Biden’s Electric Vehicle ‘Mandate’ Might Just Be A Surprise Gift To China

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The Biden administration has put in place regulations that would require many Americans to adopt electric vehicles (EV) in the coming years despite U.S. companies struggling to produce the products, leading some experts to wonder if vehicles from China will be needed to meet current goals.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized emission standards in late March for light-duty vehicles that would effectively require 67% of new models sold to be electric or hybrid by the end of 2032 in hopes of speeding up an EV transition to reduce carbon emissions. The regulations are in spite of sluggish American EV demand that has led to both concerning losses and slowdowns in production for automakers, with both Tesla and Rivian missing production expectations for the first quarter of 2024.

China’s EV industry could fill the gap left by the lagging U.S. market, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“China’s EV production would pose no risk to American consumers or U.S. geopolitical security if we had a free market allowing U.S. companies to concentrate on their comparative advantage in pickups, SUVs, and minivans, and allowing consumers to decide which types of vehicles best meet their needs,” Marlo Lewis, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the DCNF. “EV mandates, however, create a captive market for EV producers, and China is today the world’s top EV producer.”

BYD, China’s top EV maker, has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years, with yearly profits growing 80.72% year-over-year in 2023 amid global expansion, but has so far been priced out of the American market due to current restrictions. EVs and hybrids made up 30% of all Chinese car sales during the first 11 months of 2023.

China also has broad command over the current EV supply chain due to its control over minerals needed to build batteries required for electric vehicles. The country currently controls 87% of the world’s mineral refining capacity, with U.S. attempts to increase its own capacity not yet yielding sufficient results.

The Biden administration has sought to incentivize the purchase and manufacturing of certain American EV models with a $7,500 tax credit in an effort to drive down costs for consumers, conditioning the subsidy on manufacturers not using a certain level of components from foreign entities of concern, like China. Despite incentives and mandates, sales for new EVs in the U.S. grew only 2.7% in the first quarter, below the 5% that sales for all new vehicles grew, leading to a drop in auto market share to 7.1% for EVs.

Automakers, including Bentley, GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Honda, have scaled back their previous EV goals as consumers decline to buy the product.

“So, if U.S. manufacturers are forced to keep making high-priced EVs, their market share could contract while BYD’s increases,” Lewis told the DCNF. “Global auto industry leadership would shift from the United States to China. California and EPA’s EV campaign could end up helping fulfill China’s ambition to be the world’s leading superpower.”

The Biden administration has also put forward restrictions on heavy-duty vehicles, like trucks, that effectively require at least 25% of new long-haul trucks and 40% of all new medium-sized trucks to be electric or zero-emission by 2032.

Several American auto manufacturers have posted huge losses due to EV development and sales, including Ford, which lost $4.7 billion on EVs in 2023, losing nearly $65,000 on each EV that it sold. General Motors lost $1.7 billion in just the fourth quarter of 2023, despite strong profits overall.

“Americans rely on too many critical goods and raw materials from China, which is why we need to ‘strategically decouple’ from CCP supply chains as soon as practicable,” Adam Savit, director of the China Policy Initiative at the American First Policy Institute, told the DCNF. “That goes most especially for critical high-tech and defense needs, such as semiconductors, AI, quantum computing, and rare earth elements. U.S. policymakers have made us increasingly dependent on EVs for transportation, so as long as such policies are in place, we must decouple from CCP EV supply chains as well.”

Savit pointed to the current tariffs on EVs as the reason Chinese EV makers have been unable to break into the U.S. market and are unlikely to if current trade restrictions were to remain the same. The Trump administration put in place a 25% import tax on EVs, which Biden has so far kept in place.

BYD has sought to infiltrate the American market through possibly building EV plants in Mexico, which, under current restrictions, could skirt around tariffs, delivering EVs that could compete with even gas-powered vehicles in terms of price to American buyers. Chinese EVs are also often of lesser quality, have access to cheaper materials and can utilize less expensive labor.

“Even American-made EVs are produced with a lot of Chinese inputs, including critical minerals,” Savit told the DCNF. “Many EV-related CCP supply chains are tied to human rights abuses and forced labor in Xinjiang.”

Former President Trump, in a campaign speech in mid-March, called for putting a 100% tariff on every single car manufactured outside the U.S., which would severely hamper China’s ability to sell in the country, while also reducing competition for domestic manufacturers, according to CNN.

Chinese EVs have already made large headwinds in the European market, with around 19.4% of EVs sold on the continent in 2023 being made in China, which is expected to rise to 25% by the end of 2024, according to an analysis from the European Federation for Transportation and Environment. The European Union announced in September 2023 that it had launched an investigation over whether to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese EVs due to artificially cheap prices from state subsidies, according to Reuters.

The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

For Elon Musk and His Disciples, Mars Is Heaven

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Auguste Meyrat: The Tesla founder is one of the richest and most celebrated men in the world, yet he also has to be one of the loneliest and saddest, bereft of community, meaning, and love.

In terms of revolutionizing the world and pushing humanity forward, Elon Musk has easily been one of the most consequential figures in the last decade. Not only did he make electric vehicles profitable, but he somehow also did the same with rocket science. At the moment, Musk is busy developing self-driving cars, neural transmitters, and high-functioning androids.

Thus, it is right and just that an acclaimed biographer like Walter Isaacson tells the Musk story. The example of a self-made visionary overcoming obstacles is nothing short of inspiring. More importantly, his experience as a member of Generation X (those between 45 and 60) is representative of many in his age group.

Naturally, the biography emphasizes Musk’s technical genius and indomitable will. At so many junctures in his life, Musk drives both himself and his employees to do amazing things, like produce thousands of Teslas in an impossibly short timeframe or design a reusable rocket that can safely transport astronauts to the international space station.

These great feats, however, often come at great human cost, with Musk and his crew often hitting the breaking points of sanity and emotional stability. In such moments, Musk goes into “demon mode,” brutally criticizing and firing employees, denouncing and mocking the competition, and desperately looking to distract himself from a deep internal darkness (usually through work).

Although Musk and his biographer will attribute these manic episodes to his undiagnosed Aspergers Syndrome or his commitment to greatness, a Christian would rightly conclude that almost all of his personal turmoil stems from the absence of a spiritual life.

Musk is one of the richest and most celebrated men in the world, yet he also has to be one of the loneliest and saddest, bereft of community, meaning, and love. At one point, he told admirers: “I’d be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure how many people would actually like to be me. The amount I torture myself is next level, frankly.”

Like many of his generation, Musk, 52, grew up in a broken household. He had a callous, emotionally abusive father and a vain, passive mother. Inevitably, they divorced as their children reached adolescence. Musk technically attended a Christian school in South Africa, but his family never went to church. Instead of learning how to pray and cultivate virtue, he learned how to fight and write programs. Upon experiencing “existential depression” as a teenager, he found solace in reading The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and playing video games.

