April 22nd, 2021 • 3h 12m
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.
Go Podcasting!
Apple event to Kill Podcasting
Tim Cook NLP prayimg hand gestures
Sad that DSC was highlighted
Index woes
Devs not Apple's customer
Overcast
V4V payments
Daring Fireball: Details on Apple's New Subscription Podcasts
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:14
Details on Apple's New Subscription PodcastsNathan Gathright:
I read through the ''Apple Podcasters Program Agreement'' and related documentation so you don't have to. Here's a thread of 11 things that caught my eye that I hadn't seen mentioned anywhere else. ['...]
10. ð'¸ Just like the App Store, Apple owns the customer relationship and can choose to offer a refund if they decide you haven't fulfilled the benefits offered in your subscription. You have to reimburse the money, but Apple retains their cut, natch.
It's pretty much exactly like the App Store: 70/30 for the first year of a subscription, 85/15 after that, and the customer relationship is between the user and Apple, not the user and the podcaster.
'
Wednesday, 21 April 2021
Head of Audio/Podcast Programming, Editorial & Publishing
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:48
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Housing
Homes and who is buying
Please keep me anonymous. Feel free to read or discuss on the show if you find any of this interesting or if topic comes back up, but my company is super woke, so do not want to be attached to comments.
Re: Real estate markets and institutional buyers
On show 1340, the real estate market and low amount of inventory came up a couple of times and you mentioned that part of the problem is banks buying up much of the supply. This is an area that I have standing and have had a front row seat since this shift began in the industry around 7ish years ago. Feel free to check my linkedin to confirm, but keep details, company names, etc. anonymous.
There are institutions buying up a huge amount of the inventory, but it is not the banks, per se. Goldman, JP Morgan, etc may be a part of the financing or providing lines of credit for these companies, but they are not buying anything themselves. The buyers are called Single Family Rental (SFR) REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). REIT is used loosely, as it is a specific real estate investment vehicle and some of these buyers are just private equity funds and would not technically qualify as a REIT. These funds are purchasing the properties to rent them out and will only sell a small handful of underperforming assets, but otherwise plan to hold them indefinitely. Several have also gotten into the build to rent space, where they are either building new construction on individual lots, which will then be a rental, or in some cases they are building entire rental neighborhoods.
Some of the larger institutions are Invitation Homes, American Homes 4 Rent, Tricon Residential, Main Street Renewal, Progress Residential and First Key Homes, which is owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus is the 3 headed dog in Greek mythology. Not sure if that has anything to do with anything, but I thought it was interesting. There are a lot of smaller players that are also competing to get into this space and by small, some of the unknowns are billion+ dollar funds.
Most operate in similar markets like Phoenix, Tampa, Atlanta, South FL, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Vegas, So Cal, Austin, Charlotte, Raleigh, Orlando, Nashville and others. To give you some sense of scale, in a small market like Austin, for example, just ONE of the players would regularly be buying 50-70+ homes per month. These are typically the homes that would be considered starter homes, so they are directly competing with a lot of millennials and gen Z first time buyers, making it harder for them to get onto the property ladder and keeping them in perpetual Tenant status.
These buyers are a big contributor to the lack of inventory and overheated real estate market. I do not think they will be slowing down anytime soon because when they raise capital, they have to deploy it, or they have to return it or pay interest on unused cash.
Hope this gives you a bit of insight into what is going on in the market. Good luck finding anything in or around Austin....
Thank you for your courage. Keep up the amazing deconstruction.
Best,
Anonymous
Let Us Out!
Suni reports in from route 66 trip
Adam,
I thought I would check in with y'all as I'm a little over a third of the way through my trip. I met with Dame Jennifer and some of the Lowcountry bunch in Charleston, lots of great conversations! And then a bit down the road I got to meet Sir 737 and some of the PA folks, which was pretty cool since for several of the longtime producers, this was their first MeetUp.
It's been interesting to see how different states in the South and East are handling the masking. In New Orleans, pretty much no one was wearing one or cared. While in North Carolina, they were far more rigid, at least the few places I went into seemed to be. Tennessee lifted the mask mandate and occupancy limitations the day I left, and I was only asked to put on a mask at one store in Gatlinburg. Whereas while I was in Williamsport, MD I went out to Karaoke and ended up at this smaller dive bar that was packed to the gills without a mask in sight.
But NYC was a whole different kind of animal! EVERYONE was wearing masks, EVERYwhere! I respect businesses that chose to enforce mask wearing, but I refuse to wear one walking outside! And let me tell you I got plenty of different kinds of looks as I was wandering around, some were very friendly, like the protesters in Central Park, and some were more critical looking. I was never accosted by anyone, but there were lots of folks, particularly in Times Square, that were giving me the "what the hell is wrong with you" look. I was pleasantly surprised with all the dog walking I saw, that no pooch was masked up.
Headed to my Midwest leg, I will check in again down the road!
Suni
Covid trip to the symphony
ITM, My wife and I went to the Richmond symphony today. Social distancing and masks was the order. The couple 2 rows ahead of us had tickets 6 seats apart, clearing an error. The usher made them sit 6 seats apart, they were clearly together but rules are rules. Here is the best part, the oboe, flute and clarinet players ALL HAD MASKS WITH HOLES CUT OUT FOR THE MOUTH. Before the event started the Japanese first violinist gave a speech about Asian hate, talked about how persecuted the Asians have been, his example was that his mom made traditional Japanese food for his lunch and he wanted to bring PB&J to school.. Lectured by a Julliard graduate on suppression of Asians. I yawned a few times and my mask fell below my nose. I was quickly reprimanded by an usher. The virtue signaling was disgusting.
Erik
Nursing facilities being ranked by covid vax
In the Morning Adam and John,
Please keep my name anonymous,
I work in healthcare in the West. Part of my job is to enact the new Medicare rules that change every year for my physical rehab hospital. Every April CMS or Center for Medicare Services publishes their proposed rule for the next fiscal year.
A little background.
Hospitals, Rehab hospitals and Skilled Nursing facilities are given public scores based on quality measures (QRP) including things like pressure injuries, infection rates and flu shot rates for employees. These are just some of the required data reported to CMS. Imagine my shock 😱 when the proposed rule that was just released asks for the rate of employees with a Covid jab, aka vaccine to be published on the public "compare" sites.
Now you can choose the Rehab hospital, or other Hospitals for Mom or Dad not based on their outcomes, but on the number of staff jabbed.
The rule is full of issues, i.e. it asks for verification of two shots ( nothing allowed for the J&J jab). There is also no approval or conferring with the National Quality Forum, the gold standard of review for healthcare initiatives.
As this isn't mandatory.......yet .... how can we not interpret this as the beginning of yearly and mandated vaccinations.
Below is the synopsis from the American Hospital Assn. Please note where they say this is proposed for ALL other clinical settings. ( IRF is a Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility or Rehab Hospital).
COVID-19 Vaccination among Health Care Personnel (HCP) Measure
CMS proposes to adopt one new measure beginning with the FY 2023 QRP. The measure, also proposed in all other clinical settings, would assess the rate of COVID-19 vaccination among HCP. It would evaluate the cumulative number of HCP eligible to work in the IRF for at least one day during the reporting period who received a complete vaccination course; it would exclude persons with contraindications to COVID-19 vaccination as described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). IRFs would submit data through the CDC National Healthcare Safety Network submission framework, which IRFs currently use to report other measures. IRFs would submit this data for at least one week each month, and the CDC would calculate a summary measure of the data each quarter. This rate would be publicly reported on the IRF Care Compare website.
The measure is not endorsed by the National Quality Forum (NQF) and has not been submitted to the NQF for consideration, although it was reviewed by the NQF’s Measure Applications Partnership in this most recent cycle. Despite the lack of testing or development of this measure, CMS stated that it considered it necessary to propose the measure as soon as possible “given the novel nature of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the significant and immediate risk it poses in IRFs.” If finalized, IRFs would be required to submit data beginning Oct. 1, 2021, and performance would be publicly reported beginning with the September 2022 Care Compare refresh.
My husband and I listen to your show every week. He hit me in the mouth about 4 years ago. From a dude named Ben and a nurse named Betty, we appreciate your perspective in this time of Covid madness.
Stamford commencement rules
Newbie No Agenda fan here. I am currently studying at Stanford university in California, and have been compiling some letters from the administration and other departments here on campus, that I believe should be shared with the N.A community.
To begin my producership (which I must keep anonymous), please find the attached email from the University president, Marc Tessier Levigne (former Genentech VP) which I received this morning regarding updates to plans for this year's graduation ceremony.
With respect to friends and families being able to attend the graduation ceremony in the stadium, he states;
"...To comply with state requirements, guests and students travelling from outside California will need to be fully vaccinated. Guests and students already on campus or travelling from within the state will need to be fully vaccinated or provide proof of a negative COVID test."
I doubt I need to tell you that this is hardly a state requirement, per CA dept of public health's statements on the matter:
https://covid19.ca.gov/travel/#:~:text=Traveling%20into%20California%20from%20other,a%20negative%20COVID%20test%20result.
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Guidance-for-the-Prevention-of-COVID-19-Transmission-for-Gatherings-November-2020.aspx
This letter is the latest in a swath of emails from various Stanford officials this year that contain selectively erroneous fact statements that seem to drive their readers (my colleagues) toward very particular conclusions. As an (older) student who was raised to use his brain, I am compelled to expose this coercive tactic.
If content like this is useful to No Agenda, I can send more emails re: Anti-Asian violence, which some Stanford orgs have used to push the narrative of "White Supremacy on the rise". I also have a small circle of critically-thinking friends here who may be willing to write personal accounts of their own resistance to the dismal tide of post-truth society and "wokeness" on our beautiful university campus.
Best,
Concerned Stanford Student
Domestic violence calls for help increased 20% during the pandemic
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:50
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Domestic violence rose globally in 2020'--so much so that doctors have called it "a pandemic within a pandemic."
The National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, a team of national experts tasked with assessing the impact of COVID-19 on the justice system, recently estimated that in the United States, domestic violence incidents increased 8.1% on average following stay-at-home orders. Worldwide, the United Nations estimates there was a 20% increase in domestic violence incidents across its 193 member states during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns.
We are criminologists with expertise in domestic violence and policing, respectively. To understand whether and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted calls for help for domestic violence in the U.S., we examined short- and long-term trends in 911 calls about domestic violence after stay-at-home orders in five U.S. cities and one county: Cincinnati, Ohio; Montgomery County, Maryland; New Orleans, Louisiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Seattle, Washington.
In five of the six places'--all but Cincinnati'--pandemic stay-at-home orders increased domestic violence-related 911 calls. But 911 calls tell only part of the story about how the pandemic affected calls for help for domestic violence. Another forthcoming study shows that emergency hotlines that provide crisis support to victims of domestic violence also saw a sharp uptick in calls.
In five of the seven cities we examined'--Baltimore, Maryland; Cincinnati; Hartford, Connecticut; Salt Lake City and St. Petersburg, Florida'--emergency hotlines experienced an increase in calls in early March 2020. We estimate that because of the pandemic, the emergency hotlines collectively received 1,671 more calls from March to October 2020 than they would have if not for social distancing during the pandemic.
Experts expected the increase in domestic violence victims seeking help last year. Victims and their children were forced to spend more time with their abusers. They were cut off from support systems like school, work and church. Times were stressful and uncertain.
And when the pandemic is over, victims of domestic violence and their children will continue to need help.
Pandemic makes victims' plight worse
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four women will experience domestic violence victimization in her lifetime. Women stay with abusers because they have nowhere else to go. In the best of times, women who experience domestic violence face an increased likelihood of being unemployed or underemployed, struggle to find safe and affordable housing and face a higher risk of eviction.
Since women make up two-thirds of the lowest-paid workers in the U.S., those who seek to leave an abuser may have little chance of moving out.
The COVID-19 recession has put more women in this precarious, dangerous position. They comprise the majority of employees in child care, fast food, cleaning services and hair and nail salons. Women in these jobs were always struggling to pay their bills and support their families, but because of COVID-19, their jobs are disappearing altogether.
Housing authorities and landlords often have "zero-tolerance" crime policies'--so when a victim of domestic violence calls 911 to seek help, they risk being evicted. And since eviction records can make people ineligible for public housing, this leaves fewer options to escape abusive relationships, continuing the cycle of violence and trauma for women and their children.
There are federal and state protections against evicting victims of domestic violence, but few victims are able to secure their housing rights.
Help for the future
The economic problems associated with domestic violence have never been easily or quickly solved. The pandemic may well mean even fewer women will be able to leave their abusers.
In the years ahead, these victims and their families will need significant financial, legal and housing support.
In March, Congress approved a US$1.9 trillion stimulus bill, which included $24 billion to help stabilize the child care industry, $15 billion for child care subsidies and $450 million for domestic violence services. This money will undoubtedly help some victims leave their abusers.
More recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed HR 1620, a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act which provides resources and legal protections for women who suffer domestic violence. HR 1620 is currently awaiting consideration in the Senate.
Among other provisions, HR 1620 would prohibit firearms purchased by individuals convicted of domestic abuse or stalking.
Firearms are used in 3.4% of intimate partner violence incidents'--meaning over 4.5 million women will be threatened with or victimized by domestic gun violence in their lifetime. When guns are used during domestic violence incidents, the attack is more likely to be deadly than if the abuser uses some other type of force.
Changing the system
Meanwhile, highly publicized incidents of police violence have led to widespread calls to redefine what police do and how they do it.
In the midst of the increase in calls for help by victims of domestic violence, "reimagining policing" could include discussions of how police and victim service agencies can better use data to support coordinated community responses to domestic violence.
For example, police often hold mistaken beliefs about domestic violence. Studies show many officers believe that responding to domestic violence calls is unusually dangerous when in fact, our research shows that officers are significantly more likely to be assaulted or injured when responding to nondomestic incidents.
Law enforcement agencies might consider offering more training to police on domestic violence incidents, eviction prohibitions for victims and trauma-informed interviewing techniques.
While victim service agencies are important for what's called safety planning'--where abuse survivors brainstorm with advocates about how to stay safe in a future crisis'--police are still the main responders for crisis intervention and welfare checks.
While much attention has rightly focused on the increase in calls for help for domestic violence during the height of COVID-19, the pandemic has also highlighted longstanding limitations in responses to victims when they seek help. The problem isn't new'--it's just getting bigger.
Provided by The Conversation
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
(12) Gen¨ve Campbell on Twitter: "This is a science reporter at the Toronto Star, entirely on the coronavirus beat. https://t.co/pfWT2VKy9j" / Twitter
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:50
Gen¨ve Campbell : This is a science reporter at the Toronto Star, entirely on the coronavirus beat. https://t.co/pfWT2VKy9j
Thu Apr 22 00:33:37 +0000 2021
Covid Cash
Union Negotiates Extension of COVID Death Benefit | TWU Local 100
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:21
TWU Local 100 has negotiated a significant extension of our precedent-setting Covid-19 death benefit.
The original agreement with the MTA, providing $500,000 payments to the families of members who contracted the virus and died, expired April 13.
Payments will continue under the negotiated extension through August 31. Starting June 1, proof of vaccination or a ''a valid, documented exemption'' will be required for eligibility.
Vaccines and such
More Americans Now Eligible For Covid-19 Vaccine Than Ever'--But Mass Vaccination Sites Are Shutting Down Over 'Decreased Demand'
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 04:24
Breaking | Apr 21, 2021, 05:32pm EDT | ToplineMass vaccination sites across the U.S. have announced plans to shut down in recent days due to insufficient demand, even though all U.S. adults are now eligible to receive coronavirus vaccines.
at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center on February 5, 2021 in San Francisco, California.
AFP via Getty Images
Key FactsPalm Beach County, Florida, is shutting down three mass vaccination sites in favor of new mobile vaccination efforts, the Palm Beach Post reported Wednesday, after the sites were operating at only 50% capacity this week.
Mass vaccination sites in Clarkesville, Georgia, and North Carolina will shut down by the end of May, officials announced this week, and Summit County, Ohio, canceled a planned mass vaccination clinic on April 27 citing ''decreased demand.''
Several Texas mass vaccination sites in Williamson and Galveston counties are shutting down, and Galveston officials asked the state not to send the county any vaccine next week as the number of residents making vaccine appointments declines.
Waukesha County, Wisconsin, will likely shut down its mass vaccine site to new first doses by the end of the week, as the county hits its target of 60% of eligible residents being vaccinated.
Some vaccination locations have made plans to close before this week: Sites in Las Vegas and Cascade County, Montana, were announced to be shutting down last week, for instance, while Mercer County, Ohio, shuttered their drive-through mass vaccine clinic earlier in April.
Officials are reporting noticeable decreases in the number of people getting inoculated in areas where sites are not closing, including in Texas, Idaho, Missouri, Alabama, Maine and Maryland, where Gov. Larry Hogan predicted Wednesday the state would be shutting down mass vaccination sites ''at some point soon.''
Big Number3.02 million. That's the seven-day average of Covid-19 vaccines administered in the U.S. each day as of Wednesday, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data analyzed by the New York Times. That average has been steadily declining in recent days after peaking at approximately 3.3 million shots per day last week.
ContraEven as a number of sites are shuttering, other areas are opening new locations. New mass vaccination locations are opening this week in such places as Tysons Corner, Virginia; Lake County, Illinois; Harford County, Maryland; Jefferson County, Alabama and New York City, where New Yorkers will soon be able to get vaccinated at the iconic American Museum of Natural History.
Key BackgroundMore than half of U.S. adults have now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as the country has ramped up vaccinations and seen an influx in supply in recent weeks, and every state has now opened eligibility to all adults after President Joe Biden directed states to expand access by April 19. The new decline in demand comes as the U.S. nears the point at which vaccine supply will outstrip demand, with a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) analysis released Tuesday projecting that all U.S. adults who want to be vaccinated will receive at least their first dose of the vaccine within the next two to four weeks. With that milestone looming, attention is turning to Americans who still are still hesitant or unwilling to get vaccinated'--a sizeable share of the population, with KFF finding that as of March, 37% of Americans planned to either ''wait and see'' about the vaccine, would only get it if required or do not plan to get vaccinated at all. The White House and state officials are ramping up efforts to persuade unvaccinated Americans as a result, and Biden announced Wednesday a plan to give tax breaks to businesses that give their employees paid time off for getting vaccinated.
Further ReadingU.S. Hits Biden's 200 Million Shots Goal'--But Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Issue Looms (Forbes)
All U.S. Adults Now Eligible For Covid-19 Vaccine'--These States Are Doing The Best (And Worst) Rollouts (Forbes)
Covid-19 vaccine demand is slowing in parts of the US. Now an uphill battle starts to get more shots into arms (CNN)
White House offers new tax credit to help spur vaccinations (Associated Press)
Full coverage and live updates on the Coronavirus
I am a New York-based journalist covering breaking news at Forbes. I previously covered politics and news for Vanity Fair and Mic, and as a theater critic I serve as a
'... Read More I am a New York-based journalist covering breaking news at Forbes. I previously covered politics and news for Vanity Fair and Mic, and as a theater critic I serve as a member of the New York Outer Critics Circle. Follow me on Twitter @alisond64 or get in touch at adurkee@forbes.com.
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Vaccine Makers Destroy Covid Vaccine Safety Studies - LewRockwell
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:51
While reports of side effects from COVID-19 gene therapies, including life-threatening effects and deaths, continue to climb at breakneck speed,1 a one-sided narrative of safety and effectiveness permeates mainstream media and medical news.
These ''vaccines'' are so safe and so effective, according to this narrative, that keeping control groups intact for long-term study and comparison of outcomes is now being derided as ''unethical,'' despite the fact that there is absolutely no non-fraudulent data to support their perverse assertions. Truly, what we're watching is the active destruction of basic medical science in a surreal dystopian nightmare.
Vaccine Makers to Ditch Control Groups
Consider this report in JAMA by Rita Rubin, senior writer for JAMA medical news and perspectives, for example.2 According to Rubin, the launch of ''two highly efficacious'' COVID-19 vaccines has ''spurred debate about the ethics, let alone the feasibility, of continuing or launching blinded, placebo-controlled trials '...''
Rubin recounts how Moderna representatives told a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel that rather than letting thousands of vaccine doses to go to waste, they planned to offer them to trial participants who had received placebo.
Pfizer representatives made a similar announcement to the advisory panel. According to a news analysis published in The BMJ,3 the FDA and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are both onboard with this plan, as is the World Health Organization.4
In the JAMA report by Rubin, Moncref Slaoui, Ph.D., chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, is quoted saying he thinks ''it's very important that we unblind the trial at once and offer the placebo group vaccines'' because trial participants ''should be rewarded'' for their participation.
All of these statements violate the very basics of what a safety trial needs, which is a control group against which you can compare the effects of the drug or vaccine in question over the long term. I find it inconceivable that unblinding is even a consideration at this point, seeing how the core studies have not even concluded yet. The only purpose of this unblinding is to conceal the fraud that these vaccines are safe.
None of the COVID-19 vaccines currently on the market are actually licensed. They only have emergency use authorization '-- which, incidentally, also forbids them from being mandated, although this is being widely and conveniently ignored '-- as trials are still ongoing.
At the earliest, they may be licensed two years from now, at the completion of the follow-up studies.5 This is why those in the military are allowed to refuse it, and refuse they have. Among Marines, the refusal rate is nearly 40%.6
So, before the initial studies are even completed, vaccine makers and regulatory agencies are now deciding to forgo long-term safety evaluations altogether by giving placebo recipients the real McCoy, and so-called bioethicists are actually supporting this madness. As reported in The BMJ:7
''Although the FDA has granted the vaccines emergency use authorization, to get full license approval two years of follow-up data are needed. The data are now likely to be scanty and less reliable given that the trials are effectively being unblinded.''
Hypocrisy Abounds
It's ironic in the extreme, because vaccine mandates are being justified on the premise that the benefit to the community supersedes the risk of individual harm. In other words, it's OK if some people are harmed by the vaccine because the overall benefit to society is more important.
Yet here they're saying that participants in the control groups are being harmed by not getting the vaccine, so therefore vaccine makers have an obligation to give it to them before the long-term studies are completed. This is the complete opposite argument used for mandatory vaccination.
If we are to accept the ''greater good'' justification for vaccination, then people who agree to participate in a study, and end up getting a placebo, need to roll the dice and potentially sacrifice their health ''for the greater good.'' Here, the greater good is the study itself, the results of which are of crucial importance for public health decisions.
Without this data, we will never know whether the vaccines work in the long term and/or what their side effects are. If an individual in the control group gets COVID-19, then that's the price of scientific participation for the greater good of society, just as when a vaccinated person gets harmed, that's considered an acceptable price for creating vaccine-induced herd immunity.
Put another way, when it comes to mandating vaccines, harm to the individual is acceptable, but when it comes to doing proper safety studies, all of a sudden, harm to the individual is not acceptable, and protecting the controls is more important than protecting the integrity of the research. The fact that they're this inconsistent in their ''ethics'' could be viewed as proof positive that public health isn't even a remote concern.
Scientific Ethics Are Eroding
Apparently, concern about risk to the individual only matters when vaccine makers have everything to gain. By eliminating control groups, we'll have no way of really proving the harm that these ''vaccines'' might impart over time, as all participants will be in the same proverbial boat.
I remain confident that we'll continue to see many more health problems and deaths develop in time, but without control groups, these trends can more easily be written off as ''normal'' and/or blamed on something else. As noted by Dr. Steven Goodman, associate dean of clinical and translational research at Stanford University, who is quoted in Rubin's JAMA article:8
''By unblinding trial participants, 'you lose a valid comparison group,' Goodman said. 'There will be this sense, and it will be sort of true, that the study is over.' Unlike, say, a highly effective cancer drug, 'the vaccine is not literally a life-and-death issue today and tomorrow' for most trial participants, Goodman said.
So, he noted, those running COVID-19 vaccine trials shouldn't feel obligated to unblind participants and vaccinate placebo recipients right away. Doing so implies 'you can just blow up the trial' on the basis of promising preliminary results, establishing 'an ethical model for future trials that we maybe don't want to set,' Goodman said.''
Indeed, this strategy will set a dangerous precedent that will probably lead to vaccine and drug studies being conducted without control groups in the future, which could spell the end of medical science as we know it. At bare minimum, future variations of the current COVID-19 vaccine trials are likely to be conducted without control groups.
Trial Participants Told Not to Unblind Themselves
Goodman is also quoted in another article,9 this one in MedPage Today, discussing the problems with trial participants unblinding themselves by taking an antibody test:
'''There is no good scientific reason for someone to do this,' he told MedPage Today. 'I can understand why they want that information, but it can only serve to diminish the value of the trial. Getting tested is not right unless there is a pressing need for unblinding for health reasons.'''
Here, yet another hypocritical irony arises, as the reason they don't want trial participants to unblind themselves is because if they know they got the vaccine, they're statistically more likely to take more risks that might expose them to the virus.
This, then, will skew the results and ''could make the vaccine look less effective than it is,'' Dr. Elizabeth McNally of Northwestern University explained to MedPage Today.10 So, whether vaccine scientists agree with unblinding or not, unblinding really only has to do with whether it will skew results in their favor.
Trial participants unblinding themselves might make the vaccine appear less effective if they alter their behavior as a consequence, whereas vaccine makers unblinding the entire control group will allow them to hide side effects, even if participants alter their behavior.
Justification for Elimination of Controls Is Flimsy at Best
While pro-vaccine advocates insist the elimination of control groups is justified on the ''moral grounds'' that it's unethical to not provide volunteers with something of value, this argument completely ignores the undeniable fact that no vaccine is 100% safe.
As of April 1, 2021, VAERS had received 56,869 adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination, including 7,971 serious injuries and 2,342 deaths. Of those deaths, 28% occurred within 48 hours of vaccination.Getting the active vaccine comes with risk, not merely benefit. This is particularly true for the novel mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines. Historical data are troubling to say the least, and the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is rapidly filling up with COVID-19 vaccine-related injury reports and deaths.
Reports of Side Effects and Deaths Are Piling Up
As reported by The Defender,11 as of April 1, 2021, VAERS had received 56,869 adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination, including 7,971 serious injuries and 2,342 deaths. Of those deaths, 28% occurred within 48 hours of vaccination! The youngest person to die was 18 years old. There were also 110 reports of miscarriage or premature birth among pregnant women.
As reported in ''COVID-19 Vaccine To Be Tested on 6-Year-Olds,'' between January 2020 and January 2021, COVID-19 vaccines accounted for 70% of the annual vaccine deaths, even though these vaccines had only been available for less than two months!
In my view, it's unconscionable and morally reprehensible to not take these data into account. Clearly, these ''vaccines'' have risks. Pretending like they don't, and that all placebo recipients in vaccine trials are at a distinct disadvantage simply isn't true.
Keep in mind that we still do not know the percentage of adverse effects being reported. Is it between 1%12 and 10%13 as past inquiries into VAERS reporting have shown, or is it higher?
If only 10% are reported, we may be looking at 23,420 deaths, but if it is as low as 1%, it jumps to more than 230,000 deaths. We will never know because there are major attempts to suppress this information, as we have already witnessed with the deaths of sport celebrities Hank Aaron and Marvin Hagler, both of whom died shortly after COVID vaccinations.
Regardless, it's hard to justify even a single death of an otherwise healthy individual, seeing how the survival rate for COVID-19 across all age groups is 99.74%. If you're younger than 40, your survival rate is 99.99%.14
There's every reason to suspect that these reports account for just a small percentage of actual side effects. Just think of all those who get the vaccine at grocery stores or temporary vaccination sites, for example. First of all, are all Americans even aware that VAERS exists and that they need to file a report if they suffer an adverse reaction post-COVID vaccination?
