Month: February 2024

Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The first month of the Washington Legislature’s 2024 session is ending with a slew of Democrat-backed gun control proposals, including a new measure to tax people who have the “privilege” of using ammunition.

House Bill 2238, sponsored by Democratic state Reps. My-Linh Thai and Liz Berry, would create an 11 percent tax on the retail sale of ammunition across the state in addition to all existing federal, state, and local sale and use taxes, with the exception of sales to governments for the purposes of supplying law enforcement agencies.

Instead of recognizing the purchase of ammunition as an integral part of the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the language of the bill classifies it as a “privilege.”

“A use tax is levied on every person in this state for the privilege of using ammunition as a consumer at the rate of 11 percent of the selling price,” the bill reads.

The stated reason behind the proposal is to help reduce “gun violence,” or deaths involving guns—most of which are suicides.

“Gun violence remains a persistent health and safety threat for people across our state,” the bill’s authors wrote, admitting that nearly seven out of every 10 gun deaths in Washington are suicides..

“Data from the Washington office of firearm safety and violence prevention show that, in 2021, 69 percent of all firearm-related deaths were suicides,” they wrote.

Revenue from the proposed tax would go to funding suicide prevention programs, as well as programs aimed to reduce “firearm-related domestic violence.”

Ms. Berry, a gun control advocate who previously worked for former Rep. Gabby Giffords as her legislative director when the Democrat congresswoman was shot in the head in Tucson in 2011, also co-sponsored at least five other measures targeting guns.

Those proposals include House Bill 1902, which would apply requirements similar to those for a licensed concealed handgun carrier to all potential gun buyers in Washington. In addition to live-fire training, it would make fingerprinting a mandatory prerequisite to all Washington residents who wish to obtain a gun permit.

“This measure significantly combats straw purchasing and empowers law enforcement to establish an optimal safety framework in our state,” Ms. Berry said.

Another Democrat-backed measure, House Bill 2118, would add extra requirements for firearms dealers to retain their licenses. The bill would require that a dealer to be at least 21 years old and be subjected to annual background checks in order to sell guns. Additionally, firearms dealers would have to install alarm and surveillance systems at their place of business, review and respond to trace requests within 24 hours, report weapon loss or theft to the authority within 24 hours, and file annual reports to the state attorney general’s office.

House Bill 2054 also seeks to place restrictions on firearms dealers. The bill would prohibit them from selling or transferring more than one firearm to an individual within a 30-day window. Washington currently has no cap on the number of firearms a dealer can sell or transfer at a given time.

House Bill 1903, meanwhile, would put more legal obligations on gun owners. Under the proposed measure, victims of firearm theft must report the missing weapon within 24 hours after they become aware of the loss of the weapon. They would have to to include in their report detailed information about the weapon, including caliber, make, model, serial number, and manufacturer.

Current Washington law only requires that a gun theft to be reported to law enforcement within five days of when the owner of the gun knew it was stolen. Failure to report the lost or stolen firearm could lead to a charge of community endangerment. Under House Bill 1903, however, those who fail to report a missing firearm could be found guilty under a civil infraction, and could face a fine up to $1,000.

Also among the measures are House Bill 2021, which would essentially authorize Washington State Patrol officers to destroy privately owned guns in the custody of government entities. Under current law, the State Patrol is not authorized to destroy forfeited firearms, but they are allowed to sell or trade the ones that are in their possession.

“These bills will save lives,” Ms. Berry wrote on Facebook on Jan. 16, before she attended a public hearing on the five measures before the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee at the state Capitol in Olympia.

Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

In “The Wizard of Oz”, at one point Dorothy tells her dog that she has “a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”.  She had been dropped in a strange new world that was crazier than anything she had ever imagined.  Needless to say, many of us feel the exact same way.  We’re not in the America that we grew up in anymore.  Instead, we now live in a country that appears to be a cross between a really bad science fiction movie and a freak show.  Sadly, the pace of change has now reached an exponential rate, and things will get even more insane during the years that are ahead of us. 

The following are 8 signs that demonstrate how truly bizarre our society is becoming…

#1 Facial recognition technology is now being implemented on a widespread basis.  For example, the official TSA website is openly admitting that the TSA is starting to use facial scanning technology at airports nationwide…

TSA introduced facial recognition technology into the screening process at select airports. The facial recognition technology represents a significant security enhancement and improves traveler convenience. A traveler may voluntarily agree to use their face to verify their identity during the screening process by presenting their physical identification or passport. The facial recognition technology TSA uses helps ensure the person standing at the checkpoint is the same person pictured on the identification document (ID) credential. Photos are not stored or saved after a positive ID match has been made, except in a limited testing environment for evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology.

