1311: Woke Kindergarten

Find a Dude named Ben or Dudette named Bernadette

If you are a Ben or Bernadette, make yourself available

GrapheneOS & Linux (Windows may stop working for you)

noagendaphone.com

Set up a mastodon for your family (beware of services, install on your own server at home if needed)

Get a new Podcasting 2.0 app

Learn how to use bitcoin

Learn to use encryption

Ham Radio

Protonmail

Signal (beter coming)

Association Of Flight Attendants trying to keep Trump supporters off their planes when they travel home.

"Our first priority in aviation safety and security is to keep any problems on the ground. Some of the people who traveled in our planes yesterday participated in the insurrection at the Capitol today. Their violent and seditious actions at the Capitol today create further concern about their departure from the DC area. Acts against our democracy, our government, and the freedom we claim as Americans must disqualify these individuals from the freedom of flight.

I'm emailing to hopefully help give more accurate info regarding the adverse effects of Covid vaccines. You mentioned that a producer sent in data showing over 40k adverse effects from Covid vaccines. I looked this up in the show notes and saw that the data he pulled was the adverse effects of ALL vaccines in 2020, not just Covid vaccines.

I was able to search with a tool linked on the same government site that allowed sorting by vaccine type. The short of it is that as of the end of December 2020 there were 3,916 total reported adverse effects. I'm seeing 8 deaths, but I may be missing some. Lots of sore arms and swelling, metallic taste in mouth, and flu-like symptoms. Some of the deaths have little explanation, and others inform that the patient was in hospice or had other serious health conditions.

Attached is the data and a link for people to generate their own report. I'm an amateur with this, but was able to navigate enough for the basics.

Hope this is helpful for you guys in presenting your great unbiased deconstruction of the news and events. Keep up the great work!

Gratefully,

Jordan

I am the spouse of a teacher. This email was sent to teachers. The "helpful resources for talking with students" sends you to this: https://beyondthestoplight.com/2021/01/06/resources-for-teachers-on-the-days-after-the-attack-on-the-u-s-capitol/

Even the link has a pretty crappy narrative. I'm sending this because I'm listening to Thursday's show and I'm at the part where the comment was made that colleges —then corrected to lower Ed is changing the way people think and telling them how to look at things.

The email is below:

MEA members,

The siege on our nation's Capitol this week was an affront to American democracy, pure and simple.

But for us, as educators, it is a moment we must reckon with as we work with students who saw something unimaginable happen in our country – an act of open sedition at the temple of our democracy. In that vein, I want to share some helpful resources for talking with students about this week's riot in Washington, D. C.

Wednesday's actions were inexcusable – both by the rioters and the President who incited them. And there must be ramifications. Those who participated in the insurrection must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Even with less than two weeks remaining in office, President Trump must be held accountable for his words and actions, both in inciting Wednesday's riot and his baseless attacks on the outcomes of a fair election.

As such, I am sharing with you a statement released tonight by NEA President Becky Pringle calling for the president to be removed from office – a statement I fully support:

"Our nation is based on a promise that every single person — Black, Latino/a/x, Asian, Native, White, regardless of wealth — can pursue a better tomorrow. That promise is in jeopardy because President Donald Trump and his allies refuse to accept the will of the people and have endangered Americans and American democracy.

"To protect our democracy and ensure the safety of our nation, the National Education Association is calling for the immediate removal of Donald Trump from the office of the President. Yesterday wasn't the first heinous and anti-democratic act of violence directed by the current president and his allies, and it won't be the last if he isn't removed from office now.

"The American people rejected the intimidation, dysfunction and injustice of this President. His response was to incite insurrection, endangering the lives of Republican, Independent, and Democratic elected officials and their staff. The resulting loss of life, the destruction of federal property, and an unknown level of breach of information security was all done against the backdrop of President Trump refusing to authorize the National Guard to deploy and stamp out this seditious attack.

"Restoring our national security and safety of our democracy requires our leaders to take swift action consistent with our Constitution — the law of our land. We should immediately heed the calls by both Democratic and Republican officials to remove President Trump from office, so our new leaders can get back to work on addressing the priorities of the people that elected them — COVID relief, racial justice, and a quality public education for all Americans, no matter who they are or where they live.

"Our children are witnessing the promise of American democracy unravel before their eyes — and they're paying attention. They are seeing the blatant inequities in the treatment of violent insurrectionists who, protected by white privilege, were able to carry out this violent seditious act. And they are seeing a president who instigated that violence and who has fomented racial division from his first days in office face no consequences other than stern rhetoric, or worse, submissive silence.

"Our students are watching what we do next to protect our country, and it is our duty as educators to fight to protect our democracy and a nation that is always seeking to create a more perfect union of the people, by the people, and for the people."

I wholeheartedly agree.

In solidarity,

Paula Herbart

MEA President

This is the text of a message sent to people in a chat group - the woman lives in WenZhou (When-Joe)

As she explains, she went to the hospital because she felt unwell, with a slight fever. She was held - in isolation - until her rapid test results came back negative for whatever spike proteins (or other matter) that the machine is trying to detect.

Because it is an extra cold winter, the air pollution in China will be worse this year. Expect the Chinese government to force lock-downs (reducing auto emissions and factory particulates) in the name of "preventing Covid".

The result will be cleaner air, fewer deaths and fewer hospitalizations. Once again, (like Feb 2020) China will claim that they controlled the virus. This time the credit will go to vaccines, masks, and lock-downs.

Prof JJ

Greetings Citizens,

Wanted to let you know the site to order your Limited Edition Fisting Nuts is live! For real, no joke.

Yes this started off as a gag. Yes you will get a real bag of Fisting Nuts just like the ones that annoy John. Yes a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the show.

We currently have Salted and Honey Roasted in stock.

Barring any glitches you should be able to order now.

If you haven't been kicked off the tweeters please feel free to post a picture of your Nuts with the hashtag #resistwemunch

TYFYC and for supporting TBPIU.

Happy Nut Fisting! Love and Light!

M.W.G

fistingnuts.com

resistwemunch.com

P.S. Don't forget to share your nuts with others!

I wanted to give you a boots on the ground report about how this second vaccine shot is a doozy. My wife is an ICU doctor and just got her second Pfizer shot today. She is having chills, nausea, full body aches, and diarrhea. Her other physician friends are having the same experience with the 2nd shot when the first shot was just a sore shoulder. I'll be surprised if John's prediction comes true. I don't think people are gonna line up around the block if word gets out about the side effects.

The cdc is saying there is no new variant and that the white house task force is making shit up

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/white-house-coronavirus-task-force-reports/index.html

But then there are state reports saying new variant here

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/coronavirus/two-more-cases-of-more-contagious-covid-19-variant-confirmed-in-colorado-state-health-officials-say

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/07/cdc-reports-22-california-cases-of-coronavirus-variant-first-identified-in-uk

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/new-york-gov-cuomo-warns-covid-variant-discovered-in-uk-could-strain-hospitals-force-shutdown-.html

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/os-ne-coronavirus-nearly-half-of-new-covid-variant-cases-in-florida-20210107-izopovo3tvgezagnbaqgdxizwe-story.html

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:13

(CNN)The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shot down reports from the White House coronavirus task force that warned states of a more transmissible, homegrown "US variant" of coronavirus -- a misperception that began on a call with governors, an administration official told CNN.

Officials on the governors' call were discussing whether the steep slope in coronavirus cases may be due to a potential US variant similar to a variant first identified by genetics experts in the UK.

But the official made it very clear US health officials have not determined that a US variant of the virus exists. There has been discussion about whether US health officials should investigate whether a US variant exists and make that identification. But so far, the official cautioned, no such identification has occurred.

Warnings about the variant made it into written reports dated January 3 that were sent to states and obtained by CNN. The reports warned of the possibility of a "USA variant" of Covid-19.

"This fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rise of cases as the spring and summer surges. This acceleration suggests there may be a USA variant that has evolved here, in addition to the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50% more transmissible," reports obtained by CNN said, calling for "aggressive mitigation ... to match a much more aggressive virus."

The pandemic continues to rage as the nation has turned its

attention to the insurrection at the US Capitol and the certification of

President-elect Joe Biden's victory, and the task force continued to warn states of "aggressive community spread" after the holiday season.

"The United States remains at a high plateau of 140-150,000 confirmed and suspected COVID admissions per week and 120-125,000 total inpatients. Significant continued deterioration, from California across the Sunbelt and up into the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, despite low testing rates during the holidays, suggests aggressive community spread," the task force reports said.

The task force reports also called on outpatient monoclonal antibody treatment infusion sites "immediately available to save lives."

And as the nation struggles to rapidly immunize Americans, the reports said that vaccines must "be put in arms now."

"Do not delay the rapid immunization of those over 65 and vulnerable to severe disease; recommend creation of high throughput vaccination sites with use of EMT personnel to monitor for potential anaphylaxis and fully utilize nursing students. No vaccines should be in freezers but should instead be put in arms now; active and aggressive immunization in the face of this surge would save lives," the reports said.

This week, California is the state with the most new cases per 100,000 population, followed by Arizona, Kansas, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Utah, Arkansas, West Virginia, Georgia and Massachusetts in the top 10.

Test positivity, an indication of rising cases to come, is highest in Oklahoma, followed by Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama.

Arkansas has the most hospital admissions per 100 inpatient beds, followed by Arizona, Maryland, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kentucky, California, District of Columbia, South Carolina and New Mexico.

And Kansas has the most new deaths per 100,000 population, followed by Wyoming, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Arizona, Tennessee and Rhode Island.

This story has been updated to reflect the CDC shooting down the White House coronavirus task force reports' warnings about a "USA variant."

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:05

This article is about the American diplomat. For the American artist, see

Richard Haas.

Richard Nathan Haass (born July 28, 1951) is an American diplomat. He has been president of the Council on Foreign Relations since July 2003, prior to which he was Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Senate approved Haass as a candidate for the position of ambassador and he has been U.S. Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan. He succeeded George J. Mitchell as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland to help the peace process in Northern Ireland, for which he received the State Department's Distinguished Service Award.

At the end of 2003, Mitchell Reiss succeeded him as special envoy. In late 2013, Haass returned to Northern Ireland to chair inter-party talks aimed at addressing some of the unresolved issues from the peace process such as parades, flags and "the past".[2]

Early life and education [ edit ] Haass was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, the son of Marcella (n(C)e Rosenthal) and Irving B. Haass.[3][4] Haass graduated from Roslyn High School in 1969.[5] His father was a securities analyst and partner at investment manager David J. Greene & Co.[4] He completed a bachelor's degree at Oberlin College in 1973, and was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, where he completed a master's degree and doctoral degree in 1978.[6]

Career [ edit ] Haass served at the Department of Defense from 1979 to 1980, and at the Department of State from 1981 to 1985. From 1989 to 1993, he was Special Assistant to United States President George H. W. Bush and National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs. In 1991, Haass received the Presidential Citizens Medal for helping to develop and explain U.S. policy during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

Richard Haass worked for Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Bush administration and was Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department from 2001 to 2003 during the lead-up to the Iraq war. Haass has said he was 60 percent against the Iraq war.[7]

Haass's other postings include Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, the Sol M. Linowitz Visiting Professor of International Studies at Hamilton College, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.[8]

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, Haass advised several members of both the Republican Party and Democratic Party on issues regarding foreign policy, but did not publicly endorse a candidate due to the Council on Foreign Relations' non-partisan stance.[9]

In September 2013, Haass returned to Northern Ireland, with Professor Meghan O'Sullivan, to chair all party talks on flags, parades and the legacy of the Troubles, after violence flared over the removal of the union flag at Belfast City Hall. The talks broke down on December 31, 2013.[2]

Haass is a member of the Inter-American Dialogue.

Foreign policy views [ edit ] In a May 2015 interview with BBC's HARDtalk, speaking as President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Haass predicted a new era in world history, in part due to the muting of U.S. dominance by the more diffuse power wielded by states and non-state entities as a result of the proliferation of nuclear arms and cyberterrorism, and several policy failures, which may bring about an "era of disorder" in the absence of any clear superpower.[10]

On October 4, 2017, Haass called for U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to resign.[11]

Personal life [ edit ] Haass lives in New York City with his wife, Susan Mercandetti,[12] and two children.

Bibliography [ edit ] Haass is the author or editor of thirteen books on American foreign policy and one book on management.

Books authored

The World: A Brief Introduction. Penguin Press, 2020. ISBN 978-0399562396.A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order. Penguin Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0399562365.Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America's House in Order. Basic Books, 2014. ISBN 978-0465071999.War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars. Simon & Schuster, 2010. ISBN 978-1416549031.Restoring the Balance: A Middle East Strategy for the Next President. Co-authored with Martin Indyk. Brookings Institution Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0815738695.The Opportunity. PublicAffairs, 2006. ISBN 978-1586484538.Intervention: The Use of American Military Force in the Post-Cold War World. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999. ISBN 978-0870031359.The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization. Brookings Institution Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0815733539.Economic Sanctions and American Diplomacy. Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1998. ISBN 978-0876092125.The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War. Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0876091982.[13]The Power to Persuade. Houghton Mifflin, 1994. ISBN 978-0395675854.Conflicts Unending: The United States and Regional Disputes. Yale University Press, 1990. ISBN 978-0300045550.Books edited

Transatlantic Tensions: The United States, Europe, and Problem Countries. Brookings Institution Press, 1999. ISBN 978-0815733522.Superpower Arms Control: Setting the Record Straight, edited with Albert Carnesale. Ballinger Publishing Company, 1987. ISBN 978-0887302282.Books contributed

"War Can Be Justified When It Is the Best Policy Option". War. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2014, pp. 22-26. ISBN 978-0737769715.Filmography [ edit ] Haass has appeared as himself on dozens of TV shows and documentaries since 1996.[14] He has served as consultant on NBC News and hosted the online international affairs forum of the New York Times.[15]

Following the publication of A World in Disarray in 2017, the book was adapted into a feature-length documentary by VICE for release the same year on July 21.[note 1] Through interviews with Haass and other policymakers academics associated with the Council, the film explores the themes and concepts laid out in the book: the disorder in today's international landscape, how it arose, and how it plays out in Syria, Ukraine, the South China Sea, and North Korea.[16] In addition to providing commentary throughout the film, Haass served as a consulting producer.[17][18]

Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] ^ Drezner, Daniel W. (December 16, 2015). "A politically incorrect take on the GOP foreign policy debate". The Washington Post . Retrieved July 28, 2016 . ^ a b "Haass Talks". BBC News. January 7, 2014 . Retrieved January 8, 2014 . ^ Haass, Richard N.; Haass, Richard (1997). The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War - Richard Haass - Google Books. ISBN 9780876091982 . Retrieved 2014-01-08 . ^ a b Published: November 09, 1999 (1999-11-09). "Paid Notice: Deaths HAASS, IRVING B. - New York Times". Nytimes.com . Retrieved 2014-01-08 . ^ [1] ^ Published: November 18, 1990 (1990-11-18). "Richard Haass, Assistant to President, Weds Ms. Mercandetti, TV Producer". nytimes.com . Retrieved 2017-08-15 . ^ "Richard Haass: 'I Did Not Believe In The Iraq War ' ". NPR.org. ^ "Richard N. Haass biography". council on foreign relations.org . Retrieved January 8, 2014 . ^ "Richard N. Haass - Council on Foreign Relations". ^ Montague, Sarah (4 May 2015). "President of the Council on Foreign Relations - Dr Richard Haass". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 May 2015 . Retrieved 23 May 2015 . ^ Manchester, Julia (October 4, 2017). "Council on Foreign Relations president calls for Tillerson to resign". The Hill. ^ Published: November 18, 1990 (1990-11-18). "Richard Haass, Assistant to President, Weds Ms. Mercandetti, TV Producer - New York Times". Nytimes.com . Retrieved 2014-01-08 . ^ Gordon, David. "The Open Conspiracy". Review of The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War, by Richard Haass. The Mises Review, Vol. 4, No. 2 Summer 1998. Archived from the original. ^ "Richard Haass". IMDb. ^ "International Affairs Scholar Richard Haass Named to Direct Brookings Foreign Policy Studies Program" (News Release). Brookings Institution, July 1, 1996. Archived from the original. ^ Haass, Richard N. "VICE Special Report: A World in Disarray" (Teaching Notes). Council on Foreign Relations, November 1, 2017. ^ "VICE Special Report: A World in Disarray". IMDb. ^ "Ash Carter and Richard Haass Discuss VICE: A World in Disarray" (YouTube). JuJu Chang presides at the Harold Pratt House in New York. Council on Foreign Relations, July 25, 2017. External links [ edit ] Richard Haass '-- History CommonsWhat to do with American PrimacyState sovereignty must be altered in globalized era; An Article written by Richard Haass on the age of globalization.Council of Foreign Relations President ProfileAppearances on C-SPANRichard N. Haass on Charlie RoseRichard N. Haass on IMDbWorks by or about Richard N. Haass in libraries (WorldCat catalog)"Richard N. Haass collected news and commentary". The New York Times. Works by Richard Haass at Internet ArchiveWorks by Richard Haass at JSTOR

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 15:34

The government should toughen the lockdown by giving officers the right to force entry into homes of suspected law breakers, a policing leader has said.

David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands police, England's second biggest force, said: ''For the small minority of people who refuse entry to police officers and obstruct their work, the power of entry would seem to be a useful tool.

''I have raised this issue with the policing minister previously and clarity on the power of entry would help police officers enforce the new Covid regulations more easily.''

As the third lockdown comes into force in England at midnight on Wednesday, the rising infection rate is also causing increasing absences from the ranks of officers needed to help enforce the lockdown.

The Guardian understands that ahead of the lockdown announcement, the government considered other tough measures including restricting how far people can travel for exercise and a night-time curfew from 10pm to early morning.

The curtailment of movement ideas considered could have seen people limited to traveling only several miles from their main residence or to their own county.

In discussions with government since the first lockdown, police have pointed out the coronavirus regulations do not allow them to gain entry to a place where they suspect laws may be being broken, such as where large parties are taking place.

Sources expect the new lockdown to be broadly similar to the first last March and to be policed in a similar way. The 43 local forces in England will make their own operational decisions and concentrate on the biggest breaches such as unlicensed music events and parties.

Police say most people are complying with the parts of the regulations they have been enforcing. Research for the government's scientific advisers found that less than 20% of people in England fully self-isolate when asked to do so.

A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs Council said: ''We are confident that the majority of people will respect the rules and do their part to keep our communities safe and to protect the NHS.

''Those who do not follow the regulations and measures put in place to limit the spread of the virus should expect to receive a fixed penalty notice''.

The new lockdown, caused by rising infection rates, is causing increasing absences among police ranks, currently understood in England to be on average 7%. In some forces it is higher, and as in the first lockdown, forces have drawn up plans as to what they would stop doing if absence levels continue to rise and become a crisis.

Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire's police and crime commissioner said: ''By complying, we are protecting one another, our loved ones and those emergency service and key workers who are on the front-line of the response this winter, putting their safety before others on all our behalfs.

''The police in West Yorkshire will continue to maintain their approach of engaging, explaining and encouraging the public, but using enforcement powers when and where it's necessary for wider public protection purposes and I'll be having further conversations with the chief constable and policing minister later [on Tuesday].''

The Metropolitan police, which covers Greater London, said the alleged organiser of a party in Kensington, which up to 200 people attended, could face a £10,000 fine. The Met said they were called to the party on 30 December and officers recovered weapons including knives and hammers.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 15:08

As Facebook deletes President Trump's accounts, The National Pulse can report that Hunter Biden communicated with Facebook executives to have them remove certain profiles at the former VP's son's request.The emails, originally reported by Loomered.com, outline an intimate relationship dating back over a decade.

Emails from October 2010 show Facebook's Public Policy Manager Adam Conner talking directly with Hunter Biden about the removal of a profile on the social media platform.

On October 22nd, 2010, Conner emailed Hunter Biden about a ''Facebook profile that you're trying to get shut down'':

Hi Mr. Biden,

Chris Kelly forwarded me your message about a Facebook profile that you're trying to get shut down. would you be able to provide me with a link to the fake Teddy Myers profile? Once we have that, we can look into having it removed, but we obviously do no want to remove the authentic profile.

Best,

Adam

Hunter Biden responded the following day with ''Thanks Adam- I will get info to you asap.''

CONNER/BIDEN EMAILS.Emails from October 24th then show Hunter Biden offering ''if you need any more info please let me know,'' before thanking the Facebook manager.

CONNER/BIDEN EMAILS.Conner responded just two minutes later inquiring for a link to the profile Hunter Biden was seeking to remove, as ''Teddy Myer is a very common. name and we need to make sure we remove the correct one.''

Roughly 30 minutes later, Hunter Biden provided the link, prompting Conner to respond:

Mr. Biden

We have removed the fake profile. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Best,

Adam

Loomered.com continues to connect the dots between the Biden family and big tech, sharing emails that show Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca business partner Arlene Busch had lunched with Chris Kelly. Busch described Kelly, a former high-level Facebook executive as ''remain[ing] Mark Zuckerberg's closest adviser.''

''He is more tied into Silicon Valley money than anyone I know,'' she added in the October 2010 email. In response, Hunter Biden requested that Busch let him ''speak with Chris'' about the prospect of receiving tens of millions of dollars of ''Silicon money.''

BUSCH/BIDEN EMAILS. Natalie Winters Natalie Winters is a Senior Reporter at the National Pulse and producer of The National Pulse TV show.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 14:00

GV asked their 3rd grade students, ''What questions do you have?'' on 1/7/2021We welcome this guest post from Dr. Alyssa Hadley-Dunn, Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Michigan State University and founder of Teaching on the Days After: Dialogue & Resources for Educating Toward Justice

For educators, I am going to share some resources/ideas for use in your classrooms tomorrow. A reminder about everything that I share here: There is no one easy answer. Not everything works for every student or every teacher or in every classroom. I am not an expert in your classroom or your students (or an expert in anything, actually!). This is not a conversation that needs to or should be relegated to only Social Studies and English Language Arts classrooms.

Please note:

(1) These suggestions are not saying you MUST ''teach'' about what happened on 1/6/2021 (or any ''day after'' event or injustice). Days After Pedagogy doesn't mean turning trauma into a standard or a benchmarked lesson. But if you're going to TALK about it, do so with intention, care, and an explicit commitment to justice and equity.

(2) Do not do this if you are going to cause more harm or trauma. Do not center images of Black suffering and pain as a way to make this a ''teachable'' moment. White teachers, this means you/us.

(3) And please, remember that this is not about a one-off lesson. Days After Pedagogy only works if you've been teaching for justice on Days Before and Days During.

Note to Black teachers: I hope that you have time and space to care for yourselves, as you support your students. I hope that you have white colleagues who are talking about this, too, so you do not have to be the only one. I hope that you can find co-conspirators in your schools (or here).

Note to White teachers of white students: You HAVE to talk about what is happening. This is on us, every time and all the time. We cannot pretend to be surprised anymore. We have to do what we said we were going to do all summer when we were reading those anti-racist books and completing those anti-racism checklists. Our white students are not 'too young' to learn about this.

Note to White teachers of students of color, especially Black students: Please make sure you know what you are doing before you do it. Please make sure you know how to support your Black students and other students of color if you try to have these conversations. Make sure you to do not do more harm by entering into these conversations without careful thought and planning. Ideas/resources/links in comments on Facebook will be updated throughout the evening on our educator's group: Teaching on Days After: Dialogue & Resources for Educating Toward Justice..

TIPS & ResourcesUSING ZOOM: Breakout rooms can work to your advantage here. Especially if you are teaching students of color, create multiple breakout rooms for students based on what they want to and feel capable of talking about: (1) For students who do not want to discuss it right now and want to work independently on 'regular' class content; (2) For students who want to process with a partner; (3) For students who have many questions and want to process with you.

NAMING THE TRUTH: Think about the language that the media is using, especially when this first started happening. What does this language mean? What does it reveal and what does it obscure? (Hint: Racism.) For example: ''protestors'' versus ''terrorists,'' ''protest'' versus ''attack'' or ''coup.''

ANALYZING IMAGES: There are many images being shared, including some of the Confederate flag in the Capitol building, of someone stealing a Podium, people hanging from the Capitol walls. What do these images tell us? What do they (attempt to) obscure? (Hint: Racism.)

WRITING: If you have students who might better process their thoughts through writing and/or you want to use writing as an intro activity, here are some potential prompts: What do you think happened yesterday? What do you know? What questions do you have? How would you like to process this as a community? If you are doing this virtually, you could have students work in individual or shared Google docs or other apps.

COMPARING A POLICE RESPONSE: There are many Tweets and stories that are being shared that compare images of response to BLM protests and today's terrorist action. You could use these images to ask students to compare what they think is happening and why it is happening. (Hint: Racism, white supremacy, white rage)

PUSH BACK AGAINST NEUTRALITY: Remember that it will do more harm to teach ''both sides.'' This is not about both sides. This is about justice. This is a quotation from Tayari Jones that I like to use as a way to think about the ''two sides'' debate: ''The middle is a point equidistant from two poles. That's it. There is nothing inherently virtuous about being neither here nor there. Buried in this is a false equivalency of ideas, what you might call the ''good people on both sides'' phenomenon. When we revisit our shameful past, ask yourself, Where was the middle? Rather than chattel slavery, perhaps we could agree on a nice program of indentured servitude? Instead of subjecting Japanese-American citizens to indefinite detention during WWII, what if we had agreed to give them actual sentences and perhaps provided a receipt for them to reclaim their things when they were released? What is halfway between moral and immoral?'' ''Tayari Jones, from ''There's nothing virtuous about finding common ground'', Time Magazine, 2018

ESTABLISH DIALOGUE NORMS: Check out slides 26-28 in this presentation I do about ''teaching on days after.'' These are some examples of dialogue norms you could discuss and use with your students.

LEARN AND PRACTICE INTERRUPTOR PHRASES: I don't actually think the classroom SHOULD be safe for all viewpoints. I am not going to debate another person's right to exist. I am not going to debate another person's humanity. These phrases can support strategies for harm reduction even if the absence of a completely ''safe'' space. Check out slide 31 here for some interruptor phrases to use if you need them:

ENGAGE IN A PEDAGOGY OF POLITICAL TRAUMA: If you are teaching Black students or other students of color, it will be especially important to find multiple ways to support them in this moment. Check out slides 18-23 in this presentation for descriptions of what teachers have done in moments of political trauma. Some of this was in response to the 2016 election, research done with colleagues Hannah Carson Baggett and Beth Sondel and some is research done for the book that I'm writing right now on all types of days after.

NOTICE AND WONDER: Two great questions to get students thinking/talking (at any age, any grade level, any content) is to start with: What do you notice? What do you wonder? For example, using two paired texts of photos, one of police on the Capitol steps during the summer's BLM protests compared to a photo of terrorist in Nancy Pelosi's office, unguarded'... What do you notice about each photo? What do you wonder?

60 SECOND TEXT: For teachers of the youngest learners, this is a great ''60 Second Text'' from the wonderful Woke Kindergarten.

REMEMBER THIS IS NOT A SURPRISE: White teachers, do not be the teachers/people who are ''surprised'' by what is happening. Do not let your students be the students/people who are surprised by what is happening. Contextualize this within a historical lens of whiteness, white supremacy, settler colonialism'... A great book to think through extended plans for historically and culturally relevant critical teaching is Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's Cultivating Genius. It is not just for literacy teachers!

EXPLORE TRUE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: Despite what some are saying, what we are seeing at the Capitol is not ''civil disobedience.'' Here are some lessons from Teaching Tolerance about ACTUAL civil disobedience.

CONSIDER/SHARE MEDIA FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S.: Think about how other countries' media are covering these events. Find headlines and translations from major newspapers and consider what it means that the coverage is so different (as it will likely be).

USE MULTIPLE SOURCES: Remember that the news is emerging. Ask questions to help students process the events, perspectives, and biases. This document allows students to ask and track the questions they have as the news unfolds.

ALLOW FOR A VARIETY OF EXPERIENCES: Sara K. Ahmed from Being the Change uses google slides to invite students to share their news, how it relates to their identity, and what actions they might take.

About the AuthorDr. Alyssa Hadley Dunn's research centers on urban teacher education and support and the sociocultural and political contexts of urban schools, with a focus on issues of race, justice, and equity. A former high school English teacher, at present, Dr. Dunn is working on a book about how teachers make pedagogical decisions on ''days after'' major events, tragedies, or instances of injustice. (Check out the related Facebook page for educators here.)

A committed public scholar, Dr. Dunn's work has been featured on The Huffington Post, CNN, and National Public Radio, as well on education blogs and podcasts. In addition to publishing in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Journal of Teacher Education, Urban Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education, she is the author of ''Teachers Without Borders? The Hidden Consequences of International Teachers in U.S. Schools'' (Teachers College Press, 2013) and ''Urban Teaching in America: Theory, Research, and Practice in K-12 Schools'' (Sage Publishers, 2011). She is also Senior Associate Editor of the journal Multicultural Perspectives.

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1. Historical BackgroundFor I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonders that would be;'...Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags werefurl'dIn the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.

'--Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ''Locksley Hall'' (1837)

United States President Harry Truman, who oversaw the founding of theUnited Nations after the Second World War, kept these lines fromTennyson's poem in his wallet (Kennedy 2006: xi). After thisbrutal global war that claimed over fifty million lives, just likeafter the previous world war in which almost ten million perished,ordinary people and statespersons alike sought to establish a post-warinternational order that would be able to prevent another war ofglobal devastation from occurring. In fact, since the problem of war,or large-scale socially organized violence, has been with usthroughout human history, the ideal of a universal community ofhumankind living in perpetual peace was not at all new.

Derek Heater's history of ideas of world government andcitizenship begins by noting their presence in ancient Chinese andIndian as well as Graeco-Roman thought (1996: ix''x). Accordingto Heater, the concept of human unity produced an ideal that suchunity ought to be expressed in political form. The exact nature ofthat form, however, has changed radically over time. While Stoic ideasabout the oneness of the universe were politically inchoate, theyinspired medieval Christian proposals for a global politicalauthority; at the same time, the historical model of imperial Rome (orits myths) inspired medieval quests for world empire.

The Italian poet, philosopher, and statesperson, Dante(1265''1321), perhaps best articulated the Christian ideal ofhuman unity and its expression through a world governed by a universalmonarch. In The Banquet [Convivio], Dante arguedthat wars and all their causes would be eliminated if

the whole earth and all that humans can possess be a monarchy, thatis, one government under one ruler. Because he possesses everything,the ruler would not desire to possess anything further, and thus, hewould hold kings contentedly within the borders of their kingdoms, andkeep peace among them. (Convivio, bk 4, ch 4 [2000: 169])

In De Monarchia (1309''13: 8]), a full politicaltreatise affirming universal monarchy, Dante draws on Aristotle toargue that human unity stems from a shared end, purpose or function,to develop and realize fully and constantly humanity's distinctintellectual potential. In Book I, Dante argues that peace is a vitalcondition for realizing this end, and peace cannot be maintained ifhumanity is divided. Just as ''[e]very kingdom divided againstitself shall be laid waste'' (Monarchia bk 1, ch. V,quoting Luke 11:17 [1995: 10]), since humankind shares one goal,

there must therefore be one person who directs and rules mankind, andhe is properly called ''Monarch'' or ''Emperor''.And thus it is apparent that the well-being of the world requires thatthere be a monarchy or empire. (Monarchia bk 1, ch. V [1995:10])

Most importantly, when conflicts inevitably arise between two rulerswho are equals, ''there must be a third party of widerjurisdiction who rules over both of them by right''; a universalmonarch is necessary as

a first and supreme judge, whose judgment resolves all disputes eitherdirectly or indirectly. (Monarchia bk 1, ch. X [1995:14])

In the absence of a universal monarch, humanity is ''transformedinto a many-headed beast'', striving after ''conflictingthings'' (Monarchia bk 1, ch. XVI [1995: 28]); humankindordered under a universal monarch, however,

will most closely resemble God, by mirroring the principle of onenessor unity of which he is the supreme example. (Monarchia bk 1,ch. VIII [1995: 19])

Dante completes his treatise by extolling the Roman Empire as a partof God's providence (Monarchia bks 2 and 3 [1995:30''94). And while Dante argued for a universal emperor whosetemporal power was distinct from the pope's religious power, andnot derivative from the latter, he envisioned that God's willmust require pope and emperor to forge a cooperative and conciliatory,rather than competitive and antagonistic, relationship.

The idea of uniting humanity under one empire or monarch, however,became an ambivalent appeal by the seventeenth century with theentrenchment in Europe of the system of sovereign states after thePeace of Westphalia (1648). At the same time, European encounters withnon-European worlds precipitated European ambitions based on theprinciple of promoting civilization as an organizing framework forlegitimizing European imperial and colonial expansion into other partsof the world (Keene 2002).

In Leviathan (1651), Hobbes (1588''1679) gave thequintessential formulation of sovereignty as supreme legal coerciveauthority over a particular population and territory. Hobbes arguedthat although mutual vulnerabilities and interests lead individuals togive up their liberties in the state of nature, in exchange forprotection'--thereby instituting sovereign states'--themiseries that accompany a plurality of sovereign states are not asonerous to individuals, hence there is less rational basis forpolitical organization to move towards a global leviathan:

because states uphold the Industry of their Subjects; there does notfollow from the international state of nature, that misery, whichaccompanies the Liberty of particular men. (1651: ch. 13 [1986:188])

Contrary to realist interpretations of Hobbes in internationalrelations thought, Hobbes did not consider international law orcooperation between sovereign states to be impossible or impractical.Anticipating the development of international law, collective securityorganizations, the League of Nations and the United Nations, heaffirmed the possibility and efficacy of leagues of commonwealthsfounded on the interests of states in peace and justice:

Leagues between Common-wealths, over whom there is no humane Powerestablished, to keep them all in awe, are not onely lawfull [becausethey are allowed by the commonwealth], but also profitable for thetime they last. (1651: ch. 22 [1986: 286])

In Hobbes, we find the first articulation of the argument that a worldstate is unnecessary, although he envisaged that the development of alawful interstate order is possible, and potentially desirable.

