Why the media doesn't talk to Biden's supporters

D. Earl Stephens
May 25, 2024 

Photo by Jack Prommel on Unsplash

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. 


I am an enthusiastic supporter of President Joe Biden.

I live in the Battleground State of Wisconsin and will proudly vote for him again in November. I plan to do whatever I can to get as many people as possible to join me.

The man simply must win.

I think the guy’s done a tremendous job under some of the most difficult circumstances facing our nation since the Civil War. He won the presidential election in 2020 by a whopping seven million-plus votes and has to deal with a bunch of pathetic, sore losers who don’t even have the minimum amount of decency and maturity that we expect of our children after they lose a Little League baseball game.

READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene: Ilhan Omar is ‘lucky’ to be in America

You can count on our kids to shake hands, congratulate the winner, and vow to try to do better next time after a loss.

Today’s “adults” in the Republican Party whine, throw violent, nuclear-powered temper tantrums, lie about everything, and steadfastly refuse to admit defeat. They tell us they won’t commit to election results unless they are on the winning end. Their conduct is reprehensible, and in a sane world, would disqualify them from holding any office in the United States of America.

Yet people vote for them. What could possibly be their appeal?

Say what you want about Richard Nixon, but after losing a razor-thin presidential election in 1960, he was seated in the front row of Jack Kennedy’s inauguration to lend public support to the man who defeated him, and to the citizens of the United States who were owed his respect.

Nixon shook hands with Kennedy, congratulated him, vowed to do better, and eight years later did, vanquishing Democrat Hubert Humphrey in yet another close election in America.

I’m not here to lionize Nixon. His record speaks for itself.

I am here to say that he did the right thing when it was required, which should be the bare minimum that we expect from anybody who ascribes to be a leader.

Compare that with the way the ghastly GOP have carried on since 2020, replete with a violent coup attempt on January 6, 2021, that they have somehow rationalized in their twisted, criminal minds as good and normal.

Joe Biden has had to deal with all this dangerous, anti-American insanity, and has done so with grace and honor. He has proven himself to be a good and decent man at a time we have never needed good and decent men more.

He respects America and he respects his office. He respects our Democracy, the longstanding institutions of the United States of America, and has worked in a bipartisan fashion whenever possible to get things done for us. ALL OF US.

Why isn’t this more important?

Hell, why isn’t this the most important thing? Why don’t we discuss this man’s goodness more honestly and openly? Joe Biden is clearly a better man than the lewd, orange, lying ghoul he is running against.

That should matter more than anything, especially right now when the heat on our country has been turned up to full boil by a political party that is swinging hard right toward authoritarianism, and has trouble even saying the word, Democracy.

Why doesn’t corporate media spend more time on this vitally important issue of character?

And while I’m on the subject, why do they spend so little time talking to people like me? Like I said, I am proud to support this man, and happy to tell you all about it.

When’s the last time you have seen, heard or read a story about any of the tens of millions of people who are proudly and enthusiastically supporting Joe Biden in this year’s presidential election?

You’d almost think the lack of pro-Biden stories is by design …

I’ll give you a second or two to think about that one …

Nothing?

OK, let’s try this: Have you seen, heard or read even ONE story about the tens of millions of people who are proudly supporting Joe Biden in this year’s presidential election?


Still nothing?

Helluva thing isn’t it?

It’s not as if there has been a shortage of stories about this never-ending election season. Lord knows there’s been thousands and thousands of ‘em.


There are stories about why people are still somehow supporting the America-attacking Trump. There are stories about why people don’t want another Biden-Trump rematch. There are stories about why young people allegedly don’t support Biden. There are stories about why people are allegedly flocking to third-party candidates this year. There are stories about how Black voters are allegedly leaving Biden. There are stories about how Latinos are allegedly leaving the Democratic Party altogether. There are stories about white, evangelical voters, who can’t seem to get enough of the morally-bankrupt Trump. There are endless stories about the endless stream of polls that have the race going 47 different ways — plus or minus four or five, and generally in Trump’s direction. There are stories about voters who eat in diners, and are unhappy about literally everything. Hell, there are even stories about the lowest of the low — the people who aren’t going to bother voting at all this year, because I guess whining about everything, or pretending they are above it all is easier.

There are stories about literally EVERYTHING except why millions and millions and millions of people like me are still proudly supporting Joe Biden, and plan to work like hell to make sure he stays in our White House White House.

You’d almost think the lack of pro-Biden stories is by design …

And, hey, I’m not just any person, either. I am an older, white man without a college degree. I am supposed to be Trump and his grotesque Republican Party’s favorite flavor. I’m supposed to be the staunch Republican who grouses about everything, and blames everybody else for my seemingly never-ending stream of self-made problems, like: Why are people who don’t look anything like me doing better than I am? Don’t they know their place??

