Senate Blocks Motion to Create Oversight Office for Ukraine Aid

Molly Bruns
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Senate Blocks Motion to Create Oversight Office for Ukraine Aid

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The Democrat-run U.S. Senate blocked an amendment from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that would have created an inspector general to monitor the funds being sent to Ukraine, according to Breitbart.

The bill, S. 316, sought to withdraw longstanding authorization for U.S. military operations in Iraq. It cleared the chamber in a 66–30 vote on Wednesday.

Unlike the Iraq war, a 20-year quagmire that began during the George W. Bush administration following the terrorist 9/11 attacks, the Biden administration’s new Ukraine quagmire has been wildly popular among Democrats—who, thus far, have approved more than $100 billion in aid to subsidize the country’s war with Russia.

Much of that aid remains unaccounted for, with even the U.S. State Department admitting it has no clue how to track it once the check gets cut.

Hawley’s Amendment No. 40 to S. 316 sought to create an Office of the Special Inspector General for Ukraine Assistance.

The office would have been tasked with the oversight of the massive amounts of funding and weaponry being funneled into Ukraine. However, the amendment failed 26-68.

Hawley argued that the purpose of the bill was neither to defend nor argue against funding Ukraine—although he does oppose that officially.

Instead, the amendment would simply provide some semblance of accountability for the billions in taxpayer money being sent to the eastern European nation, he said.

The senator even recommended John Sopko, current inspector general for Afghanistan, to fill the position.

“He’s done a terrific job—maybe he’d like to do this job,” Hawley said. “I mean, he already knows how to do it.”

Hawley noted that Sopko’s current post was “winding down” following the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

“Maybe he’d like to shift over to Ukraine,” Hawley said. “I think that would probably be my first choice—but somebody like him, who’s been tough, tenacious, and independent.”

Hawley also said it would be difficult to argue against “robust oversight” of the continual funding of a conflict America has little to do with.

In addition to the heavy financial toll on a U.S. economy teetering on the brink of recession, military leaders have expressed concerns that the U.S. shipment of weapons could undermine its own national security.

Several military officials sounded the alarm that America may not have enough weaponry to defend itself in case of an impending attack.

“The long-term challenge will be how much of that capacity can we sustain over time, post-conflict,” said Douglas Bush, assistant secretary of the Army. “We don’t know how long the conflict will last. We don’t know how low our stocks will be.”

However, both President Joe Biden and Congress indicated that they are happy to continue spending American money for “as long as it takes.”

Clueless Interior Sec. Haaland Admits Biden’s Climate Agenda Empowers China

Robert Jonathan
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Clueless Interior Sec. Haaland Admits Biden’s Climate Agenda Empowers China

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Interior Secretary Deb Haaland embarrassed herself during Capitol Hill testimony Tuesday by seeming oblivious to how the Biden team’s climate change radicalism is further empowering the communist dictatorship in China.

“Haaland repeatedly gave the impression that she knows nothing about the department she heads or the ramifications of the policies she is pushing through it,” wrote the Washington Examiner. “Her repeated blank stares and hesitant, sheepish answers suggested she was only for the first time hearing crucial facts related to the nation’s natural resources.”

Haaland—a one-term congresswoman from New Mexico who identifies as Native American—was one of the Biden administration’s most widely touted “diversity” hires.

Among her interrogators was Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served as Haaland’s predecessor overseeing the Interior Department during the Trump administration.

“Are you aware that China controls, by proxy production, the supply chain of critical minerals that are critical to both the [electric vehicle] world and defense?,” Zinke asked.

“Thank you for that information,” Haaland robotically replied.

The Biden administration has assumed a hostile posture toward domestic mining of rare-earth metals, many of which are located in lands that the Obama and Biden administrations designated as federally protected national monuments in a series of audacious land grabs.

Haaland recently placed a moratorium on mining projects in a large area of Minnesota, and similar mining bans are in place in Arizona and Alaska, with probably more federal edicts to come.

Despite the mining restrictions for elements including lithium—a crucial component to manufacturing the batteries used in electric vehicles—the Biden regime has continued to push its green agenda, demanding that automobile manufacturers focus less on fossil fuels and more on electricity.