Who is going to file the adverse report if you get vaccinated in a grocery or convenience store? Will they return to the pharmacist and report their side effects? Will the pharmacist file the report? Who's responsible for filing the report if you go to a temporary vaccination site?
CDC Stays Mum on How It's Ensuring Reporting Compliance
According to the CDC, deaths from COVID-19 vaccines are required to be reported to VAERS.15 It's not supposed to be voluntary, as with other vaccines. However, it is not being transparent about how it is ensuring this ''requirement'' is being followed, so it's impossible to confirm that all related deaths are in fact being reported. As reported by The Defender:16
''We '... inquired about whether healthcare providers are reporting all injuries and deaths that might be connected to the COVID vaccine, and what education initiatives are in place to encourage and facilitate proper and accurate reporting.
Twenty-two days later a representative from the CDC's Vaccine Task Force responded by saying the agency had never received our questions '-- even though the employees we talked to several times said their press officers were working through the questions we sent. We provided the questions again and requested a response by April 7. To date, the CDC has not responded despite our repeated follow-up attempts.''
Absolute Versus Relative Risk Reduction
Vaccine makers are also very careful about only referencing relative risk, not absolute risk. By doing so, the vaccines appear far more protective than they actually are. It's a commonly used statistical trick that I encourage you to familiarize yourself with.
For example, in his November 26, 2020, BMJ article,17 Peter Doshi, associate editor of The BMJ, pointed out that while Pfizer claims its vaccine is 95% effective, this is the relative risk reduction. The absolute risk reduction '-- which is far more relevant for public health measures '-- is actually less than 1%!
I recommend listening to the interview with Dr. Ron Brown above, in which he explains the ins and outs of relative and absolute risks, and the differences between them. He's also written two papers detailing the problems with this kind of reporting bias: ''Outcome Reporting Bias in COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Clinical Trials''18 and ''Public Health Lessons Learned From Biases in Coronavirus Mortality Overestimation.''19
You Likely Don't Need a Vaccine
If you're concerned about vaccine side effects, please understand there are several prevention strategies and treatments readily available that have been shown to be highly effective, which means the need for a vaccine in the first place is nearly moot.
For example, nebulized hydrogen peroxide with iodine, which I've written about in previous articles, works very well. For a refresher, see ''How Nebulized Peroxide Helps Against Respiratory Infections.'' Other treatments include hydroxychloroquine with zinc, ivermectin and the iMASK and MATH+ protocols, which you can learn more about in the linked articles.
What to Do if You Got the Vaccine and Are Having Problems
In closing, if you got the vaccine and now regret it, you may be able to address your symptoms using the same strategies you'd use to treat actual SARS-CoV-2 infection.
I've written many articles over the past year detailing simple strategies to improve your immune system, and with a healthy immune system, you'll get through COVID-19 without incident. Below, I'll summarize some of the strategies you can use both to prevent COVID-19 and address any side effects you may encounter from the vaccine.
' Eat a ''clean,'' ideally organic diet. Avoid processed foods of all kinds, especially vegetable oils, as they are loaded with damaging omega-6 linoleic acid that wrecks your mitochondrial function. Linoleic acid has been shown to increase mortality from COVID-19.
' Consider nutritional ketosis and a time-restricted eating window of six to eight hours with no food at least three hours before bed. These strategies will help you optimize your metabolic machinery and mitochondrial function.
' Implement a detoxification program to get rid of heavy metals and glyphosate. This is important as these toxins contribute to inflammation. To improve detoxification, I recommend activating your natural glutathione production with molecular hydrogen tablets.
A simple way to block glyphosate uptake is to take glycine. Approximately 3 grams, about half a teaspoon, a few times a day should be sufficient, along with an organic diet, so that you're not adding more glyphosate with each meal.
' Maintain a neutral pH to improve the resiliency of your immune system. You want your pH to be right around 7, which you can measure with an inexpensive urine strip. The lower your pH, the more acidic you are. A simple way to raise your pH if it's too acidic (and most people are) is to take one-fourth teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or potassium bicarbonate in water a few times a day.
Nutritional supplementation can also be helpful. Among the most important are:
Vitamin D '-- Vitamin D supplements are readily available and one of the least expensive supplements on the market. All things considered, vitamin D optimization is likely the easiest and most beneficial strategy that anyone can do to minimize their risk of COVID-19 and other infections, and can strengthen your immune system in a matter of a few weeks.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) '-- NAC is a precursor to reduced glutathione, which appears to play a crucial role in COVID-19. According to one literature analysis,20 glutathione deficiency may actually be associated with COVID-19 severity, leading the author to conclude that NAC may be useful both for its prevention and treatment.
Zinc '-- Zinc plays a very important role in your immune system's ability to ward off viral infections. Like vitamin D, zinc helps regulate your immune function21 '-- and a combination of zinc with a zinc ionophore, like hydroxychloroquine or quercetin, was in 2010 shown to inhibit SARS coronavirus in vitro. In cell culture, it also blocked viral replication within minutes.22 Importantly, zinc deficiency has been shown to impair immune function.23
Melatonin '-- This boosts immune function in a variety of ways and helps quell inflammation. Melatonin may also prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection by recharging glutathione24 and enhancing vitamin D synthesis, among other things.
Vitamin C '-- A number of studies have shown vitamin C can be very helpful in the treatment of viral illnesses, sepsis and ARDS,25 all of which are applicable to COVID-19. Its basic properties include anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antioxidant, antithrombotic and antiviral activities. At high doses, it actually acts as an antiviral drug, actively inactivating viruses. Vitamin C also works synergistically with quercetin.26
Quercetin '-- A powerful immune booster and broad-spectrum antiviral, quercetin was initially found to provide broad-spectrum protection against SARS coronavirus in the aftermath of the 2003 SARS epidemic,27 ,28 ,29 and evidence suggests it may be useful for the prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 as well.
B vitamins '-- B vitamins can also influence several COVID-19-specific disease processes, including30 viral replication and invasion, cytokine storm induction, adaptive immunity and hypercoagulability.
Type 1 interferon '-- Type 1 interferon prevents viral replication and helps degrade the RNA. It's available in spray form that you can spray directly into your throat or nose. You can try taking a couple of sprays per day prophylactically, and more if you have a cough, fever or headache.
Sources and References
The Best of Joseph Mercola
TWU 100 NYC Covid $500K / death compensation - BE VACCINATED to receive
TWU Local 100 has negotiated a significant extension of our precedent-setting Covid-19 death benefit.
The original agreement with the MTA, providing $500,000 payments to the families of members who contracted the virus and died, expired April 13.
Payments will continue under the negotiated extension through August 31. Starting June 1, proof of vaccination or a “a valid, documented exemption” will be required for eligibility.
Emphasis added
Man arrested for selling fake COVID vaccination certificates - The Jerusalem Post
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:49
The green pass and vaccination certificates allow fully vaccinated Israelis to enter restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, theaters and more. A woman shows her green passport at the Khan theater in Jerusalem on February 23, 2021.
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Israel Police arrested a man from Tiberias suspected of making and selling fake coronavirus vaccination certificates and
green passes on Sunday.
An investigation was opened after information reached the police about a Telegram group with tens of thousands of members which focused on the forgery and sale of vaccination certificates and green pass.
Police searched the man's home and seized digital storage devices that were allegedly used to commit the suspected crimes.
"Israel Police, which is at the forefront of the fight against the spread of the
coronavirus, will continue to expose crimes that could harm public health," sit said.
The green pass and vaccination certificates allow fully vaccinated Israelis to enter restaurants, cafes, bars, clubs, theaters and more. Those who have recovered from the virus or have undergone a rapid coronavirus test are also able to enter these venues.
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FDA orders US plant to STOP making J&J's Covid vaccine | Daily Mail Online
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:00
FDA orders US plant to STOP making J&J's Covid vaccine as it investigates ingredient mix-up that ruined 15 MILLION doses of the shotThe FDA asked Emergent BioSolutions manufacturing plant in Baltimore to halt production of J&J's vaccine on April 16 It comes after the plant accidentally used an ingredient intended for the AstraZeneca vaccine - which it was also making - in J&J's shot The mix-up led to 15 million doses of the vaccine being ruined and a delay in the FDA authorization of the plant Now an investigation into the contamination will further delay production of J&J's shotThe U.S. has also halted distribution of J&J's vaccine amid concerns that it may cause blood clots in some rare cases By Natalie Rahhal U.S. Health Editor and Reuters
Published: 06:43 EDT, 19 April 2021 | Updated: 23:42 EDT, 19 April 2021
The FDA has ordered the U.S. facility that ruined millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine to halt manufacturing while the agency investigates last month's ingredient mix-up.
Emergent BioSolutions, the company that owns and runs the Baltimore plant that had been making the J&J vaccine, said in a regulatory filing that the FDA requested a pause on April 16 in production of new drug substance for the shot pending completion of the inspection.
Johnson & Johnson said it would work with Emergent and the FDA to address any findings at the end of the inspection.
J&J was put in charge of manufacturing at the plant in early April by the U.S. government after it disclosed the error. That saw ingredients from AstraZeneca's shot also being produced at the plant at that time contaminated a batch of the J&J vaccine.
The request to pause manufacturing is the latest setback to J&J's vaccine, whose use has been halted by U.S. regulators as they review reports of rare but serious brain blood clots in people who took the one-dose shot.
U.S. health officials are expected to issue updated guidance on who should use the vaccine on Friday, but the hold on the Baltimore plant could mean further delays before the U.S. supply of the one-dose vaccine ramps back up.
FDA officials have ordered production of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine to be halted at Emergent BioSolution's Baltimore plant while it investigates an ingredient mix-up that ruined 15 million doses of the shot
J&J was put in charge of manufacturing at the plant (pictured) in early April by the U.S. government after it disclosed the error in which ingredients from AstraZeneca's shot also being produced at the plant at that time contaminated a batch of the J&J vaccine
The Emergent BioSolutions facility had been seeking authorization from the FDA for the J&J vaccine when the error occurred.
J&J has authorization to make doses in the Netherlands and finish them in the U.S. a a plant run by Catalent.
'At this time, it is premature to speculate on any potential impact this could have on the timing of our vaccine deliveries,' J&J said in a statement.
The company has previously said it would deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine to the United States during the first half of 2021 and has so far delivered about 18 million.
J&J said in a statement it was focused on securing emergency use authorization for the Emergent plant.
Emergent said on Monday in a regulatory filing that the FDA started its review on April 12.
The company said it would quarantine existing material manufactured at the Baltimore facility until the review is complete.
'We acknowledge that there are improvements we must make to meet the high standards we have set for ourselves and to restore confidence in our quality systems and manufacturing processes,' Emergent said in an emailed statement.
In March, J&J said it had found a problem with a batch of the drug substance for its COVID-19 vaccine being produced by Emergent.
J&J did not say how many vaccine doses the spoiled batch would have produced, but the New York Times, without citing a source, reported that about 15 million doses were ruined.
The Times described the error as the result of an ingredient intended for AstraZeneca's vaccine being swapped accidentally into the solution J&J's vaccine.
Issues at the Emergent facility are not thought to be at all related to the investigations into blood clots among people who received J&J's vaccine.
But the combined effects of the delays from the inspection and from the trial pause could have ripples for the overall U.S. vaccine supply.
Even with zero doses of J&J's shot allocated to U.S. states, the national supply shipped out this week will still increase compared to last.
Overall, states will get 17,580,0000 doses this week. Pfizer will ship about two million more doses than it did last week, and Moderna will provide about 157,000 more doses compared to the week of April 12.
But several states said their supply will fall after. California said its allocated doses fell by a third last week and it was expecting to see another four percent drop in its shipments this week.
And a secondary concern looms: that pauses on both the manufacturing and the use of J&J's vaccine will fuel hesitancy in the U.S. and abroad, especially in poorer countries that have been counting on the cheaper, easier to store vaccine for their rollouts.
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MEDICAL SHOCKER: Scientists at Sloan Kettering discover mRNA inactivates tumor-suppressing proteins, meaning it can promote cancer
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:29
MEDICAL SHOCKER: Scientists at Sloan Kettering discover mRNA inactivates tumor-suppressing proteins, meaning it can promote cancer
There's a secret layer of information in your cells called messenger RNA, that's located between DNA and proteins, that serves as a critical link. Now, in a medical shocker to the whole world of vaccine philosophy, scientists at Sloan Kettering found that mRNA itself carries cancer CAUSING changes '' changes that genetic tests don't even analyze, flying completely under the radar of oncologists across the globe.
So now, it's time for independent laboratories that are not vaccine manufacturers (or hired by them) to run diagnostic testing on the Covid vaccine series and find out if these are cancer-driving inoculations that, once the series is complete, will cause cancer tumors in the vaccinated masses who have all rushed out to get the jab out of fear and propaganda influence. Welcome to the world of experimental and dirty vaccines known as mRNA ''technology.''
Previously unknown cancer driving messengers are hiding in RNA, not DNAThis mind-blowing discovery should be published on every medical news site, newspaper, television news broadcast and on the CDC website, but unless you are reading this article and use DuckDuckGo as your search engine, you probably wouldn't ever see it. That's because Google is in on the fix, with Big Pharma and the VIC '' the vaccine industrial complex. So here's a more in-depth explanation of what we're looking at, for real, regarding mRNA and vaccines.
The information carrying molecule, messenger RNA, can instruct human cells ultimately in the same way as cancer drivers, playing a major role in causing cancer to thrive while inactivating natural tumor-suppressing proteins the human body creates to save you from cancer. This is the complete opposite of what the CDC and the vaccine manufactures are telling everyone right now about the Covid vaccines, and this is based on clinical research by molecular biologists at the Sloan Kettering Institute.
Even sequencing the DNA in cancer cells doesn't reveal these changes, that's how sneaky the vaccines are. It's like a Trojan horse that tells your cells to allow these changes to be made, as if they were safe, but they're not. All assumptions being made about mRNA being 'safe' right now have been completely turned 180 degrees with this research. Consider this very carefully if you have not yet been vaccinated with mRNA technology, and you may want to 'lawyer-up' if you already got the jabs.
After your Covid vaccination, RNA is transported out of your cell's nucleus, and will no longer function properly as a cancer tumor suppressorBill Gates and the Vaccine Industrial Complex are very sinister, as we all know, but to create vaccines that truncate (disable by cutting short) cancer tumor suppressors, and destroy the human body's ability to protect against cancer, well, that's just complete insanity. Truncated tumor-suppressor proteins are similar to the DNA mutations that cause cancer cells to mutate and multiply uncontrollably. Will America see cancer cases skyrocket over the next few years due to Covid vaccines? Only time will tell, but right now, science is revealing that it's likely. Pay close attention.
Therefore, anyone who is scared to death of the Covid vaccines is pro-science rather than anti-science, because the science shows the mRNA technology is very dangerous, especially concerning proteins that fuel cancer tumors. Let's say that again: Science shows mRNA technology can fuel cancer tumor growth.
Substantial amount of people with blood cancer have the SAME inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes at the mRNA levelScientists also discovered that a substantial amount of people with blood cancer, a.k.a. chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), have the same exact inactivation of tumor-suppressor genes at the mRNA level. In fact, the mRNA changes they detected could possibly account for the missing DNA mutations, and that spells out bad news for everyone who thinks the Covid vaccine series is ''safe and effective.'' It's effective alright, at suppressing anti-cancer proteins, one might conclude.
Even if just half (partial truncation) mRNA changes in human cells take place, it's enough to ''completely override the function of the normal versions that are present,'' according to the Sloan Kettering team of scientists. These changes can also apply to 100 different genes at the same time, so the changes can add up quickly and cause horrific health repercussions. Of course, mainstream media will dismiss any connections made by these discoveries, but they're paid to regurgitate pharma talk, so that's not surprising at all.
It is important to note that mRNA changes, according to researchers, are not limited to blood cancer, but have been linked to acute lymphatic cancer and breast cancer. Could this mean we're looking at a new population control mechanism hidden in messenger RNA?
About 20,000 people in the US develop ''CLL'' chronic lympthocytic leukemia each year. How many will quietly begin developing it now, and then have it suddenly ''show up'' five years from now? Symptoms include fatigue, enlarged lymph nodes, and night sweats. Did you get mRNA vaccinated and experience those symptoms already? Are those symptoms on the warning label '' the vaccine insert? Did you read them?
There's only one ''treatment'' offered right now for CLL by the Pharma Industrial Complex, and that's stem cell bone marrow transplantation. Oh, but it's only recommended if your CLL is ''likely'' to advance. Do your mRNA vaccines now qualify you as ''likely'' to advance with CLL?
Tune your internet dial to Vaccines.news for updates on human challenge trials for people interested in suppressing genes that fight cancer. No wonder Mark Zuckerberg is scared to death about the Covid vaccine.
Sources for this article include:
mskcc.org
vaccines.news
mskcc.org
Bernie's Tweets on Twitter: "Why is Pfizer sponsoring education in Ireland? This is an example of a lesson plan for Irish schools. The people have lost control to authoritarian governments and the governments have given control to the scientists. #Lockdow
Wed, 21 Apr 2021 03:36
Bernie's Tweets : Why is Pfizer sponsoring education in Ireland? This is an example of a lesson plan for Irish schools.The people h'... https://t.co/0snVHmvAQO
Tue Apr 20 16:38:48 +0000 2021
Sandie Smith : @berniespofforth 8. Telling kids masks and 'social distancing' should become one of those permament fixtures like o'... https://t.co/LxMfAeVCy3
Tue Apr 20 23:17:07 +0000 2021
Biden calls for every employee to get paid leave for vaccinations | TheHill
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:20
President Biden Joe BidenCornyn, Sinema to introduce bill aimed at addressing border surge Harris to travel to Northern Triangle region in June Biden expected to formally recognize Armenian Genocide: report MORE called Wednesday for employers to give workers paid leave to get the COVID-19 vaccination while announcing that the U.S. will have administered 200 million coronavirus shots by the end of the day.
Biden unveiled a program to address the issue of American workers feeling that they can't afford to take the time off to get vaccinated or lose a day of work because they aren't feeling well after the shot.
"I'm calling on every employer, large and small, in every state to give employees the time off they need with pay to get vaccinated," he said. "And anytime they need with pay to recover if they're feeling under the weather after the shot."
"No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they choose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated," the president added.
Biden specifically mentioned that grocery chain Kroger is offering workers $100 to get vaccinated, which he said has pushed the vaccination rate among its associates from 50 percent to 75 percent.
He announced that the IRS will soon post instructions on how employers with fewer than 500 employees can be reimbursed for the cost of providing paid leave for vaccinations.
"Every employee should get paid leave to get a shot. Businesses should know that they can provide it without a hit to their bottom line," he said. "There's no excuse for not getting it done."
Biden had initially set a target of administering 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days, and once he surpassed that goal last month, he updated it to 200 million, which he said will be achieved on Wednesday.
He said that 90 percent of Americans now live within five miles of somewhere they can get vaccinated, and that shots are available at nearly 40,000 pharmacies.
Administration officials earlier on Wednesday said ''only'' 43 percent of working adults have gotten the vaccine so far. Overall, over 133 million Americans, or more than half of the adult population, have received at least one shot.
Biden warns if Americans don't get COVID vaccine they might have to cancel July 4
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:52
April 21, 2021 | 6:45pm | Updated April 21, 2021 | 6:45pm
Enlarge Image President Biden said the country has more work to do in terms of mask wearing and COVID vaccinations to safely have July 4 gatherings. Cliff Owen/AP
Sign up for our special edition newsletter to get a daily update on the coronavirus pandemic.
President Biden on Wednesday warned Americans they may have to cancel ''small'' outdoor gatherings on the Fourth of July if there's a slowdown of COVID-19 vaccinations.
More than 51 percent of American adults have received at least one vaccine dose, according to CDC data, indicating that herd immunity and the pandemic's end are near.
But Biden said at the White House that he's not yet comfortable saying people can hold small outdoor gatherings on Independence Day.
''Back on March 11, I outlined a vision of what America could look like by the Fourth of July '-- an America that was much closer to normal life that we left behind more than a year ago,'' Biden said.
He warned: ''To celebrate our independence from this virus on July 4th with family and friends in small groups, we still have more to do in the months of May and June. We all need to mask up until the number of cases goes down, until everyone has a chance to get their shot.''
Biden proposed in a March primetime address that people could host ''small'' outdoor gatherings for the summer holiday. The idea drew Republican criticism due to the efficacy of vaccines and low outdoor transmission rates.
Retired Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health last year, countered Biden, saying that ''by July, we should be almost back to normal with herd immunity, with everybody getting vaccines.''
''I don't know what reality he's talking about,'' Giroir said. ''It seemed very disconnected from the reality and where we are and what the science says. Science says small gatherings outdoors is fine.''
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said ''the president's proclamation was far out of step with what's already happening across the country.''
In March, Biden said Americans likely could hold small gatherings to celebrate in July. Andrew Harnik, File/AP''It was advice for an alternate universe. The president and his advisers may need to get out more,'' McConnell said. ''''Americans are already getting together in small groups outdoors in blue states and red states, in small towns and big cities. The country is not locked down waiting for July 4.''
Johns Hopkins University confirms: You can be vaccinated with a PCR-test, even without knowing '' Regenbogenseele
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:33
11 Apr 2021
In January 2019, the WHO defined the growing number of vaccination critics as one of the top ten threats to global health, and since the unprecedented Corona vaccination fiasco, the number of vaccination refusers has truly multiplied.Meanwhile, resistance is forming even within the orthodox medical establishment. But the masterminds of the WHO continue to insist on an unrealistic vaccination coverage rate of at least 70 percent.In this article, Jan Walter describes, with extensive source citations, which techniques are possible to still vaccinate the population, when people are becoming increasingly critical of vaccinations. This is only fueled by the continuing pressure for mass ''vaccination'' against a non-lethal disease for 99.8% of people, with a new type of ''vaccine'' that is actually gene therapy by means of mRNA. It seems like science fiction and is chilling, but the metohodes and techniques are available.
In January 2019, WHO [1] defined the growing number of vaccine critics as one of the ten greatest threats to global health, and since the unprecedented corona vaccination fiasco [2], the number of vaccine refusers has really multiplied. Meanwhile, resistance is emerging even within the conventional medical community. But the masterminds at WHO continue to insist on an unrealistic vaccination rate of at least 70 percent.
Now several experts and former mainstream journalists like John O'Sullivan are warning that the massive PCR testing campaign could be a WHO vaccination program in disguise. (see Principia Scientific) [3] O'Sullivan is referring to a new technology developed at Johns Hopkins University that is supposed to make it possible to carry out covert vaccinations through a PCR test. (See Johns Hopkins Universitiy) [4]
Sources:
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20200812085538/https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/ten-threats-to-global-health-in-2019
[2] https://www.legitim.ch/post/schockierende-bilder-beh%C3%B6rden-verschweigen-massenhaft-corona-impfsch%C3%A4den
[3] https://principia-scientific.com/are-pcr-tests-secret-vaccines/
[4] https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/11/25/theragripper-gi-tract-medicine-delivery/
Inspired by a parasitic worm that digs its sharp teeth into the intestines of its host, Johns Hopkins researchers have developed tiny, star-shaped micro-devices that attach to the intestinal mucosa and can deliver drugs into the body.
These tiny devices, known as ''Theragrippers,'' are made of metal and a thin film that changes shape. They are covered with heat-sensitive kerosene wax and each no larger than a dust particle.
Read more: https://tapnewswire.com/2021/04/johns-hopkins-university-confirms-you-can-be-vaccinated-with-a-pcr-test-even-without-knowing/
Thousands of reports of menstrual irregularities, reproductive dysfunction following COVID vaccines | News | LifeSite
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:01
LifeSiteNews has been permanently banned on YouTube. Click HERE to sign up to receive emails when we add to our video library.
April 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) '' Thousands of women around the world are reporting disrupted menstrual cycles after receiving injections of COVID-19 vaccines.
The U.K.'s government vaccine adverse event system has collected more 2,200 reports of reproductive disorders after coronavirus injections, including excessive or absent menstrual bleeding, delayed menstruation, vaginal hemorrhaging, miscarriages, and stillbirths.
In the U.K., the Yellow Card adverse event reporting system includes 2,233 reports of ''reproductive and breast disorders'' after reception of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
The U.K. Yellow Card program reports 1,465 reactions involving reproductive systems as well as 19 ''spontaneous abortions'' (miscarriages), five premature labors, and two stillbirths in association with the AstraZeneca vaccine as of April 5.
The reports include:
255 cases of abnormal uterine bleeding
242 reports of unusual breast pain and swelling
182 women who experienced absent or delayed menstruation
175 cases of heavy menstrual bleeding
165 cases of vaginal hemorrhaging
55 reports of genital swelling, lesions, rashes or ulcerations
19 cases of postmenopausal hemorrhaging
12 cases of premature or ''artificial'' menopause
Another 768 reports of ''reproductive and breast disorders'' have been reported for Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine in the U.K., as well as 42 ''spontaneous abortions,'' five premature labor onsets, and two stillbirths. These include:
265 reports of breast changes, including 22 reports of breast cancer and 177 reports of breast pain
134 cases of irregular menstrual bleeding
127 reports of absent or light menstruation
92 cases of heavy bleeding
73 cases of vaginal hemorrhaging
5 reports of postmenopausal hemorrhaging
5 cases of premature or 'artificial' menopause
Male reproductive disorders are fewer, but 75 Yellow Card reports on AstraZeneca's vaccine include 63 erectile dysfunction reactions, 50 cases of testicular pain, 11 cases of scrotal pain and swelling, and three reports of haematospermia, or blood in sperm.
Pfizer's Yellow Card includes 22 reports of testicular and scrotal pain and 21 counts of sexual dysfunction.
None of the Yellow Card reports reveal details about the individuals who experienced the side effects. However, 32-year-old Lorri Emmily Lowe of the U.K. said she felt cramping three days after receiving AstraZeneca's vaccine in February.
''I also had a completely unusable arm for 24 hours,'' she told LifeSiteNews. ''It was excruciating and I was pretty much bed-bound just because of the arm. I had to laugh like a mad person for strange pain.''
Lowe said she felt ''out of sorts'' for about three days but what worried her most was that her menstrual cycle that had been predictably ''perfect'' for 10 years (not including pregnancies) suddenly vanished.
She had a strange ''spotting'' episode that she has never had in her life before and her period was five days late. ''I'm never late. I've been consistent for many, many years,'' she said, and when it did come on it was ''super heavy and lasted eight days.''
Lowe's cycle has returned to normal now but is quite heavy. ''I do not see how out of the six years since I've birthed a baby, that was the one month my cycle decided to go haywire.''
The U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) documents similar reproductive complications.
''My period has always been regular. Expected period was to begin on 02/22/2021 (after second vaccine dose) and bleeding did not occur,'' a 25-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, who received both doses of Moderna's vaccine, reported to the system, which is run by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
One VAERS report describes a 51-year-old woman from Georgia who received a first dose of Pfizer's vaccine in January and within three days developed a blood rash (petechiae) on her ankles that gradually spread to her knees. She was admitted to the hospital five days after her vaccine with vaginal bleeding and anemia. She was diagnosed with Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, a blood clotting disorder, which led to her worsening liver function, painful leg swelling, and purple discoloration. She died February 11. [VAERS ID 1032163-1]
Write-up: Patient received dose #1 of COVID-19 vaccine on 1/16/21. Within 3 days, she developed petechiae up to ankles, later rising up to her knees. Pt admitted to hospital on 2/6/21 for symptomatic anemia 2/2 vaginal bleeding. Patient received 4 units FFP, 4 units PRBC, 1 unit cryoprecipitate, and vitamin K 5 mg IV. Also started on medroxyprogesterone 20 mg PO TID. Alectinib d/ced due to worsening liver function. Evalauted by OB/GYN and Hematology. Diagnosed with DIC. Patient with worsening bilateral lower extremity edema and purpura with pain and weakness. Palliative care consulted. Patient passed away on 2/11.
