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Wine n Glass

Reporter tried eating at NYC's finest restaurants dressed like Sen. John Fetterman — it went as you'd expect

fetterman dress code senate
© Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman
Following Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's decision to peel back the dress code for Senate members, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has decided to take full advantage, sporting hooded sweatshirts and athletic shorts in one of the most powerful places in the world. As a result, New York Post reporter John Levine decided to see if that same dress code would fly in some of the nicest restaurants in the Big Apple.

It turned out that Levine was barred from gaining entry at Daniel on the Upper East Side, where a seven-course tasting menu runs about $275. A maître d' said that he "would not be permitted here." The New York Post report noted that the restaurant seemed to demonstrate "more common sense than Congress."

The maître d' at Daniel confessed that she did not even know who Fetterman was. She added that the establishment has "turned away guests for being improperly dressed regardless of their occupation."

Comment: 'The Fetterman Rule': Senate cuts dress code enforcement


Snakes in Suits

Political neophyte Stefanos Kasselakis elected new leader of Greece's main opposition Syriza party

Kasselakis
© AP
Political neophyte Stefanos Kasselakis elected new leader of Greece's main opposition party
A 35-year-old businessman without prior political experience was elected Sunday to lead Greece's main opposition bloc, the left-wing Syriza party.

Stefanos Kasselakis defeated Effie Achtsioglou, a 38-year-old lawmaker and former labor minister, in a runoff contest. Three other candidates had been eliminated in an earlier first round.

With the votes still being counted, Achtsioglou called her rival to congratulate him. Kasselakis had just under 57% of the votes late Sunday with 70% of precincts reporting, while Achtsioglou had just over 43%. About 136,000 Greeks turned out to vote, fewer than in the first round.

Kasselakis, a resident of Miami, was unknown to the Greek public until he was anointed a candidate on Syriza's at-large list. In Greece's national elections, 15 of the 300 lawmakers are elected at-large, depending on each party's share of the votes. At-large candidates can include expatriates. Syriza elected four such lawmakers in the May election and three in June. Kasselakis, in ninth place, had no chance.

Then in late August, a few days after presenting a list of proposals for the party, Kasselakis released a video of just over four minutes recounting his life and his vision. The video went viral, transforming him into a serious contender for the party leadership. Achtsioglou had been the overwhelming favorite.

Target

Republicans eye scandal-scarred Bob Menendez's Senate seat

Melendez
© Reuters
Senator Robert Melendez [D-NJ]
Republicans are bullish on their chances of capturing a U.S. Senate seat in New Jersey because of the scandal engulfing defiant Sen. Robert Menendez — the party's best opportunity to win in the Garden State in decades, GOPers told The Post Saturday.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Atlantic City) said:
"I really believe Republicans — for the first time in a long time — do have a chance. You see Democrats coming out saying he should resign, they are scared. They are going to do everything they can to try and get him out. I think people in New Jersey may be ready for a conservative populist."
Van Drew said he was being inundated by calls from New Jersey residents to throw his hat into the ring and that he was considering the idea. Democrat Kyle Jasey, a Jersey City real estate entrepreneur, and Republican Christine Serrano Glassner, mayor of Mendham Borough, had already announced before the Menendez indictment.

Menendez, 69, and his wife were both hit Friday with federal corruption charges, including allegedly taking over $600,000 bribes from a group of New Jersey businessmen to benefit them and further the interests of the Egyptian government.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has called on the senator to resign.

Comment: Congress requires a massive purge of the detritus, the self-servers, the agenda puppets and 'party' poopers. There will be vultures.


Water

Army Corps of Engineers to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater a day as saltwater intrusion threatens New Orleans-area drinking water

water
© PWCSA
Emergency water supply awaits delivery
The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning to barge 36 million gallons of freshwater daily into the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans as saltwater intrusion from the Gulf of Mexico continues to threaten drinking water supply, officials said Friday.

The move comes as water levels are plummeting for the second consecutive year after this summer's blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought over parts of the central US.

As water levels drop, the threat of saltwater intrusion grows in Louisiana as ocean water pushes north into drinking water systems, unimpeded by the Mississippi's normally mighty flow rate.

The Mississippi River is forecast to reach "historic lows over the next several weeks," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a Friday news conference.

To help mitigate intrusion, the state and the Army Corps of Engineers are working to add 25 feet of height to a 1,500-foot-wide underwater levee in the Mississippi River, which was constructed in July to slow the saltwater's progression, Army Col. Cullen Jones said.

The corps also plans to barge millions of gallons of water daily to local water treatment facilities, Jones said during the news conference.

