Half of Americans Say They Are Worse Off, Highest Since Great Recession

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Half of Americans say they are worse off financially than they were a year ago, the highest level of reported decline since the financial crisis, a Gallup poll released Wednesday showed.

The results are unusually grim.

“Since Gallup first asked this question in 1976, it has been rare for half or more of Americans to say they are worse off. The only other times this occurred was during the Great Recession era in 2008 and 2009,” Gallup News said.

The results of the survey, taken between January 2nd and the 22nd, suggest the high toll of inflation on the financial situation of many Americans. Average hourly and weekly wages declined for the second consecutive year in 2022, as pay increases were swamped by higher prices. Gallup said higher interest rates and the decline in the stock market also weighed on people’s view of their financial situation. (Read more from “Half of Americans Say They Are Worse Off, Highest Since Great Recession” HERE)

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IRS Moves To Go After Workers’ Tips As Biden Promises Middle Class Won’t Be Taxed More

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The Internal Revenue Service released a proposed revenue procedure on Monday which would entail employers in the service industry voluntarily reporting their workers’ tips to the tax agency.

The Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement initiative, for which the IRS is soliciting feedback through early May, would be “designed to take advantage of advancements in point-of-sale, time and attendance systems, and electronic payment settlement methods to improve tip reporting compliance,” according to a notice from the agency. The program would exist to decrease “administrative burdens” on taxpayers and IRS administrators.

Businesses involved with the initiative would submit an annual report on tips to the IRS after each calendar year; participants would thereby “receive protection from liability under the rules that define tips as part of an employee’s pay for calendar years in which they remain compliant with program requirements.” Individuals who work in restaurants, hotels, salons, and other service-oriented businesses are already required to keep a daily record of their tips and pay taxes on the earnings to the IRS.

The proposed rule comes after the IRS received an $80 billion windfall through the Inflation Reduction Act, permitting the agency to double its workforce. During his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Joe Biden repeated his promise that the middle class would not pay more taxes as he introduced a proposal for a billionaires tax.

“Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in taxes,” the commander-in-chief declared. “Nobody. Not one penny.” (Read more from “IRS Moves To Go After Workers’ Tips As Biden Promises Middle Class Won’t Be Taxed More” HERE)

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Deepfake Pornography Reveals Yet Another Risk Posed by Artificial Intelligence

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At the end of January, popular Twitch live-streamer Brandon Ewing — better known as Atrioc — was exposed in a now-deleted post online for allegedly patronizing a pornographic website that specialized in the production of “deepfakes” of online personalities, many of whom were his colleagues on Twitch and his personal friends.

Atrioc was accused of consuming pornography of his colleagues and friends that was generated through artificial intelligence (AI) technology without these individuals’ consent. In an apology stream, Atrioc admitted to the accusations and said he found the source of the deepfakes through advertisements on another porn website. He also admitted he was paying for videos in which AI was used to superimpose the likenesses of his friends and colleagues onto the bodies of pornographic actresses. . .

The recent development of using AI technology to create pornography of individuals without their awareness or consent is an incredibly pernicious phenomenon. Some online refer to it as a form of “free speech” and suggest its existence isn’t doing harm since the people pictured in the videos are often public figures who are only having their likenesses nonconsensually grafted onto sexual content and are not forced to actually participate in nonconsensual activity.

In some ways, the advent of deepfake pornography is akin to “revenge porn.” But revenge porn, the nonconsensual leaking of sexual materials in order to humiliate and exact revenge upon someone while using prior consent and intimacy as the genesis of this content, largely involves humans exploiting their past interactions with other humans.

Deepfake pornography, on the other hand, is created entirely out of whole cloth through advanced pattern recognition software that is able to fabricate compromising situations in which these people were never participants. Obviously, revenge porn isn’t a morally superior alternative to this, but the fact that these materials can be created through self-automating software ought to be deeply concerning. (Read more from “Deepfake Pornography Reveals Yet Another Risk Posed by Artificial Intelligence” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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Addressing UK Parliament, Zelensky Thanks Country ‘in Advance’ for Warplanes

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the British Parliament Wednesday afternoon, expressing his view on military alliances in terms of equipment transfers, and thanking the United Kingdom “in advance” for the gift of its warplanes.

