Out soon? Biden faces growing calls to withdraw 2024 White House bid

President Joe Biden faces a growing tidal wave of opposition and calls for him to leave the presidential race from his own party, with more elected Democrats coming out against him seemingly every day.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed media reports from multiple outlets have suggested Biden is considering bowing out of the race and could make the announcement in the coming days.

Despite those reports, Biden’s campaign released a statement Friday saying that the president will resume campaigning next week.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., released a statement on Friday calling for Biden to step aside so that another Democrat can take on former President Donald Trump in November.

Heinrich is the third elected senator to do so, joining dozens of House Democrats and other party leaders. This kind of revolt within the party is highly unusual, though Biden does have publicly voiced support from about 75 Democrats, according to a tally from the New York Times.

Most Democrats questioning Biden have made a similar argument: Biden has a great legacy, but he probably can’t beat Trump in November.

A leading Democrat in the House, U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, made that argument earlier this week when he called on Biden to step aside.

“A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff said.

Freshly certified Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance took a shot at Biden on Friday, questioning his cognitive decline and questioning if Biden should leave the White House altogether.

“If Joe Biden doesn’t have the cognitive function to run for re-election, then he certainly doesn’t have the cognitive function to remain as Commander-In-Chief,” Vance wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “How can any Dem pushing him to drop out of the presidential race, argue in good faith that he should stay on as POTUS?”

Biden’s woes gained steam after his disastrous debate performance at the end of last month put his campaign on defense as traditionally liberal media questioned his fitness and Democrats began calling for him to leave the race.

Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt last weekend, further rallying his base and making him more sympathetic to Independents. Even before the assassination attempt, Trump led Biden nationally in polling and in nearly every key battleground state.

Biden has so far publicly insisted he will remain the party’s nominee. Since the assassination attempt and Biden began quarantining for his COVID-19 infection, the pressure has ramped up even more.

If Biden does drop out, a key question will be whether he decides to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris or to leave the Democratic National Convention in August open for other likely contenders, such Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or others to make a play for the nomination.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Trump’s fiercest supporters have been propelled by Trump’s wins, his attempted assassination survival, and seem more confident than ever about November.

“The Democrat party is in more chaos than ever,” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “While they try to force out a feeble old man who refuses to give up the wheel, they remain unified on disastrous policies that have ravaged our country. Will Biden drop out? Maybe.

“Will it matter? No.

“The American people need Donald Trump, and in November, we’re sending him back to the White House,” she added.

Related Topics:#CaseyHarper #JoeBiden #TheCenterSquare #USPresidentialElection DemocratNominee

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California’s soaring electricity rates strain consumers, impact climate goals

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International

California’s soaring electricity rates strain consumers, impact climate goals

Published on January 21, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Madeline Armstrong

While the greenhouse gas reduction programs that raise electricity rates are part of California’s climate goals, the increased prices actually discourage individuals from switching away from using fossil fuels impacting California’s ambitious climate goals.

California has completed yet another year with some of the highest electricity rates in the country – almost double the national average. The state’s electricity rates have been increasing rapidly, outpacing inflation in recent years by approximately 47% from 2019 to 2023. This is due largely to the high rates charged by the state’s three large investor-owned utilities (IOUs).

According to a report published by the California Legislative Analyst Office, the factors driving rate increases are wildfire-related costs, greenhouse gas reduction mandates, and policies and differences in utility operational structures and services territories. Ratepayers bear the brunt of these costs with those who earn lower incomes and live in hotter areas of the state the most severely affected.

The report points out that while the greenhouse gas reduction programs that raise electricity rates are part of California’s climate goals, the increased prices actually discourage individuals from switching away from using fossil fuels impacting California’s ambitious climate goals.

These programs include the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires utilities to provide a percentage of retail electricity sales from renewable sources, raising costs for ratepayers. Additionally, SB 350 directs the CPUC to authorize ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs to meet California’s goal of doubling energy efficiency savings by 2030.

“While many other states operate ratepayer-supported energy efficiency programs, on average, we estimate that Californians contribute a notably greater share of their rates to such programs than is typical across the country,” the report notes.

Electricity rates pay for numerous costs related to the construction, maintenance and operation of electricity systems including the generation, transmission and distribution components. However, these rates also pay for costs unrelated to servicing electricity.

“Most notably, the state and IOUs use revenue generated from electricity rates to support various state-mandated public purpose programs,” the report says. “These programs have goals such as increasing energy efficiency, expediting adoption of renewable energy sources, supporting the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), and providing lower-income customers with financial assistance.”

The largest public purpose program is the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE), which provides discounts for lower-income customers. However, the report notes that while CARE benefits certain customers, it shifts the costs onto other slightly higher-income customers and that the majority of Californians spend a larger portion of their income on electricity compared to other states.

“According to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, California households in the lowest quintile of the income distribution typically spend about 6 percent of their before-tax incomes on electricity, compared to less than 1 percent for the highest-income quintile of households,” reads the report. “Notably, high electricity rates also can impose burdens on moderate-income earners, since they also pay a larger share of their household incomes toward electricity than their higher-income counterparts but typically are not able to qualify for bill assistance programs.”

