This post is a list of my upcoming speaking engagements for the Fall 2023 semester. Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public—and in person. The listed times are those in the time zone where the event is being held.
I may add additional events and information to this post, over time.
In the meantime if your university, think tank, research institute or other similar organization would like to invite me to speak (either virtually or in person) on any topic within my expertise, I am open for business! You can get an overview of the issues I write and speak about at my website.
Sept. 7, 4-5:40 PM, University of Virginia School of Law (virtual event): Live Taboo Trades podcast on “My Body, My Choice” issues. With Prof. Kim Krawiec (Univ. of Virginia). I believe participation is limited to U of Virginia law school students, possibly only those participating in the relevant class.
Sept. 18, 5-6:30 PM, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. Horizon Hall 2017: “Immigration and Political Ignorance.” Sponsored by the Schar School Jurisprudence Learning Community and the International Relations Policy Task Force.
Sept. 21, 12:30-2, Duke Law School, Durham, NC, Rm. 3037: “Unpacking Judicial Reform in Israel.” Sponsored by the Duke Law School Federalist Society. Additional information here.
Oct. 4, 12-1:15 PM, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC: “Reforming Supreme Court Ethics.” With Prof. Caroline Frederickson (Georgetown). Sponsored by the Georgetown Federalist Society.
Oct. 5, 12-1:30 PM, Vanderbilt Law School, Nashville, TN: “The Meaning of ‘Property’ Under the Takings Clause,” (with Prof. Christopher Serkin, Vanderbilt). Sponsored by the Vanderbilt Federalist Society.
Oct. 17, 12-1:30 PM, Scalia Law School, George Mason University, Arlington, VA: “Federalism and the Roberts Court.” Debate with Prof. Eric Segall (Georgia State University). Sponsored by the George Mason American Constitution Society.
Oct. 24, 12-1:15 PM (tentative time), William and Mary Law School, Williamsburg, VA: “Racial Preferences After Harvard v. SFFA.” Sponsored by the William and Mary Federalist Society.
Oct. 25, time TBA, Pacific Legal Foundation symposium on “Rethinking Penn Central,” Williamsburg, VA: “The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning” (with Prof. Joshua Braver, University of Wisconsin). Tentative title.
Nov. 17, time TBA, University of Houston Law Center, Houston Texas: “Foot Voting and Hispanic Migration.” Frenkel Lecture. Tentative title.
Last year, at an event at the White House, former president Barack Obama jokingly referred to the current president as “Vice President Biden.”
At the time, it was described as the more popular politician “reminding Biden who’s boss.” Yet, this needling carried an added bite, given reports of Obama’s private doubts about Biden’s judgment.
Obama is now being asked to bail Biden out from another debacle of his own making, going back to his time in Obama’s administration. Various committees and private groups are seeking more than 5,000 emails from Biden in which he used an array of aliases during the Obama administration.
Under the Presidential Records Act, Obama has 30 days to bar the release of the emails and to help shield his former vice president in a growing corruption scandal over the influence-peddling operation run by Biden’s son, Hunter.
Recently, it was learned that Joe Biden went by a variety of code names and false names, including Robin Ware. Robert L. Peters, JRB Ware, Celtic and “The Big Guy.” House investigators believe that may only be a partial list. For many Americans, it is understandably unnerving to learn that their president has more aliases than Anthony Weiner. However, while the number seems unusual, the practice is not unprecedented.
Top officials have used such aliases in the past for emails, including former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. During the Obama administration, the practice was defended by then-White House press secretary Jay Carney, who assured the public that any such emails would still be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and congressional inquiries. He added, “We do not use and should not use private email accounts for work.”
The problem is that there was “work” being discussed on some of these emails, including official foreign travel plans and the hiring of associates of Hunter for high-level positions. More importantly, some emails are relevant to the clients of Biden’s son. Biden has previously lied that he knew nothing of these dealings, but these emails could reveal even more about his knowledge and involvement.