In the eighteenth century, Charles Castel, Abb(C) de Saint-Pierre(1658''1743), in his Project for Making Peace Perpetual inEurope (1713), extended Hobbes's argument that a rationalinterest in self-preservation necessitated the creation a domesticleviathan to the international realm, asserting that reason shouldlead the princes of Europe to form a federation of states by socialcontract. The contracting sovereigns would form a perpetual andirrevocable alliance, establishing a permanent Diet or Congress thatwould adjudicate all conflicts between the contracting parties. Thefederation would also proscribe as ''a public enemy''(Rousseau 1756 [1917: 63]) any member who breaks the Treaty ordisregards the decisions of the congress; in such a situation, allmembers would ''arm and take the offensive, conjointly and at thecommon expense, against any State put to the ban of Europe'' inorder to enforce the decisions of the federation (1756 [1917:61''4]). In other words, perpetual peace can be achieved if theprinces of Europe would agree to relinquish their sovereign rights tomake war or peace to a superior, federal body that guaranteedprotection of their basic interests.

In his comments on this proposal, Rousseau (1712''78)acknowledged its perfect rationality:

Realize this Commonwealth of Europe for a single day, and you may besure it will last forever; so fully would experience convince men thattheir own gain is to be found in the good of all. (1756 [1917:93])

To Rousseau, however, existing societies had so thoroughly corruptedhumans' natural innocence that they were largely incapable ofdiscovering their true or real interests. Thus, theAbb(C)'s proposals were not utopian, but they were notlikely to be realized ''because men are crazy, and to be sane ina world of madmen is itself a kind of madness'' (1756 [1917:91]). At the same time, Rousseau noted that the sovereigns of Europewere not likely to agree voluntarily to form such a federation:

No Federation could ever be established except by a revolution. Thatbeing so, which of us would dare say whether the League of Europe is athing more to be desired or feared? It would perhaps do more harm inthe moment than it would guard against for ages. (1756 [1917:112])

This consequentialist objection to the idea of worldgovernment speculates that even if it were desirable, the process ofcreating a world government may produce more harm than good; thenecessary evils committed on the road to establishing a worldgovernment would outweigh whatever benefits might result from itsachievement.

Rousseau viewed war as a product of defectively ordered socialinstitutions; it is states as public entities that make war, andindividuals participate in wars only as members or citizens of states.Far from viewing the achievement of a domestic leviathan as moralprogress, Rousseau noted that the condition of a world of entangledsovereign states puts human beings in more peril than if no suchinstitutions existed at all. Isn't it the case, he argued,that

each one of us being in the civil state as regards our fellowcitizens, but in the state of nature as regards the rest of the world,we have taken all kinds of precautions against private wars only tokindle national wars a thousand times more terrible? And that, injoining a particular group of men, we have really declared ourselvesthe enemies of the whole race? (1756 [1917: 56])

In Rousseau's view, the solution to war is to establishwell-governed societies, along the lines he established in TheSocial Contract (1762); only in such contexts will human beingsrealize their full rational and moral potential. To establishperpetual peace, then, we should not pursue world government, but themoral perfection of states. A world of ideal societies would have nocause for war, and no need for world government.

Kant tried, in his Idea for a Universal History with aCosmopolitan Purpose (1784), to refute the claim that thedevelopment of the domestic state constituted a moral step backwardsfor humankind, by placing it and its trials

in the history of the entire species, as a steadily advancing but slowdevelopment of man's original [rational] capacities. (1784[1991: 41])

Nature employs the ''unsociableness of men'' to motivatemoral progress; thus war is a means by which nature moves states

to take the step which reason could have suggested to them evenwithout so many sad experiences'--that of abandoning a lawlessstate of savagery and entering a federation of peoples in which everystate, even the smallest, could expect to derive its security andrights not from its own power or its own legal judgment, but solelyfrom this great federation (Foedus Amphictyonum), from aunited power and the law-governed decisions of a united will. (1784[1991: 47])

This is the ''inevitable outcome'' (1784 [1991: 48]) ofhuman history, a point Kant reiterated in Perpetual Peace[1795], when he argued that rationality dictated the formation of

an international state (civitas gentium), which wouldnecessarily continue to grow until it embraced all the peoples of theearth. (1784 [1991: 105])

In present conditions, however, Kant noted that ''the positiveidea of a world republic cannot be realized'', thus histreatise on perpetual peace begins with the social fact of a world ofdistinct but interacting states. What would be required, given such aworld, to achieve perpetual peace? Kant makes three arguments. First,every state must have a republican constitution that guarantees thefreedom and equality of citizens through the rule of law andrepresentative political institutions. The internally well-orderedrepublican state is less likely to engage in wars without goodreason;

under a constitution where the subject is not a citizen, and which istherefore not republican, it is the simplest thing in the world to goto war. (1784 [1991: 100])

Second, such internally well-ordered states would need to enter into a''federation of peoples'', which is distinct from an''international state'' (1784 [1991: 102]). A

pacific federation (foedus pacificum) '... does not aimto acquire any power like that of a state, but merely to preserve andsecure the freedom of each state in itself, along with that of theother confederated states. (1784 [1991: 104])

In this context, a federal union of free and independent states, heargued,

is still to be preferred to an amalgamation of the separate nationsunder a single power which has overruled the rest and created auniversal monarchy.

His reasons against a universal monarchy combine fears of anall-powerful and powerless world government:

For the laws progressively lose their impact as the governmentincreases its range, and a soulless despotism, after crushing thegerms of goodness, will finally lapse into anarchy. (1784 [1991:113])

Most forcefully articulating the tyranny objection, Kant argued that a''universal despotism'' would end ''in the graveyard offreedom'' (1784 [1991: 114]). The third condition for perpetualpeace in a world of distinct but interacting states is the observanceof cosmopolitan right, which Kant limits to universal hospitality.Although the human race shares in common a right to the earth'ssurface, Kant argued that strangers do not have entitlements to settleon foreign territory without the inhabitants' agreement. Thus,cosmopolitan right justifies visiting a foreign land, but notconquering it, which Kant criticized the commercial states of his dayto have done in ''America, the negro countries, the SpiceIslands, the Cape'' and East India (1784 [1991: 106]).

Kant's views on the desirability of world government wereclearly complex (Kokaz 2005: 87''92; Pogge 2009). On the onehand, Kant provides two of the most trenchant objections to worldgovernment. The tyranny argument posits that world governmentwould descend into a global tyranny, hindering rather than enhancingthe ideal of human autonomy (Kant 1795 [1991]). Instead of deliveringimpartial global justice and peace, a world government may form aninescapable tyranny that would have the power to make humanity serveits own interests, and opposition against which might engenderincessant and intractable civil wars (Waltz 1979; DuFord 2017). Inanother argument against its desirability, the inevitable remotenessof a global political authority would dilute the laws, making themineffectual and meaningless. The posited weakness of world governmentleads to objections based on its potential inefficiency andsoullessness (Kant 1795 [1991]).

On the other hand, Kant also provides a republican vision of worldgovernment based on universal reason. His endorsement of the ideal ofhuman unity prompted him to see a world republic, under which free andequal individuals, united by one global sovereign, would achieve a''fully juridical condition'' (Pogge 2009: 198), as theideal end of the progress of human history. At the same time,Kant's faith in human unity through reason coexisted with hissubscription to a theory of racial hierarchy in human development, andhe came to be critical of the dominant modes of European expansionistpolicies in world politics in the late eighteenthcentury'--through colonial wars, exploitation, andconquests'--as undermining the moral progress of Europeans (Valdez2019). More generally, Kant condemned any move towards a universalmonarchy, because a monarchy, in contrast to a republic, does notguarantee, but undermines, the freedom and equality of individuals.Although a world republic is Kant's ultimate political ideal, auniversal despotic monarch that exercises power arbitrarily isequivalent to a global anarchic state of nature, which is his ultimatedystopia. In between lies his ''realistic utopia'' (Rawls1999: 11''6) consisting of a federation of free (republican)states short of a world state. As Habermas has put it,

This weak conception of a voluntary association of states that arewilling to coexist peacefully while nevertheless retaining theirsovereignty seemed to recommend itself as a transitional stage enroute to a world republic. (2010: 268)

Kant's work shows that even in the eighteenth century, debatesabout world government were alive and well, including arguments byradical political cosmopolitans such as Anacharsis Cloots(Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grace, baron de Cloots, 1755''1794), whoused social contract theory to advocate the abolition of the sovereignstates system in favor of a universal republic encompassing allhumanity (Kleingeld & Brown 2002). At the same time, philosophicalprojects for perpetual peace in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies were Eurocentric in adopting Europe as the centre of worldorder, in failing to recognize non-European peoples in equal standing,and in obscuring the global inequalities and injustices beingestablished by European commercial enterprises and states (Pitts 2018:6''7).

The nineteenth and twentieth centuries witnessed revivals of proposalsfor world government that were fueled by racialized theories ofprogress that buttressed European-led colonial and imperial expansionover much of the world, technological developments in travel andcommunications, the rapid ascent of a global capitalist system, aswell as the devastating impact of wars fought with modern technology.Theories of ''scientific racism'' continued to pervadeEuropean thought on world order:

White supremacist visions of global governance circulated widely inthe Anglo-American world. (Bell 2018: 871)

One of the most prominent proponents of world order, H.G. Wells(1866''1946), envisaged in 1901 a ''New Republic'' ofAnglo-American dominance, and while he repudiated racial theories, hisvision of a universal world state included a civilizing mission (Wells1902; Bell 2018: 870). The construction of racial and civilizationalhierarchies, backed by military domination, meant that the inclusionof non-Europeans and non-whites, whether in imperial projects,colonial civilizing missions, or later, in a system of formallyindependent states embedded in a capitalist global economy, would bemarked by deep asymmetries and inequalities in standing, status,rights, burdens, and powers (Anghie 2005; Bell 2019; Getachew2019).

In the Second World War, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima andNagasaki, atomic scientists lobbied for the international control ofatomic energy as a main function of world federalist government.Albert Einstein wrote in 1946 that technological developments hadshrunk the planet, through increased economic interdependence andmutual vulnerability through weapons of mass destruction. Although hisadherence to the idea of a world government to guarantee interstatepeace preceded the development of nuclear weapons, Einstein'sadvocacy gained momentum with the risk of nuclear annihilation:

A world government must be created which is able to solve conflictsbetween nations by judicial decision. This government must be based ona clear-cut constitution which is approved by the governments andnations and which gives it the sole disposition of offensive weapons.(1946 [1950: 132]; Nathan & Norden 1960)

Organizations such as the United World Federalists (UWF), establishedin 1947, called for the transformation of the United Nations into auniversal federation of states with powers to control armaments. Worldpeace required that states should give up their traditionalunrestricted sovereign rights to amass weapons and wage war, and thatthey should submit their disputes to authoritative internationalinstitutions of adjudication and enforcement; world peace would onlybe achieved through the establishment of world law (Clark & Sohn1958/1960 [1962]).

Calls for world government in the post-World War Two era implied adeep suspicion about the sovereign state's potential as avehicle for moral progress in world politics. Emery Reves'influential The Anatomy of Peace, is a condemnation of thenation-state as a political institution: ''The modern Bastille isthe nation-state, no matter whether the jailers are conservative,liberal or socialist'' (1945: 270). Echoing Rousseau, Revesargued that nation-states threaten human peace, justice and freedom,by diverting funds from important needs, prolonging a global climateof mistrust and fear, and creating a war machine that ultimatelyprecipitates actual war. The experience of the world wars thus made itespecially difficult to view states as agents of moral progress. DavidMitrany, perhaps motivated by such suspicions, bracketed the idea of aworld federation or world state, and focused on the role that ''aspreading web of international activities and agencies'' couldplay in the pursuit of world integration and peace (1966: 38;Trachtman 2013).

Some did not reject the nation-state per se, but onlyauthoritarian nondemocratic states as unfit partners for building apeaceful world order. The Atlantic Union Committee (AUC), formed in1949 by Clarence Streit, for example, called for a federal union ofdemocratic states that would be the genesis of a

free world government, as nations are encouraged by example topractice the principles which would make them eligible for membership,namely the principles of representative government and protection ofindividual liberty by law. (1950, quoted in Baratta 2004: 470; for acritique see Rosenboim 2017)

In the context of the Cold War (1945''89), however, the divisionof the world into two ideologically opposed camps'--led by theUnited States (US) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics(USSR)'--produced mutual distrust that pervaded the reception ofall proposals for world government. Soviet opposition to all Westernproposals as attempts to impose ''American monopolisticcapitalism'' on the world (Goodman 1953: 234) made the worldfederalist movement's goal of establishing a universalfederation infeasible. The Soviet leadership also condemned theAUC's proposal for an exclusive union of democracies as part ofthe Cold War rivalry'--an attempt to strengthen the anti-communist(anti-Soviet) bloc.

In a distorted fashion, the Soviet Union became the historicalmanifestation of socialist or communist thought. Socialist ideas canbe traced back to the French Revolution, but developed more fully as aresponse to negative aspects of the rapid growth of industry in thenineteenth century. At the same time that technological advancementspromised great material progress, the changes they wrought in socialand economic relations were not all positive. While the many workers,or ''proletarians'', in new industrial factories workedunder terrible conditions for meager wages, the few factory owners,''the bourgeoisie'' or ''capitalists'', amassedgreat wealth and power. According to Karl Marx (1818''1883),human history is a history of struggles not between nations or states,but between classes, created and destroyed by changing modes ofproduction. The state as a centralized, coercive authority emergesunder social modes of production at a certain stage of development,and is only necessary in a class society as the coercive instrument ofthe ruling class. The capitalist economic system, however, containswithin it the seeds of its own destruction: capitalism necessitatesthe creation of an ever-growing proletarian class, and a globalrevolution by the proletariat will sweep away ''the conditionsfor the existence of class antagonisms and of classes generally''(Marx & Engels 1848 [1988: 75]). The state will fall along withthe fall of classes:

The society that will organize production on the basis of a free andequal association of the producers will put the whole machinery ofstate where it will then belong: into the Museum of Antiquities, bythe side of the spinning wheel and the bronze axe. (Engels 1884 [1978:755])

In a communist vision, capitalism is a necessary but transitional andephemeral order of things; the revolutionary overthrow of capitalismby forces it unleashed itself is necessary to attain a new worldorder, ''in which the free development of each is the conditionfor the free development of all'' (Marx & Engels 1848 [1988:75]). World peace and freedom as nondomination for all (Roberts 2017),including freedom from the ''alienated'' or''estranged'' labor (Marx 1844 [1978: 71''81]) producedunder capitalism, will be achieved through the transformation of acapitalist to a communist social order:

In proportion as the antagonism between classes within the nationvanishes, the hostility of one nation to another will come to an end.(Marx & Engels 1848 [1988: 73])

The Russian revolutionary, V.I. Lenin (1870''1924), drew on Marxto argue that the proletarian class needed to seize the coerciveapparatus of the state to oppress the resisters and exploiters, thebourgeoisie, however, Lenin was committed to world revolution, and tothe view that the state is ''the organ of class rule'', andthat even the

proletarian state will begin to wither away immediately after itsvictory because the state is unnecessary and cannot exist in a societyin which there are no class antagonisms. (Lenin 1918: 65)

In the context of the post-World War I world that witnessed thecollapse of empires as well as the fortification of others, buttressedby the League of Nations, Lenin's vision of a new communistworld order entailed an appeal to the colonized to mountanti-imperialist revolutions. This contrasted with U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson's less radical interpretation ofself-determination as good self-government, a formulation that wasconsistent with the civilizing narrative based on racial hierarchies,and the continuation and extension of a colonial international order(Pedersen 2015).

Later Soviet leaders and elites who rejected Western proposals forworld federation somewhat inconsistently envisaged the transcendenceof nation-states and world capitalism, and the establishment of aworld socialist economy governed by a ''Bolshevik WorldState'' (Goodman 1953: 231). In communist ideology, ultimately,balance-of-power politics between states enjoying unrestrictedsovereignty did not cause war; the real cause of war was capitalism.In practice, the Soviet Union's internally and externallyrepressive policies made a mockery of socialist ideals of a classlesssociety, or a world of peaceful socialist republics, and thedisintegration of the Soviet Union itself spelled the practical end ofone alternative to a capitalist world order.

The end of Cold War ideological divisions led some to have greatexpectations in the 1990s of enhanced global cooperation to ridhumanity of the threat of global nuclear annihilation and to increaseglobal commerce and spread prosperity, the material bases for buildinga truly global moral and political community of humankind. The end ofthe twentieth century was marked by an unbridled faith and optimism inthe inexorable twin triumph of capitalism and liberal democracy as theend of history (Fukuyama 1992). With the collapse of Soviet-stylestate socialism, the world witnessed neoliberal transformations on aglobal scale, driven by the ''ideology of free markets, tradeliberalization, deregulation, and the small state'' (L¼thi2020: 596). Quinn Slobodian has described the paradoxical ascendancyof ''globalist'' neoliberalism, entailing the development ofa world state and regulatory laws that privileged the''encasement'' of markets from domestic democraticregulation and accountability, leading to an institutional project toredesign ''states, laws, and other institutions to protect themarket'' (2018: 4 and 6). As neoliberalism spread on a globalscale, so did the deterioration of conditions for robust democraticpolitics, precipitating serious backsliding of democratization.

The optimism of the 1990s and early 2000s was thus short-lived as avariety of persistent and deepening structural injustices of themodern international system produced conditions ripe for violentconflict and mass atrocities, the global war on terror after 2001, theglobal financial crisis of 2007''9, growing numbers of displacedpeople, rising socioeconomic inequality, and the hollowing out ofsocial welfare protections, not to mention the disruptive consequenceswrought by climate change, and the Covid-19 global pandemic. Thepersistence of racial subordination and gender inequalities, as wellas the ascendancy of a neoliberal world order, have provoked muchcritical debate about how these and other dominating hierarchies,backed by powerful international institutions, law, states, andcorporations, can be tamed or overthrown, or how the crises theygenerate may accelerate structural transformations at the global levelin a more emancipatory direction.

2. Debates in Contemporary Political Theory2.1 International Relations TheoryContemporary international relations theory developed out of theurgent need to explain and predict the causes of war and peace inworld politics. International relations theory has also developed inresponse to globalization, which has wrought ''fundamentalchanges in the spatial and temporal contours of socialexistence'' (Scheuerman 2002 [2018]), characterized by the unevenincrease and intensification of social interconnectedness, economicintegration, and the ''shrinkage of geographic distance on aworld scale'' (Keohane 2001). While much of internationalrelations theory's approach to world government has remainedfocused on the problem of overcoming interstate anarchy for the sakeof human security in the face of common global threats, a''global politics paradigm'' (Z¼rn 2018) has emergedwhich understands world government as only one possible institutionaldevelopment among others in a system of global governancecharacterized by the co-constitution of transnational, internationaland domestic realms of politics and political contestation.

Contemporary international ''realists'' or''neorealists'' claim not to evaluate the contemporarystates system in normative terms. They liken the international orderto a Hobbesian state of nature, where notions of justice and injusticehave no place, and in which each unit is rationally motivated topursue every means within its power to assure its own survival, evenat the expense of others' basic interests. Some realists havethus held that ideas of world government constitute exercises inutopian thinking, and are utterly impractical as a goal for humanpolitical organization. Assuming that world government would lead todesirable outcomes such as perpetual peace, realists are skepticalthat world government will ever materialize as an institutionalreality, given the problems of egoistic or corrupted human nature, orthe logic of international anarchy that characterizes a world ofstates, all jealously guarding their own sovereignty or claims tosupreme authority. World government is thus infeasible as a solutionto global problems because of the unsurpassable difficulties ofestablishing ''authoritative hierarchies'' at the global orinternational level (Krasner 1999: 42). Furthermore, Kenneth Waltz, inhis seminal account of neorealism, Theory of InternationalPolitics, clearly favors a system of sovereign states over aworld government (1979: 111''2). World government, according toWaltz, would not deliver universal, disinterested, impartial justice,order or security, but like domestic governments, it would be drivenby its own particular or exclusive organizational interests, which itwould pursue at the expense of the interests and freedom of states.This realist view thus provides a sobering antidote to liberal andother progressive narratives that foretell peace throughinterdependence.

William Scheuerman has argued (2011: 67''97), however, thatso-called ''classical'' realists of the mid-twentiethcentury were more sympathetic to ideas of global institutional reformthan contemporary realists. ''Classical'' and''progressive'' realists such as Reinhold Niebuhr, E.H.Carr, and Hans Morgenthau, as well as John Herz and Frederick Schuman,supported a global reformist agenda, prompted by the advent ofeconomic globalization, technological change, modern total warfare,and the nuclear revolution. Although a desirable end-goal, thefeasibility of global political change towards a world government inthe form of a global federal system, according to Reinhold Niebuhr,would depend on deeper global social integration and cohesion than wasevident in the mid-twentieth century (Scheuerman 2011: 73). Inaddition, Niebuhr was concerned that absent the required social andcultural basis for global political unity, the achievement of worldgovernment would be undesirable, since in such conditions, a worldgovernment would require authoritarian devices to rule, raising thespecter of a global tyrannical power (72''6). Others, such asJames Burnham, posited that a world state could only arise throughimperial conquest (Deudney 2019). Despite these caveats, realistprudence-based as well as functional arguments for a Weberian worldstate have gained traction again (Cabrera 2010; Ulaş 2016; Araujo2018; Craig 2019).

''International society'' theorists, or the ''Englishschool'', argue that although there is no central overridingauthority above sovereign states, their relations are not whollylawless or devoid of authoritative and enforceable norms and rules forconduct. The anarchy between states does not preclude the concept of anorm-governed society of states (Bull 1977). Since''international society'' theorists do not see the absenceof a central global authority as necessitating a state-eat-stateworld, they regard the idea of world government as unnecessary, andpotentially dangerous, since it may serve as a cloak in the strugglefor imperial domination between states. Martin Wight has noted thatthe moral ideals of cosmopolitanism typically translate in practiceinto political tyranny and imperialism (1991). As an alternative toworld government, and echoing both Rousseau and Kant, Chris Brownforwards

the ideal of a plurality of morally autonomous, just communitiesrelated to one another in a framework of peace and law. (1995:106)

Establishing an international society, ideally conceived, would make asupreme world government unnecessary. Andrew Hurrell, however, arguesthat

it is important to recognize the extent to which social, environmentaland, above all, technological change is likely to affect thescale of governance challenges, the sources ofcontrol and governance, and the subjects of control. (2007:293)

For these reasons, Hurrell does not consider a retreat to atraditional state-based pluralism to be feasible, but argues that thedevelopment of a ''stable, effective and legitimate internationalsociety'' requires redressing global inequality through thesignificant redistribution of political power to buttress thecollective political agency of the weak and marginalized (2007:318).Liberal internationalist accounts of world order are motivated bymore than just the traditional preoccupation with problems of war andpeace. This school of international relations thought, more than thepreceding two, is explicitly critical of traditional accounts of statesovereignty. Richard Falk has depicted the contemporary world order asone of ''inhumane governance'', identifying the followingills: global severe poverty affecting more than one billion humanbeings, denial of human rights to socially and culturally vulnerablegroups, the persistent use and threat of war as an instrument ofpolitics, environmental degradation, and the lack of transnationaldemocratic accountability (1995: 1''2). A liberalinternationalist agenda is advanced when progress is made onalleviating or correcting these ills. However, Falk is explicitthat

humane governance can be achieved without world government,and that this is both the more likely and more desirable course ofaction. (1995: 8)

By world government, Falk means a form of global politicalorganization that has, at minimum, the following features:

compulsory peaceful settlement of all disputes by third-party decisionin accordance with law; general and complete disarmament at the stateand regional levels; a global legislative capacity backed up byenforcement capabilities; and some form of centralized leadership.(1995: 7)

Instead of world government, Falk calls for ''transnationaldemocratic initiatives'' from global civil society as well asUnited Nations reform, both of which would challenge and complementthe statist and market forces that currently produce our contemporaryglobal ills (1995: 207). Most liberal international theorists thusenvision the need for authoritative international and globalinstitutions that modify significantly the powers and prerogativestraditionally attributed to the sovereign state.

Anne-Marie Slaughter has also rejected the idea of cosmopolitandemocracy and a global parliament as infeasible and unwieldy (2004: 8and 238). Slaughter is an advocate of ''global governance'',in the sense of ''a much looser and less threatening concept ofcollective organization and regulation without coercion'', tosolve common global problems such as transnational crime, terrorism,and environmental destruction (2004: 9). According to Slaughter,states are not unitary, but ''disaggregated'' andincreasingly ''networked'' through information, enforcement,and harmonization networks (2004: 167)'--producing

a world of governments, with all the different institutions thatperform the basic functions of governments'--legislation,adjudication, implementation'--interacting both with each otherdomestically and also with their foreign and supranationalcounterparts. (2004: 5)

A networked world order, she argues,

would be a more effective and potentially more just world order thaneither what we have today or a world government in which a set ofglobal institutions perched above nation-states enforced global rules.(2004: 6''7)

Although Slaughter is keen to highlight the promise of ''globalgovernance through government networks'' as ''good publicpolicy for the world and good national foreign policy'' (2004:261), she acknowledges that in contemporary world conditions ofradical social, economic and political inequality between states andpeoples, effective and fair global governance will require thenetworks comprising global governance to abide by the norms of''global deliberative equality'', toleration of reasonableand legitimate difference, and ''positive comity'' in theform of consultation and active assistance between organizations; inaddition, global governance networks would need to be made moreaccountable through a system of checks and balances, and moreresponsive through the principle of subsidiarity (2004: 244''60).Without movement towards a more equitable world of mutual respect,however, it is difficult to see actually existing global governancenetworks operating in an impartial and generous spirit to help

all nations and their peoples to achieve greater peace, prosperity,stewardship of the earth, and minimum standards of human dignity.(2004: 166)

In this vein, Thomas Weiss has lamented the intellectual and politicalshifts in perspective from world government to global governance,arguing that current voluntary associations, organizations andnetworks at the global level are ''so obviously inadequate''to meeting global challenges that we

are obliged to ask ourselves whether we can approach anything thatresembles effective governance for the world without institutions withsome supranational characteristics at the global level. (2009:264)

While many contemporary international relations theorists seem toreject the feasibility, desirability, or necessity of worldgovernment, constructivist theorist Alexander Wendt has argued thatthe ''logic of anarchy'' contains within it the seeds oftransformation towards a ''global monopoly on the legitimate useof organized violence'--a world state'' (2003: 491). UsingAristotelian and Hegelian insights, Wendt offers a teleologicalaccount of the development of world order from an anarchic statessystem to a world state, arguing that

the struggle for recognition between states will have the same outcomeas that between individuals, collective identity formation andeventually a state. (2003: 493)

Technological changes, especially those that increase the ''costsof war'' as well as ''the scale on which it is possible toorganize a state'', affect the struggle for recognition amongstates, undermining their self-sufficiency and making a world state''inevitable'' (2003: 493''4). Wendt draws on the workof Daniel Deudney (1995 and 1999), who argued that the evolution ofdestructive technology makes states as vulnerable as individuals in aHobbesian state of nature:

Hence nuclear one-worldism'--just as the risks of the state ofnature made it functional for individuals to submit to a common power,changes in the forces of destruction increasingly make it functionalfor states to do so as well. (Wendt 2003: 508)

Deudney, however, has recently argued that the world state solution,involving a top-down hierarchical mode of government, is impracticaland conceptually dead; his proposed alternative is a''negarchic'', republican-federalist conception of worldorder that solves the problems of anarchy through the development ofregimes of mutual restraint and obligation, but without the risk ofdespotism or totalitarianism accompanying hierarchical worldgovernment (2019 and 2020).

According to Wendt, however, the path of world state formation isinevitable, and would be characterized by the emergence of ''auniversal security community'', in which members expect toresolve conflicts peacefully rather than through force; a''universal collective security'' system that ensures theprotection of each member should ''crimes'' occur; and a''universal supranational authority'' that can make bindingauthoritative decisions about the collective use of force (2003: 505).Driving this transformation is the struggle for recognition, andthe

political development of the system will not end until thesubjectivity of all individuals and groups is recognized and protectedby a global Weberian state. (2003: 506; for a critique of teleologicalarguments about institutional forms, see Levy 2020)

Wendt recognizes that powerful states enjoying the benefits ofasymmetrical recognition may be most resistant to world stateformation. He argues, however, that with the diffusion of greaterviolence potential to smaller powers (such as al-Qaeda and NorthKorea),

the ability of Great Powers to insulate themselves from global demandsfor recognition will erode, making it more and more difficult tosustain a system in which their power and privileges are not tied toan enforceable rule of law. (2003: 524)

Based on the assumption that systems tend to develop toward stableend-states, a world state in which individuals and

states alike will have lost the negative freedom to engage inunilateral violence, but gained the positive freedom of fullyrecognized subjectivity. (2003: 525)

is the inevitable end-state of the human struggle for recognition. Atthe same time that Wendt sees world state formation as an inevitabletrajectory of the struggle for recognition between individuals andgroups, he argues that a world state could take various forms: whilecollectivizing organized violence, it need not collectivize on aglobal scale culture, economy or local politics; while requiring astructure that ''can command and enforce a collective response tothreats'', it need not abolish national armies, or require asingle UN army; and while it requires a procedure for making bindingchoices,

it would not even require a world ''government'', if by thiswe mean a unitary body with one leader whose decisions are final.(2003: 506)

2.2 The Liberal Rejection of World GovernmentWe now turn to debates about world government among contemporaryliberal theorists. Since the publication of John Rawls'slandmark A Theory of Justice in 1971, liberal theorists suchas Charles Beitz and Thomas Pogge have sought to formulate acosmopolitan version of liberalism by extending Rawlsian principles ofdomestic justice to the international realm. According to Beitz, acosmopolitan liberal conception of international morality is

concerned with the moral relations of members of a universal communityin which state boundaries have a merely derivative significance. (1979[1999a: 181''2])

Cosmopolitan liberalism evaluates the morality of domestic andinternational institutions based on ''an impartial considerationof the claims of each person who would be affected'' (1999b:287). A cosmopolitan liberal theory of global justice thus begins witha conception of humanity as a common moral community of free and equalpersons. There is debate among contemporary theorists about therelationship and distinction between moral cosmopolitanism andpolitical or institutional cosmopolitanism in the form of a worldstate or government (Beitz 1994; Dufek 2013; Ypi 2013; Cabrera 2018and 2019).

Contemporary liberal theorists have traditionally argued that worldgovernment, in the form of a global leviathan with supremelegislative, executive, adjudicative and enforcement powers, islargely unnecessary to solve problems such as war, global poverty, andenvironmental catastrophe. World government so conceived is neithernecessary nor sufficient to achieve the aims of a liberal agenda (Yack2012). Even cosmopolitan liberals have not argued that moralcosmopolitanism necessarily entails political cosmopolitanism in theform of a world government.

Although Rawls himself rejects cosmopolitan liberalism, disagreeingwith his liberal critics on several critical issues related to globaldistributive justice, they are united in their agreement that a worldstate is not part of a liberal ideal for world order. In his treatiseon global order, The Law of Peoples, Rawls forwards theconcept of a society of peoples, governed by principles that willaccommodate ''cooperative associations and federations amongpeoples, but will not affirm a world-state'' (1999: 36). Heexplicitly states his reason for rejecting the idea of a world stateor government:

Here I follow Kant's lead in Perpetual Peace (1795) inthinking that a world government'--by which I mean a unifiedpolitical regime with the legal powers normally exercised by centralgovernments'--would either be a global despotism or else wouldrule over a fragile empire torn by frequent civil strife as variousregions and peoples tried to gain their political freedom andautonomy. (1999: 36)

Other liberal thinkers have similarly rejected the desirability ofworld government in the form of a domestic state writ large to coverthe entire globe (Beitz 1999b: 182; Jones 1999: 229; Tan 2000 and2004; Pogge 1988: 285; Satz 1999: 77''8; Risse 2012).

In a related objection, ''communitarian'' liberals, such asMichael Walzer, argue against a centralized world government as athreat to social pluralism. Walzer thus endorses ''sovereignstatehood'' as ''a way of protecting distinct historicalcultures, sometimes national, sometimes ethnic/religious incharacter'', and rejects a centralized global order because hedoes not

see how it could accommodate anything like the range of cultural andreligious difference that we see around us today. '... For somecultures and most orthodox religions can only survive if they arepermitted degrees of separation that are incompatible with globalism.And so the survival of these groups would be at risk; under the rulesof the global state, they would not be able to sustain and pass ontheir way of life. (2004: 172 and 176)

At the same time that distinct communities may constitute intrinsichuman goods, Walzer also endorses social and political pluralism as aninstrumental good: given the diversity of human values, he argues thatthey

are best pursued politically in circumstances where there are manyavenues of pursuit, many agents in pursuit. The dream of a singleagent'--the enlightened despot, the civilizing imperium, thecommunist vanguard, the global state'--is a delusion. (2004:188)

A world of distinct, autonomous communities may be important tocurbing the appetite of a hegemonic or global state to re-make theworld in its own image. Liberal nationalists and communitarians thusobject to world government due to the homogeneityargument'--world government may be so strong and pervasive as tocreate a homogenizing effect, obliterating distinct cultures andcommunities that are intrinsically valuable. Liberal politicalpluralists (Mu±iz-Fraticelli 2014) are concerned that anystate, including a world government, could destroy associative groupsthat constitute legitimate sources of political authority; and bydestroying the rich social pluralism that animates human life (Walzer2004), produce a loss of value (Miller 2007; Valentini 2012).

The liberal rejection of world government, however, does not amount toan endorsement of the conventional system of sovereign states or thecontemporary international order, ''with its extreme injustices,crippling poverty, and inequalities'' (Rawls 1999: 117).Rawls's rejection of a world government does not negate thelegitimacy and desirability of establishing international ortransnational institutions to regulate cooperation between peoples andeven to discharge certain common inter-societal duties. Thus, afterhis rejection of a world state, Rawls goes on to say that in awell-ordered society of peoples, organizations

(such as the United Nations ideally conceived) may have the authorityto express for the society of well-ordered peoples their condemnationof unjust domestic institutions in other countries and clear cases ofthe violation of human rights. In grave cases they may try to correctthem by economic sanctions, or even by military intervention. Thescope of these powers covers all peoples and reaches their domesticaffairs. (1999: 36)

Rawls's vision of global order clearly rejects a world ofatomistic sovereign states with the traditional powers of absolutesovereignty. Instead, his global vision includes ''newinstitutions and practices'' to ''constrain outlaw stateswhen they appear'' (1999: 48), to promote human rights, and todischarge the duty of assistance owed to burdened societies.

