Today’s News 21st November 2023

• FBI Arrests Miami Police Officer Accused Of Stealing Cash, Drugs During Traffic Stops
  FBI Arrests Miami Police Officer Accused Of Stealing Cash, Drugs During Traffic Stops

  A Miami cop was arrested by the FBI after being accused of stealing drugs and money from suspects during traffic stops – some of whom turned out to be undercover agents, according to NBC Miami.

  Frenel Cenat, 40, was arrested on Thursday on charges which include attempted Hobbs Act extortion, theft of government funds, and attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine, according to the report, citing jail and court records.

  

  Cenat, a Miami Police officer since September 2008, had worked for the property and evidence unit since 2020. After a confidential source tipped off the FBI to Cenat’s behavior – conducting traffic stops of people known to have just engaged in drug transactions, and then stealing the money or drugs they were transporting, they launched an investigation.

  Cenat would use his official police vehicle to conduct the traffic stops and would be in his police uniform, the affidavit said.

  Cenat was recorded on video and audio “coordinating schemes and conducting traffic stops of two individuals who he was told had just engaged in drug transactions, with the intention of stealing the money and/or drugs involved in those illegal transactions,” the affidavit said. –NBC Miami

   According to the affidavit, Cenat admitted that he would pull the schemes while off duty and outside his jurisdiction.

  “On duty they (MPD) got computers on and can track you and s— like that…you know what I mean…ping your phone… what you are doing in this area,” he said, according to the affidavit. “You don’t wanna do that s— bro while you are on duty…If I work down there I will never f— down there bro.”

  Cenat also described several prior incidents involving drug transactions in which he coerced individuals to give up their stash, money, or both in order to avoid going to jail.

  In October, he discussed stopping a person who had just done a drug deal, from whom he stole $50,000 – saying “I just need bread now.”

  Undercover agents

  On Nov. 3, two undercover FBI agents bought 3 kg of cocaine for $52,000 in Miami Gardens, after Cenat arranged to steal from one of them, according to the affidavit.

  As one left, Cenat followed and stopped them, identified himself as “Officer Martez” with “Miami PD – Dade County Narcotics Unit” and told them he’d witnessed the drug transaction, the affidavit said.

  Cenat gave the undercover agent the choice of giving him a backpack containing the cash or going to jail, and the agent gave him the bag, the affidavit said.

  After that incident, the informant and Cenat discussed another theft scheduled for Nov. 16 in which someone would be stopped with 6 or 7 kilos of cocaine and at least $30,000 in cash in Deerfield Beach, the affidavit said. -NBC Miami

  According to the affidavit, Cenat said he would give the cocaine to the informant and his associate to sell, and they would split the money. 

  On Nov. 16, the FBI staged another fake drug transaction. Cenat took the bait, following an undercover agent and pulling them over. He introduced himself to the agent as “Officer Martez” with the “Broward County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit,” then took a duffel bag containing $80,000 in cash and approximately 7 kilos of DEA prop drugs.

  “You want to go home tonight or spend 30 years in …federal prison?” Cenat asked the officer, before demanding his phone number.

  “You now work for me,” he continued. “When I call…you better answer.”

  “If I call you and you don’t answer…I’m coming for you,” he continued.

  Cenat later met wit the informant in Coral Springs to split the bounty, when the FBI appeared and arrested him.

  “The Miami Police Department is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to ensure the integrity of our agency is beyond reproach. The arrest of Officer Cenat is the result of a joint operation focused on identifying corrupt cops, and it’s an example of the repercussions when one of our own betrays their oath of office and tarnishes their badge,” according to Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales.

  “I stand firmly committed to transparency and ensuring the community’s trust is upheld throughout this investigation.”

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 23:15

• China's Share Of The Global Economy Is Shrinking At The Fastest Pace Since The Mao Era
  China’s Share Of The Global Economy Is Shrinking At The Fastest Pace Since The Mao Era

  By Ruchir Sharma, chair of Rockefeller International

  In a historic turn, China’s rise as an economic superpower is reversing. The biggest global story of the past half century may be over.    

  After stagnating under Mao Zedong in the 1960s and 70s, China opened to the world in the 1980s — and took off in subsequent decades. Its share of the global economy rose nearly tenfold from below 2 per cent in 1990 to 18.4 per cent in 2021. No nation had ever risen so far, so fast.   

  Then the reversal began. In 2022, China’s share of the world economy shrank a bit. This year it will shrink more significantly, to 17 per cent. That two-year drop of 1.4 per cent is the largest since the 1960s.

  These numbers are in “nominal” dollar terms — unadjusted for inflation — the measure that most accurately captures a nation’s relative economic strength. China aims to reclaim the imperial status it held from the 16th to early 19th centuries, when its share of world economic output peaked at one-third, but that goal may be slipping out of reach.    

  China’s decline could reorder the world. Since the 1990s, the country’s share of global GDP grew mainly at the expense of Europe and Japan, which have seen their shares hold more or less steady over the past two years. The gap left by China has been filled mainly by the US and by other emerging nations.    

  To put this in perspective, the world economy is expected to grow by $8tn in 2022 and 2023 to $105tn. China will account for none of that gain, the US will account for 45 per cent, and other emerging nations for 50 per cent. Half the gain for emerging nations will come from just five of these countries: India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Poland. That is a striking sign of possible power shifts to come.   

  Moreover, China’s slipping share of world GDP in nominal terms is not based on independent or foreign sources. The nominal figures are published as part of their official GDP data. So China’s rise is reversing by Beijing’s own account.

  One reason this has gone largely unnoticed is that most analysts focus on real GDP growth, which is inflation-adjusted. And by adjusting creatively for inflation, Beijing has long managed to report that real growth is steadily hitting its official target, now around 5 per cent. This in turn appears to confirm, every quarter, the official story that “the east is rising.” But China’s real long-term potential growth rate — the sum of new workers entering the labour force and output per worker — is now more like 2.5 per cent.

  The ongoing baby bust in China has already lowered its share of the world working age population from a peak of 24 per cent to 19 per cent, and it is expected to fall to 10 per cent over the next 35 years. With a shrinking share of the world’s workers, a smaller share of growth is almost certain.

  Further, over the past decade, China’s government has grown more meddlesome, and its debts are historically high for a developing country. These forces are slowing growth in productivity, measured as output per worker. This combination — fewer workers, and anaemic growth in output per worker — will make it difficult in the extreme for China to start winning back share in the global economy.

  

  In nominal dollar terms, China’s GDP is on track to decline in 2023, for the first time since a large devaluation of the renminbi in 1994. Given the constraints to real GDP growth, in the coming years Beijing can only regain global share with a spike in inflation or in the value of the renminbi — but neither is likely. China is one of the few economies suffering from deflation, and it also faces a debt-fuelled property bust, which typically leads to a devaluation of the local currency.   

  Investors are pulling money out of China at a record pace, adding to pressure on the renminbi. Foreigners cut investment in Chinese factories and other projects by $12bn in the third quarter — the first such drop since records began. Locals, who often flee a troubled market before foreigners do, are leaving too. Chinese investors are making outward investments at an unusually rapid pace and prowling the world for real estate deals.    

  

  China’s President Xi Jinping has in the past expressed supreme confidence that history is shifting in his country’s favour, and nothing can stop its rise. His meetings with Joe Biden and US chief executives at last week’s summit in San Francisco did hint at moderation, or at least a recognition that China still needs foreign business partners. But almost no matter what Xi does, his nation’s share in the global economy is likely to decline for the foreseeable future.

  It’s a post-China world now.  

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 22:55

• Americans More Polarized Than Ever Over Ivermectin
  Americans More Polarized Than Ever Over Ivermectin

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A growing number of Americans think that ivermectin is an effective COVID-19 treatment, according to a recent survey from a university.

  About 26 percent of respondents believe that the drug—long used to treat parasites—can treat the virus, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. That’s up from 10 percent who thought the same in September 2021.

  

  The percentage of people who called that statement “false” also rose to 37 percent in November 2023, up from 27 percent in September 2021, the survey found. The overall number of people who aren’t sure declined, from 63 percent to 38 percent in the same time period.

  Without elaborating, the survey’s authors said that the 26 percent “incorrectly” said that ivermectin is effective, while it has pointed to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) statements saying the agency has not authorized or approved the drug for preventing or treating COVID-19, and it has claimed that data shows it isn’t effective against the virus. It has been approved to treat a variety of other illnesses, namely ones caused by parasites, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has regarded it as an essential medicine to treat a number of different ailments.

  However, WHO issued a warning last week saying that it strongly recommends against giving ivermectin to patients with “non-severe” COVID-19 and advises against giving the drug to those with severe or critical COVID-19.

  Notably, about half of the studies that the FDA has referenced in saying that it isn’t safe or effective support using ivermectin against COVID-19, according to a 2022 Epoch Times review.

  In social media posts and in statements, the FDA has often said that ivermectin shouldn’t be used to treat the virus. Several of those comments triggered a lawsuit from doctors, who argued that the FDA shouldn’t be making recommendations and that its role is to approve drugs. Some individuals have also filed lawsuits against hospitals to force medical officials to allow its use for treating COVID-19.