This background made him tough, resourceful, and well-positioned to thrive in America in the 90s and 00s, but it also made him temperamental and restless. Again, like many in his generation, he filled the hole in his heart with an addiction to work and video games. This led him to make his first fortune with Zip2, then another with PayPal, then another with SpaceX, and then another with Tesla. Each time, he would launch a project “surge,” mandating long hours, maximizing efficiency, berating employees, and constantly taking risks.

Rather than being motivated by fame or fortune, Musk was driven by something much greater: faith. Except that the faith he embraced was the nebulous idea of human “progress,” not organized religion. Judging from his comments, his idea of heaven includes cyborg humans, friendly non-woke robots, spaceships going to Mars, and gloriously high birthrates. It’s a vision somewhat like Ray Bradbury’s short story, “Mars Is Heaven!,” but without the tragic ending.

Despite his uncompromising disposition, Musk has disciples who look up to him as a kind of messiah. As one might imagine, those close to Musk have the same outlook on life as he does. They go “hardcore” with their duties, dispense with personal attachments, and attempt to do the impossible. In a revealing exchange between Musk’s longtime employees, one of them admitted, “I was burned out [working at Tesla]. But after nine months [elsewhere], I was bored, so I called my boss and begged him to let me come back. I decided I’d rather be burned out than bored.”

Somewhere up in heaven, Blaise Pascal, who once wrote that “All man’s troubles come from not knowing how to sit still in one room,” is likely shaking his head and sighing at these poor souls. While they have applied their remarkable brainpower to things that Musk proudly declares are “far cooler than whatever is the second coolest,” they have sacrificed the very thing that makes them human in the first place: relationships, contentment, and purpose.

At what point can people finally settle down and rest in their accomplishments? When does the constant striving end? What would have to happen to Elon Musk or his disciples for people to realize that this is not a good model for a rich and fulfilling life? If constant work is the way to heaven, does that mean retirement is the way to hell? Was Ayn Rand right after all that our world is lifted by atlases and fountainheads simply being their brilliant selves?

Put simply, the hustle never stops. Of course, it could be worse. One of Musk’s many envious opponents in business or government could take him down and impose on all of us a drab, regressive police state that opposes human achievement and independence. This possibility has made most conservatives generally supportive of Musk who at least believes in free speech, industry, free markets, and humanity.

It’s important to realize, however, that human life could be made better, yet Musk will not be the world’s savior. The real progress to be made by society does not reside in rockets and robots, but in community and contemplation. True, these goods can coincide and complement one another, but the former should not overtake the latter. Before man was made for work, he was made for love.

Let’s hope that Elon Musk and the many who share his post-Christian faith in technology and themselves will come to realize this before they burn out for good.

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Brad Miner Godless Space

AUTHOR

Auguste Meyrat

Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in Humanities and an MEd in Educational Leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Thinker, and The American Conservative as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

EDITORS NOTE: This Catholic Thing column is republished with permission, © 2024 The Catholic Thing. All rights reserved. For reprint rights, write to: info@frinstitute.org. The Catholic Thing is a forum for intelligent Catholic commentary. Opinions expressed by writers are solely their own.

New England’s Last Coal Plants Set to Close

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“And ultimately the impact is going to be less reliable electricity, higher prices for Americans … it’s going to have a disproportionate impact on the poor.” — Ayn Rand, Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution.

“There’s a concerted effort to shift away from reliable sources of electricity generation to unreliable sources. And ultimately the impact is going to be less reliable electricity, higher prices for Americans — it’s going to have a disproportionate impact on the poor.” — Daren Bakst, Director, Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment.

‘Earning heavy criticism’ from some experts who noted the importance of having baseload, dispatchable power generation. While renewable sources like wind and solar are intermittent, or heavily dependent on weather conditions, coal, natural gas and nuclear can quickly be turned on in times of high demand.

According to the Energy Information Administration, coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants produce 49%, 54% and 93% of their listed capacity, respectively, while solar panels produce just 25% and wind turbines produce 34% of their listed capacity.

So when they run out of energy, red states should not bail them out.

Climate crap is all a big lie.

In Western Europe, in the preindustrial Middle Ages, man’s life expectancy was 30 years. In the nineteenth century, Europe’s population grew by 300 percent—which is the best proof of the fact that for the first time in human history, industry gave the great masses of people a chance to survive.

If it were true that a heavy concentration of industry is destructive to human life, one would find life expectancy declining in the more advanced countries. But it has been rising steadily. Here are the figures on life expectancy in the United States (from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company):

1900 – 47.3 years
1920 – 53 years
1940 – 60 years
1968 – 70.2 years (the latest figures compiled)

Anyone over 30 years of age today, give a silent “Thank you” to the nearest, grimiest, sootiest smokestacks you can find.

New England’s last coal plants set to shutter, ushering in era of green energy

Environmentalists cheered the announcement as a ‘breath of fresh air’

By Thomas Catenacci, Fox News, April 6, 2024:

The final coal-fired power plants in New England are slated to shutter in the coming years, making it the second region to phase out the energy source that powered the U.S. economy for decades.

In an announcement late last month, New Hampshire-based power provider Granite Shore Power said it had reached an agreement with federal officials to shutter its Schiller Station in 2025 and its Merrimack Station by mid-2028. The action underscores the region’s and, more broadly, the nation’s steady march toward a future dominated by green energy. Environmental activists have called for this change for years — energy advocates have warned against it.

Continue reading,

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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Bidenomics In One Lesson: Latest Job Gains Fueled By Foreign-Born Workers, Gov’t Employees

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Huge job gains reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in March were fueled largely by increases in government positions and employment of foreign-born workers.

The government added 71,000 jobs in March, a new all-time record and above the average of 52,000 over the last 12 months, bringing the total number of employees to 23,270,000, according to data from the BLS released Friday. The number of employed foreign-born workers increased by 112,000 in March, rising to 31,114,000 from 31,002,000 in February.

The U.S. added 303,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in March, far above economists’ expectations of 200,000, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 3.8% from 3.9%.

In total, the employment level for foreign-born workers has increased by 1,266,000 in the last year, while the number of native-born Americans has fallen by 651,000, according to the BLS. The unemployment rate for foreign-born workers is just 3.6%, while it is 4.0% for native-born workers.

The BLS does not record whether foreign-born workers are in the country legally and acknowledges that the survey likely includes illegal immigrants working in the U.S. The U.S. has experienced a surge in illegal immigration under President Joe Biden, with Border Patrol recording around two million migrant encounters at the southern border in just fiscal year 2023, up from 1.7 million in fiscal year 2021.

The growth of government jobs in March was followed by an 81,000 gain for health care jobs and a 49,000 increase in jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, according to the BLS. The number of jobs in both manufacturing and the information sector remained flat in the month.

March is the fifth month in a row that the number of people employed by the government has hit a new record, beating out the old record that was achieved in May 2010 of 22,996,000 due to a surge in temporary hiring for census collection. Government debt has continued to pile up under Biden, totaling over $34.6 trillion as of Wednesday, according to the Treasury Department.