Congress is investigating more than $20 million that was transferred to members of the Biden family from foreign sources through a labyrinth of shell companies and accounts. Even the Washington Post has been forced to admit that the president has lied in the past about aspects of Hunter’s dealings. Devon Archer recently confirmed that Joe Biden’s long-standing denial of any knowledge of their business dealings is “categorically false.”
Most reporters now admit that Hunter was clearly engaging in influence-peddling, Washington’s favorite form of corruption. Yet in the face of this growing evidence, Democrats insist that Hunter and his associates were merely selling “the illusion of influence,” not actual access or influence over Joe Biden.
Obviously, these foreign clients believed that they were buying more than an illusion for the millions they spent. One corrupt Ukrainian figure said that Hunter Biden was dumber than his dog, but that he paid him anyway for access to his father.
There are indications that these clients did receive more than illusion. For example, Archer described how Burisma executives were worried about the anti-corruption investigation being conducted by Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin. Archer testified that Hunter immediately “called D.C.” in response to the plea. Shokin was later fired at Joe Biden’s demand.
The House Oversight Committee has hit a wall in trying to get material from the Bidens and the administration on these past dealings. It has also learned that the president communicated with this son through alias accounts. That led them to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which has resisted the release of the emails. It has been over a year since a group requested these documents, and the NARA review is expected to take years at this pace — until after the next election.
Both Biden and Obama could easily allow the release of these emails to Congress. After all, the use of aliases has been defended on the basis that these emails are trivial or personal matters. If so, transparency will put all the allegations to rest. If it is not true, it would mean that Biden was using false names to convey important information to third parties, and the question would be why.
In one email from Hunter’s laptop, Biden associate James Gilliar explained the rules to Tony Bobulinski, then a business partner of Hunter. He was not to speak of the former veep’s connection to any transactions. “Don’t mention Joe being involved,” he wrote, “it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.” Instead, they referred to the Big Guy or Celtic.
Likewise, a trusted FBI source said that a Ukrainian businessman had said that he paid a bribe to Joe Biden, but noted that they were told to avoid using his name and to transfer the money through a complex series of accounts.
Moreover, the request of Congress followed the discovery that staffers had used Biden’s fake government account, Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov, to send a message about meeting then-Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko with a cc to Hunter Biden.
Once again, there may be innocent explanations for such emails and the use of the alias. However, given the other evidence of corruption and influence peddling, it seems obvious that the information must be reviewed.
That brings us to the confrontation with NARA.
The agency could rely on the PRA statute to enforce the refusal of Biden and Obama to allow Congress to review the evidence. Biden actually is supposed to be consulted twice under the law: as the former vice president and as the current president. Both Joe Bidens are likely to have the same negative reaction to exposing his emails.
However, special access to presidential records is expressly allowed under the PRA “to…Congress” and “to the extent of matter within its jurisdiction, to any committee…if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business and that is not otherwise available.” A refusal would deny Congress critical evidence into a corruption scandal and also a possible impeachment inquiry.
The added resistance to the review of the emails only adds to an already strong case for an impeachment inquiry. Such an inquiry does not mean that impeachment is inevitable. Rather, there is enough evidence to warrant an investigation into whether the Bidens were selling the illusion or the reality of influence. By acting under its impeachment authority, the power of Congress would be at its apex in forcing these disclosures and finding answers on the alleged corrupt practices.
None of this should be necessary, of course. Biden could remove these obstacles instantly to assure the public that his aliases were innocent, even playful, pseudonyms. “JRB Ware” may be a pun, but it is not necessarily the next “Carlos Danger.” We simply do not know, but there should be no reason why the president would not want to clear the record, particularly in an election year.
Otherwise, the effort to withhold this evidence could itself prove damaging, if material evidence of corruption or false statements are found. As Obama would say, one should never underestimate that prospect when it comes to his former vice president.