A 48-year-old woman from Texas received a first dose of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine in January and 13 days later was hospitalized with heavy vaginal bleeding and a critically low platelet count. [VAERS ID 0958885-1]
Write-up: The patient was seen in my office on 1/19/21 with complaint of heavy vaginal bleeding. A CBC was obtained which revealed an H/H of 12.2/36.1 and a platelet count of 1 (not 1K, but 1 platelet!) and this was confirmed on smear review. She was immediately sent to the Hospital ED and repeat CBC confirmed the critically low platelet count. She is currently hospitalized and she has received platelet transfusions but her platelet count is still critically low. She is also receiving steroids and immunoglobulin and is under the care of MD (Heme/Onc)
VAERS also includes 26 reports of miscarriage or other ''fetal demise'' events after COVID vaccinations.
A 40-year-old pregnant physician from California described a patient's first dose of Pfizer's vaccine as a ''lethal event for the fetus'' that led to her delivering the baby stillborn six days later. [VAERS ID 958755]
Write-up: Pt was 18 weeks pregnant at the time of the vaccine. Second pregnancy. Pt is a physician. Pregnancy was entirely normal up to that time. On 1/18/2021, she began to have heavy vaginal bleeding probably due to a placental abruption and subsequently delivered at 18 weeks. Baby was stillborn. Ultrasound done 1/15/2021 normal. Lethal event for the fetus. The patient did well.
''Something insulted this placenta to lead to fetal demise,'' read another VAERS report on a 24-year-old woman who began bleeding two weeks after receiving a first dose of Pfizer's COVID vaccine in February. [VAERS ID 1074788 ]
Write-up: At 8 weeks pregnancy (2 weeks after first shot) started bleeding and had a subchorionic hematoma. By 10 week subchorionic hematoma resolved. Received second shot and of Feb. 1 week later, at 12 weeks pregnancy , fetus had no heart beat! It measured normal size (as expected) and limited normal first trimester anatomy by ultrasound. But NO heart beat. Something insulted this placenta to lead to fetal demise.
In most cases, deaths of unborn babies were recorded only as ''life-threatening'' or as ''hospitalizations'' for the mother, as in the case of a 35-year-old Ohio woman. The woman lost her baby after she was vaccinated with a first dose of Moderna's COVID vaccine on the same day that an ultrasound and genetic screening showed the 20-week-old baby to be in good health. [VAERS ID 1033412]
Write-up: 20 weeks gestation at time of vaccine administration. Saw OB that morning (1/12/21), normal exam and fetal heart rate. Normal anatomy scan 1/8/21, normal genetic screening. Fetal demise noted at 24 week OB visit on 2/9/21, stillborn baby delivered 2/12/21.
Moderna and Pfizer did not immediately reply to questions about their vaccine and fertility. ''It has been incorrectly suggested that COVID-19 vaccines will cause infertility because of a shared amino acid sequence in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and a placental protein,'' Jerica Pitts, a Pfizer representative, claimed in an email to the Associated Press in December, however. ''The sequence, however, is too short to plausibly give rise to autoimmunity.''
Animal studies to investigate the cross reaction of spike protein targeting COVID vaccines with Syncytin-1 have not been conducted to determine if autoimmunity can arise or not.
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Fertility-disrupting ingredient in AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine also present in HPV, flu shotsNo mechanism to explain disrupted menstrual cycles or reproductive organ pain in males and females has been offered and public discussion of the reproductive reports has been minimal. However, polysorbate 80, a chemical that has exhibited delayed ovarian toxicity to rat ovaries at all injected doses tested over a tenfold range is an ingredient in AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine, along with other vaccines including for influenza and HPV.
Concerns have been raised in the past about these vaccines' impact on reproductive abilities. An Australian case study in the British Medical Journal described a 16-year-old girl whose regular menstruation ceased after receiving HPV vaccines and she was diagnosed with premature ovarian failure.
In 2014, Australian doctors published a case series of more teens who had entered premature menopause '-- a phenomenon they described as ordinarily ''so rare as to be also unknown.'' They raised troubling questions about some HPV vaccine ingredients' documented risks to fertility including Polysorbate-80, cited serious deficiencies in preliminary vaccine trials and concluded that further research was ''urgently required.''
Between 2006 and 2014, VAERS cited 48 cases of ovarian damage associated with autoimmune reactions in HPV vaccine recipients. Between 2006 and May 2018, VAERS catalogued reports of spontaneous abortion (256 cases), amenorrhea (172 cases), and irregular menstruation (172 cases).
A 2020 study of adverse event reports in VAERS reported a statistically significant association between the quadrivalent HPV vaccine (Gardasil) and premature ovarian insufficiency, including amenorrhea, irregular menstruation, and premature menopause.
Like the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), the U.K. Yellow Card program collects voluntary reports and does not prove causal connection between the vaccination and the reported symptom. As a voluntary system, however, it tends to capture only a fraction of adverse events. A Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare study found that fewer than 1 percent of vaccine adverse events are reported to VAERS, which means that the actual numbers of adverse reactions to vaccines are one to two orders of magnitude higher.
Former Pfizer VP's warning of potential impact on fertilityIn December, former Pfizer allergist and immunologist Michael Yeadon and German lung specialist Wolfgang Wodarg wrote a petition to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in which they suggested that any vaccine against coronavirus spike protein, if it were to cross react with a similar human protein called Syncitin-1 in placental tissue, could result in loss of pregnancy and continued sterility in women who developed an autoimmune response to Syncytin-1 as a result of vaccination.
''There is no indication whether antibodies against spike proteins of SARS viruses would also act like anti-Syncytin-1 antibodies. However, if this were to be the case this would then also prevent the formation of a placenta which would result in vaccinated women essentially becoming infertile,'' the doctors wrote in their urgent letter to the EMA.
Since pregnant and breastfeeding women were excluded from vaccine trials and women of childbearing age were included only if they were using pharmaceutical contraception, the letter added: ''This means that it could take a relatively long time before a noticeable number of cases of postvaccination infertility could be observed.''
UK Government: 'Insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy'The menstrual side effects are getting traction on social media where hundreds of women have reported odd symptoms or gone looking for answers about their menstrual irregularities in the wake of receiving coronavirus vaccines. Sharon McGlinchey Seymour posted publicly on a COVID-19 vaccine side effects Facebook page that her obstetrician told her that she was seeing ''lots'' of women with complaints of uncommon hemorrhaging.
Dr. Kate Clancy, an associate professor at the University of Illinois, tweeted in February that she had been hearing of women who were having heavy periods after their shots. ''I'm a week and a half out from dose 1 of Moderna, got my period maybe a day or so early, and am gushing like I'm in my 20s again,'' she said.
Another woman who said she will be 65 in July replied that she started menstruating after the shot ''fairly heavy.''
In Israel, the Health Ministry reported that it had received 13 reports of women with heavy and irregular menstrual bleeding by mid-February, though women under age 45 had not been eligible to receive the vaccine until the end of January.
The Health Ministry said that Pfizer, whose vaccine was in circulation in Israel, had not reported any menstrual irregularities in its vaccine's clinical trials.
Media relations officer Fiona Cookson of AstraZeneca in the U.K. said the company does not have a formal response about the reproductive complaints and that the U.K. Government Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) would be responsible for monitoring and oversight of such side effects, rather than the vaccine manufacturer.
The Yellow Card reporting website states that 20.6 million first doses and one million second doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine were distributed in the U.K. by April 5.
Moderna and Pfizer did not immediately reply to questions about reproductive side effects of their vaccines.
The U.K. Green Book, described as a ''vital guide for public health professionals administering vaccines in the UK,'' does not mention menstruation except for to say that ''routine questioning about last menstrual period and/or pregnancy testing is not required before offering the vaccine.''
''As with most pharmaceutical products, specific clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine in pregnancy have not been carried out,'' according to the vaccine Green Book. As with other vaccines, no investigation of long-term effects on fertility or cancer is required for licensing or emergency use authorization of vaccinations.
The U.K. Green Book states that ''developmental and reproductivity testing of the Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines in animals have not raised any concerns'' and vaccines that use adenovirus vectors, similar to those used in the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, have been widely used to vaccinate women against Ebola'' and ''form trials of these vaccines in pregnancy are due to proceed.''
''Although the available data do not indicate any harm to pregnancy, there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy,'' according to the government booklet. Yet the standard of practice has been to recommend the vaccine if it is thought that its benefits would outweigh its risks.
It's 'lunacy to get this experimental vaccine if you're a young female'Dr. Simone Gold of America's Frontline Doctors has stressed the experimental nature of the vaccines, which have been granted Emergency Use Authorization only by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and are still undergoing phase III clinical trials.
''We know that the survivability rate [from COVID-19] for women of child-bearing age, as well as children, is exceedingly high at over 99.98% per the CDC even without treatment, and certainly without a new and unproven biological agent that is still only available under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) as an investigational treatment.,'' Gold said in an emailed statement to LifeSiteNews. Using simple logic for a risk assessment would make the decision to give any of the COVID experimental vaccines to a pregnant woman extraordinarily reckless.''
While a year ago, women who were pregnant or planned on conceiving were hesitant to eat tuna because of its mercury content or to take a Tylenol, now they are being badgered into taking experimental injections.
''The desire to get pregnant is overwhelming. It's not something that can be replaced by something else. It's not something you can mess around with,'' Gold told Michelle Malkin in an interview in February. ''The cascade of events that has to go on in the human body to get pregnant and to maintain a pregnancy throughout is incredibly complicated and that's why historically doctors and scientists have always excluded pregnant women from clinical trials because we don't know all the details of what we don't know.''
''It's lunacy to get this experimental vaccine if you're a young female,'' Gold said. ''I would flat-out forbid any young female from getting this vaccine and it's very unethical for any physician to offer this to any young female.''
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.
Freedom Pass
Still Believe Digital Vaccine Passports Are Something Made Up By Conspiracy Theorists?
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:51
By Robert Wheeler
In my past articles I wrote about Digital Vaccine Passport pilot programs in New York, global announcements and along the same lines, health passports and vaccine passport apps in which a traveler (or event goer, employee, or shopper) uploads their COVID-19 test results or vaccination status.
Unless the EU Parliament suddenly became enamored with conspiracy theorists, that is exactly what is going to happen.
The EU announces the Digital Vaccine Passport proposalIn March, the European Commission opened a proposal to create a ''Digital Green Certificate'' to allow travel inside the EU during the ''pandemic.''
This Digital Green Certificate would serve as a documentation that a person has been vaccinated for COVID, received a negative test for COVID, or has recovered from it. It will include a QR Code to ensure the authenticity and security of the certificate and will be made free of charge in paper or digital form.
The Digital Green Certificate will have three certificates included within it including:
Vaccination certificates, stating brand of the vaccine used, data and place of inoculation and number of doses administered.Negative test certificates (either a NAAT/RT-PCR test or a rapid antigen test). Self-tests will be excluded for the time being.Medical certificates for people who have recovered from COVID-19 in the last 180 days.According to Euro News,
''Where member states accept proof of vaccination to waive certain public health restrictions such as testing or quarantine, they would be required to accept, under the same conditions, vaccination certificates issued under the Digital Green Certificate system,'' the Commission said in a statement.
. . . . .
The instrument will be valid in all EU countries and will be open for Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway as well as Switzerland. It will be issued to EU citizens and their family members, regardless of their nationality.
Other countries are following suit in the Digital Vaccine Passport schemeBut while the EU debates what sort of technology to use and what parameters will be included, various European countries are taking matters into their own hands, choosing instead to create their own versions of a vaccine passport, all varying between each country. For instance, Estonia is planning to launch its own pilot program at the end of April. France is doing the same.
The Ultimate Privacy Phone and Laptop from Purism (Ad)In addition, the World Health Organization, who recently opposed the creation of a vaccine passport, is now working to do just that. And they are all working with the usual suspects '' Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM and a host of other corporations. What is more likely is that European countries will all implement different versions of the passport and, in the midst of chaos, the EU will have to step and standardize the process. The WHO will likely lead the charge in implementing the process worldwide.
What does a Vaccine Passport mean for you as an American? A lot, actuallyFirst, if you plan on traveling to or through Europe anytime soon (and possibly forever) you may have to grab yourself one of these passports. Of course, the EU Commission has stated that the move is temporary. Once the World Health Organization (now owned by Bill Gates) declares an end to the global health emergency the digital passports will be suspended. So they say.
''The Digital Green Certificate will not be a pre-condition to free movement and it will not discriminate in any way. A common EU-approach will not only help us to gradually restore free movement within the EU and avoid fragmentation,'' explained Commissioner Reynders. Except that a ''pre-condition to free movement'' is the whole point and ''discrimination'' is at the core of the passport.
But back to America. There are already plans to introduce a similar scheme in the United States. In fact, ''coincidentally'' the United States is now discussing a similar vaccine passport. As tens of millions of Americas, having been terrorized for a year, line up like cattle for their ''vaccines,'' the United States is planning to develop a ''vaccine passport'' that will allow those vaccinated to travel and ''enjoy other aspects of pre-pandemic life.'' In other words, freeze the unvaccinated out of normal life altogether.
Digital Vaccine Passports in the US are up for debateA senior advisor to the White House has signaled that the government will be taking a hands-off approach to the whole ordeal saying ''it's not the role of the government to hold that data and to do that.''
So with that in mind, it's likely that private corporations will be enlisted to act as the new feudal overlords that Carroll Quigley predicted years ago. More than likely, it will be companies like RAND who are involved in developing and implementing the vaccine passport scheme. In fact, RAND analysts are already making public comments on the type of scheme that will be implemented.
''Inevitably I think there are going to be these passports because people are eager to go back to a sense of normalcy,'' said Dr. Mahshid Abir, a senior physician policy researcher for the RAND Corp. ''From both the supply and demand side, there is impetus to get tourism and traveling back on track, and go back to some semblance of normalcy.''
US News and World Report quotes Abir further when it writes ''One other potential benefit of requiring a vaccine passport to travel, eat out or attend a rock concert might be that it would pressure some vaccine-hesitant folks into getting their inoculation, Abir said.''
Some states, however, have refused to participate in this gross violation of civil liberties. Florida and South Carolina have been clear they are opting out. But some Communist controlled states like New York are already implementing the passport scheme. As USA Today wrote,
Starting Friday, New Yorkers will be able to pull up a code on their cellphone or a printout to prove they've been vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus that causes it.
The first-in-the-nation certification, called the Excelsior Pass, will be useful first at large-scale venues like Madison Square Garden. But next week,the pass will be accepted at dozens of event, arts and entertainment venues statewide. It already lets people increase the size of a wedding party, or other catered event.
Still don't believe Digital Vaccine Passports are coming?So there you have it. A vaccine passport being rolled out in the EU (''temporarily'' of course) and simultaneously in the United States. Still think this is not a coordinated effort to restrict travel and civil liberties? If you do, then I have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you. But, unless you've been vaccinated, you won't be able to travel to see it.
Source: The Organic Prepper
Robert Wheeler has been quietly researching world events for two decades. After witnessing the global network of NGOs and several 'Revolutions' they engineered in a number of different countries, Wheeler began analyzing current events through these lenses.
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Italy to introduce new Covid 'pass' for travel in high-risk zones - The Local
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:33
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Celebretties
ACM Awards on CBS Fall to All-Time Lows in Ratings and Total Viewers
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 17:29
Getty
But network still wins the night
The ACM Awards on CBS fell to another (new) all-time low in both demo ratings and in total viewers last night, but the network still topped Sunday primetime by both main Nielsen metrics.
These ACMs averaged a 0.8 rating in the key demo and 6 million total viewers. Last year's show got a 1.0 and 6.6 million total viewers.
Become a member to read more. CBS was first in ratings with a 0.7 rating/5 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 6.6 million, according to preliminary numbers. At 7 p.m., ''60 Minutes'' drew a 0.6/5 and 8.2 million total viewers. The Academy of Country Music Awards aired from 8 to 11.
Also Read: ACM Awards 2021: Luke Bryan, Maren Morris Win Big (Complete Winners List)
ABC was second in ratings with a 0.5/3 and in total viewers with 3.7 million. Following reruns, ''American Idol'' from 8 to 10 averaged a 0.7/4 and 4.6 million total viewers. At 10, ''The Rookie'' received a 0.4/3 and 3.6 million total viewers.
Fox and Univision tied for third in ratings, both with a 0.3/2. Fox was fifth in total viewers with 1 million, Univision was was fourth with 1.25 million.
For Fox, following a rerun, ''Bless the Harts'' at 7:30 had a 0.3/2 and 904,000 total viewers. ''The Simpsons'' at 8 got a 0.4/3 and 1.2 million total viewers. ''The Great North'' at 8:30 managed a 0.3/2 and 911,000 total viewers. At 9, ''Bob's Burgers'' received a 0.4/3 and 1.1 million total viewers. ''Family Guy'' at 9:30 finished off Fox's primetime with a 0.4/3 and 1.2 million total viewers.
Also Read: 'Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist': Will Simon Find Out About Zoey's Powers?
NBC and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings, both with a 0.2/2. NBC was third in total viewers with 1.31 million, Telemundo was sixth with 805,000.
For NBC, a special titled ''Roll Up Your Sleeves'' at 8 settled for a 0.2/2 and 1.4 million total viewers. Following a repeat, ''Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist'' at 9 had a 0.2/2 and 1.2 million total viewers. At 10, ''Good Girls'' got a 0.4/3 and 1.5 million total viewers.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.1/1 and in total viewers with 525,000. ''Batwoman'' at 8 had a 0.2/1 and 560,000 total viewers. At 9, ''Charmed'' got a 0.1/1 and 437,000 total viewers.
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Geen mondkapjes in Oscaruitzending | Show | AD.nl
Vatican Invites Abortion Advocate Chelsea Clinton To Talk About 'Health' And The 'Soul'
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:55
The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture is set to host Chelsea Clinton, Anthony Fauci, Deepak Chopra, and others for a May conference to explore the ''mind, body, and soul'' and its role in health care.
The Vatican Council for Culture and the Cura Foundation and the Science and Faith (STOQ) Foundation are partnering together to host ''the world's leading physicians, scientists, leaders of faith, ethicists, patient advocates, policymakers, philanthropists and influencers to engage in powerful conversations on the latest breakthroughs in medicine, health care delivery and prevention.''
Speakers for the virtual conference are the world's elites. Those picked to lecture on health and the soul include CEOs of large pharmaceutical companies, including Moderna and Pfizer, and former supermodel Cindy Crawford, English primatologist Jane Goodall, Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry, and CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Speaker Chelsea Clinton is a high-profile abortion advocate, like her mother and father, Hillary and Bill Clinton. Chelsea labels the pro-life movement as an ''anti-choice movement,'' and is an outspoken supporter of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S.
In 2018, Chelsea spoke at a ''Rise up for Roe'' event in New York City, a meeting organized by the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood to oppose Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court. During her address, she glowingly credited legal abortion for adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy.
''American women entering the labor force from 1973 to 2009 added three and a half trillion dollars to our economy,'' Clinton stated. ''The net, new entrance of women '-- that is not disconnected from the fact that Roe became the law of the land in January of 1973.''
Chelsea is also Vice President of the Clinton Foundation, an organization riddled with controversy and corruption, and a supporter of global pro-abortion initiatives.
The Catholic Church publicly professes that life begins at conception and ''abortion is a case of direct killing of an innocent human being '-- a violation of the rights of the youngest members of our society and the human family.''
In fact, the Catholic Church has been a leading advocate for the right to life for hundreds of years. ''Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law,'' reads the Catholic Catechism.
There is no mention of Clinton's anti-life stance on the Vatican's website, she is simply identified as ''vice chair, Clinton Foundation.'' The Church is actively elevating Clinton, who vocally advocates for a practice that harms mothers and kills innocent children, as an authority on the ''mind, body, and soul.''
The conference will take place May 6-8, and ''will be moderated by renowned journalists, who will explore the role of religion, faith and spirituality, and the interplay of the mind, body, and soul '' and, ultimately, search for areas of convergence between the humanities and the natural sciences.''
The ''renowned'' journalists include Katie Couric, Richard Lui, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Amy Robach, Robin Roberts, and Meredith Vieira.
''Together we will focus on advances in medical innovation and the creation of healthier communities and seek to catalyze new, interdisciplinary approaches and partnerships to improve health and wellbeing, as well as understand human uniqueness,'' the Vatican said.
Evita Duffy is an intern at The Federalist and a junior at the University of Chicago, where she studies American History. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, & her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1
Fifth International Vatican Conference Home - Vatican Conference 2021
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:56
''Your event was unbelievable. Really life-changing and hope you are proud of the remarkable accomplishment.''
Dr. Mehmet Oz
''The meeting is truly unique and unlike any other scientific meeting, I've attended in the past. The meeting gave me a lot to think about from a big data perspective but, equally important, I really enjoyed listening to the more philosophical discussions. It's very easy to get caught up in the day to day minutiae of our jobs and lose sight of our ultimate goals. Thank you for providing me with a much-needed reminder of why I chose science as a career. I go home with recharged batteries and ready to make a difference."
Dr. Frances E. Lund,University of Alabama at Birmingham
''As majority leader, I have traveled lots of places but have never had such perfect service, guides, rooms, food and attention to detail'...''
Dr. Bill Frist, former Senator Majority Leader and two-term Senator from Tennessee
''You have done a spectacular job bringing together a diverse group of people to address worldwide health care and to foster a dialogue about the future of health'...''
John Harrington III, Sheffield Corp.
''This was an extraordinary event and both Sanjay and I had the most amazing time and educational experience'...''
Roni Selig, Producer, CNN
''This was the most impressive program, speakers and best event yet'...''
Eric Wei, Managing Partner, RimAsia Capital Partners
''This was the best conference I have been to in many years'...''
Jovanka Porsche, CEO, HP capital Partners
''That was the best conference I've attended. I'm impressed by the organization, the attendees, and the dialogue. Congratulations!''
Dr. Gbola Amusa, Chardan Capital Markets
''We had a great three days which surpassed our expectation based even on what we could have expected from our experience in 2016. We believe that the conference was a big success. We were stimulated with some cutting edge ideas and made some valuable new connections. There were multiple moments which will remain in the minds of all of us for months to come.''
Dr. Michal Votruba, Life Sciences, RSJ
''Congratulations on another sensational gathering at The Vatican.''
Cynthia Ekberg Tsai, Healthquest
''It was three days filled with great presentations, thoughtful messages, engaging discussions and warm hospitality. It reminded us of our main purpose - helping patients and their families. It was an inspiration.''
Dag Str¸mme, Fortuna Fix
''The recent meeting was an incredible adventure and a wonderful experience. '... The combination of speakers, celebrities, and the diverse religious representation was truly a remarkable testament to your ability to bring disparate groups together. The combination of scientific endeavors, wonderful dinners in extremely interesting spots, and the culmination of a small meeting with the Pope, truly is unparalleled.''
Pam Davis, Sanford International Board, Sanford Health
''People can only dream to experience what our eyes have seen, what our ears have heard, and what our lives have been touched by over the last few days'... It is quite impressive to have witnessed so many kindred spirits unite for such thought-provoking and life-changing topics, all guided by many of the finest experts in one of the most spiritual and historical places in our world. The atmosphere was positively perfect, the venues were breathtaking and the organization was simply exceptional.''
Marco & Jenny Fiorese
''Congratulations on a superbly organized conference. I hope it was as successful from your perspective as it was from mine as an attendee.''
Dr. Eva Grunfeld, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
''We want to thank you for urging us to attend the most informative conference in Rome. We just can't tell you how impressive, informative and well done we found it. We were struck by the amazing progress in medicine and by the talented and creative people who presented their research.''
George and Tina McFarlin, The Susan Scott Foundation
''This was a transformative experience'... There are several points of connection among attendees and topics that provide opportunities to carry the torch forward from this Conference.''
Dr. Michael R. Yeaman, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
''The three days were fantastic, full of inspiring moments and 'break my mind' innovations'...''
Dr. Philip Schoettle, Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Associates
''This will be a game-changer for patients and the future for cancer and regenerative medicine'...'' Samantha Surrey, Co-Founder, Decision Medical Ventures
''You hosted a great conference '' I think we had many quality discussions and learned a lot'...''
Derek Rapp, CEO, JDRF
BTC
Wood inflation
We own a wood shop in the Midwest and after your mention of lumber prices rising in the last
episode I had to share what I know. What I’m hearing from suppliers and drivers is that the RV
industry is eating up a large amount of the lumber supply after being dormant during c0vid. Our
prices have risen on raw lumber 100+%. Another bit of information is that our main supplier stated
that shipping costs (Vietnam - Baltimore) used to be around $3,500 where as now the shipping
companies are charging a premium of $10,000+ for the space on the ship. They claim it’s due to an
influx of shipments from Walmart and Costco etc. I’m suspicious of the cost increase as the drivers
I questioned have noted that the supply is not in shortage since the mills never shut down during
c0vid and they all have said the mills are fully stocked in an almost unprecedented manner. Some
are claiming price gouging while others claim demand = price increase. All in all something is
going on and we are having to tell customers that our prices are increasing for the foreseeable
future. Prices aren’t expected to decrease until maybe July and that is still a guess. I have
purchased poplar for $1.40 a board foot for almost a decade and it’s up to $2.39 expected to go to
$2.50 shortly. Sap cherry, which you couldn’t pay people to buy, has gone from $.99 a board foot to
almost $4.00.
Thought you would like to know this info and thank you for your courage.
-Ben
Google News - Wall Street banks brace for digital dollars as the next big disruptive force
China
China Vax Passports and Cash vs QR codes
(1) NO vaccine passports - either show a green code on your phone, or attest that you have not been around anyone who is sick. We can fly - within China - without getting a vaccine, or presenting the results of a screening for antibodies or virus (nasal swab test).
(2) ALL money in China is electronic. Today a homeless guy asked me for money. When I told him (in Mandarin) that I had only a phone, the Homeless guy pulled out a laminated card with a QR code!!!
Yes, the HOMELESS in Shanghai, have bank accounts, AliPay accounts, and an active cell phone - so they can accept electronic payments.
NAMED & SHAMED: The "Journalists" Who Went on Chinese Communist Party Junkets, Then Delivered "Favorable Coverage."
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:04
Unearthed documents from one of the leading Chinese Communist Party propaganda groups reveal the names of ''mainstream'' U.S. journalists taking junkets from the group in exchange for favorable coverage, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.The trips often came just before opinion editorials and news reports excusing Chinese Communist Party crimes, or opposing trade showdowns with the nation.
The China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) was founded by the Vice-Chairman of the ''highest-ranking entity overseeing'' Chinese Communist Party's United Front Department, an effort which aims to ''co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority'' of the Chinese government. ''The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing's preferred policies,'' the U.S. government report continues.
CUSEF uses United Front Department tactics of influence on Western journalists from virtually every Western media outlet: CNN, New York Times, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and many more. According to Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings with the Department of Justice, CUSEF retained Western lobbyists to aid in their quest to ''effectively disseminate positive messages to the media, key influencers and opinion leaders, and the general public'' regarding China.
The National Pulse can now exclusively reveal Western journalists '' including those praised by President Biden and married to potential members of his White House '' who are listed as having accepted trips from the Chinese Communist Party influence group.
Red Handed. CUSEF newsletter from 2009 and 2010 reveal the following journalists:
Vox Co-founder and New York Times columnist Ezra Klein;Vox Co-founder Matthew Yglesias;CNN Senior Political Analyst and The Atlantic Senior Editor Ronald Brownstein;New York Times Reporter Bradford Plumer;Associated Press Vice President and Editor Marjorie Miller;The Hill Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons;Former NPR Senior Editor Marilyn Geewax;Former Newsweek and Wall Street Journal Marketplace Editor Kathleen Deveny;Former U.S. News and World Report Correspondent Tom Omestad;Chicago Tribune Columnist and Editorial Writer Steve Chapman;Former National Journal Correspondent Bruce Stokes (And the husband of President Biden's Deputy Secretary of State nominee who has also taken CUSEF trips);Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Washington Bureau Chief Craig Gilbert;The Week columnist Shikha Dalmia.
Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell also identified herself as accepting CUSEF trips, burying a disclaimer on the bottom of two articles ''The U.S. and China fight for second place'' and ''The Olympics gives China a second chance at human rights reforms'':
(Disclosure: My trip is being paid for by the China-United States Exchange Foundation, a Hong Kong-based nonprofit that aims to improve Americans' understanding of China.)
Pay for Play? While those named above represent a fraction of the journalists taking CUSEF trips, the influence of the program on participants' subsequent reporting is easily discerned.
Trip participant Shikha Dalmia penned an op-ed entitled ''China Bashing is for Losers'' the same year she traveled to China.
Brad Plumer has also lauded the Chinese Communist Party's climate change efforts, penning pieces entitled ''China's ambitious plan to limit carbon emissions, explained.''
Similarly, Bruce Stokes has shared articles warning that ''decoupling'' from China would ''backfire'' and Catharine Rampell has authored op-eds such as ''Opinion: Team Trump should be careful what it wishes for on China.''
Ezra Klein appeared to laud the Chinese Communist Party's COVID-19 response, tweeting ''I keep hearing that China bough us some real time and our government wasted it doing nothing and downplaying the threat.'' Fellow Vox Co-founder Matthew Yglesias also tweeted about wanting to ''give Party flunkies notes'' on how to better craft ''propaganda'' and that ''Moody's, S&P, and the People's Bank of China should just run the government'':
YGLESIAS'S TWEETS.At the time of the trip, Yglesias was a blogger with the Center for American Progress, home to many members of the Biden White House and counts Stacey Abrams as a board member.
Steve Chapman, who also crusaded against Trump's trade war, tweeted that ''China may have a bad human rights record, but you don't have to take off your shoes for airport security.'' Chapman also wrote a now-deleted article that outlined ''the case for buying U.S. Olympic outfits from China.''
Ronald Brownstein also pushed back against criticism of China and the World Health Organization's handling of COVID-19. ''Trump's latest offensive to blame 100k American dead on China & World Health Organization handling of ''Wuhan virus'' is not only a return to familiar cultural/racial polarization but also the latest reminder that when all you have is a hammer literally everything looks like a nail,'' he tweeted. The comments followed Brownstein authoring a CNN op-ed attacking Trump's trade war with China.
What's more, Marilyn Geewax leveraged her NPR credentials to become a Visiting Professor at the Global Business Journalism school hosted at Tsinghua University '' Xi Jinping's alma mater.
All Roads Lead to Biden. In addition to the spouse of the potential Deputy Secretary of State appearing on the list, a journalist on the list '' Steve Clemons '' has been praised by President Biden.
Clemons, a former Editor-at-Large for The Atlantic and current MSNBC Contributor and Editor-at-Large for The Hill, was part of the press pool covering then-Vice President Biden's 2013 trip to China.
Biden told his Chinese Communist Party counterpart that Clemons was a ''very important man'' that he should ''really want to speak to'':
While taking pictures of the two Vice Presidents with a new iPhone 5, Vice President Biden pointed at your pool, whose name is Steve Clemons, and gestured to VP Li Yuancho saying ''he is a very important man. Seriously he is important.'' Your pool demurred as best he could. This will surprise some but it is true.
Then Vice President Biden told Vice President Li, ''You should speak to him. He is the one you really want to speak to. Seriously.''
Pool froze up not knowing what to do but smile and wave a bit to Vice President Li. As Vice President Biden and Vice President Li began to walk away towards the banquet hall door, Vice President Li Yuanchao stopped and looked at your pool and said in deep, halting, but distinctive English, ''Vice President Biden is a good friend to you and to me.''
VP Biden winked the direction of your pool and the two vice presidents walked into the banquet hall.
Clemons's pool report continued, describing how Biden, while accompanied by his son Hunter, offered to buy him an ice cream bar:
Quite suddenly and 2:34 pm , the vice president's motorcade stopped with Vice President Biden, his son Hunter Biden, and granddaughter Finnegan Biden jumping out of their vehicles. They began to walk along the south side of the shopping street, zeroing in first on a small shop that had nothing classic in it'--but sold water, sodas, various household convenience items and Magnum ice cream bars. The vice president seemed thrilled to find the Magnum bars and decided to use your pool as a prop again, calling out to your pool, and saying ''you want an ice cream bar?''
Your pool replied, ''Don't tempt your pool '... but no.''
Clemons, who has also written articles proclaiming ''Biden gets China,'' has also tweeted about the development of ''a new global order'' with China as the ''anchor'':
Shanghai World Expo is huge '' worth the effort '' even on 100 degree day. Demonstrates a new global order in the making w/China as new anchor.
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Manhunt underway in Austin, Texas, after 3 killed in shooting
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 12:58
A manhunt is underway in Austin, Texas, after a shooting left three people dead on Sunday. Police said they are not considering it an active shooter situation, but they cautioned residents to shelter in place because it is "still an ongoing and active situation."
"We are concerned [the suspect] may take a hostage or may himself be sheltered somewhere, waiting for us to leave," said Austin assistant police Chief Joe Chacon.
It is not known what direction the suspect fled, or if the suspect is on foot or in a vehicle.
Chacon said at a press conference Sunday afternoon that police responded to a call of a shooting around 11:45 a.m. CT, and found two women and one man injured. They have since died, he said.
The preliminary indication is that the suspect knew the victims, but Chacon warned the "danger to the public is still high."
In addition to Austin police, the Austin-Travis County EMS, U.S. Marshals, FBI and the Round Rock police are all responding.
This is a breaking story. Live updates are below:
Click here to view related media. click to expand
8:15 PM Travis County district attorney releases statementTravis County District Attorney Jos(C) Garza issued a statement saying his "heart breaks for the victims" of Sunday's shooting.
"Our office has been clear that acts of violence committed in our community will not be tolerated," he said. Garza also thanked the members of the law enforcement working the case.
6:28 PM / April 18, 2021 Shelter-in-place order lifted but suspect still on the loose, police sayAustin police said just before 5 p.m. CT that the shelter-in-place order had been lifted, although the suspect is still at large and believed to be armed. The search is transitioning to a fugitive search, but there is still an active crime scene.
Austin assistant police Chief Joe Chacon said that police have exhausted the search in the immediate vicinity and they are asking the public to help.
Chacon said they had received tips in the neighborhood, but "we have exhausted all of the tips and we have not been able to locate him."
Chacon said there is not an active shooter situation, and the shooting appeared to be domestic in nature. The relationship between the suspect and the victims is not clear, although Chacon said the victims were known to each other.
5:14 PM / April 18, 2021 Suspect appears to be former detectiveThe suspect appears to be a former Travis County Sheriff's Office detective who was charged in June 2020 with sexual assault of a child. The Travis County Sheriff's public information office would not confirm on Sunday if the suspect was the same person, but confirmed the name and date of birth are the same.
3:50 PM / April 18, 2021 2 women and 1 man dead, police sayAt a press conference Sunday afternoon, Austin assistant police Chief Joe Chacon said the victims of the shooting were two Hispanic women and one Black man. A preliminary investigation indicates that the suspect knew the victims, Chacon said, although the motive remains unclear.
Chacon said the situation is not being treated as an active shooting, but residents are being advised to shelter in place because it is "still an ongoing and active situation."
"We are concerned he may take a hostage or may himself be sheltered somewhere, waiting for us to leave," Chacon said.
Chacon said there were reports about a child being involved, but police have safely located the child. The child is now safely in police custody, Chacon said.
A Disastrous Year for Brooklyn's Chinatown: 'It's Just So Hard' - The New York Times
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 14:40
First came the virus, which John Chan said cost his restaurant hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales. Then came the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes, which has made some people jittery and kept them at home and away from the restaurant, further hurting business.
''It's like the heavens are playing tricks on us,'' said Mr. Chan, a community leader in Brooklyn's Chinatown and the owner of the Golden Imperial Palace, a cavernous dining hall there.
More than a year after the pandemic first swept through New York, the streets of Sunset Park in southern Brooklyn reflect the pandemic's deep and unhealed wounds intertwined with signs of a neighborhood trying to slowly edge back to life.
The sidewalks are filling with shoppers and vendors, and more businesses are open and welcoming customers. But owners still struggle to pay rent and keep their enterprises afloat, while many workers laid off after the city locked down last year are still without jobs.
And while the rate of vaccination in New York has increased significantly, the coronavirus still percolates through this densely packed neighborhood. The ZIP code that includes Sunset Park, which also has a significant Latino population, had the highest rate of positive cases in Brooklyn in early April, nearly double the citywide rate. Some residents have expressed skepticism about the vaccines, spooked by false information circulated over TikTok and other social media.
Image Monks ate lunch at Xi Fang Temple, a Buddhist sanctuary in Sunset Park, where the founding monk said he had fielded concerns from some residents about the safety of coronavirus vaccines. Credit... Victor J. Blue for The New York Times The spate of hate crimes and violence against people of Asian descent in New York and around the country, fed in some cases by racist claims that Asian-Americans are responsible for spreading the virus, has added to the stress.
''I'm telling you, if things don't get better, I'm finished. Really finished,'' Mr. Chan said, describing his persistent financial challenge. ''And now we have to deal with this discrimination against us.''
As he sat inside his largely empty restaurant in Sunset Park, lyrics from an old Hong Kong pop song raced silently across the bottom of a large LED screen. Boxes of T-shirts reading ''Stop Asian Hate'' were stacked next to a banquet table.
Nicole Huang, who runs a local mutual aid effort and has close ties with the business community, estimated that roughly three dozen establishments, including restaurants, clothing stores and hair salons, had closed for good during the pandemic along Eighth Avenue, the neighborhood's commercial heart.
Mr. Chan said he laid off 80 of his 100 workers and had not called any of them back. Like other restaurant owners, he tried to take advantage of outdoor dining, setting up tents in the parking lot. But after they were damaged by strong winds last November, he took it as a bad omen and gave up.
Image Mengyao Zheng, 60, operates a basement mahjong parlor in Sunset Park and said players often stayed for hours at a time as ''a way to relieve stress.'' Credit... Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Bunsen Zhu, who runs a hair salon on Eighth Avenue and 50th Street, closed the salon two weeks before the city went into official lockdown last year, alarmed after reading dispatches from China. He also stocked up on face masks long before many other New Yorkers did. Still, that did little to insulate him from the financial onslaught of the pandemic.
Before the outbreak, many of Mr. Zhu's customers were transient Chinese workers who spent brief periods of time in the neighborhood before fanning out across the country to work, typically in restaurants. But when the death toll soared in New York last spring, many of them did not return and still have not, hurting businesses that rely on them.
''It's just so hard,'' Mr. Zhu, 36, said as he stretched out on a couch in his hair salon. An employee sat at the other end, fast asleep. ''You either starve to death at home or you try to make ends meet, somehow.'' Like most of the people interviewed for this article, Mr. Zhu spoke in Mandarin.
Mr. Zhu used to have more than a dozen customers a day, but now he counts them on one hand. He has managed to keep paying rent after his landlord gave him a small discount, though he refused to provide details and is glum about what the rest of this year will bring. ''We're just waiting for this thing to finally blow over,'' Mr. Zhu said.
At Pacific Palace, a dim sum parlor down the street from Mr. Zhu's salon, customers are slowly trickling back, but not enough for the restaurant to make much of a profit.
The pandemic lockdown led the restaurant to postpone 40 weddings, according to its manager, Janet Yang, and all but four of the restaurant's 60 employees were laid off.
''We have tried so many things to survive,'' Ms. Yang said.
Image A relatively small crowd on a recent Saturday at Pacific Palace, a dim sum restaurant. Janet Yang, the restaurant's manager, said Sunset Park had not yet recovered. Credit... Victor J. Blue for The New York Times The restaurant started offering takeout for the first time, which now represents a third of its business. Outdoor seating never attracted many people, in part because the restaurant is known for hosting the type of large celebrations that were forbidden for months.
''The noise level has gone back up,'' said Ms. Yang, pointing to the larger crowds on the streets. ''But I feel that overall the neighborhood hasn't recovered.''
Justin Cheng, 54, is one of the restaurant's four remaining employees, called back to work as a waiter last September after being laid off in March. As the months wore on, he recalled, ''we would eat less and less and eat cheaper food.''
Pacific Palace turned some of its outdoor space into a market, where a woman sat recently overseeing the sale of packaged goods like Chinese cookies and bags of goji berries. There were few customers.
Men selling seafood hawked oysters and fish out of Styrofoam boxes, competing with the bigger storefront fishmongers whose bins of iced seafood splayed out over the sidewalk.
Not far away, a woman was selling black chicken and duck meat; it was unclear whether she had the required license, but she said her financial situation was dire.
''It's just a little business to make ends meet for a few more mouthfuls of food to eat,'' said the woman, Ms. Jiang, as she plucked stray feathers from a chicken.
Ms. Jiang, 61, gave only her last name for fear of drawing the attention of the authorities. She hopped from the table where she was peddling poultry to another where she was selling earrings and bracelets.
She lives in the neighborhood with her husband and son, but she had been working at a Chinese restaurant in Florida when the pandemic struck. The restaurant closed, so Ms. Jiang returned to Sunset Park.
Not far away, Naian Yu, who operates a small garment factory on the fringes of the neighborhood, said he was dipping into his savings and he was worried about how much longer he could keep up with his $8,000 monthly rent.
Last year, he switched from supplying clothes to department stores like Nordstrom and Macy's to making personal protective equipment, after he entered into an agreement with a company that was providing it to local hospitals.
Image An apparel factory that had been making pieces of fabric for department stores. Business is returning, but remains very slow, according to the owner. Credit... Victor J. Blue for The New York Times The work became vital after the department store contracts dried up, but then the protective equipment contracts also stopped in December, leaving him and his employees in the lurch.
''It was our lifeline,'' Mr. Yu said. Orders from department stores have resumed, he said, but they have not returned to prepandemic levels.
What You Need to Know About the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Pause in the U.S.On April 13, 2021, U.S. health agencies called for an immediate pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine after six recipients in the United States developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within one to three weeks of vaccination.All 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico temporarily halted or recommended providers pause the use of the vaccine. The U.S. military, federally run vaccination sites and a host of private companies, including CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart and Publix, also paused the injections.Fewer than one in a million Johnson & Johnson vaccinations are now under investigation. If there is indeed a risk of blood clots from the vaccine '-- which has yet to be determined '-- that risk is extremely low. The risk of getting Covid-19 in the United States is far higher.The pause could complicate the nation's vaccination efforts at a time when many states are confronting a surge in new cases and seeking to address vaccine hesitancy.Johnson & Johnson has also decided to delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe amid concerns over rare blood clots, dealing another blow to Europe's inoculation push. South Africa, devastated by a more contagious virus variant that emerged there, suspended use of the vaccine as well. Australia announced it would not purchase any doses.Tenants' struggles to pay rent have also imposed hardships on smaller landlords who have mortgages and their own bills to pay.
Abdallah Demes is still looking for someone to fill the storefront in the building he owns on Eighth Avenue. He released his previous tenant from the lease months ago, two years before it was set to expire.
The tenant had been subleasing the space to a porcelain shop, but as a nonessential business it had to close during the lockdown, and the tenant told Mr. Demes he could not afford the more than $4,000 in monthly rent.
Mr. Demes had offered two months rent free. '''Just stay,' I told him,'' he said. ''But we both knew the business wouldn't be able to last beyond the two free months. It was the right thing to do.''
Mengyao Zheng, 60, who operates a basement mahjong parlor, said players had been coming in and playing for hours at a time as ''a way to relieve stress.''
At Chuan World, a Sichuan restaurant, the manager, Queenie Dong, was less worried about business rebounding than about social media posts she kept reading raising questions about the safety of coronavirus vaccines.
Ms. Dong, 30, said she became afraid after her phone filled with TikTok videos and WeChat posts falsely claiming that the vaccines were harmful and even lethal.
''Younger people feel that we should be fine,'' Ms. Dong said. ''We trust that masks are enough and that we'll survive even if we get the coronavirus.''
After weeks of internal debate, her desire to protect herself won out over her anxiety and she wound up getting vaccinated.
About a third of the residents in Sunset Park have received at least one dose of the vaccine, roughly the same level as the city overall, according to the city health data. But local leaders say they want to push that number much higher.
Kuan Neng, 49, the Buddhist monk who founded Xi Fang Temple on Eighth Avenue, said that people had come to him in recent weeks to express concerns over vaccines.
''Why do I need to do that?'' is a common refrain, according to Mr. Kuan, followed by: ''I'm healthy now. The hard times are over, more or less.''
''Many people want to delay and see,'' Mr. Kuan said, himself included.
Yu Lin, who operates two adult day care centers and is running for a City Council seat in a district that includes Sunset Park, contracted the virus last year, as did his wife and two children. He recently got vaccinated and encourages constituents to get their shots as he campaigns for office.
''People believe more if it involves an actual person, rather than getting information off of traditional media,'' he said. ''I tell them my experience, that there's nothing to fear except for a little muscle pain.''
Ms. Yang, the dim sum parlor manager, is pinning her hopes on the vaccines.
''Everything is contingent upon the city opening up,'' she said.
On the counter near the entrance was a red sign in Chinese: a prayer for good fortune. Next to it stood a cat figurine, one of its arms extended in mid-air, that is believed to bring good luck. Ms. Yang pointed to it and said, ''That lucky cat has no batteries.''
BACKLASH: LeBron James in Trouble After Telling Columbus Cop 'You're Next' '' The First TV
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:21
NBA superstar LaBron James faced a growing backlash on social media Wednesday after commenting on a police shooting in Columbus, Ohio.
''YOU'RE NEXT,'' posted the NBA star.
''How dare you? This is disgusting & dangerous. He saved the life of a young Black woman under attack. This is incredibly irresponsible,'' fired-back Megyn Kelly.
How dare you?This is disgusting & dangerous. He saved the life of a young Black woman under attack.This is incredibly irresponsible. https://t.co/WwKhNPQZrw
'-- Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) April 21, 2021A formal investigation is now underway.
This is a developing story. Check back often.
NPR Warns Readers: Reporting 'May Later Turn Out to Be Wrong'
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:23
Saul Loeb/Getty Images
National Public Radio added a preemptive disclaimer to a Tuesday story about a shooting in Columbus, Ohio, warning readers that some of its facts ''may later turn out to be wrong.''
The disclaimer was appended to a story about Ma'Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old girl shot by police when they allegedly found her wielding a knife during a conflict with two other girls. ''This is a developing story,'' the warning said. ''Some facts reported by the media may later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from police officials and other authorities, credible news outlets, and reporters who are at the scene, and we will update as the situation develops.''
The story, originally authored by NPR's Vanessa Romo and published around 10 p.m. Tuesday, went through a slew of changes after its initial publication on Tuesday, according to versions archived online, including the addition of a second author, Jaclyn Diaz, several hours after it was first published. The revised story included a line noting that police couldn't say whether Bryant had been the one to call for help, though each version led with the family's claim that Bryant had been the one to make the call. The revision also notes, in the eighth paragraph, that Interim Police chief Michael Wood disclosed body camera footage from the incident, which Woods said showed Bryant ''holding a knife as she pushes two girls.''
I'm deleting this tweet, which was based on the statements from Bryant's aunt. It was premature. Holding off until we know more '-- which is what I should have done last night. Apologies. pic.twitter.com/Hys9lN27Nb
'-- Radley Balko (@radleybalko) April 21, 2021
More than one newsroom has encountered trouble with the story, with some initial reports spelling Bryant's name incorrectly, and others giving her age as 15. The problems prompted at least one author, The Washington Post's Radley Balko, to issue a public retraction, writing on Twitter that he had been ''premature'' to claim police ''shot the kid who called for help.'' He said he initially based that claim on statements made by Bryant's aunt.
Bryant's mother, Paula Bryant, told WBNS that her daughter was 16, and added, ''I'm very upset. I'm hurt. I want answers.''
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Noodle Gun
Opinion | Howard University's removal of classics is a spiritual catastrophe - The Washington Post
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:10
Cornel West is a professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard University and serves on the board of academic advisers of the Classic Learning Test. Jeremy Tate is the founder and chief executive officer of the Classic Learning Test.
Upon learning to read while enslaved, Frederick Douglass began his great journey of emancipation, as such journeys always begin, in the mind. Defying unjust laws, he read in secret, empowered by the wisdom of contemporaries and classics alike to think as a free man. Douglass risked mockery, abuse, beating and even death to study the likes of Socrates, Cato and Cicero.
Long after Douglass's encounters with these ancient thinkers, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would be similarly galvanized by his reading in the classics as a young seminarian '-- he mentions Socrates three times in his 1963 ''Letter From Birmingham Jail.''
Yet today, one of America's greatest Black institutions, Howard University, is diminishing the light of wisdom and truth that inspired Douglass, King and countless other freedom fighters. Amid a move for educational ''prioritization,'' Howard University is dissolving its classics department. Tenured faculty will be dispersed to other departments, where their courses can still be taught. But the university has sent a disturbing message by abolishing the department.
Academia's continual campaign to disregard or neglect the classics is a sign of spiritual decay, moral decline and a deep intellectual narrowness running amok in American culture. Those who commit this terrible act treat Western civilization as either irrelevant and not worthy of prioritization or as harmful and worthy only of condemnation.
Sadly, in our culture's conception, the crimes of the West have become so central that it's hard to keep track of the best of the West. We must be vigilant and draw the distinction between Western civilization and philosophy on the one hand, and Western crimes on the other. The crimes spring from certain philosophies and certain aspects of the civilization, not all of them.
The Western canon is, more than anything, a conversation among great thinkers over generations that grows richer the more we add our own voices and the excellence of voices from Africa, Asia, Latin America and everywhere else in the world. We should never cancel voices in this conversation, whether that voice is Homer or students at Howard University. For this is no ordinary discussion.
The Western canon is an extended dialogue among the cr¨me de la cr¨me of our civilization about the most fundamental questions. It is about asking ''What kind of creatures are we?'' no matter what context we find ourselves in. It is about living more intensely, more critically, more compassionately. It is about learning to attend to the things that matter and turning our attention away from what is superficial.
Howard University is not removing its classics department in isolation. This is the result of a massive failure across the nation in ''schooling,'' which is now nothing more than the acquisition of skills, the acquisition of labels and the acquisition of jargon. Schooling is not education. Education draws out the uniqueness of people to be all that they can be in the light of their irreducible singularity. It is the maturation and cultivation of spiritually intact and morally equipped human beings.
The removal of the classics is a sign that we, as a culture, have embraced from the youngest age utilitarian schooling at the expense of soul-forming education. To end this spiritual catastrophe, we must restore true education, mobilizing all of the intellectual and moral resources we can to create human beings of courage, vision and civic virtue.
Students must be challenged: Can they face texts from the greatest thinkers that force them to radically call into question their presuppositions? Can they come to terms with the antecedent conditions and circumstances they live in but didn't create? Can they confront the fact that human existence is not easily divided into good and evil, but filled with complexity, nuance and ambiguity?
This classical approach is united to the Black experience. It recognizes that the end and aim of education is really the anthem of Black people, which is to lift every voice. That means to find your voice, not an echo or an imitation of others. But you can't find your voice without being grounded in tradition, grounded in legacies, grounded in heritages.
As German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer emphasized in the past century, traditions are inescapable and unavoidable. It is a question not of whether you are going to work in a tradition, but which one. Even the choice of no tradition leaves people ignorantly beholden within a language they didn't create and frameworks they don't understand.
Engaging with the classics and with our civilizational heritage is the means to finding our true voice. It is how we become our full selves, spiritually free and morally great.
Read more:
Shadi Bartsch: Why I won't surrender the classics to the far right
Alexandra Petri: Now is not the time to point fingers, Julius Caesar. Now is the time for healing.
David Von Drehle: The lessons two ancient philosophers have for us during the pandemic
Kathleen Parker: Don't cancel Shakespeare
Richard Dawkins loses 'humanist of the year' title over trans comments | Books | The Guardian
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:29
The American Humanist Association has withdrawn its humanist of the year award from Richard Dawkins, 25 years after he received the honour, criticising the academic and author for ''demean[ing] marginalised groups'' using ''the guise of scientific discourse''.
The AHA honoured Dawkins, whose books include The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion, in 1996 for his ''significant contributions'' in communicating scientific concepts to the public. On Monday, it announced that it was withdrawing the award, referring to a tweet sent by Dawkins earlier this month, in which he compared trans people to Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist who posed as a black woman for years.
''In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black,'' wrote Dawson on Twitter. ''Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as. Discuss.''
I do not intend to disparage trans people. I see that my academic ''Discuss'' question has been misconstrued as such and I deplore this. It was also not my intent to ally in any way with Republican bigots in US now exploiting this issue .
'-- Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) April 12, 2021Dawkins later responded to criticism, writing: ''I do not intend to disparage trans people. I see that my academic 'Discuss' question has been misconstrued as such and I deplore this. It was also not my intent to ally in any way with Republican bigots in US now exploiting this issue.''
Among his critics was Alison Gill, vice president for legal and policy at American Atheists and a trans woman. She said Dawkins' comments reinforce dangerous and harmful narratives. She said: ''Given the repercussions for the millions of trans people in this country, in this one life we have to live, as an atheist and as a trans woman, I hope that Professor Dawkins treats this issue with greater understanding and respect in the future.''
In 2015, Dawkins also wrote: ''Is trans woman a woman? Purely semantic. If you define by chromosomes, no. If by self-identification, yes. I call her ''she'' out of courtesy.''
In a statement from its board, the AHA said that Dawkins had ''over the past several years accumulated a history of making statements that use the guise of scientific discourse to demean marginalised groups, an approach antithetical to humanist values''.
The evolutionary biologist's latest comment, the board said, ''implies that the identities of transgender individuals are fraudulent, while also simultaneously attacking Black identity as one that can be assumed when convenient'', while his ''subsequent attempts at clarification are inadequate and convey neither sensitivity nor sincerity''.
''Consequently, the AHA Board has concluded that Richard Dawkins is no longer deserving of being honored by the AHA, and has voted to withdraw, effective immediately, the 1996 Humanist of the Year award,'' said the organisation.
The Guardian has reached out to Dawkins for comment.
Last year, the author JK Rowling returned an award given to her by the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights organisation, after its president, Kennedy's daughter Kerry Kennedy, criticised her views on transgender issues. ''I am deeply saddened that RFKHR has felt compelled to adopt this stance, but no award or honour, no matter my admiration for the person for whom it was named, means so much to me that I would forfeit the right to follow the dictates of my own conscience,'' said Rowling in a statement at the time.
BACKLASH: LeBron James in Trouble After Telling Columbus Cop 'You're Next' '' The First TV
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:21
NBA superstar LaBron James faced a growing backlash on social media Wednesday after commenting on a police shooting in Columbus, Ohio.
''YOU'RE NEXT,'' posted the NBA star.
''How dare you? This is disgusting & dangerous. He saved the life of a young Black woman under attack. This is incredibly irresponsible,'' fired-back Megyn Kelly.
How dare you?This is disgusting & dangerous. He saved the life of a young Black woman under attack.This is incredibly irresponsible. https://t.co/WwKhNPQZrw
'-- Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) April 21, 2021A formal investigation is now underway.
This is a developing story. Check back often.
PP
Opinion | Planned Parenthood Is Done Making Excuses for Margaret Sanger - The New York Times
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 19:10
We must reckon with Margaret Sanger's association with white supremacist groups and eugenics.
