News of the Week for December 15th, 2024
- Abortion
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Abortion
Dobbs Decision
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files first lawsuit against out-of-state abortion provider
The lawsuit will test the strength of Texas’ near-total abortion ban against a New York shield law that protects physicians who provide abortions.
Gun Rights
Silencers Aren’t “Arms” Protected by Second Amendment, Fourth Circuit Holds
From U.S. v. Saleem, decided today by Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson, Steven Agee, and Allison Rushing
Hide the Decline
Environment &“Green Energy”
Massive Cover-up Launched by U.K. Met Office to Hide its 103 Non-Existent Temperature Measuring Stations
Last month, the Daily Sceptic highlighted the practice at the U.K. Met Office of inventing temperature averages from over 100 non-existent measuring stations. Helpfully, the Met Office went so far as to supply coordinates, elevations and purposes of the imaginary sites. Following massive interest across social media and frequent reposting of the Daily Sceptic article, the Met Office has amended its ludicrous claims. The move has not been announced in public, needless to say, since drawing attention to this would open a pandora’s box and run the risk of subjecting all the Met Office temperature claims to wider scrutiny. Instead, the Met Office has discreetly renamed its “U.K. climate averages” page as “Location-specific long-term averages”.
Voters Grant Rights to a River in Everett, Wash.
More than 30 U.S. cities have adopted nature rights ordinances, mostly to prevent fracking. And now in the recent election, 57 percent of voters in Everett, Wash., granted rights to a geological feature, specifically, the Snohomish River watershed.
Freedom from Climate-Related Death Risk
Every 1 percent increase in population corresponded to a 53 percent increase in climate-risk safety.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
UK bans puberty blockers for under-18s
Government-ordered commission flags an “unacceptable safety risk” in continued prescription to children.
Barack Obama broke US healthcare. Only the Left refuses to admit it
Progressives raging against health insurers should acknowledge the role of their own policies in undermining the system
Euthanasia Is Now The Cause Of 1 In 20 Deaths In Canada
Most recipients, 96%, were older adults with a median age of 77
RFK Jr.’s lawyer has asked the FDA to revoke approval of the polio vaccine
The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.
Euthanasia Turning Suicidal People into ‘Kill and Harvest’ Natural Resource
In the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Canada, people who want euthanasia can become organ donors. (A recent report in Spain showed that 13 percent of those euthanized donated organs.) Let’s call it “kill and harvest,” a policy heartily approved by our ever more crassly utilitarian medical establishment.
Montreal man, 39, dies from aneurysm after giving up on six-hour wait at ER
‘Had a bit of a health scare last night, but thankfully it wasn’t a heart attack,’ Adam Burgoyne said in a Dec. 5 post on social media. He died the next day
War & Terror
The US military is now talking openly about going on the attack in space
“We have to build capabilities that provide our leadership offensive and defensive options.”
Luigi Mangione’s Copycat
Briana Boston, a 42-year-old Florida woman, was charged this week with threats to conduct an act of terrorism after she told her insurance provider on a call, “Delay, deny, depose. You people are next.”
Russian ‘spy ring met with Just Stop Oil’
Spies conspired to plot fake attacks against Kazakhstan to win favour including dousing London embassy in pig’s blood, jurors hear
My Battle with Tulsi Gabbard’s Cult Followers in Hawaii
Christine Gralow had left investigative reporting behind, but rumors of a money-laundering cult in her Oahu community prompted her to look into Tulsi Gabbard and her guru
RFK Jr. pushes his daughter-in-law for CIA deputy director
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign manager and daughter-in-law Amaryllis Fox Kennedy is making a push to serve as deputy director at the CIA next year — and RFK Jr. is making calls on her behalf, Axios has learned.
Mitch McConnell: ‘We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now’
The Republican Senator on his plans to spend the last two years of his term fighting back against an increasingly isolationist GOP
An explosion in the Afghan capital kills the Taliban refugee minister
A suicide bombing in the Afghan capital on Wednesday killed the Taliban refugee minister and two others, officials said, in the most brazen attack on a member of the Taliban inner circle since they returned to power three years ago.