Alaska Military Base Eyes ESG-Friendly Micro-Nuclear Reactors for De-Carbonized Future
The Defense Logistics Agency Energy, on behalf of the US Air Force, is serious about decarbonizing a military base in Alaska. Surprisingly, the focus is on something other than solar or wind but on mini-nuclear reactors.
According to a press release from Santa Clara-based Oklo Inc., the USAF issued a Notice of Intent to Award a contract for micro-reactors to supply power and heat to Eielson Air Force Base.
“This project represents a significant stride towards ensuring a clean and resilient energy supply for critical national security infrastructure,” the company said
The timeline for the installation wasn’t specified, and Oklo’s design still awaits the green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC):
This selection initiates the acquisition process to potentially award a contract to Oklo. Oklo would obtain a license for its power plant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, construct the power plant, and operate it to deliver both electricity and steam to the Eielson Air Force Base under a long-term power purchase agreement executed by the Defense Logistics Agency Energy. –Oklo
“We are honored to be at the forefront of increasing resilience and reducing emissions, while driving national security forward,” said Jacob DeWitte, Co-Founder and CEO of Oklo.
USAF previously announced Eielson AFB would be the preferred location to pilot next-generation energy technology, such as micro-reactors, to supply upwards of 15 megawatts of power.
Because of its small size, micro-reactors can be constructed cheaper and faster than traditional, giant, light-water reactors, such as the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia that opened this summer, where delays and cost overruns were in the years and billions of dollars.
Oklo is one of a dozen companies developing micro-reactors. Earlier this year, NRC cleared NuScale Power’s design for light-water small modular nuclear reactors for a carbon-free future.
Besides these small reactors potentially powering a military base, basically a small town, there has been a push for huge data centers to be powered by this on-demand reliable ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) friendly power source.
The push for nuclear power comes as a new Pew Research Center survey shows that most Americans now want atomic power.
We presented a bull nuclear thesis to readers in December 2020, recommending uranium on the belief that nuclear power would eventually be incorporated into the ESG framework, as highlighted in our article “Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze,” which is proving to be accurate.
COVID-19 cases among vaccinated seniors soared in 2021, according to newly disclosed data that was acquired by U.S. health agencies but not presented to the public.
Humetrix Cloud Services was contracted by the U.S. military to analyze vaccine data. The company performed a fresh analysis as authorities considered in 2021 whether COVID-19 vaccine boosters were necessary amid studies finding waning vaccine effectiveness.
Humetrix researchers found that the proportion of total COVID-19 cases among the seniors was increasingly comprised of vaccinated people, according to the newly disclosed documents.
For the week ending on July 31, 2021, post-vaccination COVID-19 cases represented 73 percent of the cases among people 65 and older, the company found. The elderly were 80 percent fully vaccinated at the time.
Breakthrough infection rates were higher among those who were vaccinated early, the researchers found. They estimated that the rates were twice as high in those who had been vaccinated five to six months prior, when compared to people vaccinated three to four months before.
The breakthrough cases started in January 2021, according to the data.
Protection against hospitalization was also fading, researchers discovered.
In the week ending on July 31, 2021, 63 percent of the COVID-19 hospitalizations in seniors were among the fully vaccinated, according to the documents. The same pattern of weaker protection among people who were vaccinated early was found.
Researchers calculated that the vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection was just 33 percent while the effectiveness against hospitalization had dropped to 57 percent.
Seniors who previously had COVID-19 and recovered were more likely to avoid hospitalization, the researchers also found. Risk factors included serious underlying conditions such as obesity and being in the oldest age group, or older than 85.
The cohort analysis was completed on 20 million Medicare beneficiaries, including 5.6 million seniors who received a primary series of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Our observational study VE findings show a very significant decrease in VE against infection and hospitalization in the Delta phase of the pandemic for individuals vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for those 5–6 months post vaccination vs. those 3–4 months post vaccination,” Dr. Bettina Experton, Humetrix’s president and CEO, said in a Sept. 15, 2021, email to top U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials.
