April 1st, 2021 • 3h 31m
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.
Let Us Out!
Oregon Hospital BOTG
Attached is the cumulative Rona data.
Currently 14 Rona positive (likely based on PCR)
ICU is at 89% capacity
Hospital is at 79% capacity
We’re a 450+ bed regional hospital in Oregon. Or county is currently in “High Risk” for Rona and mostly locked down. Restaurants allowed 25% capacity, masks required, etc. At the peak of the flu season, from November to January we had at most 80 or so Rona patients in house. ICU was busy, but never overwhelmed. Things have gone way down over the last month or two but of course that’s not acknowledged by the authorities.
Like you’ve talked about, the number of ICU beds are flexible. We officially have 35 ICU beds but can easily add another 10 or so if needed.
You guys are also right about general hospital capacity: we need to run at 80-85% capacity just to break even. From a hospital administrator’s perspective 95% capacity is a GOOD thing, not a worrisome thing.
Throughout the whole scamdemic, only 323 of 4500+ employees got Rona, and less than 1/4 of those were contracted at work, so it’s not spreading to staff like wildfire as we were told.
If you want, I’ll send a weekly boots on the ground report.
Regards,
(anonymous)
Belgium must lift 'all Covid-19 measures' within 30 days, Brussels court rules
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 19:36
The Belgian State has been ordered to lift ''all coronavirus measures'' within 30 days, as the legal basis for them is insufficient, a Brussels court ruled on Wednesday.
The League for Human Rights had filed the lawsuit several weeks ago and challenged Belgium's system of implementing the measures using Ministerial Decrees, which means it is done without any input from parliament.
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The judge gave the Belgian State 30 days to provide a sound legal basis, or face a penalty of '¬5,000 per day that this period is exceeded, with a maximum limit of '¬200,000, reports Le Soir.
The current coronavirus measures are based on the Civil Safety Act of 2007, which enable the State to react quickly in ''exceptional circumstances,'' but the judge has now ruled that these laws cannot serve as a basis for the Ministerial Decrees.
Related News:''The judge ruled that the principle of legality has been violated because the current way of working is not foreseeable enough,'' Kati Verstrepen of the Human Rights League confirmed to VRT, adding the consequences are ''not so dramatic'' that from one day to the next, the measures would no longer be valid.
For the time being, the current coronavirus measures will not change, and the verdict is currently being studied by the office of Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, reports De Standaard.
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Appealing against the court ruling is still possible, but as it concerns a summary judgment, an appeal would not suspend the execution of the judgment.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Chamber will debate Belgium's upcoming pandemic law, which is supposed to provide ''a permanent legal basis, for taking this kind of restrictive measures during a pandemic.''
Several legal experts already pressed the Belgian State to bring forward the law as soon as possible to avoid judges cancelling fines written out for violations of the measures, and this ruling only increases the pressure to quickly adopt it.
Unvaxxed Docs being blamed in Australian Circuit Breaker
Hi Adam,
Plenty of interesting stuff going on over here in the Land Down Under.
The AZ vaccine rollout is kicking on but is having many troubles.
RIght at this point, 43% of medical staff are refusing to have to vaccine.
This has resulted in 3 medical staff supposedly getting THE HIGHLY INFECTIOUS Uk variant. At least this is what the Queensland government is telling us.
Because of this, the Government has implemented a "circuit breaker" lockdown in Brisbane City for 3 days.
The news reports are full of articles reiterating that UNVACCINATED medical staff were to blame.
Coincidentally the State of emergency is due to expire today and the government need an outbreak to extend for a further 6 months to keep their dictatorial powers.
A friend of mine who works as a midwife in the Victorian hospital system sends me updates every day about how many doctors and nurses are off with the "flu" after getting either the AZ or Pfizer vaccine. Generally for 3 days or more. Nobody is registering these "flu" cases as adverse reactions, and she is saying that they are not allowed to test for covid in anyone who has just had the vaccine. Very convenient.
She will refuse the vaccine and has even left her husband over this issue as he is completely brainwashed by the government propaganda.
Her job is safe for now as literally up to half the staff in the hospital is off sick but suspects she will be let go once staff come back from their sickness.
None of this is being reported in the media of course.
The general public is wary too. I posted in my local suburbs Facebook group about this BS expecting to get Buttslammed but found at least half of the people who responded who got the vaccine had said they got extreme fatigue, crams, joint pain & migraines and had to spend 3 days at home. The minority for once was the ones who still bought the Government propaganda.
The tide is turning in our favour, at least here in Australia.
I suspect the same thing is happening in England too with Brian Rose from London Real now the Second favourite in the Mayoral race for London.
Crazy times ahead.
Mitch
Freedom Pass
Hooray for Vaccine Passports! '' Kevin Drum
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 15:56
Michael Brendan Dougherty takes aim at the idea of issuing "vaccine passports":
Let's be absolutely clear. Even if you put aside all the privacy and constitutional concerns, vaccine passports do not allow us to reopen the economy faster....Second, we have no way of knowing right now whether such a system really facilitates people ''reentering'' normal life....Third, even if you could institute such a surveillance system, it would also bar people who '-- for whatever reason '-- can't access the vaccine, not just the anti-vaxxers who deserve punishing.
....One other note. This is absolutely the wrong battle to choose with anti-vaxxers. Trying to institute a kind of medical rider to the Bill of Rights is very likely to fail in courts if tested seriously.
I think the point is being missed here. I agree that vaccine passports won't help us open the economy faster. I also doubt that they will make it easier to "re-enter normal life," whatever that means. And yes, it might cause some problems for people who legitimately can't get vaccinated, though that seems like an easily solved problem.
And yet, I still like the idea. Here's the thing: it's basically a free-market solution to the problem of vaccine free riders. Nobody is forcing anyone to get vaccinated. You're simply being given the option of being able to prove your status in case some private entity asks about it. And private entities are surely entitled to do as they please, right?
That's the conservative approach, anyway. The upshot, of course, is that going unvaccinated will become a huge pain in the ass if stores and restaurants and employers start closing their doors to anyone who doesn't have a vaccine passport, and this will spur even the doubters to get vaccinated. This is roughly the way smallpox was eliminated, though sometimes the methods were considerably rougher than this.
It's also worth noting that this is not some kind of "medical rider" to the Bill of Rights. Over a century ago, a very conservative Supreme Court'--the same one that handed down the Lochner decision a year later'--ruled that public health was at the core of the state's responsibilities: "Of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members." In other words, vaccines could be mandated by the state. A few years later they confirmed that ruling and added that states could also mandate vaccinations for children before they were allowed to attend public schools. As part of both rulings, they noted that mandatory vaccination did not violate the 14th Amendment.
A vaccine passport is considerably less intrusive than this and surely within the authority of the federal government to issue. After that, it's all up to the private sector as long as state legislatures stay out of the way and allow private entities to do as they wish. Which they should. Right?
An alternative, of course, is to simply mandate vaccinations, something that states clearly have the authority to do. Given Supreme Court precedent on this subject, I'd be all for it. COVID-19 is no joke and it's not just the seasonal flu. It's deadly, it's likely to become endemic, and acquiring herd immunity is going to be hard. It's a real-life emergency, not something that should become a tiresome political football tossed around by people who treat it as a libertarian debating point.¹
But I'm willing to compromise on a vaccine passport instead. This assumes, naturally, that the passport is something that's feasible in the real world. If it's not, then maybe we'll have to go down the mandate path.
¹Though if it is, I guess I'd say that allowing people to remain potential spreaders of a deadly virus is not much different from allowing people to punch you. I'm opposed to both.
THEY'RE HERE: Biden Regime Is Developing 'Vaccine Passport' Americans Must Have To Engage In Commerce - National File
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:27
After months of speculation, today The Washington Post confirmed that the Biden regime is developing a ''vaccine passport'' that Americans may need to present to prove they have received their COVID-19 vaccine before they will be allowed to engage in commerce in a ''return to normalcy'' that looks nothing like the past.According to The Washington Post, the Biden regime ''and private companies are working to develop a standard way of handling credentials '-- often referred to as 'vaccine passports' '-- that would allow Americans to prove they have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus as businesses try to reopen.''
They note that many businesses, ''from cruise lines to sports teams,'' will require individuals to take the COVID-19 vaccine before they are offered business. The Biden regime, apparently, views this as a positive development.
''The passports are expected to be free and available through applications for smartphones,'' the Post reported. ''Which could display a scannable code similar to an airline boarding pass. Americans without smartphone access should be able to print out the passports, developers have said.''
According to those developing the vaccine passports, they must be entirely unique, and not able to be hacked or tampered with, lest Americans engage in commerce without taking one of the controversial vaccines.
Biden's team is apparently committed to the vaccine passports, though they refused to speak to the media on the subject, and apparently do not like branding them ''passports'' but would instead like to see them called ''credentials or certificates.'' The Washington Post explains:
Micky Tripathi, whom Biden tapped as the national coordinator for health IT, recently said federal officials are concerned with a variety of health-tech challenges, including protecting the credentials against fraud, ensuring data security and making certain that low-income populations aren't squeezed out.
''How do we make sure that whatever is available is accessible to everyone so no one is left behind or feeling like they can't participate in the return of their day-to-day activities?'' Tripathi asked at a virtual meeting hosted by the Health IT Leadership Roundtable on March 11.
Tripathi told the group he didn't like the term ''vaccine passports,'' adding that ''passports are something that are issued by governments. '... I think of them as vaccine credentials or certificates.'' Tripathi did not respond to a request for comment.
The Washington Post explains that the initiative is happening globally, with the CDC participating in the controversial World Health Organization's initiative to roll out the passports.
The left wing newspaper also believes that the vaccines can be used to bully skeptical Americans into taking the controversial vaccines.
''There is evidence vaccine passports could motivate skeptical Americans to get shots. Several vaccine-hesitant participants at a recent focus group of Trump voters led by pollster Frank Luntz suggested their desire to see family, go on vacation and resume other aspects of daily life outpaced fear of the shots, particularly if travel companies and others moved to require proof of vaccination,'' they assert.
However, the Biden regime apparently wants this pressure to come entirely in the form of corporate interests requiring vaccines, and does not want to use the weight of the federal government to require the vaccine passports.
California vaxx mandates possibly legal in the workplace
News from California:
"Employers implementing a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy must engage in an interactive process with any employee who seeks a reasonable accommodation from the policy. The DFEH stated that the FEHA requires employers to reasonably accommodate employees with known disabilities or a sincerely-held religious belief that would prevent them from being vaccinated. Therefore, an employee who objects to vaccination on either ground must be reasonably accommodated unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the employer. Whether a reasonable accommodation exists will be a fact and situation-specific inquiry. Potential accommodation considerations may include, but are not limited to, whether the employee can work from home or whether reasonable procedures and safeguards could be put in place at the worksite to enable the unvaccinated employee to work without endangering themselves or others. Importantly, the DFEH has advised that employers are not legally required to reasonably accommodate employees simply because they do not trust that the vaccine is safe."
You don't want a vaccine? "YOU'RE FIRED!"
Vaccines and such
Pfizer to test freeze-dried COVID-19 vaccine that doesn't need ultracold storage | Fox News
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 04:50
Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE plan to begin soon testing a freeze-dried version of its Covid-19 vaccine, which if proven to work safely could ease storage and handling of the shots in rural U.S. areas and low-income countries.
In April, Pfizer is set to start a clinical trial evaluating a so-called lyophilized formulation in adults 18 to 55 years old in the U.S., according to a government database, clinicaltrials.gov, and confirmed by the company.
The 1,100-subject study would last about two months, with researchers seeking to determine whether the lyophilized version is as safe and effective as the version authorized by regulators beginning late last year. Researchers would administer to subjects either the lyophilized version or the current formulation.
If successful, the new formulation could be ready for use by early next year, Pfizer said on an earnings call last month.
PFIZER SAYS COVID-19 VACCINE 100% EFFECTIVE, SAFE IN KIDS AS YOUNG AS 12
Lyophilized vaccines offer advantages to frozen or liquid vaccines because they only need standard refrigeration. That would help with storage and handling and expand access in rural areas and low-income countries that lack specialized equipment. Examples of vaccines that can be lyophilized include shots for preventing shingles or rotavirus.
Pfizer's vaccine, which uses a new gene-based technology called mRNA, requires the shots to be stored at ultracold subzero temperatures to work properly. In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the Pfizer vaccine can be stored at roughly minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit) for as long as two weeks.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
The requirement for expensive ultracold storage has been a hurdle for some providers and local health departments around the world.
Click to read more at WSJ.com.
Mink
Laurie Garrett on Twitter: "Researchers discovered two mutant strains of #SARSCoV2 emerged last summer in U.S. mink -- that came FROM people TO the animals. The mutations are unique, unlike human variants. This is a preprint, implications bear further scr
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 15:55
Laurie Garrett : Researchers discovered two mutant strains of #SARSCoV2 emerged last summer in U.S. mink -- that came FROM people TO'... https://t.co/DdxePLFU62
Mon Mar 29 17:49:32 +0000 2021
DC Covid Watch : @Laurie_Garrett Google Scholar search N-glycolylneuraminic acid. Read about sialic acid binding of SARS-CoV-2. Glyc'... https://t.co/OOce2x5fEy
Tue Mar 30 13:52:11 +0000 2021
tkpwaeub : @Laurie_Garrett Is this likely to become a panzootic?
Tue Mar 30 11:10:34 +0000 2021
PCR
Michael P Senger on Twitter: "Breaking: Citing Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR test, & WHO, Austrian court rules PCR test not suitable for determining infectivity; "rejects the entire Corona policy in Austria, which is based on this very test." Engli
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 18:15
Michael P Senger : Breaking: Citing Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR test, & WHO, Austrian court rules PCR test not suitable for deter'... https://t.co/1ZUEYTYK0m
Wed Mar 31 16:30:32 +0000 2021
thalesnemo : @MichaelPSenger @zoeharcombe It's a court ruling NOT science! Debunking Internet myths about PCR testing -Potholder'... https://t.co/5zcsUN24VK
Wed Mar 31 18:10:05 +0000 2021
David Stuart Cole. #There all the same : @MichaelPSenger @Idonotconsent6 Another countries Courts find against PCR tests.
Wed Mar 31 18:09:41 +0000 2021
x-ray : @MichaelPSenger @zoeharcombe Bet this get hidden in the news in uk
Wed Mar 31 18:09:38 +0000 2021
Nick Vandergragt : @MichaelPSenger @PaulObeda Why is it that so many other places use common sense, but here in Canada, we are stuck w'... https://t.co/h0L04DKMRd
Wed Mar 31 18:02:13 +0000 2021
NOKO
NK NEWS on Twitter: "A massive Wonsan-Kalma beach resort is intended to be a major North Korean tourist destination, but the project is almost two years overdue. While there are some recent signs of progress, one expert said the delays suggest "economic p
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 04:50
NK NEWS : A massive Wonsan-Kalma beach resort is intended to be a major North Korean tourist destination, but the project is'... https://t.co/3vIuoLMSIR
Mon Mar 29 01:00:20 +0000 2021
The Purge
Judge Tosses Junk Terrorism Charges against 3 Defendants in Whitmer Plot Where Ring Leader Was FBI Informant
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:35
This didn't make many headlines back in October'...The ring leader in the plot to kidnap wretched Governor Gretchen Whitmer was an FBI informant.He was planted into the group and was the one who pushed the entire plan.
The FBI was spying on lower, middle-class Americans and setting them up on terrorism charges.
The FBI then later arrested one of their own informants in the plot,
This was occurring as Antifa-BLM rioted and pillaged cities across the US.
TRENDING: Biden Calls on Governors to Reinstate Mask Mandates, Says He Shares CDC Director's Sentiment of "Impending Doom" on Covid Pandemic (VIDEO)
Charges were dropped against three defendents earlier today in Michigan.
On Monday Michigan Judge Michael Klaeren dropped terrorism charges against three men in the case.
The Detroit News reported:
Three men accused in an alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will not face false report or threat of terrorism charges, a Jackson County judge ruled Monday.
Judge Michael Klaeren of 12th District Court in Jackson dismissed the charge against Joseph Morrison and Pete Musico, both of Munith, and declined a request by prosecutors to add it to the charges against Paul Bellar, of Milford.
''There has to be some form of intent here to incite mayhem,'' said Judge Michael Klaeren of 12th District Court in Jackson.
The charge carried a possible penalty of 20 years in prison.
Heels High Harris
Kamala Harris Remains Unable to Move Into Washington, DC, Residence
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 10:44
Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff have not yet moved into their official Washington, DC, residence. Sources told CNN that Harris was "getting frustrated" at the pace of renovations at the home. According to two administration staffers, Harris asked for work to be completed in the kitchen. See more stories on Insider's business page. When Vice President Kamala Harris took her oath of office in January, she became the first female, first Black, and first Asian American vice president in US history.
But while President Joe Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, were quickly able to settle in at the White House on Inauguration Day, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, would have to stay in temporary housing at the historic Blair House while the vice president's residence was undergoing renovations.
Harris and Emhoff are still residing at Blair House, the official residence of White House guests located across from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, according to CNN.
An administration official told CNN it was "unclear" why the renovations were taking longer than expected, but several people told the network that Harris was becoming uneasy with the situation.
"She is getting frustrated," another official said of Harris' situation of seemingly living out of suitcases more than two months after Inauguration Day.
The official also said Harris' desire to move into the residence had become more pronounced with each passing day.
Number One Observatory Circle, where Harris and Emhoff will eventually live, is a stately Queen Anne-style mansion that dates to 1893 and is located on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory in Northwest Washington.
The Biden administration has not indicated the reason for any delays, and Harris did not respond to the CNN report regarding the matter.
According to CNN, the 128-year-old residence has required foundational work over the past few years, along with a myriad of other repairs and updates, including a $3.8 million contract for "plumbing, heating, and air-conditioning contractors" that's still in progress, according to an official US government spending report.
The CNN report indicated that the existing contracts didn't indicate why Harris and Emhoff had been unable to move into the residence.
The network reported that Harris had been seen at the residence, most recently for an hour-long visit several weeks ago.
Read more: Meet the presidential confidants, Delaware's closely knit and well-positioned congressional delegation, Joe Biden has entrusted with cementing his legacy
According to two administration staffers, Harris, who enjoys cooking, asked for the kitchen to be updated.
Vice President Kamala Harris visiting her husband, Doug Emhoff, in his office on January 28. White House/Lawrence Jackson Elizabeth Haenle, the vice president residence manager and social secretary for Vice President Dick Cheney, said it wasn't uncommon for there to be a few weeks in between residents living at the home.
"From time to time, the Navy will ask the vice president and their respective families to delay moving in so that they have time for maintenance and upgrades that are not easy to perform once the vice president takes up residence," she told CNN.
After the inauguration, an aide to Harris told the network that the vice president and second gentleman would not move into the Naval Observatory residence that day, saying repairs were needed "that are more easily conducted with the home unoccupied."
An administration official told CNN that the residence's chimneys were being renovated, along with other unspecified updates.
There was no official move-in date announced in January.
While Blair House doesn't hurt in the luxury department, with its ornate accommodations and a private hair salon, Harris and Emhoff prefer a more relaxed, California-esque vibe.
The residence at the Naval Observatory is much different from the White House, with fewer residence staff members and a location farther from the city center.
"The White House is office and home to the president, so there is that feeling of living above the 'shop' at the White House," Haenle told CNN. "For the vice president and his or her family, the vice president's residence is calm in the midst of a stormy Washington, both politically and logistically. At the end of the day, the vice president can travel a short distance northwest and find respite in a country-like setting."
Biden, who lived in the home as vice president from 2009 to 2017, praised its amenities on CNN last month.
"You're ... overlooking the rest of the city," he said of the property. "You can walk out, and there's a swimming pool. You can ride a bicycle around and never leave the property, and work out."
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Pseudobulbar Affect: Causes, PBA Quiz, and Management | PBAInfo
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 14:01
The health information contained herein is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace discussions with a healthcare provider. All decisions regarding patient care must be made with a healthcare provider, considering the unique characteristics of the patient.
(C)2020 Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. All rights reserved. AVANIR is a trademark or registered trademark of Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in the United States and other countries. MLR-PBA-US-0463-1220
War on Weed
"We're Reversing 90 Years Of Prohibition": New York State Legalizes Marijuana - Gothamist
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 11:15
On Tuesday night, New York went from being the marijuana arrest capital of the world to passing one of the most progressive legalized cannabis laws in the country. Update: Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the bill on Wednesday morning [more details below].
As expected, the State Assembly and the State Senate both overwhelmingly passed the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act, which permits adults 21 and over to purchase marijuana and grow the plant in their home. The legislation's two main sponsors, Assemblymember Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Senator Liz Krueger, had fought for the bill's passage for more than seven years. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had repeatedly tried to impose his own legalization plan on the legislation, agreed to sign the MRTA last week, as he continues to govern amid multiple scandals and investigations.
"The bill we have held out for in this state will create a nation-leading model for legalization," Krueger said just before casting her vote. "New York's program will not just talk the talk on racial justice, it will walk the walk."
The MRTA directs 40% of cannabis revenues to education, 40% to community reinvestment grants for communities harmed by marijuana prohibition, and 20% to drug treatment and public education programs. Marijuana arrests and convictions legalized under the law will be expunged, and law enforcement will not be able to use the odor of marijuana as a pretext for a search. New Yorkers currently working in the illegal market will have an opportunity to obtain one of ten different licenses to work in the new cannabis economy, which is projected to bring in $350 million in taxes each year as well as create 30,000 to 60,000 jobs statewide.
"Unlike any other state in this nation, this legislation is intentionally about equity," Peoples-Stokes told her colleagues.
The law will take effect immediately after the governor signs it, but it could take many months before New Yorkers see the first legal sales of marijuana, as the licenses are issued and the system is set up.
arrow State Senator Liz Krueger, the main sponsor of the MRTA in the Senate, elbow bumps State Senator Jamaal Bailey, of the Bronx, after the bill passed. Hans Pennink/AP/Shutterstock
Over the late '90s and early 2000s, 800,000 New Yorkers were arrested or ticketed for marijuana, more than anywhere else in the world, despite the fact that the legislature decriminalized small amounts of cannabis in the late '70s; around 85% of those arrested were Black or Latino.
During the floor debates, state lawmakers repeatedly invoked these racial disparities in drug enforcement as the main reason for legalizing marijuana.
"We are arrested 3.73 more times than white people for just having the plant in our possession," said Bronx Assemblymember Chantal Jackson. "These arrests are racially targeted. And I hope my colleagues understand when I say, that leading with the idea of the adult use of marijuana as a revenue raiser, it's offensive, and it's downright wrong and it's a spit in the face of all the black bodies this state and this nation who have been arrested for this plant."
Krueger noted that she last smoked marijuana when she was 19 years old, at a screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show in Chicago.
"No one tried to put me in jail, because I was this nice white girl," Krueger said.
Republicans expressed their displeasure with the bill on the floors of both chambers.
"My family members have gone through drug addiction," said Long Island Senator Mario Mattera. "It went from marijuana, to Adderall, to cocaine, to acid...This is serious, this is a gateway for our young children's problems."
Senator George Borrello, whose district sits right below Buffalo, insisted that the MRTA will cost "thousands of lives."
Republicans also pointed out that police may not be able to tell if a driver is intoxicated from using cannabis, though the bill calls for drug recognition training and research for a device that can detect marijuana intoxication during a roadside stop.
The Senate passed the bill 40-23, while it cleared the Assembly 100-49.
The MRTA creates an Office of Cannabis Management, whose representatives will be appointed by the governor and the legislature. They will oversee licensing for dispensaries, growers, wholesalers, and "consumption sites," with the goal of issuing half those licenses to people who have been negatively impacted by prohibition. New Yorkers will be able to grow up to six plants each, according to the new rules.
In casting her vote, Assemblymember Peoples-Stokes noted that "the last time New York state did anything like this, is when we were removing the prohibition from alcohol, in 1933."
Peoples-Stokes added, "We're reversing 90 years of prohibition."
Update, March 31, 2021: In a press release, the governor's office released that Cuomo signed the legislation. In a statement, he said, "This is a historic day in New York - one that rights the wrongs of the past by putting an end to harsh prison sentences, embraces an industry that will grow the Empire State's economy, and prioritizes marginalized communities so those that have suffered the most will be the first to reap the benefits."
"This legislation is a momentous first step in addressing the racial disparities caused by the war on drugs that has plagued our state for too long. This effort was years in the making and we have finally achieved what many thought was impossible, a bill that legalizes marijuana while standing up for social equity, enhancing education and protecting public safety," said Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins. "I applaud Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes for their commitment and leadership on this issue."
"My colleagues and I knew it was important to do this the right way'--in a way that would include those targeted and frequently excluded from the process," said Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. "Now, this legal industry will create jobs across our state, including for those who have had their lives upended by years of unjust drug laws."
Noodle Gun
Gearslutz noodle gun
Hi Robur,
Gearslutz will be changing its name next month!
Introducing Gearspace.
Our aim is for the new name to be more inclusive and better suited to professional environments and the audio education world.
We are excited about this new chapter!
If you run a website, it would be very helpful if you could link to our new URL [URL=https://gearspace.com/]Gearspace.com[/URL] on your blog or news pages.
Gearspace will be going fully live mid-April (don't worry, any bookmarks you've saved will still work!).
We hope you will continue to enjoy our community and thanks for being part of it.
See you on Gearspace!
White Supremacist Composers
OXFORD: "Possible changes to undergraduate courses include reducing the focus on canonic classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven, in a proposed move away from “white European music from the slave period”.
It was reported that professors questioning the music curriculum’s “complicity in white supremacy” also proposed a lighter focus on western music notation, allegedly described in the documents as a “colonialist representational system”."
"According to the documents, faculty members, who decide on courses within the music degree, also suggest learning skills like playing the piano, or conducting orchestras, should no longer be compulsory. Academics say these skills “structurally centre [around] white European music”, causing some “students of colour great distress”."
GM denies claims of racism by Black media group
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:56
General Motors on Monday dismissed claims of racism aimed at its CEO Mary Barra by a group of black-owned media executives pushing the automotive company to increase its ad spending in minority-owned outlets.
Weather Channel owner Byron Allen, rapper and media mogul Ice Cube and five others placed a full-age ad in the Sunday Detroit Free Press expressing frustration over the how the automaker spends its ad dollars, saying that GM only spends about .5 percent of its ad budget on minority-owned publications.
Efforts to meet with Barra have been rebuffed, the group said, asserting that black media are the victim of ''systemic racism.'' The group demanded the CEO either meet with them or resign.
Barra declined a request for comment.
The automaker, ''aspires to be the most inclusive company in the world, and that includes how we allocate media spend. We have increased our planned spending with both diverse-owned and diverse-dedicated media across our family of brands," according to a statement issued by GM.
GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said GM spends ''significantly'' more than .5 percent with black-owned media.
He also noted some of the projects the automaker has backed. These include the Chevrolet division's ''Real Talk, Real Change,'' a project aimed to encourage discussion about race. Well-known black filmmaker Spike Lee was a lead participant in the launch of the latest-generation Cadillac Escalade last year. And GM, said Morrissey, is also sponsoring a project looking at racial issues called ''More than That with Gia Peppers.''
As with other media outlets, the automaker's Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl has met with Allen and other members of the black-owned media group on ''a number of occasions,'' according to GM. But the group wants more.
"We are requesting a one hour Zoom meeting with you and several of your key board members and us, the largest Black Owned Media companies in America, so we can resolve this very important issue and have a long-term partnership that's mutually beneficial for General Motors and the African American consumers," the ad stated.
Barra became the first female CEO of a major automaker in January 2015 and has made diversity a cornerstone of her tenure. Just last week the company appointed two new members to its board of directors: former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and Mark Tatum, the deputy commissioner and COO of the National Basketball Association. The board has become the first of any major corporation with a majority of female directors.
But the ad run over the weekend positioned that as little more than show.
''You stand on stage, after the death of George Floyd, saying, 'Black Lives Matter,' when you have refused to acknowledge us,'' the ad says of Barra. ''The very definition of systemic racism is when you are ignored, excluded and you don't have true economic inclusion.''
''Mary, we and others firmly believe that if you continue to hold the position that Black Owned Media doesn't deserve meaningful economic inclusion and we are not worth meeting with, then you should resign effective immediately,'' the ad declared.
Paul A. Eisenstein is an NBC News contributor who covers the auto industry.
Hollywood Threatens Georgia Boycott Because State (And EVERYONE ELSE) Wants Voter ID | Newsbusters
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:36
Voter ID: a necessary protection against voter fraud for some, and a scourge and grave evil for others, apparently. One Hollywood filmmaker has declared that he is done making movies in Georgia until lawmakers repeal newly-signed election regulations aimed at eradicating potential voter fraud.
As reported by Hollywood outlet The Wrap, director James Mangold '' the filmmaker behind Logan and Oscar-nominated flick Ford v. Ferrari '' announced his decision to boycott future film production in Georgia until GOP Gov. Kemp and other Georgia lawmakers denounce their 100-page signed bill that will make changes to the state's voting law.
Dubbed Hollywood's ''Southern Campus'' by Time Magazine, Georgia is a current hot spot for Hollywood production. The location is good both for the scenery and the financial advantages, though for diehard progressives like Mangold, the lucrative setting isn't worth the Republican politics.
Mangold tweeted on March 25, ''I will not direct a film in Georgia.''
The Wrap explained that the bill, which was signed into law on March 25, included ''provisions that will require driver's licenses or state ID, new restrictions on ballot drop boxes and even a rule that it would be illegal to give people waiting in line to vote food or beverage.'' Mangold decried the new laws, lamenting that it would solidify Georgia as a ''red" state.
In response to one user's disagreement that Mangold's boycott will affect progressive industry workers trying to make a living, Mangold tweeted, ''the state will be irredeemably red with these new 'laws'. The only reason studios shoot in GA is cause they have steal production from other states and workers w/ cash.''
Oh so by enforcing necessary and common sense voting standards, Georgia won't be a blue state? Could it be fair to say that Mangold hates playing by the rules? It's almost as if he wants looser voting rules for a reason '... say for the same reason Democrats may have used to beat Donald Trump in the 2020 election? Who knows?
Of course, fellow Hollywood, media and Democrat elites argue that such voting regulations disenfranchise potential voters. Some even argue, like failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her ilk, that such voter laws suppress minority voters. Many of these progressive election activists have attacked the new Georgia law as a manifestation of systemic racism. Even President Biden has called the bill an ''atrocity'' and ''Jim Crow of the 21st century.''
