1437: Bruce Force

Attached, you will find a document explaining several pathogenic outbreaks and their relation to both the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, and the US Dept. of Defense. Some of the viral outbreaks include; H1N1, Swine Flu, Hemorrhagic Pneumonia.

This is the tip of the iceberg, more info can be found thru the several links attached at the bottom. I have found that the U.S. Dept. of Defense and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) may be responsible for nearly every major pathogenic outbreak since circa 1950. Including; Swine Flu, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, Cholera, Ebola, Zika, etc.. There are several official documents to support these claims both within the attachments and found in the links below.

Peter Daszak, a longtime collaborator at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, was removed from the Lancet COVID-19 panel. He worked for EcoHealth Alliance for several years and was found accepting large funding amounts from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the instructions of Anthony Fauci. Daszak then used these public funds to boost the bat coronavirus operations.

Nathan Wolfe, a former DARPA virologist and founder/CEO of Metabiota, is also on the Board of Director's for a non-profit organization known as The Terramar Project. There are two other board members apart of Terramar, their names are Ted Turner (Founder of CNN), and Ghislaine Maxwell. Attached will be a photo of Nathan Wolfe and Ghislaine Maxwell together.

Nathan Wolfe is also apart of Klaus Schwab's push for Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum.

Biden’s unscripted remark at the end of his 27-minute speech reverberated around the world and sparked a terse response from the Kremlin: A spokesman told state news agencies that it is “not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”

Link

Albright was the first Clinton administration official to meet Putin after he became acting president of Russia in 2000, she recalled.

"Flying home, I recorded my impressions," Albright shared.

"'Putin is small and pale,' I wrote, 'so cold as to be almost reptilian.'"

Albright also noted that Putin was "embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness."

Link

Adam,

I've missed a few episodes so you and John may have already discussed this in detail. I know you were discussing a 1920s analogy to current times before deciding on the 1970s. However I think a 1910s/1920s comparison is better. Here's why:

1918-1920: Spanish Flu

2019-2022: Covid

=========

1917 to 1923: Various wars in the Ukraine including the Ukrainian War of Independence, Polish-Ukrainian War, Polish-Soviet War, Russian Civil War and Ukrainians trying to create a new country in Siberia called Green Ukraine. Russia ends up controlling Ukraine until 1991.

Nov. 2013: Ukraine protests begin after President Yanukovych's decision not to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union

Feb. 22, 2014: Despite signing a compromise agreement with opposition leaders the previous, Yanukovych is forced to flee Ukraine.

Feb 27. 2014: Russian invades Crimea, beginning the 2014 Ukrainian War

April 2014: Hunter Biden begins working for Burisma in Ukraine

2015: Joe Biden withholds $1 billion to remove Viktor Shokin, Ukraine's prosecutor general

2019: Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, born in the Ukraine and raised mostly in the US, testifies Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, resulting in Trump's impeachment.

2022: Russian-Ukrainian War

=========

Possible future?

July 1923: President Warren G. Harding dies. Soon after his death, several scandals come to light including Teapot Dome. His successor Calvin Coolidge wins the 1924 election in a landslide as the economy surges during the "Roaring 20s." Coolidge is known for being hands off with the economy, pro business and racial equality (from a 1920s point of view).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal

July 2023: Biden dies and Kamala takes over?

trevor

Adam,

As predicted it is happening again. It's only the 26th! Airlines are running out of crew in peak months with 31 days. JetBlue was 27% delayed yesterday. We will see how much worse it gets. March is not a fully peak month like July or August. Links below...

May is not peak until the end so they might skate through May, but July/August/December could be another set of meltdowns.

Alaska offering double pay

JetBlue pushing overtime on crew

Joe

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 15:21

Something went wrong, but don't fret '-- let's give it another shot.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 15:21

TOKYO: Japanese regional lenders have experienced system glitches at their automatic teller machines (ATMs) and Internet banking on Saturday (Mar 26) and their services have been suspended, Kyodo news service reported, citing the affected banks.

The institutions affected are Hyakujushi Bank, Joyo Bank, which is part of Mebuki Financial Group and Yamaguchi Bank under Yamaguchi Financial Group, the report said.

Separately, Lawson Bank - operated by convenience store chain Lawson - tweeted the bank is experiencing system failures and their services have been suspended.

Mizuho Financial Group's main banking unit Mizuho Bank has had major system failures several times, prompting the group to name new chief executive earlier this year.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 15:20

March 25 (Reuters) - Nearly a year after COVID vaccines became freely available in the U.S., one fourth of American adults remain unvaccinated, and a picture of the economic cost of vaccine hesitancy is emerging. It points to financial risk for individuals, companies and publicly funded programs.

Vaccine hesitancy likely already accounts for tens of billions of dollars in preventable U.S. hospitalization costs and up to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths, say public health experts.

For individuals forgoing vaccination, the risks can include layoffs and ineligibility to collect unemployment, higher insurance premiums, growing out-of-pocket medical costs or loss of academic scholarships.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comFor employers, vaccine hesitancy can contribute to short-staffed workplaces. For taxpayers, it could mean a financial drain on programs such as Medicare, which provides healthcare for seniors.

Some employers are looking to pass along a risk premium to unvaccinated workers, not unlike how smokers can be required to pay higher health premiums. One airline said it will charge unvaccinated workers $200 extra a month in insurance.

''When the vaccines emerged it seemed like everyone wanted one and the big question was how long it would take to meet the demand,'' said Kosali Simon, a professor of health economics at Indiana University. ''It didn't occur to me that, a year later, we'd be studying the cost of people not wanting the vaccines.''

Alicia Royce, a 38-year-old special education teacher in Coachella, California, opted out of getting the COVID vaccine or having her two vaccine-eligible children get it. Royce's parents got the shots, but she has been concerned by issues including reports of adverse reactions.

The decision puts Royce in a delicate spot. Her school, like others in California, began a vaccine mandate for staff last year. For now, Royce has a religious exemption and gets tested for COVID twice a week before entering the classroom. The situation has prompted her family to plan a move to Alabama, where schools have not imposed mandates, after the school year.

''I'll get paid less,'' said Royce, who expects to take a $40,000-a-year pay cut. ''But I'm moving for my own personal freedom to choose.''

PREVENTABLE CARE, BILLIONS IN COSTS

As the pandemic enters its third year, the number of U.S. patients hospitalized with COVID is near a 17-month low. Most Americans are vaccinated, and the country is regaining a semblance of normalcy, even as authorities predict a coming uptick in infections from the BA.2 sub-variant.

Yet as millions return to offices, public transportation and other social settings, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures show nearly 25% of U.S. adults haven't been fully vaccinated, and the latest data suggests many holdouts won't be easily swayed: The number of people seeking a first COVID vaccine in the U.S. has fallen to 14-month lows.

Vaccines have proven to be a powerful tool against the virus. CDC figures from 2021's Delta wave found that unvaccinated Americans had four times greater risk of being infected, and nearly 13 times higher risk of death from COVID. The disparities were even greater for those who received booster shots, who were 53 times less likely to die from COVID. Less than half of the country's vaccinated population has so far received a booster.

In a December study, the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks U.S. health policy and outcomes, estimated that between June and November of 2021, unvaccinated American adults accounted for $13.8 billion in ''preventable'' COVID hospitalization costs nationwide.

Kaiser estimated that over that six-month period, which included the Delta wave, vaccinations could have averted 59% of COVID hospitalizations among U.S. adults. Kaiser tallied 690,000 vaccine-preventable hospitalizations, at an average cost of $20,000. And it estimated vaccinations could have prevented 163,000 U.S. deaths over the same period.

If vaccine hesitancy accounted for half of the more than 1 million new U.S. COVID hospitalizations since December, the added cost of preventable hospital stays could amount to another $10 billion, Reuters found.

One thing is clear: As U.S. insurance providers and hospital networks reckon with vaccine hesitancy, it's likely that patients hospitalized for COVID will end up shouldering a bigger portion of the bill.

''These hospitalizations are not only devastating for patients and their families but could also put patients on the hook for thousands of dollars,'' Krutika Amin, a Kaiser associate director and one of the December study's co-authors, told Reuters. Unlike earlier in the pandemic, Amin said, most private health insurers have stopped waiving cost-sharing or deductibles for COVID patients who end up hospitalized.

For some insurance plans, the cost to a hospitalized COVID patient can exceed $8,000 just for ''in-network'' services, she added. The expenses could balloon for the uninsured and those turning to out-of-network care.

Now that Americans have the choice to protect themselves with vaccines, insurance companies are requiring patients to bear more of these costs, but ''many people do not have enough money to pay,'' Amin said.

More recent data '' covering the Omicron wave '' underscores the risk for the unvaccinated. During January in New York State, unvaccinated adults were more than 13 times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID than fully vaccinated adults, state health department figues show.

POLITICAL FLASHPOINT

The U.S. has spent billions to get vaccine shots into arms, including more than $19.3 billion to help develop vaccines, federal reports show.

Still, the United States has one of the largest COVID vaccine holdout rates among highly developed countries, as some question the need for getting the shots or bristle at government or workplace mandates.

''The subset of the population that is really anti-COVID vaccine, ready to quit jobs or test in order to go to work, is now pretty hardened,'' said Julie Downs, a social psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

COVID vaccines have become a political flashpoint, and vaccination rates vary widely by region: In Vermont, public health data shows 84% of those 18 and up are fully vaccinated, while the rate is just above 60% in Alabama.

Nearly 76% of people in the United States have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, CDC data shows, but the fully vaccinated figure '' across all age-groups '' stands at 64%. The Food and Drug Administration hasn't yet approved a COVID vaccine for children under 5.

Perhaps the biggest financial risk vaccine holdouts have faced is getting laid off from their jobs, said Kaiser's Amin.

New York City, which requires city workers to be vaccinated, fired more than 1,400 of them last month who hadn't received a vaccine shot by the city's deadline, while around 9,000 other workers remained in the process of seeking exemptions to the requirement, city figures show. The vast majority of the city's 370,000-person workforce is vaccinated.

A Kaiser Family Foundation nationwide survey in October found that about a quarter of workers said their employer required proof of vaccination. Only 1% of workers surveyed '-- and 5% of unvaccinated workers '-- reported having left a job due to a workplace vaccine mandate.

A tiny minority of healthcare workers across the country have been fired or placed on work leave because they chose to remain unvaccinated, but the dismissals still amount to thousands of layoffs, according to a report from Fierce Healthcare, which tracks the trend.

NO-VAX TAX

Giant employers including J.P. Morgan and Bank of America have informed their U.S. employees they can expect to pay more '' or receive fewer perks through company wellness programs '' if they don't provide proof of vaccination.

Other companies have extended an insurance premium surcharge for unvaccinated spouses or family members of employees if they want to be insured as a dependent under an employee's health plan.

And after global life insurance providers were hit with a higher-than-expected $5.5 billion in claims during the first nine months of 2021, insurers will be looking to calibrate premiums more closely to COVID mortality risks going forward, Reuters reported.

Vaccination status and other health risks '' such as obesity or smoking '-- are metrics life insurers can probe when customers seek coverage. Under the U.S. Affordable Care Act, individuals seeking health insurance can't be denied for pre-existing conditions, including COVID, or charged more for not being vaccinated. But companies who cover some of employees' health insurance costs can pass along higher costs to unvaccinated employees.

Delta Airlines said last year it would charge employees who didn't vaccinate an extra $200 a month for health insurance. The airline said the extra charge reflected the higher risk of COVID hospitalization for those employees, and noted that employee hospitalizations for COVID had cost $50,000 each so far, on average.

University students also can face financial consequences for opting out. At least 500 U.S. colleges have vaccine mandates, some barring enrollment or in-person schooling for those who don't comply, or requiring them to undergo frequent COVID testing.

Cait Corrigan said she enrolled in a master's program in theology at Boston University this year and was offered an academic scholarship. Corrigan, who has led public-activism efforts against vaccine mandates, said she got a religious exemption to the school's vaccine mandate, but the school required that she take regular nasal swab tests to attend. Corrigan said she declined to submit to nasal tests for ''medical reasons.''

The university suspended her and withdrew funding, she said. ''It was a big loss.'' Boston University didn't respond to a request for comment.

Now in New York, Corrigan says she is campaigning for a congressional seat as a Republican. Her platform: ''medical freedom.''

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Joshua Schneyer. Editing by Ronnie Greene

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 15:05

PUT-IN HIS PLACE 16:59 ET, Mar 23 2022 Updated : 4:46 ET, Mar 24 2022 MADELEINE Albright called Vladimir Putin "small and pale" and compared him to a reptile in her last op-ed before her death from cancer.

The former Secretary of State, who passed away on Wednesday, described her first impressions of the Russian leader in an essay published by the New York Times last month.

2

Madeleine Albright described Vladimir Putin as "small and pale" in her last op-ed Credit: Reuters 2

The former Secretary of State passed away on Wednesday, her family confirmed Credit: GettyAlbright was the first Clinton administration official to meet Putin after he became acting president of Russia in 2000, she recalled.

"Flying home, I recorded my impressions," Albright shared.

"'Putin is small and pale,' I wrote, 'so cold as to be almost reptilian.'"

Albright also noted that Putin was "embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness."

"Putin spoke unemotionally and without notes about his determination to resurrect Russia's economy," she added.

In the same essay, the first female Secretary of State wrote that Putin would be making a "historic error" if Russia invaded Ukraine.

Just weeks later, Russian troops entered Ukraine, starting a military conflict that is ongoing.

Albright's family confirmed news of her passing at 84 on Wednesday.

"We are heartbroken to announce that Dr Madeleine K Albright, the 64th US Secretary of State and the first woman to hold that position, passed away earlier today," the statement read.

The family went on to confirm that her cause of death was cancer, and said she was surrounded by family and friends when she passed.

"We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend," the statement continued.

The politician came to the United States from Prague as a refugee in 1948.

From there, she rose in the ranks of American politics and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

President Bill Clinton chose Albright as America's top diplomat in 1996, and she served in that capacity for the last four years of the Clinton administration.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 14:36

US President Joe Biden listens while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen makes a statement about Russia at the US Chief of Mission residence in Brussels, on March 25, 2022.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

The U.S. said Friday it will work with international partners to provide at least 15 billion cubic meters more of liquified natural gas to Europe this year, seeking to end the bloc's dependence on Russian energy exports following the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

These additional volumes of LNG are expected to increase going forward, the White House said in a statement.

It comes amid heightened concern that energy-importing countries continue to top up President Vladimir Putin's war chest with oil and gas revenue on a daily basis.

U.S. President Joe Biden described the agreement as a "groundbreaking" new initiative designed to "increase energy security, economic security and national security."

Speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels, Biden said: "I know that eliminating Russian gas will have costs for Europe. But it's not only the right thing to do from a moral standpoint, it's going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing."

"All of this is bringing the European Union and the United States even closer together, and that's a win for all of us," he said.

The U.S. and EU announced the formation of a joint task force to bolster energy security for Ukraine and the EU for next winter and the following one.

The Task Force For Energy Security will be chaired by a representative from the White House and a representative of the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

The primary goals of the task force, the U.S. and EU said, would be to diversify LNG supplies in alignment with climate objectives and reduce demand for natural gas. The initiative will likely require new facilities in Europe for importing LNG.

Trans-Atlantic partnership 'more united than ever'"The trans-Atlantic partnership stands stronger and more united than ever. And we are determined to stand up against Russia's brutal war. This war will be a strategic failure for Putin," Von der Leyen said Friday.

"Putin is trying to turn back the clock to another era '-- an era of brutal use of force, of power politics, of spheres of influence and internal repression. I am confident he will fail," she added. "We are working together to forge a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable future. And I know we will succeed."

The White House said the EU said would work toward the goal of ensuring, until at least 2030, demand for approximately 50 billion cubic meters per year of extra U.S. LNG. This is "consistent with our shared net-zero goals," it added.

"This also will be done on the understanding that prices should reflect long-term market fundamentals and stability of supply and demand," the U.S. said.

Russian energy is a key source of income and political leverage for Moscow.

Indeed, the EU currently receives roughly 40% of its gas via Russian pipelines, several of which run through Ukraine.

Revenue from Russian oil and gas was seen to be responsible for roughly 43% of the Kremlin's federal budget between 2011 and 2020, highlighting how fossil fuels play a central role for the Russian government.

Russia's war with Ukraine has coincided with sharp rises in the prices of coal, oil and gas as countries scramble to replace Russian energy sources.

The rush to further deepen humanity's dependency on fossil fuels in the aftermath of the crisis in Ukraine prompted a dire warning from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use," Guterres said earlier this week. "And this is madness: addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction."

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 13:38

Digital companies such as Cerebral and Done seized on looser pandemic rules for prescribing ADHD drugs like Adderall. Some workers said they felt pressure to provide the medications.

March 26, 2022 12:00 am ETCris Wibby joined online mental-health company Cerebral Inc. as a nurse practitioner last spring, looking for the flexibility to work from home while helping new patients.

She began treating adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and offering prescriptions for powerful stimulants such as Adderall. She could do so because the federal government relaxed a rule requiring an in-person visit before such substances can be provided, and nurse practitioners are allowed to prescribe controlled substances in many states....

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Cris Wibby joined online mental-health company Cerebral Inc. as a nurse practitioner last spring, looking for the flexibility to work from home while helping new patients.

She began treating adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and offering prescriptions for powerful stimulants such as Adderall. She could do so because the federal government relaxed a rule requiring an in-person visit before such substances can be provided, and nurse practitioners are allowed to prescribe controlled substances in many states. Ms. Wibby said patients clamored for the medication, and she said she sometimes struggled to diagnose ADHD during 30-minute video calls that she said sometimes felt could be too brief.

''All day every day, people were demanding Adderall,'' she said, adding that ''you can't diagnose people in a half hour.'' Cerebral said it encourages proper treatment and its clinicians aren't required to reach a diagnosis in a half hour. ''We simply want to make the right diagnosis and develop the right treatment plan for the safety and quality of care for each patient,'' it said.

Digital health startups that provide diagnoses and medications online for ADHD are following a familiar Silicon Valley playbook: They're using software and the internet to remove the friction surrounding a service that is in high demand. Instead of a ride or groceries, this time it's prescription drugs. Two of the most prominent new providers of these services for ADHD patients are Cerebral and Done Health, which now treat tens of thousands of patients online and have well-known supporters from the worlds of venture capital and sports.

How these companies are managing that demand has been the source of tension among workers trying to keep pace. Current and former employees said they felt Cerebral and Done applied pressure on clinicians to prescribe stimulants, and some of them said the companies' initial 30-minute video evaluations often weren't sufficient to diagnose ADHD. Cerebral and Done said that they don't pressure clinicians to prescribe stimulants and that they are providing an essential service in the U.S., where demand for mental-health treatment far outstrips supply. Bloomberg previously reported on complaints made by former staff at Cerebral.

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Cerebral said its clinicians can schedule an unlimited number of appointments. Done said systems and software help complete its initial consultations within 30 minutes.

Psychiatrists lauded the companies' goal of expanding access to mental health services, and they said stimulants are beneficial to people who are properly diagnosed. Adderall and other stimulants can help ADHD patients improve their attention and focus by increasing certain chemicals such as dopamine in the brain, but the drugs can also produce euphoria, be used to get high and lead to dependence. Psychiatrists warn that some patients who shouldn't have access to the medications could get them if examinations aren't thorough. The drugs are classified by the federal government as ''Schedule 2'' controlled substances because they carry a high risk of abuse. Other Schedule 2 substances include cocaine, OxyContin and Vicodin.

''There's a reason that we make it a little more complicated to access stimulants'--they can be abused and misused and routinely are,'' said Roy Perlis, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

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Cerebral and Done said their clinicians follow evidence-based guidelines for treatment and use questionnaires and self-reported medical histories that make it possible for clinicians to treat their needs in shorter video visits.

''Our providers use their clinical judgment to decide on whether to prescribe stimulants to patients,'' said Done, which noted that it has a 20-person team dedicated to monitoring risk. ''Providers are educated to properly assess, diagnose, and then treat according to evidence-based practice and standards of care.''

Cerebral said half the patients who approach the company with concerns that they have ADHD are ultimately diagnosed with the disorder, and that a ''single digit percentage'' of their patients have been given a controlled substance to treat ADHD.

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''We are not incentivized to give any specific diagnosis,'' said the company, which has a board that advises on clinical decisions. ''We simply want to make the right diagnosis and develop the right treatment plan for the safety and quality of care for each patient.''

It is unclear how long telehealth providers will be able to prescribe stimulants to new patients without at least one in-person visit, which they are typically prohibited from doing. The U.S. relaxed those rules in March 2020 for all Schedule 2 substances because Covid-19 presented a public-health emergency. If the federal government decides that the emergency is over, the loosening of those rules would be reversed.