Humetrix also found that among the beneficiaries, there had been 133,000 cases, 27,000 hospitalizations, and 8,300 intensive care admissions among the fully vaccinated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Experton disclosed that Humetrix shared the data with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in August 2021.
“It would have been nice to know [the military] was conducting this prior to now. Also might have been nice for CDC to share the data,” Dr. Peter Marks, one of the FDA officials, told colleagues in response.
“This is more worrisome than the other data we have in my opinion,” Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner at the time, said in reply.
The presentation and emails were obtained by the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit that seeks to provide transparency around medical issues, through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
“It is hard to see this as anything other than a failure of our health authorities to assess, share, make public, and act upon valuable, real-world data in the midst of a so-called pandemic,” Del Bigtree, founder of the network, told The Epoch Times via email. “And without FOIA, the public likely would never be made aware of these failures which, of course, allows them to be perpetrated again and again.”
The FDA and CDC declined to comment.
Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health at the time, wrote in a separate email obtained through FOIA that the results of the study provided “pretty compelling evidence that VE is falling 5–6 months post vaccination for both infection and hospitalization for those over 65.”
He added, “Even for those 3–4 months out there is a trend toward worsening VE.”
The CDC, FDA, and National Institutes of Health did not share the data with the public as they considered whether to clear and recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters.
The CDC held a meeting with its vaccine advisers on Aug. 30, 2021. During the meeting, CDC officials went over emerging data on waning vaccine effectiveness. But the military study was not included.
The FDA held a similar meeting on Sept. 17, 2021. The CDC participated. The Humetrix analysis was also not presented during that meeting.
Both agencies have aggressively promoted COVID-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic, including hyping them as strongly protective against severe disease even after their own data have suggested that is not the case.
The CDC did present (pdf) data from COVID-NET, one of its systems, that showed effectiveness against COVID-19-associated hospitalization was falling among the elderly since the emergence of the Delta variant but that data still showed 80 percent effectiveness.
The presentation also included data from outside researchers and Israel that estimated the protection during the Delta era against infection ranged from 39 percent to 84 percent and that the effectiveness against hospitalization ranged from 75 to 95 percent.
The FDA ended up clearing a Pfizer booster for many Americans. The CDC advised most people to receive it. The agencies later expanded booster clearance and recommendations to virtually all Americans aged 5 and older, with Moderna’s shot as another option. Authorities have since replaced the old shots due to their lack of durability, and are preparing to roll out another slate of shots this fall.
‘French’ Goat’s Throat Slit In Massive Niger Protest Demanding Withdraw Of French Forces
In the latest highly-visible threat to waning French influence in Africa, tens of thousands of protesters amassed at a French military base in Niger on Saturday to demand that France pull its military forces from the country. The rising anti-French sentiment follows a July 26 coup that replaced Western-backed President Mohamed Bazoum with a military junta, which is floating a proposal for a return to civilian rule in three years.
To underscore threats that a failure to withdraw forces will lead to French blood being spilled, protesters paraded coffins covered with French flags andslit the throat of a goat that was adorned with French colors, Reuters reports. It’s said to be the largest protest yet. Previous actions included fires being set at the French embassy.
Videos showed Nigerien security forces struggling to manage the crowd…
Anti-French animus surged when France defied the junta’s order to withdrawal its ambassador from the country. Niger police are now under orders to expel that ambassador, Sylvain Itte, along with his family — all of whom have had their visas cancelled. The ambassador was ordered out of the country after refusing to meet with the junta’s new foreign minister. Paris has said it will not recognize the “the putschists” but instead supports “a president who has not resigned.”
Niger’s coup was the eighth to take place in Central and West Africa in just the past three years. French forces have already been evicted from Burkina Faso and Mali, and Niger looks to be the next domino as French power over its former colonies withers away in the 21st century.
Niger; Colonel Ibro accompanied by other Military men led the Anti France Protest earlier today in Niger. pic.twitter.com/OrMVINLUt5
France is particularly reluctant to flee Niger, to the extent that French President Emmanuel Macron last week indicated that his country stands ready to back military action by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). “We support the diplomatic and, if it is decided, the military activity of ECOWAS,” he said. “Without a fatherly attitude but also without showing signs of weakness either. We must continue to energetically support countries of this region, calling on them to act responsibly.”