The White House did not respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

WILL KESSLER

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Ford Puts Dent In Biden’s Plans To Expand EVs

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Ford Motor Corporation announced Thursday that it would be delaying the production of new electric vehicle (EV) models as domestic demand for electric cars falters, despite heavy federal investment.

Ford joined General Motors and Mercedes-Benz in reeling in its EV production strategy, pivoting instead to producing more hybrid vehicles, according to a Thursday press release. The high-profile retreats from the EV market follow billions in federal spending by the Biden administration aimed at supporting the industry.

“As the No. 2 EV brand in the U.S. for the past two years, we are committed to scaling a profitable EV business, using capital wisely and bringing to market the right gas, hybrid and fully electric vehicles at the right time,” Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said.

Ford’s EV division posted a $4.7 billion loss in 2023, before accounting for interest and taxes. The corporation’s gas and hybrid division, by contrast, posted a $7.5 billion profit, according to The New York Times.

“We have said our EV business needs to be profitable in its own right,” a Ford spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation, adding the delay of new models “support the development of a differentiated and profitable EV business over time.”

Auto manufacturers are responding to slowing growth in the EV sector.

EV sales only grew by 2.7% in the first quarter of 2024, a far cry from the 47% growth the vehicles saw in 2023, according to CBS News. Auto sales on the whole, meanwhile, grew by 5%.

“EV demand is growing, just at a slower rate than the industry forecast,” the Ford spokesperson said. “We expect continued growth in global Ford EV sales in 2024, though less than anticipated.”

General Motors and Mercedes-Benz have both delayed plans to transition to EV-only manufacturers.

As automakers retreat from EVs, and consumers react to them lukewarmly, taxpayers are left on the hook for the billions the Biden administration has spent subsidizing the vehicles.

The administration allocated $7.5 billion to build EV charging stations across the country, in accordance with the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill. Despite billions allotted, only seven stations have been built using those funds.

The Biden administration also made $12 billion available to automakers to repurpose existing factories to manufacture electric vehicles.

The White House wants 50% of all new cars sold by 2030 to be EVs. EVs only accounted for 7.1% of U.S. sales in the first quarter of 2024, down from the previous quarter, CBS News reported.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

California Raises Minimum Wage to $20 Per Hour, Massive Layoffs Ensue, Businesses Close

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This week, California raised the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20/hour.

The bloodbath has already begun.

Pizza Hut, Mods Pizza closed five of their CA branches, Fosters Freeze shut down and laid off all their employees. Vitality Bowls cut their staff in half and hiked their menu prices by 10%.

California: New $20 Minimum Wage Law For Fast Food Employees Scheduled To Take Effect On April 1st

By: Elizabeth Volberding, One America News, April 2024;

The minimum wage for fast food employees in California will increase to $20 per hour under a new law in the state, and employers claim that having to pay their employees more will now affect their customers as they are planning to raise prices and lay off workers.

On Monday, the minimum wage for fast food workers in California will increase to $20 per hour, providing many with a 25% pay increase from just the past week.

However, chains that “bake and prepare bread in-house to sell as a stand-alone menu item” are excluded from the new regulation.

Some of the largest food chains are impacted by the ruling, including McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Subway, and Starbucks. Local franchisees are now concerned about the rise in labor expenses.

Regarding the United States’ economy, fast food professions are among the lowest-paying, notwithstanding recent wage growth following decades of stagnation. Many of these workers are below the poverty line.

In order to cover the necessary wage rise, fast food restaurants such as Jack in the Box, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and McDonald’s stated that they intend to increase menu prices. Representatives stated that it is necessary for other business owners to do so as well in order to stay competitive.

“Even the tater tots, everything, the price is going to increase on that,” explained Brady Farmer, Chef Bradley Cook’s Catering Owner.

Although Farmer is not required to raise his minimum salary as a small business owner, he stated that he wants to treat his employees well and does not want them to quit. He went on to say that it will add up to cover that additional ground.

“Imagine the guy who has to go out and do that ten-hour job of all your shopping, organizing, driving around,” he said. “You get into an extra $20, $40 or $50, $100, or $200 dollars a day.”

McDonald’s employee Jaylene Loubett, who is based in Los Angeles, highlighted that her city is among the most costly in the state of California, which is also one of the most expensive states overall to live in.

“Even though it’s a big help, people need to realize that $20 compared to the cost of living in Los Angeles, it’s still not enough to feel secure,” said Loubett, 25, who has worked at McDonald’s for six years.

Continue reading

This is what will happen:

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: Exec At U.S. Battery Manufacturer Pictured At Chinese Communist Party Meetings

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A director of an American firm that’s building battery manufacturing plants in the U.S. has been pictured attending multiple Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meetings, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of the website of the firm’s China-based parent company.

Gotion Inc., the California-based subsidiary of Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion High-Tech Co. (Gotion High-Tech), is planning to build massive electric vehicle battery plants in Michigan and Illinois, both of which stand to benefit from taxpayer funding. Gotion Inc. Vice President Chuck Thelen has repeatedly denied any CCP ties, but a DCNF investigation found the company’s chief technology officer attended two CCP meetings in China.

Gotion Inc. Chief Technology Officer Steven Cai attended at least two meetings held by Gotion High-Tech’s internal CCP committee in 2022, the Chinese parent company’s website shows. Both meetings focused on studying and implementing CCP political directives within Gotion High-Tech, according to announcements on the firm’s website. During one meeting, executives watched a political speech delivered by CCP General Secretary and President of China Xi Jinping.

“If they’re attending Party committee meetings, they are, in all likelihood, a Party member,” John Dotson, deputy director of Global Taiwan Institute, told the DCNF. “If you’re attending the meetings, it’s because you’re supposed to be there.”

Thelen, for his part, has repeatedly denied any connections between Gotion Inc. and the CCP.

“Has the Communist Party penetrated this company? No,” Thelen said in April 2023, according to Michigan news outlet MLive.

Several months later, Politico reported Thelen saying “the Chinese Communist Party has no presence in the North American company.”

Gotion High-Tech, Gotion Inc., Cai and Thelen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘The Spirit Of The Party’

In October 2022, Gotion High-Tech’s CCP committee held a special study session for the CCP’s 20th National Congress at the firm’s headquarters in China’s Anhui province, according to an announcement on the firm’s website.

A description of the meeting in Gotion High-Tech’s 2022 ESG report states that “[d]uring this time, the company’s Party committee group, Party cadre and Party representatives from each Party branch watched the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony spectacular, and earnestly listened to the reports Xi Jinping delivered.” That’s according to a DCNF translation of the Chinese-language document.

A photo accompanying the announcement shows that the Party committee meeting was held in a large auditorium with a movie theater-sized screen displaying Xi’s speech broadcast by Chinese state-run media outlet CCTV News. During the meeting, Cai sat next to the Gotion High-Tech Chairman and Party Secretary Li Zhen. Also pictured was Gotion High-Tech Party-Mass Work Department Director Wu Yibing and Gotion High-Tech Deputy Party secretary Wang Yonghai.

