December 31, 2022

Vehicle ‘kill switch’ requirement reportedly hidden in infrastructure bill. “According to an article written by former U.S. Representative Bob Barr, hidden away in the recently passed infrastructure bill… is a measure to install vehicle kill switches into every new car, truck, and SUV sold in this country…. Barr points out that the bill, which has been signed into law by President Biden, states that the kill switch, which is referred to as a safety device, must ‘passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired’. In other words, Big Brother will constantly be monitoring how you drive. If you do something the system has been programmed to recognize as driver impairment, your car could just shut off…. This kill switch ‘safety’ system would be open, or in other words there would be a backdoor. That would allow police or other government authorities to access it whenever. Would they need a warrant to do that? Likely not. Even better, hackers could access the backdoor and shut down your vehicle.”   https://www.motorious.com/articles/features-3/kill-switches-new-cars/   [UPDATE: Fact-checking groups claim there is no ‘backdoor kill-switch’ requirement to allow law enforcement agencies to stop moving vehicles. “Section 24220 of the infrastructure law mandated that within three years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration must create new technology to regulate drunk and impaired driving. PolitiFact found no mention in the bill of a ‘kill switch’…. If the driver’s blood alcohol level is above the legal level of 0.08%, the car will turn on but won’t move.”   https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/dec/05/instagram-posts/-vehicle-technology-coming-stop-impaired-drivers-i/]

Change in Dept. of Housing and Urban Development rules allowed federal disaster aid for wealthy homeowners.. “The payments, first reported by E&E News, came after a little-noticed change to department regulations in 2013 allowed states to reimburse wealthy homeowners for home repairs. The change marked a significant policy shift in the only disaster program created to help low-income people. Though that change was limited to [Hurricane] Sandy aid, HUD has since given other states similar flexibility after major disasters. The owner of one $5.5 million waterfront home on Nearwater Lane in Darien, Conn., with five bedrooms and a swimming pool, received $150,000. Another owner sold their home for $2.6 million after taking a $150,000 grant. Twelve of the 62 homes [that qualified for disaster aid] are worth more than $2 million, according to E&E News’ analysis of local assessors’ records. ‘It really stinks,’ said former HUD analyst Carlos Martín, a Brookings Institution fellow and a leading expert on disaster aid. ‘That’s not who the disaster recovery program is intended to serve.'”   https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/27/connecticut-hurricane-sandy-recovery-00074134   “After the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Congress apportioned over $50 billion for disaster relief. Among that total was $16 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR). The state of Connecticut received $159 million. CDBG-DR is intended primarily to help people with lower incomes respond to disasters. But a new Politico investigation reveals that as low-income areas in Connecticut remained in disrepair after the storm, generous reimbursements and low-interest loans went to wealthy homeowners who, on paper, should not have even qualified.”   https://reason.com/2022/12/29/wealthy-connecticut-residents-received-millions-in-federal-dollars-after-hurricane-sandy/

New York City’s mayor: ‘Big Brother is protecting you’. “‘It blows my mind how much we have not embraced technology, and part of that is because many of our electeds are afraid. Anything technology they think, “Oh it’s a boogeyman. It’s Big Brother watching you,” [Mayor Eric] Adams said. ‘No, Big Brother is protecting you.’ …. Controversy over decades of surveillance [of activists] led to litigation and the 1985 Handschu Guidelines, which created a mixed panel of civilians and police to oversee future surveillance. In the post-9/11 period, those guidelines were relaxed as much mass surveillance focused on Muslims, coming to an end (supposedly) only in 2014 with the resolution of a lawsuit against the city. Still, in 2016, Senior United States District Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. disapproved the settlement in the case pending stronger safeguards after the revelation of ‘repeated, near-systemic violations by the NYPD Intelligence Bureau of a pertinent Handschu Guideline.'”   https://reason.com/2022/12/30/new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-wants-you-to-love-big-brother/

Man charged with murdering four college students is a PhD criminal justice graduate student and graduate teaching assistant. “DNA evidence played a key role in identifying Bryan Christopher Kohberger as a suspect in the killings, and officials were able to match his DNA to genetic material recovered during the investigation, a law enforcement official said…. Moscow  [Idaho] Police Chief James Fry said Kohberger attends Washington State University, which is only a few miles across the state line from Moscow.”   https://news.yahoo.com/suspect-deaths-idaho-students-arrested-164721546.html   Few details have been released. My guess is that the murders were the result of an online or in-person diss. Could this guy be the mysterious stalker?

Donald Trump claims his tax returns show his use of tax deductions to ‘create jobs’. “A [House Ways and Means] committee report released earlier in December showed Trump declared negative income in 2015-17 and in 2020, and he paid $750 in income taxes each year for 2016 and 2017, then $999,466 for 2018, $133,445 for 2019 and zero for 2020. The former president released a statement on his Truth Social account, saying the returns show how successful he’s been and how he used tax deductions to create jobs, structures and enterprises.”   https://www.cnet.com/news/politics/trump-tax-returns-released-online-via-ways-and-means-committee/

January 6th committee transcripts reveal reasons given for delayed riot response. “Testimony from Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, who was the commander of the D.C. Guard, reiterated that the response from the Guard on Jan. 6 had been delayed because of concerns from higher-ups over ‘the optics’ of the army’s involvement. The reason it took three hours and 19 minutes to get approval for the Guard to help protect the Capitol, he said, was that ‘somebody or somebodies were willfully, deliberately delaying making the decision.’ He added, ‘I think it would have been a vastly different response if those were African Americans trying to breach the Capitol.’ He went on to say that the secretary of the Army, Ryan D. McCarthy, who could have approved sending Guard members to the Capitol, had become inaccessible in the days leading up to Jan. 6 and during the riot, describing how someone had been running around the Pentagon in search of him…. Steven A. Sund, the former chief of the Capitol Police, who previously said the events of Jan. 6 could not have been predicted, told investigators that the riot was a ‘colossal intelligence failure’. He said analysts in the intelligence wing of the Capitol Police had not emphasized the severity of the threat they were finding, including messages and social media posts from rioters before Jan. 6 that said ‘we will storm the government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and agents’; ‘start marching into the chambers’; and ‘show up with guns and threaten them with death’.”   https://news.yahoo.com/jan-6-transcripts-detail-failures-130601895.html   “The [District of.Columbia’s]  mayor told lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack [on the Capitol] that Capitol Police were unprepared for the violent assault because of a mistaken belief that [Trump supporters] would not harm them. ‘People thought they were friendly to law enforcement and that they loved their country,’ Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said in her January 2022 interview with the House committee, a transcript of which was released Thursday. She said, however, earlier D.C. rallies of ‘white nationalist groups … showed us that they were antagonistic to law enforcement.’ …. Steven Sund, the chief of Capitol Police at the time of the breach, told the committee his request in advance of Jan. 6 for National Guard support was denied.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/29/bowser-contee-jan6-transcripts/   Well, that’s odd, because the previous story says Sund claimed the riot ‘could not have been predicted’ and was the result of an ‘intelligence failure’, but in the second story we have him requesting National Guard troops before the riot! And what if antifa had been plotting to take over the Capitol, threaten legislators and overturn the results of the election, after holding a big, publicly announced rally in D.C., where their supporters from around the country were openly planning to gather? Would the Capitol Police have been on alert? Would the response have been any different? Would deployment of the National Guard have been delayed 3 hours?

December 30, 2022

President Biden signs $1.7 trillion spending bill. “The spending package will provide an additional $45 billion in emergency assistance for Ukraine. The spending plan includes $772.5 billion for domestic priorities, and $858 billion for defense. The bill also includes roughly $40 billion in disaster relief for communities recovering from hurricanes, wildfires, drought and other natural disasters. It also includes reforms to the Electoral Count Act, and a ban of the use of TikTok on government phones, among a slew of other projects for lawmakers.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-signs-one-point-seven-trillion-dollar-government-spending-bill-st-croix/   About $1.1 trillion is for military and law enforcement related programs. “Only about a third of the FY2023 spending bill is for programs unrelated to military and law enforcement…. Democratic leadership is claiming victory, citing the omnibus’s inclusion of the ‘highest level for [sic] non-defense funding ever’. The implication is that non-military spending is the same as social spending. It is not.”   https://stephensemler.substack.com/p/only-about-a-third-of-the-fy2023   This article contains a bar graph showing a breakdown of the programs being funded.

