Category: NEWS
Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs are a sham
Don’t count Bill Gates among the fans of cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/15/tech/bill-gates-crypto-nfts-comments/index.html
FDA panel recommends Moderna and Pfizer COVID vaccines for the youngest kids
An FDA panel found Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID vaccine safe and effective for the littlest children, paving the way for shots next week.
Rep. Sean Casten says his 17-year-old daughter Gwen died peacefully in her sleep
The Illinois Democrat said his oldest daughter, Gwen Casten, went to bed Sunday night and never woke up in a heartbreaking statement Wednesday. …read more
https://nypost.com/2022/06/15/rep-sean-casten-says-17-year-old-daughter-gwen-died-in-sleep/
The U.S. overestimated Russia’s military might. Is it underestimating China’s?
The U.S. failure to correctly predict how the Russian and Ukrainian militaries would perform in the early stages of their ongoing war is fueling fears in Washington that America may have major blindspots when it comes to the fighting force of an increasingly powerful adversary: China.
The concerns are rising as American spy agencies are reexamining how they assess foreign militaries, and, according to a Biden administration official, are a key driver of a number of ongoing classified reviews. U.S. lawmakers are among those who’ve requested the intelligence reviews, and some have concerns about China in particular.
China’s communist government is secretive about many of its military capabilities, and it is believed to be closely watching and learning from Russia’s botched opening act in Ukraine. The post-9/11 U.S. emphasis on counterterrorism and the Arab world has undercut efforts to spy on China, former officials and analysts say, leaving some agencies with too few Mandarin speakers. Beijing also has dismantled some American intelligence networks, including reportedly executing more than a dozen CIA sources“,”link”:{“target”:”NEW”,”attributes”:[],”url”:”https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/world/asia/china-cia-spies-espionage.html”,”_id”:”00000181-6a75-d00d-a9a3-eaff8e030003″,”_type”:”33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df”},”_id”:”00000181-6a75-d00d-a9a3-eaff8e030004″,”_type”:”02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266″}’>reportedly executing more than a dozen CIA sources starting in 2010.
Growing U.S. worries that China will sooner rather than later attack Taiwan as part of a broader effort to eclipse American power in the Pacific make the topic of Beijing’s military prowess more salient than ever, said lawmakers and eight current and former officials interviewed for this story. The concerns about a lack of U.S. understanding of China’s military are compounded by the fact that the People’s Liberation Army has not fought in a war in more than 40 years.
China has undertaken an extraordinary modernization of its armed forces over the past decade. The country now has the world’s largest navy in terms of ship numbers, with an overall force of roughly 355 vessels including more than 145 large warships as of 2021, according to the Pentagon’s most recent annual report“,”link”:{“target”:”NEW”,”attributes”:[],”url”:”https://media.defense.gov/2021/Nov/03/2002885874/-1/-1/0/2021-CMPR-FINAL.PDF”,”_id”:”00000181-6a75-d00d-a9a3-eaff8e030005″,”_type”:”33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df”},”_id”:”00000181-6a75-d00d-a9a3-eaff8e030006″,”_type”:”02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266″}’>Pentagon’s most recent annual report on China’s military power. Meanwhile, the People’s Liberation Army has grown to roughly 975,000 active-duty personnel, and the nation’s aviation force totals over 2,800 aircraft, including stealth fighters and strategic bombers. China began fielding its first operational hypersonic weapons system, the DF-17, in 2020, and its nuclear arsenal is projected to grow to at least 1,000 warheads by 2030.
The U.S. closely tracks developments in China’s military might. But what officials know less about is what Beijing intends to do with this increasingly powerful fighting force.
“This is hard, but at the end of the day, I do think there’s lots of scope for us to ask if we can learn,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee. “It would have been nice, at least on the non-human factors, to have had a clearer view of what was going to happen in Ukraine, and there’s probably lessons to be learned there with respect to China.”
Added Rep. …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/15/china-military-00039786
Gunman who killed El Monte police officers faced probation violation at time of shooting
The gunman who killed the El Monte Police Department’s Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana was on probation, according to court records.
