy think tank Rand Corporation, found “inconclusive evidence” that the Federal Assault Weapons Ban passed by Congress in 1994 had an effect on total homicides and firearm homicides.

    Ms. Harris unveiled the new initiative at a convening of state legislators on Wednesday, where she began a speech by paying tribute to Josh Seal, who was among the 18 people killed in the Lewiston, Maine, mass shooting in October.

    The shooter, Robert Card, was treated for mental health problems prior to the shooting, according to police.

    President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden walk with Maine Gov. Janet Mills in Lewiston, Maine, on Nov. 3, 2023 following a mass shooting on Oct. 25. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

    Initiative Underscores ‘Success in Resisting Federal Gun Control’

    Ms. Harris said Mr. Seal, an American Sign Language interpreter, “signed for me all over the world,” adding that his family, including his wife and children, are “very committed to public service.”

    “So, it’s important we speak those names,” she said. The vice president went on to call violence involving guns a “crisis.”

    “I know that many of you have held the hands and have hugged and tried to comfort community members and your constituents and people you know who have suffered because of gun violence,” she said. “And I therefore know that when we have this conversation and address this crisis that, for everyone here, it is personal.”

    “So, I first and foremost, say again: Thank you for not only being here but for choosing to serve—and choosing, on this subject, to have an extraordinary amount of courage to speak openly and with strength about the need for reasonable gun safety laws. And that is what we are doing. We are fighting just for what is reasonable and, of course, what is right,” she said.

    President Biden has taken a number of actions during his time in office focused on violence involving guns, including signing into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act last year.

    However, more expansive legislation has faced resistance from Second Amendment rights advocates and Republican lawmakers.

    Following Wednesday’s announcement, Aidan Johnston, the director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, told The Washington Post the group would fight any legislation imposing stricter rules infringing on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

    “This announcement underscores our success in resisting federal gun control,” he said, adding that the “shift to state-level actions indicates a reluctance to push new anti-gun measures through Congress.”

    During her speech unveiling the new initiative Wednesday, Ms. Harris insisted that while she is “absolutely in favor of the Second Amendment” she is “also in favor of an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, red flag laws.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 22:20

  • GM's Cruise To Slash 24% Of Its Workforce As Part Of Restructuring
    GM’s Cruise To Slash 24% Of Its Workforce As Part Of Restructuring

    After GM announced it was cutting back its investment in its Cruise subsidiary following a pedestrian accident earlier this year, the division now says it is cutting 24% of its workforce as part of its restructuring. 

    The autonomous driving unit says it will lay off 900 of its 3,800 employees, most of whom are in the commercial operations and related corporate functions, according to Reuters. 

    “This reflects our new future and a more deliberate go-to-market path, meaning less immediate need for field, commercial operations and corporate staffing,” Cruise said in a statement this week. 

    “GM supports the difficult employment decisions made by Cruise as it reflects their more deliberate path forward, with safety as the north star,” GM said of the division during an earnings call last month. 

    Recall we reported the slashing of investment in the unit about two weeks ago. The division, which had previously operated under the motto “zero crashes, zero emissions, zero congestion,” announced in late November it would be cutting its budget, according to FT.

    FT reported at the time that the division won’t drop its slogan entirely, but will spend less on the segment. GM had previously invested about $700 million per quarter and Cruise operated in several U.S. cities, with San Francisco being the most prominent. 

    Barclays auto analyst Dan Levy, speculating as to whether or not financial conditions could further mire the project, told FT at the time: “The big question is to what extent ‘Zero Zero Zero’ also hinged on zero rates.”

    “This has been a big theme this year in auto; everyone has had to step back from the euphoria,” he added. 

    One GM investor said in late November: “The problem for Cruise as a business is GM is dependent on it for all the software [revenue] targets the company has set. We don’t see a path to profit, but we do see they will burn a lot of cash trying. GM would be better placed winding back its bet, and returning the money to shareholders.”

    Recall, we just in early November that about 11 days after Cruise halted all autonomous vehicle deployment across the US following several collisions and a suspension of its permit to operate robot taxis in California, Forbes revealed that Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt held an all-hands meeting to halt production of its fully autonomous vans temporarily. 

    The fallout continued as Vogt, according to audio obtained by Forbes, told employees that suspending driverless operations nationwide was the primary reason why it must pause “production of the Origin” van. 

    Vogt said Cruise has produced hundreds of Origin vehicles and “more than enough for the near-term when we are ready to ramp things back up.” 

    “During this pause, we’re going to use our time wisely,” he explained.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 22:00

  • Brazil To Mandate COVID-19 Shots For Kids As Young As 6 Months
    Brazil To Mandate COVID-19 Shots For Kids As Young As 6 Months

    Authored by Augusto Zimmermann via The Epoch Times,

    The Brazilian government via its Health Ministry has added the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to the country’s National Immunization Program (PNI) for children six months to five years old. 

    As reported by Agência Brasil, the new policy will take effect in 2024 and will require at least three doses of the vaccine.

    Approved on Nov. 29 by the Senate’s Committee on Social Affairs, law proposal No. 826 is currently being analysed by the Educational Commission.

    With the obligation, not vaccinating children will result in fines and loss of social benefits to their families.

    In addition to mandatory vaccination for young children, the Brazilian government may also introduce a compulsory vaccination program in schools. This will be the result of another bill under present consideration by the Brazilian Senate, establishing vaccine centres in the country’s schools.

    According to the newspaper Estadão, this law proposal states that students who do not participate in the school vaccination program would be reported to Brazilian authorities. 