Except there are millions of other men across this country just like myself who are proud of the progress we’ve made under Biden, and can’t wait to vote for him. I personally know thousands of ‘em. Yeah, sure, I know some who aren’t supporting Joe, but I don’t talk to them much anymore. They have proven themselves to be morally busted — broken. Life’s too short, and this election is too important to waste my time trying to help lift up others with one hand, while holding my nose with the other.

So what makes the media think I want to hear from those miserable self-servers all the time, instead of the good people who support our very good president? Why aren’t we celebrating common decency, and bare minimum, expecting that from our politicians?

Why aren’t we turning off the liars and turning on the truth?

Imagine how much better off we’d be if we held the presidency and those who would occupy it, to the same standards that we hold our children …

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.

One-third of world still criminalizes consensual same-sex acts: report

Agence France-Presse
May 30, 2024 

Gay Pride Flag (Shutterstock)

The LGBTQ community faces "relentless opposition" across the globe despite some progress, said a report published on Thursday by an international advocacy group, with one-third of the world still criminalizing same-sex acts.

Sixty-two of the United Nations' 193 member states have laws punishing consensual same-sex relations, while the death penalty exists in some form in a dozen countries, according to the report covering the past 16 months released by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

One-third of countries also have legal roadblocks to operating organizations "openly advocating the rights of LGBTI people", said ILGA. It said this gives rise to censorship, arrests, and prosecution for the "promotion" of homosexuality.

.

"This trend is extremely concerning," said ILGA director Julia Ehrt.

Last year, Uganda implemented one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world, imposing penalties of up to life in prison for consensual same-sex relations and making "aggravated homosexuality" an offense punishable by death.

And between January 2023 and April 2024, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan and Uganda formally implemented legal provisions against the "promotion" of homosexuality, while Russia has categorized the "international LGBT movement" as "extremist".

"Even talking about our lives in public is becoming increasingly difficult in a growing number of states," said Ehrt.

This report comes as violence and harassment against LGBTQ people in Europe have reached a "new high" in the past few years, according to a May survey from the European Union's rights agency.



ILGA notes some progress for LGBTQ rights in the past 16 months, with four UN member states authorising same-sex marriage, bringing the total to 35 UN countries and Taiwan.

Bolivia and Latvia legalized civil unions, a move repeated in several Japanese prefectures.

And in five countries -- Germany, Ecuador, Spain, Finland and New Zealand -- individuals can now have their self-identified gender on their official documents, bringing the total number of countries to 17.

But even with these changes, ILGA said, "relentless opposition is marring the progress made in equal rights for LGBTI people" around the world.

We're watching the largest and most dangerous 'cult' in American history

Seth D. Norrholm
May 30, 2024

Trump supporter Lisa Morin of Albany, New York cries at a Stop the Steal rally in support of President Trump on December 12, 2020 on the Mall in Washington, D.C.

 (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers.

I was dying…It was just a matter of time. Lying behind the wheel of the airplane, bleeding out of the right side of my devastated body, I waited for the rapid shooting to stop
—Former Representative Jackie Speier in her memoir Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back recounting her experience after being shot five times during an ambush during her fact-finding visit to Jonestown, Guyana where Jim Jones and his cult, Peoples Temple, had built a compound.

It, combined with everything else that was going on, made it difficult to breathe…Being crushed by the shield and the people behind it … leaving me defenseless, injured
—Metropolitan police officer, Daniel Hodges, describing being crushed in a doorway during the January 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters on the U.S. Capitol

In both of the examples above, the individual speaking was the victim of extreme violence perpetrated by followers of a single person whose influence had spread to hundreds of people (in the January 6th case, thousands of people). In fact, Speier’s experience with the Jim Jones followers was part of the single greatest loss of American life (918 people) prior to 9/11/2001. These followings have been given an umbrella name, cult, and have involved what has been traditionally called “brainwashing.” The cult leader receives seemingly undying support as the Dear Leader or Savior. However, the term brainwashing suggests that indoctrinated members are robots without free will – behavioral scientists argue that this is not the case. It’s an oversimplification.

Rather than being seen as passive victims to an irresistible force, psychiatrist Robert Lifton argues that there is “voluntary self-surrender” in one’s entrance into a cult. Further, the decision to give up control as part of the cult process may actually be part of the reason why people join. Research and experience tell us that those who are “cult vulnerable” may have a sense of confusion or separation from society or seek the same sort of highly controlled environment that was part of their childhood. It has also been suggested that those who are at risk for cult membership feel an enormous lack of control in the face of uncertainty (i.e., economic, occupational, academic, social, familial) and will gravitate more towards a cult as their distress increases. I would argue that many of these factors are at play when we see the ongoing support of Trumpism and MAGA “theology.”

Psychologist Leon Festinger described the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance in which there is a disconnect between one’s feelings, beliefs, and convictions and their observable actions. This dissonance is distressing and, in order to relieve the anxiety, people may become more invested in the cult or belief system that goes against who they are individually. As such, cult members become more “dug-in” and will cling to thoughts and beliefs that contradict available evidence. In other words, they are no longer able to find a middle ground or compromise.

How does this apply to today’s politics?

