February 14th, 2021 • 4h 2m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Green New Dill
Thames freezes over for 'first time in decades' as Baltic chill engulfs capital '' Metro
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 05:27
Comment A large part of the River Thames has frozen over in what locals say is the first time in more than a decade as a sub-zero cold snap continues.
Temperatures in London dropped to -2C as Storm Darcy '' dubbed 'The Beast of the East 2' swept through the country.
As a result of the bitter chill from the Baltic, a section of the Thames has frozen over at Teddington, south west London.
The extreme freeze meant the UK experienced the coldest February night for 25 years '' with temperatures plummeting to below -20C in some parts of the country.
In the capital and the South East, train services have been cancelled and roads left in treacherous conditions.
Yesterday, the rare sight of a frozen Thames was captured by a member of the local RNLI crew at around 10am.
A spokeswoman for the RNLI joked they might have to use a smaller boat to break the ice before rescue crews could take to the water.
She said: 'It's not often the Thames freezes over in Teddington. We might have to use the D class [inflatable] lifeboat as an icebreaker.
'It's quite spectacular. I've lived here for 13 years and I've not seen this part of the river freeze like this.'
The large section of frozen river is in the mouth of Teddington Lock on the non-tidal side, where the water flows slower than the rest of the adjoining Thames.
By Friday morning, the ice had thawed slightly and was much thinner than yesterday.
The Thames has completely frozen over in the past, the last time being in January 1963 '' the coldest winter for more than 200 years that brought blizzards, snow drifts and temperatures of -20C.
Even some parts of the sea froze over in what is believed to be the coldest winter since 1740.
Prior to this, the sight of the Thames freezing was a much more regular occurrence as Britain experienced a 'little ice age.'
The ice covering the river was so thick it could support shops, pubs, fairground rides, blazing fires as well as tens of thousands of revellers.
More: LondonThe first 'frost fair' as they were known was recorded in 1608 when the river iced up for six weeks. The last fair took place over 200 years later in 1814.
This week temperatures in the capital are expected to stay around 0C and -1C but could feel as low as -5C due to the wind chill.
The mercury plunged to -23C on Wednesday night in the village of Braemar, Aberdeenshire, making it the coldest temperature recorded in the UK since 1995.
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'Pollution cools the planet': Pandemic-induced lockdowns RAISED global temperatures in 2020 '-- RT World News
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:56
Contrary to many breathless headlines published throughout the pandemic extolling the benefits of lockdowns for the environment, the planet was actually warmer because of them, a new paper has found.
According to the latest research led by the US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the emission of airborne particles, or aerosols, that block incoming sunlight and send it back out into space, dropped significantly in industrialized nations around the globe, spurring a small, but significant rise in temperatures.
Emissions of aerosols dropped during the springtime lockdowns of 2020, in sync with the precipitous drop in major industrial activity across the globe, allowing more of the sun's light to reach the Earth, raising temperatures in industrialized nations like the United States and Russia
''There was a big decline in emissions from the most polluting industries, and that had immediate, short-term effects on temperatures,'' said NCAR scientist Andrew Gettelman, the study's lead author.
''Pollution cools the planet, so it makes sense that pollution reductions would warm the planet.''
Also on rt.com Sacrificing freedom for the environment? German MP suggests restrictions 'similar' to Covid-19 lockdowns to fight climate change In certain areas, temperatures were between 0.2 and 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.1 and 0.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than expected for that time of year and given prevailing weather conditions.
Warming reached about 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.37 C) in many parts of the United States and Russia, as aerosols tend to brighten clouds and reflect more of the sun's rays back out into space while carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases insulate the planet and trap the sun's energy closer to the surface.
Gettelman stressed that, despite short-term warming in certain areas of the planet, the long-term effect of the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns would slightly slow the pace of climate change, due to the more gradual impact of reduced CO2 emissions in the atmosphere.
Gettelman and his co-authors from the universities of Oxford, Imperial College, and Leeds ran simulations using two of the world's leading climate models, the NCAR-based Community Earth System Model and a model known as ECHAM-HAMMOZ, adjusting for aerosol levels during the lockdowns of 2020.
The warming effect visible in their models was strongest in the mid and upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, mixed near the equator and mostly negligible in the southern hemisphere, in line with the distribution of aerosol-producing, industrialized nations.
Lest anyone get too carried away by the research, Gettelman was quick to caution that simply pumping more aerosols into the atmosphere to stave off climate change would be a catastrophically bad idea.
''Aerosol emissions have major health ramifications,'' he said. ''Saying we should pollute is not practical.''
Also on rt.com Mass mink graves may have caused groundwater pollution in Denmark, as govt admits it LOST TRACK of 1.5 million animals Like this story? Share it with a friend!
Elon Musk reducing greenhouse gas emissions with a carbon tax
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:15
Elon Musk says the No. 1 way to decrease carbon dioxide emissions would be to levy a tax on carbon.
"My top recommendation, honestly, would be just add a carbon tax," Musk told Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Thursday. "The economy works great. Prices and money are just information. ... If the price is wrong, the economy doesn't do the right thing."
Currently, there is no direct monetary consequence for businesses and industries whose production releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere; in other words, it is free to create green house gasses, the most common and pervasive of which is carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is released when fossil fuels, like coal and gas, are burned. Excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps heat and causes global warming.
Musk calls carbon concentrations in the atmosphere and environment an "unpriced externality." An externality happens when some consequence of production is not properly reflected in the market. In this case, it is a negative externality.
A carbon tax would change that. "If we just put a price on [carbon emissions], the market will react in a sensible way. But because we don't have a price on it, it is behaving badly," Musk says.
Musk suggested a tax at the point of consumption. (A consumption tax is one that is levied at the point of consumption, when someone buys something, where an income tax is one where you earn income or collect interest, capital gains and the like, according to the Brookings Institution.)
He also suggested the tax be "non-regressive," meaning the tax could be levied based on income level. If a "low income" consumer who has to use a lot of gas (and therefore produce a lot of carbon emissions), they could get a "tax rebate," Musk said as an example. "That's the way to do it."
"This is obviously a thing that should happen," Musk said.
Musk told Rogan he had talked to the Biden administration about implementing a carbon tax. According to Musk, at the time, the administration said it seemed "too politically difficult." A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to CNBC Make It's request for comment.
But Janet Yellen, President Joe Biden's appointee to run the Treasury Department, has indicated her support for some sort of carbon pricing strategy. "Carbon pricing" can refer to a carbon tax, an emissions trading system or any number of other financing mechanisms.
"We cannot solve the climate crisis without effective carbon pricing. The President supports an enforcement mechanism that requires polluters to bear the full cost of the carbon pollution they are emitting," Yellen said in written answers to Senate Finance Committee members' questions published in January.
Of course, a carbon tax could give an electric vehicle company like Tesla a leg up in the market. But according to Musk, "SpaceX would be paying a carbon tax too," he said. (Since rockets burn fuel which emits carbon dioxide when it is burned, all rocket companies would have to pay such a tax when they consume jet fuel.)
The goal of a carbon tax is to align market incentives towards transitioning from an economy that depends on fossil fuels to one that uses clean energy (energy that does not produce carbon emissions). And that, Musk says, is an existential necessity.
"The fundamental good of Tesla is to what degree it accelerates the advance of sustainable energy. It's inevitable. It's tautological," Musk said. "It's either we have sustainable energy or civilization collapses. And so if civilization doesn't collapse we will have sustainable energy, it's just a question of how soon does that happen. Sooner is better."
The idea of a carbon tax is not new. Opinions are split on the matter.
"Elon is spot on. We need to get millions of people to change their behavior to reduce emissions by buying more fuel efficient cars, adding more home insulation, moving us away from coal-fired electricity and a host of other changes," Gilbert E. Metcalf, a professor of economics at Tufts University, tells CNBC Make It. "A carbon tax uses the power of markets to efficiently send a signal to consumers to make those changes. In effect, a carbon tax makes sure Adam Smith's Invisible Hand has a green thumb."
According to Richard Klotz, an environmental economist in the Department of Economics at Colgate University, "the prices of polluting goods/activities do not reflect their 'true' social costs. For example, the price you pay for gasoline does not include the damage the [carbon dioxide] from burning that gasoline causes to the climate," he tells CNBC Make It. "So when we all make decisions about what to purchase, we don't have to consider the environmental cost. Pricing carbon corrects this issue by ensuring that the prices/goods activities more accurately reflect the true costs."
Others, however, do not support a carbon tax.
"A carbon tax will do nothing to prevent climate change but it will hurt the elderly, minorities, the poor and middle class, and those on fixed incomes the most because they spend a larger percentage of their incomes on energy and energy intensive goods than the relatively wealthy," H. Sterling Burnett, a Senior Fellow of environmental policy at the free-market think tank the Heartland Institute, tells CNBC Make It.
Indeed, paying for basic energy requirements can often be a higher percentage of what a lower-income person makes each month. And, to make that pain more acute, "if you live in a substandard home that is not weatherized, that is not energy efficient, that was constructed poorly or is older, then your energy burden will be more," Nathaniel Smith, the founder and Chief Equity Officer, of the Partnership for Southern Equity, a nonprofit in Atlanta, says to the Yale Climate Connections in 2019.
This then, is the argument for a non-regressive carbon tax, as Musk outlined in his conversation with Rogan. This idea is a non-starter, according to Burnett. "It can't be non-regressive if it is intended to change behavior. It must hurt to work otherwise people will not change their behavior and stop using fossil fuels," he says.
Even those who support a carbon tax say that careful implementation is critical.
"If done right, and set at the right level and without too many loopholes, it can be an excellent policy '-- but that's a big if," says Michael Gerrard, an environmental lawyer and professor at Columbia Law School. "It needs to be combined with additional regulations where needed, and with measures to counteract any regressive impacts on low-income people."
So, too, says Metcalf. "A carbon tax is not a magic cure. We'll need other policies as well," he says, including increased research and development spending to make zero-carbon technologies less expensive. And with a carbon tax, "getting the price right is job one."
According to Musk, the Paris Agreement is "just a piece of paper unless you do something about it," he told Rogan. "It's pretty much toothless."
"One thing that would matter '-- put a price on carbon," Musk says. "It's the obvious move."
See also:
This start-up backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos aims to make nearly unlimited clean energy
Fossil fuel emissions responsible for 1 in 5 premature deaths: Harvard report
The who, what and where of Elon Musk's $100 million prize money for carbon capture innovation
Impeachment redux
January 6th , unprecedented?
2008 Homeless Rights Advocates Protest Inside Capitol Building by Democrat Groups
Security guards took the action after about 20 homeless housing rights demonstrators set up sleeping bags in the Capitol rotunda.
After the demonstration began, Capitol security guards barred more protesters and members of the media from entering the building.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/08/29/protesters-cause-capitol-building-to-be-locked-down
2009 AIDS Protester in Capitol Building
Hill Police officers remove an AIDS protester during a demonstration in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington on July 8, 2009.
https://www.upi.com/News_Photos/News/Protesters-Dragged-Out-of-Capitol/2081/
2011 Protest Inside Senate Office Building by Democrat Groups
Raucous protesters who have flooded downtown Washington in recent days took their cries to the Capitol on Tuesday, vowing to shut down congressional work until senators came out and listened to their grievances.
Capitol Police arrested six of the protesters, who were charged with unlawful conduct-demonstrating in a Capitol building, Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said. More than 100 protesters shouted: "We are the 99 percent" and "Tax the rich, end the war" starting about 11:30 a.m. ET inside the Hart Senate Office Building.
https://www.politico.com/story/2011/10/6-arrested-at-capitol-protest-065639
2016 Protest of Police Shootings by Democrat Groups
Protesters chanted, "Don't shoot! Hands up!" as they marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol Building. Some groups appeared to storm through metal barricades set up around the Capitol. U.S. Capitol Police said one person has been arrested for crossing a police line.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/hundreds-march-from-white-house-to-us-capitol-in-protest-of-police-shootings/1999377/
2016 Voter Rights Protest by Democrat Group
Some of the thousands of Democracy Awakening protesters stand on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. April 18, 2016. More than 300 activists were arrested as part of the non-violent direct action to call attention to attacks voter rights and big money in politics. Photo by Greenpeace.
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/breaking-hundreds-risk-arrest-dc-capitol-hill-democracy-awakening-congress/
2018 Supreme Court Building Protests by Democrat Groups
A throng of protesters pushed past a police line, storming up steps to pound on the doors of the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday after the Senate confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/protests-build-capitol-hill-ahead-brett-kavanaugh-vote-n917351
Friday trial very fine people
New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the rioters - CNNPolitics
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 05:48
By Jamie Gangel, Kevin Liptak, Michael Warren and Marshall Cohen, CNN
Updated 10:29 PM EST, Fri February 12, 2021
Washington(CNN) In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did.
"Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy.
McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump's supporters and begged Trump to call them off.
Trump's comment set off what Republican lawmakers familiar with the call described as a shouting match between the two men. A furious McCarthy told the then-President the rioters were breaking into his office through the windows, and asked Trump, "Who the f--k do you think you are talking to?" according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with the call.
The newly revealed details of the call, described to CNN by multiple Republicans briefed on it, provide critical insight into the President's state of mind as rioters were overrunning the Capitol. The existence of the call and some of its details were first reported by Punchbowl News and discussed publicly by McCarthy.
The Republican members of Congress said the exchange showed Trump had no intention of calling off the rioters even as lawmakers were pleading with him to intervene. Several said it amounted to a dereliction of his presidential duty.
"He is not a blameless observer, he was rooting for them," a Republican member of Congress said. "On January 13, Kevin McCarthy said on the floor of the House that the President bears responsibility and he does."
Speaking to the President from inside the besieged Capitol, McCarthy pressed Trump to call off his supporters and engaged in a heated disagreement about who comprised the crowd. Trump's comment about the would-be insurrectionists caring more about the election results than McCarthy did was first mentioned by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican from Washington state, in a town hall earlier this week, and was confirmed to CNN by Herrera Beutler and other Republicans briefed on the conversation.
"You have to look at what he did during the insurrection to confirm where his mind was at," Herrera Beutler, one of 10 House Republicans who voted last month to impeach Trump, told CNN. "That line right there demonstrates to me that either he didn't care, which is impeachable, because you cannot allow an attack on your soil, or he wanted it to happen and was OK with it, which makes me so angry."
"We should never stand for that, for any reason, under any party flag," she added, voicing her extreme frustration: "I'm trying really hard not to say the F-word."
Herrera Beutler went a step further on Friday night, calling on others to speak up about any other details they might know regarding conversations Trump and Pence had on January 6.
"To the patriots who were standing next to the former president as these conversations were happening, or even to the former vice president: if you have something to add here, now would be the time," she said in a statement.
Another Republican member of Congress said the call was problematic for Trump.
"I think it speaks to the former President's mindset," said Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, an Ohio Republican who also voted to impeach Trump last month. "He was not sorry to see his unyieldingly loyal vice president or the Congress under attack by the mob he inspired. In fact, it seems he was happy about it or at the least enjoyed the scenes that were horrifying to most Americans across the country."
As senators prepare to determine Trump's fate, multiple Republicans thought the details of the call were important to the proceedings because they believe it paints a damning portrait of Trump's lack of action during the attack. At least one of the sources who spoke to CNN took detailed notes of McCarthy's recounting of the call.
Trump and McCarthy did not respond to requests for comment.
It took Trump several hours after the attack began to eventually encourage his supporters to "go home in peace" -- a tweet that came at the urging of his top aides.
At Trump's impeachment trial Friday, his lawyers argued that Trump did in fact try to calm the rioters with a series of tweets while the attack unfolded. But his lawyers cherry-picked his tweets, focusing on his request for supporters to "remain peaceful" without mentioning that he also attacked then-Vice President Mike Pence and waited hours to explicitly urge rioters to leave the Capitol.
A source close to Pence said Trump's legal team was not telling the truth when attorney Michael van der Veen said at the trial that "at no point" did the then-President know his vice president was in danger.
Asked whether van der Veen was lying, the source said, "Yes." Former Pence aides are still fuming over Trump's actions on January 6, insisting he never checked on the vice president as Pence was being rushed from danger by his US Secret Service detail.
It's unclear to what extent these new details were known by the House Democratic impeachment managers or whether the team considered calling McCarthy as a witness. The managers have preserved the option to call witnesses in the ongoing impeachment trial, although that option remains unlikely as the trial winds down.
The House Republican leader had been forthcoming with his conference about details of his conversations with Trump on and after January 6.
Trump himself has not taken any responsibility in public.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CNN'S Jim Acosta and Gloria Borger contributed to this report.
Raskin Calls Defense Team's Bluff On Trump's Refusal To Testify
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:19
When Trump's defense counsel tried to blame Democrats for their own inability to explain Trump's behavior during the insurrection, Rep. Jamie Raskin shot back: Then why isn't your client testifying?
The comments arose from a question from Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy for both sides: ''Even after Sen. Tuberville says he told Trump at 2:15p that Mike Pence had been evacuated, Trump tweeted that Pence lacked courage. Does this show Trump was tolerant of the intimidation of Pence?''
Trump's lawyer, Michael Van Der Veen, responded first, saying, ''We are not going to know the answer to those facts in this proceeding because the House did nothing to investigate what went on.'' He later said he had ''a problem with the facts in the question because I have no idea and nobody from the House has given any opportunity to have any idea.''
Raskin ripped him several good ones, most notably by pointing out that Van Der Veen's own client could easily answer the question, but has refused to.
RASKIN: Counsel said before, ''This has been my worst experience in Washington,'' and for that I guess we're sorry, but man, you should have been here on January 6th.
So, the counsel for the president keep blaming the House for not having the evidence that's within the sole possession of their client who we invited to come and testify last week. We sent a letter on February 4th. I sent it directly to President Trump, inviting him to come and to explain and fill in the gaps of what we know about what happened there. And they sent back a contemptuous response just a few hours later. I think they maybe even responded more quickly to my letter than President Trump did as a commander in chief to the invasion and the storming of the Capitol of the United States.
But in that letter, I said, you know, if you decline this invitation, we reserve all rights, including the right to establish at trial that your refusal to testify supports a strong adverse inference. What's that? Well, Justice Scalia was the great champion of it. If you don't testify in a criminal case, it can't be used against you, everybody knows that. That's the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. But if it's a civil case and you plead the Fifth or you don't show up, then according to Justice Scalia and the rest of the Supreme Court, you can interpret every disputed fact against the defendant. That is totally available to us.
So, for example, if we say the president was missing in action for several hours and he was derelict in his duty and he deserted his duty as commander in chief and we say that as inciter in chief, he didn't call off the dogs and they say, no, he was really doing whatever he can - if you're puzzled about that, you can resolve that dispute, factual dispute, against the defendant who refuses to come to a civil proceeding. He will not spend one day in jail if you convict him. This is not a criminal proceeding. this is about preserving the republic, dear Senate, that's what this is about, setting standards of conduct for the president of the United States so this never happens to us again.
So, rather than yelling at us and screaming about how we didn't have time to get all of the facts about what your client did, bring your client up here and have him testify under oath about why he was sending out tweets denouncing the vice president of the United States while the vice president was being hunted down by a mob that wanted to hang him and was chanting, in this building, ''hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence, traitor, traitor, traitor.''
Let Us Out!
Save 12k on your taxes if you had Covid-19
Nearly all US kids live in red zones under new CDC school guidance - CNN
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 12:24
By Deidre McPhillips, CNN
Updated 8:19 PM EST, Fri February 12, 2021
(CNN) About 99% of children in the US live in a county considered a "red" zone with high levels of Covid-19 transmission under new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention school opening guidance, according to a CNN analysis of federal data.
The new CDC guidelines recommend virtual learning for middle and high schools and hybrid learning or reduced attendance for elementary schools in these high transmission zones.
Nearly 73 million children -- about 99% of the US population under the age of 18 -- live in such a "high transmission" community, defined by the CDC as a county where there were at least 100 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people or a test positivity rate of at least 10% during the past seven days.
The CDC guidance stresses five key mitigation strategies: requiring masks, physical distancing, handwashing, maintaining clean facilities and contract tracing. It also recommends different strategies based on how much transmission there is in the surrounding community, and has a color-coded guide with areas of high transmission colored red; substantial transmission colored orange; moderate transmission coded yellow and low transmission as blue.
The CDC says school districts should re-assess weekly.
If schools in "high transmission" communities cannot "strictly implement all mitigation strategies," the CDC says all extracurricular activities should be virtual. Plus middle and high schools should stick with virtual learning in these red zones, and elementary schools should maximize physical distance through hybrid learning or reduced attendance.