Gee whiz. So ensuring voter ID on absentee ballots is equal to ''Jim Crow'' now? Wow, that's scary. Guess we'll let anyone who can write their name on a piece of paper vote in all future elections to avoid being called racist. Guess we'll let millions of mail-in-ballots just work their ''magic.''
Though, these race-baiters are trying to force their agenda on the majority of the country that wants stronger voter ID laws. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 75% of all Americans want voter ID, as do 69% of African American voters. Perhaps, Biden could consult with the vast majority of Americans before such ''unifying'' takes on voter ID laws.
This is not the first time Georgia has gotten the boycott treatment over conservative legislation. In 2019, several Hollywood elites including actress Alyssa Milano and then-Disney CEO Bob Iger, among others, threatened to stop working in the state over Gov. Kemp's ''heartbeat bill'' '' a law protecting unborn children from abortion if their heartbeats were detected.
So what? Dems boycotting protecting human life and now fair elections? Good luck with that, guys!
China
DiBlasio helping Chinese investors?
Hey Adam,
I’m looking down into a rabbit hole regarding a land grab that’s potentially in play for NYC real estate.
I’ve been a residential RE agent for 10 years in Manhattan and recently relocated to Palm Beach County,FL with my wife and son after seeing the writing on the wall during the lock downs. Leading up to Plan-Demic it was becoming clear that the State / local laws were being crafted to make it more difficult for smaller landlords to survive. Killing of the Amazon deal in Queens by AOC was another head scratcher. Post Covid it was almost impossible to ignore.
I was speaking to a colleague today that’s Manhattan commerical realestate insider and the word on the street is that Bill DiBlasio has been conspiring with a real estate investment trust / hedgefunds to tank the NYC real estate market so these investors can swoop in and buy back and converting a bunch of commercial buildings and hotels for pennies on the dollar.
Is this worth pursuing and if so do you have any suggestions for resources and fact finding that other producers have had some success with?
I started following the money by looking at DiBlasio’s donor list at Open Secrets.org but it’s a laundry list.
If the NYC market were to tank who would stand to gain from this the most and who would lose out?
Initially I thought the Chinese but this may be a red herring. They already own a ton of NYC real estate, so why cut your nose to spite your face this is not their modus operandi. I’m not ruling them out entirely I just know the Chinese government (via Anbang Insurance Co scandal) now owns The Waldorf Astoria and has been trying to sell it off for years. I can confirm this as one of my clients is an attorney that was acting as a liaison to the CCP heads that are tasked with it’s sell off.
China economic hit on chips
Kenworth Trucks is having a shortage of chips like car manufacturers. Currently 500 trucks are
assembled but waiting for a component affected by shortages. I was talking with another supplier
and parts coming to the east coast are delayed by the stuck ship
CHINESE CONTROL THE PANAMA CANAL
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 14:05
CHINESE GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE PANAMA CANAL
"Wake Up America! Did you know....."
THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT CONTROLS THE PANAMA CANAL?
~Article One~
THE PANAMA CANAL DEBACLE
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. "
George Santaya na
Home Site Map Wake Up America! Page
During the presidency of Jimmy Carter (1980-84), at his inception, C ongress passed the Carter-Torrijos treaty. I twas signed into law by the president. It stipulated that on December 31, 1999, the PanamaCanal would be surrendered to the Central American country of Panama ( Torrijos being its president at the time) . This act ended 85 years of control of the Panama Canal by the United States of America.
The Panama Canal was constructed bythe United States government, beginning in 1903 and ending in 1914. Thepresent U.S. investment in the canal over the years is $32 billion dollars. Approximately5,000 men, U.S. citizens and local laborers, died of malaria and work-related accidentsduring the construction period.
The service of the canal to sea-goingmerchants and the U.S. Navy is incalculable . Over 13,000 Naval and commercial vessels pass between the Atlanticand Pacific oceans every year, saving the time of an 8,000 mile triparound South America's Cape Horn, its southernmost point.
T he canal is put to constant use by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Merchant Marine Fleets . The U.S. Merchant Marine transports war materials for the U.S. military during wartime. The c anal has played a crucial role in the outcome of U.S. military operations from World War I to Desert Storm.
Under Theodore Roosevelt in 1913, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson said to Scribner's Magazine:
"The Military importance ofthe (Panama) canal to the American nation has not been so clearly recognized by the peopleat large. While they have been quick to see how important it is that in time of war thecanal should open to our own fleet, it has not been equally appreciated how important itis that the canal should be closed to the fleet of the enemy."
We can relate this quotation, utteredalmost a century ago, to the predicament described below:
As soon as the world became aware ofthe intent of the U.S. government to surrender the Panama Canal to the Panamaniangovernment on December 31,1999, a Hong Kong international trading company,Hutchison-Whampoa, owned by Hong Kong billionaire Dr. Li Ka-shing, quietly began addingthe Panamanian seaports along each coast of the Isthmus of Panama to its world-wideseaport holdings. Ten per-cent of his new venture, Panama Ports, is owned by ChinaResources, the commercial arm of the Peoples Republic of China's(PRC) Ministry ofTrade and Economic Cooperation.
On July 16, 1997, Senator FredThompson (R-TN) was quoted in the South China Morning Post as stating that ChinaResources was "an agent of espionage--economic, military, and political--forChina."
Dr. Li Ka-shing is also a chief in thePeoples' Republic of China's China Telecom and the China International Trustand Investment Corporation, worth $21 billion dollars, run by the PRC's Wang Jun. Wang Jun serves as the PRC's main arms dealer to Communist regimes. Wang Jun and otherChinese agents have been welcome guests at the Clinton-Gore White House. Clinton'scourting of Chinese money is documented in the U.S. media.
Dr. Li Ka-shing's Hutchison-Whampoa isa partner with the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), the merchant marine armof the Peoples' Liberation Army of China.
Hutchison-Whampoa owns most or all ofthe seaports and shipping facilities on both sides of the Isthmus of Pananma. If JimmyCarter's administration surrendered the Panama Canal on December 31, 1999, theadministration of President Bill Clinton has allowed this ensuing debacle to proceed unchecked.
On January 16, 1997, the PanamanianNational Legislature passed "Law 5" which granted Hutchison-Whampoa a lease tomanage the locks of the Panama Canal using pilot boat crews which could consist of up to25% of troops from the People's Liberation Army of China. These crews include harbor policeboat crews for Port Balboa on the Pacific side of the canal and for Port Cristobel on theAtlantic side. By empowering this new Port Authority, Law 5 violates the 1997 Panama Canaltreaty with the United States governing the order of passage for ships proceeding throughthe canal. No one in the Clinton administration has objected to this move by the country of Panama .
* * *
Two thousand years ago, a Chinesewarrior by the name of Sun Tzu wrote a book called "The Art of War". It is widely read by those involved in military strategic planning and training.
In the light of the fact that the U.S. military has suffered a 15 percent across the board cutback in allocations and manpower since the Reagan era, and the fact that thousands of career military personnel are leaving the military every year for better paying jobs in civilian life, it is well for us to reflect ona few quotations from Sun Tzu's book:
"It is a doctrine of war notto assume the enemy will not come, but rather to rely on one's readiness to meet him; notto presume that he will not attack, but rather to make one's self invincible."
"When the leader is morallyweak and his discipline not strict, when his instructions and guidance are not enlightened,when there are no consistent rules...neighboring rulers will take advantage of this."
"To subdue the enemy withoutfighting is the supreme excellence."
* * *
Our Lord Jesus Christ told the visionary Nancy Fowler:
" Korea, China and Russia are a deadly trio." *
(September 8, 1993)
And:
"China is a real enemy. "From China will come a great war.
Do not trust China. Do not trust China. Do not trust China.
I will say no more."
(June 1, 1993)
**
Our Loving Mother told Nancy Fowler in 1993:
"Please, children, it is time to wake up."
In June of 2000, North and South Korea signed a pre-unification accord. Thiswas followed by state sponsored visitations of relatives who had been separated sincethe Korean truce of 1953. It is a reality that the Koreas may unite under a provisional government at any time.
The Communist Chinese long have had missiles capable of firing from Beijing. They have at least one missile that can hit Los Angeles. Additionally, Communism is making a come-back in Russia. It is not difficult to assert, that, with information readily available on the Internet, China, Russia and a united Korea outnumber the U.S. Army and Marine Corps 15 divisions to 1.
References:
http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1999/nov99/psrnov99.html
http://conservativeusa.org/panama-washtimes.htm
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China pledges to build 'Polar Silk Road' over 2021-2025 | Reuters
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:24
Security personnel keep watch outside the Great Hall of the People before the opening session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, China March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China will construct a ''Polar Silk Road'' and actively participate in the development of Arctic and Antarctic regions, it said in its new 2021-2025 ''five-year plan'' published on Friday.
The plan said China would ''participate in pragmatic cooperation in the North Pole'' and ''raise its ability to participate in the protection and utilisation of the South Pole''.
China has been eyeing lucrative mineral resources as well as potential new shipping routes in Arctic regions, as ice caps recede as a result of rising temperatures.
It released a white paper in 2018 highlighting its plans to create new freight routes linking Asia and Europe via the Northeast, Northwest and Central Passages of the Arctic, raising concerns about the fragile environment of the region.
At the end of last year, China also announced plans to launch a new satellite to track shipping routes and monitor changes in sea ice in the Arctic. It plans to launch the satellite in 2022.
for-phone-only for-tablet-portrait-up for-tablet-landscape-up for-desktop-up for-wide-desktop-up
Suez Canal blockage could alter shipping forever'...and China and Russia will be the winners '-- RT Op-ed
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:23
Tom Fowdy
is a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia.
is a British writer and analyst of politics and international relations with a primary focus on East Asia.
The need for alternative international shipping routes has been highlighted by events on the Suez Canal over the past week. And with their plans already taking shape, Beijing and Moscow are well positioned to capitalise.
The Suez Canal's recent spell in the limelight has turned out to be quite revealing. The strategic waterway has dominated headlines for a week after a giant container ship, the Ever Given, got stuck in sand and mud at the canal's southern end, blocking it and bringing shipping to a halt.
The welcome news emerged yesterday that the crisis is finally over and shipping can resume, but it won't be without repercussions. In a world already battered by the Covid-19 pandemic '' which itself has had huge implications for shipping '' the blockage of the canal is a firm reminder of just how fragile core transcontinental shipping routes can be.
This was a relatively short blockage, but its consequences will be felt for a long time and will serve as a boost to China and Russia, both of whom are introducing new game-changing intercontinental freight routes.
The Suez Canal is a product of an era during which globalisation, as we understand it today, was emerging, to facilitate the flow of free trade as well as the naval aspirations of empires such as the British and the French. Cutting through the dividing line between the African and Asian continents, its creation was a revolutionary feat which strategically connected the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, giving a direct intercontinental shipping route from Europe into Asia. No longer was the time-consuming, tremulous journey around the Cape of Good Hope necessary, and the canal's existence allowed the British to exploit India to their own wishes. In short, Suez changed the world.
Read more
As a result, it is no surprise that various episodes in the Suez throughout history, no matter how brief they may have been, have played a key role in prompting big geopolitical shifts. The Suez Crisis of 1956, whereby Britain sought to regain strategic control of the canal following its nationalisation by Egypt's President Nasser, proved to be a moment of reckoning for British Imperialism.
The dual opposition from both the US and the Soviet Union forced London to recalibrate its long-held outlook of being a global naval power, and instead turn towards Europe. Given this history, it's not outlandish to recognise that this Suez crisis will also have big consequences, even though there was no military dynamic.
Although the Ever Given hold-up was just a week, it has proven expensive. The estimated costs of blockage in the canal amount to around $9 billion per day and could have a run-on effect of reducing annual global trade growth by 0.2-0.4%. It also sent the cost of shipping up temporarily by 46% as ships were forced to avoid the canal and transit around Africa, with longer and more inconvenient journeys.
It is inevitable that faced with such circumstances, shipping and freight companies will inevitably seek out cheaper, less risky and more effective routes. And most crucially the crisis has come at a time when new alternatives are appearing which are likely to be more competitive than Suez on every level.
The first one is China's Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing's global project has invested hundreds of billions in the creation of new ports, railways, and roads on multiple continents, all of which are changing the logistical landscape. One of its most powerful achievements has been the initiation of multiple China-Europe Railway routes, where new cargo trains allow freight to be shipped directly from cities in China across Eurasia as far west as London and Portugal.
There are two main arteries to this project; one which reaches Europe via Russia and branches out into individual countries, and another which crosses central Asia, transits through Turkey, extends up through the Balkans and terminates at Prague.
These routes have dramatically reduced the shipping time for goods across the continent, and as a result of Covid-19, the volume of cargo has surged to a record high.
Also on rt.com Shutoffs at world's major trade routes evolving as Europe's busiest freight line remains closed & cargo still stuck in Egypt Secondly, there is Russia's Northern Sea Route across the Arctic, which extends through the country's exclusive economic zone and allows a through-route from one end of Eurasia to the other. Moscow is investing heavily in infrastructure as well as ice breaking ships, touting it as a slick alternative to the risks of Suez.
China is also interested in the far north, too, pledging to create a 'Polar Silk Road'. The opening of this previously closed region for commerce will undoubtedly speed up shipping times and comes as a part of a 'strategic competition' for the Arctic region as a whole, with President Trump's administration having aggressively renewed America's interest in Greenland.
The last week's problems in Suez therefore echo the past. While historically great powers such as Britain and France sought to establish and control the strategic route in pursuit of commercial gains, the grounding of the Ever Given illustrates how the powers of today are continuing to compete in creating and sustaining new shipping routes which will completely alter the flow of global commerce.
Suez is back to normal, yet the waters of the canal run still amid the flow of an otherwise changing world as businesses scramble for new and quicker routes to transport their goods following a year of crisis. Things are moving again between the Red and Mediterranean seas, but one might wonder if this proves to be a turning point for Suez, with its significance starting to wane.
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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Build The Wall
San Diego Is Sending Teachers to Instruct Migrant Kids While District Schools Remain Closed | MRCTV
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 15:55
Public school teachers in San Diego are now being sent to the San Diego Convention Center to provide in-person instruction to migrant children being temporarily housed there at taxpayer expense, while district public schools continue to remain closed to its own American children after more than a year.
According to KSUI, ''Teachers will be sent to the San Diego Convention Center to provide in-person learning for the migrants being sheltered there.''
As the Biden administration struggles under the weight of a massive migrant crisis created by Biden's open-border policies, the city of San Diego offered its convention center to help relieve overcrowded border facilities. Some 500 migrant teen girls were dropped off at the convention center over the weekend, marking the second dump of kids to arrive at the location. Another 250 girls were expected to arrive at the center on Monday. The space has reportedly been committed to the effort for the next three months and will house children for an average of 30-35 days '' at federal, state and local taxpayer expense, of course.
In a statement, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher called it ''the right thing to do.''
''When HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra requested our help to house some of the unaccompanied minors at the border, we knew it was the right thing to do. Over the weekend, we agreed to open our convention center to the federal government for use as a temporary shelter. The city and county will support this federally funded effort by providing vital services to these vulnerable children who came to our country seeking safety.''
KSUI also reports more than 30 of the girls who've been transferred to the convention center have already tested positive for COVID, the disease that's keeping public schools closed because it's supposedly a threat to children, faculty and staff.
According to Fox5 San Diego, the San Diego County Office of Education said it's reached out to teachers who're interested in volunteering to teach the girls, who are being offered ''education, enrichment, family reunification and religious services'' through a slew of public services and private organizations.
Meanwhile, earlier this month San Diego schools marked one full year of having been closed to students for in-person learning. Despite having met requirements to reopen, San Diego Unified School District has so far refused to open its schools back up to the district's 121,000 or so students, even as reports show significantly more students are now failing classes than during the same time frame in 2020.
San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond sarcastically quipped on Twitter about the ridiculousness of giving illegal alien children an in-person education while denying American children of taxpaying citizens the same opportunity (that they're actually paying for).
The San Diego County Board of Education will be sending teachers for in-person learning for the migrant children at the convention center. It's great there's in-person learning for them, I wish every child in San Diego County was allowed the same opportunity.
'-- Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) March 29, 2021
Clips
VIDEO - (354) CDC Director Urges Americans To Continue To Follow Covid Guidelines | NBC News NOW - YouTube
VIDEO - White House COVID-19 briefing: March 31, 2021 :: WRAL.com
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 13:14
The White House COVID-19 Response Team shares updates on the pandemic as cases rise again across the country.
morning and thank you for joining us. I'd like to begin this briefing where the president left off his remarks on Monday afternoon. As he said, We are the life and death race against the virus. We are facing an accelerating threat and faced with an accelerating threat, this administration is accelerating our response even further. The most powerful way to do this is to accelerate the pace of vaccinations. Starting on Day one, we began working to accelerate and increase vaccine purchases and manufacturing to have enough vaccines to vaccinate all adults by the end of July. We then accelerated that to have enough vaccine for all adults by the end of May. The president then directed states to open up vaccinations to all adults by the beginning of May. But as we have seen, this virus continues to spread. President Biden has ordered that his national vaccination effort accelerate to the next level within three weeks. By April 19th, 90% of adult Americans will be eligible for a vaccine and 90% of Americans will live within five miles of the vaccination site. Already there are more than 50,000 vaccine sites across the country within three weeks, there will be about 70,000 locations. As we nearly double number of pharmacies that are vaccinating Americans. More Americans will get more appointments and more convenient locations. The president also committed to opening at least 12 more federally run mass vaccination sites. And today we're announcing three new sites that will open next week. In addition to the two we announced on Monday in ST Louis, Missouri, and Gary, Indiana, the first is in Memphis, Tennessee, at the Pipkin Building at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Second is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Wisconsin center, and the third is in Greenbelt, Maryland, at the Greenbelt Metro station. Each of these sites is the first federally run mass vaccination site in introspective state, and each is capable of administering 3000 vaccinations a day. I can also report that previously announced sites in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington are now all open and fully operational and total leave open 25 mass vaccination sites, which have a combined capacity to administer over 95,000 shots per day. These sites are run by the federal government and close partnership with state and local officials, and they're part of our work to equitably distribute vaccines and reach communities that have been hurt the most by the pandemic. Through these mass vaccination sites, who administered more than two million shots and some of America's most at risk and underserved communities, more than 60% have been administered to racial minorities. All these efforts on behalf of one thing saving lives. We need to keep case numbers down so we can save lives and give people the chance to get vaccinated in April, May and June so we can enter the summer on the strongest footing possible now in the weeks ahead that it will take to get everyone vaccinated. For all of this effort, we need a simple thing of every governor, mayor and local leader. And that is to heed what the president is asking in return simply to maintain or to reinstate mask mandates. And we need every American to do their part together. We can win this race and save lives. If we're acting on our own, we will lose even more people correcting together we can defeat this, and with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr Walensky and then to Dr Fauci for some important updates from them. Thank you so much, Andy. I'm glad to be back with all of you today. As per usual, I will begin with an overview of the state of the pandemic. CDCs Most recent data show that the seven day average of new cases is slightly less than 62,000 cases per day. We continue to see an increase and this is almost a 12% increase from the seventh day period. Prior hospitalizations also continued to increase. The most recent seven day average, about 4900 Emissions per day is up from 6 46 100 emissions per day in the prior seven day period, and the seven day average of deaths remains slightly above 900 deaths per day. As I said on Monday, this is a critical moment in our fight against the pandemic. As we see increases in cases, we can't afford to let our guard down. We are so close, so very close to getting back to the everyday activities We all missed so much, but now we're not quite fair yet. We need to keep taking the mitigation measures like wearing a mask and social distancing as we continue to get more and more Americans vaccinated every single day. Since early in the pandemic, Covid 19 has disproportionately affected certain groups in the United States, particularly blacks, Hispanic and Latino and Native American communities. In mid February, CDC released its estimates of life expectancy in the United States in the first six months of 2020 which showed a profound impact on communities of color, with a drop in life expectancy of 2.7 years among non Hispanic blacks and 1.9 years among Hispanics. Historic and tragic declines in these populations. Today, CBC is releasing an MMWR that provides additional detail on provisional mortality in the United States for all of 2020 with a focus on deaths associated with covid. 19 in 2020 about 3.3 million deaths occurred in the United States. Overall, this represents a 16% increase in deaths from 2019. Covid ranked as the third leading cause of underlying death underlying cause of death after heart disease and cancer, with approximately 378,000 covid 19 deaths, accounting for roughly 11% of all deaths in the United States in 2020 covid 19 deaths were far were highest for older adults and males and were higher as we previously saw among American, Indian and Alaskan natives, Hispanics, non black, non Hispanic blacks and non Hispanic, native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander persons compared to non Hispanic whites. In fact, among nearly all of these ethnic and racial minority groups, the Covid 19 related deaths were more than double the death rate of non Hispanic white persons. Sadly, based on the current state of the pandemic, these impacts have remained in 2021 where we continue to see that communities of color account for an outsized portion of these deaths. The data should serve again as a catalyst for each of us. Continue to do our part to drive down cases and reduce the spread of covid 19 and get people vaccinated as quickly as possible. I know this is not easy, and so many of us are frustrated with the destruction this pandemic has had on our everyday lives. But we can do this as a nation working together. There is reason to be hopeful because we now know so much more about this virus, how to stop its spread, and we now have three historic, safe and effective vaccines that we didn't have just four months ago, and we are distributing billions of dollars into communities disproportionately affected. To help mountain the most aggressive, equitable vaccination campaign of modern times. Millions more people are getting vaccinated every single day. This week, we will cross the 100 million people who have received at least one dose of the COVID 19 vaccine in the United States, a remarkable feat in such a short period of time. Further, over 70% of people over age 65 are most vulnerable. Group have received at least one vaccine dose. I'm proud the C. D. C. Stands with others leading the way to scale up our national vaccine effort as quickly as possible. As the president mentioned on Monday afternoon, we are working quickly to expand our federal retail pharmacy program from about 17,000 to 40,000 stores and communities across this nation to help everyone have ready access to vaccines. With this expansion and additional efforts in partnership with FEMA and states across the country, we will be able to reach the administration's goal of making sure that 90% of Americans will be within five miles of the vaccination site by April 19th, and we recognize that five miles is still too far for many Americans. And that is why we are activating resources such as mobile units and clinics, to those communities where this is the case to ensure they can get access to vaccinations. CDC is also excited to partner with the administration for communities living to support their efforts to get older at risk adults and those with disabilities vaccinated. This is helping to provide critical access to covid 19 vaccines to these individuals. Finally, I want to briefly share that. Today C. D. C is updating covid 19 guidance for adult day services centers. These centers provide important social and health services to community dwelling adults age 65 older, as well as two adults of any age living with disability. We know these populations are at high risk for severe covid 19 disease, and this guidance will help center administrators and staff protect themselves and adults receiving their services. By promoting and engaging in preventive behaviors that reduce covid 19 spread and help maintain healthy operations and environment of these facilities, you can find the updated guidance and resources for center administrators and staff on the CBC website. It's up to us. It's up to all of us to be part of this solution. Thank you for hanging in there with us for just a little bit longer and for doing your part to help others. Thank you. I'll turn things over to Dr Fauci. Thank you very much, Doctor Wolinski. I'd like to spend the next couple of minutes talking to you about the subject of the potential role of vaccinations that we are currently giving and handling the variants that we see emerging in our society and I have the first slide. This is a slide which schematically diagrams the immune response to sauce. Kobe, too, on the left hand. Part of the slide is what happens when you get cutely infected. Multiple components of the immune response are operative anybody's, but also something we don't pay much attention to. And that is the cell mediated response of what's called CD four and CD eight cells on the right hand. Part of the slide is what happens when you recover, which is the state you try to mimic when you vaccinate an individual in other words, you want to induce immune memory in the form of antibodies, CD four and CD A positive T cells, or what we call cell mediated immunity as well as memory D cells. Next slide. So what I want to talk about in the next two minutes or three minutes is that the immune protection against Covid 19 variants, which is of obvious concern to us when you were vaccinated against a wild type viral strain, namely the common virus in society. There are two potential mechanisms that protect you against variants one high tighter of anybody that although it's specific against the wild type strain, it is high enough that there's a spill over effect against the variant. And the second, which I like to emphasize right now, is the t so response that although it's specific against the wild type strain, there is a considerable degree of cross reactivity against the range of variants, which is characteristic of T cells. This slide here shows the high level of anybody against a prime and a boost of the Pfizer vaccine. The point I was making a moment ago is that that level is so high that even when you diminish it by multi fold, which is the case with the variant. You still have a good degree of protection next slide. But the other thing that we want to concentrate on is that now we're learning more and more that these CD four and CD eight cells are very important in that they cross react against certain viral variants, and they last for a long time. Next slide. This slide is an individuals who are actually infected, showing that immune memory response last for several months. But it also includes, besides anybody when I mentioned the very important T cells, which can help against the variants Next slide. When you look at vaccinated individuals as shown on this slide, you get T cell memory response again against the variants, not only against the virus to which you were vaccinated against, but, as shown in this report against a number of variants. Next slide. And finally, in a paper that came out just yesterday, it was shown very clearly that in individuals who recover from infection, if you look at their CD four and CD a positive T cells, they recognize virtually all of the variants of concern so on the final slide. Next slide. Getting back to I said in the beginning, we are seeing now immune protection against covid 19 variants when individuals are vaccinated against the wild type strain on two mechanisms the antibody response that has a spillover effect as well as the cross reactivity. The bottom line message to everyone is why it's so important to get vaccinated because vaccination is not only going to protect us against the wild type, but it has the potential to a greater or lesser degree to also protect against a range of variants. So when vaccination becomes available, get vaccinated. Back to you, Andy. Thank you. That's great news. Uh, all right, let's take questions. First question will go to Tamara Keith NPR. Mhm. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking my question. Uh, what we're wondering about it. NPR today is, um, whether there might at some point and I don't know that this point is yet, but whether at some point there might be a shift in the allocation of vaccine doses based on demand rather than simply on population size. If there are, you know, pockets of the country where demand is a little bit more slack. And there are other areas where there's a lot of demand and not enough supply whether there might be a calibration that you guys are now starting to consider. Yeah, that's a great question. Camera, Um, and without signaling anything specific, I want to answer that question at a high level. I think you're exactly right. We're gonna go through stages, um, as we vaccinate higher and higher portions of populations where it will, uh, make sense for us to continue to watch where vaccines are needed, how vaccines are distributed, the best way to reach more people. And, um, we will be in a situation unlike when we're familiar with in the last couple of months where we have an abundance of vaccines. So I might not think of it as much as shifting as much as I might think of making sure that we're putting enough vaccines and all the places that there needed, including doctors, offices, including regions, including places that might have been inefficient to do at the beginning while we had a surplus. So, um, it is absolutely how you should be thinking about our approach going forward. Next question Stephanie Baker. Bloomberg? Yeah. Thank you. Yes, this is a question for Dr Fauci. Um, can you explain why you decided to issue a public straight statement questioning the AstraZeneca interim results? Um uh, and do you think that they're updated results will enable them to secure emergency. You thought authorization because I think many countries around the world that are relying on the AstraZeneca vaccine will be taking their lead from the F d A. Even if Astro doses are not used in the US And then just another quick question. When do you expect the UK variant to become the dominant variant in the U. S? Yeah, Thank you. Well, with regard to excuse me to your first question, I believe you're referring to the NIH statement that followed the letter that was sent by the deeds MB to a Z as well as with a copy to me. I did not have a statement questioning their data at all. I urged them to make sure that their data was up to date in the sense that the the D S M B had written to them a rather harsh notes saying they did not believe that the data that was in their press conference was the most recent updated data. The only statement that we made in our release was to encourage them to work closely with the D S, m b to make sure that the data that they put into their press content to their press release is the most update and accurate data. So I didn't question their data at all. I just urged them to work closely with the D S, M B. And I'm sorry. This is your second question. I think the second question was related to variants, and I can just sort of fill you in B 117 we know from our most recent data is about 26% of circulating virus right now, um, we are looking at it by region. It varies in region from 4 to 36 35%. So we're watching this very carefully, but it is starting to become the predominant variant in many U. S regions. I think your final question is was asking us to consider whether the FDA was going to grant an EU A um, obviously we're going to leave that to the FDA, but I'm wondering if Dr. Voucher, you have any additional comments? Um, given the data that you have seen relative to the AstraZeneca, uh, release. Well, the data that they made public most recently indicates to me that this is a good vaccine that is going to have a very important role in the global response to this outbreak. Thank you. Next question. Ex world of Lauren classes at CD ROM Com. Thank you. Yes. Two questions. First, given the rise in cases in a number of schools and states that are reopening, how important is it to have a national testing strategy? And when should we expect to see that? And then secondly, are you anticipating any medical supply chain disruptions stemming from the backlog in the Suez Canal? Thank you. Okay, um, the first question on schools and testing. Um, Dr Walensky, do you want to provide some input into that? Yeah. What I will say is, we're watching. Obviously, the cases by by jurisdiction are school based reopening strategy does look at community transmission and is guided based on community transmission. We have five mitigation strategies and, of course, insular mitigation strategies related to teacher vaccination and testing. as you note, and we're working closely with the Department of Ed and others to, uh, input to put forward a national testing strategy for schools in terms of, um, your question about medical supplies in the Suez Canal. Um, we'll get back to you if we hear differently, but none that I'm aware of. And we didn't have to send people over to dig the ship out, so we were able to get people, keep them focused on getting people vaccinated. Um, let's go to the next question. By the way, let me just add one thing about these tools in the testing before I forget. Um, yeah, I should remind everybody that last week we announced $10 billion in new testing dedicated directly to schools. Um, so we now have the resources, thanks to the Congress and the bill signed by the president to be able to vaccinate Children on a weekly basis across the country. So, um, that testing capability is there. The testing resource centers are are developing available, and the testing is quite there. So in addition to what Dr Lynskey says, next question Sharon LaFraniere, New York Times Thank you for taking my question. Um, I wanted to follow up with Dr Fauci. Um, what do you think? Um, Dr Fauci, about the decision yesterday by the German regulators to restrict the use of estrogen mucous vaccine and people under 30 because of a rise in the number of cases of unusual blood clots, I think it's Sinus vein thrombosis. Does that give you fresh concern? Er, well, you know, I only have to go back to the European Medicines Agency, the Iemma, which again have made the statement. That is their opinion that the clotting issues that were seen with the A Z the frequency of that was no more than in the general population not associated with vaccines. So I mean, I don't have any further opinion on that except to say that you're talking about a situation in the European Union and the regulatory agency that's responsible for what goes on in the European Union feels that that is not an issue, that it is, in fact, the same level as you'd expect in the general population. Yeah, and let me just pile on to assure the public of the following. Um, the FDA will conduct a completely thorough analysis of the application that submitted and all the data from AstraZeneca and Dr Fauci, as he always does, will help the public interpret whatever comes out of the FDA when they reviewed that data. So people should be very assured that we have the best regulatory bodies who studied these matters in the world. We'll be looking at this data, and the best scientists in the world will help people understand whatever comes out of that. So I think we should wait until we see what happens with that process before anybody jumps to conclusions. Next question. Jeremy Diamond, CNN. Yeah. Should we go to other question, Kevin question It wasn't letting me on mute, but it just said, Can you hear me? Yes, Jeremy. Okay. Thank you. Um, so, uh, two questions. First of all, you said that you expected to be 117 variants to be dominant in the U. S. By the end of March. Early April. Um, is it now the dominant strain? And how much of the increase in cases do you attribute to that variant? And then secondly, um, we've heard a lot from you about the importance of governors keeping or reinstating mask mandates. But several of the states experiencing the worst surges haven't done away with their mask mandates. Instead, it's been loosening of other restrictions, like indoor dining and gathering. So my question is, what are you telling states about which restrictions they should be implementing? And why haven't you published uniform gating criteria to lay out a road map that states should be following? Thank you, Dr Walensky. You want to take those? Uh, yeah, as I mentioned earlier, we now have the one on seven is 26% of the circulating variant across the United States, and it is the predominant strain and at least five regions of the United States. So we're starting to see it creep up. We do know it's more transmissible somewhere between 50 and 70% more transmissible than the wild type strain. So to the extent that people are not practicing the standard mitigation strategies, we do think that more infections will result because of the 117 we believe that the current mitigation strategies of masking and distancing would work just as well against the current the wild type strain as they do that the one on seven strain. Um, I think we've been pretty clear with regard to our guidance and and strategies and um, setting specific strategies as to how people can remain safe in these settings. And we continue to articulate in these practice conferences and others the importance of masking, distancing, not traveling and decreasing crowds. Yeah, I mean, just reiterate, I think, three times a week for the last 10 weeks, Dr Walensky has made the same points over and over and over again because repetition is good and it's important. People want to know that they're getting consistent answers and consistently three times a week for 10 weeks, Dr Walensky has said, wear a mask, avoid crowds socially distance and don't travel unless it's absolutely essential three times a week for 10 weeks. We repeat that in all our conversations with governors, we repeat that all our conversations with local officials and we're not the only one saying it. Public health officials from departments and agencies across the country make the same points so that people who are in violation of that are choosing to do that. They are not confused about about where we stand and to your point. Jeremy uh, That's not the only factor that drives case growth. Uh, and even where there are mandates that everyone, um, complies by them. But there, where the variants are at any given time, is obviously also another important factor. Next question. We're gonna squeeze one more question in We'll go to, uh, seek on a coupon at New York Public Radio. Mhm, I thank you for taking my question. So New York health officials continue to voice concerns about the B 15 to 6 variant. Early studies suggest this variant was first detected last November, and it now represents a large proportion of cases in New York City and New Jersey, namely in counties undergoing surges. Yet the C D. C D still classifies B 15 to 6 as a variant of interest rather than a variant of concern. I'm wondering what additional evidence is needed before B 15 to 6 is classified as a variant of concern. Does the CDC plan to release state by state case numbers on the New York variant rather than just a rough proportion? And what's the national tally of B one? 5 to 6 cases so far? Thank you for that question. I'm gonna have to get back to you on the details on the national tally. What I will say is that there is an interagency group that looks at these variants and classifies them. And it is that inter agency group C. D. C. Is a part of that is actually looking at exactly this question right now. Thank you. Uh, thank you all. I want to just take the opportunity for us to wish everyone McCall a happy holiday season in a safe holiday season. Thank you very much.