The speaker of the British House of Commons was presented with a signed combat pilot’s helmet by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday afternoon, saying the gift should act as a symbol to help get Western warplanes donated to the Ukrainian war effort. Indicating, perhaps, that he now considers getting British fighter jets is now a fait accompli Zelensky said in his address to the UK Parliament that he was “thanking all of you –in advance — for powerful English planes”.

The claim may not be so outlandish, given just hours before, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK was to start training Ukrainian pilots in flying what have been identified as “NATO-standard fighter jets”, the first country to publicly announce such a development.

Zelensky’s speech was heavy on the subject of military equipment, and framed the whole concept of international alliances in terms of them being vehicles for the transfer of weapons to Ukraine. Throughout his address, the President referred to a “coalition of NLAW and Javelin“, a “coalition of artillery rounds and air defence”, and the “coalition of the planes”. (Read more from “Addressing UK Parliament, Zelensky Thanks Country ‘in Advance’ for Warplanes” HERE)

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Biden Goes Off-Script, Shouts About ‘Changing Places’ With Xi Jingping; Yuck! Dr. Jill, Second Gentleman Kiss; GOP Slams Biden’s Legacy, ‘Failed Far Left Agenda’

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By Daily Caller. President Joe Biden went off-script during Tuesday night’s State of the Union address to call out Chinese President Xi Jinping.

During a section of remarks on the decline of autocracies and strength of democracies across the world, Biden began yelling that there are no world leaders who would want to trade places with Xi. The comments were not included in a transcript of Biden’s speech released earlier in the evening by the White House.

“Autocracy has grown weaker not stronger. Name me a world leader who would change places with Xi Jinping,” Biden shouted. “Name me one! Name me one!”

(Read more from “Biden Goes Off-Script, Shouts About ‘Changing Places’ With Xi Jingping” HERE)

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First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Kiss Ahead of Biden State of the Union

By Breitbart. First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff shared a kiss in the House of Representatives just moments before President Joe Biden delivered his 2023 State of the Union address.

As the First Lady made her way to her seat in the House Gallery next to Emhoff, the two greeted each other with a kiss on the lips.

(Read more from “First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff Kiss Ahead of Biden State of the Union” HERE)

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GOP Slams Biden’s Legacy, ‘Failed Far Left Agenda’ Ahead of SOTU

By Breitbart. Republican officials slammed President Joe Biden’s “legacy” ahead of his State of the Union address, pointing to the multiple crises affecting the nation as a result of the Democrat leader’s abundant “failures,” while calling to “reverse course.”

As lawmakers gather for the Tuesday night address, the 80-year-old president is preparing to showcase his efforts to rebuild the country’s economy, set the stage for his bid for a 2024 re-election, and likely demand Congress approve an amnesty for the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens.

Meanwhile, GOP members tore into the president’s legacy, highlighting the current unenthusiastic state of the nation.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) insisted Americans “will not forget the multiple crises Joe Biden created,” listing crime, border, inflation, national security and energy crises among them.

“Biden’s failures will be on FULL display!” she declared. (Read more from “GOP Slams Biden’s Legacy, ‘Failed Far Left Agenda’ Ahead of SOTU” HERE)

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WATCH: Huge Fire Breaks Out Suddenly at U.S. Drone Factory in Latvia

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A massive fire has broken out this afternoon, Tuesday, February 7, at the Edge Autonomy facility, a US-run drone production factory in the town of Marupe, Latvia.

According to the latest online reports, at least 50 firefighters are tackling the blaze which started ‘suddenly’. It is also being reported that due to the nature of the fire, it could take many hours to extinguish it.

(Read more from “WATCH: Huge Fire Breaks Out Suddenly at U.S. Drone Factory in Latvia” HERE)

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Fauci Admits COVID Shots Didn’t Have a Chance of Controlling the Pandemic

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Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted in a recently published research paper that COVID-19 vaccines could not have been reasonably expected to get the pandemic under control.

Fauci and other top government and healthcare officials repeatedly stressed during the pandemic that getting vaccinated would stop the spread of COVID-19 and was the most important step individuals could take to end the pandemic. However, in the paper published Jan. 11 in Cell Press, Fauci and two co-authors write that respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and the flu have never been well-contained by vaccines.

