West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced Friday that he had left the Democratic Party and had registered as an independent, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/05/31/joe-manchin-leaves-democratic-party-independent?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=editorial&amp;utm_source=twitter">reported</a>.
Manchin cited &#8220;partisan extremism&#8221; from both Democrats and Republicans as the primary reason for his decision to register as an independent, claiming both parties had left &#8220;West Virginia and our country behind.&#8221;
&#8220;From my first day in public service in 1982, I have always focused on doing what’s best for my state and my country, without regard to party or politics. Throughout my days in elected office, I have always been proud of my commitment to common sense, bipartisanship and my desire to bring people together. It’s who I am. It’s who I will always be. I have never seen America through a partisan lens,&#8221; Manchin said in his statement, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/west-virginia-sen-joe-manchin-leaves-democratic-party-registers-independent">according</a> to Fox News.
&#8220;However, since becoming a United States Senator in 2010, I have seen both the Democrat and Republican parties leave West Virginia and our country behind for partisan extremism while jeopardizing our democracy,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Today, our national politics are broken and neither party is willing to compromise to find common ground. To stay true to myself and remain committed to put country before party, I have decided to register as an independent with no party affiliation and continue to fight for America’s sensible majority.&#8221;
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My commitment to do everything I can to bring our country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation. <a href="https://t.co/tvMB2N87AW">pic.twitter.com/tvMB2N87AW</a>
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) <a href="https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/1796547335767671199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 31, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;My commitment to do everything I can to bring our country together has led me to register as an independent with no party affiliation,&#8221; Manchin posted on X.
Widely considered a moderate in the Senate, Manchin broke with President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on several issues, including certain provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, Axios <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/16/joe-manchin-2024-presidential-race">noted</a>. He also threatened to oppose Biden&#8217;s Environmental Protection Agency nominees in May 2023. He has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/manchin-says-he-would-think-very-seriously-about-break-with-democratic-party">indicated</a> multiple times in the past that he was considering leaving the Democratic Party over its radical policies.
Manchin <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4696125-manchin-independent-leaves-democrats/">previously announced</a> in November 2023 that he would not seek re-election in the Senate, where he has served since 2010. Before entering the Senate, he served as the state&#8217;s governor from 2005 to 2010.
Manchin indicated Wednesday that he would not enter the West Virginia governor&#8217;s race, despite rampant speculation that he would jump in, and he instead expressed his support for the Democratic nominee, Steve Williams.
“My support is with Steve Williams,” Manchin said, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4694293-joe-manchin-west-virginia-governor-race/">according</a> to The Hill. &#8220;He’s been a friend of mine for 40 years, and we’ve worked together. I know how good he is, I know how competent he is, and I know how hard he’ll work. So, I’ve been supporting Steve.&#8221;
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1717170739895000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Ps3XbgPF2rL6bDpL8t5Cu">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Williams will face the Republican nominee, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, in November. Most election predictions forecast a solid victory for Morrisey.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

Sen. Joe Manchin

Joe Manchin Leaves The Democratic Party

Congress

Joe Manchin

Politics

West Virginia

Caution: The following article contains graphic descriptions of disturbing animal-on-animal violence and sexual deviancy. 
In an apparent response to the common argument that the LGBT spectrum of sexualities isn&#8217;t &#8220;natural,&#8221; NBC is showcasing the unorthodox sexual proclivities of the lower life forms in a stunning and brave new documentary titled &#8220;Queer Planet.&#8221;
The documentary&#8217;s trailer, which was posted publicly on X, opens with a shot of a male lion sexually mounting another male, and clips of various presumably same-sex animals nuzzling each other are interspersed with soundbites from expert scientists assuring you that &#8220;everything you were told as a kid is wrong,&#8221; &#8220;this is a queer planet,&#8221; and &#8220;it&#8217;s only in humans that we have such a stigma about it.&#8221;
If you have the stomach for it, take a look at the full trailer below:
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&#8220;Queer Planet&#8221; will be released in June.
The documentary by NBC is focused on &#8220;LGBTQI+ tolerance&#8221; among the animal kingdom…
No, this is not satire. <a href="https://t.co/sf9ES6bXuG">pic.twitter.com/sf9ES6bXuG</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1791159876967624784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2024</a></blockquote>
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“We’ve all heard of gay penguins, but this film really opened my eyes to the full spectrum of LGBTQ+ behaviors across the natural world,” narrator Andrew Rannells said in a press statement. “And what could be more natural than being who you are? I’m excited to be part of ‘Queer Planet,’ especially during Pride Month, and on Peacock, surely the most colorful and glamorous of all the streaming services.”
The special&#8217;s official synopsis claims it&#8217;s an exploration of “the rich diversity of animal sexuality — from flamboyant flamingos to pansexual primates, sex-changing clownfish to multi-gendered mushrooms and everything in between. This documentary looks at extraordinary creatures, witnesses amazing behaviors, and introduces the scientists questioning the traditional concept of what’s natural when it comes to sex and gender.”
Of course, there are numerous questions surrounding the findings of the documentary and whether homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom really is &#8220;natural,&#8221; but the implication of using animal behavior as a justification for similar human behavior may be even more insidious.
Since NBC apparently wants you to believe that something is morally justifiable just because animals do it, here is a non-exhaustive list of some reprehensible things that, according to &#8220;Queer Planet&#8217;s&#8221; logic, should be permissible because they are widely practiced in the animal kingdom.
<h3>Infanticide</h3>
Infanticide within the animal kingdom is extremely common. It is most often practiced by males as part of their reproductive strategy.
For example, when a male lion <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-some-mammals-kill-babies-own-kind-180953318/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-some-mammals-kill-babies-own-kind-180953318/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649736000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3F_qIyBKLDpZ1Nq4_g6o57">takes over</a> an established pride, he will often kill any existing young in the group to extinguish the bloodline of the previous dominant male. The loss of the cubs also makes lionesses reenter heat more quickly, allowing the new male to reproduce and pass on his genes in his new pride. Male bears and other mammals such as dolphins and baboons have exhibited the same behavior.
&#8220;Males committed infanticide more frequently in species where males and females lived together and a few males dominated as mates — but only remained at the top of the pack for brief periods of time. The practice was also associated with non-annual or seasonal reproduction cycles, meaning females could mate whenever. Through infanticide, males can eliminate the offspring of their competition and get the female back to full baby-making capacity faster,&#8221; Smithsonian Magazine noted.
The Smithsonian also noted that mothers will also abandon offspring that are ill and may also <a href="https://www.mpg.de/13710950/0711-evan-019609-when-females-kill-each-other-s-offspring" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.mpg.de/13710950/0711-evan-019609-when-females-kill-each-other-s-offspring&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649737000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2WYVdHYHjOQ_7UgSsg9uDb">kill</a> the offspring of other females to cut down on competition if food is scarce.
<h3>Cannibalism</h3>
Cannibalism is also a common occurrence among animals when food is scarce. In cases of drought and famine, many carnivores will feed on the dead bodies of their own species, including their own young.
Certain species of sharks give birth to live young instead of laying eggs like the vast majority of fish do. Those young developing in their mother&#8217;s womb are often conscious and are able to move about freely. These shark pups <a href="https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/sharks/shark-pup2.htm#:~:text=Ovoviviparous%20shark%20pups%20depend%20on,is%20the%20sand%20tiger%20shark." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/sharks/shark-pup2.htm%23:~:text%3DOvoviviparous%2520shark%2520pups%2520depend%2520on,is%2520the%2520sand%2520tiger%2520shark.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649737000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2JdXQTUBuunoULEO1LyGD3">will eat</a> each other while still inside their mother if her nutritious yolk is depleted. This form of cannibalism is so common in the sand tiger shark that a female usually only gives birth to two pups at a time because they have eaten all of their other siblings in the womb.
Many female insects will cannibalize their mates soon after the act of reproduction in order to gain additional nutrients for their eggs. The female praying mantis will infamously <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2265210-male-mantises-fight-females-to-mate-but-they-get-eaten-if-they-lose/#:~:text=Female%20praying%20mantises%20are%20famous,is%20common%20amongst%20praying%20mantises." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.newscientist.com/article/2265210-male-mantises-fight-females-to-mate-but-they-get-eaten-if-they-lose/%23:~:text%3DFemale%2520praying%2520mantises%2520are%2520famous,is%2520common%2520amongst%2520praying%2520mantises.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649737000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2yF79CZXZdCRZBImfXMUqO">devour</a> her mate once they&#8217;ve coupled, usually starting with the head, in order to provide a boost of nutrients to her fertilized eggs. Similarly, black widow spiders often live up to their name by <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/animals-spiders-black-widows-cannibals#:~:text=For%20male%20widow%20spiders%2C%20mating,%E2%80%9Cwidow%E2%80%9D%20in%20their%20names." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/animals-spiders-black-widows-cannibals%23:~:text%3DFor%2520male%2520widow%2520spiders%252C%2520mating,%25E2%2580%259Cwidow%25E2%2580%259D%2520in%2520their%2520names.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649737000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1VegVGPnk78eFILZI9rfAn">killing and eating</a> much smaller males after they&#8217;ve been impregnated.
Mammals like lions, macaques, and leopards have also been known <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/cannibalism-common-leopards-fish-invertebrates#:~:text=Species%20that%20engage%20in%20filial,nourishing%2C%20and%20requires%20little%20effort." target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/cannibalism-common-leopards-fish-invertebrates%23:~:text%3DSpecies%2520that%2520engage%2520in%2520filial,nourishing%252C%2520and%2520requires%2520little%2520effort.&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649737000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3SEYNNHyqQpNYfSqVLmD_P">to engage</a> in cannibalism. Mothers will often cannibalize their dead young in order to recoup nutrients.
<h3>Torture/Mutilation</h3>
Violence akin to what we would consider torture has been observed in a select few animal species, mostly concentrated among those with a high degree of intelligence.
Felines, dolphins, killer whales, and primates have all been <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/can-evolution-explain-all-dark-animal-behaviors">observed</a> toying with their prey before killing them.
Many people who have owned cats have seen them play with small birds, rodents, or reptiles before finally killing them. Dolphins and killer whales often exhibit similar behavior with seals and fish.
Chimps will often attack strategic points on an enemy&#8217;s body, most commonly the hands and genitals, to maim them before killing them. They&#8217;ve also been observed desecrating the dead bodies of adversaries. One <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2017/01/31/fellow-chimpanzees-torture-and-eat-alpha-chimp-when-he-tries-to-make-a-comeback-6417174/">notable instance</a> saw a troop of chimps kill a former leader who had been ejected from the group. They then spent hours eating and mutilating his dead body.
<h3>Rape</h3>
Coerced sexual activity occurs on a fairly regular basis in the animal kingdom. Harassment and intimidation by males are common occurrences among dozens of species.
&#8220;Rape is a normal reproductive strategy in mallards,&#8221; Dutch scientist Kees Moeliker <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/mar/08/highereducation.research" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/mar/08/highereducation.research&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649736000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3aFwARs_yFaveJpUJYorVg">told</a> The Guardian in 2005. He observed that male ducks would often chase female ducks and force them to land in order to initiate sexual activity with them.
Instances of sexual coercion by male grey seals in the North Sea were so violent that they resulted in the deaths of several female harbor seals, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7426965/">according</a> to a paper published in 2020. Male dolphins off the coast of Australia <a href="https://archive.is/mwpQu">work together</a> to isolate a single female and then force copulation.
Sexually coercive behavior has also been <a href="https://www.americanscientist.org/article/despicable-yes-but-not-inexplicable">documented</a> in chimpanzees and orangutans. It&#8217;s been <a href="https://www.americanscientist.org/article/despicable-yes-but-not-inexplicable">theorized</a> that female bonobos create alliances with each other to discourage sexual aggression from males.
<h3>Necrophilia</h3>
Several instances have been observed of animals attempting to mate with the corpses of members of their own species.
Cases of both heterosexual and homosexual acts of necrophilia have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/mar/08/highereducation.research" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/mar/08/highereducation.research&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649736000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3aFwARs_yFaveJpUJYorVg">reported</a> among ducks. Moeliker first observed necrophilic behavior in mallards in 1995. He saw a male mallard die after it flew directly into a window and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/vv5wn3/why-animals-have-sex-with-corpses" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.vice.com/en/article/vv5wn3/why-animals-have-sex-with-corpses&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649736000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2G0jDLRZjQd1hV7B1eREen">reported</a> that another male attempted to mate with the corpse &#8220;continuously for almost 75 minutes.&#8221;
In 2014, scientists in Japan reported that three male sand martin birds attempted to mate with the corpse of another male. A herpetologist <a href="https://reptilesmagazine.com/herpetologist-photographs-male-black-and-white-tegus-trying-to-mate-with-dead-female/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://reptilesmagazine.com/herpetologist-photographs-male-black-and-white-tegus-trying-to-mate-with-dead-female/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649736000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0gfcxTCRBqrpLgaiBXulZ8">witnessed</a> two male white and black tegu lizards from Brazil try to mate with a dead female in 2013.
Scientists <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-61678-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-61678-z&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1716462649736000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0Mtfwwqefw8VMX8qpVFknW">set up</a> a camera trap near the corpse of a female stump-tailed macaque (a type of monkey) in Thailand, and over three days of observation three different male macaques attempted to have intercourse with the dead female.
<h3>Penguins</h3>
Penguins have become one of the mascots of the LGBT animal movement, largely due to several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_and_Silo">high-profile instances</a> of male penguins forming bonded pairs. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Tango_Makes_Three">children&#8217;s book</a> depicting the same-sex romance between two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo won multiple awards when it was released in 2005.
However, these birds run the gamut on deviant sexual behavior.
In 1912, a British naturalist who joined Robert Scott&#8217;s famous Terra Nova expedition to Antarctica described the &#8220;astonishing depravity&#8221; of the local Adélie penguins. Calling them &#8220;little knots of hooligans,&#8221; the naturalist observed instances of rape, necrophilia, infanticide, and abuse of chicks. He also noted instances of homosexuality.
The preceding account may seem a little morbid, even brutal, but it illustrates the danger in justifying certain human behaviors by pointing to similar behavior in animals. Though it can often look idyllic in documentaries or during a casual stroll in a park, morality is often absent in the natural world, and humans&#8217; ability to discern it is one of our primary advantages over animals.