VIDEO - NBC Cheers Dem BULLIES Trying to Punish Georgia Over Voting Reform | Newsbusters
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:15
On Monday, NBC's Today show was eager to hype partisan, left-wing efforts to bully the state of Georgia into abandoning recently-passed voting reforms opposed by the Democratic Party out of fear of losing future elections. The propaganda masquerading as news coverage was designed to pressure businesses into cutting ties with the state and causing economic damage, all in pursuit of doing the DNC's bidding.
''Boycotting everything from Coca-Cola to the Masters?,'' co-host Hoda Kotb asked during a tease for story. She then proclaimed: ''The growing backlash facing businesses and events in Georgia in the wake of that state's controversial new voting laws.'' In a later tease, Kotb touted: ''Inside the growing calls for an economic boycott of the state's businesses and events, including the Masters and baseball's All-Star game, coming up after this.''
In the report that followed minutes later, correspondent Blayne Alexander breathlessly told viewers:
Here in Georgia, it has only been the law of the land for less than 96 hours, but already several groups have now filed a lawsuit to strike it down. Now, some Republicans are praising this as a potential model for other states, but Democrats, including President Biden, are slamming it as blatant voter suppression.
Declaring ''a new battle over the ballot,'' Alexander warned that ''Georgia's new voting law, passed by the Republican-led state legislature, is facing major backlash.'' She briefly noted arguments from both sides:
Republicans say the changes make elections more secure, and allow many counties to expand early in-person voting. But critics say the changes amount to voter suppression, saying the law specifically targets black voters who turned out in record numbers for the 2020 election.
However, Alexander then promoted far-left efforts to cancel the entire state of Georgia:
The National Black Justice Coalition is calling on the famed Masters tournament to pull out of the Peach State, writing in part, ''Professional golf should not reward Georgia's attacks on democracy and voting rights with the millions of dollars in revenue that the tournament generates''....The head of the Major League Baseball Players Association is also adding pressure, telling The Boston Globe that players want to discuss moving this summer's All-Star game out of Atlanta.
She seized on the White House weighing in: ''Meanwhile, President Biden is calling the law Jim Crow in the 21st Century and vowing that his Justice Department will take a look.''
Wrapping up the slanted segment, Alexander made sure to use the contentious situation in Georgia to try to help push a scheme by congressional Democrats to shove through legislation designed to rig elections in their favor nationwide:
One of the people that's reacting is Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.... he and Washington lawmakers are preparing to mount a battle of their own over voting rights legislation. He says that what's happening here in Georgia is only giving him more fuel to get it passed.
Perhaps Democrats and their left-wing media allies will next call for businesses to leave the United States in order to extort the nation into accepting blatantly partisan election laws.
NBC's promotion of far-left intimidation tactics was brought to viewers by Allstate and American Express. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the March 29 report:
7:40 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: We're back, 7:40, In-Depth Today. And this morning, Georgia once again at the center of the political universe.
MELVIN: Yeah, the state was thrust into the national spotlight during November's elections. And now, it's drawing attention once again, and criticism, over that controversial new voting measure that was just signed into law.
HODA KOTB: NBC's Blayne Alexander is in Atlanta with a closer look at the changes and that controversy. Hey, Blayne, good morning.
BLAYNE ALEXANDER: Well, Hoda, guys, good morning to you. Here in Georgia, it has only been the law of the land for less than 96 hours, but already several groups have now filed a lawsuit to strike it down. Now, some Republicans are praising this as a potential model for other states, but Democrats, including President Biden, are slamming it as blatant voter suppression.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Growing Backlash Against Georgia Voting Law; Civil Rights Groups Call for Boycott Over Controversial Reforms]
With the historic 2020 election barely in the rearview mirror, Georgia is facing a new battle over the ballot.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN [GEORGIA VOTER]: It's just another way to keep us from turning our vote in.
ALEXANDER: In Atlanta and around the country, Georgia's new voting law, passed by the Republican-led state legislature, is facing major backlash. Among the changes, enforcing new ID requirements for mail-in ballots, limiting the use of ballot drop boxes, and making it illegal to approach voters in line to offer food or water. Republicans say the changes make elections more secure, and allow many counties to expand early in-person voting. But critics say the changes amount to voter suppression, saying the law specifically targets black voters who turned out in record numbers for the 2020 election.
The National Black Justice Coalition is calling on the famed Masters tournament to pull out of the Peach State, writing in part, ''Professional golf should not reward Georgia's attacks on democracy and voting rights with the millions of dollars in revenue that the tournament generates.'' Neither Augusta National, which hosts the major, nor the PGA Tour, has publicly commented on the request.
The head of the Major League Baseball Players Association is also adding pressure, telling The Boston Globe that players want to discuss moving this summer's All-Star game out of Atlanta. Meanwhile, President Biden is calling the law Jim Crow in the 21st Century and vowing that his Justice Department will take a look. Georgia's governor is firing back.
GOV. BRIAN KEMP [R-GA]: Simply find out what's in the bill versus just the blank statement of, ''This is Jim Crow,'' or you know, ''This is voter suppression,'' or, ''This is racist,'' because it is not.
ALEXANDER: As Governor Kemp signed the bill last week, Georgia State Representative Park Cannon was arrested for knocking on his door in the state capitol. Police charged her with obstructing officials and interrupting the assembly.
PROTESTERS [CHANTING]: We stand with Park! We stand with Park!
ALEXANDER: Cannon, now out of jail, is vowing to return to work today.
KOTB: Blayne, that was a pretty dramatic arrest there, by Representative Cannon. Has there been more reaction to that arrest?
ALEXANDER: Well, Hoda, there has certainly been a lot of reaction throughout the weekend, spilling into today. One of the people that's reacting is Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock. He actually went to the jail when the state representative was arrested. Now incidentally, he and Washington lawmakers are preparing to mount a battle of their own over voting rights legislation. He says that what's happening here in Georgia is only giving him more fuel to get it passed. Hoda?
KOTB: Alright, Blayne Alexander for us there in Atlanta. Blayne, thank you.
VIDEO - Double mutation Covid variant in India may spread to other countries, doctor says
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:03
The double mutation of a Covid-19 variant discovered in India is of grave concern '-- and could spread to other countries, according to Dr. Kavita Patel, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution.
"It is something to watch very closely, and something that will not be limited to India. It is something we will likely see around the world as we have with other variants," she told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Monday.
India's health ministry said last week that a variant with two mutations '-- known as E484Q and L452R '-- was found in the country. The mutations are not new, but the variant in India carries both of them '--something that has not been seen in other variants.
The mutations could make the virus more contagious and better at evading the body's defenses.
A health worker administers a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a clinic in Bhopal, India, March 25, 2021.
STR | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images
"This double mutation, number one, it is incredibly serious. Number two, it is probably just the tip of the iceberg in what we would worry about in Asia," said Patel, who is also a former Obama administration official.
She said the mutations could lead to reinfections since the body's immune system won't recognize it and therefore cannot effectively fight it.
Patel also said she would be concerned about the implications of the mutation if she were an Asian health official, and would think about how to get vaccines to as many people as possible.
Indian authorities said Covid variants, including the double mutation strain, have not been detected in such large numbers that are sufficient to explain the spike in new infections.
VIDEO - LL COOL J And Dr. Fauci Discuss COVID-19 Vaccine Safety And More | Rock The Bells - YouTube
VIDEO-LL COOL J And Dr. Fauci Discuss COVID-19 Vaccine Safety And More | Rock The Bells - YouTube
VIDEO-Ajhdfs on Twitter: "@4mishee That, as pointed out on No Agenda, would be the truth wanting to come out, @adamcurry" / Twitter
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 04:30
Ajhdfs : @4mishee That, as pointed out on No Agenda, would be the truth wanting to come out, @adamcurry
Wed Mar 31 18:47:19 +0000 2021
VIDEO-DAVID E. MARTIN - Exposing Moderna; the Star of Plandemic: Indoctornation Reveals the Truth - Digital Freedom Platform
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 04:17
Guest on the Plandemic: Indoctornation documentaryUntil recently best known as the founder of M·CAM®, the international leader in innovation finance, trade, and intangible asset finance, David E. Martin is a modern day renaissance man, whose roles have included Professor, Lecturer, Chairman and CEO.
From the halls of parliament to HBO comedy and documentary films such as the internationally acclaimed and multi-awarded Patent Wars and Future Dreaming, Dr. Martin takes on some of the world's most complex economic and social themes using solutions that he's successfully deployed in his work with over 160 countries.
He recently appeared in Mikki Willis' documentary, Plandemic: Indoctornation where he revealed the truth behind the vaccine agenda and how following the money had led him to a number of conclusions about what is really going on during the Coronavirus crisis.
With Plandemic: Indoctornation being viewed over 5.7 million times on the Digital Freedom Platform alone, David has become an important voice as part of informed discourse around Coronavirus and our response as a society, with his recent research continuing to focus on vaccines, patents and the role of companies such as Moderna.
David's other work includes financial engineering and investment, public speaking and writing, he has also served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation and national governments around the world.
He has been instrumental in rebuilding lives and livelihoods in post-conflict, post-colonial, and environmentally devastated regions of the world. He is the architect for the world's first public equity quantitative market index based on human innovation.
Dr. Martin has publications in law, medicine, engineering, finance, and education. He maintains active research in the fields of linguistic genomics, fractal financial-risk modelling, and cellular membrane ionic signaling. In a televised speech in 2006, David correctly forecast the U.S. housing financial crisis and identified it as a catalyst for the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
His investment funds, banking businesses and global trade network return extraordinary results by measuring all the field effects of every endeavour. He is also the author of the novel Coup D'Twelve: The Enterprise that Bought the Presidency '' now optioned for theatrical release.
Described as a futurist, fulcrum ninja, economist and global business executive, David disarms the most ardent pessimists, showing that with a flexible perspective, we can tackle any perceived problem and achieve extraordinary outcomes.
Download clipsA number of clips from this groundbreaking interview are now available to download, share and repost. Spread the word and defend our human rights: grab these clips today!
1. Moderna2. Moderna's History3. Moderna And Fauci4. Will There Ever Be A Vaccine From Moderna5. Who Needs To Investigate Moderna And Fauci6. Gates And Fauci7. The Pandemic As A Political Tool8. Fauci And The Vaccine Narrative9. Vaccination Is A Matter Of Beliefs10. First Day Of School Story11. Google And Un-searchable Information12. Doing The Interview With Mikki13. CDC Lied14. What Happened In China15. The World In 202216. What's Next For Dr. David E. Martin
VIDEO-Tim Graham on Twitter: "Now I imagine the swell of the John Williams theme music for NBC News with the slogan "FAIRNESS IS OVERRATED. NBC NEWS."" / Twitter
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 04:14
Tim Graham : Now I imagine the swell of the John Williams theme music for NBC News with the slogan "FAIRNESS IS OVERRATED. NBC'... https://t.co/n7UPW1ENnh
Wed Mar 31 19:16:05 +0000 2021
Gerianne Waufle : @TimJGraham @newsbusters Well doesn't that just say it all.
Thu Apr 01 03:55:31 +0000 2021
The Sojourner : @TimJGraham You mean Vader's theme, right?
Thu Apr 01 01:40:17 +0000 2021
Craig Alan ðºð¸ : @TimJGraham @derekahunter Lester Holt is an embarrassment.
Thu Apr 01 01:00:29 +0000 2021
Elizabeth ð£ðºð¸ : @TimJGraham @derekahunter Haaa!!!ð¤£
Thu Apr 01 01:00:03 +0000 2021
Cassandra : @TimJGraham @newsbusters Well one doesn't have to give flat-earthers any time ...but I don't think he is thinking of that scenario.
Thu Apr 01 00:44:56 +0000 2021
Michael Mistflower : @TimJGraham @newsbusters Saying what we all know out loud
Thu Apr 01 00:42:49 +0000 2021
Bruno Polk : @TimJGraham @newsbusters not a journalist
Thu Apr 01 00:41:12 +0000 2021
John Linder : @TimJGraham @newsbusters Hail judgementalism!
Thu Apr 01 00:40:59 +0000 2021
Robb : @TimJGraham Tim. Truth is a basic principle at play here. NBC should not give equal time to flat earth people or t'... https://t.co/FU6KXrTYx6
Wed Mar 31 23:54:34 +0000 2021
Dr. Miguel Elias : @TimJGraham Stupid is, Stupid says, No wonder i don't like Lester.
Wed Mar 31 21:59:45 +0000 2021
Old Coach : @TimJGraham @dangainor In other words, Lester sees himself as a propagandist rather than a reporter.
Wed Mar 31 21:54:46 +0000 2021
I_chimunga : @TimJGraham @dangainor Maybe he's arguing against trans athletes competing in women's sports. You don't have to giv'... https://t.co/ubaqCCcBNd
Wed Mar 31 19:51:52 +0000 2021
Richard III : @TimJGraham @CurtisHouck He is the sun and he sets in the West. He is indeed the facts. He is the Sun King. And if'... https://t.co/hd5TkqWoXj
Wed Mar 31 19:26:02 +0000 2021
VIDEO - (351) Heavily fortified Chinese Consulate opens in small Australian suburb | A Current Affair - YouTube
VIDEO - (20) NTD News on Twitter: "In the middle of escalating tensions between #China and the United States, a speech from five years ago is going viral. In it, a Chinese Communist Party insider reveals how the regime plans to get the United States out o
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:44
NTD News : In the middle of escalating tensions between #China and the United States, a speech from five years ago is going vi'... https://t.co/Yko03CbIM4
Tue Mar 30 21:13:42 +0000 2021
VIDEO - Telegram: Contact @GhostEzra
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:42
Don't have Telegram yet? Try it now! Embed View In Group Copy
VIDEO - (351) We Are In A "FOURTH TURNING," What Does That Mean? - YouTube
VIDEO - Dozens in Central Florida contract COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:31
ORLANDO, Fla. '' They're called COVID-19 breakthrough cases -- people who have been fully vaccinated yet still contract the virus more than 14 days after their second shot.
The cases are popping up around the country, including in Central Florida.
[TRENDING: SpaceX aims to fly -- and avoid explosion | 4-year-old among 3 dead in I-95 crash | Thief pup gets new home]
Hanna Rewerts, 27, is a physical therapist and has been tested for COVID-19 at least once a week since the pandemic started.
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She says she got her first positive test just days ago.
''I was shocked, you know,'' Rewerts told News 6. ''Immediately I'm like, 'This has to be a false-positive. This can't be right.'''
But multiple tests confirmed it.
She said she was shocked because she is also fully vaccinated.
As a health care worker, Rewerts had her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in December 2020, according to her vaccine card. Her second dose was three weeks later in January.
More than two months after the second shot, she contracted the virus.
''So it's just, it's very odd,'' Rewerts said.
Rewerts is among a growing number of people.
Earlier this month, the Minnesota Department of Health released a health advisory stating that along with the CDC, it is investigating COVID-19 infections among people who are ''appropriately vaccinated,'' also called vaccine breakthrough cases, according to the advisory.
News 6 checked and the Florida Department of Health in Volusia County has six documented breakthrough cases while Sumter County has six and Lake County has 26 cases, according to emails from each county's spokesperson.
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Dr. Timothy Hendrix is with Advent Health and said it is possible for someone who is fully vaccinated to still contract the virus.
However, the vaccine can prevent more severe cases, including hospitalization and death. It is still important to get vaccinated from COVID-19.
''It is possible because no vaccine is perfect,'' Hendrix said.
Hendrix stressed that both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95% effective, though.
''The good news is for that very small amount of people that might become infected, that less than 5%, the chances of severe disease is next to zero,'' Hendrix said.
Breakthrough cases are not specific to COVID-19 and can happen with any vaccine, according to experts.
Rewerts said three of her family members who were also fully vaccinated contracted it as well.
''One of my family members actually went to the hospital,'' Rewerts said. ''I mean, that's pretty severe enough to be concerned about the vaccine.''
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Rewerts said the Florida Department of Health is testing to see whether she may have been infected by one of the COVID-19 variants that has made it to Florida.
She said for now, she and her family will continue social distancing and wearing masks.
''I don't think the public is aware that it doesn't mean you're not getting the virus, and it doesn't mean you're not getting sick. There is still a chance,'' Rewerts said.
Hendrix put it this way.
''The one thing you should know is every vaccine that's been approved at this point, is highly effective at preventing the one major endpoint: hospitalization and death,'' Hendrix said.
Researchers are still trying to figure out if people who are fully vaccinated and contract the virus can also spread it to other people, which is why they recommend still wearing masks even after you're vaccinated.
Copyright 2021 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved.
VIDEO - COVID-19: 'We don't know how strong our fortifications are against new wave', says Boris Johnson | UK News | Sky News
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:29
The prime minister has admitted "we don't know... how strong our fortifications now are" against a fresh COVID wave - while the chief medical officer has warned of a "leaky wall" of vaccine defence.
Speaking at a Downing Street news conference on Monday - as people in England saw lockdown restrictions eased slightly - Boris Johnson urged the need for caution as COVID rules are lifted.
People across England are now allowed to meet in groups of up to six or as two households outdoors, with outdoor team sports also able to resume.
And while the prime minister acknowledged a "big day" for many people to see friends and family after a number of months, he also said the country "must proceed with caution".
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PM: 'We must proceed with caution'"That wave is still rising across the Channel and it is inevitable as we advance on this roadmap that there will be more infections, and unavoidably more hospitalisations and sadly more deaths," he said.
A recent surge in COVID cases in countries such as France and Germany has brought the imposition of new restrictions across Europe.
Although the UK has been faster in rolling out COVID vaccines than other European countries - with more than 30 million people in the UK now having received a first dose - Mr Johnson said it was unclear how "robust" the vaccine programme would prove against a new spike in infections.
"What we don't know is exactly how strong our fortifications now are, how robust our defences are against another wave," he said.
"We have seen what is happening with our European friends. Historically, at least there has been a time lag and then we have had a wave ourselves.
"That's why I stress the importance of everybody maintaining the discipline people have shown for so long."
Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, said the UK had a "kind of wall of vaccination that will get stronger" as more people begin to receive their second doses over the coming weeks.
But he added: "It is not a complete wall, it is a kind of leaky wall. Therefore, there will always be some people who either have chosen not to be vaccinated, or where the vaccine has had much less effect.
"If we get a small surge, there will be cases of people who have been vaccinated who will have severe disease, and there will be cases of people who are not vaccinated, a much higher proportion, who will get severe disease, and some of those will go on to die.
"If you get a very big wave, that would obviously lead to a significant impact.
"So that's the reason why the prime minister and ministers have been absolutely determined that this is a slow and steady unlocking, looking at data between each step."
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Prof Whitty also advised grandparents not to hug their grandchildren this Easter, even if they have had both vaccine doses.
"The thing to understand with vaccines is they provide increasing levels of protection as we go through," he said.
"The first vaccine provides a high degree of protection, the second vaccine for the same person provides greater protection - but there's still some vulnerability.
"Then actually having people around someone who has been vaccinated who are themselves vaccinated, provides a further level of protection.
"And then the key thing is keeping the rates right down, which makes it very unlikely that someone who comes in - even if they haven't been vaccinated and certainly if they have - will actually have COVID and be able to pass it on.
"What we're trying to do is get to the point where all of those protections are in place. We are not yet at that stage. We are getting there steadily."
Prof Whitty also urged people to remember they are "not immediately protected" when they receive a COVID jab.
VIDEO - Vaccine Passport | Digital Vaccination Records | Change Healthcare
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:20
As part of our commitment to helping individuals and communities resume school, travel, events and other activities safely, we are proud to offer the Vaccine Passport. Powered by the Change Healthcare Platform and aligned with the Vaccination Credential Initiative, the Vaccine Passport is a digital solution that empowers consumers to access vaccination records at any time.
VIDEO - (351) Jiminy's Started with an Idea: What if we could reduce our dog's Carbon Pawprint? - YouTube
VIDEO - Hooggerechtshof van Itali onthult wie de Amerikaanse verkiezingen heeft gestolen - Frontnieuws
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:12
Professor Alfio D'Urso, juridisch adviseur van het Italiaanse Hooggerechtshof leest een bedigde verklaring voor met de getuigenis van Arturo D'Elia, die onder ede getuigt dat hij verantwoordelijk is voor het stelen van de Amerikaanse verkiezingen.Transcript van de video.
Ik professor Alfio D'Urso, jurist van de Via Vittorio Emanuele, Catania, 95131 Itali, verstrekt hierbij de volgende verklaring van feiten zoals die in verschillende besprekingen met een hooggeplaatste ambtenaar van de veiligheidsdiensten van het leger is gegeven:Arturo D'Elia, voormalig hoofd van de IT-afdeling van Leonardo SpA, is door het Openbaar Ministerie van Napels aangeklaagd wegens technologie / gegevensmanipulatie en implantatie van virussen in de hoofdcomputers van Leonardo SpA in december 2020.''Onder afleiding en leiding van Amerikaanse personen die vanuit de Amerikaanse ambassade in Rome werken, ondernamen ze de operatie om gegevens van de Amerikaanse verkiezingen van 3 november 2020 om te zetten van een aanzienlijke marge van overwinning van Donald Trump naar Joe Biden'... in een aantal deelstaten waar Joe Biden het aantal stemmen verloor''.Beklaagde stelt dat hij werkte in de Pescara faciliteit van de Leonardo spa en gebruik maakte van militaire coderingsmogelijkheden voor cyberoorlogvoering om stemmen via een militaire satelliet van de Fucino-toren naar Frankfurt, Duitsland te verzenden en te wisselen.De verdachte zweert dat de gegevens in sommige gevallen zijn gewijzigd om meer dan het totale aantal geregistreerde kiezers te vertegenwoordigen.Verdachte verklaart dat hij bereid is te getuigen tegen alle personen en entiteiten die betrokken zijn bij het omwisselen van stemmen van Donald Trump naar Joe Biden wanneer hij in volledige bescherming voor zichzelf en zijn gezin zal zijn.Ik verklaar en zweer dat de hierboven genoemde feiten in mijn aanwezigheid zijn vermeld.Amerikaanse postbode betrapt met truck vol gestolen stembiljetten bij de Canadese grens
VIDEO - Troy on Twitter: "@tomselliott @JoeNBC @adamcurry" / Twitter
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 15:40
Troy : @tomselliott @JoeNBC @adamcurry
Wed Mar 31 14:51:17 +0000 2021
VIDEO - VIDEO-pba commercial - YouTube
VIDEO - CDC Director: Our Data 'Suggests That Vaccinated People Do Not Carry the Virus'
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:33
On Monday's broadcast of MSNBC's ''Rachel Maddow Show,'' CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated that CDC data released earlier in the day ''suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don't get sick, and that it's not just in the clinical trials, but it's also in real-world data.''
Walensky said, ''I'm so impressed with our ability to vaccinate at a clip of 3 million vaccinations a day. we have 93 million Americans who have gotten their first dose. 51 million who have gotten their second dose. And we have '-- we can kind of almost see the end. We're vaccinating so very fast. Our data from the CDC today suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don't get sick, and that it's not just in the clinical trials, but it's also in real-world data.''
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
VIDEO - (3) The Hill on Twitter: "CDC Director Rochelle Walensky: "We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now, I'm scared." https://t.co/t9xGt0og4Z" / Twitter
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:09
The Hill : CDC Director Rochelle Walensky: "We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are'... https://t.co/y5G2xPiQ3g
Mon Mar 29 21:01:00 +0000 2021
VIDEO - superleone on Twitter: "@adamcurry" / Twitter
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 12:36
superleone : @adamcurry https://t.co/5fC33pqJeT
Tue Mar 30 00:24:14 +0000 2021
STORIES
T cells induced by COVID-19 infection respond to new virus variants -U.S. study | Reuters
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 14:05
(This March 30 story corrects last paragraph to show the paper has been peer reviewed)
FILE PHOTO: The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Handout via REUTERS./File Photo
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A critical component of the immune system known as T cells that respond to fight infection from the original version of the novel coronavirus appear to also protect against three of the most concerning new virus variants, according to a U.S. laboratory study released on Tuesday.
Several recent studies have shown that certain variants of the novel coronavirus can undermine immune protection from antibodies and vaccines.
But antibodies - which block the coronavirus from attaching to human cells - may not tell the whole story, according to the study by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). T cells appear to play an important additionally protective role.
''Our data, as well as the results from other groups, shows that the T cell response to COVID-19 in individuals infected with the initial viral variants appears to fully recognize the major new variants identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil,'' said Andrew Redd of the NIAID and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the study.
The researchers analyzed blood from 30 people who had recovered from COVID-19 before the emergence of the new more contagious variants.
From those samples, they identified a specific form of T cell that was active against the virus, and looked to see how these T cells fared against the concerning variants from South Africa, the UK and Brazil.
They found the T-cell responses remained largely intact and could recognize virtually all mutations in the variants studied.
The findings add to a prior study that also suggested T cell protection appears to remain intact against the variants.
The NIAID researchers said larger studies are needed to confirm the findings. Continued monitoring for variants that escape both antibody and T cell protection is needed, Redd said.
The paper has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
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Metadata: The Digital Fingerprint You Had No Idea Is Attached To Every Photo You Take | ZeroHedge
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:29
In a day and age where everyone is walking around carrying a portable GPS/supercomputer in their pockets, it should be of no surprise that location data can help track you at almost any given point in the day.
But while this may be semi-expected, one way in which people may not know they're offering up information is through photographs.
Such was the topic of a new BBC report, which delved into exactly how much information people are offering up with their photo metadata - the digital "fingerprint" that's attached to every digital photo you take.
Metadata became a national issue when comparisons of two photographs of former President Trump at Walter Reed Medical Center were scrutinized closely to try and determine whether they were staged or not, BBC notes. Metadata also led to authorities being able to detain John McAfee in 2012, after a photograph's location data revealed he was in Guatemala at the time.
This data "automatically and parasitically burrows itself into every photo you take," BBC notes. And while it's not impossible to get rid of, most people don't even realize that it's there before widely sharing their photographs on social media. And while some platforms remove sensitive information, like where a photo was taken, others don't.
The tool has become useful for police investigations, who often use it to place criminals at a scene. But the data can clearly be a slippery slope and be used for nefarious purposes, as well.
And as the BBC notes, it's not just the metadata hidden in your photos. They also contain a "unique personal identifier linking every image you capture to the specific camera used". The report goes on to describe how unique imaging sensors are, and how that data is stored:
To understand what this identifier is, you first have to understand how a photo is captured. Central to every digital camera, including those inside smartphones, is its imaging sensor. This is composed of a grid of millions of silicon "photosites", which are cavities that absorb photons (light). Due to a phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect, the absorption of photons causes a photosite to eject electrons a bit like a nightclub bouncer.