Thomas Pogge argues that realizing

a peaceful and ecologically sound future will '... requiresupranational institutions and organizations that limit thesovereignty rights of states more severely than is the currentpractice. (2000: 213)

He sees this development to be possible only when a majority of statesare stable democracies (2000: 213''4). Pogge thus appears toagree with Rawls that the path to perpetual peace (and environmentalsafety) lies in promoting the development of well-ordered states,characterized by democratically representative, responsive andresponsible domestic governments.

As these lines of argument by Rawls and Pogge suggest, liberals havebeen quick to reject framing the choice of world orders as one betweeneither a world of traditional sovereign states or aworld with a global central government. Pogge has asserted thatliberals should

dispense with the traditional concept of sovereignty and leave behindall-or-nothing debates about world government.

Instead, he argues for an

intermediate solution that provides for some central organs of worldgovernment without, however, investing them with [exclusive]''ultimate sovereign power and authority''. (1988: 285)

In this ''multi-layered scheme in which ultimate politicalauthority is vertically dispersed'', states that retain ultimatepolitical authority in some areas would be juxtaposed with a worldgovernment with ''central coercive mechanisms of lawenforcement'' that has ultimate political authority in otherareas (Pogge 2009: 205''6). Debra Satz has also argued thatframing the choice as one between the current states system and''an all-powerful world-state'' poses a false dilemma:

the contrast between a system of sovereign states and a centralizedworld-state is too crude. There are many other possibilities,including a state system restrained by international andintergovernmental institutions, a non-state-based economic system, aglobal separation-of-powers scheme, international federalism, andregional political-economic structures, such as those currently beingdeveloped in western Europe and the Americas (via NAFTA). (Satz 1999:77''8)

Simon Caney has also endorsed a system of international institutionsdesigned to

provide a reliable and effective means of protecting people'sbasis interests (and instrumental consideration) and also to provide afair forum for determining which rules should govern the globaleconomy (a procedural component). (2006: 734)

As the many liberal proposals for moral improvement of the world orderindicate, liberal objections to world government'--whether theytake the form of tyranny/homogeneity arguments and/or theinefficiency/soullessness objections'--are not motivated by acomplacent attitude towards the contemporary world order and itsresulting conditions (Pogge 2000). As Charles Jones has put it, thesevalid and plausible objections to world government do not show that''the status quo is preferable to some alternativearrangement'' (1999: 229). While liberal theorists acknowledgethe tyrannical potential of a world government, they also acknowledgethat ''sovereign states are themselves often the cause of therights-violations of their citizens'' (1999: 229). Kok-Chor Tancharacterizes liberal proposals for world order to involve, therefore,neither world government nor absolute state sovereignty. Instead,liberals have argued consistently for restrictions on the traditionalpowers of sovereignty, as well as for the vertical dispersion ofsovereignty, ''upwards towards supranational bodies, and alsodownwards toward particular communities within states'' (2000:101). In such a world order, states become ''another level ofappeal, and not the sole and final one'' (2000: 101).

David Held argues that this dispersion of sovereignty is inevitablegiven that the nation-state does not exist in an insular world, but ahighly interdependent and complex system: the contemporary realityconsists of a globalized economy, international organizations,regional and global institutions, international law, and militaryalliances, all of which operate to shape and constrain individualstates. Although national sovereignty still has a place in thecontemporary world order,

interconnected authority structures '... displace notions ofsovereignty as an illimitable, indivisible and exclusive form ofpublic power. (1995: 137)

In Held's account of cosmopolitan democracy, the universalrealization of the liberal ideal of autonomy, derived from Kant,ultimately requires long-term institutional developments such as thecreation of a global parliament, an international criminal court, thedemilitarization of states, and global distributive justice in theform of a guaranteed annual income for each individual (1995:279''80). Although cosmopolitan theorists tend to reject thedichotomy posed between a political system of sovereign states and onewith a centralized world government, and have tended to eschew theterminology of the world state in their accounts of global democraticinstitutional reform, William Scheuerman has argued that some of theirproposals of supranational institutions mimic core attributes oftraditional statehood, thus inadvertently bringing the world stateback into liberal cosmopolitan visions of world order (2014). It isthus an open question whether ''statist cosmopolitanism''(Ypi 2011), which considers states as viable agents of cosmopolitanjustice, is feasible, or whether cosmopolitanism requires transcendingthe state system (Ulaş 2017).

2.3 Republican Nondomination and Global DemocracyDemocratic, republican and critical theorists have become concernedwith the global context of order and justice due to its importance forestablishing protective external conditions for the moral andpolitical achievements of centuries of domestic democratic politicalstruggle. Traditionally, the main global threat was interstate war,thus the projects for perpetual peace. Today, democratic theoristsworry that contemporary processes of globalization are undermining theachievements of democratic societies in the areas of civil and socialrights such as access to education and healthcare, and the economicsecurities provided by the welfare state. From this perspective,economic globalization and the growing power of international andtransnational institutions pose a potential threat to democraticideals of civic equality and self-determination. The task of thedemocratic theorist is to think about how democracies can respond tothese global developments in ways that best help preserve the fragileachievements of domestic democratic justice (Habermas 2004 [2006]; seealso Scheuerman 2008). Increasingly, theorists of global democraticreform envisage the need to develop new institutions and practices ofrepresentation and accountability rather than merely to extendtraditional constitutional models and electoral mechanisms of domesticdemocratic governance (Archibugi 2008; Macdonald 2008; Marchetti 2008;Tinnevelt 2012; Tanyi 2019; Erman 2019).

Key to discussions in democratic, republican and critical theory aboutglobal order and justice is the political ideal of nondomination.Neo-republican theorist Philip Pettit understands commitment to thisideal to entail reducing people's vulnerability to alien controlor the arbitrary power of others to interfere with their choices andtheir lives. In the international context, Pettit has outlined a''republican law of peoples'' that has the twin goals ofensuring that every people is represented by a non-dominatinggovernment in a non-dominating international order (2010). Startingwith a world of states, Pettit argues that a state which is''effective and representative of its people'' fulfills therepublican ideal of nondomination, and ''it would beobjectionably intrusive of other agents in the internationalorder'' to bypass such states and assume responsibility for itsmembers (2010: 71''2). A legitimate international order isone

in which effective, representative states avoiddomination'--whether by another state, or by a non-statebody'--and seek to enable other states to be effective andrepresentative too. (2010: 73)

In an international context, the sources of domination include otherstates; ''non-domestic, private bodies'' such as''corporations, churches, terrorist movements, even powerfulindividuals''; and ''non-domestic, public bodies'' suchas the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization (2010: 77). While representative statesrealize nondomination internally for their members, individuals'enjoyment of freedom as nondomination is not secured unless theirstates are protected in their external relations from dominatingstrategies, including ''intentional obstruction, coercion,deception, and manipulation'' as well as''invigilation'', and ''intimidation'' (2010:74).

Pettit's account presupposes the legitimacy of domesticdemocracies that ensure nondomination as a starting point for thinkingabout a legitimate international order, and he explicitly rejects theidea of a world state, modeled on a domestic republican regime, as aninfeasible remedy for the challenges posed by domination in aninternational context (2010: 81; but see Koenig-Archibugi 2011). Thereis no easy solution, but Pettit considers feasible improvements to thecurrent international order can be made by further developingmultilateral

international agencies and forums by means of which states can workout their problems and relations in a space of more or less commonreasons

as well as fostering greater solidarity among subgroups of weakerstates so that they can form rival blocs that can resist domination bymore powerful agents (2010: 84). While Pettit is mostly concerned withthe dominating potential of powerful states, and considersinternational agencies to be less threatening (2010: 86),C(C)cile Laborde adds to Pettit's account not only aconcern for agent-relative domination, but also, and more centrally,systemic domination, which entails a greater awareness of thedominating potential of international organizations such as theInternational Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization and the WorldBank (2010). One of the ways that powerful states dominate weak statesis by ''entrenching and institutionalizing'' their dominantposition through unfair international social structures in areas suchas trade (2010: 57).

Indeed, Nancy Kokaz, in a republican interpretation of Rawls'sLaw of Peoples, argues that ''a global republic cannotbe dismissed by a civic [republican] theory of global justice''(2005: 94). The civic pluralist ideal that is threatened by the adventof global capitalism and ensuing deracination requires ''a globalstate powerful enough to protect local communities'' from thehomogenizing tendencies and ''excesses of globalcapitalism'' (2005: 93). In a further development of republicanideas about global order and justice, James Bohman has argued that arepublican ideal of freedom as nondomination in the new global''circumstances of politics'' requires political struggle inthe direction of transnational democracy (2004 and 2007). According toBohman,

under conditions of globalization, freedom from tyranny and dominationcannot be achieved without extending our political ideals ofdemocracy, community and membership. (2004: 352)

Not only are currently bounded democratic communities ineffective inresisting new global sources and forms of domination, they are also''potentially self-defeating'', constituting

a thousand tiny fortresses in which the oldest form of domination ispracticed at many different levels: the domination of noncitizens bycitizens, or nonmembers by members, using their ability to commandnoninterference much like those who live within gated communities.(2007: 175 and 180)

Daniele Archibugi has termed this

democratic schizophrenia: to engage in a certain [democratic] behavioron the inside and indulge in the opposite [undemocratic] behavior onthe outside. (2008: 6)

Such vicious circles of ''democratic domination'' can onlybe overcome by making borders, membership and jurisdiction thesubjects of democratic deliberation across dªmoi(Bohman 2007: 179). Whether or not democracy serves global justicedepends on the possibility of transnational democratization, andBohman sees two primary agents of such transformation, in democraticstates pursuing ''broadly federalist and regional projects ofpolitical integration'', such as the European Union, and in theless institutionalized activities of ''participants intransnational public spheres and associations'' (2007: 189).While some think that the formal development of regional or globalinstitutions must be democratized in order to realize republicannondomination or democratic agency (Valentini 2012), others argue thatglobal democracy may be justified mainly for its instrumental role inprotecting and promoting

the fundamental interests of all the world's citizens, ratherthan by that of maximizing citizens' democratic agency

at the global level (Weinstock 2006: 10).

Critical theorist Iris Marion Young similarly calls for a globalpolitics of nondomination, that would support ''a vision of localand cultural autonomy in the context of global regulatoryregimes'' (2002: 237). Her model of globalgovernance'--''a post-sovereign alternative to the existingstates system'' (2000: 238)'--entails a ''decentreddiverse democratic federalism'' (2000: 253). While everydaygovernance would be primarily local, it would take place in thecontext of global regulatory regimes, built upon existinginternational institutions, that would be functionally defined to dealwith

(1) peace and security, (2) environment, (3) trade and finance, (4)direct investment and capital utilization, (5) communications andtransportation, (6) human rights, including labor standards andwelfare rights, (7) citizenship and migration. (2002: 267)

Young envisages these global regulatory regimes to apply not only tostates, but also to non-state organizations, such as corporations, andindividuals. In terms of feasibility, Young points to the developmentof a robust ''global public sphere'' (Habermas 1998) ascrucial to bringing about ''stronger global regulatoryinstitutions tied to principles of global and local democracy''(Young 2002: 272).

Increasingly, then, republican and democratic theorists viewtransnational and supranational institutions not as intrinsic threatsto democratic freedom and justice, but as potentially instrumentalinstitutional developments that are necessary to fortify thecapacities of contemporary states to deliver on democratic andrepublican values. In this sense, supporting the development oftransnational democratic institutions is consistent with upholding thevalues of national identity and belonging, and the proper functioningof states, by providing a robust framework to coordinate anddiscipline states into solving problems of human rights and globaljustice in areas such as labor, health, migration, and taxation, in amore fair, equitable, and non-dominating manner (Abizadeh 2008;Ronzoni 2012; Valentini 2012; Dietsch 2015; Fine & Ypi 2016;Cabrera 2018). Paradoxically, it may be that in conditions ofglobalization, only a world state can provide the essential supportingconditions for all states, including democratic ones, to enjoyeffective and legitimate collective self-determination (Lu 2018).Thus, republican cosmopolitanism in the form of a world state may beless of an oxymoron than Pettit suggests.

2.4 Critics of Capitalism and a Neoliberal World StateAn abiding controversy about the contemporary world economy is itspotential to enhance or destroy societal goals of securing justice,freedom, and welfare provision, including the protection of humanrights and democratic politics (Stiglitz 2002; Kinley 2009). CraigMurphy has worried that globalization would

inevitably be accompanied by the anti-democratic government of''expertise'' or by the non-government of marketization atever more inclusive levels. (2000: 800)

Economists have warned that the relationship between global economicintegration, national self-determination, and democratic politics canbe fraught (Rodrik 2011), and that capitalism has a tendency toreproduce and intensify inequality (Piketty 2013 [2014]). In thetwentieth century, Immanuel Wallerstein (2011) developed theworld-systems approach to analyzing the contradictions inherent in acapitalist world-system. Although imperial military competition gaveway to a world of sovereign states in the era of decolonization, henoted that a capitalist world order perpetuates systems of dominationto maintain capitalist interests, at the expense of the developingworld. World-systems theory thus explains how capitalism forms astable set of exploitative relations between core and peripheralstates, resulting in an international division of labor that benefitsthe core at the expense of the periphery.

While world-systems theory posits that ''economic exploitation ofthe periphery does not necessarily require direct political ormilitary domination'' (Kohn & Reddy 2006 [2017]),contemporary postcolonial theorists argue that the rise of neoliberalglobalization can be marked by the establishment of internationaleconomic institutions that have dislocated the power of sovereignstates to make economic decisions, and relocated them in internationaleconomic institutions'--the WTO, IMF and World Bank'--witheffective enforcement powers.

Whereas realist, liberal and republican theorists typically posit thata world state is a possible futuristic institutional development toevolve from anarchy, postcolonial theorists have argued that anarchydoes not accurately describe the global historical institutionalreality. Some also argue that world government is already here, albeitin a nascent form (Albert et al. 2012; Goodin 2013). Critical andpostcolonial theorists argue that the course of capitalist modernityhas produced a nascent world state of neoliberal domination (Chimni2004; Slobodian 2018). In such conditions of structural domination, aworld state may be undesirable as a political project due toestablished and entrenched global hierarchies based on racist,patriarchal, and capitalist domination and exploitation (Robinson1983; Pateman and Mills 2007). As B.S. Chimni has put it,

A network of economic, social and political [InternationalInstitutions] has been established or repositioned, at the initiativeof the first world, and together they constitute a nascent globalstate whose function is to realize the interests of transnationalcapital and powerful states in the international system to thedisadvantage of third world states and peoples. The evolving globalstate formation may therefore be described as having animperial character. (2004: 1''2)

Although fragmented in structure, the future global state, accordingto Chimni, is in the process of congealing to actualize and legitimizea world-view that ultimately serves the transnational capitalist classcomprising the owners of transnational capital. This class allies withthe networks of international law and institutions to undermine thedecision-making powers of states, especially those with weakinstitutional capacities, and to make decisions without transparencyor effective participation of those affected.

While increasingly intrusive, the decisions of international economicand financial institutions remain largely unaccountable. According toSlobodian, neoliberal globalists actively sought to construct theinstitutions of the global economy to evade accountability, ''tocontain potential disruptions from the democratically empoweredmasses'', so that the global economy could be ''protectedfrom the demands of redistributive equality and social justice''(2018: 264). While the Washington Consensus seemed to be based onsound economic principles'--that free markets ''andcompetition enable the efficient allocation of scarceresources'''--and forecast economic growth based onliberalizing trade, investment, and capital flows, its failure toproduce growth or inclusive development in many countries has revealedthe importance of empirical analysis to check ideological distortionsof economic policy (Rodrik 2015). China's economictransformation illuminates global challenges arising from the declineof ''managerial capitalism'', or Fordism, which generatedthe regulatory state-model of governance, and the rise of''neoliberal capitalism'', or post-Fordism, defined by the''hollowing out'' of the state, reduction of centralregulatory capacity, coupled with flexible production processesdisaggregated into production chains and networks, and increasingvulnerability of the peripheral workforce (Dowdle 2016:207''229).

In response to these predicaments of contemporary capitalism, criticaland postcolonial theorists emphasize that there is no option to returnto a mythical world of autarkic or autonomous and insulated stateswith traditional sovereign prerogatives (Winter & Chambers-Letson2015). Instead, globalized domination can only be transformed throughglobalizing transnational labor and social movements that struggle forgreater democratization of the decision-making processes of bothdomestic and international institutions (Chimni 2004). In calling fora revision of the principles that regulate the relationship betweenthe global economy and sovereign states, in order to buttress statepower, especially of Third World states, against internationaleconomic and financial institutions, critical theorists joincontemporary liberal (Isiksel 2020) and republican theorists who viewthe state as continuing to play an important role in securing equalhuman freedom. According to Adom Getachew, ''postcolonialcosmopolitanism'' acknowledges the persistent unequal integrationand hierarchy produced by the world politics of empire, and views thereinforcement of the sovereign state, as well as the dispersion ofsovereignty in regional federations and a redistributive internationaleconomic order, as key to anti-colonial struggles to resist dominationand remake the world (2019: 34).

Given that the Eurocentric narrative of civilizational progressforwarded the nation-state as a marker of civilization, and fatedIndigenous peoples to extinction with the advent of modernity,however, Indigenous political theorists have reason to be ambivalentabout a Weberian state at any level of political organization. SomeIndigenous political theorists have mounted radical challenges to thesettler colonial state as well as the statist international order.Glen Coulthard's critique of the liberal politics ofmulticultural recognition reveals that the struggle for recognitionmay not emancipate, but entrench subjects in the settler colonialsubjectivity offered by the settler colonial state (2014). Followinganti-colonial thinker Frantz Fanon, Coulthard argues that dominatedagents need to struggle to create new decolonized frameworks ofrecognition that they can call their own, and not only seek equalrecognition based on structures of settler colonial power,otherwise

the colonized will have failed to reestablish themselves as trulyself-determining: as creators of the terms, values, and conditions bywhich they are to be recognized. (2014: 139)

Coulthard also understands the political project of Indigenous''resurgence'' to be inextricably linked to the struggle toconstruct alternative social and economic systems to capitalism; thusfor Indigenous resurgence to be successful, ''capitalism mustdie'' (2014: 173). Such Indigenous politics of refusal (Simpson2014) of both statism and capitalism underscore that the struggle forrecognition of Indigenous humanity in conditions of racial capitalistmodernity entails radical structural transformations of global order(Lu 2017 and 2019).

3. ConclusionThe aim of much normative theorizing about global institutions andglobal justice is to interrogate whether a world government isfeasible, desirable, or necessary for realizing human aspirations forjust, inclusive, peaceful, and prosperous relations between thediverse individuals and groups that comprise a common moral communityof humankind. Some think that the idea of world government involves aparadox: however it is conceived institutionally, when the winningconditions exist for establishing a desirable form of worldgovernment'--one that will guarantee human security withindividual liberty, protect the environment, and advance global socialjustice'--it will no longer be necessary (Nielsen 1988: 276). Onceall governments, especially the most powerful ones, are willing to usetheir power to build government networks that promote global peace,justice and environmental protection, and to cede some traditionalrights of sovereignty to supranational institutions in areas such asthe use of military force, the management and protection of theenvironment and natural resources, and the distribution of wealth, theestablishment of a global political authority might seem superfluous.As Alexander Wendt has pointed out, however, a stable end-state ofworld order development requires such ideal conditions, should theyever develop, to become institutionalized into a world state thatenacts ''a global monopoly on the legitimate use of organizedviolence'' (1988: 491); enforcement mechanisms are notsuperfluous, since there is always the possibility of violations byoutlaw states and groups. In a similar vein, the Swedish philosopherTorbj¶rn T¤nnsj¶ has argued that neither voluntarymultilateral cooperation under conditions of anarchy, nor a hybridarrangement of ''shared sovereignty between the worldgovernment and nation-states'', will be effective in resolvingcontemporary challenges in the realms of human security, globaljustice and the environment (2008: 122''125). Since sovereigntyis indivisible, T¤nnsj¶ posits that a world state must haveultimate decision-making authority over nation-states overjurisdictional issues:

Unless there are sanctions available to the central authority to backup a decision as to where a question is to be handled, the system ofstates will be thrown back into a state of nature. (2008:125''6)

From critical and postcolonial perspectives, however, the state ofnature reference point of much of international relations theory is anormatively obscuring myth that occludes the hierarchies of structuraldomination that have pervaded the development of world order (Jahn2000; Lu 2017: 120). Postcolonial and critical theorists often sharethe ethical concerns and moral commitments of normative theorists(Kohn 2013)'--justice, equality, freedom, nondomination'--buttheir theorizing focuses on the diagnostic task of analyzing thecauses and character of contemporary structural and institutionaldevelopments, as well as the global processes and conditions that makethem possible. They view contemporary global order, marked by radicalimbalances and disparities produced by historic and ongoing structuralinjustices based on class, race, and gender, as serving certainfunctions and interests, in terms of what they naturalize, enable,suppress, and obscure. In 2020 and 2021, as a world divided by deeppolitical, social and economic structural inequalities faces pandemicconditions, economic recession, and environmentally deleteriousdevelopments, the questions of whose sense of world communityand whose global needs will define the global politicalagenda and order are more salient than ever.

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:32

Effective date: September 24, 2020

Contents 1. Introduction 2. About this Policy 3. Information We Collect About You 4. Our Use of Your Information 5. Information We Disclose 6. Your Data Rights 7. Retention and Removal 8. Cookies and similar Tracking Technologies; ''Do Not Track'' 9. Information Security and Integrity 10. Information on Children 11. Your California Privacy Rights 12. Your Nevada Privacy Rights 13. Your Rights and Control under EU GDPR 14. Right to Revise 15. Contact Details 16. Privacy Contacts Introduction.Governmentjobs.com, Inc. (DBA ''NEOGOV'' and referred to herein as ''we'', or ''us'') is committed providing transparency regarding use of your information. We collect personal information by lawful and fair means with your knowledge and where appropriate, your consent. We consider information privacy throughout our product lifecycle - from inception, to production, and ongoing support.

The principal purpose of this Privacy Policy (the ''Policy'') is to describe how we collect, use, protect, and disclose personal information online and offline but excluding services that state that they are offered under a different privacy policy.

About this Policy.By using any part of the Services you agree that your information will be processed as described in this Policy and you have read and agree to be bound by this Policy. Please note, this Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by our partners, sites that link to or are accessible from our Services, and employers that utilize our Services (our ''Customers'') that have their own privacy policies you may be subject to.

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into the Governmentjobs.com Terms of Use. Definitions not explicitly defined herein shall retain the meaning as prescribed in the Terms of Use. Any dispute related to privacy is subject to the Terms of Use and this Policy, including limitations on liability. If you disagree with this Policy or NEOGOV's Terms of Use, please do not use our Services.

Information We Collect About You.We require certain personal information in order to provide you Services, automatically collect information during your usage, and collect other information about you from other sources. The information we collect depends on the context '' who ''you'' are in a given interaction and how you are using our services. In this Section we set out general categories of personal information and data we may collect and process.

Information Provided by You

We collect information from you directly when you visit our Services from either your computer, mobile phone, or other device. For example, certain information we collect is necessary to provide the Services to you or our Customers, such as the information collected with you create an account, submit a job application, or information used to interact with you regarding support or inquiries about our Services. We also collect information from you to register for text message or email communications, or when communicate through the Services. The categories of information we collect include the following:

Inquiry and Contact Data. We process information contained in or relating to any inquiry and contact information you submit to us regarding the Services, support, in response to a survey, or interaction with our sales team, including: name; email; phone number; address and related contact data. If you are a Customer or one of our partners, we collect Contact Data of primary users or designated contacts to administer the relationship or for other specified purposes.

Account Data. We may process your account data which may include your account credentials, email address, and account activity or other security related information.

Job Application and Profile Data. We may process personal information within the job applications you send to employers who use our Services, as well as information processed on our Services throughout the relationship you maintain with that employer. Typical personal information found in a job application or within a user Profile may include name, address, e-mail, telephone number, resume, driver's license, work experience and performance data, education history, age, gender, race, information related to your health or financial information, marital status, military or veteran status, your signature, or and any other supplemental information added at your discretion or requested by an employer.

Transaction and Billing Data. We allow payment processing companies to process information relating to transactions, including purchases of Services, that you enter on the Services or payment processor website, or to facilitate processing of payroll and tax services. If you make an online payment to us through a payment processing company, we require you to provide your billing details, a name, address, email address and financial information corresponding to your selected method of payment (e.g. a credit card number and expiration date or a bank account number).

Voice Data. With your permission we collect voice recordings when you interact with our support teams to diagnose issues, our product teams to improve our services, our implementation teams during implementation of our Services, and our sales teams while providing demos of our Services.

Publication Data. We may process information that you post for publication on our website or through our Services (e.g., feedback comments, information you provide to our support teams, videos, photographs, images).

Contests and Survey Data. When you complete any forms, respond to a survey or questionnaire, or participate in a contest, we collect the personal data you provide.

Resume Data. We collect information to evaluate you for a job opening with us, including your name, employment and education history, and references.

You may voluntarily submit other information to us through our Services that we do not request, and, in such instances, you are solely responsible for such information.

Information Collected Automatically

With the help of our Service Providers, we also automatically collect information about you and your device and how you interact with our Services. Categories of information collected automatically include the following:

Usage Data. We may process data about your use of our Services. This information may include webpages visited, what you click on, features you use, how often and when you use features, e-mails you view, and the Services you purchase.

Location Data. We collect data about your device's location by tracking the IP address or data that indicates a country, state, city or postal code.

Device Data. We may process information about your device or how you access our Services. Device Data may include Internet protocol (IP) address, browser type, device type, software and hardware attributes, your operating system, system and performance information, cookie date/time stamp, and search terms entered on the site.

Tracking Data. We use tracking services that employ logs, cookies, pixel tags, and embedded scripts to collect user statistics and usage about visitors of our Services and receipt of communications.

Log Data. Our servers maintain log files that document events that occur during interaction with our Services and servers. Logs include information about the nature of each access, IP address, ISP, files viewed, content changes in certain cases, operating systems, device type and timestamps.

Cookie Data. We use cookies to improve your online experience and tailor content to you. For more information on Cookies see the ''Cookies'' section below.

Pixel Tags. We use pixel tags (aka ''web beacons'') in combination with cookies that are embedded in our emails and webpages. Pixel tags send information about your use to our servers.

Embedded Scripts. We use embedded scripts to collect information about how you interact with our Services.

Information from Other Sources

We also receive information about you from other sources. For example, we receive information about the status of background checks you participate in, updates from payment processors regarding your purchases, receipts and analytics for text communications you send and receive, and information you provide to, or automatically collected by, our hosting providers.

Categories of information collected from other sources include the following:

Partners. We collect and use information collected by integrators and from partners for joint product and marketing opportunities. This information may include Account, Transaction, Billing, Profile, and Tracking Data. Integrations may include payment processing companies, background check and online assessment providers, communication providers, performance or analytics providers, or HR related services employers choose to integrate with our Services.

Public sources. We collect information from publicly accessible websites and government sources.

Data brokers. We purchase additional contact data to supplement and correct the Contact Data we collect.

Our Use of Your Information.We collect and process information in order to fulfill our contractual responsibility to deliver the Services, fulfill your requests, pursue our legitimate interests and our business and commercial purposes. Your information will only be collected and used for purposes stated herein, where you provide additional consent, or as required by law or regulation - including national security or law enforcement requirements. Our purposes for using your information, including over the past year, consist of the following:

to process and manage our Services including to facilitate your use of such Services, maintain your user preferences, to help others find your profile and make your profile viewable by potential employers, transfer your job applications to potential employers (NEOGOV's Customers), post for publication on the Services, and facilitate HR processes to communicate with you and send you information as part of the Services regarding your requests for information, contests you entered into, newsletters and surveys, technical notices, security alerts, support and administrative messages, significant updates to the Services or policies, as well as relevant notifications regarding your account or job application, job suggestions, or the status of your background check or assessment (to learn how to manage these communications, see ''Your Data Rights'' below) allow our Customers, their personnel, and job applicants to communicate with one another marketing our products and features (for as long as you do not opt-out), measure the performance of email messaging and promotional campaigns, learn how to improve email deliverability and open rates, and improve our business activities to provide support, troubleshoot and diagnose problems with our Services or servers, fix bugs, ensure the security of our Services, maintain back-ups of our databases, optimize the Services for particular devices and browsers, and ensure the Services are accessible make improvements, enhancements, or modifications to the Services through data analysis and research of usage trends, feedback sessions, and analysis of enhancements contained in or relating to any communication you send us make payments through the Services, bill you for use of our Services (if applicable), send notices regarding status of payments, forward payroll and tax information to partners to facilitate processing, and to ensure the Services you pay for those you have access to track your preferences and behavior to identify and understand trends in the various interactions with our services and internal system administration, determine country of origin, identify clickstreams that led you to our Services, and make personalized recommendations of relevant job opportunities, features, and other content ensure you can use our Services in conjunction with other services and facilitate your use of integrations to verify your identity or confirm your location to conduct research on social, economic and public sector hiring trends fulfill other business activities at your direction to respond to legal requests or prevent fraud, enforce our legal agreements where applicable, prevent potentially illegal activities, and screen for and prevent undesirable or abusive activity We also use your information with your consent, including the following:

make personalized recommendations of content and features to help others find your profile and make your profile viewable by potential employers and transfer your job applications to employers communicate with you and send you information as part of the Services regarding your requests for information, contests you entered into, newsletters and surveys, significant updates to the Services or policies, as well as relevant notifications regarding your account or job application, or the status of your background check or assessment. Please note, you cannot opt-out of receiving service messages from us, including security and legal notices. We use your data to derive data that does not identify you in order to provide Customers with useful and relevant insights, build features, improve our Services and to develop de-identified data services. For instance, we combine information about you from your use of the Services with other information to make inferences about your job opportunities or Customer HR processes. We may produce the insights with the help of independent sources and processors. This Privacy Policy does not apply to non-personal information or instances where we aggregate or de-identify personal information.

Information We Disclose.We share information with other parties for the purposes stated herein or as required by law. The following categories are the entities we've shared information with, including over the past year.

Employers

We disclose information to employers that utilize our services. For instance, when a job seeker makes their profile information searchable within our Services or responds to a job posting, we will share information with employers in order to facilitate the job search and hiring process. If your current or former employer uses one of our Services, information you input into the Services is accessible by that employer's end users - subject to the security and access controls set up by the employer.

Please note: Job applications and other information submitted to employers are generally controlled and managed by the employer. In those instances NEOGOV is processing that information on behalf of the employer - our Customer. Our legal obligations as a processor are set out in our Customer contracts and policies. If you apply to a job, make your profile viewable to employers, provide information to show interest in a job, or reply to a message from an employer using our Services, you consent to disclosing your information to that employer for their personnel to complete recruitment and hiring processes, contact you for current or future job opportunities, and respond to your support, product, and transaction inquiries. This Policy does not describe the processing of your information by our Customers, and we encourage you to visit the applicable Customer's privacy policy for information about their privacy practices. Any questions you may have relating to the information processing by our Customers and your rights related to that processing should be directed to the agency you applied to or your employer that utilizes NEOGOV services.

Affiliates

We disclose information to our affiliates with our Customer's consent in order to facilitate any Service transition or implementation services.

Service Providers

We share information with services providers hired to provide services on our behalf. For instance, we use service providers to facilitate our support services, data security, email, web hosting, credit card payments, deliver and help us track our marketing and advertising content, deliver payroll processing and disbursements, coordinate our customer conferences, and manage our sales and customer relations. We share information with analytics and advertising companies that may act as our processor and a controller in other instances. We work with other entities to perform research, under controls that are designed to protect your privacy. We publish or allow others to publish insights, presented as aggregated, de-identified, or non-personal data. Where we share information with a party that is not our service provider, such sharing is either at your direction or the direction of our Customers. For example, we share information if you or a Customer chooses to use an integration in conjunction with our Services, to the extent necessary to facilitate that use. Integrations may include payment processing companies, background check and online assessment providers, communication providers, or other independent services Customer chooses to utilize our open API with.

We may share non-personal information with affiliated partners and use machine learning techniques on tracking and metadata in order to provide Customers with useful insights from the data they collected using Services, to build or enhance features, improve Services, and improve infrastructure and security.

We do not sell information in the traditional sense; however, should an activity we undertake constitute a ''sale'' under the expanded definition of ''sale'' within the California Consumer Privacy Act, California consumers have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information. Please see ''Your Data Rights'' and ''Your California Privacy Rights'' for more information on how to exercise your right to optout.

Other parties when you give your consent

We may also share personal information where you provide your consent or post your information publicly. Where required by law, additional consent is obtained before personal information is transferred to us or forwarded to other parties. For example, we share information with background check providers if a job applicant consents and we are instructed to do so by our Customers.

During your use of the Services you may have the opportunity to visit or link to other websites, including websites by third parties unaffiliated with us. We have no relationship or control over unaffiliated websites. These websites might collect personal information about you, and you should review the privacy policies of such other websites to see how they treat your personal information. Use of such websites are at your own risk.

Mergers, Acquisitions, Dissolutions

We may transfer or disclose information to another entity who acquires or may acquire any or all of our business units, whether such acquisition is by way of merger, consolidation or purchase of all or a substantial portion of our assets, or bankruptcy.

Other third parties where required by law

We also share personal information or data in order to: meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request; enforce applicable policies, including investigation of potential violations; detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of our users, the public or to NEOGOV and/or as required or permitted by law; protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person; and where disclosure is necessary for establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims or where there is reasonable belief that disclosure is required by law or regulations

Your Data Rights.You can review and enforce your personal information rights through your account, communications you receive from us, third party mechanisms, or with the assistance of our support team.

