Chop wood, carry water.
So Trump gets extra protection on inauguration day.
Nordstream 3.
Bondi, Rollins, Zeldin set for confirmation hearings next week
Senators could have a high-stakes double header on Jan. 14, with potential back-to-back hearings for Donald Trump's picks for Defense secretary and attorney general, two of the president-elect's most critical Cabinet nominees.
The Senate Armed Services Committee previously announced it would host Pete Hegseth that day, Trump's Pentagon pick whose nomination has been dogged by allegations of misconduct. And incoming Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley confirmed Monday he hopes to schedule attorney general pick Pam Bondi the same day.
That day — next Tuesday — will likely be the first possible day most Senate panel can hold hearings. The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on a resolution setting up its committees, which typically have a one-week notice requirement for hearings.
Grassley (R-Iowa) said he planned to hold Bondi’s hearing first, followed by that of Trump’s pick for deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and then Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel. He added that he hoped Bondi would be voted out of committee one week later, on Jan. 21.
Other committees are also planning to size up nominees next week: The Senate Agriculture Committee plans to have a hearing for Agriculture secretary pick Brooke Rollins on Jan. 15, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
And Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who will be chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, said her committee would hold a hearing for former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, on Wednesday or Thursday of next week.
https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/01/06/congress/hearings-on-tap-for-trump-nominees-00196679
Nancy Pelosi uses a walker today in Congress
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1876353864863039854
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre tipped to replace Trudeau with unbelievable odds
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is the top contender to become Canada's new prime minister following Justin Trudeau's resignation on Monday.
Poilievre, 45, has a 92 percent chance of becoming Canada's next prime minister in October's elections, according to Polymarket.
As expected, Trudeau, 53, resigned on Monday, raising questions about who would take over the ruling Liberal Party, or if power could switch to the Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.
In Canada's political system, the prime minister is not elected directly, but chosen by the members of the majority party in parliament — currently the left-leaning Liberals.
But as the Liberal party struggles in the polls, that could change in October's parliamentary elections. If the Conservatives obtain parliamentary majority, they will place their leader Poilievre as prime minister.
Trudeau will remain in power until his party selects a new leader, which they will need to do before general elections in the fall that polls forecast Conservatives winning.
It comes as US president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, threatening huge tariffs on its northern neighbor and even offering suggesting that Canada could become America's 51st state.
Poilievre has previously said Canada needs an immediate election and requires a prime minister who can face Trump from a position of strength.
'We cannot have a chaotic clown show running our government into the ground,' he said.
Trudeau's departure after nine years' in office left the party without a permanent head at a time when polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the Conservatives in the 2025 election.
An increasing number of Liberal parliamentarians, alarmed by a series of gloomy polls, had publicly urged Trudeau to quit.
Other possible successors that have been floated in last months include Trudeau's ex-finance chief Chrystia Freeland and banking boss Mark Carney.
DailyMail.com takes a look at the contenders for Canada's top job.
Poilievre has led the Conservatives since 2022 and is a key candidate to replace Trudeau if voters boot the Liberals out of office in this year's election.
He campaigns for more oil and gas production and against Trudeau's botched immigration policy, which led to hundreds of thousands of arrivals, straining an already overheated housing market.
The Conservatives currently hold a 21-point lead over the Liberals. Online gambling sites give Poilievre even better odds at becoming the country's leader this year.
Poilievre says he could increase Canada's exports to the US and strike a 'great deal' with Trump, who has vowed to use punishing tariffs on Ottawa as a way to reduce a trade deficit.
Speaking with right-wing Canadian influencer Jordan Peterson this month, Poilievre said he would quickly greenlight new oil refineries, liquefied natural gas plants, nuclear facilities and hydropower schemes.
In the interview, he said Trump 'negotiates very aggressively, and he likes to win, but in the end, he doesn't appear to have a problem if his counterparty also wins.'
'And so I think that we can get a great deal that will make both countries safer, richer, and stronger,' he added.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14255885/pierre-poilievre-conservative-leader-replace-justin-trudeau.html
Canada's Next Prime Minister | Pierre Poilievre | EP 511
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dck8eZCpglc
https://polymarket.com/event/next-prime-minster-of-canada?tid=1736179629593
Chinese risk of influence over Afghanistan to harvest their minerals after Biden's disastrous retreat
In a chilly auditorium in Afghanistan, heaps of freshly mined green emeralds glowed under bright table lamps as bearded gemstone dealers inspected them for purity and quality.
An auctioneer asked for bids on the first lot, which weighed 256 carats. With that, the Taliban’s weekly gemstone auction was underway.
These sales, in the emerald-rich Panjshir Province of eastern Afghanistan, are part of an effort by the Taliban government to cash in on the country’s vast mineral and gemstone potential.