ECOWAS, a group of 15 countries, has already imposed sanctions, but Nigerien protesters defiantly struck anti-colonial tones on Saturday. “We are ready to sacrifice ourselves today, because we are proud,” Yacouba Issoufou told Reuters. “They plundered our resources and we became aware. So they’re going to get out.” France has roughly 1,500 military service members in the country.
Niger is the world’s seventh-largest uranium producer, and boasts the highest-grade ores in all of Africa. Its only major mine currently in production mode is operated by Orano, a French government-owned entity. France operates 56 nuclear reactors, and Niger accounted for 22% of France’s supply in 2022.
Citing an “epidemic” of retail theft, a county supervisor in California’s Bay Area said he made a “big mistake” in backing the liberal crime bill Prop. 47 a decade ago, that drastically reduced penalties for stealing goods valued at less than $950.
San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa recently took to X, formerly Twitter, to express deep disappointment with current strategies in California for dealing with an explosion of retail theft, which he called an “absolute outrage.”
“Whatever we’re doing now to combat the epidemic of organized retail theft is not working,” Mr. Canepa said in the post. “$30 billion lost to national retail theft is an absolute outrage! The fear of organized retail theft is driving people away from our beloved shopping centers.”
According to the latest data from the National Retail Federation (NRF), retail theft and other inventory loss—known as shrink—rose to $94.5 billion in 2021 from $90.8 billion in 2020.
The biggest part of the losses (37 percent) came from external theft, according to the NRF report, which amounts to roughly $35 billion.
“Violence is an increasingly important concern among retailers,” including shootings and assault, the report reads. “As has been detailed throughout this report, external theft and [organized retail crime] in particular, is a significant and growing area of concern for retailers.”
Mr. Canepa said in a follow-up post that he plans to introduce legislation to form a task force in San Mateo County, comprised of law enforcement and business community members, which would come up with new strategies and sentencing guidelines “to combat these organized theft rings to enhance public safety and protect the economy.”
In an interview with CBS, the Democrat county supervisor said that he regrets backing Prop. 47, which passed in 2014, which downgraded certain thefts and drug offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.
‘I Made a Mistake’
Mr. Canepa said that he originally backed Prop. 47 because he saw it as a chance to give people serving long sentences for retail theft a second chance.
One of the most well-known statutes in Prop. 47 raised the minimum amount of stolen goods from $400 to $950 for a theft case to be classified as a felony, which critics consider to be the main cause of a rise in petty theft across the state.
The liberal crime bill also allows felons currently serving prison terms to petition for reduced sentences under the new classifications.
“I thought it was a good idea then because we need to give people an opportunity, we need to give people a chance,” Mr. Canepa told CBS.
But now, with the explosion of retail theft in California and elsewhere, he says he was wrong to back the measure.
“I made a mistake, it was a big mistake, and you have to acknowledge your mistake. By doing this, what we’ve done is we’re, letting people take thousands and thousands of dollars. And why should people be subjugated?” Mr. Canepa said.
“We can’t go on like this,” he added.
Retailers Facing ‘Near Extinction’
Mr. Canepa told Fox News that criminal mobs had “taken advantage of Prop. 47 because they know that if they do get arrested, they can simply walk out of jail the next day and only face misdemeanor charges,” while urging lawmakers to reevaluate the classification of what constitutes a felony.
“If we don’t, then our shopping centers and retail giants such as Nordstrom face near extinction as they are continually looted by mobs of criminals and create a climate of fear for shoppers,” he told the outlet.
The nationwide retail crime wave has forced many retailers to close their doors or lock up their merchandise.
