Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

There’s a surge of common sense in Sweden that’s horribly lacking in the US. Congrats to Sweden for voting in favor of nuclear energy and scrapping a 100% renewable goal.

NetZero image from Tweet below.

Reuters reports Swedish parliament passes new energy target, easing way for new nuclear power.

Sweden’s parliament on Tuesday adopted a new energy target, giving the right-wing government the green light to push forward with plans to build new nuclear plants in a country that voted 40 years ago to phase out atomic power.

Changing the target to “100% fossil-free” electricity, from “100% renewable” is key to the government’s plan to meet an expected doubling of electricity demand to around 300 TwH by 2040 and reach net zero emissions by 2045.

The coalition plans to cut the bio-fuel mix in petrol and diesel, leading to bigger CO2 emissions, a move that could mean Sweden missing 2030 emissions goals.

Proposals by Sweden to allow countries to prolong subsidies for standby coal power plants have also been met concern in the EU, while Stockholm also wanted Brussels to water-down a landmark law to restore deteriorating natural habitats.

Those are all common sense measures. Here is a set of Tweets on the subject.

Sweden has abandoned its “100% renewable” energy target in favour of adopting a technology-neutral Net Zero policy in order to create the conditions for nuclear power. “We need a stable energy system”, the finance minister said.#CostOfNetZero

👉https://t.co/pKQBcCwHSm pic.twitter.com/baZYGhC4Zd

— Net Zero Watch (@NetZeroWatch) June 22, 2023

Sweden ditching wind, going nuclear.

Great time to be invest(ed) in uranium and small nuke reactors.

Rest of West has to following: renewables were a $5 trillion malinvestment. All politicians involved in the destruction of our standards of living over this nonsense must go. https://t.co/6UxX8wtvrB

— Mark Hubbard (@MarkHubbard33) June 25, 2023

Trump Takes Aim at EVs

Trump takes aim at EV industry during speech to Michigan Republicans https://t.co/AJmFXfly7I

— John Lounsbury (@jlounsbury59) June 26, 2023

The Ever Growing Trillions of Dollars Per Year Demands to Fight Climate Change

On June 23, I commented on The Ever Growing Trillions of Dollars Per Year Demands to Fight Climate Change.

The Cost of Solidarity

• An expert group under the auspice of the UN estimates that investments have to reach the order of $1 trillion per year until 2030 to respond to the climate and biodiversity crisis.

• Oxfam estimated that $3.9 trillion per year will be needed over the same time period to fight poverty, inequality and climate change.

• The World bank estimated that it takes $4 trillion per year to build the infrastructure for this.

The cost of this “easy to make” vision is $1 trillion per year for the biodiversity crisis, plus $3.9 trillion per year to fight poverty and inequality, plus $4 trillion per year for the infrastructure. That’s a mere $8.9 million per per year until 2030, a 7-year cost of $62.3 trillion.

Energy Policy Madness

In the US, Biden’s Energy Policy Mandates Cause Severe Shortage of Electrical Steel and Transformers

In California, California Utilities Seek to Charge People Based On Income, Not Energy Usage

Also in California, Oakland Teachers Strike in 5th Day Over Climate Justice, Homeless Housing, Reparations

Finally please consider Ford Gets a $9.2 Billion Cheap Government Loan With Inflationary Strings Attached

In response, a friend just pinged me with this comment: “This is colossally, stupid public policy. The government should not get involved in determining what is the best approach to electric vehicles. It should set standards and let the free enterprise system work it out.”

Unfortunately, it appears Biden pledged 0.7 percent of US wealth for global inequities.

Fortunately, the money isn’t flowing. But it would have if Democrats held the House, Senate, and White House.

*  *  *

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The slow march toward potential future direct NATO war with Russia continues, as on Monday Germany made a huge announcement which signals continued escalation, even as Ukraine’s counteroffensive fails to make significant gains, and Russia witnesses rare internal “cracks” after the Wagner-Defense Ministry brief armed power struggle over the weekend.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has revealed plans to station 4,000 soldiers in NATO ally Lithuania to assist in securing the alliance’s eastern flank. “Germany is ready to permanently station a robust brigade in Lithuania,” Pistorius said from Vilnius. Base housing will also be constructed to host the permanent deployment of troops, he described.