There was a time when the two major political parties in America could exhibit bipartisanship by moving across the aisle to compromise on the issues on which they were legislating. Tried and true Republicans who favored small government, lower taxes, and national security could find a middle ground with Democrats who pushed for things like universal healthcare, higher minimum wages, and progressive tax reform. The abortion issue in America has been an area of debate between the parties as they debated elements like when life begins, is a heartbeat a heartbeat, and what to do about post-birth abortions (which is murder and not actually a thing). There were largely two sides of the issue and some areas for compromise.

This is no longer possible in today’s sociopolitical climate. Although members of the GOP still refer to themselves as a political party with principled stances, the reality is they have now morphed into a domestic terror organization and to use the umbrella term, a cult – the largest and most dangerous cult in American history.

Cult thinking includes ardent adherence to group thinking such as – clinically speaking, in the face of distorted thinking we ask about one’s strength of conviction by querying, ”Can you think of other ways of seeing this?” Sadly, what we are seeing publicly is ‘No’ from those who still subscribe to Trumpism/MAGA.

Here are a few examples in today’s socio-political environment in which cultism has contributed to a lack of middle ground.

There is no middle ground on treasonous, conspiratorial, fraudulent behavior – these are crimes and, arguably, the worst crimes one could commit against their own country.

There is no middle ground on slavery.

There is no middle ground on allowing Americans to die through inaction in response to natural disasters and global health crises.

There is no middle ground on gunning down school children or wearing an AR-15 rifle pin and throwing away a pin to remember a Uvalde victim.

There is no middle ground on jeopardizing national security and retaining and sharing classified documents.

There is no middle ground on breaking campaign finance (i.e., hush money schemes) laws.

There should be no middle ground on tolerance of crime, period.

And so many know this. Tim Scott, Jim Jordan, and Marco Rubio (the last two having gone to law school), all know this and are smarter than they are acting – which takes us back to cult dynamics – if you are a dyed-in-the-wool cultist or pretending to be a cultist – but the outcome is the same – harm to the Country and its people – there is no difference. Whether you actually have a personality disorder or are pretending to be a sociopathically or psychopathically disordered person – if the result is the same – harm to your constituents and your country – what’s the difference? As noted in the opening paragraphs, there is a voluntary submission to cultism – Rubio, for example, identified all of the reasons why the 45th President was not qualified when he himself was running for President in 2016. However, perhaps due to his own intolerance of uncertainties in his life, volunteered for Trumpism.

What can be done?

There are exit strategies for people ensnared in a cult. One factor is accountability or repeatedly seeing the adverse consequences of the group’s behavior (e.g., indictment, incarceration, job loss) which we started to see even more of this week.

But until one party and its ardent followers can admit they are in a domestic terrorist cult and as Rep. Eric Swalwell said are “unserious” people, there is no hope of unification on the horizon. The first step is getting through to people who can’t or won’t see the truth.

About the Author:

Seth D. Norrholm, PhD (Threads: neuropsychophd; X, artist formerly known as Twitter: @SethN12) is a neuropsychologist and independent socio political columnist. Dr. Norrholm has spent 20 years studying trauma-, stressor-, anxiety-, depressive-, and substance use-related disorders and has published over 135 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters. The primary objective of his work is to develop “bench-to-bedside” clinical research methods to inform therapeutic interventions for fear and anxiety-related disorders and how they relate to human factors such as personality, genetics, and environmental influences. Dr. Norrholm has been featured on NBC, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC’s Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, Politico.com, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, USA Today, WebMD, The Atlantic, The History Channel, Scientific American, Salon.com, The Huffington Post, and Yahoo.com.

'What dictators and pariah states do': Republicans advance bill to sanction ICC

Jake Johnson,

 Common Dreams
June 4, 2024

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) (Kevin Dietsch/AFP)

House Republicans on Monday advanced legislation that aims to sanction the International Criminal Court after the Hague-based tribunal formally applied for arrest warrants last month against Israel's prime minister and defense minister.

The GOP-dominated House Rules Committee voted 9-3 to send the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act to the floor of the lower chamber, barreling ahead with an attempt to punish the ICC for working to hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip. The ICC is also seeking arrest warrants for Hamas leaders.

The measure was introduced by Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) in early May, two weeks prior to the ICC prosecutor's announcement of the arrest warrant applications.

The bill's language is sweeping: If passed, it would require the U.S. president to impose sanctions on the ICC if the body is "engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies."

The Republican-authored measure defines protected persons as current or former armed forces members, current or former elected or appointed government officials, and "any other person currently or formerly employed by or working on behalf of" the U.S. or an allied government.

"This is a bad bill," Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, said Monday during the panel's hearing on the legislation. "The International Criminal Court is an important institution, and those who care about human rights would certainly agree with that assessment. And I think that it is not in America's moral or strategic interest to attack the court for attempting to do its job."

"Lawmakers should unequivocally oppose the new Republican bill to sanction the International Criminal Court."