The agency is using second-generation Credential Authentication Technology (CAT-2) scanners as travelers enter the screening process. This technology assists Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) in verifying the authenticity of a traveler’s ID credential, as well as their flight status and vetting status. TSOs must direct all passengers to the proper lane, either TSA PreCheck® screening, standard screening, or enhanced screening. The CAT-2 units are currently deployed at nearly 30 airports nationwide, and will expand to the more than 400 federalized airports over the coming years.

#2 The elite want to make national borders meaningless, and that is quickly becoming the case.  So many people from foreign countries have moved into the Twin Cities area in Minnesota that authorities are being forced to put up signs explaining that peeing, pooping and rape are not allowed while riding public transportation…

Peeing and pooping while riding on Metro Transit vehicles falls under the “illegal” category, according to the signs. “Transit property is not a public restroom,” the new rules read. They also explain to riders that sexual assault is illegal. “Sexual contact without consent is forbidden,” the rules state.

#3 Do you remember Michael Cassidy?  He was the guy that beheaded the statue of Satan at the Iowa Capitol, and now he is being charged with a hate crime…

Michael Cassidy has been charged with a hate crime for beheading a statue of Satan at the Iowa Capitol. Cassidy drove up to Iowa after the Satanic display was erected in the state capitol and took it down. He will be arraigned on February 15.

Polk County prosecutors charged Cassidy with felony third-degree criminal mischief, saying that he acted “in violation of individual rights” under Iowa’s hate crime statue, the Des Moines Register reports.

#4 In Montana, one family just had their 14-year-old daughter permanently taken away from them because they wouldn’t allow her to transition to a different gender…

A Montana mom and dad who lost custody of their daughter after they refused to transition her gender have told DailyMail.com the ordeal ‘has torn their family apart.’

Krista Kolstad revealed the family’s nightmare began when they received a call that their 14-year-old daughter Jennifer told friends at school that she wanted to commit suicide in August 2023.

Later that night, Child Protective Services (CPS) went to the Kolstad’s home in Glasgow to inspect the house and interview Jennifer, later determining that she needed to transition to get better.

Republican Governor Greg Gianforte was confronted about this case, and he is actually defending the decision.

#5 Sticking with Montana, it is being reported that a “bioagent superlab” in the state is doing experiments with “Ebola, Lassa fever, Nipah, and even the plague”…

DISTRESSING new images show animals being infected with deadly pathogens at a US lab with ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Photos and footage obtained by watchdog White Coat Waste show scientists at the Rocky Mountain Lab sedating monkeys and pigs – and carrying out experiments with deadly viruses.

White Coat Waste has described the lab as a “bioagent superlab” that infects animals with highly contagious and deadly diseases – such as Ebola, Lassa fever, Nipah, and even the plague.

#6 During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Ted Cruz asked Mark Zuckerberg why Instagram users are given the option to “see results anyway” when attempting to pull up images of child sexual abuse…

He then held a blown-up screenshot of an Instagram prompt that asks users if they want to ‘get resources’ or ‘see results anyway’ when browsing harmful images.

The warning read ‘these results may contain images of child sexual abuse’, with an explanation underneath.

‘You gave users two choices: “Get resources or see results anyway”,’ Cruz said, speaking directly to the Meta founder.

‘Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?’, barely pausing long enough for the Meta founder to respond.

#7 We have been warned for a long time that a cashless society is coming, but now we have reached a point where thousands of businesses all over the United States have already gone cashless…

Aaron Bateman pulled out a few $20 bills to pay for a taco lunch in the nation’s capital. To his surprise, his money was no good in the city where money is printed.

Surfside, a popular 24-hour Mexican eatery, doesn’t take cash. No cash means no register for robbers to empty out, no bills for workers to slip into their pockets and no change counting holding up lines.

The global cashless movement has reached Washington, where a growing number of fast-casual and other establishments are saying no to greenbacks in favor of plastic and mobile payments. Sweetgreen, the national salad chain, went cashless in most of its locations last year. Other cashless spots include a frozen yogurt shop downtown, a posh wine bar and a beer store.

#8 Would you allow someone to put a computer chip in your head?  Well, it is really starting to happen.  This week, we learned that the very first “brain chip” has been implanted in a human subject…

Elon Musk announced that his company Neuralink implanted a brain chip in a human in a preliminary clinical study. If research studies continue to look promising, devices like these could one day be a “game changer” for people with limited motor function, experts told ABC News.

Neuralink says its goal is to help people living with debilitating conditions, including paralysis, communicate and control external devices with their thoughts.

The patient who received the implant is “recovering well,” Musk said in a post on X Tuesday.

What do all of these eight things have in common?

Each one of them shows that the agenda of the elite is rapidly advancing.

We are living in a society that they are designing for their twisted purposes and that represents their twisted values.

The good news is that we live at a time when all of their plans and programs will soon come crashing down.