Fewer than 100,000 children in the US live in a county considered "low" or "moderate transmission" where the CDC recommends K-12 schools open for full in-person instruction. Most of those students live in Hawaii or Washington.
The CNN analysis used the latest federal data on new case rates and test positivity rates, published Thursday by the US Health and Human Services Department, to determine each county's risk threshold according to CDC guidelines. Population data is from the US Census Bureau's 5-Year American Community Survey 2019 estimates.
''WHO offered me 20million dollars to put a little toxic in my Covid-19 remedy'' '' Madagascar President exposes WHO '' Obrempong-Nana Kwaku Ampomah
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:24
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina has allegedly declared that the World Health Organization, WHO offered him $20,000,000 to put a little toxic in their remedy for coronavirus as the Europeans hacked their Remedy.
Andry Rajoelina says: ''People be vigilant, the World Health Organization that we have joined by thinking that it will help us, is there to kill Africans.''
''My country Madagascar has found a cure for coronavirus but the Europeans have told me a proposed $20,000,000 to put toxins in this remedy to kill my African friends who will use it. I ask all Africans not to use their coronavirus vaccine, because it's killing, come to Madagascar you who are sick, my country is ready to receive you with enthusiasm, our remedy is in yellow color, do not buy the one of the green color, the one of the green color comes from Europe, the Europeans hacked our remedy, they have put poisons to kill only the Africans as they wanted with the vaccines that we protest.'' He added
''Please share this message because it is urgent, they hacked our medicine, I want all the Africans to know it, please do not keep this message with you, share!'' He concluded
Published by obrempongnanakwakuampomah1
Obrempong-Nana Kwaku Ampomah is a native of Abompe in the Eastern Region and has lived in Anyinam and Asamang Tamfoe in Eastern Region and Kumasi, Ashanti Region, from 1996 to 2005, 2005 to 2015 and 2015 to date respectively. Since 2016, Obrempong-Nana has been a freelance journalist and responsible for Fishing for stories to feed a host of radio and TV stations like UTV, Kumasi fm, Ahotor fm, Adehye fm, Abusua fm, Kings Radio, Otec fm, Metro fm, Power fm, Good life fm, Eastern fm, Kingdom fm, Adoa TV, Ashh fm, solid fm, Today's radio, just for few, across the country. He's currently the host of the following programs, AsÉm Yi Di Ka, Time With The Priest and HwÉ Mmra No Mu on YOA Radio, an online Radio based in Accra-Ghana. He's also the CEO Obrempong-Nana Media. He's much interested in writing Articles and Script Editing. His bi-cultural background and focus on community collaboration has led him to a number of volunteer opportunities and community leadership roles.View all posts by obrempongnanakwakuampomah1
Published15/05/202011/06/2020
Cuomo elderly to make real money from commercial homes with guaranteed payments to the investors
Cuomo Aide Admits They Hid Real Number of COVID Nursing Home Deaths From Legislators Because Trump DOJ Was Investigating
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 05:12
Governor Cuomo's top aide admitted privately to Democrat lawmakers that the Cuomo administration withheld the number of COVID-19 nursing-home deaths in the state out of concern that the true numbers would ''be used against us'' by federal prosecutors, The New York Post reported Thursday night.
Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa made the stunning admission during a two-hour-plus video conference call on Wednesday with state Democratic leaders, in which she blamed former president Trump for the Cuomo administration's evasiveness.
New York Attorney General Letitia James alleged in a damning report from last month that Gov. Cuomo's administration drastically undercounted nursing home deaths in the state.
Health Commissioner Howard Zucker released figures showing that as of Wednesday, the total number of nursing home deaths in the state was 13,297. The Post reported that the number ''jumps to 15,049 when assisted living/adult care facilities are factored in.''
The DOH had previously publicly acknowledged only 8,711 deaths in N.Y. nursing homes, according to the Post.
DeRosa reportedly said the administration stonewalled a legislative request for the accurate death toll last August because ''right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,'' according to an audio recording of the meeting.
''He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,'' DeRosa said. ''He starts going after [New Jersey Gov. Phil] Murphy, starts going after [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom, starts going after [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer.''
Gov. Cuomo and other Democrat governors forced nursing homes to accept COVID patients back into their facilities despite the likelihood that those patients would still be contagious and would spread the virus to the other residents .
In an attempt to rationalize the Cuomo regime's duplicitous behavior, DeRosa told the lawmakers that they felt intimidated after Trump directed ''the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.''
''Basically, we froze,'' she explained. ''Because then we were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation.''
DeRosa added: ''That played a very large role into this.''
She then reportedly asked the fellow Democrats for ''a little bit of appreciation of the context'' and offered an apology of sorts on behalf of the Cuomo administration'--but not to the grieving family members of the more than 13,000 dead seniors who perished due to the administration's gross mishandling of the state's nursing homes amid the pandemic.
No, DeRosa offered a mea culpa to the Democrat lawmakers for the political inconvenience the administration caused by their deadly malfeasance.
''So we do apologize,'' she said. ''I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans.''
To their credit, not all of the Democrats on the line were impressed with DeRosea's dissembling.
Assembly Health Committee Chairman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) immediately rejected DeRosa's expression of remorse, according to the recording.
''I don't have enough time today to explain all the reasons why I don't give that any credit at all,'' said Gottfried, one of the lawmakers who demanded the death-toll data in August.
State Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Rachel May (D-Syracuse) '-- who was battered during her re-election bid last year over the issue of nursing-home deaths '-- also ripped into DeRosa, saying her former opponent had launched another broadside earlier in the day.
''And the issue for me, the biggest issue of all is feeling like I needed to defend '-- or at least not attack '-- an administration that was appearing to be covering something up,'' she said.
''And in a, in a pandemic, when you want the public to trust the public-health officials, and there is this clear feeling that they're not coming, being forthcoming with you, that is really hard and it remains difficult.''
Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), who took part in the call, told The Post on Thursday that DeRosa's remarks sounded ''like they admitted that they were trying to dodge having any incriminating evidence that might put the administration or the [Health Department] in further trouble with the Department of Justice.''
''That's how I understand their reasoning of why they were unable to share, in real time, the data,'' Kim said. ''They had to first make sure that the state was protected against federal investigation.''
Kim, whose uncle is presumed to have died of COVID-19 in a nursing home in April, also said he wasn't satisfied with DeRosa's apology.
''It's not enough how contrite they are with us,'' he said. ''They need to show that to the public and the families '-- and they haven't done that.''
Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a prepared statement, ''We explained that the Trump administration was in the midst of a politically motivated effort to blame democratic states for COVID deaths and that we were cooperating with Federal document productions and that was the priority and now that it is over we can address the state legislature.''
''That said, we were working simultaneously to complete the audit of information they were asking for,'' he added.
Now that the Biden Administration controls the Department of Justice, the matter has apparently been dropped.
''All signs point to they are not looking at this, they've dropped it,'' DeRosa told the lawmakers on the call.
''They never formally opened an investigation. They sent a letter asking a number of questions and then we satisfied those questions and it appears that they're gone,'' she said.
Infuriating.
Cuomo hid COVID death data and ran out the clock on the investigation by the Trump DOJ.
And it looks like the Biden DOJ rewarded him by dropping the civil rights investigation entirely.
Our latest:https://t.co/7dVJdY4wUm
'-- Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) February 12, 2021
Gov. Cuomo last fall went on a self-congratulatory book tour to promote his book American Crisis, which detailed his ''successful'' response to the pandemic.
Additionally, the International Emmy Awards in November presented Cuomo with the International Emmy® Founders Award, ''in recognition of his leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic and his masterful use of television to inform and calm people around the world.''
De Blasio calls for 'full accounting' after Cuomo accused of covering up nursing home death toll
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:31
NEW YORK '-- Mayor Bill de Blasio called for a "full accounting of what happened" following the revelation that Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration stalled the release of data on Covid-19-related deaths in nursing homes.
Key context: Top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa told Democratic state legislators in a meeting Wednesday that the administration ''froze'' when they were asked to share the data on the number of nursing home residents who died of Covid-19, the New York Post reported.
Critics have blamed the high death rates on orders from the Cuomo administration in March, directing nursing homes to admit patients who tested positive for Covid-19.
De Blasio, a frequent critic of both the governor and the New York Post, called it a ''really disturbing report'' and added that it's ''very troubling.''
''We've gotta know more,'' de Blasio said on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer show Friday morning. ''We now need a full accounting of what happened. Think about seniors ... their lives were in the balance and their families just desperate to get them the help they needed. We need to know exactly what happened here. We need to make sure nothing like this ever happens again."
Impact: DeRosa said the administration refrained from releasing the data due to former President Donald Trump's efforts to turn the tragedy ''into a giant political football,'' according to the Post.
In a statement issued early Friday morning, she said when the administration received the inquiry from the Department of Justice, they had to "temporarily set aside the Legislature's request to deal with the federal request first." She also said the governor's office "informed the houses of this at the time" and insisted Cuomo officials were "comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ."
What's next: Top Republicans have called for Cuomo to resign or be impeached. Democratic State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi and 13 other lawmakers said the governor's emergency powers made sense during the early stages of the pandemic but should be curbed in light of the report.
''It is clear that the expanded emergency powers granted to the Governor are no longer appropriate,'' the legislators wrote in a statement.
Democrats have grown increasingly critical of Cuomo, also a Democrat, after a recent report by state Attorney General Tish James saying his administration undercounted the number of deaths. In that report, James said the official tally of roughly 8,500 was off by as much as 50 percent.
Attorney General James Releases Report on Nursing Homes' Response to COVID-19 | New York State Attorney General
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:41
Investigations Reveal DOH Publicly Reported Data Undercounted COVID-19 Deaths and Many Nursing Homes Failed to Comply with Critical Infection Control Policies
AG Conducting Ongoing Investigations into More Than 20 Facilities
NEW YORK '' Attorney General Letitia James today released a report on her office's ongoing investigations into nursing homes' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March, Attorney General James has been investigating nursing homes throughout New York state based on allegations of patient neglect and other concerning conduct that may have jeopardized the health and safety of residents and employees.
Among those findings were that a larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than the New York State Department of Health's (DOH) published nursing home data reflected and may have been undercounted by as much as 50 percent. The investigations also revealed that nursing homes' lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates. Based on these findings and subsequent investigation, Attorney General James is conducting ongoing investigations into more than 20 nursing homes whose reported conduct during the first wave of the pandemic presented particular concern.
''As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,'' said Attorney General James. ''While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents. Nursing homes residents and workers deserve to live and work in safe environments, and I will continue to work hard to safeguard this basic right during this precarious time.''
Background
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is the only law enforcement agency in the state specifically mandated to investigate and prosecute abuse and neglect of residents in nursing homes. In early March, OAG received and began to investigate allegations and indications of COVID-19-related neglect of residents in nursing homes. At the direction of Governor Andrew Cuomo, on April 23, OAG set up a hotline to receive complaints relating to communications by nursing homes with family members prohibited from in-person visits to nursing homes and formally initiated a large-scale investigation of nursing homes' responses to the pandemic. OAG received more than 770 complaints on the hotline through August 3, and an additional 179 complaints through November 16. OAG also continued to receive allegations of COVID-19-related neglect of residents through pre-existing reporting systems.
Overview of Findings
The report includes preliminary findings based on data obtained in investigations conducted to date, recommendations that are based on those findings, related findings in pre-pandemic investigations of nursing homes, and other available data and analysis. Based on this information and subsequent investigation, OAG is currently conducting investigations into more than 20 nursing homes across the state. OAG found that:
A larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than DOH data reflected;Lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm; Nursing homes that entered the pandemic with low U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) Staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates;Insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) for nursing home staff put residents at increased risk of harm; Insufficient COVID-19 testing for residents and staff in the early stages of the pandemic put residents at increased risk of harm; The current state reimbursement model for nursing homes gives a financial incentive to owners of for-profit nursing homes to transfer funds to related parties (ultimately increasing their own profit) instead of investing in higher levels of staffing and PPE; Lack of nursing home compliance with the executive order requiring communication with family members caused avoidable pain and distress; andGovernment guidance requiring the admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities and may have obscured the data available to assess that risk.Undercounting of COVID-19 Deaths in Nursing Homes
Preliminary data obtained by OAG suggests that many nursing home residents died from COVID-19 in hospitals after being transferred from their nursing homes, which is not reflected in DOH's published total nursing home death data. Preliminary data also reflects apparent underreporting to DOH by some nursing homes of resident deaths occurring in nursing homes. In fact, the OAG found that nursing home resident deaths appear to be undercounted by DOH by approximately 50 percent.
OAG asked 62 nursing homes (10 percent of the total facilities in New York) for information about on-site and in-hospital deaths from COVID-19. Using the data from these 62 nursing homes, OAG compared: (1) in-facility deaths reported to OAG compared to in-facility deaths publicized by DOH, and (2) total deaths reported to OAG compared to total deaths publicized by DOH.
In one example, a facility reported five confirmed and six presumed COVID-19 deaths at the facility as of August 3 to DOH. However, the facility reported to OAG a total of 27 COVID-19 deaths at the facility and 13 hospital deaths '-- a discrepancy of 29 deaths.
Lack of Compliance with Infection Control Policies
OAG received numerous complaints that some nursing homes failed to implement proper infection controls to prevent or mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 to vulnerable residents. Among those reports were allegations that several nursing homes around the state failed to plan and take proper infection control measures, including:
Failing to properly isolate residents who tested positive for COVID-19; Failing to adequately screen or test employees for COVID-19; Demanding that sick employees continue to work and care for residents or face retaliation or termination; Failing to train employees in infection control protocols; and Failing to obtain, fit, and train caregivers with PPE.For instance, OAG received a complaint that at a for-profit nursing home located north of New York City, residents who tested positive for COVID-19 were intermingled with the general population for several months because the facility had not yet created a ''COVID-19 only'' unit. At another for-profit facility on Long Island, COVID-19 patients who were transferred to the facility after a hospital stay and were supposed to be placed in a separate COVID-19 unit in the nursing home were, in fact, scattered throughout the facility despite available beds in the COVID-19 unit. This situation was allegedly resolved only after someone at the facility learned of an impending DOH infection control visit scheduled for the next day, before which those residents were hurriedly transferred to the appropriate designated unit.
OAG received reports that nursing homes did not properly screen staff members before allowing them to enter the facility to work with residents. Among those reports, OAG received an allegation that a for-profit nursing home north of New York City failed to consistently conduct COVID-19 employee screening. It was reported that some staff avoided having their temperatures taken and answering a COVID-19 questionnaire at times when the screening station at the facility's front entrance had no employees present to take that information or when staff entered the facility through a back entrance, avoiding the screening station altogether.
At yet another facility in Western New York, a nurse reported to OAG that immediately prior to the facility's first DOH inspection in late April, a nurse supervisor had set up bins in front of the units with gowns and N95 masks to make it appear that the facility had an adequate supply of appropriate PPE for staff. The nurse alleged that the nurse supervisor came in to work unusually early the day of the first inspection and brought out all new PPE and collected all of the used gowns. Although the initial DOH survey conducted that day did not result in negative findings, DOH returned to the facility for follow-up inspections, issued the facility several citations, and ultimately placed the facility in ''Immediate Jeopardy.''
Nursing Home with Low Staffing Ratings Had Higher Fatality Rates
There are 619 nursing homes in New York, and 401 of these facilities are for-profit, privately owned, and operated entities. Of the state's 401 for-profit facilities, more than two-thirds '-- 280 nursing homes '-- have the lowest possible CMS Staffing ratings. The Staffing rating reflects the number of staffing hours in the nursing department of a facility relative to the number of residents. As of November 16, 3,487 COVID-19 resident deaths (over half of all deaths) occurred in these 280 facilities. Some of these facilities have also been known to transfer facility funds to owners and investors, rather than use them to invest in additional staffing to care for residents.
Pre-existing, insufficient staffing levels put residents and staff at increased risk of harm during the pandemic. As nursing home resident and staff COVID-19 infections rose during the initial wave of the pandemic, staffing absences increased at many nursing homes. As a result, already-low staffing levels decreased even further, to especially dangerous levels in some homes, even as the need for care increased due to the need to comply with COVID-19 infection control protocols and the loss of assistance from family visitors. OAG's preliminary investigations reflect many examples where for-profit nursing homes' pre-pandemic low staffing model simply snapped under the stress of the pandemic.
OAG received a complaint from a resident's son about a for-profit nursing home in New York City alleging that his mother was not receiving proper care because of critically low staffing levels at the facility. His mother was never tested for COVID-19, but later died while exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. Between late March and early April, the facility was so understaffed due to staff quarantining, working from home, and pre-existing low staffing, that the onsite management of the entire facility was left in the hands of just two nurse supervisors. During the week of April 5, 33 residents died at that facility, 15 percent of all its residents.
In addition, preliminary investigations indicate that when there were insufficient staff to care for residents, some nursing homes pressured, knowingly permitted, or incentivized existing employees who were ill or met quarantine criteria to report to work and even work multiple consecutive shifts, in violation of infection control protocols. These policies put both residents and staff at great risk.
Immunity Provisions
Despite these disturbing and potentially unlawful findings, due to recent changes in state law, it remains unclear to what extent facilities or individuals can be held accountable if found to have failed to appropriately protect the residents in their care.
On March 23, Governor Cuomo created limited immunity provisions for health care providers relating to COVID-19. The Emergency Disaster Treatment Protection Act (EDTPA) provides immunity to health care professionals from potential liability arising from certain decisions, actions and/or omissions related to the care of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. While it is reasonable to provide some protections for health care workers making impossible health care decisions in good faith during an unprecedented public health crisis, it would not be appropriate or just for nursing homes owners to interpret this action as providing blanket immunity for causing harm to residents.
In order to ensure no one can evade potential accountability, Attorney General James recommends eliminating these newly enacted immunity provisions.
Attorney General James encourages anyone with information or concerns about nursing home conditions to file confidential complaints online or by calling 833-249-8499.
This report is the collective product of investigative work undertaken since March 2020 by the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit's (MFCU) 275 attorneys, forensic auditors, police investigators, medical analysts, data scientists, electronic investigation team, legal assistants, and support staff in eight offices across New York. MFCU is led by Director Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. MFCU is a part of the Division for Criminal Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice Jos(C) Maldonado and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.
MFCU receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $60,071,905 for Federal fiscal year (FY) 2019-20, of which $45,053,932 is federally funded. The remaining 25 percent of the approved grant, totaling $15,017,973 for FY 2019-20, is funded by New York state. Through MFCU's recoveries by means of law enforcement actions and civil enforcement actions, it regularly returns more to the state than it receives in state funding.
Cuomo Aide In Nursing Home Cover-Up Is Related To Top Federal Prosecutor'... | Weasel Zippers
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:13
Do I smell a grant of immunity?
Via NY Post:
If the Department of Justice investigates the Cuomo Administration's refusal to turn over data on nursing home deaths, a huge conflict would arise if the case were handed to the powerful Manhattan federal prosecutor.
That's because Audrey Strauss, the US Attorney for the Southern District, is the mother-in-law of top Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa, the figure at the center of the emerging scandal.
The clamor demanding a probe into the cover-up of thousands of deaths have intensified after The Post reported DeRosa's stunning admission that the Cuomo administration withheld the information from state lawmakers over the summer because it was worried federal prosecutors would ''use it against us.''
Keep reading'...
NY Assembly demands Cuomo release full transcript nursing home call as gov remains silent | Fox News
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:57
Published February 13, 2021
"#releasethetape" Assemblyman Mike Lawler said.New York Assemblyman Mike Lawler is demanding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo release the full tape of his administration's conversation with Democratic lawmakers after a portion of the meeting revealed his top aide admitted to withholding data from Justice Department investigators probing nursing home deaths related to COVID-19.
"Since @NYGovCuomo's office was able to release a partial transcript, it means they have a full transcript & it also means they have the tape. #releasethetape," Lawler, a Republican, said in a post on Twitter.
EXCLUSIVE: NY STATE LAWMAKER WILL ASK LEGISLATURE TO IMPEACH CUOMO OVER NURSING HOME SCANDAL
On Friday, Cuomo's office released a partial transcript of the call, where Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor, said Cuomo's administration feared the data about COVID-19 deaths could "be used against us" by the Justice Department in the midst of its federal probe, placing blame, in part, on former President Donald Trump who repeatedly attacked Cuomo's pandemic response.
"We were in a position where we weren't sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us while we weren't sure if there was going to be an investigation," DeRosa told the lawmakers, according to the transcript of the call released Friday by Cuomo's office and reviewed by Fox News.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Cuomo has not responded to multiple calls and emails from Fox News.
