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China resorts to price fixing as lithium demand craters

 Reuters: China's top lithium producers agreed this week to set a floor price of 250,000 yuan ($36,380) per tonne of lithium carbonate, six people familiar with the matter said, in an effort to slow a plunge in the price of the battery raw material. The price was agreed on Tuesday by around 10 companies including Tianqi Lithium and Ganfeng Lithium that met on the sidelines of a conference in Nanchang in southern China, said one person who attended the meeting and five others briefed on the discussions. The people declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic, which was discussed in a closed-door meeting. Ganfeng said in a response to Reuters that no discussions on a floor price had taken place. "Ganfeng always insists that product prices should be determined by the market, and will never take the initiative to control prices to influence the market," a company representative said in an email. It added that no company in the industry has such capabilities. T

DEI seen as impediment to recruitment

 Military.com: Conservative politicians and critics of the Biden administration have released a report that offers a solution to the recruiting issues facing the military: Ditch efforts to add diversity, fight extremism, or combat climate change. "What we're trying to do is save the military from a pernicious ideology that can have a very negative effect on warfighting capability," Rebeccah Heinrichs, a member of the Heritage Foundation panel that wrote the newly released report, said during a public rollout at the conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The Heritage report underscores many of the same warnings issued for years by Republicans -- though especially in recent months as politicians have escalated allegations of a "woke" force . Many say the left-leaning policies embraced by the Biden administration lead to a loss of confidence among service members, weaken the military and, in turn, hurt recruitment. The report, authored by a pan

The Dems' wacko response to a mass murderer

 Victor Davis Hanson: A transgender Tennessee mass shooter this week executed three adults and three nine-year-old children at a Nashville private Christian school. Supposedly she left behind her a manifesto justifying her mass murdering. As of this writing, law enforcement officials have declined to make the document public. Yet in about a nano-second after the news was disclosed, the left-wing activist machine kicked in, led by politicians, entertainers, and the media. Three predictable themes surfaced. The first was led by none other than President Joe Biden. He lectured that guns were the cause of the mass deaths, not the free will of a psychopathic killer. Few noted that the shooter illegally purchased firearms by hiding her documented record of emotional disorders. Second, America was told that it would serve no purpose to publish the shooter’s manifesto. Apparently, this exception to the usual practice was due to fears her manifesto would hurt the transgender cause. Third, some

Trans violence

 Victor Davis Hanson: A transgender Tennessee mass shooter this week executed three adults and three nine-year-old children at a Nashville private Christian school. Supposedly she left behind her a manifesto justifying her mass murdering. As of this writing, law enforcement officials have declined to make the document public. Yet in about a nano-second after the news was disclosed, the left-wing activist machine kicked in, led by politicians, entertainers, and the media. Three predictable themes surfaced. The first was led by none other than President Joe Biden. He lectured that guns were the cause of the mass deaths, not the free will of a psychopathic killer. Few noted that the shooter illegally purchased firearms by hiding her documented record of emotional disorders. Second, America was told that it would serve no purpose to publish the shooter's manifesto. Apparently, this exception to the usual practice was due to fears her manifesto would hurt the transgender cause. Third, s

The case against the Democrats

 John Nolte: There are 19 months between now and Election Day 2024. Trust me, what the Democrats have in store to rig the 2024 presidential election through prosecutorial abuse has only just begun. To begin with, you have to remember just how vile and depraved the Democrat party has become. To appease their demonic base, Democrats like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi openly advocate for child mutilation, gay porn in elementary schools, mentally ill men invading the girls’ locker rooms, and exposing little kids to the kind of depraved drag queens who want to expose themselves to kids. What’s more, to hold on to a U.S. Senate seat, Democrats were willing to kill John Fetterman. Additionally, Democrats have openly aligned with the rioters, murderers, and cop killers in Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Democrats are so eager for power and to replace Americans with more compliant illegal immigrants, they are willing to flood our country with the poison of fentanyl and enable sex trafficking, inclu

Soros accused of funding PAC that donated to DA who indicted Trump

 Daily Fetch: Leftist mega-donor George Soros responded to Republcians calling out his funding of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his politically motivated investigation that led to President Trump’s indictment. “I don’t know” Bragg, Soros claimed . George Soros also claimed he did not contribute any money to Bragg or his campaign to become district attorney. Soros’ response came after many GOP members denounced Bragg as being backed and funded by the billionaire. “I think some on the right would rather focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories than on the serious charges against the former president,” Soros said. Soros has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Color of Change PAC, which endorsed Bragg and funded his candidacy. Soros has been making large donations to Democratic candidates for many years, most notably left-wing prosecutors who allow cities across America to crumble under exploding crime. Open Society Foundations poured at least $35 million in

