Paradise News

Tag: General News

  • Fact Check: Social media post makes baseless claims about Albert Einstein, others

    Physicist Albert Einstein is considered one of the most influential scientists in human history, but a social media post citing no proof proclaims he had a secret.

    “Albert Einstein was a transgender,” the March 6 Facebook post said. “This has been going on for a very long time.” 

    The video cites no source. Instead, what follows is a three-minute video in which photos of celebrities and other public figures, including some women whom the video labeled “male.”

    This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    “We are all being played, I’m telling you,” a voice could be heard saying in the video as images of Einstein are followed by images suggesting that actors Marilyn Monroe and Julia Roberts, former first lady Michelle Obama, and singer Beyoncé were born as males.

    We did not find any evidence to back up the claim Einstein was transgender.

    Rather, documents held by Princeton University show an English translation of Einstein’s 1879 birth certificate that discloses that “a child of the male sex was born, which was given the first name Albert.”

    We’ve previously debunked numerous unfounded claims that Michelle Obama was a man. They’re wrong, and this claim about Einstein also lacks any corroboration.

     We rate this post Pants on Fire!

     



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  • House GOP’s new Jan. 6 probe tries to shift blame from Trump

    By Lisa Mascaro | Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — House Republicans are launching a vast reinvestigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to push the blame away from Donald Trump, who has been indicted over his actions or his supporters in the mob siege trying to overturn the 2020 election.

    As Trump campaigns to return to the White House, the House Administration subcommittee on oversight held the first of what is expected to be regular public hearings revisiting the official account, which had aired in great detail in 2022 by the House’s Select Committee on Jan. 6.

    Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., called Jan. 6 a “dark day” in U.S. history as he opened Tuesday’s hearing to delve into the investigation of pipe bombs that were left outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters that day. But, he said, “we still have many unanswered questions.”

    The panel’s work comes as Trump and President Joe Biden are galloping toward a 2020 rematch this fall, and Republicans, some once skeptical of Trump’s return to the White House, have quickly been falling in line to support the former president. The House GOP’s high-profile impeachment inquiry into Biden has stalled without a clear path forward.

    Speaker Mike Johnson said House Republicans intend to release a final report on Jan. 6 “to correct the incomplete narrative” advanced by the previous work of the Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack.

    With newly released testimony and an 80-plus page report of initial findings, the House Administration subcommittee has outlined a roadmap ahead for its probe — including revisiting key testimony from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who delivered a bombshell account of Trump’s actions that day.

    The panel’s report draws on many of the conspiracy theories circulating about Jan. 6 — from the formation of the Select Committee by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to newer questions about the unidentified people who erected the hangman’s scaffolding outside the Capitol.

    “Democrats wasted no time before pointing fingers at President Trump for the events of January 6, 2021,” the initial findings of the report said.

    At the first hearing, Republicans grilled the U.S. Capitol Police about why a bomb-sniffing K9 unit did not initially detect the pipe bombs found outside party headquarters and why police didn’t respond faster to seal off the area.

    U.S. Capitol Police Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher told the panel it was “chaotic” that day as the mob of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol.

    “I want to be upfront and honest, U.S. Capitol Police haven’t shied away from the failures of that day,” Gallagher said about the well-documented leadership problems spelled out in their own report.

    He described the fighting on the West and East fronts of the Capitol as police tried to hold back the mob — “our officers were suffering injuries” — and calls coming in, including a pick-up truck loaded with Molotov cocktails, machetes, rifles, handguns and ammunition parked nearby.

    Five people died in the riot and its immediate aftermath, including a police officer, and other officers died later by suicide. More than 1,200 people have been charged in the riot, with hundreds convicted.

    “For context, I would gladly give up a perimeter not being perfect to be able to get officers responding to help their brothers and sisters who were calling for help at the U.S. Capitol,” Gallagher testified.

    Rep. Norma Torres of California, the panel’s ranking Democrat and a former 911 dispatcher, questioned the premise of the hearing, particularly as federal investigations are underway: “What exactly is it that we’re doing here?”

    “Maybe it is to peddle crazy right-wing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 pipe bombs spreading in the dark corners of the Internet?” she asked.

    “Or maybe we are here so this subcommittee can once again try to muddle our history, villainize law enforcement and undo the efforts of the bipartisan Jan. 6 Select Committee,” she said, “all to distract from the simple fact that the former president and Republican nominee for president orchestrated a corrupt scheme to overturn the results of a free and fair election.”

    Trump, who exhorted his supporters to “fight like hell” before they swarmed the Capitol, has been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud Americans and obstruction of an official proceeding over Jan. 6. The Supreme Court is considering his claim of immunity.

    House Republicans criticize the Select Committee and they claim it didn’t turn over all aspects of its work.

    On Tuesday, a previously undisclosed transcript of the Select Committee’s interview with an unnamed Secret Service officer who drove the presidential SUV on Jan. 6 provided new information about Trump’s actions that day. It was obtained by The Associated Press.

    That transcript of the presidential limo driver contradicted some of Hutchinson’s testimony but corroborated other aspects of her account, including Trump’s attempt to join the mob scene at the Capitol.

    Trump had told his supporters during the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse near the White House to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol, and said he would be right there with them, as Congress was certifying the 2020 election and Biden’s victory.

    But his security detail refused to take him there and instead took him back to the White House.

    Hutchinson, who at the time was an aide to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, had testified in June 2022 that she was told by another official that Trump fought for control of the presidential SUV and demanded to be taken to the Capitol as the insurrection began.

    Hutchinson testified that she was told that Bobby Engel, the head of security in the car with him, had grabbed Trump’s arm to prevent him from gaining control of the armored vehicle, and Trump then used his free hand to lunge at Engel. She worked inside the White House, and said that when she was told of the altercation immediately afterward, Engel was in the room and didn’t dispute the account at the time.