MEXICO-PENGUINS-ZOO

NBC Is Using Animals To Push The LGBT Agenda. Here Are 5 Abhorrent Animal Behaviors Humans Shouldn’t Emulate

Animals

LGBT

Readers Pass

World

President Joe Biden has made green energy a cornerstone of his policy agenda, investing tens of billions to promote renewable energy and electric cars.
In April, the administration <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/04/04/biden-harris-administration-announces-historic-20-billion-in-awards-to-expand-access-to-clean-energy-and-climate-solutions-and-lower-energy-costs-for-communities-across-the-nation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unveiled</a> a plan for $20 billion in awards to foster clean energy in lower-income communities, <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden-harris-administration-approves-eighth-offshore-wind-project" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a new offshore wind turbine project, and <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-7-billion-solar-all-grants-deliver-residential" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> $7 billion in new grants to develop solar power.
However, there are some major reservations behind Biden&#8217;s full-steam-ahead approach to renewable energy — principally the concern about the fact that China almost totally controls the production of clean energy components.
According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-16/china-extends-clean-tech-dominance-over-us-despite-biden-s-ira-blueprint" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bloomberg</a>, China possesses more than 80% of the global manufacturing capacity for 11 clean energy components, including parts necessary for the building of solar panels and electric car batteries. It also holds a majority of the manufacturing capacity for parts necessary for the production of wind turbines.
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🇨🇳 &#8211; China’s share of global production capacity is now above 80% for 11 clean technologies • Massive Chinese investments mean that China&#39;s clean tech rise may not be over • Beijing also invested US$546bn in its own energy transition in 2022, around half of global financing <a href="https://t.co/XWUd08RyKG">pic.twitter.com/XWUd08RyKG</a>
&mdash; Agathe Demarais (@AgatheDemarais) <a href="https://twitter.com/AgatheDemarais/status/1785202424908828998?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 30, 2024</a></blockquote>
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By contrast, the United States controls 0% of the global manufacturing capacity for more than half of the components, and its highest capacity share is only 10% for hydrogen electrolyzers. U.S. allies like Japan, South Korea, and others in Europe also woefully lag behind China in clean tech production.
China dominates the green energy supply chain, from raw materials to components to finished products. It <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/29/china-clean-green-energy-technology-trade/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">produces</a> 80% of the world&#8217;s solar panels, while the U.S. makes only 2%, and two-thirds of the wind turbines. Additionally, Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/20/are-chinese-evs-taking-over-the-car-market#:~:text=Chinese%20EVs%20already%20make%20up,the%20last%20couple%20of%20years." target="_blank" rel="noopener">comprise</a> 60% of global sales. China exported $146 billion worth of EVs, lithium-ion batteries, and solar components in 2023.
A single Chinese solar company, Tongwei Group, plans on expanding its facilities and aims by the end of the year to produce four times the amount of solar cells installed by the entire United States last year, The Washington Post reported.
China will be the “main force leading the global energy transition,” Tongwei Chairman Liu Hanyuan told WaPo.
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China&#8217;s effort to become the preeminent manufacturer of green tech comes as the Chinese Communist Party searches for new ways to expand the nation&#8217;s economy as it remains comparatively sluggish in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/china/china-goes-all-in-on-green-industry-to-jolt-ailing-economy-2f836395" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. It has provided massive subsidies to green tech-related companies to stimulate the growth of the sector.
China is also poised to control the raw materials that are used to build those green energy technologies, largely through its growing influence in Africa.
As of 2022, African nations barely produced any of the world’s supply of lithium, but according to experts, Africa is sitting on a potential lithium bonanza. While Australia mined 55,000 metric tons of lithium in 2021, Zimbabwe, a landlocked nation in southern Africa, is projected to extract over 100,000 tons of lithium by 2031, <a href="https://archive.is/0v90F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Financial Times. Mali, in West Africa, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in Central Africa, are also expected to become major producers of lithium while Namibia, Ghana, and Ethiopia will become moderate producers.
The problem for the U.S. stems from the fact that China has been investing in these countries for years, and China owns or partially owns many of the companies that are poised to exploit the coming lithium boom. The top lithium-producing companies in both Mali and the DRC are partially owned by China, while 3 out of the 4 major lithium mining companies in Zimbabwe are entirely owned by the communist nation.
Just one lithium mine in Zimbabwe, owned by a Chinese company, is estimated to hold up to 11 million metric tons of the mineral, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/09/is-the-us-falling-behind-china-in-africas-lithium-industry-.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to CNBC. Zimbabwe banned the export of raw lithium in December 2022 to encourage domestic processing, but the three Chinese-owned companies, which have invested $678 million into lithium projects in the country and have announced plans for development projects that reach into the billions, are exempt from the regulation. Indeed, Zimbabwe has been a major <a href="https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202301/17/WS63c5fbf3a31057c47ebaa050.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">beneficiary</a> of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a foreign investment and infrastructure policy that critics have argued is a debt trap for poorer nations. As of 2023, China has invested tens of billions in African nations, including Zimbabwe, the DRC, Mali, and Ghana — all places where mining is projected to spike in the coming years.
Additionally, the DRC has a stranglehold on the mining of cobalt, another crucial mineral in the production of EV batteries, producing an <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/cobalt-mining-transforms-city-democratic-republic-congo-satellite/story?id=96795773#:~:text=The%20Democratic%20Republic%20of%20the%20Congo%20produces%20an%20estimated%2070,those%20more%20in%2Ddemand%20minerals." target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> 70% of the world’s supply. Chinese companies also have significant <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/world/congo-cobalt-mining-china.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">control</a> over those mines in the DRC and ones in Zambia. In 2020, China held complete or partial ownership in 15 of the 19 operating cobalt mines in the DRC, The Economist <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/02/28/how-america-plans-to-break-chinas-grip-on-african-minerals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Biden&#8217;s zeal to transition the U.S. away from fossil fuels has left it vulnerable to China&#8217;s control of the supply chain for green technologies. Though China&#8217;s monopoly, at least on components and finished products, is unlikely to last forever, it currently possesses a decisive advantage over every other nation on Earth that it will certainly use to its economic and strategic advantage. To compete with China&#8217;s state-sponsored green revolution, the Biden administration would have to vastly increase government subsidies for green tech initiatives and support private efforts to gain an innovation advantage over the CCP.