The problem with woke artificial intelligence--lies

 Fox News: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been waging a battle for the last several months over what he called "woke" artificial intelligence, a fight that appears to have factored into his call for a six-month pause in the development of next generation AI systems. Musk was one of several signatories to a letter this week that warned of advanced AI technology that could pose "profound risks to society and humanity." The letter said one of those risks is that AI might be used to "flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth." The letter was signed by several notable technology experts, and it’s not clear who might have pushed for the inclusion of that specific phrase. But it jibes with the public fight Musk has been having since late last year over the ability of AI to constrain what people can say and read on digital platforms – a fight that involves a company Musk had a role in launching. In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI, the company t

Red guns rising

 Washington Post: As gun makers move to red states, a Southern town welcomes an AR-15 factory The migration of the gun industry out of liberal states into conservative areas underscores the sharp divide among Americans over weapons like the AR-15. Gun manufacturing is not the only move to conservative southern states.  The migration from the blue states is well underway and is not limited to gun makers. 

Ted Cruz critical of Trump indictment

 American Action News: Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas has criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment of former President Donald Trump over alleged hush money payments. In his podcast “Verdict” with co-host Ben Ferguson, Cruz called the indictment “outrageous,” describing it as a political vendetta brought by a left-wing partisan Democrat elected by George Soros. “This is not law. This is not a prosecution based on facts,” Cruz said. He added that the case is frivolous and will fall apart in court. The senator also expressed concern that Trump’s indictment sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to U.S. presidents getting indicted in the future. ... There appears to be no bipartisan support for Bragg's Trump indictment. It looks like both a political mistake as well as a prosecutorial mistake. See, also: Justice Department 'is irritated by Manhattan DA's indictment of Donald Trump because they believe hush money charges are weak and could dama

Russian leaders in fantasy land

 ISW: Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a new Russian Foreign Policy Concept on March 31 that likely aims to support the Kremlin’s attempts to promote a potential anti-Western coalition. The new Foreign Policy Concept paints the West as an anti-Russian and internationally destabilizing force to a far greater extent than Russia’s previous 2016 Foreign Policy Concept and explicitly states that the US and its “satellites” have unleashed a hybrid war aimed at weakening Russia.[1] The new document also heavily stresses Russia's goal of creating a multipolar world order and subordinates under that goal Russia’s broad foreign policy objectives, which include ending the United States’ supposed dominance in world affairs.[2] The document asserts that most of humanity is interested in constructive relations with Russia and that a desired multi-polar world will give opportunities to non-Western world powers and regional leading countries.[3] Putin previously used meetings with Chinese

The case for protecting private schools

 National Review: ... This week’s events also puts the safety precautions of private schools in the spotlight. Private schools face both regulatory and financial hurdles to developing safety plans that are comparable to their public school peers. To dive deeper into these challenges and others, National Review spoke to Dr. Jeff Walton and Dr. Larry Taylor, leaders at two of the country’s largest Christian school associations. “We are grieving,” explained Taylor, the president of Association of Christian Schools International, an organization that has thousands of members schools. “Every Christian school leader the next morning, they were having meetings with their teams,” Taylor explained, adding that he is having regular Zoom calls with Christian school leaders throughout the world. According to Walton, the executive director of the American Association of Christian Schools , which has over 700 member schools, “at almost every school, there have been meetings of safety teams and schoo

Top law professor at Harvard says Trump indictment 'prosecutorial abuse'

 PJ Media: Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says the indictment of Donald Trump is the “worst case of prosecutorial abuse I have ever seen.” And he’s not the only one calling out this raw exercise of political power over the rule of law. Thursday night, Trump’s attorney echoed that sentiment,  declaring , “today the rule of law in the United States of America died.” Trump was charged in a sealed indictment handed up on Thursday that is believed to concern a non-disclosure agreement signed by porn actress Stormy Daniels, which the legacy media calls “hush money.” Daniels was paid $130,000 by Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen. Both Cohen and Daniels have declared that Trump didn’t make the payment himself and that there was no personal relationship in 2006 between Trump and the x-rated porn actress. Daniels has since reneged on her statement and, of course, the NDA. Dershowitz said on the Sean Hannity program on Fox News that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is playing