Dylan Williams, vice president of government affairs at the Center for International Policy, noted on social media that the bill is "so broadly written that it could even sanction officials of the ICC or U.S. allies who help investigate, arrest, or prosecute Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, because he resides in a 'major non-NATO ally' that is not a party to the Rome Statute."

"Lawmakers should unequivocally oppose the new Republican bill to sanction the International Criminal Court," Williams wrote. "Threatening and penalizing legitimate international institutions, their staff, or members is what dictators and pariah states do, not democracies seeking to uphold the rule of law."

Neither the U.S. nor Israel are state parties to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC. The governments of both nations have argued that the ICC lacks jurisdiction to investigate Israeli war crimes—a claim that international legal experts have rejected—and U.S. and Israeli lawmakers have openly threatened the tribunal over its probe in the occupied Palestinian territories.

While the Biden administration supported the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2023 over war crimes committed in Ukraine—even though neither Russia nor Ukraine are parties to the Rome Statute—the administration has condemned the ICC's pursuit of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

But in an official policy statement released Monday, the Biden White House said it "strongly opposes" the GOP's Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act, noting that the bill "could require sanctions against court staff, judges, witnesses, and U.S. allies and partners who provide even limited, targeted support to the court in a range of aspects of its work."

The White House did not pledge that U.S. President Joe Biden would veto the bill if it passes the House and Senate, saying only that "there are more effective ways to defend Israel, preserve U.S. positions on the ICC, and promote international justice and accountability, and the administration stands ready to work with the Congress on those options"—without offering specifics.

The full House is expected to vote on the legislation on Tuesday. Axiosreported that "several pro-Israel House Democrats, including Reps. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), signaled" that they are "likely" to join Republicans in supporting the bill.

AMERIKA
‘Glaring crisis’: Postal service blasted for poor policing amid crime wave

Alexandria Jacobson, 

Investigative Reporter
June 4, 2024 

Letter carriers work in the Flatbush neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough in New York City in July 2022. Brooklyn letter carriers have faced physical assaults according to a March Raw Story investigation. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers.

The United States Government Accountability Office has released a critical report about the U.S. Postal Service, bolstering the findings of a recent Raw Story investigation that details a dramatic spike in crime against letter carriers.

The Government Accountability Office found that “serious crime” — including homicides, assaults, burglaries and robberies — nearly doubled during a six-year span, from 656 in 2017 to 1,198 in 2023. Robberies alone grew nearly sevenfold between fiscal years 2019 through 2023, according to the report.

Raw Story found that letter carrier robberies skyrocketed by 543 percent between 2019 and 2022, coinciding with the timing of a 2020 Postal Service decision that effectively benched its uniformed police force of 450 officers. The decision resulted in the officers losing their mandate to patrol the streets where letter carriers deliver the mail and these robberies often occur. They’re now relegated to protecting postal facilities, such as mail sorting centers and post offices.


RELATED ARTICLE: Letter carriers face bullets and beatings while postal service sidelines police

“The rise in serious crime against USPS employees is a very serious issue. Letter carriers have been robbed at gunpoint, putting their safety and the security of the mail they carry at risk,” David Marroni, director, physical infrastructure, for the Government Accountability Office, told Raw Story via email. “Even in cases where there is no physical injury, such incidents can have a negative effect on individual victims as well as the USPS workforce and can result in trauma and stress.”

The Government Accountability Office made three formal recommendations for the Chief Postal Inspector involving better workforce evaluation procedures for its postal police officers and postal inspectors.

In a written response, the Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service, agreed to address the recommendations.

RELATED ARTICLE: DeJoy faces pain over postal 'crime wave’

The Government Accountability Office found the Postal Inspection Service lacking in its documented processes, which could “help the Inspection Service ensure it allocates law enforcement resources according to mission needs,” the report said. The report also found the Postal Inspection Service had not assessed the size and location of its postal police workforce since 2011.

“Given the recent upward trend in serious crime against USPS employees, it is important that the agency do so to better ensure its workforce decisions to address serious crime are sound and that its law enforcement resources are aligned with current security needs,” Marroni said. “We will monitor USPIS’s actions to implement our recommendations and hope the agency does so in full.”

Internal discord

Amid this crime spike, the Postal Service and the Postal Police Officers Association union have been embroiled in an unresolved, four-year-long dispute about the use of postal police officers off Postal Service property.

Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, called the Government Accountability Office’s report “brutal.”

“It shows, quite frankly, the incompetence of the Inspection Service,” Albergo told Raw Story in a phone interview. “They have a mail theft epidemic on their hands, and they have letter carriers being robbed, and they haven't realigned resources at all? I mean, that's amazing stuff.”

Albergo said after reading the report that he is “a little worried, to be honest, because the Inspection Service is not a rational actor at this point.”

“Somehow they're going to figure out that they need fewer officers," Albergo said, noting that only two basic training sessions for postal police officers are scheduled for 2025.