  Dr. Pierre Kory, who said he frequently prescribes ivermectin for COVID-19, told The Epoch Times that the FDA’s position on ivermectin “is one of the most glaring examples of the corruption of modern evidence-based medicine.”

  “There’s one message they want everyone to understand, and that message is that ivermectin doesn’t work,” Dr. Kory said. “That’s not a scientific conclusion, that’s theirs. That’s their perverted and distorted interpretation of the data.”

  The Annenberg Public Policy Center survey, which was conducted last month and polled 1,500 Americans, also found that fewer Americans believe that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is safer than contracting the virus itself. It showed that in April 2021, 75 percent shared that viewpoint, but by last month, only 63 percent believe that to be the case.

  The survey also found that respondents increasingly believe that the COVID-19 shot isn’t safe, increasing to 24 percent last month from 18 percent in August 2022.

  The public policy center argued that the rise in Americans’ wariness in COVID-19 vaccines and other vaccines is due to a “belief in health misinformation.”

  Meanwhile, recent data provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that about 14 percent of American adults and 5 percent of children have received one of the updated COVID-19 booster shots, coming about two months after they were authorized by the FDA. It means approximately 36 million adults and 3.5 million children have received the shot.

  The prior updated COVID-19 vaccines that were available from the fall of 2022 were given to about 56.5 million people, or around 17 percent of the entire U.S. population.

  In a poll released in September, about 23 percent of American adults said they would definitely get one of the new vaccines, while another 23 percent said they would likely receive one. About half of respondents, however, said they wouldn’t or probably wouldn’t get the shot.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 22:35

• IRS Says Some People Can Still Get COVID Stimulus Cash… Here's How
  IRS Says Some People Can Still Get COVID Stimulus Cash… Here’s How

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

  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has revealed that some Americans who were eligible to receive pandemic-era stimulus checks didn’t apply for them—and that there’s a way they can still claim the money.

  

  The IRS said in a Nov. 17 announcement that, according to its records, some eligible individuals and families didn’t end up collecting economic impact payments—also known as stimulus payments or stimulus checks—that were issued in 2020 and 2021.

  Those who missed out can still collect the money. The way to do so is through the “recovery rebate credit.”

  This is a refundable credit that either reduces the amount of taxes owed, is included in a tax refund, or is simply paid out by the IRS to eligible taxpayers if—after claiming the credit—it turns out they overpaid on their taxes.

  The deadline to claim the 2020 credit is May 17, 2024, while the one for claiming the 2021 credit is April 15, 2025.

  In 2020 and 2021, the federal government issued $931 billion in stimulus payments to Americans in order to help ease the financial stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Some people never received those payments, even though they were eligible.

  Who Is Eligible?

  While the vast majority of those eligible for COVID-19-related relief have already received or claimed it, some people haven’t—even though they’re entitled to it.

  Others may have received less than the full stimulus payment they were entitled to, and in their case, claiming a recovery rebate credit would top-up to the full stimulus payment amount they’re entitled to.

  In order to claim the 2020 and 2021 recovery rebate credits, a taxpayer must meet several criteria.

  For the 2020 credit, they must have been a citizen of the United States or a U.S. resident alien in 2020. Also, they must not have been a dependent of another taxpayer for 2020 and possess a valid Social Security number issued before the due date of the tax return that is valid for employment in the United States.

  For the 2021 recovery rebate credit, eligibility criteria include being a U.S. citizen or U.S. resident alien in 2021, not being a dependent of another taxpayer for 2021, and having a Social Security number issued by the due date of the tax return.

  Alternatively, for the 2021 credit, a person can claim a dependent with a Social Security number issued by the due date of the tax return or claim a dependent with an Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number.

  Also, it’s noteworthy that the 2020 recovery rebate credit can be claimed for someone who passed away in 2020, while both the 2020 and 2021 credits can be claimed for someone who passed away in 2021 or later.

  How to Apply?

  In order to claim the recovery rebate credit, taxpayers must first file a tax return—even if they didn’t have any income from a job, business or other source.

  To claim the 2020 recovery rebate credit, individuals must file a tax return (or amend one already filed) for the 2020 tax year. The deadline to do so is May 17, 2024.

  For the 2021 recovery rebate credit, the deadline for filing (or amending) a tax return is April 15, 2025.

  In order to figure the amount of the recovery rebate credit on a tax return, it’s necessary to know the amount of any stimulus payments received (if any), including plus-up payments.

  People can use their IRS Online Account to see if they received any stimulus payments and, if they did, how much they received.

  Some people received partial stimulus payments for the 2020 and 2021 tax years, and this will reduce the amount they’re now eligible to collect as part of the recovery rebate credit.

  More details about how to calculate the credit for a 2020 tax return can be found here, while further information about calculating the credit for a 2021 tax return is here.

  One thing to note is that money received as part of the recovery rebate credit can’t be counted as income when determining the ability of someone to be eligible for federal benefits like Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that people who don’t normally file tax returns, first-time filers, mixed immigrant status families, and those experiencing homelessness were among the most likely to have missed getting stimulus payments.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 22:15

• "Choiceful" Usage By CEOs Hits Record In Earnings Calls To Describe Consumer Slowdown 
  “Choiceful” Usage By CEOs Hits Record In Earnings Calls To Describe Consumer Slowdown 

  Corporate executives in the US, including those from Walmart to McDonald’s, have found a new favorite word to characterize the slowdown in consumer spending: “choiceful.”

  Data from the Bloomberg Document Search function shows the number of times “choiceful” was mentioned in third-quarter earnings calls hit a record high of 22, nearly double from 12 in the second quarter.

  

  CNBC first reported the word choice by corporate execs, pointing out how Walmart CEO Doug McMillon described consumers as “choiceful” when referring to their reduction in spending.  

  McMillon also spooked investors by warning, “In the US, we may be managing through a period of deflation in the months to come.” 

  Meanwhile, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski used the word to describe the pricing of menu items in these uncertain times:

  “I think certainly, given the inflation that the market has experienced, that we’ve experienced over the last year, really more than a year, we’ve tried to be very choiceful and disciplined on how we have executed those price increases. And the good news is, we continue to lead on affordability. We continue to lead on value for money. We’ve seen no deterioration in our advantages there. We are holding those up.”

  Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet told investors earlier this month, “I think that’s what consumers are looking for right now as they are more choiceful.” 

  Corporate execs are concerned that the all-mighty consumer, whose spending drives the economy, is reaching a breaking point. 

  In September, Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson was very blunt when he warned, ‘the consumer is falling off a cliff.’ 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 21:55

• Shellenberger: Why Democrats Became The Totalitarians They Warned Us About
  Shellenberger: Why Democrats Became The Totalitarians They Warned Us About

  Authored by Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger via Public Substack,

  How did the Left go from defending the free speech rights of neo-Nazis to demanding censorship, falsely accusing their opponents of being fascists, and seeking their incarceration?

  

  When Donald Trump became president, Democrats predicted the worst.

  “Trump’s shocking victory, his ascension to the Presidency, is a sickening event in the history of the United States and liberal democracy,” David Remnick wrote in the New Yorker the day after the election.

  Trump, Remnick said, was an authoritarian who disdained civil liberties and whose election was “surely the way fascism can begin.”

  Liberal commentators have compared Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler over and over again.

  Wrote legal scholar Laurence Tribe on Twitter in 2019, “I’m not saying Trump is becoming Hitler, so don’t bother tweeting the distinctions. But the physical and behavioral resemblances aren’t altogether irrelevant. No prior president even suggests the comparison.”

  Last month, Crown published a new book by Rachel Maddow that compares Trump-supporting Republicans to fascists.

  Trump had little respect for the First Amendment, Democrats claimed.

  He attacked freedom of speech and of the press, striking at our fundamental rights.

  On top of this, liberal media outlets alleged Trump used his office for personal gain and weaponized the justice system for his own benefit.

  After January 6, 2021, the liberals who had been skeptical about anti-Trump hysteria became convinced that the hysterics had been right all along.

  In 2018, legal scholar Cass Sunstein suggested that Trump would not bring authoritarianism to the United States. Then, after the Capitol riot, he changed his mind, saying that American democracy was indeed under threat from Trump and his supporters. “The events of January 6, 2021, made me think I was actually quite wrong on that,” he said.

  But Friday’s release of the first tranche of January 6 tapes confirms that Trump’s actions paled in comparison to the steps Democrats have taken to defeat him and his supporters.

  The tapes corroborate Public’s previous reporting and show that the Democrat-driven narrative of an insurrection was highly misleading. Democrats used this narrative to demonize tens of millions of voters, to justify their censorship efforts, and to weaponize the justice system against their political enemies.

  It’s true that the tapes show rioters forcefully entering the Capitol, and some scenes on the tapes are not peaceful. It’s also true that Trump’s rhetoric has, at times, been inflammatory and illiberal.

  But what the tapes do not show is a coup attempt. Rather, they show many scenes that contradict this narrative, like January Sixers walking calmly down the hallway, Capitol police appearing completely unphased by these supposed insurrectionists, and Capitol police giving the trespassers handshakes.

