Jan 24

Today’s News 24th January 2025

  • These Restorative Executive Orders Should Not Be Necessary
    These Restorative Executive Orders Should Not Be Necessary

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    You can scour the Founding documents all day and find very little support for government-by-executive-order. It was not supposed to be this way.

    It should not have to be this way. The President under the Constitution has a very limited role.

    That said, most of the many executive orders issued by President Trump are purely restorative, a reaffirmation of core constitutional structures that had been previously ignored or overthrown. Therefore, these are not acts of executive imposition so much as deployments of power in order to give power back to the people.

    In other words, most of the actions are not about the “imperial presidency.” They are about returning power to where it belongs and never should have left, namely to the U.S. Constitution and to the voters in a republican system of government.

    This is why all the chatter about Trump’s use of power (“He’s behaving like a dictator!”) misses the mark. Completely.

    Let’s just consider one that is near and dear to my heart: “Restoring Freedom Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” It does nothing other than restate the meaning of the very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which proclaimed that government cannot interfere with the freedom of speech.

    In recent years, plenty of government agencies have found a way around the law. They would call media outlets and social-media services, and even book retailers, and browbeat them to publish this and not that, take down posts, prioritize this content over that, delete whole groups, and ban accounts. In addition, government agencies constructed a vast web of third-party providers to make lists of approved and unapproved points of view.

    This was pushed to crack down on disinformation and misinformation, as if it was the job of the federal government to decide what is what. Invariably, this was designed to bolster the industrial prospects of a particular industry. The result was a global censorship complex of astounding levels of complexity and reach. It became terrifying for everyone and deeply injurious to careers and reputations.

    These practices have come under fire in a flurry of lawsuits. One court in the case of Murthy v. Missouri ended up with an injunction against federal agencies. That found its way to the Supreme Court. In the hearings, more than half the members of the court simply could not follow the arguments. Some comments even raised questions about the whole idea of free speech itself, as if the concept was somehow new. It was shocking and demoralizing.

    The result of that hearing was to reject the injunction on grounds that the plaintiffs did not have standing, as if the victims of censorship themselves have no real right to redress. Now the case is again tangled up in litigation that will likely last years. Despite tens of thousands of pages of evidence, the court could not somehow find its way toward enforcing the clear law of the land.

    That’s when this executive order comes into play. Someone had to enforce the law against government overreach. That someone is President Trump. His executive order reads as follows:

    “The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference. Over the last 4 years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve. Under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation,’ the Federal Government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the Government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.”

    It continues:

    “It is the policy of the United States to: (a) secure the right of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech; (b) ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; (c) ensure that no taxpayer resources are used to engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen; and(d) identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to censorship of protected speech.”

    Great so far, so what is to be done?

    “(a) No Federal department, agency, entity, officer, employee, or agent may act or use any Federal resources in a manner contrary to section 2 of this order. (b) The Attorney General, in consultation with the heads of executive departments and agencies, shall investigate the activities of the Federal Government over the last 4 years that are inconsistent with the purposes and policies of this order and prepare a report to be submitted to the President, through the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, with recommendations for appropriate remedial actions to be taken based on the findings of the report.”

    There we go! Was that so hard? This is what the ACLU used to believe before they went the other direction to become a nonprofit enforcer of woke ideology.

    Thus is free speech seemingly restored but that is not the end of the story. The plaintiffs should be entitled to a full compensation of all litigation costs, and these should come out of the budgets of the CDC, Department of State, the National Institutes of Health, and any other agency involved in this censorship program.

    Is this order enforceable? One can hope but not be certain. The institutions and money out there favoring censorship are voluminous. It is likely going to require more than a proclamation to make the First Amendment real again. Moreover, much of the prevailing censorship is now deeply embedded in algorithmic structures on Google and YouTube. No human is operating it anymore. It will take human hands to rip out the coding that makes it all possible. And keep in mind that this happens today with no direct state involvement, so it is possible that current censorship operations will continue while being technically in compliance with the order.

    That is to say, this order should have been issued many years ago, since it began much earlier than four years ago. In fact, it was in full operation during the first term of Trump, likely in a way that was unbeknownst to the Trump administration. One has to admire how Trump 2.0 has made a concerted effort here to take charge and really mean it.

    There are plenty of other thrilling executive orders concerning transgenderism, the World Health Organization, the Paris Climate Accord, and much more. The freeing of the January 6th prisoners is especially bold and on point, as is the glorious freeing of Ross Ulbricht.

    In general, what we are seeing here is an exercise of power in order to take power away from the globalists and deep state and give it back to the people.

    This is precisely what the voters wanted, for, in the end, we prefer self-government to tyranny.

    It is tragic that it should require executive orders to restore what should never have been taken from the people in the first place. But that is the world in which we live, and Trump should be commended for seeing what was necessary and doing it.

    *  *  *

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 23:25

  • Portland Church Vows To Protect Illegal Immigrants From Deportation
    Portland Church Vows To Protect Illegal Immigrants From Deportation

    One city not eager to comply with President Trump’s new immigration plans is Portland.

    The city will be actively working to try and prevent its immigrants from deportations, according to a new report from KATU ABC 2. 

    One immigrant who ” came to the United States from El Salvador when he was just a teenager”, Francisco Aguirre, told ABC: “I can’t imagine leaving my kids behind.”

    He added: “I flee the violence there because my life, you know, was in danger, and if I stay, I will get killed. My relatives got killed back in El Salvador, and I did not have any other choice to just run away one day when I could, you know.”

    Portland pastor Mark Knutson has vowed to try and protect Aguirre, calling the Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland a sanctuary.

    Knutson reflected on the sacredness of sanctuary, saying,“The idea was if ICE were to dare breach this sacred space, this holy grail, and violently drag a man out of this church, with all the cellphones and technology, even back 10 years ago, can you imagine the pictures of a man being dragged?” 

    The report says that the church even has an alarm system—if ICE arrives, the bell will sound.

    Under President Trump, tensions at Augustana Lutheran Church have risen, fueled by his executive order prioritizing deportations of “inadmissible and removable aliens.” Trump, when asked about ICE raids, stated, “I don’t want to say when, but it’s going to happen. It has to happen.”

    Knutson is organizing community action. “You’ll see this church overflowing with leaders from the community, everyday people here to stand in solidarity. That’s going to send a message to this administration that we in Oregon are not going to go for this.”

    For many, deportation can mean tragedy. Aguirre, a congregant, lost his son Moses, who was killed after fleeing to El Salvador out of fear of deportation. “He was playing soccer when they shot him,” Aguirre said.

    The fear of deportation has overwhelmed Portland’s immigrant community. Immigration attorney Vanesa Pancic noted, “I think my office missed 50 phone calls, missed 50 phone calls yesterday. I don’t know how you guys got through my office yesterday.”

    While the timing and scope of deportations remain uncertain, Aguirre remains hopeful. “I dream of becoming a pastor to help unite people through God’s word,” he said.

    In Oregon, nearly 90,000 citizens live with undocumented family members, according to a 2016 report by the American Immigration Council.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 23:00

  • US Government Back Door FISA Searches Are Unconstitutional: Federal Judge
    US Government Back Door FISA Searches Are Unconstitutional: Federal Judge

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    The federal government’s method of searching through information incidentally collected on U.S.-based individuals violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, a federal judge has ruled.

    “To countenance this practice would convert Section 702 into precisely what Defendant has labeled it – a tool for law enforcement to run ‘backdoor searches’ that circumvent the Fourth Amendment,” U.S. District Judge LaShann Dearcy Hall said in the ruling, which was released on Jan. 21.

    Government officials acquired information on the defendant, Agron Hasbajrami, a legal permanent resident who they arrested in 2011 and charged with providing material support to a terrorist organization. The information was gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which lets authorities spy on people.

    After Hasbajrami pleaded guilty, authorities disclosed that some of the evidence they used in the case was the fruit of information they obtained without a warrant under a FISA supplement called Section 207, which enables authorities to conduct surveillance on non-U.S. persons reasonably believed to be outside the United States.