Our Services incorporate privacy controls which allow you to specify and limit how we process your information, as well as update and remove information we retain about you.

For instance, to place limits on which Customers can preview your profile, log into your account on https://www.governmentjobs.com and go to your account settings. Job seekers can utilize similar privacy controls on a per Customer basis in each Career Page account created.

In certain circumstances you have the right to have inaccurate personal information about you rectified. You can modify or delete personal information within your account at any time by logging in to your applicable account and following the prompts to either ''update my profile'' or ''delete my profile.''

You can change your email preferences to control notifications you receive from us and Customers or unsubscribe from a notification by following instructions contained within the notification itself, your account settings, or using your email provider preferences. For text message notification you can reply with ''OPTOUT'' to stop receiving texts.

You can restrict cookies by using your cookie manager settings.

You may have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal information and, where we do, access to the personal information. To see whether information on you is retained on our servers, please click here. Certain users are entitled to request copies of their personal information held by us. You can print a copy of your Profile information using your web browser and download your attachments at any time by logging into your account and following the download process.

For inquiries related to resetting your account, or if you believe someone else has gained access to your account or provided us your contact information, please contact support at: support@GovernmentJobs.com. If you have a valid data subject request, including a request to restrict or limit our use of your information, you may either contact support at privacy@governmentjobs.com or fill out a Data Subject Request Form if available.

To the extent the basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time by using the privacy controls in your settings, within certain contacts you receive, by deleting personal information within your Profile, or by deleting your account. If you revoke your consent by deleting your account, your Profile will be removed from our job seeker server; however, revoking your consent will not remove applications you previously submit to employers or our aggregated, de-identified, or non-personal data.

Your data rights for information you submit to our Customers

Upon submission of a job application or making your information available to an employer (our Customer) , your information is controlled by that employer. In this regard, we are a data processor for personal information employers' maintain in our servers, and we maintain limited rights to such data as permitted by our Customers', to process as necessary to deliver the Services or support to Customers', ensure safety and security of our Services, where necessary to protect our interests or the public interest, or as required by law.

For these reasons, we are not in a position to directly handle data requests for data controlled by Customers. Customers may store personal information they receive from you on our servers or their own storage facilities. Customers control the types of personal information requested from you, how it's used, who can access it, and how long they retain this personal information. Your data rights are subject to Customer internal policies and applicable law. You should contact the Customer regarding personal information they may hold about you and to exercise any data rights you may have. We will cooperate with such inquiry to the extent it is permitted under our confidentiality and privacy obligations.

Retention and Removal.We retain your personal information for as long as your account is considered active, to provide you or our Customers our services, meet regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, investigate security incidents, prevent fraud and abuse, protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person, enforce our contractual agreements, or fulfill your request to ''unsubscribe'' from messages or exercise your data rights

Our retention policies and procedures are designed to help ensure our compliance with legal obligations and allow Customers to comply with their own record retention requirements. We implement retention controls within the Services that Customers utilize to control their data retention periods.

For personal information we determine the purposes for and means by which it is processed, such information will not be kept for longer than necessary for the purpose, when no longer relevant, or upon permissible request, and will be appropriately disposed in a manner designed to ensure it cannot be reconstructed or read.

Upon deletion of a job seeker account or any data point within the job seeker account, it will be removed from our job seeker database; however, your data may persist elsewhere, such as applications you previously submit to Customers will persist until Customer disposal. Job seekers should contact the Customer they sent the application to if they seek enforcement of eligible data rights in that application. We may retain de-identified information after your account has been closed.

Cookies and similar Tracking Technologies; ''Do Not Track'' A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser and device you use to access our Services. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies may be either ''persistent'' cookies or ''session'' cookies. A persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed. We and our partners use cookies on our Services. Insofar as those cookies are not necessary for the provision of our Services, or the legitimate interests of delivering and optimizing our Services, we receive your consent to use of cookies when you first visit our Services. When your browser or device allows it, we use both session cookies and persistent cookies for the following purposes:

Authentication to identify you when you visit our Services, as you navigate our Services, to confirm whether you are currently logged in, and determine if an occurrence affects you. Metrics to determine how you use the Services, what features you utilize and how often, how much time you spend on the Services and features, and other details about the hiring and HR process. This data is aggregated and anonymized. Personalization to store information about your preferences and personalize our Services to you, including to supply Customers with details about their hiring processes, and provide job recommendations to job seekers and Customers based on their past interest. Security to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials and to protect our Services generally. Advertising and feedback to determine whether our advertising and feedback inquiries are received, opened, if the content or campaign is effective, and to provide you more specific content about Services we or our partners offer. Analysis to help us analyze the use and performance of our Services, and display different versions of features or content, all of which helps us determine what parts of our Services need improvement and which ones you enjoy most (which may include marketing content). Google Analytics and Adsense to analyze the use of our Services and publish advertisements. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and/or other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Ads Settings. You can opt out of vendor use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info. In addition, most browsers allow you to refuse to accept or delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser. Please refer to your browser instructions on how to manage your cookies. Blocking all or some cookies may have a negative impact upon the usability of the Services, and there is no industry consensus as to what site operators should do with regard to these signals. Accordingly, unless and until the law is interpreted to require us to do so, we do not respond to the browser ''Do Not Track'' signal if enabled by the end user in their web browser. When other parties we integrate with set or read their own cookies, they may or may not respond to the DNT signal. Other data gathering mechanisms, such as web beacons, HTML Storage Objects, and web tags, are used by us and our service providers to gather more specific information on your use. A web beacon (also called a web bug or clear GIF) is a graphic on a webpage or in an email message that is designed to monitor who is reading the page or message. Web beacons are often invisible because they are typically only 1-by-1 pixel in size. Web beacons are often used alongside cookies to track activity. Web beacons may be used to add information to a profile about a site visited, provide an independent accounting of how many people have visited a website, gather statistics about usage, among other things. HTML Storage Objects are program code that collects information about your activity on our Services. The HTML is temporarily downloaded onto your device while you are connected to our Online Services.

Data Security and Integrity.We implement physical, technical, and administrative safeguards designed to maintain data accuracy, integrity, and security, prevent unauthorized access, and facilitate correct use of personal information. These safeguards include limiting access to data, storing personal information on secure servers and computers, encrypting personal information at rest and in transit, periodically testing our security technology, and training our employees in information security.

In addition, we seek to maintain contractual data security, confidentiality, and privacy obligations with our partners and vendors, and our employees that have access to personal information are subject to access, use, and confidentiality policies. Only authorized employees with a reasonable need related to their job duties have access to Customer and job seeker personal information. Employees who violate our policies are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.

Although we maintain the controls listed herein, transmission of data is not without risk and we complete security of your information cannot be guaranteed. Please note, you are responsible for keeping your username and password secret at all times.

In the event we believe the security of your personal information in our possession or control may be compromised, we may seek to notify you by e-mail and you consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification.

Information on Children.These Services are not directed at children under the age of thirteen (13) and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of thirteen (13). If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal information from a person under the age of thirteen (13), we will delete the information from our records. If you believe that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without parental consent, you may report this to us at privacy@governmentjobs.com.

If you are a California resident under 18 years old, you have the right to remove information you have posted to our Services. Please contact us at privacy@governmentjobs.com and describe what information you've posted that you now want removed. We will use reasonable efforts to remove such information in compliance with the law and our other obligations stated herein. We do not sell the personal information of consumers we actually know are less than 16 years of age, unless we receive affirmative authorization from either the consumer who is at least 13 but not yet 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a consumer less than 13 years of age.

Your California Privacy Rights. If you are a California resident, you have additional data rights including:

Right to notice of collection

We've provided details on what information is collected about you in Section 4 ''Information We Collect About You''. However, to ensure compliance with CCPA, the following categories of information as defined by the CCPA have been collected over the past year:

Direct identifiers such as your name, User ID, and email. Commercial information such as your transactions and purchases. Employment and education history information including when you submit a job application through our services or apply to a job at NEOGOV. Demographic data including your race, ethnicity, gender, marital status and any other demographic information requested by our Customers. Internet or other electronic network activity including your search history on our job board, analytics regarding your use, and device identifiers for location and security. Audio and electronic data including your signature and voice recordings collected with your consent while speaking to our support, sales, or product teams. Information inferred and derived from other categories to determine your preferences and trends. Right to notice of your data rights Right to opt out of sale (''Do Not Sell My Information'')

NEOGOV allows select companies to place tracking technologies like cookies on our sites, which allow those companies to receive information about your activity on our Services. The companies may use that data to serve you more relevant ads on our sites or others. Sharing data for online advertising like this may be considered a ''sale'' of information. California consumers have a right to opt-out of these sales. You have control over whether these technologies work on your devices. You can disable them using browser Do Not Track features or Cookie Settings provided by us.

Right to know the categories of personal information collected about you and the business or commercial purpose of collection, the categories of collection methods and sources, categories of entities your information is sold or disclosed for a business purpose or disclosed to third parties for a business purpose - as well as the purpose of such disclosure (provided in the preceding sections of this Privacy Policy) Right to access certain specific data fields stored about you and the right to delete such data Right to non-discrimination by us for the exercise of any of your rights. on price or our Services based on your exercise of data rights Right to have an authorized agent exercise your rights on your behalf. Note that we will require written proof of the agent's permission to do so and will verify your identity directly. To exercise these rights, you can either contact our support team at privacy@governmentjobs.com. If you exercise your rights through emailing our support teams, please title the email ''California Privacy Rights Request'', and within the body of the email specify what right you seek to invoke. Please note, if we cannot verify your identity we may deny certain data right requests.

You can designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf, but we require written proof of the agent's permission and verify your identity directly.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our visitors who are California customers to request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes. To make such a request please send a letter to: Governmentjobs.com, Inc., 300 Continental Blvd. Suite 565, El Segundo, CA 90245 Attn: Privacy Department. Requests must include ''California Privacy Rights Request'' in the first line of the description and include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code. Please note Governmentjobs is not required to respond to requests made by means other than through the provided mail address.

Your Nevada Privacy RightsA sale under Nevada law is the exchange of personal information for monetary consideration. We do not currently sell personal information as defined under Nevada law. If you want to submit a request relating to our compliance with Nevada law, please contact us as at privacy@governmentjobs.com and include the words ''Nevada Rights'' in the subject line.

Your Rights and Control under EU GDPR.Data Controllers and Processors

Our Customers use our Services to post job opportunities, evaluate job applicants, manage their human resource activities, and train their workforce. In conducting these activities, the Customer maintains control over what information is collected, how it is used, how long it is retained, and who it is disclosed to. For purposes of the EU GDPR, the Customer is considered a data controller in these respects and NEOGOV is a data processor. In other instances, such as when NEOGOV uses cookies or sends you Contact about our Services, NEOGOV will determine the means and purpose of processing.

Lawful Basis for Processing.

For personal information subject to GDPR, we rely on multiple legal bases for processing, including:

Consent (which can be revoked by utilizing privacy controls, deleting Profile or Account Data, or contacting support). When processing is necessary to perform a contract (e.g. delivering you the Services). Legitimate business interests such as developing the Services, marketing new features or products, proper administration of our website and business, ensuring safety and security. Where necessary to protect vital or public interests. As required by law. EU Data Subject Rights

Data subjects in Europe whose information we receive through appropriate safeguards have legal rights to determine whether we hold personal data about them, to access personal data we hold about them, and to obtain its correction, update, amendment, or deletion in appropriate circumstances. In particular, your rights may include:

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:10

Tracker:This bill has the status Introduced

Here are the steps for Status of Legislation:

IntroducedArray( [actionDate] => 2021-01-04 [displayText] => Introduced in House [externalActionCode] => 1000 [description] => Introduced [chamberOfAction] => House)

Passed HousePassed SenateTo PresidentBecame Law Summary (0) Text Actions (2) Titles (1) Amendments (0) Cosponsors (0) Committees (1) Related Bills (0) Go to: Summary: H.R.127 '-- 117th Congress(2021-2022)All Information (Except Text)A legislative analyst in the Congressional Research Service will begin analyzing this legislation after text becomes available.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 12:58

Cleavon_MD/Twitter Ashli Babbitt/Twitter Alex Gakos/Shutterstock (Licensed)

Multiple rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday received PPP loans for their businesses in 2020.Jan 9, 2021, 2:39 pm*

Tech

Eric Levai

Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot while attempting to climb through a window during the Capitol riots, received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for her businesses in 2020. And she wasn't the only one who has benefited from the government, but still went against it on Wednesday.

*First Published: Jan 9, 2021, 10:37 am

Eric Levai Eric Levai hosts and produces the podcast "Counter Intelligence." He is a national security journalist based in California. Contact him with tips at 202-430-6968 or [email protected] Reach him on Twitter at @ericlevai.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 12:57

The Trump supporter who was killed by Capitol police while trying to breach the Speaker's Room this Wednesday was once accused of chasing and harassing her husband's ex-girlfriend and repeatedly ramming the back of her car, the Daily Mail reports.

Ashli Babbitt was charged with rear-ending her husband's ex-girlfriend, Celeste Norris, three times on a Maryland highway in July 2016.

"She was waving erratically, and beeping the horn and appeared to be very angry," Norris, 39, wrote in an affidavit about the incident. "I was fearful she would attempt to physically harm me."

Babbitt allegedly followed Norris from a shopping center to an intersection before slamming into her car while screaming at her.

"She was screaming at me to get out of my vehicle '... she was acting very erratic," Norris said in the court papers.

Babbitt was charged with reckless endangerment, dangerous driving and malicious property damage for the crash '-- but was later acquitted.

In a subsequent restraining order, Norris said Babbitt called in false police reports against her and harassed her with late-night phone calls.

"Her continued efforts to disrupt my life, all I want is my life back and to move forward without having to worry about these attacks," Norris wrote in the order which was upheld.

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 12:41

UPDATE: It appears that Pope Francis tweeted out this morning, however Conservative Beaver has confirmed Pope Francis has a social media team that schedules his posts, and this one was pre-planned. If you click on the tweet, you can see TweetDeck was used to schedule the post.

Pope Francis is still in Federal Custody in Italy, hence, he has not been seen on video. The FBI are enroute for the interrogation, according to sources.

I read 10 minutes ago there's a blackout in the Vatican and you were arrested.

'-- Shoe Repair Lady👠🥾 (@ShoeRepairLady) January 10, 2021VATICAN / ITALY '' Pope Francis aka Jorge Mario Bergoglio was arrested Saturday in connection with an 80- count indictment of charges including possession of child pornography, human trafficking, incest, possession of drug paraphernalia and felony fraud.

What's going on with these blackouts'... including the Vatican?

'-- Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 10, 2021The Italian National Prosecutor's Office confirmed it ordered the arrests, and filed the charges.

Man arrested on drug charges now facing 63 additional charges including child porn, human trafficking in Limestone CountyMilitary officers, Italian police, and their Sex Crimes Unit went to the pope's home in the Vatican, they arrested him and several other high ranking officials, and placed them all under arrest without incident. People near the scene have reported hearing gunshots, but the Police would not confirm if they were the ones firing the weapons.

Pope Francis is currently being held in an unknown prison, being interrogated by Federal Agents working for the state of Italy and Interpol. The FBI is reportedly making arrangements to fly in and interrogate him once Interpol is done with him.

Giuseppe Governale, Italy's chief anti-mafia prosecutor, was called in early into the investigation into Pope Francis and others within the Vatican. He said the group was ''underestimated'' and particularly dangerous because of its ability to proliferate across nations and infiltrate them.

''These individuals are truly the worst of the worst in society. I can promise you, we will not stop targeting human trafficking until we put a stop to this despicable trade in the Vatican and Italy, as well as surrounding countries around Europe. While I am a lead prosecutor in Italy, my department will strive to protect our citizens, especially those that need us most, our children''.

Giuseppe GovernaleIn order to make the arrest, police and military agents had to cut off the power in the Vatican, as well as dim the live cam. This was noticed by web-sleuths, who quickly became suspicious of what was happening in the Vatican.

BREAKING ALERT: Following a nation-wide #blackout in Pakistan, there is now a widespread blackout at the Vatican. pic.twitter.com/4QrRQsIRlt

'-- anoncatðŸ''¬›ðŸ´ (@anoncatnews) January 10, 2021 BREAKING: The Vatican is going through a blackout. pic.twitter.com/ILICeGxvsE

'-- 🇮🇱×--× ×•×ª×¨××'🇮🇱 (@Remaining33) January 10, 2021Some people speculated the Pope could be the ''first arrest.'' And it appears they were right in their speculation. According to the Interpol agents, this is the ''first out of many.''

Maybe the Pope will be the first arrest that will shock the world.

'-- Dennisse (@DennisseLisseth) January 10, 2021The judge has imposed a EU wide publication ban. Fortunately, the ban doesn't affect Canada or the US, and the Conservative Beaver received the exclusive scoop for this story via a confidential Italian contact.

Google is delisting results! Be the first to tell the world the TRUTH! Share this article NOW!

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 12:30

A Covid-19 vaccination point at a shopping mall in Lappeenranta, eastern Finland, on Friday. Image: Kalle Purhonen / YlePeople in Finland and Denmark are more willing to get the coronavirus vaccine than other Europeans, according to a 32-nation study.

In Denmark, 87 percent of respondents said they would certainly or possibly take the vaccine, followed by Finland where the share was 81 percent. The two countries showed significantly higher acceptance levels than others in Europe.

For instance, in Italy 70 percent said they might take the vaccine, while the figure in Germany was 65 percent, in France just 44 percent, and in Serbia just 38 percent.

The survey was coordinated by the Milan-based Worldwide Independent Network of Market Research (WIN). The Finnish part of the survey was carried out by polling firm Taloustutkimus in December.

Attitudes can shift quicklyHanna Nohynek, Chief Physician, Infectious Disease Control and Vaccinations at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), says that a vaccination level of at least 70 percent is necessary to attain herd immunity.

She points out that scepticism or a critical view of vaccinations is different from an outright anti-vaccination stance, which she says is found among less than one percent of Finland's residents.

Nohynek says that people's attitudes toward vaccinations can change quickly.

Article continues after photo

Hanna Nohynek, head of Infectious Disease Control and Vaccinations at the Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) Image:Anna Savonius / Yle''Someone can say something and do something else. When a coronavirus death strikes close to them, they may suddenly start thinking completely differently,'' she told Yle.

The survey of nearly 27,000 people was done across 32 countries in December. In Finland the poll sample included 651 respondents.

The rate of acceptance here is significantly higher than that in a recent THL survey, which indicated that just 64 percent of Finnish residents were willing to take a Covid-19 jab.

Nohynek said she was not surprised by the difference in results, attributing it to different timing and wording of the question.

Overall, 71 percent of those polled said they would definitely or possibly take a coronavirus vaccine, while 29 said they would possibly or definitely not take it.

Men tended to be slightly more willing to take the jab than women. People with lower levels of education and the unemployed expressed less willingness to be vaccinated.

Vietnam, China and India showed by far the highest levels of acceptance. More than 90 percent of respondents in all three countries said they would take the vaccine. Finland was among the top 10 countries out of the 32 included.

Finland and Denmark also Europe's highest in gov't approvalThe survey also asked respondents how satisfied they were about how their own governments had worked to control the pandemic.

Those in Vietnam '' where just 35 deaths have been attributed to Covid-19 '' gave their government 100 percent approval, followed by China at 99 percent approval.

In Europe, the highest levels were again in Denmark (77 percent) and Finland (75 percent). In comparison only 15 percent of those in Poland were satisfied, while in Spain the support level was 26 percent.

The margin of error is estimated at 3.5 percentage points.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 11:59

In December many took a moment to spot the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

(NEXSTAR) '' Those who got a kick out of watching Jupiter and Saturn cozy up in what some called the ''Christmas Star'' may want to look outside a little after sundown from Saturday, Jan. 9, to Monday, Jan. 12.

From Jan. 9-12, Jupiter and Saturn will be joined by Mercury in the southwestern sky.

The celestial event is known as a ''triple conjunction,'' which means three planets appear to meet each other in the sky for a short period of time. In reality, they are millions of miles apart. The formation of the planetary triangle is rare, but not as infrequent as the closer grand conjunction seen last week, according to the Weather Channel.

Shortly after sunset on Jan. 9, look above the southwestern horizon to see Mercury to the left of Saturn and Jupiter positioned just above Saturn. The window to see the conjunction will be short.

''From Friday evening to Monday evening, the planet Mercury will appear to pass first by Saturn and then by Jupiter as it shifts away from the horizon, visible each evening low in the west-southwest and setting before evening twilight ends,'' NASA wrote on its website.

The southwestern sky is where the sun sets this time of year, so following the path of the sunset will point you in the right direction. The reflected light from the planets should make them appear brighter than surrounding stars.

According to Space.com, all three planets will fit within the field of view of binoculars. ''Mercury and Saturn will be a challenge to see within the evening twilight '' except for skywatchers at southerly latitudes, where the sky will darken faster.''

Viewers should find an unobstructed view of the horizon and begin stargazing no later than 45 minutes after sundown.

The planets will form a triple conjunction again on Feb. 13, according to NASA.

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 11:49

Health | False Reports of a New 'U.S. Variant' Came From White House Task ForceReports of a highly contagious new variant, published on Friday by multiple news outlets, were based on speculative statements made by Dr. Deborah Birx.

Dr. Deborah Birx at a White House coronavirus task force briefing last year. Credit... Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse '-- Getty Images Reports of a highly contagious new coronavirus variant in the United States, published on Friday by multiple news outlets, are based on speculative statements made by Dr. Deborah Birx and are inaccurate, according to several government officials.

The erroneous report originated at a recent meeting where Dr. Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, presented graphs of the escalating cases in the country. She suggested to other members of the task force that a new, more transmissible variant originating in the United States might explain the surge, as another variant did in Britain.

Her hypothesis made it into a weekly report sent to state governors. ''This fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rise of cases as the spring and summer surges. This acceleration suggests there may be a USA variant that has evolved here, in addition to the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50% more transmissible,'' the report read. ''Aggressive mitigation must be used to match a more aggressive virus.''

Dismayed, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tried to have the speculative statements removed but were unsuccessful, according to three people familiar with the events.

Agency scientists did not agree with her assessment, according to one frustrated C.D.C. official, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Dr. Birx could not immediately be reached for comment.

The news of a possible new variant first appeared Friday afternoon on CNN, and quickly spread to other outlets. Responding to media inquiries about the variant, the C.D.C. issued a formal statement refuting the theory.

''Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring all emerging variants of the coronavirus, including in 5,700 samples collected in November and December,'' according to Jason McDonald, a spokesman for the agency.

''To date, neither researchers nor analysts at C.D.C. have seen the emergence of a particular variant in the United States,'' he said.

Among the variants circulating in the United States is B.1.1.7, first identified in Britain and now driving a surge and overwhelming hospitals there. The variant has been spotted in a handful of states, but the C.D.C. estimates that it accounts for less than 0.5 percent of cases in the country so far.

Another variant circulating at low levels in the United States, known as B 1.346, contains a deletion that is also present in B.1.1.7. ''But I have seen nothing on increased transmission,'' said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who discovered that variant.

That variant has been in the United States for three months and also accounts for fewer than 0.5 percent of cases, so it is unlikely to be more contagious than other variants, according to a C.D.C. scientist who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.

All viruses evolve, and the coronavirus is no different. ''Based on scientific understanding of viruses, it is highly likely there are many variants evolving simultaneously across the globe,'' Mr. McDonald, of the C.D.C., said. ''However, it could take weeks or months to identify if there is a single variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 fueling the surge in the United States similar to the surge in the United Kingdom.''

Carl Zimmer contributed reporting from New Haven, Conn., and Noah Weiland from Washington.

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 11:45

By Jim Acosta and Pamela Brown, CNN

Updated 10:08 PM EST, Sat January 09, 2021

(CNN) Vice President Mike Pence has not ruled out an effort to invoke the 25th Amendment and wants to preserve the option in case President Donald Trump becomes more unstable, a source close to the vice president says.

The source said there is some concern inside Pence's team that there are risks to invoking the 25th Amendment or even to an impeachment process, as Trump could take some sort of rash action putting the nation at risk.

As of Saturday evening, Trump and Pence still have not spoken since the Wednesday incursion at the US Capitol that left five people dead, including a Capitol Police officer, another source told CNN. The President has also not made any public comments denouncing death threats that have been posted on social media targeting Pence.

Pence has finally "gotten a glimpse of POTUS's vindictiveness," one source said, using the acronym for President of the United States.

Two sources familiar with the matter say Trump is angry at Pence and Pence is disappointed and saddened by Trump.

Trump put Pence in an impossible position, asking him to overturn the election results during Wednesday's joint session of Congress. When Pence explained that he could not do that and sent a letter to members of Congress that he would follow the Constitution, Trump used his Wednesday rally to egg on the crowd, telling them to march on Capitol Hill, and said of his vice president, "Mike Pence, I hope you're gonna stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country, and if you're not, I'm going to be very disappointed in you, I will tell you right now. I'm not hearing good stories."

As CNN previously reported, aides to the vice president were outraged that Trump did not check in on Pence on Wednesday as he and his family were fleeing from the mob storming the Capitol.

The fracture is the first time that Pence has disagreed with Trump publicly. Pence has always been one of the President's biggest defenders, often softening his harsh rhetoric and lobbying for his priorities quietly and behind the scenes on Capitol Hill -- while vocally supporting the President at rallies throughout the campaign.

For now, the source close to the vice president said Pence and his advisers hope to provide a bridge to the next administration and do as much as possible to assist President-elect Joe Biden's team in preparing for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

But, the source cautioned, it has become clear this week that it is necessary to keep the 25th Amendment option on the table based on Trump's actions.

Invoking the 25th Amendment would require Pence and a majority of the Cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office due to his inability to "discharge the powers and duties of his office" -- an unprecedented step.

Trump could dispute their move with a letter to Congress. Pence and the Cabinet would then have four days to dispute him and Congress would then vote -- it requires a two-thirds supermajority, usually 67 senators and 290 House members to permanently remove him.

On Thursday, sources close to the VP said it was "highly unlikely" Pence would attempt to invoke the 25th Amendment. The sources said it appeared such an effort would ultimately be unsuccessful. Pence had not discussed invoking the 25th Amendment with any Cabinet officials, an administration official previously told CNN.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said during a news conference earlier this week that he and Pelosi tried to call Pence to invoke the amendment to oust Trump from office, but they were put on hold for 25 minutes and then were told he would not come to the phone.

House Democrats plan to introduce their impeachment resolution on Monday, when the House next comes into session. The latest draft of the impeachment resolution, obtained by CNN, includes one article of impeachment for "incitement of insurrection."

The House Rules Committee is expected to meet Monday or Tuesday to approve a rule that would govern floor debate for an impeachment resolution and Raskin's bill to create a new mechanism to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Under that timeline, an impeachment vote is possible by the middle of next week.

A growing number of lawmakers are calling for the President to be removed from office either through impeachment or the 25th Amendment. The calls have come largely from Democrats so far, but at least one congressional Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, has joined in.

Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Saturday he thinks Trump "committed impeachable offenses," but the senator -- who is not running for reelection in 2022 -- is not certain attempting to remove the President from office with just a few days left in his term is the right course of action.

But in a memo to fellow senators Friday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that the earliest the Senate could take up any House-passed articles of impeachment would most likely be right after Trump's term ends, saying that the Senate cannot consider the articles while in recess.

Since Republicans are unlikely to hold a trial before January 20, Senate Democrats would be able to hold a trial after Trump leaves office, once they officially take the majority.

The White House urged the House not to move forward with impeachment in a statement Friday. "As President Trump said yesterday, this is a time for healing and unity as one Nation. A politically motivated impeachment against a President with 12 days remaining in his term will only serve to further divide our great country," deputy press secretary Judd Deere said.

This story has been updated with additional information.

Zachary B. Wolf, Clare Foran, Lauren Fox, Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb and Daniella Diaz contributed to this report.

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 05:16

 

 :

Expect the emergency broadcast system to be activated. The FCC just recently released a memorandum speaking to the requirements under Federal law to send messages from the president to the public. See this linkExpect confusion. We are in a battle for our republic against elites that are attempting the very coup that they are accusing Trump of doing. In battle, there will be disinformation but know that plans are being fulfilled.Expect high profile arrests to take place over the next 12 days and at any time. You may wake one morning to find someone in high office is no longer there.Expect this to be a bumpy ride to the very end. This is not a television show where things are resolved in 45 minutes.  Expect more bombshell evidence to be released between now and Jan. 20th.Expect some sort of internet blackout or outage: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Gmail are likely going to be affected. If you don’t have alternate forms of communication established now, it would be a good idea to start forming them even if it’s just checking on your nextdoor neighbors.  Expect Trump to be inaugurated on Jan 20th!Expect the executive order from 2018 and/or the Insurrection Act to be enacted. This DOES NOT mean martial law. Remember that we have been under a state of emergency since 2018 which gives the president many powers to act.As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

 

 Republican Nye County Nevada Chairman Release

 

January 8, 2021 As I write to you today, I have no doubt that this letter will find many of you crushed under the weight of despair or perhaps lost in a maze of confusion. It is my hope that by the time you finish reading this letter you will be able to confidently join millions of others who support the president and another four years. Let me be clear: Trump will be president for another four years. Biden will not be president. Yes, I know those are shocking words in these crazy days. I have been approached by many saying, “It’s over…” and “Trump conceded the election…”. Nothing of the sort has taken place. Go back and listen to the videos all the way through. At no point does Trump even mention Biden’s name. At no point does he say he concedes. He does say that there will be a peaceful transition to a new administration and he does say that this is only the beginning. Those phrases are important to note. Indeed, we will have a new administration made up of a new vice president and cabinet as the current ones have all made their treason complete. I will touch on this in more detail shortly. We do well to remember that for more than four years Donald Trump has been five steps ahead of everyone in every attempt to derail him, impeach him, or confound him. For example, he announced on election night in the early hours of the morning that he “didn’t want a dump of ballots at 4AM.” What happened in just a few short hours at almost exactly 4AM? A huge ballot dump took place which showed that he already knew that it was going to take place. That was a public word to the enemies of our country that he was on to them. Also, consider the recent incident at the capitol building in DC. Trump was late to his speaking engagement and then spoke on a number of rehashed things to the crowd of 500K+ but this created a problem. You see, if Trump had spoken on time and briefly, the MAGA crowd would have been at the capitol building with the Antifa faction and likely would have been drawn into the fray by accident and confusion due to the crowd size. With Trump speaking late and long, the MAGA crowd was PROTECTED and SEPARATED from the Antifa groups. It would be very clear that the disguised Antifa people were 95%+ of the people in the building. Again, Trump countered because he was steps ahead of them. This was clearly a staged event meant to blame Trump supporters and try to frame Trump so the 25th amendment could be used by Congress but it failed. Nevermind the numerous videos showing the police opening the gates for Antifa (they didn’t fight their way in) and then leading them throughout the building.   I say all this as only two examples out of many that at no point has our president been in a fight of desperation.   Now you may ask, “Why hasn’t Trump arrested anyone yet? Why did this have to go all the way to Congress?” Multiple reasons: first, Trump has been adamant in following the rule of law and the Constitution. He gives everyone, no matter how dirty, an opportunity to do the right thing (sometimes with warnings such as the phone call with the Georgia Secretary of State recently). He pushed cases through the courts, he presented evidence to the legislatures, and he even told the vice president to do the right thing. But with the betrayal by Pence and Congress, the treason is now complete and nobody can say that Trump did not allow the process to finish before acting. Second, in order to drain the swamp you have to know who are the swamp creatures. They can blend in very well with the crowds. But the false event in the capitol revealed the final traitors for who they were regardless of party affiliation. Trump flushed them out of hiding.   I need to take a moment to speak on Pence. With his treason completed, many of you may not know of his dealings and political posturing prior to the infamous day in the capitol. Pence was already wheeling and dealing way back during the 2016 election season with…wait for it….Paul Ryan. Remember Ryan? The RINO speaker of the house? Look at these emails that were recently revealed: Pence-Ryan Emails Pence was also involved with a scheme to oust Trump sometime during his first four years that was orchestrated by Rod Rosenstein and supported by the Clintons. The plan: get rid of Trump, become president and then appoint Rod Rosenstein as the new VP. Why would they want that? Because they felt Pence could be controlled. See these links for the 3 part series for more information: Part 1Part 2Part 3 More could be said but I don’t want this letter to become more of a book than it already is. Suffice it to say that when Trump said at the DC rally that he hoped Pence would do the right thing, he already knew what he was going to do but was, yet again, giving the man space to choose to do the right thing. Now, nobody has been more supportive of Trump than Lin Wood. This man’s career has been fighting defamation lawsuits which means that he doesn’t say things, no matter how outrageous they may seem, without them being true as he knows the consequences of slander. With this in mind, Lin Wood has become a fountain of information and leaks of hitherto unknown information revealing some of the depths of corruption and evil in our highest offices. This is the same man who recently said that arrests are coming over the next few days. He called Pence a traitor well before the counting of the elector votes on the 6th. But did you know that he also said that the president, following the capitol incident, left DC on a “Doomsday” aircraft (used for communications in the event of a nuclear war) with his family and was in Abilene, TX. This aircraft was confirmed by both flight trackers and eyes on the ground. In short, he is a trustworthy source of information. If you have a means to follow Lin Wood on Parler, I would highly recommend that you do so to stay abreast of things taking place.  You can also listen to this podcast: Podcast  So, what comes next? I don’t have the particulars but I can give you milestones to watch for as the coming days unfold:Expect the emergency broadcast system to be activated. The FCC just recently released a memorandum speaking to the requirements under Federal law to send messages from the president to the public. See this linkExpect confusion. We are in a battle for our republic against elites that are attempting the very coup that they are accusing Trump of doing. In battle, there will be disinformation but know that plans are being fulfilled.Expect high profile arrests to take place over the next 12 days and at any time. You may wake one morning to find someone in high office is no longer there.Expect this to be a bumpy ride to the very end. This is not a television show where things are resolved in 45 minutes.  Expect more bombshell evidence to be released between now and Jan. 20th.Expect some sort of internet blackout or outage: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Gmail are likely going to be affected. If you don’t have alternate forms of communication established now, it would be a good idea to start forming them even if it’s just checking on your nextdoor neighbors.  Expect Trump to be inaugurated on Jan 20th!Expect the executive order from 2018 and/or the Insurrection Act to be enacted. This DOES NOT mean martial law. Remember that we have been under a state of emergency since 2018 which gives the president many powers to act. These things may happen out of the order listed and some may happen multiple times. As I have been watching closely, many things have been and are in play as we speak. Remember that Trump has not and will not give up. He actually takes his oath of office to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic very seriously. This is why they are so panicked in DC: they know that Trump will fight while Congress just rolls over.   I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating. None of us would have believed what we all now know except that Trump and his team have painstakingly taken the time to show the public. Want to show what Congress thinks of you? Highlight that the stimulus bill only sent $600 to each American but billions to other countries (payoffs, money laundering). Want to show the extent of collusion with the CCP at all levels of government? Bring multiple lawsuits against the election fraud from the local courts all the way to the Supreme Court which will show just how brazenly treasonous the judges are. Want the public to see how rigged the election system has been for many years? Present the evidence openly as we have seen. Even this week we have sworn testimony out of Italy that the Leonardo defense contractor used satellites to change the votes from our election in the USA from Italy. These Dominion voting machines were actively sending data to Germany, Serbia, China, Iran, and now Rome. This corruption is MUCH bigger than any of us expected but none of us would have believed it until now. This is why things seem to have taken so long.  Now, the American public is awake and ready to take back their long forgotten responsibilities to hold the elected officials accountable. I have heard from many of you how upset you are with the obvious and willful disregard for the truth and for justice. As the days unfold, let’s maintain communications among ourselves and try to help our neighbor to understand what is happening. Turn off the television as they have demonstrated they are clearly only falsifying the media to maintain control over your thinking. Do not despair but pray for our country, for Trump and his supporters, and for a national repentance to be stirred nationwide.   The next 12 days will be something to tell the grandchildren! It’s 1776 all over again! 