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban say they have signed deals with scores of investors to mine gemstones, gold, copper, iron and other valuable minerals, like chromite. These buried treasures offer a potentially lucrative lifeline for a feeble economy.
China has led the way in investments under its Belt and Road Initiative, an aggressive effort to spread Chinese influence worldwide. Russian and Iranian investors have also signed mining licenses, filling the void left by the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
The U.S. government estimates that at least $1 trillion in mineral deposits lie beneath Afghanistan’s rugged landscape. The country is rich in copper, gold, zinc, chromite, cobalt, lithium and industrial minerals, as well as in precious and semiprecious gemstones like emeralds, rubies, sapphires, garnets and lapis lazuli.
Afghanistan also holds a trove of rare earth elements, according to the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, a U.S. agency that will close this year. Such elements are used in an array of modern technology, like mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles.
The Taliban are trying to do what the United States could not during its 20-year occupation. The U.S. government spent nearly a billion dollars to develop mining projects in Afghanistan, but “tangible progress was negligible and not sustained,” the special inspector general concluded in a report published in January 2023.
Many of the hurdles from that time could still apply: a lack of security, poor infrastructure, corruption, inconsistent government policies and regulations, and frequent turnover of government officials.
The Taliban are nonetheless giving it a shot, desperate for revenue after Afghanistan’s precipitous loss of aid with the U.S. withdrawal.
During the war, the United States provided roughly $143 billion in development and humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, propping up the U.S.-aligned government. Since 2021, the United States has given $2.6 billion in such aid, delivered by a private contractor in shrink-wrapped cash bundles on flights to Kabul, according to the special inspector general.
The Afghan economy has shrunk by 26 percent over the past two years, the World Bank reported in April. The sharp decline in international aid, the bank said, has left Afghanistan “without any internal engines of growth.”
On top of that, the Taliban’s ban on opium production has cost farmers $1.3 billion in income, or 8 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, the World Bank said. The ban has led to the loss of 450,000 jobs and reduced land under poppy cultivation by 95 percent, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported.
Mining could help replace poppies as a steady revenue stream. Turkey and Qatar, along with China and Iran, have invested in iron, copper, gold and cement mines. Uzbek companies have signed deals to extract oil in northern
Afghanistan, according to the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.
The Taliban are already collecting tax from emerald sales.
Under the previous government, the emerald trade was a corrupt free-for-all. Warlords and politically connected dealers dominated the trade, and tax collection was haphazard at best.
But as the Taliban government has instituted the weekly emerald auctions, it has controlled and taxed all sales. Dealers who buy emeralds at the auctions do not receive the gems until they pay the 10 percent levy.
The Taliban are taxing other precious stones as well, including rubies and sapphires.
Rahmatullah Sharifi, a gemstone dealer who bought two sets of emeralds at the auction, said he didn’t mind paying the tax.
“The government needs the money to develop the country,” he said. “The question is: Will they spend it on helping the Afghan people?”
In Panjshir Province, where most Afghan emeralds are mined, the government has issued 560 emerald licenses to foreign and Afghan investors, said Hamayoon Afghan, a spokesman for the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.
The ministry has also granted licenses to mine rubies in Panjshir and Kabul Provinces, Mr. Afghan said, and plans are underway for emerald and precious stone licenses in three other provinces.
But many new licenses are for mines that have yet to open. And many existing mines are hobbled by poor infrastructure and a dearth of experienced engineers and technical experts.
Mr. Afghan conceded that the country needed more engineers and technicians. Foreign investors bring in experienced experts, he said, and they are obligated under licenses to employ Afghans and teach them technical and engineering skills.
Most of the emeralds bought at the weekly auctions are resold to foreign buyers, dealers said. Among the dealers buying emeralds one day in November was Haji Ghazi, who sells gemstones from a tiny cell-like room within a darkened warren of shops in downtown Kabul.
Two days after the auction, Mr. Ghazi bolted his shop’s door, closed the curtains and unlocked an ancient safe. He withdrew several caches of emeralds and rubies, each one wrapped in a plain white sheet of paper.
Mr. Ghazi’s largest set of emeralds was worth perhaps $250,000, he said. He estimated that a much smaller cache of bright rubies was worth $20,000.
In a corner, Mr. Ghazi had piled heavy chunks of rock bearing thick blue veins of lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone. Much of the world’s supply of lapis is mined in northern Afghanistan.
Mr. Ghazi sells most of his gemstones to buyers from the United Arab Emirates, India, Iran and Thailand. He said he missed the days, before the Taliban takeover, when the occupation brought eager buyers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Australia.
In an adjacent shop, Azizullah Niyazi switched on a desk lamp to illuminate a collection of lapis lazuli, rubies, sapphires and emeralds spread across a small table. He was still awaiting his first customer of the morning.