By Alexis McGill Johnson
Ms. McGill Johnson is the president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
April 17, 2021
Credit... Illustration by Valerie Chiang; Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images We need to talk about Margaret Sanger.
For the 11 years that I've been involved with Planned Parenthood, founded by Sanger, her legacy on race has been debated. Sanger, a nurse, opened the nation's first birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1916, and dedicated her life to promoting birth control to improve women's lives. But was she, or was she not, racist?
It's a question that we've tried to avoid, but we no longer can. We must reckon with it.
Up until now, Planned Parenthood has failed to own the impact of our founder's actions. We have defended Sanger as a protector of bodily autonomy and self-determination, while excusing her association with white supremacist groups and eugenics as an unfortunate ''product of her time.'' Until recently, we have hidden behind the assertion that her beliefs were the norm for people of her class and era, always being sure to name her work alongside that of W.E.B. Dubois and other Black freedom fighters. But the facts are complicated.
Sanger spoke to the women's auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan at a rally in New Jersey to generate support for birth control. And even though she eventually distanced herself from the eugenics movement because of its hard turn to explicit racism, she endorsed the Supreme Court's 1927 decision in Buck v. Bell, which allowed states to sterilize people deemed ''unfit'' without their consent and sometimes without their knowledge '-- a ruling that led to the sterilization of tens of thousands of people in the 20th century.
The first human trials of the birth control pill '-- a project that was Sanger's passion later in her life '-- were conducted with her backing in Puerto Rico, where as many as 1,500 women were not told that the drug was experimental or that they might experience dangerous side effects.
We don't know what was in Sanger's heart, and we don't need to in order to condemn her harmful choices. What we have is a history of focusing on white womanhood relentlessly. Whether our founder was a racist is not a simple yes or no question. Our reckoning is understanding her full legacy, and its impact. Our reckoning is the work that comes next.
And the first step is making Margaret Sanger less prominent in our present and future. The Planned Parent Federation of America has already renamed awards previously given in her honor, and Planned Parenthood of Greater New York renamed its Manhattan health center in 2020. Other independently managed affiliates may choose to follow.
Sanger remains an influential part of our history and will not be erased, but as we tell the history of Planned Parenthood's founding, we must fully take responsibility for the harm that Sanger caused to generations of people with disabilities and Black, Latino, Asian-American, and Indigenous people.
Sanger thought birth control would liberate women, and in so many ways it has. According to a University of Michigan study, the availability of the birth control pill is responsible for roughly a third of women's wage gains since the 1960s. Reassessing Sanger's history doesn't negate her feminist fight, but it does tarnish it. In the name of political expedience, she chose to engage white supremacists to further her cause. In doing that, she devalued and dehumanized people of color.
We will no longer make excuses or apologize for Margaret Sanger's actions. But we can't simply call her racist, scrub her from our history, and move on. We must examine how we have perpetuated her harms over the last century '-- as an organization, an institution, and as individuals.
What we don't want to be, as an organization, is a Karen. You know Karen: She escalates small confrontations because of her own racial anxiety. She calls the manager. She calls the police. She stands with other white parents to maintain school segregation. And then there are the organizational Karens. The groups who show up, assert themselves, and tell you where to march. Those who pursue freedom and fairness, but also leverage their privilege in ways that are dehumanizing.
And sometimes, that's how Planned Parenthood has acted. By privileging whiteness, we've contributed to America harming Black women and other women of color. And when we focus too narrowly on ''women's health,'' we have excluded trans and nonbinary people.
As we face relentless attacks on our ability to keep providing sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion, we've claimed the mantle of women's rights, to the exclusion of other causes that women of color and trans people cannot afford to ignore. And when we are rightfully called out by other leaders in the movement for reproductive justice who have pushed us for years to do better, we cry. In doing so, we're failing in our mission to care for all the communities we serve.
We are committed to confronting any white supremacy in our own organization, and across the movement for reproductive freedom. We pledge to fight the many types of dehumanization we are seeing right now: the dehumanization of Black and Latino victims of police violence such as Adam Toledo, Daunte Wright, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and too many others. The dehumanization of transgender people whose health care and rights are being denied in states across the country, and who face attacks not just from the right but also from trans-exclusionary radical ''feminists.''
Some might see this as virtue signaling, but Planned Parenthood is taking this work seriously. Our senior leadership team is diverse. We have invested in training designed to give everyone, from the board room to the exam room, a foundational understanding of how race operates. And we are establishing new diversity, equity and inclusion standards for affiliates seeking to be a part of the Planned Parenthood Federation.
Achieving health equity requires fighting the systemic racism that creates barriers to sexual and reproductive health care. The pandemic has laid bare racial disparities in health care that we also see in who is most affected by increased abortion restrictions and in skyrocketing sexually transmitted disease rates.
As the nation's leading provider of sexual and reproductive health care with a presence in 50 states, Planned Parenthood has an obligation to change how we operate. We must take up less space, and lend more support. And we must put our time, energy, and resources into fights that advance an agenda other than our own.
Margaret Sanger harmed generations with her beliefs. In our second century, Planned Parenthood has a chance to heal those harms. Reckoning with Margaret Sanger is one thing. We also need to reckon with ourselves.
Alexis McGill Johnson is the president and chief executive of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
OTG
Huawei 'may have eavesdropped on Dutch mobile network's calls' | Huawei | The Guardian
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 05:29
Show caption Huawei, the subject of security concerns in many western countries, rejected any claim it could have eavesdropped on KPN users. Photograph: Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/Rex/Shutterstock
HuaweiChinese firm could have been monitoring calls of KPN's 6.5m users without its knowledge, report claims
The Chinese telecoms equipment supplier Huawei was able to monitor all calls made on one of the Netherlands' largest mobile phone networks, according to a confidential report seen by the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant.
The report, made for KPN by the Capgemini consultancy firm in 2010, concluded that the Chinese company could have been monitoring the calls of the provider's 6.5m users without the Dutch company's knowledge, according to the newspaper.
Conversations that Huawei staff in the Netherlands and China could have monitored included calls made by the then prime minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, and Chinese dissidents, the report claimed.
While KPN acknowledged the existence of the report, it said on Monday it had ''never observed that Huawei took client information'', adding that none of its suppliers had ''unauthorised, uncontrolled or unlimited access to our networks and systems''.
Huawei, which is the subject of widespread security concerns in many western countries, rejected any claim that it could have eavesdropped on KPN users. ''We have never been accused by government bodies of acting in an unauthorised way,'' it said.
KPN started using Huawei technology in 2009 and commissioned the report after the Dutch domestic intelligence service, AIVD, warned of possible espionage. The report also found Huawei could access numbers being tapped by Dutch security services.
Its findings put ''the continued existence of KPN Mobile in serious danger'' since users ''may lose confidence '... if it becomes known the Chinese government can monitor KPN mobile numbers,'' the report concluded.
KPN continued to award several contracts for parts of its core 3G and 4G networks to Huawei after receiving the Capgemini report, which it never made public.
In July 2019, a Dutch government task force recommended stronger vetting of telecoms equipment suppliers, but despite warnings from the US government and others of the dangers of Chinese espionage did not ban Huawei.
Last year, however, KPN became one of the first European operators to exclude the Chinese company from its core 5G network, opting for Sweden's Ericsson instead, while the Dutch government announced tighter restrictions for equipment suppliers including background checks on staff with access to networks.
Despite strong US lobbying, and the announcement of bans in countries such as the UK '' from September 2021 '' and Sweden, European countries are split on their attitude to Huawei, which has repeatedly denied spying for the Chinese state.
Europe remains a key battleground for the company, however: last year it announced it had secured 91 commercial 5G contracts, including 47 in Europe.
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Tesla Crash Response Shows What Happens When You Ditch PR
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:59
On April 17, two men were killed in an autonomous Tesla crash in Harris County, Texas. The company has so far stayed mum'--perhaps because no PR pros were around to pick up the phone.
There's little question as to why Tesla has stayed so silent: The company disbanded its PR team in October 2020.
Deb Hileman, president and CEO of the Institute for Crisis Management sees the move as a major misstep. ''For a company of the size and reach of Tesla to have dissolved its public relations team and simply refuse to interact with the media is shortsighted. The company's refusal even to acknowledge the tragedy and offer its condolences to the victims' families is indefensible,'' she said.
Gene Grabowski, principal at kglobal, agreed with Hileman, calling the dissolution of Tesla's communications department ''a huge mistake.'' He argues, ''Not only is no one now defending the company or providing context to setbacks such as these accidents, but too many journalists now feel animosity toward the company for what many saw as a slight.''
Elektrek reporter Fred Lambert chronicles a number of PR pros departing the company or being shuffled elsewhere, as well as describing the dynamic between reporters and Tesla's communications department:
Personally, I've had my ups and downs with Tesla's PR department. At times, they were extremely helpful with my reporting with responses and context/nuances/corrections. At other times, they shunned me because of more negative takes or company leaks that we posted or reported on.
Lambert claims ''Tesla receives more press than any other automaker and the team always seemed understaffed,'' and notes that lately, the company's press response is left to unpredictable communicator Elon Musk, who has long taken to Twitter to denounce critics from the press to the U.S. government. (Lambert adds that a history of uneven press has not impacted the company's high ranking in the stock market. However, Tesla's stock has taken a dive after today's crash reports.)
Telsa's website does caution that "current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous." However, Musk took to Twitter the day of the crash, pasting a paragraph from the company's Q1 2021 safety report that found ''one accident for every 4.19 million miles driven'' with the Autopilot feature engaged.
Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of accident than average vehicle https://t.co/6lGy52wVhC
'-- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2021
Nowhere in the tweet is an expression of empathy or remorse regarding the loss of human life. Grabowski points to a pattern of ''blind spots'' in Musk's public comments, noting ''Musk is used to being the smartest person in the room, but very often it's better to be the wisest person in the room, or at least to have with you a wise person whose counsel you trust. That doesn't seem to be the case with Tesla right now.''
Despite the buzz around ''self-driving,'' ''autonomous,'' and ''driverless'' cars, there is a likely disconnect between Tesla's communications and consumers' understanding of the technology. ''There is no such thing as a self-driving car,'' according to a U.S. News article last fall. Reporter Nick Kurczewski noted that human intervention is still needed for safe operation.
Yet, neither man in the Texas crash was found behind the wheel, according to local officials'--one man was in the passenger seat, with the other in the backseat. Family members told The New York Times that the pair had discussed testing out the vehicle's autopilot feature before heading out.
Engadget's Jon Fingas agreed that the car's occupants misunderstood Tesla's autopilot and/or self-driving features. ''There have long been concerns that customers overestimate the technology and assume they can take their hands off the steering wheel or even leave the driver's seat entirely,'' Fingas wrote.
The April 17 crash also illustrates the dangers around electric vehicle batteries involved in crashes. At high speeds, electric vehicle batteries can experience ''thermal runaway'''--a chain reaction leading to long-burning battery fires, according to a Texas official that spoke to The New York Times. The vehicle was going at a high speed when it crashed, and emergency responders spent 4 hours and 30,000 gallons of water putting out the flames.
Whether or not Tesla opts to reinvest in PR, some communications to-do items are worth paying attention to, not least of all by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is tasked with communicating safety measures in the face of the United States' roughly 40,000 traffic deaths per year. If the four-hour firefighting effort is any indication, emergency responders and local municipalities will likely need to develop new processes for responding to electric vehicle fires, and communications plans to boot.
The NHTSA provides an optimistic view of autonomous vehicles ''for safety,'' with a dedicated landing page predicting ''fully autonomous cars and trucks that drive us instead of us driving them will become a reality.'' By 2025, the federal agency believes self-driving features will be ''fully automated.''
Meanwhile, an activist at an April 19 auto show in Shanghai, China climbed atop a Tesla vehicle to call attention to her claim that the company has not addressed quality control issues around a faulty brake system, and was caught being dragged away by security on video. The post quickly went viral on Chinese social media platforms.
If only Tesla had a PR representative at the ready.
Sophie is senior content manager at PRNEWS. Follow her @SophieMaerowitz.
US Postal Service Running 'Covert Operations Program' To Spy On Americans' Social Media Posts, Share With Agencies | ZeroHedge
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:21
The US Postal Service (USPS) has been running a secret program to track and collect Americans' social media posts - including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.
The surveillance program - operated by the law enforcement arm of the USPS, is known as iCOP or "Internet Covert Operations Program" - has not been previously made public according to the report.
The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as ''inflammatory'' postings and then sharing that information across government agencies. -Yahoo News
"Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021," reads a government bulletin dated March 16, marked as "law enforcement sensitive" and distributed throughout the Department of Homeland Security's fusion centers.
"Locations and times have been identified for these protests, which are being distributed online across multiple social media platforms, to include right-wing leaning Parler and Telegram accounts."
The report cites intelligence that 'a number of groups were expected to gather in cities around the globe on March 20 as part of a World Wide Rally for Freedom and Democracy' against pandemic lockdown measures.
"Parler users have commented about their intent to use the rallies to engage in violence. Image 3 on the right is a screenshot from Parler indicating two users discussing the event as an opportunity to engage in a 'fight' and to 'do serious damage,'" reads the bulletin," though it hedges with "No intelligence is available to suggest the legitimacy of these threats."
The bulletin includes screenshots of posts concerning the protests from Facebook, Parler, Telegram and other social media sites (only one of which - Parler - was 'canceled' by big tech).
"iCOP analysts are currently monitoring these social media channels for any potential threats stemming from the scheduled protests and will disseminate intelligence updates as needed," reads the bulletin.
Post Office Redacted by Yahoo News
"It's a mystery" said University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone - who was appointed by President Obama to review the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program revealed by Edward Snowden. "I don't understand why the government would go to the Postal Service for examining the internet for security issues."
"There are so many other federal agencies that could do this, I don't understand why the post office would be doing it. There is no need for the post office to do it '-- you've got FBI, Homeland Security and so on, so I don't know why the post office is doing this," he added.
The Postal Service has had a turbulent year, facing financial insolvency and allegations that its head, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, was slowing down deliveries just as the pandemic vastly increased the number of mail-in ballots for the 2020 election. Why the post office would now move into social media surveillance, which would appear to have little to do with mail deliveries, is unclear.
''This seems a little bizarre,'' agreed Rachel Levinson-Waldman, deputy director of the Brennan Center for Justice's liberty and national security program. ''Based on the very minimal information that's available online, it appears that [iCOP] is meant to root out misuse of the postal system by online actors, which doesn't seem to encompass what's going on here. It's not at all clear why their mandate would include monitoring of social media that's unrelated to use of the postal system.'' -Yahoo News
"If the individuals they're monitoring are carrying out or planning criminal activity, that should be the purview of the FBI," said Levinson-Waldman. "If they're simply engaging in lawfully protected speech, even if it's odious or objectionable, then monitoring them on that basis raises serious constitutional concerns."
Read the rest of the report here.
UK tech firm Mirriad can add product placements to classic films and TV shows on streaming sites | Daily Mail Online
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:45
A UK technology company is inserting customised product placement into films and TV shows '' even those that were originally released decades ago.
London-based firm Mirriad inserts products or signage, like a branded beer bottle on a table to a clothing advert on a giant billboard, into streaming content.
The firm uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse films and TV episodes for space where the ads or objects can be subtly inserted.
It means old Hollywood classics like Casablanca or The Great Escape could soon appear on streaming services with the newest ads in the background, like a new Apple smartphone or the latest McDonald's whopper.
Streaming services including Netflix and Amazon Prime Video could be temped by large offers from companies to insert their ads to content, to accompany the subscription fees from its userbase.
Mirriad's technology could even allow different ads to be seen by different people, based on their internet search history, just like targeted ads on Facebook.
Mirriad, which calls itself a 'computer vision and AI-powered platform company', came up with the tech after previously making special effects for films.
The company used its experience to make inserted ads look as realistic as possible '' so viewers would never know they weren't present in the original shoot.
In China, Mirriad-inserted ads have now been seen by more than 100 million viewers on video-streaming website Tencent Video.
'The technology can "read" an image '' it understands the depth, the motion, the fabric, anything,' Mirriad chief executive Stephan Beringer told the BBC.
'So you can introduce new images that basically the human eye does not realise has been done after the fact, after the production.'
MailOnline's interpretation of how a scene from The Great Escape - starring Steve McQueen as Captain Virgil Hilts - would look before and after an ad for a Samsung smartphone has been digitally inserted
British-American movie producer John C Crissey III said he had 'mixed ideas on remastering classic films' but admitted that Mirriad's work is 'still very exciting to see'.
Meanwhile, film critic Anne Billson told the BBC that digital product placement raises legal issues while compromising artistic integrity.
'I would be interested in finding out about the legal angle vis- -vis digital reworking of a copyrighted work, or whether the advertisers would have to buy the film before they tampered with it,' she said.
'It also calls into question the role of the production designer, who has put a lot of thought into the look of something, only for some random advertiser to come along at a later date and spoil it with changes.'
This image shows a scene from a Chinese film called Dreams of Getting Rich (on Tencent Video), with a substantial blank space top left ideal for hosting an ad. Mirriad inserted a sign advertising Coca Cola
Mirriad has also previously worked with Samsung Electronics and China's video site Youku, which is a subsidiary of Chinese internet giant Alibaba.
In the show 'Ode to Joy' on Youku, as two characters emerge from an underground escalator, a billboard can be seen bearing an ad for Samsung's Galaxy C phone.
After the episode was shot and produced, the ad was inserted by Mirriad's technology over a real billboard at the setting.
Product placement has been used in US television since the 50s, characterised by some memorably corny endorsements.
It was satirised in the 1998 Hollywood film The Truman Show '' Jim Carrey's character Truman Burbank starts to realise his life is part of a 24-hour reality TV show when Meryl, his wife, name-checks big-name brands to hidden cameras.
Spot the difference: An ad for Deliveroo turns up on the back page of a newspaper after Mirriad's treatment in the show 'Demain Nous Appartient' on French channel TF1
Another example - 'Dix Pour Cent' on DPC France TV - shows Carte Noir coffee inserted - and viewers would barely notice
Fast forward and global product placement revenues grew for the 10th consecutive year in 2019, according to a recent report by data analysis firm PQ Media.
The total value of product placements in all media '' including TV, films and recorded music '' grew for the year by 14.5 per cent to $20.57 billion (£15 billion), it revealed.
The potential of Mirriad's is not just limited to films and TV shows '' musicians could willingly add new digital product placement to their old music videos for an extra source of revenue.
Earlier this year, Mirriad launched 'Music Alliance' '' a specialist division dedicated to growing creative and financial opportunities for musical artists.
One of the first to join the alliance was Red Light Management, which represents bands including Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.
'The opportunity to carve open a new revenue stream is rare, and the ability to retrospectively use existing content and build new content with it in mind is exciting,' James Sandom, managing director of UK-based Red Light Management.
The cans of beer from Mexican brewer Tecate were digitally added to this music video from Mexican singer Giovanny Ayala
Colombian singer Giovanny Ayala has already used Mirriad's technology, allowing the Mexican brewer Tecate to insert its bottles and logos to his music videos.
And if football clubs decide they need even more money, another option is digitally adding product banners to live sports or concert broadcasts in near-real time.
'There is huge demand for that,' Beringer said. 'So a penalty or VAR decision in football could see a new advert pop up behind the referee.'
THE EVOLUTION OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN FILM Pictured, Laura Linney as Hannah Gill, acting as Meryl Burbank holding cocoa in the 1998 film The Truman Show. In the film, Jim Carrey's character Truman Burbank starts to realise his life is part of a 24-hour reality TV show when Meryl, his wife, name-checks big-name brands
Product placement has been used in US television since the 50s, characterised by some memorably corny endorsements.
It was satirised in the 1998 Hollywood film The Truman Show '' Jim Carrey's character Truman Burbank starts to realise his life is part of a 24-hour reality TV show when Meryl, his wife, name-checks big-name brands to hidden cameras.
While advertising allows organisations to have full control over their ads and direct exposure, it is often viewed as less credible with audiences.
According to a 2003 study, however, ads are viewed as more credible when disseminated via media.
One example is product placement aimed at influencing movie or television audiences via 'the planned and unobtrusive entry of a branded product'.
While many cite Steven Spielberg's film ET: The Extra-Terrestrial as the beginning of product placement (namely Reese's Pieces), closer examination shows that products were present in cinematic films from the creation of the medium, including the Lumiere films of the 1890s.
Product placement in films arguably reached a heyday in the 1990s - films such as Richie Rich (1994) starring Macaulay Culkin prominently featured the McDonald's brand.
More recently, the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008) was heavily criticised for its excessive product placement, including the likes of Ford, Heineken, Smirnoff, Omega SA, Virgin Atlantic and Sony Ericsson.
Read more: The Evolution of Product Placement in Film (Walton 2010)
Apple AirTags: Here's everything you need to know
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:08
Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
Apple announced its new AirTag item trackers on Tuesday. Apple sent me several to try out, so I'll show you what they're like.
The $29 AirTag ($99 for a pack of four) is a tiny metal tracker that you can attach to a keychain, drop in a bag or snap onto your luggage to keep track of those items. It's a lot like competing products from Tile, which has drawn that company's ire, but ties right into Apple's Find My app. It's the same app you can already use other Apple products like your iPhone, family members and friends, or, as of recently, devices made by a few third-party companies, too.
AirTag works by using a Bluetooth signal to tap into a network of about a billion Apple devices in the world, like iPhones and Macs, that also broadcast a Bluetooth signal. If you lose something with an AirTag attached to it, you'll get a notification with the location when someone with an iPhone or Mac comes within Bluetooth range of it. It'll also show anyone who finds the item a custom message and phone number, which you enter when you report it lost.
It's a smart product for Apple to launch. It'll help make customers more likely to keep buying iPhones if they've already got these things stuck to a bunch of items that they don't want to lose.
What AirTag looks likeApple AirTag
Todd Haselton | CNBC
This is the AirTag. It's a little quarter-sized tracker. It's glossy white on one side and metal on the other. Both sides scratch pretty easily. You can customize it with an emoji or letters before you buy one. It's water-resistant so you can splash it or accidentally drop it in a puddle without damaging it. I ran one under the sink and it still works.
There's a replaceable CR2032 battery, the sort of coin batteries that you might find in a wristwatch, inside that should last about a year. You'll get an alert before it dies and you can buy replacement batteries in places like grocery stores and pharmacies.
How to set up AirTagApple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
It took me about 20 seconds to set up an AirTag. You just pull out a little battery tab to put it in pairing mode, bring it near your iPhone running iOS 14.5 or newer, and then tap "Connect" on the pop-up box that appears on your phone. It's just like pairing AirPods.
Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
Then you enter in a name for the item you're tracking. There are some default suggestions like "backpack" and "keys," but you can name it anything you want. After that, you'll just confirm you're registering it to your Apple ID and then it's all set.
Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
Then you just attach the AirTag to the item you want to track -- you can stick it on a keychain, drop it in a backpack or bag, or put it in your wallet or purse -- and you're ready to roll.
How to find lost things with AirTagOnce you're set up, you can track the location of any of your AirTags whenever you have an internet connection. Just open the "Find My" app on your iPhone or iPad, tap "Items," and select the one you want to track.
Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | CNBC
If you lose an AirTagged item somewhere -- maybe you left it in an airport or at the park -- visit the item's page in the Find My app and tap "Lost Mode." There, you can add a custom message and phone number for anyone who finds it, and sign up to receive a notification when it's found. You can't turn on notifications unless you're out of its range -- that's actually very helpful, since it basically tells you if the item is still nearby by blocking you from setting notifications.
If someone with an iPhone comes in range of the AirTag, they'll receive a notification an AirTagged item is nearby. But even if they don't pick it up, you'll still get an alert on your iPhone showing where the AirTag was at that moment.
I tried this by bringing my wife's iPhone near the AirTag, for example, and I got a notification on my iPhone saying the AirTag was at my address.
An Android phone can also help retrieve a lost AirTag.
Todd Haselton | CNBC
This even works if someone with an Android device finds it, as long as the device has an NFC chip -- and most modern devices do. I tested it by tapping it to the back of an Android phone, and the Android phone launched a web browser that showed my phone number and said the item was lost.
Some of you may have privacy concerns -- what if somebody drops an AirTag in your bag to track you? Apple says it's thought about this. If an AirTag is separated from its owner and is traveling with someone else -- like if you're walking with one in your bag without realizing it's there -- it will begin to play an alert sound.
Once you discover it, you can tap an iPhone or any NFC-compatible Android device to the AirTag and get instructions on how to disable it. (You can remove the battery by pushing the back of the AirTag and twisting it counterclockwise.) There isn't a way to report abuse to Apple, but you can take it to law enforcement for help. You may need to provide police with the AirTag and/or the serial number which is tied to the owner's Apple ID.
Precision tracking with iPhone 11 and iPhone 12Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
If you have an iPhone 11 or later, you can use the built-in ultra wideband (UWB) chip to find the exact location of an AirTag. That means your iPhone will direct you right to the keys hiding in your sofa, for example.
You just open the Find My app, tap "Find Nearby" and your iPhone will use a combination of sensors and cameras to direct you to the lost item. It will show you how far away something is and will display an arrow on the screen telling you which direction to walk.
Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
Apple also includes a flashlight shortcut if you're hunting in the dark, and an audio option that will force the AirTag to emit loud beeps. It's loud enough that I could hear it from adjacent rooms in my house.
Should you buy AirTag?Apple AirTag
Todd Haselton | Apple
I think it's a great gadget to have if you're in Apple's ecosystem and use an iPhone. I plan to leave one on a pair of keys I keep losing, and I might put one in a small backpack in case I accidentally leave it somewhere like the park.
Just know that it doesn't necessarily prevent theft. Anyone who discovers an AirTag in an item they stole can just remove the battery or toss it somewhere else. Truly, it's best for recovering items that you lost or may be hanging around the house somewhere.
You can order them beginning April 23.
Freedomlist.io
Mailchimp: “SB202 undermines free and fair elections in our home state of Georgia, and will make it harder for people to exercise their right to vote, especially people of color. Georgians deserve better.”
Russia!
EU Walks Back Embarrassing Claim Of 150,000 Russian Troops Near Ukraine Border
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:55
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The European Union had to correct a claim made by its foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, concerning Russian troops near the Ukrainian border. Borrell told reporters on Monday that there were "over 150,000" Russian troops near the border. The number was corrected in a transcript of his briefing on the EU's website to "over 100,000."
Despite the change, it's still unclear how the EU determined that there are over 100,000 Russian troops near the border. Russia has announced the deployment of additional forces near Ukraine in recent weeks, but nothing has indicated it sent over 100,000 troops to the region. Last week, a spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed there were 80,000 troops stationed along the border of Ukraine, with 40,000 of them in Crimea.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell The fact that Russia has troops in Crimea is no surprise. Moscow had a military base in the peninsula even before Crimea joined the Russian Federation in 2014. An alarmist report from the Daily Mail published satellite images that it claims show a Russian military build-up at a base in Crimea.
But the base is located in southern Crimea, nowhere near the conflict zone in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. Demonstrating that the Daily Mail report lacks any credibility, it repeats Borrell's original claim that 150,000 Russian troops have amassed as fact.
When asked about Borrel's comments, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the situation is "concerning" to the US. "What I can tell you is, in general, we have continued to see this build-up increase. And again, that is concerning to us," he said.
While Kirby didn't offer any numbers, he claimed the Russian troop deployment is "certainly bigger" than the 2014 deployment Kirby said resulted in a "violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Afghanistan
Biden's 'Orderly' Afghan Exit Already In Peril As Suicide Attack Rocks Kabul | ZeroHedge
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:21
After Biden broke the prior Trump administration's long negotiated May 1st deadline pullout deal with the Taliban, it vowed a "nightmare" for US troops should they stay past that date. Are we witnessing the beginnings of a massive upsurge in violence to come? A major peace conference meant to bring the national government and Taliban into a power-sharing arrangement to help facilitate a swift US exit has been canceled before it got off the ground...