30 minutesThe rise of Cerebral and Done coincides with increasing demand for online health services and stimulants such as Adderall. Prescriptions of the medication dispensed in the U.S. jumped to 41.4 million last year, up 10.4% from 2020, according to Iqvia Holdings Inc., a data and research services provider for the pharmaceutical industry.

Both Done and Cerebral were founded just before the pandemic began in 2019. Cerebral initially treated depression, anxiety and insomnia before taking on more complex mental-health issues like bipolar disorder and ADHD last year. Cerebral said its founder and CEO, Kyle Robertson, didn't have a medical background, but his vision for the company came from his own struggles with depression and anxiety and a desire to eliminate barriers to high-quality mental-health care. He didn't comment for this article.

Cerebral raised nearly $500 million of venture capital from investors including SoftBank Group Corp. and Silver Lake, and signed up superstar U.S. gymnast Simone Biles as spokeswoman. Its annualized sales are already more than $150 million, according to people familiar with the figure. Cerebral declined to comment on its revenue. Softbank and Silver Lake declined to comment.

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Cerebral also assembled a board of prominent medical figures who can offer advice on clinical decisions; it includes former National Institute of Mental Health Director Dr. Tom Insel.

''It's amazing to me that a company just a little over two years old has already become one of the largest providers of mental-health care,'' Dr. Insel said.

Done focuses on ADHD treatment. Its founder was former Facebook product designer Ruthia He, whose previous startup made a smartphone app that allowed users to track their music streaming, according to Ms. He's LinkedIn profile. Done's investors include the venture firms of former Zenefits Inc. executive David Sacks and Hall of Fame football quarterback Joe Montana.

Cerebral spends millions of dollars a month for online ads on TikTok, Instagram and Google, according to people familiar with the figure. Done's advertising budget couldn't be learned. The social-media ads said ADHD can be associated with symptoms such as ''overthinking'' and ''losing track of time'' in the case of Done or ''mood swings'' and ''stress'' in the case of Cerebral. Cerebral's Instagram ads sometimes end with a shot of a pill bottle arriving in a package.

Cerebral and Done make money by charging patients on medication a monthly fee. Prescriptions for controlled substances such as Adderall are typically renewed monthly, so patients who want to continue their prescription must pay the recurring monthly fee.

A critical decision for both companies was how long initial patient appointments should be. One former employee who participated in the planning discussions at Cerebral surrounding ADHD diagnosis said other employees suggested the appointments be increased to 45 minutes from the company's typical 30-minute evaluations. This employee said the suggestion was rejected due to higher costs and disruptions to the company's scheduling protocol. The company said nurse practitioners can have more time beyond the 30-minute meeting if needed. ''We actively encourage clinicians not to rush to a diagnosis,'' the company said in a statement.

A 30-minute visit is much shorter than a typical diagnosis conducted in traditional psychiatric settings. Those appointments can take hours and involve detailed interviews and questionnaires, according to physicians specializing in ADHD treatment.

''In 30 minutes, you can just barely hear what their main concern is, let alone get a history of all these other things,'' said Dr. Mark Stein, director of the ADHD and related disorders program at Seattle Children's Hospital.

Cerebral Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Mou said he couldn't confirm or deny any discussion of 45-minute appointments, but he said the company encourages nurse practitioners to schedule additional appointments to reach a diagnosis if they feel that is necessary. Dr. Mou recently sent a message to Cerebral clinicians that said the company is reviewing its protocols and training for prescribing ADHD, encouraging clinicians to use available resources for added consultation and adding surveys and other steps to improve the process.

Done also settled on an initial visit of roughly 30 minutes. Another digital health company that competes with Cerebral and Done also decided to do 30-minute visits, while other competitors went with longer appointments.

Done said systems and software help complete initial consultations within 30 minutes. ''While we would love to spend as much time as possible with our patients, we are also committed to helping as many patients as possible,'' the company said.

'Let's get 'em in'Former Done workers said prescribing stimulants to patients was strongly encouraged. One of those people said such encouragement came in the form of a ''Best Practices for Done Platform Use'' document provided to clinicians in 2020.

The document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said that before nurse practitioners ''deny a patient,'' they should email the company so clinical leadership could review the case. The document also said that even in cases where patients didn't meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis, it ''still might be worth doing a medication trial.'' Done said it doesn't provide a list of best practices to nurses and that it doesn't have any document ''prompting a provider to recommend trials using Adderall for patients'' who don't meet certain criteria for ADHD.

A separate ''monthly risk mitigation report'' that Done's then-Chief Medical Officer Jayaram Brindala said he wrote stated that ''multiple Done providers have specifically expressed a perception of pressure to diagnose ADHD and prescribe stimulants.''

The document also noted that ''thousands of patients have been transferred to new providers one time, two times, three times, or more'''--and that ''the company has encouraged stimulant refills'' for such patients without timely video follow-ups. It named four clinicians who quit over the practice of refilling prescriptions without video follow-ups.

Done said providers use their clinical judgment to decide whether to prescribe stimulants to patients. It also said it ''did not and does not currently produce a monthly risk mitigation report'' and that ''an outside consultant submitted a proposal that included monthly reports on risk mitigation'' that the company found to be ''irrelevant.'' Dr. Brindala said, ''I indeed wrote the risk mitigation report.'' The company said he no longer works there, and Dr. Brindala said he left in June.

One employee named in the risk mitigation document reviewed by the Journal was Shahara Stanfield, a nurse practitioner in Tampa, Fla., who the report said had felt pressure to diagnose ADHD and prescribe stimulants. She said she started working at Done in late 2020 but quit after a few months. She grew concerned early on when the company asked her to provide medication renewals to existing patients without seeing them in person first, she said.

''They have this business model of, 'Lets get 'em in, lets get 'em in', and they pressured providers to not really do follow-ups,'' said Dr. Stanfield, who has a doctorate in nursing practice.

When she declined to prescribe stimulants to new patients or those she hadn't met with on a video call, she said she would often get calls from Done employees asking her to explain why.

''I would tell them, 'I'm not sending anything until I see this patient,' and I got a lot of pushback on that. '' said Dr. Stanfield. ''This is my license on the line.''

In response to questions about complaints made by Dr. Stanfield, Done said that it is ''proud of the work we do to enable providers to serve their patients. We have a large and growing network of providers who choose to work with our platform, and we look forward to building on these successful relationships.''

Other employees said they are satisfied with the work they do at Done. Terri Squires, a nurse practitioner based in Colorado who has worked for Done for two years, said she has been surprised that most of the roughly 680 patients she sees really do suffer from ADHD, which she attributed to the accuracy of Done's advertising algorithms.

''They tell me it's been life-changing,'' Ms. Squires said.

Yina Cruz-Harris, a nurse practitioner at Done who has a doctorate in nursing practice, said that she manages 2,300 patients for Done. Virtually all have ADHD, and virtually all are on stimulants, she said. Dr. Cruz-Harris said she renews each patient's prescription each month from her New Jersey home, based mostly on forms patients fill out online, sometimes as fast as two renewals per minute. She said that Done pays her a bit less than $10 per patient, working out to around $20,000 in earnings per month.

She said that Done makes it possible for people struggling with ADHD to get a diagnosis and medication more easily than they could via in-person psychiatrists and that she routinely receives notes from patients who say the medication has helped them keep their job, for instance.

''I just feel I'm able to do more because of the company they built,'' she said.

The clinical quality teamFormer Cerebral employees said they first observed what they saw as pressure on nurse practitioners to write prescriptions for controlled substances in 2020. Non-clinical care coordinators were trained to inform superiors when nurse practitioners able to prescribe controlled substances declined to do so, these ex-workers said.

Superiors followed up with the nurse practitioners to say they were expected to prescribe such drugs if clinically appropriate, former employees said.

Cerebral's Dr. Mou said the company has never penalized or disciplined clinicians for their clinical decisions as long as the decisions are clinically appropriate and documented. The company also said, ''We do not force any clinician to prescribe anything.''

Another pressure point, according to five current and former nurse practitioners, was a decision by the company to regularly audit patient records. Some of these practitioners said they saw the company's regular audits of patient records as encouraging them to write prescriptions.

In an audit released around the beginning of 2022, a group known as Cerebral's ''clinical quality team'' wrote to nurse practitioners to say ''only 52.4%'' of ADHD patients without comorbid conditions received appropriate treatment in November'--specifically ''amphetamine-derived medications'' such as Adderall, according to documents reviewed by the Journal. It flagged specific patient cases for clinicians to review and suggested they switch the patient's medication or change the diagnosis.

Cerebral's quality team still emails clinicians to inform them when it has identified cases ''where medication regimens may not be optimized,'' according to a more recent audit reviewed by the Journal.

Cerebral's Dr. Mou said the company began auditing charts in order to promote clinical safety and quality. ''We use data science to figure out how we can encourage our clinicians to follow basically these evidence-based clinical guidelines,'' he said. ''And we do audit charts on a regular basis to ensure that the care is as evidence-based as possible.''

Ms. Wibby, the nurse practitioner who treated ADHD patients in Colorado, said she left Cerebral in January. She was able to diagnose some clear-cut cases of ADHD, and she said that stimulants can truly benefit those patients.

But the influx of people demanding an Adderall prescription became so overwhelming that she asked to no longer appear to potential customers as someone able to prescribe controlled substances. That way, patients clicking a button wouldn't be able to select her as their clinician. Ms. Wibby also said many patients claimed TikTok ads convinced them they had ADHD instead of anxiety or depression, which can require different treatment plans.

In response, Cerebral said, ''If clinicians diagnose patients with anxiety or depression, rather than ADHD, we stand by our clinicians and their clinical judgment as long as they are following evidence-based clinical guidelines when making a diagnosis, setting a treatment plan, and documenting appropriately.''

'--Jim Oberman and Elisa Cho contributed to this article.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 12:51

1. Metabiota (thread) - produces bio agents under diplomatic cover at "secret" labs, then sells pandemic insurance and trackers to help countries get ahead of what they are putting out.

Company part of Pentagon's DRTA Program as well as funded by Rosemont Seneca (Hunter Biden)

3. History:

Metabiota Inc. was tapped by the Sierra Leonean government and the World Health Organization to help monitor the spread of the virus and support the response after Ebola was discovered circulating in neighboring Guinea in March 2014.

cbsnews.com/news/american-'... 4. Metabiota was contracted by the Pentagon to perform work for DTRA before and during the Ebola crisis in West Africa and was awarded $3.1 million (2012-2015) for work in Sierra Leone '' one of the countries at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.

Ebola outbreak was in 2014-2015

5. Bio warfare scientists using diplomatic cover test man-made viruses at Pentagon bio labs in 25 countries across the world. These US bio-laboratories are funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program...

silview.media/2021/06/03/us-'... 6. Metabiota sponsored a Viral Surveillance for the PREDICT program 2014-2017.

7. 2017 study was supported by USAID through the Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT project.

Co-authors include...

Nathan Wolfe at Metabiota

Peter Daszak and William Karesh at EcoHealth Alliance and the PREDICT Consortium (authors declare no conflicts)

publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-'... 9. "This will allow the USA to control epidemiological situation in the region, get access to every development in the sphere and manipulate population size while increasing American pharmaceutical corporations' profit"

(Article continued)

10. 2018 Kiev...

Also a reminder of who was in charge of Ukraine for the Obama Admin...

(Article continued)

12. "It says about the laboratories built in Ukraine in 2014-17. It seems that only Americans work there, and the Pentagon finances them.

...they counted 11 secret laboratories in Ukraine through which dangerous diseases spread."

112.international/society/us-bio'... 13. "The official document indicates that US military doctors are studying the use of pathogens of especially dangerous infections in different regions of Ukraine. This is confirmed by outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases."

14. This ALL occured during the Obama Administration and VP Biden was the point person for Ukraine and China.

washingtonexaminer.com/tag/donald-tru'... 15. Here is the title of an article for reference in case it does not go through again:

Joe Biden visited Ukraine six times in eight years while vice president

By Rob Crilly, October 10, 2019

washingtonexaminer.com/tag/donald-tru'... 16. INVESTORS:

Rosemont Seneca (RSTP) an investment firm led by Hunter Biden '' was a lead financial backer of Metabiota, a pandemic tracking and response firm that has partnered with Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

thenationalpulse.com/exclusive/hunt'... 17. Pilot Growth Management is currently the #1 investor in Metabiota. Neil Callahan, is the co-founder, who was also the co-founder of Rosemont Seneca.

ðŸ¤--

18. "Neil Callahan '' a name that appears many times on Hunter Biden's hard drive '' also sits on Metabiota's Board of Advisors."

conservapedia.com/Rosemont_Senec'... 19. They were literally investing in a biolab company which houses and tracks deadly pathogens, then creates tracking and global virus outlooks and the marketing a pandemic insurance to go along with it. Here's to Metabiota and their ingenious, evil scheme. Who does this?

20. Dr. Nathan Wolfe --- the guy from the Bat Study and numerous other studies.

Oh yeah... and another familiar face appears - Ghislaine Maxwell

I'm sure they just had dinner. 👍

(I will link thread to that photo at the end)

21. In 2017, Metabiota announced some partnerships and set itself up to become the innovator of pandemic insurance. Not many countries would understand that they needed it or did they?

22. "Munich Reinsurance Company, the largest global reinsurer... and In-Q-Tel, Inc. (IQT), the strategic investor that accelerates the development of technologies to support the U.S. intelligence community, have signed strategic agreements with Metabiota."

iqt.org/news/munich-re'... 23. "Working in collaboration, Marsh, Munich Re and Metabiota developed PathogenRX... It uses triggers such as Metabiota's new Pathogen Sentiment Index which the epidemic risk specialists launched recently..."

artemis.bm/news/marsh-mun'... 24. I TOLD YOU SO... says Metabiota. You should of bought our pandemic insurance in 2018.

The PERFECT set-up... for what's next. Reminder, they are housing and tracking deadly pathogens.

cgdev.org/blog/the-next-'... 25. "AI modelling driven by companies such as BlueDot and Metabiota anticipated the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in China before it caught the world by surprise in late 2019 by both scouting its impact and its spread."

Of course they did.

middleeastmedicalportal.com/artificial-int'... 26. Now, everyone wants to partner with Metabiota and their "expertise."

Unbelievable.

willistowerswatson.com/en-US/News/202'... 28. That's all for now. ðŸ'

@threaderapp please unroll

It makes sense why they would be skeptical. js.

sputniknews.com/20200319/irani'...Joe Biden talks about Ebola in this video.

Another thread to connect the dots.

https://twitter.com/DickJackman1/status/1232684396488089605?s=20 @allergic2woke sent this to me about ethnic bioweapons possibly being created. I feel it needs to be added to the conversation due to the proximity of the biolabs on the Russian border. They are not only in Ukraine.

So many questions about this one.

web.archive.org/web/2017072818'...Synovial tissue / RNA samples collected from Russia, not Ukraine

' ' '

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try toforce a refresh

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 12:30

Klaus Schwab is Zbigniew Brzezinski

by Jon Rappoport

March 24, 2022

(To join our email list, click here .)

I wrote the following piece five years ago. It describes an elite group'-- whose globalist goals have been exported to the World Economic Forum (WEF), headed by Klaus Schwab.

Remember David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission? They're still around. But their quiet style has been replaced by the big brassy in-your-face Schwab circus: WE'RE TRANSFORMING THE WORLD. OKAY? WE ADMIT IT. ACHTUNG, BABY.

Let's revisit the Trilaterals. It's instructive. There are a few shockers. Here we go:

Who is in charge of destroying borders and separate nations?

One group has been virtually forgotten. Its influence is enormous. It has existed since 1973.

It's called the Trilateral Commission (TC).

Keep in mind that the original stated goal of the TC was to create ''a new international economic order.''

In the run-up to his inauguration after the 2008 presidential election, Obama was tutored by the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In 1969, four years before birthing the TC with David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote: ''[The] nation state as a fundamental unit of man's organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state.''

Goodbye, separate nations.

Any doubt on the question of TC goals is answered by David Rockefeller himself, the founder of the TC, in his Memoirs (2003): ''Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure'--one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.''

Patrick Wood, author of Trilaterals Over Washington, points out there are only 87 members of the Trilateral Commission who live in America. Obama appointed eleven of them to posts in his administration.

For example:

* Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary

* James Jones, National Security Advisor

* Paul Volker, Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee

* Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence

Here is a stunning piece of forgotten history, a 1978 conversation between a US reporter and two members of the Trilateral Commission. (Source: Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management; ed. by Holly Sklar, 1980, South End Press, Pages 192-3).

The conversation was public knowledge at the time.

Anyone who was anyone in Washington politics, in media, in think-tanks, had access to it. Understood its meaning.

But no one shouted from the rooftops. No one used the conversation to force a scandal. No one protested loudly.

The conversation revealed that the entire basis of the US Constitution had been torpedoed, that the people who were running US national policy were agents of an elite shadow group. No question about it.

And yet: official silence. Media silence. The Dept. of Justice made no moves, Congress undertook no serious inquiries, and the President, Jimmy Carter, issued no statements. Carter was himself an agent of the Trilateral Commission in the White House. He had been plucked from obscurity by David Rockefeller, and through elite TC press connections, vaulted into the spotlight as a pre-eminent choice for the Presidency.

The following 1978 conversation featured reporter, Jeremiah Novak, and two Trilateral Commission members, Karl Kaiser and Richard Cooper. The interview took up the issue of who exactly, during President Carter's administration, was formulating US economic and political policy.

The careless and off-hand attitude of Trilateralists Kaiser and Cooper is astonishing. It's as if they're saying, ''What we're revealing is already out in the open, it's too late to do anything about it, why are you so worked up, we've already won'...''

NOVAK (the reporter): Is it true that a private [Trilateral committee] led by Henry Owen of the US and made up of [Trilateral] representatives of the US, UK, West Germany, Japan, France and the EEC is coordinating the economic and political policies of the Trilateral countries [which would include the US]?

COOPER: Yes, they have met three times.

NOVAK: Yet, in your recent paper you state that this committee should remain informal because to formalize 'this function might well prove offensive to some of the Trilateral and other countries which do not take part.' Who are you afraid of?

KAISER: Many countries in Europe would resent the dominant role that West Germany plays at these [Trilateral] meetings.

COOPER: Many people still live in a world of separate nations, and they would resent such coordination [of policy].

NOVAK: But this [Trilateral] committee is essential to your whole policy. How can you keep it a secret or fail to try to get popular support [for its decisions on how nations will conduct their economic and political policies]?

COOPER: Well, I guess it's the press' job to publicize it.

NOVAK: Yes, but why doesn't President Carter come out with it and tell the American people that [US] economic and political power is being coordinated by a [Trilateral] committee made up of Henry Owen and six others? After all, if [US] policy is being made on a multinational level, the people should know.

COOPER: President Carter and Secretary of State Vance have constantly alluded to this in their speeches. [a lie]

KAISER: It just hasn't become an issue.

This interview slipped under the mainstream media radar, which is to say, it was buried.

US (and other nations') economic and political policy run by a committee of the Trilateral Commission'--the Commission created in 1973 by David Rockefeller and his sidekick, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

When Carter won the presidential election (1976), his aide, Hamilton Jordan, said that if after the inauguration, Cy Vance and Brzezinski came on board as secretary of state and national security adviser, ''We've lost. And I'll quit.'' Lost'--because both men were powerful members of the Trilateral Commission and their appointment to key positions would signal a surrender of White House control to the Commission.

Vance and Brzezinski were appointed secretary of state and national security adviser, as Jordan feared. But he didn't quit. He became Carter's chief of staff.

Now consider the vast propaganda efforts of the past 40 years, on so many levels, to install the idea that all nations and peoples of the world are a single Collective.

From a very high level of political and economic power, this propaganda op has had the objective of grooming the population for a planet that is one coagulated mass, run and managed by one force. A central engine of that force is the Trilateral Commission.

'--One planet, with national borders erased, under one management system, with a planned global economy, ''to restore stability,'' ''for the good of all, for lasting harmony.''

And one day in the future, a student would ask his teacher, ''What happened to the United States?'' And the teacher would say, ''It was a criminal enterprise based on individual freedom. Fortunately, our leaders rescued the people and taught them the superior nature of HARMONY AND COOPERATION.''

(To read about Jon's mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here .)

Jon Rappoport

The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED , EXIT FROM THE MATRIX , and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX , Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here .

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 12:03

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When CNN interviews world leaders, I rarely watch. It's certainly not going to be a good interview, and most world leaders bore me. But there was one bombshell being ignored by corporate media that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dropped on CNN that seems to implicate U.S. involvement in baiting Russia into invading Ukraine.

To be clear, I'm not in the camp that tries to justify Vladimir Putin's invasion. It's wrong. He's our enemy. Russia is our enemy. Ukrainian citizens are being senselessly displaced and killed over the Russian tyrant's unhinged choices.

With that said, the war could have been avoided if the Biden regime and NATO didn't tell a very big lie. According to Zelensky, they told him Ukraine would never be allowed to join NATO, but for the public, they were going to continue to claim that the option was on the table.

