Author: Blazingcatfur

A Scandal For Every Month: The Biggest Botches, Failures, And Mess-Ups Of Joe Biden’s First 12 Months In Office

Joe Biden has been in the Oval Office (or that weird set in the Eisenhower building’s South Court auditorium with the greenscreen windows) for a year now, and he’s already managed to make his short presidency known for a long line-up of scandals, botches, and slip-ups.

It’s too hard to narrow the list down to one top failure, although his disgracefully handled Afghanistan withdrawal may be the most sobering and inflation may be the one that played the biggest role in Biden’s tanking approval ratings. Even though Biden’s mess-ups tally up to far more than 12, it’s not hard to remember a Biden-enabled disaster for every month of the septuagenarian’s first year at the stern … or in the basement.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Joe Sleazebag Biden"

IRS to demand facial recognition ID

A new kind of digital identification, requiring the user to submit their personal data to a private company in Virginia – including a live video of their face from their cell phone or computer webcam – will be the only way Americans can create an account with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) starting by the summer of 2022.

Old log-in credentials will stop working later this year, and the only way to log into irs.gov will be by using ID.me, an online identity verification service run by a company in McLean, Virginia, just outside the Capital Beltway. This is according to investigative journalist Brian Krebs, who went through the procedure of creating an account for himself this week.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", WTF?

Why we’ll end up eating bugs

The golden age of capitalism will emasculate us all

It’s that special time of year when the global elites gather together at Davos. Or rather it would be, if it weren’t for Covid. Thanks to the Omicron wave, the World Economic Forum 2022 has been postponed.

But don’t despair. Instead of the annual jamboree that you probably couldn’t afford and wouldn’t be invited to, there’s an online event called The Davos Agenda. This opened on Monday with a “special address” by Xi Jinping.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Is America Heading For A Systems Collapse?

As the 2022 midterm elections approach, who will stop our descent into collective poverty, division—and self-inflicted madness?

In modern times, as in ancient Rome, several nations have suffered a “systems collapse.” The term describes the sudden inability of once prosperous populations to continue with what had ensured the good life as they knew it.

Abruptly, the population cannot buy, or even find, once plentiful necessities. They feel their streets are unsafe. Laws go unenforced or are enforced inequitably. Everyday things stop working. The government turns from reliable to capricious if not hostile.

Consider contemporary Venezuela. By 2010, the once well-off oil-exporting country was mired in a self-created mess. Food became scarce, crime ubiquitous.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

The Music Industry Is In Crisis Because People Are Buying More Old Songs Than New

According to the music sales data company MRC, “old songs” now represent an astonishing 70% of the U.S. market. It’s even more noteworthy on streaming platforms where the 200 most popular tracks now account for less than 5% of total streams.

The current list of most downloaded tracks on iTunes is filled with the names of bands from the last century like The Police and Credence Clearwater Revival, according to author and musician Ted Gioia.

More is going on here than a mere preference for musicianship, a decent melody and lyrics that at least try to make sense over the badly rhymed & Autotuned output of today’s dubious “talent.”

I suggest it is the rejection of the culture the elite seeks to impose on us. 

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Zeitgeist"

“Horndog High” Conveys Dignity

Canada’s Prince Andrew high school announces plan to change name

A Canadian high school named after the Duke of York has announced plans to rename itself, in an attempt to distance itself from the growing controversy surrounding the Queen’s second son.

The principal of Prince Andrew high school in the province of Nova Scotia told families on Wednesday to expect the change as the school looks for a name that “upholds our values as a safe and inclusive” space.

“The name of a school should be reflective of our school community … Our hope is to continue to build our identity as a positive, supportive and respectful community, with a name to match,” principal Craig Campbell wrote in an email.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Austria becomes first EU country to pass vaccine mandate

Austria’s parliament on Thursday passed a vaccine mandate that will require all adults in the country to get vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning in February. The move makes Austria the first EU country to pass a vaccine mandate, despite tens of thousands of angry citizens continuing to protest such measures in Austria and across Europe.

The law enjoyed broad support in parliament, with only far-right legislators voting against it in a 137-33 tally. After an “introductory phase” ending mid-March, those who refuse to get the shot will face fines of up to €3,600 ($4,084). The mandate only applies to adults and makes exemptions for pregnant women and those with medical conditions that prevent them from getting the jab.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China eats weird animals disease"

‘Pressing need’ for Bank of Canada to raise interest rates amid inflation surge

The likelihood of an interest rate hike from the Bank of Canada next week is growing as record levels of inflation and high housing prices coincide with an anticipated economic rebound from the Omicron wave of the pandemic, some economists say.

Scotiabank Economics said in a note to investors Wednesday that it expects the Bank of Canada to raise its key overnight rate by 25 basis points to 0.5 per cent at its next meeting Jan 26.

I bet the million dollar mortgage crowd is tickled to hear this.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

Beware the Ides of February

If you’re not making an extra effort to find some well reasoned thinking about the developing crisis in Ukraine, I’m not sure what to do for you. Well, perhaps I can point you in a direction to some of the better thinking on the issue I’ve found out there.

One of the best this week comes from Rob Lee over at FPRI.

He sets the table for you right off the bat in the first paragraph;

How ambitious are Russia’s foreign policy objectives, and how much force does Moscow believe it must employ to achieve them? Moscow has submitted various ultimatums, but the most critical and pressing issue is that the Kremlin now regards Ukraine as a permanently hostile country continuing to increase its defense capabilities. Russian hopes for improved relations with President Volodymyr Zelensky were dashed in 2021, and Moscow is now focused on reducing the long-term security risk posed by Ukraine, including halting its expanding defense cooperation with NATO. However, this is one of the most unrealistic and difficult demands for NATO to satisfy, particularly because Ukraine is developing long-range missiles domestically. This diplomatic impasse suggests a significant risk of a Russian military escalation in Ukraine with few obvious offramps.

h/t Jojodogfacedboy

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inRussia, Ukraine

A cold war with China and its authoritarian allies is inevitable

It’s become a boring habit of Chinese supreme leader Xi Jinping and his senior officials to ridicule any effort by the world’s democracies to uphold some modicum of “rules-based” international decorum as evidence of a zero-sum “Cold War” mentality. It’s a propaganda tool that has proved somewhat useful in the work of infantilizing the western “discourse” around China, which is why Beijing employs it so frequently.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"China - Communist Slave State"

Why Palestinian Leaders Ignore Arab Atrocities

Palestinian leaders never miss an opportunity to condemn Israel and accuse it of committing “crimes” against the Palestinians. This is in the context of the ongoing virulent Palestinian campaign of incitement against Israel.

The Palestinian leaders, however, remain oblivious to the suffering of their people in some Arab countries, especially Syria, where more than 4,100 Palestinians have been killed during the fighting between the Syrian army and the opposition or died as a result of torture, starvation and medical negligence over the past decade. These leaders are also most likely afraid that their Arab brothers would punish them if they speak out against the atrocities committed against Palestinians in the Arab countries.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inPalestine and Palestinians

Canada’s cyberspy agency warns of Russian cyberattacks on critical infrastructure

Canada’s cyberspy agency is warning of Moscow-backed cyberattacks on Canadian critical infrastructure as Western countries prepare economic sanctions in the growing expectation that Russia will invade Ukraine.

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security joined its counterparts in the United States and United Kingdom on Thursday in urging Canadian companies, such as electrical utilities and energy firms, to watch out for cyberattacks from Russia.

I bet the Russians will be pissed to find the ChiComs got there first.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCyber War, Cybercrime