German commanders have already long led a battalion of NATO troops in Lithuania (about a 1,000-strong multinational force), but Vilnius has since the Ukraine war began consistently asked for more reinforcements of German troops in the country.

Lithuania can be considered a Baltic outpost of NATO’s military presence in Russia’s own backyard, given Lithuania borders the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. 

In his remarks, Pistorius invoked the Cold War and Iron Curtain, as quoted in Deutsche Welle:

Pistorius explained the altered German stance in part by citing the country’s own past, saying that until the end of the Cold War, it was the former West Germany situated on NATO’s eastern border to what was then the Iron Curtain. 

“We were the ones who could always rely on NATO partners standing by our side in an emergency and stepping in and fighting with us for our freedom and security in Germany,” Pistorius said.

Nowadays, Pistorius said, it was Poland and the Baltic states that were exposed as West Germany once was: “And we as the Federal Republic of Germany commit ourselves explicitly to our responsibility and our obligation, as a NATO member state and as the largest economy in Europe, to stand up for the protection of the eastern flank,” he said. 

Subsequently, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda pledged additional financial resources toward bolstering the NATO presence in the Baltics.

“We have a strong political willingness in Lithuania to find the necessary financial resources to be able to finance the infrastructural needs,” Nauseda said. He not only met with the German defense chief, but also with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

Lithuania will of course host next month’s major NATO summit in its capital, where it’s expected that a push for Sweden’s NATO membership will take place, but Turkey is still blocking it.

As for Stoltenberg, he said of the weekend crisis inside Russia involving Wagner that it shows Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to have been a major strategic “mistake”.

“We are monitoring the situation in Russia. The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters.

Authored by Denes Albert via Remix News,

The German political establishment is reacting with extreme alarm and making various threats about the democratic results in favor of the AfD…

Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) candidate Robert Sesselmann won the second round of elections in Sonneberg, Thuringia, on Sunday, becoming the first politician from the party to hold a district leadership post. The win is being touted as a historic victory for the party at a time when it is seeing record support from the population and routinely polling between 19 and 20 percent in nationwide surveys.

Sesselmann defeated the incumbent CDU candidate Jürgen Köpper by a convincing margin.

Preliminary election results show Sesselmann with 52.8 percent of the vote and Köpper with 47.2 percent, reports Germany’s Focus magazine.

Although he did not achieve an absolute majority in the first round, Sesselmann won 47 percent of the votes, making him the strong favorite to win in the second round.

The win also comes despite a cross-party coalition of Greens, Free Democrats (FDP), the Left party, and the Social Democrats (SPD) endorsing the CDU candidate and urging their voters to back him against the AfD. The German press also made the election a national issue, warning of a “threat against democracy” should the AfD win.

In his campaign, the AfD candidate promised voters that he would tackle high inflation and the growing problem of immigration. The rural and conservative population of Germany is increasingly dissatisfied with the current leadership, which could lead to a national rise of the AfD.

The AfD celebrated the win on Twitter, writing: “Sonneberg experienced its blue miracle: Robert Sesselmann is the first AfD district administrator in Germany. Congratulations and thanks to all supporters and voters – they all made history today!”

#Sonneberg hat sein blaues Wunder erlebt: Robert #Sesselmann ist der erste #AfD-Landrat Deutschlands. Wir gratulieren herzlich und bedanken uns bei allen Unterstützern und Wählern – sie alle haben heute Geschichte geschrieben! pic.twitter.com/ue5j5gf6u1

— AfD (@AfD) June 25, 2023

German newspaper Junge Freiheit describes the victory as a “political earthquake,” but the German political establishment is reacting with concern and threats.

Green party leader Ricarda Lang called the result of the district election “disturbing.” 

She stated: “Now at the latest is the time when – despite all the disputes on the matter – all democratic forces must defend democracy together.”

Das Ergebnis der Landratswahl in #Sonneberg ist bestürzend. Und es ist eine Warnung an alle demokratischen Kräfte: spätestens jetzt ist die Zeit, wo – bei allen Streit in der Sache – alle demokratischen Kräfte zusammen die Demokratie verteidigen müssen.

— Ricarda Lang (@Ricarda_Lang) June 25, 2023

Schleswig-Holstein SPD member of the Bundestag Ralf Stegner claimed the election had similarities with the Third Reich, writing, “Ninety years after the seizure of power and the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship, the district of Sonneberg in southern Thuringia elected a right-wing extremist as district administrator.”