...
The different sensitivities of the photosites creates a type of imperceptible image watermark. Although unintentional, it acts like a fingerprint, unique to your camera's sensor, which is imprinted onto every photo you take. Much like snowflakes, no two imaging sensors are alike.
The good news, however, is that the data can also be used to help identify fake photographs. This can be helpful in a day and age where even deepfake video, let alone faked photographs, are starting to look flawless. Hany Farid, a professor in electrical engineering and computer sciences at the University of California, said that photo fingerprinting can "have positive and negative uses".
Jessica Fridrich of Binghamton University in New York state, for example, has patented a photo fingerprinting technique, which has subsequently "been officially approved for use as forensic evidence in court cases in the United States."
And how can one avoid sending out their personal data when just trying to take a couple of photos of the family bar-b-que? BBC notes there's plenty of tools - like EXIFTool - that can help you access, and scrub, metadata.
The Case for the Universal Card (Fortune Magazine , April 1954)
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:24
by Vanderleun on March 22, 2021
''The very boldness of the plan has disturbed some people. In American business, unfortunately, there are still many personnel men who have a laissez-faire attitude toward human relations, who argue that there is a large part of the employee's life and personality that is not of concern to the corporation'...
As a result of this surveillance, and such encouragements as probationary fellowships, we would ensure a constantly replenishing reservoir of potential cardholders'...
At the same time, we were bringing newcomers in we would be pruning the current membership. There would be nothing static about the system, and if a man fell beneath an acceptable rating, we would revoke his card. This would be hard on the people concerned, but they would be the lone-persons, the mystics, the intellectual agitators''which is to say, the kind of people that the modern organization doesn't really want anyway.''''''The Case for the Universal Card,'' Otis Stanford Binet (pseudonym for Wm. H. Whyte, Jr.), publ. in Fortune Magazine. [Irony or Fact at Coderanc)]
As the modest proposal appeared in Fortune in 1954:
5G as a wireless power grid | Scientific Reports
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:20
Abstract5G has been designed for blazing fast and low-latency communications. To do so, mm-wave frequencies were adopted and allowed unprecedently high radiated power densities by the FCC. Unknowingly, the architects of 5G have, thereby, created a wireless power grid capable of powering devices at ranges far exceeding the capabilities of any existing technologies. However, this potential could only be realized if a fundamental trade-off in wireless energy harvesting could be circumvented. Here, we propose a solution that breaks the usual paradigm, imprisoned in the trade-off between rectenna angular coverage and turn-on sensitivity. The concept relies on the implementation of a Rotman lens between the antennas and the rectifiers. The printed, flexible mm-wave lens allows robust and bending-resilient operation over more than 20 GHz of gain and angular bandwidths. Antenna sub-arrays, rectifiers and DC combiners are then added to the structure to demonstrate its combination of large angular coverage and turn-on sensitivity'--in both planar and bent conditions'--and a harvesting ability up to a distance of 2.83 m in its current configuration and exceeding 180 m using state-of-the-art rectifiers enabling the harvesting of several μW of DC power (around 6 μW at 180 m with 75 dBm EIRP).
IntroductionOur era is witnessing a rapid development in the field of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies with a projected 40 billion IoT devices to be installed by 20251. This could result in a huge number of batteries needing to be continuously charged and replaced. The design and realization of energy-autonomous, self-powered systems: the perpetual IoT, is therefore highly desirable. One potential way of satisfying these goals is through electromagnetic energy harvesting. A powerful source for electromagnetic scavenging is mm-wave energy, present in the fifth-generation (5G) of mobile communications bands (above 24 GHz), where the limits of allowable transmitted Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations are pushed beyond (reaches 75 dBm) that of their lower-frequency counterparts. Following the path loss model defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project Technical Report 3GPP TR 38.901 (release 16) in outdoor Urban Macro Line of Sight conditions (UMa LOS), the power density expected to be received at 28 GHz for a transmitted power of 75 dBm EIRP is 28 μW cm''2 at a distance of 100 m away from the transmitter. This demonstrates the ability of 5G to create a usable network of wireless power. In addition to the advantage of high transmitted power available at 5G, moving to mm-wave bands allows the realization of modular antennas arrays instead of single elements, thereby allowing a fine scaling of their antenna aperture, which can more than compensate for the high path loss at these frequencies through the addition of extremely-large gains2. However, one limitation accompanies large gain antennas: their inability to provide a large angular coverage. As the relative orientations of the sources and harvesters are generally unknown, the use of large aperture mm-wave harvesters may seem limiting and impossible. Individual rectennas, constituted of small antenna elements, can realistically be DC combined. However, this approach does not increase the turn-on sensitivity (lowest turn-on power) of the overall rectenna system: RF combination is needed.
Beamforming networks (BFNs) are used to effectively create simultaneous beam angular coverage with large-gain arrays, by mapping a set of directions to a set of feeding ports. An important class of these multiple networks is the microwave passive BFN that has been widely used in switched-beam antenna systems and applications. Hybrid combination techniques, based on Butler matrix networks, have been used in previous works for energy harvesting at lower frequencies3,4,'--more specifically at 2.45 GHz'--to achieve wider angular coverage harvesting. However, these Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) arrays are impractically large for IoT applications and the implementation of their Butler matrices at higher frequencies would necessitate costly high-resolution fabrication. While sub-optimal'--because of its large size'--in the UHF band, the Rotman lens becomes the BFN of choice in the realm of mm-wave energy harvesting. Compared to their lower frequencies counterpart, fewer implementations are presented in the literature targeting energy harvesting at higher frequencies, more specifically 24 GHz and above. However, these systems later displayed in the table of comparison5,6,7, suffer from a narrow angular coverage.
In this paper, the authors demonstrate a full implementation of an entirely flexible, bending-resilient and simultaneously high gain and large angular coverage system for 5G/mm-wave energy harvesting based on a Rotman lens. For IoT applications, there is a benefit to making extremely low-profile devices that can conformally fit onto any surface in the environment such as walls, bodies, vehicles, etc. Therefore, thanks to the use of mm-waves, antennas with such features can be readily designed and fabricated. A Rotman lens-based rectenna has been first proposed in8, where a preliminary prototype and approach were presented, resulting in a quasi-flexible system, 80° angular coverage and 21-fold increase in the harvested power compared to a non-Rotman-based system. Here, the previously-predicted potential of 5G-powered nodes for the IoT and long-range passive mm-wave Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) devices, is further taken advantage of, and effectively demonstrated. In order to do so, a thorough analysis of the lens itself'--a structure that was not revealed in8'--is first presented, exposing its key design parameters and resulting measured broadband behavior tested in both planar and bent conditions over more than 20 GHz of bandwidth. In addition, a scalability study of the approach, outlining the optimal size of such a system is reported, thereby proving the extent of the capability of providing a combination of good array factor and wide beam coverage. The novelty of this system also lies in the realization of a fully-flexible 28 GHz Rotman-lens-based rectenna system, completed by the design of a new DC combiner on a flexible 125 μm-thin polyimide Kapton substrate. The new DC combiner uses a reduced number of bypass diodes and increases the angular coverage of the system by more than 30% compared to8. Furthermore, the frequency-broadband behavior enabled by the use of the Rotman lens makes the full rectenna system bending-resilient, a property now demonstrated through its characterizations in flexing and conformally-mounted configurations. Finally, the system's potential for long-range mm-wave harvesting is expressed for the first time, by reporting an unprecedented harvesting range of 2.83 m.
Experiments, results and discussionsRotman lens scalability study for harvesting applicationsThe Rotman lens, introduced in the 1960s, constitutes one of the most common and cost-effective designs for BFNs and is commonly utilized to enable multibeam phased array system9 and wide-band operation, thanks to its implementation of true-time-delays10. By properly tuning the shape of the lens according to the geometrical optics approximation with the goal of focalizing plane waves impinging on the antenna side of the lens to different focal points on the beam-ports side of the lens, one achieves a lens-shaped structure with two angles of curvatures: one on the beam-ports side, and the other on the antenna side11. Because the lens is capable of focusing the energy coming from a given direction into its geometrically-associated beam port, the proposed scheme loads each of these ports with a rectifier, thereby channeling the energy coming from any direction to one of the rectifiers as shown in Fig. 1a. This subsection investigates the effect of varying the number of antenna ports Na and beam ports Nb in the Rotman lens on its maximum array factor and angular coverage. The (Na, Nb) set, resulting in the best combination, will define the Rotman lens design parameters used for this work. Structures of varying sizes were designed using Antenna Magus and identical material parameters (substrate, conductors) as the ones of the presented design, before being simulated in CST STUDIO SUITE 2018. The simulated data was then processed in MATLAB to output the array factors created by the respective lens structures using a modified version of Eq. (1)12, presented next in Eq. (2):
$$\begin{aligned} AF = \sum \limits _{n=1}^{Na} e^{j(n-1)(kdcos\theta + \beta )} \end{aligned}$$
(1)
where AF, n, Na, k, d, \(\theta\) and \(\beta\) are, respectively, the lossless array factor, the antenna number, the total number of antenna ports, the wave vector, the spacing between the elements, the direction of radiation and the difference in phase excitation between the elements. Since this formula describes a lossless array with a single antenna port, we introduced the following equation that takes into account the losses induced by the feeding network as well as the introduction of multiple feeding ports.
$$\begin{aligned} AF_j = \sum \limits _{n=1}^{Na} S_{nj} e^{j(n-1)(kdcos\theta )} \end{aligned}$$
(2)
where \(AF_j\) and \(S_{nj}\) are, respectively, the array factor for beam port j and the S parameters between antenna ports n and beam ports j. The maximum value of the array factors as well as their total (accounting for the aggregated coverage of all ports) 3 dB beamwidths where then tabulated. The five simulated lenses had the following (Na, Nb) combinations: (4,3), (8,6) representing the system implemented in this work, (16,12), (32,24) and (64,48). Figure 1b shows the increase in the array factor until reaching a peak of around 7.8 dB for a lens surrounded by 16 antennas and 12 beam ports, after which the array factor starts dropping, down to approximately 5.2 dB for a 64 antennas structure with 48 beam ports. The array factor reduction is explained by the increased losses within the lens accompanied by the increase of complexity and internal reflections, as the lens grows in electrical size. The same plot shows the decrease in angular coverage from 180° with 4 antennas down to 80° with 64 antennas. This study shows that the combination composed of eight antennas and six beam ports, offers a nearly optimal compromise, with these materials, between a high array factor of 5.95 dB and a 120° total angular coverage, while maintaining a reasonable number of antennas and beam ports. It should be noted that the choice of the number of beam ports is related to the 3dB-beamwidth of the individual antennas, the reason for which will be detailed later.
Figure 1(a) Dual combining (RF + DC) enabled by the use of the Rotman lens between the antennas and the rectifiers, (b) plot of the simulated maximum array factors and angular coverages for different-size Rotman lenses and (c) picture of the fabricated Rotman lens structure.
Flexible broadband Rotman lens designAfter setting the number of antenna ports and beam ports, the design was printed on flexible copper-clad Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) substrate ( \(\varepsilon _r = 3.02\) and \(\hbox {h}= 180\,\upmu \hbox {m}\) ) using an inkjet-printed masking technique followed by etching, resulting in the structure shown in Fig. 1c. It should be noted that the use of impedance-matched dummy ports is common with Rotman lenses13,14,15,16. Nevertheless, the goal in the implementation hereby described is not (as is usually the case) the generation of clean beam patterns with low side-lobe levels. Here, the lens' properties are used for harvesting. Consequently, as long as the presence of the side lobes does not significantly interfere with the level of the array factor at broadside, side lobes are of no concern. Such a structure, including eight antenna ports and six beam ports'--and, therefore, six radiating directions'--was designed, simulated, and tuned. The structure, shown in Fig. 1c, with the antenna ports connected to matched loads, was then tested in planar and bent configurations'--cylinders with different bending radii ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 in. radii'--to assess the effect of bending on the S parameters behavior. Figure 2a shows the measured reflection coefficient of the Rotman lens at beam port 4 for four different scenarios, in comparison with the simulated structure in a planar position. The results reveal the Rotman lens' ability to be mounted on curved surfaces down to a radius R = 1.5'", while maintaining a stable matching and minuscule losses compared to being held in a planar position.
Figure 2(a) Plot of the simulated and measured reflection coefficients at beam port 4 under planar and bent conditions and (b) Plots of the maximum array factors and angular directions of beam ports P1, P3 and P5 with respect to frequency.
The gain and angular bandwidths of this structure'--defined by the frequency range in which the maximum array factor and angular direction per beam are stable within 3 dB and 5° respectively,'--are studied next. The ultimate assessment of these properties involves calculating the beams' magnitude and angular directions over a wide range of frequencies17, in order to ascertain their stability or lack thereof. For this purpose, the maximum array factors were calculated and the beams' angular directions were extracted and plotted in Fig. 2b for the first, third and fifth beam ports, P1, P3 and P5, representing the edge, secondary and central beams in this symmetrical structure. These plots prove the unique capabilities offered by the Rotman lens; although the Rotman lens is designed at a specific frequency'--28 GHz in this work'--this analysis proves that both the magnitude and the angular direction of the beams remain relatively stable over a very wide frequency range. In Fig. 2b, three plots refer to the maximum array factors of the three beam ports, where minor fluctuations between 4 and 7 dB are observed over the range from 10 to 43 GHz for ports P3 and P5 and similar fluctuations over a fairly reduced frequency range for the extreme edge beam P1. On the same graph, three plots present the angular direction's stability of P1, P3 and P5 beams, where P3 (in particular) preserves its angular direction over 33 GHz of bandwidth. The lens' angular coverage resides between ports 1 and 6 and can be extracted from Fig. 2b. Knowing that the structure is symmetrical and that beam port P1 is at around \({-54}^\circ\) , the overall structure covers an angle larger than 100° in front of the lens, a result further detailed in the next subsection. It should be noted that such a beamwidth is maintained over a large angular bandwidth exceeding 20 GHz, as shown in Fig. 2b. This study demonstrates the stability and robustness of a low-cost, printed and flexible mm-wave Rotman lens structure, tested with respect to bending and frequency, and supports the choice of such an architecture at the heart of the harvesting system proposed in this work.
Flexible, high-gain and wide-angular-coverage mm-wave Rotman-lens-based antenna arrayEight of the linear antenna sub-arrays introduced in8 were then added to the antenna ports of the array, and its beam-ports were extended by microstrip lines to enable their connection to end-launch \({2.92}\,\upmu \hbox {m}\) connectors. The antenna sub-array consists of five serially-fed patch antenna elements, providing an operation centered at 28.55 GHz with a reflection coefficient \(S_{11}\) lower than \({-20}\) dB within this range. Their E-plane beamwidth of about \({18}^\circ\) (provided by the five antennas) is appropriate for most use cases, where environments expand mostly horizontally. Its simulations showed a gain of 13 dBi and a H-plane beamwidth of 80° in the plane perpendicular to the linear array. In this configuration, six beams were chosen to intersect at angles providing 3dB lower gain than broadside. Eight antennas provide a 3dB-beamwidth of 15°, which covers a total of \(6\times {18}^\circ = {108}^\circ\) in front of the array. The design was then also printed on flexible LCP substrate, resulting in the structure shown in Fig. 3a, mounted on a 1.5'" radius cylinder. The radiation properties of the lens-based antenna system were simulated using the time-domain solver of CST STUDIO SUITE 2018, resulting in the six gain plots shown in Fig. 3b. The gain of the Rotman lens at every port was also accurately measured using a 20 dBi transmitter horn antenna and by terminating all five remaining ports with a \({50}\,\Omega\) load for every port measurement to guarantee the proper operation of the lens. Both simulated and measured radiation patterns (shown in Fig. 3b) display a remarkable similarity with a measured gain of approximately 17 dBi, and an angular coverage of around 110°, thereby validating the operation of the antenna array. The gains on the first three ports were also measured for the bent structure over a curvature of 1.5'" radius, shown in Fig. 3a and compared to the measured results on a planar surface. The previous subsection in addition to previous works18,19 have demonstrated that the performance of the Rotman lens is not deteriorated by wrapping or folding the structure compared to its conventional planar counterpart. However, after adding the antenna arrays, bending the structure can indeed have effects on its phase response, especially if the structure is large and the bending is severe. Figure 3c shows the gains of P1, P2 and P3 for the two scenarios (three ports only because the structure is symmetrical), demonstrating again the ability of the lens in maintaining a stable gain (especially over the center beams) upon bending. The beam located at the edge, however, suffers additional deterioration in received power under bending, because of the shift of the source away from the broadside of the bent antenna arrays.
Figure 3(a) Picture of the flexible Rotman-lens-based antenna array, (b) measured (solid lines) and simulated (dashed lines) gains of the antenna array held in a planar position and (c) measured gains of the antenna array for beams P1, P2 and P3 only (because of the symmetry of the structure) in planar and bent conditions.
Fully-flexible 28 GHz Rotman lens-based systemRotman-lens-based rectennaIn this section, the fully-flexible rectenna system'--based on the Rotman lens and a new DC combiner network'--is presented. This architecture, shown in Fig. 4a, consists of a series of eight antenna sub-arrays attached to the Rotman lens from one side, facing six rectifiers at the opposite side where DC serial combination is implemented. The basic rectenna elements, that are the antenna and the rectifier, are presented in details in8. The diode used in this work is the MA4E2038 Schottky barrier diode from Macom. The Rotman-based rectenna was first characterized as a function of its received power density. The system was positioned at a specific harvesting angle (approximately \(-25^\circ\) ) and illuminated with a horn antenna with a gain of 20 dBi, placed at a distance of 52 cm away from the rectenna array, within the far field region starting at 23 cm, and outputting powers ranging from 18 to 25 dBm, corresponding to an RF input power sweep from around '' 9 dBm to '' 2 dBm. The array was loaded with its optimal load impedance of 1 \(\hbox {k}\Omega\) , corresponding to the optimal load of a single rectifier'--since only one rectifier will be ''ON'' at a time, given that the Rotman lens focalizes all the power to one beam port depending on the direction of the incoming wave'--as detailed earlier. The results of this experiment are shown in Fig. 4b, where the harvested voltages and powers of the array are shown. It can be observed that, at low powers, the Rotman-based rectenna effortlessly produces an output. The Rotman-based rectenna turns on well below '' 6 dBm cm''2, which compares quite favorably to the literature6. The output voltage of the rectenna was also measured over its operating frequency range. Like in the first experiment, the system was positioned at the same harvesting angle, at a range of 25 cm away from the source's horn antenna. The output voltages under open load conditions were recorded and plotted, as shown in Fig. 4c for the Rotman lens-based rectenna, for \(P_d = {9}\,{\hbox{dBm cm}}^{-2}\) , \(P_d = {10.5}\,{\hbox{dBm cm}}^{-2}\) and \(P_d = {12}\,{\hbox{dBm cm}}^{-2}\) incident power densities. The plots present a wide frequency coverage'--from 27.8 to 29.6 GHz.
Figure 4(a) Picture of the fully-flexible Rotman-based rectenna, (b) plot of the measured voltages and output powers versus incident power density for the Rotman-based rectenna and (c) plot of the measured voltages with respect to frequency for the Rotman-based rectenna.
Flexible DC combining networkPower summation is very critical when it comes to the unbalanced rectification outputs produced from realistic RF sources, and can be implemented differently depending on its costs and benefits20.
This paper does not rely on a direct voltage summation topology (i.e. back-to-back RF diodes); however, it introduces a minimalist architecture relying on a total of \(2\times (N-1)\) bypass diodes, where N is the number of RF or rectifying diodes. Equipped with a low turn-on voltage of 0.1 V, the Toshiba 1SS384TE85LF bypass diodes used in the DC combiner design create a low resistance current path around all other rectifiers that received very low or close to zero RF power. This topology is optimal when only one diode is turned on, which can be assumed if a single, dominant source of power irradiates this particular design from a given direction. This new combiner circuit is shown in the schematic of Fig. 5a. This simplified schematic'--shown for four rectifying diodes'--uses different colors to highlight the paths that the current will take for every case where an RF diode turning ''ON'' while the serially-connected diodes are ''OFF''. This DC combiner was then fabricated on a flexible \({125\,\upmu \mathrm{m}}\) -thin polyimide Kapton substrate and connected to the Rotman lens-based rectenna through a series of single connectors to make the entire system fully flexible and bendable. The harvested power under a load of 1 \(\hbox {k}\, \Omega\) versus the angle of incidence of the mm-wave energy source for the Rotman-lens-based rectenna is compared for both rigid (presented in8, and relying on \(2\times N\) bypass diodes) and flexible new DC combiners. For this experiment, a horn transmitter antenna was used to send 25 dBm of RF power at 28.5 GHz to the lens placed 70 cm away, as shown in Fig. 5b, while the array was precisely rotated in angular increments of 5°. Figure 6a shows that the new DC combiner, with a reduced number of diodes, was able to provide a complete angular coverage of almost 110° over the entire lens spectrum as presented in Fig. 3b, thus solving the voltage nulling occurring at the first and last ports, using the rigid DC combiner adopted previously in8. The new DC combiner offers therefore, an increase of more than 30% in the system's spatial angular in addition to enabling a fully-bendable structure due to the unique fabrication on flexible Kapton substrate and connection to the rectenna using individual interconnects.
Figure 5(a) Rotman-based rectenna power summation network and (b) picture of the setup used to measure the angular response of the rectenna.
Figure 6(a) Plot of the measured harvested powers by the rectenna with respect to the source's incidence angle for the two DC combiners, rigid and flexible and (b) plots of the measured harvested powers and voltages with respect to the incident power density under different load conditions for the Rotman lens rectenna with and without the flexible DC combiner.
As mentioned earlier, the DC combiner is mainly used with the Rotman-lens-based rectenna to automatically direct the active rectifier's output to a single DC common port, independent of which port this might be. An alternative to the DC combiner in the Rotman lens-based system, would be to manually connect to the active port if the location of the source were known. To study the effect of the implemented DC combiner on the turn-on sensitivity of the system, the output voltage of the rectenna was measured for a specific source location with and without the combiner over a range of RF transmitted power and load variations; the direction was chosen such that the non-DC-combined rectifier would output its maximum power. Figure 6b shows eight different plots where three of them represent the harvested power with a direct connection to the active rectifier for 1 \(\hbox {k}\Omega\) , 10 \(\hbox {k}\Omega\) and 100 \(\hbox {k}\Omega\) conditions. Plotted with the same colors are the other three, representing the harvested power with the addition of the DC combiner for the same load values. The last two plots display the measured voltages with and without the combiner under open load conditions. The rectenna was placed 61 cm away from the transmitter horn antenna and the power was swept from 10 to 25 dBm. The results show the performance superiority in all considered load conditions when the contact is made directly to the rectifier and not through the DC combiner. The lens-based system is able to achieve a turn-on power as low as \(-15\,{\hbox{dBm cm}}^{-2}\) in this case. This behavior is explained by the voltage drop introduced by the bypass diodes present in the combiner'--that consistently decrease the expected output voltage by 0.1 to 0.2 V'--when one or two diodes are, respectively, added to the current path. The variation of load values also shows that the rectenna can achieve better efficiencies at lower loads. More importantly, the reduction in the turn-on sensitivity'--the minimum power density required output 10 mV'--induced by the combiner is only of about 2 dB in loaded conditions, while the combiner enables an increase in the angular coverage of the rectenna system from about 18° to 110°. The remarkable angular and high-power turn-on sensitivity offered by the Rotman-lens-based rectenna are finally benchmarked using the following table for comparison with several state-of-the-art works, as presented in literature. In Table 1, the striking performance of the proposed system is displayed, highlighted by its flexibility and ability of achieving an angular coverage as large as 110° at extremely high turn-on sensitivity, thereby allowing mm-wave long-range harvesting in ad-hoc and conformal-mounting implementations.
Table 1 Performance comparison.Rectenna system performance under bendingThis section displays the operation of the Rotman-lens-based system under different bending scenarios. This and previous work18,19 show that the lens is able to maintain an efficient electromagnetic energy distribution across the output ports under convex and concave flexing conditions. The lens-based rectenna was placed on cylinders with different curvatures, 70 cm away from the transmitter sending 25 dBm of power at 28.5 GHz, as shown on Fig. 7a. The voltage was collected using a load of 1 \(\hbox {k}\Omega\) for the planar and three bent conditions and plotted in Fig. 7b with respect to the source's angle of incidence. The graph shows an unprecedented consistency and stability in the system's scavenging and rectification abilities, knowing that several sub-systems are exposed to warping and the pressures of bending: the antenna sub-arrays, the Rotman lens and the rectifiers. Slight attenuation can be observed at the edges, but the system otherwise performs unimpeded by the bending. This remarkable property qualifies this system as a perfect candidate for use in wearables, smart phones and ubiquitous, conformal 5G energy harvesters for IoT nodes.
Figure 7(a) Picture of the flexible Rotman lens-based rectenna placed on a 1.5'" radius cylinder and (b) measured harvested powers versus incidence angles for different curvatures, (c) long-range harvesting testing setup.
Long-range harvestingAs described earlier, one of the main appeals of the proposed approach is its ability to use the high EIRPs allowed for 5G base-stations while guaranteeing an extended beam angular coverage, which is a necessary feature for ad-hoc ubiquitous harvesting implementations. In order to demonstrate the lens based-rectenna for longer-distance harvesting and detect that maximum range, a high-performance antenna system'--comprised of a 19 dBi conical horn antenna and a 300 mm-diameter PTFE dielectric lens (for high directivity) providing an additional 10 dB of gain'--was used as shown in Fig. 7c. With a transmitted power of 25 dBm (and an associated EIRP of approximately 54 dBm), corresponding to an incident power density of approximately '' 6 dBm cm''2, the lens-based rectenna displayed an extended range of 2.83 m under open load conditions, with an output voltage around 10 mV, thereby demonstrating (to our knowledge) the longest-ranging rectenna demonstration at mm-wave frequencies. With a transmitter emitting the allowable 75 dBm EIRP, the theoretical maximum reading range of this rectenna could extend to 16 m. In addition, the use of advanced diodes'--designed for applications within the 5G bands and enabling rectifiers' sensitivities similar to that common at lower (UHF) frequencies'--are showing a potential path towards achieving a turn-on sensitivity of the rectifiers as low as '' 30 dBm21,22. If this were practically applied to the Rotman lens system presented in this work, the harvesting range could be extended beyond 180 m (where the received power density for a transmitted power of 75 dBm is \({7.8}\,\upmu \hbox {W cm}^{-2}\) ), which is only slightly smaller than the recommended cell size of 5G networks23. This observation enables the striking idea that future 5G networks could be used not only for tremendously-rapid communications, but also as a ubiquitous wireless power grid for IoT devices.
ConclusionThrough the use of the Rotman lens, this paper demonstrates that the usual paradigm constrained by the (often considered fundamental) trade-off between the angular coverage and the turn-on sensitivity of a wireless harvesting system can be broken. Using the reported architecture, one can design and fabricate flexible mm-wave harvesters that can cover wide areas of space while being electrically large and benefit from the associated improvements in link budget (from source to harvester) and, more importantly, turn-on sensitivity. The approach has been shown, however, to only be scalable up to the degree where the additional incremental losses introduced by the growing lens counterbalance the increase in the aperture of the rectenna. Nevertheless, this inflection point only appears (in the particular context considered in this paper) after the arraying of 16 elements, or up to a scale of \(8\lambda\) . In the 5G Frequency Range 2 (FR2), this translates to harvesters of 4.5 cm to 9.6 cm in size, which are perfectly suited for wearable and ubiquitous IoT implementations. With the advent of 5G networks and their associated high allowed EIRPs and the availability of diodes with high turn-on sensitivities at 5G frequencies, several \({\upmu \hbox {W}}\) of DC power (around 6 \({\upmu \hbox {W}}\) with 75 dBm EIRP) can be harvested at 180 m. Such properties may trigger the emergence of 5G-powered nodes for the IoT and, combined with the long-range capabilities of mm-wave ultra-low-power backscatterers24, of long-range passive mm-wave RFIDs.
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AcknowledgementsThis work was supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory and the NSF-EFRI. The work was performed in part at the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS-1542174).
Author informationAffiliationsSchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
Aline Eid, Jimmy G. D. Hester & Manos M. Tentzeris
Atheraxon, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA
Jimmy G. D. Hester
ContributionsA.E. and J.H. conceived the idea, designed, and simulated the antenna arrays, rectifiers, Rotman lens, DC combiners and full rectennas. They also performed the measurements, interpreted results and wrote the paper. M.T. supervised the research and contributed to the general concept and interpretation of the results. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
Corresponding authorCorrespondence to Aline Eid.
Ethics declarations Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.
Additional informationPublisher's noteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
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Children's TV shows featuring naked adults heat and annoy politicians
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:06
Still images from the program before participants undress
A children's television show that promotes physical positiveness, in which naked adults answer children's questions, was controversial before it aired, and politicians joined the fight.
The program is based in Denmark Ultra Smy Dirt Jet (Ultra Strip Down) This is currently the second season.
Show called Gewoon Bloot In the Netherlands (simply naked), it consists of a number of adults of all shapes and sizes answering questions from children aged 10-12 on themes such as embarrassing, shaving and waxing certain body parts. It has been.
Social media has responded from ''disgusting'' to ''educational,'' and politicians are also speaking out.
Denk MP Tunahan Kuzu said the program was ''ridiculous'' and far-right FvD leader Thierry Baudet was ''approaching the promotion of pedophilia'' and urged followers to email broadcasters NPOs. did.
''Gewoon Bloot is not normal and should not be normal,'' said Kees van der Staaij, leader of the fundamentalist Protestant SGP, and announced that his party would raise the issue in parliament.
Even in Denmark, the far right has blamed the series with Peter Scarlap, a key member of the right-wing Danish People's Party. Ultra strip down ''Stolen our children''. However, the series was successful and won the Best Children's Program Award at the Danish Television Festival in 2019.
Children
The reaction of the Dutch kids who previewed the show was from ''This is not a show I need to see'' to ''It's good to know that others are worried about the same thing.'' It varied from ''I felt a little uncomfortable at first''.
According to presenter Edson da Glasa, a more realistic view of the body promotes a more positive self-image. ''The purpose is to teach children that not all bodies are different and not all are perfect,'' he told broadcaster NOS.
Elsbeth Reitzema of the Rutgers Sexual Health Foundation, who helped develop the series, distorted the reality of Photoshop and semi-porn images that children watch daily on TV and the Internet, and this program is a good way for parents to break their subject. Children who said there could be.