    In the newly obtained transcript, the driver confirms: “The President was insistent on going to the Capitol.”

    The driver explained that Trump and Engel got in the car after the rally, and Trump started asking Engel about going to the Capitol. When Engel suggested they couldn’t do that, Trump kept pushing.

    “Certainly his voice was raised,” the driver testified, “but it did not seem to me like he was irate, certainly not — certainly didn’t seem as irritated or as agitated as he had on the way to the Ellipse.”

    The driver said, “The thing that sticks out most was he kept asking why we couldn’t go?”

    But the driver said he did not see the altercation that Hutchinson described.

    “He never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all,” the driver testified.

    “You know, what stood out was the irritation in his voice more than — more than his physical presence, which would have been pretty obvious if he was trying to insert himself between the two front seats,” the driver said.

    The driver said he told other colleagues at the White House what had happened as he waited outside with the vehicles.

    Source

  • State Legislature Approves $500K To Fund Genetic Genealogy Testing For All Unidentified Remains In Washington

    OLYMPIA, WA – In a groundbreaking move to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people, Washington State’s Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, has announced a significant step forward. Thanks to his office’s relentless efforts, the Legislature has approved a substantial budget of $500,000. This funding is earmarked for conducting genetic genealogy and DNA testing on every single unidentified remain in the state’s backlog.

    Presently, 163 unidentified remains lie in wait in Washington, each representing a cold case, an unsolved mystery, a family in waiting. With this new funding, state and federal DNA testing resources will receive a much-needed supplement. This means that the agonizing delays endured by families seeking closure and answers could soon be a thing of the past, as these cases are brought to resolution more swiftly.

    The initiative is not just a bureaucratic victory but a deeply personal one, propelled by the Attorney General’s Office and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force. Convened by Ferguson in 2021, this task force, comprising leaders and activists, has been at the forefront of advocating for these funds. Their report in December 2023 was a clarion call to the Legislature, highlighting the urgent need for clearing the backlog and using DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy as potent tools for bringing peace to families of missing Indigenous persons.

    Ferguson’s commitment to this cause is evident.

    “Timely DNA testing can bring a measure of closure and help solve more cold cases,” he said. He expressed his gratitude to the partners in the Legislature, notably Rep. Lekanoff, Rep. Stearns, and Sen. Kauffman, among others, who have championed this cause tirelessly.

    The plight of Patricia Whitefoot, a task force member who waited 14 years for the identification of her sister Daisy Mae Heath’s remains, underscores the necessity of this funding. Whitefoot’s story is a poignant reminder of the human cost of bureaucratic delays and underfunding.

    The 2024 budget will allocate these new resources to the Washington State Patrol, aiding local jurisdictions in testing all unidentified remains. In cases where initial DNA testing fails to identify the remains, funds will be available for forensic genetic genealogy, a revolutionary method combining DNA testing with genealogical research using publicly available ancestry data.

    The primary hurdle for law enforcement agencies in employing these sophisticated identification methods has been cost. With individual DNA testing at approximately $2,500 and forensic genetic genealogy at around $8,000, these expenses have been prohibitive. However, the new budget allocation aims to bridge this gap, providing a lifeline to numerous unsolved cases.

    While the state Crime Lab handles DNA testing for local law enforcement, and the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative funds both DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy testing at private labs, there have been limitations. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) offers free DNA testing for some unidentified remains, but it too has faced delays and eligibility constraints.

    The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force, a central player in this development, began as a recommendation. It’s a group of 23 members, including national leaders in addressing the crisis of violence against Indigenous people. The task force’s work has been instrumental in enacting several Attorney General Request bills into law.

    Significant strides have been made, such as the launch of a statewide alert system in 2022 to help locate missing Indigenous women and people – a first of its kind in the nation. In 2023, the Legislature established a Cold Case Investigations Unit focusing on missing and murdered Indigenous women and people, a unit now fully operational with a chief investigator and additional staff.

    Beyond the allocation for genetic genealogy testing, the task force’s 2023 report also recommended establishing a state work group to develop best practices for collecting Indigenous demographic data, vital for tackling racial misclassification issues in these cases.

    The task force also advised the creation of a nationwide Missing Indigenous Persons Alert system, taking inspiration from Washington’s pioneering 2022 system.

    These developments come in the backdrop of disturbing statistics. Indigenous women and people experience disproportionately high rates of violence. The national Centers for Disease Control & Prevention notes that homicide is alarmingly high among Indigenous demographics. The Attorney General’s Office data reveals that Indigenous victims constitute 5% of unresolved cases in Washington, while only making up less than 2% of the population.

    The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs estimates that there are approximately 4,200 unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. A 2018 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle found that Washington had the second-highest number of cases in the country.

    Source

  • PDP, APC Clash Over Gov Adeleke’s Alarm Of Planned Attacks On Osun Schools, Farmlands

    Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State had on Tuesday raised alarm about alleged plans to attack schools and farmlands in the state, based on security intelligence at his disposal.

    However, the claim has ignited a political firestorm between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun.

    The Osun APC Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, on Wednesday accused Governor Adeleke of raising false panic regarding security in the state, calling it a “phony” signal of insecurity.

    Lawal claimed the governor’s aim was to divert attention from his “hopeless and thieving administration.”

    “It is disheartening that a loquacious governor, who junkets around the world in the name of attracting potential investors, would descend into grave pettiness of planting hoax in the media,” Lawal said.

    He questioned the governor’s alleged sudden concern for agriculture when his administration hasn’t taken any serious policy on improving it in the past 16 months.

    Lawal claimed that the alleged security threat was a ploy to shift attention from Adeleke’s “ill-thought-out N100 billion white elephant projects when hunger is working on four legs in all the streets in the nooks and crannies of the state.”

    In a sharp rebuttal, the PDP Chairman in Osun, Sunday Bisi, slammed the APC for dismissing Adeleke’s security alarm as fake.