“At any mid-size to larger enterprise, expect that the senior management are dual-hatted as CCP committee members,” Dotson said. “In cases where there’s a foreign subsidiary of a major Chinese company, the same basic rules apply.”

The following month, Gotion High-Tech’s internal CCP committee convened another meeting to “earnestly study and comprehend the spirit of the Party’s 20th Congress, as well as research and lay out the work implementation plan for each grassroots Party group level,” according to a November 2022 announcement.

During the meeting, Cai sat in front of a large, red hammer and sickle flag, a photo on the Gotion High-Tech’s website shows. Gotion High-Tech Provincial and Municipal Party Representative Yang Maoping and Wang Yonghai also attended the November 2022 meeting.

“Every Party group at our enterprise will study, publicize and carry out the spirit of the Party’s 20th National Congress as an important task,” Li Zhen said during the meeting, according to Gotion High-Tech’s website.

As the DCNF previously reported, Gotion High-Tech’s 2022 ESG internal report indicates the China-based firm employs 923 CCP members overseen by a Party committee, which is the largest grassroots CCP organization. In addition to Gotion High-Tech’s internal Party committee, the firm also hosts “two CCP general branches and 11 Party branches,” according to its 2022 ESG report.

Gotion High-Tech’s 2022 annual report identifies Steven Cai as Gotion Inc.’s chief technology officer. Separately, Cai is listed as a Gotion Inc. director in California and Michigan business filings. Likewise, Gotion Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer Peter Willemsen identifies Cai as the company’s CTO in a December 2022 LinkedIn post.

Cai is not listed on Gotion Inc.’s Illinois business filing, but was photographed standing beside Gotion High-Tech executives and Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker at the September 2023 launch of Gotion Inc.’s Illinois plant.

Gotion High-Tech’s website also lists Cai as the Chinese firm’s “director and deputy general manager.”

‘Party Committee’

Gotion Inc. is building a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Big Rapids, Michigan and a $2 billion plant in Manteno, Illinois.

The by-laws for Gotion High-Tech’s Party committee, which are detailed within the firm’s Articles of Association, say their CCP committee must “supervise the implementation of the Party’s guidelines” and lead “ideological,” “political” and “United Front work.”

So-called “United Front work” is a “unique blend of engagement, influence activities and intelligence operations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses to shape its political environment, including to influence other countries’ policy toward the PRC and to gain access to advanced foreign technology,” according to the House Select Committee on the CCP.

In January 2024, during a House Select Committee on the CCP hearing, former CIA Director Leon Panetta said the CCP would undoubtedly use the U.S.-based Gotion Inc. “for their own intelligence purposes.”

In addition to employing hundreds of CCP members, Gotion High-Tech has also run company field trips to CCP memorials where employees wore matching Red Army uniforms.

Gotion Inc. also hosts a so-called “Overseas Talent Work Station” within the firm’s California headquarters, which was established by a visiting CCP delegation in 2017. The Overseas Talent Work Station aims “to carry out Anhui province’s talent recruitment work,” the head of the visiting CCP delegation stated at its launch, according to a Gotion High-Tech announcement.

“CCP-tied Gotion, and its appendage in California, Gotion USA, are one and the same when it comes to the mandates of the CCP in Gotion’s Articles of Association,” Joseph Cella, a former U.S. ambassador and co-founder of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group, told the DCNF.

“In order for the Gotion ‘deal’ to get this far and survive, it involved lying and pretending,” Cella told the DCNF. “The light of truth is blazing down on this lie, and one way or another, it will crumble.”

AUTHOR

PHILIP LENCZYCKI

Investigative reporter.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Firm Tied To China’s Military Industrial Complex Plans To Roll Out Massive Battery Chemical Plants In US

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Swing-State Voters Overwhelmingly Trust Trump Over Biden On Pivotal Issues Ahead Of November Election: POLL

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Former President Donald Trump is leading President Joe Biden by large margins on key domestic issues across seven battleground states ahead of the November election, a poll released Tuesday evening found.

Trump is trouncing Biden by 20 points on handling of the economy, border security, inflation and the “mental and physical fitness needed to be President,” according to a Wall Street Journal survey among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Inflation and illegal immigration have surged since Biden took office in January 2021, and questions concerning the president’s mental fitness continue to mount.

Swing-state voters also said they trust Trump 14 and nine points more than Biden to handle the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, respectively, according to the poll.

The only issues polled that Biden led Trump on were abortion and “protecting democracy.” Biden was trusted by 12 points more on the issue of abortion, as well as one point on protecting democracy, the survey found.

Trump also led Biden in the poll for a general election matchup by one point in Georgia; three points in Michigan and Pennsylvania; four points in Nevada; five points in Arizona; and six points in North Carolina. The two were tied in Wisconsin at 46%.

When independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., “Justice for All Party” candidate Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Lars Mapstead were included, Trump’s leads grew in North Carolina and Georgia, according to the poll.

The former president’s margins stayed the same in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania with the third-party contenders on the ballot, while his lead dropped by one point in Michigan and Wisconsin fell to Biden.

Trump is currently leading Biden in the RealClearPolitics average for 2024 matchups in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia anywhere from 0.6 to 5.2 points.

The WSJ poll surveyed 4,200 registered voters across the swing states from March 17 to March 24 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.

Neither the Trump nor Biden campaigns immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.

AUTHOR

MARY LOU MASTERS

Contributor.

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California Restaurants Closing Fast — Communism Does Not Work!

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The Communist government operating out of Sacramento California is following the Hugo Chavez/Maduro playbook the former and current installed presidents of Communist controlled Venezuela.

My beautiful Venezuelan wife left Venezuela and was granted asylum in Colombia before relocating to the United States as a permanent legal resident.

She has watched her former country slowly succumb to the intentional collapse of its once thriving capitalist free market economy.

She commented to me that the Government of California and the current installed Marxist occupying the White House are no different in ideology than that of Maduro and Chavez.

She warns all freedom loving Americans to pay close attention to the unconstitutional Marxist actions of Governor Newson and his intentional destruction of free markets in California.

First the restaurants in Caracas Venezuela went out of business after government interference in the wages and Venezuelan labor market.

In Los Angeles and Beverly Hills like Caracas Venezuela restaurants are closing and laying off its workers. As 2023 ended and 2024 commenced the following restaurants went out of business.

West Third Street gastropub and wine bar 3rd Stop in Los Angeles closed its doors after 29 years in business.

The famous music venue Conga Room closed after 25 years in business in Los Angeles due to massive inflation and government interference in running its operation.

The famous restaurant El Torito’s in Santa Monica frequented by Hollywood movie stars closed permanently on March 9th 2024.

A popular daytime restaurant the Farm Of Beverly Hills closed on March 3 2024 after 26 years of business.

The Mezcal bar and taco cantina Mezcalero closed permanently on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles in early March 2024.

Nic’s on Beverly a plant based restaurant closed permanently on March 31st due to massive inflation on the rent and the mandatory $20 an hour minimum wage unconstitutional mandated by Governor Newsom’s Marxist government.