Airport cops in Nashville tell Southwest customers that if their flight has been cancelled they no longer have a ticket, and need to leave the gate area. “One officer told the Southwest travelers that they needed to leave ‘or you’ll be arrested for trespassing’, according to a TikTok video recorded by Ms. Morrison’s daughter, Amani Robinson, 20. ‘Go. Right now,’ the officer said. ‘Everybody to the unsecure side. The ticket counter will help you with any questions you have.’….Ms. Morrison said that text notifications that she had received from Southwest had indicated that her flight was only delayed, not canceled. On the video, she asked the officer directly if he was threatening to arrest people for trespassing. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘If you don’t have a valid ticket and you’re on the secured side and refuse to leave, you will be arrested.’ Ms. Morrison replied: ‘We do have tickets. We have valid tickets.’ And the officer said, ‘Well, if your ticket is canceled, you no longer have a ticket. You understand that, right?'”   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/29/us/southwest-traveler-records-airport-police-nashville.html

Man who trolled Greta Thunberg by bragging about his 33 high-emission cars gets arrested on sex trafficking charges. “In an attempt to save face, on Thursday Tate uploaded a video in which he responded to Thunberg’s mockery while smoking a cigar and eating a pizza. The only problem? The pizza box was from a local pizza chain—alerting Romanian authorities of his presence in the country. According to Romanian newspaper Gândul, Tate and his brother Tristan were among four individuals who were arrested on Thursday. Romania’s Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism said in a statement that police raided five homes as part of an investigation into organized crime, human trafficking, and rape. The suspects allegedly kept at least six women captive in houses outside of Bucharest, where they sexually assaulted the women and forced them to produce pornography for social media under threats of violence.”   https://www.yahoo.com/now/greta-thunberg-twitter-takedown-inadvertently-021242059.html    Thunberg tweets, “This is what happens when you don’t recycle your pizza boxes.”

Four charged with coup attempt in Brazil. “Thursday’s operation came just days before Lula’s inauguration on Sunday, and less than a week after police in Brasilia said they had foiled a bomb plot masterminded by alleged [Jair] Bolsonaro supporters. The raids stemmed from a riot on Dec. 12, the day Lula’s victory was certified, when election-deniers camped outside army headquarters in Brasilia attacked the federal police HQ and set cars and buses alight after the arrest of a pro-Bolsonaro indigenous leader. The federal police said on Thursday they were serving 32 search and arrest warrants in eight states under Supreme Court orders.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-arrests-four-people-alleged-coup-attempt-bolsonaro-riots-2022-12-29/

U.S. forces carried out 313 missions in Iraq and Syria in 2022. “In Syria, U.S. forces conducted 108 missions with Syrian Democratic Forces, America’s Kurdish allies, along with 14 “unilateral” operations in 2022, resulting in 215 suspected ISIS operatives being taken prisoner and another suspected 466 ISIS fighters being killed, CENTCOM announced on Thursday. It was also a busy year for U.S. troops in Iraq, who conducted 191 partnered operations with Iraqi forces that led to 159 suspected ISIS operatives being captured and at least 220 suspected ISIS fighters being killed, a CENTCOM News release says…. U.S. Air Forces Central Command declined to provide information on how many missions U.S. military aircraft flew in Iraq and Syria in 2022 to support the fight against ISIS, citing ‘operational security purposes’, said AFCENT spokeswoman Capt. Kayshel Trudell.”   https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-military-isis-iraq-syria/   Article says U.S. forces suffered 0 fatalities, which seems either very lucky, other people were doing the fighting, and/or they were dropping bombs on people.

Kansas cops drop marijuana charges against terminally ill cancer patient. “Greg Bretz, a 69-year-old cancer patient in Hays, Kansas, had been using THC paste in his vape pen as well as on his bread to cope with his symptoms since being hospitalized about three weeks ago. Earlier this month, officers from the Hays police department went into Bretz’s room at a local hospital after a staff member saw him using THC products and called the police…. Dr. [Peter] Grinspoon, who as a child lost his brother to leukemia, said he saw first-hand how using cannabis, which was then illegal, was ‘transformative’ for his brother through his last few days. ‘… it is spectacularly effective for the ravages of chemotherapy – the nausea, vomiting and lack of appetite – as well as the pain, anxiety and insomnia that almost always accompany the experience of a terminal cancer.'”   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/29/police-rescind-drug-charge-termially-ill-kansas-cancer-patient

Investigation claims FDA collaborated with drug company on approval of Alzheimer’s drug. “Originally carrying a $56,000 annual price tag for uninsured patients—which Biogen’s then-CEO called ‘fair’—aducanumab, sold under the brand name Aduhelm, was approved by the FDA in June 2021. The approval came despite concerns that the drug—a monoclonal antibody treatment for patients with mild cognitive impairment caused by Alzheimer’s—might not work, as well as safety trial data showing that a staggering 4 in 10 participants suffered potentially fatal brain bleeding and swelling after taking it. The new report, the result of an 18-month probe by the Democrat-led House Oversight and Reform Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee, found that the FDA’s approval process for Aduhelm was ‘rife with irregularities’, including an ‘atypical’ number of meetings and other contacts between the agency and the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based drug maker.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/house-aduhelm-maloney-pallone

West Virginia journalist fired after story on abuses at the state’s psychiatric facilities. “Amelia Knisely published a report on November 3 about abuses suffered by people with disabilities at William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital and other facilities run by the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), and a call by state Senate President Craig Blair, a Republican, for GOP Gov. Jim Justice’s administration to investigate the hospital…. On December 6, Knisely told the Parkersburg News and Sentinel Wednesday, the station’s news director informed her that she ‘could no longer write about DHHR’ and that the order came ‘from WVPB executive director Butch Antolini’, who days after her report had received a letter from DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch. Crouch had [reportedly] demanded a retraction of the story, and as Knisely told the News and Sentinel, a DHHR spokesperson ‘contacted WVPB leadership and threatened to discredit WVPB if I continued reporting on the health department.'”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/wv-journalist

After being accused of publishing ‘false content’ by State Department and Pentagon ‘partner’ NewsGuard, Consortium News makes its case that it’s telling the truth. “NewsGuard’s main two complaints against Consortium News are that it reported that there was a coup in Kiev in 2014 and that neo-Nazis have significant influence in Ukraine. NewsGuard demanded CN correct both and because it did not, it docked CN points for failing to ‘regularly clarify and correct errors’. In its 9,000-word reply, CN pointed out with copious evidence — most of it from NewsGuard, green-checked sources — that NewsGuard was in error and that it needed to correct its reporting on Ukraine.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/29/how-newsguard-judged-consortium-news/   And you can view CN’s evidence here:   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/29/on-the-influence-of-neo-nazism-in-ukraine/   and here:   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/29/evidence-of-us-backed-coup-in-kiev/

December 29, 2022

Human blood products now a major U.S. export. “In today’s wretched economy, where around 130 million Americans admit an inability to pay for basic needs like food, housing or healthcare, buying and selling blood is [one] of the few booming industries America has left. The number of collection centers in the United States has more than doubled since 2005 and blood now makes up well over 2 percent of total U.S. exports by value. To put that in perspective, Americans’ blood is now worth more than all exported corn or soy products, that cover vast areas of the country’s heartland. The U.S. supplies fully 70 percent of the world’s plasma, mainly because most other countries have banned the practice on ethical and medical grounds…. ‘The people who show up are a mix of disabled, working poor, homeless, single parents, and college students.'”   https://www.mintpressnews.com/harvesting-blood-americas-poor-late-stage-capitalism/263175/

State attorneys general complained to Congress about lax enforcement of consumer protection laws against airline companies. “Four months before Southwest’s [recent] mass cancellation of flights, 38 state attorneys general wrote to congressional leaders declaring that [Pete] Buttigieg’s agency [the Dept. of Transportation] ‘failed to respond and to provide appropriate recourse’ to thousands of consumer complaints about airlines customer service. ‘Americans are justifiably frustrated that federal government agencies charged with overseeing airline consumer protection are unable or unwilling to hold the airline industry accountable,’ they wrote in August, arguing that Congress must pass legislation empowering state officials to enforce consumer protection laws against the airlines…. One week before the Southwest scheduling disaster, 34 attorneys general led by Colorado Democrat Phil Weiser sent another letter begging Buttigieg to ‘impose significant fines for cancellations and extended delays that are not weather-related or otherwise unavoidable.'”   https://www.levernews.com/state-officials-warned-buttigieg-about-airline-mess/   Southwest has had far more flight cancellations than other airlines, so these cancellations are not entirely due to the weather.