The elite will not succeed in creating the world that they so desperately desire, and evil will not triumph in the end.

*  *  *

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

by Maartje Wijffelaars, Senior Economist at Rabobank

As widely expected, the Bank of England kept its Bank rate unchanged yesterday, at 5.25%. Just like the US Fed did on Wednesday and the ECB last week. The main difference was, however, that in the UK the votes were not unanimous: two members voted in favour of a hike, one for a cut, and six to keep the rate unchanged. The MPC reiterated that it remains prepared to adjust monetary policy as warranted by economic data to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably, but dropped the warning that more hikes may be needed to get there. So despite the votes in favour of a hike, the BoE adopted a more dovish tone.

Looking ahead, our UK strategist Stefan Koopman expects the BoE to keep its policy rate on hold until September, after which it will start a gradual cutting cycle. This is later than the market is pricing for. It also means we expect the BoE to start cutting in the same month as the ECB (September), yet later than the Fed (June). Together with current market pricing and the UK economy performing better recently than the Eurozone, this informs our view that there is scope for EUR/GBP to edge lower to the 0.84 level on a 6-month view.

Indeed, January’s PMI surveys suggest that activity in the Eurozone contracted at the start of the year (composite PMI at 47.9), while the UK economy started on a relatively good footing (PMI composite at 52.5). So while we still foresee significant structural economic weakness for the UK, in the short term it could well outperform the currency block. This is largely due to weakness in Germany (composite PMI at 47.1), while French surveys (composite PMI at 44.2) also paint a gloomy picture. Germany was also the weakest performer among large member states last year, with its economy falling 0.3% q/q in 23Q4.

For the Eurozone overall, 2023’s ending was like a party without cake. It managed to avert a forecasted contraction, and hence a recession, yet stagnation is as good as it got, against the backdrop of a significant increase in interest rates since mid-2022.

Going forward, recent survey data suggests that the downturn is bottoming out, but weakness certainly persists. Although we believe that consumer spending growth should start to recover over the course of 2024, there is more uncertainty when it comes to investment activity. In a publication published earlier this week we zoom in on investments, looking at recent developments and the outlook. In short, we expect investment growth to recover moderately over the coming quarters, even though past rate hikes are still working their way through the economy and self-financing capacity of firms has reduced. Drivers are a significant drop in capital market rates over the past months, untapped potential in the Recovery and Resilience Facility, and last but certainly not least, strategic motivations.

Somewhat stronger economic figures than expected – especially in Southern Europe – combined with January’s inflation figures, support our view that the ECB will wait a bit longer to start cutting than the market currently expects.

Inflation continued on its downward path in January, but published figures underscore our view that the last mile is the longest. Headline inflation dropped from 2.9% y/y in December to 2.8% y/y in January, which is higher than consensus of 2.7% and our own estimate of 2.6%. Core inflation dropped from 3.4% y/y in December to 3.3% y/y in January, slightly higher than the consensus of 3.2% y/y but in line with our in-house projection.

While we foresee a further decline over the coming months, we think that the tight labour market and indications that wage growth is likely to stay elevated this year, make further progress towards target rather slow. We forecast inflation of 2.7% in 2024 and 2.7% in 2025.

The main risk to our outlook comes from the trade disruptions in the Red Sea, a theme discussed more than often in this Global Daily. The Red Sea trade disruptions has caused shipping prices for containers from China to Europe to quintuple. Manufacturers are also already signalling that the disruptions are causing delivery delays and that the higher costs are beginning to feed through here and there. For the time being, however, there is still little evidence that trade disruptions in the Red Sea will result in a significant inflationary shock. Freight rates account for less than 1% of the final cost of manufacturing output, demand is weak, and while energy prices have increased over the past weeks, they are still below autumn’s peak – let alone the peaks witnessed in 2022.

Yet, the experience of 2021-22 shows that this is not a sufficient condition for stability! To the contrary, if trade disruptions spread, the inflationary effects may be greater if companies face a shortage of inputs. Moreover, while overall logistics account for a limited share in final output costs, price increases and disruptions to flows of certain goods can have a much larger impact on inflation than they would have on average. Take diesel for example. Due to relatively much weaker availability of fuel tankers than container vessels, problematic disruptions to the inflow of diesel could well come faster than to the import of consumer goods or inputs thereof. This is especially given the already historically low diesel inventories and weak refinery capacity on the continent – contrary to still adequately perceived stocks of inputs and finished goods. Moreover, the fact that diesel is required for logistics, from trucks to tractors, disruptions in the flow of diesel could be especially problematic and cause non-linear effects.