CUOMO AIDE ATTEMPTS TO CLARIFY BOMBSHELL ADMISSION IN COVID-19 NURSING HOME DEATH PROBE
"There needs to be an immediate criminal investigation into the Cuomo administration's cover-up of nursing homes deaths," Lawler told Fox News in a statement. "Any and all recordings available of the meeting between Andrew Cuomo's senior staff and legislative Democrats should be turned over immediately, and Attorney General Tish James must exhibit her independence from the Cuomo administration and push for an independent prosecutor not under the purview of the Executive Branch."
James, a Democrat, previously released the findings of a state AG investigation at the end of January that revealed Cuomo's health department had underreported nursing home deaths by more than 50%.
JANICE DEAN: MEDIA ENCOURAGED CUOMO TO 'PROMOTE HIMSELF,' DIDN'T HOLD HIM ACCOUNTABLE FOR NURSING HOME DEATHS
Cuomo's Health Department said at that time the death toll from nursing homes was below 6,000 but on Wednesday clarified that it had topped 15,000.
Lawler urged state Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie -- both Democrats -- to introduce legislation to strip Cuomo "of his extraordinary emergency powers," a push that has garnered the support of at least 14 Democrats, as well.
"This is something that should have been done months ago," Lawler said.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
"It is no longer in question whether or not Cuomo and his administration covered up the true toll of his March 25th order to send COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes," he added. "Now the only question that remains is will Cuomo and his staff be held accountable for engaging in this criminal, conspiratorial act?"
''Very real risk'' of third lockdown in Ontario: Health officials | True North
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:48
The co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table Adalsteinn Brown said during a Thursday afternoon briefing that there was a ''very real risk'' of a third lockdown for the province in the coming months.
''Without the ability to respond quickly and effectively, without the ability to control spread in the community, we face the very real risk of a third wave and potentially a third lockdown,'' said Brown.
During the press conference Brown was joined by Ontario's chief medical officer of health Dr David Williams.
According to Ontario's projections, a third wave of the virus is possible due to the recent detection of COVID-19 variants in the province. Currently, Ontario has 236 cases of the U.K. variant, making it hold the largest share of the 393 cases detected nationwide.
''The impact of this third wave will be as inequitable as the first two waves with case and death rates highest in our racialized and low socio-economic status neighbourhoods. There will be little time to react quickly because of how fast the variants spread. We are''let me be clear''operating with uncertainty, that is the nature of a new disease with new variants. We need to do much as we can to reduce that uncertainty,'' said Brown.
Health officials stated that a stay-at-home order and an aggressive vaccination campaign is necessary to combat the incoming wave caused by the variants.
The new models come just as Premier Doug Ford announces an easing of the province-wide lockdown.
This week, the Ford government moved to gradually reopen Ontario's economy and announced an end to the state of emergency declared in January.
Stay-at-home orders were also lifted for a few parts of the province including the Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington region, Renfrew County and Hastings and Prince Edward Counties. Stay-at-home orders are also expected to be lifted in other parts of the province next week.
''Our number one priority will always be protecting the health and safety of all individuals, families and workers across the province,'' said Premier Ford in a news release.
''But we must also consider the severe impact COVID-19 is having on our businesses. That's why we have been listening to business owners, and we are strengthening and adjusting the Framework to allow more businesses to safely reopen and get people back to work.''
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How can a media outlet be trusted to remain neutral and fair if they're beneficiaries of a government handout? We don't think they can.
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Koopmans: ook aanwijzingen dat corona uit Itali komt, moet je onderzoeken | De Volkskrant
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:00
De WHO-missie verlaat zijn hotel aan het einde van het 'feitenonderzoek' naar de herkomst van sars-cov-2 in China. Beeld AFP 'Een knieval voor Beijing' (UnHerd), 'een pr-overwinning voor China' (New York Times), 'WHO-coronamissie vertrekt met lege handen' (Washington Post). Mevrouw Koopmans, de westerse commentaren zijn niet mals over de WHO-missie in China. 'Ja, dat wordt geroepen. Terwijl niemand ons eindrapport nog heeft gelezen.'
Van een afstandje gezien staat de WHO er niet fraai op. De voor China belastende theorie dat het virus is ontsnapt uit een Chinees laboratorium moet van tafel, oordeelt de missie. En de complottheorie die China propageert, dat het virus misschien afkomstig is uit een ander land, is een 'sleutelhypothese' die nader onderzoek behoeft, in woorden van missieleider Peter Ben Embarek. Heeft u niet het idee dat uw conclusies politiek zijn gestuurd? Ze denkt na. 'Nee. Kijk, ik zeg niet dat de gesprekken die we hebben gevoerd makkelijk waren. We hebben scherpe discussies gehad. Maar ik denk dat we het behoorlijk goed hebben weten terug te brengen tot de wetenschappelijke argumentatie. We hebben er serieus werk van gemaakt om het bewijs dat er is op een rij te zetten, en de gaten in onze kennis die we nog hebben aan te wijzen.'
Wat ziet u als het belangrijkste nieuwe inzicht dat de missie heeft opgeleverd? 'Toch die beginperiode. Het moment waarvan we dachten: het is bij die markt begonnen, dat blijkt een stuk complexer te liggen. Ik ben inmiddels wel overtuigd dat er v""r december niet echt veel circulatie van het virus was, in elk geval niet in Wuhan. Op het moment dat we de eerste gevallen kunnen herleiden (half december 2019, red.) was er al circulatie in de stad.'
Valt de dierenmarkt van Wuhan daarmee af als de plek waar het virus op de mens is overgesprongen? 'Nee, het kan nog steeds bij die markt zijn begonnen, maar misschien eerder. Er is op die markt in elk geval amplificatie geweest, doorgifte van het virus van mens op mens. En er waren risicoproducten. Zoals dieren, afkomstig uit gebieden waar in de vleermuizenpopulatie virussen voorkomen die dichtbij sars-cov-2 staan. Bij de dieren van de markt die zijn getest, is niets gevonden. Maar je kunt natuurlijk ook iets gemist hebben.'
Opmerkelijk is dat de WHO-missie geen nader onderzoek meer zegt te willen doen naar de hypothese dat het virus is ontsnapt uit een laboratorium. Op basis van welke wetenschappelijke gegevens is dat? 'We hebben vrij uitgebreid gekeken bij de verschillende laboratoria die daar zijn. Vooral het Wuhan Institute of Virology heeft echt enorme aantallen vleermuismonsters getest en proberen te kweken. Toch hebben ze maar drie virus-isolaten (gekweekte cellen met actief virus erin, red.). Dat geeft wel aan dat het ongelooflijk lastig is om die vleermuisvirussen op te kweken in menselijke cellen. En wt er is opgekweekt, is niet nauw verwant aan sars-cov-2.
'Verder hebben we gesproken over zaken als: hoe houden jullie alles bij, hebben jullie bloedmonsters van medewerkers, dat soort dingen. Daarop hebben we deze conclusie gebaseerd.'
Heeft u de indruk dat de Chinezen volledige openheid van zaken hebben gegeven? 'Tja, wat is volledig? We hebben veel gezien. Veel data, veel studies, veel analyses. En natuurlijk zie je niet wat niet gedeeld wordt.'
Intussen heeft uw missie toegezegd de theorie dat het virus niet uit Wuhan komt maar met bevroren voedsel van buiten is gekomen, serieus te zullen onderzoeken, 'zonder vooringenomenheid'. Op basis van welke wetenschap? 'Dat is natuurlijk een heikel onderwerp. Of eigenlijk: twee onderwerpen. Aan de ene kant heb je de aanwijzingen dat er heel af en toe iets wordt gevonden op voedselverpakkingen. Daarover hebben we stevig gesproken: hoe hard is nou je bewijs dat het ge¯mporteerd is? Waarschijnlijker is natuurlijk dat het komt door mensen die met die spullen bezig zijn en die zelf covid hebben. Besmette verpakkingen zijn gewoon niet echt plausibel als ontstaanshypothese.
'De andere kant is: bevroren vlees van wilde dieren. Daarnaar zijn inmiddels wat onderzoeken gedaan, en uit de nog ongepubliceerde resultaten daarvan komt naar voren dat de overleving van het virus op vis of vlees best lang kan zijn. Vervolgens is de vraag: is het erg waarschijnlijk dat het zo is begonnen? Ik denk van niet. Ik zou verwachten dat de kans op een zo¶nose vanuit levende dieren groter is, en dat invriezen de kans op besmetting aanzienlijk verlaagt.
'Maar dat neemt niet weg dat de aanvoerketen naar die markten er wel een is om serieus te bekijken. Van andere markten kennen we bijvoorbeeld ook observaties van bevroren schubdiervlees, een dier waarbij enigszins verwante coronavirussen zijn gevonden. Daar zou je weleens naar willen kijken.'
In een interview met Chinese media zei Zeng Guang van het Chinese RIVM dat er al eerder verdachte gevallen waren van longontsteking in de VS, voordat covid-19 uitbrak in Wuhan. Een lezing die gretig aftrek vindt in China. Hebben de Chinezen u dat soort verhalen ook verteld? Hoe weegt u dat? 'Uit Amerika ken ik dit soort verhalen niet. Er is wel wat literatuur die suggereert dat het virus begin december en zelfs in november al rondging in Itali. Tja, daarvan zou ik zeggen: uitzoeken! Misschien is het wel verklaarbaar. Misschien is het prutonderzoek. Geen idee, maar laten we er achteraan gaan. Wat is dit? Wat speelt hier? Dat zoiets vervolgens politiek wordt gebruikt, daar kan ik ook niks aan doen. Maar om nu te zeggen: ik ga er niet naar kijken, want de politiek roept zus en zo '' dan ben je ook een beetje raar bezig.'
Ze komt terug op de eerste vraag, naar de knieval die de WHO zou hebben gemaakt: 'Weet je? Wat jij zegt, zie ik natuurlijk overal. Iedereen heeft zijn oordeel klaar, dat is natuurlijk de politieke context. Wat wij hebben geprobeerd, is om de onderwerpen systematisch op een rij te zetten en het op de inhoud te houden. En dat is denk ik aardig gelukt.'
Lees ook Virus komt misschien niet van de markt in Wuhan, maar waarvandaan wel?De WHO-missie in China is beindigd. Harde conclusies zijn er nog niet, ideen voor vervolgonderzoek wel. En daaruit blijkt eens te meer dat de missie onder druk van China staat.
Virus ontsnapt aan vaccin in Zuid-Afrika: 'Dit kon wel eens een groot probleem worden' Net terwijl Nederland op het punt staat om het massaal te gaan inzetten, staakt Zuid-Afrika de inentingen met het coronavaccin van AstraZeneca en de Universiteit van Oxford. Reden: het vaccin blijkt niet goed te werken tegen de Zuid-Afrikaanse variant van het virus. Moeten we ons zorgen maken?
Alles over het coronavirus bij elkaar Een handig overzicht van de belangrijkste zaken rondom het coronavirus vindt u in dit dossier.
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Latest CDC Data Show 653 Deaths & 12,044 Injuries Following COVID Vaccine
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:22
Latest CDC Data Show 653 Deaths & 12,044 Injuries Following COVID Vaccine Sat 2:05 pm +00:00, 13 Feb 2021 posted by Weaver
653 Deaths + 12,044 Other Injuries Reported Following COVID Vaccine, Latest CDC Data Show The numbers reflect the latest data available as of Feb. 4 from the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System website. Of the 653 reported deaths, 602 were from the U.S. The average age of those who died was 77, the youngest was 23.
By: Children's Health Defense Team
As of Jan. Feb. 4, 653 deaths '-- a subset of 12,697 total adverse events '-- had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID-19 vaccinations. The numbers reflect reports filed between Dec. 14, 2020 and Feb. 4, 2021.
VAERS is the primary mechanism for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before confirmation can be made that the reported adverse event was caused by the vaccine.
As of Feb. 10, about 44.77 million people in the U.S. had received one or both doses of a COVID vaccine. So far, only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been granted Emergency Use Authorization in the U.S. by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). By the FDA's own definition, the vaccines are still considered experimental until fully licensed.
According to the latest data, 602 of the 653 reported deaths were in the U.S, and 137 of the deaths were related to cardiac disorder. Fifty-three percent of those who died were male, 44% were female, the remaining death reports did not include the gender of the deceased. The average age of those who died was 77, the youngest reported death was of a 23-year-old. The Pfizer vaccine was taken by 58% of those who died, while the Moderna vaccine was taken by 41%.
As or Feb. 4, there had been 163 cases of Bell's Palsy reported and 775 reports of anaphylaxis.
As The Defender reported today, the CDC is investigating the Feb. 8 death of a 36-year-old doctor in Tennessee who died about a month after receiving the second dose of a COVID vaccination. According to news reports, Dr. Barton Williams died from the adult form of multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-A), a condition caused when the immune system attacks the body resulting in multi-system organ failure. New reports attributed the death to a reaction to an asymptomatic case of COVID, although Williams never tested positive for the virus.
On Feb. 8, Fox5 reported the death of a man in his 70s who collapsed and died Feb. 7 as he was leaving the Javits Center in Manhattan about 25 minutes after receiving a COVID vaccination.
On Feb. 7, a local Villa Hills, Kentucky news site reported on the deaths of two nuns following a ''COVID-19 outbreak'' that occurred two days after the nuns were vaccinated. Prior to beginning the vaccination program, there had been no cases of COVID at the monastery, which has been shut down to visitors during the pandemic. After vaccinations began, 28 of the women had tested positive for COVID as of Feb. 7.
The clinical trials suggested that almost all the benefits of COVID vaccination and the vast majority of injuries were associated with the second dose.
The Defender also reported this week that according to the New York Times, several doctors now link the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines to immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), a condition that develops when the immune system attacks platelets (blood component essential for clotting) or the cells that create them. The Times article featured two women who are recovering from ITP after being vaccinated. Last month, Dr. Gregory Michaels died from ITP two weeks after he got the Pfizer vaccine.
While the VAERS database numbers may seem sobering, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study, the actual number of adverse events is likely significantly higher. VAERS is a passive surveillance system that relies on the willingness of individuals to submit reports voluntarily.
According to the VAERS website, healthcare providers are required by law to report to VAERS:
Any adverse event listed in the VAERS Table of Reportable Events Following Vaccination that occurs within the specified time period after vaccination.
An adverse event listed by the vaccine manufacturer as a contraindication to further doses of the vaccine.
The CDC says healthcare providers are strongly encouraged to report:
Any adverse event that occurs after the administration of a vaccine licensed in the United States, whether or not it is clear that a vaccine caused the adverse event.
Vaccine administration errors.
However, ''within the specified time'' means that reactions occurring outside that timeframe may not be reported, in addition to reactions suffered hours or days later by people who don't report those reactions to their healthcare provider.
Vaccine manufacturers are required to report to VAERS ''all adverse events that come to their attention.''
Historically, fewer than fewer than 1% of adverse events have ever been reported to VAERS, a system that Children's Health Defense has previously referred to as an ''abject failure,'' including in a December 2020 letter to Dr. David Kessler, former FDA director and now co-chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board and President Biden's version of Operation Warp Speed.
A critic familiar with VAERS' shortcomings bluntly condemned VAERS in The BMJ as ''nothing more than window dressing, and a part of U.S. authorities' systematic effort to reassure/deceive us about vaccine safety.''
CHD is calling for complete transparency. The children's health organization is asking Kessler and the federal government to release all of the data from the clinical trials and suspend COVID-19 vaccine use in any group not adequately represented in the clinical trials, including the elderly, frail and anyone with comorbidities.
CHD is also asking for full transparency in post-marketing data that reports all health outcomes, including new diagnoses of autoimmune disorders, adverse events and deaths from COVID vaccines.
Children's Health Defense asks anyone who has experienced an adverse reaction, to any vaccine, to file a report following these three steps.
https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/latest-cdc-data-show-653-deaths-12044-injuries-following-covid-vaccine/
Auckland, New Zealand, in lockdown for 3 days - Axios
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:06
New Zealand is reimposing restrictions on the city of Auckland after three members of the same family tested positive for COVID-19, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Sunday.
Driving the news: New Zealand's most populous city will lock down for three days from 11:59pm Sunday. The rest of NZ won't lock down, but social distancing and other precautions will be reintroduced.
"Three days should give us enough time to gather further information, undertake large scale testing and establish if there has been wider community transmission." '-- Ardern's remarks at news conferenceScientists have yet to determine the origins of the community cases. But the mother works at the city's airport, where newly returned New Zealand travelers pass through on their way to managed hotel quarantine.For the record: Auckland is entering level 3 restrictions under NZ's four-tier alert level system, with people urged to stay in their household "bubbles." Gatherings of up to 10 are permitted in exceptional circumstances, such as funerals.
Public venues must close and only essential services like pharmacies and grocery stores can open for in-person contact, with distancing measures in place.The big picture: This will be Auckland's third lockdown. Level 3 restrictions were imposed in August, before being moved down to level 2 by the month's end. All domestic restrictions were removed in October.
There's been one nationwide lockdown, under level 4, for six weeks from late March 2020.The New Zealand government opted not to impose any restrictions despite having cases in the community last month and last November.Ardern said the government was acting in precaution over the latest cases while genomic sequencing gets under way, given some of the more virulent coronavirus strains have been detected in returned NZ travelers in hotel quarantine. By the numbers: There are currently 47 active COVID-19 cases, with 44 in managed hotel isolation.
A total of 1,974 cases have been confirmed since the pandemic reached New Zealand last March.Of note: New Zealand is due to begin coronavirus inoculations next week, with border staff the first to receive doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine this Saturday.
The border has been shut to non-citizens since last March.Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
CNN - Flu season gets early, harsh start - Dec. 16, 1996 WUHAN FLU
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:46
December 16, 1996Web posted at: 11:35 p.m. EST
From Correspondent Brian Jenkins
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Drug stores seem nearly as crowded as department stores in Manhattan this week as people stock up on cold and flu remedies.
Clothing manufacturer Richard Keeperman was standing in line with the best of them, thanks to a recent bout with the flu. He said he thought he was invincible until the flu put him flat on his back four days ago. "I thought I was going to die. I thought it was all over. I didn't think I was going to make it," he said.
The flu season has gotten off to an early start this year with an especially potent strain called A-Wuhan, named after the city in China where it is believed to have originated.
The week before last, three states -- Colorado, Connecticut and Pennsylvania -- reported severe outbreaks of the virus to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fourteen other states, including New York, reported serious outbreaks. In Whitehall, New York, the high school closed for 36 hours because so many students were out with the flu, and many who did come to class seemed sluggish.
The CDC says 10 to 20 percent of the U.S. population comes down with the flu every year, and it is a contributing factor in 20,000 deaths. Senior citizens are especially at risk.
"The elderly actually have a lower rate of infection than younger populations, but when they do get the flu, they are much more likely to have a serious complication," said the center's Nancy Arden.
Because the flu's consequences can be so dangerous, health officials strongly urge flu shots for the elderly and for younger adults who may have underlying medical problems.
New York internist Dr. Steven Lamm goes even further.
"My basic recommendation is that anybody who uses a fork and has a pulse should get this vaccine... Why would you want to get influenza? It's a very nasty disease, you'll be wiped out for a few weeks, and you can transmit it to somebody who is at high risk," he said.
The vaccine takes a few weeks to produce enough antibodies to fight off the flu bug, so it's best to get a shot in October or November. But, with flu season stretching until spring, doctors say it isn't too late to try an ounce of prevention instead of loading up later on expensive cures.
Related stories:Experts advise flu shots, even for many healthy people - October 4, 1996Volunteers snort experimental flu vaccine - February 7, 1996 Related sites: Note: Pages will open in a new browser window Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)Colds and FluInfomation on FluMedicare Pays for Flu ShotsExternal sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
(C) 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.All Rights Reserved.
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Fury at 'do not resuscitate' notices given to Covid patients with learning disabilities | Coronavirus | The Guardian
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:48
People with learning disabilities have been given do not resuscitate orders during the second wave of the pandemic, in spite of widespread condemnation of the practice last year and an urgent investigation by the care watchdog.
Mencap said it had received reports in January from people with learning disabilities that they had been told they would not be resuscitated if they were taken ill with Covid-19.
The Care Quality Commission said in December that inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices had caused potentially avoidable deaths last year.
DNACPRs are usually made for people who are too frail to benefit from CPR, but Mencap said some seem to have been issued for people simply because they had a learning disability. The CQC is due to publish a report on the practice within weeks.
The disclosure comes as campaigners put growing pressure on ministers to reconsider a decision not to give people with learning disabilities priority for vaccinations. There is growing evidence that even those with a mild disability are more likely to die if they contract the coronavirus.