Bad Guys

Boston University professor calls layoffs at Ibram X. Kendi's 'antiracism center' 'employment violence'

Kendi
© Wikimedia Commons
Ibram X. Kendi
Boston University confirmed that at least 15 staff members were laid off

Boston University is guilty of "employment violence and trauma" by allowing massive layoffs of the Center for Antiracist Research, according to Professor Phillipe Copeland.

Boston University confirmed to FOX News Digital on Thursday that the center, spearheaded by critical race theory defender Ibram X. Kendi, laid off at least 15 staff members in what it called an "evolving" process.

"The Center is evolving to a fellowship model. Dr. Kendi remains the Director. We can confirm that there were layoffs at the Center. The University and Center are committed to working with and supporting affected employees as they look for their next opportunities," Boston University PR Associate Vice President Rachel Lapal Cavallario said in a statement.

Copeland attacked this decision for undermining antiracism which he considers a "life and death matter."

Comment: A Washington Examiner op-ed calls it:
Ibram Kendi's 'antiracist center' was a multi-million dollar grift all along

Zachary Faria

The 2020 Black Lives Matter riots and the racial obsession liberals fomented during them gave life to a new generation of race hustlers. Ibram Kendi was one of those race hustlers, but his racial grift has apparently fallen apart just a few short years later.

Kendi (who changed his name from Ibram Rogers) won a think tank at Boston University out of the riots and the white guilt that he and others pushed on liberals during that time. Now, three years later, the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research has laid off almost its entire staff. The supposed research center produced little research, burned through some $43 million, most of which is unaccounted for, and is now all but shuttered as it transitions to a "fellowship model," with Kendi still serving as its director.

Most notable, though, is that the center built a reputation for being a toxic workplace environment very quickly in its short lifespan. The complaints started in 2021, just one year after the center's formation. Discrimination was, poetically, one of the issues in the "antiracist" think tank, which is not a surprise given that Kendi himself actively calls for discrimination as a solution to discrimination.

But it was the center's role as a money funnel that truly brought it down. Saida Grundy, an associate professor of sociology who worked at the center, filed an anonymous complaint in 2021 alleging that the center was collecting grant money with no intention of carrying out research projects. She then alleged that she was retaliated against by the university for her concerns when the organization quit communicating with her when it allowed her contract to end.

The main point probably was never to fix racism or perform "antiracist" research. The point was always to line grifters' pockets off of the white guilt of liberals and the major corporations they run (or harass into acting on that same guilt), in this case to the tune of $43 million in grants and donations that were burned through in just three years. Just as Kendi secured lucrative deals from Netflix or was paid $20,000 by Fairfax County Public Schools for an hour-long virtual lecture, Kendi wasn't concerned about white or black. The only color he seemed to care about was, and maybe has always been, green.

If the allegations are true, Kendi's racial grift helped enrich him off the back of a cultish liberal embrace of the racial obsession that Kendi and others were peddling. At the end of the day, the Center for Antiracist Research being effectively shut down after producing almost no real research is not a failure. It succeeded in exactly what it was designed to do, just like the Black Lives Matter organization and every other race hustler project that spawned off the back of, or was rejuvenated by, those 2020 riots.



Recycle

Bill canning 'conversion therapy' scrapped

ban conversion therapy
There was speculation last week that the U.K. Government's bill to ban 'conversion therapy' has been quietly killed off, given that time had all but run out to publish draft legislation before the King's Speech in November. When Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse asked on September 14th if the bill would be ready in time for the King's Speech, Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt deftly sidestepped the question.

Sources have now confirmed to the Sunday Times that the Government is expected to formally announce the legislation will no longer be brought forward, five years after Theresa May's Government first vowed to make 'conversion therapy' a criminal offence, with ministers concluding that bans have proved problematic or ineffective in other countries (most notably the state of Victoria in Australia and Canada).

This is a significant victory for free speech - and one thanks in no small part to the thousands of Free Speech Union members and supporters who used our digital campaigning tool to email their MPs urging them to scrutinise the Government's proposals and consider the unintended consequences for freedom of speech if 'conversion therapy' is defined too broadly.

One obvious concern is that people of faith, particularly religious leaders, would be vulnerable to prosecution if they tried to dissuade a member of their community from becoming actively gay, or offered to pray for them, or invited other members of their community to pray for them. Provided such attempts at persuasion don't extend beyond speech and don't involve an element of coercion, what right does the state have to police what people of faith say to other members of their communities?

Bad Guys

Post-Soviet state's president 'controlled from abroad' - opposition leader

Antony Blinken,  Maia Sandu
© AFP / Zak Bennett
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks with Moldovan President Maia Sandu at the USAID "Democracy Delivers" on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
Moldova's opposition leader has accused the head of state, Maia Sandu, of being directed by outside powers seeking to bring the country into NATO.