As Remix News recently reported, AfD soared to an unprecedented 20 percent in a recent INSA poll, likely driven by a broad range of factors such as Germany’s significant inflation and economic crisis, as well as the migration crisis. The INSA poll shows that 34 percent of voters describe themselves as “angry citizens,” and among AfD supporters, 70 percent describe themselves this way.

Authored by Pete Hoekstra via The Gatestone Institute,

Recently, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines announced the creation of a new office within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI): The Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC). It would encompass “election threat work, essentially looking at foreign influence and interference in elections, but it also deals with disinformation more generally.” Legislation creating the center was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2022.

Although its work nominally deals with disinformation targeting U.S. elections and public opinion within the United States, there are at least two questions that need to be asked: First, is this office essential or duplicative of other ongoing efforts? Second, is this even appropriate work in which the federal government should be engaged?

In the last few years, as disinformation and countering disinformation have become the staples of political and public policy discourse, a cottage industry has grown up within the federal government around these topics. Support in Congress means the money grab is on, with federal agencies vying to secure funds for the hot new topic to grow their bureaucracy, influence and power.

Other agencies already involved in disinformation are numerous. The State Department has the Global Engagement Center (GEC) that combats foreign disinformation through promoting U.S. interests and messaging. The GEC does its own assessments of foreign operations and shares its analyses with partners throughout the government, thereby creating an American disinformation distribution center.

The FBI, in 2017, created its own Foreign Influence Task Force. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be the most active of all government agencies that jumped on this bandwagon. The DHS has, or had, a Countering Foreign Influence Task Force, a Foreign Influence and Interference Branch, Countering Foreign Influence Subcommittee, and a heavily criticized, ridiculed and now disbanded “Disinformation Governance Board.”

Not to be left out, the Pentagon also established an Influence and Perception Management Office responsible for coordinating the multiple counter-disinformation efforts conducted by the military.

The bottom line is that there are multiple groups and agencies already focused on disinformation, but has anyone thought through how these agencies coordinate and enhance the mission, or are they duplicative and overlap? Are they effective and efficient or a waste of taxpayer dollars? Is the threat of a new Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” as big as it is toxic? There are many questions that need to be answered — above all, is this function for the federal government even appropriate?

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s center has as its motto, “Exposing deception in defense of liberty.” That is a noble goal. How has the federal government been fulfilling this role as it has expanded its disinformation apparatus?

The U.S. Intelligence Community, spanning eighteen different agencies across the federal government, has some of the most effective disinformation capabilities of any organization on the planet. Think about the CIA, the State Department and the Pentagon. The CIA historically has participated in the undermining of foreign governments. The State Department, through its Global Engagement Center, has, as part of its mission, fighting foreign propaganda by promoting an American agenda. The Pentagon spends tremendous amounts of resources trying to deceive those who might be trying to ascertain its plans, intentions and capabilities. The American government is extremely capable at generating its own disinformation.

Disappointingly, Americans have seen this capability firsthand. Some U.S. intelligence leaders have used their status to aggressively plant disinformation to undermine presidents and influence elections. Some of these individuals are still on the government payroll, while others leveraged their titles and previous experience to deliberately deceive the people they are supposed be serving but instead repeatedly betray: their own citizens.

Consider Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and FBI Director James Comey, who used their positions to undermine incoming President-elect Donald Trump in January 2017 by leaking and hyping to the media information based on a deceptive briefing they provided to Trump to begin framing him for supposedly colluding with Russia in the disruptive, two-year pretend-investigation known inside the FBI as “Crossfire Hurricane” and outside it as “the Russia Hoax.”

As the Durham Report states:

“[A]t the time of the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI had no information in its holdings indicating that at any time during the campaign anyone in the Trump campaign had been in contact with any Russian intelligence officials.”

The report goes on to assert that during the fake Trump investigation, the FBI and DOJ had failed to practice “strict fidelity to the law.” The FISA court chastised the FBI for fabrications it made in the Russia probe. The “Russia Hoax,” it turned out — as its perpetrators reportedly knew all along — had been organized and funded by Trump’s presidential election opponent Hillary Clinton — evidently to deflect attention from her extensive destruction of classified material (here and here) — as well as the Democratic National Committee; fraudulently prosecuted by the FBI, and laundered by the Perkins Coie law firm.