Given the uncertain second and third order effects, it is difficult to predict how large the inflationary effects will be. A new bout of inflation, as we saw in 2021-22, however, would require a shortage of inputs to be accompanied by a sharp rise in energy prices, whilst demand would have to remain relatively strong for companies to increase their prices. For now we expect the crisis in the Red Sea to slow or delay disinflation rather than fuel a strong increase in inflation. But it will also largely come down to how long it will take to solve the crisis. This is by no means straightforward. And clearly, the repercussions would be much worse if disruptions would spread to the Strait of Hormuz. Importantly, it means the task of the ECB hasn’t become any easier.

In other news, yesterday the EU27 finally agreed on a new four-year EUR 50bn support package for Ukraine. This was despite farmers fed up with EU rules tried their best to block the entry of the council building. The new support package had previously been vetoed by Hungary’s Orbán, in an attempt to unlock EUR 30bn funds held up by Brussels. In December, Orbán managed to obtain EUR 10bn previously frozen EU support money, but he wanted all. It had already become clear that Brussels was done with Orbán. Earlier this week the idea of a plan to destroy the Hungarian economy if it didn’t lift its veto was conveniently leaked to the FT – the leak already led to financial market turmoil and a backlash at home. Now it’s unclear what exactly did the trick, but according to Politico, a small group of leaders managed to convince Orbán in a backdoor meeting to agree. This is much welcome for now. But the saga, again, shows that the EU should reform its governance, such that a single country cannot hold the entire Union hostage.

Authored by Robert Kogon via DailySceptic.org,

Barely two weeks after a leading member of a party in Germany’s governing coalition compared supporters of the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to “flies on a pile of shit“, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has now compared them to “rats”.

The AfD was the only party represented in the German Bundestag to oppose Covid-measures, including mass vaccination, and it is persistently polling around 20%, and as high as 24%, in the latest public opinion surveys. President Steinmeier’s Social Democratic party (SPD) is polling around 15%.

Alluding to the AfD at a meeting with business and trade-union leaders at the presidential palace, Schloss Bellevue, in Berlin on Monday, President Steinmeier said:

When our democracy is attacked… the democratic centre, the great majority of our society, must take a stand and make clear that we are committed to our democracy, we defend this Germany, and we will not allow this country to be ruined by extremist rat-catchers.

The “attack on democracy” refers to an alleged “secret meeting” in Potsdam last November at which the “deportation” or “expulsion” of migrants was supposedly discussed. The meeting – in fact a kind of symposium with invited speakers at a hotel – was attended by three representatives of the AfD, but also by two members of the Christian Democratic party of former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Attendees have denied that any such “deportation” plans were discussed, and in a speech to the German Bundestag on Wednesday, AfD party Chair Alice Weidel described related reports in the German media as “an unprecedent campaign of defamation”.

Steinmeier’s word-choice echoes that of a commentary which was published by Germany’s ARD public television in November 2022 on the occasion of Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The commentary warned that by restoring free speech on the platform, as Musk promised, “racist and conspiratorial rats” would be allowed to “crawl out of their holes”, and it concluded that “Twitter can only remain relevant if precisely these rats… are beaten back into their holes”.

The commentary provoked numerous outraged responses in the German-language Twittersphere, including many which pointed to the use of similar “rat” imagery to describe Jews in Nazi propaganda. (For an example, see my contemporaneous report here.)

The controversy was so great that ARD removed the reference to “rats” and explicitly apologised for having used such “dehumanising” language.

Just over a year later, there is no indication that the German President has any plans to apologise for having described roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of the German electorate in similar terms.

*  *  *

Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.

Amid persistent more-than-rumors that Ukraine’s President Zelensky is trying to fire his defense chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhny, CNN has given the embattled general op-ed space to speak some things that are certain to pour fuel to the fire.

Prior international reports, including in CNN, said that on Monday Zelensky asked his top general to step down. Zaluzhny reportedly refused. We earlier asked the question, is there a brewing mutiny as the split between the military leadership and Zelensky administration grows wider? 

In Zaluzhny’s CNN op-ed, published late in the day Thursday, the top general has continued saying things which run afoul of Zelensky’s more positive, rosy narrative as the latter desperately tries to attract more Western weaponry and funding, at a moment many European nations are struggling with depleted domestic stockpiles. 

“We must contend with a reduction in military support from key allies, grappling with their own political tensions,” Zaluzhny writes. “Our partners’ stocks of missiles, air defense interceptors and ammunition for artillery is becoming exhausted, due to the intensity of hostilities in Ukraine, but also from a global shortage of propellant charges.”

“Russia, taking note of how developments in the Middle East have distracted international attention, might seek to provoke further conflicts elsewhere,” he concludes further, echoing things Zelensky has also acknowledged.

Perhaps Ukraine is preparing for the deeply unpopular (unpopular especially among Ukrainians) move for a new mass mobilization? The general’s words hint at this…

We must acknowledge the significant advantage enjoyed by the enemy in mobilizing human resources and how that compares with the inability of state institutions in Ukraine to improve the manpower levels of our armed forces without the use of unpopular measures.