As Putin has said for over a decade, Ukrainian membership in NATO was a red line. The U.S. knew that. NATO knew that. Every foreign policy expert in the world knew that. But apparently, the powers-that-be wanted war, so the Biden regime told a huge lie in order to give Putin a reason to invade Ukraine.

According to Zelensky '¤ war would have been averted if they had simply let Ukraine join. That's debatable, but his next statement about lies told by the U.S. and NATO definitely aided in getting Putin to make the power decision.

''I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five, just say it directly and clearly, or just say no,'' Zelensky said. ''And the response was very clear, you're not going to be a NATO member, but publicly, the doors will remain open.''

On the latest episode of The JD Rucker Political Report on America Out Loud Talk Radio, I broke down what all this means and why I believe the Biden regime, NATO, and the Deep State were so obsessed with getting Russia to invade.

The JD Rucker Political Report can be heard on weeknights at 7 pm ET Listen on iHeart Radio, our world-class media player, or our free apps on Apple, Android, or Alexa. All episodes can be found on podcast networks worldwide the day after airing on talk radio.

Image: AP

JD RuckerChristian conservative JD Rucker went from journalism into the business world for two decades before returning to journalism in 2017. The sharp rise of leftist bias in corporate media prompted him to sell his advertising company and turn to the worlds of politics, culture, and religion. Now, he and his family fight the good fight in Southern California with hopes of someday returning sanity to the state while preventing the rest of the nation from succumbing to the wickedness inherent in the Neo-Marxist mindset.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:51

All conscientious objectors are required to register.

Today, all conscientious objectors are required to register with the Selective Service System. A conscientious objector is one who is opposed to serving in the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral or religious principles.

In the Event of a DraftHow to Apply: In general, once a man gets a notice that he has been found qualified for military service, he has the opportunity to make a claim for classification as a conscientious objector (CO). A registrant making a claim for conscientious objection is required to appear before his local board to explain his beliefs.

He may provide written documentation or include personal appearances by people he knows who can attest to his claims. His written statement might explain:

how he arrived at his beliefs; andthe influence his beliefs have had on how he lives his life.The local board will decide whether to grant or deny a CO classification based on the evidence a registrant has presented. A man may appeal a local board's decision to a Selective Service district appeal board. If the appeal board also denies his claim, but the vote is not unanimous, he may further appeal the decision to the national appeal board.

Who Qualifies?Beliefs which qualify a registrant for CO status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest. In general, the man's lifestyle prior to making his claim must reflect his current claims.

See Relevant Court Cases

Service as a Conscientious ObjectorTwo types of service are available to conscientious objectors, and the type assigned is determined by the individual's specific beliefs. The person who is opposed to any form of military service will be assigned to alternative service '' described below. The person whose beliefs allow him to serve in the military but in a noncombatant capacity will serve in the Armed Forces but will not be assigned training or duties that include using weapons.

Alternative ServiceConscientious objectors opposed to serving in the military will be placed in the Selective Service Alternative Service Program. This program attempts to match COs with local employers. Many types of jobs are available, however the job must be deemed to make a meaningful contribution to the maintenance of the national health, safety, and interest. Examples of alternative service are jobs in:

conservationcaring for the very young or very oldeducationhealth careLength of service in the program will equal the amount of time a man would have served in the military, usually 24 months.

Learn More

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:36

An investment firm directed by President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden was a leading financial backer of a pandemic tracking and response firm that collaborated on identifying and isolating deadly pathogens in Ukrainian laboratories, receiving funds from the Obama administration's Department of Defense in the process, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.

If you want more scoops like this, please consider supporting our work so we can hire more research staff and report on real and important news like this, daily.Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) '' a subsidiary of the Hunter Biden and Christopher Heinz-founded Rosemont Capital '' counted both Biden and Heinz as managing directors. Heinz is the stepson of former U.S. Secretary of State and current Climate czar John Kerry.

Amongst the companies listed on archived versions of the RSTP's portfolio is Metabiota '' an ostensibly San Francisco-based company that purports to detect, track, and analyze emerging infectious diseases.

Financial reports reveal that RSTP led the company's first round of funding in 2015, which amounted to $30 million. Former managing director and co-founder of RSTP Neil Callahan '' a name that also appears many times on Hunter Biden's hard drive '' sits on Metabiota's Board of Advisors alongside former Clinton official Rob Walker who discussed, in another unearthed Hunter Biden hard drive e-mail, reaching out to the Obama Department of Defense with regard to Metabiota.

Exclusive: New e-mails confirm the Metabiota/DOD/Ukraine links.In July 2021, The National Pulse exclusively revealed the connection between Metabiota, Hunter Biden, and the pandemic-linked EcoHealth Alliance which worked closely with Anthony Fauci's National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) and the notorious Wuhan laboratory.

Today, we can exclusively reveal an official connection between the Biden-linked pandemic firm and biological laboratories based in Ukraine. In early March we revealed how these labs were handling ''especially dangerous pathogens'' through programs funded by the U.S. government. The potential for such entities to fall into the hands of invading Russian forces has come under hotly disputed scrutiny in recent weeks.

'Zoonotic Diseases' A feature in the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine's (STCU) 2016 Annual Report recounts a ''Trilateral Meeting with Ukraine, Poland, and the United States Regional Collaboration on Biological Security, Safety, and Surveillance.''

The article describes in particular an October 2016 meeting involving U.S. military officials and their Ukrainian counterparts discussing ''cooperation in surveillance and prevention of especially dangerous infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases in Ukraine and neighboring countries.''

2016 meeting.In attendance were representatives from the Biden-linked Metabiota, roughly one year after Hunter's investment funds put cash into the company. Attendees also included:

US Department of Defense [Defense Threat Reduction Agency] (DTRA) (K. Garrett, G. Braunstein, W. Sosnowski, and J. Wintrol);Black & Veatch and Metabiota corporations (D. Mustra, Dr. M. Guttieri, S. Anderson, T. Borth and others);Curtis ''BJ'' Bjelajac, Executive Director, and Vlada Pashynska, Senior Specialist represented the STCU.''The meeting focused on existing frameworks, regulatory coordination, and ongoing cooperative projects in research, surveillance and diagnostics of a number of dangerous zoonotic diseases, such as avian influenza, leptospirosis, Crimea Congo hemorrhagic fever, and brucellosis,'' explains the summary:

STUC Annual Report (p. 6)A separate page from the STCU website details another meeting between Metabiota representatives, Ukrainian scientists, and U.S. Department of Defense officials aimed at increasing collaboration while attending a Swine Fever workshop just months later:

''In the framework of the workshop, special breakout meetings of Ukrainian scientists with their European and American counterparts were jointly organized by the STCU, DTRA and Metabiota Inc.. During those breakout meetings, specialists from each country worked to establish effective contacts in order to encourage future cooperation, as well as to identify future scientific projects with Ukrainian and western veterinary institutions in the area of ASF control and investigation.''

Government contracts also corroborate the working relationship between Metabiota, Ukrainian laboratories, and the U.S. Defense Department, with the firm receiving an $18.4 million grant from the U.S. agency in 2014. A total of $307,091, allocated to Metabiota on September 25th, was itemized for ''Ukraine research projects.''

Several scientific papers '' including those isolating strains of deadly pathogens like ''virulent African Swine Fever

Virus'' '' appear to have been published following the grant.

A 2019 paper titled ''Complete Genome Sequence of a Virulent African Swine Fever Virus from a Domestic Pig in Ukraine'' was authored by researchers from Metabiota and three Ukraine-based institutes.

The researchers, whose work is described as being ''funded by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) through the Biological Threat Reduction Program in Ukraine,'' isolated the strain of the deadly virus using a pig from Ukraine:

''Tissue samples were collected from a domestic pig from ASF outbreak number 131 in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, in 2016. The samples were frozen, and total DNA was extracted in duplicate from spleen tissue using the PowerMicrobiome RNA isolation kit (Mo Bio) following the manufacturer's protocol.''

'Anthrax' Furthermore, a 2014 paper ''Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Livestock Anthrax in Ukraine During the Past Century (1913-2012)'' lists an author, Artem Skrypnyk, then affiliated with a Ukraine-based branch of the pandemic firm.

''Our primary objective was to examine the spatiotemporal dynamics of the disease and identify areas where anthrax may persist in the present day,'' posits the paper.

Skrypnyk's Ukraine Anthrax study, funded by the U.S. government.''Examining the historical epizootiology of a disease can identify the geographic extent of environmental foci, define areas prone to repeat outbreaks, and lead to a better understanding of natural disease cycles.''

Page 10 of the Anthrax study reveals the U.S. government funding.Skrypnyk is also listed as a Metabiota scientist in other papers including ''Dynamics of anthrax cases in Ukraine during 1970-2013,'' ''Anthrax in Dogs,'' and ''Serological Anthrax Surveillance in Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) in Ukraine.''

One paper aimed ''to better understand anthrax epizootiology in Ukraine,'' collecting samples from anthrax hotspots with funds from the U.S. DTRA's Cooperative Biological Engagement Program in Ukraine.

''We tested wild boar serum samples collected across Ukraine for antibodies to B. anthracis and determined whether exposed boars were associated with livestock anthrax hotspots,'' explains the paper.

Studying Anthrax in dogs.Skrypnyk, the Metabiota-affiliated researcher, worked as V

eterinary Project Coordinator for the Biden-linked firm before moving on to serve in his current role of

Technical Officer for Laboratories for the World

Health Organization (WHO).

Additionally, two researchers '' Nataliya Mykhaylovska and Bradford Raymond Brooks '' are listed as Ukraine-based Metabiota researchers in a paper titled ''Implementation of a Regional Training Program on African Swine Fever As Part of the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program across the Caucasus Region.''

The aforementioned paper even references a Metabiota office in Ukraine's capital city of Kiev, whose existence appears to be corroborated by a summary of the company's operational structure.

''The company's international footprint includes operations in 20 countries and offices in San Francisco, Washington, Ukraine, China, Canada, and Sierra Leone,'' explains the summary.

Additionally, LinkedIn profiles of former Metabiota employees detail the work conducted by the company's Kyiv outpost.

Former Country Science Manager for Eastern Europe David Mustra explains how he ''manga[ed] Metabiota's team of twelve Ukrainian-National personnel'' and served as ''the Biosurveillance and Research Manager for Metabiota's work as a subcontractor, under the direction of prime contractor Black & Veatch (B&V), on the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's (DTRA) Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) Biological Threat Reduction Integrating Contract (BTRIC) '' Ukraine.''

He also explains how the company liaised with ''Government of Ukraine officials'' from agencies including the Ministry of Defense.

Another Metabiota employee '' Dr. Petro Mutovkin '' who served as a Human Biosurveillance Specialist and Project Manager from 2015 to 2016 reveals his role in ''facilitating activities within US Department of Defence Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) in Ukraine'' on his LinkedIn profile.

''Laboratory facility assessment, laboratory diagnostic and BS&S training, [and] biological risk assessment and mitigation'' are among the other tasks he engaged in.

The revelation surrounding President Joe Biden's son's financial involvement with Ukrainian biological laboratories experimenting with pathogens, animals, and anthrax follows The National Pulse unearthing Metabiota's ties to EcoHealth Alliance, a key entity in the origins of COVID-19 and cover-up efforts.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:33

Alison Nathan, the Manhattan federal judge overseeing the sex abuse trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, testifies in regards to her nomination for a seat on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 15, 2021. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSenate votes to elevate Judge Alison Nathan to 2nd CircuitNathan is fourth of Biden's nominees to 2nd Circuit to win approval(Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday voted to promote the Manhattan federal judge who oversaw the sex abuse trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell to become only the second openly LGBT+ woman to serve on a federal appeals court.

The Senate voted 49-47 to elevate Alison Nathan to the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, capping off a day in which the Democratic-led chamber confirmed five of President Joe Biden's other judicial nominees to district court positions.

They included Hector Gonzalez, a Cuban-born former prosecutor who chairs the law firm Dechert's global litigation practice. The Senate voted 52-45 vote to make him a federal judge in Brooklyn.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comNathan was nominated by Biden in November at the recommendation of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the senior senator from New York, who had earlier convinced former President Barack Obama to make her a district judge in 2011.

Her nomination to the 2nd Circuit came in the midst of Maxwell's trial. Maxwell was convicted on Dec. 29 on five of the six counts she faced for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Maxwell, who pleaded not guilty, is seeking to set aside the verdict on multiple grounds, which the judge is reviewing. Despite her promotion, Nathan is expected to continue presiding over her pending criminal cases.

Nathan, 49, is the fourth of Biden's nominees to win confirmation to join the 2nd Circuit. Beth Robinson, who was confirmed to the circuit last year, became the first openly LGBT+ woman to serve on an federal appeals court.

Nathan succeeds U.S. Circuit Judge Rosemary Pooler, who in October said she planned to take senior status, a form of semi-retirement for judges. Presidents can fill the seats of judges who take senior status.

Biden has yet to nominate anyone to succeed two other 2nd Circuit judges who plan to take senior status. Republican appointees fill six of the 13 seats on the court, which hears cases from New York, Connecticut and Vermont.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December, Nathan said her record in more than 3,000 cases "demonstrated the type of judge that I am" and called the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, for whom she clerked, a model.

But Republicans during that hearing questioned her decisions to grant inmates compassionate release after the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020 and raised concerns about her stances on such issues as immigration and gun rights.

Read more:

Maxwell says juror sought '15 minutes of fame'; prosecutors call trial fair

Ghislaine Maxwell's judge, up for appellate court promotion, faces U.S. Senate panel

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Nate RaymondNate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:33

Lloyd Blankfein : I'm not a military guy, but if Ukraine is able to strike a proper target inside Russia, should it? Wouldn't be mean'... https://t.co/jGjLRwFEt9

Wed Mar 23 23:43:11 +0000 2022

Jeff Lewis : @lloydblankfein You need to stop tweeting & read history books. Your ignorance creates dangerous ideas similar to'... https://t.co/ABxxoXX6BI

Sun Mar 27 10:05:28 +0000 2022

Deborah Bluhm : @lloydblankfein Schmucks come in all shapes and sizes I see

Sun Mar 27 06:40:37 +0000 2022

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:26

Dr. Theresa Long, a medical officer with the United States military, has testified in court that she was ordered by a superior to suppress Covid-19 vaccine injuries following the Biden regime's mandate.

Join The True Defender Telegram Chanel Here: https://t.me/TheTrueDefender

Without leaving anything to be left lost in the process of re-writing, and since we're discussing crucial and substantial information, we'll just share the full report from the trial, as published by the Daily Expose.

''On March 10, Liberty Counsel, the law firm representing thirty members of the military who are fighting the military vaccine mandate, returned to federal court to defend the preliminary injunction Judge Steven Merryday granted two military plaintiffs that allowed them to skirt the military vaccine mandate. The Department of Defense (DoD) asked the judge to set aside the injunction while the case was on appeal.

Judge Merryday is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

During the all-day hearing, Liberty Counsel presented compelling testimony from the Navy Commander of a surface warship and three military flight surgeons, Lt. Col. Peter Chambers, Lt. Col. Teresa Long and Col. (Ret.) Stewart Tankersley, M.D. In contrast, the DOD declined to present witnesses.

Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel Mat Staver said in an interview with the Blaze's Daniel Horowitz on Monday that there have been three hearings now in this case, and the DoD has not yet offered a single witness. Instead of witnesses, the government ''sends these declarations,'' Staver explained. He said the judge has urged them to bring live witnesses to court so they can be cross examined, but they just refuse to do it. ''So they send these declarations that some JAG attorney writes, and somebody in the military signs off on them.''

Staver said that the information the DoD has been presenting in court is ''outdated, wrong, and would really be subject to dismantling under cross examination.'' He added that cross examinations of his witnesses have only made their case stronger. ''So they really don't have anything to cross examine our witnesses with,'' he said.

Staver told Horowitz that Judge Merryday has chastised the DoD lawyers during the hearings, telling them they have ''a frail case,'' and are ''acting as though they are above the law.''

Dr. Theresa Long, a flight surgeon who holds a master's degree in Public Health and is specially trained in the DMED, gave emotional testimony on March 10.

She and two other flight surgeons reviewed DMED last year and made some stunning discoveries about the high incidence of apparent vaccine injuries among members of the military.

According to the whistleblowers, certain disorders spiked after the vaccine mandate went into effect, including miscarriages and cancers, and neurological problems which increased by 1000 percent.

Dr. Long testified that she was contacted by high level officer the night before the hearing, and told not to discuss her findings regarding the explosive military medical data in court. The whistleblower reportedly said she felt threatened after she tried to get her superiors to address the findings, ''fearing for her life and for the safety of her children.''

Since the whistleblowers came forward with the DMED data, the DoD has thrown cold water on their conclusions, saying the increase in vaccine injuries was caused by a ''glitch in the database.''

Politifact contacted Peter Graves, spokesperson for the Defense Health Agency's Armed Forces Surveillance Division, who said the data for 2021 is correct, but for some reason, the data for the five years prior was inaccurate. Graves told PolitiFact by email that the division reviewed data in the DMED ''and found that the data was incorrect for the years 2016-2020.''

In other words, for five straight years, the data was seriously corrupted and none of the DoD's data analysts figured this out, and then it fixed itself on its own in 2021. The DoD has since put out new numbers showing more illnesses among the troops for the years prior to 2021.

Staver asked Long a question about the DMED data during the hearing, and she answered: ''I have been ordered not to answer that question.''

Judge Merryday reportedly asked Long: ''Ordered by who?,'' and the doctor explained what happened the night before the hearing.

Staver then asked Long if the information the military ordered her to withhold was relevant and helpful for the court and the public to know. She said, ''yes,'' and Staver asked her why.

Long reportedly paused and choked back tears as she told the judge: ''I have so many soldiers being destroyed by this vaccine. Not a single member of my senior command has discussed my concerns with me '... I have nothing to gain and everything to lose by talking about it. I'm OK with that because I am watching people get absolutely destroyed.''

Dr. Long also testified that the data shows that deaths of military members from the vaccines exceed deaths from COVID itself.

Staver later told Horowitz that the DoD's order for her not to discuss DMED amounted to witness tampering, especially since Long has whistleblower protections.

''They not only violated the Whistleblower Act, they potentially intimidated a witness and tried to change that witness' testimony,'' he said during the Conservative Review podcast on Monday.

The doctor said she is constantly contacted by people who have been injured by the genetic vaccines, and that many of those injured are pilots, who are expected to meet high fitness standards. Long told Staver that in just one afternoon she heard from four pilots who had just gotten MRIs back showing that they had myocarditis.

Morale is tanking in the military, she testified, with soldiers are in despair over the pressure to get the vaccine, and some are even having suicidal thoughts.

Long said she was aware of at least two people who have committed suicide over the pressure, and the threat of punishment for refusal.

She said the current regime's policies are undermining ''good order and discipline.''

In addition to Dr. Long, an unnamed Navy commander testified about his commander's attempts to punish him for refusing the experimental injections.

On February 2, Judge Merryday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Navy from punishing the Commander because of his vaccination status. Judge Merryday ruled the Navy violated the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

When the court ordered the Commodore to comply with the law, he filed an affidavit saying he had ''lost confidence'' in the Commander because the Commander had not taken the COVID shots.

The judge then entered a preliminary injunction, and the DOD and the Navy filed a motion asking the court to set aside his injunction, arguing that due to their ''lost confidence'' in the commander, his ship could not deploy.

However, at the time the ship was allegedly unable to be deployed, the commander was actually far out to sea testing the ship and training the crew.

While many Commanders fail to complete these operations timely, the Commander completed the mission early and the ship deemed ''safe and ready.''

In a dramatic moment, the Commander said he should not have to be there in court defending religious freedom. ''Generals and admirals should be here saying what I am saying today to uphold religious freedom. Our religious freedoms are being attacked.''

Also testifying last week was Dr. Pete Chambers, a Purple Heart recipient who is in the Texas National Guard defending the southern border where 10,000-20,000 illegal immigrants are flooding through every week. ''My job is to keep our soldiers safe,'' Chambers said.

Chambers was hoping to retire from the military in 2023 after nearly 40 years of service, but his adverse reaction to the Moderna shot derailed his plans.

Trusting the military that the shots are ''safe and effective,'' and not knowing at the time that aborted fetal cells were used in the testing and/or development, he took the shot. He now suffers from demyelination, a condition affecting the central nervous system caused by the injection.

After his Moderna injury, Dr. Chambers met Lt. Col. Long. They reviewed the DOD's Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED), the military equivalent to the federal government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), where he discovered other military members also developed a demyelination disease after the COVID shots.

Chambers, a military flight surgeon and one of only six Green Beret surgeons, was told that his job was to get soldiers to vaccinated. His superiors told him that religious exemptions would be automatically denied. ''Soldiers will try. Soldiers will fail,'' this commanders said.