That gives China—as a leading producer of rare-earth metals—a distinct economic advantage, even as it poses one of the greatest threats to U.S. national security.

“Green energy technologies like electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and wind turbines require a massive expansion of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, graphite, zinc and other mineral production,” wrote Fox News.

“…The vast majority of mining and processing of such materials, though, takes place outside the U.S., making the nation more reliant on foreign minerals despite its large domestic resources,” it added.

Zinke further pointed out the irony that China  is the world’s biggest polluter, unlike the U.S. and its allies which are “stewards of the environment.”

Haaland inexplicably replied that “I have probably read that somewhere.”

After Zinke also underscored how America is economically vulnerable to China, Haaland laughably claimed, “I know that energy independence is a priority of President Biden.”

When Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., got his turn, he managed to get Haaland to agree that under Biden, “electric vehicles and renewables deepen our reliance on China.”

Haaland’s testimony also revealed her ignorance over what was contained in the so-called Green New Deal—a bill that she, herself, had co-sponsored during her brief stint in Congress.

Under former President Donald Trump, America was energy independent, even becoming a net oil exporter for the first time in 75 years.

Gov’t Permission Slip to Buy Handgun No Longer Required in N.C.

Wire Editor
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Gov’t Permission Slip to Buy Handgun No Longer Required in N.C.

(Headline USA) North Carolina residents can now buy a handgun without getting a permit from a local sheriff, after the Republican-controlled legislature on Wednesday overrode the Democrat governor’s veto — a first since 2018.

The House voted 71-46 to enact the bill, which eliminates the longstanding, onerous and largely useless permit system requiring sheriffs to perform character evaluations and criminal history checks of pistol applicants. The Senate overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto in a party-line vote on Tuesday.

The permit repeal takes effect immediately. Cooper and Democrat lawmakers claimed that the bill would allow a greater number of dangerous people to obtain weapons through private sales, which do not require a background check, and limits law enforcement’s ability to prevent them from committing violent crimes. Law enforcement officials have countered that criminals aren’t in the habit of following the law and asking government permission to commit violent crimes, even though increasingly leftist criminal justice reforms have in many jurisdictions become tantamount to the same.

Those who purchase pistols from a gun store or a federally licensed dealer are still subject to a national background check, and concealed weapons permits are still required.

Bill supporters say the sheriff screening process for handguns was no longer necessary in light of significant updates to the national background check system. They also argue the permit system wasn’t very effective at preventing criminals from obtaining guns.

The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association supports the repeal in light of national system updates, but its current president does not.

Although Republican seat gains in the midterm elections gave them veto-proof margins in the Senate, they were one seat shy of a similar majority in the House.

Wednesday’s House vote tally showed three Democrats — Reps. Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County, Cecil Brockman of Guilford County and Michael Wray of Northampton County — failed to vote on the override, creating enough of a margin to meet the constitutional requirement. Republicans needed at least one Democrat member to join them, or as few as two Democrats not to vote.

Brockman was in urgent care Wednesday morning, according to a statement released by his office. Cotham said in a statement that she was receiving scheduled hospital treatment and had informed both parties that she would be absent. She said she does not support the permit repeal.

A phone message left at Wray’s legislative office wasn’t immediately returned Wednesday. Republicans gave Wray and Cotham key committee chairmanships this year — a rarity for the majority party in power.

A liberal-leaning group called Carolina Forward put out a fundraising tweet soon after the vote targeting the three representatives, vowing to “hold them accountable.”

House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican presiding over the chamber during the override vote, said the provisions contained within the bill “have been long-standing goals of Second Amendment advocates in our state, and we have finally brought this legislation over the finish line.”

Moore used parliamentary maneuvers Wednesday to block floor debate before the vote, causing frustration among Democrats.

Cooper, who is term-limited from seeking reelection next year, criticized the move by House leadership, saying in a tweet that arguments to uphold his veto would have been “too compelling for them to hear.”