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China Has Complete Stranglehold On Essential Components For Biden’s Vaunted ‘Green Revolution’

China Has Complete Stranglehold On Essential Components For Biden's Vaunted 'Green Revolution'

Biden Administration

China

electric vehicles

Energy

Green New Deal

Joe Biden

Solar Power

Both on the campaign trail and in the White House, President Joe Biden has regaled the American public with ever more eyebrow-raising anecdotes of his apparently storied life. His latest one: cannibals may have been responsible for the disappearance of his uncle during World War II.
During a campaign visit to Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week to talk to local steelworkers, the president brought up his uncle, 2nd Lt. Ambrose Finnegan, affectionately known as &#8220;Uncle Bosie.&#8221; Finnegan was serving in the Pacific theater of World War II when he and several of his crewmates went missing on May 14, 1944, after their flight from Los Negros Island to Nadzab Airfield in New Guinea crashed.
“He got shot down in New Guinea and they never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea,” Biden <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/17/us-news/biden-suggests-uncle-eaten-by-cannibals-in-new-guinea-but-military-says-his-wwii-plane-lost-at-sea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> during his speech. Biden had also repeated the story almost verbatim earlier that day during a visit to a WWII memorial in Scranton.
Of course, the Pentagon <a href="https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000001nzWi4EAE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gives</a> a slightly different account of Finnegan&#8217;s disappearance, stating that &#8220;For unknown reasons, this plane was forced to ditch in the ocean off the north coast of New Guinea. Both engines failed at low altitude, and the aircraft’s nose hit the water hard.&#8221;
&#8220;Three men failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash,&#8221; the report continues. &#8220;One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.&#8221;
Like many of his other now-infamous tall tales <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/there-really-was-a-corn-pop--but-critics-cast-doubt-on-joe-bidens-oft-told-story/2019/09/16/227115c8-d8ac-11e9-ac63-3016711543fe_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about</a> Corn Pop (he was a bad dude), getting <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/25/bidens-ridiculous-claim-he-was-arrested-trying-see-mandela/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> in South Africa while trying to see Nelson Mandela, and his <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/05/biden-jewish-greek-puerto-rican/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ever-changing</a> &#8220;honorary&#8221; membership in various ethnic groups, Biden&#8217;s suggestion that cannibals gobbled up his uncle may at first glance seem disrespectful, out-of-place, and even downright cockamamie.
But, out of all the other fables he&#8217;s told, this one actually may be the most plausible.
In fact, it wouldn&#8217;t be the first time a powerful American politician&#8217;s relative possibly ended up on the dinner menu of a New Guinean tribe.
Michael Rockefeller could have been anything he wanted. A scion of the extremely powerful Rockefeller family, he graduated cum laude from Harvard in 1960 with majors in history and economics.
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Michael&#8217;s father, Nelson Rockefeller, was a member of the extremely powerful Rockefeller family and one of the most influential Republican politicians of the mid-20th century. After getting his start during the Franklin Roosevelt administration, Nelson served as Undersecretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Dwight Eisenhower. He then served as governor of New York from 1959 to 1973, unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination three times (in 1960, &#8217;64, and &#8217;68), and became vice president under Gerald Ford.
A whole wing of the Republican Party, the &#8220;Rockefeller Republicans,&#8221; was named after him. Rockefeller&#8217;s followers represented the more liberal faction of the party and held sway primarily in the Northeast during the 1950s and &#8217;60s. By the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Rockefeller Republicans had lost most of their influence within the party.
Michael became fascinated by primitive art after he was appointed at age 19 to the board of a new museum his father had just opened — the Museum of Primitive Art in New York City. Almost immediately after graduation from college, he <a href="https://peabody.harvard.edu/galleries/michael-rockefeller">joined</a> a Harvard-sponsored expedition to a remote part of New Guinea, during which he acted as a sound recordist for a documentary about the Dani tribe. He also made a foray into a remote part of southern New Guinea alongside an anthropologist <a href="https://nypost.com/2014/03/15/how-a-young-rockefeller-died-at-the-hands-of-cannibals/">to study</a> the Asmat people. The two visited over a dozen villages and collected hundreds of cultural items.
Upon his return from that expedition, Michael planned a new one to more thoroughly document the tribe&#8217;s culture and bring back even more pieces of their art for the museum.
At the time of Michael&#8217;s first expedition, the Asmat people of southwestern New Guinea had little contact with the outside world and survived without iron, paper, roads, and other technologies. They were also well-known headhunters, and cannibalism was practiced largely as a ritual to gain the power of fallen enemies. Ritual cannibalism was <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/06/482952588/when-people-ate-people-a-strange-disease-emerged">practiced</a> by several other remote New Guinean <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/sleeping-with-cannibals-128958913/">tribes</a> for centuries, perhaps millennia.
During the second expedition on November 18, 1961, Michael, Dutch anthropologist Rene Wassing, and two native guides <a href="https://uraf.harvard.edu/michael-c-rockefeller-memorial-fellowship">set out</a> on a makeshift raft to sail down the coast to collect more artifacts. Though Michael had previously used the craft to travel on the nearby river, it proved to be unseaworthy and the raft capsized a few miles offshore. The two natives decided to swim to shore to get help, and Michael and Wassing spent the night on the capsized raft.
Unbeknownst to them, the natives had successfully reached shore and alerted a nearby Dutch station. However, the search party dispatched by the Dutch failed to find the raft and turned back.
By morning, they had drifted very far from shore, around 10-12 miles according to most reports. Michael decided to try to make the swim to shore, despite the distance. He strapped empty gas cans to his back to keep himself afloat and set out. It was the last time Michael was seen alive. He was 23-years-old.
A Dutch patrol found Wassing still adrift later in the day on the 19th, but the only trace ever found of Michael after an extensive government search was a single gas can.
Rumors that Michael had reached shore and fallen prey to the Asmat headhunters began almost immediately. The Rockefeller family has always maintained the official cause of death: drowning.
American journalist Carl Hoffman published a book in 2014 about the disappearance, and he <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/What-Really-Happened-to-Michael-Rockefeller-180949813/">alleged</a> that Michael was indeed killed and eaten by cannibals. Hoffman reported that the Dutch colonial government at the time had attempted to crack down on headhunting and cannibalism in the region, resulting in the deaths of several natives. He theorized that Michael may have been killed in revenge. Hoffman also claimed that several natives had told him that a man matching Michael&#8217;s description had been killed and eaten, but no hard evidence has ever surfaced.
Of course, there are plenty of alternate explanations for Michael&#8217;s presumed death. He may have drowned during the long swim to shore, succumbed to heat exposure, or he may have been attacked by a shark or saltwater crocodile (known maneaters). He may have made it to shore but became lost or unable to reach help before succumbing to the elements. We&#8217;ll probably never know exactly what fate befell the young man, but it&#8217;s technically a possibility that he was killed or his dead body was cannibalized by natives.
Admittedly, it&#8217;s highly unlikely either Michael Rockefeller or &#8220;Uncle Bosie&#8221; ended up as a snack for some New Guinean tribesmen, but there&#8217;s enough of a kernel of plausibility to make it one of Biden&#8217;s more believable yarns.