    “We find it reprehensible and condemnable for the state APC to deny reports that have been confirmed by virtually all the security agencies in the state. Must APC play politics with everything? A patriotic Governor raised alarm on security threats and he summoned the state security council meeting.

    “Instead of commending the Governor for his foresight, the opposition has chosen to play bad, sore loser again, leveling unfounded allegations and playing games with lives and properties of our people,” Bisi said.

    He added, “The PDP government is too well focussed on delivering on its infra and social programmes designed to restore the state from the depth of under-development the state was plunged into for 12 years. We are proud as a party to restate that our government is in full compliance with the procurement laws and other extant provisions in the implementation of its infra projects.”

    “As our government has repeatedly emphasized, all ongoing projects passed through all requisite due process requirements and no legal requirement is ignored or unobserved.”

    PDP, APC Clash Over Gov Adeleke’s Alarm Of Planned Attacks On Osun Schools, Farmlands is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

    Source

  • Fact Check: No, a ‘nasty photo’ of first lady Jill Biden wasn’t leaked

    A recent Facebook post suggests an inappropriate image of first lady Jill Biden is circulating online, calling her the “worst first lady ever.”

    “Nasty photo of Jill Biden LEAKS,” the March 9 post says. 

    It was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    A link in the post’s comments leads to a Jan. 21 blog post describing what it calls a viral photo of Biden. But there is no mention of a “leaked” and “nasty” photo of the first lady. 

    Rather, the blog post describes recent photos and video taken of Biden at a public event at Hunter High School in West Valley City, Utah, where she spoke Jan. 16.

    Fox News was among the news outlets to report on “the rather unfortunate placement of ‘Hunter High’ signs during her remarks, which called to mind her son Hunter Biden’s struggle with drug addiction.” 

    Claims that a supposed nasty photo of Biden was leaked are False.

     



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  • Early express to the Elite Eight – Paradise Post

    BUTTE VALLEY — If the early bird gets the worm, the Butte College Roadrunners had an auspicious start to their program’s third straight trip to the Elite Eight of the state women’s basketball championships.

    Players and staff arrived on campus well before sunrise Wednesday to board their charter bus, a new vehicle nicknamed White Cloud, which they were among the first to ride. They pulled out at 5:38 a.m. in order to reach Southern California for a whirlwind day before their first game: an afternoon practice, a quick change into formal wear and a banquet. Ranked first in the state, Butte (29-1) tips off against Long Beach City (20-9) at 3 p.m. Thursday.

    Despite the yawn-inducing hour of departure, the Roadrunners were energized about the road ahead, with the word “excited” repeated often to describe their return to the tournament where last year’s squad reached the title game.

    “It’s good — it feels familiar,” head coach Tyler Newton said moments before the bus pulled away. “It feels like we’ve been here before, and we’re prepared and ready to go. It’s an exciting time of year.”

    Guard Morgan Trigueiro, one of seven freshmen who joined six sophomores in the offseason, echoed her coach’s assessment.

    “I’m excited,” she said, seated inside White Cloud. “This is what we’ve been waiting for all year, and it’s finally actually here.”

    Among the first wave of arrivals were freshman guards Campbell Vieg and Jocelyn Medina. Like their teammates, they brought aboard pillows and blankets for the journey. Medina also held a good luck charm, a stuffed animal she said “goes with me everywhere.”

    Trainer Janet Guill drove up even earlier — ironic, considering she’d returned only hours earlier from accompanying the softball team to Aptos for Tuesday’s doubleheader against Cabrillo College. On one-hour’s sleep, she got to the training room at 5 a.m. to collect her gear.

    “These girls put in so much work and dedication: late-night practices, early practices,” Guill said. “They did a lot of that last year, as well. They have a lot of drive, and I think they’re going to do really well this week.”

    Annie Ward, one of the team’s assistant coaches (along with Justin Schneringer), said she’s “excited for this team” and “it never gets old” going to the Elite Eight.

    “It’s a different group and they’ve earned it,” continued Ward, in her fourth season with Butte. “So I’m excited to see what they can do.”

    Freshman forward Giselle Rodriguez expressed the same enthusiasm: “Glad to see all the hard work pay off. It’s been a really long season, and (I’m) really excited to be here.”

     

     

     

     

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  • Strickland Secures Over $13 Million For South Sound Community Projects

    Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland (WA-10) recently secured funding for fourteen South Sound community projects that will increase affordable housing, boost public safety, enhance regional infrastructure and transit, and support our local food banks. The government funding package was signed into law earlier today. 

    “I’m pleased to help deliver these projects that will uplift local communities across the South Sound. They create local jobs, improve public safety, enhance several roads and water infrastructure, address hunger, expand access to public transit, and build more affordable housing,” said Strickland. “Community Project Funding helps make the South Sound a more safe and secure place to live and work.”

    The fourteen FY24 Community Project Funding (CPF) grants receiving funding are:

    • Bonney Lake Food Bank (Good Roots) – Market Fresh Lockers Expansion for District 10

    • City of Lacey – College Street Corridor Safety Improvements

    • City of Tacoma – Shelter Expansion and Site Preparation

    • City of University Place – Chambers Bay Access to Opportunity Project

    • Homes First – O’Farrell Senior Co-Housing

    • Lakewood Water District – PFAS Mitigation Wells Project

    • Living Access Support Alliance – Campus Project

    • Pierce County – Sprinker Community Recreation Center Building Renovations

    • Pierce Transit – System-Wide Bus Shelters Modernization and Related Passenger Amenities Upgrade

    • Public Utility District No. 1 of Thurston County – Water Mainline Relocation – Green Cover Creek Culvert

    • South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity – 3900 Boulevard Project

    • Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity – Pierce County Housing Authority Rehabs

    • Tacoma Police Department – Alternative Response Strategies to Improve Public Safety

    • Thurston County Food Bank – Lacey Community Hub Development

    House Democrats fought and were successfully able to remove several extreme Republican policies from the federal funding bills. Instead, the final bipartisan 2024 funding bills will help keep our communities safe, improve infrastructure, and boost our economy.

