1307: de-googling

AT&T got a contract to do forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and those machines were being moved to Nashville this past week.

The former owner of the AT&T building in Nashville, William Kennard, is a board member for Cerberus Capital Management and AT&T.... He also was Bill Clinton's FCC chair, and Obama's Ambassador to the EU.

Dominion voting is owned by Cerberus Capital Management.... Cerberus is run by Staple Street Execs. Joe Bidens Brother in Law, Steven Owens, is the cofounder of Staple Street Execs along with William Kennard (mentioned above).

Super Computer in TN was connected to the AT&T internet in NASHVILLE.... yesterday evening the Cumberland river cooling system was compromised due to internet outage and Supercomputer fried.....

If you don't know, "Kraken" is a reference to a supercomputer former prosecuter, Sidney Powell, has been talking about.

So, the explosion "just happened" to be at the AT&T location where they "just so happen" to control the cooling system for the super computer and house the dominion voting machines and drives for forensic audit...

Does it make sense now why no lives were lost? Does it make sense now why the FBI task lead couldn't even put together a coherent sentence in the press conference yesterday? Does it make sense why the mayor was making light of the situation, almost laughing yesterday? 🤯🤯

This is VERY INTERESTING but if you have drank the Koolaid or watched FAKE NEWS then you won't believe this information. And YES I did check the facts on who owned and operated Dominion Voting Systems and the other names mentioned. It all lines up. I hope that y'all get to read this information because it'll probably put me in a Democratic Facebook Jail. And PLEASE share the crap outta this. America needs to know the Truth.

Around the corner from this morning's car bomb, the AT&T "Batman" building in downtown Nashville, Tennessee is 33 stories tall and is located at 333 Commerce. Previously, a #Masonic Hall, used as a hospital supply store during the Civil War, stood on the site.

I have been in there a couple times and most of equipment in there was there own. They did have some Collocation spaces there but that wasn't the primary goal of they building. It's primary purpose was aggregation of the fiber and copper lines from the phone and their internet lines. They have a lot of dark fiber in Nashville they lease out that is terminated within that building. The location is important because there are three interstates intersecting there I40, I65 and I24. They are many fiber strands that run down those interstates that were extended and then terminated in that building. This was the best target for communication impact, the other would have been their corporate office if they wanted to kill more people, but with COVID it would be known to be closed as they are working from home and it also has a guard shack at 444 Franklin Road Brentwood TN 37027 (Not on google maps, and is blurred which is their corporate standard for obfuscation, saw some people commenting on that aspect of the target too) The state of TN where some election data would be held are in three locations, state corporate office downtown, Smyrna main data center and another data center on the west side of downtown.

The impact and duration of the impact is going to take a while. They haven't been able to get full access to the site yet. https://about.att.com/pages/disaster_relief/nashville.html So they are starting to restore power to the systems based on this update above. With the amount of fiber and copper it could be an extensive repair depending on how far back the damage to the lines and how much trenching will be required. It is a mess all the way around for sure and with so many systems terminated there it's impact is extensive locally and spreads in nearly all directions as there are not many alternate paths physically and these major backbones don't have the ability for wireless failover so the routing has to change so the city is bypassed effectively, there are many routing protocols like BGP and OSPF that should detect link failures and make these changes but it doesn't appear their disaster recovery plan was complete for all systems and this building and its cable plants were a risk overall.

I'm waiting to hear from a friend in the Metro police department and the people I know that work at AT&T in the nerdy side have not responded, I'm sure because of the chaos and possible disclosure prevention notifications. I would like to get those emails that were sent out.

There are other businesses around the area that could have been the target but the impact of this one seems deliberate. I'm looking to see what could someone get away with now with this site down because communications are crippled. Makes me think with the pre explosion announcement that there is more players and bigger plans.

This is all I know and have been able to get so far.

Thanks,

Patrick Coble

Really hope Christmas was good for you and Tina.

I'm sure all the Nashville. Knights and Dames have filled you in on local news coverage about the exploration in Second Ave which is always better than the M5M.

But I was gonna add that for the past two years our dueling piano bar moved from Broadway to Second Ave and, that explosion happened directly at our location and seems like all these buildings are 87.

Anyway, it would be so nice to send some thoughts on the show to all the peeps affected.

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Archived Version

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 15:37

A major Tennessee newspaper said Sunday it is investigating what its editor called a "horrific" full-page advertisement from a religious group that predicts a terrorist attack in Nashville next month. The paid advertisement that appeared in Sunday's editions of The Tennessean addresses the "citizens of Nashville" and warns that the attack would happen on July 18, 2020.

The ad from the group Future For America claims Donald Trump "is the final president of the USA" and features a photo of Trump and Pope Francis. It begins by claiming that a nuclear device would be detonated in Nashville and that the attack would be carried out by unspecific interests of "Islam."

This morning, the Nashville @Tennessean '-- the largest newspaper in the state '-- published a full-page ad from a far-right client warning ''Islam is going to detonate a nuclear device in Nashville, Tennessee.'' It's accompanied by photos of Donald Trump and Pope Francis. pic.twitter.com/9vvUbteSIh

'-- Alex Martin Smith (@asmiff) June 21, 2020The group also ran a full-page ad in Wednesday's editions of the newspaper stating its intention to warn Nashville residents about next month's event "so that they may be able to make a decision intelligently."

In a story on its website Sunday afternoon, The Tennessean said the ad violated the newspaper's long-established standards banning hate speech.

Vice President and Editor Michael A. Anastasi said the paper's news and sales departments operate independently.

"Clearly there was a breakdown in the normal processes, which call for careful scrutiny of our advertising content," Anastasi said.

"The ad is horrific and is utterly indefensible in all circumstances. It is wrong, period, and should have never been published," he said. "It has hurt members of our community and our own employees and that saddens me beyond belief. It is inconsistent with everything The Tennessean as an institution stands and has stood for."

Sales executives ordered the ad to be removed from future editions, the newspaper said.

Gannett, which owns The Tennessean, is investigating to determine, according to Kevin Gentzel, the chief revenue officer.

Two ads ran this week in the Tennessean that clearly violate our advertising standards. We strongly condemn the message and apologize to our readers. We are immediately investigating to determine how this could have happened:https://t.co/d6tBk6epOv

'-- Kevin Gentzel (@KevGentzel) June 21, 2020Council on Islamic-American Relations spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said in a statement Sunday that while the group appreciates that the "Islamophobic" ad was pulled and an investigation has begun, "we would urge the Tennessean to also implement updated policies and staff training to ensure that this type of hate incident does not occur in the future. CAIR is willing to offer that training."

According to FBI statistics, Tennessee reported 170 hate crime incidents in 2018. Yasmine Taeb, a lawyer with Demand Progress tweeted that the ad "will only cause further hatred & incite violence against Muslims."

It was not immediately known how much Future for America paid for the ads. According to its website, the group's ministry warns of so-called end-of-the-world Bible prophecies whose fulfillment "is no longer future_for it is taking place before our eyes."

A telephone message left with Bonnerdale, Arkansas-based Future for America wasn't immediately returned.

Terry Heaton, who is an author and retired television news executive, including the former executive producer of "The 700 Club," said the advertisement's claim is not supported in the Bible.

"This idea has been debated in church circles forever, and there have been plenty of historical accounts of those who shouted that 'the end is near,'" Heaton said. "Obviously, nobody has been accurate, so I think it's safe to say this is nonsense."

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 04:13

So That Nice Emergency System You THINK You Have...

There's stupid and then there's really stupid, corrupt or both.

This morning at 6:30 AM we had a vivid demonstration of both.

And a warning on several levels.

Someone apparently drove an RV into downtown Nashville, a rather non-descript area of honkytonks (bars) and restaurants early this morning, started a recorded message playing on loudspeakers that said there was bomb inside that was about go off, a "shots fired" call was put into the cops (maybe there were, maybe there were not) and indeed there was a bomb.

A pretty decent-sized bomb.

Not Tim McVeigh sized, but decent.

It collapsed one building, damaged perhaps 20 more, some severely, injured a few people and made a hell of a mess.

The cops had responded to the shots fired call, immediately recognized the "this RV is going to blow up" message as a reasonably-coherent threat (which did not require much brainpower when it's being announced over a loudspeaker!) and evacuated people, which undoubtedly saved lives. But unlike most bomb threats (which are false) this one came with no warning until a few minutes before it blew up so there was no way to try defusing it. By the time the bomb squad could get there it had blown up.

And more importantly the "RV" appears to have been strategically placed.

You see, you don't put an audio warning "This is a bomb and is about to explode!" on the bomb if you want to kill people. You just park it somewhere and blow it up, preferably at a really busy time and place. At its core terrorism as the name implies is about terrorizing. Yes, this was terrorizing but the only reason to put out a warning is to decrease the number of humans you destroy, which strongly suggests the intended target of destruction was physical -- that is, infrastructure -- rather than human.

And boy, did we get a demonstration of that.

No, not that 20 buildings were damaged, including a few bars, restaurants and apartments. No, this thing went off right near a hardened communications facility. But not really very well hardened -- although it was apparently a hell of a lot more important than it appeared.

Why?

911 and some cell service is still down in both parts of Nashville and impacts are occurring all over the area including into both Kentucky and Alabama -- and as far east as Knoxville !

How about MDTs in cop cars? No idea. Encrypted trunking (that runs over mobile IP networks) for tactical use by police and similar? No idea. There was a ground stop at the Nashville airport for a while -- apparently communications related. Indeed there have been multiple tweets saying "if you can't get through on 911 here are ordinary numbers that are still working" which implies that the infrastructure damage is a hell of a lot worse than you think it is. As these apparently came some time after the blast we can reasonably assume they were power infrastructure related rather than direct physical damage which would have led to immediate loss of service.

But think about this for a minute folks: All that came from one bomb.

There's something very odd about this attack. It was clearly not intended to kill lots of people, because the bomber gave warning to run first. Therefore it was intended to destroy material. It was quite precisely placed to destroy specific material, not at random, because just blowing up an RV in the middle of butt**** nowhere doesn't do anything, and yet where it was placed wasn't where you'd think someone would make a political statement (e.g. in front of a courthouse, the State Legislature, etc.) Nor was it driven into a chemical plant, oil refinery or similar.

This looked like an ordinary commercial street except..... it isn't quite that.

There's a communications center there. Which, having run an ISP, having had gear in a colo and worked in similar places come in a few different shapes, sizes, and redundancies. The "extension" ones are really not all that big of a deal and in just a building as there's nothing important there except some end terminations and concentrators (e.g. fiber down to individual DS3s, DS1s, a cable head end, etc.) But where switches and routers are located on the core of a metropolitan or regional network is another matter. They're quite well-hardened against this sort of insult whether due to act of God, accident or otherwise. MFS Datanet's was in Prudential Plaza for a while (one of the reasons I put MCSNet's offices there) and I've worked in both there and the various other locations all around the nation a number of times over the years.

You're supposed to, for critical infrastructure like 911, have redundancy in that regard too. More than one path for fiber over redundant entries and exits so a single break does not hose you, more than one means of power and more than one switch each of which are geographically diverse and can cover the requirements if one of them goes down for some reason -- like a fire, natural disaster -- or bomb .

I've done this sort of design work in the private sector before and have caught things like supposedly "redundant" fiber feeds into a building that in fact came into the building in the same ****ing conduit! One poorly-placed jackhammer or backhoe (or a bomb) and.... oops.

That work clearly wasn't done here or someone just didn't give a crap. Cell service, which these days is considered more reliable and essential than landlines apparently all ran through or were dependent on something that got cut off in that building. 911 for the area, similar. And the impacts weren't just downtown; they extended 100 miles to the south into Alabama, another 100 north into Kentucky and all the way east into Knoxville!

All this out of one little bomb, which leads to an immediate presumption that ought to raise your eyebrows: Whoever set it off knew that in advance which is why they set it off where they did.

So much for our government and it's allegedly "hardened" and "redundant" infrastructure for such things which were supposed to be paid attention to and remedied after 9/11. Everyone remembers that, right? I sure do.

Obviously, 20 years later, it was not only not done it's worse now than it was then .

This doesn't smell random to me folks.

No, it smells like a warning, and a very effectively-delivered one too.

Whoever did it was either the luckiest SOB alive to hit that specific place or they had inside knowledge along with intent and knew to hit that place. And the loudspeaker warning is about as solid of evidence that you're going to ever see that whoever did this knew damn well what they were doing and what impact it would have.

If you want my opinion this was either a warning or a declaration of irregular warfare.

Now maybe I'm wrong about that and it's just one smart ******* with a beef. Might be. One very disgruntled and smart former employee who got ****-canned for some jackass in India, for example. Could be, but I'll take the under on that.

So if that's correct and there was coordination and planning the question is which was it, and if a first shot who's it aimed at? Social media and communications companies? The police? A precursor to something far more-ugly?

I have no clue but this much I'm sure of -- you can't expect a straight answer from the so-called investigators when they work for the same agency that couldn't be bothered to have redundancy in their 911 system to start with.

I hope I'm wrong and this was just one pissed-off dude.

I don't want to have to fly the "Told 'Ya So" flag again on this one.

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 05:21

Nashville Police Chief John Drake said that "tissue" had been found at the site of the massive explosion that shook the city on Christmas Day, with the tissue reportedly consisting of human remains.

Three people were injured in the early morning blast. The explosion originated from an RV parked in downtown Nashville. Witnesses said that a 15-minute countdown to the explosion was broadcast from the vehicle, warning those nearby to "evacuate" the area due to a bomb. It is not clear whether anyone was inside the RV.

No further injuries or deaths have been confirmed. However, Drake said that police believe the tissue "could be" remains, while two law enforcement officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that human remains were found in the area.

"We have found tissue that we believe could be remains," Drake said after being asked to confirm if remains had been found during an evening press conference. "We'll have that examined, and then we'll be able to let you know from that point."

"The RV was detonated so if it was someone inside, we have no idea, it was such a large explosion," he added. "The investigation is continuing. There's matter all over the area down there. So, we'll continue to examine that to see if it's human remains."

Emergency vehicles surround an area damaged by a large explosion in downtown Nashville, Tennessee on December 25, 2020. Terry Wyatt/GettyWhen asked for an "estimate" on the number of fatalities at the scene, Drake reiterated that no deaths had been confirmed, saying "right now, it's no known fatalities, that we know of."

A video appearing on social media appears to show the explosion from a video camera placed nearby. A recorded voice can be heard on the video repeating "this area must be evacuated now," before saying, "If you can hear this message, evacuate now" twice. The image then quickly flashes and goes white as a large explosion is heard.

The motive of those who carried out the apparently intentional incident remains unclear, although an ongoing investigation could help to clear up some of the uncertainties soon, in particular whether the tissue found was from a person who perished in the explosion. All three of the people who were injured were reported to be hospitalized in stable condition as of Friday night.

"We're following up on every lead that we can," Drake said. "Why Christmas morning? We have no idea, it was a total surprise. In fact, when I was briefed this morning I thought maybe it was going to be a propane explosion from an RV but it turned out to be an intentional act."

"We're following up on tips that are coming in now," he added. "We'll continue our investigative efforts."

Newsweek reached out to the Nashville Police Department for comment.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:03

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - News4 Investigates has confirmed FBI agents spent Saturday speaking with a top Nashville real estate agent, who contacted them after fearing the subcontractor who worked for him may be the same man whose home they were searching.

Other federal agents spent much of the day searching the Antioch home of Anthony Warner.

Realtor Steve Fridrich contacted the FBI after reading Warner's name, as for several years, a man by the name of Tony Warner had worked for him for several years doing information technology work.

Fridrich confirms that agents asked him whether or not Warner had paranoia about 5G technology.

Fridrich told the agents that Warner had never spoken to him about that.

But a source close to the federal investigation said that among several different tips and angles, agents are investigating whether or not Warner had paranoia that 5G technology was being used to spy on Americans.

A spokeswoman for the FBI said they could not comment because of the pending investigation.

Fridrich described the Tony Warner who worked for him as a kind person who they contacted only to work on internet issues.

''Nice guy. You know, he was a techie guy - don't mean anything negative about that. He would do this thing and leave. He didn't bother anybody. He did his thing and leave,'' Fridrich said.

As for the RV that exploded when the bomb went off on December 25th, Fridrich said Warner only ever spoke of his fondness for camping in December.

WSMV.com is now with you on the go! Get the latest news updates and video, 4WARN weather forecast, weather radar, special investigative reports, sports headlines and much more from News4 Nashville.

>> Click/tap here to download our free mobile app. <<

Copyright 2020 WSMV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:05

By Ben Ashford For Dailymail.Com In Nashville, Tennessee and Frances Mulraney For Dailymail.com 06:20 27 Dec 2020, updated 08:57 27 Dec 2020

On Saturday Anthony Quinn Warner was named by local media as the person of interest in the Nashville bombingNeighbor alleges that Warner kept 'No Trespassing' signs around his home, especially around the RV, and was seen tinkering with antenna above the houseThe home was raided on Saturday by the FBI who were seen removing items from the propertyA source close to the investigation said that agents were probing whether Warner had paranoia that 5G technology was being used to spy on Americans Neighbors have described how the 'Nashville bomber' was an 'oddball' as the FBI probes whether he had a paranoia about 5G technology.

Neighbors had reported seeing the RV used in the Christmas morning explosion parked outside of Anthony Quinn Warner's Antioch home.

Tony Rodriguez, who lives within the duplex that agents raided on Saturday, told the Washington Post that he never spoke to his neighbor, 63, and did not know his name.

He alleged that Warner kept 'No Trespassing' signs around the home, especially around the RV, and was often seen tinkering with antenna above the house.

Rodriguez also claimed that investigators had taken a computer motherboard from Warner's house during the search.

Scroll down for video

Warner - the man identified as a person of interest in the Nashville Christmas Day bombing- gave his $160,000 house away for nothing a month before the blast, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. The property is pictured with a white RV used in the bombing out front on Google Street View prior to the explosionAnother neighbor Steven Stone, 61, confirmed that he had seen a similar RV parked outside of Warner's place.

'When I looked out my window and saw all the law enforcement that's when it hit me that I'd see the camper up there,' he told USA Today.

According to News4, a Nashville real estate agent contacted FBI agents after fearing the subcontractor who worked for him was who they were searching for in connection to the blast outside the AT&T transmission center.

Realtor Steve Fridrich said a man who went by Tony Warner had done IT work for him as a subcontractor.

Fridrich said he was asked by agents whether Warner had paranoia about 5G technology.

Fridrich said they had never spoken about that.

A source close to the federal investigation told News4 that agents were probing whether Warner had paranoia that 5G technology was being used to spy on Americans.

On Saturday Warner was named by local media as the person of interest in the bombing and his home on Bakerstown Road, Antioch was raided.

According to records, in January 2019, Warner also transferred this $249,000 home to Swing The two properties are located just a 15 minute drive from the street in downtown Nashville where the bomb exploded DailyMail.com revealed that the $160,000 home had been transfered for free to 29-year-old Michelle Swing on November 25 but she claims she was unaware of the exchange.

'In the state of Tennessee you can deed property to someone else without their consent or their signature or anything,' Swing told DailyMail.com

'I didn't even buy the house he just deeded it over to me without my knowledge. So this all very weird to me, that's about all I can say.'

However, Warner also transfered another home on Bakertown Road to Swing via a quitclaim deed last year.

Michelle Swing, a 29-year-old who lives in Los Angeles but previously lived in Tennesse, told DailyMail.com exclusively that she was unaware Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, had signed the $160,000 property away last month via a quitclaim deed Click here to resize this module

The $249,000 house had previously belonged to a Charles Warner, his father who passed away in 2011. It was then transferred to his brother Steve before being handed to him in August 2018, a month before his brother's death of cancer.

Warner had only been in possession of it for five months before again giving it to Swing for free in January 2019. She later also used a quitclaim to give the house to another person.

This home was also located on Bakertown Road just a short walk from the house raided on Saturday.

Swing declined to say whether she had ever met Warner or whether she had family links to him, adding: 'I've been told to direct everything else to FBI.'

Warner is believed to be unmarried and without any children. His mother Chris is still alive and he also has a sister Teresa.

The DailyBeast reported Warner was previously arrested in January 1978 and found guilty on an unspecified felony charge in 1980.

He used the Bakertown Road address as the location of his custom alarm business which specialized in burglar alarms.

The alarm fitting license for the business, Custom Alarms Electronics, expired in 1998.

During a press conference on Saturday afternoon, the FBI refused to officially identify any person in their investigation.

They say they are still pursuing approximately 500 leads and have close to 250 agents and analysts assigned to the case.

ATF and law enforcement members investigate the Christmas Day explosion that tore through downtown NashvilleThe Bureau is also investigating whether the blast was deliberately designed to target law enforcement officers.

Cops had been called to 2nd Avenue on Christmas Day morning shortly before the explosion amid reports of a shooting. However, they arrived to find the white RV playing a recorded announcement with a woman's voice saying that it would explode in 15 minutes.

One expert is now theorizing that the spooky recording was designed to bring as many cops and first responders as possible into the area with the intention of killing or maiming them.

'I kind of think it was probably an idea to get first responders to come in,' ex-NYPD Detective Bill Ryan told Fox News on Saturday.

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 15:47

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) '-- Many AT&T customers have taken to social media to voice their displeasure and inconvenience with the delay in restoring service to many areas affected by an outage caused by an explosion in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning.

AT&T has been responding to customers asking them to please be patient while they work to restore service. On Friday, News 2 reported that AT&T was working to bring in crews from all over the country and additional equipment to get service temporarily restored until service can be permanently restored.

The service outage has affected 911 emergency systems, hospital systems, and has reportedly caused issues with other systems such as ATMs and card readers.

The issues are affecting a broad spectrum of not just AT&T services but also T-Mobile services in several southeast and Midsouth metropolitan areas including telephone, internet, and television service.