Among them is Nordstrom, which announced in May that it was closing its flagship store in downtown San Francisco after 35 years in business, with the company citing “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees.” remove
Matt Dorsey, a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, said in a post on X reacting to news of the Nordstrom closure in May that he was “very disappointed” to see yet another business shut its doors in the Democrat-run city.
Mr. Dorsey said he would propose a Charter Amendment (pdf) that seeks to bolster law enforcement, including by re-establishing minimum police staffing levels, in a bid to counteract some of the harm done by the post-George Floyd push to “defund” the police.
Ineffective Law Enforcement
Rich Cibotti, a sergeant in the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) told The Epoch Times in a recent interview that he believes current police staffing woes can be traced back to the “defund the police” movement.
“The ‘Defund’ movement caused a lot of people to rethink joining and staying in law enforcement. The SFPD lost hundreds of officers to other departments, resignations, early retirements, and normal retirements,” Mr. Cibotti told The Epoch Times, noting that he was sharing his personal opinions and did not speak on behalf of his department.
Mr. Cibotti said police hiring takes about two years, meaning that current staffing shortages can have big impacts down the road.
He added that pay raises can help drive interest in joining the force, but cautioned that higher wages won’t do anything to counteract what he suggested was political hostility towards policing in San Francisco.
“San Francisco is rather difficult politically for the police. To fix that issue, a major shift in policy and public support will be needed to help increase interest in joining the police department,” he said.
Meanwhile, a recent effort by a Democrat lawmaker to modify Prop. 47 by way of an amendment bill failed for the fifth time earlier this year.
“I guess we really are dependent on Batman to bring accountability and justice. Perhaps maybe we should call the Avengers too,” the author of the bill, Assemblyman JimCooper (D-Elk Grove), wrote on X on April 26.
Assembly Bill (AB) 2718 would have classified petty theft and shoplifting as “serial theft,” a new crime under the bill.
Serial theft of property valued over $500 would have led to prosecution if the offender had two or more previous convictions of theft—effectively reducing the $950 minimum enforced in Prop. 47, according to the bill.
Puzhen Su and Vanessa Serna contributed to this report.
Visualizing The Monthly Cost Of Buying Vs Renting A House In America
With home prices and mortgage rates both rising, the U.S. is now witnessing the biggest numerical gap in the monthly cost between owning a home and renting in over 50 years.
Americans, however, have seen similar scenarios occur since the early 1980s.
In August 2023, mortgage rates rose to the highest level in 23 years, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage hitting 7.48%.
As a result, the median rent in America is approximately $1,850 per month, about 30% cheaper than the median cost to buy, standing at $2,700 per month. This gap represents the largest difference between renting and buying in U.S. history.
While the difference was less than $200 in 2022, in 2023 the gap surpassed $800.
Many buyers, particularly those seeking their initial home purchase, have now been priced out of the market with concerns that they cannot afford home ownership. As a result, mortgage applications for home purchases have hit their lowest point in 20 years:
Rent costs have also seen an uptick, but not at the same pace, as the market adjusted following a steep rent spike witnessed during the pandemic.
Will Mortgage Rates Drop in 2023?
Increases in interest rates affect long-term home loans, such as 30-year fixed-rate mortgages. And starting in 2022, the Federal Reserve began to hike rates from their near-zero level to the current range of 5.25-5.5%.
Recently, the Federal Reserve unveiled new projections, indicating that the interest rate could potentially reach 5.6% by the end of 2023, implying at least one more rate hike in 2023.
As a result, numerous experts are anticipating that mortgage rates will likely remain above 6% for the rest of this year.
Fighting and serious tensions have continued between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Deir Ezzor Military Council (DEMC), two US backed militias in east Syria. The US military has urged an end to the tensions, the mainstay which lasted for four days, which have left at least 40 people dead.
Clashes, which began early last week, have pitted the SDF against the Arab-led DEMC, its former ally, as well as some regional Arab tribesmen who have aligned with them.
Hostilities were sparked after the SDF arrested Abu Khawla, the head of the DEMC and a senior SDF commander. Khawla and four other militia leaders were accused of “multiple crimes and violations,” such as drug trafficking. Khawla and his fellow detainees have since been dismissed.