Before the Senate vote Tuesday, some Democrats urged against loosening gun access in the immediate aftermath of Monday’s mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, despite Republicans’ insistence that lawmakers refrain from politicizing the shooting.

The enacted bill also will allow guns on some school properties where religious services are held, effective Dec. 1. The new law also creates and funds a two-year awareness campaign on the safe storage of firearms, which will distribute free gun locks.

Guns will not be permitted on campus during school hours or when students are present for extracurricular activities, and houses of worship can opt out by posting signs.

Gun-rights advocates celebrated the override after trying for years to pass the pistol permit repeal.

“Second Amendment supporters made history today,” said Paul Valone, executive director of Grass Roots North Carolina, which campaigned last year for candidates so that Republican majorities could override Cooper’s gun-related vetoes.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

GOP Lawmakers Override Veto of Transgender Bill in Kentucky

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GOP Lawmakers Override Veto of Transgender Bill in Kentucky

(Headline USA) Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday voted to override Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill preventing transgender treatments—including irreversible genital-mutilation surgery—in minors.

The bill, which also addressed other hot-button issues surrounding child-grooming and promotion of the transgender agenda within the school system, fueled unruly protests from left-wing activists seeking to disrupt the government from conducting its business.

But despite the insurrectionist efforts, votes in favor of the override were lopsided in both legislative chambers—where the GOP wields supermajorities—on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session.

The Senate voted 29-8 to override Beshear’s veto. A short time later, the House completed the override on a vote of 76-23.

As emotions surged, some people protesting the bill from the House gallery were removed and arrested after their prolonged chanting rang out in the chamber. The protesters, their hands bound, threatened “there’s more of us not here” as they waited to be taken away from the Capitol.

Nineteen people were arrested and charged with third-degree criminal trespassing after the sergeant of arms requested assistance in restoring order, Kentucky State Police said. Officers gave each person “the option to leave without any enforcement action or be placed under arrest,” said Capt. Paul Blanton, a state police spokesperson.

“I think it’s unfortunate that it reached that level and certainly they were given, as I’ve been told since then, multiple opportunities to either quiet their chants or to leave voluntarily,” Republican House Speaker David Osborne said later.

The bill’s opponents disingenuously framed the issue as a civil-rights fight. Democrat Rep. Sarah Stalker said: “Kentucky will be on the wrong side of history” by enacting the measure.

The debate about the transgender bill will likely spill over into this year’s gubernatorial campaign, with Beshear’s veto drawing GOP condemnation as he seeks reelection to a second term. A legal fight also is brewing. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky reaffirmed that it intends to “take this fight to the courts” to try to preserve access to gender mutilation options for young transgender people.

“While we lost the battle in the legislature, our defeat is temporary. We will not lose in court,” said Chris Hartman, executive director of the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization.

In praising the veto override, David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, said the bill puts “policy in alignment with the truth that every child is created as a male or female and deserves to be loved, treated with dignity and accepted for who they really are.”

Activists on both sides of the impassioned debate gathered at the statehouse to make competing appeals before lawmakers took up the transgender bill following an extended break.

Bill supporters assembled to defend the measure, saying it protects trans children from undertaking treatments they might regret as adults.

“We cannot allow people to continue down the path of fantasy, to where they’re going to end up 10, 20, 30 years down the road and find themselves miserable from decisions that they made when they were young,” said Republican Rep. Shane Baker at a rally.

At least 11 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning trans surgery for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.

The debate among Kentucky lawmakers reflected the impassioned arguments put forth at rallies.

“We are denying families, their physicians and their therapists the right to make medically informed decisions for their families,” Democrat Sen. Karen Berg said in opposing the bill. Berg read what her son, Henry Berg-Brousseau, wrote in advocating for transgender rights shortly before his death late last year at age 24. The cause was suicide, his mother said.

Republican Sen. Robby Mills said he supported the bill because of his belief that “puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, when administered to youth under 18 for the purpose of altering their appearance, is dangerous for the health of that child.”

The Kentucky measure will outlaw gender mutilation surgery for anyone under 18, as well as the use of puberty blockers and hormones, and inpatient and outpatient hospital services.