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  • The US Economy Looks Good On Paper – Here’s Why It’s Actually A Disaster In Progress


    There are two primary tools that various failing regimes will always use to distort the true conditions of the economy: Debt and inflation.

    One of my favorite false narratives floating around corporate media platforms has been the argument that the American people “just don’t seem to understand how good the economy really is right now.” If only they would look at the stats, they would realize that we are in the middle of a financial renaissance, right? It must be that people have been brainwashed by negative press from conservative sources…

    I have to laugh at this claim because it’s a very common one throughout history – It’s an assertion made by almost every single political regime right before a major collapse. These people always say the same things, and when you study economics as long as I have you can’t help but throw up your hands and marvel at their dedication to the propaganda.

    One example that comes to mind immediately is the delusional optimism of the “roaring” 1920s and the lead up to the Great Depression. At the time around 60% of the US population was living in poverty conditions (according to the metrics of the decade) earning less than $2000 a year. However, in the years after WWI ravaged Europe, America’s economic power was considered unrivaled.

    The 1920s was an era of mass production and rampant consumerism but it was all fueled by easy access to debt, a condition which had not really existed before in America. It was this illusion of prosperity created by the unchecked application of credit that eventually led to the massive stock market bubble and the crash of 1929. This implosion, along with the Federal Reserve’s policy of raising interest rates into economic weakness, created a black hole in the US financial system for over a decade.

    There are two primary tools that various failing regimes will always use to distort the true conditions of the economy: Debt and inflation. In the case of America today, we are experiencing BOTH problems simultaneously and this has made certain economic indicators appear healthy when they are, in fact, highly unstable. The average American knows this is the case because they see the effects daily. They see the damage to their wallets, to their buying power, in the jobs market and in their quality of life. This is why public faith in the economy has been stuck in the dregs since 2021.

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    The establishment can shove out-of-context stats in people’s faces, but they can’t force the populace to see a recovery that simply does not exist. Let’s go through a short list of the most faulty indicators and the real reasons why the fiscal picture is not as rosy as the media would like us to believe…

    The “Miracle” Labor Market Recovery

    In the case of the US labor market, we have a clear example of distortion through inflation. The $8 trillion+ dropped on the economy in the first 18 months of the pandemic response sent the system over the edge into stagflation land. Helicopter money has a habit of doing two things very well: Blowing up a bubble in stock markets and blowing up a bubble in retail. Hence, the massive rush by Americans to go out and buy, followed by the sudden labor shortage and the race to hire (mostly for low wage part-time jobs).

    The problem with this “miracle” is that inflation leads to price explosions, which we have already experienced. The average American is spending around 30% more for goods, services and housing compared to what they were spending in 2020. This is what happens when you have too much fiat money chasing too few goods and limited production.

    The jobs market looks great on paper, but the majority of jobs generated in the past few years are jobs that returned after the covid lockdowns ended (the same lockdowns Democrats tried to keep in place perpetually). The rest are jobs created through monetary stimulus, and then there is the issue of “immigrant jobs” and data that is revised to the negative months later.  I suspect we won’t ever hear the real stats unless Trump enters office in 2025.  Then the media discussion will focus intently on how terrible the labor market really is.

    Part time low wage service sector jobs are not going to keep the country rolling for very long in a stagflation environment. The question is, what happens now that the stimulus punch bowl has been removed?

    Just as we witnessed in the 1920s, Americans have turned to debt to make up for higher prices and stagnant wages by maxing out their credit cards to historic levels. With the central bank keeping interest rates high, the credit safety net will soon falter. This condition also goes for businesses; businesses that will soon jump headlong into mass layoffs when they realize the party is over.  It happened during the Great Depression and it will happen again today.

    Stock Market Bonanza

    We saw cracks in in the armor of the financial structure in 2023 with the spring banking crisis, and without the abrupt Federal Reserve backstop many more small and medium banks would have dropped dead. The weakness of US banks is offset by the relative strength of the US dollar, which lures in foreign investors hoping to protect their wealth using dollar denominated assets.

    But something is amiss. Gold and Bitcoin have rocketed higher along with stocks and the dollar. This is the opposite of what’s supposed to happen. Gold and BC are supposed to be hedges against a weak dollar and weak equities, right? If global faith in the dollar and in stocks is so high, why are investors diving into protective assets like gold?

    Again, as noted above, inflation distorts everything. Tens of trillions of extra dollars printed by the Fed are floating around and it’s no surprise that much of that cash is flooding into the stock market which simply pushes higher right along with prices on the shelf. But, gold and BC are telling us a more nuanced story about what’s really happening.

    Right now, the US government is adding around $1 Trillion every 100 days to the national debt as the Fed holds rates higher to fight inflation.  Higher interest means exponential debt conditions, and this debt is going to crush America’s financial standing for global investors who will eventually ask HOW the US is going to handle that growing millstone? As I predicted years ago, the Fed has created a perfect Catch-22 scenario in which the US must either return to rampant inflation, or, face a debt breakdown. In either case, US dollar denominated assets will lose their appeal and stock markets will ultimately plummet.

    Beyond this reality, stocks are not a leading indicator of anything, let alone the stability of the financial system. Stocks are a trailing indicator; they crash well after all the other warning signals have made it obvious that something is wrong. Average Americans, for good reason, do not care what stock markets have to say.

    Healthy GDP Is A Complete Farce

    Beyond the stock market, GDP is the most common out-of-context stat used by governments to convince the citizenry that all is well. It is yet another stat that is entirely manipulated by inflation. It is also manipulated by the way in which modern governments define “production and market value.”