Although some people with learning disabilities such as Down's syndrome were in one of four groups set by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which the government promised would be offered the vaccine by tomorrow, many were classified lower categories of need and are still waiting.
NHS figures released last week show that in the five weeks since the third lockdown began, Covid-19 accounted for 65% of deaths of people with learning disabilities. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the rate for the general population was 39%, although the two statistics are drawn from different measurements.
Younger people with learning disabilities aged 18 to 34 are 30 times more likely to die of Covid than others the same age, according to Public Health England.
Edel Harris, Mencap's chief executive, said: ''Throughout the pandemic many people with a learning disability have faced shocking discrimination and obstacles to accessing healthcare, with inappropriate Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) notices put on their files and cuts made to their social care support.
''It's unacceptable that within a group of people hit so hard by the pandemic, and who even before Covid died on average over 20 years younger than the general population, many are left feeling scared and wondering why they have been left out.
''The JCVI and government must act now to help save the lives of some of society's most vulnerable people by urgently prioritising all people with a learning disability for the vaccine.''
More than 14m people have received a first vaccine dose so far, and care providers who spoke to the Observer said many people with learning disabilities had been vaccinated in the last week. But some are still waiting. One woman from the West Midlands who has a rare form of Down's syndrome told the Observer she had not yet been given a date.
''It's really frustrating '' it's been a fight and it shouldn't have been a fight,'' she said. Her condition means she is in category four '' people who are clinically extremely vulnerable '' but her GP did not have details of her condition on record '' a common problem, according to Mencap.
''I had to call them lots of times,'' she said. The practice accepted last week that she needed to be vaccinated, she said, but she was still waiting. ''For people in a similar situation to me, they won't have been badgering them as much as me.''
A lack of badgering is part of the reason why people with learning disabilities may be more likely to die from Covid-19 than the rest of the population, according to Dr Keri-Mich¨le Lodge, a consultant in learning disability psychiatry in Leeds.
''Doctors often don't understand that someone with learning disabilities may not be able to communicate their symptoms,'' she said. ''Carers are sometimes not listened to '' you might notice something is wrong, but that is often written off as part of their behaviour.
''People with learning disabilities already get a raw deal from the health services. Fewer than two in five people with a learning disability live until they are 65.''
An analysis by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that six in 10 Covid deaths were of people with a disability.
''The biggest factor associated with the increased rate of death from their analysis was living in care homes or residential settings,'' Lodge said. ''They prioritised people in care homes for vaccinations, but that was only for older adults. They completely forgot about people with learning disabilities in a really similar setting. I don't know if the government were blindsided or just neglectful.''
Professor Martin Green OBE, Care England's chief executive, said: ''As the largest representative body for independent providers for adult social care, Care England remains concerned that the government has not given individuals with a learning disability a higher level of priority for the Covid vaccine.
''We urge the government to remove the arbitrary distinction between prioritising those with a severe or profound learning disability and those with a mild or moderate learning disability, and prioritise all those with a learning disability in priority group four. People with learning disabilities must not be overlooked at any time.''
' This article's headline was amended on 13 February 2021 to remove an incorrect reference to ''learning difficulties''.
Retirement home removed door handles 'trapping' COVID-19 positive residents in rooms: whistleblower - CityNews Toronto
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:17
by Erick Espinosa and Michael Talbot
Posted Feb 12, 2021 1:20 pm EST
Last Updated Feb 13, 2021 at 3:42 pm EST
Durham Regional Police are now investigating after a whistleblower at a Courtice retirement home says management removed the door handles on rooms of COVID-19 positive residents, ''trapping'' them in their suites for days in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly virus.
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, tells CityNews that a manager at the White Cliffe Terrace Retirement Residence ordered maintenance staff to remove door handles on some fourth-floor assisted living suites last week.
The employee claims it was done to prevent COVID-19 positive residents from freely moving around the facility.
''It's disgusting,'' the staffer told CityNews. ''There is no excuse to remove (the handles), in essence trapping someone in a room for any reason.''
The whistleblower alleges the handles were off the doors for several days until a head office employee discovered it and complained.
The manager who ordered them removed was placed on leave on Monday, the whistleblower added.
''It was the COVID patients (that were affected),'' the employee alleged. ''It's a safety issue. It's just wrong on so many levels.''
The employee says affected residents still had access to food and were checked on by staff who tried to work around the lack of door handles
''Some of the staff were actually locked in (the rooms). They would go in and the door would be shut behind them and they would be locked in and they would have to call somebody to let them (out).''
White Cliffe Terrace is one of 18 Verve Senior Living retirement homes across Ontario. Verve also has properties in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.
On its website, Verve says monthly prices at White Cliffe begin at $3,487 a month for a 215 square foot studio, climbing to $6,052 a month for a 575 square foot two-bedroom apartment.
Diversicare Canada, the company that manages White Cliffe, confirmed that it is aware of the incident and has launched an internal review.
In a statement to CityNews, David Bird, President and Chief Executive Officer of Diversicare Canada, said removal of the handles was ''a violation of our protocols and practices.''
''As soon as we became aware of the incident, all resident's door handles were immediately reinstalled. The general manager was immediately placed on leave as soon as we learned of the incident.''
''We are thankful no residents were harmed due to these actions and I am thankful that this serious incident was brought to our attention.''
''There is absolutely no excuse to remove door handles '' ever. We never lock in or prevent the free movement of our residents.''
''We are continuing our investigation and will take appropriate actions once that investigation is complete.'' Bird added.
Bird also confirms that the family members of the residents involved have since been notified.
''Residents and family members trust us to provide a very high standard of service to our residents and we let them down. We will do everything we can to earn back their trust.''
White Cliffe February 2021 Statement by CityNewsToronto on Scribd
Durham police tell CityNews that after receiving more information, an investigation into the incident at White Cliffe Terrace began Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the whistleblower says management is trying to keep the story under wraps.
''We were all told we are not to speak about it. They are trying to hide it.''
Vaccines and such
Bill Gates Subscription
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He created a team to reverse engineer IBM's PC Dos without patent
infringement and then gave MS DOS away to OEM's.
Later, he crushed IBM again with Windows as he gave it away to destroy
the IBM version of windows.
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Producer Steve
Norway elderly deaths BOTG
Just thought I'd give you some info from inside Norway (I'm a Norwegian, living in Norway) about the deaths you mention in the newsletter and previously on the show. Since I mostly ignore m5m and only listen to you, I hadn't heard about this until you brought it up. So I googled a bit and found a lot of news stories. The top hit was from our biggest newspaper VG = Verdens gang = loosely translated to "how the world turns". Anyway, the way it's explained here is that the case is not concerning - or rather, not surprising.
In a report about registered side effects, published by legemiddelverket (a governmental organ we have here to supervise, report on, and advise about pharmaceuticals and such) it was stated that they were looking into 13 reports out of a total of 23 reports they had received, where old people in old folks homes had died soon after receiving the vaccine. Side note: The number of reports of this type they have looked into, or are looking into, is now up to 56. I haven't looked into the findings yet, but the chief of legemiddelverket says that this is to be expected, for several reasons, but one main one:
We have a lot of sick people with underlying conditions in Norwegian old folks homes. We put people in old folks homes that most countries would put in the hospital. On a regular day, 45 people die in our old folks homes. So when some of these deaths coincide with the vaccination, that is no surprise. Add to that that getting a vaccine is not necessarily a walk in the park for regular folks, it's not exactly unexpected that some very sick people will be pushed over the edge - killed by the vaccine basically, but would also have been killed by fly poo in their tapioca pudding.
I'm like you, sceptic to new vaccines. I don't doubt that the old ones worked, and mostly I don't doubt that the new ones work either, but I'm scared shitless of long term effects from poorly tested mRNA vaccines. I thought Adjuvants were bad enough and a good reason to stay clear, but I don't want to be a guinea pig for this mRNA shit. And if they try to vaccinate my kids, which won't get sick from corona anyway, I don't know what I'll do. My wife does not share my scepticism, so I'll be fucked. Anyway, I'm saying this so you know where I'm coming from when I say the following:
I don't think you should put much weight on this 13/23 deaths in Norway. It will most likely only muddy the waters and work against you. Now, as a regular listener, I'm not unaware that the chief in question might be handing out a piece of nifty propaganda, to sweep the whole thing under the rug, BUT: The explanation handed out above makes sense. My mother worked in an old folks home all her life and I know for a fact that they put people sick as all hell there just to await death. They don't even have to be old, just incurable (or not worth spending money on curing). But mainly it's old, sicks folks. You could say that they should never have given them this vaccine, and I'd agree. But to say the vaccine is dangerous BECAUSE 13/23 old and very sick people died after they took it, I would not agree with. I'm not saying it's safe, by any means, I don't want that shit, but I wouldn't use this report as a reason why.
Keep up the excellent work :)
Your pal, Hal
from Gitmo Nation Reindeer Balls.
Lisa 2 doses and boom
Success of vaccine programme could see UK 'back to normal' within a year, says top scientist | The Independent
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:02
The success of the coronavirus vaccination programme has put the UK on track to reopen schools next month, further relax social restrictions in April and be ''back to normal'' by this time next year, a leading epidemiologist has said.
Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London said he was ''hopeful'' that England's third national lockdown will be the last and that as early as May the country will return to tier one or two-style restrictions, with shops, pubs and restaurants open and people able to gather in groups of up to six.
In an interview for Politico's Westminster Insider podcast, Prof Ferguson said the UK was ''in a better place than I might have anticipated a month ago'' with lockdown driving down Covid-19 cases fast and vaccines likely to reduce hospitalisations and deaths to ''far, far lower'' levels by the summer.
''The lockdown has really driven down cases quite fast,'' he said. ''They're basically halving about every 17 days at the moment, and that means in a month's time '' the prime minister's talked about potentially reopening schools, we might have some bandwidth to do that, at least primary schools.
''And if we continue to see then a continued decline without large outbreaks, then perhaps starting to relax other aspects of society the following month.
''I think it will be a bumpy road '... but I think we will start to see things become easier, just because the vaccine is going to start having an impact as well as relying on social distancing.''
Prof Ferguson, whose modelling first alerted the UK a year ago to the possibility that as many as 500,000 people could die from Covid-19 without curbs on social and economic life, stressed that there was still a lot of uncertainty about the progress of the disease.
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It was not possible to rule out the development of variants which would resist existing vaccines, and likely that people will require jabs to boost their protection every year or two in the future, he said.
But he said that on scientists' current best estimates, it was ''realistic'' by May that England will be back in tier two-style conditions, with the ''rule of six'' for social gatherings and pubs and restaurants serving meals, and less stringent controls in areas with very low incidence.
''Completely relaxing and moving back to something akin to where we were in August '' we had some restrictions but much lighter '' that will really depend on how we see the earlier relaxations play out,'' he said.
''My best guess '' my fervent hope '' is certainly by this time next year, we will be basically back to normal, without any significant degree of the current controls in place.''
Prof Ferguson said that England's emergence from lockdown should be taken in stages, with breaks of around three weeks between relaxations in order to see how they play out in terms of increased infections and illness.
He said: ''I'm hopeful it will be the final lockdown, so long as we are relatively cautious in coming out of this lockdown.''
As much as one-third of the UK population may already have gained some level of immunity by contracting and recovering from Covid-19, said Prof Ferguson. And this pool of protection is being quickly expanded by vaccination to take the population towards herd immunity status.
''We should be seeing a significant level of protection coming through and driving down deaths and hospitalisations in the coming weeks,'' he said.
As over-50s are vaccinated by May and the entire adult population by the summer, ''that's the scenario where we can really start talking about going back to normal, because the combination of people being protected from severe disease and the reduction of transmission generated by the vaccine should keep the clinical burden '' the number of deaths and hospitalisations from Covid '' far, far lower than we're still seeing today''.
Prof Ferguson said that the emergence of the more virulent strain of Covid first detected in Kent had been ''devastating'' to the UK's death rate from the disease.
With the virus constantly mutating, the likelihood of a dangerous variant arising in the UK was ''at least as great, if not greater than'' the risk of importing it from countries like Brazil or South Africa, meaning that the tougher border controls being introduced on Monday are ''not a panacea''.
But he added: ''I think it's very unlikely we'll get a strain emerging which can't be vaccinated against.
''Will we get a strain which sends us back to square one? I can't be sure of that... It can't be completely ruled out.''
Some border restrictions, such as requirements for vaccination certificates, were likely to remain in place for years to come, as it was ''highly unlikely'' that Covid will ever be entirely eradicated from the human population, he said.
Fauci: Vaccines for Kids as Young as First Graders Could Be Authorized by September '-- ProPublica
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:34
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Children as young as first graders may be able to get the coronavirus vaccine by the time school starts in September, presuming trials are successful in those age groups, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with ProPublica.
''We're in the process of starting clinical trials in what we call age de-escalation, where you do a clinical trial with people 16 to 12, then 12 to 9, then 9 to 6,'' Fauci said. When asked what was the youngest age group that might be authorized for the vaccine by September, he said, ''I would think by the time we get to school opening, we likely will be able to get people who come into the first grade.''
As optimistic as Fauci is, several pediatricians and infectious disease experts said they wish the pediatric trials would move more quickly. In addition to restoring stability to the education system and parents' work schedules and keeping kids and those around them safe, vaccinating children is essential to helping the country, as a whole, reach herd immunity and decrease the threat of new variants.
Otherwise, ''we're going to have tens of millions of individuals in our communities that are able to maintain the virus. And when that happens, what that allows is for these unusual variants to emerge that may have the ability to evade our immunity,'' said Dr. Buddy Creech, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program.
Despite the need, Pfizer is the only manufacturer whose pediatric vaccine trials are far enough along to potentially have data on elementary-school age children by the end of the summer.
Pfizer has finished enrolling participants in its study of 12- to 15-year-olds and anticipates having data in ''the early part of 2021,'' according to a spokeswoman. ''From there, we will plan to finalize our study in 5-11 year olds,'' she added. As Pfizer completes its trials in adolescents, then 5- to 11-year-olds, it'll need to submit the data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for review and get authorization for the vaccine's use in those age groups before it's available; currently in the U.S., the vaccine is indicated only for those ages 16 and up.
Moderna is still enrolling participants in its trial for adolescents ages 12 to 18, and it is ''on track to provide updated data around mid-year 2021,'' the company said in an emailed statement. St(C)phane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, has said that the company's goal is to have data from the adolescent study in advance of the 2021 school year. Moderna said it'll begin an age de-escalation study in children ages 11 years to 6 months this year, but Bancel has said that the company doesn't expect clinical data until 2022.
Johnson and Johnson hasn't started any pediatric studies yet. ''We are in discussions with regulators and partners regarding the inclusion of pediatric populations in our development plan,'' a spokesman said. Novavax, similarly, hasn't begun any trials in children, and a company spokeswoman said it couldn't share any details at this time. The University of Oxford, which partnered with AstraZeneca in developing a vaccine, will begin tests in 12- to 18-year-olds next month, according to Bloomberg News.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has been ''really advocating to try and make these trials happen with the same urgency that they happen for adults,'' said Dr. Sean O'Leary, who is vice chair of its committee on infectious diseases.
The manufacturers will need to prove vaccines are safe and effective in younger bodies. The adult trials paved much of the way, but researchers still need to study how kids' immune systems react and to confirm the optimal dosage. And even if the shots are authorized by September, there will need to be enough supply on hand in order to get school children immunized before school doors open.
It's essential to act expeditiously, O'Leary said. ''I would love to see a vaccine available for all children in time for the next school year.''
Why It's Important to Vaccinate Kids Against COVID-19Early on in the pandemic, some thought that children might be entirely immune. That's clearly been disproven. Out of more than 20 million U.S. cases where age information is available, about 2.2 million, or 11%, have been in children under 18. Some get very ill, though this is rare. As of Feb. 8, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tracked more than 2,000 cases of what's known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a serious condition associated with COVID-19 that can result in cardiac dysfunction and kidney injury; 37% of the cases recorded were in Latino children and 32% in Black children.
It's also become evident that children are capable of transmitting the virus to some extent. On one hand, kids aren't superspreaders: COVID-19 is clearly dissimilar to influenza or the common cold virus, Vanderbilt's Creech pointed out. ''You put one of those in a classroom, then in a few days, it's overrun,'' he said. ''That's not what we see with COVID.'' But exactly how infectious children are remains somewhat unclear, in part because schools have not been fully open, making it hard to gather data, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatrician and professor of global health and infectious diseases at Stanford University. Studies from other countries, while informative, may not always extrapolate well to the U.S., she added.
So while the ''preponderance of data'' points to children being less likely to infect people when compared with adults, ''they certainly do,'' said O'Leary, who is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. ''So, if you've got vulnerable people in the household and your 7-year-old comes home with COVID, it's not to say they can't give it to anybody else. They absolutely can. It's just a bit less likely.''
It's important to note that the vaccines have only been proven '-- so far '-- to prevent disease and not infection (data on that is harder to gather and takes longer to prove), which means it's not guaranteed yet that vaccinated individuals can't spread the coronavirus.
But there are some inklings of hope that vaccination can at least reduce onward transmission. So if this bears out, the more people who are vaccinated in a community, including children, the more likely transmission will drop overall.
''Our current chaos about children not being in schools is just terrible for children, and I think a lot of the concern would be assuaged if children were immunized,'' said Dr. Sarah Long, professor of pediatrics at the Drexel University College of Medicine. ''That doesn't mean to me that they can't get the infection or transmit it every once in a while, but it would reduce those possibilities tremendously.''
Long is also a member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, where she has been reviewing the trial data and helping to make recommendations on how the vaccines should be used. She continued: ''There are real virus control reasons, there are real societal reasons and there are economic reasons, because if children can't go to school, people can't work.''
O'Leary said children as young as 6 months, which is the youngest age that Moderna plans to test, can get vaccinated so long as trial data shows the vaccines to be safe and effective. Infants under 6 months are likely to be protected by antibodies transferred through the placenta if the pregnant mother is vaccinated, he added.
How the Vaccine Will Be Studied in KidsThe pediatric vaccine trials will not be as large as the final stage adult trials, which enrolled 30,000 or more participants, giving a placebo to half and the vaccine to half. Pfizer's 12- to 15-year-old study has enrolled 2,259 participants and Moderna's adolescent trial is a similar size, aiming for about 3,000 participants. In both trials, some teens will receive a placebo.
That's enough to prove safety and benefit, experts said, in part, because the adult trials have already paved the way. To show the vaccine is safe, among the many things that Pfizer is tracking includes the percentage of participants reporting ''local'' reactions such as pain at the injection site, redness and swelling, as well as the percentage of participants reporting systemic reactions such as fever, headache, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and joint pain.
After the trials are completed, tracking for any safety issues will continue in the real world as physicians and patients will be encouraged to report to the FDA and CDC any side effects they think may be due to the vaccine.
Doctors said they'd want to make sure that there are no signs that the vaccine overinflames the immune system or causes any allergic or autoimmune responses. ''I think most people that are developing these vaccines feel like the vaccine is not going to trigger MIS-C, but it's something that will be monitored for very closely both in the trials and more importantly, post-licensure,'' added O'Leary, from the University of Colorado. Maldonado said she'll also be on the lookout for any cases of Guillain-Barr(C) syndrome, which is often a concern when it comes to vaccines, but she noted that no significant increases in cases were seen in any of the adult trials.
When it comes to proving benefit, the pediatric trials will focus on a different metric than the adult trials. The adult trials' primary efficacy measure was to compare how many vaccinated people wound up sick with COVID-19 symptoms compared with those who received the placebo and whether the vaccine impacted the severity of illness. Since children rarely are hospitalized due to COVID-19, the vaccine's ability to reduce severe cases would be hard to measure unless the trials enrolled an enormous number of children.
Instead, Pfizer's and Moderna's adolescent trials will focus on evaluating participants' immune response by measuring antibodies, according to Pfizer's spokeswoman and Moderna's clinical trial website.
Scientists haven't yet identified an ''immune correlate of protection,'' which is usually defined to be the level of antibodies in the blood at which they can feel confident that a person is going to be protected from infection. Some vaccines that have been approved, like the one for measles, have an immune correlate of protection identified, while others don't.
In the absence of a definitive immune correlate of protection, the trials would compare antibody levels in children with those found in adults and extrapolate that the efficacy should then be similar. The FDA and advisory groups like the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices would then need to discuss whether the evidence is compelling. If scientists are able to identify an immune correlate of protection, however, ''and you can demonstrate that kids get that with the vaccine, that's even more satisfying,'' O'Leary said.
One final difference in pediatric studies is the potential for lower doses. Moderna has said that it will run its studies of children under 12 testing lower doses first.