Lawsuit against Biden censorship program

 Fox News: The Biden administration has led "the largest speech censorship operation in recent history" by working with social media companies to suppress and censor information later acknowledged as truthful," former Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt will tell the House Weaponization Committee Thursday. Schmitt, now a Republican senator from Missouri, is expected to testify alongside Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and former Missouri deputy attorney general for special litigation, D. John Sauer. LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST BIDEN, TOP OFFICIALS FOR 'COLLUDING' WITH BIG TECH TO CENSOR SPEECH ON HUNTER, COVID The three witnesses will discuss the findings of their federal government censorship lawsuit, Louisiana and Missouri v. Biden et al—which they filed in May 2022 and which they describe as "the most important free speech lawsuit of this generation." The testimony comes after Missouri and Louisiana filed a lawsuit against the Biden administratio

House bill challenges Dem's anti-energy policies

 AP: House Republicans on Thursday approved a sprawling energy package that seeks to undo virtually all of President Joe Biden's agenda to address climate change. The legislation would sharply increase domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, and ease permitting restrictions that delay pipelines, refineries and other projects. It would boost production of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are used in electric vehicles, computers, cellphones and other products. By a 225-204 vote, the House sent the measure to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “dead on arrival.” Four Democrats joined with all but one Republican to support the bill. Biden has threatened to veto the bill, saying it would replace “pro-consumer policies” adopted in the landmark climate law approved last year “with a thinly veiled license to pollute.'' The bill would roll back Democratic investments in clean energy and ”pad oil and gas company prof

Durham discovers Dem chicanery

 Just the News: Durham bombshell: Prosecutor unveils smoking gun FBI text message, 'joint venture' to smear Trump Special Counsel John Durham revealed he has unearthed a text message showing Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann falsely told the FBI he was not working on behalf of any client when he delivered anti-Trump research. Special Counsel John Durham is revealing new smoking gun evidence, a text message that shows a Clinton campaign lawyer lied to the FBI, while putting the courts on notice he is prepared to show the effort to smear Donald Trump with now-disproven Russia collusion allegations was a "conspiracy." In a bombshell court filing late Monday night, Durham for the first time suggested Hillary Clinton's campaign, her researchers and others formed a "joint venture or conspiracy" for the purpose of weaving the collusion story to harm Trump's election chances and then the start of his presidency. "These parties acted as

Voter suppression in Pennsylvania, Arizona

  Federalist: ... Luzerne County was coal country and once a Democrat stronghold , before Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, when the county voted Republican. The county’s election administration in 2022 was, according to the lawsuit, a “catastrophic failure.” More than 40 precincts had an insufficient number of ballots, many running out early in the morning on Election Day. The county implausibly blamed high voter interest, but Pennsylvania law requires counties to have enough ballots for every registered voter. Election workers were sent scrambling to office supply stores for paper, and were left untrained for the disastrous day. A court had to intervene to allow a few more hours of voting. Judge Lesa Gelb wrote in her order, “Voters in Luzerne County through no fault of their own, were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote.” Left-wing groups pressured the county election board to certify the election results, even though the first vote to certify failed to pa

More on the adventures of Hunter Biden

 Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden was asked to use his FBI contacts to help his Chinese business partner arrested for bribery and money laundering - as whistleblower claims president's son had 'mole' agent who tipped them off to investigation ...   The news comes as  a whistleblower claims Hunter   used a top former or current FBI official code-named 'One Eye' to funnel secret bureau information to his Chinese business partners. Patrick Ho – convicted of bribery and money laundering in 2018 – was secretary general of CEFC, the Chinese oil giant Hunter partnered with, and which sent the Biden family more than $5million. The first son described Ho as the 'f***ing spy chief of China' in a May 2018 recorded conversation on his abandoned laptop, and court documents show Ho was under surveillance by federal law enforcement in an espionage-related investigation. But that didn't stop Hunter taking a $1million wire payment to represent Ho as his attorney befor

What is in the Trump indictment?