    GDP is primarily driven by spending. Meaning, the higher inflation goes, the higher prices go, and the higher GDP climbs (to a point). Eventually prices go too high, credit cards tap out and spending ceases. But, for a short time inflation makes GDP (as well as retail) look good.

    Another factor that creates a bubble is the reality that government spending is actually included in the calculation of GDP. That’s right, every dollar of your tax money that the government wastes helps the establishment by propping up GDP numbers. This is why government spending increases will never stop – It’s too valuable for them to spend as a way to make the economy appear healthier than it is.

    The Real Economy Is Eclipsing The Fake Economy

    The bottom line is that Americans used to be able to ignore the warning signs because their bank accounts were not being directly affected. This is over. Now, every person in the country is dealing with a massive decline in buying power and higher prices across the board in all assets. Even the wealthy are seeing a compression to their profits and many are struggling to keep their businesses in the black.

    The unfortunate truth is that the elections of 2024 will probably be the turning point at which the whole edifice comes tumbling down. Even if the public votes for change, the system is already broken and cannot be repaired without a complete overhaul. We have consistently avoided taking our medicine and our weaknesses have only accumulated.

    People have lost faith in the economy because they have not faced this kind of uncertainty since the 1930s. Even the stagflation crisis of the 1970s will likely pale in comparison to what is about to happen. On the bright side, at least a large number of Americans are aware of the threat, as opposed to the 1920s when the vast majority of people were utterly conned by the government, the banks and the media into thinking all was well. Knowing is the first step to preparing.

    Deep State Used U.S. Intelligence Agencies/DOJ to Illegally Terrorize Trump Supporters

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  • OPINION: How We Secured $57 Million Funding For Water Projects In Ondo State

    On Saturday 9th March 2024, scores of my friends and brothers from across the globe including the US-based talented visual artist, Sunday Oluwasomi, the scion of the late Olisa Raymond Olusoga (Prime Minister of Akure Kingdom) Engr Taiwo Olusoga, Aquinarian Tunde Aladenola, and a host of others called my attention to a negative counterclaim of an individual on one of my team’s best legacies in Ondo State. It was about our success in the financial closure of the sum of US dollars 57 million and the actual collection of the first tranche of the money into the purse of the Ondo State Government as well as my team’s accomplishment in securing AfDB first preliminary approval for an additional $112.72 million ($82.72 million for water, $20million for power, and $10 million in grant) whilst I served as the Special Adviser on Public Utilities, supervising Water Resources and Energy at cabinet level before my redeployment. Unknown to me, several other people who admire me had shared screenshots of the apocryphal claims with me via my Whatsapp inbox. My friend’s Dad, one of our political leaders in Ondo State, Chief Ademola Ijabiyi, was also very concerned and requested that it was important I be added to the platform where such dubious claims were made so I could lay them to rest. I was, however, encumbered with a professional assessment report that I had to submit on behalf of one of my mentees and could not react or respond immediately. I promised Chief Ijabiyi and the others that I would respond comprehensively.

    In the interim, I did what was the most basic, I called witnesses! I left the duty of articulation of the roles played by my team to eyewitnesses who were part of the process. Today, there are at least one hundred civil servants who played one role or the other and are still in active service. So, individuals like Sunday Oluwasomi, Taiwo Olusoga, and Tunde Aladenola had the privilege of hearing truthful accounts of what happened directly from those who were involved. Even aspects of our patriotic escapades that I had forgotten were brought back to memory. Those who were directly and actively involved in the processes exposed the carefully orchestrated lies of those who desired to piggyback on the success of our sweat and have perhaps been surreptitiously deceiving others about their fabled roles. If individuals could outrightly tell bald-faced lies and deny what just happened only a few years ago where the hard records are still available and the dramatis personae are all alive, then this comprehensive account of what happened is necessary to set the records straight and for posterity.

    For the benefit of the reader, the counterclaim against our legacy is that two commissioners under the previous administration of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko were responsible for securing the funds for Ondo State and that all our team did was get there, cash the cheques and begin to spend the money. The claim asserted that they brought in the sum of $75 million from the World Bank for the construction of the transmission mains of the Owena Multipurpose dam and its reticulation to the state capital. I hate to be seen to be addressing issues in a way that appears to pit me against Dr. Mimiko who is an iconic leader in the state in his own right. I will want this not to be misconstrued as that is not my objective. I am only setting the record straight.

    Upfront, I herein state unequivocally that when I took over as the de facto leader of the state’s water project in October 2017 (by the Governor’s written directive, I covered the duties of the Commissioners in charge of Water Resources and Electricity Matters), I did not meet any record of the sum of $75 million World Bank fund whether in cash, cheque, bank lodgement, or approval-in-file. I concede that for about 8 years prior to my taking over, there were attempts to secure funds and several offers probably flew around just like I also got the first offer from the AfDB for $112.72 million. But offers are what they are. The real job is being able to develop the business case document, financial models, and ancillary technical documentation required to meet the conditions precedents attached to a serious offer. The serious efforts of those who laboured hard to achieve that must never be dismissed on the altar of cheap politics.

    I must also hasten to add, that ever since I even left the water project, not a single kobo in new funds has been added to the state programme. In fact, the most anticipated fund in the state’s water sector today is the AfDB $112.72 million (now negotiated to circa $104 million) which is solely the benefit of the robust foundation laid by my team.

    For the avoidance of doubt, the following individuals were part of my team on the state water project as of that time, Engr. Jimmy Akinrimade MNSE, then General Manager of the Ondo State Water Corporation, Engr. Steve Adesemuyi MNSE who was in charge of procurement, and Engr. Toba Akinde MNSE, who I later recommended to the Governor for appointment as the State Coordinator of the project. Other members of my team at the Office of Public Utilities (OPU) which had ministerial supervision of the Ondo State Water Corporation as of then, were Princess Abike Bayo-Ilawole, Engr. Olumayowa Ajumobi, MNSE, Mr. Deji Akinwumi, Dr. (Mrs) Tolulope Pius-Fadipe, Mrs. Doris Adekale, and others. I mentioned these names as they are all alive and well. These are mostly civil servants. They were committed to our success then. They supported me and were active witnesses to all that we did to secure the funds.