  Despite the evidence that law enforcement at best permitted this “coup” to take place and at worst facilitated it, January 6 judges have handed down extremely harsh sentences. 

  What’s more, the January 6 tapes show scenes that are far less violent than Black Lives Matter riots, which were investigated and prosecuted with much greater lenience, even in cases of arson and assault.

  Above all, the newly released tapes demonstrate that the Democratic party’s claims to be fighting for democracy and staving off authoritarianism are a sham and that it is the Democrats who have, in their persecution of Trump and his followers, done more to undermine democracy than Trump ever threatened to do.

  Elites in the Democratic party and in the mainstream media, through their efforts to subdue a populist backlash, have eroded First Amendment rights and have politicized the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

  Democrats became everything they once said they feared in Trump: censorial, totalitarian, and corrupt. Their years-long clampdown on dissent and criminalization of political opposition was a systematic attack on liberal democracy. Worse, they became everything that liberals during the 20th Century warned Americans about.

  …

  The Democratic party and the Biden administration have become precisely what liberals said Trump would be, and they have attacked the foundational principles of our democracy in the name of protecting them.

  …

  There is a reckoning to come and it should be bipartisan and championed by liberals on the Left and Right alike.

  …

  Over time, the share of Democrats who want to expand censorship must decline.

  Whatever the case, the last 20 years make clear that the most sickening moment for the US commitment to liberal democracy came not in the election of Trump but in the Left’s betrayal of fundamental liberal principles.

  …

  Subscribers can read the full substack here…

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 21:35

• Up In Smoke: California's Largest Pot Distributor Collapses Amid $17 Million In Unpaid Taxes
  Up In Smoke: California’s Largest Pot Distributor Collapses Amid $17 Million In Unpaid Taxes

  HERBL, California’s largest pot distributor, has completely imploded in a turn of events that’s expected to have ripple effects throughout the industry.

  

  In mid-May, as rumors of the company’s dire situation swirled, CEO Mike Beaudry insisted “these rumors are categorically not true.”

  HERBL completely collapsed less than a month later, following in the footsteps of other California cannabis startups like Flow Kana and MedMen.

  The company leaves behind $17 million in unpaid taxes, while several smaller pot companies which have been left in the lurch, SFGate reports.

  “Mike [Beaudry, HERBL’s CEO] and his team did a really good job of hiding that fact from their own brands… that’s how they kept getting our products,” said Ali Jamalian, owner of San Francisco cannabis company Sunset Connect, who claims that HERBL owes him $180,000.

  Another CEO, Tyler Kearns of Sacramento-based cannabis company Seven Leaves, said HERBL owes his company $880,000. He says he knew the collapsed distributor was in trouble when he found out in June that they were laying off delivery drivers, and that it was going to be near impossible to get that money back.

  “I knew this was going to be the biggest failure in U.S. cannabis history,” he told the outlet.

  HERBL’s role in the California cannabis ecosystem was crucial, acting as a middleman between pot producers and retailers. Its downfall isn’t just a bad trip for the company; it’s a red flag for the industry, indicating that even the mightiest can fall due to systemic issues.

  “I do feel like we’re going to see a significant and material number of closures, up and down the supply chain,” said Wesley Hein, president of the Cannabis Distribution Association, who attributes HERBL’s failure in part to poor business decisions – particularly its continued reliance on traditional distribution models while pot retailers struggled to pay their bills. He says the collapse also exposes systemic issues in the state’s pot industry that will doom other industries – such as overtaxation, competition from unlicensed businesses, and “very excessive and overly burdensome regulations.”

  He compared the collapse of HERBL to Lehman.

  “Lehman Brothers was a century-old firm with 99 profitable years, you would think somebody in all of that would go, ‘Let’s bail them out, let’s put money in.’ But when they looked like they were too risky to invest in, that really signaled something,” said Hein.

  “This is a story about HERBL, but it’s also a story about every distributor, so there’s still time to fix the system,” Hein said, adding “There’s always time to start trying to improve and correct things.”

  According to Adam Cavanaugh, president of Cannabiz Credit Association, a group that tracks debt and provides credit ratings for cannabis companies, a lack of bankruptcy protections in the industry make it harder for pot companies to get paid if another collapses.

  “This lack of access to traditional bankruptcy protections indeed presents more risk for companies doing business with cannabis-related entities, as they may find it more challenging to recover their outstanding debts,” he told SFGate in an email, adding that his group has already tracked over $20 million in debt within the California cannabis industry, a “remarkable” 27% increase from 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 21:15

• Longer COVID School Closures Linked To Youth Suicide Rates
  Longer COVID School Closures Linked To Youth Suicide Rates

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

  

  Longer COVID school closures were associated with more emergency department youth suicidality visits, a research letter found.

  The report, published on JAMA Network Open on Nov. 10, was led by researchers from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.

  “This cohort study found an association between longer school closures in the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in youth suicidality,” the authors wrote, adding that further investigation is needed so that “policy regarding school closures may better align with the mental health needs of youth.”

  Comparing Texas Against Massachusetts

  The authors compared emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts in 12- to 17-year-olds in Texas and Massachusetts.

  Texas, which had more in-person education from 2020 to 2022, had lower rates of emergency department youth suicidality visits than Massachusetts, a state that had more prolonged school closures, the authors found.

  In 2020, Texas was ranked 8th out of 50 states for giving the most in-person education, while Massachusetts was ranked 39th, according to reports by Burbio, a media company that tracks school openings, enrollment, and budget.

  Between March and August 2020, schools were universally closed. During this time, the authors observed a rise in emergency department cases for suspected suicide attempts in both states. Massachusetts reported 115 suicidality ED visits per month prior to school closures; this increased to 176 in 2020–21. Texas reported 505 cases of youth suicidality visits prior to the lockdowns, and this number increased to 756 in 2020–2021.

  However, beginning in September 2020, both states started to reopen schools, though Texas was faster on the school reopening.

  By September 2020, 40 to 60 percent of Texas public schools had returned to in-person education, while only 20 to 40 percent of schools in Massachusetts followed suit.

  In January 2021, 80 to 100 percent of Texas schools were in-person while 20 to 40 percent of Massachusetts schools were in-person, according to Burbio.

  The authors observed significant differences in emergency department youth suicidality rates in the two states in the 2021–22 academic year, with higher rates reported in Massachusetts.

  School Closures and Mental Health Risks

  Studies on school closures and mental health have rendered conflicting findings. A study that followed youths during the pandemic found that youth suicides tend to occur during school terms with a decline in the holidays.

  Another study found a sudden decrease in teenage suicides during early lockdowns.

  Nevertheless, most studies suggest a worsening of adolescent mental health and an increase in suicidality, Dr. Yael Dvir, the lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at the UMass Chan Medical School wrote to The Epoch Times.

  “However, it is very possible that subgroups of teens responded differently to the pandemic and to school closures, so that some showed improvement,” she added. 

  Pediatricians not involved in the study reported similar observations of school closures being linked with rising mental illness.

  “We definitely dealt with a significant rise in mental health concerns as a result of pandemic and school closures,” Dr. Derek Husmann, a Texas pediatrician, told The Epoch Times.

  Dr. Renata Moon, previously an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington during the pandemic, echoed Dr. Husmann’s observations.

  “We saw a tremendous increase in teenagers and even pre-teens seeking help for anxiety, depression and thoughts of self harm during pandemic related school closures,” she wrote.

  “I was seeing 6-7 kids in my office each day with these complaints. Mental health counseling services were completely overwhelmed and couldn’t keep up with the volume of referrals.”

  “Most of the time it was anxiety, with seemingly anxiety as a distant second, though they so often go hand in hand. My estimation is that the baseline stress level for almost all of us has gone up significantly since the pandemic, and for a whole host of reasons,” Dr. Husmann added.

  Dr. Husmann said that none of his patients reported suicidality to him, though he was aware of a case where a child committed suicide after continuing schooling at home once lockdowns and school closures were over.

  Reconsidering the School Closure Policy

  The authors suggested that more investigation is needed to ensure that future policy on school closures would be in the interests of students’ mental health.

  Dr. Moon, who believed the loss of her contract with the University of Washington was due to publicly voicing her concerns on the safety of the COVID vaccines, agreed.

  “We needed to have discussions to consider focused protection for our vulnerable ‘at-risk’ members of society. Our children were essentially at zero risk of a fatality from Covid-19 infection. We had plenty of data to discuss yet public health authorities continued to push unnecessary and harmful lockdown measures and came after any physician who voiced concern.” Dr. Moon wrote.

  “Teenagers rely on school not just for education but also socialization,” Dr. Dvir added. “Not having the opportunity for in-person social contact with peers created loneliness and disconnect for teenagers, an age group that, for developmental reasons, puts great importance on peer relationships.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 20:55

• Lobbyists Steamrolling Biden Effort To Nix Billions In 'Junk Fees'
  Lobbyists Steamrolling Biden Effort To Nix Billions In ‘Junk Fees’

  Last fall, the Biden administration – scant on accomplishments, embarked on a campaign to pressure airlines to ditch billions in so-called “junk fees” charged to travelers who want to check bags or change flights.