"Just hours before the announcement of the postponement, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Afghan security personnel, wounding seven people in the capital of Kabul. The interior ministry said civilians and security personnel were among the wounded.
The attack was the first in weeks in the capital, even as targeted killings have escalated and Afghanistan's security personnel have come under relentless attacks by Taliban insurgents. Recent months have also seen an increase in government bombing raids on suspected Taliban positions and increased raids by Afghan special forces."
Illustrative image: prior terror attack in Kabul, via APAnd the Associated Press adds further that "Residents fear the attack could be a harbinger of what's to come as foreign troops prepare to begin their final withdrawal from Afghanistan. No one took immediate responsibility for the attack." The report emphasized that US hopes for an "orderly exit" are already in peril.
A week ago Biden announced a full US troop exit from America's longest war in history, scheduled to be accomplished prior to the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, which is this year.
But that's long past the prior agreed-upon May 1st exit date. It appears that the Taliban has already declared the national government in Kabul 'fair game' for attacks, perhaps in an early 'message' and signal to Washington.
Prior Taliban statements from days ago said that Washington can't be trusted, and further it would "fight till the end" of the US occupation.
A number of pundits have noted that Biden's handling of Afghanistan is a recipe for ensuring that America will yet again find a reason to stay.
Biden has botched Afghanistan. Any attacks against Americans after May 1 will be on him. If he foot drags on leaving after 9/11 he will also look bad & if we must return after that date he will look bad. We could have quietly packed up and left in accordance with the Doha deal.
'-- Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) April 14, 2021It's the same pattern that's repeated itself over and over again: Washington announces an intent to withdraw, then there's an uptick in attacks ahead of the telegraphed exit date, and the US must then "answer" those attacks which in the end means extending military operations into the indefinite future.
Out There
Tic Tac sightings
Naval fleet projection technology
ONLY seen over water
Pilots believe what they saw with INSTRUMENTS, not naked eye
multi-sensor spoofing
The Navy's Secretive And Revolutionary Program To Project False Fleets From Drone Swarms
Archived Version
Sun, 18 Apr 2021 12:04
The U.S. Navy has been quietly developing what could be one of the most important, transformative, and fascinating advances in naval combat, and warfare in general, in years. This new electronic warfare "system of systems" has been clandestinely refined over the last five years and judging from the Navy's own budgetary documents, it may be operational soon, if it isn't already. This secretive new electronic warfare "ecosystem" is known as Netted Emulation of Multi-Element Signature against Integrated Sensors, or NEMESIS.
NEMESIS is not just some 'paper program.' From publicly available, but obscure documents we've collected, it's clear that, for years, the Navy has been developing and integrating multiple types of unmanned vehicles, shipboard and submarine systems, countermeasures and electronic warfare payloads, and communication technologies to give it the ability to project what is, in essence, phantom fleets of aircraft, ships, and submarines. These realistic-looking false signatures and decoys have the ability to appear seamlessly across disparate and geographically separated enemy sensor systems located both above and below the ocean's surface. As a result, this networked and cooperative electronic warfare concept brings an unprecedented level of guileful fidelity to the fight. It's not just about disrupting the enemy's capabilities or confusing them at a command and control level, but also about making their sensors tell them the same falsehoods across large swathes of the battlespace.
Another way of looking at it is NEMESIS shifts from traditional electronic warfare tactics, in which multiple electronic warfare systems execute individual electronic attacks on multiple enemy sensors to achieve largely individual or localized effects, to a very diverse set of networked electronic warfare systems cooperatively making electronic attacks on huge portions of an enemy's sensor network. That network may stretch across large distances and multiple warfighting domains. In doing so, it achieves a cohesive set of far more unified, powerful, and convincing effects.
It sounds like science fiction, but it is anything but'--it's the next quantum leap in the quiet, but ferocious struggle to control the invisible domain of electronic warfare.
The Invisible WarElectronic warfare (EW) has become an essential part of military strategy over the better part of the last century. This has only become more pronounced in recent decades as military systems have increasingly migrated into the digital age.
NATO's simplest definition of electronic warfare is as follows:
The purpose of EW is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly unimpeded access to the electromagnetic spectrum. EW can be applied from air, sea, land, and space, and target communication and radar systems. It involves the use of electromagnetic energy to provide improved understanding of the operational environment as well as to achieve specific effects on the modern battlefield.
Electronic warfare encompasses a huge variety of operations and tactics, such as disrupting enemy communications and preventing your own from being disrupted. Maybe the most well-known form of EW has to do with jamming enemy radar systems, but there are many forms of electronic warfare that don't involve traditional jamming. These include detecting, spoofing, and distracting enemy sensor systems and denying them the opportunity to successfully target friendly forces to varying degrees.
Cyberwarfare tactics and the ability to actually disrupt enemy sensors, networks, and command and control systems at the software level are a highly critical emerging realm of warfare that in some cases can cross over and become blended with electronic warfare tactics. Even the use of directed energy weapons can be part of a force's electronic warfare bag of tricks.
Although it is the least visible component of a present-day military's order of battle and overall capabilities, and much of the details of exactly what capabilities exist and how they are realized remains in the shadows, electronic warfare is becoming one of the most important facets of modern warfare. As a result, future combat will occur just as much in this invisible spectrum as the visible one.
The Cold War Gave Birth To Modern Electronic WarfareElectronic warfare, as we understand it today, is not new. The U.S. military has been deploying EW technologies that go beyond simple jamming since at least the mid-20th Century. Stealth technology would never have been so successful without electronic warfare backstopping it during combat operations. In fact, the only engagement in which an F-117 was ever shot down occurred on the only night of the aircraft's use during Operation Allied Force when electronic warfare support was not available.
EW, at least how we understand it in modern, advanced terms, dates back much farther, to the height of the Cold War when the CIA launched the PALLADIUM project, which deployed radar spoofing systems and submarine-launched balloons carrying metallic radar reflectors in order to stimulate and probe Cuba's Soviet-made air defenses. The effort was part of a grander objective to understand how vulnerable the A-12 Oxcart'--the CIA's progenitor of the SR-71 Blackbird and the first aircraft to integrate stealthy attributes as a driving factor in its design'--would be to enemy air defenses. You can read all about this fascinating bit of history in this past piece of ours.
Lockheed Martin
An A-12 Oxcart.
Considering that the CIA possessed the capability 65 years ago to clandestinely launch airborne radar reflectors from submarines and combine them with electronic warfare capabilities that could simulate or spoof the presence of American fighter aircraft on the most advanced Soviet radar systems of the era, it isn't hard to use one's imagination to ponder what is possible today. We know that EW capabilities have evolved drastically in step with advances in sensor, emitter, and computer processing technologies and the increasingly potent data networks that integrate and fuse their capabilities with other systems and platforms. NEMESIS is the next evolutionary leap in this regard, and a particularly huge one at that.
Electrons Not BombsThe U.S. Navy's leadership has stated repeatedly that developing a major leap in EW capabilities has been a vital area of research over the last decade. On Oct. 29, 2013, then-Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the service's top officer, said as much when he spoke at a convention of the Association of Old Crows (AOC).
At the conference, Greenert told attendees that the Navy was looking for ways to move away from traditional weaponry and turn instead more heavily towards electronic warfare and information warfare. ''We've got to evolve this paradigm,'' he said, adding that electronic warfare could essentially replace kinetic warfare in many situations:
"We're using the electromagnetic spectrum as a domain and as a means, and we understand and grasp it. We have to figure out how we can beat things electronically first. Why do we spend all this money kinetically if we can jam, spoof, or do otherwise? We need to prepare the fleet to enact an electronic warfare plan the same way they think of a communications or surface warfare plan."
In 2015, the National Interest published an op-ed titled ''Winning the Airwaves: Sustaining America's Advantage in the Electromagnetic Spectrum,'' in which authors Bryan Clark and Mark Gunzinger wrote that America had failed to maintain its electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) superiority since the end of the Cold War. This failure had allowed ''China, Russia and other rivals with an opportunity to field systems that target vulnerabilities in sensor and communication networks the U.S. military has come to depend on. As a result, America's once significant military advantage in the EMS is eroding, and may in fact no longer exist,'' they said.
The same authors produced a 2015 white paper for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) think tank detailing how America could regain EMS superiority, writing that the Department of Defense ''now has the opportunity to develop new operational concepts and technologies that will allow it to 'leap ahead' of its competitors and create enduring advantages in EMS warfare.'' The document lists NEMESIS as one such technology, but does not disclose any further details about the program.
Two years earlier, however, budget documents show that the Navy was beginning to develop a highly integrated constellation of next-generation systems for spoofing or fooling distributed sensors and the platforms that host them.
NEMESIS GenesisAn electronic warfare development program known as Netted Emulation of Multi-Element Signature against Integrated Sensors or ''NEMESIS'' first emerged in Navy Research, Development, Test & Evaluation Budget Item Justification documents in the service's budget proposal for the 2014 Fiscal Year, which it published in April 2013. In that and subsequent budget requests, NEMSIS appeared under the program elements ''PE 0602271N / Electromagnetic Systems Applied Research'' and ''PE 0603271N / Electromagnetic Systems Advanced Technology.''
In these budget documents, the Navy describes NEMESIS as a ''System of Systems (SoS) able to coordinate distributed EW resources against many adversary surveillance and targeting sensors simultaneously" which "will benefit the warfighter by providing platform protection across the battlespace against many sensors, creating seamless cross-domain countermeasure coordination, and enabling rapid advanced technology/capability insertion to counter emerging threats.''
More specifically, the Fiscal Year 2014 Electromagnetic Systems Applied Research RDT&E Budget Item Justification states that NEMESIS ''addresses the need to generate the appearance of a realistic naval force to multiple adversarial surveillance and targeting sensors simultaneously.''
DoD
Later in that same document, a more detailed description of the program states that NEMESIS consists of ''reconfigurable and modular EW payloads, Distributed Decoy and Jammer Swarms (DDJS), effective acoustic countermeasures (CM), and Multiple Input/Multiple Output Sensor/CM (MIMO S/CM) for false force generation to both above and below water sensors.''
The 2018 and 2019 budget justifications state that "Nemesis expendable decoys and prototype system hardware will be completed and delivered for field testing" and that demonstrations of these expendable decoys "will be conducted during fleet experimentation, as well as during focused field and laboratory tests."
DoD
A Shadowy NEMESISThere is little publicly available information surrounding NEMESIS aside from these unclassified budgetary documents and a few publications and presentations that mention the program, usually to a very limited degree. Many specifics about the NEMESIS system remain unknown, but the documents help add context to the budget line item justifications we've presented above.
On April 9, 2014, Bob Smith, Director of Disruptive Technologies at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) gave a presentation at the National Defense Industrial Association's 15th Annual Science and Engineering Technology Conference that described several innovative Navy prototype research programs, or INPs. A slide from the presentation offered a basic, but absolutely impressive overview of the NEMESIS program while of course stating ''Additional details classified.''
ONR
The presentation stated that NEMESIS worked against distributed sensor systems in order to confuse or spoof an enemy force's surveillance and targeting systems. That document also said that the NEMESIS system ''enables rapid advanced technology/capability insertion for emerging threats'', meaning that NEMESIS could be quickly modified and upgraded to counter the latest capabilities that are still under development.
At the time, ONR said that NEMESIS addressed current limitations of traditional EW systems and multiple items on the United States Pacific Command (PACOM) Integrated Priority List (IPL), a list of the Pacific Command's highest priorities for ensuring its forces are capable of accomplishing their missions.
According to the same ONR presentation, NEMESIS consisted of "modular and reconfigurable EW payloads" including "decoy and unmanned air and surface platforms" based on the ONR's Science & Technology and Future Naval Capabilities programs. NEMESIS combined functionality and capabilities from Code 31: Information, Cyber and Spectrum Superiority; Code 33: Mission Capable, Persistent and Survivable Naval Platforms; and Code 35: Aviation, Force Projection and Integrated Defense.
Shortly after that ONR presentation, the publicly available 2015 Navy Program Guide offered a definition of NEMESIS in its appendix, stating that NEMESIS could ''synchronize electronic warfare (EW) affects across a variety of distributed platforms to create coherent and consistent EW effects" and that "NEMESIS emphasis is on the coordination and synchronization of EW capabilities and tactics against sensors in many scenarios.''
That same guide also stated that development of NEMESIS began in 2014 and was an interdisciplinary project involving well-known research centers, such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and ONR:
In 2013 the Navy approved NEMESIS as a FY 2014 INP New Start. Initial NEMESIS activity involved planning discussions among the Office of Naval Research, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, fleet commands and analysts, acquisition programs of record, government laboratories and warfare centers, the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency, and federally funded research and development centers and university affiliated research centers.
To ensure NEMESIS is addressing current and future threats to naval battle group operations, threat assessments were initiated with the Intelligence Community, and a Navy Warfare Development Command NEMESIS war game will be conducted in 2015.
Navy.mil
On Feb. 4, 2015, Dr. Thomas Killion, then-Director of Technology at the Office of Naval Research, gave a presentation at the ONR Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo. In that presentation, NEMESIS is listed as a current Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) program alongside some of the Navy's most important leading-edge weapons development initiatives, including the Electromagnetic Railgun, the Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, the Integrated Topside information operations and communications suite, and the Autonomous Aerial Cargo Unmanned System.
ONR
The Navy's 2015 Program Guide also mentions that the Navy conducted a war game in 2015 to test the NEMESIS system. Another budget document, the 2017 RDT&E Project Justification document for the Navy's "Space and Electronic Warfare (SEW) Architecture/Engineering Support" program, states that this war game took place in late February 2015:
NEMESIS War Game: This Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored war game was conducted by NWDC and completed 23-26 Feb 2015. The primary purpose of the war game was to obtain fleet stakeholder input into the requirements for and design of a classified ONR Innovative Naval Prototype. The results of this effort will be used to design prototypes that could eventually be fielded as a Navy program of record.
That document also states that the NEMESIS war game which took place in 2015 "consisted of multiple events designed to explore innovative concepts and technologies associated with EMW", or electromagnetic warfare, and "obtain fleet stakeholder input into the requirements for and design of a classified ONR Innovative Naval Prototype." The descriptions of this war game appear to describe a seminar or "tabletop" exercise designed to formulate initial ideas for developing such a system, but exact details of the war game remain unknown.
The 2017 Navy Program Guide states that dedicated hardware for NEMESIS was developed in 2016 and that NEMESIS was expected to be demonstrated at full capability in late 2018:
NEMESIS has been in development since 2014, including close collaboration with the Office of Naval Research, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, fleet commands and analysts, acquisition programs of record, government laboratories and warfare centers, the Defense Advanced Research Programs Agency, and federally funded research and development centers and university-affiliated research centers. During 2016, NEMESIS capabilities began hardware development, technique and software migration and field testing at the sub-system level. In FY 2017-2018 flight and at-sea testing will be conducted on integrated system level capabilities in preparation for graduation demonstrations in late FY 2018.
The guide goes on to list the NEMESIS system's developers: Georgia Tech Research Institute, Johns Hopkins' Applied Physics Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Lincoln Lab, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, the Office of Naval Research, and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. The Navy just recently rebranded Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command as the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command.
Navy.mil
EW SwarmsWhile the exact components of the NEMESIS system remain unknown, there are some hints about what types of decoys and swarms could make up such a system. In a 2017 Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) white paper titled ''Winning in the Gray Zone: Using Electromagnetic Warfare to Regain Escalation Dominance," authors Bryan Clark, Mark Gunzinger, and Jesse Sloman described the various elements that made up EW ecosystems then in development, such as NEMESIS and DARPA's System of System Integration Technology and Experimentation (SoSITE).
The document described swarms of expendable unmanned aerial systems that ''incorporate cognitive processing and coordinate their actions through communication networks,'' meaning they can share data in real-time and operate semi-autonomously to jam an adversary's sensors, act as or release decoys, gather targeting information, and detect and map air defense networks.
Launching waves of these UAVs could extend U.S. forces' sensor networks, confuse or obscure enemy defenses, provide a resilient communications network, coordinate and assign targets for weapons salvos, and even ''provide targets to hypersonic weapons that have a very short time-of-flight," the paper explained.
Aside from providing fire and communications support, the NEMESIS system was said to be capable of creating viable false targets that would "increase the number of potential targets" an adversary would have to engage. These false targets would "mimic the RF emissions and radar returns of real platforms" and include infrared decoys and "concepts and capabilities to simulate the computer network activity of deployed forces." The NEMESIS system even included underwater "high-fidelity acoustic decoys" which can generate "additional targets for the enemy to investigate or attack," according to the CSBA white paper. These acoustic decoys could include radio emulators and simulate propeller noise or other propulsion systems, as well as specific equipment on surface ships and submarines.
The CSBA said these decoys could increase the size of the forces or amount of munitions an enemy force would have to respond with, ideally making that adversary less willing to risk a larger use of its assets. What that means is that this EW system can not only disrupt an adversary's tactics, but to some extent also dictate his battlefield decision-making.
The CSBA report described how these effects could be achieved using small unmanned EW systems launched from either high altitude balloons or undersea platforms, such as submarines or unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to create these electronic warfare effects:
Launching EMW expendables at higher altitudes is another approach to extending their ranges and endurance. Launching small EMW UAVs, missiles, or munitions from very high altitude (60,000 to 120,000 feet) balloons could be a less expensive option than using a missile. High altitude balloon technologies are very mature and may cost significantly less than other delivery methods. Furthermore, defeating balloon-delivered EMW expendables would likely require SAMs that can reach very high altitudes. Using these expensive SAMs to defeat large numbers of balloons'--some which might be decoys'--could be costly and operationally impractical for aggressors.
Another innovative delivery method for EMW expendables could be from undersea platforms, which may be the best use of undersea payload capacity in general. [...] Undersea platforms could be one of the most effective methods to deliver EMW expendables because they can closely approach enemy coastlines and targets. This allows shorter-range expendables to be employed, which are less expensive, smaller, and can be carried in higher numbers than larger payloads like cruise missiles.
Numerous sea and submarine-launched UAVs and autonomous swarm systems have already been developed or are in development. Small drone swarms can also be launched from virtually any type of ship and from shore, and even aircraft, as well. In fact, the Navy already has a swarming electronic warfare capability in the form of the ever-evolving Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD). But pairing various platforms, from radar reflector and electronic warfare payload-carrying balloons and swarms of drones of different sizes and performance capabilities, and networking them together to work cooperatively to confuse, spoof, and/or blind enemy sensors dispersed over a wide area is clearly what this system is all about.
The Office of Naval Research has been testing a small, low-cost rotary-wing drone known as Nomad, described as ''a highly affordable expendable design'' that can be deployed without the need to ensure it returns to its parent vessel. The Nomad can be launched from tubes using a CO2 ejection system that can fit on a variety of platforms and tests of this compact UAV have found that ''multiple Nomads can safely operate in the same airspace and fly in a coordinated fashion.''
USN
Nomad undergoing testing.
One of the only non-Navy mentions of the NEMESIS program found online is in a NavalDrones.com article from 2017, which describes the Nomad specifically as being part of the NEMESIS system. While that claim is unconfirmed on an official level, the Naval Research Laboratory has publicly disclosed tests of the Nomad system without mentioning NEMESIS. Still, given that many of the NEMESIS documents state that ''Distributed Decoy and Jammer Swarms (DDJS)'' are an integral part of the system, it's possible, if not probable, that Nomad and swarms of other small drones are part of this highly sophisticated and networked electronic warfare capability.
The 2017 CSBA paper also cites a wide range of other unmanned systems that could hypothetically be integrated into the NEMESIS system, although it remains unknown which specific expendables are used:
Small expendables in development or use today include the Switchblade precision missile, which is in use with Special Operations Forces; small UAVs such as the Coyote UAV, used in the Navy's Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program; and loitering munitions like the Lockheed Martin Fire Shadow. Expendables have also been integrated with launch platforms. The Navy is developing a submarine-launched version of the Blackwing UAV, which is similar to the Switchblade. Furthermore, the U.S. Air Force has deployed the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) since the 1990s.
The aforementioned LOCUST would be one of the most obvious platforms to execute major parts of the NEMESIS concept. The Navy has been experimenting with this highly deployable swarming drone capability for years and the airframes are highly adaptable and can be launched from almost anywhere.
Lockheed Martin has been also developing small unmanned aerial vehicles such as the tiny Outrider micro-aircraft, which can be launched from canisters that fit inside submarine missile tubes. The Naval Research Laboratory has tested all-electric folding wing drones designed to launch from torpedo tubes using existing launch systems. Glimpses of other similar systems in development have been offered over the last few years, including ones designed to carry infrared and electro-optical payloads.
Northrop Grumman has tested electronic warfare drones dropped from EA-18G Growlers inside canister deployment systems and air-launched electronic warfare enabled swarming munitions are set to become a major staple of aerial warfare.
Earlier this year, the Office of Naval Research issued a special notice for a research opportunity to develop a ''Long Endurance Advanced Off-board Electronic Warfare Platform,'' or LEAP. This program was listed under two of the same codes as NEMESIS, ONR Code 35: Aerodynamics, Autonomy, Flight Dynamics & Control, as well as Code 31: Electronic Warfare. The proposed vehicle design to be researched was for a ship-launched, long-range expendable decoy that can carry modular EW payloads.
Swarms of small unmanned surface vessels and even undersea vessels seem to fulfill aspects of NEMESIS' cross-domain capability as well. But leveraging swarms of smaller and somewhat expendable aerial drones and munitions that can work in conjunction with larger, less numerous, and more advanced platforms allows the NEMESIS concept to cover large geographical areas associated with modern naval combat and to distribute EW capabilities in a more resilient and decentralized manner than in the past. In doing so, it also allows for these swarms and the various dissimilar nodes that can make up the NEMESIS system at any given time to create fleets of ships and aircraft that aren't really there across a huge area as well as execute more mundane tasks, such as jamming individual enemy emitters or working as sacrificial decoys for enemy weapons themselves.
All of this could, and eventually will, also be networked with existing, more traditional electronic warfare systems such as those mounted on the Navy's surface combatants. In particular, this could be networked with the SLQ-32 SEWIP and the new and shadowy SLQ-59 that has recently arrived on some of the Navy's vessels. The Navy's EA-18G Growler could also act as a major component in this EW ecosystem and as a forward command and control node.
It's also worth remembering that NEMESIS, or at least parts of it, would also be an incredible and obvious intelligence collecting tool when it comes to probing and evaluating an enemy's defenses and recording its electronic order of battle. This could be done even in peacetime, very much in the same vein of PALLADIUM so many years ago, but on a much larger and more elaborate scale.
Evolution Of A RevolutionIn Fiscal Year 2015, the NEMESIS program expanded beyond the Navy's PE 0602271N / Electromagnetic Systems Applied Research program and began appearing in the budget line justification documents of several additional programs in subsequent fiscal years. During the next fiscal cycle, the Navy's Electromagnetic Systems Applied Research program continued to work on NEMESIS as it had in prior years. Then, in Fiscal Year 2017, the program's budget increased significantly ''due to hardware procurement and conducting field experiments of NEMESIS technologies.''
DoD
The Fiscal Year 2017 RDT&E Project Justification for the NEMESIS work conducted by Navy program PE 0603271N / Electromagnetic Systems Advanced Technology states that Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 are dedicated to ''the integration and demonstration of these new technologies''.
DoD
In Fiscal Year 2018, NEMESIS appeared on two new Navy research program elements titled ''PE 0602792N / (U)Innovative Naval Prototypes(INP) Applied Research'' and ''PE 0603801N / (U) Innovative Naval Prototypes (INP) Advanced Technology Development.'' Those programs' goals for that fiscal cycle, respectively, were:
PE 0602792N / (U)Innovative Naval Prototypes(INP) Applied Research: Complete the Nemesis project by finishing research efforts to develop and mature technologies in multiple areas that will be used to assess the feasibility of Nemesis to coordinate Electronic Warfare (EW) operations across distributed EW systems. Technologies being matured include swarming vehicle operations, distributed resource mission control, multi-domain coordinated operations and advanced RF component and subsystems technologies. These emerging technologies are being designed and developed for prototype Nemesis systems which will be capable of performing coordinated EW operations across distributed EW systems.
PE 0603801N / (U) Innovative Naval Prototypes (INP) Advanced Technology Development: Complete the Nemesis project, previously funded in 0603271N Electromagnetic Systems Advanced Technology Development, by designing and building prototype Nemesis payloads that implement industry standards for software, hardware, and firmware interfaces. Nemesis expendable decoys and prototype system hardware will be completed and delivered for field testing. Demonstrations of Nemesis platforms and payload will be conducted during fleet experimentation, as well as during focused field and laboratory tests.
These budgetary documents state that the Innovative Naval Prototype programs "represent game-changing technologies with the potential to revolutionize operational concepts. They are disruptive in nature as they would dramatically change the way naval forces fight. INPs push the imagination of our nation's technical talent to deliver transformational warfighting capabilities."
DoD
In Fiscal Year 2019, funding continued to decrease in both the PE 0603271N / Electromagnetic Systems Advanced Technology and PE 0602271N / Electromagnetic Systems Applied Research programs due to the fact that the NEMESIS program was now being developed under the Innovative Naval Prototypes programs, suggesting it has advanced beyond research and development and is now working towards an operational state.
Electronic Warfare: The Next GenerationThe very existence of NEMESIS proves that a revolution in electronic warfare is well underway. If the capabilities we've described can be gleaned from scant publicly available information, there are no doubts that more advanced NEMESIS components and capabilities remain classified. It is also likely that some components of the system have existed long before they began to be integrated with other platforms under the NEMESIS program. Above all else, that is what NEMESIS does: it pulls together various leading-edge EW concepts and networks them together for a combined electronic warfare fight the likes of which we have never seen before.
As more nations develop and refine their advanced integrated sensor networks, next-generation EW "systems of systems" such as NEMESIS will become more vital to protecting the U.S. and allied assets and for giving them a leg up by being able to directly manipulate what the enemy believes is occurring on the battlespace based on their own sensors' data. As such, NEMESIS can help level the playing field against increasingly capable sensor networks, whether by blinding certain parts of those networks while spoofing others or by having the enemy fire its treasured weaponry at ghosts in the sea and in the air. Even a formation of what appears to be an incoming bomber force on radar and a puzzling group of bright signatures on infrared sensors could draw the enemy's attention away from critical parts on a real offensive.
Yes, much of this sounds almost like magic, and it is probably the closest thing the military has to it, but going by even the limited information we were able to uncover about NEMESIS, it really does represent the evolutionary next great leap in electronic warfare'--one that will elevate this murky art from a supporting aspect of military operations to a primary offensive and defensive one.
Tyler Rogoway contributed extensively to this feature.
Contact the editor: Tyler@thedrive.com
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Build Back Better
Harris to travel to Northern Triangle region in June | TheHill
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:19
Vice President Harris will meet virtually with the president of Guatemala on Monday and travel to the Northern Triangle in June, a White House official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday.
Harris will hold a virtual bilateral meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei, and she will join a virtual roundtable Tuesday with representatives from Guatemalan community-based organizations, the official said. The roundtable will focus on how to best address root causes of migration.
The discussions will precede Harris's first visit to the Northern Triangle region, which encompasses Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Officials said the vice president would make the trip in June but offered no further details.
"The Vice President last spoke with President Giammattei on March 30th. In that conversation, they agreed to collaborate on promoting economic development, leveraging technology, strengthening climate resilience, and creating the conditions to expand opportunity for people in their home countries in order to address the root causes of migration to the United States," the official said.
Harris has faced pressure from Republicans to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border or Central America since President Biden Joe BidenCornyn, Sinema to introduce bill aimed at addressing border surge Harris to travel to Northern Triangle region in June Biden expected to formally recognize Armenian Genocide: report MORE announced she would be leading the administration's efforts to stem the tide of migrants surging toward the border.