The Culver City bar closed permanently on March 16 2024 after 18 years of operation due to razor thin operating costs created by Governor Newsom’s anti capitalist idealism.

Ten Seven rolls a Vietnamese eatery in San Gabriel California that served delicious food like chả giò, bánh xèo, rice rolls, and smoked brisket pho went out of business on March 17th 2024.

Western City Bagel in Redondo Beach California closed permanently on March 31st 2024 in order to protect itself from the $20 an hour minimum wage debacle. It was in business for 30 years.

All of the following restaurants have also permanently closed in response to the Marxist ideology of Governor Newsom.

Josiah Citrin’s West Hollywood location of restaurant Charcoal permanently on February 17th 2024.

All the restaurants inside Downtown’s historic Hotel Figueroa closed permanently in February 2024 including Bar Magnolia, Cafe Fig, the Cafeteria, La Casita at Driftwood, and Sparrow Italia.

For 45 years, Caffe Roma has been a go to place for Italian food and coffee in the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills.

It was frequently patronized by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The restaurant announced its closure on January 1, 2024.

My friend, an immigrant from Germany moved to Venice California 30 years ago and he made his fortune there.

He walked around Beverly Hills yesterday April 2nd 2024 and he commented to me the town is slowly becoming an empty “For lease” town going bankrupt.

Beverly Hills Stores are closing and some entrepreneurs posted notices on doors and windows stating they have relocated to Nevada and Texas or they have permanently closed.

LA Eater’s Matthew Kang, Mona Holmes, and Rebecca Roland reported, “Los Angeles’s restaurants continue to face difficult headwinds that picked up in the second half of 2023 and led to an industry-wide slowdown. From the lingering impacts of the Hollywood strikes to adverse weather and increased costs (labor, rent, ingredients, etc.), a plethora of variables continue to batter restaurant owners who operate on razor-thin margins.”

Here is LA Eater’s running list of restaurant closures beginning from the last days of 2023 to March 2024.

March

3rd Stop – Beverly Grove

West Third Street gastropub and wine bar 3rd Stop told its workers this past Monday that it would be closing at the end of the month. Originally opened in 2006, the all-day restaurant served an array of American food, like grilled chicken nachos, burgers, pizza, and sandwiches.

Conga Room – Downtown LA

Legendary music venue Conga Room, which was instrumental in bringing Latin music acts and other performers to L.A. Live, closed after 25 years. The venue was originally located in Mid-Wilshire but moved to Downtown in 2008. Founder Brad Gluckstein told Billboard that inflation, high interest rates, and a drop in Convention Center traffic led to a changing business model. March 27 was the club’s final night.

El Muelle 8 – Downey

Celebrated Sinaloan seafood spot El Muelle 8 opened last February with pristine shellfish, ceviches, and tacos in a small Downey strip mall. The restaurant quietly closed earlier this year, likely in late January, without much notice. However, its new owners have reached out to Eater and confirmed that El Muelle 8 is plotting a comeback.

El Torito – Santa Monica

El Torito’s expansive restaurant in Santa Monica, which was originally branded as Acapulco and operated by Xperience Restaurant Group, closed on March 9, reports the Santa Monica Sun. Santa Monica mayor Phil Brock said on social media that it had been operating month-to-month for a while and that the property had likely been leased to another operator.

The Farm of Beverly Hills

Daytime eatery the Farm of Beverly Hills closed on March 3 after 26 years of business. Founder and owner Kelli Cotton thanked customers and bid farewell in a note, recognizing past and present staff for their dedication and passion. The reliable breakfast and lunch spot was a reasonably-priced, family-friendly eatery in the heart of the Golden Triangle.

Mezcalero – Downtown

Mezcal bar and taco cantina Mezcalero closed on Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles in early March, with a simple announcement that it would be closed for the weekend. However, Mezcalero never reopened and a note on its Instagram profile confirms it is closed. Originally opened in December 2016, the restaurant was opened by Jay Krymis, who also owned Padre in Long Beach and Fubar in West Hollywood, according to DTLA Weekly.

A lush outdoor patio at Nic’s on Beverly.

The patio of Nic’s on Beverly, a plant-based restaurant that closes March 31, 2024. Nic’s on Beverly

Nic’s – Beverly Grove

Plant-based restaurant Nic’s on Beverly opened five years ago in the former Terrine space from restaurateur Nic Adler, who also owns Monty’s Good Burger. Nic’s was going to close last June, blaming increased rent, but was able to make an arrangement with the landlord to stay open for another year. Its last day will be March 31 for Easter brunch.

Mandrake – Culver City

Culver City bar Mandrake closed on March 16 after 18 years of operation, according to the Los Angeles Times. Owners Flora Wiegmann, Drew Heitzler and Justin Beal cited life changes as the reason for closing, with Beal and Wiegman moving out of the state and Heitzler becoming a recent father. Mandrake represented the art scene in Culver City and greater Los Angeles, with a famous art curator coming up with the name for the bar.

Tenseven Rolls – San Gabriel

Tenseven Rolls, a bánh cuốn specialist inside Blossom Market Hall in San Gabriel, announced it would close on March 17. The Vietnamese snack spot also served chả giò, bánh xèo, rice rolls, and smoked brisket pho in the mostly Asian American vendor food hall in the heart of SGV. The stall originally opened in December 2022. The Klaude family said on Instagram that it hopes to appear at another venue in the future, with plans to serve at community events in the meantime.

Western City Bagel – Redondo Beach

Not to be confused with the much larger and still-in-operation Western Bagel, Western City Bagel in Redondo Beach announced that it will close on March 31 after 30 years. “While this chapter may be coming to a close, the memories we’ve shared and the connections we’ve made will forever remain close to our hearts,” the shop wrote on Instagram.

Bicyclette and Manzke – Pico Robertson

Manzke and its sister restaurant Bicyclette will close on March 1. Manzke opened in 2022 as a bastion for fine dining in the former Picca space serving a $225 10-course tasting menu and earning a Michelin star; Bicyclette transformed Sotto into a French bistro in 2021. With these latest closures, acclaimed chefs Walter and Margarita Manzke operate only one LA restaurant: the powerhouse République. Previously, the Manzkes closed Petty Cash Taquería after 10 years in October 2023, followed by the abrupt shutter of Sari Sari Store after seven years of business inside Grand Central Market in December 2023.

Banh Oui – Hollywood

Hollywood banh mi spot, Banh Oui, closed on February 13. The restaurant, which started as a pop-up, moved into the space in 2018. Over the years, it was known for its non-traditional takes on the Vietnamese sandwich, as well as its burger, fried chicken sandwich, and more.

Charcoal Sunset – West Hollywood

Josiah Citrin’s West Hollywood location of Charcoal suddenly closed on February 17 after less than a year in operation. Citrin attributed the closure to a rise in the costs of business in the neighborhood, and in a statement to Eater said that it was “a real bummer, to say the least.”