 

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 04:29

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images Amazon is removing the fast-growing social media network Parler from its web hosting service, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. Amazon confirmed the authenticity of the letter to Insider. Amazon Web Services said Parler violated its terms of service due to an increase in violent content shared on the website. Unless Parler is able to find an alternative hosting platform, the website will go offline Sunday night. The move comes after Google and Apple banned the Parler app from their app stores, also for violating policies by failing to remove violent content. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Amazon is removing the fast-growing social media network Parler from its web hosting service, according to an email obtained by BuzzFeed News. Amazon confirmed the authenticity of the letter to Insider.

In the email, Amazon Web Services said Parler violated its terms of service due to an increase in violent content shared on the website. Amazon said it "cannot provide services to a customer that is unable to effectively identify and remove content that encourages or incites violence against others."

"Because Parler cannot comply with our terms of service and poses a very real risk to public safety, we plan to suspend Parler's account effective Sunday, January 10th, at 11:59PM PST," the email said.

Unless Parler is able to find an alternative hosting platform, the website will go offline Sunday night.

Parler CEO John Matze confirmed Amazon's decision in a post on the platform, saying its possible Parler will be offline for "up to a week."

"We will try our best to move to a new provider right now as we have many competing for our business, however Amazon, Google and Apple purposefully did this as a coordinated effort knowing our options would be limited," he said.

Google and Apple banned the Parler app from their app stores this week also for violating policies by failing to remove violent content.

Read more: Inside the rapid and mysterious rise of Parler, the 'free speech' Twitter alternative, which created a platform for conservatives by burning the Silicon Valley script

Parler did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Amazon's decision came amid calls by some of its employees for the company to stop providing cloud services to Parler, after some right-wing extremists used the site to plan the deadly siege at the US Capitol earlier this week.

In the email obtained by BuzzFeed, Amazon said it does not think Parler's plan to moderate violent content manually with volunteers will work.

"This is further demonstrated by the fact that you still have not taken down much of the content that we've sent you," the email said.

BuzzFeed shared screenshots of violent content on Parler that was included in Amazon's email.

In one Parler post that included a photo of lawmakers taking cover during the Capitol riots, the user wrote: "How bout make them hang?"

Another screenshot showed a post that said "we need to start systemically assassinating #liberal leaders," among others.

Parler became popular in recent months among supporters of President Donald Trump and members of the far right due to its lack of moderation.

Top conservative figures recently announced they would be moving to the Parler app and encouraged others to do the same, after Trump was banned from Twitter on Friday.

NOW WATCH: Popular Videos from Insider Inc.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 04:22

Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A failure in Pakistan's national power grid left more than 200 million people without electricity Saturday, local officials said.

The widespread blackout happened just before midnight, plunging the major cities of Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar into darkness, Energy Minister Omar Ayub said. He added that mobile and Internet services also were affected.

Ayub said the power grid failed after high transmission lines tripped, causing the frequency in the distribution system to drop suddenly from 50 to zero. Officials said it could take several hours for power to be restored.

"Systematic restoration of power will be initiated soon," representatives from the Energy Ministry said. "Once the initial frequency is met, the restoration work speeds up."

"People are urged to remain patient," Ayub said.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 03:24

Catherine Herridge : #CapitolRiots NEW: US Attorney Michael Sherwin confirms @CBSNews his office has opened a formal, federal excessive'... https://t.co/fhtFUwDiG4

Sat Jan 09 20:14:10 +0000 2021

Stuart Barnes : @CBS_Herridge @CBSNews Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country a'... https://t.co/WzpKHirCrc

Sun Jan 10 03:06:22 +0000 2021

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 03:21

Getty Images

Yesterday's insurrection was rooted in lies. That a fair election was stolen. That a significant defeat was actually a landslide victory. That the world's oldest democracy, ingeniously insulated via autonomous state voting regimens, is a rigged system. Such lies-upon-lies, repeated frequently and fervently, provided the kindling, the spark, the gasoline.

That Donald Trump devolved from commander-in-chief to liar-in-chief didn't surprise Forbes: As we've chronicled early and often, for all his billions and Barnum-like abilities, he's been shamelessly exaggerating and prevaricating to our faces for almost four decades. More astonishing: the number of people willing to lend credence to that obvious mendacity on his behalf.

In this time of transition '' and pain '' reinvigorating democracy requires a reckoning. A truth reckoning. Starting with the people paid by the People to inform the People.

As someone in the business of facts, it's been especially painful to watch President Trump's press secretaries debase themselves. Yes, as with their political bosses, spins and omissions and exaggerations are part of the game. But ultimately in PR, core credibility is the coin of the realm.

From Day One at the Trump White House, up has been down, yes has been no, failure has been success. Sean Spicer set the tone with the inauguration crowd size '' the worst kind of whopper, as it demanded that people disbelieve their own eyes. The next day, Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer's lie with a new term, ''alternative facts.'' Spicer's successor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied at scale, from smearing those who accused Trump of sexual harassment to conjuring jobs statistics. Her successor, Stephanie Grisham, over the course of a year, never even held a press conference, though the BS continued unabated across friendly outlets. And finally, Kayleigh McEnany, Harvard Law graduate, a propaganda prodigy at 32 who makes smiling falsehood an art form. All of this magnified by journalists too often following an old playbook ill-prepared for an Orwellian communication era.

As American democracy rebounds, we need to return to a standard of truth when it comes to how the government communicates with the governed. The easiest way to do that, from where I sit, is to create repercussions for those who don't follow the civic norms. Trump's lawyers lie gleefully to the press and public, but those lies, magically, almost never made it into briefs and arguments '' contempt, perjury and disbarment keep the professional standards high.

So what's the parallel in the dark arts of communication? Simple: Don't let the chronic liars cash in on their dishonesty. Press secretaries like Joe Lockhart, Ari Fleischer and Jay Carney, who left the White House with their reputations in various stages of intact, made millions taking their skills '-- and credibility '-- to corporate America. Trump's liars don't merit that same golden parachute. Let it be known to the business world: Hire any of Trump's fellow fabulists above, and Forbes will assume that everything your company or firm talks about is a lie. We're going to scrutinize, double-check, investigate with the same skepticism we'd approach a Trump tweet. Want to ensure the world's biggest business media brand approaches you as a potential funnel of disinformation? Then hire away.

This isn't cancel culture, which is a societal blight. (There's surely a nice living for each of these press secretaries on the true-believer circuit.) Nor is this politically motivated, as Forbes' pro-entrepreneur, pro-growth worldview has generally placed it in the right-of-center camp over the past century '-- this standard needs to apply to liars from either party. It's just a realization that, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said, in a thriving democracy, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Our national reset starts there.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 18:32

There is no question that social media played a role in the siege and take-over of the US Capitol on January 6.

Since then there has been significant focus on the deplatforming of President Donald Trump. By all means the question of when to deplatform a head of state is a critical one, among many that must be addressed. When should platforms make these decisions? Is that decision-making power theirs alone?

But as reprehensible as the actions of Donald Trump are, the rampant use of the internet to foment violence and hate, and reinforce white supremacy is about more than any one personality. Donald Trump is certainly not the first politician to exploit the architecture of the internet in this way, and he won't be the last. We need solutions that don't start after untold damage has been done.

Changing these dangerous dynamics requires more than just the temporary silencing or permanent removal of bad actors from social media platforms.

Additional precise and specific actions must also be taken:

Reveal who is paying for advertisements, how much they are paying and who is being targeted.

Commit to meaningful transparency of platform algorithms so we know how and what content is being amplified, to whom, and the associated impact.

Turn on by default the tools to amplify factual voices over disinformation.

Work with independent researchers to facilitate in-depth studies of the platforms' impact on people and our societies, and what we can do to improve things.

These are actions the platforms can and should commit to today. The answer is not to do away with the internet, but to build a better one that can withstand and gird against these types of challenges. This is how we can begin to do that.

Photo by Cameron Smith on Unsplash

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:37

With reports this morning of another otherwise-healthy patient dying suddenly after receiving her first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, many skeptics in both Europe and the US still have serious reservations about the jabs, even as big pharma and their allies in the US and British governments insist that they are 100% safe. Everyone claiming otherwise is not only wrongheaded, but acting in a deliberately malicious manner.

This is why commentary like a video posted by DoubleLine's Jeffrey Gundlach where he questions the sky-high efficacy numbers published after the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech trials has elicited such vehement repudiation.

However, as new questions about efficacy and timing arise, independent journalist Alex Berenson, one of the most prominent skeptics of lockdowns and masks in the US, noted in a twitter thread earlier on Tuesday that the percentage of patients experiencing severe or potentially life-threatening reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines could be much higher than the data collected by the CDC are letting on.

The CDC's VAERS reporting system was set up to track vaccine-related injury, Most patients can expect to experience some kind of adverse reaction, but for the vast majority of patients, symptoms will be relatively mild and clear up within a couple of days. But amid a rush of reports about patient deaths, Berenson points out that the number of patients seeing serious complications per the number of doses distributed is roughly 50x higher than the rate of 'adverse' reactions caused by the flu vaccine.

1/ Through Dec. 22, with fewer than 1 million doses of the #Covid vaccine given, @cdcgov's vaccine injury reporting system received 307 reports of ER visits and 17 "life threatening" events.Per dose, that's roughly 50 times the rate of adverse events from the flu vaccine...

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 5, 20212/ In 2019-2020, about 175 million flu vaccine doses were given. 1220 ER visits and 73 "life threatening" events were reported. The data is on the CDC VAERS Website.Caveats: physicians et al may be more diligent about reporting #Covid vaccine events, since the vaccine is new...

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 5, 20213/ And the data is theoretically updated through Friday Jan. 1, which would be a much higher denominator. However, I believe it is correct to use Dec. 22 as the last date for Covid adverse events because I cannot find any later reports in the system...

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 5, 2021Berenson also speculated that this number might be even higher due to possible delays in updating the CDC's data sets. This would seemingly confirm rates of adverse reactions seen during clinical trials. What's more, clinical trials, generally speaking, tend to "UNDERSTATE" unpleasant or unwanted side effects, while they "OVERSTATE" the drug's efficacy.

4/ Plus, the first Covid vaccine doses have mostly been given to healthy people in settings where problems can be quickly treated. These problems are occurring BEFORE the rollout to older, less healthy people - and before the 2nd dose, which is known to be far more dangerous...

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 5, 20215/ And this merely confirms what the clinical trials showed (in general, though not always, clinical trials tend to UNDERSTATE real world problems and OVERSTATE efficacy, because any smart drug company will try to bias the trials in its favor).

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 5, 2021For readers who are so inclined, Berenson shared a link to the CDC data, which isn't exactly easy to find on the agency's website.

The data is here, and fairly straightforward to query.https://t.co/qOp5zS7cYB

'-- Alex Berenson (@AlexBerenson) January 5, 2021Meanwhile, the US, UK and Europe are all lagging behind vaccination targets, while Russian President Vladimir Putin recently suggested that Russia might jump on the "Immunity Passport" bandwagon.

Berenson recently sat for an interview with Joe Rogan on Rogan's popular podcast, where the longtime journalist (who once worked for the NYT) discussed other misconceptions about the "science" behind COVID-19, including questioning the US death toll.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:17

by Brian ShilhavyEditor, Health Impact News

Reporter Zachary Stieber of the Epoch Times is reporting today that President Trump's Operation Warp Speed program for distributing COVID experimental vaccines is lagging way behind schedule.

Operation Warp Speed's chief scientific adviser on Monday defended the federal government's rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, but acknowledged there is a ''lag'' in getting the vaccines administered.

Officials with President Donald Trump's administration said late last year that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of 2020. Instead, under 3 million people received vaccinations, out of some 12 million doses distributed to states, as of Dec. 30.

Moncef Slaoui, the operation's adviser, said on CNN's ''New Day'' that ''nothing has gone wrong.'' He was then played a snippet of what he said last year, when he said officials expected 40 million doses to be shipped and 20 million Americans to be vaccinated by the time 2021 hit.

''So obviously, I did say that, and, you know, that was our hope,'' Slaoui said.

The operation, a federal government effort, distributes vaccine doses to states, which are then in charge of administering them.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker, most states haven't come close to administering half of the doses they've received.

So why haven't states ''come close to administering half of the doses they've received''?

Surgeon General Jerome Adams said the delay in vaccinations stems from states not being fast enough to administer them, and hesitancy among a broad swath of the public in getting the new vaccines.

Read the full article at The Epoch Times.

America Divided Between those Who Watch and Read the Pharma-funded Corporate Media, and Those who Do NotSo what is the U.S. Government and Big Pharma going to do about all these unused experimental vaccines that Americans don't want to take?

They are going to do the same thing they have been doing for decades: They are going to lie to the American people by giving the media $250 MILLION to produce propaganda using the ''appeal to authority'' technique by having ''doctors'' tell you how safe the vaccine is, and that it is your duty to get the vaccine for the good of humanity.

As FiercePharma reports:

Half of Americans remain skeptical about COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) calls that group the ''movable middle,'' and it plans to spend $250 million to convince them otherwise.

The first phase of the campaign, already underway in December, is an online video and radio effort to prep the market. The bulk of the effort aimed at promoting vaccinations'--the ''Building Vaccine Confidence'' campaign'--will officially kick off in late January in a bid to convince people to get the vaccine when it's their turn.

The plans from HHS and the contracted Washington, D.C., consultancy Fors Marsh Group include paid and unpaid media elements. National and local TV, radio, print and social media buys will run concurrently with co-marketing partnership efforts with a variety of associations, nonprofits and corporations, including Google, with which HHS is currently in discussions. (Source.)

So who is the Liar in Chief that will be first up to convince the American public they should risk an experimental vaccine?

The man who has admitted to lying about herd immunity to try and trick people into getting the COVID vaccine for the ''greater good,'' Anthony Fauci.

As FiercePharma reports, this is a risky ''double-edge'' sword approach, since Fauci is so polarizing. People either love him, or hate him, and that reflects the division within America today among those who consume the pharma-funded corporate media and their watch dogs, Big Tech, and those who do not, but make the extra effort to research the truth for themselves.

The Ad Council video leads with Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who says: ''My primary message to healthcare professionals is please get vaccinated. It's important to protect yourselves, to protect your family, but as important symbolically as healthcare providers to show confidence in the vaccine so that other people in this country follow suit and get vaccinated.''

It's a likely to be a tough sell. Even HHS' own data point to that. In pre-campaign surveys asking a wide cross-section of people whose advice they would trust to get a vaccine, HHS said half claimed they would get a vaccine if Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said to do so, while the other half said they specifically wouldn't get a vaccine if told by Fauci and the CDC. (Source.)

Here is the first video produced by the Ad Council on YouTube. It is geared towards healthcare professionals, of whom up to 60% are refusing the vaccine.

After Anthony Fauci makes an appeal to guilt for healthcare workers, it is no accident that the doctors and nurses who speak next represent the next segments of society that the Globalists are targeting with these experimental vaccines: Blacks, Asians, and Latinos.

As FiercePharma reports:

The Fors Marsh strategy includes a plan to ''heavy-up in vulnerable communities'' of people disproportionately affected by COVID-19, including senior citizens with comorbid conditions, front-line workers and Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Hispanic and American Pacific Islander populations. (Source.)

Here is a list of the lies that are being told to the American people through this video:

LIE #1: ''It's important to note that none of these vaccines can give you COVID19 since they only express a protein from the virus that allows your body's immune system to generate antibodies.''

FALSE. The fact is, the COVID19 SARS virus has never been fully identified, and the PCR test to test for COVID19 is inaccurate. Even if what they say is true about there not being a COVID19 virus in the vaccine, since they can only at this point identify fragments from the faulty PCR test, who is to say that a ''protein'' from the virus that affects the body's immune system would not produce symptoms of COVID19 and test positive?

Also, in Israel, which at the time of publication of this article has had the largest amount of people vaccinated with the experimental COVID vaccines, has reported that 240 people have come down with COVID right after being vaccinated. See:

4 People Died and 240 Got COVID19 in Israel After Being Injected with Pfizer Experimental mRNA VaccineSo to say that ''none of these vaccines can give you COVID19'' is scientifically inaccurate, because the truth is these vaccines have not been studied long enough, and we just do not know.

LIE #2: ''Because vaccines are given to millions of healthy people to prevent serious diseases, they're held to very high safety standards. Both the FDA and the CDC have to ensure the safety and efficacy of the vaccines before they are recommended for use in the United States. The COVID19 vaccine, just like all others, are undergoing a rigorous process...''

FALSE. The COVID19 vaccines are NOT approved by the FDA like every other vaccine currently in the market, and the typical time it takes to bring a vaccine to market is 5-7 years. (Source.)

The experimental COVID vaccines should NOT be compared to vaccines that have full FDA approval, but to other times a vaccine was rushed to market under emergency use authorization, and the last time that happened was in 1976 with the Swine Flu ''epidemic.''

But the ''epidemic'' never panned out. Only one death and 13 cases were attributed to the Swine Flu, while 25 people died from the vaccine and another 500 or so developed Guillain-Barre syndrome. The vaccine was withdrawn from the market after 10 weeks. See:

Healthcare Workers in the U.S. Suffer Serious Reactions from Illegal Pfizer Experimental Vaccine '' Others Fake Vaccination on TVLIE #3: ''So far, we haven't seen any trends of serious side effects.''

FALSE. They are trying to be clever by using the word ''trends'' so that specific cases of serious side effects, including DEATH, can be excused as ''abnormal'' or not a result of the vaccine.

But they got caught in their own lie here, as even the FDA has stated that they are investigating why so many people are experiencing anaphylactic shock after receiving the vaccine, focusing on the polyethylene glycol component of the vaccine. (Source.)

Not to mention that several people have now died after receiving the experimental vaccines, including one healthcare worker in Portugal, and apparently Nurse Tiffany Dover from Tennessee as well.

There were deaths in the vaccine trials as well, before the FDA EUA was issued. (Source.)

Facts About the Experimental COVID Vaccines they Do NOT Tell YouIn addition to their lies, the people in this video are failing to give full disclosure about all the facts regarding these experimental COVD vaccines.

1. These vaccines are NOT approved by the FDA.

This is stated multiple times in the vaccine guidelines that are supposed to be given to everyone. Therefore, it is illegal to require anyone to take them. They are 100% voluntary, because you are basically participating in the last part of their vaccine trials in order to get FDA approval.

2. Emergency Use Authorization was issued by the FDA illegally, because other therapeutics to treat COVID19 are available.

Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin are two older drugs already approved by the FDA that tens of thousands of doctors have used successfully to treat and cure COVID19.

In addition, the experimental COVID19 vaccines used the faulty PCR test in their trials, and therefore should never have been approved until accurate testing was used. An Administrative Stay of Action was filed against the FDA, but they simply ignored it. See:

''Stay of Action'' Filed Against FDA to STOP Approval of COVID Vaccine for Using Faulty PCR Tests in Trials3. Warnings of Potential Infertility due to These Experimental Vaccines are NOT Being Issued by the FDA

The UK guidelines for the Pfizer vaccine warn of potential infertility of women and also do NOT recommend pregnant women receive the vaccine, while neither warnings are issued for the same vaccine for Americans. See:

Unlike UK, U.S. FDA Allows Pregnant and Nursing Women to Receive Experimental Pfizer COVID VaccineAlso, the University of Miami is investigating the effects of the COVID-19 vaccines on male fertility. See:

The other thing that the U.S. Government and Big Pharma never disclose, is the revolving door between both. Former FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb, for example, now sits on the Board of Directors for Pfizer. See:

Former FDA Director Gottlieb Now Pfizer Board Member Secures $1.95 BILLION for COVID VaccineThe CDC, FDA, and HHS have become primarily marketing branches of Big Pharma.

The Corporate Media is Owned by Big PharmaWhile in years past the primary advertisers funding the corporate media were Wall Street conglomerates heavily invested in tobacco and the oil industry, today it is Big Pharma.

See:

Brainwashing the Masses: 6 Companies Own Almost ALL of the Media in the U.S. '' Using Medical ''Doctors'' to Sell Their MessageProtecting their financial interest in the pharmaceutical trade is Big Tech, as now even Google is a pharmaceutical company, and they filter their search results to censor anything that challenges pharmaceutical products like vaccines. See:

The Vaccine Deep StateAnd now, the U.S. Government is going to give the corporate media and Big Tech a quarter of a million dollars to try and brainwash you into getting the unapproved experimental COVID vaccine, which is a mere drop in the bucket of the $TRILLIONS of American wealth that has been transferred to Big Pharma in 2020 all in the name of the ''pandemic.''

Don't be fooled by their lies! Turn off your TVs and stop watching these Hollywood-style actors and actresses posing as journalists spew forth this dangerous propaganda.

Having problems receiving our newsletters? See:

How to Beat Internet Censorship and Create Your Own NewsfeedWe Are Now on Parler, MeWe, and Gab!If our website is seized and shut down, find us on Parler, MeWe and Gab for further instructions about where to find us.

Is God's Judgment About to Fall on America? What is the ''Mark of the Beast''?

Unmasking Who is Behind the Plandemic and Rioting to Usher in the New World Order

The Satanic Roots to Modern Medicine '' The Mark of the Beast?Published on January 4, 2021

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:02

The ongoing breach affecting thousands of organizations that relied on backdoored products by network software firm SolarWinds may have jeopardized the privacy of countless sealed court documents on file with the U.S. federal court system, according to a memo released Wednesday by the Administrative Office (AO) of the U.S. Courts.

The judicial branch agency said it will be deploying more stringent controls for receiving and storing sensitive documents filed with the federal courts, following a discovery that its own systems were compromised as part of the SolarWinds supply chain attack. That intrusion involved malicious code being surreptitiously inserted into updates shipped by SolarWinds for some 18,000 users of its Orion network management software as far back as March 2020.

''The AO is working with the Department of Homeland Security on a security audit relating to vulnerabilities in the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system (CM/ECF) that greatly risk compromising highly sensitive non-public documents stored on CM/ECF, particularly sealed filings,'' the agency said in a statement published Jan. 6.

''An apparent compromise of the confidentiality of the CM/ECF system due to these discovered vulnerabilities currently is under investigation,'' the statement continues. ''Due to the nature of the attacks, the review of this matter and its impact is ongoing.''

The AO declined to comment on specific questions about their breach disclosure. But a source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that the federal court document system was ''hit hard,'' by the SolarWinds attackers, which multiple U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have attributed as ''likely Russian in origin.''

The source said the intruders behind the SolarWinds compromise seeded the AO's network with a second stage ''Teardrop'' malware that went beyond the ''Sunburst'' malicious software update that was opportunistically pushed out to all 18,000 customers using the compromised Orion software. This suggests the attackers were targeting the agency for deeper access to its networks and communications.

The AO's court document system powers a publicly searchable database called PACER, and the vast majority of the files in PACER are not restricted and are available to anyone willing to pay for the records.

But experts say many other documents stored in the AO's system are sealed '-- either temporarily or indefinitely by the courts or parties to a legal matter '-- and may contain highly sensitive information, including intellectual property and trade secrets, or even the identities of confidential informants.

Nicholas Weaver, a lecturer at the computer science department at University of California, Berkeley, said the court document system doesn't hold documents that are classified for national security reasons. But he said the system is full of sensitive sealed filings '-- such as subpoenas for email records and so-called ''trap and trace'' requests that law enforcement officials use to determine with whom a suspect is communicating via phone, when and for how long.

''This would be a treasure trove for the Russians knowing about a lot of ongoing criminal investigations,'' Weaver said. ''If the FBI has indicted someone but hasn't arrested them yet, that's all under seal. A lot of the investigative tools that get protected under seal are filed very early on in the process, often with gag orders that prevent [the subpoenaed party] from disclosing the request.''

The acknowledgement from the AO comes hours after the U.S. Justice Department said it also was a victim of the SolarWinds intruders, who took control over the department's Office 365 system and accessed email sent or received from about three percent of DOJ accounts (the department has more than 100,000 employees).

The SolarWinds hack also reportedly jeopardized email systems used by top Treasury Department officials, and granted the attackers access to networks inside the Energy, Commerce and Homeland Security departments.

The New York Times on Wednesday reported that investigators are examining whether a breach at another software provider '-- JetBrains '-- may have precipitated the attack on SolarWinds. The company, which was founded by three Russian engineers in the Czech Republic, makes a tool called TeamCity that helps developers test and manage software code. TeamCity is used by developers at 300,000 organizations, including SolarWinds and 79 of the Fortune 100 companies.

''Officials are investigating whether the company, founded by three Russian engineers in the Czech Republic with research labs in Russia, was breached and used as a pathway for hackers to insert back doors into the software of an untold number of technology companies,'' The Times said. ''Security experts warn that the monthslong intrusion could be the biggest breach of United States networks in history.''

Under the AO's new procedures, highly sensitive court documents filed with federal courts will be accepted for filing in paper form or via a secure electronic device, such as a thumb drive, and stored in a secure stand-alone computer system. These sealed documents will not be uploaded to CM/ECF.

''This new practice will not change current policies regarding public access to court records, since sealed records are confidential and currently are not available to the public,'' the AO said.

James Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it's too soon to tell the true impact of the breach at the court system, but the fact that they were apparently targeted is a ''a very big deal.''

''We don't know what the Russians took, but the fact that they had access to this system means they had access to a lot of great stuff, because federal cases tend to involve fairly high profile targets,'' he said.

Tags: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Nicholas Weaver, Orion, PACER, SolarWinds breach, U.S. Justice Department

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2021 at 6:48 pmand is filed under Data Breaches.You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:01

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks during a news conference Thursday in Tokyo, where he declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and neighboring prefectures amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases. Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks during a news conference Thursday in Tokyo, where he declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and neighboring prefectures amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases.

Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared a state of emergency for the greater Tokyo region, as alarm at rapidly increasing coronavirus case numbers overtook concerns about economic losses. The emergency will take effect Friday, and last until Feb. 7.

As with an earlier state of emergency last April, which was expanded nationwide, the latest restrictions entail no punishments for violators. Residents will simply be asked to avoid nonessential outings, especially at night.

At a news conference Thursday, Suga pleaded with Japan's young people to "protect the precious lives of all generations, including your parents, grandparents and friends."

"I'd like to make sure to improve the situation after one month," he added.

While Japan's case numbers are low by Western standards, their rapid increase has alarmed Japan. Thursday's tally of 6,100 cases set a record with Tokyo making up about half.

The push for the emergency came largely from the governors of Tokyo and surrounding prefectures and from medical experts. Before Christmas, nine medical groups declared their own state of emergency.

"The collapse of the health care system is a reality, all over Japan," Toshio Nakagawa, head of the Japan Medical Association, one of the nine groups, told a media briefing on Wednesday.

"Everyone knows it's not limited to just Tokyo and its three surrounding prefectures," he added.

Dr. Shigeru Omi, the head of a government advisory panel on the pandemic, said at a news conference on Tuesday that COVID-19 cases in the metropolitan Tokyo area are at a stage of "explosive growth," and it would be hard to significantly reduce case numbers in less than a month, even if the state of emergency were declared immediately.

Tokyo area schools, gyms, theaters, karaoke parlors and cinemas, which were asked to close during the last emergency, will be allowed to stay open this time with some restrictions. Restaurants will also remain open, although they'll be asked to shorten their hours. Those that refuse to comply can be "named and shamed" by the government.

All of this has led to concerns that the emergency won't be tough enough to bring the virus under control.

Suga has said he will propose legislation to specify punishments for violations of the emergency. But some opposition lawmakers have argued that the government should worry less about punishment and instead focus on increasing financial support to small businesses, many of which have gone bankrupt during the pandemic.

Suga may also be concerned, the Kyodo News Agency and other Japanese media point out, that declaring a state of emergency will sap public confidence in holding the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin in less than 200 days after being rescheduled from last summer.

A recent opinion poll by public broadcaster NHK found about a third of respondents were in favor of canceling the games, up 9% since a similar poll in October.

Chie Kobayashi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:38

Senior IT Expert at Global Defense Contractor Testifies in Italian Federal Court; He and Others Switched Votes throughout America in the U.S. Presidential Race

Rome, Italy (January 5, 2021) '' An employee of the 8th largest global defense contractor, Leonardo SpA, provided a shocking deposition detailing his role in the most elaborate criminal act affecting a US election. Corroborating the DNI Ratcliff's report of international intrusion, Arturo D'elio outlined the scheme that proved successful in using Leonardo computer systems and military satellites located in Pescara, Italy. Recent reports of a hack at Leonardo now appear to have been an orchestrated cover to mitigate blowback on the corporation which is partially owned by the Italian government.

Nations In Action, a government transparency organization, partnered with the Institute of Good Governance to thoroughly investigate and research the election irregularities which yielded the long awaited proof that a flawless plot to take down America was executed with extraordinary resources and global involvement. Americans and elected officials now have proof that the election was indeed stolen.

This provides the mechanism for each state to recall their slate of electors immediately or face lawsuits and request all federal government agencies to lock down all internal communications, equipment and documentation from the Rome Embassy. ''Make no mistake, this is a coup d'etat that we will stop in the name of justice and free and fair elections,'' stated Maria Strollo Zack, Chairman of Nations in Action.

The Institute for Good Governance issued the following statement:

Our mission is to provide the full truth, expose the perpetrators of this horrific crime, and ensure that every person involved, regardless of position, be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Nations In Action and the Institute for Good Governance are making the following demands on elected officials:

' Depose State Department officials starting with Rome staff including Stefan Serafini ' Immediately strip Leonardo SpA of all contracts and seize assets ' All congressional members must speak out against this foreign and domestic interference or face recalls and suspicion of involvement ' Implement the most severe penalties for participants who had knowledge or participated and refuse to assist in the investigation

Maria Strollo Zack, founder of Nations In Action added, ''States must prosecute all illegal voting activities and provide immediate legislative remedies. There can only be zero tolerance for criminal interference in American elections. This international conspiracy must be met with swift action by the President and be fully supported by elected officials for the protection of voting integrity and the prosperity of our great nation.''

Click HERE for related information.

Click HERE to view the General Affidavit.

To book a media interview with Maria Strollo Zack, please contact:

Marjorie Meyers, Nations In Action

646-246-8606 or Marjorie.Meyers@NationsInAction.org

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:16

WASHINGTON '-- As part of a broader move to boost the 5G industry in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission on Dec. 8 began auctioning a portion of C-band electromagnetic spectrum, a move the committee's chairman, Ajit Pai, celebrated as ''a big day for American consumers and U.S. leadership in 5G.''

But, in the weeks leading up to the auction, more than a dozen commercial aviation groups warned the sale could, as one study put it, lead to ''catastrophic failures'' with the potential for ''multiple fatalities.''

At the core of the concerns are radar altimeters, a critical piece of aviation technology used by military, commercial and civil aircraft of all types '-- including helicopters and unmanned aerial systems '-- to measure the distance between an aircraft and the ground.

The aviation groups worry that 5G operations on the spectrum sold by the FCC could cause interference that would provide inaccurate readings on altimeters or cause their failure outright, in essence leaving pilots unaware of how far they are from the ground and potentially leading to crashes over the United States.

According to a memo obtained by Defense News, those concerns are shared by the head of the Federal Aviation Administration and the number two at the Department of Transportation, who are calling on the FCC to pause the sale so the safety issue can be studied more closely. The FCC, in turn, has said its own technical studies show little to no risk involved and it intends to continue moving forward.

Now, with the auction underway, the Defense Department is scrambling to catch up. The Pentagon has yet to determine the effect on military aircraft and has not established a formal position on the sale, with officials rushing behind the scenes to set up meetings and understand the potential long-term impacts.

A Pentagon official, in response to questions from Defense News, would only say the department's policy board on federal aviation and aviation cyber initiative task force '-- an interagency organization led by the FAA '-- are reviewing reports by industry groups about the risk of 5G interference.

Senior leaders from the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, and the aviation cyber initiative plan to meet Dec. 21 ''to discuss findings and to establish an interagency way ahead to validate and respond to these reports,'' the official stated.

Among those expected to attend are Brig. Gen. Robert Barrie Jr., the official who manages Army aviation assets; Brig. Gen. Eric DeLange, director of the Air Force cyberspace operations and warfighter communications office; and several cyber experts from the FAA and DHS.

