LIVE FROM PFIZER PROTEST: “Tell The Truth!” Protests Mobilize Outside Of Pfizer Plant
https://www.bitchute.com/video/uni5qYgjn3xn/
https://rumble.com/embed/v25yuwg/?pub=4
Germany, Denmark and Netherlands pledge Leopard 1 tanks for Ukraine
Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands say they plan to provide Ukraine with at least 100 refurbished Leopard 1 battle tanks in the coming months.
It comes as Kyiv anticipates a new Russian offensive around the anniversary of its invasion later this month.
In a joint statement, the defence ministers of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands said the shipment of Leopard 1 tanks was part of an effort "to support Ukraine in their endeavor to withstand Russian aggression".
"[It] will significantly enhance Ukraine's military potential for the restoration of their violated territorial integrity," they said.
The announcement follows Germany agreeing last month to allow deliveries of the more modern German-made Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-08/live-news-blog-the-loop-balloon-microsoft-chatgpt-turkiye-syria/101944096#live-blog-post-20507
China Refused US Request For Phone Call After Spy Balloon Shot Down
After the United States shot down China's spy balloon on Saturday, China refused a US request for a call between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterpart, Wei Fenghe - a sharp escalation in tensions during an already tenuous period in US-China relations.
“On Saturday, 4 February, immediately after taking action to down the PRC balloon, the DOD submitted a request for a secure call between Secretary Austin and PRC Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe. We believe in the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between the United States and the PRC in order to responsibly manage the relationship. Lines between our militaries are particularly important in moments like this. Unfortunately, the PRC has declined our request. Our commitment to open lines of communication will continue," according to a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder.
On Tuesday, China said it will "resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests" over the shootdown - which resulted in the cancellation of a highly anticipated visit to Beijing this week by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which many hoped would result in an improvement in relations.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/china-refused-us-request-phone-call-after-spy-balloon-shot-down
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/china-refused-us-request-phone-call-after-spy-balloon-shot-down
BIDEN'S BORDER CRISIS: Quebec officials slam NYC for shuttling illegal migrants to Canadian border
Quebec's immigration minister told reporters she was "surprised that such a thing would be offered."
Officials from Quebec have been caught off guard following revelations that illegal migrants are being shuttled to the Canada/US border from New York on taxpayer-funded buses.
The province's immigration minister, Christine Fréchette, said she was "surprised" such a scenario was allowed to play out.
"We are going to check if what is mentioned … is true," Fréchette told reporters in Montreal, "and if so, I would say I would be surprised that such a thing would be offered."
"There is an overflow of these people in a very short period of time," she said of the recent influx of migrants making their way into Quebec, adding that officials "hadn't planned this increase."
According to CTV News, Fréchette also mentioned that Canads and the US were in talks to negotiate a modernized Safe Third Country Agreement, which would require refugees to claim asylum in whichever of the two nations they enter first, however she lamented the fact that the policy would only apply to those who enter using marked crossings.
She called on Ottawa to expand the program to include unofficial crossing such as Roxham Road, saying the recent uptick in migrants arriving on buses from New York "makes the urgency of the situation even more apparent."
During Question Period on Monday, Quebec MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe highlighted the absurdity of the situation.
"Tired of the hustle and bustle of the life in the Big Apple?" he began. "The solution for you is the all-inclusive Roxham Package; a free bus will take you to Plattsburgh, where a taxi will be waiting to take you to Roxham, and once you've crossed road, you'll be offered free accommodation, welfare, healthcare, and school for your children!"
"We have to be serious," Brunelle-Duceppe added. "We have a moral duty to welcome asylum seekers, it's a matter of humanity … but what's happening with Roxham Road is ridiculous. Americans are using this irregular route to absolve themselves of their own responsibility."
The majority of migrants arrive in Le Belle Province via the now infamous Roxham Road crossing about twenty miles north of Plattsburgh, New York. There is no fence separating the Canadian end of the road and the field on the American side, meaning migrants can simply walk into the country, where they will be met by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and processed.
"Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states," NYC mayor Eric Adams said when pressed on the fact that migrants were fleeing the country with the help of taxpayer-funded buses leaving from his city, "and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream."
https://thepostmillennial.com/bidens-border-crisis-quebec-officials-slam-nyc-for-shuttling-illegal-migrants-to-canadian-borde
Hmmm Turkey
Israel and the “Samson Option” in an Interconnected World
In any serious strategic calculus, the “Samson Option” refers not just to a last-resort spasm of pure national vengeance, but to a purposeful set of specific operational threats. When examined together with Israel’s still intentionally ambiguous nuclear strategy (a doctrine most commonly referred to as Israel’s “bomb in the basement”), it becomes evident that these carefully fashioned threat postures are designed to enhance Israeli nuclear deterrence. Indeed, any such enhancement would represent this unique doctrine’s most obvious raison d’être. But are there further steps that would enhance the Samson Option’s effectiveness in this context?