    “Five days after vaccination in the school unit, education professionals must send to the health unit a list with all students who did not receive the vaccination” along with the address and information of their parents or guardians.

    As reported by CNN Brasil, the mandatory vaccination program also will be prioritised for other groups, including the elderly, immunocompromised, the permanently disabled, pregnant and postpartum women, health workers, those with comorbidities, Indigenous peoples, residents of long-term care facilities, the homeless, the incarcerated, and prison staff.

    The Brazilian government claims the new policy is aligned with WHO recommendations. 

    However, as openly acknowledged by Ethel Maciel, secretary of health surveillance of Brazil’s Health Ministry, “In Brazil, we have slightly expanded the group compared to WHO’s recommendations, which are more limited.”

    “We already have very robust evidence that indicates the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” Mr. Maciel also said.

    However, this claim is not accurate. 

    For example, a comprehensive study conducted by King’s College London scientists has concluded that the overall risk of children becoming severely ill or dying of COVID-19 is “extremely low.”

    The conclusions reached by the King’s College scientists encourages governments to be cautious when it comes to making health decisions—especially for vulnerable very young children—which, in the long run, may have adverse consequences for their health and future. 

    For this reason, the United Kingdom government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has refused to endorse compulsory vaccination for children under the age of 18, stating that the benefit to them of receiving this vaccine is “virtually zero,” whereas the already-known risk of serious harms are “not negligible.”

    Therefore, “JCVI is of the view that the health benefits of universal vaccination in children and young people below the age of 18 years do not outweigh the potential risks.”

    Just one known serious potential risk, or adverse effect of these novel vaccines, is that of myocarditis—inflammation of the heart. 

    Speaking on these very vaccines, a member of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisations (ATAGI), acknowledges that “the more doses you get, the less benefit you derive from them, and then we start to worry about causing side effects.”

    A considerable number of blind-reviewed academic papers directly link these vaccines with a higher risk of myocarditis, and even Pfizer scientists now acknowledge that there have been increased cases of myocarditis after vaccination.

    (Marco Lazzarini/Shutterstock)

    Charging Ahead

    Despite all these serious concerns, Brazilian Health Minister Nísia Trindade has defended the new policy of mandatory vaccination on children as a matter of “children’s rights.”

    In reality, the very opposite is true and the decision to seek to vaccinate pregnant women and small children as young as six months is wrong and not supported by scientific evidence. 

    Given the already known potential harms of these vaccines, of which myocarditis is just one, and their entirely unknown long-term adverse effects, the decision of the Brazilian government to seek to vaccinate small children is not supported by scientific evidence. 

    According to an article in the British Medical Journal, “From a public health standpoint, it makes poor sense to impose vaccine side-effects on people at minimal risk of severe COVID-19. The argument that it protects others is weak or contrary to evidence.”

    To conclude, this decision is entirely political, not a medical one. Nor is it moral or ethical to impose mandatory vaccination, because there are serious risks attached to mandating such vaccines, particularly on children and pregnant women. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 21:40

  • Earth Blasted With X-Class Flare, Sparking "Largest Solar Radio Event Ever Recorded" 
    Earth Blasted With X-Class Flare, Sparking “Largest Solar Radio Event Ever Recorded” 

    The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center reported a massive solar flare from the northwest part of the Sun on Thursday evening that caused “one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded” across the Western Hemisphere. 

    “An X2.8 flare (R3) occurred from Region 3514; located over the far NW area of the Sun. This is likely one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded,” SWPC wrote in a post on social media platform X.  

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    SWPC continued, “These impacts were felt from one end of the Nation to the other. Additionally, SWPC is analyzing a possible Earth-directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) associated with this flare.”

    This monster solar flare was classified as an X2.8. 

    On a scale of strengths that range from B class (weakest) to C, M, and X (strongest), the powerful bursts of energy can disrupt radio communications, electric power grids, and navigation signals and pose a risk to spacecraft. 

    Powerful X-class solar flares can cause damage, particularly to satellites, communications systems, and power grids on Earth.

    The frequency of solar flares increases as the Sun moves towards the maximum phase of Solar Cycle 25. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 21:20

  • "We're Just Uber Drivers", Border Patrol Agent Says America Is Being Destroyed
    “We’re Just Uber Drivers”, Border Patrol Agent Says America Is Being Destroyed

    Authored by Brad Jones, John Fredricks via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Two older SUVs appear to come out of nowhere, slowly at first, then kicking up clouds of dust as they pick up speed along the southern side of the U.S.–Mexico border. Two white vans tail them to a gap in the border wall.

    With covered faces, smugglers suspected of working for drug cartels exit the vehicles, which bear a mix of Californian and Mexican license plates. The coyotes, as they are known, glare through the slats in the 30-foot-tall border wall, while keeping an eye on their human cargo.

    Within seconds, the doors on each vehicle are flung open and around 25 eager illegal immigrants jump out of each SUV and 50 from each van.

    “Move it! Move it! Move it!” barks one of the coyotes as he turns his back to the wall and waves his arms toward a narrow footpath strewn with shreds of clothing and stray strands of razor wire where the wall ends at the base of a steep hill.

    The illegal immigrants, a few with children, pick up their pace, dashing a few yards up an incline, around the wall, and into the United States.

    The coyotes disappear into the desert as fast and efficiently as they arrive.

    The chatter—mostly Spanish and some Mandarin—tapers off as U.S. Border Patrol agents, waiting on site, approach the illegal aliens along the wall to distribute plastic bracelets to them. The 150 new arrivals, mostly solemn but relieved to be out of the clutches of the cartels, march along the wall toward tents and makeshift shelters.

