News of the World

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US NEWS

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Colorado Supreme Court Disqualifies Trump from 2024 Ballot

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a 4-3 opinion that the Constitution’s “Insurrection Clause” prohibits former President Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot for the presidency in 2024.

“The court found by clear and convincing evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection as those terms are used in Section Three” of the Fourteenth Amendment, the ruling reads.

The provocative ruling partially reverses a prior ruling from Colorado District Court Judge Sarah Wallace, who ruled in November that Trump is not an officer of the United States as defined by the Fourteenth Amendment and that the Amendment therefore cannot be used to disqualify him from appearing on the Colorado primary ballot.

In his dissent, Chief Justice Boatright wrote, “Dismissal is particularly appropriate here because the Electors brought their challenge without a determination from a proceeding (e.g., a prosecution for an insurrection-related offense) with more rigorous procedures to ensure adequate due process.”

In partially reversing Wallace, the Court all but dared the U.S. Supreme Court to step in by January 4, 2024.

“If review is sought in the Supreme Court before the stay expires on January 4, 2024, then the stay shall remain in place, and the Secretary will continue to be required to include President Trump’s name on the 2024 presidential primary ballot, until the receipt of any order or mandate from the Supreme Court,” the ruling says.

The Court disagreed with Trump’s claims that his actions were protected free speech.

More on the Bidenscandals

California Court Date Set for Hunter Biden Federal Tax Charges

Hunter Biden will make his first appearance in California federal court early next year over felony tax charges in the state.

Next month’s court calendar states President Joe Biden’s son is scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. on Jan. 11 before Judge Alka Sagar in Roybal Courtroom 640.

Biden was indicted on nine tax-related offenses earlier this month on accusations of failing to pay his taxes, failing to file his tax returns, and filing fraudulent tax returns, as Breitbart News reported.

The 56-page indictment filed in a federal court in Los Angeles alleged Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle” rather than pay his taxes, per NBC News.

The indictment also alleges Hunter Biden “willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes.”

James Biden Caught on FBI Tapes

The FBI is in possession of tapes that captured James Biden negotiating business ventures involving Joe Biden, according to a report in the Washington Post, which initially failed to authenticate the “Laptop from Hell” for 532 days.

The tapes reveal how members of the Biden family worked to rake in millions of dollars while Joe Biden, referenced as the “Big Guy” by at least five Biden associates, held federal office, according to the House Oversight Committee:

• The Biden business earned $24 million dollars between 2015 and 2019.
  
• The business used more than 20 shell companies.
  
• Associates sold the “Biden brand.”
  

James Biden, who received a subpoena to appear before a House impeachment inquiry, controls Lion Hall Group, an entity that investigators suspect of wrongdoing. According to the Post, many of James Biden’s business ventures operated via the Lion Hall Group, including some negotiations caught on tape by the FBI.

Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, a Mississippi trial attorney, tried to use James Biden’s influence with Joe Biden to close a deal that forced “tobacco companies to pay billions of dollars,” the Post reported.

The Post also told readers their story does not prove Joe Biden “knew” about the “alleged money trail” or did anything wrong.

Plus Some Other Scandals

Additional Allegations of Plagiarism Emerge Against Harvard President Claudine Gay

The complaint submitted to Harvard’s research integrity officer by a professor from another university, who wished to remain anonymous, outlines at least 40 allegations of plagiarism against Claudine Gay, including some of the charges that various publications, including Breitbart News, have covered over the past few weeks. The new allegations range “from missing quotation marks around a few phrases or sentences to entire paragraphs lifted verbatim,” according to the Washington Free Beacon. Other allegations include Gay paraphrasing authors without proper attribution.

“The full list of examples spans seven of Gay’s publications—two more than previously reported—which comprise almost half of her scholarly output,” noted the outlet.

Up until now, the Harvard Corporation has stood by Gay after an independent review of her work, saying earlier this month that it found “no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct.”

The Beacon noted that the probe focused on just three of her papers. The complaint asserted that investigators have not reviewed the entirety of Gay’s work.

“[I]t is impossible that your office has already reviewed the entirety of these materials, as many … have not been previously reported or submitted,” the complaint said.

A school official guilty of plagiarism can face “suspension,” “rank reduction,” and “termination of employment.” The appropriate sanction will be considered if the misconduct is determined to be “an isolated event or part of a pattern.” Harvard has already taken heat for being noticeably lax on faculty plagiarism versus that committed by students.

Head of LeBron James’ I Promise’ School Lashes Out at Akron School Board Over ‘Broken Trust’

Campbell, executive director of The LeBron James Family Foundation, railed at the school board for “breaking trust” with the foundation and unfairly accusing I Promise of failing students. She also blasted Akron Board of Education President Derrick Hall for refusing to answer an email she sent to him.