    The authorities had gathered some evidence on Hasbajrami as they targeted non-Americans believed to be located outside the country and other communications from Hasbajrami because, they said, they at one point mistakenly thought he was a non-U.S. person.

    Hasbajrami moved to suppress the evidence. After the motion was denied, he pleaded guilty on the condition he be allowed to appeal the denial.

    A federal appeals court in 2019 largely upheld the denial, finding that the government’s incidental collection of information on Hasbajrami as they carried out surveillance was lawful because the surveillance was lawful in the first place. The appeals court also remanded back to the district court the examination of whether the government’s so-called back door searches of the Section 702 database violated the Constitution.

    Hall, in the new decision, concluded they did. While the government’s collection of the evidence was lawful, that doesn’t automatically mean the subsequent database searches were, she said.

    “In other words, simply acquiring defendant’s communications under Section 702, albeit lawfully, did not, in and of itself, permit the government to later query the retained information,” Hall wrote.

    “To hold otherwise would effectively allow law enforcement to amass a repository of communications under Section 702—including those of U.S. persons—that can later be searched on demand without limitation. But this approach undermines the purpose of the warrant requirement, which is ’to interpose a ‘neutral and detached magistrate’ between the citizen and ’the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime,’” Hall added.

    The judge denied the remaining portion of Hasbarjami’s motion, which asked for the government to hand over the evidence it collected.

    A U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment.

    An attorney for Hasbarjami did not respond to a request for comment.

    Government watchdogs hailed the ruling.

    “This is a major constitutional ruling on one of the most abused provisions of FISA,” Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project, said in a statement.

    “In light of this ruling, we ask Congress to uphold its responsibility to protect civil rights and civil liberties by refusing to renew Section 702 absent a number of necessary reforms, including an official warrant requirement for querying US persons data and increased transparency,” Andrew Crocker and Matthew Guariglia, with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, added.

    President Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director, John Ratcliffe, said during his recent confirmation hearing that Section 702 provides an “indispensable national security tool” and that he opposed requiring warrants for queries of the database.

    Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, whom Trump selected as his national security adviser, also says she supports Section 702.

    Section 702 has been repeatedly reauthorized by Congress, most recently in 2024.

    Section 702 is set to expire on April 15, 2026.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 22:35

  • FBI Seeking Public's Help In Identifying "Asian Female" Bank Robber In Seattle
    FBI Seeking Public’s Help In Identifying “Asian Female” Bank Robber In Seattle

    Described as an “Asian female” in her 20s, the FBI and Seattle Police are seeking help identifying a serial bank robber linked to five Seattle heists between June 28, 2024, and January 13, 2025.

    FBI spokesperson Steve Bernd noted, “Once we start seeing someone do multiple jobs or violent bank robberies, it’s something the bureau will put more priority to.”

    The FBI identified the targeted banks as Wells Fargo on Queen Anne (6/28), US Bank on NE 45th (9/7), US Bank on NE 63rd (10/31), Key Bank on Holman Road (11/21), and US Bank on Edmunds (1/13), according to KOMO News.

    KOMO News reports that the suspect is described as an Asian woman, 18-25 years old, 5’3″ to 5’5″, often wearing a hat and facemask. She typically handed tellers a note demanding money during the robberies. 

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

    Bernd said: “She’s using notes, what we call a note job, but the last one, she actually displayed a weapon. She didn’t point it at the teller, but she indicated that she had one, so that’s concerning to us because she hadn’t done that before.” 

    “If that’s indicative of what she’s willing to do if the teller isn’t doing what she’s asking, that’s alarming,” he continued. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 22:10

  • Trump Signs Executive Order Releasing Additional JFK Assassination Files
    Trump Signs Executive Order Releasing Additional JFK Assassination Files

    Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, releasing additional government files associated with the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy (JFK), former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Trump promised at his pre-inauguration rally in Washington on Jan. 19 that he would release the remaining records on the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and King in the coming days.

    “That’s a big one,” Trump said while signing the order at the Oval Office.

    “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. And everything will be revealed.”

    The FBI accused Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine who had defected to the Soviet Union for a period after embracing Marxism, of assassinating JFK in 1963.

    Nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald as authorities were moving him from Dallas police headquarters to the county jail just two days after the assassination, stirring decades of speculation and conspiracy theories.

    JFK’s assassination coincided with a period of increasing mistrust in the federal government, and many Americans still believe Oswald was part of a larger plot to kill the president.

    Gallup’s most recent poll, conducted in October 2023, found that 65 percent of U.S. adults reject the theory that a lone gunman killed JFK.

    Trump and former President Joe Biden previously released thousands of documents related to JFK’s death.

    Roughly 99 percent of the assassination files have been released as of 2023, according to the National Archives.

    However, Biden had agreed to delay the disclosure of additional records, stating the necessity of protecting “against identifiable harms to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, and the conduct of foreign relations that are of such gravity that they outweigh the public interest in disclosure.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 21:45

  • Egg Prices Catapult Into 'Blue-Sky Breakout' As Bird Flu Sparks Worsening Shortage
    Egg Prices Catapult Into ‘Blue-Sky Breakout’ As Bird Flu Sparks Worsening Shortage

    An ongoing and devastating avian influenza outbreak has severely dented the nation’s egg-producing hen population, driving wholesale prices into record-high territory and far surpassing the price explosion seen a few years ago when the bird flu first emerged. This is an alarming trend, and egg prices at the supermarket will likely rise further in the weeks and months ahead.

    The latest wholesale data from Urner Barry shows that the price for a dozen eggs has jumped to a record high of $5.4, exceeding the previous peak of $4.65 set in December 2022. Rising wholesale prices are expected to continue pressuring supermarket prices higher.

    According to the USDA’s bird flu dashboard, 15.5 million birds across the Lower 48 have been infected by avian influenza over the last 30 days.

    About 20 million egg-laying hens died in the fourth quarter of 2024 because of the escalating health crisis, denting the nation’s egg-laying population. 

    “Unlike in past years, in 2024, all major production systems experienced significant losses, including conventional caged, cage-free, and certified organic types,” USDA wrote in a report earlier this month. 

    The end result is this: 

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

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

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

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

    Readers may want to consider building or purchasing chicken coops to secure their own egg supply, as shortages are expected to persist. Additionally, a growing trend among some Americans involves sourcing clean food from mom-and-pop farms or utilizing their own land for food production. It may be time for folks to shift away from toxic food supply chains controlled by mega-corporations. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 21:20

  • Battle Lines Drawn On Trump's Border Crackdown
    Battle Lines Drawn On Trump’s Border Crackdown

    Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

    President Trump’s decision to launch his second term by declaring a national emergency at the U.S. border triggered an avalanche of opposition from Democratic governors, liberal members of Congress, and pro-migrant organizations vowing to challenge the constitutionality of his sweeping executive actions.

    In Monday’s inaugural address, Trump pledged that “all illegal entry will immediately be halted.” The national emergency declaration includes provisions allowing for the deployment of additional military resources to finish the border wall, among other efforts.

    “We will have the military at the southern border, but there are other elements of the United States government that will be working throughout the country,” an incoming White House official said during a Monday morning call with reporters.

    The executive action targeting children of illegal immigrants, along with a raft of border-related orders Trump signed to overhaul U.S. immigration and border security, attracted condemnation from Pope Francis, as well a host of left-leaning groups.  

    In an interview Sunday on Italian television, Francis labeled the mass deportation of illegal immigrants “a calamity,” remarks signaling a return to the friction between the pontiff and Trump that marked the president’s first term in the White House.

    “This, if it’s true, will be a disgrace, because it will make poor unfortunates who have nothing foot the bill for [global] imbalances,” the pope said. “That doesn’t work. You don’t solve things that way. You just don’t.”