Flore – Silver Lake

Silver Lake’s 16-year-old plant-based restaurant Flore closed for good in late December and announced the closure via Instagram. Owner Miranda Megill opened the restaurant when Silver Lake’s was full of mostly independent businesses. After facing eviction from its original location in Sunset Junction in 2019, Megill moved the business into the shuttered Local space in 2020. Flore’s original location now houses mostly retail shops including clothing brand Maison Kitsune.

Hotel Figueroa (restaurants and bar) – Downtown

All the restaurants and bar inside Downtown’s historic Hotel Figueroa will close in February including Bar Magnolia, Cafe Fig, the Cafeteria, La Casita at Driftwood, and Sparrow Italia. The Los Angeles Times reported that Noble 33 (Casa Madera, Taco Madera), the third-party restaurant group that operates the hotel’s bar and restaurants, announced the closures in December, six days after its workers notified management that they intended to form a union.

Hyperion Public – Silver Lake

Silver Lake pub Hyperion Public closed on January 26. The owners shared via an Instagram post that the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control shut down the bar on January 16 and that they were unaware that the business was operating illegally.

Pearl River Deli – Chinatown

Chinatown’s modern Cantonese spot Pearl River Deli is no longer serving its beloved Hainan chicken rice, char siu pork belly, and Macau pork-chop bun. After opening in January 2020 in Far East Plaza and relocating to Chinatown Central Plaza, chef and owner Johnny Lee announced that Pearl River Deli will be on hiatus indefinitely and possibly forever.

Sakai Ramen Bar – Central LA

After nearly five years in business, Sakai Ramen closed on February 19. The restaurant announced the closure in an Instagram post and shared that the owners would be taking a break for the time being.

Shin – Hollywood

Hollywood’s decade-old Shin restaurant closed on February 4. Though best known for its ramen, the restaurant also prepared sushi and yakitori, including a $175 omakase option with cocktails.

Tokki – Koreatown

After 15 months inside Koreatown’s Chapman Plaza, Tokki closed on February 18. The modern Korean tapas restaurant opened in 2021 with chef Sunny Chang (Quince SF) at the helm, but she departed after just a few months. A part of the team then went on to open Liu’s café, which will remain open.

January

Atrium – Los Feliz

A dimly lit modern restaurant with pattered walls and dark green banquettes with some foliage.

Los Feliz restaurant Atrium, which opened in 2018 from Beau Laughlin and Jay Milliken, closed without warning on December 23, 2023. The stylish Los Feliz restaurant offered versatile dishes with international flavors in a high-ceiling space in a neighborhood that sorely lacks quality dining. Staff was notified of the closure just a few days before Christmas though outwardly Atrium hinted that it would reopen in the new year. Atrium has not reopened though its sister lounge space Pinky’s continues to operate.

Caffe Roma – Beverly Hills

For 45 years, Caffe Roma has been a streetside destination for Italian food and coffee in the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills. The restaurant announced its closure on January 1, 2024, though its sister restaurant Café Amici will continue to operate, which means longtime fans will still have a place to get eggplant parmigiana and lasagna with beef ragu. Eater spoke with a representative from Caffe Roma who said the landlord had doubled the rent, which made it more challenging to operate despite nearly half a century of history in the neighborhood.

ETA – Highland Park

Jazz bar and cocktail lounge ETA, which is a sister restaurant to the Greyhound sports bar, closed on December 30, 2023 after initially opening in 2016. Owner Mateo Glassman said part of the reason for the closure was that his partners James and Ryan had moved farther away and that Glassman’s recent addition to the family had made it difficult to sustain operations. Glassman said the Highland Park and jazz community were a huge part of ETA’s success and was thankful for both.

Jeni’s Ice Cream – Venice

Rose Avenue ice cream parlor Jeni’s has closed since around the end of December, though word is that the artisan scoop shop has reopened as a stand on Windward Avenue closer to the Venice Boardwalk. Jeni’s still has locations in Larchmont, Beverly Hills, the Runway in Playa Vista, Calabasas, Los Feliz, and Highland Park within the LA area.

Skylight Gardens – Westwood

Westwood Italian restaurant Skylight Gardens had just celebrated its 12th anniversary when it quietly closed in recent weeks (it originally opened in 2012). A tipster says the signage was taken down and that multiple Yelpers have reported it closed, though the restaurant’s website — which announced the restaurant’s 10th anniversary — is still up at the time of publication.

Spartina LA – Melrose Avenue

A wood-burning grill at a LA restaurant. Spartina LA, which opened in 2015 by chef Stephen Kalt, announced on social media last week that it would close on January 28. Kalt has had a nearly four-decade-long career in restaurants spanning New York City, Atlantic City, and Las Vegas. Spartina was originally named for a restaurant he helped open in the early 1990s in Tribeca before that neighborhood had become one of the hottest in Manhattan.

Spartina in LA was his ode to California Italian food, preparing shareable pizzas, handmade pastas, and seasonal produce. Kalt told Eater that from Memorial Day onwards, sales had dropped off about 40 percent from expected, blaming the writer’s and actor’s strikes. “In 40 years in this business, I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Kalt. The last day of operations will be this coming Sunday.

Wine House Kitchen — West LA

Located on a West LA rooftop blocks away from the bustling Sawtelle Japantown, Wine House Kitchen closed late last year after more than a year in business. Maiki Le’s Vietnamese French and California menu was a favorite among Eater’s editors with dishes like bún bò Huế spiced elk strip loin, which combines different meat with a central Vietnamese beef noodle soup.

When Governor Newsom and his Marxist thugs finally bankrupt California and collapse its economy as they grasp the handle of socialism and poverty perhaps then the citizens will remove this cockroach parasite from the state government and hire free market capitalists to save what’s left of this crumbling dumpster fire.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

RELATED ARTICLE: California Ice Cream Parlor Forced to Close Over Minimum Wage Hike

New Website ‘Biden-Mart’ Shows Americans the True Costs for Everyday Items under Biden

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“It’s the economy stupid!” — James Carville

A new website “Biden-Mart” has been launched. It allows visitors to click on twenty-nine everyday items, from apples to zucchini, to see the difference between their costs under Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. and Donald J. Trump.

The Biden-Mart website states, “Putting food on the table has become harder than ever thanks to ‘Bidenomics’. As costs for everyday items continue to rise, American families are struggling more and more to foot the bill.”

Check Biden-Mart out here.

If you click on all of the twenty-nine items you will learn that under Trump the cost was $105.54 and under Biden the cost now is $164.56. That is a 55.92% increase to each and every American citizen.

Get it? Got it? Good!

It’s Tumpomics vs Bidenomics

Remember this when your go to the polls to vote on November 5th, 2024.

The data is from the USDA from January 2021 to January 2024.

©2024. Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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Bruised BlackRock Slapped with Cease and Desist for Lying to Investors

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It had been a relatively quiet 2024 for embattled BlackRock CEO Larry Fink — until about two weeks ago. Texas, in a massive blow to his woke firm, pulled the pin on an $8.5 billion dollar grenade, announcing that it was following through on its threat to drop Fink’s services where its school fund management was concerned. A firm that shuns oil and gas investments doesn’t have Texas’s best interests at heart, leaders decided. Turns out, that move — the single largest punch to BlackRock’s gut to date — was just the beginning of Fink’s spring headaches.