“My email received no response. We all know what happened next,” Campbell said during the meeting.
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In his reply during the meeting, Hall pointed out that he had a private conversation with Campbell about the email and thought that they had reached an understanding on the matter. But Campbell wanted to make an issue about the situation.
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The conflict began in July when news broke that James’ famed school had not succeeded in doing much actual educating of its students since launching in 2018.

The shocking report sent the Akron School Board to make plans to put James’ school under closer scrutiny. The board also made plans to spend more state and district money to improve the school’s proficiency rate throughout the curriculum.

In July, Yahoo News reported that “Two of I Promise’s biggest subgroups of students, Black students and those with disabilities, are now testing in the bottom 5% in the state, landing the school on the Ohio Department of Education’s list of those requiring targeted intervention.”

Board President Hall said he was “disappointed” by the school’s serious deficits.

 What can I say now? They think they will solve the issue by spending a whole bunch of money, only to find out later on that nothing has ever changed there.

Texas Governor Signs Bill Making Illegal Migrant Entry from Mexico a State Crime

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill making Texas the first state in the union to give law enforcement officers the authority to arrest migrants who illegally enter the state. The measure, SB 4, was signed into law on Monday during a ceremony at the base of the border wall in Brownsville, Texas.

The bill is part of a package of measures designed to decrease the flow of migrants entering the state from Mexico. The Texas Legislature passed the bills during two special sessions this fall.
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By creating the offense of illegal reentry, offenders can be penalized with sentences of up to 20 years in prison. It also provides the mechanism to order an offender to return to the foreign nation from which they entered or attempted to enter this state. The law provides civil immunity and indemnification for local and state government officials, employees, and contractors for lawsuits resulting from enforcing these provisions.

The law is similar to a current federal statute under Title 8 of the United States Code 1325, which makes illegal entry into the United States a misdemeanor offense for a first-time offender and a felony for a second offense. Under the current administration, the federal statute is not pursued to any significant degree.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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2 Articles

China Starts Buying Venezuelan Oil After Joe Biden Lifts Human Rights Sanctions

China’s state-owned Sinochem Corporation purchased a million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil for delivery in December — an unusual buy made possible when the Biden administration suspended human rights sanctions on Venezuelan oil in October.

Three traders familiar with the deal told Reuters on Tuesday that Sinochem received a discount of $11 per barrel for the Venezuelan heavy crude oil, which will be delivered to the Changyi refinery in Shandong province.

One of the traders noted that Sinochem “barely touched Venezuelan oil before,” even though it has plants that can refine that grade of crude oil. Sinochem, evidently, avoided Venezuelan products because the huge state-controlled company was worried about triggering secondary U.S. sanctions.

Independent Chinese refiners were more willing to take that risk and have been buying Venezuelan oil at discounts of up to $20 per barrel. They hedged their bets by claiming the Venezuelan crude was coming from Malaysia.

In an interesting demonstration of unpredictable consequences, the U.S. lifting sanctions on Venezuelan oil made it possible for Sinochem to buy its million barrels, but it also caused much of the supply of phony “Malaysian” oil to independent Chinese refineries to dry up because Venezuela was suddenly able to sell its oil elsewhere at higher prices. One of the most eager customers is energy-hungry India.

None of you truly expected China to stay away from Venezuela after the sactions were lifted, right?
Poor Malaysia!  Now it won't export any oil to China any longer...  What a terrible disguise that was!

After Biden Reversed Trump and Let Houthis Run Wild, U.S. Announces ‘Taskforce’ on Red Sea

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, on a visit to Israel, announced “a multinational maritime taskforce” Monday to deal with the threat of Houthi rebels in Yemen to global shipping in the Red Sea, which must pass through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.
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Fully 10% of the world’s oil traffic must travel through the strait, which means that Iran, via the Houthis, is threatening the world economy.

President Joe Biden had allowed the Houthis free rein after reversing the policies of President Donald Trump, who had contained the Houthis, within days of taking office in 2021.

The problem began in 2015, in the lame-duck years of President Barack Obama’s presidency, when Iran helped the Houthis knock over the existing, pro-American government of Yemen, a poor and underdeveloped country in which most adults are drug addicts.
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Iran, not Saudi Arabia, is primarily responsible for the civil war in Yemen, arming the Houthis to wrest control of the country away from the Yemeni government. The new Houthi regime has attacked Saudi Arabia directly. Iran reportedly sees the conflict as a relatively inexpensive way to threaten its Saudi rivals and force the Saudis to spend billions of dollars on defense in a conflict that has dented the Saudis’ image.
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Two years later, the Houthis are firing missiles and drones in the hope of murdering Israeli civilians, thousands of miles away, joining the Iranian-backed terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in doing so. Meanwhile, the Houthis have — as of today — launched nearly 20 attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, threatening trade and oil deliveries.