But again, this is sure to rile his boss Zelensky, given it comes off as a deep criticism of the Ukrainian government’s leadership and capabilities (“inability of state institutions… to improve the manpower levels…”).

And here is more from Zaluzhny’s op-ed, where he offers further self-critique of the state of readiness of the nation:

Finally, we remain hamstrung by the imperfections of the regulatory framework in our country, as well as the partial monopolization of the defense industry. These lead to production bottlenecks – in ammunition, for instance – which further deepen Ukraine’s dependence on its allies for supplies.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg too is acknowledging the open divisions in a Friday report:

General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi is a national hero for Ukrainians after repelling the first wave of Vladimir Putin’s invasion on the outskirts of Kyiv.

But two years into the war, setbacks on the battlefield and political jealousies in the capital have soured his relationship with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. This week, the president tried — and failed — to force out his commander-in-chief, pulling back the curtain on a damaging rift at the heart of the Ukraine war effort.

Zaluzhny on eve of his expected firing by Zelensky shows his backing from far-right, which has power to overthrow Zelensky. Zaluzhny takes selfie with leader of far-right Right Sector & commander of Right Sector brigade of Ukrainian military in front of portrait of Nazi… https://t.co/LUhvSw4zYB pic.twitter.com/EX8kAnBKI8

— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) February 2, 2024

The dispute hearkens especially back to a November interview Gen. Zaluzhny gave to The Economist. He had angered the Zelensky administration and external allies by being the first top official to paint a very negative picture of how Ukraine’s military was fairing on the battlefield. What’s more is the admission quickly caught the eye of other major publications, most notably The New York Times, which underscored “His comments marked the first time a top Ukrainian commander said the fighting had reached an impasse…”.

The NYT described that “It is the most candid assessment so far by a leading Ukrainian official of the military’s stalled counteroffensive.” But having taken on massive and still mounting casualties, it’s likely that rank and file conscripts would welcome the defense chief’s realism. 

Via Off-Guardian.org,

There’s a lot of “World War Three” in the news right now…

Grant Shapps, the UK’s defence minister has claimed we have “moved from a post-war to a pre-war world”, whatever that means.

Going on to say we can expect the world to be “engulfed” by wars with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea all within the next five years. Again, no idea how he can know that.

Two days ago, The Telegraph was headlining:

World War Three is approaching fast, and too few are willing to admit why

Two days before that, the Mirror went with:

World War 3: 5 chilling signs UK and US are heading for all out conflict amid global unrest

Yesterday, Spiked! asked simply:

Are you ready for World War 3?

Before adding, “Our sabre-rattling elites need to take a deep breath.”

Today, the Express reports that:

Top NATO allies strike World War 3 deal as Putin on brink of war with the West

The Telegraph has clearly got its priorities in order, warning:

A third world war would transform global finance beyond recognition

(And, incidentally, ripping off a Jasper Carrott stand-up routine from 40 years ago).

Perhaps the oddest WWIII headline belongs to Newsweek, which wants us to start farming a new superfood “in case of nuclear war.”

In terms of actual conflict, we have the ongoing “wars” in Ukraine and Gaza, and a civil war in Myanmar as well.

ISIS allegedly conducted a terrorist attack in Iran. Iran took out targets in Pakistan, and Pakistan responded in kind.

Somebody apparently droned some US servicemen in Syria. The US is blaming Iran and may retaliate.

The eternal war in Yemen is still ongoing, with Houthi rebels now attacking ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestine.

The UK and US are sending ships into the area, with “experts” calling for “airstrikes to prevent World War III”, apparently hoping to invoke the rare “de-escalation via blowing stuff up” tactic.[ZH: the strikes have begun]

In a similar vein, Zelensky is warning Germany might walk into WWIII if it doesn’t supply him with missiles (I don’t follow his logic, but then I haven’t spent a few billion dollars of US “military aid” on cocaine).

Trump is trumpeting that Biden’s carelessness has left the world “on the brink of World War Three.”

The “doomsday clock” is set at 90 seconds to midnight.

And suddenly everyone is talking about conscription, (as if that would have any bearing at all on a WWWIII). Both the UK and Australia have had calls for conscription in the past week.

So, what’s going on?

How does the apparent surge in international conflict work with the “great reset” world government plan? Is it breaking it or making it?

Is it possible they are dangling a nuclear Sword of Damocles over the world in order to scare people into embracing “world peace” through a global new world order?

Or could they be picking the sides for the next Cold War?

…or is it all real, and we could all be radioactive ash by 2025?

What do you guys think?

• Will the UK bring back conscription?

• Is this about good old-fashioned military spending?

• Are we really on the brink of WWIII?

