Seems timely.
>NO DEALS
History proves, the "Time Out" punishment bypass, doesn't work.
PAIN is the only way.
What about the Chinese Companies, dominating the Green New Deal Charade?
Mainly BYD in CA?
China Owns 300,000 Acres Of Land In The US. Here's Where
In 2021, a Chinese company bought land near an Air Force base in Grand Fork, N.D., sending lawmakers into a frenzy.
Lawmakers feared that China, which many policymakers view as a strategic adversary even though it's the country's top trading partner outside North America, could gain control over the U.S. food and energy supply, as well as a hold on markets and critical infrastructure.
Indeed, during the past four decades, Chinese companies and investors have bought up land in the U.S. as well as purchased major food companies like Smithfield Foods, the United States' largest pork processor. Corporations own the majority of that land. And though Chinese-owned land is a tiny fraction of all foreign-owned land in the U.S., its purchases have raised fears that the Chinese government could have control, through the Chinese corporations, over U.S. assets or gain access to U.S.-based information.
"I don't know that we know for sure all the foreign land that potentially is owned by Chinese individuals or folks controlled by the Chinese government," Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is skeptical of Chinese land ownership in the U.S., told NPR.
Those fears come amid broader tensions between the two countries on issues as varied as Taiwan, trade and Chinese intelligence gathering. Chinese acquisitions in the U.S., no matter how benign or how minor, are being viewed through that same lens.
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Some of these fears exist because of a gap in data on where Chinese-owned land is, and whether it's near military installations. In the case of the transaction in North Dakota, the government agency that must approve such purchases said at the time that it could not act because the matter was "out of its jurisdiction."
"What's missing here is a lot more information about where these specific locations or farmland purchases are located in close proximity to the military base," said Craig Singleton, China program deputy director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He said one big fear is that Chinese telecommunications equipment could be used to disrupt U.S. military communications.
He said he believes it's best to pause Chinese purchases "rather than wait years before we determine that this equipment or these purchases are being used for other purposes."
Mark Kennedy, director of the Wilson Center's Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, said that the Chinese government has laws that allow the government to access information held by its citizens and corporations.
"That ability by the government to gain access to information is one of the reasons why people view the risk of dealing with a Chinese corporation similar to what they would view as the risk of dealing with the Chinese Communist Party or the government," Kennedy said.
Still, Chinese-owned land accounts for a tiny share of foreign-owned land in the United States. Chinese firms and investors own just over 383,934 acres in the U.S., less than the state of Rhode Island, and far less than how much Canada, Netherlands, Italy, the U.K. and Germany, in that order, each own. China is No. 18 on the list of foreign investors. But China's rise — coupled with its geopolitical heft and its strategic goals that are sometimes at odds with Washington's — has raised questions over who owns this land and how much control the Chinese government has over the ownership.
"Any company and any individual living in China that comes and tries to buy land can be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party because they have that kind of control over their people," Tester said. "In this particular case: guilty until proven innocent — let's put it that way."
According to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture data, from 2021, foreign governments do not directly own land in the U.S. But for the purposes of this story, we're using the name of the country as shorthand for companies or investors from that country.
https://laist.com/news/china-owns-300-000-acres-of-land-in-the-us-heres-where
Where are these videos?
Has the same feeling as the Hanks one, where he said he was "in the hospital" but had a ship door frame.
GITMO?
Did it say, "Sprit cooking is poetry?"
Thought they were cancelling his trip
Biden pledges solidarity with Israelis and suggests 'other team' to blame for Gaza hospital blast
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — President Joe Biden vowed to show the world that the U.S. stands in solidarity with Israel during his visit there Wednesday, and offered an assessment that the deadly explosion at a Gaza Strip hospital that prompted mass protests in Arab nations apparently was not carried out by the Israeli military.
“Based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting. But he said there were “a lot of people out there” who weren't sure what caused the blast, which sparked protests throughout the Middle East.