Mr. Niyazi said sales were not as robust as during the 13 years he was allowed to sell gemstones one day a week from a small shop on a U.S. coalition military base. His profits soared as soldiers and civilian contractors lined up to buy gemstones every Friday — and they rarely haggled over prices, unlike Afghan or Arab buyers, he said. He paid a 7 percent tax on his profits, he said.
These days, Mr. Niyazi must travel to increase sales: He said he had opened a shop in China, where he made regular visits. In Kabul, he sells to buyers from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as well as from Pakistan, Iran and a handful of other countries.
He has few Afghan customers.
“Not many Afghans can afford to pay $1,000 or $2,000 for a stone to make a ring,” he said with a shrug.
https://archive.is/I0AHH
Judge finds Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court in defamation case
A federal judge in New York has found former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for not complying with orders to turn over information about his assets to a pair of former Georgia election workers he defamed.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman made the contempt finding Monday afternoon after Giuliani testified over two days to answer questions about why he’d failed to hand over assets and court-ordered discovery information to help satisfy Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss’ $146 million defamation judgment against him.
Giuliani, the former New York mayor and U.S. attorney, "willfully violated an unambiguous order of the court" by failing to provide information when he was supposed to, Liman said.
"The defendant has attempted to run the clock by stalling," he said.
"Discovery is not supposed to be a shell game where the hidden ball is moved around and around," he added.
He said he'd rule on "appropriate sanctions" against Giuliani later.
Giuliani testified remotely earlier in the day from his Florida home, telling his lawyer Joseph Cammarata that he had tried to comply with court orders in the case and blaming earlier failures to do so on his previous attorney. He also complained that he has had difficulty juggling his various court cases, including two criminal cases and two other defamation suits related to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
"Some days it is completely impossible because there are conflicting demands for material and appearances on the same day," Giuliani said.
He also said he had found some key documents that Freeman and Moss had been waiting for — the proprietary lease for his multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment and the title for his Mercedes-Benz convertible.
Both documents, however, include his divorced wife on the titles and need to be amended before Freeman and Moss' attorneys can use them.
Freeman and Moss had asked the judge to find Giuliani in civil contempt for failing to turn over information and to surrender numerous valuable assets — including a New York Yankees jersey autographed by Hall of Fame outfielder Joe DiMaggio — to pay down the $146 million judgment.
The pair were awarded the sum in their defamation lawsuit against Giuliani, who they said had spread falsities about Trump’s election loss in 2020 resulting in an onslaught of racist and violent threats against them.
Their attorneys had urged Liman in a court filing to apply “appropriate sanctions” to prompt Giuliani’s compliance with court orders after he repeatedly ran afoul of deadlines to turn over assets and financial data.
Giuliani said Friday that the DiMaggio jersey was “missing” and denied an assertion made by a friend, Monsignor Alan Placa, that he had seen it framed in Giuliani’s property in Palm Beach, Florida, within the past two years.
On Monday, Giuliani said he's still searching for the jersey. "I don't know where it is, and it is hard to re-create who took it, and I am personally conducting my own investigation about this," he said.
Testifying in court Friday, Giuliani denied having withheld other Yankees memorabilia, saying he wasn’t “hiding” a signed image of Reggie Jackson, another Hall of Famer, that the election workers’ attorney said was listed as an asset in a bankruptcy document.
Lawyers for Freeman and Moss have argued that Giuliani had demonstrated “a consistent pattern of willful defiance of the Court’s Turnover Orders,” and they cited his failure to surrender the proprietary lease and co-op shares to the estimated $6 million Manhattan apartment, cash in his bank account and the title document for his Mercedes, which used to belong to Hollywood icon Lauren Bacall.
Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, said in a statement, “It's tragic to watch as our justice system has been turned into a total mockery, where we have charades instead of actual hearings and trials.”
A trial will be held in the New York case on Jan. 16, to determine the status of Giuliani's Florida condo and possession of his Yankees World Series rings, which he says he gifted to his son years ago.
Giuliani is also facing a second contempt proceeding in Washington, D.C., this week over whether he should face sanctions for continuing to defame Freeman and Moss on his livestreamed “America’s Mayor Live” show in defiance of a court-ordered agreement.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rudy-giuliani-resume-testimony-contempt-hearing-defamation-case-rcna186216
Norovirus is spreading via clothes and soft-furnishings, experts warn as infections surge - winter vomiting bug can linger in fabric for a month
Bible has a passage on contaminated clothing and says to be careful sharing linens and stuff. Be careful buying second hand garments, better wash that shit with Borax.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14246863/Norovirus-spreading-clothes-furniture-experts-warn-infections-surge-vomiting-bug-linger-fabric-month.html
It's the homeless population full of all sorts of disease that sit on the buses and sleep all over the place. They don't wash their ass and std ridden balls for months or years so they spread the disease when they sit places.
Buying used shoes is just an easy way to spread foot fungus and can indeed spread disease through clothing via all the shedding from the previous person.