NTR, the public television station that broadcasts the show, said the show was ''very carefully produced.''
''The kids knew exactly what would happen and could always say how they felt during the program. (..) We expected a bit of a fuss. Nobody. But I don't think this is for kids, it's okay. It's up to the parents to decide if the kids can see it, ''said the spokesman.
The first Dutch sex education television show featuring nudity Open Embrute, Broadcast in 1974. Doctor Collie, 2013 and 2015 also led to congressional questions.
First episode of Gewoon Bloot It will be broadcast by NTR on March 21st.
Thank you for donating to DutchNews.nlThe DutchNews.nl team would like to thank all the generous readers for their donations over the last few weeks. Your financial support has helped extend the scope of the coronavirus crisis in the evenings and weekends and keep you up to date with the latest developments.
DutchNews.nl Was free for 14 years, but without the financial support of our readers, we cannot provide fair and accurate news and features about everything in the Netherlands. Your contribution makes this possible.
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Source link Children's TV shows featuring naked adults heat and annoy politicians
Amazon set up Twitter army named 'Veritas' to defend Jeff Bezos's reputation | Daily Mail Online
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 12:00
Amazon recruited an army of Twitter trolls and code-named it 'Veritas' to target critics like Bernie Sanders and defend Jeff BezosThe 'army' is made of ambassadors who go online to defend the company It began in 2018 but has become particularly relevant in the midst of of 6,000 Amazon workers in Alabama who were voting on whether to form a union The ambassadors defend warehouse conditions and troll Amazon's critics Training documents reveal they are told to speak out in a 'blunt' way if necessary By Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com
Published: 09:28 EDT, 31 March 2021 | Updated: 10:19 EDT, 31 March 2021
Amazon recruited a Twitter army that was code-named 'Veritas' whose members were picked for their 'sense of humor' - and their task was to defend Jeff Bezos' reputation online.
The army was recruited in 2018 but reared its head again this week as workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Alabama voted on whether to form a union amid complaints about working conditions.
On Twitter, the army has defended worker conditions and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and has even gone after the company's biggest critics like Bernie Sanders, the liberal senator from Vermont.
They were told specifically to confront people on Twitter in a 'blunt' manner, according to an internal document about their training that was obtained by The Intercept.
The document was marked 'Amazon.com confidential' and titled ' Global social CS Program Management.'
Scroll down for video
A confidential training memo details Amazon's 'fulfillment center ambassador' program that was code-named Veritas. It shows examples of the Twitter accounts the ambassador's use to defend the company online
The ambassadors have handles that begin AmazonFC and follow with their names. They go online to share what they say are good experiences from their time at work
Another Amazon FC account where this week, the worker defended how long they take for lunch
It read: 'To address speculation and false assertions in social media and online forums about the quality of the FC [Fulfillment Center] associate experience, we are creating a new social team staffed with active, tenured FC employees, who will be empowered to respond in a polite'--but blunt'--way to every untruth,'' the project description reads. ''FC Ambassadors ('FCA') will respond to all posts and comments from customers, influencers (including policymakers), and media questioning the FC associate experience.'
'The goal of today's meeting is to get aligned on the launch plan for the FC Ambassadors program. FC (fulfillment center) Ambassador Program Tenets (Unless you know better ones...)
'1. Tell your truth: We encourage our associates to share experiences about their time with Amazon. We will we [sic] not offer misleading or untrue messages in order to "spin" what may be an uncomfortable situation for the company.
'2. Preserve Customer Trust: Our number one priority is continuing to earn the trust of our customers by educating them on what it's actually like inside Amazon FCs.
Amazon's corporate communications department hit back at Rep Mark Pocan last week after he criticized the company
The ambassadors also defend Amazon founder Jeff Bezos online
'3. Respect: We vigilantly refute untruths about the working experience at Amazon.
'We may be direct, even blunt, but we will always be respectful, even to our worst critics.'
The Veritas 'ambassadors' and the Amazon PR account have trolled critics like Bernie Sanders online.
In one reply, the Amazon PR account wrote: 'I often say we are the Bernie Sanders of employers, but that's not quite right because we actually deliver a progressive workplace.'
Sanders was also singled out in the document in role play scenarios where an ambassador replied to a comment he'd made about Bezos' exorbitant wealth: 'Everyone should be able to enjoy the money they've earned/saved. It's theirs. They should be able to do with it as they please. That includes Jeff Bezos.'
Details of the 'ambassador' program emerged this week amid growing outcry over the conditions Amazon workers say they face.
Some delivery drivers claim they have been forced to urinate or defecate in bags and bottles to avoid taking breaks because, they say, they are under such intense pressure to make deliveries on time.
Among those who has spoken out against the company is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who said workers should be able to form a union.
Nearly 6,000 Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer are deciding whether they want to form a union - the biggest labor push in the online shopping giant's history.
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Instagram Bans Searches for COVID-19 AR Effects, Adds New Information Prompts in Home Feeds | Social Media Today
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 11:23
After adding new information prompts and links to official resources in related search queries last week, Instagram is now expanding on its COVID-19 response tools, with additional information panels in the main feed and a ban on searches for coronavirus related AR masks.
As per Instagram:
" To help people get relevant and up-to-date resources, we will start showing more information from WHO and local health ministries at the top of Instagram's Feed in some countries."
This is a more extreme informational measure from Instagram. For incidents in the past, Instagram has only added relevant links and prompts within related search queries, but now, reflecting the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, it's looking to make these alerts more prominent, by bringing them up to the top of the main feed.
Given the reach that Instagram has, this could be a hugely beneficial update - even if only a small percentage of users actually end up tapping through, it could contribute significantly to ensuring timely, accurate information on the crisis is being disseminated within communities. Not everyone has to check it, but those that do can share what they learn with others - and given the need for proactive, aggressive measures to stop the spread of the virus, this could prove very important.
In addition to this, Instagram has announced a ban on searches for AR effects related to the pandemic:
" We will no longer allow people to search for COVID-19 related AR effects on Instagram, unless they were developed in partnership with a recognized health organization. This is part of our ongoing effort to better connect people with credible health information."
This comes after concerns were raised with the flood of coronavirus filters on Insta, which many have reported as insensitive given the rising death toll resulting from the outbreak.
Some of these filters are also considered to be spreading misinformation about the virus, and raising anxiety. As such, Instagram's move to make them harder to find makes sense.
And finally, Instagram is also adding a new sticker to t hank health workers who have been working tirelessly to keep their communities safe.
I'm not sure how effective Instagram's stickers are, in terms of advocacy and support, but Instagram does seem to be keen on rolling them out as a means to contribute to the broader conversation.
As the COVID-19 outbreak rolls on, we'll no doubt continue to see more updates like this, as social networks seek to establish better ways to connect users with relevant info and keep people informed.
And with more and more workers being told to stay home, social networks will indeed become a more critical information and interaction lifeline.
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Goodbye empty middle seats. Delta is selling the whole plane starting May 1 - CNN
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 11:14
New York (CNN Business)The empty middle seat on airplanes, one of the few advantages of pandemic, is about to disappear.
Delta Air Lines ( DAL ), the last remaining US airline to keep middle seats unbooked, has lifted that prohibition as of May 1, the company announced Wednesday. It is another sign of a
rebound in demand for air travel and greater willingness of people to resume pre-pandemic activities.
"As vaccinations become more widespread, consumer demand and behaviors show us that confidence in travel is on the rise and customers are ready to reclaim their lives," said Delta's statement Wednesday.
Airlines have insisted that even with the planes fully booked, measures they have taken during the pandemic have greatly reduced the
threat of Covid-19 being spread among passengers. Those provisions include frequent exchange of fresh air in the cabin, enhanced cleaning measures and a requirement that passengers wear masks.
Expanded
vaccine availability factored into Delta's decision. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the company's research shows that 64% of its pre-pandemic passenger base anticipate having at least dose of the vaccine by May 1.
"Don't confuse these actions with a return to 'normal,'" said Bastian in a memo to employees Wednesday. "We're still operating in a pandemic, and many of the changes we've made over the past year, such as strengthening our cleanliness protocols and eliminating change fees, will be permanent. Importantly, masks remain critical to our ability to safely welcome more people onboard our planes, and we remain committed to enforcing these requirements."
Delta also announced Wednesday that the credits customers received for canceling flights last year, which were to expire after 12 months, have been extended through the end of 2022. The same is true of any tickets purchased in 2021 that were later canceled.
In the early days of the pandemic, when demand for flights
ground to a near halt, all the airlines were keeping the middle seats open as a way to promote social distancing and increase customer confidence in flying. But most of the other airlines
started filling the seats last summer.
Delta's move regarding middle seats is not a surprise given that the airline previously said it would keep the prohibition in place only through April 30. People booking flights on May 1 and later have already seen the middle seat available for seat selection on the Delta website.
The airline has not broken down the cost of keeping the seat open longer than other airlines.
"It's expensive. No question about it," Bastian told CNN's Poppy Harlow in February. But the cost of keeping the middle seat open is partly offset by higher fares that Delta has been able to charge, he added.
The amount that Delta passengers paid on average for every mile traveled in the final three months of 2020 fell only 3% from the pre-pandemic period a year earlier. That's significantly better than that of the other three major US airlines --
American Airlines
( AAL ),
United
( UAL ) and
Southwest
( LUV ) -- whose fares declined between 15% and 19%.
"People are prioritizing, as they should, their health and safety and comfort as they travel," Bastian told CNN in February. "And we're getting a meaningful premium for travel on Delta."
How to earn Bitcoin from your podcast
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 10:55
April 1, 2021 · By James Cridland · 3.7 minutes to read
This is work in progress. Feedback welcome.
There are new, emerging podcast apps out there that can be configured, by a listener, to send you Bitcoin as they listen.
This is very early days, and it isn't anywhere near as simple as you'd expect it to be: so we've written this guide to help you earn cryptocurrency from any podcast.
Enabling your podcastBefore we beginThis guide is going to assume that you are hosting with a podcast host (and not hosting yourself), so you're unable to edit the raw RSS feed.
You'll be paid in a thing called satoshis, normally shortened to ''sats''. One sat is a 100 millionth of a Bitcoin.
One Bitcoin is worth, at the time of writing this guide, about US $60,000.
You can transfer Bitcoins to your own local currency whenever you want (if you want): your local currency is called fiat money, in case you see that word somewhere.
1. Make sure your podcast is in the Podcast IndexYou can search for your podcast at the Podcast Index to see; but easiest is to search for your podcast in Podnews, and then open the podcast page). If you're there, you'll have a 'Podcast Index' icon; if not, we'll automatically add you.
2. Get your podcast's RSS feed URL.Our podcast page lists that, with a big RSS icon.
3. Register with PodcasterWallet.The Podcaster Wallet website allows you to add your payment details, so Podcast Index apps can see it.
When you register, you need to use the email address in your RSS feed, and your main RSS feed URL.
If you use Anchor, they don't put your email address in your RSS feed. Here's how to fix that.
4. Enter a custom node for your podcast in PodcasterWallet.A 'node' is the crypto equivalent of your bank account details. We're going to use one on a service called Satoshis.Stream, which starts 03c457fafbc8b'... - you'll find it on the Satoshis.Stream website.
You can run your own node. Satoshis.Stream takes that hassle away; but you'll be charged a total of 4% in fees.
5. Download Telegram MessengerSatoshis.Stream uses a chat program called Telegram to work. It's a fully-featured and private messager which some of your friends are already using. It's free, for whatever system you use: download it from their website.
6. Start to register your podcast with Satoshis.StreamYou do this in Telegram. Start a conversation with @StreamingSatsBot, and type'...
/claim https://your.rss/feed
7. Add a code in one of your recent shownotesSatoshis.Stream needs to know you control your RSS feed. It'll give you a short claim code to put into a recent podcast's shownotes. Put it in, wait a little bit, and try the /claim command again.
They also have a support group, again on Telegram, to help you if you've any queries.
8. You're done.Listeners enjoying your show on value-for-value enabled podcast apps now have the ability to give you cryptocurrency every time they listen; and to 'boost' (tip) you extra cryptocurrency.
The Satoshis.Stream bot will tell you, every day, how many sats you've earnt. (Don't panic, you can turn that off if you want to).
Listening to a podcastThere are a few podcast apps that support value-for-value listening. At the time of writing, they were Breez, Sphinx Chat and the Podstation extension.
Getting hold of your moneyYou're being paid crypto on something called the Lightning Network. This is a super-quick crypto network, but in order to turn it into your local currency (''fiat money'') you need to do a little work.
Lightning Network to BitcoinFirst, you need to get your money from the Lightning Network and send it to a regular Bitcoin wallet.
Download The Wallet of Satoshi, a simple app for your mobile phone which lets you receive Lightning payments, and send them to a full Bitcoin account.
Request paymentThe way you get paid on The Lightning Network is to make an 'invoice', which is just what you'd expect it is.
Go to the SatoshiStreams bot on Telegram, type /withdraw, and it'll tell you how many sat you have.
In The Wallet of Satoshi, hit the 'receive' button, add the amount you'd like to request in sat, and then tap the QR code to copy the long random bit of text it gives you. That's the invoice.
Paste that long random bit of text into the SatoshiStreams bot. You should notice your cryptocurrency goes instantly to The Wallet Of Satoshi.
If you copy a BitCoin address - from something like Uphold - into The Wallet of Satoshi, you can then transfer over to there (and from there, change into your local currency).
Note, though, that it costs 26,000 sat (currently US$20) to do that transfer. Yikes.
The latest...
Canadian government erecting a network of covid detainment camps and ''isolation'' sites to incarcerate those who don't cooperate with medical tyranny
Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:54
Justin Trudeau and the Canadian government are creating Nazi Germany-like infrastructure to detain human beings en masse, and for years to come. A brave Ontario politician named Randy Hillier spoke out about the government's nefarious detainment plan in a provincial question period in front of the government of Ontario. His microphone was cut off as soon as he started asking the tough questions.
The Canadian government is erecting a network of detainment camps and isolation sites to be used from coast to coast. These ''Federal Quarantine/Isolation sites'' are being built across the provinces and will be used to strip Canadians of their human rights and lock healthy people up using false imprisonment schemes. These sites could be used for forced medical testing and forced medical experimentation with covid-19 vaccines. If Canadians can be held down against their will over the fear that they may spread viruses, then these facilities could be used indefinitely and for whatever reason is deemed necessary to maintain an illusion of safety for the ''greater good.''
Brave rep stands up and questions Canadian government's nefarious plansRandy Hillier, Independent Ontario MPP for Lanark, Frontenac and Kingston, stood up and questioned the government, asking how many people will be detained and how many concentration camps are scheduled for construction. He expressed concern about their current use '-- to control the spread of covid-19 '-- and pointed out in documentation that these sites could be used for ''other requirements'' in the future.
''So your government must be in negotiations and aware of these plans to potentially detain and isolate citizens and residents of our country and our province,'' Hillier began. ''So speaker, to the Premier, where will these camps be built, how many people will be detained, and for what reason, for what reasons can people be kept in these isolation camps, and I'd like to have the Premier assure the people of Ontario'...,'' Hillier's microphone was cut off before he could finish.
Hillier reports that the government has dodged his questions since July. ''The expansion of isolation/quarantine camps in Canada is something of concern and the Ontario government must know about it, so why won't they tell the people of Ontario?'' he asked.
Canadian government prepping for resistance to new detainment sitesAccording to a request for information, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is currently managing eleven quarantine isolation sites across Canada, which includes sites in Calgary, Vancouver, Kelowna, Winnipeg, Regina, Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Fredericton, St. John's (Newfoundland), and Whitehorse. Each site can be used to detain up to 1,600 travelers for up to fourteen days at a time. The sites can be ''temporarily discontinued until needed again by the Government of Canada.'' The facilities may be used for ''other requirements'' for the next two years, as deemed necessary to safeguard the public health.
The detainment plan doesn't end there. In addition, the Canadian government lists each territory and province as a potential region for delivery of new ''Federal Quarantine/Isolation sites.'' PHAC listed the following territories and provinces as areas of concern that will host the new quarantine camps: Saskatoon, Windsor, Niagara, Ottawa, Winnipeg/Thunder Bay, Quebec City, Charlottetown, Iqaluit, and Yellowknife. The Canadian government is also looking for third party service providers to develop a strategy to manage the sites going forward. Government contracts are being set in motion to supply the sites with goods and services.
The government is preparing for resistance, too. One of the supply contracts includes a 36,000-canister order of tear gas, which is set to be delivered in the Spring of 2021 to the Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot in Dundurn, Saskatchewan. This is the general time frame when covid-19 vaccines become more widely available to the public. The World Health Organization has already primed the public to accept the detainment camps as ''a public health measure'' and has previously broadcast that ''vaccine hesitancy'' is a global public health threat.
Speak up, be brave and stay free. Keep up with the latest challenges to liberty at Freedom.news.
Sources include:
Lifesitenews.com
NaturalNews.com
Brighteon.com
YouTube Issues Hard Strike, Demonetizes, Bans Steven Crowder - Louder With Crowder
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:51
This is one battle cry we've issued for years. Big Tech put a target on our backs long ago, and it wasn't just for show. On Monday, YouTube issued a hard strike on our main channel saying our Nevada voter fraud video titled "HUGE: Nevada Voter Mysteries Deepen!" which YouTube has since removed, violated their spam, deceptive practices and scams policy. Then in a separate email, they informed us that "During a recent review, our team of policy specialists carefully looked over the videos you've uploaded to your channel StevenCrowder. We found that a significant portion of your channel is not in line with our monetization policies."
Yes, they demonetized our channel. Well, channels, plural. Even CrowderBits got hit with demonetization. They informed us of that in a third email to our counsel, Bill Richmond. It was in this third email they informed us that during the next week, we would not be able to upload content or post to our main YouTube channel.
Oh, and Twitter has suspended the @scrowder account without giving a reason, for the fourth time in a bout a month. It almost feels coordinated. See also Twitter Suspends Steven Crowder's Account AGAIN and YouTube AGE-RESTRICTED Crowder?! War Against Big Tech Heats Up.
In an email to Bill Richmond, YouTube also cited advertiser pressure:
"Unfortunately, in recent months the Steven Crowder channel has incurred two violations identified to date of our Community Guidelines and repeated violations of our monetization policies, including those related to misinformation and incendiary and demeaning content. We have also recently received renewed advertiser criticism about content on the Steven Crowder channel. We have a responsibility to ensure that our community is safe for creators, viewers, and advertisers."What are we doing next? We're still posting content to BlazeTV. For years we've talked about the reality of Big Tech's powers. Well here is evidence of it. We were not blowing smoke. It wasn't a ploy to sell mugs. The threat was always real and here it is, attacking us. If you're not a Mug Club subscriber, then you're watching us on YouTube. Which you cannot do for the next week, and it's hard to know how much longer after that. Get on the right side of this battle and subscribe.
We'll also continue uploading podcasts for as long as we're able. Understand that it is through Mug Club where we can say what we want without fear or cancelation. If you want to send a message to Big Tech, if you want to support free speech, Mug Club is the answer. We've heralded this cry for years.
No, we're not done facing off against YouTube. But let's be honest, they've been gunning for conservatives for a long time. They're Goliath with billions of dollars. We're not the first creator they've aimed to take out, nor will we be the last. Make no mistake, the real enemy they're hoping to destroy is you. You're not allowed to hear views that fall outside the permitted leftist dogma. You're not allowed to laugh at non-PC jokes. You're not allowed to hear alternative points about the election, COVID, or how many genders there really are. Steven Crowder may be the one locked in their sights. But you're the real target.
We can't fight this one alone. Will you stand with us? Or will you carry on with what's comfortable and easy?
Sign up for our newsletter. Follow Steven on Instagram.
Protest Away! US Olympic Athletes Given Free Reign To Shame Country | Newsbusters
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:35
The U.S. Olympic governing body is caving in to social justice pressure and aiming to allow all kinds of protests at the this year's Olympic Trials. Kneeling during the national anthem? Social justice slogans? It will be open season for all that and more.
Today's news represents a significant departure from the past. Radical protests have historically been met with harsh discipline by the U.S. and International Olympic committees. Fencer Race Imboden (seen in above photo) knelt on the victory podium at the most recent Pan American Games and was disciplined for violating U.S prohibitions on protest.
Henry Bushnell wrote on Yahoo Sports blog that any demonstration aimed at the following will be allowed: ''(1) advancing racial and social justice; or (2) promoting the human dignity of individuals or groups that have historically been underrepresented, minoritized, or marginalized in their respective societal context."
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) had previously punished athletes who shamed America at past international competitions. However, Team USA will now demonstrate to the world its excellence in basketball, track and field, a host of other sports '... and potentially disgraceful behavior. USOPC cleared the way for athletes to politicize sports, in a nine-page document.
Here's an overview of what will be allowed by the committee:
''Wearing a hat or face mask with phrases such as 'Black Lives Matter' or 'Trans Lives Matter' or words such 'equality' or 'justice.' ""Holding up one's fist at the start line or on the podium.""Kneeling on the podium or at the start line during the national anthem."Welcome to the social justice club, USOPC!
The committee will not allow certain "impermissible" actions that "advocates specifically against other people" or "physically impedes" competition or a medal ceremony. It lists "Impermissible Elements'', including ''slurs, discriminatory remarks or gestures that denigrate, ridicule or mock a person or persons based upon their race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, economic status, nationality, or country of origin."
To ensure it's keeping up with the virtue signaling times, the USOPC recently created the Team USA Council on Racial and Social Justice. In December, the council pressured the USOPC to urge the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to end its prohibition on protests at the Olympic Games. The IOC can still elect to punish athletes who engage in protests.
Most U.S. Olympic Trials will take place over the next three months, with several stipulations in place. The U.S. committee will not allow hate speech or hate symbols, expressions of hate or discrimination against minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals or people with disabilities. It won't tolerate white supremacist hand gestures, the blocking of running lanes, violent behavior or displaying the Confederate flag. As if any of these actions were ever serious issues at previous Olympic Trials. (''Insurrections'' are not on the list of forbidden activities yet.)
The Tokyo Olympics begin July 23, and Bushnell reports that America's newfound acceptance of boorish behavior may not get past the IOC. He says the IOC is under growing pressure from athletes and SJWs, and it's undergoing a formal review of the rule against protests. Unnamed sources are skeptical the review will lead to any significant changes. So hopefully, American SJWs will not get the opportunity to embarrass their country on the international stage.
Cleveland Indians not allowing headdresses, painted faces at games
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 22:34
1:23 PM ET Associated Press
CLEVELAND -- While moving forward with a plan to change their name, the Indians said they will not permit fans inside Progressive Field wearing Native American headdresses or face paint.
The team announced the fan dress policy for the 2021 season Wednesday in advance of Monday's home opener against the Detroit Tigers.
The new policy states fans can be ejected or denied entrance for disorderly, unruly or disruptive conduct that includes "headdresses and face paint styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions. Inappropriate or offensive images, words, dress or face paint must be covered or removed, and failure to do so may constitute grounds for ejection or refusal of admission."
The Kansas City Chiefs announced a similar ban of headdresses at Arrowhead Stadium last year.
Cleveland fans will still be allowed to wear caps and clothing featuring Chief Wahoo, the team's contentious mascot. The team removed the smiling, red-faced Wahoo caricature from its game jerseys and caps two years ago but still sells merchandise with its image.
The team said earlier this year that it is changing its name for the first time since 1915, joining a nationwide movement to ban racist symbols and slogans. The name change will not take effect until the 2022 season at the earliest.
In December, owner Paul Dolan told The Associated Press that the team's new name "will not be a name that has Native American themes or connotations to it."
Cleveland's move to change its name followed a similar decision by the NFL's Washington Football Team.
'RUSSIAN HOOKERS' - Tweets From Lincoln Project Co-Founder Rick Wilson Raise Questions About Apartment Shared with Prostitutes, Pal Running For Virginia Governor
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 20:25
Rick Wilson, Pete Snyder
SURPRISE! Never Trumper and Russia Hoaxer Rick Wilson Lived With Virginia Governor Candidate Pete Snyder Down the Hall from ''Russian Hookers''
Lincoln Project co-founder, Never Trumper, and pedophile protector Rick Wilson spent years hyping the Russia Hoax nonsense against President Trump, including the now-debunked smear that he spent the night with Russian prostitutes in Moscow.
As it turns out, Wilson is the one familiar with Russian hookers '' he's admitted so himself.
In recently unearthed tweets Wilson directed at his longtime pal Pete Snyder '' the former RNC chair of Mitt Romney's campaign in Virginia who is currently running for governor of that state '' Wilson mentions an apartment he shared with Snyder and ''Russian hookers.''
TRENDING: VIDEO: Matt Gaetz DEMANDS FBI, DOJ to Release Recording of former DOJ Official Threatening His Family with Extortion - Alleged Former DOJ Official Implicated and Named!
Like his friend and former roommate Rick Wilson, Snyder has viciously criticized Donald Trump, once calling him a ''racist jerk.'' Snyder has also praised Joe Biden, said he disagrees with Trump, and said he thinks Romney would have made a great president.
The chairman of Trump's 2016 campaign in Virginia, Corey Stewart, recently called on Snyder to ''explain his relationship with Rick Wilson, the founder of the Lincoln Project'--and the prostitutes Wilson said they lived with.''
Interestingly, Politico reported that Snyder's home study was decorated ''with artwork from Moscow and St. Petersburg'' and he ''studied Russian for four years at William and Mary.''
Wilson has twice tweeted about Snyder and the Russian hookers, once in 2011 and once in 2013.
Curiously, Snyder appears to have deleted his tweet that Wilson replied to:
Never Trump Rick Wilson and Pete Snyder have been best friends for years, it has been revealed, and the two often traded tweets about their old apartment:
Here's Snyder and Wilson together in New York in 1997:
Snyder and Wilson are so close that they have been known to share sexually loaded jokes on Twitter:
Even in 2019, after Wilson had spent years saying the most vile things about President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, Snyder was still exchanging chummy tweets with Wilson.
So what exactly happened with those Russian hookers that Rick Wilson and Pete Snyder lived with?
Neither of them are saying.
Government withdraws plan for restrictions on movement after Constitutional Committee rejection | Yle Uutiset | yle.fi
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 19:43
The Constitutional Law Committee is chaired by former PM Antti Rinne (SDP). Image: Jussi Nukari / LehtikuvaThe Parliamentary Constitutional Law Committee has delivered a major setback to the government's plans for a partial lockdown of areas with high coronavirus infection levels.
On Wednesday, the committee, which must approve all bills, ruled that the restrictions on movement proposed by the government are unconstitutional.
Following the ruling, Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) said that the government would withdraw the bill. In a tweet, she said that a special cabinet meeting would be held on Wednesday evening to formally rescind the legislation.
Marin also said on Twitter that the pandemic situation remained serious and that close contacts should be avoided. She advised "spending Easter only with the people closest to you and avoiding unnecessary travel", adding that "we still have to work together to make summer brighter for all of us".
Rinne: "Completely disproportional"According to the committee, restrictions on movement must be targeted precisely at the presumed sources of infection, i.e. private events and parties, moving around in groups and shopping.
The committee pointed out that the prohibitions in the government's bill are subject to interpretation. Therefore, in practice, it would be impossible to predict what is forbidden or permissible.
"The basic solution of the government's proposal to ban movement in principle is completely disproportional and cannot be considered necessary within the meaning of the Constitution," said committee chair Antti Rinne (SDP), who was Marin's predecessor as prime minister and party leader.
"The problem is highlighted by the possibility of interpretation in prohibitions, regulations and their exceptions. It is virtually impossible for people to predict what is forbidden and permissible '' and thus what is punishable," he said.
''Prohibitions and restrictions must be directed precisely at the sources of infection: private gatherings and events, staying and moving around in groups and visiting shops and services '' restrictions specifically related to these, rather than prohibitions,'' said Rinne.
Purra: Bill must be entirely restructuredThe Administration Committee also considered the bill on Wednesday and is to give its verdict on the legislation on Thursday.
The committee's chair, Riikka Purra of the opposition Finns Party, said she believes that the changes demanded by the Constitutional Committee are so extensive that a supplementary proposal will not be enough to correct them, but that instead the government will have to completely restructure the proposal.
"As the Constitutional Law Committee said, the whole basic approach to restrictions on movement is problematic," Purra told Yle.
Deadly 'bunny Ebola' killing thousands of rabbits across US
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 19:27
July 1, 2020 | 12:15pm | Updated July 1, 2020 | 1:47pm
Enlarge Image The disease has spread from domestic to wild rabbits. Beth Simmons Photography
Little bunny flu-flu.
As if the world wasn't plague-stricken enough, a deadly new virus that's more contagious than the coronavirus is sweeping across the US, killing thousands of both domestic and wild rabbits in the Southwest.
''We refer to it as 'bunny Ebola,'''' Texas veterinarian Dr. Amanda Jones tells the Cut of the leporine affliction, whose official name is rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV2). And while the disease is not related to Ebola '-- an ailment marked by hemorrhaging '-- it does cause lesions in rabbits' organs and tissues, which results in internal bleeding and death. Even more peculiar, many of the affected creatures' noses started bleeding post-mortem.
''We still have no idea where it originated,'' Ralph Zimmerman, New Mexico state veterinarian, tells the Cut. However, since April, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has confirmed RHDV2 cases in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Texas and New Mexico. Nearly 500 bunnies in New Mexico were infected between March and June alone.
RHDV2 '-- which spreads through blood, feces and urine '-- is more contagious and deadlier than the coronavirus, with a 90% mortality rate recorded in the current outbreak, reports the Cut. Zimmerman recounts one instance where someone lost 200 rabbits to the disease in one weekend.
In a similar incident in New York City, the rabbit-ravaging virus culled more than a dozen bunnies at Manhattan's Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine.
''We tried to do CPR, but these rabbits were dead within minutes,'' says veterinarian Lorelei D'Avolio of bunny Ebola's horrific effects. ''They would convulse, scream horribly and die.''
And while the RHDV2 doesn't infect people, cats or dogs, it does cling to articles of clothing and fur. So a person or a pet can easily bring it home and help facilitate the spread of the virus. Not only that, but the hardy disease can live on surfaces for 3½ months at room temperature and can survive freezing, as well as temperatures up to 122 degrees for at least an hour.
The current iteration of RHDV2 only hit the US recently, cropping up among pet rabbits in Ohio in 2018, before later surfacing in Washington state in the summer of 2019 and New York City just this past February. Worldwide, versions of the virus have been observed in France, Australia and Canada with the first known case being reported in China in 1984.