In the case of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop that first exposed massive influence peddling, Fifty-one former intelligence officials signed a letter falsely suggesting the Biden laptop story “had all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Former Acting CIA Director Michael Morrell testified before Congress that Antony Blinken, current Secretary of State, played a key role in originating the letter and getting the signatories. Reports also include the allegation that a current CIA employee assisted in promoting the letter.

The ODNI met with social media companies prior to the 2020 election to inform them about potential disinformation by Russia and other nations. The ODNI, however, is a gatherer of foreign intelligence, not an arbiter of truth in U.S. presidential elections.

Other recent allegations about potentially malign activities by our government abound. The FBI incidentally collected data without a warrant on U.S. citizens 3.4 million times in 2021. Thirty percent of the times the FBI did so, it acted in error or roughly one million times. Remember, this is all work performed by government employees who are tasked with keeping our country safe, yet these are the “mistakes” we keep seeing.

The evidence appears to be overwhelming. The broad expansion of the federal government’s reach into disinformation has been knee-jerk and uncoordinated. It seems even more evident that Congress has apparently not delineated the parameters within which the intelligence and law enforcement community should operate. When Congress has set lines, the Intelligence Community and law enforcement have been more than willing to overstep their bounds and stretch their legal authorities.

It is time to hold those responsible accountable. It is time to streamline the process and eliminate the duplication, redundancy, and waste that has sprouted up to become the federal disinformation bureaucracy. Crucially, given the federal government’s repeatedly demonstrated disregard for the law, it is time to consider whether it should even be engaged in this effort. It should not. The American government, based on the First Amendment, should not be anywhere near regulating protected speech. The American government should not be deciding what speech should be regulated and what speech should not.

Authored by John Mac Ghlionn via The Epoch Times,

Gen Z is “rotting” away, according to a recent New York Post piece. Millions of young people now spend inordinate amounts of time “bed rotting,” lounging about for extended periods of time, eating food, watching Netflix, and playing video games. But this “rotting” must be viewed through a broader lens. Gen Zers are struggling, and their struggles will cost the country dearly.

By 2025, Gen Z will account for just over one-quarter of the global workforce. That’s bad news for everyone. It’s especially bad news if you happen to live in America.

A recent CNBC report highlights the many ways in which Gen Zers lack skills other generations take for granted. These digital natives may be able to create a good meme or take a mean selfie, but when faced with other actual human beings, they crumble.

Tara Salinas, a professor of business ethics at the University of San Diego, told CNBC that Gen Zers have “always communicated online,” and for this reason, “their interpersonal skills, or soft skills, have suffered.” COVID-19, she added, certainly made the problem many times worse.

It’s easy to scoff at Gen Z. So many articles have been written about this seemingly fragile generation. But it’s important to realize that it’s not all their fault. Many Gen Zers are products of an utterly hopeless education system.

As the author and prominent psychologist Daniel Goleman has noted, 67 percent of the skills that employers are looking for in their employees are in the area of social and emotional intelligence (soft skills), yet schools spend less than 2 percent of an average school week teaching and developing these skills. In many schools, noted Goleman, they don’t spend any time developing these skills.

The importance of a soft skill such as emotional intelligence (EI) can’t be emphasized enough. Strong EI is vital for a healthy, meaningful existence. Before going any further, though, it’s important to get our definitions in order. People high in EI are able to identify, manage, and control their own emotions. Furthermore, they’re able to identify and understand the emotions of those around them.

According to experts at Harvard (pdf), high EI is a protective factor for suicidal behavior. Difficulties with emotion regulation are intimately associated with suicidal ideation. Not surprisingly, considering so many Gen Zers lack adequate levels of EI, they tend to suffer from depression and commit suicide at higher rates than members of other generations. A 2018 study carried out by Spanish psychologists argued that EI should be integrated into suicide prevention programs. But I would go one step further. EI should be integrated into the entire education system. The development of EI should be of prime importance to all educators, from kindergarten teachers to university professors.

Which prompts the question: How does one actually teach EI?