Biden

Biden’s Claim That His Uncle Was Eaten By Cannibals Might Actually Be His Most Plausible Tall Tale Yet

Biden's Claim That His Uncle Was Eaten By Cannibals Might Actually Be His Most Plausible Tall Tale Yet

New Guinea

Pacific Ocean

Pennsylvania

U.S.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said Friday that she was &#8220;enormously proud&#8221; of her daughter, Isra Hirsi, who was arrested Thursday while participating in an anti-Israel protest at Columbia University.
&#8220;I am enormously proud of my daughter @israhirsi,&#8221; Omar <a href="https://twitter.com/ilhanmn/status/1781453928887914927?s=46&amp;t=o-U3qwC25WnWaylJ0oeG7Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X. &#8220;She has always led with courage and compassion, from organizing a statewide school walk out on the 20th anniversary of Columbine at the age of 15, to leading the biggest youth climate rally at our nation’s Capitol at 16, and now pushing her school to stand against genocide. Stepping up to change what you can’t tolerate is why we as a country have the right to speech, assembly, and petition enshrined in our constitution.&#8221; 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I am enormously proud of my daughter <a href="https://twitter.com/israhirsi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@israhirsi</a>. 
She has always led with courage and compassion, from organizing a statewide school walk out on the 20th anniversary of Columbine at the age of 15, to leading the biggest youth climate rally at our nation’s Capitol at 16, and now…
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1781453928887914927?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Photos posted to X show Hirsi being <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/photos-show-ilhan-omars-daughter-arrested-for-refusing-to-leave-anti-israel-encampment-at-columbia-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> by several NYPD officers after she refused to leave the &#8220;Gaza Solidarity Encampment&#8221; that had been set up by anti-Israel protesters on Columbia&#8217;s campus in violation of the school&#8217;s rules.
According to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/18/us-news/nypd-cops-enter-columbia-after-university-warns-anti-israel-protesters-to-clear-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>, over 100 students were arrested at the campus encampment on Thursday. Hirsi was released from jail a few hours after her arrest, and she will face trespassing charges, sources <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/arrest-ilhan-omars-daughter-anti-israel-protest-political-fellow-squad-member" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Fox News.
Earlier on Thursday, Hirsi also announced that she was suspended from Columbia’s partner school, Barnard College for participating in the protest.
“I’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest<a href="https://twitter.com/ColumbiaSJP"> @ColumbiaSJP</a>, in my 3 years at<a href="https://twitter.com/BarnardCollege"> @BarnardCollege</a> i have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” Hirsi <a href="https://twitter.com/israhirsi/status/1780980484203327780">tweeted</a>. “I just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”
Other members of the Democratic &#8220;Squad&#8221; rallied to Hirsi&#8217;s defense after her suspension from Barnard and her arrest.
“What is going on here @BarnardCollege @Columbia? How does a student with no disciplinary record suddenly get to a suspension less than 24 hours after a nonviolent protest?” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1781135013246808148" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a>. “What merits asymmetric crackdowns on Palestinian human rights protests?”
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“From UM to Vanderbilt to USC to Columbia, students across our country are being retaliated against for using their constitutional rights to protest genocide. It’s appalling,&#8221; Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepRashida/status/1781012969884651868" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a>.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) claimed that Hirsi&#8217;s arrested was a political reprisal against Omar for questioning Columbia&#8217;s commitment to free speech.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The day after <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IlhanMN</a> questioned Columbia leadership&#8217;s commitment to free academic expression, the school suspended her daughter? It&#8217;s clear what is happening here.
Our educational institutions should not be in the business of political reprisals. <a href="https://t.co/qX2I83lFrV">https://t.co/qX2I83lFrV</a>
— Rep. Jamaal Bowman Ed.D. (@JamaalBowmanNY) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamaalBowmanNY/status/1781012538840306125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The day after @IlhanMN questioned Columbia leadership&#8217;s commitment to free academic expression, the school suspended her daughter?&#8221; Bowman wrote. &#8220;It&#8217;s clear what is happening here. Our educational institutions should not be in the business of political reprisals.&#8221;
Kassy Akiva contributed to this report.

Ilhan Omar

Ilhan Omar Is ‘Enormously Proud’ Of Daughter Who Was Arrested At Anti-Israel Protest

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

anti-Israel

Columbia University

Israel

Jamaal Bowman

Rashida Tlaib

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley&#8217;s announcement on Thursday that she will not seek another term gives conservatives an opportunity to overturn the court&#8217;s 4-3 liberal majority, the Associated Press <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/11/liberal-wisconsin-supreme-court-justice-wont-run-again-00151764">reported</a>.
Bradley has sat on the state&#8217;s Supreme Court since 1995 and is currently serving her third 10-year term. She was <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_elections,_2015">reelected</a> with almost 60% of the vote in 2015, but has decided to not seek a fourth term  in order to &#8220;pass the torch.&#8221;
&#8220;My decision has not come lightly. It is made after careful consideration and reflection. I know I can do the job and do it well. I know I can win re-election, should I run. But, it&#8217;s just time to pass the torch, bring fresh perspectives to the court,&#8221; Bradley said in a statement, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/04/11/wisconsin-justice-ann-walsh-bradley-will-not-run-for-re-election/73288477007/">reported</a>.
Bradley&#8217;s term will end in July 2025, and the election to choose her replacement will take place in April of that year. Republican Brad Schimel, who served as attorney general of Wisconsin from 2015 to 2019, announced In November 2023 that he would run for the seat.
“There is no check on this new liberal Supreme Court majority,&#8221; Schimel <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-supreme-court-brad-schimel-15cc48084e9c0177816c1557f2476d57">said</a> after announcing his candidacy. &#8220;The only check on them is to take back the majority by winning in 2025.&#8221;
Liberals gained a majority on the court after Janet Protasiewicz won the election in April 2023, ending 15 years of conservative control, the AP noted.
Just months later, the court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/state-supreme-court-orders-new-maps-for-wisconsin-months-after-liberals-win-majority-on-court">struck down</a> the state’s legislative maps, with the liberal justices arguing that the current maps violated the state’s constitution and needed to be redrawn. The decision was celebrated by Democrats, who have claimed that the legislative maps in the state were rigged, while Republicans said that the liberal justices had decided the case before it was brought.
Protasiewicz, who was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/liberal-wisconsin-judge-wins-supreme-court-race-flips-balance-of-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backed</a> by George Soros, campaigned for the court on the platform that the maps were “rigged” and “unfair.” Leftist groups <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/22/us/wisconsin-redistricting-maps-gerrymander.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">challenged</a> the Wisconsin maps a day after Protasiewicz was sworn into office.
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The state legislature is currently controlled by Republicans, who nearly have a supermajority in the Senate and are just two seats away from a veto-proof majority in the Assembly. However, Wisconsin is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/latest-presidential-polls-biden-tightens-race-in-key-battleground-states-but-trump-still-leads">considered</a> to be one of the most hotly contested battleground states in the 2024 presidential election. As of Friday, former President Donald Trump holds a slim lead over President Joe Biden in the state, <a href="https://www.realclearpolling.com/elections/president/2024/battleground-states">according</a> to the RCP polling average.
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.