    By the way, I was not “only part of the government negotiation team that held meetings with the World Bank and Federal Ministry of Water Resources” as claimed in one of the infantile comments, not at all. Rather, I was the leader of the Ondo State Government team that negotiated the funds with the French Development Agency (AFD), and the International Economic Relations Department of the Federal Ministry of Finance where an Ondo State son, Mr. Timothy Komolafe, ensured we were properly guided to abide by all due process requirements among others. My team simply fast-tracked the processes with our proactiveness and became the first state to execute the SLA on the 26th of March 2018. The claim that “(they) were at the point of accessing the money that (sic) (they) left the government and Akeredolu’s government continued from there” is therefore totally simplistic and untrue. No money could have been accessed by anyone without fulfilling all the conditions precedents, negotiation of terms, as well as the execution of the principal and subsidiary agreements. The agreement indeed marked the definitive period of the effectiveness of the fund for the state. My team delivered all these.

    I can thus speak authoritatively about what the team I led did, how we did it, the amount of money involved, and why – at the risk of sounding boastful – what we did to secure that money within a limited time is purely the stuff of legends. Indeed, the last hurdle for us to cross was how to bypass the petition by a private company that had found a way to ensure that AFD inserted the settlement of its claim against the state government as a condition precedent to disbursement. Governor Akeredolu in the presence of the company’s representative gave me the carte blanche to resolve the issue. We took up space at the Heritage Hotel in Akure with the company and spent about four hours without success. They insisted on a payout of as much as N4 billion. It didn’t make sense to me. I reported to the Governor. Time was of the essence and I took permission from him to resolve it the way I could. All we had to do was convince the AFD to drop that requirement as a condition precedent. AFD stood its ground.

    Then the epiphany dawned on me of a concept in law called the statute of limitations that we learnt as student engineers in our only introductory contract law class. The contract over which the company was imposing a claim upon Ondo State was already 9 years old. I immediately tried my best to again research the subject of the statute of limitations. The more I did, the more pleasant it sounded that I had found the holy grail as the contract was statute-barred. Having learnt proper legal referencing style from my former Special Assistant, Mrs. Babagbenga Alalade Esq, years back, I decided to produce a draft legal opinion on the subject. I focused extensively on Nigerian laws as my primary authority, followed by copious quotes from the legal jurisprudence of both the United Kingdom and France. Incidentally, the three countries (Nigeria, UK and France) each retain 6 years as the bar for a business-related claim. I inserted the French law deliberately since the AFD legal officers who would review the legal opinion in France were more likely to be French nationals.

    After I was done, I decided to call two lawyers who were very close to me, my big Egbon, Rotimi Aladesanmi Esq as well as my good aburo Mrs Sandra Ogunmola, Esq. I told them about my quackery and apologised to them that my office did not have the money to secure the service of a lawyer. Out of patriotism and solidarity with the state, Bar. Aladesanmi asked me if the State Water Corporation had been maintaining correspondence with the company. I told him I had a hunch some months back that we might have insiders acting as fifth columnists and I had thereafter insisted that any correspondence on the matter must be solely by the state Ministry of Justice. I let him know that on several occasions afterwards when the GM approached me to allow him to send a polite letter to the company, I had always declined insisting instead that only the Ministry of Justice should issue any communication to them and that he and I must stick to engineering only. I added that to prevent any mistake when the GM told me that the legal officer of the Corporation was in support of a polite letter, I quickly got the Justice Ministry to write the Corporation to desist from any correspondence. Both lawyers appeared to substantially think I was already making sense. That gave me confidence and I decided to take the draft legal opinion to Mr. Kola Olawoye, SAN, the then Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, a fantastic administrator who would go to any legitimate length to assist us on our processes. The distinguished SAN read the draft and asked me who produced it. I jokingly told him one ‘charge and bail’ guy did. The Attorney General assumed a friend of mine did and chastised me never to refer to my friend as a charge and bail lawyer because he had produced a brilliant legal opinion! He told me he was adopting it verbatim – no correction.

    My Special Assistant, Dr. (Mrs) Tolulope Pius-Fadipe made eye contact with me. I pretended I didn’t see her. The Honourable Commissioner for Justice executed the instrument and handed same to me. By 2 pm, we had scanned and forwarded it to the headquarters of the AFD in France with copies to the country representative in Nigeria. We had the hard copy dispatched by courier. Not quite 30 minutes after the email, I received a phone call from AFD’s Country Manager in Abuja who sought my permission for a conference call with France. Their legal officer in France had reviewed the legal opinion (our letter) and had concurred with us that the requirement that granted an advantage to a private company to more or less put a lien on our request and demanded N4 billion from the government of Ondo State be dropped! Yes. It happened in one day. They apologized and assured me to await an email giving us all clear so we could proceed to the disbursement stage.

    The email came and the important line was “There is no more issue on this point as my legal department took into consideration your last letter and agreed to clear the condition precedent”. That was how we resolved the last hurdle on that fund. It was only after I succeeded in removing that final obstacle that I forwarded the ‘all clear’ good news from the then Country Manager of AFD, Ms Jeanne VANUXEM-MILLELIRI, to the then GM of the Ondo State Water Corporation (Engr Akinrinmade) and the then State Coordinator of the Water Project (Engr Akinde) on August 24, 2018 at exactly 3:03 pm.