There is more. Because strategic crises in other parts of the world could sometime “spill over” into the ever-unpredictable Middle East, dedicated strategic planners in Tel Aviv should already begin their preparations to “think Samson.” This is especially the case wherever the possible “spill” could concern the threat or actual use of nuclear weapons.
To pull these core concepts together (i.e., distant crisis consequences and Israel’s nuclear deterrence), the world must first be understood as a system, as an organic whole wherein vital strategic intersections and interdependencies can be suitably estimated and taken into proper account. Accordingly, Israel must clearly recognize that a nuclear attack or exchange in any one part of the world could sometime meaningfully impact its own nuclear war planning and related obligations.
Among other things, this means meticulously conceptualizing—or perhaps re-conceptualizing—the prospective role of any calculated Samson Option.
Whatever this option’s more precisely nuanced goals, its key objective must always remain exactly the same. That objective is to help keep Israel “alive.” In this duly considered objective, Israeli policy must very conspicuously deviate from the otherwise useful biblical metaphor—Samson, after all, lost his own life when he tore down the temple on his Philistine captors—drawn illustratively here from the book of Judges.
Ultimately, in relevant military nuclear matters, “Samson” must be about how to best manage certain urgent processes of strategic dissuasion. Here, the primary point of Israel’s nuclear forces must always be deterrence ex ante, not revenge ex post. For now, at least, Israel’s presumed nuclear strategy, while not yet articulated in any precise or publicly ascertainable fashion, is likely oriented toward nuclear war avoidance, not nuclear war fighting. From all potentially concerning standpoints, including even the well-being of Israel’s pertinent national adversaries, this is the indisputably correct orientation.
At its conceptual analytic core, the Samson Option references a deterrence doctrine based upon certain implicit threats of overwhelming nuclear retaliation or counter-retaliation—responses for more-or-less expected enemy aggressions. Any such doctrine could reasonably enter into force only where the responsible aggressions had first credibly threatened Israel’s physical existence. In other words, considered as a potentially optimal element of dissuasion, it would do Israel little good to proffer “Samson-based threats” in response to “ordinary” or manifestly less than massive forms of anticipated enemy aggression.
There is also a related matter of intra-crisis communications. As a potentially useful element of any ongoing strategic dialogue, the basic message of any Israeli Samson Option should remain uniform and consistent. Always, it should signal an expressly stated or deliberately unstated promise of a “counter-city” nuclear reprisal—also known as “counter-value” targeting. This approach would threaten non-military sites of aggressors in response to possible threats to Israeli cities. It should also avoid signaling to situational adversaries any intentionally sequential gradations of Israeli nuclear deterrence.
The bottom-line reasoning here is as follows: Exercising a Samson Option is not likely to deter any aggressions short of nuclear and/or massively large-scale conventional or biological first strikes.
https://mwi.usma.edu/israel-samson-option-interconnected-world/
Trump in pre-recorded rebuttal, takes aim at Biden border crisis, floundering US economy
Trump, who plans to run for the WH again in 2024, issues video countering Biden's State of the Union address highlighting southern border chaos and recent economic downturn.
Former President Trump on Tuesday seemed to already know what President Biden was going to tout in his State of the Union address – criticizing him ahead of the speech on a range of issues – from a southern U.S. border being overwhelmed by illegal migration to an economy battered by inflation and in peril of falling into a recession.
"Here's the real state of the union," Trump says in the roughly two-minute, pre-recorded video address. "Over the past two years under Biden, millions and millions of illegal aliens from 160 different countries, have stormed across our southern border.
The White House did not say in a fact sheet released before Biden's address in House Chambers, before a joint session of Congress, that he would address the issue. However, the administration has previously argued it is dealing with the world-wide migration problem in a humane and orderly manner.
However, the White House did acknowledge that Biden would in his address pose ways to stop to the influx of the potentially-deadly synthetic narcotic fentanyl at the U.S. points of entry.
Said Trump: "Drug cartels are now raking in billions of dollars from smuggling poison to kill our people and to kill our children.