However, the current epidemic is particularly alarming because this is the first time the virus has jumped from domesticated animals to wild rabbits, pikas and hares. ''To hear it's burning through the wild rabbit populations, that, of course, furthers our concerns that much more,'' Eric Stewart, executive director of the American Rabbit Breeders Association, tells VIN News.
Currently, there is no locally available cure for the disease. The USDA is developing a vaccine; however, it likely won't be ready before the end of the year. In the interim, veterinarians are forced to rely on unlicensed European imports that can take over a month to arrive, reports Business Insider.
''This is a new problem that's here to stay,'' says Jones.
Giant queues form outside NHS vaccine clinic for walk-in jabs | Daily Mail Online
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 19:26
Huge queues formed outside an NHS vaccination clinic after word got out about extra doses - with Londoners of all ages queuing up for the sought-after jab.
More than 2,000 people rushed to Walthamstow Library in north-east London after the council opened a walk-in jab clinic between 11am and 6.30pm today.
The council said first doses were being offered to those aged 50 and over, anyone over the age of 18 with a health condition, carers, health and social care workers and blue light staff - such as firefighters and police officers.
Walk-ins were urged to bring their NHS number and evidence of the category they are in with them.
But council staff told MailOnline that all ages were getting the vaccine regardless of their health status.
Under the Government's vaccine rollout plan, stage two - for those aged 18 to 49 - is not set to begin until April 15, with the youngest age group getting their jabs in the summer.
Massive queues were seen snaking along the grass outside the library today as Britons waited for the sought-after jab - with the demand massively outdoing the supply.
By 4.20pm, the NHS Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group - who managed the walk-in clinic - said appointments were back to pre-booked only.
Huge queues formed outside an NHS vaccination clinic in London (pictured) after word got out about extra doses for the over 50s
More than 2,000 people (some pictured) rushed to Walthamstow Library in north-east London after the council opened a walk-in jab clinic between 11am and 6.30pm today
Walk-ins (some pictured) were urged to bring their NHS number and evidence of the category they are in with them
But council staff told MailOnline that all ages were getting the vaccine regardless of their health status
The group yesterday sent out a Tweet telling those booked in for a vaccine on Wednesday that they can bring anyone over 18 living with them to get the jab at the same time - if they have their NHS number - due to 'extra Covid-19 vaccines'. But at 8am this morning, the group announced that anyone who falls into the required categories can walk in for their first dose of the jab
By 4.20pm, the NHS Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group - who managed the walk-in clinic - said appointments were back to pre-booked only
The group yesterday sent out a Tweet telling those booked in for a vaccine on Wednesday that they can bring anyone over 18 living with them to get the jab at the same time - if they have their NHS number - due to 'extra Covid-19 vaccines'.
But at 8am this morning, the group announced that anyone who falls into the required categories can walk in for their first dose of the jab.
The Tweet read: 'Extra Covid-19 Vax at Walthamstow Library.
'If you are 50+; 18+ with a health condition; a carer; a health & social care or blue light worker you can walk into the library on 31 March 2021, 11am- 6.30pm for a first vaccine.
Labour MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy urged people to take advantage of the walk-in centre (pictured), sharing the times and qualifying categories in a Tweet on her account too
'Bring NHS number and evidence of the category you are in.'
Labour MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy urged people to take advantage of the walk-in centre, sharing the times and qualifying categories in a Tweet on her account too.
But shortly after 4pm, the CCG said the walk-in service had stopped accepting new patients, adding: 'So proud of the local response to our call to get vaccinated - over 2000 so far.
'We do now have a large queue we need to manage safely.
'Unless you have an appointment please do not go for a vaccine. We will let you know when have another walk-in event.'
Londoners shared their excitement at the prospect of a walk-in jab centre on Twitter today.
Others were shocked that young people were able to jump the queue, ahead of older Britons.
Nick Reilly wrote: 'Walthamstow's queue for leftover vaccines is looking a lot like the Wednesday morning of Glastonbury. Jab me up, baby!'
Others were shocked that young people were able to jump the queue, ahead of their older counterparts
Someone else added: 'Well done Walthamstow residents of all ages for getting your jab.'
Charlotte Earney wrote: 'Waited for 3 hours in a long queue outside Walthamstow library and I'll probably have to make up the time at work but it was f****** worth it.'
Colleen Cheetham-Gerrard added: 'Long story short: I got my first Covid jab today, due to a supply snafu at a drop-in clinic in Walthamstow.
'I did query a bit "am I skipping the queue?" but the doses would have gone off otherwise.
Some people called for more London boroughs to offer walk-in vaccines - while others urged the eligible categories to be widened to include other key workers, such as teachers
'I imagined I'd get my covid jab wearing something fabulous in the summer, so i was a bit surprised to be wearing scratty jeans and trying to triage an afternoon of calls and emails during a three hour wait, so I'm a bit delayed in having a proper emotional response!
'It was a happy, patient line with a ice cream van possibly breaking sales records for a Wednesday in March.
'(Those in the normal eligibility categories got to skip the queue, obviously!)'
Some people called for more London boroughs to offer walk-in vaccines - while others urged the eligible categories to be widened to include other key workers, such as teachers.
Tucker Carlson: Matt Gaetz sexual allegation interview 'one of weirdest' he's done | TheHill
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 12:16
Tucker Carlson Tucker CarlsonFox News guest calls Tucker Carlson a 'conspiracy theorist' during fiery segment Tucker Carlson debuts his first major streaming show on Fox Nation What to know about Dominion's legal fight with Fox News MORE on Tuesday called his interview of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) one of the oddest in his career after inviting the congressman on his show to discuss an investigation the Florida lawmaker is facing for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old.
''If you just saw our Matt Gaetz Matthew (Matt) GaetzThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden seeks expanded government, tax hikes Gaetz denies allegations, claims he's victim of 'organized criminal extortion' Lieu: Gaetz should be suspended from Judiciary panel amid DOJ probe MORE interview, that was one of the weirdest interviews I have ever conducted,'' Carlson said to his viewers after the segment on his Fox News show ''Tucker Carlson Tonight.''
''That was one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted."pic.twitter.com/lo2BqvxHJT
'-- andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) March 31, 2021On Tuesday news broke that the Department of Justice was investigating whether Gaetz ''had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him,'' three sources briefed on the probe told The New York Times.
Gaetz, in an Axios story later that day, denied the allegations, but confirmed that he was under investigation.
Gaetz said that the accusations were part of an ''extortion effort against my family for $25 million ... in exchange for making this case go away.''
He repeated those allegations on Carlson's show.
''I know that there was a demand for money in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away along with his co-conspirators,'' Gaetz told Carlson.
''They even claimed to have specific connections inside the Biden White House,'' he added. ''Now, I don't know if that's true. They were promising that Joe Biden Joe BidenThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden seeks expanded government, tax hikes Five things to watch on Biden infrastructure plan GOP seeks new line of attack on Biden economic plans MORE would pardon me. Obviously, I don't need a pardon. I'm not seeking a pardon. I have not done anything improper or wrong.''
Matt Gaetz vows to Tucker Carlson he didn't "travel" with a 17-year-old, but his denial seems pretty specific and carefully worded pic.twitter.com/emGePJeVfV
'-- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021Gaetz suggested the extortion plot could be tied to attempts to damage him politically, pointing to the fact that after news of the investigation broke, Rep. Ted Lieu Ted W. LieuBoth parties look to recruit Asian American candidates as violence against group increases Gaetz denies allegations, claims he's victim of 'organized criminal extortion' Lieu: Gaetz should be suspended from Judiciary panel amid DOJ probe MORE (D-Calif.) asked for Gaetz to be suspended from the House Judiciary Committee.
''But what I am troubled by is the real motivation for all of this,'' Gaetz said to Carlson. ''You know, just tonight, Ted Lieu, a Democrat, was calling on me to be removed from the House Judiciary Committee. I believe we are in an era of our politics now, Tucker, where people are smeared to try to take them out of the conversation.''
It was clear, after the segment ended, that Carlson was nonplussed by the interview he had just conducted.
''That story just appeared in the news a couple of hours ago, and on the certainty that there is always more than you read in the newspaper, we immediately called Matt Gaetz and asked him to come on and tell us more, which, as you saw, he did,'' Carlson said about the interview. ''I don't think that clarified much, but it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story, and we will be following it. Don't quite understand it, but we will bring you more when we find out.''
Vaccine passports and digital vaccination records, explained - Vox
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 12:13
As Covid-19 vaccine eligibility opens up across the country, the United States is now confronting the question of what to do about vaccine passports. These could be digital certificates or scannable documents that can be used to verify a person's vaccination status so they can travel more freely or go to large events. Some think a coordinated, nationwide vaccine passport system could help us get back to a semblance of normal life and speed up economic recovery. But this seems unlikely.
On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that ''there will be no centralized universal federal vaccinations database, and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.'' Instead, the Biden administration has decided to leave it to the states and the private sector to figure this out, with the federal government setting some baseline guidance. As Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the White House's Covid-19 response, told CNBC earlier in March, ''The public will be more reluctant to get vaccinated if they feel like the government, the federal government is playing too much of a role in that.'' Meanwhile, at least one governor, Florida's Ron DeSantis, has pledged to ban businesses and venues in his state from using any vaccine passport system.
A growing number of companies, health care providers, and state governments are launching their own efforts. New York released the first state-backed vaccine passport, called the Excelsior Pass, just last week. This digital health certificate, which IBM built using blockchain technology, allows people in the state who have been vaccinated or recently tested negative for Covid-19 to download their health records onto a smartphone app that displays a QR code, which can be scanned by participating venues to verify their status. That New York has spent months developing the Excelsior Pass shows how some states didn't expect the federal government to take the lead on key aspects of the country's pandemic response.
Meanwhile, corporations including Walmart and the airport security company Clear are racing to build their own digital vaccinations databases. Some are already releasing vaccine passports, such as the CommonPass, an app from the World Economic Forum and the Commons Project that's being trialed by a number of airlines. Carbon Health, which partnered with the city of Los Angeles for its vaccination rollout, is offering a HIPAA-compliant vaccine passport of its own, which it named Health Pass.
The idea behind all of these initiatives is simple: By putting their health data on a device like a smartphone or in a printed-out QR code, people should be able to confirm their vaccination status and more safely resume activities such as going to concerts or even traveling to other countries.
Again, the federal government has no plans to build a national clearinghouse for vaccination or Covid-19 statuses. People vaccinated in the US currently receive printed paper cards from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that include their name, birth date, and patient number (if applicable), as well as the type of vaccine they received, when and where they received their doses, and the batch number their vaccine came from. While health care facilities keep their own vaccination records, the CDC cards aren't really set up to be double-checked or verified by venues or other institutions. Forgeries started popping up for sale online not long after vaccines became available in the US, too.
Vaccine passport systems are designed to provide a more private and secure way to check who's been vaccinated and make it easier for vaccinated individuals to provide proof of their status. The verification process generally works in two steps. First, a vaccination site, such as a pharmacy, provides a digital record or certificate with the details of someone's Covid-19 vaccination. That verified record goes into that person's account and would be accessible by an app or a website. The vaccinated person can then present either a scannable or physical copy of the code, allowing a venue or airline to securely verify their vaccination status without seeing their entire medical record. Different apps might work in different ways based on the public and private partnerships behind them, and again, so far there are no national standards to govern how any of this works.
So the slew of different initiatives has caused massive confusion. There are at least 17 vaccine passport efforts currently in development, according to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) document obtained by the Washington Post. The federal government has been racing to set national recommendations surrounding the privacy, security, and availability of these systems, all while not maintaining its own database of vaccination data. The White House has so far declined to share a timeline for when those guidelines will be complete.
Without federal guidance, the companies and organizations behind these efforts are developing their own standards for digital vaccination records and vaccine passport apps. At the same time, there are concerns about equity, particularly the potential for a digital vaccine passport system to exclude people who don't use smartphones or cannot get the vaccine, whether due to issues of access or health status. Public health experts have also warned that vaccine passports raise a wide range of legal, privacy, and ethical concerns '-- and that they could exacerbate inequality in other ways.
''Ideally, everything should have been coordinated at a national level,'' Bruce Y. Lee, a professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, told Recode. ''One of the concerns about the passport is that people will still move forward to try and do this, but then you might have all these different businesses or organizations trying to do things, and you can't really [make] heads or tails [of] how reliable they are.''
Without proper coordination, all of those problems could be much worse. The HHS document published by the Post warned in early March that the ''[vaccine credentials] landscape could become littered with a confusing array of incompatible, proprietary solutions of varying quality and trustworthiness.'' It went on to say that such a situation could impede the nation's pandemic response ''by undercutting health safety measures, slowing economic recovery, and undermining public trust and confidence.''
But despite the absence of federal guidance on the issuance of vaccine passports, all of the myriad state and private sector efforts are forging ahead, trying to figure things out on their own.
Vaccine passports, explainedWhen people talk about vaccine passports, they're generally referring to a two-part system: a digital record that a person got vaccinated, and an app that can access that record to confirm the person has met the requirements to visit a particular place or attend an event. For the system to function on a large scale, those designing vaccine passports need a way to access records from a wide variety of providers and form partnerships with venues willing to trust their apps.
Walmart announced in early March that it would offer digital vaccination records that could be used with vaccine passports. The company said its digital vaccination record was built to meet the standards set by the Vaccination Credential Initiative, a coalition of health records management and tech companies that is co-chaired by the Commons Project, maker of the CommonPass. Walmart will also allow people to access paper versions of their health records at their local pharmacies.
Walmart's digital vaccination record can be uploaded to one of three apps that function as vaccine passports. One is the Health Pass by Clear; the others are the CommonPass and CommonHealth apps, both of which are made by the Commons Project. Ultimately, proponents of these apps say they make it quick and easy for venues and airlines to verify someone's vaccination or Covid-19 status while also maintaining that person's privacy.
''The airline doesn't necessarily want to have your vaccination record,'' explains J.P. Pollak, a co-founder of the Commons Project. ''They would work with CommonPass to get a checkmark that, 'Yes, in fact, J.P. has been vaccinated by a trusted source,' without having to convey all of that sort of underlying health information to them.''
Pollak said his organization hopes to do a full rollout of the CommonPass system in May, when vaccines are expected to be widely available to the general public in the US. He added that the Vaccine Credential Initiative requires partners to build out the ability to provide printable versions of the QR codes that verify someone's status. Ultimately, Pollak said, the project's goal is to work with as many vaccine providers as possible '-- from hospital systems to government-run vaccination outfits '-- to produce their own secure digital vaccination records that apps like CommonPass can process.
While the Commons Project is attracting a growing number of partners, it isn't the only vaccine passport maker out there. Beyond its work on New York's Excelsior Pass, which was tested at Madison Square Garden and the Barclay's Center, IBM is working with Germany to produce digital versions of its paper vaccine certificates. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is also developing its own ''Travel Pass'' for airlines, which is now being tested by Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, and other carriers. Carbon Health plans to expand the functionality of its Health Pass to work with Apple Wallet and Google Pay. Even Mastercard has joined the fray; it's working with the International Chamber of Commerce on a protocol for a ''global, interoperable health pass system.''
A man presents a Green Pass before entering a musical performance in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Green Pass allows fully vaccinated Israelis to access gyms, restaurants, and cultural venues. Amir Levy/Getty Images As more vaccines get delivered, more vaccine providers seem eager to come up with their own ways to manage vaccination records databases. Walgreens, for instance, is exploring ''a digital dose card and tracker,'' and the company expects to announce more on the effort later this month, spokesperson Erin Loverher told Recode.
But with an increase in vaccinated people, the sheer number and variety of digital vaccine records and passport options will surely be confusing, adding more disarray to recovery efforts. The flurry of options may also hinder efforts to ensure any new digital vaccine record systems are trustworthy, in terms of privacy and security.
The US government has no vaccine passport plan yetWhile the US's approach to vaccine passports is unclear, some other countries have already charged ahead in rolling them out. Israel is using a system called the Green Pass to allow people who have either had Covid-19 or been fully vaccinated to return to some venues, such as hotels and theaters. People who meet the requirements can show a paper certificate or code in an app developed by the country's health ministry. Greece, in an attempt to aid its suffering tourism industry, has said it will recognize the Green Pass system and allow thousands of Israelis to travel there every week.
Similarly, the European Commission is proposing a Digital Green Certificate that would track whether people have been vaccinated, recently tested for Covid-19 (with a negative result), or are fully recovered from a previous infection in order to travel within the European Union.
Earlier in March, the World Health Organization released interim guidance for how digital vaccine certificates should work globally, opening the door for even more countries to create their own passports. WHO's working group encompasses experts from 25 governments, including representatives from the CDC and the US's Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which is part of HHS.
It's currently analyzing the data, ethical guidance, and verification systems needed to make digital vaccine records actually work, said Bernardo Mariano Jr., the WHO's chief information officer and digital health and innovation director. Final recommendations are expected at the end of June. Out of concerns that more information on how well the vaccines prevent transmission is needed '-- and that requiring vaccination will incentivize people from wealthier countries to scoop up still-limited vaccine doses '-- the WHO is currently urging governments to not mandate vaccination for travel.
The European Commission announced a proposal to create a ''Digital Green Certificate'' that would facilitate free movement inside the EU during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thierry Monasse/Getty Images In the US, there's been less action and enthusiasm for a system. While the US vaccine rollout began months ago, recent statements from the Biden administration suggest there will be limited coordination of vaccine passports on a federal level. The president did direct several government departments to look at the feasibility of ''electronic versions'' of international vaccination certificates in a January executive order, and a Biden administration official told Recode that there is still an ongoing interagency effort led by the White House analyzing the possibility of verified vaccine records.
Still, the lack of coordination is a reminder of other ways that the US has struggled to coordinate and come up with a national plan throughout the pandemic. Rapid and at-home testing '-- along with contact tracing '-- hasn't been mobilized to the scale that would allow large venues to reopen properly. And while vaccines have been rolled out, the process has been bumpy and confusing. The same challenge and lack of planning now seem to have shown up for vaccine credentials.
''One of the challenges that has occurred throughout much of the pandemic '-- and this really was started back in 2020 '-- there's been a lack of coordination among the different virus control approaches,'' explained CUNY's Lee.
Officials working on the interagency effort to study digital vaccine credentials have identified the lack of coordination as a significant barrier to recovering from the pandemic. Earlier this month, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology said that proving vaccination was likely to become the way people confirm their health status, and that a ''chaotic'' approach to vaccine credentials could undermine public trust and confidence.
How you can get a vaccine passportWhile there are many projects in the works, not many actual vaccine passports are widely available yet. If you've already been vaccinated and want a digital record of your vaccine, it's worth calling the health care provider who gave you the shot to see if and when electronic records of your jab might become available. If you haven't gotten inoculated yet, ask about such a record when you get the shot.
Some of these apps '-- including New York's Excelsior Pass, the CommonPass, and Clear apps '-- are already available for download. Even if you don't have a digital vaccine record, you might be able to use the apps to show the results of a negative Covid-19 tests.
If you've been vaccinated at Walmart, it's worth regularly checking in on your online Walmart pharmacy account to see when your vaccination record becomes available (again, Walgreens said it may provide something similar soon). If you were vaccinated at Carbon Health, you should receive a text directing you to a downloadable online record of your vaccination.
And if there's no electronic record of your vaccination yet, there's no harm in asking your appointment provider to print out any records of your appointment so you have something beyond your vaccine card in your back pocket. If you don't like the idea of downloading these apps, you can at least add a little extra protection to your CDC card and laminate it, a service Office Depot and Staples have said they'll offer people for free.
Open Sourced is made possible by Omidyar Network. All Open Sourced content is editorially independent and produced by our journalists.
UPDATE 1-White House sees no federal mandate for COVID-19 vaccine verification | Reuters
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 12:10
(Adds details, quotes)
WASHINGTON, March 29 (Reuters) - The White House said it expected the private sector to take the lead on verification of COVID-19 vaccines, or so-called vaccine passports, and would not issue a federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.
The Biden administration was reviewing the issue and would make recommendations, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday, but she added, ''We believe it will be driven by the private sector.''
Japan is gearing up to issue digital health certificates to citizens who have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, joining China, the European Union and others that have adopted similar measures aimed at opening up overseas travel, the Nikkei reported on Saturday.
Psaki said the White House was leading an inter-agency process looking at these issues, and would provide guidance in line with several key principles:
''There are a couple key principles that we are working from. One is that there will be no centralized universal federal vaccinations database, and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential,'' she said.
''Secondly, we want to encourage an open marketplace with a variety of private sector companies and nonprofit coalitions developing solutions. And third, we want to drive the market toward meeting public interest goals.''
Psaki said the Biden Administration would work to ensure that all vaccination credential systems met key standards such as universal accessibility, affordability and availability, both digitally and on paper.
She gave no indication when the process would be completed. (Reporting by Jeff Mason; writing by Andrea Shalal; editing by Chris Reese and Dan Grebler)
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Covid-19: Men who contract coronavirus have THREE TIMES the risk of developing erectile dysfunction | Daily Mail Online
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 03:16
Men who contract Covid-19 treble their risk of developing erectile dysfunction, according to new research.
Doctors at the University of Rome asked 100 men, with an average age of 33, to report recent problems with sexual function.
Nine per cent of those who had not had Covid said they'd had difficulties.
But among those who had been infected the figure was 28 per cent, according to a report in the journal Andrology.
Researchers said the virus is known to cause inflammation in the endothelium '-- the inner lining of blood vessels throughout the body.
Arteries supplying the genitals are small and narrow, so any inflammation is likely to disrupt blood flow and impede a man's sexual response.
This is the latest piece of research to find that, in many ways, men fare worse with a Covid infection than women '-- they are more prone to serious symptoms and 1.7 times more likely to die of the virus.
Some experts have suggested differences in levels of the sex hormones oestrogen and testosterone may partly explain this.
Men who contract Covid-19 treble their risk of developing erectile dysfunction, according to research by the University of Rome
On average, women in the UK live 3.7 years longer than men, even in non-Covid times '-- and oestrogen is thought to be key, improving women's immune function and helping to protect the cardiovascular system.
High testosterone levels may increase some risks to the cardiovascular system, which is put under huge pressure by coronavirus.
Controversial new book claims plastic pollution is shrinking manhoods Could a toxic soup of chemicals in everyday life be destroying men's ability to father children?
That is the latest claim from a U.S. expert, Dr Shanna Swan, who made headlines in 2017 with research that suggested human sperm counts are plummeting.
Dr Swan, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine, New York, made her original claim in the journal Human Reproduction Update.
Her analysis of previous research evidence concluded that men's reproductive problems are increasing by at least 1 per cent a year in Western countries.
These problems include declining sperm counts, falling testosterone levels and increasing rates of testicular cancer.
Now, in a new book entitled Count Down, Dr Swan blames this crisis on male babies being harmed in the womb by their mothers' exposure to hormone-altering chemicals in food and many consumer items.
These chemicals include phthalates (used to make plastics more flexible and found in hundreds of products including toys, detergents, food packaging, personal-care products and electronic devices), bisphenol A (in plastic food containers) and flame retardants (used in furnishings, carpets and cars).
Dr Swan says these chemicals began to be produced in increasing quantities from 1950, after which male fertility began to drop.
'Sperm counts have declined by 50 per cent in just 40 years,' she says. 'It's difficult to deny how alarming this is.'
But new research offers another insight: not about how our sex hormones may help us fight Covid, but how the virus may interfere with their production, causing knock-on effects.
'One of the devious ways the virus gets into the body is by its spike protein binding to a receptor found at quite high concentrations not only in the lungs but in the reproductive organs,' explains Dr Channa Jayasena, a consultant in reproductive endocrinology and andrology at Hammersmith Hospital in London.
'When Covid-19 binds to these receptors, they can no longer perform their normal function.'
These ACE2 receptors are found throughout the body, most widely in the lungs and cardiovascular system as well as at high levels in the testes.
While the evidence is thin, Dr Jayasena suggests Covid-19 may leave men with lowered testosterone levels and could affect women's menstrual cycles and menopause, too.
All this has a potential impact on both fertility and general health, as sex hormones are involved in processes throughout the body, from muscle growth to immune function.
A review of 24 studies on male fertility and Covid-19, published last year in the World Journal of Men's Health, noted that patients who had suffered a moderate Covid infection had significantly lower sperm concentration, often for months after recovery, compared with those whose infection had been only mild.
But what came first, the low sperm count or the infection?
Shortly afterwards, another study, published in the journal The Aging Male, showed that not only might men with lower testosterone levels be at higher risk of getting Covid-19, but that the virus could indeed lower men's testosterone levels.
Mike Kirby, a former professor of general practice in Hertfordshire and editor of The Aging Male, suggests this means doctors should be ready to check testosterone levels in male Covid patients and, if necessary, provide testosterone replacement.
He says that without it, those men are at higher risk of cardiovascular problems, type 2 diabetes, muscular weakness and depression, and loss of sexual desire, function and fertility.
While this may be true, it is not yet clear whether coronavirus is affecting sex-hormone levels more than any other viral infection might, says Dr Jayasena, adding that in any case, any lowering of those hormones may well be temporary.
'If you had severe flu, then it might take at least another several weeks for your testes to start working properly,' he says.
'A man's sperm count can drop to zero during flu and it can take three months to recover fully. So I think it's reasonable to suggest a similarly severe illness such as Covid would do at least that.'
Man's skin 'peeled off' in reaction to Johnson & Johnson COVID shot
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 03:07
March 30, 2021 | 3:32pm | Updated March 30, 2021 | 3:32pm
Richard Terrell, 74, suffered a severe rash over his entire body after receiving the Johnson &Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. WRICA Virginia man suffered a rare reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine that caused a painful rash to spread across his entire body and skin to peel off, doctors said.
Richard Terrell, 74, of Goochland began suffering strange symptoms four days after receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, news station WRIC reported.
''I began to feel a little discomfort in my armpit and then a few days later I began to get an itchy rash, and then after that I began to swell and my skin turned red,'' Terrell told the outlet.
But soon the rash covered his entire body, Terrell said.
''It all just happened so fast. My skin peeled off,'' Terrell told the outlet.
''It was stinging, burning and itching. Whenever I bent my arms or legs, like the inside of my knee, it was very painful where the skin was swollen and was rubbing against itself,'' he continued.
Richard Terrell's skin rash after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Fnu Nutan/VCU HealthHe went to the emergency room at the hospital, where doctors determined that he had experienced an adverse reaction to the vaccine, WRIC reported.
''We ruled out all the viral infections, we ruled out COVID-19 itself, we made sure that his kidneys and liver was okay, and finally we came to the conclusion that it was the vaccine that he had received that was the cause,'' Dr. Fnu Nutan told the outlet.
She said that the medical episode could have been life-threatening if left untreated.
''Skin is the largest organ in the body, and when it gets inflamed like his was, you can lose a lot of fluids and electrolytes,'' Nutan told the outlet.
Still, Nutan emphasized that such reactions are extremely rare.
''If you look at the risk for adverse reaction for the vaccine it's really, really low,'' she said. ''We haven't seen a great concern at all. I am a big proponent of the vaccine.''
Boxes of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine at Northwell Health's South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, New York on March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo
Henry W. Grady - Wikipedia
Wed, 31 Mar 2021 01:18
American journalist
Henry W. Grady
BornHenry Woodfin Grady
( 1850-05-24 ) May 24, 1850DiedDecember 23, 1889 (1889-12-23) (aged 39)Henry Woodfin Grady (May 24, 1850 '' December 23, 1889) was an American journalist and orator who helped reintegrate the states of the Confederacy into the Union after the American Civil War. Grady encouraged the industrialization of the South. He was praised by contemporaries and by authors Shavin and Galphin as a civic promoter, political strategist and captivating speaker,[2] and by Atlanta journalist Frederick Allen as a visionary.[3] However, in current times, Grady's arguments for the need for white supremacy in the post-Civil War South have resulted in his legacy being seen nowadays as anywhere from positive, to both positive and negative, to racist and therefore negative.[4][5] Grady's name has been removed from several schools including Atlanta's former Grady High School. Grady was the father-in-law of Federal Reserve Chairman Eugene Robert Black and grandfather of banker and World Bank President Eugene R. Black Sr.
Early life [ edit ] As a teenager, Henry Grady experienced fierce Civil War fighting in his home state of Georgia and his father William was killed by a Union soldier. After his father's death, he was raised by his mother Anne in Athens, Georgia. He was educated in the classical tradition of a southern gentleman of the time at the University of Georgia (Bachelor of Arts in 1868). In 1867, he became a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society, and later attended the University of Virginia to study law, but became especially interested in the Greek and Anglo-Saxon languages, history, and literature, which led to a career in journalism.
Grady was a lifelong devoted member of the Chi Phi Fraternity. He was a charter member of the Eta Chapter of Chi Phi at the University of Georgia. In 1882 he was elected as the first Grand Alpha (National President) from the south after the union of the Northern and Southern Orders of Chi Phi in 1871.
Journalist and editor [ edit ] Upon graduation, he held a series of brief journalistic jobs with the Rome Courier, the Atlanta Herald, and the New York Herald. After working in New York City, Grady returned to the South as a reporter-editor for the Atlanta Constitution.
In 1880, with $20,000 borrowed from Cyrus West Field, Grady bought a one-fourth interest in the paper and began a nine-year career as one of Georgia's most celebrated journalist-publishers. On the business end, he quickly built the newspaper into the state's most influential, with a national circulation of 120,000.
In the tumultuous decades following Reconstruction, when hatreds lingered and many whites worked to re-establish white supremacy, Grady popularized an antithesis between the "old South" which "rested everything on slavery and agriculture, unconscious that these could neither give nor maintain healthy growth," and a "new south" '' "thrilling with the consciousness of growing power and prosperity:"
The new South presents a perfect democracy...; a social system compact and closely knitted, less splendid on the surface, but stronger at the core; a hundred farms for every plantation, fifty homes for every palace; and a diversified industry that meets the complex needs of this complex age[6]
as he said in an 1886 speech in New York. His audience included J. P. Morgan and H. M. Flagler at Delmonico's Restaurant, at a meeting of the New England Society of New York.
From 1882 to 1886, along with Nathaniel E. Harris, Grady promoted the founding in Atlanta of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), a state vocational education school intended to train workers for new industries.