Key elements of EI include self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. Self-awareness is a thinking skill, one that focuses on an individual’s ability to accurately judge his or her own thoughts and behaviors and respond appropriately. As obvious as it sounds, the more accurately an individual can evaluate their actions and behaviors, the better equipped they are to face the challenges of the world. The same goes for a person with a strong capacity for self-regulation. Those who score high on self-regulation have the ability to identify a strong emotion and respond in a manner that has the least negative consequences. Instead of throwing a tantrum when denied something, for example, a child can be taught to ask why they were denied the request. A lack of emotional self-regulation skills can lead to self-destructive behaviors later in life, such as drug abuse and alcoholism.

As is clear to see on college campuses across the country, both self-awareness and self-regulation are in short supply. Many of the young people who lack discipline are products of a failed education system. They enjoy harping on about the importance of inclusion, respect, and tolerance, yet become increasingly flustered when their opinions are challenged.

An effective EI program teaches children how to communicate effectively. It teaches them that, more often than not, listening is more important than talking. The United States, like so many other countries, is a nation populated by conversational narcissists, people who genuinely love the sound of their own voices. If we’re always talking, then we’re rarely, if ever, listening—and that’s a problem.

Listening affects virtually every aspect of an individual’s life, from academic performance to job performance to romantic relationships. The average American spends about 45 percent of their communication time listening (or not listening) and roughly 30 percent of the time talking (the rest of the time is spent reading and writing). Yet, for some reason, the education system fails to teach the children of today and the adults of tomorrow how to actually listen.

Denise Daniels, creator of The Moodsters, the first evidence-based global children’s brand to address emotional literacy and resilience in young people, told me that “children’s emotions are the cornerstone of children’s positive mental health, which is the number one issue facing children in the U.S. and around the world.”

Daniels, a Peabody award-winning broadcast journalist, parenting and child development expert, and author who specializes in the social and emotional development of children, recently returned from Washington, DC where she was invited to work on children’s emotions and policy issues with the America First Policy Institute. In other words, when it comes to the importance of EI, Daniels knows what she’s talking about.

“Today,” she said, “when the lives of children have been upended—by the pandemic, by social media, by grief and loss—children need age-appropriate emotional coping skills more than ever.” But to actually develop these skills, she concluded, “children need a strong foundation in emotional literacy: the ability to understand and manage their own complex feelings, and to recognize those of others.”

This is where schools come in. In these highly turbulent times, with people of all ages and political beliefs locking horns over various issues, we need more resilient citizens, the type of people willing to listen to the other side and channel their own emotions in a constructive manner.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said that eight Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes came close to Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which extends 24 nautical miles off the island’s coast.

Since then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited Taiwan in August, PLA warplanes have regularly crossed the median line, an informal barrier that separates the two sides of the Taiwan Strait that the PLA used to avoid. But there have been no reports of Chinese aircraft entering Taiwan’s contiguous zone.

The Taiwanese Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter that Taiwan’s “Armed Forces detected 19 PLA aircraft (including J-10, J-16, etc.), eight of which crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and approached the 24-nautical-mile line.”

China has kept up the military pressure on Taiwan as the US has continued to increase support for Taipei, including the deployment of about 200 US troops to the island, the largest-known US military presence in Taiwan since 1979.

Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said earlier this year that China will use Taiwan’s growing military and diplomatic ties as an excuse to fly closer to the island. Chiu expected the PLA to enter the contiguous zone if House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) visited Taiwan.

McCarthy ended up hosting Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California in April instead of traveling to Taiwan. The meeting provoked major Chinese military exercises around Taiwan, but they were not as extensive as the drills launched by the PLA in response to the Pelosi visit.

Chiu said that if PLA warplanes enter the contiguous zone, Taipei would “restrain ourselves from launching the first strike to avoid giving China an excuse to attack Taiwan.”

But if Chinese aircraft enter Taiwan’s airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from its coast, Chiu said Taiwanese forces would respond.

Taiwan’s @MoNDefense says eight Chinese warplanes flew close to 24 nautical miles of Taiwan’s coast — just 12 nautical miles from Taiwan’s territorial air space. pic.twitter.com/ChI4O4Brr0

— TaiwanPlus (@taiwanplusnews) June 24, 2023

“We would be forced to respond should Chinese military vessels and aircraft come near or enter the nation’s airspace and territorial waters, even if they are in disputed areas,” he said.

On Sunday, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink revealed at the Aspen Ideas Festival that he had abandoned the term “ESG” (environment, social, and governance) because it has been highly politicized and even “weaponized,” and he is “ashamed” to be part of the debate, according to Axios. 