    Francis, who has made illegal immigrant and refugee rights a top priority of his papacy, is the most prominent voice pushing back against Trump’s sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy to implement mass deportations.

    Other self-anointed U.S. leaders of the Trump resistance also denounced the stricter immigration policies and pledged not to follow the new federal birthright law while fighting it in court.

    “That’s unconstitutional. We will not follow an unconstitutional order,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who is eyeing a 2028 presidential run, told reporters Monday. Pritzker blasted Trump’s deportation plans, which reportedly could begin in cities across the country, including Chicago, as early as Tuesday.

    “They have not communicated with us. I’m reading the same things you are,” Pritzker continued. “This is indicative of what you’re going to see of the Trump administration for the next four years. It’s chaos.”

    Refugees International, a nonprofit advocacy organization, deemed Trump’s first moves to tighten immigration laws “extreme” and “an attempt to reverse America’s proud legacy and tradition of providing refuge to people forced to flee their homes.”

    “Make no mistake, these orders are not just about stopping irregular migration – they also target long-standing legal migration pathways in ways that will endanger vulnerable people, undermine border security, and harm the U.S. economy,” the group said in a statement.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another presumed 2028 presidential contender, declared himself the leader of the Trump resistance just days after the president’s victory. On Monday, however, he was far more restrained. After weeks of searing criticism over state and local officials’ response to the Los Angeles wildfires, Newsom is walking a careful line with federal disaster aid on the line and with Trump set to visit the state on Friday.

    Newsom, in a post on X.com, stressed the need to find “common ground” and efforts to reach “shared goals.”

    “Where our shared principles are aligned, my administration stands ready to work with the Trump-Vance administration to deliver solutions and serve the nearly 40 million Californians we jointly represent,” he wrote.

    Undeterred by the angry opposition, Tom Homan, Trump’s incoming “border czar,” Monday defended Trump’s crackdown. Homan estimated that more than 10 million illegal immigrants have flooded into the country during the Biden administration and argued that Biden and outgoing U.S. officials have “blood on their hands” for the death of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley and other U.S. citizens slain by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

    Deportation raids targeting criminals will begin in major cities across the country Tuesday, Homan said, although he noted that the administration is reconsidering details of a planned Chicago ICE raid after a leak to the press about the operation occurred.

    Earlier in the day, the Senate passed the Laken Riley Act on a bipartisan vote, with 12 Democrats joining Republicans to vote for the bill mandating the detention of more illegal immigrants charged with crimes. The measure now heads to the House, which passed a similar bill last month.

    Gallego co-sponsored the Laken Riley bill but opposes ending birthright citizenship, another idea broached during the campaign and pressed by Trump on his first day in office.

    “We need to address our broken immigration system and secure the border,” Gallego wrote on X.com, “But executive actions like this run contrary to the ideals of what makes our country great, and I will do all I can to fight this anti-American executive order.”

    The battles lines over Trump’s expected revocation of birthright citizenship came into focus months ago. The immigration executive actions are a combination of campaign promises and policy ideas from the first term that never materialized.

    Late Monday night, just hours after Trump signed the executive order ending birthright citizenship, the American Civil Liberties Union and several other immigration rights groups sued, accusing the administration of flouting the Constitution, congressional intent and longstanding Supreme Court precedent.

    “Denying citizenship to U.S. born children is not only unconstitutional – it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values,” Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement. “Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans.”

    The ACLU and the other groups are suing on the basis that ending the citizenship of children born to illegal immigrations violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

    “We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged,” Romero added. “The Trump administration’s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail.”

    The incoming administration on Monday also shut down CBP One, an app that helped illegal immigrants and asylum seekers enter the United States.

    House Homeland Security Committee chairman Mark Green applauded the flurry of immigration restrictions Trump imposed on his first day in office, deeming them a “restoration of American sovereignty at our borders.”

    “We’re going to take the handcuffs [off ICE] that were placed on them by the Biden administration, and we’re going to put them on the bad guys,” Homan added during an appearance on Fox News Monday night.

    Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ national political correspondent.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 20:55

  • Bulk Carrier Paralyzed On Lake Erie As Ice Coverage Exceeds 50-Year Trend
    Bulk Carrier Paralyzed On Lake Erie As Ice Coverage Exceeds 50-Year Trend

    Climate misinformation and disinformation, relentlessly pushed by far-left corporate media outlets, had their readership believing they were on the brink of perishing on a fiery planet—blaming everything from Taylor Swift’s private jet travels to cow farts in late 2024. 

    Then came ‘Old Man Winter,’ unleashing a polar vortex across the eastern half of the US, bringing record-low temperatures in some regions. Multiple winter storms traversed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, including an incredibly rare snowstorm that battered New Orleans (bordering Gulf of America waters) that nearly surpassed a snowstorm last seen 130 years ago. 

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

    The cold blast (or what has felt like a ‘mini ice age’ this month) produced by the polar vortex does not align with the corporate media’s and the World Economic Forum’s global warming doom narrative. This may explain why ‘green’ politicians and unelected officials, along with MSM, have somewhat ignored the reality of a cold blast freezing the US to the core. 

    These are not the headlines one would expect to see if the planet was actually on fire: 

    The latest cold weather emergency comes from the Great Lakes region. X users citing ship tracking data indicate that at least one bulk carrier is stranded on Lake Erie due to rapidly expanding ice coverage by subzero temperatures. 

    Meteorologist Tom Niziol wrote on X, “Lake Erie over 80% ice-covered, freighter Manitoulan is stuck in the ice just outside Buffalo Harbor.”

    “Word is they will sit there until an icebreaker gets to them tomorrow,” Niziol said. 

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

    Another X user posted drone footage of Manitoulin stuck on Lake Erie.

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

    And another. 

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

    NOAA ice cover data from the Great Lakes Ice Tracker shows that Lake Erie’s current ice coverage is 80%, well above the 50-year trend of 46% for this time of year. 

    For the Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Ice Tracker shows ice coverage at 25%, which is in line with 50-year trends for this time of year. 

    The ice emergency unfolding on Lake Erie that has paralyzed some marine shipping lanes is not a headline that one would see if MSM was actually right about their global warming propaganda. No wonder trust in MSM has collapsed to record-low levels.  

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 20:30

  • Trump Brings Stellantis Jobs To Illinois… Pritzker Takes Credit
    Trump Brings Stellantis Jobs To Illinois… Pritzker Takes Credit

    Authored by Mark Glennon via Wirepoints.org,

    Illinois had some rare, good news yesterday.

    Stellantis, the Big 3 auto maker, announced it will be investing $1.2 billion in its Belvidere assembly plant and bringing back about 1,500 jobs there.

    You’ll never know who really got it done if you listen to Illinois’ leadership.

    It was a  “dramatic turnabout,” as the Detroit Free Press put it.

    As you may remember, Gov. JB Pritzker announced to much fanfare in October 2023 that the Stellantis facility in Belvidere, idled with layoffs just before the previous Christmas, would be reopened. But no deal was ever signed and, last year, Stellantis indefinitely postponed any Belividere expansion, blaming “market conditions.”

    But that was before Trump, his tariff threats and four days of meetings last week between Stellantis, Trump and his team.

    Here is a headline on one of many stories linking yesterday’s good news about more jobs in Illinois to Trump’s pressure on Stellantis:

    “Stellantis responds to Trump’s tariff threat, will restart Illinois plant and build new Durango in Detroit.”

    And from the Wall Street Journal:

    John Elkann, chairman of Jeep-maker Stellantis, wasted no time reassuring President Trump of the global automaker’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing. The scion of Italy’s famous Agnelli family met with Trump last week to emphasize the company’s support for American workers.

    On Wednesday, following the meeting, Stellantis reaffirmed plans to reopen a now-idled factory in Illinois to make a new midsize truck, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

    Pritzker, however, claims full credit for himself and his friends.

    Not a word even acknowledging Trump’s role.