Orator and spokesman for the "New South" [ edit ] Grady was also praised for his great passion for political oratory (he supported Prohibition and a Georgia veterans' home for disabled or elderly Confederate soldiers), commitment to the new peace, and well-known sense of humor. To a large crowd in Boston, Grady said "I am a talker by inheritance: my father was an Irishman and my mother was a woman." [7]
That sense of humor and quick wit got Grady through more than one difficult situation. Once at a banquet of northern elites, he was waxing eloquent about the brilliant prospects for northern investments in a New South determined to rise from the ashes of defeat. Grady spotted General William T. Sherman in the audience, the celebrated Yankee soldier who was credited with defeating and burning much of Georgia, and particularly Atlanta, on his infamous march to the sea. Without missing a beat, Grady acknowledged the general by noting that the people of Georgia thought Sherman an able military man, "but a mite careless about fire."
In another speech, Grady wanted to gently chastise his Southern audience for what he believed to be Georgia's economic shortcomings. Rather than pounding them with statistics, he entertained them with stories that made the points. He said:
I attended a funeral once in Pickens county in my State. This funeral was peculiarly sad. It was a poor "one gallus" fellow, whose breeches struck him under the armpits and hit him at the other end about the knee'--he didn't believe in decollete clothes. They buried him in the midst of a marble quarry: they cut through solid marble to make his grave, yet a little tombstone they put above him was from Vermont. They buried him in the heart of a pine forest, and yet the pine coffin was imported from Cincinnati. They buried him within touch of an iron mine, and yet the nails in his coffin and the iron in the shovel that dug his grave were imported from Pittsburg. They buried him by the side of the best sheep-grazing country on the earth, and yet the wool in the coffin bands and the coffin bands themselves were brought from the North. The South didn't furnish a thing on earth for that funeral but the corpse and the hole in the ground. There they put him away and the clods rattled down on his coffin, and they buried him in a New York coat and a Boston pair of shoes and a pair of breeches from Chicago and a shirt from Cincinnati, leaving him nothing to carry into the next world with him to remind him of the country in which he lived, and for which he fought for four years, but the chill of blood in his veins and the marrow in his bones.
The Georgia Historical Quarterly brought that story full circle, noting Grady's response to the eventual growth of quarries in Pickens County. He boasted that the grave he had so often referenced in his speeches lay less than 100 yards from one of the quarries. Grady believed, according to the Georgia Historical Quarterly, that he had lived long enough to see his vision of an industrially independent New South come true.
Grady's prestige reached such a height that he became the only non-member ever to adjourn the Georgia Legislature. It occurred on the election of Grover Cleveland to the presidency. News of the close contest arrived at 11 a.m. during the Legislature's session. In his exuberance, Grady rushed to the Capitol with the announcement. He brushed past the doorkeeper and into the chamber shouting in senatorial tones, "Mr. Speaker, a message from the American people." Sensing the purpose of the intrusion, the Speaker offered Grady a place by his side. However, Grady strode up the aisle to the Speaker's desk, grabbed the Speaker's gavel, and cried out, "In the name of the American people, I declare this House adjourned in honor of the election of the first Democratic President in twenty-five years."
White supremacy [ edit ] Grady's conception of the New South was based on the social supremacy of whites over blacks, according to his own words: Grady stated in 1888, "the supremacy of the white race of the South must be maintained forever, and the domination of the negro race resisted at all points and at all hazards, because the white race is the superior race... [This declaration] shall run forever with the blood that feeds Anglo-Saxon hearts".[8] This was not the first time that Grady had advocated for the supremacy of whites over blacks. In his 1887 speech to the Dallas Texas State Fair Grady stated:[7]
Standing in the presence of this multitude, sobered with the responsibility of the message I deliver to the young men of the South, I declare that the truth above all others to be worn unsullied and sacred in your hearts, to be surrendered to no force, sold for no price, compromised in no necessity, but cherished and defended as the covenant of your prosperity, and the pledge of peace to your children, is that the white race must dominate forever in the South, because it is the white race, and superior to that race by which its supremacy is threatened.
Some argue other Henry Grady quotes paint a different picture. In December 1886, he opened his famous New South speech by repeating the words of Georgia Senator Benjamin H. Hill: "There was a South of slavery and secession -- that South is dead. There is a South of Union and freedom -- that South, thank God, is living, breathing, growing every hour."
Under Grady's editorial guidance, the Constitution wrote about lynching with levity, condoning and even encouraging it. One headline read, ''The Triple Trapeze: Three Negroes Hung to a Limb of a Tree.'' Another rhymed, ''Two Minutes to Pray Before a Rope Dislocated Their Vertebrae.'' [9]
University of Massachusetts Amherst Journalism Professor Kathy Roberts Forde, sees it this way: "Grady may have united Southern and Northern whites, but he did not unite the country. Rather, he excluded black Americans from the union of North and South and the national democratic project that union represented."[10]
Death [ edit ] On December 12, 1889, he delivered a speech in Boston at Faneuil Hall, on "The Race Problem in the South". Grady was already ill, and the weather was terrible. His health worsened to the point that he barely made it back to Georgia. By the time he made it to the depot at Atlanta, he was too exhausted to appreciate the reception prepared for him and had to be shielded from the crowd and escorted home by his physician.
By December 23, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and died that day. He was buried on Christmas Day 1889, first in a friend's crypt at Oakland Cemetery because of family finances. His body was re-interred at Westview Cemetery when it opened soon afterward.
Legacy and honors [ edit ] Grady County in Georgia and Oklahoma were named in his honor,[11] as was Grady, Alabama.[12] Places in Atlanta named for him include Grady Memorial Hospital, the now-demolished Henry Grady Hotel, and the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Henry W. Grady High School was renamed in December 2020 to Midtown High School, due to Grady's white supremacist philosophy. The city erected a statue in his honor in 1891, which still stands today on Marietta Street in the heart of downtown Atlanta.[13] Other places include Henry Woodfin Grady Elementary School in Tampa, Florida. Henry W. Grady Middle School in Houston, Texas, was renamed in 2016.[14]
In 1931 Grady was the first person inducted into the Georgia Newspaper Hall of Fame, memorialized via a bust by artist Steffen Thomas.[15] During World War II the Liberty ship SS Henry W. Grady was built in Brunswick, Georgia and named in his honor.[16]
Grady's family grave site in Atlanta was desecrated in June 2020.[17]
References [ edit ] ^ New Georgia Encyclopedia (about Henry W. Grady). ^ Shavin, Norman; Bruce Galphin (1982). Atlanta, Triumph of a People. Capricorn. ISBN 9780910719001. ^ Allen, Frederick (1996). Atlanta Rising. Taylor Trade Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 9781461661672. ^ Editorial Board (December 3, 2019). "Editorial: Mayor Bottoms, tear down this statue!". The Signal (Georgia State University). ^ Torpy, Bill (December 12, 2019). "OPINION: Hey, 'Grady Babies,' old Henry might not have liked you". Atlanta Journal-Constitution . Retrieved February 8, 2021 . ^ Grady, "The New South," in Complete Orations and Speeches, p. 19. ^ a b Shurter, Edwin (1910). The Complete Orations and Speeches of Henry W. Grady. 30 Irving Place, New York City: Noble & Eldredge Hinds. pp. 2''3. CS1 maint: location (link) ^ Myrdal, Gunnar; Gunnar Myrdal; Sissela Bok. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. p. 1354 . Retrieved January 16, 2011 . ^ https://theconversation.com/an-editor-and-his-newspaper-helped-build-white-supremacy-in-georgia-111030 ^ https://theconversation.com/an-editor-and-his-newspaper-helped-build-white-supremacy-in-georgia-111030 ^ Krakow, Kenneth K. (1975). Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins (PDF) . Macon, GA: Winship Press. p. 96. ISBN 0-915430-00-2. ^ Foscue, Virginia (1989). Place Names in Alabama. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-8173-0410-X. ^ Henry Grady: A Complete History ^ Nedra Rhone, "Henry Grady school in Houston renamed because of Confederate ties", Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 15, 2016 ^ "Henry W. Grady Bust Unveiled in Athens; Editors of Nation Pay Tribute to Georgian". The Atlanta Constitution. June 12, 1931 . Retrieved July 1, 2020 '' via newspapers.com. ^ Williams, Greg H. (25 July 2014). The Liberty Ships of World War II: A Record of the 2,710 Vessels and Their Builders, Operators and Namesakes, with a History of the Jeremiah O'Brien. McFarland. ISBN 1476617546 . Retrieved 9 December 2017 . ^ Gravesite of Henry W. Grady desecrated Further reading [ edit ] Clark, E. Culpepper. 2021. The Birth of a New South: Sherman, Grady, and the Making of Atlanta. Macon, GA: Macon University Press.Davis, Harold E, Henry Grady's New South: Atlanta, a Brave Beautiful City, 1990, Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press.Grady, Henry Woodfin. Complete Orations and Speeches. Edited by Edwin Dubois Shurter. 1910. South-West Press.Online at Hathi Trust.Nixon, Raymond, Henry W. Grady: Spokesman of the New South, 1943, NYC, Knopf.History of the University of Georgia, Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia, ca. 1949 pp.847-856External links [ edit ] Works by or about Henry W. Grady at Internet ArchiveHenry W. Grady, New Georgia Encyclopedia onlineHenry W. Grady at Find a GraveStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
NYC Chief Doc To White People: Drop Dead
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 22:12
In case you're not black or Latin in NYC, perhaps you ought to move, as when it comes to healthcare the city's Jim Dove racism will put you at the back of the medical bus.
Courtesy of New York City, and not surprisingly Harvard, two racist quacks have decided that white people, which is a very wide net that also ignores the fact the Latins are European and also thus white, do not deserve the quality or alacrity of medical care that PC approved minorities do. So that's it, if you're white you can just die on the sidewalk. New York City doesn't give a damn.
By the way, as a Latin I can tell you, Latins refer to themselves and other Latins by their country of heritage or as Latin American (Latins). So when you hear ''latinx'' or ''Hispanic'', you're listening to a race hustler or a guilty white liberal.
The authors of this piece have substantial platforms. One of them has recently been named the chief medical officer of NYC's Health Department. https://t.co/mclFloCPJT
'-- Fred Bauer (@fredbauerblog) March 28, 2021
FNC: ''Two physicians, including the New York City health department's chief medical officer, have proposed racial preferences for black and 'latinx' patients, in order to address structural inequities. The proposal came as part of a Boston Review op-ed earlier this month in which Drs. Michelle Morse and Bram Wispelwey '' both of whom have worked at a teaching hospital for Harvard University '' called for an anti-racist approach to medicine. While they didn't explicitly call for 'discrimination,' they criticized colorblind policies and sought racial preferences in patient admissions.''
Bull O'Connor and early George Wallace in scrubs speak: ''After more than five decades of colorblind law '... the stubborn persistence of racial inequities '' both in health care and across society at large '' gives the lie to the effectiveness of colorblind policies,'' the racist doctors wrote.
''[W]e have taken redress in our particular initiative to mean providing precisely what was denied for at least a decade: a preferential admission option for black and latinx heart failure patients to our specialty cardiology service. The Healing ARC [acknowledgment, redress and closure] will include a flag in our electronic medical record and admissions system suggesting that providers admit black and latinx heart failure patients to cardiology, rather than rely on provider discretion or patient self-advocacy to determine whether they should go to cardiology or general medicine.'' Racial and ethnic quotas in healthcare. It was bound to come to this.
''But given the ample current evidence that our health, judicial and other systems already unfairly preference people who are white, we believe that our approach is corrective and therefore mandated,'' the vicious Mengele-like duo added.
Discovery Institute's Chris Rufo responded. ''The 'equity' ideology has permeated all of our elite institutions. Now medical professionals are setting the conceptual framework to deny medical treatment to whites in order to achieve 'non-disparate' outcomes. This is a moral crime, a violation of the 14th Amendment, and a direct contravention of their oath to 'do no harm.'''
This piece was written by David Kamioner on March 30, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:Gretchen Whitmer Gets Bad News As Michigan County Denounces 'Orders Unilaterally Issued' By HerPelosi Nervous About NewsomCruz Exposes Biden Border Camps
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Ever Given ship refloated, concerns of possible legal action arise for Indian crew
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 18:55
Ever Given being pulled out of Suez Canal (Image: Screenshot from video by Capt Sanjay Prashar/PrasharSdp)
On March 29, the container ship 'Ever Given' that was blocking the Suez Canal since March 23 was finally refloated. A team of experts had been working tirelessly to remove the container ship from the Canal so that the traffic can resume. As the container ship is all set to move out of the Canal, there are some concerns that the crew comprising of 25 Indians may face legal action by the Suez Canal Authorities.
Crew and captain may face house arrestAccording to a report published in the Times of India, the Indian Government and the seafarers' organizations are concerned that the crew may face legal actions. There is a possibility of criminal charges against the crew members. Sources of TOI in the shipping industry said that one of the possibilities is that some of the crew members, including the captain, may be restrained from further travel and face house arrest until the investigation is completed. However, the ship management has not yet issued any statement on the legal procedures that the crew may have to face.
Shipping organisations in support of Indian crewCaptain Sanjay Prashar, a member of the National Shipping Board (NSB), said, ''Firstly, it has to be ascertained as to how the giant ship ran aground. Facts can be checked by examining and listening to conversation in the ship voyage data recorder, and one can come to an understanding as to what caused the mishap.''
Abdulgani Serang, general secretary, National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI), said in a tweet that the organization supports the Indian crew members. He said, ''NUSI has promised solidarity support to all our Indian seafarers onboard ''EVER GIVEN'' struck in the Suez Canal. I got in touch with them. The seafarers are fine but stressed out. They are not alone, and we will support them whenever required in whatever manner required.''
Seafarers are often unfairly blamed for incidents at sea, says ITF's David HeindelThe International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) issued a press release on March 29 and welcomed the news that Suez Canal will soon be unblocked. Stephen Cotton, the General Secretary, ITF, said, ''We welcome news that the Ever Given has been freed and the Suez Canal will soon be unblocked. That's fantastic for the sake of all the seafarers on this ship and others who have been waiting to transit the Suez Canal.''
David Heindel, chair of the ITF Seafarers' Section, said there should be a full investigation of the matter to assess the reasons that led to the blockage of the Suez Canal route. He added that it is essential not to rush to any conclusion until all facts are laid bare. ''An open and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding this event should be conducted, drawing on necessary input and expertise from the crew and their unions. Of course, the industry needs to learn any lessons that emerge from this incident,'' he added.
Heindel said too often, seafarers are unfairly blamed for incidents at sea, thus, proper investigation is a must. ''When proper investigations are conducted, we are able to stand back and see the systematic factors which drive bad outcomes,'' he added. Calling seafarers heroes, he said that they need everyone's support.
DISINFO: USA Today Quotes a Consultant to the Chinese Communist Party to 'Debunk' Wuhan Lab Theory.
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:04
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An expert promoted by U.S. corporate media to discredit Dr. Robert Redfield's assertion that COVID-19 ''escaped'' from a Chinese lab has extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party, The National Pulse can exclusively reveal.Dr. Ian Lipkin was quoted by outlets including CBS and USA Today as a means by which to ''debunk'' Dr. Redfield's explosive claim linking the virus to a Chinese lab.
''We should be moving away from finger-pointing,'' Lipkin told CBS after adding there is ''no evidence to suggest that it was created in a lab.''
While the corporate media is keen to promote Lipkin's claims '' indistinguishable from the Chinese Communist Party's COVID-19 narrative '' they failed to report his decades of ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Dr. Lip Service. In 2016, Lipkin received the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, presided over by Chinese Communist leader Xi Jinping.
The award is ''China's top science honor for foreign scientists, and, as quoted in a Columbia University press release, Lipkin said ''It solidifies my relationship with dear friends and colleagues in the Chinese Academy of Science, Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health, and with the people of China'' '' all of which are wholly-owned and operated Chinese Communist Party entities.
A 2020 Columbia University press release notes ''the government of China honored Ian Lipkin with a medal recognizing his profound impact on their country,'' adding that he ''has worked closely with scientists and officials in China.''
The medal, issued from several Chinese government bodies including the Central Military Commission, read ''Celebrating 70th Anniversary,'' and commemorated the anniversary of Chinese Communist Party's takeover of the country.
LIPKIN RECEIVING 2020 AWARD.A summary of his professional experience reveals he even ''consults'' for the Chinese Communist Party and has lectured and accepted grants from Chinese state-run scientific bodies:
He continues to consult with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Science, and the Ministry of Health. He has also served as a consultant for a climate change program at Beijing Normal and as a visiting professor at Beijing University. Last year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences awarded funding for a collaborative project between CII and Sun Yat-Sen University in zoonotic diseases. ['...] Since 2003, Lipkin has presented more than 20 lectures in China, notably including the inaugurations of the Institut Pasteur de Shanghai in 2004 and the Beijing Center for Infectious Diseases two years later.
''Lipkin's academic efforts in China focus on mentoring young Chinese scientists and encouraging China-born scientists abroad to return home for positions in diagnostics and discovery at China's Centers for Disease Control, Institut Pasteur, and Wuhan Institute of Virology. He also serves as a member of the Scientific Steering Committee member of the Joint Center for Global Change Studies at Beijing Normal University,'' a summary adds.
LIPKIN LECTURING IN 2015.Lipkin had also appeared on several studies, including those focusing on H5N1 and hepatovirus, both funded by Chinese Communist Party research grants.
Lipkin has also given several interviews to state-run Chinese news outlets including China Global Television Network, where he insisted ''I have so many friends in China, in universities, and in government that I can help people to talk to one another and work together.''
''Renowned epidemiologist Walter Lipkin lauds China's transparent and professional approach against coronavirus outbreak,'' reads a headline from the state-run outlet Global Times.
Fauci & Daszak. In addition to earning awards, praise, and cash from the Chinese Communist Party, Lipkin has also been praised by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
''If scientists are lucky, they'll identify one novel virus in their whole life. Lipkin really stands out from the crowd,'' Fauci remarked in a New York Times article. ''The scientific aspects of how it unfolded were excellent, a testament to the fact that Ian Lipkin was heavily involved,'' praised Fauci in a separate review of a movie Lipkin consulted for.
Lipkin, bizarrely, while serving the Chinese Communist Party, also serves as the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Center for Research in Diagnostics and Discovery. Dr. Fauci is the head of the NIAID, and Lipkin's department has received multiple rounds of multi-million dollar funding since 2014.
$33M over six years.''Toward the end of the second cycle of the award, I was asked by Anthony Fauci, Harold Varmus, and Francis Collins to examine the reports of new retroviruses linked to CFS,'' Lipkin said in a speech.
Another conflict of interest presents itself between Lipkin and Peter Daszak, a scientist comparably compromised by the Chinese government and World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 investigator. At least 20 studies list Lipkin and Daszak as co-authors,
DASZAK/LIPKIN STUDY.Lipkin has also worked on National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NIAID-funded research with Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance group.
''This discovery is the result of an extraordinarily productive partnership between the government of Liberia, CII, EcoHealth Alliance, and UC Davis. It builds on years of investment and methods established under the auspices of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases,'' Lipkin remarked concerning a joint effort to study Ebola.
If You Absolutely Must Vaccinate Against Covid-19 Out of Fear or Coercion, Hold Out for This Already Proven Vaccine - LewRockwell
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 15:57
There is a reason why vaccine makers and bought-off politicians are racing to vaccinate 100 million Americans by July 4th. If prior population studies are any indication, by July 2021 it is likely a safer and more effective vaccine than RNA vaccines (Pfizer/Moderna) will be revealed in a large-group placebo vs inoculum study taking place in Canada.
If you are in torment over whether to vaccinate against COVID-19 or not, or forced to mull over vaccination because your employer demands you submit to immunization as a condition of employment, hold on, at least till July 2021, when the results of a major vaccine study will likely be revealed. Though existing data is so compelling one would wonder why anyone fearful of COVID19 would hesitate to undergo immunization immediately.
A major drawback of the RNA vaccines now being pushed upon wary Americans is that they pose the problem of antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) '' '' your own antibodies attack your lungs and other internal organs. ADE is usually a delayed reaction. And ADE is beginning to occur among vaccinated populations. ADE strikes younger populations. According to some reports, vaccine-induced antibodies against COVID-19 are not providing lasting immunity. The Collected Short St... L'Amour, Louis Best Price: $1.39 Buy New $5.00 (as of 04:14 EDT - Details )
Researchers suggest one answer to the problem of ADE is to design therapies that target T-cells rather than antibodies. RNA vaccines largely activate antibodies.
T-cells are known to protect against severe infection and re-infection. T-cell memory provides lasting immunity. T-cell directed vaccines stimulate clearance of viruses and avoid antibody-dependent enhanced disease.
These same researchers reveal there already is a proven safe and effective vaccine that protects against COVID-19 via activation of T-cells '' '' the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine for another infectious lung disease '-- tuberculosis. It is derived from a mycobacterium (mycobacterium bovis) found in cattle. It is a ''live'' but attenuated bacterium.
BCG vaccine mechanism: trained immunity
The BCG vaccine is not widely used in the US.
While the BCG vaccine does activate T-cells, it also works independent of B or T cells. BCG vaccine affords ''trained immunity.'' It works via epigenetic re-programming, that is, gene protein making, which essentially what the RNA vaccines pretend to do. This is called epigenetic memory.
This type of trained immunity is independent of B and T-cell activation and is accomplished via white blood cells (monocytes, macrophages, natural-killer cells). For physicians who must to know precisely how it works, BCG vaccine targets known cell surface receptors (toll-like TLR2 and TLR4; complement receptors CR3-CR4; NOD-like receptors).
BCG vaccine is so safe it is approved for use with neonates, children and adults for almost 100 years. Outback Trading Compan... Buy New $69.99 (as of 04:14 EDT - Details )
The BCG vaccine also confers immunity against Staphylococcus and Candida organisms in additional tuberculosis bacilli. BCG vaccine is also useful in preventing multiple sclerosis and cancer.
BCG Vaccine and COVID-19
Evidence for the BCG vaccine to quell COVID-19 infections is compelling.
A study published in November of 2020 confirms that BCG vaccine protects health care workers from COVID-19 infection. Healthcare workers previously inoculated with BCG vaccine experienced a marked decrease in COVID-19 infection.Population studies reveal the potential of BCG vaccination. Epidemiologists project a 37% decrease in COVID-19 mortality between East Germany which was vaccinated with BCG vaccine and not West Germany.Statisticians claim there would have been 80% fewer COVID-19 deaths in the US by March 29, 2020 had the country employed mandatory BCG vaccination since 2000.Worldwide, TB kills more people than COVID-19. Now ''two birds could be knocked out with one stone.''
Vaccine makers must inoculate many thousands of people with their unproven COVID-19 vaccines while population studies already show BCG to be superior and more affordable.
Upcoming BCG vaccine trial to be completed soon
A large BCG controlled trial of 3626 participants that compares BCG vaccine versus placebo and is expected to be complete in April, 2021 and reporting by July, 2021. This Canadian study encompasses measures of incidence of infection, hospitalization, respiratory distress, secondary infection and mortality, as well as adverse events and trained immunity, among healthcare workers. adidas Unisex Adilette... Buy New $29.96 (as of 04:14 EDT - Details )
A six-month trial of BCG vaccine among health care workers is also being launched by the MD Anderson Cancer Center/Baylor College of Medicine and Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
Improbability current COVID-19 vaccines will overcome ADE
Dr. Kevin D Morris of the City of Hope says it is improbable that modern medicine will ever develop a vaccine for COVID-19 because any such vaccine must overcome antibody enhancement which attacks and replicates within the very cells (macrophages) that are produced to ''kill'' the virus.
Fancy genetic RNA vaccines may ignite the production of antibodies without having to introduce a pathogenic virus as common vaccines do, which is advantageous. The threat of vaccine-induced infection is removed. But there is no stop sign for the development of organ-destructive antibody enhancement. This is why prior efforts to conquer coronavirus infections via vaccination failed.
Vaccine makers are admitting a single inoculation won't produce a lasting effect. Two doses are now employed and a third is being considered. The vaccinologists are begging for problematic antibody enhancement to occur by suggesting annual booster shots.
How the virus enters cells
It would behoove everyone to learn how viruses enter living cells.
Viruses are not live. They need to get into living cells to replicate. Viral entry is confined to cells that have a surface protein the virus can attach to, in this instance, the angiotensin cleaving enzyme-2 (ACE2), a protein involved in the regulation of blood pressure. ACE2 is abundant in the eye, throat, lung, kidney, liver, heart and intestines. That is why this virus affects other organs than the lungs. Womens Sun Straw Hat W... Buy New $25.99 (as of 04:14 EDT - Details )
Several viruses (dengue, HIV and COVID-19 coronavirus) can infect cells via an alternative process called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE).
Since 1986 it has been known that T-cells, not antibodies, are paramount in producing immunity. The natural defense against viruses, antibodies, are directed against the immune system. The virus attaches to white blood cells (monocytes, macrophages). Antibodies normally bind to viral surface proteins and block entry into cells. However, COVID-19 infected antibodies can worsen damage in the lungs. If a vaccine induces high levels of potentially neutralizing antibodies they will reduce viral replication but this could also result in lung damage. The structure and concentration of these antibodies determines their destructiveness.
Human respiratory coronaviruses do not induce durable immunity. Reinfections are common. This is another reason why vaccines against coronaviruses have never been licensed. Antibody responses and protective immunity are fleeting and only modestly effective.
''Respiratory coronaviruses vex the human adaptive immune systemand can return to the same person time after time''says Dr. Andrea Branch of Icahn School of Medicineat Mt. Sinai in New York.
''Respiratory coronaviruses vex the human adaptive immune system and can return to the same person time after time'' says Dr. Andrea Branch of Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai in New York.
Initially viruses are met by natural killers '' '' neutrophils and macrophages, that kill virally-infected cells. Days after initial infection a more specific defense is fashioned by B and T cells produced in the bone marrow and thymus gland. These B and T cells are tailored to the particular invasive pathogen, in this case a coronavirus, and produce memory or long-lasting immunity. That is why individuals must suffer with cold virus symptoms for a few days before this specific immune response is activated. Amazon Essentials Wome... Buy New $13.90 (as of 04:14 EDT - Details )
Antibodies against the antecedent SARS-CoV-1 virus that erupted in 2002 in China were not long lasting. They plunged after two years. B cells didn't remain but memory T-cells did endure.
Theoretically, a coronavirus like COVID-19 can cause endless cycles of disease, which would be a bonanza for vaccine makers. Fashioning vaccines against COVID-19 would then be like chasing the wind.
In one study only 14% of COVID-19 infected patients developed high concentration of neutralizing antibodies. Perplexingly, it has also been found that some COVID-19 infected patients who recovered completely did not develop detectable neutralizing antibodies, which suggests neutralizing antibodies may not be required to clear mild infections. Because of the limitation of vaccines against coronaviruses, alternatives to vaccines need to be pursued, which will be the topic of my next report.
The origin of RNA vaccines
To understand how modern medicine got on the wrong track we have to go back to the origins of RNA vaccines. Immune reactions to messenger RNA injections in animals weren't safe. Animal experiments proved that. But in 2005 researchers announced they had replaced one of the four building blocks of messenger RNA, uridine, with pseudo-uridine, which evades immune sensors.
Dendritic cells (cells that produce natural interferon) bathed in this modified pseudo-RNA produce less inflammation (cytokines) than when exposed to unmodified RNA. Voila! The possibility of RNA therapies began.
Building an imperfect vaccine
Vaccines that alleviate symptoms of infectious disease but don't stop its spread (known as ''leaky'' vaccines) may result in more disease and more virulent strains of the virus. This has already been observed in chickens inoculated with a vaccine against Marek's disease. Imperfect vaccination can enhance the transmission of viruses. Isn't that what researchers did in 2005 '' '' intentionally develop an imperfect vaccine to avoid an over-aggressive immune response?
Researchers writing in the Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hepatology say: ''the greatest fear among vaccine developers is to create a vaccine that does not protect from infection but causes disease exacerbation, increased morbidity and mortality. Some vaccines can mountantibody-dependent enhancement (ADE),which negates the basic purpose of vaccination.''
Polarized Sunglasses f... Best Price: $15.99 Buy New $16.99 (as of 04:14 EDT - Details ) RNA vaccines are tailored to produce an antigen that triggers an immune response to a mutated coronavirus known as COVID-19. But COVID-19 is mutating, as all cold, flu and coronaviruses do. It appears vaccination is accelerating these mutations. Now what?
RNA vaccines leave individuals defenseless
RNA vaccines now being employed against COVID-19 aren't as effective against genetic variants. Hence, reinfection can result. This has been known for some time. That leaves humanity back at square one, where it was at the beginning of the pandemic, facing a newly mutated coronavirus that humanity had no immunity towards (except those who had been vaccinated against tuberculosis with the BCG vaccine).
Vaccine makers are scheming to make COVID-19 vaccinations an annual affair just like flu shots that are tailored for the three most likely flu strains expected to be in circulation in any given year. In other words, modern medicine is admitting it has created RNA vaccines that are not effective against evolving new strains. The virus is escaping vaccination.
These facts reveal modern medicine and public health officials aren't interested in cures as there already is a safe and effective vaccine. Governments and the medical industry aren't interested in cures, they are interested in profits, political control and even depopulation.
If you are losing sleep over the issue of vaccination, maybe take this report to your doctor and ask him/her to inoculate you with the BCG vaccine. Maybe the BCG vaccine will also suffice with employers who must be educated about this.
I know I will be asked, so the answer to the question, am I going to the doctor to get a BCG vaccination? No, I am not. More than 96% of all individuals infected with COVID-19 get well on their own, without vaccines.
Still, even with a safe and effective vaccine, all vaccines rely on an intact functioning immune system. The objective for those individuals who have been immunized with an RNA virus is to normalize their immune response. Certain essential nutrients are required to thwart the development of ADE if you are among the millions who have already been vaccinated with an RNA virus. That is the topic of my next report.
