RealClearInvestigations'
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March 17 to March 23, 2024 In RealClearInvestigations, Toby Dershowitz and Max Friedman explore South Africa's possible motives in accusing Israel of post-Oct. 7 genocide in the World Court: It appears less an act of probity than one of cynical collaboration with one of Israel’s fiercest enemies, Iran. They report: Shortly before undertaking the multi-million-dollar legal action against Israel in December, the bereft South African ruling party, the African National Congress, suddenly resolved its longstanding and crippling debt issues. There's no proof that Pretoria and Tehran colluded in this instance, but they have been diplomatically and financially close since long before fighters from Hamas, one of Iran's terrorist proxies, invaded southern Israel last Oct. 7 in a rampage of rape and killing. A flurry of diplomatic activity illustrates how the two nations have worked hand-in-glove since Oct. 7. In the past nine years, moreover, South Africa and Hamas have signed two memorandums of understanding to cooperate in pressuring Israel diplomatically and economically. Further, South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, appears to have a sordid pecuniary interest in Iran stretching back further – at least two decades, when the company he was leading was implicated in an alleged bribery and influence-peddling scheme between Iran and his telecommunications giant. The South Africa-Iran relationship fits a larger pattern in which the nation famed for Nelson Mandela’s championing of human rights has become an ally of some of the most oppressive regimes in the world – including Russia, Syria, Sudan and Hamas. Waste of the Day
by Adam Andrzejewski, Open the Books Smithsonian Mismanaged COVID Funds, RCI
California's 'Woke Kindergarten' Flunks, RCI
Coast Guard Out of Ship-Shape, RCI
Federal Grant Saves Giant Stuffed Fish, RCI
'Unsustainable' Public Debt by 2050, RCI Biden, Trump and the Beltway Impeach Probers to Call On President to Testify, ABC News
Wrap-Up: House Hearing on 'Joe Biden's Abuse of Public Office', House Oversight
CIA Played Key Jan. 6 Roles, Texts Reveal, Washington Examiner
State Dept. Forced to Bear Hefty Cost of Biden DEI Push, Daily Wire
Biden's Accountant: I Never Saw Any 'Loans' or 'Repayments', Just the News
Whistleblower: CIA Intervened in Hunter Biden Tax Probe, New York Post
Valet: Trump Told Pence Not to Certify Vote, New York Times
Heat on Senate Finance Chair Wyden Over Wife's Stocks, Just the News
Biden Intel Newsletter: Crossdressers Make Better Spies, Daily Wire Other Noteworthy Articles and Series The Securities and Exchange Commission has finalized new climate disclosure rules, and half the states in the U.S. have filed lawsuits against them. While SEC wades through the various legal challenges, a federal court has paused the new rule. This article reports: The final rule didn’t include the stringent Scope 3 reporting requirements, which would have required companies registered with the SEC to disclose all emissions along the entire supply chain through the end use of products. If it had been included, the average per-firm costs of producing climate disclosures would have been $864,864 across 7,400 companies, according to the National Review. The final rules still require large and mid-sized companies to report Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and a deluge of lawsuits have raised a number of objections to what did end up in the final rule. … “Today, the Biden administration has once again got on the attack against America's energy industry. It actually may be one of the most egregious attempts yet,”[West Viginia Attorney General Patrick] Morrisey said in a press conference. Critics say the new rule twists the definition of “materiality” – the basis for what information companies need to supply to investors – in requiring disclosures about climate change and energy use. They argue it also violates the First Amendment and has the potential to hurt American workers in many ways, including devastating the supply chain, hurting Iowa family farms, and driving up business and consumer costs. An increase in the number of people who believe they are transgender has led to growing use of hormone therapies, which help to change the body’s physical characteristics toward a certain gender. But even as politicians debate the use of puberty blockers and hormones for children, this article reports that researchers say misunderstandings and knowledge gaps about the impact of such treatments abound: For trans men, hormone therapy typically involves taking testosterone – enabling the growth of facial hair and a deepening of the voice, amid other changes – while for trans women it typically means taking oestradiol, which promotes the growth of breasts and an increase in body fat. While such medications are known to change external appearances, how they might affect other aspects of the body – from the way internal organs work, to blood pressure and even risk factors