    A Border Patrol Mobile Response Unit team stands watch over the camp near Jacumba on the southeastern fringe of San Diego County. One of three illegal immigrant encampments within about a 20-mile span along the border, Willow camp is flanked on the west by 177 camp, south of Boulevard, California, and Moon camp in Imperial County on the east.

    Suspected Mexican cartel members drive SUV’s containing dozens of illegal immigrants to an open gap in the U.S. border wall near Jacomba, Calif., on Dec 6, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Illegal Immigrant Surge

    A small sampling of illegal immigrants at the camps say they came from China, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Mauritania, Colombia, and Brazil.

    Sam Schultz, whose family volunteers for a group called Border Kindness and are affiliated with the legal services organization Al Otro Lado, which means “to the other side” in Spanish, delivers food and water to the camps daily.

    He told The Epoch Times on Dec. 5 he was worried about running out of supplies with so many illegal immigrants crossing that day.

    Mr. Schultz said about 30 percent of the illegal immigrants in the latest wave to the Jacumba camps are from China.

    Manny Bayon, a National Border Patrol Council union spokesman in San Diego, told The Epoch Times the number of illegal immigrants released into San Diego County has doubled in the last two weeks—from 400 to 500 per day to 800 to 1,000.

    Dec. 5 and 6 marked two of the highest days on record for illegal immigrants apprehended at the border in a single day, although exact figures were not available, he said. About 1,000 illegal immigrants occupied the three camps on those days alone.

    On Dec. 6, Senate Republicans blocked aid funding to Ukraine and Israel while asking the Biden administration to do something to halt the flow of illegal aliens across the southern border.

    With detention facilities over capacity and asylum cases backlogged in the immigration courts for the next decade, Congress should force the Biden administration to secure the border, Mr. Bayon said.

    “The Biden administration is not doing anything. They haven’t done anything in the last three years,” he said.

    The union fully supports the move to block the budget until the border crisis is solved, Mr. Bayon said.

    “They should even withhold funding to sanctuary cities.”

    Chicago and New York—both sanctuary cities, which shield illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities—are now realizing the surge in illegal immigration over nearly three years is a “bigger mess,” than anyone imagined, he said.

    Morale Hits ‘Rock Bottom’

    Another Border Patrol agent in Arizona, who spoke to The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said most agents don’t believe they have the support of the Biden administration nor Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

    Border Patrol agents feel “100 percent betrayed by Mayorkas and the Biden administration,” he said.

    Every patrol station is so over capacity, much of the manpower is going to process and transport illegal immigrants, which leaves fewer agents left in the field, he said.

    Illegal immigrants wait outside the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, New York City, on July 31, 2023. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

    Morale among agents, he said, has hit an all-time low.

    “It’s rock bottom, by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” the Border Patrol agent said. “A lot of them are leaving. They’re leaving the patrol. They don’t even have a backup plan—no job. They’re just so sick and tired of having their hands tied. Guys are having a hard time even putting on their uniforms. Right now, we’re just Uber drivers. We’re just watching it all happen. We’re watching the destruction of our country.”

    Although crossing the border by land anywhere but U.S. ports of entry is illegal, and illegal immigrants could be arrested and deported under current law, the Border Patrol has been told to stand down, the source said.

    “We’ve been told we can’t stop anybody,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the “actual bad guys,” who use illegal immigrants as their drug “mules” to smuggle fentanyl and cocaine, are evading capture.

    “There’s no pulse check on that, because everybody is either … driving, processing, or providing medical attention,” the Border Patrol agent said.

    “Agents signed up to defend the border and protect our country, and we’re just not being allowed to do it.”

    Drug and sex trafficking have become worse in America, leaving agents voiceless and struggling with their consciences, because they know they’re not doing enough to push back against the Mexican cartels, he said.

    “This is an absolute cash grab for them. The Biden administration is really helping facilitate it and embolden the cartels, and we have to just stand by, and you’re not allowed to speak about it,” he said. “We took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. We need more people to stand up, and the American people have a right to know what’s going on.”

    Manny Bayon, a Border Patrol agent listens to radio chatter near the border wall of San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    From the moment President Joe Biden was sworn into office nearly three years ago, the message has essentially been that border is open, and now is the time for migrants to rush the southern border, he said.

    On day one, the Biden administration signed executive orders and issued memos to temporarily suspend deportations of illegal aliens, reversed former President Donald Trump’s ban on travel from terror-prone countries, halted border wall construction, stopped adding people to the “Remain in Mexico” program, fortified the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and released a sweeping immigration package to Congress that included amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.

    “We’ve never had these kinds of numbers before. You literally have people coming in from all over the world, and in such massive numbers that it’s hard to stop,” the Border Patrol agent said.

    National Security Threat

    Alarmed by the number of military-age men coming into the country from all over the world, amid conflicts between Israel and Hamas, as well as Ukraine and Russia, the United States needs to tighten border security and step up its vetting process, said the border agent.

    With Border Patrol arresting 172 illegal immigrants on the terrorist watchlist in fiscal year 2023, he is also worried about fighting-age men from Middle East countries entering the United States without rigorous vetting.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 21:00

  • Boycott Harvard: Early Applications Plunge 17% As Hate Fills The Leftist Campus
    Boycott Harvard: Early Applications Plunge 17% As Hate Fills The Leftist Campus

    Harvard College is led by controversial president Claudine Gay, who has single-handedly done more damage to the school’s reputation than anyone else in its nearly 500 years of existence. 