Perhaps most notably, Honeywell Industries, a key producer of radar altimeters, has also been invited to discuss possible alternatives to current systems '-- a sign that the defense industry is taking the issue seriously. Honeywell declined to comment.

If the spectrum sale continues, some experts are warning a best case scenario may be that the department has to spend millions of dollars and thousands of man hours to design, procure and install new radar altimeters across the military's fleet of airborne systems.

The worst case?

As one senior government official with experience in aviation said, ''There will be accidents, property's going to be destroyed and people are going to die.''

Low-level flights like this firefighting efforts in a California Air National Guard C130-J Hercules could become a challenge if altimeters start to fail. (DoD photo) The ongoing dispute

Under the Trump administration, the FCC has focused on the sale of spectrum in order to goose the nascent 5G industry, which administration officials see as a driver for American economic growth. Branded as the 5G FAST Plan, the commission has moved quickly to sell C-band spectrum.

This particular auction involves spectrum in the 3.7''3.98 GHz frequency, with the hope of selling more than 5,000 new flexible-use overlay licenses. Satellite operators using the C-Band have agreed to repack their operations out of the band's lower 300 megahertz (3.7-4.0 GHz) into the upper 200 megahertz (4.0-4.2 GHz), in two stages. They expect to complete the move in December 2023. As of Dec. 17, more than 50 bidders had reportedly put forth over $15 billion in offers for the spectrum rights.

Currently, the 3.7''3.98 GHz frequency portion of the C-Band is relatively quiet, occupied predominantly by low-powered satellites. For decades, this made the neighboring 4.2-4.4 GHz frequency a perfect place for the operation of radar altimeters, which are also called radio altimeters.

But that frequency may not stay quiet for long. Once 5G telecommunications are introduced in the 3.7-3.98 portion of the band, there is a ''major risk'' that those systems will create ''harmful interference'' to radar altimeters, according to an October study from the RTCA, a trade organization that works with the FAA to develop safety standards.

''The results of the study performed clearly indicate that this risk is widespread and has the potential for broad impacts to aviation operations in the United States, including the possibility of catastrophic failures leading to multiple fatalities, in the absence of appropriate mitigations,'' the RTCA stated in its report. Research for the report was conducted by the Aerospace Vehicle Systems Institute, a cooperative research organization based out of Texas A&M University.

Radio altimeters are critical during landings, once an aircraft moves below 2,500 feet from the ground. At that point, no other instruments provide an accurate measurement of a plane's distance from the ground.

''It's so important to have an accurate reading, because if it's a bad reading it could lead to the airplane doing something you don't want it to do.'' explained Terry McVenes, the RTCA president and chief executive. McVenes is a former Boeing safety executive with 30 years' experience in the commercial aviation industry.

''If your airplane thought it was 1,000 feet above the ground but was only 50 feet above the ground, well'... you could have a problem,'' he said.

The trade group filed the report with the FCC in early October, and shortly afterward met with an FCC engineering team. But since then, ''We've heard nothing back from the FCC, had no other direct interactions with them'' outside the official filling process, he said.

The release of the study triggered a last-minute request by 12 trade groups, including the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents military aviation companies, to consider mitigation efforts based on the report. The groups called the findings ''the most comprehensive analysis and assessment to date on this subject, based on the best assumptions, parameters, and data'... It has been peer reviewed for accuracy and validity and should not be dismissed by the Commission.''

The report has also gained the attention of Steven Bradbury, the acting deputy secretary for transportation, and Steve Dickson, the FAA administrator, who in a Dec. 1 letter obtained by Defense News warned that the spectrum sale could specifically damage both the Terrain Awareness Warning System, a major safety function for aircraft, and Autoland features relied on for pilots when landing a plane.

''Given the scope of the safety risk, and based upon our current knowledge, it is unclear what measures will be necessary to ensure safe operations in the [National Aerospace System], or how long it will take to implement such measures,'' the two leaders wrote. ''Depending upon the results of further analysis, it may be appropriate to place restrictions on certain types of operations, which would reduce access to core airports in the U.S. and, thus, reduce the capacity and efficiency'' of commercial aviation.

(Airman 1st Class Codie Collins/Air Force) That letter, sent to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, was requested to be added to the FCC's public docket. However, the letter has not been posted to the FCC's public docket as of press time.

The FCC and supporters of expanding 5G argue that the concerns are overblown.

''In the C-Band Order, the Commission concluded that our rules would protect radio altimeters used by aircraft, and we continue to have no reason to believe that 5G operations in the C-Band will cause harmful interference to radio altimeters,'' Will Wiquist, a spokesman for the FCC, said in a statement. ''Among other things, these altimeters operate with more than 200 megahertz of separation from the C-band spectrum to be auctioned, more protection than is afforded in some other countries.

''Moreover, the RTCA report was prepared outside of the joint aviation/wireless industry group that was set up at the Commission's request and is not a consensus position of that group. Indeed, at least one other member of that multi-stakeholder group has expressed significant concerns with the study and several of its assumptions, and the Commission's experts have concerns with this study as well.''

The member group that expressed concerns about the study is the wireless trade association CTIA, which in December filled with the FCC a document that called the findings ''lacking and unreliable'' and ''unsound and unsupported.'' Among the specific concerns raised by CTIA were that altimeter requirements used in the report were overly stringent, that it did not break down results by altimeter brand and model, and that the report relied on ''unrealistic'' scenarios during testing.

McVenes said RTCA is open to conducting the research again if presented with new data to work with, but has yet to see that information from CTIA or the FCC.

Risks to military aviation

Although the RTCA study looked exclusively at civil and commercial aircraft, almost all military aircraft are equipped with radar altimeters that are very similar to their commercial counterparts, said the senior government official. Defense News granted anonymity for this official to speak candidly about the risks to pilot safety.

While radar altimeters made for military aircraft are sometimes built to slightly more stringent requirements '-- having the ability to function in extremely cold or hot environments, for instance, or to withstand higher gravitational forces '-- they still reside on the same portion of the spectrum as commercial ones and are vulnerable to the same interference, the senior government official said.

The cargo planes and aerial refueling tankers operated by the Air Force's Air Mobility Command would be most hindered by the interference produced by 5G due to their similarities to commercial aircraft, said Mike Holmes, a retired Air Force four-star general and former head of Air Combat Command. Holmes reviewed the RTCA report at Defense News' request.

Many of the Air Force's mobility assets are either based on commercial passenger jets, such as the Boeing 767-derived KC-46 tanker, or are equipped with commercial off-the-shelf avionics. As such, certain mobility aircraft are approved to conduct landings in bad weather conditions when the pilot has to rely on the aircraft's instruments '-- such as the radar altimeter '-- instead of visual cues.

''You wouldn't be able to fly that approach if your radar altimeter was being interfered with and you couldn't get a good signal,'' Holmes said. ''For the military'...you'd probably divert someplace else.''

For tactical aircraft, the bigger concern would be low-level flights over terrain such as mountains. Fighter pilots use their radar altimeters when flying close to the ground to evade enemy radar or surface-to-air threats. However, Holmes noted that not all fighter jets '-- such as the 1970s era F-15C '-- have radar altimeters, and that pilots would still be able to rely on visual cues.

Helicopters flying low or near mountains could be at risk, a senior government official said. (CW2 Cameron Roxberry/U.S. Army) Still, he said, if a radar altimeter is offering faulty information due to interference, that could lull pilots into a false sense of security about how far they are from the ground.

''Part of [the problem] is going to be trying to know whether you're getting interference or not,'' he said.

The senior government official noted that the special operations community could be particularly hurt by 5G interference. Certain aircrews of platforms, such as the C-130 or C-17, receive specific training to fly special operations low level missions, which involve flying close to the ground and inserting or extracting special operators, and those training missions may become more difficult to execute if 5G interference is a problem.

This training ''is often executed under the cover of darkness. Depth and obstacle perception can be hindered in darkness due to the human eye's cell structure,'' the official said. ''Night vision goggles provide compensation but still limit the pilot's situational awareness.''

If the sales go through, the military will likely have to modify or replace its altimeters to meet whatever new safety standards the FAA eventually approves to mitigate the risks of 5G interference, Holmes said.

''If you go ahead and give up this part of the spectrum, the interference will drive changes that have to be made either to modify the equipment that is being used for 5G, to modify the equipment that are on airplanes, or to modify the procedures that determine how you use that equipment,'' Holmes said.

Replacing or modifying altimeters will take time and funding '-- two commodities defense experts predict will be in short supply over the coming years '-- as defense budgets flatten.

In the near term, Holmes projects the services will change their training practices to eliminate any added risk to pilots caused by altimeter interference, such as restricting pilots of certain aircraft from landing in bad weather or ensuring that pilots of fighter aircraft take off with enough fuel so that they can divert to another airport if their radar altimeter no longer works.

In short, the military will have to give up money, time and effectiveness to fix the problem.

''The outcome would be lack of efficiency. You wouldn't fly [certain] approaches in bad weather. So there would be times you couldn't go do what you were [planning on] doing, whether that's moving passengers or cargo in the civilian world or whether that was passengers or cargo in the military,'' Holmes said.

''But ultimately, I would think the impact is going to be greater on the commercial airline world than it was on the military world.''

An MQ- Reaper remotely piloted aircraft performs aerial maneuvers over Creech Air Force Base, Nev., June 25, 2015. Such flights could be impacted if altimeters start to fail. (Senior Airman Cory D. Payne/U.S. Air Force) A billion dollar problem

While the satellite operators who currently operate within 3.7-3.98 GHz will receive some proceeds of the sale, allowing them to move to another portion of the spectrum, no funding is set to be given to the civil, commercial and government entities that rely on radar altimeters for safe aerospace operations.

As a result, it is likely that the U.S. military will have to replace ''many or most'' of the radar altimeters currently onboard its airplanes, helicopters and drones, the senior government official said. And because radar altimeters have all been developed to operate on the same portion of the spectrum, there is no off-the-shelf replacement already on the market for which interference wouldn't be a concern.

On the commercial side, McVenes said if industry has to replace altimeters across its fleet, a price tag of ''several billion dollars is probably on the low estimate.'' That price tag could well jump for the military side, given the complexity of work on military systems - it is easier to swap out a part on a commercial plane than a stealth-coated fighter - and the infamous prices of defense procurement.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department could need to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the engineering work necessary to develop new altimeters, procuring those systems, testing and recertifying each platform for normal operations, and finally, installing the new hardware on potentially hundreds or thousands of aircraft across the military's inventory.

''It will take many years, if not decades,'' the senior government official said.

Fighter jets may be the least impacted by the altimeter concerns. (Airman 1st Class Cory W. Bush/U.S. Air Force) In the two months since the report was released, industry has jockeyed to get more time to study the issue and to put measures in place to mitigate the risks.

In a Nov. 17 letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the Aerospace Industries Association and 13 other aerospace trade groups implored members of Congress to take action to protect the frequency bands used by radar altimeters.

''We are concerned that without this congressional intervention to understand potential implications and ramifications, decisions will be made with a frightening lack of understanding of aviation requirements,'' the groups stated.

Help from Congress seemingly came Dec. 7, when Rep. Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who leads the House committee, sent a letter to FCC Chairman Pai calling for the commission to postpone the sale.

''These RTCA findings are alarming; they not only align with earlier research identifying harmful effects of 5G networks to radio altimeters, but they reflect a clear need for the FCC to return to the drawing board with this premature plan,'' he wrote. ''There is no question that additional study is needed to understand the full extent and severity of 5G interference with radio altimeters and whether any mitigations are feasible '-- or even possible '-- to ensure flight safety.

''We must never take a chance with aviation safety '-- and at no point should commercial interests be placed above it.''

A day later, the FCC pressed forward with the auction.

Valerie Insinna is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. Aaron Mehta is deputy editor and senior Pentagon correspondent for Defense News.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:06

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Purpose. One of the fundamental purposes of our Government is to ensure the safety of our citizens. Consistent with the purpose of creating peaceful and prosperous communities, Federal law ensures immigration benefits may be granted only to those individuals who will follow the laws that govern all United States citizens. Accordingly, section 212(a)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3), renders inadmissible aliens who have engaged or who are likely to engage in terrorist activity and those aliens who seek entry into the United States to engage, principally or incidentally, in unlawful activity. Active membership in a criminal association is relevant to the determination of whether an applicant for a visa or other immigration benefit is seeking to enter the United States to engage in unlawful activity. Accordingly, law enforcement organizations, including the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, should continue to provide the Department of State with current information appropriate for updating the list of criminal organizations in the Foreign Affairs Manual at 9 FAM 302.5-4(B)(2). This information should include assessments of whether aliens involved with such associations pose a threat to the safety of our communities.

In particular, reliable reporting suggests that the movement known as Antifa is directly or indirectly responsible for some of the recent lawlessness in our communities, and has exploited tragedies to advance a radical, leftist, anarchist, and often violent agenda. In fact, Antifa has long used otherwise permissible demonstrations to engage in lawless, criminal behavior to further its radical agenda.

Between February and August 2017, during a series of protests in Berkeley, California, Antifa protesters physically assaulted several individuals and caused significant property damage. Specifically, reports indicate that during the August 27, 2017, protest, black-clad Antifa protestors viciously attacked a rally, including targeting at least one person because of his conservative political beliefs. These protests resulted in 13 arrests on a range of charges, including assault with a deadly weapon and obstructing a police officer. During the demonstrations on February 1, 2017, 150 black-clad agitators contributed to an estimated $100,000 worth of property damage in Berkeley. Separately, on June 29, 2019, individuals affiliated with Antifa physically attacked conservative journalist Andy Ngo while he was covering demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, leaving him hospitalized.

Those affiliated with Antifa have also repeatedly threatened violence, including against law enforcement officers. For instance, in June 2018, a Twitter account linked to Antifa shared the names of more than 1,500 Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, leading others to track and publicly post some employees' social media profiles, phone numbers, and home addresses, which, as intended, resulted in the employees being harassed.

In late September of 2020, individuals in a moving truck distributed riot equipment '-- including shields, masks, and a sign emblazoned with an Antifa symbol '-- in Louisville, Kentucky, before riots ensued there. Hours later, the violent situation resulted in the shooting of two police officers. And on October 5, 2020, reported Antifa activists in Portland were captured on video attacking a woman carrying an American flag.

The Department of Justice has already publicly confirmed that actions by Antifa and similar groups meet the standard for domestic terrorism.

The violence spurred on by Antifa '-- such as hurling projectiles and incendiary devices at police, burning vehicles, and violently confronting police in defiance of local curfews '-- is dangerous to human life and to the fabric of our Nation. These violent acts undermine the rights of peaceful protestors and destroy the lives, liberty, and property of the people of this Nation, especially those most vulnerable.

Sec. 2. Inadmissibility of Antifa Associates Based on Terrorist and Unlawful Activity. (a) The Secretary of State shall, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, review information received from the Department of Justice and other authorities to assess whether to classify Antifa as a terrorist organization under section 1182(a)(3)(B)(vi) of title 8, United States Code.

(b) The Secretary of State shall take all appropriate steps, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, to consider listing Antifa in 9 FAM 302.5-4(B)(2)(U) Aliens Who Are Members of an Identified Criminal Organization.

Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

DONALD J. TRUMP

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 15:40

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 15:20

By Caroline LowbridgeBBC News

Published duration 23 hours ago

image copyright Jessica Allen

image caption Jessica Allen (left) and Eliza Moore are now sticking to walks nearer their homesTwo women have described how they were surrounded by police, read their rights and fined £200 each after driving five miles to take a walk.

The women were also told the hot drinks they had brought along were not allowed as they were "classed as a picnic".

Guidance for the current lockdown says people can travel for exercise as long as it is in their "local area".

The police force involved, Derbyshire Police, said driving for exercise was "not in the spirit" of lockdown.

One of the would-be walkers, Jessica Allen, assumed "someone had been murdered" when she arrived at Foremark Reservoir on Wednesday afternoon.

image copyright Stuart Woodman

image caption Foremark Reservoir is five miles away from where Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore live"As we drove in there was a police van, a police car, and there were loads of police there," said Ms Allen, who lives in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire.

"I genuinely thought someone had been murdered; the place is normally so quiet. The next thing, my car is surrounded. I got out of my car thinking 'There's no way they're coming to speak to us'. Straight away they start questioning us.

"One of them started reading my rights and I was looking at my friend thinking 'This must be a joke'.

"I said we had come in separate cars, even parked two spaces away and even brought our own drinks with us. He said 'You can't do that as it's classed as a picnic'."

Her friend, Eliza Moore, said she was "stunned at the time" so did not challenge police and gave her details so they could send a fixed penalty notice.

"Just seeing a police officer anyway is quite scary for some people and we were really not expecting to be approached and to be told we were doing something wrong," she said.

"We don't want to get away with it if we have broken the rule, but it seems a bit unfair that you can be fined on something that's so vague."

How far can you travel for exercise?

Guidance issued by the Cabinet Office states that people can leave their homes for exercise but should not travel outside their "local area".

However, the actual legislation does not specify a maximum distance that people are allowed to travel for exercise.

Both the guidance and legislation state people can exercise with one other person, as Jessica Allen and Eliza Moore did.

Human rights barrister Adam Wagner said: "There is no law against travelling to exercise. The guidance is not legally binding and the police have no power to enforce it unless it is reflected in the lockdown regulations which in this case it is not."

Derbyshire Police said: "It is up to each individual officer on a case-by-case basis to decide what is reasonable as the legislation does not proscribe a distance."

The BBC contacted the Cabinet Office, Home Office, College of Policing and National Police Chiefs' Council to ask for clarification over what they define as "local area" in relation to exercise. None could clarify this.

However, the College of Policing said: "In overall terms police officers across England and Wales will be using their discretion and professional judgement about whether or not someone has a reasonable excuse for travelling for exercise and being outside the place where they are living."

image copyright Jessica Allen

image caption Jessica Allen (right) said walking at the reservoir benefits her mental health during lockdownMs Allen said she is taking the pandemic "very seriously" as her brother is a doctor working on a Covid ward in London, and her parents have both had coronavirus.

She said she drove to the reservoir as she knew it would be less crowded than near her house.

"I'm self-employed but my business is closed and I'm trying to fill my time," she said.

"I suffer from anxiety and when you go by the water you feel so much better. The only thing I've got to look forward to is planning a walk with my friend."

Ms Allen said the experience was "very intimidating" and had left her feeling scared of police in general.

"I was so shook up afterwards," she said. "The fact they read my rights. I thought 'Am I going to prison for going on a walk?'

"I'm not a criminal but we were treated as if we were criminals and it really made me feel for those people who are wrongly arrested and questioned by police, because it wasn't a nice situation to be in."

image copyright Stuart Woodman

image caption Jessica Allen, whose brother is a doctor on a Covid ward, went to the reservoir as she knew it would be quietDerbyshire Police said in a statement: "Driving to a location - where exercise could easily have been taken closer to a person's home - is clearly not in the spirit of the national effort to reduce our travel, reduce the possible spread of the disease and reduce the number of deaths.

"Each officer will use their professional judgement on a case-by-case basis, however, people should expect to be challenged and understand the clear reasons why they may be asked about their movements given the critical situation the NHS currently finds itself in."

Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, said he regarded the reservoir as a local area.

He tweeted: "I'm concerned that my constituents are facing fines from Derbyshire Police for taking exercise in what I would class as the local area.

"It is important that common sense is used when enforcing guidelines, and a fine rather than issuing guidance appears to be rather over zealous."

Derbyshire Police has also been giving fixed penalty notices to people who visit Calke Abbey and Elvaston Castle.

image copyright Stuart Woodman

image caption Fixed penalty notices have been given to people who visit Calke Abbey, a National Trust propertyOne man said his parents were given a fixed penalty notice after driving seven miles to Calke Abbey from their home in Whitwick, Leicestershire.

"Upon approaching the park there was a team of police officers so my parents decided to pull in and check that no laws were being broken," he said.

"Immediately they were hit with a £200 fine. When my parents said that they weren't aware this was too far and they'd go home immediately, the police officer simply said 'It's too late'."

When asked about this, Derbyshire Police said: "The four Es are still in use, however, where there are cases of blatant breaches of the regulations then fines will be issued by officers."

Speaking at the time, Lord Sumption - a former Supreme Court judge - said it was "disgraceful" and "shamed our policing traditions".

Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 14:57

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 09:53

More than $6 million in taxpayer money flowed to Austin nonprofits impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but taxpayers might never learn the identities of the organizations that got the money, or get a chance to dig into their stated need for assistance.

Citing a little-known state law that government transparency experts are only now learning exists, the city has refused to turn over a list of the 365 nonprofits that were granted the funds.

The $6 million was funneled through the city from the federal government and distributed out of the Austin Nonprofit and Civic Health Organizations Relief fund, more commonly known as the ANCHOR fund.

On Oct. 19, the American-Statesman requested a list from the city of the fund's award recipients. On Nov. 16, the city denied the newspaper's request, saying in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it thought the information was exempt from public disclosure and requested that Paxton's office affirm that determination.

The law invoked by the city's legal department, House Bill 3175, went on the books after the 2019 Texas Legislative session.

Filed by state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, the bill made confidential the name and other identifying information of individuals and businesses that apply for state or federal disaster recovery funds. The definition of disaster, as spelled out in the law, includes things like floods, earthquakes and hostile military action. It also includes an epidemic, such as the COVID-19 crisis.

The disclosure of federal relief dollars is not exempted from public records if the money is awarded by the federal government. For example, news organizations, including the American-Statesman, have obtained through public records the names of businesses that received financial assistance through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

But under the new state law, Austin was able to withhold the identities of businesses that received assistance from the ANCHOR fund because the money, although originally from the federal government, went to the city before it was distributed to the nonprofits.

"That's not acceptable," said Kelley Shannon, head of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. "We need to know where government money is flowing and how it's being spent."

Former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire said the law makes it possible for local governments to engage in questionable financial dealings without the threat of getting caught. Aleshire is a lawyer with an interest in public records access.

"Confidentiality always makes fertile ground for favoritism and cronyism in the use of tax dollars that sunlight discourages or at least exposes," he said. "This law is a special embarrassment to Texas' reputation for strong open government laws by making information confidential that even the federal government would disclose."

A basic reading of the law does, however, suggest that the city's analysis of the law is correct, according to Austin lawyer Roger Borgelt.

"They're on the right side of a really bad law," said Borgelt, whose legal practice includes a focus on administrative law. "Apparently, someone in the Legislature in their infinite wisdom thought we didn't have the right to know who got federal disaster relief funds."

Deshotel, the lawmaker behind the law, said the city of Austin's application of the law was never his intent. Rather, he said, the purpose of the bill was to conceal sensitive information of individuals who received disaster relief funds. He said his office became worried after getting word that identity thieves had targeted Hurricane Harvey victims and compromised their bank and credit accounts.

"That was the intent," Deshotel said Thursday. "There's always unintended consequences and it sounds like this could be one. If you're asking Red Cross how much money they got in COVID relief funds and they cite that bill, I would say that was not my intent."

The original bill, filed March 5, 2019, included only the language that protected the identities of individuals who received disaster relief funds. The bill was amended on the House floor on April 24 to include language that also protected the identities of businesses. Deshotel is listed as the sponsor of that amendment, though he said he said he does not recall bringing forward the amended language.

"I know why I filed it and what the intent was," said Deshotel, who is about to begin his eighth Legislative term. "A lot of times these bills get amended, things get stripped, and they look a lot different than the original bill. Sometimes we have to go back the following session and tweak these bills when they have these unintended consequences."

The next session of the Texas Legislature is scheduled to begin Tuesday and run through the end of May. Asked if he'd bring forward a bill that strikes down the language that protects the identity of businesses, Deshotel said he first wants to look into how that language got into the amended bill in 2019.

"I have to see what happened," he said.

In Austin, the city curates a dashboard with limited non-identifying information about the $6 million ANCHOR fund. The dashboard shows 498 nonprofits applied for assistance, and that 365 were approved and 133 were rejected. Of the applicants, 321 reported that they serve communities of color. The industries with the highest number of applications were arts and culture (164), health and human services (132) and education (105).

No organization was to receive more than $20,000. The average payout was for $16,500.

In June, the city tapped the Better Business Bureau to vet applications and award the money. The BBB was paid $1.1 million for administering the ANCHOR fund plus another fund providing assistance for commercial loans.

The law that shields the names of the nonprofits that received the money does allow for the release of certain non-identifying information. This includes the street name and census block group of a person awarded money and the amount of money they received.

On Friday, the Statesman asked the city's economic development department for that information.

"You'll have submit another (public information request)," a department spokeswoman said.

More than $6 million in taxpayer money flowed to Austin nonprofits impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but taxpayers might never learn the identities of the organizations that got the money, or get a chance to dig into their stated need for assistance.

Citing a little-known state law that government transparency experts are only now learning exists, the city has refused to turn over a list of the 365 nonprofits that were granted the funds.

The $6 million was funneled through the city from the federal government and distributed out of the Austin Nonprofit and Civic Health Organizations Relief fund, more commonly known as the ANCHOR fund.

On Oct. 19, the American-Statesman requested a list from the city of the fund's award recipients. On Nov. 16, the city denied the newspaper's request, saying in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it thought the information was exempt from public disclosure and requested that Paxton's office affirm that determination.

The law invoked by the city's legal department, House Bill 3175, went on the books after the 2019 Texas Legislative session.

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 09:48

The incoming Biden administration plans to set up federally run mass vaccination sites and to release all government-held vials, rather than hold some back for second doses.

The decision by President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to release the vast majority of vaccine doses set off a sharp debate among public health experts. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times WASHINGTON '-- In a sharp break with the Trump administration, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. intends to release nearly all available doses of the coronavirus vaccine soon after he is inaugurated, rather than hold back millions of vials to guarantee second doses will be available.

The decision is part of an aggressive effort to ''to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,'' the Biden transition team said on Friday. The vaccination plan, to be formally unveiled next week, also will include federally run vaccination sites in places like high school gyms and sports stadiums, and mobile units to reach high-risk populations.

The president-elect has vowed to get ''at least 100 million Covid vaccine shots into the arms of the American people'' during his first 100 days in office.

The decision to release the vast majority of vaccine doses set off a sharp debate among public health experts. The two vaccines that have received emergency approval each require two doses, and the Trump administration has so far been holding back about half of its supply to ensure that booster doses will be available for those already inoculated.

The announcement by the incoming Biden administration sets the clearest benchmark yet for front-loading shots, then distributing them as they become available. Officials at Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's vaccine program, had noted that doses would stop being sequestered after the first few weeks of rollout. Both the health secretary, Alex M. Azar II, and Warp Speed officials were critical of the president-elect's decision on Friday.

The Food and Drug Administration '-- whose advice Mr. Biden has pledged to follow '-- has spoken out strongly against changing the dosing schedule, as some other countries have opted to do, calling such a move ''premature and not rooted solidly in the available evidence.'' Some public health experts fear that second doses would be delayed by the decision.

But others called it a smart measure and said it was imperative to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible '-- so long as the second doses are not delayed. The Biden team said it was confident that the supply would be enough, and that Mr. Biden would invoke the Defense Production Act if necessary to bolster the supply of second doses.

''The president-elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible,'' said T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for the Biden transition team.

The announcement that Mr. Biden intends to free up extra doses coincided with a letter from eight Democratic governors '-- including Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, both of whom have clashed with President Trump '-- imploring the current administration to release all available doses to the states as soon as possible.

''The failure to distribute these doses to states who request them is unconscionable and unacceptable,'' the governors wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The New York Times and sent Friday to Mr. Azar, and Gen. Gustave F. Perna, who is in charge of vaccine distribution.

''We demand that the federal government begin distributing these reserved doses to states immediately,'' the letter said.

The American Hospital Association also asked Mr. Azar on Friday to speed up the vaccine rollout, in a letter calling for more coordination between the federal government and the states.

But in a conversation with association officials, Mr. Azar said complex considerations, including managing production flow and accounting for unexpected manufacturing errors, went into the administration's more cautious timetable. He said the Biden plan would jeopardize the ''consistent rhythm'' of production.

''We have no interest in holding back a single dose of vaccine from the American public that could save a life,'' Mr. Azar said, according to a transcript released by his office, adding, ''We're pushing the system as much as we believe prudent.''

Mr. Biden's promise of 100 million shots in arms is an ambitious one, and the Trump administration's rocky rollout '-- which Mr. Biden called ''a travesty'' on Friday '-- has not made his task any easier. As of Friday, the Trump administration had shipped more than 22 million doses, and millions more were already in the federal government's hands.

Yet only 6.7 million people had received a dose. State and local public health officials, already overwhelmed with rising infections, have been struggling to administer the vaccine to hospital workers and at-risk older Americans while most people remain in the dark about when they might be protected.

The biggest problem so far has not been a lack of vaccine, but the difficulties that state and local governments face in distributing the doses they have. Capacity and logistics, not shortages, are keeping vaccines from being administered.

Dr. Leana S. Wen, an emergency physician and public health expert at the George Washington University School of Public Health, said she was surprised and concerned about Mr. Biden's new strategy.

''This is not the problem we're trying to solve right now,'' Dr. Wen said.

Speaking at a news briefing on Friday, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the F.D.A. commissioner, urged states that have used only a small part of their supply to begin vaccinating lower-priority groups, while still observing government guidelines. Most states are still prioritizing frontline health care workers and older Americans in group residential settings.

Expanding the targeted groups ''will go a long way toward using these vaccines appropriately and getting them into the arms of individuals,'' Dr. Hahn said.

Biden advisers have not discussed the rest of their plan to overhaul vaccine distribution; they say more details will be released next week. Mr. Biden has always promised a far more muscular federal response than Mr. Trump's leave-it-to-the-states approach, and he has been outlining his vision in public appearances and interviews with local radio stations while campaigning early this week for Georgia's Democratic Senate candidates.

''Our plan is going to focus on getting shots into arms, including by launching a fundamentally new approach, establishing thousands of federally run or federally supported community vaccination centers of various size located in places like high school gymnasiums and N.F.L. stadiums,'' Mr. Biden said during an interview with WFXE-FM in Columbus, Ga.

''And,'' he went on, ''they can be run by federal staff, contractors, volunteers, including FEMA, you know, the emergency management group, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. military, the National Guard.''

A person familiar with Mr. Biden's vaccination plan said it would take time to establish mass vaccination sites. Mr. Biden himself said on Friday that the vaccine effort would be the ''greatest operational challenge we will ever face as a nation'' '-- one that would cost ''billions of dollars.''

Image A vaccine distribution site in Rockaway, N.J. As of Thursday, the Trump administration had shipped more than 21 million vaccine doses, but only 5.9 million people had received a dose. Credit... Sarah Blesener for The New York Times Joshua M. Sharfstein, a former top F.D.A. official who is now a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, said mobile units would be especially important in reaching people in rural areas, as well as underserved populations, where transportation or lack of interest was a barrier to vaccination.

''We need to make the vaccine easily available to the people who are excited to get it now, and we need to go out and reach people who are at special risk but still have questions or are unable to make it to vaccine sites,'' he said. ''If we just vaccinate people who are excited to be vaccinated, we will miss people who really need to be vaccinated and deserve to have special access.''

The dosing schedule, though, is a major complication. Booster shots for Moderna's vaccine must be given four weeks after it is administered; for the vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, the interval is three weeks. On Friday, officials at the World Health Organization issued recommendations saying that the interval between the administration of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine could be doubled to six weeks. But the F.D.A. has not approved such a shift.

Mr. Biden, who was given the vaccine nearly three weeks ago, will have his second dose on Monday, his spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, told reporters on Friday.

With the virus raging across the country, and more than 367,000 Americans already dead from Covid-19, some experts have expressed hope that hastening the vaccine rollout would help bring the pandemic under control.

But there is not enough data yet to know what effect the vaccine has on transmission of the virus. And without knowing the effect that the vaccine has on transmission, it is impossible to predict whether vaccinating more people will drive down caseloads.

Models outlining the impact of front-loading first doses are intriguing, said Olivia Prosper, a mathematical modeler at the University of Tennessee.

But while ''they bring up a lot of food for thought and some hypotheses to test,'' it is still premature to use them to inform public policy, she said. Models also have their limits, she noted, because most do not take into account the nation's tiered vaccination strategy, which prioritizes high exposure and high risk people for early shots.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg reported from Washington, and Katherine J. Wu from New York.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 05:33

President Trump Donald TrumpCapitol Police officer dies following riots Donor who gave millions to Hawley urges Senate to censure him for 'irresponsible' behavior Kellyanne Conway condemns violence, supports Trump in statement on Capitol riots MORE suggested Friday night that he may seek to build his own online platform after Twitter permanently suspended his account less than two weeks before the end of his presidency.

Trump, tweeting from the @POTUS account after Twitter banned @realDonaldTrump, wrote that he and his team are looking at the possibility of "building out our own platform in the near future."

"As I have been saying for a long time, Twitter has gone further and further in banning free speech, and tonight, Twitter employees have coordinated with the Democrats and the Radical Left in removing my account from their platform, to silence me '-- and YOU, the 75,000,000 great patriots who voted for me," he wrote.

"Twitter may be a private company, but without the government's gift of Section 230 they would not exist for long," Trump continued, referring to his longstanding criticism of a key liability protection for tech companies that he has pushed to repeal.

"I predicted this would happen. We have been negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future," Trump added in a series of tweets. "We will not be SILENCED!"

Trump's tweets were quickly removed from the page but were viewed before disappearing. A copy of the president's statement was also shared with reporters covering the White House.

Trump returns, on the @POTUS account, and says he is looking "at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future." pic.twitter.com/AhbICQ82OM

'-- Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) January 9, 2021Attempts by Trump to circumvent the ban using the @POTUS or @WhiteHouse handles will be removed, a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill.

"As stated in our ban evasion policy, if it is clear that another account is being used for the purposes of evading a ban, it is also subject to suspension," the spokesperson said. "For government accounts, such as @POTUS and @WhiteHouse, we will not suspend those accounts but will take action to limit their use."