    From Pritzker’s statement yesterday about Stellantis’ new announcement:

    This would not be possible without proactive collaboration and coordination between the State of Illinois, Stellantis, UAW, the Biden-Harris Administration, and our champions in Congress, including Senator Durbin, Senator Duckworth, Representative Bill Foster, and Representative Eric Sorensen,” said Governor JB Pritzker.

    “My administration has worked tirelessly with our partners to secure this investment and we are excited to see it come to fruition.

    Illinois Senator’s Duckworth and Durbin were no better.

    Their joint statement likewise doesn’t mention Trump.

    One big loose end is that we still don’t know how much state money Illinois initially offered Stellantis as part of the initial deal that fell apart. Pritzker and the state never said and nobody in the media ever pressed him for an answer. Some or all of that money is presumably still on the table. In any event, that does not mean Trump’s role wasn’t essential to Stellantis’ new committment.

    Why does Pritzker figure he can get away with deceit and ingratitude so extreme?

    Because the Illinois press never calls him out on such things.

    He knows they won’t lay a hand on him.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 20:05

  • Thacker Dismantles WSJ Propaganda Over Gain-Of-Function Research
    Thacker Dismantles WSJ Propaganda Over Gain-Of-Function Research

    The Wall Street Journal is playing sleight of hand over an (allegedly) upcoming Trump executive order that would halt federal funding for gain-of-function (GoF) research.

    For starters, they frame opposition to GoF as partisan, and suggest that concerns over it are recent. Journalist Paul Thacker of The Disinformation Chronicle breaks it down.

    For example, the WSJ writes “The gain-of-function studies had been a staple of research into viruses, but became an object of controversy and criticism during the pandemic crisis. Republicans in Congress criticized the studies.”

    Wrong: GoF has been under scrutiny for more than a decade. In fact, the Obama Administration banned it in 2014, which is why Dr. Anthony Fauci offshored it to Wuhan, China via EcoHealth Alliance.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsNext, the Journal suggests that only “some Republicans” who think GoF caused Covid-19, when in fact a majority of Americans think that’s the case, including 53% of Democrats.

    The article also cites scientists with huge conflicts of interest, and that “Many scientists and public-health officials have said there isn’t any public evidence that an experiment at the Wuhan lab could have created the virus that caused the pandemic.”

    Wrong: The government was concerned at the highest levels that the virus started in a lab.

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

    And about those conflicts of interest…

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

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

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

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 19:40

  • Meet The 'Crunchy' Moms Who Support RFK Jr. As Health Secretary
    Meet The ‘Crunchy’ Moms Who Support RFK Jr. As Health Secretary

    Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A term once reserved for granola-eating hippies, “crunchy” moms has evolved into a label for women who embrace a more natural lifestyle for their families.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock, Courtesy of Lyndsey Mulherin, Courtesy of Kristen Taylor, Courtesy of Krista Cobb, Jeff Louderback/The Epoch Times, Courtesy of Samantha Adams

    These are women who favor herbal treatments over physician-prescribed and over-the-counter medications, cooking with butter or beef tallow instead of seed oils, examining food labels at the grocery store, and exercising caution about vaccinating their children.

    When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president—first as a Democrat and then as an independent—these moms were among his most vocal supporters.

    Fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate influence on government agencies were vital parts of Kennedy’s campaign platform.

    Ultimately, Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and backed the Trump ticket in August 2024.

    Since then, Kennedy has launched his Make America Healthy Again campaign, with the intention to curtail what he calls America’s chronic disease epidemic. He is seeking to have toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply removed and he wants to address what he has branded the corporate capture of federal health agencies, among other objectives.

    In November, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kennedy to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the latter promptly pledged to make sweeping changes to its subsidiary agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

    Several moms told The Epoch Times they are ecstatic about the possibility of Kennedy as HHS secretary, pending Senate confirmation.

    “With RFK Jr., we have a champion in our corner,” Lyndsey Mulherin told The Epoch Times.

    A homesteader in northwest Ohio, Mulherin has devoted her life to being a stay-at-home mom caring for her three children, including her middle son, Jack, who was diagnosed with autism at age 2. She blames a vaccine.

    “Everything we put in or on our body affects our health. In its simplest form, that is what crunchy moms are all about,” Mulherin said.

    “People have questioned our decisions to not vaccinate our [other] kids, and avoid certain foods and cleaning products among other items we use in everyday life.

    “Now, because of Kennedy’s platform, Trump nominating Kennedy, and what Kennedy plans to do, people are starting to learn what we learned a long time ago,” Mulherin said.

    Lyndsey Mulherin. Courtesy of Lyndsey Mulherin

    Kristen Taylor is a South Carolina mom who embraces a holistic lifestyle. She wasn’t always that way.

    “There was a time I believed and trusted conventional doctors. I thought they knew everything about health. I believed what the media told us about health,” she said.

    “I thought vaccines were necessary and getting my children vaccinated was a sign I was a good mother. Simply put, I was indoctrinated.”

    Taylor was motivated to dig deeper into products when she investigated the ingredients of a self-tanning wipe she used and found they included parabens, which have been linked to causing cancer.

    “I started reading the ingredients of every single product our family was putting on our skin and if I saw an even somewhat questionable ingredient, I trashed that product. I woke up.”

    A fitness enthusiast, Taylor has a Master’s degree and taught in public school before she decided to become a stay-at-home mom and a homeschool teacher.

    “The collaboration between Trump and RFK Jr. gives me hope that I haven’t felt in a long time. Those of us who are crunchy, holistic, natural—whatever you want to call it—believe in RFK Jr. because he is one of us and he didn’t dismiss us,” Taylor told The Epoch Times.

    “He takes the time to deeply learn about a topic, and if he finds reason to stand up for it, he does it loud and clear. That’s why so many of us back him, regardless of political beliefs, because he genuinely cares and is committed to making positive change,” she said.

    “That’s been lacking in our health care agencies for a long time,” she added.

    Kristen Taylor is a South Carolina mother and fitness enthusiast who is excited about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as Health and Human Services secretary. Courtesy of Kristen Taylor

    Krista Cobb, a 41-year-old mother of three, grew up in the hills of southeastern Kentucky where her grandparents taught her all about canning, gardening, and hunting.

    After moving to an urban area in the Dayton, Ohio, area and living there for a few decades, she grew tired of the “concrete jungle” and bought a small property in rural western Ohio last year.

    Since then, she has transformed the land into a homestead with chickens, goats, ducks, and gardens.

    “I wanted to get back to my roots,” Cobb told The Epoch Times.

    An ardent Trump supporter, Cobb told The Epoch Times she is “ecstatic” that Kennedy might be days away from becoming HHS secretary.

    “It’s long overdue for vaccine schedules to be addressed, for toxins to be removed from our food, and for government health agencies to be managed by people who have no ties to Big Pharma and Big Ag,” Cobb said.

    “I believe that Kennedy will do what he says he’s going to do, and we as a country will be better off.

    “It will take some time. I don’t think it will all happen overnight, but just knowing he will be in a position to make those changes is a great feeling.”

    Krista Cobb, a self-described “crunchy mom,” has goats, chickens, and ducks on her western Ohio homestead. Courtsey of Krista Cobb

    Mulherin said her son, Jack, developed autism when he was 2. She stopped all vaccinations, eliminated all processed foods and artificial dyes, went to a chiropractor instead of a pediatrician, and took him to occupational and speech therapy.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 19:15

  • From Idlib To Davos: Al-Qaeda Linked Syrian Official On Mainstage At WEF
    From Idlib To Davos: Al-Qaeda Linked Syrian Official On Mainstage At WEF

    A US-designated terrorist group still remains the current de facto ruling entity in Damascus and over Syria. But for the West, all that matters is that al-Qaeda linked Jolani is not Assad. A decade-plus long proxy war in pursuit of regime change finally overthrew the secular Baath government early last month, and resulted in the hardline Islamists of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) controlling most of the country.