He pointed out that shots are not effective in preventing infection, and estimated that about 75-80% of soldiers getting infected are ''double vaxxed'' compared to only about 15% of soldiers who are not vaccinated.

Like Long, Chambers also testified that many soldiers are being injured by the COVID shots, and that ''this is not normal.''

Dr. Stewart Tankersley, a flight surgeon who retired in September 2021 at the rank of Colonel, testified that the injections are neither safe nor effective.

Tankersley said he has personally treated over 200 COVID patients with no fatalities, and the group of doctors with whom he is associated has treated over 18,000 COVID patients with deaths only in the single digits.

''I've never seen anything like this in the military or civilian world, the lack of dialogue, the suppression of scientific dialogue.'' Tankersley said on the stand.

Dr. Tankersley explained one of several reasons there are so many injuries from the COVID shots. The mRNA vaccines require a Lipid Nanoparticle (LNP) as a delivery mechanism because the RNA quickly degrades without being encased in the LNP. The combination bypasses the natural immune system and creates inflammation that can inhibit the body's innate immunity.

Dr. Tankersley testified that the shots are neither safe nor effective. He also testified that there are safe and effective treatments for COVID, including nasal rinsing and ivermectin.

Liberty Counsel argued that the DOD's position that the only one way to combat COVID and ensure military readiness is to force the injections and kick out the unvaccinated is ''untenable,'' and that the mandate is undermining military readiness and harming morale.

Staver said: ''I am honored to serve the brave men and women of the military. I am dismayed by the abuse and propaganda forced upon them from the White House and the Department of Defense. The truth will prevail, and freedom will win.''

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 11:10

Hugo Grotius, the 17th century jurist and father of public international law, stated in his 1625 magnum opus The Law of War and Peace that "Most Men assign three Just Causes of War, Defence, the Recovery of what's our own, and Punishment."

Overview [ edit ] Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter [ edit ] Article 51 of the UN Charter states the following:

Article 51: Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of collective or individual self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by members in exercise of this right of self-defense shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

International law recognizes a right of self-defence, as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) affirmed in the Nicaragua Case on the use of force. Some commentators believe that the effect of Article 51 is only to preserve this right when an armed attack occurs, and that other acts of self-defence are banned by article 2(4). The more widely held[citation needed ][dubious '' discuss ] opinion is that article 51 acknowledges this general right, and proceeds to lay down procedures for the specific situation when an armed attack does occur. Under the latter interpretation, the legitimate use of self-defence in situations when an armed attack has not actually occurred is still permitted. Not every act of violence will constitute an armed attack. The ICJ has tried to clarify, in the Nicaragua case, what level of force is necessary to qualify as an armed attack.

Customary international law and Caroline test [ edit ] The traditional customary rules on self-defense derive from an early diplomatic incident between the United States and the United Kingdom over the killing of one US citizen engaged in an attack on Canada, then a British colony. The so-called Caroline case established that there had to exist "a necessity of self-defence, instant, overwhelming, leaving no choice of means, and no moment of deliberation,' and furthermore that any action taken must be proportional, "since the act justified by the necessity of self-defence, must be limited by that necessity, and kept clearly within it." These statements by the US Secretary of State to the British authorities are accepted as an accurate description of the customary right of self-defence.[citation needed ] (Dan Webster, Yale Law School)

Imminent threat [ edit ] The imminent threat is a standard criterion in international law, developed by Daniel Webster as he litigated the Caroline affair, described as being "instant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice of means, and no moment for deliberation." The criteria are used in the international law justification of preemptive self-defense: self-defense without being physically attacked first (see Caroline test). This concept has been used to mitigate the lack of definition provided by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, which states that sovereign nations may fend off an armed attack until the Security Council has adopted measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

The Caroline affair has been used to establish the principle of "anticipatory self-defense" and is also now invoked frequently in the course of the dispute around preemptive strike (or preemption doctrine).

See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] SourcesBen Fritz, "Sorting out the "imminent threat" debate,", spinsanity.org, November 3, 2003Dan Darling, "Special Analysis: The Imminent Threat," windsofchange.net, September 4, 2003Wolf Sch¤fer, "Learning From Recent History," Provost's Lecture Series on Global Issues - The People Speak: America Debates its Role in the World, Stony Brook University, October 15, 2003Michael Byers, "Jumping the Gun", London Review of Books, Vol. 24 No. 14, 25 July 2002, pp 3''5Matthew Omolesky, "Special Report: Israel and International Law," The American Spectator, 7.18.06The Caroline Case : Anticipatory Self-Defence in Contemporary International LawThe Caroline Incident during the Patriot WarObituary of Neil MacGregor, one of the Upper Canada militiamen on the raidThe Avalon Project at Yale Law School: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty and The Caroline CaseChapter 7, "British Steamer is Burned by Patriots" in Northern New York In The Patriot War, 1923, By L. N. FullerThe Caroline (Christopher Greenwood) in the context of international law - Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International LawNotes

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 10:55

It is no revelation that conservative activist Virginia Thomas, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's wife, is a political extremist. But The Post's Bob Woodward and CBS News's Robert Costa showed just how close she was to President Donald Trump's plotting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol ransacking. The disturbing revelations only deepen the threat her entanglements pose to the court's legitimacy.

Mr. Woodward and Mr. Costa revealed Thursday 29 text messages between Ms. Thomas and Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, as Mr. Trump sought the Supreme Court's help to reverse the election. ''We are living through what feels like the end of America,'' she wrote four days after Jan. 6 '-- but not in reference to the rioters who called for then-Vice President Mike Pence's blood. ''Most of us are disgusted with the VP and are in listening mode to see where to fight with our teams,'' she said, indicating that she wished Mr. Pence had illegally overturned the election results.

Ms. Thomas flooded Mr. Meadows's phone with bizarre far-right conspiracy theories about ballot watermarks, secret military operations and the possibility of locking up Democrats and journalists on barges off Guantnamo Bay.

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The House committee investigating Jan. 6 obtained the texts from Mr. Meadows before he stopped cooperating with the panel. The 29 messages appear to be just a portion of the communications between the two, meaning there might be more that the panel will seek to force Mr. Meadows to turn over. The texts also suggest Ms. Thomas was in touch with others in the Trump White House, communications the committee will likely want to see.

Karen Tumulty: Clarence Thomas has some good advice for his wife

This raises questions about Justice Thomas's refusal to recuse himself from cases involving Jan. 6. In one text, Ms. Thomas talked about having a conversation with her ''best friend,'' apparently about the election fight. Did Ms. Thomas influence her husband's thinking? Did Justice Thomas decline to recuse because he did not want to reveal the depth of his wife's involvement? Justice Thomas was the only member of the court who voted against turning over White House communications to the committee.

For years, Justice Thomas's critics have argued he should recuse himself more often from cases to which his wife has connections. Also that Congress should impose strict ethics rules on Supreme Court justices. This is harder than it sounds. Unlike in lower courts, no one can sit in for justices who have recused themselves. Also, many outstanding potential justices have professionally active spouses; they should not feel as though they must ask their partners to quit in order to serve.

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Unfortunately, Ms. Thomas has abused the good faith others have offered her husband, pushing the limits of the ethical gray areas these considerations create. Justice Thomas must recuse himself whenever his wife has a financial stake in a case. The New Yorker's Jane Mayer reported that Ms. Thomas took more than $200,000 from right-wing activist Frank Gaffney's Center for Security Policy as Mr. Gaffney asked the court to uphold Mr. Trump's Muslim ban, which Justice Thomas voted to do. Justice Thomas must also recuse himself from cases that could substantially affect his wife in other ways. That includes litigation regarding the Jan. 6 committee, which is examining Ms. Thomas's communications.

Americans should expect more. The best way for the court to avoid further erosion of public faith '-- and congressional intervention '-- is for the justices to set a higher example.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 10:41

Biden's Warsaw speech, capping his European tour, came as two powerful rockets struck around 250 miles away '-- across the border in Lviv, a western city considered relatively safe in the month-long war, amid conflicting reports that Moscow is shifting the locus of war from capturing Ukraine's capital to prioritizing securing the east. Russian forces appear to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in the separatist regions in the east of the country, advancing from the direction of Kharkiv in the north and Mariupol in the south, a British intelligence report said Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated demands for Western countries to supply planes and tanks to Ukraine, and he criticized the West for its hesitation. Washington, wary of ensnaring NATO in the war, pledged another $100 million in security aid to Ukraine to shore up its police and border guards. Though diplomatic talks are stalled, Britain's foreign secretary Liz Truss signaled late Saturday that sweeping economic sanctions on Russia could be lifted if Moscow ends its ''aggression'' that's displaced one in four people in Ukraine '-- and forced half its children from their homes.

Here's what to know

Biden's unscripted remark at the end of his 27-minute speech reverberated around the world and sparked a terse response from the Kremlin: A spokesman told state news agencies that it is ''not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.'' Russian forces have entered Slavutych, a northern city of about 25,000 people that houses workers from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Ukrainian officials say their forces have killed seven Russian generals on the battlefield. If true, the deaths of so many generals in one month, alongside more senior Russian army and naval commanders, exceeds the attrition rate seen in the worst months of the bloody nine-year war fought by Russia in Chechnya, as well as Russian and Soviet-era campaigns in Afghanistan, Georgia and Syria. The Washington Post has lifted its paywall for readers in Russia and Ukraine. Telegram users can subscribe to our channel for updates. UNDERSTANDING THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CONFLICT

U.S. does not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, Blinken says Return to menuJERUSALEM '-- The United States is not pursuing regime change in Russia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday in remarks meant to clarify President Biden's comment that Russian President Vladimir Putin ''cannot remain in power.''

The top U.S. diplomat said Biden's remarks, which increased international pressure and prompted a rebuke from Moscow, were not meant to suggest that the United States would undertake military or economic action to unseat Putin, though they were intended to convey that Putin ''cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.''

''We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia '-- or anywhere else, for that matter,'' Blinken said.

He said the United States does have a strategy to support Ukraine to fend off Russia's ''onslaught of planes and tanks and other weapons,'' and to provide humanitarian support to the country.

Biden made the comment during an address in Poland, and it did not appear in his prepared remarks.Blinken, who is in Israel on a visit aimed at deepening Israeli-Arab relations, offered the first public response to Biden's remark on Putin, after the White House quickly sought to walk back the implication in statements to reporters.

Blinken also defended Biden's address as an ''incredibly powerful speech.''

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Putin's purge of 'traitors' scoops up pensioners, foodies and peaceniksReturn to menuRIGA, Latvia '-- There was a message to all Russians in the first cases under Russian President Vladimir Putin's hunt for what he calls ''scum and traitors.''

That message is that no one is too small to escape notice.

Authorities arrested an Interior Ministry technician for talking privately on the phone. They also nabbed people holding blank placards implying opposition to the war; a woman wearing a hat in Ukraine's yellow and blue colors, and a Siberian carpenter in Tomsk named Stanislav Karmakskikh who was holding a poster of an 1871 Vasily Vereshchagin artwork called ''The Apotheosis of War.''

A popular food blogger, Nika Belotserkovskaya, was among the first three to face charges under Russia's law against ''fake'' war news after her Instagram feed went from truffles and ros(C) to posts about Ukrainian refugee children. (She is outside Russia.)

The speed of Russia's transformation to Soviet-style ''self-purification'' has been astonishing. When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, state TV went to wall-to-wall propaganda blaming Ukrainian ''neo-Nazis'' and ''nationalists.'' Now, shadowy pro-Putin figures are daubing the words ''traitor to the motherland'' on the doors of peace activists and others.

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Russian oligarchs can still visit and do business in Turkey, says foreign minister Return to menuA senior Turkish official has said Russian oligarchs can still visit and do business in his country as long as their activities do not breach the law.

Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Saturday, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said that ''if any Russian citizens want to visit Turkey, of course, they can visit Turkey.''

Turkey has so far refrained from following its NATO allies in sanctioning Russia.

Cavusoglu said his country, which has strong ties to Russia and the West, implements ''U.N.-approved sanctions.''

The European Union and the United States have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions targeting oligarchs and other Russian individuals in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, Russia could veto sanctions at the U.N. level.

Cavusoglu's comments raised concerns that the country could draw more oligarchs seeking to circumvent sanctions, only days after Turkish media outlets reported that two superyachts belonging to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich had anchored in Turkey. The E.U. and the United Kingdom recently imposed sanctions on Abramovich.

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Rare Lviv strikes are Moscow saying 'hello' to Biden in Poland, city's mayor says Return to menuOn the same day that President Biden delivered a forceful condemnation of Russia's Vladimir Putin during an address in the Polish capital, the city of Lviv, some 250 miles across the border in Ukraine, was the target of airstrikes. The city's mayor said it was a greeting to Biden.

''I think with these strikes, the aggressor wants to say hello to President Biden, who is in Poland,'' Lviv's mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, told reporters on Saturday after the attack. ''I think the world has to understand, it has to be clear to everyone, that the threat is very, very serious.''

Lviv's governor and head of the regional military, Maksym Kozytskyy, said on Facebook that two rockets had stuck an oil depot and a factory near residential areas, injuring at least five. Sadovyi said that there had been ''significant damage'' to ''infrastructure facilities'' but that no residential homes were hit, and he urged people to stay in shelters.

The attacks on the outskirts of the city, about 50 miles from the Polish border, show the war is just a hair's breadth away from engulfing NATO nations.

The attacks came as a surprise to the city, which so far has largely been spared from much of the fighting and has become something of a safe haven for Western diplomats, aid agencies and Ukrainians fleeing the capital and from the east.

The strikes in Lviv also came a day after Russia asserted that it had ended its first phase of the conflict and claimed it was shifting its attention to eastern Ukraine's disputed territories. Pentagon intelligence said Russia had halted ground operations aimed at Kyiv, moving its focus instead on attacking the eastern Donbas region.

During his speech in Poland, Biden sparked controversy after he said Putin ''cannot remain in power,'' which forced the White House to clarify later that he was not calling for regime change. The Kremlin swiftly responded, stating that it was for Russians to decide their leader.

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Around the world, protesters follow Zelensky's call to speak out against the Russian invasionReturn to menuTaking to the streets of New York, London, Prague and other major cities, large crowds followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's call on Saturday to protest the Russian invasion of his country.

In London, protesters waved Ukrainian flags as they marched through the center of the capital. Addressing the protesters, London's left-wing mayor, Sadiq Khan, sharply criticized the conservative British government's response to the war, saying the country should take in more refugees from Ukraine and remove bureaucratic obstacles.

In the Czech capital of Prague, a rally also drew a large number of Russians opposed to the war, according to Agence France-Presse.

Protests also took place in Stockholm and in New York, where a ''mothers march'' highlighted the humanitarian toll the war has had.

Zelensky, who has become a venerated figure inside and outside Ukraine, had called for a global protest on Thursday and urged people everywhere to take to the streets to denounce Russian aggression.

''Make yourself visible and heard,'' he said in English during a multilingual video address. ''Say that people matter, freedom matters. Peace matters. Ukraine matters.''

The Ukrainian president has conducted a virtual speaking tour over the past four weeks, appearing in front of leaders, legislative bodies and protesters across North America and Europe to rally backing for his country's defense.

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U.K. signals sanctions could be lifted on Russia if it withdraws from UkraineReturn to menuLONDON '-- Britain's foreign secretary Liz Truss has signaled that sweeping economic sanctions on Russian companies and individuals could be lifted if Russia ends its ''aggression'' in Ukraine.

In an interview with Britain's Telegraph newspaper published late Saturday, Truss appeared to offer a carrot rather than stick to the Kremlin.

She said sanctions imposed on Russia have been a ''hard lever,'' but added they could, ''come off with a full ceasefire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression.'' Truss also said there should be ''snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future.'' She added that the West had to remain ''tough to get peace,'' and cautioned Russia needed to be more ''serious'' about negotiations.

Last week, the United Kingdom announced 65 new sanctions in response to the war, targeting banks and business elites including Russian Railways and the Wagner Group of military contractors. The U.K. has sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and companies since the invasion began, according to its foreign office.

Russia appears to be feeling the economic pain, teetering on the edge of default on global debt payments, its currency sharply devaluing and the exodus of multinational companies. However, the nation's oil and gas exports are softening the blow. On Friday, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said international efforts to sanction his country were an attempt to ''cancel'' Russia.

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Russian forces are occupying city housing Chernobyl workers, mayor says Return to menuGunfire is heard and gas is seen in videos posted March 26, in Slavutych, where protesters gathered in the town square. (Video: Suspilne News via Storyful, Photo: Suspilne News via Storyful)MUKACHEVO, Ukraine '-- Russian forces have entered Slavutych, a city of about 25,000 people that serves as a housing community for workers from the nearby Chernobyl nuclear power plant, local officials said Saturday.

In a video address posted on Facebook late Saturday, the mayor, Yurii Fomichev, said that ''Slavutych from today is under occupation.'' He added that three days ago, the city received an ultimatum from Russia to surrender without a fight: ''We strongly defended our city.'' He said three people had died, but he didn't say how or when.

Video posted Saturday and verified by The Washington Post shows protesters, some carrying Ukrainian flags, in the city square during a large demonstration against the Russians. Gunfire can be heard in the background, and what appeared to be tear gas can be seen engulfing the crowd.

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U.S. to give $100 million more aid to Ukraine, Blinken saysReturn to menuThe United States will provide Ukraine with an additional $100 million in security aid aimed at helping police and border guards amid the deepening conflict with Russia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday that the new assistance will help Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs ''provide essential border security, sustain civil law enforcement functions, and safeguard critical governmental infrastructure in the face of President Putin's premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack.''

It will include armored vehicles, medical supplies, protective gear and communications equipment for the country's State Border Guard Service and police.

''Ukrainian law enforcement officers are playing a key role in rescuing victims of the Russian government's brutal assault, leading and protecting convoys of those displaced by attacks, and providing security to civilian areas torn apart by ruthless and devastating bombing,'' Blinken said in a statement.

The United States, like many of its Western allies, has provided an increasing amount of military aid to Ukraine including antitank and antiaircraft missiles. Security aid since the beginning of the Biden administration exceeds $2 billion.

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Rockets strike Lviv, indicating Russia's unrelenting barrageReturn to menuMUKACHEVO, UKRAINE '-- Two powerful rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday, injuring at least five and leaving an industrial facility where fuel is stored on fire, as Russia ramped up its offensive on a day when President Biden was delivering a forceful speech on democracy in neighboring Poland.

The attacks came as a surprise and were a clear indication of escalation by Russian troops in a city that had been largely spared intense bombardment during the month-long invasion. Although Russian advances have seemingly slowed, the day's events again proved how the war is just a hair's breadth away from engulfing NATO nations or global powers in a catastrophic nuclear scenario.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chief of the Russian Security Council, reiterated in an interview on state media on Saturday that Russia could use nuclear weapons if there was any kind of attack that threatened the nation's existence. Medvedev outlined the various scenarios under which Russia would use its nuclear weapons, saying that it ''demonstrates our determination to defend the independence and sovereignty of our country.''

Zelensky reiterates calls for delivery of military planes and tanks Return to menuUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday reiterated demands for Western countries to supply planes and tanks to Ukraine, saying that equipment was ''covered with dust at their storage facilities'' while the country is defending itself against Russia.

Zelensky said in his evening video address that he is still hoping for 1 percent of NATO military aircraft to be transferred to Ukraine, and he criticized the West for its hesitation.

''Who runs the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow because of intimidation?'' he said.

Earlier this month, the United States all but declined an offer from Poland to deliver an unspecified number of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine so that the warplanes could be used against invading Russian forces.

Poland had sought to equip Ukraine with aircraft to fight Russia, even as Moscow has warned that any country hosting Ukraine's military aircraft would be considered a party to the ongoing conflict there.

In response, U.S. officials raised concerns that Poland's proposal could inflame tensions with Russia, which has depicted the conflict in Ukraine as one against Western aggression. Fighter jets ''departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance,'' Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement this month.

However, in written comments to Agence France-Presse, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba asserted this weekend that U.S. officials ''have no objections to the transfer of aircrafts. As far as we can conclude, the ball is now on the Polish side.''

French President Emmanuel Macron had suggested on Thursday that objections to the transfer of tanks and planes to Ukraine remained. ''It is obvious that it would be characterized as cobelligerence,'' he said.

Where was Sergei Shoigu? Russia's defense minister resurfaces.Return to menuFor 12 days this month, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appeared to vanish from public life.

His troops were fighting and dying in Ukraine, but Shoigu, a senior aide and friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin's, was nowhere to be seen.

Some suggested, without evidence, that he had resigned, while others were sure that he was sick, dead or detained as the invasion stalled and Putin cracked down on dissent.

As Moscow became increasingly isolated, global speculation swirled: Where was Sergei Shoigu?

Then, on Saturday, the Defense Ministry posted an official video showing Shoigu leading a meeting on military procurement. He sat at the head of a table of about a dozen senior defense officials, including Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the armed forces,.

