Catalan Puts Heat on Spain’s Leftist Coalition Government

Paul Collier March 21, 2024

Catalan’s President, Pere Aragonès, is threatening the coalition that kept leftist PM Pedro Sanchez in power after performing poorly in the recent national election. He told the PM that unless Spain compromises with Catalan on its desire to be the only tax collector in the region, no new legislation will pass the parliament.

Excerpt from www.catalannews.com

… Speaking in Madrid on Wednesday, Pere Aragonès said Pedro Sánchez had committed to talks on financing during the negotiations to be re-elected, when he required the support of Aragonès’ party, pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC).

“He will have to comply with the investiture agreements and negotiate,” Aragonès said, emphasizing that ERC has always said that “new agreements can only be made if previous ones are fulfilled.”

Aragonès said that the negotiations with the Spanish government over funding must be bilateral, between the two executives, excluding regional governments from other Spanish Autonomous Comunities.

Bobulinski Bashes Biden, Dems in Contentious House Hearing

Paul Collier March 21, 2024

The Bidens’ former business partner, Tony Bobulinski, offered a scathing testimony at the U.S. House Oversight Committee, directly accusing Joe and his sone of committing crimes and calling out Democrats who continue to protect “the big guy.”

Bobulinski even accused high-ranking Democrat Ro Khanna (D-CA) of knowing as early as 2020 that Joe had committed crimes, stating, “I have extensive emails with congressman Ro Khanna in 2021 and 2022 where I begged him and his staff to sit down with me and look at my Blackberry phones that the Democrats are so focused on, to hire forensics experts and go through all of the factual information that I had.”

Excerpt from nypost.com

Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski revealed Wednesday that he reached out to a Democratic lawmaker in October 2020 about his allegations that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was involved in his son and brother’s business ventures abroad.

Bobulinski told the House Oversight Committee he “was begging” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) “to go on CNN and tell the world in October 2020” about the allegations — and apparently had a receptive audience, initially.

“You have always demonstrated to me that you are nothing but an honest, with the highest integrity, individual,” Khanna texted Bobulinski, the latter man told the House Republican-led impeachment inquiry in its second public hearing.

Tony Bobulinski in a Wednesday hearing on Capitol Hill said that he reached out to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in October 2020 about allegations of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden’s involvement in his son and brother’s business ventures abroad. REUTERS

Excerpt from amgreatness.com

Hunter Biden’s former business associate Tony Bobulinski went scorched earth on Joe Biden, his son Hunter, his brother Jim, the regime media and House Democrats during the Republican-led House Oversight Committee’s impeachment hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday.

In his brutally frank opening statement, Bobulinski also accused Hunter and Jim Biden of telling “flat-out lies” when they were interviewed by the Committee last month, and urged Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to hold them accountable for their perjury.

“If there is no evidence of corruption—if Joe’s conduct and the conduct of his family were fully legal and proper—then why are they so dishonest about it?” Bobulinski asked. “Not just slight misrepresentations of fact but deep untruths about the entire corrupt enterprise.”

Federal Judge Protects OpenAI from Sarah Silverman… in Part

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

In a landmark case that could go a long way towards defining what type of copyrighted material AI tools can use to train themselves, Federal Judge Araceli Martinez-Olgiun just handed a big win to AI developers, striking down most of the complaints lobbied against OpenAI by Sarah Silverman and other content creators.

In her ruling, the judge claimed the authors “fail to explain what the outputs entail or allege that any particular output is substantially similar – or similar at all – to their books.”

Excerpt from www.mycouriertribune.com

… Martinez-Olguin dismissed one of the major claims that the authors had made: that all the answers ChatGPT generates are infringing work made of information obtained through copyright violation. Basically, everything ChatGPT creates violates the rights of the copyright holders of the works the company used to train its AI system.

Last year, Sarah Silverman, backed by authors like Michael Chabon and Ta-Nehisi Coates, sued Artificial Intelligence firm OpenAI. Last month, the presiding judge dismissed the claims of negligence, unjust enrichment, Digital Millennium Copyright Act violations, and vicarious copyright infringement. The authors were given until March 13 to amend their complaint and return to court. At the time of this writing, no public report has revealed whether or not they did so.

This is the second case of copyright infringement by writers against artificial intelligence that courts have partially dismissed. Last November, Judge Vince Chhabria also dismissed portions of Sarah Silverman’s allegations against Meta.

Another Billionaire Sells Millions of his Own Company’s Stocks

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

Michael Dell has joined the growing list of billionaires selling over hundreds of millions, even billions, of their own company stock after selling off more than 4 million shares of Dell Technologies worth $465 million

Abortion Pill Behind 63% of Unborn Child Murders in America

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

The abortion pill murders unborn children by starving them to death from inside the womb of the woman that chose to murder the child. It also has nasty side effects that include death for the mother that chose to go down this path in the first place. Now, that same pill accounts for 63 percent of the abortions that happen in America today. That statistic comes from Guttmacher Institute, a pro-unborn-child-murder advocate.