    The West appears to be fully embracing the new rulers which we previously referred to as al-Qaeda in suits. This week we have been treated to the spectacle of a HTS representative speaking on the main stage at Davos. He’s come a long way from Idlib and its black flags… straight to the red carpet jet-setting champaign-sipping insider atmosphere of world elites.

    During the 55th annual WEF meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2025. via Reuters

    Syria’s new HTS-appointed Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani told the World Economic Forum on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia is now the exemplar for Syria to follow.

    “Where do we see inspiration for the new Syria? We have the Vision 2030 of Saudi Arabia,” Al-Shaibani said during a conversation with former UK prime minister Tony Blair.

    “We need Syria to be a place of peace, to be a place of development, a place free of war,” the top HTS diplomat added.

    On top of the irony of an AQ-linked official being invited to Davos (and merely within less than two months after HTS took power), there’s the added irony that Tony Blair – one of Bush’s key allies who pushed the 2003 invasion of Iraq – was hosting the Davos main stage discussion with Al-Shaibani.

    Former leaders like Blair, in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, are responsible for having overseen the sectarian and Islamist nightmare which gripped Iraq and the region in the aftermath. The rise of ISIS would not have been possible if it weren’t for the US/UK ‘shock and awe’ regime change operation, for example. Later, the West and Gulf states funded the Syrian insurgency, during which time Al-Qaeda in Iraq jihadists poured across the border into Syria. HTS was born out of this West-backed anti-Assad jihad (it was known as Nusra Front in the beginning).

    But of course, the Davos elites are embracing it all: war crimes and jihad. 

    Meanwhile, in Syria HTS has allowed ISIS-linked foreign fighters to intimidate the population with impunity. Alawites, Druze, and Christians live in fear as sectarian-driven killings are on the rise in the “liberated Syria” – especially in the Homs, Latakia, and coastal and countryside regions.

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

    Did Blair extract from Shaibani a firm commitment to protect Syria’s Christians and uphold secularism for Syria at Davos? Of course not.

    The future looks bleak as Jolani has pledged eventual implementation of Sharia law. Already there have been widespread reports of alcohol stores being smashed, women forced to wear the Islamic veil, and imposed separation of the sexes in many public places. But the WEF has enthusiastically greeted this new Syriaistan. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 18:50

  • Trump MemeCoins Set To Be Sued… But To What End?
    Trump MemeCoins Set To Be Sued… But To What End?

    Authored by Ailsa Sherrington via CoinTelegraph.com,

    Just days before US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the crypto industry was taken relatively by surprise with the launch of Official Trump (TRUMP), which was swiftly followed by Official Melania (MELANIA) — two memecoins launched by the first family that have pumped and yo-yoed in the days that followed.

    ​​

    The president’s memecoin hit a peak of $72 on Jan. 19, then dipped to $44 on Jan. 20 when MELANIA launched. The coin briefly recovered while the president was sworn into office and has since hovered around the $40 mark. At the time of writing, the president’s memecoin is $37 — down 49% from its peak.

    If speculation is to be believed, more official memecoins by the Trump family are on the way. Though touted as “memecoins,” their significance is unprecedented.

    It was difficult to imagine an incoming American president launching his own memecoin before Jan. 18. Now, it’s hard to picture TRUMP and other tokens not playing a pivotal role in the US political sphere.

    As crypto lawyer Preston Byrne wrote in a blog post, “Crypto is going to be a bigger political football than it’s ever been. Everyone who cares about politics is going to care about it, with no exceptions.”

    This includes Democrats and disgruntled investors, who, according to Byrne, are 100% likely to sue the project within two months.

    Is TRUMP even illegal?

    James Thurber, founder and former director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, told the Guardian that Trump is blatantly profiting from his own pro-crypto agenda.

    “There are shameful and major conflicts of interest with respect to his family business benefiting from his cryptocurrency policies,” Thurber said. 

    Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget Research, told Cointelegraph that TRUMP has “drawn new investors into the space.” But new audiences aren’t necessarily aware of what makes a sound investment. The launch of TRUMP and MELANIA has predictably made winners and losers, with some shedding millions of dollars as prices slumped.

    Nearly 570,000 wallets have made a loss on TRUMP, compared to nearly 330,000 that made a profit. Source: 0xning

    Byrne believes these lost investments will inevitably lead to litigation. But what is the legal basis?

    “To my knowledge, no court in the United States has determined that memecoins are explicitly legal,” crypto lawyer Aaron Brogan told Cointelegraph.

    That said, they have historically been difficult to prosecute. Brogan explained that memecoins may not be classified as securities under the Howey test.

    “This is because they are basically inert. They don’t do anything and are not tied to any project with a goal of developing useful applications. They just sit onchain, and people buy them for the memes.”

    This is likely why the Securities and Exchange Commission largely avoided memecoins during its Gary Gensler era, instead opting for comparatively “easier” targets like XRP and SOL.

    “But regardless of why, launching a memecoin was less risky over the last four years than developing a bona fide project in cryptocurrency, which is probably the reason they have proliferated,” Brogan said.

    So, memecoins exist in a sort of litigation vacuum, making it the best way for the Trump family to launch a token when all eyes were firmly on them. However, these memecoins are tied to arguably the most important people in the United States — so whether the intent or not, the value of TRUMP and MELANIA will likely serve as a litmus test of public sentiment.

    As Byrne wrote:

    “Trump Coin will now be tracked on CNBC financial shows, in newspapers, the price will be a reflection of the underlying tone of American society and the American project.”

    Crypto lawyer Josh Lawler told Cointelegraph that the question is whether this should immediately place TRUMP and MELANIA into a different, regulated category.

    “The unresolved and difficult question is whether the fact that a large segment of the global population is primed to turn this ‘consumer product’ into a major capital asset should automatically put it into a regulated category even though there is no ‘official’ communication of ongoing investment value,” he told Cointelegraph. 

    “As of this moment in time, there is no law that would require that treatment.”

    Democrats likely to sue anyway

    Trump and his team of lawyers have clearly prepared for attacks from Democrats or others keen to see him bleed over these memecoins.

    The terms of service on the TRUMP memecoin’s official website state that TRUMP is not intended to be, in any way, “an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”

    Lawler agrees that “an early assessment indicates that TRUMP is carefully crafted to avoid literal violation of laws including the Securities Act or the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the United States Constitution.”

    And it is “absolutely unthinkable” that Trump would face legal threats from the federal government during his term, Brogan stated.

    However, Byrne says that this won’t stop Democrats or certain investors from filing, say, a civil lawsuit. In fact, he’s banking on it.

    The TRUMP terms include a class-action waiver and a clause requiring any litigation to be handled in arbitration (out of court), which serve to protect the project from civil lawsuits. Byrne wrote:

    “This might make it tough for initial purchasers to bring a suit, but it’ll be easier for holders of tokens on secondary sales to argue that there’s no contractual privity between them and the project and so these terms shouldn’t apply.”

    According to the crypto lawyer, there’s a 100% chance of a civil lawsuit within two months and a 90% chance of one filed in the next two weeks.

    “I am absolutely certain this will happen. Someone will lose money, some lawyer will come up with a theory and file.”

    Brogan agrees, telling Cointelegraph:

    “Frankly, I think the torrent of legal filings is about to make Noah’s great flood look like a sun shower.”

    What’s the worst that could happen?

    As a man who became a convicted felon and then the 47th president of the US — in that order — it’s worth asking what, if anything, litigation will do to Trump. It may be difficult to legally pursue the leader of the “free world,” but it is not impossible.

    “In Clinton v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are subject to suit for actions they took before becoming president,” Brogan explained.

    “So, it is possible that some of these lawsuits will get through.”

    The issue is that Trump has developed Kevlar-grade skin. Some civil lawsuits, perhaps a few TRUMP associates hounded by state attorneys general… will these attempts lead to any real form of enforcement? Of protection for investors?

    “He’s cultivated a coalition of supporters who are not interested in policing traditional mores of public conduct,” Brogan argued, “and the dividend from that effort is that he can do whatever he wants.”