The SDF and the council agreed on Wednesday that Khawla will no longer command the DEMC over his “coordination with external entities hostile to the revolution,” a reference to his alleged contacts with the Damascus government.
The SDF surged forces into Deir Ezzor province as tensions were brewing over Khawla’s arrest. As Middle East Eye reported, “armed Arab tribal fighters burnt [tires], ambushed vehicles and shelled SDF positions in towns across the province, as well as taking over several checkpoints and attacking SDF patrols.”
By Thursday, both sides were said to be bringing in reinforcements as clashes took place near the shared border with Iraq. Helicopters belonging to the US-led Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve could be seen flying over the locations of the previous day’s fighting, according to local news outlet DeirEzzor24.
Washington has about 900 troops and an undisclosed number of contractors embedded with the SDF. The US illegally occupies eastern Syria and controls roughly a third of the nation’s territory including most of the war-torn country’s oil and wheat resources.
The US-led coalition put out a statement urging an end to the fighting because it may allow the Islamic State (IS) to regain a foothold if Washington’s partner forces are increasingly divided.
The terrorist group took over large swathes of eastern Syria and western Iraq as a result of a failed regime change operation which saw the CIA arming and funding rebel groups including al Qaeda affiliates. The proxy war killed hundreds of thousands of people but failed in its attempt to overthrow the Syrian government.
IS has been all but destroyed by Damascus with its Iranian and Russian allies. The US occupation is instead designed to deprive Syria of vital resources amid Washington’s economic war.
“Black Lives Don’t Seem To Matter When Taken By Black Lives”: Maher, Rogan Go Off
Joe Rogan and ‘old school Democrat’ Bill Maher have had it with progressive policies towards crime and policing, and the hypocrisy over ‘black lives’ when blacks are killing each other.
“Murders have been happening way out of control in Chicago among the African-American Community for far too long and not really reported in the same way they should be,” lamented Maher in an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience which aired on Saturday, adding “It’s amazing how black lives don’t seem to matter when they’re taken by black lives,” pointing to the MSM’s asymmetric reporting.
“Their idea was like go in arrest the big kingpins and then we’ll clean up the city. It didn’t work at all.“
Maher then asks ‘where are the leaders of the community? The people who have such cache among those young African American men, to say ‘cut it out! What the fuck are you doing to each other?’
(Yes Bill, it would be nice if everything was an episode of the A-Team where ex-gangsters are high-fiving each other over paint rollers as they clean up the graffiti they just made & drug dealers flush their stashes because kingpins finally spoke out).
According to Rogan, “Austin defunded the police and refunded it far more than they defunded it because they course corrected,” adding “They realized this was not working, and we have to do something to fix it. Which makes me happy because there’s a lot of crime.” (via KanekoaTheGreat).
“Liberalism was never ‘shoplifting is progressive,'” Maher responded. “And we weren’t interested in legalizing shoplifting, but after the George Floyd murder and riots, there was a movement to disband a lot of the police… And what happened was, of course, crime went up in certain areas, and a lot of the officers who were fired or let go, were hired as private security by the rich people, and their neighborhoods stayed safe. That wasn’t exactly a victory for Liberalism.”
Watch:
Bonus: Rogan goes off on the anti-Ivermectin crowd…
When Shawn Fain glances at the wall of executive portraits at the United Auto Workers’ historic Black Lake conference center in Northern Michigan, there is one photo that always catches him off-guard. His own.
In recent weeks, he has been unusually outspoken about his frustrations with labor talks—at one point, making a public show of throwing Stellantis’s bargaining proposals in the trash—and has embraced fiery rhetoric that has riled up workers for a potential walkout and taken many auto executives aback.
At an event in March he said the union was fighting its “one and only true enemy: multibillion-dollar corporations.”