''We are in contact with law enforcement & working as quickly as possible to restore service for some customers in Nashville & surrounding areas. This is due to damage to our facilities from the explosion. We appreciate your patience,'' AT&T replied to an angry customer on Twitter.

News 2 has reached out to AT&T on Saturday morning for an update and received the following:

Our teams continue to work around the clock on recovery efforts from yesterday morning's explosion in Nashville. We have two portable cell sites operating in downtown Nashville with numerous additional portable sites being deployed in the Nashville area and in the region.

At our facility, the focus of the restoration continues to be getting power to the equipment in a safe and secure way. Challenges remain, including a fire which reignited overnight and led to the evacuation of the building. Currently, our teams are on site working with safety and structural engineers. They have drilled access holes into the building and are attempting to reconnect power to critical equipment. Technical teams are also working as quickly as possible on rerouting additional services to other facilities in the region to restore service.

We continue to be grateful for the work of first responders as they respond to this event and help protect our team working to restore service for our customers.

We'll provide additional updates here as our recovery progresses.

AT&T Corporate Communications

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 05:49

The National Security Agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md. The agency has gotten access to billions of emails with the cooperation of AT&T. Credit... Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images The National Security Agency's ability to spy on vast quantities of Internet traffic passing through the United States has relied on its extraordinary, decades-long partnership with a single company: the telecom giant AT&T.

While it has been long known that American telecommunications companies worked closely with the spy agency, newly disclosed N.S.A. documents show that the relationship with AT&T has been considered unique and especially productive. One document described it as ''highly collaborative,'' while another lauded the company's ''extreme willingness to help.''

AT&T's cooperation has involved a broad range of classified activities, according to the documents, which date from 2003 to 2013. AT&T has given the N.S.A. access, through several methods covered under different legal rules, to billions of emails as they have flowed across its domestic networks. It provided technical assistance in carrying out a secret court order permitting the wiretapping of all Internet communications at the United Nations headquarters, a customer of AT&T.

The N.S.A.'s top-secret budget in 2013 for the AT&T partnership was more than twice that of the next-largest such program, according to the documents. The company installed surveillance equipment in at least 17 of its Internet hubs on American soil, far more than its similarly sized competitor, Verizon. And its engineers were the first to try out new surveillance technologies invented by the eavesdropping agency.

One document reminds N.S.A. officials to be polite when visiting AT&T facilities, noting, ''This is a partnership, not a contractual relationship.''

The documents, provided by the former agency contractor Edward J. Snowden, were jointly reviewed by The New York Times and ProPublica. The N.S.A., AT&T and Verizon declined to discuss the findings from the files. ''We don't comment on matters of national security,'' an AT&T spokesman said.

It is not clear if the programs still operate in the same way today. Since the Snowden revelations set off a global debate over surveillance two years ago, some Silicon Valley technology companies have expressed anger at what they characterize as N.S.A. intrusions and have rolled out new encryption to thwart them. The telecommunications companies have been quieter, though Verizon unsuccessfully challenged a court order for bulk phone records in 2014.

At the same time, the government has been fighting in court to keep the identities of its telecom partners hidden. In a recent case, a group of AT&T customers claimed that the N.S.A.'s tapping of the Internet violated the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches. This year, a federal judge dismissed key portions of the lawsuit after the Obama administration argued that public discussion of its telecom surveillance efforts would reveal state secrets, damaging national security.

The N.S.A. documents do not identify AT&T or other companies by name. Instead, they refer to corporate partnerships run by the agency's Special Source Operations division using code names. The division is responsible for more than 80 percent of the information the N.S.A. collects, one document states.

Fairview is one of its oldest programs. It began in 1985, the year after antitrust regulators broke up the Ma Bell telephone monopoly and its long-distance division became AT&T Communications. An analysis of the Fairview documents by The Times and ProPublica reveals a constellation of evidence that points to AT&T as that program's partner. Several former intelligence officials confirmed that finding.

A Fairview fiber-optic cable, damaged in the 2011 earthquake in Japan, was repaired on the same date as a Japanese-American cable operated by AT&T. Fairview documents use technical jargon specific to AT&T. And in 2012, the Fairview program carried out the court order for surveillance on the Internet line, which AT&T provides, serving the United Nations headquarters. (N.S.A. spying on United Nations diplomats has previously been reported, but not the court order or AT&T's involvement. In October 2013, the United States told the United Nations that it would not monitor its communications.)

The documents also show that another program, code-named Stormbrew, has included Verizon and the former MCI, which Verizon purchased in 2006. One describes a Stormbrew cable landing that is identifiable as one that Verizon operates. Another names a contact person whose LinkedIn profile says he is a longtime Verizon employee with a top-secret clearance.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, AT&T and MCI were instrumental in the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping programs, according to a draft report by the N.S.A.'s inspector general. The report, disclosed by Mr. Snowden and previously published by The Guardian, does not identify the companies by name but describes their market share in numbers that correspond to those two businesses, according to Federal Communications Commission reports.

AT&T began turning over emails and phone calls ''within days'' after the warrantless surveillance began in October 2001, the report indicated. By contrast, the other company did not start until February 2002, the draft report said.

In September 2003, according to the previously undisclosed N.S.A. documents, AT&T was the first partner to turn on a new collection capability that the N.S.A. said amounted to a '' 'live' presence on the global net.'' In one of its first months of operation, the Fairview program forwarded to the agency 400 billion Internet metadata records '-- which include who contacted whom and other details, but not what they said '-- and was ''forwarding more than one million emails a day to the keyword selection system'' at the agency's headquarters in Fort Meade, Md. Stormbrew was still gearing up to use the new technology, which appeared to process foreign-to-foreign traffic separate from the post-9/11 program.

In 2011, AT&T began handing over 1.1 billion domestic cellphone calling records a day to the N.S.A. after ''a push to get this flow operational prior to the 10th anniversary of 9/11,'' according to an internal agency newsletter. This revelation is striking because after Mr. Snowden disclosed the program of collecting the records of Americans' phone calls, intelligence officials told reporters that, for technical reasons, it consisted mostly of landline phone records.

That year, one slide presentation shows, the N.S.A. spent $188.9 million on the Fairview program, twice the amount spent on Stormbrew, its second-largest corporate program.

After The Times disclosed the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program in December 2005, plaintiffs began trying to sue AT&T and the N.S.A. In a 2006 lawsuit, a retired AT&T technician named Mark Klein claimed that three years earlier, he had seen a secret room in a company building in San Francisco where the N.S.A. had installed equipment.

Mr. Klein claimed that AT&T was providing the N.S.A. with access to Internet traffic that AT&T transmits for other telecom companies. Such cooperative arrangements, known in the industry as ''peering,'' mean that communications from customers of other companies could end up on AT&T's network.

After Congress passed a 2008 law legalizing the Bush program and immunizing the telecom companies for their cooperation with it, that lawsuit was thrown out. But the newly disclosed documents show that AT&T has provided access to peering traffic from other companies' networks.

AT&T's ''corporate relationships provide unique accesses to other telecoms and I.S.P.s,'' or Internet service providers, one 2013 N.S.A. document states.

Because of the way the Internet works, intercepting a targeted person's email requires copying pieces of many other people's emails, too, and sifting through those pieces. Plaintiffs have been trying without success to get courts to address whether copying and sifting pieces of all those emails violates the Fourth Amendment.

Many privacy advocates have suspected that AT&T was giving the N.S.A. a copy of all Internet data to sift for itself. But one 2012 presentation says the spy agency does not ''typically'' have ''direct access'' to telecoms' hubs. Instead, the telecoms have done the sifting and forwarded messages the government believes it may legally collect.

''Corporate sites are often controlled by the partner, who filters the communications before sending to N.S.A.,'' according to the presentation. This system sometimes leads to ''delays'' when the government sends new instructions, it added.

The companies' sorting of data has allowed the N.S.A. to bring different surveillance powers to bear. Targeting someone on American soil requires a court order under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. When a foreigner abroad is communicating with an American, that law permits the government to target that foreigner without a warrant. When foreigners are messaging other foreigners, that law does not apply and the government can collect such emails in bulk without targeting anyone.

AT&T's provision of foreign-to-foreign traffic has been particularly important to the N.S.A. because large amounts of the world's Internet communications travel across American cables. AT&T provided access to the contents of transiting email traffic for years before Verizon began doing so in March 2013, the documents show. They say AT&T gave the N.S.A. access to ''massive amounts of data,'' and by 2013 the program was processing 60 million foreign-to-foreign emails a day.

Because domestic wiretapping laws do not cover foreign-to-foreign emails, the companies have provided them voluntarily, not in response to court orders, intelligence officials said. But it is not clear whether that remains the case after the post-Snowden upheavals.

''We do not voluntarily provide information to any investigating authorities other than if a person's life is in danger and time is of the essence,'' Brad Burns, an AT&T spokesman, said. He declined to elaborate.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 05:37

Saturday, December 26, 2020 by: Mike Adams

(Natural News) We now have video evidence that an incoming missile initiated the explosion in Nashville. The following skyline video, embedded below, shows quite clearly an incoming missile trail immediately before the explosion.

to stay up to date with Survive the News

We also now know that the location, which was blurred out by Google street maps, housed the AT&T / NSA VoIP Router Complex, which allows the NSA to spy on all phone conversations and phone texts of anyone using the AT&T network. The Intercept article, ''The Wiretap Rooms,'' explains the existence of ''hidden NSA spy hubs'' all across America.

The former owner of the building is reportedly Cerebus Capital, which is tied to Yagoobzadeh, which acquired some ownership of Dominion Voting Systems.

Various internet analysts say the blast appears to have been intended to halt a Dominion voting machines audit that was about to take place in the building as well, although that has not yet been confirmed.

No matter what the motive, you can rest assured the media will find some White conservative gun owner to blame for everything, as that's always their propaganda narrative.

Incoming missile proves this was a military operation, launched from an aircraftThe following screen shots from the video (below) show the incoming missile trail, meaning this was a military operation, and the missile was fired from an aircraft:

And here's about a second later as the missile trail is disappearing, from top to bottom (indicating the missile is moving from the sky to the ground):

Finally, just a moment later, the explosion takes place:

You can see the video yourself here, at least until YouTube scrubs it:

Here's the Google street view at the address, showing the AT&T ''spy hub'' storefront blurred out by Google. Wonder why?

Continue Reading

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:11

By Ariel Zilber For Dailymail.com and Associated Press 04:55 27 Dec 2020, updated 07:06 27 Dec 2020

California remains under statewide lockdown due to surge in number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizationsLos Angeles County's top public health official said that patients are dying at rate of once every 10 minutes Health inspectors handed out fines at restaurants and shopping malls to step up enforcement of guidelines Hospital staff said they are forced to wheel patients into gift shops due to a lack of available room Officials worry that gatherings during Christmas will fuel another surge that could be evident in a few weeks Public health officials in California believe that another surge of COVID-19 cases caused by people gathering during the Christmas holiday could be a matter of time as hospitals statewide are overrun with coronavirus patients.

The situation is so dire that the top public health official in the country's most populous county said that on average one COVID-19 patient is dying every 10 minutes and hospital staff are being forced to place gurneys into gift shops.

Health inspectors and authorities stepped up enforcement at restaurants and shopping malls over the post-Christmas weekend as they desperately seek to curb a coronavirus surge that already has filled some hospitals in California well beyond normal capacity.

Hospitals in Southern California are being overrun with COVID-19 patients, forcing the governor to impose a statewide lockdown. An ambulance crew waits with a patient outside the Coast Plaza Hospital emergency room in Los Angeles on Saturday Hospitals throughout California are operating at beyond normal capacity due to a surge in coronavirus cases. The above image shows patients being treated inside a hallway at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, on Tuesday Ambulance crews wait to admit patients outside of the MLK Community Hospital emergency entrance during a surge of coronavirus disease cases in Los Angeles on SaturdayCrowding at Los Angeles County shopping malls came under scrutiny before the holiday.

Several of them were cited and fined up to $500 for violating COVID-19 measures, which could include not keeping occupancy below 20 per cent capacity and not prohibiting eating and drinking, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday.

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'We're going to take a hard look this weekend at the shopping malls because the pictures we've been seeing are '... another little mini-disaster,' county public health director Barbara Ferrer said.

'The occupancy is supposed to be down to 20 per cent. But when you look around, they look way more crowded than 20 per cent.

An ambulance crew leaves Kaiser Peminente Hospital emergency room during a surge of coronavirus cases in Los Angeles on Saturday Mercy Air flight paramedic Bob (left) and flight nurse Zach (right) stand next to a patient inside the ED at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California on Tuesday Nurses are seen above working in a makeshift emergency room erected under a tent for coronavirus patients at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center on Wednesday in Cotton, California Dr. Mher Onanyan tends to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on Tuesday Nurses treat a COVID-19 patient in an intensive care unit at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles on Tuesday Southern California remains at zero percent of its ICU (Intensive Care Unit) bed capacity amid the spike in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Clinicians are seen above caring for a patient in the lobby of Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, on Wednesday Registered nurse Katelyn Musslewhite cares for a COVID-19 patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California, on Wednesday Juliet Babayan (right) waves goodbye to her sister Violet Bonyad (seated) and caregivers after bringing a present for Violet and visiting through a window at the Ararat Nursing Facility on Christmas Eve in Mission Hills, California'And that just means a complete breakdown of what we are requiring.'

Health officials were waiting to see whether people followed their pleas and avoided Christmas and New Year's festivities that could lead to a new round of infections and threaten to extend stay-at-home orders in several regions of the state.

They repeated warnings before the holiday week that Thanksgiving gatherings where people didn't wear masks or observe social distancing have resulted in a surge.

Beverly Hills police halted a plan for a secret New Year's Eve dinner at La Scala after the Italian restaurant circulated invitations to a 'discreet' meal that would violate the county's ban on indoor dining.

In Sonoma County in California's wine country, a Native American casino announced it was canceling a planned private New Year's Eve indoor event that could have drawn as many as 4,000 people.

The Graton Resort and Casino is on sovereign native land that isn't subject to state or county health orders, but it had come under scrutiny for the event.

Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths have mounted exponentially in recent weeks and are breaking new records.

On Christmas Eve, California became the first state in the nation to exceed 2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Ferrer said on Thursday that 'a person now dies every 10 minutes in LA County from COVID-19 '' and since many of these deaths are preventable, our collective focus should be on doing right to save lives.

'I hope we can each find the strength and courage to take responsibility for each other's well-being.'

On Saturday, the state reported more than 30,000 new COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, a 22 per cent decrease from the previous day.

Officials said the change was due to a glitch keeping the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health from reporting its daily cases and deaths.

There were 36 new deaths reported.

The first coronavirus case in California was confirmed on January 25.

It took 292 days to get to 1 million infections on November 11. Just 44 days later, the number topped 2 million.

The crisis is straining the state's medical system well beyond its normal capacity, prompting hospitals to treat patients in tents, offices and auditoriums.

As of late Saturday, California reported more than 2.07 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nearly 24,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic California public health officials reported that nearly 380,000 new tests were conducted on Friday. The 14-day average positivity rate stood at 12.1 per cent Nearly 20,000 Californians were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of late Saturday. Statewide, there were just under 1,400 ICU beds available California public health officials also reported an increase in the number of COVID-19 positive patients who were admitted to the ICU The above map shows how Southern California is home to the largest concentration of COVID-19 positive patients currently hospitalized as of Friday The above map shows that 55 of California's 58 counties are experiencing 'widespread' cases of COVID-19As of Saturday, California had record numbers of COVID-19 patients in the hospital and in ICUs, at nearly 19,000 and more than 4,000, respectively.

The figures showed no increase in hospitalizations, and there were a few more ICU beds available, for a total of around 1,390 statewide, according to the California Department of Public Health.

However, ICU capacity varied between the five regions of the state.

The Northern California region had 34 per cent of ICU capacity while the Southern California and San Joaquin Valley regions were technically at 0 per cent capacity, meaning that they had no more regular ICU beds available.

Hard-hit hospitals were resorting to surge capacity by putting patients in areas not originally designated for the same level of care, such as post-operative recovery rooms.

Hospitals have also hired extra staff and canceled elective surgeries - all to boost capacity before the cases contracted over Christmas and New Year's show up in the next few weeks.

'Everything is backed up all the way to the street,' Dr. Oscar Casillas, the medical director of the emergency department at Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital in South Los Angeles, told The New York Times.

During normal times, the hospital is set up to serve about 30 people at a time, most of them low income Latinos.

Over the last week, however, the hospital has been inundated with more than 100 patients per day.

This has forced hospital staff to utilize all available space, including the lobby and the gift shop, where gurneys holding patients are stashed.

The hospital waiting room is now a special tent that was erected outside to handle the overflow.

'Every day is scary,' Lisa Thompson, an intensive care nurse at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, told the Times.

'We're all stressed before we even come to work. Tons and tons of patients. We can't even keep up with the amount of patients coming into the hospital.'

In a span of 10 months, California has become the viral epicenter of the nation.

'In the beginning, especially, you saw all these pictures and videos from New York and you think, "Oh my God, it can never get that bad here",' said Mendy Hickey, the quality director at St. Mary's.

'And while we have all the supplies we need, it is that bad here and we have no staff to take care of patients.'

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 13:25

A California National Guard medic prepares to check the vital signs of an incoming patient in front of triage tents outside St. Mary Medical Center last week in Apple Valley amid a surge in COVID-19 patients in Southern California. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Mario Tama/Getty Images A California National Guard medic prepares to check the vital signs of an incoming patient in front of triage tents outside St. Mary Medical Center last week in Apple Valley amid a surge in COVID-19 patients in Southern California.

Mario Tama/Getty Images The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in California has surpassed 2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, as the virus has spread with startling speed in the state.

It's the first state to pass that number. In the last day, according to Johns Hopkins, California saw 43,986 new cases and 319 deaths.

The state's first million cases happened over the course of nearly 10 months, as the Los Angeles Times noted. The second million took just six weeks.

Cases in the state have skyrocketed over the last two months. The positivity rate has been steadily rising in that period, and is now at 12.4% '-- 5 points higher than it was three weeks ago.

The surge is overwhelming hospitals in many parts of the state. More than 19,700 people are currently hospitalized with the virus, with more than 4,000 people in intensive care.

ICU capacity is under enormous strain. By the state's count, there were 1,302 ICU beds available in a state of nearly 40 million people.

In Los Angeles County, the Times found that as of 9 a.m. Sunday, there were just 30 available ICU beds '' a county that's home to 10 million people.

In Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, ICU capacity is zero, according to the state Department of Public Health.

"We don't have space for anybody. We've been holding patients for days because we can't get them transferred, can't get beds for them," Alexis Lenz, an emergency room physician at the medical center in Imperial County, told The Associated Press.

California ranks 36th among the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in cases per 100,000 people since the pandemic began, the Times reported.

"Another spike in cases in the winter holidays will be disastrous for our hospital system and ultimately will mean many more people simply won't be with us in 2021," said Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, the AP reported.

Clinicians work Wednesday in the former lobby of St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, which has been converted into a care space to treat suspected COVID-19 patients. Mario Tama/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Mario Tama/Getty Images Clinicians work Wednesday in the former lobby of St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, which has been converted into a care space to treat suspected COVID-19 patients.

Mario Tama/Getty Images California has seen more than 23,600 coronavirus-related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

A map of California on the state's coronavirus dashboard is a sea of purple, a color that indicates high case numbers '' all but three counties are at the "widespread" risk level.

The number of new daily cases has declined somewhat in the past few days.

"We are experiencing a modest decline in the rate of the growth," Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday, according to the AP. A decline over three days "doesn't necessarily make a trend ... but it's a modest indication of a possible sign of some good news."

Health workers and officials urged Californians to stay home and not gather for Christmas and New Year's celebrations.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said public health officials have drawn "a straight line" between the surge happening now and gatherings that happened at Thanksgiving.

"If you gather for the holidays, our hospitals will be overrun," Garcetti said on Monday, local outlets reported.

"If people don't stay home for Christmas this year, we're going to see something that's, it's hard for me to even imagine," Patrick Macmillan, a physician in Fresno County, told the AP. "I think it will break the health care system if people don't stay home."

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 22:34

Researchers warn that the British variant is so contagious that new control measures, including closing down schools and universities, may be necessary.

A gazebo outside a bar in London on Dec. 15. The city and much of southeastern England has since returned to lockdown. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times A team of British scientists released a worrying study on Wednesday of the new coronavirus variant sweeping the United Kingdom. They warned that the variant is so contagious that new control measures, including closing down schools and universities, might be necessary. Even that may not be enough, they noted, saying, ''It may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine rollout.''

Nicholas Davies, the lead author of the study, said that the model should also serve as a warning to other countries where the variant may have already spread.

''The preliminary findings are pretty convincing that more rapid vaccination is going to be a really important thing for any country that has to deal with this or similar variants,'' Dr. Davies, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in an interview.

The study, released by the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has not yet undergone review by a scientific journal. The study compares a series of models as predictors of data on infections, hospitalizations and other variables; other researchers are studying the variant in laboratory experiments to determine if it is biologically distinct.

The study found no evidence that the variant was more deadly than others. But the researchers estimated that it was 56 percent more contagious. On Monday, the British government released an initial estimate of 70 percent.

Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, said that it presented a compelling explanation of the past and potential future of the variant.

''The overall message of it is solid and consistent with what we've been seeing from other sources of information,'' he said in an interview. ''Does this matter? Yes. Is there evidence for increased transmission? Yes. Is that going to impact the next few months? Yes. Those are all, I think, pretty solid.''

Spikes used to latch onto and enter human cells

CORONAVIRUS

E

M

N

MUTATIONS

that led to the

B.1.1.7 variant

X

X

Spikes used to latch onto and enter human cells

CORONAVIRUS

N protein

M protein

E protein

Spike protein

MUTATIONS

that led to the

B.1.1.7 variant

ORF1b protein

(deletion)

ORF1a protein

The variant, which came to the attention of British researchers earlier this month, has been rapidly spreading in London and eastern England. It carries a set of 23 mutations, some of which may make it more contagious.