USA, Wisconsin, Madison, State Capitol Building

Swing State Supreme Court Justice Won’t Seek Reelection, Opens Door For Conservative Majority

Swing State Supreme Court Justice Won't Seek Reelection, Opens Door For Conservative Majority

Courts

Wisconsin

White House visitor logs showed that an attorney for Hunter Biden met with one of First Lady Jill Biden&#8217;s top aides as well as President Joe Biden himself days before the president&#8217;s son defied a congressional subpoena, the New York Post (NYP) <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/06/us-news/white-house-meets-with-hunter-bidens-legal-team-visitor-logs/">reported</a> Saturday.
Hunter&#8217;s attorney Abbe Lowell had a meeting with Anthony Bernal, who has been an aide for Jill since 2008, in the East Wing of the White House on December 11, 2023, according to the NYP. Visitor logs also showed that Lowell met with Joe Biden, but the Post noted that meeting was most likely in the context of an official Hanukkah reception held the same day.
“We’ve called on the White House to provide information about whether President Biden sought to influence or obstruct our investigation by preventing, discouraging, or dissuading his son from complying with the subpoenas for a deposition as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry, but the White House has refused to provide any information,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told the Post.
&#8220;The White House must provide the public with information about the contents of this meeting in order to provide transparency to the American people,&#8221; he added.
Two days after Lowell visited the White House, Hunter skipped his scheduled deposition with congressional investigators regarding the corruption-focused <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/impeachment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">impeachment</a> inquiry into the president. The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-oversight-subpoenas-hunter-biden-presidents-brother-and-ex-business-associate" target="_blank" rel="noopener">president’s brother, James Biden</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/republicans-issue-subpoenas-over-hunter-biden-art-sales" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hunter Biden’s art dealer</a> and business associates, had also received congressional subpoenas.
Hunter did <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-shows-up-to-capitol-defies-subpoena-for-house-deposition">show up</a> on Capitol Hill the day he was supposed to sit down for the deposition, but instead of meeting with investigators, he held an impromptu press conference, <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1734948300485243130" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denying</a> that his father was “financially involved” in his business affairs, including in dealings abroad with people from China and Ukraine, as well as his investments domestically and work as an artist.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4358693-white-house-president-familiar-with-what-hunter-biden-planned-to-say/">remarked</a> that Joe Biden was &#8220;familiar&#8221; with what Hunter planned to say at the press conference.
Under threat of being held in contempt of Congress by House Republicans, Hunter finally agreed to sit down for a deposition in late February. In the transcript for the deposition, Hunter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-confirms-joe-biden-was-the-big-guy-referenced-in-message-about-chinese-business-deal">confirmed</a> that his father was, in fact, the &#8220;big guy&#8221; referenced in a message related to a proposed business deal with a Chinese company.
Hunter <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hunter-biden-refuses-public-hearing-comer-says-panel-called-his-bluff">declined</a> an invitation in March to testify in a public hearing before the Oversight Committee, with Lowell citing a scheduling conflict.
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“We’ve proven the crimes. Now it’s time to hold people accountable for the crimes and Joe Biden needs to answer some questions in front of the Oversight Committee,&#8221; Comer <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/03/us-news/james-comer-claims-republicans-have-proven-the-crimes-against-bidens/">told</a> Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo during a Wednesday interview. &#8220;We’ve had three Biden associates that said [President Biden] was the closer of … selling the Biden brand.&#8221;
Comer and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/04/us-news/house-republicans-discreetly-subpoena-devon-archer/">subpoenaed</a> Devon Archer, one of Hunter&#8217;s former business associates, on Thursday to hand over documents that had originally been requested in August 2023 related to Biden family business dealings.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

World Food Program USA’s Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony

Hunter Biden Attorney Met With White House Days Before He Defied Congressional Subpoena: Report

Executive

Hunter Biden

Jill Biden

Despite the best efforts of the Biden administration to move toward green alternatives, oil remains a vital commodity to not only the American economy but also global civilization in general. Easy access to the substance can be the deciding factor between a country&#8217;s prosperity and its descent into chaos and poverty.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-admin-nixes-plan-to-help-refill-strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it had canceled plans to help refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, citing a rise in crude oil prices to $85 a barrel. The government had previously announced in March that it would solicit up to 3 million barrels for a facility in Louisiana as part of its efforts to resupply the SPR.
The Energy Department claimed to be “keeping the taxpayer’s interest at the forefront.” The agency said, “We will not award the current solicitations for the Bayou Choctaw SPR site and will solicit available capacity as market conditions allow,” adding, “We will continue to monitor market dynamics.”
In an attempt to stimulate skyrocketing gas prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration <a href="https://rollcall.com/2022/10/19/biden-to-announce-more-oil-reserve-sales-to-reduce-gas-prices/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiated</a> a 180-million-barrel <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/18/fact-sheet-president-biden-to-announce-new-actions-to-strengthen-u-s-energy-security-encourage-production-and-bring-down-costs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drawdown</a> of the SPR in 2022, decreasing the reserve to its <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/11/02/biden-strategic-petroleum-reserve-oil-levels" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lowest level in decades</a>. Since that drawdown, Biden has slowly purchased more oil, around 32 million barrels, but the reserve is still well below where it was before Biden took office.
<div id="attachment_719633" style="width: 779px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-719633" class="size-large wp-image-719633" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1434804700-769x576.jpg" alt="FREEPORT, TEXAS - OCTOBER 19: In an aerial view, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage at the Bryan Mound site is seen on October 19, 2022 in Freeport, Texas. US President Joe Biden is planning to release fifteen million barrels of oil from the nation's emergency reserves in an effort to continue curving gas prices around the country. The deal completes Biden's March initiative to release 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)" width="769" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1434804700-769x576.jpg 769w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1434804700-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1434804700-768x575.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1434804700.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 769px) 100vw, 769px" />Brandon Bell/Getty Images</div>
The SPR currently stands at <a href="https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/supply/weekly/pdf/table1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">363.6 million barrels</a> according to recent data, down from around <a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-inflation-business-opec-climate-and-environment-cd15107ef2e0bb49db9165eb190b450c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">600 million</a> barrels in late 2021 and nearly half the <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ceser/spr-quick-facts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">authorized storage capacity</a> of 714 million barrels.
Though the administration&#8217;s decision on the SPR was received passively by the mainstream media, it&#8217;s actually a pretty massive deal for those who remember why it was created in the first place.
The SPR, “the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil,&#8221; was established in 1975 specifically to &#8220;reduce the impact of disruptions in supplies of petroleum products&#8221; in the wake of the oil crisis of the mid-1970s, the Energy Department <a href="https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notes</a>.
In retaliation for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, the Arab-dominated OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Arab-oil-embargo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposed</a> an embargo on oil exports to the United States. Within a year, the price for a barrel of oil in the U.S. quadrupled, and the nation suffered its first oil shortage since World War II.
In response, the federal government lowered the national speed limit to 55 mph in order to reduce oil consumption, several states <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/05/13/gas-shortages-1970s/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposed</a> rationing schemes, and gas lines <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2012/11/10/164792293/gas-lines-evoke-memories-oil-crises-in-the-1970s#:~:text=During%20two%20separate%20oil%20crises,they%20tried%20to%20fill%20up." target="_blank" rel="noopener">became</a> common. One common scheme to control gas consumption was to only allow cars with license plates that ended in an odd number to refuel on an odd day of the month, and vice versa for cars with license plates ending in an even number.
<div id="attachment_719631" style="width: 876px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-719631" class="size-large wp-image-719631" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-155367107-866x576.jpg" alt="Drivers queue for fuel at a petrol station near Trenton, New Jersey, USA, circa 1974. The country has been hit by worldwide fuel shortages caused by the oil embargo imposed by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC). (Photo by Frederic Lewis/Archive Photos/Getty Images)" width="866" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-155367107-866x576.jpg 866w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-155367107-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-155367107-768x511.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-155367107.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 866px) 100vw, 866px" />Frederic Lewis/Archive Photos/Getty Images</div>
The U.S. economy <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/arab-oil-embargo-40-years-later" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shrank</a> by an estimated 2.5% because of the crisis. Though the embargo was ended after negotiations between the U.S. and OPEC in March 1974, the surge in prices and unemployment contributed to the stagflation the plagued the U.S. economy for the rest of the decade.
After it was established in 1975, the SPR was quickly stocked throughout the 1980s, remaining relatively stable during the next three decades and even reaching a high of over 715 million barrels around 2010.
The oil crisis also motivated the government to encourage more domestic oil production, <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/1973-energy-crisis-definition-5222090" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reducing</a> the nation&#8217;s reliance on OPEC oil from around 70% of total oil imports in the early &#8217;70s to around 16% <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=727&amp;t=6#:~:text=Crude%20oil%20imports%20of%20about,%2C%20and%20U.S.%20Virgin%20Islands)." target="_blank" rel="noopener">today</a>. The U.S. also sources a majority of its oil imports from Canada. Still, the U.S. imports over 8 million barrels of oil per day from around the world, <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=727&amp;t=6#:~:text=Crude%20oil%20imports%20of%20about,%2C%20and%20U.S.%20Virgin%20Islands)." target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Energy Information Administration, and as shown by the global supply chain disruptions seen during the pandemic, global events can still wreak havoc on domestic prices.
The SPR was not intended to be used as the president&#8217;s oil piggy bank — broken open to drive down gas prices and shore up his party&#8217;s chances in the upcoming midterms. It&#8217;s there to stave off the gas lines that marked the 1973 oil crisis and keep the military machine going in the event the nation is cut off from overseas oil.
A full-scale conflict in the Middle East — home to major oil exporters like Iraq and Saudi Arabia — or a war between the U.S. and China in the Pacific would certainly sow discord in global trade. If global tensions continue to escalate and the SPR remains understocked, the president threatens to leave the nation disastrously short of a critical product for a significant length of time.