Twitter announced earlier Friday night that it would permanently suspend Trump's main account after determining that his posts pose ''the risk of further incitement of violence.'' The platform had previously suspended the president from tweeting for 12 hours amid fallout over Wednesday's riot at the Capitol.

Twitter's permanent suspension comes as Facebook announced Thursday it would be suspending Trump's access until at least President-elect Joe Biden Joe BidenCapitol Police officer dies following riots Rep. Joaquin Castro wants to prevent Federal government from ever naming buildings, property after Trump Tucker Carlson: Trump 'recklessly encouraged' Capitol rioters MORE 's inauguration, with the potential for it to be extended further.

Snapchat also suspended Trump indefinitely, and Shopify moved to take down stores run by the Trump organization and Trump campaign after the riot.

A Reddit spokesperson on Friday also announced it would be banning the forum called r/DonaldTrump after repeated violations regarding posts about the riot at the Capitol.

Twitter had previously taken down two of Trump's posts Wednesday '-- a video urging his supporters who broke into the Capitol to retreat while simultaneously praising the mob and repeating disputed claims about voter fraud, and another tweet with a similar message.

Following two additional tweets '-- one of which stated that his voters have been "disrespected" and "treated unfairly," the other revealing he would not be attending Biden's inauguration '-- Twitter announced the decision to permanently ban the president's personal account.

In a statement, the platform said the president's tweets "must be read in the context of broader events in the country and the ways in which the President's statements can be mobilized by different audiences, including to incite violence, as well as in the context of the pattern of behavior from this account in recent weeks."

"After assessing the language in these Tweets against our Glorification of Violence policy, we have determined that these Tweets are in violation of the Glorification of Violence Policy and the user @realDonaldTrump should be immediately permanently suspended from the service," the company added.

Updated: 10:42 p.m.

The Hill's Celine Castronuovo and Chris Mills Rodrigo contributed.

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Sat, 09 Jan 2021 00:09

More than 300 Twitter employees have signed an internal petition calling for President Donald Trump to be permanently banned from the platform following a raid on the US Capitol on January 6th. Roughly an hour and a half after we published this story, Twitter apparently agreed '-- President Donald Trump has been permanently banned from Twitter.

The letter said that the employees are ''disturbed'' by the attack and that Twitter must ''permanently suspend'' Trump because of his involvement, according to a copy of the letter seen by The Verge. The Washington Post first reported on the letter's circulation.

''We must examine Twitter's complicity in what President-Elect Biden has rightly termed insurrection. Those acts jeopardize the wellbeing of the United States, our company, and our employees,'' they wrote.

''We must learn from our mistakes in order to avoid causing future harm.''

The letter writers also call for Twitter to ''provide a clear account'' of the company's decision to temporarily suspend Trump's account and to investigate ''Twitter's role in today's insurrection.''

''We must learn from our mistakes in order to avoid causing future harm,'' they wrote.

The letter has been signed by more than 300 people over the last two days, according to a person familiar with its circulation.

The pushback inside Twitter follows stronger action from Facebook, which suspended Trump indefinitely on Thursday. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms began removing posts or restricting his account on Wednesday after the president posted a video praising the mob that attacked the Capitol. The Alphabet Workers Union has also called on YouTube to ban Trump.

Twitter employees have been pushing back against leadership in company-wide Slack rooms as well. ''I feel like we've bent over backwards to craft policies to allow Trump to stay up and to say what he has,'' one employee wrote.

Dorsey said Twitter had drawn ''a very clear line in the sand''

''This conversation has focused on how rigorously we have enforced our existing policies ... Do we consider that there may be problems with our policies themselves?'' wrote another.

On Thursday, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sent a message to staff saying that the company's actions around Trump were important for establishing trust.

''It's important we follow a clear and public rule set that can endure beyond any one moment,'' Dorsey wrote. ''Why? In order to earn trust. I know it may not feel that way right now.''

Dorsey also argued that it was up to elected leaders to repair the damage from Wednesday's attack. ''We aren't the government,'' he said. ''Our elected officials must do the work to right this and bring the country together. Our role is around the integrity of the conversation of that work, and doing everything we can to promote healthy discourse, knowing it's not always going to be accepted in the short term. But it will be over the long term. I'm certain of that.''

Dorsey said that Twitter had drawn ''a very clear line in the sand'' by saying it would permanently suspend Trump if he further violated the platform's rules. ''If that line is crossed, we will do what we said we are going to do,'' he wrote.

During a company all-hands meeting on Friday, employees were told there would be a ''retrospective'' on the company's recent policy decisions, according to screenshots of a Slack conversation seen by The Verge. Employees were also urged not to leak more information to the media.

In a statement emailed to The Verge, a Twitter spokesperson said: ''Twitter encourages an open dialogue between our leadership and employees, and we welcome our employees to express their thoughts and concerns in whichever manner feels right to them.''

Update, 5:16PM ET: Article updated with a statement from Twitter.

Update, 6:42PM ET: Twitter has now banned Trump.

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Archived Version

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:59

Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeff MerkleyMerkley says Capitol rioters stole laptop from his office The Hill's Morning Report - A dark day as Trump embraces 'special' rioters Democratic senators say electoral ballots saved from Senate floor MORE (D-Ore.) said that rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday ransacked his office and stole a laptop.

The senator posted a video of himself returning to his office after being evacuated when a pro-Trump mob breached barricades and caused mayhem in many congressional offices, as well as the House and Senate chambers.

Merkley said a laptop that had been sitting on a conference table was missing.

The Hill has reached out to Merkley's office for more details.

The Oregon Democrat sits on several high-profile Senate committees, including Foreign Relations and Appropriations.

During the video, Merkley said he had left the door unlocked because he would be in and out throughout the course of the evening, as Congress met to certify the Electoral College votes.

Despite the open door, rioters ''smashed the door virtually off its hinges," according to the senator.

He showed his trashed office, including gifted wall art that had been torn off the walls and a cigarette butt stamped out on a table. A Trump 2020 flag was also left behind.

''You can see the debris is all over the floor,'' he added.

The trail of destruction and looting. What happened today was an assault by the domestic terrorists who stormed the Capitol, but it was also an assault on our constitution. [sound on] pic.twitter.com/BrELF7cMz1

'-- Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) January 7, 2021Merkley's office was not the only one ransacked by the mob. A member of the rioters was photographed sitting at a desk in Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiCapitol Police officer dies following riots Kellyanne Conway condemns violence, supports Trump in statement on Capitol riots Warren claps back at DeVos following resignation announcement: 'Good riddance' MORE 's suite of offices, an American flag draped on a desk behind him.

Rioters flipped over tables and tore down photographs from the walls. According to MSNBC, the plaque above her door symbolizing her position was also stolen by insurrectionists.

Per @MSNBC, this plaque, that sits above @SpeakerPelosi's office door to denote her position and to memorialize her historic place as the first and second female Speaker of the House, is missing and was likely stolen yesterday by Trump's insurrectionists. pic.twitter.com/agDZ3d1YC7

'-- Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) January 7, 2021

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:51

January 7, 2021 | 9:47am | Updated January 7, 2021 | 10:46am

A newly elected West Virginia lawmaker posted video of himself among the crowd that stormed the Capitol building on Wednesday '-- prompting calls for his resignation.

Republican Delegate Derrick Evans has since deleted the video showing him and a throng of Trump supporters breaching the building in protest of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

''We're in, baby!'' he says in the clip, copies of which are still circulating on Twitter.

Evans can also be seen inside milling about the Capitol Rotunda in a helmet, yelling, ''No vandalizing.''

The first-time officeholder was elected in November to represent Wayne County.

In a Facebook post, he called himself ''an independent member of the media to film history'' while on a bus traveling home to West Virginia, West Virginia Metro News said.

''I want to assure you all that I did not have any negative interactions with law enforcement nor did I participate in any destruction that may have occurred,'' Evans added.

Democratic leaders in West Virginia have already called on Evans to resign and ''be prosecuted to the fullest extend of the law.'' About 10,000 people have signed an online petition calling for his removal from office.

Roger Hanshaw, the speaker of the state House of Delegates, said Evans will need to ''answer to his constituents and colleagues regarding his involvement in what has occurred today.''

Republican Delegate Derrick Evans Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislature via APHanshaw suggested Evans could be criminally charged.

''While free speech and peaceful protests are a core value of American society, storming government buildings and participating in a violent intentional disruption of one of our nation's most fundamental political institutions is a crime that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,'' he said in a statement.

With Post wires

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Archived Version

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:50

A fter protesters forced entry into the United States Capitol on Wednesday, Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser gave a scathing public speech. Condemning the protesters, she said they would be held accountable. Bowser also noted that she had asked for reinforcement from law enforcement agencies including police from both Virginia and Maryland.

First off, asking for law enforcement assistance is a far cry from what we have heard from Democrats over the last year who are usually expressing disdain and calling for defunding the police. Not this time. Turns out, even Democrats turn to police when wanting to protect their own agendas.

Members of U.S. Capitol Police inspect a damaged entrance of the U.S. Capitol January 7, 2021 in Washington, DC.

But Bowser's hypocrisy is just one level of her deception. People around the world are asking ''how could security have been so subpar as to allow a breach of the U.S. Capitol?'' Here is at least one answer for you: Bowser actually rejected assistance before the riots took place.

While Bowser is crying, ''what happened yesterday is textbook terrorism'' it turns out ''on Tuesday, Bowser preemptively rebuffed federal reinforcements in a public letter to the Department of Justice, explaining that 'the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is prepared for this week's First Amendment activities'' reported National Review.

Bowser actively went out of her way, writing a public letter, which explains the lack of backup. Nonetheless, the facts are not stopping liberals and anti-Trumpers from turning the catastrophe into a racial issue stating the incident occurred because it was ''white supremacists helping white supremacists.'' Bowser, a Black female, said the MPD was ''prepared.''

Again, on Tuesday, long before the demonstration began, Bowser wrote: ''The protection of persons and property is our utmost concern and responsibility. MPD is well trained and prepared to lead the law enforcement, coordination and response.'' The letter was addressed to Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and active Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller.

For those who are still unconvinced at the Mayor's participation in the security failure, look at her tweet from January 5 alongside her letter: ''To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway.''

Fast forward less than 48 hours and the Mayor sings a different tune, saying she did not have jurisdiction to send police or National Guard to Capitol Hill. ''I think a more robust presence on the ground'' would have maintained order, she explained.

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:49

Andy Ng´ : One of the men who was part of the siege of the Capitol building is John Earle Sullivan, an extreme BLM activist fr'... https://t.co/M3dJa1Hdlb

Thu Jan 07 23:07:19 +0000 2021

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 01:44

Particles of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, orange, isolated from a patient. (NIAID/National Institutes of Health via AP) (AP)

Please NoteThe Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

People with no symptoms transmit more than half of all cases of the novel coronavirus, according to a model developed by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Their findings reinforce the importance of following the agency's guidelines: Regardless of whether you feel ill, wear a mask, wash your hands, stay socially distant and get a coronavirus test. That advice has been a constant refrain in a pandemic responsible for more than 350,000 deaths in the United States.

Fifty-nine percent of all transmission came from people without symptoms, under the model's baseline scenario. That includes 35 percent of new cases from people who infect others before they show symptoms and 24 percent that come from people who never develop symptoms at all.

''The bottom line is controlling the covid-19 pandemic really is going to require controlling the silent pandemic of transmission from persons without symptoms,'' said Jay C. Butler, the CDC deputy director for infectious diseases and a co-author of the study. ''The community mitigation tools that we have need to be utilized broadly to be able to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from all infected persons, at least until we have those vaccines widely available.''

The emergence of a more contagious variant, first detected in the United Kingdom and since found in several U.S. states, throws the significance of those guidelines into even starker relief. ''Those findings are now in bold, italics and underlined,'' Butler said. ''We've gone from 11-point font to 16-point font.''

Watch more!

Scientists say the coronavirus variant discovered in the United Kingdom is more transmissible but does not make people sicker. (The Washington Post)The model, published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open, comports with earlier estimates of the contribution of asymptomatic spread.

''It's certainly confirmatory, but it's nice to see confirmation,'' said epidemiologist Richard Menzies, who directs the McGill International TB Centre in Canada and was not affiliated with this research. ''These are pretty believable, solid results.''

Many factors influence how the coronavirus spreads. The researchers took an admittedly uncomplicated approach '-- Butler called it ''a fairly simple mathematical model'' '-- and used that to assess several scenarios, varying the infectious period and the proportion of transmission from people who never develop symptoms.

The model consistently predicted asymptomatic spread accounted for roughly half of viral transmission. ''I was a bit surprised how well it held up under a broad range of base assumptions,'' Butler said, such as shifting the timing of peak contagiousness from four days after infection to five or six.

But Muge Cevik, an infectious-disease expert at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, argued some of the model's assumptions are flawed. Cevik said the best estimate for the relative contagiousness of people who do not have symptoms, vs. those who do, was 35 percent, drawing from a review of the scientific literature published in September.

The study authors instead estimated, at baseline, that people without symptoms were 75 percent as contagious. That figure, Butler said, came from their own literature analysis including peer-reviewed and preprint research. ''I have no doubt that we'll still have people say, 'Well, what if you did X, Y or Z?' But hopefully being able to adjust the variables will help address some of those concerns, such as what we did,'' Butler said.

Watch more!

One of the first coronavirus hot spots was Albany, Ga., a majority-Black city that has struggled for decades against social and economic inequities. (The Washington Post)Cevik also noted the study does not account for the environment where the spread occurs. ''Maybe asymptomatic transmission is important, but it may be much more important in long-term care facilities and households,'' she said. ''That might mean that we need to do much more targeted testing for high-risk populations,'' as opposed to mass screening.

Whether vaccines stop coronavirus transmission is not yet certain, and was not a scenario addressed in this model. ''The data on the impact of the vaccines on asymptomatic infection are very limited,'' Butler said, though he anticipates more information in coming months.

The clinical trials for the mRNA vaccines, authorized in December, concluded the vaccinations are highly capable of preventing symptomatic illness. But those trials did not determine whether vaccinated people are able to spread the pathogen.

''If they were asymptomatic but equally contagious, then that's going to have quite an impact on the epidemic,'' Menzies warned. That is why it is so important to keep testing people, he said, especially those who were vaccinated and then exposed to the virus.

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:47

| January 07, 2021 02:21 PM

| Updated Jan 07, 2021, 03:26 PM

P oliticization problems exist in U.S. spy agency assessments on foreign influence in the 2020 U.S. election, including analysts who appeared to hold back information on Chinese meddling efforts because they disagreed with the Trump administration's policies, according to an intelligence community inspector.

Barry Zulauf, an analytic ombudsman and longtime intelligence official, issued a 14-page report obtained by the Washington Examiner to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, revealing his investigation was ''conducted in response to IC complaints regarding the election threat issue." In addition, he lamented the ''polarized atmosphere has threatened to undermine the foundations of our Republic, penetrating even into the Intelligence Community.''

The intelligence community's classified assessment on foreign influence in the 2020 election, which will not focus on claims of mail-in fraud or unfounded allegations of voting machines flipping millions of votes, was also submitted to Congress on Thursday. Expected in December, the assessment was delayed as senior intelligence officials clashed over the role played by China, and as director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe sought to include more viewpoints in the final analysis.

''Given analytic differences in the way Russia and China analysts examined their targets, China analysts appeared hesitant to assess Chinese actions as undue influence or interference. The analysts appeared reluctant to have their analysis on China brought forward because they tend to disagree with the administration's policies, saying in effect, I don't want our intelligence used to support those policies,'' Zulauf concluded, saying this behavior violated analytic standards requiring independence from political considerations.

The ombudsman shared a number of recommendations he said had been accepted by Ratcliffe, including to ''reinforce through direct leadership communications from ODNI to the workforce as a whole, and from agency heads to all IC agencies, the importance of protecting analytic integrity and a renewed commitment to analytic objectivity and avoiding politicization in both policy and practice."

Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas, signed a three-page unclassified letter on Thursday, also obtained by the Washington Examiner, in which he contended that ''from my unique vantage point as the individual who consumes all of the U.S. government's most sensitive intelligence on the People's Republic of China, I do not believe the majority view expressed by the Intelligence Community analysts fully and accurately reflects the scope of the Chinese government's efforts to influence the 2020 U.S. federal elections." The ombudsman report, Ratcliffe added, "includes concerning revelations about the politicization of China election influence reporting and of undue pressure being brought to bear on analysts who offered an alternative view based on the intelligence.''

A senior intelligence official told the Washington Examiner that ''inside the IC, we're going to have to wrestle with the issues outlined in this report and the revelation that our own internal umpire basically said Ratcliffe was right and some of our career people, even CIA management, were politicizing China intelligence.''

This comes four years after an assessment on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, which is still contested by some, and the backdrop of the debate is laden with rising concern about China's influence over U.S. lawmakers, a massive SolarWinds hack assessed to have been likely conducted by Russia, and the chaos on Wednesday as supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol and attempted to stop Congress from counting the electoral votes certifying President-elect Joe Biden win.

Congress worked late into the night and the early morning, certifying Biden's victory just before 4 a.m. on Thursday. Following the decision, Trump said he would commit to an orderly transition of power on Inauguration Day.

A source familiar with the process of creating the 2020 assessment told the Washington Examiner that one reason for the delay in submitting the assessment to Congress, in addition to the internal debate, was a desire to get past Wednesday to ensure the report was not exploited for political reasons during the debate over the Electoral College votes counted by Congress. The source cited concerns about how politicians, such as outspoken Trump critics like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, might exploit the report, but also sought to avoid allowing conspiracy theorists such as Trump-allied lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood to make misleading claims about it that would make their way to Trump for him to latch on to as he refused to concede.

The ombudsman's report added: ''Russia analysts assessed that there was clear and credible evidence of Russian election influence activities. They said IC management slowing down or not wanting to take their analysis to customers, claiming that it was not well received, frustrated them. Analysts saw this as suppression of intelligence, bordering on politicization of intelligence from above.''

Zulauf said that ''due to varying collection and insight into hostile state actors' leadership intentions on domestic influence campaigns, the definitional use of the terms 'influence' and 'interference' and associated confidence levels are applied differently by the China and Russia analytic communities.'' He pointed out that Russia analysts could rely on a formal definition document, but ''there is no parallel document for China,'' and so, ''the terms were applied inconsistently across the analytic community."

In his letter, Ratcliffe said that ''it is clear to me that different groups of analysts who focus on election threats from different counties are using different terminology to communicate the same malign actions'' and ''similar actions by Russia and China are assessed and communicated to policymakers differently, potentially leading to the false impress that Russia sought to influence the election but China did not.''

The ombudsman said that ''the most egregious example" of attempts to politicize intelligence "is the talking points provided alongside the written introductory statement delivered by, but not written by" National Counterintelligence and Security Center Director Bill Evanina in March 2019. Zulauf also pointed to Evanina's July and August statements, saying Evanina ''said that he assumed they represented coordinated IC views,'' but the ombudsman concluded that ''they in fact did not represent fully coordinated IC views.''

The ODNI under then-acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell provided an unclassified fact sheet briefed to Congress in March, stating that ''the IC has not concluded that the Kremlin is directly aiding any candidate's reelection. '... This is not a Russia-only problem.'' In July, Evanina released a statement contending that ''we're primarily concerned with China, Russia, and Iran."

The August assessment warned that Russia was ''using a range of measures to primarily denigrate'' Biden, noting that Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Derkach was working to undermine the former vice president. Evanina also said Iran sought to "undermine" Trump and divide the country ahead of 2020. In addition, he said that ''we assess that China prefers that President Trump ... does not win reelection" and that China "has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020" and ''recognizes that all of these efforts'' could affect the election.

Zulauf said that ''analysts claim that NIC leadership consistently watered down conclusions during a drawn out review process, boosting the threat from China and making the threat from Russia sound not too controversial'' and that ''NIC officials pointed to ODNI senior officials as intervening in the changes.'' But the ombudsman said Ratcliffe ''just disagreed with the established analytic line on China'' and quoted him insisting that ''we are missing China's influence in the U.S. and that Chinese actions ARE intended to affect the election.'' The ombudsman said that ''ultimately the DNI insisted in putting material on China in, and was aware analysts disagreed,'' and ''as a result, the final published NICA, analysts felt, was an outrageous misrepresentation of their analysis.'' Zulauf said Ratcliffe acknowledged that ''many analysts think I am going off script,'' but ''they don't realize that I did it based on the intelligence.''

The ombudsman revealed two national intelligence officers wrote an ''NIC alternative analysis memo'' in October ''which expressed alternative views on potential Chinese election influence activities" but stressed that ''these alternative views met with considerable organizational counter pressure.''

''ODNI has to ensure that alternative views are expressed, even when they differ from the majority. A healthy challenge culture in the IC can foster differences of analytic views and ensure that they are shared in intelligence products,'' Zulauf concluded. ''In my discussions with him, DNI Ratcliffe agreed with the concerns expressed in the alternative analysis memo.'' The ombudsman emphasized the analytic standard that assessments be based on all available sources of intelligence.

''The analytic ombudsman says Ratcliffe wasn't being political '-- he was being honest that China intelligence was being suppressed for political reasons,'' the senior intelligence official contended to the Washington Examiner.

''It is evident that what began as a mischaracterization of IC analytic assessment by ODNI officials escalated into an ongoing widespread perception in the workforce about politicization and loss of analytic objectively throughout the community on the topics of Russian and Chinese election influence and interference,'' the ombudsman assessed. ''No ODNI official has stated that reviews or edits of election threat intelligence were phrased in a way that was explicitly political in nature. Rather, from the ODNI leadership perspective, officials were seeking a way to deliver intelligence in a way that the Trump Administration would consume it.''

Ratcliffe contended that ''the majority view expressed in this ICA with regard to China's actions to influence the election fall short of the mark'' and that ''alternative viewpoints on China's election interference efforts have not been appropriately tolerated.'' He said the yet-classified ICA ''gives the false impression'' that the national intelligence officer for cyber ''is the only analyst who holds the minority view on China" and that ''placing the NIO Cyber on a metaphorical island by attaching his name alone to the minority view is a testament to both his courage and to the effectiveness of the institutional pressures that have been brought to bear on others who agree with him.''

''In 1962, a National Intelligence Estimate stated that the Soviet Union was unlikely to place missiles in Cuba. Then-CIA Director John McCone forcefully disagreed with the analysts, and later ordered the U-2 reconnaissance flights that discovered that missiles had in fact been deployed,'' Ratcliffe concluded. ''In that same spirit, I am adding my voice in support of the stated minority view '-- based on all available sources of intelligence, with definitions consistently applied, and reached independent of political considerations or undue pressure '-- that the People's Republic of China sought to influence the 2020 U.S. federal elections.''

The Trump spy chief provided a glimpse into the internal intelligence community debate in December during an interview with the Washington Examiner.

''You have analysts that have been here from the Cold War era and are used to it being Russia, or in the last 20 years, it has been about counterterrorism '-- and again, I'm not minimizing those '-- but the greatest threat that we face and a greater amount of our focus needs to be on China," Ratcliffe said.

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:47

O n the day after pro-Trump protesters breached the United States Capitol in Washington D.C., several important questions remain unanswered.

Who were these people? Why weren't law enforcement officers prepared? Why did it take so long for the situation to be contained?

But, this isn't the first time the Capitol has been invaded; in fact, it has happened six other times.

The first invasion happened during the War of 1812 when the British Army invaded Washington D.C. and troops partially burned the Capitol on August 24, 1814. Reconstruction took approximately four years, PJ Media reports.

Next, on July 2, 1914, German professor Eric Muenter detonated a bomb in the reception room of the Senate in effort to stop American support of the Allies. The following morning, Muenter tried to assassinate J.P. Morgan Jr. and committed suicide a few days later.

On March 1, 1954, four Puerto Rican nationalists shot 30 rounds from the Ladies' Gallery of the House of Representatives chamber, demanding Puerto Rican independence from the United States. Wounding five representatives, the shooters were convicted in federal court and served sentences until receiving pardons from President Jimmy Carter in exchange for the release of American CIA agents held in Cuba.

On March 1, 1971, a radical left domestic terror group called the Weather Underground set off a bomb on the ground floor of the Capitol to protest against U.S. involvement in Laos.

Another leftist bombing occurred on November 7, 1983, when the terrorist group Armed Resistance Unit set off a bomb outside the office of Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd. The group was protesting the invasion of Grenada. A nearly five-year investigation ensued, and two of the terrorists were sentenced to prison.

Finally, on July 24, 1998, Russel Eugene Weston Jr. broke into the Capitol and took the lives of two Capitol Police officers, Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson; his motive remains unknown.

Indeed, attacks on the Capitol have done absolutely nothing to help the causes of those responsible. Violence is never the answer, especially when it comes to politics. And while this may not be the first time a breach has occurred, it is critical to ensure that it will be the last.

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Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:07

RSBN 🇺🇸 : The real reason some are talking the 25th/impeachment is not to remove him now with only 13 days left.They want t'... https://t.co/9ZBe73Ge5y

Thu Jan 07 20:56:48 +0000 2021

Jefferson Senter : @RSBNetwork @DB1973 Trump will never be elected again.

Thu Jan 07 22:07:20 +0000 2021

Social Worker22 : @RSBNetwork @america1stwomen His ass was thoroughly kicked THIS time, so I can't imagine that anyone would be afrai'... https://t.co/sKKeWiDuYh

Thu Jan 07 22:07:17 +0000 2021

Mr Rose : @RSBNetwork @GIGISFLYING That's stupid, the man will be in his 80's come next election. If they get away with this'... https://t.co/9URwDuUdcv

Thu Jan 07 22:07:08 +0000 2021

Marnie Lynn : @RSBNetwork He did run again. He won.

Thu Jan 07 22:06:56 +0000 2021

Lilith : @RSBNetwork @PatriotMendy When and if the truth comes out the US will beg him to come back

Thu Jan 07 22:06:13 +0000 2021

Al : @RSBNetwork @jesusgirljen You are exactly ðŸ'¯ correct. All reasonable and rational people feel this way.

Thu Jan 07 22:06:06 +0000 2021

7🇺🇸1🇺🇸1 4EVA : @RSBNetwork Too Effin Bad! 74 million of us voted him. Don't give a fook what they want!

Thu Jan 07 22:05:51 +0000 2021

Jonathan Smith : @RSBNetwork Donald Trump already won twice. The Democrats own the corrupt system. American votes are just a facade.

Thu Jan 07 22:05:40 +0000 2021

Mikkel Petersen : @RSBNetwork If they do that, over baseless accusations, then all hell will break loose. We can only take so much.

Thu Jan 07 22:05:05 +0000 2021

Mary E. Davis : @RSBNetwork @america1stwomen Absolutely.

Thu Jan 07 22:04:48 +0000 2021

NetAdvisor.org® : @RSBNetwork Bingo!

Thu Jan 07 22:03:20 +0000 2021

ER70 : @RSBNetwork Another fantastic reason to get rid of the tangerine shitgibbon immediately.

Thu Jan 07 22:03:20 +0000 2021

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Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:06

Image copyright Getty Images

Who were the protesters that broke into buildings on Capitol Hill after attending a rally in support of Donald Trump?

Some were carrying symbols and flags strongly associated with particular ideas and factions, but in practice many of the members and their causes overlap.

QAnon among the protestersImages show individuals associated with a range of extreme and far-right groups and supporters of fringe online conspiracy theories, many of whom have long been active online and at pro-Trump rallies.

One of the most startling images, quickly shared across social media, shows a man dressed with a painted face, fur hat and horns, holding an American flag.

He's been identified as Jake Angeli, a well-known supporter of the baseless conspiracy theory QAnon. He calls himself the QAnon Shaman.

Image copyright Getty Images

His social media presence shows him attending multiple QAnon events and posting YouTube videos about deep state conspiracies.

He was pictured in November making a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, about unproven claims the election was fraudulent.

His personal Facebook page is filled with images and memes relating to all sorts of extreme ideas and conspiracy theories.

The Proud BoysAnother group spotted at the storming of the Capitol were members of the far-right group Proud Boys.

The organisation was founded in 2016 and is anti-immigrant and all male. In the first US presidential debate President Trump in response to a question about white supremacists and militias said: "Proud Boys - stand back and stand by."

Image caption The individual on the right is Nick Ochs, who describes himself as a "Proud Boy Elder". One of their members, Nick Ochs, tweeted a selfie inside the building saying "Hello from the Capital lol". He also filmed a live stream inside.

We haven't identified the individual standing on the left in the above image.

Mr Ochs' profile on the messaging app Telegram describes himself as a "Proud Boy Elder from Hawaii."

Online influencersIndividuals with large followings online were also spotted at the protests.

Among them was the social media personality Tim Gionet, who goes under the pseudonym "Baked Alaska".

Image copyright Twitter

Image caption Tim Gionet, better known as "Baked Alaska", livestreamed himself from the Capitol on Wednesday His livestream from inside the Capitol posted on a niche streaming service was watched by thousands of people and showed him talking to other protesters.

A Trump supporter, Mr Gionet has made a name for himself as an internet troll.

He's been described by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, a US nonprofit legal advocacy group, as a "white nationalist", a label he disputed in a comment to The Insider.

YouTube banned his channel in October after he posted videos of himself harassing shop workers and refusing to wear a face-mask during the coronavirus pandemic.

Other platforms that have previously shut down his accounts include Twitter and PayPal.

Who wrote Nancy Pelosi a note?A photo that went viral of a man who'd entered the office of senior Democrat politician Nancy Pelosi has been named as Richard Barnett from Arkansas.

Image copyright EPA

Image caption Richard Barnett left a message for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying "we will not back down" Outside Capitol Hill buildings, he told the New York Times that he took an envelope from the speaker's office and says left a note calling her an expletive.

Reacting to the New York Times interview, Republican congressman Steve Womack said on Twitter: "I'm sickened to learn that the below actions were perpetrated by a constituent."

Local media reports say Mr Barnett is involved in a group that supports gun rights, and that he was interviewed at a 'Stop the Steal' rally following the presidential election - a movement that refused to accept Joe Biden's victory and supports the president's unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.

In the interview at the rally organised by 'Engaged Patriots' he said: "If you don't like it, send somebody out to get me 'cause I ain't going down easy."

The group associated with Mr Barnett held a fundraiser in October with proceeds going towards body cameras for the local police department, according to the Westside Eagle Observer local paper.

No evidence of antifa supportersAs the events were unfolding, many social media users, especially those associated with QAnon and supporters of President Trump, were claiming that agitators from the loose-knit left-wing group antifa were involved.

The implication was that these activists were disguised as Trump supporters to create disruption.

A number of prominent Republican politicians, such as US Representative Matt Gaetz, claimed it was antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.

One widely-shared post claimed one protester had a "communist hammer" tattoo, as evidence that he wasn't a Trump supporter.

On closer inspection, the symbol is from the video game series Dishonored.

There have also been suggestions that Mr Angeli, the man wearing fur and horns, was a Black Lives Matter supporter, with users sharing an image of him at a BLM event in Arizona.

Mr Angeli was indeed at that event, but he was there as a counter-protester. In images taken there, he's seen holding a QAnon sign.

Flags and symbolsAt least one of the rioters was holding a Confederate flag, which represented US states that supported the continuation of slavery during the American civil war. For this reason, it is considered by many to be a symbol of racism and there have been calls to ban it across the US. Others see it as an important part of southern US history.

Image copyright EPA

Image caption A protester carries the Confederate flag after breaching US Capitol security In July it was announced that the flag could no longer be flown on American military properties because of a new policy to reject "divisive symbols".

President Trump has defended the use of the Confederate flag in the past, saying: "I know people that like the Confederate flag and they're not thinking about slavery...I just think it's freedom of speech."

There were also protesters holding aloft flags featuring a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow background, often accompanied by the phrase "don't tread on me". This is known as the Gadsden flag, harking back to the American revolution and the war to expel British colonialists.

Image copyright Getty Images

It was adopted by libertarians in the 1970s, according to an article in the New Yorker, and more recently became a favourite symbol of conservative Tea Party activists.

The flag has been adopted by the right over the past couple of decades, says Prof Margaret Weir, a political science expert at Brown University.

It is also used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she says.

Reporting by Jack Goodman, Christopher Giles, Olga Robinson and Shayan Sardarizadeh.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 16:03

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:16

Sara Welch, Nouran Salahieh, and Chip Yost

2 days ago

After California state officials expanded COVID-19 vaccine prioritization, hundreds lined up to get their doses in Anaheim Friday.

Aiming to speed up the slower-than-expected vaccine rollout, the California Department of Public Health on Thursday told local public health departments and providers to vaccinate lower priority groups when demand subsides or when doses are about to expire.

That meant that in addition to frontline health care workers, people working in primary care clinics, specialty clinics, laboratories, dental clinics and pharmacies can get the vaccine.

And if more doses remain, local health officials can move on to vaccinating groups in the next tier, while still continuing to offer vaccines to those in higher priority groups, CDPH officials said.

''Local health departments and providers may allocate doses on the assumption that immunization will be accepted by some but not all who are offered the vaccine,'' CDPH said in a news release.

The expansion comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that only about 1% of California's 40 million residents have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, adding that the pace of immunization is ''not good enough.''

At the North Net Training Center in Anaheim, a long line wrapped around the building as people waited to get the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Friday morning.

It's one of three mass vaccination sites Orange County set up. The other two are in Irvine and Huntington Beach.

On Thursday, nearly 1,000 people received their first dose at the Anaheim site. Another 1,300 people are expected to get the vaccine by the end of Friday, city of Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster told KTLA.

People who work at the high-risk settings listed under Phase 1A of the state's distribution plan were told to make an appointment online, through a link they get through their employer.

Those hoping to get the vaccine were told to bring a photo ID and documentation proving they work at the settings included in Phase 1A. That could be a pay stub or employee badge.

''I'm a pharmacy tech so I have to deal with a lot of patients, so it's good to get the vaccine,'' said Monique Vo, who was waiting for her inoculation.

Also waiting for a dose was Dr. Summar Amin, who is a dentist.

''I feel like we're kind of forgotten about,'' Amin said. ''But definitely, we have aerosols in the air every day working on procedures, so I think it's important that we all get vaccinated.''