Dr. Davies and his colleagues found more evidence that the variant does indeed spread more rapidly than others. For example, they ruled out the possibility that it was becoming more common in some regions of the U.K. because people in those places move around more and are more likely to come into contact with each other. Data recorded by Google, indicating the movements of individual cellphone users over time, showed no such difference.

The researchers built different mathematical models and tested each one as an explanation for the variant's spread. They analyzed which model of the spread best predicted the number of new cases that actually were confirmed, as well as hospitalization and deaths.

The researchers concluded that the variant is able to spread to more people on average than other variants are. Dr. Davies cautioned that their estimate of 56 percent more contagious was still rough, because they are still gathering data about the variant's most recent spread. ''I think when we get more of that curve, we'll be more certain,'' he said.

Still, he said, even with the data he and his colleagues have so far, he felt confident that the new variant must be taken very seriously. ''I do feel that with the totality of the evidence, it's a strong case,'' he said.

Dr. Davies and his colleagues then projected what the new variant would do over the next six months and built models that factored in different levels of restrictions. Without a more substantial vaccine rollout, they warned, ''cases, hospitalizations, I.C.U. admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those in 2020.''

Closing schools until February could buy Britain some time, the researchers found, but lifting those extra restrictions would then cause a major rebound of cases.

Dr. Davies and his colleagues also took into account the protection that vaccines will provide. Vaccine experts are confident that coronavirus vaccines will be able to block the new variant, although that has to be confirmed by laboratory experiments that are now underway.

To look at the impact of the current rate of vaccinations, the researchers made a model in which 200,000 people were vaccinated each week. That pace was too slow to have much effect on the outbreak. ''That kind of pace wouldn't really be able to support much relaxation of any of the control measures,'' Dr. Davies said.

But when they raised the vaccinations to 2 million a week, they saw a reduction in the peak burden on I.C.U.s. Whether the U.K. can ramp up vaccinations by a factor of 10 is unknown.

As of Tuesday, the variant had not been identified in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ''Given the small fraction of U.S. infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected,'' they warned.

The United States is vaccinating its citizens more slowly than expected. That could potentially become a problem if the variant in the U.K. became widespread in the United States as well.

''You need to be able to get whatever barriers to transmission you can out there as soon as possible,'' Dr. Hanage said.

Dr. Davies cautioned that the model he and his colleagues analyzed was based, like any model, on a set of assumptions, some of which may turn out to be wrong. For instance, the rate at which infected people die from Covid-19 may continue to drop as doctors improve at caring for hospitalized patients. Uncertainties remain as to whether the new variant is more contagious in children, and if so, by how much.

They also did not take into account other tools for stopping the spread of the variant, such as an aggressive program to test people and isolate those who are infected. ''That's a limitation of the paper,'' Dr. Davies said. The researchers are now starting to analyze new possibilities such as that one.

Still, Dr. Davies and his colleagues wrote in the conclusion to their study, ''there is an urgent need to consider what new approaches may be required to sufficiently reduce the ongoing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.''

Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, who was not involved in the study, said of the new estimates, ''Unfortunately, this is another twist in the plot.''

''While we were all rejoicing for the vaccine,'' he added, ''here is the possibility of a change of epidemiological context that makes our next few months much more complex and more perilous to navigate. Evidence is accumulating that the variant is more transmissible, and this implies that it will likely require an even greater effort to keep spreading under control.''

Dr. Hanage cautioned that the model had some shortcomings. The researchers assumed that all people younger than 20 had a 50 percent chance of spreading the disease. Although that might be true for younger children, Dr. Hanage said, it is not for teenagers. ''That's the weakest part of their model,'' he said.

Nonetheless, he said, the study provided an important glimpse into the country's possible futures. ''It's not a forecast, it's not a prediction, it's not saying this will happen,'' he said. ''It is saying that if you don't take it seriously, this is the kind of thing that could very easily happen.''

Benjamin Mueller contributed reporting.

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 17:09

This gal.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health led by Dr. Rachel Levine issued new rules for large gatherings ''where you might end up having sex.'' These large gatherings ''where you might end up having sex'' are also commonly referred to as orgies.

Via Rose Tennent:

WTH: From PA's oh so smart Sec of Health:Where to Start??

'' IF you attend a Large Gathering where you might end up having sex* ORGY??

'' If you USUALLY meet sex partners online '' consider;*PORN?? pic.twitter.com/S6TK3p8OYm

'-- Rose Unplugged (@rose_unplugged) December 16, 2020

From the Pennsylvania Department of Health:

Large gatherings are not safe during COVID19, but if you attend a large gathering where you might end up having sex, below are tips to reduce your risk of spreading or getting COVID-19 through sex:

Limit the number of partners.Try to identify a consistent sex partner.Wear a face covering, avoid kissing, and do not touch your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.Wash your hands with soap and water often, and especially before and after sex. If soap and water are not available use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.If you usually meet your sex partners online, consider taking a break from in-person dates. Video dates, sexting, subscription-based fan platforms, or chat rooms may be options for you.3. Protect yourself and your partners from COVID-19 during sex.

Avoid kissing. Kissing can easily pass the virus.Wear a face covering or mask.During COVID-19, wearing a face covering that covers your nose and mouth is a good way to add a layer of protection during sex with those outside your household.The post Pennsylvania Health Department Issues Preferred COVID Orgy Regulations: Wear a Face Covering, Avoid Kissing, Wash Hands Often appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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My Uncle Joe, his riveting stories from Vietnam and hippie-era San Francisco '-- and four classic rock albums he gave me for Christmas 1 hour ago

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In The Morning!

Got some PCR info from our "CDC" called FolkHälsomyndigheten ("Authority for Population Health"). I've been lobbying them for a while now on this matter. I don't know for sure that I single handedly made them change it but I do believe so :-) ! I've simply been asking for clarification on the matter repeatadly, nice and polite with references when applicable. Couldn't have done it without you guys and all the producers. Thank You!!!!

(Translated from Swedish to English by https://www.systransoft.com/lp/swedish-english-translation/ )

Source:

https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/publicerat-material/publikationsarkiv/v/vagledning-om-kriterier-for-bedomning-av-smittfrihet-vid-covid-19/

I continued to ask questions and also got this in an e-mail:

I'm very excited to have found out how easy it is to make a difference by acting like you honestly don't know and honestly want to find out. Keep asking, keep referencing!

I'm still working on them putting a cap on or publishing the cycles used. More on that later(?).

Thanks again/Jonahgold

I was listening to Thursday's episode today and you and John were

wondering about tests for immunity.

There is a test it is known as a Titer

.

Here is a link that describes it better than I

https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/services/titers-and-immunity-testing

This test is sometimes used if you were vaccinated as a child, say for

MMR, but have no records. The titer can show you have immunity, but

it can also show you do not have immunity, even if you had a vaccine.

Sorry to send this so late (see the attached e-mail below from my school principal - please do not say his name of the name of my school). Just breaking - I was told last week at work (an international school in Shanghai), that we can "volunteer" to get a vaccine.

I think that the options are from Chinese vaccine makers: SinoVac; or SinoPharm. These are "regular" vaccines - not mRNA. However, SinoVac uses aluminum adjuvant. SinoPharm uses the adjuvant called CpG 1018 - made by Dynavax. SinoPharm also uses Polysorbate 80 as an emulsifying agent.

Many of my colleagues at two of our campuses have registered to get the shot. And one did so today!!!

Of course most of the non-Chinese nationals believe two things: (a) the shots will not injure them; AND (b) they will get to travel and not be subject to 14-day quarantines.

I expect that they are wrong on both accounts.

My Candanavian friend living in a neighboring province has been given the option to get an mRNA vaccine (made by a Chinese company, of course). My Candanavian friend will not get any shots.

Please ask other producers in China - (we can all listen now on the new NA website) - to send in reports!!!

JCJ, PhD, JD (Professor JJ)

The press here in Korea is claiming that people are angry for Moon about vaccine shortages. All of my students have to do News Story projects. It's a good way for me to hear their thoughts, and be there to correct their English, but let them interact with one another without putting much of my opinion on things.

Some are skeptical because of the tainted flu shots earlier this year that caused death here in the country. Some will take the vaccine to get back to normal. Everyone wears masks now. I wear it if I go into stores, but not covering my nose. I don't wear it walking on the street unless its a very busy main street.

Businesses are open and busy. But there is a 9pm closure for restaurants here now (because as No Agenda and others point out, we know that the COVID baloney virus follows strict curfew guidelines too). More stories about "cases increasing" and blah blah blah...

I'm still planning a trip to Mexico, but making sure I go direct from Korea to Mexico, because I don't want funny business in flight layover countries.

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Archived Version

Fri, 25 Dec 2020 22:48

Posted: Dec 25, 2020 / 09:05 AM MST / Updated: Dec 25, 2020 / 11:03 AM MST

FILE '' In this Oct. 5, 2015, file photo, a black-footed ferret looks out of the entrance to a prairie dog tunnel after being let loose during a release of 30 of the animals by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Commerce City, Colo. In the summer of 2020, about 120 ferrets at Colorado's National Black-footed Conservation Center were injected with an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The endangered animals are feared to be highly vulnerable to the disease. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

(AP) '-- Months before people started getting vaccinated for COVID-19, endangered black-footed ferrets in northern Colorado were injected with an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

Kaiser Health News reports that about 120 animals at the National Black-footed Conservation Center near Fort Collins got the vaccine in late summer. There haven't been any cases of COVID-19 there but ferrets are feared to be highly vulnerable to the disease.

Experts say vaccinating vulnerable species against the disease is important for humans too. When animals contract the virus from humans, it can mutate as it spreads rapidly, posing a new threat if it spills back to people.

Ferrets were rescued from the brink of extinction after some were discovered in Wyoming four decades ago.

More COVID-19 Vaccine StoriesPope on COVID-19 vaccine: Needy, vulnerable must come firstVATICAN CITY (AP) '-- Pope Francis made a Christmas Day plea for authorities to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all, insisting that the first in line should be the most vulnerable and needy, regardless of who holds the patents for the shots.

''Vaccines for everybody, especially for the most vulnerable and needy," who should be first in line, Francis said in off-the-cuff remarks from his prepared text, calling the development of such vaccines ''light of hope'' for the world.

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Colorado vaccinating correctional workers ahead of scheduleDENVER (KDVR) -- The state can't afford to waste a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines, so as soon as Pfizer vaccine vials are popped open, they need six people in line to receive their first shot. But some of those people in line are not the health care workers or nursing home workers and residents described in Phase 1A of the state's plan.

''If it's Phase 1 or 1A or 1B, that you at least have those people in line because a shot in the arm to anyone in those phases is better than a wasted vaccine,'' said Brigadier General of the Colorado National Guard Scott Sherman.

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Video Some Denver Sheriff Deputies set to receive vaccine next week, ahead of health care workersDENVER (KDVR) -- There is a pecking order followed across the state of which groups get the vaccine first, but the Problem Solvers are learning some Denver Sheriff Department employees have been scheduled to receive their first dose of vaccine before Phase 1A is complete, putting them ahead of some nurses, doctors and Coloradans in long-term care facilities.

''All medical providers should be vaccinated before I am or -- in my opinion -- other law enforcement,'' said an employee of Denver Sheriff's Department.

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 00:37

The study is the first of its kind in the world. UV rays, illustrative

(photo credit: ING IMAGE)

Ultraviolet radiation is a common method of killing bacteria and viruses. Now, researchers from Tel Aviv University have proven that the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, can be killed efficiently, quickly and cheaply using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) at specific frequencies.

''We discovered that it is quite simple to kill the coronavirus using LED bulbs that radiate ultraviolet light,'' said Prof. Hadas Mamane, head of the Environmental Engineering Program at Tel Aviv University's School of Mechanical Engineering, who led the study with Prof. Yoram Gerchman and Dr. Michal Mandelboim.

She said that the UV-LED bulbs require less than half a minute to destroy more than 99.9% of the coronaviruses.

The study is the first of its kind in the world. An article about it was published earlier this month in the

Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology.

The Jerusalem Post has written about Mamane many times. She

presented this summer at the Boris Mints Institute 2020 Research Conference on her involvement in the construction of a 30-meter "green wall" at the university, which is meant to create a sustainable ecosystem for waste, energy and water.

The wall is also meant to act as a living laboratory to analyze the uses of greywater (wastewater generated from sinks, showers, baths, and washing machines) in absorbing carbon dioxide, as well as the effects on heat transfer and energy generation within old buildings that are prevalent in urban settings.

At the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, her research team developed an Israeli, low-cost, decentralized, nonpolluting means of producing ethanol '' and thereby an alcohol-based hand sanitizer '' from plant-based waste, such as municipal and agricultural trim, straw and residual paper fibers.

LEDs are available in a wide range of wavelengths, known as A, B and C, explained Mamane.

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Prof. Hadas Mamane (Credit: Tel Aviv University)UV-A has a wavelength in the range of 315 nanometers (nm) to 400 nm. UV-B, also known as medium wave light, has a wavelength of 280-315 nm; UV-C has a wavelength of 200-280 nm.

UV-A is emitted by the sun (and artificial sources like tanning beds) and is weaker than UV-B and C. It has some human benefits, such as the creation of vitamin D, but it is also what causes sunburns and, in some cases, skin cancer.

UV-B and C radiation never really reaches humans naturally because these rays are absorbed by the earth's ozone layer.

These ultraviolet wavelengths, which are what Tel Aviv researchers were examining, are especially effective in disinfection using UV-LED bulbs.

''We know, for example, that medical staff do not have time to manually disinfect, say, computer keyboards and other surfaces in hospitals '' and the result is infection and quarantine,'' said Mamane. ''The disinfection systems based on LED bulbs, however, can be installed in the ventilation system and air conditioner, for example, and sterilize the air sucked in and then emitted into the room.''

She added that, "We are also developing, together with a scientist in North Western University a transparent coating that can be dipped or sprayed on surfaces and can kill viruses using visible light LEDs that are not dangerous and are used everywhere, providing another application for regular LEDs."

In her team's research, they managed to kill the virus using cheaper and more readily available LED bulbs '' 285 nm vs. 265 nm bulbs '' which consume little energy and do not contain mercury like regular UV lamps.

She said that as the science develops, the industry will be able to make the necessary adjustments and install the bulbs in robotic systems, or air conditioning, vacuum and water systems, and thereby be able to efficiently disinfect large surfaces and spaces.

''Our research has commercial and societal implications,'' Mamane said.

She added that her team had been working on UV-LEDs for a long time before coronavirus. But when COVID-19 surfaced, they tried to see if they could transfer their efforts to tackling the human coronavirus, studying the use of LEDs for killing corona at different frequencies.

She said the 285 nm LED is 15% to 30% less expensive and requires only a little more time to be effective.

''Anything that can reduce cost could help implementation,'' she said.

She added that UV LEDs have an advantage because they can be turned on and off in an instant.

Mamane believes that this technology is the future, adding that she expects that by 2025, it will be cost effective enough to become mainstream.

''UV LEDs have a huge future,'' she added. ''Of course, as always, when it comes to ultraviolet radiation, it is important to make it clear to people that it is dangerous to try to use this method to disinfect surfaces inside homes. You need to know how to design these systems and how to work with them so that you are not directly exposed to the light.''

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:00

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) '-- As Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine begins circulating, there is another big logistical challenge ahead: reminding people to get the second dose.

Both vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna require two doses spaced several weeks apart. People who get immunized often feel fatigue or soreness shortly after the shot and may experience fever, particularly after the second dose, according to clinical trial data.

Doctors say those immediate, short-term side effects are a positive sign the immune system is revving up production.

The side effects are similar to that of the shingles vaccine. But studies show about 20 percent of the people who get the shingles vaccine skip the second dose.

Experts say if that happens with the COVID vaccines, there could be consequences.

The worst-case-scenario is that skipping the second shot could allow the virus to spread and mutate, and potentially build resistance to the vaccines, according to Penn State University biologist David Kennedy.

That outcome is considered unlikely, but the World Health Organization announced Monday it detected a new variation of the virus in England, showing the virus is already mutating without the evolution pressure of a mass vaccine program.

''Does this make the virus more serious? Does it allow the virus to transmit more easily? Does it interfere with diagnostics? Would it interfere with vaccine effectiveness? These are questions. None of these questions have been addressed yet,'' said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program.

When administered in two doses, Pfizer's vaccine is 95 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms. The FDA's review showed the vaccine could be up to 52 percent effective after a single dose, but the data was limited.

''I think you could probably say you're going to have short-lived but incomplete protection,'' said vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit. ''Protection from disease but possibly not asymptomatic shedding.''

It remains unclear whether people who are fully immunized against the virus can still spread it to others asymptomatically but someone who is only partially immunized may be especially prone to silent spread, according to Offit.

When Americans roll up their sleeves to get the COVID-19 vaccine, they'll get a 4 by 6 inch index card from the CDC noting which brand they got, the lot number, and when they're due for the second shot.

People who get Pfizer's vaccine need to get a second shot 21 days later. People who get Moderna's need to wait 28 days for round two.

The CDC is encouraging people to photograph their card with their cell phone as a backup, because beyond the index card, the logistics of reminding people about their second dose will vary by state and healthcare provider.

In California's draft vaccination plan from October, the state said it was exploring ways to "systematically text, email, and/or auto-call individuals when their second dose is needed." The California Department of Public Health did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its latest plans.

Much of the work may fall to the healthcare providers who administer the shots. Although the vaccine will be free for individuals, the government is paying providers $17 for every first dose they give and $28 for every second dose, a way to incentivize providers to keep close tabs on patients.

However, only about 25 percent of the nation's vaccination providers have systems that can send automated reminders, according to L.J Tan, the chief strategy officer of the Immunization Action Coalition.

Copyright 2020 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:41

εÎ>>Î>>ηνικά/Deutsch/ Portuguªs

Welcome! In this post, we'll be taking a character-by-character look at thesource code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine.

I want to thank the large cast of people who spent time previewing thisarticle for legibility and correctness. All mistakes remain mine though,but I would love to hear about them quickly at bert@hubertnet.nl or@PowerDNS_Bert

Now, these words may be somewhat jarring - the vaccine is a liquid that getsinjected in your arm. How can we talk about source code?

This is a good question, so let's start off with a small part of the verysource code of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, also known asBNT162b2, alsoknown as Tozinameran also known asComirnaty.

First 500 characters of the BNT162b2 mRNA. Source: World Health Organization

The BNT162b mRNA vaccine has this digital code at its heart. It is 4284characters long, so it would fit in a bunch of tweets. At the verybeginning of the vaccine production process, someone uploaded this code to aDNA printer (yes), which then converted the bytes on disk to actual DNAmolecules.

A Codex DNA BioXp 3200 DNA printer

Out of such a machine come tiny amounts of DNA, which after a lot ofbiological and chemical processing end up as RNA (more about which later) inthe vaccine vial. A 30 microgram dose turns out to actually contain 30micrograms of RNA. In addition, there is a clever lipid (fatty) packagingsystem that gets the mRNA into our cells.

RNA is the volatile 'working memory' version of DNA. DNA is like the flashdrive storage of biology. DNA is very durable, internally redundant andvery reliable. But much like computers do not execute code directly from aflash drive, before something happens, code gets copied to a faster,more versatile yet far more fragile system.

For computers, this is RAM, for biology it is RNA. The resemblance isstriking. Unlike flash memory, RAM degrades very quickly unless lovinglytended to. The reason the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine must be stored in thedeepest of deep freezers is the same: RNA is a fragile flower.

Each RNA character weighs on the order of 0.53·10'>>²¹ grams, meaningthere are 6·10¹'¶ characters in a single 30 microgram vaccine dose.Expressed in bytes, this is around 25 petabytes, although it must be saidthis consists of around 2000 billion repetitions of the same 4284characters. The actual informational content of the vaccine is just over akilobyte. SARS-CoV-2 itself weighs in at around 7.5 kilobytes.

The briefest bit of backgroundDNA is a digital code. Unlike computers, which use 0 and 1, life uses A, C, Gand U/T (the 'nucleotides', 'nucleosides' or 'bases').

In computers we store the 0 and 1 as the (ab)sence of a charge, or as acurrent, as a magnetic transition, or as a voltage, or as a modulation of asignal, or as a change of reflexivity. Or in short, the 0 and 1 are not somekind of abstract concept - they live as electrons and in many other physicalembodiments.

In nature, A, C, G and U/T are molecules, stored as chains in DNA (or RNA).

In computers, we group 8 bits into a byte, and the byte is the typical unitof data being processed.

Nature groups 3 nucleotides into a codon, and this codon is the typical unitof processing. A codon contains 6 bits of information (2 bits per DNAcharacter, 3 characters = 6 bits. This means 2'¶ = 64 different codon values).

Pretty digital so far. When in doubt, head to the WHOdocument with thedigital code to see for yourself.

Some further reading is availablehere - this link ('Whatis life') might help make sense of the rest of this page. Or, if you likevideo, I have two hours for you.

So what does that code DO?The idea of a vaccine is to teach our immune system how to fight a pathogen,without us actually getting ill. Historically this has been done byinjecting a weakened or incapacitated (attenuated) virus, plus an 'adjuvant'to scare our immune system into action. This was a decidedly analoguetechnique involving billions of eggs (or insects). It also required a lotof luck and loads of time. Sometimes a different (unrelated) virus was alsoused.

An mRNA vaccine achieves the same thing ('educate our immune system') but ina laser like way. And I mean this in both senses - very narrow but alsovery powerful.

So here is how it works. The injection contains volatile genetic materialthat describes the famous SARS-CoV-2 'Spike' protein. Through cleverchemical means, the vaccine manages to get this genetic material into some ofour cells.

These then dutifully start producing SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins in largeenough quantities that our immune system springs into action. Confrontedwith Spike proteins, and (importantly) tell-tale signs that cells have beentaken over, our immune system develops a powerful response against multipleaspects of the Spike protein AND the production process.