A spokesperson for the Postal Service did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

The Government Accountability Office’s audit was conducted between January 2023 to May 2024, requested by six Democratic members of Congress: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA).

Connolly told Raw Story via a statement that serious crimes against Postal Service employees have “skyrocketed.”

“Clearly, this is a serious issue that demands the attention of Congress. That’s why we requested this report from GAO and it’s why several relevant pieces of legislation have been introduced already, including the Postal Police Reform Act which I am proud to cosponsor,” Connolly said.

There are two versions of the Postal Police Reform Act, one in each chamber. Another bill, the Protect our Letter Carriers Act, was introduced in March by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Greg Landsman (D-OH) to increase punishments for those who assault letter carriers.

The bill also aims to replace outdated mailboxes and their keys, which are often targeted in robberies. A single Postal Service “arrow key” may open numerous mailboxes, making them an attractive prize for robbers.

“The GAO report offers several important steps that USPS can take right now to better document and prevent crimes committed against postal employees and properties. USPS should follow these recommendations without delay,” Connolly said. “I will continue to work with my colleagues to determine the best legislative path forward to address this glaring crisis and protect our dedicated postal employees.”

Norton, one of the co-sponsors of the Postal Police Reform Act, said the issue of mail crime is “a matter throughout the country,” noting that mail theft remains a “very significant problem” in the Washington, D.C., area.

When asked if the report will spur Congress to act, Norton told Raw Story in a phone interview, “I believe we will be able to get this done.”

“The GAO report does highlight, once again, the need for postal police reform,” Norton said. “Since 2020 the postal police have been confined to their physical facilities. My bill extends the police jurisdiction beyond police property. That's where they need to be.”

Hoyer, the Democratic ranking member on the Financial Services and General Government subcommittee for the House Committee on Appropriations, said it was important for him to join a bipartisan group of legislators to call on the Government Accountability Office to look into the Postal Inspection Service.

“I am greatly disturbed by the recent increase in violent attacks against letter carriers,” Hoyer told Raw Story in a statement. “Congress has a responsibility to ensure the USPS is safe and functional — both for the security of all postal workers and the millions of Americans who rely on mail service.”

The congressional office for Raskin, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, referred Raw Story to a Democratic spokesperson for the Oversight Committee, who did not respond by the time of publication.

The congressional offices for Brown and Porter did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

Pro-Trump newspaper exec accused in $67M scheme indicted on money laundering charges: Feds

RIGHT WING GALUN FONG CULT OWNS 

EPOCH TIMES

Matthew Chapman
June 3, 2024 

A women hands out free copies of The Epoch Times, a right wing newspaper, as then-President Donald Trump's supporters protest against the 2020 election results during a "Stop the Steal" rally, on December 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

The chief financial officer of an international newspaper known for pushing pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theories has been indicted on federal money laundering charges, according to federal prosecutors in New York City.

Weidong "Bill" Guan, top accountant for The Epoch Times, is accused of participating in an international scheme to conceal $67 million in "illegally obtained funds to bank accounts" in the name of the company — effectively accusing The Epoch Times itself of being a huge money-laundering operation.

"In furtherance of the money laundering conspiracy, GUAN managed, among other teams, the Media Company’s 'Make Money Online' team (the 'MMO Team'), which was located in a particular foreign office of the Media Company," reads a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office in New York's southern district.

"Under GUAN’s management, members of the MMO Team and others used cryptocurrency to knowingly purchase tens of millions of dollars in crime proceeds, including proceeds of fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits, that had been loaded onto tens of thousands of prepaid debit cards. The crime proceeds were generally purchased by the scheme participants, including members of the MMO Team and others working with them, using a particular cryptocurrency platform, at discounted rates of approximately 70 to 80 cents per dollar, and in exchange for cryptocurrency."

The Epoch Times has helped promote a number of far-right, pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg "undermined" the 2020 presidential election,

It has ties to Falun Gong, a religious spiritual movement from China that came to view Trump as a messianic figure who would deliver them from the Chinese Communist Party on Judgement Day, Rachel Maddow has reported.

The paper has been so controversial that at one point, Canadian letter carriers were suspended over refusing to deliver sample issues of it on their routes.

A report last August indicated that Larry Elder, a right-wing talk radio host who ran an unsuccessful campaign for president, was drawing a seven-figure salary from the paper.

Update [7:20 p.m.] An Epoch Times spokesperson provided the following response to the Daily Beast:

“The Epoch Times has a guiding principle that elevates integrity in its dealings above everything else. The company intends to and will fully cooperate with any investigation dealing with the allegations against Mr. Guan. In the interim, although Mr. Guan is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the company has suspended him until this matter is resolved.”

'Two days and it's over': Russian arms dealer endorses Trump amid call for U.S. civil war

David Edwards
June 3, 2024 

Alex Jones and Viktor Bout (InfoWars/screen grab

Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer dubbed the "merchant of death," endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump and suggested a new American civil war was needed.

While guest-hosting with Alex Jones on Monday, Bout was asked about his views on Trump.