''As we go down in age, we give the smallest possible dose of vaccine that we think is reasonable, and then we steadily increase until that point when we get that magic 'Goldilocks' level at which it works great and the side effects are tolerable,'' Vanderbilt's Creech explained. ''I don't think one dose fits all.''
A Call to Speed Pediatric TrialsSome pediatricians and infectious disease experts said they were eager for pediatric studies to move faster.
''My understanding is that the entity formerly known as Operation Warp Speed had a lot of involvement with those adult trials, but with pediatric clinical trials, they're not having the same degree of involvement,'' O'Leary said. ''So it's more up to the manufacturers, and from my perspective, these manufacturers don't have the financial incentive to conduct these trials with the same urgency that they did with the adult trials.''
ProPublica
Cuomo Still Underreporting the Total Count of COVID Nursing Home Deaths
Stanford's Maldonado added that she's concerned that there's not as much pressure on the manufacturers to recruit children of diverse backgrounds as there was for the adult trials.''I think it's important to get those kids in to understand factors around the actual vaccine and also to get buy-in of those communities where we're seeing more hesitancy. We want to make sure they are feeling comfortable about being represented,'' she said.
While O'Leary is not as confident as Fauci that we'll see Pfizer's data on younger kids by September, he feels very optimistic about the availability of a vaccine in the coming months for kids as young as 12, who tend to get sicker than the younger age group.
''I think that's a really big deal,'' he said.
Mink
'Zombie mink' to hit Poland next? Transmissible Covid-19 strain found in Polish region, officials mull response '-- RT World News
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:57
Poland said that the coronavirus found in local mink can be transmitted to humans and vice versa. Millions of animals were previously culled and buried in Denmark, which prompted fears of groundwater contamination.
The research ''clearly shows'' that ''this virus can spread from mink to humans and vice versa,'' the country's agriculture ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Officials said the new data came from a genetic study on minks from a farm in the Kartuzy district of northern Poland. The presence of the coronavirus in the animals was confirmed last month.
The ministry added that the virus found in Polish mink is different from the virus discovered on mink farms in Denmark. It is also different from the mutations reported in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil.
Also on rt.com Mutant Covid-19 strain that jumped from minks to humans is 'most likely' extinct in Denmark '' health ministry The chief sanitary inspectorate reported in November that 18 mink farm workers had tested positive for Covid-19, but said at the time there was no evidence of the virus being contracted from the animals.
Poland is yet to decide whether to follow the example of Denmark, which, in November, promptly culled all its minks out of a fear that the infection would spread. The shocking slaughter made headlines all over the world.
Weeks later, the public was surprised to discover that scores of animal carcasses had begun resurfacing from the ground. The 'zombie mink' were being pushed upward due to the decomposition gases forming inside their bodies.
Then came the risk that mass animal graves might contaminate groundwater. The Danish government announced in December that it would dig up four million dead mink and burn them in order to prevent water pollution.
Also on rt.com Mass mink graves may have caused groundwater pollution in Denmark, as govt admits it LOST TRACK of 1.5 million animals Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
China
Tick Tock Feta Anlaysis
Adam,
Great job to you and John on the latest show!
Listening to the battle of the experts you described with yourself and The Keeper, my feelings are that you're both right. As a content marketer I have some thoughts.
Your predictions and hindsight on the rise and fall of apps/networks has always been spot on-- albeit a decade too early for you to truly be recognized for it.
To summarize my interpretation of your theory: these apps/networks throw all kinds of money and juice to create an app/network where thirsty talented poors (creatives) go and make content for free that attracts users/viewers. Then they crank the knob the other direction, cash in on selling user data... and collapse once monetizing the network pushes away all creatives and consumers.
This is what's happened with Google, Youtube, Myspace, and even a number of eCommerce marketplaces like Newegg and eBay.
I tend to enjoy this "model" because it means every ten years there's a cycle of new innovation and free shit to try out.
My thoughts on TikTok support your thesis while also highlighting a nuanced difference.
Essentially, the Chinese are just better at manipulating people. Your feeling TikTok just cranks out good content to everyone rather than keeping things fair or ethical is spot on. That is what is happening.
However, since food bloggers, locked-down millennials, mid-tier chefs, and wanna-be influencers are all thirsty to have momentary fame... they line up around the block to make their own spin on the #fetapasta trend.
That part of the equation is an accurate simulation of virality. The mirrored content and wash of videos of users making the same food is honest. Unlike the forced wokeness or virality of western platforms (Vine, YouTube), there's an impact on/by users outside of the ecosystem.
I believe this is because the Chinese are patient, and would rather hit singles all day long instead of attempting a home run (sorry for the sports ball reference).
TikTok is just 10 years of Music.ly where testing on children was wrapped up nicely for 30 somethings. Because they're not jumping the gun on monetization, my opinion is they have a higher chance to succeed at network monetization in the future.
Then Again... it could collapse just like everything else since as you and John so eloquently put it, value-for-value is the only way to go. On some levels, what you accuse TikTok of doing is clumsily obvious
example --> https://www.tiktok.com/@linguini_thesnake/video/6925500454289804549?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowK1b%2B693%2BYsKFM6IfMFTaIFBkAT733kdjBWzn7kM3RrThLhzAiCPYXz26wIS6gZQiGgA%3D&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAflzRaKXpr2nz6w-eFTm32Ur0l2-aBBUPwPPD1zlkZJuiT2c8soK2SRHGchCYEeqY&share_item_id=6925500454289804549&share_link_id=ABF95A18-BE94-4CF5-9D6D-7D42EE291679×tamp=1613095070&tt_from=sms&u_code=d56f8mlfa28dk4&user_id=6668400289399734278&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=sms&source=h5_m
It's a video of a snake that's rapidly grown in views shortly after posting just because it used the #fetapasta tag.
ITM
Ryan
Finland Feta Chinese taunting?
FP: China's Belt and Road is a ''Silk Road with Green Energy''
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 07:41
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Foreign Policy Magazine fantasising about China rolling out a green energy revolution via its Belt and Road initiative, like it is already happening.
Welcome to the Era of Competitive Climate Statecraft
In trade, finance, development, and security, governments are racing to get closer to net-zero.
BY CAROLYN KISSANE | FEBRUARY 8, 2021, 2:49 PM
2020 wasn't only the year a pandemic hit the world; it was also the second hottest in history. Regions around the world faced wildfires, droughts, severe weather, and much more. The magnitude of the COVID-19 challenge should have brought nations together to cooperate and coordinate action. However, in many cases, the varying and shambolic responses illustrate the global system's dysfunction when seeking to respond to a worldwide crisis. Will climate change be a different story?
'...
The U.S. government along with the private sector can unleash and harness an effective ecosystem to support advanced innovation, build employment opportunities in the burgeoning renewable energy and climate space, and further the competitiveness of its high-tech clean energy sector. The challenge is not technological availability'--though the deficits remain great, especially in funding new clean energy technology to scale'--but gathering the political will and economic support to move forward.
'...
China is not holding out for an improved relationship with the United States; rather, it seeks to advance the state's role in the economy beyond the control it currently exerts, and it aims to develop strategic technologies. Two terms being used within China's 14th Five-Year Plan, which spans 2021-2025, are ''technological independence'' and ''indigenous innovation,'' suggesting China is looking to challenge dependence on imports to achieve decarbonization while at the same time bolstering its position as a major exporter of advanced clean energy technologies. The Belt and Road Initiative, China's massive international infrastructure investment project, is another focus, creating a Silk Road with green energy. China is leveraging its already well-tested economic statecraft into competitive climate statecraft, which it can use by manufacturing and selling the green technology the world needs to meet all its net-zero pledges.
'...
Read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/08/welcome-to-the-era-of-competitive-climate-statecraft-united-states-china/Back in the real world, China through their ''Belt and Road'' project and private banks are financing well over 200 coal projects worldwide.
As for domestic coal, China has not actually stopped mining coal. What they are attempting to do is gasify the coal at source, shifting the pollution away from their big cities
China's Risky Gamble on Coal Conversion
January 9, 2020 By Richard Liu, Zhou Yang & Xinzhou Qian
'...
While China is projected to fulfill its Paris commitment to reduce the proportion of coal in its energy mix to below 58% by 2020'--a full 10 years ahead of schedule'--the country remains the world's largest producer and consumer of coal. As Chinese policies have curbed coal-fired power out of air pollution and climate concerns, the coal industry and subnational governments have searched for alternative sources of coal demand. Thus, we have seen a slow but steady rise of various coal conversion industries.
China is the only country to implement coal conversion at scale, turning coal into coke, fertilizer, and other chemicals (see Figure 1). Since 1998, China's central and local governments have alternatively pushed forward and pulled back the development of modern coal conversion industries such as coal-to-oil and coal-to-natural gas. But as of 2017, China's central government has incorporated coal conversion into national planning, releasing the ''13th Five Year Plan for the Demonstration of Coal Processing and Utilization.'' This first national strategic document on coal conversion development stipulates that coal conversion must become more environmentally viable.
'...
Read more: https://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2020/01/chinas-risky-gamble-coal-conversion/The narrative China is presenting to the world is the ''coal conversion'' projects are not really about energy, they're about producing chemicals.
Leaving aside the obvious question '' what is the market for all those millions of tons of additional chemicals '' the reality is China has massive gas shortages. So it seems likely that in the near term at least, a lot of that ''converted'' coal will end up in their domestic and industrial gas pipelines.
Either way, China is still consuming all the coal they can dig up, and funding hundreds of coal projects in other countries. From the evidence I have seen, the idea that the focus of belt and road is green energy is a total fantasy.
Is China Building a Time Machine? | Time Travel News and Science
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:07
Vanit Janthra Getty Images
China says it definitely isn't building a time machine.A leaked PowerPoint presentation suggests otherwise.If the device does "prolong life," as documents claim, that's a very special case of time travel.From the annals of ''nothing to see here,'' China's largest state physics lab is insisting it's not helping a private company build a time machine. The strange happenings are straight out of the scientist version of TMZ, with a leaked PowerPoint presentation and gossip swirling.
So: Is the Chinese government collaborating with a startup in order to travel through time?
' Join Pop Mech Pro and get exclusive answers to your weirdest science questions.
Earlier this month, unsubstantiated documents began circulating online that seemed to suggest the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of High Energy Physics is partnering with the private Ruitai Technology Development Technology on something called the "Space-time Tunnel Generation Experimental Device."
6Park News
6Park News
China's The Paper Journalist, which obtained a leaked PowerPoint presentation containing information about the project, has more about the device, via 6Park News:
''The device can distort time and space, control the flow rate of time, break through the barrier of time and space, and can be widely used for time travel, interstellar voyage, life extension, etc. The project plans to select a location in China, and lease an area of ''about 16 acres to build a scientific experiment base. It is expected that the device will be able to successfully shuttle the space-time experiment 7-12 months after the funds are in place.'' This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
The PowerPoint also claims, per 6Park, that the team behind the project ''has reached a preliminary cooperation agreement with a research and development team composed of well-known experts and academicians of the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,'' and that Nobel Laureate Gao Kun ''recognized and praised'' the device, in addition to other esteemed scientists.
Not long after the PowerPoint document spread online, however, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of High Energy Physics issued a statement vehemently denying its involvement in the project. Per 6Park:
''It is not true that our institute and the 'Shanxi Ruitai Technology' mentioned in the article Development Technology Co., Ltd. and its personnel have not had any contact or cooperation, and our firm will not bear any legal responsibility for any losses caused by its false propaganda.''Even odder: The Paper Journalist discovered that Ruitai Technology has only been a company since December 31, 2020, and Nobel Laureate Gao Kun doesn't actually exist. Ruitai also denied its involvement, according to the Chongqing Morning News, claiming a financing information platform "mistakenly created the presentation."
Uh, classic misunderstanding?
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Whatever the hell actually happened here, it does beg the question: Just what would a state-funded time machine look like, anyway?
The mythical device in question, which ''could prolong life by using Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity to distort space-time,'' per Yicai, sure sounds like some kind of hibernation, if the ''time travel'' is accomplished by ''prolonging life.''
In the Bible, Methuselah didn't time travel to age 969. But the right hibernation could suspend the human body for long space journeys, for example. Like a Star Trek character, someone could wake up several centuries after they went to sleep.
But is that really time travel? It comes down to semantics. Certainly being able to pause and then resume life with a time period between fits the literal idea of traveling in time. But unlike, say, using lasers to bend spacetime, prolonging life does not extend backward in time. That's usually a key part of any time travel schema, because traveling into the future can just seem like, well, very efficient waiting.
At the same time, it's easy to see why hibernation time travel would be highly sought after by investors.
It does seem farfetched for a third party outside of science to make up a list of academic luminaries for a fake PowerPoint presentation. So what's really going on? The truth may only be revealed when Chinese leaders start to reach their 150th birthdays.
ð¥ Now Watch This: This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Ebola Resurfaces in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo | Council on Foreign Relations
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 15:04
Three months after health authorities from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared the country had brought to an end its eleventh outbreak of Ebola, the disease has killed the wife of a survivor in a hospital in Butembo, a large city (estimated population of around one million) in North Kivu province. (In earlier Ebola outbreaks, Butembo has been a prominent treatment center.) Despite the bad news, some encouragement is that health authorities know what to do: World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist are tracing more than seventy persons with whom the victim had contact and are thoroughly disinfecting any places she had visited. While it is too soon to assess the seriousness of this outbreak, such measures raise hopes that it can be contained. But this latest outbreak also underscores that the disease is endemic in eastern Congo and hence is likely to reemerge.
Butembo is an important trading and mining center in North Kivu, of which it is the second largest city after Goma. The province has seen banditry and warlordism, yet Butembo has in the past managed to insulate [PDF] itself from the worst episodes of violence. North Kivu is adjacent to Rwanda and Uganda and is not far from Burundi and Tanzania. Uganda, Burundi, and Tanzania remain politically opaque. Coronavirus is believed to be widespread in East Africa; there should now be concern over the possibility that Ebola could spread elsewhere in the region. Tanzania's regime of John Magufuli is a particular concern, having refused to share information with the WHO about possible Ebola cases in Dar es Salaam in 2019 and, since then, rejecting public health measures based on science'--including vaccines'--to contain COVID-19. Magufuli claims that Tanzania is free of the virus because of the power of prayer.
More on:
Infectious Diseases
Public Health Threats and Pandemics
Democratic Republic of Congo
Tanzania
Coronavirus
This latest outbreak of Ebola against the backdrop of COVID-19 reminds that Africa has a particularly heavy disease burden that in some places is exacerbated by political unrest and warlordism. And, through COVID-19, the world has learned that disease knows no boundaries. Thus far, the United States has been largely spared from Ebola; that might not be true of another, now-unknown disease that has its origin in the rainforest.
More on:
Infectious Diseases
Public Health Threats and Pandemics
Democratic Republic of Congo
Tanzania
Coronavirus
Build Back Better
Willow on Draghi Italy
Funny you should ask just now! I'd say about 75% of Italians are happy someone "competent" is taking over, meaning someone who has at least some knowledge of what he's talking about (unlike the 5 star people who seem to think you don't need to have any skills or knowledge). But that said, we just got a news alert that Ricciardi, a consultant of the health department said he is going to ask to go into full lockdown. As we are the only EU country not in full lockdown and he claims it is not working.
So this first thing will mark a lot. And if he goes with the full lockdown, consensus for him will drop enormousely and voters will all move to the right wing Fratelli d'Italia and I guess maybe some 5 star movement radical offspring
not all voters of course but for sure voters of Lega (also right wing), who are now part of the "wide ranged government"
Mario Draghi, Former EU Central Bank Head, Sworn In As Italy's Prime Minister : NPR
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:07
New Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi presides over a meeting of his first cabinet in Rome Saturday. Andrew Medichini/AP hide caption
toggle caption Andrew Medichini/AP New Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi presides over a meeting of his first cabinet in Rome Saturday.
Andrew Medichini/AP Mario Draghi, the celebrated economist who is credited with saving the euro, was sworn in as Italy's new prime minister Saturday. He will be tasked with guiding the country through the twin crises of the coronavirus and a crumbling economy.
Draghi, who formerly served as the head of the European Central Bank, took the oath of office with support from across the political spectrum with all but one of Italy's major parties backing him. Twenty-three members of Draghi's cabinet, which included technocrats and a broad swath of politicians, also took the oath of office Saturday.
In addition to charting Italy's course through the pandemic, Draghi is tasked with spending a roughly $240 billion, once-in-a-generation recovery fund provided by the EU to resuscitate an economy bound toward recession. Italy's economy is in its worst downturn since World War II, according to Reuters.
A boost for the Italian economy could benefit the whole eurozone.
"Your experience will be an exceptional asset for Italy and Europe as a whole, especially in these difficult times," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter.
Draghi must also lead Italy through the pandemic as the country reports one of the top infection rates on the continent and amid a stalled vaccine rollout, which has affected most of Europe. But Draghi begins leading Italy's 67th government since World War II with broad political backing, including from the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which is the largest group in the country's parliament.
In selecting his cabinet, Draghi selected four members of the Five Star Movement. Eight cabinet positions went to technocrats, as Reuters reports, with the remainder going to parties ranging from center left to far-right populist.
As BBC analysis points out, Italy's political landscape is notoriously divided and unstable. Draghi is the country's seventh prime minister in the past decade.
Draghi's predecessor, Giuseppe Conte, resigned only weeks ago after infighting among political groups over his handling of the pandemic.
Draghi faces parliamentary votes of confidence next week, and with only one major party not included in his cabinet '-- the far-right Brothers of Italy '-- he's expected to net the biggest majority in Italian history. According to Reuters, however, some members of the Five Star Movement have said they might vote against Draghi, creating internal divisions.
Biden's Nominee For New Cabinet-Level Science Position is Epstein-Linked Geneticist, Eric Lander (Feb. 2, 2021) '' Gang Stalking, Mind Control, and Cults
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 13:20
Biden's Nominee For New Cabinet-Level Science Position is Epstein-Linked Geneticist, Eric Lander
Government Health Politics Science Top News Whitney Webb
Biden's Nominee For New Cabinet-Level Science Position is Epstein-Linked Geneticist
Biden's Nominee For New Cabinet-Level Science Position is Epstein-Linked Geneticist
Posted on February 2, 2021 Author Whitney Webb Comment(0)
CRISPR gene-editing expert Eric Lander, Biden's director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, is awaiting Senate confirmation to serve in a new Cabinet-level position in the Biden administration. Jeffrey Epstein, the eugenicist pedophile and sex trafficker, bragged about funding Lander's research and was photographed taking part in at least one meeting with him.
Shortly before he took office, President Joe Biden announced that he would be elevating the director Office of Science and Technology Policy to a cabinet-level position, meaning that his nominee to lead that office, geneticist Eric Lander, would require confirmation by the US Senate. Lander is currently serving as director of that office, but has yet to serve in cabinet-level capacity as he awaits confirmation.
Mainstream media reports described Biden's move to place Lander in his cabinet as ''meant to highlight his commitment to science,'' which has been used to contrast his approach with that of Trump, who was accused of second-guessing ''authoritative'' voices from academia and the medical establishment. Lander is deemed to be one such ''authoritative'' voice, having previously served as external co-chair on former President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
However, Biden placing Lander in this role begs the question of exactly what type of science he will promote in his new position, as eugenicist and intelligence-linked pedophile Jeffrey Epstein bragged on his website about having ''had the priviledge [sic] of sponsoring'' Lander's research via the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation. Lander's spokesperson told the New York Times in 2019 that ''Mr. Epstein appears to have made up lots of things and this seems to be among them,'' regarding whether or not Lander had indeed received funding from Epstein.
In addition to the issue of funding from Epstein, Lander, who is also a biology professor at MIT, is known to have met with Epstein at least once, as he was pictured taking part in a 2012 meeting with Epstein at the office of Harvard's Martin Nowak, a mathematical biologist who received millions in funding from Epstein. After Epstein's 2019 arrest, Lander claimed that he had been invited to the meeting by Nowak and had been unaware of who was set to attend the event. He additionally stated that he ''later learned about [Epstein's] more sordid history'' and denied having had a relationship with Epstein.
Yet, there remains the issue that Epstein himself included Lander in a list of scientists he sponsored, with the other scientists on that list having indeed been supported by Epstein in some fashion. If we are to believe Lander, it remains unclear why Epstein, before he became so infamous, would falsely claim to fund Lander and why Lander would wait to deny any association until only after Epstein's arrest. Given that the other scientists listed alongside Lander on Epstein's website did receive funding from his foundation, it seems unlikely that Epstein would deceptively throw in Lander's name among a list of several other scientists he was funding at a time, particularly when he was not yet publicly controversial and did not present such a grave risk to his associates' reputations.