It was his first public appearance since March 11, save for a quick glimpse of Shoigu on television screens Thursday as part of a teleconference call with Putin.

Amid bombs and gunfire, Ukrainian musicians bring classical music to the shelteredReturn to menuKharkiv Music Fest, an international classical music festival, was scheduled to start on March 26. Amid the war in Ukraine, musicians played from the subway. (Video: Maria Avdeeva via Twitter, Photo: Maria Avdeeva via Twitter)In a city rattled by thunderous warfare, the refrain of three violins, a cello and a bass gave a melodic break to Kharkiv residents sheltering underground Saturday.

Kharkiv Music Fest organizers said they improvised after Russia's invasion of Ukraine halted their original plans, including a recital by French pianist Lucas Debargue that was to be held in the grand hall of the Kharkiv Philharmonic on Saturday. Instead, five musicians facing the threat of injury or death during Russian shelling descended to a subway station and a business's basement, where the audience of war refugees had been taking shelter.

The group began with the Ukrainian anthem, drawing audience members to hold their hands to their hearts.

The songs performed were adapted to fit a theme of the connections between Ukrainian and Western European culture, art director Vitali Alekseenok said. The musicians played pieces from Bach compositions to Ukrainian folk songs, and hundreds of people from the young to the elderly watched, sometimes holding one another.

''Music can unite,'' Alekseenok said, ''and it's important now for those who stay in Kharkiv to be united.''

Kateryna Lozenko, the festival's communication manager, left Kharkiv after 10 days of strikes and wasn't there for the performances Saturday. She hadn't felt like she would be able to return to her city but is feeling more optimistic.

''For those who stayed, it's like a breath of fresh air,'' she said of the music, ''a piece of usual life in this terrible war that ruined not only our city but our lives.''

Here's the status of Ukrainian cities under Russian attackReturn to menu Kyiv: Russian troops ''continued their unsuccessful efforts'' to move into positions from which to attack or encircle the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the Institute for the Study of War, a D.C.-based think tank, said in a Saturday battlefield assessment. That's despite recent claims by Moscow that the primary aim of the invasion is to capture two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine '-- not to seize the capital and overthrow the government. The Kyiv area still has the largest single concentration of Russian ground forces in Ukraine, the military analysts said. Mariupol: Fierce fighting continues in this strategic port city, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky likening the destruction to ''what we all saw in Aleppo'' '-- a reference to the northern Syrian city battered by Syrian and Russian forces during the civil war in Syria. U.S. military analysts say they think Russian forces ''will likely gain control of the city in the relatively near future'' even though Kremlin units are suffering ''significant losses'' in the ongoing siege. Chernihiv: The Russian military continues to concentrate replacements and reinforcements to fight for positions on Kyiv's outskirts, including its attempt to complete the encirclement of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, U.S. military analysts say. Residents of the city reportedly have no electricity, heating or water. Slavutych: Russian forces have entered this northern city close to the Chernobyl nuclear site. The mayor said in a video address late Saturday that the town was occupied and under a 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. military curfew, and that Russian forces said they would search buildings for weapons. Video posted Saturday and verified by The Washington Post shows protesters, some carrying Ukrainian flags, in the city square during a large demonstration against the Russians. Kharkiv: Ukrainian forces continue to conduct limited counterattacks, most recently near Kharkiv. Unrelenting Russian shelling has forced residents to seek shelter underground as houses and neighborhoods burn. Kherson: Russia appears to have at least partially lost control of the southern Ukrainian city on the Black Sea, according to Western defense officials and military analysts, the first of a handful of midsized cities Russia has struggled to occupy since the invasion began. Lateshia Beachum and Amy Cheng contributed to this report.

Biden says Putin 'cannot remain in power' in forceful speech in PolandReturn to menuWARSAW '-- President Biden forcefully denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Saturday, casting Moscow's aggression as ''the test of all time'' for democracy before ending his sunset speech here by saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin ''cannot remain in power.''

''For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,'' Biden said, in an unscripted remark that came at the end of his roughly 30-minute address.

The White House raced to clarify his comment, issuing a statement saying that Biden had not actually meant what he'd said.

''The president's point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region,'' a White House official said in a statement. ''He was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change.''

Even aside from that remark, Biden's speech in Warsaw '-- the capstone of a three-day trip to Europe '-- marked the most defiant and aggressive speech about Russia by an American president since Ronald Reagan, and came as the war between Russia and Ukraine entered its second month.

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 21:57

Door Elif Isitman

24 mrt. 2022 in BINNENLAND

Het kabinet verwacht dat burgers '' die na twee jaar pandemie inmiddels wel doordrongen zijn van de basismaatregelen '' er zelf voor zorgen dat ze niet besmet worden.

''¸ ANP / Robin Utrecht

Den Haag - Het kabinet doet vanaf nu een app¨l op de eigen verantwoordelijkheid van burgers en ondernemers bij de bestrijding van corona. Dat geldt ook voor het testen, dat bij de GGD's moet worden afgeschaald. De eigen verantwoordelijkheid wordt de rode draad van het langetermijnbeleid tegen corona, dat waarschijnlijk volgende week wordt gepresenteerd.

Het kabinet verwacht dat burgers '' die na twee jaar pandemie inmiddels wel doordrongen zijn van de basismaatregelen '' er zelf voor zorgen dat ze niet besmet worden.

''¸ ANP / Robin Utrecht

Dat melden Haagse bronnen aan De Telegraaf.

In plaats van de strakke hand van bovenaf, moeten Nederlanders voortaan zelf maatregelen treffen om ervoor te zorgen dat ze zichzelf en elkaar niet besmetten. Dat is een duidelijke shift van het beleid dat het kabinet eerder voerde, waarin ferm werd ingegrepen en meermaals lockdowns werden ingesteld om de verspreiding van corona te remmen.

Zelf besmetting voorkomenHet kabinet verwacht dat burgers '' die na twee jaar pandemie inmiddels wel doordrongen zijn van de basismaatregelen '' er zelf voor zorgen dat ze niet besmet worden. Ventileren, mondkapjes dragen waar nodig, en misschien niet met z'n allen op een kluitje gaan zitten in de kroeg in de winter: het kabinet hoopt dat Nederland verstandig genoeg is om daar zelf aan te denken. Ook wordt van bedrijven verwacht dat ze hun personeel beschermen: dat betekent dat men bij klachten of ziekte niet moet worden gedwongen om toch op te komen draven, iets wat 'pre-corona' vaak gebeurde.

De coronasteun voor bedrijven - die op 1 april verdwijnt - behoort als het aan het kabinet ligt ook definitief tot het verleden. Het subsidie-infuus was destijds nodig om noodlijdende ondernemers te redden, maar binnen het kabinet klinkt ook dat het een ongezonde werking heeft gehad omdat het kwakkelende bedrijven kunstmatig op de been heeft gehouden.

Testfaciliteiten afgeschaaldVolgens kabinetsbronnen worden de testfaciliteiten van de GGD binnenkort ook afgeschaald. Testen op corona wordt dan ook de eigen verantwoordelijkheid van de burger, dat kan ofwel via de welbekende zelftesten maar Den Haag kijkt ook naar de mogelijkheid om dit bij huisartsen te laten doen. Op die manier zouden mensen dan alsnog een herstelbewijs kunnen krijgen, wat met een zelftest natuurlijk niet kan.

Wanneer de GGD geen tests op grote schaal meer uitvoert, dan wil het kabinet de verspreiding van het virus en het opduiken van nieuwe varianten op een andere manier monitoren. Rioolwatersurveillance, iets wat nu ook al steekproefsgewijs gebeurt, kan daarvoor uitkomst bieden. Ook kijkt het ministerie van VWS naar een 'bredere manier van modellering' van de coronaverspreiding, omdat RIVM-modellen in het verleden vaak niet accuraat bleken.

Toch ook zorgenHoewel de nieuwe lijn van het kabinet vaart op het optimisme dat we corona zelf wel in bedwang kunnen houden, blijven er ook zorgen. 'Corona gaat niet weg en is ook geen griepje,' is de waarschuwing. De opkomst van een nieuwe variant kan er bijvoorbeeld voor zorgen dat er op den duur toch weer maatregelen moeten worden genomen. Ook hoopt het kabinet op meer enthousiasme voor boostprikken. De animo daarvoor neemt rap af, waarschijnlijk door de mildheid van de omicronvariant. Zelfs bij kwetsbaren en senioren ziet het kabinet het aantal mensen dat een herhaalprik komt halen dalen.

Het langetermijnplan dat coronaminister Ernst Kuipers volgende week de deur uitdoet maakt deel uit van een bredere koerswijziging. Hij kondigde eerder al aan dat wat hem betreft beperkingen in de samenleving niet langer de boventoon moeten voeren. 'žWe bewegen hiermee weg van de uitsluiting van risico's naar meer beheersing daarvan en naar een zo normaal mogelijke manier van leven'', zei Kuipers daar eerder over. Het openhouden van de samenleving moet daarbij het uitgangspunt vormen.

Lunch UpdateDagelijks tijdens de lunch een update van het belangrijkste nieuws.

Ongeldig e-mailadres. Vul nogmaals in aub.

Lees hier ons privacybeleid.

Bekijk meer van23 mrt.Gesponsord

Zorgkosten gemaakt in 2021? Check of ze aftrekbaar zijnNederland doet weer belastingaangifte. Had je in 2021 zorgkosten die niet of niet volledig zijn vergoed door de zorgverzekeraar? Dan kun je deze mogelijk aftrekken in de belastingaangifte. Check of je aan de voorwaarden voor aftrek van zorgkosten voldoet en vul de gegevens aan in je belastingaangift...

Haal ook een streep door de test- en quarantaineregelsTerug naar het oude normaal. Het leek lange tijd een utopie, maar de verwachting is dat het kabinet komende week bekend zal maken dat alle coronamaatregelen worden afgeschaft.

10 mrt.Binnenland

Kabinet wil volgende week alle coronamaatregelen schrappenHet kabinet wil volgende week alle coronamaatregelen schrappen. Dat betekent dat er niet meer getest hoeft te worden bij grootschalige evenementen en locaties zoals festivals en nachtclubs, en ook dat het mondkapje in het OV niet meer op hoeft.

24 feb.Binnenland

Tweede booster voor kwetsbaren, maar niet voor gezonde mensenKwetsbare mensen krijgen binnenkort een uitnodiging om een tweede boosterprik te komen halen. Voor gezonde mensen tussen de 18 en de 70 hoeven geen booster te halen. Dat heeft minister Ernst Kuipers (Volksgezondheid) donderdag besloten.

Versoepelingen op komst, maar hoe staan we er nu eigenlijk voor?Het kabinet wil nog deze week een aantal grote versoepelingen doorvoeren, maar alleen als de coronacijfers het toelaten. Versoepelen kan, aldus coronaminister Ernst Kuipers, vanwege de immuniteit die we inmiddels hebben opgebouwd. Alle maatregelen tegelijk loslaten, dat zit er echter niet in. Wat is...

Na koerswijziging is de vraag: was de lockdown wel nodig?Het hoge woord is eruit. Na twee jaar voert het kabinet een radicale koerswijziging door in de coronapandemie. Niet meer het ontzien van de zorg maar het openhouden van de samenleving komt centraal te staan in het beleid. De eerste contouren van de langetermijnstrategie volgen hiermee het heersende ...

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 21:55

The people cloning their pets

(Image credit: Alamy)

From duplicate dogs to modern mammoths, cloning has come a long way since Dolly the sheep took her first tentative steps.

O

On 5 July 1996, a sheep was born who would go on to inspire entire industries, provide scientists with a new way of helping endangered species, and change medical science in ways that were barely conceivable at the time.

But this was no ordinary sheep. Her very entry to the world was groundbreaking '' she was cloned using cells taken from another sheep's mammary gland as part of an experiment conducted by the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland. They named her Dolly after the singer Dolly Parton.

At that point, scientists had been dabbling with cloning '' the process of creating a genetically identical copy of another living being '' since the 1950s, when British biologist John Gurdon found a way to clone African clawed frogs. Despite many attempts, repeating the feat in larger mammals had proven an elusive and near-impossible task.

But like many scientific breakthroughs, the experiment that produced Dolly was something of a fluke. The Roslin Institute scientists had been attempting to clone a sheep using a complex process called nuclear transfer. Using electricity, they transferred the mammary gland cell's nucleus into an egg cell from a second sheep. This egg cell now contained all of the DNA from Dolly's mother, and it grew and developed into an embryo in the lab.

Except, this was not supposed to happen. At the time, no one thought that the DNA from an adult cell could possibly give rise to a new embryo. The entire experiment had intended to be a test run for the technology, before the Roslin Institute team conducted it using embryonic cells.

"The cloning of Dolly the sheep showed the world that it was possible to essentially reprogramme all the DNA in the nucleus of an adult cell, so it started behaving like an embryonic cell again, giving rise to a new animal," says Robin Lovell-Badge, who heads the Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

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What happened to the world's ozone hole?The UK's quest for affordable fusion by 2030Should we give up on the dream of space elevators?Having unexpectedly created an embryo, the Roslin Institute scientists placed it inside a third sheep, which ultimately gave birth to Dolly, to the surprise and bewilderment of the general public and much of the world's media.

Dolly spent her whole life at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. She died when she was just six and a half, after developing lung disease and arthritis (Credit: Getty Images).

Ominous predictions were already being made within days, mostly focused on the grim possibilities of human cloning. Some even suggested that cloning could provide a way of replacing lost children for bereaved parents, while TIME magazine greeted Dolly's arrival with a cover headline that mused provocatively, "Will There Ever Be Another You?"

But on the other side of the world, a Japanese stem cell biologist was observing the events in Scotland with keen interest.

The rise of regenerative medicine

In 1996, Shinyi Yamanaka felt his career was drifting. He had endured a hapless stint as a surgeon, where colleagues reportedly nicknamed him Jamanaka as a pun on the Japanese word for obstacle, because he took too long in the operating theatre.

Now Yamanaka had found himself in a tedious job at Osaka City University Medical School, spending most of his time looking after mice, when he read that scientists had managed to clone a sheep.

He was fascinated by the fact that an adult cell could be reprogrammed in this manner, and began wondering if adding transcription factors '' proteins that bind to DNA and turn certain genes on or off '' could reprogramme any adult cell back into an embryonic-like state.

After a decade of work, Yamanaka achieved his goal, first with mice and then in human cells. His technology allowed skin or blood cells to be reprogrammed to a pluripotent state '' meaning that they could be turned into any cell type in the body '' through adding a cocktail of four transcription factors. It was considered such a breakthrough that Yamanaka was later awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine.

The reason Yamanaka's feat garnered such attention is it allows scientists to take a blood sample from patients and create organoids '' tiny pea-sized versions of organs '' in the lab that behave identically to the cells within their own body. These can be used to test new drugs, vaccines, or to simply understand some of the basic processes involved in human development.

Scientists are also excited about the potential medical applications for patients with genetic diseases. "It potentially allows you to take cells from a patient, maybe correct a genetic defect, and then use those cells to repair damaged tissue in that patient," says Lovell-Badge. "So this was obviously a really important finding."

The Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, South Korea, clones dogs for pet owners, but also for organisations seeking replacements for their best working dogs (Credit: Getty Images).

The technology behind cloning has also had some more direct medical applications. Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy have used some of the steps involved in Dolly's cloning to help prevent women with rare mitochondrial diseases from passing the disorder onto their children. By transferring the nucleus of the mother's eggs into the healthy egg cell of another woman, most or all of the damaged mitochondria can be left behind. The technique has since been dubbed the "three-person baby".

Cloning pets

For the scientists who created Dolly, the most immediate legacy of their work was the survival of their research centre. In 1996, the Roslin Institute was in a precarious financial position and facing government cuts.

Dolly proved to be a lifeline. The scientific and media furore that followed attracted the attention of the Texas-based company ViaGen, who purchased the intellectual property to cloning technology in 1998, providing enough money for the institute to survive until they could source new funding.

Initially the company's main aim was to use cloning to improve livestock breeding, a process that still takes place today, especially for high-value livestock such as bulls. Cloning is also used to bypass the genetic lottery of normal reproduction and transfer desirable genetic changes made in the lab from generation to generation. Some researchers are also looking at combining cloning and genome editing to create animals that are resistant to some common diseases such as the bacterial infections tuberculosis and salmonellosis.

However, over the last six years a new industry has emerged '' pet cloning. In 2015, ViaGen began offering its services to pet owners looking to clone their beloved cat or dog. It does not come cheap '' the company charges $35,000 (£22,800) to clone a cat, and $50,000 (£38,000) for a dog '' but the demand is there. While ViaGen do not disclose the exact number of pets they have cloned so far, Melain Rodriguez, a client services manager at ViaGen said that the figure is in the hundreds.

"It has grown so much since we first started this, and we're cloning more and more pets every year," says Rodriguez. "We've got puppies being born every week. We don't do a lot of advertising, a lot of it is passed on by word of mouth."

Because of the financial outlays involved, Rodriguez explains that 90% of the company's clients simply opt to have their pet's cells preserved '' which costs $1,600 (£1,200) '' in case they can afford cloning at a later date. The high costs arise from the fact that cloning is still incredibly complex '' for the dogs the entire process takes eight months and for cats it takes a year.

The woolly mammoth may not come back as an exact replica, but more of an "Arctic elephant" (Credit: Alamy)

"People ask me, 'Why is it so expensive?' and I tell them because there are so many complicated steps involved in the whole process," says Rodriguez. "It's definitely an emotional reason for pet clients. They want to be able to carry on that strong emotional bond that they have with the pet."

The industry has since expanded elsewhere in the globe. Sooam Biotech in South Korea offer dog cloning services, as well as Sinogene in China.

However, many scientists remain uncomfortable about the whole premise. Lovell-Badge argues that there is "no justification" for pet cloning as while the resulting animals will be genetically identical, they will not have the same behavioural characteristics and personalities as all creatures are a product of both genes and their environment.

"People really want their pet that knows them and knows certain tricks and so forth," says George Church, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. "In that sense, it's a little bit taking advantage of people's grief."

Reviving extinct species

In the years that followed Dolly's cloning, the central question was whether scientists would ever extend the technology to humans, and the many moral and ethical issues that would invoke.

But while a human embryo was successfully cloned in 2013, the process of creating an entire human being has never been attempted because of the likely public outcry. Chinese scientists did clone the first primates in January 2018, long-tailed macques Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, but there are currently no suggestions that this work will continue into further primate species.

Instead, most funding is being devoted to using cloning to resurrect animals on the verge of extinction. Efforts are underway to clone both the giant panda and the northern white rhino '' a species for which there are just two animals left on the planet '' while in the last two years, ViaGen have cloned the black footed ferret and Przewalski's horse, both of which are endangered.

Church is leading the most ambitious project, a quest to revive the woolly mammoth, a species that last lived some 4,000 years ago. His de-extinction company Colossal has already raised £11m ($14.5m) in funding to support the idea, which will involve creating an elephant-mammoth hybrid through taking skin cells from Asian elephants and using cloning technology to reprogram them with mammoth DNA.

Induced pluripotent stem cells, ordinary cells that have been turned into stem cells, may have applications in human cloning (Credit: Alamy).

Church describes it as more of an "Arctic elephant", which could play a role in helping revitalise the tundra of the far north. "I could think of a very good reason why we would want to create an Arctic elephant, something that had some of the best features of modern elephants and mammoths," he says."And that would be to do with climate change and restoring the Arctic grasslands."

However there are a number of challenges. The project would involve editing Asian elephant skin cells so they can carry mammoth genes, as well as finding a surrogate elephant mother to carry and give birth to the resulting embryo."As a host, elephants and mammoths are really quite different," says Lovell-Badge. "What happens after birth? Is the female elephant going to think, 'What on Earth have I produced?' How is the mammoth baby going to interact with an elephant?"

Questions have also been asked about whether it is appropriate to revive an extinct animal, given the survival challenges faced by many existing species today '' and that mammoths last existed on the planet at a time when Earth's climate and ecosystems were radically different to those of the 21st Century.

Lovell-Badge points out that creating an environment where mammoths could live, along with ensuring there are suitable dietary requirements, could be challenging."It sounds wonderful to say 'Wouldn't it be great to have mammoths back again?'" he argues. "Well would it? Would it be nice for the mammoths?"

The future

But cloning may also have more sobering applications in the coming decades.

In January, surgeons at the University of Maryland School of Medicine transplanted a pig heart into a man with terminal heart disease. It had 10 human genetic modifications that the team hoped would reduce the chances of the organ being rejected.

While the patient sadly only survived for two more months, it captured the attention of doctors around the world who perceived it as a potential way of solving the world's organ transplant shortage.

In Germany '' a country that has one of the lowest organ donation rates in Europe '' Eckhard Wolf, head of the Center for Innovative Medical Models in Munich, is attempting to clone and breed a range of genetically identical pigs. The idea is to have a suitable population from which organs can be readily harvested and used for so-called xenotransplantation into humans. According to the Organ Transplantation Foundation, there are currently around 8,500 people in Germany diagnosed with organ failure, who have no other treatment options.