And this is what gets us to the 95% efficient vaccine.

The source code!Let's start at the very beginning, a very good placeto start. The WHO document has thishelpful picture:

This is a sort of table of contents. We'll start with the 'cap', actuallydepicted as a little hat.

Much like you can't just plonk opcodes in a file on a computer and run it,the biological operating system requires headers, has linkers and thingslike calling conventions.

The code of the vaccine starts with the following two nucleotides:

GAThis can be compared very much to every DOS and Windows executable startingwith MZ, or UNIX scripts starting with#!. In both life andoperating systems, these two characters are not executed in any way. Butthey have to be there because otherwise nothing happens.

The mRNA 'cap' has a number offunctions. For one, it marks code as comingfrom the nucleus. In our case of course it doesn't, our code comes from avaccination. But we don't need to tell the cell that. The cap makes our codelook legit, which protects it from destruction.

The initial two GA nucleotides are also chemically slightly different fromthe rest of the RNA. In this sense, the GA has some out-of-bandsignaling on it.

The ''five-prime untranslated region''Some lingo here. RNA molecules can only be read in one direction.Confusingly, the part where the reading begins is called the 5' or'five-prime'. The reading stops at the 3' or three-prime end.

Life consists of proteins (or things made by proteins). And these proteinsare described in RNA. When RNA gets converted into proteins, this is calledtranslation.

Here we have the 5' untranslated region ('UTR'), so this bit does not end upin the protein:

GAAΨAAACΨAGΨAΨΨCΨΨCΨGGΨCCCCACAGACΨCAGAGAGAACCCGCCACCHere we encounter our first surprise. The normal RNA characters are A, C, Gand U. U is also known as 'T' in DNA. But here we find a Ψ, what is goingon?

This is one of the exceptionally clever bits about the vaccine. Our bodyruns a powerful antivirus system (''the original one''). For this reason,cells are extremely unenthusiastic about foreign RNA and try very hard todestroy it before it does anything.

This is somewhat of a problem for our vaccine - it needs to sneak past ourimmune system. Over many years of experimentation, it was found that if theU in RNA is replaced by a slightly modified molecule, our immune systemloses interest. For real.

So in the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, every U has been replaced by1-methyl-3'-pseudouridylyl, denoted by Ψ. The really clever bit is thatalthough this replacement Ψ placates (calms) our immune system, it isaccepted as a normal U by relevant parts of the cell.

In computer security we also know this trick - it sometimes is possible totransmit a slightly corrupted version of a message that confuses firewalls andsecurity solutions, but that is still accepted by the backend servers -which can then get hacked.

We are now reaping the benefits of fundamental scientific research performedin the past. Thediscoverersof this Ψ technique had to fight to gettheirwork funded and then accepted. We should all be very grateful, and I am surethe Nobel prizes will arrive in duecourse.

Many people have asked, could viruses also use the Ψ technique to beat ourimmune systems? In short, this is extremely unlikely. Life simply doesnot have the machinery to build 1-methyl-3'-pseudouridylyl nucleotides.Viruses rely on the machinery of life to reproduce themselves, and thisfacility is simply not there. The mRNA vaccines quickly degrade in thehuman body, and there is no possibility of the Ψ-modified RNAreplicating with the Ψ still in there. ''No, Really, mRNA Vaccines Are Not Going To Affect YourDNA''is also a good read.

Ok, back to the 5' UTR. What do these 51 characters do? As everything innature, almost nothing has one clear function.

When our cells need to translate RNA into proteins, this is done using amachine called the ribosome. The ribosome is like a 3D printer forproteins. It ingests a strand of RNA and based on that it emits a string ofamino acids, which then fold into a protein.

Source: Wikipedia user BensaccountThis is what we see happening above. The black ribbon at the bottom is RNA.The ribbon appearing in the green bit is the protein being formed. Thethings flying in and out are amino acids plus adaptors to make them fit onRNA.

This ribosome needs to physically sit on the RNA strand for it to get towork. Once seated, it can start forming proteins based on further RNA itingests. From this, you can imagine that it can't yet read the parts whereit lands on first. This is just one of the functions of the UTR: theribosome landing zone. The UTR provides 'lead-in'.

In addition to this, the UTR also contains metadata: when should translationhappen? And how much? For the vaccine, they took the most 'right now' UTRthey could find, taken from the alpha globingene.This gene is known to robustly produce a lot of proteins. In previousyears, scientists had already found ways to optimize this UTR even further(according to the WHO document), so this is not quite the alpha globin UTR.It is better.

The S glycoprotein signal peptideAs noted, the goal of the vaccine is to get the cell to produce copiousamounts of the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. Up to this point, we have mostlyencountered metadata and ''calling convention'' stuff in the vaccine sourcecode. But now we enter the actual viral protein territory.

We still have one layer of metadata to go however. Once the ribosome (from thesplendid animation above) has made a protein, that protein still needs to gosomewhere. This is encoded in the ''S glycoprotein signal peptide (extended leadersequence)''.

The way to see this is that at the beginning of the protein there is a sortof address label - encoded as part of the protein itself. In this specificcase, the signal peptide says that this protein should exit the cell via the''endoplasmic reticulum''. Even Star Trek lingo is not as fancy as this!

The ''signal peptide'' is not very long, but when we look at the code, thereare differences between the viral and vaccine RNA:

(Note that for comparison purposes, I have replaced the fancy modified Ψ by aregular RNA U)

           3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3   3Virus:   AUG UUU GUU UUU CUU GUU UUA UUG CCA CUA GUC UCU AGU CAG UGU GUUVaccine: AUG UUC GUG UUC CUG GUG CUG CUG CCU CUG GUG UCC AGC CAG UGU GUU               !   !   !   !   ! ! ! !     !   !   !   !   !            So what is going on? I have not accidentally listed the RNA in groups of 3letters. Three RNA characters make up a codon. And every codon encodes for aspecific amino acid. The signal peptide in the vaccine consists of exactlythe same amino acids as in the virus itself.

So how come the RNA is different?

There are 4"=64 different codons, since there are 4 RNA characters, andthere are three of them in a codon. Yet there are only 20 differentamino acids. This means that multiple codons encode for the same amino acid.

Life uses the following nearly universal table for mapping RNA codons toamino acids:

The RNA codon table (Wikipedia)

In this table, we can see that the modifications in the vaccine (UUU ->UUC) are all synonymous. The vaccine RNA code is different, but the sameamino acids and the same protein come out.

If we look closely, we see that the majority of the changes happen in thethird codon position, noted with a '3' above. And if we check the universalcodon table, we see that this third position indeed often does not matterfor which amino acid is produced.

So, the changes are synonymous, but then why are they there? Lookingclosely, we see that all changes except one lead to more C and Gs.

So why would you do that? As noted above, our immune system takes a very dimview of 'exogenous' RNA, RNA code coming from outside the cell. To evadedetection, the 'U' in the RNA was already replaced by a Ψ.

However, it turns out that RNA with a higheramount of Gs and Cs isalso converted more efficiently intoproteins,

And this has been achieved in the vaccine RNA by replacing many characterswith Gs and Cs wherever this was possible.

I'm slightly fascinated by the one change that did not lead to anadditional C or G, the CCA -> CCU modification. If anyone knows the reason,please let me know! Note that I'm aware that some codons are more commonthan others in the human genome, but I also read that this does notinfluence translation speed alot.

The actual Spike proteinThe next 3777 characters of the vaccine RNA are similarly 'codon optimized'to add a lot of C's and G's. In the interest of space I won't list allthe code here, but we are going to zoom in on one exceptionally specialbit. This is the bit that makes it work, the part that will actually help usreturn to life as normal:

                  *   *          L   D   K   V   E   A   E   V   Q   I   D   R   L   I   T   GVirus:   CUU GAC AAA GUU GAG GCU GAA GUG CAA AUU GAU AGG UUG AUC ACA GGCVaccine: CUG GAC CCU CCU GAG GCC GAG GUG CAG AUC GAC AGA CUG AUC ACA GGC          L   D   P   P   E   A   E   V   Q   I   D   R   L   I   T   G           !     !!! !!        !   !       !   !   !   ! !              Here we see the usual synonymous RNA changes. For example, in the firstcodon we see that CUU is changed into CUG. This adds another 'G' to thevaccine, which we know helps enhance protein production. Both CUUand CUG encode for the amino acid 'L' or Leucine, so nothing changed in theprotein.

When we compare the entire Spike protein in the vaccine, all changes aresynonymous like this.. except for two, and this is what we see here.

The third and fourth codons above represent actual changes. The K and Vamino acids there are both replaced by 'P' or Proline. For 'K' this requiredthree changes ('!!!') and for 'V' it required only two ('!!').

It turns out that these two changes enhance the vaccine efficiencyenormously.

So what is happening here? If you look at a real SARS-CoV-2 particle, youcan see the Spike protein as, well, a bunch of spikes:

SARS virus particles (Wikipedia)

The spikes are mounted on the virus body ('the nucleocapsid protein'). Butthe thing is, our vaccine is only generating the spikes itself, and we'renot mounting them on any kind of virus body.

It turns out that, unmodified, freestanding Spike proteins collapse into adifferent structure. If injected as a vaccine, this would indeed cause ourbodies to develop immunity.. but only against the collapsed spike protein.

And the real SARS-CoV-2 shows up with the spiky Spike. The vaccine would notwork very well in that case.

So what to do? In 2017 it was described how putting a double Prolinesubstitution in just the rightplace would make theSARS-CoV-1 and MERSS proteins take up their 'pre-fusion' configuration, even without being part ofthe whole virus. This works because Proline is a very rigid amino acid. Itacts as a kind of splint, stabilising the protein in the state we need toshow to the immune system.

The people thatdiscovered this should be walkingaround high-fiving themselves incessantly. Unbearable amounts of smugnessshould be emanating from them. And it would all be welldeserved.

Update! I have been contacted by the McLellanlab, one of thegroups behind the Proline discovery. They tell me the high-fiving issubdued because of the ongoing pandemic, but they are pleased to havecontributed to the vaccines. They also stress the importance of many othergroups, workers and volunteers.

The end of the protein, next stepsIf we scroll through the rest of the source code, we encounter some smallmodifications at the end of the Spike protein:

          V   L   K   G   V   K   L   H   Y   T   s             Virus:   GUG CUC AAA GGA GUC AAA UUA CAU UAC ACA UAAVaccine: GUG CUG AAG GGC GUG AAA CUG CAC UAC ACA UGA UGA           V   L   K   G   V   K   L   H   Y   T   s   s                         !   !   !   !     ! !   !          ! At the end of a protein we find a 'stop' codon, denoted here by a lowercase's'. This is a polite way of saying that the protein should end here. Theoriginal virus uses the UAA stop codon, the vaccine uses two UGA stopcodons, perhaps just for good measure.

The 3' Untranslated RegionMuch like the ribosome needed some lead-in at the 5' end, where we found the'five prime untranslated region', at the end of a protein we find a similarconstruct called the 3' UTR.

Many words could be written about the 3' UTR, but here I quote what theWikipediasays: ''The 3'-untranslated region plays a crucial role in geneexpression by influencing the localization, stability, export, andtranslation efficiency of an mRNA .. despite our current understanding of3'-UTRs, they are still relative mysteries''.

What we do know is that certain 3'-UTRs are very successful at promotingprotein expression. According to the WHO document, the BioNTech/Pfizervaccine 3'-UTR was picked from ''the amino-terminal enhancer of split (AES)mRNA and the mitochondrial encoded 12S ribosomal RNA to confer RNA stabilityand high total protein expression''. To which I say, well done.

The AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA end of it allThe very end of mRNA is polyadenylated. This is a fancy way of saying itends on a lot of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Even mRNA has had enough of 2020 itappears.

mRNA can be reused many times, but as this happens, it also loses some ofthe A's at the end. Once the A's run out, the mRNA is no longer functionaland gets discarded. In this way, the 'poly-A' tail is protection fromdegradation.

Studies have been done to find out what the optimal number of A's at the endis for mRNA vaccines. I read in the open literature that this peaked at 120or so.

The BNT162b2 vaccine ends with:

                                     ****** ****UAGCAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAGCAUAU GACUAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAA AAAAThis is 30 A's, then a ''10 nucleotide linker'' (GCAUAUGACU), followed by another 70A's.

I suspect that what we see here is the result of further proprietaryoptimization to enhance protein expression even more.

SummarisingWith this, we now know the exact mRNA contents of the BNT162b2 vaccine, andfor most parts we understand why they are there:

The CAP to make sure the RNA looks like regular mRNAA known successful and optimized 5' untranslated region (UTR)A codon optimized signal peptide to send the Spike protein to the rightplace (copied 100% from the original virus)A codon optimized version of the original spike, with two 'Proline'substitutions to make sure the protein appears in the right formA known successful and optimized 3' untranslated regionA slightly mysterious poly-A tail with an unexplained 'linker' in thereThe codon optimization adds a lot of G and C to the mRNA. Meanwhile, using Ψ(1-methyl-3'-pseudouridylyl) instead of U helps evade our immune system, sothe mRNA stays around long enough so we can actually help train the immunesystem.

Further reading/viewingIn 2017 I held a two hour presentation on DNA, which you can viewhere. Like this page it is aimed at computerpeople.

In addition, I've been maintaining a page on 'DNA forprogrammers' since 2001.

You might also enjoy this introduction to our amazing immunesystem.

Finally, this listing of my blog posts has quite someDNA, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID related material.

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Archived Version

Sun, 27 Dec 2020 14:32

'Freedom passports' may be best way to save businesses: Documents showing you have been vaccinated or are immune to Covid-19 offer the chance to break free from cycle of contagion and lockdown, writes JEREMY KINGBy Jeremy King For The Daily Mail

Published: 18:08 EST, 22 December 2020 | Updated: 02:44 EST, 23 December 2020

So far, the vaccination programme has been presented as the only hope of escape from this pandemic.

But the reality is dawning that it could take months before enough jabs are administered to provide immunity across the population, by which time the economic damage will be horrendous.

However, there could be another far swifter way back to a form of normality if the Government is willing to grasp it.

The answer lies in offering 'Covid passports' to those who have been vaccinated or have acquired immunity because they were exposed to the virus and have therefore developed antibodies.

Coronavirus passports would give their users the freedom to go to pubs, restaurants, schools and workplaces. (Stock image)

Exploiting the more successful elements of the test and trace technology, the digital passport would use a phone app which would give proof of immunity.

Such passports would give their users the freedom to go to pubs, restaurants, schools and workplaces, thereby providing a huge boost to the economy.

Although the Government has awarded contracts to two firms for 'exploratory' work on the proposals, ministers denied they are planning to introduce such a system.

But they should not be so negative. The passport offers the chance to break free from a cycle of contagion and lockdown.

Covid passports would be especially good news for my sector, which often feels like it has been singled out for punishment.

Restaurants and bars have been a prime target for every new wave of restrictions yet all the evidence is that with rates of transmission below 3 per cent, they are far less dangerous than supermarkets and private homes.

In our London restaurants, just four members of staff have contracted Covid since July, less than 1 per cent of the workforce.

These low rates are partly due to the efforts that owners have undertaken to make their venues Covid-secure. Digital passports would enhance that security.

Covid passes should be made attractive through their positive capacity to enrich life, not through the negative threat of retribution by the state. (Stock image)

Another benefit is that they would bring clarity to a bureaucratic, oppressive structure built on excessive complexities, arbitrary judgments and mixed messages. The tier system has so many conditions that it's almost incomprehensible, even to the authorities who are meant to run it.

In the face of Covid, most customers have been remarkably understanding. But I detect patience is wearing thin. More people are refusing to abide by the rules on social distancing and mask-wearing.

Some justify this disdain by claiming to be immune, which puts staff in a very difficult position. My trade is meant to provide pleasure, not act as an agency of the state.

But this deepening mood of resentment would be instantly punctured by the introduction of Covid passports, which would not only put the responsibility back on the individual but would also provide clear evidence of customers' health status.

Inevitably there will be objections to this policy on the grounds of civil liberties but such criticism is misplaced.

Far from undermining our freedoms, Covid passports will bring them back allowing us once more to travel, shop and dine. Without passports, the Government will continue with its brutal lockdown across most of the country and what could be more authoritarian than that?

But to reinforce our long-cherished rights, three vital conditions must be met. First, as with the vaccine, such digital passports must not become compulsory.

If some people do not want to have them that should be their choice, just as no British citizen is forced to carry an international passport or identity card.

Covid passes should be made attractive through their positive capacity to enrich life, not through the negative threat of retribution by the state.

Second, there should be no queue-jumping by the wealthy or the privileged '' everyone should have equal access to these passports if they qualify. And third, the Government must be rigorous in cracking down on any black market in fraudulent digital passports.

If criminality gained any hold, it would make a mockery of the system so digital security must be a priority, accompanied by tough sentences for offenders.

The Government has not covered itself in glory over its response to Covid. Too often it has over-promised and under-delivered.

But Covid passports represent a golden opportunity for ministers to redeem themselves. Here, finally, is something that could help our economy instead of battering it.

Jeremy King is co-founder of Corbin & King restaurant group

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:14

(C) Provided by Daily Mail MailOnline logo A health care provider in New York is being investigated after being accused of 'fraudulently' obtaining COVID-19 vaccines and distributing them to members of the public.

In a statement released Saturday, the state Department of Health revealed they had received reports that Parcare Community Health Network based in Orange County had broken with New York's plan to administer the vaccine to frontline healthcare workers, and nursing home residents and staffers first.

The statement said the network 'may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine, transferred it to facilities in other parts of the state in violation of state guidelines and diverted it to members of the public'.

Parcare had posted images to social media of their centers receiving hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine and claimed they had recieved authorization from the state despite not being officially listed.

State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, pictured, revealed Saturday that Orange County based Parcare Community Health Network is being investigated for allegedly acquiring up to 2,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine by fraudulent means

(C) Provided by Daily Mail

'We take this very seriously and DOH will be assisting State Police in a criminal investigation into this matter,' said State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker.

'Anyone found to have knowingly participated in this scheme will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,' he added.

The Parcare network, which has locations in Brooklyn, Orange County and Manhattan, is not among the facilities listed as a state-designated vaccination hub.

Yet on a Facebook page linked to one of its Brooklyn locations, they posted on December 16 to say that they had been 'authorized to distribute the #CovidVaccine for people who fall under certain criteria'.

They urged patients to register with them for a vaccine if they were considered high risk or had underlying health conditions.

On December 21, they posted another update stating that they had just received thousands of doses of the vaccine to their centers.

'One small injection can make a difference for the entire community! our @ParCare Centers received thousands of #COVID19 #Moderna #vaccines this morning,' they wrote.

'Thanks to @UPS and our dedicated staff who woke up early to receive this lifesaving shipment #healthcareheroes.'

BoroPark24 reported that the network's Borough Park location had that morning received 600 Moderna vaccines, while the balance of their 2,800 doses was sent to their other four locations.

(C) Provided by Daily Mail Parcare posted on December 16 to say that they had been 'authorized to distribute the #CovidVaccine for people who fall under certain criteria' but are not officially listed (C) Provided by Daily Mail Parcare shared this image to Facebook of their Moderna vaccine shipment 'Hundreds of patients were already vaccinated today, and people are still coming in,' Gary Schlesinger, the CEO and president of ParCare told the publication, adding that they had hoped to vaccinate 500 people on that first day.

'You have to be on that list,' said Schlesinger. 'Once you are on the list, we have to vet to make sure that you are either a healthcare worker, are over 60, or have underlying conditions.

'We will not give the vaccine to people who are not eligible for this first batch of the shots.'

He had also claimed that the center would continue to receive more doses of the vaccine despite not been an assigned distributor.

'Hopefully in another week or two, we will have enough to give more people, but right now this is what it is,' he said, claiming to the publication that they were able to acquire the doses because they are larger in square footage than other clinics.

According to its website, the provider is 'a multi-specialty center providing such services as primary care, internal medicine, dermatology, physical therapy, and pediatrics; helping our patients to maintain optimal health and prevent potential diseases'.

This would be the first case of fraud regarding the vaccine rollout in New York since the distribution began on December 15.

It is unclear what penalties Parcare could face if found guilty of fraud.

Moderna was contacted for comment but had not yet responded.

(C) Provided by Daily Mail View of Parcare Health & Medical Center in Monroe in Orange County. The network also has locations in Brooklyn and in Manhattan that received doses of the vaccine As of Wednesday, the last time that an update was given, 89,000 New Yorkers have now received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose.

According to a statement, 22,000 doses were administered in 90 nursing home facilities.

On Saturday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state is 'vaccinating New Yorkers as fast as possible'.

'But getting to the levels of immunity we need is a long-term effort,' he added.

'New Yorkers brought the state's infection rate from the nation's highest to one of the lowest, and they should be commended for that. Now we need to keep up the good work.

'We will ultimately be victorious in the battle with COVID-19, but New Yorkers have a long journey ahead,' Cuomo said.

'The holiday season is a time to celebrate and reflect, but it brings the potential for increased spread if we let our guard down. It's vital that New Yorkers celebrate smart, wash their hands, wear masks and socially distance this holiday season.'

(C) Provided by Daily MailOn Thursday, New York Senator Chuck Schumer said that upsate New York, separate from funds given to New York City, will receive about $800 million to help ensure the coronavirus vaccine and other coronavirus care efforts will be available.

'The biggest thing we want to ensure about the coronavirus vaccine is universal access'--no barriers'--for New Yorkers,' said Schumer.

'Part of the way we do that, and to ensure a free vaccine is available here in New York, centers on the federal funds we just secured in the COVID relief bill voted on late [Tuesday] night.

'Communities throughout Upstate will get a sizable share of over $775 million dollars to do these things, and I am here to say the money is on the way, and to get the word out about what happens next for localities as they ramp up with distribution.'

There were 10,806 new COVID-19 cases reported in New York on Saturday as the state's positivity rate remained at 5.36 percent.

There were 122 new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 29,396.