"Look, one thing is clear," Bout said. "That Trump is for real. He is real, and he is alive."

The arms dealer said President Joe Biden was "like a zombie."

"We can discuss all the points, but at least he is a real person who is honestly, full-heartedly, not willing to see America being ruined and killed by the globalists," he continued.

"So this is a, you know, situation where we all hope that Trump finally will quickly act after he was inaugurated, and literally make sure that this deep state or those globalists who are fully controlling the American administration would be unable to make more harm to the human being on the planet and stop killing, first of all, Americans."

Bout, who was freed from a U.S. prison in 2022 Bout in a swap for basketball star Britney Griner.

Later in Monday's show, he agitated for a second American "revolution."

"They're gonna try to really attempt on the life of the Trump, and they said, oh, sorry, you know, we killed him," he warned. "Who knows, maybe they're gonna get hostages of Trump's family and put him to negotiate some."

"So in this level, I guess all American people have to do their maximum to really show to the globalists," he added. "If you mess up with this, it would be, you know, our strong response. Look, if people go to the street in America, the real America, who they are, it's over."

"It's two days, and it's over. Forget about January 6th, it was a joke."

Jones argued that Jan. 6 was a false flag operation.

"Yeah, exactly, but think of this, if people everywhere will go on the street, not only in D.C., but everywhere, that's it," Bout agreed. "Who, police gonna attack all people, hell no. Military, they're gonna send military against American people."

"But this is a moment for another American revolution."

Watch the video below from the Alex Jones Show.

AMERIKA

Why is everyone so grumpy about the economy?

Stephen Robinson, Alternet
June 4, 2024 

President Joe Biden (Shutterstock.com)

Americans think the economy sucks and while the Democratic response of “nuh uh!” is technically correct, it’s probably not politically viable. People historically vote based on their wallets, so it’s a serious problem for the incumbent president (that’s Joe Biden) if a majority of Americans wrongly believe we’re in a recession. A recent Harris poll for the Guardian detailed these upside-down sentiments:

55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.


A whopping 58 percent of Americans blame the Biden administration for the economic horror show they’ve imagined. These numbers are usually fatal, because as I keep saying, people don’t vote like Vulcans. They’re more like civic-minded Klingons who cast ballots based on how they feel. Democrats have dazzled us with graphs, charts and all sorts of data, but they’re obviously not putting voters in the right mood. During the next press conference about the economy, Biden could try dimming the lights and playing some Barry White. Desperate measures are needed.

This situation is not unique to America. Almost every incumbent leader and their party are in a political free fall. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is doing even worse in the polls than Biden, and Trudeau is young and minty fresh. He has more time than Biden to turn things around, but he’s currently on track for a colossal wipe out from the Conservative Party and what Politico calls its “firebrand populist leader” Pierre Poilievre. (Yeah, that’s not good.) On the upside, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative Party are also doomed.

Biden still has a fighting chance precisely because economic conditions are better in the US, and his administration is responsible. Nonetheless, there’s still a chance the unhinged psychopath, coup plotter, confirmed rapist and now convicted felon could win. At least he was only an unhinged psychopath when he beat Hillary Clinton. Do we need to pull out more graphs and charts?

Why is everyone so grumpy about the economy?

Aside from avoiding an actual, real-live recession, Biden has capped the price of insulin, forgiven significant amounts of student loan debt, and expanded access to health care. Yet his approval ratings have buckled under the weight of what Kyla Scanlon dubbed a “vibecession.” Fortunately, Scanlon isn’t a political candidate, as voters usually don’t appreciate having their personal experiences dismissed, even when based in fundamental misperceptions. Biden can’t try the “I feel your pain” approach, because unlike Bill Clinton in 1992, he’s the sitting president. Voters want to see more action than empathy.

Consumer confidence is rising, yet why does it seem like most people I talk to complain about rising prices? If you work in publishing and the arts, you’ve probably heard countless people tell you they simply can’t afford to pay for content right now. We don’t call them deadbeats. We just try to tempt them with subscriber discounts.

It’s been noted that Americans are pleading poverty even as Memorial Day travel rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. People apparently drowned their economic woes with increased tourism. Yes, more people get their news today from social media, which amplifies discontent. Also all the influencers seem happier and more successful than you. The lady in the Homeworthy video talks about “sourcing pieces” to decorate her fancy New York apartment, and you’re so broke you can only “buy things” like a chump.

Lower-income Americans are supposedly richer than ever, but they’re also on the front lines of rising food prices and skyrocketing housing costs. Since 2019, housing prices have ballooned 54 percent, which literally hits people where they live. Mortgage rates have stabilized, but are still high enough to prevent people from buying a home. You might consider that a “first world problem” if you’re a tone-deaf jerk, but for many people, the “American dream” is closely associated with homeownership.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that goods and services are technically cheaper than they were in 2019. This is because wages have grown faster than prices. Unfortunately, people rarely make this calculation when complaining about the price of eggs. The sticker shock phenomenon is real. People want prices to visibly decrease, but that will never happen, and if it did, it’s the result of deflation, which is what actually happens during a recession. That’s why rent prices dropped in major cities during the pandemic.