  

  “You should know the full cost of your ticket right when you’re comparison shopping to begin with,” said Biden last September, adding that the move would help families “pick the ticket that actually is the best deal for you.”

  While travelers were over the moon, flooding the DOT with letters urging it to adopt the policy, the airlines predictably pushed back, suggesting the move was both illegal and impossible.

  Doug Mullen of Airlines for America, which represents giants like American, Delta, and United, cautioned against such transparency, arguing that it “would only cause customers confusion and frustration.”

  “The department should not regulate in this area,” said Mullen.

  

  This stance, however, contrasts starkly with how much coin the airlines are banking on said fees – as airlines raked in over $6.7 billion in baggage fees alone last year, the Washington Post reports in a rare act of journalism (perhaps written to explain why yet another Biden initiative is failing).

  Fees, fees everywhere…

  

  The federal push to reduce fees extends far beyond airlines – with auto dealers, ticket merchants, cable giants, banks and other industries sapping money from consumers via sneaky, unnecessary charges.

  [T]he Biden administration has broadened its efforts to expose or eliminate “junk fees” throughout the economy, touching off a groundswell of opposition from airlines, auto dealers, banks, credit card companies, cable giants, property owners and ticket sellers that hope to preserve their profits.

  Behind the scenes, these corporations have fought vigorously to thwart even the most basic rules that would require them to be more transparent about hidden charges, according to a Washington Post review of federal lobbying records and hundreds of filings submitted to government agencies. The fees together may cost Americans at least $64 billion annually, according to a rough White House estimate, underscoring its efforts to deliver financial relief to families grappling with high prices.

  In the banking sector, the administration’s attempts to limit credit card late fees have been met with staunch opposition. The industry, having profited over $14.5 billion from these fees, forewarns a legal battle, indicative of the broader corporate pushback.

  Opponents include Citrigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Visa, whose various lobbying groups have been working to brute-force Washington DC to oppose the efforts. In May, the American Bankers Association joined two others in telling the CFPB that capping late fees would force them to reduce rewards offered to new and existing customers. The lobbyists also questioned whether the bureau even has the legal standing to act in the first place.

  “The late fees are imposed because they work to deter late payment,” the ABA and its allies told the agency.

  

  Cable giants, including Charter and Comcast, have similarly responded via lobbying groups – resisting federal efforts to provide consumers with accurate data on service charges. Casinos, insurers, owners of large apartment complexes, and ticket sellers have also fought new federal regulations that would punish them if they conceal their true prices.

  Some ticket sellers have called for new rules that would require them to display the full, total price of a performance up front, including any service fees. But some companies still do not fully adhere to the practice: Ticketmaster, for example, only does so for some shows, though its parent company, LiveNation, promised the White House to be more transparent earlier this year.

  The Biden administration, meanwhile, continues to push. Lael Brainard, the director of the White House National Economic Council, emphasized the administration’s commitment: “We know that junk fees resonate with American consumers. They don’t like being taken for suckers.” This sentiment underscores the administration’s strategy to align with consumer interests, perhaps with an eye on the upcoming elections.

  Amid a torrent of legal threats, Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to pass a comprehensive bill that sets the rules for when and how companies can charge extra fees. But even some of the more popular, bipartisan efforts to promote price transparency have faltered in an ever-divided, heavily lobbied Capitol.

  A proposal from two unlikely allies, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), would mandate that ticket sellers show their full prices upfront. The duo released the Ticket Act this summer, after a public outcry about major outages and steep fees on Ticketmaster sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.But the bill remains stuck in the upper chamber after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked a vote out of a belief that such regulation is unnecessary, according to two legislative aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his stance.

  The Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are at the forefront of enforcing these changes. Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC, highlighted the misleading nature of hidden fees: “If a consumer is led to believe something costs $10, and it costs $20, they’ve been misled.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 20:35

• Victor Davis Hanson: Can We Save Our Universities?
  Victor Davis Hanson: Can We Save Our Universities?

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  It took the widely reported, repellent, and exempt wave of anti-Semitism and violent pro-Hamas protestors harassing Jews, finally to convince Americans that their own hallmark universities are illiberal centers of mediocrity and intolerance—and increasingly unsafe…

  

  Of course, Americans had long known that something had gone wrong at their colleges. They had increasingly encountered college graduates who were poorly educated in basic skills and lacked general knowledge—and yet highly politicized, and intolerant of different views and opinions. Ignorant but arrogant is a sad way to start an adult life.

  College, the public knew, has certainly eroded from our cherished idea of a four-year idealized respite from adult employment. It once was intended to be a place where youth learned to be open-minded, tolerant, skilled, and eager to learn the nature and traditions of Western civilization, art, literature, languages, philosophy, and history.

  Instead, all too often “college” has now descended into a six-to-seven-year misadventure that nationwide often results in only half those enrolled ever receiving degrees. Nearly all sink deeply in student debt. And yet for all the borrowed tuition money, few prove capable of writing analytically, speaking articulately, or knowing the general referents, past and present, of their very civilization.

  Students, especially at the elite campuses, learn to mouth monotonously accusations of “genocide.” “apartheid,” “colonialism,” or “imperialism.”

  But they lack the ability to define these nouns.

  As a result, they so often name drop empty slogans in the context of supposed Western sins.

  Again, October 7 brought these sorry facts to national attention. Adolescent screamers on video showed no awareness that dropping leaflets and sending texts to avoid collateral deaths is not “genocide.” Most chant the “river to the sea” with no clue that it resonates the very ethos of mass murdering, mutilation, and dehumanization of Jewish elderly, women, children, and infants in the most savage fashion on October 7.

  Accusatory students who scream “apartheid” seemed to have no clue that a fifth of Israel’s population is Arab, with citizenship rights that vastly exceed those in all other Middle East nations.

  They have no notion of the ancient and long connections of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, or how in the world the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque found itself atop the far more ancient Herod’s Jewish Second Temple sanctuary.

  As far as “colonialism” and “occupation” goes, they are clueless that the longest, non-Arab colonial rule of Palestine was the more than 300-years of often brutal Ottoman/Turkish imperialistic control.

  Nor do they have much knowledge of the repeated and combined efforts of far larger and richer Arab nations to wipe tiny Israel out, especially during the full-scale wars of 1947-48, 1967, and 1973.

  Instead, politically correct orthodoxies, not the knowledge or logic, of a student, became the hallmark of an “educated” American graduate. Students and faculty were considered “moral” for proclaiming their devotion to diversity, equity, and inclusion, without a clue that historically unity, equality, and fairness were the better aspirations. Without formal study in civics and ethics, students learned that any means were justified to advance political aims merely asserted as morally superior to others.

  After October 7, it proved a small campus step from years of institutionalized racially separated graduations, dorms, and campus centers to singling out and often segregating Jewish students from campus spaces.

  At Arizona State, Jewish students had to be escorted by police from a campus debate event. Even 20 years ago administrators would likely have expelled those threatening violence—or been forced to resign themselves. Today, they are terrified of mostly foreign students who abuse their visas and seem to despise the host they dare not leave to return home.

  Administrators at prestigious MIT admit that some of their foreign students are openly harassing Jews. But the university will not expel such anti-Semites in fear they might lose their student visas and thus have to return to their Middle-East homes and stew about their own miscreant behavior and ingratitude to their hosts. Instead, for college administrators, entitled, and full-tuition paying children of Middle East’s elites are seen as cash cows whose money masks their bigotry.

  As a result, cynical MIT grandees now simply warn Jewish students where and where not it is safe to walk on their own campuses. And thus, they confirm the embarrassing reality that the university is either unable or does not wish to stop the systematic anti-Jewish hatred on their own turf.

  Yet since when did such student guests in the United States feel empowered to shut down bridges during commute hours, tear down American flags on Veterans Day, and scout out and hunt-down Jewish-Americans on campus?

  If universities canonize critical race theorist Ibram Kendi, who insists that “anti-racism” requires good racism to combat bad racism, then is it any wonder that professors of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and various studies courses at UC Davis or Stanford prominently harassed and threatened Jewish students, or at Cornell cheered on news of Hamas’s murder spree?

  If campuses drop the SAT requirement, and no longer rank comparative high-school grade point averages, but instead rely on racial and ethnic quotas and “diversity statements” for university admissions, is it any surprise that insecure and passive-aggressive students feel entitled and exempt from any ramifications for their venom?

  And if campuses are fixated on race and superficial appearances, and reward those who are supposedly not guilty of “white privilege,” it is easy to understand why anti-Semites believe they can justify their hatred by assuming Jews are guilty for being white, and they themselves exempt for being nonwhite bigots.

  If the endowments of our top universities have reached record-setting multibillion-dollar levels, and if the billion-dollar annual income on those massive sums are non-taxable on the pretense campuses are apolitical and teach inductively rather than indoctrinate, then is it such a shock that exempted huge budgets lead to more staffers than students?

  At Stanford, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that there were 16,938 graduate and undergraduate students, but they were out-numbered by the combined total of 15,750 administrators and their staffers, and 2,288 faculty. Would it not be easier and perhaps even cheaper just to hire one tutor for each student and forgo the administrators?