On Saturday, there were 6,884 people in New York hospitalized with COVID-19, 1,129 of which were in ICU.

Nationwide, 18.9 million Americans have been infected with coronavirus and there have been 331,909 deaths.

Read more

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:19

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Learn about Project Shield

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:30

The World Health Organization has changed the definition of ''herd immunity,'' eradicating the pre-COVID consensus that it could be achieved by allowing the virus to spread through a population, and declaring that herd immunity solely comes from vaccines.

The change happened on the WHO's website, in a section entitled 'Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Serology, antibodies and immunity'.

The original WHO definition (archived here) states that herd immunity ''happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection. This means that even people who haven't been infected, or in whom an infection hasn't triggered an immune response, they are protected because people around them who are immune can act as buffers between them and an infected person.''

Summit.news reports: The original definition fails to identify the pre-COVID consensus on what is meant by ''herd immunity,'' which is when a population becomes protected against a virus because enough people have been infected with it to create community immunity.

However, the WHO's updated version is even more extreme, insisting that herd immunity can only be achieved by mass vaccination programs.

'''Herd immunity', also known as 'population immunity', is a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if a threshold of vaccination is reached,'' states the WHO website, adding, ''Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.''

'''Herd immunity' exists when a high percentage of the population is vaccinated,'' states the website, completely omitting the original meaning of ''herd immunity,'' which is when a population becomes immune to a virus by being exposed to it.

By changing the definition of ''herd immunity,'' the WHO is literally re-writing hundreds of years of scientific understanding as to what the term truly means in an apparent effort to silence any argument that herd immunity would have been a better approach to fighting COVID-19 than lockdowns and social distancing.

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 13:30

'' December 23, 2020

Reading Time:

5 minutes Maybe you have some sense that something fishy is going on? Same. If it's not one thing, it's another.

Coronavirus lived on surfaces until it didn't. Masks didn't work until they did, then they did not. There is asymptomatic transmission, except there isn't. Lockdowns work to control the virus except they do not. All these people are sick without symptoms until, whoops, PCR tests are wildly inaccurate because they were never intended to be diagnostic tools. Everyone is in danger of the virus except they aren't. It spreads in schools except it doesn't.

On it goes. Daily. It's no wonder that so many people have stopped believing anything that ''public health authorities'' say. In combination with governors and other autocrats doing their bidding, they set out to take away freedom and human rights and expected us to thank them for saving our lives. At some point this year (for me it was March 12) life began feeling like a dystopian novel of your choice.

Well, now I have another piece of evidence to add to the mile-high pile of fishy mess. The World Health Organization, for reasons unknown, has suddenly changed its definition of a core conception of immunology: herd immunity. Its discovery was one of the major achievements of 20th century science, gradually emerging in the 1920s and then becoming ever more refined throughout the 20th century.

Herd immunity is a fascinating observation that you can trace to biological reality or statistical probability theory, whichever you prefer. (It is certainly not a ''strategy'' so ignore any media source that describes it that way.) Herd immunity speaks directly, and with explanatory power, to the empirical observation that respiratory viruses are either widespread and mostly mild (common cold) or very severe and short-lived (Ebola).

Why is this? The reason is that when a virus kills its host, it cannot migrate. The more aggressively it does this, the less it spreads. If the virus doesn't kill its host, it can hop to others through all the usual means. When you get a virus and fight it off, your immune system encodes that information in a way that builds immunity to it. When it happens to enough people (and each case is different so we can't put a clear number on it) the virus loses its pandemic quality and becomes endemic, which is to say predictable and manageable. Each new generation incorporates that information through more exposure.

This is what one would call Virology/Immunology 101. It's what you read in every textbook. It's been taught in 9th grade cell biology for probably 80 years. Observing the operations of this evolutionary phenomenon is pretty wonderful because it increases one's respect for the way in which human biology has adapted to the presence of pathogens without absolutely freaking out.

And the discovery of this fascinating dynamic in cell biology is a major reason why public health became so smart in the 20th century. We kept calm. We managed viruses with medical professionals: doctor/patient relationships. We avoided the Medieval tendency to run around with hair on fire but rather used rationality and intelligence. Even the New York Times recognizes that natural immunity is powerful with Covid-19, which is not in the least bit surprising.

Until one day, this strange institution called the World Health Organization '' once glorious because it was mainly responsible for the eradication of smallpox '' has suddenly decided to delete everything I just wrote from cell biology basics. It has literally changed the science in a Soviet-like way. It has removed with the delete key any mention of natural immunities from its website. It has taken the additional step of actually mischaracterizing the structure and functioning of vaccines.

So that you will believe me, I will try to be as precise as possible. Here is the website from June 9, 2020. You can see it here on Archive.org. You have to move down the page and click on the question about herd immunity. You see the following.

That's pretty darn accurate overall. Even the statement that the threshold is ''not yet clear'' is correct. There are cross immunities to Covid from other coronaviruses and there is T cell memory that contributes to natural immunity.

Some estimates are as low as 10%, which is a far cry from the modelled 70% estimate of virus immunity that is standard within the pharmaceutical realm. Real life is vastly more complicated than models, in economics or epidemiology. The WHO's past statement is a solid, if ''pop,'' description.

However, in a screenshot dated November 13, 2020, we read the following note that somehow pretends as if human beings do not have immune systems at all but rather rely entirely on big pharma to inject things into our blood.

What this note at the World Health Organization has done is deleted what amounts to the entire million-year history of humankind in its delicate dance with pathogens. You could only gather from this that all of us are nothing but blank and unimprovable slates on which the pharmaceutical industry writes its signature.

In effect, this change at WHO ignores and even wipes out 100 years of medical advances in virology, immunology, and epidemiology. It is thoroughly unscientific '' shilling for the vaccine industry in exactly the way the conspiracy theorists say that WHO has been doing since the beginning of this pandemic.

What's even more strange is the claim that a vaccine protects people from a virus rather than exposing them to it. What's amazing about this claim is that a vaccine works precisely by firing up the immune system through exposure. Why I had to type those words is truly beyond me. This has been known for centuries. There is simply no way for medical science completely to replace the human immune system. It can only game it via what used to be called inoculation.

Take from this what you will. It is a sign of the times. For nearly a full year, the media has been telling us that ''science'' requires that we comply with their dictates that run contrary to every tenet of liberalism, every expectation we've developed in the modern world that we can live freely and with the certainty of rights. Then ''science'' took over and our human rights were slammed. And now the ''science'' is actually deleting its own history, airbrushing over what it used to know and replacing it with something misleading at best and patently false at worst.

I cannot say why, exactly, the WHO did this. Given the events of the past nine or ten months, however, it is reasonable to assume that politics are at play. Since the beginning of the pandemic, those who have been pushing lockdowns and hysteria over the coronavirus have resisted the idea of natural herd immunity, instead insisting that we must live in lockdown until a vaccine is developed.

That is why the Great Barrington Declaration, written by three of the world's preeminent epidemiologists and which advocated embracing the phenomenon of herd immunity as a way of protecting the vulnerable and minimizing harms to society, was met with such venom. Now we see the WHO, too, succumbing to political pressure. This is the only rational explanation for changing the definition of herd immunity that has existed for the past century.

The science has not changed; only the politics have. And that is precisely why it is so dangerous and deadly to subject virus management to the forces of politics. Eventually the science too bends to the duplicitous character of the political industry.

When the existing textbooks that students use in college contradict the latest official pronouncements from the authorities during a crisis in which the ruling class is clearly attempting to seize permanent power, we've got a problem.

Jeffrey A. TuckerJeffrey A. Tucker is Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research.

He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and nine books in 5 languages, most recently Liberty or Lockdown. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

Jeffrey is available for speaking and interviews via his email. Tw | FB | LinkedIn

Get notified of new articles from Jeffrey A. Tucker and AIER.

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Sun, 27 Dec 2020 12:08

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 17:08

**Any sharing/copying of this story to other websites/blogs/platforms IS permissible** Please email me at therealryanhartwig@gmail.com for any questions or for permission in writing.

Original interviewer was Stew Peters. @realstewpeters https://twitter.com/realstewpeters

https://rumble.com/vc4ob1-pcradio-guests-facebook-whistleblower-ryan-hartwig-and-matt-locke-host-of-m.html

https://thepcradioshow.com/

Photo taken on the evening of Saturday Nov 7th, 2020 at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, Swift Aviation Hangar.Part 1: Korean Air in Phoenix and Ryan Hartwig's involvement

Part 2: Staci Burk, her lawsuit and how Seattle plays a role

Pertinent Articles describing the importance of Scott Koch and the role he played

https://www.pinalcentral.com/coolidge_examiner/news/disqualified-coolidge-mayor-candidate-part-of-transcript-in-pinal-election-lawsuit/article_cfcae19a-a744-5efb-b28f-de64cc76cef2.html

Part 3: DOD Operative Accidentally Exposes Second Plane in Phoenix The company Scott Koch worked for: https://mayhemsolutionsgroup.com/

Part 1: Korean Air in Phoenix and Ryan Hartwig's involvement

People Involved

Aliases

Jake = Congressional candidate

Jennifer = influential Republican activist in AZ

Nancy = person in the car with me who helped take photos of the plane *must remain anonymous*

Jessica = political activist who gave me the initial tip *must to remain anonymous*

Chris = political activist who has helped with Sharpiegate in AZ

James = political activist who connected me to people in D.C. *must remain anonymous*

Jason = Trump campaign finance who sent it up the food chain

No Alias

Tom Van Flein, chief of staff for Congressman Paul Gosar.

Ryan Hartwig = received initial tip on Saturday and brought all these people together to the parking lot of Swift Aviation next to the plane.

Staci Burk, law student who has since submitted a lawsuit in Pinal County.

10 individuals total

*Note: I spoke with Tom Van Flein, Congressman Paul Gosar's Chief of Staff on 12/23/2020 and he agreed to be named in full. Tom said we were concerned, and we are still concerned about election fraud.

Timeline: Saturday November 7th

6:30pm Ryan Hartwig received a tip about the Korean airplane at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport7:25pm Ryan picks up Nancy. Ryan loops in Jake and Chris. Jake then loops in Tom Van Flein, Paul Gosar's chief of staff. 7:50pm Ryan and Nancy arrive at the Swift transportation hangar and take photos of the Korean Air airplane which has its staircase down.9:20pm Tom Van Flein arrives on site.9:37pm Jake arrives on site9:40pm Two vehicles arrive, enter the tarmac, park next to the plane and the people in the cars unload boxes and other items into the plane.9:53pm Other individuals walk from the hangar lobby and onto the plane. 4 or 5 individuals in suits, and one wearing a white shirt.9:55pm The two vehicles leave, stopping in front of my car for a bit and also stopping in front of Tom Van Flein's car.10:10pm Jennifer goes into the lobby for Swift Aviation to make a complaint to customs10:45pm Plane begins to taxi away for departure.10:47pm I called Phoenix police non-emergency #11:00pm Phoenix police arrive11:45pm Phoenix police depart and I go home.What happened:

On Saturday November 7th, 2020 I went to two rallies earlier in the day. At 1pm I went to the rally at the capitol in Phoenix, Arizona and met up with Dr. Cordie Williams briefly. I also saw Sheriff Mark Lamb at that rally, and took a picture with him.

While at the capitol I ran into people who realized I had previously worked with Project Veritas, so they gave me some tips about election fraud. They gave me the name of someone named Staci Burk, who knew someone in Seattle at a shipping center, who had seen ballots being loaded into trucks to be shipped around the country. There was zero mention of airplanes, just of a shipping center in Seattle. I took notes on my phone about this where it says ''kid it was his last day''.

I took down the information about Staci Burk, which only mentioned Seattle and nothing about Phoenix. Then around 3:00pm I went to the rally at 510 S 3rd Ave, Phoenix AZ 85003, at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC).

I gave a speech at around 5:10pm which you can see here: https://www.facebook.com/rhonda.levenda/videos/10219139780148525

I also met Adel who was leading the rally. During my speech I plugged Project Veritas, since I was an insider with them and went public with them on 6/25/2020 as an insider at Facebook. https://www.projectveritas.com/news/ryan-hartwig-facebook/

At about 5:30pm I left the rally, ate and walked to my car.

At 6:29pm I got a text from Jessica (alias), who is a friend of Nancy who said ''Hi call Nancy. I got a call a Korean bombier jet from Korea with a blue belly flew in an airplane w no seats and has boxes of ballots. At Swift Aviation Phx.'' And she shared with me the contact info for Jennifer. [RH1]

At 6:34pm I got a text from Nancy that said ''Do you know anyone who can get to Swift transportation .Told about a plan with ballots & unsure if loading or going to election counting place. Plane is a bombardier small jet with blue belly.''

I called Nancy at 6:39pm on 11/7/2020 Saturday and she filled me in on the little she knew. Basically that there was an airplane at Swift aviation right now and it was gonna leave later that night.

At 6:50pm I called Jennifer at NUMBER REDACTED and she explained to me what she knew. She said someone who works with a top Democrat leader is the source. The source said the plane arrived on November 5th. I told Jennifer I used to work with Project Veritas. Later I realized she thought I was working with Project Veritas currently as an undercover journalist, but I am not and later clarified that with her.

I initially thought the plane had already unloaded and was maybe sending the ballots in a truck to the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, so I drove back to where the rally was. I messaged Chris, who is leading the effort in Arizona to gather affidavits for the Sharpie marker fraud. He called me at 7:06pm and I told him about the situation and that we thought there was an airplane at Sky Harbor at the Swift aviation hangar with ballots. He also told me about how he just went to Chandler and photographed 2 ballot counting machines stored in an office building and susceptible to theft.

At 7:25pm I picked up Nancy from her house. She lives nearby. From her house it was a 15 minute drive to the airport. From 24th st, just west of Sky Harbor International Airport, we drove down Old Tower Rd east and pulled into the Swift Aviation parking lot at around 7:50pm. There were no ''no trespassing signs'' at all on that property and we were able to drive around the parking lot and drive close to the fence and see the parked plane.

Phoenix Sky Harbor AirportWe took photo and video of the plane, which had a blue underbelly. We could read that it was a Korean Air airplane and looked like it could easily be a 19 passenger plane, and the tail of the wing said ''HL8230''.

I texted Jake, Congressional Candidate in AZ-7 at 8:21pm. I texted him saying ''Call me ASAP!'' and I sent photos we just had taken of the plane on the tarmac. Jake's phone number is NUMBER REDACTED

At 8:34pm Jake replied ''Send me location. I'm on my way''. At 8:39pm Jake texted ''I reached out to a Homeland Security friend. Trump supporter. He is contacting Trump attorneys. He may call. He's calling now.''

I gave Jake my live google maps location and Jake arrived at the same Swift hangar parking lot at 9:37pm

Jake had also reached out to Congressman Paul Gosar's office, and put me in touch with Tom Van Flein, Paul Gosar's Chief of Staff (AZ 4th Congressional District).

I texted Tom Van Flein the photos of the airplane at 8:33pm to his phone number NUMBER REDACTED. Tom originally called me at 8:30pm and he was the first one to arrive. I texted him my live Google maps location at 8:57pm.

I believe Tom Van Flein arrived around 9:20pm at the Swift hangar parking lot.

At some point after 9:40pm Jennifer and her husband arrived on site.

Chris arrived on site around 10:06pm.

After he arrived I moved my TYPE OF VEHICLE REDACTED back to where I was parked near the fence. Nancy was still in the car with me. While parked we had the airplane in sight.

At roughly 9:40pm two vehicles entered the tarmac. One was a black van that looked like a Mercedes Sprinter. The other was a black Cadillac Escalate type vehicle. They parked next to the plane and began unloading things into the plane.

Also separately we saw 4 of 5 people walk from the Swift Aviation lobby onto the tarmac and they entered the plane. We believe they were all males, thin, wearing suits. One of them was wearing a white shirt.

At 9:26pm I was texting Jason live updates

At 9:40pm I texted Jason that two vehicles just entered the tarmac and parked next to the plane.

At 9:44pm I texted Jason saying ''I saw a box being loaded from the SUV onto the plane''.

At 9:47pm I texted Jason saying ''Takeoff is at 11:10pm AZ time headed for Seattle

At 9:53pm I texted Jason saying ''Guys getting on the plane now, looks like passengers. We will get the plates when they come out, it is the same entrance.'' ''Passengers boarding the plane right now''.

At 9:57pm I texted Jason saying ''They know something is going on.'' The two vehicles left the tarmac and stopped in front of us. We were parked under an awning and were parked facing towards them as they exited.

As they exited at 9:55pm I called Tom Van Flein real quick and told him to get the license plates. They also stopped right in front of Tom's parked car before leaving.

The company was Way 2 Go Transportation and both vehicles belong to that company. The license plate numbers are REDACTED for the first vehicle and REDACTED for the second vehicle. Both Arizona plates.

At 10:09pm I texted Jason that Jake was tailing the 2 vehicles, and he followed them back to a private residence. When Jake arrived at the house, he took 25 seconds of video.

Links to the company's websiteProfessional Limousine Service

Jake later texted me some info about that private residence that his campaign manager NAME REDACTED researched. Campaign manager texted Jake, ''NAME REDACTED is the owner of the company. That was his private residence.'' James texted to Jake ''The guy who owns the house has cocaine charges and assault with a gun charges. Glad he didn't see you! Lol.''

Jake then came back to the Swift transportation parking lot.

Going back in time a little, Chris is a political activist I met on Friday 11/6 at one of the rallies, along with Dr. Cordie Williams. We had lunch together on Friday afternoon. So on Saturday November 7th, 2020 at 7:06pm Chris called me and I explained the Korean airplane thing. At 9:32pm Chris messaged me he was en route to the Swift transportation parking lot.

Chris had a scope for his camera and stood up to the fence and took better pictures and video of the plane. He arrived last, after Tom Van Flein, Jake and Jennifer.

Patrick is with the Trump campaign and called me at 10:09pm from NUMBER REDACTED. He was on the phone along with another female. At one point they advised we send someone into the lobby to make a complaint to customs about the Korean Air plane about to leave. He also called me at 10:22pm.

Jennifer was in my vehicle when Patrick called us and advised we send someone into the lobby. Jennifer volunteered since she said she doesn't look like law enforcement, and I agreed that I could be mistaken for undercover law enforcement, although I am clearly not.

Jennifer messaged me while she was in the lobby at 10:17pm and said they are calling someone now. I asked if they were calling customs, and she said yes. I asked her to tell them it's a national security complaint and to ask for a phone number we can call and Jennifer said she did that.

At 10:45pm Jason called me and I'm fairly certain he advised I call the local police, since we saw the plane was getting ready to leave. The employees inside the lobby had told Jennifer earlier that no one from Customs was able to assist.

At 10:47pm I called the Phoenix Police non-emergency number at 602-262-6151. This was about the same time the Korean Air jet was taxiing away earlier than its anticipated departure at 11:10pm.

3 police cars from the Phoenix Police airport division arrived around 11:00pm and talked to me. At that point Chris had just left and Jennifer and her husband were about to leave.

The police report number is 2020-1830839 with Officer Kartchner badge ID 7458.

I first explained to the officer the gist of what was going on, and he mocked me and said I was out here for some bogus election fraud stuff, to paraphrase.

I told the police officers that I was in touch with some people from the White House and mentioned attorneys. I mentioned Jason's name to them.

The first officer who mocked me and thought it was bogus said that they had received a call from a second person claiming to be a DHS agent. I told them that I never claimed to be a federal law enforcement officer.

Later, they said they resolved it, that it was a miscommunication and it was someone else who was on a 3 way call with a DHS agent.

So for a minute I was worried that someone from our group had called in pretending to be a DHS agent.

Before they figured that out though, the police officers temporarily detained Jennifer, who was already in her vehicle about to leave.

I gave the officers my driver's license and the list of our people who were there on site. I identified myself as a citizen journalist, and I was not there in any official capacity on behalf of any organization.

Phoenix Police report number and badge number.The cops left around 11:45pm.

I then took Nancy home, and called Jake on the way home to debrief.

On Sunday 11/8/2020 I had a few phone calls with Jason.

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Archived Version

Sat, 26 Dec 2020 18:54

With eleven days until Georgia's U.S. runoff election, a large majority of the state's counties have failed to produce chain of custody documents for some 460,000 absentee ballots deposited in drop boxes that were counted in the state's November 3 general election as requested by The Georgia Star News.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified that Democrat Joe Biden edged out President Trump by a thin majority and as a result, Mr. Biden received all 16 votes cast by Democrat electors when the Electoral College convened in the 50 state capitals on Monday.

Of the roughly 5 million votes cast in the November 3 election, election officials report that more than 1.3 million were by absentee ballots. In the current tally, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential contest by 11,779 votes '' or just 0.235 percent.

A poll of likely voters in Georgia conducted by John McLaughlin and Associates found that 26 percent of respondents said they voted absentee. When the pollster asked the absentee voters if they mailed or deposited their ballot in a drop box, 53 percent said they mailed their ballot, representing about 700,000 votes; and 46 percent '' representing 600,000 votes '' said they used drop boxes.

In the two weeks since The Georgia Star News first reported no chain of custody ballot transfer forms have been produced for the more than 500,000 of the 600,000 drop box absentee ballots cast, the 159 counties in the state have made little progress producing the documents. Furthermore, the Secretary of State has shown no interest in providing any assistance to require the counties fulfill the open record requests.

In order to account for the secure whereabouts for absentee ballots left in drop boxes across the state, the Georgia Election Code Emergency Rule approved by State Election Board on July 1, 2020, required that every county is responsible for documenting the transfer of every batch of absentee ballots picked up at drop boxes and delivered to the county election offices with ballot transfer forms. The forms are required to be signed and dated, with time of pick up by the collection team upon pick up, and then signed, dated, with time of delivery by the registrar or designee upon receipt and accepted.

From December 1 to December 13, The Star News sent open records requests for ballot transfer forms to all of Georgia's 159 counties.