On urban crime, which reached record highs at the high of the pandemic, and in some cities is still above pre-pandemic levels, Trump said: "Savage killers, rapists and violent criminals are being released from jail to continue their crime wave. And under Biden, the murder rate has reached the highest in the history of our country."
To be sure, Trump is more than a sideline critic, having already officially declared his bid win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, with Biden pondering a run for a second term and a rematch of his and Trump's 2020 race.
"I am running for president to end the destruction of our country and to complete the unfinished business of making America great again," he said. "We will make our country better than ever before, and will always put America first."
Trump also blamed "radical Democrats," for the country's economic woes, saying they "wasted trillions of dollars and caused the worst inflation in half a century."
"Real wages are down 21 months in row," he said, amid the argument that massive spending bills passed in the previously Democrat-controlled House and Senate overheated the economy by pumping in too much cash.
Trump also accused Biden, as other Republicans have, on having "weaponized" Justice Department to "persecute his political opponents."
"And I'm a victim of it," he said, a likely reference to the FBI raid on his Florida estate this past summer looking for classified documents.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/potus-duel-trump-issues-video-response-bidens-state-union-address
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has recommended all people aged 18 and over, who have not had either a COVID-19 vaccine or confirmed coronavirus case in the last six months, can get their latest shot from February 20.
A fifth dose had only been available in Australia for adults who were severely immunocompromised, with growing calls for further protection to be made available to a broader group of Australians.
ATAGI has reiterated those already eligible, including those over 65, remain at high risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19 and should have a 2023 booster.
The announcement also opens fourth doses up to Australians aged 18-29, with only those considered most at risk of severe illness or aged 30 and over previously eligible for a fourth dose
At this stage, an additional booster will not be provided to Australians under 18, unless they have health conditions that put them at risk of severe illness.
ATAGI said while all COVID-19 booster shots would be beneficial, Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines were preferred.
While uptake of the first two vaccine doses was incredibly high in Australia — thanks in part to mandates — the number of Australians rolling up their sleeves for third and fourth doses has lagged behind.
In January, just 72 per cent of the eligible population had received three doses, while just over 44 per cent, or 5.4 million people, had gone back for a fourth.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-07/australian-adults-able-to-get-fifth-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine/101943280
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-07/australian-adults-able-to-get-fifth-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine/101943280
Huge fire rips through plastics factory in south-east Melbourne
Crime scene established at Keysborough as residents within 2km warned to stay indoors
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/08/huge-fire-plastics-factory-south-east-melbourne-keysborough
IRS introduces new service industry tip reporting program
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2023-13, which contains a proposed revenue procedure that would establish the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program, a voluntary tip reporting program between the IRS and employers in various service industries. The IRS is issuing this guidance in proposed form to provide an opportunity for public comment.
The proposed SITCA program is designed to take advantage of advancements in point-of-sale, time and attendance systems, and electronic payment settlement methods to improve tip reporting compliance. The proposed program would also decrease taxpayer and IRS administrative burdens and provide more transparency and certainty to taxpayers. The proposed program includes several features:
The monitoring of employer compliance based on actual annual tip revenue and charge tip data from an employer's point-of-sale system, and allowance for adjustments in tipping practices from year to year.
Participating employers demonstrate compliance with the program requirements by submitting an annual report after the close of the calendar year, which reduces the need for compliance reviews by the IRS.
Participating employers receive protection from liability under the rules that define tips as part of an employee's pay for calendar years in which they remain compliant with program requirements.
Participating employers have flexibility to implement employee tip reporting policies that are best suited for their employees and their business model in accordance with the section of the tax law that requires employees to report tips to their employers.
The intent of the SITCA program is to serve as the sole tip reporting compliance program for employers in various service industries and would replace the following programs:
Tip Rate Determination Agreement (TRDA)
Tip Reporting Alternative Commitment (TRAC)
Employer designed TRAC (EmTRAC)
The IRS is continuing to explore opportunities within the gaming industry and, as such, this program does not impact the existing Gaming Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (GITCA) program.
The proposed revenue procedure provides that for employers with any of these existing agreements, such agreements would remain in effect until the earlier of:
The employer's acceptance into the SITCA program;
An IRS determination that the employer is noncompliant with the terms of their TRDA, TRAC or EmTRAC agreement; or
The end of the first full calendar year after the final revenue procedure is published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin.
Anyone interested in providing feedback to the proposed SITCA program should follow the instructions in the notice and reply by May 7, 2023.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-introduces-new-service-industry-tip-reporting-program
https://twitter.com/Mike_Palicz/status/1622980216086839296