Second man charged with plotting to abduct Michigan’s governor is sentenced to almost 20 years in prison. “Barry Croft Jr. was part of a plan to kidnap the Democratic governor from her summer home in 2020 and practiced detonating explosives in preparation, prosecutors have said. Croft, who was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison, the longest sentence of the people convicted, is the last of the defendants in federal court to be sentenced in connection to the plot. Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Croft to life in prison…. earlier this month, three other men – Pete Musico, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar – were all sentenced in state court on charges of gang participation, support of a terrorist act and carrying or possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to the Michigan attorney general’s office. Musico and Bellar must serve a minimum of 12 years and seven years, respectively. The alleged ‘commander’ of the group, Morrison – who, according to affidavits filed with the attorney general’s office, went by the online moniker ‘Boogaloo Bunyan’ – must serve a minimum of 11 years.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/28/politics/barry-croft-jr-sentenced-whitmer-kidnapping-plot/index.html   These seem like very long sentences for a crime that wasn’t actually committed.

Members of Congress ask DEA and FBI about use of Israeli spyware. “One letter sent by Congressman Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called on the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to provide details about its use of Graphite, an Israeli spyware tool produced by the firm Paragon…. Graphite, similar to the Israeli hacking tool Pegasus that has made international headlines over the past year, is able to penetrate mobile devices and extract messages, videos, photos and other files…. In a separate letter, Senator Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is pressing the FBI for information about the bureau’s purchase and testing of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. In January, the newspaper first reported that the FBI had procured the Israeli company’s software, and that NSO offered the FBI a version of Pegasus and had created a product named Phantom that would be able to hack any phone number in the US…. ‘The American people have a right to know the scale of the FBI’s hacking activities and the rules that govern the use of this controversial surveillance technique.'”   https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-lawmakers-press-government-answers-over-use-israeli-spyware

Newer F-35s grounded due to mechanical problem revealed after Ft. Worth crash. “A source familiar with the program, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the incident, said the initial assessment of the investigation… found that a propulsion system issue led to the Dec. 15 crash of the hovering F-35B, which has now led to broader groundings in the fleet. The source said that, in guidance to the services, the JPO said a failure of a tube used to transfer high-pressure fuel in the fighter’s F135 engine prompted the office to update its safety risk assessments. The JPO also told the services that jets with fewer than 40 hours of flying are affected, this source said.”   https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/12/27/pentagon-grounds-small-group-of-f-35s-after-ejection-on-texas-runway/

December 28, 2022

Thousands stranded by canceled Southwest Airlines flights. “Disruptions were likely to continue throughout the week at airports, where canceled flights caused weary homebound travelers to sleep on floors and wait hours in line for customer service. By 6 am Eastern time on Tuesday, more than 2,800 U.S. flights were canceled and more than 650 others delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking service. Dallas-based Southwest canceled almost 3,000 flights on Monday and had hundreds of others run late, disrupting more than 80 per cent of its schedule as operational woes mushroomed in the wake of the storm. Tuesday’s unfolding chaos followed similar scenes on Monday, when more than 4,000 US flights were canceled and more than 8,500 others delayed, FlightAware reported.”   https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/thousands-stranded-at-airports-as-airlines-cancel-flights-amid-storm-in-us-122122800035_1.html

Man sentenced to 16 years in prison for orchestrating plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor. “Adam Fox, 39, appeared in front of US District Court Judge Richard Jonker in Grand Rapids on Tuesday. Earlier this year he was found guilty of planning to abduct Ms Whitmer from her holiday home with other militiamen. The group targeted the Democratic governor in 2020 because they were opposed to Covid rules she imposed early in the pandemic. As well as conspiring to abduct Ms Whitmer, Fox was sentenced for planning to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up a bridge after the kidnapping, to make it easier to escape. Fox and his co-defendant Barry Croft Jr, 47, were found guilty by a federal court in August. Croft, who is also a member of the Three Percenters militia group, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64103685   They didn’t actually kidnap anyone however, or blow anything up.

Military police deployed to enforce Buffalo, New York driving ban. “State and military police were sent Tuesday to keep people off Buffalo’s snow-choked roads, and officials kept counting fatalities three days after western New York’s deadliest storm in at least two generations. Even as suburban roads and most major highways in the area reopened, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz warned that police would be stationed at entrances to Buffalo and at major intersections because some drivers were flouting a ban on driving within New York’s second-most populous city…. At least 31 weather-related deaths have been reported in Erie County through Tuesday night…. [Greg Monett’s] loved ones called 911 when his blood sugar dipped dangerously low and he nearly passed out Sunday night, but they were told it would take hours to get to the home, Monett said…. Monett ultimately made it to dialysis after climbing through the snow and having neighbors help dig out his buried vehicle, sister Maria Monett said.”   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/buffalo-driving-ban-snow-storm-death-toll/

President Biden enjoying tropical holiday in Virgin Islands. “The president and his wife, first lady Jill Biden, flew from Washington on Tuesday to St. Croix, one of three islands that make up the U.S. territory in the Caribbean. St. John and St. Thomas are the other two islands. The Bidens were joined by their daughter Ashley and her husband, Howard Krein, as well as grandchildren Natalie and Hunter, whose father was the president’s late son, Beau. St. Croix is a tropical getaway that Biden has been getting away to at least since he was vice president, from 2009 to 2017.”   https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-us-virgin-islands-district-of-columbia-89e3d8d99abb932be55fdc155a65a50c

New law requires federal prisons to keep surveillance cameras and communications systems in working order. “Failing and inadequate security cameras have allowed inmates to escape from federal prisons and hampered investigations. They’ve been an issue in inmate deaths, including that of financier Jeffrey Epstein at a federal jail in New York City in 2019. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog found that deficiencies with security cameras have compromised investigations into staff misconduct, the introduction of contraband, civil rights violations and inmate deaths.”   https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-prisons-district-of-columbia-united-states-government-1f9d6b4fea033a385fba620142251318

Donald Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows allegedly burned documents in office fireplace. “… [White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson] told the committee that she saw Meadows burn documents in his office fireplace around a dozen times – about once or twice a week – between December 2020 and mid-January 2021. On several occasions, Hutchinson said, she was in Meadows’ office when he threw documents into the fireplace after a meeting. At least twice, the burning came after meetings with GOP Rep. Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican, who has been linked to the efforts to use the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/27/politics/january-6-transcripts-key-findings/index.html

German man buys discarded U.S. military devices on eBay used to collect biometric data, finds files. “The shoebox-shaped device, designed to capture fingerprints and perform iris scans, was listed on eBay for $149.95. A German security researcher, Matthias Marx, successfully offered $68, and when it arrived at his home in Hamburg in August, the rugged, handheld machine contained more than what was promised in the listing. The device’s memory card held the names, nationalities, photographs, fingerprints and iris scans of 2,632 people…. The biometric data on the SEEK II was collected at detainment facilities, on patrols, during screenings of local hires and after the explosion of an improvised bomb…. when he turned it off, a message popped up, asking to connect to a U.S. Special Operations Command server to upload the new ‘collected biometrics’…. Of the six devices the researchers bought on eBay — four SEEKs and two HIIDEs, for Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment — two of the SEEK II devices had sensitive data on them…. The device with the 2,632 profiles was sold by Rhino Trade, a surplus equipment company in Texas. The company’s treasurer, David Mendez, said it had bought the SEEK II at an auction of government equipment and did not realize a decommissioned military device would have sensitive data on it.”   https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/for-sale-on-ebay-a-military-database-of-fingerprints-and-iris-scans/