    “Trump has immanentized the crypto revolution,” Byrne concluded in his blog post. “We will each remember this day until we die, because we will be dealing with the consequences of this for the rest of our lives.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 18:25

  • RINO Defections Fail To Derail Hegseth As Senate Confirmation Advances
    RINO Defections Fail To Derail Hegseth As Senate Confirmation Advances

    Via Headline USA,

    The Senate advanced the nomination of Pete Hegseth as President Donald Trump’s defense secretary Thursday on a largely party-line vote, despite party-line opposition from Democrats and defections from two notorious RINOs who – like most in the Senate – voted in favor of confirming grossly incompetent Biden Defense secretary Lloyd Austin.

    Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine predictably broke rank with the Republican majority to elevate the former Fox News star, distinguished military veteran, accomplished author and Harvard graduate.

    The vote was 51-49, with a final vote on confirmation expected Friday.

    Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., implored his colleagues to think seriously, “Is this the best man we have to lead the greatest military in the world?”

    In what has become a standard part of the Democrat playbook, Hegseth has been subjected to salacious personal smear attacks, accusing him of heavy drinking and infidelity—both of which Democrats routinely engage in with impunity and which would not impugn his competence as a military leader if true. Hegseth has denied many of the allegations.

    Mukowksi, in a lengthy statement, said that his behaviors “starkly contrast” with what is expected of the U.S. military. She also noted his past statements that women should not fill military combat roles.

    “I remain concerned about the message that confirming Mr. Hegseth sends to women currently serving and those aspiring to join,” Murkowski wrote on social media.

    Murkowski said behavior that Hegseth has acknowledged, “including infidelity on multiple occasions,” shows a lack of judgment.

    “These behaviors starkly contrast the values and discipline expected of service members,” she said.

    “Above all, I believe that character is the defining trait required of the Secretary of Defense, and must be prioritized without compromise,” she said.

    Trump is standing by Hegseth, and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has dismissed the claims as factually inaccurate.

    It will take a simple majority senators to confirm Hegseth’s confirmation. Most Republicans, who hold a 53-seat majority in the chamber, have signaled they will back the nominee, though Vice President JD Vance could be called in to break a tie vote.

    “I am ironclad in my assessment that the nominee, Mr. Hegseth, is prepared to be the next secretary of defense,” the chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said in a statement on the eve of voting. “The Senate needs to confirm this nominee as fast as possible.”

    Wicker said he had been briefed a third time on the FBI background investigation into Hegseth. He said “the allegations unfairly impugning his character do not pass scrutiny.”

    A new president’s national security nominees are often the first to be lined up for confirmation, to ensure U.S. safety at home and abroad. Already the Senate has overwhelmingly confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of State in a unanimous vote, and it was on track to confirm John Ratcliffe as CIA director later Thursday.

    During a fiery confirmation hearing, Hegseth swatted away allegations of wrongdoing one by one—dismissing them as “smears”—as he displayed his military credentials and vowed to bring “warrior culture” to the top Pentagon post.

    Among the allegations levied against Hegseth is a claim that he sexually assaulted a woman at a Republican conference in California, which he has maintained was a consensual encounter.

    A new claim emerged this week in an affidavit from a former sister-in-law who said Hegseth was abusive to his second wife to the point that she feared for her safety. Hegseth has denied the allegation. In divorce proceedings, neither Hegseth nor the woman claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse.

    Schumer said Thursday that Hegseth was unqualified for the job because of his personal behavior, including drinking, and his lack of experience.

    “One of the kindest words that might be used to describe Mr. Hegseth is erratic, and that’s a term you don’t want at DOD,” Schumer said.

    “He has a clear problem of judgment.”

    A Princeton- and Harvard-educated former combat veteran, Hegseth went on to make a career at Fox News, where he hosted a weekend show. Trump tapped him as the defense secretary to lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

    Hegseth has promised not to drink on the job if confirmed.

    Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, herself a combat veteran and sexual assault survivor, has signaled her backing after initially opposing the choice. It is believed that Ernst herself may have been engaged in a soft campaign for the spot but that intra-party pressure and backlash led her to reconsider.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 17:40

  • Washington State Seeking To Legalize Homeless Encampments
    Washington State Seeking To Legalize Homeless Encampments

    Washington Democrats have introduced House Bill 1380, sponsored by Rep. Mia Gregerson (D-SeaTac), which would prevent cities and towns from banning or heavily restricting homeless encampments on public property, according to 770 KTTH.

    The bill requires any regulations to be “objectively reasonable as to time, place, and manner,” a vague standard determined by judges. It also applies retroactively, potentially nullifying existing ordinances, and provides legal advantages to homeless individuals challenging encampment restrictions.

    The bill allows homeless individuals to sue cities over encampment restrictions, request injunctive or declaratory relief, and argue that the restrictions are unreasonable. If the city loses, taxpayers would be responsible for covering the plaintiffs’ legal fees.

    Opponents claim the bill’s ambiguous language deters cities from enforcing restrictions, as its unclear standards may result in inconsistent court decisions.

    State Rep. Mia Gregerson, who advocates for the right to camp on public property, has proposed legislation that could create legal confusion, with different judges potentially issuing conflicting rulings on the same ordinance.

    The bill offers no clear definition of “objectively reasonable,” leaving the term open to subjective interpretation when applied to encampment restrictions. Courts are directed to prioritize the impact on homeless individuals, even permitting violations of “unreasonable” ordinances if it is necessary for survival, such as staying warm and dry.

    The potential benefits of these ordinances for the broader community are not considered.

    Critics argue this framework makes it nearly impossible for cities to defend their policies, likely by design. A local lawmaker told “The Jason Rantz Show” that Rep. Gregerson did not consult cities in her district before moving forward with the legislation.

    The 770 KTTH report says that most cities can’t afford the lawsuits triggered by challenges to their homeless ordinances under the vague “objective reasonableness” standard, which invites endless legal disputes.

    Critics argue HB 1360, proposed by Rep. Mia Gregerson, is a rebranded version of her controversial “homeless bill of rights” and worsens the crisis by limiting local leaders’ ability to address encampments, prioritizing ideology over solutions.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 17:20

  • Judge Blocks Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order
    Judge Blocks Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    A U.S. judge on Jan. 23 blocked President Donald Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship.

    U.S. District Judge John Coughenour after a hearing in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order that prohibits the Trump administration for 14 days from enforcing Trump’s order, which the president signed hours after taking office on Monday.

    The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    “This is blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour told a lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department during the hearing.

    The ruling was made in a case brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington state. It was one of several lawsuits lodged against the executive order.

    Trump’s order was set to take effect on Feb. 19. It says that the federal government does not automatically recognize birthright citizenship for children who are born to illegal immigrants in the United States.

    Historically, babies born on U.S. soil receive U.S. citizenship.

    That’s based on court rulings interpreting the U.S. Constitution, which says in part that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Congress also passed a law containing similar language.

    Trump’s order says that the Constitution’s citizenship clause “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States” and “has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”

    It clarifies that the federal government does not automatically grant citizenship to babies whose mothers are in the United States and whose fathers are neither U.S. citizens nor lawful permanent residents.

    In their motion for a temporary restraining order, state officials said that Trump went beyond his powers with the order, describing it as “flatly contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment’s text and history, century-old Supreme Court precedent, longstanding Executive Branch interpretation, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

    Without court intervention, the order would leave more than 150,000 babies born this year without citizenship because their parents are illegally in the country, according to the attorneys general.

    Government officials said in response that the court should not issue a restraining order because the states have not suffered any injuries and because the plaintiffs are not likely to succeed.

    “Ample historical evidence shows that the children of non-resident aliens are subject to foreign powers—and, thus, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are not constitutionally entitled to birthright citizenship,” government lawyers said.

    That included a Supreme Court justice writing in legal commentaries that birthright citizenship should not apply to babies whose parents were in the country “for temporary purposes.”