  If anti-Semitic and racist professors enjoy life-long tenure, and if such guaranteed lifetime employment has de facto eliminated conservative voices among the faculty, why would any bigot mouthing genocidal chants ever worry about his job security?

  So again, ignorant and arrogant describes what the public has concluded of campuses in the last few weeks.

  In contrast, there is little such anti-Semitic violence at community colleges or trade schools, where the majority of students attends, and must work to pay for their education, and learn skills in a world apart from therapeutic gut courses.

  In truth, a multiple-choice American history test at a junior college now demands more knowledge from a student than the weaponized essay requirement of an Ivy-League -studies class.

  Taxpayers soon will no longer wish to subsidize elite education, especially when campuses no longer can guarantee their graduates are broadly educated and their professional and graduate programs can no longer turn out top-flight experts and specialists.

  So, what happened to America’s once monopoly on global excellence in higher education?

  In a word, there was too much money—and too little accountability. Tuition soared faster than the rate of annual inflation. The federal government subsidizes almost $2 trillion in student loans, regardless of the quality of education the student receives, and often with the expectation there will be few if any consequences when indebted but poorly educated students’ default on their repayment obligations.

  The professors who harass students, and rant endlessly off topic about current politics, are often not audited or reviewed on the quality of their scholarship and teaching as much as their political views, and their racial, gender, and ethnic status. Most have little knowledge of the reality outside the academic world—having spent their entire lives as students and then faculty confined to campus. Tenure is seen as a birthright rather than an ossified privilege only accorded to a tiny fraction of the workforce on the pretense that faculty should be heterodox, independent thinkers, without ideological blinders.

  So, to save us from the monsters we created, Americans must get the government out of the student loan business. We must demand that universities’ endowments back their own student loans.

  The government should tax endowment income and end lifelong tenure. Universities must expel and deport foreign students who violate campus laws as they violently act out their various hatreds.

  Reinstate the SAT for admissions, and end racial quotas. And require a national SAT-like exit exam to reassure the public that graduates at least know more when they leave college than when they enrolled—an increasingly dubious assumption.

  But most important of all: the public should stop giving money to elite institutions. To continue such philanthropy is akin to supplying heroin to an addict, gas to a fire, or fireworks to children.

  Do not consider our prestigious schools any longer necessarily prestigious. Many are not. Do not hire a graduate simply because she graduated from Yale, or he attended Stanford—unless one prefers to risk dealing with an employee poorly schooled but likely to act out a pampered victim status and to disrupt a workplace.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 20:15

• "Don't Be Manipulated, Stand With X" – As Elon Promised, X Files Suit Against Media Matters
  “Don’t Be Manipulated, Stand With X” – As Elon Promised, X Files Suit Against Media Matters

  Update (2015ET): Texas AG Ken Paxton has officially opened an investigation into Media Matters for potential fraudulent activity: 

  The Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”) is opening an investigation into Media Matters for potential fraudulent activity.

  Under the Texas Business Organizations Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the OAG will vigorously enforce against nonprofits who commit fraudulent acts in or affecting the state of Texas.

  Attorney General Paxton was extremely troubled by the allegations that Media Matters, a radical anti-free speech organization, fraudulently manipulated data on X.com (formerly known as Twitter).

  “We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” said Attorney General Paxton.

  *  *  *

  Early Saturday morning, Elon Musk posted that his social media platform X will be “filing a thermonuclear lawsuit” against left-leaning non-profit Media Matters and “all those who colluded” for “completely misrepresenting” the real user experience on X.

  Musk added that X would file the lawsuit on Monday (today), which prompted even more malarkey on X as the day wore on with so many pro-censorship leftists clinging to the hope that Musk was not going to follow-through, with one CNBC reporter going so far as claiming “Musk may have been lying, like he has done before.”

  Well, he wasn’t lying, and time’s up for the Media Matters manipulators…

  The lawsuit, just filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division, alleges the organization’s tactics were manipulative and deceptive.

  

  The suit claims:

  Media Matters has opted for new tactics in its campaign to drive advertisers from X. Media Matters has manipulated the algorithms governing the user experience on X to bypass safeguards and create images of X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts adjacent to racist, incendiary content, leaving the false impression that these pairings are anything but what they actually are: manufactured, inorganic, and extraordinarily rare.

  Media Matters executed this plot in multiple steps, as X’s internal investigations have revealed.

  First, Media Matters  accessed accounts that had been active for at least 30 days, bypassing X’s ad filter for new users. Media Matters then exclusively followed a small subset of users consisting entirely of accounts in one of two categories: those known to produce extreme, fringe content, and accounts owned by X’s big-name advertisers. The end result was a feed precision-designed by Media Matters for a single purpose: to produce side-by-side ad/content placements that it could screenshot in an effort to alienate advertisers.

  But this activity still was not enough to create the pairings of advertisements and content that Media Matters aimed to produce.

  Media Matters therefore resorted to endlessly scrolling and refreshing its unrepresentative, hand-selected feed, generating between 13 and 15 times more advertisements per hour than viewed by the average X user repeating this inauthentic activity until it finally received pages containing the result it wanted: controversial content next to X’s largest advertisers’ paid posts.

  Media Matters omitted mentioning any of this in a report published on November 16, 2023 that displayed instances Media Matters “found” on X of advertisers’ paid posts featured next to Neo-Nazi and white-nationalist content. Nor did Media Matters otherwise provide any context regarding the forced, inauthentic nature and extraordinary rarity of these pairings.

  However, relying on the specious narrative propagated by Media Matters, the advertisers targeted took these pairings to be anything but rare and inorganic, with all but one of the companies featured in the Media Matters piece withdrawing all ads from X, including Apple, Comcast, NBCUniversal, and IBM—some of X’s largest advertisers. Indeed, in pulling all advertising from X in response to this intentionally deceptive report, IBM called the pairings an “entirely unacceptable situation.” Only Oracle did not withdraw its ads.

  The truth bore no resemblance to Media Matters’ narrative. In fact, IBM’s, Comcast’s, and Oracle’s paid posts appeared alongside the fringe content cited by Media Matters for only one viewer (out of more than 500 million) on all of X: Media Matters. Not a single authentic user of the X platform saw IBM ’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to that content, which Media Matters achieved only through its manipulation of X’s algorithms as described above. And in Apple’s case, only two out of more than 500  million active users saw its ad appear alongside the fringe content cited in the article—at least one of which was Media Matters.

  Media Matters could have produced a fair, accurate account of users’ interactions with advertisements on X via basic reporting: following real users, documenting the actual, organic production of content and advertisement pairings. Had it done so, however, it would not have produced the outcome Media Matters so desperately desired, which was to tarnish X’s reputation by associating it with racist content. So instead, Media Matters chose to maliciously misrepresent the X experience with the intention of harming X and its business.

  Further, X CEO Linda Yaccarino – who has reportedly been under pressure all day by various ad companies to resign – defended the company in a statement on Monday.

  “If you know me, you know I’m committed to truth and fairness,” she posted.

  “Here’s the truth. Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media Matters. Data wins over manipulation or allegations. Don’t be manipulated. Stand with X.“

  Public’s Michael Shellenberger noted that:

  “Despite the lack of verified evidence behind Media Matters’ claims, its tactics are highly effective.”

  Sllenberger concluded, by asking on X:

  Why is Media Matters leading a disinformation campaign and advertiser boycott against Elon Musk’s X?

  Who is Media Matters, exactly?

  And what’s its real agenda?

  …before going into detail on Substack about why Media Matters is a Democratic Party front-Group:

  The attacks on X make clear that the real concern of Democratic Party elites is their lack of control over the public conversation.

  From 1996 to 2016, Democrats felt they controlled the elite policy and political conversation through the news media. After that appeared to fall apart in 2016, and as Democrats, including Podesta, blamed social media for Clinton’s loss, they stepped up their effort to take control over Twitter and Facebook, which they did, demanding and winning the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop, and deplatforming Trump.

  The strategy of Democratic Party leaders, including Clinton, Podesta, and Obama, has been, since 2016, to label Trump-supporting Republicans as racists, Nazis, and antisemites. The attacks on Elon Musk’s X must be taken in this context.

  The real agenda behind the Media Matters attack on X is the same as the one behind the Democrats’ attack on Trump and the Republicans. Democrats want to control the conversation.

  Without censorship, voters can see that the border is a disaster, the Ukraine war was a tragic failure, and that Democrats have been censoring them.

  …

  …we must have greater control over the content we receive through social media platforms.

  

  And we must no longer trust the news media, a trend which is already well underway, including, increasingly, among Democrats.

  Is this the beginning of the end of the Censorship Industrial Complex?

  One thing is for sure, we are glad not to be the head of Media Matters, Angelo Carusone, who tonight faces his own company’s existential threat from a man with the deepest pockets in the world.

  

  Media Matters President Angelo Carusone (left), Elon Musk (right)

  Read the full lawsuit below:

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 19:55

• "New Years' Nightmare": IRS Targets Gig Workers, Sends 30 Million New Tax Forms
  “New Years’ Nightmare”: IRS Targets Gig Workers, Sends 30 Million New Tax Forms

  Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A new IRS tax on gig workers would result in additional documentation that will create confusion among individual taxpayers as the agency does not have “centralized leadership” to deal with the expansion, according to a watchdog.