    Gay’s failure to tackle antisemitism on campus has been a major wake-up call for parents nationwide who aspire to send their children to the elite school. Parents quickly realize the school no longer prioritizes excellence through education but instead pushes toxic woke narratives and political indoctrination that is harmful to Western society. 

    New data from Bloomberg shows that a huge blowback is just beginning: The college received 17% fewer applications for early admission from high school seniors this year. Applications this year for non-binding early admissions were 7,921 versus 9,553 last year. 

    Applications were due Nov. 1, a little more than a month before Gay refused to answer US lawmakers on Capitol Hill if “calling for the genocide of Jews” is bullying and harassment in terms of the school’s code of conduct. 

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    However, from the Oct. 7 attack on Isreal by Hamas through the application deadline date of Nov. 1, parents around the nation were shocked by videos and news headlines of chaotic pro-Palestinian protesters on the college campus. 

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    Hmm.

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    Peak Harvard: Let the boycotts begin:

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    Meanwhile, billionaire investor Bill Ackman has had his crosshairs on Gay, demanding that she “resign in disgrace.” On Sunday, he wrote an open letter to Harvard’s governing boards of directors about Gay’s removal. 

    Shortly after Ackman’s letter, 500 faculty members signed a letter to Harvard, urging them not to fire Gay. 

    Peak Harvard has likely arrived as Republican lawmakers swarm the leftist college and propose new legislation to strip it of billions of dollars in federal payments and tax breaks over its failure to tackle hate on campus. 

    Perfect timing from Elon Musk: He donated $100 million to launch a primary and secondary school, and ultimately a university, in Austin, Texas, this week. 

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    We’re sure the ‘school of Musk’ will focus on proper education to further humanity rather than the hate that is being taught in imploding liberal schools nationwide. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 20:40

  • Russia's Urals Oil Exports Disrupted By Storm And Maintenance
    Russia’s Urals Oil Exports Disrupted By Storm And Maintenance

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    A storm and planned maintenance have forced Russia to suspend on Friday around two-thirds of the shipments of its flagship crude grade Urals from its Baltic and Black Sea ports, Reuters reported, citing traders and vessel tracking data.  

    The port of Primorsk on the Baltic Sea will see no shipments of Urals crude in the period December 13 to December 18, according to LSEG data and traders who spoke to Reuters.  

    In addition, Urals shipments from Novorossiysk, Russia’s primary port of loading Urals in the Black Sea, were also suspended on Friday because of a storm. 

    As of Friday, only one port in Russia, Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, was loading and shipping the Urals blend.

    Loadings from Ust-Luga, which loads both Russia’s Urals and Kazakhstan’s KEBCO blend, are scheduled at an average of around 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) for December, per estimates reported by Reuters.  

    Overall, all ports in Russia’s western regions, that is, the ports on the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, are planned to load around 1.9 million bpd this month, down by 6% compared to November. 

    Russia’s crude oil shipments jumped in the four weeks to December 10, after storms in the Black Sea that had disrupted loadings in November subsided, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed earlier this week.

    Russia’s crude oil shipments from all its ports averaged 3.2 million bpd in the four weeks to December 10, up by around 114,000 bpd compared to the four-week average to December 3, according to the data reported by Bloomberg’s Julian Lee.

    Meanwhile, Russia’s oil revenues dropped in November to the lowest level since July as crude export prices dropped and volumes declined, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday. 

    Russia’s export revenues for crude and oil products fell by 17% month-on-month in November to $15.2 billion—the lowest export revenues for Moscow since July this year, the agency said in its Oil Market Report for December.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 20:20

  • Rewarding Obesity, Southwest Giving Free Second Seats To 'Customers of Size'
    Rewarding Obesity, Southwest Giving Free Second Seats To ‘Customers of Size’

    Southwest Airlines is receiving a mix of praise and scorn over a policy giving obese passengers free seats to hold their overabundant girth. Basic economics suggests that it will result in healthy passengers subsidizing the humungous. Worse, some thin passengers will get booted from flights to make room. 

    Southwest didn’t announce its “Customer of Size” policy with fanfare. Rather, it came to wide public attention after fat TikTokkers started educating each other on how to take advantage of it. 

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    The standard for getting a free extra seat strikes us as a little vague. According to the airlines posted FAQ: 

    “The armrest is the definitive gauge for a Customer of size. It serves as the boundary between seats. If you’re unable to lower both armrests and/or encroach upon any portion of a seat next to you, you need a second seat.”

    As word spreads and more and more heavy people belly up to take advantage of the policy, maybe we’ll see test seats at Southwest gates akin to luggage size-testing boxes. 

    Jae’lynn Cheney enjoying Southwest’s free second seat policy for “customers of size,” which could cost better-proportioned passengers in more ways than one (Jae’lynn Cheney via New York Post)

    While it’s not mandatory, the airline encourages jumbo flyers to buy a second seat in advance and then ask for a refund:

    “The purchase of additional seats serves as a notification of a special seating need and allows us to adequately plan for the number of occupied seats on board. It also helps us ensure we can accommodate all customers on the flight for which they purchased a ticket and avoid asking customers to relinquish their seats for unplanned accommodation.” 

    That last part is particularly worrisome, as it anticipates times when the “customer of size” policy compels Southwest to bump a normally-proportioned passenger to clear a second seat for a huge one.

    According to the New York Post, that hard-to-swallow scenario is exactly what was imposed on a mother and her two teen sons, who were told that their flight home after a vacation was overbooked.