for diseases – has been unclear. And that isn’t just true for trans patients. “Regardless of the type of [hormone] therapy and who is using it, we actually surprisingly as a healthcare profession don’t know much,” said Dr Sofia Ahmed of the University of Alberta, who is looking at the impact of hormone therapy on kidney and cardiovascular health in transgender people. Warning: This article may leave a bad taste in your mouth next time you order a shrimp cocktail. Confirming the findings of a recent study by the Chicago-based Corporate Accountability Lab, which found “dangerous and abusive conditions” in southeast India’s shrimp industry, the AP reports that Indian women working in shrimp-peeling sheds make less than $4 a day, some of which goes to transportation and recruitment costs: In one shed, dozens of women, some barefoot, stood on narrow wooden benches enduring 10-hour shifts peeling shrimp covered in crushed ice. Barehanded or wearing filthy, torn gloves, the women twisted off the heads, pulled off the legs and pried off the shells, making it possible for American cooks to simply tear open a bag and toss the shrimp in a skillet. Desperately poor women told AP they weren’t paid overtime as mandated by law, in addition to not being paid India’s minimum wage. Some said they were locked inside guarded hostels when they weren’t peeling shrimp. The work was unsanitary to the point that workers’ hands were infected, and they lacked safety and hygiene protection required under Indian law. And it doesn’t meet U.S. legal food safety standards required for all seafood imports. This article reports that India’s shrimp industry – whose product is regularly sold in Walmart, Target and other U.S. stories and restaurants – is also damaging the environment. “Our lives, our land, our farming pride, fresh air, and clean water – everything is lost,” said Areti Vasu, a farmer. Officials say that the waters are polluted, farmland is barren, and even the night air is “thick with pollutants.” A psychiatric textbook published in 1975 put the frequency of incest at one in a million. The results from home DNA tests such as AncestryDNA and 23andMe, this article reports, suggest that incest is far more common: The geneticist Jim Wilson, at the University of Edinburgh, was shocked by the frequency he found in the U.K. Biobank, an anonymized research database: One in 7,000 people, according to his unpublished analysis, was born to parents who were first-degree relatives—a brother and a sister or a parent and a child. “That’s way, way more than I think many people would ever imagine,” he told me. And this number is just a floor: It reflects only the cases that resulted in pregnancy, that did not end in miscarriage or abortion, and that led to the birth of a child who grew into an adult who volunteered for a research study. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this article reports, the parents are a father and a daughter or an older brother and a younger sister, meaning a child’s existence was likely evidence of sexual abuse. From the Annals of Let’s Ignore the Debt Crisis, this article reports that dozens of American cities and counties – most led by Democrats – are making no-strings-attached payments to residents outside of normal welfare programs amid growing progressive complaints about supposed wealth inequality in the U.S. The programs are part of a trend at the local and national level toward providing direct, largely unconditional payments to Americans for everything from pandemic relief to child assistance. Among places providing cash payments: Houston – which is giving 1,900 residents of Hines County $500 per month – Stockton, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; Louisville, Ky.; and Nashville. Quote: In recent years, guaranteed income has seen a resurgence, backed by wealthy philanthropists and tech industry figures such as Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who have funded nonprofit groups that advocate for the idea and set up pilot programs. Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, made a universal basic income of $1,000 a month the centerpiece of his campaign. … While guaranteed-income programs haven’t gained traction on the federal level, Washington is increasingly open to policies that offer Americans direct payments. On Capitol Hill, senators are weighing legislation that would increase the child tax credit for low-income families, while reviving expired breaks for businesses. House lawmakers passed the bill with bipartisan support early this year, but it has stalled in the Senate, amid concerns about the child tax credit provisions from some Republicans. This article reports that Donald Trump was keenly aware of the political power of giving people money during his presidency, successfully pushing to have his name appear on COVID stimulus checks. He reportedly told his advisers that he thought it would boost his chances of re-election, despite opposition to the effort from outside conservatives and some in his administration. |
