Democrats still think they can buy black people and votes

 

Dual citizen Agent of the British Crown bribes US Supreme Court justice

3.9 million votes for $138 billion and counting

NATO chief concedes Trump has a point lol

 Stoltenberg knows damn well he might have to deal with Trump again if he's elected in November, and isn't about to alienate him now. After the election and Trump loses? Yeah, maybe then, but not now.

Reported here:

NATO chief concedes 'valid point' of spending criticism as allies up defense budgets

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

Susana Vera | Reuters

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg conceded to criticism that some members have been underfinancing the coalition’s defense budget, saying he expects a record 18 allies to meet their military spending goal this year.

His comments come on the footsteps of the controversial remarks of former U.S. president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who said he would not protect NATO nations from Russian hostilities if they fall behind on their membership payments.

Trump’s statements kindled widespread ire from the international community, including from fellow Republicans, drawing Stoltenberg to earlier this week accuse that such a suggestion “undermines all our security.”

“The criticism that you hear is not primarily about NATO, it’s about NATO allies not spending enough on NATO. And that’s a valid point,” Stoltenberg said during a press briefing on Wednesday, in response to a question on whether Trump’s comments aligned with the broader views of Republican officials that the NATO chief has engaged.

“It’s a point and a message that has been conveyed by successive U.S. administrations that European allies and Canada have to spend more, because we haven’t seen fair burden sharing in the alliance,” Stoltenberg added. “The good news is that this is exactly what NATO allies are now doing.”

They're not going to prosecute Joe Biden for willfully retaining and disclosing classified materials, but they are going to let grandpa Applesauce Brains stay president lol

 From special counsel Robert Hur's report here:

In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse. He did not
remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview
when his term ended ("if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?"), and
forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ("in 2009, am I
still Vice President?"). He did not remember, even within several years, when his
son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan
debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said
he "had a real difference" of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact,
Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Eiden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo
to President Obama.

Our country is a giant prank played on the American people.

 Biden ‘willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency,’ special counsel says

But the special counsel, Robert Hur, said he was declining to prosecute Biden over his handling of classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Biden’s entries about national security.

This is James Comey not prosecuting Hillary all over again. 

But they will prosecute Trump in his classified documents case, upcoming. 

This double standard will be all the reason people want and need to vote for Donald Trump again.

Norway, Europe's most anti-semitic country, is also its most fascist economy, centered in dem ebil fossil fuels lol

 Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, was established in the 1990s to invest the surplus revenues of the country’s oil and gas sector. To date, the fund has put money in more than 8,500 companies in 70 countries around the world.

More.

Peter Navarro chose allegiance to the separate and equal power of the Executive, of which he was a part and which the Legislative transgressed in a political witchhunt

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department wants former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro to spend six months behind bars after being convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena. ...

“The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law,” prosecutors wrote in Thursday’s sentencing memo.

 More.

Joe Biden buys 73k more votes, now totaling over 3.7 million

The Biden administration has now canceled more than $136 billion in student debt for over 3.7 million Americans, according to the White House.

More.

Third continuing resolution since September passes Congress to fund federal government into March

WASHINGTON — Congress passed a bill on Thursday that would prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend and keep federal funds flowing through March 1 and March 8.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 77-18 on final passage after considering a few amendments. The Republican-led House soon followed suit, passing it by a vote of 314-108.

The bill now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law before the funding expires Friday at midnight.

It is the third stopgap bill since last September as the divided Congress struggles to agree on full-year government funding bills. ...

The first stopgap bill led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker. His successor, Johnson, is seeking to avoid the same fate by selling the conservative victories in the latest deal.

More.

Pakistan retaliates against Iran with military aircraft, attacks elements of the Balochistan Liberation Front just across the border, kills several

Pakistan Foreign Ministry:

 “Pakistan fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran".

More.

Long after Red Sea attacks began, ridiculous Biden administration appeasers finally re-adopt Trump designation of Houthis as terrorists which they had revoked in February 2021

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday designated the Iranian-backed, Yemen-based Houthi rebels as specially designated global terrorists, or SDGTs, in an effort to deter further attacks against commercial ships crossing the Red Sea. ...

The State Department under President Joe Biden revoked the Houthis’ designation as a foreign terrorist organization, or FTO, in Feb. 2021, just a month after it issued the label under former President Donald Trump.

The reversal came in response to calls from the United Nations and humanitarian groups who said that the terrorist classification and its associated sanctions were “accelerating Yemen’s slide into large-scale famine.”

Three years later, after months of Red Sea attacks, the Houthis have regained their spot on a U.S. terrorist list.

More.

Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Erbil, Iraq and Balochistan Province in Pakistan, a nuclear power, show the Biden administration's policy of appeasement is an abject failure

 Biden's weakness has emboldened Iran, which is betting that the superpower which cut and run in Afghanistan has no stomach to stop the aggression of the religious dictatorship in Tehran.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Within 24 hours, Iran launched missile and drone strikes on targets in three countries — Iraq, Syria and Pakistan — and took the extraordinary step of announcing its responsibility for the attacks, triggering anger from its neighbors. ... Baghdad recalled its ambassador to Iran after the Monday night attack ...