    Ayo Sotinrin who was with the Governor when I passed the news via phone later told me that the Governor asked him, “How did Tunji do it?”. As the late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN later acknowledged in a private letter to then President Muhammadu Buhari, “Engr. Olatunji Ariyomo, FNSE, led the team that negotiated and secured the $57 million AFD funding for our administration… His team succeeded in scaling “18 No Objections” under 12 months which was a record by any sub-national government even by AFD standard”.

    As if by divine intervention, the AFD sent me a dusburement schedule confirmation for the $57 million (with dates) on the very day we were receiving the Federal Minister for Water Resources. Mr. Yemi Olowolabi, a veteran journalist of the Tell Magazine era who was the Commissioner for Information had to break protocol to get the great news across to Governor Akeredolu carrying my mobile phone with him to enable both the Governor and his guest to read directly the giant leap Ondo just made.

    Essentially, ahead of other states that were part of the NUWSRP III scheme, Ondo State reached financial closure in a manner that earned our state the direct commendation of the French Development Agency (AFD). How did we do it?

    We were proactive. We did not wait for the AFD to spoonfeed us. During the development of the programme appraisal document, we fast-tracked the process by spending endless sleepless nights to ensure we crafted a programme that would serve the interest of the people of Ondo State. Working with the AFD country office and officers from their headquarters in France, we developed a PAD and Programme Information Manual that would be difficult for anybody to breach. When we eventually secured approval to commence implementation, the least of the RfPs that we produced was that of the PMS and the cartography which contained a minimum of 130 pages. We were yet to select a consultant (PMS), so we did all these by ourselves. I led from the front, drafted and poured through all the pages and knew everything that went into each line. We submitted to all world-class financial probity and accountability processes. We shielded the programme from the vagaries of politics and external influence. This was why I could boast when I was suddenly removed from the project that I was certain that the vile characters that were plotting and scheming to oust me from the project because they were eying the money instead of the goals were on a futile zero-sum mission. I was that certain. Yes, the processes can be delayed at a great cost if incompetent individuals are saddled with anchoring the project or positioned to lead the project. This is why the project is currently 2 years behind schedule. Though time itself is costly. That is the worst that can happen. The money for the project cannot be stolen or looted. They may not even be able to access the funds due to the stringent conditions we imposed from the very beginning. I secured the first tranche of disbursement before my exit from the programme. That was the only tranche accessed up until December 2023. The programme almost went into sleep mode afterwards. Governor Akeredolu had to beg the duo of Ayo Sotinrin and Tope Runsewe to step in and help as the leadership that took over after me was simply unable to understand the programme.

    When the Governor announced a cabinet reshuffle and had me assigned to solely Energy, some people suggested that I should write a petition to the AFD and allege political interference in order to stop the project. I refused bluntly. I have never fought over money in my life. The money we secured was for the benefit of the people of Ondo State. Phase one of the project was solely for Akure metropolitan area. As a child, I enjoyed pipe-borne water in Akure. My sole motivation was therefore to help Akure regain that lost era. I have never been a fan of borehole drilling as I saw it as an unsustainable workaround that must not be encouraged because it takes the average aquifer years to recharge adequately. Upon realization that not a single community along the transit route of the water mains from Igbaraoke to Akure was included in the project, I held meetings with notable traditional rulers from Ifedore, particularly the Olowa of Igbaraoke, Oba (Dr) Adefarakanmi Agbede OFR in his palace. I assured Kabiyesi that we would leave no stone unturned to ensure that the water project was extended to all communities adjoining the route of the transmission mains such as Igbaraoke, Ipogun, Ilara, Ibuji, Ijare etc and that we would leverage that advantage to take reticulated water to places like Ondo East and Ondo West. The business mogul, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo also placed a phone call to me, offering to fund the T-off of the water from the mains to Ilara. I thanked Baba Ade-Ojo for his selfless offer and informed him that the governor had already approved my proposal to extend the reticulation to all towns along the mains’ transit route.

    This is what led to our additional effort to secure the $112.72 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) starting in May 2019 with an earlier Mission Visit by the AfDB team. This second fund was to address (i) the outstanding 50% reticulation coverage of Akure metropolitan area under the AFD’s sponsored Owena Multipurpose Dam Water Project and reticulation to all satellite towns and communities along the water transmission route from Igbara-oke to the state capital, (ii) the reconstruction of the collapsed spillway and the restoration of the raw water line and the High Lift Pumps for the new intake at the Owena–Ondo road (Elegbudu agba) water supply scheme with design capacity of 19,800m3/day of treated water, which was originally built in 1965 but had since been in deplorable conditions, (iii) rehabilitation of treatment plants and augmentation scheme for Owena Ondo road, (iv) rehabilitation of Olokuta booster station serving the Owena Ondo road scheme, (v) construction of booster station for the rising mains serving Idanre and Ondo towns (in Ondo West and East LGAs) in addition to the relocation of transmission pipelines on that route, (vi) rehabilitation of Owo-Osse water supply treatment plants and augmentation scheme, (vii) repair, relocation and reconstruction of Owo Township water distribution pipes, (viii) upgrade and rehabilitation of the 2,115m3 service reservoir in Owo, (ix) replacement of damaged transmission mains to Owo and adjoining satellite beneficiary communities, (v) as well as critical intervention in Ilaje local government areas in Ondo South. Our engineering estimate for these projects at the time was USD 82.72 million. In addition, the state government was providing off-grid electricity supplies to communities in Ondo South that were far away from the national grid. We, therefore, made an allowance of USD 20 million for the implementation of commercial mini-grid power projects in 10 communities with distribution infrastructure, metering and other ancillary services. The late Governor fully supported my initiatives and via a letter with reference number H.E/VOL III/138c dated 3rd of June 2019 presented a formal request to the Federal Ministry of Finance and the AfDB for a total sum of USD 102.72 million with an additional grant component of USD 10million to enable the state government implement quick-win water and power projects across the state. The Governor put the state’s Office of Public Utilities which I headed, the state’s Technical Team and Steering Committee on Urban Water Supply which I chaired, the state’s Water Corporation which I supervised, the state’s Electricity Board which I supervised and the state’s Technical Team on Power which I headed, in charge, with the duty to midwife the processes. We secured the preliminary concurrence of AfDB shortly after. Of course, following my exit from the programme, I learnt that these clearly defined project pipelines that cut across the state were altered and the estimates for off-grid power intervention in Ondo South were completely expunged despite their detailed communication to the AfDB and the Federal Ministry of Finance.