Late last week, Mississippi dropped another bombshell: a cease and desist order aimed at the firm’s blatant dishonesty about its ESG (environmental, social, governance) investing. When Fink cleverly withdrew BlackRock’s name from the controversial Climate Action 100+ initiative in February, he created the appearance that the world’s largest asset management firm wasn’t putting its environmental activism over its financial responsibilities. But looks can be deceiving. According to several sources, BlackRock’s anti-fossil fuel agenda is still very much alive, a fact that Secretary of State Michael Watson made abundantly clear in his complaint.

“BlackRock has made and continues to make untrue statements of material fact, and to omit material facts to make its statements not misleading to investors and potential investors in Mississippi,” the 29-page order read. “These misrepresentations pertain to BlackRock’s provision of investment services, especially its involvement in pushing Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) factors on portfolio companies. Additionally, many of BlackRock’s acts, practices, and courses of business operate or would operate as fraud or deceit upon investors and potential investors in Mississippi.”

With this legal action, Fink could face “an administrative penalty, potentially a multi-million dollar fine,” National Review warns. As far as the Magnolia State is concerned, BlackRock is openly double-crossing investors — an allegation that certainly won’t help rehabilitate the firm’s damaged image. Fink admitted last year that his company had already lost around $4 billion in business as a result of the backlash meted out by states. If he’s not careful, another serving of boycotts could be headed his way.

BlackRock claims to care about clients’ “long-term financial prospects,” Watson writes, but “[t]hese statements are untrue … because the consideration of ESG factors does not provide an indication of better financial returns or current or future risk profiles.” That, the secretary insists, is “misleading to investors who are interested in ESG for financial (as opposed to social or political) reasons, and who are led to believe that BlackRock’s ESG funds will receive a financial benefit from BlackRock’s consideration of ESG criteria.” Not to mention, he adds, “BlackRock charges higher fees for some of its ESG funds than it does for comparable non-ESG funds.”

Interestingly, Mississippi isn’t one of the 12 states who’ve either divested from BlackRock or passed laws that make that decision likely in the near future. This action, as Wild Hild of Consumers Research explained, is unique — a “first-of-its-kind” attack on the leftist agenda driving so many of these funds. BlackRock’s CEO continues “to pretend that the only time they engage in ESG, it is with permission of the shareholders — but in reality, ESG policies have seeped into every facet of BlackRock’s asset management. They’ve been lying to their customers,” Hild added.

This doesn’t surprise The Political Forum’s Stephen Soukup, author of “The Dictatorship of Woke Capital,” who pointed out to The Washington Stand, “Larry Fink wanted to be famous. Now that he is, he’s learning that one of the perils of fame is that everyone, everywhere knows what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Among those paying the closest attention to the now-famous Fink and his massive asset management firm are elected officials, who have a clear responsibility to protect the interests of their constituents.” He believes that what we’re seeing “in Mississippi, Texas, and in other red states is the consequence of Fink’s quest for fame, wealth, and power as it collides with Republican elected officials’ quest to do their jobs to the best of their abilities.”

Publicly, the wave of 2022 backlash that led states to quit BlackRock seemed to humble Fink. Last summer, he decided to drop ESG from his lexicon because the term was too toxic. He pivoted to “energy pragmatism,” which he explained as investing in clean energy while also backing “traditional energy sources, like fossil fuels.” The firm even showed more restraint on ESG shareholder proposals, supporting just 7% of the 400 submitted according to the last annual report. “That is a marked shift,” the Washington Examiner pointed out. “BlackRock supported nearly a quarter of such proposals in the previous cycle and 47% of environmental and social proposals the cycle before that.”

And yet, none of these surface-level changes seemed to comfort Texas, where local officials warn that the firm’s anti-fossil fuel agenda will ultimately haunt the state. “BlackRock’s dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement immeasurably damages our state’s oil & gas economy and the very companies that generate revenues for our Permanent School Fund (PSF),” State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey argued. “Texas and the PSF have worked to grow this fund to build Texas’ schools. BlackRock’s destructive approach toward the energy companies that this state and our world depend on is incompatible with our fiduciary duty to Texans. Today represents a major step forward for the Texas PSF and our state as a whole. The PSF will not stand idly by while our financial future is attacked by Wall Street.”

Both Texas and Mississippi are committed to holding BlackRock’s feet to the fire — a move that the 1792 Exchange’s Paul Fitzpatrick applauds.

“It’s troubling to see the largest asset manager in the world, which has an army of lawyers and a fiduciary duty to customers, including state pensions for nearly all 50 states, making clearly contradictory statements,” Fitzpatrick told TWS. “To fulfill its ESG and ‘sustainable’ commitments to coalitions like the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, BlackRock pledges to use ‘all assets under management,’ not just the funds labeled ESG, to change behavior of companies to advance political goals. This doublespeak includes the use of proxy voting, whereby BlackRock uses its customers’ funds to vote for various ESG proposals. Many customers who did not opt into ESG funds would never have voted for a ‘racial equity audit’ at The Home Depot or for Exxon Mobil to pursue net zero goals, among other resolutions,” he points out.

“We hope Secretary Watson’s courage inspires other state leaders to hold all fiduciaries accountable.”

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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BlackRock, GiaxoSmithKline and the Great Reset

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘A Horrible Precedent’: Experts Say Trump Civil Fraud Case Endangers Businesses, Rule of Law

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In the wake of a highly controversial and unprecedented civil fraud case brought against former President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, a leading economist is saying the case is an example of a “two-tiered justice system in America,” and experts say it will likely have a chilling effect on economic investment in New York.

In February, a New York judge ruled that Trump was liable for a staggering $355 million in penalties for inflating his wealth in financial statements and threatened to have his real estate business dissolved. But an Associated Press analysis subsequently found that in the past 70 years, Trump’s case was “the only big business … that was threatened with a shutdown without a showing of obvious victims and major losses.” Bank officials who offered the former president lower interest rates who were called to testify in the case “couldn’t say for sure if Trump’s personal statement of worth had any impact on the rates.”

“Who suffered here?” William Thomas, a law professor at the University of Michigan, asked in comments to the AP. “We haven’t seen a long list of victims.”

Adam Leitman Bailey, a New York real estate lawyer who had previously filed a successful lawsuit against Trump for misrepresenting condo sales to entice buyers, commented that the civil fraud ruling “sets a horrible precedent.”

“This is a basically a death penalty for a business,” added Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University. “Is he getting his just desserts because of the fraud, or because people don’t like him?”

Stephen Moore, a distinguished fellow in Economics at The Heritage Foundation, joined “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” last week to shed light on how the decision will impact businesses in New York.