Six Wall Street banks made a combined $1 trillion between 2012 and 2022. “Banks that had made less than $70 billion in 2017 made $120 billion in 2018 thanks to tax cuts, an uptick in interest rates and surges in retail banking and deal-making. Their combined assets, which hovered around $10 trillion for years, began to shoot up…. In early 2020, analysts were writing obituaries for Wall Street’s run of record profits. Instead, the banks helped spark the boom of blank-check companies known as SPACs. Later, once regulators got jittery and prices soured, investors were left holding the bag. Profits in 2021 also got help from an accounting move: The banks felt good enough about the economy, thanks to government intervention, to release some of the reserves they had set aside in case loans soured. The big six made more profit in 2021 than in 2013 and 2014 combined.”   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-big-banks-score-000016531.html

Top ten climate disasters of 2022 inflicted an estimated $168.1 billion in damage. “Among them is Hurricane Ian which struck the US and Cuba in September costing $100 billion and displacing 40,000 people. The drought in Europe heatwave in Europe cost $20 billion while floods in Pakistan killed more than 1,700 people, displaced a further 7 million, and according to World Bank estimates caused $30 billion in economic damage. Due to the difficulty of obtaining insurance, only $5.6 billion of these losses were covered…. The extreme weather events caused severe human suffering from food insecurity, drought, mass displacements and loss of life.”   https://mediacentre.christianaid.org.uk/new-report-top-10-climate-disasters-cost-the-world-billions-in-2022/

December 27, 2022

27 die in blizzard in one New York county. “Mark C. Poloncarz, the Erie County executive, said that 27 deaths were linked to the storm in his county. Fourteen of those dead were found outside, and three were in a vehicle, he said. Four others died because they did not have heat, and three died in “cardiac-related events” while removing snow from outside homes and businesses.”   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/26/nyregion/blizzard-storm-snow-deaths.html

Twitter was pressured by government to flag and restrict tweets that questioned government narratives on Covid-19 and vaccines, even those of experts. “Among the many experts that were deemed to have spread ‘misinformation’ was Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School. On March 15, 2021 he responded to a question about whether those who have already had the virus and young children should get the vaccine. ‘No. Thinking that everyone must be vaccinated is as scientifically flawed as thinking that nobody should,’ he wrote at the time. ‘COVID vaccines are important for older high-risk people and their caretakers. ‘Those with prior natural infection do not need it. Nor children.’ That tweet was flagged by a content moderator at the site saying it shared ‘false information regarding the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines’ because it differed from Centers for Disease Control guidelines at the time. It was soon labeled as ‘misleading,’ and all replies and likes were shut off. And a tweet by Kelly Kga, a public health fact checker, was also labeled as ‘misleading,’ with its likes and replies disabled — even though it displayed the CDC’s own data. But the tweet that Kelly Kga was replying to ‘contained actual misinformation,’ Zweig said, claiming that COVID was the leading cause of death from disease in children. ‘Yet that tweet remains on the platform, and without a “misleading” label,’ Zweig tweeted.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11574573/Twitter-suppressed-covid-information-doctors-experts.html

Russia’s foreign minister issues ultimatum to Ukraine. “‘Our proposals for the demilitarisation and denazification of the territories controlled by the [Ukrainian] regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy,’ state news agency TASS quoted [Sergey] Lavrov as saying late on Monday. ‘The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army,’ Lavrov said.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/27/ukraine-pitches-peace-conference-even-as-russia-issues-threat   Meanwhile, Ukraine’s foreign minister says Russia can’t participate in peace conference until after it submits to war crimes tribunal. “Ukraine is hoping to convene a peace summit by the end of February 2023, with the United Nations as the ideal host — but Kuleba said Russia wouldn’t get an invite if Moscow doesn’t submit to a war crimes tribunal in international court first.”   https://thehill.com/policy/international/3788804-ukrainian-diplomat-calls-for-russia-to-face-tribunal-ahead-of-2023-peace-summit/

Russian oligarch/legislator dead after falling out of third floor window in India. “Pavel Antov, a Russian politician who criticized president Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine, has been found dead in India’s eastern state of Odisha. Antov, a multi-billionaire, fell out of a hotel window on the third floor on Dec. 24. The incident happened two days after another Russian tourist, Vladimir Bidenov, who’s been traveling with Antov, died of a heart attack at the same hotel.”   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-critic-putin-died-falling-080000371.html

December 26, 2022

CEOs of major companies make more in a day than most workers make in a year. “The typical CEO of a major U.S. corporation has to work fewer than seven hours to make the amount of money that the average worker earns in an entire year, according to a new analysis by Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies. Anderson, an expert on executive compensation, wrote Friday that ‘if the typical CEO of a large U.S. corporation clocks in at 9:00 am on January 2, by 3:37 pm that afternoon he’ll have earned $58,260—the average annual salary for all U.S. occupations.’ The new analysis spotlights the growing chasm between typical worker pay and CEO compensation, which has soared by nearly 1,500% since 1978.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/ceo-pay-average-worker

Rep. Jamie Raskin: Time to abolish the Electoral College. “‘We should elect the president the way we elect governors, senators, mayors, representatives, everybody else — whoever gets the most votes wins,’ Raskin said. He noted that on five occasions the winner of the national popular vote has lost the Electoral College and thus the presidency, including twice in this century. Those include the 2000 and 2016 elections in which George W. Bush and Trump, respectively, won the election despite losing the popular vote. ‘You know, we spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year exporting American democracy to other countries, and the one thing they never come back to us with is the idea that, “Oh, that Electoral College that you have, that’s so great, we think we will adopt that too,”‘ he said.”   https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3788112-raskin-electoral-count-act-reform-doesnt-solve-the-fundamental-problem-of-electoral-college/

Cobalt, an element used in lithium batteries, is mostly mined by hand, often by children. “‘Cobalt is in every single lithium, rechargeable battery manufactured in the world today. Every smartphone, every tablet, every laptop and crucially, every electric vehicle,’ [Prof. Siddharth Kara] said, ‘relies on it.’ Kara said he had never seen a mine where child labor and slavery weren’t present…. ‘They dig in absolutely subhuman, gut-wrenching conditions for a dollar a day, feeding cobalt up the supply chain into all the phones, all the tablets, and especially electric cars,’ he said.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11572973/Harvard-professor-tells-Joe-Rogan-tech-devices-lithium-batteries-come-slave-mines.html

Explosions and fires in Russia the work of CIA-directed sleeper cells, claims special operations veteran. “Shopping centers, gas pipelines and fuel depots have all suffered damage across Russia in recent months with [Jack] Murphy pointing to a CIA-directed campaign of covert ‘sabotage’…. ‘The campaign involves long-standing sleeper cells that the allied spy service has activated to hinder Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine by waging a secret war behind Russian lines…. Railway bridges, fuel depots and power plants in Russia have all been damaged in unexplained incidents since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.'”   https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1713891/Russia-oil-pipeline-gas-explosion-Ukraine-war-airbase-attack-CIA-spies-NATO-latest

December 25, 2022

Latest release of Twitter Files reveals broad range of federal agencies involved in policing tweets, with FBI even forwarding take-down requests from local police departments, FBI blames ‘conspiracy theorists’ for misrepresenting the program. “In some emails revealed by Substack writer Matt Taibbi, there are also cases in which [Twitter] executives have gone to extreme lengths to ‘validate theories of foreign influence’ to justify the [censorship] requests…. ‘It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,’ the [FBI’s] statement read…. [Journalist Matt Taibbi] went on to say that the FBI had been acting as ‘doorman to a vast program of social media surveillance and censorship’. ‘Encompassing agencies across the federal government – from the State Department to the Pentagon to the CIA, the operation is far bigger than the reported 80 members of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), which also facilitates requests from a wide array of smaller actors – from local cops to media to state governments.’ …. Taibbi reveals regular Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) meetings with [Twitter] executives, FBI personnel and at least two OGA or ‘Other Government Agency’ a term Taibbi said was regularly used to describe retired CIA…. There were so many government requests, Twitter employees had to improvise a system for prioritizing and triaging them…. ‘It seemed to strike no one as strange that a ‘Foreign Influence’ task force was forwarding thousands of mostly domestic reports, along with the DHS, about the fringiest material,’ Taibbi commented.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11572377/Latest-Twitter-Files-FBI-inundated-social-media-site-requests-tackle-obscure-accounts.html   “‘If this kind of mechanized speech control can be used one way today, it can be used in another tomorrow, especially if unseen enforcement officials are pushing on the levers,’ Taibbi noted.”   https://nypost.com/2022/12/24/latest-batch-of-twitter-files-shows-cia-fbi-involved-in-content-moderation/