• Or is this a narrative, and if so what’s the purpose?

• What happens next?

Authored by Richard Porter via RealClear Wire,

Diversity and inclusion are not what’s wrong with DEI. 

“Diversity” and “Inclusion” are apple-pie American concepts that echo our national motto: out of many, one; from diversity, inclusion, and unity.

What DEI proponents have cleverly done, though, is sandwich between two “good” words a third word with ancient roots that they have vested with a new, radical meaning and evil implications. That word is “Equity.” 

Equity arose in Anglo-American legal history as a procedure by which an injured party could petition the king to right a wrong that the rule of law did not address.

For example, under law, damages were the sole remedy for a person who suffered a tort or breach of contract, but the law did not provide an adequate remedy for an ongoing, or not-yet-completed, wrongful action. In these events, the British king (or his chancellor) could step in and command the wrongdoing to stop.

In the U.S., the mechanics of “equity” were folded into the rule of law more generally. Courts administer equity and law the same way: on a case-by-case base with legal reasoning applied to the facts in light of how prior cases with similar facts were resolved. 

So, in our traditional usage, equity is encompassed within the rule of law. In our system of government of, by, and for the people, in which all people are created equal, there is no king above the law who is permitted to take actions outside the law. 

Still, the ancient idea of the king “doing justice” through equity made “equity” a synonym for “justice” in common usage. 

But the E in DEI is not a call for “justice” in the ordinary sense of remedying an individual wrong based on particular facts. Instead, it is a call for “social justice” based on a theory: the idea that whites, Jews, and Asians are oppressors and everyone else is oppressed. To the DEI self-styled “anti-racist,” every aspect of society and every institution is tainted by “white supremacy,” and the color-blind ideal of traditional American liberalism is not sufficient to remedy racism that’s built into institutional DNA.

So, in DEI speak, equity is a call for revolution; it’s a call to overturn all government, economic, and social institutions and the rule of law itself because all institutions are, by their nature, unjust to oppressed groups – or so they say. 

Equity turns the American ideal of equality and equal justice under the law upside down. Under DEI, individuals should benefit (and others suffer) based on skin pigment, gender, or ethnicity, not because of what they have done, and without any finding of a particularized injury or wrongdoing, all because of events long past involving people long dead.

DEI establishes a modern caste system, in which rights and benefits are assigned by a group in order to achieve “social justice;” we may have been created equal, but some are more equal than others, according to the “equity” ideologue.

The oppressor/oppressed framework for assessing “social justice” also drives DEI’s “intersectionality” logic: disparate groups who suffered discrimination in the past (excluding the Irish, Poles, Jews, and other disfavored whites) have a common interest in “social justice.” Intersectionality theory is why DEI ideologues hold the improbable idea that the U.S. civil rights struggle is linked to Middle Eastern conflicts.

Indeed, the response of DEI ideologues to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack reveals much about the E between the D and the I: Palestinians are oppressed and Israelis are oppressors, so Hamas’ attack is equity, not an atrocity. 

This immediate, weirdly enthusiastic embrace of Hamas’ evil-doing and the ongoing campus and other protests in support of Hamas raise the obvious question: If slaughter is justified in Israel, then what is acceptable in the name of equity in America, where DEI proponents believe “white supremacy” is an intractable systemic problem requiring the “deconstruction” of everything? 

Americans of good faith reject racism and should, therefore, toss DEI’s unjust concept of “equity” on the ash heap of history while renewing our commitment to D&I in the pursuit of equal opportunity and equal justice for all.  

Could this be why Joe Biden, who embraced “equity” instead of equality and equal opportunity from the outset of his administration, switched back to “equality” while speaking in Charleston recently, sidling away from the inhumanity of this ideology? Or was that merely a slip of the tongue by an old man harkening back to our earlier age? 

We shall see. But, based on what we have already seen, it’s clear that the E between the D&I spells an end to equal opportunity and equal justice for all, an end that would be inhumane, brutal, and evil.

Richard Porter is the National Committeeman from Illinois on the Republican National Committee.

Another powerful atmospheric river-fueled storm is set to produce life-threatening flooding across Southern California late Saturday into early Sunday and extending into next week. 

An atmospheric river will drench California from Sunday-Tuesday with over 6 inches of rain in the mountains.

The moisture plume can be seen streaming in from Hawaii & siphoning moisture from near the equator.

El Niño & an active Madden-Julian Oscillation are contributing to it. pic.twitter.com/sJkq9BBrwj

— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) February 2, 2024

Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center, told Bloomberg that the Los Angeles metro area could receive 5 to 6 inches of rain, while Santa Barbara could record upwards of 8 inches. This comes after an atmospheric river-fueled storm dumped rain from San Francisco to Southern California this week. 