Cloning produces genetically identical animals that can be useful for scientific research '' though some experts have raised ethical concerns about this (Credit: Getty Images)

Wolf says that there is a need for drastic measures. "The situation is very pressing," he says. "For instance, only about half of the patients who are on the active waiting list for a heart can receive a transplant. Pigs have a number of advantages as donors because the size and function of the organs is relatively fit for humans, genetic engineering is well established in pigs, and the use of pigs is more ethically accepted than non-human primates."

Wolf aims to use cloning to make a number of genetic tweaks on cells under lab conditions, to try to minimise the risk of organ rejection and infection, before creating a generation of pig embryo clones. If all goes smoothly, he intends to begin clinical trials within three years.

However, not everyone is so positive about the use of animals for transplantation purposes. Animal rights activists in Germany have argued that it essentially degrades pigs to the status of organ factories while Germany's Animal Welfare Association have described the project as being ethically questionable.

More than 25 years on from the experiment that captured the world's imagination, cloning is just as relevant and controversial a topic as it was back when Dolly was born.

--

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Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:19

1921''1923 U.S. Cabinet bribery scandal

Oil businessman

Edward L. Doheny (at table, second from right) testifying before the Senate committee investigating the Teapot Dome oil leases, 1924

The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming, as well as two locations in California, to private oil companies at low rates without competitive bidding.[1] The leases were the subject of a seminal investigation by Senator Thomas J. Walsh. Convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies, Fall became the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison; no one was convicted of paying the bribes.

Before the Watergate scandal, Teapot Dome was regarded as the "greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics".[2] It damaged the reputation of the Harding administration, which was already severely diminished by its controversial handling of the Great Railroad Strike of 1922 and Harding's veto of the Bonus Bill in 1922.[3] Congress subsequently passed legislation, enduring to this day, giving subpoena power to the House and Senate for review of tax records of any U.S. citizen regardless of elected or appointed position.[4] These resulting laws are also considered to have empowered the role of Congress more generally.[5]

History [ edit ] Teapot Dome around the time of the scandal, featuring Teapot Rock (from postcard c. 1922)

In the early 20th century, the U.S. Navy largely obtained fuel oil by converting it from coal. To ensure that the Navy would always have enough fuel available, President Taft designated several oil-producing areas as naval oil reserves. In 1921, President Harding issued an executive order that transferred control of Teapot Dome Oil Field in Natrona County, Wyoming, and the Elk Hills and Buena Vista Oil Fields in Kern County, California, from the Navy Department to the Department of the Interior. This was not implemented until the next year in 1922, when Interior Secretary Fall persuaded Navy Secretary Edwin C. Denby to transfer control.

Later in 1922, Interior Secretary Albert Fall leased the oil production rights at Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair of Mammoth Oil, a subsidiary of Sinclair Oil Corporation. He also leased the Elk Hills reserve to Edward L. Doheny of Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company. Both leases were issued without competitive bidding, which was legal under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920.[6]

The lease terms were very favorable to the oil companies, who secretly made Fall a rich man. Fall received a no-interest loan from Doheny of $100,000,[7] (about $1.45 million today[8]) in November 1921. He received other gifts from Doheny and Sinclair totaling about $404,000 (about $5.86 million today[8]). This money changing hands was illegal, not the leases. Fall attempted to keep his actions secret, but the sudden improvement in his standard of living was suspect. He even paid up his ranch taxes, for example, which had been as much as 10 years past due. Carl Magee, who later founded The Albuquerque Tribune, wrote about this sudden affluence and also brought it to the attention of the Senate investigation.[9]

Investigation and outcome [ edit ] In April 1922, a Wyoming oil operator wrote to his Senator, John B. Kendrick, angered that Sinclair had been given a contract to the lands in a secret deal. Kendrick did not respond, but two days later on April 15, he introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of the deal.[10] Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin led an investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Lands. At first, La Follette believed Fall was innocent. However, his suspicions were aroused after his own office in the Senate Office Building was ransacked.[11][12]

Albert B. Fall was the first U.S. cabinet official sentenced to prison.

Democrat Thomas J. Walsh of Montana, the most junior minority member, led a lengthy inquiry.[13] For two years, Walsh pushed forward while Fall stepped backward, covering his tracks as he went. No evidence of wrongdoing was initially uncovered, as the leases were legal enough, but records kept disappearing mysteriously. Fall had made the leases appear legitimate, but his acceptance of the money was his undoing. By 1924, the remaining unanswered question was how Fall had become so rich so quickly and easily.

Money from the bribes had gone to Fall's cattle ranch and investments in his business. Finally, as the investigation was winding down with Fall apparently innocent, Walsh uncovered a piece of evidence Fall had failed to cover up: Doheny's $100,000 loan to Fall. This discovery broke open the scandal. Civil and criminal suits related to the scandal continued throughout the 1920s. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that the oil leases had been corruptly obtained. The Court invalidated the Elk Hills lease in February 1927, and the Teapot Dome lease in October.[14] Both reserves were returned to the Navy.[15]

In 1929, Fall was found guilty of accepting bribes from Doheny.[16][17][18] Conversely, in 1930, Doheny was acquitted of paying bribes to Fall.[19] Further, Doheny's corporation foreclosed on Fall's home[20] in the Tularosa Basin, New Mexico, because of "unpaid loans" that turned out to be that same $100,000 bribe. Sinclair served six months in jail on a charge of jury tampering.[21]

Although Fall was to blame for this scandal, Harding's reputation was sullied[22] because of his involvement with the wrong people. Evidence proving Fall's guilt only arose after Harding's death in 1923.[23]

The Supreme Court's ruling in McGrain v. Daugherty (1927) for the first time explicitly established that Congress had the power to compel testimony.[24]

The Teapot Dome oil field was then idled for 49 years, but went back into production in 1976. After Teapot Dome had earned over $569 million in revenue from the 22 million barrels (3,500,000 m3) of oil extracted over the previous 39 years, the Department of Energy in February 2015 sold the oil field for $45 million to New York-based Stranded Oil Resources Corp.[15][25]

Comparison [ edit ] The Teapot Dome scandal has historically been regarded as the worst such scandal in the United States '' the "high water mark" of cabinet corruption. It is often used as a benchmark for comparison with subsequent scandals. In particular it has been compared to the Watergate scandal, in which a cabinet member, Attorney General John N. Mitchell, went to prison, the second time in American history that a member of the cabinet has been incarcerated.[26][9]

See also [ edit ] Little Green House on K StreetList of federal political scandals in the United StatesReferences [ edit ] ^ "Teapot Dome Scandal". HISTORY. June 10, 2019 . Retrieved April 14, 2020 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) ^ Cherny, Robert W. "Graft and Oil: How Teapot Dome Became the Greatest Political Scandal of its Time". History Now. Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Archived from the original on July 9, 2010 . Retrieved May 27, 2010 . ^ "Warren G Harding: Domestic & foreign affairs", Grant-Eisenhower, President profiles . ^ Paletta, Damian (April 9, 2019). "Mnuchin reveals White House lawyers consulted Treasury on Trump tax returns, despite law meant to limit political involvement". The Washington Post . Retrieved April 9, 2019 . ^ Jurecic, Quinta (May 11, 2020). "The Supreme Court Case That Could Destroy the Balance of Powers". The Atlantic . Retrieved May 17, 2020 . ^ "Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 as Amended (re-transcribed 2007-08-07)" (PDF) . Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior . Retrieved September 8, 2014 . ^ "FALL AND DOHENY FIGHT TO BAR SENATE RECORDS ON $100,000 CASH LOAN; VITAL POINT IS RAISED : Defense Halts Move to Bare Admissions Made by Doheny. COURT AWAITS ARGUMENT McLean Testifies That Fall Asked Him to Subscribe to a Falsehood on Loan. LENROOT RELATES EVASIONS Senator Says the Ex-Secretary Finally Asserted Publisher Was Source of Funds. Witnesses Tell of Efforts by Fall to Hide Source of $100,000 Loan". New York Times. November 23, 1926. ^ a b 1634''1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF) . American Antiquarian Society. 1700''1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF) . American Antiquarian Society. 1800''present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800''" . Retrieved January 1, 2020 . ^ a b Roberts, Chalmers M. (June 9, 1977). "Uncovering a Coverup on Teapot Dome". The Washington Post. ^ Davis, Margaret L (2001). Dark Side of Fortune: Triumph and Scandal in the Life of Oil Tycoon Edward L. Doheny. University of California Press. p. 149. ISBN 9780520927056. ^ "Senate Investigates the "Teapot Dome" Scandal". Historical Minutes: 1921''1940. Art & History, United States Senate. ^ Quentin R. Skrabec Jr. (2018). The Ohio Presidents: Eight Men and a Binding Political Philosophy in the White House, 1841-1923. McFarland. p. 199. ISBN 978-1476669304 '' via Google Books. ^ "Thomas J. Walsh: A Featured Biography". US Senate. ^ Sandy Franks; Sara Nunnally (2011). Barbarians of Oil: How the World's Oil Addiction Threatens Global Prosperity and Four Investments to Protect Your Wealth. Agora Series. Vol. 22. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1118001820 '' via Google Books. ^ a b Government sells scandalized Teapot Dome oilfield for $45 million, Denver Post, Associated Press, January 30, 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2017 ^ "Cabinet member found guilty in Teapot Dome scandal". On ThisDay In History. History.com. ^ "On This Day: Interior Secretary Fall found guilty in Teapot Dome scandal". UPI. October 25, 2019. ^ "Senate Investigates the "Teapot Dome" Scandal". United States Senate . Retrieved April 14, 2020 . {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) ^ Chalmers M. Roberts (June 9, 1977). "Uncovering a Coverup on Teapot Dome". Washington Post. ^ W. C. Jameson (2020). Cold Case: The Assassination of Pat Garrett: Investigating History's Mysteries. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 204. ISBN 978-1493045891 '' via Google books. ^ McCartney, Laton (2008). The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country . New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6316-1. ^ Scott B. MacDonald (2017). Separating Fools from Their Money: A History of American Financial Scandals (2 ed.). Routledge. p. 70. ISBN 978-1351306782 '' via Google Books. ^ MacDonald, Scott B.; Hughes, Jane E. (2015) [1st pub. 2007]. Separating Fools from Their Money: A History of American Financial Scandals . New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction. ISBN 978-0-7658-0356-6. ^ "McGrain v. Daugherty". Oyez.org . Retrieved November 2, 2010 . ^ Alleghany Capital (January 30, 2015). "Alleghany Capital Corporation Announces Acquisition Of "Teapot Dome Oilfield" By Stranded Oil Resources Corporation". PR Newswire. ^ Watergate & the Teapot Dome Scandal: The History and Legacy of America's Most Notorious Government Scandals (Kindle ed.). Charles River Editors. November 2, 2016. ASIN B01N9IMB2P. Further reading [ edit ] Bates, J. Leonard. The Origins of Teapot Dome. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1963.Bennett, Leslie E. "One Lesson From History: Appointment of Special Counsel and the Investigation of the Teapot Dome Scandal". Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1999.History.com Editors. "Teapot Dome Scandal". HISTORY. 2017.Ise, John. The United States Oil Policy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1926.Murphy, Blakely M. (ed.) Conservation of Oil and Gas: A Legal History. Chicago: Section of Mineral Law, American Bar Association, 1949.Noggle, Burl. Teapot Dome: Oil and Politics in the 1920s. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1962.Werner, M. R. and Starr, John. Teapot Dome. New York: Viking Press, 1959. Coordinates: 43°17'²19'"N 106°10'²24'"W >> / >> 43.2885808°N 106.1733516°W >> / 43.2885808; -106.1733516

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Sat, 26 Mar 2022 19:10

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on March 26, 2022.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Saturday said Russian leader Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power," ratcheting up international pressure and further uniting NATO allies against Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

"A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people's love for liberty," Biden said at the end of a sweeping speech in Poland. "Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness."

"For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," Biden said.

Biden has hurled invective at Putin throughout the crisis in Ukraine, labeling him a "murderous dictator" and a "war criminal," but has previously stopped short of calling for his removal from power.

Later Saturday, a White House official attempted to clarify that Biden "was not discussing Putin's power in Russia, or regime change," but rather was making the point that Putin "cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region."

The president's address at the Royal Castle in Warsaw marked the grand finale of a three-day trip to Europe. While in Poland, Biden met with Ukrainian refugees who had fled Russian aggression, as well as with U.S. troops stationed in Rzeszow, near Ukraine's border.

In his speech, Biden urged democracies around the world to unify against Russia and commit to a historic battle against authoritarian aggression.

"In this battle, we need to be clear-eyed," he said. "We need to steel ourselves for the long fight ahead."

Biden directly and repeatedly condemned Putin throughout the speech, accusing the Russian president of "using brute force and disinformation to satisfy a craving for absolute power and control."

Biden slammed Putin for invoking Nazi imagery as a pretext for an invasion, calling it an "obscene" lie. And he said it is "Putin who is to blame" for the mountain of international sanctions that are crushing Russia's economy and its currency, noting that the Russian ruble has been reduced to "rubble."

Biden also spoke past Putin, attempting to deliver an appeal to whichever Russian citizens may be able to hear the speech.

"This is not the future you deserve for your families and children," Biden said. "I'm telling you the truth, this war is not worthy of you, the Russian people."

Biden's message to Ukraine was more direct: "We stand with you. Period."

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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Sat, 26 Mar 2022 15:01

NEW YORK (AP) '-- As coronavirus infections rise in some parts of the world, experts are watching for a potential new COVID-19 surge in the U.S. '-- and wondering how long it will take to detect.

Despite disease monitoring improvements over the last two years, they say, some recent developments don't bode well:

'--As more people take rapid COVID-19 tests at home, fewer people are getting the gold-standard tests that the government relies on for case counts.

'--The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon use fewer labs to look for new variants.

'--Health officials are increasingly focusing on hospital admissions, which rise only after a surge has arrived.

'--A wastewater surveillance program remains a patchwork that cannot yet be counted on for the data needed to understand coming surges.

'--White House officials say the government is running out of funds for vaccines, treatments and testing.

''We're not in a great situation,'' said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University pandemic researcher.

Scientists acknowledge that the wide availability of vaccines and treatments puts the nation in a better place than when the pandemic began, and that monitoring has come a long way.

For example, scientists this week touted a 6-month-old program that tests international travelers flying into four U.S. airports. Genetic testing of a sample on Dec. 14 turned up a coronavirus variant '-- the descendant of omicron known as BA.2 '-- seven days earlier than any other reported detection in the U.S.

More good news: U.S. cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been falling for weeks.

But it's different elsewhere. The World Health Organization this week reported that the number of new coronavirus cases increased two weeks in a row globally, likely because COVID-19 prevention measures have been halted in numerous countries and because BA.2 spreads more easily.

Some public health experts aren't certain what that means for the U.S.

BA.2 accounts for a growing share of U.S. cases, the CDC said '-- more than one-third nationally and more than half in the Northeast. Small increases in overall case rates have been noted in New York, and in hospital admissions in New England.

Some of the northern U.S. states with the highest rates of BA.2, however, have some of the lowest case rates, noted Katriona Shea of Penn State University.

Dr. James Musser, an infectious disease specialist at Houston Methodist, called the national case data on BA.2 ''murky.'' He added: ''What we really need is as much real-time data as possible ... to inform decisions.''

Here's what COVID-19 trackers are looking at and what worries scientists about them.

TEST RESULTS

Tallies of test results have been at the core of understanding coronavirus spread from the start, but they have always been flawed.

Initially, only sick people got tested, meaning case counts missed people who had no symptoms or were unable to get swabbed.

Home test kits became widely available last year, and demand took off when the omicron wave hit. But many people who take home tests don't report results to anyone. Nor do health agencies attempt to gather them.

Mara Aspinall is managing director of an Arizona-based consulting company that tracks COVID-19 testing trends. She estimates that in January and February, about 8 million to 9 million rapid home tests were being done each day on average '-- four to six times the number of PCR tests.

Nuzzo said: ''The case numbers are not as much a reflection of reality as they once were.''

HUNTING FOR VARIANTS

In early 2021, the U.S. was far behind other countries in using genetic tests to look for worrisome virus mutations.

A year ago, the agency signed deals with 10 large labs to do that genomic sequencing. The CDC will be reducing that program to three labs over the next two months.

The weekly volume of sequences performed through the contracts was much higher during the omicron wave in December and January, when more people were getting tested, and already has fallen to about 35,000. By late spring, it will be down to 10,000, although CDC officials say the contracts allow the volume to increase to more than 20,000 if necessary.

The agency also says turnaround time and quality standards have been improved in the new contracts, and that it does not expect the change will hurt its ability to find new variants.

Outside experts expressed concern.

''It's really quite a substantial reduction in our baseline surveillance and intelligence system for tracking what's out there,'' said Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

SEWAGE SURVEILLANCE

An evolving monitoring system is looking for signs of coronavirus in sewage, which could potentially capture brewing infections.

Researchers have linked wastewater samples to the number of positive COVID-19 tests a week later, suggesting health officials could get an early glimpse at infection trends.

Some health departments also have used sewage to look for variants. New York City, for example, detected signals of the omicron variant in a sample taken on Nov. 21 '-- about 10 days before the first case was reported in the U.S.

But experts note the system doesn't cover the entire country. It also doesn't distinguish who is infected.

''It's a really important and promising strategy, no doubt. But the ultimate value is still probably yet to be understood,'' said Dr. Jeff Duchin, the health officer for Seattle/King County, Washington.

HOSPITAL DATA

Last month, the CDC outlined a new set of measures for deciding whether to lift mask-wearing rules, focusing less on positive test results and more on hospitals.

Hospital admissions are a lagging indicator, given that a week or more can pass between infection and hospitalization. But a number of researchers believe the change is appropriate. They say hospital data is more reliable and more easily interpreted than case counts.

The lag also is not as long as one might think. Some studies have suggested many people wait to get tested. And when they finally do, the results aren't always immediate.

Spencer Fox, a University of Texas data scientist who is part of a group that uses hospital and cellphone data to forecast COVID-19 for Austin, said ''hospital admissions were the better signal'' for a surge than test results.

There are concerns, however, about future hospital data.

If the federal government lifts its public health emergency declaration, officials will lose the ability to compel hospitals to report COVID-19 data, a group of former CDC directors recently wrote. They urged Congress to pass a law that will provide enduring authorities ''so we will not risk flying blind as health threats emerge.''

___

AP reporters Lauran Neergaard in Washington and Laura Ungar in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed.

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Sat, 26 Mar 2022 14:41

After fraught discussions, officials decided that another shot might save thousands of lives if a new coronavirus wave hit before the fall. The F.D.A. could authorize the boosters next week.

A medical worker administered a booster shot in January. Major uncertainties have complicated the decision about offering a second booster shot. Credit... Rory Doyle for The New York Times Published March 25, 2022 Updated March 26, 2022, 10:29 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON '-- The Biden administration is planning to give Americans age 50 or older the option of a second booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine without recommending outright that they get one, according to several people familiar with the plan.

Major uncertainties have complicated the decision, including how long the protection from a second booster would last, how to explain the plan to the public and even whether the overall goal is to shield Americans from severe disease or from less serious infections as well, since they could lead to long Covid.

Much depends on when the next wave of Covid infections will hit, and how hard. Should the nation be hit by a virulent surge in the next few months, offering a second booster now for older Americans could arguably save thousands of lives and prevent tens of thousands of hospitalizations.

But if no major wave hits until the fall, extra shots now could turn out to be a questionable intervention that wastes vaccine doses, deepens vaccination fatigue and sows doubt about the government's strategy. The highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2 is helping to drive another surge of coronavirus cases in Europe and is responsible for about a third of new cases in the United States, but health officials have said they do not anticipate a major surge caused by the subvariant.

Federal health officials have hotly debated the way forward, with some strongly in favor of a second booster now and others skeptical. But they have apparently coalesced around a plan to give everyone age 50 and up the option of an additional shot, in case infections surge again before the fall. In the fall, officials say, Americans of all ages, including anyone who gets a booster this spring, should get another shot.

The Food and Drug Administration could authorize a second booster early next week, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would then follow with its own advice.

A second booster is at best a stopgap measure. Many experts argue that the existing coronavirus vaccines need to be modified because the virus's variants are diminishing their power; the question is how to reconfigure them. A surge in the fall is considered highly likely, whether it comes in the form of the Omicron variant, a subvariant like BA.2 or a new lineage entirely.

More than a dozen studies are underway to find the next generation of vaccines, with the first results expected in May or June. If all goes well, that would allow enough time to produce new doses before the fall. One major hitch is that the Biden administration says it does not have the money it needs to reserve its place in line by paying vaccine manufacturers for doses in advance.