So far, 26 out of the 159 counties in Georgia responded to the requests and produced the chain of custody records. These documents account for 140,083 of the roughly 600,000 absentee ballots placed in drop boxes during the November 3 election. In other words, about three out of four absentee ballots left in drop boxes in counties across the state have no documentation verifying their chain of custody.

26 counties have responded with records of the ballot transfer forms.26 counties '' Appling, Atkinson, Burke, Candler, Charlton, Chattooga, Dade, Effingham, Emanual, Glascock, Haralson, Heard, Jenkins, Macon, Meriwether, Miller, Montgomery, Randolph, Stewart, Talliaferro, Treutlen, Twiggs, Warren, Webster, Wilcox and Wilkinson '' responded and said they do not have any drop box locations.3 counties '' Fulton, Gwinnett, and DeKalb '' have responded by saying they don't know if they have documents responsive to the open records request but will provide an answer to that question at some time in the near future. In the case of Fulton County, that time in the near future could be as late as January 19, 2021.Worth County said, ''nothing in this chapter shall require agencies to produce records in response to a request if such records did not exist at the time of the request.''Coffee County said they will process the request once the Election Supervisor recovers from illness.102 counties have not responded to the request whatsoever.The total number of absentee ballots left in drop boxes that have been accounted for by the ballot transfer forms from those 26 counties are:

Bartow totals 4,909Butts totals 481Catoosa totals 532Cherokee totals 17,033Clarke totals 4,909Cobb totals 89,860Colquitt totals 571Cook totals 530Decatur totals 963Dougherty totals 3,793Gilmer total 513Lincoln totals 513Lowndes totals 3,266McDuffie totals 738Murray totals 162Oconee totals 3,016Oglethorpe totals 636Pierce totals 444Pike totals 495Rabun totals 1,163Schley totals 64Tattnall totals 282Telfair totals 401Towns totals 1,197Walton totals 3,198White totals 414'' '' ''

Tiffany Morgan is a reporter at The Georgia Star News and the Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]

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00:00 Amanda McGee 02:32 Ashley Gilles 08:22 Debbie Fisher 21:23 Kelly Moore 25:55 Caesar Gonzales 30:23 Marci McCarthy 39:36 Pamela Reardon 45:54 Paula Davis 51:11 Susan Knox Over 40 witnesses spoke to the media at Cobb Country Republican Party Headquarters in Georgia on Dec 9, 10, 13, and 14. They presented evidence of election irregularities and fraud they had collected during the 2020 election ballot counts and recount. Some of them did not get the chance to give their testimonies in person, but sent their video testimonies or did a video interview online.

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 21:43

The Western Journal is presenting this memorandum, written by two prominent conservative legal scholars, essentially verbatim, with only enough editing to format it for the Op-Ed section of our website. This is the second memo by Messrs. Olson and McSweeney to be published exclusively by The Western Journal, and it, like the first, outlines a possible legal strategy for the Trump campaign to follow in the coming weeks. Prior to its publication here, it was sent to President Trump. '-- Ed. note

Overcoming the Court's Abdication in Texas v. PennsylvaniaWilliam J. Olson & Patrick M. McSweeneyDecember 24, 2020

In refusing to hear Texas v. Pennsylvania, the U.S. Supreme Court abdicated its constitutional duty to resolve a real and substantial controversy among states that was properly brought as an original action in that Court. As a result, the Court has come under intense criticism for having evaded the most important inter-state constitutional case brought to it in many decades, if not ever.

However, even in its Order dismissing the case, the Supreme Court identified how another challenge could be brought successfully '-- by a different plaintiff. This paper explains that legal strategy. But first we focus on the errors made by the Supreme Court '-- in the hopes that they will not be made again.

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Texas v. PennsylvaniaThe Supreme Court declined to hear the challenge brought by the State of Texas against four states which had refused to abide by Article II, § 1, cl. 2 '-- the Presidential Electors Clause, which establishes the conditions and requirements governing the election of the President of the United States. In adopting that provision, the Framers vested in each State legislature the exclusive authority to determine the manner of appointing Presidential electors. The Framers' plan was shown to be exceedingly wise, because we have now learned that allowing other state and private actors to write the election rules led to massive election fraud in the four defendant states. Individuals can be bought, paid for and corrupted so much easier than state legislatures.

In refusing to hear the case, the sole reason given was that Texas lacked ''standing.'' In doing so, all nine justices committed a wrong against: (i) Texas and the 17 states that supported its suit; (ii) the United States; (iii) the President; and (iv) the People.

The Court's Many Wrongs in Texas v. Pennsylvania.As Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist No. 78, courts have ''neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment.'' As such, in deciding cases courts have a duty to explain their decisions so the rest of us may know if they constitute arbitrary exercises of political power, or reasoned decisions of judicial power which the People can trust. In Texas v. Pennsylvania, all that the justices felt obligated to do was to state its '-- ''lack of standing'' '-- supported by a one sentence justification: ''Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its election.'' Resolving a case of this magnitude with one conclusory sentence is completely unacceptable.

The Supreme Court docket consists primarily of only those cases the High Court chooses to hear. However, just like when it agrees to decide a case, and in disputes where the original jurisdiction of the Court is invoked, it has a duty to decide cases properly brought to them. Two centuries ago, Chief Justice John Marshall construed the obligation of contracts clause in a decision where he wrote: ''however irksome the task may be, this is a duty from which we dare not shrink.'' Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. 518 (1819). Courts have a duty to resolve important cases even if they would prefer to avoid them. In Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), Marshall described ''the duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is'' because ''every right, when withheld, must have a remedy, and every injury its proper redress.'' Abdication in a case of this sort is not a judicial option.

The Supreme Court's reliance on standing as its excuse has had one positive result '-- provoking many to study the origins of that doctrine who may be surprised to learn that the word ''standing'' nowhere appears in the Constitution. There is compelling evidence to demonstrate it was birthed by big-government Justices during the FDR Administration to shield New Deal legislation, and to insulate the Administrative State from challenges by the People. Those who favored the Texas decision argue that standing is a conservative doctrine as it limits the power of the courts '-- but the true constitutionalist uses only tests grounded in its text. The true threshold constitutional test is whether a genuine and serious ''controversy'' exists between the States that could be resolved by a court.

The only reason given by the Supreme Court was: ''Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its election.'' In truth, Texas did make such a showing. When Pennsylvania violated the exclusive authority bestowed on state legislators in the Constitution's Electors Clause, it opened the door to corruption and foreign intrigue to corrupt the electoral votes of Pennsylvania, and as Alexander Hamilton explained in Federalist 68, that is exactly why the Framers created the Electoral College. During the 2020 election cycle, changes to the election process in Pennsylvania were made by judges, state office holders and election officials which would never have been made by its state legislature.

If the process by which Presidential Electors are chosen is corrupted in a few key states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin by rigging the system in favor of one candidate, it becomes wholly irrelevant who the People of Texas support. That political reality presents a real ''judicially cognizable interest'' no matter what the Supreme Court decided. What happens in Pennsylvania does not stay in Pennsylvania, as electors from all States acting together select the President of the United States.

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In the Federalist Papers, both James Madison and Alexander Hamilton recognized the need to combat ''the spirit of faction'' and the tendency of each State to yield to its immediate interest at the expense of national unity. They reasoned that the Constitution provided a solution to this centrifugal pressure while reserving a measure of sovereignty to each State. When differences arise between States that threaten to lead to disunion, the Republic can be held together, as Hamilton observed, either ''by the agency of the Courts or by military force.'' A constitutional remedy to enable the States to resolve their differences peacefully is the provision that permits any State to invoke the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to address and settle their differences.

In the vernacular, the Supreme Court blew it, threatening the bonds that hold the union together.

Round Two: The United States Must Enter the FrayFortunately, that might have been only the first round in the fight to preserve the nation. A strategy exists to re-submit the Texas challenge under the Electors Clause to the Supreme Court in a way that even that Court could not dare refuse to consider. Just because Texas did not persuade the Justices that what happens in Pennsylvania hurts Texas does not mean that the United States of America could not persuade the justices that when Pennsylvania violates the U.S. Constitution, it harms the nation. Article III, § 2, cl. 2 confers original jurisdiction on the Supreme Court in any case suit brought by the United States against a state. Thus, the United States can and should file suit against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. Like the Texas suit, that new suit would seek an order invalidating the appointment of the electors appointed by those four defendant States that refused to abide by the terms of the Presidential Electors Clause. That would leave it to the state legislatures in those four states to ''appoint'' electors '-- which is what the Constitution requires.

When those four States violated the Constitution by allowing electors who had not been appointed in the manner prescribed by the state legislature, the United States suffered an injury. Indeed, there could hardly have been a more significant injury to the nation than that which corrupted its Presidential election.

The United States has a vital interest and a responsibility to preserve the constitutional framework of the Republic, which was formed by a voluntary compact among the States. As with any contractual relationship of participants in an ongoing enterprise, no party is entitled to ignore or alter the essential terms of the contract by its unilateral action.

The President who has sworn to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution has the right and the duty to order the U.S. Department of Justice bring such an action in the Supreme Court '-- and should do so quickly.

Reasons for Great Hope at ChristmasIn rejecting the invocation by the State of Texas of the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to resolve the dispute between Texas and four other States that refused to abide by the terms of the Presidential Electors Clause, for now, a majority of the Justices foreclosed the use of that constitutional safeguard by Texas to provide a peaceful means of resolving the controversy that has deeply divided States and the citizens of this Republic as at no time since the 1860s.

That consequence is too dangerous to be allowed to stand.

If the same case previously brought by Texas were now brought by the United States of America, there is every reason to believe that the Supreme Court would be compelled to understand it must hear it and decide it favorably.

Although outcomes are never certain, it is believed and hoped that a majority of the Supreme Court could never take the position that the United States has no business enforcing the process established in the Constitution by which we select the one government official who represents all the People '-- The President of the United States.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 22:57

The Washington Post has identified a secret witness in filings protesting the presidential election '--who was presented by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell as a former intelligence contractor '-- as a pro-Trump podcaster.

The Post identified the witness as pro-Trump podcaster Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman.

In the affidavit, the witness identifies herself as a former ''private contractor with experience gathering and analyzing foreign intelligence.'' She claimed that from 1999 to 2014 she delegated tasks to contractors in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

The Post said it identified the witness as Maras-Lindeman by matching parts of her affidavit with a 2019 blog post.

Powell in legal filings had claimed that the witness's identity had to be kept secret to protect her ''reputation, professional career and personal safety.''

Maras-Lindeman confirmed to the outlet that she authored the affidavit, telling the Post that ''this is everybody's duty'' and that the results of the election are ''just not fair.''

Federal judges have rejected the complaints that Powell has filed in Wisconsin and Arizona targeting the election results that include Maras-Lindeman's affidavit.

Maras-Lindeman told the Post that she has never spoken to Powell and that she distributed the affidavit to several individuals. She was not immediately made aware that the claims had reached Powell.

The Trump campaign in recent weeks has sought to distance itself from Powell, with Trump's lead attorney Rudy Giuliani Rudy GiulianiWashington Post identifies Powell's secret witness as pro-Trump podcaster Powell says White House aides won't let her help Trump Trump attorneys risk disciplinary action over wave of election suits MORE and senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis releasing a statement last month saying that she ''is not a member of the Trump Legal Team.''

However, the president has reportedly discussed the idea of naming Powell to the position of special counsel for an investigation into alleged voter fraud.

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 04:16

A conservative journalist admitted to taking a $100,000 payment from a businessperson connected to a controversial Chinese billionaire, according to newly unsealed court filings.

The journalist, Bill Gertz, was fired from the Washington Free Beacon last year for what the publication called an ''undisclosed financial transaction'' with someone he covered.

The disclosure sheds light on the journalist's mysterious firing last fall and offers a window into that billionaire's connections to influential China hawks.

In a deposition from Oct. 15, Gertz told lawyers for a company involved in a lawsuit with another company connected to billionaire Guo Wengui, aka Miles Kwok, that he had approached Guo for an advance for Deceiving the Sky, his latest book on China that was published last year. Gertz described it as a ''loan'' that would be paid back using his book royalties.

Gertz testified that Guo turned him down; Gertz then approached Hong Kong financier William Je, whom he described as an ''associate'' of Guo's. Je supplied the journalist with the loan of $100,000. Gertz said in his deposition that he did not remember whether Guo encouraged him to approach Je.

Gertz testified that he had asked Je about the source of the money and was told that it was from a ''sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East.''

When the outlet fired Gertz last year, the Free Beacon attached a disclaimer to many of the stories he had written about Guo. The disclaimer said the company had ''recently learned that senior editor Bill Gertz entered into a previously undisclosed financial transaction with an individual or an affiliate of that individual whom Mr. Gertz had covered in some of his reporting.''

The Free Beacon declined to comment for this story.

Gertz did not respond to requests for comment. Through a lawyer, Guo declined to comment.

Guo, a controversial figure in US''China politics, is a vocal dissident and a critic of the Chinese government with a complex backstory. Self-exiled from China after facing allegations of fraud and bribery he has denied, he has been living in a multimillion-dollar apartment in New York City and seeking asylum from the US government as China has sought his extradition.

The documents outlining Gertz's testimony became public this month in court filings by lawyers for Strategic Vision, a conservative firm that was employed by Eastern Profit, a company tied to Guo, to conduct research on certain Chinese nationals.

Strategic Vision was later sued by Eastern Profit for breach of contract in a complicated lawsuit in which the researchers responded with allegations that the company gave the firm malware and asked Strategic Vision to look into people whose records had a ''protected'' status, indicating they could have had some involvement with the US government. In court filings, Strategic Vision accused Guo of not being a true dissident, but instead an agent for the Chinese government, which he has denied.

Je is the CEO of ACA Capital, a Hong Kong''based investment fund that Gertz identified as ''Guo's company'' in a 2017 story for the Free Beacon. In the documents connected to the case, Strategic Vision's lawyer asserted that ACA Capital was used to pay both Gertz and Strategic Vision.

In another deposition attached to the case, Sasha Gong '-- the former head of Voice of America's Mandarin service who was fired from VOA following an aborted hours-long interview she conducted with Guo '-- testified that the billionaire had told her Je was the ''money guy.''

Je didn't respond to requests for comment.

Guo has proved a litigious presence in the US, bringing lawsuits against several media outlets that have covered him, as well as Strategic Vision. He has allied himself with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon; a leaked 2018 contract showed that Bannon was set to receive $1 million that year from Guo's company Guo Media, and the two announced a nonprofit in 2018, the Rule of Law Fund, aimed at countering China. A related group also founded by Guo and Bannon, the Rule of Law Society, also listed Gertz among its board of directors.

Gertz has written frequently and critically over the years about the Chinese government, and he has written frequently about Guo. In his deposition, he said he would travel to New York regularly to meet with Guo, and that their relationship was ''a combination of both a professional, as a source, as well as some friendship.'' Gertz said he had once been on his yacht.

After leaving the Free Beacon last year, Gertz rejoined the Washington Times full time, where he had previously worked for decades. In his deposition, he said he had discussed the payment with the Washington Times.

Washington Times editor Christopher Dolan did not respond to a request for comment. Gertz also testified that his book's publisher, Encounter Books, was not aware of the transaction; a spokesperson for Encounter Books did not respond to a request for comment.

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 22:39

Home > Famous Aberdonians > Patrick Manson

Patrick Manson was born on 3 October 1844 in Old Meldrum (now called Oldmeldrum) in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He was the second child of nine. His parents were John Manson and Elisabeth whose maiden surname was Blaihie.

At the age of 15 years Patrick Manson worked as an apprentice at an ironmaster's firm in Aberdeen. Ill health stopped Patrick from continuing in this trade. Instead he enrolled at Aberdeen University to study medicine.

When he was 20 years old Patrick Manson passed his final examinations but had to wait a year to officially receive his medical degree because of medical and University regulations. His first paper was a thesis on the internal carotid artery which he wrote whilst working as a Medical Officer at Durham Lunatic Asylum. Patrick Manson received his Bachelor of Medicine from the University of Aberdeen in 1865. A year later he was awarded his Master of Surgery, his Medical Doctorate and Doctor of Law.

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Patrick Manson In ChinaIn 1866 Patrick Manson set sail to Formosa (now Taiwan), China, where he secured a position as Medical Officer to the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. He stayed here for five years and then moved to Amoy to take charge of two hospitals. One was for seamen and the other a missionary hospital. He stayed at these posts for a further 13 years. He founded the first Western style medical school whilst in China and in 1883 he founded another in Hong Kong which specialised in tropical diseases.

Patrick Manson And Lymphatic Filariasis - ElephantiasisIn China Patrick Manson had an interest in tropical medicine and diseases and studied mosquitoes. He made the discovery that they carry the disease Lymphatic Filariasis, which was commonly called elephantiasis. He found that the embryonic filariae only appear in the patient's peripheral blood stream at night when mosquitoes feed.

Elephantiasis was rife at the time and caused disfigurement such as severe swelling of limbs and genitalia due to water being retained in tissues (oedema), thickening of the skin and underlying tissue, fevers, chyluria (milky urine caused by the breakdown of body fats), headaches and general ill health.

The swelling often lead to gangrene and surgery was often required in advanced cases. Unfortunately it was hard to detect until the patient was displaying such symptoms.

Patrick Manson temporarily travelled back to the UK in 1875 to learn more about Lymphatic Filariasis from the English doctors. He was shocked to discover that there was no medical school in London able to expand his knowledge. He then turned to the British Museum where he read Timothy Lewis' account of his discovery of a microscopic worm which was named Filaria sanguinis hominis. It was found in the blood and urine of patients with chyluria in Calcutta, India.

In 1876 Patrick Manson married Henrietta Isabella Thurbun. They had three sons and one daughter.

Founder Of The Original London School Of Tropical MedicineIn 1889 Patrick Manson returned permanently to Britain where he set up a practice in London at 21 Queen Anne Street. He had hoped to retire to Scotland but had no savings, so continued his medical work. Within the year he had passed his examination to become a member of the Royal College of Physicians.

In 1892 Patrick Manson was appointed Physician to the Seamen's Hospital Society. He was in charge of the ward at the Albert Dock Hospital.

Because of his earlier lack of findings on information about tropical medicine he wanted to establish a centre for the study of tropical diseases and medicine. It started with a series of lectures at St George's Hospital. These lectures secured him the appointment of Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office. At the time Joseph Chamberlain was the Colonial Secretary and Patrick Manson was able to talk to him about founding a school of tropical medicine with financial backing from The Treasury. It opened in September 1899 as the London School of Tropical Medicine at the Branch Hospital of the Seamen's Hospital. This was the third medical school that Patrick Manson had been responsible for opening and his first UK medical school.

Publications And Books By Patrick MansonPatrick Manson then wrote his bestselling Manual of Tropical Diseases for his students. It became a standard reading book for medical students. His other published works were:

Lectures on Tropical Diseases - 1905 Diet in the Diseases of Hot Climates - 1908 - co-written with Charles Wilberforce Daniels Tropical Diseases: a Manual of the Diseases of Warm Climates - 1898 In 1903 Patrick Manson was Knighted.

Sir Patrick Manson retired to Ireland in 1912. He moved here for the fishing.

In 1914 he returned to London due to the outbreak of the First World War and continued with his work in medical education.

Throughout his life Sir Patrick Manson suffered from crippling attacks of gout. He died on 9 April in 1922. He is remembered as the Father of Tropical Medicine.

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Fri, 25 Dec 2020 15:12

This story was originally published by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they're published.In its hurry to use its final days in power to execute federal prisoners, the administration of President Donald Trump has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical, according to court records that have not been previously reported.

Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases. They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night. They left one prisoner strapped to the gurney while lawyers worked to remove a court order. They executed a second prisoner while an appeal was still pending, leaving the court to then dismiss the appeal as ''moot'' because the man was already dead. They bought drugs from a secret pharmacy that failed a quality test. They hired private executioners and paid them in cash.

The unprecedented string of executions is often attributed to Attorney General William Barr, and his role was instrumental: It was Barr's signature that authorized the use of a new lethal injection drug, his quotes that trumpeted the execution announcements and his position as attorney general that holds the ultimate authority in capital cases. (Barr is resigning effective Wednesday.)

But a ProPublica review of internal government records shows that Barr did not act alone. The push to resume federal executions for the first time since 2003 long predates Barr, with groundwork beginning as far back as 2011 and accelerating after Trump took office in 2017. It could not have happened without the help of Justice Department lawyers; officials at the Bureau of Prisons; two professors who endorsed the government's injection method; conservative Supreme Court justices who dismissed final appeals; and Trump himself, who encouraged the executions and declined to commute them.

Trump and his surrogates don't shy away from this. Throughout the campaign they highlighted the executions as a contrast to Joe Biden's opposition to the death penalty, reinforcing Trump's ''law and order'' message. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany even invoked the execution of Daniel Lee, who fell in with skinhead groups as a teenager and renounced those beliefs decades ago, to defend Trump after he declined to disavow white supremacists in the first debate.

''The activation of the death penalty and appearance of being tough on crime played into the administration's political strategy '-- the same political strategy that pushed for separating children and parents and using force against peaceful demonstrators,'' said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that tracks executions. ''An administration which is concerned about the rule of law and which respects the Constitution would have allowed court challenges to proceed and would not have attempted to carry out executions under a procedure that could be declared unlawful.''

The Justice Department has killed 10 people since July, with three more executions scheduled before Biden's inauguration. Most every federal agency is rushing to wrap up unfinished business, cementing policy objectives in ways that will make them harder for the incoming president to unwind. But the Justice Department's pressing forward with executions, even after the election of a new president who opposes them, is uniquely irreversible.

The White House and BOP declined to comment. In a statement, the Justice Department said: ''Seeking the death penalty and carrying out capital sentences is not a political issue, nor have political considerations influenced the department's decisions. The death penalty is a law enforcement and public safety issue, and the department is obligated to carry forward these sentences regardless of who is the president or the attorney general.''