The Post ran an interesting story this week about how housing costs are affecting voters in Nevada. Biden won the state in 2020, but Trump is currently leading in far too many polls. D. Carter, a Black woman, paid $1,525 for rent, cable and wifi for a one-bedroom apartment before her monthly rent was jacked up to $2,100. No, she did not also receive a 40 percent raise.
Unwilling and unable to pay the new rate, Carter, who spoke on the condition that her first name not be used, considered buying but quickly realized that with interest rates hovering around 7 percent, she was priced out. She found a new apartment in a decent part of town after months of searching, but said still pays up to 50 percent of her fluctuating $50,000 to $70,000 income from her banking job for rent.

The economy has improved enough after the pandemic that landlords can charge substantially more in rent. That might make sense to people priced out of their homes and neighborhoods, but it doesn’t make them feel jolly. According to the Nevada chapter of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Las Vegas metro area is short on housing for about 312,000 people. Construction of affordable housing is a nationwide problem — a combination of those high interest rates plus well-meaning building requirements in many progressive cities like Portland, Oregon

Catherine Ayres, a 73-year-old with a fixed monthly income of $1,451, has struggled with housing for decades, but during the past four years, she’s shared a studio apartment with two other people.

Minority renters also suffered more during covid because their landlords were more likely to evict them or charge onerous fees if they fell behind in their payments. Landlords in predominately white neighborhoods were more forgiving and even decreased rents. An eviction in your rental history makes it extremely hard to find housing even when your finances improve.

Perception is political reality

What’s interesting is that Biden and many mainstream Democrats do recognize that perception is political reality, at least when it comes to crime. The White House performed the “I Told You So” dance when Portland’s progressive District Attorney Mike Schmidt decisively lost re-election to “tough-on-crime” prosecutor Nathan Vasquez.

“I am committed to ending the open-air drug use, to ending the open-air drug dealing that we have suffered from as a community,” Vasquez said on election night. “I am also committed to restoring that idea that it is OK to hold people accountable and do it in a compassionate manner.”

Technically, Portland experienced a significant drop in homicides and shootings last year, but that reality didn’t save Schmidt. A Biden official said, “Particularly right now, Americans don’t want to feel like things are out of control. Well-meaning ideas have gone too far, and we need a sensible approach.” That approach involves cracking down on immigration and increasing spending for law enforcement.

An anti-crime message in 2022 helped Republicans flip several House seats in New York and possibly ensured their narrow majority. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has since promoted a “tough-on-crime” agenda, dismissing bail reform and even sending the National Guard into the New York subway system. Homeless encampments in major cities don’t sell Americans on a booming economy either. It looks like a Steinbeck novel.

Democrats nationwide have embraced Republican rhetoric about the border rather than pointing out that there is no “border invasion.” Democrats clearly prioritize feelings more than facts regarding these issues. Perhaps the economy is different because the Biden White House fundamentally believes it’s doing the right thing, regardless of voter “vibes.” But “vibes” don’t care about political agendas.

Economist Alex Williams has a good argument about what’s likely fueling economic discontent:

“The economy sucks because, where workers gained leverage, their employers tended to push the cost of that leverage onto customers, which intensified a vicious cycle of service workers and customers getting mad at each other” is my most compact explanation of any “bad vibes.”

Biden and Democrats could acknowledge that the economy is a problem and just blame Republicans for it. It’s literally the approach they’ve taken to crime and the border, but so many liberals are opposed to any economic message that’s not Ricky Martin’s "Living La Vida Loca" at high volume.

“Trump got us in the mess. We’re making it better. Trump and his goons will make it far worse” is both simple and true.

India heatwave hits wildlife as thirsty monkeys drown in well

Agence France-Presse
June 4, 2024

Swaths of northern India are gripped by a heatwave, hitting humans as well as wildife including monkeys. Here, monkeys sit on a roadside in India's capital New Delhi in 2023 (Arun SANKAR/AFP)

Dozens of monkeys in heatwave-hit India desperate for water have drowned in a well, a forest official said Tuesday, in a state where lakes have turned to dust

Swaths of northern India have been gripped by a heatwave since last month, with temperatures soaring over 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

Last week, an Indian court urged the government to declare a national emergency over the ongoing heatwave, saying that hundreds of people had died during weeks of extreme weather.

The heat is also hitting wildlife, with animals searching for water in villages.

Nearly 40 monkeys drowned in the well in Palamu district of eastern Jharkhand state, where lakes have dried out in the heat, villagers said.

Kumar Ashish, the local government forest officer, said the troop had jumped in but could not escape.

"A team of forest officials are investigating," Ashish told AFP, adding that they were awaiting post-mortem results.

India is no stranger to searing summer temperatures but years of scientific research have found climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent and more intense.

Researchers say human-induced climate change has driven the devastating heat impact in India and should be taken as a warning.