  

  Starting this year, a new IRS rule required that third-party payment networks like PayPal, Venmo, Amazon, and Square issue Form 1099-K when a user receives more than $600 in gross sales from goods and services transactions in a single year. Earlier, the threshold of gross sales was over $20,000.

  As a result, many taxpayers who never received Form 1099-Ks in the past will receive them this year, according to a Nov. 15 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). This could “exacerbate confusion among some taxpayers, such as gig workers, who may not understand the taxability of their payments and taxes owed.”

  “For example, some of these taxpayers may not know how to calculate profit or loss and may not understand the information reported on the form. This puts them at risk of inaccurately reporting their incomes to IRS or not meeting their tax obligations.”

  The IRS calculated that the new rule would result in 44 million Form 1099-Ks being filed in 2024, which is an increase of roughly 30 million. The tax agency “does not have a plan” to analyze these data to support its enforcement and outreach activities. “This limits its understanding of changes in taxpayer burden,” GAO said.

  GAO also pointed to challenges facing the IRS with regard to its handling of “information returns.”

  Information returns are filed by third parties like employers, businesses, banks and include Form W-2 for employee wages and Form 1099-K filed by payment networks. IRS compliance programs use these information returns to identify potential fraud and noncompliance among taxpayers.

  However, “IRS lacks centralized leadership to make strategic decisions related to the use of information returns across the agency,” the GAO report stated.

  “For example, IRS has not analyzed information returns comprehensively to determine if the returns’ characteristics (e.g., deadlines) meet IRS’s needs. While information returns support multiple IRS compliance programs, no office is responsible for coordinating these efforts.”

  Burdensome for Americans

  Commenting on the GAO report, the House Ways and Means Committee criticized Democrats for burdening everyday Americans with the new tax rule.

  “Thanks to Democrats, more Americans who mow lawns or sell concert tickets and used couches through Venmo or PayPal will have those transactions scrutinized by the IRS starting in January 2024 thanks to a lower reporting threshold for IRS form 1099-K,” said a Nov. 16 press release from the committee.

  The GAO report “shows that the IRS will send at least 30 million new 1099-K tax forms to Americans’ mailboxes come January, even though the agency has no plan on what to do with the new information—and it is unlikely most Americans will understand how to fill them out.”

  Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) called the additional tax forms “a new years’ nightmare for millions of Americans and a mess for the IRS.”

  The 1099-K form applies to people who are engaged in activities like gig work and casual sales who make side or extra income via selling their services or goods. 1099-K is an “information return” form submitted by third parties like PayPal. Individual taxpayers can use these returns to complete their tax filings. The IRS uses 1099-K to verify income and taxes reported by taxpayers.

  The policy to reduce the gross sales threshold from $20,000 to just $600 was included in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The rule was initially supposed to come into effect during tax year 2022. However, the IRS postponed it to the 2023 tax year.

  “The Biden Administration itself had to deploy a legally dubious delay of this policy for a year precisely because it is unworkable. The whole plan is just another effort by Washington Democrats to use the IRS to target working families,” Mr. Smith said.

  “According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, over 90 percent of this new tax burden will fall on middle-class families and gig workers who will be caught in the crosshairs of the Democrats’ tax scheme.”

  In the report, GAO recommended that the IRS develop a plan to systematically evaluate information returns to improve compliance and minimize fraud and reporting burden.

  It also asked the tax agency to determine the “most appropriate thresholds for payment information reporting” like Form 1099-K.

  The report “shows the IRS is ill-equipped to handle the implementation of this new policy while at the same time it does not even know if it will help the agency carry out its responsibilities,” Mr. Smith said.

  “Like with so much of the Democrats’ tax policies, this is a solution in search of a problem—one that will confuse Americans and put them in danger of inaccurately assessing their own tax liabilities.”

  Taxing Americans’ Side Incomes

  The Coalition for 1099-K Fairness, whose members include the likes of PayPal, Airbnb, Etsy, and eBay, said that millions of Americans and micro-businesses will receive 1099-Ks “often in instances where there is no tax liability whatsoever, causing fear, confusion, frustration, and overreporting of taxable income.”

  

  A February 2022 survey by the coalition found that most casual sellers are only conducting small amounts worth of sales transactions online. It pointed out that 86 percent of them made less than $5,000 in gross revenues from items sold online in 2021.

  For 89 percent of survey respondents, selling was not their primary source of income. And 47 percent of people were unaware of the new IRS reporting requirements.

  People who engage in such side income activities have to provide personal information, including Social Security number or employer identification number (EIN) to the third-party app through which they conduct transactions.

  Once the transactions hit the $600 threshold limit, the third party will send a 1099-K to the individual. In case the person did not provide their personal information and the transaction hit the $600 limit, the third party will withhold 24 percent of the payments collected via the app.

  This amount will be sent to the IRS and will not be returned to the individual. However, the amount can be reported on the person’s tax returns.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 19:40

• 3 Conservative Justices Dissent As Supreme Court Refuses To Reinstate Florida Drag Show Law
  3 Conservative Justices Dissent As Supreme Court Refuses To Reinstate Florida Drag Show Law

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

  The Supreme Court turned away Florida’s request to reinstate its law regulating drag shows, which has been blocked by the lower courts.

  

  The new order came at the end of the business day on Nov. 16.

  Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch dissented, indicating they would have lifted the lower court’s stay. They did not explain their reasoning.

  Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett voted to maintain the stay. Justice Kavanaugh attached a statement (pdf) explaining his reasoning, which Justice Barrett joined except for a footnote discussing the applicability of the federal Administrative Procedure Act to the case.

  “The Court’s denial of the stay indicates nothing about our view on whether Florida’s new law violates the First Amendment,” the justices stated.

  This is not necessarily the end of the matter at the Supreme Court. It could return to the court at a later date.

  The emergency application in Griffin v. HM Florida-ORC LLC (court file 23A366) was docketed by the Supreme Court on Oct. 24. The petitioner, Melanie Griffin, is secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The respondent, HM Florida-ORC LLC, operates a Hamburger Mary’s restaurant and bar.

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, signed the law in May.

  The law was preliminarily enjoined in June by Judge Gregory Presnell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Judge Presnell was appointed in 2000 by President Bill Clinton.

  The district court acted after finding it “likely” that the statute “could not survive strict scrutiny because it did not employ sufficient narrowly tailored means to further the state’s compelling interest in protecting minors from obscene performances,” the judge wrote in an order.

  That court also found it “likely that the language of the Act, which included terms like ‘lewd conduct’ and ‘lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts,’ was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad on its face.”

  The court acted to prevent Floridians from being “exposed to the chilling effect of this facially unconstitutional statute.”

  On Oct. 11, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit voted 2–1 not to lift the injunction.

  Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, dissented from that ruling.

  “We have a single plaintiff that operates a single brick-and-mortar restaurant in a single city,” Judge Brasher wrote.

  “An injunction addressed to everyone in Miami, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa, and everywhere else in Florida provides no benefit to that plaintiff and solves no administrability concern, but it nonetheless imposes significant burdens” on state officials.

  Justice Kavanaugh said in his statement that for the Supreme Court to grant a stay pending appeal, there must be “a reasonable probability” that the court “would eventually grant certiorari [i.e. review] on the question presented in the stay application if the district court’s judgment were affirmed on appeal.”

  “The State has not made that showing here,” he added.

  Drag shows have become a political issue across the country as the transgender movement presses for public and legal acceptance.

  Politicians in various states have responded to parents’ concerns by passing laws that restrict sometimes explicit drag show performances in front of children and banning the use of women’s restrooms by men who identify as women.

  Drag show advocates protest that laws restricting the performances violate constitutionally protected free speech.

  Florida officials had asked the Supreme Court to narrow the lower court’s order blocking the Protection of Children Act, which prohibits “adult live performances” in front of children.

  The dining establishment that obtained the injunction against the law had offered “family-friendly” drag performances on Sundays, which children were encouraged to attend.

  The lower court injunction “inflicts irreparable harm on Florida and its children by purporting to erase from Florida’s statute books a law designed to prevent the exposure of children to sexually explicit live performances,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, a Republican, said in the emergency application.

  “As long as the district court’s preliminary injunction remains in place, Florida is powerless to enforce a law its elected representatives have enacted for the protection of its children.”

  The statute allows the state to suspend or revoke the licenses of a business and imposes financial penalties for knowingly allowing children to attend such events.

  The law’s text does not mention drag shows specifically, but targets “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities.”

  The lead attorney for the restaurant, Brice M. Timmons of Donati Law in Memphis, Tennessee, welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling.

  “We are pleased with the result at this stage and will continue to fight for the free speech rights of all Floridians,” Mr. Timmons said by email.

  “This case can now proceed to trial,” he added.