Igor Dodon, a former president, warned in a live stream on social media on Friday that President Sandu and the ruling Action and Solidarity party "will do everything in the near future - in a year and a half - for Moldova to change the Constitution and abandon its neutral status."

"Sandu has a task from those who control her from abroad, to make Moldova a part of NATO," he claimed.

Taking Moldova, a post-Soviet republic and neighbor of Ukraine, into the US-led military bloc would be equal to "involving the country in the conflict," the opposition leader warned. "Give up on tying us with NATO," he urged, addressing Sandu.

Since Sandu replaced Dodon as president in 2020, Moldova has taken an increasingly pro-Western course. Chisinau has fully backed Kiev in the conflict with Moscow. Last year, the nation of 2.6 million was granted the status of an EU candidate, together with Ukraine.

Comment: Russia is smart to not remove the peacekeepers. Without them there's nothing stopping NATO from using regime change in the country to get their way.


Ice Cube

Woman terrified as giant block of ice falls from plane and crashes through roof

plane ice
A block of ice decimated a woman's roof after "falling from a landing plane", leaving her horrified after it caused £12,000 in damage.

A massive bang alerted Dr Carla George, 45, to the incredible incident, right as she was in the middle of a work call at her home in Banbury in Oxfordshire on Tuesday last week (September 12).

When she went to investigate, she was gobsmacked to find herself seeing the sky through her roof - and a huge block of ice on the floor.

She thought there had been "some sort of explosion", and quickly called the fire brigade, reports Manchester Evening News.

Eye 1

NOT Satire: Zelensky recruits "Spirit Cooker" Marina Abramovic to be ambassador for Ukraine

Marina Abramovic
© Getty/Elisabetta A Villa
Marina Abramovic is the first female artist to have a show in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts
Volodymyr Zelensky has asked Marina Abramović, the performance artist, to be an ambassador for Ukraine.

Ms Abramović, a fierce critic of Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion, said the Ukrainian president had asked for her help in rebuilding schools.

The 76-year-old Serbian is holding her first solo exhibition in the UK and is the first female artist to have a major show in the Main Galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

Comment: To learn more about the established connections between Abramovic and child trafficking among the higher echelons of society, the second volume of Mouthy Buddha's "Elite Human Trafficking" series comes highly recommended:

See also:


USA

The know nothing President

Know Nothing President
© Objectivity is the Objective
Joe Biden has said repeatedly that he has never talked to his son, Hunter, about his business dealings. The obvious question is, why not? If his son is making millions of dollars legitimately in international business, wouldn't it only make sense for his father to ask him about his business? Wouldn't every father be interested in his son's extremely successful career? It is not like Joe Biden and Hunter are estranged. They're seen together all the time. There are pictures all over the internet of Joe and Hunter boarding Air Force One and Air Force Two together. They are seen yucking it up a basketball games with President Obama, out to dinner together, attending events together, staying in the same house, yet Joe Biden claims that he never spoke to Hunter about his business. Never. Not even once? Not one word? Why not?

Joe has said Hunter is "the smartest guy I know", and he supposedly is a highly successful international businessman making millions of dollars, but Joe never asked him about his business. Every other father in the world would talk to their son about their business, but we're supposed to believe that for some reason Joe was not interested at all, not curious, doesn't care about what Hunter does for a living. That preposterous claim is an admission that Joe knew that Hunter was committing crimes in his business. When someone goes to great lengths to give himself plausible deniability of crimes, it means he knows something illegal is occurring. He does not want to know about it, so he doesn't have to lie. It's like Sargeant Schultz in the old TV show, Hogan's Heroes. "I see nothing. I know nothing." So, Joe's statement claiming to have never spoken to Hunter about his business dealings means that Joe knew that Hunter's business dealings were illegal. And if Joe tried to talk to Hunter about his business and Hunter refused to tell Joe anything to protect him, then that should have been further evidence to Joe that Hunter was acting criminally.

But now, we have found out that Joe's claim of never speaking to Hunter about his business was a lie. Joe did speak to Hunter a lot about his business dealings. There are records, eyewitness accounts, photographs, White House visitor logs which show the Joe Biden spoke on the phone and met with several of Hunter's business associates on many occasions. So, the next question is, why did Joe feel the need to lie about not discussing Hunter's business with him? Why was it so important for Joe to separate himself from Hunter's international business dealings? The answer is simple, Joe knew that Hunter was corrupt. There is no other way around it. If Joe actually believed that Hunter's business dealings were on the up and up, then he would have openly admitted to the public that he did have discussions with Hunter about his business and would have no problem admitting to having met Hunter's business partners.