Doctors will have to set a timeline to “detransition” children already taking puberty blockers or undergoing hormone therapy. They could continue offering care as they taper a youngster’s treatments, if removing them from the treatment immediately could harm the child.

Parts of the bill dealing with gender-transition treatments will take effect in about three months.

The bill will not allow schools to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity with students of any age. It will also require school districts to devise bathroom policies that, “at a minimum,” won’t allow transgender children to hijack bathrooms based on their gender confusion.

It will further allow teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by the pronouns they use and require schools to notify parents when lessons related to human sexuality are going to be taught.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Biden’s Summit for Democracy Draws Contempt and Mockery

Molly Bruns
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Biden’s Summit for Democracy Draws Contempt and Mockery

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The United State’s second Summit for Democracy took place this week, and was greeted with mockery and scorn from several other nations.

The event, hosted by the U.S., the Netherlands, Costa Rica, South Korea and Zambia, ran from Tuesday to Thursday and featured several conferences, panels and speeches opining about the virtues of woke leadership.

According to Breitbart, Pakistan declined to attend the event at the last minute, saying it can “promote and strengthen diplomatic principals” without attending the sham conference.

Foreign policy analysts suspect that the true reasoning may be due to political infighting within the government, as former Prime Minister Imran Khan is currently attempting to rally support for his reelection.

Khan declined the invitation to the first Summit for Democracy last year on the basis that the U.S. government had a hand getting him kicked out of office last year.

Both Russia and China had several things to say about the event as well.

“Those who agreed to attend this class were free to do so, of course. It’s their sovereign right, but here, in fact, many see that such attempts to divide the world into first-rate and second-rate countries are now seen by many with a smile,” Peskov said. They also said it “can hardly be regarded as a serious event.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed the summit “primary represented the countries obeying Washington’s policies.”

The Chinese Communist Party-run Global Times mocked the event, claiming that the United States is hypocritical offering lessons on democracy when acts of violence, such as the recent Nashville shooting, take place.

It also described the event as a basic, online lecture meant to pat the backs of high-level government bureaucrats.

An American think tank called the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft also had an unfriendly take on the event.

“The best thing that the U.S. could do to ‘bolster’ the cause of democracy in the world is to improve our own practice of it here,” the Quincy Institute said, continuing to call it a “largely pointless exercise.”

They also expressed the belief that the Biden administration neglected to invite so many countries, such as Hungary, that the theme of “autocracy vs. democracy” is contradictory.

Seattle Forces Companies to Offer Paid Sick-Leave for DoorDashers, Other ‘Gig’ Workers

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Seattle Forces Companies to Offer Paid Sick-Leave for DoorDashers, Other ‘Gig’ Workers

(Headline USA) Seattle’s leftist mayor and woke city council on Wednesday approved a law forcing companies to pay their workers what government thinks they should be paid, ignoring warnings from industry experts with concerns that the measure would ultimately hurt consumers.

Most gig workers in Seattle will be permanently entitled to paid sick leave and safe time under a first-in-the-nation law signed by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. The measure expands pandemic-era protections and strengthens labor rights for app-based workers.

Seattle previously allowed food delivery workers to accrue paid sick and safe time, but that policy was due to expire May 1, six months after the end of the emergency order imposed by the city during the coronavirus pandemic.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to make it permanent for “on-demand” gig workers on apps such as DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart.

“A healthy workforce leads to a healthy community, and no one should have to choose between taking a sick day to care for themselves — or their families — and making rent,” Harrell said.

The measure also expands the categories of workers covered by the policy beyond food delivery, to include those who work for car wash or other apps. Workers who set their own rates, such as those on some pet-sitting apps, will not be covered, however.

Drivers for transportation companies such as Uber and Lyft already earn paid sick and safe time through a state law signed by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee last year.

Seattle in 2012 became one of the first cities to require businesses to provide paid sick leave for gig workers when they have medical appointments or need to help care for a sick relative, and safe leave if they need to care for themselves or a family member because of domestic violence, stalking or sexual assault.

