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Day: March 19, 2022
Five People Charged for Being Spies of the Chinese Government Involved in Harassment Campaigns Against U.S. Citizens
On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in New York charged five individuals with acting on behalf of the Chinese government as they attempted to spy on U.S. citizens, and to subsequently harass them for criticism of China.
As reported by the Washington Post, three separate charges were brought against each of the five defendants in Brooklyn, with the charges coming from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The defendants have been accused of stalking and harassing Chinese nationals living in the country who are now critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Read MoreCommentary: All of Joe Biden’s Multitude of Failures Were Foreseeable in 2020
Every single one of senile president Joe Biden’s struggles was easily foreseeable.
It’s a bold statement, since many if not most of the issues that confront a new president can’t always be seen from a distance. If it can be said that elections are always about the future, it’s just as true to claim that the future would almost certainly be shaped by yet unseen events and circumstances that no politician could forthrightly discuss in the lead-up to his victory.
Read MoreDemocrat Incumbent Switches Districts, Leaving Texas 15th Congressional District an Open Target
Incumbent Democrat U.S. Representative Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX-15) has elected to run for reelection in TX-34, leaving Texas’ Fifteenth Congressional district an open seat.
Redistricting changed the district lines and made an already competitive TX-15 an even more appetizing target for Republicans, who already have a nominee while the Democrats are scheduled to have a run-off in late May.
Read MoreAmericans’ Spending Slows Dramatically Amid Surging Inflation and Gas Prices
American’s spending slowed in February amid surging inflation and gas prices, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Wednesday.
Retail sales grew 0.3% in February, a significant dip from January’s 4.9% monthly increase, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday. January’s spending increase marked the largest jump since March 2021 after Americans received the final $1,400 government stimulus check.
Read MoreAnalysis: Questions Remain If Prize-Winning Reporter for The New York Times Help Cover Up a Genocide
Historians say that a New York Times reporter aided the Soviet Union’s attempts to conceal a genocide.
The late Walter Duranty, whom many historians accused of helping Josef Stalin’s regime hide the Holodomor, a man-made famine that was used as an instrument of genocide that killed at least 3.9 million people, served as the Times’ top reporter in Moscow for 14 years.
Read MoreMemo Instructs Border Officials to Waive Public Health Order for Ukrainians Seeking Asylum
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leadership is allowing officials to waive a pandemic-related public health order for Ukrainians seeking asylum at ports of entry at U.S. borders, according to a memo obtained by CBS News.
“The Department of Homeland Security recognizes that the unjustified Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has created a humanitarian crisis,” the executive director of CBP’s Admissibility and Passenger Programs, Matthew Davies, wrote in a memo, CBS News reported. “CBP is authorized, consistent with the Title 42 Order, on a case-by-case basis based on the totality of the circumstances, including considerations of humanitarian interests, to except Ukrainian nationals at land border ports of entry from Title 42.”
Read MoreTrans Swimmer Lia Thomas Beats Out Female Competitors by 1.75 Seconds in NCAA Championships
University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas won the 500 free event at the NCAA Women’s Championships by 1.75 seconds Thursday.
In first place, Thomas swam finished at 4:33.24, according to results published on swimmeetresults.tech. The three runners-up swam 4:34.99, 4:35.92 and 4:36.18.
Read MoreJen Psaki Suddenly Tight Lipped About Hunter Biden’s Emails After New York Times Finally Confirms
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday refused to comment on the New York Times’ “confirmation” that emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop are authentic, after repeatedly claiming the story was “Russian disinformation”—before and after the 2020 presidential election.
Read MoreCommentary: Net-Zero and ESG Are Worsening the Energy Crisis – and Weakening the West
The day after President Biden announced that the United States would ban imports of Russian oil and gas, a group of eleven powerful European investment funds that includes Amundi, Europe’s largest asset manager, outlined plans to force Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, to cut its lending to oil and gas companies. The juxtaposition of these two events dramatizes the fundamental disunity of the West. At the same time as the Biden administration is sanctioning Russian oil and gas producers, Western investors are sanctioning Western ones. Under the banner of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, the West’s capital is being deployed to create an artificial shortage of oil and gas produced by its companies and reward non-Western oil and gas producers such as Russia and Iran with higher prices. In doing so, the West is undermining its own security interests.
Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy markets were already extremely tight. In the past, high oil and gas prices stimulated a supply-side response leading to increased output and to prices falling back. This relationship has broken down. According to analysts at JP Morgan, capital spending by S&P Global 1200 energy companies peaked in 2015 at just over $400 billion and shrank to around $120 billion last year – less than half its previous trough of $250 billion in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, even though global demand is now around 15% higher than it was then.
Read MoreDemocrats Sue to Keep Three Incumbent Wisconsin Republicans Off 2022 Ballot for Alleged Insurrection Roles
Democratic Party activists in Wisconsin on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding that Wisconsin Republicans Sen. Ron Johnson and Reps. Tom Tiffany and Scott Fitzgerald be barred from the 2022 ballot for highlighting abnormalities in the 2020 election process and their alleged attempts to interfere with the congressional certification of the results.
The plaintiffs allege the Republicans “used their public positions of authority to illegally foment an atmosphere meant to intimidate and pressure Vice President [Mike] Pence and Congress to take actions inconsistent with the facts and with their duties under the Electoral Count Act and the U.S. Constitution,” according to a report from the Epoch Times.
Read MoreTrump-Endorsed Rep. Jody Hice Running Against Brad Raffensperger ‘to Take Him Out’
Neil W. McCabe, the national political editor of The Star News Network, a constellation of 11 state-focused news sites, which includes The Georgia Star News, interviewed Rep. Jody B. Hice (R.-Ga.) about his race for Georgia secretary of state.
Hice said it was frustrating to watch Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger botch the 2020 election, and be unable to do anything about it, and this frustration motivated him to run against him.
Read MoreGeorgia Gov. Kemp Expected to Sign Law Suspending Gas Tax
After a swift and unanimous passage through both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) is expected to sign into law a bill that will temporarily suspend the state’s tax on gasoline.
HB 304 would take effect on May 31. Kemp is reportedly expected to sign the bill, which will alleviate prices at the pump to the tune of 28 cents per gallon. It had not been signed as of Friday afternoon.
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