However, Lander's denials seem to have been more than sufficient for some mainstream media outlets following his nomination to serve in the Biden administration, with some outlets now claiming that Lander was not reported to have received funding from Epstein, despite Epstein's own claims to the contrary. For instance, BuzzFeed wrote on January 19, 2021 that Lander ''has not been reported to have received any money from Epstein''.
The Broad Institute, Silicon Valley and Intelligence
Despite Lander's denials of a personal relationship, Epstein also had very close ties to Lander's employer, MIT. Epstein donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the institution and Epstein was also used as a channel for making donations to MIT by billionaire Bill Gates. Gates has yet to explain why he would funnel his donations through Epstein as opposed to publicly donating via his well-known ''philanthropic'' foundation. Epstein's funding of the MIT Media Lab in particular led to the resignation of its former director Joi Ito in September 2019 following Epstein's arrest and subsequent ''suicide.''
In addition, Epstein was particularly close to one of the biggest names at MIT, the late artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky. Minsky once organized a two-day symposium on artificial intelligence at Epstein's private island in 2002 and Epstein victims have alleged that they were forced by Epstein to engage in sex acts with Minsky. Both Minsky and Eric Lander were corporate fellows of the Thinking Machines corporation, a DARPA contractor that made supercomputers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. That company's various components were acquired by a web of intelligence-linked companies like CIA-linked Oracle and IBM while many of its former engineers left for Sun Microsystems, where future Google CEO Eric Schmidt was then serving as Chief Technology Officer.
Lander, more recently, has again become closely associated with tech companies deeply tied to the US national security state as the founding director of the Broad Institute, an independent genomic research institution partnered with both MIT and Harvard. Incidentally, MIT and Harvard are the two academic institutions most closely linked to Epstein's ''philanthropy,'' particularly in the field in which the Broad Institute specializes.
The Broad Institute depends heavily on ''private philanthropy'' according to its website and its board of directors includes Apple chairman, Arthur Levinson; chairman of the McKinsey Global Institute, James Manyika; current chairman and former CEO of IBM, Louis Gerstner Jr; and former Google CEO and current chair of the National Security Commission on AI, Eric Schmidt. Also on the board is Seth Klarman, owner of the Times of Israel and a major donor to the DNC last election cycle. Klarman's family foundation has donated heavily to the Broad Institute. In addition, Klarman announced his rejection of former President Trump in a coordinated PR push alongside Leslie Wexner, Epstein's main backer who was integral to his intelligence activities and sex trafficking operation, in 2018. More recently, he was outed as the main financing source for the dysfunctional Iowa Caucus app in the most recent DNC primaries.
Right before Lander joined the Biden administration, the Broad Institute announced a new partnership with tech giants Microsoft and Google subsidiary Verily, further reflecting the Broad Institute's ties to Silicon Valley. As part of that partnership, Microsoft and Google will share the companies' cloud data and AI technologies with a ''global network of more than 168,000 health and life sciences partners'' to accelerate the Terra platform. Terra, originally developed by the Broad Institute and Google's Verily, is an ''open data ecosystem'' focused on biomedical research, specifically the fields of cancer genomics, population genetics, and viral genomics. The biomedical data Terra amasses includes not only genetic data but also medical-imaging, biometric signals, and electronic health records.
In the case of Google, the data accessed via this partnership will likely inform their obvious AI healthcare ambitions, some of which are being pursued in partnership with the US military. Google recently announced a partnership with the Pentagon to ''predictively diagnose'' cancer and COVID-19 using AI. Google's ties to the US military have become overt in recent years and the company is well represented on the National Security Commission on AI (NSCAI), which is chaired by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In the case of Microsoft, the company was recently awarded the massive JEDI cloud contract by the Pentagon, though litigation may soon change that. Microsoft also recently launched a new ''secret'' cloud service for US intelligence and classified government data systems and, like Google, are also well represented on the NSCAI.
In addition, Microsoft as well as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have ties to Israeli intelligence, particularly Israel's Unit 8200. Microsoft's ties to Start-Up Nation Central, Unit 8200 fronts, and Isabel Maxwell (Ghislaine Maxwell's sister) have been discussed at length in previous articles. Eric Schmidt, among other connections, helped finance and launch Team8, the start-up accelerator for Unit 8200 alumni set up by the unit's former commander Nadiv Zafrir. Team8 controversially hired Mike Rogers, former director of the US intelligence agency the NSA, and is also associated with the private company IronNet Security of another former NSA director, Keith Alexander.
These US-Israel intelligence ties are notable given the Epstein connections explored earlier in this article, as many of Epstein's activities '' from sex trafficking and sexual blackmail to money laundering '' were done on behalf of both US and Israeli intelligence agencies, specifically factions within both intelligence communities that share ties to the same organized crime syndicate.
Those same factions are as intimately involved in the activities of Silicon Valley, making it no coincidence that, following his first arrest in 2007, Epstein attempted to rebrand as a hi-tech investor and patron of ''transhumanist''-related sciences, showing that the interest of his benefactors had moved from sexual blackmail and human trafficking to the electronic forms of blackmail and the trafficking of data.
Just months before his 2019 arrest, Epstein would brag about having blackmail on prominent Silicon Valley figures and is known to have entertained LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Epstein's close associate Ghislaine Maxwell had similarly directed her attention at Silicon Valley following Epstein's first arrest and her sisters, Isabel and Christine, have been intimately involved in Silicon Valley and hi-tech contractors for US intelligence for decades.
Praising Eugenicists for ''pushing the frontiers of science''
Aside from the intelligence connections via Silicon Valley and Jeffrey Epstein, Lander has also courted controversy for a controversial toast he led in honor of eugenicist James Watson in 2018. On Watson's 90th birthday, Lander praised Watson for ''inspiring all of us to push the frontiers of science to benefit humankind.'' Watson, though best remembered as the co-discoverer of the DNA double helix structure, was also a notorious eugenicist who stated his belief that people of African descent have genetically inferior intelligence on numerous occasions. Watson first began to retreat from public life in 2007, when he told the BBC that Western government projects in Africa were likely to fail because ''all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours '-- whereas all the testing says not really''.
After offering the toast, Lander was later forced to apologize for his public praise of James Watson. Yet, since his nomination to serve in the ''diversity-focused'' Biden administration, some former critics of Lander's praise of Watson have now warmed up to the MIT geneticist, citing the fact that his deputy, Alondra Nelson, is an African American woman.
Lander's relationship with James Watson goes back to Lander's extensive work as part of the Human Genome Project, a project in which Watson was also intimately involved. Though the Human Genome Project is normally credited to three scientists that ''independently'' all had the same idea in 1990, the original call for the Human Genome Project was first published in 1986 by geneticist Walter Bodmer. Bodmer joined the Eugenics Society, today called the Galton Institute, as a young man back in the 1960s and soon after went to work with Stanford biologist/geneticist Joshua Lederberg. Lederberg was a key scientific advisor to US presidents and the US military during the course of his decades-long career. Bodmer then served as the Eugenics Society/Galton Institute president from 2008 to 2014. One of the organization's current officers, David J. Galton, wrote that the Human Genome Project that Bodmer originally proposed had ''enormously increased . . . the scope for eugenics . . . because of the development of a very powerful technology for the manipulation of DNA.''
Once the Human Genome Project was underway, James Watson was placed in charge of the US government-funded effort backing the project, via National Center for Human Genome Research. Watson would use that position to fund seven genome centers involved in large-scale gene mapping projects, including at MIT. Much of the sequencing for the Human Genome Project was done by the MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute, where Lander worked on the gene sequencing project and other projects up until the Broad Institute was spun off from the Whitehead Institute's Center for Genome Research and formally launched in 2004.
The Whitehead Institute was co-founded by David Baltimore, who served as its founding director and went on to be President of Rockefeller University. Baltimore is currently on Lander's Broad Institute. As an aside, Joshua Lederberg was another past President of Rockefeller University and Jeffrey Epstein had previously served on the university's board after being personally appointed by David Rockefeller. The Rockefeller family's ties to eugenics are discussed at length in this documentary and Epstein's obsession with eugenics has been detailed in several reports since his 2019 arrest and ''suicide''.
Given the associations with eugenicists like Jeffrey Epstein and James Watson, it is essential to spread awareness of these ties as Lander awaits Senate confirmation, as the Senate could be pressured by the public to raise these issues at Lander's upcoming confirmation hearing. Yet, the fact that Lander was even nominated for this position at all, particularly following the Epstein scandal, is stunning as he should have been investigated and, at minimum, blacklisted from serving in public office. Lander's nomination to such a prominent post is unsettling confirmation of the continued influence and power of the network that not only created Jeffrey Epstein, but financed and protected his nefarious activities, for decades.
Question Everything, Come To Your Own Conclusions.
Go read this article about how we got duped into cooking with gas - The Verge
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 14:11
I spend a lot of time fretting about how my home might be slowly killing me. As an environmental journalist, it's part of my job to be hyper aware of any toxins that could be lurking around me. Lately, my gas stove has me especially worried.
I didn't think much about the hazards of cooking with a gas stove in the past because, like a lot of people, I've been bombarded with ad campaigns from the natural gas industry since I was a kid. Recent reporting from Rebecca Leber at Mother Jones exposes how insidious that influence has been.
Gas stoves actually unleash indoor air pollutants
Gas stoves actually unleash indoor air pollutants like soot, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Beyond that, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels like natural gas drive climate change. That's why there's a push now to electrify homes; electric stoves can run on clean energy.
The history of how ''cooking with gas'' campaigns have made a source of fossil fuel combustion in our homes seem completely innocuous gets pretty ridiculous. Leber dug up a rap video from 1988 that spends an entire four minutes hyping up gas stoves in rhyme. ''Gas is so hot, it's not on when it's off / it's the only way to cook, that's what I was taught,'' the rap starts off.
Fast forward to about two minutes into the video, however, and there's a disclaimer in the lyrics that my colleague Sean O'Kane noticed: ''Safe cooking begins with range location / avoid main traffic paths and also isolation.''
gas groups pay social media influencers
Today, gas groups pay social media influencers to advertise the supposed benefits of cooking with the fossil fuel, Leber reports. A public relations representative even posed as a resident in a neighborhood to stir up backlash against building codes that would discourage natural gas hookups in new construction, she writes.
You have to read the truly bizarre and alarming history of gas that Leber traces in her article. With many of us spending more time working and hanging out at home during the pandemic, it's more important than ever to be aware of what we're exposed to inside the place that's supposed to be our refuge.
The Federal Reserve is Preparing for a Massive Market Crash and Credit Freeze
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:17
Activist Post
Longtime Wall Street trader and cryptocurrency proponent Gregory Mannarino explains the perfect storm that is assembling on the financial horizon.
He takes you past the euphoric headlines and breaks down the technical details on Wall Street, the debt market and Bitcoin.
Don't miss his latest coverage, as well as the great interview he did with Spiro Skouras explaining the role that the Federal Reserve plays in the ultimate end game.
Disclaimer: Activist Post does not give investment advice, nor do we endorse or receive compensation from the investment fund mentioned toward the end of this video. If you are considering a significant investment into any assets or strategies mentioned here, it is best to conduct due diligence and consult a licensed professional.
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Image: Spiro Skouras
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NY Mag admits Fauci ''hot-wired'' coronavirus with gain-of-function engineering '' Tap News
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:23
(Natural News) After a year of denial, the mainstream media is finally coming to terms with the fact that Anthony Fauci is responsible for ''hot-wiring'' the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) with experimental gain-of-function technology, which ultimately turned it into a global ''pandemic.''
Were it not for the artificial insertion of amino acids and other additives by Fauci and his team, the novel Chinese virus never would have gained the traction it did in terms of being a human-to-human contagion.
In its natural form, the unmodified bat coronavirus would have stayed within the animal kingdom. Instead, thanks to Fauci, it morphed into a tool that is now being used to destroy the global economy and herd the masses straight into the new world order.
''These gain-of-function experiments were an important part of the NIH's approach to vaccine development, and Anthony Fauci was reluctant to stop funding them,'' writes Nicholson Baker for the Intelligencer.
''He and Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, along with Gary Nabel, NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) director of vaccine research, published an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which they contend that the ferret flu experiments, and others like them, were 'a risk worth taking.'''
Fauci and his team wrote at the time that ''[i]mportant information and insights can come from generating a potentially dangerous virus in the laboratory.'' Such research, they added, can further ''help delineate the principles of virus transmission between species.''
More related news about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) and Fauci's complicity in creating it can be found at Pandemic.news.
Fauci told reporter that ''nature is the worst bioterrorist''In an interview with news reporters, Fauci once contended that ''nature is the worst bioterrorist,'' effectively shirking all responsibility for his involvement in weaponizing it against humanity.
Fauci was a key player in changing the way that NIH-funded research was conducted. Under his leadership, the focus shifted to the weaponization of nature, whether it involved anthrax, AIDS, or some other bioweapon developed by the deep state.
After the 9/11 attacks, Fauci dramatically increased his agency's ''anti-terror'' budget from $53 million in 2001 to a whopping $1.7 billion in 2003. At that time, he set aside his efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine and shifted focus to perfecting the weaponization of brucellosis, anthrax, tularemia, and the plague.
''We are making this the highest priority,'' Fauci said at the time. ''We are really marshaling all available resources.''
Fauci was also concerned that it was taking far too long to develop new vaccines. His stated goal was to develop new ''vaccine systems'' and ''vaccine platforms'' that could be tailored to develop new vaccine drugs within a day.
''Our goal within the next 20 years is 'bug to drug' in 24 hours,'' Fauci said. ''This would specifically meet the challenge of genetically engineered bioagents.''
The first ''Project Bioshield'' contract, as it is called, was awarded by Fauci to VaxGen, a California pharmaceutical company. Fauci gave the company $878 million in taxpayer money to create new anthrax vaccines.
Interestingly, it has been almost exactly 20 years since Fauci made those statements, and here we are with President Donald Trump's ''Operation Warp Speed'' program, which fast-tracked the release of Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines at speeds never before seen.
When challenged by some 750 scientists in a letter protesting the direction in which he was taking the NIH, Fauci doubled down and insisted that the money needed to be spent ''on biodefense.''
''We disagree with the notion that biodefense concerns are of 'low public-health significance,''' he added.
Be sure to check out New York magazine's full expos(C) on traitor Fauci and his longtime efforts to weaponize deadly pathogens.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-02-12-mag-admits-fauci-hot-wired-coronavirus.html
The Purge
Adam Curtis doc
'Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World' sets out to tell no more and no less than how we got from there to here. "We" being largely the west, both under our own political, industrial and sociocultural steam and as influenced and inextricably linked to China and Russia, "there" being roughly the mid-20th century and "here" being the polarised, tech-crunched, fragile, teetering edifice we call "now".
His case studies are extraordinarily varied and would all make fascinating films in their own right. There's Michael de Freitas, one of London's most notorious gangsters but also a civil rights activist who persuaded Yoko and John Lennon to cut off their hair for him; Jiang Qing, aka Madame Mao, who clung to her thwarted dreams of acting as she rose to be the most powerful woman in China; Afeni Shakur, the Black Panther and mother of the rapper Tupac. For someone who professes to side with "the people", Curtis has a Nietzschean fascination with thugs and strongmen. Their stories are told via detours to Dominic Cummings, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang, Lee Harvey Oswald, the Illuminati and MK-Ultra, among others.
Curtis explains how the seeds of paranoia were sown and the conditions under which they sprouted and flourished – the fertile soil of the JFK assassination, the waters of Watergate, the valium sold as harmless until it became clear it was anything but, the growing domination by China – is all laid out. The chance technological solutions to relatively small problems that led to a capacity for mass surveillance and to unimagined power being handed to banks, giving rise – effectively – to a shadow system of government.
The power dynamic, how it shifts, how it hides and how it is used to shape our world – the world in which we ordinary people must live – is Curtis's great interest. He ranges from the literal rewriting of history by Chairman Mao's formidable fourth wife, Jiang Qing, during the Cultural Revolution to the psychologists plumbing the depths of "the self" and trying to impose behaviours on drugged and electro-shocked subjects. He moves from the infiltration of the Black Panthers by undercover officers inciting and facilitating more violence than the movement had ever planned or been able to carry out alone, to the death of paternalism in industry and its replacement by official legislation drafted by those with hidden and vested interests.
The idea that we are indeed living, as posited by various figures in the documentary, in a world made up of strata of artifice laid down by those more or less malevolently in charge becomes increasingly persuasive.
Part one - Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain:
https://youtu.be/BMyctuzjrlI
Part two - Shooting and F**king are the Same Thing:
https://youtu.be/uIS32T33HNE
Part three - Money Changes Everything:
https://youtu.be/oxK8F7hcFn4
Part four - But What If the People are Stupid:
https://youtu.be/KdKpy6Agcog
Part five - The Lordly Ones:
https://youtu.be/2t5R_TBDctk
Part six - Are We Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer?:
https://youtu.be/9Q1hZmAcE08
The exposure of politicians banks wall street etc
Twitter Bans Three More Dissenters
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 05:15
They're going to silence us all, eventually, if they can. On Saturday, the sanctimonious and hypocritical censors of Twitter came for Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft, radio host Wayne Allyn Root , and freedom activist Pamela Geller. Their crime? It appears to have been the heinous act of skepticism toward the official line, specifically, their refusal to accept at face value the official line about the 2020 election.
Root said : ''I am in shock. It appears to be a permanent ban. Although I don't know. Twitter never warned me. . . . And never sent any communication saying I've been suspended or banned. I simply tried to tweet yesterday afternoon and could not. But unlike a previous suspension . . . My followers suddenly said 0.''
What Twitter wrote to Geller made clear what was going on:
Your account, PamelaGeller has been suspended for violating the Twitter rules.
Specifically, for:
Violating our rules about election integrity . You may not use Twitter's services for the purpose of manipulating or interfering in elections. This includes posting or sharing content that may suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, or how to vote.
Note that if you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts. If you wish to appeal this suspension, please contact our support team.
Thanks,
Twitter
This is absurd from start to finish. Neither Pamela Geller nor Root nor Hoft did anything to ''suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, or how to vote.'' Twitter apparently hasn't even bothered to update its ban notice since before November 3. Nor did they do anything along the lines of ''manipulating or interfering in elections.''
Still, there is no doubt that if Geller did take Twitter up on its magnanimous grant to her of a chance to appeal, the appeal would be denied. Twitter's nameless, faceless wonks are judge, jury, and executioner, and no one can question their sagacity or righteousness of their decisions.
What Geller, Root, and Hoft did, of course, was simply report and highlight the many irregularities and unanswered questions surrounding the 2020 presidential election. Twitter, along with the other social media giants and the establishment media outlets, are labeling all questioning of the election as ''lies'' and are busy banning any suggestion that there was anything amiss about the election at all, without even bothering to explain all the issues. This is the way a guilty person who is trying to cover up his misdeeds acts, not the way a victor behaves when he knows he has won fair and square and is happy to set the record straight.
Meanwhile, these new bans came just two days after Time published an article titled, ''The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election.'' In it, Time 's Molly Ball boasted of
a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it.
Not rigging the election, but fortifying it. Right. And how exactly does one ''fortify'' an election? From the looks of Ball's article, by rigging it.
Ball presents abundant indications of manipulation and chicanery in a fulsome self-congratulatory tone that works assiduously to turn reality on its head. A photo of Detroit campaign workers covering the windows so that no one could see what they were doing as they counted the votes'--not exactly a hallmark of a free and fair election'--is spun with the caption: ''Trump supporters seek to disrupt the vote count at Detroit's TCF Center on Nov. 4.''
Ian Bassin, cofounder of Protect Democracy, is quoted boasting that ''the system didn't work magically. Democracy is not self-executing.'' It has to be executed by someone else, and it looks as if Bassin and others like him were only too happy to serve as executioners.
Contrary to Bassin's statement, our ''democracy'' (which, as you may know or should know, is'--or was'--actually a republic), is set up to be ''self-executing,'' that is, the process should not be more complicated than each candidate making his case before the voters, and the voters freely voting. Ball details how corporate interests silenced opposing views and manipulated laws to ensure their desired result, all while writing darkly about Trump and his ''henchmen'' attempting to steal the election and destroy our ''democracy.''
Time and Molly Ball may not have intended it, but now the cat is out of the bag. So the next step of the political and media elites is to silence those who keep pointing out the abundant signs of voter fraud, claim that they're ''lying,'' and that they have to be muzzled for the public good.