“Because these viruses generally do not elicit complete and durable protective immunity by themselves, they have not to date been effectively controlled by licensed or experimental vaccines,” Fauci and his co-authors, David Morens and Jeffrey Taubenberger of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), wrote in the paper.

The analysis, titled “Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenza viruses, and other respiratory viruses,” highlights shortcomings in current vaccine technology for respiratory viruses and speculates on how it might be improved going forward. The authors compare SARS-CoV-2 to influenza, for which they say “only less than suboptimal vaccines” exist.

Vaccine technology for influenza has not evolved much since 1957, they said, leading to influenza being the deadliest vaccine-preventable viral respiratory disease. Flu shots have only been between 14 and 60 percent effective at stopping infection over the past 15 flu seasons, according to the paper. (Read more from “Fauci Admits COVID Shots Didn’t Have a Chance of Controlling the Pandemic” HERE)

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Fake Meat Industry Implodes After Years of Hype

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The meat substitute market is collapsing after its meteoric rise, with key players in the industry facing massive layoffs and plummeting sales.

Fake meat products like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, which advertise themselves as healthy and environmentally friendly alternatives to meat, soared to national popularity in 2019 when they began selling their products with massive fast food chains. Impossible Foods was moving toward laying off 20% of its staff in late January just months after its competitor, Beyond Meat, announced plans to cut a fifth of its own workforce, according to Bloomberg.

The United Nations and the World Economic Forum have urged the public to eat less red meat and adopt meat substitutes, citing concerns about carbon emissions from the meat industry. Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown has taken the stage at numerous conferences and panels over the last decade touting the benefits of fake meat for human health and the environment, and in 2022 he said his process for breaking down plant products into protein would render the current meat agriculture system obsolete in a New York Times conference on climate change.

The consulting firm Deloitte found in September that consumers were opting out of meat substitute products like Beyond Meat because they considered the brands “too woke;” the trend held true even among individuals looking to cut back on red meat consumption. (Read more from “Fake Meat Industry Implodes After Years of Hype” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

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This One NY Times Quote on Kamala Harris Will Blow Your Mind

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OK, look: We’ve written this story before. But this one quote is just too great to let pass.

Vice President Kamala Harris is embattled, with Democrats openly talking about how they hope President Joe Biden will drop her in 2024 and how she can never win the White House.

So three reporters at The New York Times this week penned a piece headlined “Kamala Harris Is Trying to Define Her Vice Presidency. Even Her Allies Are Tired of Waiting.”

The piece rambles on and on — more than 2,200 words — and of course concludes Harris is pretty darn good, with the last line quoting a supporter saying, “It’s better to let Kamala be Kamala.” . . .

“[T]he painful reality for Ms. Harris is that in private conversations over the last few months, dozens of Democrats in the White House, on Capitol Hill and around the nation — including some who helped put her on the party’s 2020 ticket — said she had not risen to the challenge of proving herself as a future leader of the party, much less the country. Even some Democrats whom her own advisers referred reporters to for supportive quotes confided privately that they had lost hope in her.” (Read more from “This One NY Times Quote on Kamala Harris Will Blow Your Mind” HERE)

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Musk Tweets Platform’s New ‘Values’ After Senator Jokes About Being Sent to Twitter Jail for Hunting Photo

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Elon Musk on Tuesday said Twitter will henceforth be more accepting of different values after reinstating the account of Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., which was suspended over a hunting photo. . .

The tweet came shortly after the social media platform reinstated Daines account, which was suspended Monday night after the senator from Montana posted a picture of him and his wife after a “successful Montana antelope hunt.”

Daines said he received a notification Twitter locked his account for displaying “graphic violence.” The issue was resolved Tuesday afternoon.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, shared a photoshopped image of Daines appearing to pose for a mugshot while holding the photo that got his Twitter account suspended. Cruz captioned: “#FreeSteveDaines.”

(Read more from “Musk Tweets Platform’s New ‘Values’ After Senator Jokes About Being Sent to Twitter Jail for Hunting Photo” HERE)

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