''Death Penalty All the Way''A slim and shrinking majority of Americans support capital punishment, according to public polling. But it remains popular with Republicans, especially white evangelicals. That coincides with the strongest base of support for Trump, who, in 1989, famously bought full-page ads in New York newspapers demanding the death penalty for five young Black and Latino men who were wrongly accused of attacking a white female jogger in Central Park.

''Death penalty all the way,'' Trump said at a February 2016 campaign event in New Hampshire. ''I've always supported the death penalty. I don't even understand people that don't.''

Until this year, the Justice Department hadn't executed anyone since 2003. This long interruption was as much practical as legal. A drug that most states and the federal government used in lethal injections, a sedative called sodium pentothal, became unavailable because the sole American manufacturer stopped making it. The drug shortage thwarted the Obama administration's plan to execute convicted murderer Jeffery Paul. States began using a similar drug called pentobarbital, and in 2011 federal prison officials observed several state executions, according to court records.

Shortly after Trump's presidency began, his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, wanted to resolve these issues so that BOP could resume executions. Associate Deputy Attorney General Brad Weinsheimer said in a January 2020 deposition that Sessions began ''conversations with staff and BOP to move forward on that.''

One of the staffers involved was Matthew Whitaker, according to Weinsheimer. Whitaker, who briefly led the Justice Department between Sessions and Barr, didn't respond to requests for comment.

BOP made plans to use pentobarbital. But it had also become scarce as manufacturers shunned its use in executions. States resorted to using ''compounding pharmacies,'' which mix ingredients for custom-made drugs.

BOP planned to import powdered pentobarbital from a ''foreign FDA-registered facility'' but later turned to a domestic bulk manufacturer. It also hired a compounding pharmacy to create an injectable solution. The government has guarded vendor identities, since public scrutiny could pressure them to back out.

A sample of the compounding pharmacy's solution failed a quality test by an outside lab. But according to Weinsheimer, BOP said the problem was the lab, not the compound itself, and sent a new batch to a different lab.

BOP also explored using a different drug: the opioid fentanyl. In a March 2018 memo, then-BOP Director Mark S. Inch said BOP found a fentanyl supplier but warned ''there may be negative publicity associated with using a drug to which so many Americans are addicted.''

For unclear reasons, BOP planned to have the executions carried out by two private contractors, rather than government employees. The government won't disclose the contractors' names or profession, and it pays them in cash. ''If we didn't pay them in cash,'' a BOP lawyer said in a deposition, ''they probably wouldn't participate.''

''Killing Is Not a Treatment''BOP officials knew their new drug choice would face resistance in court; lawyers have argued that pentobarbital would flood prisoners' lungs with froth and foam, inflicting pain and terror akin to a death by drowning. BOP worked to fend off those concerns with expert witnesses who would say the drug was humane.

Finding these experts was challenging because most doctors consider it unethical to have anything to do with executions. The American Medical Association and other professional groups prohibit any participation, including the ''rendering of technical advice.''

''Doctors are experts in unkilling, we are not experts in killing,'' said Dr. Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist at Emory University who has testified that lethal injection of pentobarbital simulates death by drowning. ''This is why lethal injection is so problematic. It impersonates a medical act, but it's not about medicine at all. Killing is not a treatment. An execution chamber is not an operating room.''

The Justice Department would later claim that ''BOP consulted with medical professionals'' (plural). That is not exactly true. BOP engaged two expert witnesses. The first, Craig W. Lindsley, is a professor of chemistry and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. He is not a physician or licensed care provider; he has a Ph.D., not an M.D. In May 2017, Lindsley wrote a two-page report for BOP stating that pentobarbital will take effect so rapidly the prisoner wouldn't feel a thing. He concluded, ''Of all the available options and protocols in use today, I believe this protocol to be the most humane.''

Lindsley declined to be interviewed, citing Justice Department instructions. He did not disclose his compensation, but he was hired through a contract with a consulting firm called Elite Medical Experts that the Justice Department paid $22,000 in the same month as Lindsley's report. The company's CEO, Dr. Burton Bentley II, did not respond to requests for comment.

BOP's second expert witness was a medical doctor: retired California anesthesiologist Joseph F. Antognini. Antognini has said he personally opposes the death penalty as a Catholic. But he also said he believes states have a right to his advice, comparing it to criminal defendants' right to a lawyer.

Antognini has not addressed how he squares his testimony supporting executions with his Hippocratic oath. He did raise ethical considerations when he was asked to compare lethal injection to poison gas (a comparison between methods, like the one Lindsley made). ''Recommending one method of execution over another, I guess that's an ethical issue for me,'' he said in a deposition.

Antognini's rare position as a doctor vouching for lethal injection has made him a valuable witness in capital cases, including a Missouri case that later reached the Supreme Court. Antognini charges $400 an hour, $2,000 for a deposition, $4,000 per day in court and $2,000 per travel day.

In a deposition in the Missouri case, which involved the same lethal injection drug, Antognini testified that pentobarbital would make the prisoner unconscious within 30 seconds and people can't suffer while they're unconscious. ''Can you explain to me how you would have suffering in somebody who is unconscious?'' Antognini said. ''I don't see how that can happen based on my understanding of how all this works.''

Yet just a few minutes earlier Antognini had acknowledged, ''We don't know how anesthetics work.'' Scientists understand how the drugs act in the brain on a cellular level, he explained, but not how they produce unconsciousness.

The Supreme Court accepted Antognini's pentobarbital testimony. Other courts have been skeptical, ascribing his views ''little or no weight.''

Reached by phone, Antognini said he was busy and agreed to talk at a later time. When that time came, Antognini declined to comment. ''I wish you all a very merry Christmas,'' he said, and hung up.

''Some Objective Factor''By the summer of 2019, BOP determined that its drug supply was secure and it was ready to schedule executions. The agency gave Barr a list of 14 prisoners, out of about 60 on death row, who had exhausted their appeals. The Justice Department has refused to disclose this list. (Court records include a list from 2017 with 10 names, but they must not overlap entirely because two of the prisoners who Barr chose in 2019 were not on the earlier list.)

Barr decided whom to execute with the help of the then-deputy attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen (set to become the acting attorney general), and aides including Paul Perkins and Timothy Shea (who later became acting U.S. attorney in Washington and now leads the Drug Enforcement Administration). The officials mulled executing all 14 but decided to start with five.

They chose the five, according to Weinsheimer's deposition, for the same reason that Barr would publicly announce on July 25, 2019: They were ''convicted of murdering, and in some cases torturing and raping, the most vulnerable in our society '-- children and the elderly.''

''There was an effort to find some objective factor in looking at the 14,'' Weinsheimer said. ''This was an aggravating factor that seemed to apply.''

In fact, that wasn't true. Barr's summary of the case of Daniel Lee incorrectly said he ''murdered a family of three, including an 8-year-old girl.'' The undisputed evidence was that Lee refused to kill the girl, so his co-defendant did. The co-defendant was sentenced to life in prison, while Lee was sentenced to death.

Weinsheimer said he didn't know if there were other death row inmates who murdered children or the elderly. There were, according to a review by ProPublica.

Barr's announcement also justified the executions on the basis that ''we owe it to the victims and their families.'' This also was not true in Lee's case: Family members of Lee's victims have publicly come out against executing him (as have the prosecutor and judge). The families of the four other prisoners' victims supported the executions. In any event, the Justice Department didn't consult victims' family members when deciding who to kill, Weinsheimer said in his deposition.

The Justice Department also didn't review the prisoners' physical or mental health as part of its selection, according to Weinsheimer. One of the five, Alfred Bourgeois, had an IQ between 70 and 75, and his lawyers argued he is intellectually disabled. Another, Wesley Purkey, suffered from schizophrenia, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, which his lawyers said made him unable to understand the reason for his execution.

Weinsheimer said the Justice Department decided to schedule the executions in the order that the prisoners were convicted, with the oldest first. However, they were not the oldest capital convictions, according to ProPublica's review.

As for the executions' timing, Barr's announcement did not explain why, after a 17-year hiatus, the first three executions were scheduled within one week of each other. BOP officials voiced concern that these back-to-back executions would put more stress on their staff, the agency's lawyer said in a deposition. (After a 2014 lethal injection in Oklahoma went gruesomely awry, the state's investigation concluded that one contributing factor was having two executions scheduled that day.) Nevertheless, BOP's lawyer said the agency booked three executions in one week because of ''guidance from the attorney general.'' Weinsheimer denied that Barr gave a ''direction'' on how to schedule the executions.

''Moot'' '-- Because He's Already DeadEven prisoners who have exhausted their post-conviction appeals can go back to court to try to stop their execution once a date is set. A federal judge in Washington put the executions on hold in November 2019. The appeals court disagreed in April. Barr swiftly rescheduled the executions for Lee, Purkey and Dustin Honken, in a span of four days in July. In this announcement, Barr cut two from the original five (Bourgeois and Lezmond Mitchell), and added a new prisoner, Keith Nelson. The unifying theme, he said, was ''murdering children,'' repeating his inaccurate summary of Lee's crime.

On the day Lee was supposed to be executed, the judge in Washington ordered a new injunction. The appeals court declined to intervene, so the Justice Department went to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority has been consistently hostile to last-ditch reprieves in capital cases. ''Courts should police carefully against attempts to use such challenges as tools to interpose unjustified delay,'' Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a 2019 case (the Missouri execution that featured Antognini's testimony).

The conservatives have been equally unsympathetic to objections to lethal injection, considering that the court never found a constitutional problem with ''traditionally accepted methods'' such as hanging, electrocution and firing squad. ''The Eighth Amendment does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death,'' Gorsuch wrote in the Missouri case, ''something that, of course, isn't guaranteed to many people, including most victims of capital crimes.''

Early on July 14, five justices ruled that Lee's execution could go ahead, saying that he had ''not made the showing required to justify last-minute intervention.'' Technically, Lee's death warrant had expired at midnight, but the government issued a new same-day notice and went ahead with the execution around 4 a.m. Lee's lawyers protested that there was still a separate court order that the Supreme Court hadn't addressed, so officers left Lee on the gurney while government lawyers worked to wipe out that last obstacle. ''That cautious step, taken to ensure undoubted compliance with court orders, is irreconcilable with the suggestion that the department 'rushed' the execution or disregarded any law,'' Rosen, the deputy attorney general, wrote in a July op-ed. Less than an hour after a federal appeals court granted the government's request, Lee was dead.

''Today, Lee finally faced the justice he deserved,'' Barr said in a statement.

Later that day, at a White House press conference, Trump referred to Lee's execution as part of his attack on the Democratic Party platform. ''Abolish completely the death penalty,'' he said. ''You know what happened today with regard to the death penalty.''

Events repeated the next day. Purkey's execution was set for July 15. Again after 2 a.m., a sharply divided Supreme Court lifted the outstanding court orders. Purkey's lawyers rushed to federal district court for a new emergency stay on the basis that his Alzheimer's and schizophrenia made him unable to understand his sentence. The judge said the execution should pause while he considered the motion, which he then denied, chastising Purkey's lawyers for ''procedural gamesmanship.''

''Despite the risk of irreparable harm to Mr. Purkey, the balance of equities do not weigh in his favor,'' wrote the judge, James R. Sweeney II, who was appointed by Trump in 2017. Sweeney's brief order did not specify what equities he weighed, but the government had argued that Purkey's sentence had already been upheld multiple times.

As Purkey's lawyers rushed to appeal, BOP went ahead with placing an IV in Purkey's arm. He was dead before the appeals court made its ruling. The court later dismissed Purkey's appeal as ''moot'' because he was already dead.

Honken died the next day, the third that week.

''A Personal Interest''As prisoners desperately fought the government's execution plans in court, they argued that overdosing on pentobarbital would be so excruciating that even death by firing squad would be less painful. Justice Department lawyers chafed at the suggestion. In response, they said firing squads were ''more primitive'' than lethal injection, and reintroducing them would be a ''regressive change.''

Two weeks later, however, the agency took steps to do just that. The Justice Department proposed a regulatory change to authorize execution methods besides lethal injection, including firing squads, which remain legal in three states. ''This proposed rule would provide the federal government with greater flexibility to conduct executions in any manner allowed by federal law,'' the agency said. ''The proposed rule would therefore forestall potential future arguments by prisoners in litigation.''

The proposal made other tweaks to the department's regulations to address issues raised in litigation '-- not exactly admitting error, but tacitly acknowledging cracks in the government's legal foundation.

While the proposal was formally signed by Barr, its point person was Laurence E. Rothenberg, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy. Though he is a career employee, Rothenberg's LinkedIn profile picture shows him standing proudly with Barr, and he has staked out a public position supporting the death penalty.

In a 2004 law journal article (also published by the conservative Federalist Society), Rothenberg described the death penalty as ''intrinsically just.'' He also defended executing juvenile offenders against claims that doing so violates international law.

In another article, from 2006, Rothenberg and a Justice Department colleague attacked common critiques of the death penalty. ''The extent of racial disparities in capital cases in the United States has been vastly exaggerated,'' they wrote.

Rothenberg has said that his criminal justice views are shaped by a family tragedy. ''I also have a personal interest in, and commitment to, this work, as the son of a murder victim,'' he said in 2009 congressional testimony about a victims rights law. In 1974, Rothenberg's parents were shot, his father fatally, on a trip to the Virgin Islands. The shooter was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The regulation became final the day after Thanksgiving.

''It Didn't Go Well''For the next round of executions, Barr's announcement simply said that the two prisoners, William LeCroy and Christopher Vialva, were ''convicted of murder.'' He gave no other reason or explanation for their selection.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department executed Vialva's co-defendant, Brandon Bernard. Bernard was 18 at the time and did not pull the trigger. The prosecutor and five of the nine all-white jurors who convicted Bernard, who is Black, have since said his life should be spared. The reality star Kim Kardashian tried unsuccessfully to convince Trump to commute his sentence.

At the federal death row facility in Terre Haute, Indiana, the inmates are allowed to leave each other bequests, according to the New York Times. Alfred Bourgeois received his friend Bernard's wrist watch for the single day before it was his turn to die.

Bourgeois was strapped to a gurney in the middle of a green-tiled room, an IV in his arm. As the pentobarbital flowed, Bourgeois' stomach heaved and popped, according to George Hale, a public radio reporter who witnessed the execution. The apparent gasping for breath was consistent with how lawyers have described the drowning sensation that the injection could cause.

Bourgeois' death took 28 minutes, almost twice as long as Bernard's. Hale said, ''If Alfred Bourgeois was suffering that night, he suffered for a long time.''

There are three more federal executions scheduled in January '-- eight, six and five days before Biden's inauguration.

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WASHINGTON (AP) '-- On this, even President Donald Trump's most fevered critics agree: He has left a deep imprint on the federal courts that will outlast his one term in office for decades to come.

He used the promise of conservative judicial appointments to win over Republican skeptics as a candidate. Then as president, he relied on outside conservative legal organizations and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to employ an assembly line-like precision to install more than 230 judges on the federal bench, including the three newest justices of the Supreme Court. Trump never tired of boasting about it.

Indeed, undeterred by Democratic criticism, the Senate was still confirming judges more than a month after Trump lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden.

''Trump has basically done more than any president has done in a single term since (President Jimmy) Carter to put his stamp on the judiciary,'' said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland. Congress created about 150 new judgeships during Carter's presidency, he said.

The impact will be enduring. Among the Trump-appointed judges, who hold lifetime positions, several are still in their 30s. The three Supreme Court picks could still be on the court at the 21st century's midpoint, 30 years from now.

Beyond the Supreme Court, 30% of the judges on the nation's court of appeals, where all but a handful of cases reach their end, were appointed by Trump.

But numbers don't tell the entire story. The real measure of what Trump has been able to do will be revealed in countless court decisions in the years to come on abortion, guns, religious rights and a host of other culture wars issues.

When it came to the president's own legal challenges of the election results, however, judges who have him to thank for their position rebuffed his claims. But in many other important ways, his success with judicial appointments already is paying dividends for conservatives.

When the Supreme Court blocked New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by COVID-19, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the newest member of the court, cast the decisive fifth vote. Previously, the court had allowed restrictions on religious services over the dissent of four justices, including the other two Trump nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

Five Trump appointees were in the majority of the 6-4 decision by the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September that made it harder for felons in Florida to regain the right to vote. The Atlanta-based court had a majority of Democratic-appointed judges when Trump took office.

Last month, Judges Britt Grant and Barbara Lagoa, both named by Trump, formed the majority on a three-judge 11th circuit panel that struck down local Florida bans on therapy that seeks to change the sexual orientation of LGBTQ minors. Other appeals courts around the country have upheld the conversion therapy bans.

In one early look at Trump's appointees to federal trial courts, political science professors Kenneth Manning, Robert Carp and Lisa Holmes compared their decisions with more than 117,000 opinions published dating to 1932.

''Trump has appointed judges who exhibit a distinct decision-making pattern that is, on the whole, significantly more conservative than previous presidents,'' the political scientists concluded in a working paper in October.

The one constant of the past four years '-- through impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic and Trump's election loss '-- has been his nomination of and Senate confirmation of judges.

The president has had several partners in the judicial effort, but none more important than McConnell, who takes particular pride in reshaping the Supreme Court.

''I think it's far and away the most consequential thing I've ever been involved in,'' the 78-year-old McConnell said in an interview. ''And it's the most long-lasting accomplishment of the current administration, by far.''

They might not have called it a partnership at the time, but their mutually reinforcing work began even before Trump's election in 2016.

Trump used the issue of the federal judiciary to win trust with voters who might have questions about the conservative credentials of a billionaire real estate developer who had once supported abortion rights and did not have a track record in politics.

He put in writing a list of potential nominees, provided by the conservative Federalist Society and Heritage Foundation, he would select from in filling a Supreme Court vacancy.

Kellyanne Conway, who served as his campaign manager in 2016, said it was a move that people who had been in office for years and wanted to ascend to the presidency ''didn't have the courage to do, which is name names.''

As it happens, there was a high court opening at the time, following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.

Enter McConnell. The Republican blocked President Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland, refusing so much as a hearing for the respected appeals court judge whom Republicans had previously identified as a high court nominee they could support.

It was a gamble at a time when Trump's electoral prospects seemed dim, but it paid off with his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton.

And the high court seat wasn't the only one waiting to be filled when Trump took office in January 2017. Altogether, 104 judgeships were open after Republicans used their Senate majority to grind the nomination process to a near halt in Obama's final two years in office. Only 28.6% of his nominees were confirmed in that stretch.

The pace quickened almost immediately. Republicans moved with an urgency on confirmations that hasn't let up. In Trump's first two years, they pushed through 30 appellate court judges and 53 district court nominees. It was the highest number of appellate court confirmations in a two-year period since Ronald Reagan and nearly double the number that Obama secured in his first two years.

McConnell and top Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee eliminated rules that had allowed the opposition party to delay confirmations, most notably requiring just a simple majority, instead of 60 votes, to move Supreme Court nominees. Democrats, bitter over the stalled Garland nomination, otherwise would have blocked Gorsuch's confirmation in April 2017.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a sharp Trump critic, said Trump's judicial legacy ''is a lot less about what he's done than what he's allowed others to do in his name.''

Whitehouse said Trump essentially ''outsourced'' judicial nominations to McConnell and the Federalist Society, specifically the group's leader Leonard Leo and former White House counsel Don McGahn, a Federalist Society member who made judicial nominations a top priority.

At the same time, the Federalist Society and other conservative groups, including the Judicial Crisis Network and Americans for Prosperity, have taken millions of dollars in anonymous donations and waged public and behind-the-scenes campaigns for right-wing judges, Whitehouse said.

Trump ''opened the channel for special-interest interference in judicial selection,'' Whitehouse said. ''That, I think, is very novel and obviously lends itself to corruption.'' He said: ''Right wing forces have for decades sought the kind of influence in judicial nominations that the Trump administration outright gave them.''

McConnell scoffed at the criticism. ''The reason a lot of them belong to the Federalist Society is because that is sort of the core mission of the Federalist Society '-- to get the courts back to doing what they're supposed to do and not legislate from the bench,'' he said.

On the campaign trail and at White House events, Trump would often cite his record on judicial appointments as an example of accomplishment, while ignoring the obstructions that occurred during the Obama years.

''You know, when I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren't appointed,'' he said. ''Now, I don't know why Obama left that. It was like a big, beautiful present to all of us. Why the hell did he leave that? Maybe he got complacent.'' Trump omitted the essential fact that McConnell had blocked Obama's nominees.

The high court vacancy at the start of Trump's term was, in essence, a gift from McConnell. Justice Anthony Kennedy's decision to retire in 2018 allowed Trump to replace the court's swing justice with the more conservative Kavanaugh, who survived his own bruising confirmation hearings that included allegations he sexually assaulted a woman when they were both in high school decades ago. Kavanaugh denied the claims.

Less than two months before the 2020 election, Trump was handed another opening with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Trump and Senate Republicans didn't hesitate. He nominated Barrett even before Ginsburg was buried at Arlington National Cemetery and McConnell ensured the confirmation was done before the election.

The Senate has continued confirming Trump nominees even after his defeat for reelection, breaking a norm that has stood since 1900 with one exception, said Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Federal prosecutor Thomas Kirsch was confirmed as Barrett's replacement on the federal appeals court based in Chicago on Dec. 15, on a mostly party-line vote.

The exception was the Senate's bipartisan acceptance in 1980 of a former Senate staff member as a federal appeals court judge. That nominee was Stephen Breyer, now a Supreme Court justice.

Along with the question of legacy is whether Trump's record on judges spurs major changes to the judiciary.

Wheeler, at Brookings, said one of the most striking features of the teamwork of Trump and McConnell is that they acted as though they had the support of most Americans. They did not, he said.

''My main beef with this current group is that there's just no mandate to turn the judiciary so far to the right,'' Wheeler said. ''Trump lost the popular vote massively in 2016, but nevertheless has behaved as if he had a mandate to reshape the federal judiciary at the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals level and I think that's just unfounded.''