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that it “strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran” which it said killed two children and injured three more. It added that “it is even more concerning that this illegal act has taken place despite the existence of several channels of communication between Pakistan and Iran.”

More. 

Pakistan is believed to possess over 100 operational nuclear warheads which can be delivered from a number of different platforms. 

Would Iran attack Pakistan like this without having the same capability, or are they just fools?

The world is drunk on debt: Global debt at all levels reached $307 trillion in 3Q2023

IIF CEO Tim Adams sounded the alarm on rising levels of debt while speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ... "We need sobriety . . .."

The global banking industry’s premier trade group said late last year that worldwide debt climbed to a record of $307.4 trillion in the third quarter of 2023, with a substantial increase in both high-income countries and emerging markets.

The IIF said it expected global debt to reach $310 trillion by the end of 2023, warning that elections in more than 50 countries and regions this year could usher in a shift toward populism that brings with it still-higher debt levels.

More.

Another CR lol: They may have to do this over and over until the election because the Republican majority in the US House is now so razor thin

 Congressional leaders reach short-term spending deal to keep government open until March

The deal would keep the government funded until March, buying legislators more time to craft longer-term, agency-specific spending bills, following the agreement last weekend to set the overall spending level for fiscal year 2024 at $1.59 trillion. ...

The short-term bill, known as a continuing resolution or “CR,” will need to pass both the House and Senate before Friday at 11:59 p.m. to avoid a partial government shutdown.

 

Reuters got it right, CNBC green lunatics try to soften the blow: "Rental giant Hertz dumps EVs, including Teslas, for gas cars"

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Rental firm Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ.O) is selling about 20,000 electric vehicles, including Teslas, from its U.S. fleet about two years after a deal with the automaker to offer its vehicles for rent, in another sign that EV demand has cooled.

Hertz will instead opt for gas-powered vehicles, it said on Thursday, citing higher expenses related to collision and damage for EVs even though it had aimed to convert 25% of its fleet to electric by 2024 end.

More.

 

Hertz makes ‘agile’ decision to shift strategy and sell EVs, Teslas

When Chris Christie said he was in it for the long haul, he meant two, maybe three months lol

 Chris Christie is set to drop out of the 2024 presidential race

 

 

First it was a window which blew out, then it became a section, now it's a panel, but it will never be a door, which is what it really was

 Boeing shares tumble after panel blows out, FAA grounds 737 Maxes

 

 

When you asked for a window on your model but got the door anyway

Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 for checks after window blows out in midair

Reportedly a boy lost his shirt out the "window" and a bunch of cell phones got sucked out at 16,000 feet, and:

It later emerged that Boeing staff, in internal messages, were cavalier about FAA regulations and critical of the Max's design. One said it the aircraft was 'designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys.'

 Look at this update to "section" lol:

Alaska Airlines grounds Boeing 737 Max 9 fleet after section blows out midair

 

Off again on again Maersk is off again on Red Sea/Suez Canal transit, freight rates triple

 From the story:

Uncertainty remains despite a U.S.-led military effort to curb the attacks. Maersk had resumed the Suez route, but suspended it again in recent days after one of its ships was targeted by missiles and small boats.

Asia-Europe is Maersk’s biggest trade lane, and freight rates on the route have roughly tripled from their early December levels, the Goldman Sachs analysts said, while “the impact on annual contract rates is likely to be positive, albeit dependent on how the security situation evolves.”

Maersk’s other major routes are seeing “positive second-order effects from the Suez disruption.” Global trade is also being stymied by drought in the Panama Canal.

However, analysts do not currently foresee the same level of global supply chain disruption and capacity constraint as experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, which triggered a huge spike in freight rates and record profits for companies including Maersk.

Danish shipper Maersk suspended Red Sea transit for 48 hours after late Saturday Houthi attack, U.S. Navy claims 1,200 safe transits in the last 10 days

 From the story here:

The events surrounding the Maersk Hangzhou represented the 23rd illegal attack by the Houthis on international shipping since Nov. 19, the Central Command said. It was the first time the U.S. Navy said its personnel had killed Houthi fighters since the Red Sea attacks started. ...

Since the Pentagon announced Operation Prosperity Guardian to counter the attacks just over 10 days ago, 1,200 merchant ships have traveled through the Red Sea region, and none had been hit by drone or missile strikes, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper told The Associated Press in an interview on Saturday.

Nuclear power plants nearest to the Japan quake today had already been offline for routine inspection

 Reported here:

Hokuriku’s Shika plant in Ishikawa, the closest nuclear power station to the quake’s epicentre, had already halted its two reactors before the quake for regular inspections and saw no impact from the quake, the agency said.

Why I won't fly, 2023 edition

 Boeing urges inspections of 737 Max planes for ‘possible loose bolt’

And they say I'm the one with a screw loose.