Mystery NJ drones are coming from Iranian mothership offshore, congressman suggests: ‘Should be shot down’
A New Jersey congressman claimed Wednesday that the mystery drones over the Garden State are from Iran, and they’re being launched by a mothership parked off the East Coast.
Ukraine’s Drone Boats Are Now Shooting Machine Guns At Russian Helicopters, Boats
Gun-armed Sea Baby uncrewed vessels have emerged amid growing Russian efforts to stymie Ukraine’s kamikaze drone boat attacks.
Australian Navy Fires Tomahawk Cruise Missile For The First Time
Tomahawks will give Australia the ability to reach deep into China’s anti-access bubble, striking ships and land targets.
Gabbard begins meetings with senators, amid scrutiny of Syria views
One GOP senator tells JI that some members on the Senate Intelligence Committee were underwhelmed by her performance during meetings
Radicalized: Ivy League Boy Reads ‘Unabomber’ Manifesto, Becomes Killer
The headline is your “tl:dr” summary of what might otherwise seem mysterious: Why would the handsome young scion of a prominent Maryland family decide to murder the CEO of a health insurance company?
Four Syria Myths Busted by the Assad Regime’s Collapse
And what comes next
North Koreans Are Not Russia’s Only Foreign Fighters in Ukraine
Central Asian participation in the Russian war effort suggests that Moscow has the potential to tap into more human resources for the war than the West likes to think. It is not only Kim Jong-un’s praetorians that are at Putin’s disposal.
National
Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Appeals Court Decisions
Neighborly strolls, cannabis discrimination, and a thorough un-en-bancing.
D.C. Circuit Panel Denies TikTok’s Request for Stay of the TikTok Divestment Law
“At the request of the parties, this court expedited its consideration of the case “to ensure that there is adequate time before the Act’s prohibitions take effect to request emergency relief from the Supreme Court.” Consistent with the schedule proposed by the parties, on December 6, 2024 this court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Act with respect to each claim presented by the petitioners and denied as moot the petitioners’ alternative requests for a temporary injunction and to appoint a special master.”
Supreme Court Adds Two Potentially Significant Cases to OT2024 Docket
December certiorari grants on standing and religion are early holiday gifts for Court watchers.
Elon Musk, JD Vance, and the Fever Swamp Right Are Trying to Spin the DOJ’s January 6 Report
A funny thing happened on Thursday after Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz released an report about the extent of FBI involvement in the January 6 Capitol riot: All of the most ridiculous right-wing conspiracy-peddlers started celebrating.
Mitch McConnell: ‘We’re in a very, very dangerous world right now’
The Republican Senator on his plans to spend the last two years of his term fighting back against an increasingly isolationist GOP
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford says he intends to run for governor
Ford, who is termed out from his role as the state’s top lawyer, said he is considering running in 2026, the first Democrat to openly do so.
GOP Rep. Ciscomani passes on run for Arizona governor
Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) will run for reelection to Congress rather than mount a bid for governor in 2026, his campaign spokesperson told Axios.
Scientists Turn Their Focus to WA’s Mount Adams After Volcano Begins Rumbling
In September, six earthquakes ranging from magnitudes 0.9 to 2.0 were recorded at the site. This number represents significant uptick compared to the typical rate of one earthquake every 2-3 years.
Demonic Christmas Display at State House Destroyed
Forget St. Nick; someone in Concord may end up on Satan’s naughty list after The Satanic Temple’s Baphomet statue was destroyed Monday night in an act of yuletide mayhem.
Trump plans to scrap policy restricting ICE arrests at churches, schools, hospitals
The long-standing policy has prevented ICE agents from arresting immigrants at so-called “sensitive locations” except under certain circumstances.
Dealing corpses from a Las Vegas strip mall: A look inside the shadowy U.S. body trade
A disgraced chiropractor found a new job selling bodies. In an industry with few guardrails, he soon faced accusations of mishandling human remains.
New Jersey: You’re Not Allowed to Ban Any More Books, Except the Ones That Deserve It
So it’s not censorship if the school library deems a book developmentally inappropriate for certain students — i.e., too mature in its themes, depictions, or descriptions of material. Of course . . . that’s why most parents object to the likes of Flamer, Gender Queer, and This Book is Gay.