Hence the banning of Wayne Allyn Root, Jim Hoft, and Pamela Geller. But as of this writing, Molly Ball and Time still have their Twitter accounts. See, there is ''manipulating or interfering in elections'' and there is ''manipulating or interfering in elections.'' Twitter is fine with boasting about doing it for the Left. Twitter is not fine with people who oppose it pointing out that it was done.
It's all reminiscent of an older charge that has been leveled against Pamela Geller: that of being an ''Islamophobe.'' When she would quote bloodthirsty Islamic jihadis justifying their actions by quoting the Koran, she'--not the jihadis'--was called an ''Islamophobe.'' Her words'--not those of the Koran'--were dismissed as ''hate speech.''
It has all been a shell game from start to finish, and the game isn't over. The Left has arrogated to itself the right to judge what can and cannot be said in the public square. The Hoft, Root, and Geller Twitter accounts are not the first casualties of their fascist suppression of dissent, and they won't be the last. Freedom of speech? Pah! That is so 20th century. Don't you want to join Molly Ball and Time in the brave new world, in which one saves democracy by destroying it? You may not ultimately have any choice, comrade.
Google Quietly Escalates Manual Search Censorship
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:38
Google has quietly escalated censorship of its market-dominating search engine, adding a range of new topics where human moderators are allowed to manually penalize websites, suppressing them in search results.
If a website is affected by one of these manual acts of censorship, ''some or all of that site will not be shown in Google search results,'' according to the tech giant.
The list, published in full on Google's support website, includes the following:
Discover policy violation: Adult-themed contentNews and Discover policy violation: Dangerous contentNews and Discover policy violation: Harassing contentNews and Discover policy violation: Hateful contentNews and Discover policy violation: Manipulated mediaNews and Discover policy violation: Medical contentDiscover policy violation: Misleading contentNews and Discover policy violation: Sexually explicit contentNews and Discover policy violation: Terrorist contentNews policy violation: TransparencyNews and Discover policy violation: Violence and gore contentNews and Discover policy violation: Vulgar language and profanityPublishers who have been hit with a manual action by Google will be able to appeal the decision by ''fixing'' whatever issue violated the policy and then submitting their website to Google for a review. Google states that it could take ''several days or a week'' for the tech giant to reach a final decision, leaving
Once upon a time, Google attempted to conceal its censorship of search. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai insisted, under oath before congress, that the company does not ''manually intervene on any particular search result,'' a statement that one of Google's own former employees said was a lie.
Leaks like the ''Good Censor'' briefing and YouTube's search blacklists, both published by Breitbart News, attracted viral attention because they revealed manual censorship of search results, in particular political search results, and contrary to Pichai's statements, occurred regularly at Google.
But as Republicans failed to impose any consequences on Google or other tech companies for their growing political interference and erosion of Americans' ability to exercise their First Amendment rights online, Google and other tech companies became less concerned about hiding their acts of censorship.
Analysis by Breitbart News also revealed that Google suppressed links to conservative news websites, including Breitbart, on searches for ''Biden'' and ''Joe Biden'' ahead of the 2020 election '-- but this was discovered in part by anaylzing data from Google's own publisher console, a sign of how relaxed the tech giant has become about its political interference being discovered.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. His new book, #DELETED: Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election, which contains exclusive interviews with sources inside Google, Facebook, and other tech companies, is currently available for purchase.
Twitter will explore letting users receive payments from followers | Article [AMP] | Reuters
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 13:52
Wed Feb 10, 2021 / 7:48 PM EST
(Reuters) - Twitter Inc Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said Wednesday the company is exploring allowing its users to receive tips, or digital payments, from their followers.
Dorsey said the feature would help the social media platform earn more money and engagement from its base of 192 million daily users.
"I think the first thing we want to focus on is that economic incentive to people who are contributing to Twitter," he said at the virtual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.
Introducing user tipping and new features like content subscriptions would help the company diversify its revenue, which it currently earns mainly from selling advertising on Twitter.
The company said Tuesday during an earnings call with analysts that he did not expect subscriptions to be meaningful to the company's revenue until next year.
Last month, Twitter bought newsletter startup Revue, as it hopes to attract users wanting to create long-form content.
(Reporting by Sheila Dang; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Google News - The environmental idiocy of Tesla's bitcoin bet
The Great Awakening
BTC
The Coming Indian Bitcoin Ban | ZeroHedge
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 14:31
There has been talk for a few weeks now of a possible Indian bitcoin ban as well as an Indian ban of all non-State sponsored cryptocurrencies to pave the way for an RBI (Reserve Bank of India) cryptocurrency. Now, according to the latest report from a senior Indian Finance Ministry official that stated, ''Cryptocurrency isn't fiat currency backed by the Reserve Bank of India, and its usage in all forms will be banned through the new law that will be introduced in Parliament,'' India will pass legislation soon that will ban cryptocurrencies within the nation, a decision that will obviously significantly impact 7 million Indians that collectively hold more than $1 billion in cryptos. However, the details of the ban are still lacking. Will only trading be banned, or will ownership be banned as well? And if ownership is banned, will the Indian bitcoin ban try to force conversion of BTC and all other cryptocurrencies back into rupees, as was attempted with a Modi-led 2016 gold demonetization plan (that thank God, for Indian citizens, miserably failed)?
For years, my warnings about a country passing legislation to ban bitcoin have largely been ignored, even in this article I published more than eight years ago in which I explicitly stated, I '' believe it is inevitable that bankers will attack the BTC network'' that would pave the way for its banned use within nations' economies. And for those that have always insisted that cryptocurrencies, and bitcoin in particular, could never be banned unless the internet was banned, as a completely illogical and not very-well-thought-out argument, especially since States had used legislation to effectively ban the use of gold and silver coins as money in the wider economy even as their State mints printed and sold them, the Indian bitcoin ban is about to prove my argument from years prior. Even despite these concerns, in November 2020, due to the positioning of some whales in the BTC market and future price action that I interpreted to be inevitable, I accurately predicted that BTC's price would soar to $40k in 2021. Regarding gold, the law that prevents gold coins from circulating in any State run economy are laws that mandate that the value of a gold coin in any economic transaction is limited to not its market price but its exponentially lower face value.
At prices listed by most dealers today, for purchases of 1-ounce American gold eagles under a total of $20,000, a gold coin will cost about $1,990. However, were you to spend a gold coin in America, it is illegal for a merchant to give you any more credit than its face value or $50. Obviously, no one is going to pay $1,990 for a gold coin and accept $50 of credit when using it as money. And this is how legislation has effectively banned gold as money in the global economy.
The concerning aspect of this situation is that clearly, India is state firmly under the control of Central Bankers, as evidenced by India's 2014 Aadhaar efforts to create a digital information database on nearly all 1.1 billion Indians (the population at the time, though it is now 1.3 billion) by collecting their fingerprints and retinal scans, as well as Indian PM Modi's 2016 initiative to ban, overnight, the use of nearly 86% of all rupees in circulation at the time, a move that likely caused thousands of deaths, if not more, from the inability of the poor to buy food. At the time, former Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram ffered a scathing, angry and deserved critique of Modi: ''you go there (rural areas of India) and the people ask 'What digital?' It is very difficult to get away with a lie. The best way to do so is to utter the biggest lie.'' In this critique, Chidambaram refuted Modi's claims that the poor in India still had access to money dispute Modi's decree that wiped out 85% of cash in circulation due to India's prior year efforts to digitize the economy that still gave access to poor people to digital money. Instead, Chidabaram refuted Modi's claims as the ''biggest lie'' and claimed thousands, if not more, of the Indian poor would starve to death as a direct result of Modi's decree.
Were I to decide between who to believe, Chidambaram or Modi in regard to ten thousand issued economic statements, I would believe Chidambaram ten thousand times to none over Modi. Recall that on my own news site, more than five years ago, I outed Modi as a liar for promoting a gold ''monetization'' plan that was, in reality, a gold demonetization plan and a State and Reserve Bank of India effort to confiscate physical gold holdings from Indian citizens and in turn, give them worthless paper with a meager annual interest rate that physical gold's annual price appreciation was sure to far outpace. I also pointed out the comical nature of all the mass media outlets reference to Modi's gold demonetization scheme as a gold ''monetization'' scheme, revealing the inseparable ties between mass media journalism and Statism.
In conclusion, the reason why India's upcoming bitcoin ban and cryptocurrency ban is troubling is that India has always been a testing ground for global initiatives, including even their rapid conversion from a nation that Mastercard called among the worst prepared for a digital economy into one, less than a year later, in which 95% of all 1.1 billion (at the time) Indian citizens possessed a unique digital identification number based upon fingerprints and retinal scans that could be used for transactions in a digital economy. If you are wondering how the 2016 digital transformation of India was tied to the WEF's great economic reset and global digital transformation initiatives, then please make sure you subscribe to my newsletter here and my podcast here (especially if you would like to listen to a special patron only podcast in which I explain how bankers use margin requirements in futures markets to artificially create price declines in gold and silver futures prices).
Please note that you can always access my published content first, before anywhere else, on my listed news site above. Secondly as all my content is 100% supported and its continuation is only possible with the support of my content consumers, if you would like to support me, you may do so by becoming a patreon here or by making a contribution at my gofundme site here.
Other fresh skwealthacademy content released this week:
A Question Sure to Provoke Much Introspection, Have You Ever Had a Conversation with a Common Person In Your Life?
The Indian Bitcoin Ban (and Bonus Talk About the Incredible Story of Francis Ngannou)
The Final Truth About the Reddit Gamestop and AMC Short Squeeze
Ex-CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo Stumps for Digital Dollar - CoinDesk
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 06:40
"Crypto Dad" made his case for the next evolution of America's greenback.
Feb 12, 2021 at 3:12 p.m. UTC Updated Feb 12, 2021 at 5:57 p.m. UTC
Ex-CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo Stumps for Digital DollarFormer CFTC chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo laid out his case for state-issued digital currencies on CoinDesk TV's ''First Mover'' program Friday morning.
Speaking as G7 leaders were set to meet with central bank digital currencies (CBDC) on their agenda, the regulator sometimes known as "crypto dad" pushed for a U.S. digital dollar that strikes a balance between privacy rights and society's best interests.He also waxed prophetic on the potential reach of China's digital yuan project, saying that while he is not an alarmist on the world's fastest-developing CBDC, governments must remain mindful of its reach."A digital yuan would present the opportunity to basically bypass the global bank based system and arrange for direct payments, and therefore our ability to use sanctions would be diminished," he said.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Jay-Z Announce Bitcoin Endowment 'Btrust' With Initial Focus on India, Africa | Technology News
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 12:39
Twitter CEO and Co-Founder Jack Dorsey on Friday announced that he was giving BTC 500 (approximately Rs. 172 crores) along with American rapper Shawn Corey Carter '-- famously known as Jay-Z '-- to launch a new endowment called Btrust. It will be aimed at funding Bitcoin development, with initial focus in Africa and India, the executive said. The latest move by Dorsey comes at a time when the Indian government is looking for ways to ban all ''private'' cryptocurrencies. Also, the interest to fund Bitcoin development emerges amid all-time growth of the cryptocurrency.
Dorsey, 44, took to Twitter to announce the launch of his Bitcoin endowment Btrust. ''It'll be set up as a blind irrevocable trust, taking zero direction from us,'' he said.
Alongside announcing the plans for the endowment, Dorsey noted the requirement of three board members to start the new development. He also provided a link to a Google form for as a board member application. The form also mentioned that the mission of Btrust is to ''make Bitcoin the Internet's currency.''
Dorsey has been one of the prominent technology executives supporting Bitcoin. Last month, he explained why he's passionate about the cryptocurrency in the midst of a thread on Twitter about banning former US President Donald Trump following the Capitol Hall violence.
''The reason I have so much passion for Bitcoin is largely because of the model it demonstrates: a foundational Internet technology that is not controlled or influenced by any single individual or entity,'' he had tweeted. ''This is what the Internet wants to be, and over time, more of it will be.''
In October last year, Dorsey's payments company Square bought up $50 million worth of Bitcoin to make the decentralised currency more accessible through its mobile payments service Cash App. Dorsey also in 2018 also mentioned in a media interview that he believed Bitcoin would once become the world's single currency.
Twitter was also reported to have Bitcoin payments in consideration for bringing a tipping feature.
Having said that, Dorsey's newest development towards supporting Bitcoin comes amid ongoing debate about fast-pacing growth of the cryptocurrency. Tesla CEO and US billionaire Elon Musk also expressed his favour for Bitcoin, and his company even invested $1.5 billion (roughly Rs. 10,915 crores) in the currency.
At the same time, the Indian government is once again planning to ban Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies in the country. A bill has been in development with a title ''The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021'' to prohibit ''all private'' cryptocurrencies, while exploring the possibility of issuing a digital version of the rupee.
What will be the most exciting tech launch of 2021? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
LINCOLN PROJECT to launch outside probe amid new revelations...
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 05:11
NEW YORK (AP) '-- The Lincoln Project, one of the best-known and best-funded organizations in the so-called Never Trump movement, announced plans late Thursday to launch an external investigation to review the tenure of a co-founder accused of sexual harassment.
The announcement came hours after The Associated Press reported that members of the organization's leadership were informed in writing and in subsequent phone calls of at least 10 specific allegations of sexual harassment against co-founder John Weaver, including two involving Lincoln Project employees. The revelations raised questions about the Lincoln Project's statement last month that it was ''shocked'' when accusations surfaced publicly this year.
In a statement released Thursday evening, the organization announced that its board had decided to retain ''a best-in-class outside professional'' to review Weaver's tenure ''to establish both accountability and best practices going forward for The Lincoln Project.''
The organization also encouraged anyone bound by a nondisclosure agreement to contact the Lincoln Project ''for a release.''
The situation threatens the stature of not just the Lincoln Project but also the broader coalition of establishment-oriented Republican groups working to excise Trump from the party.
Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt insisted Wednesday night that he and the rest of the group's leadership were not aware of any internal allegations of wrongdoing involving Weaver.
''The Lincoln Project believes the members of our movement and the victims of John Weaver's despicable and deceptive behavior are owed the facts, and you will have them,'' the organization said in a written statement Thursday night. ''John Weaver betrayed all of us and you deserve the facts presented independently through a transparent process.''
Weaver declined to comment for the AP's earlier story, but in a statement released late last month to Axios, he generally acknowledged misconduct and apologized.
''To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry,'' he wrote. ''They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you.''
Pediatrician, 33, at Stanford Children's Hospital is arrested on lewd charges | Daily Mail Online
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:26
Stanford Children's Hospital pediatrician, 33, is arrested in 'pedophile sting after showing up to meet an underage girl he'd sent porn to' and being met by cops insteadDylan O'Connor, 33, was arrested after arranging to meet up with the girl for sex in Redwood City, California, police saidCops received a tip about him from the San Jose Police DepartmentThey carried out a sting, posing as an underage girl, to lure O'ConnorHe sent her explicit photos and then planned to meet her for sex Last Friday, he drove to an address to meet her and was greeted by cops O'Connor has been placed on unpaid administrative leave by Stanford and is awaiting a court date By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com
Published: 16:45 EST, 10 February 2021 | Updated: 17:38 EST, 10 February 2021
Dylan O'Connor, 33, was arrested 'after arranging to meet up with the girl for sex' in Redwood City, California
A pediatrician at Stanford Children's Hospital has been arrested after trying to arrange a date with police officers who were posing as an underage girl, and sending them explicit photos.
Dylan O'Connor, 33, was arrested after arranging to meet up with the girl for sex in Redwood City, California, police said.
He had also sent her explicit photographs, they said. It's unclear if they were of him or someone else, but the cops said they were 'pornographic'.
He was taken into custody on charges of sending harmful material to a juvenile and traveling to meet a minor for lewd purposes, which are both felonies.
Redwood City Police started investigating him after receiving a tip from the San Jose Police Department about O'Connor.
The officers posed online as the girl and told him she was underage, but he still arranged to meet them for sex, they said.
O'Connor is on unpaid leave as a doctor at the Lucile Packard Stanford Children's Hospital in Palo Alto
On Friday, O'Connor drove to an address where he'd arranged to meet the girl but was instead greeted by police officers and arrested immediately.
His bio has been removed from Stanford Children Hospital's website.
O'Connor arranged to meet the girl for sex and also sent her pornographic images. He was arrested at a home where he'd planned to meet her and was greeted by cops
In a statement, a spokesman said he'd been barred from his job.
'Upon learning of Dr. O'Connor's arrest, Stanford immediately placed him on unpaid administrative leave and relieved him of all duties.
'These are serious criminal charges, which we understand are still under investigation by law enforcement, so we are unable to comment further at this time,' a spokesman said.
The police officers also raided his home. They are now looking for other potential victims, they said.
It's unclear if O'Connor is married.
Public records list his address as a three-bedroom home in Redwood City worth around $2million.
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Morgan Stanley Unit Considers $150 Billion Bitcoin Investment: Bloomberg - CoinDesk
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 16:24
Morgan Stanley already has a nearly 11% stake in the bitcoin-laden business intelligence company MicroStrategy.
Morgan Stanley (Image via TK Kurikawa / Shutterstock)
Feb 13, 2021 at 3:46 p.m. UTC Updated Feb 13, 2021 at 3:49 p.m. UTC
Morgan Stanley Unit Considers $150 Billion Bitcoin Investment: BloombergMorgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global investment unit is considering placing a $150 billion bet on bitcoin, according to a report by Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
In order to move ahead with an investment would need approval by the firm and regulators, Bloomberg noted.If true, this investment would not be Morgan Stanley's first exposure to the leading cryptocurrency. Already, it has a nearly 11% stake in the bitcoin-laden business intelligence company MicroStrategy, per CoinDesk's reporting.Analysts at Morgan Stanley say bitcoin has potential to strongly compete with the dollar, but acknowledge in a recent report that the more investors "hodl" bitcoin, the weaker its appeal to be used as a currency becomes.A spokesperson from the investment bank declined to comment.The investment unit manages nearly 20 funds, and Bloomberg reports five of those funds returned gains over 100% last year.
Zuckerberg's comment seeking violence against Apple brings out the CEO's thuggish, mob-like behavior - PhoneArena
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 11:54
Facebook itself admits that it is facing tough times ahead. When Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature launches to all with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, it will ask users to opt-in if they want to continue being tracked for advertising purposes. Most people are expected to automatically opt out and this has Facebook and its executives livid. The social networking firm ran a full-page ad against
Apple in December; that same month Facebook's VP for ads and Business Products, Dan Levy, said, "Apple is behaving anti-competitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of creators and small businesses. Full stop."
Zuckerberg told his team to inflict pain on Apple back in 2018
What has Facebook so upset is the potential drop in advertising revenue that it says could occur once Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature is disseminated. For all of 2020, Facebook generated $85 billion in advertising revenue and the company itself said last year that as much as 50% in advertising revenue is at risk thanks to Apple's ATT. This means that plenty of money is on the line.
Mark Zuckerberg told his team to inflict pain on Apple after Tim Cook made some comments back in 2018
This isn't the first time that Zuckerberg has showed serious animosity toward Apple.
According to the Wall Street Journal, back in 2018 when word got out that 87 million Facebook subscribers had their personal data stolen by a firm called Cambridge Analytica, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an nationally televised interview that
Apple would never make its customers the product. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a subsequent meeting, told his team in private that "we need to inflict pain" on Apple because the tech giant has treated his company so poorly. In public, those familiar with his response say that Zuckerberg responded to the Apple executive by calling his comments "extremely glib" and "not at all aligned with the truth."
The battle between Apple and Facebook reminds us of the old-time Westerns. Apple is wearing the white hat as it rides in as the good guys seeking to uphold privacy throughout the town. Facebook wears the black hat and has been terrorizing citizens. But Facebook sees Apple's actions as hypocritical since it does plenty of business in China where personal privacy is scarce. Apple's Cook most likely had Facebook in mind when he gave a speech last month putting down "conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms." Coming days after the Capitol was under siege, the executive's comments were aimed at Facebook users who were spreading baseless conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 presidential election and other bogus stories pushed by QAnon believers and other conspiracy theorists. Again, the CEO didn't refer to Facebook by name, but it was clear that
it was Facebook he was calling out for having a business model that he said promotes violence and divisiveness.
Both Apple and Facebook have different plans for the internet which also intensifies the battle between the two firms. The WSJ notes that Facebook is looking "to capture and monetize eyeballs on every possible device and platform." Apple is focusing on its hardware and is promoting its privacy platform as a reason why consumers should purchase its devices and favor its ecosystem.