  The Epoch Times reached out to Ms. Moody’s office for comment but had not received a reply as of press time.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 19:20

• "On The Road To Ruin": The Crime Crisis Destroying America’s Cities
  “On The Road To Ruin”: The Crime Crisis Destroying America’s Cities

  Authored by Jessica Anderson via RealClearPolitics.com,

  American cities are becoming emblematic of our national decline…

  

  High taxes, homelessness, and violent crime drive thousands of business owners and residents from urban centers annually.

  Once amazing cities, powerhouses of the American Dream and engines of our world’s leading economy – replete with beautiful buildings, pristine roads, and iconic bridges – are deteriorating at an unfathomable rate.

  Perhaps even more troubling, Metropolitan America has become a hotbed for the mentally ill and drug-addicted population.

  Violent criminals are now emboldened by soft-on-crime policies that tell a new generation of offenders there are no consequences for their actions.

  Our cities are on the road to ruin, but the Democrat politicians who run them refuse to address the obvious problems. When these leaders aren’t too busy defending Hamas, parroting open borders talking points, or weaponizing the government against their own political opponents, they spend their time in elected office doubling down on their failures and making ridiculous excuses for the challenges citizens face on a daily basis. Just look at Gov. Newsom’s comments after cleaning the streets of San Francisco for Chinese President Xi Jinping to arrive – it’s not that elected leaders can’t keep our cities safe, it’s that they won’t.

  Through my work serving grassroots Americans, I spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. – a destination for American families and students all across the country looking to see firsthand how their government works and take in the historical grandeur of century-old buildings. Unfortunately, our nation’s capital has seen decades of mismanagement, but any resident will tell you that the city has suffered massively over the last few years.

  Union Station, a long-time city landmark and travel hub, has instead become a hub for crime and homelessness, only to be cleaned up when President Biden wants a speaking venue. Our businesses have suffered so many losses due to theft that some drug stores have begun putting pictures of their products on the shelves instead of the products themselves. Other small businesses have closed their doors altogether.

  Most notable here in D.C. is the worsening juvenile crime crisis. Politicians like Mayor Muriel Bowser and Attorney General Brian Schwalb have worked alongside the liberal city council to push a radical “ignore crime” agenda that undercuts law enforcement agencies and continues the mantra of “defund the police.” As a result, carjackings alone in D.C. have jumped 250% since 2018. Very few have been arrested for these crimes thanks to the city’s policies, but of those arrested, 64% are juveniles.

  D.C. residents deserve to feel safe in their city, but the juvenile crime crisis suggests a deeper problem that will become harder to solve the longer our leaders let it go on. Last month, a 12-year-old was charged in a failed carjacking attempt in Northwest D.C. In 2021, two teenage girls attempted to carjack a food delivery driver in a popular D.C. neighborhood, killing the driver in the process. And the problem is only getting worse.

  Despite the skyrocketing crime statistics, many Democratic politicians still refuse to take responsibility for carjackings, robberies, and homicides made worse by their own policies. In fact, some even refuse to acknowledge there is a problem. D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has said there “is not a crime crisis” in Washington, D.C., but merely a widespread ‘perception’ of unsafety in the city. Others, while acknowledging the rising crime, have offered weak solutions like enforcing curfews for teens in certain neighborhoods or offering AirTags for citizens to help recover vehicles when they are stolen.

  The tragic uptick in brutality stems in large part from Democratic prosecutors who refuse to do their jobs and prosecute crime. Rogue prosecutors, including the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, send a dangerous message to anyone with criminal intentions: There is no punishment for breaking the law. Attorney General Schwalb, who is the person responsible for getting juvenile crime under control, spends his time pursuing politically driven investigations instead of addressing surging crime. As a result, there is little stopping offenders from committing heinous acts.

  Washington, D.C., is not just another city – it is our nation’s capital. It should be a city for all Americans, safe and free just like America, but, unfortunately, it currently only showcases a disturbing new trend for American cities.

  A recent report shows that those living in mid-sized cities such as Henderson, Nev., and Pittsburgh, Pa., are not safe from Democrat-caused chaos threatening their quality of life. Henderson saw a spike in violent crime reports between 2019 and 2021, during which homicides reached the highest number in the past ten years. The number of robberies, meanwhile, increased 91% during the first seven months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. Pittsburgh likewise experienced 71 homicides in 2022, the largest number in a decade. The Major Cities Police Chiefs Association reports that the Steel City is experiencing a year-over-year increase in rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults as of mid-2023.

  Americans aren’t clueless.

  Not only in Washington, D.C., or in San Francisco – but from coast to coast Americans are watching our cities decay right before our eyes, and they are watching their leaders do nothing about it.

  The majority of Americans believe our justice system isn’t tough enough on crime, and the situation in Washington, D.C., is a pretty strong indicator they’re right.

  From the local city council to the attorney general or mayor, city residents need to hold their elected officials accountable and demand they save our cities and protect our citizens.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 19:00

• Russian Airlines To Launch Regular Flights To Pyongyang For First Time
  Russian Airlines To Launch Regular Flights To Pyongyang For First Time

  North Korea has for decades been notorious for being among the most isolated countries in the world, and is for this reason for this reason often called the “hermit kingdom”. 

  A mere two airlines regularly fly in and out of Pyongyang Airport: North Korea’s own national carrier Air Koryo and the much larger Air China out of Beijing. At a moment Russia is trying to deepen economic and military ties with nations willing to ignore US-led sanctions, Moscow and Pyongyang are working to also make Russian carriers a regular presence at North Korea’s international airport. 

  The Kommersant business daily reports Monday that Russia has been issued an invitation to begin launching regular flights to North Korea, after Putin and Kim Jong Un held a summit in Russia’s far east in September. 

  

  Russia’s state civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia said it notified airlines Aeroflot and Aurora that they should evaluate readiness for routine flights to Pyongyang. 

  Any and all flights had been on hold for years during the pandemic, and only resumed in August of this year. Currently an Air Koryo flighting travels between Vladivostok and Pyongyang twice a week. 

  Russia’s Aurora had this to say on the potential for flights linking Moscow and North Korea: 

  “In the new foreign policy realities, Russia is forming new partnerships, the construction and development of which without direct flights from Moscow is not very comfortable,” Oleg Panteleyev, head of the AviaPort aviation think tank, told Kommersant. “The main interest in such flights, from business and political circles, is in Moscow.”

  It’s long been clear that Russia and North Korea are seeking to take their cooperation beyond just on the military front – which has included alleged major weapons and artillery shell transfers for Russia to execute its war in Ukraine

  For the first time last month Russia’s foreign ministry publicly encouraged tourism in the DPRK:

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he would recommend Russian tourists to vacation in North Korea.

  The top Russian diplomat visited North Korea, where he held a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui and then spoke to reporters.

  Over the past year it seems the trend has been the more Washington sanctions Russia, the more it turns to other so-called ‘pariah’ nations like North Korea and Iran. Very similar to improved defense and economic ties with Pyongyang, Moscow’s relations with Tehran have deepened as well.

  

  All of this has of course been denounced by the Biden administration, and yet it has very little leverage left when it comes to all three nations. It should be noted that all three have had their aviation industries under significant sanctions, making commercial flights more dangerous as safety slowly erodes for lack of easily available replacement parts.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 18:40

• Supplying 65% Of Our Energy, America Must Lead On Oil and Gas
  Supplying 65% Of Our Energy, America Must Lead On Oil and Gas

  Authored by Rick Whitbeck via RealClear Wire,

  Fifty years ago this week, legislation authorizing construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. 

  

  The whole process took all of five days.

  Not only was the timeline unprecedented, but so was the fact that the act specifically halted all legal challenges against the planned pipeline. Furthermore, it prohibited federal and state agencies from regulating the construction of the project.

  The legislation led to a flurry of construction, and since the first oil flowed through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in June, 1977, more than 18 billion barrels have been delivered to its Valdez terminus from Alaska’s North Slope. The benefits to our state are clear: more than one-sixth of all Alaskan private-sector jobs are tied to oil and gas development throughout the state, and Alaska’s economy is driven by oil revenues and investment decisions made via Alaska’s Permanent Fund, which increases each via oil and gas royalties.

  Half a century ago, a bipartisan congressional coalition and President Nixon knew then what President Joe Biden seems to be oblivious to now: national oil and gas production – and the infrastructure and projects that create energy independence – drives America’s superpower status. Without it, we’re susceptible to geopolitical events and foreign countries’ attempts to undermine the free market, a hard lesson the Europeans have learned since Russia launched its war against Ukraine.

  Today, we’re seeing continuous attacks on resource development projects that would create American jobs, help Americans live better lives, and enhance American energy independence. Veiled in the cause to save the planet from the ‘existential threat’ of a ‘climate crisis’, the activists leading the opposition are weakening America’s global standing; making us dependent on others for raw materials and finished goods we are more than capable of creating domestically.

  The Keystone XL pipeline’s demise is well-known. With a stroke of Biden’s pen, hundreds of union jobs vanished from payrolls across the Midwest, and the potential of 510,000 barrels of oil a day hitting refineries did as well.  The Mountain Valley Pipeline only exists today because Congress stepped in and approved its completion as part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, but unlike the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the underlying act didn’t prohibit legal challenges from continuing. And make no mistake, there are challenges across the country.