Fink acknowledged at the event that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to yank $2 billion in assets hurt his firm. Gov. DeSantis pulled state assets managed by the world’s largest money manager in late 2022 over “woke” capitalism policies. 

Lawmakers from red states have called out BlackRock for its toxic woke capitalism push in corporate America. Besides Florida, states like Louisiana, South Carolina, Utah, Arkansas, West Virginia, Missouri, and Texas have withdrawn funds from the asset manager. 

Recall Fink was very nervous earlier this year over the ‘demonization‘ of ESG. 

Last month, seventeen Republican state attorneys filed a motion with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to dispute whether BlackRock could purchase more than $10 million voting stakes in utility companies. 

“These elitists are trying to impose restrictions on energy companies and utilities that would never win approval at the ballot box. 

“Their schemes could raise utility bills for regular Americans, including elderly Hoosiers on fixed incomes, and they could diminish the value of their investment accounts,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement last month. 

Fink, 70, said he was “ashamed of being part of this conversation,” adding:

“When I write these [investment] letters, it was never meant to be a political statement. … They were written to identify longterm issues to our longterm investors.” 

Of course, that’s nonsense. Fink has been at the center of pushing ‘climate change’ policies and has even said his company would “force behaviors” on corporate America. 

And then there’s this… 

Video: Blackrock CEO Larry Fink: “Markets don’t like uncertainty, markets like totalitarian governments…” pic.twitter.com/Hss50R4ita

— James Lindsay, king of your mom (@ConceptualJames) June 25, 2023

Axios said at the event: 

When pressed on the statement later in the conversation, Fink backtracked.

“I never said I was ashamed,” he said, incorrectly. “I’m not ashamed. I do believe in conscientious capitalism.”

“I’m not going to use the word ESG because it’s been misused by the far left and the far right,” he added.

Fink isn’t ashamed of ESG… He’s furious the scheme to ram woke capitalism down corporations through voting proxies has hit a serious snag and generated serious blowback from lawmakers and average Americans.

Here are some of BlackRock’s top holdings. 

The billionaire will always champion ESG.

It will just be rebranded under another name. 

ESG rebranding (to “conscientious capitalism”) underway. Pat yourselves on the back for making some progress.

PS: Larry Fink hates this attention, so keep it on him.https://t.co/1v2sbFCqYw

— James Lindsay, king of your mom (@ConceptualJames) June 26, 2023

Authored by Lloyd Billingsley via American Greatness,

Back in 1986, members of the Reagan cabinet said they were willing to take drug tests to set an example for federal workers and the public. That caught the attention of Jay Leno, who recommended IQ tests instead. Better still, Wayne Allyn Root now contends, would be lie detector tests, an idea that “threatens the power structure of the entire American political system and U.S. government.” 

Politicians have sold us out, Root believes, and to save the nation we must demand that politicians and government officials face off with the polygraph. Root’s questions include:

• Are you now, or have you ever been on China’s payroll? Or the CCP payroll?

• Are you now, or have you ever been on the payroll of the Mexican drug cartels?

• Are any of your family members or friends on any of these foreign payrolls?

• Do you have an offshore bank account? Does anyone in your family accept payoffs in an offshore account?

• Do you accept illegal campaign contributions from any foreign interests?

• Are you on the payroll of any Big Pharma company or vaccine manufacturer? Do you have family members or friends on the Big Pharma payroll or receiving stock or stock options from Big Pharma?

• Are you being blackmailed, or have you ever been blackmailed?

• Have you given government contracts to spouses, family members or friends?

• Have you passed inside information on public companies to family or friends, and shared in the profits?

• Are you 100 percent loyal to the interests of America and your constituents?

Examiners could also ask:

• Have you ever employed a Chinese spy on your staff for 20 years?

• Have you ever demanded that Facebook or Twitter take down a post?

• Did you ever falsely claim to have served in Vietnam?

And so on.

Root believes “we’d have to replace virtually the entire House, Senate, every federal judge and every government bureaucrat.” That may be a stretch but the test itself is on solid ground.  

Candidates for the Border Patrol are required to undergo polygraph tests. The FBI has used polygraph tests since 1935 and ramped them up in the wake of FBI spy Robert Hanssen, who eluded the agency for at least 15 years. The CIA uses polygraph tests in the hiring process and for security clearances. A polygraph examiner for the CIA conducts two sessions per day in an “unrelenting job” that can require duty abroad.