Suspect in Burlington attack in which LAPD killed young bystander was on meth, autopsy shows
The suspect whose attack at an L.A. store prompted an LAPD shooting that killed him and a 14-year-old bystander was on methamphetamine, according to an autopsy.
Trump-backed challenger beats GOP incumbent in South Carolina; Maine, North Dakota, Nevada voted in primaries: recap
South Carolina GOP Rep. Tom Rice voted to impeach Donald Trump over January 6. Rice lost his primary to Trump-backed challenger Russell Fry.
Next stop on Trump’s primary warpath: Michigan
The next battle along former President Donald Trump’s impeachment revenge warpath is a GOP primary contest in western Michigan featuring a lopsided fundraising contest that favors one of his biggest congressional enemies — Rep. Peter Meijer.
Meijer—a first-term Republican who voted to impeach Trump—on Wednesday debuts his inaugural television ad of the cycle, shared first with POLITICO.
Titled “Pure Michigan,” it highlights Meijer’s Iraq deployment in the Army Reserves and hints that he supports some of the former president’s signature policies, including building a border wall, but without mentioning Trump. “I am fighting for the values that run through every community and every person in West Michigan,” Meijer says.
“I’m running on my record as a proven conservative who is committed to upholding the Constitution and delivering results for West Michigan, and our first TV ad underscores this dedication,” Meijer told POLITICO in a statement.
Meijer, who is squaring off against John Gibbs, a Trump-endorsed former Housing and Urban Development official, has outraised his challenger by a more than 10-to-1 margin in the Grand Rapids-based district. Meijer has a $1.5 million war chest to Gibbs’ $81,000, and the incumbent has reserved $650,000 in television and radio ads through the Aug. 2 primary. On Tuesday, the ad-tracking firm AdImpact reported a $37,365 buy from Meijer in the Grand Rapids media market.
Meijer’s primary campaign is yet another test of whether Trump’s endorsement can elevate a MAGA challenger not just with voters but among donors, and of the former president’s sway in a district that skews suburban and Democratic.
Meijer isn’t the only candidate in Trump’s crosshairs for supporting his impeachment. On Tuesday in South Carolina, Rep. Tom Rice, who joined Meijer and eight other House Republicans in voting for Trump’s impeachment for his actions on Jan. 6, failed to advance to a runoff against state Rep. Russell Fry, whom Trump endorsed—a possible bad omen for Meijer’s chances.
Meijer and Rice, though, have taken different tacks toward messaging their impeachment votes. While Meijer doesn’t sidestep his vote, he also hasn’t made it the cornerstone of his re-election bid. Instead, Meijer has focused on President Joe Biden’s record on supply chain disruptions, inflation, and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, where Meijer flew last August on an unauthorized, secret bipartisan junket with Massachusetts Democrat and fellow veteran Rep. Seth Moulton. Rice, by contrast, has drawn attention to his impeachment vote during campaign events.
In Michigan, it’s increasingly evident that Trump’s endorsement of Gibbs has failed to spark a fundraising spree. For his main committee account, Gibbs has raised $227,502 since launching his campaign last November, compared to Meijer’s $2.3 million over the election cycle to date. Gibbs’s Great Lakes Leadership Committee—a joint-fundraising committee run by Jason Boles, the campaign’s treasurer who fulfills similar roles for Trump-aligned candidates Herschel Walker for Senate and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia—raised $292,341 at a fundraiser held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this year. It remains unclear how much Gibbs’s campaign will pocket from that haul. All together, Gibbs has …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/15/next-stop-on-trumps-primary-warpath-michigan-00039688
Amber Heard says she still loves Johnny Depp despite ‘total global humiliation’
“I did the right thing,” the defiant actress told NBC News of losing her legal battle after accusing exJohnny Depp of yearslong domestic violence. …read more
https://nypost.com/2022/06/15/amber-heard-i-still-love-johnny-depp-despite-humiliation/
Legendary Bruce Smith completely classless in belittling Hall of Fame election of Tony Boselli | Opinion
Some words to describe the tenor of Bruce Smith’s message directed at Tony Boselli: despicable, naïve, repugnant, astonishing, unseemly and classless.