The FBI Wrongly Raided This Family’s Home. A Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Wants the Supreme Court To Step In.
A federal court denied them the right to sue—despite Congress enacting a law five decades ago specifically for situations like this one.
Daniel Penny acquitted in subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely
A Manhattan jury has cleared Daniel Penny of criminal wrongdoing in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a crowded subway — a caught-on-video killing that sparked fierce debate over the city’s mental health system and crime underground.
Appeals Court Upholds the TikTok Ban
TikTok is probably going away soon. A law passed earlier this year required China’s Byte Dance to sell off the US part of their business or face being banned next month. TikTok sued claiming the law was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Today a federal appeals court ruled the ban could stand.
Economy & Taxes
America’s economy ‘risks massive Trump slump’
US GDP could contract by as much as two to three percentage points, according to NIESR
Tokyo Adopts 4-Day Workweek to Encourage Women To Have More Kids
Japan’s fertility rate plummeted to a record-low of 1.2 in 2023
Putin’s regime may be closer to a Soviet collapse than we think
Russia’s resurrected military industrial complex is cannibalising the rest of its economy
Does Britain really prefer socialism to capitalism?
Which is Britain’s favourite — and least favourite — ideology? To find out, polling company YouGov has asked the public for their opinion on 12 “-isms”, from communism to conservatism.
Millions of ‘Missing’ American Men Aren’t Really Missing
Why that’s important.
Watch My Debate on Free Trade
I had the pleasure of participating in a debate on free trade with Mark DiPlacido of American Compass, moderated by Eric Boehm of Reason, at the FREOPP Freedom & Progress Conference in Washington, D.C., last month.
Trump Caves to Union Thugs and Extortionists
There is an article of faith among Donald Trump’s most vociferous defenders that he fights for the right’s causes and convictions with a vigor that exposes the old-guard GOP’s capitulatory spinelessness. This tenet of the MAGA movement is unfalsifiable insofar as whatever Trump’s priorities are at the moment automatically become the right’s priorities, even if they might have been core Democratic principles only a few minutes earlier.
International
Hundreds of Vials of Deadly Viruses Missing After Lab Breach
Hundreds of vials containing live viruses have gone missing from a laboratory in Australia, sparking an investigation.
China unveils all-terrain SPHERICAL robocops to chase down, bludgeon & catch criminals using net-launching cannons
The AI-powered bot beasts are capable of not only stopping crime, but somehow detecting it too.
Chernobyl being prowled by mutant wild dogs that have rapidly evolved to SURVIVE nuke fallout, scientists say
The stray dogs have evolved to withstand the intense radiation or Chernobyl, and have taken to their independent lifestyles
Where Beards Grow, Strong Feelings Follow
For the past several months, Prince William, the shiny-headed British noble, has been fostering a modest bit of scruff. The heir to the British throne debuted the beard in August, with an Instagram post congratulating Team Britain on their success at the Olympics. At that time the growth was slight, as if he had forgotten his razor over a long weekend, the strands barely connecting with his sideburns.
Brazil’s President Lula undergoes emergency brain surgery
The leftist leader, 79, is recovering in the ICU after undergoing surgery for an intracranial hemorrhage, according to e medical note published on his social media Tuesday.
Georgia’s Pro-Europe Protesters Are Facing Down Police Violence
Tbilisi’s streets have become the site of nightly conflicts.
Opinion
Folks, birthright citizenship isn’t just some interpretation of a few weirdly phrased passages in the 14th Amendment.
We had birthright citizenship BEFORE the 14th Amendment. It’s actually one of the oldest and most fundamental principles of American law.
Trump could blow it on day one with a catastrophic error that would make him no better than Biden
Armed with his thumping electoral mandate, President-elect Donald Trump has a golden opportunity to do justice and restore order in America. But he could also easily blow that by issuing a blanket amnesty to deplorable January 6 rioters who caused real bloodshed and chaos.
Is This How Democrats Win Back the Working Class?
Embracing populism could help the party build a lasting political coalition—if the Republicans don’t do it first.