The White House later clarified that her focus would specifically be on the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras rather than the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Biden administration has for weeks been grappling with an influx of migrants at the southern border, many of them unaccompanied children or teenagers. Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 170,000 people at the U.S.-Mexico border in the month of March, the highest number is at least 15 years.
Republicans have attacked the Biden administration over immigration repeatedly, arguing that the president's rollback of hard-line Trump administration policies has contributed to the surge.
Harris held a virtual roundtable last week with experts on the Northern Triangle, where she made clear she did not expect to see immediate change in migration patterns from the region and that it would take a long-term commitment to the issue to get results.
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VIDEO - Central bank digital currency is the next major financial disruptor
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 13:55
The Federal Reserve building is seen on March 19, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Daniel Slim | AFP | Getty Images
Wall Street is warming up to the idea that the next big disruptive force on the horizon is central bank digital currencies, even though the Federal Reserve likely remains a few years away from developing its own.
Led by countries as large as China and as small as the Bahamas, digital money is drawing stronger interest as the future of an increasingly cashless society.
A digital dollar would resemble cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ethereum in some limited respects, but differ in important ways.
Rather than be a tradable asset with wildly fluctuating prices and limited use, the central bank digital currency would function more like dollars and have widespread acceptance. It also would be fully regulated and under a central authority.
Myriad questions remain before an institution as large as the Fed will wade in. But the momentum is building around the world.
The race towards Digital Money 2.0 is on.
"A major move to introduce central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) could actually disrupt the financial system," Chetan Ahya, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a report for clients. "Efforts to introduce CBDCs are gaining momentum, with as many as 86% of the world's central banks exploring digital currencies."
Indeed, a 2020 survey from the Bank for International Settlements indicated that nearly every central bank in the world at least did some work on these digital currencies. Some 60% are working on "proof of concept" testing, though just 14% have actually launched a pilot program or are in development.
Several areas of worryAlong with the enthusiasm about a possible new horizon for the financial system has come concern over getting the implementation right.
Central bank digital currency advocates, conversely, cite multiple advantages. Paramount among those reasons is giving unbanked people access to the financial system.
There's also a speed consideration. Transfer payments, such as those provided by governments to people during the Covid-19 crisis, would be made faster and easier if that money could be deposited directly into digital wallets.
"New forms of digital money could provide a parallel boost to the vital lifelines that remittances provide to the poor and to developing economies," Kristalina Georgieva, managing director at the International Monetary Fund, said in recent remarks at a joint meeting with the World Bank. "The biggest beneficiaries would be vulnerable people sending small value remittances: those most at risk from being left behind by the pandemic."
Potential losers from the digital currencies include some financial institutions, both in traditional banking and fintech, that could lose deposits due to people putting their money into central bank accounts.
There also are privacy concerns and worries over integration.
'Digital Money 2.0'As the Fed and other central banks work through those logistical issues, Wall Street is growing in anticipation over what the future will hold.
"The race towards Digital Money 2.0 is on," Citigroup said in a report. "Some have framed it as a new Space Race or Digital Currency Cold War. In our view, it doesn't have to be a zero sum game '-- there's a lot of room for the overall digital pie to grow."
There, however, has been at least the semblance of a race, and China is perceived as taking the early lead.
With the launch of a digital yuan last year, some fear that the edge China has ultimately could undermine the dollar's status as the world's reserve currency. Though China said that is not its objective, a Bank of America report notes that issuing digital dollars would let the U.S. currency "remain highly competitive '... relative to other currencies."
"CBDCs offer the benefits of improving monetary transactions, without the adverse side effects of crypto currencies," Bank of America economist Anna Zhou wrote.
Multiple other nations have moved ahead on projects, after the Bahamas was first with its Sand Dollar.
The Fed is currently working on a joint project with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to evaluate the efficacy of a digital dollar, though there isn't a specific timetable on when or if the U.S. central bank will move forward.
"There are many subtle and difficult policy choices and design choices that you have to make," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a recent interview with the CBS program "60 Minutes."
"We're doing all that work," he said. "We have not made a decision to do this because, again, the question is will this benefit the people that we serve? And we need to answer that question well."
In a working paper on the subject, Greg Baer, CEO of the Bank Policy Institute, an industry lobbying group, cautioned about a potential "diminishment" of the traditional banking system. He added that "the impact on economic growth could be significant '' unless the central bank also assumed responsibility for lending or became a regular source of funding for banks."
"The path forward is currently uncertain, and design choices could drive very different outcomes," Baer wrote. He noted the Fed's caution and how that contrasts with the "more precipitate" action from the European Central Bank.
'Cash is going the way of the dodo'The ECB and Bank of England are looking into their own digital currencies though they will be simply conduits for banks, which would act as the intermediaries for digital currency accounts.
"This 'britcoin' would be tied to the value of the pound to eliminate holding it as an asset from to derive profit. There could be an economic impact in the form of wider investment into the UK tech sector and lower transaction costs for international businesses," said Jeremy Thomson-Cook, chief economist at international business payments specialist Equals Money.
"I think this legitimizes the belief that cash is going the way of the dodo and that the wider payments landscape will be entirely online within the next decade apart from incidentals or quixotic spending," Thomson-Cook said.
Even with the seemingly intractable move toward digital currencies backed by central banks, U.S. authorities seem determined to take their time.
Powell also has said the Fed will not act without specific congressional authority and has said there are multiple concerns that need to be addressed.
"While central banks' CBDC initiatives are not intended to disrupt the banking system, they will likely have unintended disruptive consequences," Morgan Stanley's Ahya said. "The more widely digital currencies are accepted, the more opportunity for innovation and the greater the scope for disruption to the financial system."
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VIDEO - (73) NC Walgreens gave some patients saline injection instead of COVID vaccine - YouTube
VIDEO - (18) GreatGameIndia on Twitter: "Outrage in people after well known Indian actor and the Tamilnadu state's ambassador for creating public health messages passed away a day after he received the #COVID19 vaccine. Details here ðð½ https://t.
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:31
GreatGameIndia : Outrage in people after well known Indian actor and the Tamilnadu state's ambassador for creating public health mes'... https://t.co/vZW2Nuh0ga
Mon Apr 19 11:42:51 +0000 2021
VIDEO - (72) NYC celebrates 4/20 with free joints - YouTube
VIDEO - Rumors Swirl About President Harris' Mental State After She Bursts Into ANOTHER Uncontrolled Laughing Fit - News Punch
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:07
Rumors are swirling about Kamala Harris' mental state after she was caught laughing uncontrollably in front of a crowd in North Carolina on Monday.
Harris, who is effectively running the country at this point, has repeatedly burst out in fits of laughter during totally inappropriately times.
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The latest example came on Monday as Harris spoke in North Carolina about the Administration's controversial jobs plan.
Harris attempted to make a joke, suggesting that opportunities are ''equally available to women as well as men'' like hard hats. It was then she began laughing like a hyena.
''Because there's an interesting fact,'' Harris said, as ripples of laughter began emerging from her belly.
''In case you didn't know, hard hats are actually unisex.''
Summit.news reports: Despite the fact that literally no one knew what the hell she was laughing at, or found what she was saying funny, Harris felt the need to blurt out loud ''everybody's laughing.''
Harris keeps repeating this bizarre behaviour:
VIDEO - What Matters: Biden hits 200 million vaccine doses. The next 200 million will be a lot harder - CNNPolitics
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 12:03
A version of this story appears in CNN's What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
(CNN)It's no longer supply, it's demand. This, right now, is the moment when the government stopped the triage effort on vaccines and started trying to convince the skeptical and the unwilling to roll up their sleeves.
"To put it simply, if you've been waiting for your turn, wait no longer,"
President Joe Biden told Americans in remarks Wednesday. "Now is the time for everyone over 16 years of age to get vaccinated.
The US has been cruising on vaccines. Biden proudly announced Wednesday that the country has put 200 million shots in American arms during his administration. More than a
quarter of the country has been fully vaccinated and 40% has gotten one shot. More than half the population over the age of 18 has gotten one shot.
Then he made an important pivot, trying to sell the vaccine to people who don't yet want it with a multi-pronged sales pitch:
He told younger Americans they needed to do their part to get the shot and protect their own health. He called it a "patriotic duty," perhaps targeting conservatives.He reminded Americans the shots are free.He called on all employers to give workers time off for vaccines -- and promised a tax credit to sweeten the deal."Go get your vaccine before the end of May," he implored. "We can do this."
Biden has shown a knack for setting achievable goals and taking credit for them, which is either small-minded policymaking or really good politics, depending on your perspective.
That's how he was able to brag that the first 200 million shots during his administration were achieved days ahead of schedule. The full total is higher when you factor in the many millions who were vaccinated in the final days of the Trump administration.
The next 200 million vaccine shots are expected to be much harder than the first. That's despite the fact that all Americans over 16 should now be eligible.
The Kaiser Family Foundation overlaid the number of people who have been vaccinated according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with its polling on how many Americans are willing to get the shot.
Here's the math:
People vaccinated: 40% plus of Americans have gotten a shot, according to the latest CDC data.People willing to get vaccinated: About 61% of Americans in Kaiser's polling, although that number has grown as people get more comfortable with the vaccine.People needed to reach herd immunity: 70%-85% of the population, according to most experts.Vaccines administered per day: ~3 million or more at the current pace.Bottom line. The universe of people willing to get vaccinated who haven't yet received a shot is shrinking, and in the coming weeks there will be a predicted shift from people clamoring to get vaccinated to the government figuring out how to get to the 39% or so who are skeptical or otherwise unwilling to roll up their sleeves.
Some are youngsters who think they're invincible. Some are conservative and skeptical of the government. Some are people of color who are skeptical for different reasons. But the pressure-applying portion of this is just getting started.
Who is least likely to get vaccinated? CNN's Harry Enten wrote that we tend to focus on racial and partisan divides, but he looks at the polling and says that
misses an important point:
One under-discussed difference in vaccination uptake that is particularly troubling is that younger Americans are less likely than older Americans to claim they have or will get vaccinated. This is dangerous because younger Americans seem to be the ones most likely to spread the virus.
Just 49% of those under the age of 30 in last month's Kaiser Family Foundation survey told the pollster that they would be getting a vaccine as soon as possible or had already gotten one. That's below the 61% overall and well below the 81% of senior citizens.
The hesitancy among young people could play a role in slowing herd immunity and may explain why, despite the growing number of vaccines, the number of Covid infections remains high.
Enten again: The fact that younger people have been slower on the vaccine uptake is worrisome because they are also the least likely to socially distance themselves. According to an average of March Axios/Ipsos polls, adults under the age of 30 were on average 7 points less likely to say they were socially distancing than adults overall.
Biden spoke directly to the youngsters out there when he said the vaccine could not only save their lives, but also help stop the spread in the community and "save your grandmother's life."
Grandparents out there. You may be more likely to be reading this than the youngsters. Biden could have also told you you need to call up your grandkids to get this done.
Replay: When we'll know it's time to get back to normal. Here's a good place to replay that standoff between Dr. Anthony Fauci and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio this week over when Covid restrictions should end.
"My message, Congressman Jordan, is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can to get the level of infection in this country low, that it is no longer a threat," Fauci said. "That is when."
Should you advertise your vaccination? I read with interest this
CNN analysis about the pros and cons of sharing your vaccination status. This plays into the same murky territory as the immunity verifications (also known as
vaccine passports) that are so controversial but could also be a valuable tool for opening up society.
Weighing the privacy issues with the vaccine hesitancy issues, I tend to think everyone should be shouting their vaccine status from the rooftops.
The next goal: Independence Day. Biden is not, generally, in the business of setting unattainable goals, so it's a good bet that his goal of having the US closer to normal life by July Fourth is not completely crazy.
Back in March, a CNN analysis of vaccine data suggested the US
could reach herd immunity by June if vaccinations kept pace. The test now will be keeping vaccines at pace after the willing population is saturated with vaccine.
VIDEO - Scientist who helped develop Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine agrees third shot is needed as immunity wanes
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:45
The chief medical officer of BioNTech told CNBC on Wednesday that people will likely need a third shot of its two-dose Covid-19 vaccine as immunity against the virus wanes, agreeing with previous comments made by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
Dr. Ozlem Tureci, co-founder and CMO of BioNTech, which developed a Covid vaccine with Pfizer, said she also expects people will need to get vaccinated against the coronavirus annually, like for the seasonal flu. That's because, she said, scientists expect vaccine-induced immunity against the virus will decrease over time.
"We see indications for this also in the induced, but also the natural immune response against SARS-COV-2," she said during an interview with CNBC's Kelly Evans on "The Exchange." "We see this waning of immune responses also in people who were just infected and therefore [it's] also expected with the vaccines."
Tureci's comments come after Bourla said in an interview that aired April 15 that people will likely need a booster shot, or third dose, of the Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated. He also said it's possible people will need to get additional shots each year.
Pfizer said earlier this month that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 91% effective at protecting against the virus and more than 95% effective against severe disease up to six months after the second dose. Moderna's vaccine, which uses technology similar to Pfizer's, was also shown to remain highly effective at six months.
Researchers say they still don't know how long protection against the virus lasts after six months of being fully vaccinated, though public health officials and health experts expect protection to wane after some time.
Should Americans require booster shots, the U.S. government would likely need to make arrangements with the drugmakers to supply additional doses and make plans for vaccine distribution.
On Friday, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to President Joe Biden's Covid response team, said the White House is preparing for the potential need for Covid-19 vaccine booster shots. He said the Biden administration has thought about the need to secure additional doses.
"I can assure you that when we do our planning, when the president orders purchases of additional vaccines as he has done and when we focus on all the production expansion opportunities that we talk about in here we very much have scenarios like that in mind," he said at a White House press briefing.
Last week, the Biden administration's Covid response chief science officer, David Kessler, said Americans should expect to receive booster shots to protect against coronavirus variants. He told U.S. lawmakers that currently authorized vaccines are highly protective but noted new variants could "challenge" the effectiveness of the shots.
"We don't know everything at this moment," he told the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis.
"We are studying the durability of the antibody response," he said. "It seems strong, but there is some waning of that, and no doubt the variants challenge ... they make these vaccines work harder. So I think for planning purposes, planning purposes only, I think we should expect that we may have to boost."
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC last week that the company hopes to have a booster shot for its two-dose vaccine available in the fall.
VIDEO - (72) Possible new treatment for COVID-19 - YouTube
VIDEO - Aviation authority unable to identify blue UFO that 'crashed' in Hawaii in new report - Daily Star
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:24
A dazzling UFO that appeared to ''crash land'' into the sea off the coast of Hawaii has still not been identified after a report by the Federal Aviation Authority was released.
Hawaiian local Moriah, along with countless other residents, noticed the strange blue light hovering above her home in Oahu on December 29, 2020.
She claimed the object eventually disappeared into the sea before a second white light appeared and followed a similar path.
Grainy footage of the night sky shows a blue light streaking through the sky '' before it appears to drop onto the horizon.
The Hawaiian was so freaked out by what she saw that she called 911 but when police arrived, they too were reportedly ''at a loss'' to explain it.
The mystery blue UFO filmed by Moriah above Hawaii (Image: Misitina Sape) Read MoreRelated ArticlesPrince Harry 'left Meghan waiting' after skipping planned flight back to see CharlesRead MoreRelated ArticlesQueen breaks centuries-old royal tradition as she mourns death of Prince PhilipThey then contacted the US's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to determine whether any of their aircraft was in the sky at the time.
John Greenewald, who runs investigative site The Black Vault, sent a Freedom of Information request to the FAA for their report on the incident.
He received their response on April 12 and it was clear in the documents that they are still at a loss to describe the object.
Viewers online have suggested it could be an LED kite (Image: Misitina Sape)In the ''Air Traffic Mandatory Occurrence Report'', the organisation says there was no active training in the area at the time and it was not possible that a pilot had ''deviated''.
A brief summary reads: ''Honolulu Police Department called to ask if we were missing any A/C (aircraft). Someone from Nanakuli called them and said there is a possible downed A/C 300 yards off shore. I checked with the H controller and we are not missing any A/C.''
The inability to identify the object by authorities has led to a new hive of speculation online.
Some said they were ''not surprised'' the FAA were unable to explain what the object was as the ''video was very odd''.
But many others suggest it may simply have been an LED kite.
''Seen a lot of LED kite comparisons and it definitely resembles one,'' one added.
Another suggested: ''It was a Chinese balloon on fire that accidentally got snagged by a small commercial drone. No mystery.''
VIDEO - 2021 Free Expression Awards Highlight: Susan Wojcicki - YouTube
VIDEO - Mayday on Twitter: "Feeling lost, confused & defeated? Here is a very big reason why. All of the ð¨ð... media, many politicians & corrupt public health officials are guilty of these crimes. Knowingly or not (yet). 1. Psychological warfar
Thu, 22 Apr 2021 04:23
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Mark Latikainen : @MaydayMatrix @BillTufts 100% true. Another example is the fact that the Totalitarian Dictatorship, Chinese Communi'... https://t.co/q0JjiawaqK
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Rachelle Claveau : @MaydayMatrix @randyhillier @Radio_Quebec
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Justice For All 17 : @MaydayMatrix @JStorm9369
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ð''²ð''¾ð''ð''ð''¾ð''¶ð'' ð''ªð''>> ð'ð''¶ð''ð'' ð¨ð... ðºð¸ : @MaydayMatrix In Canada we have 1 of the worst systems imaginable. We give too much power to a PM who is selected,'... https://t.co/P1g5Jwl7Kw
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S(C)an ' Cathin : @MaydayMatrix @randyhillier Fascinating to see him simultaneously use & describe the very techniques he projects onto the bogeyman
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Dr Peter Moloney Foundation : @MaydayMatrix @randyhillier True. But China is one of many stakeholders, although the biggest elephant, in the new'... https://t.co/3T5FSe2THH
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Jules ð¨ð... : @MaydayMatrix @BillTufts This is good. It's happening in North America as well.
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Alan : @MaydayMatrix Send link so we can watch whole interview please
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Art With Aim : @MaydayMatrix @randyhillier We did an epsiode on guerrilla art on the WWIII battlefield. Would love your feedback.'... https://t.co/Ce938XECKF
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VIDEO - Chinese Embassy Threat: Australia will 'hurt itself' by cancelling Belt and Road deal - YouTube
VIDEO - Ryan Saavedra on Twitter: "Democrat Nancy Pelosi thanks George Floyd for being killed https://t.co/2r2e2Ffz9Z" / Twitter
Wed, 21 Apr 2021 05:48
Ryan Saavedra : Democrat Nancy Pelosi thanks George Floyd for being killed https://t.co/2r2e2Ffz9Z
Tue Apr 20 21:55:13 +0000 2021
Conand : @RealSaavedra Thanks George. https://t.co/GkhBgnMQM9
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Davy Anderson-Burke ð¬ð§ : @RealSaavedra How that terrible woman retains her place in front line American politics amazes and shocks me simultaneously.
Wed Apr 21 05:38:31 +0000 2021
VIDEO - Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) on Twitter: "Grace Church says Paul Rossi misquoted him. It doesn't sound like it. Listen to these clips: https://t.co/laExNH21rU https://t.co/2wEF6hAkF4" / Twitter
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 19:26
Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) : Grace Church says Paul Rossi misquoted him. It doesn't sound like it. Listen to these clips:'... https://t.co/nXioIt9xKZ
Tue Apr 20 12:18:35 +0000 2021
Bennyj8balls : @fairforall_org Ummm slavery kinda turned white people into monsters, stole the humanity right out white people, de'... https://t.co/mdUfoW1SZR
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VIDEO - City gets 6 bids to redevelop vacant Home Depot property; homeless housing not an option | KXAN Austin
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:46
AUSTIN (KXAN) '-- Austin could choose a new developer for the empty Home Depot property this summer.
The long-vacant property at Interstate 35 and St. Johns Avenue has been called a lot of names after it was a home improvement store. Many of them, not so kind.
''You just kind of look at it and go, 'why aren't they doing something more with the property?''' said Steve Felgate, who manages ABC Supply, a roofing store across the street.
In 2018, a KXAN investigation highlighted the city-owned property. Voters approved a bond in 2006 to turn it into a police substation and municipal court, but the project fell through due to lack of funding.
The city wants to turn the property into a mixed use-development district with affordable housing and space for recreation. Six bids had been submitted when the RFP process closed last month.
A.J. Smith and Daniel Loe of Forsite Studio, an Austin-based architecture firm, thought it would be ideal for homeless housing.
''This was our opportunity to put this out there and say this is what we can do,'' said Loe.
In the last few months, they sent their concept to council members and city homeless officials.
Under the plan, 400 shipping containers would serve as ''microunits,'' where individuals or families could live. The containers would be placed inside the Home Depot structure. More details on the plan can be found here.
The architects say their plan didn't gain traction with city leaders, and the deadline for developers to submit bids has already passed.
''Forsite did not submit a proposal for consideration,'' said a city spokesperson.
But it got us asking if the city ever considered the property for homeless housing, one of Austin's most pressing needs.
''The former Home Depot building is in severe disrepair and is not habitable,'' said a City of Austin spokesperson. ''Water, wastewater and electricity to the building have not been maintained since the building was acquired in 2008. The only operating electrical service at this time is servicing the remaining light fixtures in the parking lot, and no other utility services are available outside the existing building.''
A city spokesperson also told us a mixed-use development was the consensus after two years of engagement with neighbors in the St. Johns area.
We reached out to the St. Johns Neighborhood Association. Its president, Akeem McLennon, said while there was broad support for affordable housing in the area, there were other concerns.
''Neighbors have also expressed concern that using the site for a homeless shelter would perpetuate the economic neglect that has historically occurred on this part of town,'' he told us.
VIDEO - Deadly Austin shooting highlights difficulties faced by family members of sexual assault, family violence offenders | KXAN Austin
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:41
AUSTIN (KXAN) '-- The suspect in Sunday's deadly northwest Austin shooting had a history of sexual assault and family violence.
On Monday, Stephen Nicholas Broderick, 41, was arrested roughly 20 hours after the shooting that ended in three deaths, but it's not his first time in custody.
Broderick, a former Travis County Sheriff's Office detective, was arrested last June by Texas Rangers '-- accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old.
If you or someone you know needs support, the 24/7 SAFEline is available by phone at (512) 267-SAFE (7233), by text at (737) 888-7233 or by online chat at safeaustin.org/chat. The victims were identified as Broderick's adopted daughter, Alyssa Broderick, his ex-wife Amanda Broderick, and Alyssa's boyfriend, Willie Simmons III.
According to Stephen and Amanda's divorce filings, Amanda requested sole custody of their two children (Alyssa and the couple's nine-year-old son) due to Stephen having a ''history or pattern of committing sexual abuse'' on a person under age 18. Additionally, Amanda requested all visits with his kids should be supervised and that he not consume alcohol for at least 12 hours before.
Amanda was granted a protective order for her and her children last June.
On the day of the shooting, Austin police said Stephen and Amanda were meeting for a scheduled visit with their son, when he then reportedly opened fire on all the adults in the vehicle.
The shocking nature of Broderick's past charges coupled with the recent shootings now highlight the possible volatility many family members of those accused may face in their homes.
KXAN's Tom Miller spoke to Julia Spann, Co-CEO of the Stop Abuse for Everyone Alliance, or SAFE, about the recent events and about how Broderick's role as a former officer may have impacted the family dynamic.
''Whenever there's power and fear involved, it makes it much more difficult for victims to leave dangerous relationships,'' said Spann. ''There's so many factors that make leaving really, really difficult, but certainly a power imbalance '-- and perhaps easy access to weapons '-- all of those things that might have been threats can certainly become realities.''
''Leaving for good'' can be especially dangerous, Spann said. ''What we know from years and years of experience is that the act of finally terminating the relationship is a very dangerous time.''
Calls for help are on the riseLast month, SAFE Alliance reported it received 21,964 calls for help between March 2020 and February 2021 '-- the most the alliance has received in a single year and a 14% increase over 2019's numbers.
White said while several factors are likely contributing to this increase, a notable and obvious one that stands out is the COVID-19 pandemic.
''There's no question that for a number of folks, that it was related to COVID,'' she said. '''... in the very beginning, we recognized that this was going to be like a perfect storm for all things associated with violence and abuse in the home.''
White explained many victims of abuse may have suddenly found escaping to a friend or family's home no longer an option.
For however long the pandemic lasts, White said there are still many ways you can support survivors of violence and abuse.
''Stay in touch with your neighbors, stay in touch with your family, stay in touch with your friends, and if you have concerns, that's particularly the time to stay in touch,'' she said. ''And if you're worried, you should call us too.''
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VIDEO - Ontario walks back new police powers following backlash - 680 NEWS
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 14:03
Ontario reversed course on sweeping new police powers Saturday, just one day after Premier Doug Ford announced the measures that triggered a swift and furious backlash.
Solicitor General Sylvia Jones says officers will no longer have the right to stop any pedestrian or vehicle to ask why they are out or request their home address.
Instead, she says, police will only be able to stop people who they have reason to believe are participating in an ''organized public event or social gathering.''
''Our priority has always been to address and discourage gatherings and crowds that violate the stay-at-home order and have the potential to further spread COVID-19,'' said Jones in a statement. ''That is why we provided police services with the additional temporary authority to enforce the stay-at-home order by putting a stop to gatherings and crowds.''
Civil libertarians and pundits attacked the new anti-pandemic restrictions announced Friday by Ford as misguided, saying the added police powers aimed at enforcing stay-at-home orders were overkill.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association welcomed Saturday's reversal, adding it was putting its legal challenge ''on pause.''
''The new order rationalizes and narrows the unconstitutional Friday standard. The new standard is also tied to a public health objective, and avoids arbitrary detention,'' said Michael Bryant, executive director of the CCLA.
Prior to the announcement, police forces from across the province stated their intention to not stop drivers or others at random.
In a tweet Saturday morning, Toronto police said they will focus on educating the public first.
''The Toronto Police Service will continue to engage, educate and enforce, but we will not be doing random stops of people or cars,'' they said. ''We can all do our part for the health & safety of everyone.''
New emergency orders announced yesterday to help limit the spread of Covid-19 are now in effect. The Toronto Police Service will continue to engage, educate and enforce, but we will not be doing random stops of people or cars. 1/2
'-- Toronto Police (@TorontoPolice) April 17, 2021
Peel Regional Police also released a statement saying officers will not be doing random vehicle stops.
''I recognize the concern that this brings to our community as a whole,'' said Chief Nishan Duraiappah. ''As Chief of one of the most diverse communities in Canada, I would like to reassure our citizens that our officers will not be conducting random vehicle or individual stops.''
In York Region, police Chief Jim MacSween echoed Duraiappah's statement.
''We will not be conducting random vehicle or individual stops. Enforcement will continue to be complaint-driven and proactive, with the goal of gaining compliance,'' said Chief Jim MacSween. ''Our actions will focus on those individuals who overtly put others in danger and citizens refusing to comply will be charged appropriately.''
A number of other Ontario police services such as Durham Region, Halton Region, Barrie, South Simcoe, Stratford, Windsor, Kingston, Ottawa and Thunder Bay have also said they will not be conducting random checks.
Response to New Provincial Regulations: We will continue to engage our community, educate when appropriate and enforce when necessary any breaches of the EMCPA or the ROA. However, @DRPS officers will not be conducting random vehicle/pedestrian stops. https://t.co/pdKJuJBudx pic.twitter.com/yQiAgYj47t
'-- Durham Regional Police (@DRPS) April 17, 2021
Ontario Provincial Police said they would at interprovincial points of entry by road to screen all vehicles starting Monday and that anyone not travelling for essential reasons will be refused entry. The exceptions only apply for work, medical care, transportation of goods and the exercising of Treaty rights for Indigenous persons.