    Coughenour sided with the states, telling the courtroom before Department of Justice attorney Brett Shumate had even finished talking that he had signed the restraining order sought by the states.

    The two-week order is in place while Coughenour weighs issuing a preliminary injunction, which would likely remain in place as the case proceeds in the courts.

    Schumate during Thursday’s hearing argued the executive order was constitutional and that any order blocking it would be “wildly inappropriate.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 17:00

  • Kremlin Shrugs Off, Downplays Trump's Threat Of Tariffs: 'Nothing Particularly New Here'
    Kremlin Shrugs Off, Downplays Trump’s Threat Of Tariffs: ‘Nothing Particularly New Here’

    As we’ve reported, President Donald Trump has been warning and urging for Russia to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine or else things will get worse for Moscow, also as Trump has threatened Russia with new tariffs and sanctions if no solution is found.

    But the Kremlin in response appears to have simply shrugged off this threat of sanctions and tariffs, saying in a statement that “we do not see any particularly new elements here” and that “we remain ready for equal and mutually respectful dialogue.”

    Trump’s strong statements are intended to build some quick leverage for Ukraine at the negotiating table – leverage which it clearly doesn’t have on the battlefield as Russian forces continue to make strategic advances around the key city of Pokrovsk.

    Via Reuters

    But Putin isn’t ready to take the bait, it appears, and Trump’s White House and national security team no doubt perceives it will be much tougher dealing with Putin than previously thought.

    Once again, the battlefield is not in Washington or Kiev’s favor: “The Chief Commander of the Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated that the army is doing everything within its power to prevent the loss of Pokrovsk. At this moment, there is no talk of encircling the city—the Russians have approached it from only one direction,” a Thursday war report reads.

    “According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russians remain relentless in their attempts to initiate a large offensive and are moving units from other directions to the Pokrovsk region,” the report adds.

    There won’t a ‘quick fix’ to getting either side to the negotiating table, and given Moscow is completely in the driver’s seat with recent battlefield gains in Donetsk, the Kremlin is unlikely to feel in a hurry.

    Somewhat surprisingly, Ukraine’s Zelensky has started to change his tune on the possibility of every directly engaging Putin in diplomatic talks. He has long said Kiev will never negotiate with Russia so long as Putin is in power, but now…

    However, in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday in Davos, Zelensky appeared to have changed his stance on the issue. According to the agency, the Ukrainian leader now says he wants to secure a commitment from Trump to support and secure Ukraine before engaging with Putin.

    “The only question is what security guarantees and honestly I want to have understanding before the talks. If he can guarantee this strong and irreversible security for Ukraine, we will move along this diplomatic path,” he said.

    Such statements also serve to give the Kremlin side more confidence and assurance that it has a stronger hand, given Zelensky is already inching away from past absolutist statements. However, there are reports this week saying that Putin is increasingly concerned about the state of the Russian economy:

    President Vladimir Putin has grown increasingly concerned about distortions in Russia’s wartime economy, just as Donald Trump pushes for an end to the Ukraine conflict, five sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

    Russia’s economy, driven by exports of oil, gas and minerals, grew robustly over the past two years despite multiple rounds of Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    The report then emphasizes, “But domestic activity has become strained in recent months by labor shortages and high interest rates introduced to tackle inflation, which has accelerated under record military spending.”

    Zelensky also has little leverage to impose his demands on the White House at this point, and with the more compliant Biden team long gone…

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

    Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told an audience at the Institute for US and Canadian Studies in Moscow, “Compared to the hopelessness in every aspect of the previous White House chief (President Joe Biden), there is a window of opportunity today, albeit a small one.” 

    He added: “It’s therefore important to understand with what and whom we will have to deal, how best to build relations with Washington, how best to maximize opportunities and minimize risks.” But Moscow will extract as much as possible from the other side… because it can.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 16:40

  • Migrants Not Needed: BlackRock's Fink Says 'Xenophobic' Countries Will Have Higher Standard Of Living Amid AI Revolution
    Migrants Not Needed: BlackRock’s Fink Says ‘Xenophobic’ Countries Will Have Higher Standard Of Living Amid AI Revolution

    Via Remix News,

    Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock and arguably one of the most powerful men on the planet, is now openly saying that the countries with xenophobic immigration policies are going to have a higher standard of living, faster productivity growth, and will be better able to accommodate the social impact of artificial intelligence advances over the coming years.

    “You know, we always used to think shrinking population is a cause for negative growth. But in my conversations with the leadership of these large developed countries that have xenophobic immigration policies, they don’t allow anybody to come in, shrinking unemployment, excuse me, shrinking demographics.

    These countries will rapidly develop robotics and AI and technology.

    And if the promise, I didn’t say it’s going to happen, but as a promise of all that transforms productivity, which most of us think it will, we’ll be able to elevate the standard of living of countries and the standard of living of individuals even with shrinking populations,” said Fink.

    “And so the paradigm of negative population growth is going to be changing. And the social problems that one will have in substituting humans for machines is going to be far easier in those countries that have declining populations,” he said.

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

    Fink’s BlackRock manages $10.6 trillion in assets and has access to world leaders, CEOs, and some of the brightest minds on the planet, so when he speaks, people should listen whether they like what he is saying or not.

    When Fink talks about xenophobic countries, he is talking about countries like South Korea, China, and Japan, where robotics and AI are being used to deal with the demographic situation instead of mass immigration. Of course, it must be noted that Fink himself has played a key role in driving DEI policies in corporations. BlackRock has used its trillions in investment dollars to strong-arm companies to adopt these policies, but society is not only turning against the policies, but Fink and others may also see the writing on the wall with AI and automation, and how many of the Asian countries seem to be outperforming the West.

    Examples abound of how these countries are rapidly replacing human labor, and some of the most dramatic changes have taken place in just the last few years, if not the last few months.

    Japan, for example, is where food delivery robots are being deployed instead of migrants from Third World countries, the same migrants who in the West are forced to earn a pittance while enduring tenuous working conditions.

    Meanwhile, China is deploying self-driving buses to shuttle people around instead of refugees. The autonomous vehicle trend is exploding, and it will only accelerate over the next five years to the point that most public transportation will be automated, and if there is any driver at all, he or she will only be there in emergencies.

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

    Notably, many of the accidents that do occur on public transport are due to human error.

    South Korea features some of the most highly automated factories in the world. In fact, the country leads the world in robot density and features one robot per ten human workers in manufacturing. It has successfully replaced 10 percent of its workforce through automation. Those trends will only accelerate as humanoid robots are more and more able to fulfill human tasks, a development that will wipe out millions of factory jobs in the coming years.

    Fink is arguing, in essence, that these “xenophobic” Asian countries will continue to lead in terms of automation in part due to their population decline, which makes innovation a necessity. In fact, the West’s reliance on waves of foreign labor, which has also become a serious burden on the social welfare system, has harmed productivity, as companies believe it is not necessary to innovate when many tasks can be solved with cheap labor.

    It is not as if immigration has really led to an improved standard of living either. The United States, which has seen the largest influx of immigrants in the history of mankind, is continuously complaining of a labor shortage, including a “crisis” involving a lack of “skilled labor.” It appears that no matter how many millions arrive in the country from foreign countries, the skilled labor shortage only grows. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been battered by inflation, sky-high housing prices, and increasingly unlivable and highly segregated cities where random acts of violence are a part of “big city” life and where public transport is a daily exercise in whether you will be harassed, assaulted, or simply lit on fire and left to burn alive.

    These countries are not only highly developed, but they actually thrive on a lack of open borders. Despite placing severe restrictions on immigration, they have a higher quality of living than many Western countries. In the schools, there is order and a rich environment for learning. On the streets, there is little fear of being assaulted or raped while out for a jog. There is of course crime, but when looking at crime statistics, for example, from multicultural France, the difference is incredible.

    Automation will only advance from here

    Although fully automated factories have faced challenges, Harvard Business School says a fully “lights-out factory” will be a reality due to AI.