Remember The ’70s Oil Crisis: Biden’s Reluctance To Restock America’s Oil Reserves Should Be A Massive Red Flag

Remember The '70s Oil Crisis: Biden's Reluctance To Restock America's Oil Reserves Should Be A Massive Red Flag

Middle East

OPEC

Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Though the exact cause of a container ship&#8217;s collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland — which caused the structure&#8217;s collapse — is under debate, the disaster that has claimed at least two lives and caused an untold amount of economic damage has drawn attention to the state of America&#8217;s infrastructure.
The bridge itself accommodated almost 30,000 vehicles each day, and the Port of Baltimore, which will be heavily disrupted by the collapse and reconstruction, saw 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo and 11.7 million tons of general cargo coming into the port in 2023.
President Joe Biden has already <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-pushes-for-federal-gov-to-pay-for-entire-cost-of-rebuilding-baltimore-bridge-but-says-it-will-take-some-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> that the federal government will foot the bill for the repairs to the bridge.
“It is my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect Congress to support my effort,” Biden said. “This is going to take some time, and the people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt.”
The bridge was originally built in the 1970s at an estimated cost of $141 million, which is around $743 million in today’s dollars, CNS Maryland <a href="https://cnsmaryland.org/2024/03/26/the-history-of-baltimores-key-bridge/#:~:text=Bridge%20construction,%24743%20million%20in%20today's%20dollars." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Experts have estimated that roughly $15 million a day in economic activity will be disrupted as a result of the disaster, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-port-closure-could-cost-15-million-per-day-2024-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Business Insider.
However, it seems like every election year politicians of both parties clamber to pitch grand infrastructure projects that promise to make voters&#8217; commutes smoother and produce all-important &#8220;shovel-ready&#8221; jobs. Such an infrastructure overhaul was one of the pillars of Biden&#8217;s presidential campaign in 2020, and, on paper at least, he delivered.
Two gigantic pieces of legislation passed during Biden&#8217;s two years in office, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in late 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, invested over a trillion dollars into multiple sectors of infrastructure — everything from roads to waterways to broadband — over the next decade, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-start-of-americas-infrastructure-decade-how-macroeconomic-factors-may-shape-local-strategies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Brookings.
<div id="attachment_717107" style="width: 979px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-717107" class="size-large wp-image-717107" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-969x576.jpg" alt="WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 15: U.S. President Joe Biden (C) signs H.R. 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, during a ceremony on the South Lawn at the White House on November 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Images)" width="969" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-969x576.jpg 969w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-300x178.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670-768x457.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1353523670.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 969px) 100vw, 969px" />Chen Mengtong/China News Service via Getty Images</div>
In truth, only a little over $110 billion in the IIJA will actually go toward repairing roads and bridges, the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/08/10/senate-infrastructure-bill-what-is-in-it/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>. The rest is parceled out among a myriad of other projects, most notably railroads, broadband, and utility infrastructure.
In 2023, the Federal Highway Administration reported that over 42,000 bridges across the U.S. were in &#8220;poor&#8221; condition, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-cost-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to WaPo. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of U.S. bridges rated &#8220;good&#8221; increased in only 11 states, while the number considered to be in &#8220;poor&#8221; condition increased in 37 states. While 43,000 bridges saw an improved rating in 2023 compared t0 2020, a whopping 70,000 received a lower rating. Almost 13,000 bridges were downgraded from &#8220;fair&#8221; condition to &#8220;poor,&#8221; but only 10,000 bridges were improved from a &#8220;poor&#8221; rating.
American Road and Transportation Builders Association said that a full third of U.S. bridges are in need of significant repairs or replacement, while 7% of bridges are &#8220;structurally deficient,&#8221; the Council on Foreign Relations <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-infrastructure" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) releases a report card every 5 years on the overall health of the nation&#8217;s infrastructure, giving it an overall &#8220;C-&#8221; grade in 2021. The group&#8217;s diagnosis of bridges and roads in particular does not paint a rosy picture.
The nation&#8217;s roads <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Roads-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> a &#8220;D&#8221; grade from the group, which noted that 40% of public roads are in mediocre or poor condition. Commuters are forced to spend nearly $130 billion a year in repairs and operating coasts because of the prevalence of poor quality roads, and 17% of all vehicle miles were driven on roads deemed to be in &#8220;poor condition.&#8221;
Bridges <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Bridges-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">received</a> a slightly higher score from the ASCE, a &#8220;C,&#8221; but the group still expressed a great deal of concern. Over 40% of U.S. bridges are over half a century old, the ASCE stated, and the backlog of repairs in 2021 stood at $125 billion. The report advised a much higher investment level over the next few decades to improve the situation.
&#8220;At the current rate of investment, it will take until 2071 to make all of the repairs that are currently necessary, and the additional deterioration over the next 50 years will become overwhelming,&#8221; the ASCE report said.
The ASCE <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2021-IRC-Executive-Summary-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> in 2021 that the nation&#8217;s &#8220;infrastructure investment gap&#8221; had increased to almost $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years. The organization warned that the deficit could cost the U.S. $10 trillion in GDP, 3 million jobs, and $2.4 trillion in exports by 2039. It noted that the infrastructure investment gap, if allowed to continue, would cost the average American family $3,300 a year in higher costs.
<div id="attachment_717119" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-717119" class="size-large wp-image-717119" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-864x576.jpg" alt="FREDERICKSBURG, VA - APRIL 6: In an aerial view, vehicles on Interstate 95 travel past a construction project to add three lanes to the I-95 Rappahannock River Crossing on April 6, 2021 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The site of the work is a vital chokepoint for cars and freight trucks moving both north and south along the East Coast. At the end of March, President Joe Biden introduced a $2 trillion plan to overhaul and upgrade the nation's infrastructure. The plan aims to revitalize the U.S. transportation infrastructure, water systems, broadband internet, make investments in manufacturing and job training efforts, and other goals. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/GettyImages-1232147264.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Drew Angerer/Getty Images</div>
Repairing the nation&#8217;s bridges represents such a huge stumbling block for the federal government because of its inability to appropriate the necessary funds to tackle traditional infrastructure (large portions of Biden&#8217;s infrastructure packages went toward green initiative) and the skyrocketing cost of those necessary repairs.
“I look at South Carolina when the infrastructure bill came through. We only got about $1 billion more than we otherwise would have over a five-year period,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/26/baltimore-bridge-collapse-cost-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Newsmax in the wake of the Baltimore disaster. “I can barely build a bridge in my district for $1 billion.”
Between October 2020 and September 2022, the average cost for highway construction projects increased by 50%, and highway construction costs are almost 3 times higher than they were in 2003, <a href="https://enotrans.org/article/highway-construction-costs-have-risen-50-in-two-years/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the National Highway Construction Cost Index (NHCCI). The index <a href="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/high-prices-road-builders-2024-construction-labor/703909/#:~:text=The%20National%20Highway%20Construction%20Cost,these%20high%20prices%2C%20said%20Black." target="_blank" rel="noopener">reached</a> an all-time high in the second quarter of 2023.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse isn&#8217;t the first major infrastructure disaster of Biden&#8217;s tenure. In 2023, a Norfolk Southern train <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/controlled-burn-of-toxic-chemicals-that-unleashed-mushroom-cloud-over-east-palestine-wasnt-necessary-federal-official-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">derailed</a> in East Palestine, Ohio, resulting in a controlled burn of toxic chemicals that were released into the air and affected local residents.
Biden was slammed for waiting a year before he visited East Palestine and was met with disappointed East Palestine residents when he made the trip to the small town last month. The total cost of the derailment is <a href="https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2024/01/31/758843.htm#:~:text=The%20railroad%20now%20estimates%20the,additional%20penalties%20that%20haven't" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> at $1.1 billion.
Despite two major infrastructure initiatives within the last 4 years, the long-term health of America&#8217;s roads and bridges does not look hopeful. Without a major decrease in the cost of repairs and an increase in infrastructure investments, the deterioration will continue, perhaps even accelerate. A poor network of roads and bridges will not only directly pass costs on to normal Americans, but also affect the nation&#8217;s economy as a whole, accentuating our financial woes. And perhaps most importantly, it will almost certainly increase the rate at which we see deadly disasters like the one in Baltimore.