    The AFD and not the World Bank gave Ondo State the sum of $57 million for the construction of the transmission main and the reticulation infrastructure in the state capital. The project is ongoing. The money cannot be looted – not with the way we designed the programme. The World Bank invested in a lot of institutional strengthening and water sector governance being spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources. Incidentally, an engineer and an Ondo State son, Engr. Benson Ajisegiri was the Director at the Federal Ministry of Water Resources as of then. The World Bank provided the sum of $2.3 million for each of the 9 states on the NUWSRP III programme with a substantial works component. I worked with other Commissioners and Advisers on Water Resources to correct the attempt by the Ministry to target that money solely at institutional governance at the expense of tangible works programmes. In fact, I spoke on behalf of the others. I showed the officials of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources from the principal approval by the World Bank that the $2.3 million was structured to substantially address works – physical output specification, tangibles that the ordinary people on the street could appreciate and that could further engender confidence in political leaders to support water-related programmes. Officials of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources led by Engr. Ajisegiri concurred with my argument. For Ondo State, we agreed that ahead of the effectiveness of the AFD fund, we would rehabilitate parts of the Owena Ondo Road water scheme as a Quick Win and have the water transmitted to a ring-fenced and commercially viable place in the state capital since the residents were adjudged in the entire Ondo State by our survey as the people most likely to pay. It was agreed that it would be our opportunity to practically assess water commercialization ahead of the full-scale reticulation project.

    So, let’s put it in context, ever since my exit from the state water project, there was no new fund attracted to the water programme by any of my successors. The funds expended on water-related projects in Ondo State were solely the ones my team succeeded in creating, attracting, initiating or fast-tracking. This included the $2.3 million which the procurement was eventually done by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the N702 million counterpart funding that I secured from Access Bank Plc with procurement done in Ondo State, and the first tranche of $5 million being part of the larger $57 million from the AFD. Indeed, because the project was lagging, the new handlers could not access any more money from the $57 million until December 2023! Likewise, the biggest funding prospect for future activities in the water sector in the state is the AfDB fund that I initiated! Essentially, years after exiting the state’s water project, I have earned the bragging right to say that my efforts continue to pave the way for the state in an enduring manner. I have been part of a Federal Government project worth $7.1 billion, yet, I will defend a legacy that costs only $1 if it is threatened by folks who know nothing about the sweat quotient that goes into project development.

    By the way, it must be stated that the whole Owena water transmission and reticulation project was inspired by the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu. He birthed the vision and succeeded in getting President Olusegun Obasanjo to cede the water distribution aspect of the Owena Multipurpose Dam project to the Ondo State Government. Dr. Agagu already paid half of what was required to the contractor before his sudden exit from the government but the project was subsequently bungled and frustrated.

    I have done my best to stick to issues that celebrate the accomplishment of my team in this piece. I could never have achieved any of these without the support of those earlier mentioned and my friends in Abuja who provided accommodation on those occasions when my office could not fund same or those like Taiwo Olusoga who repaired my ‘dakudaji’ official car. I wasn’t provided an official car while in government. I walked into the old yard of the Water Corporation and picked an abandoned ‘SUV’ I learned was bought by Boye Adegbemisoye several years back when Dr Agagu was the Governor and I enjoyed using it, no doubt, bar the incessant breakdown. I am sure I am still owing mechanics on that ‘SUV’ including Engr Taiwo Olusoga! Nonetheless, I am leaving the motive behind my removal from the water project after I successfully secured the first tranche of disbursement into the Access Bank accounts that I opened for the project to history to judge.

    ■ Engineer Olatunji Light Ariyomo, FNSE, is a former Special Adviser on Public Utilities/Energy to the Government of Ondo State.

    Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.

    OPINION: How We Secured $57 Million Funding For Water Projects In Ondo State is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

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  • Fact Check: Nancy Pelosi was not behind Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, despite repeated debunked claims

    There is ample evidence that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was a target of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but none that she was responsible for the event during which five people died. 

    A March 3 Facebook post said, “The face behind Jan. 6, 2021” with a black-and-white image of Pelosi, the California Democrat who was House speaker during the attack. The image appears to be the same one in a PBS “Frontline” video about how Pelosi responded as the Jan. 6 events unfolded.

    This Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    PolitiFact has debunked many claims about Pelosi and Jan. 6:

    Some claims stemmed from the release of footage showing Pelosi speaking that day with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and then-Vice President Mike Pence. The claims falsely said that a “camera crew” following Pelosi around that day proved Jan. 6 was staged. 

    But Pelosi was not followed by a “camera crew;” the footage was taken by her daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker who routinely shot videos of her mother at the Capitol using a small, handheld camera that she always carries. 

    Multiple news organizations have also confirmed this, including Fox News, which reported that Alexandra Pelosi has filmed her mother at the Capitol for decades. 

    Several news reports documented how Pelosi was a target for those who stormed the Capitol. Video footage shows some rioters saying, “Where are you, Nancy? We’re looking for you,” before entering and looting her office. 

    In the three years since the Capitol attack, PolitiFact has fact-checked numerous false claims about the attack. Fabrications about the attack were named PolitiFact’s 2021 Lie of the Year. The insurrection was a real event that has resulted in at least 1,265 individuals charged, with 718 guilty pleas and 467 people serving jail time for their roles in the attack as of January 2024.

    We rate the claim that Pelosi is responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol False.

     



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