Restriction of Movement/Activity

The Barons Behind the Brands: Money, Power and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry

By Roli / May 2, 2024 /

Few books about America’s industrial agriculture system and food industry uncover the billionaires behind its biggest corporations.

But a new exposé by Austin Frerick, a former tax economist at the U.S. Treasury Department and current fellow at Yale University’s Thurman Arnold Project, reveals the amassed fortunes of Big Ag’s most powerful families.

“Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry” exposes these ill-gotten gains and a cadre of complicit government players who made it all possible.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dismal Census of Agriculture (Feb. 13) disclosed that 141,733 farms shuttered between 2017 and 2022.

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IS A CLIMATE LOCKDOWN ON THE HORIZON?

By Roli / May 2, 2024 /

A recent article by the LA Times editorial board claims that California is experiencing record high temperatures. Jefferey Jaxen does a fact check on their claims. As President Joe Biden mulls the idea of declaring a climate emergency, we look into the potential powers that could be gained from this move. Will we have a climate lockdown on our horizon?

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Vehicle monitoring software could soon use ‘kill switch’ under the guise of ‘safety’

By Shawna / May 2, 2024 /

H.R.3684 – Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
The infrastructure bill, HR. 3684, passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by Biden on November 15, 2021, includes a provision for several vehicle monitoring technologies to be installed in cars, which have recently or will soon be required in new vehicles, including technology to determine if a driver is drunk or impaired.

The Center for Automotive Research’s Eric Paul Dennis reviewed the bill and summarized “key sections.” Dennis, a senior transportation systems analyst, reviewed the section on “Drunk and Impaired Driving Prevention Technology” (HR 3684 Section 24220) and explained that Congress gave the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) the role of determining exactly what this section means and how it will be implemented:

This provision directs NHTSA to issue a rule to require ‘advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention technology’ in new light vehicles.

Congress tasked NHTSA with interpreting this law, including establishing the statutory meaning of ‘impaired.’
The legislation directs NHTSA to adopt a new safety mandate by 15 November 2024 and begin enforcing it by September 2027 (at the latest) if this is feasible. [Emphases added.]

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EV Battery Timebomb

By Valerie / May 1, 2024 /

The Mail has a timebomb story that should horrify EV owners and convince those still running combustion cars to stick with them for the foreseeable:

Many EVs will lose up to 12% of their charge capacity by six years. Some may lose even more.

Yet the cost of replacing an EV battery is astonishingly high, our research found.

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Appeal could see Pastor Artur Pawlowski exonerated on all COVID-19 charges

By Valerie / May 1, 2024 /

Artur Pawlowski’s lawyer, Sarah Miller, joins Adam Soos to provide an update on the pastor’s fight to exonerate himself from the COVID-19 related charges he received during the pandemic.

By Adam Soos | May 01, 2024 | News

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Loblaw profits increase as some Canadians boycott company’s grocery stores

By Roli / May 1, 2024 /

Originally created as a space for people to vent about high grocery costs, a subreddit titled r/loblawsisoutofcontrol has started a nationwide boycott of Loblaw-owned stores for the month of May.

The online group’s goal is to highlight the “ridiculous cost of living in Canada right now,” according to their page, specifically calling out company chairman Galen Weston for raising prices and collecting profit while “Canadians struggle to make ends meet.”

Those who are boycotting are doing so by choosing to shop at other stores and cancelling memberships and credit cards with Loblaw-owned stores. Calgary members posting to the subreddit are suggesting the Calgary Farmers’ Market and local butchers as options for meat and produce.

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Month-long boycott of Loblaw-owned grocery brands and stores begins

By Roli / May 1, 2024 /

A boycott targeting Loblaw is gaining momentum, with what could be thousands of Canadian shoppers taking their money for groceries elsewhere this month.
What led to the Loblaw boycott?

Calls for the Loblaw boycott emerged after a Reddit group created to give people a place to complain about Loblaw and other grocers gained thousands of followers.

The page, r/loblawsisoutofcontrol, has grown to more than 63,000 members since being started in October, 2023.

A nonexhaustive list of stores and brands being included by some in the boycott:
President’s Choice
No Name
PC Express
Joe Fresh
Loblaws
Zehrs
T&T
Atlantic Superstore
Wholesale Club
PC Financial
Pharmaprix
Independent
Maxi
Shoppers Drug Mart
Real Canadian Superstore
Fortinos
Valu-mart
No Frills
Quo Beauty
Specialty Health Network by Shoppers
PC Optimum
Extra Foods
Theodore & Pringle Optical
Life Brand
The Health Clinic by Shoppers
Beauty Boutique by Shoppers
Dominion

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Louisiana House splits on vaccine ‘discrimination’ proposals

By Roli / May 1, 2024 /

The Louisiana House of Representatives approved a proposal Tuesday to prohibit what its author considers “discrimination” at K-12 students on the basis of vaccination status. But lawmakers rejected a bill that would have placed similar restrictions on businesses and governmental entities.

Amedee told House members unvaccinated students were discriminated against during the peak of the pandemic by being seated separately from their classmates and not being allowed to participate in extracurricular sports. Her bill to prevent such actions would apply to all vaccinations.

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LIFESTYLE Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email Copy 206 Comments Daily showers are purely ‘performative’ and have no real health benefit, experts insist

By Valerie / April 30, 2024 /

Call it perfume-ative hygiene.

Experts say the daily shower has no proven health benefit, dismissing the dousing as a socially accepted practice geared toward staving off accusations of funkiness — as A-listers like Jake Gyllenhaal and Mila Kunis admit they’ve been saying no to the nozzle.

“Why are we washing? Mostly because we’re afraid somebody else will tell us that we’re smelling,” environmentalist Donnachadh McCarthy told the BBC.

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Predicts A Costlier ArriveCan

By Valerie / April 29, 2024 /

Customs officers warn of another ArriveCan-style fiasco with a Canada Border Services Agency plan to digitize $32 billion in yearly tariff collections. The computer system to be launched May 13 has been delayed until October.

“We have general concerns regarding the decision to implement it in the first place,” the Customs and Immigration Union wrote the Commons trade committee. “It seems to follow the same pattern established by previous projects, notably ArriveCan, where a rushed system is deployed as a solution to a non-existent problem.”

The Agency’s Assessment And Revenue Management System or CARM has been in planning since 2016. The project originally budgeted at $370 million has cost $526 million to date, by Agency estimate.

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