  In New York, eco-driven politicians have cancelled four natural gas pipeline projects in the last five years. Governor Kathy Hochul is taking her fight against fossil fuels one step further, banning natural gas stoves by 2026, cancelling permits for natural gas-fired power plants and embracing other climate edicts that experts predict will harm the Empire State’s economy.

  On the other side of the country, California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking an even more aggressive stance against traditional energy. He’s banned combustion-engine vehicles from being sold in the state beginning in 2035 and prohibited fracking in the state beginning in 2024. Even more frightening to Golden State residents should be his chumminess with Chinese President Xi Jinping. With the two leaders collaborating on climate impacts and increasing government-to-government partnerships, one must wonder what CCP-inspired ideas will be released on Californians next?

  Returning to my home state of Alaska, and faced with expected shortages of natural gas by the end of this decade, a proposed LNG pipeline that would nearly mirror the route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline has been in the works for decades. It has the backing of the federal government in the way of loan guarantees, and – aside from providing Alaska’s Railbelt with decades of capacity – exporting some of Alaska’s gas reserves would help provide other Pacific Rim nations with cleaner alternatives to energy than coal-fired power plants. 

  Yet, the eco-zealots pushing back against every possible traditional energy project denigrate the proposed pipeline a ‘carbon bomb’ and have used every tactic available to stymie its progress. They ignore the lack of reliability and high costs of from alternative sources of energy. With Alaska’s weather and cold, dark winters, having reliable power is not only a creature comfort, but a matter of life-and-death.

  Fifty years ago, an overwhelming number of legislative and executive-branch leaders came together and did what was right for our nation. The Trans-Alaska pipeline helped the U.S. hold off OPEC aggression in the 1970s, and lead the way in ushering in American energy security. Today, extremism holds many of America’s energy projects hostage, denying the country a chance to build domestic supply chains, enhance our way of life, provide generational jobs and secure our energy and national security in the process.  

  Without bold leadership and facts-over-fear action, the future of many of these projects dim daily. It doesn’t have to be that way. For the sake of future generations, let’s change course while we still can.

  Rick Whitbeck is Alaska state director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates American energy jobs. Email him at rick@powerthefuture.com, and follow him on X @PTFAlaska

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 18:20

• Only Libya Has Had More 'Recessions' Than Argentina In The Last 70 Years
  Only Libya Has Had More ‘Recessions’ Than Argentina In The Last 70 Years

  Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina this Sunday after the ultra-libertarian candidate beat left-wing opponent Sergio Massa in a runoff election … and maybe a sign of things to come…

  Javier Milei 2023🇦🇷
  Donald Trump 2024🇺🇸
  Jair Bolsonaro 2026🇧🇷

  — Milei 2023🇦🇷 (@JMPresidente23) November 20, 2023

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

  Milei’s views and his campaigning style can be described as extreme, as he announced his intention to abolish Argentina’s central bank and posed with chainsaws on stage while vowing to “cut down” public spending.

  

  But, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, Milei’s messaging and the fact that it reverberated with the Argentine public can only been seen in context of the nation’s desolate economic situation and many citizens’ lack of hope for improvement through moderate political channels.

  An analysis of data by the Conference Board shows that Argentina, together with “failed states” Libya and Syria, is the country which posted the most years of negative GDP growth since 1951.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Other than these “failed states”, Argentina has not experienced a protracted civil war in recent years, even though the country suffered its fair share of insurgency in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in connection with the dictatorship led by Juan Domingo Perón.

  Still, the country has been battling economic woes in the current age with on-and-off-again recessions.

  While Argentina might be more developed than others on the list, it has been caught up in a cycle of overspending, inflation, debt-making, unsustainable cuts to government programs and bad fiscal policy.

  Other countries which have struggled with recessions include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one of the least developed countries in Africa, followed by Chad, a landlocked African country where 85 percent of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.

  For former Soviet and Yugoslav Republics, data is only available starting in 1971.

  Nevertheless, Ukraine and Moldova appear in ranks 7 and 8 out of 133 countries and territories, showcasing the severe impact the fall of Communism has had. Between 1990 and 1999 Ukraine experienced ten consecutive recession years, while Moldova posted nine.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 18:00

• Iran Wants Russia To Be More Active In Seeking Gaza Peace: Foreign Minister
  Iran Wants Russia To Be More Active In Seeking Gaza Peace: Foreign Minister

  Via The Cradle,

  Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held a phone call with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on Sunday to discuss regional developments and attempts to end the war in Gaza.  

  Amir-Abdollahian stressed that significant efforts are needed to stop the violent displacement and killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and voiced his wish for Moscow to play a more active role in trying to bring an end to what he described as Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign.

  

  “Resistance will determine the final outcome,” Amir-Abollahian noted. The two foreign ministers also spoke about the US role in the war, saying that Washington was planning on extending the violence rather than taking action to bring it to an end.  

  “The [US] claims to be seeking an end to the war, but in practice, it escalates the intensity and spreads the sphere of the [US]-Zionist war,” Amir-Abdollahian said.  

  For his part, Lavrov expressed that he was disappointed with Israel’s refusal to stop the attacks on Gaza and made note of the need to continue discussions set to put an end to the war and free captives.  

  “The schedule of upcoming contacts and a number of other topical issues on the bilateral and international agenda of mutual interest were also touched upon,” the Russian foreign ministry media brief said, noting that the Iranian side that initiated the call.  

  The two nations have been prominent in their attempts to bring the war between Palestinian factions and Israel to an end. Amir-Abdollahian previously revealed that Iran has been holding back-channel communications with the US to bring peace to the region.  

  Tehran has voiced that it doesn’t want a regional conflict to break out:

  Russia’s Lavrov warns Israeli provocations may drag Iran, Hezbollah into Gaza warhttps://t.co/xYEMJt4sKshttps://t.co/xYEMJt4sKs

  — Press TV (@PressTV) November 15, 2023

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  “We said that Iran does not want the war to spread,” Amir-Abdollahian said in an interview with the Financial Times on 16 November. “But due to the approach adopted by the US and Israel in the region, if the crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank are not stopped, any possibility could be considered, and a wider conflict could prove inevitable.”

  On November 15, Lavrov said Russia told Israel: “You cannot buy security, which we are convinced you need, by delaying the creation [of a] Palestinian state, and by [criminally] reducing the territory which was designed for the Palestinian state by the United Nations.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 17:40

• Ron Paul: We Must Demand Justice For The January 6th Protesters!
  Ron Paul: We Must Demand Justice For The January 6th Protesters!

  Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

  New US House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a blow for liberty and justice last week when he finally authorized the release of all the tapes from the January 6, 2021 “insurrection.”

  We were told by no less than President Biden himself that this was the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”

  

  The FBI was unleashed by the Biden Administration to hunt down hundreds of participants in this “insurrection” and lock them up in the gulag where they awaited trial in torturous conditions – many in solitary confinement.

  A Congressional Committee was set up under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi to “get to the bottom” of the “Trump-led insurrection.” It did not include a single Representative nominated by the opposition Republican Party, but rather two “Republicans” – Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger – who could be relied on by Pelosi and the Democrats to toe the line.

  In short, the whole thing was an old-fashioned Soviet show trial, where the evidence was kept secret and the pre-determined verdict – guilty – was to be used to tighten the grip of the ruling regime and intimidate any further dissenters into silence.

  The message was clear: “speak out against the ‘perfection’ of the 2020 election and you may find yourself in the gulag along with the insurrectionists.”

  

  It was terrifying and profoundly anti-American.

  And, as we finally can see for ourselves thanks to Speaker Johnson, it was a huge lie. The new video shows demonstrators shaking hands with police officers once they entered the Capitol Building. They were welcomed into the building by officers who even held the doors for them to enter! They had no way of knowing that they would soon be rounded up and locked away.

  Does that mean no crimes were committed on January 6th? Not at all.

  The tapes already released were carefully chosen to single out examples of violence and other possible criminality.

  But the full release of the tapes demonstrates beyond a doubt that the endless propaganda that this was a coordinated attempt to overthrow the government was false.

  And as for that violence and mayhem on January 6th?

  How much of it was instigated by undercover FBI agents?

  New footage clearly shows officers outside the building firing on protestors with no warning.

  That must be why, in hearing after hearing, Biden Administration officials like Attorney General Merrick Garland have refused to tell Congress the number of federal agents present and their roles in instigating violence.

  The release of this evidence should immediately result in the release of all non-violent protestors awaiting trial or serving their sentences.

  Those in power responsible for promoting this lie should take their places in the jail cells.

  This delayed justice will not help protesters like Matthew Perna, however.

  Though the new video release clearly shows him calmly walking inside the Capitol in the presence of unconcerned police officers, when Merrick Garland’s Department of “Justice” announced they would seek terrorism charges against him, Perna, in despair, decided to hang himself in his garage.

  Yes, there was an insurrection of sorts.

  Those in power hated Donald Trump so much that they were willing to torture and even murder their fellow Americans to keep him from the presidency.

  Unless these people are brought to justice, we will have no Republic left to defend.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 11/20/2023 – 17:20

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