The city expanded the law to cover app-based food delivery workers in 2020, citing the danger many were exposing themselves to so they could earn money for rent or other expenses. Some companies failed to comply; Postmates agreed to pay nearly $1 million after denying workers in Seattle sick time.

Making the policy permanent is the latest in a string of victories for big government advocates in the city. The council last spring approved a bill guaranteeing app drivers minimum pay and mileage.

In an emailed statement, Instacart suggested the measure was “misguided.”

“Instacart is willing to work with any policymaker that prioritizes the health and safety of shoppers who choose to earn income through our platform,” it said. “However, at a time of high inflation and tightening household budgets, it is critical that policymakers also take into account the rising financial burden their misguided policy proposals could have on their constituents.”

Nationally, President Joe Biden’s administration has proposed new standards that could make it more difficult to classify millions of workers as independent contractors and deny them minimum wage and benefits.

Under the law, workers will accrue one day of paid sick or safe time for every 30 days they make a work-related stop in Seattle. They would be paid their average daily compensation for each calendar day they worked in Seattle over the previous 12 months.

Maria Hernandez, who has worked for apps delivering food since 2019, testified before the council Tuesday that when she had surgery for breast cancer in 2021, doctors told her to take three months off to prepare for radiation. But she had little money in the bank and returned to work after just one month; her company insisted the paid sick leave was only for COVID-related illness, she said.

“This new permanent law will help create more than a free day for anyone who is sick,” she said. “It will give us tranquility and some peace in our hearts.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Students Refunded after Prof. Required $99 Subscriptions to Her Woke Website

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Students Refunded after Prof. Required $99 Subscriptions to Her Woke Website

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Michigan State University will reimburse students for the subscription to a feminist professor’s website—which allegedly donated to Planned Parenthood—that they were forced to purchase for one of their courses.

Amy Wisner, a fixed-term faculty member at the MSU Broad College of Business, required students in her undergraduate communications course to purchase a $99 subscription to her website, Patriarchy Rebellion.

The Daily Caller reported that over two years of her teaching the course, Wisner could have raised more than $120,000 from the forced subscriptions.

MSU launched an investigation and confirmed that another professor would be assigned to this course and students will be reimbursed.

“We conducted a review of the MKT 250 Business Communication class and assignment materials based on feedback,” Dean Judith Whipple said in an email to the students.

“… Professor Van Hof will serve as your instructor for the remainder of the semester,” she continued. “You will receive a one-time credit of $99 to reimburse you for the subscription to The Rebellion Community as this material will no longer be required for the course.”

Whipple confirmed that students will be responsible for canceling their subscriptions and the university would not reimburse for any renewals.

In a now-deleted Facebook page, Wisner wrote that the Patriarchy Rebellion was a “safe place to coordinate our efforts to burn everything to the fucking ground” and that all membership fees are donated to Planned Parenthood.

A currently inaccessible Rebellion Community website stated that the membership fees were used to raise “awareness, education, and activism for a bully-free future.”

Another Wisner website, Cancel the Patriarchy, which is still active describes itself as “a community of rebels unlearning toxic expectations of patriarchy.”

It offers three tiers of pricing, from $99 to $499 per year. The latter includes access to a 6-week course, group coaching and

Wisner also started a GoFundMe to purchase an RV to “cancel the patriarchy” on a “road trip around the United States to co-create communities of rebels committed to doing the work together,” she wrote.

“My goal is to sit around kitchen tables and campfires facilitating conversations about important social issues and igniting action at the local level,” she added.

At press time, the 7-month-old fundraiser, had raised $2,250 toward her target goal of $100,000, with $2,000 coming from a series of four anonymous $500 donations.

Misinformation ‘Expert’ Erroneously Testifies that Masks Stop COVID-19 Transmission

Ken Silva
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Misinformation ‘Expert’ Erroneously Testifies that Masks Stop COVID-19 Transmission

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) During Thursday’s House Weaponization Subcommittee hearing, Stanford Constitutional Law Center fellow Matthew Seligman cited his lengthy and impressive resume to assert his expertise on identifying misinformation—declaring that government should help ensure that the internet is “uncorrupted” by such content.