Tonga’s volcanic eruption could cause unusual weather for the rest of the decade

The Conversation
June 3, 2024 

Hunga Tonga Volcano Eruptions (NASA Worldview)

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (Hunga Tonga for short) erupted on January 15 2022 in the Pacific Kingdom of Tonga. It created a tsunami which triggered warnings across the entire Pacific basin, and sent sound waves around the globe multiple times.

A new study published in the Journal of Climate explores the climate impacts of this eruption.

Our findings show the volcano can explain last year’s extraordinarily large ozone hole, as well as the much wetter than expected summer of 2024.

The eruption could have lingering effects on our winter weather for years to come.
A cooling smoke cloud

Usually, the smoke of a volcano – and in particular the sulphur dioxide contained inside the smoke cloud – ultimately leads to a cooling of Earth’s surface for a short period.

This is because the sulphur dioxide transforms into sulphate aerosols, which send sunlight back into space before it reaches the surface. This shading effect means the surface cools down for a while, until the sulphate falls back down to the surface or gets rained out.

This is not what happened for Hunga Tonga.

Because it was an underwater volcano, Hunga Tonga produced little smoke, but a lot of water vapour: 100–150 million tonnes, or the equivalent of 60,000 Olympic swimming pools. The enormous heat of the eruption transformed huge amounts of sea water into steam, which then shot high into the atmosphere with the force of the eruption.



Animation of the Hunga Tonga eruption recorded on January 15 2022 by Japan’s Himawari-8 weather satellite. The plume is just under 500km across.

Japan Meteorological Agency, CC BY

All that water ended up in the stratosphere: a layer of the atmosphere between about 15 and 40 kilometres above the surface, which produces neither clouds nor rain because it is too dry.

Water vapour in the stratosphere has two main effects. One, it helps in the chemical reactions which destroy the ozone layer, and two, it is a very potent greenhouse gas.

There is no precedent in our observations of volcanic eruptions to know what all that water would do to our climate, and for how long. This is because the only way to measure water vapor in the entire stratosphere is via satellites. These only exist since 1979, and there hasn’t been an eruption similar to Hunga Tonga in that time.

Follow the vapor

Experts in stratospheric science around the world started examining satellite observations from the first day of the eruption. Some studies focused on the more traditional effects of volcanic eruptions, such as the amount of sulphate aerosols and their evolution after the eruption, some concentrated on the possible effects of the water vapour, and some included both.

But nobody really knew how the water vapor in the stratosphere would behave. How long will it remain in the stratosphere? Where will it go? And, most importantly, what does this mean for the climate while the water vapour is still there?

Those were exactly the questions we set off to answer.

We wanted to find out about the future, and unfortunately it is impossible to measure that. This is why we turned to climate models, which are specifically made to look into the future.

We did two simulations with the same climate model. In one, we assumed no volcano erupted, while in the other one we manually added the 60,000 Olympic swimming pools worth of water vapor to the stratosphere. Then, we compared the two simulations, knowing that any differences must be due to the added water vapor.


The ash plume from the Hunga Tonga eruption in an image taken by an astronaut on January 16 2022 from the International Space Station. NASA

What did we find out?

The large ozone hole from August to December 2023 was at least in part due to Hunga Tonga. Our simulations predicted that ozone hole almost two years in advance.

Notably, this was the only year we would expect any influence of the volcanic eruption on the ozone hole. By then, the water vapour had just enough time to reach the polar stratosphere over Antarctica, and during any later years there will not be enough water vapour left to enlarge the ozone hole.

As the ozone hole lasted until late December, with it came a positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode during the summer of 2024. For Australia this meant a higher chance of a wet summer, which was exactly opposite what most people expected with the declared El Niño. Again, our model predicted this two years ahead.

In terms of global mean temperatures, which are a measure of how much climate change we are experiencing, the impact of Hunga Tonga is very small, only about 0.015 degrees Celsius. (This was independently confirmed by another study.) This means that the incredibly high temperatures we have measured for about a year now cannot be attributed to the Hunga Tonga eruption.

Disruption for the rest of the decade

But there are some surprising, lasting impacts in some regions of the planet.

For the northern half of Australia, our model predicts colder and wetter than usual winters up to about 2029. For North America, it predicts warmer than usual winters, while for Scandinavia, it again predicts colder than usual winters.

The volcano seems to change the way some waves travel through the atmosphere. And atmospheric waves are responsible for highs and lows, which directly influence our weather.

It is important here to clarify that this is only one study, and one particular way of investigating what impact the Hunga Tonga eruption might have on our weather and climate. Like any other climate model, ours is not perfect.

We also didn’t include any other effects, such as the El Niño–La Niña cycle. But we hope that our study will stir scientific interest to try and understand what such a large amount of water vapour in the stratosphere might mean for our climate.

Whether it is to confirm or contradict our findings, that remains to be seen – we welcome either outcome.

Martin Jucker, Lecturer in Atmospheric Dynamics, UNSW Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.