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapses After Being Struck By Cargo Ship

Baltimore Bridge Collapse Highlights The Sorry State Of American Infrastructure

Baltimore

Francis Scott Key Bridge

Inflation Reduction Act

Infrastructure

There are few things more American than firing up the grill after a long, chilly winter to cook some burgers, brats or even a massive, juicy steak. Pair it with a cold one and you&#8217;ve got a quintessential summer evening in the greatest country on Earth.
Well, you might have changed your preference in cold beer after the formerly iconic brand Bud Light decided to partner with trans-identifying activist Dylan Mulvaney last year, but you might also want to reconsider where you get your meat for that cookout.
As it turns out, the vast majority of the meat that ends up on Americans&#8217; plates is processed by just a handful of extremely powerful companies. Several of those companies are owned by foreign interests, and one, Tyson Foods, seems eager to replace its American workforce with &#8220;refugees&#8221; pouring over the southern border.
Just four companies — Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing — <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/how-four-big-companies-control-us-beef-industry-2021-06-17/">control</a> 85% of the beef market in the United States. Smithfield Foods, JBS, Hormel, and Tyson Foods <a href="https://civileats.com/2021/07/14/just-a-few-companies-control-the-meat-industry-can-a-new-approach-to-monopolies-level-the-playing-field/">have</a> about 70% of the market for pork. Tyson, JBS, Perdue Farms, and Sanderson Farms (partly owned by Cargill) <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/01/03/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-action-plan-for-a-fairer-more-competitive-and-more-resilient-meat-and-poultry-supply-chain/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hold</a> 54% of the poultry market.
President Joe Biden called out the consolidation of the meat industry by so few firms as he tried to <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/09/09/white-house-blames-big-meat-for-rising-prices-alleges-profiteering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">duck blame</a> for rising meat prices amidst historic inflation.
“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation. That’s what we’re seeing in meat and poultry industries now,” Biden <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/lack-competition-us-meat-industry-amounts-exploitation-says-biden-2022-01-03/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in 2022 as part of a plan to encourage “meaningful competition” in the meat industry. The administration promised to use $1 billion in American Rescue Plan funds to help independent meat producers.
Smithfield Foods, the largest single pork producer in the U.S. (26% of the total <a href="https://essfeed.com/top-3-largest-pork-producers-in-the-usa-volume-turnover-and-market-share/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">market share</a>), is entirely <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/chinese-owned-pork-producer-smithfield-prepares-for-u-s-listing-567e6164" target="_blank" rel="noopener">owned</a> by the Chinese company WH Group, and the company&#8217;s <a href="https://www.worldbenchmarkingalliance.org/publication/food-agriculture/companies/wh-group-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">purchase</a> of Smithfield in 2013 was the largest Chinese acquisition of an American company up to that point. Several senior executives at WH Group are members of the Chinese Communist Party, <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2024/01/25/chinese-communist-party-landowner-pork/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to an investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation, and the company owns around 150,000 acres of land in 29 states through Smithfield.
JBS, the world&#8217;s largest meat producer, and National Beef Packing&#8217;s parent company, Marfrig, are Brazilian companies. Both have been <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/07/brazil-cattle-illegally-grazed-in-the-amazon-found-in-supply-chain-of-leading-meat-packer-jbs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accused</a> of human rights abuses toward natives of the Amazon and illegally <a href="https://forestsandfinance.org/news/bnp-paribas-warned-over-role-in-financing-deforestation-and-rights-violations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cutting down</a> swathes of rainforest to make new land suitable for cattle grazing.
Tyson Foods, which has considerable market shares in all three major U.S. meat sectors (beef, pork, and poultry), made headlines recently over its comments about hiring more immigrant labor as the illegal immigration crisis continues to unfold on the southern border.
The company has partnered with the nonprofit Tent Partnership for Refugees to hire immigrants who have moved to New York over the last two years, even as the influx of over 180,000 illegal aliens has created a crisis in the state, Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-11/tyson-is-hiring-new-york-immigrants-for-jobs-no-one-else-wants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
<div id="attachment_713331" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-713331" class="size-large wp-image-713331" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559679-865x576.jpg" alt="Signage outside a Tyson Foods Inc. plant in Union City, Tennessee, U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. American poultry farmers were already struggling to boost production before deadly avian influenza started popping up for the first time in several years. Tyson said it was heightening biosecurity measures after the deadly bird flu strain was detected. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559679-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559679-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559679-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559679.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
On one day in February, Tyson <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tyson-foods-hiring-illegal-migrants-in-new-york-wants-more-theyre-very-very-loyal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hired</a> 17 migrants from Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia in Manhattan to work at Tyson’s Humboldt, Tennessee, plant. In early March, Tyson reportedly hired 70 migrants. Tyson already employs about 42,000 immigrants and refugees, a third of its American workforce of roughly 120,000.
“We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them,” Garrett Dolan, a human resources leader at Tyson, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-11/tyson-is-hiring-new-york-immigrants-for-jobs-no-one-else-wants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Bloomberg.
“We’re recognizing there’s not a lot of people that are going to be working labor-manufacturing jobs that are American,” Dolan said, adding that many of the new hires “are going to come from refugees and immigrants, so we’re now in the business of strategically thinking that through.”
In addition to frontline positions that pay $16.50 an hour, Tyson is also providing migrant workers with other benefits, including on-site childcare, transportation, and optional English classes. The new hires from New York also get temporary housing, a relocation stipend to move to Humboldt, and paid time off.
The company also set aside $1.5 million for legal aid services and is providing workers with paid time off to attend court hearings. Tyson paid for 1,317 workers to become U.S. citizens last year.
“They’re very, very loyal,” Dolan said. “They’ve been uprooted and what they want is stability — what they want is a sense of belonging.”
Around the same time Tyson expressed its desire for ever more cheap immigrant labor, the company <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/tyson-foods-close-iowa-pork-plant-with-1200-workers-2024-03-11/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that it would shut down a plant in Perry, Iowa, which employs over 1,200 people, in June. The town of Perry contains around 8,200 residents, and the Tyson plant is the area&#8217;s largest employer, according to the mayor.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a big blow to the community,&#8221; Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh told Reuters. &#8220;It&#8217;s our largest employer in the area. It&#8217;s going to be tough to figure out what to do without them.&#8221;
In 2023, Tyson shut down plants in <a href="https://www.5newsonline.com/article/money/business/tyson-confirms-more-plant-closures-total-shutdowns-year/527-ec177f87-88b2-4bd5-b57d-4d6c0cc8e01d#:~:text=So%20far%20in%202023%2C%20Tyson,along%20with%20the%20newest%20two." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Missouri</a>, Indiana, Arkansas, Virginia, <a href="https://www.just-food.com/news/tyson-foods-to-shut-two-more-us-sites/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a>, and South Carolina. The company <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2023-08-07/tyson-foods-closing-4-chicken-processing-plants-in-cost-cutting-move" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attributed</a> several of the closures to cost-cutting efforts. In the third quarter of 2023, Tyson reported a loss of over $400 million, according to the Associated Press.
<div id="attachment_713335" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-713335" class="size-large wp-image-713335" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559764-865x576.jpg" alt="Signage ooutside a Tyson Foods Inc. plant in Union City, Tennessee, U.S., on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. American poultry farmers were already struggling to boost production before deadly avian influenza started popping up for the first time in several years. Tyson said it was heightening biosecurity measures after the deadly bird flu strain was detected. Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559764-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559764-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559764-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/GettyImages-1238559764.jpg 1024w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
A spokesperson for Tyson <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2024/03/21/tyson-foods-closing-immigrants/73052486007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">insisted</a> to USA Today that the closing of the Perry plant and the hiring of more immigrants were unconnected and that the company thoroughly vets all immigrant applicants for work authorizations. However, cities like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-migrants-start-getting-expedited-work-permits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chicago</a> and <a href="https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/2023/luis-r-sepulveda/new-york-considering-issuing-its-own-work-permits-asylum#:~:text=On%20Wednesday%2C%20Mayor%20Adams%20launched,Mayor%20Anne%20Williams%2DIsom%20said." target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York City</a> have already begun expediting work permits for illegal immigrants who have flooded in on Biden&#8217;s watch.
Alongside its flagship Tyson brand, most well-known for chicken, Tyson Foods also owns Jimmy Dean (known for sausage), Hillshire Farms (deli and sandwich meat), and Ball Park (hot dogs), among <a href="https://www.tysonfoods.com/our-brands" target="_blank" rel="noopener">many others</a>.
A conservative exchange traded fund, American Conservative Values ETF, gave Tyson a &#8220;refuse to buy&#8221; label and said it would pull its holding from the company in response to the comments on immigrants workers.
“We believe Tyson’s management has blundered into a political minefield (and should have known better),” Bill Flaig, CEO of the company that manages the ETF, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/conservative-investment-fund-divests-from-tyson-foods-over-migrant-hiring" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Fox Business</a>.
“The risk of alienating a significant percentage of their customers outweighs any potential economic benefit,” Flaig added. “In a recent Pew Research poll, 80% of U.S. adults say the U.S. government is doing a bad job of handling the migrant influx.”
He also said that other companies, such as Anheuser-Busch and Target, have paid the price for &#8220;alienating customers&#8221; by meddling in politics. Both Bud Light and Target were hit hard by boycotts from conservative customers last year, but it&#8217;s currently unclear if any similar movement is brewing against Tyson.
Ultimately, the U.S. meat industry represents an intersection of several important issues, including the consolidation of an important economic sector by a few very large, very powerful companies, those companies&#8217; ownership by foreign interests, and their reliance on, and support for, high levels of immigrant labor.