Obama Judge Rules Illegals Can Own Guns Despite Being Outlaws

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

U.S. District Judge and Obama appointee Sharon Johnson Coleman just ruled that illegal aliens can constitutionally own guns, meaning people who enter our country illegally have a constitutional right to arm themselves, meaning America’s enemies can now import standing armies into our country thanks to this ruling and Biden’s open border Executive orders.

The ruling is sure to be appealed but the judge herself is now under scrutiny for violating basic U.S. law and constitutional principles.

Catalan Pushes for “Full Fiscal Sovereignty”

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

Following the passage of legislation that would give Catalan separatists amnesty for their efforts in 2017 to push for independence from Spain, Catalan is considering legislation that would make it the sole collector of taxes in the region. The region would still pay “taxes” to Madrid, but through the governing authority, not through direct taxation by Spain of its citizens.

Excerpt from www.catalannews.com

… The “singular financing” model would give the Catalan government “the key to the safe,” amounting to around €52 billion per year, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Natàlia Mas Chalk, said in a press conference on Tuesday.

The proposal includes plans for financial contributions to the Spanish state and to a new territorial rebalancing fund.

The model is based on “full fiscal sovereignty” and would imply that the government manages and collects taxes including VAT, personal income tax, corporate tax and special taxes, going from managing 9% of tax to 100%.

The government would receive approximately double the €25.6 billion it received in 2021 under the current model.

“We are presenting a paradigm shift to leave behind decades of injustice,” Mas Guix said.

The proposal, which the government says is fully constitutional, foresees Catalonia transferring funds to Spain for services provided, such as Defense or administration of justice, and payment to a “territorial rebalancing” fund for Autonomous Communities with fewer resources.

… “It is a fair, reasonable and essential proposal,” the minister said, preferring not to quantify the amount that would be transferred, in order not to hinder negotiations that she said must be “honest and rigorous.”

Would-Be Bush Assassin and Illegal Immigrant Sentenced

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

Iraqi National Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempting to smuggle Islamic State allies into the U.S. and form a team to assassinate former President George W. Bush. In light of President Biden’s current Executive orders that have created a de facto open border with Mexico, the news is causing some to wonder just what else has been left in under Biden’s watch.

Nearly 50 Colleges Still Requires Covid-19 Vaccines for Students

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

The organization No College Mandates has conducted a national survey of colleges and discovered that 48 American colleges and universities are still requiring students to take a Covid-19 vaccine in order to attend their college. The organization is against mandates, stating on its website “the coercive nature of college vaccine mandates completely disregards students’ individual freedom and right to bodily autonomy.”

BlackRock Loses .5 Billion for Defying Texas

BlackRock Loses $8.5 Billion for Defying Texas

Paul Collier March 20, 2024

BlackRock has just lost $8.5 billion after the Permanent School Fund, run by the Texas State Board of Education, announced plans to divest itself of all involvement with the alleged Marxist-spreading investment firm BlackRock, costing the social activist corporation billions in investment dollars from the organization.

Excerpt from townhall.com

… Led by Chairman Aaron Kinsey, the Texas State Board of Education found that BlackRock was not in compliance with a provision in Texas state code that prohibits state investment in companies that boycott energy companies, a practice that Kinsey found BlackRock’s emphasis on ESG has created.

As a result, the Permanent School Fund (PSF) took action on Tuesday, notifying BlackRock that it was divesting a whopping $8.5 billion from the firm — the largest single divestment from BlackRock since state leaders began rejecting asset management firms with values that run opposite their states’ priorities.

A release from the State Board of Education explains the legal basis for the divestment and how BlackRock ran afoul of Texas code:

Today, PSF leadership delivered an official notice to global asset manager BlackRock terminating its financial management of approximately $8.5 billion in Texas’ assets. Terminating BlackRock’s contract ensures PSF’s full compliance with Texas law.

The PSF’s relationship with BlackRock was not in compliance with Texas Government Code Section 809, commonly referred to as Senate Bill 13, which prohibits state investment in companies like Blackrock that boycott energy companies.

BlackRock’s dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement immeasurably damages our state’s oil & gas economy and the very companies that generate revenues for our PSF. Texas and the PSF have worked hard to grow this fund to build Texas’ schools. BlackRock’s destructive approach toward the energy companies that this state and our world depend on is incompatible with our fiduciary duty to Texans.

Today represents a major step forward for the Texas PSF and our state as a whole. The PSF will not stand idle as our financial future is attacked by Wall Street. This bold action helps ensure our PSF remains in fact permanent and will continue to support bright futures and opportunities for generations of Texas students.