General Dynamics wins $5.1 billion contract to supply nuclear sub components. “Measuring 560 feet (170 meters) long, the US Navy’s Columbia-class submarines will be the largest ever built by the US. They will have a fuel core that can power the submarine for its entire service life, eliminating the need for mid-service refueling. Additionally, the submarines will have superior acoustic performance and state-of-the-art sensors to enable quiet undersea operations…. ‘The Columbia class will be the cornerstone of our strategic deterrence, the ultimate guarantor of our National Security,’ US Navy secretary Carlos Del Toro said. ‘Our strategic submarines represent approximately 70 percent of America’s deployed nuclear arsenal.'”   https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/12/22/general-dynamics-submarine-contract/

Some Pentagon contractors in Afghanistan failed to compensate foreign workers or their families for deaths and injuries. “Tens of thousands of workers from Nepal, the Philippines and other developing countries took jobs at U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. At their peak in 2012, they represented more than a third of the over 100,000 contract employees, according to the report, shared exclusively with NBC News. Called third-country nationals, or TCNs, because they were not from the U.S. or Afghanistan, they worked as cafeteria workers, janitors and often armed guards for the bases. When a car bomb or other Taliban attack occurred, Afghans and TCN contractors ‘were far more likely to be killed or injured,’ said the report…. During the war close to 4,000 contract workers, about half of them TCNs, died violently in Afghanistan, and thousands more suffered severe injuries, said the report. Pentagon contractors are required by the Defense Base Act, made law in the 1940s, to buy insurance for employees to compensate them for debilitating injuries or pay their families if they are killed. But interviews with more than 200 workers suggest that payouts for those deaths and injuries didn’t happen or were inadequate, according to the report’s authors, Noah Coburn and Peter Gill.”   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/foreign-workers-killed-us-bases-afghanistan-not-compensated-rcna62458

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is only Democrat to vote against $1.7 trillion Omnibus spending bill. “In the final vote of the 117th Congress, House lawmakers passed the sweeping spending bill 225-201-1, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich) voting “present” and nine Republican lawmakers crossing party lines to support the measure. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk for signing. Ocasio-Cortez explained in a statement that she voted against the bill because she campaigned on a promise ‘to oppose additional expansion and funding’ for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), ‘particularly in the absence of long-overdue immigration reform’. [Civil rights activist Alec Karakatsanis commented,] ‘They negotiated a massive federal spending bill in secret and did not give anyone time to read the 4,000 pages. A small group of them inserted, behind closed doors and without public debate, big increases in cops, prisons, and surveillance. At a time of rising authoritarianism, ecological collapse, criminalization of abortion, etc., Democratic leadership continues to strengthen the very institutions that will bring about overt fascism,’ Karakatsanis added.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/aoc-only-no-vote   While I appreciate AOC’s vote on this bill, I feel the need to point out that the only people who benefit from restricting illegal migration are lower income American workers, since a larger supply of labor leads to lower wages, especially when the incoming workers are happy to work for less because they perceive themselves to be making a lot of money compared to the wages they used to earn. The Chamber of Commerce has long lobbied to increase immigration, not because they want to help migrants, but because they want cheaper labor. Likewise, cheaper labor is often good for consumers, because goods and services can be supplied more cheaply (or more profitably). Liberals support increasing migration because they want to help migrants as a humanitarian cause, but they don’t realize that increasing immigration generally hurts working class Americans. When illegal migrants employed in the meatpacking industry were rounded up, the vacancies were filled by American workers, including legal migrants, but many of these employers had to offer higher wages to fill those jobs. The current system is not anti-immigrant, because it does allow quite a bit of  migration, about a million people a year, but the number who are legally admitted is limited. This immigration should be more closely linked to the labor market however. When there truly are labor shortages, immigration quotas can be increased for workers with those particular skills, and when unemployment increases, the number of visas being issued for workers in that sector can be reduced. Unlimited migration, legal or illegal, is a recipe for increased exploitation of the existing labor force. Want to help illegal migrants? Create jobs in their countries. Most do not want to leave their homes and families to live a precarious existence in a foreign culture, where life is expensive and people speak a different language. They just want jobs.

Labor movement victories of 2022. “… workers were ready to throw down this year. In the face of inflation and short staffing, we demanded more money in our paychecks and more time for our lives outside of work. We organized; we even exercised our strike muscles. And crucially, union members stood up to demand more from their unions and their leaderships. Workers overturned a lot of conventional wisdom in 2022.”   https://jacobin.com/2022/12/2022-us-labor-movement-organizing-roundup-victories

Environmentalist calls federal funding bill the ‘extinction omnibus’. “While the omnibus [funding bill] provides some additional funding to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it still remains insufficient to address a decade of flat funding and the four years of staff attrition during the Trump administration. Similarly, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for protecting our nation’s most imperiled animals and plants, received a modest funding increase compared to fiscal 2022. But accounting for inflation, it’s actually a cut in real dollars. The omnibus doesn’t even include the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, an incredibly popular bipartisan bill that would have provided a historic $14 billion in supplemental funding for our nation’s at-risk wildlife over the next decade. These woefully inadequate funding levels show just how little Congress cares about protecting our natural heritage — including curbing wildlife exploitation and habitat destruction…”   https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/3785425-democrats-failed-terribly-with-an-extinction-omnibus/

Electoral Count Act clarifies procedures for certifying presidential elections, awaits President Biden’s signature. “The provisions amending the 1887 law — which has long been criticized as poorly and confusingly written — won bipartisan support and would make it harder for future presidential losers to prevent the ascension of their foes, as Trump tried to do on Jan. 6, 2021…. The new provisions make clear that the vice president’s responsibilities in the process are merely ceremonial and that the vice president has no say in determining who actually won the election. The new legislation also raises the threshold required for members of Congress to object to certifying the electors. Before, only one member of the House and Senate respectively had to object to force a roll call vote on a state’s electors…. Under the new rules, one-fifth of each chamber would be required to force a vote on states’ slates of electors…. The new provisions also ensure only one slate of electors makes it to Congress…. Each governor would now be required to sign off on electors, and Congress cannot consider slates submitted by different officials. The bill creates a legal process if any of those electors are challenged by a presidential candidate. The legislation would also close a loophole that wasn’t used in 2020 but election experts feared could be, a provision that state legislatures can name electors in defiance of their state’s popular vote in the event of a ‘failed’ election.”   https://apnews.com/e4366ca9e350ef87ebbb7638517cbde3

December 24, 2022

Activists arrested in Aitkin county, Minnesota while protesting against Enbridge Line 3 pipeline facing terrorism and attempted suicide charges. “‘The fact that a law meant to arm law enforcement and prosecutors with the tools to ‘ensure that terrorists who commit atrocities in our state are brought to justice and receive maximum punishment to match their dastardly crimes’, has been deployed against protesters engaged in civil disobedience is dangerous, and disingenuous.’ …. Other open cases include felony ‘aiding attempted suicide’ charges…. ‘Under the state’s misinterpretation of the law, any protester who climbs and remains in a tree where they are in potential danger of falling down, attaches themselves to a construction vehicle where they could potentially be subject to an accident, sits on a roadway where they could potentially be run over, or engages in any action that places them in potential danger, or helps someone else commit such actions, could be accused of aiding an attempted suicide.'”  https://truthout.org/articles/water-protector-defense-attorneys-warn-of-breakdown-in-separation-of-powers/

Senate cut provisions of defense spending bill dealing with oversight of U.S. weapons transfers. “Despite the well-documented risk of U.S. security assistance fueling civilian harm, corruption, and weapons diversion, and despite the bill’s provisions on civilian harm in the United States’ own operations, the NDAA did little to address the civilian harm linked to U.S. security assistance and cooperation. Indeed, much of the promising language on security sector assistance (SSA) in the House-passed version of the bill was lost during the Senate process – and for the second year in a row, the Senate did not have a floor process to pass its own version of the NDAA, so how and why these provisions were cut is opaque.”   https://www.justsecurity.org/84530/the-fy-2023-ndaa-falls-short-on-security-assistance-oversight/