A Facebook spokeswoman named Dani Lever said that the company believes consumers can enjoy both personalized service and privacy and that Facebook delivers both. Lever says that Facebook is "deliberately standing up to Apple" on behalf of businesses and developers who will be hurt by Apple's App Tracking Transparency feature. She declared that this dispute is not personal and added to that by stating, "This is not about two companies. This is about the future of the free internet. Apple claims this is about privacy, but it's about profit, and we're joining others to point out their self-preferencing, anticompetitive behavior."
Noodlegun
KPMG UK boss quits after telling staff unconscious bias is 'complete crap' | The Independent
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 15:03
The UK chair of big four accounting firm KPMG has resigned after allegedly telling staff to ''stop moaning'' about the Covid-19 pandemic and that unconscious bias was ''complete crap''.
Bill Michael will step down from the audit giant at the end of the month after details of what he said during a virtual staff meeting on Monday were revealed.
''I love the firm and I am truly sorry that my words have caused hurt amongst my colleagues and for the impact the events of this week have had on them,'' the 52-year-old Australian said.
''In light of that, I regard my position as untenable and so I have decided to leave the firm.
''It has been a privilege to have acted as chair of KPMG. I feel hugely proud of all our people and the things they have achieved, particularly during these very challenging times.''
The decision to leave the company comes two days after Mr Michael stepped aside while KPMG investigated his remarks.
The senior partner is reported to have told staff to ''stop moaning'' and ''playing the victim card'' when it came to the pandemic in a call with around a third of the firm's 1,500 employees.
He also reportedly spoke about meeting clients for coffee during the pandemic.
Mr Michael was admitted to hospital with Covid-19 in 2020.
He was also reported to have described unconscious bias as ''complete crap''.
Mr Michael's comments triggered anger from some employees on an app used to post comments during the meeting.
''There's no such thing as unconscious bias?! Are you joking? Please do your research before just making such statements. Check your privilege,'' one employee wrote, according to records reviewed by the Financial Times.
Two senior KPMG members, Bina Mehta and Mary O'Connor, will take over Mr Michael's duties between them, becoming acting chair and acting senior partner.
Ms Mehta said: ''Bill has made a huge contribution to our firm over the last 30 years, especially over the last three years as chairman, and we wish him all the best for the future.''
Chris Harrison: Bachelor host to step aside over racism row - BBC News
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 05:25
image copyright Getty Images
image caption Chris Harrison has been the host of The Bachelor since 2002The long-time host of hit US dating show The Bachelor has said he is stepping aside after widespread criticism of his comments on race.
Chris Harrison drew ire after he excused behaviour of a current cast member that some said was racist, saying he was not the "woke police".
"By excusing historical racism, I defended it," the 49-year-old host said in an Instagram post announcement.
This current season is the first to feature a black lead.
In June 2020, fans of the ABC show petitioned for it to address the unequal treatment of cast members of colour.
At the forefront of that initiative was Rachel Lindsay, who at the time was the only black lead to have ever served on The Bachelor's sister show, The Bachelorette.
The show responded with a promise to address their race issues by casting more people of colour. They announced the first black lead, Matt James, as the next Bachelor on 12 June 2020, following the protests over George Floyd's death.
image copyright Craig Sjodin/ABC
image caption First black Bachelor, Matt JamesOnce again, Mrs Lindsay is embroiled in the latest race-related scandal facing the show.
When pictures surfaced of current contestant Rachael Kirkonnell at an Old South fraternity formal at a former slave plantation in 2018, she drew immediate criticism from fans. Ms Kirkonnell has since apologised.
In an interview with Mrs Lindsey on Extra TV, Mr Harrison defended Ms Kirkonnell, a current front-runner who has yet to be eliminated from the show.
"I saw a picture of her at a sorority party five years ago and that's it," said Mr Harrison. Ms Lindsay reminded him the photo had been taken in 2018, which "wasn't a good look".
"Well, Rachel, is it a good look in 2018? Or, is it not a good look in 2021? Because there's a big difference," said Mr Harrison.
To this, Mrs Lindsay pushed back and said: "It's not a good look ever."
"I am not the woke police," he replied, a phrase he reiterated several times throughout the interview.
After the interview went live on Tuesday, a petition for the network to fire him went viral. By Saturday morning, it had amassed 38,000 signatures.
Mrs Lindsay, who met her now-husband on the show, addressed her 13-minute interview with Mr Harrison on a podcast she hosts on Friday.
"During that conversation, he talked over me and at me, during that conversation," she said.
"He never gave me room to talk. And he never gave me room to share my perspective. He wasn't trying to hear it. He was just trying to be heard."
image copyright Getty Images
image caption Rachel Lindsay and Bryan AbasoloOver the next few days, fans pressured former cast members with big Instagram followings to speak out.
In a surprising turn, many broke allegiance with the beloved long-time host.
Ben Higgins and Joelle Fletcher, both good friends of Mr Harrison and considered frontrunners to succeed him should he eventually retire, condemned his words.
"Chris' statements were harmful. They were not helpful," Mr Higgins wrote on Instagram.
The momentum snowballed as the entire cast from this season posted a joint statement standing by Mrs Lindsey.
"We are the women of Season 25," the statement begins.
"Rachel Lindsay continues to advocate" for people of colour on the franchise, it reads.
"We stand with her, we hear her, and we advocate for change alongside her."
Although Mr Harrison issued an initial apology on Thursday it was not satisfactory for many members of Bachelor Nation, the self-proclaimed name given to fans of the show, and the number of people petitioning for his firing grew.
After two days of silence, he announced on Saturday he would be taking a step back "for a period of time".
"To the Black community, to the BIPOC community: I am so sorry. My words were harmful," he said on Instagram.
Mr Harrison said he was "dedicated to getting educated on a more profound and productive level than ever before".
Mr James' season is just over halfway and has already been filmed, so Mr Harrison will not be absent from viewers' screens just yet.
It remains to be seen if he will host the next season of The Bachelorette, which is set to begin filming this spring in Canada.
SJW
Oregon promotes teacher program that seeks to undo 'racism in mathematics' | Fox News
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:14
The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) recently encouraged teachers to register for training that encourages "ethnomathematics" and argues, among other things, that White supremacy manifests itself in the focus on finding the right answer.
An ODE newsletter sent last week advertises a Feb. 21 "Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course," which is designed for middle school teachers to make use of a toolkit for "dismantling racism in mathematics." The event website identifies the event as a partnership between California's San Mateo County Office of Education, The Education Trust-West and others.
Part of the toolkit includes a list of ways "white supremacy culture" allegedly "infiltrates math classrooms." Those include "the focus is on getting the 'right' answer," students being "required to 'show their work,'" and other alleged manifestations.
"The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so," the document for the "Equitable Math" toolkit reads. "Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict."
The ODE, led by Colt Gill, confirmed the letter to Fox News. ODE Communications Director Marc Siegel also defended the "Equitable Math" educational program, saying it "helps educators learn key tools for engagement, develop strategies to improve equitable outcomes for Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, and join communities of practice."
UNIVERSITY CANCELS EVENT FOR WHITES TO 'PROCESS' THEIR 'COMPLICITY IN UNJUST SYSTEMS' AFTER BACKLASH
An associated "Dismantling Racism" workbook, linked within the toolkit, similarly identifies "objectivity" -- described as "the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or 'neutral'" -- as a characteristic of White supremacy.
Instead of focusing on one right answer, the toolkit encourages teachers to "come up with at least two answers that might solve this problem."
It adds: "Challenge standardized test questions by getting the 'right' answer, but justify other answers by unpacking the assumptions that are made in the problem."
It also encourages teachers to "center ethnomathematics," which includes a variety of guidelines. One of them instructs educators to "identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views."
TEACHERS AT POSH NYC SCHOOL RELEASE 8-PAGE ANTI-RACISM MANIFESTO, SPARK UPROAR: REPORT
The newsletter surfaced amid a broader uproar over critical race theory and diversity training sessions in government entities. For example, a media frenzy erupted last year after a controversial graphic on "whiteness" surfaced from National Museum for African American History and Culture.
The museum's graphic broke the "aspects and assumptions of whiteness" into categories such as "rugged individualism" and "history." For example, under "future orientation," the graphic listed "delayed gratification" and planning for the future as ideas spread by White culture.
The training promoted by Oregon references a 2016 workbook titled "Dismantling Racism."
POLITICAL SCIENTIST SAYS BLM CURRICULUM IS 'DESTRUCTIVE' TO THE BLACK COMMUNITY
"We do not claim to have 'discovered' or to 'own' the ideas in this workbook any more than Columbus can claim to have discovered or own America," the workbook reads in one section.
It's unclear to what extent, if at all, teachers would be involved with this particular workbook, created by the group DismantlingRacism.org, but it appeared to form part of the foundation for the course's material.
"The framework for deconstructing racism in mathematics offers essential characteristics of antiracist math educators and critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by visualizing the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture," the toolkit reads before linking to both the workbook and a paper on "white supremacy culture."
The toolkit adds that "building on the framework, teachers engage with critical praxis in order to shift their instructional beliefs and practices toward antiracist math education. By centering antiracism, we model how to be antiracist math educators with accountability."
In one section of the "Dismantling Racism" workbook, the argument is made that "only white people can be racist in our society, because only white people as a group have that power." Another section seems to justify anti-cop sentiments.
"In some cases, the prejudices of oppressed people ('you can't trust the police') are necessary for survival," it reads.
That particular workbook seems to take a decidedly anti-capitalist tone as well.
"We cannot dismantle racism in a system that exploits people for private profit," it reads. "If we want to dismantle racism, then we must build a movement for economic justice." One of the graphics includes protesters calling for taxes on corporations. Quotes are also featured from Howard Zinn, a self-described socialist, and Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, although the quotes are more generally about activism rather than economics.
WEBSITE LAUNCHED TO TRACK CRITICAL RACE THEORY TRAINING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Anti-racism curricula have received an array of criticism and support.
For example, political scientist Carol M. Swain told Fox News' Laura Ingraham last week that certain curricula "put forth by Black Lives Matter and being embraced in too many places is really destructive of the Black community and the Black family and racial justice."
Angela Onwuachi-Willig, an expert on critical race theory at Boston University School of Law, told the Boston Globe that critical race theory helped people understand the complexity of race '' beyond "simple" narratives that they may have been taught.
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"Racism is not extraordinary," she continued. "Race and racism are basically baked into everything we do in our society. It's embedded in our institutions. It's embedded in our minds and hearts."
Attorney M.E. Hart, who has conducted these types of training sessions, told The Washington Post that the training helped people live up to "this nation's promise '' 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"
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VIDEO-Dr. Steve Pieczenik
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:02
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VIDEO-Grenell: Shadow presidency of Susan Rice is 'front and center' | Fox News Video
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VIDEO-CDC investigating death of Nebraska man who received COVID-19 vaccine
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:36
LINCOLN, Nebraska (KTIV) - Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a death in the state that may have been caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
Ricketts said the victim is a 40-year-old man from Nebraska, who lived in a long-term care facility and had multiple underlying conditions.
The governor said typically when there is a death due to a vaccine, it happens right away. And typically it's because of a severe allergic reaction, which is why COVID-19 vaccination clinics make you wait 15 minutes after getting the vaccine.
But the death occurred on Jan. 17, which is one to two weeks after he received his first dose.
"It's not clear that this person died because of the vaccine. It was listed as one of the causes in the death certificate. That's why we do the investigation. And the fact that it happened one to two weeks after the person received the vaccine means there was not a severe allergic reaction at the time the person received the vaccine," said Gov. Pete Ricketts, (R) Nebraska.
Ricketts says so far, 165,000 Nebraska residents have been vaccinated. This possible vaccine-related death investigation is the first. He says he wants to assure residents they are constantly monitoring vaccines to ensure these things don't happen.
''Residents of long-term care facilities have been made a high priority in the State to receive vaccinations, due to higher mortality rates in this medically frail population," said Dr. Gary Anthone, Nebraska's chief medical officer.
The death has been entered into the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a national vaccine safety surveillance program run by the CDC and the FDA. Officials say any death reported into VAERS is fully reviewed.
"We have confidence in the safety of the vaccine and understand that there may be questions about a situation such as this," said Anthone. "While I cannot speculate on this case, when individuals die days or weeks after the vaccine has been administered, it is more likely due to other underlying factors."
Anthone said individuals with high-risk conditions should consult their medical provider about the best approach when it comes to vaccinations.
From Dec. 14 to Feb. 7, the CDC and FDA have received 1,170 reports of death among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. That's about 0.003% of the over 41 million people who have been vaccinated so far, according to the CDC.
VIDEO-War Room explains how deep the CCP ties go in the compromised Biden regime
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:29
915 rumbles
Rumble '-- War Room explains how deep the CCP ties go in the compromised Biden regime, and Frank Gaffney warns of the dangers of Biden opening up America's grid to China: 90% of the population would be wiped out in an EMP attack.
... and disable advertisements! No kidding :)
VIDEO-Taken measures to keep Canadians safe or to keep Canadians controlled and in fear? #asshole #control #trudeausucks #nwo #globalist #communist #fear #lies #canada #nomadk #novaccine #nofear #riseup https://t.co/CuoeW0UgnQ" / Twitter
Sun, 14 Feb 2021 12:14
BLB : Another Freudian slip?Taken measures to keep Canadians safe or to keep Canadians controlled and in fear?'... https://t.co/4rjlRBHUqK
Sat Feb 13 14:19:48 +0000 2021
VIDEO-Cuomo's nursing home death coverup one of NY's worst scandals: Ex-Gov. George Pataki | Fox News
Sat, 13 Feb 2021 12:23
Published February 13, 2021
Pataki also described as selfish Cuomo's decision to publish a book about his COVID-19 leadership lessons just months into the pandemic.Former Gov. George Pataki unloaded on Gov. Andrew Cuomo, calling the COVID-19 nursing home death reporting "cover-up" scandal "one of the worst things I have seen in state government."
During an interview on AM 570 WMCA radio, Pataki called Cuomo's nursing home policies and actions "inhumane," "reprehensible," "outrageous," "despicable" and "beyond the pale."
He called for a criminal probe by the Biden Justice Department, state Attorney General Letitia James and independent investigation conducted by the state Legislature.
"This is one of the worst things I have seen in New York State government, and I've been following this for a long time," Pataki said of the nursing home death cover-up.
"This is one of the worst things I have seen in New York State government, and I've been following this for a long time."
'-- George Pataki, Republican former governor of New York
He also said the Legislature should curb Cuomo's emergency powers, which would "speed up" the COVID-19 vaccination rollout and end Albany's "micro-management."
CUOMO AVOIDS REPORTERS DURING WHITE HOUSE VISIT AS NEW YORK NURSING HOME SCANDAL GROWS
"You won't have people worried about getting fined a million dollars or losing your license if you give someone in category 2CW a vaccine as opposed to category 2AB. This is asinine micro-management," he said.
There's growing support among fellow Democrats who control the state Assembly and Senate to strip Cuomo of the powers they granted him last year to swiftly respond to the deadly COVID-19 outbreak following. Those powers expire on April 30.
Pataki said team Cuomo and his health department only started coming clean on nursing home deaths after state Attorney General Letitia James issued a stinging report that found that they misled the public by underreporting coronavirus deaths among facility residents by 50 percent '-- all by excluding people who died after being transported to hospitals.
A state judge also recently ordered Cuomo to release more complete nursing home death data after ruling his administration illegally withheld the information for months from the Empire Center for Public Policy. The watchdog group filed a legal request for the figures.
PELOSI ISSUES 'RARE REBUKE' AFTER CUOMO CLAIMS FEDS TRYING TO SHORTCHANGE NY IN CORONAVIRUS BILL: REPORTS
"We know they were hiding the number of deaths. It's just despicable," said Pataki.
Last May, Pataki criticized the state Health Department's directive ordering nursing homes to admit or re-admit recovering coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals during the height of the pandemic.
Critics have noted the policy contributed to the spread of the killer bug in the facilities housing the frail elderly.
"Just a few weeks we were told there were a little over 8,000 deaths. Now we're told the number is over 13,000," Pataki said Friday.
Pataki also described as selfish Cuomo's decision to publish a book about his COVID-19 leadership lessons just months into the pandemic.
TUCKER CARLSON: FROM ANDREW CUOMO TO THE LINCOLN PROJECT, MEDIA PROTECTED THE WORST OF POLITICS
"Writing a book about how great your leadership was when in fact you're aware you're covering up thousands of deaths '... Then continuing this charade about what a tremendous response there was. It's incomprehensible," the former Republican governor said.
"Writing a book about how great your leadership was when in fact you're aware you're covering up thousands of deaths '... It's incomprehensible."
'-- George Pataki, Republican former governor of New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, has drawn some sharp criticism from a Republican predecessor, former Gov. George Pataki.
Pataki, who led the state following the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, said, "I wasn't out there two months after the attack of Sept. 11 waving the flag and saying what a great job I did.
"It wasn't about me. It was about everyone who responded '-- the firefighters, the construction workers, the first responders, the people of New York."
Pataki also ripped Cuomo chief aide Melissa DeRosa's comments from a private meeting with state lawmakers Wednesday about refusing to release a full count of nursing home deaths because of an ongoing federal inquiry.
The damning numbers would be "used against us" by Trump's Justice Department, she said. The Post first reported DeRosa's explanation after obtaining an audiotape of the Zoom chat.
FLASHBACK: NY GOV. CUOMO DISBANDS HIS OWN ETHICS WATCHDOG COMMISSION
Pataki called her comments "a cover-up to avoid a possible criminal investigation. It certainly smells of obstruction of justice."
He also was slammed DeRosa's apology to Democrats who complained the stonewalling over the nursing home death left them open to criticism from Republican opponents.
"The fact that the administration apologized to Democrat politicians for their inconvenience but never apologized to the people or the families of those who died '-- that's inhumane," Pataki, who governed from 1995-2006, said.
In a statement Friday morning, DeRosa claimed that in her remarks, "I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature's request to deal with the federal request first."
In response to Pataki, the governor's office referred The Post to a statement issued by DeRosa earlier Friday.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
"I was explaining that when we received the DOJ inquiry, we needed to temporarily set aside the Legislature's request [for nursing home death data] to deal with the federal request first. We informed the houses of this at the time," DeRosa said.
"We were comprehensive and transparent in our responses to the DOJ, and then had to immediately focus our resources on the second wave and vaccine rollout. As I said on a call with legislators, we could not fulfill their request as quickly as anyone would have liked.
"But we are committed to being better partners going forward as we share the same goal of keeping New Yorkers as healthy as possible during the pandemic."
VIDEO-Impeachment manager mistakenly says Trump should 'be acquitted' - YouTube
VIDEO-'Impeachment Is Just The Beginning': Legal Analyst Predicts Criminal Charges For Trump | The Daily Caller
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 16:48
MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler predicted Friday that former President Donald Trump will face criminal charges.
''Impeachment is just the beginning for Donald Trump. He and his lawyers are going to be in criminal and civil courtrooms all over the United States,'' Butler said on MSNBC's ''Morning Joe.''
Butler said that Trump's impeachment defense is similar to his defense in Georgia.
''The defense is he didn't actually mean it. It's just Trump being Trump, you know how he is. So in impeachment he says, 'When I tell my supporters to fight, I don't mean that literally.' In Georgia it's the same. When I say, 'you need to find 100,000 votes,' I didn't actually mean that,'' Butler said.
''And the Republicans in the Senate may fall for that defense of 'don't believe your lying ears,' but I don't think an Atlanta jury would. I don't think that juries in these states where Trump faces civil and criminal liability are going to be nearly as sympathetic as these 44 Republican senators,'' he continued.
WATCH:
The Trump campaign launched multiple lawsuits over alleged voter fraud in the days and weeks following the presidential election.
The former president requested Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ''to find'' a sufficient amount of votes to win Georgia through a recount, according to a conversation The Washington Post obtained and published in January. (RELATED: President Trump Files 'Personal' Lawsuit In Wisconsin, Requests Legislature Choose New Electors)
The Post first released part of the phone conversation between Trump and Raffensperger that was over four minutes long and afterwards unveiled the full transcript and phone call audio.
The House voted 232-197 on Jan. 13 to impeach the former president again, charging him with a single article of ''incitement of insurrection.'' Convicting Trump requires 67 Senate votes, including at least 17 Republican votes, according to The Hill.
Trump's trial is set to last the weekend and may end at the beginning of next week, The Hill reported.
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VIDEO-Hip Hop Public Health '' Fostering health behavior changes among children and their families through music
Fri, 12 Feb 2021 13:42
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Reduction in purchased calories by student participants in Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S
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Program-related Peer Reviewed Academic Publications and Abstracts
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Of it's Kind Menu Board Literacy Evaluation Tool