On the plus side, data from the C.D.C. indicates that four to five months after a third shot, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines remain about 78 percent effective against hospitalization due to Covid-19. That might even be an underestimate, given the study's limitations.

On the other hand, 78 percent is still a drop from the 91 percent effectiveness that was found after two months, and the vaccines' potency may fall further with more time. If a new wave hits in the coming months, even a somewhat modest decline in protection against hospitalization could have a huge impact, especially among the roughly 55 million Americans 65 or older, who have borne the brunt of the pandemic so far. Pfizer and BioNTech have said that emerging data, including from Kaiser Permanente, shows that the potency of its booster dose against severe disease wanes in three to six months.

Already, one in 75 Americans 65 or older has died of Covid, making up three-fourths of the nation's deaths from the virus, according to the C.D.C.'s data. More than 33 million people in that age group, or more than two-thirds, have received a first booster and would be eligible for a second.

For some officials, the bottom-line question is this: How much must effectiveness against hospitalization drop before a second booster is justified?

As it was in the fall, when boosters were first rolled out, the broader scientific community is divided over what to do. ''I am not persuaded there is substantial waning of protection against severe disease after the third dose,'' Dr. Philip Krause, a former senior regulator at the F.D.A., said in an interview.

Image Federal health officials have hotly debated the way forward, with some strongly in favor of a second booster now and others skeptical. Credit... Emily Elconin for The New York Times But Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor and medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said that while healthy younger people with one booster were fine at this point, older people ''should probably start receiving fourth shots now.''

There may be somewhat less resistance among scientists now than there was to the first booster shots, since evidence has emerged that those doses saved lives during the winter's Omicron wave.

Given the limited nature of data supporting a second round of booster shots, some federal officials say that some sort of neutral advice is as far as the Biden administration can go. But in general, wishy-washy regulatory advice is not popular, as people and doctors often want concrete advice more than options.

Dr. Judith A. Aberg, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Mount Sinai Health System, said the public could be frustrated with mere permission for a second booster.

Unlike with the first round of regulatory decisions on booster shots, no meetings of the advisory committees of either the F.D.A. or the C.D.C. are planned ahead of the decision on second boosters. The panels' recommendations are nonbinding but are usually followed. Bypassing those committees will draw criticism.

''This is a complex decision that involves a pretty deep dive, and I think it would really benefit from public discussion,'' said Dr. Jesse L. Goodman, a former chief scientist at the F.D.A. ''I would not want to see an advisory committee skipped on this.''

But administration officials seem willing to accept complaints about the process. The F.D.A. has scheduled an April 6 meeting of its advisory committee to discuss what the administration's overall vaccine strategy should be moving forward.

As for timing, federal officials appear to be simply making their best guess. If people get a second booster now and the virus has a resurgence in July, their protection may have already fallen off again. On the other hand, if the administration waits until a Covid wave hits, it will be too late to vaccinate tens of millions of people.

The supply appears to be there: States have 131 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines on hand. Many experts say there is no evidence that an additional shot could hurt people's immunity by habituating them to coronavirus vaccines.

The biggest downside may be more vaccine fatigue and skepticism that the vaccines work and that the nation's vaccine policy is really driven by data. With each successive shot that becomes available, fewer Americans get it.

Besides the C.D.C., Britain and Israel have put out data on the waning effectiveness of booster shots. The latest report by Britain's health security agency states that effectiveness against symptomatic infection drops to between 25 percent and 40 percent 15 weeks or longer after a booster dose of either Pfizer or Moderna.

Image Many experts say there is no evidence that an additional shot could hurt people's immunity by habituating them to coronavirus vaccines. Credit... Emily Elconin for The New York Times The British health agency said how well boosters protect against hospitalization was harder to measure. Since Omicron typically caused milder illness than previous variants, more hospitalized patients tested positive for Covid but had been admitted for other reasons.

Looking only at patients admitted for respiratory illness, the agency estimated that vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization for those 65 or older dropped to 85 percent 15 weeks or more after the booster, compared with 91 percent in the weeks right after the shot. Like a smattering of other countries, Britain is offering a second booster this spring to older people and others at high risk.

Israel's data suggests that a second booster shot raises protection fourfold against hospitalization and twofold against infection. But no one knows for how long. Since Israel only recently began its second booster campaign, it has data for only two months or less. Other Israeli data suggests that a second booster restores antibody levels to their peak level after the first booster, but Dr. Aberg said that data set, too, had limitations.

A study released on Thursday of more than half a million Israelis age 60 or older found a notable reduction in mortality among those who received a second booster compared with those who received only a first. That research has piqued strong interest among some vaccine experts but has not been peer-reviewed.

Pfizer and Moderna do not seem to have much of their own data to support their requests for emergency authorization; Pfizer is seeking second boosters for those 65 and older, while Moderna filed a sweeping request to offer second booster shots to all adults. Neither has data from a randomized, placebo-controlled study '-- considered to be the gold standard of scientific evidence '-- on how well the dose would work.

''We are going to have to make this decision on the basis of incomplete information,'' said Dr. Peter J. Hotez, a vaccine expert at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Sheelagh McNeill and Kitty Bennett contributed research.

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Sat, 26 Mar 2022 14:39

The New York Times is reporting this:

Apparently they have already decided'...

Federal health officials have hotly debated the way forward, with some strongly in favor of a second booster now and others skeptical. But they have apparently coalesced around a plan to give everyone age 50 and up the option of an additional shot, in case infections surge again before the fall. In the fall, officials say, Americans of all ages, including anyone who gets a booster this spring, should get another shot.

And here is the kicker, advisors not needed'....

Unlike with the first round of regulatory decisions on booster shots, no meetings of the advisory committees of either the F.D.A. or the C.D.C. are planned ahead of the decision on second boosters.

Without the FDA advisory committee, without any data presented, they argue that if you are 50 and over, you need a 4th dose now, and a 5th dose in the fall! The rest of us need our 4th dose in the fall. Wtf!

Let me make a few points:

The White House is operating at the lowest level of evidence. Just consider the 5th dose recommendation. Not only are there no randomized data, there is not even flawed observational data to draw from. The White House will soon approve a 5th, 6th, 7th dose. Albert Bourla not Bob Calif is now the FDA commissioner.

The age cut off of 50 is based on what? Likely it is invented. Practically, it means we will again neglect the very old 80++, and focus on healthy, rich 50 year olds. What evidence is there that a 50 year old who had 3 doses and might have had Omicron benefits from the 4th?

We are still talking about the original Wuhan strain coronavirus vaccine. Sad!

If Trump had done this, there would be revolt. Academics would be furious if Trump pressured Gruber and Krause to approve a 3rd dose, so much so that they resigned, and doctors would be upset, that without FDA ad-com, the White House is telling society how many boosters they need of the old, ancestral mRNA

They are skipping the ad-com because they know many smart people will disagree with them, and consider their plan reckless, and lacking data. These people will give great quotes. Skipping the adcom is not what we do in a democratic, free transparent society.

The White House is not concerned first and foremost with your health. They have an election this fall. They need numbers to be low. Even if the 4th dose of the vaccine is disputed, if it helps their political fortunes, or at least they think so, it is their incentive to push it. This is why we need independent regulators to make these calls

There is no one left to resign at FDA

After the administration ends, I wonder how many officials who made this call will work for, consult for, or join the board of Pfizer and Moderna. The revolving door further undermines public confidence.

In short, the White House is not your doctor, yet they have decided they will act as such. This is a dangerous precedent. The American people will soon be participating in an uncontrolled clinical trial of 4th and 5th doses--- possibly with coercive mandates. Not having an advisory committee is a threat to public health. This decision does not bode well.

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Fri, 25 Mar 2022 22:27

Gina : My friend lost her healthy, athletic, 42 year old husband to a 'heart episode' in his sleep exactly 2 weeks after h'... https://t.co/wRgXJSTK9P

Thu Mar 24 10:58:47 +0000 2022

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Fri Mar 25 21:09:43 +0000 2022

Drew : @GinaSaysSo @mccarty_ginger It may have been part of the plan to end life insurance, or to unqualify those how got'... https://t.co/IQXGTABng8

Fri Mar 25 21:07:12 +0000 2022

Bazza keeper of the biscuits : @GinaSaysSo Maybe he didn't die of the vaccine, so claiming he had would not have been true.

Fri Mar 25 21:01:30 +0000 2022

Drew : @GinaSaysSo Well, he wouldnt be the 48,000th..so far

Fri Mar 25 21:00:26 +0000 2022

Erueti '''¸''¤¸ : @GinaSaysSo WTF 👠that's so sad ðŸ­ðŸ'• sending love and peace ''¤¸''¤¸

Fri Mar 25 21:00:23 +0000 2022

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Archived Version

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:14

It is easy to forget, but innovation in Bitcoin is not purely digital.

Most see our ''magic internet money'' as something purely esoteric, but there is one aspect of our ecosystem that squarely straddles the line between the digital and the physical: bitcoin mining. To the layperson, bitcoin mining is an alien phenomenon '-- you buy a strange looking metal box, put it in a warehouse somewhere and consume significant amounts of electricity. However, to tinkerers, hobbyists, entrepreneurs and adjacent industry professionals (in the farming, real estate and oil and gas sectors, for instance), bitcoin mining is an opportunity to add efficiency and margin to highly-competitive spaces while recapturing costs and waste.

In that spirit, what follows is a simple framework for using bitcoin mining to add warmth to a residential home, keeping in mind that the concerns of a warehouse or a hash hut are different from those of a home. Where you would try to squeeze every terahash from a machine in a hosting facility, our concerns in a house revolve around safety, sound, convenience and cost recapture in residential heating.

A Simple FrameworkWe are going to integrate bitcoin miner heat output (a Bitmain S9, in this case) into our HVAC air return. The general thought is that it will accomplish two things: One, it will constantly ''drip'' heat into our HVAC system, which should, in theory, constantly push a low volume of warm air into the house without spinning up the HVAC system, and two, when the heating system and HVAC fans spin up, our miner should supplement the heat production of our heating system, requiring less energy use (gas in our case).

Of course, a home miner can use a new-generation machine for the same purposes I'm detailing above, but for the sake of accessibility and startup cost, I adore the older generation S9 as a tool for learning and tinkering. They are physically robust, easy to acquire and can be run on your standard 110-volt electric system while tuned with Braiins firmware for greater control.

My particular plan is to use the space above my dryer to mount both the miner and the ducting required. In the interests of sound mitigation and sufficient cooling through the ducting, I'll be removing the stock fans from the S9 and using an inline fan (an AC Infinity CLOUDLINE S4, which goes for around $100 at time of writing) to pull air from an outside vent, push it through the miner, then dump it into my HVAC return duct.

Drawing air from an extra dryer vent

Space to mount ducting and the machine

The HVAC return is the large vertical duct. It draws air in from return registers around my house for reheating and acceleration through the output vents.

What We Will NeedYou will modify what I share below to fit your own space and budget limitations, but at minimum you should have access to hand tools, gloves, a drill and some variety of cutting tools to grind/shape thin metal.

A simple set of home tools

You'll also need to acquire the correct ducting (insulated, foil or smooth to your preference), for your purposes, a starting collar to port into your return, the correct reducers or collars to make any size changes, sealant and tape for a final airtight seal and mounting hardware for your fan and miner.

Additional pieces and mounts, all acquired for under $100 at time of writing

Ducting InstallationThe most difficult part of the build was cutting a hole into the HVAC return to mount the starting collar (where the heat is actually dumped into the system from the miner).

I began by tracing the starting collar shape on the return, then drilling a hole into the middle of the traced circle and, while wearing gloves, cutting in an expanding circle until I hit the traced line (the outer edge). The work was cramped, uncomfortable and produced a gnarly little piece of metal that attempted to cut me at every pass. You must wear gloves '-- I repeat '-- you must wear gloves. It is also advised to use proper tin snips and not the dinky, home DIY snips that I used.

A gnarly little piece of metal

With a circular hole cut into my HVAC return, I could rough mount my starting collar. Additional grinding, cutting and pulling were necessary to get the collar to mount flush on the return. Once it was set, I could reach through the collar and bend over the tabs inside of the collar to hold it in place. That was followed by a layer of HVAC sealant and tape to set the piece in place securely.

The starting collar, rough mounted

The starting collar, sealed and taped with an additional piece mounted

With the hard part of the build complete, I began mounting the adapters and ducting. I used a simple strapping technique to hang the ducting from the exposed studs. This allows easy mounting and adjustment for any fine tuning in the future. Be sure to secure your duct attachment points with HVAC clips and to cover them with tape to avoid any air leakage or whistling sounds when the system is running.

Hanging the ducting where the system dumps warm air into the HVAC return

Mounting Your ASICWorking toward our air inlet, the plan is to mount the ASIC above the washer/dryer unit using pieces from a generic rubberized wall mounting kit that can be found at any hardware store. Amazingly, the generic mounts fit both the miner and the power-supply unit (PSU) in a way that allows both wall and ceiling attachment.

Where we will pre-drill holes to mount the ASIC and PSU on generic mounts

The S9 and PSU mounted with generic rubberized home mounts on the wall and ceiling. Note: the S9 has no fans mounted.

Standing back, you can see the general arrangement of the system. Air will flow from right to left in this image.

Final Attachments And Inline Fan MountYou may be wondering how we are going to mount our ducting to our ASIC. For this, we take a detour to the 3D printer to produce two of these (freely available). If you don't have access to a 3D printer, various mounts can be found for purchase with a simple search online.

Our duct-to-ASIC mount, mid-print

Our duct-to-ASIC mount final print. We will use two of these.

The final piece of our system is the mounted inline fan. I'm using the same strapping technique through the available mounts on the fan as I did on the ducting as I believe this will reduce the likelihood of any unwanted vibration in the system.

If you're using the same wiring technique that I've highlighted previously in The Apartment Dweller's Guide To Mining Bitcoin,'' you'll want to mount your fan near your machine to use the available plug and have everything neat on a single outlet.

The inline fan mounted on straps near the ASIC inlet

Final attachment between the inline fan and the ASIC. This fan will be the sole source of air to our miner.

The full system, wired up and tuning with Braiins

Drawing air directly from the outside via an inline fan was not making Braiins happy

With the ASIC and fan mounted and wired, we can start testing the system and begin hashing. Changing settings to run without fans is incredibly easy in Braiins. With the inline fan on 90% power and the ASIC underclocked to 900 watts, I let Braiins' auto tuning work its magic. What I first noticed was that the tuning took an incredibly long time while running without fans. I suspect pulling air from the outside 24/7 was confusing the tuning system. While it was winter in Colorado and the air is consistently cold, due to our dry climate we get large swings in ambient temperature over the course of the day. This wasn't making the auto tuning very happy and it struggled to generate a stable profile.

Additionally, one of my goals for this system was to be as quiet as possible. I noticed that the inline fan was very, very quiet. So much so that I began to hear another sound, the fan on the PSU. Yes, the fan on the power supply was louder than the inline fan pushing air through the ASIC.

To remedy these problems, I made two modifications to the system. The first was to detach our inlet from the outside ambient air, and to instead mount an automotive cold air intake directly to the inlet of the inline fan. By drawing air from my laundry room directly, I am able to keep a more consistent input temperature, which assisted greatly in tuning via Braiins. Also, by drawing air from the inside, I don't create a pressure differential in my house by pulling air from outdoors into the home via the inline fan. I don't believe this will create issues at small scale, but am happy to avoid any problems that may arise from this going forward.

Additionally, I purchased a 60-millimeter Noctua fan to replace the stock 60-millimeter PSU fan. This required a minor electrical intervention as the stock fan has two pins and the Noctua has three. I simply attached the main black and red power lines from the Noctua to the PSU, and left the third wire unattached. The fan runs perfectly at full speed and sound is reduced.

The cold air intake mounted directly to my inline fan

Very minor surgery to replace the stock PSA fan with the silent Noctua fan

In SummaryAfter our initial construction and final tuning, the system has stabilized at around 800 watts consumption and is consistently producing both ambient heat in the home and about 10.25 terahashes per second. I believe the modified PSU fan is our limiting factor in power, as the Noctua doesn't push as much air as the stock PSU fan. This isn't a great concern to me as my goal isn't to squeak as many hashes out of my machine as possible. Rather, my goal is to integrate bitcoin mining into a residential setting while maintaining quality of life (sound and safety of living space) and to repurpose the waste heat usefully.

I believe I've accomplished both and hope you will feel confident in building out your own systems of ASIC home integration. These are the early days of home mining. Residential products like the Upstream Data Black Box are in their infancy and open the door to entirely new and creative categories. Bitcoin mining isn't just for the big boys, and you're more than welcome to join the conversation as we build and learn together.

Happy building.

Our final system happily hashing away at 800 watts and about 10.39 terahashes per second

This is a guest post by Rob Warren. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Fri, 25 Mar 2022 03:57

The messages '-- 29 in all '-- reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump's top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: ''Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America's constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.''

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When Meadows wrote to Thomas on Nov. 24, the White House chief of staff invoked God to describe the effort to overturn the election. ''This is a fight of good versus evil,'' Meadows wrote. ''Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.''

Thomas replied: ''Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now'... I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!''

It is unclear to whom Thomas was referring.

The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump's inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president's strategy to overturn the election results '-- and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice. Among Thomas's stated goals in the messages was for lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted incendiary and unsupported claims about the election, to be ''the lead and the face'' of Trump's legal team.

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The text messages were among 2,320 that Meadows provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The content of messages between Thomas and Meadows '-- 21 sent by her, eight by him '' has not previously been reported. They were reviewed by The Post and CBS News and then confirmed by five people who have seen the committee's documents.

Meadows's attorney, George Terwilliger III, confirmed the existence of the 29 messages between his client and Thomas. In reviewing the substance of the messages Wednesday, he said that neither he nor Meadows would comment on individual texts. But, Terwilliger added, ''nothing about the text messages presents any legal issues.''

Ginni Thomas did not respond to multiple requests for comment made Thursday by email and phone. Justice Thomas, who has been hospitalized for treatment of an infection, did not respond to a request for comment made through the Supreme Court's public information office.

It is unknown whether Ginni Thomas and Meadows exchanged additional messages between the election and Biden's inauguration beyond the 29 received by the committee. Shortly after providing the 2,320 messages, Meadows ceased cooperating with the committee, arguing that any further engagement could violate Trump's claims of executive privilege. Committee members and aides said they believe the messages may be just a portion of the pair's total exchanges.

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A spokesman for the committee declined to comment. The revelation of Thomas's messages with Meadows comes three weeks after lawyers for the committee said in a court filing that the panel has ''a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States'' and obstruct the counting of electoral votes by Congress.

Trump spoke publicly during this period about his intent to contest the election results in the Supreme Court. ''This is a major fraud on our nation,'' the president said in a speech at 2:30 the morning after the election. ''We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we'll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court.''

Thomas has publicly denied any conflict of interest between her activism and her husband's work on the Supreme Court. ''Clarence doesn't discuss his work with me, and I don't involve him in my work,'' she said in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative outlet, for an article published March 14.

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Ginni Thomas, in that interview, also acknowledged that she had attended Trump's ''Stop the Steal'' rally at the Ellipse near the White House on Jan. 6, but said that she left early because it was too cold and that she did not have any role in planning the event.

Justice Thomas, 73, is the Supreme Court's longest-serving current justice and has missed oral arguments this week because of his hospitalization. He has made few public comments about the 2020 election. In February 2021, when the Supreme Court rejected election challenges filed by Trump and his allies, Thomas wrote in a dissent that it was ''baffling'' and ''inexplicable'' that the majority had decided against hearing the cases because he believed the Supreme Court should provide states with guidance for future elections.

Critics say Ginni Thomas's activism is a Supreme Court conflict. Under court rules, only her husband can decide if that's true.

In her text messages to Meadows, Ginni Thomas spread false theories, commented on cable news segments and advocated with urgency and fervor that the president and his team take action to reverse the outcome of the election. She urged that they take a hard line with Trump staffers and congressional Republicans who had resisted arguments that the election was stolen.

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In the messages, Thomas and Meadows each assert a belief that the election was stolen and seem to share a solidarity of purpose and faith, though they occasionally express differences on tactics.

''The intense pressures you and our President are now experiencing are more intense than Anything Experienced (but I only felt a fraction of it in 1991),'' Thomas wrote to Meadows on Nov. 19, an apparent reference to Justice Thomas's 1991 confirmation hearings in which lawyer Anita Hill testified that he had made unwanted sexual comments when he was her boss. Thomas strongly denied the accusations.

The first of the 29 messages between Ginni Thomas and Meadows was sent on Nov. 5, two days after the election. She sent him a link to a YouTube video labeled ''TRUMP STING w CIA Director Steve Pieczenik, The Biggest Election Story in History, QFS-BLOCKCHAIN.''

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Pieczenik, a former State Department official, is a far-right commentator who has falsely claimed that the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a ''false-flag'' operation to push a gun-control agenda.