Liberal groups already have been pushing for changes at the highest level, including expansion of the Supreme Court and term limits for justices. The political prospects for both ideas are uncertain, at best.

But there's less doubt from any vantage point about what Trump has wrought.

The U.S. ''will be living with the legacy of Donald Trump for decades to come as a result of his judicial appointments,'' said Brian Fallon, executive director of Demand Justice, a liberal advocacy group. People who accepted judicial appointments from Trump will ''wear the moniker of 'Trump judge' for the rest of their lives.''

Not so, in Conway's view. ''It will be one of the most lasting pieces of his legacy, distinguished and durable,'' she said.

Tim Schmidt Executive Producer noagendaphone.coom

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James Phelan/CNET If you just received a new iPhone 12, Apple Watch or iPad, you might not have gotten immediate satisfaction -- Apple was having some iCloud issues . That's likely the result of a large volume of people trying to set up or update iCloud accounts following the gift-giving of the Christmas holiday.

The issue started early on Christmas Day, according to the iCloud account and sign-in entry on Apple's system status page. More than a day later, as of late morning PT Saturday, the Apple system status page indicated that the issue with the storage service remained "ongoing." But by 2 p.m. PT Saturday, the iCloud issue was marked "resolved." No specifics were given about how widespread the problems might have been, only that "some users were affected."

The company also noted issues with Apple ID sign-in. In a Twitter reply later on Christmas Day to the query of an Apple user looking to set up an iPad and a HomePod Mini, Apple Support acknowledged problems, saying the company was "experiencing a high capacity at this time which is impacting your ability to set up iCloud." The Apple Support tweet said to "please try back in a couple of hours."

The holidays are typically a busy time for device activations as people unwrap gifts of phones, tablets, smartwatches, smart speakers and other electronics and look to get them set up right away.

Apple didn't respond to a request for comment.

See also: Apple One subscription bundle: Everything included and how to sign up now

First published on Dec. 26, 2020 at 11:31 a.m. PT.

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NuScale has released new data on its small modular reactor's ability to split hydrogen from water.High-temperature electrolysis of hydrogen requires process heat.NuScale's reactor was competitive with solar electrolysis at the right scale.After getting bodied in the news cycle for a few months, small modular nuclear startup NuScale Power has an additional potential path to the diverse energy market. In a new evaluation run by the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory, NuScale's nuclear module performed effective catalysis for hydrogen.

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'¸You love nuclear. So do we. Let's nerd out over nuclear together.

The company reports:

The updated analysis found that with the 25 percent increase in power output of a [NuScale Power Module' (NPM)], one 250 MWt NuScale module is capable of producing 2,053 kg/hour of hydrogen, or nearly 50 metric tons per day, an increase from 1,667 kg/hour of hydrogen or 40 metric tons per day for a 200 MWt NuScale module. NuScale says these numbers mean that correctly deployed nuclear modules could compete with existing solutions like solar hydrogen plants, helping to eliminate the need for fossil fuel hydrogen.

For skeptics, this is a combination of two kinds of snake oil. But are those criticisms valid? It's complicated.

Tiny nuclear is on the rise around the world, but NuScale has drawn the most attention for both good and bad reasons. The company's product is the closest to hitting the market because it uses a lot of pretty traditional nuclear technology, which critics say makes it too much like what came before. Those detractors are also mad that NuScale has drawn a huge amount of funding and government support.

Hydrogen is a hypothetically renewable energy source that's currently mired in the fossil fuel supply chain. That's because almost no ''free'' (in the literal, chemical sense) hydrogen exists in nature'--it all has to be shaken loose from water, for example, or hydrocarbons.

This has led critics to say hydrogen is basically a fossil fuel for now, and they're not wrong. But innovators are crowding into the hydrogen space to try to make easier, cleaner, more plentiful hydrogen that will cost less for consumers and the planet.

Back to NuScale's hydrogen evaluation'--how do these two technologies meet? One of the key ways the nuclear industry says they're essential to our energy future is in something called process heat, used for things like home HVAC and forging and smelting. Now, process heat from NuScale's module is heating water and then zapping the hydrogen out of the superheated steam.

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In NuScale's release about the evaluation, the company touts the flexibility it says its module brings. This has been a big selling point for tiny nuclear across the board, along with improved containment and safety outcomes, because of advanced design in these reactor units.

ðŸ'š Further Reading: The Best Nuclear BooksBut what's the real use case for using part of a small reactor's output to make hydrogen? Couldn't traditional, large nuclear plants do the same things?

Well, sure, but NuScale has never claimed to improve over the best markets for traditional, large, nuclear fission power plants. In big cities or populated areas, that could still be the best option, combined with growing renewables like solar, wind, and hydro. Small, remote locations, however, could be keen to have hydrogen for refueling, but lack access to a large nuclear infrastructure.

In the near future, as we phase out fossil fuels around the world, having more options is almost always a good idea.

Now Watch This:

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Author of the article:

Brian Lilley

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Dec 20, 2020

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4 minute read

Kelly Childs and Erinn Weatherbie, owners of Kelly's Bake Shoppe in Burlington kellysxo.com Article contentI didn't know that being a vegan cupcake baker wouldn't qualify as woke enough but then again, I'm guessing my woke culture decoder ring is busted.

Two women in Burlington who make vegan cupcakes and donate to all the right charities have become the latest victims of cancel culture, having a contract for a second cookbook terminated.

Their crime? Some people called them racist on social media and that was enough for uber-woke publishing giant Penguin Random House to cancel their upcoming book on cupcakes and good living.

The story begins in 2012 when the mother-daughter team of Kelly Childs and Erinn Weatherbie opened a bakery in Burlington, Ont. selling ''plant based, gluten-free, peanut-free, dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan'' desserts.

Their website describes the bakery as ''an inclusive place where everyone can indulge guilt-free in any of their mouth-watering desserts.''

If you aren't picking up racist tones with that description from their website, maybe you aren't woke enough.

Or maybe you live in the real world with the rest of us.

In 2014 the two women signed a deal with Penguin Random House to produce a book called Made With Love containing more than 100 plant-based dessert recipes.

The book offers details on how to create chocolate monkey pancakes, cumin-scented corn bread and eggless quiche '-- all while doling out the wisdom of the two women on how they live their life and why they are vegans.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

If you still aren't seeing the blatant racism then wait, there's more.

The book sold so well that in 2017 there was another contract for a follow-up book.

That was moving along well and then like everything else, COVID happened and the book was delayed to a 2021 release but the company was excited about the manuscript they had '... until they got some complaints.

See, on June 2, 2020 the Instagram account for Kelly's Bake Shoppe participated in ''Blackout Tuesday'' on Instagram.

First, they posted a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., a rather inspiring quote and an explanation that they were standing up to racism in the wake of George Floyd's death.

''Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,'' King famously said.

That quote was followed by a black square and #blackouttuesday as the only statement.

The two posts have received more than 1,200 likes on Instagram, not a bad tally for a bakery in a mid-sized suburban community but they also generated some nasty comments.

Article content continuedKelly and Erinn were accused of ''performative allyship'' meaning they didn't really care about the issue of racism, they were just trying to profit off of it.

That was one of the nice comments.

Others claimed the pair were racist, homophobic, had the wrong political beliefs and lots of nasty personal comments.

When they deactivated comments on the post they were accused of silencing black voices.

I haven't seen all the nasty comments aimed at the cupcake makers but most of them that I have seen were written by white women '-- like Kelly and Erinn.

There was something nasty, something personal in these comments.

Instagram post by Kelly's Bake Shoppe paying tribute to George Floyd Photo by Instagram / @kellysbakeThis doesn't appear to have been driven by a concern about racism and how a bakery in Burlington reacted to the death of George Floyd, this was about something else.

Some of the comments came from past employees and according to the women, from accounts run by people who run competing vegan businesses in the area.

Eventually, a campaign was launched on Reddit asking Penguin Random House to cancel the deal for the second book.

That campaign was successful because the book deal was cancelled with Penguin Random House claiming that Kelly and Erinn had engaged in ''conduct that reveals prejudice against Black people.''

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

That is a serious charge, an extremely serious charge. Any person or company making such a charge should be willing to back it up and provide, not rely in Internet trolls with an axe to grind.

So far, the company has not provided that proof to the lawyers representing Kelly and Erinn nor did they even respond to me with a ''no comment'' when I reached out last week.

They simply ignored my email.

If cancel culture can strike a mother-daughter duo running a gluten-free, dairy free, plant-based, vegan bakery then it can strike any of us.

From what I can see, one of the biggest publishers in the world caved and cancelled a book deal due to people with their own business and political agendas on social media.

Thankfully, Kelly and Erinn are fighting back and suing for $3 million in court.

Let's hope they win and make these woke companies think twice before cancelling contracts and disparaging people's reputation with no proof all because the woke mob came calling on social media.

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Dan Scavino🇺🇸ðŸ...… : https://t.co/JBnhpDWVQ0

Mon Dec 21 04:39:20 +0000 2020

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Cerno : Yes I'm sure that a mixed Indian and Jamaican household that *lived in Canada* was celebrating a holiday that didn''... https://t.co/rJyUIail68

Sat Dec 26 19:53:21 +0000 2020

Phyllis Stewart : @Cernovich :::Vomiting.)::: Does anyone...and I mean anyone...believe this fantasy she wove for her sheeple? Is ANY'... https://t.co/usMANb9POt

Sun Dec 27 12:47:02 +0000 2020

William Andrew Sawka : @Cernovich As far as the validity of her Quanzah tale goes, don't forget she's with Straight Talking Scranton Kid Lunch Bucket Joe

Sun Dec 27 12:32:31 +0000 2020

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 19:05

First published at 17:24 UTC on December 25th, 2020.

NURSE TIFFANY PONTES DOVER gets Pfizer mRNA Vaccine live on TV on Dec. 17, 2020. She becomes dizzy and faints within 17 minutes of the injection, then "likely" dies during the night while sleeping. She was a mother of two, in great health,'...

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NURSE TIFFANY PONTES DOVER gets Pfizer mRNA Vaccine live on TV on Dec. 17, 2020. She becomes dizzy and faints within 17 minutes of the injection, then "likely" dies during the night while sleeping. She was a mother of two, in great health, and only 30 years old. Anyone with Common Sense knows that she would have been paraded onto a local news channel to debunk the rumors of death. She did one small interview the same day she passed out, but people are looking high and low for PROOF OF LIFE on Dec. 18th or later. If she is dead, this can't happen. She was being found on the Death Records Search, but no longer. They can shut down the Death Records Search Engine which is what the government, Medical Mafia, and Big Pharma have done. They can also sick the fake "fact checkers" that are paid by Soros and Gates, and have Big Tech block and delete Truther information off all the biggest social media sites which is also what is being done. Like any other False Flag Event, the government will now search for a lookalike, push older photos or videos, do a video manipulation, or even create a clone to play her part as a role player if the story will not die down. They will also pay crisis actors to say that she is fine by making internet posts. Truthers will see all the signs of a Government Conspiracy Theory, the Sheeple will say the MSM said she is fine so they will line up to get their own mRNA dosage, and the DEMONrat Globalists will cover-up, deflect, and keep pushing their NWO Agenda. The script being read by MSM is obviously a SCRIPT, just like the entire PLANdemic/SCAMdemic is a SCRIPT being followed and played out by most World Governments. Any UNBIASED Doctors, Nurses, and other Medical Personnel that are coming out and telling the TRUTH will keep being discredited, ridiculed, publicly shamed, blocked, deleted, gaslighted, fined, fired, and even murdered. I really don't know what it is going to take to Wake Up a majority of The Walking Dead, we are all surrounded by them. The BURDEN OF PROOF BEYOND A SHADOW OF DOUBT that she is alive and well is all on the Medical Mafia, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Pfizer, Mainstream Media News, and the Government. They would have done so the very next day IF THEY COULD, you know it, and I know it. METHODS OF DECEIT take time, but a Truthful debunking could have and would have occurred the very next day. Note: It is now a week later, the woman that got the shot on live TV, has still not made a live public appearance on any later dates. Use your brains and NEVER FORGET that Some Truth Can Be Found In Hollywood Movies, but "NO TRUTH Can Be Found In Mainstream Media News". Repeat this statement over and over while being "brainwashed" by MSM, or better yet, STOP WATCHING Mainstream Media News and try to become CONSCIOUS by doing your own research. Also, if you aren't yet awake to the False Flag Events, the Fake War on Terror, and Crisis Actors, then I am confident you will not research this topic either. Tiffany Pontes Dover FaceBook Tribute Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/777834406411388/ Death Records Search only fails using TIFFANY DOVER (give it a try) https://www.searchquarry.com/ SERGEANT MAJOR'S TRUTHER INFO [MeWe] https://mewe.com/join/sergeantmajorstrutherinfo [Spreely] https://www.spreely.com/page/SergeantMajorsTrutherInfo [Gab] https://gab.com/Sergeant_Major [Bitchute] https://www.bitchute.com/channel/sergeant-major/ [Brighteon] https://www.brighteon.com/channels/sergeantmajor [UGETube] https://videos.utahgunexchange.com/@SERGEANT%20MAJORS%20TRUTHER%20INFO [OurTube] https://ourtube.co.uk/@SGMs_Truther_Info [NewTube] https://newtube.app/user/SGMs_TRUTHER_INFO [BrandNewTube] https://brandnewtube.com/@SergeantMajor [Odysee] https://odysee.com/$/invite/4dCmT1hh84DFXxzRvUh2B8YabMsHMK1m [Lbry] https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@SergeantMajor'sTrutherInfo#21f9aff7cc7c7903e1554b8ca3134badae40e9eb "The 5 rules to AWAKENING: Rule #1 - Everything you were ever taught is a lie by design; Rule #2 - governments lie 100% of the time, they always have, and they always will; Rule #3 - the Illuminati controlled mainstream media is not reality, but rather is lies, disinformation, half-truths, and fake events carried out by gov/media hired crisis actors (aka role players); Rule #4 - Spirituality and Reincarnation are reality, whereas religions are simply government crowd control measures; and Rule #5 - this plane(t) called earth is a flat, motionless plane, it is not a spinning ball hurling through outer space. Furthermore, the 4 Sources of Disinformation that are ALWAYS FAKE: government, mainstream media news, matrix sciences, and religions." -- Sergeant Major

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 16:42

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Sat, 26 Dec 2020 04:09

Jon Miller : Apparently Nashville's useless Democrat mayor John Cooper's got jokes this morning! https://t.co/btyiMr12Jz

Fri Dec 25 19:29:18 +0000 2020

President-Elect Harmony 🇺🇸 : @MillerStream Oh, see that? The explosion was barely newsworthy...it was only the broken water mains that lent it a'... https://t.co/EnsaqznCem

Sat Dec 26 03:56:20 +0000 2020

Armystrong1776 : @MillerStream Recall @nashvillemayor @TNGOP @FOXNashville

Sat Dec 26 03:55:51 +0000 2020

masksareslavery : @MillerStream Are ALL democrats CHILDREN in adult bodies ?

Sat Dec 26 02:36:09 +0000 2020

masksareslavery : @MillerStream Was that funny ???????????

Sat Dec 26 02:35:17 +0000 2020

Isaac hunt : @MillerStream @EricDix06279341 F***** ridiculous, RIDICULOUS

Sat Dec 26 02:34:58 +0000 2020

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Fri, 25 Dec 2020 16:05

Tom Elliott : CNN guest Dr. Andrew Pastewski on his message to Americans this morning: "Christmas should not be fun this year" https://t.co/TSQTrTnzoi

Thu Dec 24 13:13:38 +0000 2020

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Fri, 25 Dec 2020 15:41

Dec. 25, 2020, 8:04 AM EST

By Alexander Smith

LONDON '-- Brexit can often seem like a never-ending time warp of deals, deadlines, crunch moments and midnight negotiations. If the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in June 2016, why are we still talking about it now, 1,645 days later?

The good news is, if you're tired of hearing about Brexit, Thursday perhaps brought a moment of final clarity that might help put the issue to rest '-- for a while at least. The U.K. and E.U. finally agreed a trade deal that will replace the partnership they shared for 47 years.

"For the past four years, Brexit has consumed us," said David Henig, the U.K. director of the European Centre For International Political Economy, a think tank. "The biggest thing resulting from this deal is that it draws a line under four and a half years of debate '-- this takes Brexit off the front pages and returns the business of trade relations back to dull officialdom."

Here's some of what we know of the agreement, and a reminder of how Britain and the E.U. got to this place.

What's in the deal?Politicos will squabble over the details, debating which side ceded more and which gained in the negotiations. The full agreement is said to number some 2,000 pages.

What we know so far is that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the E.U.'s executive branch, emerged with what's known as a "hard" Brexit. It ditches most of their shared rules and regulations but keeps free trade moving between them, as well as some cooperation on areas such as security, financial markets, aviation and science.

Johnson and von der Leyen meet for a dinner in Brussels on Dec. 9. Aaron Chown / WPA Pool via Getty ImagesChampioned by Johnson, the deal was welcomed by the E.U. with a wistful relief '-- especially considering the alternative. If they failed to reach an agreement by Dec. 31, the U.K. would have crashed out with a "no deal" Brexit. Experts see this as a nightmare scenario, threatening border chaos, price rises, shortages of food and medicine and even unrest on the streets.

The agreement will likely gain final approval by lawmakers next week, and all things considered is "a good deal for both sides," Henig said. Still it will not avoid trading friction. It is the first trade deal in history that erects more barriers '-- rather than fewer '-- compared to the seamless E.U. relationship before.

What was it all about?On June 23, 2016, the British people voted by 52 percent to 48 that they no longer wanted to be part of the E.U. But the referendum said little about what they did want instead.

The E.U. is the world's largest political and economic club, bound together by decades of shared laws, values, and a desire never to repeat the continent-wide horror of World War II.

Britain had always been something of an uneasy member, its right-wing newspapers railing against what they saw as unnecessary regulations dictated from Brussels that eroded their country's sovereignty.

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When working as a journalist with the Daily Telegraph in the 1980s and 90s, Johnson perfected a type of tale that mocked "Eurocrats" for imposing needless rules about how bendy bananas should be '-- stories that were often more amusing than they were factually accurate.

For decades this Euroscepticism gripped the Conservative Party, playing a role in the downfall of prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major in the 1990s. When their successor David Cameron tried to draw a line under his party's infighting, by calling what he assumed would be an easy-win Brexit referendum in 2016, he too stepped down after the shock result came in.

For supporters, Brexit was the only way to "take back control" '-- to borrow its campaign slogan '-- of their laws, money and borders, the latter usually a euphemism for tighter controls on immigration.

Turmoil just beginningSome moderates favored a "soft Brexit" that mirrored Norway's relationship with the E.U. Norway is not an E.U. member but remains in its "single market," allowing people, goods, money and services to move freely between countries with little or no checks at all.

Hardcore Brexiteers said this was unconscionable, instead favoring a "hard" Brexit that would see their country scrap most '-- if not all all '-- of the shared rules and regulations with Europe. Meanwhile some Remainers sought to overturn the result altogether.

The internecine political war between these factions has taken an enormous toll.

It turned political parties, families and friends against each other; it busted centuries-old parliamentary norms; it saw the Conservatives oust their own prime minister, Theresa May; and it prompted Johnson to unlawfully suspend Parliament to prevent lawmakers scrutinizing his Brexit plans, according to stunning ruling last year by Britain's Supreme Court.

Anti-Brexit demonstrators wave U.K. and E.U. flags opposite the Houses of Parliament in London in December 2018. Daniel Leal-Olivas / AFP - Getty Images fileThe U.K. officially left the E.U. on Jan. 31 this year. And since then it has been in a "transition period," keeping most E.U. rules while the sides negotiated a trade deal '-- with a deadline of Dec. 31.

The white smoke came this week with days to spare. After a year in which Johnson's government has been widely criticized over its coronavirus response, overseeing one of the highest deaths per capita in the world, the prime minister has followed through with his promise to "get Brexit done."

Any form of Brexit will weaken the U.K. economy compared to staying in the E.U., according to the British government's own fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility. The OBR says Johnson's deal will dampen long-term GDP by 4 percent, meaning Brexit '-- an entirely voluntary exercise '-- is projected to do more economic damage to Britain than Covid-19.

Huge strain on the unionOne quirk of the deal means that Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., will be able to trade more easily with the Irish Republic than with the rest of mainland Britain. This at a time when some polls suggest growing support for a referendum on Irish reunification.

In Scotland, most people voted against Brexit but were crushed by the sheer weight of pro-Brexit votes in England. Now polls suggest backing for Scottish independence has never been higher.

RecommendedIn the shorter term there will be headaches. Coming just seven days before the rules change, the Christmas Eve deal leaves businesses perilously short notice to adjust to the small print.

"A Christmas Eve deal means there is very little time for the public, businesses and parliamentarians to get their heads around the content," Maddy Thimont Jack, an associate director at the Institute for Government think tank, wrote in a briefing. "Businesses are not ready '-- even with this deal now agreed."

Longer term, though it will not offset the economic damage likely done by Brexit, a new trade deal with the United States is seen as a grand prize for Brexiteers.

That will go some way toward answering the next unknown question. In a world where Beijing, Washington and Brussels are vying for hegemonic control, what will this new version of Britain actually look like, and what global role will it play?

Alexander Smith Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.

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Fri, 25 Dec 2020 15:01

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) '-- A large explosion was reported in downtown Nashville early Christmas morning.

The explosion happened in the area of Second Avenue and Broadway near Commerce Street occurred around 6:30 am Friday. Heavy black smoke can be seen rising above the affected area.The Metro Nashville Office of Emergency Management told News 2 a parked RV exploded and caused damage to several buildings. They said crews are currently assessing the damage but no injuries have been reported. Officials with the OEM also reported foul play was not suspected at this time.

There was a large police presence in this area along with fire crews. News 2 has reached out to Metro Police and The Fire Department to learn more.

This is a developing story. Stay with News 2 and WKRN.com for updates.