    “Please help me understand why do I have to spend the night without any accommodations in Baltimore because an oversized person didn’t purchase a second ticket,” she wrote in a TikTok video account of her treatment. The video captures a Southwest employee telling her, “Even if there are not enough seats, we have to accommodate that customer of size.”

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    The free seat policy is apparently unique among domestic carriers. “Southwest is the only airline that allows you a second seat at no extra cost even if the flight is fully booked,” wrote self-identified “fat solo traveler” Kimmy in an October video that brought the woke policy to widespread attention. In the video, she boasts of eating up a free second seat more than a dozen times already.

    Just the latest example of declining American society encouraging self-destructive behavior and then distributing the costs to everyone. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 20:00

  • Drug Companies To Face Inflation Penalties For 'Jacked Up' Prices, Says Biden
    Drug Companies To Face Inflation Penalties For ‘Jacked Up’ Prices, Says Biden

    Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The White House announced on Thursday that 48 drugs will be subject to penalties after drugmakers raised prices faster than the rate of inflation.

    U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about lowering prescription drug costs at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., on Dec. 14, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

    Under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), drug companies that price gouge may be required to pay rebates to Medicare, particularly focusing on those affecting over 750,000 seniors who rely on Medicare Part B drugs.

    The rebates, effective in January, are expected to result in savings for seniors ranging from $1 to $2,786 per dose.

    “President Biden’s prescription drug law cracks down on price gouging from Big Pharma, requiring companies to pay back Medicare if they raise prices on seniors at a higher rate than inflation,” the White House said in a statement.

    The 48 drugs identified by the administration fall under Medicare Part B, which covers drugs and vaccines administered in doctors’ offices or hospital outpatient departments.

    This marks the first time that pharmaceutical companies will be required to pay penalties for outpatient drug treatments.

    The legislation’s provision empowers Medicare to directly negotiate lower drug prices, caps insulin costs for beneficiaries at $35, makes recommended adult vaccines free, and requires pharmaceutical companies to pay rebates if they increase drug prices faster than inflation, the White House highlighted.

    President Biden said big pharmaceutical companies “jacked up” prices nearly four times faster than the rise of inflation in the year before his IRA passed.

    “They’re ripping off Medicare. They’re ripping off the American people,” President Biden said in remarks at the National Institutes of Health. “We’re going to save taxpayers money and discourage companies from raising prices in the first place.”

    President Biden expressed his concern over drug companies benefiting from taxpayer-funded research while charging U.S. taxpayers more than citizens in other parts of the world.

    Drug companies will be put on notice if their medicines, developed with taxpayer funds, “are not made available to the public on reasonable terms, including based on price.”

    “It’s a good thing that leads to breakthroughs that save lives,” President Biden said. “But drug companies benefit considerably from that research. They could not make their own drugs without the research done here.”

    The White House said that the prices of 64 drugs increased faster than inflation over the last four quarters.

    Certain medications, such as Signifor, used to treat endocrine disorders, have seen continuous price hikes, and seniors taking Signifor could see savings of $311 per monthly dose starting in January, the White House highlighted.

    Going forward, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) will standardize fair pricing in contract negotiations for medical products developed or purchased, the White House announced.

    Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the rebates are an important tool to “discourage excessive price increases” and protect Medicare beneficiaries.

    The IRA, in addition to prescription drug rebates, also mandates Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the priciest Part D medications.

    Democrats said that legislation aimed to reduce inflation, while critics argued it would make it worse.

    The IRA also aimed to renegotiate Medicare drug prices and encourage “clean energy” consumer choices with tax credits. However, pharmaceutical companies have filed lawsuits to impede the implementation of the new negotiation standards.

    It also aims to save $25 billion annually by 2031, compelling drugmakers to negotiate prices for selected expensive drugs with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees Medicare.

    The IRA additionally sought to increase taxes on the wealthy.

    An August poll revealed that 70 percent of Americans are not well-informed about the IRA, one year after the president signed it. The University of Maryland, in collaboration with The Washington Post, conducted the survey as part of gauging public awareness of the Biden administration’s climate initiatives.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 19:40

  • Death To Pedos: DeSantis Supports Execution For 'Sexual Battery' Against Children Under 12
    Death To Pedos: DeSantis Supports Execution For ‘Sexual Battery’ Against Children Under 12

    While California lawmakers are trying to protect pedophiles, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday threw support behind his state’s decision to seek the death penalty for a man indicted for the sexual battery of a child.

    “Today, @flsao5 announced that they will seek the death penalty in a case of sexual battery against a child under age 12,” DeSantis wronte on X, noting that it’s the first case to challenge Supreme Court decisions regarding rape since he signed legislation that would “make pedophiles eligible for the death penalty.”

    The Supreme Court has held that rape does not merit the death penalty unless the victim is killed.

    The post was made to X just hours after State Attorney William Gladsome filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in the case of Joseph Andrew Giampa, who has been indicted on six counts of sexual battery on a person under the age of 12, and three counts of promoting a sexual performance by a child.

    Given the severity of the crime and its impact on the community, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office has filed a notice that it intends to seek the death penalty pursuant to Florida Statutes 794.011(2)(a) and 921.1425.

    The decision to pursue the highest penalty reflects the gravity of the charges and the State Attorney’s Office’s dedication to holding criminals accountable for their actions. The State Attorney’s Office acknowledges the sensitivity of this matter and the impact it has on the community. Our commitment to ensuring justice and protecting the vulnerable remains unwavering.