As part of a plan dubbed 'Operation Independence,' Orange County is standing up large ''Super Point-of-Dispensing sites'' that will eventually be able to vaccinate thousands of residents each day, Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors Andrew Do said in a news release.

The county anticipates needing at least five super sites, officials said.

''This is the critical first phase of vaccinations here in California,'' Lyster said. ''We need to make sure that health care professionals are vaccinated, so they can continue to treat those in need.''

Law enforcement in Orange County areas with high coronavirus infection rates, like Anaheim and Santa Ana, can also get vaccinated at this stage, officials said.

As of Dec. 31, 2020, more than 32,200 people had been vaccinated in the county, according to the Orange County Health Care Authority.

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:08

Awesome

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Excellent report

Declassify as much as you can

ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

I hope this is true because she hasn't mentioned anything lol

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Why would she admit to America it was taken?

@Michelleemory0923 Exactly, why would she announce it, especially if it may contain some damaging files. She will keep this on the down low.

Is thst thereason that she is so after Trump today. Impeachment, 25 Amendment and even taking the nuclear codes from him.

Did she say SteelTruth that she is on Patriot ?

Its true mil ops was integrated with antifa they got 20 laptops Pelosi and Schumer are a few ...

It makes me think: if they've planned this FF attack, then why would she leave laptop? Unless she placed disinfo there.

I love it! Drain the swap!

No wonder she wants Trump out ASAP!

Ms. Pelosi needs prayers... I pray for her soul...

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I pray for her arrest

Don't waste your breathe...they are beyond salvation...

To late,,, far far to late

I pray for her victims souls

She has no soul

Good luck. She has to have a soul first for you to Pray for her. She is soulless,heartless & sadistic.

Not me she has no soul she is going to hell

Gotta have a soul to pray for it!!

Name Hidden · @Private User 1 day ago

Lol. How the hell is America still in existence with these flippin idiots in charge?

Bravo👍ðŸ>>

Panic because of what was on there. And they weren't stolen. 12 laptops were confiscated as evidence.

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By the people!

@Bedawgs Aerial Exploitation.....Vigilance Above

@Bedawgs Aerial Exploitation....Vigilance Above

That must be true bc they are frantically going after the people that went into the capitol. Weiiiirrrdd

Oh please let this be true! She's is poison.

Hell yes - take down all these MF's 🇺🇸''¤¸

Progress

Good

Name Hidden · @Private User 1 day ago

That is what she gets for inviting antiphon to the home.

Wow amazing 🤣🤣🤣

I'm new, where is steal truth? Is that how you spell it

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She's on YouTube for one. Her name is Ann Vandersteele. She's really good.

@Lwight64 Thank you very much ... i'm still trying to figure out how to get videos off my Facebook into my phone. I'm a dork . I have an iPhone

@Lwight64 Yes she was, thank you for your help finding her. ''¤¸''¤¸''¤¸''¤¸

ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚ðŸ‚

This is great news ðŸðŸ

I figured that was the reason for Paul Pelosi was pictured with the guy wearing horns. Retrieval mission?

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I guess is pay back from her son in law!!!!

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 04:06

The Analyst

The Analyst

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 03:51

Democracy Dies In Darkness. Be The Light And Share:

It's no secret that Dominion Voting Systems is under extra scrutiny in the 2020 election, many of these systems are actively under investigation to determine if they affected the actual votes cast. In this particular video, a clerk shows just how easy it is to change a ballot that enters the ''adjudication'' process. This is basically the review process if the software believes there might be something wrong with the ballot:

The Dominion voting machines that Georgia and several other states use are unsecure and open to manipulation during the counting process. These two videos show the weaknesses of the system and the ways in which an unscrupulous election official may alter ballots with virtually no chance of being caught.

Dominion Voting Machine Flaws '-- 2020 Election Coffee County, Georgia Video 1 (Source) & Video 2 (Source)A Michigan judge recently called for an investigation of 22 Dominion voting machines. These systems are also the center of lawsuits presented by Sidney Powell who is claiming millions of votes were switched for Joe Biden with the software.

Summary Of Dominion And Smartmatic Voter Fraud AllegationsDominion and Smartmatic are under extra scrutiny amidst allegations surrounding their software. Sidney Powell, a lawyer with pending lawsuits against states who used the software, accuses Dominion of switching millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Rudy Giuliani described how this software may have been used to alter votes overseas.

The complete Michigan court ordered forensic audit of 22 Dominion Voting Machines was released to the public for viewing. In that audit, the voting machines had a failure rate of 68.05%, which is 85,062x larger than the .0008% allowed by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). An investigative journalist report revealed financial contributions from over 85% of Dominion Employees went to Democrats, that's pretty high for a supposedly unbiased 3rd party.

It's also important to note that Dominion software was rejected by the state of Texas two times in 2019, citing security concerns over network connectivity. We then discovered the Dominion Voting Machines were actually connected to the internet during the election. There is also footage that recently came out demonstrating just how easy it is to adjudicate votes with the Dominion Voting System software, so the reader can watch those videos and see for themselves.

There are also several leaked Dominion System Training videos that demonstrate just how easy it would be to modify or alter massive amounts of ballots. Additionally, an IT professional's affidavit attested to security issues with the Dominion Voting Software.

An actual IT professional who was contracted to support the TCF Center in Michigan for Election day gave an incredible account of voter fraud that took place. She further expressed her frustrations as to why people are not coming forward with more election fraud evidence and allegations. The state of Michigan exacerbated the controversy with the optics of a cover-up by ordering the deletion of audit logs of Dominion Voting machines used in their state.

It appears conservatives were not alone in their concerns with the safety and security of the Dominion Voting Machines. An original CNN investigative report revealed how Dominion and Smartmatic voting machines played a role in manipulating Venezuelan elections. This matches an affidavit from a native Venezuelan Doctor out of Michigan who was alarmed by parallels between their elections and the 2020 presidential election.

The media concerns didn't end there, a week before the 2020 election PBS ran a segment on the vulnerabilities of electronic voting machines. Even comedic news pundit John Oliver had to revise a segment he did in 2019 criticizing voting machines because it brought too much heat. If that wasn't enough, in 2007 Joe Biden himself expressed his concerns with voting machines and fraud.

The Dominion Software also has connections with the SolarWinds software development company. SolarWinds was part of a major hack of US agencies at the end of 2020. Although the CEO denied the Dominion Software company used SolarWinds, documents have come forward along with their source code to contradict the claim.

Famed programmer Jovan Pulitzer, inventor of the CueCat scanner as well as over 200 technology patents hacked the Georgia voting system in real time during the Georgia legislative hearing on voter fraud. He stated one could easily capture, modify, then ''pump and dump'' votes in real time to completely change the data as it is transmitted. His statements completely demolish the underlying security of voting machines.

An independent analysis by DataScience revealed a 5% over-performance for Joe Biden in 72% of counties using Dominion Voting Systems. This particular analysis compares Dominion Voting System results with expected outcomes utilizing real voting data in non-dominion counties. It then parallels those expected outcomes to real outcomes. These particular counties had a 5% over-performance that always favored Joe Biden.

A Military foreign intelligence analyst released a signed witness affidavit under penalty of perjury back-tracing origin traffic between Dominion Voting Software and foreign countries. In his affidavit, he gives evidence of foreign interference of the 2020 election via Dominion by countries including, but not limited too: China, Iran, And Russia. The full affidavit connects domain and packet information to these foreign entities.

Democracy Dies In Darkness. Be The Light And Share:

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Archived Version

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 03:28

Thrivetime Show: Business School without the BS Published January 8, 2021 418,486 Views 4404 rumbles

Rumble '-- Lin Wood shares why VP Pence didn't stand up for President Trump, why he believes many traitors will be arrested over the next several days, proof of Italian interference in the U.S. elections, and why now is the time to put our faith in GOD.

... and disable advertisements! No kidding :)

47m42sMike Lindell | The My Pillow Founder | Now Is The Time To Stand Up For AmericaThrivetime Show: Business School without the BS

1h27m41sLin Wood Fireside Chat, Epstein is alive, Can Pence be TRUSTED?Conservative News Network

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:05

South-east Queensland is being hit by panic buying after the Premier announced a three-day COVID-19 lockdown.

Long queues have formed at grocery stores across Greater Brisbane on Friday morning, as seen in the video above.

While the lockdown area includes Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton Bay and Redlands, some panic buying is occurring on the Gold Coast.

Massive crowds have stripped supermarket shelves of toiletries, perishables and canned goods with lines stretching for hundreds of metres at some stores.

Major supermarkets are also reportedly considering reinstating limits on toilet paper and paper towels following a surge in demand linked to the coronavirus outbreak.

It comes despite shopping for essentials, food and necessary supplies being permitted under the lockdown, which comes into effect at 6pm.

Shoppers lined up outside Woolworths at Chermside Marketplace in Brisbane on Friday. Credit: Danny Casey / AAP ''There is no need to rush out and panic buy,'' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk tweeted.

''Groceries and essentials such as medicine will still be available while Greater Brisbane is in lockdown.

''Make sure you wear a mask and observe social distancing.''

In a statement, Queensland Health said there are ''no concerns that supermarket supplies are at risk'' during the period.

Queensland police have also spoken out.

''There is no need to 'panic-buy' today. Please be considerate of others if you are shopping,'' it said on social media.

South-east Queensland is being hit by panic buying after the Premier announced a three-day COVID-19 lockdown. Credit: 7NEWS Grocery shops across Brisbane and surrounds are being hit by panic buying on Friday morning. Credit: Mac Lyon / 7NEWS/Supplied A queue at Coles in Toowong in Brisbane on Friday. Credit: 7NEWS Queenslanders also face the first mandatory order to don face masks outside their homes prompting a rush to get the essential protection.

Shoppers have swarmed pharmacies and Bunnings where the masks have been sold in bulk in recent months.

The scenes in south-east Queensland have resembled those of the start of the pandemic when panic buying occurred across Australia.

It saw country-wide shortages of items such as toilet paper.

Under the Greater Brisbane lockdown, residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for one of four essential reasons.

That includes essential work, health or compassionate care, exercise and essential shopping.

The lockdown has been implemented because a cleaner in hotel quarantine tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday.

A line has formed outside Woolworths at Keperra in Brisbane on Friday morning. Credit: Renata Gordon / Supplied People lined up to enter the Camp Hill Woolworths in Brisbane on Friday. Credit: Darren England / AAP The woman was found to have the more infectious UK strain of the virus.

''We are going to go hard and we are going to go early to stop the spread of this virus,'' Palaszczuk told reporters on Friday.

''Think of it as a long weekend at home.

''If we do not do this now, it could end up being a 30-day lockdown.

''If we get through the next three days and we don't have any cases, well, then, fingers crossed we're out of woods.''

- with AAP

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 16:08

GLENDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- The State of Arizona is planning to use State Farm Stadium as a massive COVID-19 vaccination center following a slow rollout of vaccinations statewide.

Arizona's Family was the first to break the news on Friday morning. The 63,400 seat stadium will open on Monday, January 11 with plans to remain open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the capacity to vaccinate 6,000 Arizonans a day. Registration for the site will be posted here on Monday morning.

''Our new vaccine site in Glendale will rapidly expand the number of Arizonans getting vaccinated,'' Governor Doug Ducey said. ''We need to get these vaccine doses out of freezers and into the arms of Arizonans who want it, and our new site will speed up that process."

The opening of the site was made possible by a $1 million grant from the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation and with support from the Arizona Cardinals, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Arizona State University, and the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs.

The announcement comes as Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted that Arizona is receiving over $65 million to support COVID-19 vaccine clinics.

NEW: Arizona is receiving $65M+ from the @CDCgov to support #COVID19 vaccine clinics and strengthen vaccine confidence and community engagement. We want to get Arizonans vaccinated as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible. There's no time to waste. 1/

'-- Doug Ducey (@dougducey) January 8, 2021On Dec. 30, Gov. Ducey used an order to speed up the vaccine rollout. The governor tweeted, ''This is a health emergency, and we need all levels of government and our health system operating as such. Vaccines don't do any good sitting in a freezer."

State Farm Stadium will also host a COVID-19 testing blitz for five days in January. Pre-registration is required.

Maricopa County will enter Phase 1B plan on Monday.

Related"There is no sign-up process available prior to Jan. 11th," according to Maricopa County Public Health.

The Maricopa County Department of Public Health Administration says it will open appointments at POD (point of distribution) sites for Phase 1B vaccinations starting Monday, Jan. 11.

AZDHS says if you need to schedule an appointment you can call 211.

Dana Marie Kennedy is the State Director for AARP Arizona. She says it's an option for people who need help and may not be computer savvy. The information about the vaccine is coming out quickly and is always changing.

"I think most people do have a phone," Kennedy said. "If they don't have Internet, they do have a phone. So if it's a landline or a cellphone, they can call 211. They will hear a live voice."

A spokesperson for AZDHS says 211 is available for making an appointment only if you are in a phase that's open to registration.

Maricopa County officials say they expect the website to be very busy once vaccinations open on Monday for Phase 1B. If you have issues with the webpage, you can call (602) 506 - 6767.

Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, Medical Director for Maricopa County Public Health, said they're not posting appointments early because they're making a slow transition. She says most of the appointments Monday are already booked by healthcare workers in group 1A.

Arizona's Family is constantly updating an FAQ article regarding COVID-19 vaccines in Arizona. Read the latest information here.

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Archived Version

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 09:45

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) '-- Health experts are weighing in after a local nurse tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after receiving his first of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

In a Facebook message posted on December 18, Matthew W., an ER nurse at two different local hospitals, talked about receiving the Pfizer vaccine that day. He told ABC 10News his arm was sore for a day but he suffered no other side effects.

Six days later on Christmas Eve -- after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit -- Matthew, 45, became sick. He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue.

The day after Christmas, he went to a drive-up hospital testing site and tested positive for COVID-19.

"It's not unexpected at all. If you work through the numbers, this is exactly what we'd expect to happen if someone was exposed," said Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego. He serves on the clinical advisory panel for the county's vaccine rollout.

Dr. Ramers says he knows of several other local cases where health care workers became infected around the time they received the vaccine. He says all the cases illustrate the fact that results aren't immediate. Even after you start receiving some protection, it won't be full protection.

"That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%," said Dr. Ramers.

He points out, it is possible Matthew was infected before receiving the vaccine, as the incubation period may be as much as two weeks. Dr. Ramers says if Matthew did contract it after the vaccine, it's still in line with what we know.

"We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it's going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine," said Dr. Ramers.

Dr. Ramers says Matthew's story also shows that even with vaccines, the pandemic isn't going to turn around instantly.

"You hear heath practitioners being very optimistic about it being the beginning of the end, but it's going to be a slow roll, weeks to months as we roll out the vaccine," said Dr. Ramers.

He adds this case is a good reminder of why masks, handwashing, and other COVID protocols are important, even after receiving the vaccine.

Matthew says he's feeling better since his symptoms peaked on Christmas Day but still feels fatigued.

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

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Archived Version

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 19:45

An ABC News article calling for the "cleansing" of the movement of President Trump's supporters was stealth-edited after critics questioned the charged word.

"Even aside from impeachment and 25th Amendment talk, Trump will be an ex-president in 13 days," ABC's Rick Klein and MaryAlice Parks wrote for The Note on Thursday. "The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part. Cleansing the movement he commands, or getting rid of what he represents to so many Americans, is going to be something else."

It now reads, "Cleaning up the movement he commands, or getting rid of what he represents to so many Americans, is going to be something else."

TRUMP CONDEMNS 'HEINOUS ATTACK' ON CAPITOL, CALLS FOR 'HEALING AND RECONCILIATION'

Klein also shared the original phrase on Twitter before deleting it.

The term "cleansing" drew criticism on the right, which viewed it as a violent term in a week where bipartisan outrage has erputed over the mob mayhem at the U.S. Capitol this week.

"You may not like it, but it's perfectly within Klein's right to say everything he said," the Media Research Center's Nick Kangadis wrote. "He can celebrate that Trump is leaving office all he wants. But it is the height of hypocrisy for those in the media to condemn others for violent acts that are dwarfed in comparison to the consistent violence of the far-left '-- one act doesn't justify the other '-- and then go out and call for something like a 'cleansing' of people and think there's nothing wrong with a statement like that."

CAPITOL RIOTS WILL BE USED TO 'DEPLATFORM' TRUMP SUPPORTERS: BEN DOMENECH

Klein leads the network's political coverage and provides analysis across its platforms.

Trump is facing bipartisan calls for his removal from office after a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Wednesday and disrupted the certification proceedings for President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Trump had continued to claim earlier in the day the 2020 election had been stolen from him and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to reject what he viewed as fraudulent electors.

At least five deaths have been linked to the mayhem at the Capitol, including a police officer.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Trump has since issued calls for peace and said he will begin the transition to Biden's presidency, but his acknowledgment of his defeat comes nearly two months after the election.

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 17:48

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Archived Version

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:29

He reminds Americans that the United States 'must always be a nation of law and order'

President Donald Trump on Thursday called on the country to heal and have faith following civil unrest at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump told Americans that he has now turned his focus on ensuring a ''smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power'' to a new administration that will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, in a brief video message released on Thursday evening.

Hours earlier, Congress certified the electoral votes for former Vice President Joe Biden in an emotionally-charged joint session. This came after a group of protestors waving American and Trump flags stormed in the Capitol building. The mayhem left at least four people dead'--three for medical reasons'--and dozens of police officers injured, D.C. police said.

''This moment calls for healing and reconciliation,'' Trump said. ''2020 has been a challenging time for our people, a menacing pandemic has upended the lives of our citizens, isolated millions in their homes, damaged our economy, and claimed countless lives.''

''Defeating this pandemic and rebuilding the greatest economy on earth will require all of us working together.

''It will require a renewed emphasis on the civic values of patriotism, faith, charity, community, and family. We must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family.''

The president also condemned the acts of violence that transpired during the protests that disrupted lawmakers during their joint session where they were counting Electoral College votes. Lawmakers were forced to suspend their sessions and shelter in place as police and security attempted to seize control of the situation.

Law enforcement officers point their guns at a door that was vandalized in the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)''Like all Americans, I am outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem,'' Trump said. ''I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.''

''America is and must always be a nation of law and order. The demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy.''

He warned that people who broke the law would have to ''pay,'' adding that those who engaged in violence and destruction ''do not represent our country.''

''We have just been through an intense election and emotions are high. But now tempers must be cooled and calm restored,'' he said.

The media, lawmakers, former officials, and other critics have put the blame on Trump for Wednesday's incident. The president had addressed a crowd in Washington D.C. where he reiterated his allegations about election irregularities and fraud and his dissatisfaction for the media and several lawmakers.

President Donald Trump speaks to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)As protesters moved their demonstration to the U.S. Capitol, Trump had been posting on Twitter throughout the afternoon urging his supporters to remain peaceful. He also released a video, which has since been taken down by Twitter, that called on his supporters to ''go home now.''

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany also said in a statement on Wednesday that the president had authorized the National Guard to assist with the situation at the U.S. Capitol.

The events on Wednesday has sparked a review of security protocols of the U.S. Capitol over the breach, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced.

''Yesterday represented a massive failure of institutions, protocols, and planning that are supposed to protect the first branch of our federal government,'' McConnell said in a statement. ''A painstaking investigation and thorough review must now take place and significant changes must follow.''

He added that initial bipartisan discussions have commenced in congressional committees of oversight and congressional leadership.

Fifty-five people have since been charged within 36 hours related mostly to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 15:06

PG.Chrys : @adamcurry on the heels of Aman and A Woman, i thought i'd end this little number on to youhorrific https://t.co/Ou2QVCI1LT

Fri Jan 08 06:17:27 +0000 2021

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Fri, 08 Jan 2021 01:05

Daily Caller : BIDEN: "No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, there wouldn't '--'... https://t.co/u2tgoNfZBZ

Thu Jan 07 19:06:44 +0000 2021

Big Hits 🎸ðŸ''›"ðŸ'š½'š¾ðŸ : @DailyCaller Do you hear the words coming from your mouth?Where were you this summer?? https://t.co/sy460r3xC7

Fri Jan 08 01:05:06 +0000 2021

President elect-LoneStar : @DailyCaller Babbling idiot ...🤯

Fri Jan 08 01:02:12 +0000 2021

CT : @DailyCaller Biden's & Dems new logo! BLM destroyed DC and numerous cities without any recourse. They even got the'... https://t.co/GuAriTI9eP

Fri Jan 08 01:01:48 +0000 2021

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Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:52

About the time Gov. Gavin Newsom took to Facebook on Monday to lament the pace of vaccine distribution statewide, one Northern California hospital was injecting local residents at a furious pace '-- providing an unintentional road map for how a mass inoculation program could work.

At 11:35 on Monday morning, senior staff at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County were holding their first 2021 executive meeting when the hospital pharmacist interrupted: The compressor on a freezer storing 830 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine had stopped working hours earlier, and the alarm meant to guard against such failure had failed.

The doses were quickly thawing.

''It was not how my day was planned,'' said Adventist spokeswoman Cici Winiger, who was in the executive meeting. ''At that point it was all hands on deck, drop everything.''

The Moderna vaccine is shipped and stored at frozen temperatures, and stays stable up to 8 degrees Celsius in a regular refrigerator for up to 30 days. But once it reaches room temperature, as it did in the Adventist freezer, it must be used within 12 hours. By the time the freezer problem was discovered, the vials had been creeping toward warm for some time.

Medical staff estimated they had two hours to use them before they would no longer be viable.

With the minutes ticking down, the medical team made the decision that the goal would be to inject every dose, regardless of state guidelines. The medical team believed that ''the more people we vaccinate just brings us closer to herd immunity,'' Winiger said.

Winiger got on the phone, trying to give the shots first to those on the priority lists. One local elder care facility took 40 doses for staff, and the hospital's chief medical officer drove them to the facility himself.

About 200 doses belong to the county and were being stored by the hospital. Winiger said those doses were returned to the county. The county in turn gave 100 doses to the city of Ukiah, county Chief Executive Carmel J. Angelo said.

Lt. John Bednar, who helps run the county jail, said his facility received 97 of those county doses about 1 p.m. The jail has been experiencing an outbreak, with about three dozen inmates out of 250 currently positive, he said. About a dozen staff have also fallen ill with the virus.

Residents in Ukiah line up for a COVID-19 vaccine after a freezer storing it broke down.

(Cici Winiger)

Faced with only an hour to use the shots, sheriff's officials decided to administer them to staff and front-line personnel because they didn't think there was enough time to gain consent and organize a safe protocol for inmates. Four county medical staff began giving the shots, Bednar said.

''I was like, 'Oh, boy, let's get going,''' Bednar said, when the shots first arrived. ''I think it went as well as it could.''

An additional 100 doses hit the fire department about 12:15 p.m., Fire Chief Doug Hutchison said. At first, garbled information he received through phone calls left him fearing all 800 doses were coming his way, leaving him thinking, ''There is no way,'' he said. His full-time staff of 16 had already been promised to help with other clinics.

Hutchison headed to a city conference center, and his remaining crew ''began giving shots as fast as we could sit people down and roll up their sleeve,'' he said. Their syringes went into the arms of police, essential city staff and firefighters '-- including Hutchison, who had declined earlier offerings of the vaccine to make sure his staff got it first.

''I was trying to make sure all my people got shots before I did,'' he said.

Ukiah is hardly the only community nationwide that has encountered temperature problems in distributing a COVID-19 vaccine. Last month, New Mexico reported it had lost 75 doses of Pfizer's vaccine because of potential overheating during delivery to a hospital, and Texas reported that a ''temperature excursion'' forced it to set aside 4,300 doses of the Moderna vaccine, later replaced by the federal government.

On Christmas Day in Connecticut, a power outage caused by a winter storm forced medical providers to launch their own Operation Warp Speed to distribute hundreds of doses of the Moderna vaccine before they became useless.

Despite such incidents, the main challenges in mass inoculations have to do with logistical and bureaucratic complications, lack of a centralized state or federal system for distributing the vaccine, and public uncertainty about the safety of the vaccines, despite successful clinical trials last year.

In Mendocino County, Bednar, the sheriff's lieutenant, was one of those who received the initial dose Monday, though he isn't yet sure how he feels about it.

''It's one of those things where I was a little hesitant at first because it's a new vaccine,'' he said. ''But I have family that is older, and it's better that I get it than possibly risk their safety.''

Even as the shots were being delivered to the jail, a big-rig accident on one of the main highways cut the hospital off from its sister facility about 20 minutes away, Winiger said, making it impossible to reach. Ukiah, a town of about 20,000 surrounded by state and national forest, has a population spread through its rural and often difficult-to-navigate territory, creating a daunting challenge to quickly deliver the doses to remote areas.

The Adventist staff turned instead to the local community, with about 600 shots remaining.

First, they sent a text asking every available medical professional to turn out at one of four sites to give the vaccines and monitor those who took them.

''We had nurses, pharmacists, physicians, even those that are not part of the hospital, coming to help,'' said Judson Howe, president for Adventist Health in Mendocino County. ''It was all hands on deck and a true community effort.''

Then hospital staff blasted out a text to employees letting people know that anyone who showed up could have the shot. ''We just wanted to make sure none of this goes to waste,'' Winiger said.

By noon, within 15 minutes after learning of the freezer failure, shots were being administered at all four sites. Lines began to form as word spread and some staff was siphoned off for crowd control. At the site Winiger ran, about 30 people were turned away after the doses ran out. At the main site near the hospital, she estimates about 120 people left without the shot.

But by the two-hour deadline, every dose had found a patient, Winiger said.

By Tuesday morning, an unexpected problem arose: Conspiracy theories began circulating in the small community alleging that that the broken freezer was no mishap, but part of a plot to give the vaccine to preferred people.

Some said a pharmacist had purposefully disconnected the power, then took the doses to his church to give to parishioners. Another theory suggested hospital leadership staged it as a secret way of giving shots to friends and family first. Some community members were upset that more had not been done to reach those meant to be in the first tier of distribution.

Others worried that the hospital wasn't planning on giving a necessary second shot to those who received the first dose Monday '-- though Winiger said contact information had been collected from all recipients and they would have priority for the second dose.

''I've never dealt with a conspiracy theory up close and personal,'' said one person involved in the vaccine distribution, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. ''It never occurred to me that this could get out of hand so quickly.''

The person, a longtime resident of Ukiah, describes the local population as ''old hippies and descendants of very conservative farmers,'' who share outrage about special treatment for any particular group.

''I think it ties into all the craziness that legitimately exists about people who get special handling,'' the person said.

People line up outside Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Mendocino County on Monday for vaccinations.

(Cici Winiger)

Despite the blowback, Winiger described the effort as ''heroic,'' with dozens of medical staff turning out to volunteer within minutes and a quick decision to split into four clinics that kept crowds at controllable numbers.

In his briefing Monday, Newsom also mentioned the need not to waste doses.

''We have plenty of people that want to take that shot,'' he said, ''and the key is to make sure that, while we are enforcing the rules of the road, we're aren't enforcing against just common sense and the energy of someone who says: 'Look, I don't want to waste this dose. Why don't I get it to someone?'''

Although it could take some time to know the effectiveness of Monday's mass inoculations, the impromptu effort, Winiger said, may prove to be a lesson on how the state could more quickly and efficiently administer vaccines.

Hopefully in less stressful circumstances.

''It's just amazing to go toward one goal and get it done,'' Winiger said. ''I was just thinking in my head, can you imagine if we had more time to do this? If this is how we do a massive vaccination later, we are golden. We can do this.''

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Archived Version

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:28

Ambrose Lane JrPublic Health Activist and Community Leader

Ambrose Lane, Jr. is a known long-time activist and community builder in the District of Columbia. Over 25 years of leadership experience as an effective organizer and executive, working directly with youth, elected officials, community leaders and businesses. He is an institution builder and specialist on organizational development, including board development, infrastructure analysis and organization, program assessment and strengthening, entrepreneurship strategies, and development. He is the original author of legislation creating the DC Youth Advisory Council, was instrumental in creating the youth non-voting position on the school boards of Washington, DC and Howard County, MD, is the founder and creator of DC's largest youth advocacy organization, the DC Alliance of Youth Advocates, is a former COO of the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization, and in 2014, was the Campaign Manager for the DC Council At-large candidate Rev. Graylan Hagler. In late 2013, Mr. Lane organized and founded the Health Alliance Network, a.k.a. the Ward 7 Health Alliance Network, the strongest and largest DC community health advocacy group, to advocate for residents of poor and low-income communities in Wards 5, 7 & 8, the issues of health equity, population health policy, chronic disease prevention strategies and the need for a ''change in community health culture'' to bring about healthy and thriving communities. He has assisted in the writing of past DC Council health legislation and current pending legislation on Health Impact Assessments (HIA's). In 2019, Mr. Lane was again selected by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser to serve a second term as a Commissioner for the DC Commission on Health Equity. He was recently named the Health Committee Chair for the DC Democratic Black Caucus. Mr. Lane is a current Master Trainer for both of Stanford University's Diabetes and Chronic Disease Management Programs, is a past Chairman of the DC Department of Health's (DOH) Chronic Disease City-wide Collaborative, and is involved in the Healthy Youth and Schools Commission, the Cancer Action Partnership, and the recently formed Birth to 3 Coalition. Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Mr. Lane attended Howard University, is a Ward 7 resident, is the father of four children, and is married to Dr. Nura Green Lane.

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Archived Version

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 22:10

Trey Gowdy Explodes After Sandra Smith Asks Who Sent Mob to the Capitol: 'Did You Hear the President's Speech?!'

Jan 7, 2021 03:12

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Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:52

I K¸benhavn er der blevet affyret fyrv...rkeri og kastet ¸ld¥ser efter politiet. I alt 23 blev anholdt i Aalborg og K¸benhavn.

Politiet har l¸rdag aften v...ret talst...rkt til stede ved to demonstrationer i Aalborg og i K¸benhavn.

I Aalborg er der fem anholdte. Det oplyser Nordjyllands Politi i en pressemeddelelse.

Ogs¥ i Aalborg blev der skudt med fyrv...rkeri mod politiet. Video: Asger Manuel J¸rgensenDet var gruppen 'Men in Black, Denmark', der var m¸dt op i Aalborgs gader for at demonstrere. Politiet sk¸nner, at der var omkring 50 til 65 personer til stede ved demonstrationen.

Demonstrationen begyndte omkring klokken 17.30, men kort tid efter m¥tte Nordjyllands Politi gribe ind over for flere af de sortkl...dte fremm¸dte, skriver TV 2 Nord.

If¸lge politiet agerede de ikke med ro og orden og afveg fra den aftalte rute under demonstrationen.

I Aalborg er der blevet anholdt fem ved demonstrationen. Foto: TV 2 Nord Fyrv...rkeri affyret mod politiet Demonstranterne sk¸d fyrv...rkeri mod politiet p¥ Str¸get i K¸benhavn. Video: Asger Manuel J¸rgensenOgs¥ i K¸benhavn var der m¸dt demonstranter fra 'Men in Black, Denmark' op p¥ R¥dhuspladsen. Her blev der blandt andet fyret fyrv...rkeri af.

Demonstrationen begyndte med taler p¥ R¥dhuspladsen. Foto: Jonas Moestrup / TV 2If¸lge TV 2s reporter p¥ stedet fors¸gte de fremm¸dte demonstranter at bev...ge sig ned ad Str¸get, efter en h¥ndfuld taler p¥ selve R¥dhuspladsen. Cirka 50 meter nede af Str¸get blev gruppen p¥ et par hundrede mennesker, stoppet af kampkl...dt politi, der havde afsp...rret handelsgaden med salatfade.

P¥ Str¸get blev demonstranterne m¸dt af kampkl...dt politi med trukne knipler. Foto: Jonas Moestrup / TV 2M¸det mellem demonstranter og politi resulterede i et sammenst¸d, hvor de sortkl...dte demonstranter affyrede kanonslag, smed fakler og kastede ¸ld¥ser mod politiet, som svarede igen med at tr...kke deres stave.

TV 2s reporter fort...ller, at demonstrationen efterf¸lgende vendte om og bev...gede sig ned ad Vesterbrogade og videre ned ad HC Andersens Boulevard, mens de r¥bte 'Frihed for Danmark - vi har f¥et nok'. P¥ H.C. Andersens Boulevard var st¸rstedelen af demonstrationen langsomt ved at blive opl¸st kort efter klokken 20. En fraktion af demonstrationen bev...ger sig dog fortsat i omr¥det, mens de r¥ber 'Politikontrol skaber mere vold' og 'Frihed for Danmark - vi har f¥et nok'.

18 er blevet anholdt ved demonstrationen. ti personer for vold mod tjenestemand, fire for forn...rmelig tiltale, en for at fremkalde opl¸b og true med vold, to for grov forstyrrelse af den offentlige orden og den sidste er anholdt for at bryde fyrv...rkeriloven. Det skriver K¸benhavns Politi p¥ Twitter natten til s¸ndag.

S¸ndag morgen oplyser K¸benhavns Politi at otte ud af de 18 anholdte vil blive fremstillet i grundlovsforh¸r. Alle otte er i forvejen kendt af politiet, oplyser vicepolitiinspekt¸r Rasmus Schultz til TV 2.

TV 2s reporter Verner Joost fort...ller, at der er blevet kastet med blandt andet fyrv...rkeri mod politiet. Video: Sofie Sparre Protest mod coronarestriktionerDemonstrationerne, som er lovligt anmeldt, er angiveligt en protest mod de restriktioner, der er indf¸rt for at d...mme op for coronapandemien.

Folkene bag kalder sig frihedsk...mpere og skriver p¥ Facebook:

- Vi m¸des p¥ gaden for frihed......!! Vi g¥r march for og med, hele og ALLE i Danmark. Vi er Danmarks b¸rn! Uanset ¥r, overbevisning og holdning, fra alle landets hj¸rner marcherer vi med v¥gne ¸jne. VI G…R FOR DANMARKS FRIHED!

If¸lge TV 2s reporter p¥ stedet er demonstrationen slut, men Rasmus Agerskov Schultz oplyser, at man fortsat holder ¸je med mindre grupper af demonstranter rundt om i K¸benhavn.