Politicians make laws, spend the people’s money, deal with foreign adversaries and swear to uphold the Constitution. So it’s entirely reasonable that politicians face the polygraph, and current conditions also make a case for DNA tests, which don’t lie. Consider, for example, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Her claim to be a Cherokee was the basis for her career, from law school to Harvard—which proclaimed Warren a “woman of color”—to the U.S. Senate. As a DNA test before her first run for office would have shown, Warren is not a Cherokee. Despite the blatant falsehood, Warren failed to resign, remained in the Senate, and ran for president.

San Diego Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, a two-time candidate for Congress, is the grandson of Muhammad Abu Youssef al-Najjar, mastermind of the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics that claimed the lives of 11 Israeli athletes. Ammar’s father, Yaser al-Najjar, was also a fugitive but Ammar claims he moved to the United States and married a Mexican woman.

Candidate Ammar, who also lived in Gaza, has billed himself as a “Palestinian Mexican” and “Latino Arab American.” A DNA test would clear it up but the candidate has not volunteered.  Ammar recently lost a race for mayor of Chula Vista and former California Senate boss Kevin de Leon recently survived a recall effort on the Los Angeles city council.

Back in 2017, de Leon suddenly claimed his father Andres was a Chinese cook born in Guatemala, where his mother Carmen Osorio was also born. A DNA test would have revealed the truth, but no such test took place.

Questions about origins must also include the president David Garrow chronicled in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. Back around 2008, the Hillary Clinton campaign floated a rumor that the former Barry Soetoro had been born abroad, and was therefore not eligible to be president. That turned out to be false, and the “birthers” were wrong. The real question was the identity of the father.

The poet “Frank” in Dreams from My Father turns out to be Frank Marshall Davis, an African American Communist who dedicated most of his life to an all-white Soviet dictatorship. Garrow raised the issue and revealed that Dreams from My Father was a work of “historical fiction” and the author a “composite character.”

The Kenya section borrows heavily from I Dreamed of Africa and African Nights, by Italian writer Kuki Gallmann. The written materials of the Kenyan Barack Obama, housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem and covering the years 1958-1964, make not a single mention of a white American wife and Hawaiian-born son.

Malik Obama, son of the Kenyan, wondered if the president could be “a fraud and a con,” and in 2015 Malik said he was willing to take a DNA test. So far no response from the composite character, the most powerful man in the world for eight years, aiming to fundamentally transform the United States of America.

“If you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan,” said the composite character president in 2009, and on many other occasions.

“Read my lips, no new taxes,” said George H. W. Bush in 1988. No need for a polygraph to detect those lies. And as some folks might remember: “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford Administration,” said the president of the United States in 1976.

That one is hard to top. Maybe Jay Leno was on to something.

It’s extremely hot in Texas this afternoon. As of 1630 local time Monday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid manager, reported electricity demand hit a record high of 80,200 megawatts as millions of people cranked up their air conditioners to escape triple-digit temperatures. 

The previous record for demand was 80,148 megawatts last July. “That marked the 11th time last summer electricity demand broke the all-time record, and was the first time Texas had exceeded 80,000 megawatts,” the Houston Chronicle said. 

Bloomberg data shows high temperatures across the state will average over 100 degrees Fahrenheit through the end of the month. 

The reason for the scorching temperatures is because of a weather system called a “heat dome” that stalled over Texas, Oklahoma, and parts of Mexico. The system will shift to Arkansas, Louisiana, and Kansas early next month. 

The strong high pressure (heat dome) over Texas and Mexico will move northeast, this could bring our hottest temperatures of 2023 so far. Weather Alert days for heat and humidity Thursday and Friday. High temperatures near 100 degrees with the feels like temperature up to 107. pic.twitter.com/o5Ff8Opa1s

— Jim CastilloPhillips (@JimCastilloKSDK) June 26, 2023

ERCOT is vulnerable to extreme weather and has so far held up, as half of the electricity generated on the grid today is derived from natural gas-fired power plants, with another 20% from coal and nuclear plants. About 11% came from wind, and 14% came from solar. 

Earlier this month, “Texas Grid Faces First Big Test As Record Power Demand Imminent On Triple-Digit Temp Threat.” And ERCOT survived. Now the next big test is underway.