    “Robots are becoming more capable, flexible, and cost-effective, with embodied agents bringing the power of generative AI into the factory environment. Manufacturers must prepare for the inevitable disruption — or risk falling behind,” the authors write.

    All of this obviously raises serious questions about the need for mass immigration. The demand for big business and corporations for skilled and unskilled labor is real; however, if these spots are not fulfilled, these businesses will turn to automation. When it comes to immigration in countries like Germany, many of the immigrants are either on social welfare or in low-skilled professions, and waves of automation will increasingly leave these migrants and native workers unemployed, likely competing for a smaller pool of jobs. On farms, there will be no need for farmworkers anymore either, reducing the need for seasonal labor.

    Japan has the oldest farmers in the world, and it is rapidly turning to technology to overcome this massive demographic challenge.

    “Due to depopulation and aging, the number of Japanese farmers will rapidly decrease,” says Atsushi Suginaka, director-general for policy coordination at Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). “In order to maintain agricultural production, there are high expectations for ‘smart agriculture’ as a new style of agriculture that combines improved productivity and sustainability.

    “The Japanese government has been promoting smart agriculture in fields and the improvement of smart agriculture technologies. As a result of these efforts, many of these technologies have already been put into practical use: automated tractors, pesticide spraying drones, remote-controlled mowers.”

    There is no doubt that Japan is also turning to temporary workers and limited immigration; however, these immigrants have little chance of becoming citizens, are almost all from Asian countries with similar cultures, and are coming in very limited numbers. The long-term plan for Japan is obviously to focus on productivity and automation over immigration. This means Japan does not have to deal with poor educational integration, cultural polarization, daily gang rapes, large organized foreign criminal groups, and Islamic terror attacks. Perhaps most of all, it does not have to give up its culture to accommodate hundreds of cultures, languages, and mores from all over the world that actively degrade and marginalize Japanese culture.

    After all, Japan has a beautiful country, a beautiful culture, and a rich diversity of peoples within its own nation, which stretches from the tropical Amami Islands in the south to the Northern Japanese Alps. Westerners are increasingly fascinated with the lifestyle presented by Asian countries, which feature safe and luxurious public transport, clean and safe cities, and in many areas, far greater technological progress than the West. Youtube is, for example, rife with videos featuring tens of millions of views simply of individuals traveling on Asian train networks. There is nobody screaming, no threat of random stabbing attacks, and a level of service that simply could not exist on most Western trains.

    Shockingly, Western rail networks are falling to pieces, and countries like Germany featured a record number of train delays in 2023, all while raising fare prices year after year. In New York City, the city’s own data on subway performance paints a miserable picture. Xenophobic Japan, in contrast, supplies incredible rail service and has not raised rail ticket fees for decades.

    Japan’s functioning rail system may have less to do with automation than just practical human engineering and organization skills, but undoubtedly, Japan has invested in its train systems in a manner that works, which does include technology upgrades. This same progress is seen in a variety of fields, and even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) admits that Japan is managing its shrinking workforce through automation advancements.

    The Asian countries get away “morally” with their xenophobia due to the fact that they are not White countries. Notice that Fink does not refer to them as “racist.” Xenophobia comes across as a softer more “technocratic” term. Only White countries must embrace diversity and mass immigration or face the dreaded “r” word.

    Ultimately, the crisis will come when it becomes more and more apparent that humans are just not needed as much, and Fink realizes this, noting that those countries with a falling population will be better able to accommodate the falling demand for labor. Furthermore, homogenous societies like China, Japan and South Korea feature far more social cohesion than the increasingly polarized and fractured societies of the West, which enable these societies to better manage the social disruption brought on by AI.

    The Chinese, for example, are far more optimistic than their European counterparts about the ability of AI to generate new jobs and opportunities. An Ipsos survey shows that 77 percent of Chinese believe AI will likely create new jobs in their country, making them the most optimistic country in the world. Europeans appear to see AI as a threat. Only 29 percent of Poles and Germans believe AI will likely create jobs.

    The crisis will be huge

    Goldman Sachs predicts 300 million jobs will be replaced or degraded in the Western world due to AI, hitting nearly every sector, including legal, engineering, healthcare, sales and design. Already in 2019, it was predicted by Oxford Economics that automation would replace 20 million factory workers by 2030. The same report writes that those same laid-off workers could try to enter the service sector, but they would find that those jobs too were dramatically reduced due to AI.

    AI is already threatening professions that require advanced cognitive skills, such as programming, medicine, and law. Doctors, for example, are facing the reality that AI is far better than doctors at diagnosing illnesses. Already, many surgeries are performed by robotics, which are far more precise than doctors could ever be. Within 10 years, there will be no real need for doctors either.

    Even in the skilled trade professions, such as factory workers, plumbers, gardeners, electricians, and other “physical jobs,” humanoid robots and other robots will increasingly muscle in on these jobs. Humanoid robots are in many ways just a far more advanced research problem than the one faced in developing self-driving vehicles. The self-driving car problem has been largely solved, it is just a matter of scaling it out further. However, you can now get into a Waymo car in San Franciso, and it can bring you from point A to point B, all without human intervention. Millions of people think that the “last-mile” problem is still a thing, but it’s not. There are hundreds of thousands of people driving the last mile every single day in their vehicles in the United States. There were many predicting even just a few years ago that this would not happen, that we were still decades away from self-driving vehicles, but it is happening in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Tesla drivers across the country are using full autonomous support to drive between cities without any intervention.

    The same advances will happen with humanoid robots. In the end, they simply need to navigate 3-D space, learn from their environment through AI deep learning, and eventually solve problems even if they have not seen the problem before.

    All of this also has the recipe for a disaster for humanity, freeing humans from labor, but removing their agency and sense of self-worth. It will also continue the trend of concentrating wealth, increase surveillance powers, and dramatically reduce the bargaining power of workers. Some industries may be able to ride out these changes, such as government workers or teachers, who have highly protected jobs, but on the whole, fewer and fewer people will be needed to participate to get the same outputs — if not better outputs.

    The dream that the machines would do all the work so humans could “make art” and live a life of happy leisure has been made a mockery of through generative AI art and the doom scrolling that constitutes how many humans now spend their free time. This issue of AI and automation truly transcends all political ideologies, but political ideologies will almost certainly influence how each country manages these changes. The xenophobic countries will also face these challenges, but they are now in a position to reap the full gains of their xenophobic policies, and even Larry Fink is admitting as much.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 16:20

  • Stargate Stunner: Sam Altman Is A Wraith In Sheep's Clothing
    Stargate Stunner: Sam Altman Is A Wraith In Sheep’s Clothing

    This week, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son predicted that “artificial superintelligence” will kick off American’s “golden age,” as he announced a $500 billion team-up with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, MGX, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.

    The new collaboration, dubbed “Stargate,” would massively scale up AI data centers over the next four years, and speed the development of godlike AI systems that Ellison promised could do things like develop cancer vaccines.

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

    The collaboration drew harsh and immediate rebuke from Elon Musk, a close Trump advisor who was notably not at the Wednesday press conference, and suggested on X “They don’t actually have the money.”

    He directed particular vitriol at Altman, whose OpenAI he co-founded and is currently suing; he reposted an image of a crack pipe with the joking allegation that Altman and his associates were smoking it. After hours of this, Altman finally slapped back, saying “i realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role i hope you’ll mostly put 🇺🇸 first.” –Politico

    And while Altman slapped back against his OpenAI co-founder Musk, both project Stargate, and Altman cozying up to the Trump administration 2.0 has come under attack.

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

    Altman Comes Under Fire

    Altman, Reid Hoffman’s pool boy, has come under fire from journalist and author Mike Cernovich, who’s been pointing out that the OpenAI CEO has been a far left activist for a while.

    And Bill Gates…

    And what’s this? Altman has been funding opposition media?

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

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

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 01/23/2025 – 16:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.