Striking California university workers ratify contract. “Raises will range from 55% to 80% through a combination of implementing experience-based pay structures for the first time, standardizing pay across campuses, raising minimum starting salaries and providing extra bumps for workers in the highest-cost areas. The agreements will raise minimum starting salaries to nearly $35,000 for graduate student researchers and $34,000 for teaching assistants by October 2024. The wage floor for teaching assistants will rise to $36,500 at UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Francisco…. The agreement also enhances benefits for employees with children, adds new protections against bullying and discrimination and provides new paid leaves, according to the UAW news release.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/23/university-california-workers-contract-ending-strike-00075524

Sen. Rand Paul calls out legislators over dubious expenditures. “The libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican channeled ornery ‘Seinfeld’ patriarch Frank Costanza Friday in releasing his annual ‘Festivus Report’ laying out nearly $500 billion in wasteful spending — including $118,000 from the National Science Foundation for a study on whether the Marvel movie villain Thanos could actually snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet….$192,592 was spent on Starbucks espresso machines at the Pentagon, $3 million for a Mahatma Gandhi museum in Houston, $2.5 million for Super Bowl commercials ‘telling you to fill out the Census’…. $9 million to construct a park in Austin, Texas, that is ‘used for yoga and concerts’…. Another was $124 million spent to ‘construct an 11,000-square-foot spa’ in Broward County, Fla., and $31.5 million used to ‘purchase luxury cars’, according to the report. Also making the list is $475 billion the Treasury Department spent on debt interest payments; $1.7 billion on ‘maintaining 77,000 empty federal buildings’; $17 million for ‘unused hotel rooms for illegal immigrants‘; and $168 million spent ‘helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation’.”   https://nypost.com/2022/12/23/sen-rand-paul-airs-grievances-in-festivus-report-on-waste/   He doesn’t seem to have a problem with the U.S. outspending other countries militarily by a huge margin.

President Biden signs $858 billion military spending bill. “The NDAA includes provisions to strengthen air power and land warfare defense capabilities, as well as cybersecurity. And it shows Congress’ continued support for helping Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, even though several Republican lawmakers have raised questions about the ongoing US aid. Additionally, the NDAA establishes a specific defense modernization program for Taiwan to deter aggression by China…. The act also ends the requirement that troops receive the Covid-19 vaccine. However, it will not reinstate members of the military who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated.”   https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/23/politics/biden-signs-ndaa/index.html

Nancy Pelosi wishes Americans a ‘Happy Shwanza’. “After the 4,155-page, $1.7 trillion bill passed in the House of Representatives Friday, Pelosi decided to close out the session of Congress by wishing happy holidays to several different groups celebrating this time of year, including one that doesn’t exist. In her sign off – which she claimed ‘will probably be my last speech as Speaker of the House’ – Pelosi said, ‘I yield back the balance of my time and wish everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy Shwanza. Happy Hanukah.'”   https://www.foxnews.com/media/pelosi-mocked-wishing-americans-happy-shwanza-during-final-speech-house-speaker   You can view the video here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPCnkHz0GIc

More than 1 million U.S. homes or businesses without power amid frigid blizzard. “More than a million homes and businesses were without power on the U.S. East Coast, Midwest and Texas on Friday as winter storms battered much of the country, according to data from PowerOutage.us. Most outages were in North Carolina, with over 164,000 customers without power, followed by Virginia with over 92,000 and Connecticut with more than 89,000. More than a dozen other states east of the Mississippi River plus Oregon, Washington state, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas west of the Mississippi River each have more than 10,000 customers facing outages due to winter storms.”   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/over-300000-without-power-us-east-coast-texas-due-winter-storms-2022-12-23/   “As of 11:55 p.m., Central Maine Power reported 203,337 customers without power, and Versant reported 55,383, bringing the total outages to about 258,720.”   https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/weather/power-outages-maine/97-fd97d69a-2b88-4f5f-8978-3628898b1038

Polar bear population falling due to melting ice. “Polar bears are disappearing fast from the western part of Hudson Bay, on the southern tip of the Canadian Arctic, according to a new government survey. The number of female bears and cubs, in particular, has seen a dramatic decline…. During the last survey in late August and early September 2021, the results of which were released earlier this month, they spotted 194 bears and, based on that count, estimated a total population of 618 bears, down from 842 five years earlier…. The bears’ sea-ice habitat has been disappearing at an alarming rate, with the far north warming up to four times faster than the rest of the world…. The bears rely on the ice for foraging for seals, movement and reproduction.”   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/24/canada-polar-bears-declining-at-alarming-rate-study   Female bears can’t run as fast on ice?

North Korea points out U.S. hypocrisy after claims it sold arms to Russia. “The international community will have to focus on the U.S. criminal acts of bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons and equipment on a large scale, rather than lending an ear to the groundless theory of ‘arms transaction’ between the DPRK and Russia cooked up by some dishonest forces for different purposes.”   https://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-blames-us-ukraine-bloodshed-wagner-group-arms-1769318

German intelligence employee accused of spying for Russia was a senior officer. “The officer had access to intelligence data shared by the US National Security Agency (NSA), the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency GCHQ, and other partner agencies, Focus Online reported. The BND officer was a specialist analyzing data obtained through worldwide surveillance of communications, and due to his role, he also accessed intelligence information shared by the allies, the report said. The investigators were concerned that the BND intelligence officer might have also shared these sensitive information with the Russians, according to the report.”   https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/german-double-agent-might-have-shared-us-intelligence-with-russians-report/2771431

OSHA proposes $250,272 fine after two temporary workers were crushed to death in unsafe trench. “Two workers were installing sewer lines in a trench more than two stories below ground in Texas when they were killed, authorities said…. ‘WBW Construction LLC willfully sent these workers into an unprotected trench and ignored federal safety requirements,’ OSHA Area Director Casey Perkins said in the release…. Investigators found that the contractor did not have a trench protective system in place, and there was no exit point within 25 feet inside the trench at the Jarrell residential construction site, according to the release. The company also did not use ladders as designed, failed to inspect the site as frequently as federally required, did not remove water from the trench and failed to provide first-aid training to workers, authorities said…. Sedona Staffing Services — an Illinois-based company offering temporary staffing — provided the two employees who were killed, officials said. The company was cited for not inspecting job sites and faces $9,324 in penalties.”   https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article270374942.html

Ukrainian-American member of congress asks FBI to investigate threats and election interference against her, possibly originating from Ukrainian government officials. “In a press release earlier this week, [Rep. Victoria] Spartz included a picture of a billboard in a region of the Ukraine with her official portrait and the following statement: ‘Our president has to purge Russian FSB agents in any kind of office.’ ‘I don’t want to be on a billboard in the Ukraine,’ Spartz said Friday during an interview with The Herald Bulletin. ‘The Ukraine is full of Russian agents and they don’t want us to question their accountability. We want to make sure the U.S. money and supplies are going to the right people in the Ukraine,’ she added. ‘We don’t want our money to be stolen.’ Spartz said the American government has to do a better job of oversight when it comes to U.S. financial and military aid…. ‘They threatened anyone who met with me or would want to meet with me with criminal charges through their fully controlled judicial and prosecutorial systems and allegedly directed their secret police to use intimidation techniques during my official visits to Ukraine this fall.'”   https://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/local_news/spartz-asks-fbi-to-investigate-threats-by-ukraine/article_2a45e076-80a1-11ed-8a0b-83c11cb08868.html