Biden didn't offer details on why he believed the Israelis were not responsible for the blast, and the White House did not immediately explain his assessment.
“The entire world was rightfully outraged but this outrage should be directed not at Israel but at the terrorists,” Netanyahu said during a subsequent meeting with Biden and Israel's war cabinet.
Biden had also been scheduled to visit Jordan to meet with Arab leaders Wednesday, but the summit was called off after the hospital explosion. His remarks in Tel Aviv spoke both to the horrors that the Israelis had endured, but also the growing humanitarian crisis for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
He told Netanyahu he was “deeply saddened and outraged” by the hospital explosion. But he also stressed that “Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people, and it has brought them only suffering.” And he spoke of the need to find ways of “encouraging life-saving capacity to help the Palestinians who are innocent, caught in the middle of this.”
Biden's overarching messge was that the U.S. was firmly behind Israel following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,400 people.
“I want you to know you're not alone. We will continue to have Israel's back as you work to defend your people," Biden said. "We'll continue to work with you and partners across the region to prevent more tragedy to innocent civilians."
Netanyahu called the president's visit “deeply, deeply moving," adding, "I know I speak for all the people of Israel when I say thank you Mr. President, thank you for standing with Israel today, tomorrow and always.”
Netanyahu said Biden had rightly drawn a clear line between the “forces of civilization and the forces of barbarism,” saying Israel was united in its resolve to defeat Hamas.
“The civilized world must unite to defeat Hamas," he said.
Biden also planned to meet Israeli first responders and the families of victims and those being held hostage by Hamas.
The grim tone of Wednesday's meetings between Biden and Netanyahu stood in stark contrast to their optimistic meeting just a month ago on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, where Netanyahu marveled that a “historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia” seemed within reach.
moar
https://www.yahoo.com/news/biden-plunging-middle-east-turmoil-040440910.html
G-string-clad prostitutes prowl San Diego streets; families, businesses forced to scramble
Prostitution in San Diego has exploded since a controversial California law went into effect this year. As a result, businesses have taken on additional security costs and have warned customers they will likely see near-naked women and pimps if they visit the area, a business owner told Fox News Digital.
"Costs for business, costs for security. We've had to put lights — at our cost — on the roof to try to deter them, and because of the bill, the lights now help them when they want to come in front of my building to shake and do different things … so they get attention versus being in the dark," a San Diego business owner told Fox News Digital.
The business owner spoke to Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity out of concern that pimps or prostitutes in the area might retaliate against the business owner’s vehicles, property or employees. The business owner has been operating at the same location for the last 25 years.
"They'll break into cars, they'll pop tires. We've had a neighbor …. who had his vehicle broken into multiple times and stolen the tools out of it," the business owner said.
"Due to theSafer Streets Act,local business owners now need to hide their identity while exposing the problems that the bill has created, which was never a problem before," the business owner added.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 357 in July 2022, which repealed a previous law that banned loitering with the intent to engage in prostitution. The bill was championed as one that would help protect transgender women from being targeted by police.
"The author brought forth this legislation because the crime of loitering has disproportionately impacted Black and brown women and members of the LGBTQ community," the governor said when signing the bill into law.
"To be clear, this bill does not legalize prostitution. It simply revokes provisions of the law that have led to disproportionate harassment of women and transgender adults. While I agree with the author's intent, and I am signing this legislation, we must be cautious about its implementation. My administration will monitor crime and prosecution trends for any possible unintended consequences and will act to mitigate any such impacts."
The law took effect in January this year, which the business owner argued emboldened prostitutes and pimps to prowl city streets for johns with few repercussions.
"It makes me still blush at times. These are some very confident women. … They are wearing G-strings. …. Their breasts are completely exposed. There was one that was wearing a Letterman's jacket and nothing else," the business owner said.
more
https://www.yahoo.com/news/g-string-clad-prostitutes-prowl-080010689.html