“Chances are increasing that a lengthy period of heavy rain will develop late Saturday night and continue through most of Sunday and Monday,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles warned in an update this morning, adding, “This storm could generating unprecedented amounts of rain across a widespread area!”

“It does look like it will be a significant event and it will be a longer duration than this past one,” Chenard said. 

He warned: “The fact that it is later in the year, on top of what has been a wet period, surely makes everything worse.”

This weekend’s atmospheric river could dump more than a month’s worth of rain across much of Southern California in just several days. 

Does California now have too much water? 

Full spill ahead! 🌊 California officials triggered Oroville Dam’s main spillway release this week to mitigate atmospheric river flooding. pic.twitter.com/QCybMoH6H7

— AccuWeather (@accuweather) February 2, 2024

NWS forecasters also warned of the “potential for damaging, life-threatening flooding,” urging people to prepare. 

Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Locked inside the crowded Chinese prison, blind lawyer Chen Guancheng hid his most treasured possession from the guards – inside a single serve milk box.

A pocket-size shortwave radio.

For three years, Mr. Chen looked forward to the hours after curfew. With a blanket wrapped over his head and the radio’s metal antenna parallel to his body, he lay still as the vibrating device under his ear brought to life a world outside the prison’s walls. Petitioners, protesters, human rights abuses, a grassroots movement to cut ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)—in that tiny murmuring voice, he saw them all. He was free.

Over the decade since Mr. Chen escaped to the United States, the pool of Western broadcasters for information-hungry Chinese like him has shrunk considerably.

Radio powerhouses—BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America—have either cut back on their China service or moved programs online. Meanwhile, the “Great Firewall,” the regime’s censorship apparatus aimed at isolating China digitally, seems only to grow taller by the day.

Bucking the trend is a largely volunteer-run radio network called Sound of Hope, whose 10 p.m. and midnight segments kept Mr. Chen informed about current affairs in China during his years in prison.

The company now boasts one of the largest shortwave broadcasting networks around China, with about 120 stations beaming signals to China 24/7.

Allen Zeng, Sound of Hope’s co-founder and CEO, sees shortwave as the answer to the regime’s information blackout.

“They can turn off the internet, carry out the killing, wash clean the blood, and turn it back on,” he told The Epoch Times, pointing to Iran’s pattern of blocking the internet during nationwide protests.

With shortwave radio, though, “they have nowhere to turn it off,” Mr. Zeng said.

“It’s like the rain falling down from the sky—they have no way to block the sky.”

A Voice to Trust

An unlikely journey began in 2004 for Mr. Zeng, then a Silicon Valley engineer.

Inside China, a massive nationwide campaign had been underway, targeting virtually one in 13 Chinese who live by truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance, the three tenets of the faith group Falun Gong.

Arbitrary jailing, slave labor, the abuse of psychiatric drugs, and sexual abuse—the stories trickling out of China were sickening enough that Mr. Zeng and a team of like-minded Chinese expats felt they could no longer stand by.

“We had to do something about it. We needed to stop the killing,” he said.

The first thing that came to mind was the shortwave radio that had been a household item in China since the Cold War era, one that in 1989, Mr. Zeng and other college students had turned to for information when authorities rolled their tanks over democracy-loving demonstrators in Tiananmen Square.

“Because nothing else could be trusted,” he said.

With little budget and know-how, the team started small: leasing one hour of airtime from Taiwanese national broadcaster Radio Taiwan International.

Around that time, “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party,” an Epoch Times editorial series that unpacked the nature of the Chinese regime, had just been published, and Sound of Hope took it to audio.

It was such a hit in Beijing that shortwave radios were out of stock for months.

The response, and occasional words of encouragement from listeners who managed to bypass China’s internet censorship, kept Mr. Zeng’s team going. Dissidents chipped in and programs diversified. Soon, they were Radio Taiwan International’s biggest contractor.

Gauging the size of the network’s audience is difficult given the opacity of data from China.

But Sound of Hope became so influential that it caught Beijing’s attention. The Chinese regime began to pressure the radio network’s Taiwanese partner.

Eventually, the Taiwanese broadcaster backed out. Sound of Hope was back to square one.

‘Walking in the Dark’

Giving up wasn’t in Mr. Zeng’s vocabulary.

As the partnership with Taiwan unraveled, the engineers raced to develop their own solutions. They drew inspiration from fishing vessels’ radio waves to build their own transmitter.

The result was a mini-tower based in Taiwan with upward-facing antennas that spread out like wings. They nicknamed it “Seagull.”

The team set its sights low. The first “seagull” had a power level of 100 watts—a thousandth of the smallest radio service they had leased from the Taiwanese broadcaster.

“It was the only thing we could afford,” Mr. Zeng said.