December 23, 2022

Sen. Rand Paul’s attempt to enforce Senate rules on $1.7 trillion Omnibus spending bill is voted down. “‘It has become far too easy for Congress to escape its own rules designed to prevent reckless spending,’ Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) said on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon…. Paul was trying to get support for a point of order that would make a technical tweak to the Senate’s rules—or, rather, to when the Senate can ignore its rules. He was asking lawmakers to require that two-thirds of the Senate approve any attempt to waive the normal rules that apply to the passage of spending bills. His proposal was voted down in a bipartisan manner.”   https://reason.com/2022/12/22/the-senates-passage-of-the-1-7-trillion-omnibus-spending-bill-is-a-bipartisan-failure/   Climate change aid dropped from Omnibus spending bill. “Congressional Democrats had sought $3.4 billion for global climate programs this year, but Republicans blocked what Republicans on the Senate Appropriations Committee called ‘radical environmental and climate policies’. ‘Congress just bankrolled an $857 billion defense bill but failed to provide a single penny to meet our commitments to the Green Climate Fund — a step that would truly help us defend our country and our planet from chaos and instability,’ Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said on Twitter.”   https://news.yahoo.com/spending-bill-leaves-out-most-of-the-climate-change-funding-biden-sought-232329331.html

Right-wing extremists led invasion of Capitol during riot. “The first wave of rioters to enter the Capitol during the siege, according to the Jan. 6 select committee’s final report released Thursday night, was disproportionately comprised of members of the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, QAnon fanatics and so-called ‘Groypers’ loyal to Nick Fuentes, the former president’s racist and antisemitic recent Mar-a-Lago dinner guest…. The interplay between Trump world and shadowy right-wing extremist networks dominated the voluminous final report cataloging Trump’s multi-part bid to subvert the 2020 election and prevent Joe Biden from taking office…. The committee dedicated a section of its report to Roger Stone, Trump’s longest-tenured political ally. Stone operated a Signal chat group called ‘Friends of Stone’ that brought together figures like [Proud Boys leader Enrique] Tarrio, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Stop the Steal founder Ali Alexander.”   https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/22/jan-6-committee-releases-full-final-report-on-capitol-attack-00075380

Trump tax documents reveal claims of huge financial losses. “From 2015 through 2020, Trump declared a positive income in two years and a negative income in four years. His losses heavily outweigh his gains. For the six years in total, Trump reported $52.6 million in negative income, or, in other words, $52.6 million in losses. A typical worker can’t live on negative income. Yet Trump manages to do so. That’s because he uses business losses to offset real income and reduce the amount of taxes he owes…. ‘Trump avoids paying taxes by creating a lot of losses, both real and fake,’ tax lawyer Steve Rosenthal of the Tax Policy Center said. ‘From a tax standpoint he’s often underwater, but that’s an artifact of the tax system and not so much real.’ …. One practice under scrutiny is valuing properties sharply lower in tax filings than in other business documents. Tax experts studying the two Congressional reports point out several red flags suggesting fraud, including undocumented charitable donations and payments to family members that might actually be gifts…. The Internal Revenue Service is supposed to audit the tax returns of every president, but it never finished an audit of Trump while he was president. There’s evidence Trump or his advisers pressured the IRS to back off.”   https://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-is-americas-poorest-billionaire-203449223.html   “‘Donald Trump’s tax returns exemplify the shortcomings of our tax code,’ [Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron] Wyden said Wednesday. ‘These are issues much bigger than Donald Trump. Trump’s returns likely look similar to those of many other wealthy tax cheats — hundreds of partnership interests, highly-questionable deductions, and debts that can be shifted around to wipe out tax liabilities.'”   https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3783613-five-things-weve-learned-through-the-release-of-trumps-tax-records/

Aid to Ukraine ‘not charity’ claims President Zelenskkyy. “Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy told cheering U.S. legislators during a defiant wartime visit to the nation’s capital on Wednesday that against all odds his country still stands, thanking Americans for helping to fund the war effort with money that is ‘not charity’, but an ‘investment’ in global security and democracy…. Just before his arrival, the U.S. announced a new $1.8 billion military aid package, including for the first time Patriot surface-to-air missiles. And Congress planned to vote this week on a fresh spending package that includes about $45 billion in additional emergency assistance to Ukraine.”   https://www.dailyherald.com/news/20221221/zelenskyy-to-congress-your-money-is-not-charity-it-is-an-investment-in-democracy

New Jersey gun law restricts who can carry a concealed firearm and where they can carry it. “[Gov. Phil] Murphy introduced the proposal in June after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the N.Y. State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen case. The ruling of the courts was that it is illegal to require New York applicants to show ‘proper cause’ to carry a handgun in public. The ruling also invalidated New Jersey’s laws that had been on the books for years, restricting public carry to those who demonstrate a ‘justifiable need’…. Under the new law, concealed carry is not allowed in ‘high-density’ locations, places with vulnerable populations or where there is First Amendment or government activity…. The new law also restricts who is ineligible to obtain a carry permit, including… those subject to voluntary admissions to mental institutions or hospitals. The application process has also become more vigorous, as four endorsements of character from non-related references must be provided with applications.”   https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-jersey-governor-signs-new-gun-law-drawing-lawsuit-from-nra   Luckily, I didn’t need four character references to start this news blog, but who knows, that could soon be required to exercise ANY constitutional right.

Chinese firm ByteDance accused of using journalists’ IP addresses and TikTok user data to identify sources who leaked information about the company’s ties to Chinese government. “ByteDance employees reportedly accessed reporters’ TikTok accounts to obtain IP and user data, assessing whether there was any overlap with pings from known locations of ByteDance employees suspected of leaking. ByteDance confirmed that these tactics became so broad that the employees also monitored the data of some of the journalists’ associates…. According to Forbes, ByteDance fired Chris Lepitak, the chief internal auditor responsible for the company’s Internal Audit and Risk Control department. ByteDance confirmed Lepitak’s team was behind the surveillance campaign.”   https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/12/tiktok-fires-4-employees-who-used-internal-data-to-spy-on-journalists/

U.S. life expectancy continues to fall. “The average expectancy was shortened by a little more than half a year (0.6) compared to 2020, when life expectancy dropped nearly two years compared to 2019. Right before the pandemic began, life expectancy was 78.8 years…. Heart disease, cancer and COVID-19, in that order, remain the top causes of death in the U.S. Researchers wrote in their summary of the data that life expectancy has declined mostly from an increase in deaths from COVID-19, unintentional injury (which includes drug overdoses), liver disease and cirrhosis, suicide and homicide.”   https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/heart-disease-cancer-and-covid-were-leading-causes-of-death-in-2021-as-life-expectancy-declines/

Labor Dept. fines North Carolina Chick-fil-A for paying ‘volunteer’ workers with food vouchers. “…the operator of a Hendersonville, N.C., location was fined $6,450 by the Labor Department and ordered to pay $235 in back wages to seven employees, according to a news release issued Monday. The agency says it found that the operator violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by compensating workers who directed drive-through traffic with meal vouchers instead of proper wages, and violated child labor law by allowing three workers under 18 to use a trash compactor.”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/12/22/chick-fil-a-fine-workers-food/   Chick-fil-A manager accused of calling police after argument with black couple who were denied extra sauce. “Before the start of the video, the customer reportedly asked the manager if she could have more sauce when he allegedly told her that customers were limited to five packets. That’s when things got sticky. The manager — who was identified as Anthony by the videographer — is then heard on the phone allegedly conversing with law enforcement.”   https://nypost.com/2022/12/22/we-wanted-more-sauce-at-chick-fil-a-so-the-manager-called-the-cops-on-us/

Senate committee wants to know if automakers are buying components from firms that use forced labor. “Ron Wyden, a Senator from Oregon and the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, sent letters to Honda, Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Tesla, Toyota, and Volkswagen on Thursday requesting specific information related to their supply chains. The committee requested that the car makers conduct their own supply chain mapping and analysis to identify links to Xinjiang…. The letters come just weeks after Sheffield Hallam University released new research with what they said was evidence that the car makers in question may potentially be importing materials produced by forced Uyghur labor. The researchers said they found that at least thousands of Uyghurs have been forced to work in steel and aluminum metal-processing factories in accordance to Chinese government mandates. These metals are used to make car frames wheels, brakes, and bodies.”   https://www.businessinsider.com/the-senate-probes-car-makers-on-links-to-uyghur-labor-2022-12

