Here’s our Friday roll-up of the most ridiculous stories from around the world that are threats to your liberty, risks to your prosperity… and on occasion, inspiring poetic justice.
Woke 401(k) rule quietly moves forward
Almost exactly one year ago, the US Department of Labor issued a regulation requiring that employers and their financial advisers choose employee investment plans based solely on financial factors… and nothing else.
Even more specifically, the regulation prevents employers from choosing a mutual fund or ETF whose main objectives are anything other than financial, i.e. mutual funds which place social or environmental justice above investment returns.
The rule effectively stopped employers from injecting their personal beliefs into their employees retirement plans.
Yet earlier this year, new Labor Department under the administration of Hunter Biden’s dad announced that they would no longer enforce this rule.
Three weeks ago they went a step further and created a new regulation called “Financial Factors in Selecting Plan Investments”.
This new rule proposes to formally reverse the old regulation by expressly allowing businesses to “make investment decisions that reflect climate change and other environmental, social, or governance (“ESG”) considerations. . .”
The proposed regulation goes on for THIRTY THREE PAGES and outlines every possible woke investment initiative imaginable.
For example, the rule allows employers to invest your savings in a stock based solely on that company’s “progress on workforce diversity [and] inclusion. . .” as opposed to, you know, profit and growth potential.
But there’s something even more striking about this regulation.
Normally whenever the federal government proposes new rules and regulations, they give the public an opportunity to comment on the proposal… and these comments are made public.
In this case the comments are, in fact, NOT public.
The rule even claims that all comments will be made available on www.regulations.gov and www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa
Yet public comments to this regulation are available at neither website.
Moreover, the rule also states that public comments will be made available to anyone who physically visits the Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) office in Washington DC.
Yet according to the EBSA website, they have “temporarily moved to telephone and website contact only” because of COVID-1984.
So, at the moment, all public comments for this new regulation are being quietly buried as the deadline for its passage (December 13th) quickly approaches.
Click here to read the proposed rule.
A US Court Declares Colombian Hippos People
The hippopotamus is not native to Colombia.
But drug lord Pablo Escobar imported four hippos to his private estate back in the 1980s. When he was killed in a 1993 shootout with police, the hippos were simply abandoned in the wild.
Now there are upwards of 100 hippos living in the Magdalena River in Colombia, and a debate has erupted over what to do with them. Some people want them sterilized, while others say they should be killed to prevent environmental damage or threats to humans.
But a handful of animal activists decided to file a lawsuit… in the United States.
What’s even more ridiculous is that the Federal Court for the Southern District of Ohio actually took the case, even though this situation has nothing to do with the US, let alone the Southern District of Ohio.
But as a final absurdity, the judge actually ruled that the hippopotamuses should be seen as “interested persons” with full legal rights to representation.
Click here to read the full story.
Australia Prepares to Confiscate Property for Unpaid COVID Fines
Many Australian serfs broke the law last year when they left home to exercise, sit on the beach alone, or attend a public protest to demand basic human rights.
The government issued these political dissidents excessive fines—sometimes thousands of dollars for a single offense—for their extremist, borderline terrorist behavior: leaving home without permission from the government.
The state of Queensland, in particular, is dealing with 3,046 unpaid fines worth a total of $5.2 million. That accounts for over 43% of the fines it issued to individuals and businesses for breaking COVID rules.
Now the government has started to freeze bank accounts, garnish wages, suspend driver’s licenses, and register charges on property which could lead to confiscation of the property if the fines are still not paid.
Click here to read the full story.
Spain Rules COVID Fines Were Illegal— Will Return the Money
Meanwhile, in the civilized world where human rights still exist, the Spanish Constitutional Court declared Spain’s first lockdown, confining people to their homes, illegal.
That also means the fines it issued were illegal. So now the Spanish government is starting to return that money to the people it fined.
The Court is also considering declaring subsequent lockdowns illegal as well.
Click here to read the full story.