“How far are you willing to go to get the contract you deserve?” Fain yelled to a roaring crowd at a recent rally, after walking on stage to Eminem’s “Not Afraid.” Fain says he is a fan of ’90s hip-hop.
If negotiators don’t agree on a contract by September 14, says UAW President Shawn Fain, 150,000 workers will walk off the job.
I asked Fain about reports that the UAW is withholding its expected endorsement of President Joe Biden, with whom Fain met in July. “It was a good meeting,” Fain said, but “we’ve made it clear that our endorsements are going to be earned, not freely given.”
UAW Files Unfair Labor Practice Charges Against GM, Stellantis
The United Auto Workers union said on Thursday it filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against General Motors and Chrysler-parent Stellantis, saying they have refused to bargain in good faith.
“We’re going to fight like hell to get our equitable share of justice for workers,” he said. “We can get there – but these companies better buckle down and they better get serious.”
GM manufacturing chief Gerald Johnson said the company strongly refuted the unfair labor charge. “We believe it has no merit and is an insult to the bargaining committees. We have been hyper-focused on negotiating directly and in good faith with the UAW and are making progress,” Johnson said.
On one key issue, the UAW has aligned itself closely with the executives it otherwise denounces: resistance to the crucially needed clean energy transition. It’s an embarrassing move that highlights the union’s short-term thinking, not just in light of the climate crisis, but because of the union’s own environmentalist roots and clear understanding that an electric future is coming.
The union’s ambivalence toward a clean energy future was made strikingly clear when the historically pro-Democrat UAW refused to endorse, for now, President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.
The decision came after the White House’s announcement of a $9.2 billion Department of Energy loan guarantee to Ford Motor Co. to help build a massive battery plant, BlueOval City, in Stanton, Tennessee, a so-called right-to-work state. The loan contains no language requiring Ford or its joint venture partner, South Korea’s SK On, a unit of a Korean chemical company, to ensure union involvement.
The jobs in Stanton will be “low road,” UAW president Shawn Fain predicted; Ford responded that wages paid will be “competitive,” which in a right-to-work state promises to be less encouraging than it’s meant to sound.
Trump himself has seen enough of an opening that he was moved to make a 3-minute campaign video where he inveighed with characteristic eloquence, “I hope United Auto Workers is listening to this, because I think you better endorse Trump because I’m going to grow your business and they are destroying your business. They are absolutely destroying your business.”
“EPA must recognize,” the union insisted in its plea to ease the proposed regulations, “that the current domestic auto assembly footprint is heavily weighted towards the profitable light-duty truck and SUVs that are tasked with funding the EV transition.”
Much of the Politico article is environmental fearmongering.
At the same time, all of this is hugely inflationary. EVs are more expensive, the need for minerals does not scale, and the push does not do a damn thing for the environment.
“I want to be very clear about this: our goal is NOT to strike. Our goal is to bargain a fair contract. But if we have to strike to win economic and social justice, then we will.”
— #UAW President Shawn Fain#1u#solidarity#StrikeReadypic.twitter.com/AA4QFoIwcG
What a hoot. Fain’s demands are so preposterous that a strike appears unavoidable. Social and economic justice is another hoot.
How Likely is a Strike?
CNBC comments : A brief survey of 99 investors by Morgan Stanley found 58% believe a strike is “extremely likely.” That’s followed by 24% who said it’s “somewhat likely.” Just 16% said a strike was unlikely, while 2% said it was “neither likely not unlikely.”
I put the odds at 90 percent. The sides are too far apart, Fain is the most militant UAW leader ever, and the push for EVs will definitely cost jobs because EV engines have about 20 moving parts vs 2,000 or so for a standard internal combustion engine.
Jobs will vanish. Fain wants to stop that. He can’t no one can. And the faster the transition, the faster the jobs go.
This all plays into Trump’s hands. I expect a long, nasty strike. If the big three give into the preposterous demands of Fain, they are all headed for bankruptcy, GM for a second time.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA did an impact assessment of 4 fuel standard proposals and compared them to the cost of doing nothing.