Then, Seligman, the Democrats’ hand-picked witness for Thursday’s hearing, proceeded to promote egregious misinformation by agreeing with the baseless claim that face masks stop the transmission of COVID-19.

“Do you agree that face masks stop the transmission of Covid?” Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, asked Seligman.

“My understanding that the scientific evidence is: Yes, it does,” the lawyer responded.

This claim has been proven to be unequivocal misinformation.

According to epidemiologist Dr. Paul Alexander, there are some 167 studies indicating that masks do little to no good in reducing the transmission of COVID. In fact, they sometimes inflict harm, studies suggest.

Even the studies cited by Rep. Garcia about masks do not support her erroneous claim that masks stop transmission. The studies Garcia entered into the congressional record Thursday say that mask-wearing merely slows COVID transmission—and even then, only to a limited degree.

The flagrant misinterpretation of scientific studies isn’t the first time Garcia has committed an embarrassing blunder during a Weaponization Subcommittee hearing. During a hearing on the Twitter Files earlier this month, Garcia demonstrated that she clearly doesn’t know what the Twitter Files are, nor does she know what Substack is, or who former New York Times writer Bari Weiss is.

One might expect that a Stanford Law fellow might know better than Garcia.

However, Thursday’s hearing also revealed that Seligman lacked a basic understanding of the First Amendment when he slammed an ongoing lawsuit against Biden administration officials over their censorship efforts. Seligman said the “opposite” of what the lawsuit claims is closer to the truth—even though a U.S. District court has rejected in large part a motion to dismiss the case.

At the end of the hearing, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., advised Seligman that he should attend the First Amendment training that was implemented at Stanford in the wake of faculty and students disrupting a lectureby Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kyle Duncan.

“Who decides what is baseless and what is misinformation? You’ve provided a recipe for blatant viewpoint discrimination and tyranny,” Johnson said.

“I would suggest that you attend all those mandatory First Amendment training courses that your Dean at Sandford Law School has been forced to order.”

Italy’s Anti-Woke PM Bans Globalist Push for Lab-Grown Food

Robert Jonathan
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Italy’s Anti-Woke PM Bans Globalist Push for Lab-Grown Food

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) In what might amount to a rebuke of climate alarmists in the authoritarian European Union and those in the extreme animal rights cohort, Italy has given preliminary approval for a ban on lab-grown meat.

The executive branch of the Italy-first government under populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni endorsed the measure, which would impose a penalty of up to $60,000 (in the euro equivalent) for violations and allow officials to confiscate synthetic food derived from animal cells.

A victory for farmers in a country where agriculture is a key component of its economy, the  law is subject to final approval by parliament before it goes into effect.

Some might consider this also a victory for those who maintain that consuming real meat, i.e., natural animal protein, is key to a nutrient-rich diet and therefore lifespan and healthspan.

Globalists practically had a nervous breakdown when Meloni, at the head of an election-winning populist-conservative coalition, became the country’s PM in 2022, so they probably are experiencing an upset stomach with this latest development.

After her cabinet gave its approval to the draft legislation, Mediterranean-diet-fan Merloni said, “We couldn’t help but celebrate with our farmers a measure that puts Italy into the vanguard on a theme not only in the defense of excellence, a particularly important subject for us, but also on the theme of the defense of consumers,” Fox News reported.

Francesco Lollobrigida, Italy’s minister of agriculture, food sovereignty and forests asserted that “Laboratory products do not guarantee quality, well-being and the protection of the Italian food and wine culture and tradition, to which part of our tradition is linked,” the BBC reported.

“A government statement said the ban on lab-grown food was proposed, ‘in respect for the principle of precaution,’ to protect human health and Italy’s ‘farm-food heritage,'” Fox added.

In another snub to the Net Zero advocates among international bureaucratic institutions, the Merloni administration has also taken steps to prohibit “the use of flour derived from insects such as crickets and locusts in pizza or pasta,” the BBC noted, or at least require warning labels to inform consumers that a product is bug-based.

In the name of climate change mitigation as it relates to reducing meat consumption, it appears that the EU and other globalist entities intent on a so-called Great Reset are determined to put family livestock farmers, in particular, out of business, despite the implications of a potential food shortage.