 Guy Benson: ... Whatever you think of Trump, the indictment reeks. The fact that it's been sought is plainly and outrageously political, no matter how hard certain media outlets gaslight . With the caveat that it's currently sealed, and we haven't seen all of its substance, it's thus far been widely and rightly seen as a profoundly feeble case, with even the New York Times conceding that the legal theory behind it rests on a novel, "untested," and "risky" bank shot , requiring a convoluted effort to upgrade a possible misdemeanor into a low-level felony -- all spearheaded by a partisan ideologue who's notorious for downgrading criminal charges. Given the reality that the feds looked at this exact same set of facts and declined to pursue charges, even as they're coming after Trump from other angles, says it all. This is a deep blue city prosecutor weaponizing the law against a prominent member of the opposing party. It's an abuse of

Manchin apparently fell for Biden BS on deficit reduction

 Ed Morrissey: Come on, man.  You bought Joe Biden’s effluvium on deficit reduction after more than a year of his fronting the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the $5.5 trillion-plus Build Back Better proposal. You stood by while Biden signed an EO imposing onerous costs and regulatory red tape on energy exploration and production. Now you want us to believe that you’re shocked,  shocked  that Joe Biden didn’t take deficit reduction and domestic energy?  And  that Biden isn’t anything more than partisan demagogue?   Apparently so : When President Biden and I spoke before Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act last summer, we agreed that the bill was designed to pay down our national debt and shore up America’s energy security. It was designed to generate $738 billion in new revenue, with more than $238 billion dedicated to debt reduction, the first serious piece of legislation in more than two decades that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would have done that. Yet i

21 states challenge the woke ESG policies

 Fox Business: A coalition of 21 state attorneys general sent a stark warning to dozens of financial institutions and asset managers, warning them against pursuing woke environmental and social initiatives . In a letter sent Thursday to 53 of the nation's largest financial institutions, which collectively manage trillions of dollars worth of assets, the attorneys general threatened to take legal action if the firms veer from the best interests of their clients while pushing social priorities . The effort, led by Montana, Utah and Louisiana, comes ahead of proxy season during which most companies hold annual shareholder meetings where they vote on key policy initiatives. "This ESG nonsense is filtering into a lot of our states and the way they're doing it is really, really concerning and probably flagrantly illegal," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Pushing it through these asset managers and through these proxy votes

Biden's transport of migrant children to Florida questioned

 Fox News: A Florida grand jury that was empaneled after a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year is accusing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) of a "complete abdication" of responsibility for the welfare of unaccompanied migrant children transported to the state -- amid a broader investigation into the federal government’s rehousing of UACs. The grand jury report concluded that HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is "facilitating the forced migration, sale, and abuse of foreign children, and some of our fellow Florida residents are (in some cases unwittingly) funding and incentivizing it for primarily economic reasons." DeSantis filed a petition last year for the Florida Supreme Court to "impanel a statewide grand jury to examine international human smuggling networks that bring aliens to the southern border, and ultimately to Florida." The 46-page report is the latest report to come from the jury, which has already released two su

Americans fleeing liberal states

 Washington Post: Red America is growing because blue America is shrinking Americans are fleeing high taxes and control-freak liberalism.  It also helps that the Red States tend to have better weather.

Blow back on the Trump indictment

 Daily Signal: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised Thursday evening to hold Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accountable for his role in indicting former President Donald Trump . “Alvin Bragg has irreparably damaged our country in an attempt to interfere in our Presidential election,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a statement Thursday. “As he routinely frees violent criminals to terrorize the public, he weaponized our sacred system of justice against President Donald Trump.” “The American people will not tolerate this injustice, and the House of Representatives will hold Alvin Bragg and his unprecedented abuse of power to account,” the House speaker promised. ... “This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” the former president said in a written statement Thursday evening slamming the indictment. “From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, th

Russian conscripts become political problem for Putin

 ISW: ... Putin remains unlikely to deploy newly conscripted troops to participate in combat in Ukraine due to concerns for the stability of his regime. Chairman of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov stated on March 30 that spring conscripts will not deploy to Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine during the spring 2023 conscription cycle.[5] Kartapolov also noted that Russian forces will not conscript men from occupied territories. Kartapolov‘s statements may be true given that ISW has not observed the Russian military use conscripts on any significant scale on the frontlines since the first months of the war and especially since the sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s flagship, the Moskva, which had some conscripted sailors aboard.[6] Putin’s use of conscripts during the winter-spring period of 2022 sparked social tensions in Russia, and Putin is unlikely to risk his regime’s stability by deploying newly conscripted servicemen to the frontlines.[7] The