Close-up of meat on barbecue grill,Indonesia

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Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb dropped charges against Steve Nikoui, a Gold Star father who was arrested for disrupting President Joe Biden&#8217;s State of the Union Address, after a significant backlash, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/dc-attorney-general-drops-charges-against-steve-nikoui-disruption-congress-during-sotu-speech">reported</a> Tuesday.
Both the Speaker&#8217;s Office and the D.C. AG&#8217;s office confirmed to Fox News that the charges had been dropped. The AG&#8217;s office told the outlet that its decision to not move forward with the charges was typical when dealing with protesters.
Nikoui was detained after he shouted &#8220;Abbey Gate! Kareem Nikoui! Second Battalion, First Marines!&#8221; as Biden spoke about murder rates in his annual address. Authorities led Nikoui from the chamber and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arrested-gold-star-dad-doesnt-regret-sotu-outburst-dont-think-i-dishonored-my-son">charged him</a> with a misdemeanor for “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding” during a protest — a charge that carries a fine of up to $500 and 90 days in prison.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The guy who heckled Biden from the upper seating area shouted &#8220;United States Marines;&#8221; perhaps in reference to the 13 Marines the President killed with his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. <a href="https://t.co/n3OPgvVdtZ">pic.twitter.com/n3OPgvVdtZ</a>
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) <a href="https://twitter.com/NickFondacaro/status/1765941809077788971?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Nikoui&#8217;s son Kareem was one of 13 members of the U.S. military <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/21/us/california-mother-loses-two-sons/index.html">killed</a> in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during the Biden administration&#8217;s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. At least 170 civilians were also killed in that attack.
“I don’t think I disrespected anyone,” Nikoui said in an interview with Morning Wire. “I don’t think I dishonored my son.”
Nikoui blames the Biden administration for his son’s death, explaining that, “They were told to leave 2,500 troops there. 2,000 troops could have manned Bagram and then 500 extra to help. And that was in place in the agreement. But [Biden] took it to something like 136 troops. If they would have followed Trump’s agreement, my son would be alive.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) <a href="https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/issa-calls-capitol-police-drop-all-charges-against-gold-star-parent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent a letter</a> to Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger on Monday arguing that the charges against him should be dropped.
“Mr. Nikoui’s arrest for emotionally expressing his grief and seeking acknowledgment for his son’s sacrifice during the State of the Union – where he called out, ‘Abbey Gate! Kareem Nikoui! Second Battalion, First Marines!’ – highlighted a profound disconnect between the sacrifices made by our service members and the recognition they deserve,” Issa <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arrested-gold-star-dad-doesnt-regret-sotu-outburst-dont-think-i-dishonored-my-son">said</a>.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711018451593000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1sb9LSzo_YGCrHpI_v1YCl">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“Though he interrupted the event, what Mr. Nikoui voiced out loud was a cry for the acknowledgment of the loss endured by the families of the 13 who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” he added.
Daniel Chaitin contributed to this report.

President Biden Delivers State Of The Union Address

Charges Dropped Against Gold Star Father Who Shouted At Biden During SOTU Address

State of the Union

A bill that would effectively ban the Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week in a 50-0 vote and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-passes-bill-that-could-lead-to-u-s-ban-on-tiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was passed</a> by the entire House in a largely bipartisan 352-65 vote on Wednesday. According to the legislation, the app&#8217;s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, would have to divest from TikTok or face a ban in the United States.
While the bill does have its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/potential-tiktok-ban-clears-congressional-hurdle-as-some-republicans-voice-opposition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detractors</a>, such as Tesla owner Elon Musk, former President Donald Trump, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and the American people <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tiktok-ban-biden-bytedance-china-2acbaeb71e8bb0c6341f2bc55ba33e80" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are split</a> on support for a ban, the bill is <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/03/11/congress-tiktok-ban-bill-donald-trump/72938017007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expected</a> to pass with sizable bipartisan support.
Social media accounts like <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Libs of TikTok</a> have documented the proliferation of far-Left gender and racial ideology on the platform for years now, and even top government officials have warned of the danger the app poses to national security because of its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/director-of-national-intelligence-includes-chinas-tiktok-among-its-top-threats-to-national-security" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that the CCP aims to “exploit perceived U.S. societal divisions” through social media. The report added that “China is demonstrating a higher degree of sophistication in its influence activity, including experimenting with generative AI. TikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.”
While the app is a useful vector for both American leftists and Chinese communists to spread corrosive propaganda, the platform itself is just as dangerous to the minds of American citizens as the content posted to it. Studies have consistently reported that TikTok use poses a potentially disastrous threat to users&#8217; memory, attention span, and mental health.
It should be emphasized how astronomically popular this social media platform is in the United States. By some <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1299807/number-of-monthly-unique-tiktok-users/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a>, TikTok boasts nearly 150 million monthly users in the U.S. — nearly half of the country&#8217;s population. American teenagers are especially hooked on the video-sharing app, with 67% of teens saying that they have used it and 16% reporting they use it &#8220;almost constantly,&#8221; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/tiktok-mental-health-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to The Guardian. The average teen user spends an hour-and-a-half on it every single day, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/512576/teens-spend-average-hours-social-media-per-day.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to a Gallup poll conducted in 2023.
TikTok&#8217;s algorithm meticulously tailors video recommendations to users&#8217; past viewing habits and preferences, causing some to remark that the app&#8217;s ability to cater to their own personal tastes borders on uncanny, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) investigation <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tiktok-algorithm-video-investigation-11626877477?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> in 2021.
This constant prolonged exposure to TikTok&#8217;s content strategy — barraging users with heavily curated short-form content — is having a detrimental impact on their cognitive abilities.
Specifically, the app&#8217;s algorithm preys on the human brain&#8217;s reward system, which releases the chemical dopamine whenever we experience something enjoyable in order to incentivize further consumption. Dopamine is released in a variety of situations in which humans feel pleasure or satisfaction, from petting a dog to taking drugs, but TikTok&#8217;s algorithm can create a &#8220;dopamine machine&#8221; that can cause people to become more easily addicted to it, pediatrician John Hutton told the WSJ in 2022.
It can also train a user&#8217;s brain to become accustomed to and seek out shorter content to get quicker hits of dopamine. A study from as early as 2019 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09311-w?utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_source=commission_junction&amp;utm_campaign=CONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&amp;utm_content=textlink&amp;utm_term=PID100096347&amp;CJEVENT=9a51d18de26c11ee81dd01990a82b824" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that attention spans are narrowing due in part to how quickly people consume information and content on social media. So, a user&#8217;s brain can become addicted to the format (the 15-second TikTok video) in which content is presented to you as well as the content itself (a video of a dog doing a backflip).
If someone&#8217;s brain become sufficiently addicted to the short-form content, then that can affect how well they can process information from a longer form source such as a news article, TV program, or a book. This can be especially disastrous for children, whose brains are still developing. The term &#8220;TikTok brain&#8221; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-antidote-for-tiktok-brain-is-also-a-problem-d20ce978" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was coined</a> to describe the phenomenon in which children consume so much short content on apps like TikTok that they struggle to engage with anything that requires a greater degree of focus or attention.
“It is hard to look at increasing trends in media consumption of all types, media multitasking and rates of ADHD in young people and not conclude that there is a decrease in their attention span,” psychiatrist Carl Marci <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-antidote-for-tiktok-brain-is-also-a-problem-d20ce978" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the WSJ.
“When kids spend a lot of time watching short videos, they expect to continually be stimulated by fast changes in content,” says Professor Gloria Mark also told the publication.
In addition to harming their cognitive development, apps like TikTok <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/30/tiktok-mental-health-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wreak havoc</a> on young people&#8217;s mental health. Multiple studies have <a href="https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide#:~:text=According%20to%20a%20research%20study,including%20depression%20and%20anxiety%20symptoms." target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that addictive social media use has contributed to the spike in mental health problems among younger Americans.
TikTok&#8217;s content strategy is so successful that other platforms, such as YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, have scrambled to adopt a similar format, exposing even more people to the potentially harmful &#8220;dopamine machine.&#8221;
An oft overlooked but critical detail to mention about the Chinese-controlled app is that the American version is already functionally banned — in China. Douyin, TikTok&#8217;s counterpart in China, is devoid of the Left-wing gender and race ideology that pervades TikTok, largely thanks to China&#8217;s strict censorship regime. The algorithm in China instead focuses on pushing educational content as well as product advertisements, while suppressing any potentially inconvenient political topics (the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre perpetrated by the CCP is nowhere to be found on the app).
What&#8217;s more, the Chinese version implements rigorous constraints on how young people can use it. Children younger than 14 can only have access to what the CCP deems child-friendly content and can only use it for 40 minutes every day. They are completely barred from the app from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/24/tech/tiktok-douyin-bytedance-china-intl-hnk/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to CNN.
A study on Douyin&#8217;s effect on users published in 2021 found that even that highly regulated and censored version of the app still activated areas of users&#8217; brains associated with addiction, the WSJ noted.
The content peddled by TikTok is certainly harmful. Millions of teens have been exposed to radical gender and race ideology through TikTok videos. But the medium itself is also damaging Americans&#8217; minds through its highly addictive and brain-altering algorithm, shortening their attention spans and disincentivizing complex thought. Unless there is a significant change to the format of TikTok and similar apps, its ownership by a hostile foreign government is only one part of the danger it poses to the American public.

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Hayden Daniel