    The 36-year-old Giampa was arrested in November. According to the affidavit, Giampa led authorities to a camper and showed them video on a laptop of a man sexually abusing a child while recording the act. The man can be seen and heard giving the victim instructions, The Messenger reports, adding that at one point, the man reportedly exposed himself and sat in a chair facing the juvenille victim, who then performed oral sex on him before he performed an act on her.

    According to The Leesburg News, the suspect “told her that he knew she probably did not like [the sex acts] although he liked it more when she did not.”

    The man then puts the camera down and moves in front of it, revealing that it was Giampa.

    “If an individual rapes an 11-year-old, a 10-year-old, a 2-year-old or a 5-year-old, they should be subject to the death penalty,” said state Sen. Jonathan Martin (R-Fort Myers), who sponsored the bill.

    As The Messenger further notes, the case is highly unique, as it’s likely the first time in modern history that prosecutors will seek the death penalty for such an act that did not involve murder.

    It’ is’s also likely to set off constitutional challenges as current Supreme Court precedent does not allow capital punishment for rape.

    The court ruled in 1977 that applying the penalty in cases of rape violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The court once again ruled in 2008 that the punishment was unconstitutional in cases of child rape that don’t result in the death of the victim.

    Despite this, lawmakers in Florida passed a bill making sexual battery of a child eligible for the death penalty.

    The Florida bill stated that prior high court rulings on the matter were “wrongly decided, and that such cases are an egregious infringement of the states’ power to punish the most heinous of crimes.” -The Messenger

    The bill went into effect Oct. 1.

    Trump and DeSantis on the same page

    In July, former President Trump released a campaign proposal that would hit human traffickers with the death penalty.

    “When I am back in the White House, I will immediately end the Biden border nightmare that traffickers are using to exploit vulnerable women and children,” said Trump in a video released by his campaign. “I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately.”

    Works for us!

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 19:20

  • Venezuela And Guyana Pledge Not To Use Force In Territorial Dispute
    Venezuela And Guyana Pledge Not To Use Force In Territorial Dispute

    By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

    Venezuela and Guyana agreed to avoid the use of force as they tried to settle a century-old territorial dispute that recently saw Venezuela threaten Guyana with annexing two-thirds of its territory.

    The presidents of Venezuela and Guyana met for talks at a Caribbean island and declared they “will not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances,” France 24 reported.

    The two failed, however, to reach an agreement on jurisdiction over the dispute. Guyana upholds the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, which ruled in its favor regarding the ownership of the disputed Essequibo area. Venezuela has refused to accept the ruling and does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICJ over the issue.

    The dispute between the two neighbors dates back to the late 19th century when an arbitration court gave control of the territory to Guyana. The dispute flared up as the U.S. lifted oil sanctions on Caracas temporarily in a bid to increase the supply of heavy crude for Gulf Coast refineries.

    Venezuela held a referendum in early December regarding its claim of sovereignty over Essequibo and the majority voted in favor. This sparked worry about a possible invasion and indeed Venezuelan troops were amassed by the border with Guyana. Urgent diplomatic efforts followed, leading to the Thursday talks between the heads of state.

    Meanwhile, however, Venezuela is looking to revive an offshore natural gas field close to the maritime border with Guyana amid an escalating territorial dispute after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro held a referendum to claim two-thirds of Guyana’s territory. Observers have also argued that it is the oil and gas riches of the Essequibo region that the Maduro government is zeroing in on.

    Maduro and Guyana’s Irfaan Ali agreed to meet again in three months, this time in Brazil, to renew their talks on the disputed region.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 19:00

  • Kremlin Shrugs After Putin Critic Alexey Navalny 'Disappeared' In Prison System
    Kremlin Shrugs After Putin Critic Alexey Navalny ‘Disappeared’ In Prison System

    Jailed Putin critic and anti-Kremlin activist Alexei Navalny has been reportedly ‘disappeared’ within Russia’s prison system, as his lawyers say they haven’t known his whereabouts since Dec. 6 – and he’s believed to have been transferred from his prison in central Russia to another unknown location. 

    “We don’t know where he could have been transferred,” Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh was cited in regional media as saying. “We currently have no information.”

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    “Prisoner transfers are dangerous primarily because, during this time, a person is deprived of all protection and assistance,” she had explained shortly after his legal team lost all contact.

    As of Friday, the Kremlin still says it has “no information” on his whereabouts when pressed by his lawyers. The head of his legal team, Vyacheslav Gimadi, said: “We don’t know [where he is] for the 10th day.”

    Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov shrugged it off as but a normal part of the Russian administrative system surrounding prisoners and penal colonies. When peppered by questions from reporters, Peskov responded, “No. I repeat again: we do not have the capacity, or right, or desire, to track the fates of those prisoners who are serving sentences by order of a court.”

    Al Jazeera details of the latest that “Prison officials told a court on Friday that Navalny had left the IK-6 facility in the town of Melekhovo in the Vladimir region, about 230km (140 miles) east of Moscow, according to Vyacheslav Gimadi, the head of the legal department at Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation.” And further:

    His allies had been preparing for his expected transfer to a “special regime” high-security facility, the harshest grade in Russia’s prison system, before he was moved.

    For various countries’ prison systems, including Russia’s, it’s normal that when an inmate is transferred there’s some degree of a lapse in time before family members or lawyers are then later informed where they were moved to.

    However, Navalny’s legal team and supporters have long waged a somewhat successful PR campaign to keep his name in the news. For example, Navalny ally Maria Pevchikh is pressuring the United Nations Human Rights Committee to help find his exact whereabouts. “What is happening with Alexey is, in fact, an enforced disappearance and a flagrant violation of his fundamental rights. Answers must be given,” she said.

