🚨 Taxes – April 15 2024

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm AM.

Drone Wars: Iran Strikes Back

  credit: freep.com

Does Iran have the right to defend itself? That is what the country says about its drone strikes on Israel carried out this weekend.

Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, says his country’s drone and missile attack against Israel was ‘in the exercise of Iran’s inherent right to self-defense.” He said it was “precise and only targeted military objectives and [was] carried out carefully to minimize the potential for escalation and prevent civilian harm.”

Iran gave Israel a 72-hour notice of this attack and warned that this was a warning. “If the Zionist regime [Israel] or its supporters demonstrate reckless behaviour, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said in a statement on Sunday.

Israel attacked an Iranian embassy in Syria earlier this month and Iran warned that its retaliation would be forthcoming. Mercifully, there are no reports of civilian casualties. Israel says that it intercepted most of the projectiles but what damage was done is not yet clear. Is there a reason behind this information blackout?

The U.S. has warned Israel not to retaliate for this retaliation for obvious reasons. The U.S. is urging Israel to take this weekend’s events as a win and move on. How many times will we have to go around the mulberry bush?

Spying on Americans Continues

speaker johnson supported extending FISA credit: foxnews 

Yes, the U.S. government can still spy on you. The House of Representatives passed a two-year extension on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Friday.

They pretended that they wouldn’t. They voted it down as theater on Thursday, only to turn around and pass it with a few amendments. FISA allows federal agencies to spy on its citizens without having to obtain a warrant.

Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky was a vocal critic of the bill and this extension broke his heart along with most clear-thinking people. Watch his reaction to this on Redacted.

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Groundbreaking Transgender Report

credit: x

Transgender advocacy groups suppressed research showing that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are unproven, untested and may hurt and not help trans-identifying children, who are highly likely to have other mental health issues such as autism.

This comes from an investigation this weekend from The Times of London. Documents show that Stonewall, a trans advocacy group, tried its damndest to keep this research away from schools and educators who work with children while the charity was led by Baroness Hunt between 2014 and 2019.

Baroness Hunt says she has since changed her tune because, surprise! The report was correct. There is NOT research showing that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are safe. There is NOT research showing that there is no harm to social transition. There are plenty of reasons to tell educators to be cautious. This all was made abundantly clear in the groundbreaking Cass Report, published last week by the National Health Service.

The Cass report says that the toxicity around the trans debate “must stop now” because it hurts children. The “no debate” position is exactly that: toxic. We should absolutely want research about what these drugs do to young people and as that research comes out, we should pay attention to it and do something about it.

What’s Trending?

credit: billboard

Billy Joel is trending because a TV special of his 100th concert at Madison Square Garden was televised this weekend. This marks the end of his residency there.

Bundesliga is trending because Bayer Leverkusen won the soccer/football tournament this weekend for the first time.

This video is trending of the end of the Beijing Half Marathon. It appears that the three Kenyan runners may have let the Chinese runner win. Maybe? What do you think is going on here?

News By The Numbers

$3.6 million. That was the prize for Scottie Scheffler, winner of the 2024 Masters. The total purse was $20 million, the most money ever up for grabs in the Masters.

5 seconds. That is how much faster a male athlete ran the girls varsity 200-meter race in Oregon this weekend. The male says he identifies as female.

40. That is how many years Verne Lundquist has been the host of The Masters coverage on CBS. This weekend was his last as the 83 year-old is retiring.

45%. That is the percentage of Americans who say that they would vote to re-elect Joe Biden in a recent New York Times-Siena poll. That puts him within 1% of former President Trump.

Driving Miss Teenager

credit: x

Should new drivers be allowed to carry passengers in their cars? The Automobile Association in the UK says no. They advocate that new drivers not be allowed to drive with passengers for at least 6 months after getting their license.

This is part of what is called a graduated driving license: you get more privileges after passing certain milestones. Some U.S. states already do this and so does Canada, Australia and Sweden.

According to AA president Edmund King: “One in five young drivers crash within a year of passing their test. Most people don’t realise, until it is too late, that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults. We owe it to the next generation to introduce positive measures that will help give them healthy and prosperous lives.”

In the U.S., these numbers are similar. Teen drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 are three times more likely to die in a car crash than drivers over 20. You can find a state-by-state breakdown here.