Electricity bills also reflect other state and local tax charges including utility taxes that are used to support programs such as fire response and parks in addition to the state-assessed charge on electricity use that is put into the Energy Resources Programs Account (ERPA). This account is used to pay for energy programs and planning activities.

While many of the funds recovered through electricity rates are fixed costs for programs, these costs increased in 2022 following the repeal of a state law that limited fixed charges at $10, requiring the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to authorize fixed charges that vary by income. These come out to be around $24 per month for non-CARE customers and $6 per month for CARE customers.

Wildfire related costs have also been increasing. Before 2019, wildfire costs included in electricity rates charged by IOUs were negligible, but now it has grown between 7% and 13% of typical non-CARE customers. Reasons for this increase include California’s high wildfire risk and the state’s liability standard holding IOUs responsible for all costs associated with utility-caused wildfires.

“The magnitude of the damages and risks from utility-sparked wildfires have increased substantially in recent years,” reads the report. “Correspondingly, IOUs have spent unprecedented amounts in recent years on wildfire mitigation-related activities to try to reduce the likelihood of future utility-caused wildfires, with the associated costs often passed along to ratepayers. Furthermore, California IOUs and their ratepayers pay for insurance against future wildfires, including contributing to the California Wildfire Fund.”

According to the report, electricity use and rates for Claifornians are only expected to increase and the legislature will have to determine how to tackle the statewide climate goals while reducing the burden on ratepayers.

Madeline Armstrong

Reporter

Crime

Former UK MP says ‘nothing was done’ with child trafficking information given to police, MI5

Published on January 21, 2025

Todayville

From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

Andrew Bridgen says UK security agencies ignored detailed information about child trafficking, including names of people involved and where the children were being taken.

A former UK Member of Parliament says the top security agencies of Britain, including the police and MI5, are refusing to act on detailed information they’ve been given about child trafficking into the country.

Andrew Bridgen, who served as a popular Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire from 2010 until 2024, told Infowars founder Alex Jones in a Friday interview how he had raised concerns while in Parliament about “a number of individuals” who were evidently pedophiles.

“It was always passed to the police, to the National Crime Agency, and it involves senior politicians, very senior police officers, and nothing was ever done about it,” Bridgen told Jones.

He had explained that early in his career he had seen London police quash an investigation into child prostitution — and so this appeared to be a repeating pattern of cover-up of child sex crimes.

A former policeman named Jon Wedger had discovered that “children were being taken from children’s homes in the UK and prostituted on the weekend,” and were returning “under the influence of drugs and often with terrible venereal diseases, and the people at the homes were doing nothing about it.”

Upon further investigation, Wedger “wrote a report he sent to his superiors pointing out that child prostitution in London had not been investigated for decades.” However, instead of attempting to protect the children and stop the abuse, the police “threatened” Wedger, told him to retract the report, and fired him from the police force “on false pretenses,” according to Bridgen.

Later, Bridgen met a man who conducted a two-year investigation into sex abuse by pedophile and deceased Prime Minister Edward Heath. The police concluded that, were Heath alive, “he would have been arrested and charged with pedophilia.”

“If a former MP could have been a pedophile and it was covered up, then anything is possible,” Bridgen remarked.

He then told how last year a source approached him with “information about child trafficking into the UK,” including “detailed names of people involved on the ground; where the children were being brought in; where they were being taken; where their photographs were being taken; and the name of the company that was instrumental in laundering the money” used to buy these children.

“Meaning they were tipped off,” Jones noted.

Bridgen told how the source had recorded all of his phone calls with MI5, the police force, and the National Crime Agency, and when they failed to act, Bridgen “sent a file with all the information to senior politicians.”

“Eventually, all I got back was, ‘Take it to the police.’ I pointed out this had already been to the police, and it had been to MI5. There actually was an MI5 officer who had been very sympathetic and realized how important this evidence was. And he tried to push it. He was removed from the service. That’s how deep the corruption runs.”

In a June 2024 interview on the Resistance Podcast, Bridgen elaborated, “And then when you see the names, you see why. They are known names.”

He shared further horrifying details about the final end of the children who are trafficked and abused.

“They use them in the sex trade for about three years and then when they’re worn out they organ harvest them,” Bridgen shared.

“No one’s interested. No one wants to talk about it. No one wants to talk about a lot of things.”

Bridgen believes this demand for child trafficking is an explanation for the drive to continue wars around the world, including the war in Ukraine, because the conflicts present “a huge opportunity for child trafficking.”

Jones pointed out it was publicly admitted that decades ago, sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein entered war zones in Kosovo and Serbia and bought “nine- and 10-year-old girls” in order to sell them into sex slavery in the U.S. The father of Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was one of the main directors of the “blackmail pedophile operations” of “MI6 and Mossad,” according to Jones.

“Ultimately, I think it’s the glue that holds the self-proclaimed elites around the world together, because once they’re involved in pedophilia or profiting from child trafficking, it’s the ultimate blackmail,” Bridgen said. “There’s no way out of the club for them. They all have to go down together.”