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    His supporters also claim Navalny has the potential to disrupt Putin’s 2024 reelection plans, however, it remains that the opposition activist barely has name recognition inside Russia. In August, he was handed an additional 19 years in prison for charges of “extremism” on top of the 11 and a half he was already serving.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 18:40

  • How The Supreme Court Could Reshape Free Speech Online
    How The Supreme Court Could Reshape Free Speech Online

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A looming battle at the Supreme Court may determine how social media companies moderate content. The nation’s highest court will hear challenges to laws in Florida and Texas that regulate social media content moderation.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Unsplash)

    Observers and activists on the left and right are watching the cases.

    At stake is the right of individual Americans to freely express themselves online and the right of social media platforms to make editorial decisions about the content they host. Both rights are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

    Republicans and conservatives were outraged when platforms acted in concert to ban President Donald Trump in January 2021, blocked a potentially election-altering New York Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop on 2020, and silenced dissenting opinions about the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the treatments for the disease it causes, and the vaccines.

    Steven Allen, a distinguished senior fellow at Capital Research Center, a watchdog group, said conservatives have long complained about their treatment on social media platforms.

    “Imagine if you had a system analogous to what Facebook does, where if you say something on the telephone to someone that Facebook doesn’t like, or the phone company doesn’t like, and then they interrupt your call to say, ‘you know, experts disagree with that,’ … and then they wouldn’t let you continue to say what you wanted to say,” Mr. Allen said.

    “People would be, of course, outraged.”

    Facebook shouldn’t be allowed “to pick the ones it doesn’t like,” he told The Epoch Times.

    Democrats and liberals, on the other hand, claim the platforms don’t do enough to weed out so-called hate speech and alleged misinformation, which they consider to be pressing social problems.

    Moderators at the social media site Reddit filed a brief saying if the laws were upheld, the site would no longer be able to take down content threatening, for example, Supreme Court justices.

    They provided a screen grab of a news article headline reading “Supreme Court’s John Roberts says judicial system ‘cannot and should not live in fear.’”

    Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan listen as President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Feb. 7, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    A person commented, saying, “We’ve got the guillotine, you’d better run.”

    Responding to another article about the court, a user wrote, “Promoting violence is the only rational response, which is why the authorities don’t want you to do it.”

    Two pro-gun control groups that filed briefs with the Supreme Court argue that social media companies must be allowed to combat hate speech, which they say contributes to “real-world gun violence.”

    Douglas Letter, chief legal officer for the Brady Center for Prevent Gun Violence, said in the press release accompanying the brief that often “the perpetrators of mass shootings were radicalized online.”

    “These online experiences are formative in germinating these deadly acts,” Mr. Letter said. “The Supreme Court must understand the deadly relationship between online content and real-world tragedy.”

    Florida, Texas Laws Challenged

    NetChoice, a coalition of trade associations representing social media companies and e-commerce businesses, challenged a Florida law that makes it a violation for a social media platform to deplatform a political candidate, punishable by a $250,000 per day fine.

    The law also establishes restrictions on deplatforming other users and requires consistent application of moderation rules.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit halted part of the law and Florida appealed to the Supreme Court.

    When signing the law in 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said it ensures Floridians “are guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley elites.”

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to police officers in the Staten Island borough of New York City on Feb. 20, 2023. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

    “Many in our state have experienced censorship and other tyrannical behavior firsthand in Cuba and Venezuela,” Mr. DeSantis said. “If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable.”

    President Trump filed a brief with the Supreme Court in October 2022 as a private citizen, urging the court to hear the Florida case.

    “Recent experience has fostered a widespread and growing concern that behemoth social media platforms are using their power to suppress political opposition,” his brief stated.

    “This concern is heightened because platforms often shroud decisions to exclude certain users and viewpoints in secrecy, giving no meaningful explanation as to why certain users are excluded while others posting equivalent content are tolerated.”

    A woman holds a ‘Save the Net’ protest sign during a demonstration against the proposed repeal of net neutrality outside the Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington on Dec. 13, 2017. (Alex Edelman/AFP via Getty Images)

    Ohio, Arizona, Missouri, Texas, and 12 other states argued in a court brief that the internet is the modern-day public square and that social media platforms engaging in censorship “undermine the free exchange of ideas that free speech protections exist to facilitate.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 18:20

  • Iranians Claim IRGC Chased US Aircraft Carrier Out Of Persian Gulf
    Iranians Claim IRGC Chased US Aircraft Carrier Out Of Persian Gulf

    Days ago, Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani vowed that his forces would soon “force” a US Navy aircraft carrier from waters off Iran’s coast. “It should be said that they have come [to the region] to sow division and meet their own needs… we will soon force them out of the region,” he had said.

    It was confirmed from at least two weeks ago that the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was patrolling the Persona Gulf at a moment of high tensions with Tehran, given the ongoing Gaza War. Additionally, Iran-backed Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea has intensified, become almost a daily occurrence at this point.

    USS Eisenhower in Persian Gulf, via US Navy

    As a result the US Navy is beefing up its response in the Red Sea, also after two more shipping tankers were struck by missiles and drones fired from Yemen’s Houthis on Friday.

    Iranian state media is now reporting that the USS Eisenhower has exited the Persian Gulf and vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz. Based on maritime tracking websites, the carrier has been out of the region already for at least several days and is now moving into the Mediterranean.

    Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, said the carrier had exited the area following over two weeks of being closely monitored by IRGC assets:

    “This flotilla was in the Persian Gulf for less than 20 days and has been under the IRGC naval forces’ intelligence oversight.”

    Tangsiri went on the claim that the US carrier was only there for “propaganda” purposes related to supporting Israel, at a moment Israeli leaders have warned Iran against further support to its proxies such as Lebanese Hezbollah or the Yemeni Houthis.

    The Iranians have been publishing videos which purport to show overhead area surveillance captured by drones…

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    A US Navy statement on the Eisenhower’s movement has not been immediately forthcoming in response to Iran’s claims. A statement from the ship’s commanders earlier this month said, “Our presence in the region is about deterring malign activities and deescalating tension and uncertainty.”

    The large carrier could now possibly he headed to the Red Sea in support of operations against the Houthis and to help deter ongoing attacks on commercial vessels

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 18:00

  • "I'm With Him": Trump Secures Another GOP Senate Endorsement For 2024 Comeback Bid
    “I’m With Him”: Trump Secures Another GOP Senate Endorsement For 2024 Comeback Bid

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Former President Donald Trump has secured another endorsement for his 2024 bid for the White House, with Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) making his long-standing quiet backing for the former president official and full-throated.

    Former President Donald Trump attends the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 287 mixed martial arts event at the Kaseya Center in Miami on April 8, 2023. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

    “President Trump doesn’t need to worry. I’m with him. He’s asked me several times to support him. I said yes,” Mr. Hawley told Politico in an interview on Dec. 12.

    Earlier, Mr. Hawley said he thinks President Trump would surely win the Republican nomination but stopped short of officially declaring his endorsement. That has now changed, with Mr. Hawley’s announcement making him the 18th Republican senator to endorse the former president’s comeback bid for the White House.

    “I’ve been saying for a year that I think he’s going to be the nominee,” Mr. Hawley said. “I support him. I’m going to vote for him.”

    The Missouri Republican added: “You can put me down as support, endorsed, stand with.”

    Then-Senate candidate Josh Hawley speaks as President Donald Trump looks on at an event in Kansas City, Mo., on July 24, 2018. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

    In Democrats’ Crosshairs

    The Missouri Republican’s declaration of endorsement comes after President Trump took to Truth Social over the weekend to warn Mr. Hawley and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that Democrats are trying to figure out how to oust the two from their respective Senate seats and extend their razor-thin majority in the upper chamber.

    “So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas,” President Trump wrote. “Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!”

    The 2024 election cycle is vital to the Democrat Party as it looks to hold on to—or broaden—its slim Senate majority. This summer, Sarah Guggenheimer, a spokesperson for the Democrat-aligned Senate Majority political action committee (PAC), told Politico that Mr. Cruz and Mr. Hawley were major targets that Democrats want to oust.

    At the time, Mr. Hawley told the outlet that he expects Democrat-aligned donors to spend $100 million to try and flip his Senate seat blue, while Mr. Cruz said that he’s taking the race “intensely seriously.”

    While Mr. Hawley has endorsed President Trump, Mr. Cruz has not officially declared which candidate he is backing. In the 2016 primary, Mr. Cruz was then-candidate Trump’s chief rival for the nomination but ultimately endorsed him and campaigned on his behalf.

    (L-R) Then presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) looks on during the Republican Presidential Debate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Dec. 15, 2015. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

    Mr. Cruz has, on several occasions, broken with President Trump on endorsements, supporting opponents of Trump-backed candidates ahead of the 2022 mid-term elections.

    Mr. Hawley’s endorsement brings the number of senators officially backing President Trump’s election bid to 18 (out of 49 Republican senators), while just four senators have endorsed other candidates.  The former president has also secured the official backing of nearly 90 House members, with no other candidate coming close in congressional endorsements.

    President Trump is dominating the field for the Republican nomination, with the latest RealClearPolitics polling average showing him with 60.3 percent support, which is over 47 points ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (12.6 percent) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (12.1 percent).

    President Trump’s commanding lead in the primary polls is why he declined to participate in any of the GOP presidential debates.

    Meanwhile, the former president has called on the GOP to take urgent action after a poll revealed that one-in-five mail-in voters admitted to committing at least one type of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

    Over 43 percent of 2020 votes were cast by mail, which is the highest percentage in U.S. history.

    ‘Biggest Story of The Year’

    A survey carried out by Heartland/Rasmussen and published on Dec. 12 has bolstered President Trump’s longstanding claim that he was cheated out of a victory in the 2020 presidential election.

    The survey shows that 17 percent of mail-in voters admitted to voting in a state where they are no longer permanent residents; 21 percent filled out ballots for others; 17 percent signed ballots for family members without consent, and 8 percent reported offers of “pay” or “reward” for their vote.

    Further, 10 percent of all respondents to the poll (carried on a representative sample of 1,085 likely voters) said they know a friend, family member, co-worker, or other acquaintance who admitted to casting a mail-in ballot fraudulently.

    In response to the concerning findings, President Trump took to Truth Social to demand urgent action.

    “This is the biggest story of the year, and Republicans must do something about it,” the former president wrote. Further, he suggested that unless something is done quickly to address the problem of voter fraud, the issue will cast a pall over the 2024 election.

    “Have to make a move now,” President Trump continued. “Get tough, get smart. Our country is being stolen!”

    While Democrats and their allies claim that election fraud is little more than a myth, President Trump has said for years that voter fraud is a pervasive problem in U.S. politics —and insists he was robbed of a win in the 2020 election.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/15/2023 – 17:40

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