This initiative is occurring even though many of these famers have implemented various sustainable practices.

Protests against the heavy-handed, irrational tactics led to the upset election victory by the grassroots Farmer-Citizen Movement — the BoerBurgerBeweging or BBB — earlier this month in the Netherlands, a country that is said to be the Europe’s largest meat exporter.

The U.K. publication Unherd explained:

“The BBB grew out of the mass demonstrations against the Dutch government’s proposal to cut nitrogen emissions by 50% in the country’s farming sector by 2030 — a target designed to comply with the European Union’s emission-reduction rules. While large farming companies have the means to meet these goals — by using less nitrogen fertilizer and reducing the number of their livestock — smaller, often family-owned farms would be forced to sell or shutter.”

Since the Netherlands apparently contributes about a paltry 0.4% of CO2 emissions, Unherd suggested that the end game for this draconian policy is to facilitate a land grab by multinational corporations

Meat spawned in labs is already progressing towards regulatory approval via the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

DeSantis’s Board says Disney Stripped Them of Power

Wire Editor
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DeSantis’s Board says Disney Stripped Them of Power

(Headline USA) Board members picked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee the governance of Walt Disney World said Wednesday that their Disney-controlled predecessors pulled a fast one on them by passing restrictive covenants that strip the new board of many of its powers.

The current supervisors of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said at a meeting that their predecessors last month signed a development agreement with the company that gave Disney maximum developmental power over the theme park resort’s 27,000 acres in central Florida.

The five supervisors were appointed by the Republican governor to the board after the Florida Legislature overhauled Disney’s government in response to the woke entertainment giant publicly embracing child grooming and opposing anti-child-grooming legislation that bars instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as sexually-graphic lessons deemed not age-appropriate.

In taking on Disney, DeSantis furthered his reputation as a culture warrior willing to battle corporations pushing dangerous leftist agendas and wield the power of state government to accomplish goals, a strategy that is expected to continue ahead of his potential White House run.

The new supervisors replaced a board that had been controlled by Disney during the previous 55 years that the government operated as the Reedy Creek Improvement District. The new board members held their first meeting earlier this month and said they found out about the agreement after their appointments.

“We’re going to have to deal with it and correct it,” board member Brian Aungst said Wednesday. “It’s a subversion of the will of the voters and the Legislature and the governor. It completely circumvents the authority of this board to govern.”

Under the terms of the agreement, the district is prohibited from using the name “Disney” or any symbols associated with the theme park resort without the company’s permission, nor can it use the likeness of Mickey Mouse, other Disney characters or other intellectual property in any manner. The company can sue for damages for any violations, and the agreement is in effect until perpetuity, according to the declaration.

If the agreement is deemed to violate rules against perpetuity, it will be in effect until 21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of England’s King Charles III, the declaration said.

In a statement, Disney said all agreements were above board and took place in public.

“All agreements signed between Disney and the District were appropriate, and were discussed and approved in open, noticed public forums in compliance with Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law,” the statement said.

Separately, Disney World service workers on Wednesday voted to accept a union contract offer that raises the starting minimum wage to $18 an hour by the end of the year.

“Our cast members have always been at the heart of the Walt Disney World experience, and we are thrilled that, with the support of the union, they have overwhelmingly approved this new five-year agreement that significantly increases wages, alongside our leading benefits program that includes affordable medical coverage and more,” Walt Disney World Resort president Jeff Vahle said in a statement. “Frontline employees also have access to 100 percent paid tuition for higher education through the Disney Aspire program.”

The agreement covers around 45,000 service workers at the Disney theme park resort, including costumed performers who perform as Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters, bus drivers, culinary workers, lifeguards, theatrical workers and hotel housekeepers.

Workers will see their hourly wages rise between $5.50 and $8.60 an hour by the end of the five-year contract, according to union leaders.

A contract approved five years ago made Disney the first major employer in central Florida to agree to a minimum hourly wage of $15, setting the trend for other workers in the region dominated by hospitality jobs.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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