There are concerns if parents and/or students travelling back from universities or schools in Manitoba or Quebec will be allowed to cross the border by car into Ontario under the new restrictions.
Politicians were among those denouncing the new police powers.
In a note to constituents, Jill Andrew, a New Democrat provincial legislator, said the measures show the Ford government is out of touch.
''Let's be very real here: We are not going to police our way out of the pandemic,'' he said. ''The reality here is that this will likely impact Black, Indigenous, and people of colour.''
''I am very concerned about arbitrary stops of people by police at any time,'' Toronto Mayor John Tory said in a tweet.
While violating restrictions can carry a $750 fine, failure to provide police with requested information can result in criminal charges, according to the province's association of police chiefs.
The new anti-pandemic measures include further restrictions on social gatherings and essential retailers, the closure of some outdoor recreation centres and a pause on non-essential construction projects.
In announcing them, Ford said the province was ''on its heels'' and new measures were urgently needed.
Essential retailers must lower capacity limits to 25 per cent, indoor religious services are limited to 10 people, and non-essential construction has to shut down.
VIDEO - (60) Celebrity advert urges ethnic minorities to get Covid-19 vaccine - YouTube
VIDEO - Rioters Light Fire in the Street - But Listen to How CNN Spins It
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:30
8sStructure Fire N. Alice StreetFire Chief Larry Williams
VIDEO - Dr. Anthony Fauci on gun violence: 'How can you say that's not a public health issue?' - CNNPolitics
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:16
(CNN)Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, acknowledged Sunday that gun violence in the US is a public health emergency.
"Myself, as a public health person, I think you can't run away from that. When you see people getting killed, in this last month it's just been horrifying what's happened. How can you say that's not a public health issue?" he told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union" when asked if gun violence was a public health emergency.
Fauci's comments come after a rash of mass shootings in the past month. The US has suffered at least
45 mass shootings since March 16, when eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area spas, according to CNN reporting and an analysis of data from the
Gun Violence Archive (GVA), local media and police reports. CNN considers an incident to be a mass shooting if four or more people, excluding the gunman, are wounded or killed by gunfire.
After a mass shooting at an
Indianapolis FedEx facility that left at least eight people dead last week, Biden called the recent spate of mass shootings "a national embarrassment" and urged Congress to take action.
"It's not always these mass shootings that are occurring -- every single day, every single day there's a mass shooting in the United States, if you count all those who are killed out on the streets of our cities and our rural areas," Biden said Friday during a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. "It's a national embarrassment and must come to an end."
In March, the Democratic-led House passed
two gun reform bills that would expand background checks, including one that would require checks for all sales and transfers including between private parties, at gun shows and over the Internet. The legislation has
stalled in the Senate and Connecticut Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, have been reaching out to Republicans to see if there could be any support for gun legislation that could reach 60 votes in the chamber needed to pass.
Both senators have acknowledged they may have to scale back the House legislation as they face opposition from Republican senators and skepticism from moderate Democrats on the issue. Murphy told reporters Wednesday he was even willing to accept a more narrow bill in order to get the 60 votes.
California Rep. Karen Bass agreed with Biden that gun violence in the US is "an embarrassment" in a separate interview with Bash on Sunday and said she would support a narrower bill to pass the legislation with Republican support.
"The bills that passed the House are bills that are supported by the majority of the country, including Republicans, including gun owners," she said. "So there is no reason not to pass the legislation."
The debate over gun control legislation comes as additional
pressure is mounting on Biden and members of Congress to show they are also committed to holding police officers accountable for misconduct, excessive force and negligence nearly a year after the police killing of George Floyd.
Bass on Sunday acknowledged the uphill climb for House-backed police reform legislation in the Senate.
"It's one thing to pass legislation in the House. It's a super hurdle to get it passed in the Senate," she said. "We have got to come up with a solution. We just can't see this happen to the extent that it is happening now."
This story has been updated with additional details Sunday.
CNN's Madeline Holcombe, DJ Judd, Jessica Dena and Manu Raju contributed to this report.
VIDEO - Judge criticizes Waters for remarks during Chauvin trial | TheHill
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:14
Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill criticized Rep. Maxine Waters Maxine Moore WatersWhite House readies for Chauvin verdict McCarthy to introduce resolution to censure Waters House GOP's McClain responds to Pelosi calling her 'that woman' MORE (D-Calif.) for her comments over the weekend regarding the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who's charged with the murder of George Floyd.
"I wish elected officials would stop talking about this case, especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law and to the judicial branch and our function," Cahill said after the jury had been sequestered to begin deliberations on Monday.
"If they want to give their opinions, they should do so ... in a manner that is consistent with their oath to the Constitution," Cahill continued.
The judge's comments came after Chauvin defense attorney Eric Nelson argued that Waters's comments could have prejudiced the jury and were grounds for a mistrial.
''We have U.S. representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to this specific case. It's mind-boggling,'' Nelson said to Cahill.
Cahill denied Nelson's motion for a mistrial but said that Waters's weekend remarks could give the defense ''something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned.''
On Saturday, the longtime congresswoman visited Brooklyn Center, Minn., the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a white police officer during a traffic stop the previous weekend.
"We've got to stay on the street, and we've got to get more active. We've got to get more confrontational. We've got to make sure that they know that we mean business," Waters told protestors at a demonstration there.
Protests over Wright's death have led to the Minnesota National Guard being mobilized.
She also said that if Chauvin was found not guilty, she would "fight with all of the people who stand for justice," adding, "We've got to get justice in this country, and we cannot allow these killings to continue."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy Kevin McCarthyWhite House readies for Chauvin verdict McCarthy to introduce resolution to censure Waters House GOP's McClain responds to Pelosi calling her 'that woman' MORE (R-Calif.) pounced on the remarks, describing them as ''dangerous.''
"Maxine Waters is inciting violence in Minneapolis '-- just as she has incited it in the past," McCarthy tweeted late Sunday evening. "If Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi [D-Calif.] doesn't act against this dangerous rhetoric, I will bring action this week."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Marjorie Taylor GreeneRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's meeting with Trump 'soon' in Florida QAnon site shutters after reports identifying developer Republicans head to runoff in GA-14 MORE (R-Ga.) said on Sunday that she was planning to introduce a resolution this week in the House to expel Waters from the lower chamber for her "continual incitement of violence."
"This is who they are, and this is how they act," Waters said Monday in response to the GOP attacks. "I'm not going to be bullied by them."
Waters's comments came just before closing arguments in the high-profile case that has lasted nearly a month.
Chauvin is facing a trio of criminal counts '-- second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
Floyd can be heard pleading with Chauvin that he couldn't breathe as the former police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes in graphic bystander footage from Memorial Day.
Chauvin remained on Floyd even after he became unresponsive, relenting only after paramedics arrived on the scene. Floyd, 46, was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Hennepin County Medical Center.
The police killings of Floyd and Breonna Taylor were catalysts for nationwide Black Lives Matter protests last summer that demanded sweeping police reform and the end to systemic racism.
VIDEO - (60) Greta Thunberg and the WHO's Tedros Adhanom hold virtual talk on climate crisis and COVID - YouTube
VIDEO - Roker Touts Biden EPA Driving Internal Combustion Cars Off the Road | Newsbusters
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:03
Launching NBC's week of left-wing environmentalist propaganda leading up to Earth Day, on NBC's 3rd Hour Today show Monday morning, co-host Al Roker sat down for a softball chat with the Biden administration's head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The longtime TV weatherman was particularly excited that the new EPA chief was pressuring auto companies into taking internal combustion vehicles off the road.
''From California's record-shattering 2020 wildfires to the unprecedented hurricane season in the south, climate change is reshaping the country's landscape and coastlines. Science is telling us that time for action is quickly running out,'' Roker warned viewers as the taped portion of the segment began. Turning to Biden's EPA administrator, Michael Regan, Roker worried: ''How urgent is our position as far as our climate's concerned?''
After Regan assured that ''it's not too late'' to address the ''climate crisis,'' Roker eagerly touted: ''All eyes are on the administration ahead of this week's Earth Day summit, where they'll announce the nation's new commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.'' Regan predicted that at the upcoming Thursday event ''the President is going to announce a really ambitious number, and I believe that most people will be really excited about how aggressive that number's going to be.''
Roker hoped for the most draconian government regulations possible: ''Reductions of 50% or more are possible, nearly doubling President Obama's pledge in 2015.'' He especially fretted that after a Republican being in the White House ''there's ground to make up, where the past four years of environmental deregulation and inaction has left its mark.''
Openly lobbying for radical Democratic Party policies, Roker tried to sell the massive proposed ''infrastructure'' bill being pushed by Biden: ''The EPA is also part of the President's trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. Money budgeted for climate-related projects in the billions.''
Following Regan's assertion that ''Cars, larger vehicles, are a significant contributor'' to fossil fuel emissions, Roker applauded the EPA trying to dictate what products private companies should sell: ''Regan confirming his agency is in talks with U.S. automakers about transitioning traditional fuel-burning cars off the road.''
NBC's climate crusader wondered: ''How are you going to nudge those combustion engine vehicles off the road, when they're lasting 10, 12, 15 years?'' Regan replied that the government would bring sufficient ''pressure'' to bear on the industry until it caved: ''We're having those conversations right as we speak. It's our job to be sure that we set the rules of the road, so that they have the right amount of pressure to move and get there as quickly as possible.''
Roker never bothered to ask how Americans would be able to afford significantly more expensive electric vehicles once the internal combustion engine was effectively banned by the Biden administration.
The morning show host fawned over Regan, noting that in addition to working ''to save our planet,'' the EPA chief was ''also making history in his new role'' as the first African-American to hold the position. The topic then turned to race relations, with Roker hinting at environmentalism being a civil rights issue: ''What do you think can be done right now to help address those, especially communities of color, that are so disproportionately affected by air pollution, water pollution, things like that?''
Regan provided a predictably woke response:
Environmental justice and equity has to be a part of the DNA of EPA. Systemic racism is a problem in this country, and the environment has not escaped that. We have to take a look at where those injustices have occurred.
Since Biden was sworn into office, Roker has been cheering on the administration's determination to impose its radical climate agenda by fiat and even strategized with billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates on how big tech could shut down ''climate deniers.''
When it comes to this issue, Roker is nothing more than a partisan hack rooting for whatever stringent measures the Democratic Party wants to enforce.
Roker's blatant attempt to sell Biden's leftist climate agenda was brought to viewers by Procter & Gamble and Progressive. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the April 19 segment:
9:15 AM ET
AL ROKER: We're back with our series Today Goes Green. Earth Day is coming up on Thursday and NBC News is launching a week-long look at the state of our climate challenge. Thursday, the White House will hold a virtual climate summit with leaders from all around the world. Ahead of it, I got the chance to have an exclusive talk with the man helping lead the Biden administration's efforts to solve the crisis.
From California's record-shattering 2020 wildfires to the unprecedented hurricane season in the south, climate change is reshaping the country's landscape and coastlines. Science is telling us that time for action is quickly running out. The man tasked with combating this emergency and carrying out President Biden's ambitious climate agenda is Michael Regan, the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator.
How urgent is our position as far as our climate's concerned?
MICHAEL REGAN [EPA ADMINISTRATOR]: We're facing a climate crisis, no doubt. And if we rally the world, it's not too late.
ROKER: All eyes are on the administration ahead of this week's Earth Day summit, where they'll announce the nation's new commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
REGAN: I think that the President is going to announce a really ambitious number, and I believe that most people will be really excited about how aggressive that number's going to be.
ROKER: Can't tell us right now?
REGAN: I want to keep my job and not get out in front of the President. [Laughter]
ROKER: Reductions of 50% or more are possible, nearly doubling President Obama's pledge in 2015. And there's ground to make up, where the past four years of environmental deregulation and inaction has left its mark.
The EPA is also part of the President's trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. Money budgeted for climate-related projects in the billions. But so far, it's struggling to get bipartisan support.
REGAN: Climate change is having a significant impact on our existing, aging infrastructure. But we also need to think about our infrastructure in the context of transportation. Cars, larger vehicles, are a significant contributor.
ROKER: Regan confirming his agency is in talks with U.S. automakers about transitioning traditional fuel-burning cars off the road. How are you going to nudge those combustion engine vehicles off the road, when they're lasting 10, 12, 15 years?
REGAN: We're having those conversations right as we speak. It's our job to be sure that we set the rules of the road, so that they have the right amount of pressure to move and get there as quickly as possible.
ROKER: Beyond having those tough conversations, to save our planet, Regan's also making history in his new role. You are the first black man to be the head of the EPA. Is that significance lost on you?
REGAN: Not at all. It's an honor and a privilege. We have to prove to this world that being a black man should not be a disqualifier, and that this agency won't lose a step because of black leadership.
ROKER: What do you think can be done right now to help address those, especially communities of color, that are so disproportionately affected by air pollution, water pollution, things like that?
REGAN: Environmental justice and equity has to be a part of the DNA of EPA. Systemic racism is a problem in this country, and the environment has not escaped that. We have to take a look at where those injustices have occurred.
ROKER: And as for the rest of the agenda ''
REGAN: I think the President will establish during the summit that we are back, and that we are capable of being in a leadership role. So the rest of the world should look out.
ROKER: Well, the U.S. and China, in fact, the world's two top polluters, John Kerry, President Biden's climate czar, recently meeting with Chinese leaders. And now, both countries pledging to enhance efforts and cooperation on climate. China invited to the summit, not clear if they're going to attend. And tomorrow, I give you a firsthand look at GM's new emissions-free production facility outside of Detroit.
SHEINELLE JONES: I'm so glad you're doing this. I mean, the days go by, and it's very easy to not think about it. But then when you do these kinds of stories, Vicky Nguyen a little earlier this morning, showed us where all those cardboard boxes are going, it makes you realize, we have to do something.
DYLAN DRYER: Right, the recycling. Right.
ROKER: And you know, Michael Regan's got a 7-year-old son and he said even the kids are reminding the older folks. By older, he's not really that old.
JONES: No, it's true.
ROKER: To stop running the water when you're brushing your teeth, doing different things that we can all do.
DRYER: Even just the recycling thing. It's, you know, become a thing with the boys. I walk them down the hallway, and we recycle all the plastic and the paper. And you know, it's just those little things. Kids are growing up in a different world than we grew up in.
JONES: Yeah, yeah, good deal.
DRYER: Great conversation.
VIDEO - PunishedFrogge on Twitter: "A white girl at the protest shouts "Thank you for coming Mr. Sharpton." at Jesse Jackson. LMAO! HAHAHA! @zerosum24 @Tr00peRR @after_theaction https://t.co/wspFNs7HS9" / Twitter
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:00
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Tue Apr 20 01:07:31 +0000 2021
VIDEO - Spotify Can't Stop Censoring Joe Rogan - Hollywood in Toto
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 12:23
Spotify has a funny way of showing its corporate love for Joe Rogan.
The audio streamer signed Rogan and his blockbuster podcast to a reported $100 million deal last year. That meant you had to sign up to Spotify to hear the ''Fear Factor'' alum's unexpurgated chats with a variety of stars.
Alex JonesAndrew YangTim DillonAbigail ShrierExcept Spotify is now actively erasing part of Rogan's podcasting legacy.
Spotify already censored 42 episodes of the ''Joe Rogan Experience'' in recent weeks. Some featured guests considered ''problematic'' to the woke crowd, like Alex Jones. Others were excised for no obvious reasons.
Joe Rogan Experience #1245 - Andrew Yang
Spotify, like most Big Tech companies, offers little transparency in these matters. That likely won't change.
Now, the news site that originally reported on the 42 memory-holed episodes says Spotify is eager to wipe out even more classic Rogan moments. Digital Music News reports that Spotify is mulling both more cancellations and the poor PR that may follow.
According to the same sources that tipped us off to the earlier deletions, Spotify has earmarked roughly 15-20 additional shows for removal, but has pressed pause on the plan given a spate of negative publicity and ''bad optics.''
Yes, despite Big Tech's growing censorship, including wiping out a documentary about a black legal eagle during Black History Month, some industry types still realize how awful it looks to erase content.
Rogan's censorship fight, to date, has generated plenty of media attention but little direct outrage. Far-left sites like The Hollywood Reporter and Variety haven't defended Rogan or his art. And they won't.
RELATED: Joe Rogan Shades Liberal Activist Alyssa Milano in the Funniest Way
Today's reporter class is both woke and activist, and they have little interest in defending free speech '... unless it's coming directly from the Left.
Rogan isn't Left or Right. He's probably left-leaning on most issues, but his adherence to open debate makes him a target for the modern Left.
They hate free speech. Loathe it, to be more accurate.
Krystal and Saagar: Spotify Employees Want To CENSOR Joe Rogan's Podcast
Up until now, Rogan has taken a diplomatic approach to the erasures. He said he's not bothered by Spotify's actions as long as the shows recorded under his new contract aren't touched. He hammered home that point by inviting Jones back onto his show late last year. Jones is the poster boy for problematic voices, a conspiracy theorist who even runs afoul of many on the Right.
That move essentially dared Spotify's woke employees to object. They did, but management had Rogan's back.
For now.
How many classic Rogan episodes will be erased next? Will Rogan stay above the fray, or will he start speaking up on behalf of his past work?
Most importantly, given Cancel Culture's increasing power, how long with Spotify defend their most famous hire and his ability to speak his mind?
VIDEO - WATCH: Canadians Issue Morse Code 'SOS' Signal Across U.S.-Ontario Border To Protest New Restrictions | The Daily Wire
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 12:21
A group of Ontario residents protested their province's strict new lockdown measures over the weekend by hoisting an upside-down Canadian flag and using lights to issue a Morse code ''SOS'' signal toward the U.S.
''We are down here in Niagara Falls, Ontario,'' a demonstrator said in a video that streamed live on Facebook. ''We have a flag upside down in distress. And we are about to Morse code 'SOS' across the border to our neighbors. We are asking for help. We are hostages in our province now. We are no longer free to do whatever we want as our Charter allows us.''
Going on to describe Ontario's government as ''tyrannical,'' the unidentified man claimed that public health bureaucrats are pulling the ''puppet strings'' of Ontario Premier Doug Ford. ''We're going to Morse code 'SOS' across the border, and somebody even notified the Border Patrol. And they are waiting for this message. So this is what it's all about, guys. Take action. Take action. Do more than just protest,'' he adds.
WATCH:
Canadians in Niagara Falls, Ontario are signalling for help at the U.S.-Canada border tonight using lights to Morse code ''SOS'' & an upside-down Canadian flag.
An upside-down flag is a universal signal of distress.
The man in the video says ''we are hostages in our province now'' pic.twitter.com/rEIx3tc8lO
'-- Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) April 18, 2021
Last night, Canadians at the U.S.-Canada border in Niagara Falls, Ontario signalled for help using lights to Morse code ''SOS''. The group flashed ''SOS'' for about 3 minutes.
The group also held up a Canadian flag upside-down. An upside-down flag is a universal signal of distress. pic.twitter.com/swS7FVNx0k
'-- Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) April 18, 2021
Ontario was met with intense backlash for its new COVID-19 restrictions. As the Westphalian Times reported:
On April 16, the government of Ontario initially announced strict new measures which included new provincial police powers, all outdoor gatherings with people outside your household will be banned, playgrounds closed, nearly all outdoor recreational activities to be restricted, places of worship, funerals and weddings will have a capacity limit of 10 people, non-essential construction will be halted, border-checks will be introduced at the Quebec and Manitoba borders, essential retail locations will be limited to 25% capacity, among many other new restrictions.
Initially, the government of Ontario said that police would be given the authority to ask anyone outside or in a car why they are not at home for the mandated stay-at-home order and the police may ask for their address.
However, after fierce criticism of the new rules, some rules were amended on Saturday, April 17.
Now, police will only be able to stop an individual who they have reason to believe are attending an organized public event or social gathering.
Canada has been drawing international attention and outrage for its lockdown mandates, especially after several viral stories regarding how authorities are treating churches.
Last week, the Provincial Court in Stony Plain, Alberta, ruled that Pastor James Coates, who was jailed earlier this year after holding church services, will not be allowed to challenge the constitutional validity of Alberta's Public Health Act during his upcoming trial. The court also ruled that the government will not have to produce scientific evidence to support the order.
Canadian MP Derek Sloan responded to the story with outrage, tweeting, ''Unbelievable! After 13 months of violating Charter freedoms, the Alberta Government claims they're unable to gather any evidence to support their actions in time for Pastor Coates May 3rd trial. Didn't they have any evidence 13 months ago? Clearly not!''
Unbelievable! After 13 months of violating Charter freedoms, the Alberta Government claims they're unable to gather any evidence to support their actions in time for Pastor Coates May 3rd trial. Didn't they have any evidence 13 months ago? Clearly not! https://t.co/8kGy6h0kot
'-- MP Derek Sloan (@DerekSloanCPC) April 18, 2021
Related: EXCLUSIVE: Pastor And Lawyer Defiant After Canadian Police Raid, Barricade Church At Dawn
The Daily Wire is one of America's fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.
VIDEO - The Post Millennial on Twitter: "Trump: ''Pfizer is really in, OK. I'll give you a little breaking news '-- Pfizer is in with the FDA, and what the FDA did with Johnson & Johnson is so stupid.'' https://t.co/q53aOcT1pU" / Twitter
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:44
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Tue Apr 20 01:58:17 +0000 2021
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Tue Apr 20 10:54:44 +0000 2021
VIDEO - Covid 19 coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says vaccinated Covid-19 case was cleaning 'high-risk' planes - NZ Herald
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:43
The newly identified Covid-positive border worker was cleaning a plane from a "high-risk" country and was fully vaccinated, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed.
A newly identified Covid-positive border worker was cleaning a plane from a "high-risk" country and was fully vaccinated, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed.
Despite this, she said the vaccine was "working as intended '... it's doing its job".
She told reporters this afternoon that the Pfizer vaccines used in New Zealand was "95 per cent effective at reducing symptomatic onset of Covid-19".
Getting the vaccine does not mean people won't get Covid-19, she said.
"[It] means it is still possible to get Covid, but it won't make you nearly as sick or likely to experience, potentially, some of the disastrous consequences we have seen overseas."
The confirmation comes just a day after the transtasman bubble with Australia opened, allowing quarantine-less travel between the two countries.
Ardern told reporters in Auckland that today's case is unlikely to affect that bubble.
"These are the kinds of scenarios where we would anticipate movement continuing."
The Ministry of Health this afternoon revealed the border worker '' who worked at Auckland Airport '' had tested positive for the virus.
Ardern said the person cleaned planes that transported people with Covid-19 '' "so a very clear link at this stage to cases that are high risk".
Related articles20 Apr, 2021 06:04 AMQuick Read
It is unclear at this stage which planes the worker was cleaning '' Ardern would only say it was an aircraft that had arrived from a "high-risk" destination.
She said she has not spoken to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison about this case, but Health Minister Andrew Little has spoken to his Australian counterpart.
"When we opened, on both sides, we knew that we would continue to have cases connected to our border," she said.
"We accept that's going to be part of our journey together '' Australia accepts that."
Aus Health Minister - 'full confidence'Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said this afternoon Australia has "full confidence" that New Zealand will be able to contain the new case of Covid-19.
Hunt said he has been briefed on the situation by his New Zealand counterpart.
"They're onto this. We have full confidence in New Zealand's system. We've seen them deal with the inevitable outbreaks, and there will be other days when there are cases in Australia," he said.
"We saw the outbreaks recently in Queensland and NSW '' two states. And yet, we were able to deal with it.
"So we know how to deal with this. New Zealand knows how to deal with this."
The infected worker was fully vaccinated "quite early on in the campaign", Ardern confirmed.
The person was tested on April 12, as part of routine testing, and produced a negative result.
But, a week later on the 19, they had tested positive.
This shows the testing protocols were working as expected, she said.
"We still entirely expect that people who are vaccinated will still get Covid-19 '' it just means they won't get [as] sick and they won't die".
Officials are now contact tracing the individual and will soon reveal any locations of interest.
Earlier today the Ministry of Health revealed that a new border-related Covid case has been detected on the second day of the transtasman travel bubble.
The ministry revealed Covid-19 had been detected in a worker at Auckland Airport.
It said the usual protocol of isolating the case, interviewing them, and tracing their contacts and movements was now under way.
More information will be provided later today.
Food-sharing initiativeArdern is at PapatÅÄnuku KÅkiri Marae in MÄngere, paying a special visit to a community food-sharing initiative Kai Ika Project, that focuses on reducing waste.
The initiative aims to change the way people perceive "waste" through recovering unwanted fish parts and sharing them with people who want them.
A filleting service processes catch and ensures anything that isn't wanted is fully used.
In a Facebook post the project posted a picture of fish being smoked yesterday, saying it was preparing for a special visitor with a smoke-up of some fresh unwanted snapper and kingfish parts recovered from its filleting service.
"The biggest challenge with smoking fish is hiding it from the crew once it's done," it teased.
Asked about IhumÄtao by the media, Ardern said it was not a botch-up by the Government.
She said the land will be utilised for housing but there is a "large process to go through" before the housing on the land is set up.
She said the funding was allocated as land for housing, but there is still a lot of work until the housing is built.
VIDEO - Sidechannel Live: Mark Zuckerberg with Casey Newton by Platformer
Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:18
Platformer376
49:32
Apr 19, 2021
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Platformer editor Casey Newton interviews Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about the company's plans for short-form audio, podcasts, and helping creators make money.
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VIDEO - Jack Posobiec on Twitter: "Trump was right about the soup https://t.co/VJBTp5jOkB" / Twitter
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:49
Jack Posobiec : Trump was right about the soup https://t.co/VJBTp5jOkB
Mon Apr 19 03:07:19 +0000 2021
VIDEO-BBC Breakfast on Twitter: ""This is going to be the year of the variant" Professor of Public Health at Edinburgh University, Prof Devi Sridhar speaks to #BBCBreakfast as a new covid variant has been discovered. https://t.co/Gaf0c55foy https://t.co/4
Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:11
BBC Breakfast : "This is going to be the year of the variant" Professor of Public Health at Edinburgh University, Prof Devi Sridh'... https://t.co/mswPO2din0
Mon Apr 19 07:28:08 +0000 2021
James Bailie : @BBCBreakfast Can you please provide a link to the proof of this'New strain'This should be an easy task.I mean,'... https://t.co/DqYSQ23S2c
Mon Apr 19 13:10:41 +0000 2021
Tonbar : @BBCBreakfast Stop the fear mongering BBC! The common cold was never cured - because it mutates all the time. This'... https://t.co/zK78ew0tyB
Mon Apr 19 13:05:02 +0000 2021
Nick Mellor : @BBCBreakfast Important to track variants&be risk based'''AND to stop variant hysteria.Challenge on immunity,T-cells'... https://t.co/LdCpS2rqBO
Mon Apr 19 13:03:13 +0000 2021
cephiyr ð°ðµð§ð¾ð·ð¸ð®ð· : @BBCBreakfast This is going to be the year you keep inventing BS
Mon Apr 19 13:01:48 +0000 2021
Suzieq : @BBCBreakfast Is like the Chinese New Year, the year of the rat etc?
Mon Apr 19 12:58:06 +0000 2021
Courtney Huntington : @BBCBreakfast Her claims demand a utopia in which all disease is eradicated everywhere for everyone. That will neve'... https://t.co/jhgZy4LStg
Mon Apr 19 12:57:10 +0000 2021
LTjuniperð¸ ð'ð¤ð'' : @BBCBreakfast Why don't you speak to a virologist or an epidemiologist?
Mon Apr 19 12:56:59 +0000 2021
Donny Fairborn : @BBCBreakfast Sad, and my grandfather help fight with the RCAF / RAF during WWII and now this.
Mon Apr 19 12:56:49 +0000 2021