“This is a clearly victimless crime,” he observed. “… [It’s] clearly an example of how we have a two-tiered justice system in America. [I]f they can do this to Donald Trump, they can do it to anybody. And that’s why it’s having a chilling effect. … Other businessmen and women look at that and say, ‘Hell no, I’m not going to invest in New York because they’re going to steal my business from me.’ … [T]his is a real danger to the business environment, which is already lousy in New York.”

Moore went on to argue that the array of lawsuits that are currently ongoing against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee are only fueling public support for him.

“I think there is such an anti-Trump Derangement Syndrome out there that these people can’t even see that when they want to put him in jail for 500 years, when they want to take away everything that he has, when they want to have these juries that are not impartial, it only makes him stronger,” he contended. “Every time they come after him, if you notice, his opinion polling goes up because Americans have … an innate sense of fairness. And anybody who looks at these trials knows that they’re unfair. We need a justice system that weighs both sides, and that’s not happening.”

Moore, who also serves as a principal at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and previously served as an economic advisor for Donald Trump, further admitted his own fear of being unjustly prosecuted.

“I worked as an economist for Donald Trump, and — honest to God truth — I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night with a cold sweat, and I fear that there’s going to be a banging on my front door, and I’m going to go to the front door, and there’s going to be three FBI agents with machine guns to take me away. And what is my crime? I worked for Donald Trump. Now, you may say that’s an exaggerated fear, but some of my colleagues, that’s exactly what happened.”

Moore concluded, “This is the kind of justice … that happens in third world countries that don’t believe in the idea that we live by laws. It’s a scary situation for the United States right now. Donald Trump will be on the ballot in six, seven months. And my feeling is let the American people be the jury here.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Louisiana trumps the WHO: No Pandemic Treaty in our state!

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One of the scariest swords of Damocles hanging over our heads is the World Health Organization’s “Pandemic Treaty,” which gives the WHO carte blanche in dictating “health” policy and more to every nation fool enough to sign it. Of course Biden is chomping at the bit to do so.

There is a question as to whether signatories actually lose their sovereignty, and if the treaty could trump our Constitution, which quite a few argue would be unconstitutional.

Sadly, we’ve seen so many unconstitutional abuses during O’Biden’s administration that we’re better off not taking a chance on this one.

Enter Louisiana: the first state brave enough and smart enough to stand on its own sovereignty as a state, and to essentially ban the WHO’s treaty in their state. Not only that—they’re covering all the bases, including the UN and the WEF!

Here’s the text of this bill:

“The World Health Organization, United Nations and the World Economic Forum shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state of Louisiana. No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy or mandate of any kind of the World Health Organization, United Nations and the World Economic Forum shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Louisiana or any agency, department, board, commission, political subdivision, governmental entity of the state, parish, municipality, or any other political entity”.

Note to Louisiana: Better start preparing for the massive influx of disenfranchised and disenchanted citizens from other states.

Better yet, maybe other states will play follow the leader and copy this brilliant piece of legislation! And when Trump is back in the White House, let’s get it passed for the nation!

©2024. Cherie Zaslawsky. All rights reserved.

Cherie Z’s Truth Be Told is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Marxist Attorney General of New York Letitia James Ignored New York City’s Over Priced Home Values

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The Attorney General of New York, Letitia James a racist Marxist Trump hating cockroach has used her positional authority to unconstitutionally attack President Trumps free market entrepreneurial spirit by trying to bankrupt him and steal his properties to cover a bond on her fraudulent prosecution against him.

She accused Trump of over evaluating his properties during free market capitalist exchanges which is impossible because the state of New York has licensed regulated property appraisers and also its the buyers that make these decisions with banks either agreeing or not agreeing to the loans.

Properties for sale in New York City are over evaluated in just about every zip code and the property will either sell or not sell depending on the clients willingness to accept the value and the banks willingness to take a risk on lending above it’s market value.

A home located at 4 E 79th St, New York, NY 10075 is on the market for $65 million dollars but its estimated appraised value is $60 million dollars. The home is “illegally overpriced” by $5 million as per the current rules created by New York’s Marxist Attorney General.

Will she prosecute the listing agents below for her free market entrepreneurial behavior?

Listing by: Sotheby’s International Realty 212-606-7611, Serena Boardman – Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker

A town house is up for sale located at 123 E 35th St, New York, NY 10016 with an “asking price of $24 million plus but it’s market value is actually $20-$23 million – thus apparently it’s overpriced by a million plus dollars by the listing agent below.

Or the listing by: Christie’s International Real Estate Group, LLC 917-821-6225.

Let’s take another example of so called real estate overpricing in New York City. A home located at 10 E 67th St, New York, NY 10065 is up for sale with an asking price of $50 million but its comparable market value is $46 million. We thus have a $4 million disparity here. The listing agent is:

Douglas Elliman 212-891-7621, George Vanderploeg – Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker

Source: StreetEasy, MLS#: 22871889

In a free market no matter the true value of a piece of real estate it’s up to the buyer, the lender and the seller to come to an amicable agreement not the Attorney General of New York and definitely not a hand picked Communist Trump hating judge.

As a licensed real estate agent in Florida property I am more than qualified to say that real estate values are speculative across the entire republic as they are in New York City.

Letitia James is close friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton and these folks also over evaluated property during her buying and selling days but I see no prosecution against the Clintons.

Bill and Hillary Clinton paid over $5 million dollars for their home located at 15 Old House Ln, Chappaqua, NY 10514 but it’s true value is actually a little over $2 million dollars. Why would the Clinton’s pay over $3 million above its market value? Who took the $3 million pay off ? Surely this warrants an investigation ?

Hang in there ladies and gentlemen Trump will soon be back in the White House and all these Marxist cockroaches and their cronies will come under investigation and face justice.

©2024. Geoff Ross. All rights reserved.

FDA loses in court in campaign against Ivermectin COVID-19 treatment

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Starting 2021, the FDA mounted a campaign against ivermectin – an inexpensive, Nobel Prize-winning medication that showed promising signs in the early treatment of COVID-19.

While the death toll from this campaign is difficult to calculate, the impact was far-reaching. The campaign was used as fuel to terminate employment of doctors who understood the science behind ivermectin, as well as justification for pharmacies to cease filling ivermectin prescriptions when people needed the medication most.

Courageous doctors fought back.

In 2022, doctors filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the agencies’ unlawful attempts to block the use of ivermectin for treatment of COVID-19.

“We’re suing the FDA for lying to the public about ivermectin,” said Dr. Bowden, a plaintiff in the case.

The complaint directly cites US laws, including the provision that the FDA “may not interfere with the authority of a health care provider to prescribe or administer any legally marked device to a patient for any condition or disease within a legitimate health care practitioner-patient relationship.”

On Thursday last week, the court ruled against the FDA and mandated the removal of all previous social media posts that specifically addressed the use of ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19. The posts have started to come down, including a popular one titled: “Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19? No.”

RELATED VIDEO: ‘Sick: Unmasking Big Medicine’ by The Daily Caller | TIPPING POINT

EDITORS NOTE: This O’Keefe Media Group column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.