Meta to pay $725 million to settle Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data leak scandal. “The proposed settlement, which was disclosed in a court filing late on Thursday, would resolve a long-running lawsuit prompted by revelations in 2018 that Facebook had allowed the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to access data of as many as 87 million users…. Cambridge Analytica, now defunct, worked for Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, and gained access to the personal information from millions of Facebook accounts for the purposes of voter profiling and targeting. Cambridge Analytica obtained that information without users’ consent from a researcher who had been allowed by Facebook to deploy an app on its social media network that harvested data from millions of its users.”   https://www.reuters.com/legal/facebook-parent-meta-pay-725-mln-settle-lawsuit-relating-cambridge-analytica-2022-12-23/

Twitter, Facebook and Google reportedly employ dozens of ‘former’ government agents. “A large number of ex-officers from the FBI, CIA, NSC, and State Department have taken positions at Facebook, Twitter, and Google…. The documents detailed how so many former FBI agents joined Twitter’s ranks over the past few years that they created their own private Slack channel…. A report by Mint Press’ Alan MacLeod identified dozens of Twitter employees, who had previously held positions at the Bureau, by tracking down their LinkedIn profiles. He also found that former CIA agents made up some of the top ranks in almost every politically-sensitive department at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And in another report, MacLeod detailed the extent to which former CIA agents started working at Google. It remains unclear whether any of these former agents have worked with their previous employers in a coordinated effort…. DailyMail.com has now been able to track down nine former CIA agents who are working, or have worked, at Meta, including Aaron Berman, the senior policy manager for misinformation at the company who had previously written the president’s daily briefings.”   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11562433/Facebook-riddled-ex-CIA-agents-ex-FBI-agents-work-Twitter.html   The reason I put ‘former’ in quotes in my headline is because we know the FBI ‘reimbursed’ Twitter more than $3 million for its help ‘fighting disinformation’. Maybe this money was for paying the salaries of its ‘former’ employees?

New England neo-nazis charged with conspiracy to commit bank robbery. “According to the criminal complaint provided to VICE News, police arrested Micheal J. Brown of Chester County, Pennsylvania, this week and charged him with conspiracy to commit bank robbery. They also charged Luke Kenna, who was recently arrested with a ghost gun during a traffic stop, with the same. The lead investigator was a New York State Police officer assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force…. Brown, Kenna, and a third unnamed man were planning an armed bank robbery in Johnston, New York, according to court documents.”   https://www.vice.com/en/article/4axeab/brown-kenna-bank-robbery-operation-werewolf

Asylum seekers victimized while waiting in Mexico, claims human rights group. “According to Human Rights First, over 13,400 accounts of murder, torture, kidnapping, rape and other violent attacks on migrants and asylum seekers blocked in or expelled to Mexico under Title 42 have been reported since President Biden took office.”   https://www.democracynow.org/2022/12/21/frustration_among_migrants_at_us_mexico

Federal judge hears conflicting perspectives of San Francisco’s homeless sweeps. “Attorneys for San Francisco said its policies balance the rights of homeless people with a need to maintain public spaces clean and safe for everyone. In court documents, they said homeless people get plenty of notice of upcoming cleanings, receive offers of help and shelter and are asked to leave an encampment only after declining an offer to stay elsewhere. But the judge pointed to evidence provided by the Coalition on Homelessness and seven plaintiffs, containing academic analysis and detailed eyewitness accounts of numerous sweeps conducted in the past three years that show homeless people were deprived of personal items and pushed out with nowhere to go…. The Coalition on Homelessness sued San Francisco in September, alleging that the city clears out encampments not to connect homeless people to services and housing as it claims, but in response to neighborhood complaints and to drive out homeless residents.”   https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-questions-san-francisco-tactics-in-homeless-sweeps/

Federal judge refuses to throw out lawsuit of black man kept in handcuffs after vehicle search failed to turn up contraband. “In August 2020, Marion Andrew Humphrey Jr., then a third-year law student at the University of Arkansas, was driving a U-Haul truck loaded with furniture and other possessions when he was stopped on Interstate 40 near Russellville at 8 p.m. by [white] Arkansas State Police Trooper Steven Payton on suspicion of careless and prohibited driving. According to the complaint, after calling for a police dog that reportedly alerted to the presence of drugs in the truck, Payton and another officer searched the U-Haul while Humphrey sat in the back of Payton’s patrol car, handcuffed, for about 80 minutes…. After seeing a suitcase on the passenger seat of the U-Haul, according to the narrative in U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky’s order, Payton ‘automatically thought that suitcase was full’ of some sort of contraband, based on a theory of his that ‘people that have drugs or narcotics or contraband … will keep it up front with them’…. After the search, Humphrey was released with a warning for careless and prohibited driving, but only after Payton left him handcuffed for an additional nine minutes while he wrote out the warning, during which time Humphrey complained several times that the handcuffs were causing him pain. Humphrey filed a lawsuit against Payton in federal court on March 11, 2021, alleging civil-rights violations pursuant to the Fourth and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution claiming that there was no probable cause for the stop in the first place and there was no probable cause to extend the stop in order to search for drugs.”   https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/dec/23/judge-rules-state-trooper-must-stand-trial-for/   Article fails to mention the race of the plaintiff and defendant, but I Googled them.

Veterans for Peace calls for immediate end to war in Ukraine. “As veterans who have experienced the carnage of war, we feel great empathy for the young soldiers on both sides of this bloody war who are being killed and injured in the tens of thousands. We know all too well that the survivors will be traumatized and scarred for life. We say Enough is Enough — War is Not the Answer. We want urgent, good-faith diplomacy to end the war in Ukraine, not more U.S. weapons, advisers and endless war. And certainly not a nuclear war. We want to see those billions of dollars going for climate, jobs, healthcare and housing, not for weapons manufacturers and war profiteers. As soldiers who have resisted wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, we support war resisters on all sides, including Conscientious Objectors, draft resisters, deserters and all who refuse to participate in killing.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2022/12/21/us-veterans-join-calls-for-ending-war-in-ukraine/

December 22, 2022

Investigators say ‘state actor’ responsible for Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, no evidence it was done by Russia. “‘We know that this amount of explosives has to be a state-level actor,’ Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said in an interview this month. ‘It’s not just a single fisherman who decides to put the bomb there. It’s very professional.’ ….as the investigation drags on, skeptics point out that Moscow had little to gain from damaging pipelines that fed Western Europe natural gas from Russia and generated billions of dollars in annual revenue. The Nord Stream projects had stirred controversy and debate for years because they yoked Germany and other European countries to Russian energy sources. ‘The rationale that it was Russia [that attacked the pipelines] never made sense to me,’ said one Western European official…. ‘It’s not a good thing,’ [a Norwegian] official said, of the possibility that the Nord Stream explosions may remain unsolved. ‘Whoever did it may get away with it.'”   https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/12/21/russia-nord-stream-explosions/   Not Russia? Then they’ll probably get away with it!

Members of Congress ask Sec. of Defense to clarify what happened during airstrike in Nigeria that killed 160 civilians. “… the U.S. military provided Nigerian forces with intelligence support ahead of a January 17, 2017 airstrike on a refugee camp in Rann, Borno state, in the country’s northeastern corner. Nigeria bombed the camp believing it was a base for Boko Haram fighters. More than 160 civilians died in the attack, including six Red Cross aid workers. A formerly classified U.S. military document obtained by The Intercept referred to the strike as a ‘U.S.-Nigerian’ operation. Days after the attack, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) secretly ordered a probe of the airstrike. The lawmakers asked what was the nature of U.S. involvement in the strike, whether the military provided intelligence or other support to its Nigerian partner, and other questions, asking Pentagon officials to reply ‘no later than 90 days’ after they received the letter. That deadline was nearly two weeks ago.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/12/21/pentagon-blows-deadline-explain-us-role-nigerian-airstrike-killed-160-civilians

U.S. faith leaders call for Christmas truce in Ukraine conflict. “Taking inspiration from the storied holiday fighting pause in the early months of the First World War, more than 1,000 faith leaders in the United States have signed onto a statement calling for a Christmas truce and ceasefire in Ukraine in the hopes that such a gesture would open the door to substantive diplomatic negotiations. ‘As people of faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we call for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine,’ reads the statement, which was signed by Bishop William J. Barber II, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Liz Theoharis, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Sikh leader Valarie Kaur, and hundreds of other religious leaders representing believers from every major tradition.”   https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/12/21/1000-us-faith-leaders-call-christmas-truce-and-ceasefire-ukraine