No More Mister Nice Blog: WE SHOULD KNOWN THAT VACCINE PASSPORTS WOULD MAKE THE RIGHT FLIP OUT
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 15:53
This is alarming, but we should have seen it coming a long time ago:DeSantis says here that he will endeavor to forbid *private sector* from requiring proof of vaccination from customers. He specifically mentions movie theaters, sports, and theme parks as venues he would wish to prohibit from protecting the safety of employees and other customers https://t.co/xnfg2xk9r4
— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 29, 2021 Since last spring, the right, under the influence of both conservative billionaires and populist demagogues, has demanded the end of lockdowns, railed against mask-wearing and mask requirements, and described public health as strictly a matter of individual choice. We know there's no level of bloodshed that will make right-wingers rethink the position that there should be few if any limits on firearms. It's clear that they're applying their gun logic to the pandemic. So we should have known they were coming for vaccine passports.A local TV news outlet in Fort Myers insists that the governor is unlikely to prevent private businesses from using vaccine passports.For privately owned businesses, legal experts say the executive order doesn’t apply to them.“A private entity is entitled to do that and a private business can have restrictions,” said Pamella Seay, Florida Gulf Coast University Law Professor.But the Orlando Sentinel disagrees.Florida businesses soon won’t be able to screen customers based on whether they’ve received the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday, even as he signed a bill designed to shield companies from pandemic-related lawsuits.DeSantis said an executive order was coming soon, possibly by Tuesday, against vaccination passports and called for the Legislature to pass a bill making a ban permanent. The Legislature is nearing the midway point of a 60-day session scheduled to end April 30.DeSantis said allowing major corporations to have access to vaccination information was like having “the fox [guarding] the henhouse,” citing privacy concerns.(Well, he has a point about Amazon, Google, and Facebook having this information. But we can create vaccine passports with strong privacy safeguards if we really want to.)Here's what DeSantis said, as heard in the clip above:We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida.... It's completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society. You want to go to a movie theater, should you have to show that? No. You want to go to a game? No. You want to go to a theme park? No. So we're not supportive of that. I think it's something that people have certain freedoms and individual liberties to make decisions for themselves. Will DeSantis really tell Disney it can't ask for evidence of vaccination? He's certainly talking as if he will.And if he doesn't prevent private companies from asking for proof of vaccination, or isn't allowed to, he's still creating an atmosphere in which customer service people will be harassed and sometimes physically attacked for trying to enforce safety measures in their own establishments.The thought leaders of the right are in agreement on this:Freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., strongly condemned the idea of vaccine passports."Proposals like these smack of 1940s Nazi Germany. We must make every effort to keep America from becoming a 'show your papers society,'” Cawthorn told Fox News. "The Constitution and our founding principles decry this type of totalitarianism.”"America faces a dangerous future when its leader’s ideology shares more commonalities with Leninism than liberalism," the North Carolina Republican added.Vaccine Passports are unconstitutional. Period.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) March 29, 2021 The Biden Administration:-Considering a “vaccination passport” for Americans. -But doesn’t seem to care about passports when it comes to illegal migrants crossing the southern border.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) March 29, 2021 pic.twitter.com/mbjyMvnSSt
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) March 30, 2021 Are the vaccine passports going to be yellow, shaped like a star, and sewn on our clothes?
— Libertarian Party of Kentucky (@lpky) March 29, 2021 Expect the governors of Texas, Arizona, South Dakota, and other GOP-run states to follow DeSantis's lead. Expect more congressional Republicans to talk this way. This will be the next front in the culture war, as we should have foreseen.
Cops investigate Facebook group that named parents 'against critical race theory' | Daily Mail Online
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 14:07
Virginia police are investigating an 'anti-racist' Facebook group that named the parents of students who members say are 'against critical race theory'.
The Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County group - which reportedly includes teachers and school board members - shared personal details of those they say had opposed moves to teach the controversial curriculum.
It urged followers to 'gather information' on them and encouraged online hackers to silence critics of the theory, The Daily Wire reports. Parent Cherly Onderchain told Fox News she was on the 'hit list', adding: 'Their goal is silence.'
According to Purdue University, critical race theory scholarship shows how racism continues to be persuasive and why it denies individuals their constitutional rights. It examines the way race and racism influences politics, culture and the law.
But critics say it leaves people exposed to the training feeling that they are being blamed for problems which they did not cause - such as slavery and Jim Crow - and that it is itself racially divisive.
Local teacher Jeremy Wright said: 'Minority students are going to suffer the most from this. When you teach students that the system is against them, they have no motivation to learn.'
Parent Cherly Onderchain told Fox News she was on the 'hit list', adding: 'Their goal is silence'
The Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County group shared personal details of those they say had opposed moves to teach the controversial curriculum. It urged followers to 'gather information' and silence critics of the theory
One parent on the list, Patti Menders, said: 'I was personally attacked. My name, my first name, my last name, where my son goes to school, who my husband is, where I live and three pictures of me were all on that Facebook page.
'They wanted to send postcards to our neighbors calling us racist and come to our home with a megaphone and call us racists.'
Another parent, Erin Dunbar, added: 'Those of you who saw personal information about families in this county being posted and did nothing, shame on you.'
Loudoun Parents for Education spokesman Ian Prior told WTOP: 'There was a solicitation by one of the members of this group to target people that had opposed the school's commitment to critical race theory concepts.'
He added: 'Members were conspiring to commit potentially illegal actions against members of the community for exercising their First Amendment rights to speak out against the curriculum and for opening schools.'
WHY CRITICAL RACE THEORY IS CONTROVERSIAL Any inclusion of what is broadly known as 'critical race theory' in schooling is controversial.
Broadly, critical race theory says that white supremacy is an ideology which is baked into the structures of society and particularly the law - and that to deal with everyone who is white should acknowledge how they have benefited from it, or become 'privileged.'
But critics say that it leaves people exposed to the training feeling that they are being blamed for problems which they did not cause - such as slavery and Jim Crow - and that it is itself racially divisive.
Critics - such as the conservative Heritage Foundation - also say it ignores the problems poor white communities face such as - for example - opioid addiction and long-term joblessness in the Appalachians and the rust belt.
And they say it backfires by creating identity groups rather than envisioning the U.S. as a melting point where race should not matter.
The Heritage Foundation has also pointed to how employees at CRT courses are pushed to become activists, and pushed to admit their own 'guilt' in front of their colleagues - to the shame and embarrassment of some who do.
Far from uniting workplaces, critics claim, it divides them further.
In a Facebook post obtained by The Daily Wire one mother, identified as Jen Durham, wrote: 'This is a call for volunteers to combat the anti-CRT activities.'
She asked members to 'gather information' and 'infiltrate these groups'.
The post instructed: 'Create fake online profiles and join these groups to collect and communicate information, hackers who can either shut down their websites or redirect them to pro-CRT/anti-racist informational webpages.'
Others in the group encouraged people to share addresses and social media.
Hilary Hultman-Lee, who has been identified as a former teacher, said: 'Regarding the anti-CRT movement, we'd like to compile a document of all known actors and supporters.
'Please comment below with legal names of these individuals, area of residence and or school board Rep known, known accounts on social media, and any other info that you feel is relevant.'
When one member pointed to one name asking: 'Why is she on this list? I haven't seen her support anti-CRT?' Hultman-Lee is said to have replied: 'I put a question mark next to her bc I'm curious about some of her comments re the Dr. Seuss nonsense and racial equity generally. Happy to remove if I'm off the mark.'
Loudoun County parent Austin Levine later told a school board meeting: 'I am on a list '-- not Santa's list '-- but a list of enemies created by a group led by the marching orders of one of your colleagues.
'This list included names, places of work, where they lived and their perceived wrongs.'
LCPS interim Superintendent Scott Ziegler said: 'LCPS has not adopted Critical Race Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to. Social media rumors that staff members have been disciplined or fired for not adhering to the tenants of critical race theory or for refusing to teach this theory are not true.'
He added: 'We fully support the expression of First Amendment rights and deplore any efforts to silence voices contributing to the valuable public discourse and debate that helps strengthen, guide and inform our work on behalf of our school community.'
Loudoun Parents for Education is one of those groups against critical race theory
Earlier this month Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said: 'There is no room in classrooms for things like critical race theory. Teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer money.'
President Donald Trump also cracked down on diversity training at federal agencies that employed critical race theory.
Trump's memo came after the U.S. spent a summer reckoning over racial injustice in policing and other spheres of American life.
The Republican branded seminars that employ the theory as 'divisive' and 'anti-American propaganda', tweeting: 'Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don't there's nothing in it for you!'
Critics blasted the ban on racial sensitivity training, saying it was more important than ever given the country's social and political climate.
When he took office, Biden signed an executive order reversing the Trump-era policy.
Texas Senate OKs bill to require weatherization, create emergency alert
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 13:14
The Texas Senate on Monday unanimously approved a sweeping proposal to overhaul regulation of the Texas energy industry in the wake of last month's deadly winter storms and power outages that left more than 4 million people without electricity.
The Texas House is scheduled to debate a similar package of bills on Tuesday addressing the outages, including requiring power generators to weatherize equipment.
''Senate Bill 3 comprehensively addresses the root issues that led to the major failures that occurred during the Valentine's Day winter storm, namely weak oversight, poor communication and a lack of coordination,'' said Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, the bill's sponsor. ''This bill offers reforms that will strengthen the state's prevention of and preparation for energy emergencies, to ensure that this never happens again.''
More:How an energy firm tied to billionaire Warren Buffett plans to save the Texas electric grid
Lawmakers grilled energy leaders during multiple days of legislative hearings after the crisis, prompting top officials at the state's electric grid operator and the Public Utility Commission to resign from their posts.
State leaders have called for reforms at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator, and across the entire energy delivery system.
"The proposed changes in SB 3 will revolutionize Texas' prevention and preparation strategies for any energy emergencies we encounter going forward," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement. Patrick, a Republican, presides over the Texas Senate.
Weatherization requirementSB 3 requires all generation, transmission and natural gas facilities and pipelines in the state to weatherize equipment to ensure operation during extreme weather conditions. Companies could face a fine of up to $1 million if they fail to comply with the requirement.
The bill would task the Public Utility Commission and the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, with overseeing weatherization requirements by implementing rules for preparedness.
During the February winter storms, equipment froze and stopped working, and it was clear that key infrastructure operators had not sufficiently protected their equipment from the cold temperatures and icy conditions.
For subscribers:In wake of Texas power outages, revolving door at Public Utility Commission points to cozy ties with industry
The bill does not outline who would foot the bill for weatherization: the state, energy companies or some combination of the two. Experts have said it could cost as much as $1 million per electric generation unit to weatherize, putting the price tag for all systems in the state in the neighborhood of $400 million.
''We are putting in place a balanced and reflective and appropriate oversight structure with increased emphasis on certain areas with an enhanced penalty matrix and overall penalty amount,'' Schwertner said. ''That is significant, and I think it turns a dial regarding oversight regulation enforcement here in Texas.''
Emergency alert, repricing fixThe proposal also would establish an energy emergency alert system to notify Texas residents when the state's power supply might be ''inadequate to meet demand'' or in the event of power outages.
The alert system would rely on a number of state agencies, including the Public Utility Commission, which would be tasked with adopting criteria to determine when such an alert would be necessary. The Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Department of Public Safety and the office of the governor would be involved in administering the alert.
A cost estimate for Schwertner's bill shows that implementing such an alert system could cost the state roughly $800,000 over the next five years.
The Legislative Budget Board estimates that SB 3 could cost the state $73 million over the next five years, assuming lawmakers want to allocate funds to implement provisions of the bill. This would not include the cost of weatherizing equipment.
More:Scrutiny of Texas power grid failure moves to Washington
The Legislative Budget Board estimates that overall SB 3 could cost the state $73 million over the next five years, assuming lawmakers want to allocate funds to implement provisions of the bill '-- but not pay to weatherize. The largest estimated costs come from the Railroad Commission, which provided a rundown of potential costs of conducting weatherization assessment reviews and tracking interruptions in service '-- another requirement of the bill.
The bill also looks to regulate the price of electricity during a disaster, in light of a pricing error during the February power crisis that resulted in about $16 billion in overcharges for wholesale electricity.
Under the proposal, officials would establish an emergency pricing program based on actual costs associated with power generation during an emergency.
''This mechanism is to establish a price that can be in effect during an emergency,'' said Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, who authored an amendment to make technical changes to that portion of the bill. ''This will make sure the generators stay turned on, to make sure they're compensated for the power that they produce but so we're not setting a price artificially high that just causes us all to lose money, that by itself can cause prices in the commodities gas market to rise.''
This El Salvador Village Adopts Bitcoin As Money
Tue, 30 Mar 2021 00:10
On the coast of El Salvador, lies a small rustic beach town of 3,000 locals, known as El Zonte. A surfer's paradise, the village is frequented by those seeking an authentic and rustic vibe. Like so many Central-American beach towns, the families of El Zonte were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. While other tourist hot-spots continue to struggle as borders remain closed, the people of El Zonte have forged their own path forward, thanks to its newly formed Bitcoin economy.
Bitcoin education station in El Zonte.
Michael Peterson The Secret Bitcoin DonationSometime in early 2019, an anonymous donor with a fondness for El Zonte discovered a forgotten thumb drive loaded with Bitcoin. He had originally purchased the asset when it was priced at around 5-10 cents, and put it aside for several years. Upon realizing what his holdings were now worth, the donor spent several days attempting to unlock his wallet. After many futile attempts, the donor was finally able to remember his passphrase and retrieve the funds. A believer in using blockchain technology to boost inclusion for the unbanked, he decided to seize this stroke of luck and put the funds to good use by allocating a multi-year six figure donation to El Zonte.
After meeting with several philanthropies in the region, all of which wanted to take the funds and convert them into fiat to cover the community's immediate needs, the donor partnered with Michael Peterson, a San-Diego native that spends up to 9 months of the year volunteering in El Zonte. Michael was given the opportunity to administer the Bitcoin on one condition - he would not cash it out. Beneficiaries of the digital currency had to learn how to use the Bitcoin itself, creating a Bitcoin economy. This was the birth of the Bitcoin Beach initiative.
Jorge Valenzuela teaching local kids how to use Bitcoin.
Michael Peterson The VisionBitcoin Beach set out to create a sustainable Bitcoin ecosystem, where the majority of residents are unbanked and the local businesses don't meet the requirements that would enable them to accept credit cards.
Michael Peterson developed a proposal for a Bitcoin circular economy which factored in remittances, tourism, public service and small business. Parallel to El Zonte, Bitcoin was also injected into another beach community 3 hours away, Punta Mango. The goal is for Bitcoin adoption to grow in different communities and fill the gaps in over time.
Line to receive Bitcoin payments in El Zonte.
Michael PetersonA popular criticism of Bitcoin is the high fees and slow processing speed of the network. Using Bitcoin can be impractical when purchasing a cup of coffee, for example. The Bitcoin Beach initiative addressed this challenge head on.
''Originally, it didn't make sense for 25 cent transactions, but did for 5 dollars. But when the transaction costs ramped up again, we switched over to the Lightning Network,'' says Michael Peterson, Founder of Bitcoin Beach.
The Lightning Network is a second layer payment protocol that operates on top of the Bitcoin network, and enables instantaneous and affordable transactions. The group chose the Australian-based Wallet of Satoshi as its wallet of choice, as it works for both on-chain and off-chain transactions.
What can you buy with Bitcoin in El Zonte?Currently, you can use the Lightning Network to buy anything from tacos, to hardware supplies to paying your utility bill.
Woman buying necessities using Bitcoin in El Zonte.
Michael PetersonYouth Work Programs: From cleaning the El Zonte River from trash, to fixing the water system damaged by a recent storm, to road repairs and trash removal, the youth of El Zonte contribute to their community in exchange for Bitcoin deposited to their wallets.
Educational Grants: Bitcoin Beach provides educational grants in Bitcoin to students who decide to continue their education to high school and university.
Transportation to School: One of the challenges in El Zonte is that its local school ends after 9th grade. In order to continue their education, students have to commute to a high school in another town. Bitcoin Beach provides students with funds to pay for the bus and to even buy snacks in schools.
Universal Cash Transfers: As borders remain closed and unemployment at an all time high, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the initiative to create direct Bitcoin transfers to families most in need. Transfers of $35/family are made to 600 families every 3 weeks, which covers 50% of basic needs per household.
Bitcoin donations to El Zonte.
Michael PetersonFood and Basic Needs: As stores and business became desperate for income during the pandemic, they started to accept Bitcoin. Today, you can use Bitcoin at several grocery stores, three restaurants, barber shop, nail salon and two hardware stores.
Jorge Valenzuela helping families to install Bitcoin wallets to receive their COVID payments.
Michael PetersonCommunity Construction Projects: Investing in long term infrastructure, Bitcoin Beach designed a system to pay contractors, builders and suppliers for construction projects in Bitcoin.
Utilities: The local water department will accept payments in Bitcoin, with the electric department soon to follow.
Woman buying eggs with Bitcoin in El Zonte.
Michael Peterson It's All About Education''As we injected Bitcoin into the community, we also taught local businesses how to accept it and helped educate them on the advantages and drawbacks of accepting Bitcoin...There was a lot of resistance among the adults, [it was] too technical. So we moved on to youth, they picked it up right away. The key is to get them to start transacting right away, then they want to learn more about it, the security of it, and how it works,'' described Michael Peterson.
Bitcoin training classes in El Zonte, El Salvadore.
Michael PetersonBitcoin training stations in El Zonte. Residents scan a QR code to receive their deposits.
When COVID-19 hit, the community became more open to learning about Bitcoin out of necessity. To maintain social distancing, Bitcoin Beach set up a Facebook group with 'how-to' videos to further its education efforts.
Bitcoin Beach is constructing an education centre in El Zonte.
Michael PetersonOne local that has been working closely with Michael on facilitating the Bitcoin economy is Jorge Valenzuela. Jorge has focused on local youth philanthropy initiatives for several years and oversees all training funded by the initiative, as well as the universal cash transfers during COVID-19.
Jorge Valenzuela training a local coffee shop owner to use Bitcoin.
Michael Peterson''It's great to see youth excited and dreaming about their futures in El Salvador and seeing a path forward here, instead of thinking they need to go to the U.S. They are able to work, help support their families, and go to University...Bitcoin has helped me understand what money really is and has given the resources to impact the lives around me,'' says Jorge Valenzuela.
Bitcoin education group.
Michael PetersonAnother local volunteering with the initiative is Roman ''Chimbera'' Centeno, who after living in Italy for several years, came back to his hometown to find his community using Bitcoin:
''It is amazing what is happening here in El Zonte. We are preparing the kids of the future. They are used to it now - they can check their money on their cell phone, they are excited to save. This financial education is important. We never got that opportunity, and it's incredible the opportunities children have now. It makes them believe that there is a future in El Salvador. That they don't have to leave and go somewhere else to succeed...Our kids start dreaming again. They have time to be kids, to swim and to play. Bitcoin gives them freedom. ''
Roman ''Chimbera'' Centeno at a Bitcoin training station in El Zonte. Residents scan a QR code to ... [+] receive their deposits.
Michael Peterson RemittancesBitcoin is positioned to disrupt the remittances industry in El Salvador, estimated at about $5 billion annually. Most families in towns like El Zonte do not have bank accounts, and rely on services such as Western Union WU , which take 5-10% in fees. The closest Western Union is approximately one hour by bus, requiring the recipient of the cash transfer to take the bus back with cash on hand, creating a safety issue.
Bitcoin Beach is testing out a new product, the Strike app, which also runs on the Lighting Network, and connects to the recipient's Bitcoin Wallet and the sender's bank account, making a transaction from the U.S. to El Salvador fast and cost-effective.
El Zonte also recently got their first Bitcoin ATM powered by Athena Bitcoin. Notably, the town still does not have a regular cash ATM.
So far, the project has not seen any intervention from the government, but the founder hopes to engage the authorities to help and to promote regulatory clarity.
''The president of El Salvador is a big proponent of new technology and we believe he will support the efforts,'' says Michael Peterson.
At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is $9226.56.
UPDATE: Michael and his family's early philanthropic efforts in the area were connected to supporting Christian Missionaries with a range of community endeavors, through an organization called MissionSake. Upon further investigation, Bitcoin Beach initiatives have been separated from MissionSake, although the organizations remain closely aligned through their Founder. Donations and support to families are provided regardless of their religious beliefs.
Exclusive: Visa moves to allow payment settlements using cryptocurrency | Article [AMP] | Reuters
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:43
Mon Mar 29, 2021 / 8:52 AM EDT
(Reuters) - Visa Inc said on Monday it will allow the use of the cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network, the latest sign of growing acceptance of digital currencies by the mainstream financial industry.
The company told Reuters it had launched the pilot program with payment and crypto platform Crypto.com and plans to offer the option to more partners later this year.
Bitcoin, the most popular crypto coin, jumped to a one-week high on the news, rising as much as 4.5% to $58,300 and heading back toward a record-high above $61,000 hit earlier this month.
Visa subsequently confirmed the news in a statement.
The USD Coin (USDC) is a stablecoin cryptocurrency whose value is pegged directly to the U.S. dollar.
Visa's move comes as finance firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc and Mastercard Inc take steps to make more use of cryptocurrencies for investment and payment purposes.
Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk, a major proponent of cryptocurrencies, said last week that customers can buy its electric vehicles with bitcoin, hoping to encourage more day-to- day use of the digital currency.
"We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we're seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers," Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said.
Traditionally, if a customer chooses to use a Crypto.com Visa card to pay for a coffee, the digital currency held in a cryptocurrency wallet needs to be converted into traditional money.
The cryptocurrency wallet will deposit traditional fiat currency in a bank account, to be wired to Visa at the end of the day to settle any transactions, adding cost and complexity for businesses.
Visa's latest step, which will use the ethereum blockchain, strips out the need to convert digital coin into traditional money in order for the transaction to be settled.
Visa said it has partnered with digital asset bank Anchorage and completed the first transaction this month '-- with Crypto.com sending USDC to Visa's Ethereum address at Anchorage.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
Online fundraiser: Insurrection extremists raise funds for legal bills
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 14:24
Brenna Smith, Jessica Guynn and Will Carless | USA TODAY | 4:09 pm EDT March 28, 2021
Defendants accused in the Capitol riot Jan. 6 crowdfund their legal fees online, using popular payment processors and an expanding network of fundraising platforms, despite a crackdown by tech companies.
The Capitol riot extremists and others are engaging these companies in a game of cat-and-mouse as they spring from one fundraising tool to another, utilizing new sites, usernames and accounts.
In one case, a crowdfunding website set up in late 2020 has been adopted by a defendant charged with storming the Capitol, who used it to raise almost $180,000. His was one of eight fundraisers on the site as of last week, and his donations accounted for 84% of the money raised on the platform.
The trend isn't limited to extremists connected to Jan. 6. Neo-Nazi Paul Miller has crowdfunded legal fees through Cash App and asked for Bitcoin donations, even after federal authorities arrested him this month for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
"It's so predictable, and it's never going away," said Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University who has studied how extremists raise money online. "Whenever there's money involved, it's never going to stop; there will always be something new that pops up."
Crowdfunding hate: How white supremacists and other extremists raise money from legions of online followers
Still searching:Two months and nearly 300 Capitol riot arrests later, FBI hunts hundreds more
Poll:Most Americans support independent investigation into Capitol riot, believe white nationalism played a part
Bouncing from one fundraising site to the next
In the wake of the insurrection, the popular crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it banned fundraising for travel to political events that have a "risk for violence."
After Jan. 6, payment processors such as PayPal and Stripe, which handle credit and debit card payments for millions of online businesses, found themselves in a seemingly never-ending shell game. Extremists involved in the insurrection worked to circumvent their systems by switching payment accounts and methods and hopping from one fundraising platform to the next.
Crowdfunding websites that were less squeamish about extremists stepped into the breach. CNN reported that the website GiveSendGo, which bills itself as the "#1 free Christian crowdfunding site," became a refuge for insurrectionists hoping to raise a buck.
Unlike GiveSendGo, most fundraising platforms take a small cut of the money donated.
In August, GiveSendGo featured a campaign for Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during a protest against police brutality. Rittenhouse's lawyers said he acted in self-defense.
As of last week, 10 people accused in the Capitol riot were fundraising for legal fees on GiveSendGo, according to a USA TODAY analysis.
GiveSendGo didn't respond to requests for comment.
Proud Boys Hawaii chapter founder Nicholas Ochs started a fundraiser for legal fees on GiveSendGo shortly after he was arrested on federal charges for entering the Capitol. On the encrypted messaging app Telegram, Ochs briefly advertised his GiveSendGo page to plead for money before telling his followers the fundraiser had been removed. The fundraiser page, which remains on the site, shows Ochs raised almost $20,000 in that brief window.
A week later, Ochs found a new site to host his fundraiser: GoGetFunding. As of March 19, he had raised about $1,300 on the site.
Texas Proud Boy Nick DeCarlo, who was photographed grinning next to Ochs inside the Capitol, also set up a GoGetFunding page for legal fees. He has raised more than $7,000.
In an interview with USA TODAY, GoGetFunding CEO Sandip Sekhon said the site discontinued Ochs' campaign for breaching its terms, but it will allow DeCarlo's campaign to continue. He didn't explain why.
"We appreciate and understand this may not be agreeable in many cases, but stand firm in allowing supporters of such individuals the ability to offer financial support towards the cost of impending trial," Sekhon said.
DeCarlo and Ochs did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
The next big fundraising platforms for the far-right?
Brandon Straka, a supporter of Donald Trump who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the insurrection, has reportedly raised almost $180,000 for his legal fees on the crowdfunding platform AllFundIt.
AllFundIt was created last fall by conservative blogger and Trump supporter Joe Dan Gorman as a "Christian conservative alternative to GoFundMe," according to his blog.
In an anonymous article in The Beltway Report titled "Go Fund Me BANS Trump Supporters Campaigns While AllFundIt Welcomes All W/ Open Arms," AllFundIt is referred to as "the fundraising site created by patriots for everyone." The article encourages those associated with the events Jan. 6 to use the platform to raise money.
Gorman and Straka did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Another website hosting crowdfunding for defendants in the Capitol riot, Our Freedom Funding, featured two fundraisers for members of the Proud Boys, Joe Biggs and Dominic Pezzola. Both face federal charges in relation to the attack Jan. 6.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Biggs fundraiser was listed as having received $52,201. Pezzola had received $730. Biggs' campaign disappeared from the site shortly after USA TODAY inquired about it.
Biggs did not respond to calls seeking comment. A representative of Our Freedom Funding contacted a USA TODAY reporter and defended the fundraisers for the two Proud Boys, saying the site doesn't discriminate against customers for political reasons. The representative refused to provide his name.
Fundraising tech companies ramp up moderation efforts
For years, hate groups used mainstream technology platforms to organize, spread their message, recruit members and raise money.
Time and again, the platforms largely resisted calls to cut off these groups, arguing these tools should be available to anyone as long as they were not engaged in illegal activities.
After the death of peace activist Heather Heyer in 2017 at the white nationalist ''Unite the Right'' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the tech sector confronted its role in enabling hate groups.
Crowdfunding and payment apps were among a wave of companies that set more stringent rules, resulting in the removal of white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups, as well as individuals who spouted hate and threatened violence.
GoFundMe shut down campaigns supporting the man accused of killing Heyer. PayPal put out a statement saying its ''services are not used to accept payments or donations for activities that promote hate, violence or racial intolerance.''
Yet even after tech companies tightened policies, poured resources into policing their platforms and booted bad actors, hate groups and their members slipped through the ramparts.
Research released in October showed that PayPal, Stripe, Facebook and Amazon continued accepting payments to hate groups in the USA.
According to the analysis by the anti-extremism think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the nonprofit research group Global Disinformation Index, 73 U.S.-based hate groups had access to at least 54 means of raising money online, including crowdfunding and online payment tools.
PayPal cut all ties with GiveSendGo, but PayPal and Stripe have taken a different approach with GoGetFunding, AllFundIt and Our Freedom Funding. Rather than cut them off, the companies stopped processing payments for individual fundraisers that violate their rules.
PayPal monitors these fundraising sites for "adherence with our acceptable use policy," spokesman Justin Higgs said.
Wednesday, a USA TODAY reporter was able to donate $10 to Biggs' fundraiser on Our Freedom Funding, using Stripe to process the payment.
A few hours later, his campaign disappeared from Our Freedom Funding.
Friday, a USA TODAY reporter donated to Pezzola's fundraiser using Stripe. Stripe told USA TODAY it does not comment on individual users.
A USA TODAY reporter was able to make a $1 donation to Pezzola's fundraiser using Venmo, a payment app owned by PayPal. After being alerted by USA TODAY, Venmo removed the account.
Soon a PayPal account took its place. PayPal caught that and removed it, too.
''Any attempt to circumvent account closures is not permitted, and the company will ban these accounts when detected,'' PayPal's Higgs said.
A Neo-Nazi on Cash App
This month, Miller, known to his thousands of fans as Gypsy Crusader, used the messaging app Telegram to ask for donations through Cash App, which is owned by Square.
In a statement, the company said, "We have several teams that partner with compliance to continually monitor accounts for prohibited activity based on account use and transactional activity, and if we find such activity, we take appropriate action pursuant to our established policies."
After being alerted by USA TODAY, Cash App removed the account benefiting Miller, but a new one soon popped up in its place.
By Monday morning, that account had also been removed.
Paris doctors warn of catastrophic COVID overload
Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:04
Hospitals in the French capital may soon become so stretched doctors will have to choose which patients to try and save. President Macron has received the wrath of some doctors in letters penned in French newspapers.
Doctors in Paris on Sunday warned hospitals could soon become overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic and that they may be forced to choose which patients they have the resources to save.
The sobering warnings were delivered in French newspaper columns signed by dozens of doctors.
According to health ministry data, France had almost 4,800 coronavirus patients in intensive care on Saturday '-- a record high for the year so far '-- and doctors fear the worst is still to come.
What did the doctors say?
Writing in Le Journal du Dimanche, 41 Paris-region hospital doctors said: "We have never known such a situation, even during the worst (terror) attacks."
The doctors said that softer restrictions introduced this month in the French capital, and some other regions, are partly to blame. Unless there is drastic action, hospital resources won't be able to keep pace with the requirements, forcing them to practice "catastrophe medicine" in the coming weeks.
"We already know that our capacity to offer care will be overwhelmed," the doctors continued. "We will be obliged to triage patients in order to save as many lives as possible. This triage will concern all patients, with and without COVID, in particular for adult patients' access to critical care."
What is triage?
Another group of nine critical-care doctors writing in Le Monde also warned that intensive care units in Paris may soon have to turn patients away.
"The current situation is tending toward prioritization, also called 'triage,'" they said. "When just one ICU bed is available but two patients could benefit from it, it consists of deciding which of them will be admitted (and will perhaps survive) and which will not be admitted (and will quite probably die). This is where we are heading."
Criticizing the government
The nine doctors accused President Emmanuel Macron and his government of hypocrisy "by compelling health care workers to decide which patient should live and which should die, without stating so clearly."
Macron remains adamant that not locking France down again this year was the right thing to do, even as more than 2,000 deaths per week push the country ever closer to the milestone of 100,000 people lost to the pandemic.
jsi/csb (AP, Reuters)