The video Thomas shared with Meadows is no longer available on YouTube. But Thomas wrote to Meadows, ''I hope this is true; never heard anything like this before, or even a hint of it. Possible???''

''Watermarked ballots in over 12 states have been part of a huge Trump & military white hat sting operation in 12 key battleground states,'' she wrote.

During that period, supporters of the QAnon extremist ideology embraced a false theory that Trump had watermarked mail-in ballots so he could track potential fraud. ''Watch the water'' was a refrain in QAnon circles at the time.

In the Nov. 5 message to Meadows, Thomas went on to quote a passage that had circulated on right-wing websites: ''Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.''

The text messages received by the House select committee do not include a response from Meadows.

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The next day, Nov. 6, Thomas sent a follow-up to Meadows: ''Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.''

It is unclear if Meadows responded.

On Nov. 10, Thomas drew a reply from Meadows. She wrote, ''Mark, I wanted to text you and tell you for days you are in my prayers!!'' She continued by urging him to ''Help This Great President stand firm'' and invoking ''the greatest Heist of our History.''

Thomas added in the message that Meadows should ''Listen to Rush. Mark Steyn, Bongino, Cleta'' '-- appearing to refer to conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn and Dan Bongino, as well as lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who was involved in Trump's push to claim victory in Georgia despite Biden's certified win there.

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One minute later, Meadows responded: ''I will stand firm. We will fight until there is no fight left. Our country is too precious to give up on. Thanks for all you do.''

Nine minutes after that, Thomas replied, ''Tearing up and praying for you guys!!!!! So proud to know you!!''

Later that night, Ginni Thomas messaged Meadows seeming to react to a cable news segment. ''Van Jones spins interestingly, but shows us the balls being juggled too,'' Thomas said, referring to the prominent CNN commentator.

Thomas then turned to her frustrations with congressional Republicans and said she wished more of them were rallying behind Trump and being more active with his base voters, who were furious about the election.

She wrote, ''House and Senate guys are pathetic too... only 4 GOP House members seen out in street rallies with grassroots... Gohmert, Jordan, Gosar, and Roy.'' She appeared to be referring to Republican House members Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Paul A. Gosar of Arizona and Chip Roy of Texas.

This was a troubled time for Trump. News organizations had declared Biden the winner on Nov. 7, after a review of vote totals in each state and the electoral count. Trump's legal operation was divided between his campaign's official lawyers and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump's confidant and personal attorney who was fast asserting control of his campaign's legal strategy. While many Republicans supported Trump's filing of legal challenges in several states, his lawyers stumbled in court and many allies by mid-November were privately confiding that Trump's legal battle would be short-lived.

Yet Thomas urged Meadows to plow ahead, rally Republicans around Trump and remind them of his enduring political capital.

''Where the heck are all those who benefited by Presidents coattails?!!!'' she wrote in her text message to him late on Nov. 10. She then told him to watch a YouTube video about the power of never conceding.

Meadows might not have been Thomas's only contact inside the Trump White House that week. On Nov. 13, she texted Meadows about her outreach to ''Jared,'' potentially a reference to Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior White House adviser. She wrote, ''Just forwarded to yr gmail an email I sent Jared this am. Sidney Powell & improved coordination now will help the cavalry come and Fraud exposed and America saved.'' The messages provided to the House select committee do not show a response by Meadows.

Kushner did not respond to a request for comment.

Powell was becoming ubiquitous on television '-- and winning the president's favor, according to several Trump advisers '-- as she claimed without evidence that electronic voting systems had stolen the election from Trump by switching millions of ballots in Biden's favor. She claimed, again without evidence, that hundreds of thousands of ballots were appearing out of nowhere and that a global communist conspiracy was afoot involving Venezuela, Cuba, and probably China.

Still, while Trump cheered some of Powell's commentary, she was a polarizing figure in his orbit. Her views were considered so extreme and unsupported by evidence that David Bossie, a longtime Trump supporter, told others that she was peddling ''concocted B.S.'' After Fox News host Tucker Carlson contacted Powell about her claim that electronic voting machines had switched ballots to Biden, he told his viewers that he found her answers evasive and that she had shown no evidence to support her assertion. He stopped having her on his program.

Ginni Thomas stood by her. ''Don't let her and your assets be marginalized instead...help her be the lead and the face,'' she wrote to Meadows on Nov. 13.

The following day, Nov. 14, Thomas sent Meadows material she said was from Connie Hair, chief of staff to Gohmert. It is not clear if she was passing on a message from Hair or sharing Hair's perspective as guidance for Meadows. The text message seems to quote Hair's belief that ''the most important thing you can realize right now is that there are no rules in war.''

''This war is psychological. PSYOP,'' the text from Thomas states.

Hair said Thursday that she did not have any specific recollection of that text message.

On Nov. 19, which would be a crucial day for Powell as she spoke at a news conference at the Republican National Committee, Thomas continued to bolster Powell's standing in a text to Meadows.

''Mark (don't want to wake you)'... '' Thomas wrote. ''Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud. Make a plan. Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.''

''Release the Kraken'' had become a catchphrase on the far right after the election, used as shorthand for the anticipated exposure of a voter fraud conspiracy that would upend Biden's victory with the same force as a ''Kraken,'' a mythical giant sea monster.

In that same exchange, Thomas also at one point offered Meadows advice on managing the West Wing staff.

''Suggestion: You need to buck up your team on the inside, Mark,'' Thomas wrote. ''The lower level insiders are scared, fearful or sending out signals of hopelessness vs an awareness of the existential threat to America right now. You can buck them up, strengthen their spirits.''

''Monica Crowley,'' Thomas said, referring to the conservative commentator, ''may have a sense of this [from] her Nixon days.'' Crowley, a top official in Trump's Treasury Department, had been an aide to former president Richard M. Nixon years after he resigned from office in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal.

Thomas then wrote, ''You guys fold, the evil just moves fast down underneath you all. Lots of intensifying threats coming to ACB and others.'' Justice Amy Coney Barrett, sometimes called ''ACB'' by her supporters, had joined the Supreme Court in October, shortly before the election. It is unclear to what threats Thomas was referring.

Later on Nov. 19, Meadows replied to Thomas's long text message by saying, ''Thanks so much.''

But Thomas's high aspirations for Powell quickly collapsed that afternoon. Instead of capturing the nation's attention at the RNC news conference, where she spoke alongside Giuliani and other Trump advisers, Powell was criticized for spreading a false theory about electronic voting machines as a tool for communists. Some Trump aides were horrified by her and Giuliani's performances and felt they had embarrassed the president by becoming a parody of his post-election fight.

As Giuliani spoke, a dark brown liquid mixed with beads of sweat rolled down his cheek. ''Did you watch 'My Cousin Vinny?' '' he asked reporters, tying a legal reference to the 1992 comedy.

Thomas wrote to Meadows, ''Tears are flowing at what Rudy is doing right now!!!!''

''Glad to help,'' Meadows replied.

By Nov. 22, Trump gave his blessing for Giuliani and another Trump lawyer, Jenna Ellis, to issue a statement claiming that Powell ''is not a member of the Trump Legal Team.''

Thomas reached out to Meadows that day with concern. ''Trying to understand the Sidney Powell distancing,'' she wrote.

''She doesn't have anything or at least she won't share it if she does,'' Meadows texted back.

''Wow!'' Thomas replied.

Meadows did not respond.

On Nov. 24, Thomas engaged Meadows again by sharing a video from Parler, a conservative social media website, that appeared to refer to conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

''If you all cave to the elites, you have to know that many of your 73 million feel like what Glenn is expressing,'' Thomas wrote.

She said Trump risked his supporters growing disenchanted to the point of walking away from politics. ''Me included,'' she wrote. ''I think I am done with politics, and I don't think I am alone, Mark.''

Meadows replied three minutes later: ''I don't know what you mean by caving to the elites.''

Thomas responded: ''I can't see Americans swallowing the obvious fraud. Just going with one more thing with no frickin consequences... the whole coup and now this... we just cave to people wanting Biden to be anointed? Many of us can't continue the GOP charade.''

After continued back-and-forth, Meadows wrote, ''You're preaching to the choir. Very demoralizing.''

The text exchanges with Thomas that Meadows provided to the House select committee pause after Nov. 24, 2020, with an unexplained gap in correspondence. The committee received one additional message sent by Thomas to Meadows, on Jan. 10, four days after the ''Stop the Steal'' rally Thomas said she attended and the deadly attack on the Capitol.

In that message, Thomas expresses support for Meadows and Trump '-- and directed anger at Vice President Mike Pence, who had refused Trump's wishes to block the congressional certification of Biden's electoral college victory.

''We are living through what feels like the end of America,'' Thomas wrote to Meadows. ''Most of us are disgusted with the VP and are in listening mode to see where to fight with our teams. Those who attacked the Capitol are not representative of our great teams of patriots for DJT!!''

''Amazing times,'' she added. ''The end of Liberty.''

Claire McMullen contributed to this report.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 15:09

President Joe Biden repeated the infamous ''very fine people hoax'' on Thursday evening in Brussels, Belgium, falsely claiming that his predecessor praised neo-Nazis who rioted in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

The president was speaking at a press conference to close the NATO summit on Ukraine. A European reporter asked the president how he could be sure that his successor in 2024 would not undo his diplomatic approach to NATO. (President Trump irked European powers by demanding that they live up to their NATO commitment of spending at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense. Germany belatedly agreed, finally, to meet its commitment only after Russia had invaded Ukraine.)

Biden, claiming that he did not think about his foreign policy decisions in purely electoral terms, referred to the familiar original story that he has told since 2019 when claiming that Charlottesville motivated him to come out of retirement and run for president.

I made the commitment, when I ran this time, I wasn't going to run again, and I mean that sincerely, I had no intention of running for president again, until I saw those folks coming out of the fields in Virginia carrying torches and carrying Nazi banners, and literally singing the same vile rhyme they used in Germany in the early twenties, or thirties I should say, and then the gentleman you mentioned [Trump] was asked what he thought and a young woman was killed, a protester, and he was asked what he thought, he said there were ''very good people''' on both sides. And that's when I decided I wasn't going to be quiet any longer.

For nearly two years, Biden stood by the hoax, even when presented personally and directly with evidence that it was false:

Video of my confrontation with '...@JoeBiden'(C) over Charlottesville ''very fine people'' hoax. Note he always uses same script (bulging veins etc) like he's trained to recite it. Media covered this but none linked to the transcript of Trump's remarks that proves Biden lies 8/8/19 pic.twitter.com/6WD6q1Yhy8

'-- Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) August 13, 2020

As Breitbart News and others, notably cartoonist Scott Adams and political commentator Steve Cortes, have demonstrated for years, President Trump said he condemned the neo-Nazis ''totally.'' When Trump used the term ''very fine people,'' he was referring explicitly to peaceful protesters on either side of a dispute about the removal of a local confederate statue.

The transcript of Trump's remarks is clear: he said that when he referred to ''very fine people,'' he was talking about peaceful protesters, and ''not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally.''

Trump also specifically condemned the murder of protester Heather Heyer, saying it was potentially ''terrorism.''

The Charlottesville ''very fine people hoax'' was shattered in full public view last year when former President Trump's defense lawyers exposed it as a fraud during Trump's second impeachment trial.

Since then, Biden has tended to avoid the hoax, merely citing Charlottesville as a motivation, without mentioning Trump.

In Europe on Thursday, however, Biden broke with the convention of leaving politics at the water's edge and spread anew the false claim that his Republican predecessor supported violent neo-Nazis.

Biden also falsely claimed that police officers were killed in the capital riot last January.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 14:59

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 14:55

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 14:30

President Biden on Thursday warned of global food shortages as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine '-- predicting that the war would upend global wheat supplies.

Russia and Ukraine jointly supply about a fourth of the world's wheat exports.

''With regard to food shortages, yes we did talk about food shortages. And it's going to be real,'' Biden said at a press conference in Belgium after attending meetings of NATO and G7 leaders.

''The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it's imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country,'' Biden said.

''Both Russia and Ukraine have been the breadbasket of Europe in terms of wheat, for example, just to give one example.''

Biden said that the US and Canada will seek to boost wheat production to offset the drop in supplies '-- as Russia already curtails wheat shipments to friendly former Soviet republics in Central Asia.

Ukraine and Russia supply much of Europe's wheat. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File President Joe Biden claims global food shortages are ''going to be real,'' as Russia wages its invasion in Ukraine. AP Photo/Evan Vucci President Joe Biden announced Canada and the US will boost their wheat production to stop shortages and price gouging. AP Photo/Vitaly Timkiv, File''We had a long discussion in the G7 with both the United States, which has a significant '-- the third largest producer of wheat in the world, as well as Canada, which is also a major, major producer, and we both talked about how we could increase and disseminate more rapidly food shortages,'' Biden said.

''In addition, we talked about urging all European countries and everyone else to end trade restrictions on sending '-- limitations on sending food abroad. And so we are in the process of working out with our European friends what it would be, what it would take to help alleviate the concerns relative to food shortages. We also talked about a significant, major US investment among others in terms of providing for the need for humanitarian assistance, including food as we move forward.''

Food prices were already soaring in the US as a result of inflation hitting 7.9 percent in February, a month that featured only the first four days of the Russian invasion. Gas rises spiked after the invasion and the US blocked imports of Russian oil and natural gas, though European allies chose not to do so, limiting the effect on global energy prices.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 14:27

CNN : "It's just my job. I was trained for this." - Ukrainian fighter pilot "Juice" talks with @andersoncooper about the'... https://t.co/PAR2jS88KT

Tue Mar 22 00:30:06 +0000 2022

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 14:18

Ann Vandersteel interviewed an explosive Jack Maxey a few days ago about Hunter Biden's laptop. He spoke to her from Switzerland, where he's now staying for his safety. The interview begins about five and a half minutes into the video.

Maxey is irate at all of the so-called ''good guys'' in the Senate who he approached with the laptop over the past 17 months and who did not respond. He says he no longer believes that any member of the House or the Senate deserves to be there and that the US Department of Justice is so corrupt that they can't be trusted to do anything about it. He is hoping to have better luck with the Swiss authorities.

He and his team have found over a quarter of a million emails or double the amount that he had previously, ''quadruple that number of photographs, documents that he [Hunter] thought he had deleted.''

They've been curating the content and removing the child pornography, bank account numbers and any other illegal content and they will be making all of it publicly available within the next few days, having already posted some key emails to his Gab account.

Confirming claims made by the Russian military earlier this month and reported in the Daily Mail, the documents show that Hunter Biden helped to fund Metabiota's bioweapons program in Ukraine.

Hunter's business partner at Rosemont Seneca wrote to him in March 2014: ''We had a great dinner with Nathan and Robert from Metabiota last night. They are looking to do a series A in a few months which would allow us to mark up our investment to 5X what we paid.''

Maxey says, ''Just 15 minutes ago, we found documents that make it appear as if [Mykola] Zlochevsky, the crooked criminal chairman of Burisma, is actually one of the largest shareholders of Metabiota. And now America and the world can understand exactly why Joe Biden had to go over there and make sure that Zlochevsky was never prosecuted.''

Maxey makes derogatory comments about former Trump White House staffer, Garrett Ziegler, who is also cataloguing the infamous Laptop from Hell on his Marco Polo website and about Tore Maras, who he accuses of ''stealing'' the laptop and feloniously hacking into Hunter's bank accounts, referring to her as ''The Cat Lady''.

This caused Patrick Byrne to jump on a quick live stream with Vandersteel on Friday afternoon to defend them both, saying that he was with them, along Rudy Giuliani at the White House in the aftermath of the 2020 Election and that Maxey's claims about them were both false and uncalled for.

He says Tore was given a copy of the hard drive, which had malfunctioned and which she helped to repair with Rudy's permission and that Ziegler never told Maxey that he was taking the hard drive to the DNI, because he knew the DNI already had a copy two months previously.

He says, ''Garrett is producing a monster 500-page report that is the definitive exploitation of the Hunter laptop.''

Patrick also told Vandersteel, ''Before Hunter took it in and gave it to that Delaware shop, he deleted and wiped 400,000 files that are worse than anything that's come out yet. Those have been recovered'... everything from porno pictures to letters to texts that he tried to delete out of existence'...

''It's the worst stuff that Hunter Biden tried to get rid of, before he turned it into the Delaware shop'...Given what he didn't erase, can you imagine what he DID erase?'...He's looking at decades [of jail time]'...

''I think there's stuff coming out'...that they're going to have to do something about Hunter. The question is, do they tie the father in?

''But more importantly, the Dinesh D'Souza movie coming and some information from us that's coming beforehand, I think is the coup de grce on this whole episode in American history.

''I think everything gets exposed in a way '' Dinesh has film that nobody's seen yet and we have something really major to release in April.''

Many have theorized that Hunter abandoned that computer at the repair shop on purpose, to get back at his father, who had forced him into this life of crime. As Patrick Byrne told Vandersteel, ''It's kinda funny that both Ashley loses her diary and Hunter leaves his laptop.''

For her part, Tore responded to Jack Maxey on her podcast Friday night, saying that Garrett Ziegler is a solid guy who is doing a professional job with Hunter Biden's laptop and that Maxey's comments about her were unfair and undeserved, although she understands his general state of upset, because we're all upset right now.

She also said that Hunter Biden has been under investigation since 2017 '' not 2018, as claimed by Maxey '' and that, ''Over the past year and a half, there have been a lot of Grand Juries and a lot of people have been testifying. There are actual people in the know who have testified but can't talk about it,'' and unless you're one of those people, you don't really know what's going on.

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 12:54

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Sun, 27 Mar 2022 12:34

It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.

Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.

Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online ''fascist fitness'' chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies. Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.

Physical fitness has always been central to the far right. In ''Mein Kampf,'' Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with ''fanatical love of the fatherland,'' would do more for the German nation than any ''mediocre'' tactical weapons training.

In more modern times, far-right groups have launched mixed martial arts and boxing gyms in Ukraine, Canada and France, among other places, focused on training far-right nationalists in violent hand-to-hand combat and street-fighting techniques. It's caught the attention of intelligence authorities, especially in Europe, where various reports have noted the role of combat sports and MMA in radicalizing and promoting far-right violence. A series of collaborative efforts between governments, national sports associations, and local gyms in places such as Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom have introduced intervention and prevention programs.

The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition.

The U.S. is comparatively far behind, which will only become more and more problematic, especially since the phenomenon is growing in the country, building on the established fight-club culture of MMA far-right extremists. The leader of a Maryland skinhead group, for example, once ran a gym to ''recruit and train white supremacists in mixed martial arts.'' Four members or associates of the racist, violent Rise Above Movement (RAM), the self-described ''premier MMA club of the Alt-Right,'' pled guilty to conspiracy to riot after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. An online propagandist for that now-defunct group was spotted among protesters on Jan. 6 last year. When members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front marched in Washington, D.C., in December 2021, they were accompanied by a new media outlet created by RAM's founder, Robert Rundo, who is working to create a network of far-right MMA "Active Clubs'' in the U.S. and abroad.

The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition. Physical fitness training, especially in combat sports, appeals to the far right for many reasons: fighters are trained to accept significant physical pain, to be ''warriors,'' and to embrace messaging around solidarity, heroism, and brotherhood. It's championed as a tool to help fight the ''coming race war'' and the street battles that will precede it. Recruits are encouraged to link individual moral virtues such as willpower, decisiveness and courage, with desired collective traits such as virility and manliness. This also works in reverse, with white supremacists encouraging potential recruits or activists to stay in good physical shape as a way of managing self-presentation to the public. The neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin advised his followers that ''fat people'' should be required to commit to losing weight if they are to stay involved with groups or in-person gatherings, noting that ''continued obesity should not be tolerated.''

We're seeing extremist fighting culture being combined with an entertainment culture that already valorizes violence and hypermasculinity.

With recruitment now moving from physical gyms to chat rooms, livestreamed fights, tournaments, festivals, and even combat sports video games, we're seeing extremist fighting culture being combined with an entertainment culture that already valorizes violence and hypermasculinity.

Fitness of course is a staple and a hobby for many people, for whom it is enjoyable and rewarding for brain health and overall well-being. Physical fitness channels dopamine, adrenalin and serotonin in ways that literally feel good. Intertwining those feelings with hateful and dehumanizing ideas, while promoting the concept that physical warriors are needed to create the strength and dominance to defend one's people from a perceived enemy, makes for a dangerous and powerful cocktail of radicalization.

For those of us working to find better pathways to reach at-risk youth, understanding the ways that far-right groups recruit and socialize youth '-- in ways that go well beyond rhetoric and ideas '-- is crucial. It's critical that leaders, including parents, physical trainers, gym owners, coaches and others in the fitness world understand how online grooming and recruitment can intersect with spaces that we generally think of as promoting health and well-being. The realm of online fitness now provides a new and ever-expanding market for reaching and radicalizing young men; and it requires our targeted focus and resources to try and stop the cycle.

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Sat, 26 Mar 2022 21:44