“Seagull” No. 1 was short-lived, and so were many of its successors whose signals the Chinese authorities quickly jammed. But to the team, it was a major discovery: At 100 watts, they still had a chance to be heard.

They kept producing and tweaking their equipment with each new creation.

“It was just like walking in the dark—we didn’t know whether there would be an end to this tunnel,” Mr. Zeng said.

Finally, on the 16th try, they saw a breakthrough. The signal broke through and held steady.

Mr. Zeng figured that they had, for the moment, consumed all the jamming power from China.

“We outgunned them pretty much,” he said. “They cannot move as fast as we did.”

Expansion

Technical challenges aside, getting the stations to work was no easy feat.

The wilderness, their best location for an uninterrupted signal, is also a haven for creepy crawlies, from scorpions to snakes. Hsieh Shih-mu, a volunteer, stepped on a snake once and sighted many more while building some of the earliest “seagulls” in Taiwan’s southern tip. Often, after wobbling back home on a motorcycle on the pitch-black mountain road, he was covered in mosquito bites.

Narrow and muddy, the path became doubly treacherous after rain. One time, another volunteer nearly fell off the hill—and would have, if not for the roadside tree branches that caught his motorcycle. They had to call a tow truck to haul the man back up.

Read more here…

Via Middle East Eye

While pressure has continued to mount on US President Joe Biden to take action in response to Israel’s war on Gaza, he has instead set his sights on the occupied West Bank. Activity by Israeli settlers has dramatically increased since the beginning of the Gaza war on October 7 and a number of governments have begun imposing penalties and bans on those suspected of violent or illegal activity.

On Thursday, the US government said it had imposed financial sanctions on four Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians to “promote accountability for certain harmful activities that threaten the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank”. 

“The situation in the West Bank – in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction – has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability,” Biden said in an executive order.

With more sanctions expected in the future, Middle East Eye takes a look at the four Israeli settlers targeted by the US…

David Chai Chasdai

A 29-year-old settler most notorious for instigating the deadly riots in the Palestinian town of Huwwara in February last year, David Chai Chasdai was arrested in Israel over his involvement in what an Israeli army commander branded “a pogrom committed by outlaws”.

The Huwwara rampage led to the death of 37-year-old Sameh Aqtash and the wounding of 98 other Palestinians, alongside the widespread destruction of property and burning of cars and homes.

Chasdai, who had long been monitored by the security services, was held for three months in administrative detention, a move rarely used against Israelis.

Though the riots were condemned by both Israeli politicians and the international community, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir criticised Chasdai’s detention as “undemocratic” and described him and his fellow settlers as “heroic”.

According to Haaretz, he was previously arrested for threatening a police officer, making dangerous substances in 2015 and 2017, and was convicted for assaulting a Palestinian taxi driver with teargas.

Einan Tanjil

Einan Tanjil, 21, was, according to the US State Department, involved in assaulting Palestinian farmers and left-wing Israeli activists with stones and clubs, resulting in “injuries that required medical treatment”.

In 2021, Tanjil was indicted for attacking 19-year-old Israeli activist Neta Ben-Porat with a club, beating her on the head and legs while she was trying to help Palestinians harvest olives near the West Bank town of Surif. The indictment also said he had possession of a knife and teargas.

Shalom Zicherman

In June, 32-year-old Shalom Zicherman found prominence when video footage of him assaulting Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank was circulated online.

Zicherman, who is from the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Yair, is seen blocking them on the street and attempting to break the windows of passing vehicles with activists inside.

לפני כשנה, שלום זיכרמן ממצפה יאיר זרק שתי אבנים על המכונית שבה ישבתי, שבר את החלון ופצע את יסמין ונור. בקרוב יש דיון נוסף בתיק שנפתח נגדו. זאת הזדמנות לשרשור קצר על למה למרות שזה המקרה היחיד שאני מכיר באופן אישי שמתנחל עומד בו לדין על אלימות, בסוף שלום הוא בעיקר שעיר לעזאזל. pic.twitter.com/H4Pjtg3huK

— Itai_Feitelson (@ItaiFeitelson) June 20, 2023

According to the State Department, Zicherman “cornered at least two of the activists and injured both”. He was indicted in 2022 over the attacks and his trial is still ongoing.

Israeli activist Itai Feitelson, who originally posted footage of the attack, said it was the only case he knew personally in which a settler had been prosecuted for violence, but said that “in the end, Shalom is mostly the scapegoat”.

Yinon Levi

The State Department described 31-year old Yinon Levi as having led a group of settlers who “engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank”. 

It said Levi had regularly led groups of settlers from the illegal Meitarim Farm outpost to assault Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, as well as threatening them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burning their fields, and destroying their property.

According to NPR, Levi’s response to the sanctions was to suggest it was “strange they’re dealing with this nonsense now”, adding that he had never visited the US or had property there.